#dw posting in 2024

[iwane-king]

Yess the whole Roger ap Gwilliam plots and alternate universe are extremely strange and I have this horrible feeling that we're going to end up with unhelpful half-answers about the whole thing.

Also, I'm not sure how I'd fix this aspect of the episode, but immediately killing off almost all of the main/ supporting cast

1) completely killed any potential ramp up in tension

2) made it extremely obvious that there had to be a fix because of course these people will be revived somehow

And given that the story they did tell would have been best condensed into an episode, and not forced into being a season finale with ,, bad set up, some changes I would add to the season:

- the deaths should happen more slowly, and be set up throughout the season, a bit like the stars going out for Donna

- like when that woman shows up, have a small endemic, or weird spate of deaths, and maybe retroactively associate her with various deaths

- since they're clearly trying to reference old who, and ,, failing to reach a very small target audience, maybe spend some time in earlier episodes to have the Doctor unpack his prior experiences with gods to Ruby

- this wouldn't be unbelievable since 1) he recently antagonised a god in a much more interesting way (the giggle) and 2) he's into self help now, so having him go over his past in a healthy way would be actively In Character.

- it would also work as ,, mildly ham-fisted foreshadowing for people who have watched old who but at least it might encourage a better understanding of the ~mystery~

- introduce s triad a lot earlier in the series so that fans actually have more than a week to theorise and engage with the plot point

- don't force that finale into two episodes unless you're going to actually use them

- the giggle, which was only one episode, was able to demonstrate large scale threat, and had much better pacing. Dragging out a mystery to be solved with TBC, and then failing to deliver on that set up was just painful to watch. The second half especially struggles with pacing

- stop trying to make the Doctor sound cool and wise in places where it doesn't make sense!! Let his character be witty where it counts, and rightfully emotional in a way that doesn't centre around his wit or emotions. The Doctor being clever or screaming should establish the mood of the scene,, not be the scene itself.

- a great example of this done well And badly, is in Rogue actually,, the Doctor crying as Rogue sacrifices himself makes perfect sense, and whilst his reaction is important, the scene is still Rogue being shadow realmed. BUT at the end when the Doctor cries and the scene is only about the fact that he feels sad and isn't comfortable expressing that, it ends up feeling kind of- dare I say- cringey?

NEway, along with the sort of vaguely liberal handwaving of what should be character conflict, this new season is not,, the worst,, but that's not a compliment, and I hope they can figure out the tone and writing of the show, or let it die.

here's how i would have rewritten empire of death to keep as many of the same plot beats as possible while making it thematically coherent:

establish that because of sutekh's devastation, ruby now has the only information in the universe about her mum.

then, she has to shatter it to distract him, giving up on her own want to know for the greater good. this continues what had been up until now a pretty solid track record from RTD of having all his plot-level deus ex machinas come with real and meaningful emotional consequences so they didn't feel cheap and tacky.

use the 5-10 minutes oyu save by not doing asny of that shit at the end to establish a long timeskip and how hard it is to survive in the post-sutekh universe to give sutekh an actual sense of menace and threat

you could even draw parallels, right, ruby could realize that she was just like sutekh, placing outsized importance and expectations on this woman who was in the end just an ordinary person.

ideally don't have the information come from the future eugenics database too lol what was that

ez fix

[billpottsismygf]

Doctor Who: The Impossible Planet & The Satan Pit / The Legend of Ruby Sunday

[gelthefunkyblob]

More dandys worldd :]

Some interaction dialogues I drew in my way

[plrle]

finally outing myself as les mis fan on main... help

[suolane]

the newest and brightest doccy who 💙

[shushmal]

Stranger to Myself (I think of Home)

For @steddie-week Day 5! Rated T — Check the tags and content warnings!

Eddie is a monster.

Eddie started watching Steve because it didn’t hurt so bad. Didn’t hurt like it does with every glimpse he catches of Wayne, of Dustin. The people who had loved Eddie when he was Eddie. But Steve—Steve was safe. Steve was a boy Eddie knew in passing glances and high school gossip, a guy who was laughing with his friends in another room at every party, a man who planted his feet and fought monsters and helped save the world. Steve who told Eddie to be safe, because Steve was kind when he didn't have to be, when he wasn't expected to—so Eddie finds himself watching Steve instead.

Because Eddie is a monster, and Steve knows exactly what to do with monsters. Eddie knows this.

To Steve, it wouldn't matter that Eddie is the last little bit of the apocalypse still kicking around Hawkins. Eddie who had been chewed up and spat out of hell at the last second, just before the final dungeon slammed shut, sneaking through the shadows unseen, past the unsuspecting heroes wrapped up in their victory. Past his friends, the people who had tried to keep Eddie safe. Past Dustin, who’s face had already been changed by grief.

Past Steve, as well. Steve, who told Eddie to be safe, and Eddie hadn’t.

Eddie wonders sometimes, what Vecna really had in mind for him. 

But Eddie is just an unfinished experiment, not quite who he used to be, but not yet the thing Vecna had been trying to twist him into, before the wrinkly ballsack bastard bit it and disintegrated into dust like some b-grade horror movie villain written by some unimaginative hack that shouldn’t have even been in the writer’s room.

He’s the last piece of the Upside Down, Vecna’s last monster, but Eddie’s worst crime post-resurrection is a bit of misdemeanor stalking, simple battery, and animal cruelty. A guy’s gotta eat, afterall. It had taken a while to figure out his own exact brand of vampirism, but Eddie’s gone a few years now without killing anything or anyone. He would be proud of it, but instead he watches Steve make dinner and feels sick on the aftertaste of iron and salt still coating his tongue.

Eddie had started watching Steve because it didn’t hurt, because Steve would take care of it, if Eddie ever needed to be put down. Eddie knows this.

So, it didn’t hurt so bad to watch Steve—until it did. 

By then, Eddie was too far gone and couldn’t stop.

His Steve who came back to his lonely castle, days and days after that final battle, after the climax of the story, the end of a legend, still bloody and scorched, none the wiser to the monster peering through his windows, watching. And that was Eddie’s first clue, that was how Eddie first learned that he wasn’t really Eddie anymore—that nervous energy he used to have in life had died with him. Now he sits motionless in the tall pines behind Steve’s house for hours and days, unmoving, as he watches Steve live. 

Sometimes, Steve looks out his window, eyes scanning the treetops like he knows Eddie’s there. Everytime, Eddie sits up a little straighter, like a dog eager for attention. But everytime, Steve’s eyes drift past him, unseeing, searching.

It leaves Eddie—already out of step with life, with humanity—a little unsettled, a little too hopeful. Eddie is a thing that shouldn’t be seen ever again, a dead man without a heartbeat, without breath in his lungs, without a reason to exist and yet still here. He wishes he were still dead. He wishes even more that Steve knew he was there, that Steve was looking for him. But Eddie knows better. Eddie can’t go to Steve, because Eddie is a monster and Steve has fought enough monsters. Eddie doesn’t want to get added to the list. He doesn’t want to do that to Steve.

Eddie sits in the trees instead, unmoving and watching for days and weeks. Sometimes he leaves, to feed. Sometimes he stands in the middle of Steve’s empty house when he’s gone, breathing in the lonely silence. Sometimes, he closes his eyes and dreams.

But they’re never his own dreams.

And he never, ever visits anyone else in their sleep, in their dreams and nightmares. No one, except for Steve. His Steve, who’s dreaming of a summer day, sun high in the sky, sitting on the top of skull rock with a six pack and a cigarette. It’s such a simple, beautiful dream. All of Steve’s dreams are like that. Eddie watches the line of Steve’s neck as he tilts his head back in the sunlight, face catching the July warmth.

Steve doesn’t startle when Eddie sits beside him. Just leans in until his head rests on Eddie’s shoulder. It’s beautiful, he’s so beautiful, Eddie wants to cry.

“I miss you,” Steve whispers, like it’s a secret. He presses a smile into Eddie’s jacket. “Isn’t that silly? I barely even knew you.”

Eddie has to swallow back the emotion filling his throat. “Yeah, that’s pretty silly,” he croaks.

“I wanted to though,” Steve sighs. He leans even closer, hands grasping at Eddie’s sleeve, the back of his shirt, and Eddie wishes they could melt into each other, become one thing, become Steve with just Eddie hiding between Steve’s ribs, in his blood, sitting in the center of his chest right next to his heart. “I wanted to know you. I wanted to kiss you so bad.”

If this were real, if they were really sitting on skull rock in the sunlight right now, if Eddie was human, he would be crying. But here, in Steve’s dream, he doesn’t, can’t. Maybe Steve doesn’t want him to be sad.

“Really?” he breathes instead. “Me?”

Steve hums, his hand sliding down into Eddie’s, fingers warm, soft. “Robin calls you my Great Bisexual Awakening.”

Eddie barks a laugh, throwing his head back. He wants to be sobbing, but he laughs instead and when he stops, Steve is looking up at him, painted dream soft and sweet. They watch each other, Eddie cataloging the specks of gold and green in Steve’s eyes. He’s beautiful. 

But then Steve blinks, and the corner of his mouth turns down, smile falling away. Eddie feels his skin prickle. He feels watched.

“I miss you,” Steve says again, urgent. And then, just like that, he smiles again, and the feeling’s gone, and Steve presses his face once more into Eddie’s shoulder. “Tell me something.”

Eddie tries to shake off the feeling of disquiet, to relax back into the tenderness of Steve’s dream. “Like what?”’

“Something I don’t know.” He’s beautiful, so beautiful, and Eddie adores him, loves him so much.

“I wanted to kiss you, too.”

Eddie opens his eyes, his breath sharp in the silent forest, and watches as Steve sits up in his bed, gripping the blankets tight in his fists. Even from here, in his haven in the trees, he can see the tears on Steve’s face. He never wants Steve to cry.

When morning comes, he steals into Steve’s home, buries himself in the lingering warmth of his sheets after Steve leaves for work. The fading smell of him is intoxicating, even the salty sting of Steve’s tears, and Eddie wants so desperately. Wants him from the pain in his throat, the hitch in his breath, the way he’s been hollowed from the inside out. Everything has been taken out of Eddie, scooped from between his ribs and scraped smooth, an empty jack o’lantern waiting to rot on the front step. 

The wanting is worse than the starving, the thirst. Eddie can’t cry anymore, he isn’t human enough to, but he wishes he could.

Instead, he lays in Steve’s bed, breathes him in, and disappears into the woods behind Steve’s home when he hears the rumble of Steve’s car turn onto the street. He watches as Steve falls into the bed, long gone cold since Eddie has soaked up all the warmth from the blankets in the long hours of Steve's absence. He watches, a monster, as Steve’s eyes glance through the window, eyes on the trees. Straightens up, hoping and wanting, and slumps as that gaze slides past him. He watches Steve’s evening with longing building in his chest, and when Steve slips beneath his covers, Eddie closes his eyes.

“What are you waiting for?” he asks.

Steve is sitting on the edge of his roof in this dream, watching the forest intently. He doesn’t turn his head towards Eddie, caught on a particular spot in the woods.

“You, I think. At least, I think it’s you. I hope it’s you.”

Eddie leans in close, hoping that Steve will turn his eyes, to look at Eddie, to give him that sweet, dreamy smile. “You shouldn’t bother waiting for something like me,” he tells Steve, desperate for those pretty eyes to look at him. “You should be happy.”

“I am happy,” Steve murmurs. He doesn’t look happy. He doesn’t look at Eddie. He watches the distant trees, standing guard. “I’m happy waiting. I think I can wait forever.”

Eddie doesn’t dare touch him, doesn’t dare turn Steve’s head. Even though it hurts. It hurts so bad, so Eddie opens his eyes. In the distance, Steve turns in his bed, chest expanding with a sleepy sigh, and doesn’t leave his dreams.

Morning comes again, and the night falls again, morning and night and morning. Eddie rises from his perch, glides closer to the empty house to steal through the unlocked door. He lays in Steve’s bed, in the shadow of Steve’s warmth left on the sheets. Breathes him in, even though Eddie needs no air. He leaves when he hears the rumble of a familiar engine. Night falls. He closes his eyes.

Eddie watches the way Steve sits on the edge of his roof again, feet dangling, eyes scanning the treeline at the back of his house, quiet and sentry. Like he’s waiting for another monster to appear between the tree trunks. Eddie sits beside him, and doesn’t speak, not even when Steve whispers, only once.

“I miss you.”

Morning comes again, and then night. Sun and moon, wax and wane. The summer heat does not bother Eddie, nor does the winter snow. He imagines building a family of snowmen in Steve’s yard, company for a lonely house. No one visits Steve here. Like they’d forgotten Steve altogether, and Eddie’s the only one left to bear witness to Steve Harrington. Steve who is lonely, who sleeps and dreams and waits for the monster in the woods. Or maybe…

Maybe Steve told them not to come here. Because here is only for Steve, and only for Eddie.

Night falls, and then the morning breaks. Steve doesn’t rise from the bed.

Uneasily, Eddie shifts. Snow slides from his shoulders, landing in heavy thumps on the forest floor below him. He watches as Steve rolls onto his back, arm over his eyes, mouth twisted in pain. Even from here, he can see the tears on Steve’s face. He watches Steve lay in bed the entire day, until night falls. Eddie closes his eyes.

Steve’s dream isn’t a dream this time—a vast darkness instead, stretching long and far. Eddie takes a hesitant step. Water splashes beneath his bare foot. He turns.

And suddenly, it’s like he can hear Steve in his ear, whispering, “I’m happy waiting. I think I can wait forever.”

Eddie turns again, and Steve is there, watching, waiting. Eddie feels the instinct of it, the prickling awareness of being seen. It settles over his skin, sharp and biting like ants. Eddie is the monster, and Steve has found him. His gaze roots Eddie where he stands, water lapping against his toes. The ripples roll away from him, stretching the unreachable distance between Eddie and Steve, distant stars, until they crash against Steve’s feet, and the water settles again, falls calm.

“I miss you though,” Steve whispers, right into Eddie’s ear. “I can wait forever, but I miss you.”

“Really?” Eddie asks. It echoes through the dark. He can see the way Steve smiles, even from so far away.

“Of course,” Steve whispers. “I’m waiting for—”

Dawn breaks through the trees, and Eddie opens his eyes with a gasp. The sound is sharp through the silent forest. Morning mist rises from the pine strewn ground. Steve isn’t in his bed anymore, and Eddie feels himself almost panic, gaze searching.

Searching, until he finds Steve, not even three feet up, sitting above his window on the roof. He stares out into the trees, stares right at Eddie, finally sees the monster in the woods. That gaze raises the hair on Eddie’s arm, animal instinct tightening his muscles, his bones. Steve watches him from his perch on the roof, watches Eddie watch him back. 

He’s the most beautiful thing Eddie’s ever seen.

Because Steve’s not standing guard. He’s waiting. Waiting for the thing in the woods, for Eddie to finally come home.

Eddie shouldn’t, shouldn’t go to him, but now that he knows, how can he make Steve wait a moment longer? 

Steve gasps when he appears, but it’s not fear in his eyes when he looks at Eddie. Eddie feels it again, feels watched, feels seen. Steve looks up at him and his smile is the most beautiful thing Eddie’s ever seen.

“There you are,” he whispers. “I missed you."

[modmad]

assorted cool cosplays from Manchester Megacon today! so many great outfits and lovely people <3

[0odlesofd00dl3s]

Bonus ISAT chimeras, Siffrin! [ As a classic cat! ]

[dialtownsecretsanta]

DT SECRET SANTA SIGN-UPS ARE NOW LIVE!

SIGN UP USING THIS LINK!!!

(art made by @/irradiatedsnakes!)

sign-ups will be open until FRIDAY, AUGUST 30TH, so you have two weeks to decide if you'd like to participate!!! hope everyone's excited!!!!!

QUICK EDIT: i would strongly recommend AGAINST asking for content of dt ocs, as it would be difficult to get refs to your gifter! please, for the sake of this, try to keep it to canon characters! thanks!

[inkyyghost]

[charmac]

Now that its been a week, here are my thoughts on the 2024 election:

I don’t think Frank, Charlie or Dennis voted and I don't think they cared either way. None of them would vote for a woman, but Frank thinks Trump is a phony business man, Dennis thinks Trump is much too ugly to be in politics, and Charlie agrees with both of their points.

Leading up to the election, Dee made no fewer than 40 Instagram stories about how she’s super excited to be a woman voting for a woman as president in a swing state (even though she actually doesn’t think a woman should be president). She goes to vote on election day, purely motivated by the idea of how many likes she would get on a video of her filling in a Kamala Harris vote on a Pennsylvania ballot.

The weekend before the election Mac saw that video of Trump jerking off and blowing a microphone and became convinced it was gay signalling, so he decided he's gonna vote for Trump (he supports the "normal gay guys" after all). Dennis refuses to drive him to the polls because he heard the lines were long as shit, so he has to tag along with Dee.

When the two of them arrive at the polling location they force their way to the front of the line, only to find out neither of them are registered to vote (because they didn't realise that was a thing). Dee gets into a huge huff over it and tries to convince the poll workers to give her a ballot just for her Instagram stories, but they refuse to entertain her. It escalates into an all out brawl: punches are thrown, security arrives, and Dee is shoved off the property with no good Instagram stories. In the midst of the chaos, Mac manages to steal a few sealed ballots. He refuses to give any to Dee and instead throws them all out, assuming that whatever he trashed probably cancels out to a vote for Trump

[al-luviec]

juvie buddies

[ejsuperstar]

Falling Star

Revenge for @plutonium-sky!

[3v1l-0m3n-0f-d3ath]

Doodles of robots I want to make into oc’s

Name suggestions would be great

[starleska]

OKAY i just want to scream about the Fifteenth Doctor for a sec!! 🔥

spoilers for Joy to the World (the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special); read at your own risk!!

so many thoughts about this fun, goofy, absurd episode and what a good old-fashioned Doctor Who romp it is, but i desperately want to talk about that harrowing scene where the Doctor purposefully angers Joy. to preface, my favourite Doctors are Six and Eleven. i love my Doctor with a little mean, arrogant streak, so seeing Fifteen's bright, cheery, complimentary façade slip away into overt malice was so much fun, and Ncuti does it so well!!! even though we all knew he was trying to break the Villengard's hold on Joy, getting to see his capacity for cruelty, grandiosity and harm is my favourite thing about the character. and it's one of the things that stands out about Moffat's characterisation of the Doctor: he isn't afraid to write him as an alien being with powers who could hurt us if he decided it was for our own good. the revelation that the Doctor was able to say those nasty things about Joy with such realistic venom because it's how he feels about, and treats, himself...ouch. this many regenerations in and Fifteen is just as mixed-up and angry as he's always been, but with a fresh wave of losses weighing heavily on his ancient mind. the Doctor always feels the most interesting to me when he's preoccupied with his own responsibilities not dealing with it well...because that's what makes his companions, and humanity as a whole, matter. when you think about the best companions and human characters in the show, they are always the ones who are able to make the Doctor pause and take stock in the middle of his (extremely understandable) moral crises. the ones who can say, 'yeah, what you've gone through is seriously messed up, but here's how i carry on. here's why you should keep living'. that's why the Doctor keeps coming back to us: we're an emotional anchor for him in a way it seems no other species is. both Joy and Anita showed the Doctor new ways of continuing on even when he's feeling so much loss after Ruby's departure...and i really want a companion who can challenge the Doctor's self-hatred in a constructive way, while we see how the Doctor really feels beneath that mask. just!!!! so many thoughts about Fifteen!! is it bizarre that i vastly prefer his portrayal in Joy to the World and Boom compared to, say, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire of Death? it's possible i do just enjoy the way Moffat writes the Doctor in general, but god, when it's the Doctor i want his age and the enormity of his emotional burden to come across 😭💖

[dorsey-m]

Feeling CRAZY about how in the VO you hear Paul say "And you put them together and it feels like the most holy thing on earth" and then IMMEDIATELY after he appears in the shot next to John and begins to play the piano with him