#definitely real kids bracket

[artificialkids-2k23-official]

Final Matchup: Hatsune Miku vs Stitch 626

[deadsetobsessions]

Of all the places he could have been summoned to, Danny Phantom had never considered a private school’s bathroom to be one of them.

With glowing green skin, a shock of flickering flames for hair, and a suit made out of the spaces between collapsing stars, Danny stared down at the stupefied faces of Gotham Academy’s finest students. One of them had their face in their hands, having caught sight of him and undergoing all the stages of grief in but a moment.

They sat around a circle that he was appropriately impressed with considering the limited space they had to work with. Danny could see the empty stalls, some of which were adorned with drawings and writings that were left by the, no-doubt, extremely busy caretaker.

“Seriously, a bathroom?” Danny wrinkled his nose.

“Holy shit, that actually worked?” One of the kids blurted out, then slammed their hands on top of their mouth.

“Did you expect it not to?” Danny squinted at them, frowning. It’s Friday, so it’s not like he had much to do, but Danny would prefer it if his time wasn’t wasted.

“No- no, your… uh, highness?”

“All of that schooling and you’re still uneducated,” one of the other ones hissed at the red headed kid who spoke. It’s “Your Majesty.” He’s a king, idiot!”

That was a pretty solid burn but, “It’s actually just Phantom. Did you guys want something? I’m busy.”

He’s not busy, but who cares?

“Uh…” the kids exchanged glances. The one in the back sighed and spoke up. He adjusted his glasses.

“We’re sorry for bothering you, Phantom. You wouldn’t happen to have a solution for dimensional separation, would you?”

“Huh.” Danny tilted his head, face souring. “I hate dimensional issues. They’re the worst. Who’s causing them?”

“His name’s Klarion!” The one who slapped a hand across his mouth earlier piped up.

“Oh! The lords of chaos or whatever. Yeah, I can help, for a price.”

Danny is against unpaid labor. Extremely against it, considering his side gig is being a half-dead vigilante. Then again, are you really a vigilante if you’re not half dead on a regular basis?

“What do you want?” Despite the reluctance from earlier, it’s clear the one with the glasses made the big decisions in this weird friend group.

“… A hundred dollars.”

“That’s it? No stipulations?” When Danny nodded, the kid had a calculating expression. “Deal.” The teen said immediately. He pulled out cash and wow, Danny’s definitely in a place with a different tax bracket.

He snatched it. Nasty burger money!

“Deal’s a deal. Also, don’t ever summon me again, but if you do, don’t ever do it in a bathroom again. You kids are so weird.” Danny floated out of the circle, grinning sharply. He formed a small bird- he doesn’t know why, but it felt right- of ice and handed it to the kid with glasses. “There. Proof of the deal.”

With that, Danny disappeared. Private school kids were so fucking weird, but… Dash and his goons were probably worse. What’s a little ritualistic summoning in the face of teenagers?

——

“I leave you guys alone for ten minutes and you summon the king of the dead?” Robin narrowed his eyes at his teammates, traitors who had the good graces to look sheepish. “How could you?! I wanted to try, too!”

Kid Flash patted him on the shoulder, a granola bar appearing in his mouth now that the possible world ending terror disappeared. “Sorry, Rob. Maybe next time! Magic still isn’t real though.”

“I’m not doing this shit in a bathroom again,” Artemis rolled back to her feet. “He sounded like he was going to rip our bones out if we ever summoned him in a bathroom again.”

“Ugh…”

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

Do you think your favorite Morally Grey Blorbo is mistreated by the fandom? Do people not understand them? Are they constantly compared to the likes of Satan?

Or, on the flip side, are people saying they did nothing wrong? Constantly overlooking key characteristics, making it seem like they like the character in their head more than the character you got? Making them into a morally pure saint when they really aren't?

TL;DR: Does the fandom not seem to know the Definition of Morally Grey?

Well, I have good news!

WELCOME TO MISREPRESENTED MORALLY GREY!

RULES:

-No Harry Potter Characters

-No Real People

-2 Submissions or More guarantee entry

-DO NOT USE FAN ART!

-Morally Grey is Subjective. If I get an Ask saying that *insert Character Here* does not deserve to be here, I will make a poll for you to decide

-Cutoff date is February 29th, 2024

-There will be 4 Brackets, 'They Did Nothing Wrong' (A-Side), 'They Did Everything Wrong'(B-Side), Both (C-Side) and Mixed (D-Side)

Edit: PLEASE STOP SUBMITTING EDELGARD VON HRESVELG!!! ESPECIALLY IF YOU AREN'T GONNA CAPITALIZE HER NAME CORRECTLY!! She has guaranteed entry anyway!

Edit Edit: THE SUBMISSION FORM IS CLOSED!!! Thank you All for Submitting!

*tags for exposure*

@tournament-announcer @yall-hate-kids-tourney @look-how-they-massacred-them @morally-grey-girlbosses @godsspecialestlittleguyskirmish

[rumble-aint-a-rumble-without-me]

plsplsplsplsplsplsplspls hcs for curly dating curtis reader🤲🤲🤲🙏🙏🙏🙏

A/N: This is late, but things have been way crazy around here and that’s an understatement actually, but please take this and enjoy!

So for this set of headcanons, you’re a Curtis and to fit the age bracket, you’re gonna be Ponyboy’s twin! That way, you’re in the same year as Pony in school, the same year as Curly and Johnnycake too

But anyways- Curly dating a Curtis!Reader….let’s have some fun, shall we?

The three boys, your older brothers, do not care for Curly very much and they’re going to let you know that quite often-

At school, when Curly comes to visit you at your locker, Ponyboy gags and rolls his eyes because he’s sick of the lovesick look Curly gives you when he thinks nobody else is looking

Sodapop is a firm enforcer of the leave the door open rule when Curly comes over and will just waltz into your room without any sort of announcement because he just wants to check on you crazy kids

When Curly tries to take you out, Darry drills you on what’s going to happen for at least ten minutes before you leave because he wants to make sure that Curly’s not taking you out to vandalize the town or anything

In short?

They all think that Curly’s way too greasy for you and they think you can do way better than Curly

But we know that’s not true, don’t we folks? Curly’s a sweetheart, even if he’s a bad boy, he’s a good guy and he’s good to you-

Dating Curly as a Curtis is going to mean a lot of sneaking out and sneaking in, that’s just the way it runs-

He gets very good at tossing pebbles at your window and you get very good about coming in and out of the house without stepping on any squeaky floorboards or waking anyone up

Let’s be honest, the door never being locked helps you out a whole lot

You and Curly will probably be spending a lot of time over at his place because your brothers aren’t there, duh, and Curly doesn’t have to deal with them hounding him

However, you will have to deal with the hounding, especially if you’re coming home late and you tell Darry where you’ve been hanging out

Tim’s a lot more chill about Curly dating a Curtis kid but the first time he brought you over and Tim caught sight of you, he decided he’d have a little talk with Curly once you leave-

Don’t worry! Tim thinks you’re great! But as much as he likes you, he knows his kid brother can be an idiot sometimes and Tim doesn’t really want to tangle with the Curtis clan because Curly went and broke your heart by being stupid

Also, whenever Curly gets hauled back to reform, let’s be real, it’s gonna happen at least a few more times, you’re gonna cry and be sad and your brothers are gonna have no clue how to handle it

They’re gonna look between themselves and maybe make a stupid comment or two but once they see how sad you actually are, Sodapop will probably offer to drive you out to visit him in reform

The rest of the Curtis gang find it a little bit funny just how peeved the three boys get when everyone learns you’re going steady with Curly

Sometimes Two-Bit will run his mouth and say he caught you all being little delinquents when you were out on a date just to get Darry all fired up

Curly definitely doesn’t help the hate he receives either, he’s all for kissing you way past decent and saying all sorts of unhelpful things in your ear when you’re around your brothers because Curly likes to stir the pot and generally likes causing chaos

But honestly? He’s good to you, and the boys only need to see a few examples of that to believe it

Let him pay for dinner a few times, get you home before curfew just enough for Darry to consider extending your curfew, and make sure Curly cleans up just enough when he’s gotta try and pretend like he’s a well-meaning, valuable member of society

With all of that being said though…

Curly could turn up on your doorstep, bleeding from a fight and looking for you to patch him up, and all three of your brothers would tell you that your mutt’s looking for you

TL;DR; the boys are jerks to Curly, but Curly kind of deserves it, and they all know he’s actually good for you, even if they tell you that you can do way better-

[l0vem41l]

star stickers and best efforts.

「 tws + notes: no tws, unedited, hurt/comfort but 100% not at all, reader is mildly mean when nervous LIKE A BAD DOG /ref and most definitely written self-indulgently by accident, sun is mildly condescending, they r each others best supporters, mentions of a customer being rude but rly nothing crazy, sun uh... he's an interesting fella, BIGGG dialogue chunks im sorry im sorry 」

「 gn!reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

↳ ft. the daycare attendant/sun/sundrop

author's note: my wip title was literally just "the one where you're yelled at" :p but... hiiii!!! obligatory return to fnaf real quick becuz,,, no, i still havent gotten into the ruin dlc but YES i do love sun's personality in help wanted 2..... if this is ooc u can erm. shove me into wet concrete. (。﹏。) aaannywayz!! missed this!!! missed this so much!!!! ( ╯□╰ ) sorry for not valentine's day posting,,, scandalous ik since im lit rally Called Valentine. but oh well. enjoy! or dont. if you dont im sorry please request fnaf stuff so i can Fix That /srs

if you weren't relying on this job to put food on your table and a roof on your head, you’d burn the freddy fazbear’s mega pizzaplex to the ground for a piece of pocket lint and a pat on the head.

maybe it’s a bit dramatic to say that— you're paid well, you like your mostly robot coworkers, and most of the time (emphasis on most and not always) the work is manageable enough.

the customers are another story.

sun notices the minute you walk in the daycare. you look like you're a minor inconvenience away from murder— which naturally, makes him feel inclined to prod a little.

“well, someone’s awfully sulky today!”

while you’d typically crack a smile at the upbeat jester animatronic, his enthusiasm in the face of your misery is grating. there’s no energy left in your body to banter with him— you were using most of it to drag your feet over to the shoe caddy, toolbox in hand to fix up its shelf, now hanging askew due to a busted bracket.

“can it, sunny, i don't wanna hear it.” you mutter, more venomous than you intend it to be. he doesn’t even blink at your grumpiness. instead, he happily holds up the shelf while you inspect it and grab a new bracket to secure it.

at least he’s trying to make himself useful. you think to yourself.

his faceplate tilts slightly, staring at you with that ever present grin. his staring isn’t really helping, but you don’t fault him for it. you’ve gotten used to his antics by now. “woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” sun questions.

you shake your head.

“got yelled at by a customer— now, if you could please just drop the topic—” you sigh exasperatedly, not even bothering to finish the sentence as you sit down cross legged in front of the shoe caddy, slumping slightly in defeat.

much too persistent for his own good, sun decides that inquiring even further about the incident that seems to have you beat down is a good idea. “what’d you do?”

you consider feigning offense as he insinuates it’s somehow your fault. but you don’t. you just shrug it off.

“my job.” 

“ah, they do hate it when you do that.” he tuts.

“it wasn’t even that big of a deal,” you mutter, getting the bracket in place and marking it, “this one kid just so happened to walk up to the arcade machine i was putting an out of order sign on. i felt bad, so like, obviously, i hand the kid a few tokens, apologize politely, explain— and you’d think it’s all good right?”

you pause mid-ramble as you fix up the shelf. in all your misery, you forgot that you don’t even know exactly what caused the shelf to collapse like this. you consider asking.

sun leans in just a bit too close, interrupting your train of thought as you stare at the shelf. when you glance at him, he gives you a little nod.

go on, he seems to say wordlessly. he’s waiting silently for you to continue your story. it’s never not unnerving when he’s quiet.

“...anyways, uh... the kid’s dad came by and got mad or something. didn’t understand why i couldn’t just let him play one game since it looked perfectly functional— keep in mind, this is the arcade machine that literally kept eating up tokens only to not function, and shocked kids when it did— so i kept trying to explain why i couldn’t exactly do that. but for some reason, it was such a big fucking deal—”

“language.” he chides.

“...fricking deal. of course, i had to be berated for it. i offered to grab them more faz-tokens as compensation and i thought the problem was solved... and then i checked and saw he still left a bad review. definitely gonna hear about that from management.” sun hands you a tool as you continue to speak.

“but now i’m upset, i’m definitely in trouble, and my face hurts from the whole customer service smile i was holding that entire conversation. like seriously, i don’t know how i’m expected to do that 24/7.” you stop at your last remark and stare at sun and his unchanging expression. “...my bad.”

the awkward silence only lasts for a moment, thankfully. you’ve spoken your piece— sun decides to speak his.

“you did your best.” he says simply, as you finally fix the shelf into place. he pats you on the head and doesn't even hide his amusement when you sulk.

“i know that tone, sunny, you're making fun of me—”

“poor thing.” he continues, grinning brightly as he makes a show of patronizing you. sun’s hand continues to pat the top of your head gently, like he would when consoling a child. or when greeting a dog. has he,,, ever seen a dog before? probably not.

you groan and manage to shove his arm away.

“i do mean it though,” he continues, his tone still lighthearted— but notably more earnest as he notes your expression. sun helps you put your tools away neatly back into the toolbox, even though it really is just a one-man job.

“you tried your best,” sun closes the toolbox with a flourish and a click, “...and for that—!”

with a dramatic flick of his wrist, bells jingling as he does, sun produces a gold star sticker from… somewhere. he holds it up for you to see.

and then gently presses it onto the tip of your nose.

“to my favoritest human employee here! and my bestest of friends!” it’s hard to bite back a smile at those words. even if his little show of empathy and affection is much too theatrical for your current mood.

“whatever.” you shrug a little, unable to stop the corners of your mouth from twitching into a little grin. standing up and grabbing the toolbox, you give him an awkward thumbs up.

“thanks. and uh… sorry. for being mean. i guess.”

sun shakes his head dismissively, bouncy and bright as ever. “oh, don't mention it!”

something about his seeming lack of offense towards your prickliness makes you feel even more guilty. still, he gives you a wave as you head out, “bye-bye”-ing happily as you walk away, sticker stuck to your nose and smile on your face like an idiot.

you decide you’ll find a way to make it up to him later. you figure he deserves that much for putting up with everything.

meanwhile, sun is taking mental notes on more stuff to break of whenever you’ve been away for too long. just in case, of course. maybe you’d have more interesting customer encounters to rant about. and hey, you could use the company, couldn’t you?

— reblogs always appreciated!

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI BRACKET ROUND 1

Propaganda:

Fiddleford McGucket/Stanford Pines:

lab "partners" who broke the laws of physics and nature together but it went horribly wrong and one of them got stranded in alternate dimensions and the other wiped his memory so hard he went mad. 30 years later and they were finally able to reunite during the apocalypse. even though both had changed so much they wanted to forgive each other and move forwards

if fiddauthor isn't real then why is there only one bed in the bunker. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did they go stargazing and talk about wanting to start a family. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "my partner" and "my fiddleford". if fiddauthor isn't real then why does fiddleford subconsciously hang out around the shack decades after he stopped living there. if fiddauthor isn't real then why does ford have dreams about him every night. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did fiddleford leave his son and his failing/failed marriage to go live alone in an isolated cottage in the woods with his best friend from college. if fiddauthor isn't real then why is ford's ideal world one where he gets to work with fiddleford for the rest of time. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "life would be a nightmare without them" and "it's the most meaningful thing in the world". if fiddauthor isn't real then why did alex hirsch change that one scene in the book to sound less gay. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did fiddleford make his laptop password ford's name. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did they hold hands while hugging. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "i could have sworn that as he joyfully played, i could see the age lift off his face, and see the fiddleford who had been my friend so many years ago". IF FIDDAUTHOR ISN'T REAL THEN WHY DID FORD'S MORE HONEST RETELLING OF THE PORTAL SCENE FEATURE HIM GENTLY CRADLING FIDDLEFORD IN HIS ARMS

Xehanort/Eraqus:

they had a divorce scene where xehanort blasted eraqus in the face with no remorse which permanently left a scar and in the novels when he sees xehanort again (who is literally lying and manipulating him in the given scene) eraqus like. tenderly and lovingly smiles and touches his scar like WHAT

First of all. Eraqus is going gray but doesn’t look insanely old but as proof of age I’d like to say that he’s very close to Xehanort in age in Dark Road, the prequel in which they are teenagers, and Xehanort in the main time frame is extremely visibly old and was included in Retirement Home Rumble so Eraqus probably just aged extremely well. They’re trauma bonded through all their friends getting brutally murdered back when they were teens and the two of them were the only survivors (Dark Road was MESSED UP). I’m not sure if they entirely qualify only because they’re like the super divorced elder gays here but they’re definitely old men and definitely yaoi (noncanon but their end in KH3 was so so gay) so I’m submitting them anyway. Anyways the plot of Birth By Sleep was a weird divorce struggle between these two estranged lovers in which Xehanort manipulates Eraqus’ kids in a weird darkness plot because he went evil mode without his husband around to stop him. They have a decent amount of material being gay as their younger selves but that’s not what’s important here WHAT’S IMPORTANT HERE IS THE END OF KH3 when Xehanort’s evil plans were almost finished and then Eraqus appeared out of his basically-son Terra’s hair as a ghost. And talked it out like some kind of mid-battle relationship counseling. Then they put their arms around each other and Xehanort accepted defeat/death/whatever and they just??? faded into sparkles??? smiling at each other??? after like 11 games of buildup to this final battle??? They’re so Divorced Old Men Yaoi your honor

I hate these bitches but nobody does old man yaoi divorce like them. Inseparable "pals" until the tragedy happened, eventually sending them on two separate paths. Eraqus worried that xehanort would fall to darkness, refusing to see that he already had. Xehanort pushed all his feelings away, trying to see eraqus only as a tool for his goals. Xehanort literally stabbed eraqus in the back, killing him. Eraqus forgives him.

in birth by sleep eraqus is voiced by mark hamill and xehanort is voiced by leonard nimoy so in a way their friendship turned enemyship turned always still cared abt each other represents the love/hate relationship between star wars and star trek fans

they’ve been best friends since they were young, Eraqus just pointedly ignores how blatantly evil and DarkTM Xehanort is and then Xehanort murders Eraqus, then later they just casually move on to the afterlife together??? listen I want to shred Xehanort apart with my teeth but these old men are so incredibly gay for each other it’s insane so I HAVE to submit them

[oopsalldadsderby]

You know those characters who definitely don't like children? Or just don't have much opportunity to interact with them, because they've probably got some kind of hardened career, like bounty hunter or apocalypse survivor or something? They never expected to be a parent. They probably don't want to be one. But then one day, they get stuck looking after this kid, and, well, they're not gonna be mean to a kid, they're not that awful. And then approximately five seconds and one emotional moment later, whoops, they've adopted them. There's no going back. That's a dad now.

This is the tournament for those characters! Characters who are not, biologically or legally, the parents of these children—but damn if they don't confuse everyone they come in contact with.

QUALIFICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS:

Despite the use of "dad," this is not a gender-locked tourney! Characters of other genders are welcome if they fit the description.

This is primarily for characters who aren't actually parents. Actual, legal adoption is OK, but it has to be preceded by the aforementioned bonding due to circumstances.

Also OK to submit duos that are more vibes or hc-based, but ones with more canon substance will probably get priority.

No real people. I may also exclude certain fandoms if something weird comes up. We'll see.

You can submit as many characters as you want, but don't spam submit the same one. That will achieve nothing except annoying me.

I have no idea how many responses this is gonna get so we're gonna play it by ear vis-a-vis how big the bracket is and how many characters get in. There are no auto ins, but I have a few characters in reserve to fill spots with if it comes up!

BE COOL. Don't dunk on other characters. They're having a rough time already, what with having to babysit all these kids. If a bunch of people are aggro about the same character, it will be considered a forfeit.

Tagging for visibility: @princessandknightfight @notquitesiblingsshowdown @evil-babygirls @maincharactertournament @ultimatepinkgirl @tournamentdirectory

[greenerteacups]

Hi! Just wanted to say the latest chapter is lovely & amazing & sweet & had me smiling the whole time! I absolutely love your characterisation of everyone, especially Draco, so it was so so lovely to return to this world & to his thoughts!! with his best friend and crush at malfoy manor no less! All the yearning is already off to a great start hehe I am so excited for the rest of book 5!

Wanted to ask you how has it been for you to write this new book and volume? Has your writing process changed since when you’d first begun taking on a long form project like this?

& also are there any moments or surprises in this book that you’re especially excited about?

sending so much love & gratitude for you and your incredible works 💓

Thank you so much! This is really encouraging, I so appreciate it.

Inasmuch as I can use this metaphor without having kids myself, I sort of see each of the books as a different child. The first one flew out in basically a few weeks of very intensive writing, and it was a total dream — plot, pacing, symbolism, major beats, all fell into place basically without effort. The character stuff was the hardest, as I've written about before, but even then, the glorious part of writing beginnings is it's the most energy you'll ever have for a project, so the lows were pretty soft lows. Book 2, in contrast, I had to drag kicking and screaming by its ankle from under the bottommost mattress of my brain. It's one of my least favorite books (tone problem; COS has killer plot/setting/ingredients for a YA novel, but it's stuck in the doldrums of Harry Potter's well-documented Early-Installment Weirdness, before Cedric Diggory slams the gas and upshifts the whole series into its correct age bracket). More specifically, once I'd gone through and picked out everything in the book that happened because of Lucius, I didn't have a plot — hey alexa how do you rewrite Chamber of Secrets when We Got No Fucking Chamber Of Secrets — and oh by the way, even if you want to do a moody tone/political setup book, remember that your protagonists are still twelve, so if you go too dark or too intense, you'll risk torpedoing your readers' suspension of disbelief. Good luck, Charlie.

Book 3 felt the most like its own novel, if that makes sense? It's the last truly feel-good book of the series; it's a great stand-alone mystery novel with relatively low stakes. Plus you get a bunch of the big series icons: patronuses, dementors, werewolves, Hogsmeade, the Marauders' Map, and time turners arithmancy. It just felt like a good old-fashioned motherfucking romp of a mystery/adventure story, before any of the complex character work and major stakes of the late books come in.

Book 4 was the most fun I've had writing anything maybe ever. I don't even know what it was. Maybe the tournament arc, honestly? Love me a tournament arc. But in any case, I opened every new chapter feeling a tingle of excitement for what I was gonna get to do. Oh, and the romance started, finally, Jesus God (if it feels like a slow burn reading, just imagine what it felt like writing it, when everything takes ten times as long, and you have to figure out how to word the fucker.)

Book 5, in contrast, has felt much less like that tingle of "here we go!" and more like "oh, man, this is gonna be cool." Because this is the arc of the story that composed the original idea for Lionheart, literally years ago, and to be honest, I didn't think I'd get this far! If you'd asked me "do you know that it's going to take you 500,000 words of backstory before you can start writing that concept you're thinking about, and you're going to do it anyway?" I would have said: "absolutely not, strange mind-reader!" But like... I'm here! Finally! And it's... real now? Like, this isn't just a bunch of clips of scenes in my head anymore! That's rad!

That being said, it's definitely been slower than Book 4, because I kept switching back to my outline document to make sure that certain things were set up properly, and that I hadn't lost any of the plot threads or forgotten a minor beat that was vitally important for the story three chapters later. And I had a minor crisis about three months ago when I ripped out about 8 chapters in the first third of the book — basically everything from September to December — because I'd done a readthrough to check pacing (big mistake! never edit while drafting, that's satan talking) and realized I had a missing storyline. Like, there was a whole layer of the story that was just. Missing. Not there. And the existing text really couldn't fit another thread, so instead of taking weeks to pore through and try to sift out what I could save, I needed to factory reset and start over. And I didn't want to! I vividly remember sitting there with my head in my hands, trying not to weep, because I'd decimated 90,000 words of work in a single edit. But it had to be done. Because the story wasn't going to work. And now (hopefully) it will.

And of course, there's still that sense of excitement and exhilaration from before. Always. But whereas Book 4 felt like a delicious chocolate pudding, Book 5 is a medium-rare steak.

(Book 6, so far, is four shots of espresso and a whiskey chaser. FWIW.)

[goldenfreddys]

september '04, cont.—hangin' with the unloved kids

When Nadia arrived, the front entrance of Freddy’s was locked, and there was still no word from Jeremy. She peered through the glass, scanning the main party room for clues. There was the movement of a door swinging shut as a figure walked into a fenced off play area at one end, though she didn’t catch a good look. She squinted, then walked back to her car.

There were no other cars in the parking lot. Nadia opened the trunk, briefly considered smashing the entrance open with her tire iron. Bad idea, given there was a camera out front and it would draw attention. Kneeling out in the open to pick the lock was out of the question, too. She grabbed her backpack and hefted it over her shoulder, then locked the trunk.

For the past few weeks, she’d been working at a hardware store in the area, processing orders and moving stock around in the warehouse. She remembered a coworker complaining about having to prepare a big order of various machinery, screws, brackets, clamps and wiring for Fazbear Ent. which were listed in very specific quantities. Naturally, this meant the building had some sort of docking area to receive the supplies.

She yawned, pulling her hood up as she made her way to the back end of the pizzeria. Her dusty converse crunched against the gravel driveway that led around to small bay door. To her relief, there was only one security camera back there, which was too caked in dirt to function. There was also a regular single-person entrance before the corner with an “authorized personal only” sign above it.

A laminated piece of hot pink paper written in comic sans read: Pinpad broken. Key in the mailbox. DO NOT misplace it. Thanks, Sean.

As promised, there was a key in the box beside the door. Nadia let herself in, then tucked it in her pocket. As expected, it led into a storage garage, which had doors into, according to the scuffed plaques, a kitchen and a parts & service room. There was a corkboard beside the kitchen door, with more printed notices from ‘Sean’ ranging from reminders that smoking must be confined to the designated area and away from view of clientele, to warnings about certain employees failing to properly record their break time, to legal disclaimers and safety procedures.

Cautiously, Nadia tried the door to the kitchen. It was definitely locked. She then moved to the parts & service entrance. The handle seized partway, but opened with a bit of applied force.

How spooky, she mused. A couple badly damaged animatronics were slumped around the room, which was cluttered with various robotic parts and costume pieces. There was a tangible sense of impending doom fluttering around in her chest. She imagined her friends at the movies, watching her as the protagonist of some annual slasher reboot, saying “Boo, bitch! Why is she doing that?”

Nadia started humming to herself, nervously, as she crept through the room.

“He was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it anymore obvious?” she sang under her breath, “He was depressed, she was insane- what more can I say?”

She reached the other side of the room without incident, eyeing the broken down robots as she slipped out. It was hard to shrug off the fear that something really bad had happened to Jeremy. She chewed on her hoodie string as she continued across the party room, towards the area she saw the figure. The checkered tile seemed familiar, somehow. Vague memories of Ms. Fitzgerald’s family photos came to mind. This was Jeremy’s hometown, he'd told her. That he always thought about maybe moving back after graduating, but never had the nerve to consider it for real.

Suddenly, a large gift box by the prize counter jostled. Nadia froze, staring at it. The lid opened, slowly, and a marionette peeked its painted face out. It stared back at her for a moment, before beckoning her over and disappearing back inside the box. She glanced around, then cautiously approached the box. The puppet emerged, again, and held out a checkered, holographic pink slap bracelet.

“For me?” Nadia asked, smiling despite herself.

The puppet nodded, carefully snapping it around her wrist. Nadia struck a goofy pose to flaunt her new accessory.

“Why, thank you. You shouldn’t have.”

The puppet turned its head to the play area. There was a small clatter from the dark, then the sound of screws rolling across the floor. Nadia walked closer to the sound, gripping the shoulder strap of her bag. There was someone in there, trying to gather the screws back up. She strained to get a better look.

The figure froze for a moment, then scrambled to their feet and whipped around. Their eyes caught the light like freshly minted dimes— Nadia was suddenly unsure if it was a person at all. She took a step back. The figure lunged forward, catching against the wall just short of where she stood. They flicked a switch.

Kid’s Cove lit up with warm, fluorescent light.

Not Jeremy, Nadia realized, but uncannily similar. She let a sharp breath out and let her shoulders fall. The girl had the same brown, freckled skin and dark curly hair, though hers was seemingly tied into a loose ponytail. She briefly imagined an underpaid cartoonist pasting big eyelashes on her boyfriend before calling it a day.

“Um, miss? We’re not open until nine.” the girl’s face was expressionless, though she was evidently startled.

Nadia decided to take things one problem at a time, admitting, “I was supposed to pick someone up, but I can’t find him, so…”

“So you… Broke in?”

“I think it’s more like spontaneous urban exploration, but yeah.”

She smiled approvingly, “Okay, metal. You can call me Chucky, I work in maintenance. Your name?”

Behind her, a tangled mess of metal limbs and animatronic pieces jostled, sending a few more screws from the spilled pile on the floor rolling away.

“Nadia… Uh, what’s over there?”

Chucky turned and walked back to the tangled animatronic heap. She swept the screws away with her hand and kneeled down next to it, “Toy Foxy, captain of Kid’s Cove.”

A fuzzy off-white snout flopped across Chucky’s lap with a creak. She gave it a pat, before turning her head to stare at Nadia.

“But her enemies call her… The Mangle.” She stated, dourly, fluttering her fingers for dramatic effect.

“... Somehow, the tots here are really good at disassembling him while we’re not looking, but my supervisor said he doesn’t want me wasting time on it, anymore. So, I like to come in early and see what I can do before opening time- just, y’know… Making sure he’s mobile and there’s no sharp edges poking out, anywhere… What was the name of the employee you're looking for?”

“Jeremy.”

“Journey Fokker, Catering…? No, that's not right… You mean Jeremiah Fitzgerald, overnight security!”

Nadia hummed in agreement.

“Right. Mike said he was giving him a ride, earlier. Had a rough shift, or something… He’s daytime security, but he's been sitting in overnight to make sure the rookie has everything down.”

“So Mike drove him home?” Nadia asked.

“Probably. He's been bitching up-and-down about the guy for days, but it's just tough love.”

Chucky got to her feet and smiled fondly, hitting Nadia with a weird sense of deja vu. Her brow furrowed as she rooted around in her head, looking for what she was reminded of. Maybe it was the angle, the lighting, or the position of the name tag on her jumpsuit.

A little tiny Ghostbuster on the front lawn, dated October ‘88. Charlotte and her brother, ready to trick-or-treat.

“This is a crazy question, but like… Did you ever have a twin brother? Maybe?”

“Yeah,” Chucky’s poker face returned, “... Why?”

[bestdeadbeatmilf]

Round One, Bracket Six

Propaganda under the cut!

Mila Garak:

While she's definitely not a deadbeat mom in the lazy sense, she did kind of, proverbially speaking, leave her son out in the cold... She lied about who his real father was well into his adult life, while also imposing said father's wishes on him. She wanted what she thought would be a better life for him, a chance at upward mobility, but placed him under the thumb of an abusive man to get there and then didn't stand up for him. She roped her brother into helping raise the kid as a cover story. She retired alongside the father and didn't really do much during or after her son facing exile at his mercy. I don't think she's an unsympathetic character and I find her extremely compelling, but I also don't think anyone can claim she was a great mom 😭

Extra notes: Diversity win this ruthless woman is an alien scalie with cool hair and big boobs

Martha Wayne:

she died ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and that's enough for this fandom to render the loml janet drake abusive so... failmom martha is therefore hilarious to me. martha wayne failed at being bruces mom by dying and that's why hes batman. and they're literally rich so she was probably an absent mother too (SILLY i stand by it tho if janets a bad mom so is martha). but its ok because shes hot

Extra notes: this is mostly for the bit but you should still include her in the polls its not like she's going to win im just being petty 😭

[artificialkids-2k23-official]

[fictionaladoptionpolls]

Anime Child Adoption Bracket

What is this?

It is a "tournament" where Tumblr collectively decides which anime children they most want to adopt. It was inspired by this post, talking about a poll from a Japanese con, where people voted for the “animanga character that [they] wish was their child”.

What children are available to adopt?

Submissions are closed. I have a list of the children here, along with some fun statistics.

What is anime?

For the purposes of this blog…if you genuinely aren’t sure whether something counts as anime, it counts. I’m casting a broad net! Steven Universe is anime, Fire Emblem is anime, Hololive is anime.

If a child isn’t from something anime-ish enough, they probably won’t get as many votes as comparable children from things that are unambiguously anime. That’s good enough for me.

That said, if someone submits Anakin Skywalker or X Musk or some other kid who is obviously not from an anime, I reserve the right to quietly ignore that submission.

What is a child?

In the real world, this is an easy question; pick a cutoff age, and check their ID. For anime, things get trickier.

First: A character counts as a child if they are a child for a significant time. Significance is, unfortunately, subjective; an adult protagonist who gets five minutes of flashback probably shouldn’t count as a child, but a child who only appears in three minutes of that flashback should.

Second, we need to address the fact that anime is full of actual children who don’t act like kids, as well as characters who look and often act like kids but are actually 300-year-old vampires or something. A character who looks like a child, acts like a child, and is the age of a child is definitely a child; what about other characters? For the purpose of this poll, let’s say they need at least two out of three. Ancient lolis need to act like children, weirdly mature minors need to look like children, and actual children who look like adults (while rare) qualify as children.

Of course, both “look like children” and “act like children” are subjective. That’s fine. Again, if a submission isn’t child-like enough, they probably won’t get as many votes, that’s good enough. (Though I again reserve the right to ignore anyone who submits Master Roshi or something.)

One last point of clarification: For the purposes of this bracket, adolescents are children. Submit as many high schoolers as you want. (Anime has no shortage of them.)

Do the children submitted need to be orphans?

No. The children can be from nuclear families, or single-parent ones, or families where the older children fill the shoes of absent parents, and so on. They can be happy with their family situation, unhappy with it, actively opposed to the idea of relying on others, etc.

The only requirement (aside from being an anime child) is that

How long will the submission period last?

At least a week. I’ll post something (and edit this post) when I close submissions.

How will the bracket work?

It will function as a double-elimination bracket, where losers in the main bracket get a second chance in a “loser’s bracket”. There may be additional complexities (such as including more than two characters in each poll), depending on whether I end up with fifteen kids or 500.

I have another question not mentioned in this FAQ!

Send me an ask. I’ll respond, and possibly add the answer to this FAQ.

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

The Darkling

Okay so this guy is the main bad guy of the series. He made “the fold” this barren wasteland of darkness and monsters dividing the land, causing like hundreds of thousands of people to die. He killed his mom. He psychologically manipulated his girlfriend (like, he caused her to hallucinate and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff). He made one of his followers (a young girl) use her body to slowly poison the king over time. He started a cult. He did a LOT of crazy stuff. However, we do see his backstory of him as a kid, and learn that he did all this in the name of equality, so people would stop torturing and killing the ‘grisha’ or the witches/magic users. Later, he fakes his own death and starts a cult worshipping him and acts as the leader of the cult, going by his old name Aleksander. He is a very complicated character. So tell my why everyone thirsts after him and is like “he did nothing wrong” HELLO?! He is NOT your poor little meow meow he is complies please please don’t sanitize him.

Mikoto Kayano

Mikoto is really kind and friendly, he gives people nicknames, and he tries to talk to everyone. He cares about his little sister and his mom; he doesn't want to worry anyone and will hide when he's really stressed out and try to act like everything is fine. He just laughs and hopes everything will work out. He overworks himself and thinks that he needs to keep working, even after he's already pushing himself too hard. He doesn't remember killing anyone and he's in MILGRAM because of it and he got voted to not be forgiven in the first trial which is making his stress worse.

Mikoto's characterization within the fandom is either sexy man or baby who couod never hurt a fly. Despite that in his introductory voice drama he folds a fifteen year old for several minutes abd the fact that he's now in a mystical prisoner for definitely committing murder. Like the entire premise of the series is contingent upon everyone who is in it killing a person. Mikoto has dissociative identity disorder the fandom uses this to basically go normal Mikoto the one Milgram arrested (the prison that can look into people's minds by the way) is the good one. He hates violence and I'd just a silly little office worker but the other one I'd the literal devil. An evil man who likes violence and just hates people real antisocial. The fandom is so bad at understanding moral ambiguity and dissociative identity disorder that despite his songs being called MeMe, Double, a line in the second song being literally "Just the two of us" and one of the creators puting out a statement after the seconds songs release saying "I wonder what will happen to the two Mikoto's now"- A good majority of fans have convinced themselves there is a third very normal and chill alter (because they seperate them by emotional states like this is fucking inside out for some reason) who is just a guy and consistently state Mikoto will be bad representation if there are only two. It's to the point that a good deal of the fanbase are fans of this character and not actually Mikoto. Only using his actual character for ship fodder to fuel their switch fetish. I don't know if it's not understanding moral ambiguity, just not knowing how to fucking read, or hating a minority of people simply based on how a dissociative disorder presents in them which is apparently a bias that the dissociative identity disorder community has had for a long time i.e treating people more poorly based on alter count but whatever it is I believe it's enough to qualify him for this.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Yes, all of it) - April 1952

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

Apr 1, 1952

Oh come on! It's not a joke if you just make it canon.

Apr 2, 1952

I have nothing but respect for this technique.

Apr 4, 1952

Legit unsettling.

Apr 9, 1952

I love this one. Absolutely flawless action paneling.

Apr 10, 1952

It's true! People definitely hate admitting that.

Apr 12, 1952

#relatable

Apr 14, 1952

Me, writing these posts.

Apr 24, 1952

Pictured: Lucy manipulating a ball with her psychic powers and then teleporting.

Apr 27, 1952

A legitimately wholesome interaction. :3

Apr 28, 1952

GOD DAMNIT I WAS JOKING!

Thoughts:

I feel like the strip's handling of Charlie Brown has shifted a bit now that Lucy's a part of it. Before, there was a lot of emphasis on the fact that he was younger than the rest of the cast and there were a lot of jokes centered around things like him not knowing how to tell time, not knowing how to wear shoes properly, not wanting to take baths, etc. Now though there's almost none of that and Charlie Brown feels much more like he's in the same general age bracket as the other kids.

I think there's a couple explanations for this:

1) We now have two much more obviously toddler-aged characters to tell those kind of jokes with, freeing up Charlie Brown to do much more Charlie Brown-specific things like kite flying, baseball, being an awful boyfriend, etc.

2) Because Lucy exists as a roundabout way for Charles Schulz to talk about being a father, Charlie Brown (a stand-in for Schulz himself in a lot of ways) now needs to be written a bit differently in order to make this new character dynamic work. He can't both be the goofy baby of the group ~and~ an exasperated mentor figure at the same time.

It's actually a really good way to write character development if you think about it. In real life you don't usually grow as a person because of some major trauma or grand revelation about your past. You just sort of get pushed into a new situation, adapt your behavior to deal with it, and eventually that behavior becomes the new normal. I think a large part of why the strip never stops feeling like “Peanuts” can probably be attributed to Schulz handling character changes like this. Granted, probably none of this was intentional or a conscious decision, but a good writing technique is a good writing technique.

[rotating-hyperfixations]

Not to yap on the internet (I.e ramble for several paragraphs incoherently), but Ive been rewatching Paper Girls recently and subsequently thinking how important it is to have queer relationships at age appropriate level(s) for tweens and teens. While there were queer relationships on TV while I was growing up in the 2000s and 2010s, they were never really around my age bracket and really none that discussed how they came to terms with their sexuality, although that’s a slightly different discussion. Sure, there were shows like Glee that featured relationships that resonated with me and storylines that resonated with me that either were queer or queer coded (@Quinn Fabray). But I was too young to fully grasp the full story, and I think that’s the case for a lot of kids; especially in that middle school age bracket.

Even watching as an adult, I can recognize a lot of my younger self in KJ and Mac. I didn’t like to wear dresses or skirts, but were forced into them by my parents as it was the socially acceptable thing to wear for a young girl. I had traditionally masculine interests and in childhood a lot of my clothes were boys shirts that my parents were willing to deem as gender neutral. I knew I didn’t like boys, and didn’t understand the whole crush phase my friends had, but regularly thought things like “well if we were dating I’d do that better or different”. I knew that I was different from friends, but didn’t have any real reference to point to help kind of use as a reference point, so I just assumed I was a late bloomer and it’s come eventually and I’d be in to clothes or makeup and like boys in the way my friends did but it never did. Sure, by the time high school rolled around I knew that there was a strong possibility that I was gay (it’s really quite embarrassing the amount of indicators I tried to explain away), I saw more of myself in shows like Glee that featured queer relationships, but still starting that conversation earlier through media and having examples of characters that were like me probably would’ve saved me some mental anguish and stress in my teen and young adult years.

Kids have “romantic” (and I use that term very loosely) feelings at a pretty young age for the opposite gender and not. There’s plenty of media out there that explores young relationships between two straight teenagers, and way too many episodes of tv I watched growing up had episodes that strictly focused on a girl who was in her “boy-crazy” era. Having storylines that parallel the stage they are at in life, is going to help a ton of kids out in the long run, and also I think help some parents come to terms with queer kids. Ultimately the more you normalize something, the more people will probably come to accept it and stop looking at it as an “other”.

Anyway, this is my long-winded way of saying that Paper Girls made me very emotional on my rewatch and young queer kids get to see themselves reflected in media in a way that mirrors their current experiences (especially young girls, because wlw are definitely not featured as relationships between men/boys). Watching a bunch of teen girls didn’t make me straight and stop me from having recurring dreams about kissing and being in relationships with girls, and it’s not going to stop future kids either.

[triscribeaucollection]

Okay I'm still having fun with Lyle's POV in Two Sidekicks Walk Into a Villain Bar, so that's on the agenda again today and here's the first bit of my next installment:

First night the Kid hit the streets again in his new costume, he neatly turned the Top upside down, spun Golden Glider headfirst into a stop sign, then swiped one of Captain Cold’s guns and iced the man from the knees down. So of course, as soon as the speedster returned the uncut diamonds they’d been attempting to steal back to the jewelry store, Piper and Trickster nabbed him for a celebratory drink.

“I’m pretty sure this breaks the villain code of ethics, or something,” Kid laughed as the two of them pulled him into Lyle’s bar, grinning and unconcerned to be abruptly surrounded by crooks.

“Who cares, you’re back and better than ever!” Trickster cackled all the way up to the counter, and slapped down a trio of hundred dollar bills. Of Monopoly money.

The Kid rolled his eyes and put down some real cash, enough to cover drinks for all three of them. “Glider’s definitely going to care, when she gets over her headache.”

“She’ll groan and grumble along with her brother, and then tell you to at least take her out with something a little classier next time,” Piper snorted, sitting down so he and Trickster bracketed the Kid. “But more importantly - that was a neat move, with Top, where’d you pick it up?”

The blinding grin that took up residence on Kid’s face told Lyle exactly who he was about to mention even before he opened his mouth. “Something my girlfriend showed me a few days ago. She has gotten so much more badass while I was gone.”

Lyle set down a root beer, a cherry cola, and an orange soda in front of the three boys. “You two adjusting alright?”

“Pretty well, yeah. Getting the death certificate overturned and some other legal stuff straightened out has been way easier, since she’s done it before.” Kid took a sip of his root beer like that was a perfectly ordinary statement to make. Hell, for all Lyle knew, maybe it was with superheroes.

“Surprised you didn’t come back to a, ‘my girl dated and married and had a kid with someone else’ situation,” Piper said with a huff. “Isn’t that usually how it goes in the movies?”

The Kid winced. “Well...”

Trickster gasped dramatically, almost spilling his cola as he leaned into the speedster’s face. “Did she?!”

“No marriage, no kid, but- Red Arrow let me know she’d been dating another guy, first one since I, well, disappeared, but she broke things off with him the day after I got back.”

Piper let out a low whistle, and Trickster splayed both hands against his chest. “Awww, it’s true love! I demand you two invite me to the wedding, and I wanna see all the little Arrow-Flash babies!”

Kid snorted, his cheeks turning pink. “Just for that, I might just drop Flash’s twins on you one of these days.”

The new Kid had mentioned them, a few times, little boy and girl already running around with their daddy’s superspeed. Lyle braced an arm against the counter and leveled his best glare. “Not in my bar, you’re not.”

All three boys burst out laughing.