#anyway this is my 228 fanfiction

[kerink]

what i'd really love is them to ramp up to the summer hiatus, last episode before break being tamika handing over dana and her double's body, and janet and her team preparing to leave with her spoils. the town there in a protesting mob, cecil there with the mobile broadcasting equipment trying to get someone to do anything to make things okay again

only for carlos' car to pull up. for carlos to get out of it and be speaking to janet only. to tell her "you want to study doppelgangers. what good is a corpse to you? you can only get samples and dana's side of things. there's limits to what you can learn about the similarities and differences between dana and her double with such limited data points. but i've brought a trade for you: a pair of living doubles who have volunteered to be studied."

and kevin and charles get out of the car. kevin goes over and hooks his arm around cecil, chattering away about how much he's missed him and how they don't talk anymore. but carlos and charles are staring janet down thru the parted crowded. charles is, in his own way, a researcher too. he would also like to know. so there they stand, ready to be explained.

but janet knows carlos. she knows there's nothing strange or paranormal about him. he's mundane, ordinary, predictable. neither interesting nor complex. therefore, standing before him, this supposed doppelganger must also be mundane, ordinary, pedestrian. and now she's trapped. the thing she wanted most, to be able to explain doppelgangers, or to prove that they're real. a complicated case for her to wrestle with and solve, a puzzle worthy of her skills, has been taken from her.

"that's just your twin," and she hates to say it because she knows it's not true, carlos doesn't have a twin, never mentioned a twin, she's met carlos' family but she knows carlos is a simple, run-of-the-mill man.

and just like that there's no more doubles. and janet's seething and carlos is nervous, terrified of her, but knows he's won. "then that makes dana and her double simply twins too. there's no mystery to her, she's just committed fratricide. happens every day, nothing interesting to that. but we gave you her and her double. that was the terms of councilwoman flynn's arrangement with you. now hold up your end of the bargain and leave." and he knows he's saved dana, because janet won't leave with her if she too is simple, run-of-the-mill.

and janet and her team return to their lab to plot, but the tension eases out of everyone because at least another citizen's been spared janet wrath.

cecil asks carlos "so what was the point of bringing him here then?" and carlos smiles sadly "insurance, if janet and her team don't leave, i'm going to let kevin kill them."

kevin hugs cecil like "we haven't had this much fun together in sooo long! ^_^"

[chaiandsage]

Hello! Tis I, the binder, back again to bug you with updates about how the bind is going so far, mostly because I think my friends are getting sick of hearing about it, lmao (I kid, my friends are very supportive of the random things I do)

But yeah! I have actually finished the main bulk of formatting! There are a few little things I need to go through now, but I managed to fix the little things that got mess up in transfer (and by that I mean for some reason after a dash, the quotation marks were backwards, so I had to fix that). Book two - the longest part, chapters 25 to 57 - sits at a grand total of 444 pages (or, technically 456 pages if we count the title pages and a few extras thrown on the end to fill out the final signature)! Book 1 (1-24) is 219 of actual story and about 228 with the extras. And then book 3 - or as I have been calling it, Happily Ever After - is 181 pages of text, or 192 with extras

Oh! I also thought you might be interested to know, this will be the first time I'm doing a cloth binding instead of just using paper, so I bought and painted my cloth and will be turning into into book cloth when it's had a chance to fully dry! Let me tell you, it's probably a good thing I'm sending this in annon or else I would add photos and just completely ruin the surprise of the long long long post I am probably going to write about this process and the things that I learned from this specific bind, lol

Anyways, I will now go back to my cave for a while and stop bugging you with my info dumps

- 📖

You have successfully blown my mind. What you gotta understand is that I wrote most of this in chunks or chapter-by-chapter on different documents so I had no idea it would have actually been that many book pages. Did I really churn out a trilogy’s worth of minecraft fanfiction? Idk whether to be proud of myself or horrified /hj

But aside from that, that’s also so cool to know! And this is your first time cloth binding? Wow, well I certainly hope that goes well for you. Knowing you’re making literal books from this still feels so surreal to me but in a very positive way!

And I might not always get back to them right away but you know I find your info dumps incredibly fun to read through. Feel free to send them whenever :)

I am wishing you a nicely smooth process on this project <3

[damn-stark]

I posted 954 times in 2022

That's 2 more posts than 2021!

757 posts created (79%)

197 posts reblogged (21%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@damn-stark

@lanatheawesome

@robiinbuckley

@leahseclipse

@manny-jacinto

I tagged 716 of my posts in 2022

Only 25% of my posts had no tags

#damn-stark - 497 posts

#fanfiction - 446 posts

#stranger things fanfiction - 237 posts

#cherry - 228 posts

#attack on titan fanfiction - 199 posts

#stranger things - 173 posts

#strange - 165 posts

#attack on titan - 161 posts

#steve harrington fanfiction - 136 posts

#chispa - 122 posts

Longest Tag: 109 characters

#anyway now after i’ve written more stories i like to know the ending first so i can sculp the story from that

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Ch.14 The other woman

Chapter 14 of Strange

A/N- This chapter, this chapter is well…just find out!

Warning- Angst, swearing, some fluff, Talks of murder and death, grief and guns, jealousy, LONG CHAPTER.

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- 4x03, 4x04, 4x05

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

“…Y/N?”

You lick the pad of your finger so you can flip the magazine page easier.

“Hello?”

A sigh escapes your lips and you continue to dramatically flip the page with the tip of your fingers as you deliberately ignore Steve’s muffled calls that unfortunately found it’s way through the loud music playing through your headphones.

Are you an adult, are you in an adult relationship?

Yes to both, and that did mean that you did have to talk things out like the mature adult you are. And you really did want an explanation for what you just witnessed between Steve and Nancy, but, well your anger always gets the best of you no matter how much you try to avoid it.

And now was one of those perfect examples. It’s not one of your proudest traits that’s for sure.

“Y/N, baby…”

This time since you continued to ignore him, Steve pulled down the magazine with his finger and pulled your headphones off so you’d finally listen.

You sigh and roll your eyes over to him to add a blunt, “what?

“So?” Steve chose to ignore the attitude and finally tried to bring up the conversation that’s been bugging him ever since you left the trailer park. “Are we going to talk about it?”

You squint your eyes and play dumb. “Talk about what?” You quirk your eyebrow and slide your sunglasses to the top of your head.

Steve keeps his eyes on you and nods whilst he exhales deeply before he hints at what he wants to know. “Why you’re mad? I mean,” he pauses and brushes his fingers through his hair. “You were fine one minute and then the next you’re ignoring me, so tell me why you’re mad?”

You glance at Dustin in the back seat, and he quickly looks away the moment he caught you looking back.

“Not now,” you try to brush Steve off. “We’ll talk later.”

Steve scoffs. “What? No, just tell me now.”

You pick up the magazine again and open it back to your previous page. “Now's not the time, Steve. Later.”

As of now you were waiting for Max to get out of her counselors house with some information about Chrissy, so there was time. But well on the drive to the counselors house you did grow more upset by the minute since you got in your own head about what you saw going on between Steve and Nancy.

Now, you did try to really be reasonable, but again, your anger was a real bitch.

“No,” Steve didn’t hold back from trying to get the answer from you. “Let’s talk about it now because you’re obviously upset and I want to know why.”

Out of your own accord this time, you push the magazine to rest it on your lap while you let a deep breath unfurl from your nose before you shift in your seat to face Steve a bit better so you can give him what he wants. “Well if you really want to know now then, I’ll tell you.” You feign a smile.

Steve nods and shifts to face you all too cluelessly. “Please.”

See the full post

327 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

#4

Ch.15 A fire in my blood

A/N- MORE ANGST!!! AND AND LISTEN TO HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO WHEN YOU GET TOWARDS THE END (you’ll know when ;)

Warning- ANGST, HEARTACHING SADNESS, swearing, some fluff, talks of murder and death, grief, violence, jealousy, LONG CHAPTER.

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- 4x06 & only the very beginning of 4x07

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

*THE NEXT DAY*

“No I’m sorry, I should have never said any of it….” Steve trails off and throws the bag in his hand over his shoulder. “Pft why should I be the one that’s sorry? All I said was true,” he continues to mumble to himself as he reaches Mike Wheeler’s basement. “Jesus…she’s lucky I love her.”

Steve lifts his fist to knock on the door, but the moment he let his hand hover over the door, it suddenly swung open and Robin stood on the other side.

“Hey, dingus.” She greets him and then instantly begins to search the space behind him and the distance to his car. When she notices you’re not with him she frowns and snaps her eyes back to him to comment on your lack of presence. “Where’s y/n?”

Steve shoots Robin a perplexed look and mutters back, “what do you mean where’s y/n?”

Robin's gaze narrows and she pronouncates each word slow so he’d listen carefully this time. “I mean where is your girlfriend, Steve?”

Said man’s eyebrows knit together and he licks his lips before he slowly lets out his question, “she’s not with you? She said she was spending the night with you.”

“Well, she didn’t, you said you were going home so I thought she went with you!”

Steve drops his hand that holds the bag and completely loses all confusion to express high concern, whilst Robin lets her hand slide off the knob as she was the one left more confused.

“Don’t tell me you lost her!” Robin exclaims out of panic. “I mean in a time like this?!”

“It’s not my fault!” Steve defends himself. “We…” he trails off again, but this time to lower his voice since he’s hesitant to reveal anything. “We kind of got into a fight last night, and—”

“Kind of?” Robin retorts with her eyebrows furrowed.

“I thought you guys were all good,” Dustin suddenly interjects from behind Robin.

Steve wants to argue about him eavesdropping but now that he knew you didn’t go with Robin and that you weren’t here, he just didn’t bother, instead he rolled with it. “Yeah, well we aren’t, okay Henderson?” Steve exhales and rubs his face before he turns around to return to his car.

“Hey!” Robin quickly interjects. “Where are you going?”

Steve looks over his shoulder and shrugs to answer. “I don’t know, I’m going to look for her though.”

Robin scoffs and begins to follow after him to argue. “I really don’t think you’re someone she’s going to want to see, Steve.”

“What?” Steve snaps and notices that Dustin began to follow too. “What do you even know? You weren’t there, you don’t know who even started it.”

“Who started it? What are we five?”

Steve rolls his eyes and gets in his car, only to notice that Nancy, Max and Lucas all followed too—“what are you all doing? Stay, I’ll be right back.”

“What?” Max quips through the open door. “Y/N’s gone, we won’t just stay back. What if she’s in danger?”

Great he thought, they all heard, of fucking course.

“Yeah, but nothings wrong with her, she’s fine, she’s just mad I’ll bring her right back.”

See the full post

334 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

#3

Ch.12 California Dreamin’

Chapter 12 of Strange

A/N- We’re on season 4 now, and I do have to let you know that I’m going to be posting the new chapters every Monday!

Warning- Angst, talks of death, swearing, there's a second where Robin comes out, FLUFF!! Talks of murder and a scene that includes characters getting high.

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- 4x01, (half of) 4x02

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

I’m sorry I failed you as a father. I’m sorry I didn’t do any of it right, but can I say that I am so lucky to have you.

“….Mr. Fibbly the squirrel, and Hop….”

“…You have me forever….”

You swallow thickly and feign a smile Eleven believes is genuinely happy. It was stupid little figuirin out of clay, but knowing who it represented ached in your heart.

“That’s nice—”

“This is you,” Eleven interrupts you without meaning to so she can show you the figurin she made of you. “Because you’re my hero too. We’re family.”

A gasp escapes your lips and a genuine smile finally shows on your features.

“El,” you whisper, “I’m…” you pause and try to find what to say. At first you wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to make you because you weren’t a hero whatsoever, but she looked so happy, you couldn’t break her heart. “I’m touched. But remember Historical hero, okay?”

Eleven puts your figurin down and nods with a happy smile still on her face. “I know,” she says.

You spare one last glance at Hopper's figurin before looking back at Eleven putting on her last touches to the project. “And are you sure your teacher said it was fine? We have plan b just in case.”

When Eleven had mentioned the project she was meant to do she right away knew who she was going to talk about, now from the very beginning you let her down gently that Hopper was no Historical hero, local hero? Yes, but that’s not what the project asked for. Yet Eleven wouldn’t take no for an answer, so she stuck with him.

So, here’s hoping she won’t get shit for it from her teacher. Or the other kids. They’re a bunch of assholes to her.

“Yes,” she assures you. “It’s fine. Are you done packing?”

You smirk and nod in agreement as you step back from the desk. “All done. I’m ready to go….I just wish I could’ve left today…skipped talking to Miss. Vasquez. Pft.”

“She is nice,” Eleven told you over her shoulder. “Why do you not like her?”

You scoff and grab your backpack off the floor. “She’s….nosy,” you tell her in the nicest way possible.

Eleven drops her paintbrush and looks back at you to continue. “I thought that was her job?”

“Yeah,” you scoff and hang your headphones around your neck before you choose what cassette you want to listen to. “Well I don’t like her okay? She’s always asks the same damn questions, like, lady I already said I’m okay, you can stop jotting down all that in your fucking journal.” You look over at Eleven after you’re done ranting and see that all she can express is overwhelming confusion over what you just spilled out to her.

“I’ll wait outside,” you let her know and then walk out without the need for her to say anything.

After you walk out of her room, you wait in the living room for Jonathan’s friend Argyle, to pick everyone up to go to school with your headphones on to listen to, “Dancing with Myself by Generation x”.

The music on your headphones is so distracting that you tune out everything around you, only figuring out that Argyle is outside when you see the other three running out of the house.

It’s always been easy to tune out the world with music, you’d usually love to do that a lot before just out of pure enjoyment and your love for the music. But these past months as the days passed by slowly when you weren’t in Hawkins for a couple days, or when Steve wasn’t here to visit, tuning out what happened around you was not out of enjoyment, it was more of an escape from the feelings you couldn’t stop feeling. That’s all you did, everyday, every hour you weren’t eating dinner, talking to Eleven, Steve, Robin or someone in your household.

See the full post

337 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

#2

Ch.16 We Belong Together

Chapter 16 of Strange

A/N- ANGSTY CHAPTER AFTER ANGSTY CHAPTER. Enjoy friends :)

Warning- ANGST!!!!, swearing, FLUFF I REPEAT FLUFF, talks of weapons and death, blood and Injury, grief, LONG CHAPTER.

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- 4x07-4x08

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

Sure, the time to confess your unspoken feelings to Steve right now was pretty horrible considering where you currently are, but after what happened just now, after fearing that you almost lost him, you can’t hold back anymore. He needs to know.

Besides, if your own death is near at least he needs to be assured that the time he dedicated to you was never wasted, it was always and will forever be cherished.

“I…” you swallow thickly and speak softly. “I love you, more than anything. More than you know.”

Steve’s lips part, he blinks in surprise, and the only thing he can respond with in that moment is something witty. “That’s not what I thought you’d say.”

A soft scoff escapes your lips, and as you caress his cheeks with your thumbs his lips slowly break into a soft smile before he opens his mouth again in attempts to add something. “I—”

“Sorry to break the beautiful moment,” Robin cuts Steve off, “but do you guys think these bats have, like, rabies?”

Steve and you share a concerned look before you both look at Robin with the same confused and concerned faces.

“What?” Steve queries.

“It’s just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should probably get you to a doctor like, really soon….”

You slowly slip your hands off Steve’s face and your confused and concerned faces shift to slightly annoyed and perplexed

expressions. Just slightly.

“…because once symptoms set in,” Robin continues to ramble. “It’s too late. You’re already like, dead.”

You part your lips and draw in a small breath to talk back, but the sound of a bat chittering in the distance cuts you off and makes Robin, Eddie and Nancy get near Steve and you to watch as they begin to huddle around the gate.

“All right,” Steve says and lifts his arm to put it out in front of you for protection. “There’s not that many. We can take ‘em. Right?”

You glance at your makeshift weapon disregarded just a few inches in front of you after you were mesmerized by Steve killing that bat, and then glance up at the bats to agree with Steve. Yet, right when you were going to do so, more bats began to approach.

“You were saying?” Robin said.

“I vote run,” you voice your change of opinion now that more trouble than you can handle loomed. “There’s too many and it seems like they’re just…” you pause and narrow your eyes. “Protecting the gate?”

“The woods,” Nancy cuts in loudly. “Come on!”

Before anyone could debate her choice, she’s already taken a head start and forces you all to follow her through the woods for a few miles until you found the Upside Downs Skull Rock to take cover from the bats that kept flying above. It was actually very fucking terrifying hearing them overheard, knowing that at any second they could just dive down and attack.

Even when there was a minute of relief where it seemed that most passed, you couldn't help but stay on guard and tense.

“Oh…” Robin whispered as she poked her head out from under the rock. “Okay. That was close.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees in between pants. “Too close.”

See the full post

364 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Ch.6 Smile with my heart

Chapter 6 of Strange

A/N- :)

Warning- LONG CHAPTER, swearing, mentions of drugs, angst

Pairing- Steve Harrington x Hopper!fem-reader

Episode- After season 2 & Before season 3

(Let me know if you wanna be tagged)

————

“Hello?”

One more coat.

You get closer to the mirror and partially close your eyes to carefully apply another coat of mascara so as to not stain your eyeshadow whilst you jam out to ‘Time of the Season’ by The Zombies, blasting in your headphones.

“Hello?!”

You pull away and admire yourself in the mirror and finally feel confident enough in the bathroom to begin dancing along to the music. That is until you manage to hear someone pounding on the door, after that you put your stuff away and open the door to see Hopper standing in front of the bathroom door.

“Why are you hogging up the—hey! Hey! What the hell are you wearing?!” He complains as you walk out. However, you don’t catch anything he says since your music is playing too loud. “Are you listening to me?! What are you wearing?!”

You try to grab a coat from your room, but while you walk towards the room you stop the moment you catch Eleven and Mike all giggly with each other as they press small kisses on each other. It’s disgusting.

Since Hopper was chasing after you to get an answer from you, he caught the couple and slammed the door open. “Hey! Stay apart!” He then continues to storm after you while you go to where he keeps his coats to grab a denim one with a black fur collar, even if it is baggy on you.

While you’re putting the coat on the song changes to ‘Big Love’ by Fleetwood Mac, and you only turn up the volume higher.

However, right as you turn around, you bump into Hopper, and he makes sure to pull off your headphones so you could finally hear him. “I’ve been talking to you!” He seethes and stands his ground right in front of you. “What the hell are you wearing?!”

“Oh,” you breathe out. “You have? I didn’t hear you.”

“Yeah,” he scoffs and throws you your headphones to your waiting hands. “I wonder why. You’re going to go deaf!”

You roll your eyes and try to walk off but he pulls you back and demands an answer for his question. “What are you wearing?”

You look down at your mini tight black dress, and the black sheer tights you wore on your legs under the dress. “A dress?” You clarify in a way that made it seem like he didn’t know.

Hopper steps back and wipes his mouth out of the disbelief he felt upon you saying that in his face as if it was nothing wrong. When it was to him. “That’s not a dress. That’s hardly fabric.”

You drop your shoulders and scoff. “No, it’s a dress, it’s in style right now. And I’m wearing tights. And your coat by the way. Mom let me wear it.”

Hopper scoffs and nods slowly but doesn’t give up. “Your mom. Your mom would! I’m not your mom, go change into something decent.”

You cross your arms over your chest and huff and stand your own ground. “No. Steve invited me to his celebration dinner. I don't want to wear jeans to a restaurant. Besides,” you whisper as if your friend was here. “His parents are loaded, and he says his dad is mean so I’m too insecure to wear my clothes.”

Hopper’s jaw is left ajar as he thinks of what you told him, and instead of answering with anything logical he chooses to comment on something else. “Steve and you aren’t dating? Why should you go? Just go to the ceremony with a decent outfit and come back.”

You scoff and step back as if offended by his comment. “No, we’re not dating, but he’s my friend. We’re best friends, he wants me to go, I can't just leave him hanging.” You walk past him to grab your purse and the gift bag, hearing Hopper walk after you.

“No. Wear something else.”

You huff and roll your eyes, but continue to head out the door with his keys in hand. “No. I’ll keep your coat on the entire time, promise!”

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427 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[yamad-a]

[List of my fav Slade/Dick fanfictions]

Lots of these include disturbing themes, so please, if you don’t like it, I advise you not to read it. All credit goes to the authors, support them!

★ Fanfictions are not in any order. New added are the last ones. ★ Updates: click; < always reblog this.

EveryDarkCorner’s fanfictions:

Where the Light Won’t Find You  ♡

To Honour and Obey 

Say Goodbye…

Bad Things Happen

Blank White Spaces 

freakedelic’s fanfictions:  

wash  ♡

rest stop 

an unfortunate mess

pretty

Wynja’s fanfictions:

Delightful Drabbles: my favourite chapters are 50, 68, 92, 104, 152, 159, 188, 203, 209, 218, 219, 228  ♡

By Royal Command

Christmas Drabbles 2011: my faves are 2, 22

Christmas Drabbles 2010: my faves are 5, 22, 26

The Peace Contract  ♡

Terms of Endearment

HannaSedai’s fanfictions: These two fics are platonic Slade&Dick, but it’s my favourite story! I have read it many times already, so I highly recommend these. It has everything I love — apprentice Robin held captive, Slade’s logde in the forest, Wintergreen, it’s very dark and it’s mainly focused on Slade & Dick, so expect many awesome scenes!

Northern Star  ♡

Eastern Sky  (Sequel)  ♡

WithTheKeyIsKing‘s fanfictions:

Gnawing at the Wool Over My Eyes

Hidden Treasures

Ease My Mind

An Active Imagination

♡ More of my faves: ♡

584 Days - Zillabird (ongoing)  ♡

Take Your Medicine - Kazhiru  ♡

A Firm Hand - theangrymom  ♡

A Helping Hand - writemydreams

Silence - ImagineYourself

If I Fall - sladewillsin

Stretching the Truth - fujoshi_robin

Degrade - Fudgyokra

Sheared the Wolf - Fudgyokra

Show Me Your Toys -  hannigramcracker, TimmyJaybird

Accomplice & Apprentice - sladeswilson

Anchor - Topkat

Dirty - Topkat

Going Down? - tenohikari

Far Back in Time - sladinforever

The Nightmares Inside - sladinforever

small print  ♡

Empty Reflections - Lara

The Spider and the Lamps - marmaladechainsaw  ♡ (ongoing)

I am sure I forgot some, lol... but anyway, enjoy! 😈~

[ask-gijinka-creationtrio]

clarification on that bit on gender and contemplations on other stuff

If anyone actually bothers to read this lmao

Dialga: This question was pretty much inevitable.

Palkia: I’m honestly fine with being referred to as an “it”.

Giratina: Why the hell should we worry about “it” being “dehumanizing” when we’re not human to begin with?

Something that I knew would eventually get brought up is the genders of my interpretation of the trio. The simple answer is encapsulated in the prev post: they’re dragon gods. Gender is a societal construct; sex is for reproduction. Legendary entities that represent the fundamental laws of the universe don’t really have a need for either society or reproduction. So as with the games, they’re all officially non-binary/genderless.

That said, my designs gravitate towards one or the other. One reason is that i’m not creative, bold, inspired, or talented enough to really translate that genderless attribute into humanoid form. Another is that someone pointed out to me a while ago that Palkia has a low waist-hip ratio, stiletto clawed feet, and some designs will feature a more prominent chest. That and the gendered color-coding Pokemon started doing with blue males and red/pink females, like with the menu screens starting from Gen III, the Eon Duo, Jellicent in Gen V, and Team Skull Grunts in Gen VII. 

That said, I’m not a huge fan of these reasons, as you could also make the counterargument that Palkia looks somewhat phallic. So I kinda wanna get into an Extended Rant™ on why I choose to depict my OCs the way, even though no one probably cares lmao

It starts out with the Kanji/Hanzi for “Universe”: 宇宙, Uchū in Japanese and Yǔzhòu in Chinese. You might recall it if you’ve read Pokemon Adventures. 

You might also remember if you visited that one dude on Route 228 in Diamond and Pearl who gets yeeted out of his house by Cyrus’s contrite grandfather by the time Platinum rolls around. Okay, realistically, barely anyone probably does (that guy wasn’t that memorable), but he basically says the same thing as Cyrus in the panels above: 宇宙, coined by the ancient Taoists, esoterically means something like “the totality of extension” + “the totality of duration”. In other words, the ancient Japanese/Chinese word for “universe” is lit. “space” + “time”. This is actually a somewhat obscure, unnecessary detail that even many native speakers seem to be unaware of. It also ties in heavily with the Yin-Yang 陰陽 of Taoism.

I know Taoism is more a Gen V theme, but it’s a concept implicit throughout the franchise, hence games generally come in twos, sharing complementary/opposing or dualistic/dichotomic themes. Even trios tend to have the third member as the odd one out or mediator. There’s much more to the Yin-Yang than just Truth/Ideals and I sorta wish Game Freak would explore it more to really unite the franchise as a whole around the interconnected theme of both diversity and harmony.

The Yin-Yang isn’t strictly about Truth/Ideals as much as it is about the fundamentally dualistic nature of existence and the oneness implicit in the inseparability of coexisting complementary concepts. Thus, truth and ideals are two sides of the same coin, as are time and space as relativity revealed. The Yin-Yang is vague enough to basically be an umbrella representation term for any complementary duality. It should be noted that the feminine Yin and masculine Yang don’t refer to stereotypical/conventional notions of femininity or masculinity, but rather requires an abstract interpretation.

The Yin-Yang is composed of an active component, and a passive/reflective/receptive one. More easily understood in that one aspect creates the body and the other gives it life. One which shapes/nurtures/mothers being and one which animates/directs/fathers it. Abstract interpretations of the feminine Mother and masculine Father follow suit. As do dualistic concepts like particle and wave, existence and essence, ovum and sperm, object/entity and idea/concept, magnitude and direction, defense and offense, nature/tradition and technology/advancement (Gen I & Gen II), space and time (Gen IV), truth and ideals (Gen V), night/moon and day/sun (Gen VII), and shields and swords i guess (Gen VIII).

I excluded Gen III because among the classical elements, earth and water are both traditionally considered reflective/feminine, with fire and air being active/masculine, but i suppose if you factor in Primal Reversion in Gen VI, it works. With the Aura Trio, I read something unrelated but interesting about how apparently Ohmori Shigeru hinted at parallels between the Weather Trio and Aura Trio. Can’t find the source though. Blue - Seas were the first (Alpha) source of Life; Red - fiery, desolate Lands signify the Death of all in the end (Omega); Green - Order/Balance mediates between two forces of nature that can be malevolent/chaotic left unchecked, with the trio master possessing abilities that cancel out the other two. 

Going off the rails a bit more, speaking of color-parallels, there’s probably going to be one of the subtractive colors between Gen VIII and the (highly probable) Gen IV remakes this generation, with Cyan - Dialga, Azelf, Lucas’ accents, Za-cian; Magenta - Palkia, Mesprit, Dawn’s accents, Za-mazenta; Yellow - Giratina, Uxie, Barry’s accents, whoever the third member of the Gen VIII mascot/box art legendary trio is going to be. I wonder how they’re going to incorporate the parallels tho

Anyway I digress. The ancient Daoists associated feminine Yin with 宇/Space and masculine Yang with 宙/Time by virtue of insisting the feminine aspect precedes, but even disregarding that, Space fits in with the Yin criteria of that which represents the body and Time fits in with the Yang criteria of that which initiates life.

So while they’re genderless, Dialga represents the concept of masculinity and Palkia femininity in their most pure, abstract, and universal form according to the Dao. While this doesn’t make Dialga a dudebro and Palkia whatever the hell the feminine equivalent is, in my mind, Palkia has a strong maternal instinct and Dialga is very much a dad. Giratina is weird chaotic goth aunt/uncle who gives u ur first taste of alcohol just to spite grandpa and reads fanfiction with candles and a glass of wine like it’s a fucking literary hour.

That’s my logic and explanation behind it anyhow. The distinction goes something like Palkia will concern itself more with the state or properties of something (who, what, where) whereas Dialga will concern itself more with the role or activity of it (when, why, how). As time and space are, however, they’re deeply intertwined and cannot be separated.

I might move this bit to a separate post somewhere down the line since this has already dragged on long enough, but I’ll share some thoughts on Giratina here and tie it in with the overarching topic of assigning gender roles lol. According to Game Freak, Giratina represents antimatter, but there are some inconsistencies. I know this shit has to be taken with a grain of salt because of Pokemon logic/science and whatever, but I gave it some thought regardless. My personal headcanon is that Altered Giratina represents dark matter/energy and Origin Giratina represents antimatter. Whatever tf Gira represents in Pokemon lore is based on a combination of the two, with the Reverse/Distortion World probably alluding to the idea of an anti-universe. Antimatter and dark matter are not really the same thing, but they’re both trippy cosmic constructs that sound somewhat similar, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . I wanted to make a distinction because while antimatter doesn’t distort spacetime any more than normal matter, it’s speculated that dark matter (actually dark energy) does, and is responsible for the rapid expansion of the universe. 

This would also go along nicely with Gira complementing the the Spacetime twins while also complementing Arceus. It would also fit as justification for Giratina having to switch from Origin to Altered Forme upon entering the universe presided over by Dialga and Palkia, not because of the shift in spacetime stability, but rather due to the violent, annihilating reaction that occurs when matter and antimatter come into contact with one another. It’s by no means a perfect resolution hc, but it is one that I’ve gotten attached to.

Anyhoo, I designed Giratina to appear more androgynous (or at least attempted to). However, going by that masculine active/feminine reflective duality highlighted in the Yin-Yang, Origin Gira, with antimatter a reflection of normal matter, appears a bit more feminine-androgynous, whereas Altered Gira, with dark matter an active driving force for the expansion of the universe, appears a bit more masculine-androgynous (though iirc it hasn’t shown up yet and i’m not too great with consistency regardless). That was my idea behind it in any case. Origin Gira wears a binder under that big dastardly overcoat. i guess it’s technically genderfluid.

Digressing a bit, but another artistic choice was the skin tone of the trio. 0 points for subtlety on my part, but the color is Cosmic Latte, the average color of the universe. Like that bit on gender, I wanted to base it on some aspect of reality. I juggled between that and pure black with stars for freckles, but in the end i’m a lazy piece of shit who cuts corners for a living, so i settled on Primordial Clam Chowder because it was easier lmao. that’s why they pasty af

Anyways, if you have any design ideas or you wanna see a member of the trio in another form, feel free to submit your ideas or a magic anon or whatever! 

TL;DR tbh this wasn’t even a structured rant it was just me going off the rails and sharing random useless deetz. this isn’t even a tl;dr. what the fuck

[sineala]

Hi! I really love your fic, and sorry if this is a bit of an awkward question, feel free to ignore it, but which comics would you recommend as ‘essential’ stony reading? You seem very knowledgeable about them :)

That’s not an awkward question at all! And thank you!

When people who haven’t really read comics ask me what comics they should read to get into Steve/Tony, I usually say that they should read Captain America: Man Out of Time – it’s short, it’s modern, it redoes Steve’s origin story in an interesting and approachable way. and it has some very sweet Steve & Tony moments. If you read it and like it, it’s probably worth seeking out other comics. But the thing is, I wouldn’t say it’s “essential” Steve/Tony reading, because it hasn’t really made an impact on fandom either in its plot events or its characterization of Steve & Tony. Like, if you go to AO3, you’re not going to find a lot of fic specifically about it. (Also it’s a retelling so it’s… not really canon in exactly the same way as the regular comics.)

So when you say you want “essential” comics, I am interpreting it as the comics that are basically the greatest hits of Steve/Tony fandom. Comics everyone is expected to know because they are featured again and again in fanfiction and because they have shaped our understanding of Steve and Tony’s characters. That’s what I would consider essential. I mean, much as I love, say, v3, you can probably get by without reading most of v3 because most of it doesn’t show up in fanfic (although you may eventually want to know who Rumiko and Tiberius are and what the deal is with the Sentient Armor).

I’m going to stick the list under a Read More.

Anyway, here’s a stab at making such a list for 616:

Avengers vol 1 #4: Necessary reading for any Steve/Tony fan. The Avengers find an iceberg, and there’s a body in the iceberg wearing red, white and blue, and… yeah, welcome to the future, Captain America. The first voice he hears is Tony’s!

Tales of Suspense vol 1 #58: Marvel had distribution agreements throughout most of the 1960s that limited the number of different comic titles they could sell; as a result, instead of solo books Marvel had a bunch of anthology titles (Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales, Journey into Mystery…) that became “split books” with solo tales of two different heroes. Tales of Suspense had up to this point featured Iron Man, but with this issue it became an Iron Man/Captain America split book, and in this issue Iron Man and Cap team up to fight the Chameleon, by which I mean that the Chameleon impersonates Captain America and Tony accidentally fights the real Cap. Whoops.

Nomad (Captain America vol 1 #180-183): You should probably start reading at about #176 for context. Anyway, Steve is disillusioned with the government after he discovers that Richard Nixon, who commits suicide in front of him, is the leader of the evil Secret Empire, and so he gives up being Captain America and decides to be Nomad. He’s only Nomad for about four issues, but what a glorious four issues it is.

Demon in a Bottle (Iron Man vol 1 #120-128): The original arc that established Tony’s alcoholism. If you see references in fanfic to an incident with the Carnelian ambassador, that’s this arc.

Avengers vol 1 #216: Steve finds out that Tony is Iron Man, because they’re on an Avengers mission and the villain magically strips Tony out of his armor, leaving him standing there wearing only his underwear.

The second drinking arc (Iron Man vol 1 #160-200): Tony starts drinking again and loses everything, to the point where he’s living on the streets in a cardboard box. Rhodey becomes Iron Man and Obadiah Stane takes over the company. This is the drinking arc you want to read. Highlights include #172, in which Steve bridal-carries Tony from a burning building, and #182, in which Tony nearly dies in a blizzard.

Armor Wars (Iron Man vol 1 #225-231): Tony tries to steal his technology back from everyone who has it; you will want to read #228, the issue where Steve tries to stop him. (Stories referencing an incident with the Guardsmen are talking about this.)

Operation Galactic Storm: This is a massive crossover from the early 90s where the Kree and Sh’iar have a fight and Steve and Tony disagree about whether to kill the Kree Supreme Intelligence. You don’t need to read the entire crossover; the part you do need to read is the issue afterwards, Captain America vol 1 #401, in which Steve and Tony make their apologies to each other.

Tales of Suspense vol 2 #1: This is a one-shot issue from the mid-90s in which Steve and Tony team up; its claim to fame is that it includes Tony thinking the following line about Steve: "Captain America. Steve. I look at your handsome face, into your clear azure eyes, and as ever, I feel the same guilty envy.“ (Steve also thinks similarly complimentary things about Tony – it’s very much mutual admiration society/mutual inferiority complex.)

Captain America/Iron Man 1998 Annual: Tony wipes Steve’s mind! Steve finds out and is mad! Then they fight MODOK, get lei’d, and make up at the end. It’s a lot of fun.

Red Zone (Avengers vol 3 #65-70): Tony exposes himself to a deadly disease because Steve is more important than he is and he has to give Steve mouth-to-mouth to save his life. Includes giant panels of their lips touching.

Civil War: You should really read Civil War and everything after.

Avengers Prime: This is a miniseries taking place after Steve comes back to life where Steve and Tony end up on an adventure in the Nine Realms together, Tony gets naked, and also they get some closure about Civil War. They hug it out at the end.

One Night in Madripoor (Captain America & Iron Man #633-635): Steve and Tony team up to fight Batroc, MODOK, and robot bees in Madripoor. There’s a lot of banter.

Avengers vol 5 & New Avengers vol 3: After Civil War, Hickman’s Avengers run is probably the second most popular canon setting for comics Steve/Tony. It’s controversial in fandom, and there’s no happy ending… but you can’t deny that it is absolutely about Steve & Tony’s relationship. A hundred issues of pain and betrayal!

Civil War II: The Oath: Okay, yeah, so, I think we can all agree that Secret Empire (the recent one, not the original one) was a terrible idea and it was a very bad decision to make Steve a fascist dictator – but “The Oath” did give us Steve canonically declaring his love for Tony, so, you know, it has that going for it.

The Cap-IM Tumblr maintains a list of Slashy Moments if you’d like to see panels from most of these (and more). Also, the 18+ 616 Steve/Tony Discord maintains a list of resources and summaries of these and more issues.

I also specifically want to say a little more about Civil War because I think of all the storylines you could read it is probably the most essential for Steve/Tony fans. CW is where the pairing really got its start and I think it’s the most popular setting for stories that engage with a particular era of canon. So if you are going to read one era, Civil War should probably be it.

I recommend starting with New Avengers vol 1, which as a bonus is very good for Steve & Tony up until about #20, when Civil War hits. The Cap and IM runs of the time are also generally viewed as very good and you should definitely read them – that would be Cap v5, by Brubaker, which has the Winter Soldier arc, and IM v4, which starts with Extremis and then continues on to Execute Program and then reaches Civil War.

You are going to want to read the main Civil War storyline but if you’re a Steve and Tony fan honestly most of the fun is in the tie-ins. My abbreviated Civil War reading list is as follows:

Civil War #1-7: You’re gonna need to read this.

Captain America vol 5 #22-24: Honestly I don’t remember most of this but you might as well.

Iron Man vol 4 #13-14: Tony’s motivations are explored, Steve and Tony attempt to come to an agreement during the war, and also Happy Hogan dies and it’s sad.

Captain America/Iron Man: Casualties of War: One of the two key issues you absolutely must read, in which Steve and Tony meet during the war and try to talk things out, and they also summarize what they’re doing and why and basically their entire friendship up to this point.

Civil War: Front Line #11: Toward the end of the war, reporters interview Steve and Tony. Tony lies on the floor and cries. I think I would summarize the post-CW era as a whole as “Tony cries a lot.”

Captain America vol 5 #25: The one where Steve dies.

Civil War: The Confession: READ THIS. If you read nothing else, read this. This is why we have a Steve/Tony ship. This is the essential issue.

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1-5: Features Steve’s funeral. Well, both of Steve’s funerals. If you guessed that they also involve Tony crying a lot, you would be right.

What If? Fallen Son: Mostly worth it for the cover art.

What If? Civil War: After Steve’s funeral, a mysterious stranger shows Tony two worlds in the multiverse where the war could have gone differently. More tears for Tony!

After that, you probably also need to keep up with New Avengers/Mighty Avengers plus the major events up through Steve’s return to life – that would be Secret Invasion (the Skrulls invade), Dark Reign (Norman Osborn runs everything), and Siege (Osborn decides to invade Asgard; Steve comes back for this one). Steve’s return to life is in a miniseries called Captain America Reborn.

I would also recommend the rest of Iron Man vol 4 that takes place after Civil War – it’s renamed to Iron Man: Director of SHIELD because that’s the job Tony gets after Steve dies. Tony is basically a grieving mess. There’s also a miniseries called Avengers/Invaders in which Tony and the post-CW Avengers meet the WWII Invaders – including Steve – and it is a glorious pile of feelings and time travel and sadness.

So, uh, yeah, that’s a lot of issues but honestly I think if you get up to speed on Civil War and the couple years after you will be able to understand a lot of where fandom is coming from. (And then if you read Hickman’s run that’s basically the other run you are most likely to need to know.)

If you can find a copy of it – it’s out of print, alas – there’s a really great trade called Iron Man/Captain America (not Civil War: Captain America/Iron Man, that’s the one with the CW tie-ins, but you will probably want it too) that reprints several pre-Civil War issues focusing on Steve & Tony, including several of the ones mentioned above, like ToS 58, the 1998 annual, and the issues of Armor Wars and the second drinking arc that have Steve in them. Notably, I think it’s the only place that the ToS v2 one-shot (the “azure eyes” issue) has ever been reprinted. 

(I take that back, the ToS one-shot is now in a trade called Avengers: Tales to Astonish. And now that I’m looking, the ToS one-shot is now on Marvel Unlimited and comiXology. Sweet!)

I hope that helps!