#ask darren

[a-good-darren]

* Snuggles him *

...

Snuggles back

[writergeekrhw]

VIC, END PROGRAM

I never got to work directly with James Darren, despite co-writing a scene for Vic in the 5th season that never got filmed. But by all accounts, he was a wonderful guy and much loved. So, here's to you, Mr. Darren. I wish I'd gotten to meet you more than just in passing. Much love to his family and friends.

[murderdronesreimagined]

[Relationship Chart! Status: UNFINISHED]

ICONS!! Finally finished for now, got all of Uzi's main class, along with other side-characters done! I will be adding onto this chart in the future!

Here are the smols! >:3

- - - - -

Update: Forgot to add some lines XD

[st1ckart1zt]

What are your thoughts on Murder Drones ending? was curious to hear your thoughts for the series finale when it comes out

I think Murder Drones will get season 2.

Here's why:

1. In some of Liam's art, there's season 1 written on it

2. The trailer has Season 1 written, too

3. On glitch x Liam confirmed it's season 1

I doubt the show will end, but we will see everything on August 23

If there's no season 2, then... well, i just want to say THANK YOU LIAM AND GLITCH PRODUCTION FOR MAKING THIS SHOW. IT WAS GREAT WHILE IT LASTED

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

I saw a couple of posts here and on ao3 where you talked about how TOA Apollo has a stilted view of romantic relationships. Would you be comfortable explaining that, it got me really interested!

OKAY

SO

gonna be putting this under a cut for length

Apollo and relationships. Specifically, ToA Apollo and relationships.

let's see if I can formulate the thoughts into words.

Right off the bat, Apollo does have a hard time avoiding those red flags (hello, Commodus), so much so that he can see them...he just ignores them.

This already tells us that he doesn't have the healthiest view on relationships, or what specifically a healthy partner would be like.

In RRverse canon, these are all of his confirmed, canon relationships/love interests;

Hyacinthus

Commodus

Naomi

Darren

Latricia

Cyrene

Daphne

Sibyl

(I probably missed some asdfhjk)

Anyway, I've noticed that in canon, Apollo's relationships tend to fall into two categories; Sweet or Sour, we'll call them.

Now the majority on the list are Sweet! They are fulfilling relationships with no indication of any bitter feelings- Apollo is not shy about telling us about his love life, and certainly doesn't keep it from us when a relationship went south.

What I find interesting is that all three of the Sours can help pinpoint Apollo's more jaded/stilted view on romance.

Let's kick off with Daphne.

First things first, Apollo is quite literally forced to fall in love with her. Like. That has GOT to screw with a guy. What's more, is that when Apollo explains to us how Eros's arrows work;

What people do not understand: Eros’s arrows can’t summon emotion from nothing. They can only cultivate potential that is already there. Daphne and I could have been a perfect pair. She was my true love. She could have loved me back. Yet thanks to Eros, my love-o-meter was cranked to one hundred percent, while Daphne’s feelings turned to pure hate (which is, of course, only the flip side of love). Nothing is more tragic than loving someone to the depths of your soul and knowing they cannot and will not ever love you back. The stories say I chased her on a whim, that she was just another pretty dress. The stories are wrong. - The Hidden Oracle

There's an implication that he and Daphne may have actually been...friends. Or at the very least acquaintances.

It's never stated in canon when Daphne happened, and the mythology itself is weird about the timeline, but it certainly happened earlier in Apollo's life.

Imagine being forced to fall madly in love with someone you know and they are made to despise you.

The self-confidence definitely took a blow here.

What's more...

When she begged Gaea to turn her into a laurel tree in order to escape me, part of my heart hardened into bark as well.

Apollo tells us plainly that what happened with Daphne shook his views on romantic endeavors. Though, it didn't keep him from engaging in romance, either.

Now, back to Commodus real quick. We already covered the No Red Flag Bell with him, and honestly, I won't spend too much time here because I got a whole meta list waiting to dissect these two XD

But Sibyl reveals something else about Apollo and romance- sometimes, he sees it as transactional.

The story of Apollo and Sibyl does differ from the mythology of them- in mythology, Sibyl tricks Apollo into granting her a long life, and he kinda just shrugs and says 'okay, but you didn't ask for eternal youth either so...whoops?'

In ToA, Rick switches it up a bit by having Apollo grant Sibyl a long life after she jokes about it, and when she further rebuffs him, he curses her with no eternal youth.

Alas, I knew what I’d been thinking—that she was a pretty young woman I wanted to get with, despite the fact that she was my Sibyl. Then she’d outsmarted me, and being the bad loser that I was, I had cursed her. - The Tyrant's Tomb

I promised you life, not youth. You can have your centuries of existence. You will remain my Sibyl. I cannot take those things away, once given. But you will grow old. You will wither. You will not be able to die.

Yeah, it sounds like Apollo more or less curses her with no eternal youth here.

(Daily disclaimer that mythology Apollo's love life is actually very good and you should read up on it :3)

Back to the transactional thing-

"You cannot refuse payment." “Payment?” She balled her hands into fists. “You dare think of me as a transaction?” “I didn’t mean—Obviously, I wasn’t—”

Now, do I think Apollo sees all relationships as transactional? No. But let's consider the Olympian influence for a moment here.

Olympus in the RRverse is rather fucked, no doubt about it. The gods do not help without first being given something, and that permeates through their whole lifestyles.

Apollo's not being transactional because ✨misogyny✨. He's being transactional because that's what he's been raised to believe. If he gives something, he gets something back. That goes for all the gods, male and female and everything in between.

Bacchus helps the demigods in Mark of Athena because they paid tribute to him. Whenever a god extends aid, burnt offerings are made in thanks- which is probably part of the reason why Hera got angry with Annabeth when she refused to give her burnt offerings in The Battle of the Labyrinth after she helped her on her quest.

Apollo doesn't seem to be as picky as some (ie, The Titan's Curse, where he helps out to help out. You can argue he got his sister back in exchange but that's not really typical godly exchange lol), but it's clear that mindset has somewhat transferred over into relationships.

Now, I also want to talk about how Hyacinthus affected him- because let's be real, he was the one that affected him the most without outside interference (looking at you, Eros).

Apollo has told us time and again that Hyacinthus was one of, if not his greatest, love. His death really left a mark on him, and I am of the firm belief that it's that mark that made him wary of forming too close of a relationship with others- even when he tries to convince them and himself they are his One True Love™️, it falls flat inside his own head.

Because let's face it- that spot is occupied by Hyacinthus, and the hole he left in Apollo's heart.

This isn't to say Apollo loves his other lovers less- heck no! Love is one of his defining qualities. He has much love in him!

It's just that Hyacinthus had a particular impact on him, and how he views relationships.

*vibrates in Hyapollo multific* I have...my own personal ideas...on what that entails...

And we see how touch-and-go Apollo is with other lovers! As soon as Commodus becomes emperor, he's gone. And only comes back in disguise, never revealing himself until he kills him.

Naomi, Darren, and Latricia are all obviously loving relationships from what we can gather, but it's clear it was never long-term.

Cyrene, really, is where I'd argue he got the closest to a long-term relationship with a mortal-ish person, but even so, they aren't in a permanent long-term relationship either.

Hyacinthus, however? I can see he and Apollo maintaining an everlasting romance.

...Also because that is exactly what happens according to the Spartans and who are we to deny what the Spartans declared about their national hero?

The only other exceptions to this I can see are his relationships with the Muses and (hello, fellow Apricity shippers) Boreas.

But even so...the Muses give off like, 'married co-workers' vibes, if that makes sense, and Boreas is more or less a winter fling (fandom forgive me, you know I am a shipper🫡)

Anyway. Hope this rambling makes sense or at least provides a platform for someone to put coherent thoughts together lmao

In conclusion: sometimes Apollo is transactional in relationships because of the culture he was raised in, and he has commit issues because of just how hard Hyacinthus's death hit him :)

have fun pondering :3

[aoi1dee]

can i request step 1 darren mayhaps…

sorry its a little bad in the middle of drawing this i was playing with my cat (not maisy my other cat dwight) and he scratched my hand and it was hard to draw with the bandaid :( my apologies

[secondstar-acorn]

can’t think of anything to say other than it was everything I could have ever expected and wanted and hoped for. seeing them perform truly is an electric experience and I am so, so grateful I got to be there. I’ve never felt such overflowing joy and love in one room before and that truly is down to what a one-of-a-kind group Starkid is. I’m so happy and a little emotional that it’s over but like it’s sung in days of summer, “don’t wanna see you go but it’s not forever, not forever” ⭐️💜

[sisterpaxton]

something poetic about mr crepsley "killing" darren after blooding him. paralyzing him, breaking his neck, digging his body back up after watching his funeral from afar, and that symbolizing the end of darrens first life. the end of his past family. he's entirely mr crepsley's now. his assistant. his son. his blood.

[gods-favorite-autistic]

“So then stop, no one’s asking-”

[a-good-darren]

Hi Darren!

I'll tell you something but promise to NOT get angry..!

small sigh

Okay. Just say it fast

[offbookkeeping]

i <3 my girlfriend famed detective darren middle name vapes

[steddie-there]

Eddie has never been one for household chores, preferring to put them off until the last minute or just skip doing them entirely if he can get away with it. But helping Steve clean their rabbit's cage? That has quickly, surprisingly, become one of his favorite activities.

And of course it's because of Steve. Because every single Monday evening, Steve turns the light on in their bedroom and announces gravely, "The time has come, my friend," to the tiny black fluffball who has hopped up to the edge of the cage, curious. And, without fail, he stands with his hands on his hips for just a few moments, staring between that innocent little gaze and this week's carnage of hay and toys spread across the cage floor.

"Why do you have hay spread to kingdom come in here?" he asks Paul in such a disappointed tone that Eddie can't help but giggle.

"Because he's a bastard, you know that," Eddie tells him as he readies a trash bag and pulls on some gloves. He hands another pair to Steve.

Steve laughs. Takes the gloves. Coaxes Paul into the kennel attached to the hutch with a treat and closes the door. Drops another treat inside. "That's all you get today, you know," Steve warns the rabbit and Eddie thinks he deserves some credit for not laughing when they all know full well there will be at least one more before bed.

Steve sings as he sweeps the cage clean. Snippets of songs from the radio, snatches of Corroded Coffin's latest. Eddie sometimes sings along and sometimes just listens, listens and feels like he could make a home in Steve's voice.

And then he takes the trash out while Steve readies a new litter box. Comes back just in time to see Steve sitting by the cage, Paul flopped in his lap. Leans in the open doorway and watches.

Laughs when Steve sternly tells Paul, "Now, this time, let's not dump our hay box over again, okay?"

"You're such a dad," he teases and Steve rolls his eyes at him, but he's laughing, too. And Eddie's heart feels so full at that moment that he can't help but sit down next to Steve and lean his head on his shoulder as he reaches over to pet the tiny white mark on Paul's soft forehead.

"You're gonna be such a good parent someday. You know that, right, Stevie?" he whispers.

And Steve is quiet, not responding, and Eddie knows his eyes have filled with tears and he knows exactly why, knows Steve is thinking about his dreams of a family and his parents and how desperately he doesn't want to be like them, and so he just turns and softly kisses the tears away until they're gone. Presses a gentle kiss to Steve's forehead.

"C'mon, let's go be boring parents and watch dumb TV until we fall asleep," he tells Steve, gets a little laugh in return. They put Paul back in his cage, go cuddle on the couch. Enjoy being in their home, just them and the quiet noise from the TV and the sound of Paul hopping around his newly clean space.

Twenty minutes later, they hear the unmistakable sound of the hay box being turned over and Steve calls out, "Paul, what did I tell you?" so indignantly that Eddie just has to laugh and pull him closer and kiss that disgruntled look off his face until he settles in again, warm and heavy against Eddie's side.

Yeah, this is definitely his favorite chore.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

ao3: And Rabbit Makes Three

[rory-multifandom-mess]

Hello, I hope this ask finds you well.

While eating some after lunch ice cream I came to wonder what flavors of ice cream the drones would like. If they were able to eat ice cream that is. Here is what I've come up with thus far.

J would be partial to coffee ice cream but would be the type to rarely eat ice cream. While for N I imagine he would be a fan of most flavors, but he would have a soft spot from soft serve chocolate. For Uzi I think she would enjoy mint ice cream. Thad, I think he would prefer fruity ice creams, sherbets and sorbet. V, I think would like strawberry ice cream with chunks of real strawberry.

What do you think?

Oh my goodness these all make so much sense for their personalities. Also I can definitely see Thad enjoying some Sorbet to the point where i think he’d get sick off of it accidentally.

Adding onto this, I think Lizzy would like vanilla ice cream, and a guilty pleasure of hers would be pistachio too. I’ve never had it, but it feels fitting.

Also, I feel like Rebecca would be partial to cotton candy ice cream. She’d like the one that has those little pieces that pop in your mouth.

Darren would like cookies n’ cream, especially the one with oreo chunks in it. He loves some nice oreos.

These are so fun to think of

[writergeekrhw]

I was initially skeptical about Vic Fontaine and the whole lounge holosuite concept - seemed a little out there to be so involved in the plots. But then obviously he went on and became central to some of the most moving/fun episodes! What was the inspiration for him and was he always supposed to become such a big part of the other characters' development?

Ira was friendly with Frank Sinatra, Jr. and wanted to create a character for him to play as a fun one-off. So we came up with the idea for Vic Fontaine.

Then Sinatra couldn't play the part (too busy performing), but by then, we'd become attached to the idea of the character and went looking for another singer/actor to play him.

We lucked out and got James Darren! He was lovely to work with and terrific on screen, so we decided to bring him back (similar to Andy Robinson and Casey Biggs) and the character grew from there.

[buildbuymode]

how do you set up your twoberhood save? as far as lots go anyway. i know ts4 is more limited with lots than ts4 and i am a ts4 noob

hey hi hello! oh boy setting up this save has sure been a time. am probably clinically obsessive + have a perfectionist streak a mile wide so have spent maybe a year tweaking and tooling with it because it's never felt "right" but the lots have always stayed in the same spots, and have just been renovated a silly number of times. the lots originally started out as 1:1 recreations and have slowly morphed to look a little nicer + to fit my personal style, but with so many worlds and so many lots they're not all done :( all the other lots (unoccupied and community) are also ripped right from ts2 but tend to just make 'em as needed!

[milkbath69]

my only contributions to the outsiders fandom