#and then he just says as a total non-sequitur

[monody-monody]

This represents our friendship so much.

[jankwritten]

Jasico Bingo Challenge: Boyfriend Sweater

When Nico walks into the dining pavilion wearing a golden yellow sweater, Percy does a double-take. Actually, it’s a triple-take: first, he thought it was a new Apollo kid, then he realized it was Nico, then he realized it was Nico. Wearing a color. 

Is the world ending again? Was there something really wrong with the milk in his cereal? What in the everloving Hades was going on?! 

Nico sits down at table 13, unbothered as ever, and pulls the sleeves of the hoodie up. It’s way too big on him, like Big Bird shed and some poor fucker decided Nico di Angelo needed the empty muppet skin in his wardrobe. 

(Is it Nico? Maybe some changeling creature kidnapped their resident son of Hades and has decided to take his place? Maybe Percy needs to go over there and test him out, y’know, knick him with some iron or something to see if he burns. If it’s an imposter, though, they’re doing a piss-poor job. Is it an intentionally bad job? Gods, it’s barely eight AM on a Tuesday, does he seriously have to go save Nico from somewhere and kill a monster wearing his face? That does not sound like his ideal Tuesday, if he’s really real. He’ll totally do it, but he won’t like it, and maybe he should start planning how to take out a creature like-) 

“I can see the mountain you’re building,” Annabeth says, popping Percy’s strangely detailed daydream of hunting down and killing a weird, half-Nico, half-demon gremlin creature. He blinks the image out of his eyes and looks up at her, her hip resting against the edge of his table. 

She looks amused. He squints. “Nico’s been bodysnatched.” 

“Mm, no,” she says easily, with a shake of her head. “Nico’s wearing a jacket.” 

“A yellow jacket.” Percy looks at the son of Hades again. He just- can’t wrap his head around it. He hasn’t seen Nico willingly wear a color since the guy was ten years old. “A yellow jacket that’s, like, twice his size.” 

“It’s a molehill, seaweed brain. A jacket’s just a jacket.” 

“But it’s yellow.” 

“What was your nightmare about?” 

Percy physically recoils at the non sequitur, tilting back in his seat incredulously. His- what? His nightmare? What does his nightmare have to do with a jacket, anyway, that’s got nothing to do with this. 

He folds his arms on the table and makes a face. “That’s unrelated.” 

Annabeth’s mouth raise at the corners, her eyes watching him like an all-knowing hawk. An owl, three-sixty vision and nothing but questions, who, who? 

She pets through his hair and pushes her weight back up. As she draws her hand back, she taps his cheek, then his chin, and says, “just leave him alone, then.” 

Percy watches her walk back to her table. When she sits, he buries his face in his arms and groans. 

“Jason has also been bodysnatched,” Percy hisses to Annabeth during pottery class. 

“What makes you say that.” She throws her lump of clay at the pedestal in front of her and gives Percy the same look she gave him this morning. 

Percy decides to ignore that look, because that is the look of reason and he is far beyond that now. “He was wearing this black jacket with, like, skulls in hourglasses and weird skeleton butterflies and shit during Latin.” 

“He is related to Thalia, you know,” Annabeth hums. She wets her hands as the plate before her starts to spin. “Maybe he’s going through the family goth phase.” 

Had she not just leaned in to start forming something magical and incredible out of clay, Percy would slouch over Annabeth’s shoulders and plead with her to at least consider that something weird is going on. Maybe it’s not bodysnatchers or changelings, okay, but something is strange! Jason Grace does not just decide to wear emo shit! Jason Grace once had a panic attack because the Aphrodite Cabin stole a pair of his jeans and cut them into shorts! This is a man who has a stricter sense of style than Nico, who, fucking hell, don’t even get Percy started on that. The yellow jacket has remained on all day and it’s haunting him. 

Annabeth dips her thumbs into the top of her clay and does not respond. 

Percy slumps down into the stool beside hers and huffs, more for himself than anything. 

Change is okay. Change is fine. But change like this, with no reason, is the opposite of fine. Change like this is a low-blow stink bomb in an otherwise perfect Capture the Flag game, impossible to get out of his clothes and his skin and his hair. Change like this is how people die. 

He claws his hands up into his hair and listens to the steady whir of the pottery wheel, the sound of wet clay being molded and shaped in different ways. There’s a lull of conversation from other campers in the class, kids from all different cabins, because to them this is any other day. 

Maybe this should be any other day to him, too. No, not maybe. It should be. This should be a regular Tuesday, full of regular classes with his regular friends who are ordinary in whatever ways they can be, but instead, Percy’s brain has to go and mix up everything, make everything feel- out of control. 

HIs next exhale shakes too hard for his liking. His shoulders are too tense. 

Beside him, Annabeth keeps calmly shaping her pot. She dips her hands into the water every so often, probably executing some flawless plan of action she drafted the night before. She’s not always delicate with her hands, with art like this - Percy knows that’s something she’s self conscious about. She never thinks she can be good at finer things. 

That’s normal. That’s normal for her. Ordinary, to think that Annabeth Chase would tackle arts and crafts in the same way she would a war strategy, devising the perfect approach for a flawless result. Executing it flawlessly. 

She pinches too hard pulling up the walls of the pot. It crumples, then swings off the wheel entirely with the force of it’s motion, splattering wetly across Percy’s arms and the other campers at the bench. 

Percy watches Annabeth glare at her failed creation. She sticks her hands in the dirty water to scrub the clay off, wipes her hands off on her shirt, and pulls on Percy’s sleeve. 

“I hate pottery,” she mutters as they rise together. 

Percy grins. “I think it knows that,” he teases, and follows as she stomps toward the exit. 

When the answer slaps Percy in the face, it feels more like a gut punch in the way it makes him breathless and off-balance. 

“You’re…huh?” 

Annabeth clicks her tongue. “You two couldn’t think of a better way to do this?” she gestures between Nico and Jason, standing awkwardly side by side as if they don’t know what to do with themselves. 

They’re still wearing the wrong jackets. Each other’s jackets. 

Percy makes a face, then realizes that might not be the best response to his two friends telling him their dating, so he tries to make a different face. 

The world’s not ending. They’re just…together. Sharing jackets, like couples do. 

“We didn’t want to make it a big deal,” Jason says. He keeps glancing at Nico and chewing on the inside of his lip. Nico, with the golden sleeves of apparently-Jason’s-jacket pulled over his hands once more, looks stubborn. Like he’s ready to fight about something. 

Percy wipes his sweaty hands off on his shirt and gestures, though he’s not sure at what. “But Nico’s wearing a color?” 

He feels more than sees Annabeth’s disapproving glare at the side of his head. Jason draws himself up, then seems to falter. His head cocks to the side and he shakes his head. 

“What?” 

“That’s a big deal,” Percy reiterates. “Nico doesn’t wear colors.” 

“Nico is standing right here, wearing a color,” Nico grumbles. He shoves his hands into the pocket of the sweatshirt and gives Percy a glare that is far more familiar than literally anything else happening right now. “I’m allowed to wear whatever I want to wear, for the record.” 

“But you don’t!” 

“Well I do now. If you have a fucking problem with it-” 

“I never said I had a problem with it,” Percy snaps back, immediately on the defensive. “I was fucking worried about you, you little shit, I thought something was wrong. I thought- I don’t know what I thought! I thought you two were swapped with some other versions of yourself, I thought you’d been- I don’t know- abducted by aliens, or fairies, or something!” He throws his hands up in the air, then drops them back onto his head, staring sort of at the middle point between the two of them. “You can’t do that shit and not expect- I mean, because, come on, guys, you’re you, you two fucking freak out if someone so much as touches your clothes. What were we supposed to think?” 

The hearth crackles. It’s too pleasant a sound for the sick Percy feels. 

Annabeth takes his hand, at least, and squeezes. His face burns with the shame of yelling like this, over this, it just feels so fucking stupid all of a sudden. He feels so stupid. Annabeth tried to tell him it was nothing, and he let it all get away with him, he let that nasty part of his brain win and win and win, and now he’s taking his losses out on them. 

“I’m happy for you two,” he makes himself say, when no one else speaks. “I think I just also need therapy.” 

Finally, Annabeth snorts. It’s a noise Percy knows, one he can ground himself with, same as her palm hot in his, her weight tilting into his side as her head bonks into his chin. 

The stress he’d held bundled up in his spine and his shoulders and his stomach all day releases in an instant. He slouches back in against her and laughs against the top of her head. 

“Jesus Christ,” Nico mutters, when Percy can’t stop himself, dissolving into a fit of hysterics over his own bullshit. “This is why I said we should just tell them. He’s laughing at us.” 

“I think he’s laughing at himself,” Jason says. He sounds uncertain. 

Percy hugs Annabeth tight, and laughs himself hoarse. 

EXTRA 

Nico stares at himself in Jason’s mirror, with the sweater hanging halfway down his thighs, sleeves hanging off his hands, the peak of his collarbone through the freaking collar. He narrows his gaze into a glare. 

“I look like a toddler,” he says derisively. 

Jason, still getting dressed himself, laughs. When he appears in the mirror behind Nico, looking far more proportional in Nico’s sweatshirt (which is frankly fucking unfair), his grin softens into a smile that’s- something. Sweet. 

Nico twitches his nose.  

“I look like I’m six years old,” he says, grabbing the hem of the sweatshirt and yanking down. “Why are we doing this.” 

“‘Cause it’s silly,” Jason says. He presses a kiss against the side of Nico’s head and hugs him loosely from behind. “You don’t look like a baby, either. You just look your age.” 

Nico looks down at himself. Maybe there’s a point there, a point to be made about how he dresses for practicality, dresses to blend in, but never to express himself. Maybe there’s a point to be made about how his discomfort isn’t really for how he feels about this, but how he thinks others will feel about it. 

He tugs at the hem again, and looks back up. Jason’s eyes in the mirror are bright, as if taking in the sight of Nico in his hoodie like this is something to savor. 

Nico likes when Jason looks at him like that. He likes how it feels to be looked at like he’s attractive. He likes how it feels to be wanted. 

“I guess,” Nico concedes, leaning further back into Jason’s chest. Immediately, Jason’s stance is more solid, sturdy, holding them both up as easy as breathing. He holds Nico like it’s a promise that he’ll never let go. 

He looks at the pair of them in the mirror, a cohesive unit rather than two separate halves. Jason in black is definitely something Nico wants to see more of, especially with the way Nico’s clothes fit snug over him, just a little tight at the biceps and chest. He looks good, not that he doesn’t look good otherwise. Different. 

With Nico his contrast in yellow…maybe it isn’t so bad. Maybe he likes being the counterbalance, even. 

Jason squeezes him again. Those damn eyes in the mirror are making Nico too warm, like his stomach is full of hot jell-o. 

“Okay, fine, let’s do this,” he huffs. The difference in his tone must be audible, though, because Jason perks up and grins, his eyebrows up, face aglow. Nico can’t look at him for too long. It’s still strange knowing he can make someone feel like that. He doesn’t know what to do when Jason turns the full puppy-love thing on. “And stop looking at me like that, you’re going to give me cavities.” 

“Okay,” Jason says in a voice identical to his expression. 

Nico grabs his hand and squeezes it twice. 

Jason squeezes back, so tight it aches. Nico’s heart swells with bright affection. 

Alright. Maybe yellow isn’t so bad, actually. 

[palant1r]

There are so many fascinating interpretations of light's cannonball into immorality but i have no friends to talk about it with 😭 so why do u think light went so evil so quick? one of my fave interpretations is that, even tho light spoke a bit on how he thought the world was rotten, his ideology was a retroactive justification for killing ppl using the notebook and that his first two kills were actually just him being "bored" and everything grew from there

Man, okay. I have a confession to make: one of the reasons I find Light so fascinating is that I really see myself in him — we just went down uh. VERY different paths. So maybe I'm projecting a bit, but I find his cannonball both understandable and deeply sad, while simultaneously inexcusable and thoughtless. Here goes:

I think that Light has always been someone who is extremely concerned with being Good. His greatest fear is being Bad. Not to personality type him, but he is the quintessential enneagram type one. He holds a deep amount of anger at perceived injustice, and because he needs to be Good, that anger becomes righteous. The thing is, when people are terrified of being anything but Good, that doesn't actually make them do good things. It makes them justify anything they do as good, and makes them completely unwilling to question their own worldviews because the idea of accidentally discovering they've been Bad is too painful to bear. (Like how, when Ryuk says Light would be the only bad person left, Light pulls out some non sequitur and refuses to even engage with that possibility). Another thing is, Light Yagami finds the Death Note when he's in high school. Maybe if he'd found the Death Note later, he wouldn't have gone full Kira mode. But he found the Death Note at a time in his life when he was starting to come up with his own rigid and righteous moral code without the experience to incorporate nuance. Another thing: his dad is a cop, and as I've discussed, he clearly gets his moral code from his dad but with even MORE anxiety about Doing a Bad.

So he finds the Death Note. And he kills the dude who took those hostages. I think he was just being a stupid teenager here, acting impulsively but convincing himself he was being Big Brained. Remember, cop dad: he believes that Crime is a thing that must be Punished, and that Punishment is a Moral Good. It has to be, otherwise his dad and him by extension are Bad, and that is simply unacceptable. After that, I don't think Light was thinking beyond immediate practicalities — the weight of what he'd done hadn't set in yet. He had to confirm the Death Note's power, because Light is ALSO someone who really needs certainty and control. So he kills that one attempted rapist.

And THEN what he's done sets in. We see Light have a mental breakdown, stare the slippery slope in the face, and then immediately decide to grab a sled.

Here's what I think happened. When he realized what he'd done, Light was left with two possibilities. The first was to admit to himself that he was a murderer — that he had done a Bad Thing, and for Light, doing a Bad Thing is totally indistinguishable from being intrinsically, ontologically Bad. This was obviously too painful. So he went with option two: in order to preserve his own self-image as a Good Person, he retroactively justified his actions as Good. This was made easier by the cop morality poison, since under that framework, punishing evil makes people good. After all, there was no doubt a riot team ready to move in on that daycare who might have killed that guy anyway.

Of course, once he'd done that, he couldn't stop there. Light is also a responsible, dutiful person. Because he'd mentally framed his killings as a heroic and necessary act for the sake of self-preservation, continuing his "cleansing" became not just morally neutral but a moral duty. One that he had to continue in order to preserve his self-image of a Good Person. It's a self deluding feedback loop where his actions are good because he is good, and he is good because his actions are good. Light has absolutely no moral self-awareness because that would force him to confront the most painful truth he could possibly acknowledge. His view of ethics is mind-numbingly, braindead-ly simple (baby's first deterrence theory) (someone get Hobbes on the line, this bitch is trying to be the Leviathan) because it's never meant to be a coherent philosophy in the first place — it's a self-justifying defense mechanism.

It's like...so sad to me. Because I see in Light Yagami the potential for an actual well-adjusted person — he wasn't doomed to turn out like this. As much as we clown, without the Death Note I don't think he'd become the Unabomber. He clearly wants to be a good person! But the Death Note didn't "control" or "corrupt" him, either. It just gave him absolute power to carry out an extreme ideology driven by his police upbringing and moral anxiety at a time when he did not have the experience to pump the brakes.

[evendumbo]

Apropos of I’m still mad, I also hate what they did with Roy Kent’s character. Hated it, hated it.

Roy was a great character in seasons 1 and 2, a thoughtful, principled person who struggled with issues of abandonment and intimacy because of childhood trauma. I loved the way he was written. Plus his relationship with Keeley felt very intentional: two people figuring out how to rethink their hyper-gendered lives — Keeley becoming more of a leader and strategist rather than only being almost famous for sexy modeling, Roy figuring out how to be more self-aware about his feelings and experiment with trust and vulnerability. Both of them learning how to adjust their boundaries in a committed relationship while practicing mindful accountability when they fucked up as people do. I also loved it when they hit a point at the end of season 2 where they loved each other, but were tempted by other compelling people, a real test to see if they could manage the emotional risk of commitment.

I was happy when season 3 opened up with them being broken up, that totally tracked. I looked forward to the story revealing how the breakup happened, providing more clarity about their fears and learning edges, and figuring out how to navigate their respective issues to make it back to each other. Even if they didn’t make it, I was still looking forward to a good story.

Some of Roy’s journey in season 3 was on point, especially Roy’s very nice resolutions with Trent and Jamie. But beyond that all we got was Roy being uncomfortably weird for no apparent reason: Roy saying weird shit to Keeley in the parking lot for no clear reason; Roy describing a twisted bullying scenario for no clear reason; Roy tying strings to penises for no clear reason; Roy being oddly mesmerized by Jamie’s mother for no clear reason; and then…a random brief visual of Roy going to therapy in the finale montage. All of these alienating, out of context, out of character scenes did not move a narrative, they were just a series of confusing non sequiturs.

And of course I was out here like Linus waiting for The Great Pumpkin urging people to just be patient for what I just knew was gonna be a great episode that pulled this silly shit together.

So pour one out for the great Roy Kent. He was a nuanced character who turned into collateral damage by writing that just gave the fuck up.

[thealogie]

Sheep tending-country girl question: when Michael characterized Aziraphale that way I assumed it was a non sequitur; it didn’t track with anything being discussed in the interview. I assumed it was just Michael being Michael but I read this today and immediately thought of him…and your blog lol. https://archiveofourown.org/works/35263351

(Just saying I can totally see him enjoying this based on his rec of Salinity. Moody baby loves some atmosphere!)

Oh I’ll check out that fic, thanks. (In fairness, Michael Sheen is not sitting through interviews listening to and answering questions. He’s like “all your questions are stupid and I’m choosing to ignore them, here are the beautiful visions I have about my girl aziraphale”…and genuinely thank you Michael Sheen…)

[asherlockstudy]

Okay, this is entirely humorously intended, but watching the Property Bros video, I couldn't help but notice a faint A/B/O dynamic between them. Granted I always have 'shipping' glasses on when watching GMM, but just for fun, let me break it down: Jeremy, the unbearded Bro, exuded really strong Alpha vibes, both Rhett and Drew (the bearded Bro) seemed like Betas--with Rhett being the wannabe Alpha variety--and Link is of course the rare unicorn Omega. It's not a trope I'm well-versed in, but based on their particular behaviours and interactions, I think they fit those stereotypes pretty well. Exhibit A: Jeremy being competitive and self-assured and confident at every chance he got; for example, saying things like: "I want you to see all of it", "only one of us can have it", "that's a cute pile of chips", or chastising Chase with "watch your mouth over there", and mocking Rhett's "baby fingers". Most of his domineering jeers were directed at Rhett, while most of the more humorous ones at Link.

Exhibit B: Jeremy turning to look specifically at Link when making the ''coinjoined by the dick'' joke, and calling him out on the ''coochy coo'' thing (with Link smiling all bashful and cute-like, instead of being defensive--which would be more his speed--and yes, I know he's usually trying to be polite with guests, but I'm wearing the afforementioned shipping glasses, so bear with me), or smiling at Link when Link said 'Beauregard' with an affected British accent (and then teasing Link and mimicking his accent with "are you of British descent Beauregard"; looking at Link very pointedly while caressing the pile of chips up and down (and Link kind of fumbling with his hand placement right after); Link accusing them of cheating with the G.R.R. Martin comment, and Jeremy accusing them right back after a few seconds; defending Link with "that didn't feel very supportive of your partner", also he begun saying something like "I want [mumbling]" when Link was trying to figure out what else to give them next, but then of course Link started taking off his pants, and Jeremy very naturally, as you do, par for the course, evidently… decided to take a big sniff (and was also into whatever he smelled), and Link, bless his soul, invited him to look down his lap in a weird non-sequitur (and also laid back on the chair, raising his arms in a very characteristic 'showing off the goods' pose); Jeremy genuinely bursting out laughing at Link clutching his knees and being all cutesy with his "I'm so nervous right now" grin, and then trying on Link's pants because that's totally normal (and Link licking his lips watching Jeremy trying to button up), and finally smiling at Link at the "you know what time it is". If you look for most things they are usually there, but honestly, this was a lot even by fandom standards.

Exhibit C: Rhett and Drew were being more sober and level-headed in contrast, and I was surprised because although Rhett is generally more reticent when they have guests on the show (especially male guests), he's also very competitive, and with poker on the line, I'd have expected him to look more 'alive'. Instead he seemed kind of meek and also indifferent of the concept ("this is so dumb"), as though since this was a thing that couldn't be won by intellect then why even bother, while Drew was being funny in a totally normal way, mildly and humorously trash-talking to contribute on the fun (and also low-key flirting with Chase), and they had a very even and tempered dynamic compared to Jeremy and Link's unhinged whatever.

P.S. I thought about asking this anonymously and wondering if after all the more discource-y or funny asks I've sent this is the kind of thing I'd want to take responsibility for, and came to the conclusion that yes, yes it is xD I hope you won't mind the wall of text, I just kind of loved that episode, and saw you posted a gif about it, so I went for it! :)

Hahaha I know next to nothing about the omegaverse but this was a fascinating read!

I’d say Rhett definitely is a beta aspiring to be an alpha (always admires and looks up to real alphas - this is his whole story with Ben).

Beyond the omegaverse goggles, I would say the person who looked more genuinely confident in their skin (even if timid) was Drew.

[wizardofahz]

WIP game:

I am curious about "A Question of Identity" and "Monsters in the Mirror" if you please. Thank you!

Sure thing! You picked some angsty fics to ask about. 😈

A Question of Identity is a WIP in which tragedy makes the Danvers sisters do a lot of assessing and rebuilding of their senses of self. I suppose it's kind of an alternate ending to season 3. I've posted a couple of sneak peeks in the past (1, 2), and here comes another one.

Kara hears the entrance of the Fortress of Solitude open. There’s only one other person who can open that door. For a moment she considers leaving. She doesn’t have the energy to interact with anyone. She doesn’t in the end. She also doesn’t have the energy to care if her lack of resolve worries Kal. “I thought I might find you here,” Kal says from behind her. Kara doesn’t bother turning around, just asks, “What do you want, Kal?”  “I wanted to see how you’re doing and to ask if there’s anything I can do,” he offers. Many people have offered Kara the abstract “anything.” It’s a nice sentiment, but Kara has found little solace in it thus far. “There’s nothing anyone can do.” “Kara,” Kal says as if there must be something he can do but quickly pauses when nothing comes to mind. The name elicits a laugh from her that surprises them both. Perhaps calling it a laugh is generous. It’s more of an escape of helpless emotion. Kara.  That’s her name.  But what does it mean? Is she Kara Zor-El? Is she Kara Danvers? Losing Krypton had been traumatic. In some ways though, the necessity of total reinvention had helped. Kara Danvers held little of the trauma of Kara Zor-El, no hints of alienness, invisible by design. It had only been in recent years between becoming Supergirl and a reporter that she had started to let the latter seep into the former. Who is Kara on Earth? Who is she without Alex?  Once upon a time, Kara thought about moving to Metropolis to be with Kal. Alex had protested being left behind. But Alex is gone now. Kara could move to Metropolis. But all she wants is Alex back, Alex who made this planet home. “There’s never been a Kara Danvers without Alex,” Kara says out loud.  The non sequitur has Kal looking confused. “There was only Kara Zor-El,” Kara continues and, without realizing it, switches to Kryptonian. “There is only Kara Zor-El, who has lost her family, her culture, her planet. Kara Zor-El, who does not exist on this Earth. Kara Zor-El never had an Alex Danvers. Except that’s not quite true, is it? Because Alex did know me. All of me.” Kara only realizes she’s switched to her native tongue when she looks at Kal El, looks at Clark Kent, who has only ever known this planet and looks apologetically lost. “Do you understand anything I am saying right now?” she asks. There’s no malice in her voice, only sadness. “I--” Clark begins sheepishly in English. “Only some of it. I’m sorry.”  “It’s not your fault,” Kara says tiredly because it isn’t.

Monsters in the Mirror is about guilt and facing the consequences of one's actions. It's set in season 2. I do have an old sneak peek, but to be honest, it could do with more editing. Here's a more updated sneak peek.

In her apartment, M'gann watches Alex pace back-and-forth, full of unsettled energy. In the end, it's no surprise when Alex changes course and heads for the door. “You know what? Forget it. You wouldn’t understand.” “Before you walk out that door--because if you really want to, I won’t stop you--I just want to say one thing," M'gann says. To her relief, Alex stops with her hand on the doorknob. She doesn't turn around, but M'gann senses hope that maybe her words of wisdom will make a difference. M'gann continues, “If you want to keep running, that’s your choice. But I don’t think you do. You came to me for a reason. You could have gone to Kara or J’onn. You know they would welcome you with open arms at any time"--at this, Alex's head dips in guilty acknowledgment--"but you came to me instead. Kara and J'onn know guilt, of course they do. But they know the guilt of surviving what has been done to them. You chose me because I know what it's like to live with the guilt of what I have done. So don’t tell me I won’t understand.” Alex slumps. She rests her head against the door. She stays like that for a while until she finally musters up the words. “I killed my dad,” Alex says quietly. M'gann wants to believe that she misheard. She knows enough about J'onn and the Danvers to know how important family is. No wonder Alex has been spiraling. M'gann waits for Alex to continue, knowing a break in momentum may mean the rest never comes at all. “I always knew that I would do anything to protect Kara. I just... I never thought that would mean killing other people that I love." Alex pauses to take a deep, shuddering breath. "And maybe the worst part"--She hesitates again. Clearly what's coming next is the part she really doesn't want to face--"is that I’d do it again. For Kara, I would. What does that say about me? If I’m capable of killing my dad, then what won’t I do? Who wouldn’t I hurt? J’onn? My mom?”

And thus ends our double dose of angst.

Thanks for the ask!

[stobinesque]

phryctoria | chapter 5: five by two (chi)

Sometimes your gay awakening is just having someone to show you it’s possible. Sometimes love is a lightning bug.

[1][2][3][4][5][6 & 7] | [Read on AO3]

On the way back from the bookstore Robin cranks up the volume on the beamer’s cassette player, and they both scream-sing along to the mixtape they’d finally finished at 4am this morning, after a sleepless night. Steve drums his hands on the steering wheel to the beat of “You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record),” while wind whips through his hair from the cracked windows.

“Okay, so—I’ve got this loose floorboard back in my room—”

“Yeah, Robs, I’m aware.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to tell you something.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Well you can’t exactly bring your stuff home with you, can you?”

Steve is silent for a few beats, the mood tanking even while Pete Burns sings All I know is that to me / You look like you're lots of fun. “Yeah, I guess not.” Steve turns to look over at Robin, whose face has gone all serious. “What about you, though? Are you sure it’s safe to have it at your place?”

“Steve, you’ve met my parents—they’re sometimes weird about boundaries, but they don’t go snooping through my stuff. Definitely not to the point of prying up loose floorboards. Is that…?” Robin trails off, the concern in her voice evident, and Steve looks over to see that she’s frowning. “Is that something your dad does?”

Steve shrugs. “I don’t really keep stuff in my room for him to find.” Really, he tries not to own or possess anything that he isn’t prepared for his dad to find anywhere. (Aside from the occasional pot stash, which he always buries in a small tin in the flower bed whenever he has enough left over to warrant it. Most of the time he just doesn’t buy more than he’s planning to smoke through before his parents get back from whatever trip they’re on.) “Anyway. That’s not the point. What if they do find it? Like, I don’t know, one of us forgets to put it away, or something.”

Robin bites at her lip and turns away to stare out the window. Her shoulders hitch up around her ears. “I don’t know. I don’t think...I mean I’ve never heard them say anything, you know? And, like, they were both hippies when they were younger, or whatever. It’d be weird for them to be homophobic, right?”

“Adults never make any sense.”

Robin huffs out a laugh. “Yeah. Right.” She twists one of her rings around her finger. “There’s no way to be totally sure of anything, right? But keeping it at my place is definitely safer than keeping it at yours.”

Steve sighs. “We really need to find another job.”

“Holy non-sequitur, Batman!”

“Non-sequi-what?”

“Random subject switch,” she explains, waving her hand.

“Hey, no, not random!” He pulls a hand off the wheel to flap a hand at her. “If one of us gets kicked out it may as well be both of us getting kicked out. And I don’t know about you, but I do not have enough saved up from Scoops to try to get an apartment.”

Robin grimaces. “That’s a good point.”

“I’m full of good points, Bobbie.”

She flashes him a lewd smile. “Not yet you aren’t,” she says with an exaggerated eyebrow waggle.

“I think at this point we just have to accept that you enjoy talking about my sex life, Buckley.”

Robin gasps dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest like he’s wounded her. “I can’t believe you would say something so grossly offensive.”

“I hope you know that you’ve doomed yourself to a play-by-play the next time I get laid.”

“Ugh. Being friends with you is such a burden.”

“You love me, asshole.”

“God fucking help me, dingus. I do.”

“We headed back home?” Steve asks as they pass by the ‘Welcome to Hawkins Hell!’ sign.

Robin lifts her head from where it’d dropped against the window and yawns wide. “Wazzat?”

“Home.” Steve turns to look at her. “Are we going?”

Robin flops her head against the headrest, looking at him with a sleepy smile. “Keep driving?”

“Sure thing.” He keeps driving; no particular destination in mind, following backroads along the edges of Hawkins. The sun is still bright and warm, but low enough on the horizon that it shines through the windows and lights Robin up in gold.

She giggles off to his side.

“What? What’s so funny?” he shoots her a quick, suspicious glare.

Robin reaches across the center console to poke him in the face. “You’re shiiiiny.”

Steve slaps her hand away. “Will you stop? I’m trying to drive here! Do you want us to crash?”

“No, no.” Robin clears her throat and straightens in the seat as she speaks, making her voice all low and silly-serious. “Certainly not, monsieur.”

“See, no—what is that? ‘Monsieur’?”

Robin giggle-snorts, and then her face scrunches up as her laugh transforms into a full-on cackle. “Hey Stevie?”

“What.”

Robin flops back into his space, leaning in close to whisper conspiratorially, “Did you know you’re reaaallly easy to irritate. Like, so easy?”

Steve rolls his eyes, gently pushing her away with one arm. “Yeah, well, did you know that you act like you’re three drinks under the table whenever you take a nap for longer than 30 minutes? Huh?”

Robin yawns again, stretching her arms high above her head. “Absolutely worth it,” she says, sounding smug.

Steve shakes his head but can’t bite back the smile she brings to his face. He clicks back into a conscious awareness of their surroundings and realizes they’re passing by Weathertop. (Try as he might to deny it, the kids’ names for places have fixed themselves in his mind.)

He pulls off and parks the beamer on the side of the road, circling around the front to pull Robin out of the passenger seat. “C’mon, Bobbin, we’ve got a hill to climb.”

Halfway up, Robin suddenly starts flapping a hand against his chest. “Hey, hey! How’s that song go? The hills are alive, dah-da-dah daaah dah, you know?”

Steve smirks. “Aren’t your ears supposed to be little geniuses? Robs, the next lines are literally the title of the movie.”

“Pretty sure it was a musical first.”

“This does not actually help your case, you know that, right?”

“Whatever, dingus. Just tell me how the song goes.”

“You sure you wanna hear me sing?”

“Okay, you’ll notice how I didn’t say ‘sing how it goes for me,’ you could just tell me the words.”

“No, no, now you’re going to be subjected to the musical stylings of the Harrington family singers, because,” Steve leans into her space and starts singing, sickly sweet, “My heart wants to sing every soooong it hears.” His head is almost fully resting against Robin’s shoulder as he looks up at her with a shit eating grin.

“Oh, my god, get off me.” She shoves him away, laughing.

Steve lets himself be pushed, taking a couple dramatic, stumbling steps away from her before righting himself and drifting back into her space. “You know the next lines have always been my favorite, though?”

“Do you have the whole song memorized?!”

“...yeah?” Steve frowns at her. “Robs, it’s one of my favorite movies! I thought that’s why you asked!”

She shakes her head, looking at him a little dumbstruck. “Nope, I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that little Harrington factoid.”

“Well…yeah. My mom really loved it, so I guess I just watched it a lot growing up? Especially when my dad was out of town—before she started going on the trips with him—because then we could sing along.”

Robin opens her mouth to say something, before seeming to make the conscious decision not to approach the whole ‘you couldn’t sing along to the movie about being forbidden from singing?’ thing with a ten foot pole, and snapping her mouth shut again. “Huh.” She takes a couple more striding steps forward with a pensive look on her face. “So...how does the next part go?”

He smiles at her, and even without being able to see his own face he can tell that it’s radiant. “My heart…wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lake to the trees.” He looks at her, and he can feel the way his gaze has become just a little too intense.

“Birds, huh?” She knocks his shoulder with her own, a gentle smile on her face.

“Yep. Always loved ‘em,” he says, his heart feeling a little gooey in his chest.

“Ugh, get away from me,” she says, shoving him away again. “You’re such a fucking sap, it’s disgusting. Where was this two months ago?”

“Mmm, don’t know if you knew this, Birdy, but I am very gay. I think I was probably driving girls away accidentally-on-purpose.”

Robin gives him a small nod. “Solid theory.”

As they begin to crest the top of the hill, Robin turns to look at him. “You have a really nice voice, you know?”

“Do I?”

“Oh, totally—like, two whole steps up from Kermit, at least.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I’m so touched.”

“As you should be.”

“As we both should be,” he says with a playful little leer. They’ve reached the top of the hill, and Steve flops onto his back with a giant exhale. Robin just stands there, peering down at him, so he reaches up to her with a beckoning gesture. “Come down here.”

Robin takes his hand and lets herself be pulled onto the grass. She settles into a lax position, her arms hovering out at her sides, like a snow angel at rest. Steve folds his own hands over his chest, like he’s been posed in a coffin. The two of them stare up at the clouds rolling past in silence.

“Do you think you’ll try to find someone to get friendly with when we go out?” Steve asks after a while.

“I don’t know. Maybe?” She pauses, and Steve tracks a sparrow flying overhead. “It’s weird, because I don’t think I wanna just dive in headfirst with something casual, you know? But at the same time, it’s like—why let that hold me back? ‘Cause what are the chances there are any more of us out here in Hawkins?”

Steve shrugs. “I mean, I don’t know, I was never good at stats or whatever, but it’d be weirder if there were only two of us, right? And, like, we only know about each other because of…” He waves a hand around to encompass the Russians, the torture; the fucking truth serum…

“Yeah.”

“So, that just goes to show that if there are other gay people in Hawkins, they’re probably also keeping it pretty close to the chest.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t exactly improve my chances.”

“Point.”

“I just. If I do meet someone, I don’t want it to just be some casual thing, right? I’d want to, like, get to know her and go on dates and…and hold hands, you know?”

“Yeah.” They lay in silence, watching the sun make its slow creep toward the horizon. Steve turns to look at her. “We’re losing light.”

Robin turns to meet his gaze, and smiles. “Wanna stay ‘til the stars come out?”

It’s something they do now. One of the routines they’ve fallen into since Starcourt. Sometimes the sleepless nights will take them out to an empty field under a canopy of starlight.

“Sure.” Silence settles between them again, and Steve turns back to stare up at the sky. The world around them is abuzz with chirping crickets, and the occasional croaking toad. For awhile, Steve just settles into the little symphony. The pocket of peace out here. But eventually, he has to break the silence again. “So…are we gonna talk about it?”

“Talk about what?”

“The whole ‘I’ve never said “lesbian” out loud,’ thing.”

Robin is quiet for several moments. “I don’t know if I can.”

Steve thinks about turning to look at her again but decides against it. Sometimes it’s easier not to be looked at. “Why not?”

“I don’t know, it’s just…it’s just a whole thing, right? Like, I don’t know, maybe it’s weird to think of it this way, but it’s—it’s a noun. And maybe that shouldn’t matter because, like, I don’t know, woman is a noun too, I guess. But it’s just like…weird? To think of this as being something that I am, as like…I don’t know.” Steve hears the grass rustle next to him. “I don’t think I’m making any sense.”

“No, no…I think I’m following. It’s like…what if it’s suddenly all that you are, and there isn’t room for anything else?”

“Yeah.” She sounds more confident now, like maybe she’s on the right track. “And, like, what if all that I am is…wrong? And I know that it’s fucked up to think about it like that, but—”

“But it’s hard to talk yourself out of thinking something you’ve spent your whole life hearing?”

“Exactly.”

Steve hums, weighing his next words in his head. “You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think that all of Robin Buckley is pretty fucking rad. And I know there’s more to you than being gay. You’re also—and, fine, I will admit it—the funniest person that I know, you’re scary good at solving puzzles, you can barely walk ten paces without tripping over yourself, you’re so, so incredibly brave, and protective, and caring. You have a fucking weird obsession with bugs—”

Robin’s hand darts out to smack his shoulder. “They’re cool!”

“They’re creepy!” Steve says, jumping out of her warpath.

“Okay, one, no they’re not, and two, even if some are, you can’t just paint a whole phylum with that broad of a brush.”

“If I agree that some bugs aren’t creepy, can we get back on topic?”

“…fine.”

“Okay, so, what I was saying, is that you’ve got so much going on that, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no risk of you only every being one thing, and, more importantly: all ofthe things that you are—even the fucking bug love—are the things that make you my favorite person, and you’re not allowed to say mean things about my best friend. So there.”

Robin is quiet for so long that the crickets seem to multiply in volume.

“Hey, Rob…you OD over there?”

Robin cracks a small laugh. “No, I…I’m…” The grass rustles again, and he turns his head to see that Robin has rolled onto her side to face him. He turns onto his own side to face her right back. “Hey, Fen?” she whispers.

“Yeah, Birdy?”

Robin takes a deep breath. “I’m a lesbian.” The second the words are out her mouth she breaks into a wide, relieved smile. A dam seems to burst, and suddenly she’s rolling onto her back and laugh-crying up to the heavens.

Steve rolls onto his back as well, and as he does a lightning bug—one of the few bugs that he will acknowledge sits in the “totally not creepy” category—flits past his head. He reaches up to scoop it out of the air, and to his right he sees Robin doing the same. They turn their heads just enough to look at each other again, each holding a firefly on the back of their hand. The light on Robin’s flares, and a moment later the butt of Steve’s lights up too

“You think they’re talking to each other?”

“Yeah, that’s how it works right? Like, um…” Steve searches around for the word and snaps the fingers of his free hand when he finds it. “Like Morse Code!”

“Yeah.”

“Wish we were lighting bugs. Then we could talk all the time without having to say anything at all. Plus—we’d be really pretty.”

“We can already do that,” Robin says. “And we’re both really pretty.”

“Touché.”

Steve watches the bug crawl across the back of his hand, fascinated by the way its little antennae flick and flutter.

“I don’t think you’d wanna be a lightning bug,” Robin says.

“Why not?”

“Because—no one actually appreciates them, y’know? Like, they think they do, but really they just wanna capture them and bottle them up for how pretty they are. And then they stuff you into a jar, and you slowly suffocate, and with each passing second your light shines a little less brightly, until it’s just dimly flickering, and so muted that you can’t even signal to anyone around you how close you are to dying.”

Steve blinks slowly, trying to process everything she’s just said. “... what the fuck, Robs?”

Robin jabs him in the shoulder, but light enough so as not to jostle him. “What I’m saying…is that I like you all glowy and free.”

The lighting bug has now made its way halfway down Steve’s arm. It opens its wing and flutters off. A moment later, Robin’s follows.

“Okay, I think that’s enough sad fossilizing for one day,” Steve says, pushing himself upright. Once he’s standing, he holds out his hand to Robin and hauls her to her feet.

“Come on. Let’s go home.”

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch: season 2 recap

Voyager's second season was a real mixed bag. Numbers wise, I actually ended up liking more episodes than I disliked, but the ones I disliked, I really hated. In fact, some of my most hated stories in the whole series were this season. But it says a lot about how strong the show's concept and characters are that all the bad apples in this bunch couldn't put me off the show. In fact, despite only liking half the episodes, I still finished this season loving this show just as much, if not more, than last season. I have to give so much credit to the actors for that- the writers don't seem to have thought very hard about these characters in a lot of places, but the actors held some of these stories together seemingly through sheer force of will. Their charisma and chemistry with eachother in the little moments made the bad stories worth watching, and I'm very grateful for that.

Interestingly, appparently episodes 1-10 were actually filmed during season one, and meant to be the end of that season, but for some reason were held back and aired as the beginning of season 2. The original order is included on the DVDs:

Projections ep 17

Elogium ep 18

Twisted ep 19

The 37s ep 20

Initiations ep 21

Non Sequitur ep 22

Parturition ep 23

Persistence of Vision ep 24

Tattoo: ep 25

Cold Fire: ep26

Since five of my most hated episodes are on that list, I know it would have lowered my esteem for s1 if they had aired then, so in hindsight, I'm glad they were held back until the audience had time to build up more goodwill for the characters and the show.

Things I liked this season:

B'Elanna at her little engineering station on the bridge- I love that she had this during early seasons, why did they do away with it later?? it was nice to get everybody on the bridge together during important scenes.

Tom Paris getting a more heroic plotline and some respect at the conclusion of the Kazon spy arc. There's been a lot of disconnect on the show so far between how everyone talks about Tom versus how he actually behaves, and it's nice that he actually got some recognition from other characters for his many good qualities. Everyone needs to appreciate Tom more tbh!

Captain Janeway's bun hair continues to be a delight; keep slaying, Queen!

While the Kazon are not my favorite antagonists, and I don't like where Seska's storyline went, I do actually kind of appreciate that they tried an ongoing story arc this season. The way it was woven as a subplot through otherwise standalone episodes and then picked up on as the main plot in later episodes was a nice way to do it. It found a nice balance between standalone and serialized formats that gave us the benefits of each.

Things I disliked this season:

We still can't manage to have a story where B'Elanna and Kes interact beyond two or three words?? I think every character has been in at least a scene or two one on one with all the other characters, except for them. On a show with only three women in the main cast, not having two of them even talk to each other, let alone develop a friendship, is an egregious omission. They could have had at least one episode where they went on an away mission together or something. It would have been way better than all the episodes where men treat Kes like an object to possess, which leads into my next point of dislike:

Way too many romantic subplots. It felt way too high-school with all the secret crushes and jealousy and rivalry nonsense. Kes was the writers favorite target, with a grand total of 4 romantic subplots, including Neelix, plus another guy who was just straight up obessesed with her kinda counting as 5? At any rate, she had the most romances, and she's clearly older mens vision of a manic pixie dream Ocampa, which is super gross. Watching Kes get treated like crap by almost every male character she comes in contact with, and yelled at by Neelix, wasn't pleasant either, and kind of ruined Neelix for me. I'm glad that they decided to finally give it a rest this season, but the way they attempted to resolve it wasn't believable, and actually very misogynist, and thus not a satisfying conclusion. Neelix was nice to Kes in a few eps here at last, and it would have been fine if he'd been like that from the start, but the memory of him yelling at her, and her crying over it, is kind of in my head now, and I can't shrug it away. It makes me sad how they saddled these characters, and consequently, us as the audience, with all this unnecessary baggage.

Janeway and the Doctor both clock in at number two in the romance derby, with three romantic subplots each this season. The character with the most on screen kisses is the Doctor though, with three this season. (Giving the middle aged bald guy all the chicks sure makes it feel like there's some wish fulfilment going on in that writers room lmao)

Season stats:

They started the season with 154 crew in 'The 37s'

Crewmembers killed: 6

Crewman Kurt Bandera and 2 more unnamed (Alliances)

Lt. Darwin (Meld)

Crewman Michael Jonas (Investigations)

Ensign Bennet (Innocence)

Romantic subplots:

The Doctor: 3 with kiss (Projections) (Twisted) (Lifesigns)

Kes: 1 with kiss (Projections) 1 without kiss (Parturition) 1 with cheek kiss (Tuvix) [I'm not counting her ongoing romantic subplot with Neelix since it's been a main part of her plot since the beginning of the show]

Harry: 1 with kiss (Non Sequitur)

Tom: 1 without kiss (Parturition)

Captain Janeway: 2 with kiss (Persistance of Vision) 1 without kiss (Resolutions)

B'Elanna: 1 with kiss (Persistance of Vision)

Chakotay: 1 without kiss (Resolutions) [I'm not counting Persistance of Vision on Chakotay's list, since it was a hallucination of him and not the real Chakotay that kissed B'Elanna]

Number of shuttles destroyed/lost: 3 (1 for sure, 2 probable)

1 (Initiations) [destroyed]

1 (Non Sequitur) [presumably destroyed, since Harry is beamed off shuttlecraft Drake before imminent hull breach, though whether the shuttle actually exploded and/or was unsalvageable isn't made clear]

1 (Parturition) [again, presumably destroyed, since it crashed and was damaged, and recovering the shuttle was never mentioned]

[shuttlecraft Cochrane was presumably recovered intact from the planet of lizard babies in Threshold, though we never saw it]

Number of episodes I liked/disliked/mixed reaction:

Liked: 13

Disliked: 9

Mixed: 4

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i am waaay behind. monday we did voy's "non sequitur" and "twisted" and tuesday we did voy's "parturition" and "persistence of vision."

non sequitur:

this one actually made me SOOO mad, like absolutely FUCKING livid, because on paper this concept sounds like it could be High Art. a complete tearjerker. harry kim, most unassuming guy ever, is, through a stroke of blind luck, transported back to earth, and instead of staying and enjoying having everything he wants, he CHOOSES to go back to the delta quadrant to be with his ship.

like, firstly, the idea that it's harry specifically - harry whose mother tried to send him his clarinet, harry who's trying to remain faithful to his girl back home, mister aw-shucks who-me who befriended tom paris out of compassion and who is new to this whole space travel thing. NOBODY could blame him for staying home with his girl and his career and his clarinet. the rest of the voyager crew, if they could have been asked, would have been SCREAMING at him to grab the chance with both hands and enjoy it twice as much for them. AND HE CHOOSES TO GO BACK. it shows grit, it shows maturity, and it shows how much he loves his crew

oh yeah bonus points for tom paris dying for harry not because i hate tom paris (i do but he's growing on me JUST a little) but because harry was the first person to ever see him as anything besides a complete and total waste of space, in whatever reality

unfortunately, we didn't get any of that shit in this episode. the girlfriend basically existed to cause problems on purpose and not in the fun way. first she blows off his break with reality and then she decides he needs help after he gets caught hacking starfleet or whatever. she doesn't trust him for a minute and none of her actions or dialogue makes ANY sense, let alone makes her endearing or someone we feel sad to see harry lose

secondly, we spent so much time on the mechanics of how harry got here and how he's gonna get back that we didn't have time for any extra drama. it was just him explaining stuff over and over and people getting increasingly mad/disbelieving about it

this episode should have had me sobbing into my hands. instead it was so boring i was reaching for solitaire on my phone. JUSTICE for harry kim. this could have been his MOMENT and instead it was a travesty. tngcore and i mean that in the meanest way possible

twisted:

kes's surprise party was sweet! i didn't love neelix being weird about her again though. NOW i see why everyone says he's so horrible...it's such a shame bc i REALLY liked him and i want to continue to like him, but he makes it hard. it's the exact same problem i had with geordi (he's fine if we keep him away from women but we can't seem to do that) and now i also understand why star trek fans want berman dead.

also, when tuvok almost touched janeway. HI HELLO

the rest of this was really boring. i feel like they did absolutely nothing for the entire episode, except when they were about to die, at which point they argued a little

i will say the doctor in the holodeck is fun though. he was so mad about that lady trying to mack on him. gay king <3

parturition:

the summary for this episode terrified me. "neelix and tom paris fight over kes and then raise a lizard baby together" felt like it was combining many of my least favorite things, aside from, of course, the lizard baby. it turned out to be ALARMINGLY watchable and even solved some of my neelix problems and some of my tom paris problems, assuming we stick with this development and don't reset it back to status quo

first, it must be said: the use of a Real Puppet for the lizard baby. inspired. 10/10. they don't make em like this anymore

secondly, i was LIVID when neelix started that fight (not to defend tom paris but he didn't even DO anything) but i WAS glad that kes got to be angry about it, even going so far as to snap at the doctor, who is innocent of all crimes in this particular instances. i'd be fed up too!!

i still kind of wish they had apologized to kes but whatever i'll take it

sorry, but they did kind of send tom paris to the yaoi cave with neelix there. no yaoi happened but there was a cave and there was co-parenting.

and it worked! once they found the baby and stopped being annoying it turned into quite a watchable episode. godmother neelix. i think tom daddy issues paris respected that he refuses to abandon it even when it would have saved their asses to do so and neelix official ship chef respected that tom paris figured out how to feed a baby. furthermore, once neelix showed an iota of self-awareness and they cleared the air i felt MUCH better about the whole situation. i really hope this is the last of neelix's jealousy and controlling behavior bc it's truly not it

persistence of vision:

this episode made me cry BUT only because i had already had a whole ass day. that said, did you guys know janeway's crew loves her. like they love her. she snaps at them and theyre like hey you need some shore leave. she skips lunch and gets gently ushered into the cafeteria. they treat her really niceys and it's not because women are weak it's because they LOVE HER!!!! maybe i cried when she was fed lunch. whose business is it

this is one of the only episodes i didn't mind the holodeck. i actually found myself weirdly invested in the novel plot. i think mr sideburns is keeping a wife in his attic if you know what i mean

the hallucinations were both fun and a little scary, especially once we got out of the holonovel. tom paris's DAD? TUVOK'S WIFE??? i wanna see his BABIES!!! his potential grandbabies!!!

ALSO, B'ELANNA AND CHAKOTAY? all this time she wanted him and he was with seska...AND she's gonna have to settle for tom paris...the fuck chart for this ship would be wild. star trek is always at its best when its doing unrestrained horniness i think

winding back to tom paris i like that he was like (to his dad) "i used to be so shitty and i don't want to be shitty anymore and fuck you and fuck my daddy issues also." like i'm reserving judgment out of an abundance of caution because i don't feel terribly optimistic at this time, but this IS a narrative that has the potential to compel me, assuming he actually does stop being shitty.

i don't even really care that we don't know if the aliens were ever actually there or not. like, nothing in that episode made sense, but it's wild how you can get away with that if your episode is funny or involves character work or has some other attribute of merit. like, literally anything. looking at you, tng

the doctor and kes always <3

i also really liked b'elanna and janeway's girl talk at the end. they could get it.

NEXT TIME: ds9's "the visitor" (thanks again to the person who warned me) and "hippocratic oath."

[chloe-caulfield94]

Chloe's speech in E5 always makes me sad and angry

I genuinely hate Chloe’s self-flagellating speech how she’s a bad person and doesn’t deserve to live. I always dismiss it as her depression, low self-esteem and general hopelessness talking.

Chloe’s harsh self-criticism is beyond ridiculous in a story filled with genuinely evil people, way worse than her.

Jefferson and Nathan are serial sexual predators. I really don't know how you could describe what they did to their "models" as anything other than sexual assault. It would probably be classified as rape in certain countries, like Sweden.

Victoria and her two henchwomen are sadistic bullies, who enjoy seeing others suffer. And the excuses they give are beyond pathetic. Victoria says they just wanted to teach stuck-up Kate a lesson and one of her henchwomen blurts out a total non-sequitur about having a sick mother. And they always react with indignation when Max dares to suggest that they are responsible for Kate's misery. Victoria does it even after sending Kate an apology letter. If she doesn't feel responsible, why did she write the letter then?

Frank is a greasy creep who peddles drugs to minors and threatens girls with “a blade up the ass”. But don’t worry, he wasn’t going to actually cut Max up, or at least that’s what he said after Chloe shot him when he lunged at Max with a knife.

Assholes abound in Arcadia Bay and it’s Chloe who gets to be the sacrificial lamb? Fuck that.

Maybe if Chloe's offer was framed as heroic sacrifice, instead of "redemption" I would be more open to entertain that idea. But to say that the only way for Chloe to be "redeemed" is death is an insanely puritanical judgement. What, does being a troubled teen carries the death penalty now?

[darthkvznblogs]

Total non sequitur of a question but what do you think of the DCEU?

I like the non sequitur! I hope y'all don't feel like you can only send me asks about the Kverse lol (though of course I'm always happy to answer those!)

I'll give you a very brief review of each:

-Man of Steel: I enjoyed it for the most part. I don't really gel with all the Jesus-y imagery, the bizarre choices with Jonathan, or the incredible amounts of collateral damage (you can't avoid everything but Superman would definitely try to limit it), but I kinda dig the look of all the Kryptonian stuff, I like Henry Cavill's more brooding Superman, and Zod was a cool antagonist.

-Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: wayyy too many things going on. I can't McFucking believe they made Jimmy Olsen a CIA plant and killed him off immediately. I don't completely hate that version of Lex Luthor but he gets grating pretty quickly. The Knightmare stuff is pretty eyeroll worthy IMO (especially once they double down on it later). The titular duel is pretty good, but very short, and leads into some of the worst stuff in the movie. Doomsday sucks!

-Suicide Squad: aside from some cool freaky stuff with Enchantress, and Viola Davis and Margot Robbie being great casting choices, this one's kinda nothing to me. Rick Flagg, Capt. Boomerang and Deadshot are various flavors of decent to good. Tried to do a Guardians of the Galaxy-y thing and failed miserably. Top contender for worst Joker adaptation of all time.

-Wonder Woman: Great, if very simple plot-wise. The Ares stuff at the end really lets the rest of the movie down, but most of the movie's very cool and fun. I still get chills from the no man's land scene! Chris Pine's Steve Trevor is pretty damn good (but Chris Pine is just good in general)

-Justice League (Whedon's version): I actually like the choice to have a more colorful look for a Justice League movie, but yeah, not good. To say nothing of the behind the scenes drama, they tried to do what the MCU did with the Avengers with half the build-up. Doesn't feel earned at all. Some good action and character interactions, but that's about it.

-Aquaman: Pretty fun, I really appreciate the commitment to being just kinda bonkers, from the more comic-accurate looks to the ginormous underwater battle. I don't really love Momoa's Aquaman but I didn't mind him too much on his own.

-Shazam!: One of my favorites in the DCEU. Doesn't overcomplicate itself, doesn't exhaust itself with references to other stuff, just a good story about found families with real heart, some good humor, and a decent villain.

-Birds of Prey: Other than the bizarre choice to give Cassandra Cain's name to a character that couldn't be more different, I fucking love this one. Very fun, great action, and it reminded me I have a crush on Mary Elizabeth Winstead lol

-Wonder Woman 1984: Sucks. I hate to say it, I went in thinking I'd really enjoy it but it was genuinely painful to watch for the most part. Not even the power of Pedro Pascal and Chris Pine combined could save this one.

-Zack Snyder's Justice League: Definitely an improvement overall compared to the theatrical release, but dear lord it did not need to be 4 hours long. Flash's turn-back-the-clock gambit was super cool. Legit kinda ruined by the Joker monologue in the Knightmare, lol.

-The Suicide Squad: Didn't watch it! I saw how bloody and murder-happy it'd be and just shrugged and moved on. I'm sure it's as good as people say, but I'd have to be in a very particular mood to wanna watch it, tbh.

-Black Adam: Enjoyed it quite a bit, though the presence of the JSA in the modern day with very little explanation is a bit jarring. The Rock's Black Adam is a bit too heroic and personable for my tastes but brutal enough that I'm okay with it. Kinda loved Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate (except for the suit design, I hated it)

-Shazam! Fury of the Gods: Haven't watched it yet, but I don't hear great things about it, so not super enthused about it. Probably will watch it eventually.

-The Flash: I categorically refused to watch this one because 1) I got spoiled on what happens to Supergirl and y'all know I love Kara so it pissed me off, and 2) the CGI nostalgia fest felt extremely cynical and cash-grab-y to me. Not particularly interested in watching this one, but maybe someday.

-Blue Beetle: Gods, I really wanted to watch this one in theaters. It was in my town for all of two days and I couldn't go :( I plan on watching this one soon-ish - even if it's really bad I'll probably enjoy it, I'm a Jaime simp haha :P

-Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Genuinely didn't know this one was coming out. Also not particularly interested in watching it, but also not against it, so I'll probably end up putting it on some really boring weekend hahaha.

[kendrixtermina]

Have you noticed this absurd trend Israeli propaganda has of somehow equating Palestinians (and other arabs) with Nazis?

That's a total-non-sequitur, right? Nazism grew out of european nationalism.

The Palestinians are a totally different culture from a completely different part of the world. Their writing looks different, their houses & clothing looks different, their faces look different... They got about as much to do with Nazis as the Chinese or the Cherokee.

Heck, in some ways, Islam is alot closer to & more similar to Judaism than, say, Christianity is, in terms of values & philosophy. Both believe in a very abstract god & emphasize scholarship rather than obedience, for example.

Still there is this constant need to draw this constant, totally illogical equivalence.

Like we recently there was this creepy propaganda music video that calls for the annihilation of Gaza and it described the Gazan's as "swastika bearers" - there ain't a SINGLE swastika in any of the videos coming out of Palestine.

I wonder if it is to do with displaced aggression, taking out anger on an easy, available target. It even appears in chimpanzees, which may take out their frustration on lower-ranking apes.

It's bully logic: If you feel miserable, you need someone who's more miserable than you.

In a way that is a question that has always been close to my hear albeit at a much smaller & more personal scale - I always wondered how my father could verbally & physically abuse me when the same was done to him. Knowing how much it hurts, how humiliating it is, how could he do it to me?

Turns out, some may respond to pain by wanting no one else to suffer pain & become protective of those who are hurt (that is probably why you see soo many jewish ppl protesting not just now, but for any other human rights abuse in recent years), but others grow envious of the throne, the upper end of the boot & decide what's wrong with tyranny is that they're not the ones doing the tyrannizing.

I've seen a lot of this with regards to the authoritarian left, too, like radfems - after thinking this was just a rightwing talking point I've had to painfully realize that some ppl don't want equality, for people to be seen as individuals or for the system to be abolished they want to be on top themselves.

Some will justify it with a false dichotomy that you're either the tyrant or the tyrannized, but even if that's how it started out, for many that's long given way to sadistic glee at being the tyrant. People making mocking tiktoks or propaganda songs are not the least bit scared, they're self-rightheous.

That's kinda the trajectory that produced the OG Nazism too, victim mentality progressing into self-rightheous glee. It's just the fucking drama triangle playing out on the world stage with terrifying lethal consequences.

European Politicians have been spouting canned Israel lobby taling points calling leftist anti war protesters anti-semites... - but it's not leftist anti-war protesters OR arab immigrants vandalizing synagogues and the like, it's usually far righters that are very pro-military. Like, that's very much a homegrown problem, its a remnant of 1900s militarism, not a recent import from Syria.

Well, more like displaced blame/projection in the case of the european politicians. If it's those leftists and/or refugees, they needn't clean house in their own parties...

[golden--doodler]

I saw you in my inbox and must immediately go to yours 🥺 Gotta ask you who your favorite Belcher is AND your top 10 favourite side characters 🤌

Oh no, you gave me another hard one! I guess this is going to be another long one, hahaha, get ready.

As for who my favorite Belcher is, that is so tough, almost too tough for me to answer because that changes for me every day, and I love all of the Belchers for very different, specific reasons. Tbh, I relate to all of them on some level. However, if I HAVE to choose, I will choose two, because I am still that indecisive.

I have to go with Linda as one because of her endless optimism and her constant singing spouts, because who hasn't wanted to break out into song like her every once in a while? Honestly, her outros for the show are the best. The one for "Wharf Horse" Part One? COME ON. She is just THAT girl, and she knows it--she is hilarious, she's honestly quite pretty (gotta love her in that blue dress she wore in "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal") and when you have her affection, she's with you for life, and will go to the ends of the earth for you. She will literally help you hide the evidence of a murder and go on the run for you, she is THAT loyal. Like, seriously, she planned what she would do to help Bob if he ever murdered Teddy, oh my god. And even just her support for the smaller things, like helping Bob with his dream to run the restaurant (okay, maybe this doesn't count as SMALL, but still). She is ALWAYS there to help him have a little light in his life when he needs it. She's always down to have a little fun and spice things up--I mean, who else would come up with "sexy cooking" and a "strip tease" on Valentine's Day? She's so freaking giving, to the point where it's even a detriment to her, as seen in "Terminilator II: Terminals of Endearment", where she let her mom walk all over her because thought that's what she needs to do as their daughter, which is not the case (I'm really glad Bob got upset about this for her, but I really wish she'd actually seen how terrible her parents are). I love all of her little quirks, and she is totally someone I would want to marry or at the very least be friends with irl. I think my Bisexuality is showing with this one, haha.

My second Belcher whom I love will probably be a much less popular opinion. I almost chose Tina for this one, but honestly, I have to go with Gene. He's the Belcher kid who's the most similar to Linda, so I guess that makes sense. I do sorta get why he's not everyone's favorite, but I just can't help but have the biggest soft spot for this guy. His jokes/one-liners are consistently funny, and he always provides the best levity when a scene needs it ("Nature boner!"). Plus, I really relate to his adoration of music even though he's actually not even good at it. Also, just him questioning his love of music was just super interesting overall. But his being objectively not great at playing chords doesn't even matter, because of his sheer passion--and it's this passion that led him to create the BEST songs in the entire show. I mean, "Electric Love"? "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl?" "Turkey, I Need You Beside Me?" You love to see it. These all came from his unadulterated love for music, and I think that's kind of beautiful. I also relate a lot to his love of food, especially during the episode "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid", where "Turkey, I Need You Beside Me" came from. I mean, I'm the kind of person who pays extra close attention to expiration dates and would never eat expired food (one of my pet peeves is actually when people say expiration dates are a myth), but the fact that all he wanted throughout the episode was to enjoy some of his dad's cooking with his family together on Thanksgiving is just... yeah, I feel that. It's also just so wholesome. Speaking of wholesomeness, I don't know, Gene just feels a little wholesome to me. Besides Tina, he's the nicest of the kids, and usually, despite his non-sequiturs and jokes, he just wants to do right by people, especially people like his dad, which he outright says in "Best Burger". Just him wanting Bob to be proud of him and not see him as a screw-up is so 🥺

Okay, this is already super long, oh god. Onto my ten favorite side characters!

1.) Gonna start out with Sergeant Bosco. I recently watched a compilation of him and remembered how much I love this guy, he's just so freaking funny. I love how he's a cop who's super incompetent and still gets the job done somehow--he's terrible yet great at his job, which is amazing. Especially loved how he tried to give advice on how Linda should do speed-dating in "My Fuzzy Valentine", and then almost arrested Linda for stealing his gun. And just his entire role during "Bob Day Afternoon", trying to take the phone from a screaming Louise, pffffft.

2.) Gotta mention Nat the Limo Driver! Mainly because she's LGBTQ+ and that's wonderful, love that for her. She hasn't appeared that often at all, but the few appearances she's made have been pretty great. I loved seeing her try to win her ex-girlfriend back, and her being super nice and trying to help find that darn ring in the waterpark during "The Ring (But Not Scary)". Also just the fact that she casually was transporting a snake to the aforementioned ex-girlfriend is hilarious.

3.) Regular-Sized Rudy, my beloved! He's so precious all around, I love him and everything about him. I adore how he's such an antithesis of Louise, being pretty much everything one would expect a typical fourth-grader is like, with the added bonus of unfortunately having asthma. He probably only gets a point taken away from being obsessed with Chloe Barbash, but it's fineeeeeeeee. I find the fact that he's a child of divorce super interesting as well, I don't think it'll ever get super explored, but some more on that would be cool, specifically how it's affected him mentally. He's definitely the kind of friend that Louise needs. Also shoutout to his stuffed flounder, Pancake.

4.) I have to acknowledge Gayle Genarro, Linda's younger sister. We all know Gayle. We all love to hate Gayle. Okay, hate is probably too strong a word, but she is just such an enigma of a human being that I kind of love it. Every time she's used, she's so funny and completely freaking unhinged. Sometimes it's hard to believe she and Linda are sisters, and other times it makes perfect sense. I love her saying that Linda is her "best friend and mortal enemy" in "The Pumpkinening". Honestly, that might be my favorite episode she's in. Well, besides maybe "Topsy" or that episode where she helped get Louise a filling at the dentist (I think it's "The Kids Run Away"?). But I just really like her in "The Pumpkinening" because of how close she and Linda are shown to be, and how she admits to actually loving Linda at the end. It's surprisingly a super sweet moment for this otherwise crazy, but lovable character. Everything about her and Mr. Business is top tier.

5.) Zeke! I don't know, there's something about this boy that's really grown on me over time, I want to give him some appreciation. His way of talking and his voice are so recognizable, and I love it, and I can't really explain why? But yeah, if Tina can't get with Jimmy Jr., I might just vote for her and Zeke to be a thing. I think that ship is actually getting to me, but I don't know yet. Anyway, I think we should learn more about his family history because it actually sounds really complicated and sad, yet interesting? Gotta love how much he adores his grandma and step-mom, Cheryl, that's really sweet. And him eventually being the mad pooper for Tina in "Broadcast Wagstaff School News" was great. Ooh, and learning that he has a perfect palate in "Bob and Deliver" was also great.

6.) You gotta love Teddy. He's Teddy, everyone's favorite iconic handyman (side note, that commission you did of him and Teddiursa the Pokémon was so adorable and perfect)! I NEED to know the backstory of how he met Bob and Linda, and how he fell in love with Bob's burgers. And also how it's possible that he STILL thinks their last name is Burger. He and Kathleen are actually a very sweet couple, and he's just a very loving person in general. Like Linda, he's so loyal until the end and will do ANYTHING for Bob and his family and the restaurant, even if he does get on their nerves from time to time. However, it's all out of pure love and respect for the restaurant. He's just so genuinely invested in all their lives, it can get a little weird sometimes, but for the most part, it's wholesome as heck. Love how he also got invested in the whole storyline Linda made up for the raccoons in their alley. And how he stood up for Tina when he babysat them in that one episode.

7.) Mr. Fischoeder is just... what a guy. I just saw the new April Fool's Day episode, and it made me love him even more. He's always hilarious and iconic all around, I mean, how can you not appreciate him? He doesn't seem like a great person to have as your Landlord, but just as a person, he's great. His rivalry with Felix will always be a great staple of the show, and the way he was so chill about almost dying at Felix's hands in the two-part Season 4 finale is so great. How many times has Felix attempted murder on him for him to be so calm about it? Just his random ideas in general, like in "The Oeder Games" and "To Bob, or Not to Bob" are great, as well as his overall presence. I will always love his singing in "Topsy". His Christmas song about Bourbon is top-tier, as is his outro song about being put into a volcano after he's gone so he can stay around in some sort of way.

8.) Okay, fine, I want to acknowledge Mr. Frond, too. Is he a terrible guidance counselor? Well, yes. But is he hilarious? Also yes. That brief time he dated Gayle was so strange yet so entertaining. That one scene where he made that poor kid, Nicholas, admit his deepest darkest secret because he wanted people to say if the hurricane was caused by "something bad they did"?? Oh my lord. His interactions with Louise will always be gold, especially when that one exchange where he says "You're in trouble" and Louise tells him to "Drink more cranberry juice" (Not "Urine Trouble!" >:( ). Also, his entire role in the "My Butt Has a Fever" short is perfection in terms of comedy. Him getting THAT upset over the song only to end up with it stuck in his head too and humming it later? Yup.

9.) Ms. Labonz doesn't have the right to be so funny. Why is she so funny? God. I love how she's just done with everyone 24/7, especially the aforementioned Mr. Frond, and her role in "Touch of Eval(uations)" is actually really nice. I love her telling Louise that she knows Louise is smart and capable, and just needs to apply herself more, and it ending with her getting that brand new parking spot is actually pretty well deserved. Also, she is definitely a heavy smoker. Might want to get your lungs checked out, Ms. Labonz, no offense.

10.) Consider this last space a tie between Hugo Habercore and Jimmy Jr. I couldn't go through this list without Hugo, because even though he is terrible (come on, man, chill for a second, let the Belchers live their lives in peace), man is he funny. His role in the pilot episode "Human Flesh" is iconic in and of itself, his lines are so quotable there. I'm honestly super curious about how he met Linda, and what their relationship was like while it was still going on. I'm also curious about how he became a health inspector and how he met Ron. Is it weird that I almost want him and Ron to have something going on? It sounds so random, and it is, but I don't know, he just needs someone to be with to get over Linda and be a happier/better person, and I like their dynamic. He did have that girl he went on a blind date with in "Romancing the Beef", but she's never seen or mentioned again. As for Jimmy Jr., this was a tough call. There were so many people I wanted to mention but couldn't (I mean, the Pesto twins, Courtney, Jocelyn, Mort, MARSHMALLOW--I'm so sorry I didn't put you on the list, Marshmallow) but I decided to go with Jimmy Jr. Your appreciation for him is rubbing off on me. The guy definitely needs to get better at actually committing (he IS at his worse in "V For Valentine-Detta") and I don't know if I want him to be the one for Tina, I don't think he should, but I don't know, whenever he has a genuine interaction with Tina, it just... ah. It kinda gets to me. It makes me wish he were better so they could actually just be a couple. Lord knows Tina has been wanting him long enough. Seriously girl. But yeah, I love his dancing and his general weird-but-doesn't-care-what-others-think-of-him vibe. Like in the movie when he tried to get a chicken nugget in his mouth just so he could say he did it. That's peak comedy. I love his role whenever he's in an episode, especially in "What About Job?" when Tina made him the villain just because he refused to share gum with her--he also is just a very entertaining villain. I feel like he's so close to being someone who Tina could be with, but is never right there. Oh well.

Side note: Him asking Tina on a genuine frozen yogurt date in the April Fool's Day episode is actually so sweet, what the heck.

This got way too long oh no. I hope you're able to read all of this and get some enjoyment out of it! I tried to condense it but found I had way too many thoughts on these characters. I love them all so much. I probably forgot to mention a few things and made a few mistakes, but here it is.

[adultswim2021]

Space Ghost Week

Space Ghost Coast to Coast #61: “Cahill” | August 28, 1998 | S05E04

Thank god for my Space Ghost Coast to Coast Volume 4 DVD. I bought you for a song back in 2007, and you’re not just a potential source for 200 dollars on eBay for me. You are also slightly more convenient to throw on than torrenting the episode and putting it on my Plex server is. 

Yet another episode with a “Waiting” title card and a cold open in the commissary. Shaking my damn-ass head. I really dislike this cold open. Space Ghost utters the line “Storm’s a ‘comin’” which is a perfectly fine way to set up this episode where a storm does indeed a come. But the rest of it is wacky non-sequiturs, like Moltar talking about eating Jello, and a cut away from the theme song to Space Ghost saying “I got a monkey”. Honestly, “I got a monkey” is a strong contender for least-favorite moment in the entire series. It’s especially childish and grating to me.

Speaking of writing, this one has three writers credited: Mike Lazzo, Ben Karlin (who wrote a small handful of previous episodes), and Brian Posehn from Mr. Show. I misremembered this being solely credited to Posehn. Brian is a lovely guy, so I’m glad that we can all pretend he didn’t write the stuff I didn’t like.

I do like this episode, I promise, but it’s far from a favorite. It’s a fairly normal episode, except there’s a running joke that Space Ghost is extremely afraid of lightning while an intimidating and gloomy storm breaks out. That whole element makes the episode a nice mood piece, and adds legitimate production value and humor to the show. It’s one of those things that makes Space Ghost be Space Ghost.

Space Ghost attempts to interview absolute legend Garret Morris, who is fucking hilarious in this. He might be the only original SNL cast member that got funnier with age. Dying of drugs, dying of cancer, sexually assaulting a young woman on a movie set while ironically observing Covid-19 protocols, selling vodka in a glass skull, screaming at Dan Harmon via voicemail, primarily doing voice work, and Kate & Allie are all funny in their own ways, I suppose. But Morris is one charming mother fucker and he out-charms all those bozos. Even George Coe. Even Don Novello!

Meanwhile, Moltar has meteorologist NOT AL ROKER, I’M NOT RACIST AND KNEW RIGHT AWAY THAT IT WASN’T HIM, I mean, Mark McEwen in his control room. Space Ghost is too scared of the lightening and forgets about him, basically, but Moltar has a great time with him. They have an awkward chemistry. Moltar seems like he has a bit of a man-crush on him. It’s cute stuff. Sample dialogue: 

Moltar: I would never blame you. Mark McEwen (doing an Elvis impression): Thank you very much big guy. Moltar: I’m totally serious. (awkward silence)

Speaking of Moltar being cute: there is a line in this where Moltar is reading meteorology jargon from a book and sorta fumbling over the words “Microinductor dyloptiloid” it and then sardonically adds “not a word I use everyday”. I’m genuinely not sure if that’s a written joke or if they are honoring their tradition of including improv and outtakes as if it’s written dialogue. In a script it would stick out, but it does feel like one of those moments even if it’s not. Another moment, where Space Ghost says “Is there anything more funny than somebody just drastically white trying to speak colloquial hood?” also feels blurry to me. It seems like some stock thing George Lowe would say as an actual conversation starter that was captured while he was going off-book.

One of the lesser episodes of the season, but goddamn there’s some good stuff in it.

MAIL BAG

hey kimosabe. the lewis lectures still rock my world. Any chance of bringing those dogs out of the kennel now that lazzo is gone?

Um... (theatrically) don’t look at me!

from prince-moth-mothy-moth-moth:

just found out about your page as i'm rewatching sgc2c, literally in the middle of season 5 right now, ha! looking forward to seeing your thoughts on Cahill, feels like one they had a lot of fun making

Garret Morris’ interview must’ve been so great to conduct. They must’ve been aware that they were capturing lightning that day. I hope my relatively lukewarm review didn’t disappoint too bad.

also from: prince-moth-mothy-moth-moth 

also im guessing you'll probably cover Dinner With Steven at the end of the 98 episodes?

Wasn’t planning on that in particular! Seemed like a thing to watch in preperation for covering “Snatch” next season. But I might change my mind. Generally I don’t sweat covering the Space Ghost ephemera too much because when I do Space Ghost Week it’s on an accelerated schedule. But more and more I’ve been thinking how there should be a concentrated effort to preserve all that stuff in some kind of shareable archive. At the very least I should start a spreadsheet.

[stobinesque]

C and F for the fanfic ask game ✨💕

C: What character do you identify with most?

Hilariously I think the answer for Stranger Things are all characters I don't talk about all that often 😅. Somewhat paradoxically (maybe?) I find it easier to project onto characters that aren't necessarily hugely similar to me on paper. Of the characters I yell about most frequently, the answer is absolutely Lucas, especially season 4 Lucas. After that I think Dustin might actually be the character I relate to the most? If the younger kids have a mom friend outside of Steve, it's Dustin, and I'm definitely typically a mom friend in my friend groups. But like Dustin I often end up feeling a little insecure about my position in my friend groups. I am also an annoyingly pedantic know it all 😂

I also relate to Jonathan a whole lot! Just not in ways that feel super comfortable to super closely. To borrow from The Magnus Archives for a sec for analogy purposes: if Steve would be susceptible to being trapped by The Lonely, Jonathan Byers would be susceptible becoming an Avatar for The Lonely. I am Jonathan Byers in this regard. But I have enough healthy fear of exacerbating that in myself that'd I'd rather explore loneliness through a character who is actually afraid of being lonely, rather than susceptible to embracing their loneliness.

........there's definitely not a theme going on with all of those characters. (Also Robin is included in this--really loneliness and ostracization is just a strong thematic throughline for all of the series' characters. Hmm. I'm gonna stop introspecting about this now)

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

Okay so in general I just really love writing dialogue, especially for Stobin, so this was hard!

But I think this scene from phryctoria captures most of what I both love and think I'm good at when it comes to writing stobin dialogue in particular:

“I don’t know. I don’t think...I mean I’ve never heard them say anything, you know? And, like, they were both hippies when they were younger, or whatever. It’d be weird for them to be homophobic, right?” “Adults never make any sense.” Robin huffs out a laugh. “Yeah. Right.” She twists one of her rings around her finger. “There’s no way to be totally sure of anything, right? But keeping it at my place is definitely safer than keeping it at yours.” Steve sighs. “We really need to find another job.” “Holy non-sequitur, Batman!” “Non-sequi-what?” “Random subject switch,” she explains, waving her hand. “Hey, no, not random!” He pulls a hand off the wheel to flap a hand at her. “If one of us gets kicked out it may as well be both of us getting kicked out. And I don’t know about you, but I do not have enough saved up from Scoops to try to get an apartment.” Robin grimaces. “That’s a good point.” “I’m full of good points, Bobbie.” She flashes him a lewd smile. “Not yet you aren’t,” she says with an exaggerated eyebrow waggle. “I think at this point we just have to accept that you enjoy talking about my sex life, Buckley.” Robin gasps dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest like he’s wounded her. “I can’t believe you would say something so grossly offensive.” “I hope you know that you’ve doomed yourself to a play-by-play the next time I get laid.” “Ugh. Being friends with you is such a burden.” “You love me, asshole.” “God fucking help me, dingus. I do.”

Okay, so one of my favorite things about Stobin is that at heart they're just two silly goofy guys, both of whom are super neurodivergent (to me). One of my other favorite things about Stobin is that they aren't afraid to be vulnerable with each other. However, these two things present the tricky thing about writing stobin dialogue: halfway through a serious conversation one of them is liable to derail the whole thing with an awful joke. So any time I'm writing a stobin scene I have to figure out how to let them both go on tangents and be goofy and joke around--because that levity in the midst of heartache is part of the whole backbone of their friendship!--without losing the plot of the core focus of the scene.

The snipped above isn't my favorite dialogue moment from this fic, but I do think it is one of the ones that best demonstrates how they can juggle having a serious conversation, being goofy, honoring one another's anxieties, and then being absolute shits to each other.

also idk if you saw the "do you prefer no-boundaries-stobin or 'ew don't talk to me about sex' stobin" poll, but I really enjoy playing with dialogue that is "we're going to make a lot of 'ew don't talk about sex' jokes but also talk about sex with each other All The Time."