#but this isn't the idea presented here. this is addressed to people getting NOTHING in the way of feedback)

[echthr0s]

no shade, if it works for y'all that's great and good, but if someone said some shit like this post to me I think I would start biting and maiming. this illusive concept of "silent fans" "benevolent lurkers" whatever is useless to me. even if those people do exist: they're being fed (enjoying my presence/work) but *I* don't get to be fed (vocally/visibly appreciated in some fashion) in return? and god forbid I want to be fed. "oh, but people are quietly appreciating you" then they can be loud about it. if not then what good is it. to me.

[barblaz-arts]

I've come back to drop some Next Gen Nevermore lore, this time about Sora and Regine's parents 💕

Yukiko Toriyama

Because of my love for parallels, she's a doctor to match the adult characters in the show (Principal - Weems/Bianca; Sheriff - Galpin/Walker). She's a surgeon though, not a therapist like Kinbott, but still a doctor!

Yukiko's around Wednesday and co's age, so she was also in Jericho High when they were in Nevermore. She has a huge respect for Outcasts, thinking that they are very cool. In fact, she thought this one siren girl that she first saw during Outreach Day was especially cool. Soon she will find out that her name is Bianca Barclay and that her classmate Lucas Walker will end up dating her.

She met Sora's father some time after graduating from high school. She fell for his confidence, and was especially impressed that he was an Outcast. Unfortunately she realized too late that he's all talk. When she got pregnant with Sora, his rich parents essentially sent her hush money, which she accepted and used to pay for med school. Sora's grandparents helped raise her while Yukiko finished her studies, so she wasn't as present as she probably should have been during Sora's childhood. She tries her best though, really.

Hugo Schuyler

Sora's father. He came from a rich and reputable family of psychics that specialize in spirits, also known as Herons. Because of his family's reputation, he developed a huge ego and has delusions of grandeur.

He's a glutton for attention, a trait that Sora unfortunately inherited as she also always makes an effort to fit in with "the popular crowd" among her peers. However unlike Sora who is ashamed of her outcast status and prefers to hide her power, Hugo has a superiority complex and overcompensates for his weak psychic abilities by being obnoxiously loud about his outcast status and his family's name.

He ends up starting a YouTube channel as a paranormal investigator after Nevermore. When he finds out he has a daughter, he's quick to head over to Nevermore and rope Sora into his paranormal shenanigans. No, it doesn't end up being a cute father-daughter bonding activity.

He sees both Wednesday and Enid as rivals. Wednesday for her formidable psychic powers (and reputation!), Enid for, well, her more successful YouTube channel(which isn't even hers, it's the Wolf Preserve's). Wednesday does not remember him from their high school days though, and Enid purposely mixes him up with Xavier when addressing him.

Vega hates him because he thinks aliens don't exist.

Erica Gutierrez

(I don't have her design and personality fully conceptualized yet, sorry)

Erica is Eugene's ex-wife and is a famous actress who started out when she was a teenager. She used to be a celebrity crush of Eugene's when he was in Nevermore, and dating and marrying her was a dream come true that sadly didn't last.

Erica makes an effort to see Regine when she can, and she usually has her daughter stay with her throughout the summer. Her fame comes with its own cons, particularly the excessive attention she(and by extension her family) gets hugely contributing to Regine's overly reclusive personality.

Erica had nothing to do with Outcasts before meeting Eugene and is every bit of a Normie. She and Wednesday never liked each other. She gets along well with Enid because she thinks Enid is normal enough when she isn't wolfed out. Enid likes her for getting her Michelle Yeoh's autograph and a video message as a birthday gift once. (Wednesday hates that Eugene's ex wife of all people showed her up that year)

None of the Nevermore student knew Regine's mother was a celebrity until Erica decided to give her daughter a surprise visit during Family Day(coincidentally the same day Hugo goes to meet Sora. It was a long weekend for the girls)

(masterpost for my AUs here)

EDIT: I ALMOST FORGOT!

Partial credit to @whitebeltwriter for coming up with Yukiko's background with me. I no longer remember which parts were my idea and which is hers, but pls know that it was a collaborative effort

[davidtennantgenderenvy]

Addressing The Tinhatters: A Statement in Solidarity With @dtmsrpfcringe And Others

I've been active in this fandom for a little over a year, and in my time here I've kept my slate pretty clean. I try not to involve myself in drama and discourse, and when I see something I don't agree with online, most of the time I keep it to myself. I've been aware of the blogs I refer to in this post basically from the onset, but I've stayed quiet, partially to not come across as disrespecting others' opinions and preferences and partially to protect my peace and my own life as a creator. But what started as mostly harmless, if a bit unhinged and delusional, behavior, has turned on some fronts into unimaginable cruelty the likes of which I never imagined this fandom to be capable of. As someone who it seems people in this fandom have come to respect, I think it would be unfair and selfish for me to stay neutral any longer.

Fanfiction has been a genuinely transformative force in my life. It has helped me discover so much about my own relationships to love and desire, and I would never want to tell anyone that it is wrong for any ship to be that source of inspiration for them, including RPF. Nor do I think, as I've said, that it's inherently wrong to have speculative thoughts about David and Michael's sexualities. As someone who has been lucky enough to interact with David several times now, and probably will again, I choose not to do so myself in a public forum out of respect, but curiosity doesn't have to be invasive, and David and Michael being in loving partnerships with women certainly doesn't mean they can't be attracted to other genders too. There's nothing wrong with liking the idea of a relationship between David Tennant and Michael Sheen, or even, really, with believing they might have feelings for each other. If that's all you're doing, this post isn't about you. What I absolutely cannot excuse is the proliferation of hypocritical, nonsensical, and nasty rumors about the women in their lives.

Nothing Georgia Tennant or Anna Lundberg seems to do is ever good enough. Every expression of positivity is curated and phony, anything that could be perceived as negative vile and mean. I see these women attacked on a daily basis as partners, as mothers, as actresses. Georgia is simultaneously presenting a false ideal of a perfect, happy family for her own gains, while somehow at the same time being too irresponsible and incompetent to be a proper parent. Anna, a still young and up and coming actress herself, is expected to perform the ideal of an affectionate partner on social media, is perceived as unsupportive of Michael when she doesn't, when in reality she may simply be trying to make a name for herself in the industry without people solely associating her with the man she loves. Both of these women share in David and Michael's advocacy for marginalized communities, sometimes in different, more or less obvious ways. David and Michael are always brave and sincere, while Anna and Georgia's actions are always self serving and performative, though no evidence is ever given to indicate that the things they post or charities they support are any sort of cover or deflection. Nor are there ever any reasons given for their perceived lack of onscreen talent, other than that they're "boring" or don't have as many jobs as their husbands- never mind that both of them are in an extremely competitive industry and get perfectly respectable amounts of work, especially for mothers of young children. Worst of all, I've seen them accused of things as awful as child abuse and rape, all for the crime of simply being married to the wrong men. It's all so horribly gendered too, David and Michael often referred to as the "men" while Georgia and Anna are reduced to negative stereotypes of nagging, shallow gold diggers. As a fandom populated with so many queer people, many of whom, myself included, have found freedom from gender roles with Michael and David's characters' help, I thought we knew better.

I've been lucky enough to meet both David and Georgia now, and have witnessed firsthand the easy, joyful affection they have for each other when no one of consequence is watching, the way they giddily hold hands on the street and make each other laugh while tenderly looking into each other's eyes even and especially after sixteen years together. Georgia when I met her was incredibly kind, down to earth, and approachable, and my partner, who's met her several times more than I have, gushes about her constantly- how funny, authentic, and intelligent she is, and of course, how much she and David love each other, how they look out for each other and adore each other's flaws and quirks. David of course still gushes about Georgia every chance he gets in speeches and interviews, her strength and brilliance as well as her beauty, and Georgia, while maybe not always as effusive, shows her love for David in plenty of ways, the beautiful candid photos she takes of him, for instance. There's such a soft, painterly tenderness and fondness in them, for the man, not just the dazzling star everyone else gets to see. Her David, gentle, devoted, goofy, aging, melancholy, imperfectly perfect David. Where would we be without Georgia giving us these little glimpses of him? I suspect the same people who deride Georgia's social media presence as try-hard, cringeworthy, artificial, would feel a bit differently if one day they stopped coming.

I can't speak as clearly on behalf of Anna and Michael, but the accounts I've gotten of her and Michael's relationship from eyewitnesses have presented it as no less loving than David and Georgia's, albeit in slightly different ways. Even then, why should I have to? She doesn't owe me anything. I doubt anyone who's made the posts accusing Anna and Georgia of being nasty baby trappers has ever had children. There's no such thing as a perfect mother, and even one child is a massive task. It's normal to not be a shining ray of affection all the time, and Georgia I know more than makes up for it with her fierce love and support for her children in all of their endeavors. Georgia is also a diagnosed neurodivergent woman, and so many of the remarks I see directed at her are clearly discriminatory and often directed at women with her diagnoses. Everyone coos over how charming David is when he shows signs of being AuDHD, but the second his wife does too, she's careless and cold. And don't even get me started on when photos of Michael and David looking anything less than beatifically happy get interpreted as them being miserable due to their wives treating them so poorly. THEY'RE HUMAN BEINGS!!! NEUTRAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS EXIST!!! WOULD YOU BE A SPARKLING RAY OF SUNSHINE IF YOUR DISNEYLAND RIDE GOT STUCK!!!

I say all this now not even because I think I have any hope of stopping the people in question, but because one of the main fighters on the front of the opposition, @dtmsrpfcringe, has been both a wonderful online friend to me and dealt with even worse abuse than that which gets hurled at Anna and Georgia on the daily. When my blog was briefly overrun by TERFs in light of the Tennant/Badenoch/Sunak drama, Tori was the first person to stand up for me, and as she recieves more vitriol in one day than I've ever experienced in my entire life online, I think I've taken far too long to do the same for her. This woman has dealt with doxing threats, attacks on her character, and most horrific of all, wishes of death upon her and her baby. No one would blame her for stopping, but she has remained steadfast in her mission to call bs where she sees it, and she shouldn't have to do it alone. Tori, I think you are so brave, and I am proud to stand in solidarity with you against the misinformation, meanness, and misogyny that threaten to corrupt this fandom we call home.

Even after all we've been through over the past couple of months, I still believe the Good Omens fandom and David and Michael's individual fandoms to be places of kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. Which is why such cruel behavior (because there's no other word for it) is utterly disappointing and baffling to me. You should be utterly ashamed of yourselves. You're the exact kinds of people David and Michael speak out against on a weekly basis, and I guarantee that if you engage in the kinds of behavior I've highlighted here, they would be disgusted with you. Or maybe they'd simply pity you, because your lives are so empty that you've decided the only way to fill them is to sacrifice the reputations and peace of innocent women on the altar of a relationship that in all likelihood takes place solely in your own heads.

And if you read all this and find you still ship David and Michael, which even I do sometimes, well, there's always polyamory.

I'm sleepy! good night and kindly fuck off! - Lauren

[cocogum]

Season 5 worries me.

So recently, Tot explained to a Twitch streamer that the fifth season of Wakfu, a season that we desperately wanted ever since we learned it was coming, wouldn't turn out like we planned.

But first, if you understand French and want to see the snippet in question, then press here. (thanks @geographer746, for sharing the clip)

Here's what Tot said:

A need, for the record, is to tell the love story between two(?) monsters. That will be the main storyline for this season. They won't be our heroes, I should note, but I want to present some strong enough powerful characters who are not really beautiful, and try to make the people cry to a story where the characters do not look like them. I really went for some challenges a bit political and all but incredibly very human.

Apparently, and brace yourself for this, season 5 will explore the love story of two ugly monsters and the many challenges they will face. Tot specified that they won't be the heroes and won't look like we can relate to them, but feeling sympathy or even understanding may happen.

This summary alone doesn't bother me in the least because Tot did say that they wouldn't be the heroes of the finale. However, it made me question many things about what this season can hold.

But it also says a lot because we all expected something else entirely. We thought that season 5 would immediately continue with what happened after season 4, so it could be used as a good filler between season 4 and the Great Wave to explain some things that haven't been addressed or presented in the Great Wave yet.

Things like:

how the Sadida Kingdom reacted when they learned they had to share their lands with the eliatropes;

what happened after the wedding between Yugo and Amalia;

how did Yugo get used to his older body, and if he had any trouble controlling it after the adrenaline he just had from the Necrome war;

if Yugo communicates with his eliotrope children like the rest of Oropo's group besides Bouillon;

maybe we could see the unnamed male sadida and unnamed female eliatrope's relationship growing (the ones that got married in the Great Wave. I've explained it here);

or even just Yugo contemplating all the shit that he went through in such a short time.

Because Tot finally has the time to explore all those ideas now that he's been allowed to make 26 episodes. TWENTY. SIX. Do you remember when was the last time we had 26 episodes in a season?? BACK IN 2011.

Again, the problem with this future season isn't that we'll see these new characters being ugly monsters that we've never seen in Wakfu before. Because every season always welcomes new characters, it should be logical to think we'll see some new ones in this future season. The REAL problem is that I'm scared that that's all we'll see in this finale.

Granted, the clip where Tot summarizes the season was only a snippet, which means we've only scratched the surface of what this season has to offer.

But the thought still worries me nonetheless.

Wakfu, for many fans, has been here since their childhoods, and for people like me, it has been here for almost two decades now. Which is why I'm extremely worried that the finale of Wakfu will only be about new characters that have nothing to do with the Brotherhood we have come to know and love for many years.

The idea of ending it with two random people just doesn't sit right with me.

It's like saying you want to end a full nostalgic adventure with two ugly gobbowls falling in love 💀💀

What's worse in all of this is that we should have expected this coming. A few months ago, Tot released a tweet about a new character he would involve in the future, which was this dragon-looking warrior.

Here is the tweet in question 👇

The translation of the post is as follows:

Hello everyone, I'm in the middle of my writing period and as usual, I'm procrastinating between two lines (of text)... And one of the subjects of this procrastination is X, the most x social network on the internet. Even if it means spending time here, we might as well tell you some nice things rather than talking about the current shit. Right now, I'm seriously working on 3 projects that I can't wait to tell you about.

-Welsh & Shedar

- Wakfu Season 5

- Wakfu the great wave

I'm in the tough, in solitary mode, and these are really the best and worst times for me. As a wait, I present to you a future hero / protagonist of Krosmoz. I showed you a WIP sketch a few months ago, and the baby was done by the talented Vincent Nghiem. Enjoy.

At the time, we all thought this was going to be some minor character that was going to have a role in the fifth season, but knowing what we know now from the snippet, I'm guessing that this dragonic adventurer is probably one of the lovers Tot had mentioned (or maybe not since Tot tweeted that this character is a hero which was not what he said about the lovers. But then again, he could have changed that statement later on). THIS IS JUST A MERE SPECULATION AFTER ALL SO TAKE IT WITH A GRAINE OF SALT.

In addition, I recently saw a screenshot of Malec, one of Wakfu's directors, showing us the beginning of the fifth season's script. (thanks to @viridisgratia for providing the pic here) Below the first episode's title (which was hidden by a spoiler warning), it said version one.

This could mean two things:

either Tot is playing with some ideas and isn't really sure how to start the season or trying to find a way to improve the storyline;

he's just trying to figure out how he wants to start the show with the two monsters in mind.

Personally, I prefer the former.

I think he may be trying to discover things he wants to do when trying to test out what he likes and doesn't like. The story with the two monsters isn't going to be a story that he will eventually want, and maybe he will just ditch it because the character sheet that we saw in his tweet is just a character sheet at the end of the day. It doesn't mean it would be a fully canonized character. Maybe he's just playing with characters and seeing what fits and doesn't fit, but who knows? Perhaps I'm just being very optimistic or just very delusional, we'll see.

[justmeinadaze]

Little Girl Gone Part 8 (Steddie X You)

A/N: Enjoy this final chapter. I have a couple more ideas I can write out later down the line but :)

Enjoy!

Warnings: Dom Officer Steve Harrington/Gangster Eddie Munson & Doctor Sub Fem Reader, SMUT, overstimulation (slight), DP, use of "Yellow" stop light system (nothing dramatic; just the reader feeling like Steve isn't present), FLUFF, they all love each other <3

ANGST, if you read the last chapter you know what to prepare for, Steve is undercover with Allen's side of the Munson gang, Eddie does punch someone and Steve shoots someone, Mentions of reader worried about both boys (Eddie is losing people he thought he could trust and Steve struggles with his dark persona).

There is standoff near the end and someone gets hurt. Allen is a dick and constantly takes about his hatred for his son.

Word Count: 5656

Series here/ Donate to Me <3

“Ok, um, so what do you think? Does it look real?��, you ask as you step out of the bathroom in Eddie’s loft. 

Being a doctor, you knew what a knife wound would look like but you didn’t exactly have the toolkit to make it look too real. Steve glanced your way as he finished pouring the fake blood Wayne got for them online on the floor in the living room. 

“It, um, looks good. Almost too real.”

Softly smiling, you cup his face in your hands and kiss the officer’s lips.

“Hopefully the polaroid aesthetic will help sell more of the illusion so he won’t look too deeply at the image. Also…he’s a cocky idiot so…”, Eddie sighs as he comes over to kiss your forehead. “Alright, baby, lay down.”

Guiding you to the floor, you position your body as best you can with Steve, seeing many dead bodies himself, comes in to assist.

“Ok, honey, turn your head just like that and, um, keep your eyes open but kinda off…don’t focus on anything…there you go.”

As soon as he steps out of the way, Eddie takes a few pictures quickly before showing them to his boyfriend. 

“Yeah, that will be good.”

“Are you both sure you want to do this? I hate that you’re risking your lives for me.”

“No, baby. We’re risking our lives for each other so we can be happy.”, you gently smile as you rise to your feet and kiss his cheek. 

***

Steve stands off to the side with his arms folded as he listens to one of Allen’s subordinates nervously explain that more of his men had been killed by his son.

“I-I-It seems, Mr. Munson, sir, that he found Dr. Simon and got him to turn over the addresses of the m-men, sir, that he had helped take care of on our team.”

Allen chuckles before angerly slamming his fist against the glass partition between them. 

“Should have killed that little shit when I had the chance. Alright, thank you, Stuart. Let me talk to Steve here and then he’ll give you a ride back home so we know you got their safe.

After the man collects his things and runs out of the room, the officer takes his place with an annoyed glare painting his face. 

“Seems Eddie has gotten bolder.”

“Aren’t you his best fucking friend!? Advise him to stop.”

“Or what? You’re the reason Y/N is dead and now he feels like he has nothing to lose.”

“No, Y/N, is dead because she fell in love with my son. If she had chosen you or literally anyone else she’d still be here today. Fuck!”

“What do we do? Are you going to try and send another idiot after him?”

“Maybe…I do know this one hitman. He’s expensive but worth it if he can take that little fucker out.”

“What about Wayne?”

“What about Wayne?”, Allen asked with a sneer as if the name left a bad taste in his mouth. 

“If you kill Ed, he’s not going to stop until he’s made sure you pay for it.”

“I’m not afraid of Wayne Munson. If he wants to do something about it he can but I can’t have Edward continue what he’s doing.”, the criminal sighs before gesturing towards the man who had left. “Kill Stuart and then go back to my son’s place. Keep an eye on him and when I have something I’ll let you know.”

After nodding, he starts to leave before abruptly feeling someone at his side. 

“Can I help you, Mason?”, Steve growls hoping to intimidate him enough to make the guard go away. 

“I’m supposed to come with you. Allen wants me there just in case you need a hand.”

“I think I can handle one asshole.”

“Mhmm. You could barely handle a little girl, Harrington. I wonder why Y/N chose him over you. Personally, it’s because I think you’re twofaced.”

 “What the fuck does that mean?”

“I don’t think you’re as dirty as you want Allen to believe you are. I think you’re still on Eddie’s side.”

“If I was on his side, why would I kill Y/N?”

“Hm, that I haven’t figured out. I did find the death record and there have been no signs of her at her clinic—”

“Wow. Now I know why you became a guard…because you’re so fucking smart.”, Steve rolls his eyes. 

“I’ll figure out what you’re up to, Steven. Sooner or later.”

##################

You figured you’d have gotten use to this by now; the sound of Eddie punching and torturing people to get more information. You’d been hiding for almost two weeks in his loft while he and Steve were doing their part in your plan. 

The gangster had made a good dent in his father’s crew, taking out many of his loyal followers. Lately it had gotten hard for him because with every other man that was bound to his chair, a person he believed to be a friend would follow. 

“You know, Randall, this would go a lot smoother if you just told me what I wanted to know.”, Eddie sighed as he inhaled a puff of the cigarette between his fingers.

“Aw…what’s the…matter, Munson? Exhausted?”, the man sassed. 

“Of this back and forth, yeah, especially since I trusted you. I helped you get your fucking house so you and your family would have a safe place to be.”

“See, that’s part of the problem. You were to trusting and lenient.”

“I’m realizing that.”, he growls as his hurt eyes glance towards where you were sitting on the staircase. You offer him a soft smile that he returns with a small flicker on his lips before his gaze hardens again and he punches the man across his face. “Now, I already know about Craig and Lina. I just need to know what they’re planning.”

At that moment, Eddie’s door burst open and slams shut as Steve flies through with anger radiating from him. 

“He’s planning to hire Corleone to kill you.”

“Oh shit.”, Randall laughs. “You’re fucking screwed.”

Without warning, the officer pulls his gun and fires a bullet into the man in the chair startling you and the gangster as you cover your ears. 

“Jesus Christ, Steven. Was that fucking necessary?”

“Did you hear what I fucking said?! We need to leave NOW.”

Taking his face in his palms, Eddie tries to calm him but Steve just pushes him haphazardly to the side and runs past you up the stairs. 

“Whose Corleone?”, you ask as you watch him throw a bag on the bed and start throwing some clothes inside.

“He’s a contract killer my dad uses while behind bars. My understanding is he’s been in relative retirement for a few of years.”, Eddie sighs. “He’s so good and kept well-hidden that the only people who know who he is are his victims who are dead.”

“Even you don’t know who he is?”

“No. I did try and research into it when I took over but I never found anything. The only commonality between victims were that they crossed my father while he was in jail. I assumed it was a friend but nothing ever materialized.”

Your eyebrows scrunch in thought as you absorb what he’s telling you. 

“What are you thinking, sweetheart?”

“Is Wayne free?”

“Um, I can message him and ask. What’s running through your mind—”

“It doesn’t matter.”, Steve scolds sharply. “Because we are leaving. Here Y/N, put your things in this bag here. Not a lot though so we can move quick.”

“Baby, we have a plan—”

“The plan is done, Y/N! I don’t think you understand how serious this is. Even my department hasn’t found anything on this person but all we do know is he has a 100% success rate. And, what, you’re just going to figure out who it is with a hunch and a phone call?! No ma’am. Allen is done to the point that he wants to take out Eddie AND Wayne.”

“Excuse me?”, the gangster growled. 

“Ok, let’s all just take a breath.”

Roughly, the officer pushed his palm against your chest and shoved you towards the nearby wall. 

“Y/N, I’m done arguing. I’m done pretending your dead and that I hate the man I love. I’m done killing people and I’m fucking done being questioned by EVERYONE around me. I’m. FUCKING. Done! I will not come home to you both actually dead on the fucking floor. I can’t…I can’t handle that.”, his voice cracks before shaking his head and hardening his stance once more.

“Now… grab your shit because we’re going.”

As he tries to turn around, you run forward and wrap your arms around his waist as you press your head into his chest. 

“We appreciate everything you’re doing, Steve. I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you both. You having to go into a headspace that isn’t you can be exhausting and I see how much it hurts Eddie with every ‘friend’ he loses. Even before I met you, Ed, I appreciated your ethics on the street than your father’s. Less people got hurt or worse… Sitting here day after day watching everything unfold… it seems like there were always two sides to that coin.”

That night you took care of them.

After Eddie and his team removed the body downstairs, you made a warm bath and massaged their shoulders as they calmly relayed the days information to each other. While making dinner, they both passed out in each other’s arms on the sofa reminding you of that first night they slept at your place. As quietly as possible, you made a call to Wayne who immediately got to work looking into your theory in regard to the hitman Allen was going to send. 

Once their bellies were full, they didn’t even wait for the table to be cleared before they were on you. You allowed them to use you as they maneuvered around the open downstairs area. Giving you time to catch your breath, you watched with heavy eyes from your spot on the floor as Steve placed Eddie beside you on his back and placed one of his legs over his shoulder as he guided his cock into the gangster beneath him. 

“F-Fuck, Steve.”

The officer didn’t waste a second, rolling his hips and pumping his length deep inside him. His humid breaths warmed Eddie’s face as he pressed his forehead against his own.

“God, baby, you’re so fucking deep.”, the long-haired boy whimpers as his palms run down the other man’s sides to his lower back. “I love you, Steve, so fucking much.”

“I love—mmm—I love you to.”

Chocolate eyes meet your own as Eddie turns his head and softly smiles. Your lips kiss his before gently trailing down his chin to his chest and along his tummy. With every scar you pass, you linger, giving it extra attention as you taste his skin. Allowing you space, Steve pushes up on his knees and watches you with lust fueled eyes as you tilt over one of Eddie’s legs to allow a long line of spit to drip onto his cock, lubricated him more as he thrusts his hips at a fast rhythm. The gangsters mewls turn to loud groans as your mouth wraps around his hard, leaking length and his fingers thread through your hair as your head starts to bob. 

 “Fuck, fuck, fuck. I can’t… m’gonna fucking cum.”

Your eyes squeeze shut as you practice what they taught you as you allow Eddie to hold you still and your throat constricts around him. While his release spills down your throat, Steve grunts above you and you feel his body sputter as he cums. 

“Goddamn, I need…I need a second.”, Eddie pants. 

Without even pausing or taking a moment to collect himself, Steve crawled over his partner and roughly gripped your thighs in his hands as he opened your legs wide. 

“S-Steve, baby, you just came.”, you giggle. “You’re not even fully hard. Take a break.”

Shaking his head, he spit into his palm and stroked himself as his eyes remained focused on your naked form. 

“Don’t need one.”

“Steve…” Ignoring your worried tone, he placed himself on top of you and his eyebrows furrowed as he grinded his cock between your dripping lips. “Steve, wait. Steve…YELLOW, STEVEN!”, you shouted when your normal pleas weren’t getting through. 

At the “slow down” trigger, he froze in place as Eddie rolled to face you both to make sure everything was ok. 

“What’s going on, baby? Tell me.”, you coo.

As soon as everything stopped and he allowed his mind to move, his eyes became incredibly glassy as his bottom lip trembled. 

“I’m scared.”, he whispered. “I’ve been tough and an asshole my entire life but…I’ve never cared about anyone the way I care about you two… and I’m scared I’m going to lose you…or myself.”

Your lips tenderly kiss his as the gangster reaches over to pet the man’s head. 

“I’m so sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to scare you or hurt you—”

“No, no, Steve, you didn’t. We just need you here with us. We’re not going anywhere, right Eddie?”

“That’s right, sweetheart.”

Smirking, he kisses your lips and falls to your opposite side. 

“I think you’re right, sweetie. I think I need a break. Ed, why do you make her come undone.”

“You have to catch me first.”, you tease with a devious smile of your own as you turn around and run up the stairs. 

As soon as your feet touch the top floor, you’re lifted into the air by your waist by a strong, tattooed covered arm and you giggle as he playfully tosses you onto his bed. 

“You weren’t even trying were you?”, Eddie grins as his lips attach to your neck. 

“Nope.”

Biting your lip, you run your nails down his back as he picks up where his partner left off and subtly rolled his hips between your legs making you moan every time the tip of his cock grazed your clit. 

“Mmm—fuck—I love you, Eddie. E-Everything’s going to be ok. You don’t have to be scared either.”

As he tilts his head to kiss your forehead, Steve lays his body gently beside you both with his palm casually stroking himself as he watched your faces. 

“Are you ready for me, Y/N?”

“Y-Yes, baby, I’m ready.”

Clinging to his shoulders, his mouth fell open as he gradually slides his dick into your core. 

“Shit, you feel so fucking tight. I love you to, sweetheart. You’re always—fuck—always safe with us.”

As Eddie thrust his cock deeper into you at a steady rhythm, you listened as the man beside you tried to match his pace with his palm. 

“Fuck, I can feel you fucking clenching around me. Do…do you think you can take us b-both, pretty girl?”

After smiling down at you as you emphatically nodding, the gangster circles his arms around you and tilts you both onto your sides, lifting one of your legs higher up his hip. Steve grasped the meat of your cheeks in one of his hands and guided his length into your ass as your eyes rolled back in pleasure. As they pumped into you, they held you tightly in their embrace as they leaned over you to passionately kiss the others lips before finding purchase against your own. 

“I’m…harder, please. I’m gonna…”

Their fingertips dug into your skin, sure to leave bruises as they did what you asked. Your own digits tangled into Steve’s hair behind you as your other arm pulled Eddie into a tight hug as you screamed and groaned into his shoulder till they felt you cum between them. 

The gangster soon followed painting you walls before Steve did the same with a continuation of heavy pants against your skin.  

After hastily cleaning you and getting you into clean pajamas, they held you to them as you slowly began to drift. 

“We can still leave, sweetheart. We can follow Steve’s plan and run.”, Eddie whispered as he caressed your cheek with his fingers. 

“People still need you here.”

“If this whole experience has taught me anything, it’s that I need you both more than anything. I spent a lot of my life alone especially after my mom died. When I took over, I thought ‘I finally have a family.’ Not that I don’t appreciate, Wayne—”

“I know, baby. I know.”

“Do you remember that story I told about my dad catching me smoking one of his cigarettes? He said if I told the truth everything would be ok.” When you softly nod, he continues. “That’s how I feel right now with all this. I thought if I was honest and ran my business with respect instead of fear I’d be ok. Turns out I’m still getting my ass beat for being myself.”

“Eddie…”, you exhale sullenly as you pet his head and Steve’s arm slides over your hips pulling him closer. 

“But not with you two. You two are my family and like my Paladin said I don’t want anything to happen to either of you, princess.”

“I’m not afraid and I have a feeling tomorrow is going to go in our favor.”

On his bedside table, Eddie’s phone comes to life as his uncle’s display name flashes onto the screen.

######################

The building Steve had been pacing in for over 2hrs had long ago been abandoned which is why he assumed Mason and one of Allen’s other lackies were supposed to meet him here. He was growing impatient as he constantly checked his watch.

A black van suddenly sped around the corner, tires squealing as it came to a stop. 

“Geez, Harrington. You look pissed off.”, the prison guard sassed as he jumped out of the driver’s seat. 

“You were supposed to be here at 11.”, he grumbled. 

“Yeah, well, we had to stop by and pick up something.”

After opening the side door, the officer’s eyes widened as you were roughly pulled out of the vehicle with your hands tied behind your back. 

“Y/N!”

“Ah, ah.”, Mason tuts as he points his gun towards Steve. “You move like that again and she dies. It’s so funny because I was pretty sure you told us she was dead already.”, he sasses before shaking his head. “I knew you were a fucking liar. Now drop your gun and kick it over to me.”

After doing as he asked, the officer raised his hands in the air as he watched your eyes flick towards the van. When Allen stepped out, his jaw tightened as he straightened to his full height. 

“Interesting. You’re not surprised?”

“I’ve seen a lot as a cop in this town.”

“Hm.”, he sighed. “Where’s my son?”

“Let her go first and I’ll tell you.”

You jump at the sound of gunfire before seeing the officer grab his shoulder and fall to the ground. 

“Steve!”, you scream as you jerk forward before a rough hand pulls you back. 

“I’m done playing games. Now where is he?”

“I’m right here.”, Eddie bellows with his hands raised to show he’s unarmed. His anger fueled eyes assess the situation before him as he comes up to place himself beside his partner. 

“Well, you healed up nicely. That’s to be expected I guess when you’re fucking a doctor. I bet she’ll be able to get that piece of shit up and running in no time.”, Allen responds with sarcasm as he gestures towards Steve. “You let me down, son.”

“Story of my life. And I’m not your son. Wayne raised me.”

“Hm. Good to know. That will make this easier on me.” Roughly, he reaches for you and unties your binds before pushing you forward. “This is your last chance, Edward. Kill her and I’ll let you and your friend walk out of here.”

“Why? Why can’t you just leave us alone?”

“I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them…they talk when they should listen.” Eddie rolls his eyes as his father quotes The Godfather. “I guess there’s still some weak part of me like your mother that wants you to succeed and you can’t do that with her by your side. I became stronger after she died.”

“You became weaker, Allen. Mom kept you in check and helped hide a lot of the terrible things you did. She wasn’t even dead for whole year before you were arrested the first time. You thought you were an untouchable God but she reminded you that you were just a pathetic little man.”

Eddie’s father laughed under his breath, shaking his head before stepping forward and punching his son before tossing a gun on the ground beside him. 

“It has one round in it. Either you kill her or she kills you.”

“What?”, you ask with a shake to your voice as you try to help the gangster to his feet.

“Save your own life, Y/N, and kill him.”

“Fuck you!”

“If you don’t, I kill all three of you and be on my way. No matter what I win but at least with the outcomes I’m offering two of you can walk out of here.”

“How do I know that?”, Eddie asked as he spit some of the blood in his mouth towards his father. “How do we know she can trust you?”

“Eddie, no.”, you plead as you try to take his hand but he pushes you back.

“You don’t but no matter what I want you to believe that I can kill you, her, and that cop and not think twice about it.”

As they starred each other down, your brain went into overdrive as you continued to try and talk him out of this. 

“Eddie Munson, no! I can’t hurt you—”

“If you don’t then you’ll both die and I’m not allowing that. I told you, baby, you’re safe with me.”, he growls as he shoves the gun into your hand and takes a few steps back. “Please let them both leave here safely and you stay away from her. Tell this Corleone guy not to touch her or Wayne.”

“Oh don’t worry, son, I’ll make sure of it.”

At the term Eddie scrunches his nose before softening his eyes as he faces you again and stands up straighter. 

“I love you both so much and everything’s going to be ok, alright?”

“Eddie, please…”

“Y/N, I’m not fucking asking! Now you do what I say, little girl! Do you understand me!?”, he shouts as he opens his arms wide giving you an open shot to his chest. His eyelids suddenly flutter and you glance down to see Steve gripping the end of the gangster’s jeans. “My Paladin and my Princess…”, he chuckles as the tears begin to fall. “Remember… that first night when you saved our lives? It’s time to save yours, Y/N.”

“I love you.”, you whimper. 

As he gives you one final nod your way, you cock the gun and pull the trigger. 

################

“Well, shit. I’m not going to lie, princess. I didn’t think you had it in you.”, Allen snickered as he stepped forward, stopping when you pointed the gun his way. 

“Don’t call me that, you FUCKING ASSHOLE!” The man’s head tilted to the side as his face hardened. “Are you happy?! You got what you wanted! Now what?!”

“Now I continue to run my gang exactly the way I have been without anyone in the fucking way. I’ll make an example of him so people know what happens when you cross me.”

“What about Corleone? You promised him Wayne and I would be safe.” 

As he takes another step forward, you point the weapon his way and without hesitation Allen grabs your wrist, bending it till it falls loudly to the ground. Shoving you against Steve’s cruiser, he leans in till his face is hovering above your own. 

“Stupid, little girl. I’m Corleone.”, he grins as your eyes widen. “Come on. No one would suspect it being me since I’m stuck in prison. Since I met Mason, he’s helped me get out when I need to so I only save that for emergencies. Plus, people tend to listen when there’s a boogyman they can’t identify. Now…”

You watch him with disgust as he bends down to grab the empty gun off the floor. 

“…I’m going to keep this as insurance. I imagine you and your little cop friend there won’t be making any more trouble for me but I have to be prepared.”

As the men turn and start to head back towards the van, sirens wail loudly as multiple police cars and SWAT members appear with guns trained on them screaming forcefully for them to get down. 

“Sorry, Allen. I had to make a little bit more trouble for you.”, you sass as he glares up at you. 

“Doesn’t fucking matter. Eddie’s gone and—”

As if on cue, Wayne pushes through the little crowd of officers to get to his nephew.

“Are you alright, son?”

“OOOOWW… that fucking hurt way more than I thought it would.”, Eddie groans as you both help him to his feet. Opening his jacket and tearing at the hole in his shirt, he reveals the bulletproof vest underneath that Steve had provided him with. “Are you ok, sweetheart? You did so good.”, he praised as he cupped your face and kissed your lips.

“Excuse me. Officer down here.”, Steve teased as he winced, taking Wayne’s hand and rising to his feet. Desperately wanting to smash your lips to his, you refrained as you hastily checked him over. 

“You’re going to need surgery but you should be ok, Officer Harrington.” 

“You’re still weak, Edward! No matter where I am people are loyal to me and will do exactly what I tell them!”, Allen shouted as they started to push him towards a vehicle. 

Eddie’s fury filled eyes glare his way as he takes his place in front of him. 

“You know, I think I only have one good memory with you growing up and that’s watching those Godfather movies. When you abandoned me with Wayne, I could rarely if ever bring myself to watch them again. That’s why I never made the connection but her…as soon as she heard the name she knew something was off. Your mistake was hubris. You were so selfish and cocky you named your alter ego after your favorite fucking character in your favorite fucking movie.”, the gangster shakes his head in disgust. “After that we figured you were such a showman that we knew you would ask either Steve or Y/N to kill me.”

Eddie’s voice lowered as he stepped towards his father so only he could hear him. 

“Now Mason shooting the man I’m in love with as well was completely unexpected but don’t worry…we’ll make his punishment fit the crime. I have some friends to on the inside, old man. Enjoy solitary. You won’t be making any commands for a long time.”

As his father tries to attack him, the officer’s pull him away and shove him into a SWAT van.

“Good job, Dr. Y/L/N. We’ll get the wire from Steve at the hospital after his debrief.”, Detective Hopper congratulates as he shakes your hand and then Eddie’s. “You know it was really stupid of you and him to set this up by yourselves.”

“Y/N and I knew my dad was up to something and since Officer Harrington has been building a case against the Munson crew I thought this would be a good win for him.”

“Mhmm…”, the detective nods as his eyes scan him up and down. “With your dad’s confession, we can put a lot of unsolved cases to rest including a few you were a prime suspect in.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know why since I’m a businessman. I’m seriously surprised you’re a detective.”

Rolling his eyes, Hopper walks away from you two as you turn and beam up at the man you love. 

“Come on, let’s head to the hospital to get you looked at and once everyone leaves we can check on Steve.”, Eddie softly smiles as he pulls you to his side and kisses your forehead. 

#################

One Month Later

“Oh, oh I know, baby. I know it hurts but you’re doing so well.”, you praise as you help Steve with his physical therapy stretches.

“Jesus, that’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.”, he huffed as his palm reaches up to massage his shoulder. 

“Some of the things you could normally do seamlessly may be a bit harder from now on but it could have been so much worse.”

As your eyes drift and the officer watches you fall into the memory of that night, he softly smiles before lifting you in his arms and spinning you around before placing a tender kiss on your lips. 

“Hey, I can still sweep you off your feet so that’s all I care about.” After giggling at his antics, you turn around to grab his chart you had brought home with you from the clinic and began making some notes within. “When do you think I can go back out into the field?”

“At this rate, maybe a couple of weeks. Did they finish their investigation already?”

“Yeah. To be fair, the captain was more excited we were able to catch ‘Corleone’ to look too deeply into my connection with Eddie. He pretty much accepted the narrative that you and he came to me with information so I went undercover those two weeks. Hopper wasn’t happy but…”, he shrugs.

The loft door as Eddie comes through with a wide smile you hadn’t seen on him in so long. 

“Princess.”, he coos as he leans down to kiss your lips. “Paladin…oh shit!”, the gangster shouts as Steve grabs his collar and tugs him onto the couch beside you both. 

“Have a good day?”

“Yes ma’am. My father wanted to make an example of me but turns out he made an example of himself. Other gangs in the area have distanced themselves including the Carvers but Jason seems to have more respect for me now.”

“So does his father. George put more of an investment into my clinic and offered to help me expand to a bigger building.”

“How odd…because I have a surprise for you, sweetheart.”

Your eyes narrow when both men exchange a knowing look. 

“You’ve already done enough for me.”

“Uh huh. Close your eyes.” He only gives you a split-second warning before lifting you off the sofa and heading towards the front door.

When he places you down again, your toes curl at the feeling of tile beneath your feet and after seeing you shiver, Eddie takes off his jacket and wraps it around your arms. 

“Ok, open ‘em.”

Your cautious hues land on them first in front of you before taking in the environment around you. It looked like your clinic but bigger and cleaner. 

“There’s an upstairs so I thought maybe that could be for your regulars like Kylie and Gareth. He swears by you now since you saved his life and all.”, Eddie chuckles nervously as he continues to try and gage your reaction. 

“Plus, you’d be right next Munson’s building so he can come and check on you…make sure you’re safe. Of course, I’m never that far so you can always just call and I’ll be right here.”

As Steve gestures out one of the nearby windows, you look outside to find you are just across the street. 

“You bought me a building?”

“We’d buy you the world if you let us.”, the gangster replied without hesitation causing a little hiccup to leave your lips as the tears started to fall. “Sweetheart, you not only saved our lives but you saved our careers. You put my father in solitary so now he’s away from everyone and can’t dictate or hurt anyone for a long, LONG time.”

“You helped us not only take down a notorious hidden hitman but you got Jason Carver under control. You think you only help people by being a doctor but, honey, you just saved half of Hawkins. That deserves to be rewarded… You deserve so much more but—”

You interrupt the officer mid-sentence as you tackle your body into his and hug him tightly to you. 

“Ow, ow. Ok, not fully together yet.”, Steve chuckles as he lightly tugs your hair to tilt your head and kiss your lips. 

As you turn to do the same with Eddie, he hisses as his face scrunches. 

“Sorry, baby. I just…I had one more surprise.” Lifting up his shirt, he displayed his chest that now had fresh saranwrap around the tattoo he had on his chest. You had seen it so many times, the symbol of his gang with Steve’s initials nestled within but now your initials were right next to his. “It only took like five minutes but damn does it hurt.”

“You say that every time you get a tattoo yet you get another.”, Steve laughs. 

“Fuck, yeah I do—”

Cupping his cheeks in your hands, you kiss him and his smiles against your lips. 

“I love you both. You didn’t have to do this.”

“We know but we kinda love you to so—ow.”, Eddie laughs playfully when you lightly punch his arm. “Do you like it?”

“I do. Thank you so much.”

“Of course, baby. Now, it’s fucking freezing in here, I don’t have a shirt and you don’t have shoes. Let’s head back to the apartment and make Munson make us some Italian food.”

“I’m not that kind of gangster!”, Eddie yells after you two, rolling his eyes as Steve lifts you into his arms and carries you towards the door. 

#################

@5tud10-54r4h @munsonzgf @eddiesguitarskills @supraveng

@lilaclazer @ima1986 @micheledawn1975 @foreverminliv @corkadymu

@lemme-slytherin-that-dick @joannamuns9n @dashingdeb16 @sashaphantomhive @corrodedcoffincumslut @aactuaaltraash @nailbatanddungeon  @utterlyinsanity @misscaller06

[echooefrost]

LANYON LORE TIME (YIPEEE)

I wanted to post some lanyon Lore for my Medieval Au because he's probably the most different to Canon-Lanyon. Jekyll/hyde stay pretty much the same, and they don't need much explanation, however lanyon does. so here it is.

EARLY LANYON

Growing up as a prince, meant that Lanyon was constricted to many duties and couldn't really live a normal life as a kid, this caused him to build up much resentment towards his father and in turn, made him a very reckless and rule-breaking, rebellious teenager. His name like Tgs (and novella) is also Hastie. Its very common for medieval royalty to pass down names [eg. Henry VIII] So robert would've been 'Hastie II' however little Babyon wanted to be nothing like his father and started going by 'Robert'. Lanyon never wanted to be King. Ever. He holds contemptment for his Royal duties and often dreams of running away from it all (but ever since a certain someone entered his life, he's found it awfully hard to leave...)

YOUNG-ADULT LANYON [PRE-HENRY]

Due to his rebellious nature, Young Lanyon would often end up sneaking out late at night go to the local pub, and let loose. He often wears a cloak so others don't recognise him. Lanyon likes to get very drunk and forget about all his responsibilities, (he's not one bit responsible) His Father disapproves and often reminds Lanyon that he is a 'disappointment to his family' (FUN!! SELF HATE?? ikr??) SO to address, Tgs Lanyon's playboi era, that doesn't really happen here, IN the Au as a part of finding his own freedom, he sleeps around alot, and has multiple one night stands but those involve both parties not expecting any strings attached. Lanyon still gets to be a slut but he also isn't a massive dick. He can also play the fiddle, he secretly enjoys this (but shh don't let his father know) and occasionally brings it to the pub. I headcanon that Lanyon has a really nice Singing voice, so in this Au Lanyon can sing, but he gets very embarrassed about it and never does it in public (unless incredibly drunk)

PRESENT LANYON

Present lanyon in the Au is in his early 20's (same with Jekyll) As part of His Duties as Prince, he must also be Knight and Fight in battles, this entail lots of training, Lanyon's been training since a young age, but ever sine Jekyll arrived, he always watches him practice so he can 'observe how to defend himself' and definitely NOT to see his cute crush/bff wear dashing armour, no.... Lanyon actually doesn't mind being a Knight that much but he doesn't Like Violence all that much and thinks there are better ways at solving disputes, however this does not mean he won't try to kill you if you threaten those dear to him (you can guess who)

In the AU, Robert is a bit more awkward around Henry, as they both are enamoured and always in Gay panic mode around each other, so there dynamic is a bit more 'cute' per-se compared to Tgs where Lanyon is Dom and Jekyll is Flustered mess. Lanyon gets to be a bit more a flustered mess in this Au too.

Yes, I know it's been a while, but no, the Au is not dead. I am going to do things with it I just haven't had a lot of time. Anyway thanks for reading, it means alot to me that people care about this, as always; if you have no idea what 'Au' I'm yapping about go to the Og post here (wow its kinda old... oooh old art) ...I think I'll do one of these with Frankenstein.

[spockandstars]

I think that a lot of people take issue with the way the Spock/Chapel/T'Pring love triangle is presented in Strange New Worlds, but that sometimes this is dismissed as fans just being bitter spirk shippers. So here are a few reasons why I believe people are iffy on this plotline. (Disregarding the fact that we're disappointed that the showrunners didn't, and most likely won't, take the chance to do something really cool with Spock's legacy as a queer coded character...)

Firstly, it takes time away from other characters to address an element of Spock's story that has already been explored beautifully. (I will get into how this treats Chapel and T'Pring later...) Spock's struggle with his humanity and his anguish over the depth of his feelings for others (particularly Jim) is a focus in TOS and the movies, and if you're going to keep on talking about it, at least do it in a more creative way? This isn't to say that it shouldn't be acknowledged at all, seeing that it is a lifelong struggle for him, but by making it such a focus of the series they're not giving other interesting characters as much of a chance to develop.

Additionally, it has traditionally been understood that Spock coped with his inner turmoil by repressing his feelings. Over the course of his lifetime, he learns to embrace his human side more to become a more balanced and healthy person. SNW takes the approach of "young Spock was more human and horny!" which isn't necessarily bad, but they better be giving us an explanation for how he transforms so dramatically to the extremely repressed character he is in TOS. Maybe this is reaching too far, but this whole approach of young Spock just feels like an excuse to get hot ladies into his bed and to fulfill the fantasies of nerdy men who project onto him. This is the same Spock who scoffed at the idea of going to see dancers at a bar, who was immune to the charms of the sexy ladies in Mudd's Women, who only entertained women when drugged or when he needed to do so for a mission...

Furthermore, I believe it's a disservice to Chapel. On one hand, it does make her love for Spock seem more grounded in reality, which I appreciate. In TOS, it's pretty clear that Spock doesn't share her feelings and her crush is only really ever used as a means of ridiculing her. There goes silly Chapel again, trying to win over her unrequited love! It's not cool. But on the same token, making Spock the focus of her character yet again only further reduces her to nothing but that. Why can't we let the girl breathe and do other stuff? Sure, she does get some of the AOS Uhura treatment where she gets to be a generic cool badass lady, but this is in a way that is lacking in any real depth. Chapel deserves better.

I also don't love the way it treats T'Pring. Was it really necessary for her to be Spock's eye candy wife that he gets to bang and cheat on? In Amok Time, it's heavily implied that this was an arranged thing and that they hadn't seen each other since they were seven. If they really felt the need to include this relationship, it would have been so much cooler if they had explored it from that angle, with neither of them truly wanting to be together but being forced into it by societal expectation. Which of course, results in T'Pring using her intelligence to gain her freedom in Amok Time.

So yeah. Those are my main gripes with this whole thing. Overall, I think it's lazy writing that allows the writers to benefit from the nostalgia of legacy characters without developing them in actually meaningful or revolutionary ways.

[thetragicallynerdy]

Okay so, I made a thread about this over on twitter, and thought I'd drop it here too. OFMD Season 2 spoilers ahead. An idea that I've seen a few times and felt I needed to yell about is the idea that OFMD is now ableist, and that it is wrong to like and enjoy it as a show. As a queer disabled person, it's something that pisses me off so, so much. I'm not going to defend everything that happens in OFMD. But I am going to say that it is one of the best shows I know for showing both a broad range of disabilities, and presenting those disabilities in a largely neutral light. We have multiple amputees, multiple people with chronic pain , multiple characters with mental health issues, and more. We have Pete's speech impediment, Wee John's back, Lucius' finger, Jackie's hand, Ed's mental health, Stede's mental health - and yeah, Izzy's leg. The way that these disabilites are presented is important to me - because they're just another part of the person, not good or bad. There are obviously impacts and things to work through - Ed's mental health being one, Izzy's leg being another - but they ARE worked through. Ed's suicidality - which spans over two entire seasons - is addressed. So is the moments of Izzy's. Izzy gets support and a prosthetic, Lucius gets support and a prosthetic, we see Wee John sitting down in most scenes which would support his back. Disability isn't just ignored, or played off for laughs, but neither is it made the entire plot point. Izzy is just as much of a badass as before. Lucius' finger doesn't stop his work. Jackie's hand doesn't make her less fearsome. Ed's mental health (and Izzy's, and Stede's) don't make them less deserving of love. None of the character's disabilities do. In fact, we see two disabled characters - Lucius and Pete - getting married at the end of the season. And that's important. It's so important!!

If you're sad and upset that Izzy died, that's incredibly valid. But to say that it "shows that disabled characters have nothing to live for" - when his death wasn't related to his disability at all - is so incredibly offensive. I am permanently disabled, to the point that I cannot work full time. I have seen posts about my disability saying that it would be better to die than to have it. But nothing - NOTHING - in OFMD suggests that it would've been better for Izzy to die than to have an amputation. Instead he is supported, encouraged, and loved. He is given a carefully crafted prosthetic, and given space to learn how to use it. He gets support, and his mental health improves. He is given a beautiful life. And then he dies. But his death is not about his disability. I'm going to repeat that - his death is NOT about his disability. Nor is it about being queer. It's shitty, random luck. I'm sure there are people who are going to say that the writers, simply by having a disabled queer character die, are ableist and queerphobic. But nothing we see in the show supports that. They show queer joy and delight and love and happy endings over and over again. They show care and support of disabilities, over and over again. And they specifically show queer disabled people living beautiful lives, over and over again. One character's death doesn't undo that. I'm sorry that your favourite character died. I really, truly am. It's a devastating feeling. I'm sorry that it hurts. But if you're taking it as a sign that the show is saying queer disabled people have no right to live? Then you're ignoring the rest of the show.

You're ignoring all the beautiful queer disabled characters we see, and the messages that the show tells us about them. You're ignoring the beautiful life and redemption that Izzy got. And yeah, you're being offensive as hell to queer disabled people. Sorry, you are.

And if you're queer and disabled and can't see a queer disabled character die - that's incredibly valid. I understand. However, that doesn't mean the show or writers hate you, or hates us, or wants you to die. They've shown us over and over again that actually, they love us.

Also - would you be this pissed if it was any other disabled character who died? Probably not.

I think it's also really important to have stories where disabled people are treated like people. And yeah, that means that sometimes we die. Because that happens in life, too. Same with queer people.

I don't really have a satisfying conclusion to this. I'm just queer and disabled, and really tired of seeing it said that it's now morally wrong to like this show. It's not. I'm queer, disabled, and I see more disability pride and support in this show than most others.

So yeah, thank you to OFMD for beautiful representations of disability, and queerness. It's a show that makes me feel seen - and that's really important.

[weregreatatcrime]

Anyways *deep breath* thanks @omalahsocs for making me think SO MUCH about this bcz of the prompt during stream. It's very late and I'm tired but I want to get the concepts down before I lay down and presumably forget all about it

So heres some Trans Girl Noctis ideas to ruminate on

I've said it before I'll say it again: her sculpted shoulders are one of her FAVORITE parts of herself and she is PERMANENTLY salty it means struggling to find dresses and blouses that fit

(Thanks to omalah) A? Corset?? You're galaxy brained

Corsets are just Gender it doesn't matter what the gender IS they're just Gender and wonderful. Tiss isn't sure about them at first but then she tries one on and it's like. A back brace that pushes her pecs up. She looks hot as FUCK

I'm probably going to draw this at some point gfdi

All of the chocobros are supportive in their own ways but absolutely nothing compared to how feral Prompto is. He hears a misgender and he is about to Throw Down. He hears "His Majesty" and Prompto is pulling out a gun

He goes through all of Tiss's mail and crosses out everything addressed Incorrectly with a sort of manic glee that Ignis doesn't even dare stop him

Ignis is so supportive in an Ignis way. He does All the research. He's that ally that knows more about trans experiences through research than most trans people do from personal experience. While they can't exactly do much for her transition medically on the road and technically being fugitives (and she's not overly concerned either) he still goes over every single potential option she has just so she Knows

Ignis is very annoyed that they actually Do Not Have The Funds to help Noctis like, socially transition in terms of clothing and jewelry and presentation. Tiss has to inform him that she is still perfectly happy dressing masc on the regular because they are, in fact, war fugitives and no, she does NOT need a new wardrobe

He still finds little ways to help her feel a little fem. Ignis is the one who starts to paint her nails for her and will on occasion just hand her a hair clip or small bits of jewelry she's not sure how he got

If Ignis ever gets the chance to find Noctis feminine formal ware he just about has a heart attack because instead of her usual grumping and groaning about how stupid formal wear is she is actually very tentatively excited. She definitely wants to wear the pretty dresses, Iggy. She doesn't UNDERSTAND a lot about fashion and shit but going over dozens of pretty dresses is a million times funner than going over dozens of suits.

She still gets bored after like an hour. But that's an hour of Noctis going through CLOTHES. Ignis is taking so many notes

Gladio isn't very like outwardly supportive or anything but he is so good at being the scariest thing in the room. He will Loom behind her and make people think twice about talking shit

He is the one who has to nearly tackle Prompto from trying to attack people at the SLIGHTEST hint of bigotry

He's not good at fancy shit. But while they're on the road, living out of the armiger and clothes bought from thrift stores and hunter depots, Gladio helps resize dresses and shirts and everything that won't fit her

He's not the one who'll give a nice pep talk or comfort her when she's down but he WILL be the first to pull her aside and ask very seriously if she needs a hug

Being the one and only one of them with a living female family member, Gladio also is the resident "Iris does X girly thing, if that helps?"

The day that Prompto and Noctis wear matching skirts Gladio calls them fucking ridiculous, ruffles their hair, and threatens to lock them in a closet together

[rjmhereunderprotest]

Only Human: Species Bias in Fantasy/Science-Fiction

Let's get the premise for this little essay out of the way now: Humans are Boring. They are the most overused, overemphasized, overdone, overrated race in any fantasy/sci-fi setting. And I'm honestly SO tired of it. And by that I mean, humans, and human-like races, are consistently the primary characters of any story. Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, they're all overdone to death, but Humans? Those other races are generally just derivatives of them anyway and they are constantly placed into the primary focus of any story. Often to its detriment in my mind. We always complain about how we want other perspectives, different heroes, different narratives, but we always default to humans and frankly its gotten stale. For me, it's become even more so the longer this has gone on. So in a follow-up to my entry about Monster-Narratives with Sarah Kerrigan, let's talk about humans and why they're so goddamn boring.

Disclaimer First

I am not saying ALL human characters and ALL human centric stories are boring. I can name many a human character who is compelling and interesting and deep. My problem isn't humans as a central POV, my problem is when given the option in a setting to do ANYTHING and be ANYONE... a story will default to human. Every. Single. Time. And worse yet, they'll even make Non-Human races more human like.

Besides the aforementioned Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits, a lot of alien or fantasy races can end up just being humans with a slightly different coat of paint. You don't need to look any further than a lot of monster girl fiction, which has universally decided that you can just have any human woman put on cat ears or pop out a fox tail or grow some wings and presto chango they're a monster now I guess. It's cosplay, nothing more. No one actually has the dragon BE a dragon i full. They have to look like a human somehow.

And let's be clear here, the reason for this is obvious. Write what you know. Everyone knows how to be human, so it's easier to just WRITE a human. The perspective will ring more true if you know what a human is and can properly depict them. And since everyone is human, everyone at least has an idea of how they're supposed to be. I'm not blaming anyone for going to the default option on this, it makes sense.

But all across media there exists multiple opportunities to actually present a perspective or allow someone to step into the shoes of something that isn't human. That isn't just a derivative of humanity. That is truly foreign to them. Sadly they rarely take the chance and when they do... well, a lot of the times it falls into some bad writing clichés. Before we get into some of the main offenders, let's address one of said clichés of the bat to better understand why human centrism in genre fiction can lead to some terrible ideas.

Planet of Hats

The Planet of Hats is the well-worn concept that alien/fantasy races are monoliths. That every member of a species thinks like each other, acts like each other, builds their society around a singular concept, is entirely devoted to that particular concept, and is forever entrenched in that one state of mind forever. That is the Planet of Hats. You see it manifested in every Warrior Culture or Pacifist Society or Amazon Island or Gangster Planet. An entire people bent to serve a singular overriding "Problem of the Week" scenario to comment on a singular issue. Mostly by going completely overboard with it. And if you want to know the biggest offender of this... well, all those examples I listed come from one single IP who has done at least one iteration of those worlds over its very long life-span.

Sorry guys, it's true and you know it. For all the good Star Trek portends to be, all the progressive ideas it puts forward, for all the social commentary it has added to zeitgeist, one place it consistently falls short in is depicting alien races. How you ask? How is one of the most socially conscious and ethnically diverse franchises in history failing in this regard? Especially considering it has spawned some of the most iconic alien races in all of fiction?

Because as I just pointed out, a lot of their alien races are basically just one note stereotypes. Built around a single idea to create a "Problem of the Week" episode. This has been true as far back as the original series. Which was completely episodic and rarely if ever revisited alien races it ran across. Now of course there are mainstays and they've been fleshed out over the decades, but a lot of that fleshing out has been a result of Star Trek trying to push back on the Planet of Hats problem. And they still don't really address the crux of it.

The best way to explain Star Trek's problem lies in how one alien race was introduced to us, the Ferengi. You know them, the big eared hyper-capitalists who are best known for being the franchise's greedy assholes/Comic Relief. And boy, was their introduction a MESS.

It's fair to say the first two seasons of "The Next Generation" were... bad. As in... awful. "The Last Outpost" is one of those awful episodes where the Ferengi first showed up. Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator, wanted to evolve a lot of the concepts from the original series. The problem was he didn't have anyone to tell him "This doesn't work" The Ferengi were made to replace the dated "America vs Soviets" allegory that a lot of Trek's previous antagonist aliens represented. For Roddenberry, the real danger was unfettered capitalism. Hard to argue with that, problem was the Ferengi weren't a threat.

"The Last Outpost" presents the Ferengi less as an alien race and more like farcical clowns who basically exist to make the Federation (Humanity) look better by comparison. The Ferengi run around the entire episode, acting like unhinged monkeys, while Commander Riker struts about with his superior moral values and beliefs. At no point do the Ferengi resemble a legitimate threat to humanity. They're buffoons, made to present less a commentary on hyper-capitalism and more of a mockery of it. As a result, none of the Ferengi come off as characters, they're caricatures. Silly, nonsensical, idiots who are there to make Picard look righteous and humanity as more evolved.

Now let's not act like Roddenberry was supposed to be fair to the alien race he created to represent the things he hated. But he was supposed to make them a culture and not just strawmen he could beat up for an hour. Hell, decades earlier, he had bothered to give the Nazi Planet more nuance! And that was a planet, as stated, full of Nazis! But even that felt more like a culture than the Ferengi running around like baboons, hooting and hollering as they unconvincingly tried to pull one over on the natives they intended to exploit. Natives that the oh so perfect Federation, embodied by Commander Riker, easily protected by simple human fortitude and stalwart moral fiber.

Of course, years down the line, the Ferengi were finally developed into something that resembled a real civilization instead of punching bag. They actually had a degree of morals, not like the Federation, but they weren't entirely monstrous. Characters like Quark helped immensely in rehabilitating the image of the Ferengi without completely discarding their original characterization. But Star Trek has never really completely abandoned it's human centrism. Nor it's tendency to portray humanity in general as the "Better Way/Only Way."

Because let's be honest here, the Federation is just humanity. Sure other races are in there, work with them, and we are TOLD their customs and beliefs are respected, but be honest. How often have you seen an alien on Star Trek in a Command position? How often are aliens in Star Trek the central character? Has any captain or lead character in any Trek show ever not been a human?

You may point out Spock or Worf, and fair, but Spock is half-human and Worf was raised by humans. They're also not the Captain of the ship of their respective series. Even then, Vulcans and Klingons don't get off so easily. How many times have the Vulcans and their reliance on logic being criticized because they don't express outward emotion like humans? How many times have the Klingons had their culture scrutinized as purely violent? Yes, they've always come back around to highlight the value of their differing perspectives, how their voices at the table are worth listening to, and how there is more to them than just the warrior and hyper-logical. But ultimately, a lot of Star Trek comes back to how each of these alien races REALLY should become more human. Oh the Federation won't FORCE it on them, but they'll just kinda neg them on it. You should really show more emotion, Spock. You should really stop being so war-like, Worf. Be more human, be more sensible, conform! Why don't you conform already?

You might argue that's not the case, but it kinda is. Star Trek will always come around to how if a lot of these alien races were more like the Federation's ideal of humanity, they'd all be much better off. And it all stems from the Planet of the Hats cliché. Which purely exists to give the Federation some problem to preach about and argue against. The Federation won't conquer you to be like them, but they will kinda pressure you to change. And sure, a lot of these cultures could do with reform. But a planet existing purely to be used as a soap box isn't a culture, it's just the Ferengi of "The Last Outpost" again.

I'll sum this section up in terms that were expressed by Chuck Sonnenberg of SFDebris. Star Trek's tendency to put alien races in a box is detrimental to its world building. If Germany was a fictional race in Star Trek, it would be defined by industrial power, a love of war, and expansionist foreign policy coached in racial purity. That even after being defeated, said society would constantly be trying to claw back to its perceived glory days, never changing, just constantly being stuck in its singular mindset for all eternity. The only thing keeping them in check being the Federation of United Planets, mostly dominated by humans, who shake their heads at how awful Germans are for refusing to change and be more like them.

Doesn't that sound stupid? And if the Federation of Star Trek, the epitome of Optimistic Science Fiction, can make such a mistake, how do franchises that aren't so hopeful and cheer faire? Star Trek is an incredibly influential series in genre fiction. It informs a lot about how its done even today. If it can't help but put humans on a pedestal, even though it shouldn't because that's antithetical to its own world-building, how have other IPs faired in that regard?

Well... not good. Not good at all.

Center of Everything

I could list so many examples of humans being positioned as the most important element of any fantasy or sci-fi story. It almost feels redundant. Star Wars generally has humans as its main protagonists. A good deal of Lord of the Rings involves the nations of men being the main bulwark against the forces of Mordor. Earth is basically the most important planet in both Marvel and DC and humanity is the most special of all races out there. How many humans get to be a part of the Green Lantern Corps? Overall, humans are going to be the focus of any story. Even if they exist in a setting where they aren't the only sapient race out there. Humans get to take center stage and lead the plot. Even if they really shouldn't and they aren't supposed to and you know where this going...

I think this is probably the best example I can use to point out how Human Centrism can be a problem. Because I think enough people at this point recognize what went wrong with the live-action Transformers movies. Yeah, I know some folks keep trying to rehabilitate them, I don't care. I'm dying on this hill! They were never that good!

A movie about the Transformers should not be so reliant on the squishy humans that no one ever cared about. A series of dynamic characters who, at the point of the first Bay Movie's premiere, had carried several stories on their own despite not being human! A race of alien robots with intriguing inter-cultural dynamics, opinions, philosophies, so much character and complexity. Sure they were toy commercials at the end of the day, but no one who watched Dinobot's sacrifice in Beast Wars' "Code of a Hero" would be able to deny that the series could not transcend that stigma! The Transformers were always meant to be the center of their franchise, as they rightly should be because they can carry it just fine on their own.

Then Michael Bay showed up and decided to turn the whole series into an extended US Army Recruitment Commercial instead. I think we can all agree Military-Industrial Complex Propaganda is far worse than making kids want to bug their parents for toys. But that's neither here nor there, even if Bay hadn't been jerking off to the US Military in these movies, the problem with them was apparent from moment one. When the films became more about Shia LeBeouf wanting to get laid than the alien robots. The films excessively/progressively revolved around humans and their interactions with the Transformers. They became the primary focus more and more until they essentially took over huge swaths of the plot and narrative. Autobots and Decepticons alike, no matter how important, iconic or well-known, were very casually tossed aside and killed off over the various sequels. And no one really cared because the Transformers on both sides became so highly interchangeable and forgettable that sometimes you could blink and miss them. Remember Arcee? Prominent female autobot? Strangely split into three motocycles for some reason? Murdered to death! With only one line of dialogue!

Oh sure, Optimus and Bumblebee got to be front and center, but mostly because they got to be colors that were just a mess of greys, browns and blacks. That and Optimus is by far the most popular of all the Transformers and the face of the franchise. But if you want an example of humans taking over a narrative to its detriment, Michael Bay's Transformers movies are the singular defining example of just such a problem. And you probably heard the defenses, it gave audiences a anchor point, a relatable view, something they could connect with.

Strange, none of the fans over the years needed humans to help them connect to any of the alien robots that were the main narrative focus of countless tv shows and comics. But I suppose Hollywood Executives know better. When have they ever been wrong, right?

To be honest though, this is nothing new. Science-Fiction especially has always had a problem with positioning humans as ultra-super special. And some people could recognize it for the dangerous prospect of what it was. Issac Asimov noted John W. Campbell's tendency to position humans as the most important or superior race as opposed to others it encountered in fiction. And to Asimov, that also appeared to extend to the smaller scale of reality and Campbell's... well, let's say belief in American Exceptionalism. Asimov didn't like arguing with Campbell, so he tried to avoid using aliens too much.

You can see the problem though, insisting on the exceptionalism of humanity often denotes a general sense of racial/national superiority. There's nothing wrong with rooting for the home team, but not everything should be a competition and humans shouldn't take over every story for themselves. Especially if it isn't their own, like the Transformers. Their franchise is proof enough that humans don't have to be central element to be successful. And yet, until now, most theatrical films felt the need to involve humans in some aspect. And sadly, because of "Transformers One's" not so stellar box office performance, that belief might persist. And it will continue to hamstring the Transformers property like it does with other stories in genre fiction.

Illusion of Choice

Even if this mindset doesn't inherently compromise a story's narrative, it can still kneecap it. The best example of how involves gaming, specifically RPGs. Despite portending that our "choices matter", so often in games they do not. Because, here again, too many franchises decide that the only perspective that matters is one that looks similar to you.

Discounting the many video games that might allow you to be an alien, monster or even just an animal, because they are out there, I feel far too many RPGs can be very limiting. Does Fallout let you pick if you want to be a Ghoul or Super Mutant? No. That's only been a recent development and only for one game and its an MMO. Video games in general, when set in a fantasy or sci-fi world will default to one of the pre-approved human or human-like races, if they present the choice at all. Dragon Age 2 famously hard locked you into being a human despite the last game letting you pick your race. Now you can say that's because they had a set story to tell that needed the characters to be human. But it's still jarring.

And I think there's one instance where BioWare itself had a huge opportunity to change things... but decided they were just going to play it safe.

After three games of playing Commander Shepard, who had to be human because that made the most sense for the story they were telling, BioWare had an opportunity to shake things up. They had a whole new story, not tied to Shepard. A whole new galaxy, again, not tied to Shepard or humanity itself. And they decided to just go with another human character... again. Mass Effect has probably some of the most diverse alien races out there and even now, you can still only play them through multiplayer. The main games? Stuck with human protagonists.

I'll freely admit I probably defend Andromeda more than most Mass Effect fans. Not completely, because it does have a lot of problems, but I admire it for what it was TRYING to do. What I can't forgive is what it didn't even attempt. It could've easily crafted a story that enabled the player to pick whatever race they wanted to play as. Turian, Asari, Salarian or Krogan! Quarians! They could've let us be quarians, but NO! We are always stuck as humans, never given the opportunity to experience this galaxy through any other eyes but human ones! Even when given the perfect opportunity to do so, Andromeda chickens out and just sticks us as an ordinary human again.

It's so painfully sad. And while being given the option to be something other than a human probably wouldn't have fixed the game's other problems, at the very least it would've been looked at as some admirable. As something that tried to expand Mass Effect's unique setting and give more dimension to the aliens it had crafted.

Humans are simply the safe option. Safe to animate, safe to draw, safe to craft stories for, safe to empathize with. The second you have to do it for something that is properly alien or decisively not human, that's when you run into trouble. Because if you can't get the audience to connect with a character, it's over. And that becomes harder if the alien or fantasy creature does not share something in common with us.

It's kinda sad honestly that the biggest departure from human-based races that Dragon Age has even done is qunari. And they're technically just horned giant people. They're not exactly inhuman enough, hell if character creation teases are anything to go by, they've actually tried to make them MORE human looking for the next game.

Which brings us to a whole other issue that is pushing us further down this hole within the confines of gaming itself. For far too long now, the gaming industry has become increasingly obsessed with hyper-realism, both in graphics and design. Unique artistic styles and aesthetics have slowly been eroded away by an obsession among developers and publishers alike. A need to force characters and games themselves to be grounded in the real, no matter how fantastical the setting is.

lately, people have often complained about how the faces of game characters have gotten "ugly" over the years. The stupid among these people think its a conspiracy to get rid of sexy ladies in video games and alter beauty standards in the mainstream for some agenda. The reality is known to the smarter set of folks, who have seen the industry cultivate motion capture technology to reduce their reliance on artists to craft characters for them. Just get a recognizable face or literally anyone you can find and make them act out the lines while wearing a facial capture rig. You wanna blame anyone for making women in gaming less sexy? Blame LA Noire for proving the viability of facial animation capturing, not some evil conspiracy of developers obsessed with some innocuous message.

As a result, gaming has emphasized realism more and more in its aesthetic design philosophy. Particularly among the Triple A Games, where they seem to think that if the characters don't look real, gamers will feel that things look too old and ugly. There's no room for artistic interpretation, that costs money. No, slap a rig on some actor's face and make them do all the work. You wanna know why MJ in the second Spider-Man game looked off to you? Well that's because the actress is a real person and faces don't always stay the same and alterations to a face scan can potentially mess things up even more.

She also suffered a car accident that required doctors to reconstruct her face, but that's probably only a minimal issue since she you can't really tell the difference as I understand it.

The point is, hyper-realism has damaged gaming to an insane degree artistically and further harmed non-human characters. Because in order to get that hyper-realistic look, games have compromised themselves. Now the qunari look even more like SyFy channel aliens than ever. The boundless creativity of CG reduced to what can be produced on a budget within the make-up chair.

And I don't expect Mass Effect's eventual fifth entry to be much better. If BioWare is still this scared about letting us play something truly non-human in a fantasy setting, then they're not even going to try to let you build your own turian in Mass Effect Beyond or whatever generic subtitle they shove onto it.

And yet its doable, they can let you craft an non-human character to be the main hero. The fact Elder Scrolls was letting you do this for years is proof enough of that. Baldur's Gate 3 revealing I could be a Dragonborn was enough to convince me to pick it up eventually. Admittedly, any game that lets me be a lizard or reptile of some kind instantly has my attention if not purchase. Purely for this very essay's stated hypothesis, it's almost impossible to find any game that will let me play as something that isn't human. Because far too many games and stories prefer to just fallback on boring humans.

And yet, nothing I've mentioned so far is the worst example of this problem.

Ultrabores in the Grimbore Future

I'm not going to mix words here. The Imperium of Man of Warhammer 40k is boring. There I said it. And it's this feeling that is impetus for this entire little article of mine. In the lead up to the release of Space Marine 2, and looking further into the lore of 40k itself, I came across two inescapable truths for me.

1: Every other race in the setting was 10x more interesting and compelling, both character and lore wise.

2: Every Imperium of Man Fanboy is an Insufferable Douche Canoe of the Highest Order.

I might be overstating that last point, but it's hard to be subtle about this because I don't think anyone is going to listen otherwise. The Imperium fucking sucks! And I don't mean as characters, I don't mean as a faction gameplay wise, I mean in-universe it SUCKS. There is NOTHING admirable about this future human civilization or anything they stand for. They're objectively fucking horrible and Games Workshop itself has admitted this. And yet, despite this fact that even the most ardent hobbyist of this tabletop will admit to, you still will find more than enough Stans of the God-Emperor of Mankind who will INSIST they are the good guys. Or at the very least, necessary for the survival of humankind.

My answer to that is no. Very emphatically, NO. The Imperium of Man is not neccessary, at least it didn't have to be. It did not have to be this cruel, this dogmatic, this blindly loyal, this xenocidal and racist. It did not have to be at all like what it is, but because of the choices of Emperor himself, it is now! And it probably can't unfuck itself, because it's already fucked over so many other people within and outside its realm of control. It does emphasize the good things about humanity, it's oozes all the worst aspects of it. That's its point. That's why this universe is Grimdark. That's why it's not a good thing that humanity has become what it is in this future.

And yet, Imperium fanboys will refuse to budge. Insistent that the Emperor did everything right and it was only everyone else not just laying down and dying that screwed anything up, if at all. And while Games Workshop itself has stated the opposite, explained in detail that this franchise is satire, that you should not take the actions of the Imperium of Man as a lesson for how to run a civilization or your life... guess what the biggest seller and face of 40k franchise is?

Yep, humans.

You might think that's a contradiction, but it makes sense you realize those are the figures that sell the most. Therefore, the Imperium gets the most books, the most lore, the most focus on media outside the main tabletop. Sure they've made games where you play as the xeno factions and books with aliens as protagonists. But the majority of 40k lore is all about Humanity and it's really affected how this franchise is viewed at this point.

You see it doesn't matter how often you say something is satire or that it's aspirational. If you place the spotlight on it long enough, people start to gravitate towards it. The Imperium of Man, being the most popular of 40k's factions, is a victim of its own success in this regard. It has become increasingly difficult to separate the satirical dark comedy of the Imperium from the lore's various attempts to make them the most badass of all badasses. People like watching struggles for survival, conflict of epic scale, heroic sacrifices, it makes for really compelling drama. It also more often than not whitewashes all the bad things the Imperium does if you overly focus on all the cool shit the Space Marine chapters pull off.

You tend to forget that the only reason anyone survived the Fall of Cadia is because a bunch of Eldar showed up to help evacuate humans. Or that Cadia only stayed standing for so long because a Nekron helped out. You ignore the pointless war that turned Kreig into a wasteland, when all anyone talks about is how the Death Corps can take down Tau with a shovel. You can point out how the Emperor is in fact, for all intents and purposes, fucking dead, but when it's coming out of the mouth of a dude who's following a sadistic murder god, it's not very convincing. People always come back to this when the Imperium is involved. "So what if they suck, they're humanity's best and only option at survival. And they're fucking badass!" And Games Workshop doesn't push back on this, mostly to not piss off its fans, generally though because tried to do that once before and it backfired.

The Tau Empire used to be an up and coming foil to the Imperium in many ways. They were ruled by reason and science, not blind dogmatic faith and religious zealotry. They believed in harmony among the races, not genocide and supremacy. They had an optimistic and hopeful view of the galaxy, as opposed to the fatalistic one the Imperium had. As it stood, they were the most heroic out of all the 40k races... and a bunch of fans, mostly Imperium as I understand it, hated them. They felt they ruined the grimdark setting by being too goody good.

So Games Workshop eventually just gave in and decided to change the lore. The Tau were only like that because their leadership was essentially mind controlling them. Great, so they're no better than anyone else in this future. Wonderful. Can't have an opposing view from the Emperor's that might turn out to be a better path forward. Nah, turn them into a brainwashed cult essentially to further justify the existence of the Imperium. Forget that an earnestly good society in a galaxy that is probably fucked beyond repair is probably sufficiently grimdark since they're such a young race but probably equally doomed. We need to make EVERYTHING in this setting so completely utterly hopeless, because anything less means the Emperor is wrong for creating the circumstances that made everything worse.

And as a result, the Imperium of Man is the one major roadblock for me getting into this franchise. Now, don't misunderstand, there are things about the Imperium I like and find interesting. Like many, I like Captain/Lieutenant Titus, because he's not a dogmatic sycophant who acts like a religious zealot. I do actually like the Death Corps of Kreig if only from a history buff perspective because I'm into the WWI Aesthetic they have going on. And of course there are the Salamanders, the only Space Marines I will ever consider truly heroic because they give a shit about things besides duty and honor, as well as possess some degree of empathy for other lifeforms. I enjoyed the first Space Marine game a lot! It's why I picked up the sequel.

However, all of these points have asterisks next to them. The Death Corps of Kreig are cool VILLAINS to an extent. I don't think you can ever present them as heroes given their mindset or origins. That's true of a lot of things within the Imperium. The Salamanders are still beholden to the dogma that has consumed a good deal of the Imperium and they are not really going to do anything to break off from it. And while I enjoyed the first Space Marine game and had fun with Boltgun, let's just admit something right now... half the enjoyment of the original Space Marine Game came from this dude.

Grimskull was probably the most fun antagonist to go up against in any game. Him just yelling "Space Marine!" in his ridiculous Cockney accent always made me smile. Titus, as badass as he is, lacks quite a bit in the personality department. The sequel doesn't do much better, even if his character arc is at least serviceably good in that game. But he remains stoic and loyal, he isn't exactly a dynamic figure like Grimskull was. And be honest with yourself, that first game got real boring after you killed the Warboss.

That's the problem I have with 40k. There are so many more interesting, compelling, fascinating alien races. Sure, none of them are perfect good guys and a lot of them are downright evil... but they're at least unique! I had a lot more fun learning about the Orks honestly than I did listening to the one hundredth iteration of something super epic and cool an Ultramarine did. We get it, they're Master Chief and Doomguy on Steroids! Do they do anything else besides pontificate about how awesome the Emperor is and go on about duty and honor more than Zuko in season one? The Orks might be idiot rampaging soccer hooligans, but at least they're funny.

And yet there are far fewer Ork, Eldar and especially Tau related books and media than the plethora of Imperium related works that have overstuffed everything. And if you admit to liking anything other than the Imperium of Man, especially the Tau, you are instantly ridiculed. I would honestly pay way more money just to play as Commander Farsight than Titus. Because Farsight feels like a natural progression for Titus to take, but never will. He just can't. While Farsight will leave his government behind and strike out on a new path to pursue the Greater Good as he now sees it, Titus can't, because that would only be seen as heresy, both by fans and in-universe.

Imperium Stans will look at this picture and honestly claim this fucking sucks without hesitation. That's the degree of brainrot they give off. Calling some of the coolest looking shit lame.

I just instantly felt Farsight is a more compelling and complex character by default because of his arc. Whereas Titus will never really change much beyond what he is, a reasonable enough Ultramarine in a sea of equally super serial hardasses that aren't much different from him. He just thinks a bit more for himself.

Farsight's crew of mech piloting badasses at least have variety. But to my surprise, so many others didn't agree, annoyed apparently that Farsight was able to resist corruption of demons, baffled at how it was possible because he lacked faith in the glorious God-Emperor of Man! None of them considered that maybe, just maybe, Farsight was able to resist corruption because he's not governed by religious dogma at all. Maybe his open-mindedness and ability to reason protected him just fine! But can't have that I guess, humans have to remain special after all.

Despite everything going for him, actually retaining a proper sense of heroism, being a truly good person who wants to do the right thing even in a universe full of shit, I still saw Imperium fans giving Farsight shit over the stupidest of things. I found a video on YouTube not long ago concerning how Farsight rightfully pointed out the weaknesses of the Imperium Titan Mecha. Oversized bulky machines that are millennia old. But while scary, Farsight noted how they can be defeated and are not as efficient or effective as the Space Marines were. The comments were FILLED with Imperium stans laughing at this bit of lore, calling Farsight names and declaring that the Titans were older than his whole civilization as if that was some kind of gotcha.

Everything the Imperium uses is older than shit though, that doesn't make it better. The reason it's so old is because the Imperium does not know how to make this shit anymore. They lost the knowledge when they rejected science in favor of their stupid religious dogma. Now their old as fuck spaceships are finite, same as their Titans. The Tau can replace their losses, the Imperium ultimately cannot. And yet here were the fanboys, praising how cool and awesome the Titans were, ignoring Farsight beat one easily, had video to prove it and that they essentially sound like those weirdos who jerkoff constantly about how awesome the Tiger Tank was. Despite it being an overly expensive over-designed mistake. One that both the Americans and Russians put to bed because their tanks didn't need special parts to function or guzzled up fuel like a thirsty pig.

Treating Titans as superior because they are older than the Tau is like arguing a Trebuchet is better than an Abrams Tank. Sure, one is way older than the nation that created the other. Doesn't mean its going to last very long in a one on one fight. But because humans have to be super special and awesome in 40k, we can never point out how their various systems, beliefs and strategies are outdated and costly.

Frankly, I'm more interested in Warhammer Fantasy by default by this point. Not just because they have a full faction of lizard people, although that is a plus. But because the factions of that universe are more diverse, interesting and not as mired in adherence to the grimdark lore mindset. Even the human civilizations are more compelling because they're not all one singular entity and have differing ideologies and strategies. I'll take that over being expected to look at the Ultramarines in awe simply because they do something badass every Tuesday which will get them six more books whereas Farsight still only has two.

And I don't think I need to point out what this has resulted in. As Asimov feared, placing humans on the superiority pedestal has emboldened that very sentiment in reality. Look no further than the current fervor over the existence of a Black Space Marine and a female guardsman officer in Space Marine 2. Even with fans pointing out how both of those things are both perfectly fine in canon, it doesn't change just how much 40k has attracted a lot of racists over the years. So much so they had to change tournament rules to prevent people from wearing actual Nazi uniforms to events because one asshole did so.

If there is any franchise that truly showcases the dangers of humancentric narratives it's Warhammer 40k. Because we are hardwired to root for the home team and we've also proven that we're incapable of reading satire. Creating the perfect storm of events that leads to far too many people stanning a literal Fascist-Dogmatic Forever War Machine. And while Games Workshop has tried to get the other factions more time in the sun, I'm not sure they can ever manage to get them up to the same level of prestige as the Imperium if they keep holding themselves back from just giving the Space Marines a damn rest for a second.

Room on the Party Wagon

I don't want to make it seem like it's all so hopeless. That there's no way for mainstream audiences to overlook their inherent human bias. I do believe it is possible for non-human protagonists to take center stage in a property and remain there. I believe that because I've seen it done before. In fact, I was quite literally there.

If there is any more miraculous franchise than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I don't know of it. There should be no reality where two guys making a sketch of a nunchucking turtle for funsies in an apartment while chowing down on pizza could launch something this everlasting. And yet they did it. Ninja Turtles, 40 years later, is still going strong. And all with a lead cast made of decidedly non-human lead heroes. Better yet, it didn't stop with Leo, Raph, Donnie and Mikey. Over the years, countless heroes and villains have been added to the mythos. A good number of them fellow mutated animals, all with distinct personalities, motivations and interpretations over countless adaptations and timelines. It is truly astonishing to have been there from the start of Turtle Mania and to have never had them go away for very long.

And again, all with primary character who aren't human. How? Simple enough, people gravitated to the Ninja Turtles. They had distinct vibrant personalities. They were fun and colorful and different. They connected you to them by getting you to recognize their relatability.

There is still an interest in non-human protagonists, and not just dwarves or elves. I'm not alone in my desire to have something other than my own species take the spotlight now and then. Wings of Fire is fairly popular series that stars no humans at all for the most part. In fact they rarely show up. The real stars of the franchise are dragons, big fire-breathing dragons who all have unique cultures and perspectives that incredibly well-fleshed out and intricate. They're also not entirely humanized either, as dragons have very different morality and cultural cues from humans.

Another interesting take on things can be found in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Which, despite having him out for most of the runtime, was all about Rocket. He was an absent protagonist, but he was the primary because everything revolved around his story and towards him finally accepting his species' name and moving past his survivor's guilt. Rocket is probably the most prominent non-human hero in the entirety of the MCU as a result and that's a big deal.

What I'm saying ultimately is that there is room for multiple perspectives. Not just the ones we're the most comfortable with. Because if we only accept the experiences of those we consider familiar, we will never understand those that are other. The road to a society like the Imperium of Man is based in one of mistrust, fear and prejudice. To avoid that, we must be willing to look through the eyes of others and learn about the human experience from something that is not. That is what the best of science-fiction and fantasy can allow for.

If such genres are meant to be an escape, what greater escape can be found but one that is outside our limited human experience. We can never know it is like to fly, or swim deep beneath the sea, or see from a dozen eyes or just one. But we can imagine ourselves in that role and empathize with that which is alien to us. If we limit our fantasies then we limit ourselves, our imagination, our ability to connect. If all you desire in your sci-fi or fantasy is for some big burly human with a sword, regular steel or chainsaw, to murder orks and aliens, then that's fine. But there are others among us who don't want such arbitrary limitations. Humans are not boring by nature, but picking the same old fantasies and escapes IS boring. We could do with changing things up more.

What I'm saying is, it would not hurt anyone if they just did one Triple A Title in the style of the Space Marine games but for Farsight instead. We don't always have to be the Space Marine. Notif we've be okay being a Ninja Turtle. There's room for all perspectives, human or otherwise, in genre fiction. We should be doing more to open up the gates for those experiences. Sooner rather than later.

[likeadog]

the barbie movie like. ok so [spoilers and long paragraphs under the cut]

yeah it was really basic ideologically it didnt cover all the various intersections and theories of feminism but i think when people saw conservatives flipping their shit people expected it to be like, a manifesto. its a film, and more importantly, it's the Barbie Movie. i think expecting a gender and womens studies class from it would be silly, and while i get why people are disappointed in how much sympathy it lends to the men in the movie, i dont think like, once again, that was ever something to not expect?

furthermore on that point i think showing misogyny from a place of defining the self around a sense of loneliness by men isn't...far off. theres never an excuse for misogyny but thats rhetoric that radicalizes a lot of incels and shit i would rather that than they treat it like some mysterious miasma.

also, i think, once again while it was pretty basic in the ideas it presented... how often is it show that explicitly in broad-audience film? like stated directly to the audience in that manner? theres no flirting with the feminist theory in the movie; it says it outright, which is something a lot of films shy away from out of fear of alienating men once it becomes too "girl power"-y. im not usually for the use of a lot of buzzwords in film and discussion of issues but these buzzwords are never said with cheapness or to obfuscate. it could be heavyhanded at times, but that heavyhandedness wasnt ever really obnoxious? it walked the line of "haha silly" but still took its point seriously enough that you could appreciate the use of that heavyhandedness for comedic effect without being mocked

i also think the fact they just like "solve" the patriarchy in the barbie world isnt meant to imply that you can just fix the real world with a woman president or by being aware of misogyny. in fact a lot of the movie is dedicated to showing how the barbie world and real world are different. the conclusion of the movie is that barbie wants to become human, even though the human world is messy and unsolved and nothing like she assumed it was. she believed barbie had solved misogyny forever, which is a direct jab at the idea that any "one thing" or "girl power" movement can just suddenly whisk away the very power structures that created that sort of oppression.

its very much coming from a cis/heterosexual/white basis. they flirt with further intersection but dont commit, which im really not a fan of. my friends after the film were like "it was more homoerotic than i expected haha" and...yeah, it was, but it didnt do anything to address gayness or what that means in such a heavily gendered heterosexual society. you could read that subtext through allen and his thing.... but allen is a joke. his story is never resolved. hes one of the guys but he isnt, hes one of the girls but he isnt, he benefits not at all from "kendom" but conversely is not oppressed the way the barbies are and vice versa. he's just allen, and the only allen there is. when sasha and her mom want to go back to help barbie, the fact he just goes "God im never getting out of here" and thats just like, left was kinda. well. it was something for sure.

still. i know i just wrote like 200 words on the ideology of this movie but first and foremost its a pg13 comedy meant to be shown to broad audiences in theaters for money. its meant to be an enjoyable watch, and it is! its a gorgeous film, its funny, the songs are fine, and the way it makes its side comments arent distracting nor meanspirited. it knows when to take itself seriously, and i like that. i was actually expecting it to be a general audiences like, kids movie i was so fucking surprised when barbie said penis.

i also think saying the line at the end about the gynecologist is like "saying you need a vagina to be a real woman" is disingenuous honestly. one its meant to be a bit of a shock quip to get a giggle but two i think a lot of people who need gynecological care (which can include trans women) are afraid when it comes to that first visit and finally sitting down and talking about those areas because of the shame and lack of proper education. maybe its bc i grew up mormon but i dont think its meant to imply thats what MADE barbie a real woman or that its fundamental to being one.

once again it definitely isnt a perfect movie. i think the way the ken and barbie talk happened at the end was still a bit coddly and the scope of the ideology underneath the movie was, once again, still very much centered in white cishetero society and thought with only passing mentions of intersectionality that felt both shallow and (especially with the gayness and racial dynamics) occasionally like it was being turned into a joke

still all in all it was a pretty good movie. weird barbie #1. allen get behind me i will protect u

[kazarinn]

Future subbing plans

When I first put Hurricane Touchdown out three years ago (goodness, has it really been that long already?!), I wasn't really planning to make fansubbing a regular thing, but after having worked on the Saint Tail project enough, I've started getting a little more used to it, so I decided to put a little more proper thought on what I want to do with it. This post will only be here, so my Tumblr followers can consider this to be an exclusive scoop ☺️

Regarding Hurricane Touchdown: As probably many of you know, Discotek Media recently announced an upcoming release of the first three Digimon movies, which, naturally, will include the Japanese version of Hurricane Touchdown. As is etiquette for fansubbers, I will be removing the download links for the Hudie release once that drops. However, I will be leaving the translation script file accessible to preserve the hard work done on it, and to leave it accessible for anyone who can't use the Discotek version for any reason (importation issues, region locks, etc.).

Raw script files can still be used with videos by putting them in the same folder as the video and giving them the same name, and the transcript is very easy to open with any standard text editor, so I think this will be a good compromise to keep the translation accessible and easy to reference. This is a workflow I started using with Saint Tail due to the unusual nature of its localization situation, but it's something I think I want to consider making use of going forward as well.

Regarding Saint Tail: Nothing really special to report here; I'll be releasing and revising sub scripts as usual until I've finished the series (I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the year). I haven't made a firm decision as to what will happen after that, but since it is a fact that the official release still has serious translation problems, I do think I want to do something to address that a little more aggressively once it's done.

Regarding Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning: Based on the US screenings of the movie, it seems that the official English subtitles for the Japanese version are actually a transcript of the English dub, but with Japanese names swapped in. Surprisingly, this isn't as much as a detriment to the translation as you'd think it might be (the English dub script seems to be surprisingly close to the Japanese script, rather unusually for Digimon standards), but nevertheless, this is extremely bad translation practice and offends me on a personal level. As such, if future releases turn out to still be using this translation, I am considering making my own subtitled script for it.

For the record, because of how close the English dub script is to the Japanese script, I don't think this is actually that much of a detriment to understanding the movie; in fact, I would argue that LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna's official English subtitles are far worse and mistranslated in a more dangerous way. A theoretical The Beginning fansub would be, at most, something that would be done to satisfy a personal pet peeve and to address some minor loss in nuance that isn't reflected in the dub script, especially in regards to the Chosen Child partnership lore it presents (something that I know can be quite a serious issue to a lot of Digimon fans). So I'm not going to make guarantees about whether I'm going to do it in the end, and I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you, but I do at least want people to know that this is an issue and that I currently have this idea on the table. As with Hurricane Touchdown, if I do put this out, it probably would be in script-only form.

As a side note, I do plan on translating The Beginning-related material (interviews, etc.), but I would rather put them up at a time when a sufficiently large percentage of fans has actually seen the movie. If you're from a non-American country and your country will be having a screening in the near future, please reply to this post with the date so I can get a good idea of when people will be watching it ☺️

[animehouse-moe]

Monthly In the Garden With My Landlord, Volume 1: Surprising Charm

Based on the just the synopsis, I'd say I was curious about this series, but I don't know if I was ever fully sold by it. Because of that, I'm very glad that I ended up picking it up regardless, as there's a lot of charm and energy that this first volume brings, making it a series centering around adult romance that I think quite a few people will enjoy, and for quite a few reasons that I'd love to illuminate.

Let's start with the idea of the story. Asako Suga is a manga editor that was just dumped by her girlfriend, leaving her in an apartment full of memories and firsts that are tied to her now ex. Because of that, in a spur of the moment decision she decides to move into a house that's being rented for pennies on the dollar and seems to have nothing wrong with it. That is, until she moves in and finds out that her 19 year old Landlord, and ex-idol, is living there with her.

I think it's an idea that a lot of people could be turned off by, but here me out on it. It's actually really fun, and well executed. Asako, and Miyako (the ex-idol-now-landlord) have just the right balance of comical and shallow traits as they do deep and impactful ones.

Sure, Asako might be a sucker for a pretty face, and that might have played into sticking around. But, she's more than that. She doesn't immediately fall in love with Miyako because she's pretty, but rather she struggles to maintain an appropriate amount of distance from this young adult, largely because Miyako struggles to be an adult.

And really, that idea itself opens up the story so much.

Asako and Miyako struggle to form deep relationships with people. Asako falls under the stereotype of being suckered in by looks, and Miyako is in the position where looks is all that people care about. Neither are able to directly connect with someone and form a deep and emotional bond, not even in the romantic sense necessarily.

I mean, the manga itself addresses that as Miyako takes to calling Asako onee-san a whole bunch, which perfectly highlights their beginning relationship. Miyako relies heavily on Asako, while Asako is babying Miyako.

The idea of romantic feelings is present, don't get me wrong, but it's absolutely an undertone to the pair forming a deeper relationship that extends past superficial tendencies. Because of that, I really hope that in future volumes they struggle with the expression of those feelings and they struggle with how it changes the shape and form of their relationship.

Anyways, let me share my love for the art. It's got a very light feeling, but that doesn't diminish the feeling of it or the detail in any fashion. It's still very present and strong, but it's not not got a heavy lineweight or strong shading or lighting and whatnot. I guess you might call it "flat", but I don't really think it's a bad thing.

I think the only thing I could really complain about is the environment art, since there isn't too much of it, but that's par for the course with a lot of manga these days. What's good though is that the mangaka fills that vacancy very comfortably. Subtle screentones that fill gaps, intelligent paneling and focus, and mindful layouts that work to really fill panels and use negative space. It's not anything incredible, but it does plenty to be aware of the gaps in backgrounds.

I think most important though is their willingness to break molds. They really don't restrict their characters to the confines of panels, routinely breaking out from those lines or existing entirely separate from them, or even having them partially cut off from them.

Speaking of characters, these designs are really damn good. The level of detail and uniqueness they carry is really great, and something that I think can be very rare to see.

Just look at the smaller details, Miyako's eyes are a different shape to Asako's (which are then also different to Hatomori's, who is a supporting character). Then look at the noses and mouths as well. Asako generally has a more squared off mouth, while Miyako's is rounder. Similarly, Asako has a more prominent nose while Miyako has overall softer and rounder features, but has larger/more prominent eyes.

It's really great design language that is very rare to see in a lot of series these days.

Even better is the expressiveness of these designs though. Character acting has a prominent role in a series like this, and Yodokawa's designs work wonders in regards to that. They work great both in terms of subtle and extreme moments, which creates a really nice feel to both ends of the first volume.

Also, the design sense and posing? Absolutely sublime. Yodokawa really has considered everything about these characters. Asako tends to wear more plain and "typical" outfits, while Miyako brings more energy and style, and all of Miyako's outfits are just so pretty.

Really, there's not much of an end to how much I enjoy the various pieces of this first volume. There's so much that I'm not doubt leaving out a considerable bit of charm and quality from this post, so I really recommend people give the manga a try. It's promising to bring a much more friendly and positive adult romance story, but not without depth or emotion. The art is endlessly engaging and fun, very stylish and well utilized, and the characters are such a treat. Just read it if you can.

[freshie44]

Episode 8 Spoilers

Cut Off

Welcome to HEEL CITY Y'ALL

As you probably noticed I didn't do one last episode, and the reason was that there wasn't much to say that I haven't already said. I'll talk about last episode elimination at the end but moving on to the new tiers. I order them by the idea that if you told me you came from the future and told me they won the season what my reaction be.

Top 2

Ashley & Alec: I am a firm believer that in this season early plays matter and should be REWARDED! I almost view this season through the lenses of a blow off PPV like Wrestlemania. We are building the story blocks that will be the foundation of the finale. These two got the best narrative. A girl who was an early boot 1st season and a man who got tricked out of the finale. Both have seem to learn from their first outing. Both run their respective teams and will be the faces of the FACE vs HEEL forces. No matter who wins between these two no one goes home feel the other didn't deserve the prize just as much as their favorite.

Backups

Aiden and Tess: They are in the ire of a fresh heel and are not in the most stable of standings in the game. But have focus and a good rival to feud with that could create some magic in the narrative. Jake v. Aiden & Tess v. Gabby. Jake gone heel and is being a brat, Aiden been putting up with it and seeing him retaliate will make good head vs head to see who stays and who goes. While Tess has a more philosophical feud with Gabby , she'll want to be friends and she probably not going to be able to stop an enrage Gabby with just words. Could be another fun match for survival.

Ok, but really? Jake - I know people like Jake I understand the appeal. I think the heel turn will be good for him. But he a brat! I don't like petty! Maybe that the reason you like him and I agree it going to be fun. But I'm backing Aiden any day of the week and not just because I'm bias because trans.

Grett_ I'm not opposed to it, could be fun seeing her rising over her terrible ex. But where the foundation? Where the focus? How does she turn this minor feud into a game winner? Yes I want her to destroy Yul but I don't think she the main eventer. She in the mid card not the blow out match. Maybe that because Yul doesn't make sense to me as the main event feud but that the lot for now.

Ally - she got something foundation wise, but like really? We wrote that Ally and Hunter fallout and looked at that and said yeah this is good opener to her rise to the top. No, no it isn't. She'll need much more in my opinion to take that prize.

Gabby- Look Gabby fans I get it, you been on crumbs for 7 episodes and now you all been present a feast. I'm happy for you. But those 7 episodes happened. She doesn't get to skate by on nothing and get rocketed to the moon. She going to have to work for it, should she flourish yes, but you got to address the fact the foundation not there before she gets that title shot.

Excuse me?!

Tom - Tom fans like do any you think he going to win the big one, like honestly? Like he playing nothing but himself. He got carried here by feud with Jake for drama points. He the face for the heels to chew up and spit out.

Riya - Doesn't feel like a finale villain.

Yul - X-PAC heat, aka GO AWAY HEAT

Eliminaitons

Ellie had this one coming, revival maybe, but since it heel city I think they'll bring back heroes not villains.

Fiore kind of lame elimination. Kind of felt she was just here on fame, she had some good moments but kind of a middling exit.

Last Episode | Next Episode

[realitys-ex]

A Mediocre Review of "Trust" by Hernan Diaz

So...this is an interesting book.

Lets get some core stuff out of the way for it: It was published in 2022, and won multiple awards, and it is understandable exactly why!

The story was cleverly told, the indipendent portions were in conversation with eachother (to be clarified later), the style shifts were strong, which I love, and seemed to have something valuable to say! (whether or not a book actually has something of value to say I think depends on the reader)

Overall, I give it an 8/10!

Now to brass tacks, which may or may not be a spoiler depending on ones view (also, note: I went into this book completely blind beyond: 'Read it' so I have no idea how much of this is usually told to people).

The book is divided into 4 parts, with various names underneath each portion (eventually you find out that the name is the presumable author).

The first portion is in a fairly dry style, and it tells of 2 people: A man who cares for practically nothing, but finds he loves the stock market for itself, is brilliant with it, and is intstrumental to the boom in the early 20s, and predicted the collapse in 29 early enough to make money off of it. And his young wife who is also brilliant even more so, but given more to literature, philanthropy, etc.

The second portion is written as a half finished autobiography: It tells of similar individuals, major life events are the same, but their care is deeper. The man isn't purely obsessed with the stock market for it's own sake, but believes that it is an ultimate good. The woman's life is far less tragic than the one in the first part. This portion has far more detail, the characters are more sympathetic and 3 dimensional.

The third portion is an old woman reviewing certain portions of her life, and it turns out, she was hired by the man to help him write the autobiography, because he was so infuriated by the lies in the first one (which was presented as a novel by clearly about him), that he needed it to be addressed. It more focuses on personalities, on actual life, as well as describing what the man actually said, before he had her edit it out of his "auto"biography.

The fourth portion is segments from the wife's journal, recounting a few of the major points from the narrative from her point of view, revealing the 'Truth'.

Now, here is the problem with the book: The details/plots of the first 2 and the fourth portion are irrelevant. There is no actual reason for it to be about a stockbroker. There is no need for it to have unwound the way it did. There is no true plot in those stories as a whole.

If it had been about a career politician, an Oil Barron, a theoretically over influential movie producer, the story would have been the same.

All that was required was that the Man be someone powerful enough yet semi reclusive that the rumor mills could go, that he be very good at his profession, that the wife be intelligent, and that they be involved in major nation impacting events (for both good and ill).

The 'plot' of the stories is just place settings for the 4-way conversation, and while the 4-way conversation is a delight, it's plot without being plot made me feel unsatisfied.

(The third portion, being to me the core, did require the details it had, but it's conversation with the others is of a different enough style that my point stands. At least, I think so.)

As well, I feel that he was weaker with some of styles than others, such that the enjoyability of reading each section was fairly uneven, though that may just be a 'me' thing.

In all, I feel it is a good book from an 'academic' standpoint: If you like clever stories, interesting literary techniques, etc. you'll love it!

But from a plot perspective it fell very flat.

[helloitshaley]

Job Interview Tips

look, this isn't my niche thing, I'm a horror babe, but I've noticed recently that a lot of young people really just do not understand the job interview process, which is really REALLY hurting their chances of being hired, even if they could do an amazing job IF hired so I'm gonna help as best as I can here.

Resumé:

Your resumé is basically a way to show your prospective employer what skills you have and what you can bring to the table. There are websites where you can look at how a resumé should be formatted, and google docs provides you with a free format as well so please use it.

What you SHOULD put on it:

First and last name, phone number, email. You can put your address if you want but that may do more harm than good if you live further away than the employer wants.

Your school experience. Even if you have only graduated high school, put that on there! Also the date that you graduated as well. Most jobs don't care about your GPA, but if you feel like the education section is looking a bit sparse, put it on there, it can't hurt.

Previous jobs. Outline how long you worked at each job, if you can provide an accurate start and end date please do. Outline your responsibilities for each job as well, employers want to see your experience.

If you are fresh out of high school and don't have any job experience, list your extra curricular activities and what responsibilities you may have had for them. As you gain job experience, remove this from your resume, but its good if you need to beef it up a little bit.

What you absolutely SHOULD NOT put on it:

Don't just write a paragraph about yourself, again, find a free resume format and use that.

Don't make jokes!!!! It is a professional thing and should be kept professional. I once saw a resume where this person wrote "I be about that money." DON'T DO THAT!!!!!

Basically you can't go wrong as long as you stick to a format and use spell check. Type-os happen, I do them constantly, thats why spell check is your friend! And if you really aren't sure, get a friend or someone to proof read it for you.

How to dress for an interview:

No matter what the job is, look professional for the interview! Try to avoid jeans and leggings, and never wear sweat pants or a sweat shirt. My best piece of advice is to buy one outfit that is your interview outfit. You don't have to splurge, you can find professional clothing at a thrift store. So long as you look well put together they do not care where your clothes came from.

What I recommend wearing is either a nice skirt, or a pair of slacks, a button up shirt, and a blazer type jacket. This goes for whatever gender, you can't go wrong with sticking to that! If you're someone who wears a tie, wear a tie. As for shoes, avoid sneakers if possible. Flats, heels, loafers, oxfords are all good. Do NOT wear flip flops or slides.

Brushing your hair is also a good idea. Makeup is never necessary but if you do wear it, its best to keep it to a minimum. Bright green eye shadow may look amazing, but if you have Mr. Fuddy Duddy bank owner interviewing you, he isn't going to like that. Understand your audience when it comes to your appearance. Make sure your teeth are brushed and that you showered and put on deodorant.

How to present yourself in the interview:

Be early!!!!!!!!!!

Be pleasant, smile! Smiling will get you very far. I know eye contact is a challenge for a lot of people, but do your best. I know that you'll be nervous out of your mind, but if you can fool your interviewer into thinking you're not, that can get you pretty far.

Don't appear too relaxed, however. Make sure you're sitting with good posture, not slouching in your chair. Be attentive, nod along with what the interviewer is saying. Try not to yawn if it can be helped.

Be sure to answer every question to the best of your ability. Responding with 'I don't know' and nothing more is going to put you at the bottom of their list. Even if you have to bullshit an answer, do it as long as the bullshit is eloquent and coherent.

Look up frequently asked interview questions and prepare an answer for them ahead of time. Most interviews follow the same script. They want to know your strengths and weaknesses blah blah blah.

Always thank them for their time once the interview is over.

RANDOM IMPORTANT BITS:

Sending a thank you email is not something a lot of people know about, but has become and expectation in the professional world. Once you get home from your interview, send the interviewer a short email thanking them for their time and consideration. I know this is weird and kiss ass like, but it is expected. This is more so for the corporate world, however, so if you're applying for a food or retail job, this isn't necessary.

A lot of places expect a cover letter with the resume, ugh. Basically this is just a quick paragraph of you outlining why you would fit the role. Keep it short and sweet, don't beg for the job, keep it professional. Outline how your specific skills would fit the job.

Don't be too basic. What I mean by this is, you can embellish a little to make yourself sound better. This can apply to your resume or in person interview. IE: Your last job was washing dishes? Turn that into 'you were in charge of kitchen sanitation and organization.' Don't over embellish, however, don't make it seem like you were the CEO when you were the bartender, right?

When it comes to references, make sure you're putting down someone who will back you up and make you sound good. If you were fired from your last job, its probably best not to list that manager as a reference. Also, unless you have a ride or die bestie that will commit to the bit, its best not to list friends as references.

If the interviewer asks why you left a job that you hated, or maybe you were fired from, DO NOT BASH THAT COMPANY OR MANAGER!!!! That is going to make you look immature and also like you are hard to work with. Say something along the lines of 'I just didn't see myself as a good long term fit there, I have different goals and aspirations that I would like to explore in an environment that more fits the career I want.' again, bullshit until you make it. But whatever you do, don't say, 'oh that job sucked, my manager was a bitch, they weren't fair ect.'

RED FLAGS on their side:

A company should never ask for a picture of you prior to an interview. They also can't make you submit a video either. They should never ask your age, unless that is relevant to the job (like an 18 year old can't be a bar tender). They can NOT ask if you are pregnant. If you are clearly pregnant and they tell you they won't hire you because of that, you could have a suit on your hands.

Hiring you on the spot (when its not fast food) could be a red flag. Tell them you would like to think it over for a day or so.

Not being upfront about the salary is a no-no.

If anyone want to tack anything onto this feel free! I just felt compelled to make this post because I see so many people getting passed over for jobs when it doesn't reflect on them as a worker. Also, a lot of people just do not know this stuff. I think there needs to be an interview class in high school. Anyway, if this helps just one person I will be very happy!