#anyway if he's actually interested in history i'm gonna try to use that both for his sake and my own lol

[neathyingenue]

i got to use my 1890s obsession for good today!! only one of my 4th graders was at school during my last lesson so we just read a few books he had, including one about the invention of the ferris wheel. that led him to ask about the chicago world's fair which i happen to know about because of kaz rowe's youtube video and also a poptropica game i played as a kid and also because it's the 1890s and of course i love that shit! so i basically just infodumped and he was actually interested? (this student usually is super checked out) then the great chicago fire came up so he asked about that and we talked about how the 'mrs. o'leary's cow' thing was anti-immigrant propaganda! never thought i'd ever use my 19th century weirdness in my k-4 literacy tutoring job but here we are and it made my day

[delicatereader]

I need you (stephen!hayden x reader)

• summary: Stephen is a little rusty in sex and needs some help

• warnings: well smut

• a/n: this is about hayden/stephen not the actual one. I didn't go deep with the smut bc I am just getting the hang of it so yea. enjoy! (btw I haven't proof read it so there are mistakes...

➽────────────────────────────❥

You've had an exhausting day at work, unfortunately you have to work overnight. All you want is a get away from this shit. There were only few others with you left. You peacefully working in your space, reading reports in your spinning chair when Stephen comes in.

He hastily grabs a chair and pulls it next to you to sit. You ignore him because you what was coming, he's gonna rant about how everyone thinks he's gay and no one likes him. You didn't think that way, you've had a cute crush on him for a while but didn't do anything because you worked with him and didn't have the time. You've always liked the way he talks and his glasses (you found them slutty and hot).

"What do you think of me?" he asks

"What do you mean?" you try to confirm, still reading the reports

"What do you think me?"

"You're kind, generous and hard-working!" you reply looking at him

"No like what do you think of me?" he repeats

You let out a harsh sigh annoyed.

"Like physically, do you find me attractive?" he blurts out

"What?" you respond in surprise

"Like am I attractive?" he asks again

"Yeah? why? did someone say anything to you?" you ask him concerned

"No..." he drags

"Spill" you demand

"Ok! It's been a while since you know..." he says

"What? I don't know"

"Since you know!" he looks at his pants and back up (twice)

"Sex?" you answer

"Shhhhh!" he silences you, making you giggle

"Someone will hear you! But yeah since I had sex" he continues

"So you want to start having sex again?" you ask

"Well yeah! It's been a long time" he admits

"How long?" you ask curiously

"Ummm...2 years?"

"What!? 2 years?! omg!" you yell whilst whispering

"I'm a bit rusty..." he says

You scoff as a response, "you will be"

"Oh shut up!" he responds

"Can't belive it! 2 years!" you laugh out loud

"Yep..." he says embarrassed, nodding his head

"Ok I won't laugh! I promise! you speak" you take a deep breath

"So everyone thinks I'm gay, I accidentally let people- no men stick their tongue down my throat and the girls I get run away when they hear the gay rumours" he explains his situation

"Well they just haven't seen your search history! trust me your straight!!" you confirm for him.

He leans back on the chair shocked

"How do you know my search history?"

"The other week you left early and forgot to log out. I did it for you" you smile at him proudly

"Anyways what am I supposed to do about this? I have some friends who might be interested..." you advise resting your head on you palms.

"No" he replies instantly

"Then?" you ask raising your eyebrows waiting for some details

"I need you" he mutters

"What?" you yell in shock

"You. I mean I don't know anyone else better. I'm close to you so it won't be that awkward!" he explains further

"What?! I can't!"

"Yes you can. Nat, Smith and Jade are leaving right now" he says placing a hand on your lap

"What?" as you respond you hear an elevator reach your floor seeing your colleagues leave

"It's just us! please!" he begs. You could see the desperation in his eyes.

"If I agree to this..." you drag

"I'll owe you a million" he offers

"Fine" you shrug even though you've wanted him for so long, you put on a act.

He instantly gets off the chair and kisses you

"Is that ok?" he asks

You nod in response

His kisses get more passionate and confident. His lips are awfully soft. His hands travel from your lap to your cheeks. He starts to kiss your neck, but whilst leaving a trail of kisses from behind your ear to you collarbone you get up and turn so he is in the chair. You're sat on his lap legs on both sides of him. He slips his around your waist and let's them travel your back and slip through your hair.

You pull his dark blonde curls, making him whimper. "You like that?"

The only response you got was a moan.

He starts to unbutton your shirt kissing your chest and around your bra. You follow his actions and pull his shirt off. He takes your bra off and kisses your breasts.

You slowly start to grind on him, making his head fall back in pleasure. "Fuck y/n!"

His breath starts to get heavier. He pulls his hand from your waist to tale off his glasses. Suddenly, you stop him.

"Whay are you doing?"

"Taking of my glasses?"

You lean against his mouth with a smirk

"The glasses stays on" you demand

"You have a thing for glasses?" He asks, locking his lips with a smile and carrying pire lust in his eyes.

"Shut up!" you say rolling your eyes at him whilst giggling

"We'll see who needs to shut up after this" he says with a mischievous smile leaning back in to kiss you

[madam-o]

Re the weird divide in the Beetlejuice fandom, which I really don't get

Fandom is so strange. Just liking Beetlejuice himself as a character has invited all manner of unusual kinks and personal interests into the fandom, and hey, the more the merrier. Beetlefans and netherlings are an assembly of interesting weirdos, so like, you do you. And obviously, this means that you should try not to judge or make assumptions about others based on your own feelings about their interests. Riiiight?

So, Beetlebabes as a ship has been around since the beginning of the fandom, and it certainly seems likely not to be going anywhere with the sequel. Now, my own personal stance on the pairing lies straight in the middle. I think Lydia and Beej have a beautiful friendship in the animated series and musical. They're such a great comedic duo and there's something very pure and sweet about this girl and her bug-man. Their relationship in the musical IS colored by the fact that they're both using and tricking each other a lot of the time, but they seem to have a mutual respect on this point and don't let it ruin their friendship, well until the topic of moms comes up, anyway.

In the movie, it's more complicated. BJ is motivated primarily by his desire to be free and couldn't care less about Lydia's problems. He also gets just a tad creepy with Lydia, though he's not over the top about it. He claims that he thinks that she "really understands me", which is a frickin weird thing to say about a kid who you talked to for like five minutes. But the pervy implications are kept to a minimum so as not to drive the movie into darker territory. His motivations are still kept as primarily a green card thing, although the viewer is still pretty grossed out by the forced, child-bride marriage.

Re BJ, I don't see him as a human or someone who really follows human rules. He's a supernatural creature who has a vague, outsider's understanding of what being human means. Even interpreting him as a ghost and not a demon, he's too different from a human to remember what being one is like. In the musical and cartoon, he relates to Lydia from a child's pov, but tries to behave like an adult with the Maitlands. He's neither, though. He's an unliving, essentially immortal Thing. And while Lydia clearly has a lot of affection for "her monster", she's not exactly into this gross, stinky, creepy old guy. As for BJ, he's very attached to Lydia, perhaps unhealthily so, but he's not being a sexual predator with her.

However, as a Beetlefan, I've seen that it's pretty natural to pair the two up romantically. I certainly shipped them as a kid. And yeah, it's kind of a weird ship, but Beetlejuice as a concept is just weird, period. Weirdness and age gaps are hardly anything new or unique in any part of the internet. Teen fans ship characters their own age with much older characters all the time, and it's not usually frowned upon. But in the Beetlejuice fandom, there appears to be a lot of ship-shaming and accusations of p3d0ph1lia when it comes to this teen/ancient monster pairing, which I'm guessing is a lot more of an internet drama thing than about the actual pairing itself.

Now to be clear, I don't ship teen Lydia with anyone, but I also acknowledge that she's not gonna stay a kid and that things could change between them.

Personally I like the idea of Lydia and BJ being reunited after spending several years apart and things being super weird and tense based on their history. I've become primarily a fan of the relationship dynamic they have in the musical, so I see them as being distrustful of each other and competitive about getting one over the other. But they still gel in a unique way, and they can't help but enjoy their messed-up frenemy thing. And I think the awkwardness of the teen bride thing should be leaned into rather than forgotten or brushed away.

Lydia (to BJ): You really fucked me up, you know. I was just a sad kid who you manipulated. You fuckin creep.

BJ (to Lydia): Yeah but at least I didn't literally STAB YOU THROUGH THE HEART, so...point to me, there.

This type of prickly, antagonistic relationship is like catnip to me, honestly. So it's pretty disappointing and sad that all this fandom drama crap can and probably will affect my ability to share and enjoy beetlebabes content because "beetlebabes dni" appears on so many profiles and posts. It's the kinda thing that makes fandom culture such a double-edged freaking sword. Why can't people ever just let people enjoy the thing they like and try to be respectful of each other, ya know?

[docholligay]

When you hear an accent/dialect/we're not going to get into that debate here that sounds 'odd' to your ear, think about that! Not even in a "Wow, I hate that" way, or a "I need to examine my classism/racism/etc way I am a bad person way, but in a secret third way called, "curiosity and openness to experience"

I was EXTREMELY EXTREMELY FORTUNATE to have a required class in college called "History of the English Language" which was one of the 'weeder classes' for the English majors at my school. It was very very difficult, but the man who taught it had an INSANE passion for English. He LOVED IT, he would talk about it all goddamn day, and it taught me so much about how and why things get changed and said the way they do, and it made me so CURIOUS about why something is unusual or fun for my brain to listen to.

So now, anytime I hear someone pronounce something or verbalize something in a way I think of as "odd" I get so excited and curious*. What is it I haven't heard before? Sometimes my tongue will move around my mouth trying to figure out how they make that sound (I am REAL bad at this. Accents are in no no no way my forte, which is annoying because I'm very good at HEARING them and hearing the differences between them, I just can't DO it) because it is so interesting and cool all the different ways one fucking language has been DONE over so many years.

Anyway I so far off track I am no longer a train, but looking at dialects as you might look at an interesting bug instead of like a pop song on the radio or a sign font is a really good way to start opening your mind to language as something other than a value marker. And that doesn't HAVE to be another way of whipping yourself for being a piece of shit--I assume you have plenty of reasons--but a way of going, "Oh, something unexpected!"

*Also not to attempt to introduce nuance on the 'no nuance we die like men' website, but I think there is a big difference between loving teasing and mockery/cruelty. I don't actually mind if friends, especially ones with VASTLY different ways of speaking, imitate my accent I think it's fuckin funny as hell! Jetty has the WORST rural western accent on the planet, and I love to make fun of whatever the fuck she's got going on there, but it is FUN and there is a sense of LOVE that comes with it. And it's not even a "well yeah, Holligay, when you've known someone for a long time" No no, I once sat in a shitty pub on the east end, now closed (rip) and me and my mom ending up striking up a conversation with two old-school cockney guys, and as soon as he tried to say "Montana" the way I did, the race was ON, and it was FUNNY, and we all laughed and had a good time, it is about attitude.

And I know I'm gonna get something about "well how do you KNOW and that is why i turned off reblogs but come on y'all, 9 times out of 10 you can tell when something is done with deep affection or camaraderie or because even just something feels cool in your mouth it's fun to try. I can't do 87% of the linguistic features I think FUCK SEVERELY (intrusive R, the way a word that genuinely does not start with the letter h has a different sound than a word when the h is uptaken (this has a fucking word and I cannot find it it's making me nuts)) but I LOVE them.

Quick quiz to help though: Are you affecting this accent to in some way sound stupid/ridiculous? We can go back and forth about that a little: one of my buddies says "well shiiiiit" exactly the way I do, for funsies, but it just...feels neat. What I'm saying is you have to use some discernment here and I know we are all allergic to that but give it a shot/go/whatever the hell Australians say for this.

Post script: All of this reminds me also about how I studied the phonemes and linguistics of English with intense fervor in college, and got REAL COCKY, and then in the Orkneys had my very first ever, in life, "We are both speaking English but damn" moment. Normally I am The One for this. I am unruffled. My wife gets confused by the word takeaway (she is smart I swear) but I'm rock-solid. Until. Hubris.

This guy is rollin on up in his van, which is the 'bus system' on Rapness, and it's cute as hell as a system, but I ask him something stupid about the timetable, and he answers me in what I can only describe as a Nordic-flavored Scottish accent. It is actually really remarkable and I went on a weird deep dive of the Orkneys afterward because I had never heard anything like it but I digress. I DID NOT GET A FUCKING WORD. And so, because I panic, I do what I always do when I feel flustered or emotional or angry: I sound like Yosemite fucking Sam. So now he can't understand what I am asking him!

Good news is, we both give a little bit of a laugh, I go, 'Let's try that again" and I do manage to exchange that this van picks up outside of the Pierowall hotel in time for the ferry.

[wyrmswears]

Alr here comes the "long" ask ig

Thanks to you bringing back my wolf children/werewolves/wolves brainrot, my brain brained a weird lore in my brain about your inhuman thundersnow au.

Remenber this guy? Well yeah, he was the EM of lightning before Libber (also her dad), during the Serpentine War he used his raijū form to fight, even if he was one of the less powerful lightning EM ever seen (based off the color of his lightning being yellow, yellow lightning is less hotter than blue lightning) he took many serpetine down and in general it was like brining a crazy new weapon to the war that suddenly gives certain side a great advantage, ya know, war stuff.

After the war finished, despite him being a good guy. Raijūs started to be seen as horrible bloodthirsty creatures just because of what he did during the war, which wasn't too different to what other EM did is just that he did it as a wolf, even Garmadon thanks to the Great Devouerer venom did worse.

Anyway, people started to get paranoid about raijūs and this caused to some people dedicate most of their time to hunt them down, not all hunters did it because they were corcened or smth but because they simply wanted to have fun killing an exotic species, or simply capturing them for who knows what (maybe using them for taxidermy?? spooky experiments??? biological weapons??? idk)

Slowly the individuals of this species were less and less, until there was only one left, Libber. Her father died and she almost did too, in and the rest is history she leaving Jay with the walkers, etc...

One more species that got extinct thanks to humans.

(this is not my last ask 👹.)

yo this idea is dark af... hell yeah im using it, with some amendments. be warned i also used this ask as an opportunity to do some lore dumping

READ MORE BECAUSE IT GOT LONG

first of all, not all other raijū are gonna be extinct, but their population numbers have dwindled and most of them now avoid interacting with humans. i think it'd be interesting to have the gang meet other raijū at some point so i want to keep the opportunity open :D since they stop interacting with humans though, they are thought to be extinct and aren't really common knowledge among jay's generation.

both raijū and dragon will share this stigma of being dangerous bloodthirsty creatures, given that wu and garmadon also fight in the serpentine war (oni kinda have the stigma engrained in their identity in the ninjago series already ghsghsh and aren't really present in ninjago to most people's knowledge). dragons get off slightly easier however, being considered noble creatures in other legends, but raijū don't have the same reputation and are easier to hunt than dragons so they suffer a greater impact. this stigma is the cause for cole's fear of dragons in s1!

raijū don't make great taxidermy (their corpses eventually dissolve into lightning; full raijū aren't so much comprised of your typical things like flesh and bone), but i can imagine some being captured as living batteriess, although they only have enough power for about a single household, so it would work on a more individual basis than imperium's dragon energy scheme...

i've been having the idea that libber's dad isn't a wolf for his raijū form, but instead a snow leopard! you see, there's not a lot of mythology on raijū recorded online so i'm trying to fit in actual mythos where i can, and raijū aren't limited to a wolf/dog form, but have many four-legged animal forms recorded. i also like the idea of jay and libber's raijū forms looking similar, despite them not looking that similar for two canids, so related raijū in my au don't often have similar animal forms. libber's parents take the form of a snow leopard (in reference to ice who later takes a guardian role of sorts in place of libber's actual father) and a japanese serow.

furthermore, i mentioned this idea in the tags of one of my past posts but for raijū that are elemental masters of lightning, they often die when their child inherits their element. raijū are creatures made of lightning, but for those born with the element of lightning, they don't develop their own lightning because the element more than compensates for the power they need, so when the element is suddenly removed... yeah. so libber's dad is dead Before the main impact of the serpentine war, but perhaps her mother is killed as a result?

jay doesn't have the issue of dying when he loses his element like the bajillion times they do in the series because he's half human! it does mean that the first few times he loses his powers (including contact with vengestone), it feels Extra bad to him because it's literally part of his life-force taken away (i imagine lloyd has a similar effect but by nature of his element instead of his blood), but the longer he is without his power, the more chance his natural lightning has to develop, so by crystallised he can function pretty well without them :]

[stellaluna33]

As someone who might be on the ace spectrum myself (I'm still not sure, I don't like labels, but a lot of the descriptions people give ring true to me), I LOVE the idea that Jess might also be on the ace spectrum. Especially since we don't see him with ANYONE besides Shane and Rory. And even with Shane, he's so PASSIVE. I'm trying to remember if he even has an adventurous past before he comes to Stars Hollow, or if people (*coughLorelaicough*) just assume that he does because of how he looks. As someone who is (and I don't mean to brag but) often checked out by others, just because you're attractive doesn't mean you are attracted to others. And just because you can play the game doesn't mean you feel the feelings.

Like, I can write romance and smut convincingly and I've never been in love OR wanted to have sex with someone. But I've read a lot and watched a lot and listened to a lot, and we all know that Jess is even MORE pop culture savvy than the majority of people. Of course he can play the part. It's easy. It doesn't mean it's real.

I dunno, I just wanted you to know that I LOVE this headcanon, whether it's serious for you or not, and it's probably gonna change the way I see him (for the better). 💜

Thank you. 🥺 I really appreciate you saying this. And don't let me be a coward and try to pull back from this, because while I DO think the idea has comedic potential, I do also think about it seriously. I'm not MARRIED to the idea (haha), as I kind of hold it in tandem with several other possible readings of the character, but I do think it's both believable and very interesting!

We actually don't know ANYTHING about Jess's past, besides that Liz said he was "staying out late and getting in trouble" or something, and that he knows how to tap a keg. That's IT! And none of that tells us anything about any sexual history or lack thereof! And obviously, that doesn't mean he WASN'T doing anything... but it doesn't mean that he WAS either. Anything is possible and people can imagine whatever they want, is what I'm saying. So yeah... I do think that people (including Lorelai) only assume he has experience because of how he looks (and because he appears to have, uh, good "technique." Haha! But, um, some people are just naturals at picking that up and paying attention to people's reactions). And exactly as you said, "just because you're attractive doesn't mean you are attracted to others." Look at Marilyn Monroe, for example (actually, funnily enough, one of the people who got me thinking about this).

And while I personally think it's entirely likely that he HAS had at least some experience, like you said, that doesn't say anything about how he felt about it. I mean, Paris has canonically had more enthusiastically sexual relationships with men than Jess has had with ANYONE, and yet a lot of people still think it's perfectly believable that she's a lesbian... So I don't see how this is different?

To be clear, I DO think he felt EVERYTHING for and with Rory. But I think it's entirely possible that that was the first time he'd ever really WANTED someone before. I think maybe he doesn't feel it very often, but very intensely when he does. But again, this is just a headcanon. I don't find it morally superior to other people's headcanons, so there's no reason to feel threatened by it. But do I think it's believable? Yeah! Do I think it's interesting? Yeah, I do! I think it's a FASCINATING possibility! DO I also think the idea of him never feeling for anyone else what he felt for Rory is kind of romantic too? YEAH! I DO! Sue me!!! He is a fictional character and I am having fun with this! Other people are free to imagine him differently!

Anyway, it makes me so happy that this has resonated with you and it means so much to me that you would share your thoughts and experiences with me. Thank you so much. 🥺🖤

[einsatzzz]

fuuta ranking ☆ Top 5 most compatible khr characters with Kana ♡ I would like the tea

Thank you for sending this Jojo! 💜✨Considering the type of person Kana is and her lore, this was quite hard to come up with. I think for her, an incompatibility ranking would be easier to make 🤣🤣🤣 (e.g. yeah she hates this guy, yeah and this guy too!)

After much thinking, here is the top 5 most compatible characters for Kana-chan!

1. Kurumi&... (x)

Though the stream is divided by a boulder in its swift flow, I know the twain will soon unite again.

2. Kurumi!!! (x)

Into the gaps between the flower petals, the two of us come falling down How many times have our hearts crumbled? If it has to come to letting go when our hands have finally joined, It doesn't matter if our wishes don't come true As long as you're there with me.

3. Kurumi... (x)

Even with my heart beyond help… I walked together with you...

4. Kurumi...? (x)

In our days together, the smile you showed me Is so kind and tender, It will never disappear Please stay like that for eternity You don't have to understand anything.

5. Kurumi(?) (x)

When in sleep— Is only what we see then To be called a dream? This fleeting world, too, I cannot see as reality.

Phew! Now that the legally required special Kurumi category is done, we can move on to the top 5 most compatible canon KHR characters with Kana.

For this one, the main criteria we looked for are people she gets along/would agree with without the divine Kurumi intervention (regardless if they will ever even meet or not), so I'm dissecting her brain a bit. But just a little bit, otherwise it'll be dangerous 💀💀💀 (stalking her in my brain w/o the Kurumi or Yui factor is hard ueueueue)

Anyway, top five in no particular order (for now), except #1 is kinda obvious:

◆ Yamamoto Takeshi

She has nothing against genuine and earnest people like him, she appreciates them actually. Even moreso, if it's someone who can live by their ideals no matter what. Despite his natural talent as a hitman, he somehow has this interesting stubbornness to not kill people, even if his own life is in danger. She personally finds such a thing difficult to do, it's way easier to kill them quickly, so it's something she can respect.

That's why when she was asked to assist in training him, she didn't really argue against it, even though he's technically already someone from Vongola by then. He's smarter than he lets on, that much she knows. She wonders how long he'll pretend that this is all a game of mafia.

When Yamamoto came over to the Ninomiya Estate to train with her, he introduced himself to her parents (who happened to both be home at that time) as her friend. Upon hearing of such a thing, Kana's parents started tearing up dramatically in such an exaggerated manner. "Ah! Our beloved Kana-chan finally has a friend outside of this Family!"

◆ Giotto (Vongola Primo)

"The Vongola Primo believes that someone who abandons their own friends cannot be entrusted with the position as the boss of his Family."

Due to Oniyanagi and Vongola's long history together, he always makes it perfectly clear to his father how difficult he finds it to trust the Vongola Family, even if both organizations currently have a stable business partnership. A long history like this can only serve to lower one's guard, opening an opportunity for betrayal.

However, the thing he can agree with from the bottom of his heart (if any) regarding Vongola Primo is that they both wouldn't abandon their respective Families. If shit hits the fan, his priority is his own Family. The succeeding Vongola boss is just gonna have to fend for himself.

"But didn't the book say "friends" not "Family"?" "Aren't they technically the same?" "Yesn't."

◆ Reborn

Reborn being world's strongest hitman is something they found to be quite respectable, they even passed by each other on a few missions before. But him trying to be their tutor is something that they find to be quite troublesome. Their parents told them that the only ones getting "tutored" is Tsuna and his potential guardians after all. Nevertheless, it's not like they don't understand the lessons that he's trying to teach them. It's just that they're not in the mood to improve themselves in such a manner.

There are a good several times though when their brains would eclipse and the endpoint personal victim would be Tsuna.

"Kana, I need you to do something." "No thanks, I'm busy right now." "If you follow through, Tsuna will get punk'd in the end. Kurumi might just laugh if it's funny enough." "Ok."

◆ Hibari Kyoya

He's an admirable person who carries himself with such confidence and with full belief in himself. Undeterred by what's considered common by people around him, he paves his own path solely based on his own ideals and beliefs. It's almost as if he can overcome anything with his strength no matter what.

Whenever they slightly let their guard down, he might just remind them of a person they look up to. With the phrase itself "look up to" being an extreme understatement. Whenever they see the sight of that black coat of his hanging off his shoulder, swaying in the air, they can't help but think: "Isn't it disgusting? When you begin to recall such a warm memory, but feel thoroughly cold instead."

It's precisely because he's the exact type of person that they would've been fond of long ago that they need to deny anything he asks of them beyond arm's length transactions. Yet, look what he's trying to get them into, provoking them to reveal all their cards so early? What a bastard. There must be something wrong with him. But, who are they to criticize him in the first place? When, surely enough, there's a lot of things wrong with them, way more than whatever is wrong with him.

Proud battle-sexual vs Closet battle-sexual - where the former is trying to get the latter off the closet by bulldozing through them. But the latter keeps finding new closets to hide in. Their LG/BT stands for Lethal Gruesome Beatdown Tournament. They are both having a fun time, no cap.

◆ Checker Face

Compromising the lives of a "few", for the "greater good" is something they would agree on. Though, what they respectively consider as "greater good" might be different.

The means to an end only matter if you have viable options to choose from in the first place. If there's no other means, then it unfortunately just couldn't be helped, right?

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. And as I kneel here now; hands red with blood, I know deep down, that I'll do it again."

[fyloe]

Hello! How do you characterise your Lamb? What is the AU that has two Lambs here? One seems to have a history with Heket. What is your favorite weapon and curse and relic? Who is your favourite NPC? Drink water and eat your vegetables daily.

This took me a while to answer because I was gonna draw art for it but I felt bad for making you wait after begging for asks so I'm answering anyway.

The Lamb is my au is just a tired little creature they go by both They/them and He/him, mostly they/them though. They only really give a shit about their Mom, Uncle (Jay), and their grandpa Ratau. Lamb is literally their name. Like, that's their full name. But, Marrei calls them Lamby sometimes. They're always tired and sort of stoic, they get annoyed easily, and are full of teens angst despite being forever eighteen. They're SOOOOO a Mama's Boy it's a chronic condition actually. They love naps and slaughtering those against them, also homemade food and sewing. They like to garden, and cook but aren't good at either.

If you're talking about my drawing of my Lamb meeting canon lamb it's because it was just a "how would those two react upon seeing each other" kind of scenario, but if you're referring to the drawings of Marrei (his mother) she was presumed dead thousands of years ago by Leshy, Kallamar, and Shamura because that's what Heket told them so that's why she's still around. When they executed Lamb they truly figured they had the last lamb.

She does have a history with Heket as she used to be her consort and is still devoted to her after all these years despite her sadness about their fallout. Marrei is the only one allowed to worship the Old Faith in the cult because Lamb can't find it in them to get mad with their mother.

I think my favorite weapon is the poison sword but the godly version and I despise the axe. I'm a "need for speed" kind of person. It's not the dagger because the strong attack is horrendous when trying to break shields.

Curses I think is the four tentacles in each direction, relic is the one where it strikes lightning on a random enemy. It helped me kill Kallamar and my wife Heket.

Ratau is pretty high for NPC but if Heket counts I choose her every time, but I assumed you mean the friendly ones. I like the clothing lady she's fun, but still. Ratau is my little man. I love rats a lot. I've had three. I also am interested in Aym and Baal, I have Baal in my cult rn and he's so cute. I fw the fox so hard he's so mysterious I think he'd be my favorite IF HE DIDNT EAT MY GRANDPA!

Ty for the reminder to drink and eat I have a chronic problem of forgetting lmao

Little preview of a comic coming out for such a great ask~

[batsplat]

Hello Bat!! I love love love reading your thoughts on things, from motogp to terrible 2000s tv shows. You mentionned great Smallville Lex/Clark fic in a recent post, and I was wondering: could you please share? I literally just finished rereading the Astolat's and still hunger for more.

yeah sure!! I'm kinda coasting off my ao3 history here (apparently I spent the entirety of 30/10/22 Having A Moment) so it's like,, a very imperfect list

okay, I'm gonna start with a bunch of seperis fics but I'd genuinely check out... all their stuff. it's just a fun read of the characters!! also there's so much of it and it's a good time to work your way through

A Handful Of Dust 47k words

At the end of the world, Lex can't stop running.

quite a dark and sad fic but I think about it a lot and it really works for me. it's basically a post-apocalyptic fic where the apocalypse is caused by clark being pushed over the edge and succumbing to his god complex. he's hunting down his former friends and allies, including lex. I think this kind of premise can easily be like... edgelord central 'ooh what if the hero were actually the villain', but this one feels true to the characters and their relationship + is very engaging

Advanced Masochism 8.6k words

In which Lex is curious as to why he's become a proxy stalker.

a small series that consists of lex trying to make the whole clark/lana situation work while doing his best to suppress his attraction to clark. lex's internal monologue in this is fun and punchy - though a lot of it is about his age gap to clark, which never like... feels THAT extreme in the show because tom welling *gestures*. but if that element makes you uncomfortable, I'd give this one a skip!

My Usual Lie 4.1k words

He wants to be so much more than that.

ice skating!! kinda melancholic but also idk a little sweet. it's clark spending time with lex after he's already grown up and they've already grown apart and clark misses the way it used to be between the two of them... again also ABOUT the age gap. lex is such a fun kinda slippery presence here, funny and kind but also a little detached

Frantic 9.1k words

In which Clark does not get dinner. And then everything goes downhill.

oh yeah I really enjoy re-reading this one. clark finally is forced to reveal his powers to lex at an inopportune moment, when evil goo is attempting to kill them both. no angst, just bickering

Resident Alien 2.7k words

It's tax season in the Luthor household.

just short and sweet and fun! established relationship, does what it says on the tin, lex is very into taxes. he's also very into clark

Closer to Breathing 8.6k words

Christmas parties at Luthor Manor. Boys sharing thoughts with brandy. And other things.

really lovely read, tender and fun and just kinda... nails a version of lex who is so very good at what he does, who might be loathed but can charm the small town people anyway, and a clark who stands at crossroads between being part of the small town and not liking the feeling of seeing lex play people like HIM (but not him). gets into a lot of the inherent tensions of that relationship!! love lex the outsider

Vix Te Agnovi 36.8k words

Clark gets a late-night call and interesting things happen.

again, age gap-centric warning!! lex asks clark to pick him up from a sex party. very much about the tension between the worldly metropolitan lex and the country boy hick clark, and both of them kinda entering into each other's worlds... lex reckoning how he's changed, clark curious and awkward and frustrated at being treated like a child (which. he very much is)

A Life More Ordinary 4.1k words

It wasn't sudden, and Lex didn't know it was happening until it had. And then he did.

aggressively not ABOUT superman, it's just about lex and clark. about lex and clark being flatmates. soft and gentle and intimate

Two Paths 21.8k words

Everything decided in one breath.

man I WISH there were more of the series. the basic premise is the whole smallville lie falls apart and lex is trusted to like... get clark out of there and hide him. so basically clark becomes his ward!! they live together!! lex needs to be an Adult who Takes Care of clark, but again. conflicted. this is just fun like it's such a funky dynamic that feels like an absolute perfect nightmare for lex specifically

and fics by other authors:

The Olive Branch by tasabian, 3.9k words

It's the holidays...which means Lex Luthor is keeping Superman very busy. But what is Lex's hidden agenda?

lex does crimes to get clark's attention. they're cute idc

When a Strawberry Is Pushed into a Mountain by Thamiris, 33.1k words

Away at college, Clark learns to read between the lines and finds his future there.

college!clark!! a few misunderstandings and tricky emotions that serve as a backdrop for the care clark and lex show for each other... I quite like it when fic doesn't like,, cut out their terrible parents

The Butterfly Effect by The Spike, 11.6k words

Lex can't let this Cassandra thing go.

remember that old prophecy lady from s1? well, what if lex injected himself with something that gave himself the power to see the future too, and was horrified and traumatised by what he saw? feat. clark taking care of him and papa kent playing the role of the homophobic dog

Going Home by mskatej, 5.5k words

Lex has amnesia.

amnesia future fic! clark comes to the rescue a little too late and takes care of lex. warning: the amnesia creates some issues of consent

where the colors are by museaway, 10.3k words

After Clark rescues Lex from Belle Reve, they flee to Canada to start a new life. Although his age and the need for discretion limit his options, Clark does his best to support them. But despite Clark's loyalty, Lex continues to have nightmares of his time in the asylum and worries that one day, Clark will leave him—or that the rescue was entirely in his head.

this scratches a very straightforward itch: the one where clark successfully saves lex in season three and chooses him. kinda nice and comforting even in its melancholy of not being able to return home again... y'know, sometimes you want something exactly like this

light the torch and pass it on by ang3lba3, 19.8k words

Clark starts behaving erratically, and it's up to Lois and Lex to figure out how to fix him. Thankfully, the paper cuts off there. Clark is faint, sweating. He thinks he’s hard. He checks. Yes. Yes, he is. He flips the paper over. In a deep purple ink, almost black, is an unsigned note. I think we can come to a mutually satisfactory conclusion on this matter. “Oh my god,” Clark whispers, thrilled. “He’s blackmailing me.”

lex/clark/lois. clark is having like... a weird alien hormone situation and it means he's weird towards both lex and lois. lex knows clark is superman but they're still very much enemies here, so this is the push that gets them to change their relationship. this one's just fun! sweet, good banter between lex/lois, it's obvious beneath it all how much they care for clark and clark does for them

The Milk and Cookies War by Punk, 6.2k words

Lex Luthor's Penthouse for Wayward Boys.

college!clark shows up at lex's place and makes himself at home. my favourite scene in this one is a brief interlude where lex is bitchy to his father

m2m by rivkat, 2k words

For thefourthvine, prompt: Craigslist. Clark gets curious about all those superhero kink offers.

what it says on the tin. I think you can probably guess who's demanding a superman lookalike. this fic made me laugh

Risk Management by tasabian, 7.3k words

A bad day for Metropolis reunites Clark and Lex.

future fic where lex almost dying sparks the reconciliation. ... I'd also just rec checking out all their fics tbh

The Grope of Destiny by suzvoy, 19.7k words

Clark had no idea how he was going to explain *this* one.

clark and lex are physically stuck together, and it's what prompts the reveal. always satisfying!!

Candy Cane Hearts by tasabian, 4.6k words

A new brand of candy makes Clark unusually mellow; Lex finds it all very confusing. Written for the Under Mistletoe challenge.

another christmas-y fic, another fic where clark acts weird! basically whenever you remove clark's inhibitions, he whisks lex off. just sweet and charming

No Choice by mskatej, 4.3k words

Clark is in heat.

okay. listen. you need to un-repress them, right. again, this is taking license of some weird alien biology. lex's blend of caring about clark so much and also needing him and also feeling weird about it and also being very into the whole alien thing but also kinda freaked by it... the classic dynamic

The Hinge Moment by tasabian, 14.8k words

Superman has a bad day; Lex just happens to be there.

clark kidnaps lex! but like, in a nice way. a lot of these fics don't REALLY engage with canon all that closely, but this is a future fic that definitely does. gives them the chance to actually have some conversations, y'know. some days I don't actually want them to forgive each other easily, but sometimes it's nice to scratch the itch of having slightly older and more mature versions of them figuring out their issues. really well written

I might add some more at some point but I only had the energy to go through a few right now lol and well I imagine you'd rather like them now than in like. three months. also psa: pLEASE feel free to send in smallville fic recs to this account, I'm always happy to receive them

[neengareadynaaready]

Salaar Part 1 (FULL SPOILER-Y REVIEW)

I finally saw Salaar on Netflix, and as promised, I am going insane over the guys Varadeva.

MUSIC

Music is by Ravi Basrur, same guy who did the scoring of KGF. Let me start by saying that I absolutely loved the songs of KGF. They were high-energy songs perfect for getting yourself hyped up for something. I went into watching Salaar expecting the same thing, but I was proven wrong.

The songs in Salaar are actually more varied. The children in the school singing, "Prathi Gaadhalo" gave me goosebumps. I applaud the fact that Ravi Basrur has such range and versatility in the music he composes and arranges but you can still see his signature in his creations.

KGF & SALAAR?

Speaking of signatures... The visuals are beautiful. Obviously, Prashanth Neel's style is coming through in KGF and now Salaar. Also, there was something in the way the story is told to Shruti Haasan's character, just like how Rocky's story is narrated in KGF.

90% (or more) of mass action films have a flashback portion where the hero's backstory is revealed. In most cases, it's to clarify the hero's motivation or to show us his heroism/what he suffered/his traumas, etc.

In Salaar and KGF, the flashbacks are the entire story. In KGF, it's through an interview for things that happened in the past. In Salaar, the present and the past are more connected. It reminded me of Baahubali Part 1 where the present-day events make up the first half before we then dive into the entire backstory of Amarendra Baahubali. Mahendra's/Shiva's story in the present only really starts in the 2nd movie.

So this is where my ramblings lead to: we all know SS Rajamouli is thinking on a bigger scale. He's thinking epics. With KGF and Salaar, it feels like Prashanth Neel is gearing up for that, too. A lot of the people who dismissed KGF said it was because it was style over substance, which I'm fine with, to be honest, because what PN was trying to do in that movie was obvious, from the storyline to the music especially. He was trying to create a legend, the Legend of Rocky Bhai. Even if the story is not that unique and/or cringe, the fact is Rocky Bhai will now go down in history as one of the most unforgettable mass action characters of Indian cinema.

Here, in Salaar, we get a new world. It is in Khansaar where our epic unfolds.... (At least that was the vibe I was getting while watching.) I mean, Prithviraj said Salaar had Game of Thrones vibes. I'm a sucker for court politics in an interesting new world, so I was hooked. Also, that revelation of Deva being the rightful heir to the throne? C'mon, it's obvious, but it's a classic for a reason. It's such good angst and how Varadha and Deva navigate this revelation when it's revealed to everyone in Part 2 is gonna be amazing.

VARADHA and DEVA

In general, I think most of the characters are very interesting. Not gonna lie, I lost track of some of them midway through the movie. I was consumed by Varadeva every time they were both on screen.

Look, I kinda wished Ranga was still alive so there's that one character that has it out for Varadha and Deva would have to come to his rescue again in Part 2. Anyway, he was an interesting character because he spiraled so fast, and he was always clinging to Rudra's arm and going "I have never asked you for anything since childhood. I want Varadha." and then he was bawling his eyes out, like what a certifiably insane character.

Prabhas and Prithviraj's interactions were really very interesting and fun. I wish we had more. They bantered while fighting, and you can feel they're the type to make fun of each other and have fun. But you can also see how much they truly care for each other that time when Naarang was wielding his sword. They're like, "No, kill me, spare him." DUUUUUUDE. I loved that.

And when Varadha made up his mind, Deva was ready to support him. Who knows what's gonna happen in Part 2.

Action is okay. Was very nice to see them fight side by side.

OVERALL

The cast of characters, the story, the premise, the subplots going around... I'm excited for Part 2!

[comfymoth]

(duckspiderbit anon) It can be nightmarish... but the hilarity of their dynamics combined and the sudden unexpected sweet moments they share at times make them perfect. Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on them btw, I'm very interested :D

anon i just want you to know that i have been trying to answer this ask since i woke up, i just apparently cannot talk about these fuckers without writing a novel, i am So Sorry.

i’m gonna try to be as short as i possibly can (spoiler warning it’s still not short IM SORRY) but like, basically. basically. in my head, right, in the version of events that lives in my head— roier and quackity already have a history. not exactly dating, just fooling around “as friends”, but it makes their friendship now very overly-familiar. they’re very touchy, very flirty, but at this point it’s all just playful. they’re just very comfortable with each other, you know? they’re best friends! and what best friends Aren’t this close, huh?

and cellbit isn’t fully aware of whatever they had going on before he knew them, but he knows there’s something he missed, like an inside joke he’ll never quite understand. and it’s not like that bothers him, exactly? because him and roier are completely secure, there’s never been a couple more fucking obsessed with each other, he knows he has zero reasons to feel threatened. it’s more like— he knows quackity is always going to special to roier, in this weird way, so they are just stuck with him. for better or worse. me and you and your friend steve, just a little bit, that’s kind of the vibe.

but it’s not like quackity and cellbit don’t also have their own share of familiarity. not nearly to the same extent, obviously, but they are familiar. cellbit gave him partial custody of his child, they’ve taken each others sides in disputes over how to raise said child, richas calls quackity pa, they are very much already stuck with each other anyways.

so like. what do you even do with that. right? what do you call your husband’s not-quite-ex and your co-parent, what does that make him to the two of you. and how is that impacted by the fact that he’s always desperately hitting on you both?

so again, in my head, in my head— i think it Has to be a slow burn with them. because quackity has baggage around relationships, right, he’s had a history of chasing romance just because he thinks it will fix him or make him feel something, and he needs time to cool off on that first. now, he never cools off on the flirting, i don’t think he ever physically could, but he needs to be okay with it not going anywhere. and i think spiderbit needs time to warm up to the opposite idea, that it might actually go somewhere. but over time they do. over time, quackity just worms his way into more and more of their life until they’ve basically made him a part of it without saying. they fall into comfortable routines. cellbit gets used to roier and quackity’s teasing, he starts to join in on it. over time, all the joke flirting just stops really being a joke, and all the friendly affection just escalates and escalates until they finally have to acknowledge what they’re doing.

they’re all very stupid about it. cellbit brings it up to roier first, who is somehow embarrassed because he thought they were all just joking and he was the only one catching feelings which he did NOT wanna think too hard about. they have a talk about what this means for them, come to an agreement, bring it up to quackity— who also somehow thought this was a bit and that they were just doing it all to tease him! and then, somehow, they’re both surprised when he says yes, because they couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. morons all around. they do have braincells, they just short circuit when they’re in a room together, it’s very sad and very comical

i actually…. okay, i Actually might’ve started writing the world’s most self indulgent oneshot about them, like… three or four weeks ago? idk, it was before school started so a bit ago, and i’m just never gonna finish it now i’ve accepted that but i Might just turn part of it into a comic. idk. idk we’ll see ahdkdjd if i don’t get too embarrassed to actually do it

anyways i’m sorry i talked so much i just have demons okay i have demons. and i didn’t even TALK about festa junina or “go take care of him” I MADE SO MANY CUTS GUYS I DID!!!!!

[stormyoceans]

i feel like in bl world it's somehow a no go to talk about why you dislike a show, because people always think it means you hate everyone involved, so it's nice to see that i'm not alone with my feelings about 4m. i was thoroughly disappointed by it and it's even worse considering it's sammon who wrote it. they (ceo and sammon) always went on about how they are working hard on the script and that's why it took 2 years and like... this is what they came up with? i like triage and love mod, but this one doesn't compare at all. the characters were flat and i did not care about them or the relationships at all (i will say, i liked the second couple much more than great and tyme), the mystery was okay i guess, but still lacking anything meaningful and even the chemistry between the actors, not just the pairings, but everyone interacting was so wooden and missing any depth to me. they tried and we know the actors can act, but none of that came across to me. and i 100% agree with you, the ending is so lame, they should have made this a tragedy and not whatever they tried to achieve with the ending they gave us, because that was just laughably bad imo. maybe my expectations were too high because of sammon, but i was just disappointed with this show :(

i honestly understand getting defensive over something you love or even just enjoy, i think that's pretty normal, but i also fully believe it's extremely important to be critical of the media we consume, and unfortunately i feel like over time 'being critical' has started to be equated with 'being hateful' by fandom in general, which couldn't be furthest from the truth: you can love a piece of media AND still be aware of its shortcomings, the two things aren't mutually exclusive. analyzing media and talking about different aspects of it is actually what makes fandom fun to me, so as long as everyone is being respectful im always going to encourage this kind of discussion

ANYWAY. all that aside, i fully understand your disappointment over 4 minutes, anon. it was one of the series i was looking forward to the most this year because both triage and manner of death are two of my favorite BLs, so it's just really weird to me to feel so..underwhelmed by it. i've mentioned this before, but my main issue with the show is that, like you said, i simply do not care about these characters. i wouldn't say they were flat, personally, because there was A LOT of potential that was not used, but it feels like the writing always remained on a very surface level and did not utilize the depth these characters had, and as such it failed to create a connection between them and the viewers (which is also why i think some of the acting may have felt a bit bland)

for example, i think they could have done SO MUCH MORE with the brotherly relationship between tonkladome and korngreat, maybe even by creating some parallels between them. like it's crazy to me that we didn't get a single flashback showing what tonkla and dome's relationship was like (and no, im not counting the one where tonkla killed their dad), or just that we didn't get more of dome's character by himself. 'he was tonkla's brother' is not enough for me to care about him dying or about tonkla's revenge. and now that im typing this out im realizing we never got a confrontation between korn and great about great helping thyme THAT'S INSANE (AND NOT THE GOOD KIND OF INSANE). also not a single scene with tonkla and great other than tonkla shooting him!!!!!! all these characters could have been SO INTERESTING if only the narrative would have given them a bit more insight

and this is already so long so im gonna try to wrap it up, but i have to say this because me actually WISHING we would have gotten a sad ending is one for the history books. tbh i think there is a deeper narrative issue when it comes to great and thyme that im not gonna get into because this post will never end otherwise (to sum it up: they weren't treated as main characters), but MY personal issue is that i didn't want an happy ending for them, because at no point in the show i've been rooting for it. like take triage, for example: you start the story almost hating tol, and then time loop after time loop after time loop you see him go through one of the best character development i've ever seen and by the end of the show the viewers are BEGGING for him and tin to be happy and together. i don't wanna say great and thyme didn't deserve that happy ending, but they also didn't really earn it, which is why that perfectly wrapped up sense of peace we got falls completely flat and feels very out of place

idk sammon's concepts are always incredibly fascinating to me and 4 minutes is no exception, but while all the elements of the show had a lot potential, they just did not come together in a satisfying or coherent way, which is really a pity

at this point im looking forward to spare me your mercy even just to see if maybe these issues are more due to boc or to sammon just not being as good as a screenwriter 🤔

[jyndor]

you get me, cassian andor gets us both, we are all vibing with each other it’s beautiful

honestly truly <3333 it's such a great example of diego's insane talent lol like you see the absolute vitriol and disgust cassian feels towards cops, he's like 'bitch what are you looking at?' at first, it's giving jyn 'brawl first think second' erso energy lol. not to make it about ~~~them~~ but i truly have imagined her giving those exact first few looks a number of times. except in her case, i see her doing what cassian can't really afford to do in this scene, which is popping the fuck off and starting a bar fight lol.

because he knows it won't end well if he gets into it with these pigs, he makes himself sort of settles to a quieter loathing, and then a shift to fear for himself and also probably for this woman showing attraction (feigned or not) to him in front of them INSTEAD of them first. (also interesting that we see her later being brought in to identify him).

and what we see is that because cassian is an immigrant from an indigenous diaspora it really doesn't matter how he reacts to the cops who represent settler-colonialism/imperialism despite not being agents literally of the empire (acknowledging that the depiction of kenari is... problematic to say the least lmao - diego is a white latino man and while that makes him subject to lots of xenophobia and racialization in the states, the show is trying to represent kenari as indigenous latines which... sigh justice for fest - fest works so well as a colonized planet full of rebels smdh ANYWAY). in the same way that he gets targeted on space miami for literally just walking around, it doesn't matter what he DOES - his existence is a middle finger to the empire and before it to the republic's colonialism (i think supposedly the separatists are the ones who fucked up kenari but given that pre andor!cassian was a separatist on fest i'm just gonna disregard this like so much else i don't like about new canon lmao. but even so, it's not like the separatists didn't do their own colonial bullshit too).

we're all fodder for capitalist white supremacist colonial patriarchy, but there's people who generally get the brunt of the brutality. we see this in the narkina arc, and also in wobani because it's not a coincidence that jyn (a coreworld-coded white woman) is roommates with a non-human. while I do think that there was probably more intentionality with casting the narkina folks than the wobani folks because we see like two minutes of wobani, not to mention that there's a lot less empathy shown to the prisoners in wobani in rogue one. lol draven literally telling jyn he'll put her ass right back in prison if she doesn't help, the other prisoner who speaks on the transport is literally comic relief, and obviously the prison break is for ONE woman, the rest can stay ig because abolition is not what the alliance is about.

it's actually something I was just thinking about recently because of this video essay by fd signifier on youtube, it's called fuck the police and it is excellent. in it, he talks about the history of prison abolitionism and how the movement really started within prisons. these guys had nothing but time because their freedoms were stolen from them and started educating themselves on leftism. it's like they had their lived experience which radicalized them like nothing else can - as fd says, they saw first hand the brutality of the system like most of us who have the time and resources to even search for youtube long form video essays ever will. so much of the base of leftist radical movements begin with people in prisons. they are the minds behind abolition. i wouldn't have become an abolitionist without hearing from them about their experiences, no matter how much empathy I may have. how could i? i didn't become anti-capitalist until I worked myself into a broken mess in retail, no matter how much i cared about workers.

we see throughout the show that cassian has a moral code, he has a set of principles and beliefs that he largely tries to suppress in order to stay safe and relatively comfortable. andor!cassian isn't my favorite interpretation of his character but anyone who takes him at face value when he says he doesn't give a fuck about revolution is missing the point imo, same way they miss it with jyn erso. cassian gets this idea in his head as a teen that actively, violently resisting will result in him being denied freedom (first as a child on kenari, then after clem is murdered and he goes after the troopers). what he learns on narkina is that it actually has very little to do with him actively resisting, although of course that will probably result in him being harmed. it has to do with who he is, what he looks like and how he sounds. and most of all, that he is not safe from oppression and fascism no matter what he does to keep his head down (which is clearly not in his nature to do lol). it's why jyn saying "it's not a problem if you don't look up" is such obvious bullshit (even though she is saying it to hurt saw and not because she actually believes it).

it's important that while cassian is personally innocent of the crime he was convicted of, that undoubtedly many other prisoners were also innocent, we have no idea if any of the others actually did commit crimes. prison abolitionism as a movement is built on the work done by people in prison - and some of them absolutely committed crimes in their lives (and many were in gangs, like George Jackson), and many others were political prisoners. but it's not about what they did - like with the point the narkina arc makes, it's about what they experience inside prison.

and speaking of abolition because i can't HELP myself, I've gotta bring up the show's treatment of its Black characters.

like ??? the writers know what point they're making throughout the show. and that point is about how it doesn't matter that cassian ultimately doesn't go off on the cops in the brothel, that he tried to remain quiet and keep his head down on niamos and everywhere else he went, he was target number one of the morlana cops because the sex worker is (is she named? LOL i feel bad just calling her that but i don't remember) a pretty white (and an additional factor in SW: human) woman who shows more attention to this guy who is an immigrant and has what she even fetishizes as "dark" features.

the prisoners we are most familiar with - the ones we empathize with most because they work closest with cassian - are almost all white and their actors mostly from the global north (honestly the uk which... LOL okayyy). meanwhile the shots of the revolution show us how much of the prison population is NOT white. cassian is working with a Black prisoner to fuck up the pipes but we don't really see him interacting with that guy ever lol. the older man whose death pushes kino loy over the edge is a white man.

it's just... W H Y. i get it, melshi is from rogue one, but even the fact that he ended up sort of more important in rogue one than sefla (a Black man who outranks melshi lol) just because gilroy liked duncan pow a lot, and then sefla just kind of dies unceremoniously, like many of the Black characters in andor. gorn dies very similarly, but at least his character has a fair amount of screen time and is treated pretty well otherwise (although i'm tired of the diversifying the empire thing. lol it's the empire, they're all white men with the occasional rare white woman who girlbossed her way in).

it's not that you can't have andy serkis doing the damn thing, or introduce melshi to cassian in prison because now they're brothers in arms and ugh my heart <3 because I know that narkina also represents nazi concentration camps as well as us prisons, and none of these things are one-to-one perfect representations because it's fiction.

i hope the next season does better by its Black characters since this show is making points that have been made by Black people for ages.

um anyway that got away from me lmao

[ao3-oner]

Hello, a fellow JDG fan here also deeply mourning the loss against WBG...(it was so close too, damn. BTW i strongly believe that if the meta had been hyper-carry ADC JDG would have made worlds) and as much as i think it’s a shame that the WKFA series is getting discontinued, i’m just gonna say i think it’s good that you’re not forcing yourself to write things you’re not interested in! Plus i will eat up every fic you write anyway lol so keep up the good work

However i’m probably not the only one curious about what the fic might have been, so could you tell us a bit about your ideas/brainrot scenes(If you’re comfortable and willing to share of course)? I read the scene you posted on ao3 and i’m guessing the context is that siwoo hooked up with jaehyuk and then got kicked out and spent the night at jinhyuk’s room. I hadn't expected that siwoo would have had a... thing? with kanavi too but could you tell us a little more about that? And also I’m especially curious about what kind of ending RuLehends would have gotten at the end of the fic, happy/sad/ambiguous?

Wow this is a barrage of questions, so please feel free to ignore stuff(or this entire ask) if you don’t feel like answering. Have a good day!

Hi, and thanks for the ask!

Like I said in my longer update post, I am more than happy to talk about what some of my ideas for what the Worlds fic could have been, including further context for the scene that I did end up writing - in fact, after posting that one scene, I found myself thinking "I really could just write the scene right before that one... and maybe the one before that... and maybe-" until I realized at that rate I would just be writing the entire fic inside out lmao

But yeah, let's start with KanHends! My main foundation for their relationship is a quote from Kanavi where he said he considered himself to be good friends with both Chovy and Lehends from their (few) Griffin days together. As for Kanavi and Lehends's sexual history together, it wasn't so much of a 'thing' as a one night stand, which was actually was going to be a part of the vihends plotline:

My hc for this subplot was that when Viper and Lehends first started working together on Griffin, there were feelings there and so they started hooking up and Viper wanted them to be exclusive. Lehends... didn't really want that level of commitment, at least not yet, but rather than talking about his feelings like a normal, healthy person, he decided to resolve the issue by sleeping his way through the rest of the Griffin roster, leading us to this exchange:

Past! Jinhyuk: "We shouldn't. I mean, you're Dohyun's..."

Past! Siwoo: "Dohyun's... what?"

Past! Jinhyuk: "I dunno. You're Dohyun's something."

Past! Siwoo: "That's the thing, Jin: I'm not his anything. I'm not 'his' at all, and that means we can do whatever the fuck we want. So, are you in?"

Dohyun finds out, of course, and is absolutely heartbroken because he thought he and Siwoo had an understanding. Siwoo explains that he's happy to keep his situationship with Dohyun as long as it remains exactly that: no strings attached. Jinhyuk is honestly kind of pissed that Siwoo essentially used him as a means to set boundaries with Dohyun, but lets it slide because he did know what he was signing up for and he still generally likes Siwoo plus the sex was really good so

That whole past interaction was going to feed into Jinhyuk being honestly worried about Dohyun's well-being going into Worlds, because based on what he's heard from both Jaehyuk and Jihoon, it certainly doesn't sound like Siwoo's gotten his shit together. Even if Siwoo claims he's now ready for a committed relationship with Dohyun, Jin is pressing X to doubt. That, plus Jinhyuk still feeling slightly guilty for interfering with their relationship all those years ago, was going to incentivize Jinhyuk to talk to Dohyun at Worlds about his relationship with Siwoo, with his goal being to try to prevent his friend from getting his heart broken all over again. Oh, Kanavi plotline my beloved... Have I mentioned how much I love Jinhyuk? Because I really do.

On another note, Jaehyuk's quip about "the best night of [Jin's] life" in the scene that I wrote out was also a reference to this backstory: Jaehyuk didn't know about Jin and Siwoo's fling until Worlds where Jin mentions it in the context of a different discussion about Siwoo’s escapades, something along the lines of the exasperated declaration, "Yes, we've fucked! Best night of my fucking life! But that only shows how none of this means shit to Siwoo! That's just what he does. That's just who he is." Jaehyuk was honestly pretty shocked to hear that, but didn't get too snippy about it until he saw Siwoo walking out of Jinhyuk's hotel room and kissing him...

Speaking of, you've hit the context of the stand-alone scene squarely on the head, so I'm glad to hear that the key points came across okay. What happened the night before that scene consisted of some very messy sex between Jaehyuk and Siwoo, followed by Jaehyuk ordering Siwoo to get out of his room. I like that scene a lot - very hot, very angsty - so I won't share too many details until I'm more certain that I'm not gonna fully write it out. But yeah, it ends with Siwoo in tears outside of Jaehyuk's door, pounding on it until Jin comes out to see what all the noise is about, takes one look at Siwoo all fucked and bitten and sobbing, then says something along the lines of "For fuck's sake, you two..." and drags Siwoo into his room. They just sleep, of course. Siwoo just needed someone to hold him after that, and #Kanavi'sAGoodFriend.

As for your question about what ending RuLehends had in store for them... Since the full fic isn't going to be written, I honestly think it's better for you to decide that for yourself. What even constitutes a happy ending for them? Are they together? Apart? Does Siwoo end up with Dohyun instead? I think all my readers can decide what they think should happen, or what they want to happen, and mentally sub that in for 'canon'. At this point, I rescind my right to make a call about the ending either way. Maybe Singed from the hit game League of Legends shows up in the real world at the very end, flings Siwoo over his shoulder and sprints off into the distance? Idk. Have fun with it!

As always, don't worry about asking me things regardless of how long or short they are - I am happy to be yappy. You have a great day, too, wherever you are, and I hope to hear from you again!

[umbrellacam]

Boy Wonder #3

Hmmmm I'm gonna be honest I found that kinda boring, especially in comparison to issue #2. Like. Not bad, particularly? It was nice to see Tim doing sneaky Red Robin things and having fun with it. Seeing lil' hacker Tim learning subterfuge from Matches!Bruce was cute. He came across as in-character.

And I was basically expecting that it wasn't going to be as dynamic or emotionally interesting as #2 given Jason is Juni Ba's favorite and he clearly had meaningful connections and parallels between Jason and Damian that he wanted to explore.

But #3 didn't feel like it had much of interest or substance to say about Tim, or Damian, or his and Damian's relationship, or either of them as Robin. Just a very light intro to Tim (he's "crafty and clever" and Bruce's companion in the "crusade against evil") and very brief, basic interactions that give us a quick skim of a sanitized version of their early relationship:

They don't know or trust each other. Tim is wary of Damian and dubious of his morals. Damian is dismissive of Tim but wants to be acknowledged as worthy or preferably to best/prove himself better than Tim entirely. They manage to work together briefly, discover that there's actually ~more than meets the eye~ on both sides, and et voilà.

Very simple.

Damian being all happy thinking that he inspired Tim with his own Bat-virtuous dedication was cute, even though it was setting up the rug to pulled out from under him. The references to Damian's fight to be accepted/recognized in the family, and particularly by Tim here, do of course reflect canon moments, and that's...good...I just. Hm.

Again, it's such a light, insubstantial, child's-picturebook version of things that, as someone who is dying for quality Tim & Damian interactions, I can't summon much of a reaction beyond like, ok that's nice.

But I also don't feel like I can actually criticize the book on this front, because this is a children's storybook, light-intro type comic. We saw the same sort of thing in #1, probably even more so, with the brief, light versions of Nightwing & Babsgirl and their brief lesson-learning interactions with Damian.

So it's succeeding at what it's meant for, tbh. And it seems like it's only with #2 so far where Ba was kind of trying to do more with it, because he has so much he wants to say about Jason and his parallels with Damian.

As a separate note, I've also seen the whole slick-corporate-Tim-Drake-represents-the-Wayne-family-at-a-charity-gala thing inspired by his brief stint as figurehead CEO in Red Robin (2009) done so often in fic that I'm very, very bored of it, which I'm sure didn't do this issue any favors in landing with me, lol.

Also I don't know how I feel about Damian al Ghul, raised in the League of Assassins, needing Tim Drake to teach him the value of subterfuge and playing a role in order to accomplish your goals. Hrmm. Or I guess you could interpret it as him underestimating Tim so much that he doesn't think Tim is capable of that kind of sneaky fakery?

Anyway #3 with Tim reminded me more of #1 with Dick than #2 with Jason, though Tim&Damian do get more page-space for a full, self-contained story than Dick&Damian did, because #1 had to spend a lot of time establishing Damian's own backstory and characterization.

Interestingly though #1 went way more into Dick's backstory than #3 did Tim's; we got 3 full pages of Dick's history, while we're told nearly nothing about Tim aside from Damian's interactions with him in the present moment, just 3/4 of a flashback page showing a bit of younger him with Bruce's Matches guise, and that's it, lol. And of course #2 went very in-depth on Jason.

So, serviceable. Pretty art, and probably a good, simple intro to the basic modern forms of the characters. Not an issue that I'll be coming back to, personally.

[calliethetrekkie]

Triumvirate Prompts: Day 14&15

#14. What gifts would they give each other? / #15. What gifts would you give them?

I'm gonna do these two together because I SUCK at gift-type questions. Whatever I think of that they'd give each other is what I'd probably do as well, since I'd probably just copy what someone else did. But anyways, I'll just list the character and what the other two would likely give them.

Kirk: Well, if The Wrath of Khan is anything to go off, Spock gets him an Old Earth novel and McCoy gives him glasses. But I guess I better do something more original, huh? I think that Spock would still maybe give him some kind of literature or some kind of text from another world, like a history book. Kirk's a major history and exploration nerd who lives for discovering new worlds and cultures, and thus it only seems logical to Spock. As for McCoy, either he gets Kirk some kind of gag gift (like a 'Starfleet's Worst Patient' mug or something), something related to his health as the glasses shows, or as AOS showed us illegal alcohol haha.

Spock: I get the feeling that Vulcans are insanely difficult to get a gift for, considering they're unfeeling and all that. I assume that Vulcans don't even have holidays or things like anniversaries, or at last it's not common. But Kirk and McCoy are gonna try anyways. I think that Kirk would get him some kind of Old Earth book that Spock may not have gotten to look at yet or maybe some kind of exotic teas from other cultures, whether it be Earth or other planets. McCoy I think would get something Earth-based just to mess with Spock, but also to maybe encourage him to give it a try in his own way. Maybe something like some Georgia-grown peaches that he somehow managed to get his hands on or some kind of Country or Jazz music thing to let Spock hear it, and then they can debate about Human and Vulcan music or something. They're both fairly surprised that Spock actually keeps listening to it repeatedly XD

McCoy: Somehow McCoy was the easiest for me to think up. I think that Kirk would get him some kind of old medical tool (the first year he gives him a saw cause 'Sawbones', McCoy didn't know whether to be irritated, amused, or both). We know that McCoy has an interest in medical history, even if he hates when he's stuck in the past with it, and considering the origin of Bones as a nickname... yeah, it's Kirk's way of being both showing his gratitude to Bones AND being an utter shit. Spock actually has a bit of a hard time thinking or what to get McCoy, but settles on giving him some kind of Vulcan and/or Earth flora every year. Both Kirk and McCoy frequently show to like flower fields on Away Missions and McCoy's the most likely to miss home sometimes, so it seems only logical to give him something to remind him of it and to see some other kinds as well. McCoy never tells him how touched he is and how he looks forward to it every year.