#at least that's how I interpreted it based on his tone when he says it and the way Karlach reacts afterward

[hootshooch]

this little bit of banter is so much funnier if you're trying to romance Halsin and your tav IS actually a strong woman (or female-presenting person, in my case) because it makes it sound like he's trying to let Karlach down easy without making it sound like he's NOT attracted to strong women because he knows you're within earshot of the conversation

Karlach: Are strong women your type, Halsin?

Halsin (man who wants to say yes voice): ...they are not NOT my type

[viperwhispered]

Notes on Jamil's speech patterns

I was supposed to just pick out some examples of typical Jamil lines. How he speaks, the vocabulary he uses, things like that. Something I could easily refer to when writing to get the tone right.

But then it kinda blew up, oop – because it’s hard to talk about how a character speaks without also dipping into why they say whatever they say.

Plus then I wanted to get examples of Jamil in different moods, and could not resist some poignant things that were more related to his character or backstory rather than strictly the speech patterns themselves, so… It expanded a bit.

Anyways. Some things I noticed he tends to do:

Sighs (more than I realized)

Snarks

Tch (though could be a more general twst writing choice too)

Stutters when he’s flustered / embarrassed / caught of guard (what a cutie)

Goes ahem like an old man when he’s trying to get back on track in those off-kilter moments

Kinda formal with his manner of speech and choice of words (especially in servant mode) (I always worry I exaggerate this but he sure does do that)

But there’s still some animatedness with the way he emphasises words, for example

(so long-suffering and ready to bark out directions to Kalim oh boy - the way the directness just comes through when he loses it)

sugarcoating his opinions if he doesn’t feel like he can say them plainly (tyrant becomes rigorous, etc.)

sarcasm, sometimes with a side of deadpan, sometimes with a smirk

“Good grief” (another thing I didn't realize was that much of a catchphrase)

Very mild on the level of insults & swears honestly, (I mean, "drat"?) but I imagine this is more of a result of the game's rating (I guess for in-game reasons we can say he's been very conditioned by his upbringing)

I put the screenshots that seemed telling, and some related notes, on to a google sheet. That way one can filter and order it in various ways.

The sheet is probably best viewed on a computer or another larger screen, the screenshots might make it a bit difficult to navigate on mobile.

I did go in with the assumption that Jamil might speak differently pre-overblot (when the servant mask is firmly in place) and post-overblot (at least those occasions where he allows himself to be more honest). Like, there’s the sycophantic (as Leona calls it) flatterer, versus when Jamil’s honestly voicing his own thoughts. Which also shows in how I chose to categorize the screenshots.

Of course events are a bit wibbly wobbly in relation to the main story so can’t be placed in the timeline in the same way, but there are still those occasions where it seems you can tell the difference between the servant mask and a Jamil who’s not saying things just for the sake of appearances.

So, to explain the logic of the sheet:

First column has a screenshot of something Jamil says. The second two columns give the source.

The column for whether or not this happened before or after the overblot is only really used for main story things, since event stories are kinda murky timeline-wise.

Next is whether Jamil seems to be putting on the servant mask or speaking more honestly. This is where get more to interpretation territory, and I’ve not applied it to every screenshot (either because that didn’t seem like the relevant part for that line, or because I couldn’t tell).

The last column of the sheet is where we get most to my personal interpretations. So of course you might read these lines differently than I do, and that’s completely fine, these are simply the aspects that seemed poignant to me. Some notes are simply pointing out specific word choices or style of speech, others delve more into character analysis side of things.

Totally fine if you want to copy this file or modify it to your own needs. All I ask is that you don’t pass off anything I wrote as your own thoughts.

Order of lines is based purely on the order the pics were in my screenshots folder, so guess this is also an insight on the order I played things in, lol.

Tagging some jamil peeps in case y'all find this useful:

@crystallizsch @diodellet @moonyasnow @twstgo @lex752

@majestickitty @viperbunnies

[rottmnt-residuum]

Hi, I've read the Residuum comic, and I think the characterization of the boys is really good. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to write them? Especially Mikey, please.

I'd actually recommend re-watching the show with one character in mind. All my notes on the turtles come from doing separate re-watches for each of them. The key is to ONLY watch the character you are focusing on.

In the end, you'll probably be happier with your own personal interpretation. As we are with ours lol

TL;DR

Massive post under the cut

To preface: we'll be contrasting (this Mikey) against the fandoms version of Mikey, as our interpretation is very different. Don't worry if you prefer the fandom version, there's nothing… wrong per se with writing him this way. We just find him flat and uninteresting. (Main author: not me, I just hate him, lol).

Every reader or fan comes into a story with their own biases and experiences. A ton of our view of Mikey is based on how our siblings acted. We see Mikey as the young sibling that got preferential treatment from the whole family, simply due to being the youngest, but is now aging out of the privilege. Which all youngest siblings do at some point or another.

The fandoms version of Mikey is empathetic, naive, vulnerable, co-dependent and quite often a door mat who cries at the drop of a hat. And as much as the fandom like to say that people love him… when this particular character archetype is in other media, they seem to attract the most criticism. Mable pines, Bolin from Korra, people rag on Aang all the fucking time, and Steven Universe is a whole other bag. These characters don't deserve it, and yet it happens anyway.

To flatten Mikey to simply 'the baby' is a disservice. We don't see or write Mikey as the fandom “baby” version (cinnamon roll uwu). Part of this comes from having multiple siblings, so we interpret the times when Mikey does the puppy dog eyes as typical younger sibling bullshit, mostly by the way that the other turtles rarely react to it, if at all.

The other turtles traits can also get projected onto Mikey. Mikey being the fandom therapist is in the same category as this. He isn't a therapist, he's a psychology nerd who likes to psychoanalyze people and meddle in their relationships. (Donnie and Shelldons relationship, Splinter and Draxums...) he's not trying to resolve your emotional issues. Of the turtles, the character that cares the most about people's feelings is Raph. And Leo is more of a consoler than Mikey ever is. It flattens all the turtle's characterizations when you start doing this because you are ripping out parts that are integral to another characters' complexity.

Co-author has told me that they've seen people become confused when going into the show after only reading fan fiction or coming from the movie. They see his characterization as inconsistent and become upset when their view of him is contradicted. This also happens when a fandomized version of him becomes the primary characterization that they use. Sometimes when this disconnect happens (or if they just don't like the character), Mikey characterization is swung in the complete opposite direction.

They make him manipulative and abusive, or someone who is hyper violent and avoids being held accountable for anything. This is an uncharitable interpretation of him and can come off as pretty racist depending on the circumstances. (like if someone considers the turtles black or not)

Every version of Mikey is a shithead (affectionate), even this one. Especially this one, really. When Mikey not doing the "baby schtick" hes mean. If you pay attention to what he's saying, and just not his tone of voice, he's consistently saying pretty mean or condescending stuff. (You could take this as simply naïveté, but he still says mean shit pretty often regardless)

The times he does say genuinely nice stuff the turtles don't exactly expect it from him, at least, in the early season. And while he is mean, and seems to find saying mean things to be funny, Mikey isn't cruel. Nor will he ever be.

This shit-headery behavior is found in both 2003 and 18 Mikey. They have a degree of social intelligence that lets them use it to annoy people into doing what they want. 18 just has the advantage of being baby faced and having better tonal control. He's good at using people's perception of him to get what he wants.

Let Mikey have his problematic traits, but don't overexaggerate them. He doesn't revel in fooling people. He loves doing character bits, and the baby faced one just happens to be one of them. However, to infantilize or to deem him incompetent is to piss him off, he wants to be viewed as a competent part of the team and competent as an individual. He's not insecure about being young, he just doesn't want to be treated like he can't do anything.

Mikey above all is an optimistic character, he sees the brighter side quite often and is conscious of the harm his actions have on people. Mostly after the fact, but he consistently attempts to rectify the harm he has personally done to peoples lives. (Todd, Bullhop, Draxum). Food and shelter seems to be a thing that he considers to be a right. He doesn't cross a boundary twice once he learns of it, and he never pushes people too far (if he likes you, that is. if he doesn't know you or doesn't like you, he doesn't give a singular shit. But that is standard to most people.). He doesn't care about people's stuff, though. He breaks things all the time.

Mikey understands boundaries, but he doesn't automatically recognize them. He needs them to verbalized or for there to be a very obvious reaction to the boundary being crossed (unfortunately, for Todd and Donnie). Sometimes people mess up (esp. younger people), and it can take a while for teens to learn where boundary is, but he fully respects the boundaries he does know about. He doesn't act petulant when he's told about boundary, he apologizes, accepts it, and moves on. He doesn't dwell.

Mikey doesn't hold on to distressing emotions. He bounces between emotions quickly, but isn't effected in the long run. One thing Iv'e seen people often conflate is the difference between sensitive and vulnerable. Mikey is sensitive, but I have never seen him vulnerable to others. To be sensitive is to be easily influenced by the current situation. To be vulnerable is to hold that influence for a long time. Characters can have one, both, or neither of these traits. But Mikey is not vulnerable. It is the difference between compressing memory foam and a piece of metal until they deform. One will pop back, the other does not.

Those who are vulnerable but not sensitive will take longer to effect, but once you do, they will hold on to that emotion for a very long time. The vulnerable, are grudge holders. (leo). But like I've said, Mikey bounces back. What a character does has an effect on his emotions, but it doesn't make a lasting impression.

Forgiveness is another thing people like to push on him. It is not that Mikey forgives people easily, it's just that he doesn't hold grudges. He neither forgives nor forgets, but he does not ruminate. He's generally affable, first impressions seem to be a big part of how he views people. He is idealistic, and doesn't assume people are unchanging and/or evil, but he's not a mark.

Mikey isn't so much as naive or overly trusting… it's just that he's inexperienced. He doesn't get fooled by anyone in the series except meat sweats, and that's because Meatsweats is on Todd drugs. Mikey just didn't notice when he started faking. He's not… actually all that aware of people's emotional states, passively. He has to tune in to notice things like that.

Mikey isn't someone who really tries to regulate others emotions, either. The fandom like to make Mikey afraid of his brothers fighting and others being upset, but Mikey doesn't actually care. The most distressed we ever see him in a fight is in the movie, and he's not SCARED, he's just concerned (and then alarmed once it turned physical). If anything, outside extenuating circumstances (like the movie), Mikey actually seems to find their fights annoying.

(Mikey actually seems to have a pretty short fuse, but his bounciness doesn't really let it linger very long, lmao)

(One pet peeve of fandom Mikey is the constant crying, crying at fights, crying at insults, crying for no reason all the time. Sure, he tears up when he gets emotional, but when Mikey is genuinely crying It's when he's desperate, like when he's hungry, or when he's trying to save Leo from certain doom. Same thing, really.)

Mikey respects no one (we love him for this). He admires people, he admires his family: April, the turtles, his dad, Lou Jitsu. He admires Rupert Swaggert, but he respects none of them. No one is sacrosanct to the Mikey.

Above all, the way we write characters is to give them a past that informs how they act now. We view Mikey and the other turtles as teenagers that were kids, and that will be adults. Yes they all have “problematic” traits, but 1) good characters need flaws, and controversial traits are one of the best to use, and 2) they're teenagers, don't expect adult behaviors from them, also don't expect them to be kids. They're minors, not toddlers.

This is getting as long enough as it is, so we'll stop here, but this is a very broad overview of how we characterize him. There's a lot we didn't cover here, but if we even started on hobbies, or the real minutia of his quirks and ticks, or even how he feels about other specific characters... we'd be here all day. So I hope this is good enough lol

If there was something you wanted to know in particular, you'll need to get specific. Feel free to ask again ahahh

[l0vem41l]

something's wrong with the morning.

「 tws + notes: no tws, unedited 2 the max, potentially ooc but WHO GAF (me. igaf), he misreads tone over text and it's totally not me projecting, bros just a little anxious and its totally not me projecting, richard "acts of service" grayson in the real, pretty heavily romantic implied but it can be interpreted as platonic becuz we fw that here!!!!! 」

「 gn!reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

↳ ft. richard "dick" grayson/nightwing

author's note: yes i am uh. doing More dc stuff. guys im really sorry but its literally leeching off my brain like a parasite i fear. enjoy!!!!!!! ♪(´▽｀) <3 the lyric below is what i based this off of but as usual, GENDER NEUTRAL READER!!!

"and how something's wrong with the morning / when he doesn't phone to say he loves me"

dick has been staring at the text since the minute he received it.

“gm.”

you sent two letters. and a period at the end.

immediately, there's a weird feeling he gets— a pit forming in the depths of his stomach as he reads it over and over again, as if he expects it to magically change in front of his eyes.

you usually send something… more in the morning. you greet him happily and use a silly nickname, he greets you and uses a silly nickname back. it's sort of tradition for the two of you, mainly built on the fact that him being a vigilante leaves very little time for the two of you.

so what the hell happened to that tradition? where’s his “good morning pookie!” or “hope you slept well, sunshine :]” that he's grown so accustomed to?

of course, he has to go on with his day like usual. at least, he's trying his best. to his credit, he does pretty well. after all, dick grayson is a performer at heart! even if it secretly feels like a part of his world just collapsed in on itself, he does not sulk about it.

but to the observant, there's obviously been a shift.

the slightly irritable mood he’s been in? definitely normal. the fact that he’s been swiping away every notification with disinterest if it’s not you? totally nothing.

more astute criminals in blüdhaven are a little off put by the fact that nightwing is still at full quip capacity while hitting just a little harder and being just a teeny bit more bitchy.

there nervous speculation going around that next week he'll be in the discowing fit

nightwing notices that his mask is slipping a bit. but does he care? well... not really. what's more important to him is what's going on inside his head. and he's been thinking— hardcore reflecting on every single recent previous interaction with you, looking back to everything that must’ve made things go wrong.

maybe he should’ve let you win that one argument last monday, even though he’d been pretty certain he was right because you really aren't supposed to stack cards in uno that way.

or maybe “anything’s fine” as a response to you asking what he wanted for dinner was the wrong move— he knew you hated when he didn’t help your indecisiveness.

was it the movie he picked for movie night on your hangout? fuck, that might've been it, you totally hate the main actor. how could he have forgotten?

either way, he’s dead set on the fact he did something to piss you off and now you won’t even greet him good morning.

later in the afternoon, you find a cute little basket on your doorstep containing your favorite flowers, your favorite snacks… and an apology note??

“dick,” you message, “what’s going on?”

he doesn’t reply back. instead, he calls you.

before you can even greet him, his voice chimes in with a whole spiel you didn't expect to be hit with.

“i messed up. i know i did and i should've done better. and i’m so sorry, i wanna make this work and i just— from the bottom of my heart— i really, truly apologize—”

you blink several times at your phone before interrupting. “oookay, woah, woah, woah. let's slow down. the fuck are you apologizing for?”

“...your message this morning.” he mumbles out, barely audible. you can hear the pout in his voice somehow.

“what? the one i typed up while rushing to work?” it’s hard to stifle your laughter. “dude, i just woke up a little late. i promise i still love you.”

he doesn't know whether to feel more relieved that you're not actually upset with him or embarrassed about the drastic, immediate measures he took to make things right. things being absolutely nothing, because obviously you weren't gonna be petty over uno rules, nondecisions, or movies.

"you should come over. we can share the snacks if you get here in time." click.

he'll be at your door the minute patrol is done. not for the snacks though it is a nice bonus but to see you. lord knows you need the time together.

— reblogs always appreciated!

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Are You Sure?! - Episode 1 Observations

Who said it during the Bon Vogaye S3 interviews? "We click". Was it Jimin or Jungkook? Either way, it's clearly mutual and and we've heard iterations of that throughout the years in other contexts, particularly in terms of work ethic.

The first night they spent in Connecticut at that cabin in the woods showed us a different facet, in a more domestic realm. The delegation of each role during cooking pointing out what the other one likes, knowing exactly how to prepare something based on a word. It was like a well-oiled machine that has been functioning for ages. It also gave us a taste of what was to come the next evening when Jungkook cooked pasta, an entire scene worthy to dissect.

But what stood out to me more was what happened next. I know we've all joked and talked about poor Jimin and his stomach bug. A very unexpected topic, but here we are. The level of candidness might have felt surprising (at least for me initially), but they are also guys and perhaps coming from a place socially and culturally in which it's not unusual.

But it did contribute to that element of authenticity I mentioned in my first post about the series. I want to digress a bit here because the entire situation reminded me of a conversation I had perhaps more than a decade ago. I was talking to an acquitance about elements that are usually kept out of films, part of the mundane. What is left out of the story due to its lack of relevancy. And he said that scenes of people urinating are common in films, but we don't see/hear people taking a shit, or even talking about it. Yes, the language was that crude. (And no, Salo doesn't count). Shortly after, Godard's Adieu au langage was released and if my memory serves right, it had that exact scene that my acquitance was talking about. I don't think it was a matter of authenticity, the film was a lot more complex than that in its experimentation, but it did go as far as to show somehow the hidden parts of human behavior on screen, now suddenly at a forefront.

What's the purpose of that in a travel show? What does it say about the choice to show it and about the people? In variety content including surviror type, travel or even food show, issues connected to the body are not something foreign or unusual. But in AYS, it's about the length and how it became a way to show the care a person has for the other and consequently becoming another example of that authenticity.

Both Jungkook and Jimin kept a light tone over Jimin's progressive state of sickness, but in no circumstances has Jungkook ever treated it like he needs to keep his distance. The man was sitting in bed, telling Jimin it's alright, while he was fighting for his life in the bathroom.

Despite keeping a light tone, in Jungkook's case it's often about his actions. His own way of showing that he cares more than what appears to. He might laugh and joke that Jimin is dying, all the while being the one to give him the medicine. He keeps on making jokes as he goes outside, only to immediately decide to build a stone temple so Jimin can get better.

I found it all very moving. I know it might also seem trivial, but I choose to see some gestures for what they appear to be a sign of: complete comfortability, with no uneasyness or shame or lack of aknowledgement. It's a result of seeing that person going through everything and knowing that person intimately, at whatever level any of us choose to interpret it.

To be continued...

[xanderjkz]

Charlie Dalton- Misery Behind Walls

I finally figured out what makes Charlie's character such an interesting one (from my perspective)

There are alot of interpretations of his character but what the fandom can agree the most on is that this mf cares about his friends. Almost in a way that is above regular standard.

Okay sounds weird but why did I say it when it's never really shown? Well he often is in the moment when the other poet has a breakthrough in the movie. When evil Tom literally made Neil's day worse, he was the first to speak to him. But to base this little theory on a bigger proof I'd like you to remind the only scene where this big care is vocalised:

"Fiete you're going insane!" I'll be not be misinformed about my state of mind! Let's move on! He literally asks so many damn questions that Knox gets annoyed with it. And the tone Charlie uses in that scene isn't one to mock him or put Knox in question. He's just curious if Knox has thought this through. Because he cares!

But why? What is so damn interesting about this dude caring? What makes Charlie the way he is?

Charlie somewhat hides his care for his friends behind the nice wall of Humour. Humour is beautiful, it's Twistingly and contently a nice way of escapism. Humour is provoking a peal of laughter out of someone and that's what Charlie does. But over the years when you use this way of coping you start to twist in the wrong way. It's a wonder how anyone who uses this type of coping mechanism can even recognise themselves in the mirror. After a while, you hide your internal feelings behind a wall too. For yourself you become unrecognisable.

But why?

It's established in the first 10 minutes of the movie that Charlie is from a family of bankers who are fond of him continuing the legacy. And we know that he is from a wealthy family. And most wealthy kid trope in media follows the structure of pressure and unobtainable views. Wealthy people don't want to be touched by anything lower. So they have to obtain this image of untouchability. This is probably the way Charlie has been raised. Money is more important. And like most wealthy kids, they get neglected for that money.

Every kid wants love. And this is what Charlie probably chased. And still is. And love can be interpreted in lots of ways but as I see in myself, I always tried to get attention so they think of me. If they can't love me, then I should at least linger on their minds. So what's the quickest way to gain attention and potential Recognition?

(Here he more tries to loud than funny but the need for the same thing is still there)

He started to build his personality in a way that would later bring him to complete self-isolation. He doesn't give a fuck about money. And he most definitely doesn't want to go down the same way his father did. But something in him always wanted that recognition, so he didn't go against anything.

But then Keating happened

So we made clear that something inside him can't separate personality from coping, right? So what happens when a teacher comes around with the opinion to go against the system? Doubt? Anger? Or fascination?

Visionary

Charlie, if asked, def would've told you that life comes to him how it wants to be. As long as he makes his friends happy, then he is fine. Not happy but fine. So when Keating tries to bring new things into the mix, everybody began to rethink their story.

Todd got more comfortable

Neil pursued something he always wanted

Knox got the guts to ask a girl out

So what's up for Charlie? He becomes vulnerable with himself. As he lost his personality in humour so did the familiarity with himself. So every lesson he becomes more bold and Indulgent in poetry and the revolution.

But a journey to find oneself takes long. God a 16-year-old won't find it within 4 months. But for what it's worth he tries. Throughout the movie, these boys drift apart from tradition and self-destructive ideologies. The first time Charlie makes this change in his consciousness is this one:

(Love how he looks in the angle)

Doing poetry doesn't bring attention to himself, not in the way we established he needs. So why is he doing this now?

"You yap too much, we get it" well fuck you, I'm getting to the better part

The reason for his somewhat impulsive reaction is the way he saw himself in Keating. Keating is a poet, but Charlie at first doesn't care about that. What he does care about is the cheeky way Keating moves his lips. From the comments about Meeks and Pitts names to the way he openly makes a name for himself. He thinks of Keating as this older version of himself. And he doesn't know what to do with it.

(Again this is going on in his head without him actually verbalising it to himself. Everybody does that, just writing it down)

So now this boy is chasing something he thinks can bring him to the Keating kind of level. In this path, he slowly becomes more radical with his thoughts, in a way that is pushing things over the edge. But in a boiling kind of way.

First, we have him ripping out the page. Then, the playboy scene and then this one:

I'd like to believe that this was the first time that his inner self formed a sentence. In scenes before that one, he is fidgeting around, trying to really get into it. He liked what he heard. And while he is still clinging to this version poisoned on humour, he's getting out of it. BUT

This scene is where he lets himself go. And it's safe to assume that something must have happened between the pic before and now. What is it? Heck, I know. All I know is that he tested the water and realised it's alright. (Again he is a 16-year-old boy, every 16-year-old has doubts) so everytime we do see him in the cave, he's wearing the damn hat.

So what have we established:

He cares deeply for his friends

He hides his need for recognition behind jokes

He somehow lost himself in it

He sees himself in Keating

Then learns how to be his inner self again (partly)

And he's doing poetry! Or Poetrusic...

But why did I say partly? Well, this movie is called DEAD Poets Society. And who died at the end of the movie? Ofc His CHILDHOOD best friend Neil. (This is heavily implied but even if they aren't, Neil was the closest to Charlie). He was probably the first person to know about it and definitely jumped into impulsiveness. In a way where he takes over the responsibility. Let's be real if this was at the beginning of the story he would've been one to be non-functioning but after he got his punishment and faced his worst, he knew that there are things to not be self-centered about. It's obvious that Charlie told the others. I mean, these boys look so distributed that they definitely couldn't form any sentence to the others. So it is Charlie. It had to be.

But he does let his emotions out. Not vocalising them but he shows the others that he understands. Particularly in three scenes:

1.

2.

3.

( I literally wrote something AMAZING BUT FFS TUMBLR DELETED IT)

These scenes show him care and breaking. He let's his voice break while shoving snow into Todd's mouth. To clean Todd and to drown his thoughts aswell. He has to be there but God he breaks. Because he cared

He cared so damn much for Neil. And it was that stupid system that took him away. His inner self is caring, Poetic and confronting. But how?

With all his emotions that are directed at the system regarding Neil's death, he does his first rebellion. And that not singing. The singing is only a recognition of the fact that evil Tom isn't at fault. Being in the front row and not singing? Fucking provoking.

So what's next? Now that he has found his last finding piece? The confronting kind? Not the part hiding behind humour? (If you notice he hasn't cracked a joke since Neil offed. Ofc bc the times are dark but he could've said one after the funeral. But he didn't, he was just angry)

Well....

His last scene.

He knew what would happen once Cameron walked away. He knows his roommate too much. But the reason why he punched Cameron wasn't for the fact that they couldn't work it out on the remix but more for the fact that he saw Cameron as the system. As Cameron kept digging, Charlie thought that this was the way out. Every person who experienced grief knows it's all over the place and often not understandable. If I could explain it, I would say that he had the hope of starting the rebellion needed. But he couldn't.

He failed at confronting it to its most effective stage.

He managed to comfort his friends, he managed to change his mind. But sometimes confronting ends at the start.

But it was he who failed, not the mindset. It was the rest but most importantly todd who continued it...

It's sad to not hear anything after his expulsion but I think it would be even more heartbreaking. Charlie is a lot of things but the most important one is that he is a boy. Utterly experiencing things he shouldn't have. To think that he ended his time at Welton, disproving the thing he mostly cared for (which was attention to himself) just to find himself while so is...beautiful. He broke free and now has to be alone to find his future. This is both tragic and hope-fulfilling. Wherever he ended up, I hope Charlie learned to deal with Neil's death as well...

Or I'm delusional and he's just a 16-year-old boy without depth.

Again characters are always up for debate and everyone has their interpretation. I finally wrote down mine and think it's important to share. Do with it what you want but please remain polite. Except when you crack a joke

I want jokes 🔥

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hewo I know Halloween is over but may I have TADC cast x Jack Skellington!Reader? Plus their dog also got transported and turned into Zero.

Imagine an 11ft tall skeleton rising out the giant ballpit thing

If Jax or Caine pisses them off they do the scary face thing

TADC cast x jack skellington! Type reader!

I dont mention the dog much since I dont really. Have many ideas for them <\3

Also I have not seen nightmare before Christmas in YEARS so UHUH! This may be a bit off

Written on mobile

I'm down with the sickness but the sickness is not down with me (too sore to sleep)

CAINE:

You guys walk bubble and your dog together/j

Actually no that would be.. kind of funny.. I can definitely see caine doing that if hes trying to befriend you

Chaotic gentleman (is that a thing? Honestly I'm just basing the gentleman part on the fact caine says stuff like "my dear" and goes out of his way to welcome new circus members but uhuh) and calm gentleman duo

Things happen

Honestly I think you would balance him out, like either he tones down or you compliment his personality enough to make it more bearable to others

POMNI:

Similar to the skeleton reader post, pomni is a little offput by you being a skeleton. It's like how you instinctively get freaked out when you see an exposed brain, usually means somethings very wrong. Same case with your bones I think. At least for pomni while shes getting used to things. Though your gentle and kind demeanor really helps ease things along, and pomni finds herself comfortable around you!

AND you come with a dog? Tbh I can see pomni being a dog person

... If that's your dog, assuming it's not an NPC, does that mean your dog got a mini headset...?

RAGATHA:

Kind lady and kind person. You guys kind of just brighten up the room whenever you two are around, and even more so if you're together... though, that isn't saying much given the general attitude of the others..

You both tend to band together to look out for the others during IHAs, I think

Let's you rattle on about your interests; I'm sure most others would let you do the same, but I think Ragatha would actually be actively engaged in it! I think Kinger would be too...

Sets you three down in a corner and observes

JAX:

Writing this down first before I forget but Jax would do an exaggerated fake scream when you do the scary face thing. I don't think jax would be all the phased by it. If you're a skeleton you're cursed with him trying to undo your bones, very similar to the TADC cast x skeleton reader post from a few days ago

Personality wise? Jax is going to try to find your limits and break them. Oh you're a gentleperson who handles things with grace? Not for long.. unless you have the patience and forgiveness of a god

KINGER:

I think he would enjoy your prescence! Just dont do the face thing around him, hes probably gonna freak out even if it's not directed towards him. Kinger doesnt strike me as the type to like scary things..

Pets your dog, a lot

Emotional support animal/j but actually I can see him becoming attatched to your dog

Not much to be said here but I'm chalking that more up to me being tired <\3

ZOOBLE:

Is a little annoyed by your enthusiasm to learn as much as you can about whatever topic ha syour interest; bonus if you're current interest is the digital world and trying to figure out all the ins and outs of it

....they're more of a cat person, I think... ir maybe a snake person... or reptile person in general.. doesnt hate your dog, though

Can at least appreciate your mannerisms and politeness

I can see you two being decent friends , I think

GANGLE:

Another one where I think you guys could make decent friends. Honestly, I didnt write this to be romantic (though some of these can be interpreted as such!) But I wholeheartedly believe gangle would develop a crush on you. I mean, come on! You're a gentleman, you're a lil quirky, you're kind and curious, and so on! Bonus if you look the part, too. I have a hc lying around somewhere where I believe gangle used to play dating sims in the real world and tbh. She would definitely go after characters that reflected you... and oh look youre a real person, hell yeah

It was either characters like you or the dark mysterious ones

But maybe I'm hella projecting onto gangle

Gangle is our x reader enjoyer rep/hj

[avelera]

"Nice is Different than Good" Character Interpretation: Hob Gadling as Kind of a Bastard

Ok, slightly controversial take on Hob Gadling Is Kind of a Bastard that I've been toying with. It runs counter to some wonderful let me be clear, amazing fanon I've seen in some fics, so this is much more me going, "Hey, here's a way to do it different that might work better in different stories fan writers might want to tell," and not to invalidate other takes or even to put forth that I think this is necessarily true of Hob in a meta sense, it's just shining a light on the text from a different direction, y'know?

Hob as Neutral Evil (credit to Winter on the big dreamling server for this concept!)

I'm obsessed with the idea that Hob is neutral evil on ye olde D&D alignment chart because it makes so much sense if the axis for evil is primarily based on selfishness.

Primary evidence? How casually he talks in 1489 about having done a bit of soldiering and banditry. Those jobs are about killing people. Maybe not all the time as a bandit, ideally, but even then it's about taking their stuff. There is absolutely zero remorse in Hob's tone about being a soldier and a bandit just because he's at his most wide-eyed innocent and has since picked up a trade.

Hob as Politically Conservative until at least 1789 but possibly until 1989

Hob as far as I can tell is a model of the white male middle class existence in England throughout what we define as more or less the "modern era". As far as I can tell, there's no indication at any point prior to 1789 that Hob rocked the boat or was at all out of step with the Powers That Be.

In general, I kind of see Hob as always just this side of the "wrong side of history" and I personally find it more interesting when that's where we find him. And not in a grand sense but in a "middle of the road" sense of just going along with the day to day accepted levels of harm and evil caused by societal momentum. Generally speaking, only a very small percentage of the population takes active part in moving the needle towards good at any given time on a variety causes, and I tend to see Hob is generally speaking outside of all those minorities of do-gooders, except when it comes to taking care of his immediate friends and family. Which is a pretty average place to be.

Indeed, when it comes to the Wat Tyler rebellion, it's my personal headcanon that Hob was more likely on the side of the soldiers putting DOWN the rebellion on behalf of the local lords, and unlikely to have been interested in or part of the cause of greater equality in England. The fact he's a soldier drinking with his mates openly in a tavern when people around him are talking about Wat Tyler and he's blithely ignoring the discussion is where I get that sense.

Indeed, I believe (though I don't know where to cite it, even in the English Civil Wars, Hob was canonically on the side of the monarchy. So jot that down as Hob being pro-monarchy.

While, yes, I believe post 1789 he learned to be less of a piece of shit about taking active part if horrific industrial-level cruelty, I don't see evidence he became a superhero after that. The one bit of "on the page"altruism we see from him is him flipping a coin to Lushing Lou and telling an obvious alcoholic to go get a drink so she stops pestering his friend by offering herself to him as a prostitute, something Hob seems entirely comfortable with.

In 1989 when Hob gets out of his sleek convertible, dressed like a stock trader, he uses the Financial Times to shield himself from the rain, a periodical that apparently was just lying around in his car. As tempting as it would be to say it's to somehow show off to Dream, he has no reason to believe Dream would come back to his car so more likely, it's just something for himself.

All of these put together show me on the page that Hob stayed pretty fixated on making money even after deciding and coming to regret being part of the "shipping business".

And to be clear, we don't actually know when Hob quit the shipping business. Personally, I like to think he did it right after Dream asked, but that's a romantic take and deliberately so. Hob having the opinion by 1889 that slavery is wrong is not necessarily a progressive take by then. Regardless, even if in 1789 he learned it was wrong, that still puts him just slightly ahead of the curve, philosophically speaking.

If we pull in comic canon we do know Hob was ahead of the curve on feminism by 1912 in Hob's Leviathan but again, women would get the right to vote by 1918/1928 in England after the issue had been discussed for at least a century (keep in mind, male Catholics couldn't vote in England until the early 1800s) so again this puts him as palatable to modern readers but not necessary terribly ahead of the curve.

Now, let me also be clear, where Hob is at in 2022 is anyone's guess. Personally I think Dream not showing up in 1989 was a second wakeup call for Hob. If he'd drifted back towards selfish hedonism by 1989, as his whole vibe suggests, he might very well have looked in the mirror and thought, "What if this is why my stranger stayed away?"

We know he becomes a teacher. That probably would go a long way towards changing his politics. We know he's a history teacher, so now he's got the long view. He's spending time in academia, which tends to lean left. My point is, Hob in 2022 is anyone guess and I think there's a lot of evidence and word of god evidence that he's become a Good Person by then, but I also think it's the 1989 meeting that jumpstarted him being Good and not just Nice. Because I do think Hob throughout all these periods of being morally a bastard was always good to the people close to him in his life. I think he was a good friend and a good husband and would have been a good friend to Dream had he allowed it. And that's what I enjoy most, that he could be both of those things, Nice and Not Good.

Hob as non-religious

I admit, this one is very near and dear to my heart for personal reasons of identifying as an atheist when it comes to Christianity and being a lifelong skeptic of Catholicism for the brief time I was technically a member of that organization (all of which while I was a minor). To be clear there is just as much evidence to say Hob is any number of religious alignments as there is that he has none. It's a totally personal choice by any author, I'm just outlining my evidence for why I write him as effectively an atheist.

The Black Death is considered the period that broke the spine of the Catholic church as a monolith in Europe. All the good priests who did their duty taking care of people and giving last rites died leaving only the ones who fled or were young, with tons of money given to the church because of all the rampant death.

Hob would have been born into an era that was particularly rife with both fanaticism and anti-church sentiment. There was a lot of evidence abounding that being a good Christian just got you killed.

Given Hob is a soldier drinking with his mates 1389, I don't see much evidence of him being particularly devout there. No less so in 1489, by the way. Not saying there's evidence against it, just that there's no evidence for it and indeed, societally there's justification for him to not be devout given the century he was born.

1589 I'd say we've got some evidence Hob isn't devout: he seems unperturbed by King Henry's ransacking of the monasteries. Politically speaking, if Hob is a New Man, he might have even benefited from that ransacking personally. In my personal view, Hob is an opportunist and most likely converted to Church of England at the earliest possible opportunity to curry favor with the Powers that Be. I don't personally see him as someone who would bother pretending to be Protestant while continuing to practice Catholicism, because:

Why would Hob bother to be faithful at all? He can't die. The #1 reason to be devout is to avoid Hell or get into Heaven. Hob has clearly chosen the secular world as the only Heaven he cares about. He says that his current life is what, "He once thought Heaven would be like" and it's a very secular vision of good food and safe streets. He does not appear to be pining at all for any spiritual version of Heaven and indeed, speaks of Heaven as a dream only in the past tense.

Personally, by 1689, I think Hob has plenty of reasons to hate God after what he's suffered and the fact he's still not interested in dying to me seems a pretty strong indication that he does not hold romantic views of the afterlife.

Finally, for 1789 to the present, there was absolutely a class of gentleman who were progress minded, obsessed with technology and the Age of Reason. Many American Founding Fathers were self-proclaimed deists, basically a safe form of atheism that said eh, yes God exists and is out there and we owe him some deference, but he doesn't impact day to day life and we can safely ignore him most of the time. Personally, and this is pure headcanon, I put Hob in that group cheerfully ignoring religion and never looking back because he's more interested in the new technologies of the day and not the crusty old church.

We also know, canonically, that at least in 1789, Hob does not consider himself Jewish.

And of course, we can't forget: Hob has evidence that the Christian cosmology is wrong, somehow, given his stranger and his own immortality.

Frankly, given that Hob appears on the page to be a hedonist with no fear of dying, it's interesting to speculate on what his moral boundaries would be at all coming from a world where Heaven and Hell were the primary means of moral social control. It is possible to speculate that Hob could have gone completely off the rails as far as worrying about his soul for a bit there, other than thinking he's already sold it, which could go either way as far as trying to redeem himself but again, he speaks casually of being a soldier and a bandit, so it doesn't sound like if he worried about his soul being sold already, he thought there was anything that could be done to redeem it.

[khaire-traveler]

I don't want to be disrespectful but I'm feeling conflicted working with Hermes sometimes.

He's always been kind to me. I'm very grateful for that.

He has encouraged my passion for helping others especially the homeless and disabled. It's just so much discourse around me is telling me he's evil or at the very least dishonorable because he's apathetic and a trickster/thief. That he's only in my life because I'm amusing or easy to manipulate.

Gods aren't human and they're complicated. I just sometimes feel alone in my appreciation of him. I feel like I have to give up when it comes to talking about him around anybody else. Have you ever felt like this before in your practice? Thank you for listening.

***Please read this knowing I had good intentions and my tone is meant to be kind, respectful, and serious. I say this now because this feels like it may be a sensitive topic, and I don't want you to interpret this as me trying to be critical, rude, mean, etc. I promise I am not upset at you, Nonny. I know this was probably difficult for you to share.***

Hey, Nonny, thank you for entrusting me with this topic.

Honestly, I haven't seen any discourse about worshipping Hermes (keep in mind that this is the only social media, besides YouTube, that I use), but what you're describing sounds very similar to the discourse around worshipping Loki (I am a devotee of them as well). If you don't know about the discourse around Loki, I actually encourage you to look into it because it's a good example of how people will literally criticize a deity to hell and back, especially for things they did in myths or based on a person's random UPG.

The thing is, Nonny, that there is nuance in everything. Nothing is ever so neatly black and white or good and bad; there are always layers. Hermes is a god of thievery, yes, but have you considered that some people steal because they literally have no other access to basic needs, such as food or medication? Hermes is a trickster god, but have you considered that maybe it contributes to his love of laughter and fun? That in order to have a good time, sometimes you need to be witty and a bit chaotic? Being a god over these things is the same as Zeus being a god of storms: these things will happen passively, and it doesn't have to mean that god is making or causing something to happen. Just because someone gets their wallet stolen doesn't mean that Hermes was behind it. I guess it's kind of the idea that correlation does not equal causation.

About Hermes being apathetic, though, that's an absolutely ridiculous claim if I've ever heard one. In the myths, who tended to come to people's aid the most, unprompted? Hermes. Who has the epithet of joy-giver, ready-helper, and luck-bringer? Hermes. Who did some ancient shepherds pray to when their herds (their livelihood) were attacked, ancient beggars struggling to survive on the streets, ancient travelers who were terrified and lost their way? Hermes. Hermes is MUCH more than just a god of trickery and thievery. He is a god of the people. He genuinely cares about his worshippers, which literally every worshipper has told me that I've interacted with, and he takes good care of his devotees. I encourage you to research Hermes further and read about how he was worshipped in ancient times. Try to better understand who he is as a god; the view of him you're describing to me comes across as being rather black and white and disregards all of his other domains and aspects.

You need to know, Nonny, that I am someone who believes that the gods can and do love us. I believe that they can and do support us. I also believe they can and do make mistakes or upset us sometimes, but that doesn't make them (or us) evil, bad, or wrong. I believe that Hermes loves me and all his worshippers (and even others who don't actively worship him, I bet), but that's just my belief, similar to how these people talking about random Hermes discourse are simply expressing their beliefs. Remember, Nonny, that these people's beliefs are not facts. They do not dictate your life or your world view or your relationship with Hermes. Only you can decide how those things look for you. So I ask you, what do you believe? What do you believe is true about Hermes? What has he shown and expressed to you personally? How has he treated you? What has he helped you with? What has he done for you? Do you feel happy worshipping him? This is something that you need to settle within yourself. No one but you can give you the answer you're searching for.

Maybe it would also help for you to look into any potential religious or personal trauma you have and see if that is also affecting your relationship with Hermes. I did this a while back, and it was immensely helpful for me personally. I can't say that I ever viewed Hermes as being evil or anything like that, but I did have some trauma that was making me anxious about spirituality and worship in general. I recommend looking into anything that you may be dealing with as well.

If you feel something is not right within your personal relationship with Hermes, that's something you need to directly communicate with him about. Get his opinions, his insight, and even his advice, if you want it. I think it'd really help you to speak with him as directly as you can about this topic. And you know, if you are really having a hard time worshipping this god, then maybe it just isn't meant to work for now, and that's perfectly ok. It's normal not to get along or click with every deity ever. There are some deities I personally don't worship simply because I don't feel we click well, and that's ok. It's the same as how some humans just don't mix with each other well; you simply go your separate ways and continue on.

When it comes to being alone while worshipping Hermes in the community, I do understand how you feel, but to combat those feelings of loneliness, I try to actively surround myself with other blogs and people who worship or venerate Hermes. There are actually quite a lot of blogs on Tumblr that worship him; it's simply a matter of seeking them out intentionally. I don't know how it is on other social media, however. If you use TikTok (specifically PaganTok), I would actually straight-up encourage you to not. Not for spiritual stuff, anyway. People spread misinformation there like a fucking wildfire, and you will find an overabundance of hatred and ignorance in all its forms. I deleted TikTok specifically because of PaganTok, and it was literally the best choice I've ever made for myself. I encourage you to do the same if that is the issue for you.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck on your journey ahead. I hope this answer helped you in some way. Regardless of what happens with Hermes, I hope you find deities you worship that blend well with you and help you grow as a person. Remember that you are never required to worship a deity if they make you uncomfortable. I feel that's just important to say in general. Gods will be respectful of the fact that you're not, or no longer, interested. They're thousands upon thousands of years old; they have the maturity to accept your rejection respectfully.

No matter what happens, Nonny, you will be ok. Please take care, and have a good day/night. 🧡

[passthepittcola]

HELLO.... shows you my gf fusions🤗.... please treat them so nicey thank youuuuu.

so this is actually my second attempt! first ones i wasn't pleased with but i'm loving these guys!!!

also haven't started on redoing Mayford, Stanson or the stan twins fusion (still not sure what to name him! i had "fordlee" but that doesn't seem quite right), so suggestions for those three before i start making them are welcome!!!!!! :)

yapping about my sillies below! 👇

Maystan is a lovely butch gal and she uses she/her while mostly presenting masculinely! she's very teasing and likes to pretend to be lazy when she's guarding her heart and feelings, but under that she's very protective, loving, and insanely creative! she's got... something against authority, though. do NOT tell her what to do because most of your smaller valuables WILL go missing and she will mysteriously end up richer. also very mischievous, but mostly in a cute or teasing way rather than criminal. do not under any circumstances give her black outfits or grappling hooks!!!!!!! her zodiac symbol is Stan's mackeral combined with Mabel's shooting star, and it kinda creates a flying fish!

Fordson is a gender neutral (masculine leaning) insomniac with a hidden penchant for math and science-based mischief! he generally uses he/him but likes dabbling in the occasional they/them as well. they generally present themself as 'tired and nonchalant' and are pretty quiet, but they like company more than being alone. he's quite affectionate to both stan and mabel and isn't afraid of showing that. his anxiety mostly stems from being unsure of his own academics and intelligence, and being unsure of himself in social settings! but they're still pretty blunt, just in a slightly softer tone. his favorite activities are stealing Maystan's and/or Stan's glasses to read, and being domestic/affectionate or teasing with Mabel or Stan! their zodiac symbol is a tree leaf with a star-shaped hole in the middle, because of how much Dipper changes Ford through Fordson! (don't worry, Ford is okay after fusing with Dipper, he just gets a new perspective afterwards and is able to understand his loved ones and himself a little better because of it!)

M is a nonbinary teen (acts/looks similar to 14-15, given Dip & Mab are 13 or so. sticking to canon ages at the moment!) and uses they/them or neutral neopronouns such as xe/xem, ze/zir or ae/aer! they're a pretty bright kid despite being a little attached to social media, but thankfully they still manage to get outside just as often as the twins do. xe makes scrapbooks of cryptids and mysteries, and encounters anomalies on the wayside! xe is a little tanner than the twins, and slightly addicted to xyr own version of mabeljuice (m&m mocktail - it has m&m's and an unfortunate amount of gnome hair! it's... probably okay as long as M doesn't find any smile-dip to add). this ends in them crashing and sleeping wherever, but at least they're sleeping? more than dipper does, but less than mabel, so. 50/50. additionally, through their love of social media, M found out about both therianthropy and furries, and enjoys wearing ears and a tail frequently! (i would say aer main theriotype is likely some kind of wolf or wolf-adjacent mammal, but i bet ae has more than one 'type!) lastly, zir relationship to the stan twins basically stays the same, it's the same love, just not as outwardly intense as mabel's! more inwardly intense, so M may show that through other means :). M's zodiac symbol is kind of like a shooting tree instead of a shooting star, but i'm choosing to interpret it as a firework!

[dr-futbol-blog]

Sanctuary, Pt. 1

So, we come to Sanctuary (S01E14), an episode infamous for Rodney McKay's jealous fit. It's rather revealing, of course, but it's not the only interesting thing we find in it.

What takes place in the episode is given context later. In the episode Irresponsible (S03E13), we find conman Lucius Lavin entertaining people with stories that seem to be based on the experiences of John Sheppard in particular. Lucius read through all the mission reports during his stay at Atlantis in Irresistible (S03E03), so his stories are based on Sheppard's record. He describes the events that are about to take place in the following manner:

Lucius: I'll tell you about how I was almost seduced by a beautiful Ancient. Beckett: Sounds entertaining! Lucius: Yeah, you'd think so, but between you and me, not so much. Sheppard: You know, your stories are awfully fascinating, and familiar.

It is of course possible that Lucius put his own spin on the mission report he read. It's possible he interpreted the events he read about his own way, made some inferences based on the events. That he's telling them how he would have felt if he'd been a similar situation, if he'd been in Sheppard's shoes. But the thing is, Sheppard doesn't disagree with the assessment. Quite the opposite, he calls it familiar (note also that Lucius uses the phrase "not so much", which is frequently used by Sheppard to mean "not at all"), at least tacitly acknowledging this interpretation of events.

So, it seems like Sheppard thinks that he was almost seduced by an Ancient woman and that it was not all it was cracked up to be. This is what he wrote into his mission report shortly following the events of the episode, and he seems to stand by this interpretation of events several years later.

With this in mind, let's dive in.

The episode starts in medias res, the team in a jumper being chased by wraith darts. Business as usual. Their weapons have malfunctioned and McKay tries to fix them in the back part of the vessel. The scene has a real Star Trek vibe to it. I'm giving it all she's got, Captain!

Things are tense. Sheppard seems to be on edge. He's not really acting the way we've seen him act in the past several episodes. He's being extra military (Negative! Positive!), he's expecting McKay to fix everything. It's notable and relevant to what happens later that he's still not giving McKay orders -- he need only to say the other man's name to get him to do what he wants to get done. Instead of "Go back there and fix the weapons" he only says "McKay!". Instead if "Hurry up!" he only says "McKay!". Instead of "We need that miracle now!" he only says "McKay!". It's implied, but he has not given McKay a single order so far. And note also that McKay seems to understand his meaning perfectly just from his tone of voice when speaking his name here.

But Sheppard is acting different, and McKay seems to have noticed it too. Instead of coming up with strategies, he's putting the pressure on McKay to resolve the situation.

This change in behaviour could be caused by several things.

Yes, they are being chased and Sheppard wants to keep everyone alive. It could be the high pressure of the situation, the concern for his team. It could be that the last time they were chased and fired upon by the wraith, he very nearly ended up dying with an iratus bug attached to his neck. It could be that having had to kill a member of the expedition recently was still bothering him. It could be that he actually finished his conversation with Weir between the episodes and is hence trying to act the way a commander would, no special treatment to anyone. Could be they didn't finish it and the conversation they did have was enough to remind him of his court martial and the events that lead there. He needs to prove both to Weir and especially to himself that he can do his job, he's not compromised by his emotions. He also very recently almost lost all three of them due to his lapse in judgement, so if acting like a hard-ass CO is going to keep them all alive, he can do that. Take your pick.

What ever the reason, Sheppard was acting a little different. And McKay clocked this because he has been paying close attention to Sheppard, has been getting to know him very well. Frustrated, McKay tells him that he's not holding out on him. He's giving it his all, doing his part, trying to meet him where he is. But he can only lower the barriers on his side, he can try to fix his own issues. They should be working on this together. The beginning and the end often rhyme, so it's interesting that we start with McKay telling Sheppard that he's not holding out on him.

Now, there's a thing called the 'rule of three' in writing that is frequently employed in episodic television. The audience is more likely to remember information conveyed when it's repeated three times because using three entities combines both brevity and rhythm with having the smallest amount of information to create a pattern. It's used in this scene in that McKay mentions having just very almost died three times:

McKay: I thought for sure we were dead. Didn't you think we were dead? Ford: What the hell was that? McKay: Some sort of uh, energy weapon? Sheppard: What do you say we find out? McKay: Yeah.

McKay: So just to confirm, we're all still… definitely not dead. Teyla: I feel very much alive. McKay: Good. Same here. Sheppard: I wish I knew what that was. Ford: Looked like lightning. Sheppard: Space lightning? McKay: I already said, it's some sort of an energy weapon, one that apparently destroys Wraith darts. Ford: Nice, but why them and not us? McKay: Well, assuming that we're still alive, and there doesn't appear to be any damage as a result of the pulse, I think we can safely conclude that, uh... I got nothing. I mean, I got nothing to conclude. I'm just talking for the sake of talking. Sheppard: You sure you're okay? McKay: You know how much I hate certain death? Sheppard: You're alive.

McKay has to refer to their very almost dying three times before he gets Sheppard to react to it at all. He is looking for Sheppard to react, he's looking for Sheppard's reassurance. Sheppard is not reacting, not in the way that he needs him to react. In fact, both Teyla and Ford respond to him but he gets no reaction whatsoever from Sheppard to anything he says until "I'm just talking for the sake of talking." It's only after the third time that Sheppard is forced to ask him whether he's alright. And he doesn't look at McKay at all, even after he no longer has to scan for enemy ships. And not for not wanting to look:

It's not like Sheppard doesn't care about McKay. If we've seen anything in the past several episodes, it's that Sheppard cares very much about Rodney McKay not dying. If anything, we get to see him avoiding the very notion of it to an extreme. This is a thought Sheppard wants to neither acknowledge nor face. Sure, he's not keen to see any one of them dead. But the fact that Rodney has to refer to it three times to get him to even acknowledge the concept is pretty damn telling in this regard. This is called denial. John Sheppard is in denial when it comes to the possibility of Rodney McKay dying, especially on his watch. There is a difficult emotion attached to Rodney McKay that John Sheppard is actively and rather obviously suppressing.

Now, the fact that this is mentioned three times and then confirmed for an additional fourth time means this is real important for this episode. Sheppard (seemingly) not caring is crucial for the resolution of the episode, for its interpretation. Of course we could say that they're trying to make us think that Sheppard really, really doesn't care whether Rodney McKay lives or dies, that he's being callous. That is what the text tells us, after all. Only, we've been shown the opposite. We have seen John Sheppard kill to keep that man alive. We know he cares. So why is he suddenly pretending not to care?

Continued in Pt. 2

[david-talks-sw]

Where do you sorta stand in terms of "Adhering to Lucas's" vision but also like "Well Lucas isn't making it so Star Wars is open to interpretation" Like don't get me wrong I don't like Karen Travesis's take on Star Wars for a whole host of reason and I think if anyone ever did a story and said "Well the Empire is right" then you are completely doing Star Wars wrong. But if someone legit wanted to do a story having a critical eye on the Jedi Order or IDK the Republic or even coming at Star Wars in a way that George Lucas wouldn't cover it cuz they are ideologically different, IDK, how far should that go?

I think the main thing to keep in mind is that it stays consistent with the spirit of what George Lucas was trying to say, if not the letter.

You can try alternative narratives, focus on certain characters, do it in different genres, but at the end of the day the message needs to stay the same.

And if you can't do that, at least try to be fair about your criticism of that message.

Different narrative, same conclusion

You can explore and certainly argue that the Empire brought about order and peace, and that it is better than the chaos and war present during the Republic.

You can argue that maybe, if instead of a Sith Lord who rules by fear, the Emperor was a benevolent dictator who lead by example, then the Empire wouldn't be as bad.

Legends stories have done this before.

You can even argue that the Rebels are terrorists and that the attack on the Death Star was the equivalent of 9-11 for the Imperial citizens, like this guy does.

But at the end of the day, that's a fallacy.

The previously-shown Empire storyline makes it clear that Moff Trachta is ambitious and greedy, as are his fellow conspirators. They're hypocrites who tell themselves "it's for the greater good" but really it's just so they can backstab each other to have the top job.

And the war the Empire's peace replaces was one orchestrated by the Emperor himself, so the entire regime is based on a lie, because really the only thing the Empire's system runs on is greed and fear, as shown in Andor.

Finally, while some of the Rebels' methods are hard and dark in nature... it's a war. And the narrative makes it clear that at the end of the day, the enemy they're fighting are space nazis. And 90% of the stormtroopers we're shown range from bullies to extremists. That one Imp pilot saying "millions died on the Death Star" also mocked Cara Dune for the genocide of her people, seconds prior.

The smaller narrative may take some deviations, it may question some aspects, but the larger one is consistent.

The moral of the story remains the same: the Empire is evil.

Different tone & characters, same message

When George Lucas made the six films, he had a very clear idea in mind, in terms of genre and style: imitating the Saturday matinee specials (think Flash Gordon), blend them with long standing psychological motifs derived from mythology, add dash of Buddhist philosophy: you get Star Wars, a movie for kids.

But I would fully expect a horror movie about a stormtrooper being hunted by an ice spider to go "fuck this 'we're all connected, we're all symbioms' bullshit. Die you creepy bastard!"

Same goes for Andor.

It's not rated PG-18, but it's still very dark. This isn't a movie for kids, it's a movie for teens and older. It opens with the eponymous character shooting someone in the face.

In Andor (and Rogue One) we see a side of the Rebellion we hadn't seen before. A darker one. But the genre of those productions demands a darker outlook on these concepts.

Cassian lives in a world where everything is nuances of gray.

He's the perfect kind of character to tell this story.

As is Dedra Meero. She is written as an underdog in the first half of the show. You're rooting for her. But then the series reminds you that: "hey, she's as much a nazi as the rest of them". She's willing to torture people to keep her job or get a promotion. The narrative frames her as ultimately evil.

Because at the end of the day the message is the same. The Empire is evil and it takes regular people to beat the elite 1%. Greed vs compassion, fear vs hope.

Now suppose there was a series opening on a "Gray Jedi" character, juggling between the Dark and Light Side with little to no effort or repercussion, sabering someone in the face.

That fucks with the message. Because it's okay for Cassian to do it, because Cassian doesn't need to deal with space magic, he lives in an un-mystical, cold and harsh part of the galaxy where you're either evil or less bad, rarely good.

But the 6 films make it clear that for Force sensitives, things are binary. They have to be or bad shit happens.

Gray morality works in Star Wars if we're talking about non-Force sensitives. In the case of a Force user, that's a darksider waiting to happen.

Criticizing the narrative via unreliable narrators

You mentioned Karen Traviss. For all my criticism re: her stance on the Jedi philosophy and their relation with the clones, I think her definition of Boba Fett is the best one yet (probably because she actually likes that character).

As a result of this personality, an eventual Boba Fett film would have to be Jedi-critical, because if you ask him, the Jedi took his father away from him. And you can argue using logical points all you want, his pain is emotional, not rational. Him being right or wrong is irrelevant, his pain is real.

Same goes with the recent Tales of the Jedi.

Dooku's an unreliable narrator, he is a character notorious for lying to himself and to others, he's poisonous and deceitful.

Of course three short films shown through his point of view would cast him in a noble "free thinking" light and the Jedi as infuriatingly obtuse.

The problem comes in when the author steps in and sides with the unreliable character with a subjective opinion and says that character is objectively right.

Okay, so now we have a situation where you've deviated from the established narrative.

You're having someone say the Jedi are asleep at the wheel and Dooku is the only one ahead of the curb when the movies and TCW show us the Jedi being just as aware and frustrated as Dooku is.

You're having someone say the Jedi can do more than what they're already doing, when Lucas' story shows us that there's really not much more that can be done, and Lucas himself confirms as much.

Which brings me to my final point.

Being fair with the criticism.

That's what it comes down to for me.

You can criticize the Jedi Order (I do so right here). But just be fair about it. And be informed.

For example, you can question whether the Jedi's rule of non-attachment is good or not.

But first you gotta know what attachment means, in the context of Star Wars. It does not mean "emotional attachments", aka "relationships". And it's not about repression.

So if you go into it thinking either of those things then your criticism isn't really 1) informed 2) done in good faith.

Because in Star Wars, the term "attachment" is used in the Buddhist sense. It's not about depriving yourself of bonds, it's about being able to let go and move on from who/what you love, when it's time.

Other example: you can argue the Jedi "accepted" the use of a clone army bred for combat because "we don't see it in the movies"... but you'd be disingenuous.

Because Attack of the Clones takes place over a bunch of days. You're not gonna be shown every second of those days. That'd be like arguing that "we never see Mace Windu eat in athemovie, so Mace is unable to eat".

AOTC is a movie about how Anakin fell in love with Padmé and lost his mother, and how Palpatine rose to power by engineering a war, a storyline shown through his and Obi-Wan's POV. The film isn't gonna stop and touch on a point that isn't directly relevant to those two storylines.

In TCW, you see the Jedi, some Senators and some civilians are the only people to treat the clones like, y'know, people. To argue the above, you'd have to deliberately ignore the 12 Jedi we're shown caring for their troops and just focus on Pong Krell.

Also, I think we've criticized the Jedi Order enough. Don't you think?

Different artists, mediums and tales have done it so much that the very clear, very obvious message of the Prequels has been twisted into something else.

If you look up any George Lucas interview between 1999 and 2021, he'll say it's about Anakin and the Senate's greed, it's about how a good kid becomes a bad man and how a democracy becomes a dictatorship. The Prequels weren't about the Jedi.

Instead of challenging the notion that the Jedi are good, which has been done baselessly for over a decade, I think it would now be fair to explore whether the Prequel Jedi were all that bad.

Oh. We're not trying to be fair? My bad then. Let's keep misinterpreting the source material because we like it more that way then say it was how it was originally intended to be.

[milolovesbmc]

wait wrol jeremy is canonically/intentionally autistic coded??? please elaborate what are his little autistic mannerisms tell me everything

OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST FREAKING ASK I'VE EVER GOTTEN!!! HOLD INTO YOUR SOCKS CAUSE I'M ABOUT TO RAMBLE!!!!!!

So, First off, Jeremy (in the Broadway/Off-Broadway productions) IS autistic coded!! since Will Roland based his interpretation/acting for Jeremy on teenagers from a theater camp he attended, who where most (not to say all) autistic. Also, I can't possibly talk about Jeremy being autistic without mentioning this, in the first/original version of Be More Chill Pt.1 one of the SQUIP's line to Jeremy is literally "every lame characteristic, makes you come off as autistic" which they cut (for obvious reasons) but there, had to be mentioned!! So in conclusion, yes he IS autistic coded!! With that outta the way:

WHY WILL ROLAND'S JEREMY IS AUTISTIC CODED!

EYE CONTACT

- This one is the one I have the least to talk about, it's mentioned he has issues with eye contact in More Than Survive, "[...] Avoiding any eye contact at all"

ABNORMAL SPEECH

- OKAY SO HEAR ME OUT ON THIS

- One of the biggest differences between Roland and Connolly Jeremy is how Will R Jeremy talks

- He has issues with Volume control, like how sometimes he's talking and he out of nowhere yells out a word or something and he seems to not notice? Also, he's the only character that talks louder than the rest normally (you have to differ this from stuff like how Michael screams the lines he says in More Than Survive while he's dancing, that's intentional, he's being goofy and having fun)

- Sometimes he talks too fast, like to the point he slurs his words, you can notice a couple or more of these throughout the show

- To finish off the speech thing, he talks in a really flat tone, you can tell not only by comparing his tone to other characters (like Jake for example) or if you compare the voice Will Roland does for Jeremy to the one he does for Jared in DEH, Jeremy's it's flatter

-I'm not too sure this is included in "Abnormal speech" for autism, but I felt like I had to mention that he does stutter/stammer (?) A lot throughout the whole show, it's even mention by the SQUIP in Be More Chill PT. 1 ("All your stammering's a chore" "Stammer?! No- no I don't stammer!")

- it's also suggested he speaks in a "weird" way when in Loser Geek Whatever he says "The please don't speak!" When referring to how he's perceived by his peers

SPECIAL INTEREST

- His special interest is clearly Superheroes and stuff of the sort (mainly from comics I'm pretty sure, but I don't know too much about superheroes) and he references them a lot of times and sees like most of his life and actions through more of a superhero/fiction sense

- The biggest example of him doing this is in More Than Survive (I'm gonna be mentioning MTS a lot here) when he says the line "If this was an apocalypse, I would not need any tips, on how to stay alive!"

- Also, I can even go into that one line even deeper, by this line he basically means that for him it'd be easier to survive in a zombie apocalypse rather than a high school, because an apocalypse has simple rules you need to follow to survive; getting food, not being biten by zombies... While to "survive" high school you need to do a whole bunch of stuff no one tells you you need to do; socialising, not having grades too high or too low, being cool, talking to people, making eye contact... Which are harder to him. This also means that he would know how to survive in a zombie apocalypse because of how much he plays Apocalypse of the Damned (most definitely part of his special interest)

- Also, here's some references/ties he makes between real life and fiction/superhero stuff:

"I like your sideburns, wolverine, right?"

"Like in X-Men?!"

- Not to mention one of his options for the SQUIP's settings was literally Batman

SOCIAL SKILLS

- I don't think I can give very specific examples here, but basically, the literal whole theme of the show is Jeremy not fitting in cause he's "socially awkward" and just generally "weird", you can mostly see it through how the SQUIP helps him socialize, the most clear example is maybe at the mall with Brooke and Chloe.

SARCASM, JOKES, METAPHORS ETC.

- Biggest one is in ILPR when Christine says "no this is where you meet for the swim team" when Jeremy asks about if you meet for Play Rehearsal there, and he takes the joke literally and starts to look around to make sure he's in the right place

- While Michael is talking about the Whole evolution thing, Jeremy is really confused, most probably because he doesn't understand why he's mentioning that as advice/metaphor?/an answer to his problems, then gets even more confused when he says "There's never been a better time in history to be a loser!"

- In Two-Player Game after Jeremy talks about getting the SQUIP and how it'll work and how it'll improve his life, Michael says "and if it does? Will you be too cool for... Video games??" He's clearly using that as an indirect way of saying he's afraid of losing him (which he actually does later on so that's fun!! /J) and Jeremy catches that but basically just completely ignores the metaphor thing and talks about it in a literal sense

RULES

- He mentions how he has some "rules" he follows to survive in More Than Survive (ofc it's in MTS) in the line "And so I follow my own rules, and I use them as my tools, to stay alive"

- This is not part of the musical, but it is in the book and I thought it was a good thing to mention here because it's pretty related, in the book he has these things called "Humiliation Sheets" they are papers he makes (and prints everyday, mind you) where he marks his social Humiliations, like when someone ignores him or laughs at him etc

MOTOR SKILLS

- Jeremy has like, pretty bad spacial awareness, like when he's Walking down the hallway In MS and he literally walks into half the people

- A really big example of it is in Be More Chill PT.2 when all of the people in the mall are flossing (as a whole thing because of the SQUIP) and Jeremy can't manage to get it right

STIMMING

- This is mentioned by the SQUIP in Be More Chill PT. 1, where it literally says "your tics and fidgets are persistent"

- Some of the ways he stims in:

1) The literal first line of the musical, when he says "c-c-c-c'mon c-c-c-c'mon go go!" that's a vocal stim, cause he's inpatient/nervous. (Also in I love play Rehearsal and voices in my head, maybe in some other moments too but idk rn)

2) Not to sure if this one counts as stimming, but he tends to hold onto things pretty tight (mostly through MTS) , like his sleeves or his backpack or Michael when Christine signs up

2.5) This closely relates to stim 2, but he also opens and closes his fists a lot, like clenching and unclenching them

(There's more but I can't remember all of them rn)

3) he moves his hands and rise and drops them a lot when he's upset and talking about what he's upset about, like in More Than Survive and Loser Geek Whatever, also, a lot of big gestures generally

4) At the Halloween party before (?) a guy that I'd kinda be into (Reprise) Christine asks "just say what's on your mind" and Jeremy basically makes a really weird noise which Christine goes along with, that's indeed vocal stimming!! They're stimming together how sweet is that!!

- This is not Jeremy related but I just wanted to mention it, Michael stims like A LOT, you can look at him in any scene and he will 99% surely be stimming in some way, specially in MITB (someone ask me about Michael being autistic so I can talk about that too pretty please /hj)

Can you tell I'm really into psychology and stuff?? This is basically my two fav interests combined, BMC AND PSYCHOLOGY YAYY!!!!

Btw feel free to talk about you own opinion/take on the whole thing, I'd be happy to know!! :D

[eamesandbellamyaremyheaven]

Somewhere, Now and Then Ch5 || Arthur x Sansa (Kalots/GoT Outlander AU)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword x Game of Thrones  Outlander AU (there’s no such thing as canon)

Warnings: Violence, blood 

Summary: England, 1945. After serving in the war as a nurse, Sansa Bolton (former Stark) seizes the opportunity of going on vacation with her husband Ramsay to rekindle their relationship. But what happens when Sansa finds herself travelling back in time, to the 6th century, where she meets the King Arthur and his Knights?

A.N.//- Needless to say, this is loosely based on the Outlander premise. The story is told through Guy Ritchie’s interpretation of the Arthurian legend, and for that locations and traditions - and the time itself - had to be adapted to work accordingly. Any questions you have, feel free to ask!

A.N.//- Thank you to the Anon that wrote that ask, this chapter is for you! Feeling validaded as a writer, I can't even begin to describe the feeling.... Much love, never change, you never know how much you can impact someone!

Prologue || Chapter One || Chapter two|| Chapter Three || Chapter Four

Chapter Five - Camelot

Petyr took his coat and hat, handling them to Mrs. Manderly, who greeted him with a smile.

“Any luck, Mister?”

“We asked around, but no one seen her. The police is setting up posters and a reward, that might spike the people’s interest.” Petyr replied with a weary tone. It’s been two days since Sansa disappeared. Lysa was a crying mess, wailing over her sweet darling niece, while he and Ramsay tried to work with the local police, pulling all their efforts and waking moments into find her as soon as possible.

Mrs. Manderly seemed apprehensive, as if she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure she should. She pursed her lips, looking around the room, and only when she made sure they were alone she spoke lowly, only for him to hear.

“There are old stories, sir, about the magic of the stones. It is said that Stonehenge marks a place on earth were powers come together, allowing certain people, on certain days, to travel in time”

The woman spoke fast, and Petyr had trouble in understanding exactly what she meant.

“Your niece went to the stones, but didn’t came back, at least not in our time.”

“She travelled back in time, you say?” Petyr snickered, his eyebrow arching in amusement “Do you have any idea to when?”

“They say that it is different, every time. Each traveller must make their own journey, but it is said in the stories that they often return.”

Petyr looked the old woman in the eyes. She truly believed in what she was saying, and she was not shy with her beliefs. The last thing he needed was his wife becoming more hysterical and his nephew-in-law more furious.

“Can you do me a favour, Mrs. Manderly? I wish to keep this theory between us. The rest of my family might not take the news very well.”

“So you believe me, sir?”

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

※※※※※

The road to Camelot had been long and exhausting, and by the time the towering walls of the legendary city came into view, Sansa could feel the tension in the group. Arthur rode ahead, his posture rigid, his hands gripping the reins too tightly, as if he were bracing for something. Even Bill, who had spent most of the journey entertaining her with stories, had fallen into a contemplative silence.

Sansa’s breath caught as they passed through the massive gates, the clang of iron echoing in her bones. The city beyond was unlike anything she had imagined - grand and bustling, yet hardened by war. Soldiers patrolled the streets, merchants bartered loudly in the markets, and children ran barefoot through the muddy roads, their laughter a stark contrast to the grim expressions of the men who stood watch.

She barely had time to take it all in before Arthur led them through the winding streets toward the castle. At the entrance, a group of women awaited them, their dresses more refined than the common folk, their eyes sharp with curiosity. One stepped forward, a blond-haired woman with a confident stance and an assessing gaze.

“You must be Sansa” she said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Sansa hesitated before nodding.

“I’m Maggie. Welcome to Camelot.”

※※※※※

Preparations for Graybeard’s arrival began immediately. The halls of Camelot buzzed with activity - servants scurried to prepare the great hall, knights sharpened their swords with grim determination, and council members whispered in hushed voices. Sansa watched from the fringes, aware of the sidelong glances cast her way, feeling more like an outsider than ever.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the Viking delegation arrived. Graybeard entered the hall flanked by his men, his presence like a storm rolling in. His cold, calculating eyes swept the gathering before landing on Sansa.

He smiled.

It was not a kind smile.

“Ah, a new face in your court” he mused, stepping closer “You do have the look of the North about you.”

Sansa forced herself to remain still, though every instinct screamed at her to step back.

“You know, there are many Starks in the North” he continued, his voice dripping with amusement. “Curious that you ended up here, of all places.”

“You are mistaken, sir. I did not end up here—I am from here” she cut, her voice steady but edged with frost.

Arthur cleared his throat, stepping between them “Enough. You wished for an audience, and you have it.”

Graybeard’s expression did not change, but he inclined his head slightly. “As you wish, Your Majesty. But the girl and I will speak again.”

Sansa exhaled, only realizing then that she had been holding her breath.

※※※※※

Arthur and Graybeard spoke privately in the great hall, the torches casting flickering shadows against the stone walls. As the others were dismissed, Sansa was about to leave when a hand caught her wrist. She turned, startled, to see one of the women from the court.

“Come with me” she whispered, urgency lacing her tone.

Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Sansa’s hand and led her through a side corridor, down a flight of stairs, and into a dimly lit chamber hidden within the castle walls. Inside, a group of women sat in silence, their eyes fixed on a grated opening overlooking the great hall.

“Thank you Kay” Maggie said, as she gestured for Sansa to join them “We listen” she explained in a hushed voice "We may not be allowed in the room, but we still need to know what happens there"

Sansa hesitated, but then turned her gaze to the opening. Below, Graybeard swirled the wine in his cup, his voice casual but yet edged with something sharper.

“The North is full of Starks” he said “One of the oldest families, clever and ruthless as they can be.”

Arthur said nothing, but the flicker of doubt in his eyes was unmistakable.

“Are you certain that woman is not one of them?” Graybeard pressed. “Not a spy, sent to infiltrate your precious Camelot?”

A chill crept down Sansa’s spine. Around her, the women exchanged uneasy glances.

“If she was, why would you tell me that?” Arthur countered, his tone even “Revealing your upper hand doesn’t seem like a particularly wise move.”

Graybeard smirked, leaning forward “You killed my man because of her”

“They attacked her. Why?”

He took a slow sip of wine, his eyes never leaving Arthur’s “We are Northman. We take what we want”

Arthur’s expression remained impassive, but his grip on the goblet tightened “Not here. Not in my lands. Sansa is under my protection”

“For now,” Graybeard mused “But for how long?”

A tense silence stretched between them. Then, with a final, knowing glance, Graybeard set down his cup and rose. As he turned, his fur-lined cloak swept the floor, his footsteps echoing through the hall as he strode towards the door.

Kay exhaled slowly beside Sansa, while the other women exchanged worried glances.

Sansa’s stomach twisted. What was Graybeard’s plan? Why would he try to make Arthur believe she was a spy? What did he stand to gain from it? Did he actually think he could weaken Arthur’s reign through her?

Whatever game he was playing, the board was set.

And she was the piece being moved.

She just wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay ahead of it.

※※※※※

Later that night, she found herself wandering to the secret room, her mind racing. That was when she heard voices from the council chamber.

“She could be a spy” Bedivere declared, sharp and unyielding. “We know nothing of her, except that she appeared out of nowhere, conveniently in your path.”

“She saved my life” Arthur countered, though his tone was careful, measured “She had every opportunity to let me die. Would a spy save the life of her enemy?”

“She might, to gain your trust” another man suggested, Percival was his name “You think it was mere chance that Graybeard claimed her as one of their own?”

Sansa’s stomach twisted. She had expected distrust, but hearing it spoken so plainly, so coldly, stung more than she anticipated.

Arthur set his hands on the table and turned to the man on his right “Bill, you spent the most time with her so far. What do you think?”

“What I think?” Bill’s voice was quieter, but no less firm. “I think we cannot afford risks, Arthur. Not with Graybeard under our gates.”

Silence stretched long and heavy. Then Arthur spoke again, softer this time.

“I know”

Sansa backed away before she could hear more, bile rising in her throat. So, this was how it was going to be.

She was not safe there.

※※※※※

By the time Sansa returned to her chambers, her mind was racing. She had walked through the halls, her thoughts a storm, each one colliding with the next. She needed to think. She needed to act. She needed to find a way out of there before it was too late. But before she could process any of it, she saw a shadow move at the edge of her vision.

She knew it was him before anyone spoke.

Arthur.

He was standing by the window, bathed in moonlight, his face unreadable.

“You shouldn’t be here” she said, masking the unease in her voice.

“You shouldn’t have been there” he countered

Sansa swallowed, feigning obliviousness. Her voice was quieter when she spoke “I don’t know what you mean”

Arthur turned to face her fully. His eyes, darkened by shadow, locked onto hers“You were listening”

There was no point in denying it.

“Yes. Yes, I was” she admitted, crossing her arms in front of her in a shield rather than a stance.

A muscle in his jaw tensed “Then you know why we must be careful”

“You think I’m a threat” Sansa remarked, but it was not a question, and Arthur’s silence spoke louder than any answer he could have given. She exhaled slowly, nodding “Of course you do” She looked away, her chest tightening with something she told herself was not hurt “Why wouldn’t you?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. The weight of something unspoken settled between them “It’s not that simple, Red”

“Isn’t it?” She met his gaze then, holding it with quiet defiance. “You saved me from harm, but you don’t trust me, even though I saved your life. Twice. You offer me a place in your castle, but you don’t want me here. Tell me, Arthur, what am I supposed to do? Am I allowed to leave, or am I your prisoner?”

He hesitated, as if weighing his words. And hers. Then, finally, he spoke.

“I don’t know, Sansa. But we’ll make it up as we go.”

And with that, he was gone.

Sansa stared at the door long after it closed, the bitter taste of truth lingering on her tongue. Sansa had spent too long waiting for others to decide her fate. That was about to end. Arthur might not have decided what to do with her - but it no longer mattered.

She had.

She was getting out of there.

Taglist is OPEN! @anonymousme86 @goodqueenkaro​ @purple-moon123​ @elvensansa

[youatemylollipop]

Hello! I’m the one who had requested about Rindo with his dream girl today☺️ Whichever you prefer, as long as it’s about what the Tenjiku members thought of her when they first met. Also, I just wanted to say that I completely understand if you're currently very busy and can't fulfill the request right away. There's no pressure and you can take as much time as you need. If possible, could you also write a scenario or a short one shot about Mikey x the "dreamer" type and how they met? Thank you so much for considering my request!

A/N: Hi there! Just wanted to let you know that I have written a short one-shot for Mikey x the "dreamer" type, but I apologize as I wasn't able to come up with anything for Rindō just yet. I'm working on it though! Hope you enjoy this in the meantime!💘

Based on these headcanons: Dream Girl

Synopsis: Mikey encounters a peculiar girl whom he can't help but feel intrigued by.

Fandom: Tokyo Revengers

Characters: Sano Manjirō X Female Reader

⚠️ WARNING: Reader gets harassed on her way home.

Word Count: 1.7K

It was quite late in the evening as you were going back home after finishing your shift at a local café. Usually, you would have enough time to take the subway, but today your shift turned out to be a bit longer, due to a coworker suddenly falling ill. You didn’t mind though, as it meant extra cash for you.

As you walked down the unfamiliar streets, you could hear some distant noises. You didn't give them much thought, though, as they seemed far away from your current location—at least, that was your interpretation.

You were humming quietly to yourself, swaying your school bag back and forth in tandem with your slightly dancing footsteps. Against the night sky, dozens of bright stars illuminated the pathway back home, and the dazed part of your mind believed that some unnatural force was guiding you towards your soulmate.

Suddenly, you heard some whistles and realized that the sounds, which had seemed distant before, were now much closer. As you blinked in surprise, your gaze fell upon a group of boys who appeared to be a few years older than you. It was only then, as you broke eye contact with one of them, that you noticed he wasn't the only one whose gaze had been fixated on your lonely figure.

"What are you doing outside this late, sweetness?" One of the males slurred, making you visibly cringe at the action. A wave of nausea was beginning to rise within your body as the boys began to advance toward you.

They reminded you of a pack of hyenas, which was a parallel that you did not wish to draw since the species had always interested you. These boys, however, brought no other emotion than utter disgust, as you felt physically close to throwing up with each step that they took.

Instinctively, you took a step back and pursed your lips. A part of you wanted to scream, but you were afraid of the consequences that may follow. By appearing calm, you hoped to create an opportunity to escape. Perhaps, if they believed there was no danger, they would let their guard down at some point.

As they encircled you, you couldn’t help but continuously curse yourself out for using your phone so much during the day. Perhaps if you still had some battery, you could’ve easily made a run for it while trying to call for help.

Realizing that you had nothing to lose, you began to scream to the point that your lungs began hurting. However, this did not last long as one of the males lunged forward, pushing you painfully against the cold stone wall behind you.

While the group of boys carried you to a nearby alleyway, you continued to thrash around. The tallest one spoke in a low, menacing tone, his much larger hand still kept over your mouth. “Shut it, or else,” he warned. However, before he could pull his hand away, a loud scream pierced the empty streets as he felt a sharp pain from your harsh bite.

A second later, sudden pain resonated through your body as you landed harshly on the concrete. You groaned in response, attempting to sit up. Your left hand went up to rub your now sore cheek as a blooming pink hue slowly appeared on the surface.

You don't remember much of what happened during your momentary blackout. It's obvious that you didn't faint, but everything around you was too fuzzy to comprehend. Although you heard some noises, they seemed to be far away, and your vision was too blurry to make out what was going on.

You felt a much gentler tap on your shoulder, causing you to blink a few times as you tried to make out the silhouette of the person in front of you. "Am I dreaming?" You mumbled with a dazed expression, as the person's features became more prominent.

"Hmm, I don't know, are you?" The voice sounded smoky and seemed to belong to a young male. There was a slightly teasing lilt to it, but you found it soothing nonetheless.

You didn't answer straight away, finding yourself entranced by the pools of onyx that seemed to be staring right into your soul. They were black but bottomless, a stark contrast to the star-filled sky hanging above the two of you. And, the longer you held eye contact with the stranger, the more it felt as if they were sucking you into the void.

“This must be destiny,” you spoke, [e/c] hues watching him in amazement. He was just so beautiful.

The male tilted his head and interjected, "Oh?" An amused smile soon followed. You were still too dazed to realize how strange your words must have sounded, and the amusement in his gaze didn't deter you from asking, "Can I touch you?"

This elicited a chuckle from the boy, as he found your question utterly ridiculous. “Why?” He questioned, wondering what else your strange little mind would come up with this time.

"Because I need to make sure that you’re not just a fragment of my imagination," the blond looked at you with intrigue as he took in your words. An unidentifiable glint appeared in his eyes.

He took a step forward, inspecting you further in silence before voicing his thoughts. “Do you not trust your eyesight?”

“Not at all," came the breathless reply, causing the male’s onyx eyes to blink in confusion at your statement. Although everything you had said so far sounded strange, he couldn't help but wonder if you had just dropped your glasses while being harassed by those bastards.

As soon as the thought entered his mind, however, he quickly shook it off. He felt sure that if you really hadn't seen him, you would have acted slightly differently. “You must have a vivid imagination,” he mused, a small smile appearing on his face.

The boy leaned closer to you before stretching out his hand. He didn’t even need to say anything as your hand went up to connect with his, acknowledging the unspoken command that had been told through his eyes.

Hoisting you up, the boy asked curiously, “What’s your name?”

Crossing your arms in a form of fake haughtiness, you spoke in a condescending manner. "As my knight in shining armor, you ought to introduce yourself before asking for any personal information."

"The Invincible Mikey is what I go by," stated the boy with amusement as he bowed courteously to you. This caused a blush to spread across your cheeks, and you began to feel slightly flustered by his antics.

It wasn't the first time a boy had tried to play along with your shenanigans, but usually, they had a hard time keeping up with you. Quite often, you would quickly find them boring, perhaps because you realized that they didn't truly enjoy the play and were only trying to appease you.

You have always dreamed of meeting 'the one' - someone who would be happy to fulfill your desires and do anything to satisfy your needs. But you didn't want him to do so just because he found you pretty. Instead, you longed for a boy who would happily comply with your requests simply because he enjoys doing so and wants to see you happy.

However, not wanting to make things too easy for him, you continued to play around. "I believe that doesn't count as a formal introduction," you huffed, now facing the other side in mock annoyance.

“How am I ever to find you if you decide not to tell?” Now it was Mikey's turn to play pretend, puckering his lips into a childish pout as he tried to get your attention back. "Or do you believe that your parents are going to give a delinquent such as I, permission to taint their sweet little princess?"

After sparing the blond boy a small glance, you finally spoke, “Free me from the shackles that they have forced me to carry and we shall see who’ll be the one searching for me in the end.”

"Is the princess asking her knight to take her far away from this land to experience a life filled with adventures?" For the first time during this whole conversation, you felt utterly speechless. The young male, Mikey, took a step forward, his gaze completely fixated on your bewildered figure.

You've never been one to trust words alone. However, this boy spoke with such conviction that it was hard to deny the truthfulness behind them. Still, a part of you felt uncertain as to why he was so insistent on a stranger like yourself.

As you shot him a glare, he couldn't help but find your expression utterly adorable, a fact that you were completely oblivious to. Your tone became slightly harsher than before as you spoke, “If the knight is willing to sacrifice everything he has for their love, she’ll be happy to follow.”

Not feeling deterred in the slightest by the sudden change in your voice, Mikey took yet another step towards your figure as he spoke. “Unfortunately, fair lady, your knight does not possess a horse, but instead a black motor-driven machine, which he hopes will suffice for their journey together.” A grin stretched across his gorgeous—and cute—face.

You felt your blush deepen as you couldn't help but think his smile was very pretty. There was something about him that made you feel exposed, but in a good way. Never had you ever met someone who had managed to elicit such strong emotional responses from you, and the butterflies in your stomach were swarming chaotically, making you completely overwhelmed.

You loved the feeling, however, as it had made you feel much more alive than you had felt in your entire life. The smug grin that he was presenting did nothing to make the former annoyance return. Oh, who were you lying to? That annoyance had never been much more than self-fabrication.

“So this really is destiny,” you spoke up dazedly, taking a hold of his, once again, outstretched hand before following his figure out of the alleyway.

The boy led you quietly towards his bike, before turning around with a knowing glint in his coal-black eyes. "I'd like to believe it's fate," he said with a flirtatious wink, before turning back to face the road as the both of you disappeared into the darkness of the night.

[clovenhoofedjester]

jellicle lineups; part 1/4

hi catsblur ! today i am presenting to you the fruits of my labor. my own little versions of the jellicle cats; obviously based on the replica designs With Fun Little Twists ! such as, they are not naked. ramble below the cut, both on designs and some personal thoughts on the characters

these designs are very much first-draft, subject to change, blah blah. you will very likely be seeing me drawing them differently if i post more of them. i just. urrbhhh. i had 2 draw them....

and the clothes ! even though they're very feline i draw them a bit too human-y for the nakedness to not look consistently weird. i will be drawing them closer to the stage designs in some instances but for rn. clothes. it was a fun exercise in character design too

the kittens are all young adults, think 18-20 ! as much as i love headcanons like demeter being sillabubs mother, it shrimply will not work out timeline-wise. so headcanons like that will be delegated to like... siblings and stuff

victoria | 🍧 💌 🩰

i started out with victoria's design not only because of her being the Main Kitten, but because she has such a concise and clear aesthetic to me. she actually started out with a simple pastel brown dance practice fit before i decided that i wanted to make the outfits ornate(ish) and ended up with a proper ballerina getup

i also quite like when victoria is not just solid white with some grey (love ones that are more yellow or brown) so i colored her fur with some blue and pink-ish tones not only to add more depth but to resemble the trans flag LOL

and i wanted to try something different with making her a bit more lavender than baby pink. i also based her overall look on obc victoria, portrayed by cynthia onrubia :^]

to move on to character interpretation, i think victoria is partially deaf and mute. she primarily communicates through dance. as one of the oldest kittens she'd be 19 in human years

plato | 💐 🕯 🍬

plato's design doesnt stray too far from his standard replica design but i tried to add my own flair . i tried to keep the creepy porcelain doll aesthetic going w their face added some more depth like some other designs with different colors and bold face stripes

i also really like the outfit i chose for them. the flower in their hair and on their shirt is a peony which is a popular wedding flower :") because im a sucker for platoria and very much subscribe to the idea that the ball we see is their funny cat wedding in a way

the outfit is based on standard ballerino costumes but i tried to stray from it with the silky half-skirt thing and pointe shoes. lets go queer cats lets go

i think plato is also very quiet and that's why he and victoria were so drawn to each other. i also quite like the idea that he was a bit of a troubled stray before he found the jellicles. they would be 20 in human years

electra |⚡🥭 🔔

boy i STRUGGLED with electra's clothes i struggled so hard. i think i'm happy with what i ended up with though—i originally gave her the babydoll dress that sillabub has (inspired by artsed electra) but figured that i wanted at least one of the girls to be more tomboyish/butchy. thank you to that one production which apparently had electra be one of the raffish crew and get in on some of the boys' choreography

im very happy with what i did with her fur colors as well. silly little tortoiseshell :] its based on a nonrep but i have no idea which one. enjoy her freckles too

i think electra deserves to be a little spunky. [whispers] i also think shes bombalurinas little sister. she'd be 18 in human years

etcetera | 🎠 🍯 🏅

i needed at least one cat with a circus aesthetic. say hello to my magnum opus: jacked tumbler acrobat etcetera. it was only a matter of time until someone said fuck it and let one of the girls perform lifts and stuff. this is mostly because ive always really liked how shes usually the cat to do the flying trapeze bit and wanted to push it further

i also struggled SO EXTREMELY HARD with making her colors look nice and makeup distinctive but i figured it out in the end—thank you obc cettie for the mismatched eyeshadow and such. i also wanted to give a cat a short bob type of head fur/hairstyle and she fit the bill

nothing much about specific character notes other than like... i want to make her related to some of the cats but cannot for the life of me figure out who 2 assign. also she'd be around 19 in human years, a couple months younger than vic

sillabub | 🌻 🧋 🎼

i think of all of these little fellas sillabub is my favorite. several elements are balanced in her design—the standard jemima with a darker/reddish palette, the more softer and lighter sillabub design, the red eye patch from il sistina jemima, and the overall aesthetic of obc jemima with the big hair and wide, deepset eyes

i've seen her typical design critiqued by some people and wanted to incorporate those critiques by making her look less similar to demeter/bombalurina, adding more red to her body fur, and making her makeup more distinct and less... wooo girl give us nothing. and i included the squiggly on her collarbone

i also really REALLY love her overall aesthetic of sweet kindhearted girl NAMED AFTER A DEMON WITH SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG COLORING AND GIGANTIC SPIKED COLLAR !!!! so i decided to push it by making the collar definitely too big for her, giving her a slightly "edgy" outfit and making her hair resemble devil horns

as for character stuff, i think she has magical powers though i haven't developed exactly What they are yet. beyond her sweet exterior they trouble her. [whispers] i also think shes demeters little sister. she would be 18 in human years, a few months younger than electra and tumblebrutus

pouncival | 🌱 🩹 🍵

i struggled with pouncival's clothing design like i did electra's because i didn't go into drawing him with a particular gimmick in mind. but i think i'm happy with the casual formal look. it makes him look like such a kind young man even if he's a little shit

i did have a lot of fun trying to make his makeup distinctive from tumblebrutus'—so many fellas with brown eyepatches ! so his colors are more dark and striking. i also tried to make him look less like Typical Cis Man by giving him a bit of black lipstick

enjoy his freckles too

but like. i think hes literally such a little cis guy. nothing else for me to add for my specific interpretation of him it's all laid out. this guy fucking loves rocket league, fishing and chess. he'd be 19 in human years

tumblebrutus | 🎡 🥊 🍦

SWEET TUMBLEBRUTUS. i think drawing him here gave me a soft spot for him. with his outfit mirroring cettie's i didn't much struggle with that. his colors are also based on obc tumblebrutus

when i was first conceptualizing my own versions of the cats i wanted at least one of them asides from grizabella to have wavy fur. and idk what it is, maybe it's the lack of content for him, but i was really drawn to the idea of curly tumblebrutus!

i wanted their design to be distinctive from pouncival's so i made their colors softer, kinda watercolor-y. OH AND THEIR FUR IS ALSO MEANT TO BE A LITTLE TRANS FLAG COLORED

as for character, i think he is also a bit troubled, as a son of grizabella's. you heard me, people. i'm probably the first person ever to headcanon that. he'd be 18 in human years

AND THAT'S ABOUT IT ! thank you for reading this far, have a great day and stay tuned for more designs in the days to come !