#bc all the people who could've come up with the ideas we have here have either been brainwashed killed or scared into silence

[evilkitten3]

having some thoughts on itachi and radicalization and how people can do the most horrific shit imaginable while fully believing it's the right thing to do and police states

[teddybeartoji]

me and toji me and toji me and tojiiiiiiii...

we started out as neighbors but it took us like three months to even propely meet lmao,, it takes me a while to get used to new places so when i first moved in i just stayed at home like a lot. a lot a lot. i literally only left to go to the grocery store and then to the park down the street and that's it. and toji is a big homebody too, so he didn't go out all that much either, just work and then the bar with a friend every once in a while. we just didn't happen to move at the same time, despite living right next to each other.

after about a month, i found myself a third place and slowly but surely grew more and more comfortable there – the cinema (nobody is surprised). i always liked to go during the day, as early as i could, just to make sure that there wouldn't be too many people. always in the last row, always in the middle seat. this is the mickey way. anyway, after creating a bit of a routine for myself, i felt more free to observe my surrounding some more too. felt more comfortable to start people watching. and that's when i saw him. mostly dressed in darker clothes, hoodies and big jackets. sometimes with a cap on, sometimes without it. it's not like he was always always there at the same time as me but when he was, he always sat in the last row but instead of fighting for the middle seat, he always sat at the very end of the row. obviously i thought he looked very handsome – we had made eye-contact a few times while buying popcorn by accident and let me tell you, that was enough to have my heart racing ok i am very weak. but i'm not bold enough to strike up a conversation like that so stolen glances and shared movie experiences were all we had. we btw have a very similar taste in films so we did end up seeing each other a lot there lmao

aaaanyway i just had a silly little cinema crush but never did anything abt it bc i'm a pussy ok😔😔 (he's literally the same). okay but so, one day i was coming home from whereever, just stepped into the elevator when a hand stopped the doors and HE appeared. i was very confused. he.. looked confused too lmao,, but now........ loookkkk.... no matter how handsome he is..... he's still a stranger, and a man too at that. a man who seems to be where i am multiple times a week and is now suddenly where i live. yes, i freaked the fuck out okay. don't judge me. he didn't press a floor button either yk so i really did start to spiral over the fact that maybe he's stalking me or smth..... and he saw that. he saw me tense up and he isn't stupid – he knows he's a tough big guy and it did seem like he could've been stalking me. so he immediately backed away a bit, trying to make himself smaller bc he obviously didn't want to make me any more uncomfortable. and then he just blurted out with his raspy voice that he lives here. it definitely cracked the tension a bit. he cleared his throat and slowly pointed at the floor buttons, saying that he lives on the same floor (btw i need everybody to know that he has a bit of an accent in my head it's very very important to me he speaks english very well but his accent still shines through and i love it very very much<33333). he even showed me his keys lmao and i did feel way more safe after that buuut we still didn't really introduce each other or anything. i guess the air still felt just a bit weird.. the doors opened and we both walked to out apartments in silence (it wasn't actually awkward or anything though it was just . silence) and then looked at each other with silly faces when we realized we literally live Right next to each other lmao that was funny. i just said that i moved in like two months ago and that was it. we went our seperate ways.

for a day.

bc you have no idea.. how awful i felt abt that elevator thing. oooooooh my god. IT'S NOT HIS FAULT HE'S SO BIG SO IT'S SO MEAN FOR ME TO ASSUME THAT HE'S SOME AXE MURDERED YK well it isn't but i still felt really really bad esp since he tried to immediately make me feel more comfortable and tried to reassure me that he was not, in fact, stalking me lmao but yeah idk it just weighed really heavily on me i couldn't help but keep thinking abt it soooo i ended up baking a batch of brownies the very next day. and i went to his door (still in my hello kitty pyjama pants mind you)(i forgot to change them) aaand then started rambling and STUTTERING BTWW while apologizing and he just stood there like ???? like he didn't even understand why i was apologizing in the first place lmao he felt it was a very understandable for me to have that fear and to think the way i was thinking (he actually felt a bit bad abt the whole thing inside too he just didn't really know how to express it). aaaanyway so he was just there staring at me with like a veeery faint smile bc at a point it got a bit ridiculous bc i really did start just rambling abt the whole thing lmao it was uhhh just a bit embarrassing (the fact that he's hot didn't help either thank you very much). he thought it was cute how i was there trying to apologize for smth that he should've been apologizing for himself lmao he tried to say no to the brownies at first and i shoved them at him so hard they all almost fell.. aaand i think that's exactly where he decided that hm. mickey . yes weird little creature i am intrigued i want to know more yk?

btw we still didn't exchange numbers or anything at that point, that happened later after i came knocking at his door at twelve am bc there was a big spider in my room but i'll talk abt that some other time:33333333 thank you for reading abt the miji lore i love you . and i love him. sooooso much he means the world to me<3333333333333333

[bitterpngs]

...

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...

… trust, huh?

TL;DR: what i want to highlight with this comic: satoru calling suguru "geto" / suguru crossing satoru's metaphorical line and permanently severing his relationship with him. kenjaku's plan in canon will never come to fruition in this au. what happens after is up to you :)

and yes ik the trust quote is in the context of the other 2nd years! i added it bc it fit, in a way.

this got long sorry lol i started to ramble

LAST NAME - what started this all and what i hope others picked up on was gojo calling geto by his last name, not his first: geto. even after everything geto did during jjk v0, gojo still calls geto 'suguru.' he's still 'suguru' to him. i wanted a scenario in which gojo would reject his first name - reject their past and their relationship. this whole comic idea sprung out of being unsatisfied with geto and gojo's canon relationship. personally, im not the happiest with how things were written in the story and feel like the author could've done some things differently. this isn't to say i don't like or enjoy what the author has written either. i just have mixed feelings.

KENJAKU - in case it wasn't clear, the door closing on page 14 depicts geto with stitches on his forehead - aka kenjaku. what that page is trying to convey is that the moment geto killed yuuta, the future where geto's body is used to box gojo ceased to exist. in this au, kenjaku's plan that we see in the canon timeline would never and will never work. by killing yuuta, geto crossed a line and permanently severed his relationship with gojo. if gojo wins here, gojo will dispose of the body properly. the panel after shows a closed door with the memory of who suguru was. the person who suguru used to be and the best years of gojo's life etc etc. but "broken" bc it's gojo truly realizing that's not who geto is anymore + the whole "severing relationship" thing. does this make sense.

what happens after the comic ends is up to interpretation though

GETO'S PLAN - i didnt focus a lot on the specifics of how this could've happened considering geto's plan changed in this au. how it happened isnt really important, you can come up with whatever you want. what i wanted to focus on, and what i hope people managed to pick up on is the situation itself - geto killing yuuta. sorry yuuta. i'll make it up to you.

i ended it here because it felt the best place, but here's some scrapped dialogue of a few seconds after: GETO: "… It was a necessary sacrifice, Sato-" GOJO: "don't you dare call me that" basically to emphasize the first name vs last name situation

GOJO N GETO - ive always felt uhhh. nitpicky, i guess. about the specifics of everything regarding gojo and geto. ive felt unsatisfied for a variety of reasons, and this was basically an idea that sprung out (a looong time ago) of a want for gojo to be angry at and feel more.. negative emotions, i guess, toward geto. i still do genuinely enjoy their canon relationship a lot tho. i enjoy the way they’re written together and individually, i just have different/multiple feelings about the same thing :)

RIKO AND YUUTA - erm there was a scrapped panel... you can find it on my blog if you're really curious but there was a panel of geto 'remembering' riko's dead body (a distorted memory, because the blood reflects yuuta's injuries). it's not necessarily that riko and yuuta are similar, it's that geto becomes a bit like toji in the end. just like toji, geto tries to kill a young teenager for the sake of his own goals. while toji's was selfish and geto's, in his own eyes, was for the greater good, there's still the similarity of killing a child. of stealing their future for their own goals. plus the fact that gojo killed both of them in a similar way.

TRUST - yeah i know the quote is in the context of the 2nd years fighting geto. still. gojo trusted geto to a large degree, despite everything he did. so. it's going here.

PG 4-6 - geto values and cares about sorcerers so so much. again, he was fine with trying to kill yuuta for his vision and all but i dont think he wouldn't feel some level of. conflicting emotions i guess. (i am very against the idea that geto wasn't... trying to kill yuuta? i don't really get that perspective at all. it'd make all of that meaningless imo. but this isn’t about that.) ok im done.

if you read this entire rambly thing, thank you :D hope you enjoyed!

[howtobecomeadragon]

Mike got upset at Hopper in s2 bc Hopper was keeping El hidden... when she could've been helping Will and preventing Will's situation from getting so bad

Obviously there are other reasons too, he was mourning and missed her, it was a shock to see her, etc. I'm just saying I think this is the bigger reason.

This also ties into Mike viewing El as a superhero and how this puts their relationship in a weird space. If someone is a superhero, you're not missing them as a person, you're missing them for their powers and what they can do for you.

Obviously we saw that Mike was missing El in 2x01 and 2x02. But at the end of 2x02, we saw Mike having a new concern about what was going on with Will and that he was seeing something from the UD. Mike is confronted with the reality that he doesn't know much about the UD and doesn't know how to help. He doesn't know if this is real or just visions. He doesn't understand (although he does his best to help), the others wouldn't understand, but Eleven would. She would know, she'd be able to help, she'd know how to stop this.

Because, after all, Mike has said it before: she's a weapon. He viewed her as a way to get Will back before (partly, not claiming this was his only motivation in his relationship with El) and now in s2, Mike is missing her for what she could have done here: helped Will.

Mike does what he can to put positive spins on the situation and he provides that emotional support, which probably helped more than he knew.

But that didn't exactly stop the bad things from happening. Mike still doesn't know how to fix this thing happening to Will. He does everything he can, he comes up with the idea to spy back and to put Will to sleep, but it's still a very upsetting day or two.

When El returns, he greets her happily but as soon as he hears that she's been out there, listening to his calls, his face drops. He wanted to know she was out there. And then very quickly his anger moves to Hopper. El didn't know that Will was in trouble. She stayed away bc Hopper told her to, but she didn't know what was going on. Hopper knew. Hopper knew that El was probably one of the only people who might know enough to help, so he gets mad about Hopper hiding her, when she could've been there, she could've stepped in as soon as Will saw the Mind Flayer the first time.

Moving onto the fight scene:

Mike and Hopper both look and gesture towards this wall a lot (EDIT: credit to @runninguplenorahills for pointing this out, this is also in Will's bedroom, similar to the s3 kiss with El in the finale. just another thing pointing to this being more to do with Will than the GA might thing), and I get that it's probably the direction of where El is in the kitchen, but just like always, Will is there symbolically too. He's there in the drawings that are on the wall between them in the dead center of the shot. It's a symbol of just how bad things got with Will.

Mike looks at the drawings and says he doesn't understand how Hopper let it go on so long with El there but hidden.

Again, looking and gesturing at the walls. And there's this talk of blame here. "Don't blame her, she's already upset." "I don't blame her, I blame you."

Blame El for... just staying hidden? When Mike can tell she wasn't allowed to talk to him? That doesn't really fit perfectly with the word "blame." What Hopper might mean, instead, is for Mike to not blame El for how bad it got with Will. "Don't blame El for not coming to help sooner, don't blame her for everything that has happened the past couple days." And Mike doesn't, he says he's blaming Hopper.

Another couple things from the full fight scene:

"Protecting her?" Mike sees what happened. Hopper chose to protect El over protecting Will this season (in a way, balancing out his actions from s1, selling out El's location to Brenner to save Will).

"So I should be thanking you?" Along that same line: Mike isn't thinking about his or his family's safety. Brenner is gone, and it sounds like Hopper kept El hidden for reasons he doesn't understand or care about at the cost of Will's safety.

"Nothing about this is okay." There's so many things he's upset and overwhelmed and scared about right now. It's multifaceted, just like so many of Mike's scenes. He's not just mad bc he missed El, there's more there.

After the scene with Hopper, Mike and El are standing away from each other. He even seems to be avoiding eye contact with her? Maybe from embarrassment over his outburst, maybe he just feels weird and conflicted already, feeling the strain of having his attention split when he's already so worried about Will. But either way, the shots are framed with Mike and Hopper together and everyone else with El. He didn't rush out from that fight to stick with El, be close, hold her hand, talk with her more.

And the first time he speaks in this scene it feels a lot like another "I'm the only one who cares about Will" moment. He's put the pieces together and was considering Will's part in all of this. He's not voicing concern about El being in danger again or leaving again, his mind is on Will.

And I think this all goes to the goodbye scene between El and Mike. Mike is concerned about losing people close to him. He can't say goodbye to Will, but he says goodbye to El. She tries to kiss him, he leaves his eyes open and doesn't move closer at all. A car with Will drives away and a car with El drives away, both headed towards danger. He stares after both, scared.

GA viewers assume he's just focused on El as he watches the cars drive away, but he spent most of the season just focused on Will. GA viewers assume Mike's outburst just has to do with loving El, but he spent most of the season trying to help Will, just like s1, except this time he didn't have El, his helpful link to the UD, to make the supernatural mysteries a little bit easier.

[mintydotdoodle]

spoilers up to the most recent events of riptide (ep115)

I don't know what possessed me (the spirit of Meryl Streep maybe???) but "The Winner Takes it All" works so well with the current state of Chip in the black sea. Like the idea of Chip eventually just coming to accept his loss and losing this inherit hope he's been holding so close. (which I don't think we would fully reach in cannon, but possibly something similar to how he broke down post Gillion drawing the card in the feywild with him talking about giving up in pirating to Jay) BUT LIKE STICK WITH ME HERE BC IM GONNA CONNECT TO SOME LYRICS first off : The winner takes it all The loser's standing small (Chip being physically smaller or emotionally smaller due to literally losing part of his body and some of his sanity from the black sea) Beside the victory That's her destiny (as a foil to Gillion beginning to move away from his destiny thing, him coming to accept that he was meant to lose himself in the black sea)

I was in your arms Thinking I belonged there I figured it made sense Building me a fence

Building me a home (home being both the black rose ship and albatross) Thinking I'd be strong there (Thinking is the key word here I feel, because every time Chip thinks he finds a home it can't help be swept away from him both in losing physical home and people) But I was a fool Playing by the rules

The gods may throw a dice (concepts of the whole group being pushed around by the supposed destiny and will of the gods) Their minds as cold as ice And someone way down here Loses someone dear (THIS SPECIFIC PART LIKE WOAH because it could work as both Chip's loss of his first family in the form of Arlin and Capt. Rose, and Jay and Gill losing Chip to the black sea)

The winner takes it all (takes it all) The loser has to fall (has to fall) It's simple and it's plain (it's so plain) Why should I complain? (Why complain?) (this is where those feelings of hopelessness and helplessness would come in)

But tell me, does she kiss Like I used to kiss you? Does it feel the same When she calls your name?

Somewhere deep inside You must know I miss you (Chip opening up for this moment of absolute unabashed sincerity about missing so much. Missing Arlin, missing who he once was, who he could've been, missing the life he could have with Jay and Gill) But what can I say? Rules must be obeyed

The judges will decide (will decide) The likes of me abide (me abide) (could possibly connect to Niklaus and his heart) Spectators of the show (of the show) Always staying low (staying low)

The game is on again (on again) A lover or a friend (or a friend) A big thing or a small (big or small) The winner takes it all (takes it all)

I don't wanna talk If it makes you feel sad And I understand You've come to shake my hand (i supposed final goodbye for Chip [Which I can't see actually happening])

I apologize If it makes you feel bad Seeing me so tense No self-confidence But you see (just this whole section in this self pitying apology to Gillion that he isn't who he once was, especially after Jay leaves)

The winner takes it all The winner takes it all (this part in the song and the way it's sung is so heart wrenching and I just get massive Chip vibes I cannot explain)

So the winner takes it all And the loser has to fall Throw the dice, cold as ice Way down here, someone dear Takes it all, has to fall And it's plain, why complain?

This could also just be my continuation of my obsessive Chip and musical theatre agenda, who knows?

[rafesbabyg1rl]

Hey girl pls do me a favor and GIVE ME ALL THE SPOILERS. So weird but i refuse to watch past season 2 bc ik id get so obsessed w the obx universe so its not good but i need to know what happened w rafe n sofia and who and why jj died PLS I BEG

SPOILER ALERT!!!

OBX SEASON 4 (pt.1 &2)

First of all, thanks for being my first ask!!! You have no idea how greatly I appreciate the support and attention I've received within the past 24 hours! I wish you could've seen the smile on my face when I received this anon ask.

Babe, I wish I was as strong as you, I'd be SO much happier if I stopped watching at season 2. But I'm literally addicted and have to watch the new episodes the second they come out. Part 2 of season 4 was so chaotic and DEPRESSING!! Like I already know rewatching the show will NEVER be the same. I'm also curious how season 5 will go now that JJ is DEAD.

I'm not completely sure whether or not you wanted spoilers for the entirety of season 4, or just part 2. But, seeing as I already over-explain enough as it is, I'll just give you part two spoilers.

The following will contain outer bank spoilers for season 4 part one and two:

In episode 6, we learn more about JJ's past (his real parents). Basically, Chandler Groff (JJ's real father) gave JJ (real name Jackson) to Luke Maybank after or just before JJ's mother died. Because Luke worked for the Genrette's and was somewhat close to JJ's mother. Also, in this episode JJ only tells Kie about what happened because he doesn't want the others "even thinking he's a Genrette."

We get TWO Rafe scenes in this episode. AND LET ME JUST TELL YOU HOW SCRUMDIDILYUMPCIOUS HE LOOKS!!!!!!! He just looks so OLDDDD and so handsome, he's also giving majorrrrr dilf vibes and I'm so here for it.

In his first scene, he's meeting with Sarah. Since Kie tells Sarah that Rafe came by and offered to help (with what they though was the land situation) but, what he really wanted to talk about was money. Rafe wants to work with Sarah to get Wheezie back from Rose, since Rose wouldn't allow either of them to even SPEAK with their youngest sister. He proposes that after they get Wheezie back, they get their inheritance. After Ward "died" the first time, he left a quarter of his money to Rafe, and a quarter to Sarah. Neither of them had received their money since Rose clung onto it, keeping all the Merchant Gold money for herself. Rafe appears a bit distraught and emotional as he talks to his sister. Sarah of course gets emotional as well and leaves abruptly, only saying that she's sorry but she can't do this. I felt soooo bad for my baby after this, it was clear that he was trying to rebuild their family, but he was scared to truly show how much he cares, and Sarah crushed him within seconds.

The pogues have no other option now but to round up as many people from the cut to attend court with them and provide support as they try to keep poguelandia from being taken. When things don't go their way per usual, JJ flips out and starts a riot in the courthouse. All the pogues help him escape the cops. JJ starts absolutely destroying shit on figure 8. I think this is him clearly crashing out after finding out his piece of shit, abusive father isn't even his real father, and that his actual parents are a murderer and a dead lady. To help JJ, Pope punches a cop that's about to shoot JJ and gets arrested. Oh, and while at court, Luke made an appearance, something about him being the previous owner of the property and signing some paper that helped the kooks. Trading his signature for his freedom (since he's a literal fugitive and all).

Sofia has a small scene where she's at work but calls Hollis on the phone and demands to meet with her, feeling wrong about their arrangement.

The second scene with Rafe is when he goes and meets with Chandler Groff about the deal he made with Hollis in the last part. In this scene, he calls Sofia his girlfriend. Rafe mentions that his girlfriend thinks the deal is a big hoax and he contemplates canceling the wire money transfer. But he decided against it, agreeing to stay in the deal with Groff and Hollis. He tells Groff that if he screws him, he'll come after him. This was very season 3 of him. AND RAFE LOOKS SO OLD AND SCRUMDIDLYUMPTIOUS. HE GIVES OFF DILF VIBES SO STRONGLY IN THIS SCENE.

Episode 7 starts off with some more of JJ and Chandler Groff talking. JJ happens to go over to see Groff on Goat Island at the wrong time, and he ends up caught up in Groff's crap. Pope spends a night in jail, being released the next day with an ankle monitor and a trial date. Pope was told he must reside at home with his parents, and he's not allowed to see or talk to any of the pogues until after his trial. So pretty much in this episode all Cleo and Pope do is sneak around trying not to get caught talking to each other. And in this episode, Heyward introduces the idea that Pope must go into the military for a few months rather than go to jail.

The rest of the crew (Sarah, John B, and Kie) follow JJ's trail of destruction in order to try and find him. Meanwhile, Sarah splits off to take a PREGNANCY TEST. Of course it's positive, because the writers literally add every single fan theory they come across or something like that. Kie basically walks in on Sarah and sees the test, Kie has quite a few negative things to say. Sarah seems upset as she asks Kie if she has anything positive to say about the situation, in which Kie tells Sarah that she'll be an amazing mom and, John B loves her and will be an "all-right dad", the final thing Kie tells Sarah in this scene is that she has all of them to help. Sarah intends to tell John B, but the timing is horrible, so it stays between her and Kie for a bit.

Sofia finally meets with Hollis to discuss the agreement they had (Hollis getting Sofia to nudge Rafe towards making the deal on Goat Island). The scene is short and despite Hollis' reassurance that the deal is real, all this serves to do is make Sofia feel even worse about what she did.

JJ spends a lot of time with Groff in this episode, not by choice. And you can tell Groff is starting to tear down some of JJ's defensive walls. My thoughts are that since JJ had a shit father that gave him nothing but a shitty life, he's trying to take the recent news and make something good out of it, something real. And when confronted by JJ in the start of the episode, Groff declines being JJ's father only to admit that he is JJ's dad towards the middle of the episode. Groff only admits the truth so that JJ helps him because he can't get out of his bad situation he's involved in with the mercenaries without JJ's help. After both being kidnapped, Groff tries to frame JJ with the murder of one of the mercenaries instead of admitting to it himself. Luckily, they don't believe that it was JJ. This episode ends with Sarah, John B, and Kie using explosives and fire to help save JJ from Groff's problems.

NO RAFE IN THIS EPISODE!!!!

Episode 8 begins with the pogues--and Groff trying to figure out more about the map and the new treasure (The Blue Crown). Pope gets told he has to go off into the military a lot sooner than he expected...like, right now; which leads into the formation of Pope and Cleo's new club, the "No goodbyes club".

JJ and Groff go out on their own to obtain the 'lens' that will help translate the map from his mother's grave, spending some actual bonding time in the process. It's not as if JJ is purposely trying to get close with to/ bond with Groff, but it just sort of happens. I feel like Groff is doing it on purpose because he wants JJ's help so he can continue to play him. Meanwhile Sarah and John B run an 'errand' (go to the court house to i THINK get married officially after Sarah tells John B that she's pregnant. But, the courthouse is closed because of the damage JJ caused so they decide to try again another day. Kiara stays at poguelandia.

We get ONE TINYYY scene of Rafe in this episode. He's just in the sheriff's department yelling and demanding to talk to Shoupe. He explains how Groff and Hollis stole 400k from him, and Shoupe realizes the guy they've been looking for actually is Groff.

Groff makes JJ be the one to get the lens from his MOTHERS grave. I felt so bad because literally she wasn't even fully decomposed so the only memory JJ will have of his real mom is her rotting corpse. Groff tries to frame JJ again and he locks him in his mother's crypt. Groff goes back to poguelandia and steals the map from them, when Kiara catches onto him he pushes her and causes her to hit her head. When she's literally UNCONSIOUS he locks her body in the shop's cooler. Groff returns to JJ, letting him out of the crypt and acting all innocent and fatherly once again, as if he didn't just lock his son's girlfriend up in a freezer. They stop by Hollis Robinson's house, JJ stays in the car as Groff goes in to talk with Hollis. Hollis accuses Groff of lying and stealing 400k from Rafe, threating to turn him into Shoupe. Groff shoots her and leaves the body. He then takes JJ out on a boat, saying that he'll drop him off. Except of course he doesn't. Groff tries leaving the island with JJ, trying to convince him that they don't need his friends and that they should do this one alone. JJ wants to call his friends, but Groff "accidently" tosses his phone into the water.

The others find Kie and she tells him about Groff, they track the last place JJ's phone was before it lost connection. When JJ calls Groff out for his bullshit, Groff injures JJ and throws him into the ocean. JJ is left alone, only able to back float when the others find and rescue him.

In episode 9, Groff frames JJ for the murder of Hollis Robinson. When the cops find where the pogues have been hiding, they have no choice but to go on the run. They all agree that they have nothing to lose and decide to go to Morocco in search of the Blue Crown. While looking for a boat to steal that can get them to Morrocco, they're spotted by the cops and are forced to run yet again. We get a TINY scene with Rafe while he eavesdrops on the pogues and overhears them talking about needing to find a way to get down to Morocco. Pretty much you see him for 2 seconds and all he does is look good, since he doesn't even make a single sound in this scene.

The next scene of Rafe is with BARRY!!! I WAS PRAYING BARRY RETURNED FOR AT LEAST ONE SCENE THIS SEASON, I missed his fruity ass flirting with Rafe. (Literally this was the one GOOD thing to happen in part 2). But anyway Rafe asks Barry to trade boats, Barry's big ass tuna fishing boat that he apparently has now for Rafe's smaller, flashy, half a million-dollar boat. Barry doesn't want to at first but Rafe tells him that if he doesn't get his piece of shit boat back, he can keep Rafe's boat. And because Barry is like in love with Rafe, he agrees and they end the scene being all silly and flirty like always. Also, Idk if it's just me, but in this scene the way Rafe talks is so off. Why does he sound like that?? And part of it is clearly a voice over but why is he talking so weird? It's like the first scene of him in part 1 of season 4.

That scene jumps right into another scene of baeeeee. It goes from a Rafe and Barry scene straight into a Rafe and Sofia scene. I felt so spoiled lmao. Anyways, Rafe and Sofia are talking outside on a beach (I think it's the same spot he took her in s4 ep5 to talk). Rafe tells Sofia that Groff killed Hollis and took off with his money, he explains that he's gonna track Groff down and get his money back. He stays very vague about where he's going though. Rafe tells Sofia that he wants to tell her something before he leaves (I got all excited watching this thinking he's gonna say he loves her)...BUT THEN HE GOES AND GETS DOWN ONTO ONE FUCKING KNEE IN FRONTOF HER????????????? Rafe fucking Cameron PROPOSING? WHAT?? Sofia tries to say that she has something to tell him too (likely about the arrangement she had with Hollis) but Rafe interrupts her by pulling out a ring, "It was my mom's". ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING? Rafe tells Sofia he wants her to have the ring before he left so she knows that they're real. Sofia keeps trying to say that she did something bad, and that it's about Hollis, but Rafe tells her he doesn't care. Rafe admits that there's a lot she doesn't know about him that's far worse than anything she could've done. He says he doesn't care to know what she did and that he wants to be with her. Rafe very clearly is intentionally not saying the real words like husband/wife, married, etc. and I think that's very in character for him. He does say, "If you say "yes", there's no more scraping the barrel, old Pogue bullshit. Okay? I want you...I want you to quit your job, and I want you to...to move in with me. Okay?" And Sofia is crying because, real well and also the overwhelming guilt eating at her from the inside out for what she did to him. This is where RAFE SLIPS THE RING ON HER FINGER!!! Then he quickly gets onto his feet and pulls her up to him and they KISSSSSS for a good, hot second actually. When he pulls away he's all happy and giggly as he gives her keys to his house, putting them in her hands and then wrapping his hands over hers. "I'll be back in a few weeks, all right? Stay at my...stay at our place." OUR PLACE? THIS MAN PAUSED TO CORRECT HIMSELF AND SAY ITS THEIRRR PLACE? Then he literally puts his hand on her cheek and whispers, "All right?" as she sobs. She nods and he says "I love you". I REPEAT, RAFE CAMERON SAID I LOVE YOU TO HIS GIRL!!!!!!!!!!! Then they kiss two more times, he mumbles a 'bye' before walking off, only turning to look back for a second when Sofia says, "I love you too". HELLLOOOOOOO????????????????? Babes I was literally in SHOCK. After being deprived of Rafe for nearly two episodes and then getting a Rarry scene and THIS back-to-back?? Shit gave me whiplash fr.

Going back to the pogues, their stolen police boat deflates due to being shot and Shoupe catches up to them. They have no choice but to talk to him. Shoupe mentions the warrant he has for JJ's arrest for killing Hollis. Except this time Shoupe actually uses his brain and knows that JJ did not kill Hollis. He also speaks to Pope since Pope cut off his ankle monitor when he escaped from going off to the military. Shoupe says he has a good idea on what JJ did and didn't do, but he says he has a warrant for both Pope and JJ and need to take them in. This is when Rafe comes out of literal fucking nowhere and says he's just there to save everyone's asses. He tells Shoupe that Groff was scamming with Hollis the whole time and it was most likely Groff that killed her, not JJ. Rafe says Groff probably killed Genrette too and the body that they found (that Shoupe already realized was murdered by Groff). He says that Shoupe could bring in the pogues for some vandalism 'bullshit', or he can get the "big fish", as in Groff. Rafe explains to Shoupe that the pogues know where Groff is and that Rafe can get them there, but "they can't do shit if they're all locked up". Rafe explains to Shoupe that the smart thing for him to do is to let them go that he can solve the crime of the century and keep his job. Rafe throws in an 'added bonus', saying that when they get back and Shoupe's got Groff locked up, Rafe will tell him "what happened last summer on the runway", when Shoupe had found Rafe out on the tarmac. He says he'll tell Shoupe the real story of what happened, because he knows Shoupe wants to know. In which Shoupe replies, "You wanna know what I want to know? I wanna know about another little runway accident from a while back. How bout' that?" Eventually, Rafe convinces Shoupe to let them go and get Groff. Meanwhile all the pogues stand around in confusion at what the fuck is happening.

Rafe takes the pogues onto the boat he borrowed from Barry. But, the pogues say they don't trust him and they tie Rafe up and lock him up in his own ship. Rafe spends practically the entire trip to Morocco tied up and locked away, not getting to have much interaction with anyone. But, when a huge storm approaches, the ship starts to go down. The pogues almost forget about Rafe until they hear him banging on shit and yelling for help, the room he was in starting to fill with water. Pope and others immediately say not to let him out, but Kie being Kie, says "no, he's gonna drown, we have to." And she's the ONLY one that gets up and finds a knife to cut Rafe free.

JJ spends his time on the boat to Morocco in a spiral and constantly drinking, so he's not doing shit when all this goes down. On the boat, John B even tells JJ about Sarah being pregnant in hopes to cheer him up. At first JJ seemed happy but he suddenly and without warning switched back to being negative and says a bunch of crap like how John B won't be a good dad. During the storm John B drives the ship and for some reason Sarah goes to find him, and she gets hit with a wave, and taken into the water. JJ sees this and calls out for her, without thinking (when does JJ ever think) he jumps in after her. John B watches it all play out, watches as his PREGNANT wife AND best friend disappear into the raging ocean. Kiara finds John B and asks where Sarah is, in which John B responds by hugging Kie as she asks where JJ was as well. Rafe comes out and takes in the situation at hand, he shouts for his sister.

The next scene is of John B, Kiara, Pope, Cleo...and Rafe emerging out of the ocean. The crashed tuna boat visible behind them. HOLY FUCK WAS RAFE HOT AS FUCK GETTING OUTTA THAT WATER...THE WAY HE SPIT LIKE HELLO??? Spit in my mouth next please! Despite their efforts, nobody can find Sarah and JJ. The group of 5 well, group of 4 and Rafe (he's literally 4 feet away from everyone else at all times, like he just sits there in silence), wait around for what I believe is like a day before they finally spot JJ and Sarah.

And FINALLY episode 10 begins with all the pogues reconnecting and talking about random stuff while Rafe just like sits to the side.... JJ mentions, (I'm including this bc I feel like it's def foreshadowing) that a good name for a baby would be JJ, because it can go either way. And because only Kie, JJ, and John B know about Sarah, Pope is like "wait what baby?" And then John B and Sarah tell the group, Rafe just kinda looks at Sarah. I'm mad that he didn't say anything or talk to her about it because I KNOW this man is happy to be an uncle. I know he's happy for Sarah and I KNOW he wants to say something SO BAD.

The group make their journey through Morocco, only stopping when Sarah starts to feel unwell. They ralize she probably just needs to eat so everyone except for Rafe splits off and tries to steal food for her. But they get caught and chased, only getting Sarah a little food. After they just get moving again, the cops find them and try to arrest Rafe. When Rafe has to split up from the others, he figures something out, having to call Sofia to help him with something. The pogues and Rafe all get new clothes and try to blend in.

As Rafe is off on his own mission, he comes across Groff, saving him from being killed by others by taking him hostage himself. Groff tells Rafe about the treasure he's after and how much it costs, since Rafe is only worried about getting his money back after Groff screwed him over. Rafe tells Groff that because he screwed him, and then lost his money to the mercenaries, he is now gonna be Rafe's bitch. "And, if you're lucky, I'll give you a little taste on the back end, all right?" And Rafe gets all up close and quiet, "If I let you live." HE DOES THE SEXIEST LITTLE SMILE/SMIRK/GIGGLE HERE??? I love him. I wish he'd give me a little taste on the back end. Groff shows Rafe how to read the map with the lens, so he can get to the blue crown. As Rafe looks at the map, Groff yaps as usual, but when he mentions a 'girl', Rafe AIN'T FUCKING PLAYINGGG. "What girl?" He asked immediately. Groff told Rafe what Sofia did and this just sets Rafe off. He's not sure whether to believe Groff or not. Groff attacks Rafe with a knife, stabbing him in the hand, but Rafe easily gets ahead in the fight. Groff makes it too fucking easy when he stands right in front of a well, which Rafe of course pushes him into and then scream-laughs into. "Checkmate, bitch!" BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL U HE LOOKED SEXY ASF HERE! Then Rafe like whines and groans in pain and I just literally wanna do anything and everything to make bae feel better. Rafe takes the map and the lens, putting it in his motorbike and wrapping his hand up, quickly driving off and leaving Groff behind.

Rafe calls Sofia and she answers all cute like, "hey babe, what's up?". While he's all pissed off and just says, "Is it true, what Groff just told me?" Sofia says nothing. "Is it?" He asks again, nodding when he still gets silence in response. "All right, pack your shit. Get out of my house. God, after everything I did for you? We're done. Done." and he hangs up. BRO I WAS SOBBING. He sounded and looked so hurt I felt so bad. Like UGHHH. But also like literally he said he didn't care to know when she tried to tell him. So like would he have ended things if she said it before he left? Or was it just like a heat of the moment thing? Especially because he didn't hear it from Sofia, and he had to find out from Groff of all people.

The pogues find Groff in the hole and of course he tries to manipulate JJ into throwing him a rope. JJ gets to make the decision on what to do with him, and he just tosses a big jug off water into the well and leaves. As they leave, Groff shouts "JJ! JJ get back here or I'll tear your throat out!" But they don't listen, why would they be scared of a man stuck way down deep at the bottom of a well? As Rafe tries to follow the map and find the crown, the mercenaries find him. They demand the map from him and he submits with his hands in the air. The listens to what they say in defeat. The pogues watch from a far. Cleo says, "They gonna kill him." To which Pope says, "do we care?". JJ adds, "yeah, that's a good question, Pope.". As Sarah clearly struggles with some internal conflict about her brother, the others keep talking regularly. Cleo speaking again, "Yeah, but then they'd take the scroll." Nobody shows any care or remorse for Rafe as they watch him be held at gunpoint. As the mercenaries approach Rafe and threaten to shoot him, the pogues argue about how they're gonna get the map and lens back. While they all pitch their ideas and shut down others, Sarah takes the gun from JJ, causing them all to look at her. "What are you doing? Hey. Woah." Questions JJ. Sarah doesn't respond as she holds the gun up and cocks it, "that's my brother." She says seconds before shooting one of the mercenaries' vehicles, causing it to blow up and be the distraction Rafe needed to get away.

Rafe and the pogues run off into a building as they're chased by several of highly armed individuals. Pope and Cleo stay to guard the door in case they get in as the others run off. Pope has the gun and gets ready to shoot. Since he's never shot anyone before he's nervous, so when he has the chance, he purposely misses his target as he fires 'warning' shots. Cleo and Pope run as they get shot at.

Meanwhile, Rafe continues to run with the scroll and the lens, but John B tries to stop him. Rafe feels cornered and holds a knife out to John B in self-defense. "It's ours", says Sarah, referring to the scroll Rafe clung on to. "It was. I look the shit." He responds. "I bought it for 400k, actually. Okay?" He's clearly panicked as his gaze frantically switches between John B and Sarah. Sarah reminds Rafe that she just saved his life, and he spins to face her, lowering his knife as he talks to his sister. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You did it so you could steal it from me. There was something in it for you. All right? Not to actually help me. I know that." Rafe pants. John B speaks "Rafe we don't have time." Then Sarah speaks again, "We can read that, you can't." Rafe responds to his sister, his voice getting louder, "Why would I help you? Huh? I don't trust you." Raises the knife back up, pointing it at his own sister. "I don't trust any of you. Do you understand?" At this point it's very clear he's panicking from emotion and because he feels trapped. His voice is uneven, threatening to break with emotion, "Dad trusted you. You remember what happened to him?! Do you remember?!" He yells at Sarah. She yells back in response, "Dad died saving my life." Sarah steps cloer to her brother, her voice becoming more raw with emotion. "And you're so eager to blame me for everything, you won't even listen to what happened. Singh's men had me at gunpoint. I was gonna die." She's fighting back tears now, " Dad took those bullets for me. And if he was still around, he'd want us to work together. I know you know that." (GET READY FOR RAFE'S NEXT LINE, CUZ I CERTAINLY WASN'T!!!) His eyes are watery as he looks at his sister, his voice betraying him as it shakes with his words, "No, you're just gonna screw me like everyone else in my life. You...I know you will." Sarah's crying as she interrupts him, "No, no, because I'm all you've got. And you're the only family I have left." (OH MY GOD RAFE IS LITERALLY POUTING RIGHT HERE AS TEARS THREATEN TO FALL DOWN HIS FACE). John B joins in, "She's telling the truth." Rafe sighs as Sarah breathes shakily, his eyes leave her to look around so he can gather himself enough to speak. His voice is soft now as he gives in, "All right. If we uh...if we work together, I...I still get my cut? So." Sarah nods, "yeah." Rafe asks again, "I get my cut?" And this time John B responds, "yeah". Rafe holds the map out to Sarah and you can very clearly see how much Rafe is shaking. Sarah raises her hand to grab the map, but instead it lowers and both of her arms wrap around Rafe. He just stands there for a moment, confused as he takes in the moment. Rafe cries as Sarah holds him tight. The moment of course is interrupted and they split up again.

Going back to Cleo and Pope who are being chased through the buildings. They stop and check their ammo, Pope reveals that he has one bullet left. The mercenaries continue to chase and shoot at them, eventually, Cleo gets shot in the shoulder.

Kiara and JJ team up to try and distract and take down the mercenaries. Rafe staying with John B and Sarah, giving them the map and lens to figure out. And they figure out where the crown is located just as a sand storm rolls in.

Theres a brief clip shown of Groff climbing out of the well.

Rafe tries to climb to get the crown, but he can't with his injured hand. So JJ decides to be the one to climb and get it.

While Cleo and Pope are held up due to Cleo being shot. Cleo tries to grab the gun so she can shoot the man that killed Terance in part one. But she can't even lift her arm. She wants Pope to leave her so she can shoot the man with the last bullet. But Pope being the great guy he is and knowing how important this is to Cleo he takes the gun from her. Pope decided that hell do it, he'll kill someone for Cleo. And he does, he shoots the guy right in the head.

Sarah and John B fight off some of the mercenaries. Kiara and Rafe watch as JJ climbs the large structure in the sand storm to get the Blue Crown. They're running out of time as the mercenaries creep up on them. But, Rafe tells Kie, "You stay here. I'll go down and buy us some time." In which she responds, "What? No, Rafe! Are you crazy? They'll kill you!" Rafe shouts back, "Hey! I'm a killer too! I've got nothing to lose!" And he walks off. In the disguise of the sandstorm, Rafe fights off several men.

JJ finally finds the Blue Crown. Of course he's shouting in excitement, "Long live Poguelandia!" JJ is happy, this means he'll get to save his home. But, he still has to hurry. JJ carefully climbs down the tall structure, immediately meeting Kie and showing off his discovery. Their cute moment is short lived as JJ spots a gun pointed at them. They run again as they're being shot at. And OF COURSE none other than that annoying motherfucker Groff comes out of nowhere and captures Kie, holding a knife against her throat. JJ comes to the rescue, trading the crown for Kie without any hesitation. Groff yaps like usual "You could've stuck with me JJ. Think about what you could've had. But now, you...you get nothing. Nothing." But JJ disagrees, "Nah, I already have everything. And I have everything I've ever wanted. Things that you'll never have. You want the crown? Sure, take it. Take it. I don't want it. Just...let her go." Groff tells JJ to hold the crown out, which he does as they switch, Kiara for the crown. When Kie is back in JJ's arms he reassures her, "I've got you.", as they hug. "It's okay." Kiara mumbles a response, "thank you." As Groff watches the two, he's clearly in distress, "JJ", he speaks. JJ lets go of Kie, keeping her behind him as he turns to face his 'father'. "It's...it's a shame. You and me." JJ has no time to respond as Groff shoves the knife right into JJ's gut. You can hear his flesh squelching and Kiara gasp while JJ groans, looking down at the knife as Groff twists it around inside of him. JJ looks up at Groff as he speaks, "you should have given me...the rope." Groff tugs the knife out, Kiara immediately catching JJ as he falls back.

Groff runs off with the crown as JJ and Kie fall to the ground. All she can say is "it's okay. It's okay." JJ groans and coughs, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, look at me. Look at me." JJ looks in her eyes as she speaks frantically. "It's okay, you're gonna be okay. Let me see it." Blood spreads through the fabric of his clothes quickly. Kiara sits there in front of him, shaking and scared, unsure of what to do or say. "Oh..." She cries, looking at JJ with a knowing look in her eyes. "Don't...don't move." She mumbles. JJ speaks, "Kie." But Kiara continues to mumble, "no...no. It's okay, it's gonna be okay. JJ, please, it has to be." She cries. JJ chokes out a few words, "Hey. Hey. I never told you my wish." (referring to something earlier in the season, he didn't tell Kie his wish because then it wouldn't come true) "What?" She cries. "No, JJ. JJ. It's okay." JJ groans, "I already got it." He smirks as he speaks, knowing these are his last moments alive. Kiara cries as he speaks again, "I already got my wish. Everything I wanted." JJ uses his last words to help reassure Kiara. "No. No, please..." She sobs, shaking her head. "Okay, okay." JJ groans in pain. Kiara beg, "Stay with me, please." JJ looks her in the eye for a moment before speaking softly, "Take care of the others, okay?" But Kiara shakes her head again, refusing to accept that this is really happening. "No, no. It's not what this is." She sobs as JJ speaks his final words, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "I love you, Kie." "I love you too." JJ's eyes flutter shut and his head falls back. Kiara shakes his body "no, no, no, no. Please, no. JJ, please. John B! Pope!" She screams. "no...no. no." John B starts to narrate here and it's so fucking sad. There's a whole flashback on memories of JJ and a bunch of sad talk. I can't even describe everyone's reactions. Even Rafe was in shock. They buried him out in the desert, he didn't even get to be buried in his home. And basically it ends with Kiara saying JJ wouldn't sit and do nothing if it had been one of them, he'd get revenge. So 100% season five will be Kie's season.

Anyway, I spent WAY to long and put WAY too much detail into this summary...hope it answers your questions...thank you!! Sorry that this is so long, I can't summarize to save my life.

[thefirstknife]

Sorry to dump this rant in your inbox but the community’s attitude this entire season has legit got me tilted to the point I ignore pretty much the entire community outside of tumblr and a few irl friends. A lot of it has been frustrations I’ve had since Lightfall dropped wrt acting like the story was dogshit bc it didn’t give all the answers.

I legit got so fed up with Byf’s whole “oh all this season of the deep lore should have been in Lightfall” stuff bc like. My guy. You were one of the biggest complainers about the seasons having zero lore or story relevance. Fucking pick one or the other. Either seasons are all filled bullshit or you’re gonna get cliffhangered and expected to have some damn patience for storylines to get picked back up over time in the seasons after the main campaign of an expansion is done.

Especially bc like. IMO anyone expecting anything not a cliffhanger from the end of Lightfall when we KNEW The Final Shape was coming after it was just setting themselves up for disappointment, you need big tension and shit like that before the final act and this way getting dripfed answers in the lead up feels less like we’re dicking around doing nothing useful for the entire year as we wait for TFS to drop. It legit felt like being a KH fan back when KH3 dropped who had payed attention and played all the games and knew wasn’t the end of the series, just the conclusion of an arc and anyone mad about the stuff left unfinished was being unreasonable when it was made pretty explicitly clear it would either be answered in the future bc this wasn’t the ending or had been answered ages ago and people just hadn’t bothered to pay attention to it. Lightfall was never going to have all the answers bc it wasn’t the ending, and Bungie has proven they’ll circle back around and answer questions and pick up story beats if you’d just have a little patience! I’ll agree it wasn’t done perfectly and could do with more focus on the Veil and less on Strand but come ON my guy!

Combine that with the general toxicity of non-story focused Destiny YouTubers, especially PvP only typesc about Destiny and the way their fans have behaved and I’m full on not watching Destiny content creators anymore. Genuinely never seen content creators who need to touch grass and maybe just. Take a break. I’m not saying Lightfall was perfect or that Bungie hasn’t fucked up but I’m honestly just. Extremely fucking tired of how the community outside of tumblr has reacted to everything. And I’m especially sick of crybaby crucibros being obnoxious. Much as I don’t actually think it’d be at all good for the game there’s a part of me that thinks the idea of them splitting PvP stuff and PvE stuff into separate Destiny games in the future might have some merit to it purely so those of us who just want to explore and enjoy the story in peace can never bother with them again

Go off, honestly. So true. I've felt the same and I've pretty much not watched any Destiny youtube content in months. I started a few of them, but then stopped because of how utterly annoying and just plain wrong they were. The Lightfall situation is such a shitshow, not because of Bungie or the expansion itself, but because I genuinely believe that Destiny is above the reading level of most gamers.

Obviously, I still have some issues with how some stuff was handled, just as you do. Literally nobody is saying that everything in Lightfall was perfect. And I extend that to all expansions btw. Every expansion had faults. None of them are perfect. I think Lightfall's mysterious storytelling could've been a little bit clearer. And make no mistake, Lightfall WAS clear that nobody knows about the Veil, it just wasn't as clear as it could've been. Nothing would've really changed about the mystery if this was made more obvious earlier on in the campaign.

But dear lord, the bullshit around it is so tiring. I get it. I was confused at first too. I even posted here that I found certain things not as good and that they made me a little annoyed! And like that's fine! Your first impressions are your first impressions. But please move on. Are you seriously deciding everything based on first impressions? Do you never look into things and see if maybe there were things you missed or were wrong about? Like, it's okay to be confused at first and then realise later that you missed things. That's how learning works.

And yeah, the whole "everything should've been in Lightfall's campaign right away" is not only annoying because of the stuff you said, it's also annoying because it ignores that there's too much content to fit inside of a single campaign and also that this content has a theme. The campaign is a self-contained story with a theme and a plot (and the plot is NOT "learn what the Veil is." The plot of Lightfall is "stop Calus and the Witness from destroying Neomuna" which has concluded perfectly well in the campaign). Post-campaign stuff, the Witness cutscene and the Veil Logs are all things that don't fit thematically with the high action 80s movie story about protecting a city from destruction. These things were deliberately spread out through the year to give us multiple stories to follow while we wait for TFS. It's a live service game. You're here for the whole year. And it's fine if that's not the storytelling type you like. It's fine! That doesn't mean the story is objectively bad.

But yeah, agreed with what you said. It helps to vent! There's definitely people out there who are in the same situation and who just want to enjoy the game as usual and not having to deal with crybabies who make the whole experience absolutely miserable and make it impossible to engage with anything. Luckily, there's also always people who are still engaging with the game normally. We like the game and we like engaging with the game. And when I stop liking it, I'll just stop engaging with it. I wish other people could do the same.

[halojalex]

Lets hear that essay

oh man i kind of wasn’t expecting to get any replies to this LMAO bUt here we go. strap urselves in this is gonna be a long one

i won’t share the whole document i wrote bc it’s really long and i go off on a lot of tangents but here’s the general idea

for starters, i believe g&c is absolutely about jalex. we already know it's about a gay couple, so with this in mind, alex telling jack that it's about him is enough to at least consider what that means. granted, i know many believe that he was joking, but i've always thought his tone and general demeanour seemed far too sincere for him to be joking; we've seen how alex acts when he jokes around with jack, and this was different.

furthermore, it's also worth pointing out that jack and alex specifically wrote this one song on their own in a cabin (?) away from everyone else; i know this may not seem important on its own, but it's always worth keeping in mind. ie why would two friends go off to write a song about a queer relationship on their own?

adding onto this, there was that interview with kerrang where alex talked about wake up sunshine as a whole and how it’s about discovering yourself and coming to terms with who you are (i’m paraphrasing but that’s the general idea), so to have a song about a gay couple on an album that’s all about alex discovering who he is seems to me like he wrote it from personal experience.

secondly, i feel like it's important to note that, while jack and alex have always been closer than the average friendship, always bordering on acting like a couple, this closeness was especially apparent during the time that alex was separated from lisa and was living with/near jack. people have commented before on how 'dependent' they were on each other back then, so it's clear that the bond between them was especially strong at that time. of course, i'm sure many will say that it could've been bc alex needed jack's support/bc he was living close by so spent more time with him/whatever, however i feel like there's more to it than that, given all the other reasons. i think they were more than friends.

i'd also like to bring people's attention to one particular incident - that photo of them spooning on a beach. frankly, i've always been a little surprised that so many people have skipped over this without blinking, bc that photo to me has always seemed so intimate and domestic, i find it really hard to believe that many friends would casually sit like that.

and of course how can i forget to mention alex's bday post for jack in 2021? that caption haunts me. "what's there to say that isn't already tremendously obvious? you're a bright light in this weird world my dude. love you times a million" how does that not scream a bday post for a partner? "love you times a million"??? bye they ruin me. all of it just seems so,,, romantic?? idk but i feel like if my closest friend wrote something like that about me i'd find it just a little too much. but maybe that's just me. but also i've seen/heard people say that that caption sounded a lot like something they would write/have written for their partner so,,,,,,, make of that what you will.

ofc honourable mention of the time they went to a gay bar together and karaoke. i realise it’s only from word of mouth that we know that it was a gay bar, but it seems a well-enough-known fact that i feel like i should include it.

i’m sure there’s more i could say, it’s just hard to keep track of everything, especially without making this ten pages long. but another thing i believe is that jack has always had feelings for alex, long before they ever got together. granted, that on its own doesn’t necessarily mean that he and alex dated, however it’s important to note. one thing that sticks out to me with regard to this is how andie once made a post commenting on how jack never looked at her the way he looked at alex. this is interesting to me bc it just seemed like she was implying that she was competing with alex in a way. maybe it’s just me, but i can’t really see that post any other way than that tbh. i mean why else would she have said it? if jack didn’t have feelings for alex, then why would it matter how he looked at him?

furthermore the fact that jack wasn’t alex’s best man at his wedding fr keeps me up at night (i mean not literally but u get the idea). like everyone knows how close they are, alex has literally called jack his “best friend in the whole world” (brb while i cry over that), so why wouldn’t he choose jack, his closest friend, to be his best man at his wedding? i always feel like he did that intentionally to spare jack’s feelings. as if he’s always known that jack has feelings for him, and as such he knew he couldn’t put jack through that, as presumably the best man would have had to give a speech etc. just something else i think about a lot.

anyway, all of this was probably very confused, i hope it makes sense as i have a tendency to waffle sksjsksj but yeah, this is my general idea! lmk if anything doesn’t make sense djskdjsk

[praetorqueenreyna]

I'm reading Acotar (almost done with book 2, but I spoiled myself a little on book 3) and Im just....I didn't super care about Tamlin in book 1 (was more obsessed with Lucien, was convinced we'd get a threesome with Tamlin/Lucien/Feyre for the longest time lol I was bobo the fool) but now as it keeps going and with every 'Tamlin sucks so hard/is such a terrible abusive person' that's going on I just....feel I'm getting protective. I'm always waiting for him doing something worse but it never comes??All the fan posts that the algorithm shoves in my face always seem to misquote/misinterpret him??? Even the him locking her up feels so exaggarated in context? Like, I even liked the idea of them not working out because they both had to learn to deal with their own traumas first, but they could've just sat down like adults about it you feel me? Tamlin isnt that bad at all (by fairy standards anyway), he's just held to some weird modern moral standard while Rhysand isn't and it's pissing me off and really hindering my enjoyment of the Night Court shenanigans (which in theory I don't even hate, I think the characters are kinda enjoyable, but the book is riding the NC dick so hard while constantly dunking on Tamlin for no reason? Just leave the guy alone ahh). Sorry I'm not even in this fandom really I just needed to vent my frustration somewhere!!

ARE YOU ME? This is exactly how I felt reading through ACOTAR book 1 and then going straight into book 2! I was about 3/4 of the way through ACOMAF waiting for tamlin to do the "terrible abusive thing" that everyone claims he does before I realized that it had already happened. And yeah, him locking her up a single time isn't great, but he literally thought she was going to be kidnapped and murdered. that's not him being ABUSIVE and CONTROLLING!!!

the fan posts absolutely misconstrue his character to a comical degree. Just yesterday I saw an incorrect quotes-style post of rhysand talking to tamlin going "you begged to kiss her, she begged to fuck me. we are not the same." as if feyre wasn't slobbering after tamlin in ACOTAR while he held back and kept everything cute and chaste lmao. like yall are just making shit up now.

and YEAH I couldn't enjoy ANY of the Night Court/Inner Circle stuff because so much of those sections on the book are about comparing the NC people to tamlin (or lucien) and complaining about them. Like damn yall sure are obsessed with tamlin considering you claim to hate him. I definitely have gotten super protective of Tamlin being in this fandom bc he really is a sweet character who doesn't deserve any of this!

ANYWAY I SEE YOU and if you do decide to join ACOTAR fandom on the side of Tamlin, there are other Tamlin lovers! I'm helping to host Tamlin Week (@tamlinweek2023) in 2 weeks and I've spoken to lots of lovely people who love Tamlin and are going to participate! We are here, and we are normal lmao

[karinyosa]

Gene and Brinker, good sir?

AHHH okay okay

what made you ship it?

reading the book lol. ok so i feel like there's a lot of context i need to explain for this beyond just the book's subtext bc there's a bit of personal lore here. before teaching us the book, my middle school english teacher introduced each of the central four characters with this powerpoint with a slide on each one, and the way she described them like archetypically and physically made it sound almost like (to MY middle school brain) a dating sim, in which gene was the main character. like the blurb already sounds very romance novelesque so jdkshfkh. ig it wasn't too big a leap. so we already have a baseline there.

i also think that in the book brinker and gene are a secondary and competing rivarly/friendship to gene and finny's rivarly/friendship, and i think that's where the tension between brinker and gene and brinker and finny comes from. in fact this is kind of just text, like brinker and finny i think are pretty explicitly competing for gene's attention. i'm pretty sure there are some like old asp posts from the earlier 2010s era of the fandom where people are like "brinker and gene/finny have such ex energy", but iirc it was more often finny? like i'm definitely not the only person to see this Thing brinker has going on with gene, but at the time i'm p sure brinkerfinny was the more widespread take. anyway. brinker pursues gene so relentlessly both as an antagonist and as a guy who just Needs to be doing things with him, Needs to be occupying his time and attention. and yet they maintain this weird friendship/understanding throughout. to me this was most pronounced with the whole enlistment thing, and that dynamic where gene had to choose between finny and brinker for the enlistment/not enlistment??? it just gave very love triangle energy. the intensity with which brinker is fixated on gene is like. it gives repressed queer guy with problems. it's beyond wanting to antagonize him, he just is constantly coming up with excuses to be around him and to orient his focus around the pursuit of this one guy. his need to be morally superior to the object of his pursuit feels very queercoded to me. it's a very funny contrast to other parts of the book where he and gene are seemingly chill and normal friends? boy has issues

2. what are your favorite things about the ship?

HOOOOOO okay i have a long answer for this because it has to do with how i accidentally made myself insane about them. so i have this really long winded headcanon-turned-sequel fic in my Brain and Mind about gene and brinker moving in together after the war for kind of money reasons and kind of personal reasons. gene has been depression camping in finny's family's attic for a long undefined amount of time, and brinker is like hey you need to get the fuck out of there come live with me idiot. cue several years later and this is where the fic starts. i usually have it start at the time that gene would've gone back to visit devon, because i like the idea of that whole thing happening during a hs reunion in devon town, in which he and brinker joint travel and stay with his family which is its own whole awkwardness but anyway. <- culmination of everything i've ever thought about them since eighth grade

most of my genebrinker thoughts center around this period of adulthood where they're not young anymore but they're not old either, and they have all this unresolved tension and shared trauma and resentment that spills over into their "present" relationship. i think this is where genebrinker would theoretically "actually" start, in adulthood. i think there could've been ambiguous things earlier, especially during their joint enlistment period if they happened to be together, but nothing very deliberate or openly acknowledged until much later. it's this delicious mix of both having an established very domestic and familiar dynamic, knowing this person's routines and habits inside out, and yet having this pent up unspoken something. and for gene and brinker, it's not just this quiet tenderness, although i think that's bound to happen sometimes when you're essentially apartment husbands. i think they'd blow up at each other and let things slip during heated moments that they don't mean to, mostly on brinker's side, bc i think brinker's been nursing some kind of crush since hs, whereas if gene returned brinker's feelings, i think they'd slowly build over time. their familiarity with each other is also very interesting because, while they have this odd like, daddy issues(?) solidarity in the book that again feels very queer, in adulthood, it's also this thing of like, they kind of shared the murder of one of their closest friends. my fav think about genebrinker is that they know the worst of each other, that they actively participated in some of the worst parts of each other's lives, but it's that coupled with like, arguing over dinner and visiting the parents and trying to hold down stable jobs. or i guess for something more connected to the actual book, that coupled with like, accompanying your friend to an awkward meeting with his dad

this is not even all the things i think about their dynamic or all the like underlying sources of tension in their adult relationship in my head, i also think they'd be in very different places in terms of sexuality, and that would come to a head at some point, but i'll stop here because this is a question about my favorite THING, not explain every thought you've ever had about them

3. is there an unpopular opinion you have about your ship?

i think the entire ship is an unpopular opinion lmfao. like 90% of this is my headcanons. ummm i have brinker being the more responsible of the two when i write them as adults, if still the more temperamental one, so that might be controversial? i think at this stage of their lives, he's more practical and better at home ec stuff, and gene cannot fucking take care of himself for the life of him. gene is running himself into the ground while brinker is like get your fucking socks off my floor

[aniseandspearmint]

Oh man just woke up from a FABULOUS dream. Like GOOD JOB brain, that was FUN.

Okay, so urban fantasy post apocalyptic. It was kind of vague on what happened? Like there may have been zombies involved but they seemed more like an area effect you had to worry about in major urban areas rather than everywhere? Lots of people died tho, and there was basically no government. Cops were shooting anyone they wanted, cities were splintered into factions. Things were on fire a lot.

Cutting this here bc it got LONG with me trying to write down all the details.

I was playing a version of me at about 20 or so physically, so average height, looks white, brown blonde hair long but kept up. Baseball type hat. Jeans, T-shirt, over shirt, steel-toed boots.

I was with a group of people that I'd come through the start of things with and we'd stuck together out of lack of any other bonds in the area we were in. IF MY DREAM NAMED THEM IDK WHAT THEY WERE. But i remember what they looked like!

There was this big burly dark skinned guy that mmmmmaay have been hispanic and/or black? Even when dreaming I'm a bit face blind so that parts up in the air. Anyway he was a paramedic, and a really NICE person. Good at calming people down.

There was this quiet teenager most of whoms family very conspicuously died in the first bit of the dream. Except his little sister, who was about eight or nine? Dream never said. They were white i think, and very average. Brown hair, brown eyes, mid range fair skin. Little girl was chubby at first, but apocalypse and all. We ALL got thinner in a skipped meals and doing a lot of scrambling way.

And there was this older lady, mid fifties i think who was kind of pushy and overbearing but you could TELL her she was getting over the line and she'd back off. She was thin and very tall with greying curly black hair. Kind of like Lily Tomlin if you stretched her out. She did something with plants i think, or at a museum? Maybe both idk.

There was this guy vaguely 20s that was in trade school to be an electrician. Brown hair, mid-range tan skin, dark brown eyes. He smoked but kept trying not to.

There was three girls around 18-20 that worked at walmart. Two black girls and one asian girl. They all knew each other before everything got weird. Roommates maybe? One of them was trans, i can't remember which one tho.

There was also a guy that was the kind of face of the group? Like, we did not have a leader, things were decided as a group, but he's the one people ASSUMED was the leader. We decided to let them, mostly. He was very ambiguously aged, could've been anywhere from 25 to 40, about six foot, and blond-brown hair, hazel eyes, long face shape I think. I have no idea what he did before the end of the world, but he was good at listening, and standing straight and pretending he was in charge. Good memory too.

We were trying to get out of the urban area we'd started in, bc yikes zombies, and also yikes, people going nuts.

Because the OTHER thing whatever kicked off the apocalypse did was some people had POWERS now. Which was freaking a lot of people who didn't have them out, and you know, freaked out witch hunts were happening. Religious people convinced you were a demon now bc you could make lights, or were telekinetic.

None of the powers were visible, and over all they seemed to come with some nifty instinctual control? Which was GREAT bc the two kids were firestarters. Or something with heat anyway.

But the rest- well lemme just get into the main body of the dream. XD

So we were all trying to get out of the city, and we managed that pretty well, even if there were some scary near misses with the zombies and mobs. This took a long time, I think, the dream had time being wonky. Idk maybe time in the cities WAS off bc when we finally got past the city limits, the land was WEIRD. Way over grown, and the roads were really rough and cracked like it had been YEARS since the world had gone crazy, except we still had unexpired food from before?

We had a vehicle, and some supplies, but we lost it after a while and were walking until we could find another vehicle. Several of us knew how to fix a car or truck up enough to run, if it WAS fixable.

So we were walking, and we came up to this area of conspicuously cleared trees on either side of the road. Stumps to the horizon, but all of them had a little new growth on them, like they'd been cut a year or so ago.

We kept walking. And eventually came upon people, who seemed friendly enough. They said they'd done the clearing, their group, to make a new settlement because most of the old town had burned down. Log houses right now, nothing fancy, but they had a travelers lodge and were willing to put up people over night for news and a little trading!

Face guy took point and accepted the offer, all amiable and friendly.

We all immediately clocked the way these people were TOO friendly. The three roommates went to the edges of the group, all silent and watching. They had a kind of sense8 like connection with each other as their ability. What one saw/heard, they all saw and heard. They were the group scouts.

I stayed in the middle, with the big paramedic guy and the kids, ready to grab them if i needed to.

When we got to town it was mostly unremarkable, there were maybe three or four dozen people of all ages and ethnicities, but all of them were wearing a necklace of a bent nail hammered through a silver coin of some kind (possibly a silver dollar).

We were all like, oh , yeah, cult definitely.

Electrician guy was like, "Maybe they're a harmless cult? Maybe they raise bunnies and we won't find anything creepy going on?"

To which we all quietly scoffed, but were kinda hoping he might be right, you know?

It was nearly dark when we got there, so they set us up in a guest lodge, sweetly apologizing that the door was old and poorly fitted, and we promptly set up for a siege.

The older lady could do this thing where she could make things remember how they used to be? Sort of? It was a bit weird, but she could take an old broken thing and make it be new again, but only once. If it broke again she couldn't fix it. And she could use whatever energy the power used to make things grow, too. So she made the logs remember they were trees once, and wove a net of branches over the doorway, to make an extra barrier. She could have done more but we were all kind of hoping it wouldn't come to that. After she made everything as secure as possible, paramedic guy tried the food that we'd been given; bread, and bowls of vegetable soup. And was like, "Oh yep, soups drugged. Not the bread tho. Guess they thought that was overkill? Some kind of sedative." He got a bit woozy after bc his power let him identify substances, but the non lethal ones still effected him a bit while his body worked through them. He got all sweaty and worked up when it was full out lethal stuff, his body kinda going into overdrive to flush it i guess.

Electrician guy sighed and flexed HIS power, going invisible and intangible, and floating out to see what the nuts had planned.

He dropped back in a few minutes later. "Murder cult definitely. Possibly cannibals. Looks like they're planning to haul us out and kill us later. There was a bucket of old bloody teeth and a stack of skulls and a bone pit in the lodge in the middle of town."

Face guy looked disappointed but not surprised. They all turned to me.

Because MY power? FREAKING TELEPORTATION BABEY!!

I had to have been where I wanted to go, but i COULD take passengers! I started with Electrician guy, then the kids, then the paramedic guy, then the older lady, then the Face guy, and finally the three roommates.

I took them all back to the highway at a crossroad point before we got to the beginning of the cleared trees, where there was a great big boulder with a bunch of travelers graffiti and marks on it.

The teenager had been hard at work adding a warning while i was fetching everyone else, melting 'WARNING; CANNIBAL CULT THIS WAY. BEWARE THE NAILED COIN.' into the stone.

"Very nice! Good and eye catching, concise." I told him, from where i was leaning against the still a little woozy paramedic guy. Teleporting that much at once was exhausting.

We camped beside the travelers stone for the rest of the night and headed down the other road in the morning. I woke up around then too. Shame, I kinda wanted to know where we were going! I just know we DID have a destination.

[matchbet-allofthetime]

❗Transformers Rant Post❗

(note: this is all done in one sitting and is based on personal observations and continuities I know are linked through concept art, canon continuations, etc, so I THINK this is all fairly (if not almost fully) accurate, but if not, don't come at me, tf has been my special interest for my entire life. If it sounds ramble as hell, that's because it is. My bad.)

OKAY SO

Here we go

Hopefully there's a cut because this is long and I get pissy. Enjoy.

So i just learned that in transformers Rise of the beasts, they based Optimus' face under his battle mask off of Peter Cullen (aka THE VOICE OF OPTIMUS PRIME SINCE 1984)

And from what I'm aware, they only publicly released that they made that design choice AFTER trailers released and people were saying Optimus' design was terrible and ugly, which is so disrespectful

And I'm gonna cry about this ajdjdj

While also on this topic, I am sick of being told "bayverse sucks!!!" Or some other equivalent when people talk about the bayverse movies

Because Optimus was voiced IN EVERY ONE OF THOSE FILMS by Peter Cullen, so that's just,,, don't disrespect who MADE YOUR FANDOM WHAT IT IS (give him credit for how well he did everything at least, you don't HAVE to like bayverse, no one is forcing you)

Transformers fans (mostly newer ones/ones who have gotten into the fandom in the past three to four years, I've noticed) are the vast majority of those who are CONSTANTLY bashing designs.

It's been done with bayverse (YEARS after the films released and did FANTASTICALLY), it's happened to Earthspark, and now to ROTB. This is bullshit and so disrespectful. You can criticize a design without being a dick, for one, and two? The animators didn't ask your god damn opinion.

And ALSO the reason they did his model after his face in rotb? Because *Hasbro wouldn't hire Peter Cullen this time around so (I assume) they did it to honour him because he was disrespected and tossed to the side by Hasbro because Hasbro sucks ass

He's the reason we HAVE OPTIMUS PRIME. Not a single voice could've fit, not a single person would've made Optimus who he is other than Peter Cullen.

He's the reason we have transformers prime. (Because he VOICES OPTIMUS HERE TOO) And the TFP movie (TFP beast hunters predacons rising, where he ONCE AGAIN VOICES OPTIMUS). And he's the reason why we have the continuation of that, which is transformers robots in disguise (WHERE HE IS, ONCE AGAIN, OPTIMUS MOTHERFUCKING PRIME) And then THAT became comics with tfp's characters that didn't exist anywhere else in canon (as far as I'm aware, it's been a while, IE knockout and breakout with their TFP DESIGNS, etc) then became earthspark later down the line, which was a mix of mtmte, TFP, and bayverse designs in concept art bc it combined ideas

Bayverse is ALSO ALSO the reason we HAVE ROTB. AND BUMBLEBEE 2018.

The reason I say he's responsible for all of these? The reason I say that Bayverse is a backbone for transformers (branching off from G1 ofc)? Because every single new fucking continuity or series or comics or whatever the hell is ALWAYS based on preexisting designs merging with new ideas.

He made Optimus Prime who Optimus Prime is and frankly I am a little god damn sick of people saying "this series/movie is bad" or whatever just because they don't like it

Anyways I had to rant but I'm not sorry about it and I hope others can feel a bit heard because I am so fed up with online slander.

I grew up with Bayverse. It gave me my entire start to this fandom. It gave THOUSANDS OF US STARTS TO THIS FANDOM. It is the SOLE reason we have so much we have now, as much as we have- and god damnit, you don't have to like it but UNDERSTAND it is the ONLY reason you have more than 3/4 the content this fandom currently does (if not more)

/end rant

[ruthlesslistener]

We sure do live in a society, don't we.

The anons sending you hate are doing my head in. Like, I can completely understand why they bristled at your initial response, because as someone who writes Ghost as an adult in a child's body (hi, Gently, my beloved fic that is drowning from my dead muse), I had a kind of similar "hey wait" response at first.

But then you CLARIFIED. You took the time to ask, listen and let others educate you on another POV. It may not have changed your own personal HCs (and that's OK!!!), but you clarified your meaning was not people like me - it was not the average person who spurred it - and that's all anyone can really ask for. You don't have to agree with or ask people.

The best part of fandom is taking bits and pieces of each other's ideas and using them to decorate our sand castles and make them our own. That means "I wouldn't spin it that way but I liked reading how you did it." It also sometimes means "Oh I cannot get behind that but I respect your right to."

I think it says a lot that people are on anon, rather than actually talking to you and giving you a chance to engage with them one-on-one. I'm not sure I would label them trolls. I think their feelings got hurt and they are lashing out because of it, in an impolite way, rather than stopping to listen to explanations. I am going to give the benefit of doubt and assume that ill-intent wasn't meant, and that the reason they're on anon is that anxiety has them going "if I say it on my main, I'm going to get flamed because I offended popular tumblr user." To that I say: If you weren't on anon, Aren could've replied privately to you, and likely would have. A one-on-one conversation can go a large way for trying to clear up misunderstandings.

TBH, I probably could've just sent all of this on Discord but I just am frustrated. Asks like the ones you received are why I am terrified of sharing my own headcanons, why I assume anyone asking me ANY opinions has bad faith, and why everything I say has a giant ass disclaimer on it with "THIS IS LIKE, JUST MY OPINION GUYS" and we shouldn't have to do that. We shouldn't have to sit and police everything that we say because Someone Might Twist It.

Anyway, sorry. I just needed to put this out here because I was about to blow up on my own blog. lmao

Thank you tumblr user grollow I appreciate it immensely and I agree with everything you said about fandom being a sandbox made more fun by people having different ideas that make things fun to play with. It's just that I've been off in my corner playing relatively on my own for a bit, which kinda fucks over the amount of context you get on things a bit. And also the miscommunication had the misfortune of landing squarely in the intersection between 'things I really don't like' and 'things that have a canon basis but lack canonical descriptive details', turning it into a shitshow. Which I really really fucking wish didn't happen, even if I did enjoy discussing the pros and cons of different mental interpretations of Ghost and was able to come to the conclusion that it's about as appealing to me as a slice of apple pie. Which is to say, I like certain bits of it and will gladly nibble at said bits, but if there's any other option out there I'd take it over pie anyday. It's not bad and I certainly do enjoy it in extremely specific context, but it also doesn't appeal to me in the slightest and there's certain parts that I refuse to touch altogether (the texture of cooked fruit makes me cringe and nauseates me, much like the idea of Ghost being an adult trapped in a child's body from a horror perspective incites panic). But that's fine, bc then I can just plop the filling onto a friend's plate for their enjoyment, and nibble away at the bits I like in piece. My dislike of pie doesn't extend to the people who enjoy it, nor do I get upset when my brother refuses to eat what I cook for him. He's picky, I'm picky, I've got no right to judge. He's just as valid for saying my cream cheese frosting is gross as I am for thinking him refusing to eat anything but mac n cheese and scrambled eggs is gross. Same concept with fandom here

(And honestly, my judgement on the whole minor/adult thing is seperate from Ghost as a character altogether. I'm of similar mind with Miquella of Elden Ring, who is canonically an adult trapped in a child's body. Having a relationship with him in his child form would be fucked up- hell, even Mohg goes for breaking the curse first, and Mohg is canonically fucking insane! This isn't something limited to just one fandom, it's a hard line I draw in fiction in general)

Also yeah, I totally would have just worked it out in private, but I get the feeling the anon thinks I'm running some sort of clique or something over here where I would have twisted it into clout somehow. Which needless to say, I would not fucking do. Can't say this enough, but I'm autistic as all getout and had to deal with that enough in high school so I have nothing but contempt for that sort of behavior.

[that-gay-jedi]

You know, I really want more used-sounding voices in music in general, women especially bc there's definitely an element of misogyny, but like even when you look at what mostly passes for aged/smokey voices in men it's mostly just either basses who people think don't sound "youthful" because we stereotypically associate tenors with sounding fresh and young, or vocalists in genres with either growling or a lot of chest voice etc that sound just like every other singer if/when they do a song where it's relevant.

And like, I could bore you with all the anatomical details of what makes your voice either sound for lack of better terms "new" vs "used", but that's not really the point.

And sure there's a kind of self-selecting process that goes on because people whose livelihood rests on their voice are more likely to take care of their voices and can maintain their initial sound for decades if they're both lucky and really dilligent, and because successful musicians have money to pay for ways to reduce the rigours of touring and whatnot on vocal health that less popular ones I may not have heard of don't have etc etc, BUT.

Good vocalists whose voices have been noticeably altered by previous workplace/environmental factors or by cumulative years of lifestyle choices or by the ravages of TIME to which none of us are ultimately immune can bring a sense of like vulnerability/rawness/realism/rugged endurance to their performance that a mint condition voice just absolutely cannot match, and there's such an utter lack of it available both locally and commercially we're severely missing out.

This goes across genres and way beyond any question of what's "authentic" by the way. I don't require every song about striking coal miners so come from people who sound like they've worked 20+ years in the mines themselves, and in fact there's a power and beauty in the idea of someone with a relatively pampered voice who's seen entirely different kinds of hardship putting their pipes behind the words of those who struggled before. But you reach a certain age where, metaphorically, the knight in scratched and dented armour is more romantic to you than the shiny one, and yet for all the glut of music we have about romance there are not nearly enough love songs that "get" me (or they may lyrically but only lyrically) now I've reached that age- as just one example.

AND like. Singing is an art that requires a tonne of knowledge and work. Even people with the most naturally beautiful voices don't just wake up one morning knowing exactly how to breathe for which notes nor having the impressive lung capacity many genres prize nor knowing how to read music (or parse music by ear) etc etc etc. Which means there is something so powerful and aching and HUMAN about someone who can hear that their own voice doesn't sound like it could've if their life had been different or like it did when they were younger etc etc still putting in the immense amount study and practice to learn to use the voice they DO have. It adds delicious texture and depth to everything they sing.

Likewise, if someone already has put all that time and energy in and then something alters their voice AND THEY RELEARN/ADAPT AND KEEP SINGING, think about what that puts into everything they sing thereafter.

It's why we love fictional characters who grow beyond deep trauma or have prominent physical scars or who start off their story as a jaded antihero etc etc etc. The essence of what it is to be human is to live with loss and imperfection and still work toward your human desires to be heard, to create, to do, to learn. It's surviving hardship and being changed by time and experience but still reaching out and grasping the fact that YOUR ARE ALIVE with both hands. To not be able to go back to a past that no longer exists, to never again be the same person you were before X or Y thing and yet YOU ARE STILL HERE and deciding that FOR AS LONG AS YOU'RE STILL HERE YOU WILL NOT BE SILENCED.

[pucksandpower]

hi natalia! i hope life has been treating you well and that you're doing amazing. i wanted to say, i love your account so very much! everytime i go through the f1 tags on here i'm alway searching for your username among the fics and safe to say is you have never ever disappointed me. when i first got into the fandom you were definitely one of the blogs that really hooked me in. oh girl you don't know how ecstatic i was going through your masterlist, i literally felt like i was camping in that one post going through everything in one night. still, even now i love going back and reading it again because that little spark of joy i feel clicking the links to every au is the reason i love to be on tumblr!

you never fail to deliver an insanely good level of world building like this is kind of surreal to me, because you give us such a fresh and wonderfully blissful take on social media au's. it's super cool to see you explore all types of medias like articles, blogs, twitter, instagram, youtube videos—i feel like you've used EVERYTHING girl. all your posts are sooo long and idt people realize how much work you have to put in to make a cohesive story like that?? + using all sorts of outlets ur an actual beast at this wow. and it's not just the way you deliver it, it's also all the ideas that you have. i'm a huge sucker for the deep lore ones that are like the ones involving racing teams and stuff. it's so great to see your takes on real time events and how it could've been if this or that happens. the readers are also of so much variety, i hope you keep doing that bc it adds a lot of potential and spice into the story. royal au is also sooo good! your account to me is basically girlhood personified. i'm always so immersed in it that i forget i'm reading an au... that really shows your effort in the work you put out. i can tell the time you spent crafting these pieces i mean WHO goes this far and wide if not pucksandpower?? ur the backbone of my mental health i would've gone in the trenches if it weren't for you... that's my mother ya'll. there is not one fic of yours that does not have me at the toes of my feet, all giddy to click the "keep reading" button. i wish for you to know that i, and i'm sure many others who follow you, really appreciate all the work you put in! i'm lowkey like suspicious with how real and professional some of the articles you make are bc how is that not something that would come out of an actual blog? 😭

AND OHHHMYGOOOD you are doing god's work for feeding my delusions on giving charles leclerc the team that he deserves. seeing the newey reader fic, that was when i knew you were ON to something like this girl is special she's doing all the research.. babe you could be the new damn chief tech officer if you wanted to i mean. you are operating in levels that we can't even comprehend?? one step ahead in everything. when i read your cl stuff in my heart i'm rooting for this man so bad and like if this isn't happening irl at least pucksandpower got my back like... you know what they say about delusions=manifestations so if we keep this up yall i believe it can be real trust me i've seen it in my head....

i'm sure there's a lot more that i want to say but anyways, i'm really glad that i ever found your blog and i look forward to future works you're gonna put out! cheering for you always and please take care of yourself, xx ❤️

Hi, my love! Thank you so much. I totally teared up reading this and I am not the slightest bit ashamed to admit it. Every single thing I post is crafted with love — I do it because I love working on them and because I love being able to make my fellow fans happy through my work. There truly is no more rewarding feeling. I have posted a whopping 119 fics/imagines/AUs on here and typing that number out really made me realize how crazy that is and how far I have come since I started this blog back in November

I can’t lie, sometimes the research and time I put into each of my works can feel overwhelming at first but I am always proud of the end product and especially happy to share it with you all. Some are lighthearted fun and I can have them completed in a few hours while others run deeper and can take me days upon days to finish. I truly want to build a mini immersive world through each of my AUs and I am so happy that you have been able to get that experience through them

Also I like to say that delusions make the world go round (and help keep us sports fans semi-sane) so I am more than happy to contribute on that end

Thank you again because your words mean so much to me! I can’t wait to share more work with you. Have an amazing day 🫶

[havocmadden]

"if i'm having fun it's good and if i'm not having fun it's bad" you're so so so real for this!! anyway sorry i disappeared for like a week so i'm going to ask more questions to make up for it: 1) i know i'm late to the spotify wrapped party but who were your favorite artists this year? are there any songs in particular that stood out to you? this can be either for disney artists or not it's up to you 2) how are you feeling about rise of red coming out next year? i know the plot looks too crazy even for descendants standards, and it helps that it's a brand new creative team, but is there anything specific you're hoping to see from the expanded world? 3) i need to hear your thoughts on zombies 4 because i know there's no way addison will have yet another identity crisis - gcwca secret santa

hi !!!! i hope u had a good week when you disappeared and not like, a terrible one!

to answer your questions, my fave artists were mostly non disney channel :( i think the only disney channel who made it into my top 100 was some sabrina songs :( but! my top five were:

noah kahan (so real)

fall out boy (they counted november this year which i know bc they would NOT have been in my top 5 otherwise. they were my nano soundtrack. tho tbh i think this nano project made me an actual for real fall out boy fan)

taylor swift

dessa

xana

if we could add some i feel like chappell roan should've been in my top five but alas :( also i saw two out of my top five in concert this year :) if we count tickets i bought for next year's concerts i am seeing 4/5 of my top five!! (i also saw chappell roan and she was SOOOOOO good in person). this year turned me into a genuine Concert Girlie (gender neutral) so that's been fun. or it would be, if i didn't have to drive 2 1/2 hours at best to get to one bc i live in the middle of fucking nowhere and no one comes here :(

as for the rise of red: honestly, i'm pretty excited! i'm not allowing myself to feel Bad about it until we get more information. plus, it's giving me the thing i always wanted out of the descendants franchise (qoh kid) so honestly this like, really works for me. like maybe when i watch it later it will be bad? and i'll be upset and disappointed? but. in the meantime, i'm having a great time! still living on the qoh kid high! like, the plot seems wild but personally i'm like. "descendants as a franchise never made sense and i'm getting what i personally wanted out of this franchise from it so i'm having a good time until proven otherwise"

i think a lot of people have strong feelings about it bc of cam, which is totally valid and is their right, but my personal feelings are since the core four aren't coming back, i'm okay with it. disney was never going to let their biggest franchise since hsm lie, yknow? i think this is the best it could've been in that sense of it? idk.

as for zombies 4. truly i have NO idea. honestly the most fun i have ever had with the zombies franchise was watching all three of them with two of my friends whilst we were all stoned, and personally i hope rupaul comes back because i thought it was funny. i'm so sorry if you're a zombies stan but they are not high art to me. they are fun little movies to watch while i get high and then i do not think about them until i want to show someone a silly little dcom franchise and jumpscare them with the presence of rupaul. personally i hope zombies 4 introduces addison's cousin from the human side of the family named allison who is now the one who gets to have identity criseses who is also played by meg donnelly. i hope coach has a new job. i hope his legal name is coach. i hope ej caswell finally gets to leave this discord. i hope they make a reference to the winchesters.