#and that doc is just Some Guy? which. ok so that's not what I have down for him but it's parallel to what i have down for him

[fandumbass]

me when the creator inverview both confirms and denies headcanons that are canon to my fic

[intheupside]

which teammate could go on dancing with the stars?

the way kris goes: sid has no chance and doc’s like kris would probably be good at it but i don’t want to say him 😂

Cody Glass: Going on vibes alone -- I'd probably have to say (O'Connor). It'd just be funny. I think he'd do a good job, but he's just a funny guy I would love to watch dance.

Matt Nieto: I could see Kris Letang doing pretty well on that show for some reason. He seems like he'd be good.

Sidney Crosby: I'll go with Petey. He can move. He can sing, but he can move too.

P.O Joseph: Honestly, I would say (Tomasino). I feel like he can, I like his energy so far.

Jesse Puljujarvi: Hayes. He can do everything.

Kevin Hayes: I think Noel (Acciari). He was a big dancer when we were younger.

Noel Acciari: I'd say either Tanger or Hayesy, I think they could dance.

Alex Nedeljkovic: I feel like I've seen (Pettersson) dance. Cookie (Acciari), that guy is good at anything he does. He's not going to be the best, because not everybody is the best at everything, but he's good at a lot of things.

Joel Blomqvist: Karl. I think he's a pretty stylish man, I think dancing would suit him pretty well.

Michael Bunting: Myself. I haven't seen anyone else dance, but I would say myself. I would compete, for sure. Maybe reach the semis. I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but for sure.

Anthony Beauvillier: I would say Michael Bunting. I've seen him dance, he's got some moves.

Rickard Rakell: Bunting. Pretty recently, I saw some of his moves. (raises eyebrows) He's pretty good.

Marcus Pettersson: Raks. He's got good movement, he has control of his body. I feel like everybody else has good control too, but there's a lot of stiff people in here.

Bryan Rust: Petey. He seems to have the flexibility and coordination, I think he would do well.

Matt Grzelcyk: I think Tanger. He's athletic, a good-looking guy. I think he'd have some good dance moves. (Letang, overhearing from the next stall: "I what?!")

Kris Letang: (Turns to Grzelcyk) Grz, you got some moves? Sid has no chance. Petey can sing, I know Petey loves the karaoke. Maybe OC. Do you need the personality for it? He thinks he does.

Valtteri Puustinen: I say Jesse. Did you see the video where he's on the bike in his home? (Waves arms around, imitating the video) I think he's so good.

Sam Poulin: I'd say Tanger because he skates really well, he'd be a good fit for that.

Erik Karlsson: Rusty. He's got some pretty good moves, and he's pretty good at direction, he'd be easy to coach.

Owen Pickering: Rutger (McGroarty). He'd love something like that, he loves the attention.

Ryan Shea: Not Kevin (Hayes), not (Jack St. Ivany), not Petey. Honestly, I feel like Karl. I'd probably say (Anthony) Beauvillier too, he's pretty quick. I feel like he has good feet.

Tristan Jarry: I want to say Matt Nieto, I think he'd be good at it, just the vibe he puts out. He'd do really well with it.

Phil Tomasino: I'm gonna say (Pickering). He's got a lot of confidence, let's go with Picks.

Blake Lizotte: I feel like Karl could do well on that show. He just takes care of himself. He's dressed nice. He would fit the TV personalty. He's a good skater, so he probably could dance.

Ryan Graves: I bet Tanger would be OK. I've never seen him dance, but that'd be it.

Drew O'Connor: I think (St. Ivany). He's a Cali boy, he's got that kind of swagger about him. He might be a little stiff, but he's got that entertainment background. His brother's a movie star or something. I can't say Tanger. Like, Tanger would probably be decent at it but I don't want to say Tanger.

Jack St. Ivany: I'd go with (Kevin Hayes). He would do a good job with it, just being super lighthearted. I haven't seen his boots moving yet but I'm sure he can move his hips. (Me: Drew said you.) I think I could do all right. I would do better than OC, if we're being honest. I get the feet moving.

[foundfamily-connoisseur]

PUNCH OUT HCS CUZ I DONT GOT TIME TO DRAW THEM BUT THEY WONT LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

Something something the voices

This is so long I'm sorry

No I'm serious I started derailing I think

LITTLE MAC

Mexican-American! His ma is Mexican and immigrated to The Bronx, where she met Mac's dad (who we have nothing on lol, he dipped before Mac was born).

His ma? Oh yeah, she died :( He doesn't know how, just that he came home one day (latchkey kid) and saw the cops surrounding the apartment. Placed him in an orphanage but got into fights a lot and deemed him a 'problem child' (literally just an autistic kid grieving the loss of his mom)

As said, Lil Mac is autistic! For the most nonverbal and thus uses ASL, but also speaks English and Spanish from time to time(English from Doc, Spanish from his mother and childhood friends who helped him keep up). Spanish is his preferred language tho.

Narcolepsy haver. It usually doesn't interfere much with his actual boxing matches since he's learned to feel when they're coming and deal with them accordingly. Took him and Doc a while to figure out that he had it since they just chalked it up to his prior malnutrition(which also impacted his growth, capping him at a whole 4'9)

Affectionate(?): must be initiated by him. He's very much for hugging and holding hands but if someone else does it first he's like :/. Only people he's ok with is Doc Louis so far.

Trans: transman who figured himself out pretty early when he only played soccer with the boys out in the mud. His mom cut his hair super short as a 'punishment' for always getting dirt in his braids but jokes on her he loved it. Doc has been helping him with hormone blockers, and with the prize money saving up for surgery 🙏 you can do it maccie boy!!! No one else in the ring knows and he'd rather keep it that way thank you (both out of nerves but also why do they need to know 🤨 what are they the fbi???)

Fashion sense: if you try to get this boy in anything but a tank/shirt and shorts he will explode. This man rocks flip flops and sneakers for days and it's all that's in his wardrobe (maybe another hoodie or two). A lot of them are rather worn but he hates the idea of "wasting" money so he uses em till they're literally impossible to wear.

Very spiritual: believes in el Mal Ojo aka Evil Eye and such. (Mostly from his mother and the women on the block that took him in from time to time). If he thinks your vibes are off, he will do an egg cleanse and swears that they work (they do i can attest to that chat).

GLASS JOE

EDS HAVER!!!!! (Ie Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). This man has glass bones and paper

he don't care he will fight till he's dead! That and boxing actually does rlly help him with his joint pains. He finds it kinda funny when ppl worry about him like "sorry guys i gotta lie down real quick i think my ribs went criss cross". He prefers to get around on wheel chair but can get by with crutches(to which he just lays on the bed forever afterward)

Cat dad!!!!: less him having an actual pet cat than him just tending to whatever feline that crosses his path. May or may not have some scratches on his hands don't worry about it.

Actually really good friends with Mac: (we're going to pretend that they aren't literally thousands of miles away shut up). One of the few to make an actual effort to learn ASL rather than pick it up slowly or have Doc translate. In turn, Mac has gone about learning bits and pieces of French, enough so that both can communicate in their respective language and the other can (mostly) understand them.

This man is such a critic like what do you mean the food lacked a certain "je ne sais quoi" or the movie "insisted upon itself". He really wants to be nice but if it has any touch of French, he is going to murder it because it isn't French enough or actually accurate.

Had an ex fiance to which they broke off for reasons he'd rather not elaborate.

VON KAISER

Tics: he has em. They worsen under stress, but occur randomly or if overstimulated

Served in the military before being discharged. He doesn't like talking about and his tics start acting up if the topic is brought up.

Widower: wife died fairly early into their marriage and he was absolutely distraught. They both always talked about having kids, and a part of him still wants that, but it won't be the same without his Engelchen.

Career: he had wanted to be an engineer, but after serving in the military couldn't bring himself to go into it. That, and being a boxing teacher let's him tend to kids, even if it means getting socked in the stomach. He always acts like a strict instructor, both from his own experience in the military and because he wants to keep the kids at arms length. Also his wife being a kindergarten teacher had nothing to do with it nooooo

Close friends with Hondo and Glass Joe. Bear Hugger is a friendly fella but his loud and boarish disposition gets him riled up. Gets along well with Little Mac and if Doc isn't present for whatever reason, he's good at helping Mac calm down if he starts getting overstimulated and vice versa.

He also totally doesn't have Lil Mac be a pseudo son to him and think about his kis could've been potentially his age who said that.

Emotional support animal: German shepherd called Hugo. That's his baby right there

Disco Kid

That man's a fruit your honor!!!! No but fr tho he's a queer man living his best life.

Also a drag queen! (Name pending). Doesn't really care for how others perceive him and goes with the flow really.

Definitely fought with his dad a lot when he was younger, but as he grew his father came around and now they have a pretty solid relationship.

He's a total mommas boy tho he will literally die for her. He also has a little sister who he plays dolls with. (And yes she asks him to say it in his girl voice iykyk)

Gets along with pretty much everyone besides Mr. Sandman really (Aran Ryan is an interesting case. You heard it from the grape vine but they have an on and off relationship).

An art major for sureeeee. Idk what kind but im sensing something

Really good with machinery though. Usually just so he can fix up his car and stereos.

KING HIPPO

He is for sure not human. I always draw him more beastly but he's probably closer to whales/hippos than actual people.

Like hippos, all that's fat is really just pure muscle. No cuz google up a hippo and remove their skin them bitches are SHREDDED!!!

Naturally very affectionate, although he prefers his pals in the minor circuit (and Lil Mac. Yes this is Little Mac supremacy everyone will be his friend).

Absolutely loves cocktails. They come with fruit how can he not. Funnily enough he despises apples though.

Has multiple wives: a primary wife and secondary wives. Has kids with most of them and naturally, the first born son will take his place when the time comes. (He does love all his kids and wives equally tho so don't worry about them).

Surpringly eloquent" while he can't exactly form human speech, his writing is impeccable, both in letter and in word choice. No one knows how he does it with those claws and big ass hands.

PISTON HONDA

This man has so much manga it's insane. This mf probably has a whole room dedicated to his collection. Yes most of them are Shojo and yes he has a lot of Sailor Moon merch and memorabilia. (although he does also enjoy other such Mangas like JJBA and Inuyasha. I'd say he's embarrassed about it but bro was reading Sailor Moon out in the open so id say he's at least fine with reading it publicly.

Has gotten some of the other boxers to read some of his recs and watch some animes with him (he will force you to watch Madoka Magica and Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's only a matter of time.) It's also how he got into other shows like Candy Candy (by Mac), The Golden Girls(by Disco Kid. He likes his oldies what can he say), and pretty much any and every telenovela ever created (Wow wonder who it could be).

Has a pet Shiba Inu that he loves to bits but DAMN does she test his patience sometimes. And he has a lot of it.

Also began learning ASL when he caught wind of Glass Joe doing it, although he practically forced Lil Mac to learn Japanese because damn it, sometimes the dub doesn't do the show justice!!!

Has two older sisters!!! He's the baby of the family lol and it don't matter if he can pick em both up they'll still pinch his cheeks and tease him.

BEAR HUGGER

Trans: a transgender man who's loud and proud. Never bothered with top surgery he ain't cutting off his girls!!! He could pick up the vibe™️ with Little Mac but he's not the type to try and force the conversation. He'll let Mac come to him on his own time, and if not then that's fine too.

Loads of animals: similar situation to Glass Joe, although now it applies to all animals. Bro is a Disney princess. He sticks his arms out and birds fly to perch on them. Can seemingly hold an actual conversation with animals and no one knows if he's losing it or if they are.

Family: an only child, but with loads of cousins who fill in that sibling role. He's actually really good with kids and takes care of his nieces and nephews from time to time. He has thought about being a dad from time to time (he'd really like to have a girl) but always decides against it.

Affectionate: to the highest degree. That man is always asking if ya need a hug and it ain't just a threat for a grapple/ear clap. He and King Hippo get along swimmingly as a result (if only they didn't die if they went to each other's respective home country 😔)

Prosthethic: ya cant tell cuz of his clothes, but he has a prosthetic leg! (Stops a bit below the knee). If he ever takes it off for whatever reason, he always goes "aw man, guess I'm on my last leg" and the crowd goes mild. Thinks it's the funniest shit ever tho and he won't stop making the joke (Little Mac made it worse by giving an actual chuckle. Mac you've doomed us all with your horrible sense in jokes. I blame Doc)

GREAT TIGER

Loves cats: absolutely adores them. This man has a cat onesie I can feel it in my bones. He hangs out with Glass Joe solely for the cat (also the baguettes).

Gossip: he has a horrible habit of gossiping that he's tried to curb but astaghfirullah sometimes he's gotta talk about Don's receding hairline😔 Mac isn't helping him pinche chismoso!!!

Doesn't like going to parties involving alcohol with the WVBA because almost always he's forced into designated driver. Usually he just teleports away because he's not dealing with that yall are calling an uber!!!!

Actively avoids searching up ingredients in things he eats (like gummies) because if he doesn't know it's not Haram.

Sneakerhead: very proud of his collection. Also really into rap music (we don't talk about his career...that never happened chat) and you will hear it blasting from his car.

Sister!!! Stealing this from a fic but he has a younger sister who works internationally. If she's there with him she serves as his translator.

Magic: not limited to clones or what's seen in the game, but it's his preferred type of magic. He can also transform things and people into other things/creatures. He accidentally made Mac into a rabbit and everyone had a field day with that one.

DON FLAMENCO

Chismoso: this man will shit talk anything and anyone. If you talked with him chances are you're part of a gossiping ring with the older ladies who work nearby. I think they're talking about how you're a puta but idk

Former womanizer: this man banged anything that had a beating heart and a pretty body. It wasn't until he met Carmen that he knew what love really was. Once they got together UGHHHH this man was a fucking loser for his Carmen. Took years to win her over but it was all worth it for his amor.

They talk about kids sometimes, but this mf childish that he sees it as having to share his beloved fiance. (They for sure have kids later down the line tho. Give them a minute damn!)

Beef: tbh he doesn't really get along with anyone; he just dislikes them all to varying degrees. He and Mac hate each other on the principle of one being Hispanic/Latino and the other being a Spaniard. Do NOT leave them alone for any reason. Last time they both argued about the spanish word for 'straw' and sent each other to the hospital where they argued some more.

Telenovelas are his life force. If you interrupt his showing of La Rose de Guadalupe, he will literally kill you.

Got Aran Ryan into it by accident: he was watching Teresa in the living room when Ryan was crossing to go to the kitchen for a bite. An hour later he's sat on the couch hand in heads. They both watch it together now.

Great cook: he makes a means paella and he knows it. Always makes it to show off 'Spain Superiority'. Little Mac hates his guts but he's not gonna turn down a free paella.

ARAN RYAN

People joke and say he has brain damage which is why he's so crazy, but he actually does have CTE so 💀

Family: aside from his general knack for recklessness, having a piece of shit mom and an even worse dad (who of course had to die in a freak accident at work) does not exactly leave you the most sound. He has loads of sisters and brothers, being the second oldest of the bunch (with one older sister of which the hate is mutual). It's a big factor to why he doesn't want kids; he's spent a big chunk of his life working to raise them.

Boxing: to him it was both an outlet for his eventually anger issues and a means to raise money in the same punch. It did lead to fucking him up physically, as after a particularly nasty bout with Mr. Sandman, an eye got knocked out of place so he's working with only 50%.

Very jittery: you can never catch this man staying still. Even in his sleep he either tosses or twitches a leg or arm. Trying to make him stay still just makes it worse.

Repressed Bi it's not even funny. His excuse for his on and off relationship with Disco Kid is "well he's basically a lady!" He'll come to terms with it eventually, but that's one hell of a long road.

Superstitious: biggest thing for him is luck. he breaks a lot of shit but mirrors are not one of them!

Low-key misogynistic: "my sister punches harder than ye, boy!" Like damn your sister must be knocking ppls jaws clean off the freak. If he ever finds out that Lil Mac is trans it's just gonna be him like "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" cuz now he's gonna get canceled on Twitter dot com by Super Macho Man😔😔😔

SODA POPINSKI

Married!!! Has a tiny little wife that he loves to bits. She will scold him and he's just all :]]]] wife...I luv her sm... he's a total wifeman

They've been trying for a kid (bro you can't just say that...gross). Naturally this man wants a shit load of them god help that woman.

A major reason to why he's been making efforts to curb his drinking habits! Of course he still hits the bottle every so often, but he's for sure gotten better than his first time in the ring.

Cooking skills: surpringly decent believe it or not! Anything with meat he's killer with and he always makes ridiculously large portions. (Yes it's because he wants to make something nice for his lady let me make a wife guy!!!!)

Really likes Beyonce. Major fan actually he goes to so many of her shows.

Horrible with social cues. This man does not understand when he's being too overbearing (to the detriment of his friendship with many alas😔 especially Von Kaiser and Little Mac). Tries to apologize by offering them a soda like 🥺🥤

Speaking of Little Mac, he once tripped over him (6'7 vs 4'9...oh dear). Flash forward to them in the hospital. They both swear to never speak of this again (also Soda gets him authentic mexican cola so like...we're all good here).

BALD BULL

Anger issues galore: got his father's temperament(don't we all???) And in addition to being bullied a lot as a kid, he hasn't really found the best way to manage. Usually he just goes out to a secluded field or heads out to the sauna, but the press has done little favors to his mental sanity.

Cat magnet: not of his own volition. They are drawn to him like flies to honey. He doesn't really mind them and are a nice way to de-stress.

Music taste: while he usually listens to classical music and instrumentals, he loves himself some girlie pop music. You pull out his ear buds and just catch "Girls just wanna have funnnnn" Before he punches you into the sun

Cattle farm: Inherited from his family, he loves all his cows to bits. They are his pride and joy. He has Glass Joe come over sometimes for some cheese and wine.

Isn't particularly close to any of the boxers beyond Glass Joe and Soda Popinski. He spends some time with Lil Mac, usually just to go out and get some ice cream or something. He likes the kids company cuz he isn't as energetic or demanding in the same regard a lot of teens are.

SUPER MACHO MAN

He for sure has a purse dog named princess. It's a white pomeranian with a pink bow i just known it.

Was a child actor! His family got him into the world early, staring as the sweetheart of whatever show or movie he was in. In his later teens, he was the heart throb before he left the scene as an adult to focus on boxing. His parents were at first disappointed, but after seeing the money roll in? They had no problems after that.

Romance: as expected, nothing permanent. He usually just has loads of flings or one time hook ups that never amount to anything, and he doesn't bother looking for anything "real".

Probably has a kid out there somewhere but if he does, he's denying it till his dying breath.

Similarly to Don, he doesn't really get along with anyone. For him it's just a matter of his own superficial nature. He absolutely detests Mac, but is the only one to know ASL fluently due to a former childhood friend. He doesn't use it beyond wanting to be bitchy in secret.

I know he's super tan but I'm not allowing him to be white. He's a lil something...will figure that out later.

MR SANDMAN

Yeah ngl I don't got a lot for him. I don't think i have anything actually. Huh

He mains Kirby in smash.

He used to have a lisp when he was younger

Yknow how some parents will have kids super far apart? Yeah his parents did that what do you mean he was 22 and he got a new baby sister. What the freak.

He absolutely hates Macs guts but also can't take him seriously on account that he's 4'9. Whose child is this. Literally, when he first entered the ring, he asked whose kid was this and that children weren't allowed in the ring. Lo and behind this was the schmuck that knocked the lights out of 12 other fully grown men, and he was coming for your ass next.

BONUS

DOC LOUIS

Took Mac in when he was around 9, formally adopted him as soon as he could. Heard of a ruckus for a missing child some minutes away and when he came back with Little Mac, he thought he found his parents. Then he got the situation explained to him about how he didn't actually have anyone, everyone just agreed to look out for him. There he officially took him in as his son.

Put the kid back in school after learning he hasn't been in since his mom died. He's considerably behind for his age, but has taken great strides to catch up. He's now just a year behind.

Definitely a major learning curve when it came to raising a child, much less one who barely spoke english(if he spoke at all) and prone to outbursts. It's been years since then and he can't imagine a world without that kid.

Had a wife but they divorced after he found out she had an affair. Sent him on a downwards spiral but he managed to pick himself back up. Having a kid to raise really helps him out.

Close to his sister, but that's about it. She's who gave him pointers on how to raise a kid, as they were about the same age. He doesn't think hes have done as well if it wasn't for her.

Former coach of Bald Bull, but parted ways after arguments on what exactly that wanted to do moving forward. They're amicable now, though.

[psilliguykai]

Boy why you [all] so white

Anyways! Uhhhh yeah William’s Wanton Weary Wiles designs. Or Something. I debated giving them each their own post but none of them deserve it. I couldn’t figure out how to make it Not A Total Mess lol soooo here we are! Individuals with some more info under the cut.

Ooohhh they gross me out so bad. Both in the /aff way but also in the “oooohh I really don’t like how this turned out” way lmao- but! I finished the lineart before I started disliking it and promised myself I wouldn’t keep waffling on the sketch so they’re. They’re DONE alright they’re DONE [<- still trying to convince himself]

All the colors [especially the skin tones because oof I really. Don’t know how to handle that apparently. I mean like they’re meant to be white but I’m not sure if they should be That white lol ANYWAYS] aren’t too strict and I’ll probably fuck around w them depending on the mood of the post, etc. just a loose guide ig :]

If their designs ever get updated, this post will be updated as well ^^ i was gonna hyperlink the master doc but tumblr is kinda hating me rn and Not Letting Me Do That so uhhh . Look up wwww au in my blog and scroll to the bottom for background I guess [I’m so sorry] 😭😭😭

Ok ok here they are

Jimmy

- you can tell I take this very seriously /silly

- The shortest/smallest, but arguably the strongest of the trio [just by a little].

- Patterns and striped parts are based on the EIAL cover + the tapeworm.

Al

- what it says in the ref tbh. Just kinda a normal guy [in appearance anyways] who dresses way too formally and doesn’t get enough sunlight or sleep. :]

- I feel like he’s kind of very fucking ugly but I’ve given up on trying to fix it 😭

- Tallest by a little and best posture by a lot.

- essentially just the outfit from the TNA cover if it was blue lol

- sorryyy no automaton freak :((( big fan of robot Mind designs, but Al is just. Different to me

Mr. Capgras

- He gets scissors in place of a trident because I thought that could be neat :] when he pulls them out of the halo they get noteably larger and sharper. Tbh it mostly just uses them for normal scissor stuff + violent threats sometimes.

- Patterns depicted here are based on the body paint from the Self-ish album cover. In this ref they’re the hmsw colors, but could technically kinda be anything. They’re super inconsistent, both in canon and also because. Trying to keep up the same patterns every time I draw him would be torture :’]

- Most intimidating/strongest-looking. Middle in height, and worst in posture. Sleep deprived, somewhat empty and bitter but still hopeful and surprisingly optimistic.

- I’d like to think if his socks are ever shown, they’d have the same patterns as his gloves n stuff :3

- This isn’t a design thing at all but I’ll probably be referring to him more as Cotard as I feel it fits best. However, he’s formally known as Mr. Capgras since it would make the official acronym for these three “JAM”, which I think is a neat and completely accidental reference to Jamface :)) completely arbitrary yeahhh but it’s my AU and I’ll include all the obscure references I want in it >:3

- dw about the oversized Cotard’s Solution doodle it’s just there as another ref for how the scissors work lol

Fanart is super duper appreciated but absolutely not needed !! Asks either directly to [<- in this case I’d respond in character{s} depending on the ask] or about these characters/this AU are also always very welcome ^^

William Racheal McSprout Himself will be getting his own post when he’s completed :]

[kit-screams-into-the-future]

a couple of guys have been throwing around doc being ace in the tags of my recent post so naturally. i have thoughts. allow me to subject you to them:

i agree. that man is asexual. clara is also asexual. i would think both of them are a little bit bi as well!

not that either of them think too hard about it though. if you ask them they would say they are 100% attracted to the opposite sex and for the most part that's true. but doc totally had some sort of vaguely homosexual rivalry with another scientist while working on the manhattan project and clara probably had a crush on another girl when she was little. also the 1980s has a lot more Gender than the century previous so once the shock of women wearing pants wears off she's going to be like hold on a sec.... they're kinda cooking in this century

(clara would not use those words in that order fs but that's the only way i can convey that lmao)

none of them would look into those experiences. they'd just assume oh every girl thought this one specific other girl was like super pretty and smart and cool growing up. every scientist has an infuriatingly stubborn yet brilliant and objectively good-looking rival in the same department. that's just how it is!

bisexual tangent over. back to asexualism

doc and clara are more the "enjoy each other's company" couple than anything like sure they'll kiss or whatever and that's nice but they'll have infinitely more fun talking about their interests

they'd probably only get schnasty because they know that's just what couples are meant to do. like they'll try it once and they'll agree it was a solid 7/10 experience but do you know what's a guaranteed 10/10 every time? 49th reread of journey to the centre of the earth!! woohoo!!

which brings me. to the real point of this post. where did jules and verne come from.

as an ace doclara truther i initially subscribed to the "they travelled in time to adopt a couple of orphans who were otherwise going to die and be lost to time" bc it's cute and it's like how doc saved clara so now they're in love. but the more i thought about it i was like hold on. something's up here

because doc spent 10 years building that train so the first thing he'd want to do with it (besides going into the future to get parts for it to fly) is return to let marty know he's alright right. like in the movie sure he picked up einie first but that's bc that's einie

so unless those boys are freshly picked up off the great depression streets logically i do not think that can be the case. as nice as this headcanon is

so my next thought was like ok. we can still make this adoption thing work. maybe these orphans have naturally occurred in the 1880s (<- certainly one of the string of words i have made)

but we know doc. sure he's had his moments of flipping the bird to the space-time continuum but in general he tries his best to keep it intact i think

taking up a blacksmithing job? minor improvements to the lives of the citizens of hill valley. probably not going to cause anything major. also he needs money. marrying a schoolteacher? she was going to fall off a cliff and die originally so it's not like that's going to make anything worse. (although now a lot more kids are literate in this timeline so something is definitely different. but also what is she gonna do, not teach?)

but adopting two kids without knowing their fates beforehand.... risky business. who knows who those two are supposed to be. and it's not like they can pick up two kids who they know for sure would probably pass without their intervention bc doc is a doc from the future but he's not THAT kind of doc from the future.

so with that said. begrudgingly. i think jules and verne are biologically theirs. unfortunate for the adoption headcanons but that's the only logical way i can see it

not to say the adoption headcanons are wrong and bad i just don't know how they could obtain two children without worrying about messing things up. so if anyone has any ideas how please enlighten me

[oldmanpusspuss]

hell0o. i dont know anything about the beatles but i just watched two of us on a whim and have become insane. fic recs please or just any content, news articles interviews idek. help me tumblr use paulmccartneyprostateorgasm

Sorry I haven't been ignoring this I've just been Thinking. The thing is that I've been into the beatles off and on since I was in middle school so it's hard for me to remember like. Beatles 101. But welcome to hell. Two of us is a cwazy intro to mclennon lol.

Ok so I guess the thing is really depends on how serious you wanna be with your idk beatles scholarship? Like at an absolute bare minimum I would skim some wikipedia articles so you know the major people/places/events/eras. There are a zillion beatles bios and docs most of them bad some of them vital. Unfortunately it haven't gone through any of those since I was a teenager so I can't really tell you which is which anymore. I'm sure plenty of other beatles blogs could provide resources if you want them.

Definitely watch get back and let it be. The movies the beatles were in as well but less essential I guess. Advanced Level McCartney Studies but watch give my regards to broad street it's a fascinating reflection of pauls psyche.

I'd look at blogs like @amoralto @thecoleopterawithana @undying-love for references. Probably more upper level stuff but all of pauls interviews are on the paul mccartney project website and I once went through and read all the interviews from the 80s. Full disclosure, the thing about mclennon that compels me the most is the tragedy of it all, so that's where I tend to fixate. But it was a fascinating experience because you can really see paul work through his regrets/grief/resentment/bitterness/pain about john in real time

A word of caution when reading interviews: both of these guys are incredibly untruthful at times. John, after the breakup in particular, could be very hot and cold, especially about paul so don't take everything he says at face value. Paul also lies a lot no matter what anybody tries to tell you he just gets away with it more because he's still alive and people feel bad calling him a liar

Songs. Their songs are very very important. I sometimes see people act like it's stupid to believe things based on the songs. To a point I get it art doesn't have to be literal yadda yadda. But you also gotta consider these guys communicated a Lot to each other through music from the time they were teenagers. Anyway I'd suggest listening to the songs for a more thorough understanding but just reading lyrics I guess is fine. I personally still like going through people's mclennon playlists and analyzing Why people think they're mclennon. Look at the lyrics, go to beatles bible and/or the paul mccartney project and learn about the context, etc.

Okay anyway on to fanfic. If this is your main concern just ignore all the above advice who cares. Also I'm a horrible resource because I always forget what I read. Um @forthlin @menlove @pauls1967moustache have good fics sorry I can never remember any of your ao3 names. Merseydreams (I think it is) has good fics. @crepesuzette2023 does a lot of fic recs I think. One thing that's always fun about beatles fics is when u think something is completely made up and you look it up and it's literally real like wtf. I'm also a bad reference because I'm heavily biased towards early days fics and post breakup fics.

Ok hope this helps even a little bit. Remember the most important rule is to have fun. People take this shit so seriously but it's literally the beatles. But please do fact check that always drives me nuts.

[kit-screams-into-the-future]

op your tags....

losing my mind at the idea of good!timeline marty (the one with the healthy parents and the doc who used a bulletproof vest) going back in time and making the necessary changes to the timeline so he goes forward in time to the og!timeline (the one with the neglectful parents), thus he has to live in the timeline where doc is dead :]

[verdantlights]

hello

i decided to respond to you instead of vant due to you tackling the issue directly. i stated in my response you guys were required to be direct if you want to hold a conversation with me. it isnt an age thing.

i am a minor, not an adult. this is why i am so uncomfortable with how you guys approach these topics. its disrespectful for you to make such big accusations and assumptions about me. stop it.

i have a school and not to mention a completely different timezone from most of you, so it would have been nice to be told directly what to censor rather than being so vague repeatedly. this could have been done with a lot sooner.

i still feel as if you guys cant comprehend the weight of your actions. this best reflects when one of your friends decided to reblog a suggestive post. i see no issue with that, seeing as it was tagged accordingly too, but the tag " #just in case anyone gets their panties in a twist" is beyond immature and is very disrespectful to others around him, especially after everything. it seems as if you guys just will not take concerns serious.

stop harassing a minor. you are older than me, its weird.

ok so youre brave for sending your response in MY askbox bc im not afraid to answer it unlike you with my original ask. im also not afraid to call you out on your bullshit directly and speak my mind.

im so sorry to say this but i genuinely cannot take you seriously after this. i will say, i apologize for assuming you were an adult, but you really made it seem like you were with the way you behaved towards others.

the reason why we were so adamant about getting you to sensor personal information is because it shouldve been your first instinct to censor private info. im pretty sure ive said this, but posting private information of a minor is illegal. it doesnt matter if you yourself are also a minor.

another thing, you started this. youre the one who made a callout post over us. sorry no, its "not a callout post in any regards," my bad. but my point still stands that if youre going to throw shit out there, be prepared to expect it in return.

also "the weight of our actions" what actions? being a fucking teenager? majority of the people in that server are minors, some possibly the same age as you. im gonna be so fucking fr, this sounds like a personal problem to me. this sounds like you personally just had an issue with us and wanted to make it everyone elses problem. and that is immature.

the same thing can be said for "just in case anyone gets their panties in a twist" its a lighthearted joke. poorly timed, yeah probably, a lame joke, also yeah. the only person whod believe its immature and disrespectful is you, though. everyone else gave a half hearted laugh and moved the fuck on.

"the severity of our actions" i have explained this story, shown the doc of screenshots, and majority of the responses and posts on tumblr, including the one from syd, all to my therapist and my mother. both of them agree that this is actually fucking stupid. none of us are in the wrong, you were simply uncomfortable in our server and were bitter that you couldnt be included because of it. we strive to accommodate to peoples boundaries and needs, but we will not destroy the core foundation of our friend group to accommodate to one single person.

there never has, and never will be, explicit nsfw in that server and i have said that over and over and over again. we were trying to argue that originally and that anon ignored us. its even in the fucking screenshots you posted, which by the way, do absollutely nothing to prove your point anyway. numerous people who had nothing to do with the server, the people, or even alien stage itself were shown the og callout post and the screenshots and went "whats the issue here."

you showed screenshots of us literally saying "hey yeah thats a valid issue here lets resolve it immediately and be more careful and mindful of this persons boundaries in the future." and we have continued to uphold those boundaries since.

im gonna say it again, you started this. the block button exists for a reason. you said that you didnt want a back and forth, and yet what did you think was going to happen when you decided to put private information on the internet in the form of a callout post? did you think youd get praise? did you think youd be a crowned hero?

newsflash, since you want to say i, an adult of i kid you the fuck not TWO MONTHS, was harassing you... thats now how it works. you get what you give and if you cant handle that then dont make a giant fucking callout post on people who are doing just fine living their best fucking lives. all of the people who originally responded to your post were minors. the people you claim to be harassing you are also minors. i hope you realise the mistake that you made and that none of us in the group take you seriously anymore because the sheer audacity you have to say shit like this in my inbox is astounding. saying were harassing you is a bit melodramatic dontcha think?

so instead of telling you to go touch grass (which you still need to do) because youre an adult so you should act like one, im gonna tell you to grow the fuck up because youre not an adult.

if you want to think of me as immature for being so brash-! i do not care. i am an older sibling and this is the exact same way i have talked to my younger brother when he did stupid shit. which, funnily enough, if you think what were doing is bad, the things that my brother has done would put you in an early grave.

if i had to make a list of things, this is purely to take the piss out of the situation btw because i could not give less of a fuck about this situation atp, but you would NOT have survived the dsmp fandom, 2021 and 2015 wattpad, 2015-16 tumblr, and any year of twitter. you also would not survive working at taco bell or any fast food chain.

also, "i have a school" i sure hope you do! please pay better attention in your english class because you clearly do not have enough media literacy.

poor attempt at cancel culture 0/10 do better.

@alien-til-i-stage "if i die like this, i wouldnt mind" while they choke from drinking dr pepper.

[duchessonfire]

Savior Carl!AU re-read Part 2 Chapter 4

Follow-up of my re-read of Part 2 Chapter 3. If you're not interested and don't want to have your dashboard spammed, you can block the tags Duchess reads and Savior Carl AU reread.

Commentary for Part 2, Ch 4 below the cut (spoilers for part 2 ahead):

Okay first of all, early 2024 Duchess, why are you writing "the man" everywhere?? I have had to edit over 15+ "the man"s in this chapter. WHY???? JUST SAY 'NEGAN' OR 'HE'!! I feel like as writers we tend to fear repetitions, but one thing I've learned over time is that the brain doesn't register stuff like the main characters' names or very common pronouns such as "he" or "she". If there's a repetition that appears glaring it's more "the man" or "the boy" because that's definitely not that common. Another thing I tend to fear is confusion, especially in mlm ships where both characters are refered to as "he", but honestly just looking at the context helps clear that up most of the time.

Alright, now that this is out of the way, let's talk about one of my fave chapters ever.

These scenes in the infirmary/parking lot were definitely supposed to be THE sexy moments of part 2 because, back when I was writing it, I didn't mean for part 2 to have any real smut, which I planned to hold off on until part 3. However, when I was writing the last chapter, it soon became clear that the smut was going to happen earlier than expected.

Now, let's start at the beginning, which is Carl becoming officially a member of the Saviors:

When Carl makes them stop for a fifth time, Big Richie growls, “He ain’t gonna be happy.” “Yeah? What’s he gonna do? Throw me back in the cell?” The Savior frowns at his acerbic tone. “Man, what crawled up your ass and died? You got a beating. Welcome to the fucking club. We’ve all been there. The Doc will patch you up and then it’s business as usual. Just be grateful you ain’t on the fence after the shit you pulled.” Carl huffs petulantly but he knows Richie is right. He’s caught a lucky break until now. Negan never disciplined him the way he did the rest of the guys, no matter how many times Carl stood up to him. If he had been any other soldier, he would have gotten an attitude-check the second he told Negan to go fuck himself that day in the mess hall, when he had humiliated Carl into making a sandwich. Instead, Negan had given him a pass, and then afterward, when he’d saved his life, he had let even more things slide, never doing more than playing fucked up mind games that sent Carl chasing after his own tail like a mad dog. He can’t complain, not after riding the gravy train for so long. He’s a Savior now, and that means following the same rules as everyone else. His shoulders deflate and he adjusts his grip on the wall to start climbing down again. Seeing his resignation, Big Richie tells him almost consolingly: “Hey. It ain’t so bad. At least you’ll get pain pills out of it. I’ll trade you some good shit for them. Just come to me first, ok?”

I've mentioned before that I really enjoy writing the background characters of Sanctuary and this is a good example of that. To me, the Saviors are this sort of frat house, this boys' club of adults that are basically reverting back to a teenage state because of the very high-school/college campus atmosphere that Negan is fostering. The Saviors know they're the jocks/cool kids, but they are also very much the first recipients of Negan's mercurial temper. Negan doesn't bother disciplining the workers himself, cultivating instead a sort of detached paternal/benevolent god attitude. With the Saviors, however, it's very much a rough coach-football players type of relationship. By getting punishment from Negan, Carl won a badge of honor that he didn't even know he was missing before. He's only realizing now that the preferential treatment that Negan had given him until now had further isolated him from the other Saviors, who kept their distance from this strange teacher's pet who spent so much time alone or with Negan himself. Carl becomes aware of this when Big Richie gives him a metaphorical clap on the back and tells him that becoming Negan's punching ball is part of the job. Now that Carl has received a beating, he's officially one of them.

Now, for the infirmary scene:

“Finally,” Negan exclaims when Big Richie leads Carl into a small medical room. He’s standing with his hip cocked against a brown exam table, rocking Lucille through the air back and forth. Next to him, Carson is busy doing his inventory, though Carl is pretty sure it’s just a front considering how the Doc keeps sending nervous glances at the baseball bat. “I was starting to think my favorite little serial killer had kicked the bucket during the night. Sure would have been a shame, after all the great progress we made yesterday.” He straightens up and takes a long look at Carl. “Jeez, you look worse than the shitbags of the fence. I gave you a whole damn day to yourself and you couldn’t even take a shower?” He rolls his eyes. “Big Richie, get him some clothes that don’t reek of piss. And close the door behind you. Let’s give the kid some privacy for fuck’s sake,” he calls out as Richie exits the room, his tone mockingly indignant. The door clicks shut and Carl becomes hyper aware of the fact that he’s trapped in a small room with Negan. Judging from the way Carson gulps nervously, he’s not the only one. “Well, come on, Doc. Do your thing. Can’t you see the state he’s in?” Negan tuts, but his rakish smile contradicts his feigned disapproval. He saunters to the other end of the cramped room and settles near a metal cabinet. There is a glass jar full of lollipops next to his elbow and he shoves his fingers inside, grabbing a handful of candies. He puts them in his pocket, save for one which he starts unwrapping.

All of this was inspired directly by canon. In The Cell episode, Negan has Daryl beaten up and when Dwight brings him to the room that Negan hopes will be Daryl's, he tuts disapprovingly when he realizes that Daryl's bruised lips prevent him from drinking a glass of water, and he then berates Dwight for not thinking of giving Daryl a straw in the first place - which is the summum of hypocrisy when Negan is the one responsible for Daryl's bruised face. This is one of those little cruelties that make Negan's character so delightful, turning sadism into a schoolyard game. The lollipops, of course, are from the Hostile and Calamities episode when Carson is fixing Dwight after a beating - ordered by Negan, again - and Dwight grabs a handful of lollipops from the jar in the exam room. Do I obsessively rewatch seasons 7 and 8 until they overtake my brain completely? Yes. Yes, I do.

“No painkiller,” Negan says suddenly, and they both turn toward him. He’s been silent until now, watching without a word while Carson probed Carl’s wounds and disinfected the occasional cut. He pops the candy out of his mouth, his eyes now deadly serious. Dr. Carson looks between Carl and Negan, conflicted. “The ribs will hurt a lot. I really think it’d be better if—” “He can take it. Right?” The question is aimed at him, a clear challenge, and Carl realizes then that just because he killed the worker like Negan wanted him to doesn’t mean the punishment is over. He knows it’s another test, but at least he knows the answer to this one. Shane made sure of it. “I can take it,” Carl says, his answer meant for Carson but the defiant tone aimed at Negan. Judging from the way his eyes twinkle, he gets the message. He puts the lollipop back into his mouth and Carl gets a glimpse at his pink tongue wrapping around it before his lips close on the white plastic stem.

One of my fave things about these two is how they get in their own little bubble and have this understanding between them that leaves the other people around completely puzzled. Carson doesn't understand why Negan would deny a Savior painkillers out of the blue. If a Savior is punished, he doesn't get medical care, period. But Carl knows what it's about. It's another test, another way Negan wants Carl to prove his worth. Because of course Negan's favorite boy isn't afraid of pain. I love writing Carl as a badass who takes pain without flinching so this scene was an absolute joy to write. These two are soulmates so someone as sadistic as Negan would inevitably fall for the one person in Sanctuary who isn't scared of pain.

A gloved hand appears in his field of vision and drops clean clothes on the table in front of him. Richie must have brought them at some point, Carl probably too busy biting back agonizing screams to notice. He slowly turns his head to look up at Negan who’s peering at him from under his lashes, his cheek bulging out from the lollipop still in his mouth. “Attaboy,” he murmurs. A dark and shameful thrill runs through Carl at the praise. Negan leans forward, the plastic stem of his candy grazing Carl’s sweaty temple. “Just between us, I got a lil’ bit hard watching you take it so well.” Carl’s face heats up, from degradation, or disgust, or something else he can’t hope to name. Negan chuckles and turns on his heels, walking out of the room. Carl knows he’s waiting for him outside the door when he hears him whistle another cheerful song. Negan isn’t done with him yet.

In case you were wondering, yes, Carson heard the whole exchange and, yes, he was deeply disturbed by it. Only a handful of people notice the growing sexual relationship between Carl and Negan, and Carson is one of them.

He just wants to leave, to go back to his room and sleep some more. Maybe have something to eat, considering he can’t even remember the last meal he’s had, but then Negan straightens from where he’s slouched against the wall and stands toe to toe with him. The side of his cheek goes round as he rolls the candy with his tongue. Never letting his eyes off Carl, he grabs the plastic stem between his fingers and takes the candy out with a wet and sucking sound, his lips wrapping around it one last time, leaving them pink and shiny. He offers the gleaming lollipop, the head of it an inch away from Carl’s mouth. “Open up,” Negan says. Carl’s breath catches in his throat and he freezes, a deer in headlights. His eyes dart from the lollipop to Negan’s unreadable expression. After a long second, he stomps a foot on the ground and roars with laughter. “Lighten up, kid, I’m just messing with you,” Negan cackles before popping the candy back into his own mouth. He wraps a lazy arm around Carl’s shoulders and leads him away from the infirmary, his mood shifting so swiftly that Carl gets whiplash. “C’me on. Let’s find you something to do.”

Negan is good at playing it cool, but the truth is: if Carl had indeed opened his mouth and taken the lollipop, there's nothing on God's green earth which could have stopped Negan from putting Carl down on his knees and shoving his dick in his mouth. Period.

“Now, you fucked up yesterday and everyone knows that, so I can’t just send you back to Dwight. The garden is prime real estate, and only boys who behave get to work there. We’ll just have to find you something else to do for a few days, until it looks like you’ve learned your lesson.” Carl’s heart skips a beat when Negan suddenly pulls him even closer, flush against his side. His breath rustles the long hair around Carl’s ear as he whispers conspirationally, “But you and I both know you’ve got a lot more fuck-ups coming. I’m getting your cell cleaned as we speak, so it’s all nice and ready for your next little rebellion. I’m even thinking of putting your name on the door. Really make it official.”

Little foreshadowing for part 3 right there ;)

Negan whistles, a long melodic note, and Carl drags his eyes back to him only to meet his devious smile. As much as he craves Negan’s attention, he can never decide if he’s more thrilled or terrified to have those gray eyes zeroing in on him, like a sniper’s bright red scope aimed directly at his head, a hair-trigger away from shooting him down. Negan twists Lucille’s handle, the way he always does when he’s thinking about some terrible trick to play on him, and Carl knows he’s coming, can feel it the way that mammals have learned to feel a predator’s eyes on them, a deep-seated instinct a million years in the making. Negan’s lips stretch into a feral grin, and he’s ready to pounce when Joey shifts and makes a small noise next to him, nervously expectant. Negan blinks, turning on his heels and breaking whatever tunnel vision tied him to Carl only a moment ago.

These two are so obsessed with each other, they keep forgetting they aren't the only ones left on Earth.

Carl scrambles back, narrowly avoiding getting stepped on. He looks up, glaring, but Negan’s eyes are full of laughter, obviously reveling in playing a game when he’s the only one who knows the rules. He keeps whistling, faster now, stepping forward again, making Carl step back in tandem, a twisted version of a dance. With a clang, his back hits the side of the white truck they use for the drops to other communities, and Carl realizes only too late he has been herded straight where Negan wanted him, in the shadow of the largest truck on the lot, far away from prying eyes. The cold surface of the truck is like ice between Carl’s shoulder blades, piercing through the layers of his shirt and t-shirt and chilling him to the bone. In front of him, Negan puts a gloved hand next to Carl’s head and leans forward. Out of nowhere, Carl is reminded of that time in sixth grade when he used his hall pass to sneak into the school gym, not wanting to listen to Miss Harnett drone on about geometry any longer. There, he had caught a glimpse of a couple of nine-graders under the bleachers, in the very same position he and Negan are now. Hazily, Carl wonders if the girl’s heartbeat was as loud as his, blood rushing in her ears and turning her cheeks flaming red like his surely are now. “So,” Negan says slowly, his pink tongue darting to wet his lips. “What did you think about Athena’s little show back there? That’s how you get a guy wrapped around your finger, by the way. Ain’t nothing better than a tease who leaves you wanting for more. She really knows how to get me all worked up,” Negan chuckles warmly. They’re so close, the husky sound of it sends shivers from the root of Carl’s hair down to the tip of his toes.

Negan just casually telling his 18 yo Savior that he should act toward him like a wife. Also one thing you need to know about me is that if I can make Negan herd Carl like a shepherd dog herding cattle, I will. It's one of my favorite dom/sub trope.

I'm not going to quote the entire parking lot scene but I absolutely love it, especially because Carl barely says a word. Negan is the one doing all the talking but, because he's so watchful of Carl, so obsessed with every little sign he displays (Carl has 0 poker face skills, which makes it easy for Negan), he can read Carl like a book. It's actually something I'm constantly surprised about in the Savior AU: how little Carl actually says. Because the story is told from Carl's pov and we have access to his every thought, it feels like Carl is constantly talking, when in fact he very rarely says anything out loud, preferring to watch from a distance instead. Carl is an extremely introverted character in the Savior AU, but that's no problem for Negan, who talks more than enough for two. However, it's always interesting to see the scenes when Carl does talk, because those are the scenes when Negan can get a good glimpse at what's happening inside Carl's head. And when you look at those scenes (the rooftop in part 1, the cell in part 2, etc.), you'll notice that, for all that Negan thinks he can read Carl like an open book, when Carl does talk to him, it's usually to say something Negan didn't expect. Every time that boy opens his mouth, Negan is in for a big surprise.

“You should touch yourself tonight,” Negan says, almost companionably, and Carl is so used to obeying his command that his hand twitches forward before stopping mid-motion. He tries to hide it by tightening his fingers into a fist but the way Negan’s lips stretch into a devilish smirk tells him he failed.

Carl is such a sub it's a miracle he doesn't just put himself on a leash and hands the end of it to Negan.

Also, while in the infirmary it's Carson who was the uncomfortable witness of Carl & Negan's increasingly disturbing relationship, in the parking lot it's Dwight. Those boys are not as discreet as they think they are, and the most observant members of Sanctuary are starting to pick up on it.

Now, for the masturbation scene. Honestly I hadn't planned to actually write it. It was inevitable for Carl to jerk off while thinking of Negan but I thought I'd leave that up for the readers to guess. As horny of a writer as I am, I tend to avoid smut unless it serves a purpose to the story, because smut is so difficult to write that I can't really afford to make it gratuitous. However, I ended up writing this one because I realized that Carl's sexual awakening (both in terms of the fact that he's attracted to a man and that he was so sexually repressed before) did serve an important role in the story. Re-reading this scene, I'm very happy with it, because it encapsulates what the whole fic is about: Carl's trauma, Negan's intoxicating personality (as in: both toxic and attractive), the fact that for all of his cruelty and perversity, Negan is the one person that makes Carl feel alive after years of being emotionally abused by Shane. I often think of Carl through a Pinocchio metaphor: he was a wooden puppet for Shane, but Negan is the one who breathed life into him and turned him into a real boy. And real boys are horny, sorry, Carl, I don't make the rules.

Conclusion; tldr: Negan spends the whole chapter sexually harassing Carl who is so into it he might as well be flopping down on the ground like a cat demanding to be pet. Negan is trying hard to be cool about this and not ravish Carl against various surfaces (the exam table in the infirmary, the truck in the parking lot...).

PS: did you spot Michonne and Tara in the Terminus flashback? ;D Rick and Carl almost met a few times in the Savior AU, being in the same location without realizing it.

You can find the commentary for Part 2, Ch 5 here.

[growling]

@alfiely-art splendid thank you for enabling my autism

Ok so background:

There's this city called Shinagawa City that's part of Zero's gamer regime where he forces everyone in all the cities to rp. This is called XG

The XG in Shinagawa City is that it functions like a company does, with all the residents as the employees, except for the president. Employees can only be appointed to the role of director at most if the president likes them. In order for the president to like you you have to bribe him with japanese sweets. Every week the president executes some guy he doesn't like.

Ichinose is the director, and part of the "Numbers" as #1, appointed by Zero. We don't really know the specifics but essentially, they're the rulers of each city and Zero recognizes them as potentially worthy of being his gamer buddies if genericprotagboy doesn't pass

Ichinose's personality is. so hard to describe in a manner that isn't just slander because he's specifically created to be as unlikeable as possible. He abuses his power, his employees, who he really hates and calls useless and incompetent every chance he gets, loves murder, incredibly self-absorbed and constantly has to assert his excellence in the most vain cartoon villain way possible and never stops mentioning how he's #1 appointed by Zero himself which basically means he's like a prettier jesus, mean to everyone he ever meets, actually really fucking stupid and unfunny with no positive qualities his life is worth nothing and he serves zero purpose and he sucks so much and I fucking hate Tribe Nine. He is created to have no depth whatsoever. Anyway he beat Zero in being my favourite Tribe Nine character and half of the reasons as to why I'm not even sure were even deliberate writing choices

Auuuurrghhh where do I start. Do I go in order or like what. I made an entire 12 page doc Ichinose Bible just for this sick evil twisted obsession specifically to help me with articulating anything and yet I have still failed. Alright we're going unhinged mode I had enough I'm making a third doc. I came back to this weeks later sorry my brain is fried now this might not be very comprehensible

Okay so this is very important for later: he is a terrible boss. Absolutely horrendous!!! Every interaction with him and his subordinates is them fucking up their goon work, him screaming at them, them having a mental breakdown and shitting themselves from fear, him still verbally abusing them for 12 more minutes then walking away very annoyed full of hatred for his useless fucking henchmen that he abhors because they're so sucks. They only listen to him because they're for some reason just so absolutely terrified of him, mostly that he's just gonna execute them (he does that often) but also mostly its kinda weird you know. They actually, truly, have NOTHING to gain from listening to him. There is no benefit for sticking around him. No this isn't a "lollll why don't they don't overthrow the bad guy if i was them i would simply not follow his orders" situation, they actually genuinely have zero solid reason to do everything he says and give him that amount of power. Also he just completely lacks awareness that what he's doing might be a wee mean and just genuinely thinks he's disciplining them in a normal way and that they're just overreacting specifically to piss him off. One time he goes off on a screaming session at his subs until one of them faints and all the other ones are shaking and crying in the middle of trying to recruit the protag team to also work under him and they're just Standing there all this time until one of them has to intervene and gently coax him into shutting the fuck up with her feminine wiles

Anyway I mentioned executions right. And the President. Ok so the President is actually not a human but rather just this iron maiden robot with the face of zero's canon fursona (long story) and floating hands and exclusively speaks in all caps. It does not move its just permanently standing there in the Execution Plaza. The Director position makes it so the President can only hear his voice (he can register visual input but can't hear other than Ichinose) so Ichinose's the only guy he can talk with. And ichinose is just absolutely constantly sucking up to that guy, talking to others about how Unbreakable their Special Bond is and how much the President would never ever replace him because they're besties and he's his favourite meanwhile the President does not give a single fuck about Ichinose. He only lets him do whatever he wants because Ichinose just keeps giving him sweets everyday so of course he likes him but not in any deeper way and has zero problem with turning on him the moment he's framed for eating that cake he always wanted. Oh and also when the President said earlier that whoever finds and gives him that cake will be made director Ichinose says "hahahaaa you're so funny babeee you're joking about making someone else director again. haha. you're doing that again" which is just sad. toxic doomed unrequited human x robot workplace situationship yaoi. Ichinose also loooooooves executing people its his favorite activity of the week every time he watches a guy die inside the President (yeagh they have to go inside the President) he gets such as kick he goes "bwahaha! heeheehee!" and then laughs about it for a full minute. He also sucks up to Zero a lot but that's for later

How he took control of the Shinagawa Tribe (part of his subordinates) is also pretty weird if you ask me. So when Zero first implemented the XG rules in Shinagawa nobody really cared and just kept doing their own thing except for Ichinose who immediately started meeting with the President and bribing him until he gained enough favor to be appointed director. Nobody still really cared except for him up until the executions started and they realized that It's Bad Actually. Shinagawa Tribe started also collecting bribes for the President and Ichinose just came up to them one by one and whispered in their ear "lol. your leader doesn't care about you as soon as he becomes director he's actually gonna kill you source dude trust me. give me all the bribes instead and work for me now. lmao" and that was literally enough for all of them to just take Ichinose's side and offer him all the items they had then watch their leader get executed. I guess he was just really that charming and intelligent huh,,,,

He kinda manipulates the president into letting him choose who gets executed instead, while it was originally supposed to be the president who does that. He also forbids anybody else from offering bribes to the president so that only he is favored and him and his men regularly rob and beat the hell out of people that try to do so also this exchange:

also i just. liked the moment where he just got in a car and fucking left. + he's so desperately trying to be soooo witty and funny and failing he's so embarrassing i want to boil him i actually hate him he wants to be cool so bad he's running that insult to the fucking ground he peaked at middle school im gonna skin him i will kill hi

Before getting to the Cake Incident, let's talk about how he always talks about being #1. He constantly points it out and reminds everyone about how he's "#1, as appointed by Zero himself" and wants everyone to remember that, he constantly mentions it even when it's not even related to what he's talking about he just hypes himself up. He thinks it's the coolest thing ever and the proof of his superiority and it obviously it means a lot to him it sure would be terrible if anyway let's talk about the Cake Incident

Anyway, the Cake Incident is that the protag group finds that really cool cake and and tries to offer it to the president but also it was all a trick because they replaced it with a sponge. Ichinose is about to steal that when his subordinate notices that it's unusually light but doesn't tell him that because he doesn't give her a chance to also it's Ichinose. President eats that and immediately does a 180 on his opinion of Ichinose and wants him dead and buried. (also when Ichinose gets stressed out about this he talks to himself like "Ugh… Stay calm, Ichinose Kazuma. At a time like this…" Ijust think that's cute lmao). When Ichinose tells the President that he was actually tricked it turns out the protag team got a SECOND trick which is I shit you not they fed him to Oi's AI and showed President an AI generated image of him absolutely throating that original cake and President gets so mad he fucking kills him and I just wanted to dwell a bit on how Ichinose is canonically a victim of AI sludge. Anyway before Ichinose fucking dies he says "Eeek!" and starts ugly crying before getting executed and then it's all officially over post ended Ichinose is no more the wicked bitch is dea

Anyway this is where we actually really get into this, I will only get more unhinged from this point, we gotten past just the intro to my hellish essay. Ichinose actually is not dead and just rips President apart from the inside and it is revealed that he can never die because he was a robot the entire fucking time and also his head fell off and he doesn't pick that up for his entire monologue. He was born and raised a human but when he became #1 he got to pick his reward and that was to turn into a robot so he can be immortal.

ok i came back where was i. oh yeah so while he was quote unquote "dead" the protag team was discussing on how to change society somewhat and came up with replacing the Shinagawa company XG with XB games. Ichinose does not want that, he thinks XB is stinky and barbaric and he really hates it for some never explained reason, like its personal or something, and while he begs Zero to pleaseeeee give him another chance it is instead decided that him and protag team are gonna have a baseball showdown and whoever wins makes the Shinagawa rules. He grumbles a bit on how much he hates it when Zero makes these kinda decisions on a whim and also ewwwww baseball but doesn't really have a choice so he goes and gets that bat

XB kinda functions like debate showdowns in DR or reasoning death matches in RC with the added element of throwing balls at each other with mechanisms I do not understand. Anyway the main debate in XB about Ichinose is first about whether it was his fault for losing XG or his subordinates', and the second is whether he is actually fit to be a leader. Anyway before they start, Ichinose gets really mad and screams at his goon #38 because he just now found out that she didn't report to him about the cool cake being too light and blames her for his downfall. He is livid about having been accused that actually it might be his fault and keeps on hurling deaths threats/promises until they finally get him to throw that damn ball already

It has become very quickly apparent that... he has little to no arguments. He does not know how to defend himself without sounding downright incoherent or contradicting himself, just going "ummmm nuh uh......" and doesn't even attempt at lies, either. He just lets himself be a laughing stock in front of all the other players and all he has to say about it is just yelling insults and telling them to shut up and stop being mean to him because he's literally neurodivergent and a minor. Anyway, his first defense against the argument that "maybe if you weren't verbally abusing all your employees 24/7 they'd be more comfortable telling you things" is "[quoting] Z-Zip it! You imbeciles can't possibly understand what it's like to be in charge! They're the ones to blame! I've done nothing wrong!"

Anyway he moves on with his second argument where he realizes (..... though it's more like, him grasping at random shit, because he seriously gives of the impression that even he does not believe half the things he's saying) that the reason that his subordinate didn't report the Nefarious Cake Suspicious Weight was because she was trying to purposefully humiliate him that bastard goon. In his words: "I can understand wanting to backstab me for being so perfect, but there are lines that shouldn't be crossed!" which is great man anyway, Oi says that's stupid and Ichinose says execute that harlot. He then goes off saying that the recipe for success is to inform report consult and if you can't do that then you're beyond incompetent etc etc, and Iroha makes a point that he just took that cake from his subordinate by force without letting her report anything anyway, and he actually doesn't have a counterargument because he knows she's right but will keep on doubling down no matter what even if that just speeds up his eat shit era.

Anyway Gotanda tells him he sucks balls as a boss, nothing we haven't heard before, Ichinose says something about him "not knowing the hardships of those who stand above others" how he's done nothing wrong and and how he isn't disposable like those people because he is the ~Chosen~ #1, which he repeats a lot, very often using how he's "chosen" or "special" as an argument but not elaborating further than that even when/especially if he's asked. What I want to point out is that Gotanda says to him that his subordinates are more competent that him, and Ichinose, while angered... has no comeback. Because he knows that's true even if he'll never admit it no matter how hard it'll fuck him over in the long run.

Actually I don't really have to describe the next scene much and it could be just pasted here pretty fine without additional notes from me, but I don't want to keep it out of the post either:

Gotanda mentions that he spoke to a former colleague of Ichinose once, and they mentioned that he was "incompetent and useless" so let's keep that in mind,

Then we get these lines:

And, let's pause for a few seconds. Why is he even being listened to? Following him gives virtually no benefits aside from, I guess "1% less chance of getting executed", but even then it's stated that being close to him doesn't really do much to save you from that. His takeover of Shinagawa Tribe is downright nonsensical, and yet, him just saying a few words to him about how their leader is enough to terrify them all into submission permanently. Why is everyone so constantly scared shitless of him no matter what. There is zero benefit to following him. The only fucking reason that many people could fall for his bullshit for that long of a time, is if he had some sort of aura like superpower that turns everyone who he ever comes in contact with fucking stupid for the plot to work

Anyway the actual explanation for why he is able to do all this is because he actually has some sort of aura like superpower that turns everyone he ever comes in contact with fucking stupid

No I'm not kidding. This is actually canon this is the truth behind this perplexing case .

So, just, out of the fucking blue, after not saying anything about it for the whole goddamn chapter, Q just casually mentions "oh yeah, that's probably because of the Ichinose Curse. Lol. Lmao, even" we literally never heard about anything like this shit prior to this moment halfway through the XB match nor are we aware of how the fuck did he obtain that information. According to Q, the "Ichinose Curse" is a power of Ichinose that renders all his subordinates in a state of mind control caused by their fear of him. Soooo......... essentially, how I understand this and how I think it's meant to be like, is that the more scared they are of Ichinose, the more susceptible they are to get mind controlled because of that. So, even if his comments towards Shinagawa Tribe members back then were not that effective, then getting even a little bit spooked back then was already causing some effects, which obviously would skyrocket once he executes their leader in front of them. So he does not have to be skilled in any sort of master manipulation, he just has to be intimidating enough. (also explains why the protags are not affected by it, because they're kind of tired of his shit and instead of being scared of him after seeing the manager's execution, they're just really angry instead)

Except. Here's the thing.

I don't think Ichinose fucking knows that himself.

There is NOTHING in the game indicating or even hinting of him being aware that he's literally controlling people, and not just "persuading" them as he puts it with his awesome #1 strats. Nothing. Not even after this information drop from Q - he is never confronted about it by the protags. Ever. For his remainder of appearances. Never do we get a moment where he goes "buwahahaha so you have realized..... my fuckshit forte........ what will you do now......" even though it seems obvious that it'll happen at some point. Nobody ever.... brings the "Ichinose Curse" up to Ichinose himself, ever, and neither does he. Like it's irrelevant to him, or, I'll say this. His actions do not make sense for someone who knows they have a mind controlling power. None of them. Ichinose literally has no fucking idea and genuinely thinks that he's persuading all his subordinates with his own skills and he's that perfect, and, at the same time, does not even get why he's being even listened to anyway if we go off of a quarter of his dialogue.

I was about to say how I got no idea how Q got hold of that fucking information when even the ability-bearer himself, Ichinose, does not have it, but, it actually does make...... kind of sense, if you go into theory territory for a bit? According to me, and this is what I'm sticking with as most plausible, Ichinose is not the only person who has had that ability - and the Ichinose Curse is actually the power of the Ichinose family, which it gets it's name from, and how Q could have gotten that information. If he got relatives that could mind control people, then no matter how obscure that fact might have been in Neo Tokyo, Q could have gotten a hold of it and connect the dots. It could also explain why he didn't say anything earlier; he had heard of some line of Ichinoses with that kind of power, but he wasn't sure if Ichinose Kazuma was from them, but after observing him for enough time it became obvious and that's why he said so only after confirming it during the XB match. That's what I'm believing. The other equally plausible possibility is that the writers sharted but I'm putting trust in them

Anyway, the protags kind of shift the subject of the match, from arguing whether it was Ichinose's or his subordinate's fault for losing XG, to discussing whether working for him has any benefits to prove he sucks to his subordinates so they'll leave him. Whatever I don't care about them

Ichinose keeps making nothingburger arguments and defenses such as "well I'm #1 which means I'm the most outstanding one and being used by the #1 itself is a benefit so checkmate liberals". Or like, more accurately, when confronted by anything he always just answers that, well, he's part of the NUMBERS, and nothing else. His justification for every single one of his actions is that he's #1, which automatically makes him superior and inherently more worthy than the rest ("I am the chosen #1. I'm not disposable like those incompetent fools.") -- whenever it comes up, he always pairs having that title with surely making him Chosen and Special, and gets very upset with the protag group for "not realizing [his] greatness". He rarely lists himself being the literal Director (and the de-facto President via his bribery shenanigans) of Shinagawa City as what makes him so special, and this position is what seems to actually give him some real power and not just a fancy title. What does being "#1" in particular even entail? Who knows, but he sure is holding onto it for dear life. It would be a shame if. Nevermind

Moving on. He keeps failing at dodging arguments just as miserably as before -- Upon presented with reality and actually believing it somewhat he rationalizes and justifies to himself that he's never to blame regardless of how much his arguments don't make sense, knows that he's in the wrong or at least can't reason against it, at least subconsciously, cannot defend himself and is visibly nervous, the usual, whatever. Until he gets one match with Todoroki, and, just says something that's just a really odd comment.

For context, Todoroki is one member of the Trash Tribe/protag team, who is distinctive for two things: being insanely rich, and a massive asshole. He constantly acts superior towards, insults and is nasty to everyone he ever meets for virtually no reason and has no redeeming qualities. Him and Ichinose never had any meaningful conversation with each other. Ichinose just... not only paid enough attention to Todoroki specifically to notice that despite being established several times that he does not care for anyone other than himself and does not acknowledge anyone else in the room, he also recognizes that this behavior is indeed, a dick move (cheers for self-awareness). And basically, just. Sounded like he just started projecting completely unprompted.

From this moment on, it is absolutely pointless to even list all the arguments you have with him as a separate thing, as he constantly just makes the same defenses because he has none. He literally has zero fucking counterargument aside from "nuh uh" or "ok well but have you considered I'm literally #1. which essentially makes me like a prettier Yomi and the winner of this argument" if I'm ever in court and my lawyer is Ichinose I'm killing myself.

Like. Look at this silly silly unserious man.

Anyway, Gotanda goes up to all his subordinates and tells them "believe in thyself.... go work for me instead......" so they'll snap out of the Ichinose Curse and it's not very effective. Ichinose tells him to leave his kittens alone and that he has trained them to 100% obey him and that special relationship will never fall apart which is funny cause I'm pretty sure I've heard that some time ago before and it ended with him inside an iron maiden. Anyway Gotanda calls out to Ichi's subordinates by their actual names and Ichinose is a bit taken aback cause he forgot they got names. Gotanda asks how the fuck do you not know the names of any of your subordinates and Ichinose goes that they all look the same anyway. Gotanda uses that and it is very effective this time, and literally every single Ichinose henchman just decides that he sucks and they all leave. No this doesn't mean the game's over Ichinose is just alone now it's like a 1v9 perhaps more I didn't count all the protags. Ichinose gets extremely pissy and his featured yellow-highlighted argument is "I am the best in Shinagawa! I don't need anyone's help!" which ermmm ackshually, no one offered to help you, and also when you got sucked into the iron maiden for a thousand deaths your second instinct was to yell for help so. Ratio

Anyway he actually gets asked what his basis for saying that #1 is superior and to provide a reliable source for that too and his answer is that it's because Zero said so. Thanks for clearing that up

Anyway not only did Gotanda talk to his former acquaintance who said that Ichinose was incompetent and useless, he also got a hold of his HR evaluation report and they also said he was "bottom-tier and completely useless". Everybody hated that guy and he had zero skills or strengths before he became the Director so his argument about being inherently excellent special superior and a "born winner" was him lying through his teeth literally every piece of power he had was given to him by someone else, that he did not work for, either.

Anyway, this one's fun. Gotanda asks Ichinose to list his strengths, and he just can't. He just goes "uhhhmmm umm well there are too many itd be a waste of time to list them all and if I said it then you'd cry at how cool I am. Wait a moment I'm still thinking. Uhhhghhnng. ummmm. Well there's just too much to say..." and only after direct prompting from Gotanda to hurry the fuck up and stop stalling he musters up something about having charisma which makes everyone follow him (they literally all left. also no one tell him about the mind control), which is a vaguely abstract nothing trait. In the next, separate scene he has made significant improvements in being able to list any of his positive qualities aside from his status, and says that he's also hot. Great job Ichinose you beat the loser allegations! Anyway next scene he loses at XB miserably it was great while it lasted.

(Before that Gotanda also tells him "your self-esteem is so outrageous I feel embarrassed just listening to you… I'm actually starting to doubt your sanity." but like. Hmmmmm is it really self-esteem. Is it. Does he ever sound like it is.)

Anyway he immediately goes "AAAHHHHHH". Zero appears and vaguely insults his capabilities, Ichinose spares no time begging him to pleaseeeeee give him a rematch he won't slip up next time just pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee give him another chance sobbing and shaking cutely and Zero says no. Well, he doesn't actually say no but......

Zero says that now is a good time to tell him, that, actually, he is #1 because he is weakest of all the Numbers, and that he is a loser and cringe and completely yaoiless and also sucks. He didn't tell him that all this time cause he felt sorry for him.

Immediately after:

I love. Rotating this bastard in my mind.

Being the "Chosen" and "Special" #1 is what he based his entire worth off until this moment, a proof of his superiority and what made him "not disposable" like other people like he said so earlier. He talks about it all the time, it is his main and only argument and justification for everything he does and he's holding onto it for dear life even if as it was shown through the game it really did not have any significance aside from being a fancy sounding title. He can hardly list any positive traits of himself that don't have to do with being #1 without stalling. He probably was a nobody before becoming #1, according to Gotanda people really just considered him incompetent and completely useless. Literally every piece of power he had was given to him by someone else, that he hardly even worked for, and both of those superiors (the President and Zero) did not give a shit about him, while he believed they had a "mega special & unbreakable bond". He constantly sucks up to the people above him, and it's especially pathetic with Zero. Ichinose clearly thought they had Something, according to him he was "the only person who acknowledged [him]", gave him his approval, that reveal must have done unspeakable things to his brain. And even then, despite it all, he STILL tries to appeal to Zero, literally begs him again for a rematch like he's seriously got no dignity left. And being #1 really was the only thing he had going for him, he's a coward with no skills, lacks awareness in most areas but surprisingly still retains some of it regarding him not being a competent leader, has no arguments in XB (or theyre incoherent or contradicting, doesn't even attempt at lies) for the cake not being his fault, and working for him having benefits, probably does not believe either not that deep down but keeps doubling down, when Gotanda says his subordinates are more competent than him he has no comeback. He literally has a special ability that he does not even know about (or is in denial, who knows) hes never had to work for being listened to, truly thinks that its his Excellence and Perfection that makes people obey him, with his own skills, also doesn't seem to really actually get why he's being listened to he knows it makes no sense. The fucking Todoroki scene projection 1000. And I'm gonna go even further and say that him picking immortality as a reward is just proving he does not think over anything and is only shallowly chasing more power and security, immortality is famously a standard superpower that people don't really think about as hard as they should before they say that they'd want it, it will dissapoint you not be fun and you'll suffer for eternity wishing that fuckass snail was real. This feels so good to finally fucking write down and post this man is driving me insane I don't even think 99% of all that shit was even intentional or intended to be taken as seriously as I do by the writers there is a permanent Ichinose shaped organ right inside my brain and I can't take it anymore I

And this is just. Painful to read. But I mean, let him cope I guess, it's not hurting anyone, let him believe it.............. It'll help him stay functional

Anyway, regarding the robot thing, to add even more salt to the injury, Zero admits that he built him as shittily as possible with the parts he just had on hand, no regard for quality or durability. When Ichinose suggests that he pleaseeeee give him a rematch, Zero says that he's looking forward to it, but, he hates to break it to him that it's probably the end for him. Ichinose's mildly confused and Zero explains that he has a battery that drains pretty quick when he does any strenuous exercise (which he did play a whole match of baseball just a bit ago). Like, it's literally running out right now and he'll turn off soon. Ichinose asks him to then please recharge him, or give him a new battery, and Zero says "No <3". After panicking for a few seconds Ichinose just. Turns off and stays like that probably forever. Gotanda literally said that they are going to make sure that he never wakes up and they just. Leave him there. Like that's the end

And with that, finally, I fucking did it. I wrote down the Ichinose manifesto. Please tell me I'm not alone in my obsessive fascination with Ichinose from the fucking shitty Tribe Nine gacha. Why is it a fucking gacha.

Some other notable certified Ichinose momence:

When he first appears Kuronaka thinks that he has a "relaxed expression", but, he's actually like notably the character (next to Q) with the most prominent stress lines under his eyes. And also literally nothing about Ichinose to me screams "relaxed" man's in the fucking trenches emotionally every second of his stupid baka life

"you normie" <- actual line he said

Robot built so shitty he still feels thirst. The moist eyes comment

I don't even know what is happening in this scene

Sometimes he just makes this slutty af pose for no reason

[vvaspoppie]

Doc Ock x Symbiote!Reader

→ Author’s Note: Requested this from another writer (that’s also really cool), and decided to also write my own version. No specified version of Ock, pre and post evil versions are mentioned.

→⚠ Warnings ⚠: unethical science,

→ Fandom: Unspecified

→ Genre: Headcanons

→  Pronouns: They/Them

The Backstory:

You were a scientist who worked on studying the organic matter samples Colonel Jameson had brought to earth. Unfortunately, one of those samples was capable of a lot more movement than originally believed.

Long story short: Some of it bonded with you, you quit soon after due to not wanting anyone to get suspicious then started working at Oscorp.

Pre Tentacles:

He, and almost every other co-worker, is a little bit curious about the fact that you quit your last job to work at Oscorp but drops the subject after the mention of an NDA (which wasn’t true)

Notices you talking to yourself a lot, but doesn’t question it much. Most of the scientists he works with have an odd habit or two.

You totally slip up and call yourself 'we' in a conversation, which he does bring up

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation if you give me enough time to think of a lie."

On to the actual dating

You guys keep it on the down low and by that I mean absolutely nobody knows. He likes privacy

His love language is talking about his experiments and asking you about yours (and physical touch but that takes a while)

The symbiote makes the relationship difficult, especially because he doesn't know about it

You don’t ever tell him about the symbiote, the symbiote speaks for itself (literally, and to a disastrous extent)

He takes a while to process it, but once he does he shares his work on his tentacles

He tries not to think of the moral implications of the whole situation because he loves you and knows you wouldn't do harm intentionally (he is wrong)

Post Tentacles:

Ok so in most versions Otto goes missing for a brief time after the accident™

So what happens in this brief time?

Chaos. Pure chaos and fear

Not only are you distraught and angry but your symbiote also formed an emotional attachment

Absolutely no one gets a break. Criminals, civilians, co workers, Norman even Spider-Man

The streets are filled with nothing but fear and it stays like that until you get your Otto back

At which point:

Yay, evil power-couple time!

I mean what did you expect, you’re the host to a symbiote that eats people to survive and likes to commit crimes; there is almost nothing he could do that you either 1) haven’t already done or 2) had to literally fight yourself not to do

He changed after the accident, and it reminds you of when you first bonded with your symbiote. You try and be patient, knowing that he's still the same person, just with a different attitude and outlook on life.

With some communication skills being flexed, the relationship works out well

He also gains a new thing to be mad at the world about (Tabloids keep calling him a monsterfucker and so does your Symbiote)

It's that whole Roger and Jessica Rabbit thing except no one knows who's Roger or Jessica at any given moment.

You keep working at Oscorp to keep suspicions low and provide insider information

Yes, the suit makes you look very good - now do you want to be part of the Insidious Sinister Six or not?

You don’t want to fight Spider-Man head-on most of the time (much to the Symbiote's chagrin) so you agree to work with them, but not be on the team.

Anyway you end up kicking ass and now half the team is scared of you (Much to the Symbiote’s delight) (remember that episode in the 90s show were Venom Spider-Man almost kills Rhino and Shocker? Yeah you do something like that)

His ego may be nearing the size of the sun, but even then he’s slightly scared of what would happen if your symbiote gained full control. (Your symbiote likes him so his nerves are good, but still makes sure nothing happens that affects your memories)

Speaking of which he wants to do some - totally not evil because he loves you- experiments revolving around the Symbiote

Overall, the relationship is wholesome, if not unconventional.

[spookyscaryskidnpump]

my thoughts on spooky month 6

copy pasted from a page and a half of google doc. crying. spoilers inbound.putting it under the cut cuz its super long. also swear warning.

Ok to start off LILA. LILA MY GAL NO UR DOING UR BEST AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Im crying im actually fucginf crying. She's trying. So hard. Skid is trying so hard. THEY'RE DOING THEIR BEST PLEASEEEEE. Father Gregor can go EAT SHIT. THEY'RE TRYING AND THAT'S WHAT COUNTS GODDAMNIT.

Susie… Susie no… please… she deserves better istgggggg. What happened to their parents? Are they actually just busy? Are they DEAD? Holy shit what if they're dead. Poor Pump, poor Susie, god please just let these kiddos be ok. PLEASE. ABUELO WONDER IS TYING SO HARD BUT SUSIE KNOWS IT ISN'T REALLY FROM HER PARENTS IM CRYING. SUSIE NOOOOOO

FATHER GREGOR I HATE YOU. ok well he obvs did some good but STILL. GREGOR. STFU GREGOR. I get that hes trying but U CANT JUST SAY ALL THAT SHIT ABOUT JUDGEMENT AND THEN JUDGE HER HER FUCKING HOUSE GOT BROKEN INTO!! YOU DONT HAVE THE FUCKING CONTEXT!!!! ARGHFDGHJSGHJKAGHSD. Also DAMN IS HE A CULTIST NOW?? IS HE DEAD?? WHAT?!?!?!

ROYYYYYY ROY MY BOI NOOOOOO poor guy :( i understand why he hates the kids they DID kinda ruin him so. At least he knows theyre trying now :( and ross n rob just ASSUME he did something bad isnt helping here!!!! I get that theyre also trying to help him and its nice to see him opening up to them about stuff (even if we dont get to know what specifically PELO WHY) but PLEASE get this kid an anger management class or smthn PLEASE. He needs SO MUCH THERAPY. I dont think hes gonna get therapy because im pretty sure his parents are Part Of The Problem but STILL.  Also FUCKER LITERALLY GOT POSSESED BY A DEMON?????? THATS GOTTA BE TRAUMATIC TF

Side note i love ross and robert dearly and i appreciate them doing their best to help on both sides i love them smmmmmm AUGH

KEVIN AND RADFORD FRIENDSHIP REALLLLLLLLLL i am SO fucking happy about that!!!! Also Kevin having conflicted feelings on the kids FAIR. Similar thing to Roy except hes an adult with a semi-functional support network and is able to understand that theyre just dumb kids and they dont actually mean any harm. He’s harsher on the hatzgang cuz theyre teens and old enough to know stealing is wrong but Skid n Pump are little kiddos they dont know better. Also him disapproving of father gregor REAL THO. also HE GOT POSSESSED TOO?? TRAUMA CENTRAL HOLY SHIT

PATTY DESERVES TO HAVE A GUN ACTUALLY. Also JOHN ANGST JOHN ANGST JOHN ANGST! IS HIS KID DEAD? IS HIS DAUGHTER OK HOLY SHIT. ALSO THEM HELPING THE KIDS PROPERLY IM CRYIG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

WHAT WAS EVERMORE DOING WITH THE HOBOMEN???? HELLO??????

I SAW THAT CULT NECKLACE UNDER IGNACIOS SHIRT. I FUCKING SAW IT. CALLED IT BITCH!!!!!!

Rick just has the WORST luck lmao

STREBER IS ALIVE LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

DEXTER NO PLEASE AUGH…… HIS MOM TOO……

JAUNE AND ROSS’S DAD… HE'S REAL HE EXISTS!! I get ur trying jaune but that is NOT the best way to comfort poor lila… AT LEAST SHES TRYING THO I APPRECIATE HER

THE ENTIRE NEWGROUNDS ENDING?? THE THIEVES AND THE CANDY DEALER IN CAHOOTS WITH THE CULT???? HELLO??????

MOLOCH IS GONE. he deserved it but also THE KIDS ARE SO SAD ABOUT IT? Like they don't really get it but they just watched someone they thought was their friend DIE. HOLY SHIT.

finally. SKID AND PUMP. KIDDOS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ok for real tho theyre so much more self aware than the fandom and bulk of the show give them credit for?? Like Skid is VERY aware of his dad being dead/possibly missing and legit just doesn’t wanna talk about it. He knows what death is and he finds fun in it to cope. My poor sweet boyo… and PUMP. PUMP ANSWERING THE CALL AUGHHHHHH HE WANTS HIS PARENTS BACK IM CRYING. SUSIE AND ABUELO ARE DOING THEIR BEST AND HE'S TRYING SO HARD AND AAAAAAAAAAUGH. Also him getting possessed by Moloch while having Star-Eyes basically debunks the theory of the Star-Eyes being a form of possession which is FASCINATING. Anyway that scene with Susie and Pump got me misty eyed and then during the ending with Skid and Lila i actually genuinely started crying. I just want them to be happy. Please let them be happy. Please. PLEASE.

[blessedshortcake]

I feel like this has the potential to either be really stupid or very spot on and i need to write it down or I explode.

A theory on the AAHW and their purpose that is a little more than just "Hank kill people so we have to kill them". Long post so more under the cut. Spoilers obviosly.

For disclaimer I am referencing only the games, the series and the wikis so if there was anything else said on streams or something that is canon and I missed it then my bad. Also this is mostly speculation. Also it is 1am I am tired and non native English speaker so if I mispell stuff no I did not. Nuh us.

Also if this is already common knowledge then. Oops. I am a little slow. Lol. Tell me I'd like to know that I am late to the party.

There will be segments I will title since this is long so people can skip parts if they wanna.

Okay starting up we already know that the Employers have a connection to the makers of Nevada as they are not only 5 dimensional beings that like guide people and do other stuff, are compared to angels by Krinkels but also help The Machine apparently.

NEXUS ARENA MODE

For people unfamiliar with Madcom Project Nexus arena game lore, The Machine and The Maker are the two creators of Nevada. They are referred to as "brothers" but like is that relevant rn? No. The Maker and Doc team up and get the arena player in a loop to keep defeating the Stweard of The Machine and be the "direct connection to all reality" Doc needs which is important for many reasons.

The player is a gen 01 Nevadaian (how tf do i spell that) they are "quicker to ascend to godhood". There are other confirmed examples of gen1 like Phobos and i cant remember the rest but yeah gen1 is needed for this.

I genuinely belive that the player is needed for whatever revival Doc can do to keep making Hank come back. And I have proof! When we see in 9.5 the text overlay, we see the description "Machine Witness" when talking about Hank which sure could be Hank as he is the person monitored at that moment but how could they Really be it? It is probably Auditor as the thing then commands Hank to be retained immediately and Auditor is most definitely a machine witness as they directly work with it.

But then we see it is 2b helping them get out of the other place. He is sending tips and messages so it wouldn't be far fetched to say he uses the same exact system. Auditor doesn't need a witness to revive people and track them in the other place since they can already do a bunch of stuff and also they Are the witness. Also, why else would Doc need a connection to "all reality" if not to revive people? Possibly to reality restoration but eh. I am banking on the former.

(Speculation about the player, side ramble)

In my opinion, the way the players situation worked was Maker contacting Doc and giving him a hint about what all he needs to do. Maker cannot directly change stuff, they are hiding from the Machine. Since the player is confirmed to be the first grunt from Mashmallow Madness, i think they are ALSO the grunt encased in the marshmallow, a relic that is in a mission where you MUST protect it or you lose. I think its also in the museum in story mode but i could be wrong. They are listed as two different entities on the wiki but like they are also stuck in a time loop and can pick a preset of skills each run so I dont think its that ridicolous to assume this.

So Doc got the hint about a gen1 grunt existing somewhere and got their DNA and did some science bs to link it to a body, hence the no past thing and their ability to gain whatever skills and personality and abilities they want (aka the imprints)

BACK TO THE AAHW

Since we know AAHWs main goal is to, well, kill Hank, do we really get more of an explanation on why? Yeah ok they kill people. So does everyone else let us move past that for a moment.

The AAHW is ran by Auditor and he seems Very adamant about getting that one guy killed for seemingly no particular reason. I mean, Employers are higher beings so one guy just going around killing people should not be so concerning unless they are committing like mass murder to the point the population is running out which does not seem to be the case.

I think Hank is potentially the key to restoring normality to Nevada whatever the hell that actually consists of. Killing the Macine? Killing the Employers? Pushing a button? Shrug man.

The Higher Powers favor them canonically and the Higher Powers are not the Machine or Maker but something equal if not slightly lower than them (perhaps some meta of the audience i dont remember if we got a confirmation or not), Doc keeps bringing him back and Doc has a connection to Maker, who is trying to fix all of this mess without being absorbed by the Machine so to speak. Auditor being threatened by him makes a lot more sense when you think about it.

It also makes sense because it is their Literal Job as an Employer to keep things going as they are. "As they are" being helping the Machine destroy everything with madness so normality restoration would mean they failed.

I feel like Auditor is the one Employer who really doesnt want that happen since no other ones show up (save for Stygian in arena mode but that is a special case and even then its for like 5 frames lol) and it is said that they think Auditor's involvment with all this is kinda dumb... Like if Auditors one job is genuinely to keep madness in Nevada and let everyone die then RIP you got the most caught in this family drama between the creators sorry.

(SIDE NOTE, THE AGENTS)

Oh my dearest 1337 agents you keep me up at night.

Someone tell me how on EARTH are dissenters a thing if AAHW agents specifically are supposed to not only lack indaviduality (their s3lf) but also be unable to adapt and learn from their enviroment?

The only known AAHW members who we know the bg of are Jebus and Tricky so it makes sense why those two are like that but if Doc is supposedly past AAHW does that mean he is also a clone or does that mean he was hired by Auditor and ended up quitting like Jeb did? Because if it is the latter, calling him a dissenter is a Little petty Auditor but like fair enough.

I know a widely known hc is that Deimos is also a clone since he is heavily implied to be a dissenter by his wanted poster (or canon tbh) so does that make HIM a clone?

(My thoughts on AAHW units, Doc and Deimos, a side ramble)

I think whatever Doc has going on he is not a clone but has some other history. Possibly old Nexus connections like Jeb and Tricky but most likely not an old agent... But Deimos is. Maybe also Sanford idk his lore is a lot more loose in my eyes. We need more Sanford content.

I think agents have no s3lf (which is yea canon) but they can sorta develop preferences and learn things to an extent on their own. They can have food preferences, they know birthdays, they get bored and play games. They are still people after all. I think Auditor just keeps such a tight handle on them all (read: kills them for playing cards) that they are forced to act more like mindless units at all times. The SQ is already out to get their ass, getting killed by your own boss would suck a lot more probably. This is also further reinforced by the posters literally everywhere, and I personally think the ones in the other place are like that Because of how aimless and fucking boring their job is there. Edit: also since Stygian has seemingly no intention in helping them at all and Auditor likely never comes around hence the "we are abandoned" text. They observe and learn. They ARE abandoned.

But that also leads us to the next segment - observation. Just because they arent smart enough to be tactical in combat, they can clearly learn and evolve. Agents become soldats or engineers after all depending on the skills taught to them. I think dissenters become a thing when an agent has too much time to actually observe. Which is part of the reason why Auditor runs such a tight ship. Too much personality makes them realise this is fucked up, too little lets them die too fast. I think the more they progress the less humanity they actually have tho. Soldats and engineers are above them, they take commands without question (see the time a soldat fired at their own teammates when told to by whom they assumed to be their boss).

Soldats and Engineers are also confirmation that agents CAN learn if actually given the time and direction to do so like i said. I feel like clones if left without direction kinda suck but if given one they have the potential to absolutely destroy in the field. These units can use their enviroment for survival, they dodge and soldats have better combat abilities. Engineers are apparently very smart in mechanical stuff hence also their name but i cant remember if we ever see that in practicality.

(Tho I do feel like engineers only have the better survival ability because engineers constantly dying like agents would be too hard to replace over and over since they are taught the stuff they know. It would be resources lost.)

Doc being such a pain in the ass (hacking their systems, reviving people, seemingly being the leader of the SQ or at least a high ranking member considering the "man in the chair" descriptor he has, The Whole Maker Connection) would make more sense like that too. Deimos being a clone who either advanced from an agent or stayed one would make sense imo. He is a good fighter and his red blood pretty much excludes the other option but alas.

Imo it would also make their dynamic with Doc more interesting as he would still need some guidance. He probably had some training to get to the point he is but needing directions will stay a constant, and what is Doc if not the commander of SQ? Sanford also fits into that whole descriptor too imo with how he acted in the other place but again I am way less confident in talking about him than anyone else.

Also side note:

Before anyone says it, on the wiki Doc and Deimos never have a confirmation to what gen they are. As far as I remember not even Hank has one so the possibilities are pretty up in the air as of now. (But again Hank as Gen 1 would make a lot of sense considering... gestures. But who knows. This post is not about that.)

TLDR

Auditor wants Hank dead so bad because not only do the Higher Powers favor them, but because they have a direct connection to Maker who is against the Machine's effect of madness and is likely the key to actually restoring normality to Nevada, and Auditors literal job is to keep Nevada in madness as it is.

Thanks for reading if you got this far. PLEASE let me know your thoughts I spent like an hour writing this and I don't know if I sound insane or if this makes any sense. Either way I am. Autistic as hell about this. So yeah

If i forgot something let me know. I will probably edit it if I remember something too lol

[kiwibirdlafayette]

"what, or who exists in the darkness of the cave below the iron mine?"

little theory post/story behind this paintin i did! If ya haven't seen it yet feel free to look first and drop a cheeky rb i'd a appreciate it a ton <3

I'm convinced mumbo is doing a Lore (tm) with his magic mountain row and I'm also a really big fan of the planets/realms that make up the seasons having a pre-existing history to them (along the same lines as like Doc uncovering the prophecies in mural form in the Perimeter last season)

It kinda starts with Big Ron. I'm a really big enjoyer of the fan theory that Big Ron owns the predecessor/perhaps original Grumbot (that features in the promo for the merch store) The guy Mumbo plays in that ad spot to me isn't cMumbo himself, but is Ron, someone's who's lived on the mountain prior to the arrival of the hermits in-universe. I'm gonna come back to this

Then there's the lab. The poster Mumbo designed and showed at around 5:00 in this video was another sort of thing that spurred the idea around Jimmy, specifically the parts about human trials, preservation and the bit at the end about "soon we will be living forever." The emphasis he puts on the build about the lab spilling toxic waste onto the farmland below already tells me that these dudes are into some shady business practice, like vibes alone. I doubt they're following any sort of scientific moral code.

Then Jimmy. I'm still sort of waffling about on how he exists in the history of this universe but ultimately, him and Lizzie were both already here, maybe deities, maybe just well respected people (side note: I have a concept about Lizzie being goddess who raised Magic Mountain from the sea, hence why she's revered in the city where Joel lives but that's a whole nother post I'm not near knowledgeable enough to elaborate on just yet). Seablings? Seablings. Most important part is that Jimmy lived on Magic Mountain Row or somewhere on/in the mountain, canary already somewhat apart of him

Back to Big Ron. Like, for a guy who- focuses so much on outdated tech I find it super interesting that he has artificial intelligence, which. ok either he worked for the lab or invented proto-grumbot himself, and maybe shared that tech with the lab people. (next side note: I've seen the namemc spoilers from this morning I'm gonna assume that's lab guy Mumbo has made a skin for but for the sake of its not existent in videos yet I won't be commenting on it ok i digress back to Jimmy)

Let's say the these shady scientists are at a standstill in their process. They've got the archival tech down, but this immortality thing is hard to crack. So what do they turn to? Probably the magical being living in the town. Under the cover of night, the canary is captured. He's forced into some test tubes, feathers plucked, experimented on for who knows how long and they break him. But they get closer, and the end justifies the means. There could be others as well, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if others get looped into the mix

And then, at some point the authorities find out and these experiments are condemned. The Lab is condemned and the scientists are ordered to release the test subjects, and most of them are, but not Jimmy. He's too important. They need him kept somewhere safe to come back to. Working with Ron, and proto-Grumbot, they trap him inside a soul lantern, and in a "say anything and you're dead" kind of deal with the Boulder Bros (maybe the owners of the iron and gold mines) Jimmy's immortal soul is bound to be stuck forever in the iron mine, silenced from singing for his sister's help.

Years later, cMumbo arrives. I like playin around with the idea of it being like a Stardew-esque thing where Mumbo is either returning to a town and Ron is related to him somehow, and while living at that little house at the top, is working for Ron and running errands for the other shops, including stocking the iron shops at the mines that the shopping district developed around. But Ron gives him one clear instruction- stay in the light. Don't go past the stationary minecart at the edge of the darkness.

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

Mumbo for all that he is, heeds Ron's warning for the longest time. But like anyone curiosity starts to get the better of him. He can never tell if he's hearing things, but once in a while between the sounds of conveyor belts, and iron drills he starts to hear whispering. A faint whistle coming from the darkness beckoning him closer, to peek into what lies beyond. Talking to Jill and Bob at the oddities shop, he's able to sneak and convince a little story out of them, and after some hesitation sell him a magic soul torch, with the warning not to let anyone else see it.

On a restock run, he takes it with him secretly. And once his job is done, he makes his way deeper into the mine until he happens upon a soul lantern- a slight blue glow coming from within- sitting on a stone pedestal. Everything is telling him to turn back, that this is an awful idea. But, stupid ideas have always been his thing, and he opens the lantern, and lights it with the torch from Jill.

Pants.

The fire inside spurs to life in a roar, and he panics, dropping the soul torch at his feet, still burning a bright cyan. As he turns to run out, the canary song he hears bits of rings with a power he's never heard before and a flurry of yellow feathers fills the cavern. He makes it back into the light, frantically picking up the shulkers and stumbles into the mine elevator. He slams at the buttons as the bird calls reverb and howls through the mine, now more desperate than ever to get out. No amount of force on the carriage work, as every component of the mine machinery has hissed to a halt, acting as if possessed by something that doesn't want him to escape.

Something that needs him to understand what he's just released.

As he begins to falter dropping his head to his chest, the canary song fades into the already eerie silence, and soon all Mumbo can hear is the weight of his breathing, and the sound of his heart pounding through his ribcage. Biting at his thoughts, he shakily uses his free hand to shuffle himself back around to face the mine entrance.

The door of the lantern at the front creaks open, releasing a small bit of smoke out towards the minecart. From the darkness, a wisp of blue smoke pierces through the veil to meet the other trail of smoke. Mumbo sees a faint golden glow appear, only to realize its wings. As they come more into view, Mumbo's redstone stained eyes are met by deep brown ones that reflect the gold of their wings as a face appears in the shadows, followed by the rest of them, dressed in tattered and coal dust stained clothes. He holds out the soul lantern in his calloused right hand. The fear in the person's eyes look him down almost as if he recognizes him.

Mumbo doesn't dare speak.

And neither does the canary.

[dr-futbol-blog]

Grace Under Pressure, Pt. 13

From McKay's tirade about Zelenka being the reason he is stuck down in a drowning jumper alone while the other guy is at home warm and cozy that seemed to be more than a little about Sheppard on the side, we switch back to Sheppard and Zelenka making their way deeper down the ocean in their search for McKay. Zelenka seems to be switching between the shot gun seat and the science station, and while Sheppard is friendly enough with him, he does not seem to be as comfortable and at ease as we have seen him when he has been flying with McKay. All of their interaction here just shows us how much closer Sheppard is with McKay.

Zelenka: I think we may be on to something. Initialising shield. Sheppard: Nice work, Doc! OK, let's take this thing a little deeper. Zelenka: Wait. Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait. I was afraid of this. The shield is draining our power...

Just as soon as Zelenka tells him that he is initlalizing the shield Sheppard seems to take it as his cue that it is alright to talk again, and he hits Zelenka with some positive reinforcement. We may again note that Sheppard refers to Zelenka as "Doc," the same as he has used of Beckett previously whereas he has never used this designation of McKay. McKay is many things to him but "Doc" is not one of them, and this is in spite of the man having several doctorates. Sheppard seems excited to take them down to McKay faster now that it seems like his plan is working, but it turns out that there may have been an actual reason why McKay had not thought of this plan himself. Using a shield underwater is not the same as using it in space even if the whole city had been submerged under the shield for thousands of years, and it seems like they are going to have to find McKay even faster than previously thought.

Zelenka: ...at an alarmingly fast rate. Sheppard: Why is that? Zelenka: Well, a cloak draws its power at a constant rate, whereas a shield draws more power the more it is taxed. Sheppard: So, being under several atmospheres of pressure... Zelenka: Yes. It's continuously draining power from our shield.

Sheppard seems to grasp the nature of the problem immediately and does not need Zelenka to explain it to him using so many words. Here, Sheppard asks Zelenka a "why" question as is his wont but it seems like the answer he is looking for is more to a "how" question, or else that is the explanation that Zelenka gives him. We may also note that Sheppard makes explicit reference to "several atmospheres of pressure" that McKay had referenced earlier, at the very least exemplifying their tendency to think of the same things. This is an iteration of what had happened in the sanctuary when they had clearly both been thinking of the artificial climate within the time dilation field at the same time.

Sheppard: How much time do we have? Zelenka: Once we're deeper, thirty minutes, tops. Sheppard: Alright. Descending through one thousand.

Recognizing that they are on a quite literal deadline, Sheppard does not even think of abandoning the mission and taking them up to the surface but instead immediately sets to take them deeper, intending to find McKay that much faster. For Sheppard, not finding McKay is not an option. It is not made entirely clear whether Zelenka means that they have 30 minutes to get to the depth that they can still return from or that they have 30 minutes altogether (15 minutes down and 15 minutes back up to a safe depth), and we may note that Sheppard does not ask him which is the case because it does not matter to him. He is taking the jumper down until he finds McKay or dies trying, and if Zelenka understands this about him, he probably wishes that he did not understand. Also, Zelenka speaks the word "tops" here which we also hear McKay speak twice, and in this case it raises the question of what kind of a connection the jumpers have to one another, if the jumpers themselves exchange information between them.

"Carter": Why don't you turn up the heat? McKay: I did. It's the sea water. Got barely enough power as it is. Besides, I'm almost done here... What are you doing?

In the other jumper McKay seems to be ignoring Carter's presence, and it does not seem like he has to exert any actual effort into blocking her out. He is focusing on his project, clearly more bothered by the cold, as we see him blow on his hand in an attempt at warming himself up. We see Carter swimming around and this tracks given that one of the more popular theories is that she is actually a manifestation of the fish that is currently outside, circling the jumper. This tracks, since we are revealed later on in Echoes (S03E12) not only that the giant fish have psychic powers and a semi-symbiotic relationship with the humanoids of the planet but also that they are capable of projecting psychic echoes of actual people right into the minds of the Lanteans. While this is called a "popular fan theory," there is a very good case to be made for why this is at least partially correct and had been one of the intentions of the writers, whether or not it has ever been explicitly confirmed (in Echoes, the interpretation is at the very least reinforced).

The intention seems to have been make this episode rhyme with the SG-1 episode Grace (in the sense of being "Grace but under water") where Carter finds herself marooned alone on the Prometheus with only a nearby sentient nebula for company, the nebula manifesting in the visage of a little girl. Although Carter also has to have some uncomfortable conversations with her own subconscious mind (also following a concussion) in the episode, the parallels between the narratives certainly suggest that Carter here is not just a manifestation of McKay's subconscious mind but is in fact an entity who is not just trying to save McKay's life but is also trying to figure him out just as McKay is trying to figure it out.

Later on, McKay names the young fish that had saved him Sam, reminding Sheppard that it is also a boy's name (after having shown him his huge fish dong, as is customary among straight men, and which Sheppard really seemed to appreciate, as straight men are wont to do), so at least McKay seems convinced that he was not talking with a hallucination but had, in fact, been conversing with a young male native to the planet. And this just adds a level of complexity to their interactions here. It seems like Sam is good-natured, fun-loving, likes to swim around and is curious about McKay. And although earlier it seemed like McKay had been making him/her/it uncomfortable, it is now Sam who approaches McKay, intending to distract him by any means necessary.

"Carter": For warmth. McKay: You're-you're not physically here. You can't transfer any heat. "Carter": Doesn't mean I can't get you hot. McKay: Excuse me?

What Sam says to him here is interesting because it is the exact same thing that Sheppard had been told by the wraith-worshiper Neera only a few weeks ago (for McKay, it had been considerably longer for Sheppard). Locked up in a cell on the hive in The Hive (S02E11), Sheppard had been closed up alone together with a woman tasked on seducing him. And because Sheppard was not warming up to her attempts at seducing him, she had finally tried the age-old trick of snuggling up to him for shared warmth, pretending to be cold. And what made the scene interesting was not just that Sheppard seemed unaffected by her attempts at seduction but also the fact that we had several instances of McKay complaining about the cold or wanting to be warm leading up to this scene during which Sheppard suddenly seemed to understand what McKay had been hinting at with his talk of tropical beaches and hating the damp cold -- which was that he wanted Sheppard to warm him up, to keep him warm. Sheppard himself had been sleeping in his clothes after they had stopped sleeping together because the nights seemed suddenly to be a lot colder when one was sleeping alone.

And it is damn curious that Sam approaches McKay now with the same words, the same excuse in getting closer to him because while she is similarly trying to seduce him, the motivations of the seducers seem to be very different.

Where Neera had been playing coy, trying to appeal to Sheppard's masculine, protective instincts, it seems as though Sam is not being quite as subtle here. But the only way it makes sense for her to make the reference given that she is, as McKay points out here, wholly incapable of actually transferring body heat to him, is that McKay knows about what had happened to Sheppard in the cell.

This is not about actually seducing McKay but is about distracting him from what he is doing, and if there is one thing that will make McKay's brain short-circuit pretty much immediately, it is the thought of Sheppard alone with women. In the short time that they have known each other, Sam has already learned this about McKay. And it seems as though Sheppard had told McKay what had happened on the hive, had told him about the wraith-worshiping woman that had been sent to seduce him but he had left out one crucial detail -- which was that she was hot. It was not a relevant detail as far as Sheppard was concerned, but it seems as though it was a thought that had been gnawing at McKay, and not for the last time. Sam using the same words to try to seduce McKay as had been used by a woman explicitly intended on seducing Sheppard is not a coincidence.

"Carter": You know, I was thinking about what you said. I think you were right. McKay: I, uh. I am. Right about what? "Carter": Well, I am your fantasy. It's only fair you should get some. McKay: Really? "Carter": Yeah.

Sam suddenly seems to not only switch tactics but switches her whole wardrobe, changing from bubblegum pink to blue bikinis. Sam tells McKay that she/he/it had been thinking about what he had said which could mean that the young fish, who has a limited understanding of how humans even work, had been digging further into his mind to find something that might work in distracting him. The switch from pink to blue may be symbolic but what she is trying to do is not half as important as his reaction to it is. McKay keeps his eyes fixed on her face and as she comes close to him, he looks away from her. It is entirely possible that the most seductive thing she tells him here is "I think you were right," which is something that McKay could never hear enough, especially not from people whose respect and admiration he desires.

McKay: I knew it! I knew you were hot! Wait a second. "Carter": Don't ruin the moment McKay: No. I know what you're trying to do. "Carter": Well, I should hope so!

And again we get a really weird piece of dialogue here. "I knew you were hot," he tells her. He knew that the person he thinks is hot is hot? He knew that the woman he has only seen in her army fatigues was actually hot underneath the clothes, as evidenced by his hallucination of her being hot in a bikini? If she actually was a figment of McKay's imagination and he has now managed to strip her out of her clothes (which, again, were not even originally the kinds of clothes she would ever have worn but sure do resemble the kinds of things his sister wears on a regular basis even as an adult), and this is somehow proof that she is hot after all? What does it mean that he knew she was hot? If he was saying "I knew you were hot for me" it would at least make some kind of sense, even though him thinking that she finds him hot is still not the same as McKay actually finding her, a woman, hot. Wanting someone whose respect he sorely desires to find him attractive is not at all the same as finding someone sexually attractive. But that is not what he says, he says that he knew she was hot.

And again, this seems to make the most sense in the context of Sheppard locked up in a cell alone together with a woman that he just so had "forgotten" to tell McKay had been hot. What he says here makes sense if he is still talking about that like in his mind what Sam is doing is the same as what Neera had been trying to do to Sheppard. Because this is not the only time this happens.

At the end of Travelers (S04E05), we get a scene in which Sheppard is filling the team -- but particularly McKay -- in on what had recently happened to him when he had been captured. It had been an all-around traumatic experience, and he was trying to be honest and open about it. And while McKay certainly could have been more sympathetic toward his ordeal, there seemed to be something about Sheppard's telling of the tale that was bugging him and he finally puts his finger on it: his assailant had been hot and Sheppard was purposefully leaving this detail out of his story.

Now, to Sheppard this detail was irrelevant. She had assaulted him and not only did it not matter to him what she had looked like, by this time Sheppard knew that this irrelevant detail was just going to eat McKay up inside for no reason, and so he left it out of the story. This is the very definition of a "white lie," something that people in a relationship are known to engage in. Only, McKay knows Sheppard way too well by that time, he knows what he is not saying. And this, what happens here with Sam, may be one of the reasons why McKay is able to read that off of Sheppard so easily (and conversely may be the reason Sheppard himself makes a reference to the spa, just to remind McKay that he has been in similar situations himself previously what with his spa date with Carter, and it does really not matter what people look like when they are trying to kill you).

Because it seems like here, what ever the psychic fish has dug out of his own subconscious mind as regards what Sheppard had told him about what had happened to him in the cell, this seems to confirm to McKay that his suspicions had been correct -- Neera had been hot. Neera had been hot and had tried to seduce Sheppard by snuggling up to him for warmth, and what ever this thing was that was harvesting his mind for information on how to distract him (it is not outside the realm of possibility for Sheppard to even have told McKay that Neera had been wearing a blue top), it had definitely arrived on that one nerve of his that was bound to distract him the most. And so McKay recognizes what Sam is doing. He also seems much more jubilant over having figured it out than he is actually turned on by what ever this is.

McKay: You're trying to slow me down again. "Carter": Actually, I'm trying to do the opposite. McKay: No. No. You're distracting me. You know I've only got a couple of minutes to execute my plan and you're doing the one thing you know that could possibly slow me down. "Carter": You're thinking too much. Come here.

Sam tells McKay that he is trying to do the opposite of slowing him down -- which would be to speed him up. This does not really make sense as far as seductive dialogue goes but it certainly would not be out of place for a fish trying to make someone feel warmer to say. Sam is trying to quicken McKay, to make his blood flow faster, to make sure that McKay keeps moving and does not freeze into place. And at the same time, she is trying to stop him from doing what he is doing, not just to slow him down but to actually stop him from going trough with it at all because McKay getting the idea to swim the jumper to the surface from the giant fish swimming outside is what seems to make the fish feel like saving him is her/his/its responsibility now. Sam had just been curious but his curiosity seems to have put McKay's life in danger, and so the fish had to make sure those friends of his that Sam can tell are coming have time enough to reach McKay.

McKay: No. No, I'm not gonna fall for your plan, Lieutenant Colonel Siren! OK, this programme is gonna work, and I am gonna execute it.

Just like Sheppard could not be seduced by a woman, so McKay cannot be seduced by a woman. That is what we learn here. A half-naked Carter is not enough to distract him or deter him from doing his job. What is interesting here is what he calls her: Lt. Colonel Siren. The Siren part is obviously in reference to the Sirens of Greek mythology, who tried to lure Ulysses to his death by singing seductive songs intended to make sailors crash their ships against the rocks. The sirens were monstrous sea creatures, an apt descriptor for what seems for McKay to be a woman intent on killing him at sea.

Now, Samantha Carter had been promoted to Lt. Colonel in the 8th season (when Atlantis was out of contact with Earth) and her promotion seems to have happened before that of Sheppard given that she gets the full bird before him. However, we do not actually know that McKay knows (or cares) about her promotion. The last we have heard, he was calling her Major. And the only person whose promotion to Lt. Colonel he seems to care about is Sheppard's. So the question is -- is he talking about Carter, or is Lt. Colonel Siren a reference to Sheppard?

Because if the psychic fish was serious about its attempt at seducing McKay to distract him, confusing McKay by making her seem and feel like Sheppard, to kiss him like Sheppard would kiss him, would have been the way to go. If the fish is drawing information out of McKay's mind, there is only one kiss from the real Carter for it to draw from, and this is not it. The way Sam kisses him here is not the way Carter has kissed him but it may well be the way he has been kissed -- by another Lt. Colonel. So either McKay has been keeping tabs on Carter and her career, which is unlikely at best and creepy at worst, or Carter and his sister are not the only characters from his mind that the fish is drawing from.

"Carter": Don't do it, Rodney. It's not gonna work. McKay: Oh, yeah. "Carter": Look, you're cold, you're desperate, you banged your head, you're prime to make a mistake. McKay: I should have ignored you from the beginning. You've done nothing but slow me down. "Carter": They're coming for you. They're gonna get you out of here.

And as she had before, Carter calls him Rodney which is not something she has ever done in the real world but which is of course something that Sheppard calls him all the time. Sam seems to abandon the attempt at seducing him out of this and is simply trying to appeal to him through reason. And what she is telling him here is the truth, they are coming for him, they are currently on their way. But McKay does not know that to be true and in trying to convince him that she/he/it is nothing but a manifestation of his subconscious mind that is only telling him what he wants to hear, McKay has no reason to believe Sam about this. McKay is not wrong about her but he is wrong about Sheppard. He is underestimating just how badly Sheppard wants to get to him.

McKay: La-la-la-la-la-la-la! "Carter": Please, give them a chance! McKay: Not listening! "Carter": Don't! McKay: I'm there! It's ready! No time to argue. "Carter": It's a mistake.

Now that Carter is again dressed in bubblegum pink it seems like McKay also finds it easier to treat her like an annoying little sister and he actually tries to "la-la-la" her to shut up, which is not behaviour one would normally find between two colleagues with multiple PhDs between them but would very much find between two siblings. McKay even tells her that he is not listening to her while hoping that he could block her out, and this is likely something that he has done with Jeannie especially when he was trying to concentrate on his homework. And the reason he had been forced to do this as a child is what makes him so good at working under conditions such as this.

McKay: I trust you'll be gone by the time I reach the surface, huh?

McKay tries to implement his plan but what is actually more significant here is that he seems to want to get rid of her. What, precisely, McKay thinks that Sam is is unclear but even if she reminds him of Carter, he does not actually want to be stuck in a jumper alone together with Carter. That is not something that we wants. He wants her to leave him alone. He seems pretty overjoyed by the idea that she will soon be gone. Only, his plan does not work.

McKay: Don't... speak right now. I-I really don't need "I told you so," so... "Carter": How much power did you waste?

Thinking that her first instinct would be to tell him "I told you so" is again something that McKay probably would have expected from his sister, not from Carter. In fact, during their actual time working together Carter had resisted the urge when it was something that she had clearly really wanted to say to him on several occasions. But because she is not actually Carter, is not actually his sister, and is not a manifestation of his own mind but is someone that is trying to help him survive this, her only response is to make him pay attention to what the actual situation is, what the data is showing him right now. It is better that he knows what the reality is than that he is stuck living in some delusion. Sam is very much there to save him, not to make him feel better about dying.

McKay: Twenty minutes. "Carter": OK. That's not so bad. McKay: No. No. We've got half an hour 'til we're completely out of power. Half an hour 'til I'm dead.

And so they come full circle to the half an hour that Zelenka and Sheppard were left with at the end of the previous scene. As mentioned, Zelenka did not make it clear when precisely they would be out of time and we cannot be sure which things were happening synchronously -- but the fact that he has thirty minutes left when the others have thirty minutes to spare seems extremely convenient. They certainly seem to want to make their rescuing of each other be as dramatic (and hence, as romantic) as possible.

Continued in Pt. 14

[tmnthq17-blog]

Never Letting Go

3rd Person POV:

Before you met the Mad Dogs, you preferred to do things alone. When your parents had to work late, which happened a lot, you taught yourself how to make dinner, do schoolwork, and do a few extra chores around the house. Then, out of nowhere, an anthropomorphic turtle in a blue mask came crashing through your open window during his fight with a pig mutant.

After that, he came through your window every night, but on purpose this time. After a week, he brought you to his home to meet his older brother, twin brother, little brother, surrogate sister, and father. Since then, if your parents are working late, or you need some time away from the downside of a 'normal' life, you go to the lair. This all started three years ago, and until last year, everything was going great. Then the Kraang came, and so did a time-traveling teen from the future, and everything got complicated.

First, you discovered that time travel is real, meaning you owed Donnie $20, then you almost lost Raph, the big brother you never had, and then everyone got split up, with you helping April & Splinter clear a path to the others. Then, just when you had finally reunited with the guys and tried to confess your feelings for the 5th time, the first friend you ever made sacrificed himself to an alien wasteland. Luckily, Mikey's mystic hand magic rose to the surface with help from Raph & Donnie, and everyone was back together, having saved the world from yet another threat, the first being Shredder.

Now, a year later, you spend more time with Mikey or his alter-ego, Dr. Feelings, more often than before. You mostly talked to each other about how you feel after almost losing your family and your home, had it not been for the bond you all shared as a team, as a family. But recently, now that the hard part was over, Mikey preferred to focus on why you hadn't given confessing your feelings another try, a conversation you were having with him over Facetime right now.

Y/N: "Mikey, do we really have to go over this again?"

Mikey: "Yes, because it's been a year since you last tried to, and you & Leo still aren't together! It's not fair."

Y/N: *chuckles* "To me or you?"

Mikey: "Yes!"

Y/N: "Well, let's start with the fact that the last time I tried, the world almost ended! Who knows what could happen next? Shredder could come back, Draxum could revert to being a bad guy, or worse, the Kraang could-"

You couldn't bring yourself to finish the thought as the memory of Leo's goodbye speech flashed in your mind, your voice getting caught in your throat. You also remembered the feeling of your heart breaking as Leo jumped through the portal before it closed.

Mikey: "Hey, you ok?"

Y/N: "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just sometimes, it's hard remembering all of it, y'know?"

Mikey: "Yeah, I know. I also know you should talk to Leo about this after confessing. We all almost lost something that day, but you and Leo could stand to gain all that and more if you had someone to talk to besides me. Not that I don't love our talks."

Y/N: "I get it, and the feeling is mutual."

Mikey: "Good. Then, as your friend and therapist, I'm giving you a therapeutic exercise."

Y/N: "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

Mikey: "Nope. Since you're having trouble confessing to Leo face-to-face, I suggest you do it face-to-camera. In other words, record yourself rehearsing your confession through talking or, my favorite, singing. If you still feel awkward sending it to Leo, send it to me first, and I'll give you some non-biased feedback, and we'll go from there."

Y/N: "Well, I can't argue with my therapist unless I wanna face the wrath of Dr. 'Delicate Touch'. Side note: unless the irony is intentional, you need to work on that name."

Mikey: "Maybe, maybe not."

Raph: *offscreen* "Mikey!"

Mikey: "Coming! Sorry, Y/N/N, I gotta go help Raph in the kitchen."

Y/N: "No problem, Doc. See you tomorrow!"

Mikey smiles with a wave before ending the call as Y/N takes a moment to figure out what to say or sing for Mikey's homework assignment. After a while, she gathers up her notes, grabs her guitar, and presses the record button on her computer. Once she's done, Y/N checks her watch and hops into the restroom to grab a shower. But she forgot one thing: Leo's on his way to help her study for her Spanish exam!!

Speak of the devil, Leo knocks on her bedroom window and, after getting no response, quietly slips into the room to find the bathroom door closed as the sound of Y/N's shower echoes from the other side. Deciding to stick around and wait for her, Leo looks around for something to do, maybe a comic to read, until he sees something on the screen of Y/N's open computer. Curiosity getting the best of him, Leo sits in her desk chair, presses play, and watches as Y/N sings her heart out for what was supposed to be Mikey's homework assignment, but ended up being a full-out confession.

Y/N:

I met you in the dark, you lit me up

You made me feel as though I was enough

We danced the night away, we talked too much

You held tight to my hand when

I was giving up

Then you smiled over your shoulder

For a minute, I was standing there frozen

Till I pulled you closer to my chest

And you asked me to stay over

I said, "I already told ya

I think that you should get some rest"

I knew I loved you then

But you'd never know

'Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go

I knew I needed you

But I never showed

But I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old

Just say you won't let go

Just say you won't let go

I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed

I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head

And I'll take the kids to school

Wave them goodbye

And I'll thank my lucky stars for that night

When you looked over your shoulder

For a minute, I forget that I'm older

I wanna dance with you right now

Oh, and you look as handsome as ever

And I swear that every day you'll get better

You make me feel this way somehow

I'm so in love with you

And I hope you know

Darling, your love is more than worth its weight in gold

We've come so far, my dear

Look how we've grown

And I wanna stay with you until we're grey and old

Just say you won't let go

Just say you won't let go

Say you won't let go

Say you won't let go

Yeah

Little did Leo know that standing behind him was a mortified Y/N, now wearing pajamas as she watches her crush watch the confession she'd been planning to hold off on showing him until tomorrow, next week, at the latest. Or rather, she thinks Leo doesn't know she's there.

Leo: "So you didn't hate me."

Y/N: "Wait, what? Hate you? Why would I ever hate you?"

Leo: "Because I almost left you. I left, and if Mikey hadn't saved me, I would've died without saying goodbye. So, when you started spending less time with me and more time with Mikey, I thought you hated me for it."

Y/N: "Oh, Leon, I could never hate you, and if I ever made you feel that way, I'm sorry. I just needed someone to talk to about everything, and I didn't want to be a burden when you had more important things to worry about."

Leo: "Y/N, nothing is more important to me than being there for you when you need someone. In fact, the last thing I thought about before Casey closed that portal was whether or not you would be ok if I got stuck in the alien galaxy."

Y/N: "Why wouldn't I be?"

Leo: "The night we met, as convincing as you tried to be, I couldn't believe that such an amazing, beautiful girl was ok with being alone. I mean, if I were an only child and hadn't met you or April, I'd be bored out of my mind. So, from that moment on, I promised myself that I would never let you be or feel alone in this world when I could at least try to be your friend. Once I did that, I decided to improve your life by bringing my family into it. You're welcome, by the way.-*Y/N chuckles*-So, after I left, I was afraid you'd go back to how you lived before we met, no matter how often the others would try to get you out of your shell, pun intended. Then, I came back, thankfully, and now, I get to tell you how much I've loved being your friend and how much I've loved you. I still do, and if you'll have me, I'll do whatever I can to make you feel safe, happy, and as lucky as I do that I have someone like you in my life."

At this point, Y/N is on the verge of joyful tears as she tries to get a sentence, or even a word, out. When she can't bring herself to, Leo takes matters into his own hands, takes her into his arms, and pulls her into a lasting, longing, passionate kiss that both of them had dreamed of for so long. Now that it was happening, Leo made Y/N and himself an unspoken promise of his devotion to the once-lonely girl whose window Mikey accidentally flung him into on that fateful night.

Leo: *thoughts* "I'm never letting go of her again."