#as do i... a fourth person not in the equation

[akkivee]

read a post that classified?? explained??? the various ways kuukou’s been written across hipumai’s media and it made laugh lol so it went

stage:

DEMON

anime

functions on actual common sense

actually uses fundamental buddhist monk arguments

his father will tell him to do something and he will actually do it diligently

the kuukou with the least corrupt personality

arb

a completely pure individual. purity at its finest

he’s living his best life out here, the kinda guy that excitedly runs to his dad to show off his decorations, and had a blast celebrating halloween, christmas, hinamatsuri etc

adults tend to treat him to food

will also throw away the mattress his teammate sleeps on

the kuukou with the most corrupt personality

drama tracks/manga:

a healthy 19 year old that may have experience with women

the kinda guy who will sing a song like get busy and can also make a lady ghost experience nirvana

because of an intense and overwhelming love for his family, he will occasionally adopt a buddha-like tone of voice

he has a corrupt personality

[ac1dmeow]

Do you have any general hc for Powder or Jinx? I’m curious about your ideas 🍒

general headcanons 4 jinx & pow ✧˚ ⋆｡˚*ੈ𑁍༘⋆

notes: sfw, fluff, very little angst, little mentions of x f!reader, mentions of alcohol, not a v long list :,( srry

🌸 : ̗̀➛ powder

༯ she does math equations for fun because she’s a loonie. yes she’s teased for it even by ekko who’s equally a nerd but just hides it better. you think it’s incredibly hot how effortlessly smart she is

༯ she loves heading to the lake during summer and spending the day there basking in the sun’s warmth and cooling off in the calm waters

༯ she likes drawing on people to give them temporary tattoos (she has the decency to not draw a penis)

༯ she low-key loves her florals but enjoys adding a neon twist!! that goes for doodling, sewing, painting, pillow covers, etc

༯ she still can’t get the hang of cutting her own hair but she’s accepted it at this point. she lets you do it from time to time :>

༯ after vi passed away in the accident, mylo finally locked the fuck in and dropped the jackass act. it took some time because it had became habit, but soon the two including claggor grew much closer as family

༯ as grown ups mylo now actually really respects powder which is deserved

༯ powder i think studies something along the margins of mechanics at the academy. she’s there building things, wielding metal, using complex math and quantum physics to invent complicated machines/trinkets bigger and smaller. the girl is gettin them hands dirty in those classrooms

༯ possibly has a dorm there during the school year located on one of the middle floors, which she decorates similarly to her bedroom at home; neatly made purple bedsheets, random boxes and tools such as hammers and wrenches scattered about, a cluttered desk stained with ink and blemished with unknown scratches, posters of her favourite artists, drawings and sticky notes with doodles of you and her surrounded by hearts or other random illustrations

༯ despite the obvious busyness in her dorm, she still always manages to find the time to keep it clean and smelling nice. she never leaves food around to go bad, there’s minimal dust, she keeps the curtains drawn and windows open to let in the fresh air while a candle or incense burns

༯ yet somehow she’s terrible with plants

༯ powder lacks sleep sometimes not because she struggles to, but because she gets so hyper focused on her projects (both school and personal ones) and chasing that feeling of accomplishment, that she wants to get them finished as soon as possible. and that includes pulling an all nighter if she has to. she’s a healthy girl, and she puts the well-being of others on a high pedestal as well because she cares. but sometimes she un-admittedly forgets about herself and lets slide the consequences of her risky choices

༯ she has to be physically forced to bed. sometimes—especially if she’s high on her fourth cup of coffee—you gotta fight tooth and nail to tuck her into her bed and under the damn covers. other nights you’re lucky and she’s so exhausted that she allows herself to be dragged like a brainless zombie back to bed

༯ she’s an early bird! likes to get up at 8:00 or 9:00 am to brush her teeth, shower (she showers at night occasionally before bed), and get dressed to get a head start on her day

༯ she usually follows a schedule to plan her days ahead, especially if she knows that she’ll have a lot going on. it helps her feel organized and clear headed, so she has a calendar at home and a notebook that she takes with her every where to jot things down

༯ our sweet girl likes to doodle and skrapbook :3 because she’s a cute little artist. in fact, she shares one with her girlfriend (you), so you guys can document the story of your journeys together ^.^

༯ she collects wild flowers on her random trips outside to place them in vases in her room. she likes the smell and the look of them

༯ when you two are on walks she’ll stop to pick one and tuck it behind your ear and call you “princess pollen”. ‘cause get it? pollen? flowers have pollen? yeah

༯ she keeps polaroid photos taped on her walls above her bed, and a memory box full of them underneath her bed

༯ she really likes to collect and cherish small things. so the memory box under her bed is also filled with more obvious things like friendship bracelets, to lesser obvious things like an old cherry lipgloss (it was the lipgloss you were wearing when you two kissed for the first time)

༯ despite her quieter and more composed nature, i think she still likes to let loose once in a while to go to an upbeat concert and drink with friends

༯ that being said, she’s responsible with her alcohol but she doesn’t have a hard time getting crunk. she’s usually the one holding onto you or others to prevent them from tipping over, but she’s been on the other end a few times herself

༯ in fact one time she fell into a bunch of flower pots in front of a florist’s shop and got yelled at when they broke and the dirt spilled everywhere. she had to get lifted back onto her feet and you and other drunk friends had to pull her away while apologizing profusely

༯ to end powder’s section on a sadder note (sorry), she had a time in her life as a young teen where she struggled while questioning her sexuality. (even though I headcanon the planet arcane takes place on doesn’t have labels on sexuality, i do think some forms of homophobia could potentially exist)

༯ the worst part of it though was coming to the realization that she liked you, her best friend since childhood. and she feared so much that it would be ruined and she’d lose you if her feelings came to the surface and got revealed :,(

༯ but now you’re thriving and cute wonderful girlfriends, yippiee!! <3

🌸 : ̗̀➛ jinx

༯ she never learned her lesson and still tries to eat soap to find out if it tastes god

༯ never expect her to show up on time. she’s on her own schedule

༯ she’s scatterbrained most of the time. but can get very focused on her projects, and she locks in when she’s in combat in the blink of an eye

༯ i think sevika trained her how to fight while growing up, even if it wasn’t super often. because i believe jinx would’ve been a bit reluctant to allow her to teach her due to feeling weak in comparison

༯ building upon that, receiving help from people is something she avoids in general because again, it makes her feel weak and dependent which she relates with ‘powder’. it can even be something she does subconsciously without really noticing until someone points it out

༯ she’s definitely prone to getting hyper fixated. it could be about the smallest thing and could last for who knows how long. and then suddenly it’s gone like it was never on her mind

༯ has loved the stars since childhood! even though now she doesn’t really talk about them anymore. i think it has something to do with never having had the privilege of being able to see the sky clearly all that much while growing up. and to her, the stars look peaceful and quiet all the while emanating their own natural warm light during a prolonged time of chilled darkness

༯ she has a BIG fear of ending up alone. who woulda thought!

༯ she’s bad with small talk. absolutely hates it because she thinks it’s boring. wanna charm her or have a proper conversation with her? don’t start with that nonsense or else she’s throwing a smoke bomb at you for her own theatrics and jumping away laughing

༯ gives in to the intrusive thoughts. the ones that tell her to take a bite out of a block of butter or stick a finger in peanut butter

༯ struggles with sleep but when she does she sleeps like a bear in hibernation. if you pour a glass of water over her face all you’re getting is gurgles without an eye batted

༯ to add onto her sleeping habits, she suddenly turns into a professional contortionist in her sleep. she’s half off the bed, head having moved to the other end sometime halfway through the night, legs facing the opposite direction of her torso. she’s been found sleeping like this more than once. however once in a while she’ll sleep in a fetal position the whole night

༯ she also clings like a koala, her limbs stay wrapped around you in a protective vice grip for the majority of the night. yet it feels so comfortable every time. her body manages to make you feel warm and content while you fall asleep with a small smile and your face buried in her shirt

༯ you can always hear her approaching with those big ass boots she wears. but there will be odd times where you literally don’t hear her at all and she scares the soul out of you even without meaning to

༯ she’ll pat the top of your head as she walks passed you! tee-hee 🤭

༯ she blasts her music in her hideout all the time while working or doing the most mundane tasks. i think we all know this though

༯ lord knows where she gets it all, but her bed always has a messy pile of blankets and pillows on it yet it’s one of the most comfortable spots you’ll sit or lay on

༯ this might be a debatable one but i imagine she came across that giant fan room one day when she needed to clear her head and desperately find a place to hide by herself. it’s not located that anywhere near the last drop either

༯ somehow she still faces noice complaints despite being far away enough from other people and the public

༯ she likes to collect things like powder does, however the things she collects from you are posted up in her base like trophies. she likes her privacy, yes. but when it comes to you, she shows you off all the time. she relishes in being able to brag about it and laugh in the faces of jealous men who wish they can have you but they can’t. because you’re hers she she’s yours

༯ she low-key doesn’t know how to swim that well but she still manages somehow. she has no fear. if she can drink water she can float in water.

༯ she kinda likes the rain too. if you get caught in it or there’s nothing else you two are doing inside, she’ll drag you into an open area and dance with you

a/n: i always end up thinking of even more later </3 so ask me again whenever these are nice to think about !!

[aoelustious]

✦ ALEXANDER HAMILTON: AMERICA’S #1 EMOTIONAL SUPPORT MARTYR ✦

aka: the 5’7” disaster bisexual of your historically unhinged dreams

okay so picture this: a man walks out of colonial trauma hell, armed with exactly zero social capital and infinite self-loathing, and decides the best way to earn respect is to work himself into an early grave while dragging a whole nation into existence. that’s not ambition, babe. that’s a coping mechanism. that’s our boy.

this man—this immigrant bastard war orphan bastard with a god complex—wrote like he was running out of time because he WAS. he was sprinting headfirst into annihilation at every possible moment. he was trying to out-write fate. fate wrote back with a bullet.

hamilton wasn’t just obsessed with honor. he was honor. like he’d fused his actual bloodstream with the idea of national credibility. every time someone insulted the government, he took it personally. every time the senate made a decision without him, he was “tortured.” that’s not patriotism. that’s a full-body psychological spiral in a waistcoat.

he literally equated the collapse of his political vision with his own death. he couldn’t separate “the nation” from “alexander hamilton.” this man woke up every morning and chose violence against himself in the name of America™.

this wasn’t your standard genius-with-flaws situation. this was i’m going to publicly confess to cheating on my wife to prove i didn’t commit financial fraud levels of self-destruction. this was everyone around me is exhausted and i refuse to go to therapy energy.

he was all insecurity and swagger, brilliance and manic overcompensation. like—this man had the energy of an honor student who got one B in fourth grade and never emotionally recovered. he tried to rewrite the entire economic structure of the country because he could not stand being irrelevant.

writing wasn’t just how he communicated. it’s how he survived. this was a man who literally processed emotions at the speed of light via quill. he didn’t draft legislation—he drafted exorcisms. he wrote like if he stopped, the ghosts of his childhood would catch up and drag him back to the Caribbean. he wasn’t just building a country—he was building a legacy because that was the only thing he thought could make him permanent.

look. burr didn’t have to destroy hamilton. hamilton was already doing that on his own. the duel wasn’t murder—it was assisted suicide. burr just showed up. hamilton spent years laying the groundwork. this is the man who alienated his own party, blew up his marriage in print, and dragged everyone around him into his spiral like a tragic little tornado. burr pulled the trigger, but hamilton wrote the play.

alexander hamilton was not noble in the way some people likes to tell it. he was not a victim of history’s cruelty. he ran into history with his arms wide open and yelled, “RUIN ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH GIRLS.” he was brilliance built on a fault line. charm sharpened into weaponry. insecurity wearing the mask of certainty. he was a man who broke himself apart to build something bigger—and insisted it would all be worth it, even as he bled into the foundation and ruin the people around him in the process.

alexander hamilton is:

don draper’s self-invention panic

patrick bateman’s neurotic self-control with a side of 👀unhinged👀

tom wambsgans’s clawing desperation for validation from institutions that hate him

and a founding father with a quill in one hand and a death wish in the other

and i love him. i love him so much it makes me stupid. so much so that on some days I want to hug him, shake him, choke him, maybe even stab, and then eat him alive.

Also this is about the historical Ham 😔 the musical one is a bit more silly.

[sage-nebula]

This is probably me reading too much into things, and I really hope I am, but . . . part of me wonders if Toby . . . feels embarrassed, a little, of Undertale.

Again, I think this is probably me just reading way too much into things. But in Deltarune's fourth chapter, you can play various songs on a giant organ in the dark world. For most of the themes that originated in Undertale, the commentary is positive; Ralsei likes both "His Theme (Memory)" and "Your Best Friend", and Susie likes "Spear of Justice" and "Heartache."

And that makes sense, right? Ralsei's positive reactions to Asriel's / Flowey's themes respectively are a nod to how Ralsei looks similar to but not the same as Asriel. Susie reacting positively to Undyne's (which was remixed into Gerson's in Deltarune) and Toriel's themes makes sense because of how many similarities she has with Undyne / how Gerson mentors her, and how Toriel was the first adult we know of who ever acknowledged her positively. Of course they'd have positive reactions to those themes.

But then . . . if you play "Once Upon a Time" . . . the only reaction from either of them is Susie saying, "Sounds like crap" with an awkward expression on her face.

The thing is, "Once Upon a Time" is the main theme of Undertale. It's the leitmotif that is remixed into so many of the other themes in the game (including "Home" and most importantly, "Hopes and Dreams / SAVE the World"). "Once Upon a Time" is to Undertale what "Don't Forget" is to Deltarune. It is the theme, the one that represents the game more than anything else.

And the comment on it, from the main hero of the story (prophecy or no prophecy) is that it . . . sounds like crap.

And then of course there's the bit with "Megalovania", where if you play the first four notes Toby hits you with the fischer price car. Which, yeah, that's a reference to how many people used the first four seconds as a meme, effectively turning the song itself into a meme despite how it is (in my opinion) still one of the best boss themes ever created.

And that's what got me thinking about all this.

Because in a lot of ways, in the ten years (!!) since its creation, Undertale . . . I mean, it's still regarded as one of the best games ever made from an objective standpoint, I think. Certainly one of the most influential, if not one of the best. There is a reason that it blew up the way it did, that it garnered the fame that it did, that it took Toby from being an indie developer who needed a kickstarter and turned him into a millionaire able to fund his own team to make his dream game come to life. But as with all things that are popular, no matter how good it was, there were still who saw that it was receiving so much hype and responded to it with backlash. Reasons for this ranged from:

"It's popular, and I can't be so banal as to like something popular!"

"Isn't this a game for furries? I can't like a game for furries!"

"Undertale has a lot of meme references and silly jokes, and I, an esteemed intellectual, couldn't possibly like a game like that."

"It's a game where you're not supposed to kill? That means it's for BABIES!!"

"They may not be furries but they want to fuck a skeleton and that's weird!! This game is for weirdo losers!!!"

It didn't help that the Undertale fandom could be . . . intense . . . when it came to what decisions you personally made in the game and what interpretation you had of its story. There were people who would send you death threats and hate for doing the genocide route. There were people who were fine with you doing the genocide route, but would send you death threats and hate because you used the word genocide to describe it (even though that's literally what you do in the game on that route). And don't even get me started on the Characourse; I once had someone make a whole hate post about me because I said I like the creepy / evil child trope in fiction. Apparently this equated to me believing children could be evil in real life somehow. The wonders of fandom will never cease.

Anyway, all of this is to say that, with both the hype backlash and Undertale fandom sometimes being Like That, it makes me wonder if perhaps Toby is a little . . . embarrassed of it. On some level it makes sense; not necessarily because of the fans (or haters), but because Toby is an artist, and who among us doesn't look back at our past works with a little bit of cringe? Who among us doesn't look back at what we created before we improved like, "Yeesh, I'd do that so much better now?"

But while that's an understandable feeling to have, I just . . . I don't know . . . again, I'm sure I'm reading way too deep into this, that I'm projecting too much, but it just made me . . . sad . . . to see "Once Upon a Time" referred to as "crap" by the main protagonist of Deltarune. It makes me sad when I see that people are already saying that Deltarune is soooo much better than Undertale, even though Deltarune isn't even finished yet.

Don't misunderstand, I do think that Deltarune is telling a more complex story than Undertale, for sure. And Deltarune definitely has some QoL improvements over Undertale (I just replayed Undertale and the fact that you can't run . . . my laud . . . it's torture).

But Deltarune wouldn't exist without Undertale, something Toby himself has said. And I think that Undertale, while it may not be as complex narratively as Deltarune, is still such a tightly woven, expertly told story. The way that it blends the metanarrative with the actual narrative, even if you don't go into the genocide route or Sans' bedroom or any of that, is fantastically done. The characters are interesting and well designed, the music is peak, the battles are excellent and challenging without ever feeling punishing. (Well, perhaps Sans' battle is punishing . . . but it's supposed to be, on a narrative level, so it works.) Undertale is a genuinely fantastic game, and "Once Upon a Time" (and all the times it crops up in other songs on the soundtrack) still makes me feel things, the same way that, "Despite everything, it's still you" does.

I don't know. Like I said, I'm sure that I'm reading way, way, way too much into this. I'm just being way too sensitive over one of my all-time favorite games. But that easter egg just made me feel sad, rather than amused. I love Undertale's main leitmotif. I love Undertale. And as fantastic as Deltarune already is, even if it ends up being the objectively better game (and even though I said while replaying the first two chapters that I think it could be, thinking about it now I think that both Undertale and Deltarune are trying to be two very different things and so comparing them side by side doesn't really work) . . . I don't think we need to put Undertale down, even then. And especially not in Deltarune itself.

But I don't know. I think I'm just being hypersensitive, lol.

[sitkowski]

sweet surrender (nick folio x oc)

pairing: nick folio x harper (oc)

cw: 18+ MDNI ⚠️ fake dating, kinda crappy parents, vaginal fingering. doing things on a motorcycle that probably aren't realistically possible.

word count: 3.8k

author's note: this one wasn't originally started with the intention of being posted around the birthday boy's day, but here we are. i've seen enough rom-coms and hallmark movies to know anything is possible. title comes from the song by sarah mclachlan 🫶🏻 dividers by @saradika-graphics

⇉ masterpost || taglist signups

Harper’s flip flops smack noisily against the asphalt as she hurries across the parking lot. She’s already seventeen minutes late, and her mother doesn’t like to be kept waiting. The second her hand is on the handle to the restaurant door, her phone pings loudly in her purse for the fourth time since she left work. She didn’t even think of trying to go home and change, knowing that it would only delay the inevitable more.

Inside the quaint little bar and grill, Harper’s mother sits in the back at a small table, disappointment evident on her face as she approaches the table. There were many things that she considered hell, and lunch with her mother was one of them. But she knew if she didn’t go, she’d just keep bugging her until her sister’s wedding. And somewhere between work and arriving at the restaurant, Harper came up with a possibly insane plan.

“Hi mom,” she sinks down in the chair across from her and grabs a menu. “Sorry I’m late. I had to wait for someone to relieve me at the bar—”

“I already ordered you a sweet tea. I know it’s your favorite.”

Harper tries her very best not to seem shocked at that, because she knows there’s probably an ulterior motive behind it. “Um, thanks.”

“Look, I know I’m a broken record here,” her mother begins, and there it is. “But I wish you weren’t coming to this wedding alone. You’re the last of my children without a partner, don’t you feel like the odd person out?”

It takes everything Harper has not to get up and leave right then and there. She tells herself that her mom is only looking out for her, that she just wants her to be happy. But somehow, she’s always equated happiness with finding someone, having a boyfriend. Being the youngest of four, and right now the only single child, she’s heard it all so much over the years, and it’s one of the reasons why she’s kept any relationships she’s had to herself until they got serious. Which, of course, hadn’t happened in a long time.

“I have a date for the wedding.” she blurts out instead. Harper is a liar. She has nothing remotely close to a date, but she sees the way her mother’s eyes light up, and she raises her hand before she can immediately start drilling her with questions about this nonexistent date. “It’s still very new, but he’s nice. And I’ll let you meet him before the wedding, at the final rehearsal. But for now, can we just keep this between us?”

“Oh absolutely, of course!” her mom says. But Harper knows, her mom is a liar too, and the entire family will know before the end of the day. “I’m just happy you found someone, I know you’ve got to be lonely in that house all by yourself.”

Harper opens her mouth to say something else, but the waitress arrives with their drinks and to take their orders. She’s never been so grateful for the distraction. Her mother even changes the subject before their food arrives. But now all Harper can think about is the fact that she has to convince her neighbor to be her plus one to a wedding.

It’s either a coincidence or a twisted act of fate that Harper’s neighbor is outside working on his bike when she pulls into her driveway. She and Nick aren’t exactly close friends; they’re friendly with one another, she grabs any mail that comes while he’s on tour for him and makes sure his three plants don’t die. He asks her about her day if they catch each other outside at the same time, and once they shared a few beers on his porch after she accidentally locked herself out. She baked him cookies.

And now she’s got to ask him this huge favor.

She knows she could get out of this with her mom, admit she lied or say this mystery guy broke up with her. But as she gets out of her car and looks over at Nick in his driveway, wearing a fitted black tank top and his hands stained with grease, she realizes she wants to prove a point. Her shutting the car door seems to grab his attention, and he turns to wave at her. She lifts her hand in return before taking a deep breath and walking across the section of grass that separates their houses.

“Is something wrong with your bike?” she asks by way of greeting.

Nick shakes his head, wiping his hands off on a rag from his back pocket. “Nah, I just like doing everything on it myself. I’ve got the free time right now.”

“No big tours coming up?”

“Not for a few weeks,” he shoves the rag back into his pocket and pushes his hair back out of his face. “It’s hot out, you want a drink?”

“As long as it’s alcoholic, please.”

She follows him up to his porch and he disappears inside. Harper sits in on the porch swing, picking nervously at her chipped nail polish. The worst that can happen is he can say no, that’s what she tells herself. She waits for Nick to come back, holding out a glass to her. Her eyebrows raise because instead of beer, he brings her whiskey.

“You look like you could use it,” he admits, before sitting beside her. The last time they did this, it was just two beers sitting on the porch steps so she could keep an eye out for the locksmith. It’s not lost on her that this is the closest she’s been to him before. “Everything okay?”

“Just…lunch with my mom. My sister’s wedding is coming up and she’s being extra…extra.”

“She’s stressing you out?”

“More like she won’t stop asking me who I’m bringing to the wedding as a plus one,” Harper takes a sip of the whiskey and rubs her forehead. “I kind of…told her I had a date, when I didn't.”

Nick winces sympathetically, “Ouch.”

She nods in agreement before taking a deep breath and looking over at him. “So I have this stupidly huge favor to ask, and I know you’re probably busy with your band even though you said you have a break, or maybe you just wanna be left alone in which case I will finish this drink and go, but do you maybe wanna pretend to be my date to this wedding?”

She knows that she’s babbling, and she sees the way his eyes widen a little at her question. He’s quiet though, for a lot longer than she thought he’d be, and she fully expects him to let her down gently when he speaks.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I totally get it, we don’t even know each other all that well so if you don’t want to I’ll find someone who—”

“Harper, stop!” he laughs a little, reaching over to put a hand on her knee to cut off her second round of anxious speaking. She blinks and looks down at his hand and then back at his face. “I said I would. I’ll be your fake boyfriend.”

She doesn’t mean to let out a little squeak and throw her arms around his neck, but she can’t help it. She lets go quickly, her face on fire. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, but thank you—”

“Hey it’s no problem, she’s obviously driving you a little insane and I don’t mind helping. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve got a few weeks off.”

“It’s seriously just two days, the final rehearsal dinner and then the wedding and reception,” she explains and he nods along. “Do you…do you own a suit?”

She doesn’t mean it in an insulting way, but she’s only ever seen him in t-shirts and jeans, and his riding leathers. That was a distracting enough image, and she quickly banishes it from her mind.

Nick doesn’t seem offended. “I can clean up when I need to. Unless you want to traumatize your mother in which case I am fully prepared to take you to this thing on my bike and make myself her worst nightmare. I’m flexible.”

Harper downs the rest of her whiskey, letting it burn all the way down her throat so that the flush that comes across her cheeks can be blamed on something else.

“Just a nice dress shirt will work,” she pauses and thinks about it. “And yeah, maybe your bike.”

She imagines her mother’s face when she shows up to the rehearsal on the back of Nick’s bike. It wouldn’t be so much the motorcycle itself, but Harper on the back of it in a dress. If this is going to be the way that she’s going to get her off of her back about dating, so be it.

“So, if we’re pretending to date, should I have a cover story?” Nick asks.

Harper hadn’t thought about that. Her mom was nosy, she was going to want every little detail of how she and Nick met, how long they’d been together, what their plans for the future would be. Even if it was just two days, she has to have some kind of details besides him having a motorcycle and being in a band. 

I mean,” he seems to be able to tell that she’s struggling with what to say. “We kind of already have our story, don’t we?”

“We do?” she doesn’t let herself get stuck on how that sounds. Our story.

“We’re neighbors who became friends, you came over and had a few beers when you got locked out of your place and it just…took off from there?”

It sounds so easy, and it’s not even a lie. She nods. “Yeah, that works.”

“So when is this thing? That way I’ve got time to get my bike nice and shiny.”

The day of the final rehearsal approaches quickly. Harper spends most of the morning out with her sisters, getting pampered for the day. They ask her questions about her mystery guy, and she gives them vague but believable answers. When Nick agreed to do this for her, he also gave her a little bit of a rundown on himself in case of situations just like this. She almost wondered if he’d had to be a fake boyfriend before.

When she goes home, she puts on the green floral dress she bought for the day, and even though she knows it’s not exactly practical for the back of a motorcycle, she likes how it looks. She’s doing the finishing touches on her makeup when there’s a knock on the front door. Feeling oddly nervous, Harper goes to answer it. 

Nick wasn’t lying when he said he could clean up when he needed to and he took her words to heart; the black dress shirt he’s wearing beneath his leather jacket looks really good on him. They’re kind of just standing there, staring at each other for a few minutes.

“You look gorgeous,” Nick says, and Harper blushes. His eyes drift down, and the corner of his mouth tilts up. “And while those shoes are very pretty, they’re not safe for the bike. Do you have any flats you can wear?”

Harper slips back into the house and grabs a pair from her hall closet, switching them out and putting her heels into a bag to bring with her. When she comes back out, she follows Nick down to his bike. He hands her a helmet, one that isn’t a full face like his.

“Figured you didn’t wanna sweat off your makeup on the ride.” he says, and she thinks he’s teasing her. “Have you ever been on a motorcycle before?”

She’d been on the back of a friend’s bike in high school, but it had been another style and she knew there was a difference between the two. “Nope.”

“Don’t worry, it’s the safest thing you’ll ever have between your legs.”

Harper’s mouth opens and closes again in surprise, before her eyes narrow. “Did you…did you just quote Girls Just Wanna Have Fun to me?”

Smiling proudly, Nick takes the helmet out of her hands, putting it on her. She holds her breath as he buckles it for her, before pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. He grabs his own helmet and puts it on. With his help, she gets on the bike behind him. She’s able to tuck the skirt of her dress enough so it won’t blow when they’re on the open road. This part she knows enough about, and she puts her hands on his sides. Nick reaches down, wrapping his hand around her wrist and pulling until she gets the message, wrapping her arms tightly around his torso. Harper presses her cheek between his shoulder, clenching her fingers in his jacket.

There was nothing more exhilarating than being on the back of Nick’s bike. It’s not that far from their houses to the venue where the final rehearsal and wedding is being held, but she enjoys every minute of the ride. The parking lot is littered with familiar cars, and Nick parks his bike, cutting the engine. It takes Harper a minute to be able to loosen her grip on his jacket, and she can still feel the rumble from beneath her in her thighs. She lets out a shaky breath, undoing the strap of the helmet and taking it off. In front of her, Nick holds out his hand so she can lift herself off of the seat. When her feet touch the ground, her legs are still shaking.

She can see her mom and her sister Reece watching her from the alcove by the entrance, and it’s hard to miss the smirk on Reece’s face and the look of concern on her mother’s. Harper takes off her flats and slips her heels back on before fluffing out her hair. She watches Nick get off the bike, and he takes off his helmet, gloves and jacket. He’s got the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled to his elbows, and it shouldn’t be nearly as distracting as it is.

“Ready to do this?” he asks, holding out his hand to her. 

Harper nods, lacing her fingers through his. He pulls her closer and she swallows hard, unable to avoid the smile that comes to her face. “Yeah.”

Making the introductions almost seems like the easy part. Within minutes of meeting, all of her sisters are enamored with Nick, including the bride to be. Her mother is a different story, but Harper already knew that it would happen like this. She hears the words drummer and motorcycle club and puts on the most believable fake smile she can. But Harper genuinely wants them to like Nick, even if it is pretend. And for the most part, they do.

“And your band…it does well?” her mother asks sometime between the final rehearsal and dinner, and Harper feels the evening going downhill. 

“They’re viral on Tik Tok,” her grandmother says. Nick smiles that wide smile again and her grandmother winks at him. “Leave them alone, dear. They seem very happy together.”

It eases the tension for Harper, just a little. Beside her, Nick puts his hand on her thigh in a comforting gesture, and she relaxes back in the seat.

The rest of the dinner goes okay, until her mother asks to speak to her privately. She leads her off to the hallway of the floor they’re on away from everyone else. Most of the day has been a blur but Nick’s been there with her the whole time, and she’s thought that they were pretty convincing.

“I know what you’re doing,” her mom says, and Harper frowns. “How could you hide something like this from us?”

“Mom, what—”

“The way that boy looks at you, there is no way that this is new. How long have the two of you been together that you couldn’t tell me, or any of us?”

She almost lets out a sigh of relief, but her mom’s words register with her. She thinks that they’ve been together for longer than she’s said, because of the way that Nick looks at her? From what she’s been able to tell, he’s looking at her the same way he has since they met. Sure, he’s touching her a little bit more, but that was all part of the plan. Wasn’t it?

“You just met him today, and you think he looks at me like, what?”

Her mom’s look turns wistful. “Like your dad used to look at me.”

The words are a punch to the gut, and not in an entirely bad way. Her parents were deeply in love once upon a time. But she doesn’t think that she and Nick know each other well enough for that to be true. Still, her mom wouldn’t have dragged her out here and said something like this unless she saw something that Harper apparently didn’t.

“Mom, there’s something—”

“Babe,” Nick appears in the hallway, and it’s obvious that he might have overheard something that was said, because he comes over, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Jolly wants me to stop by before we head home, would it be okay if we headed out now? I know things are wrapping up for the night.”

“You two go on, we’ll see you in the morning.” Harper’s mom says, answering for her.

She hugs Harper and gives Nick a polite smile before walking back into the banquet hall. It’s not until they’re in the elevator that Harper finally asks. “Who’s Jolly?”

Nick doesn’t take her home right away, turning the bike the opposite direction that they came. Harper doesn’t question it, she just burrows against him comfortably and lets him take her wherever he wants. She’d been grateful for the rescue while dealing with her mom, but she wonders what’s going to happen after the wedding tomorrow. She assumes that things will just go back to how they were before, the two of them being neighbors. It’s something, at least.

It’s dusk by the time Nick stops the bike, in a secluded little spot overlooking mountains and trees. Harper’s pretty sure she came to this spot with a boy when she was in high school. Nick drops the kickstand and takes off his helmet, and Harper takes hers off too. But he doesn’t get off the bike, and she stays leaning into him, enjoying the quiet and the view.

“I know you heard what my mom said,” she whispers into his jacket, and she feels him tense a little before he relaxes. “I thought it was all pretend.”

“And if I said that I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to ask you out for months and thought this was going to be the best way to do it?”

Harper sits up and pulls herself off the bike, and it’s just like he knows what she’s planning to do because he slides back on the seat, making room for her. He hauls her into his lap, her thighs spread over his as she sits facing him.

“I like you, Nick Folio,” she murmurs, draping her arms over his shoulders.  “I mean, you’re viral on Tik Tok after all.”

He throws his head back and laughs. “I like your grandma.”

“And what about me?”

“Oh, I really like you,” he says, before wrapping one gloved hand around the side of her neck and kissing her. 

Harper kisses him back, fisting her hands in the sides of his jacket, trying to get him closer. But she’s worried that too much motion is going to overturn the bike. It’s probably a miracle that it’s staying upright anyway. She slides her hands beneath his jacket, pulling at the buttons on his shirt. Her eyes widen at the sight of the tattoo on his chest, and she files that away for another time when she can drag this out and trace it with her tongue.

Nick pulls back, long enough to tug off his gloves and shove them in his jacket pocket before shrugging out of the leather and letting it fall behind him. Keeping his eyes on Harper’s face, his hands slide up beneath the skirt of her dress. Her breath hitches in her chest at the feeling of his hot hands on her inner thighs, skimming upwards until they touch the edge of her panties.

It’s not lost on her that they’re out here in the open where anyone could come by and see them. That doesn’t really matter to her though, not when Nick’s scraping his teeth over the column of her throat and pulling her underwear to the side.

“Is this okay?” he asks, voice low.

Harper nods quickly, reaching down to wrap her hand around his wrist and guide his hand where she wants it. His fingers slide between her folds, thumb teasing over her clit. She moans, head falling back and his free hand tugs at the top of her dress, pulling it and the cup of her bra down so he can get one of her nipples between his teeth.

A sharp cry escapes her when he eases first one, then a second finger inside of her, and when his fingers curl upward, she finds herself trying to lean back into the handlebars behind her. Nick’s fingers tangle in her hair and he pulls her mouth back to his. Harper nibbles on his bottom lip, tongue sliding over his as she grinds down against his hand.

Whimpering, she buries her hands in his hair, yanking at the longer strands. She’s already on edge, and she’d be surprised that Nick’s able to work her up so quickly, but she can’t think about anything else but this. His forehead presses into hers, eyes locked on the space between them, watching his fingers rock in and out of her. He moves them faster, adding in a third, and Harper’s lost beneath the orgasm crashing into her. The cry she lets out echoes in the air around them, bouncing off of the trees.

Nick pulls his fingers out slowly, bringing them up to his mouth to lick them clean. The sight and the aftershocks of her orgasm leave her dizzy. She starts to reach for his belt, but Nick catches her wrist, pulling her hand up and kissing her palm.

“Later, I promise. I kinda wanna get you home and into my bed.”

Harper can’t argue with that. They fix their clothes and she moves back behind him. As she’s putting her helmet back on, a thought occurs to her. “What happened to this being the safest thing I’ll ever have between my legs?”

“Honey, you haven’t seen anything yet.” he murmurs before putting on his helmet and starting the bike.

She grabs onto him, unable to keep the smile off of her face as he points the bike in the direction of home.

⇉ taglist:

@circle-with-me @deathblacksmoke @malice-ov-mercy @baddestomens

@ladyveronikawrites @dominuslunae @collapsedglasshouses @collidewiththesavannah

@thatchickwiththecamera

[yallthemwitches]

The Golden Rules

When he slipped up on the house rules they tried to be understanding. Who cares if every once in a while they heard a little breathy, feminine sigh come from the other side of James’ bed curtains? Or sometimes the shower was running for hours with sounds of slippery, awkward movements and muffled laughs floating out from under the door? Lily wasn’t some bird that James wanted to get off with, he was in love— and they knew that because he told them so many many times a day.

Sirius is having a big two days in my Jily universe! Written for @jilytoberfest day 18 Prompt :Neighbors (because bunkmates are like neighbors right?)

This one is rated T/M for one short depiction of sexual activity-nothing too crazy though.

Living side by side with a marauder was somewhat of a balancing act. Each boy had their own idiosyncrasies that needed to be attended to. Each one had a different sleep schedule, grooming habit, general idea of cleanliness…and that wasn’t even getting to the teenage boy of it all. In short, the boys had a deal: when in doubt, use a silencing charm or do it somewhere else.

This had become important to denote early on in third year when Sirius started to think that Adelaide Willow’s body looked too fit to handle. By fourth and fifth, things got even more complicated. With love notes piling up for all parties and snogging the new favorite activity, amendments needed to be added to ensure peace.

They had all been very diplomatic about it. Warn a bloke, don’t take ages, and always remember the golden rule: silencing charm or expect no mercy.

This would be all fine and good if it didn’t involve fuzzy brained, randy teens. Peter would constantly forget his silencing charm when he “felt sleepy” at 19:00 some nights, only to get berated before he did anything too crass to himself. Sirius intentionally or unintentionally forgot a few times with various shagging partners, some of which ended the date rather abruptly when books and quidditch goggles got thrown past the bed curtains. The only two that were pretty consistent were James and Remus—mostly due to the fact that Remus refused to date and James preferred other locations that didn’t involve the intimacy of his bedroom.

That wasn’t to say that either of them were angels: after Hogwarts, Sirius would still laugh about the time James was overheard saying a certain name into his pillow, presumably half asleep and unaware that his hand had wandered below the proverbial belt. But it was all good fun—they were sixteen, who could blame them? The system was working, a bit busted, but continuing the status quo nonetheless.

That is, until Lily entered the equation.

The boys knew they had a big storm coming with the onset of Lily and James’ relationship. The bloke had pined after her for years and they all just assumed he had a backlog of emotion he was going to need to dispel. 

As promised, the two were inseparable. Conjoined at the hip, the hands, the chest, the lips—and that was just when they were in public. James was never a fan of bringing girls back to the dorms because he found it too intimate, but for Lily it was a completely different demon. He wanted her in his personal world, so much so that he would do anything to get her closer to every aspect of his life—his four poster bed being just one example.

 The first night she ever stayed over was a telling moment for the Marauder’s residence. Already tucked in for the night, the equilibrium of the room was knocked off course by a frantic and mussed looking James bursting in the door, tie hanging from one shoulder and a crazed look in his eyes. 

“I love you all, but get the fuck out. Evans agreed to come up here. This is not a drill.”

Sometimes mates had to make sacrifices—like sleeping in the common room. 

The boys were happy for him—really, they were. It was a long time coming and it felt good to see their mate feel really good. So, when he slipped up on the house rules sometimes, they tried to be understanding. Who cares if every once in a while they heard a little breathy, feminine sigh come from the other side of James’ bed curtains? Or sometimes the shower was running for hours with sounds of slippery, awkward movements and muffled laughs floating out from under the door? Lily wasn’t some bird that James wanted to get off with, he was in love— and they knew that because he told them so many many times a day.

But even with love involved, everything had its limits. 

When reflecting on it later, Sirius knew that it was purely karma that led him to the dorms that day. A sacrificial moment, brought on by one too many missteps with the status quo. In many ways he considered himself a martyr.

He should have seen the clues. For one, the room was locked and silenced— but that had never stopped him from entering a room before. It might have been the golden rule, but it was his room after all and he figured anything happening at lunch hour couldn’t possibly be too scarring. 

Clue number two: James was on his knees between Lily’s legs. 

They hadn’t closed the bed curtains. Lily’s head tilted back so she had barely a view of the door, making small languorous noises that reminded him of similar muffled sounds he and the lads had once heard before behind the safety of their own beds and the darkness of night. 

With every slight movement of James’ head, her voice reacted. His hands grasped her thighs apart, head tilted upwards, watching his girlfriend’s expressions like a marker of approval. 

Clearly, neither had heard the door open. 

Sirius was there barely a second before Lily’s head rolled back to the top of her spine, eyes dilating in slow motion. Registering her audience, she let out a shrill cry. 

He relocked the door behind him.

*******

James knew he had fucked up. Did he regret it? No— but he did know it wasn’t his best hour. 

To be fair, he hadn’t intentionally set out to break the golden rules of the dorm. It was just like that with Lily. At one moment they could be listening to records and then the next she could have her hands down his trousers. It was as predictable as a game of chance…if 100% of the time the chances led to some form of snogging. 

He trudged out onto the lawn beside the lake where Sirius was lying with Peter and Remus, face tilted towards the sky. As James’ shadow curled over him, a smile pulled at Sirius’ lips.

“Alright, Let’s get this over with– how long were you standing there?”

Sirius’ grin widened, still basking in the sun.

“Don’t know what you are referring to.”

“C’mon pads, I’m not in the mood–I know you just want to hear me say it.”

His eyes blinked open and James tried to remember a time where he looked more smug.

“Oh, are we talking about you licking out your girlfriend? I’d say I was there about a second longer than either of us would have liked.”

Peter made a choking noise into his parchment, Remus sighed and closed his book. 

“Alright James. Too far—“

James’ hand jumped to his hair.

“I-I locked the door Moony, I swear it! He just came barging in!”

“Didn’t lock it well enough,” Sirius snorted and  Remus lightly kicked his leg into his rib.

“Still James—it’s kind of been escalating…I feel like I know Lily a little bit too well nowadays.”

“Yeah mate, the other day I didn’t even know she was in the room. Scared the living shit out of me when she walked to the loo with only your jersey on.” Peter said, ears turning a bright pink.

James sat down and put his head in his hands.They weren’t that bad… 

“Then there was the time where you two practically fell through the door tearing each other’s clothes off—“

“Oh–and remember the other time after NEWTS –”

Ok, so maybe they were. 

“Fine fine,” James waved his hands in the air, “—so what do you want? Do I need to swear we won’t use the dorms again, because I don’t think I can make that promise.”

Sirius turned himself on his side, sporting a grin so dangerous looking James had the urge to run. They both knew that with Peter and Remus on his side he was the essence of pure power, a rarity to have such an upperhand.  

“I just want to know if our sweet Lily got to finish—“

James' face flushed. Tosser.

“—But I don’t want to take your word for it,” he raised his voice,“Evans darling, would you say you were satisfied with Prongs’ performance today?”

James whipped his head around. Sirius must have seen her coming towards them earlier because she was more than halfway to the boys, stopped in her tracks. From around them, groups of students glanced over, knowing a good show when they saw one.

But if Lily was embarrassed, she didn’t show it. Her eyes sunk into slits.

“Why do you ask, Black? Do you need some lessons? I’ve heard your head is shite.”

[fivessuit]

I finished that essay I was telling you guys about!

TLDR for those of you that haven't seen my blog, I had to write a paper in the form of an open letter. This means that I had to write in response to someone that has a different view than me. I chose to respond to someone's blog on here! Thank you to @dontspoilthis for sending me the post that I ended up using in the paper! For privacy purposes I will not be including the blog name however. Here it is for those who want to read it :)))

Exploring Lila's Decision: An Open Letter to a Tumblr User

Hello [insert blog name here].

I have read your tumblr blog post about how you believe Five Hargreeves and Lila Pitts make a good romantic pairing. While I disagree with your statement, I do think that it used solid evidence from the show and was well thought out. With the last season of The Umbrella Academy having come out a little under nine months ago, people are still very much talking about season four and voicing their opinions on it. This show has been well loved for over six years by many of us, and has fans all around the world. Five and Lila are both exponentially strong characters, therefore when we saw them get together on screen there were some mixed reactions from all parties; everyone had something to say about Five and Lila’s relationship. 

Based on what I read in your post, you believe that Lila decided to marry Diego, Five’s brother, out of convenience. Additionally, you say that Lila wanted to create the family that she never got to experience as a child. Both the Hargreeves siblings as well as Lila had very callous upbringings, many days filled with training and mastering their powers. This made it so none of them experienced a real parental figure or family. At the end of season three, we see the Hargreeves and Lila go their separate ways, all powerless, and at the beginning of season four we see a time jump of five years and where they all end up. This shows that life for all of the Hargreeves sucked after they lost their powers and they had to be real and functioning members of society. This made it so, according to you, Five and Lila’s normally explosive personalities made them be a good pair throughout this season. They had the most chemistry, as well as they realized how similar they both were when they got stuck in the subway together for seven years. 

If you take everything else out of the equation, I too would fall in love with somebody if I had to spend seven years trying to survive with that person. That part is not unrealistic. Also, I think that over the years we all have grown attached to these characters and genuinely want them all to be happy in the world they find themselves in. Especially Five, who spent forty five years alone and then had to awkwardly transition back into society in the body of a child. Some argue that Five falling in love with Lila was out of character. However, you and I agree that Five would absolutely act in his own self interest after fighting for so long. He is old, tired, and lonely. He craved love and affection (which was shown when he fell in love with a mannequin in the apocalypse). I do see where you are coming from when you say real world love is unpredictable and messy, and that these two characters acting this way made them feel more real. In different media we often wish to see characters feel the things we want to feel, therefore watching Five and Lila fall in love despite societal norms was liberating in a way. 

While I do understand and respect your view, I would like to bring in points that might not have been considered previously. When filming the fourth season, Aidan Gallagher, who plays Five, was nineteen years old. However, there has been tension building between Five and Lila since season two of the show, this was well before Aidan was of legal age. This, combined with nineteen year old Aidan and thirty four year old Ritu (who plays Lila) having a non-rehearsed kiss, makes me reasonably uncomfortable. I totally understand being an actor and intimate moments being part of the job. However, I do believe that this is a bigger problem in all of Hollywood with actors having huge age gaps and being forced to be intimate. Additionally, the writing of this romance feels a bit like trying to get us as an audience on board with a condemnable act: cheating. Sure, Lila was miserable in her marriage. However, she should have broken off the marriage way sooner instead of cheating on Diego with Five. The way the show panned out, it seemed like we were supposed to focus on this new found love between Five and Lila and just ignore the heinous act being done to Diego. The writing for Five and Lila’s affair came entirely out of left field and had nothing to do with what was set in previous seasons for Five’s character arc. The main writer for the show, Steve Blackman, said himself in an interview that, “[He] felt that Five had to have a love story” (Blackman). From this interview, it seemed that the writers didn’t have an exact plan for who would be Five’s love interest, therefore making this affair feel forced. The way that this was executed showed that the writers had little care for what was already written for Five, Lila and Diego. The whole point of Lila and Diego’s relationship was that they worked and talked through issues they had. When Five and Lila return to the family after escaping the subway, we do see the realization set into Lila that her relationship with Five was strictly situational, and she did miss both her children and Diego. While it is on brand for her to be hard headed and stubborn, as well as putting her own needs first, she does realize that she made a mistake. Finally, Five and Lila’s relationship is the most unrealistic due to the fact that for an entire season, Lila was trying to kill Five after she found out that Five killed her birth parents. This was never expanded upon or resolved for the entirety of the show. Therefore, it seems a bit odd that Lila would essentially disregard this to be with her parents' murderer.

Moving forward, I think that while we may not agree on Five and Lila as a pair, I think we both can agree that them getting together was important for the storyline. Diego realizes he hasn’t been putting enough effort into the marriage, and Lila puts her needs first. However, I don’t think that Lila is in love with Five. He was a convenience and an accessory to her going back to the thrill of the hunt. She loved the sensation and the situation, she did not love him. Lila having an affair with Five acted as a hurdle in order to further the character development of all parties involved.

If you made it to the end, let me know what you guys think!

[nvxzaa]

── .✦ Love at first sight

—> Masterlist

Pairing : no¡Idol!Seungmin x reader

Word : 518

Genre : fluff

Warning : none

Between the line

Yn never believed in love at first sight—the kind of instantaneous romance, the undeniable spark that strikes like lightning. However, she had always thought that some meetings happened with perfect timing. Moments when two paths crossed at just the right place, at just the right moment.

Seungmin was one of those meetings.

They met at the library, a quiet place where Yn often came to work on her projects. At first, he was just a familiar face—a boy who always sat at the same table by the window, with a black coffee in hand and a book open in front of him. A boy who loved silence and well-turned pages.

She started to notice him more when he smirked at her after overhearing her complain about an incomprehensible equation.

— "It's not that complicated," he had said, amused.

— "Thanks, mister genius, but I think I’ll just suffer in silence," she replied, rolling her eyes toward the ceiling.

And that was how it started—shared glances over coffee cups, whispered remarks, light teasing. Seungmin never spoke just for the sake of it, but with her? He quickly realized that silence could be playful, and his responses could be calm, even when hers were sharp.

Yn surprised herself when she started looking for his presence, wishing to see him sitting beside her whenever she walked into the library.

But one day, he didn’t come. And the next day, he was missing too.

Three days without seeing him. Long enough for her to wonder if he had just been a passing presence in her routine.

But then, on the fourth day, he finally showed up—with a bandage over his brow and looking more tired than usual. She couldn't help but worry.

— "Lost a fight with a big book?" she asked.

He let out a rare, quiet laugh.

— "More like with a friend who has terrible aim in baseball."

Then, after a brief silence, he added:

— "Did you miss me?"

Yn rolled her eyes, but her heart skipped a beat.

And that was the moment when everything changed.

Their conversations became more personal. He told her about his days; she shared her dreams with him. They challenged each other—he, by trying coffee that was way too sweet; she, by listening to the songs he sent her.

One night, as they walked side by side after leaving the library, the rain began to fall—fine and steady. But instead of running for cover, they just kept walking, as if the moment had been frozen in time.

— "Do you like the rain?" she asked him.

— "Only with you," he replied.

He said it so naturally that she was left speechless. Seungmin, on the other hand, simply slipped his hand into hers. A simple gesture, yet one that meant everything.

That night, between raindrops and exchanged glances, Yn understood.

Love at first sight didn’t always have to be a spark.

Sometimes, it was a presence that settled in slowly.

A book you learned to love, page by page.

And Seungmin, without her even realizing it, had already become her favorite chapter.

[ryin-silverfish]

Hello, let's say I'm writing a fanfic, I wanted to know information about the Jade Emperor 👉👈 something like his personality? his role as emperor of heaven? sorry for the inconvenience.

Whoosh. It's one of those questions I hesitate to answer, because so much stuff are involved that it's hard to do it in a satisfactory manner.

First: the "Jade Emperor" name, or sth similar, is first mentioned in Tao Hongjing's Zhenling Weiye Tu, gained popular usage as a nice-sounding name in Tang poetry, and was officially merged together with the Heavenly Emperor sacrificed to by the imperial court during Song Zhenzong's reign.

Though the officially sanctioned sacrifice doesn't seem to continue past Northern Song, it has affected folk beliefs and vernacular fiction enough that the mass pretty much equated JE with the Heavenly Emperor, who rules over the celestial court in the same way a human emperor rules over the mortal one.

As such, it's very hard to pin down a "personality", because it's like asking "what's the typical personality of a ___ dynasty emperor": do you pick the best, the worst, the most significant, or the most mediocre as your exemplar?

Of course, you can still answer questions such as "What do the emperor's officials expect from him, what power do he hold over his subjects and what is the limitation of that power, and how's a good or bad emperor defined in creative works?"

So that's what I'll try to do for JE.

In religious worship, JE is certainly one of the more "serious" deities when it comes to attitude and rituals of worship, because of his status as the ruler of the celestial bureaucracy grants immense power over the life of regular mortals, and also, in a way, greater distance from the worshippers.

(Doesn't mean the folk celebration of his birthday isn't a grand, bustling affair, but there tend to be some restriction on the type of sacrificial offerings, the things you pray to him for, and the representation of his images in worship.)

The more organized Daoists put him up there with the Three Pure Ones, not necessarily in a hierarchical way. Some made JE the Three Pure Ones' subordinates, others one of the Three Pure Ones/their successor, and came up with an origin story for JE that was basically just a reskinned version of Sakyamuni's.

However, as we get closer to the folk side of things, JE tends to be the Big Honcho in the Sky, period. The top gods of the Daoist and Buddhist pantheons may be seen as equally or more powerful and competent, but their relation to JE is like that of venerable Daoist/Buddhist masters to the emperor.

Essentially, they'll be asked by the emperor to use their miraculous powers and solve problems, and given a lot of respect, but it doesn't mean they have any supreme political authority over the imperial court.

Which is kinda what you see in JTTW too. And bc vernacular literature both inspire and take inspiration from folk religion without being literal religious scriptures, JE can be just as benevolent, foolish, or petty as any traditional emperor.

As for his role: all the departments of the Celestial Court ultimately answer to him. This includes the Thunder Bureau (in charge of weather as well as divine justice) and other departments that control natural phenomena, the various stellar gods in charge of fate and fortune, the martial warrior deities with exorcist functions, and many, many more.

The bureaucratic division means he probably doesn't have to micromanage every tiny thing, but in vernacular novels, we do see him drafting orders for weather events, and gods involved in weather creation mentioning that they can only make a thing happen with JE's permission/can't go against official guidelines without consequences.

Oh, and also, in popular folklore, all the Kitchen Gods will go to JE and make report on their respective mortal households on the 23/24th of the twelfth lunar month, and return on the fourth day of next month.

Thus the customs of giving honey/sticky candy to the Kitchen God to make sure he can't say anything bad about your family to his boss.

However, just for fun: if you subscribe to the "1 day in Celestial Realm = 1 year in mortal realm" theory, the Kitchen Gods will be making one presentation every day by Celestial Standard Time.

And I can just imagine their presentations being the last hour a celestial official has to endure before they get off work, during which they nod, clap on cue, and desperately wish they are somewhere else.

(Happy Lunar New Year, btw.)

[fruitymachine]

Hey guys instead of thinking about Curly’s disability as a punishment what if we instead realized that even if you side with an abusive psychopath in any way you will still get hurt in the end and used? As in like being used as a scapegoat and the being an unreliable caretaker by starving you of communication and the humanity you still deserve to be treated with and being used as a simple pawn to further said psycho’s motives even when you tried your best to see the best in said abuser and a lot of the time put them above yourself.

Hey guys can we acknowledge how Curly was kinda a jerk but that doesn’t warrant constant pain from fourth degree burns and being degraded as a person?

Hey guys the nuance and the idea that you can still be a decent person while fucking up massively

Hey guys Anya told Swansea during that meeting in the cockpit and he didn’t kill Jimmy immediately either

Hey guys when you’re in a position in which you have to keep a group together, running over and killing your best friend will not keep people together and it will cause chaos, and not only that but being told your best friend is a “that word” can be shocking and most people need more than a day to process that information, which Curly only got a day

Hey guys this still doesn’t excuse his enabling over years and years but for the love of fucking god please stop equating him to a literal consent-ignoring, narcissistic pos who will kill others to look good, or still be seen in a good light?

I understand having emotions about such heavy topics but one of the main themes of this game is that people are human, and humans do shit sometimes man, nobody is perfect and unfortunately that sometimes leads to Jimmy’s living past the age of three, and I say this as a person who has dealt with some of these “topics” in multiple senses that people are allowed to be imperfect, mistakes do not make you a pos

Being Jimmy is❤️

[what-have-i-unleashed]

prefacing this by saying that this is my own opinion and interpretation of chara, and i welcome any good-faith argument with me about this!

i think that there is a reason why the take "chara is evil" was (and still is) so popular in fandom, part of it is because of how the writing of undertale is kinda unclear and undeveloped in its "reveal".

look... delete all your knowledge about undertale (gonna be impossible but try to do it). imagine you were playing the game for the first time in 2015. and the first thing you see is the name selection screen, so you just type out your name, because that's how rpg games work, right? you give the character your name - you imbue in them your essence, yourself. you become the character in the game. and when you decide to do every horrible stuff in the game, it's just the simple mechanic of roleplaying - you are the character and the character is you. sure, there are some hints here and there that you're not exactly a blank slate character, but effectively in the narrative of the game you can project yourself onto the character how much you want to. and when it turns out that, oh, the character you thought you were playing is not you you, but a separate character altogether, a character with agency of their own, it becomes a twist and a message about how you are the entity that imposes control over another person. it breaks the fourth wall entirely, the immersion, the game itself.

now, let me ask you: who am i talking about here, frisk or chara?

because the thing is that... the game is built in the way that each experience will be different for everyone. you can play the whole game without even knowing that either chara or frisk exists at all, and that affects how people read this game. if you're set on reaching the true ending, you wouldn't know that there is an ending where chara confronts you. and if you're playing genocide, there is no indication that frisk is in the equation at all. if you only play neutral endings, well, neither frisk or chara is addressed as separate entities from you specifically. the only ending where you can access the hidden truth that chara is not you is the ending where you kill everyone, and even then, subconsciously, you still link chara with yourself, because that's what you've been conditioned to feel the entire time, just so that this moment feels even more disconcerting and shocking.

let's talk about names.

does no one ever question why chara is the name?

it stands for "character" of course, the name that evokes the blank slate of rpg characters that we can play as. and even then, chara does not even need to be the name you give to the first fallen human. it's the "true name", but if you're disconnected from the fandom, you wouldn't even know it! there's no official source explicitly mentioning chara as the name - they're effectively nameless, a dynamic character that we are to mold to our liking. their past, present, future, their story - all to our whims, because we are the one to bring them to the world with our name. i think having TWO characters affected by the player narrative is what muddles the message of the game. and having chara effectively be the player's stand-in too. i think that's why in deltarune, it's more clearly communicated that kris and the player are separate beings, with our save file rewriting kris' own - overall more powerful and clearer message there for sure.

i think that's why i'm so conflicted about chara. chara bears the name we give them, because in a way they are our mirror in the game. we never meet them throughout the game, all our knowledge being delegated to memories - through flowey and the dreemurrs, through the tapes we see in true lab. chara's identity is unclear, fractured, because they are a piece of ourselves, trying to fit in imperfectly into this world that's not our own. you can even read it as a story of a ghost of a child who should move on a while ago but refuse to. the narrative is full of grief and regret over someone who only exists in memories of those who still live. even the name is not consistent, even the memories of them are blurry and unreliable - who is the real chara? does "chara" even exist? i think keeping chara as an unanswered, uncertain part of the lore is much more compelling, and that's why toby fox has refused to link them to any official statement or merchandise.

[defectivehero]

Hi recently found your blog it’s so good! But was wondering if you could one where the hero lost there glasses in a fight maybe or just at home and the villain sees them idk take your pick possibly m x m? Ty even if not have a good day!

your wish is my command! (not really, but this is a great idea and you asked very nicely!) here you go, hope you have a great day <3

The hero has grown accustomed to working late night hours at the agency. He's grown used to being the last person in the office, to shutting the lights off and locking the door behind him once he leaves. The hero always feels guilty leaving right at his scheduled time, especially when his job can determine if a person lives as a bystander to a horrible event or dies as a victim. He begins to stay later and later into the night, and it becomes increasingly hard for him to tear himself away from the agency and his hero mask.

This overtime habit is how the hero finds himself hunched over his desk with rather painful crooked posture as he compulsively checks his computer for messages. His agency is one of the first to adopt a sophisticated messaging system that converts audio from emergency calls to text, which are sent as alerts straight to their inbox. The idea sounded morbid at first—the hero didn't want to equate life-saving to checking his email. But the system grew on him. It's convenient and easy to use, drastically improving the agency’s response time.

He squints at the screen in front of him, rubbing his eyes roughly when his vision begins to blur. He's tired.

Perhaps the hero’s exhaustion is the reason why he fails to notice a figure standing in the corner of the room, watching him. “Your eyesight is terrible.” The hero hears, stiffening in his seat and turning around to find his enemy, the villain, lurking in the shadows. It takes him a few moments to process the statement.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” the hero then huffs, blinking a few times as he realizes his eyes feel incredibly dry. His close-up vision is passable, so he's still able to do his job. His distance vision, on the other hand...

The hero has worn glasses since fourth grade. He experimented with contacts but eventually went back to wearing glasses. He's spent an ungodly amount of time in his life wiping his glasses clean with a cloth or pushing his frames further up his nose.

“I’m serious,” the villain sighs. “How can you even see out of these?” At that, the villain steps forward and holds out his hand, revealing a pair of glasses. The hero immediately recognizes the telltale blue gleam that distinguishes his glasses, and reaches out to his enemy. He almost expects the villain not to hand them over, so when the glasses hit the hero's palm, he raises his eyebrows.

"Thank you," the hero feels the need to say, when the silence stretches on to a painful tension. When he puts on his glasses, the blurriness around his vision clears and he can see the words displayed on his screen in sharp, clean strokes. The hero then stares at the villain, several questions on the tip of his tongue. How did the villain remember the hero had lost his glasses? Did he go back to retrieve them? And if so... why?

"It took me a few days to realize why you hadn't shown your face since our fight," the villain answers, as if reading his mind. The hero has to wonder how he grew so predictable. "After that, it didn't take long for me to remember that blow I dealt you—rather powerful, if I do say so myself—and the ensuing clatter of your glasses falling to the ground. So... I went back to the rooftop and grabbed them."

That answers the hero's first two questions. He is still left with the most important query of all: why?

The villain seems to telepathically understand this question too. He takes a slow breath in and ambles around the office in a carefree manner that makes it seem as if he owns the space.

"A win is more enjoyable if it's a complete victory," the villain drawls, tapping his fingers along a nearby desk. The hero has to wonder if his enemy has his power activated—if charred fingerprints will be left as remnants (as tangible evidence) of their encounter. "That means no cheap advantages or hinderances."

Ah. The villain wanted a fair fight—one unimpeded by the hero's poor vision. He supposes he can understand that. The villain is honorable above all else. The hero knows this about his enemy, has grown to accept it. Perhaps he should've intuited that motivation before bothering to ask.

The villain is still lingering, as if waiting for something. The hero's patience only lasts a few minutes. “Well, was there another reason for your visit, or…?” The hero asks, looking at him with sharpened vision. His glasses now provide him with a glimpse of the nuance written in the villain's form—the minuscule pull to his lips, the faded scars tangled around his hands. The hero is suddenly thankful to have his glasses again—but for entirely different reasons than before.

“That was it,” the villain says, his gaze turning scrutinizing. "Why are you in such a rush? Got a hot date?" The latter statement is spoken with a surprising amount of venom.

The hero raises his eyebrows. "A date?" He hums casually, his heart racing in his chest. He didn't expect the conversation to take such a sharp turn into such a convoluted and confusing subject. "At this hour? Of course not."

Something settles in the villain's expression. "Right," he says, something close to relief coloring his tone. "Then, I'll be seeing you." He remarks, turning on his heel and walking out the door. The hero watches him leave, a multitude of different emotions battling in his chest.

©2024, @defectivehero | @defectivevillain, All Rights Reserved. Reblogs are greatly appreciated—just don't steal or share outside of Tumblr, please.

tag list: @lateuplight @wit-is-wisdom @greengableswriting @whump-me-all-night-long @noawhite @rekhyt-of-arcadia @the-blind-one-speaks @sufferfictionalcharacters @basically-psyduck @alexkolax @subval01 @emerald-blade @felicia609 @surplus-of-sarcasm @ilickedanenvelopeandilikedit @a-chaotic-gremlin @unknownogre @prompt-fills-and-writing-spills @whatwhumpcomments @excusemeasibangmyheadonawall @agayprince @starsick1979 @a-lonely-little-ghost @agayprince @plum-tello

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[sarksarkos]

Superman '60: You Kiss Your Cousin With That Mouth?

This is Action Comics #260, which posits that you'll never guess the true identity of Mighty Maid. If you've read the title of this post, you've already guessed that she's Supergirl in disguise. Yes, this story is about Superman playing tonsil-hockey with his cousin, who's also underage! Welcome to the gutters!

Yeah let's not beat around the bush with this one. This story is not only about Superman making out with Supergirl, in disguise as Mighty Maid, and at the end of the story that she was only fifteen years old.

The story, such as it is, is about a mysterious superhero named "Mighty Maid" who shows up from another dimension and instantly starts up a whirlwind romance with Superman. Mighty Maid is Supergirl in disguise. Superman knows this, they're in on it together. They make out, a lot. I mean a lot a lot. It gets on the news. They make out probably too much for people who aren't cousins. Or for an adult making out with a fifteen year old. It's gross, folks, it's real gross.

Surprisingly, this isn't some plot to make Lois jealous. They're doing this because an alien spaceship is going to destroy the earth to get revenge on Superman, and all this was a ruse to make them think Superman is going to get married in the fourth dimension. He's doing this instead of fighting the aliens who have clear murderous intent because... he doesn't wanna.

I gotta be honest, Superman, this sounds like an excuse to make out with your teenage cousin.

There's a tendency in these old stories to make Superman basically omniscient due to his array of superhuman senses. I personally find this to be a worse writing decision than just making him physically invincible. Like, generally a protagonist needs limitations. Unless you're a world-class writer, if you want a character to be as strong as Hercules, they can't also be as clever as Odysseus.

Also let's not ignore that until now, Supergirl didn't even know why Superman was asking her to put on a disguise and pretend to get married to him. He just asked her to make out with him a lot, and when she asked him why he said "dude, trust me." And let's not forget, she was fifteen years old. Jesus Hieronymus Christ, Superman. Was this just acceptable material for children back in the day? Comics are bad and anything I said previously to indicate otherwise was a deliberate attempt to mislead you.

Next up we have a two-part Bizarro story. Comics are good and have always been good!

As we all know from that one episode of Seinfeld, Bizarro world is a world where everything is backwards. Up is down, black is white, ugly is beautiful. Bizarro says "hello" when he leaves and "goodbye" when he arrives. Shouldn't he say "bad-bye?" Get out. Get out right now. How dare you bring such questions into my domain.

The Bizarro world is just a complete mess. The buildings are unstable, the food is inedible and the money is literally chunks of coal. Superman, nice guy that he is, can't help but fix everything, which of course ruins it. He can't see that maybe Bizarro people like everything in a Bizarro way. There's a parallel here for how missionary work is doing harm to indigenous cultures by imposing western Christian values onto them, but I sure as hell don't want to equate any real culture to a group of backwards people from planet Frankenstein.

Because Superman can't help himself, he promptly gets arrested for bizarro crimes, put in bizarro jail, and convicted in bizarro court. The sentence? BIZARRO! Superman is put in front of a bizarro-inator and turned into a bizarro, and he has to navigate his life on earth as a stone faced freak!

What's that? You've spotted the thought baloon outline to the panels? And the subtle references that this is a dream Superman is having? You're exactly right! They did a fake-out cliffhanger on us! The last page of the first issue showed Superman getting hit by the bizarro ray, but the second issue showed him getting a last second reprieve so he can go back to his cell and have a nightmare about what the plot of the issue would be if it had actually happened! And even then they do another cop-out on top of that, because Superman can just use his kryptonian makeup skills to disguise himself as a regular human and use his endless supply of clark kent robots to make sure his regular life is undisturbed I hate comics comics have never been good every word i say on this blog is a LIE

I swear. These silver age comics seem allergic to actually telling the stories they are ostensibly about.

However the ending is actually pretty good, and almost makes up for it. If it was a one-parter, it would be almost perfect. Superman reveals that the whole Bizarro society is based on a lie, because one thing in their world is perfect - their world is a perfect sphere. In exchange for his freedom, Superman offers to make their world imperfect, by terraforming it from a sphere into a cube. That is honestly some good superman shit.

I really have to wonder if later bizarro comics ever did anything with just how... bizarre it would be to live on a planet that's a cube. Like, what is it like near the edges? Or on one of the corners? How does water work? How does gravity work? Is their minecraft made of spheres? Grant Morrison, I know you can read my thoughts with your chaos magic, I am begging you to write a series all about Bizarro World. You know you want to.

Until next time!

[arabellatheauthor]

12345 Writer Tag Game

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words (feel free to interpret however you would like; if not on AO3, can be on Tumblr or FFNET, etc)!

stole this from @hazel-sage

Most hits: Under the Moonlit Sky (Harry Potter, Harry/Hermione, 5k, E) The prophecy demands a child. Harry did not expect to enjoy the process this much.

Second most kudos: A Fortuitous Accident (Harry Potter, Hermione/Severus, 3k, E) After an accident collecting potions ingredients, Hermione and Severus have to move fast, but there's one problem — there's only one shower.

Third most comments: We'll make Heaven a place on Earth (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, 38k, E) Crowley knows his worth. He can't take Aziraphale back immediately after how hurt he's been. And for once, Aziraphale has to work for that forgiveness. Both of them are a mess. Both of them go to therapy—unexpectedly, together.

Fourth most bookmarks: 30 Days (Harry Potter, Hermione/Severus, 63k, E, WIP) Hermione Granger thought she'd have her life together by age 28. So when she is suddenly forced to start over, the last person she expects to be a part of that equation is her former Potions professor. And she certainly never expected to be his sugar baby.

Fifth most words: Toast & Tea (Harry Potter, Hermione/Severus, 20k, M) Severus has been sitting next to Hermione Granger for breakfast in the Great Hall for months now. And every morning, he watches her covertly take a jar of Nutella from her robes and slather it on her toast. She seems perfectly happy to sneak the sweet treat every day while Severus sits next to her, but not once has she looked at or spoken to him, and he is determined to find out why.

Least words: Angel (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, 142, G) One possibility of what life could look like after season 2, from Crowley’s perspective

tagging the following people but no pressure and anyone can do it! i am bad at remembering usernames but i love so many people on here and all the amazing talent they have so i'd love to see more of your work

@hummingbee-o0o @lexdelioncourt @frenchpresswriter @prettystylinson @voluptatiscausa @irisbleufic @dragoon811 @kittenshift-17 @meggonagall @colubrina @vofastudum

[pluckyredhead]

It's time for more Fourth World thoughts! Previously I've covered the comics of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Now let's talk about the 2000s.

Orion (2000): AHHHHHHH. If you read no other Fourth World book (besides Kirby ofc), please read this one. It is so good and it is so epic and Orion makes so many well intentioned bad decisions and suffers so much. I devoured all 25 issues in 2 days and immediately wanted to reread it. Writing and art are both Walt Simonson and he gives this book such tragic grandeur. He also does my favorite thing which is multiple slow-burning subplots, some of which lasted so long that I was afraid they wouldn't be resolved, but no, every loose end is wrapped up in a satisfying (ish) way by the last issue and I love everyone in this bar. And the art! THE ART!!!

So basically, Orion kills Darkseid (again lol) and becomes the new ruler of Apokolips, and decides he is going to drag this planet over to the side of good kicking and screaming, which...doesn't work out so well for him. Ultimately he winds up semi-accidentally in possession of the Anti-Life Equation, which allows him to completely control people, so he uses it to force people to be good, which...baby, no. This series is like 40% Orion whump, 35% Orion being a badass, 5% Lightray and Orion being blatantly in love, 5% Scott and Orion making dramatic gestures of brotherly devotion, and 5% Orion wearing a stupid hat that I unironically wish I could buy and wear.

It looks like his helmet! I NEED IT.

Also, during his Stupid Hat Era, Orion briefly acquires an orphan girl sidekick, and like...look at my icon. This is my GREATEST WEAKNESS. Simonson, why did you come for me like that???

I have only two quibbles with this series:

1. It's the early 2000s so the only female characters of any significance (besides the aforementioned orphan girl sidekick) are femme fatales who are drawn in ludicrously skimpy outfits and sex inch heels. Now to be fair, Darkseid wears a miniskirt, but the degree of cheesecake of these two characters was ridiculous.

2. The last issue reveals that Scott possesses the Anti-Life Equation naturally, and he once accidentally killed dozens of people with it, and he's tormented by both of these things. Which...the actual issue this story is told in is really good, and I think it's a really interesting idea to have Scott possess the Equation, but I don't love the idea of weighing down this optimistic character who values freedom above all with such a traumatic history of, uh, accidental mass murder. He already grew up in a torture orphanage! Hasn't he suffered enough?!

But honestly, the overall series is so good that I'll let it slide. PLEASE READ ORION (2000). THANK YOU.

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle (2005): This is part of a set of miniseries Grant Morrison did: there was Seven Soldiers #0, and then 7 4-issue minis, one for each of the Soldiers, and then the whole story concluded in Seven Soldiers #1. I only read Seven Soldiers and the Mister Miracle miniseries because I'm a ridiculous person when it comes to reading comics, but I'm not going to read 24 issues that have nothing to do with the Fourth World.

Anyway, the Mister Miracle mini is actually about Shilo Norman, not Scott, and it's pretty good, even if Shilo should know perfectly well who Darkseid and his entourage are. The surrounding issues were incomprehensible, but maybe they would have made more sense if I had read all the other minis. On the other hand, maybe not...this is Morrison we're talking about, after all. Anyway talk about making comics as inaccessible as possible. Great job, everyone.

Death of the New Gods (2007): I knew right away this comic was going to be dogshit because of a) the title and b) the fact that it's a tie-in to the worst event DC has ever published, Countdown to Final Crisis, but hoo boy, it is DOGSHIT.

Basically, some mysterious being starts murdering New Gods, starting with Lightray and Barda, the latter of whom is murdered in the kitchen - you know, where women belong. Scott then dons a truly idiotic goth version of his costume and the rest of the book is mainly Scott, Orion, and Superman flailing around aimlessly and failing to figure out who the killer is while everyone from New Genesis and Apokolips is slaughtered. It's a truly godawful murder mystery in which implausible suspects are accused at absolute random (the Forever People, the pacifist hippies! Orion, the least sneaky being in existence!) even though Superman deduces the killer (sort of) in #5 and tells the other characters, so there's no reason for them to still be trying to solve it.

Anyway at the risk of ruining this comic for you (impossible, it comes pre-ruined), the killer turns out to be the Infinity Man, but he's actually being piloted by the Source, which is eradicating the New Gods and harvesting their energy in order to create a Fifth World. In #7, a horrified Scott is like "But I've worshiped you all my life! Don't you care about any of us?" and the Source is like, "Eh." The most spiritual and reverent aspect of the Fourth World, and Jim Starlin came along and just dropped a little turd right on top of it (after, of course, blatantly copying Darkseid when he created Thanos).

The art (also by Starlin) is hideous, and the plotting is atrocious, as he desperately tries to stretch six issues of story at best into eight, plus dragging each issue out over 30 pages instead of the normal 22. Everyone is wildly out of character. The only vaguely good thing about the book is that Scott and Orion finally get to spend a significant amount of time together, but given the context, I really don't think it's worth it.

In conclusion: "rocks fall, everyone dies" turns out to not be a good idea for a story! Who knew!

Final Crisis (2008): Well, after 16 years of successfully avoiding this story, I finally read it. You win this one, Morrison.

I have avoided Final Crisis since it came out because it felt so emblematic to me of the worst of late 2000s DC: literally constant crossovers with histrionic stakes, characters being slaughtered left and right, whatever the fuck they did to Mary Marvel in this story. I know it has a good reputation, and if I'm being honest, I do think the first 5 1/2 issues of it are pretty good. On the other hand, if I wasn't very familiar with 2000s DC, I think this would be a very confusing book to read, the final 1 1/2 issues dissolve into incomprehensible, self-indulgent nonsense full of obscure characters and OCs randomly dropped in just to make it all harder for the reader. I'm sorry, I know many people consider Morrison's habit of writing comics that you need a companion volume, twenty Wikipedia tabs, and a Reddit forum to understand to be a feature, not a bug, but it infuriates me. It's like the structure of the Seven Soldiers series(es) up above. Aren't comics impenetrable enough? Must we gatekeep with every page?

Anyway the New Gods stuff: they're all dead, but all the evil ones managed to land on Earth as disembodied souls, and are possessing various humans. The only good one is Orion, who dies at the very beginning when he is shot by Darkseid in the future shooting him with a bullet that travels back in time. I love goofy comics shit but for some reason this one strikes me as real dumb. Also Orion literally died twice in the comic that was about all the New Gods dying, so...hm.

Anyway the evil New Gods take over the planet with the Anti-Life Equation, and again, the pacing and storytelling are actually really good for most of this. But there's also all the worst the late 2000s had to offer, like Mary Marvel in the WORST costume of all time and Supergirl flashing panty shots at the reader while they beat each other up and call each other sluts, or Tawky Tawny being beaten to a pulp before ripping out Kalibak's entrails. Tawky fucking Tawny. SIGH. Also they keep miscoloring Shilo as white. NOT GREAT.

Honestly at this point I'm like begging for the New 52 to happen and put me out of my misery, so...good job, DC? I want to go back to Orion (2000), that was great.

Next up: the 2010s! Which is all the New Gods books, they haven't had a series yet this decade. We're almost done, gang.

[dapperinsanity]

An aroace-spec’s personal thoughts on Alastor & Representation

This is purely my opinion and I wanted to share it as it’s been highly bugging me.

Personally, Alastor was always bad representation for me. If you feel like he’s good representation that’s fine! This is purely my opinion and I want to discuss some red flags I’ve noticed. It all has to do with the reasons behind why Al is asexual. I’ll make a small list of my main points and I will expand more on the points below later.

According to Viv Alastor is aroace because…

He was made to be a tumblrsexyman and then Viv thought it’d be funny to make him asexual.

While, personally, idgaf about fans shipping Alastor or making smut…Viv’s comment (“I don’t wanna ruin anyone’s fun”) before confirming his identity was just not it.

According to her own words, Alastor is too focused caring about himself (don’t remember if she used the word narcissistic but I remember mentions of narcissism) which is why he wouldn’t be in a relationship.

In the earlier years, we only knew he was asexual. Yet, everyone acted like it meant he was aroace. Which was fine but I need to point out that just being asexual is different from being aroace. This, in itself, isn’t a red flag. It’s how viv talks about his asexuality.

Ok, so I think it was recently confirmed he is aroace after his show va “slipped up” saying he was aroace and not asexual. I’m not sure but if he is, I only see his asexuality discussed amongst viv and other people involved in the show.

Why is the only asexual/aroace character a “villain”? I’m all for aroace villains and queer villains. It’s when you take other things that she has said, I can’t help but be suspicious.

So, why do I think Alastor being made asexual as a tumblrsexyman is a red flag? Well, him being ace and a tumblrsexyman isn’t bad at all. My concern is that Viv thought it’d be funny. Knowing the type of person viv is (bigoted, racist, transphobic, misogynistic, fatphobic, etc.) his asexuality is a joke. Also, let not forget about the fact that she doesn’t actually care about representation in general. If she did care, she wouldn’t be acting the way she is and wouldn’t portray her characters the way she does.

Secondly, her comment before confirming his identity on stream was…dismissive? I can’t find the correct word but her caring more about pleasing the fans, further proves my point in how she doesn’t care about actual representation. You know what she could’ve done? Confirmed it. The fans still could have fun doing whatever they want with Alastor in their fanworks. Its fandom. It’s not canon and fandoms are meant for works that don’t stick to canon. Like, you’re the creator and you decide on what’s canon because it’s your character…Bruh.

Third, she mentions that Alastor is too focused on himself to be in a relationship. First of all, asexuality doesn’t equate to not desiring a romantic relationship. There’s a difference between just being asexual and just aromantic versus aroace. Secondly, why is his asexuality related to his vanity/selfishness? If you don’t desire a relationship because you’re too focused on yourself, that’s not asexuality. Asexuals and aromantics are highly stigmatized and conflating his selfishness with his asexuality perpetuates aroace stereotypes.

Fourth, is the lack of discussion about his aromanticism. If he’s confirmed to be aroace, why do we only talk about his asexuality? Because being asexual doesn’t equal to being aromantic. One can be asexual but be in a romantic relationship and vice versa.

Fifth is the fact that the only aroace character we have is a “villain”. While I’m fine with aroace villains and queer villains, when you observe why Al is aroace, I can’t help but to side eye it. Aroace people are often stigmatized as heartless and cold or treated like a monster due to their lack of attraction. I feel like this only adds to the stigma.

So, yeah that’s why I feel like he’s bad rep.