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batmanfruitloops · 9 months ago

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Alright long but silly post, going into the reason why the furry versions are the animals they are. A few choices are influenced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles v.s. Batman, some choices are already associated with the character (Catwoman, Penguin, etc.). Most choices are an uneven mix of visual, symbolic, and behavioral. So some have more thought put into them than others but it's all for fun.

Batman (Bruce Wayne) -Vampire bat

A pretty obvious choice. I think specifically a vampire bat is fitting, they are very stealthy and aware. They come built with the perfect tools for lapping blood and cause little harm (excluding diseases). Just as Batman always comes with what he needs and only causes as much damage as necessary. Bats are also social creatures and thrive in groups, so there is a bit of irony there. Bruce can put on a good face for the public and business but isolates himself and therefore goes against his nature. He craves family but keeps his loved ones at arm's length in fear of losing them.

Joker (John Doe) - Red-banded spitting cobra

This is a choice influenced by the TMNT v.s. Batman. Also haha Lego Batman clown snakes. I chose this because I'm tired of both snakes and clowns being seen as evil. John is already the way he is because both Sarsee and I agree clowns should be silly and whimsical instead of how more modern media portrays them as creepy and scary, which also includes the Joker. Snakes are my favorite animals. So keeping Joker as a cobra represents what we have set out to do with the au in the first place.

In terms of behavior, John acts mostly the opposite of what you would expect. Snakes are mostly solitary and overall not very social. John is a very outgoing person and extraverted, but he's social skills are stunned from both being autistic and his childhood. So not quite fitting in but he enjoys standing out. Though cobras are a more intelligent species of snake. John is very clever but most wouldn't guess that. As the Joker, John relies on the element of surprise and subverting your expectations. As a bonus spitting venom is similar to a clown's flower spraying water.

Two-Face (Harvey Dent) - Puma

A partial TMNT chose. Instead of just a cat, I went with a puma. Pumas are not classified as big cats but are the largest cat in North America. Despite not being a big cat their presence demands respect. Even when you do not see them if you are in their territory you would be wise to be careful. Pumas know how to pick their fights, taking on challenges with strategy and retreating when they know they are outmatched.

I think these things fit Harvey and Two-Face quite well. He may not be as high on the social ladder as say, Bruce, but he is no less of an important figure in his community. You know when he is in the room and you think about him when he isn't there. He is intelligent and strategic. He's never to be underestimated and most fear and or respect him. These things apply as a rogue or as a candidate. These strengths are what put a target on his back and thus becoming Two-Face. I also do not know enough about this but pumas are not as solitary as other cats. Which fit with Harvey's ambivert personality.

Harley Quinn (Harleen Quinzel) - Spotted Hyena

This one is also an obvious one I would think. Spotted hyenas are a matrical species, meaning the females are in charge. Harley as a character I think usually represents feminine strength at least in recent years. Hyenas are very strong, they take what they want and fiercely protect what is theirs. They have a nasty reputation but live in a pretty unforgiving environment. Hyenas actually do hunt and have to protect their prizes from animals like lions. They have good reason to be the way they are.

Harley is a pretty unpleasant person but she has her reasons. Having dealt with a lot throughout her life. Her actions come from a place of pain though ruthless. She is not satisfied with what she does at the end of the day. She knows she has a lot work to do and a lot to figure out. Scary as she is.

Poison Ivy (Pamela Isley)- Orchid mantis

Another animal associated with feminine power. Mantis are fierce and confident, they stand their ground even against other animals much bigger than they are. They are not very fast and can't fly very well, but are a top insect predator. They have no need to chase, just sit and wait until the opportunity to strike comes to them. Of course, they have the reputation of eating the head of their mates, but that's actually common for insects. Still fitting.

Ivy is a powerful person literally and personality-wise. She has incredible control of her environment as long as there are any plants around. She is beautiful and deadly. Anyone who can get close to her is very lucky. She's pretty content keeping to herself and her plants and is laid back when she is comfortable. She takes opportunities when they are presented to her with full force. Best stay on her good side and give her space. She makes a wonderful mantis.

Bane (Antonio Diego) - Grizzly bear

Bears are incredibly strong but it's not just brawn they have brain too. Bane is not just a brute, he knows how to use his strength well and is incredibly strategic. A bear can be a very scary animal but also fun to observe. Some find them cute, and some find them terrifying. Bane also comes off in a similar way, it just depends on what you know about him. He is someone you can have deep and philosophical conversations with but most would be too scared to approach him. Unfortunately, his addiction makes him unpredictable and behave in a way he would not want to. Bane does have a code he follows and will return the respect you give him. Just a bear will respect your space if you know how to behave in their territory.

Catwoman (Selina Kyle) - Domsitic long-hair cat

Yeah, Catwoman is meant to be a cat in person form so, I don't think there is much to explain. She comes and goes as she pleases and does what she wants. She likes to bother those with no interest in her. The whole shebang. Not bad but not good, just her own brand.

Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) - Arctic hare

Arctic hares are one of the largest species of hare. They mainly live alone but come together for warmth and mating. I'm still not too sure about this, I haven't found much on this yet but it seems like rabbits are much more territorially and aggressive than hares. Either way, most think Jervis is a rabbit and not a hare, because of his height and demeanor. Hares are often seen as crazy and generally have a wild reputation, and Jervis is pretty demure. This instead comes out as passion for the things he loves. However, if he is pushed too far all of his pent-up emotions and frustrations will come out in an explosive response. Despite his appearance, he's very fit and strong. He has metabolic issues that make it difficult to lose weight so in his efforts to lose it he instead makes himself stronger. A similar effect to powerlifters. I thought specifically an Arctic hare was fitting because of this reason, as an arctic animal it's incredibly important for them to gain weight to survive the harsh weather. Something that others believe including Jervis himself thinks is a weakness actually becomes a strength. He does become more comfortable with himself eventually, but he has a lot of trauma to overcome to fix his own self-image.

Riddler (Edward Nigma) - Domestic rat

Rats are very social and intelligent. Despite media depictions, they keep themselves clean and are very affectionate. Ed is very much an extrovert and hates being alone, though he can be overbearing at times he loves those close to him very much and gives as much as he takes. Rats are great at getting around being able to squeeze into most places and can tread water for a long time (ironically Ed cannot swim). Ed can also squirm his way into anything be it physically or finding information. Rats enjoy causing mischief and are often high-energy, they need a lot of enrichment. Ed is functioning at 100% and crashes to 0% once he's out of energy, he has to keep himself busy and do little evil genius tasks until he's completely exhausted himself.

(I drew these on stream and Marxtheimpish asked to give Ed a cheerio, and Jervis lettuce, Ed is mad he only got one single cheerio.)

Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane) - Milksnake

A pretty biased pick since I mentioned snakes are my favorite animal, and Scarecrow is my favorite rogue but I have a good reason for my choice. First of all, as someone raised in the South, I associate milk snakes (and therefore corn snakes and rat snakes) with the country. They can often be found on farms and are great pest control and that also makes me also associate them with scarecrows. Milksnakes mimic coral snakes to scare away predators. Jonathan does something similar and comes off as scary and intimating but for the sake of his own protection. Snakes really want to be left alone and so does Jonathan. Snakes are often misunderstood and seen as something evil (especially by some religious people), but they are anxious skittish creatures and will stay out of your way. The religious association is another reason I picked a snake. Most people assume the worst in Jonathan because of his appearance and aloof disposition. He's pretty tired of trying to prove them wrong and has convinced himself he can't be anything else. But know this, there is no such thing as an offensive snake there are only defensive snakes.

Music Meister (Darius Chapel) - Golden-breasted starling

This one is mostly a visual choice. Darius is a pretty boy so of course he should be a pretty bird. Starlings are also a songbird and incredible at mimicking sounds. Just as Darius is an incredible singer and has a wide range of expressing himself musically. I think starlings are sometimes seen as pests or nuisance, I've only heard that in passing. If that's true that fits with Darius. Some people find him annoying but he's a very pleasant person.

Polkadot man (Abner Krill) - Spotted newt

Spotted newts are poisonous and their spots and color advertise that. Just as Abner has dangerous spots. This is mainly the reason why I chose a newt for Abner. I think aposematism, when an animal is colorful because it is toxic, is a really cool thing that happens in nature. I couldn't pass up the chance. Newts are also very cute and humble animals so all the more reason.

Mr.Freeze (Viktor Fries) - Polar bear

Of course, Viktor is a polar bear. Polar bears are solitary animals, especially the males. They only need themselves, and can only afford to care for themselves in the environment they live in. Viktor is a very independent person. He's confident in his abilities and can do almost anything by himself. Nora is an arctic fox, I bring this up because arctic foxes often follow polar bears around. So they are a perfect match. Polar bears are very formidable, you do not want to get in Viktor's way. Though he may seem cold, he is a good person with a big heart.

The Penguin (Ozwald Cobblepot) - Emperor penguin

Yeah, penguin. Emperor penguins care very deeply for their families and don't much care for anyone else. They will brave harsh weather and dangerous waters all for the sake of their families. Oz does not like anyone besides his family. He'll go through any extreme he needs to, no questions asked. Just a cranky old man that wants to give his loved ones a good life.

I'm much better at expressing myself visually than verbally so I'm not sure if this was comprehensive enough. I don't feel like I got out what I had in my head properly. So please feel free to ask any questions. Also, most of these facts are from my memory and may be inaccurate, but I did my best to fact-check myself when I was unsure of something. So if I got something wrong please correct me, I love learning more about animals. Otherwise, enjoy this word vomit infodump.

-Fluffy

#batmanfruitloops #anewgothamau #furries #anthro #batman villains #batman rogues #rogue gallery #batman #dc #gotham rogues #long post #furries!#furry

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godrestyescarygentlemen · 3 months ago

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Thinking and taking some inspiration from dark shows/movies because I am invested on writing regarding Terrifier and Art the Clown specifically.

Certain plots in my head are mostly related to the Lore of the franchise, taking things from the 9th Circle short film by Leone but also trying to pinpoint Art's personality without writing him out of character, and man is *hard*.

I am not very interested in writing him soft or out of character but I mostly overanalyse this fella, especially his motivations and behaviors, and the more I do the more is like the dude has no agenda beyond wanting to mess with the life of people he finds on his way.

Is af if death has become such a norm around him he has lost respects for the living. Something I have realized is that his personality runs through a spectrum from childish fascination, to serious as fuck and focused on his work ahead, and then absolutely unhinged.

He is evil, that is for sure, but I do believe the movies makes you believe he is the ultimate evil, when he is not, makes you forget even when powered by demonic forces he is still human at his core until the writing says otherwise.

Other thing I realized about him is the contradictory information we have had from his actions alone, he seems to have some type of OCD which people has taken as a sign of him being "civilized"; he mops the floor in the laundromat, cleaning after himself, cleaning his clothes and also cleaning his dishes, he also flush the urinals and cleans his hands after going to the bathroom, drinks a glass of water in Allie's kitchen, as well as to knowing how to prepare a good mashed potatoes in Sienna's house (you know the scene). He seems to be very methodical in what he does, and does it for himself most of the time, as a preparation or even to relax after the job is done.

He is also annoyed by people, annoyed at their society and even their emotional connections, he finds it funny. But what I found interesting is how he found Vicky, a literal demon, annoyed af when she seem to find the rats on his hideout cute and started playing with them.

My theory is that maybe Jonathan is wrong, maybe is not the fact that Art is a serial killer what attracted the demon possessing Vicky to this world, is something else entirely, this is a distraction. Art is some type of bridge.. the same way Sienna is for a celestial force, why?

Because both of them might be half human even if they don't even know they are, and the key is on the short film The 9th Circle (2007) by Damien Leone.

That would explain why they are the only ones seeing the Little pale Girl aka a Demon on this world, why Art, an antisocial psychopath, tries to fit into society doing mundane things and laughing with people, until he finds is too boring and kills everyone around him, to the point he laughs at human's mannerisms and reactions to HIS reactions, to the point he finds alien and uncanny.

A lot of people tries to analyze Art as if he does not understand or does everything so bizarrely wrong regarding human behaviors, but what I see on him is that he does understand quite well human behaviors, social connections, reactions and also mannerisms to the point of mocking them in his own performance, or even using it at his advantage.

But also he still is antisocial, being annoyed even at the mere company around his hideout. This is because he might have stopped caring long time to really fit, he plays with people, he plays around with humans, until he finds them too much, too annoying, this is a man who found even a demon annoying and only interacted with them/her when realizing he could have an advantage in killing more people, I don't even think for a minute Art really thought in following Vicky's orders beyond his own interests.

I have others theories as well and I might want to analyze them more and fresh them out before posting them here.

#terrifier 3 #art the clown #terrifier #theory #mytheory #txt #mytxt

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roachliquid · 1 year ago

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Before I get going into season 3 of Danny Phantom, I feel a need to take the time to enthuse about my all-time favorite antagonist of this series to date. I mean to tell you, this guy dethroned the Box Ghost, and he's still sitting at a solid #2. Though with that being said, it probably won't be too surprising when I tell you who unseated old Boxy, since this dude is so absurdly threatening that so far, he's only been deployed twice.

Yep. I'm talking about the man, the myth, the incredibly attractive legend himself, Freakshow.

Don't try to embarrass me; I've got no pride.

But uh. Moving past my taste in evil would-be clowns, I will admit that Freakshow is a classic example of Danny Phantom's derivativity. Creatively, he's blatantly heavily inspired by other cartoon villains - Jafar and the Joker being the most obvious ones - and visually, he's like if Richard O'Brien decided to work for the circus. Which I'm not remotely complaining about; it's a combination that works very well - it's just, y'know, classic DP creativity.

Anyway, the thing that I find whenever Freakshow shows up is that I am genuinely a little bit scared of him. Not in a "I am no longer aware that I'm watching a silly cartoon for kids" way, necessarily, but in an "oh shit our heroes are in real trouble" kind of way. Which sounds impressive for a guy who has no powers of his own, but... I think that's a big part of why he feels so threatening.

See, while Danny's faced a goodly number of powerful and high-stakes villains, I rarely find myself feeling like he's truly out of his depth. At the end of the day, most of them are ghosts, and he can usually defeat them by doing some kind of ghostly activity, such as shooting them with beams or taking a trip to the Ghost Zone. The few exceptions include Dan Phantom, a guy who could only really be defeated by Danny choosing not to become him, and then this motherfucker.

As I mentioned before, Freakshow is a normal human, a fact that he has a way of using to his advantage. Not because it exempts him from being blasted with beams or anything, but because he isn't constrained by the behavioral patterns or weaknesses of your average ghost. He doesn't have a consistent, unified power set that can be memorized and predicted, nor does he have a convenient Achilles heel sitting somewhere in the Ghost Zone just waiting for some hero to find it. Instead, he exhibits the far more worrying tendency of just having whatever powers he was recently able to get his hands on, and being more than prepared to get his hands on them whenever the opportunity arises.

That's the thing about Freakshow, is that he plans. And not in the grandiose, elaborate habit of Vlad Masters, who puts all his focus on a singular plan at the expense of flexibility. Freakshow's plans are simpler, but generally more effective - he looks out for potential opportunities, and does whatever legwork he can so that by the time one arises, he's ready to seize it and hit the ground running. He is, to put it in a word, adaptable.

And that's genuinely worrying. Because when someone is that flexible, you can never be too sure what they're capable of. Combine that with the absence of conventional ghost weaknesses, and you create a problem that Danny is just... not equipped to solve.

As badass as ghosts can be in Danny Phantom, I treasure those moments that show that they have their own disadvantages. Freakshow is a stellar example of that principle, a guy whose greatest strength - unfortunately unbeknownst to himself - is simply being a human being in a situation where that isn't the norm. Especially to a fourteen-year-old whose biggest non-existential threats are ordinary humans, that's a pretty big deal.

#danny phantom #dp freakshow #I have a lot of feelings about this dude ok.#and he CAN get it

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seaskate · 7 months ago

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I know that it's been theorized who from the ada is going to the PM because of the deal and everyone has been drawing parallels and ideas on who it could be, but one thing that I dont see may people looking at is behavior.

Personally I think that it will be Dazai that will go, he's the logical choice and would act as the best bridge between the ada and the pm, especially since Kunikida was named to become the next president and Dazai is his partner, so if Dazai were to go back and become boss at some point then that relationship is already there and is better than Mori's and Fukuzawa's from the start.

There has been a lot of points made about Dazai not being with the Agency when they are all gathered together (like that one manga panel or the party after the Guild or Kyouka's party) and how he appears more with or parallels Mori more in the intro than before (all of which is true) but we dont talk enough about how his behavior had been changing since episode one.

Dazai in episode one was only serious for maybe a small handful of seconds of screentime during the tiger debacle in the warehouse, when no one else was around to see. We can easily assume that home acting like a class clown happened more often than not from the way that he acts in the series. However, ever since the introduction of Atsushi and the Port Mafai in the series, Dazai has been slowly acting more serious than before.

In the first season alone, He sets it up so that the Azure Poet is killed and doesnt show any emotion when Kunikida tells at him for it. He bugs Higuchi and listens in on her and then basically goads Akutagawa into declaring war. Small instances, but close together.

When the Guild came there were more. There was the Q incident at the train where he all but threatened to kill the child and then slapped Atsushi out of a panic attack (which pain is actually one of the easier ways to remove someone from a panic attack, which is why people often dig in their nails or snap bands at their wrist when they feel one coming, but that's another argument to be had) which was effective but anyone else in the ada would have attempted another method. There was the Moby Dick and how he acted with Akutagawa there. And the meeting between the Ada and the pm where Dazai talked about war strategy. He blew up Lovecraft and allowd Chuuya to kill countless Guild hired guns when they ambushed him during that same instance.

None of those actions were things that someone at the ada likely would have done before the current arc. But now Dazai is continually acting in such away more often. Acting less like a detective and more like a mafioso.

He's relying on the mafia more often too.

Dazai had gone two years without any mafia contact while at the Agency, but now he's going to art museums with Hirostu and met with Akutagawa in the woods. That's not counting Chuuya and how they have worked together three times now in as many months, if you count Dead Apple, this current time in which Mori even helped with the fake vampire teeth. Not only that, but Dazai still calls Chuuya his partner. Not former partner, current.

Dazai dances on a fine line between good and evil, even as he believes in neither, but if it means that he could save those that he’s come to care for then he doesn’t hesitate to cross it (murder isn’t exactly condoned at the Agency, yet that’s exactly what he did to Fyodor - I know that he came back, but still - and has set up for Chuuya to do to those that had stood in their way since reuniting. Like the prison guards). Mori - who still has the executive seat waiting for Dazai to reclaim it, and had told Oda four years ago that Dazai would likely be boss in a few years time - knows this.

Yosano thought that this deal was a ploy for Mori to get her back, but she wasn’t the only child that he lost to the Agency. If we adds this to the paraless in the opening that exist and the fact that Dazai had been acting more and more like the Demon Prodigy with each season, Chuuya, and his place as an executive, it wouldn’t be surprising if he was the one chosen.

#bsd #bsd dazai #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs dazai #dazai osamu #pm dazai #ada dazai #port mafia #mori ougai #chuuya nakahara #bungou stray dogs chuuya #armed detective agency #port mafia dazai #the deal with the port mafia #Transfer #fan theory

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franzkafkagf · 8 months ago

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Just a little disclaimer I’m not asking this question to try to come across as hurtful or anything like that. But I was wondering how as an Aegon-stan his treatment of women can make you have a very nuanced opinion of him? :o

- Personally I’m TB but do have empathy for some TG-characters. I do like Aegon as an antagonist and I do feel for his very toxic and harmful upbringing but due to his violent behavior towards women.. I just can’t really connect that well with him 🫣

Hi! Thank you for your ask :) Super interesting question actually! I have written some things for him in the past, talking about what exactly fascinated me about his character so much ( exhibit one, two three, four and five )

I also urge you to listen to Tom talk about Aegon; this man gets him as a character so well and says it better than I ever could. Some interviews found here, here and here

I can understand not being able to connect with him because of his treatment of Dyana— it's an unforgiveable thing he has done to her and might have done to others. But in spite of that, he is still just a character. Everything he does is meant to inform us about his certain traits he has, even the ugliest of things.

What does it tell us about Aegon? He is entitled, doesn't take things seriously, he is indulgent and does not see Dyana (or other smallfolk for that matter) as a real person (succession reference wink wink)

I wouldn't call his behavior towards women in general toxic though— I actually think he is somewhat demure when faced with women like his mother, Rhaenyra and also Helaena. He seems to kick down most of the time, while trying to get recognition from the ones he sees as peers or above him.

If you look at the culture he was raised in, it's not really a surprise he turned out the way he did, seeing women beneath him as something he can just take if he likes to. Westeros is cartoonishly misogynistic; traditions like First Night or the prevelance of brothels filled with women working under harsh indentures show that.

Young men of noble origin seem to see visits to brothels (again, filled with women that do not want to be there) as a normal past time activity; it's so prevalent that it's surprising if a young nobleman does not participate. Now, I do not want to excuse his actions, but seeing the culture he grew up him and the influences around him? -> He probably thinks this is normal behaviour, disturbingly.

On a bit different note, I want to talk about his relationships. A thought I see often echoed in the fandom is the headcanon that Aegon is violent towards Helaena when that... was never stated anywhere? Now I'm probably biased because I'm a big Helaegon girl but I don't see him being violent with his sister.

People say he impregnated her at 13 when.. he was also just a 15 year old boy? He did not want to marry her! Both literally did not and could not consent to what happened to them, I think it's so sad that people try to demonize a child who just did what was demanded from him from all the adults in his life :(

(like yes tell me about how one of these KIDS forced himself on the other out of fully selfish desire and pure evil. you're so smart and do not lack media literacy whatsoever)

The dinner scene literally shows Helaena laugh at Aegon's antics until he goes a step too far w Baela, and what does Helaena do? She clowns him in front of everyone with her toast. And what does he do? He just takes it... not the behaviour of an evil abusive man but the delulus will swear otherwise.

People will also try to twist her crying at the coronation as some depressive moment for her where she realizes that he will have the ultimate power over her when that's LITERALLY just a (very boring) headcanon. It's hinted at in the text and literally written out in the script that she is scared, because she knows what crowning him means; the dance cannot be stopped. That's all, that's why she's crying. She feels like their end is near.

All in all I think no one can change your mind on how you feel about Aegon; what he did IS unforgivable, but I hope you see a bit of my pov here too. Seeing the nuance in deeply flawed characters and digging to find hidden depths in them is something I'm very passionate about! My Aegon girlie mutuals and me will be feasting come season 2 🙏

#i kind of started yapping at the end there sorry lmao. but i hope you can see my pov here.#aegonposting #hotd meta #aegon ii targaryen #hotd #house of the dragon #ales.txt #my writing #my creation #asks

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rocknrollsalad · 4 days ago

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rating: teen and up cw: they get a little hot and heavy but nothing you wouldn't see on prime time tv tags: rockstar!eddie, regular guy!steve, apology tours, epic munson tantrums, not so hidden secrets, late night chat shows, steve harrington is good at what he does, steve harrington is a bit of a tease, eddie really likes that, getting together after all these years, modern era, use of tiktok, implied/referenced sex word count: 6360

written for @steddiebingo's Kissing Booth Card; prompt “surprise"

read it on ao3

Let it be known that Eddie hates doing talk shows.

It’s always a bunch of pretentious and phony assholes with the same desk and stupid sidekick asking questions that have nothing to do with the music. They all think they’re the funniest thing to stand in front of a microphone but wouldn’t know a good story if it smacked them in the face. If Eddie had his way, he’d show up, sing a song, and hold up the album while the host patted him on the back and pretended to know who he was. Like the old days.

Instead, everyone wants sound bites and embarrassing stories. They want to talk like they care but ask what the favorite chain restaurant is to stop at on tour. Neither Eddie or Jeff handle this well so they let Gareth answer most of the questions. He’s charming, quick with an anecdote, and quicker at noticing when Eddie’s ready to explode. Hosts seem to like him better too, Eddie doesn’t get that part but why question it when it benefits him?

A weird solution to a necessary evil here. If Eddie wanted to play sold out shows in major venues, he had to play the talk show game too.

Unfortunately for everyone, tonight Eddie was flying solo. Part of see-he’s-not-such-a-bad-guy press tour Eddie had to embark on after making some comments about the state of music today. Innocent ones that still had rabid pop fans ready to kill him, the band, everyone who’d ever worked with the band, family, and pets.

It wasn’t an apology tour because Eddie wasn’t going to apologize. He had nothing to apologize for. All he’d done was have an opinion. The fans were making enough death threats that Corroded Coffin had security for the first time in their career. Something management hoped to stop if Eddie went around looking charming enough but it meant he wasn’t the one to be worried about here.

A problem he wasn’t allowed to address. These people had dug up Wayne’s information. A man who didn’t want a cell phone because the government would track him and there were paparazzi ass pictures of him in Melvards with insults typed on them because they knew he raised Eddie. Yet Eddie couldn’t tell them to stop or He’d be the bad guy.

This wasn’t something he should be doing solo but there’d be no leaning on Gareth. He had to do this alone. His mouth got him into this mess, it had to be his mouth that got them all out of it.

So he had seven talk shows in four days. It was a nightmare. Eddie had even threatened to walk on these sets naked because wasn’t that a common thread in everyone’s nightmares? Appearing naked in public. Eddie wouldn’t be fazed and they’d stop talking about the comments he made. Yet the idea was shot down. No one knew how to have fun anymore.

Least of all these cookie cutter bland men in their weird suits, dancing like monkeys for the crowd looking like every other host that did the same thing. Eddie didn’t even remember whose show he was on tonight. Thankfully he could toss around enough “mans” and “dudes” to not have to learn where he was or who this clown was.

It’d started out like the three before it. Jokes cracked about the stuff Eddie said, asking what pop music he did listen to, real softball shit that Eddie had been prepped to answer. That was it though. A few expected questions the guy must have had to ask and then he went off script in a big, big way.

Eddie could roll with the punches, he could improvise, but he was also supposed to be on his best behavior. The further they strayed from the expected, the higher the risk that Eddie made this worse. Yet he didn’t have a choice. He was on this ride.

Apparently, pop music fans are a little more…thorough than metalheads. And not everyone was burning his records down at the local city hall. Though, Eddie kind of wished they were. How bad ass would that be? Not to mention, they’d buy the album to burn so it was win-win for him. Would have made a badass album cover but whatever. Tweets were cool too.

The ones that hadn’t started online campaigns and harassing venues had started to listen to Corroded Coffin. Which didn’t make sense to Eddie here but, again, it benefited him so what did he care? All of it brought on a noticeable difference in steaming numbers. Eddie should thank them but that sounded worse than apologizing right now.

Those that were listening weren’t just headbanging in their garages though.Social media quickly moved from “hey, this isn’t that bad actually” to deep, deep dives on the lyrics. From there it was artful edits on tiktok of their favorite lines. These new fans devoured everything they could and spit out high quality appreciation that Eddie wished his own media team could manage.

He could have done without the analyzing of everything but fans had always done that. Secret messages in album covers and words from the devil if played backwards. Corroded Coffin had spent too long in the sweet spot of fame where people paid attention, they did alright, but they weren’t saying The Freak died and was replaced by a lookalike.

There was no wrong way to enjoy music, Eddie would champion for that until his dying breath, but this was new and he hadn’t had time to adjust. Not to the stuff he’d known about or fell into his orbit but watching the edits and videos live on television wasn’t the way to learn exactly how deep it all went.

Without Gareth to navigate Eddie through it all, he floundered as the host cued up the montage. Before he could get his head above water, the host and audience were laughing at jokes that wouldn’t be heard on air. All of it was uncomfortable but no one seemed to mind. It left Eddie wondering if this was what interviews were now. Putting up other people’s work and turning it into a segment seemed like a downgrade but no one was interested in anything other than ratings.

Whoever edited it had done a good job. There was a story and while Eddie wished he’d learned any of this before now, it was easy to follow live. The videos shifted from appreciation to pointing out recurring themes. Something Eddie thought he was sneaking by his fan base.

Obviously, he saw the connection in the lyrics immediately. As his entire life flashed before his eyes in front of a live studio audience, Eddie listened to a seventeen year old blonde girl do her skin care routine and speculate on the subject of these songs. Talking at length as she stuck weird things to her face and used a mini steamroller about Eddie having a crush on some girl. Her eyes literally turned to hearts, thanks to a filter, as she pined for someone to love her enough that they wrote all these songs. At her ripe old age, though, she’d given up on that ever happening for her. Eddie rolled his eyes for no one but it was unstoppable.

Then a 20-something did a “get ready with me” video, parading in front of the camera in different outfits, and waxing poetic about how lead singer Eddie Munson wasn’t singing about a woman like most people thought. She was smart, Eddie had to give her that but nothing else because her outfit was shit.

Opinions that were shared by the next video. Someone was sitting in a recliner, covered in blankets as the TV changed the lighting in the room constantly. They argued with whoever was behind the camera about the gender of who Eddie was singing about in songs Eddie wasn’t sure his fan base had clocked as love songs at all. It ended without resolution but Eddie didn’t need it. He knew.

At that point, Eddie sat silently. Too stunned to do anything, too embarrassed to think. To his credit, the host didn’t say anything about that. He simply told whoever was in the control room to play the next video. There wasn’t even a warning about what was to come. Everything about this was awful. Some of it was unprofessional. This wasn’t the sort of torture Eddie liked.

It had to have been a slow night. No one better to bring on the show. Eddie rarely got this much screen time and he certainly never had a whole produced segment before. It was something he never wanted again either. Ten minutes. In and out, steal all the food from craft services he could fit in his pocket. That was the deal.

More videos played though. TikToks were short and they weren’t playing them in their entirety but a rather large collection of people had much to say about the content of Corroded Coffin songs. Each took the speculation a little further and some ten clips later it got too specific.

Death threats were nothing at this point. He almost hoped there were some of those type fans in the audience. Someone to put him out of his misery so that he didn’t have to confirm or deny the accusations made in the last thirty seconds.

This was information kept so close, so under lock and key, that Eddie wasn’t just hiding it from his fans. The band didn’t know. If any of them knew they were playing love songs for former high school jock Steve Harrington, they’d have thrown themselves off cliffs or chopped their own hands off to never play music again. Which was why Eddie had written all these songs like he had but that information was out of the bag, it seemed. No putting it back because who cares about people. Ratings are number one.

What this host didn’t know was the damage currently being done. Sure, yeah, maybe Jeff saw some TikTok about it. Maybe someone tagged the band’s official account asking for answers or something but it would be so easy to dismiss. To lie and say there’s no way that a bunch of teeny bopper internet sleuths were right about this because Eddie would never fall for a guy like Steve Harrington.

Even if he’d written dozens about the very high school crush that represented so much more to Eddie. A hopeful time of discovery and all that. It could have been anyone but it had to be one of the most popular guys they’d all gone to school with and that just wasn’t cool. It wasn’t very metal.

A well produced video essay by one of late night’s biggest names was going to topple everything Eddie had hidden too. He was barely watching the videos anymore. Lost in his own head as he crafted the needed apologies to the band, to his manager because this surely made things worse, and maybe to one Steve Harrington. After, of course, Eddie found a way to get ahold of the guy.

At best, Eddie was penning these songs about a crush. In reality it was this feeling he’d been chasing since he was fifteen and thought he’d fallen in love for the first time. Steve had helped Eddie up in gym class after his friends had pummeled him in dodgeball and it was the sort of things that made birds flutter around the room. That or the red rubber ball based concussion but who had the money to investigate which?

It was the one and only time they spoke. Not long after that, Eddie stopped focusing on school and when he did show up, the jocks weren’t a real threat anymore. What were they going to take from him? Even still, when the loudest of jocks needed some credibility and tried to challenge the “freak”, Steve was never involved. They existed in the same place but never together.

Eddie never once thought it would come back to bite him. The songs were vague, they could be about anyone! If his band hadn’t figured it out, what hope did anyone else have? Of course, Eddie underestimated what technology put at people’s figure tips. With a bit of dedication and teamwork they could ruin anything. Fantastically, they chose to ruin Eddie’s life.

The humiliation was thorough but not done. Dipshit host number five here said they had a surprise for Eddie, one which he refused. Eddie actually got up and tried to walk off the stage despite knowing it’d get him in trouble. He’d sat politely and endured this torture for long enough but there was a limit and this was it.

The late night talk show turned into an ambush situation with the wave of his hand. Camerapeople came from every direction, ready to follow, and though Eddie wasn’t what anyone would call “media savvy” he knew enough to know this would become the sort of thing no apology tour could fix if he didn’t sit back down. Not that he went happily or quietly.

Maybe he’d get lucky and it’d be the boys in the band. They’d all be pissed and come out hot talking about what bullshit it was to play songs for a guy like that but Eddie could handle that. It was coming regardless so rip the band off and entertain a few folks with a glimpse behind the scenes. Maybe these TikTokers could find Jeff a date or something.

He wasn’t that lucky. Kids on the internet had done the detective work but major network television had a budget that these vloggers didn’t. If the teenagers and fashion divas got a camera in front of Steve Harrington to see how he felt about it all, it’d be a polite clip, a thirty second video, and nothing Eddie needed to participate in.

A major network, though, could bribe Steve to come in and make a fool out of Eddie. The music industry put too much focus on pop music. Saying something was bad did not need to be something worth punishing over. Least of all with public humiliation.

The blue curtains pulled back to reveal an uneasy and slightly embarrassed Steve Harrington (looking impossibly better after all these years), because nothing was more entertaining than an awkward reunion. One they could bill as a love connection. Worst case, they’d make Eddie answer for the lyrics, to sit there and face the music. Almost literally as the house band played a jazzy version of the one song everyone had latched onto as the love song for Steve.

Eddie shook his head, he wanted no part in this, and immediately apologized to Steve. Sorry wasn’t going to fix this, in any direction, but Eddie wasn’t going to stop saying it. Maybe if he’d started saying it in the first place, he wouldn’t be here, but he was going to get mileage out of the word now. Him and “sorry” were about to become best friends.

The update about Steve’s life entertained the crowd as he and Eddie stood there like aliens figuring out their human bodies. Embarrassment tinted both their faces pink, bright enough that the make up couldn’t hide it. Even as they were led back to the couches for an interview that Eddie would have to watch back at some point.

Hopefully he didn’t say anything stupid. It was all a blur as he flipped between plotting murders and plotting his own death. He landed somewhere in between, becoming some mountain man type recluse. Wayne would love it. They could buy a huge plot of land in some unknown town, live miles apart from each other and nowhere close to any civilization. Live off the grid and spend their days whittling. Far away from internet service and guys called Steve. It was perfect.

First he had to survive tonight though. Something the universe was making too hard. Sat on this uncomfortable, ugly couch and knowing it would be broadcast nationwide that Eddie had to awkwardly sit next to his childhood crush while some other musical act played their hit track. A song that was also currently big on TikTok.

They could have debuted a heavy metal We Are the World and Eddie wouldn’t have noticed. The only thing he cared about was the stage manager coming to drag him to his dressing room, to get him out of this new layer of hell invited for him.

A reprieve that eventually came. Some handshakes, goodnights, and Eddie was led backstage. Only not to his dressing room like he so desperately wanted. Whatever this room was, it was so far from Eddie’s phone, from the help he needed and the apologies he owed. If Eddie stayed in the biz, he was rewriting his contract to never, ever make another television appearance. If it was necessary, one of the other guys could do it. Eddie was done with this trickery. With being a pawn in someone else’s entertainment.

He paced the new room like a caged animal, ready to attack his trainers at the slightest movement. To show that, Eddie kicked over one of the hideous hotel-like chairs and let out a scream of a million unsaid words. He’d always dreamed of trashing a hotel room but thought it would be under much cooler circumstances.

It was a tantrum the all knowing kids on TikTok must have also warned the show about because they kept Eddie there and alone until long after he was breathing normally again. Once the calm was sensed they shoved some enrichment in the form of Steve Harrington. For a brief second, Eddie entertained using his fist to find out what these walls were made of. A little too certain he could punch his way through.

Slinking to a corner, putting as much distance between him and Steve as he could, Eddie puffed up. He wasn’t going down without a fight. Or quietly. So hopefully everyone was ready for this spectacle.

“I’m sorry, man. Truly, I am,” Eddie said, arms folded over his chest. He refused to look at Steve but didn’t know where to rest his eyes.

“Why? For what?” Steve asked, looking directly at Eddie.

“I don’t know. I guess for writing all those songs. The rest of this shitshow was not me! It’s a mess I’ll never be able to clean up and, fuck, I’m going to sue literally everyone involved.”

Steve laughed and for a half a second, Eddie forgot why he was mad.

“Or maybe just for talking shit about that one singer. I sort of thought it was my right, ya know? Low hanging fruit, if you will. The metal guy mocking a pop princess, it’s a tale as old as time. The world’s changing though, I guess.”

That didn’t earn a response.

Eddie dared to look at Steve directly and he still had a hint of that sort of awkward guy that was on the sound stage. Not quite knowing how to stand or how much space to take up. It mixed well with the guy Steve became, whatever that was. Hopefully it was an improved version because physically, he was a dream. Not to mention, he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring either.

“They had to convince me to come here, ya know?” Steve finally said.

All Eddie did was nod. Of course they did. Who would come willingly? Shit, he hadn’t even come here willingly. Something he likely should have said but it would have unleashed a rant neither of them had time for.

“I took a lot of calls from a lot of strange people involved with this show. All of them explained why I should come. So many of them sent me video after video after, way more than what they played out there. It’s a bit weird, isn’t it.”

“No,” Eddie scoffed. “It’s incredibly fucking weird. The most weird anything has been in the history of time, perhaps.”

Again, Steve laughed. The smile stayed on this face and Eddie wondered if someone flipped on another light. Eddie let out a breath and dropped his shoulders. It was so rare that the reality of someone surpassed the memory but wow. Wow.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Steve said.

“Because everyone had a crush on you in high school?” Eddie snapped, letting a sneer stay on his face even after he realized that was a bit harsh.

“I also doubt that but if they did, they certainly didn’t write songs about it.”

“Who says I really did?”

“Besides the thousands of people on the internet who may or may not need to get a life?”

Eddie huffed, glaring at the floor and wishing that wasn’t a true statement. Those people did need to get a life but Eddie didn’t want to give Steve the satisfaction of making a good joke right now. He wasn’t sure how to play this but best friends seemed the least likely choice.

“Exactly,” Steve said in a way that had Eddie wonder if he’d said all that out loud. “That’s what brought me here, though. That and the fat fucking paycheck I’m getting. I had to know, from you, if you’d really written all those songs about me.”

For a fleeting moment, Eddie thought about lying. He had nanoseconds to do so and sell it. If he hesitated even a bit, it wouldn’t work. In that short bit of time where Eddie had a choice, he couldn’t find a reason to lie.

Maybe Steve deserved the truth for all his trouble, for all this embarrassment. Better still, it might be good for Eddie to say it after all these years of keeping it inside. Steve didn’t fly all this way to kick Eddie’s ass and, plus, he already kind of knew. Confirmation would just mean they could both move on.

Plus, it was in high school. He wasn’t still dreaming of a life with Steve. Okay, he wasn’t writing songs about it but sometimes Eddie would think about if they’d found a happily ever after or whatever. Usually after a real bad break up. Something to mentally chew on as he recovered. A perfect life that he never got.

Still, it was a reluctant confession when Eddie pressed his lips in a straight line and nodded his head before saying “Yeah.”

The carpet in this room was beyond interesting, Eddie couldn’t quit staring as he braced for what was to come. They’d grown up enough to see a ten year reunion come and go but a piece of Eddie was still that same teenager. Still squawking and showing off and giving the jocks and popular kids a reason to hate him because it was better than the made up rules and false hierarchies.

Eddie wanted to do the same here. To insult Steve immediately after saying all the songs were about him. To give Steve a reason to be mad other than Eddie’s affection because there was no way in hell a guy like Steve wanted that.

Things stayed silent for several eternities. Cycling through the expected and the uncomfortable to something that had Eddie curious. He looked up to see what was going on, what the other half of the room was doing. Maybe Steve left, stormed out or something. Eddie wouldn’t blame him if he had.

Instead, Steve was a few steps closer with a soft smile on his face like all he was waiting for was Eddie to look at him. Nothing about him said he was angry, offended, or even annoyed. Eddie would take a risk here and say Steve looked happy even.

It left Eddie blinking and confused, desperate for Steve to say anything else to help Eddie know what move to make next.

“I listened to the songs, you know? After I agreed to come here.”

“Oh god, no. Why,” Eddie whined.

There was that laugh again. Why did Steve laugh so easily? Why did it sound the way cotton candy felt after a day at the amusement park?

Obviously Eddie could never ever write another song about Steve again. He probably couldn’t write another love song despite there being other romances in Eddie’s life he could pull from. Real ones even. Not that it’d matter. Everyone would assume the songs were about Steve now.

And yet Eddie could sit down right here and fill an entire album up from the butterflies building in his stomach as he listened to Steve laugh. Something was happening in here that Eddie hadn’t felt before. He was supposed to be furious, out for blood and fielding calls from everyone connected to Corroded Coffin. Not being disarmed by the guy who’d become the representation of every bit of love and affection Eddie had ever felt.

As mad as Eddie was supposed to be, he couldn’t find it. He felt vulnerable, exposed, and still backed into a corner a little but not angry. Not that he was angry with Steve but anger was better than whatever this mess was.

“Well, if they were really about me, shouldn’t I be hearing them?”

“Fuck no. You’re the last person that should be hearing them!”

Steve took a couple of steps closer, “Shame, I kind of liked them.”

Eddie could have thrown up then and there. An awful response that showed his body was betraying him. In the worst ways. Common sense kicked back in though and Eddie glared at Steve. No way the guy wasn’t fucking with him right now.

Steve took another step toward Eddie. Instinctively, Eddie took a step backward. He was still trying to figure out what was going on here and had mentally been at a disadvantage from the start. The whole apology tour alone meant using less of his brain than normal but no one could think clearly in these conditions.

“I’m going to catch so much shit for all of this. I’ll be lucky if it doesn’t break up the band, I’m not really finding the humor in any of it,” Eddie said, pulling up some walls as he desperately fought to understand what was going on.

“Who’s joking? I liked the ones about the knights the best. I had to call a friend to find out what orcs were and he gave me, what felt like, a fourteen hour explanation. I didn’t like that part but the rest? It was great.”

The smile on Steve’s face was the worse part. It screamed of trouble but there was a sincerity in it. What it didn’t say was that Eddie was in danger and he’d seen more of those smiles than ones sincerely glad to see him. Still, Eddie kept the walls up to be safe.

“I really thought that was subtle,” Eddie tried not to sound defeated.

Steve pressed forward again and Eddie took a step back which crashed him into the wall with a far from knightly “oof”.

“You aren’t the knight though, are you? My best friend and I tried our hand at song analysis. Probably not something we should have done with a bottle of wine but she says you are the knight and she’s the smartest person I know but I think she’s wrong. I think I am. Which, of course, she blames on my ego but I don’t think it’s that.”

Eddie shook his head.

“I knew it! I’m the knight? I rescue you?”

All Eddie could do was nod. Fuck that sounded so pathetic. Why did he write these songs? Hell, why was he in a band? It certainly wasn’t for all this humiliation.

There was one step between them, one chance for Eddie to sneak to the side and get out, but as he grappled with the regret of his cheesy love songs Steve took another step closer. They weren’t touching but Eddie could smell Steve’s cologne now and see what looked like a tattoo peeking out under the sleeve of his shirt. He could take in all the little details as his heart tried to punch a hole in his chest.

With no place left to go, Eddie pressed against the wall. For the first time in his life he tried to steer his mind back to the worst case scenario. Steve was going to punch him in the gut or slam his head into the wall right? Something bad was going to happen, that made some kind of sense. It had to be what happened.

Everything felt too electric for that. Time still slowed but fight or flight wasn’t activated. Instead Eddie thought about his hotel room and the huge bed inside. He wondered where the nearest bodega was or if he had any condoms rolling around in his suitcase. More than twice he thought about dropping to his knees right here to show Steve exactly how a knight is thanked for rescuing someone.

Dwelling on the best case scenario was unavoidable if not weird. Eddie wanted to enjoy it but all he could think about was when this all went to shit it was going to hurt that much more. Maybe he could turn that into a song and then tiktok detectives could leave him alone to write whatever he wanted again.

“God that’s so disgustingly sweet. Why do people hate your music? It’s way sappier than the pop shit you complain about.”

“It is not,” Eddie tried to fight the point but wound up sounding like a child being told they didn’t do their chores.

Steve, on the other hand, made kids at Christmas look morose. He was so giddy. It almost felt unnatural. Especially because what Eddie remembered of Steve was catty comments and snide commentary. Here he was almost…dorky.

Except sitting right under that dorkiness, which Eddie didn’t think was supposed to show and was likely sincere, was this confidence and control that lined up with what Eddie remembered about Steve. Or the version of Steve he’d made up over the years. Something he was desperate to learn more about, see if reality lived up to the fantasy.

“You basically wrote yourself as a fair maiden being saved by a handsome prince,” Steve pointed out far too accurately. There was too much truth in that joke and Eddie hated it.

“Uh, I was definitely noble and rugged, not a fair maiden. I think maybe you’re adding that in.”

Steve stood a little taller, his smile shifted to a smirk but settled back as the same doofus grin a second later. A grin that didn’t follow anything else that happened next but did make it better. In a quick move, he planted a hand on the wall above Eddie’s shoulder. Suddenly every high school wet dream came back to Eddie. He’d been in this position before, if only in his mind.

“Rugged,” Eddie repeated, swallowing hard and reminding himself he was a full grown man. He was better than these high school moves.

Except he wasn’t at all, not even a little bit, and if he hadn’t said anything, he would have squeaked or, worse, whimpered. Saying something stupid was definitely the better choice here.

Licking his lips, Steve thought things over. An artful prolonging of events. “You know, I had a thing for you in high school too.”

Eddie stammered, far too confused, and looked up at Steve in hopes more words came out of one of them.

“I just didn’t know I liked guys too. Well, that’s not true. I thought all guys kind of felt like that sometimes with other guys. I didn’t get the scope of it. It’s a lot to explain, I’m realizing here. I was a big fancy college dropout before I put it all together and you were nowhere in sight.”

“Dammit,” Eddie whispered.

“That’s a lie too,” Steve said as the cheery retelling of old feelings took a turn into something that Eddie would almost call lustful. “Your band was kind of taking off. I paid attention back then but things sort of fell by the wayside.”

“Adulthood, right?”

“Yeah but you didn’t stop thinking about me, did you?”

“Well, it’s not, it’s–”

Eddie’s words were cut off as Steve eased his knee between Eddie’s legs. It brought them so much closer and gave Steve all the control. Something Eddie didn’t fight.

“I didn’t want to come on the show because I thought this was some sort of prank thing. I couldn’t figure out why or for whose benefit but I thought no way Eddie Munson is out there writing songs about me. But you were.”

“So many. Yeah, man. God, yeah. I was. I will continue to after this too if you want. God damn.”

The laugh that followed that promise could only be called wicked. Compared to the playful, possibly nervous one of before it made Steve sound like a villain and it sent a shiver up Eddie’s spine.

Ignoring the pathetic rambling, Steve asked, “So what are we going to do about this then?”

“My hotel or yours, yeah?”

Steve adjusted his knee with enough purpose that Eddie knew it wasn’t an accident, it was torture. And this time it was the kind Eddie enjoyed. His head fell forward with a sigh and he gave Steve the show he wanted.

“I’d guess mine,” Steve said, smoothing a hand over Eddie’s head to guide him back up so he could look at Steve. “Everyone’s going to be watching yours. Especially to see if I go in.”

“Yeah but I have a hot tub.”

That had Steve pause, he pressed his lips together in comical thought, “Okay, yeah. Yours it is. Leave a key at the front desk.”

“Of course, yeah yeah yeah. Easy peasy, man.”

That brought back the happy go lucky laughter as Eddie cringed. Why would he say that? He’d never said “easy peasy” in his life. A part of him was thrilled he didn’t add the “lemon squeezy” but it was still horrible.

Steve stood up and Eddie nearly fell to the floor, unaware of how much he’d been leaning on Steve (or how weak in the knees he’d truly been). Thankfully he was able to recover. If he’d said something that lame and fallen in the span of ten seconds, Steve was going to fly back to wherever home was and not cash the checks they’d just written. And Eddie wouldn’t blame him.

With a hungry look up and down, Steve took in everything he’d just done. It left Eddie a little thankful that things had kept them apart. There was no way high school Steve had this level of experience to pair with that confidence. It was even less likely Eddie would have known what to do in the presence of this.

Celebrations stopped there because Steve moved toward the door. Eddie stood up, a sound of indignation filling the room immediately as he tossed his hands out at his sides. “No fucking way, man. No, no, no.”

Steve turned around, faux shock on his face. “What?”

“No way the knight would ever,” Eddie was careful not to tell Steve what he needed to do because he knew that would backfire. It wasn’t the time to take back control but there was no way Steve was putting on that show and not at least kissing Eddie.

The hesitation was brief as Steve weighed his options. Eddie could guess a few choices based on what he’d do if the tables were turned but there was only one correct path. No amount of clever lines and “saving the good stuff for later” was going to work here. It would cost Steve everything he’d built in this dynamic and that wasn’t worth it.

A conclusion he arrived at on his own. Eddie did kind of want to tackle him in the hallway but leaning in the chivalrous knight thing felt better. It felt right. Something they’d both been waiting for, wanting, for far too long.

Steve walked back to Eddie and stopped just before their bodies were pressed together. “I slayed the dragon, or the hydra, right? You’re safe.”

Eddie’s own shit shouldn’t work on him like this but Steve delivered the line so well that Eddie didn’t have to fake his sigh. He did fake batting his eyelashes though as he said, “My hero.”

One of Steve’s hands reached up and cupped Eddie’s cheek, as it slid down to rest of the back of Eddie’s neck, Steve leaned in. Eddie didn’t wait, he met Steve halfway and planted a kiss on his muse, his very own knight in shining armor.

They didn’t linger there for long, they shouldn’t. It was very much supposed to be a taste of what was to come but had Eddie thinking about getting on his knees again. They didn’t actually have to wait, right? The show had provided two chairs, it was more than enough for a few fun positions.

“You can thank me properly later tonight…in my chambers. Your chambers. It doesn’t matter, you get it.”

Steve stepped away again and Eddie didn’t want to let him go but he knew he had to. Once they got back to Eddie’s hotel, they’d have four days of togetherness to enjoy, Eddie could spare another hour apart.

When Steve got to the door, he turned back into the room. “For real, though. I’m going to punch that asshole host for this whole set up. It was shitty to do even if I’m glad he did it. Kind of a messed up thing to do for people’s entertainment so hopefully your room has a big tv. We can see how good the make up department is at hiding black eyes.”

Eddie fought visibly swooning and simply said “Get him.”

Okay, maybe it was kind of obvious Steve Harrington was the knight in all those songs. A promise of retribution just because that’s who he was, noble and out there righting wrongs. He set off to fight for Eddie’s honor for no other reason than someone needed to. Eddie certainly couldn’t.

Though Eddie would thank him for it. Over and over and over again.

#not sure where this came from but it spring forth fully formed so i'm not mad lol #steddie #steve x eddie #written for: steddie bingo

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c-rowlesdraws · 1 year ago

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final very superficial appraisal of the live action one piece show:

👍:

-the set design was wonderful and had a cool sense of unreality to it (as in, the environments feel like built sets and it’s part of the fun), it was colorful and theatrical and captured the manga’s blend of piratey genre aesthetics (wooden boards, sailing ships, rolled-up old maps) and “modern” elements like t-shirts and neon signs in a really pleasing way

-the show clicks to the top of the first rollercoaster hill at the end of episode 3 and then goes at the start of ep 4 and it’s just one breathless ride to the finish. I didn’t want the show to end. I do not care about one piece and started watching kind of for the bit but now I’ll actually be really upset if it doesn’t get a second season. That’s how good the second half of this show is.

-I love how all of the characters with colorful hair have clearly-dyed hair where their roots are showing (as opposed to wigs), and in flashbacks to a few of them as children the child actors have the exact same sort of imperfect dye job. It’s wonderful. It adds to the theatrical energy of everything, like “we know you know this is artificial, but we trust you to suspend your disbelief and enjoy this fiction with us”.

-with very few exceptions, all of the actors’ performances are great. They are all cool and fun to watch and there are lots of sweet and funny and emotional moments that work because the writing is sincere. Nobody rolls their eyes for the audience’s benefit at how weeeeird their world is— they live here! I love that.

-the trap beat they did for Arlong’s theme music rules

-this story with its global ocean and seafaring/island-based societies is kind of like “what if Waterworld was like a big colorful carnival” and I love that

-the Snail Phones 🐌

Things I liked less below the cut - 👎:

-Zoro’s backstory bff being depressed because “a girl can beat a boy, but no woman can beat a man [in a swordfight]” was a disappointing line to hear two characters just… play straight in a world that up to that point had seemed pretty non-sexist? But this girl sincerely believes that, and this boy doesn’t push back at all. In this world of self-dismembering clowns and people with axes for arms, you’re telling me that there are no champion swordswomen for little kids to admire? Not one?? From skimming the wiki, it seems like in the manga Kuina’s views are influenced by her sexiest dad, but the show doesn’t include that context.

-Kuina dying offscreen in “an accident” was the only tragic thing in the show that didn’t land for me. It’s just so blatant and funny. You’ve got to get rid of her so she can motivate Zoro, because she’s dead in the manga and that’s how you motivate male main characters, with dead women, but… how? Doesn’t matter! There’s been an accident. Typical backstory girl bff behavior. Call that Fridge To Terabithia.

-Iñaki’s energy as Luffy didn’t always work for me. Some character behavior works in manga and anime, but seems awkward and jarring in real life. It’s very difficult to pull off wild limb-flailing anime exuberance in live-action— live-action Cowboy Bebop’s glimpse of Ed comes to mind. But also, I never really liked Luffy in the parts of the manga I read, either, so maybe I’m just not the target audience for a Luffy in any medium. Iñaki seems like a friendly and chill dude and he certainly gave this role 100%— and also Oda himself loved him for the role, so that says a lot.

-the whole thing with Arlong and his Fishman crew where they’re part of an oppressed and formerly-enslaved minority, so of course they have beef with humans (“but slavery’s been abolished!” shouts a human character), but they’re taking things too far and not just fighting for equality, but domination, which includes extorting, killing, and enslaving humans, starting with this poor little girl here. And since this group are clearly evil and have these big evil plans, it’s cool and great actually for the heroes, who are all humans/members of the majority, to kick their asses and kill a bunch of them. Like… I get there’s a whole thing here with Arlong being twisted by hatred into the very thing he says hates, and maybe we’ll meet more Fishmen later in the story who are just people and not bloodthirsty evildoers, but it’s not a great fictional look?

It takes me back to hbomberguy’s critique of RWBY’s portrayal of the Faunus, and the problems with making your bad guys out of an oppressed ethnic group who, the story says, might have a point, if they went about things peacefully, but are just taking things too far with this domestic terrorism stuff. The Faunus and Arlong should really be writing to their congresspeople instead!

#catie talks #one piece #netflix one piece #some more thoughts the morning after

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gods-third-eye · 8 months ago

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Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Clown Husbandry:

Qualifications: I am an avid clown lover and perhaps a bit of a clown myself. I sleep in a small circus tent and eat fresh cotton candy regularly. I am also working on my third home-made clown suit.

Anyways, with the intro done, let's get onto the meat of this.

I was recently gifted KKFOS t-shirt and I figured if I want to wear it I should at least watch the movie, right? I was apprehensive because I am a fan of sweeter clowns and putting respect on the clown name. I was worried what this movie was going to entail, but after watching it I have lots of opinions and thoughts!

Firstly, I should say that I think the movie was done very well. I am a fan of the plot and props. I enjoyed all of the references to horror movies. I enjoyed learning about how the Klowns operate and what their machinery looks like. However, I am conflicted on the killing.

I have a few proposals for the clown husbandry community to consider before writing this movie off as inappropriate:

These "Klowns" are not the clowns that we are all familiar with and deserve their own understanding as a separate creature entirely. Now, this may be the most obvious choice, but it is still worth bringing up. This theory is supported because in the movie, Mike Tabacco (the policeman) says, "They're not clowns. They're some kind of animal from another world that just look like clowns... maybe they're the ancient astronauts that came to our planet centuries ago, and our idea of clowns just comes from them." Now, I don't know if I believe that they are where our idea of clowns comes from, but I certainly could see them being a completely different species from our clowns. The Wikipedia for the movie also describes them as "a clan of evil extraterrestrials who resemble clowns". They are from space, afterall. Now, these both come directly from the source material, but I still have more thoughts on the matter.

What if they ARE clowns, but they got sick with some illness that has caused them to be blood thirsty? Now, this one might see a bit far-fetched, but we are talking about Killer Klowns from Outer Space, right? Well, this movie seems to understand lots of points about the culture of clowns: the importance of noses, love for cotton candy and popcorn, bright colors, silly noises, entertaining folks with goofy gags. So why are these Klowns killing? Let's look at some of the clowns themselves.

They have puffy and deformed skin that looks like that from an allergic reaction, they have yellowing teeth and eyes, enflamed lips, and their eyelids are droopy. These look like sick clowns!! Perhaps you might argue that they are simply scare clowns, but to that I say shame on you! Scare clowns get the same treatment as pitbulls, they are not inherently harmful, they only get that way from maltreatment. However, I don't think these Klowns are scareclowns. Scare clowns have traits like "salivation, staggering, growls and hisses and bluff aggression" as well as a diet that may consist of balloon animals and a more solitary lifestyle than other clowns (according to the fandom wiki and many husbandry tumblr accounts). But the Klowns shown in the movie (I have not interacted with the game yet) are quite normal other than the killing, they take care of balloon animal dogs,

and they are almost always seen in packs. The Klowns are often shown displaying friendly and inviting behavior before, during, and after the killings, so why are they doing them? I think that they are sick. This would also explain why the culture and lifestyle (other than the murdering) is so similar to clowns we know and love.

3. Now, this point could be seen as tied to the last point, but I think it deserves its own bullet-point. This whole movie could be a clown-loving informational piece on the dangers of sick clowns! If these truly are classic clowns that happened to get an illness that caused them to be murderous, perhaps this is an informative video on what to do and what not to do, as well as a warning to care for clowns properly. This movie is clearly made by someone who knows the intricacies of clown culture, as stated previously. But if the cultural depictions aren't enough to prove that, then just think about how many sweet classic clowns are used as logos throughout the town. Jojo's ice cream truck

and Big Top Burger

to name a few examples. This town loves clowns. And again, Tabacco says that they can't be clowns. He cannot imagine them as the same clowns we know and love because he knows healthy clowns don't murder. So, this is a clown-lover's way of saying "Killer Klowns are not clowns. Clowns don't kill".

4. Now, this one might be the silliest take of them all, but what is more silly than a clown? What if this is just a clown's comedic take on a horror movie? We have seen numerous horror movies about people, but we know they are far from representative of all humans. Why can't this just be a clown's horror movie? Of course we watch it and laugh, thinking it is just a B-movie horror film, but think about a clown watching this. A clown would be scared and horrified, both for the Klowns and the people in it. We see this movie as silly and cheesy, but clowns might get a real fright out of it! Maybe that's why clown lovers get so riled up over it. Besides, it seems like a goof because it has ripped off some of the most famous cliches in horror: the Psycho shower scene,

the girl not believing the killer,

and the car filled with cotton candy, reminiscent of the Blob. Actually, the whole movie is reminiscent of the Blob. Why? Maybe a clown found out about scary movies and wanted to make one suited to scare a clown!

Well, that's it. Those are my explainations for the movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Believe what you want, but these are some of my ideas. Like them? Or maybe you have another take. Please share your ideas! Thank you for reading through this ramble.

Clown bear for your patience!!

#kkfos #clown husbandry

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mcrcki · 1 year ago

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here i come with another MASSIVE event plotting / starter call (this time with over 20 characters bc who even am i) !! before i get too much into event stuff, i just wanna put up some housekeeping things so i'm not just repeating myself over and over in the discord : i will be dropping almost all of my pre-event threads. meaning, i will only be keeping the thread if it is an active plot that needs to be continued because we aren't at a place to infer the ending. i am just so utterly overwhelmed with my number of drafts that i really need to just start fresh, so i'll be using this as my chance to spam the heck out of y'all's calls and get way more threads that i actually have muse for. i'm sorry if we had a thread you really wanted to continue, i just need a fresh start. now for housekeeping for my call, as always this will be capped. i wanna write with everyone but i can't if i get a million requests from one person so!! the cap is three starters per writer!! blind date starters will not count towards that cap. otherwise, please LIKE for plotting messages, and REPLY for starters (pls specify muses unless previously discussed!!)!

in the meantime, if you wanna see what my clowns are wearing, please follow this link to my pinterest :))

alani tiure | star wars | blind date w. cami o'connell ( 3 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : imma be so for real and say that they think they're absolutely too good for this lmao, their dad is a crime lord in the city, and really they're just here to take advantage of some free drinks and maybe check in on some clients. her date is going to have to be okay with her being slightly stuck up but will absolutely be down for some dancing despite it. potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : sofia robbin sloan torres, ellie williams, cami o'connell

beatrice | over the garden wall | date w. wirt ( 1 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : going with her favorite boy loser, wirt. definitely here just for the free party and to do something fun, now that she's human again she's taking advantage of all the things they missed out on as a bird. will definitely be here to make friends, they're a little rude at times but i promise they're kind when you get past the kind of rude exterior !!! down for shenanigans !! potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : xiao chiye

branwen | a court of thorns and roses | blind date w. enola holmes ( 1 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : winnie LOVES THIS, she hasn't gotten to have fun in pretty dresses in ages, she was still young the last time they were able to have any kind of formal party so they're really enjoying this. she wants to see everything this party has to offer so she'll be dragging her date around everywhere, wanting to take it all in potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : he xuan

daniela dimitrescu | resident evil | blind date w. jeremy smith ( 2 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : ok tbh, daniela only came to this and signed up for a blind date to possibly grab an easy snack. they're a man-eating monster idk what anyone expected here. but tbh, once they saw the girl she's actually simping over (and will not make a move yet for one reason or another) they're going to be flirting and going so far to make her jealous, it doesn't matter with who tbh. also open to some absolute chaos if you wanna do something Bad potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date (for murder purposes)

starters : myri tiure, henry creel

danika fendyr | crescent city | flying solo ( 3 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : listen danika like.. just got here, she's just getting used to the city and her memories again with her friends, since so much happened back home. she's spending the majority of her time crashing her bestie's date, for various reasons, but will be out on the floor dancing and drinking as much as she wants, enjoying the hell out of a free party potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : bryce quinlan, apple caramela, hunt athalar

elain archeron | a court of thorns and roses | date w. lucien vanserra ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : this is elain's first ball in the city, and she's very much looking forward to a night where she can just dress up in a beautiful dress and dance with her husband. things have been... rough with her family unit so she's just happy to let loose a little bit and enjoy everyone's company and dance the night away potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : lu junyi, lucien vanserra

evangeline ennar | throne of glass | blind date w. choi nam ra ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : evangeline grew up in a high fantasy world, getting dressed up in fancy clothes for a ball is all she could've hoped for coming here, and now she's old enough to really enjoy it, she is going to be having the best time for real. will be helping her mom glare at her not dad, but other than that, she would love some friends so just dance around with all night potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : choi nam ra, aedion ashryver

kaya dura | star wars | blind date w. lola flemming ( 2 / 4 )

they/she pronouns : kaya is not really in the dating and dancing mood, they are still getting over their ex after a very hard breakup, where her ex killed her and all that fun stuff. so, they're really trying to like.. get themselves out there and get over her, so they signed up for this blind date and are forcing themselves out into public again. will probably get drunk for the first time and just want to forget everything to have fun potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : kaiden monsula, kasil monsula

keelan cardulo | fourth wing | date w. mira sorrengail ( 0 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : lowkey her and mira's first public appearance as a couple, especially after everything that happened back home that resulted in keelan's death, she is very much looking forward to getting to dance with their girlfriend and just enjoy that. is a bit anti social if they don't know you, so when mira is inevitably somewhere else, find them hanging to the shadows potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters :

leia organa | star wars | date w. han solo ( 3 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : mom and dad night out!!! leia's a mom of six now, and while ya know four of the six are adults with some having children of their own, and the other 2 are less than six months old, she just wants to have a little fun. the past year has been.. hard. and despite being the president and having to be here for this ball, she would so much rather be home right now, avoiding all the memories that valentine's day now brings out in her mind. last year was the worst night of her life and she will in fact be drinking a lot to forget all that bastilla did a year ago. #thereturnoffloorgana potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : din djarin, ahsoka tano, winter celchu

louise vance | harry potter | date w. thea hughes ( 4 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : a party???? hell yeah lou is gonna be there, they love this whole vibe. will 100% be testing the limits of security and trying to ride the t rex skeletons and any other shenanigans they can get into. they're here with their best friend in the whole world, thea, and they're definitely just friends, if you see them slow dancing really close that's just what besties do potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : thea hughes, emmeline vance, bucky barnes, willie

marlene mckinnon | harry potter | flying solo ( 2 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : marlene lowkey is working this, and will be having fun but trying to stay focused on her job. she's unaware currently so, they'll just be hanging around with whoever is kind of hiding in the outskirts of the party, could absolutely be convinced to dance/will flirt given the chance, but mostly just here to have a fun day at work potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : dora tonks, esther mckinnon

morrigan | a court of thorns and roses | date w. cassandra dimitrescu ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : this thing with cassandra has been a bit of a whirlwind romance, and she's found herself really swept up in the other, and will absolutely be spending a lot of her time in their arms. but considering how her family life has been lately, she will also be checking in on family and doing what she can to make sure reporters aren't going too wild with everything going on with rhys and her family. potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : cassandra dimitrescu, rhysand

omega archeron | star wars | date w. kirei monsula ( 1 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : if i had a nickel for every time one of my muses is on a date with their best friend and convincing themselves it's not a date, i'd have 2 nickels-- anyways, omega will be here, fulfilling her role as senator archeron's messy as hell kid, and drunk as shit nearly getting kicked out for shenanigans around the maze, and also perhaps drunkenly making out with their best friend kirei that they've been pining after for years. potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : hunter

rosemary winters | resident evil | flying solo ( 1 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : now for my girl that knows she's in love with her best friend but her best friend doesn't know her and is here with another girl!!!!! honestly rose will be in a corner getting so drunk, glaring daggers at mouse's date and wanting nothing more than to be the one dancing with them. please come try to drag them out of this slump they are sulking HARD potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : lyra ayala

rowena ravenclaw | harry potter | date w. hunter ( 1 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : rowena is uneasy after the last masquerade that happened in the city, and last valentine's day, and will be spending a fair amount of time at hunter's side until she realizes that this is actually safe, that things are normal and she can cut loose a little. will be spending a lot of time dancing and mingling, happy to talk to anyone who needs some friendly conversation, even if she may just info dump at you. is VERY excited that this is at the museum and may spend more time wandering the exhibits than actually dancing. potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : arnold

sella palpatine | star wars | date w. allana solo ( 4 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : oh sella is LIVING FOR THIS. valentine's day is her fucking holiday and she will be making up for how hellish the last one was. considering the fact that her and allana have yet to have a single good date on a holiday, she is going to be spending as much time as possible making her girlfriend twirl her around the dance floor. if anyone needs a dancing partner, sella will also let you spin her :)) she is just here to get a little tipsy and enjoy all the love in the air potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : rey palpatine, steve rogers, sion val palpatine, allana solo

sophie hatter | howl's moving castle | date w. howl pendragon

she/they pronouns : once again, sophie has been dragged to one of these parties because their husband loves these things far more than she does. howl dressed them, and as long as he agreed to a babysitter, sophie agreed to come to this. they are not the biggest dancer, a bit too self conscious to put themselves out there like that, she doesn't like drawing attention to herself. which is difficult when your husband is wearing a glittery pink suit but... potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : cindy moon

sorrel blackbeak | throne of glass | flying solo ( 2 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : i am planning on letting sorrel get their memories back during the event so she's going to be having a little bit of a time trying to find the rest of the thirteen and reunite now that her memories are back. once that's sorted though, she will be a little anti social but if someone asked her to dance, they're not one to say no. potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : asterin blackbeak, manon blackbeak

tatum riley | scream '96 | blind date w. conrad fisher ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : tatum is just trying to put herself out there, to enjoy some good things in the city, even if she's a little on edge with just throwing herself into a blind date roulette, she knows she's gotta get out of her comfort zone so she's going to make the most of this party and enjoy the heck out of it. even if that means someone's gotta drive her ass home cause she's gonna be gone potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : sam carpenter, jake wheeler

vesta starkos | star wars | blind date w. riley matthews ( 1 / 4 )

she/they pronouns : listen vesta is unaware and super normal right now, and she wants to dance with a pretty girl. even if she's a little sus of all the people who keep staring at her like they know her, they just wanna dance and have a little fun, to cut loose instead of thinking about school. is up for some shenanigans and drunken adventures if people are down potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : ramona flowers

victoria sutherland | twilight | date w. james witherdale ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : vic will never pass up an opportunity to dress sexy and dance on her mate, she has absolutely zero shame and does not care who is watching them. she also loves to use these events as a perfect little hunting ground. vic will probably be upset that it's not turning into a nightmare but, she can make it a nightmare if she really gets that bored. until then? she will be annoyingly hanging all over her mate all night. potential plots ➛ drinking (not alcohol) || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date (for a drink ;) )

starters : heidi volturi, bella swan

violet sorrengail | fourth wing | date w. xaden riorson ( 2 / 4 )

she/her pronouns : did violet show up to this ball 90 minutes late, looking very flushed? yes. is she going to talk about it at all? absolutely not, her siblings are here and her friends can infer what's going on. now that she's here, vi will be happy to dance and enjoy the party with her friends and just get a few moments of normalcy considering the ticking timebomb her life has turned into, she is going to be savoring any moment of normal young adulthood with her family and friends thank you potential plots ➛ drinking || dancing || looking around the museum || general chatting || anti social food/bar behavior || attempting an escape || flirting || chaotic shenanigans || stealing your date

starters : sgaeyl, xaden riorson

#hw: plot call #hw: starter call #hwminievent6 #event | valentine's ball #long post tw

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caesarsprincess · 1 day ago

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《 intro post 》

This is my selfship sideblog for my fictional but real life husband and main f/o, Caesar Clown.

I have other f/os, but he is my only real life relationship/serious one.

If you are a minor - please block. There WILL be NSFW content on my block. You've been warned.

The emoji combo I use to represent my selfship is this 🍬💉 which represent some very addictive candy.

This blog is may contain dark content and sensitive topics. I DO NOT CONDONE THESE THINGS IN REAL LIFE. I am completely and utterly against child abuse and similarly heinous crimes taking place in the real world.

Also, if you are an anti, a radfem or anti kink, BLOCK and leave me alone. Radfems do not represent women, and antis do not represent fandom!!!

My headcanons:

I like to imagine Caesar as AFAB, his "evil" behavior stemming from an insecure attempt to prove that he is a "real" man. He may have experienced bigtory in hos youth that made him act in a certain way to prove his masculinity - all of his male role models (especially in MADS) were toxic mad scientists or militaristic despots, it makes sense why he thinks that's how men are supposed to act.

Regardless of whether or not he's trans, I think Caesar was put under so much pressure that it broke him and made him so desperate for attention that he turned evil just so people would notice him and either praise him to the skies or be absolutely terrified of him. Caesar hates always being below someone, second to someone, ect.

I think Caesar is definitely bisexual, and with women, very dominant, would never make himself vulnerable, ect. But with men, he would totally become a huge power bottom. I've been hesistant to saying he's bottom because people usually associate bottoms with submission and being a weepy uwu crying mess - and I don't associate him with that. He would be very needy an absolute nightmare of a husband, always wanting to take and not give, showing no concern for the well being of his male partner. Not with wifes either, it's always about how he can dominate them, or better, pretend to submit to them, just to switch when you least expect it, to show how little regard he has for the other partner. You'd need seastone to pacify him, or he will try to dominate you. I'm fine without seastone though, he's my husband and Master till death 💜

Remember, these are just my headcanons.

Quick note regarding Caesar's anatomy according to my headcanon, if you decide to gift me art/if doing trades or comissions for me:

There is a tendency among (some, NOT ALL) of Caesar Clown's other fans, of "fixing" his design, or "redesigning" him to look more like a goat/sheep, or a goat-type Minkman. There is no problem with that at all, but it is not a part of my HC. I selfship with Caesar, as he is canonically/officially. Visitors here should be aware of that, since alternate fanon versions of Caesar are very widespread on this site, and people may think that my husband looks like that.

The following model is from an officially released game:

here he wears modern clothing that reveals more of his anatomy than when his gas robe is on/activated. It reveals human-like feet. This is not an "modern" AU, it is what his appearance is officially like.

An official frame of the anime reveals human-like, yet slightly pointed ears (vulcan/elf-esque). Not fully goat/sheep-like ears, just a little dash of something non-human.

Bottom line: the fan redesigns are actually very nicely done and pretty, but they aren't part of my HC of my husband. Again, it is based on canon, but it is still ultimately my HC.

Note thay I do not like the colorized manga - I feel that it is responsible for the whitewashing Usopp and it makes Caesar's skin too dark. It basically gives everyone the same skin color. It may be official, but the more official versions are those in the non-colored manga and in the anime.

#intro post #pinned post #selfship intro #antis dni #minors dni #proship selfship #selfship proship #proselfship #f/o x s/i #f/o #romantic f/o #yumejoshi #antis do not interact #one piece

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shakebelton · 6 months ago

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let me be serious for a sec about adam and blake and their images and fame and online discussion that goes with it and why i even care...

the thing about adam levine is that it's damn impressive how resilient he is. i would just be fucking evil now if i were him, but he's chilling. in retrospect, knowing all the facts, 2018-2022 was just a really messy depressive spiral for him (i'd like to think i would've picked up on it if i were following his life in any way at that point but who knows really) and it's just insane how he got (and still gets) dragged to hell and back for every minor messy thing he did. i think the public should forgive him, but also like i think there's nothing to forgive. it's just clown level discourse, everything that's been happening around him these past few years especially.

i cannot even imagine that every single one of my, however slight, fuckups, is ridiculed by millions of people for months at a time. once, i cried at an airport at 5 am when i found out from a tweet a person hated me (it hurt more that they admitted it wasn't really for any discernible reason). if i had 10% of the things that happened to him happen to me i would've straight up killed myself or been full on evil by now. and like, i'm not really seeing the jerk people talk about. god knows i've dug around in his life for two years now and i'm not seeing a bad person. and granted, he's literally Just Some Guy with flaws to me, not an "adorable kitten who must be protected" as 2013 tumblr seemed to believe, but also i'm not seeing an asshole. and yeah maybe he's somehow shittier than i think, there's so much private stuff i might not know about, but what i know is, every public thing of his that i've seen criticised is just horribly misconstrued, like it's just plain wrong just about all the time. like i'll be looking at him talk about his workout and he comes across fine, funny and down to earth, and then i'll read the comments and it's people saying he's full of himself. i'll see him recoil in shock as a fan he didn't see approach runs into him on stage and all the people are saying he thinks he's better than everyone. it really makes you think... like whenever i see something about people saying he was a jerk when they met him, i really question the truth of that, because i've seen what they label 'jerk' behavior from him and they are straight up wrong, straight up.

and it's not like i even want to like him either. he's too rich, too talented and too good looking, and lives at a level of comfort i cannot even imagine if i try, and it pisses me off. but goddamn it if it isn't downright impressive/commendable how he can go on with his life with the amount of hate thrown around. he's stepping back, shutting up, minding his own business in the face of ill intentioned insanity, and it's almost incomprehensible to me.

it's somewhat similar when it comes to blake too, by the way. the shit that man's gone through and is still going through about everything related to his divorce with miranda and him getting together with gwen, i cannot even grasp it. and unlike adam's, blake's situation is even more crazy in some ways, because so much of stuff about him is just lies, like just completely made up by tabloids things, or full on delusions. and it's hard for me to imagine carrying on with my life, calm and silent, in that face of things like that potentially happening to me, and i applaud them for it.

so when it comes to me writing fanfic about them, i started out with mostly fun things, like pretty much on the crack side, just because their stuff on the voice is mostly banter and it's funny and you naturally try to replicate that dynamic in your writing. but lately i've been trying to explore angsty writing more, and the truth is that i can't even scratch the surface of it, of the level of low i perceive them to have experienced. some of it's really just drawn out hell, and i can't stay there long enough, story wise, to give it the justice it deserves. but i'm gonna keep at it, because the bad, upsetting things they've gone through just astonish me, and it's just endlessly fascinating to explore complex human emotion like that, and some of it even helps me work through my own trauma or figure things out in my own life. so at the end of the day, it's not all about them, it's about me, but sometimes i just can't stop thinking about their stories.

#also i know it doesn't seem like that sometimes but i'm a blake girlie first and foremost #it's just the stuff with adam is just particularly egregious and draws a lot of my focus #a lot of stuff you'll read on this blog about them is me having fun and being silly and i don't necessarily mean what i say #like believe it or not i am in fact not chewing glass over a joke insult and not losing sleep over them staring at each other “”in love“”#but this rant is my real thoughts about them and explains why i “”ship shevine“” or can maintain my interest in them for this long #adam levine #blake shelton #rant #fanfiction #personal

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obscurori · 1 year ago

Text

A Really Really Long Shang Tsung Tangent

HIIIIIIIIIII ~ <3

I've mentioned it on another post but I feel like getting it out there with more explanation. This is my first sort of think piece or character analysis I'm posting publicly so bear with me lol.

The TLDR is there are villains, there are people who are bad, and there are people that could do better but have a lot of trouble doing so. Not all of them are disordered or have something afflicting their decision making. But Shang Tsung, in my mind and given all the factors, is a villain with ASPD/Anti-social personality disorder.

While ASPD can contribute to what is medically considered 'psychopathy' and 'sociopathy', and from my anecdotal experience those who experience ASPD do not shy from the words, I personally will only be referring to the disorder itself.

I also got a comment about how much of this is him being disordered and how much of is a choice. I want to make it absolutely clear, while my theory of his tendencies stand, all his actions in the game are his choices nonetheless.

I still clown on him for not being able to just grin and bear the cards dealt to him and/or make a friend because... yeah he really just should have. This ramble is me acknowledging that many villains don't fit the description of ASPD, but he's one that definitely is rife with enabled anti-social behavior.

I think a lot about the second chance Liu Kang gave him. The parallels they gave Shang Tsung and Raiden are evident. People born in small pockets of their world, unassuming and uneventful until someone of great power (titans, no less) approach them with a task.

The difference is how they handle it. What is there to handle? Well... a lot, if you have as severe problems with empathy and collaborating with the rules of society as Shang Tsung does. His pre-game biography lists him as 'too lazy for labor' and 'too shifty for honest work', but he can work hard for the right promises as is evident in the game.

Gritting his teeth and doing the work handed to him would have been easier. While Outworld has its issues (prominently, the remnants of the royal's imperialist stand-offs and the ableism that looms in various Outworld characters' narratives), the general wellbeing of the working class doesn't seem to be one of them. But as a huckster, he's isolated, consistently having to rely on his lies, and receiving the consequences.

To be honest, I don't think Shang Tsung didn't try. I can believe it not working out very fast, but I don't think he simply ignored that standard work is out there. He can be arrogant and bratty, but he doesn't dilute his options.

Symptoms of ASPD such as lack of empathy, ignorance to the result of his actions, and disinterest in performing standard work/social obligations are already evident, and would impede on his life whether he is a powerful sorcerer or a nobody. These impact any friendships he could have, his impulse control, and how he regards anyone up to and including himself (who he deems untrustworthy).

But we are social people that want to feel, want to be happy. Anti-social behavior isn't extreme introversion, in fact many people with ASPD are very extraverted and social. It's less about being around people and more about the reactions they're capable of while with said people.

Not all villains have a disorder, obviously. Some have motivations deemed reasonable, and some are just delightfully evil. Shang Tsung starts off very disordered and not entirely villainous, though hardly good. He was someone who couldn't do what people around him thought was so straightforward.

He's in distress over his life as a scammer, but not really how it impacts others. He's unable to connect to them and has a sense of grandeur over them, but honestly most people are doing better than he can. People, to him, are inherently isolating and alienating. He's aware this isn't normal, and can only answer to it with apathy and more lies.

Most people with ASPD don't go in for that diagnosis. They do so because of comorbidities: mood disorders like depression and bi-polar, anxiety disorders such as OCD, and other personality disorders such as BPD. I do think this would have been the case for Shang Tsung as well, if Outworld was a sort of place that would pick these things out about him, but it isn't.

Damashi's approach is so glaring to me as a result. I can make all the wet cat jokes in the world, but it is sad to me that he cannot process the consequences of his actions, only that he is forced to feel them. He expects so badly out of others that he doesn't bother giving them anything good or better from him, which gets him punished, and the cycle starts all over. That's what he figures the woman is about to do.

And that woman could have been anyone. That's already the lesson there, as she is Titan Shang Tsung in disguise. He was given the right words by someone equally manipulative and was just as vulnerable to tricks, lies, and abuse as anyone else would be in his position.

You gotta remember, if she was there just to pummel him into a pulp, he was about to let her.

His decision to follow her is one of desperation and likely depression. Depression manifests differently to those who find themselves alienated, and do not understand people's sympathy and overt emotional responses.

From my anecdotal research, there's a set of words that come up a lot that doesn't show up on many articles or bullet points about ASPD. Numbness and boredom. It's not a normal boredom where you can occupy yourself with an activity or friends. It is a complete lapse of emotional connection and stimulation. If you aren't angry, you are bored. If you aren't bored, you are numb.

Which moves us into the topic of: sensation chasing.

"Damashi" teaches him real sorcery, and what ensues is his development into the conniving and cruel Shang Tsung we know and dread. A true testament to Shang Tsung's wit and manipulative tendencies, along with this new position dissolving his impulse control. Now that he isn't held down by a lack of magic, he treats people like objects toward his greater goals with even less regard than he had in the first place.

Good L-rd you are short.

People are the subject of his curiosity and how he chases off his boredom susceptibility. "Damashi" has a plan set in stone, but Shang Tsung's horrific laboratory is unrelated to "her" demands. The lab isn't just dedicated to his own research, but his sense of morbid novelty. He can already manipulate and use people - creating hybrids out of those already existing is a very "because I can" thing.

Syzoth is one of Shang Tsung's biggest victims of this. Shang Tsung exerts control of him first for his shapeshifting, but proceeds to keep him around and hang his family over his head... because he can. And because he can, he thinks it better to do so. But the more time he kept Syzoth in the cold, cruel, and dark, the more chances he was giving him to fight back or sabotage Shang Tsung - something that ends up happening.

Shang Tsung killed Syzoth's family very early into this. Perhaps even the day the Syzoth agreed to stay in the lab. What does he get out of hiding that? Perhaps it was a sort of inside joke, a chuckle he got with each and every visit. It wasn't for control, and it wasn't to get anything out of Syzoth besides a reaction. He gave himself something by doing it this way, no matter how cruel it was to Syzoth.

There's a lot of other examples obviously about how Shang Tsung treats the people around him, but I think that one's the most important to get out of the way. This post's long enough already.

More evidence of Shang Tsung having ASPD is his primary motive: revenge against Liu Kang. Shang Tsung doesn't dare question why he couldn't fit into a normal life, he only applies new faces to the life he detested and blames them for his problems. Taking responsibility and accountability would mean processing his social faults and how to improve them... something he absolutely refused to do.

When Shang Tsung is faced with "Damashi"'s true identity, he's more angry about being manipulated and outsmarted than any of the plans falling through. He's told, to his face, he isn't the best or smartest. He was a tool, running errands while being conspired against. Instead of registering that and empathizing with the people he used before this reveal, it fuels his internalized cruelty.

When he collaborates with Liu Kang's crew, he clearly tries to suck up to Kuai Liang and even Raiden. But these are people that run on empathy. Caring about people as a whole and having faith in them doesn't mesh with Shang Tsung's view that this whole world runs on fraudulent transactions. In that moment, he fits in with the people around him just as poorly as he did while running a travel cart.

Alan Lee, the voice actor of Shang Tsung, mentions that "Damashi" approached Shang Tsung with a cheat code to life so potent that it makes Shang Tsung determined to own up to his depravity. He describes him as a "madman with pandora's box, mixed with a child to the keys to candyland." He's unpredictable, not just by standard villainy, but because nothing else has appealed to him in life.

Now that Shang Tsung has burned nearly every bridge he had, he wants to own up to that. Because to him, the only other option is the quiet. Boredom. That numbness again. If he spent any longer in that travel cart, he may have frankly committed suicide out of the sheer droll.

He will lie, steal, and carve his way into and out of any problem as he was enabled to under Titan Shang Tsung, and in a way has initiated a new, sad reality of chasing that Titan's shadow.

#shang tsung #mortal kombat #mk1 #sorry. i am insane.#brief BRIIEF suicide mention #mine: writing

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