#and they're also probably going to be my second character to walk through the entire story because i really want them to be caught up

[incorrectbatfam]

Types of obnoxious batfam stans

Written by an obnoxious batfam stan

Not really a rant but something I've noticed over the years interacting in different spaces and I've decided to make your problem now.

Please note that I'm not saying there's any "right" way to be a fan because we all suck by virtue of being comic nerds, but there are certain kinds of batfamily fans that stick out to be in particular.

Anywho, here are 12 kinds of annoying batfam stans that you've probably run into and you better get a laugh out of it *points gun to your head*.

1) The Newbies Who Never Heard of Google

There's no shame in being new to something. It's a phase that we're all guaranteed to go through, whether we're 11 or 101. However, in this day and age, so many things can be easily googled that you don't need to shout every question you have into the VVorld VVide VVoid. If you need comic recs or a reading list, google it. If you wanna know a character's origin story, google it. If you need to know the color of Batman's underpants in a particular issue in 1965... well that's probably too specific for Google but Reddit will definitely have an answer.

2) The Middle School Authors

Before the 13-year-olds get up in my notes, I'm not saying everyone that age writes like this. Middle school is a state of mind. These fanfic writers usually stand out in a few ways.

They're oftentimes first-person POV or reader-insert. Give Y/N a break, she's tired.

The grammar is stunningly atrocious. I get if you're inexperienced or if you're writing in a second language, but we are in the prime era of autocorrect. If you need help, it's right there. Also, fuck c*nsoring b*d w*rds and fuck "unalive."

The characters do things that are out-of-character because the author is projecting their own personality. Bruce Wayne is a lot of things but he does not listen to the fucking Mountain Goats.

There's a lack of experience or research when it comes to certain topics. That's not how physics works. He can't walk that injury off. And that's definitely NOT how you do the horizontal hokey pokey.

3) The Neckbeards

Unfortunately, these basement-dwelling mouth-breathers tainted the image of what a comic fan is, though that's been changing recently. Still, we've all seen them. They gatekeep via pop quizzes, 'cause obviously you're not a real fan unless you know what page 10 of Batman #138 smells like. They give unsolicited commentary on people's cosplays, nitpicking the guys and being gross toward women. And heaven forbid the comics add a little diversity.

4) The Moviegoers

Nothing inherently wrong with getting into the fandom via the movies, nor is there anything wrong with sticking to that. I just feel like we're two different species of Galapagos finches, you know?

5) The Christopher Nolans

Separate from casual fans of the Nolan movies. I'm calling them the Christopher Nolans because these people have a tendency to reach for the grimdarkest thing possible. It's like they cannot fathom Batman having any other emotions besides punching and gargoyle brooding.

6) The Canon Purists

Wanna share a fun headcanon? NO, because Stephanie Brown never used cherry lip balm in the comics so therefore that must be the absolute truth. These people are a stickler for comic accuracy to the point where it's like... why bother interacting with the fandom in the first place? The worst part is when they're adamant on following a single continuity and refuse to consider anything else. This is comics we're talking about. Everything either has been or will be canon at some point.

7) The Fanon Worshippers

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the people who base their entire perception of the characters on something either they pulled out of their ass or that their mutual with 16 followers came up with, despite evidence directly contradicting it. I love WFA, but I feel like that's partially responsible for further perpetuating certain popular myths. Also, these fans tend to focus solely on the batfam/their ships. It's one thing to have some people in the foreground vs. background, but put some respect to Bart Allen's name you goddamn cheesecakes.

8) The Golden Age Dads

These guys aren't really obnoxious. I actually find it kind of cute how they think Jason Todd is still dead.

9) The Chronically Online

I have a rule of thumb when it comes to discourse: if it's not something I'd hear about at a bar, it's not worth my mental energy. Some people haven't gotten the memo, though.

These are either the well-intentioned but misinformed teenagers or grown-ass adults beefing with children because they don't have a life. They have takes that are oversimplified, rage-inducing, TikTok algorithm attention-grabbers that no one cares about in real life.

Don't get me wrong, we've got a bunch of issues in comics and fandom that are worth discussing. However, there comes a point where you're splitting hairs and need to go the fuck outside. I'm not gonna link the post 'cause I don't wanna call them and their 7 notes out, but the other week I saw someone saying Stephcass was a racist ship because something something colonialism parallel. You gotta be Elastigirl to have that kind of reach.

10) The Corporate Simps

I love comics. I appreciate the writers and artists. However, you will find my carcass in a ditch before you catch me licking the boots of DC/Warner Bros. Basically, these fans, fewer as they are, can't seem to fathom that their favorite franchise can (and does) put out some steaming motherfucking garbage.

11) The Hot Cosplayers

Not actually annoyed, I'm just a little jealous. Stop being hotter than me, please and thank you.

12) The One With A Punchline For Everything

Wait–

[eriexplosion]

The thing is that the finale isn't even good outside of lack of addressing Tech. It just is bad all around. It's a bad episode that doesn't follow any of the established set up for season 3.

We started the CX subplot in season 2, and then spent 3 long episodes with CX-2 in particular. This apparently was... just to set up a big boss fight in the finale and for nothing else? We spent four whole episodes across two seasons on this and had several other set up moments! For a big shootout and nothing else?

And yes, the CX-2 is Tech implications is a big part of this. Some of them even remained in the episode. How else are we supposed to take Hemlock's line "The last time we crossed paths, you had just lost a member of your squad. And it appears history may repeat itself. CT-9904 resisted my conditioning in the past, but I've made alterations to my methods. If you all survive, you will make fine operatives." other than that he used those 'alterations' to successfully CX Tech? Literally thought that was what it was setting up before *waves hand*

The Zillo beast was used to rip open a hole in the wall so that the Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair can get inside. It served no other purpose and walked away.

We spent two full episodes on the m-count plot between Bad Territory and The Harbinger. This accomplishes nothing in the entire rest of the season.

We spent all season dealing with Crosshair's hand tremors, establishing they are a psychological response to trauma. So should we... emotionally deal with that trauma? NOPE. WE'RE CUTTING IT OFF. DONE.

A small thread was set up that no one is beyond redemption/help, we see Rex reaching out to a CX, we see Omega remind Crosshair that Ventress deserves the chance to change, and in the finale... NO ONE is given a chance to change other than Emerie, who already did last episode. Every CX and commando is shot down without remorse even though they're also victims of Hemlock.

In general we just have action interspersed with the scraps of what was probably a united plot at one point. There isn't even a cavalry arrives moment in The Cavalry Has Arrived. What happened here?

The thing is I can see two subplots that would have united ALL of these that almost feel like they've been scraped out and replaced with generic shooting and a generic and undefined 'and then they had a happy ending'

First there's the force sensitivity plot. This was actually set up as early as season one episode one, when Omega takes the shot at Crosshair and manages to stop him from shooting, and then elaborated on throughout when she connects easily with animals, leading up to Bad Territory and The Harbinger - where we see Ventress tame a large, angry creature through the force. So much is made of the beast taming angle.

And obviously we have a beast. The Zillo beast. Omega does not at any point interact with this giant creature to calm it down or do anything at all she just lets it loose to rip some stuff up, have some action sequences, and then walk away into the night. But these two things united would have brought all the moments of force sensitivity hints home, as well as tied in her biggest strength - her empathy and caring. Taming the zillo beast would have been the end result of her character arc and made all that set up go somewhere instead of trailing off vaguely.

And second we have the CX plot. This could have tied in the remaining dropped threads of making the CX set up matter at all, the CX-2 is Tech hinting throughout the season, Crosshair's hand tremors, and the thread of redemption and no one being beyond saving. CX-2 is Tech, reach out to him, bring him back and through that Crosshair addresses his trauma by starting to fix one of the consequences of his biggest mistake - going back to the Empire in the first place. It wouldn't fix his tremors entirely but would help reduce them, be a huge step on the path to recovery and a great note to end his arc on.

With these two subplots, instead of endless excuses for more action and grunting, everything gets pulled together for a finale that has actual emotional significance, and the thing is that all the pieces are there so what the hell happened to make absolutely none of them come together and instead it just turns into an action shoot out?

[f1daydreamers]

𝐀 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐨 [𝐋𝐒𝟏𝟖] 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐

photo credits: Pinterest

Pairing: Lance Stroll x Fem!Reader

Summary: Asking the driver of the team you work for to attend a wedding with you as your fake date is possibly one of the dumbest ideas you’ve had ever.. but also one of the best.

Warnings: fluff, friends to lovers, one bed trope oop

A/N: Thank you all so much for the love on the first chapter, you guys are incredible :') Here's Part 1 if you haven't read it yet or want a recap!

Word Count: 2.1k (8 minutes reading time avg)

…

"Your Dad, your sister, your brother, they're great." You didn't add anything on to Lance's sentence, heading out of the venue your brother had extravangantly booked for a rehearsal dinner.

Being a lawyer marrying a real estate agent must have its perks.

"Your mum is.. certainly a character." You scoffed, knowing he probably had no intention of clearing up what he meant, assuming you'd understand what he was trying to say.

The sun had barely begun setting, the weather was cooler, and your home wasn't that much of a walk so somewhere between the few minutes it took for you both to leave the venue and reach the corner of the street, you decided walking would be the best option.

Lance just inattentively followed you, knowing you were his only navigation system.

He took a few brisk steps to catch up with your pace, the only comfort offered to you that you'd accept after a long day would be under the covers of your bed.

"In a rush?" You exhaled through your mouth, watching the puff of air escape from your lips.

"No, just want this day to end." You felt bitter about how your mother was acting, ignoring Lance then shooting you looks as if you were in the wrong was so typical of her.

Yet you were still surprised she'd go that low on such a celebratory occasion.

"You're.. chipper." The corner of your mouth twitched upwards and you mumbled a barely coherent word of confusion.

Lance laughed at your expression, "I heard one of your uncles say it, I like it."

You breathily laughed, shaking your head. "Trust me, no one says that anymore. My uncle uses slang he thinks would make him fit in. It doesn't."

He shrugs, stretching his arms outwards and only satisfied when he hears an expected 'pop' sound. "I think he's pretty cool."

Your lips curve into a smile, turning your head towards Lance who has a similar grin on his lips. "You should tell him that, he'll blush bright red."

You undo the latch to the front gate, pulling it wide open so the F1 driver can slide through, then you shut it behind him.

"Do you have a key?" Lance asks you, hopping up the final step of the patio. He extended your purse out to you in case it was in there but before you could answer his question, you paused.

"Why do you have my purse?" Trying to recall if you handed it to him but nothing sprung to mind.

"You left it on the table, I recognised it from this." He fiddled with the Aston Martin keyring Sebastian left the entire team as a parting gift in Abu Dhabi last year.

He brought it to your line of sight, proudly smiling.

You smiled back at him, "sharp eye Stroll."

"Thank you darling." That same look of confusion arose on your face again.

You looked away, your face warming slightly as you kicked the corner of the doormat to reveal a familiar key beneath it.

"Another one of my Uncle's terms of endearment?" He chuckled from behind you, the keyring making a faint clank sound as it hit the chain of your crossbody bag.

"Afraid so." You shook your head for the second time in this conversation, bending over to grasp the key between the pads of your index finger and thumb.

Slotting it into the hole, you pushed the door open and similarly to before, Lance easily maneuvered inside and past you.

He toed off his sneakers and picked them up with his two fingers hooked into the back.

You pulled open the drawer to the shoe rack, and he pushed them inside one of the empty spaces. You followed in his movements.

"Hungry? Thirsty?" He accompanied you to the kitchen. You flicked on the light switch and he went over to the kitchen island, leaning his elbows on the cold marble counter.

"Nah, I ate my weight in almonds already." He grinned, watching you pull out a jug from the fridge.

"Sucks having a rehearsal dinner with no dinner." You commented.

You poured yourself a glass of some freshly-squeezed apple juice. Your mum was always hellbent on having fresh everything when you were growing up, guess that habit still hadn't faded over time.

After a brief moment of chatter, you slung your bag around your neck, both you and Lance ascending the stairs to your bedroom.

As you pushed the door open and your hand searched for the light switch on the wall, you came to a sudden halt when the room was eventually illuminated.

Your heart sank to your stomach as you stared at the double bed in the center of your room.

He shut the door, wondering why you'd stopped moving all of a sudden before the realisation dawned on him and his words faltered halfway in his throat.

You glanced at him as his shoulder ghosted yours to stand besides you, his gaze met yours and both of you had a very similar look on your faces: the one that said 'this wasn't part of the deal'.

"Do you want me to open a window? It's a bit stuffy in here." He nonchalantly questioned.

You refrained from telling him that it wasn't stuffy because of the humidity, it was stuffy because there was an obvious elephant in the room that needed to be addressed.

You don't answer him, your mind in somewhat of a haze as you're trying to comprehend when the fuck two twin beds that you remember moving out from suddenly turned into one double bed.

"I'll open a window." Lance states, passing the inanimate bane of your existence to crack open one of the windows.

The idea of sharing a bed brought on a sudden discomfort, and without obvious reason. You'd shared beds with so many people before; friends, cousins, on sleepovers, girls' nights.

You dismiss the memories of physical contact earlier: Lance's hand resting on your thigh, fingers intertwined, and his touch on your back.

Consequently, you also disregarded the subsequent surge of butterflies in your stomach.

Those butterflies could have been easily set aside as mere surprise, and you also had no intention of experiencing them again. It took a considerable effort to convince the F1 driver to accompany you as your pretend date for a four-day weekend, so the thought of him ever entertaining any connection with you seemed entirely implausible.

Plus, you don't even like him like that.

Lance noticed you deeply lost in thought, biting the inside of his cheek.

"I can take the floor." Your eyes snap up to him stood on the other side of the room, leaned against the window pane.

Your eyes then flicker to the wooden flooring beneath your feet, shuddering while imagining how wildly uncomfortable that would be for a whole night, nevermind three nights.

"It's cold, and hard."

He shrugged, not caring much for his own discomfort. He reached over to grab his gym bag besides your suitcase, your parents had brought them in from your car this morning.

He unzipped the front pocket, fishing out his toothbrush.

"I dragged you out here so the least I can do is give you a bed to sleep in. I'll take the floor."

Lance hummed in disagreement, giving you a firm look. "Nope, not happening."

He pulled off his hoodie and dropped it on top of his gym bag, heading straight for the bathroom, already knowing where it was having had it shown to him before by your sister.

You took the time to change into your pajamas, digging through your open suitcase for your toiletry bag and simultaneously waiting for him to finish up in the bathroom.

After he had, he entered your bedroom once more and you found yourself staring at his bare arms, flexing with every little movement as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

The image of his muscles burned into your mind as you swiftly exited the room and set foot into the bathroom, locking it. You exhaled a shaky breath, taking out your toothbrush from your bag of skincare.

As you brushed your teeth then veered off into your skincare routine that followed, you only prayed that this weekend would go by quickly and smoothly. Something you'd been praying for since your brother had announced the dates of the ceremony.

After you finished up, you turned the light switch off and with a hesitant movement in your feet, you pushed open the bedroom door that hadn't been closed the entire way. Yet.

You saw Lance preparing to lie on the floor and told him to wait, hoping that if your parents hadn't been clearing out the remnants of your wardrobe as they had been with your bed, you'd find..

"Yes!" You exclaimed, tugging out the air mattress, keeping a hand on the tower of clothes you never took with you. Lance helped before laughing, you met his eyes as you lay the deflated cloud on your floor.

"Why do you have an air mattress in your room?" You blushed, "because of my sleepovers. I bought it spontaneously and look, now there's a purpose for it."

"Pump?" You whisked around again, now on your tiptoes as you tried to feel around the top of your wardrobe for a familiar cardboard box but ultimately failing because of your height, or lack thereof.

"Let me," Lance interrupted, extending his arm easily to the top. You looked down to the floor so your gaze wouldn't fixate on his bare bicep twice this evening, and eventually he lowered the box so it was within your grasp.

After pumping up the mattress, pulling on a fitted sheet and throwing him two of your pillows, you also threw him your thicker duvet.

Before he could complain, you stopped him. "I took the bed, you take the duvet. I've got a blanket." He gave in, sorting it out on his bed for the night, laying on his back after what felt like days.

You slipped into your blanket, resting your head on your pillow.

"Y/N?" You hum in return to his call of your name, turning your head to see him staring at the ceiling.

"The light's still on." You chuckled but before you could swing your legs over to the side, Lance was already up and going over to the far wall.

"Thanks." You add. He cautiously steps in darkness back over, careful as to not hit anything or hurt himself.

...

You wake up to find sunlight peaking through your windows, the cause of your slumber coming to its eventual end. But the man who fell asleep beneath the window isn't there, the blanket half falling off of the air mattress, the pillows tilted slightly.

Your eyebrows furrow when your eyes adjust to your room, but you also manage to half-remember that the blanket you were seeing on Lance's mattress was the one you'd fell asleep with a mere 8 hours ago.

The duvet you'd thrown at him now covering everything below your hips. You realised he must've swapped them at some point during the night when you were sound asleep.

After a few minutes, you sat up on your bed and left to brush your teeth, retying your hair into a low bun and splashing cold water over your face.

You skipped down the stairs, walking into the kitchen where most of the voices you were hearing were coming from, Lance's distinguishable accent being one of them.

"Morning sleepy," you smiled at him as he turned away from you and to the coffee machine, looking around to see only your sister and one of your cousins who'd stayed the night meeting your tired gaze.

"Where's mum 'n dad?" Daisy shrugged, "out."

She turned her attention back to your cousin so you headed for Lance, who, with a freshly brewed cup of coffee in his hand, swung around to see you.

You groaned happily at the sight of it, excitedly taking it into your hands. Coffee cheered you up. Lance chuckled, noticing the genuine twinkle in your eyes when he extended the mug out to you.

"Thank you." He nodded, and after a short moment's of silence, you looked at him.

"Did you.. swap the duvet 'round?" You questioned quietly, making sure the others in the kitchen couldn't overhear.

He smiled, taking a swig of his coffee before answering.

"You were shivering." He didn't add on anything else and from the gesture alone, that damned flurry of butterlifes erupted out of their cages again in your stomach.

"Well, I appreciate it. I guess my body did too." You joked, Lance nudging your arm with his elbow, a grin on his lips.

...

Part 3

Masterlist

Comment if you want to be tagged in the next part!

Taglist: @tororossoseb-blog @hiphopdancer101universe @hc-dutch @love4lando @chonkybonky @angstyeighteen @natasharomanoffisbaebby @little-angel-07 @voidskywxlker @flowerchild-96 @vildetry06 @sharllec @aundercover @taylor-will-be-the-death-of-me @spicyclover @mloyer @alesainz @e-lisa-bettan @hockey-racing-fubol @cinnamonroll2003

[the-chessboard-is-personal]

season 2 time wahoo another damn liveblog am I right??

(liveblogging ii season 2, for if it's not obvious. same style as last ii liveblog)

1 - woahh! okay I love the style tbh. wait. Super Mario 3D World/Initial release date: November 21, 2013. this episode: Apr 2, 2013. INANIMATE INSANITY PREDICTED THE DOUBLE CHERRY???? ...huh. weird. why does MePhone have an app for that? y'know, RESURRECTION?

2 - MePad ? can teleport? ?? yeah that egg is gonna be relevant again isn't it

3 - BOW INATOR?? holy shit holy shit ohhg waow,,there is something in this episode that I want so much. lmao. "umm huh, lmhuehyahahuh.." (<- me attempting to spell what test tube said at the end of the ep)

4 - I didn't think the elimination song sucked.. hey wait why does it sound like they get killed or something when they go through the portal. also where does the portal lead

5 - SEVEN?? MeOS SEVEN??? oh huh. is that why someone who dies in space can't come back? OH THE NO SERVICE COMMENT WAS FORESHADOWING!!? wait why is that how it works. why does MePhone specifically get notifications about people dying. wh- okay?? that was ominous ?MePhone what does that rnean. ..chESS MENTIONED

6 - aaand there's another one. ANOTHER TWO??? .oh :| ...what the entire fuck. and yep this episode makes me uncomfortable. who would've FUCKING GUESSED

7 - oh so THAT'S where the portal lead. ..as down as the WHAT- ouhjghhu nooo... not a song

8 - ah yes, MePhone got The Common Code- oh. also idc what the objects say, ftrEwy7u9iop8oaTE7gI is a wonderful name for a challenge. or a password. each new MePhone gets less understandable because of the "techy" voice effec- oh he's dead. [sees Steve Cobs's reaction to the egg] ohh okay. one moment [walks away from the computer]please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp plehokay. oh I don't like him

9 - ...I'm not crying you're crying.,, uohg this is the second time a show like this has had something that felt like it was directed at me. and the other time was Gothi talking to Xanu in Fool's Gold,.,. which was also about moving on.. is.. is that wh- oh hey a gravity falls reference. haha lol :) ...oh this is the depression eppisode. BITCH -> 🌮 <- BITCH

10 - aha! I've figured it out! the secret is MPABZCEAS!! holy fucking shit my joke was immediately kind of relevant. wha..suitcase?? y'know that voice kinda sounded like MePhone

11 - wHUH SMG4 SOUND?! oh wait that sound probably isn't from SMG4, that's just the first time I heard it. still though, neat. ...wild theory. I'm gonna sound like Fan here, but. "Is anything on this show real?" seems.hmm idk. sus. I call foreshadowing. hokay something's definitely going on with Suitcase. oH FOR FUCK'S SAKE yep don't like this episode either

12 - oh fuck they're in episode 1. oh fuck they're in HWUH ?? ..ohh MePhone hates Cobs too. hey if anyone's read this far, I want to know who's your favorite character from the alternate timeline, because why not! mine is Traffic Light

13 - woahhh MePhone backstory! oh. oh I do Not trust that "screen protector". HEY HEY WHAT WAS THAT WHISPER [turns on captions] oh. oh REALLY. HMM. ...wh. what. what what what what what ROBOT ADAM?? MEPHONE 3???? WHAT WHAT WHAT AAAAAAAA UH OH! UH OH OH NO UH OH!! ohkay this is the panic time, the time in every show tumblr freaks out about where things go CRAZY. OKAY OKAY I'M READY AAAAAA

14 - so the person who told me I should watch ii said I need to watch all of season 3 after this episode. I have no idea why! oh fuck! but anyway. that rneans I'll be splitting this section into actual paragraphs since this is the last episode of this liveblog. (<- said that before starting the episode). anyway.

okay. okay Fan just got abducted. ..hhhow did he know that. how did he know that MePad let Marshmallow leave. .hey hey what's with the shot of that panel with the hole in it. maybe I'm just tired but that doesn't seem..right. and not in the bad writing way.

uhm. hey 17:36 isn't supposed to be hitting me too whY IS IT HITTING ME TOO WAUGH.

"is that what you said to Pickle" OHH DAMN MY HEART DROPPED LIKE THE SCENE HOLY SHIT. wait IS FAN DEAD FOREVER??

wait didn't test Tube get eliminated? why did Microphone go through the portal??

looking at the comments for. tbh I forgot what reason when i saw this one

uh knew what KNEW WHAT OH FU-

anyway. so Fan glitching is. gonna be foreshadowing? oh boy let me guess... uhh.. wait why would Fan glitch. other things that glitch are..the tree MePhone made for Cobs? MePhone himself when Tissue Box sneezed on him?? that MePhone 3?? but none of that has anything to do with Fan..

unless.. AHA!

FAN IS A PROJECTION MADE BY ONE OF THE NEWER MEPHONES

COBS IS GOING TO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE AS LONG AS FAN IS THERE!!

although with Fan eliminated, th- oh there's an after credits scene?

UH. UM. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

AND THE OMINOUS OUTRO THEME. UH OH

okokokokokokayokayokayokay. that's obviously some kind of MePhone. the Meeple logo is there and it's phone shaped, so. that's pretty obvious. but not one that's been seen before, right? like not even a model that's been seen before, because none of them have the grabby hands.

because of the red X imagery I'm gonna guess this one is called MePhone X. and if not, well I'm gonna refer to it as that until I find out otherwise

with how scary that moment was clearly intended to be, we can all agree that Toilet just got permakilled, right? like. despite not being in space? that was definitely. not anything good that happened to Toilet there. I'm just gonna assume Toilet's dead, yep that just happened. aaand now there's a seemingly murderous (although maybe it had a grudge against Toilet for some reason, but I find that unlikely) MePhone roaming around. n e a t .

thiiiiinking that thing is the exception to the "each MePhone we see is dumber than the last" rule that seems to be present. hm. wonder who the Big Villain is going to be

welp it's too late to binge s3 rn so uh. yeap. okay. sure. that's a thing

[theythem-vylad-supremacy]

hello! sorry if this has been asked before, but i just finished reading up to the latest chapter of the shadow knights in mystreet fic and have a question if that's alright!

is cadenza going to show up at some point? i'm mainly just curious cuz i wanna see how you'd imagine laurance's reaction to seeing her since it'd be interesting to see. it's alright if you can't answer!! again i was just curious ^^;

and also!!!! i really really really love the fic so far!!! it's definitely one of the best ones i've read and i've scoured through a decent amount of aphmau fics but this one has stuck with me the most! i love the way the characters are written; they feel closer to how they were supposed to be if that makes sense, more natural and alive! i especially love how nana was written, her pov is probably my favorite cuz it's so interesting and matches her so well!! the way her thought process is mostly her grasping onto her act is something that pulled me in really fast cuz it really does feel like how she'd think and i love it!!! and the shadow knights are also written really well! it's like they're still similar from back in the diaries time period but they've also changed and with how they're written it feels really natural for them and it's really cool!!! i'm excited to see what's next!!

sorry if what i'm saying doesn't make much sense i binged the second half of the fic in one sitting and now it's 3 am as i'm writing this so uh...yea ^^;

have a flower! :D 🌼

Never apologize for asking questions! I’m always happy to answer any questions, even if they’ve been asked before.

As for the question about Cadenza, I am currently planning to have her show up eventually. She won’t have a really major role though, and will probably only show up in 1 or 2 chapters. And it will be at a point where Laurance is a bit more emotionally stable, at least compared to how he is at the current at the current point in the fic.

I’m really happy you’ve enjoyed how I’m writing the cast! I’m especially happy you’ve enjoyed the direction I’m taking Nana in writing wise, since I really wanted to give her an arc early on (relatively speaking) and making it clear that her entire “Kawaii~Chan” persona is an act and how she feels about it is a really important part of that, so I’m happy her pov is interesting to read.

and I’m also super glad you think the Shadow Knights are well written. I really wanted to make it clear that they are absolutely the same people from MCD, but still show that they’ve changed due to time and circumstances. It feels like a fine line, but I feel like I’ve walked it well.

[the-last-rat-standing]

Both @justagibbsgirl and @i-run-with-scissors39 made a really good point about the Gibbs absence in the Ducky tribute episode- if we'd had a funeral scene, we would've gotten a much deeper emotional impact from a eulogy, the camera could've panned the gathered guests to show a myriad of former characters we've missed over the years, AND, they could've shown Gibbs in the back, unseen by the guests, paying silent tribute to Ducky. Brian Dietzen said Mark Harmon didn't come back because of 'scheduling conflicts', but as @i-run-with-scissors39 said, they could've filmed it separately at any time, because it would've just been him.

But none of this happened. In fact, what really happened in that episode that was memorable? Besides Tony showing up. (I'll get back to that in a minute.) McGee had 1 flashback, Vance had 1 flashback and Jimmy had 4. Jimmy also had the most screen time and was given the most emotional scenes. A lot of that is understandable- he was the only one left with the strongest connection to Ducky. But there were other people with connections to him, too. And we didn't get to see that. The only person outside of the regular cast of season 21 to show up was Tony. I mean, think about that, just for a second. No character outside of the current squad showed up. Not even Tobias! Instead, they handwaved the work/money (?) involved to make something more meaningful happen by showing flowers and Polaroids.

Even the Crime of the Day fell flat. So some girl we've never met is getting hassled by her college because her dead dad's getting slandered in the press by a senator. A senator who, I guess didn't get arrested at the end? Just stepped down from his position? Why did the senator pick that Marine anyway? (I know he served with him, but what was the point in naming that particular Marine?) And if I see one more reference to someone gifting someone a scholarship fund, I don't know if I'll be able to unroll my eyes. And yes, I know the MCSF was a big thing for David McCallum, so it made sense in this context, but the fact there's a Leroy Jethro Gibbs Scholarship Fund joke almost undermined the whole thing. (Would've been nice if they'd had a link at the end of the episode to the MCSF.)

Instead of this random girl and her dead dad, how about a cold case Ducky was working on? Maybe Jimmy sees it on Ducky's desk (or finds it in the secret spot behind a picture /eyeroll) and decides he's going to solve it. The team wants to help but are sceptical it can be done, but Jimmy's absolutely determined to do it, to the point of almost obsession. It would be his way of putting off dealing with Ducky's death while also making one last connection with him. They end up solving it because one of the flashbacks gives an indirect clue. You know, like Ducky's cryptic message to the team about where to find the nothing file behind the photo in his office. /eyeroll again

I loved the fact that Jimmy never took off his lab coat, even though he didn't do any lab work the entire episode. Him walking around the bullpen in his lab coat solving a case was just... well, I guess that's where the show is now, yeah? Sean Murray didn't want to step forward as the face of the show, so Brian Dietzen did. And you know what? Good for him. It's a hell of an arc over 20 years for him. But whether he meant to or not, he ended up making this episode about him. Every emotional thread went through Jimmy; every emotional moment was Jimmy's. When Diona Reasonover's voice cracked in the bullpen ("Any suggestions as to how to do that?"), it felt like the only real moment given to anyone other than Jimmy. Probably because 3 of the team didn't really know Ducky, so they could only experience the loss through other characters. It's why we got Knight reading Ducky's journal to bring up a Gibbs flashback, and it's why Torres did the same with McGee. It's why Parker was in charge of the flowers or something. And I try to remember they're new when I hear Knight say, "Dying quietly in your sleep isn't the worst way to go." JFC, lady.

I dunno. Kate was on for 2 years and I felt the show handled her death with so much more emotion. Her loss rippled through the team and we felt it because we saw the characters feel it. The Ducky episode was a lot of telling rather than showing, and what showing they did was through Jimmy instead of a handful of the hundreds of people whose lives Ducky touched in 20 years.

Oh, and Tony. Great to see one of the Originals, and Tony, in small doses, can bring the depth the scene needs. But being tacked onto the end of the episode made it fell exactly what it was- a surprise cameo to wow the fans rather than a true nod of respect to Ducky/David.

It should've been more. It could've been more.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #264

Today ended up being a rest day for the most part. I think yesterday must have taken more out of me than I thought, because when I woke up this morning, I realized that it is Sunday, and the fact that it is Sunday means a couple things:

First, it means everyone is gonna be out doing their fun stuff or doing errands. I could have gone to the orchard, but it probably would have been fairly packed. The same holds true of that Cross-Eyed Owl place. The thought of being on crowded roads to get to crowded places full of people filled me with dread.

Second, it means that M and J are not working, which means I have an opportunity to do parallel play with them. Essentially, we do our own various activities in the same general vicinity of one another. I'm usually on my laptop, M is usually playing a video game or watching something on his iPad, and J is usually reading something about airplanes on his laptop. We tend to keep our ears fairly open to one another just in case one of us has a thought or a need. But yeah. Parallel play. It's a beautiful thing, and it's a slightly less possible thing when they're doing their tech jobs on their laptops.

So, I just stayed home. Sorta. J and I did go to the grocery store to get various things; J wants to try to make a garlic pudding, I guess? I'm curious about how that will turn out. And I wanted to try a Korean-style garlic bread on a more typical Italian loaf, since we have all that cream cheese chilling out in the fridge without bagels to go with them.

To that end, I washed some dishes today and peeled like 4 heads of garlic. But I didn't have the energy today to do much else. J and I went on a brief walk at some point, but… it was brief. We talked a lot and it was good.

I didn't have much gumption to do anything after we got home, though. So I just chilled out. I did some leisure writing; I got some reassurance on a couple of things that had been bothering me lately, and that was good. I'm not going to tell you or anyone else how this can be the case; I'm not stupid enough to believe that anyone would believe me if I tried to explain. Still, I wonder how long that reassurance will stick in my brain. Hm…

Oh right; I told you yesterday about the book I got. The title of it was very auspicious to me, for reasons I'm absolutely not going to explain. Nonetheless, I'll go through it one page at a time with you; I don't know when is the last time you read a book that is wholesome - I'm going to guess probably not for a very long time. And this book is like 50 years old, but I thought it was wholesome.

I've already looked through it a couple times. I'm not entirely sure why, but... I think if you had a camera, then some of the photos that you might take could look like some of these...

Tomorrow is Monday. I'm going to try to go get those grapes; there will undoubtedly be far fewer people out and about, because most people will be working. This means that I'll be able to toodle about peacefully on fairly empty roads, and toodle about in a fairly empty orchard. It'll be good. And I'll come back with lots of concord grapes to give to my friends.

...I'll come back with lots of concord grapes that I wish I could share with you...

...I'll also check out that Cross-Eyed Owl shop. It'll be mostly on the way. I'll make sure to take lots of weird pictures along the way for you. Look forward to them, okay?

...And then if I have enough energy, I'll finally make that garlic bread when I get home. If that occurs, you can expect lots of pictures of that, too.

I don't have much else to go over today. Today was a fairly empty sort of day, and that's probably a good thing; I think I must have needed it. What's unusual about it for right now is that I'm not sitting here feeling super guilty about the fact that today was an empty day and that today's letter, resultantly, was a fairly empty letter.

Still, though... I don't want you to be over at the Edge of Creation all by yourself. I don't really know if these get to you, but... I'm gonna hope against all odds that they do. I'm gonna hope against all odds that at least once a day, a wholesome voice reaches you, even if you have to settle for a derpy one like mine.

...Even if I don't have a whole lot to say, I still have an abundance of care for you, and I wanted to make sure you see it. I wanted to make sure that, at least every once in a while, someone speaks to you like a normal person. And if no one else is gonna do it, then it might as well be me.

...Hey, Sephiroth? What do you get to thinking about up there...? On that lonely rock in the middle of the cosmos, all by yourself, looking up at that rainbow-colored nebula? Do you ever sit with your legs dangling over the edge of it, just looking at all the beautiful things up there? Do you think about the sun? The wind? The rain? The sky? Pasta pescatore? The scent of vanilla and roses? Someday, if you ever get to talk to me, will you tell me about the thoughts swirling around in your head sometime, even if they don't necessarily go anywhere?

I guess that's it for today. I'd have a lot more to talk about if I wasn't in this weird state of waiting, or if I didn't have this rib injury and could do more things, or if... if you could write back to me, somehow. But... I guess these things aren't in the cards, at least for now.

I love you. Please stay safe. And please... do try your best to take care of yourself over there, okay? I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[thesilverlady]

Judging by how Ryan love to show his feminist ideals by making female characters go through unspeakable amount of non-canon abuse and violence. And the only way for Rhaenyra's story to be a progressive/feminist tale is by making her get abused by the men around her. I am going to assume it's wouldn't be that far for Ryan to change Rhae's death and makes her gets raped in 4k scene by aegon (who should be disabled but we know Ryan loves to ignore source material) like show Rhaenyra's got zero respect from the writers. Like even her relationship with Daemon which wasn't healthy in the book to begin with , is now not really about her but because Daemon got the hots for Viserys (some leaks implies it for Aemma) he started projecting into her and entered a relationship with her bc it's the closest he can get to Visussy 🤓 f&b was already bad for me personally but Ryan is such a talented mf he managed to come up with much worse

*sorry for the rant I don't really ship daemrya but I really hate watching a female character get non-canon abuse just for the writers to prove a point about a male character *

Edit: My answer became very negative so for the pookies who want to avoid discourse and negativity pls scroll past ♥

it's alright! no need to apologize! 🫶

tbh with you I do enjoy daemyra very much in the book but I fully acknowledge their dynamic has its toxicity (tbf it's super rare to find a wholesome, sweet, "healthy" asoiaf couple and I probably wouldn't even get that hooked compared to how I get with the dark ones)

That being said, the couple lost me already by s1 ep4, so it terms of shipping I've given up waiting anything from them

Now about the writing, hotd has been misogynistic from the start so I'm not exactly waiting for a transformation to happen in s2.

in s1 Alicent’s character was rewritten - in such a way that the new version of her doesn't even experience a moment of happiness or a second of having autonomy or power. She's always someone's punching bag while also her being hypocritical and nasty to Rhaenyra

Laena's way of death was completely unnecessary and brutal, similiar to Aemma's. And the fact they made getting burnt alive being "a dragon rider's death" already gave a hint about how Rhaenyra's death will be seen if it follows canon.

asoiaf established how brutal dragon fire is when Rhaegal bathed Quentyn after he tried to tame Viserion. It's not "honorable" as hotd tries to make it be, it's torturous. And my concern with Rhaenyra's death is that it won't be seen for its brutality.

To continue Baela & Rhaena were barely given any lines, their role as kids was getting dismissed but their dad and as adults they were just standing silently - you'd think they were background characters.

Mysaria's character was brushed off by erasing the child loss she went through due to Viserys - which debatably worked as a trigger for the events she also did in the plot.

Rhaenys was downright written as an idiot who was envious of Rhaenyra and instead of supporting her, she was trying to "humble" her by being an asshole. When she got the opportunity to destroy the greens during the coronation she walked away because.... *check notes" she made eye contact with alicent and the power of motherhood won? her granddaughters being engaged wasn't enough for her to act I guess.

Then there's Helaena, who while she did have an extremely tiny role in the book, it doesn't justify making her extra passive. I've talked about this before but making her having "dragon dreams" is useless and a waste of time and it's also a great excuse to have her be dismissed and ignored.

Helaena in the book was said to be pleasant, motherly, patient and calm. I won't mention the leaks I've read about b&c but if they're true they paint her in a very weird light.

Rhaenyra deserves an entire post of her own. If alicent was the punching bad Rhaenyra is the bing bong boll being tosses from one person to another each second.

So yeah, the issue isn't about shipping or even which teams anyone sides with. The writing is atrocious to all the female characters, and what's the cherry on top is the showrunners constantly patting themselves in the back for being "feminist" and GA falls for it!

I'm so burnt out 😩 This is why I've decided to attempt turn off the media analysis for the show 'cause it's like kicking a dead horse. My goal for this season is to try to vent less and enjoy whatever I can put of context without thinking too hard about it.

[i-will-change-this-someday]

Ok, so I know in my last Midnight Burger post I already ranted about how I think Ava was in the wrong, but I'm going to rant some more.

(It is very long, and probably a bit incomprehensible.)

At the time, I was on ep 20, I assumed that she would get some growth and Caspar might not put up with her bullshit as much, but instead she just continues to be always right and justified in her behavior, and quite honestly, it's driving me insane.

Ava has, throughout the entire show, been incredibly rude to just about every single character, she constantly calls everyone idiots, including Leif, one of the best engineers in the galaxy.

When asked the very reasonable question of why these two astrophysicists should let her in to their observatory her response is to say she's smarter than them. It is so incredibly rude, Ava isn't a astrophysicists, she's a theoretical physicists; why would she know more than them, the astrophysicists, on astrophysics?

It's like she can't help insulting everyone she meets, and I understand that she is a woman in a male dominated field, but literally no one has ever doubted her intelligence. Not once has a character thought that she is unqualified or belittled her. It's not like everyone doesn't believe in her, and she's set on proving them wrong; she's just being a jerk.

And if it was like, her behavior got in the way of all her relationships and she needs to learn to be more empathetic and connect to others, then I wouldn't mind it as much, but her relationships are more or less fine with everyone. The only character you could argue she has any issues with is Caspar, but that's more about the unsaid feelings than her general attitude.

She's not even an emotionless scientist, which I guess good on her not being a stereotype, but then it just means she's can understand other people, and maybe empathize with them, and chooses to insult them ALL. THE. TIME. She CAN be nice and be thoughtful, like how she walked Clementine through her panic, but she decides to verbally demean everyone instead.

I'm not even saying she should try to be nice, just stop bullying the people who care and are always there for her. Like, it's nice she and Leif get to talk about science things, but she can't go 20 seconds without calling him dumb or saying how smart she is.

She complains about Clementine not facing any consequences, like Clementine didn't get burdened with everlasting guilt and was about to be torn apart a couple hours before. But thinks it’s completely fine that she essentially got off Scot-free after potentially endangering everyone at the diner. (Yes, she got shot in to space, but Caspar was right, it was safe, and she even got the answers she wanted.)

Like, I’m sorry, but what the hell kind of response is a smug “your welcome” to “hey, yeah, so all that stuff you said to me actually hurt a lot, and it emotionally scarred me.” Like, can you not for two minutes? Are you seriously incapable of being kind for a single moment!?

She is so flawed, but also a Mary Sue; like the flaws are there, but they're almost never addressed, and when they are, they get dropped easily or forgiven immediately.

To me, it's not charming; I don't like when a male character is hubristic but always right and always gets the last word, and I still don't like it when a female character does it.

And I know, she, finally, decides to "change" but has she really? I haven't listened too much past that episode, but that doesn't negate her previous actions.

[ceilidho]

Hey! I think youre an amazing writer and i really look up to you. Ive been reading your works since reylo, you inspired me to write my own reylo stuff. I think youre wonderful and could read your works over and over again. I was just wondering if I could ask you advice. I'm trying to get into writing second person pov fanfic, but I'm terrible at it. I can write it from third person or first person no problem. I was wondering if you had any tips.

oh thank you, i really appreciate that!!! and im so glad you're giving writing a shot!! honestly it's so tough to actually make the decision to sit down and write something and then show it to other people (and it's very scary and kind of humbling as you get better and better and look back at your old work haha) so that's so awesome!!

i actually wrote so much beneath this so i needed the "read more" lmaooo

actually, i'll tell you what, when you first transition from writing 1st or 3rd person to writing in 2nd person, it feels weird and abnormal, but i've actually grown to love 2nd pov. i just love the way it sounds in my head when i'm constructing a sentence. and tbh there's actually not a huge difference from writing 1st and 2nd pov in my opinion.

like my general thoughts around 2nd pov are:

obviously since it's an internal dialogue (like the perspective is rooted in the person you're writing from rather than some omniscient 3rd pov), while you can still describe what's happening on the main character's face ("you purse your lips" "you frown, annoyed" etc), it's still coming from their perspective, so there's a level of depth there that other characters around them don't have. like Price in my western fic is a bit more mysterious on account of him not being a narrator figure in the story.

if you're using 2nd pov because you're writing an x reader fic, and you want to keep your reader character quite neutral, ensure that you're avoiding big descriptors like skin colour, hair texture/length, body size (unless you're specifically writing a fat reader or a reader with a specific body type, in which case, go wild!), height, etc. your reader character is never going to be 100% neutral, but just pay attention to any descriptors you add and you can make sure they're as neutral as can be.

this is probably obvious, but you don't have to start every sentence with "you did x" or "you said y" or whatever. you can still be loose and flexible with your sentences like you might be in a 3rd person narration. like, i'll take apart a paragraph from my fic and highlight where i've added the "you/your" pov:

The worry making your body tense and stiff finally releases once you’re alone. You curl up on the bed without pulling down the sheets or taking your dress off. The journey's left you weak, sapped of energy. Worn down to your base elements. Hardly unexpected after what you’ve gone through, after leaving behind a cooling body two states away. The days since have left you sick with worry, nerves shot when you consider how the authorities will look to you first, the maid, and find in your absence all the answers they need. 

notice that i only started one sentence with "you" here. i think some people mistake using 2nd pov for thinking that the entire story/fic has to be a direct narration of what the character is doing (i.e. "you walk to the end of the hall and then you sit down. you notice a silver bullet on the table near you. you pick it up.") but that's not the case.

the narration is coming from this character, yes, but it's also still a story. this is hard to describe, but there's almost a weird, unconscious 3rd pov in the story at the same time, like you're looking down at this narrator and you're speaking through them, but you still have some externality. in order to tell an evocative, interesting story, you HAVE to know and notice at least a bit more than your narrator consciously does.

this kind of mirrors real life in a way actually because your brain picks up a lot of information that you as a person don't consciously absorb. it's why humans are able to have quick reflexes and dodge/duck things or whatever without realizing what they're doing. (look up "unconscious perception"). you can do this with 1st pov as well, but 1st pov is very useful for stream of consciousness stories or really getting into a character's head. 2nd pov is still governed by that narrator character, but it's picking up on other details and information in the surrounding environment.

anyway i hope this is in any way helpful haha - it's how i like to think of writing in 2nd pov!

[lillforpolin]

In the past interviews for Seasons 1 and 2 the cast did mention he was sweet like his character Colin but they didn't say too much since it wasn't his lead season.

I think the cast and crew knew about Antonia as she was there for the premiere, we don't know who she interacted with or who he introduced her to. The last premiere in London, Nicola left the bridgerton after party early because her friends hosted a celebration for her at another restaurant and she said she had to start filming her movie the next day. There's not much of the photos on social media but the restuarant tagged her and she also reposted a story from one of her friends who was there. She probably asked for photos to not be released. Filming for season 4 they're probably side eyeing him for the pap walk if it is true that he had some part in it and they found out but they're probably just there to do their job and won't get into it. If he did not have a part to play they might still side eye him and make a comment or so amongst themselves. The way he handled it after was absolutely piss poor. The pap walk wasn't only a stab at him and Nicola it also was a stab at the entire team and their hard work. Golda tried to save him, she reposted Nicola's true gentleman thing on IG. If he's really sweet with Nicola and the cast then different with his friends, those 2 personalities can be true, some people like to show a different persona depending on the group of people they are interacting with.

He did bare nothing to promote after pap walk night while the other cast and crew still promoted. That was really bad on his part to just disappear but then reappear at events while everyone else was trying to get bridgerton out there and still talked about. It was embarrassing to see the troll accounts put his business out there and I definitely know some of the cast saw some of it. During the promo tour a Twitter page aired some of his dirty laundry, this was before pap walk and troll accounts. That is how I found out about Antoina and it led me to Tumblr. I don't think he didn't know what Antonia posted or was blindsided by it, I think he just didn't care and if his face wasn't included then he let it slide.

I agree, he does appear to be really attracted to Nicola and they got really close filming together but I think he knows he is out of her league. I wouldn't be surprised if she decided to keep things professional if she likes him and she does because she can't hide how she reacts with him or when someone mentions him. She doesn't want that drama that follows him. She gets the side eye with this whole Jake thing but other than that her brand and image are pretty solid, I don't see her and Jake lasting for the long haul whatever it is between them has it's time and place. Nicola is showing an authentic side of herself, strong but not afraid to make mistakes or admit insecurity and vulnerability. With Luke he tries to hide his true self so much that after pap walk he came across is disingenuous.

Hi Anon, thanks for your thoughts.

There are a few things I disagree, and a lot I agree with.

Let me go through the disagree part.

- he can invite A and she can be there as his gf, and the cast and crew surely met her briefly, but no one followed her back. If they are so close to him and she is his generally accepted and acknowledged gf, why dont they? Major cast is one thing with million followers, but the other supporting cast and crew....she follows a lot of ppl yet no one. And they still follow Jade, just saying.

(One of the supporting cast members followed her back but since unfollowed. Strange.)

My guess would be she is not widely popular after pap walk, bc as you also said, this is an ensemle cast and Luke and her stole the spotlight from everybody with pap walk, not only Nic.

And maybe collegues, cast and crew have to act professional, but they definitely side eye, I would bet good money on this.

Second. I don't think he is out of Nics lead. He is, since his glow up, maybe more conventionally attractive, but Nic has one of the most beautiful faces in the industry and she is a very clever and popular person. She is way out of his league intellectually. Overall they would be on pair. You know whose league he is really out of? Ant. She is not even close.

Goulda reposted Nics post? I did remember this tbh, it's interesting. I would say she was saving the show, just like Nic. They were in one boat Luke put a hole on.

Nicola leaving the afterparty early? The super social Nic? The one keeping good contact with crew members? Leaving them at the premiere of her season?

I would bet again it was not because she wanted to celebrate with her friends. But they made it to compensate her for what would going to happen 😏Just my 2 cents.

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S3 E10 - Fascination

This is the kind of episode I love from Star Trek, something wacky and weird and cheesy, though I am going to be talking about how gross some of it is. I like it when my Trek gets silly.

First things first, I am glad that the Jake/Mardah stuff is over. Even if I am a little "icked" by how much he's interested in Kira. I *know* that wasn't him so, at least not intentionally, so I'm not holding it against the episode. It just gave me the ick.

I love how its been clear that Bashir and Miles's friendship has evolved, even if we're not seeing it all happen on screen, their conversation in this episode was a nice bit of banter. And then when Keiko leaves at the end and Bashir is just there to pick up where Keiko left off? They're very much best buds. But also I'm seeing more of the polyam fam thing going on and I dig it.

While I am not a fan of the Kira/Odo ship, I can definitely see how the show is setting it up and there are some cute moments for the two. Poor Odo not only had to sit through Kira walking away to be with her ACTUAL boyfriend, he had to walk in on Bashir and Kira making out in the most graphic way. Like ew, the way they were all over each other... ick lol

With that, I really wish we had more Odo/Lwaxana content. I think they would have been sweet together. He's clearly uncomfortable around her and I felt bad for how touchy she was with him, but whenever they actually stop and have a REAL conversation, they're so sweet.

I don't like any video of myself, but if I had been doing a reaction video, the scream, and clapping to the immediate sympathy that happened when Keiko and Molly stepped off the ship followed by Lwaxana would have been priceless. I have mama issues (among others) with Lwaxana but man do I love it when she shows.

Bareil being jealous of Jadzia was fun and probably the first time in the show I felt like there might be weight to the Jadzia/Kira ship. I look forward to more of these moments. Cause I always need more gay.

The Jadzia and Sisko stuff made me laugh but also cringe because I am sure Sisko was sitting there picturing the Old Man while Jadzia was hanging all over him even if Sisko sees the two as separate people. I was laughing and neuro spicy uncomfy flapping with every scene they were together lol

Miles and Keiko are once again the realest couple I have seen on TV in a while. I love how much he loves her, how far he's willing to go for her, and how much she returns both sentiments. Yes, they argued, but most people do. What matters was how they were willing to have a healthy conversation about how to fix things and how they were up for figuring things out. Together.

Also, the way Miles was about to ruin his entire career being another man not only touched his wife but made her uncomfortable? Yeah, Miles doesn't fit the "bad guy" label at all but he stepped into my favorite "Don't touch her" kinda trope in that second lol

I appreciate how easily Lwaxana accepted that everything was her fault. She's very much an anti aging kind person but she just nodded and apologized for the trouble she caused. She's grown as a character since her introduction on TNG and I love to see it.

7/10 - because it was fun af and might have been higher if there weren't big moments of ick for me

[robo-cryptid]

I love your writing! Please give director’s commentary on part 4 of the pipeline, any parts you’d like to share but I also need to know about the bath in the kitchen!

Thank you! And oooh, that's such a fun one. So this is probably going to be a director's commentary on that fic specifically but also on the series as published so far.

FIRST, the bathtub thing. I was just googling to get a sense of what would be appropriate for Abrams' apartment, and I found several articles talking about why some older NYC apartments have bathtubs or showers in the kitchen. Here's one example. It was just one of those cases of finding more answer than I expected to find and thinking it would be a funny way to create sexual tension.

One of the funniest things about this series as a whole is how it's transformed over time. Part 4 really should have been part 2 or 3 according to my original plan (or my second original plan. Plan A was truly just a PWP, and then the sickness took hold).

So for example, the first was sort of spawned by too many jokes about how awful Lash's dirty talk would be and what character would be willing to fuck him anyway (or what situation could I create to make it plausible they'd go through with it). Then the initial idea for it as a series was, lol, "Lash belongs in the cuck chair."

Several things conspired to change it from there. The first was learning Abrams' VA is Samoan. And I am not arguing that Abrams being blue makes him a man of color in game universe, nor do I think he's necessarily meant to be read that way with the info we have so far, buuuut it did make me pause and at least think through what I wanted to put out in the world, given the racist tropes in a lot of cuckolding porn. Obvs people can still have cuckolding fantasies without this baggage, but it was worth exploring the question anyway, and while there are still some elements of cuckolding fantasy remaining, I think it pushed me in a slightly different direction.

The second thing was just my general habit as a writer where the longer I spend with characters, the more I start to humanize them in my head, which meant shoving Lash in a corner to laugh at him was less funny and the story got to take a more emotionally interesting (and soapy) turn, I guess, than if I'd stuck with the original plan of actually just smut.

And third, I asked myself, "What is the most cursed thing I could do here?" and the answer was not some weird crackfic idea. Instead, it was "Make readers actually like Lash." Teehee.

Anyway, because of those changes, even though the series does still operate on a lot of Porn Logic, I had to then make a more emotional argument for "why Abrams?" than simply "well, he is hot and generally nice and not Lash." Which is how we get to "New Leaf" (and even more so in part 5) and establishing that he and Pocket have met before, they have a bit of history, Abrams knows who they really are and genuinely cares about them.

Pocket is just walking Daddy Issues, so I think they have a complicated relationship with people caring for them. Obviously, they don't want to be seen as helpless, but I think they're a little starved for it, which makes Abrams' pretty open and genuine affection really inviting. Plus I thought Abrams' bluntness would be an interesting contrast to the way Pocket speaks and thinks so indirectly and often offloads the responsibility for their actions onto circumstances or other people.

I think Abrams is a bit starved for affection too, but for entirely different reasons. He has the sort of job that is dangerous and lonely, and now that he has the tome, it's even more dangerous and more lonely, and then Pocket is all but handed to him on a silver platter, lol.

Finally, because of that loneliness and Abrams' sense of protectiveness, I wanted him to be a bit Too Much for some readers (in a very different way than Lash is too much) by making him sort of saccharine and overly careful and precious with Pocket. It's sweet! But it also could easily become suffocating if left unchecked, especially for someone like Pocket who is guarded and shies away from scrutiny.

I have rambled TOO MUCH probably, but here you go! <3

[proshippers-against-censorship]

Serverstuck anon again, I found the announcement for that weird name ban.... it's a long one so buckle up:

Pt1 "@/everyone Hey fellas! It's no-fun big boss man time, here to say "no fun!" Recently, we've had an overload of character submissions with human words for names. This has always been against the rules, but due to lax rulings by the team in the past, a few characters have slipped through the cracks. I want to tell everyone we no longer accept characters whos names are troll names! This includes…

Human names on trolls (Oscarr Isaack)

English words (Lizard Kisser)

Words from non-English languages (Cheval Jambon)

Attempts to cleverly fool the mods by changing the spelling the word in a way that still sounds like the words (Lizerd Kissur) It is, unfortunately, kind of immersion breaking to walk into a thread to see a character called Peanut Butter just chilling, which breaks our Setting Breaking rule. We will henceforth not read submissions with rulebreaking names. Can't think of a name? Change some consonants! Our beloved Lizerd Kissur doesn't work, but let's substitute some letters, and hey, Vizert Gissur works pretty nice! If you have a character with a name like this, it'd be pretty cool if you changed it, but we won't enforce it. We accepted it, and you're all good! Here's a meme my dad sent me."

Pt 2 "Hey @/everyone ! A follow up announcement to yesterday's name ruling. I've seen a few people get confused about intention, so we're clarifying what is and isn't meant by our "no words" rule! In short, the "no words" rule could probably be more accurately put as "no words… unless they're obscure". A lot of the character submissions we were rejecting were words that were instantly recognisable (Vampyr, Tohbie, Garcon as equivalent examples). These names are very quickly recognisable as to their meaning— they're either mispellings of recognisable words, or common words in recognisable languages. What is okay, however, are English words nobody's ever going to say in regular conversation.

For example, want to name your librarian who makes a lot of footnotes "Ibidem"? Cool, no problem. Your character who specialises in string instruments is called "Buzuki"? Yeah, go for it. I guarantee nobody reading this knows what either of those are without googling it— and THAT'S the key here. We all know Eridan, Nepeta, Aradia, etc, that canon Homestuck characters have names derived from other words. But generally, these names are very obscure, and you are more likely than not going to not recognise them when you see them for the first time.

It's been pointed out that a lot of existing characters had names like these accepted, both on the mod team and off it. Some are entirely accidental— the Princess, for example, is named Anette, which was meant to be a pun of Marionette, but is also a French name. Other times, it's obviously intended, like Irstax the IRS Tax troll. "Mods!" I hear you cry. "Why is this allowed? Why are the mods allowed to do this, but not us? You are fiends, moderators! You have no honour, and Valhalla will spit you out when you die!" First off, yeah. Second off, it's very true that there's lots of existing characters with names like that.

The reason for the inconsistency is much more innocuous than a coordinated favouritism campaign though: not all the mods were on the same page about name rules. What was fine to some wasn't to others, so it was kind of luck of the draw as to whether your name got accepted or not depending on the mod going through your application. The rule being more closely enforced came up after the mods sat down, discussed it with one another after we noticed a lot of characters with these types of names, and decided this was the best way to handle the server, to be fairer to everyone. The mods are just as bound to them as anyone else, and we're not going to force any existing trolls to change names; we're just going to be a little stricter on characters named Funnie Joekes or the likes.

Again: classic, obscure word Homestuck names like Eridan, Bombyx or Jezail are fine! We never said they weren't. In fact, I encourage them to have etymology! Just make sure there's effort put into them to keep the setting Homestuck feeling."

Lizzerd Kissur is one of the most Homestuck sounding names I've ever heard, tbh.

[dearinglovebot]

Imagine the talk between Owen and Claire after they're back in their cabin. When they tell eachother about all the almosts they had.

Bc I can totally see that happen. The movie gave them a huge new trauma bomb. Getting thrown out of a helicopter/crashing down with a helicopter, thinking the other one is dead, seeing themselves AND their daughter almost die, almost die by themselves. And all these close calls!

If they don't say something on their own, then the first question of many will come when Owen sees the bruises on Claire's stomach. Because the Main character protection was big but alls those falls defently not left her with nothing. AND THAT BALCONY SCENE?! She hit that thing sooo hard, there have to be at least one broken rib.

if there’s one thing OOMNF (one of my nurse followers) and I love it’s discussing the realistic injuries everyone is getting. jumping out of a window, hitting the balcony, the ejection, and getting dragged by the giga are all working together to maximize her broken rib count. now combine that with the pneumonia she’s getting from swimming in dirty pond water then walking around like a wet cat. and also combine that with the chronic pain she 100% has from her leg injury (not to mention anything she might’ve gained from her… rescue ops). yeah shock is the only thing keeping her walking. and he probably also got banged up in the crash + he can have some pneumonia too as a treat from freezing dirty lake water.

claire won’t have to say much because she’s going to be hacking her lungs out and irritating her entire rib cage and maybe passing out. that woman desperately needs a hospital but she’s claire so she’ll kick and bite to go home instead. n then he’ll ignore it all too to take care of the girls and maisie will repress any pain as to not be a burden and everyone will be worse off bc they’re as bad as each other <3

naw but this is probably the first Incident where they’re actually, like, having productive conversations and behaviors once the dust settles. all talk we have about post 2015 confirms that they were… uhhh… well, do not disturb was getting used. and 2018 had the whole running from the government because of the many crimes I committed with my ex-maybe-back-together-again boyfriend thing. and now they’ve known each other for a decade with about half or more spent in a relationship that’s probably in the I-don’t-even-close-our-bathroom-door-to-shower phase of co-habitation by then. I don’t imagine that much talking would really even need doing when you’ve known someone for That Long. It could flow very naturally with a few key phrases. I mean, think of the deleted scene where it takes them a solid 10 seconds to go through the whole that was insane but im mostly fine so lets keep moving conversation. but what that scene also supports (as well as the dilo reunion, post-landing clips, etc) is that they will be Surgically Attached for the foreseeable future

[crocswithoutsocks]

High Roller First Impressions

Just finished my first High Roller fight so I'm going to ramble about it for those who want to listen. If you want to go in completely blind like I did then, BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Just for a little bit of context so you can understand where I'm coming from, I'm a puny little 59 laff toon at the beginning of the Mezzo Melodyland taskline, and the only kudos manager I've fought so far is Brian. I haven't seen footage of any fights I haven't fought/naturally encountered yet (I like going into things blind) but I know of and about all of the other managers from art, memes and fanfiction. With that out of the way, let's begin the ramble of a lifetime! I'm going to yap a lot here and also probably go off on a cople tangents, so be warned.

First off, my toon's big head was in the way for half of the low ballers' introduction, so I missed like half of it (caught up through chat though, horray for chat!). I love how you can't refuse the invitation to join the high roller fan club, that's very silly and goofy and seems totally in character for these silly little ducks. I'm usually not keen on games forcing your hand regarding choices, UNLESS it's for the bit, which this totally qualifies as! Anything with comedic value automatically gets a big thumbs up from me. (As a sidenote, I also like when games manipulate the availability of free choice for the bit. Like, in super paper mario where the game straight uo just kills you if you agree to join the bad guys. I didn't think it would let me, and then it did, and then I died and the outcome made me laugh.) Also! I like that in the chat instead of being classified as "toon" or "cog", the low ballers are "silly". They're silly little guys! Upon teleporting to Dave's theare, I was met with a massive group of people (as expected given the game had only gone back up about 10 minutes prior) which provided an excellent atmosphere for the fight. I flung myself at those cog sigls, not caring who else I was going into that fight with as we all shared the same goal: Defeat the stupid gameshow duck. (As another sidenote, any time I call anything stupid, silly, goofy, wacky or anything else similar, I mean them with the utmost respect and praise! They are all positive and affectionate!)

Incidentally, no one on the team I went into the fight with had ever fought High Roller before, which i think probably added to the chaos and overall experience of the fight. No one had any idea what they were doing.

As previously mentioned, this was my first time seeing Dave in game. I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR HOW HIS VOICE SOUNDS. ITS LITERALLY JUST PIANO KEYS SMASHING TOGETHER THATS SO FUNNY. As usual, I couldn't understand a word he said (the fact that I have the reading level of a middle schooler combined with the fact that I'm a slow reader made it very hard to keep up) BUT THEN BUCK SHOWED UP AND STOLE THE SHOW! I may be incredibly biased towards Buck due to the fact he's my (current, subject to change) favourite manager, but he is literally the epitome of silly and goofy during this cutscene. The fact that he enters by dropping from the ceiling, fumbles his introduction, runs in front of the stage like a gremlin only to somehow get himself on top of a giant anvil (I love the comedy anvil), spawns next to dave and randomly rotates for a few seconds to funky music before doing a full on FUSION DANCE with Dave to form high roller. What more could you want from a guy? The toons walking in on the wall instead of the floor was funny too (I assume that's meant to happen and not a bug lol) AND I would like to give a special shoutout to the audience as well! It was nice seeing all of the other managers all together, some of them sat together (Flint and Graham, of course, Chip and Spruce, Bell and Ben the gossip girls, Cosmo and the satelites, the ENTIRE litigation team etc.) Poor Misty is sat by herself, and Mary seems to be swimming in her seat rather than actually sitting in it. It was also cool to see Count Erclaim (and (presumbly) Count Erfit hiding in the back), since I've never seen them in game before. Big mention of course also goes to William and Rain sat together at the front. Gotta wonder how that happened, but either way it's really nice to see! This is all probably old news to anyone who knows the fight, but it brought me a lot of joy! Also, the fact that there was a big sign saying the entire event was non-canon made it even funnier.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING TOONTOWN! - High Roller is LOUD, and I cacked at the absolute cacophony of duck and piano noises that came out of this guy's mouth. He's hot shit, and he knows it. (I am assuming here that the phrase 'hot shit' is positive and not negative, please assume so as well.) The fact that he's level 100 as well??? If he ever decided to quit his career of being silly and goofy and also a gameshow host, he could probably win the war for the cogs single handedly. And also maybe if he existed outside of april and was also a canon entity. His animations are also so fun and expressive, like, this thing does not walk anywhere. He either slides with no expression on his face or he FROLIKS. The silly hat with the ducks too, I like that a lot!

Okay, now onto the actual fight. Finally. It took me and my team about an hour and 10 minutes to beat it. I'm assuming that's not the length of time an average high roller fight takes, and I'm also assuming that it took that long due to the fact that none of us knew what we were doing. I really liked the trivia questions, those were a lot of fun! It made me feel like knowing all of the lore that's been eating my brain for the last month was totally worth it, even if I only knew the answer to one out of the two questions asked. I didn't really get the puzzle bit at first, and then I figured out how to actually look at the board and then I did get it and it was okay. I probably would have liked it more if I'd gotten to do more of them after I got the hang of it, given I only got to do the one puzzle. I liked shuffle as well, that was a nice break from all the thinking in the fight. The actual fighting part was pretty stressful, and I think that's the most I've ever had to think in a toontown battle. I'm assuming that most of the kudos managers are like that though (requiring more thinking, I mean) and that its more a me having not progressed that far through the game thing and less a this is a particulary brain-useage heavy fight. Also, can we talk about how if you haven't defeated all of the cogs at the end of the fighting portion, HR just snaps his fingers and disintegrates them??? Like, as if they were hit by a strong zap gag disintegrated. Did he kill them? Are they dead? Have we just witnessed multiple cog-v-cog murders????? I know high roller isn't technically canon, but it's interesting to think about. My only small gripe about phase one of the fight was that it could have been a little longer. We only got to spin on the roulette wheel like four times, and in my head that was one of the main gimmicks of the fight that I didn't get to see very much of. On the other hand though, the fight did take like a whole hour, so it really probably doesn't need to be any longer. I'm sure I'll be very greatful for the shortness of the first phase when I'm grinding for the low baller sticker later.

I don't really have much to say about the second phase. It felt quite like an interlude between the first and third phases, which I think worked quite well. Just a classic battle, no chaos, (relatively) no gimmicks, just me, Mr Hollywood and the piano that I'm about to drop on his head. Another thing I did really like about this fight was the fact that I, a relatively low level toon with no drop track, got to drop pianos on people and pelt them with wedding cakes. That made me feel very powerful, especially when I was taking down level 25 cogs. Another really small detail but something I really liked in this fight, when you use the stagelight zap gag the lights above the Mr Hollywood you're aiming for go out, like the stagelight actually fell on them. Thats super duper neat and I love it a lot. One of the people in my party also said that the music for this section uses a theme from Dave's fight, so I'm going to have to trust them on that! If so though, that's really neat, and makes sense given this bit in particular is an omage to Dave's fight. I love leitmotifs very very much. I also found it very funny how HR introduced the Mr Hollywoods as the Dave Brubot Quartet, and then only three of them showed up. That ain't a quartet buddy. I've realised now that it's because Dave himself is in the quartet, and thus missing from it, but it's still funny to me.

And then the third stage of the fight is CARNAGE. ABSOLUTE CHAOS. High Roller's cool-pose-into-hollograms-quick-change-into-a-different-colour-suit move was only the beginning of the massacre about to happen (and was really cool). This part of the fight made my game lag, but thats probably because a. my computer is a potato and b. I was screen-recording the fight. The atmosphere in this section went crazy though, with the darkness and the coloured lights totally making the hollograms and HR look way more awesome. AND THE MUSIC!!! THE MUSIC GOES CRAZY HERE!!! THE GUITAR AND THE CHIMES AND THE SYNTH AND JUST WOOOOOOW. It captures the absolute carnage and chaos of the third phase in a way so perfect that words cannot properly describe. It was like WOWOWOWOWOW and made my brain go like bzzwzzbzzzwowowo and AAAHHHHHHHH. And then the guitar leaves and the music calms down and goes back to going bwow bwow and it feels like you can finally breathe again. This was also the part of the fight that absoluelty fried my brain. Having to think about which gags to use, whether or not to use my pip dice, keeping track of my pips (although I never really ran out) and then the different effects of all the holograms? Madness. We ran out of time a lot, used the wrong gags a lot and took a lot of unnecessary damage in return. Wanna trap the yellow hologram? Can't do that, the red one will damage you if there's trap gags on the field at the end of the turn. Oh, that's fine, we'll just lure the yellow one, activate the trap and it'll be fine. Sorry, the green one just gave the yellow one lure resistance and now there's still a trap on the field. That's a bar on the head for you, loser. And also high roller is going to drop a cruise ship on your head (I think the free cruise attack is really funny, by the way. It's like a twist on classic gameshow stuff, which I know is the point but it's still awesome). That's one of the reasons why I felt like playing with a group who had never fought high roller before was better, because no one could really get mad at anyone else for doing the wrong thing, given we were all doing the wrong thing all the time. They were also just nice people, which helped. When we finally got rid of all the holograms, it was such a relief and we were all raring to go and finally go all out on HR. So we did that. AND THEN THE HOLOGRAMS CAME BACK. WE THOUGHT WE WERE WINNING! So we took down the holograms again. We were only a couple HP off killing the red one, which then accidentally killed itself with a bar which was pretty funny. Then HR also dropped a dice on his own head which added to it. The Ace in the hole attack was absoluetly a shock. I wan't paying proper attention, so suddenly there was just this GIANT High Roller head that looked like it was going to eat me and I've been crushed by a giant card and I've no idea whats going on. Going thorugh my head mostly was: " WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT? ????????? SIR????? HELLO???? WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? WHAT IS HAPPENING???". A lot of that, and then he's back to throwing dice and cruise ships at us. We're finally got our act together by now so after two more rounds of holograms High Roller FINALLY goes down at the hand of the almighty final blow dealing cupcake.

He got right up in my space and said I was "top banana", which I'm assuming was a complement but also maybe just because I was a yellow, vaugely banana shaped gator. The credits came out of nowhere and made me laugh, because that's so stupid and in character. Shoutout to the last remaining con artist with a job (being Foley Artist, I don't know what that is) and Flundger the "Drip Meister". I aspire to one day have a title as cool as that. Also to the pencil pusher who won 500 high roller sticky notes :) good job buddy! ALSO THE END NOTE AT THE END OF THAT FIRST CREDITS SECTION?? AS MANY FLUNKIES AS POSSIBLE WERE HARMED DURING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS EPISODE??????? WHERE ARE THE FLUNKY RIGHTS?????? And then High Roller gets hit by a cruise ship and honestly, thats what they get for dropping like 17 of them on me. Deserved. One of my party was stuck saying "YES!" during this section which made it look like they were cheeing for Roller's demise which was particularly amusing. I got crushed by the comedy anvil, it all went very well.

So overall, my thoughts on this fight were that it was INCREDIBLE! I think everyone should play it, or at least give it a try. One of the things I really, really like about it is that its accessible to everyone, no matter how good/bad/new at the game you are. It means that I can at least try to convince my non-toontown friends to play it with me. Out of the tutorial, into the high roller fight, baby! This especially, since HR is only avaibable once a year and unlike FTF (I don't see myself being strong enough to play that one before the end of april) I actually get to play it and enjoy it, with everyone else. I also got to try out some new gags that I wouldn't really see myself getting to use otherwise (piano), and that was a lot of fun! Overall, very very fun, very silly, very goofy, 10/10 would fight again, will probablu fight at least 11 more times because I want that sticker. I'll have to see if my opinion changes after that. Hopefully they won't all take me an hour.

Anyway! That was. A lot of words. If you made it all the way down here, thank you very much for listening to my spiel! It means a lot! Have a virual cookie, or something to that extent. Maybe a duck? Either way, I really need to go to bed. I'm sleep deprived and very very tired. This is Sir Biscuit Weaselchomp, Curious Creature, signing off! Happy April Toons!