#as i know it could end up reading like a bad parody if i get it really wrong

[destinationtoast]

britpicking? (Ted Lasso)

So, I seem to be continuing to write lots of Ted Lasso Roy/Jamie/Keeley fic. :D Is anyone interested in britpicking? I'd be especially interested in someone who can help with the essentials of a Northern/Mancunian dialect (e.g., when it's appropriate to say something like, "she were sending a text" vs. "she was sending a text") and also with "innit" (which I know is linguistically more complex than just replacing "isn't it" and has been evolving). I'm happy to beta/ameripick in return, if desired.

I currently have a couple WIPs that are a few thousand words each.

[maxwell-grant]

hi. you've mentioned Donald Duck a few times in your posts, with scrooge being one step removed from pulp heroes, Donalds Paparinik (Italian superhero identity which I love, the new PK Adventures where lovely) in terms of their relation to the Diabolik line of European superheroes and Donalds general tendency to run head first down slippery slopes. so I'm wondering if you have any further thoughts on his comics and weird place in the superhero/pulp world

Oh God, do I. I mostly wanna talk about the superhero side of things but I feel like it's worth mentioning I grew up with Donald Duck comics, specifically the Carl Barks ones. The picture above wasn't taken by me but I own and recognize like 7 of the books in it, my mom always bought these that collected several of his stories and had these beautiful painting covers so we could read them together, and I still flip through them on occasion and love them very much (I really wanna buy a translated edition of Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck to read with her but those cost a liver). Donald Duck was one of my childhood hyperfixations and I got my hands on all the comics and movies and cartoons I could find with him, and I actually did read several of the Italian comics, I could go down the stationery right now and grab 5. I first stumbled on Paperinik via those, and for long I didn't think much of it, because Donald Duck moonlighting as a superhero for decades isn't the kind of thing that comes up often. I just thought Paperinik was a weird but funny idea for the longest time and always liked rereading a story where he puts on the costume to scare a rich jerk into leaving his granny's farm alone. And THEN I stumbled onto PKNA, Paperinik New Adventures, and oh my god this rules so much.

Actually one of the best superhero comics I've ever read, it's just constantly and consistently doing these wild absurd stories and swings into genre territory and quality storytelling. It's famous for opening it's first issue with aliens genociding an entire planet and I thought that was kinda overselled, and it's not frequently this dark (sometimes it actually gets darker though, and I probably stopped before it could really get there), but it is a very weird comic. It's more akin to Fantastic Four's serialized consistency than any kind of graphic novel prestige storyline but it is frequently so good at what it does, even the lamer issues are still worth reading. I like describing it as Donald Duck falling headfirst into Batman-level resources, forced to deal with Superman problems (on both the "huge sci-fi horrors" and "people being really, really irresponsible dicks" ends), while trying to stay Ditko's Spider-Man and failing. These do not feel quite like any Donald Duck comics I'd read before and while they would hold up with a different character, I do think they deserve credit for how they make it still always feel like you're reading a Donald Duck story, if a slightly different one. In fact I'd even say PKNA actually makes the concept feel more suited for Donald Duck in a way that brought the idea full circle.

To those of you that don't know, Paperinik started as a villain, or more of a revenge fantasy. By that point there was a tradition of doing a lot of parody stories with Donald that started in 1953. By the late 60s, readers were dissatisfied with Donald Duck always constantly being mistreated by the rest of the supporting cast and losing unfairly, so it was decided to have one of those parodies feature Donald Duck as uncovering the fortune and resources of "Fantomius" and becoming a masked rogue able to get back at them by achieving the impossible, in that he both steals from Scrooge and defeats Gladstone's luck by framing him for it.

He had a stint as a master thief until it was decided it made him too mean, so he morphed into a superhero trying to overcome his prior bad reputation and using his new skills and gadgets (still prone to malfunctioning) to deal with his typical rogues and new ones, and having the admiration of his nephews who don't know that Unca Donald and Paperinik are the same. PKNA, in turn, was sort of a reboot, shedding the previous history and pretty much getting rid of Donald's traditional supporting cast and having Donald stumble onto a different set of resources and means to fight crime, but keeping the idea of Donald Duck having a superhero alter-ego that nobody suspects. The scale and menace of the threats he's up against DRASTICALLY increases, and if anything that fact is crucial to what allows these to still feel like Donald Duck stories, even with Paperinik being a genuinely impressive and cool hero able to save the world. Nobody believes Donald Duck could be a cool and impressive person if he tried, and so Paperinik becomes not just a power fantasy, or a call to something better or be someone better, but it becomes a key component of Donald Duck stories: a thankless job he's expected to do that he doesn't want to do until his pride or something crucial is on the line. These are still parables about human failures and what can be learned from them.

I'd even say a big part of why they succeed is because they introduce a character who can pick up Donald's slack as a comically unpleasant ill-tempered grouch in need of a lesson protagonist in Angus Fangus, a character who's sort of J Jonah Jameson meets Harvey Bullock. Angus has it out for Paperinik and gets up to a lot of the antics you would traditionally expect Donald to be doing if this was a classic Donald Duck comic (and even has a Gladstone-esque rival of his own in another reporter), and getting to learn lessons and be humbled and even have his own set of impressive moments. The choice to give an entirely new cast around Donald greatly added to the comic's ability to experiment and do new things while still keeping the core of Donald.

I actually like a lot of these new dynamics better than the ones he traditionally has, I love The Raider and Lyla and One and oh god Xadhoom, Xadhoom is so fucking cool, such a cool design and name, this powerful roaring supernova stickbug alien person in a crusade of murderous vengeance who names herself her language's equivalent of creditor because the death of her entire planet is the DEBT SHE WILL COLLECT IN BLOOD ENERGY and she is just the most 90s anti-hero ever made except she's stuck in a Donald Duck comic getting into comedic situations and learning to laugh and feel emotions and learn from her mistakes again whether she likes it or not. These two are so good together.

Even with a superhero lair and supercomputer and gadgetry handed to him, Donald Duck is so comically outmatched against his opponents he still winds up winning through guile and will and comedic trickery. Donald desperately wishes he could go on self-serving ventures or just sit at home and enjoy tv, and not get dragged into dealing with murderous alien invasions, or cyberpunk revenge stories, or collapsing future timelines, and still having to solve those problems so there's a world to come back. The stories are frequently fun and they are prevailingly comedic and very good at it too, but they also get a lot out of taking weird turns into unexpected territory.

I haven't finished it because I wasn't able to find it in full or keep track of what's the og series and what's the reboot, still trying to sort that out, but god what a find this series is. What a great strange turn in the history of this great strange character.

[s12e28]

AlCale Fanfiction Recommendations from a Crazy Person (Updating…)

For those who can accept anything.

All the works are from sotdae (솟대). I recommend reading in this order…!

I Don’t Love You (나는 당신을 사랑해지 않는다)

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 2 (R18) • Epilogue (R18)

_

Of course it matters who the Young Master Shield dates! The mere rumor of the Rowoon Empire losing their Moon, their Silver Light, to a lover from a foreign power is already causing an uproar in the nobles’ conference—what more if the citizens caught wind? All the development in post-war stability will be for naught… unless…

“…What is it, Your Majesty?”

“Will you go out with me?”

“Are you crazy?”

If problems can be solved with bigger problems, then scandals can be solved with even bigger scandals.

Alver and Cale fake-date for political reasons. It progresses exactly how you’d expect it to.

_

Beautifully written. The author was able to excellently capture how two of the most calculating bastards would get together in their own special way.

Plot and Dialogue : S-Tier

_

Real Person Can Sue You

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 2 (R18)

_

‘Why would he do something so stupid? He was so rich that additional income didn’t mean anything, and the honor he could lose was endless.’

OR

The one where Cale picks up a strange hobby after everything’s settled down.

_

If ancient Mesopotamia could churn out fanfiction for their local heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu, then who’s to say Rowoon won’t have the same for their beloved Sun and Moon? Anyways, I dub this the “fujo cale fanfic”. It was a very funny unhinged premise, but still.

Plot and Dialogue : S-Tier

_

Hand (손)

Oneshot

_

There’s nothing in the hands of Rowoon’s newly crowned King that Cale desires.

Alver knows this.

And really, it’s not a bad thing at all.

“When you could read love in my eyes, did you think I couldn’t read love in yours?”

_

Well, I thought this was really… the character interpretation… I can see it in canon. Cale sat Alver on the throne because he knows that by then, the other’s number one priority will always be Rowoon. The second that priority wavers, Cale will definitely beat the King back to his senses. Don’t be distracted by useless emotions and focus. It was bittersweet, but the ending was really good. Alcale is real…

Plot and Dialogue: S-Tier

_

Bum of the Governor’s Family (관찰사댁의 한량이 되었다)

Part 1 • Part 2

(I’m not doing it any justice—but basically the title is a parody of the original work. Maybe a more literal translation of the title would be “I Became The Bum Bride of the Governor’s Household” because of 관찰사댁의. Also 한량이 is the more ancient term equivalent for “Slacker” with use dating back to the 900’s Goryeo Dynasty—so just imagine that setting and time period.)

_

A white hand like snow stretched out in front of Alver’s eyes.

“Take it, Your Highness. Then I’ll give you the world.”

The sweetest temptation.

Alver took its hand.

_

Oriental AU. Characteristics of secondary-sex and pheromones, but not necessarily omegaverse. If you’re a fan of Kingmaker Cale, then this one’s for you. Cunning til the end, while it does roughly follow the plot of the original—there are still some moments that will make you go: ah!

Plot and Dialogue: S-tier

_

Love Potion (사랑의 묘약)

Oneshot

_

There lay an empty a glass plate, its previous contents reduced to mere crumbs of sugar.

Funny thing is, apparently one of them had… a love potion!?

“Your Majesty, if you’re in love with me right now, give me a week’s vacation.”

“Well, the potion’s effects only last for three days…”

“Tch. Then three days.”

Alver smiled faintly.

“Young Master Cale, if you’re in love with me right now, please review this budget report.”

_

It was funny how they couldn’t tell who took the love potion. Whatever they felt has always been, in their own definition, love. A very sweet story.

Plot and Dialogue: S-tier

_

Jane

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 (R18)

WARNING: The content of this story may not be suitable for those who are sensitive to: Rape, Adultery, Self-Harm, Blackmail (incest), Graphic descriptions of Death/Murder (infants, toddlers).

Please read with caution.

-

“Don’t call me, I won’t answer.”

“Then how do I catch you?”

Cale, who was inclined against the bedside, smiled brightly. He leaned his red head against the window, long hair flowing down and mixing with the moonlight.

“How can you catch me?”

_

If you can handle the heavy themes listed in the warning, then PLEASE give “Jane” a chance. No words can describe the emotional rollercoaster that was this story. Every description was as vivid as it was jarring. The downwards slope came gradually, but when it got steep—it felt impossible to turn back. For you as a reader, and for them as characters. Think about if Alver and Cale’s usual tacit agreement with each other took a twisted turn. I can guarantee none of what you’re thinking of now could prepare you for this fic.

Plot and Dialogue: SSS-Tier

_

copycat

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 (R18) • Part 6 (R18) • Part 7 (R18) • Part 8 • Part 9

_

Basically LCF if it were the Sci-Fi genre. No excerpt, there are too many incredible parts. Heads up for scientists on steroids instead of mages, advanced AI robots instead of dragons, cyborgs instead of necromancers, and sick eugenicist AI White Star. Give it a read if you’re a fan of rich world building!

Plot and Dialogue: SSS-Tier

_

[i-love-invincible]

Let's Talk About Atom Eve

Invincible Spoilers and Gore CW Abound! Please watch this incredible series... So who is ATOM EVE?

I would love to talk about this, but first we have to talk about character design in Invincible. The costumes, personalities, and heroes of Invincible are all self-referential. Take the Guardians of the Globe for instance, the first heroes we see on-screen.

We see these people, and IMMEDIATELY we get what they're about... even if these characters are new to us, we KNOW who they are. Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Green Lantern, all obvious parodies and fun little characters.

I'm sure your eyes will start glazing over once I go "blah blah subverting tropes blah blah absolute genius." but one thing that Invincible does very well is destroying the audience's connections with established superhero tropes (See the one million white boy video essayists talking about why Evil Superman is awesome.) The reason why the slaughter of the Guardians of the Globe in that fucking THREE MINUTE LONG SCENE is so surprising is because THEY ARE THE FUCKING JUSTICE LEAGUE (while the fight scene also conveniently tosses some casual shade to DC Comics.) Not only is it stunning since we have some frame of reference for how powerful they are, but also stunning because we have ALREADY become attached to these characters.

What follows are a couple real quotes from people I've shown the first episode to: "Oh Batman + Silver Surfer that's awesome!" "OH DUDE! FISH AQUAMAN" "Wonder Woman but she's a lesbian.. as she should be..." .. and all these people, the ones with the most superhero experience, were the ones all most taken aback by the ending.

So let's look at Eve.

At first glance, we get the same impression as a lot of the heroes we meet in Invincible: knockoff. In the same way Omniman and the entirety of the Guardians of the Globe are made to resemble the Superman and the Justice League so to does Atom Eve's costume and powers SCREAM token. She is the first female hero we meet that is Mark's age and perhaps more importantly (and more evident to a first-time viewer) she has some very clear themes of femininity. Such as her costume, which Doc Seismic callously points out in Episode 3 (neglecting the fact she designed her own costume)...

... as well as her name. "Atom Eve" is a combination of her ability to influence atoms and her middle name, but it is also a reference to Adam and Eve (see the bible.) She even has a female symbol with two revolving electrons around it emblazoned right on her damn shirt. So just like the Guardians of the Globe, her design is meant to carry a lot of weight and immediacy to the viewer, you see them and you understand who they are and what they stand for (or at least you think you do.)

So we've seen the way that the Guardians subvert our expectations so how does Eve diverge from the audience's first-impressions? Well for the first couple episodes she doesn't. You might even suspect her of being some one-dimensional, neglected and under-characterized female character (and to be honest if you were reading the comics you wouldn't be too far off...) until you start to see her dissatisfied with being a superhero. Her boyfriend cheats on her, the Teen Team breaks up, her parents consistently disrespect and talk down to her, she's misunderstood by the naive and silly Mark Grayson, and she struggles to find connection with anyone outside of when she's "beating up bad guys." She even goes as far as to reject a position in the Guardians of the Globe just to avoid her ex-boyfriend, despite her killer tryout.

She's frustrated by the frame that's been left for her, and realizes her powers enable her to do much more than beat up random villains. Her powers BY THE WAY, which up until now anyone could have mistaken for "shooting pink stuff," is actually atomic manipulation. She can just fucking rearrange matter to make anything she wants. So instead of being a superhero she fucks off to do things that ACTUALLY help people. Like idk she could be irrigating rivers and feeding the starving or like manufacturing free medicine or something. Atom Eve is a hero who is chronically misunderstood by literally everyone around her, even in the final episode Mark is under the impression Eve just stopped being a superhero to get away from her ex, parents, and school. However with the earth-shattering familial trauma that Mark goes through in the Season 1 finale, maybe they will have more in-common than either of them think.

and NOW there's a surprise ATOM EVE SPECIAL EPISODE! it shows off her origin story which goes even more in-depth into her trauma, and her loss of the only people who even WOULD be capable of understanding her. It also has my FAVORITE FIGHT SCENE OF ALL TIME!!! It was absolutely incredible

ps: omg why tf did they make her far-shot model have an x over the female symbol instead of the detailed electrons (crying emoji) cool i didnt proofread this okay i might do more of these okay bye, i love this show okay

[vaya-writes]

Serving the Serpent -AITA 2

A series of joke AITA posts that are about some of the antagonists in the Serving the Serpent universe. These are prompts and drabbles written for fun that reveal some key details of character back stories that might not otherwise be mentioned in the canon story.

This is a joke post. An "Am I The Asshole" post written to help me understand some of the antagonists in Serving the Serpent, and I honestly just had fun with it as a prompt. But it's from the POV of a biggot and as such there is a LOT of language that is gross and potentially triggering. Please be mindful of tags. 

Content Warnings: slurs and exaggerated ableist language used regarding a child with mutism. Casual misogyny and objectification of a child. 460 words. Divider by firefly-graphics.

You are welcome to DM me if you want particulars before you read. I worry that the tone of this piece might be triggering, even if it’s supposed to be a bit of a parody. 

Previous (part one is not posted yet due to StS spoilers, this link just takes you to a detailed explanation)

AITA for asking my sister to disown her adopted daughter? 

Hey everyone. Some of you wanted an update about my situation. Particularly with the kid and how she’s settling in with my sister? I’m kind of glad you asked, it gives me a chance to vent a little and get this off my chest. 

(As always, names replaced with professions and titles) 

The kid had some severe bruising around her throat and couldn’t initially speak. At first we thought that ‘Healer’ wasn’t doing a good enough job. Two weeks went by and she hadn’t made any progress towards speaking again – we assumed she was in too much pain. Then before we know it, a month has passed and the kid still isn’t even trying to speak. ‘Healer’ tells us that that the kid is dumb, and that the issue is a mental one. 

Since she can’t speak, we don’t have to worry about her blaspheming or asking stupid questions. She also won’t be able to seduce any men or talk to any of the Others. But it’s still embarrassing having a mute in the house. For now, everyone knows she’s not a blood relative. I’m just worried that if she stays with us for a few years, people will start to forget. A generation could go by and the next thing you know, the young'uns could start thinking that ‘Sister’ birthed the kid, and that a defect like that is in our family line. 

‘Sister’ was really broken up about it at first. Everyone was sympathetic too, that she ended up adopting a mute. We told her that nobody would blame her for ousting the child or sending her to the sharehouse, but ‘Sister’ got really defensive at that, and insisted on keeping the kid. Probably assumed that it'd start talking eventually. 

It’s been two months now, and it’s pretty clear that the kid isn’t going to talk. 'Sister’ had to come up with a whole charades game just to get the kid to respond to anything. It’s frustrating as hell.  

I reminded ‘Sister’ again that it’s okay to ditch the mute, that we could send her to the sharehouse. ‘Sister’ just got upset again. Said that she is happy to finally have a child, to have somebody to talk to and look after.  

I really don’t get it. It’s not like the kid will ever amount to anything? I’m assuming it’s just 'Sisters’’ womanly instincts flaring up or something. I don’t know. 

Does anybody else get where I’m coming from? I am torn. I don’t want to upset my sister too much. But I really think she should drop the child, I don’t want it associated with us. Is that such a bad thing? 

Next

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #31

Superboy (1994) #85 Writer: Joe Kelly Pencils: Pascual Ferry

Another Guest appearance. I vaguely recall DC trying to push a Cass/Conner relationship, or at least a crush or something? I don't remember there ever being much to it, more of a kind of arbitrary 'might as well try pairing batgirl and superboy, because compulsory heterosexuality or something'. Not bad exactly, but nothing I remember anybody wanting or caring about.

But I only would have seen it from a single side, since I didn't really follow Superboy. Like, I read scattered issues of Young Justice here and there and liked that, but not enough to follow any of those characters outside of the team up book. So lets see if Joe Kelly writing of the two can win me over. Also, I think Ferry's another new artist to tackle Cass, and that's always neat.

Ok, right off the bat, the writing isn't really my thing. Conner is supposed to be that annoying-but-funny-and-endearing chatterbox type characters that is so often just ends up being obnoxious, with the annoyance of the other characters around them only enhancing that obnoxiousness instead of undercutting it. And, yeah, that's kind of what happens here, at least imo.

Not to get all 'cinema sins ding' or anything, but why is Kelly having Conner do a parody of Adam West batman? Like, where is he pulling those mannerisms from in universe? Minor nitpick, but kind of adds to the obnoxiousness.

We're here for Cass, not Conner, though, and Conner makes a strong enough first impression rescuing her from a bunch of random exploding zombies no it's not worth getting into.

To which Cass flips over to Tim and is like "who is this?"

I do like Cass in that last panel there. I like how expressive the eyes are, how the chunky belt pouches are used, the casual conversation between Cass and Tim, who knows her well enough to know what she's saying without saying anything. Honestly, Cass's interactions with the rest of the Bat Family could have used more of that sort of easy camaraderie within her own book.

Her waiste is weirdly pinched in that panel, but surely that's just from Ferry squeezing her into the panel and not because we're dipping into outright escher girls territory, right?

Oh, oh yeesh, uh oh.

On a more positive note, this was a cute moment from Kelly, and well executed by Ferry.

But then this, and, yeah, ouch. Ooof, Ferry.

Kind of a shame, because he does a pretty good job with her face, and it's honestly rare to see her unmasked in a guest appearance.

Conner and Cass escape of course, but the villain's long gone by that point, and Batman's medium pissed, plus doing his overprotective strict dad 'I don't like you hanging out with that boy/metahuman' schtick.

But then Conner stands up for both himself and Cass in this bit here that's, uh, honestly kind of endearing? Like, if more of his appearances with Cass were like this, in particular if they were about standing up to Bruce, about giving her a human connection outside of Bruce's sphere of influence that could call him out or help Cass see the problems with how Bruce treats her, then I think it would have made more of an impression on me. It could even have been an important part of Cass's own character development and story arc instead of the plot cul-de-sac it ended up as, iirc.

For now, though, this is honestly pretty cute. Which is way more than I expected, especially after not gelling with Conner's dialog throughout most of the issue.

[sniperct]

with xena being from the 90s is there anything specificically dubious or of the time that people should know of ahead of time before going in? ie the similar vein to warning people of tng test of honor and other drek in 90s trek?

hope you dont mind the ask, youre just one of the few people I see around still chatting about xena

some of it is YMMV. the entire show plays fast and loose with all kinds of mythology and magic from not just Greece/Rome but as far away as brittania, norway, china and egypt. (all the gods of each culture seem to exist simultaneously and occasionally interact/chat with each other.) But generally plotlines are one of the following:

Xena's evil past has consequences

Warlord/God acting up and needs to be defeated

A god is being mischievous and needs to be outwitted (aphrodite, cupid, some others are common here)

something silly/over the top/campy

Gabrielle is trying to figure out her life's direction

Xena's Personal Beef with Rome and Caesar in Particular

sometimes multiple or all of the above (see Fish Femmes and Gems)

Up to season 5 on my current rewatch, I'd say The Way is still probably the most culturally insensitive (they actually had to record a PSA on hinduism over it). The two leading up to that didn't seem to get any backlash that I could tell when reading about it. (its a three part story that's super important to the plotline and character development of the show and hammers home the soulmate angle, especially the second one). But I'm no gonna speak for that culture or anything, just what I read on the wiki. But the third part I know enough to feel uncomfortable with it). Ripped from the wiki:

The episode was pulled from syndication after protests from Hindu groups. It was finally allowed to be reshown with the addition of a public service announcement at the very end by Lucy, Renée, as well as a spokesman for the Hindu community explaining that the producers took liberties with the Hindu religion.

In general, jokes and silliness overall tend to land well, especially if you enjoy camp.

While it can be clumsy in some respects overall it handles gender and race pretty well, there's a variety of women of various roles. They had someone in drag at a fashion show episode who (who late IRL came out as trans) that was handled really well. The Amazons are very much sexy but also deep and spiritual.

Casting generally appears to be race blind with regard to heroic roles, evil roles and the more complicated grey area 'seeking redemption' roles and mostly seems to try to cast appropriately on a cultural basis. Like warlord casting seemed to be like 'are you a big guy? you're hired!'

Nothing ever seemed to approach test of honor's level of bad IMO, except maybe The Way.

(I'd argue there's even some meta commentary with regard to centaurs and centaur culture and how its treated)

Its got some of your standard 'guy likes girl, does stupid shit for girl' type stuff but he gets character growth and ultimately he's family. He's the little brother, 'only we can bully him but god help you if you bully him' type of dynamic. Someone hurts our proto-himbo joxer and xena and gabrielle go for the throat. Then ten minutes later are roasting him.

The only episode I really skip is the gross one involving lice and a skin rash(but at least they let the lady heroes be gross, quite frequently in fact). Maybe also skipping the married ...with children parody episode too. The Way could maybe get by with a summary but I wanted to watch it again specifically to see where it fell on the character part. Pretty important to jumpstarting Gabrielle's peace arc.

[may--hawk]

need your love so bad

need your love so bad

mayhawk

Summary:

In 1969, after he gives Crowley the holy water, Aziraphale comes to visit. Crowley lowers the bottle, catches him looking, and something strange and undefinable passes over his face, something Aziraphale thinks he recognizes. “Come on, then,” Crowley says, and his voice is low as he lopes over towards the low bed. “Nowhere else to sit, ‘less you want to try that thing,” and he points at something in the corner Aziraphale’s eyes had refused to acknowledge before. Aziraphale stares in abject horror. “That’s meant to be a chair?” He says, and he can feel, rather than see, Crowley grin. Besides, Crowley’s got the bottle, anyway, so Aziraphale follows him to the bed.

Rating: Explicit

Their fingers brush, very slightly, when Crowley takes the thermos from him. It’s a grotesque parody of the bag of books Crowley had handed to him eighteen years before. Heat flashes through Aziraphale, tingling out from his fingertips, as if the thermos is actually full of a hot potable liquid and not the holiest water, water that Aziraphale himself had blessed, water that just may end up killing his very best friend. No. Killing the being he cares most for in the entirety of existence. He can’t stop thinking of it. He’s restless, pacing the bookshop; it’s February, late winter, and there’d been a break in the weather, three or four days when the sky had opened to blue, and the air had gotten warm in the sun between the hours of one and three in the afternoon, lapsing back into cold at night. The buds were thinking about setting on the trees; Aziraphale wanted to warm them against such a foolish exposure.

He could feel Crowley around the city, lurking around the edges of Soho district, hours spent at a bar near Mayfair. Aziraphale wonders what it would feel like, this suicide pill he’s handed Crowley, will Aziraphale be sitting at his desk one day, responding to correspondence, or up on a ladder, dusting, and Crowley will be reassuringly there one moment, and just - gone - the next, Aziraphale left penning a letter to a recipient who will never get it, left hanging with a reservation for dinner that will remain forever unfilled?

Aziraphale’s not sure, exactly, what it means for them to be gone. He’s only ever Been, or Not, when She had called him into Being, and said his name, Aziraphale, and he had looked all around in wonder at hundreds of other glittering morning stars, and then he’d found they were angels, like him, one had said to Aziraphale, leaning in, saying it out of the side of his mouth, red curls flopping, except Aziraphale hadn’t known red yet, hadn’t known anything other than own own name, which he had just learned, and Love, which he had been created to do. Aziraphale doesn’t want to go back to that, to having only his name, and his useless, undirected love.

A few more days pass. It turns cold, then, back to winter, and starts raining, a cold, deadening drizzle. His windows are streaked, the interior of the bookshop so dim and gray that the lights don’t illuminate the corners. Crowley hasn’t come around. Best not to, really, if anyone’s noticed Aziraphale blessing the water, if anyone’s paying attention. They’ve been playing this game awhile now. They know how it works.

(Still, he’d been hoping he’d hear from Crowley; it’s not that he’s worried, really, it’s more about how a thank-you lunch wouldn’t go amiss. It’s simply good manners. “Expecting manners from a demon, angel?” Crowley might say, in that low amused tone, and Aziraphale would sniff, and say, “I know Emily Post was one of yours,” and Crowley would say, “Well she certainly is now, you should hear Beelzebub complain about her.” And they’d smile, and then Crowley would order another bottle, and perhaps they might even toast. To manners, they might say, instead of, To insurance.)

keep reading at AO3

[mintytealeaves]

oh look at that. I made a shitty parody

so this is a parody of loser baby from Hazbin hotel but it’s sung by Rick and Craig! It’s reaaaaally bad pls forgive me. But I had a lot of fun with it!

Rick: So things look bad, and your back's against the wall

Your whole existence seems fuckin' hopeless

You're feelin' filthy as your dusty bow tie wall!

Can't face the world sober and dopeless

You've lost your way, you think your life is wrecked

Well, let me just say you're correct

Craig: Wait, what?

**Rick: **You're a loser, baby A loser, goddamn baby You're a fucked up little whiny bitch

Craig: Hey!

Rick: You're a loser, just like me

Craig: Thanks, asshole

Rick: You're a screws-loose chooser An only one-star computer You're a power bottom at rock bottom But you got company

Craig: This supposed to make me feel better?

Rick: There was a time I thought that no one could relate To the gruesome ways in which I'm damaged But lettin' walls down, it can sometimes set you straight! We're all livin' in the same shit sandwich

Craig: I sold myself to a science fetished freak

Rick: And you think that makes you unique? Get outta here, man! We're both losers, baby We're losers, it's okay to be a

Craig: metal headed fact loving hoe?

Rick: Baby, that's fine by me

Craig: I'm a loser, honey A bitch-er and a dummy But at least I know I'm not alone

Rick: You're a loser

Both: Just like me

Rick: I got an appetite for danger!

Craig: I got an appetite for majors,

every Fact and tidbit I can fiiiind

Rick: Go ahead baby, sing that song, come on!

Craig: I got no books left to read up on

**Rick: ** I got no vines to swing myself on

Now I'm on that Johnson’s leash

Both: I'm trapped and it gets worse with every hour

Craig: You're a loser, baby

Rick: A loser, but just maybe if we

Both: Eat shit together, things will end up differently

Rick: It's time to lose your self-loathin' Excuse yourself, let hope in, baby Play your card, be who you are A loser, just like me

@sapphire-jelly

lookie I made the thing :)

[syrupspinner]

i just completed Hypnospace Outlaw

i sincerely love how much the sci-fi genre is just explaining how much sci-fi stuff would suck if it was real

the reason you play hypnospace outlaw is the aesthetic and presentation, just so were all on the same page. the reason this game got your attention is because its a passionate parody of web 1.0, and it does an excellent job of that. i can tell this game was made with a deep nostalgia for what made the past special without being blinded from its flaws (like the viruses and general difficulty to navigate).

the only problem is that im 24

well i shouldnt say thats a problem. just because i dont have nostalgia for what theyre throwing back to doesnt mean the game doesnt stand on its own. i didnt grow up with a ps1 or n64 but i still enjoy that specific form of lowpoly modeling, for example. its just unfortunate that i cant have the same hit of nostalgia that people slightly older than me can, yknow? i wish i could enjoy this game as much as them

again, the game was still very enjoyable. the puzzles start out very grounded, introducing you the the world and how it functions very effectively, before ramping it up with more abstract mechanics and compounding techniques needed to find more results. the only problem i found myself stuck on in an unfun way was figuring out how to decrypt sandwich files. its one of those puzzles that make you feel silly for not getting it earlier, but in my defence... who the hell would program something that esoteric

as an aside, i saw people discussing what genre games like this would be. by "games like this" i mean hypnospace outlaw, outer wilds, rain world, animal well, that kinda thing. i dont think applying one genre is effective, but instead its about how they combine the genres of exploration and puzzle. instead of having all the tools to solve a puzzle when youre presented with it, you have to leave and seek out the solution elsewhere. notably, if the game isnt build to accommodate/encourage this, itd be pretty unfun. these games and their open-ended design manage to skillfully mesh both genres together: the exploration is the puzzle

so yeah, i really enjoyed the game! there arent a lot of games where its just fun to explore the world as its presented, and HO does a fantastic job of that even without considering the puzzle design. i love just reading about the characters and their lives in hypnospace. this games greatest strength is just how charming it is, theres really nothing that matches it in that regard

i also found it really inspiring. i love how much personality all the characters fit into their webpages. maybe someday ill move this blog to neocities just so i can evoke something half as impact

oh no this was all a secret advertisement for neocities wasnt it! well, it worked, im not even mad (yes i know about the page builder)

anyway! the game is worth it for the vibes alone, and the puzzles are a really solid foundation that everything is built on. totally worth buying! the only thing is if youre going for completion, please use a guide to find all the pages, some are hidden way too well. totally worth it, though. if you know what the "thanked" achievement is named after, you know it makes it worth it. also, buzz was hilarious, i love pranks on the player

now im going to spoil the ending, stop reading this is you want to not be spoiled about the ending, because im about to spoil it now. after sasuke

oh my GOD dylan merchant is such a schmuck. maybe ive just lost too much sympathy for venture capitalist techbros, but i cannot spare any positive regard for this guy. like, okay, i get hes the bad guy, but outlaw 1.0 tries sooo hard to make you feel bad for him it wraps back around to being infuriating. the thing is that i have no idea if this is intentional? like, was a guy who let a teenager go to jail and think about how his prank killed 5 innocent people plus his crush apologizing decades later (*after* being caught) with an unfinished video game supposed to be a sincere tug of the heartstrings? "sorry i killed zane before he could stop being an annoying twerp" "sorry i killed rodney, his family smelled like walmart" "sorry i killed mavis, i think that was her name. i got nothing else to say about her" "anyway thanks for playing the 'final' version of the game that killed everyone. you have successfully absolved me of my sins and sent me to heaven. remember to subscribe and hit that bell icon" DUDE how emotionally shallow and self aggrandizing do you have to be you are a child murderer my guy

[crossroadsnumber1doctor]

{ this post is entirely ooc }

Hello there! Welcome to this Roleplay Blog out of a million however you might have gotten here. First, something important to get out of the way before getting into the actual intro info:

i am not part nor affiliated with the official BOGGIO team, personally being just a fan of the game / characters, and therefore nothing of which I say or do here should be taken as canon, this is simply a roleplay / parody account of one of their / PHIGHTING!'s characters. I can't possibly know every single detail about, well, anything and will very likely mess things up especially since I don't have a twitter and therefore can't exactly access any twitter posts made about phighting lore and such unless it's directly shared with me. Most of what's here is either taken by Soda's tumblr QnA, the Official Phighting Wiki ( the fandom.com one is outdated ) or my own personal Headcanons.

If you're still here and would like to continue reading this intro then without further ado lets get onto it ( click readmore )

( this is going to be a very long post )

---

This is primarily just another silly little RP / Ask / Parody Blog for Medkit from the game PHIGHTING! on Roblox. I'm not exactly the best roleplayer however and might possibly get a tad out of character from time to time if I'm not careful, which I do apologize if that ends up happening.

It might also take me a while to answer and respond to stuff due to the fact that I tend to like to think for a good while before deciding to do so ( or i might just straight up forget / get distracted in which case you are welcome to direct my attention back to it ).

I'll likely also send in some Roblox screenshots and such both IC and OOC. ( with something to differentiate which is which of course )

Although my art's not exactly the best I will likely try to respond with a simple doodle or drawing from time to time because well it's fun to do and I feel that it could make some things seem more interesting and such. :)

Most of the drawings and SS's here are simply my own but I will make sure to provide credits and such if I use someone else's stuff for my own purposes of course!!

Aslong as you aren't NSFW ( gore / graphic stuff is fine by me but will be tagged just incase anyone else isn't fine with it or is made uncomfortable by it ), Racist, Transphobic, Homophobic, A proshipper / comshipper, abelist, aphobic, zionist or otherwise just not really that good then I'm completely open to interactions most of the time! If I don't answer right away then I'm probably busy / distracted but I will try to get to it as fast as I can when I do notice it. I don't mind AU or OC interactions but try to let me know the context behind relationships and such beforehand!

I am relatively fine with shipping aslong as it, yknow, isn't bad, forced or a proship / comship or anything but due to personal preference and the fact that I do headcanon Medkit as Demiromantic I would prefer to take it slow at first atleast. I might also ask for reasoning though that's just out of curiosity if it's something I'm not familiar with.

The Mod / Blog Runner doesn't exactly take things too seriously most of the time and swears a lot so that'll probably reflect in OOC posts. I have pretty bad bad grammar / English aswell so if there's any particularly bad mistakes do make sure to point them out so I can fix them.

Not sharing the main blog for the time being but if you do recognize me then.. Hiiiii!

All in all, I am looking forward to interacting with this community and seeing what happens! :D

---

Pronouns for Medkit - He / Him

Pronouns for Mod / Blog Runner - He / It / They / Xe

---

Caution;

Do take in account that due to the nature and backstory of the character that this blog revolves around it will likely touch on some topics of extreme violence or atleast the aftermath of said violence, PTSD, Paranoia and Cults / Cult Life.

All of the above will atleast have an attempt to be properly tagged whenever directly mentioned / brought up. Please do let me know if I miss anything or need to use different / more tags.

More will be added to this if seen fit

Although for most of these I either have personal experience and / or tried to do excessive research about please do also let me know if I can do / portray something better!

---

Key;

Normal Text in any way -> OOC

Chat + Italics -> Narration / Actions

" Green Chat in Quotations " -> Speech [ Italic Green Chat in square brackets ] -> Thoughts

Bold text in any of these likely just means that it's important or atleast that it should be a focus point. Small text will likely be less important or whispering / mumbling / in a quieter tone of voice depending on the context.

Will add more if needed

---

Headcanons;

Suit / Main Reference made by myself.

If text too hard to or unable to read due to coloring here's the text left -> right, top -> bottom

Farsighted

Long Fur + Fands due 2 being blackrock born demon

Long, long-furred tail

Other than longer fangs nothing too remarkable about mouth

he / him under a transmasculine flag

Small Holes in gloves allowing unsheathed claws to stick out

Other;

Due to his current circumstances Medkit probably isn't really looking for love or a romantic relationship in the first place, nor would he probably be able to completely trust anyone viable for that position to get close enough or those feelings at the moment. That doesn't exactly mean he CAN'T but it's very unlikely.

Probably tired most of the time and all the caffeine from the coffee probably isn't helping. And back pain. Can't forget the back pain. This dude literally sleeps on a desk i cant imagine how that back feels.

Medkit usually doesn't let anyone other than the people he trusts on his blindspot / left side while idle and able just so that he can keep an eye on what's going on, frequently preferring to have that side closer to walls and other obstructions otherwise. Also likely so that he knows that someone would be watching on that side while he can't.

[rikas-things]

Diabolik Alcoholik part 4

To read more or get caught up, please check out the table of contents:

Reiji smiled again as he placed his hands on his hips, though it was far closer to a sneer than an honest smile.

"But of course! What, were you not expecting to meet Ayato so soon? Perhaps your guilty conscience has plagued you?"

Her brows furrowed.

"He attacked me first!" She defended, "It was self-defense!"

"That's not at all how it appeared to me," he dropped his smile as he spoke, his voice dry and laced with suspicion.

"I have no reason to-" he held a hand up before she could continue.

"Whether it was or wasn't is of little consequence. The fact of the matter is that you've made an enemy. If you wish to remain in good cheer I suggest you take heed of this: 'to follow your heart is to lose your mind.'"

"What does that mean?"

"Think of it as a warning to keep your wits about you. You seem like the outspoken type, and I'm advising against that. That hotheadedness will not do you good in the long run."

She thought his words over for a moment, not quite sure what the advice he gave had to do with the saying he used but she was willing to try if it meant facing "Ayato's" ire as little as possible.

She grew a determined look in her eyes; she had no idea what kind of family this was or why they invited her into their mansion but maybe she could make this work-who knows?

She could probably make a new friend and become a big sister to some of the little ones!

Whatever they were like, she hoped they'd be nicer to her than Ayato.

"I'm ready. Where can I meet them?"

Reiji put his fingers to his chin as he fell deep in thought.

"Hmm...it seems a few of them have already gathered in the living room."

She eyed him over, wondering to herself how he could tell where they were since she couldn't see a Bluetooth device on his person.

"My brothers are an eccentric bunch, but aside from Ayato, they're mild-mannered."

This time she was completely silent, mulling over one singular word.

"Brothers."

To the mind of someone as boy-crazed as Yui, you might as well be telling her you're giving her a million dollars.

While Ayato was awful she couldn't deny he was quite attractive, and, as she gave Reiji a good look, he was also quite handsome in his own right too.

Messy yet fantastic hair, gorgeously soulful eyes, a strong, chiseled jawline...

If his brothers were anything close to what she witnessed here, she knew she'd have the time of her life.

She ran full speed ahead toward the end of the hallway, hearts in her eyes and arms open wide to accept any beautiful men that were waiting for her-when an ice-cold glass of reality splashed her face.

It came in the form of Ayato Sakamaki, who was wide awake and sporting two large knots on his head and a very unsavory frown.

"This sucks...my head friggin' hurts!" He muttered to himself as he sulked in his chair, his hair and school clothes as disheveled as ever.

As soon as he turned his head, Yui dashed behind the wall and stuck herself against the wall in an attempt to blend in, mortified.

This is bad, this is so bad! She thought to herself. I can't be alone with this guy!

"Hey," a low voice came from her shoulder, which set her alarm off.

Yui turned and nearly jumped out of her skin when she turned to the source of the voice.

"I could smell you from my seat, you idiot!" Ayato roared.

He then sneered at her.

"I got two head injuries 'cause of you! So prepare yourself! I'll show the meaning of the word Hell!" On the last note he showed her a dark grin.

She smiled as she sweated profusely, barely hiding her fear.

How do I get out of this??

"Ahem," another voice rang through the hall.

Reiji appeared with a bitter grin on his face.

"As much as I'd love for you two to finish your chit-chat, it's time for you to make your way to the living room."

As Ayato ranted about Reiji taking too long, Yui let out a long, loud sigh of relief.

A little too loud, as Ayato caught wind of it and turned his attention to her, leading no end of threats and jabs at her expense.

Having heard enough, Reiji intervened as he adjusted his glasses.

"Enough of this, hurry up for the meeting, you two!"

[the-iron-shoulder]

Finally started playing the English version (fan translation) of Mother 3 for the first time a couple days ago. I’m on Chapter 5 (no spoilers for me please, but also be warned that i might spoil a detail or two since this is my post). I have a lot of feelings but I’m not sure what all of them are just yet. This is gonna be a little disjointed and stream-of-consciousness.

EarthBound was HUGELY formative to me growing up… it shouldn’t be surprising to me how much more refined M3 is versus EarthBound, but it really is. (And yet in so many ways, it also isn’t that much more refined? They’re so clearly related, even beyond the art and the music and stuff.)

EarthBound was super up-front about Giygas being your antagonist and Ness being specifically tasked with stopping it (wait, shit, is Giygas it/its or he/him or something else?), whereas M3 is a lot more coy about what’s actually going on (I mean, Fassad introducing Money And Television into a utopian commune pretty clearly marks him as Very Bad, to say nothing of the casual animal torture, but I doubt that he’s The Main Antagonist, and no one is saying anything about the party being uniquely responsible for stopping him or anything).

i like the fact that the narrative viewpoint keeps changing. That’s interesting so far.

i love Flint, he’s simply great, and I hope he joins the party again later. (I’m prepared to be disappointed on this but I’m still hopeful regardless.)

there does seem to be a little bit of casual racism that seems out of place? The whole “Ma[slur]” people seem a bit… eh, i feel like maybe tossing a slur into the name of the drag-queen-coded genderfucky inhuman demigods could maybe have been avoided, and i also feel like everything about Reggie could have used a little (read: a lot) more care. So that’s, you know, not great. Don’t love those parts.

tbh, so far i don’t see why Lucas is a pivotal character… i know he’s apparently the MC but it feels like there’s plenty of options for more interesting characters to have taken the lead role. Idk. Maybe he’ll be more interesting later.

i absolutely cannot get the hang of the rhythm battle thing (even when the enemy is asleep)… if i can get three hits, i can usually get a few more, but getting the combo to start at all (except through luck of button-mashing, which of course ends the combo on the second hit) is something i seriously struggle with. And i have a pretty decent sense of rhythm (i mean, I’ve only been playing drums for six and a half years now), but… it’s just starting the chain that trips me up.

it’s still very funny to me that the sprites are so much more involved and expressive than in EarthBound and yet Lucas and Kumatora (and most people tbh) have faces that are just :|

M3 somehow feels like less of a genre parody than EarthBound was, which is both good and bad. I guess i respect not wanting to just do the same thing over and over.

probably more later… still forming my thoughts.

[unfortunatetheorist]

Could the 'S' stand for Sugar?

To parody Olivia Caliban - "I've been doing some thinking"

The theories among the fandom surrounding S. Theodora Markson have been logical, but in this theory, I'm going to drop a new [what I'm quite sure is a] bombshell, in answer to 'What does the 'S' stand for?' - the S might stand for Sugar.

Of course, as mentioned, I respect and understand the reasoning behind the alternative theories, such as 'Sunny' and 'Sensible', but there is a link that I seem to have found, which MIGHT run across the Snicket-verse [one that, I feel, seems to have been a little bit overlooked]:

Sugar is an incredibly delicate subject to come up in A Series of Unfortunate Events.

This is CLEARLY seen in 2 main instances:

The Waitress is a woman who was employed in The Penultimate Peril, who had a customer that requested sugar in their coffee before she threw him onto the ground so she could see if he had a tattoo on his ankle. Much like last time (referring to her employment at Café Salmonella), she discovers that the customer had no such tattoo so she then apologized for her actions and offered a free slice of rhubarb pie for all his trouble. Her fate after the incident remains unknown, though even if she was the same waitress from Café Salmonella, her employment at both eateries were most likely terminated nevertheless.

(from the Snicket Fandom Wiki, under 'The Waitress' page)

“What is this?” Count Olaf said suspiciously, peering into his coffee cup. “It looks like coffee, but it’s freezing cold!” “And what is this orange stuff?” Esmé asked suspiciously. “I want fashionable, in food, not a handful of ice!” Colette picked up a piece of the bread and stared at it suspiciously. “This toast feels raw,” she said. “Is it safe to eat raw toast?” “Of course not,” Hugo said. “I bet that baby is trying to poison us.” “Actually, the coffee isn’t bad,” one of the white-faced women said, “even if it is a little bitter. Could someone pass the sugar, please?” “Sugar?” shrieked Count Olaf, erupting in anger. He stood up, grabbed one end of the blanket, and pulled as hard as he could, scattering all of Sunny’s hard work. Food, beverages, and dishes fell everywhere, and Sunny had to duck to avoid getting hit on the head with a flying fork. “All the sugar in the world couldn’t save this terrible breakfast!” he roared, and then leaned down so that his shiny, shiny eyes stared right into Sunny’s. “I told you to make a nice, hot breakfast, and you gave me cold, disgusting nonsense!” he said, his smelly breath making a cloud in the chilly air. “Don’t you see how high up we are, you sabertoothed papoose? If I threw you off Mount Fraught, you’d never survive!”

(An extract from The Slippery Slope, Ch 6)

Given the sheer force with which people [volunteers (the waitress) and villains (Olaf) alike] in the series (ASOUE) respond to any mention of sugar, who's to say that the people of All The Wrong Questions take any reference to sugar in the same manner (i.e. flip out like ASOUE people)?

Of course, this is axiomatic (a word which here means: we're assuming this to be true) but if it is, it could be the reason why Theodora is so very secretive about her initial - maybe it stands for Sugar, and she doesn't want to run the risk of anyone knowing; the recipient of the information may be a villain... OR, seeing as she's 52nd out of 52 chaperones (or something like that, it has been a while since I've read ATWQ), if she tells V.F.D. her name is Sugar, she's BOUND to get kicked out of the organisation.

¬ Th3r3534rch1ngr4ph, Unfortunate Theorist/Snicketologist

P.S. I did get it right: On the list of chaperones, she is ranked 52nd of 52, though she believed she was ranked tenth

(Snicket Wiki)

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

YOU GUYS JAMISON LIKES UNDERTALE!!!

TELL ME EVERYTHING PLEASE /nf

I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH

I do! I've actually liked it for years. Um, I'm going to be kinda cringe for a minute before I get into the actual game it's self. Spoilers?? Do I need to warn that?

I actually fell into the game when I was in 5th grade, I couldn't even play the game and it still managed to get a grip on me. I watched every video I could find about it, mainly getting sucked into videos reading comics about the game. Me and my friend at the time both loved the game so we would talk about it for hours and real fanfics on Quotev and Wattpad. I actually remember seeing "Down To The Bone." When/ around the time dropped, I listened to it on repeat. I also watched the "Undertale If It Was Realistic." A lot too. ALSO, the undertale parody of "Stronger Than You" was quoted a lot. My friend was a huge fan of Temmie and they used to talk like her and I remember always thinking that was cool. I was always a huge fan of Papyrus, Mettaton, and Sans. Mettaton specifically (more on that later). And I guess I just remember, wanting so bad to be able to be apart of the fandom, but not being able to. I begged my mom to get me merch for the game while trying to hide how I knew so much about the game. (I wasn't allowed on YouTube or social media so I had to tell her I loved it bc my friend did.) I did not get the merch I wanted btw, but um, I guess it's just, it's my childhood in a way. I also used to try and draw the characters but I couldn't draw so I ended up just imagining scenarios in my head. I used to swing on the swing set at recess and just imagine stuff about the game.

Okay so the fun not cringe stuff but still cringe in a way.

So, when I finally played undertale for the first time, oh my god??? It fixed something in me, what it fixed, I don't know. I remember being super confused and trying to look at a guide for everything. I also felt so bad because I killed a few monsters in my first run and when Undyne told me I was killing them I cried. I also cried at her fight because I was dying over and over and I didn't know what to do. And also at the time I thought there were two endings, Pacifist and Genocide, and I cried when I couldn't save Asgore because I thought did something wrong (because at this point I had reset the game and killed no one). Fun fact, I have never played the Genocide route because I can't kill Papyrus. I can't do it man. I'd rather die. I love the sound track, and I love all the characters. And I love the game. I want to get an undertale tattoo at some point I love it that much.

I guess the last thing I want to say is that the game probably made me realize I was queer, in some way. Like it might not have been an instant thing, but it definitely opened my mind to queer ideas when all I had been fed was gay people bad, trans people evil. I think Mettaton was a huge thing to me, I wanted to be like him, I thought he was so cool. I didn't know men could be feminine and be cool, that it wasn't some joke. I just, I think it made me realize something some how. Also seeing a lesbian couple made a little switch in my brain flip, like oh, I like them, and they're gay, so why don't I like other gay people? (I had a LOT of internalized homophobia and transphobia and it was somehow fixed by undertale go figure 😭)

I don't know, maybe this isn't the best breakdown or what you were looking for, and to be fair it's probably unintelligible rambling. But it did give me a chance to look back on my past and how much this game really changed me and made my life better. So thanks! Um and sorry I suppose.

Also! Shocker, and probably insane to admit, but... I never thought I'd find a game that made me feel like Undertale did and then I found TF2. TF2 is my new Undertale and that's horrific </3

[watchmakermori]

so like. I read Think Again by jacqueline wilson and I can't stop thinking about how weird bits of it were.

why did she have to do Mr Windsor so dirty. bringing him back as a love interest was a bizarre move in the first place, though I wasn't quite as outraged as some reviewers are. I don't think it'd have been quite as odd if he and Ellie reunited on more neutral terms and sort of rediscovered each other as adults...but they meet up for the first time since Ellie was 13 and it's instantly a date. then they jump into bed with each other immediately. It's weird and nobody really acts like it's that weird

And to some extent I think it's intentional, because Mr Windsor turns out awful and controlling and we aren't supposed to like the guy. But that felt like a very odd choice too. I get that a lot of time has passed, and it's not like we ever knew much about Mr Windsor's actual character...but the idea of him becoming this domineering, mansplaining caricature just didn't fit with what we knew about him. he's only ten years older than Ellie. As a hip young teacher in the 90s, he made a point to introduce his students to female artists, was always encouraging and kind to Ellie, and dealt with Magda's inappropriate advances in a very respectful way. I could believe he wasn't the perfect fantasy man that the girls imagined him to be as teenagers, but like...telling Ellie she shouldn't wear trousers? Making out she's a little girl who needs looking after? I don't know. He felt like a parody of a totally different man.

Which I guess he could be, given he's called Gary Windsor in the new book. Who the fuck is Gary?? The original series confirmed his name was Guy. Can't believe JW and none of her editors caught that.

So Guy/Gary is weird and patriarchal and generally awful, and Madga and Nadine both insist that he's just like that because he's a man (spoiler alert: no). They tell Ellie she obviously wants a woman, which is kind of where she ends up.

I'm going to be charitable and say that JW wasn't aiming for a take-home message of 'men are always bad so date women instead'. I feel like Alice's girlfriend Wendy, who also has an air of pantomime villainy about her, is supposed to illustrate that all is not always rosy in wlw relationships. But it still feels weird

And it makes the novel worse, in my opinion. I love the idea of Ellie rediscovering her sexuality as a 40 year old and realising she wants a relationship with a woman. That's awesome, it feels personal to JW's own life, and it's a good twist on what you might normally expect from a contemporary romance book about a single mum. But that aspect is confined to basically the final page of the book. We spend 99% of the time watching Ellie go on boring dates with a man she doesn't really like and who treats her badly. Then, on the final page, she gets with a woman and the book ends.

I just think the story would've been so much more interesting if this had been the crux of the story. Imagine if Mr Windsor wasn't such a shitbag - if he was just a regular guy who treated Ellie well, maybe had a few flaws, but was fundamentally a great potential partner. Then imagine you have Ellie, who feels logically that this is everything she should want - the happily ever after she's long been waiting for. Except Alice has come into her life, and she makes Ellie reconsider what she really wants for herself.

That conflict feels like it would've played so much better with the throughlines in the original Girls books. Ellie's personality as a teenager, her relationship to her best friends, her relationship to the people reading about her - so much of it is about boys. Magda, Nadine and Ellie are constantly talking about crushes and dating, and that doesn't seem to have changed much even in this sequel. It would've been fascinating to see Ellie grapple with compulsory heterosexuality and how much of her connections to others are tied to that. She might wonder what it would do to her friendship with Nadine and Magda if she started to date a woman - how it might affect her relationship with her daughter, her parents, and obviously her own sense of self.

I just feel like that would have been way more interesting and sincere. the whole novel is called 'Think Again', for goodness sake. but instead we get 300 pages of Ellie dithering about whether to break up with a guy who disparages her flat, her opinions, and generally treats her like a child. It's tiresome