#as a preteen/teen i wanted to do anything and everything to not have to think about how hard things were

[halfricanloveyou]

ok so i watched the new superman show. thought it was just okay romance wise, nothing very exceptional. the animation was weak in a few areas, i think they should have just gone all out and animated it like an anime, like in the myx episode. loved that battle sequence too!! the rest of the animations with the fight scenes were kind of clunky imo.

character wise i think they’re all pretty predictable and fall into the same boring stereotypes. tenacious and ambitious/spunky ‘tomboy,’ goofy comedic relief third wheel black friend, OP main character who’s main trait is being both responsible for all conflict and saving people from said conflict…yeah. it’s literally danny phantom but instead of being ‘sassy’ clark kent just has anxiety.

HOWEVER…taking into account the episode with the loving and kind gay gorilla and his robot-body-but-human-brain-scientist-husband, clark kent being quite possibly the most peggable fictional character to exist, casually depicting lesbian moms, and most importantly being very obviously and overtly anti US government means i objectively have to give it a 10/10 and say it’s the best tv show i’ve ever seen in my life.

also…it’s definitely a kids show (like probably ages 10+) and i can only assume it’s on adult swim because the people at cartoon network are fucking cowards. let cool stuff back on prime time air and stop shoving it all to after hours!!! sometimes midnight is too damn late!

[deathbxnny]

hello!! capitano, ororon and wriothesley with a teen!reader who is like firefly?

Male Genshin Characters with a Firefly!Teen!Reader | Capitano, Ororon, Wriothesley x Gn!Reader

Hello Anon!! Thank you very much for your request, and I hope you'll enjoy this!<33

Content: Platonic relationships, reader has a chronical illness, talks of potential death of reader, angst, sfw

Reader has no set pronouns!

((Not proofread))

》CAPITANO

He knew firsthand how cruel the world can be, and you confirmed that for him more than anything else. You were a lively kid he had taken under his wing as a toddler, and even from a young age, he could tell that your health wasn't the best. It only got worse over time until you were left unable to walk or really move much on your own. But what truly broke his heart deep down was your will to live in the face of certain doom. Death wasn't an option in your mind, and you refused to let it take ahold of you.

Capitano, therefore, did his best to be as supportive as he can be. In a way, he sees you two as parallels of eachother, both cursed with a disease that's rotting you from the inside out and yet, here you were, still fighting for what you think is right. For a chance to live a life worth staying for. He knew he was too far gone, however, and therefore, just put all his energy in keeping you alive instead. He made sure you had the best doctors in all of Snezhnaya at your sides at all times.

And when you just wanted to take a moment with him to relax somewhere in peace, he'll grant you that wish as well. Capitano knows that realistically, your days are more than numbered... but if supporting you until the very end is what makes you feel better, then so be it.

》ORORON

You were a couple years younger than him and were taken in by him when he found you near dying on a dirt road. He initially wanted to give you to the village, but when you refused to leave him after he nurtured you back to health, he simply kept you in his home as a younger sibling. Citlali made sure to practically visit every other day to check up on you, however, as she doesn't entirely trust her grandson with your deteriorating health alone. She knew it was too much for even him and therefore made sure to teach him everything he knew. Especially when you stopped being able to walk. It was clear that Ororon was hurting with you and was deep down desperate too keep you alive one way or another, despite the grave situation.

But what pained him the most was the bright look in your eyes, even when you're in major agony. Your body was betraying your excitement for life. It was terrible, and yet, he didn't let you notice how bad he had it. If you were happy and content with him here when you took your last breath, then he had done everything he could have. And he'd make sure that exactly that would happen.

》WRIOTHESLEY

He wanted you to live a happy, free life ever since he heard about your diagnosis. Wriothesley had taken you under his wing when you arrived as a young preteen and basically treated you as his own. Sigewinne kept an eye on you at all times as well, practically being glued to your side as she monitors the progression of your illness very closely. The Duke knew, however, that you wouldn't live for long after you weren't able to walk anymore. Your body was giving you up, but he refused to do so himself. Seeing you so bright and optimistic despite everything just motivated him to do better too.

He'll try his best to make your time in the fortress as enjoyable as possible. He will share his tea, crack some jokes, and watch the ocean life through the glass with you. Anything for a smile and happy laugh. And even if you're too tired and sick for any of it, he'll still be there to support you in silence. He wants you to know that he'll be there until you do take your last breath... but also, he'll be there to carry you back to the surface above after you do so.

[butter-bubbles]

Why Not Making Byler Canon Would be a Massive Mistake...

Okay, so clearly the Byler brainrot has been getting to me. But this post will be about how Byler would fundamentally improve Mike (and Will's) characters, and making them canon would be an insanely easy way for the Duffer brothers to prove their masters in story crafting and writing.

Unlike a lot of people on this sub, I'm not one to believe Mike was secretly in love with Will the whole time and was using El as his beard to conceal being gay. I think there's enough evidence to prove that he was in love with El, probably for all/most of S3. I'm also not one to just ship two guys because I'm a "teen girl who likes f*tishizing MLM" like a lot of (honestly mainly misogynistic) believe.

I ship them for one simply reason: Mike, especially, becomes an infinitely more interesting, complex, and likeable character by doing so. I loved S1 and S2 Mike, and was so deeply invested in his character, his eventual reunion with Eleven, and his friendship with Will when I was younger.

And I never understood what happened to Mike between S2 and S3. Being a good friend was his defining trait of S1/2, so what happened that made him such a selfish and self-absorbed character? It never made any sense to me, and I just chalked it up to him being a cringy preteen.

But no one else has trouble maintaining a relationship and their own sense of identity/selfhood, even the other preteens on the show. Hell, El's whole arc is about moving away from this sense of dependence on others for her identity.

Now I don't think he was secretly in love with Will the whole time; there's just not enough evidence to say that he wasn't in love with El (atp) and I do think his feelings were genuine. What there is evidence for is that he fused his identity/self with being El's boyfriend, to the detriment of his friends, his girlfriend, and ultimately himself. He could think of nothing and no one outside of El, which is age appropriate but also deeply unhealthy.

There's also evidence to suggest that he feels playing with his friends and otherwise indulging in hobbies/anything outside of his girlfriend is a "kid" thing based on his fight with Will. In fact, he intentionally distances himself from Will, which to me indicates that he viewed Will as "childish" and too far from heternormative boyhood to fully indulge in a friendship with.

At the end of S3, we see the infamous awkward make-out session that was one of the first indications that Byler could be real to me. Because it just didn't make sense to me; I get struggling to say I love you, especially for an adolescent boy (even if they really mean it), but after El affirms her feelings shouldn't he look happy? Instead, he's just confused.

In S4, I believe that this is when Mike really begins to fall for Will (without even knowing it). He's so obviously jealous over who the painting is for, which just doesn't have a heterosexual explanation; he's paying close attention to Will when he should notice his girlfriend's struggling; he, for some reason, is still having issues with saying I love you even though there's been no explanation for why he can't; all he does is fight with El and seems more "in love" with (the idea of) her when she's absent.

I think what's happening here is he's realizing that everything he wants in his relationship with El, he gets from Will. Self-assurance: emotional intimacy: mutual understanding: and especially a need for him that validates his protective instincts. And I don't think he's even conscious of it, but he just can't hide it from his face (or his actions) at all.

I've been on the fence about canon-Byler because of David Harbour's comment about Mileven being firmly at the forefront of S5 and that moment in S4 at the pizza parlour where Mike almost confesses to loving El, which seemed incredibly sincere. And ultimately, I still don't know if they have any chance in S5.

But what I do know is that Mike and Will complement each other the most out of anyone in the show. They can complete one another, recontextualize all of Mike's incongruous behavior, and illustrate that the Duffer brothers are thinking about their story beyond basic (and outdated) tropes about teenage boyhood and douchey male behavior that emerges post-puberty.

So even if Byler never becomes canon, I will maintain that they would be one of the best things to happen to Stranger Things. I'd be content with another love interest being introduced for Will, but I honestly don't think anyone else could do this much for the writing and story as making Byler canon (at least not in a single season). Only time will tell.

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

Taylor Hebert AKA Skitter Propaganda Post

Do you know what you have to do to hurt someone in a fight if your whole power is “controls bugs?” It’s never pleasant. And this is a girl with an almost pathological drive to fight people theoretically much stronger than her. Much maggots-in-eyes and spiders-on-dicks ensue. Committed to being a hero initially, ends up becoming warlord of a whole city while defending it from super-poweeed spree killers, monstrous kaiju, and timeline-severing mobsters. Saves humanity through mass mind-control.

Shes so fucking morally ambiguous I don't even know where to start. She wanted to be a hero and then over the course of 1.7 million words she tricked me into thinking she was rational and ethically sound when she cut out someone's eyes, held someone's dying son hostage in front of them as leverage (she was killing the son), put maggots in someone else's eyes to eat them slowly, shot a fucking toddler with no hesitation, and she's such an amazing unreliable narrator that you root for her. She's genuinely so good at convincing herself that she's morally sound that she convinces the reader of it as well most of the time, but despite the atrocities (and there's a fucking ton of atrocities) she's genuinely a girl who wants to do good and help the world. She fights serial killers, provides food and water and shelter for people who need it, gets her back broken trying to save people, and is generally willing to do whatever it takes to help no matter what that entails. She's a girlboss who is terrifying and determined enough to kill god, she's willing to do anything for the greater good, she has a fucking orphanage as the bottom floor of her supervillain lair. She's so so complicated and such a twist of good and brutality and I cannot stress enough how compelling and morally ambiguous and girlboss she is. I have never seen a character who fits the title "morally ambiguous girlboss" more in my entire life and frankly I doubt I will, no one does it like her.

she went from aspiring hero > supervillain > warlord (still a supervillain) > hero > mind-controlling every cape in the multiverse to kill god. and she did kill god. so. girlboss. but on her first night out she used her bugs to bite a man's dick off. that man? trying to kill kids. those kids? teenage supervillains. she initially joined their teen supervillain group to betray them to the heroes, then joins for real. their boss kidnapped a preteen girl and got said girl addicted to drugs. he used a heist taylor was in as a distraction to kidnap the girl. taylor becomes a warlord and does all sorts of awful things to the other gangs in the city (including putting maggots in a guys eyes, and carving another man's eyes out (bug dick guy) (everything grew back)). the reason she did this? so she could kill her boss and free the preteen girl. She's taken over the city at this point, she's a warlord running a supervillain gang. what's she doing with this power? improving the city's infrastructure. she runs her territory like a panopticon, if anybody who can work isn't working they get the bugs. she's also running an orphanage out of her home. she decides to step down as warlord and join the heroes. while she's in custody, what does she do? that's right. kill superman via dry land drowning in bugs. now she's a superhero. she does stakeouts and pursues gangs to force their younger/more sympathetic members into superheroism. why? to fight the end of the world. the end of the world comes, god is killing every earth in the multiverse and things aren't looking good. what does taylor do? she asks a bio-kinetic who got sent to supervillain alcatraz for sister rape to give her on-the-spot brain surgery. this brain surgery lets her control any person within like 18 feet of her. she uses a portal guy to manage to ensnare every cape in the multiverse and unite them in her fight against god. One cape has a stress induced aneurysm. how do they ultimately defeat god? she makes large-scale replicas of his dead wife everywhere, making him so sad he becomes killable. girlboss. (sorry this was so long! i started and then just kept going. worm is 1.68 million words long and a lot happens in it)

Holy Shit. Holy SHIT dude. She rotted a man's dick off with spider venom. and then she did it again (it grew back). and then she cut his eyes out. this is the first guy she meets. she mutilates *so many* people. one time she withheld a life-saving epinephrine shot from a dying man (he was allergic to bees. she controls bees.) as extortion material. she shoots a baby (it was a mercy). She cut a girl in half (which was actually pretty high up there on the "most heroic things she did" list). She was Seinfeldian rivals with the most dangerous serial killer in existence, until she trapped him in Hell Forever. He's like still there by the end of the second book. she kills God by bullying him to death. All* of this was probably the best thing she could have done in the situation. the tagline of the book is "doing the wrong things for the right reasons." The worst thing she ever really did was to pretend she was straight though.

Did she kill an orphan? Yes. Did she put maggots into a man’s eyes? Yes. Did she do all of this while having intense homoerotic tension? Yes, and that is why she is a girlboss. She also killed Jesus

https://www.tumblr.com/morally-grey-girlbosses/729188280734760960 (tumblr user @lakesbian elaborates on Taylor's Atlas Complex)

[lverbirdonmeth]

REASONS WHY I CAN’T TAKE THE PRESSURE OF LIVING

Im fat. Consistently since years (2014-present) I have had only one goal in my life was to achieve a certain body goal for someone or other who barely ever noticed my weight loss. Every year I told myself the fact that I need to lose in order to look pretty but every year passes by and I look back and realise I shouldn’t have been that harsh on myself cause my body was perfect but its a cycle never stopping itself. Theres a lot of pressure from my family, relatives and more from myself because I believe I will look good in clothes, people will like me better, I can get a good nice friend group which I have always wished for because what I think is that the fact I was ignored the most in whichever friend I have been is that I wasn’t pretty enough so yes. I feel like 99% of my problems will be solved if I turn skinny because I really want to be skinny my whole life I really don’t care about my health I just want to look thin, like as thin as possible, even if its skinny because my chances of bagging up guys will increase more and girls befriending me will grow.

I procrastinate a lot. It’s been hard for me to do stuff on time. I delay them a lot, and I feel that it will affect my lifestyle in different ways. I am a lazy person and I am not sure why or maybe I am the problem which I am but like yeah. Like I’m not sure how other girls are so productive and then there’s me who can’t even remember to do basic chores assigned.

I am not mentally stable. And this is one topic I will be elaborating too much. I am not mentally sane. I am an immature, weird human with no job except to just overthink. Maybe its my trauma that affects this but its been years and I haven’t been able to rest my mind about how things that have been occurred to me in the past (or lets just call it TRAUMA lol). I blame it all on trauma and how immature I was when I was a kid and a preteen and during my teens but I really wonder if I ever had liberal American parents, will my life be perfect? I am not complaining about my parents and I in fact really appreciate what they did for me but you know I see some online dads uploading videos with their kids on parental guidance and how you should really treat ur kids but did those videos ever occur in my parents’ feed. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT POINTS  is this one that my mind, my immature mind who doesn’t allow me to talk to anyone is due to a lot of reasons. I don’t want to live , because with this brain of mine that can’t 

My parents deserve a better daughter than me. Im an idiot. Im fat, and my mom wanted a girl so that she could dress her a certain way but she cannot with me. My dad is a Class 1 officer, highly intelligent and the smartest person I know, and I am here, an idiot. A stupid dumb person. My brother, all rounder in every field, over achiever, talented in almost everything. What happened with me? He received the trauma, and he became independent and smart, I got trauma I became dumb in almost everything. My parents really deserve a better daughter. I wish the women my dad says are gonna do great in life, were my father’s daughter. Like he used to compare me with my 2 year old neighbour when I couldn’t do basic math equations in middle school. He would proudly say that that 2 year old can do better than you. I wish I was never born. I wish my dad had a better daughter. I wish my mom had a better daughter. I wish my brother had a better sister. I wish I was never alive. I have disappointed my parents enough, I need god to kill me and take me to himself.  I had lived enough, seen enough. Yesterday my brother hit my face in front of my mom, and she didn’t utter a single word. Told my dad about it, and he didn’t do anything about it. What am I supposed to expect from my own family? To protect me from predators outside? From the strangers who would harm me? Had no expectations in the first place from them anyway.

I always look upto my cousins a lot. They are all intelligent and smart in their field. Why am I a failure? God could’ve given me some brains to make my parents proud. My friend, my soulmate, she’s living my life, away from her family. I wish I was dead, lol. I googled some ways to end it. Reddit has all the answers but the ways are too complicated, and some too expensive. Im thinking of ending it in so many ways that I don’t know how to live this life. Thinking about living hurst my heart, but ending it all excites me. I can never be like my cousin who graduated from top 100 universities around the world. Her parents are so proud of her, she has so much potential. My brother is such an all rounder. What happened to me? I know everyone’s proud of my cousin, for them im just existing. Im an idiot. A completely disgrace to my family. Im finding so many ways to kill myself but its so hard to find an easy way. Thought of hiring an hitman, but idk how. 

Why is it so hard being an Indian? I hate my own nationality. I hate my own people. I hate this country so much. The state I live in. Ugh. Can be any nationality other than Indian. Its so annoying. The shame I feel when I tell someone, ‘’Oh! Im Indian.’’. It sucks. Silly reason to kms but truth lies here. My father praises everyone so much. When I ask him about what that 2 year old would do in life, he exclaims that she will become and do the best in future, and when I ask him about myself, he sits quiet, says he’s not sure about me because I haven’t achieved anything yet. My mother, I hate her so much. Ugh. No one knows the better act to play the victim card than her. But here I am, an idiot, didn’t apply to universities outside my town. I will be a complete idiot for the rest of my life. My love for dilfs and milfs will never end, even if the situation with my parents settles down. I would continue to be jealous of the girls my age and younger and older who have such strong relationship with their parents. One of the reasons I cry whenever im in the streets of US and I see girls bonding with their family, especially with their fathers/mothers, with love and affection. I wonder what that’s like. I see them from a distance and cry inside, and out too. Wouldn’t mind if death came to me at the happiest day of my life. Death is always welcome to take me with them. Always. 

[windcarvedlyre]

I don't want comments text limit...

Speaking of Yamada, some people complain about people disliking him, but he is entirely made to be a joke from his appearance being really exaggerated to purposefully making his dialogue seem creepy or obnoxious (not sure if that is the right word)

I could see likable things in him, but everything is exaggerated to a point that it feels hard to like him for me? I mean, you aren't supposed to think he's cool, that's for sure. I understand having joke characters, but I do wish he'd been treated just a little more seriously because it would've been more enjoyable that way, at least in my personal opinion.

I definitely liked him more than when I was a preteen, though lol.. He still weirded me out a little with certain dialogues.

Also, my friend loved Kiyotaka, so there was a bit of a grudge when we played, hehshs...

I feel you, I need to stop spamming people's replies haha

I'm unfamiliar with any discourse around him- hope I'm not wading into anything heated, nothing below is meant to police anyone or defend fatphobia, etc- but yeah agreed :(

The THH playthrough I'm doing with friends just reached his death and I think early Yamada is endearing and has surprisingly great lines about art. The 2d stuff is there but it isn't that bad; anyone with blorbos would be hypocritical to judge him for it. And his stupid beef with Fukawa was fun. If he stayed like that I'd love him, and I like fanworks that draw from those traits and explore what could have been.

But the game progresses and he gets more and more inappropriate about women. He still opposes actually SAing someone- Celeste used that to turn him against Ishimaru- but he repeatedly made creepy remarks unprompted, took part in the bathhouse scene enthusiastically*, and latched onto Alter Ego so hard as a potential 2D waifu that he misgendered him** repeatedly.

Characters can have hidden depths, wasted potential, et cetera, but the canon or surface level version of the character is still them. If they're an unpleasant person and/or written badly, even if bigotry contributed to that, I don't think people have to engage with a better version instead of what canon presents. Like, I'm obsessed with Komaeda's potential for character development and I think DR has an ableism problem which affects how he was handled; that doesn't mean everyone has to like him and engage with deep analyses imo. We should just be mindful of issues with the source and avoid blindly pushing caricatures even further.

*To be fair Kodaka also made Naegi and Hagakure drink disrespect women juice for that scene, so it would be fair to pretend that isn't canon. It feels wildly OOC for Naegi, and Hagakure wasn't the best person either but I don't think he's 'spy on naked teens as a 20yo' bad.

**Obviously not starting Chihiro gender discourse here, but when everyone else was he/himing Alter Ego and AE wasn't disputing that it was creepy of Yamada to she/her AE just because he was... cute and 2D, I guess? Regardless of where people stand, he wasn't doing that to be a trans ally :/

[bluestar22x]

Unknown: Chapter 5

Pairing: Dieter Bravo x OFC!Hazel Collins

Series Summary: When a 12 year old girl shows up on Dieter's doorstep claiming to be his daughter his world is changed forever.

Rating: 18+ series (explicit content)

Word Count: 2,180(ish)

Warnings: Fluff, mentions of marijuana, yearning, romantic tension

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken so long, life's been hectic. Hope this makes up for the wait. And there should be more frequent updates in the future. :)

xxx

Halloween had never been a major holiday for Dieter, which might seem contrary to his history with horror films, but when it rolled around that first year with Ally, it was different. Ally apparently LOVED the holiday, loved dressing up and of course loved the candy, so he in turn was looking forward to it. Mostly because it was an opportunity to spend time with her out and about, bonus that they'd be collecting goods. He was definitely going to bargain with her for the Kit Kats when they got back home.

Hazel was working that day so the plan was that he'd watch Ally until she got out, then they'd dress up and go trick-or-treating together.

He drove himself to Ally's school to pick her up, only late by a couple minutes despite the heavy traffic.

"Hey, kid!" he greeted her as she climbed into the passenger seat of his SUV, tossing her backpack onto the floor by her feet. "How was school?"

"It was school," she muttered, folding her arms.

"Oh, no, something happen?" Dieter inquired, lifting an eyebrow.

"Miss Stacy totally ripped into my essay," she replied. "After I stayed up late to complete it and everything."

"It can't be that bad," he said. Ally was usually a pretty good student, getting no lower than a B on all her report cards.

She dug through her bag and flashed the printed document at him. He only dared a glance at it since they were on the highway, but from what he could see it was covered in red marks, and that was putting it mildly.

"Did you proofread it?" he asked.

"Three times over," she answered with a huff. "She just hates me."

"Now why would she hate you?" he questioned, wondering if he would need to talk to this Miss Stacy.

"Because I correct her in class sometimes."

Okay, he definitely would need to talk to Ally's teacher. If the grade was a result of Ally doing a poor job on the essay, that was one thing of course, but he wasn't going to tolerate her grading Ally harshly over a vendetta.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow," he promised Ally, and she smiled at his quick response.

"Thanks, Dee."

"Don't thank me yet," he told her. "If it was rightfully scored, then your mom needs to know."

Ally groaned.

"But let's forget about that for now," he continued, "It's Halloween, after all. Time for treats."

"And tricks," she added.

He shook his head. "I think we've been in enough trouble in our lifetimes."

"Speak for yourself."

Suddenly Dieter was not anxious for her thirteenth birthday. The things he had gotten into when he was a teen under his dad's nose...oof.

On their arrival at the mansion Dieter went to check in with James for five minutes to discuss his work schedule, and true to seemingly every preteen he came back to the kitchen to find Ally digging through the cupboards.

He should have known she'd jump on the brownies, pulling the tin box out as soon as she saw what was inside.

"Oh!" He exclaimed, rushing towards her. "Not those! Anything but those."

Ally frowned at his slight panic. "Why not?"

"Those are not...for everyday consumption...," he replied awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

Her eyes grew large and she giggled. "Are these pot brownies?"

Dieter stared at her, stunned. "You know about pot brownies?"

Ally rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know. I'm not some little kid anymore. I have heard of things." She dropped the box on the island countertop. "So I'm right?"

"Yes, you are," he admitted. "But you can NOT eat any and you cannot tell your mother if you want to be able to keep visiting."

The last thing he needed was Hazel getting upset that he had marijuana around their daughter, nevermind what she'd do if Ally consumed some, accident or not.

Their daughter waved off his worry. "Yeah, yeah. I promise I won't."

"Pinky swear?"

She rolled her eyes at him again, but gave into Dieter's offer and wrapped her pinky finger around his. "Pinky swear."

He relaxed. "Okay." He snatched the box off the counter and threw it into a cabinet she was too short to reach. "We never talk about this again."

"Yeah, yeah."

Close call. Crisis adverted. Dieter thought, and for the first time he really considered cutting out even the weed. It really wasn't worth getting into trouble for. Not when his paternal rights were at stake. It may be legal in California, but it obviously wasn't legal for kids. He could get in trouble with not only Hazel, but the law as well, something he'd also been trying to avoid more and more the older he got.

Maybe when they got back from trick or treating he'd throw it out, be rid of it once and for all. Maybe.

x

Dieter may have been an artist, but he was no make-up artist. Thankfully, though, Ally took care of her own spooky look, painting her face the palest of whites and graying the edges of her eyes and mouth before adding black lipstick. When she was done and dressed in a dark, moth-eaten looking dress he was impressed. She looked like she was right out of a cheap zombie movie, and that was a compliment. Some of the best zombie movies were cheaply made, with practical effects.

His costume was a whole lot less demanding, needing nothing outside the clothes except the black eye liner he wore on occasion. He'd bought what he thought looked like a pretty sharp red pirate costume, the kind a rich pirate with high sanitation values would wear.

When he showed it off to her, Ally grinned. "You know you're gonna have to talk pirate all night now."

"Rrrrr...that's exactly the point, missy," Dieter said, purposely making it a cringeworthy performance.

Ally's expression twisted into a grimace, as intended. "Needs work Dee. How are you even an actor?"

"I don't know, I think it sounded convincing," Hazel claimed as she strolled into the living room to join them. She was dressed as a cowgirl, with the boots and the hat and even a handkerchief.

Dieter hadn't known he had a thing for cowgirls before that moment.

Unfortunately, when Hazel noticed him staring, she misinterpreted it. "I didn't break in. Jamie opened the gates."

He was going to tell her that hadn't been what he was thinking, when Ally unintentionally cut him off.

"You got out early!"

"Of course, we have a lot of places to go," Hazel said, winking at her. "If Dee and I can't wrangle up the goods, you'll scare them into giving them up."

"Sounds like a plan."

"After supper," Hazel added. "I'm starving. What about Chili's?"

Ally lit up and bolted for the front door, causing her to laugh. "Guess that's all the answer I'm getting." She turned to Dieter. "Ready to go, Captain?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, let me call James. He's driving us. Eating with us too, if that's alright?"

"Of course," she said lightly. "I like James."

Dieter wondered if she'd ever feel the same about him again.

x

James had made a quick change into something Snoop Dogg had worn fairly recently in his time on The Voice and had added a dreadlock wig onto the top of his head, since his hair was usually trimmed short. Dieter thought he pulled it off quite well, though Snoop Dog was in no way as buff as James was.

However, Ally had no idea who Snoop Dog was. James was flabbergasted. "We have to fix this later!"

Ally had giggled at his dismay and agreed to a lesson in rap artists on the weekend, after James promised Hazel he'd keep to the cleaner tracks.

Once they'd all eaten burgers at Chili's they hit the streets, sort of. James pretty much drove them to every stop since they were only visiting people they knew, which was still a fair amount considering Dieter knew a lot of people, including many other fellow actors who were willing to hand out some candy to their friend's daughter. Ally was as stunned by the size of their properties as she was the piles of candy they dished out to her, needing to empty her gallon bucket after every three visits or so.

She appreciated anything anyone got her though, and Dieter got a sense that if someone just gave her one bar of her favorite chocolate she'd be just as happy as with twenty. It was more about the activity than what she gathered.

Dieter knew he could learn from her on that part. He wasn't the most indulgent celebrity, but he still lived with a lot of excess, and sometimes it was hard to remember it was small things that were the best. That wisdom went beyond candy.

They were out for two hours and the sun had set before they hit the nearest trunk-or-treat event to Dieter's house, their last stop, and a stop they only made because Ally had promised to share most of her loot - because there was no way one child could possibly eat all that she'd collected that night in a single year.

"Oh look! Batman and batwoman!" Dieter pointed out a costumed couple alongside the well decorated black sports car that was acting as their batmobile.

"What are they giving out?" Ally asked, pursing her lips. "I don't want more candy corn."

"Snickers," James said after narrowing his eyes to examine their boxed candy from a distance.

"Hell yeah!" She grinned. "The bats are cool."

It wasn't Kit Kats, but Dieter silently agreed. They were a solid second choice.

After Ally was satisfied with her load of candy they all returned to Dieter's to end the night with The Addams Family movie on his big screen in the living room, except for James, who left to spend the rest of the night with his girlfriend, his portion of the Halloween candy in hand.

Exhausted from the night out, Ally fell asleep curled up on the couch, with her head pressed against the same throw pillow Dieter had been using as an armrest.

Hazel noticed first from the chair across from them and caught Dieter's gaze to nod in her direction. When he looked down, he smiled at the sight of their daughter snoozing peacefully, and when his eyes met Hazel's again she was smiling at him.

After the movie rolled credits, Dieter, back be damned, scooped Ally up and carried her out to Hazel's car despite her quiet protest that he was going to hurt his back.

He refused, not wanting to wake Ally. Not that night.

Carefully buckling her into the passenger side, he made sure her head rested against the back of the seat before shutting the door as lightly as he could so not to startle her.

He joined Hazel outside of the driver's side to say goodnight. At least that was all he had planned for, anyway.

"Thanks for everything," Hazel said, "Ally hasn't had that much fun on Halloween in years. We don't have a lot of houses to visit unfortunately, and her best friend always goes trick or treating with her two older siblings."

His lips curved up. "Glad to hear it. I hope you had fun too?"

She nodded. "I did. Though I could've used more sea shanties," she teased.

He huffed. "Ah, I'm afraid I'm an actor, not a singer, Haze."

She grew serious again. "I'm sorry I kept you away from Ally. You're really good with her."

"I'm sorry I gave you reason to," he murmured with a sting of regret.

Somehow they'd gotten closer in their conversation, a little too close for two acquaintances, whether or not they shared a child. But even with Hazel leaning towards him slightly, it was still a shock when she planted her lips against his.

She was already pulling away before he could relish it, but it was long enough to spark his memories of their night together again. He'd missed her kiss, he realized. How could he still feel it and miss it after all these years? How could it be exactly like he recalled it?

"I'm sorry," she said in a rush, turning away from him and grabbing onto the driver's side door handle.

"No, wait!" Dieter hissed, putting a hand out to stop her. She glanced back at him.

"Clearly there's still something between us, here," he continued. "More than Ally."

Hazel peered into the car at the still form of their daughter then turned back to him, a pleading expression on her face. "I can't, Dee. This isn't about just us anymore. You know? If we wouldn't work out, it's Ally who would suffer most. She spent a lot of her childhood wishing she'd been raised in a typical family. You know, both parents, like the other kids. She's still young. She doesn't understand the realities of the world. Not fully. It would crush her if we broke up."

"Ye of little faith," Dieter joked but his comment was not met favorably. It earned him a stern look instead.

"Forget what happened just now," she told him.

He nodded. What else was he supposed to do? He didn't want to jeopardize his relationship as it was with her or Ally, and he couldn't and wouldn't insist she try.

But he knew deep down there was no way he'd ever forget.

xxx

Tagged: @harriedandharassed @trulybetty @bergamote-catsandbooks

xxx

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

xxx

[ursaribbon]

What Modern Pokemon Means to Me

I've felt this way for so long, and I can't just not talk about it anymore. I'm hoping to find more people who feel this way, and I think Tumblr is the best place to do so. (cw: su/c/de)

In elementary school, I was cheerful and loud all the time, and people thought I was weird for it. I had been told my whole life that I was so unique and special, and since I only got that validation from adults, I would do everything in my power to get more validation by doing whatever adults told me to do and valuing whatever they told me to value. I was almost blindly obedient, and I sought academic validation. I started masking my ADHD. I was so stiff on the outside that I rarely cried anymore, especially at things other people would cry over. I felt like there was something wrong with me, or that I really was emotionless.

When puberty started and genetic mental illnesses came into play, I became a husk. I never displayed emotion, and people called me a zombie. I was frustrated. What did they want from me if I couldn't be loud or quiet? Classmates would ask me unprompted if I was depressed, exchange an amused look with their friends if they were paired with me for a group project, and whisper about me when they thought I couldn't hear.

Since I was a preteen, I would continually push away the people in my life because I had mental health issues that made it draining to talk to people. I wanted to spend all my time alone because I wanted to rest--I constantly wanted to be left alone in silence because everything going through my head was already too stimulating. My younger brother, my biggest supporter, would try asking me to play with him or try to talk to me about something he was excited about, and I pushed him away every time. He thought it was because I was tired and lazy all the time, because that was what I told him. He began to resent me for always leaving him alone, and even though I never tried explaining myself or even going to him for support, I thoroughly believed it was my fault for leaving him behind.

People who make fun of "teenage angst" are just making fun of themselves for what they see as "dramatic" looking back. It's easy to forget that regardless of what hormones generate them, feelings of depression are real and harmful. It felt like no matter where I turned, there was no light to overcome the darkness.

Gens 7 and 8 of Pokemon have gotten me through the worst of my teenage and pre-teen years. I had been following the Gen 6 anime by the time it was ending, and I was so excited for the next chapter of Ash's journey. I remember going around school telling everyone, "ASH LEAVES KALOS ON THURSDAY! NOVEMBER 17!!!" Not many people wanted to hear it, but for what felt like the first time in forever, I didn't care. I was already known as a zombie at school, and there weren't many things I unapologetically loved so much.

I was in middle school when covid hit. During online school, I felt lonely, scared, and sad. I had the rest and lack of stimulation I had always wanted, but I didn't realize how much it helped to be at school where I was forced to interact with other people. When I was really alone with my thoughts, I couldn't find a reason to live anymore. I was having s//c/d/l thoughts. One day during my lunch time, as I nibbled at my sandwich with my head down on the desk, I decided I may as well catch up on the latest episodes of Pokemon Journeys.

The Beautifly episode was playing, but I was only half paying attention, barely able to focus on anything. Ash had misheard and thought they were going to watch Beautifly hydrate, and Goh had a short fantasy about a Beautifly laying on the beach with a cup of juice before realizing the mistake.

He phrased it something like:

"Yeah, they look so peaceful when theY HYDRA-HOLD ON!!!!"

And I just died laughing.

I knew the joke wasn't funny. The funny part was Zeno Robinson's delivery. I must have replayed it ten times. It was the first time in months that I'd felt like everything was okay.

I even showed the scene to my brother. We both laughed at it for at least ten minutes. It was so nice to share something with him.

I became a bigger fan of the show, and started shipping Ash and Goh. It wasn't because Goh was flamboyant, although I won't deny that many fans assert him to be a certain sexuality based on how he presents himself, which is stereotyping at best and homophobic fetishization at worst. I ship the characters because I think they're compatible and are just cute together. That was when I found the Satogou Discord server.

I had never really had online friends like the ones I had on that server. For what felt like the first time, I had found people I could talk about anything with for hours. While progress wasn't a straight line, I was beginning to have s//c/d/al thoughts less and less because the people and media in my life filled me with light to overcome that darkness.

And then episode 62 aired.

In that episode, Goh's Sobble evolves into Drizzile. It was so excited to be an Inteleon that it didn't realize there was a middle stage in between. It couldn't even use Water Gun properly anymore, and other Pokemon made fun of it for that. It began isolating itself, and when Cinderace forced it to come out of its cave, it ran away in tears.

When Goh finds Drizzile, he tells it about his own childhood, when he was pointed out as being different for reasons even he didn't fully understand. When he asked himself "Why?" he only felt frustrated. This is what he tells Drizzile:

"I don't understand, but that's okay. And I don't need immediate answers, either. ... I'm fine if you just want to be who you are. ... If it helps you to nest, just do it. And if at some point you feel like being with a friend..."

"...I'll be there whenever you need me."

I didn't cry. I almost cried, but I didn't. And I didn't need a reason why anymore. Anyone else may have cried. I might have been a zombie or a husk for not crying.

...Maybe it was because I wasn't overwhelmed by what was going through my head anymore. It made me remember what I had been through, but the way these characters reached out to me was so much more meaningful than anything that came before.

The media that allowed me to laugh and to live and to make friends with ease once again provided light to me, not blinding me, but providing for me a moment of clarity.

I know not everyone likes the newer seasons of Pokemon. It doesn't fit the formula that provided light to those who have been fans for a longer time, and believe me, I understand how important these things are, but goddamnit, it's one thing to dislike a piece of media and an entirely different thing to continue arguing when you find out it means something to someone else. I respect those who don't like the newer seasons, and I won't tell you they're better than the ones that came before because, at least to me, they simply can't be compared to each other.

I know not everyone likes Goh, but I miss him so much for what he represented, and I can't thank the creators of Pokemon 2019 enough for what they went through to make what they did.

[bimrsadler]

Hello, I saw requests were open. I wanted to see if you could write Arthur finding out he has a child/teen that he didn't know about, but now needs to help care for them. How he has to bond with them whether it be through interests like drawing or teaching them to hunt/self-defense.

A Pretty Dream

Characters: Arthur Morgan, Arthur’s daughter

Warnings/tags: dad!Arthur, fluff

Word count: 1,000

Notes: went with giving Arthur a daughter named Sarah (maybe around preteen age) who he bonds with through drawing

Arthur hadn’t expected to feel so nervous, he knew she would like the gift but he couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointing her.

He didn’t even believe Sarah was his when the telegram came through and she stepped off the train. His heart skipped a beat when he realized there was no mistaking it — those were his eyes.

It terrified him. Seeing a child with his eyes look up at him for guidance when he himself was lost. But he couldn’t abandon her, not when she needed him the most.

It took time to warm up to each other and Sarah was fiercely independent, never wanting to be told what to do or how to do it.

But with time she took interest in Arthur’s adventures, asking to come with on the outings that weren’t too dangerous. She loved watching him sketch his surroundings most of all, in awe of the drawings that he thought were simple scribbles.

So Arthur’s hand sat in his satchel, fingers gripping the journal and pencils he picked out for her, waiting for the right moment.

He watched lovingly as she flipped over rocks to look for critters and undiscovered treasures. A sense of adventure had been instilled in her during her time with Arthur and the others.

She loved dresses and flowers and all those other things that young girls were expected to, but she loved learning and exploring more. If she had to work for something or get dirty in the process? Even better. And God help anyone who told her she wasn’t allowed.

The natural world was her playground, the animals and trees and everything around them; her happiness. One day Arthur hoped to introduce her to Albert Mason so long as gators weren’t involved in that day’s photography.

“Hey sweet pea! C’mere for a bit.” Arthur patted the ground underneath the tree, motioning for her to sit beside him.

Timidly revealing the leather bound journal from his satchel, he slowly handed it to her. “I uh, wanted to give this to ya. I know ya been wantin’ to try drawin’ more so…”

Arthur watched her small hands grab the journal exuberantly as her face lit up, “are ya serious?!” She shot up to wrap her arms around his neck in a tight hug, “thank you!”

“Ain’t nothin’ honey.”

“Well you’re gonna teach me how to draw better right?”

“Do my best but uh, I never fancied myself as an artist.”

Arthur felt an elbow in his side as his daughter scoffed, “oh hush, y’are too. Now! What should I draw?”

“Well,” Arthur gestured broadly to the area in front of them, “see anything ya like?”

Holding the pencil up to her lips in thought, she pointed animatedly. “That rabbit under the tree over there! See it?!”

“Sure do,” Arthur drawled with a grin.

He watched as she nervously began sketching what she saw, “now relax — it don’t need to be perfect… jus’ try yer best.”

Arthur felt his affirmations were clumsy but he truly meant them, and it seemed as though the awkward anxieties of a parent and child who met later in life were finally fading.

He didn’t have all the answers and never would, but they felt like family now and he would do anything to protect her.

As the warm afternoon breeze cooled to evening, Arthur advised on which parts to shade, which lines to draw first, how to make things more realistic; anything he could think to teach.

She listened intently and applied everything he taught, and it felt good to be a teacher. Not a killer or a robber, just a man helping his kid.

The drawing was finished as the sun began to set, an indication that it was time to head back to camp.

Arthur helped Sarah up on the back of the horse, and wondered if it was time to find her her own.

Her expectant inquiry interrupted his thoughts however, “soooo is there anything we’re doin’ tomorrow?”

“Well I’m goin’ huntin’. Ain’t the nicest thing and it can be real boring but if yer inter—”

“Sure!” She exclaimed more enthusiastically than anticipated. “Then after maybe you and Aunt Sadie can teach me to shoot?!”

Arthur let out a soft chuckle, she did love spending time with Sadie and he would most certainly be fighting a losing battle (with both of them) to say no. “In good time kiddo. I do want ya to be able to take care of yerself but I don’t want ya to grow up too fast neither.”

“I’ll just practice with cans and bottles. I mean, you do want me to be able to defend myself right?”

Arthur sighed, he knew Sadie would say the same and maybe they were right. “Of course,” he stated with a tone, “but I can protect ya til then too ya know…”

Arthur could hear Sarah roll her eyes, “I know that, but it doesn’t hurt to know how to do these things. Even if some people think it ain’t ladylike.”

Arthur laughed to himself as he hurried the horse along, “yer right sweet pea, we’ll get to it. I promise.”

After arriving in camp, Arthur watched her run excitedly to Charles and the girls; showing off the drawing that she was rightfully proud of.

Arthur never thought he would get a second chance at fatherhood. He wasn’t sure at first if he even wanted it and most certainly felt he didn’t deserve it.

But there she was — reading to Jack at the campfire which he politely asked for after being shown the drawing.

Abigail flashed a kind smile from the seat beside them, no doubt thrilled that Jack had her to befriend.

It wasn’t lost on him that this life was dangerous and unfit for them, as much as he would always love the gang; he needed to love his daughter more.

And maybe one day Abigail’s little dream of turning John into a rancher would have room for Arthur and his girl to join them. It was a pretty dream.

[transguyeatsrocks]

Hi welcome to my stream of consciousness while rewatching my comfort movies for the millionth time!

As a neurodivergent person, my favorite movies in the world are How To Train Your Dragon and HTTYD2. They're my biggest comfort movies. It's a great representation of someone whos neurodivergent coming to terms with being different and that what other people think is his weakness is actually his strength. Hiccup doesn't act like the other Vikings, he doesn't think like the other vikings, and it becomes his greatest trait. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I might be autistic and not just have ADHD, and in some ways the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup captures that perfectly. They're both outcasts, the supposed last of their kind in some ways. Toothless is the last Nightfury until they meet the Lightfury, and Hiccup is the only viking who loves dragons until he finds Valka. They're two sides of the same coin. Toothless feels like the representation of my authentic self; not human, wild, free. Hiccup feels like how other people perceive me; awkward, weird, unusual. I've always felt a kind of homesickness for the world of HTTYD that I never quite understood until recently. It's a world where Hiccup's quirks and "flaws" are what make him successful. Regardless of if he's living up to everyone else's expectations, the fact that he thinks differently is what makes him such a good leader. Also, its just a genuinely good movie. The pacing is incredible, the soundtrack is iconic, the movies came out in a way where the people that watched the first movie as a little kid or preteen saw the second movie as an older teen or young adult and saw the third as an adult. You didn't just watch these characters grow up, you grew up with them.

Im watching the movie as I write this so its just a stream of consciousness but thats what makes this fun!

A big part of the growth of Toothless and Hiccup is that Hiccup takes the time to get to know Toothless and his quirks, he doesn't try to get him to trust him right away, he doesn't force Toothless to interact with him. Sure, he gets close and a little clingy, and he tries to get Toothless to do things, he doesn't really force him into anything. They build up their trust naturally. Hiccup learns to communicate with Toothless without any verbal cues, and Toothless doesn't trust Hiccup until Hiccup shows that he trusts Toothless (closing his eyes and looking away with his hand out). They don't along right away, but they understand each other. They have a connection. That's what makes the scene of Toothless drawing with the tree and Hiccup finding out what it means so beautiful and emotional: you see them learning how to communicate with one another, you see Toothless trying to connect with Hiccup through mirroring him, Hiccup doesn't just give up on him when he growls or moves away. That's what makes it so beautiful. There's almost no verbal communication between them in the scene, but they are perfectly in sync and understand each other without any difficulty.

Another thing is that Hiccup finds interest in smithing only once he finds a goal: he wants to get Toothless to fly again. Before realizing that Toothless couldn't fly without his fin, he didn't care about smithing. Afterwards, he starts doing everything he can to get out of lessons as quickly as possible to work on his first tail and saddle mechanism.

The music is so effective because its simple. The base of the song test drive is used throughout the rest of the films, ALL OF THEM! It trains the viewer to connect that iconic sound to Hiccup and Toothless's relationship and their struggles, which is why its so effective, especially in the second movie during Stoick's ship. The music is just so well composed to draw out emotion. They use that same sound, and just alter the intensity and tone of it, and it completely changes the feeling. John Powell is a goddamn genius.

When Gobber says that Hiccup "has a way with the beasts" Stoick immediately knows what that means. They were setting up the second movie where Hiccup finds Valka!

I love the scene from Test Drive so much... It makes me feel homesick and euphoric even after all this time. It gives me this feeling in my chest. It gives me chills every single time that Hiccup throws away his cheat sheet and follows his gut.

I could write an actual essay about these movies and how much they mean to me...

[spectralstitions]

Part 2 of my Silas design ramble post! This one gets more into the relationship Silas has with how he looks & his relationship with another important character...

That's right bitches it's CHILD SILAS!!!!!!! Oughghhu he is so little and soft I just want to pet his big ol ears and THROW HIM AROUND. These are drawn in order of toddler -> kid -> preteen -> mid-teens. I have SOOOO many different possible ideas floating around for Silas's upbringing so I'm going to TRY to be a little vague for the sake of not writing a massive amount. But I DO know that the name of Silas' caretaker is Faustus Rose, or Faust for short. So VAGUELY what I'm thinking is that Faust wants a kid so very desperately and Silas is like an answer to his prayers. But he ends up feeling very guilty about Silas for the rest of his life, thinking the fact he wanted this kid so bad makes him to blame for how hard his life ends up being. Yeah as you will soon see, Faust has all the constitution of a wet noodle and he's kinda just pathetic about everything.

The name "Silas" means "of the forest", and I think it's a name Faust would have chosen very intentionally. Like a prayer of some kind to have him turn out like any normal commonfolk kid. And although Faust is smitten with Silas and doesn't care that he's more or less raising an imp, A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE CARE. THEY CARE A LOT. The rest of his community has a very "what the actual hell is that burn it with fire now" attitude towards Silas. Well, once they find out about him, anyways. Faust is very secretive about him, but it becomes increasingly more difficult to hide an entire person as that person gets bigger and more curious about the world.

I dressed little baby in Silas in white because 1. my fauns historically lived in very deep dark woods with very little sunlight and dressing in dark colors meant camouflage from bad scary things. and 2. fauns love upholding traditions. So combining those two lore bits means fauns still wear all blacks and dark colors to this day and are basically not so subtly an entire civilization of goths. White and brighter colors in general are more associated with being easier to spot by dangerous things, so if I went with my idea of Silas being abandoned by his bio mother, it'd make sense that she'd have wrapped him in white to attract something to eat him.

In childhood, Silas' tail grows longer, but the appearance of his buttons makes Faust hopeful that Silas will at least grow antlers and that maybe he'll grow up to resemble fauns well enough to fit in with his peers mostly okay. It's a small bit of relief for him. Silas also comes into his very cheery, sweet, and curious nature, and so they have a couple of fun and hopeful years together. Silas does start to hear a few fucked up things firsthand, though it causes confusion more than anything as he's not quite self-aware enough to understand that he looks different from the people around him. And OOUUGHH I think when Silas first notices his buttons he gets SOOO excited and is always yapping about how excited he is to grow antlers just like Faust.

Eventually though Silas stars interacting with non-Faustus fauns out in the real world (He probably sneaks out to be real) and oh it does not go so well. By kids his own age, he's relentlessly and violently bullied, with a particular incident where his tail nearly gets cut off. And by adults he's treated like an actual freak and always assumed the worst of (picturing him trying to give someone a thing they dropped and they immediately assume he's a thief). It starts fucking him up real fast. Faust really pushes to have Silas stay indoors as much as possible and homeschools him as a part of this, but once the cat is let out of the bag so to speak they can't really fully go back to how things were.

Silas becomes uber-shy to the point of selective mutism for a few years and is pretty much guaranteed to be constantly scared and miserable unless he's with Faust which I'm sure does not establish any sort of alarming pattern of behavior at all. Faust's solution to Silas' problems is never to move away (he can't do that! he can't give up his position! *shoots him*) and it isn't to build up his self confidence. Instead he tries to help Silas find "solutions" to hide everything he doesn't like about himself and what he gets bullied for. That's most clearly seen in the fourth drawing, with the gloves and fake antler accessories (and his developing eye marks are covered by makeup). Oouughhh Like. Silas starting to freak out that some of his teeth are growing into fangs and becoming utterly hysterical over it, and Faust's response is "Oh no my sweet darling innocent baby angel this is so horrible and awful Oh this is so unfair. Don't worry my love I will teach you how to smile and talk without showing your teeth. Maybe we can even shave them down!" and OUUGHHHH THE ANGST OF "Is this happening to me because I'm a bad kid" and Faust getting speared through the heart LOL.

Silas also starts to prefer darker clothes and cloaks, partially because of the safety he feels in hiding and partially because it's more in line with typical faun fashion.

Once Silas starts noticing how different he looks from the people around him and how other people regard him, every single new development just completely shatters him and he considers the way he looks to be moral failing on his part. He's terrified of his own body -- Especially considering he has no reference point for what he's going to end up looking like. Eventually he just avoids looking at himself entirely. And Faust although very loving is also so soft and useless that he spends all those years kinda just reinforcing all of Silas's insecurities and feeling guilty without actually doing anything to help him.

Finlay coming into his life, not giving a second thought as to how he looks and describing to him a gigantic world out there full of people who look ten times weirder than he does, is the little thing that in the long run ends up turning his life around lol. Finlay is the first person he talks to outside of his own bubble and he quickly becomes obsessed with the notion of going on adventures around the world with people who are kind to him and maybe even finding other people who look like him. The reality of it ends up not being so black and white, but his belief that it IS is the only thing that keeps him going and gives him hope for the future. Even though it causes a lot more trouble down the line....

WELL. HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY SILAS RAMBLE. Writing this made me realize I have like ten thousand ideas for what his childhood could look like and I think I need to spend some time pouring over a google doc and dumping every last thought I have about him.

[irkimatsu]

I don't think I made a single OC during my time in Matsu fandom, but Hazbin's gotten my furry wheels spinning, god damn you. I'm gonna ramble under the cut to try to get my thoughts straight.

-Almaz (Nina Sinclair), squirrel, non-binary. An 80's one-hit-wonder who died in their 30's after self-destructing and overdosing on drugs, is in love with Husk. I've posted plenty about them before.

-Richard Brenning (hell name still undecided), white rabbit, died in his 50's, pansexual male. An 80's star like Almaz, but unlike Mazzie he got more than fifteen minutes of fame as a singer, reality star, and general tabloid menace. The "controversies and scandals" section of his Wikipedia page is longer than Mazzie's entire page. Absolutely covered in sparkles. I know his outfit includes a sparkly purple vest with nothing underneath, and I keep wanting to give him a hat, but Husk already has a top hat so I don't know what to do there just yet. An egotistical little shitheel at first, possibly an Overlord? Almaz looks up to him but he's a bit insensitive about the whole "one-hit-wonder who self-destructed, don't they all" thing. He'll chill out with some character development and eventually settle down with Angel Dust therefore freeing Husk for Almaz to pursue

-Clara? Originally made her to fill a request but I think I'm keeping her. Still need a last name for her, she keeps her birth name in hell. A small black bear, looks more like a teddy bear than a wild animal. Mainly dresses in floral print. Grew up with Alastor and knows he enjoys hunting, but is willfully ignoring the nastier aspects of her "big brother in spirit" in an attempt to preserve her happy childhood memories of him. Was born after Alastor but also died later than he did, in her 60's, I think? If that request stays canon to my OC's then she has a thing for Husk, but Husk is immediately bitter of her connection with Alastor, so that's not going anywhere. Still no idea what landed her in hell. Is "willful ignorance of the fact that your best friend is a serial killer" a sin?

And Husk's family, all of whom I still need to name:

-Husk's ex-wife was a black woman who lived in the middle of nowhere with nothing but her dreams. She moved to a rapidly growing Las Vegas in the 30's to chase those dreams, and started singing songs she wrote in the same bar where Husk would play saxophone with various bands. The two hit it off beautifully and had a wonderful marriage, with Husk spoiling her with gifts and trips and encouraging her singing and poetry... until everything fell apart because Husk just couldn't get his addictions under control, no matter how hard he tried. It's not his fault, exactly... it just sucks for everyone involved. Don't know what would have landed her in Hell, but I do want her to see Husk again so they can try to get some closure. ...and the pronoun use here is a bit strange because I think she'd realize she's transmasc while in hell? I want something where Husk's spouse thought they were a cishet woman in life, but due to Husk's own experience with the Las Vegas queer scene he always had his doubts about that... but he couldn't risk outing himself, so he never said anything while they were alive. They'll meet again, Husk will take their new gender identity in stride and finally get to come out to them as pansexual, maybe they'll try to rekindle their romance but the spark is fully dead on the spouse's side, Husk desperately needs this closure before he can pursue anyone else. He doesn't expect his spouse to forgive him, he just wants them to understand he never wanted to hurt his family...

-Husk's older daughters, twin girls. Still highly undeveloped, except that they stay close for their whole lives and Husk utterly spoiled them as much as he could while he was still able to see them. Husk has participated in princess teddy bear tea parties, I will die on that hill. They were preteens/early teens when their parents divorced, and a year or two after that their mother stopped letting Husk see them because he's a drunk deadbeat piece of shit. I'm so sorry, Husk. They started families of their own, Husk has grandkids, but he has no idea because his daughters never tried to re-establish contact with him in adulthood. They have their fond memories of him, but also some really shitty ones, especially after an event I'll be talking about in a moment. It's complicated.

-Husk's younger daughter, who I want to flesh out for one horrible reason... the idea of Husk losing his daughter in an accident, blaming himself for it for the rest of his life regardless of what he could have done to save her, and sinking further than ever into the addictions that would ruin his marriage in short order. I'm so sorry for doing this to you, everyone who's involved. She's in Heaven now, and if Husk ever ascends there will be tearful reunions god damn it please

I haven't decided on species for Husk's family, but none of them are cats; the cat thing is specific to him for his manner of life and death, figuratively drowning in alcohol before literally drowning in a lake. Cats hate water, after all. The others don't have that connection to cats. I'll figure them out eventually.

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

The top two characters will be eligible to proceed into the bracket!

Propaganda under the cut.

Skitter:

Do you know what you have to do to hurt someone in a fight if your whole power is “controls bugs?” It’s never pleasant. And this is a girl with an almost pathological drive to fight people theoretically much stronger than her. Much maggots-in-eyes and spiders-on-dicks ensue. Committed to being a hero initially, ends up becoming warlord of a whole city while defending it from super-poweeed spree killers, monstrous kaiju, and timeline-severing mobsters. Saves humanity through mass mind-control.

Shes so fucking morally ambiguous I don't even know where to start. She wanted to be a hero and then over the course of 1.7 million words she tricked me into thinking she was rational and ethically sound when she cut out someone's eyes, held someone's dying son hostage in front of them as leverage (she was killing the son), put maggots in someone else's eyes to eat them slowly, shot a fucking toddler with no hesitation, and she's such an amazing unreliable narrator that you root for her. She's genuinely so good at convincing herself that she's morally sound that she convinces the reader of it as well most of the time, but despite the atrocities (and there's a fucking ton of atrocities) she's genuinely a girl who wants to do good and help the world. She fights serial killers, provides food and water and shelter for people who need it, gets her back broken trying to save people, and is generally willing to do whatever it takes to help no matter what that entails. She's a girlboss who is terrifying and determined enough to kill god, she's willing to do anything for the greater good, she has a fucking orphanage as the bottom floor of her supervillain lair. She's so so complicated and such a twist of good and brutality and I cannot stress enough how compelling and morally ambiguous and girlboss she is. I have never seen a character who fits the title "morally ambiguous girlboss" more in my entire life and frankly I doubt I will, no one does it like her.

she went from aspiring hero > supervillain > warlord (still a supervillain) > hero > mind-controlling every cape in the multiverse to kill god. and she did kill god. so. girlboss. but on her first night out she used her bugs to bite a man's dick off. that man? trying to kill kids. those kids? teenage supervillains. she initially joined their teen supervillain group to betray them to the heroes, then joins for real. their boss kidnapped a preteen girl and got said girl addicted to drugs. he used a heist taylor was in as a distraction to kidnap the girl. taylor becomes a warlord and does all sorts of awful things to the other gangs in the city (including putting maggots in a guys eyes, and carving another man's eyes out (bug dick guy) (everything grew back)). the reason she did this? so she could kill her boss and free the preteen girl. She's taken over the city at this point, she's a warlord running a supervillain gang. what's she doing with this power? improving the city's infrastructure. she runs her territory like a panopticon, if anybody who can work isn't working they get the bugs. she's also running an orphanage out of her home. she decides to step down as warlord and join the heroes. while she's in custody, what does she do? that's right. kill superman via dry land drowning in bugs. now she's a superhero. she does stakeouts and pursues gangs to force their younger/more sympathetic members into superheroism. why? to fight the end of the world. the end of the world comes, god is killing every earth in the multiverse and things aren't looking good. what does taylor do? she asks a bio-kinetic who got sent to supervillain alcatraz for sister rape to give her on-the-spot brain surgery. this brain surgery lets her control any person within like 18 feet of her. she uses a portal guy to manage to ensnare every cape in the multiverse and unite them in her fight against god. One cape has a stress induced aneurysm. how do they ultimately defeat god? she makes large-scale replicas of his dead wife everywhere, making him so sad he becomes killable. girlboss. (sorry this was so long! i started and then just kept going. worm is 1.68 million words long and a lot happens in it)

Holy Shit. Holy SHIT dude. She rotted a man's dick off with spider venom. and then she did it again (it grew back). and then she cut his eyes out. this is the first guy she meets. she mutilates *so many* people. one time she withheld a life-saving epinephrine shot from a dying man (he was allergic to bees. she controls bees.) as extortion material. she shoots a baby (it was a mercy). She cut a girl in half (which was actually pretty high up there on the "most heroic things she did" list). She was Seinfeldian rivals with the most dangerous serial killer in existence, until she trapped him in Hell Forever. He's like still there by the end of the second book. she kills God by bullying him to death. All* of this was probably the best thing she could have done in the situation. the tagline of the book is "doing the wrong things for the right reasons." The worst thing she ever really did was to pretend she was straight though.

Did she kill an orphan? Yes. Did she put maggots into a man’s eyes? Yes. Did she do all of this while having intense homoerotic tension? Yes, and that is why she is a girlboss. She also killed Jesus

Tattletale

She has a power and her power is being an asshole. Her supervillain name is Tattletale because she will not shut up about things you didn’t want the world to know. I mean yes she does try to save people but she’s mostly saving them because less people means less lives to ruin!

Miss Militia was submitted without propaganda.

Bonesaw was submitted without propaganda.

[dreamkitten]

Im new to tumblr, so im sorry if the formatting or anything is weird. But i wanted to post my opinions because i feel like a lot of people have a very narrowed way of looking at things.

Theres a deeper reasoning as to why children crave life pre covid, and by children i mean preteens or teenagers. Im 15 btw.

Ive seen many videos on the internet romanticizing 2016 and 2014 (mainly posted by kids my age), and a lot of people who were teens in that time period think it's absolutely ridiculous.

Even though kids are mainly romanizing the aesthetics, they also crave that feeling that the 2010s had. Things were less expensive and the music was so much more cheerful.

But also, nowadays the internet is much more suffocating. Everything we have is on here, school, photos, friends, hobbies etc. Ive never had the experience of meeting kids in my neighborhood, because we weren't allowed to go outside because of the dangers.

Honestly i blame the internet for that too, although its great that i can see all the crimes and pedophiles in my area, im not allowed to go outside now.

A lot of my friends arent allowed to hang out afterschool, and if they do their parents literally follow them in their car. So i guess i blame strict parents too.

But the world isnt more dangerous, we are more aware of the danger. America is much less dangerous than it was 20 years ago, and yet kids go outside less.

Social media is so toxic now too. although cyber bullying has always been a problem, it feels like ive been seeing an influx of it the past few years. It feels like every video i see has "cringe" or "this just pmo" under it, and i know theres always been comments like this but its gotten so bad that theres no uniqueness in anyones posts.

And because so many children rely on the internet for their style, they aren't unique either. The amount of people at my school that all dress the same is crazy, and i mean its cute, but wheres the personality?

Basically, kids my age are craving a life where the internet is free, and theres less pressure from the outside world. We WANT to hang out with our friends, but we CANT. We want to go to the beach and do cliche 2014 activities but we CANT.

Dont even get me started on how the romantization of over consumption as affected the youth. Especially girls.

People can wear what they like, but 12/13 year old girls typically DONT have have full faces of makeup, new nail sets every 2 weeks, long haircare and skincare routines (when it isn't necessary), and like new shoes every season.. These used to be considered LUXURY, but now because of trends and the pressure to be beautiful, young girls feel the need to conform to these.

some girls do this entirely out of freewill, but what they consume online also contributes to this.

In the early 2010s most people posting were young adults or teens, but now i mainly see young adults and fully grown adults. People with children, have graduated from college, etc.

Not necessarily a bad thing that they post, but kids mimic what they see. And since they are seeing 25 year olds with fake lashes and 17 step haircare routines, they want to do that too.

Which explains the whole "sephora kid thing"

But yeah.. kids want freedom. the 2010s provided that.

[italeteller]

Is there any modern isekai anime you think are actually worth watching? Or is it all just the same toxic wish fulfilment garbage at this point?

Fear not anon, there's actually some good modern isekai anime still! But first, some hearsay:

-While I didn't personally vibe with it, I've heard a lot of good things about Re:Zero, but I've also heard a lot of bad and cringe things about it, so it's up to you I guess

-Ascendance of a Bookworm is another I don't know anything about, but I've heard good things

Now for the ones I have actually watched:

-My next life as the villainess: all routes lead to doom! is a 2021 isekai where a teen girl dies and gets reborn into the world of her favorite dating sim, but she's in the body of Katarina, the awful rotten-hearted villainess, and to top it all off she's 7 years-old.

Katarina soon realizes that, if her new life progresses the same as the game's, all she's got to look forward to is banishment or death, because game!Katarina is a major bitch so nobody loves her, and she starts taking measures for her inevitable doom: she learns to farm so she'll be able to procure food is she's banished, tries her hand at magic and swordfighting so she'll be able to defend herself, and other stuff like that

She's also a naturally nice person to everybody in the game so all the boys and girls end up falling in love with her, which she completely doesn't notice because she's dead certain that the game has to go on the preplanned route so she has no idea everybody who's supposed to romance and/or befriend the game's protagonist wants to jump her bones instead.

It's a pretty fun series, and while it's no benchmark of storytelling, it does have a few genuinely good plot twists and heartwarming moments. I wish it would end up as a proper bisexual harem, but I knows the odds aren't good, sadly.

Also, if you do watch it, stick to the first season. The second season is bad. Like Bad bad. Makes you regret the time you spent watching it-Bad. There's a movie coming on December, which I hope is good and redeems the franchise, but if not, the first season is good

Saihate no Paladin/The Faraway Paladin is another 2021 isekai where a random dude gets reincarnated as a baby in the ruins where a great evil is sealed, and gets adopted by three undead: a skeleton warrior, a mummy priestess and a ghost wizard. They raise him, teach him to fight, magic and miracles, and then send him off to the world when he turns 15. It's a pretty decent story, it has a slow start, taking some 5 episode to properly set up the MC's circumstances and goals before his journey, and it's got a second season coming on October so if you wanna catch up, you'll get more content soon

My only problem with it is that it should be a fantasy anime. The isekai part is... I mean it's there, it seems like there will be something with the gods and the different cycles of reincarnation, but it could very easily have been a fantasy story and lose nothing. The main character having been a random japanese man before reincarnating doesn't really add anything, so idk if you wanna count it as an isekai or not

Tensei Shitara Ken Deshita is a 2022 isekai-that-should-have-been-a-fantasy where another random japanese dude is reincarnated into a magic sword. He immediately goes "welp, time to discard everything about my previous life and be the best sword I can" and begins slaughtering monsters to grind levels. He eventually becomes a super OP weapon and that's when he gets found by his future master, a preteen catgirl slave whose caravan is escaping from a two-headed zombie bear

The catgirl gets the sword and kills the bear, the sword uses his telekinetic powers to kill the slaver by snapping his neck 180° degrees, burns the slave contract and they team up. The sword restores the girl's name, Fran, which she had lost when she became a slave, and Fran names the sword "Teacher", and they set out to grind levels so that Fran may evolve - because she's a member of the Black Cat race, which is the only race in that world that can't evolve, which is why they're discriminated and sold as slaves, and Fran wants to prove her race can evolve after all

This one I have a love-hate relationship with. It does a lot of the shit I hate on other isekais, but it also does a lot of things I like. Yes, Fran is ridiculously OP with little effort thanks to being able to share Teacher's skills, and she breezes through most challenges effortlessly which is often anticlimactic as hell, but she's got an actual tangible goal and a personality so she's already more interesting than your average isekai MC. There's no romance and almost no fanservice, and when there is it's always with the adult women in the series, so that's another bullet dodged

But on the other hand, the slavery plot is introduced, and then dropped almost entirely except for a bunch of obviously evil people who all get punished, and meanwhile everybody else is super nice to Fran and nobody brings up the fact that hey, she was a legal slave until not too long ago and her race is still being enslaved and nobody's doing anything about it, ain't that fucked up? No? Nobody wanna say anything? Idk, it's a fun romp but it's also very power-fantasy-trash at the same time. It's got a second season confirmed in production, maybe that will do something with the slavery plot

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady is a 2023 series that should really have a shorter name, my god. It's another should've-been-a-fantasy isekai and it's. Hmm. It's got some amazing first episodes, but then they tried to cram A LOT of plot into the rest and fucked it all up. A lot of stuff makes very little sense, character motivations are all out of whack, and you get the feeling that they really needed another cour, or at least 6 more episodes, to fit it all in properly

It's one of those series that you can see the potential it had, how great it could've been if it had been allowed, and it makes you kinda sad that you'll never see it unless you go to read the light novels. The reason for this rush is that the studio wanted to end the series on the end of the third light novel, which is where the main girl gets together with her girlfriend as a canon, explicit, openly gay couple, which is a deeply respectable, dare I even say admirable goal, but I still wish it had had more episodes so it hadn't had to sacrifice the rest of the series for it

The Executioner and her Way of Life is a 2022 series, the final pick of the list, and the one I like the most, so of course it's only got one season and no confirmed sequel because god hates me, personally

The main character, Menou, is a teenage priestess from her world's church, and she's also in charge of killing all the japanese people who get isekai'd into her world. Menou doesn't enjoy the killing and feels guilty for it, but she knows she must do it to stop the ridiculous powers the isekai'd are given from bringing ruin to her world. One such power is the one that turned her whole village, people and buildings alike, into ash when she was little. She was rescued and raised by Flare, the world's strongest warrior, whose power is only matched by her mental instability, which she gladly passed to her apprentice

The story proper begins when Menou meets Akari, the new japanese teenager in town, and finds out Akari's power prevents her from dying. Thus, Menou takes Akari on a trip across the continent to see the sights and find a weapon strong enough to kill her before Akari goes nuclear. Akari, meanwhile, is ecstatic, because she doesn't know Menou wants to kill her, and because she's down horrendous for her from the moment their eyes meet, loudly and openly fantasizing about the romantic adventures they'll have and telling her stuff like "you're the only one for me" to her face

As the series goes on, you start to notice there's something very, very wrong with Akari

Another such character is Momo, Menou's junior who is also loudly and openly in lesbians with her, very annoyed that Menou spends so much time with Akari, and also very off in the head. I hope you're seeing a pattern here

The final character in this delightful ensemble is Asuna, the princess of the realm and the most well adjusted character in the series. She's a wandering knight who loves a good fight and develops the most hilarious crush on Momo, who wants nothing to do with her and is constantly antagonizing Asuna, attacking her, ambushing her and throwing her into deadly traps, only for the princess to walk it off and offer to buy her a drink. It's honestly hilarious

And there you have it, my personal isekai reccommendation list. Hope you find at least one that suits your tastes

[plantdonutwrites]

i stole this from @redstringraven, for funsies!~

bree 🐝🎨🌟

five random facts: 01. the first thing bree ever learned to cook was french toast, which she learned to make at nine years old. 02. she dreams of refurbishing a yellow school bus into a home that she can live in and drive around everywhere. 03. her dream jobs other than being an artist include: being a beekeeper, an art director, and a kindergarten teacher. 04. she is a collector of countless things: pressed flowers, postcards, trading cards, rocks... the list is truly endless. 05. her art style is at times cartoon-y and at times semi-realistic, and her "specialty" is drawing and painting mundane environments with something whimsical or magical about them, i.e. small, personified forest flora living in mushroom houses, ducklings swimming in a kitchen sink-turned-pond... so on.

favorite food: banana bread, chicken nuggets, tamales, & veggie chili.

least fav food: potato salad, white chocolate, sandwiches w/ meat.

cause of stress: being overstimulated. crowded, loud places. feeling left out. not knowing where people are. people arguing. dogs sitting by themselves in cars or in front of houses or stores.

a quote i associate with them: "if we don't tell people how we feel, how will they know?"

min-ji 🎧🍵🐰

five random facts: 01. she's always wanted a rabbit as a pet, and specific ones she likes are black otter rex, french lop, and teddy dwarf. 02. min-ji has been playing piano since she was 5 years old, but she wasn't tall enough to play it properly (alone) until she was 10 (lol). 03. she loves to read, especially fantasy, and is one of those people who can read an entire series of books in 1-3 days. she annotates a lot, dogears pages--the books she owns are very much well worn and loved. 04. her favorite/most used emoji is n.n 05. min-ji is ambidextrous, or "why not both-handed" as mikey calls it.

favorite food: chocolate cake, tteokbokki, sushi, tempura, & barbecue.

least fav food: hot dogs. onions. anything pickled. italian food.

cause of stress: feeling like she's being watched. small spaces. underground spaces, like the subway. being sneaked up on. comparing herself to others.

a quote i associate with them: "i think too deeply about everything. i still don't know if that allows me to see more of the world, or less of it."

yunsol 💌💐🎀

five random facts: 01. yunsol's first glimmer of a "gay awakening" was disney's version of pocahontas. cue a paradigm shift in preteen yunsol's life. 02. one of the things she loves to do to relax is to either take a late night bath or swim; she considers these things extremely self indulgent. 03. she loves reading and watching romcoms, kdramas, romance manhwa/manga... especially ones that are sapphic. but she keeps her gay media under lock and key... literally. 04. after min-ji's accident, yunsol and min-ji became much closer as she supported min-ji through her recovery. in her late teens, yunsol got a tattoo of two cranes to symbolize her and min-ji's closeness. it's located on the inside of her upper left arm. 05. she secretly wants to learn to play the electric guitar.

favorite food: stews, ramen, stir-fry, spicy foods, & homemade dumplings.

least fav food: sweets (if they're too decadent). italian food. hamburger meat. oatmeal.

cause of stress: the risk of being outed. having to put on an 'act' for her friends and family. keeping secrets. confrontation. trying to establish a balance between work, socializing, and self care in an authentic way. her parents' high expectations.

a quote i associate with them: "vulnerability is clumsy, but it's the only thing worth anything."