#asks are a bit of a different thing bc i get a lot of them

[gcballet]

Nah, you're not crazy, an SF based sitcom attempting a lot of high-minded tropes above it's station for over thirty years is going to have a lot of space for theory.

Very long post to follow bc you got me thinking, man. I went back and added headings bc I was getting lost.

We All Love/Hate Lacan

First off. You mention the hologram as a disabled, queer body, and then immediately Lacan. Just to reassure, everyone has trouble using Lacan rather than his descendants. Everyone skips him. Lacan is WEIRD. A lot of his published work is like, lecture transcripts, and also he liked trying to formulate language into a kind of algebra. Also he was French and lots of crucial puns get lost in translation? He's great but also he sucks.

Quite cynically, and you didn't ask, if you have the interest, I would recommend clipping out one solid but brief Lacan quote you definitely understand and can use to illuminate your Edelman readings, literally just to score points and to make clear you understand Edelman in his context. But I would consider this time contigent bc Lacan is such a pain, there's a reason no one reads him.

Good ways in are the section on him in the Poststructuralism chapter in Peter Barry's Beginning Theory, or the section on him in Catherine Belsey's Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction, both of which have audiobooks on Spotify. If you have more time to put towards him, Zizek's How To Read Lacan is supposed to be quite good.

I bring it back to Lacan because mentioning him and holograms made me realise that (hologram) Rimmer is not himself - the signified, but the sign of himself. Lacan has this whole annoying s/S algebra thing which I have only ever vaguely wrapped my head around. Kristeva I think is the one to properly term it semiotics? Might be misremembering.

You know that one Magritte painting, Les trahison des images?

You see what I'm getting at. The object is not it's name, a rose by any other name etc. In death (and disability as you imply), Rimmer is reduced to the sign of himself. If Lister is the holding pattern for human life, is hologram Rimmer the holding pattern for living Rimmer?

[Ouroboros]

[Made a point of looking up the phrase 'holding pattern' and it's an aeronautics term for when planes circle an airport awaiting landing clearance. Killing time, circling, flying. Red Dwarf the ship coasts indefinitely throughout the series, looking for a safe port. Something there on coasting through life?]

Hologram Rimmer could then be argued to be reconfigured as the sign for a completely different signified than human Rimmer, when he 'becomes Ace'. He doesn't become Ace, not in a literal sense. What happens is he begins to signify Ace. Hologram Rimmer is the sign, the picture of the signified Arnold J. Rimmer (deceased). They adjust the sign (Hologram Rimmer) and therefore on a semiotic level Hologram Rimmer becomes Ace Rimmer, a different signified. Who is, of course, also a deceased signified, and being repeated through infinite signs of himself.

[There's an unrelated but hard queer read in Stoke Me a Clipper on gender performativity, but that's Judith Butler and a different path entirely. The bit where he makes he voice deeper. Wears a wig. Tries to pass. It's not subtle.]

That's a very unpolished and inexact summary of how I would approach Lacan for Red Dwarf at any rate, be it of interest.

Kristeva/French Feminism

Regarding your question about Kristeva and the maternal body as the site of meaning and language, yeah, that sounds correct. It has been a while since I've done a Kristeva close read, but the idea of the female (maternal) body as the source of language is a recurring one in the writing of the French feminists (Kristeva herself is Bulgarian but she writes French and gets bundled with them). The two other major players on the topic are Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. Cixous coined the term l'ecriture feminine for it, and they go very loose and poetic with it. Cixous has a whole thing of women writing out of the body, or writing in milk. The idea was finding a language for women to fully express their experiences.

I think in 2025 it's immediately obvious why l'ecriture feminine isn't especially popular now; it does a lot of reinscribing binaries and bioessentialism, and they got called out by the Anglo-American feminists at the time. While in the 80s it was revolutionary and necessary for legitimate radical feminist thought, obv that discourse has been somewhat co-opted by terfs and other bad actors. I'd go careful using this stuff purely bc Lister inverting (I wouldn't necessarily say SUBverting, as you do, but I'm not sure why I feel this distinction) the binary of maternal body has potential, and I love the idea of his body as a site of meaning for humanity, bc it's bourne out by the show narrative, you do risk just reinscribing when you reverse the binary and make the male the mother, rather than breaking the binary entirely and creating multiple wider, queer fit categories, which is a better contemporary goal. I loved l'ecriture feminine so much at undergrad bc the French feminist school all write with so much poetry in their theory, but my supervisor warned me to go careful too, bc it hasn't aged amazingly. Kristeva isn't judged as harshly as Cixous though, people don't usually need to justify using her work.

Death as Disability

I do love the idea of death as the ultimate disability of the body - mind-body disconnect? The kinds of madness and odd behaviours Rimmer demonstrates when he glitches or alters his program - (Thanks For the Memory, Holoship, Quarantine, Trojan, how about brain in a jar Lister in Out of Time?) [Oh shit transhumanism? Uh, what's her name. Shit - Cyborg Manifesto - DONNA HARRAWAY. Queer bodies in there and all, she's superb for your purposes, make sure you've got her]

I assume the 'death isn't the obstacle it used to be' convo from Balance of Power is part of your way into that? And Holoship perhaps, with it's evocative stuff about not noticing the disability when it's normalised and provided for? Disability existing in context of the environment. George McIntyre in The End introducing the concept of holograms with the linguistic distancing you hear in workplace sensitivity discourse.

[The End]

Edelman - The Child

Jumping back to what you've said about the (hetero) normalising effect of the image of The Child - the implicit linear (straight) future of them, you're bang on the money with that I think. The two occasions we see Lister's children (himself (played by Charles's brother or cousin iirc, so theres a metatextual biological reality there) in Timeslides at the pub gig, then multiple series later in Ouroboros, and Jim and Bexley in Future Echoes and implied later in Parallel Universe and the opening text crawl of Backwards)

All of this is done through queer (incestuous) reproduction, either through effectively a T4T mpreg, or an IVF for a vaguely queer couple of KK2 and hologram Lister. The Child can only be witnessed by looking back in time. The Child is (literally) oneself (Lister, Fathers and Suns etc) in this queer reading, and not actually a literal product of heterosexual reproduction. The twin who is killed offscreen in Future Echoes looks enough like Lister to make Rimmer think it was him - Lister's offspring are completely indistinct from him. [The term non-euclidean reincarnation comes to mind - I think that's after Jung? Or it might be some esoteric woo woo (pos) from The Whole Rabbit. The concept of us being literally our parents reincarnated hence generational trauma?] I hope I'm roughly following what I imagine your rationale is with The Child here, having not read Edelman. I'll get back to the break of the circle/loop you suggest in a bit.

Just skewing off that, what about Rimmer's weird fantasy of heteronormativity in Better Than Life? The fact he can't seem to imagine a successful heterosexual relationship without the enormous burden of reproduction and responsibility. I *think* that's the only time we see Rimmer in a father role, besides maybe Rimmerworld? But again, that's super queer and incestuous with the clones and his goal of producing a biological twin sister to have sex with going awry.

Cruel Optimism

With the 'cruel optimism' concept, just to flag and check you've also caught Rimmer's 'become an officer' goal there. I'm sure you have, because it's parallel to Lister's impossible goal of Kochanski, but I wanted to make sure. Also aliens. Rimmer really wants there to be aliens. I think there's something there about belief. Rimmer is deeply unspiritual, argues with the Universe in Krysis, but the prospect of aliens and high technology is his kind of hope. I suppose Legion would come in there, perhaps not 'curing', but certainly shifting how his 'disability' functions.

Gnosticism Tangent

Regarding the gnostic reading, this is more something relevant for solid SF context reading than anything political, or especially relevant for your methodology, but it is somewhat obscure, so I'll explain. The framework of gnostic mythology crops up a lot in 20th C SF, and I think perhaps that's why there's a way into it via Red Dwarf, again through that trickle down of themes and structures, rather than anything deliberate by Grant Naylor. PKD was a huge fan of it, and I know they drew on Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? somewhat, so that's probably how the comparison crept in. My knowledge of gnosticism is mostly from the quite casual toned podcast The Whole Rabbit, the hosts of which have done gnostic readings of The Truman Show, A Scanner Darkly - I think at one point they read Finding Nemo. It's one of those lesser known mythologies which is pretty influential on a certain kind of writer. It's mostly used in allegory so the readings don't really 'achieve' anything per se but they are fascinating.

Will say as well, mentioning the Demiurge and the Ouroboros serpent together, yeah those two images fit very naturally.

Anyway, dw about my gnosticism tangent. It's not relevant to your thesis, I just find it fun, and I think it's a useful frame for digging out unnoticed details by defamiliarisation when you're used to better known Biblical narrative.

Ouroboros and Status Quo

The kind of cyclical repetition of the Ouroboros being a focus for you, have you looked into how the genre of Red Dwarf serves this? The show is cartoonishly slavish to the Status Quo (Rimmer immediately losing his human body at the end of Timeslides) but has a progressing narrative as well. The moments the show acknowledges the consequences of previous episodes vs which stuff is ignored is a site of a lot of narrative power. The quick write out of Jim and Bexley at the top of Backwards springs to mind.

The sitcom status quo absolutely fascinates me as a trope because it's so invisible and yet is utterly horrifying when extrapolated (WWDITS recently explored this quite effectively). The self-destructive loop Lister (and Rimmer) enacts isn't just the Ouroboros, but format derived, and therefore the viewer is complicit. Lister isn't growing because that's funnier. I'm thinking of the ending of Fathers and Suns especially, where Lister returns to drinking and games, implicitly failing to be the father he needs for himself. He will need to repeat the cycle again, learn the same lesson again. In Krysis Rimmer and Lister discuss Kryten's character development, revealing that despite 'breaking his programming' he actually hasn't changed much. He's a sitcom character. He can't. But the in-universe implications for a static unchanging identity are horrifying. If Rimmer (hologram) didn't age with Lister, what would that look like? A mid-20s appearing hologram bickering with the 50-60 year old last human? How desperately bleak.

On my current rewatch of X and XI (I'm just into XII now), I was struck by how there's one or two stories which echo the older phases of the show. Back to Reality/Back to Earth, Polymorph/Can of Worms, Legion/Krysis, Meltdown/Cured, DNA/Siliconia, Me²/Rimmerworld/Officer Rimmer. Some of these comparisons are more superficial than others, but the relevance is in the repeated relearning of elements of identity. The rewriting, retelling of the same stories. On a shallow level, that's simply a function of a long running sitcom, but within the text it speaks to the cyclical lives they're trapped in.

You get it, repetitions, the same lessons over and over. Red Dwarf is comparable in age to probably the most important (and most repetitive) sitcom in history, The Simpsons, and there was a recent episode (like September 2024 recent) I'm thinking of called Bart's Birthday (s36e01) which explored the idea of status quo breaking. The episode was framed as an AI generated finale for the show (something which I believe was relevant to a viral tweet? Can't remember), in which different characters begin to leave and change. Bart is about to turn 11, but begins to panic at his birthday party, and goads Homer into strangling him, at which point the show freezes and resets. Recent Simpsons is weird. It's as unsettling as it sounds, and the horror of it is purely from responding to the status quo and bringing it into a meta space. It's a massively underestimated structural trope in my opinion, and if it wasn't part of a low form like a sitcom, would have merited far deeper study as a structural device by now.

[Broad tangent, have you ever watched/read Washburn's Mr Burns: A Post Electric Play? Amazing piece of theatre, feels Red Dwarf and absurdism adjacent in terms of apocalypse and sitcom and repetitions. Linked a great video essay by Kyle Kallgren below]

The whole format of Red Dwarf as sitcom is cyclical and repetitive, despite deeper progress into space and short term changes, and it's easy to write that off as an accident of genre, but I think there's something in it to support your Ouroboros readings. Unlike The Simpsons, the characters in Red Dwarf age, and there are changes, but they have to learn the same lessons repeatedly, as any long run sitcom character does.

[Balance of Power]

Absurdism

Lastly, regarding the theatre of the absurd! I had a smack in the face watching the opening of Samsara the other day - Rimmer repeatedly throwing dice and getting a two and a one at impossible odds. I wracked my brain and I found it - it's a rehash of the iconic coin flipping scene from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard! Killing time, playing games, arguing over semantics. Yeah, that's Lister and Rimmer too.

Conclusion

I love a back and forth with someone else who knows theory, please please please let me know if you want anything looked at or listened to. You're more than welcome to drop rants at me any time if it helps to have someone who knows Red Dwarf, or just for a bit of encouragement.

I'm deeply inexpert on queer and crip theory, so couldn't really do more with that for you, but if you want to elaborate on any more of that and how you plan to use it, I would love to read that particularly.

I really am enjoying this discussion, and hope I've given you something to spark progress.

gcb ❤️

[Me close reading theory]

I'm so troubled by Lister continuing to pursue Kochanski after learning she's his biological mother. That genuinely bothers me.

[storm-of-feathers]

franticly googling how to be best friends with all my mutuals when i never answer dms and barely answer asks but i want to be best friends

[thegreatyin]

mr spices and mr wines. also mr candles and mr veils.

have you ever seen that one tumblr post that's like. "i don't ship these characters i just think they belong in couples therapy together". yeah. that's pretty much my stance on most spacebat ships

[keeps-ache]

there are a couple changes i would make to the keyboard if i could:

wiggly exclamation mark

bleeding heart emoji

varying snake emojis (more poses would be fun)

question mark with a little heart for the dot bc, well,

more explosions

and that is all thank you

[kindahoping4forever]

my ultimate wish for this next era is they finally let Ryan go like they did Andy. I'm so sick of not getting the content we deserve. All the gatekeeping of tour diaries and now the crumbs of concert footage in that "documentary" yesterday. he was working for months on that? that's why we didn't get tour diaries? all that footage just goes in his vault now? Please.

Hello! I'm sorry to hear you felt disappointed by yesterday's special. However, I feel compelled to comment on a few objective points in your ask.

- "Live & Backstage in Amsterdam" was directed by James Tonkin, the same director (and production team, Hangman) they worked with on "The Feeling of Falling Upwards" (and the unreleased "Live in Brixton" special). Ryan was credited as director of the documentary footage and as a contributing editor (1 of 3) but the live footage and overall final program was not his work.

- Regardless of the particular creatives involved here (or in any given project for that matter), the fact remains that any directors, producers, photographers, etc are all hired hands operating with full input and specific direction from the band. The band chose to make this a hybrid concert film/documentary. The band chose to condense the setlist the way they did. The band chose this format over the traditional tour diaries. What happens to the unused footage will be determined by the band. Ryan is a friend but he is first and foremost an employee and the band owns that footage. (Likewise, the MYT diaries are not sitting on Andy Deluca's hard drive because he's "gatekeeping" or too lazy to edit it. If the band wanted them released, they'd be released.) All this to say, of course you don't have to agree with the decisions but it's important to clarify who your complaint is with.

- This concept of the band or their collaborators "gatekeeping" and fans not getting what we "deserve" is, to be blunt, entitled and immature. Being a fan does not make an artist indebted to you. They make music, if you feel so inclined, you listen. That's it. That's the extent of the contract. Anything beyond that is optional for both parties. Any content an artist chooses to release is not out of obligation or generosity, it's part business strategy, part artistic vision. Artists do not owe you anything. This band does not owe you anything.

[puppppppppy]

for like 3 weeks i was wondering why i was sleeping so much and felt listless. and just now I managed to email 3 people and responded to a month old message in the span of an hour because I got back to TAKING MY FUCKIN MEDS..........

[thedevotionaltour]

even for period typical ableism it still drives me nuts for karen to go oh poor matt how can he deal and get around as if he hasn't been blind most of his life at this point and living on his own by himself as an adult for his entire adult life after college and has also lived in the city his whole life like girl use your damn brain he can get around by himself just fine. good god. like take five seconds to use your brain. literally adult man who lives by himself if nothing else that should tell you he is fine and when he needs assistance has the knowledge and ability to go get it you act as if he can't even walk on the sidewalk by himself. he literally shows up to work by himself. it drives me up the wall sometimes how she sees proof of him functioning fine independently literally witnesses it on the daily and still thinks these things. like again foggy isn't great either bc again the period typical ableism (and just general ableism in the world outside of this period as this is a common attitude of viewing disabled people as helpless and unable to function even if they are people who do live independently (and im not touching on people who do need extra support and caretaking in this context. as this post is about these characters in the context of a story. so im talking about what we see there instead of any truly meaningful nuanced way) but the writing here is like. Particularly this way due to the time) he has a modicum more of understanding that matt is literally a capable grown adult man. literally told karen matt is a big boy who can handle himself and then karen went b-b-but you forget he's blind as if foggy hasn't known him for years of his life and is his best friend like PLEASE SEE HIM AS AN ADULT. I AM GOING TO GO INSANE. PLEASE RESPECT HIM IF YOU LOVE HIM SO DEARLY. AND EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T. JUST RESPECT HIM AS A PERSON!!!!!!

[beeapocalypse]

haunted once more by a dumb character idea

[phagodyke]

ykw actually I am angry + disappointed w them. I've been pushing how I feel aside and trying to make it my own fault so it's all contained but I think theyve just been mean. and they really should know me better ik I try to pretend I don't expect more from them so I feel less hurt when they do things that upset me but we've been friends for years by this point. like come on.

[forehead451]

stream of consciousness type deal.

[circusclownproductions]

seeing a lot of videos that are like “I didn’t know babies couldn’t have water” so here’s an incomplete list of things you need to know before having a baby

- the obvious, they can’t have water bc milk is incredibly high in water already so excess water leads to over hydration

- babies cannot have honey until 1

- if ur breastfeeding your kid and saving excess milk, make sure you label what you pumped in the morning vs at night bc your body produces different melatonin levels throughout the day and giving your baby daytime milk at night can make them more alert and fuck up their sleep schedule

- idk why ppl keep saying this but swaddling your babies or getting them those baby straight jacket things is not abuse. It chills them out cuz it reminds them of the womb

- babies have a dandruff like buildup on their head called cradle cap, and it’s very easy to deal with and remove with just some baby shampoo, a gentle scrub brush (MADE FOR BABIES!!) and a comb. It does need to be removed tho cuz it can be very painful after a while. This can also continue to happen late into toddlerhood it’s normal

- you have to clean out the creases of your baby’s skin and hands and feet they WILL collect dust😭😭

- you cannot bathe your baby until their umbilical cord naturally falls off. Use a warm damp rag until then

- tummy time is actually very important

- your baby might have a misshapen head at first (not all the time but sometimes) this will either sort itself out or they’ll need a corrective helmet ask your doctor

- I wouldn’t recommend having your baby leave the house very much until they’re at least 6 months old, especially if they’re born near cold and flu season cuz the common cold can kill a newborn

- you’re not an awful horrible person for having postpartum depression and it’s always a million times better to let your baby cry a few minutes longer than normal while you regain your composure than to freak out and give ur kid shaken baby syndrome

- you’re not an awful horrible person for giving your baby formula milk either

- don’t put shoes on your baby it’ll compromise their toe box and balance

- babies put every single thing in their mouths

- the easiest way to burp a baby is to hold them straight up (spine straight) and hold their head a bit higher

- always support their head they barely have necks

- if your baby fights away food, fights tummy time, vomits every single time you burp them, is gaining or losing an unreasonable amount of weight at a time, wheezes after eating, or goes red after eating, chances are they’re probably allergic to the type of milk they’re eating (again ask a doctor but these are just some signs it’s not just colic)

- they will wobble a lot when learning to do things but you gotta fight the urge to help them every single time cuz they gotta learn

- they’re not always spitting out baby food cuz they don’t like it they just don’t know how to eat. Like they don’t know how to push food down they only know how to stick their tongue out so be patient

- babies craniums are broken up into three parts at first that later fuse together, this is to help make birthing easier but it results in a small EXTREMELY sensitive spot in the top of their head that has no protection. This puts their brain at a high risk. Always protect their soft spot

- read to your baby!! Get cute bright colorful sensory books with sight words and read them to your baby it makes such a huge difference in their educational growth and will help them acquire a love for reading early on. And talk to them never shut up just say whatever comes to mind all the time this will strengthen their vocabulary growth also.

- babies poop like a lot. A lot. an unreasonable amount. Bring back up clothes and more diapers than you think

- no pillows or stuffies in the crib and only use a muslin blanket unless it’s especially cold to prevent suffocation

- babies kick reflexively until they’re out of their newborn scrunch (they stay womb shaped for a while) and if your baby is crying and pushing at the swaddle try letting them flail around for a minute

- consoling your baby is not spoiling them ! They need comfort and they will learn to self soothe on their own

- singing lullabies actually works, they can recognize your voice a consistent place of comfort from the womb and the cadence of lullabies is literally engineered to create a calm headspace

- for the love of god do not get boring ass beige toys. Colors are important for their neurological development

- babies are very responsive to praise from a young age so be as supportive of them as you can

- babies get constipated a lot and you have to do like tummy massages to help ease their pain the easiest way is to lay them on their backs and hold one foot in each hand, kick their feet like bicycles, scrunch up, and then stretch their legs out

- holding them on your hip too much will not cause bow legged-ness if your baby is bow legged that was always gonna happen

- they drool so so much and you have to get bibs for them so they don’t get chest eczema

- don’t use scented products on their skin cuz their skin is sooo much thinner than ours

- when your baby first starts sitting on their own never walk away from them without setting up a nest of pillows and blankets around them. Even minor head trauma can mess them up sometimes

- this one is kinda morbid and scary but sometimes babies just die out of nowhere and it’s no one’s fault or anything it’s called sudden infantile death syndrome(SIDS) and it’s about 1.3k deaths on average per year in America so not super common but still very real. 90% of these deaths happen during the first four months however edit: apparently it’s bc of an enzyme deficiency which at the very least you can take steps to try and prevent

- smoking and drinking during pregnancy WILL affect your baby and your breast milk and also might contribute to SIDS cases

- babies sometimes have a big red mark on them somewhere called a stork bite immediately after birth but typically it goes away

- babies can’t see very well for a while after birth and they’re VERY wobbly so they’ll typically bonk their head into your chest and face a lot while trying to support themselves

- female babies might have smth similar to a period the first few days after birth, this is because of the hormone transfer that happens during the birthing process and the days leading up to it

- male babies get random erections for the first few days after birth(hormone transfer again) literally do not be weird about this it’s a baby

- things like weaning your baby onto solid foods, potty training, weaning off pacifiers etc, can actually be directed by the baby and will happen naturally will minimal guidance from the parent(some guidance is still necessary) although I would do individual research into baby led weaning for food to prevent choking

- get those chewy feeding pouches to help with weaning

- the most random things will scare the hell out of your baby don’t take it personal 😭

- baby carriers are life savers (tulas are one of my favorites)

- once babies hit toddlerhood they’re tougher than you think, and a lot of their reaction is based on YOURS. they’re always going to be looking to you for how to react to a situation. Remain calm and if they’re ok they’ll calm down but if they’re genuinely hurt they’ll keep crying

- babies will most likely get ridiculously attached to an inanimate object and you have to keep this thing intact at all costs until they’re old enough to abandon it or they will throw a FIT. I got a lemur plushie from a zoo once and every single one of the kids has bonded their soul with it until about 6 years old and once a month I have to stitch him back up

- don’t compare yourself to other parents. Maybe your kid isnt getting grass fed wild caught north Atlantic cheerios but at least they’re fed. If your kid is alive and healthy and happy you’re doing a good job

- you will need 3 car seats, an infant seat, a grow with me toddler seat, and a booster seat

- getting a good diaper bag is a MUST

- the hair a baby is born with will most likely all fall out or they’ll get a bald spot on the back of their head where they sleep cuz their hair is so fragile and thin but once it grows back it grows back thick

- get like 20 muslin blankets so you always have a backup when the main ones are covered in spit up

- the babies grip IS stronger than yours (keep your hair up and keep pets away best you can)

- your best bet for your teething baby is a pacifier you can put your finger in so you can massage their gums and some chewing toys numbing cream can be dangerous and should be used sparingly

- go ahead and come to terms with the fact you’re gonna have to use a Frida Baby to manually remove snot

- babies can get hair and thread wrapped around their toes and fingers that can cut off their circulation try to make a habit of checking

- don’t hit your kid please it’s nothing but trauma and fucked up coping mechanisms from there pls empathize with your child they’re a person too

- be careful not to pull too hard on their arms and legs(like during play or holding their hand while they walk) and NEVER pick them up by their hands this will very easily cause dislocation

- they might have a little tooth like callous on their lip from their pacifier. This does not hurt them and it will go away but it may hurt during breastfeeding

- breastfeeding will make your boobs different sizes

Yeag that’s all I can think of rn but yk i Will add as I remember stuff ppl are also adding things I forgot in the tags in case you’d like to look thru that as well <3

[poppyseed799]

Just remembered I technically have a Reddit account, cuz one time someone posted an art I made onto r/fnafcringe and I got a lot of hate for it, so I felt the need to make a throwaway account to defend myself cuz I was like 14 or something. idk if anyone responded to whatever I said cuz I never touched the account again after posting my response. I don’t remember the username or password.

[gingerpines]

teen!caitvi AU drabble based on this art by me!

warning: i am not a writer! and english isn’t my first language! i hope this still makes sense :) its a bit messy its not very well explained sometimes but i hope i got the point across! enjoy!

Ekko was sent by benzo to deliver things at jayce’s workshop and vi and claggor join because ekko’s quite young to go on his own anyways, vi is like, acting as the bodyguard and shes looking all tough and mysterious making sure ekko is okay constantly

they knock and stand at the door, vi staying behind ekko to look around and jayce is like come in! bc they have quite a lot of things and while vi stands back still cautious, she completely drops her tough demeanor when she sees young cait tinkering with some of jayce’s stuff, goggles on. Vi tries to be discreet but her eyes keep darting back at Cait while ekko and jayce conclude business, claggor catches vi but doesnt say anything, and cait comes towards them, taking the goggles off, a big smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you all!" she goes in her thick british accent and she offers a handshake to Vi who doesnt know what to do with that so she kinda blushes and stares at cait, cait going "I’m Caitlyn!" and, embarrassed and flustered, vi just frowns and doesnt say anything, sorta turning around and caitlyn takes that VERY personally and from that point on she’s got beef with her and Vi kinda regrets how stupid she acted but tries not to think about it too much.

now everytime ekko has business in piltover, vi INSISTS on joining, saying its for safety but really its in the hopes she’ll run into caitlyn again. one time at a fair, benzo has a booth to sell things in piltover and ekko runs it, naturally, vi and the other kids join, Jayce and Caitlyn visit the booth and when cait sees Vi she just turns her head away with a frown, still upset at their last interaction and refusing to look at her, and Vi decides to tease her and ask about what theyre doing here. Cait kinda ignores her at first but ends up yapping about jayce’s and her’s latest experiments and shes talking sooo much and vi listens to all of it and when cait realized shes been talking too much they both kinda laughs and then jayce says they have to go so they leave and they smile at each other

throughout the fair Cait tries to “accidentally” walk in front of ekko’s booth again, and when she does, Vi is gone and she asks Ekko where she went and ekko shrugs, cait keeps walking around until she sees Vi walk around and cait joins her and they just kinda tease each other and argue the whole day but in a cute way but they both try to pretend they dont like the other bc they have such different lives and vi keeps calling cait entitled but she doesnt even mean it. From then on, Vi starts sneaking out to meet Cait outside her gate, but she has no idea how to get her attention, so she kinda sits there in the rain for a while until one of the dog starts barking, waking, thankfully, only Caitlyn up who looks out her bedroom window and goes outside to see little wet puppy vi standing at the gate and trying to make up an excuse as to why shes here like jayce forgot a tool from ekko and it was just easier to get it to her house instead and they end up talking until so late even tho its freezing outside, the gate still separating them, like the wall that socially separates them.

they start meeting up almost every week, like clockwork, outside of Cait’s house to talk, and for Cait to yap about things she likes while Vi listens. one day, Cassandra catches them and forbids Cait to see Vi again. They both cry themselves to sleep and Vander notices Vi’s change in mood after that, and asks her about it. she tells him everything and apologizes for lying and sneaking out but vander isnt upset, he hugs her and tells her theyre going to figure it out.

Vander decides to go talk to Cassandra at the next Piltover-Zaun event, Vi standing shyly behind Vander’s leg, Caitlyn standing straight next to Cassandra, both girls so excited to see each other again even tho its weird and awkward with their parents talking in front of them, Cassandra listens to Vander who’s putting on The Charm™️ and she eventually sighs and allows them to see each other bc she sees Vi isnt a menace

that day they both walk around Piltover, often almost holding hands but theyre too shy so they don’t, but Vi wants to show Cait she likes her but she doesnt know how to because they shouldnt and also because she doesnt know how to show love in a way that Caitlyn would understand. they walk around and its comfortably quiet this time, even tho theyre used to yapping and yapping for hours but this time they just want each other’s presence. at one point they walk through a tiny crowd and theres a small group of Zaunites laughing at them, at the contrast between their clothes and demeanors and they hear one of the boys call Caitlyn and a not-so-nice words like stuck up or worse, Vi isn’t even sure but she immediately knocks him down in one punch and Cait has absolutely no idea what to do or say but she then grabs Vi’s hand and they run away, when theyre safe away from that crowd, Caitlyn gets SOOO mad in her little british accent and Vi just sits, knuckles bloody, listening to Cait lecture her.

Eventually, cait calms down and looks down at Vi’s hands and sighs, starting to unwrap her bandages to check her wound muttering “You are such an idiot, Violet.” and Vi just smiles as Cait cleans her wounds.

bonus:

cait begging her mom to let her bring vi to one of the shooting tournaments and Vi joins and they have so much fun and cait lets vi try out her rifle and shes so bad and they laugh and caitlyn teaches her and theyre having a moment but cait’s parents interrupt and theyre blushing and being silly teenagers with a crush and they dont know how to deal with it. cait is definitely the one to fall first even tho she represses it bc vi is from zaun and thats not how she was raised, but she becomes closer with vi and vi realizes wayyyyy too late that she has a massive crush and also that cait is not being slick about it in the slightest. she talks about it with vander at the last drop she sits at the counter with her head in her hands like ughhhhhh i hate having a crush its so stupid and vander laughs

thank u for reading :))

[sungbeams]

WIP DUMP

okay so this is lowkey inspired by @jayparked posting about her wips a bit ago (check them out here she's crazy talented and i can't wait to read them all) and since i've been struggling with writing recently i thought maybe sharing some of my wips could help. also biggest thanks to snail for helping me with the synopses for some of these and listening to me stress over the banners and everything

if you want to talk to me about any of them or wanna get tagged pls don't hesitate to send asks or comment on this post, i'd love to talk about them some more🥺❤️

MIDNIGHT IN MILAN — lhs !! POSTED !!

⟡ ┆ featuring. heeseung x fem!reader

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, established relationship, idol AU (both heeseung and yn)

⟡ ┆ warnings. semi-public sex, unprotected sex, mirror sex, mild choking, creampie, fingering, tiniest hint of degradation (he calls her a slut like once), one singular spank, some hair pulling, not really any aftercare

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 6k

they say love makes you do stupid things...surely fucking your boyfriend in the bathroom at the prada after party when your relationship isn't even public and neither of you can afford a dating scandal isn't that stupid, right?

(i'm well aware the hype around tipsy heeseung has already died down but i started writing this immediately after the pics dropped and then got hit by writers block so i'm dedicated to finish this)

!! more under the cut !!

HE HATES ME, HE HATES ME NOT — psh

⟡ ┆ featuring. sunghoon x fem!reader

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, enemies to lovers, coworker AU, miscommunication (ikik), lowkey past fuckboi sunghoon

⟡ ┆ warnings. hate sex, semi-public sex (in an archive room?), protected and unprotected sex (there's several smut scenes), choking, spanking, degradation, praise kink, oral (m. and f. receiving), handjob, fingering, manhandling, overstimulation, dacryphilia, spit kink

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 20k

park sunghoon hates you, and you hate him. it hadn't always been like that, when you first joined the company he works at he was friendly, a real gentleman, but over time of working together he turns cold, sometimes even downright mean, and you cannot for the life of you figure out what caused the sudden change in his behavior. however, things between you change yet again when you 'accidentally' get locked in your offices archive room.

HOME IS WHEREVER YOU ARE — lhs

⟡ ┆ featuring. heeseung x fem!reader

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, college!au, friends to lovers

⟡ ┆ warnings. there's some talks of depression as well as unhealthy coping mechanism so be aware of that pls, protected sex (be proud of me okay), oral (f. and m. receiving), vanilla af, neither of them are virgins or inexperienced but they just having sex for the first time together after realizing they've been in love with each other for years :')

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 14k

"distance makes the heart grow fonder." is no longer just a cliche saying. heeseung decided to follow his dreams, but doing so lead him to a different city, leaving you behind. no other friends, no hobbies to keep yourself busy, and no motivation to keep going, the only thing keeping you on some sort of routine is attending your college classes that your parents force you to go to. just when you're about to officially quit and give up, heeseung shows up out of nowhere and manages to pull you out of your slump, upturning your whole friendship in the process.

NATURAL REMEDY — pjs

⟡ ┆ featuring. jay x fem!reader

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, physical therapist!reader, patient!jay, probably hipaa violations idk just don't do this irl basically

⟡ ┆ warnings. unprotected sex, oral (m. receiving), body worship (jay receiving bc he deserves someone to tell him or handsome he is), handjob, lots of oil, lowkey massage kink idek what to call this??

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 5k

when jay hurts his knee while goofing around with his friends, his doctor recommends rest and physical therapy. lucky for him, your office is just around the corner, just that neither of you can make good on the ordered rest by doctor.

HEALTHY COMPETITION — lhs + sjy

⟡ ┆ featuring. heeseung x fem!reader x jake

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, college au, non-idol au, and they were roommates (oh my god they were roommates), no romance just fucking

⟡ ┆ warnings. basically no plot, threesome (duh), protected and unprotected sex, anal, double penetration, spanking, oral (m. and f. receiving), multiple rounds, manhandling, they make it a competition to see who can make her moan the loudest...

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 9k

your roommates bickering should be nothing but white noise to you at this point, but when they both rope you into their little argument of who fucks better things take an interesting turn and a welcomed distraction from studying is provided.

SNEAKY LINK — sjy

⟡ ┆ featuring. jake x fem!reader

⟡ ┆ genre and tropes. MDNI 18+ ONLY, smut, uni AU, frat boy jake (i'm sorry), friends with benefits but no one knows, alcohol consumption (they're not drunk and both consenting !!)

⟡ ┆ warnings. unprotected sex (it's a theme for me atp, don't do this irl pls), dry humping, fingering (it's jake come on now), kinda rushed sex ig, does it count as exhibitionism when they fuck in a spare bedroom idk, oral (f. receiving), breast play

⟡ ┆ estimated word count. 4k

frat parties usually weren't your thing, but when your best friend invites you (with the intention to be her wingwoman) you're not one to let her down. that is until you run into jake, whom you've been fooling around with without anyone knowing ...

© sungbeams — all rights reserved. i do not give permission to copy, repost, modify or translate my works.

[call-me-strega]

Dc x DP Prompt #8: Best Friend’s Brother

Preface: this prompt can be used with different characters but I’m writing it as Dead on Main bc that’s my favorite. Also the colleges I mention are real colleges from the DCU

~~~

Danny Fenton was 18 when he moved to Gotham for college.

It was the only place with a half decent engineering program that would take a kid with his record; drop in grades, unexplained absences, missing class, a disciplinary record, etc. Plus there was a decent saturation of both magic and ectoplasm in Gotham’s air. After he got accepted he decided to tell his parents he was Phantom. They reacted surprisingly well all things considered. They were horrified to learn they’d been hunting their son but it quickly turned into acceptance to listen to what he had to tell them. Now they turned their obsession from hunting ghosts to learning more about ghost more humanely. He also managed to get his former rouges to agree to call off any major shenanigans in favor of less destructive outlets. (He got Ember a TikTok and a YouTube channel, he set up a drag racing circuit in the realms for Johnny and Kitty, let Technus enter the internet as long as he stayed within Amity’s grid or help Ember manage her stuff, allowed Desiree grant wishes for Make a Wish Foundation kids so long as she didn’t horribly twist them, etc.)

Now with the town not at constant risk of danger and his parents agreeing to really handle any rouge ghosts, Danny could leave Amity with a clear conscience. His friends were also growing up and heading to their own colleges. Tucker was heading to Ivy University in New England, which rivaled MIT in terms technological prestige, and Sam decided on Vandermeer University in Pittsburg, which had a reputation for being a very liberal, anti-authority campus. Although their trio would be spread out, Danny found comfort in the fact that they’d all moved from the Midwest to the Northeast.

With promises to stay in touch a visit. Danny got set up in GCU’s dorms, ready to move into the next chapter of his life.

~

Danny Fenton was 20 when Tim Drake (age 19 but nearing 20) officially became one of his best friends.

They had been introduced to each other by their mutual friend Sebastian Ives for a new Warlocks and Warriors campaign. Their friendship extended beyond WnW when they ended up on the same Applied Physics and Mechanics class. It was cemented when they got pair up for a project in class and had to spend lots of time around each other.

Danny didn’t mind that Tim tended to be a bit flaky and Tim didn’t mind that Danny was possibly not 100% human. They didn’t ask each other too many questions about that stuff. They knew the other had something odd about him and that was fine with them. It was nice to have a causal friend they could be normal with, without being questioned about their more peculiar behaviors.

They officially became best friends when the built a Rube Goldberg machine with a working trebuchet within an hour of the three they had to complete it for their Applied Phys-Mech final. Danny introduced Tim to Sam, Tucker and Jazz. Tim introduced him to Steph, Tam, and Cass. They texted and hung out fairly often. They truly did consider each other one their best friends.

~

Danny Fenton is 22 when he meets Tim’s family.

Tim’s 21st birthday is coming up and he has plans with his family the day of and is going out with his friends, including a couple from out of town, that night. They want to take him out for his first drink and it’s fortunate timing since it’s the weekend so nobody has to worry about classes. Everyone who was going was already informed that Tim would be spending most of the day with his family before Steph and Cass would bring to the club everyone was meeting up at. Which is why it’s purely a coincidence when he runs into them at BatBurger during the lunch rush.

Danny had just picked up the part-time job to earn a little extra cash to pay for his hobbies. Tim new about it but didn’t know the exact location he worked. That’s why they were both presently surprised when they heard each others voices in the drive through. When they pulled up to window Danny saw his friend leaning over a tired looking black-haired man, trying to stick his head out of the drivers window to give Danny a maniacal grin.

He quickly introduced the other passengers of the car as his dad, Bruce, and three of his brothers Dick, Jason, and Duke. He mentioned he had a fourth brother, Damian, who was still at home. Danny couldn’t really see everyone all that well on account of they were inside a car but he happily greeted them as well. They laughed and Danny wished Tim a happy birthday saying he’d see him at his celebration later tonight before handing them their food. He could the rowdy boys ribbing their brother as the car drove away and Danny resumed his work.

That incident seemed to have opened a gate because now Tim felt more comfortable inviting him over when his brothers were still around the house. He occasionally talked about his family more and Danny returned the favor letting snippets of his own family spill a little more. Occasionally, he’d see Tim’s family outside of his interactions with Tim.

He’d run into Damian, and sometimes Bruce or Dick was with him, at the museum or in the park while the younger had been walking his dog and stopped to say hi a couple of times. He chatted with Dick a couple of times when they were both in line to get coffee at a cafe. He saw Duke on a college tour once and waved at him.

The family member he probably saw the most other that Tim (and by extension Cass) was actually Jason. He’d ended up ditching BatBurger to get some more practical experience at an apprenticeship at the auto shop Jason went to to get his motorcycle serviced. The two of them got along pretty well and would often make conversation when Jason was waiting on his bike to be ready or to get his bill.

At first is was small talk about little things like how he and Tim were doing in class or how their days were going but they soon grew to have genuine interests in each other. Jason let Danny talk about space and mechanics and even gave his own thoughts sometimes, once helping Danny realize he was over complicating the circuit board of the device he was building. In return Danny let Jason ramble to him about literature, even taking the initiative to read a book Jason mentioned so he could talk to him about it better. Their conversation tended to be on the briefer side but were always enjoyable to both parties.

Danny actually liked being around Jason a lot but didn’t really bring that fact up a lot around Tim as it didn’t seem necessary. Tim was pretty glad that Danny got along with his family but he preferred to keep them in separate places in his mind. Danny knew and respected that, only really mentioning that he’d seen them recently and that they’d told him to say hi on their behalf (or die in Damian’s case occasionally).

~

Tim Drake was 22 when he came to a horrific realization.

Well, perhaps horrific was a bit of an exaggeration. Tim wasn’t necessarily horrified by the revelation. In all honesty he didn’t know how to feel. He felt an odd mixture of protectiveness, possessiveness, confusion, and optimism(?).

You see, Tim and Danny had been hanging out in the campus center, studying and goofing off when he got a text from Jason saying he was coming to pick him up for family dinner at the manor since he was closest and Dick was busy picking up Duke and Damian from their after school clubs.

“What’s up?” Danny asked him curiously.

Tim set his phone on the table and started putting his stuff away. “My brother is coming to pick me up for family dinner so I gotta head out soon.”

“Ah well I should probably get going too. Tell Dick I said hi.”

“Actually, it’s Jason. Dick is picking up Duke and Damian,” he said shoving his textbook into his bag.

“Oh? That’s nice of him. Hey do you wanna just head out together?” Danny asked, fidgeting with his hoodie strings.

Tim noticed a slight strain in Danny’s voice at the mention of Jason but didn’t comment. He just nodded his head sure and walked outside with Danny. They got out to the street when Tim realized he’d left his phone in the library. He faced palmed and asked Danny if he could hold his stuff so it wouldn’t slow him down as he ran back to the campus center to get his phone. Danny agreed to and hold his stuff and wait for Jason while Tim went back.

After getting his phone Tim started heading back to where he left Danny when he saw that Jason had arrived that Jason had arrived and was talking to Danny. He was about to call out to them when he noticed several things in quick succession. Danny was fidgeting with his hoodie, something he tended to do when nervous. The tips of Danny’s ears were a light shade of pink (it isn’t cold out yet?). Danny looked deeply absorbed in his conversation with Jason in a way that reminded Tim of how he talked about space. And Jason seemed just as absorbed in the conversation as well.

The gears in Tim’s head went into overdrive and he realized ‘Ah- Danny has a crush on Jason’. His eyes widened as his head whipped around to examine Jason again. He saw a look of genuine fondness in his eyes. Thus Tim was confronted with the aforementioned horrific realization and complicated feelings. Tim didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or both.

‘My dumbass best friend has a crush on my brother. And worse(?), my idiot brother returns those feelings.’

[waywardsalt]

bellum x linebeck chapter summary drafts that won those polls:

chapter 8

chapter 14

chapter 20