#and it's spinoff is it's own thing but legit

[theskeletoninthegarden]

I've come to realize that my drive to work on a particular story slows down at around the 25 to 35 chapter mark, so I've decided to adjust to wrap things up nearly around that range. But my desire to sit with these characters forever makes contemplating an organic "end" really difficult.

[delightfuldevin]

Any thoughts on all the newly announced Mario games?? Predictions, opinions, general hype or otherwise??

VERY EXCITED VERY HYPE

New Peach game!!! I still haven’t watched a playthrough of Super Princess Peach cause I want it for myself, so I definitely want to get it before the new one comes out!! Not that I think they’ll be related in any way (though they might be?), I just want to play it,, Excited to see Peach in a main role once again with her (hopefully) being hyperfeminine as always! (I won’t go into a rant about how ooc I felt Peach was in the movie, let’s just say that I reeeeally desperately crave super girly yet powerful and kickass Peach hdbcdjbjscbaj)

Remaster of Super Mario RPG!! I… actually just bought it on WiiU virtual console before the eshop closure so I’m a lil bit peeved jdbcjsbcjskx but I can’t wait to play it in HD!! Everyone is so teeny tiny it’s kinda silly, but very adorable!! Like, the original’s graphics make it less noticeable but in HD everyone is very much like half their usual height lol. And I guess now I don’t have to worry about starting over since I got stuck at a boss I’ll just start over when the remake comes out

DAISY BEING PLAYABLE IN A MAINLINE GAME DAISY HAVING A MAJOR ROLE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE HER DEBUT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Super Mario Bros Wonder is soooooo silly looking!!!! The absolute peak of silliness!!!! It’s great!! Mario games have never really been super “serious”, but I feel like this is Nintendo really pushing the innate goofiness of the series to its limit and I love that!! Like. So much was going on in that trailer and none of it made any sense. I really really reeeaaaaally hope there is some kind of story and explanation that isn’t just “Mario and co found a weird new flower!” I want this to be another dimension. I want this to not be in the Mushroom Kingdom cause it’s just so incredibly different. And if it does take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, I want the Wonder Flowers to transport our heroes to some kinda alternate dimension version of the Mushroom Kingdom whenever they’re activated similar to the Dream World in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. ALSO I hope there is an actual reason for Daisy to be playable! I hope she has a story reason to be there with them, though that may not be likely (Toadette being in New U DX didn’t have a reason, and neither did Rosie in SM3DW).

Well heck, I didn’t become overly obsessed with the Mario world and its characters because of the stories Nintendo tells with them. Rather, it’s the fact that the games are so basic and open ended with just enough lore to work with and build off of that made me love it. So even if there is no story or reason for Wonder, I know I’ll have a grand ol time making up my own story for it!!

Also I really enjoy the silly talking flowers

[havin-fun-imagining-twd]

It felt so real.

What - Yearning. Daryl misses you and your family so badly that it seems his imagination is dreaming you up to keep him from going crazy

When - big time jump to when Daryl finds himself in France (spinoff season 1, episode 2)

Where - the school in France

Pronouns - she/her (howdy, wife reader!)

TWs - language, reference to child loss, self-loathing, sappiness (it's fanfiction, y'all XD ) and Daryl gets a little...'excited' (mild instance of sexual arousal between a married couple)

Perspective - Daryl 3rd person POV

References - some are yet unpublished because this is a significant time skip, which means a few little surprises. Others can be found throughout the series!

Series? - the Slowpoke Series! It's a fun, slow time that sticks to canon to help maintain immersion (as much as you can with adding an oc lol) ;)

Can I read this chapter if I haven't started any part of the Slowpoke Series yet? - definitely

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“It's so good to hold you again, sugar.”

Those words, that voice, made him relax into the bed. She was there again! He’d last imagined her when he was being tended to by those nuns, so it was only, what, a handful of days ago?

Wasn’t enough for him, he missed her so much.

“Dare, I want them all. Full stop, every last one.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I knew you’d say that.”

“As if you aren’t wantin’ to take at least a handful. All those kids with just an old woman to care for them…well, now she’s dead, but…” She sighed and held him tighter. “Lou reminds me of Enid. Don’t you think they look similar? M’sorry her name had to be Lou. A lot of things over here are making you homesick, ain’t they? And that poor boy in Maine, named TJ, too.”

He pulled her closer, doing his best to not wake himself up so Y/N would stay with him. He wished that kid, with same name as his oldest, has just gone back to his girlfriend like he'd told him to.

“Our own Louise lights a candle with me for you every day. Those nuns would be proud.”

He swore to himself that whenever these dreams happen, there’s got to be some way it isn’t just all in his head. It was way too real.

It felt so, so real.

But that Louise was lighting candles for him, he knew because Carol told him when she spoke to him briefly over the radio in Maine...

“Did Carol also mention that Lydia’s been drawing you? Or did I write part that in the letter?”

“The letter. Carol and I didn't have much time to say anything.” Y/N wrote him a long, long letter. One part mentioned how both Lydia and Glenn took to getting nightmares again after he left. At Maggie’s suggestion, Lydia had been drawing his picture. Apparently it helps her feel safer.

RJ had been 'retreating more than usual,' also. Adam was acting out, too, so she wrote. If Daryl was figuring it right, the boys losing another father figure probably hadn’t helped.

“Dare, he’s three. Three-year-olds don’t only act out with foster parents, Adam would be doin’ the same with Alden. And RJ is without Michonne right now. That's the greater culprit.”

His wife also wrote how Coco just started calling her ‘mama,’ and correcting her to say ‘auntie’ wasn’t working yet. She chalked it up to her being a motherly figure and the baby assuming all caring ladies were ‘mama.’ He wondered if Gabe knew yet. Ain’t like Y/N hasn’t been a mama to that little girl since Rosita died. Actually, nah, Gabe obviously knew; Y/N would’ve (legit) run to him immediately and told him what was up.

The faces of all their kids ran through his mind over and over, Lydia and Judith and RJ included. Then his wife’s face. Carl. Adam. Hershel. Gracie. Coco. Carol. Ezekiel. Maggie. Rosita. Aaron. Jesus. Jerry. Rick. Merle. T-Dog.

“Oo, I want to be here when T-Dog visits. Has he ever visited?” Y/N chirped.

He wished. “Once. I just think about him a lot.”

“Bummer. He must have been so thrilled when we actually did name our first after him, without you even tellin’ me nothing about how he’d teased you on it! Say, what about Uncle Jesse? Does he visit? He must’ve been happy TJ’s middle name is for him!”

He shook his head. You even visited me before I was smart enough to fall for you. When I fell down the ridge. It was you and Merle.

A sneezing from one of the kids in another part of the building resounded four times. It woke him briefly.

He closed his eyes, focused…

It was okay, Y/N was there. Daryl breathed a sigh of relief.

“I am a mite surprised you didn’t take the floor anyway,” Y/N admitted, peeking over his side to look at where the nun Isabelle was laying down next to him. “Or share with Laurent so the two sisters could share.”

“Neither of them trust me enough for me to share a room with the boy. And she sounded like she didn’t want me on the floor. Must be that I’m gettin’ too old." All I feel these days is tired and sore. "Hell, I don’t think I could get up if I slept on the floor.”

Angel, I ain’t the same without you, I’m a fucking mess. Look at the shit show that I’ve made of things.

His wife whispered, “Hey. You know I can hear that, I’m from your imagination.”

“Y/N, I miss you so fucking much.” Baby, I’m so goddamned far from you all and I don’t know how I’m gonna get out this time.

“No cusses in front of the kids, Daryl,” She cupped her belly, the one he was imagining she might have again. Carol, when she spoke to him, used what little time there was to mention how Y/N was avoiding taking a test because she missed him too much. Y/N didn’t say nothing about it in her letter she'd packed in there during one of his home visits.

How’s that for a reason to hate yourself?

“You should,” shot back another familiar voice. “Leaving your own kin, leaving your woman. Ain’t you learned nothing, boy? Didn’t think you was that much of a deadbeat but here’s proof the apple didn’t fall far from the tree."

Merle.

Damn, it’d been ages!

"Yup. Nanu nanu," his brother mocked, waving his metal stump and glaring. "Here you are, in the white flag capital of the world, surrounded by Euro kooks instead of your own blood.”

“Oh, Daryl, don’t imagine him as cruel again!" Y/N cooed. "Let us both love you if you’re gonna go about having us here.”

Daryl breathed slowly so he wouldn’t wake up. When he felt level enough, he answered, “I don’t have much control over what y’all say.”

“I thought you had some control over it.” Y/N gently pushed his hair off his face. He loved it when she did that. Delicately, she examined the new scar gracing his forehead.

“I blame that old coot what you let whup you on the head as to why you’re seeing things,” his brother crooned.

His wife nodded. “Another concussion, you poor man. But this isn’t a hallucination, it’s just a dream. It’s that good kind of dream where you’re not fully awake but not fully asleep.” She trailed her hand along his forearm.

“Y/N, you’re too good for this sad sack.”

She fired back faster than Daryl knew his imagination could go. “Merle. You love your brother to death and you’re happy he got hisself a wife and family.” Y/N had pushed herself up to sitting in order to scold him. “Tell me you don’t swell with pride seein’ him be a good father and good husband. The cycle stopped with him, and you’re proud of it.”

Daryl, a hand protectively around his wife’s side, was busy trying to figure out what Merle was even doing, whittling?

Ah, he was eating an peach with the knife attached to his metal stump.

Weird, he thought ghosts didn’t eat.

“Maybe I ain’t a real ghost, retard,” was a blunt comeback. “Maybe I’m just a poor copy you conjured up in that concussed little head of yours.” Merle then turned to Y/N. “As for you, kitten, he left you and your brats! Left you when you was up the duff, left you when you don’t even got all your legs no more! How’s he supposed to protect you when he’s out here?”

“Merle William Dixon! I ain’t ‘kitten’ and those ‘brats’ are your nieces and nephews, dick. Noah’s middle name is even for you, so you best watch your mouth, hear?”

Merle smirked and sliced off another wedge from the peach. “There’s my sister-in-law. I had to make sure your square self at least still had that fire in ya.” He offered her a slice, but she crossed her arms.

The expression on her face was so disappointed it made Daryl’s chest tug.

His brother duly inclined his head in apology and raised his hands in surrender. “You’re right, ma’am. Y’all are doing a good job on them brats. And this sumbitch ain’t nothing like our old man, so there’s something.” Merle chopped another piece of fruit. “And it’s always a pleasure to roll with a fellow amputee, Y/N. Not many can relate to how trippy the phantom limb bullshit can get.”

She tilted her head in agreement, rubbed the spot above her prosthetic calf, and settled back down next to her husband with a big sigh. “I do wish Daryl imagined you in a kinder light, Merle, but, either way, I’m happy he watched Mork & Mindy because it got him thinkin’ about you — and now you’re here for him!” Her hand grazed along her bump. “And, you meant to say to him that I was possibly pregnant.”

“Dunno about that, sister, you’ve always seem to know when you been knocked up.”

“That ain’t incorrect,” she confessed, curling in on herself. “Even if I was, it’s possible we had a loss again, Merle. Whether early or late this time.”

“Another reason he shouldn’t be screwin’ around out here.” Merle next words sliced him as if his heart were the peach in his hands. “I'm angry for your own good, lady. What if you had to handle another kid's death, this time on your own?”

The bad memories crashed down like waves threatening to drown him in grief and guilt. He wanted to pummel his brother in the hopes Merle would best him and make him pay for leaving her.

But Merle wasn't actually there. Neither was Y/N. It was pretend. Daryl was just beating himself up in his head, and failing even at that.

Y/N said the words as Daryl thought them: “Why are you twisting the knife?” She swallowed and covered her face with her hands. “Maybe, this mission is w-worth the sacrifice of, of us not havin’ him here right now.”

No. It’s not.

I know you said that before I left to make it hurt less, but it’s not. Listen to your stutter, you know it ain’t.

I should be back there with you, not constantly leaving for weeks at a time. I'm supposed to be home now. I'd told Carol when I reached her on the radio back in Maine that I'd be there in a about a week, which is what she would've told you. This whole thing is horseshit!

“Darlin’, think on happier things or you’ll upset yourself awake or into another nightmare,” Y/N soothed. "You almost woke from anger at Merle just there, which is really just anger at yourself." Her fingers laced into his where his hand rested on her belly. His wish was that his dream would include feeling the baby move. He loved that feeling. Except, he must’ve been waking up because his dream wasn’t letting him feel her hand or her belly very much when he tried. Still, it felt real enough. He’d take what he could get.

“Might could be fun to think back on how beautiful it was making them, if indeed we made another one.” She walked two fingers along his bicep. “Would’ve happened on or around the last night before you left. Or,” she mused, then started to giggle. At that moment, he could even imagine the vibrations of her laughter as if she were really, actually laying beside him. It felt so real! “I wouldn’t be surprised if made them on the day itself, that was soo — oh man, hold up!” She pulled away from him and eyed his crotch in suspicion. “No sex dreams allowed, there’s a bride of Christ in the room! Keep that thing down, deal?”

He almost laughed out loud, and possibly in real life. So long as he didn’t wake up, he didn’t care if he laughed in his sleep. The reactions, the tone, it was all just like his Y/N. And he could hope they had another kid. He’d take as many as came along.

Aw, shit, how far would she even be along, if this one made it? How long had he been away?

“Goddamn, y’all, is this some kinda kink you got?” Merle cut in. “Me and the penguin are still here, you perverts.”

“Oh hush, neither of us are actually here. Him and me aren’t doing nothin’, he just got a little aroused,” Y/N countered. “And to answer your question about another baby, Daryl, I reckon you’ll find out when you come back.” She shrugged. “Unless you reach us on a radio? Eugene is diligent about it, especially now.”

That was another thing she wrote in her letter. Eugene and his radio.

The helplessness crashed back down on him. “I’m tryin’ babe.” He didn’t want to start crying. The nun was next to him and he didn’t know if he’d be able to stop crying once he started.

Merle jeered, “Try harder, Darylina.”

He was right, Daryl needed to. He needed to try harder! What kind of washed out fuck-up was he?

“Sweetheart,” his wife called softly. Her hand caressed his cheek. It felt so, so real. “Margaret — a woman who knows the pain of losing a husband — trusted this to you because you survive. And I trusted you to go, because you’ve got the brains, the balls, and the grit. You don’t die or get bit, Daryl, no. You always come home.”

Bullshit. Not this time.

“Not bullshit. Yes, this time.” She looked to the window. “Merle, back me up.”

“Based on your track record, she’s right, little brother.”

“You may not believe you can or will,” she lifted herself up on her hands and leaned forward to kiss him. It had to have been real. It felt so, so real. But he was not about to open his eyes to see if by some miracle it was. “Despite how you feel right now, my bet is you will get that happy ending. It ain’t coincidence that Laurent said so just like our Judith did! How’s that for a reason to hope?”

Shit, he was about to break down. “Y/N, maybe I don’t deserve that. You saw the shit-show what got me here.” And there came the tears. “I left you, that’s all there is to this. I don’t deserve you.”

“Oh, that word.” Y/N wasn’t a fan of the word ‘deserve.’ “On that topic, what an honest prayer you said to bless the food! So many times you used ‘deserve,’ ugh, but,” she paused, “God loves honesty like that. Very, very much.”

She kissed his eyelids where the tears were starting to slip out, kissed the scar that never seemed to fade, then settled back against the side of his chest and curled one leg around him. With her hand, she rubbed comforting circles along his torso. “And He don’t punish or withhold, that’s just our fallen world. His hand is always out for you,” she murmured. “Say, how long do you think you can keep up with imaginin’ my theology?”

“Angel, I’m already at my limit. That’s why part of me thinks you’ve gotta be here somehow, some parts of this feel so real. Smart stuff like this ain’t in my head.”

“TJ and Georgia would call out your self-hate if they could hear you. You’d owe them a lot of quarters. Hm, and euros, seeing as you're here.”

His chest tugged at their names. “How are they?”

TJ, their oldest besides Lydia, had long hair like the little French kid here. Just one other thing that ripped at Daryl’s heartstrings to make him ache so bad for home it shocked him that he wasn’t bleeding out.

“They’re as good as gold and better. Just like their father.” That phrase he knew was from his memory because she’d said it before. “All of us miss you like crazy. Postal level.”

You shouldn’t.

“Daryl.” Her hand gripped his. There’s no way it wasn’t real. It felt so real. “When I was broken after Carl's death, and I claimed the same stuff — that you should leave me and TJ, that you needed someone better, that your life would be better if we weren’t a part of it — how much did it rip you up? ’Cause even if I hadn’t told you this before, you would have to understand how it’s tearing my insides to shreds hearin’ you think the same.”

Calm. He had to stay calm or he’d be alone again.

“I’m right,” he whispered.

“I have to disagree.”

“I —” his voice went up. He switched tactics and spoke to his brother. “Merle, talk some sense into her. I failed. This is it, this is—”

“—You did screw shit up like a royal turd, but your lady would rip my danglers off if I went along with your pretty little pity party.”

Believe it or not, the tough love helped. Felt genuine, as if Merle really was shouting some sense into him. It felt so real.

He caught his wife giving Merle an air high-five. “Thank you, Merle.”

In hindsight, Daryl figured it must’ve be because Merle, in Daryl’s imagination, had to raise his metal arm to return the five. He taunted Y/N, “You’re welcome, peg-leg.”

Dream or not, Daryl was fixing to bark, but his wife playfully kicked her own prosthetic and taunted back, “Love you, gimpy.”

His brother was smug. “Square.”

As if Y/N hadn’t heard that before.“Trailer trash.”

As if Merle hadn’t heard that before. “Goody-two shoes.”

“Two shoes? Ahem,” Y/N drawled as prim and proper as a southern belle. “Did we not just establish how I only require but one shoe these days?”

Merle slapped his thigh and cackled like a hyena and Daryl couldn’t help but do the same. Y/N joked about her missing calf like she got paid for it, pirate jokes to no end.

Daryl hadn’t felt this light in months, not even close to it since leaving home.

…And to think, it was all a lie.

All fake.

They weren’t really there. Not his wife, not his dead brother. It was all in his head.

“Oh, my sweet mangy hick. Enough moping and angst, enjoy the moment! Merle and I really did a fair job on our banter just there. And you never know, Merle could really be here, seein’ as he’s dead.”

“Y/N, I even miss bickering with ya, goddamn,” he breathed.

“It is one of our love languages. That reminds me — you’re doing great with the French, Dare!”

She can’t be serious. Or, rather, he himself can’t be serious. “Babe, I ain’t spoken a word of it. The letters don’t matter half the time. I swear, these people sound drunk.”

Merle snickered, “Hell, even I speak better French than him. Voulez vous coucher av—”

“—Well, I meant like when you used the dictionary to translate that conjugated verb.” Her voice had gone down when she said this and it sounded, well…how it usually sounded when she was turned on. “If I were there, the part where I’d push your suspenders off your shoulders would drive me wild…”

Stay calm or you’ll wake up, Daryl.

And you realllly don’t want to start a sex dream with some other chick in the room. A nun!

“Get a room, horndogs. The word was ‘conjugated,’ not ‘conjugal,’” Merle spat. “This is why you got all them kids.”

His wife made one of her signature huffs, but didn’t say nothing back to Merle. Into Daryl’s ear, she sympathized, “Being horny is so annoyin’.”

Ha. Blushing even in his dreams. Part of him wondered if he was cracking up in his sleep, too, but either way, it felt good. Felt real. It felt so, so real. “I don’t even know what ‘conjugated’ means, Y/N.”

“Yes you do, otherwise I wouldn’t say it. I’m a figment of your imagination, remember?” Aw man, why’d she have to nuzzle him in the crook of his neck? He loved it when she did that. Mmm, hot damn it felt so real… “And you know that you doin’ something like conjugating a verb in another language would be sexy to me.”

“I told y’all jackrabbits to keep your britches on. Now, Daryl: ‘conjugate’ is when you make the verb agree grammatically with the subject. You’ve heard that word before,” Merle explained. Seemed out of character. And the room looked strange, there was—it was another room now?

Daryl’s thoughts turned to when Y/N and Rosita would speak Spanish. Listening as Judith helped TJ and RJ with phonics. Watching Georgia sing to baby Louise that song Siddiq had taught her in, what language was it?

“Hey. Dummy,” Merle scoffed. “You’re driftin’ off, sweet boy. Gotta stay a teensy bit lucid if you want us here.”

So that’s why the room had just looked different. He’d been slipping.

“I still don’t get how this happens, which is why I think you’re actually here,” Daryl said to both of them. “Merle, you’re probably in…somewhere in-between.”

“What, I don’t get to be in heaven yet? Y/N, you hearin’ this uppity sumbitch?”

“He still has trouble believing in such things, Merle, especially lately. I prayed for your soul, so I got hope.”

“Thank you, sister.”

“Anytime.” Y/N looked up at Daryl and smiled. “Then what about me, dude? I ain’t dead, pinky promise. So, how is it that I come to be here?”

Yeah, he’ll be as sappy as he wants with his wife of ten years. “Maybe you’re dreamin’ about me, too.”

Merle’s kissy noises were interrupted by Daryl firmly telling him to get out after which Y/N smooched him harder than she’d had in his imagination since he’d left America. The smell of her, the sounds she made, the way she would lift her head so he could bury his face in her neck, it all felt so real.

It was when she ran her hand lower down his abdomen and almost reached his you-know-what that it all stopped cold. “Sorry! Aw, shoot — Merle! Get back in here, quick, we got carried away! Well, t-technically it was all you, Dare, but — just, please don’t get a stiffy with a nun in the room!”

“Someone should put that on a shirt,” his brother called.

“Ew, no, Merle! Good Moses, maybe I really should ought to be there if you’re startin’ to imagine messed up t-shirt slogans.” She was only teasing. “Ooh, but if I were really there I could meet little Sister Sylvie! So far, I like her.”

“I knew you would.” Daryl grinned. “The way she is with the boy, she reminds me of you.”

If only you were really here, angel.

Wait, no, I don’t want you here because you wouldn’t be safe. I need you safe.

She brought his hand to her lips. “I know what you meant, sugar.”

Unexpectedly, the nun shifted on the bed, nearly jolting him fully awake.

Slow breaths. Keep your eyes shut, do not open them!

He kept them shut tight and pictured where Y/N had been to try and keep her there.

“What am I, chopped pig’s feet?” Merle grunted.

Daryl relaxed. Merle was still there, and he got back the feeling of Y/N beside him.

“You know,” his wife considered. While she was still there, he was having trouble visualizing her. Was he still close to waking up? “That Sister Isabelle is willin’ to risk sharing a room with a strange American says a lot about how much she’ll give to protect the boy and the others here.”

“Still damn weird she didn’t just share a room, the three of ’em.”

“It is. It’s really weird.” Y/N rested her forehead on his chest. He felt the warmth of her breathing against him. If he focused really hard, he could just about imagine the feel her heartbeat, too. “Maybe she’s fixing to be the first line of defense, with all them other kids livin’ here.”

“Still weird,” he grunted. “Hey, where’d my—” He looked around in his imagination at the room. “Where’d my brother go?”

“Maybe he wanted another peach. Or, maybe you're too close to wakin’ up. Be careful, darling.”

He breathed slowly and kept his eyes locked shut. His frustration was growing. It had felt so real, why was it going away?

Calm. Stay calm so she’ll stay.

“It was also unusual,” Y/N thought, “how Sister Izzy—”

“—Sister Izzy?”

He imagined that her mouth would have twisted in embarrassment. “Yes, I’d probably definitely give her that nickname. You sure know how to portray me realistically.” She started again, “It’s unusual how she didn’t accommodate for your maybe-not-wantin’-to-be-seen-in-the-tub-by-a-nun. By anyone, for that matter. Although,” she reconsidered, “they were nurses who had to change your undies and cauterize your wound, weren’t they?” When he pictured her bottom lip beginning to tremble, he held her closer. “Oh, I hate that they all died but for two! What has this world come to? Why would those men kill them?”

That was something.

The dream got easier to maintain. He felt the curve of her waist. The rise and fall of her chest. It felt real again. It felt so, so real.

Relieved, he didn’t know what to say at first other than, “The water was cloudy enough.” When he was getting treated, bathed, doctored, how hard he wished it was Y/N doing it. Another thing that made him ache, watching them nuns give him medical attention when for the past 12 years it’d almost always been his wife.

He breathed out heavily. “Dunno, when she was in there, it wasn’t too uncomfortable.”

“The habit can have that effect on some. The crucifixes and religious artworks hopefully brought some peace, too.”

“Habit?”

“Nun outfit.”

He tried to hold her even tighter. The way it felt more real than before encouraged him, got him nearly falling off his seat with excitement that he got her back!

Except, the excitement turned into panic that he might lose this moment because he was so happy, as fake as it was.

And it sent him over the edge. Just like that, he was awake. Very awake. And alone. No Y/N, no Merle.

He blinked as the room came into focus.

None of it was real. He’d, he'd known that.

And now he was awake. Lying on some flat, shitty, tiny bed, an ocean away, in a country full of people he didn’t understand, that had walkers who burned you when they touched you, and soldiers who shot up a convent full of nuns who patched up strangers and were only trying to keep a little boy safe.

He didn’t even have his ring anymore. All he had was a snippet on a voice recorder that told the world his name and how badly he'd fucked up.

Daryl turned onto his side, the pain from his burned arm screaming at him, but he didn’t give one flying fuck. Y/N wasn’t there anymore because his stupid ass had woken up! He’d earned the pain, he needed it, he deserved it.

Quietly, he thought to hell with it and let himself weep. He was so fucking done with all this bullshit.

He wanted Y/N back. He wanted his kids back. The fuck kind of brainless jackass was he, leaving them for so long, so much? And for what?

To "see what's out there?"

As if he'd find people who had a cure?

To bring Rick and Mich home? If Rick is even alive, if Michonne is alive.

To transport some creepy French boy to a group of weirdos grasping at the hope of some imaginary friend in the sky who damns them if they don’t do all the rules in the world that He’d let go to shit as a punishment or test?

Really, was Daryl that much of a guilt-ridden jerk-off to still say yes to whatever Maggie asks him to do? It’s a hopeless fu—

“Daryl, I love you so much. Please don’t blaspheme.”

“Y/N?” I thought you was gone. No, you were gone, I woke up! “You’re back?” Holy shit, thank you. Thank you! Thank you, Whoever's up there.

That small, shy smile melted all the ice he’d just had in his heart. “Try not to wake all the way again?”

He didn’t waste any more time blubbering like an idiot, he reached for her and held on. It was still a dream, so he had to be careful to not get too excited or do anything too stimulating. And, don’t worry, he wasn’t about to willingly get a hard-on when there was a nun next to him.

He just needed to have Y/N in his arms again so he could make it through the next 5 minutes without going insane!

For 12 years, she’d been there, loving him in one way or another. For 10 years they’d been husband and wife. Without her, without their kids there, in that strange, foreign place, he was losing himself so quick it brought him to his knees with shame.

Her lips pulled away for a moment. “I wouldn’t agree that you’re losing yourself. I watched Shaney lose himself, it looked different. Daryl, I’m serious,” she insisted. “Listen: did you not save that dad and daughter even after they robbed you?”

Big whoop. “You know what those guerrilla shits would’ve done to her." The same thing that got done to you. "And those assholes would prolly have made the old man watch and killed me regardless.”

“Yeah, but you also went back to try and save that gaggle of nuns from those jar-head pieces of shit, that’s got to count for somethin’.” Wait, that was Merle’s voice. He was back, too?

Daryl looked over at the window to see his brother there once more. Merle winked. “My baby brother, the hero. Stay zen if you’re fixing to keep us here, now. Keep hittin’ that sweet spot between dreamland and the real world.”

Y/N beamed at Merle before turning back to Daryl. “And did you not help those children get the medicine, Dare? Heck, now they got access to that whole castle full of supplies and it’s so much more secure. Um, m-minus the moat full of dead ones.”

“I lied to those kids out my ass, Y/N. Lied and didn’t give a damn.”

“And you ensured none of them got hurt, then promptly admitted the lie with what I’d call purity of heart.”

“I cut that boy’s mule loose without a second thought. You see that? He loved that thing.”

“Better than to have failed to back up the cart in time, which would have happened and would have gotten all five of y’all eaten. And it was almost fast enough to escape by the looks of it. One dead mule to the benefit of four living souls is a good outcome.”

“What’d my sister-in-law say earlier?” Merle asked. “Brains, balls, and grit? Not to sound all mushy gushy, but she’s right.”

The memories of falling into that moat of walkers seized him, made him start to panic again. No brains, no balls, he almost died right in there—

“—Baby, shh,” Y/N hushed. Her arms tightly wrapped around him the way she would when his nightmares hit bad. “You survived. No bites. No burns. Not even a broken bone, I don’t know how you managed it again.” Her lips, her chest, her hands pressed against him. It felt so, so real. “But you always seem to.” She kissed him. “You’ve got brains.” Another kiss. “Balls.” A deeper kiss. “And grit. And you’re alive, sweetheart. There’s always hope as long as your heart is still beating.”

“How will I get out of this?”

“You’ll find a way,” she said with confidence. “You simply don’t know what the way is yet.”

“What do I do about the nuns?”

“Help them keep Laurent safe, of course — if you choose to do so.”

I don’t want to.

“You don’t have to,” she assured him.

I want to go home.

“And you will,” she assured him once again.

I don’t want to help them. I don’t want to. I don’t fucking want to!

…God damn it. “But I should.”

“You ain’t obligated,” Y/N responded, but with hesitation that time. “It is up to you.”

Merle was the one to point out, “It’s that conscience of yours, kid. Sometimes you just can’t help but help. I’ve been watchin’ you these past, what is it, 11 years since I got my crusty white ass killed?” He chuckled to himself as he shaved off the final bit of peach before flicking the pit away. “Can’t be too mad at it when it roped you a fine piece of ass to squeeze at night and how many kids because of it?”

“Merle,” Y/N warned.

Daryl could feel his anger rising.

“What, ain’t you relieved I can’t call you ‘sweet little virgin’ no more, son?” Merle kept egging on.

“Daryl, this isn’t really him. Don’t get angry or we’ll both disapp—”

“—So, my thinking is, Daryl, that you just won’t be able to help yourself from bringing that little sissy boy to them nutjobs —”

“Shut up!” Daryl burst out — and opened his eyes in real time. Again? Is he that much of an idiot?

His pulse was pounding. Dread and self-loathing flooded his mind, how stupid could he be?

Immediately, he squeezed his eyes shut in a desperate hope to get his wife and brother back. He focused, focused, focused, prayed, pretended, focused…

“Daryl,” came her voice.

He could hear Y/N, but not see her. It was clear that it was all him forcing the memory of her voice back. It was all in his head.

“Why bother caring that it’s in your head, sugar? Breathe slowly and focus on the feel of my body against yours. I don’t wanna leave you."

“Y/N, I need to get back,” he panted. “I can use their help to do that. Those religious people, the Union of Hope or whoever, Isabelle says they got a good radio. I need that to get back home.”

“Well, there you go! I trust you.”

He reached up to tangle his fingers where her hair would be. His imagination wasn’t letting it happen, so he focused with gratefulness that at least he could still hear her.

“Just don’t abuse their trust, and you’ll be alright,” she softly pleaded.

Don’t break their trust? “Angel, you don’t know what I did to end up in this mess.”

Of all the ways he could have daydreamed her reacting, it was that her laughter filled the room. “For the last time, my mangy hick, I am a figment of your imagination and quite literally know everythin’ inside that brain of yours. And I still love you despite that ‘shit-show’ what landed you here.”

He brought to mind the color of her eyes, wanting, wanting, begging for a miracle that would make her truly there with him so he could stare into them all night. “What would you say if I asked ‘that if I don’t find nothing, what good am I?’”

“Y/N, you can blame our raising for that shit right there,” his brother commented.

“You poor boys. Broken people sometimes make for broken kids.”

Gently, he started to perceive the way she would rub her cheek against his chest when she’d lay down with him. “Daryl? If I were here, I’d say things to try and make it stick in your head that your worth ain’t dependent on what you can offer.”

“What does it depend on, then?”

“Careful, you’re treading into religious waters now, and I ain’t sure you’ve got the bandwidth tonight. But God is involved,” she hinted.

This mess was hopeless, wasn’t it? No winning, no out, no happy ending.

“Angel, I can’t come home empty-handed.” He squeezed his eyes tighter and willed himself to not lose his cool yet again. “I can’t come home with no Rick or Michonne, no cure, no nothin’ but a burn, more nightmares, and more lives on my conscience.”

“You can,” she answered simply. “It ain’t all on you. No — please, don’t get any more upset or you’ll wake up again! Daryl, I’ve already slipped so far away!” He heard his wife begin to cry, but the sound went further and further from him. All he could see were the backs of his eyelids.

Still, he held on as best he could. “Please stay here, angel.”

“I-I would, sweetheart.”

“When I’m back, I won’t even want to leave the walls to hunt if it would mean not being next to you, d’you know that?”

“Let someone else hunt. You’ve done enough to last a lifetime.” Her voice was hoarse the way it had been when she’d said those same words to him about a year and a half ago. “More than enough. Oh Daryl, I’m so sorry we’re going.”

“Not yet, angel, please don’t!”

“Use all those things makin’ you homesick as reasons to hope. Do it for me, sugar. Get yourself home again. Don’t die, don’t get bit.”

“I won’t. I’ll get back to you. Tell the kids I love ’em?”

There was silence.

Stillness.

Daryl lay there, accepting that he couldn’t feel Y/N next to him anymore.

His throat tightened. “Angel?”

He doesn’t know why he bothered. She was gone, he knew it. He ran his finger where his ring should’ve been, if he hadn’t lost it.

“Angel,” he tried again.

Silence.

“Babe, please. Please.”

Silence.

“Y/N, please, one more time, angel.”

Silence.

The pain in him was hollow and cold.

Feeling small and helpless, he lifted his arms above his head and held back a wail of despair. He closed his eyes again and, in his head, he cried out in desperation, “Merle?”

At first, there was no answer. He hadn't expected one. Why should he?

But then he heard a quiet, low, “I’m still here.”

Merle spoke slowly and heavily, almost as if it hurt him to admit it. “I don’t think she’s gonna come back tonight, Daryl. You’ve already fallen out a few times. I ain’t gonna be here much longer, neither. You know that.”

Any strength he had left seeped out like a stab wound, leaving him crying like a child. “I can’t see you anymore.”

“I know, little brother.”

“It felt so real.”

“It sure as hell did. I think you needed it, even if it hurts like a bitch now.”

It had felt so, so real!

But it wasn’t. “I’m alone,” he choked out.

“Nothin’ you can’t handle.” For a moment Daryl could make out his brother’s face again. “You’re a tough sumbitch, so I’d advise you act like it. Quit blubberin’ like a baby and wipe the snot out your nose.”

Daryl sniffed and tried to get a grip.

“Good.” Merle’s voice began to echo. He was almost gone, too. “Now listen here: don’t die, don’t get bit. Get your ass back where you belong.”

The room came into view.

The echoing stopped.

The hollow, cold pain he’d felt at knowing they were gone there turned sharp and hot. Turns out, it was actually the throbbing in his arm. Daryl really had turned onto his side, which positioned his burned arm underneath him. He strained to get off it and flip onto his back.

You know what? The pain from his burned arm didn’t hold a candle to the ache in his chest.

Were those tears on his face, too? Guess he must’ve started crying for real in his sleep. Made sense considering how real it all felt. It all felt so real.

If only his pulse would stop racing, he felt sick.

He was getting damned old.

Instinctively, he tried to fiddle with his wedding band, which is when he recalled yet again how he’d lost it. Only a faint tan line remained.

He closed his eyes, exhausted, and chewed at his lip. Another tear or two escaped and ran hot down his cheek.

A strange part of him wished he hadn’t lied to Laurent about having a wife and family back home. At the time he said it so it wouldn't hurt as much, but…

“You deserve a happy ending, too,” the kid had told him. Just like his Judith had, when she saw how low and unworthy he begun to feel. She told her auntie Y/N, too, of course, not that his wife wasn’t unaware of how twisted his head had gotten into thinking he was no good. It didn’t feel twisted to him, it felt honest. He didn’t deserve them. They were too good.

His wife’s words to him played again in his mind. He may have just been making all that shit up in his brain, but he was only remembering a mix of real things that she’d told him before, over and over in the hopes his stupid ass would accept it one day.

“Despite how you feel right now, my vote is you will get that happy ending. It ain’t coincidence that Laurent said so just like our Judith did! How’s that for a reason to hope?”

He did need a reason. It was getting harder and harder to hold onto hope. Any hope.

So, maybe, a weird kid with long hair like TJ’s who drew a picture of some washed-up bum on a beach three weeks before Daryl showed up was reason enough to hope. He could grasp onto that.

If it would get him home, hell yeah, he could do that.

How the same weird kid told him what his niece had and what his wife had could be reason enough, too. He could grasp onto that as well, if it would get him home. He could do that for them.

Daryl ran his hand in slow, gentle circles along his stomach like Y/N would. Maybe he’d been doing this in his dream, which is why it felt so real.

It had all felt so, so real.

------------------------------------------

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-> Masterlist link here <-

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[lover-of-mine]

“I truly think that part of the reason why they won't come out and fully admit that buddie won't happen is because of the backlash (from his own fans)that Ryan will get because I do think they considered queer Eddie (clearly by what Lou, Ryan and Tim have said) but Ryan put a hard no on that.

It is very obvious when you look at what Ryan said about boundaries, what Tim said about having to consider flesh and blood actors and what Lou said about Oliver being willing and brave.”

“They won't be happy unless it's 42 minutes of Buck and Eddie making out/boning”

“I'm a firm believer that even if they get buddie they won't be happy. We are watching 911, they are watching the Buddie show”

lol

I'm so fucking tired of this "Ryan set a hard no" thing. Can they look up literally ANYTHING about marketing a show before saying stuff like that? If the boundary was set by someone who truly has veto power, like an actor or the network, we wouldn't know about it, it's why we never got confirmation on the Buck bi until Buck was out. The backlash of not following through with queer Eddie now that we know queer Eddie is a possibility they studied will be insane but because they put themselves in that position by having multiple people say that they were gonna do it. It's not even people turning on Ryan, it's people legit being like "then why the hell would you let them say that?" And I don't know about y'all, but I'm fully aware this show doesn't do sex scenes, but we're not the ones pushing for that type of scene. Dude I'd trade a sex scene for a forehead touch, or for a birthmark kiss, or an I love you scene, or Eddie doing that thing he does when he hugs Chris where he just kinda hides his face on the side of his head but with Buck, or "you're not doing this to me again", or a bunch of other things. And to say they are watching 911 and we are watching the buddie show when they were LITERALLY (and for once I'm using this word like I'm supposed to) pitching to Tim the Tommy show spinoff is............

[dragon-ball-meta]

why do people care so much about canon, especially in fucking DB???? Was everything post-21st world Tournament not canon, because Toriyama's OG vision changed from an adventure serial to a typical battle shonen not out of artistic desire but popularity? Did canon end when the OG run ended? Did it end when the quality dropped precipitously near the middle of the Buu arc? Does GT and Online not count because he only did character designs, same with the movies? Super doesn't count because he only gave a hack writer the broad strokes? Later seasons of Daima won't count because Toriyama passed? Minus and Jako also don't because he wrote them decades later? A good bit of it even contradicts previous canon, including the OG run, so that's a non-canon too? And ofc heroes doesn't because it's from a gatcha game?

Like this isn't Catholicism, it legit won't start a religious war if you only consider Yo Son Goku and Friends canon

Well for one, that quality dip is quite subjective, but that's beside the point. Things which are "canon" are things that are considered by the author to be the official continuation of his work by his own hand. The reason establishing a "canon" or continuities is important is for the sake of criticism and consistency. Case in point, people insisting that Toriyama violated "canon" with Minus because it contradicted the Bardock special, which was never "canon" in the first place. Or people saying his depiction of Freeza in Hell contradicted the original series based on filler scenes created solely for the anime by the animation staff. There are many later story developments that would come up that people would try to pin as "plot holes" because they contradicted things that were only included in filler or spinoff materials. So for the purpose of judging the author's work, this is important. I don't know why there's so much backlash against it, honestly. It's not like anyone's saying "oh, that's not canon, you're not allowed to read or watch that!" It's just a means of trying to help keep criticism and discourse about the show's narrative and characterization more focused on the actual narrative and characterization is all. And thus, yeah, I wouldn't hold stuff not done by Toriyama himself in nearly as high regard in that sense. That doesn't mean I won't watch or read or play it and enjoy it. And it doesn't mean anyone else shouldn't either.

[sufferu]

Hey I am curious if I can ask, do you plan one ending for BTZ, or also some alternative ones? Because honestly the amount of ways this story can end up is endless, also maybe it's stupid, bit did you thought about Julius pushing Subaru to contract some spirits, just to improve his survivabilty? And in the topic of endings, hell. I am curious what would be cast reaction if Subaru actually killed himself at the end, but this time it would be perma death... maybe it's not canon but just fun idea for more angst for crew, and then they found out Subarus diary and get a glimpse into what he really feel during all this very very "kind treatment". Honestly I am now writing my own Fic, but I am curious what are your thought on other people taking your genius idea for spin, honestly I had in mind, a little more happy and adventurous spinoff, kinda mix beteeen this and runaway(which I also love). Anyway thank you for the story you kind and also kind of evil Author :D (Of course, if you are okay with spinoff without any spoilers and, of course making sure to note who I was inspired by)

I have absolutely no issues with anyone taking any of my ideas as inspiration for their own stories. Far from it: I actively encourage it! I love seeing that sort of thing! :D Legit my only serious request is that you credit me, partially because it’s…just kinda polite (this is one of the only times I actively encourage you to link my Tumblr, if you’re working off of one of my posts instead of one of my fics), and partially because — if you’re crediting one of my fics on Ao3, specifically, using the “inspired by” section — it allows me to actually link your work to my own so that a link to it appears at the end of each of my chapters. And of course, make sure I get a link so I can read it ;)

I haven’t actually considered making multiple endings because, frankly, regular!BTZ is already three fics long lmaoo, I can’t really think of any serious spin-offs until I’ve got the main storyline settled.

And the spirits…I’m considering a couple of similar scenes, but it’s less Julius trying to get Subaru to form a contract with anything that isn’t Beatrice (everyone assumes that those two are gonna be a pair again as soon as Beatrice finishes helping curb-stomp the Witch Cult) and more Julius teaching him about the Spirit Arts in general. Using his own spirits as examples, even. He already trusts them to treat Subaru kindly, of course, and he likes seeing them tease him and provoke him into playing with them. (Subaru, meanwhile, is inwardly freaking out about just how insanely overpowered this man is oh no—)

[marshallpupfan]

Hopefully this isn't too weird or invasive a question, but I'm curious what draws you to Paw Patrol as an older fan, and also what your experience has been like in the fandom and as a collector? (I'm assuming you're an older fan and probably close to my age from the non-Paw Patrol media you share haha).

I am indeed one of its older fans, and I can think up a few reasons that keeps drawing me to it.

One I can say right away is the fact I have a big love for canines, thus I tend to gravitate towards anything with dogs (and wolves, depending on if they're heroes or villains). They make up plenty of my favorites characters, as some of you seen in one of my previous Asks, and I generally tend to enjoy things more when they're involved (a friend recently recommended an older game to me, which I enjoyed all the more because you got to travel around with your trusty dog).

Funnily enough, not too long ago, I took an interest in the Asterix and Obelix franchise because of its dog character, Dogmatix... and I was quite thrilled when I heard he was getting his own spinoff cartoon! Of course, it was only available in French at the time, but much to my luck, the first half of season one got dubbed in English and [officially] posted on Youtube, free to watch! I gave it a go, and I thought it was pretty good! If anyone's curious, click this link to check it out. And yes, this might've been a thinly-veiled attempt to talk about this cartoon somewhere, since there aren't many English-speaking fans. lol

Arquebus/Musketix is the best character.

But yeah, the pups are one of my biggest draws to PAW Patrol, and unlike some fans, I rather like it when other pups get added to the cast. Boomer and Claw both certainly helped renew some of my interest in the franchise, particularly during a time in which I felt things were going downhill. Hey, I just love dogs!

Obviously, Marshall's easily my biggest draw to PAW Patrol. I'll admit, I tend to take a far bigger interest in an episode when he actually gets some good attention... and it's why my interests start to wane when he doesn't. The dude's legit my #1 favorite animated character, so I suppose it's no surprise to hear I often tune in specifically for him. That's not to say I don't get enjoyment from the other pups, but I'm just so crazy about that spotted pup!

Another aspect that draws me to PAW Patrol is just how fun it tends to be (or used to be, but the modern seasons still have their moments). I don't want to go too deep into this because I don't want things to get too serious, but let's just say... life can be quite rough anymore, and it never seems to get much better. I often look for something that can help me escape that for a while, even if it's just for a half hour at a time. I found that PAW Patrol does that for me. It's cute, colorful, fun, doesn't try to be complex, and by the end, everything turns out okay. And if I need cheering up after a bad day, a certainly clumsy, spotted pup often always puts a smile on my face. Some days, I need that.

----

As for my experiences with the fandom, I'd say it's been largely positive. I do tend to meet a lot of friendly people, many of which tend to be supportive and/or cheerful when I need it, and I generally enjoy interacting with most of them right back! I certainly don't regret being a part of it for the last five years or so.

With that said, I've had encounters that certainly weren't pleasant. I think everyone knows about my copycat by this point, so no need to retread that old ground. There's one infamous user out there who just seems to hate everything (unless it involves Everest), and he often turns hostile if you don't agree with his opinions. The same dude even tried arguing and verbally attacking those who work on PAW Patrol... including their families, too! Crazy guy. I've also encountered some fans who seem to make stuff up, believe their headcanon to be fact, and then become angry when people don't agree with them. I once had someone tell me Ryder is "gaslighting" Rubble, and... I don't even want to know what that means or why they believe that.

And in-regards to being a collector, the reception I often encounter has been quite positive, too. Most fans really seem to enjoy seeing my collection, even if it's just out of curiosity to see just how much merchandise they made of one single pup. I still get compliments on it all the time, from both fans and non-fans of Marshall, and I've even seen other folks who just think it's legit cool.

Surprisingly, I've only had one negative encounter so far, and it was, believe it or not, from someone who used to be a fan of PAW Patrol. She became one of those folks who encountered bad users, got tired of them, and then decided every fan must be awful... and of course, she tore into me because I "talk too much" about Marshall and deemed me a "freak" for collecting so much merchandise. Most of what she said was largely laced with swears and insults, and I'm sure she believes she put me in my place or something... though in truth, I was laughing at most of her replies. Why she felt the need to throw such a temper tantrum on me, I'll never know, but she didn't succeed in even the slightest to discourage me or anything. lol

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Hey mod did you see the hundred of last line of defense academy what your thought

//Honestly, at this point I'm exhausted trying to keep up with all of these games. Kodaka won't rest until he puts a Danganronpa spin on every genre out there.

//My face definitely lit up the moment I saw Komatsuzaki's art style, and I'm glad that they're opting to go back to the more visual novel aspect of it.

//It makes me laugh because Last Defense Academy looks like it SHOULD be a Danganronpa spinoff. They're trapped in a school, they have a mascot character overseeing them.

//Rain Code didn't really have this problem (I say problem, but it's not really a problem, just something worth noting) because even if there were some stark similarities between it and Danganronpa, Kanai Ward as a setting, the interactions between the characters, the supernatural element of the story, as well as the overall theme and style of that game made it stand out as its own thing that could be loosely linked to Danganronpa.

//You could legit replace the main cast of this new game with the cast of Danganronpa, and have Monokuma fill in the role of that mascot, and I don't think there'd be much difference.

//In fact, do you know what this feels like? This genuinely feels like what could have happened during the two years before the first killing game, when Class 78 holed themselves up in the school and are defending it from the Despair outside while they board it up and cut them off. It really just does feel like it should be a Danganronpa title, but Kodaka didn't want to slap the name on it anymore.

//I mean, it's not like he can. He doesn't really own the series anymore. But it's clear he loves Danganronpa dearly, and so he should, it's his pride and joy, and there's no shame in basing most of his games off of it. That's what put him on the map in the first place.

//This is the closest thing I have to a gripe. The characters look plenty interesting, and the idea of a strategy RPG-style game coming from Kodaka is cool, and I really want to see where he takes it.

//Narratively, from what I can understand of the plot, Kodaka is taking the stuff he wrote with the Danganronpa series and Rain Code, and he's giving it more of an Assassination Classroom spin. And if you remember some of the discussions I had during the Mukuro Vs Kayano phase of the Death Battle even, I think that sort of twist works really well.

//Not only that, but when I went back and listened to what they were saying in the trailer, it also seems like the team is re-using a really old concept that they first came up with with Distrust; Danganronpa's Beta Version. And that's the idea that your choices can affect which of the main characters die and which one's live.

//Like the typical DR setting, there are 16 students including the protagonist, and the trailer states that you need to defend the school from the unknown assailants for 100 days. This makes me think that the game is taking a Fire Emblem/Until Dawn route, and there will be multiple endings to it, like one where all the students die, one where they all live, one where certain students die and it affects the others, etc.

//If that IS the case, then that's pretty stellar for what Kodaka and his team have put out so far. Danganronpa may be a sensation, but it's simple in practice and execution. It's the character writing that carries it; not the gameplay.

//Rain Code improved upon the gameplay aspect a lot, but even then, it never went as far as this.

//Unfortunately, despite all I've said I can't give a full opinion of it until the game actually comes out, and/or we see more gameplay footage and information of it. The stuff that they showed in the teasers isn't an awful lot to go off of.

//Also, whenever this comes out, there's a chance that, depending on whether I like it enough, I MIGHT add the characters to the blog. HOWEVER, if I DO, then it's probably only going to happen if I decide to do a Phase 4.

//Originally, I only planned to have Phase 3 be the end of the blog's main story, but for all we know, depending on how far this goes, it could very well just serve as the end of the Zetsubou saga. I don't really like dragging these sorts of things out, but this blog and it's story got way more popular than even I was expecting, and I'm always happy to deliver for you guys.

//But again, I can't write promises that my mouth can't cache, so don't quote me on this.

-Mod

[funkaloid]

I love the Mario franchise. It was the first thing that got into gaming in the first place along side from a game featuring a certain blue hedgehog.

The first game I ever owned and beaten was super Mario 3-D land on the 3DS

But I’m sure you just came here for my dear for an AU and not my history with the Mario franchise

The only reason I told you all of this was because I’ve been seeing so many fan AUs of fundamental paper education and I wanted a piece of that AU pie

They started all with this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/FundamentalPaperEdu/s/gqJVPDdXS0

It was just meant to be a simple drawing of Luigi saving Abbie’s life

Originally it was just meant to be that and nothing more just a one off thing

But then the idea started to grow, and it kept growing

And it kept going

Next thing you know, I’ve been brainstorming many ideas

So I guess it’s about time we talk about the AU itself And what exactly it is

So AU itself is basically a bit of a mixture of different Mario continuities specifically the mainline titles and the Mario & Luigi series Also, a few of the spinoffs

(not every single spinoff but i actually have plans for those later)

For some reason, Mario and Luigi decided to become teachers at the school

Why???

Well, you see

[REDACTED]

And that’s pretty much why they are teachers at the school

Mario would be a computer lab teacher. His reasoning is that since we become a bit more reliant on technology nowadays he feels it would be best if the students would learn how to type more efficiently

Luigi would be a geography teacher he would teach the students about the word map and unfamiliar parts of the world. In this case, I guess multiple words.

One brainstorming this idea I also came up with a few ideas for the other characters

Like the toads doing various jobs at the school like janitors or cafeteria workers maybe even security with Captain toad

For Wario and Waluigi, I figured it’d be a pretty funny if they were the gym teachers of the school

Now you’d think it’d be a bad idea for them to be teachers and you would be right, but not for the reasons you think

I don’t think they’d be abusive to the students (only the other staff members (and what I mean that I just mean with Mario and Luigi))

But they would obviously not be considered nice teachers if anything they’re just a new middle ground type group of teachers

And they’re teaching methods would just boil down to: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFaHQWPB/

Not every Mario spinoff fits into this school AU, but they actually do have a place do have a place here!

FPE already has a ton of AU

And with Mario seemingly having a ton of continuities, we can put different Marios $ Luigis from different continuities into these AU

AUs of AUs

Like Dr. Mario being in the science AU (basics and behavior green)

Nintendo had already confirmed that dr. Mario isn’t a legit doctor, but I assume you know some thing about science considering that he’s given access to pills unless we got those from the pharmacy

(But then again, Miss Grace still allowed three murderers teachers to teacher at the school so at that point anything goes really)

In the danger AU

(basics in behavior red)

We could have the Mario and Luigi from the Mario movie where instead of them willingly becoming teachers they were mostly just roped into something that involve them having to work at this military school

And that’s pretty much it for my Super Mario x fundamental paper, education, crossover, AU If you couldn’t tell already, I haven’t fully thought this through but I had so much fun making this brainstorming ideas and sharing them with you all honestly, if you guys have any ideas on where I should take this next feel free to share!

I have no idea where this AU is going next, but I’m happy to let it keep growing.Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you have a nice day <3 (or night. Whatever time zone you live in :) )

[juniaships]

Two years later I've been slowly growing to accept AEG. No amount of complaining on my end is going to end the show so might as well accept it. I admit it has good aspects like giving Nia more personality and Whiff a better one. Yeah I wasn't a fan of his og personality he waa bland but in AEG he is a lovable wacky mad scientist and i like characters like that XD

It also makes Gordon a mentor figure which I think is a natural progression for him and tbh, gives him something to do than being sidelined like in the later seasons of the CGI show. AEG is pretty enjoyable when you divorce it from the canon. Think of it like a toy spinoff like how lego is for marvel and dc. It doesn't effect canon and if you follow TATMR lore it's entirely plausible that AEG is set in its own universe.

And unlike a certain other contentious reboot, it doesn't dedicate whole episodes mocking the fandom. Nor does it mock legit criticisms. AEG makes it clear is doing it's own thing regardless, and not ripping the canon beat for beat. Plus the hate AEG fans get for even liking the show is pretty unbearable. Like who cares? It doesn't affect you and there's so much worse in the thomas fandom. A stranger liking aeg is not hurting anyone and tbh It just makes you come off as a bitter ass boomer.

[glapplebloom]

Let's make Moon Girl's inclusion to the show of the year list legit.

First, let's make this official. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is a must watch series. It is so fun, the characters are likable, the Glow Up of the Beyonder, the music is great, and that last episode setting up next season is a real nail-biter. I hope it gets that second season and does well to continue from there. It was not originally planned to be in One Shot because I was planning to watch and love the series as soon as I saw the preview for the opening theme. But then Superman showed up and made it seem like the #1 spot in the end of the year review will be a no brainer. So I’m putting in Moon Girl so there could be competition. And maybe I jumped the gun thanks to this...

For those who don't know, Tiny Toons Adventures is a series about a young set of toons going to Acme Looniversity to learn to become toons. Thing is, you don't really see that story. The first episode focused on the creation of the series. Episodes have them going to school being a plot of a short or the surrounding segments. But ultimately it is a bunch of shorts with Looney Tunes expies. Fifi does Pepe's bit but with boys instead of girls. Plucky does stuff Daffy would do. And for some reason Elmyra got the most screen time despite being an antagonist. She also got a pilot episode for a spinoff series, a full crossover with the Warner Siblings, and said spinoff series with Pinky and the Brain.

Tiny Toons Looniversity is a complete reboot. While they share similar traits, it is its own thing. For starters, there are five main characters to the originals' "it depends on the shorts": Buster and Babs Bunny (yes relation), Sweetie T. Bird, Hamton J. Pig and Plucky Duck. Plucky is the most similar to his original, as he's still an egotistical duck who thinks mostly of himself and at times wanting to make money. But it's a modern egotistical trait. Hamton is the second closest, just remove the cleaning obsession and crank up the anxiety. The other three, they're drastically different.

In the original, Buster and Babs Bunny were not related. So their interactions range from "hummina hummina hummina" to "they're basically siblings". Buster is a Modern Bugs Bunny, which makes him now a Bugs Bunny with 90s mentality for the cool kids. Babs were the best of the two since she got a great gimmick of being an impressionist. And Fields of Honey is my favorite episode. So how does the Reboot treat these two as siblings? Honestly, I really love their interactions. They really do sell a brother/sister vibe and that first episode really sold me on them being siblings but willing to be separate to try new things. Buster is also a great improvement because he gets to be more emotional. Babs doesn't do the impressionist bit, but between her relationship with Buster and her relationship with Sweetie, and even that one time with Plucky really shows she's great as part of any duo.

And Sweetie T. Bird is a HUGE improvement of the original. The original is basically Tweety Bird but louder. Sweetie is a rocker who is ready to cause chaos when needed. She bounces off Babs really well and seeing how fast they became friends really sold me on this series. She's like the perfect foil for the more professional Babs Bunny. She's messy when Babs is clean. She's physical when Babs is more methodical. She enjoys Plucky's Gossip Magazine when Babs saw it as a rival to her newspaper. But they're still friends because there are plenty of things they have in common. Sweetie is also very supportive. She helped Babs try to get a room with her brother even if it means no longer being her roomy. She joins Babs' newspaper. They even enjoy Vintage Clothing after Fifi Showed them off.

As for the rest of the characters, some are basically the same (Dizzy and Max), others have some differences (Fifi no longer being boy crazy), and some very different (Furball talks more in this series than his one voice role in the original). This show also has more appearances from the Looney Tunes cast. Bugs interact more in this than I can recall in the original. Daffy teaches the hardest class, we even got appearances from the Dark Age originals like Merlin and Cool Cat. And while they used Space Jam's version of Lola, they made her Looney in her own way. And with Death Battle having Tom Vs Wile E. on the Tournament of Champions Poll, it gives Wile a new dangerous weapon against his other toons.

Regardless if you like the original or never heard of it, I recommend Tiny Toons Looniversity. I can already tell you it's at the top of the list since I saw all the episodes. And I still need to see the rest of Superman and Fionna and Cake.

[nadeeta]

Here are some recent anime's I been watching. I literally watched anime for 15 hours,cuz I started at 12:30 last night and didn't stop til around 3:40ish this morning 😆.

That being said I highly recommend these anime's.

With the asteroid one I was surprised I liked it as much as I did given not a huge astronomy or geology fan. But it was really nice. Now I didn't think of it at the time as I was watching for the plot but I and many other fans were hoping it would be GL or at least be a subplot. But even without the GL it's still a good show. The art,the plot,the VA's are amazing.

For the demon one i didn't think I was gonna like it as much as I did. Not really a huge fan of the genre it is but wanted to give it a chance for the art and I'm glad i did. There's a lot of ppl on anime planet who dropped it and some saying it's boring or not good. I disagree with those comments. The plot is unique and interesting,the art isnt super duper colorful which not a fan of,but I understand why it's not. The VA's once again did an amazing job.

I however am only on 10,only because 11 and 12 aren't dubbed yet or at least dubbed on crunchyroll. Even though not finished still wanted to promote it as I feel it's an underrated show.

For the sasaki one I've seen clips of it on tiktok and it looked nice. The art is colorful and pretty,and I like the plot. I love the VA's;which I'm surprised it was dubbed. Yaoi and shounen-ai series typically never get dubbed. It's rare when it happens,so was happy it had a dub,and the VA's did amazing.

I called it around ep 9 they weren't gonna kiss or do anything til the last episode ,like in gakuen heaven. and unfortuantly i was right 😆. I will say though I h4t3d that the kiss was mainly off screen as u only get parts of the kiss.(idk if its diff in the manga as not far in the book yet).

So all i gotta do now is watch the graduation thing.a movie) But after the graduation thing I'm done.

Ppl were saying that Kagiura and hirano should've had a legit spinoff and not like 9 minutes of the graduation movie cuz I didn't know til looking at reviews that their "spin-off"is just their scene from the graduation movie.

Which I'm dissapointed in cause when I first saw they had a spin-off,I thought it was gonna be their own thing.

Maybe in the future we'll get one. Or would be nice to see something with 1 if not both of masato's brothers and their partners since they're both 94y.

And lastly dress up darling. I've seen clips and pics of it online for awhile now and figured would check it out.

While the art isn't the greatest thing out there,the VA's do a great job. And I like the plot of interests/hobbies are for any age and any gender and ppl should love what they love.

Other ppl like myself ship the 2 MC's. Hopefully in the next season(and yes it's getting one. I'll post it soon.)it'll be a sub plot. Cause its clear they both like each other. Especially marin,as she actually says it in her mind on several occasions and (spoiler-ish)she tells him on the phone in the last episode.

But yeah i hope u guys give some of these series a chance. They're all amazing.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I've been wanting to reblog this since two nights ago. And wondering if I still feel right about this.

But I legit think that Marvel's/Insomniac's Spider-Man is literally the kind of thing I want from a Spider-Man related property. Despite some little aspects, but in all seriousness. I love Insomniac's take on Spider-Man.

I just wished Sony took their Sony spinoff universe had an older Peter Parker who is Spider-Man already and it's something akin to Insomniac's take. But it's still its own thing.

Besides, we've already got classics again like Spider-Man 2 and others. Even if some films are very flawed...I shouldn't complain. I question why do I act like a comic geek when I should be, "Does the film or game benefit from that?" And whatever else.

Maybe I should continue my AU. I only have a rough idea of it. But I likely should continue it. It's basically if I guess...

If maybe The Amazing Spider-Man films had a better chance. Taking elements from many things, the MCU Spider-Man, the Spider-Verse films, the Sony spinoff films. But most importantly, the comic books. Yet it being my own take on it.

I have mentioned in the rough draft that my direction was to make a Man of Steel/The Batman approach and trying to make "The Dark Knight" of Spider-Man which sounds very silly.

You know…I’m REALLY wondering if I should continue that Spider-Man AU after seeing those Venom 3 leaks. Because I have ranted about how I feel like Sony’s spinoff films have potential to be better. Even though they can be enjoyed. But good lord, while the concept of Venom’s 3 story seems interesting. But my God…

Just…it’s insane.

And I’ll say this, to be honest. Why should I even complain about this stuff? We have “Goat” movies such as Spider-Man 2, Across the Spider-Verse, and whatever else. While some Spider-Man films are flawed. At this point, having some films being downright insane should mainly be an entertaining thing…it still bothers me that this could’ve been dealt with better.

[dhampirwomen]

if the vampire academy show gets multiple seasons, i really hope it changes the direction of the rose/adrian relationship bc i can’t think of any good reason to write a show where a black woman is villainized and used as a plot device for her white oppressor's manpain. regardless of your personal feelings on rose or adrian, the concept of a narrative where the black heroine is put in a bad position at the end of her own story to set up more angst for her white ex-boyfriend is a bad choice, for both meta and story reasons.

wrt meta reasons why keeping things the same as spirit bound/last sacrifice is a bad idea, following the books faithfully would prob open the door to a lot of fandom antiblackness and sexism against rose as a character and sisi as an actor. rose is already an overhated character in book fandom and reviews bc of the rosdrian subplot, with many of the same people who don’t see an issue with adrian’s sexually harassing or objectifying rose calling rose an abuser, manipulator, gold-digger and a mix of sexist and racist slurs for not returning adrian’s feelings and/or for not being loyal to him. ofc this isn’t behavior that’s unique to adrian fandom bc all fandoms have sexism/racism problems, and i’m def not saying all adrian fans are anti-rose or that anyone is bad in any way for liking adrian. imo you can love/appreciate adrian as a character and still see that the va show is better off avoiding the books’ take on the rosdrian subplot. black characters- esp black women- always get more flack from fandom and their choices are judged more harshly, rose/sisi is already getting a lot of hate from racists who hate the show reality that rose hathaway is a black woman, and there’s no need to stoke the misogynoir flames even more by making rose “at fault” for how her dynamic with adrian plays out.

the show could write any number of new subplots where (assuming the show wants to keep the canon endgames intact):

(if adrian’s behavior is changed) adrian has unrequited feelings for rose for a while but they don’t actually date, he takes no for an answer after some flirting and his romance shifts to adrian/sydney once sydney takes a more active role in the plot

(if adrian’s behavior is changed) rosdrian date, but they do it in a casual, no-strings-attached way where they break up at some point before they get together with their endgames. there are no hard feelings between them

(if adrian’s behavior stays the same) rosdrian’s trajectory stays mostly the same but the breakup is abt rose getting some catharsis calling adrian out for objectifying her, which could kickstart adrian’s redemption arc. this option would prob be closest to canon, but rose gets a mini-arc that culminates in her standing up for herself against a royal who disrespected her and adrian realizes he needs to start acting better with women who are lower than him on the moroi social hierarchy, which would pay forward with adrian/sydney

this is just me floating a few options and i’d love to hear other ppl’s suggestions wrt how this subplot could go if y’all have any. but the most important point is: no matter what happens or how adrian is written, rose shouldn’t cheat on adrian and shouldn’t be written like the breakup is her fault, like she’s responsible for adrian’s feelings, or like she "owes” adrian a chance at any point. even if adrian is written like a legit nice guy and doesn’t coerce rose in the show, the main issue with the cheating plot is richelle m using rose as an “ex who broke his heart” plot device to give adrian more tragic backstory in a spinoff, without giving rose any of the detailed catharsis, recovery and healing she wrote for adrian in that new series. the va show, like the main series, is rose’s story, and it needs to stay rose’s story without sacrificing her character development or marring her hea so it can contrive more angst for a white supporting character.

[flabbergasties]

i agree on your Sue ask!

do you have any recommended resources to learn more about our beloved Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson??

30 minutes did not feel long enough for those damn episodes. i always wanted more screen time for her because from what i’ve read, she was quite the mf woman. i mean traveling abroad like 4 times in your 70’s in the 1900’s? hardcore af!

i wanted more of her and Emily together! especially since IRL they had their little meetups and coffee time. more of her and Emily talking literature and poetry. more of math genius Sue. snobby/ruthless Sue! more of her serving cunt and being a socialite!

also, i feel like i remember reading something about maybe her and kate anthon being a thing before kate and emily were maybe a thing? do you know if that’s true??

thank you for sharing your knowledge as always! <3

UGH ANON THERE IS SIMPLY NOT 👏 ENOUGH 👏 GLORIOUS 👏 INFORMATION 👏 ABOUT SUE 👏 H. 👏 GILBERT 👏 DICKINSON

What I can tell you is this: 

Read Sue’s own writing! A lot of her works are available on emilydickinson.org, like her story, “A Hole in Haute Society” (first published in the Springfield Republican). Her poems are also on that digital archive, like “One asked, when was the grief?” 

Our main squeeze Martha Nell Smith is reportedly working on a biography of Sue specifically so…more to come 😎 I am…so…excited. While we wait for that, she has a brief account of Sue’s life here… 

There’s also all the usual Emily biographers who tend to mention Sue in passing. A Loaded Gun, Lives like Loaded Guns, Figuring, anything by Martha…

Between all of those, you begin to piece things together. 

And what you piece together is that Sue is a really complex person who lived a fascinating, tragic, and colorful life that we only know a fraction about. Like we know Ms. “Traveled abroad 4 times in your 70s” and Ms. “Was so good at math she could’ve gone to Yale if she ‘wasn’t a woman’”. But there’s also the Sue who navigated mental health crises, abortions, affairs and open marriages, poetry and art, and grief and grief and grief and grief (!!!). There is SO MUCH TO SAY and SO MUCH TO KNOW about this woman! 

Sue Gilbert spinoff…when?? Apple TV, don’t be a coward. (I am kidding, I think maybe it would be a bad spinoff. Not because of Sue but because of Apple TV lol.) 

And also...

Also !!

YES, she DID INDEED HAVE A THING WITH KATE BEFORE EMILY DID. 💀 They both attended Utica Female Academy together, and ESSENTIALLY (buckle up) Sue was like an RA and she knocked on Kate’s door one night and Kate just…kissed her? Kate wrote about it once, saying: “Dear, dear Sue, I have loved you always, since the first night you were “monitoress.” And I hardly knew you, but kissed your dear face simply because I could not help it! Your sweet eyes looked into mine, and I could never forget them!”

Like YAAAS KATE 👏 WE HAVE ALL BEEN THERE 👏  

It’s my personal narrative (i.e. unproven) that Sue sort of…set up Kate & Emily in an effort to distract Emily & put an end to their affair. It didn’t work, obvs, because (1) Sue is a jealous queen (love her) and because (2) Kate ended things with Emily*

*It is also my personal narrative that Kate always harbored more feelings for Sue than for Emily, if her letters are to be believed; I think she stayed in correspondence with Sue all the way up until Sue’s death. 

I could LEGIT talk about the Kate/Sue/Emily love triangle all day because tbh it’s a reminder that queer ladies have been messy for centuries, and i think that’s beautiful?? 🥴 

Anyway if you have read all the way to this point in the ask, you are a real hero. the ghost of sue gilbert and I admire you & your tenacity. 

[hopeymchope]

Go, Magica ☆ Riders!

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been getting back into PMMM a lot lately. And obviously, my interest in the series led me to look deeper into the various spinoffs.

To that end, I’ve been reading Puella Magi Homura ☆ Tamura. 

Ostensibly, this is largely a comedic series about the Homura Akemi of some universe/timeline (I don’t think it’s the same one that we know from canon PMMM) as she goes through her journey of many, many, maa-heh-heh-any time loops on her way towards saving Madoka from her fate.

Each time loop takes her into an alternate reality or “Time Flow.” One world might be largely the same, except that timeline’s Homura taught Madoka how to build and wield bombs in combat, making Madoka something of an explosives enthusiast. However, other worlds might be far more wild. There’s one where all magical girl candidates are made aware of the full terms and conditions up front, which has (naturally) severely curtailed the number of magical girls signing contracts. Soooo Kyubey has taken to imprisoning all magical girl candidates in an isolated compound, depriving them of home and loved ones until they sign up.

Sometimes you get drama out of these things, but like I said — these are usually played for laughs. However, some of the time loops, I must confess, don’t strike me as very “funny.” They’re just... awesome? To my point: I would legitimately read an entire straight-faced series about the Magica ☆ Rider universe.

Clearly, the Magica Riders get a MUCH cooler wardrobe than the standard Magical Girl fare. We’re ditching skirts and frills for leather racing outfits here.

In this universe, witches tend to stay invisible most of the time. They only emerge to feed off of innocents when they sense no other magical energies around. And once they begin to ensnare their victims, they put up barriers (called “The Field”) that prevent external entry. 

So now the magical girls who contract to battle the witches can’t use their own powers very much. No psychic conversations, certainly, because they’d be sensed from miles away. They can’t even readily pull out their weapons as they approach, because even drawing a magical weapon is enough energy to alert the witches.

To prevent the witch’s escape and eventual re-emergence in a less-protected area, the girls must only use their magic once they’re already inside The Field. And how do they get inside The Field without using magic, you ask? Ah — that requires you to hit the barrier while moving at 186 mph/300 kmh. 

.......which is why contracting with Kyubey gets you your very own high-speed motorcycle. 

Based on the design of Mami’s bike above and Homura’s bike here, it looks like the girls are being granted Suzuki Hayabusa superbikes. Which is EXCELLENT.

Naturally, not every girl with the capability of wielding magic is also capable of driving at the intense speed required to even reach a witch. But those who can handle it become MAGICA RIDERS. 

I want to give the mangaka “afro” a legit round of applause. BRAVO. What a concept. This is both utterly absurd and also incredibly cool! Successful balance achieved! Where do I sign up for a full series?!