#dana writes a thing

[actual-changeling]

I think in like. 90% of "they're handcuffed to each other" scenarios, they would not care. It would barely affect their work at all. They'd keep them on even once they have the key because this is the perfect 'for the love of God, do NOT get kidnapped again' insurance.

However.

There are those delicious 10% right in the middle of the Diana mess that would make for the most painful, angsty, hurt/comfort fic you can imagine. Arcadia, but turned up to 11.

This was not supposed to be anything resembling said fic and instead stay a shitpost—but here we are.

———

They're fighting over who gets to be in charge of movement immediately, and they do not stop . They keep tripping because they decide to suddenly walk in two different directions, and their wrists are chafed and bloody.

They keep going like that for a while until their lack of coordination and teamwork almost gets them killed, and then they're stuck hiding in a small, dark space, forced to TALK.

Imagine a janitor's closet or a small, windowless bathroom.

First, there's silence.

Then, one of them dares to say a word, and suddenly they're at each other's throats, going straight for the jugular.

Petty fighting turns into insults, which turn into months of pent-up emotions spilling out without any control over how, and they both say things they'll definitely regret later on.

Until it finally reaches a breaking point when Mulder—annoyed, frustrated, confused—cuts her off and says, "You're making it personal again, Scully."

Her mouth closes with an audible click, and she freezes before shuffling as far away from him as she possibly can. He realises he has fucked up. A lot.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Oh, you meant it, Mulder; don't backpedal. You meant it now, and you meant it back then too."

"Scully—"

"Shut up."

She's exhausted. So fucking tired. You made me a whole person to get her to stay, and she'd believed him. Damn it all, she had believed him. Just for him to turn it into a lie and destroy her trust within seconds.

"What does it take? For this thing to come up and bite you on the ass? I saw these creatures. I saw them burst to life. You would've seen them, too, but you were infected with that virus. You were passed out over my shoulder."   "Mulder, I know what you did. I know what happened to me, but without ignoring the science, I can't… Listen, Mulder. You told me that my science kept you honest. That it made you question your assumptions. That by it, I'd made you a whole person. If I change now… it wouldn't be right or honest."   "I'm talking about extraterrestrial life alive on this planet in our lifetime. Forces that dwarf and precede all human history. I'm sorry, Scully, but this time your science is wrong."

He had walked away from her without a second of hesitation, and she wishes she could walk away from him now.

Six years of loyalty and trust, and for what? To end up as the second-best, easily forgotten choice? To be wanted not for herself but as a placeholder, a substitute for someone else?

Forgiveness, over and over, without hesitation, and Mulder took it for granted. Of course, she will do what he wants. Even when he goes behind her back. Even when he tricks her into it. Even when he leaves her behind with barely a word. Even when she has no reason to do it except because it's him.

Because it's personal.

It has always been personal, but suddenly it's a fallacy she spun out of nothing and not the foundation of their partnership.

"I shouldn't have said that, Scully, i—"

I'm asking you to trust my judgment. To trust me.

"Mulder, shut. up."

He hadn't trusted her. She still trusts him and hates herself for it. What's the point of trusting someone when the reward is rejection and loneliness? When he stopped trusting her God knows how long ago?

The skin on her right wrist burns with abrasions, but she refuses to budge. Pain is sharp and honest, grounding and constant. She trusts pain more than she trusts him.

Time is hard to tell in the dark, it could be minutes or hours of waiting until she can feel his fingertips brush against her palm; she suppresses the urge to flinch. Mulder's touch is warm and light, not meant to ask but to offer, and her body betrays her mind and allows him to interlace their fingers.

God, she misses him. 

Underneath all that bubbling anger and lingering betrayal, she misses her partner. She misses him and the person she knows she can be with him—lighthearted, happy, alive. Contented hours of searching through files and writing reports have become a necessary sacrifice; suffocating spans of time she counts down by the minute.

It was never about the desk. It is not about Diana, not really. 

Maybe the darkness makes them both a bit braver, a bit softer around the edges, because she lets out a deep sigh and wills the tension to leave her muscles. If they keep going the way they have in recent weeks, they will break apart sooner rather than later, and she doesn't want to lose him, she never has. 

All she wants is to get her best friend back and to keep him for however long the world will allow. Not a clean slate or a new beginning, but a second chance for both of them. 

Caught between either extending an olive branch or ending up alone, it is easy to choose. Because it's personal, always has been, and always will be.

The pressure around her wrist disappears when she stops trying to keep her arm from him, and he hesitantly squeezes her hand—she slowly squeezes back.

"I'm sorry. for all of it. I never meant to hurt you, but I did, and I'm so, so sorry."

Scully pushes herself backward so she is leaning against him again, and when she closes her eyes, she can almost pretend they're somewhere, anywhere else, and she's finally coming home.

"I know, Mulder. I know."

[bakedbakermom]

they are all things (read on ao3)

post-ep for "all things" // T // 535 words tagging @today-in-fic @ao3feed-msr

Mulder stirs when Scully slips into bed beside him – a pleasant surprise, though not a wholly unexpected one. They’ve been slipping into each others’ beds for a little while now.

[powerin]

so dana’s death scene is just a redrawn la pieta

[theprinceandthewitch]

TOH is so incredibly fanficy, despite being an original show.

I really won't get over how they made Huntlow a thing and wasted a full hourish episode to make it happen.

Frankly, it's nbd for Willow to date someone by the time the story ends. Her dating someone doesn't kneecap her story. But Hunter dating her definitely kneecaps his, because Willow is not relevant to the whole Caleb/Evelyn and Philip drama like Luz is.

It makes no sense, from a narrative standpoint, to have Hunter like Willow. It feels like they really wanted to give Willow a love interest and Hunter was the only option they had to work with.

With Hunter it's like... him getting a witch love interest is something that pretty much needs to happen from a narrative standpoint.... but Willow isn't that LI. The only character who fits Evelyn's themes is Luz. He and Luz are the "Caleb" and "Evelyn" in this story - no other character's fit these roles like they do.

"But TOH is a tragedy -"

"But TOH is a subversion of romantic-"

TBH I really don't want to hear how TOH is a romantic tragedy or a subversion of romantic expectations because... it isn't. I have read romantic tragedies and subversions and this isn't paced like either. They also put a whole ass Lunter kiss in a spoiler episode, so I really don't think they were planning on making TOH a subversion of romantic expectations or writing Luz's and Hunter's romance as a tragic one.

See, this pairing is extremely confusing to me, because if they actually were planning on Hunter and Willow being a thing from the beginning and not Hunter and Luz, then Willow would have been written into all of Luz's and Hunter's episodes - which just so happen to be his important character arc moments [ST, HP and HM].

But... they don't do that, like at all lmao. I'm also not a fan of Hunter's friendship with Willow and Gus, but that's a discussion for another time.

[franollie]

pulling this out every time dana pops up in a comic with a certain someone

[shitouttabuck]

wip wednesday

tagged by @rewritetheending @onward--upward and @alyxmastershipper 💓💓💓

i haven’t reeeeally started writing anything other than planning this out broadly because it’s very plot heavy but got a little lost thinkin about the intimacy of shaving the other day so this is from x files au in some shitty shared motel room while they’re cryptid hunting or chasing aliens idk we’ll figure it out

When he emerges, hair towelled dry and in clean clothes, Eddie frowns at him. “What?” he asks. “Promise I didn’t finish all the hot water.” “No, you just look—” Eddie gestures at Buck’s face, “—scruffier than usual.” “Oh,” Buck says, running a hand over his day-four stubble. “I forgot my razor.” “Oh,” Eddie’s face clears, “just use mine.” Buck swallows. “Um. Okay. Thanks.” Eddie nods at him and goes back to squinting at his phone, so Buck about-faces and re-enters the bathroom. It’s not a big deal, he tells himself as he foams up his face. It’s like—like sharing a hairbrush. Intimate, sure, not something you’d tend to do with people you don’t know well, but it’s not a big deal.  He wets the razor and brings it to his throat, heart hammering there so violently it feels like his Adam’s apple is trying to get out. If his hand doesn’t stop trembling he’s going to nick himself, and God, he is being absolutely fucking ridiculous. Deep breath. The razor glides over the thin skin of his throat, muscle memory even as he stares at himself in the mirror. Doesn’t think about Eddie doing this every morning, using this very razor. Blade edge kissing his jaw the same way it kisses Eddie’s. Doesn’t think about Eddie doing this for him, hand holding his chin as he shaves Buck carefully, grip firm when he turns Buck’s face this way and that. Doesn’t think about Eddie kissing where the blade kissed him first.  Doesn’t think about any of that when he rinses the razor clean and slots it back into the travel mug, where Buck’s toothbrush rests against Eddie’s with such easy familiarity it’s about to spark a whole new crisis. 

tagging @try-set-me-on-fire @jeeyuns @housewifebuck @anxieteandbiscuits @forthewolves @zahlibeth @athenagranted @buckactuallys @transboybuckley @icecreampotluck @diazblunt if you have anything to share today or later!

[asteraceae-blue]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The X-Files Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully Characters: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully Additional Tags: IVF Arc (X-Files), set sometime between Two Fathers and Milagro, per manum flashback, a little hurt comfort, mostly comfort, mostly physical sexy comfort Summary: Scully's last attempt at IVF fails. She contemplates all she has lost and what she is no longer willing to live without.

“Never give up on a miracle.”

She loved him so much in that moment that she felt like she might combust. And what a shock that would have been to him, a self-professed pyrophobe, to have his partner go up in emotional flames in his arms. As it was, she had to settle for kissing him dearly, stopping herself just shy of allowing her sorrow and her emotions to dictate a more intimate location for her mouth than the very corner of his. He wrapped her tightly in his arms, letting her tears soak his shoulder. When the minutes passed and the ache of her loss had lessened ever so slightly, she loosened her grip on him, but not enough to let him go.

“I should get going,” he said. “Let you rest.”

“Can you stay?” she whispered into his soft blue shirt. “I don’t…I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

“Sure,” he said comfortingly, rubbing a hand along her back.

They’d stayed at each other’s apartments before in one scenario or another. Usually because one of them (Mulder) was incapacitated and needed looking after, or they pulled an all-nighter and dozing off was inevitable at some point in the night (Scully). Things had always been very firmly on one side of the line between professional and personal, though none of their coworkers shared their nights in similar ways.

So the surprised look in his eyes was not unexpected when she ran her hand down his arm and gripped his hand, tugging him towards her bedroom.

“I was…”

He was expecting the couch. 

She looked back at him, tears brimming in her eyes once more.

“I can’t be alone tonight.”

He nodded almost imperceptibly, following her lead without another word. Her vulnerability looked to be scaring him as much as it was her. In all of the capacities that she’d allowed herself to be exposed and needy in front of him, she’d never found herself quite so desperate as she was in that moment. As though no one else in existence could rectify what was broken or mend the tattered, tormented pieces of her soul. And really, no one else ever could or would.

It was late and she was so, so tired, so wrecked by the day, that all she could do was remove her shoes and crawl under the blankets, pulling them back enough for him to follow her. He was overly respectful, considering the number of times she’d seen him in far less than a t-shirt and boxers, and kept his clothes on. He was, doubtless, uncomfortable, but said nothing and simply pulled her to him, absolutely enveloping her small frame with his strong arms and tucking her under his chin. 

Scully felt his breath pull in and waited for him to say something. Instead of offering more words of comfort or guidance, he simply kissed the top of her head and held her tighter. Something about the simple gesture broke her, and she felt the tears start again, pressing herself into him as she cried for the life that remained torturously out of her reach.

In a reversal of their normal habits, her mind stayed stubbornly awake while Mulder managed to doze off as he stroked her back in comfort. She drifted in and out, but never managed to find true rest. In the darkest hours of the night, she gave up and settled for watching him as he slept, pondering the cruel twist of fate that had given her such a man, a man that she would have picked a thousand times to be the father of her children, only for her journey with that man to be the very reason he never would. All of it was so unfair. They gave so much of themselves to the world, to their work, and received nothing but pain and ridicule in return, or so it seemed. She gazed at him, noting the tension he held in his beautiful face, even as he slept. There had to be something that made all of it worthwhile…

After a while, the paranoid, VC trained part of his brain must have sensed her watching. His eyes opened and concern instantly crossed his face.

“Scully, what’s wrong?”

She blinked away her sadness and gave him a small smile, shaking her head.

“Nothing,” she replied. 

Everything, she thought. Everything except this…you and me.

Her lungs filled with air as she tried to say more, but she just couldn’t comprehend what she would say that would properly express what was in her mind. Her heart ached for something else. 

She placed a gentle hand along the side of his face and he relaxed into her touch, used to the familiar contact. He responded in kind, placing a hand on her hip and tracing a path along the edge of her pants with his thumb. But when she leaned in, using her hand to anchor their connection, his eyes widened and the hand on her hip gripped her, stopping her movement.

“Scully…”

“Mulder, I know what I’m doing,” she said, ready for the assumption that she was acting from a place of grief; irrational.

“Do you?”

He asked it so quietly, so gently, but her brow still furrowed in offense, somewhat surprised that he would be challenging her acuity.

”I don’t mean that to be condescending,” he went on, clearly picking up on her reaction. He spoke carefully, imploring her to hear every word. “I need you to understand that if we cross that line… if we stop being just partners, just friends… Scully, that’s not nothing to me.”

They stared at each other in the dark, coming to terms with the words that had been spoken, the actions yet to be taken. How very strange, to have gone through everything they had together, to be on quest after quest, the most significant of late being the conception of a child, their child, only for doubt to creep in at that moment. 

He was scared. 

And so was she. But she was also unequivocally certain of how she felt.

“It’s not for me either,” she told him with all the conviction in her soul.

The hand on her hip relaxed, found the curve of her, and pressed into her in acceptance rather than resistance.

She nearly sighed with relief, closed her eyes, and pressed forward, finding his mouth easily. She heard and felt the inhale of astonishment from him, holding her steady for a long moment as they simply existed, to feel that which they’d denied themselves for so very long. He moved against her, deepening the kiss and readily coaxing her mouth open. Part of her wanted to live in that moment forever, feeling the lightning electricity of his mouth against hers for the first time. It was so bewitching, his plush lips, his sinfully tempting tongue - everything she’d imagined over the years and nearly everything she needed right then to make her whole again. But kissing was not the only thing they’d been denying themselves.

He was reverential as he removed her clothes. Kissed every scar on her body that she’d accrued over the years, returning to spots that made her shiver in delight. She took his hands in hers when she noticed them shaking ever so slightly, kissing each of them in turn as she knelt in front of him. She pulled his sweater and t-shirt over his head, pulling him close to feel his skin against hers, and pressed her mouth to his forehead as she had done so many times before. He let out a shaking breath before bearing her down into the bed and ridding himself of his pants.

She didn’t have any condoms in her apartment, and if he had any with him he made no offers. What did it matter, anyway? she thought, somewhat bitter, somewhat thrilled. What was the worst that could happen?

The good Catholic girl side of her brain felt rebelliously excited by the idea. She’d never experienced that sort of intimacy with anyone. She was glad it was him.

He settled between her thighs, solid and hot, and her legs slipped over his hips to accommodate him. For a passing moment, he looked down at her, his expression a shocking mix of lust and indebtedness. She reached up to caress his cheek again, trying to let him know she understood. He’d lost so much - he couldn’t risk this if it meant the possibility of losing it as well. But she’d lost things, too, and she’d be damned if she let another day go by living in purgatory, waiting for a sliver of happiness.

He pushed into her slowly, giving her time to adjust, and undoubtedly himself time to catch up to reality. It was surreal, she conceded, that it was him and her, finally. That it was Mulder driving into her, making her gasp for breath with every thrust of his lithe hips. That it was Mulder running his hands over her breasts and under her ass, pulling her closer to him than she thought possible. Mulder, grazing the flesh of her neck with his teeth and his lips, sucking on the skin over her carotid artery as it thrummed with her ecstasy. Mulder throbbing deep inside her, groaning loudly as her French tip nails dug into his back, completely overwhelmed with his size, his presence - him. Mulder.

“Mulder!…”

He stayed for a cup of coffee in the morning, the rays of an early dawn creeping into her apartment like an intrusion on a good dream. They talked about mundane things - the one report they had yet to file, a rumor he’d heard about a sentient forest in the Pacific Northwest and that they should absolutely check out, the encroaching Y2K hysteria (crisis or not a crisis, you decide). 

Basically anything other than the fact that they’d been hurtling towards the events of the night for six years and what would happen now.

When he couldn’t stay any longer without risking being late or showing up to work in clothes from the day before, he dumped the remains of his coffee mug into the sink and gathered up his jacket. She walked him to the door and leaned into the hug he initiated, inhaling his scent as though it might be the last time. The silky feeling of his lips brushing her brow only made her try to burrow closer into him.

They didn’t speak of it, which was their way with so many personal things between them. And shockingly, nothing changed. For her, at least, it just felt as though they’d finally slipped into the gear that they’d been meant to find for so long. No more struggling uphill, no more straining to keep pace. No more wondering.

Perhaps he thought she only needed him for one night. But she gave him more credit - she knew his mind wouldn’t stagnate on the possibility that she would use him like that. 

Or at least she hoped he knew. 

Weeks later, when Phillip Padgett put the strength of their bond to the test, tempting her and provoking Mulder, she realized that he truly was unaware of the extent of her feelings. To anyone else watching as Padgett uttered the secrets of her heart aloud to them in a jail, Mulder might have looked mildly surprised, curious even. But to her trained eye, she could see the shock in his face. The utter world tipping moment of realization that things were never going back to the way they were before. She knew because she had experienced the same revelation. 

She just wished she could have been the one to tell him.

But at least she had been the one to show him, and it would be far from the last time.

[sadbigemini]

Like I said in a recent post I have been reading lots of humans are deathworlders, humans are space orcs, and humans are space Australians but for MHA. However, I had an idea for Stranger Things!

The Party and Co. (mostly) Are Human Space Orcs

PLEASE look at my other post that's similar to this that has some tips and reminders for writing fics like this!!! ↓↓↓

Maybe not deathworlders or maybe Eleven and those from the upside down are also from a deathworld?

Yes, Eleven, the other numbered children, and those of the upside down are the aliens!

Eleven was abducted by humans– how the turn tables– Why does One/Vecna hate her tho???

This also means Will was abducted by aliens.

Anyway, Steve Harrington is so perfect for this trope or whatever– he is the ultimate choice imo lmao

The government I feel would be exactly how it is in the show.

Eleven could look like a human or be a shapeshifter. Idk I think people would be more likely to help her if she looked or appeared human.

Eddie can join earlier on (Robin too) and I feel like he would so be a conspiracy theorist and so would Dustin.

Omg the Russians– it'd be like the space race!

I don't have anything else rn but if I do I will put it after this lol

What if the upside down aliens did experimentation on Eddie (kinda like Will but not really) and brings him back to life???

Imagine them ever going to space, they would traumatize so many aliens lmao

Omg Argyle would have always believed aliens are real and he's really bummed that this is the kind of experience (close encounter lol) he has with them.

Joyce would be fucking up the aliens just as much as Steve. The moms are killing it, slay those aliens lmao

Maybe the government not only was trying to like make the numbered children into super soldiers but like indoctrinating them to act like humans, abide by human customs only, believe in what they do, etc (just generally horrible things)

[aparticularbandit]

Am now thinking about Haruhi and Mulder meeting.

This goes well for no one.

I'd like to think Scully and Kyon could commiserate, but. Kyon is a full on, if unfortunate, believer. Scully would put him in the same box with Mulder. Or a close one.

Mulder finally has someone with cryptid and supernatural hunting energy to match his. Except Haruhi sees this as a fun game, and Mulder has tragic backstory syndrome. Mulder investigates using odd methods because he knows they're real; Mulder is searching for his sister. Haruhi's here for a good time; Haruhi is looking for her tribe because she doesn't quite fit in.

....

Mulder saw Haruhi's middle school writing and launched an investigation into it only for it to be disproved when the local middle school girl was caught for writing it.

Mulder considers that the local middle school girl herself might be a cryptid. Scully is fairly certain that isn't the case.

[actual-changeling]

it's 2 am and my impulse control is dead so have the arcadia fic poetry-ish writing at the risk of it being some level of cringe. who knows. certainly not me. context? uhhhhhh.

honestly it can be applied to literally every single interaction they have ever had so there's that.

———

Just this once, as if you ever knew moderation. One bite from the forbidden fruit, then I will put it down, I swear, chew, swallow, spit out what remains and force your fist to unfurl.

I will love you, just this once, as if you remembered when you first found it, as if you could ever lose it again. You didn't just pluck the fruit, you buried the seed and tended to it, watched it grow with dirt-covered hands, watered it when it threatened to burn. Just this once, but you put up a fence to keep it safe, you put up signs saying 'mine' because without ever asking you knew.

You still know.

It doesn't mean anything, when sweetness drips from your lips and sugar covers your fingertips. It doesn't mean anything when you close your eyes to savour it. When you decide one more bite, then I will stop, just until I reach the pit, until my teeth find something hard and unyielding.

Skin bursts open as you dig your canines into it like an animal, like a dog, like someone who does not know moderation and has found ambrosia in their hands.

Is it yours to take? Is it yours because no one else came to claim it as theirs? What if someone did come? Did you point at the sign and send them away? Did you stop them from destroying the fence and blocking the sun so they could watch your plant wither for a while?

Did you try? Did it mean something? Does it now?

Just this once. Fruit after fruit grows as you take and take and take, just this once, every single time. It keeps giving, so you keep taking, taking what's yours, taking what should be yours—what should have been yours for a long time. It wasn't, it won't be, you fear, so you close your eyes and say, softly, ripping into flesh, I will devour you, just this once.

As if it will sate your hunger. As if it didn't make you want more and more, as if you weren't going to reach for it again. You will devour, and you will deny your hunger until you're starving, attempting to calm it too late.

Teaching it to crave, violently, because you will say just this once and he will nod and say I know.

I mean it, but you're always hungry, living around the ache in your stomach. I mean it.

I know you do, he tells you, because you do and he does. You will not ask and he will not offer but you devour the fruit and swallow the pit, taking turns, until you no longer feel empty.

Just one bite, because you did not learn from Eve, because God is no longer watching, because you know it will never be 'just' anything.

You say it anyway.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

ok it’s time for dana to hoot and holler about zexal

finished ygo zexal for the first time last week and i absolutely adored it and am STILL thinking so much about it (as i will be probably for. a While now if my relationships with the other ygo spinoffs ive seen are any indication).....time again for me to do my little personal rambly yugioh series retrospective post as the brainworms truly start to set in. kattobingu feel the flow high five the sky build the overlay network let’s goooo!!!

more under the cut. a lot more lol. spoilers for a decade old anime, naturally

GOD. YEAH. THIS ONE MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE YUGIOH SERIES IVE SEEN YET. HOLY SHIT. 2021 Dana was really out here thinking Zexal looked kind of annoying (based on mild DL characters/plot osmosis) and not terribly interesting and I want to go back in time and shake her shoulders and say NO. NO YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. ZEXAL FUCKING ROCKS. every yugioh has some degree of Danabait to it (probably because. watching Duel Monsters as a child was the catalyst to what Danabait even is lol) but JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH Zexal is like being hit by one nuclear bomb of shit genetically engineered in a lab to make me insane after another.

THE ART STYLE. OF ZEXAL, FOR ONE. makes me absolutely rabid animal bonkers--I LOVE seeing the way the ygo art style has been honed and developed and evolved over time. YGO influenced my art style more than I can articulate, and then zexal comes in swinging with the ygo art style at its Most Zany. The EXPRESSIONS in this show!!!!!!!!! Fucking rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A MASSIVE CHUNK OF THE CAST DOESNT HAVE MOUTHS HALF THE TIME AND YET STILL ARE SOME OF THE MOST EXPRESSIVE YGO GUYS EVER!!!! Constantly making expressions I LOVE to draw!!!! and oh my god the COLOR DIRECTION OF YUGIOH ZEXAL?!?!? genuinely absolutely phenomenal and one of my all time favorites i’ve seen in any cartoon, western or anime. you mean to tell me we got a lighting and color budget now??? we get yugioh scenes looking like this??!??

THE BEST. THE BEST. THE BEST. OBSESSED WITH IT. ABSORBING ZEXAL’S COLOR AND EXPRESSION PROWESS. STEALING ITS POWER.

ANYWAY as usual with my ygo watching i was primarily watching the dub (absolutely thrilled to have a Completed Yugioh Dub to watch for the first time since DM, MAN.) but I did end up watching...over half of Zexal II’s sub; stuff just gets so absolutely insane with the Barian Emperors that I desperately wanted every possible inch of their lore so I ended up watching both (sometimes back and forth at the same type like an unhinged wild animal) for the full picture. I like Zexal’s dub a lot!! its comedic timing is ON POINT, EXTREMELY FUNNY DUB. and really like..all of the main dub VAs are so, SO good (as they usually are.) There are a lot of bizarre things they cut though, a lot of childhood flashbacks and little character moments and the like. It’s a shame! I can only imagine a lot of them were cut to leave more room for ad time which. Sucks a bit 🥴A lot of duels do whip a lot harder in the sub too, especially in the back half..... still though, enjoyed my time with the dub. there’s a remarkable amount of stuff i am SHOCKED they actually did keep in?!??! The car crash that killed Shark’s parents is just straight up presented as is with like one or two small cuts. A LITTLE GIRL’S DEAD BODY IS SHOWN?? ON SCREEN??? ZEXAL DUB!! KIDS LOVE IT SO!!! MY GOD!!!

ok enough on that. some breakdowns/specific points like I usually do with these roundups:

Stuff I Didn’t Like: always get this one outta the way first. There really wasnt a whole lot I straight up disliked with this one!! It’s extremely solid all around. It does, of course, have some...Choices, being made, like. Girag’s lips. and. Girag’s backstory. Love the guy but oh my god why did they do that to him 😭Yugioh Racially Questionable moments ride again!!! At this point it’s just par for the course, definitely not the first time a ygo has. Done stuff like that. Ah well. Worth mentioning though.

What’s really a shame is that Zexal has some of the COOLEST, MOST FUN GIRL CHARACTERS, and time and time again they just dont do anything with them!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S SO FRUSTRATING. i LOVE rio but the poor girl is fridged for literally 2/3s of the series!! She’s in the hospital like five times!!!! Rio and Anna and Tori and Dextra and Kari are all like, some of my favorite ygo gals YET but they have maybe 5 duels between them. Konami let your girls DUEL CHALLENGE. PLEASE.

hm what else. I guess also the final showdown with the series “Big Bad” was. uh. kind of let down lmao. But to be fair I was positively spoiled last series with the Z-one duel lol. Can’t win ‘em all. As cool as the concept of “the protag and rival team up to duel the Big Bad” is, and as cool as Don Thousands Entire toxic manipulative dynamic with the Barian Emperors is for like the Entire Rest of Zexal II is, they just....don’t. Do much with him for that last Donny T duel?? Would have loved more backstory elaboration or just like. Anything. It was over so soon and I was like “...that was it??” HDFHGSDFG thankfully the last two duels of zexal whip like hell so we bounce back!!

i also kind of wish don thousand kept his sick as hell demon armor form but c’est la vie i suppose. sad! well there’s other guys.

Favorite Season: I actually have no idea how Zexal is split up into seasons, so I guess Fav Arc would be a better term? Anyway I loved the World Duel Carnival Arc, I’m one of like 5 people who actually enjoy tournament arcs but i think theyre FUN and this one is a blast. There’s Arclight Family Agonies coming from every direction and there’s the INSANE DUEL ROLLER COASTER and Vetrix is bouncing around being a little freak, it’s GREAT

anyway and then Zexal II came in and grabbed me by the head and threw me into the drywall

LIKE. MY GOD. ZEXAL HAS THE FUCKING EMOTIONAL PACING OF MORAL OREL. YOU HIT Z2 AND SHIT STARTS GETTING REAL AND GOING HARD AS HELL AND IM OUT HERE GETTING MY BRAIN SCRAMBLED. I love like. All of the arcs of zexal II it’s hard to pick a favorite but I DO really like just that first third or so where the Barians are just starting to show up and the horrors haven’t quite begun and everything’s so silly and Ray Shadows is Very There. gives me gx season 1 vibes a little bit. it’s a delight.

Favorite Characters: oh right I should. talk about that. pained smile.

i joke about this a lot but usually every ygo series has like. A Character That’s My Actual Favorite, and A Character That Makes Me Absolutely Insane (syrus vs. zane, leo vs. aporia, etc.) but, uh. this time I GUESS THAT’S JUST. THE SAME CHARACTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SORRY. TO BE BASIC. BUT WHY DID THEY DO THAT TO ME. WHY DID THEY PUT A CHARACTER IN ZEXAL WHO ALREADY LOOKS LIKE MY ART STYLE. ALREADY LOOKS LIKE I DREW HIM. AND THEN MAKE HIM FUCKED UP AND SILLY AND A SAD LITTLE JACKASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ABSOLUTELY NEFARIOUS!!!!!!!!! 2021 dana had no CLUE they were hiding this fucker in the back of one of the ygo spinoffs. never could have predicted it. vector’s genuinely one of the best ygo characters of all time to me. what if a yugioh character had the most absolutely bonkers expressions youve ever seen and he was constantly doing little bits and acting like a little funnyman and then the devil fucking Kills Him. he’s perfect. the madness has only just begun to infect me i fear.

ANYWAY other than The Carrot in Question, I fucking love like...all of Zexal’s cast; I think this is the first time for any ygo where a series just didnt really have any characters I straight up Did Not Like. it’s such a solid, colorful cast that just checks so many boxes for my fav kinds of characters. I didn’t think I was gonna like Yuma but I ended up LOVING HIM!!!! I LOVE SEEING A YGO PROTAG THATS LIKE..ACTUALLY BAD AT THE GAME, THAT GROWS BETTER AND STRONGER OVER TIME BUT STAYS SO SILLY. I love what Zexal does to “traditional” yugioh character archetypes--Shark and Kite are both such cool rival characters and the shit they do with Shark especially?!?! NEVER COULD HAVE IMAGINED THEM DOING THAT. WITH A YUGIOH RIVAL. KAIBA COULD NEVER.

Narrowing down a top five fav Zexal guys is so hard, they really came in swinging with Catostrophic Families AND insane alien guys, but after pondering I think I’d have to say rn it’s Vector, Shark, Nistro (my fuckin  MAN!!!!!!!), Trey, and Alito. Immediate runnerup also being Tori. I fucking love Tori, new favorite main ygo girl. She bore witness to All That Shit and never folded. SHe’s Yuma’s FRIEND his CONFIDANT his EMOTIONAL SUPPORT!!!!! Absolute boss. Yuma would be dead in a ditch somewhere by episode 20 without her around.

Favorite Duel: BEEN GOING BACK AND FORTH ON THIS A LOT but I think my favorite duel was and still is the Trey vs. Yuma duel in zexal I, it’s just fantastic. The COLORS AND LIGHTING!!!!! The stakes!!! The SICK DUEL ARMOR!! Trey literally threatens a world-ending murder-suicide because he wants his family to be proud of him and well i’ll just explode into bits all up and down the road about it. Goes hard as hell. Trey and Yuma’s dynamic is one of my favs in Zexal but that’s it’s own post.

I also love all of Alito’s duels (especially the tag duel with Nistro, which is one of the most atrociously danabait duels ever (slash pos) and his last duel against yuma, which ALSO has some of the fucking coolest shots and lighting of any yugioh duel to me) and the last duel between Shark and Yuma. Shit rocks.

Zexal is also pretty unique to me in that it’s the first time i can really concretely say ive had favorite EPISODES as opposed to just favorite duels. There are so many episodes left and right that just make my fucking head explode. The BASEBALL DUEL FRIENDSHIP GAMES EPISODE. The EPISODE WHERE YUMA AND SHARK ARE IN THE HOSPITAL. The “VECTOR GETS STRAPPED INTO THE ALIEN GOD THRONE AND MR. HEARTLAND IS BEING INSANE AND THE ARCLIGHTS ARE IN A SUBMARINE AND ERAZOR IS GOING TO FUCKING KILL YUMA’S FRIENDS” episode. THE. UM. THE EPISODE WHERE THIS HAPPENS

^BROKE MY WHOLE DAMN BRAIN IN HALF. I AM STILL RECOVERING FROM THE DAMAGE zexal II comes in swinging with episodes that just knock your tits clean off and you LOVE to see it!!!!

Miscellaneous Other Zexal Gushing: IT’S JUST FUCKING GOOD!!!! THERE’S SO MUCH TO LOVE!!!!! I love the cast, I love Yuma and Astral’s dynamic and just how much love is there. I LOVE yuma’s friend group, they are SUCH perfect dweeby little middle schooler weird kids. I love the ways Zexal parallels Duel Monsters (and imo takes a lot of elements from DM and does them even better), I love Yuma’s grandma and Kari, ABSOLUTE REAL ONES!!! I fucking love Orbital 7. I love the Number cards and how theyre just completely thematically not related to each other at ALL (sometimes it’s a bug! sometimes it’s a guy! sometimes it’s an entire floating civilization!!!) I love the ABSOLUTELY BONKERS RELIGIOUS MOTIFS AND SYMBOLISM FLYING AROUND IN ANY AND ALL DIRECTIONS. THEY DID THAT FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!! ASTRAL CHRIST ALLEGORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I just...adore how fundamentally Zexal is about kindness and hope and love, and also about how it’s so important to not lose yourself or your sense of fun as you grow up!! That theme absolutely EVISCERATED ME when gx came out swinging with it in its last season, and it’s GETTIN ME AGAIN HERE!!! IT’S ABOUT HAVING FUN!! IT’S ABOUT THE BONDS WE MAKE WITH OTHERS!!! IT’S ABOUT HOW CEASELESS KINDNESS CAN BE AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE THAT MAKES EVEN THE IMMOVEABLE MOVEABLE. yuma has SO much joy and love and forgiveness in his body and it makes me WAIL.

Duel Monsters really ends on this note of “goodbye” with Atem leaving, and it works well for that story’s themes of grief. Meanwhile I think it’s very special that while Zexal also ends on a goodbye with Astral leaving, it feels so much more like a “see you later.”  That hanging note of “we’ll meet again.” It’s so sweet. The themes of past and future at play really just make you root for these kids and hope they grow up into the best versions of themselves.

Also it’s so fucking funny that like All of the Cast That Died and Went to Hell Came Back Except Mr. Heartland Who Definitely Died For Real. gay WRONGS.

God. what else. I’m sure I’ll think of 8352389 more things I love about Zexal immediately after I post this. It’s just that good. So thrilled I gave it a go. I love you Xyz Monsters I love you Dyson Sphere I love you Vector’s dub and sub voices I love you Duel Monster Based Off of the Titantic I love you Dr. Faker’s absolutely insane character design I love you Barian World I love you Arclight family I love you Zexal II Dub Opening Song That’s Sung By Bruno 5D’s VA I love you YUMA AND FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!! ZEXAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cant wait to port all these kids to the college AU. it’s already happening. I love them so much

[madwomanwithawarehouse]

i really think that the problem with season 3 of mq was that by the end of the season it just essentially retconned the development and changes from season 2

[freckleslikestars]

unfurl

"It was the right time. The right place. Peace had fallen." All Things ficlet

302 words, read here on AO3

Rain taps on the pane of his window, the occasional rumble of thunder or rush of a car churning through the wet street below. Across the bed, light scatters through the leaves of the tree blustering about outside, casting dancing shadows across her hand as it traces patterns up and down the bare shoulder beneath.

As the clock on his nightstand flicks over to five, she unfurls herself from his coiled embrace, slips from the musky warmth of his bedding into the cool air of his apartment. She finds her sweater and skirt with relative ease, but her bra and panties are more of a challenge to find, and she gives up on the search for her hose altogether.

His faucet leaks, a regular drip that syncopates with her heartbeat, a meditative rhythm that reminds her of him in a way: a constant. She thinks she should be panicking, that the raw ache between her legs should have her chest clenching with anxiety as she worries over the impending future and the potential that it will all blow up in their faces, but she’s eerily calm, settled, as if she knows, deep down, that they were waiting for the right time, and now they’re there, and everything’s going to be okay.

She leaves a note, short and sweet, loopy cursive telling him she’s gone home to shower, that she’ll get coffee and breakfast for them and see him in the office. She signs it with an S, and before she can second guess herself, she scrawls a little heart in the corner. She leaves it on her pillow, and presses a kiss to his temple, runs her fingers through hair that’s finally starting to grow out after his ordeal months ago.

It was the right time. The right place. Peace had fallen.

Tagging @today-in-fic

Send me one word prompts to get my creativity jump started

[thenewsthaturdead]

Hi hello due to popular demand (3 of my mutuals expressed they wanted me to) i will now be posting my art on main (and probably reblogging it onto my art blog @xx-morel-xx for archiving purposes) anyway yes i do in fact draw these are the silly little guys i keep talking about - Alec and Ondra! Ondra is a vampire who got turned in 18th century Austria-Hungary - he was not a fan of being turned. Alec's parents (or maybe grandparents havent figured that one out yet) escaped communist Czechoslovakia to the US, he comes back for university and gets his idiot emo ass accidenteally turned by Ondra while wandering a cemetery at night. They proceed to go on the run so the vampire government doesnt force Alec to murder his entire family

[scarecrowmax]

The funny thing about finishing your fics is that you don't stop thinking about them

[townofcadence]

’*Gives the Catblob a scritch*’

They seem to really enjoy your scritches, and do excited little hops at your feet!