#and yet hes just a guy? just a silly fishy??

[lunarmoves]

yall i fr thought i was going crazy liking sebastian when i played that roblox game with friends but now ik im not alone i feel so liberated and free

[gofishygo]

i had a thought about marine life cod something something sighhhh and now i wanna draw them. all of them.

the first thing i thought of was vampire squid!konig.... you get what i see right, or like, he could be some other (massive) squid

gaz reminds me of a nurse shark.. number one, they're cute and look sweet, number two they look awfully boopable🎀🎀 there's no number three but just look at pictures of them that's literally gaz

soap would be a ray maybe?? specifically a spotted eagle ray. he could be a narwhal too because they're silly <3

phantom jellyfish!ghost obviously!!!

i'm thinking price could be a whale, but i'm not sure what yet? i;m so indecisive... beluga!price or humpback whale!price, perhaps?

and nikolai is a pilot whale like are you joking

i have no ideas for the others yet sadly because i have a little pea brain, but ill probably come up with some things soon...

fellow anon, DRAW THEM . I LOVE MARINE LIFE COD AUS SO MUCH RRHHRHRHRHRHRHRHHRHRHRHRHHRHRHRHHRHRHRHRHRHHRHRHRHHRHRHRHH !!!!!!!!! please pleasep lease dra them if u have time ....... they give me brain juices... .. . .. .

yayaya !!!! konig could definetly be a vampire squid !! tbh ive always seen him as maybe under the octopoda order (mostly due to the insane amounts of cthulu nd octo konig in this fandom) but i can certainly see him as a vampire squid !!! he gives the vibes- generally trying to contain the power he has and not get unnecessary blood on his hands (vampire squids are detritivore) nd a lot less menacing than it seems . more of an avoidant personality as well !!

and YAYAYYYAYAYYA gas is definitely some type of less aggressive shark !!! honestly nurse shark matches him the best but i occasionally believe he is a catshark or epaulette , they're easygoing and docile (IF UNPROVOKED) and so so cutie patootie i project my fav sharks on him bc he is my fav character

and soap does give ray vibes, but hear me out : eel soap >!?!! especially variants that hunt via electricity (like him !! but he uses bombs that arent necessarily IEDs but SAME THING) and r super duper energetic a lot , but oh em gee,,,,,,, he would make such a good spotted eagle ray .....

ok we all agree on phantom jelly ghost its cannon guys he is literally the big mysterious jelly

and price , although i like to think of him as a great white (better dynamics w/ other characters), he honestly would match a lot of species of whale much better . i forgot the name of this species specifically , but i do believe it was some type of bleaked whale ?? they scar white from injuries over time, and have a long lifespan . most of them will turn white over their lifespan due to the injuries that they get, and i think that does go after price's military career and how his scars the events he's lived through have sort of become part of him (ghost could definitely be this species too now i think about it), and how he's lived past points where his allies have fallen .

OK NIK AS A PILOT WHALE . YEYSYYEYS THATS FUNNY AS FUCK HAIJASHFKFH

i would like to think that laswell would be some form of species of whale , maybe one that is intelligent and capable of many forms of mutalism relationships due to her being ... yknow .... insanely based ....

makarov would be an orca. highly intelligent, only realised to be extremely dangerous once studied. ganging up on every fucking fish in the world. capable of competing with other apex predators like great whites.

graves.... unpopular opinion, but he is a stonefish . sneaky bastard and incredibly fucking dangerous . but stupid looking and a silly skrumkle very much so .

nyways i am too tired to think but i will go to sleep dreaming of the 141 eating salmon tonight ......... thank u very mysterious but very lovely fishy anon ...........

[scottyfreaks]

Anything on life series Msjaor? Thougts, art, things that rattle around that need to be let otu

(Forgive the suittty spelling, it is very late in the evening for me (vurse you EST, curse you))

But pretty pleaseeeee😇

-💎

Sighhhghhhs I hate smajoorrr :/// why would you make me talk about him........,,, anyways:

I surprisingly don't have, like, that many drawing of life series Scott. I really should draw him more.

I don't love how everyone is scared to be creative w/ him and defaults to elf if not directed otherwise. I love creature boys but it's so hard for me to decide on what I want him to be. He's just like,, a little fluffy guy.. put some fluff on his ears, on his chest maybe. He has hoofs in third life like a cow, or a deer (though that's just for me because I love deer Scott so much). I genuinely don't have anything to say for last life and double life, never paid much attention to them (I hardly remember last life + didn't watch his pov, and straight up skipped double life while it happened and haven't gotten around to it yet)

Now limited life is a littleeee bit different:3 I love fishy Scott, so mannyyy ideas in my head for him. He's either a little small fish guy, or big shark (totally not inspired by a fanfic I read) or perhaps he's both and he becomes more shark-like when red. Me and Scooter (idk what else to call you lol) talked about him plenty. He's like fully fish to me, kinda bluish skin, darker blue hair,,, think that fish guy from JRWI (I don't really listen to it, but whichever character Charlie plays). He's probably smaller than normal too, like 5'6, not tiny, but Martyns a pretty big guy too so like 👀 I have my own au and stuff that's based on meangills,,, they're so silly. I do have a somewhat recent drawing of limlife Scott like how I'm describing but he has titties so maybe another time

Secret life Scott is a silly guy, and once again another chance for size differences (I don't even have to change anything,,.., it's just impulse big,,). I think he & Limlife have slightly longer hair. Secret life's is nicely curled and Limlife's is just messy. I also don't have any idea what he is,, like he's just a guy, I don't know how to creaturfy him it's strange. He's one of those guitarists who goes "just like... Play from your heart, man..." When asked for tips, he also only knows how to play riptide on his guitar. One thing I'd like to mention is that I think their entire group goes from rock to goth when red.. I wan......... I wanna see Goths, pls plsss. Get Scott out of that ugly twink translucent coat thing and put him in a denim jacket too.

His outfits probably change a little more drastically between seasons too. I think third life is mostly the same, maybe a little baggier & softer colors. Once again no thoughts on last & double life. Scott is fish and therefore doesn't wear a shirt under his jacket (so he can show off his TITTIES!!!) and thats pretty much it. Scott is a very different in secret life too because I fucking hate his outfit, he now looks like a member of the Queens, okay?

(nsfw thoughts:)

Overtime Scott definitely starts sleeping around more. He was pretty secluded w/ Jimmy during third-life, then as he was introduced to more people during the seasons, he started having a lot more courage to flirt and get with them. He's slept with like half the server, atleast. Or at the very LEAST given them a blowjob (which he's for sure good at giving). This man went from "Oooh I love my hubby" to whoreslut supreme™.

He also changes in kinks and behavior a little: he's more shy, loving, and domestic with Jimmy during third-life. Then as it moved on he gets more adventurous, stupid fish that's happy to experiment with Martyn after being paired up with girls for two seasons, especially now that he's smaller and mmfhfnfhff definitely wants Martyn to stretch him out and play with his weird ass fish genitals. I don't think I even need to explain what happened with him and Impulse, but go read "The first offer" on ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/52197727) if you want it's amazing. Scott just goes ":0 waowww another big man" & gets wrecked a lot. I can't for the life of me decide what his body is like btw, he's either skinny or chubby and it just depends on how I'm feeling that day.

——

Uherrmmm I think that's all

[ghostchamber]

a taste of rejection

octavinelle boys shoot their shot and miss horrifically (PLEASE twst fandom don’t eat me alive) this little post is very short and kinda angsty so beware. i cant write that well yet ok 😳

characters included: azul, floyd, jade.

azul ashengrotto

of course. he should’ve calculated this. what was he thinking? why’d he delude himself into believing that you’d love him back? he’s such a fool.

self depreciating thoughts like that filled his mind as you continuously apologised for the cold, straightforward rejection. azul can’t help but bite his lip, arms crossed tightly like he was trying to shield himself from you. it doesn’t take long for him to excuse himself, getting up from the arrangement he specially and meticulously prepared for this occasion.

please don’t look at him like that. don’t comfort him, especially after breaking him down. he doesn’t want you to see him. he doesn’t want to see you. despite the storm building up inside him, he can’t seem to stop himself from telling you that there were no hard feelings. he can’t bring himself to support that statement the next day however, when he practically gives you the cold shoulder and stays far, far away. whether or not he allowed himself to cry the night before, you wouldn’t know.

jade leech

ah. a fault on his part. apologies, he should’ve thought more thoroughly before asking something like that of you. to be his lover. …what a silly thing to think, indeed.

jade masks his hurt perfectly and swiftly. not a moment of shock and pain crosses his expression… half a second? that’s a different story. all he knows is that he will never be able to face you the way he used to ever again. his worst fear had come true. you had his unmasked self out on full display, and there was nothing you wanted in him. no qualities you saw in him befitting of a partner. he wonders, maybe you would like him better if he was… ah, no. he knows he mustn’t think like that.

you’ll find that he’s slightly more reserved the next day. he doesn’t even seem to see you as a friend, more an acquaintance. even he can’t hide the drastic change, relying on luck and hoping you wouldn’t corner him about it. jade hates lying to people he loves, so he’d simply have to tell the truth. but a part of him hopes that you care enough to attempt to maintain that special connection you had before. however, another part of him simply wants you gone. hm, he was never the best with emotions… maybe he’d just lie to himself and say that love for you didn’t exist.

floyd leech

…ugh. now he was really in a bad mood. … this wasn’t fair. how come he had to love you, but you saw him as some rowdy guy? this sucks. you suck. no way.. he wasn’t tearing up like some heartbroken fishy.

once again, floyd leech cannot seem to control his emotions. it has always been a… problem with him. everyone avoided him because of this factor, choosing to scramble back from the eel. but you… he thought you were different. you didn’t freak out and scatter like a sardine when he appeared in a hall, instead choosing to greet him if he struck up a conversation. he thought you loved him. or at the very least, liked him. wrong.

you got on well with everyone. of course he had to take that as a sign you were a friend. the cold and harsh rejection you served him was enough to prove he was an idiot, thanks. the emphasis on why he was unloveable was more than enough, thanks. …oh who is he kidding, he wouldn’t fall for someone like that. floyd had been a hopeless romantic ever since he saw that one movie about a couple. deep down inside, he hoped it would be just like that. too bad you knocked that dream out of him so fast, because it’d be a while since he’d call another his little shrimp. floyd doesn’t even leave his room for a while, opting to curl up on his bed and delete the hundreds of photos he took of him and his ‘shrimpy.’

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Second Doctor's Run

Salutations, random people on the internet already scrolling past this! I’m an Ordinary Schmuck! I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

After finally seeing how The Doctor started their journey into becoming the greatest hero to the universe, it’s time to see how that journey continued with The Second Doctor. And while the concept of regeneration is something familiar to fans now, imagine how it must have felt in 1966. This character that you’ve been following for four seasons now just got a new face, with a new personality to match. Depending on how it was done, it is an idea that could make or break the show for some people, and considering that the show is now onto its FIFTEENTH regeneration, I’d say it definitely worked out fine. More than fine, actually. Because the concept of regeneration is a BRILLIANT one when it comes to Doctor Who. It’s simple, yet it’s the very thing that allows the show to go on for decades and inevitably proves that anyone with enough talent can play The Doctor. Most are improvements, some are not, and it all boils down to the actor and how well they handle the role. The question is, did Patrick Troughton do well enough? We shall see together as we go through the adventures of The Second Doctor.

However, before we begin, you remember how I said that episodes and entire serials were lost to time due to the BBC? Well, Number Two here got the worst of it. Out of twenty-one serials (we’re going to be here for a while…), only SEVEN of them are left completed. Two thirds of his run are gone forever, and only a few of them are brought back through animation that’s available on Tubi and other streaming sites. Meaning there’s going to be QUITE a few transcripts for yours truly. I am very much NOT looking forward to this entire review, but I’m going to do it. Oh, boy, I’m going to do it…

(For The Doctor. Just keep telling yourself that, it’s for The Doctor…)

Decades old spoilers below…

THE SERIALS

Like last time, we’re going through each serial in order. We take this journey together, starting with The Second Doctor’s first adventure…

The Power of The Daleks: Starting off strong by facing The Daleks! I respect that. Proves that this new guy has spunk to him. Unfortunate that it’s been deleted, though. But at least we got animation.

And I love that, right away, the writers made it clear that things are going to be different with this new Doctor. While One was more strict and less willing to assist people unless provoked, all while with a hint of giddiness to him, Two is much more goofy and childlike but still serious in a pinch and much more goal driven. He doesn’t waste a second getting to the bottom of things either, for all it took was a man dying right in front of him for Two to realize that something’s fishy is going on and he NEEDS to figure out what. As far as he knows, he and the others aren’t in any official danger and can easily leave if asked to, but The Doctor sticks around to investigate a conspiracy with a colony. Even before The Daleks showed up, The Doctor was dead set on figuring out what was going on, with his worst enemies cementing the idea that something bad is going to happen and it’s up to The Doctor to stop all of it. And BOY did they need him, as these idiot scientists, governors, and rebels would lead to their own unfortunate destruction with The Daleks due to thinking they can be controlled. The crazy thing is that you can believe WHY they would think that due to how unknown The Daleks are at this point of time and how convincingly The Daleks made themselves seem willing to cooperate. This serial manages to show, as the title suggests, the true power of The Daleks. They’re near-unstoppable killing machines, yes, but they’re also highly INTELLIGENT killing machines that know they’re better than these stupid humans and their silly devices. Even when the humans have the temporary upper hand by controlling The Daleks’ powersource, they know to bide their time before finding a permanent solution. You can even tell in their voices how much they disdain the very idea of working for humans, which is funny enough, but it helps prove the willingness of Daleks to overpower their enemies no matter how long it takes. In short, this whole serial makes The Doctor more like the hero I know them as and The Daleks as the great threat that I fear them to be. It’s a lot more of what I’m used to and incredibly enjoyable to watch, ugly and stilted animation aside. So far, I’d say it’s a great start to this Doctor’s run as it’s already making me excited to see more.

The Highlanders: Completely deleted, but not reanimated. Or if it is, it’s not on Tubi. Which is insane considering that this serial introduces Jamie, the Second Doctor’s most famous and prominent companion. Fans can’t really see how he OFFICIALLY got introduced to the series, a fact that’s unfortunate and honestly a little annoy. But there’s not much I can do about it, so–*Sigh*–onto the transcripts…

And this was one I put off doing for a while. I read the opening and thought, “Oh this is going to be another boring historical serial like ‘The Crusade’ again, isn’t it?” Turns out…it’s an ENTERTAINING historical serial. We watch as the characters assist rebellious Highlanders from taking on the British and a sleazy solicitor selling Scottish rebels into slavery. It has some really good stuff like Perkins being the Smee to Grey’s Captain Hook, or Polly screwing with this lieutenant who couldn’t stand being outsmarted by a woman. But the best stuff comes with The Doctor going full Bugs Bunny as he outwits people through conversation, screws with them with slapstick, and dons disguises to get his way. I WISH that I could have seen some of these bits because it is an absolute CRIME that they were lost to time. All-in-all, I definitely liked this one. I definitely prefer the whacky sci-fi nonsense that this show often relies on, but I didn’t mind this serial. At least it has characters being ACTIVE in the story instead of letting historical nonsense happen around them. I’ll take a fun adventure with characters I enjoy over boring political history with characters I couldn’t give two shits about ANY DAY. Don’t you forget it.

The Underwater Menace: Two episodes were saved, but the beginning and ending were left discarded. Here’s hoping the middle wasn’t too bad, hehe…But seriously? The whole thing is decent.

It’s The Doctor and company stopping a madman from destroying the planet, mixed in with a conspiracy amongst a secret society. In other words, it’s your basic Doctor Who adventure, met with The Doctor being a goof, saving his companions from peril, those same companions saving themselves, and wanting to defeat and even SAVE the planet destroying madman. A lot of it is what I recognized as a Doctor Who story, with a lot of great scenes and one-off characters that make it entertaining. The two real gripes I have revolve around Zaroff and Alantis. Zaroff’s motivation…is laughable. I don’t think EVERY villain should have a complex motivation, as a simple one can be carried with an actor’s/character’s energy, but…what scientist wants to blow up the world just to see if he could? What’s the real reward there? As for Atlantis, it feels like it breezes past the details with how the society works. I get that there’s a religion, a science department, slavery, and a monarchy…but how does that all connect together. Any explanation that must have been given never fully registered to me. I AM willing to put the blame on maybe I read things too fast, but it feels a little off with how it seems like you’re supposed to just…accept all these concepts. The plot is strong but the villain and setting, to me, feels like it needed some tidying up.

The Moonbase: Two episodes are deleted, and neither of them are reanimated on Tubi. Thanks, BBC.

Especially since this is another good one. It’s a classic adventure where The Doctor and company protect a space base full of people from an evil threat. And the threat this time is Cybermen, who make a far quicker return than I could have ever predicted. It’s actually really cool to see The Doctor face them again, so soon after his last regeneration. It makes The Second Doctor just as capable as the first to face off and outsmart the same dangerous foe as before. Yet the Cybermen prove to be more resilient this time, sneakily infiltrating their way into the station and taking control of both it and the humans inside. It’s completely nonsensical that they managed to bust a hole inside a space station without the whole thing collapsing due to the pressure loss, but it’s cool nonetheless to see the Cybermen again, with every single character joining in to stop them. And while the final solution felt a little fast, it doesn’t stop the whole story being so fun and engaging. I usually dread reading these episodes, but the second the Cybermen showed up and started taking over, I didn’t want to stop. I was excited to see what would happen next, and I wouldn’t say “The Moonbase” disappoints. It’s yet another serial with an adventure that I’ve come to expect with Doctor Who, and I’m all for it…But, seriously, can we go back to WATCHING these adventures?

The Macra Terror: Deleted, BUT reanimated to further sell the horror B-movie vibe that the serial is going for. Thank you, Tubi! I love you!

Though, I’m starting to pick up a pattern with this Second Doctor’s adventures. This is now the fourth serial where The Doctor discovers a conspiracy within a society and must stop this great evil. It happens every once in a while in Doctor Who, but to do it this frequently could make it feel a little boring without enough variety. As for this serial, its flavor of the day appears to be giant crabs and hypnotism. How did these giant monstrosities manage to control this society in the shadows and hypnotize them to do their bidding? I have no idea and neither does The Doctor. When asked what they are, even he explicitly admits to having no clue. We’re just supposed to accept that giant crabs took over and enjoy the ride. A messy concept for sure, but one that leads The Doctor taking an active role (Still loves that this guy does that) and some enjoyment of Ben betraying the group due to the Macra’s mind control. It IS weird that Ben’s the only one to be conditioned to follow the crabs’ orders, but it leads to some decent conflict of him fighting it to be himself again. So the serial’s still fun, I just wish we could get more variety of stories outside of sci-fi conspiracies in a society. Please?

The Faceless Ones: Only two episodes were saved, yet, weirdly enough, the whole SERIAL is reanimated. Which I honestly prefer. The inconsistency of switching from an animated episode to a live action one would have broken my mind a bit.

And…it’s another conspiracy. This time in an airport instead of a society or a colony. Though, in fairness, this one at least feels a little different as it’s treated more as a mystery to solve rather than JUST making it The Doctor trying to outwit some powerful force. He still does the ladder, but trying to figure the who, what, where, and WHY with these Chameleons adds a sense of intrigue to this serial, with every answer bringing ten more questions and leaving me engaged enough to see what comes of it. I especially love how the Chameleons have a decent motivation for why they’re kidnapping people, being simple enough to grasp and understand. It’s done really well, having some enjoyable elements that makes it stand taller than previous conspiracy serials. Especially with how The Doctor hyper-focuses on the problem when it’s his companions who are in danger of these new threats. Always love how The Doctor will go on the warpath to those who mess with his friends.

Speaking of those companions, this is the send off of Ben and Polly. And it…has a similar problem to Dodo’s send off. They’re there for a chunk of the story, disappear for most of it, and head off once the problem is solved. It’s done slightly better here because we at least get to see them say goodbye, and it is performed nicely. You get the sense that these two don’t really want to say goodbye and break The Doctor’s heart, but he doesn’t want to keep them from their lives either. He’s more than willing to let them go, even if it’s hard for HIM to say goodbye too. I love all of it, but with how Ben and Polly are absent for most of the serial it kind of takes the punch out of this being their big farewell. They don’t do much aside from getting kidnapped, which feels cheap considering all they’ve been through with The Doctor. Still, it doesn't take me out of the serial too much as there’s still a lot more to enjoy in seeing The Doctor stop the misguided plans of a lost alien race. I just wish that his companions had more of a chance to help if this was their final adventure.

Also–And this has nothing to do with the serial itself, but the fact that it miraculously happens around the same time of “The War Machines” kind of adds to what I love most about The Doctor. Due to their regenerations and capability of being ANYWHERE at ANYTIME, it means that The Doctor is able to be at every corner of the universe that needs their assistance. No matter the year nor the galaxy, The Doctor will always be there. And that’s incredible to me.

Alright, back to the serials.

The Evil of The Daleks: Same deletion deal as the last one, but only one episode remained. Again, I’m fine with it.

What I’m not fine with is this being probably the weakest adventure of The Daleks. At least, of the ones I’ve covered so far. Because what makes this one the weakest is the fact that it is so all over the place. It starts off interesting enough, with an evil force trapping The Doctor through a mystery that his intelligent mind can’t help but solve. It uses The Doctor’s inquisitive nature against him, and I love it when the franchise finds interesting ways to make that his weakness. But then the serial soon becomes The Doctor forcing Jamie through a series of life-threatening tests to train The Daleks into understanding the human factor. I’m not a fan of The Doctor putting a companion in peril, even if they’re forced to do it. I’m all for the bond between Doctor and companion getting tested, as it can prove that while any version of The Doctor is nothing without their close friends and allies, even The Doctor sometimes lacks the human factor that they always admire. The problem is that The Doctor would sooner eat their fist before INTENTIONALLY putting a companion in peril unless backed into a corner with no other choice. That’s kind of the case here, but I feel like there are ways that The Doctor could have better prepared Jamie for the oncoming danger. And the serial somehow gets messier from there as it all comes to an end with The Doctor and company coming to Skaro to destroy The Daleks “once and for all.” It’s kind of cool to see this Emperor Dalek, but the techno babble and conveniences of how The Doctor was able to give more Daleks the human factor left me a little confused on how it was all done. And I’m left more confused as to why making The Daleks more human leaves them inclined to listen to The Doctor giving orders but not other Daleks.

I don’t know. I just feel like “The Evil  of The Daleks” combines three potentially good storylines into one whole arc, making the whole thing worse the more it goes on. There’s cool and fun moments, but all in a messy and convoluted serial that’s not as epic of a “final showdown” with The Daleks as it could have been. And yes, I do think this was meant to be a final showdown with how grand the destruction is and how relieved The Doctor sounds when saying “It’s over.” To be fair, every confrontation with The Daleks is treated as the final one, but if this WAS the last, it would have been a disappointing one.

The Tomb of The Cybermen: OH, MY GOSH, A FULLY SAVED SERIAL IN LIVE ACTION! Make a wish, this is RARE!

And I really am grateful for it. I am most definitely an enjoyer of animation and will forever argue about how it’s an underappreciated medium for storytelling, but there’s still something admirable about seeing a Doctor Who adventure in live action. It allows you to see the limitations that directors, costume designers, and even the actors have to work around with bringing a story to life, with special effects being far more clever than just inserting CGI like modern Doctor Who episodes. There’s a charm to live action that makes it just as valid of a medium as animation, it just gets annoying when it tries to adapt something MEANT to be animated or uses too much CGI to the point where it might as well have been animated from the start. So I’m glad to see this serial as it was intended, cheesy effects and all, as the characters go on an archeological adventure with cosmic consequences. There’s some familiar Doctor Who elements like two greedy idiots thinking they can control The Cybermen for ultimate power who inevitably meet karmic justice in the end. And yes, they very much are idiots, but they serve their purpose as functional antagonists for The Doctor and his companions to go up against. Their devious actions and consequences lead to The Doctor out-thinking his foes to save as many as he can, Jamie proving his loyalty to The Doctor in always having his back, and newcomer Victoria…not really doing much, but I’m hopeful that she has room to grow (Spoiler, she never really does). To be fair, she lost her father yesterday, and I’m okay that most of the serial has The Doctor and Jamie trying to comfort and reassure her as best as they can. My favorite scene in the entire serial is the talk between The Doctor and Victoria about remembering those we love and how the memories will always stick with us. I love it so much as it showcases the compassion that The Doctor has in wanting to EMOTIONALLY heal someone and show a hint of his own heartache of leaving behind his family, all perfectly captured by the subtleties of Patrick Troughton’s performance (Something that even animation can’t properly convey as well as live action). It adds a great bit of heart between the moments of thrill as these characters face Cybermen. If there’s anything to really complain about, it’d be the fact that there’s this Black “servant” who isn’t all that intelligent and is brutishly strong. I don’t know, I feel like all of that is a bit too…tight around the collar, as it seems like an INTENSELY outdated idea for a character of his color. It just doesn’t sit right with me. Aside from that questionable decision, I’d definitely say that “The Tomb of The Cybermen” is another entertaining serial for this Doctor’s run. Might even be one of my favorites so far.

The Abominable Snowmen: Not completely deleted, but still animated. The live action was nice while it lasted…

And lo and behold, it’s another conspiracy within a society, this time featuring the DOOFIEST clumps of fur I’ve ever seen acting as the antagonists. By the way, that wasn’t a misspell. Doofy is the best way to describe these stupid things. Even when looking up images that survived the deletion, there is NO WAY that someone from the mid-to-late sixties were actually intimidated by these creatures, and the reanimation doesn’t really do them any favors either. It’s actually kind of funny how non-threatening these are, and it really takes me out of the serial. Same goes for these Munks, who range from emotionless and irrational, aside from the one guy who was kind and friendly. They’re pretty boring side-characters, and I couldn’t even feel bothered to remember their names or even status. I couldn’t even tell you what the friendly guy did for the Monastery. Honestly, the only time things got interesting was during the last two parts where The Doctor confronts this highly intelligent alien using an old friend of his as a meat puppet. It does well to showcase The Doctor’s distaste towards beings who abuse intelligent life, and while the animation doesn’t do the Abominable Snowmen any favors, it did wonders in making The Great Intelligence look like a menacing threat with an epic final battle. I wish I could have seen what it USED to look like, but it’s some good fun…in the last third of a six part serial. Yeah, while the ending was nice, everything else was just too dull or too…DOOFY to get into. I guess the ending makes it worth it, but I’m not willing to revisit this one.

The Ice Warriors: Only two episodes were deleted, but I guess that’s enough for people to decide the serial is left incomplete. It’s reanimated, but not onto Tubi and I don’t feel comfortable using “special means” yet. Onto the transcripts, then…

Honestly, at this point, I’m feeling a little bored with READING about these adventures again. Especially the ones where The Doctor helps a scientific community from this alien threat. The transcripts I have don’t really offer that much description, and I often imagine the same kind of locations with the same type of generic sci-fi clothing. And judging from the set pictures I looked up, I doubt that my imagination wasn’t too far off. Plus, it’s with “The Ice Warriors” that I really took notice of the formula that comes when The Doctor visits a place like this. There’s always a chain of command where some disposable meatbags get treated as canon fodder as they face off evil monsters that either love killing and/or eating humans, ending on a theme about how humanity led to this outcome or whatever. It’s something you see a lot, but don’t entirely get tired of. It just depends on how fun the characters are, the fear you feel with the monsters, and how strong the theme is. As for how it works in “The Ice Warriors,” for the most part, I’d say it’s…fine? I don’t hate the motley crew that The Doctor has to save and the Ice Warriors aren’t bad threats, but they’re not really…gripping me. This is the first time in a while where I feel like the serial didn’t NEED to be this long because not much held my attention long enough and I just wanted it to be over already. That is, except for ONE aspect involving the computer and the reliance others have with it. It’s the part of this serial that I feel like still applies to this day. We all have this overreliance with technology and our computers, to the point where some of us can’t state a certain claim without doing a quick Google search to prove that we’re right first (myself included). What’s even more interesting is that I feel as though you can also paint how the computer is represented as a symbolism for religion. Tons of people always refer to their books, tomes, and what-have-you before making a decision themselves or thinking of some alternative solution. Either way you look at it still works perfectly, and what I love most about it is that it doesn’t treat the computer or even technology as the problem. It certainly doesn’t HELP, but The Doctor admits that it’s fine to use it when necessary but NOT for every little thing. Again, that is a perfect lesson that still feels applicable to this day and age, with every generation feeling as though it needs to hear it. The main theme of the serial makes it worth the watch (or READ in my case…), but not enough to make it really that big of a highlight. I don’t need six episodes to tell me that overreliance on technology is bad when I get that in far better (and SHORTER) episodes in other franchises. The rest of it’s fine, but not enough to make it stand taller in comparison to other Doctor Who stories that use a similar formula.

The Enemy of the World: Le gasp! Another intact one! What a sight it is to behold–Ooh, that’s Patrick Troughtan playing a Spanish man…And…Okay, it’s hard to tell through the black and white, but is that blackface? Er, or brownface? I don’t know. And it’s probably NOT either of those things…At least, I HOPE it’s not either of those things, but it almost looks like it is, which is unfortunate…

As for the serial itself, it’s…less than stellar. The Doctor realizes that he shares the face of a dictator in the far distant future of 2018 (I always love it when time travel stories become outdated), and has to bring him to justice. He’s reluctant, however, because The Doctor does NOT know all the details. What makes this man so evil? Why must they take his life? What evidence is there to support that Salamander–THEY NAMED THE SPANISH DICTATOR “SALAMANDER?!” GAH! This one hurts…Anyways, The Doctor isn’t sure what makes this dictator evil and why he shouldn’t be trusted. It’s a part of a theme that still applies to today’s political environment, where we must look at all the angels for a government figure before deciding what to do to them. Whether it’s a person we follow or disagree with, a lot of the time we need all the information of what they do and what they’re capable of before making any permanent solutions. It might seem black and white sometimes, but try explaining that to people who know next to nothing about politics. And given the big twist in this serial that the man you thought you could trust is just as corrupt as the labeled dictator, I’d say the story definitely has something to say about the messiness of politics. Though, even then, it’s not really THAT political, as it’s another conspiracy, with The Doctor and his companions trying to stop it. Except that they don’t really do much as the whole thing crumbles by Salamander’s carelessness and Astrid coming across the secret society he kept hidden. All The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria did was try to make the truth come out in some capacity, but it seems like it was inevitable anyway. And it should be fun watching The Doctor pretend to be a dictator, but the…outdated acting tactics and very racist name make it questionable. And I don’t just mean the probable brownface when talking about the performance (Still not sure if that’s what they did). I mean him playing a Spanish man, fake accent and all, and it…doesn’t feel right. I don’t even want to commend Patrick Troughton’s job at playing two different people, because that performance feels tainted by what he does to do it. Even looking past that performance, the character (Why the fuck did they choose that name?) doesn’t really do much for me. Why is he going through this much trouble to keep a group of people hidden? What’s the point other than “More power?” It just doesn’t grab me and I’m left scratching my head over the question of WHY he would do all this. All in all, despite a decent attempt at a message, and a great message at that, this is another messy serial that felt like a drag to go through.

The Web of Fear: …One. In a six part long serial, only ONE episode is missing. ONE…You know what? Screw this. I’m not reading six parts just because someone thought it was a good idea to get rid of ONE sixth of a serial. We’re using special means for this one! I’ll just read about the missing episode…

And this one…was slow. I’m going to be honest, a lot of these serials for Series 5 feel like they could have been trimmed down. This one in particular is all about setting up the main threat. Or, rather, reintegrating the main threat, bringing back The High Intelligence and his doofy abominable snowmen who are…significantly less doofy this time around. I’m still not threatened by them, but their new look is definitely an improvement that makes it easier to see how SOMEONE could find them a threat. But six MORE episodes about The Doctor and co. fending off these doofy contraptions? With them having…web powers for some reason? Seriously, why give web guns to abominable snowmen when spiders are RIGHT THERE and are ten times more terrifying than these doofy things ever could ever be?

Yeah, the large part of this serial wasn’t doing much for me…That is until the last two parts when the High Intelligence SORT OF introduces itself and that it wants The Doctor’s intellect. It soon becomes a race for The Doctor to save his mind, new friends, and companions, all while stopping the High Intelligence once and for all. And what I love most is that while the High Intelligence is defeated, it’s not in the way that The Doctor intended. In trying for a permanent solution, Jamie ruins it because his loyalty to The Doctor and NOT wanting to see him hurt caused the whole plan to crumble, with The Doctor being furious and disappointed that it caused the death of a good man that the Intelligence took control of. It’s another great aspect of The Doctor, where their need to save the universe and the innocents in it can sometimes fail because their companions unintentionally foil any plan due to wanting to protect THE DOCTOR too. It’s similar to the idea that “The Daleks Master Plan” presented where The Doctor does sometimes lacks the human element in NOT seeing all the variables and is sometimes driven more by intellect instead of emotion. Except that this time The Doctor’s more at risk instead of Jamie, which I very much appreciate. It gives a fantastic end to a slow build of a serial that, again, did not need to be this long. Hopefully the next time we meet the High Intelligence, it’ll be for a shorter story. And with more threatening looking minions. I don’t care how good the endings are, six parts with doofy costumes is NOT doing it for me.

Fury From the Deep: Deleted, but thankfully they remembered that animation is your friend.

And right away, this one has a similar problem as the last serial, where there’s so much time dedicated to building up this big finale that you end up losing attention DURING the build-up. I mean, it’s the characters fighting off foam and seaweed. Foam and seaweed that’s meant to be so terrifying that it makes Victoria scream so loud they run away. I’m sorry, but I just don’t find foam and seaweed all that scary, nor do I find it entertaining as everyone screams like maniacs over frickin’ FOAM! And SEAWEED! Yeah, I might be freaked out if I saw a bit of seaweed move in real life, but it’s still frickin’ SEAWEED. You gotta dress it up a little better if you want me to believe that characters can scream their heads off over it. Victoria has seen Cybermen, abominable snowmen, Ice Warriors, and The Doctor in possible brownface. She’s faced scarier things, yet it’s the SEAWEED that really broke her? And that screaming, by the way, gets really old really quick. It’s not just Victoria’s cries that grate the ears, but how much everyone is just YELLING at each other, more so than usual. It’s hard to care about anybody and their problems when all I want from them is to just SHUT THE HELL UP!

Ugh, sorry. It’s just that this episode definitely gave me some sensory overload. In fairness, it does get good near the end there. Halfway through, it actually makes the seaweed more of a threat by showing how it infected the humans. By seeing what the seaweed’s capable of, it makes us worried for the characters and hopeful that they don’t meet the same fate. And in the final part, when we see how far the infection goes, it leads to some scary imagery seeing these once human beings become humanoid seaweed. It doesn’t sound frightening, but the animation and some set pictures show just how creepy the concept COULD have been, and I’d say it’s effective ENOUGH. It didn’t give me the chills like other Doctor Who villains, but it worked ENOUGH where I can say it was almost worth going through all the screaming to get to.

Another excellent aspect of the serial is how this is meant to be the departure of Victoria. Not only does she get to stay and help The Doctor and Jamie through most of the serial, but the majority of her time does make it clear that this is her last adventure. She voices how she’s at her wits end with all these adventures and constantly going to some place with danger instead of somewhere…relaxing. To go on vacation instead of having to save the world from a threat that The Doctor has to defeat. You’re quick to understand her plight, and I love that it’s clear she doesn’t want to leave Jamie or The Doctor. She loves them both, just as much as they love her. The problem just lies with the fact that Victoria can’t handle the insanity any longer, with the toxic seaweed being her limit…Still a weird limit to cross, but I digress. The serial handles Victoria’s departure very well, with The Doctor being understanding, albeit still sad, and Jamie feeling heartbroken to say goodbye to someone he cared deeply for. It marks another fantastic ending to a slow building serial.

The Wheel in Space: Half of it’s missing, so all of it’s going to be read. I take back what I said earlier. I’d absolutely take a serial going back and forth between animation and live action to avoid this…

And it’s the Cybermen. Again. For the fourth time since being introduced through the First Doctor. Not gonna lie, it’s starting to feel a LITTLE stale. They’re still valid threats that prove they’re nothing to be messed with as they flawlessly execute a plan to hijack a space station for its powerful weapon systems to invade Earth. It makes them fun, but for the fourth time with no real variation it also makes for something that’s not that much engaging. “Tomb of the Cybermen” at least changed things up by making it an archeological adventure, where this feels more like “The Moonbase” but with a new cast of characters. Though, I will admit, the cast this time is a lot more entertaining and stops “The Wheel in Space” from being TOTALLY dull. There’s some fun personalities on display, making me care about this crew of canon fodder, effectively making me feel all the right things when one of them dies. It was actually upsetting seeing characters like Bill and Gemma getting killed for different tragic reasons, Bill being a victim and Gemma being an unlucky hero. I even felt bad for the brash and paranoid Jarvis Bennet, who died with heartbreak and wanted to go down swinging after the Cybermen killed Gemma. It’s decent stuff, with Zoe being the obvious stand out. On paper, she seems fun as this logic-focussed woman of intelligence who prefers facts over human emotion. I was intrigued by the possibility of how well she’ll work with The Doctor and Jamie in the future just through this serial alone, and I hoped she’d be better in action than in paper. And you’ll see soon enough how well I thought she did. For now, I’ll say that Zoe and the rest of her crew did good enough in making me care a lot more for this standard Cybermen adventure. It goes to show that no matter how typical a story can be, it can always be carried far enough by great characters.

The Dominators: Fully intact like it t’was intended! Thank goodness! I can appreciate the subtleties of an actor's performance and the classic special effects. Speaking of the latter, there are some pretty decent special effects in this, with the way the Quarks move, how buildings fall apart or blow up, or seeing all these mini-explosions being surprisingly close to the actors as they run away. Lot of great stuff to make this serial set the stage for how dangerous the stakes are in this serial…Even if the story never really sucked me in.

Visually, “The Dominators” are pulling out all the stops. Narratively…I don’t know. I like the idea of The Doctor and his companions helping a pacifist society against trigger happy invaders. It SOUNDS interesting, and in some aspects it is. Whenever The Doctor and Co. have to convince the society to fight back and plan an attack against the titular Dominators, it feels intriguing and makes you think the serial is going to be about something like how pacifism is noble but there are times when you NEED to fight…But then it all goes NOWHERE. The constant debates and arguments with the council? Nowhere. The Director ridiculing his son? Basically nowhere. The Dominators making themselves known to the council and accepting their surrender? Very much nowhere. If this was just The Doctor and his companions helping a small group of pacifists, the serial would go up a considerable grade. But with all these scenes of political nonsense at the capital, it makes the serial drag a bit and tunes me out far longer than it should. As for the Dominators, they’re not great either as these two frowning dickheads yelling at each other while using their tinkertoy robots to kill people. If it was JUST the robots to worry about, again, I’d like the serial a lot more. In fact, I WANT to like this serial. Again, visually, it’s a treat to watch. And I love how The Doctor outsmarts these stupid, frowning babies by playing dumb and making them think that The Doctor is too stupid to use for their evil plans. It’s a clever tactic, even if it’s clear that luck and the Dominator’s stupidity is what really made it work. Unfortunately, despite everyone TRYING to make the story great, it’s still a little flawed to keep me interested.

The Mind Robber: Two intact ones in a row?! Oh, well, that’s just special.

The same goes for the serial, because this is an all-timer. The Doctor and his companions are trapped inside a dimension of nothing but fiction, words, storybook characters, and mythological beasts. It’s enough to drive anyone mad, with even The Doctor going crazy as he faces off against that world’s master and all his puzzles, riddles, and trials in the effort to treat The Doctor as a work of fiction himself. This leads to The Doctor to use his own wits and rewrite the story so amie, Zoe, and him don’t become trapped in a world of insanity and used as playthings by an insane mind obsessed with fiction. And it’s all in five parts of decent special effects, impressive sets, and cute costumes as we see The Doctor face each riddle and monster for the sake of saving himself and the others. All while giving some good wacky stuff like Jamie losing his face for an episode or The Doctor and Zoe getting help from a superhero. It’s pretty fun to watch, having my favorite aspect of The Doctor on display as he uses his mind to outthink his enemies instead of overpowering them, while mixed with some fun, sci-fi nonsense that only this franchise can pull off. It leads to a great adventure, leaving me with something new that I haven’t seen from this version of The Doctor yet. There’s really not much I can say about it other than it’s some good, goofy fun met well with some great presentation. Is there anything else you could want from a cheesy, classic Doctor Who adventure?

The Invasion: Darn it, we were doing so well–THIS ONE ONLY HAS TWO EPISODES MISSING IN AN EIGHT PARTER?! Screw it, we’re using special means again. If only a fourth of this is missing, then it was hopefully a boring fourth. And truth be told…it probably was?

Yeah, remember how I said in “The Wheel of Space” that seeing the Cybermen was starting to get a little dull? Well, “The Invasion” proves that it really is true. There’s some intrigue with the mystery behind Vaughn and who he’s helping, it’s cool to see the introduction of UNIT, and there IS some intrigue to be had with Vaughn trying to control the Cybermen. Other than that, though…there’s only so many times I can say, “Oh, it’s so cool to see humanity band together to fight the Cybermen!” At least with the Daleks you have some serials trying to mix things up with them chasing The Doctor and company through space and time or destroying the Dalek empire or having them trick humans into thinking Daleks can be controlled. Here, it’s the FIFTH TIME I’ve seen/read about Cybermen trying to invade Earth and/or destroy humanity with The Doctor and a small group of cannon fodder trying to stop them. At first, it WAS cool to see how the Cybermen started and how The Doctor struggled against them, but after five times with the same kind of adventure it finally got dull. CYBERMEN are now dull. I’m sure they’ll show up again in the future, but after this serial, I was left hoping it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

The Krotons: SAVED from the BBC gods!

And it’s…another case where The Doctor and others discover a conspiracy within a society and must try to stop it so that the same society shall flourish. It’s a story structure that the writers thankfully eased up on for a bit, making it a lot less dull than seeing the Cybermen for the tenth time (I was genuinely worried it would be the Cybermen again when someone mentioned silver men). Plus, to be fair with this one, they mix things up a bit where people catch onto the conspiracy sooner, with The Doctor actively trying to STOP them from revolting due to not knowing enough about the threat yet. There’s even something interesting with how The Doctor and Zoe are prime targets by the Krotons due to their intelligence, but sees Jamie as a waste of space because of his…primitive mindset. It almost has something to say about how a brilliant mind is important but one should also rely on instinct to survive. While it ALMOST gets there…it doesn’t really go all the way, sticking to a theme that one should think for themselves in searching for knowledge rather than letting a higher form of intelligence give them easier answers. Mind you, that’s still a good lesson, as well as a unique one, but unfortunately leaves Jamie on the sidelines with the admittedly boring Gongs who don’t really capture my attention throughout the adventure. I’m more invested with the struggles of The Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie that this tiny rebellion just never captured any investment from me. Given how it’s essential to care about the Gongs so you can hope for The Doctor to save them, I’d say “The Krotons” didn’t do its job too well. There are some good bits that made it worth a watch, but not enough to make me value the whole adventure.

The Seeds of Death: ALSO saved from the BBC gods!

And this one features the return of the Ice Warriors. A tad bit out of the blue, but more welcome than Cybermen for the sixth frickin’ time. As a bonus, I get to actually SEE the Ice Warriors in action this time around instead of just reading about what they do, which steadily improves how I look at these things now as compared to their introduction. It’s weirdly unsettling hearing how they talk as though in constant pain yet still move around with commanding stride. It effectively makes them decent threats, especially with how the guns they use cause this distorted effect that is unlike anything I’ve seen kill a character in Doctor Who before, but works in a way I wouldn’t have been able to expect, at least for something in the late sixties. As for their diabolical plan…it’s covering the world in white foam. I know they said it’s algae or something, but it’s foam. Though, the crazy thing is that I feel the threat because of how well everyone treats it as one. It’s weird, I feel NOTHING towards frickin’ seaweed and white foam, but white foam on its own seems to do SOMETHING for reasons I cannot fully explain. I just look at how it surrounds the Earth, remember how toxic it is for the characters, and actually get worried when I see some of them get covered in it because it’s likely going to do some harm. It’s weird, but it works. The only thing I really CAN complain about is how slow the serial moves. It’s another case where it feels like the serial pads itself out to an unnecessary degree, to the point where the titular seeds of death don’t even come into play until halfway through the serial. At first, I didn’t mind the setup, as I felt showing us that this threat is occurring on this moonbase before The Doctor even shows up is a great way to set the stakes. But given how it took TWO EPISODES just to get up on the damn thing all so we can have this argument about the necessity of rocket travel that went NOWHERE, it makes me wish that The Doctor just happened upon the moonbase or any of the bases with T-Mats just so we can stop wasting time. Because once The Doctor and co. DO end up going against the Ice Warriors, the serial finds its momentum as you watch everyone try desperately to fight these near unstoppable monsters with even The Doctor taking direct action to stop them. It’s just that if this serial was an episode or two shorter, it would have been stronger because of it.

The Space Pirates: AND we were doing so well. DAMN IT! To the transcripts…

At first, I wasn’t really into this. It was all just catching me up to this new time period, spoon feeding me all this lore with these new characters that I could hardly give a single shit about. Meanwhile, The Doctor and his companions, the characters that I enjoy and look forward to seeing in every adventure, were in the middle of an infinitely more engaging narrative of being trapped in a portion of a blown up space probe and trying to get back to the TARDIS as it’s stuck in another part of the probe. I wanted to see how they get out of this mess, yet the story kept cutting back to other characters that The Doctor and his companions haven’t even met yet. It made the serial feel dull and slow, with our main cast feeling like they’re reacting to a plot that happens around them instead of doing something about the titular space pirates. That is, until they meet Milo, because that’s when the story starts picking up. Now with The Doctor and others thrown into the conflict, they’re forced to stop the pirates and save lives so they don’t suffer as well. Even all that time showing us these other characters and their complicated histories was actually beneficial as it all leads to a thrilling conclusion of all these characters separated into different parties and working together for the same goal. I went from not caring about Madeleine or Milo or their whole misconstrued betrayal of one another, but when we get to the big twist of what happened to Madeleine's father (which I will leave spoiler free for this), I felt surprisingly invested and hoped things could work out for those two. It’s amazing how successful a story can turn out if you have faith in the audience feeling invested enough to keep with it and it all pays off in the end. Now, it doesn’t ALWAYS work out, as Doctor Who is sometimes evident of that as well, but this is another case of a serial getting better the more you stick with it. The start was slow and dull but it really is worth it for that quick and tense ending that left me satisfied with its conclusion.

The War Games: Well, at least they remembered to keep The Second Doctor’s last adventure intact. More than I can say about the last one…

This is also his longest adventure too, which is fitting enough. This is the last time we’re going to see this version of The Doctor and the companions he made along the way. So it makes sense to have their last adventure together be their longest one yet, giving fans one last LONG goodbye before seeing them off. And WHAT a final send off, having The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe go through a large plain of existence where soldiers of every major war on Earth (Up to 1969) are all jumbled together for the sick experiment of an unnamed alien race. Sure, the length makes things drag a bit, but the serial keeps you entertained ENOUGH to see what happens next. Like when Jamie gets kidnapped during HIS attempt at a rescue mission or how The Doctor had to betray his companions so he could save them later. There’s so many twists and turns that the serial takes, keeping me guessing in certain areas and engaging enough to enjoy most of it. Even stuff like the leaders of each war coming together to stop this threat has something beautiful to say. The only way to save ourselves isn’t fighting each other, but fighting against an even bigger problem that could result in our extinction. Whether or not that’s what the serial is trying to say is really up in the air, but it’s still a beautiful sentiment that I personally took away from, and hopefully others got that too.

But the final episode is where things get REALLY good as The Doctor stands trial for, well, being The Doctor. This is the serial that revealed he ran away from his home planet, too bored by just observing time and space and wanting to see it, to be a part of the universe’s insane narrative. It shows leagues of layers to The Doctor and why they’re always moving, always traveling to see something new, in the same episode that reveals more Time Lords. The ones we’ve seen before were Susan and The Monk, with both of them being…not that impressive as The Doctor. Here, though? We get to see just how powerful a Time Lord is and exactly why The Doctor knows there’s no escape from their punishments, regardless of your pleas. It makes the rest of the episode a tragic one as everybody is fighting all they can to stop the inevitable, and everybody fails in the process. It hurts the most when The Doctor is forced to say goodbye to both Zoe and Jamie with NONE of them wanting to. I actually felt my heart cracking up a bit when The Doctor said his goodbye Jamie in particular, the two of them going through the most together throughout this run. And to add an extra layer of pain, neither of them remember The Doctor when getting sent back to their respective times. Previous companions got to at least have their memories, so the fact that Zoe and Jamie don’t just…hurts. It hurts me as it hurts The Doctor, the poor guy losing everything because of HIS decision. He contacted the Time Lords to save the many lives that the aliens stole, only to lose everything in the process. From his TARDIS, to his companions, to even his face, this is The Doctor’s greatest failure that came from what’s basically his greatest victory. “The War Games” might feel a little long at times, but that ending makes it one of the best Doctor Who stories in the series. Couldn’t have asked for a better final serial for this Doctor.

But before we talk about the new guy himself, let’s get into the people that tagged along in this journey.

THE COMPANIONS

New regeneration, new companions. Just like last time, we’re going in order of appearance, starting with two in particular carrying over from the last Doctor…

Ben: Ben…feels like a productive Steven. He’s able to save lives and actually assist the others, but he’s just so whiney and dopey a lot of the time. Ian had his moments where he complained or bantered with The Doctor but had this sort of…charm that Ben lacks. You could say that it’s a maturity thing and Ben’s youthful twenties made him act a little immaturely. But even then, while you CAN say that’s an excuse, it doesn’t stop him from being a little annoying. I at least like him more than Steven, but not by much.

Polly: Polly frustrates me in a way because it feels like she’s two different characters sometimes. At her best, she’s a lot like Barbara: Capable of getting herself out of scraps, intelligent enough to follow along with The Doctor better than anyone in the group, and kind in ways where she emphasizes with someone going through something stressful. But at her worst, Barbara’s a lot like Susan: A damsel in distress SCREAMING for someone to help her. It’s like the writers wanted to be progressive in making Polly be a capable companion but didn’t want her to be TOO impressive compared to some of the men. The end result causes her to be a character whose personality isn’t even dependent on the story being told. It’s dependent on what the scene is, holding her character back from being someone amazing when she’s just…a slightly better Susan.

Jamie: I didn’t even need to check in with the fandom to know that Jamie’s a fan-favorite. His middle name might as well be loyalty, because there is no one that stuck closer to The Doctor like he did. Jamie would throw himself into danger without a second thought because The Doctor is in trouble and he would fight heaven and Earth just to save him. And he had the skill to back it up too. Where the boy lacked brains, he more than made up with brawn and battle experience, thinking on his feet while knocking out blokes that threatened his life and The Doctor’s. Though, let it be known that Jamie isn’t BLINDLY loyal. He still questions most of The Doctor’s tactics and will relentlessly be annoyed with his antics and incapability to use the TARDIS. Just because Jamie would die for The Doctor, he’d still knock some sense into the old man for acting like a fool. The result is a fun and admirable character that I was genuinely sad to see go. Maybe because, out of every companion The Second Doctor had, Jamie stuck around the longest. Everyone else left after a season, but not Jamie. He stuck around, knowing that The Doctor will always need a guy like him, with it hurting the most that they had to say goodbye and Jamie lost his memories. The Doctor will never forget him, but Jamie will, making a sad end to what might be one of my favorite Doctor Who companions.

Victoria: I have…mixed feelings towards Victoria. I was not a fan of her constantly being a damsel in distress, hardly contributing as The Doctor and Jaime went off to do the real dangerous stuff. I, for one, still prefer companions that are more active than reactive, thank you. Plus, the screaming wasn’t really pleasant a few times…Yet, at the same time, I’ve come to realize that there’s this…sympathy to be had with Victoria. She lost her father, whose last request was for The Doctor to protect his daughter at all costs. And The Doctor, in typical fashion, figured that protecting meant taking her along for every dangerous adventure he could possibly come across. It makes sense why she was often the damsel who would inevitably leave behind all the wackiness. She wasn’t MADE for adventure and wanted out of it. It makes for an interesting character on paper, even if the execution could be…grating. I like the attempt and I still love how her departure went. I just wasn’t a fan of the overall character.

Zoe: Wasn’t there for too long, but she was a fine enough character. I loved that she was as smart as The Doctor and even smarter at times. She had good rapport with him as the first person to ever match wits with The Doctor on a regular basis…Other than that, she was still just like the other young female companions: A damsel when the story demanded it. Worse yet, it gave her a sort of strained relationship with Jamie, with there ALMOST being something there with Jamie demanding that she’d protect herself and Zoe going, “How very sexist of you.” Only for her to be in immediate danger and screaming for The Doctor and Jamie to come save her. It would have actually been cool if she could save herself or even save Jamie and The Doctor instead of screaming for help as though she were a Susan or a Victoria. But, nope, can’t have a woman be too badass in the late sixties. Here’s hoping the seventies will be better with a new Doctor…

Speaking of Doctors, let’s talk about the new, old man himself…

THE DOCTOR

Right away, I want to make it clear that this is MUCH more of what I’m expecting from The Doctor. Gone is the old cynic and in comes what’s basically a British Bugs Bunny. The Doctor takes control of every situation he’s in through confidence and keeping everyone guessing what he’ll do next with toys, gimmicks, and even disguises to befuddle his enemies. The man was a ton of fun, aided by Patrick Troughton’s charming performance, looking like (and often sounding like) he was having a great time with this character. But it should be known that most of One’s seriousness wasn’t completely lost. Two still kept that in stride, yelling and being furious with others when they didn’t listen to his “good” and “completely reasonable” ideas (the air quotes are intentional). It’s almost as if he was a younger version of The First Doctor, which…might have been the intention? As of this point, the show didn’t explain what regeneration was, only vaguely doing it by the time Number Two’s was up. When The First Doctor regenerated in the TARDIS, with only a few nobs moving on their own while he laid almost dead on the floor, it was as though the writers were trying to visually explain that the TARDIS aged him backwards into Patrick Troughton. Of course, this is only theories and speculation, but something I couldn’t help but pick up as a possibility and I wonder if that could have been the real explanation that the writers wanted to stick with Troughton didn’t want out after three seasons. We know NOW that isn’t the case, but it’s still a fun “what if” that makes this already entertaining version of the character more intriguing.

However, as fun as The Second Doctor is, he’s not without problems. Or PROBLEM as there was only really ONE thing that bothered me with The Second Doctor, and that’s how much of a sniveling coward he could be sometimes. I heard people complain about Fifteen shedding a few tears over a stressful or heartbreaking situation, but it’s nothing compared to how often The Second Doctor would scream, panic, and sound like he was on the verge of bawling like a baby over a stressful situation. It would only get worse with each serial too, with him coming across as more of a coward when he really should have become braver. That’s kind of how character development is SUPPOSED to work. You get BETTER with each adventure, not worse, and it really hurts with how strong this Doctor started off. He came out swinging as a goofy and serious reincarnation, but slowly lost my interest as his run went on. I at least like Two more than One, but I don’t think he’d be able to top some of my favorite modern Doctors. The fact that most of his serials were deleted doesn’t help much either.

Although, I will say, I MUCH prefer this run over the last one. It’s a bit repetitive at times but MUCH more engaging with thrilling sci-fi stories that are much more in-line with what I expect from Doctor Who, aided with a fun-loving Doctor and his most loyal companion…Plus some season long guests. And with his story over, I’m looking forward to what Number Three has to offer. Mainly because I know NOTHING about him, so that’s going to be fun to experience. Until then, I’ll be counting down the next one by the SECONDS.

[baby--b4t]

guess whoooo

it’s fishie again !! :3 writin this req while tiny so apologies if it doesn’t make sense >_<

ftm!reader who recently got top surgery, and is insecure about his scars from it, so s/o itto (or baizhu) who is also ftm helps comfort reader and take care of them after the surgery

(transmasc headcannons make me so happy djdjdjdjdjdjnf ^^) dis is similar to the req I put in b4 dey closed but they’re the sillies so i’m requesting a bunch of things 4 em

-🐠

HI IM FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO WRITING YOUR REQUEST !! (sorry it took forever). I think I made a Baizhu bot out of this request but I cannot remember. Ill make this Itto because hes so silly and honestly ftm!Itto makes me giggle /pos. Hopefully this is good >:3

(Its not exactly agere BUT he does call the reader little beetle :3)

You had finally gotten the surgery you spent a lot of time saving up for; Top surgery! You felt so proud of yourself for saving up all of the Mora and working so hard to feel comfortable in your own body, so proud for doing something nice for yourself… So why did it feel so terrifying now?

You laid in your bed, staring down at your chest and the way it was all wrapped up. Maybe it was the medication, or maybe it was the feeling of your chest from being operated on, or maybe-… Who were you kidding? You didnt feel right because you knew you would have scarring afterwards. Two very noticeable lines under your chest that would tell everyone you werent a “real” man. Just the thought of it made your eyes fill with tears.

And as if his himbo senses kicked in, Itto emerged from the doorway.

“Hey, hey, heyyy~” He greeted, casually walking towards your bed. “Guess who just scored the best and most delicious noodles for dinner tonight? This guy right here!!” He pointed his thumbs towards himself, not yet noticing your teary face. Somehow his carefree attitude always managed to make you giggle, but once Itto heard you giggle, hearing the off tone of your voice, he knew something wasnt right.

“Huh? Hey, why is my little beetle all sad?” Itto asked as he gently wiped the tears off of your face, being careful with his nails. “Are you in pain? Did you take the meds?” He seemed like such a nervous puppy whenever it came to you, making sure you were comfortable and happy. Once you explained to him that you were scared of the scarring the surgery would have, he just smiled at you.

“What? Thats it? Youre scared of having these super awesome and amazing scars right here?” Itto asked, showing off his own slightly faded scars. He was never shy about them and always explained what they were to curious people. “You mean that youre totally not going to be proud because you went through a big surgery and lived to tell the tale?!” Itto added on, his tone becoming more playful and teasing. He gently ruffled your hair as he saw you smiling again, finding the way he described everything to be funny.

“But seriously, are you in pain? You know you can-“ Itto started to go on again before you shushed him. You reassured him you werent in pain and had taken the medications given to you for recovery. It felt so funny to see such a big and sometimes intimidating guy become such a worried person for you. Thats when Itto finally calmed down and went back to talking about the noodles he grabbed for both of you, even talking about making them soon so you could eat. He just wanted you to have an easy recovery.

[chartoris]

DELTARUNE PREDICTION TIME

I hope I finish this post before the anniversary of chapter 1 (nothing else notable happens on that day) I'm putting my 100% correct theories+ predictions here just in case Toby decides to release chapter 3 alone for some reason (I personally think he's releasing just 3 and 4 together next year), but who knows with that dog.

CHAPTER 3

As everyone else thinks, it's safe to say that the dark world in chapter 3 is probably gonna be TV themed. With different areas going through different channels.

THE BOSS

I don't think we can predict who exactly the main villain is yet based off of one thing Jevil said about a queen in one line. But it would make sense if it were some fucked up game show host guy. Maybe since the Spade King represents Susie's dad, and Queen represents a mother, the chapter 3 boss could represent that estranged uncle that nobody really talks about.

Also Tenna is probably the guy that betrayed Spamton. Not Mike.

THE SHADOWMEN

They're just gonna be silly litle guys.

THE WEATHER CHANNEL

Also sily.

THE POLICE

Since Toriel called the police and Kris left the door opened, I think that either Undyne shows up, or Napstablook shows up wearing Undyne's Undertale armor. Both of which would be awesome sauce.

NOELLE

No idea if she'll show up in the chapter. But I also have no clue why else the Lost Girl theme was in that unused sneaking section. Yes I'm still thinking about this.

THE END

I believe that chapter 3 might end with Kris sealing the fountain. Like you walk up, that sickass guitar riff plays, the screen fades to white, and the chapter ends (assuming it releases with chapter 4). Imagine how relieving it would be that the chapter doesn't have to end on a massive cliffhanger!

CHAPTER 4

Based on the screenshots we got for the 2022 status update, I don't think chapter 4 will have a dark world. It seems like a nice intermission chapter to just hang out with Susie in Hometown for a couple hours. We could get more insight into the residents of the town, as well as some lore.

i'm a huge fan of rain so this seems like the best the game will ever get.

I think its possible that Toby might have changed his might about releasing 3-5 together, and that he might just release 3 and 4. Assuming this chapter is just in the light world, it would probably be a lot faster to develop. No enemies, no battles, just cutscenes.

Keep in mind, I just took one programming class 5 years ago, so I'm not the ultimate authority on game design. But if it is easier to develop, I think we could see chapters 3+4 next fall.

I don't really have any other predictions for chapter 4 since all we have are a few screenshots, and even less for the future chapters. So I'm just going to talk about other general things in the game.

THE BUNKER

Gaster is afoot. Also maybe Dess or something idk yet. Oh and a dark fountain too. Maybe even the supply closet one.

DARK WORLDS

I don't think EVERY room with double doors is going to be a dark world, especially considering that Toby can just retcon them in between chapters, so I like to go off of narrative significance.

I think there will totally be a dark world in the church, considering the Dreemurr family has a significant amount of history with it, as well as the interesting thing you could do with it. Like a giant pipe organ castle or something.

There probably won't be a dark world in Ice-E's, unless something super traumatizing happened to Kris there when they were a kid. But I still have my eye on that Ice-E guy. Something fishy is absolutely going on with him.

why is he so big

Asgore's flower shop seems like a really good place for a dark world, and I need to see what the golden flower darkener would be. The empty fridge could even be like the ice palace from Dragon Blazers.

THE HOLIDAYS

Rudy is most likely going to die. I really don't want him to but unfortunately it would be really good for the story. Noelle would be forced to stand up to her mom like she did to Queen.

Also Noelle's mom's name is probably either Clarice or Carol.

WEIRD ROUTE

Its likely that not every chapter will have a weird route. I think they are more tied to Noelle's presence, due to her affinity for video game glitches when she was younger. Especially because it seems like the route itself isn't supposed to happen in the game world. And the weird route is a way to break out of the whole "your choices don't matter" thing. You might even be able to save Rudy in the route, at the cost of Noelle's mental state and every other horrible thing you may have to do.

THE KNIGHT

I don't think the Knight will be the main antagonist. It might get revealed relatively early (like chapter 5), unless its Gaster or something. The actual main antagonist of the game will be either the Roaring Titans or the Angel.

THE ROARING

This is probably gonna happen at some point. Ralsei leaves for ONE minute and someone opens a dark fountain in a dark world. Can't have shit.

holy hell they look so badass

Also penumbra phantasm final boss theme. make it happen toby.

[sirensea14]

How did you actually come up with mayhem x not cup? It seems like such a weird yet canon ship I love it I want to learn more

Oh i actually had art of that ship waaaaay back before posting on tumblr

Made this around the middle of last year. And then i posted this when i first started tumblr (you long-time fishies/followers out there who was with me with my first post might remember this lol)

From all i could remember from my past-self's thoughts, Not-Cup was, from what i imagined, a hollow and black eyed version of Cuphead that appeared in real Cuphead's dream in the labyrinth. Which is waaaaay different cuz in the canon, its actually just the usual cuphead that we know, except evil with toungue. I was wondering why he was in the Tear—was he an anomaly like mayhem? Was he an illusion like ava and black hat? Or is he smth else like i dunno, a future cuphead that is potentially possessed by an ink machine part? (As you guys know, when a character gets possessed by this shit, their eyes turn black like Cog!Holly, Cog!Cala and Instument!boris and sarah. Except the brush with mick tho, i dunno why is that)

But anyway, this question gets unanswered leaving me to headcanon that he is an "actual" character and not just a manifestation or illusion of the labyrinth. Just like Mayhem who we thought was an illusion till she's revealed to be an actual character in the series. (This question regarding Not-Cup is still unanswered lol, regardless of an answer, im still shipping them)

Now, onto the actual question, well i dunno if u ship cuphead and holly (i do) and if you'd notice, witchbrew is (obviously) a parallel of the colly ship. Colly are in the hero side, while Witchbrew is on the villain side. I would love to see an actual couple be villains, it sucks that theyre always single XD. If Cuphead had his Holly, then why cant Mayhem have her Not-Cup, hm? Nah-uh aint gonna let that happen

And then boom! This shit--i mean ship is created. Lol i dunno if this makes any sense 😭

Also this ship has ties with my theory regarding of Mayhem's origin and if there will be a canon origin of her story thats gonna be different from my theory, well, lets say this might just be a small fanon ship that randomly came outta nowhere XD

Regarding their origin love story, it starts with my theory that Mayhem is the future Holly that is fully possessed by the cog when the questers went to the desert (forgot its name) to finf the machine. Cuphead goes desperate and asks help from a part? (Eh, i really havent thought about how cuphead got possessed lol) And then he teams up with Mayhem.

The problem is, Cuphead did it out of love, regrets (regret that he didnt manage to save holly even tho it wasnt his fault), and guilt. While Mayhem got possessed by the Cog due to her previous connection to it that got stronger. So i this ship, its painfully one-sided. Painful truth.

But when interacting, they act a bit like a bickering couple, Mayhem being the terrifying teaser she is while Not-cup is the sarcastic serious one. Tho he sometimes act like the actual Cuphead Dish from the questers. They may also act a bit like the duplicates of Colly in appearance.

Not-Cup likes to help Mayhem mess with the Questers as they try to hunt down and restore the duo.

And as for Chaos the Cat... I dunno where the fuck does he fit in lol

From what i remember i think i had a digital version of Mayhem's Tango? Its burried deep down in the ocean... Btw Mayhem's tango was inspired by the song "You'll be mine (Alice's Tango)" by Chi-Chi. I also had other songs that i associate mayhem with (mostly its just bendy fansongs lol) but i dunno if u wanna hear abt it :/

Welp i think thats it? I covered up all about teh WitchBrew origins. Send me another ask if my explanation's not clear XD

Im also glad that you love this silly lil ship i made! It was odd seeing someone like it when i expected no to actually like it XD (tho i dunno out there if anyone actually paid attention to my mayhem x not-cup ship way back then cuz it was a bit random) if u want more infos abt them, go on and ask! I have a bit more from store actually... Hidden for so long... (/jk, its just for 2 years lol)

Stars i feel like ive made an essay...

[heros-shade-fanclub]

How'd your sillies get their names? Both in AU and on paper :]

AAHHH that's a good question....lemme think. wall of text time>>

Wolf: I think he was just referred to as Wolf a lot while in wolf form (ex. by Midna before she knew his name, etc.) and he got attached. You can probably guess how I decided on it LOL. even though it's basic i like it a lot!! like yeah that's him!!

Fish: a nickname given to him by Tetra's crew since he's always up to something........fishy!! He's a slippery little scamp. (he also probably smells like fish most of the time. stinky guy) His other nicknames are Fry or Small Fry.

I don't remember exactly but I think I got the idea from the fishmen in windwaker calling him Small Fry??

Lucky: I don't know who exactly gave him this nickname yet. Maybe the villagers in his hometown? He's gotten through a lot of narrow scrapes via quick thinking/just sheer luck and so earned the nickname Lucky.

I came up with it due to his bunny form (or in Lucky's case, his hare form). Like a lucky rabbit's foot yaknow?? It's also a reference to the dialogue in Link's Awakening after you get a kiss for the Bowwow quest or a potion from Crazy Tracy ("L-l-lucky!")!

Cloud: my distracted ADHD fella. my beloved brain fog warrior. He got this nickname from Zelda and the other students at the academy since his head is always up in the clouds.

I actually got this nickname from his design though! Each Link has a different shape motif and his particular shape is like a puffy cloud (you can see it in his hair, the hem of his pants, and the collar of his shirt!)

Blue: he gets this nickname from the other Links because he's wearing his blue champion's tunic. ermmm that's it. No relation to Four Swords Blue

Funfact: two other ideas I had for Blue's name were Bow and Armoranth :] He no longer has a bow in TL so that's why I scrapped that one.....I could probably still be convinced to keep Armoranth though tbh.

Ghost: a title he got due to his status as an urban legend in the Twilight Princess era. When Hyruleans swap spooky stories, you might hear tell of the one-eyed specter someone saw roaming the field one night. Also, Ghost refers to Wolf as "Link" but doesn't really think of himself as "Link" anymore, so i think that cements the nickname. I don't know if Wolf even knows Ghost's real name until he meets the other heroes and realizes they're all named Link.

I don't remember how I chose this name....I wanted it to stem from the Hero's Shade but always found "Shade" kind of weird. So Ghost it is :] I feel like it sorta hints at his character themes in Terminian Lullaby too

[dransnake]

OC Propaganda! Little Buddy edition

Here is a propaganda post for Dev for @splatoonpolls's OC tournament!

This is the Devourer of the Dry Lands, also known as Dev for short. He's a young Salmonid that hasn't evolved or grown up into his adult form yet. He's very long for a smallfry though!

He's extremely food motivated! He's a hungry little guy and he LOVES snacks. If you aren't careful, he 100% will steal food off of your plate (especially if you're eating a shrimp-based dish). This is how he got his namesake, especially after going through Alterna and eating SO MANY power eggs and fuzzy ooze. He's just a tiny glutton.

He's a little trouble maker, even more so since his partner in crime (an Octoling named Bubbles) is able to fluently speak Salmonid tongue. An example of him causing trouble: he convinced Bubbles to take him with her on a Salmon Run shift, just so that he could wander out to get a live recording of w-3. This had a lot of chaotic consequences. Also the sock that he's wearing he stole from Bubbles.

He's my version of Little Buddy. I considered entering one of my other Agent OCs, but I decided he deserved some love. He's a silly little guy and I want him to be perceived.

Could be a King Salmonid, but chooses not to because then he wouldn't be able to be with his friends. Did I mention he loves friends? For the low low price of giving him snackies, you too can also be his friend! One vote = One treat for Dev

Looking forward to having this silly little fishie in the tournament!

[cocoabubbelle]

Random thought:

Is Rollo Flamm hiding a set of animal ears underneath that ginormous hat of his???

*checks out Leona, Ruggie, Jack, and Cheyna*

Probably not since they don’t have a pair of human ears.

…but what if magic disguise like Azul, Jade, and Floyd?? 👀

But original Frollo (scum bag extraordinaire btw) despises magic?

…but this one could probably be a super in the closet magic geek and that’s why he’s fascinated with Malleus Draconia?

I bet on the super slim chance he does have animal features he’s a goat

Because:

It would be funny

It would make him a composite character with Djali (Esmeralda’s Goat)

In most Christian symbolism, goats are associated with the devil, so maybe he was bullied/ostracized/condemned as a child for his goat horns because horns = devil, and maybe he was part of a super fundamentalist/orthodox/strict religious community and so he spent years hating himself and developing a perfectionist/purity complex that resulted in him being extremely upright and cold against anything deemed “impure/imperfect” and has military-like discipline and strictness. Probably also resorting to using potions/magic to “erase” his “disgusting” features, something he has additional guilt over because of his community’s view on witchcraft/magic.

This can also explain why he has maybe an obsessive interest in Malleus. We don’t know if his interest has positive or negative feelings yet; maybe it’s a bit of both (admiration that Malleus can openly display his horns + disgust that he’s showing off those horrible horns like a demon + jealous he is able to do that and have the power to potentially ward off any haters + longing to be like him because it looks like he has people who respect him…then even more so when he sees the genuine friendship Malleus has between Yuu/MC and his followers + conflicted because the way he’s been taught and molded to hate and reject his “faults” can’t possibly be wrong…can it?) <- think Inspector Javert moments from his demise from Les Miserables.

I mostly want to see more characters with animal features outside of Savanaclaw (Octavinelle barely makes the cut because the main guys there mainly present themselves without their fishy features)

Just a silly headcanon 😆

[decaflondonfog]

by wand or by knife

rated m (for a v short fade to black moment), <1k

[honestly idk i had this idea and i'm in the trenches due to a long fic that doesn't seem to want to end and this just happened! it's probably pure nonsense]

SIMON

When Baz asked me not to make any plans for today, I didn’t question it. There’s always something going on. A family dinner to celebrate a holiday I never even heard of, drinks with friends I forgot existed that he somehow keeps in touch with, sporting events I am pretty sure are made up until the moment we arrive. I never question it.

Baz could ask anything of me. I don’t know how to say no to him.

I wouldn’t want to, either.

BAZ

I have been doing weird things for Simon Snow for ages now. I’ve decided that at this point it would be weirder to stop.

The idea lodged itself into my brain last week. We were wrapped around each other like we always are: curled up on the sofa together like a creature that separates into two every morning but needs to return to its natural form at night to survive.

The film was rubbish, if you ask me. Simon would probably agree. But he’s easy to ready when it comes to mushy stuff. I always notice when his eyes get all bright and big like that.

I don’t know yet if I’m a grand gesture kind of guy, but I do care a whole lot about making him happy.

SIMON

There are scones for breakfast. When I ask where he got them, he avoids the question and starts talking about research with Penny. When I ask again, he tells me not to worry about it.

That’s not a very Baz thing to say. And they’re just scones. Nothing to be suspicious about, really. Except… they taste exactly like the ones back at Watford.

I put half a dozen away easily, and wash them down with tea he keeps refilling.

It’s a good morning.

BAZ

I tried to remember what I was wearing that day, but I can’t. It was winter, then, so it’s not like it matters, really. It’s too warm for jumpers.

Simon has told me before how much he likes the green shirt, so I go with that. This is not the kind of thing one dresses up for but I don’t know how to not make an effort.

SIMON

That fucking green shirt.

“Simon, come on, I wanna get going.”

I’ll get him going all right.

He’s got the top three buttons open. The green makes his eyes pop, his skin all lovely white marble, peppered with stark black hair. I want to lick all the way from his collarbone and down his sternum. I want to pop all the buttons off on that bloody shirt.

He wouldn’t forgive me for the latter, but I think I can get him on board with the former.

“Snow, for fuck’s sake, now?”

We’re always late when he wears that shirt. It’s not my fault.

“Si— oh, bloody hell, well, don’t stop now!”

Whatever it is we’re doing, we might be late.

BAZ

He’s a bloody demon.

I have to bribe him with food to get him in the car.

SIMON

He better not be joking about getting me more scones. 

BAZ

This is all a bit of a silly plan. I consider turning the car back and taking him out for lunch.

I don’t, for the sake of romance.

SIMON

He’s fidgety. The soft kind, not the nervous kind. I’ve learnt how to tell those apart. There’s definitely something fishy going on.

The music is on quietly, and the windows are down. His hair is up but little wisps of it escape the bobble, flying around his face. It makes me want to reach over and tuck it behind his ear. He fed just this morning, so it should pull a blush out of him, too. I like it when he blushes.

BAZ

“Wait, are we going to…” he trails off.

Finally. I figured he’d get it like twenty minutes ago.

SIMON

My heart is hammering against my ribcage. I check Baz’s trousers for the potential shape of a velvet box through the fabric of his pockets. Nothing, though. Not one thing. No ring.

Why else do people bring their significant others to the spot of their first kiss?

BAZ

“Come on, Snow,” I say, trying to sound more confident than I feel. 

SIMON

I find the place before he does. I didn’t think I’d remember it, but I do. I remember the flames, and the way his lips felt on mine. They feel just as good now, but it’s nice to be less confused about it. And less worried he’ll incinerate himself into a pile of ash, like an idiot.

BAZ

I pull my wand out of my pocket, and then his present. I pass it to him without a word.

SIMON

“I thought you said I was not allowed near knives,” I tell him.

I had a small accident in the kitchen, a few months back. I’ve not tried any knife tricks since then. I have no clue why he’s handing me a pocket knife now.

BAZ

“Come here,” I ask him. He does. I twist him around so he’s bracketed by my body, between the tree and I. “Step forward.”

“Is this a weird vampire thing? Wait, Baz, are you finally turning me?”

“Shut up, Snow.”

He’s still laughing, but it dies down when I mutter the spell and aim at the tree.

The carving is a little wonky, but I’d never used that spell before. His mouth is open and he looks vaguely like he may cry.

He traces the shapes with his fingers when I finish.

SIMON

S+B.

Baz is a romantic fool. I love him so much it hurts.

You’re ridiculous, I want to say. But I’m too scared I’ll cry if I open my mouth. 

“Your turn,” he whispers, kissing behind my ear.

BAZ

He carves the heart around the letters like it’s the easiest thing he’s ever done.

Perfect, magical, incredible Simon Snow. 

SIMON

“I love you,” he says.

And then he kisses me.

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

yo..if you're the professor....can i be your struggling student 🤨🤨 can we schedule an after class tutoring session....🤨🤨

I HOPE I'M DOING AN ALRIGHT JOB AT MAKING YOU FEEL BETTER??? and thank YOU for talking to me ilysm

I SLEPT ALRIGHT BUT I WOKE UP BECAUSE MY DUMBASS CAT DECIDED THAT MY CHEST WAS A GREAT PLACE TO MAKE BISCUITS ON (???)

okay woozi liking ari, bruno, and justin is VERY k-idol of him... but nasty is a diff level. bro is actually secretly v horny and you cant convince me otherwise.... you're doing detective level work brie thank you for bringing me this info 😂 truly an imaginer...

NOOO A FOREST VENUE ISN'T LAME WTF THAT'S SO MAGICAL UR RIGHT!!!! okay but wouldn't a wedding in the snow be SO cold LMAOOOO the bridesmaids would need parkas or something smh

I'M GLAD I INTRODUCED YOU TO A MEME THAT MADE YOU LAUGH PLS LAUGH MORE, YOU DESERVE IT

and I'VE HEARD OF GG I'VE JUST NEVER READ IT... from where i am it's pretty popular...

OH MY GOD ZACHARY GOODE SOUNDS SO COOL AND PERFECT WTF....WHAT DOES HE LOOK LIKE?? LIKE HOW DID THE AUTHORS DESCRIBE HIM

why does netflix always take the best shows off bro....i haven't finished bloodhounds yet and istg if they take it off before i finish i'm actually going to riot... BUT THANK YOU!! I WILL WATCH DOCTOR WHO AND SUPERNATURAL WHEN I GET MY SCHOOLWORK DONE LMAOOOO

wait...will supernatural ever do a con wherever you are?? like if it's a show based in the US then surely they would do something there.. (im assuming ur from the US but if you're not then sorry..)

THANK YOU FOR REINFORCING MY IDEA HJGHWJKGHK I WAS SO NERVOUS SENDING THAT ASK I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE BEEN SHAKINH😭😭

no but he just responded....HE IS ANNOYING THANK YOU. WHY CAN'T I APPRECIATE MY GUY FRIEND IN PEACE. like when he responds he always gives me like a slightly flirty/playful answer but it's either REALLY later (like 6+ hours) or like right away. no inbetween. the most he's waited before texting me is 1 day, but if we count the days where he left me on read, then like 3. like wtf. AND THANK YOU FOR LISTENING LGOIWJGWOIGJ I WILL DEFINITELY UPDATE YOU IF ANYTHING HAPPENS <33 im scared that people get annoyed when i talk about it SO PLS TELL ME IF IT'S TOO MUCH

also that's one hell of a story....how are you dealing with this so well??? i would've just quit and moved to another city LMAOOO

ben being a capricorn is so funny because every capricorn i've met has been like him...okay but wtf. he cheated on his (ex)gf with a FRESHLY 18 YR OLD??? see, usually you have to see how people you're friends with act around other people, but how tf is he gonna act all dandy with you (and other friends) but then do that to his gf??? he's fishy man...be careful

are blake and nam an item or are they just friends?? and how weird is WEIRD for a group of friends...as in like- you guys are all an odd pairing or are you guys just silly billys 😋😋

and wtf?? leaving emilee after she planned the hangout?? that is really shitty..

i'm sorry that you're feeling depressed man :(( i can't do much more than just be rlly supportive but just know that heart palpitations anon believes in you!! you're not annoying for being excited (which is completely human), so don't forget that!!!

i'm responding as i read rn but like....rachel and sophia do seem like....a little bit of a problem... SORRY IF THIS IS COMPLETELY UNSOLICITED AND OUT OF LEFT FIELD BUT LIKE....THEY'RE DOING ALL THAT FOR WHAT. sounds like a power trip to ME

maybe people aren't mad at you??? no offense girlie, but it sounds like they all have their own problems that they're dealing with by taking their frustrations out on you and the people around you..and can you leave your psychiatrist?? i mean if it's not working for you, surely there can be ways around it right? my friend has SUPER bad anxiety, and they got rebellious and stopped taking their high dosage meds and they literally said that was the first time in ~4 years that they truly felt alive, so maybe it'll help you??

you are NOT a narcissist girlie...this is exactly the type of stuff you would discuss with a therapist, and since you can't find one, you talk to your friends abt it!! it's totally normal, especially when you're in THIS many stressful situations!! you're SO normal and honestly, if i were you, i'd cry a lot too, so you're actually doing great brie. like genuinely, you're so strong

hey,, if you're gonna reject someone, make sure you guys aren't ever alone together in case they get violent :( stay safe!!

IT'S NOT FAIR THAT THEY'RE MAD AT YOU??? if they get jealous or weirded out because you're having a good time with a 'weird' group of friends, then it's not your problem atp...but if all of them are kiiiinda shitty people, then i could see why they think its weird. if they're nice people, then it's rachel and sophia's problem!!

I'M ALWAYS OPEN TO HEARING U TALK ABOUT ANYTHING STRESSFUL!!! pls go ahead and talk about yourself because it's obvious that no one else wants to listen to you :(

you didn't go overboard!! let it all out girlie i love people that explain everything because i am NOSY

remember, if you talk to someone who likes to get tired of people, don't chase them ;( i know it hurts a lot, especially if you literally love them, but if they truly valued you, they wouldn't just...up and leave, ykwim? its like manifesting stuff ig? if it's not meant for you, then it's not. if it is, then it is!! you gotta win the idgaf war brie 😤😤

-lots of support from 🫨 anon <3

Of course omg Office Hours once a week at 2:00am :)

YOU ARE ALWAYS THANK YOU ILYSM2

NOT TO BE ON YOUR CATS SIDE BUT I WOULD BE SO TICKLED IF MY CAT WOKE ME UP LIKE THAT THATS SO CUTE

OKAY I'M SO GLAD YOU GET IT PEOPLE LOOK AT ME LIKE IM DUMB WHEN I AM TRYING TO EXPLAIN THIS SHIT TO THEM LIKE I ANALYZE HIS PLAYLISTS I'M OBSESSED. THANK YOU FOR VALIDATING AND UNDERSTANDING MY OBSESSION

OKAY IT WOULD BE COLD BUT ALSO MAGICAL HAHA YOU ARE RIGHT THOUGH HAHA I HADN'T ACTUALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT

YOU DESERVE IT I HOPE I MAKE YOU LAUGH TOO YOUVE HEARD OF IT???? ITS POPULAR WHERE YOU COME FROM THAT'S CRAZY WHAT THE FUCK UHM DARK BROWN HAIR AND GREEN EYES IF I REMEMBER ACCURATELY!!

NO LITERALLY bout to be really mad at netflix I think they just removed my favorite cdrama too

SUPERNATURAL USED TO DO CONS IN THE US YEAH BUT SINCE IT ENDED THEY HAVEN'T BEEN DOING THEM AS MUCH and I was in highschool at the crux of them doing cons and so I never got to go cause who was gonna take me you know.

IM SORRY YOU WERE NERVOUS HAHA DONT BE NERVOUS SENDING ASKS

BOOOOOO YOU SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO APPRECIATE YOUR GUY FRIEND AND ALSO WHAT THE FUCK he should respond more often... THREE DAYS ON READ IS TOO MUCH. I WILL TELL YOU IF I GET ANNOYED BUT ALSO I WONT GET ANNOYED

please don't say that i want to quit and move to another city SO BADLY it's my first INSTINCT IM SO SERIOUS I DONT WANT TO DEAL WITH ANY OF THIS

ALSO OH MY GOD I FORGOT I TOLD YOU EVERY SINGLE DETAIL

HE IS FISHY THOUGH I AGREE.... DONT WORRY THOUGH I am always cautious with him

THEYRE JUST FRIENDS HAHA AND THEYRE BOTH RLLY STRAIGHT AND BLAKE IS IN A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE HOW

and we are all an odd pairing! like no one at work would be like yeah those people should and do hang out cause why would we

RIGHT IT WAS SO SHITTY

thank youuuu

I THINK IM THE PROBLEM they are very intune with their emotions and healthy and adult and I'm still silly brie who cries over fanfictions, makes friends with toxic people, and makes mean jokes

I WOULD LEAVE HIM BUT I LIKE HIM EVEN THOUGH I DON'T LIKE HIM I actually go crazy without my medicine. the last time I wasn't on meds for my mania I didn't sleep for like three days straight, I ALSO can't sleep without my sleep meds, and I went without my anxiety meds for two weeks and was basically unable to do anything it was BAD BUT ONCE I GET OUT OF SCHOOL AND MOVE ILL BE SO MUCH LESS STRESSED SO

i am a litttllleee bit of a narcissist BUT THANK YOU

and i didn't reject him. I still need to. I am leading him on AHHHH

THANK YOU FOR READING ALL OF THAT CAUSE OH MY GOD WHY DID I GENUINELY DROP EVERY DETAIL (I was not on my anxiety meds) you're rightttt though you're righttttt I WILL DO MY BEST TO WIN THE IDGAF WAR THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT

[tare-anime]

A silly Forger parent's Valentine's day celebration. Or was it? (AO3)

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

“So, what is your plan for today?”

Yor blinked at Camilla’s curious question. 

Receiving no answer, the blond lady’s brow furrowed, “Don’t tell me you forget that today is Valentine's day?”

Yor’s eyes widened in surprise, “I’m…not??”

Camilla sighed, “I wonder how a dunce like you could get such a hot hubby like that.” She then narrowed her eyes, “Are you guys even truly married in the first place?”

Yor sputtered, “Of… Of course, we are!!” 

Oh no!! You’ve been careless, Yor!! 

Forgetting a day this important could make people question your wife status!! 

Think of something!! 

Quick!!

“I never see you wear any ring either….” Camilla pressed some more.

Yor gulped, “I choose not to wear a ring on a daily basis. But I do have it. And we have our marriage certificate……” 

The frowning face looked directly at the red eyes, challenging Yor to spill the truth. Sweating bullets, the Forger matriarch tried to retort as best as she could, “We…. we do have a plan.”

“What plan?”

“It’s a secret. But that’s one of the reasons that I ask to leave the office early.” 

“Huh? When did you ask-...”

“Now.”

“Enough with the chatter!!” Mr. Barnes' scolding came right on time. And as the workers started to scatter back to their respective corners, Yor took the opportunity to ask for her early leave for the day.

.

The black-haired lady had been pacing through the supermarket’s aisle several times already. 

All little information she gathered in that short amount of time to understand tidbits about Valentine's day told her that it involved chocolate, gifts, and dates. 

Going by that order, she tried to find Loid representable chocolate. 

Unfortunately, she had missed the preorder days of chocolatier handcrafted chocolates, so now her only option was the limited choices of chocolate that were left on the sparse shelves of the supermarket. 

This won’t do!! Loid doesn’t like sweets! Perhaps I should give him something more practical?

Suddenly a shiny special package of chocolate caught the woman’s eyes.

Oh? Anya will love this Bondman special peanut chocolate!

Akh!! Anya!!!

The woman gasped when she was reminded that if she wanted to ask Loid for a dinner date, she had to call someone to watch over Anya. 

Lucky for her, Yuri was in town, and she was able to contact her brother in time. Her brother had grumbled at first, but he soon cheered up after Yor promised to give him a bar of special chocolate that she grabbed from the supermarket. 

.

Twilight slipped out from his secret trap door at the hospital and pulled the mechanism to close it. 

He then carefully pulled out the bundled documents in a plastic bag from the inside of his shirt and placed it at his table. 

The man reeked of sardines, courtesy of his last mission of retrieving those documents from an informant who worked at the fisherman’s boat. 

His phone rang.

Expertly the spy switched on his dr. Forger persona and pick up the phone, “dr. Forger speaking….”

“Mrs. Forger is waiting at the lobby,” he heard Nightfall’s monotonous voice relaying the information. 

The man’s brows furrowed in confusion as he glanced at the clock inside his office. He surely didn’t have any plans, and he hadn’t passed his working hour yet. 

“Should I drive her out?”

“No! No!! Tell her to wait for a moment….. I just need some time to …. make myself representable.”

“If she’s bothering your job, I could just-...”

“Fiona,” the man told his coworkers firmly, “Tell her to wait. I’ll leave the documents at my desk.”

“............”

“Fiona. Do you-…”

“Fine.” 

Twilight winced at the sudden harsh hung-up.

The blond man sighed. Suddenly he felt even more tired than he should.

.

After taking a shower and getting rid of the fishy odors as best as he could, he finally met Yor at the Hospital’s lobby.

The corner of his lips tugged upward automatically when he saw the sparks in his wife’s eyes. Somehow his fatigue lessen even for a tiny bit. 

“I’m sorry for making you wait, Yor. Do you need something from the hospital?”

His wife shook her head a bit too violently, “No! I just…. I…. “

The man raised his brows, he silently encouraged his wife to continue.

Blushing madly, Yor finally answered, “Loid, can I invite you to a date right now?”

Eyes slightly widened because Loid never expect such a request coming from her. During their playing house all this time, Yor has never been the one to take such initiative. 

It felt refreshing.

And the realization made his smile widen as he answered, “Of course!”

.

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, all the restaurants around their vicinity seemed to be fully booked. 

After walking around for some time, they finally gave up on fine dining and bought a simple bratwurst and bread takeaway from a small stall. 

They then ended up at the corner of Yor’s favorite park and sat at the last empty bench available.

The spy truly didn’t understand the reason why all people from the city suddenly decided to dine out at the same time.

Nevertheless, he honestly appreciated being able to sit in a quiet corner of the park and enjoyed the calm afternoon breeze. 

Wondering if his wife also shared the same contentment, Loid glanced at his side.

He nearly choked on his bread upon seeing the gloomy face of his wife.

“Yor?! What’s wrong?”

Yor’s lips quivered when she looked back at him, and whispered, “I’m sorry, Loid. I should’ve prepared the date plan better….”

“It’s fine, Yor. I mean, who would’ve guessed that people decided to dine out at the same time this afternoon, right?”

His wife blinked at him. 

“And to be quite honest, I enjoy sitting in a quiet place like this once in a while.”

“Really?” 

“Yep.” 

His wife’s shoulders significantly deflated in relief that made Loid chuckle. 

Before the man was able to take another bite at his Bratwurst however, his wife presented an awkwardly warped brown box tied with pink ribbon. 

When he gingerly accepted the thing, he heard her whisper shyly, “Happy Valentine, Loid.”

Loid’s mouth hung open. 

Suddenly he knew the reason why people went out of their homes for the day.

He mentally slapped himself for forgetting such an important day. 

“I noticed that you don’t like sweets, Loid. So I think, this gift would be more appropriate,” His wife added. 

He looked down at the gift, then at the bright face of his wife. 

“I-.... Thank you, Yor. I’m sure this…. This…..” He awkwardly pointed at the box. Regaining composure as fast as he could he unwarped the gift and upon seeing the gift inside his brows furrowed, but he continued, “This…. pen will be very useful.”

That’s really an awkward-looking pen. Is it a fountain pen or something? 

Yor grinned from ear to ear, “That’s actually not a real pen.” She then took the ‘pen’ from the box, expertly twist open the rear part to show an empty ampule. 

“It’s a secret injection syringe,” She started to explain, “You can put the calming medicine or something like that inside, and use it to protect yourself, should your patient get too violent.” 

Yor then sheepishly added, “I’m sure you have such type of medicine, right?”

Loid stiffly nodded, “We do, yeah…”

“I mean, obviously you don’t want to hurt your patients. But I noticed that sometimes they can be very violent. Like….” she gestured to him, “I don’t know what happened to you today, no offense, but you smell like fish. Did your patient slap you with fishes today?”

Again the man could only nod at the ridiculous reasons his wife made up. 

“Figures. If I could, I really want to be there to protect you. But I can’t. So…” Yor smiled. 

Loid’s mind went blank. 

His heart felt warm from such a sincere gesture, but at the same time, his mind couldn’t comprehend how wild her imagination can be. 

He chose to focus on the former feelings, and sincerely replied, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

The Forger couple then continued their eating in silence. But during the time, Loid actually raked his brain to return the gesture. His forgetting the day obviously made him didn’t prepare any gift. 

A gentle sound of a violin played by the street musicians caught his ears. And the man smirked as he might finally know what to do.

He stood up and offered his hand to Yor, “I’m sorry that I didn’t prepare any gift to give you, but may I offer you this dance?”

Yor looked at his hand, unsure, “I’m not a good dancer….”

“Don’t worry about that. This is not a ball. And I smell like fish. Nobody will judge us.”

Yor chuckled when she finally took his hand and stood up.

The couple then moved their body to their own rhythm. But that’s enough to wash the weariness of the day off.

 Bonus: 

During their walk home, Loid couldn’t stop thinking about 1001 ways of how he could use the intricate tools Yor had just given him to help with his missions. Suddenly a very important thing clicked in his mind, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Uh… Yor, where did you get this kind of tools?”

Yor stopped in her tracks. She didn’t even think that far when choosing one of her assassinations gadgets as a gift for Loid. It was made by the Garden obviously, but she can’t tell him that. She was sweating bullets when the curious eyes of her husband kept demanding an answer. “I … uuuhh….. Frankie?”

Loid’s brow furrowed at that, but he nodded. He made a mental note to scold Frankie later for daring to give such dangerous inventions to his wife.

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

Poor Frankie ^^;

Thank you Mei from the discord server for allowing me to use this idea. So that I could write something for Valentine’s Day :D

[futuristicballoondream]

So many thoughts about the new 19 days chapter I don’t even know where to begin?!?!?

I might go into some of these with more depth later but initial thoughts:

- Absolutely love that Mo’s pic for his mum is chrysanthemums (mums LOL) how sweet

- WHAT is He Tian wearing!? I assume he ordered food to the house (cause he didn't wanna leave Little Mo alone and who would walk around outside in Pyjamas- not him, surely) but then why the hat? Was he so embarrassed about his greasy bedhead he had to hide it from a delivery guy? From little Mo?

- Is it dodgy shading, or does He Tian have a split lip? He looks exhausted, surely it doesn't take so long to whack a few plasters on and shove an outfit in the washing machine. Is that the reason he is tying to slither past Mo without looking him head-on for too long (bar obstructing Mo’s view with his palm to check his temp)?

- Has he been out and about getting into a fight with a certain somebody? Meeting Big Bo to hash out a plan?

- Has he just been up all night googling ‘How To Save A Fish’ like a desperate parent clinging to the one thing that means anything to the person they love, and ordering food and a filter from some emergency supply store (does Deliveroo do pet food i wanna know)??

- The fish is alive I FUCKING KNEW IT you doubters.

- I actually wanted to do more posts about this fishy at the time, but the hostility and distain from some Tumblr fans really put me off. Fandom discourse is for everyone people - all theories and opinions are welcome no matter how mad, especially when not proved otherwise. And even if they are, cos wackiness is fun and kills time between chapters. And even if people have mad theories, leave them be. They aren't hurting anyone they’re just having fun, and can be quite entertaining..... like Jian YI. I knew he would live because the fish represents hope and Mo clinging on to the possibility things will get better, no matte what happens, and for that hope to die, well the story would be over.

- Bless Mo waking up and instantly looking for the earrings.

- Coughing up blood is not a great sign

- He Tian just waltzing in, listening, offering support, and quietly dealing with shit (without wading in and demanding praise, or payment, or teasing) is a real sign of maturity and him taking his relationship with Mo to a level of respect I didn’t think he was capable of yet. Not just patching Mo up, the obvious in-front of him things, but thinking about his comfort and later problems - cleaning his clothes, charging his phone, contacting a worried parent, That is some real Mr Darcy shit right there. Good man.

- I love how Ox shows shots of He Tian’s apartment being all big and empty, apart from when Mo is there doing normal stuff and it looks all full and homey.

- He really put effort into making sure the things Mo care about are taken care of: buying a filter for the little fish to prevent (more) ammonia burns, feeding it, putting the totally f*cked earrings laid out on a lil napkin so Mo would see them even though they obviously are unusable.

- And it is this, the care and attention, the cessation of silliness and flirting in times of stress, that lead to Guan Shan really trusting He Tian. Hence the request (which, OH MY GOODNESS how exciting)

[strange-lace]

Macaque

I was in the mood to make more content for Inverted AU, so here’s a short-ish fic of how episode 9 would go in this AU with Macaque, Wukong, and MK! Enjoy the shadowpeach!

Another demon defeated but still no sign of Sun Wukong. Macaque let out a sigh before rolling his shoulders to bring relief to tense muscles. Oh well, he'll just have to keep looking, not like he hasn't been at it for years now. At least this city he wandered to was quite nice with pleasant people, nothing too out there aside from demon attacks.

"Hey! Hey you! Shadow monkey man!" Macaque wouldn't deny that the sudden voice made him jump, considering he was on top of a pretty tall building. Apparently not tall enough to stop the young man from climbing up the side, somewhat out of breath yet that didn't deter from the determined look on his face. He simply brushed his messy hair out of his eyes and adjusted his teal backpack, which looked surprisingly heavy. Macaque couldn’t help but be somewhat curious as to what was in that thing.

Wait was that the Monkey King's staff in his hands?

Indeed it was, he'd recognize that weapon anywhere.

“Ah, you must be the Monkie Kid I’ve been hearing so much about, am I right?” That got him a look of suspicion before the young man also seemed to remember the staff in his hands, causing him to let out an amused huff at his own paranoia.

“Yeah, the staff kind of gives it away, don’t it? Name’s MK though. Now whomst is you? Most of the time, demons who ask me who I am are five seconds away from trying to kill me.” Macaque couldn’t help but chuckle at that, already finding that he was starting to like this little guy and his attitude. Perhaps if a person like MK was chosen to wield Wukong’s staff, then perhaps that meant his love had finally started turning things around for the better. Maybe it meant he finally stopped being someone he wasn’t all for the sake of keeping a memory alive.

“The name’s Macaque, though, the Six-Eared Macaque is actually my full name. But what brings you up here exactly bud? I doubt you’d climb up this high just for anybody.” MK’s face showed that he wanted to argue that point out of principle before remembering his purpose for coming up here.

“Simple, teach me.”

Wait what?

“What what?” MK scoffed at the question.

“I want you to teach me to fight, like how you fought that demon back there. I don’t intend on leaving you alone until you do and that is a threat!” Macaque didn’t doubt that he meant it that way and could very easily follow through on that. Sensing he wasn’t going to get out of this, he let out a sigh before giving MK a smile.

“You sure your mentor won’t have a problem with me teaching you?”

“Bold of you to assume Wukong’s disapproval will stop me.”

“Well alright then, I think we’re gonna get along just fine, bud.”

---

“I see what you’re trying to do, you’re afraid of holding back and giving your enemy the opportunity to win. But the first strike isn’t the most important one. Every strike counts. Other people may tell you that patience and focus don’t matter but a fool allows himself to rush without restraint. While you have power inside you, you have to use it carefully. Take the power to defend others, not just destroy those who stand in your way. You’re not a weapon kid, you wield the weapon above all else.”

---

It started with a fairly innocent question from MK after one of their training sessions, him slowly going through a water bottle given to him by Macaque while the monkey made them something to eat. He needed a distraction to stop himself from taking over the cooking, years of feeding others making him feel guilt the moment someone else took over.

“So Mac, how exactly do you know the Monkey King?” To his credit, Macaque only fumbled the slightest bit at that sudden question and was able to save the plate before it crashed to the floor.

“Oh um well… funny thing about that is, well… we used to be together actually. Like y’know… together-together,” he explained while he plated their food, wincing internally at how awkward he sounded. With his back towards MK, Macaque didn’t notice him go tense and grip the couch arm so tightly that the wood underneath cracked at the pressure.

“Used to be together, huh? What happened?” Macaque couldn’t help but shiver at the chill which traveled down his spine. MK’s voice was perfectly even and calm yet he was filled with an overwhelming fear that warned him to not turn around and remain perfectly still until the danger passed.

His ears twitched at the sound of sparks behind him, magic power permeating through the air.

“I… I messed up honestly. We had an argument about something, I don’t even remember what it was so long ago. But I had to leave to just get some space and air before I said something I’d regret, something I couldn’t take back. It was only meant to be a couple hours but some stuff out of my control happened and by the time I got back… Wukong was gone. I had been looking for him for centuries after that and then… well then you found me.”

“What, you hoped getting on my good side would mean that you’d win the Monkey King back?” His tone promised nothing good if Macaque kept digging himself a deeper hole.

“No! No, nothing like that at all. I don’t expect Pe-...Wukong to take me back or anything like that. I just… wanted the chance to apologize to him is all. If he wants anything to do with me afterwards, then I want that to be his choice. Nothing more, I swear.”

MK remained silent behind him before the sudden tension in the air dissipated as quickly as it appeared. Macaque let out a sigh of relief, slowly turning around to see MK still sitting on his couch, placing the staff back in his ear nonchalantly.

“Fair enough, sounds like you both were just idiots who don’t know how to communicate. If you actually intended on using me to get to the Monkey King, you’d have actually mentioned him during our training and yet you haven’t. And you can’t lie to save your life anyway. Just don’t be an idiot again alright? Monkey King… Wukong, he’s a mess and I don’t think he could handle thinking he’s been abandoned again.”

Macaque could feel his heart break at the idea that his Peaches, his love, thought that he had left permanently. He wanted nothing more than to run to him now and make things right. But that was Wukong’s decision to make, nobody else’s.

The two ate their food in silence after that.

---

Sun Wukong may have supposedly “lost his edge”  but he was by no means dense or oblivious.

And while he was certainly happy about his successor’s vast improvement over the past couple weeks, a part of him sensed something was off. Like his successor was hiding something from him. And those moves he watched MK use to absolutely demolish the old mural, the Monkey King swore he had seen them before.

But it couldn’t possibly be. He hadn’t seen him in centuries. Not since he… left, like everyone else.

“I’m impressed, my boy! Tell me, how did you do that? Have you been seeing another mentor perhaps?” Wukong asked, his typically serene smile straining the slightest bit at the idea of his son student learning from someone who wasn’t him. The sensible part of his brain was gently poking at him, reminding him that it seemed silly to get upset about such a thing as, if anything, MK had appeared significantly calmer during their training compared to when they started. This could be a good thing, it told him.

Yet it was silenced by the majority of his brain which ran on fatherly protectiveness and had immediately been plagued by images of the worst case scenario. A demon had approached MK, promising him to make him stronger while also poisoning his student as a bid to turn him against the Monkey King before stealing his powers or, Heavens forbid, harming him.

No, Wukong refused to even allow a chance of that happening, logic and reasoning be damned.

“Hey, you’re the one always going on about ‘patience and focus’, I’m just finally putting what you said into practice,” MK answered, the picture of being casual which only set off further alarm bells within Wukong’s head. But before he could question him further, MK’s phone dinged to tell him of a new text message which he quickly read over, his eyes widening slightly at the message.

“Welp, looks like I gotta cut things short for now Wukong, something came up and I gotta head out. See ya later! Don’t forget to eat something tonight and sleep, I will know if you don’t.” And with that, MK was off through the hole he had created in the wall where the mural was before the Monkey King could get a word in edgewise. 

Wukong waited long enough to allow MK to get a reasonable distance away before transforming into a bird, flying after his successor.

Something fishy was going on and the Monkey King was determined to find out what it was.

---

“Why exactly are we climbing up to this giant mountain again Mac?” MK wheezed, hating to admit it but this hike had genuinely winded him despite all his training. He had immediately gone to Macaque’s place the moment he got his text only to be told to follow the six-eared demon, leading them to where they were now.

“Well, consider this your ‘final exam’ bud! I want you to use everything I’ve taught you to fight against me, no holding back. Think you can do that?” MK couldn’t help the twitch at the corners of his mouth at the sight of Macaque’s genuine excitement as he explained, all six ears twitching while his tail was wagging like a dog. A demon who was centuries old and had fought countless powerful demons had no right looking that endearing, but here MK was looking with his own two eyes.

MK gave a chuckle before straightening himself out, wordlessly pulling the staff out his ear.

“You sure you’re comfortable getting your ass kicked by me, Mac?” With a smirk, Macaque summoned his own weapon in a flash of purple with the beginning of two shadow clones pooling at his feet. They shyly peeked from the ground from behind their master.

“Oho, a couple training sessions with me for a month and you think you have what it takes to defeat me, bud? Well then, bring it Monkie Kid!” MK didn’t hesitate to charge forward with Macaque mirroring him, weapons at the ready and adrenaline already running through their veins.

“Enough!”

A sudden force landed in between them with enough force to send them both flying backwards.

MK and Macaque recovered in time to see who decided to interrupt their duel.

Both of their hearts nearly stopped at the sight of the enraged Monkey King but for vastly different reasons.

“You have 5 seconds to explain yourself for trying to harm my-” Wukong’s rage quickly deflated as the dust cleared enough for him to truly see who it was he had thought was attacking MK. “Mango Flower?”

“Um… hello again, Peach Blossom. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Macaque joked, voice weak as he restrained himself from acting out of bounds even if he wanted nothing more than to gather the other into his arms. It had been so long, far too long. 

He nearly broke at the sight of tears beginning to form in Wukong’s eyes.

His resolve finally shattered as the Monkey King ran towards him, arms outstretched, and before Macaque knew it his legs were moving on their own. The wind was knocked out of him at how tight Wukong squeezed him yet he returned the embrace back with gusto, ignoring the groaning of his ribs. He simply buried his face into the other’s fur, the smell of peaches still there even after all these years. Faintly, Macaque realized he was also crying once he felt a wetness on his cheeks.

Macaque let out a squeak in surprise as Wukong picked him up in the hug and spun him around, the sound of his laughter echoing throughout the mountain. The sight of such unabashed joy on his face was enough to make the six-eared demon to start laughing too, joy contagious in the best of ways. 

MK would deny it unless under the threat of death but he couldn’t help but smile as he watched the two monkeys get lost in their own little world. It made the guilt which nagged at his chest at having to manipulate the two to make this meeting happen ease up, seeing how happy the two were.

“It’s been so long…” Wukong whispered as he placed Macaque back on his feet, gently cradling his face as if afraid that if he stopped touching the other, that he’d disappear again. “But, why are you here? I had thought that you hated me, isn’t that why you…” Macaque went stiff in shock before taking the Monkey King’s hands into his own.

“What? No! If anything, I thought you hated me for leaving instead of talking things out and that’s why you were gone when I came back. I always intended on coming back to you Peaches, I swear on it.” Wukong’s eyes went wide at that, extremely close to crying again a second time that day. “I had been looking for you for centuries now to apologize.”

And now the warm feeling was gone, leaving MK to bite down on his staff to stop himself from screaming at how much those two had failed at the simple of communication.

“We’ve both been absolutely foolish, haven’t we?” Wukong couldn’t help but laugh at it all, which only worsened as he noticed all six of Macaque’s ears turn red in embarrassment.

“Yeah, I guess we have been-” His words were cut off as the Monkey King grabbed his scarf, pulling him into a sudden kiss that made Macaque jolt in surprise before he practically melted into the other’s arms. A purr rumbled in his chest and neither noticed their tails wind around each other.

The sound of MK clearing his throat, loudly, was enough to get them to break apart in embarrassment.

“If you two are done being romantic idiots, I have to beat the shit out of Macaque to prove that I’m better than him. I mean ace my ‘final exam’.” The grin on his face showed that he was lying through his teeth.

“Don’t think I forgot about all your trash talking, young man. How about it Peach Blossom? You willing to go all out with me and the kid?” 

Wukong’s face was the epitome of ‘Every part of my body wants to say yes but I shouldn’t.’ He was already terrible at saying no to MK and now with Macaque’s endearingly earnest face, he knew he was done for, at least with these two working together now.

“...Oh alright.”

The two mutual cheers at his agreement made Wukong feel slightly less guilty in letting his lessons go for a brief moment. But not completely.

But that was okay, Wukong was used to living with constant guilt.