#cause I have these weird ideas and it's like they're linked

[morgana-ren]

Do you have any mundane hc about Astarion? Like fave colour, what kind of books he likes, is he a morning person or does he like to lie in, favorite actual snack? Fave animal to snack on?

Obviously this after the trauma has started healing and he's learning about himself again!

Astarion is quieter and softer once he is free.

I feel like Astarion is actually a lot more gentle than he lets on. After years and years and years of faking and pretending and peacocking professionally, when he gets the opportunity to slow down, he might find he likes it. Being less snarky than he usually is sometimes. Being quiet when he could speak. Being more sincere and less defensive. Not all the time, mind you. That's still his personality. He is still absolutely Astarion. But maybe, sometimes, he just smiles softly, nods, and is content to sit in comfortable silence with the person he loves and the friends he has. He is content to just listen and watch and enjoy company.

He doesn't have to fill silence like he did before. He doesn't have to charm or seduce or manipulate. He doesn't have to be funny, or cutesy, or anything. He can just be him. And sometimes, maybe he just feels like existing and being quiet and taking in the environment. Maybe he just feels like listening. He wasn't allowed to before. He was always performing and bowing and playing a role. But now he can, and I feel like he'll sometimes exercise that. He still loves being the life of the party, but sometimes, on quiet nights, he enjoys just being.

Astarion picks up a creative pursuit for fun rather than necessity now that he can.

He has a lot of time to fill now. He can buy new clothes rather than just endlessly mending. But maybe he likes his embroidery. Maybe he continues on because he's good at it. Maybe he likes how impressed Tav gets at the deftness of his fingers and the heights of his skill. Now that he doesn't have to go out every night, he's got to find some new way to fill the time, so maybe he adds beautiful embroidery to their clothes for a flashy flourish and sews little love letters into the inside of Tav's clothing in gaudy golden threat and giggles like a naughty child when they finally see it days and days later.

He says he doesn't like reading, but he clearly likes poetry. Maybe he gives reading another shot because he can now. Maybe he feels like he has a lot to catch up on. Maybe he likes it and maybe he doesn't. Maybe he starts collecting poetry books and hoarding them like a dragon. Maybe he decides to try his hand at poetry as an outlet and is surprisingly talented at it-- or maybe he is stunningly bad but Tav still adores everything he writes because it's a piece of his heart.

He still gets up in the early mornings

He misses the sun. He misses it desperately. In the Underdark, there is no sun, and the time of day really doesn't matter, but out of sheer habit, he still gets up early and ready to go. A leftover from their days adventuring. He gets up with the sun for a very long time, even though he cannot see it.

It causes problems sometimes because his schedule is totally opposite to the other spawn. He is getting up when they are going to sleep initially. But after a while, the spawn that become very fond of him end up switching out and ending up awake when he is. He likes to pretend he can still walk the surface world any time he likes.

He still prefers human blood-- but morally... within reason

He fed on rats and bugs for so long that he will not go back. The blood is fetid and he has high standards now that he will absolutely make sure are met. He's not such a sweetheart that he's about to starve himself out to spare someone a vampiric encounter.

However, he will source it ethically when he can to spare himself the nagging. Feeding on slavers in the Underdark. Wayward drow causing a ruckus. Criminals operating underground. He tries a little bit to not kill innocents, mostly because he doesn't want Wyll coming after him and he doesn't want to upset his friends (he doesn't really care, but he knows they do.)

If he has Tav, he will feed on them and makes a point to learn a spell or buy an item that allows him to heal the bloodless bit. It's the least he can do. He will then joke that it means that he can feed twice tonight, right? Right?

They have to find a way to source an enormous amount of blood as ethically as they can (all the spawns roaming the Underdark now and they cannot have people catching wind and raiding in a fit) but truthfully, he still prefers it fresh. He still enjoys the hunt. It's still a part of him. He will 'spare' his victims when he can, but sometimes they have to die. You know how it is.

He reads smut books and develops kinks inadvertently

Just ridiculous books. Ones so raunchy and tacky it's almost funny. It starts as a joke initially because he gets his hands on one from a shipment they stole from a smuggling operation and reads it just to nitpick and make fun of it. He makes a very loud show of laughing and rolling his eyes and reading it out loud in a ridiculous voice.

But eventually, he finds it's a good way to reengage with sexuality in a safe, totally controlled way. He can read ridiculous smut books about vampires or suave, debonair playboys and laugh at them but also relate to them in the silliest way. Sometimes it's just bad writing and just for pure entertainment value, but other times, he finds it's not a bad way to examine his own feelings and view things in a way that is totally under his control with only his mind and body involved. It allows him to unpack things quietly and privately.

It's basically a completely safe way to engage with everything again after it's all said and done. He is trying to do his healing and this is just a playful, light way to do it. His life experiences will come to shape who he is, and he is finally discovering his own sexuality and needs. Maybe he develops some kinks and desires he didn't know he ever had through a book he's reading and sits there for a moment, face flushed with wine, eyes slightly wide and lips pursed. You know, the face you make when you figure things out. "Ah. Well. If I didn't know better, I'd say I enjoyed that."

He sings quietly

He only really does it when he is alone, and it's never really belting it out operatic singing, but more quiet and gentle singing. If you're lucky enough to hear him, you'd have to assume he's actually pretty good and seems to have good vocal control and an excellent voice, but it's hard to tell because he'll stop once you enter the room. He only does it when he is alone alone.

It's almost like he doesn't even realize he's doing it. They are songs from ages ago that you wouldn't even recognize if you were born in this era. Small, lost lullabies. Songs in Elvish he seems to just recall straight from memory though he couldn't tell you how. It's always low and soft and something so gentle it's hard to believe he's capable of it. He rarely speaks Elvish even when with other elves, but it's utterly flawless when he sings. Whether or not it is because he just remembers the song explicitly or because he actually remembers Elvish quite well is anyone's guess.

He likes painting

He wants to express himself. Sometimes with that kind of trauma, it's very hard to express yourself. You have to find ways to show the way you see the world around you. Things that go beyond words.

He picks it up out of sheer boredom. He finds he likes it. It's not an all consuming passion quite yet, but he likes artistic pursuits and he thinks this one is quite nice.

He paints the sun peaking over the streets of Baldur's Gate. The ocean at dawn in all its magnificent glory. The forests he remembers walking through during their adventures. A smoldering campfire beneath an orange sky. The wizard performers in the courtyard. Lots of colors sometimes, like he is reliving his life in the sun the only way he can. Occasionally draws a cheeky little building on fire like the firework shop they set ablaze. Sometimes they're funny, like Karlach dressed in a strongman jumpsuit while flexing and holding Wyll and Gale on her muscles. His sense of humor translates into his paintings.

Red and black when he is doing something deeper for himself. Memories he doesn't like to talk about. Experimenting as a sort of therapy. Sometimes they're more metaphorical and only make sense to him. Sometimes it's just chaotic, violent splashes and it ends up everywhere. Sometimes you can tell he got frustrated or didn't like what he felt because it will be half finished and then set away in frustration with the lines running so deep that it almost tore the canvas.

He isn't doing it for prestige but he will joke about the 'famous vampire painter' and how his paintings go for thousands of gold at auctions and line all the finest hallways in the finest houses. He'll laugh that he has an eternity to get good at painting, and he could become the best. You know, if he wanted to, of course. If he didn't get famous, it's because 'he didn't want to' and all of that.

When someone really means something, he will paint for them because expressing his love is still sort of difficult. Occasionally the old group will get a package that is more or less a rude and absurd painting he decided would be absolutely hilarious to send. That or poetry because that's much more intimate, but that is pretty much reserved for his lover-- and mostly only when he's drunk and cheeky.

[hershelwidget]

working on so many projects

tag yourself i'm "swap auuu"

[zours025]

Zombie apocalypse face au I've been thinking of...

Thoughts/details on the AU and an alt color vers of the first drawing (luring you into my evil cave) ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Face as unrelated parties... All normal humans. Caname and fruk (separately) wandering the world after generic zombie outbreak. Theyre some of the last ones left so they rarely meet people and need to depend on the other party heavily. Blahblah its miserable everyone is sad and hurt and tired. Francis had to cut off Arthurs leg to prevent an infection. Arthur has to learn to lean on Francis for a lot of stuff and they learn to get over past grudges and such... 😇 Alfred is bitten at some point and hides it from Matthew. Matthew knows, but he's basically lost any will to live and is ready to die whenever Alfred turns because. Well. "I'm only living for him anyways..." type of sentiment... They ignore it and it's never brought up but it's like. I know you know that I know that- Anyways. So those two are trying their hardest to live out their last days in relative happiness. Doing fun stuff. Appreciating the simple things, landscapes, each other's company, etc... That is until they bump into Francis and Arthur in a totally horrible state. And it's like "Well... We can't just let them die can we? We have nothing to lose anyways." So they watch over the two and care for them and once they're all in okay health they decide to stick together and move on. But Arthur and Francis are clearly more determined to live than Mattie and Alfred and they're good fighters. So they wanna keep em around, all while hiding that Alfred is slowly dying and is eventually gonna kill them all. Milking Francis and Arthur's good will... Eventually new relationships form between the four and inevitably weird "betrayal!" and jealousy type feelings show up... Francis is tired of just sleeping with Arthur and when he gets mad he flirts with either of the twins... And the like... Well I haven't thought the whole thing through but these are the important emotional bases to the idea I guess...

I wrote a scenario for many different possibilities of first-to-dies (because i find them all interesting and bcuz twitter oomf asked and i have no restraint. lole)

Alfred dies first: Most obvious scenario (like hes already a bit zombified and clearly hes getting physically weaker) Im imagining a terrible scenario no matter what. Matthew probably finds him first all hunched over and stuff womdering whats wrong before realising that it's finally the end of the line. Francis/Arthur aren't far behind and they blow "Alfreds" head off without hesitation. Obviously causes a rift between the two and Matthew, who broke their trust by hiding this from them. Matthew is inconsolable for a few days, he thought he had more time. Despite the lie I think Francis and Arthur would end up feeling sympathy. They try to keep Matthew up on his feet but frankly I think this would end with him blowing his brains out eventually anyways... 😊

Alternatively Mattie has been mentally preparing himself for a very long time and he immediately kills "Alfred" and then himself in quick succession. Francis and Arthur are haunted by the memory of the two for the rest of their trip.

Arthur dies first: Similarly, I think its easy to imagine this. He's missing a leg and mostly needs to be near someone else to survive zombie attacks/ambushes. Would probably accidentally get separated from the group and get overrun... Might use himself as a distraction to allow the other three to get away in a particularly dire situation... In a way he thinks hes just dead weight anyways and he wants to see the other three live knowing that he doesn't have much left to offer them (Francis would disagree). Francis is obviously very upset and he loses sleep over the memory of Arthur, his last "real" link to his normal life before all of this. But I think Francis is stable enough to prioritise the twins he took under his wing. He knows they need someone to keep them together, so he toughs it out. Everything is fine till Alfred turns some many months later. By then, Francis developed a strong attachment to the two and doesn't have any regrets. Would probably struggle against Alfreds strength to allow Matthew to escape or something along those lines...

Francis dies first: I can also see him just getting killed by sheer numbers. I think he grew very fond of the twins pretty fast + had to be Arthurs protection for a long time and so he developed this feeling of "I need to keep them all safe at all costs". I don't think itd be as much of a letting go type thing as Arthur. It's more calculated and would only happen in a worst-case scenario. I think Arthur would be pretty irritable for the next few weeks, a lot of things remind him of Francis. It bothers him since he wants to just forget and move on, but he finds that his feelings are more difficult to control than he initially thought. Yells a lot at Matthew and Alfred and gets into petty fights. Its not pretty, but they have their moments... In the end, it's not like he wants to make them suffer. They're all he has left now. Hes trying his best. Has a lot of days where he just wishes he had been the one to die instead.

Matthew dies first: Honestly I'm imagining a non-zombie related death, like an accident with one of the guns or some unrelated illness or like. Falling onto a branch? Falling from high up in general? Setting off a trap? Lol idk. Something that allows Alfred to hold Matthew during his final moments or at least look into his eyes. I think hes also the most liable to flip out on everyone and just kill the four of them all together idk ❤ Crazy girl ❤ It shocks Alfred immensely. He expected to be the first one to die and he's really upset about the whole thing. Outwardly, he cracks jokes and tries to convince the other two that he's fine but he's very much not. Doesn't really know what tk do with himself. Just goes through the motions every day. Francis and Arthur notice the slight change in behaviour but don't really say anything and pretend everything is fine. Playing at being a normal family. Arthur and Francis try spending lots of time with Alfred but nothing really helps. Eventually Alfred turns without ever telling them he was infected and they all die the end. Alternatively he kills the other two and then himself on like a random Tuesday. ❤

Bonus: Everyone except Alfred dies lol. Alone in the desolate empty landscape. Welp!!! What now!!!

If you saw my first post of this text part no you didn't im editing this and putting it here with the drawing its more organised ❤ okay ❤

[bonefall]

As someone with P-DID(Partial DID. I still have headmates but I can't really hand the body over to them) I am so fucking concerned about Moonpaw. I don't like the idea that she has DID because she's a chimera, that's not how it works, and I don't like the idea of them demonizing chimeras(I am not one myself though I just think we should all dislike that)

But I'm also super concerned because people aren't acknowledging how ableist this is. The voice is stated in the blurb to be sinister and people are ignoring that. I even saw someone say "It's not plurality it's a SPIRITUAL thing" and like. That's not any better. You know that's not better right? It still promotes the idea that hearing voices is always Bad and chimeras murder their siblings.

Idk I'm just super worried.

It's difficult to get through to certain folks on "Why This Is Bad" because most people don't have an understanding of non-overt bigotry.

Guy calling you a slur on the bus? That is overt. It's obvious. It makes "sense" to an observer that he is threatening you, by calling you to attention, trying to provoke a reaction. It's less overt when, say, you're stimming on the bus and that same guy starts huffing and growling in discomfort, but they can still follow the logic that Bus Guy's behavior towards you is altered based on his prejudice.

But they'll have a hard time making that final leap-- that Bus Guy's idea of your disorder is tied to something harmful.

My stims tend to be facial (blinking rapidly, scrunching face, shaking head, etc), but even without the classic "hand flapping," Bus Guy will tie these traits to unpredictability, "weirdness," or stupidity. If we weren't just on the bus and this man had power over me in some way, like if he was my teacher, or boss, or even a coworker, his assumptions about me would influence my life negatively.

Then, of course, multiply Bus Guy by the entire bus full of people and their social biases, and this is how systemic problems are perpetuated without a single person exercising overt bigotry.

THAT is why "Sinister Voice In Head" is a harmful stereotype. In Bus Guy's mind, a link is being formed; Voices = Make You Bad.

Just like how it doesn't actually matter if the "stupid character" is stimming because they're autistic or not, it's still reinforcing that bias. "Spiritual Thing" or not, she is being negatively influenced by Evil Sinister Voice.

Worse; there's barely any counter examples-- no humanizing portrayals of how stimming can help you focus, no discussion of real problems some stimming can cause (skin picking can be really destructive for example), no honest stories of what living with a difficult headmate truly feels like, etc.

...Digressing. My hand on your shoulder, Nonnie. It's gonna be ok.

Even if it is WORST case scenario, total catastrophe... this isn't the first or last time that headmates are handled badly in media. Remember; cultural bias is ingrained in people the same way that canyons are carved. Slowly, steadily, over many examples and many years, lapping away at rock that is already wet.

One more bad example is just another drop in that wave. It will not bring the wall down. It's worth concern! It's worrying, I know! We can do something about it.

[beaniegaebie]

i don't really have any solid conclusions about this yet but i noticed A Thing in a rewatch and i haven't found it mentioned elsewhere yet so here we go

(apologies for the appalling image quality you're about to see, i can't screenshot easily rn pls bear with)

OKAY so in the scene where crowley confronts gabriel about "shut up and die", something about the arrangement of book stacks caught my eye a little

the majority of the books are angled so that we mostly just see the page edges and not the spines clearly, EXCEPT for a particularly shiny and familiar colour combo right here-

but nothing too weird going on there, i thought, crowley coloured books in a bookshop so what? right up until i registered crowley's line when we get a closer look-

hhhhmmmmMMmmmm yes yes "everything just the way you wanted" huh, very interesting considering that we know how much thought goes into props huh

and for most of the shots we get of crowley in this position those freaking books are just quietly nestled right there in the corner-

look at that god damn framing i fuckin see you, you glorious bastards

so i paused to see if i could figure out what the hell was up with those fuckers and this is when i absolutely lost my mind, your honour

A and C you say?? in crowley colours???? framed like this?????? localised entirely within your kitchen???

anyway long story short they're two books from an Agatha Christie Crime Collection set (24 volumes, three stories per volume) and guess whats on the mfing front covers I'm-

(its a rant for another post but when paired with this other set of initials spotted in s2 i want to scream actually)

ANYWAY back to the books, through an absolutely unhinged comparison of the formatting of gold text blobs i reckon the two we have here are:

(on top) The Pale Horse; The Big Four, The Secret Adversary

(on bottom) 4:50 From Paddington, Lord Edgeware Dies, Murder in Mesopotamia

(I'm fairly confident but if anyone has a better image to confirm/correct this pls do)

now here is where I'll need a bunch of help from some Christie-heads out there bc I haven't read any of these and I've only seen the tv adaptation of one of them, so i dont know for sure if these are like A Clue, or A Cool Thing, or if I've just fully brainrotted myself into a fun lil corner here? wa-hoo

but here's some initial stuff that jumped out at me after skimming the basics:

(some of) the titles: Pale Horse/Big Four - death's horse ofc, the four horsemen mayb? the them+adam?? ; Mesopotamia is a very biblical choice bbz ; 4:50 From Paddington- azi likes trains i guess? idk that one's tenuous lmao ; honestly no idea with the other two but Secret Adversary feels a tad ominous

iirc Big Four just has kind of an unusual history, it was initially twelve short stories that she later compiled into one, and it was published fairly soon after christie's mysterious disappearance/reappearance

in Big Four, poirot fakes his death at one point and doesnt even let hastings in on it and I'm hoping sure its totally irrelevant to the ineffable bois

part of the Pale Horse story is a group of assassins that basically try to pass off all their murders as being actually caused by like ✨satanic powers✨ which is interesting

christie knew a fUCkton about poisonings thats why she wrote so many into her work and, while i don't believe the poison coffee theory myself, it sure is an interesting link with how cyanide is associated with almond smell/flavour and that metatron chooses almond syrup in particular

(ALSO random side note that is mostly meaningless but I've worked in a good few uk coffee shops and have never worked anywhere that stocks almond syrup; almond milk yes, hazelnut syrup yes, but never almond syrup...? prob just the places i worked though lmao)

EDIT forgotten point: I've seen some speculation that the bently's plate reading "CURTAIN" could be a reference to poirot's last story, along side that alternate scene of crowley ordering the sherry for "miss marple", its just one too many agatha christie references for my melted brain to handle and I'm SUS

so this is where i run out of idea steam and hand it over to you lot because i have no clue what this could mean, if it even means anything other than a cool set feature

is there something here actually or am i yelling into the void just for fun?

who knows, who cares!

[wayfayrr]

Hello! I love the self-aware stuff you’re doing for the links. Love that stuff.

Now don’t feel compelled to write anything about this. I just think it’s funny to think about :)

My switch has been acting kinda weird recently. Not broken or anything too major. But a corner of the the touchscreen is coming off, a very small part. Pretty sure it’s because of the heat and the glue or something? Anyway, it’s also been glitching sometimes. Colored lines will go across the screen in handheld mode. (Truthfully it’s sometimes annoying, but it’s kinda old so go figures it’s gonna start acting weird)

But could you imagine with the links??? Like they start realizing that the console is malfunctioning, or a piece of the screen is breaking? I can see them being like, “YES YES, PROGRESS!!!”

Idk it’s just funny to think about sometimes

(Again don’t feel compelled to write anything. Wanted to give a fun little thought I had :])

I mean if the switch is breaking when they're ready then they're going to be ECSTATIC - if it's already breaking then surely you won't be as bothered when they hop out and finish it off right? not like there's going to be a severe change in the cost of getting it repaired from a minor break to the entire thing being completely unusable

but they don't even worry about the cost! It's not even something that registers with them cause well - no money could possibly make them living with you a bad thing right? besides they could just sell some stuff or get a job to make it up to you.

it'd be intresting to think about them continuing to glitch post getting out of the game too, like they stand there unbreathing, unblinking different coloured lines running across them as their body tries so desperately to belong in this new world now. their voice even glitching, static surrounding them near constantly as they try so hard to belong failing every single time.

maybe if they were more patient they could have been whole. right. not some half broken mockery of a person holding onto their life with all of their energy.

maybe it wouldn't have done a thing to wait and they would have simply been trapped in their non existence even longer

it's not something they'll be able to ever find the answer for anyway

love the idea of them clawing against the screen so so so much too, scraping at it until their fingers are bleeding, with no progress beyond the fact that they are bleeding, something new to them so it must be working right? it has to be. so they ball their hands into fists in their last attempt to get this one last remaining obstacle out of their way, crying and screaming with their newly found voice. begging for help, from you, from hylia, from anything as long as it gets them out. until crack by crack, glass shards digging into their skin, it shatters.

the only ones that really have a less bloody way out are tears and wild, just because their tech and ability offer them other solutions to it. The rest aren't as lucky

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi! Do you have any tips how to not lose interest in a story and be enough interested to start/do write if? Personally I just get hyperfixated on a story idea I have, do the brainstorming, even the planning, sometimes world building and if I get serious I make lists about almost everything but never end up writing even if I have interest still, but at most cases at the point I could start writing I just loose interest and get bored of a story when I'm done figuring out what it'll be about and maybe because I don't really like thinking about the climax or the end of the story...

Hyperfixation on Planning Story, But Can't Write It

I do have some tips on rekindling your interest in your story, which I'll link below, but first I think it's worth addressing the specific issues you mentioned: that you don't like to think about the climax or end of the story.

Have you thought at all about why you feel that way? There are a few potential reasons I can think of:

1 - Your story doesn't have a conflict, so your story doesn't have a natural climax or ending. Stories revolve around conflict, or in other words a problem that needs to be solved. This problem could be in the character's heart and mind (internal conflict), in the character's situation/life/world (external conflict), or you can have both at the same time. Many stories these days have a parallel internal and external conflict. Stories are ultimately about someone (or a bunch of someones) trying to solve a problem. In order to solve that problem, they need to reach a particular goal or accomplish a particular thing. The bulk of the story will be their struggle to reach this goal as they overcome the obstacles along the way. The climax of the story is where they face down the cause of the conflict once and for all, whether that's a villain (like an evil wizard or corrupt corporation) or a force (like illness or a natural disaster) and try to solve the problem once and for all. Everything after that is the aftermath... whether they succeeded or failed, patching up their "wounds" from the "battle" (again, it doesn't have to be actual wounds or an actual battle), and settling into the post-conflict life. That's your ending.

2 - You have a conflict, but haven't figured out how it would be resolved, so the climax and ending are fuzzy. If you have a conflict but aren't sure how it would be resolved, it might help to think of the conflict as a problem that needs to be solved. For example, in The Hunger Games, the conflict was the Hunger Games Event... the problem was that Katniss volunteered to compete which put her life at risk. So the solution to the problem was to survive the event.

3 - You know what the climax and ending are, but you are enjoying the characters and world and don't want the story to end. This is one I think many writers can relate to. It can be really hard to let go of a story when you've enjoyed writing it, have gotten attached to the characters, and feel comfortable/familiar with the world. It can also be a little scary to think about diving into a whole new story. But, we do have to learn to let go of stories when they're finished and let them come to their natural conclusion. You can always go back to the world and characters, even if just for yourself, later on. It wouldn't be weird to write "fan-fiction" of your own story, and many writers turn these kinds of stories into prequels, sequels, companion series, and companion short stories that their readers enjoy, too.

Here are some tips for getting excited about your story again if you just need your motivation rekindled:

Guide: How to Rekindle Your Motivation to Write 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes! Getting Excited About Your Story Again Getting Unstuck: Motivation Beyond Mood Boards & Playlists Feeling Unmotivated with WIP

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How would you write Lila?

Really depends on things like how many seasons I had to fill, when I had to introduce her, if I had to give her the butterfly, and what I was doing with Chloe since Chloe and Lila are functionally the same character for most of the show. You do not need two petty mean girls to cause interpersonal drama. Either redeem one or don't let them overlap!

If we have to keep the butterfly as the villain to maintain the formula, then I'd make Lila a sentimonster created by Nathalie and introduce Lila at the start of season four. The linked post goes over my pitch for that rework, but while I like the concept, I don't like the butterfly being the designated evil miraculous. It just feels so bleh. Fives seasons of fighting and we're still right where we started: the butterfly in the hands of a villain that the heroes have no clear plan to defeat. You could start the story at season six and miss almost nothing (thus my constant theorizing that season six is a soft reboot.)

So let's take this post in a wildly different direction and talk in depth about evil spy Lila!

Almost any idea I have for Lila is going to involve some bigger plot to explain her lies and manipulation because they're just so over the top! Plus she's 14! How did she become this good at lying? Canon needs to give us some logic to explain all of this. Magic is a good excuse. So is training or even training and magic!

In this AU, Lila is from some sort of evil organization that uses their power for evil purposes (there are lots of routes you can got with this from evil magic to evil company, so let's stay high level and not commit to a path). The organization sees the miraculous being used in Paris and sends Lila to Paris to try to get her hands on the miraculous. Lila is specifically sent because of the Ladyblog. The organization views Alya as an easy in and so they send a teenage member or someone's kid who desperately wants to be part of the group.

This new Lila shows up claiming to be a Ladybug superfan, which instantly bonds her to Alya. Marinette's dislike of Lila now stems from Lila wanting to know all of Ladybug's secrets, which obviously raises red flags for Marinette, but not for Alya because Alya wants the same thing. In fact, Alya is really baffled why Lila's obsession rubs Marinette the wrong way because Marinette has always been fine with Alya having the same obsession. We know that the answer is that Marinette trusts Alya, but Lila is a wild card, but of course Alya doesn't know any of that. This makes the Marinette and Alya clash over Lila a lot more complex because it's no longer about lies. It's about trust and Marinette has no way to explain why trust is a factor without outing herself as Ladybug.

Lila can still tell lies and manipulate, but it's now all around getting close to Ladybug and learning everything she can. You can even have the Adrien conflict maintained with it now being Chat Noir wanting to be nice to fans while Ladybug is hard on the bad vibes train since Lila is so uncomfortably obsessed with her, another conflict that makes way more sense than what canon gave us. Adrien is just immune to weird fans and doesn't know that Ladybug is being bombarded with Lila's obsession every day at school.

This means that Marinette's Lila aversion is less her knowing something and more her being understandably uncomfortable because identity shenanigans, which is another nice complexity as it lets Marinette struggle with not knowing how to approach the situation because she knows she has no hard logical reason for her feelings, but she just can't get passed them. This could lead to some good lessons for kids on healthy relationships with celebrities/internet personalities and how you don't really know that person or have a right to their private life. It is, in fact, totally normal for your favorite celebrity to find your obsession a little creepy and block you when you cross lines. (This could even be a growing moment for Marinette re her crush on Adrien since it's written like a celebrity crush, though my personal preference is to just fix the writing around that to a more normal teenage crush. Even there it could be a growing moment, just a more nuanced one.)

There are a lot of ways to resolve this plot. Whatever you pick should see Lila outed and, in the process, we learn about the evil organization, giving us a new big bad for the heroes to deal with. Something that isn't tied to the miraculous and that is so big that it might justify having a big team of heroes to fight the new evil? Just a thought.

[raileurta]

So @gyancastle had this idea and made cool art that when the apex armor is piloted by a human they turn into a cybertronian. Miko also gets this sick battle axe! Here's the link to the post(s) if you want to see it. So anyways I'm yoking that idea.

After Miko gets the apex armor instead of taking it away from her the team decides to let her keep it. They train her in self defense, strategy, Cybertronian's martial arts, and how to use her axe. She becomes quite the force in the field.

One day in battle a weird ground bridge is activated but it looks nothing like a standard one. It's huge, a distorted look to it, and a deep yellow. It starts sucking everything in which of course includes Miko. When she's spat out she's millions of miles in the air, after falling for a bit she crash lands in a forest. Distorted she walks to the nearest body of water near which is a big lake. Washing herself off of tree branches, leaves, dirt, and other kinds of debris Miko hears a crunch. Turning around with her battle axe ready she comes to a strange sight. It's Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet and a random human girl??? But there's something wrong with them, first of all they're comically much smaller and look different. (This during season 1 btw because I haven't finished the series yet but will be reconed in the future probably)

Miko demands to know who they are which they of course give their names which makes her more confused. Falling back on her training she realizes she needs information. So she decides to go along with whatever is happening. They ask for her destination which she responds "joyride prime" because Miko is still Miko she's going to do some trolling. She looks weirdly similar to her own Optimus when she's in the armor, plus Miko doesn't think she could handle being given orders by a fun sized Optimus. She barely tolerates orders back home!

Anyways she goes with them and when they ask what alt mode she wants. Miko has to awkwardly talk about how she can't transform. Miko "explains" that her t-cog was removed a long time ago and she can't replace it for whatever reason. The bots are horrified but she just plays it off.

They go back to base and Miko hangs out with Sari for a few minutes, she finds it really neat that this kid is like a mini her. Miko finds the other bots very charming as well; they're like a softer version of her own autobots. Especially Optimus, he actually shows emotions here!

Then a alarm goes off; decepticons are causing trouble of course and Miko goes along with them to fight. She hitches a ride with Bulkhead since you know she can't drive there. It's starscream doing whatever plot he's doing, he starts monologuing and Miko is like fuck that. I already get enough of this from her own decepticons. She throws her axe and cuts one of his arms off. When it spins back to her Miko starts rocking this twink's aft. It's like embarrassing easy to her; yeah starscream was a little incompetent in her universe but at least he could fight. The fact this one was much smaller and hasn't been fighting a lot, so yeah an easy win. When Miko goes for the kill she's stopped by Optimus. This dude has such a horrified look on his face that it stops her in her tracks. This gives starscream enough of an opening to escape. She's pissed™️ and asks why he stopped her? Optimus is also a little mad because wtf, we don't kill! They then head back to base to continue their argument there. It's really messy because remember in Miko's universe it's more violent and death is sort of normalized. So she doesn't get what she did wrong!

Miko storms off somewhere. Sari tries to follow her but is stopped by bumblebee. He thinks this new mech is a little too violent and dangerous for her to be around. The young girl doesn't listen and goes after our wrecker anyways. Sari finds the older girl brooding on a random donut shop. They have a talk and Miko accidentally reveals she's not a Cybertronian. She decides since the cats already out of the bag she tells Sari everything over donuts and go back to the base.

Everyone is a little mad at Sari but glad she's safe; Miko is a little offended. Yes I did just try to kill a guy but I'm not going to hurt a little kid! Sari tells them about how Miko is from a different universe and the war. (She leaves out the being human bit) . Now knowing her situation the bots better understand her behavior. The autobots set off of trying to figure out how to get Miko home.

Meanwhile the prime autobots are freaking the fuck out. Miko's been sucked into a whole other dimension being subjected to who knows god what!

--------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile with the animated bots:

Miko: Then my Bulkhead ripped that venhcon's whole guts out! I practically felt the sparks on my skin!

Everyone: 😨

Optimus covering sari's ears: great........

--------------------------------------------------

If we're being completely honest Miko is terrorizing this universe not the other way around.

[idkwhattoputhereidontknow]

Child!Yuu in Twisted Wonderland!

Here is a little link if you want to know a little more about this Yuu. https://www.tumblr.com/Little Yuu ideas! \^o^/ This is just how I think it would go when my Child!Yuu enters Twisted Wonderland!

"Yuu?"

"YUU?!"

A familiar voice snapped Yuu out of their thoughts. "Yeah?" Yuu says, lifting their head to make eye contact with the owner of the voice, Yuu's close friend, Ava, "Ya gonna eat that?" Ava is pointing at the roll on Yuu's lunch tray, "Cause if you're not, I want it."

"Oh....I'm not. Here you go." Yuu says passing the roll to Ava, only for her to turn back to they're other friends at the lunch table, ignoring Yuu once again...This was the routine that happened every day since Yuu and her friends started middle school. They wouldn't talk to Yuu unless they wanted something then once they got it, they would completely ignore Yuu like they were a ghost. No matter how many times Yuu would try to speak they would just get ignored over and over again...I can't really blame them it's not like we're in the same classes anyway, so it's probably just a bit awkward trying to talk to me. Is what Yuu would tell themselves after the cycle repeated itself.

Maybe I need a breather...? Yeah, I should go wash my face or something like that. And with that thought, Yuu excused themselves from the lunch table to use the restroom. "I'll be right back guys." As Yuu got up from the table not a single one of their so-called friends responded, they didn't even give Yuu a glance or a nod, just silence. Almost like Yuu didn't even exist in their world.

Yuu took one of the bathroom passes off an empty table and retreated to the restroom. Much to Yuu's relief, no one was in there. It was just them, all alone. They stood in front of a mirror and a sink, looking at their reflection before they splash their face with some icy cold water. Even with the freezing water against their face it still felt uncomfortably hot...Geez, Yuu. Ava just asked for some bread that you knew you weren't going to eat, so why are you so upset? Yuu couldn't quite understand why they were feeling so...yucky. The nasty warm face that they only got when they were having anxiety, not to mention the empty pit they felt in their stomach. Maybe it was from the fact that they haven't really eaten anything today or maybe it was also from this uncalled-for unease.

Well, whatever it was, Yuu knows they can't stay in the bathroom for too long or the teachers will come to check on them, and they can't have that, now can they? I guess it's time to head back. Once Yuu dries their face off with the top of their shirt, they turn to head out of the restroom.... Why is my vision so blurry? Everything Yuu sees starts to contort and blur into each other. Yuu also starts to sway from side to side slightly in a zombie like mannerism.... Ouch my head! What's happening..? Before Yuu had the chance to balance themselves everything went black........

.

.

.

.

Once Yuu opened their eyes all they could see is black...? Huh?! Did I go blind!? No, no, don't be overdramatic, Yuu. I'm sure you'll be fine. Once Yuu attempts to calm down at this weird situation, they slowly move their hands in front of them to get a feel of their surroundings. Their hands press against a wood like wall that feels cold to the touch causing Yuu to wince back. Seriously, where am I? Before Yuu could think another thought-

BANG

BANG

The sudden banging quickly made Yuu back up into the corner of this cramped place. What the hell was that?! As Yuu thought, there was another voice that was coming from outside the box Yuu is trapped in. "I better hurry up and find that uniform before someone spots me... Urgggh... This lid weighs a ton! Try this on for a size! Mya-ha!" As soon as the voice finished speaking, blue flames engulfed the area around Yuu!

"AHHHH!!!" Yuu quickly shut their eyes tight and covered their face with their arms, "What?! You ain't supposed to be awake!" The voice says in a surprised voice. Since Yuu didn't feel any fire burn them, they slowly pecked their eyes open, still keeping their arms over their face. Yuu could now see the surrounding area outside the box. There were floating coffins running along the sides of the room with a large black mirror hovering over the floor in the middle of the room. Although, the thing that immediately caught Yuu's attention was a small grey cat standing on its hind legs in front of Yuu. The cat also had blue flames just like the ones before coming out of its ears with a pitchfork tail! Why does this seem so familiar...? Yuu glances around the bizarre room once more before it finally settles in.

"Am I in Twisted Wonderland..?"

Hope you enjoyed this little fanfic or whatever I just made is called. I don't know if I'm the best at writing, but I at least tried, right? Oh, and I'm going to start working on those requests I asked you guys for now. ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

[kerubimcrepin]

LIVEREAD: WAKFU, THE GREAT WAVE [TOME 1, Chapters 1-3]

I want to preemptively say that I wasn't the biggest fan of The Great Wave, while reading it originally. It had less to do with the contents of the comic, and more with the pacing — it's written in a very... webtoon-unfriendly way. Every week I'd wait, and then not much would happen.

I am hoping it will be less exhausting to read this comic this time, but there just isn't a lot that happens in it. It's quite sad, really.

Now that I am done with the "hey, I am not the biggest fan of the way this was executed, at least in this tome" warning, I want to say that I actually really like the idea of a tragic story. Like fuck yesss. With all the amount of foreshadowing we got, we deserve to see how Yugo's good intentions are going to bring disaster.

I will be honest, the day this dropped I went to discord and everyone was screaming "THEY ADDED PORN TO WAKFU" and then when I was finally able to read the comic after someone finally pirated and sent it to me, I saw the world's shortest scene of intimacy between a married couple.

Normal world.

Anyway: STOP FUCKING WHILE WEARING THE WORLD-ENDING MAGICAL NUKES ON YOU.

Hey chat! This reminds me of a very poggers thing I had said a while before this manga realeased:

You have no fucking idea how bigly I won. And this isn't even the last win of mine in this manga. No, I just keep winning and winning. Please, Tot Ankama, I beg you through whatever psychic link we have: do this thing you did to Yugo to Joris too. He deserves it.

In the future, I will be liveblogging myself reading the entire tomes too; instead of making small posts, as the comic releases chapter by chapter.

One of the reasons why? I love writing this post, while knowing full-well that these are Grougalorasalar's words.

MAN, I predicted Grougalorasalar using emotionally manipulative language that's pretty much "you're a fraud, you're amoral, DIE" in nightmarish visions sent to people ages before this manga happened, in my fanfic. And I was so giddy — because I love the idea of 'Salar torturing people like that, and because it means I got something right without having too much data to back it up!

First Joris war criminal arc, then Salar emotional abuse via nightmare visions arc... How is my taste so similar to Tot's??

I think it's very funny for Salar to be moralizing now. My brother in crepinjurgening, you were trying to resurrect your lizard son by shattering his soul forever and bringing him unimaginable suffering so that you can go commit more war crimes together?

Then again, his war crimes had virtually no chance of ending the world. I suppose it's natural for a Black Fire dragon to understand the sort of danger Yugo presents — the fact that they may all end up the same way the Necro world is...

I guess his morals are as weird as Joris's (world ending = bad, war crimes = sometimes good if they do those themselves?). Similarities are only to be expected, since they influenced and changed one-another irrevocably.

this shuoild happen to joris too. pleask.

LITERALLY IT'S SO FUNNY. HE'S SEEN THIS SORTA SHIT HAPPEN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND IS STILL GOING DOWN THAT ROUTE. BRO? 😭

Somehow I really doubt that Grougalorasalar's involvement in this situation is going to improve it in any way.

"I am the black dragon Grougalorasalar and I am going to save the world" ok and flowers can sing, and the world is made of pudding. Get a grip.

[twirling my hair around my fingers, giggling cutely] A shadow you say? This reminds me of Dofus MMO lore :3

I've seen people be upset at there being bigotry towards Eliatropes, but really — this has been coming since season 2. You've seen what a shitshow the idea of another class appearing caused back then.

Maybe it's my "knowing too much about hupperage oppression lore" and "knowing just a little bit about ouginak oppression lore" bias kicking in, but I'm not surprised? Eh?

THEY MULTIPLIED?!

Guys I don't think they're happy.

Originally this made me giggle: "ohh, is Joris going to have to choose between Bonta and his friendship with Yugo, in the future tomes of this manga? I wonder what he will choose, tee-hee."

But ngl, considering the fact that Joris has already demonstrated choosing Yugo over Bonta in season 4, and has been implied to be at odds with the government of Bonta during some ages, and downright opposed in others — I think we know the answer.

Literally not how it would work in real life. Even if Aurora has the right to inherit the throne in some way, her father is completely unrelated to that. He shouldn't even be here — if Aurora has the right to inherit the throne, it means she was made a member of the Sheran-Sharm family, and is no longer a part of her original family, because— [STARTS FOAMING AT THE MOUTH FROM ANGER]

[onesidedradiostatic]

regarding the drool thing i highly doubt its a death mark or something like that given that a lot of characters do it and it isnt like. a permanent affect on his screen

also the insistence that its vals saliva therefore every seen hes salivating must have kissed val before. obviously that isnt true but i think its infinitely more telling that hes constantly SALIVATING. like do you have sialorrhea or are you just happy to see me?

even lucifer does it in hells greatest dad! though his is yellow like his blood..

so some homestuck troll shit-

my actual belief is that it isnt really saliva (atleast in the case of vox. lucifer. alastor.. we know vals is saliva) but instead blood and its supposed to indicate that the character is being "bloodthirsty" / violent.

it would make sense given all the scenes we see it used.

vox telling pentious to kill himself. the beginning of stayed gone. vox's finale hate boner. alastor doing creepy radio demon shit.

lucifer is even SAYING the word Blood during his scene. though its in the context of the family line, given the timing i can only imagine its deliberate.

the only exception id say would be at the end of poison (unless they're concocting a really devious plan). though id wager to say that in that scene specifically it actually is valentinos saliva

in this scene and this scene alone vox red droplets were on the left side of the screen (theres technically another time, buts its really on both sides of his screen there so).

this is right after we see angel with driplets on his left side, and you can see that val has his on the right side, (which is weird cause he mostly has it on his left side too?) which would be the sides to link up during a kiss

or maybe they're just sprite flipped idk

(follow-up to this ask)

tbf like

the cross on alastor's forehead isn't a permanent effect for him either (and it's been stated by ex-staff that alastor was shot in the head by a hunter so we basically know that's a death mark for him)

for lucifer's case I just thought he bit his lip while saying the line cause he was that pissed LMAO, funny how his blood is like an ugly yellow in that scene compared to the usual glowing yellow or gold we see from other angels. (also not the fucking homestuck troll comparison ksdkfflhl SOLLUX CAPTOR??)

my actual belief is that it isnt really saliva (atleast in the case of vox. lucifer. alastor.. we know vals is saliva) but instead blood and its supposed to indicate that the character is being "bloodthirsty" / violent.

I mean yeah I believe that, I've mentioned it before it appears when vox shows strong emotion. the reason I subscribed to that one anon's death mark theory is cause alastor's red "x" appears whenever he semi brings out his demon form (the example we see of alastor bleeding from the mouth too also has that "x")

and yeah, I think poison is like the SOLE outlier to this, all other times he has the red lines he's showing some kind of strong/violent/feral emotion. I originally just held the idea vox produced it himself and the strong emotions were actually from making out with val (yes I do actually think they made out in this scene I just didn't buy into the val saliva theory) but you bringing up the different side of the lines from usual and the mirroring is a good point actually, I didn't realise that, honestly changed my mind and convinced me that yeah this specific case it is val's saliva

see the thing is, I do think it CAN mean he was making out with val I just don't think it NECESSARILY does cause of all the times it happens outside of val like I said. in this case, yeah they were probably making out LMAO.

in other cases, nope.

my thing isn't that I'm against the idea of it coming from val, it's more like some people act like it's a definite indicator that they were making out whenever vox has it, but I don't think that's the case at all, the red lines are definitely something vox can form by himself

[cure-icy-writes]

Ghost from Hollow Knight is disabled, and here's why

Obligatory disclaimer, of course, that this is just a theory. It may not even be what the creators intended! But it’s special to me, which is why I want to share if. And I think that a well crafted theory with textual evidence is far better than any inflammatory thumbnail by a YouTuber with enough charisma to overcome his utter lack of reading comprehension. 

So, to start, I’ll explain the particular disability. Put simply, being filled with the primordial darkness soup has detrimental effects on one’s health. It takes the place of blood, but it’s more viscous, which means that the heart is constantly working overtime just to pump it properly. 

So, what are the symptoms of this? Well, the most prominent one is this: Ghost is able to fully recover their health simply by sitting on a bench. If you’re wondering how that could possibly be linked to a heart condition, it’s actually based on my own experiences with POTS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It’s a health condition that’s affectionately known as “can’t fucking stand disorder” or less affectionately known as other, more explicit things when it’s causing me trouble. 

To get personal about my experience with POTS: I get dizzy standing up, or standing too long. I use a cane to support myself, and I need to drink what amounts to salt water to raise my blood volume. The blood volume is important, for reasons I’ll get into later. 

So, on the surface level: they’re disabled because they need benches to recover. But bear with me, because I think it goes a little deeper and a little weirder. Here’s my theory.

Ghost was intended to be invincible. They don’t take contact damage. Every time they take damage, it’s actually just them flinching and their heart rate increasing.

I know, it sounds insane, but I promise that there is evidence to support this. The first piece is the Pale King’s ambition. He created everyone in the dead baby pit to be invincible, right? The perfect vessel to seal away the Radiance, no voice to cry suffering. But then we also know that the Hollow Knight themself wasn’t perfect. They were weak specifically because they wanted to be loved. They were weak because they had a heart, they had emotions, because their traitorous heart pumped blood too fast and it made them vulnerable, because they felt fear. It’s poetic, in a sense.

Diversity Loss! The dead baby pit created in a fruitless effort to save the remnants of a crumbling kingdom is made up of disabled bugs who were subject to a fuckshit eugenics experiment, yippee!

Another interesting piece of supporting evidence is the existence of Lifeblood. The heretic Joni pioneered its use, and there’s some weird implications that maybe this wasn't the best idea, but hear me out for a second. What if it’s literally increasing blood volume of our protagonist to give them some protection from the symptoms of what is effectively a goopy heart disease? The name is quite literal, actually.

The final piece of evidence? Look at the effects of the Fury of the Fallen charm. This one is like adrenaline overdose, complete with pulsing visual effects meant to set you on edge. While this charm is equipped, the knight won't even perform their idle animations. It's a small thing, but I think it is definitely meant to indicate that they're too pumped with adrenaline to have the focus to do this little things. All of that energy is dedicated towards not losing control, one way or another.

Overall, like I said. It’s not something I can prove, but it is backed up by some canon evidence. And it adds to the tragedy, I think, of a scared bug with a bleeding heart.

[blackstarchanx3new]

FSR rambles wanna know what's funnier than 24? ...25

Huh so Vio's confusion from earlier makes a lot more sense.

Link was shutting them off from listening much again...

Nice going Link.

I'm sure this isn't causing massive communication issues or smth...

I think this just speaks to how LITTLE Link trusts Vio to sympathize with his mental health struggles that he just cuts him out of it all together.

Also the dialogue here for the middle panel:

Vio doesn't KNOW for a fact Blue was in on those conversations...but it's a fact he WAS thus him being there in the visual representation. Vio isn't actually aware of Blue being in on it.

I'm sure he's at the point of questioning that though...

I wouldn't say it's Blue and Green with trust issues Red, it's Link X'D

And he for sure DOES distrust you.

Furthering the point Link is broken thus the team is broken.

Shadow drops by cause the convo with Zelda is done (Jeez it's been awhile since I've looked at these pages lmao)

And Vio asks about his hair which...FINALLY SOMEONE SAID IT.

Answer a question with a question...nice one Shadow Link. 🙄

He's very sensitive about the ganon hair haha.

Which is why I think his questioning on if Vio LIKES IT is genuine even if it's there to steer the convo somewhere else.

Vio's too smart.

Though, Red weirdly wants vio to stfu about actually ASKING...Which uh...

I'd like to remind you of THIS PANEL where Link's purposely being obtuse about the Triforce on his own hand after their Triforce discussion.

Then we get to shitpost territory with Shadow burying the lead on Dark to talk about how he and Green had sex. Which just...

OKAY SHADOW X'D

Vio's response is...interesting.

I think this is where a lot of people might have realized this is a poly story lmfao.

Vio gives no fucks in fact he seems INTO IT despite him saying he "Doesn't care" sure buddy.

Vio and Shadow's "Relationship" is up in the air on what the hell it even IS at this point and Vio is butt at hiding the fact he loves Green soooo.

Works out for both that they like Green. XD

Red's over here losing his shit.

Shadow AGAIN brushes over Dark just calling him someone they need to be introduced to....Lmfao.

Vio's mention of looking for Blue is kinda sweet. He cares. Shadow on the other hand knows Dark's handling it so is fine with leaving poor blue 😭

And red.

lmfao. Bye Red.

Genuinely giving him ANYTHING to do early on was...DIFFICULT.

I have a story thread for him but BUILDING to that was...Not fun for his character X'D

So often he got shafted but I hope when he has his time to shine people enjoy it haha.

Sad boy hours.

Blue's back though!

...This is so random but I'm so glad I started doing colored text boxes I gotta THINK who's talking reading back on these X'DDDD

Green's so sweet giving Blue a lil hug.

Poor Green's frazzled out of his mind and Blue's just struggling to talk emotions.

They're a mess. X'D

This entire interaction is so funny to me.

"What did he DO...?" GREEN. WHAT DO YOU THINK!?

I think Blue's justified in being a LITTLE irked that this weird curse entity was sent to get him instead of one of his teammates X'D

but also: they had no idea where he ran off too lmfao. Dark Link's got a Link radar he can find him easy.

One of those things where there was no GOOD solution to this and Green did the best he could, but Blue's frustration imo is still very justified.

Poor Green trying to rationalize his choices and Blue's just like "Stfu"

And smacks Dark link X'D

Poor Dark.

"you look like a dumbass with a squid on his head" might be one of my favorite FSR blue lines.

Green's addition of "i feel like a dumbass" is so stupid XDDD

Green's beyond strung out just letting Dark sit on his head while him and Blue talk about wtf they're gonna do about this.

It's really fun looking back into this transition period where half the cast knew about Dark and the others didn't really.

I remember wanting to push past it quickly because I wanted to get to juicy territory and interactions.

...I love Dark hugging Green's hair. He's so cute.

it's worth mentioning AGAIN that Green and Blue have VERY DIFFRENT experiences with Dark with EACH OTHER but ESPECIALLY VIO.

Dark TORTURED that dude lmfao.

Vio met ALPHA BUILD DARK LINK LMFAO

Green chastising Dark for doing his typical shit with Blue lmfao.

HE TRIED GREEN HE REALLY DID.

"Blue is the color of difficult" will now proceed to live rent free in Blue's mind X'DDDD

I'm sure I've mentioned it but Dark Link struggles to speak properly in this form. (it's a form that doesn't require him much effort or energy to maintain thus...doesn't have a lot of "Features" lmfao.)

Blue pulls Dark off poor Green's head to give him head scratches.

I'd panic if I sat on Blue's bare thighs too Dark. Look at him go polite gentleman.

Blue's being HONEST with his FEELInGS.

What a treat.

Dark smacked some sense into him during that fight hah.

Poor Blue has anxiety about being Link now. Poor dude.

Blue just wants to get intros over and done with knowing stuff's gonna be hard. But uhhh....

Dark Link isn't a fan.

Lmfao.

Didn't have him turn back into his hylian form to sit in Blue's lap wym.

Poor Dark doesn't wanna do stuff with people rn. he's burnt out.

Which...FAIR.

Dude had a meltdown with Blue he's exhausted.

Green's genuine horror paired with "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" just reminds me of that scene from the Cuphead show where King Dice shouts the same thing X"DDD

Though: it's kinda sad that Dark was 100% right in being nervous/hesitant to meet the others...

Green's protective Blue that's his baby!

Obligatory Dark says smth fucking weird cause it's funny.

Green's willing to let Dark have a break while...Blue has a good point too.

Poor Green doesn't get the peace he wants. 😭

meanwhile Dark's just blatantly staring at Blue X'D And he's put off by it.

Blue...c'mere I got a secret-

HE LIKES YOU-

Being a dick won't push him away Blue. He's in love with VAATI you're a drop in the bucket in terms of rudeness.

it's been established: Dark doesn't know how to handle being PERSEIVED at the moment. Especially by the Links. He's still super shy.

Poor Dark, blue makes fun of his stutter. 😭

Green rightfully tells him off

Dark holding their hands is so sweet.

He's someone that holds his heart on his sleeve to his own detriment. Just wanting them to know he's happy to be with them and that the day is nice (presumably because he's with them.)

Blue's being a bit of a negative butt but concedes a bit when Green says he's happy too.

Him poofing back to being his "Squid" form on Green's face just personally is funny.

It's so silly and cements he has ZERO idea of personal space.

It's even worse for Green because Green's scared of tentacles. 😭 (wanna have that brought up at some point...but it's due to the vaati fight)

Lmfao. Red you're so annoying.

"ARE WE THERE YET!?"

Literally third wheeling the Vidow X'DD

Vio out here starting shit lmfao.

Shadow knows too.

LMFAO Vio trying to find solutions is uh...KINDA an issue now hah.

He's super out of the loop about the curse now so...ouch.

Vio's being a bit of a bitch boy about it because he's bitter.

Reasonably so but ooomf.

Vio my duuuude...pls c'mon man. Act mature. 😭

Vio casually tipping right over Blue's current anxieties about going back to that. Which...Blue has zero self control so NOW WE'RE DEEP IN SHIT LMFAO.

And Vio's response is FAIR.

Link cut him out so much he's missing a FUCK ton of context about how BAD it was for everyone.

NICE GOING LINK.

Blue's ALSO pretty justified in being PAST the point of WANTING to discuss things with Vio due to how dismissive he's been about their pain.

it's a self fulfilling cycle of bullshit they've trapped themselves in.

Blue really fucked up in mentioning that Link's basically NOT gonna happen anymore in saying "We're not compatible as a person"

Lmfao not red hiding behind the couch. Coward, Vio feels ALONE right now in wanting to return to being Link, and you're the only one VAGLEY on his side. And instead of trying to mediate or help he just leaves Vio to get more and more defensive as Blue yells at him till he runs away to Link's room.

Well damn.

Everyone's expressions after Vio throws his tantrum is...INTERESTING.

Green's HORRIFIED and he's glitching WAY more than before.

Blue's in shock. Probably at how CHILDISH that response was not expecting vio to blow up at him back.

Shadow's also equally horrified as Green.

Red...Red's weird.

Red just stares kind of unfazed. Mild surprise maybe.

"huh...weird" kind of face.

That's quickly brushed by though with Green starting to glitch WORSE.

Blue's concerned.

Green starts gooping. And not in the fun way.

Blue tries to console him and gets...Corrupted for a lack of a better term.

His arm corrupting into Green's.

Link's body contortions and glitching are real similar to this.

It's been shown a few times that their mental state affects their appearance, but NOW it can affect OTHERS appearances.

Green at this point has been pushed to stress and anxiety till he broke poor guy, he's been worried about everyone's safety and been trying to do what would help them and it just hasn't worked out.

Shadow's stuck not sure what to do. As a Shadow he was forced to do NOTHING while Link had moments like this.

Blue snaps him out of it taking charge.

I've always considered Blue second in command. ESPECIALLY in FSR.

He was the only other color Link trusted enough to confide in other than Green and able to pull his head out of his butt to help Green AND Vio in this situation.

Blue's VERY aware of WHY Green's panicking rn. (he's worried vio's going to harm himself in some way...not a stretch to make that assumption and it's brought up later but YEAH that's why he freaked out.)

Vio just needed to have a bitch fit in his room for a bit though and didn't mean to cause that fear.

If he knew I don't think he would have left quite in that way.

but again: Link kinda shot them in the foot leaving half the team aware of shit and the other half NOT.

Either way Shadow's got a job to do.

Lmfao

"Damn it link... you ass" makes me laugh. Blue's so terrible with words.

Turns out Blue mainly was on team "let's not be link!" BECAUSE he was worried about Green having too much shit on his shoulders.

HE WASN'T WRONG.

Some interesting thoughts there pal.

I've always wondered what kind of pressure Green must have felt to be LIKE Link and also be the leader.

Like that's double pressure there.

Being link but BETTER while only being a 1/4th of him sounds like such a task weighing his mentality down.

He's only assigned to that role because...well he's wearing GREEN. not really because of any other reason.

He's just as dumb as the other three.

I've always found it interesting, usually the leader type characters are the Vio's of the group.

Book smart and a bit stuck up.

but instead we get green and...I've joked he's diet Link but fr lol he KINDA IS.

What he lacks makes his personality more so than what he HAS.

His selfishness and ego getting removed making him IMEDIATELY want to work together for instance.

Anyway green analysis aside, Blue acknowledging he fucked up here is good.

The completely black background making you ONLY focus on these two talking was for good reason, Green's weird word bubbles too.

Reality feels like it's breaking around them and if this was voice acted I imagine Green's voice sounding distorted and disjointed here.

Like this is just his thoughts repeating to himself about what Link BEGGED him to do.

Both their glitching just getting worse as the paneling goes by.

Green's all sorts of fucked up. over leaving the other three because he was angry at them. So much guilt is harbored there now over that action.

Also I just wanna point out how brave Blue is.

Touching Green is PAINFUL for him, he yanked his hand back when he touched him initially. He also SAW the corruption it left behind and still chose to hug him here.

Like for all he knows they could become that Link monster thing again but he cares more about Green than that.

Blue's the goat.

Everyone telling Green stuff he's needed to hear.

Even Dark came out to help.

Dark's lines are super fun just because mmmmm it gets into Dark and Green's relationship and i like Darkgreen XD

Green did MASSIVELY change Dark's mission by appealing to his desire to be a hero and changing his mind.

Without Green the others would be SO COOKED.

Dark doesn't consider his mission a failure because he changed course a little and neither should Green.

They're very sweet for each other. QuQ

Not them slapping each other with pillows like children. 😭

Vio, Shadow, you both are too old for this shit.

I flip flop between finding this scene funny or disturbing.

I mean at the end of the day it's a couple smacking the shit out of each other due to their emotional issues. 😭 That's not healthy.

But also...the imagery is so silly looking and they're not actually HURTING each other.

Idk I feel like you could look at it either way.

Shadow mentions it here, but Green was worried about Vio's physical safety. Which....Vio doesn't get. Because Link wanting to game end himself has been NOT shared with him.

Vio's deep in his own insecurity atm.

This is a reference to what was said in the OG manga , that everyone was holding Vio back buuuut our purple buddy feels differently.

Especially with how he feels really bad rejection at the moment.

Vio wrongly assumes people don't want to be link because HE'S THERE. Which isn't true.

Shadow feels bad cause a lot of their issues are wrapped up in the whole Vidow arc of the manga lmfao.

Shadow feeling his OWN guilt over waking Link up which...Dark called it just sayin-

Also points out that Blue "is an ass" but yeah Blue could have worded himself better here. X'D

...We reached the image cap ouch. X'D

Continued vidow later on muahah.

[abibeur]

Headcanons about the "Serveur du Lundi" and how it integrates to QSMP lore

Somebody had to do it one day, and I had some ideas, so... Bear in mind these are mostly headcanons, even if I'm basing these on what we already have. Oh also, even if I don't write "q!", if I mention our French streamers' names, know that I'm obviously talking about the cubitos.

The server in itself

Vacations for the friends on it, think of it as wild camping

The land was bought by JDG (more on that later)

Aypierre wasn't here, because he fled in the wilderness due to being pursued by Ayr0b0t (yeah, funnily the "hardcore" season of his LP coincided with the Serveur du Lundi). Etoiles could still call him, tho', so he wasn't totally cut off.

Kameto also wasn't here, but we could imagine he was actually already spying for the Federation, lurking in the shadows, watching the Serveur du Lundi doing their thing...

The players (and their skins)

JDG / Jidège / Frederic Mollas / Fred / "Pepito Kawazakii"

Is actually pretty famous, like in our world

Big entrepreneur, responsible for many things: parkings, factories, recycling plants, architectural design, talk shows, tv programs...

"His theme" Antoine taught to Pomme is the theme of his talk show!

Antoine was the first to met him personally (probably due to being a doctor). He introduced him later to his other friends.

Aypierre didn't really met him, but he knew of the guy. He did talk to his engineer, though!

Was the one who bought the land for the Serveur du Lundi, under the name "Pepito Kawazakii"

"Pepito Kawazakii" is actually one of his (many) aliases (which include "Odessa Silverberg" and others), when he wants to travel incognito (or do some shady stuff without facing the consequences).

Horty / Hortense

Is a weird humanoid sea creature (and I must restrain myself from doing any Splatoon reference)

Met Baghera in her childhood, while she escaped Quesadilla Island

Both are pretty good friend (even besties!) since this, so Baghera introduced her to her other friends

Both of them are pretty close to nature (due to their animal nature?), causing conflicts between them and JDG

Due to being an aquatic being, she can actually come and go from Quesadilla Island, visiting Baghera sometimes, even if she can't help her escape (because she can't carry her and also because the Federation watches, this time!)

AngleDroit / Florence

Judge, PhD and lawwoman extraordinaire

Actually a furry (even if the idea of her being a human-animal hybrid without any link to the Federation was funny)

Met with Antoine and Etoiles through friends (Antoine really likes befriending powerful and influent people)

Baghera likes to make fun of her but they're still very good friends

Zerator / Adrien

Showman, he met most of the others through social events he organised

Even if he organises caritative events for environmental causes, it doesn't stop him from partnering with JDG in his urban projects

Once again, Antoine can't stop himself from befriending influent people-

Mynthos

Normal headcanons:

A man of the land: farmer, worker, miner, baker...

Met with Zerator through friends (well the French viewers reading this know which friend it is)

Has a Ricardo Milos shirt because why not

Probably the friend with who Antoine bickers the most

Unhinged headcanons:

IT'S A GIANT FLOATING HEAD (oddly similar to Ricardo Milos')

Antoine introducing him to the others, who quickly brushed off the fact that he is a giant floating head, telling themselves that if Antoine said it's a normal human, then it is, why would Antoine lie about that?

Has a weird obsession with animal reproduction

Seems to be abundantly secreting a mysterious liquid, which apparently is edible, but only Antoine dares to drink it

[misscrawfords]

So I'm on S02 of Fringe now and I'm having some thoughts about JJ Abrams. I know that JJ Abrams has done a lot so I'm not trying to come to any full hypothesis about him or probably say anything new about him because I know people have written a lot about him and his love of mystery boxes and ability to set up mysteries and not follow through on them. I'm no expert. And I along with many others feel real betrayal and frustration at him over The Rise of Skywalker. But the thing is, I absolutely love Fringe and Alias. They are two of my favourite shows ever and I'm currently finding rewatching Fringe massively comforting in ways I'm just starting to unpick. (I think it's something to with the fact that it's very much pre-social media, pre-conspiracy theories actually impacting real world politics to the extent they do now. It feels like a more innocent time.)

Alias and Fringe are really similar in many ways and it makes me wonder what the SW sequel trilogy might have looked like if JJ Abrams could have produced it as a TV show instead of a movie trilogy. I'm willing to bet it would have worked a lot better.

Things Alias and Fringe have in common:

Genuinely strong, well-developed, fun, intelligent, three-dimensional heroine who carries the story - Sydney Bristow and Olivia Dunham are really awesome protagonists and I struggle to name more modern heroines in TV who are a more successful blend of interesting, human and aspirational (they're both way more special and exciting and skinny and conventionally attractive than me!). They're descendants of Buffy Summers and genuinely such good characters. It's so refreshing to have sci-fi and mystery and spy thriller series with female protagonists, even now.

Said female protagonist is Special. Yes, they're good at their job but over the course of the series it becomes increasingly clear that they have actual supernatural special powers and their very existence is linked to the overarching mystery. They really are chosen ones.

Father figures are essential and the father/child relationship is arguably the central relationship in the show. Jack Bristow as Sydney's father, Arvin Sloane as her pseudo-father/mentor in Alias, Walter Bishop as Peter's father being the very centre of the plot in Fringe and his quasi-paternal relationship to Olivia as well.

Speaking of fathers, these shows really are about one specific very weird and messed up family creating problems for everyone else. The Bristows really punch above their weight in the Alias universe and the Bishop family, specially Walter's love for his son and his consequent actions, are responsible for the literal plot of Fringe. The number of people working with family members or investigating them when really these are all kinds of an HR nightmare seem to be normal in JJ Abrams' world. Nothing is random but all connected and family and blood is everything.

He seems to really like a plot involving shape-shifers where someone kills the heroine's loved one and steals their face as a way of infiltrating their organisation. Francie in Alias, Charlie in Fringe.

Secret organisations with fanatical beliefs and people with too much power and knowledge committing to them in a way that is understandable but also horrifying and leads to terrible, terroristic consequences are the central villains.

Against the odds, the heroines have happy endings with their long-time love interest and a child.

Judging from the above, JJ Abrams should have been perfect to take on Star Wars, a dysfunctional family saga about fathers and sons in which the adherents to a strange set of mystical beliefs cause insurmountable problems, especially one where the heroine is a skinny plucky girl who develops super powers.

I wonder how JJ Abrams' SW show might have gone if he could have developed all his ideas in slow burn over 5 seasons with 20 episodes each, and the racist, misogynist, backward looking fandom weren't a thing. I'm not trying to excuse the mess that was TROS at all, but I just think he has a history of executing these kinds of stories so much better!

For example, of course JJ Abrams would make Rey a Palpatine. This is giving her a heritage and making family and blood the central theme just as it is in both of the above shows. But instead of the ludicrous "Somehow Palpatine returned", this is the sort of plot that could have been built up and revealed so much more effectively over a season of a TV show. It could in fact have worked really well, as could Rey's reaction and sense of betrayal. Something this massive is really hard to pull off in one movie. And if that had been the plan all along then it should have been sign-posted clearly from TFA. A TV show would also allow more scope to flesh out Rey and Ben's dyad in the Force thing and develop their special abilities.

I wonder whether in the context of a longer running TV show that could have developed Ben's redemption further he would have given Rey and Ben a happy ending. To have her alone without her love interest and without a child is the anomaly here. The ending many Reylos actually wanted where Rey and Ben were free of the war and living in some kind of peaceful exile with their family actually would fit Abrams' MO more based off these two shows.

I'm curious to know how he'd do the shape-shifting and betrayal thing. Maybe the other way round with Finn returning to the First Order as a Stormtrooper to lead a rebellion? Or would one of the Rebellion be proved to be working for Palpatine? Who knows.

Would Snoke and Palpatine be given more time to flesh out their motivations? While I love that Snoke was ultimately not that important and Palpatine was ridiculous, it could have been interesting to give one of the old-man-villains the treatment of an Arvin Sloane who is such a completely fascinating and compelling villain. Arvin Sloane in space playing Snoke's role and showing more of his relationship with Ben/Kylo would be really fascinating. Ditto Ben's relationships with Luke and Han. (SO MANY FATHER FIGURES!) And Rey's relationships to both of them too.

Anyway, this is all just meandering thoughts and speculation based off a tiny amount of JJ Abrams' work but I find it interesting and a little sad to imagine what the ST could have been like with more time to breathe and none of the Culture Wars.