#fucking great so honestly either way my brain is huge

[zannies-joestar-hut]

i really think Acca might be a twist unvillain

[sugoi-and-spice]

My actual prediction for [REDACTED's] fate at the end of MHA, and just my big ol' meta on the whole situation.

Sadly, I don't think Shigaraki is coming back to life. I really fucking hope he does, but I can't believe it for two weeks and then watch it not happen, I will break . Yeah Horikoshi loves his fake out deaths... But idk, Shigaraki 's body is pretty damn gone. And he tends to pull his punches less when it comes to villains (Twice anyone?!)

I truthfully think the best chance we have of seeing him again is through One for All.

Shigaraki 100% transferred OFA back to Deku with that last bloody fist bump. That moment was a huge part of Horikoshi’s original ending with Bakugo, and I wouldn’t be surprised (or mad) if he decided to try to work it into this new version of his ending.

I think we probably will see Shigaraki again and get some more of that context and closure that we’re looking for, but it will be as a vestige within OFA. That’s my prediction, that’s the best direction that I can imagine this ending going in my little lizard writer brain. And I don’t think I’ll be mad about that. (But idk man, talk to me again in like 2 weeks lol).

I’ve always had a hard time believing that Shigaraki was going to make it out of this series alive. Of course, I’ve always wanted Horikoshi to find a clever way for him to do so without totally betraying his character -- I never believed that Shigaraki should fully join the side of the heroes. It’s just so antithetical to his mission and the message of MHA, nor could he ever just… live a normal life with every crime he committed, and him spending his life in prison would be just as miserable as him dying like this imo, no fucking freedom there. Sure, the simp in me wanted an ending where he got a redemption and life, but I certainly wasn’t optimistic. It would be a HARD fucking thing to do. I certainly don’t know how I would do it if I was in Horikoshi’s shoes, as a fellow professional writer (not just of romance either. I write and edit YA action fiction in my normie job, fun fact). I had hoped Horikoshi would figure it out, and a part of me is obviously hoping that Kurogiri managed to pull some hijinks and somehow warp him away, then he and his friends go on to live like little rats the way they have for the majority of the series, forever, buuuut-

I did always have a feeling he was probably going to go the Vader route.

Honestly, him dying beating the shit out of All for One is a pretty great exit for his character, feels more true than him sacrificing himself for the heroes’ side or humanity’s sake. It is the quickness with which this all occurred, the off-screen rescuing he had by Nana Shimura, and the lack of bodily autonomy in his death that I think is pissing people off. (It’s certainly what’s pissing me off). If we had even just gotten a moment of him having full control of his body again, looking up to the sky and seeing his friends waiting for him as he decayed away – or you know, just a death that lasted longer then two damn pages – I think the reactions wouldn’t be so visceral.

That being said. Horikoshi is a master chef, particularly when it comes to stories of recovering from trauma and getting closure, as well as tying up loose threads imo (remember when everyone though that he FORGOT the traitor plotline? Boy was that an embarrassing time for the fandom lmao),  and this man has been cooking for a while now. MHA has been the best it has ever been in this Final Saga and I don’t think he’s done with this dish just yet, nor do I think he’s done with Shigaraki. Physically? Probably. But everything that Shigaraki represents and stands for in this series, no I don’t think this is the end of that. Just because we didn’t see those moments we wanted in this last chapter, doesn’t mean we won’t see them in the next.

So as shell-shocked as I am right now to see my ultimate comfort character (who I have a tattoo of by the way lol) fade away into dust, I’m gonna trust the process and Horikoshi for now.

It ain’t over til it’s over, as it were.

Peace.

(And all that being said, I probably will still write a fix it fanfic where he lives instead, regardless of how this is handled lmao)

[bibiana112]

Kinda weird question- do you have any links to people talking about Mira from ZTD and ableist stereotypes? I mentioned that I was uncomfortable with her portrayal but kinda fumbled it and made some other ND people in chat uncomfortable. I searched for various keyword combinations but most of what I'm finding is like "and not to mention the ableism with Mira" and doesn't elaborate lol.

Not weird at all! And uh, you see, there's a recent post I made where what I complain about is the very fact I've never seen anyone post too in-depth about her at all, I'd love to see posts that do elaborate on that but I do not have any that I know of right now, sorry :/ hopefully someone else who sees this can point to one? Okay!! After some tag searches I have found exactly one post who kind of gets into it I like this take still would love to see. more than just one but hooray

And like though I complain I couldn't elaborate much on it myself I don't think, I believe most of the posts people make about Saito from aitsf would apply since it's a different uchikoshi take on the very same trope of "emotionless characters who cannot function without killing others" I guess he's a worse portrayal though since she's at least not stated to get reward brain chemicals when killing people and I guess her case also has the added layer of "femme fatale" to it? Which either makes it less bad or worse depending on where you approach it from As I said I am not doing a good job of being coherent on this oh and also there's her being "redeemed" and "cured" in the epilogue which in on itself is kinda not great to imply it just goes away like that and honestly I personally don't even buy it I think she'd just be like oh okay Akane over here has like a thousand reasons to hate me after all that oh and what's that she's the leader of a super wealthy underground organization who's organized one of these death traps before yeah no I'm better off going to prison I'll be fine there lmao bye

But I'll say as an autistic person with relatively low empathy I usually see a character who just doesn't understand other people's feelings and wants to feel them too and is just trying to survive despite getting no help and I just kinda go hm. yeah. shout-out to roxas kingdom hearts shout out to mary from ib shout out that's why I started hyperfixating on media art helps me with understanding others a great lot and Mira is just in a story too badly executed for me to care or even begin to wrap my head around tbh like god she's so fucking terribly used as a plot device in every conceivable way that it makes it difficult to see past it and into what she could possibly be if it weren't for the stereotype of equalling low empathy with no compassion what's with her killing off screen in ways that wildly deviate from her stated m.o? why or how was she even in cahoots with Zero why was that a thing? Honestly her dynamic with Sean could have been better fleshed out could have done something interesting about robot child and his aspd big sis but we just kind of don't get any attention brought to the subject of emotions and the authenticity there of except for the "reveal"...

YOU KNOW WHAT that's probably one huge reason it feels so fucked up actually! Like the whole fucking game is written so you could experience it in whatever order you want and therefore Mira being a serial killer at all is something that though not very well hidden it also cannot be a topic of discussion or explored Ever ever because the player may not have seen the fragment where that is revealed yet- problem being the menu design of that game sucks so bad and practically everyone gravitates towards the same few more interesting looking thumbnails first and then the rest is kinda just there, I mean that is part of the reason A Lot of characters feel half-baked I think but also I think it definitely does impact perception of her character specifically probably The Most and then there's just the general not being given nuance not being able to see the minutiae of how that disorder manifests in her character aside from the killings about how she acts aside from being overly flirty trying to lure in Eric but that affects pretty much all of the new cast we don't have last names and in her case we barely have any backstory at all like Saito is a harmful stereotype sure but we get So Much Context for him that people still love talking about him and delving into different aspects of his life since we have that very well telegraphed in the narrative meanwhile for Mira all we can do is fill in the blanks guesswork that only highlights the worst aspects of the surface level portrayal we got and ultimately that people just don't care enough to dissect because there isn't much there character wise once you remove it

[darlingdawnauryn]

My Most Memorable Spirit Encounter

I said in my pinned post that I haven't officially started studying death/spirit work, but that's not entirely true. Between watching Poltergeist for the first time, buzzing with anticipation on the way home from school because I knew A Haunting would be there waiting for me, and the general paranormal-leaning landscape of early/mid-aughts subculture (I plan to make a post about the latter), I was pretty obsessed with ghosts and spirits as a preteen and ready to dive in in whatever way I could -- and there weren't a lot of ways, since my mom forbade me from using Ouija boards, conducting seances, etc. But that doesn't mean I wasn't capable of doing something.

To start, I was a pretty emo, anxiety-ridden adolescent who'd already had a few near-death experiences under my belt. Though I'd in no way call myself a medium, I believe this thinned the veil for me, giving me the chance to come across things from the Other Side that my able-bodied peers wouldn't have happened upon so easily. Couple that with the layout of my bedroom, which had a walk-in closet and a glass door leading to a fenced-in sideyard that let in the cold during winter, not to mention the huge mirror connected to my vanity dresser, and it's a wonder my fucking around didn't lead to a finding out period where I accidentally opened a portal to hell.

My room was at the end of a sizeable hallway off the dining room; I don't know if it actually gave me the amount of privacy I remembered, but despite both my parents using the glass door to go out and smoke, I could basically lock myself in and remain undisturbed for hours at a time. This gave me the opportunity to try and contact whatever the fuck was in my room -- because despite being undisturbed, I never felt truly alone. I was always aware of a heavy presence, throughout the whole house but seeming to be concentrated in the place where I slept. Again, I blame the three doorways and giant mirror. At this point I'd tried everything I could, including a homemade pendulum and a lowkey, makeshift seance with my sister (which turned out to be a bust because she didn't take it seriously and turned it into a game). So one evening, when the atmosphere felt particularly weighted, I just decided to start talking.

"I know there's something in here. Can you make yourself known to me, please?"

Nothing. No creaks, groans, taps. It's also worth noting that I didn't know homemade boards were an option; for whatever reason, a pendulum that was just a necklace that belonged to my great-grandmother was common sense. But a homemade, hand-drawn Ouija board slipped my mind. (It also felt a little bogus, honestly. I wanted the real deal.)

"Please make yourself known to me. I just wanna talk."

I also had a tall dresser that wasn't a combination vanity, and since this was around 2007 I had a five-disc CD player with a speaker on either side. Nestled between the player and one of the speakers was my MP3 player, which I always took out of my backpack after school because my dad hooked me up with an aux chord and I thought it was the coolest thing. I always kept it plugged in, and when I wasn't using it, it was pushed into that impromptu cubby. This was at least six inches back from the edge of the dresser, meaning it was in no danger of falling off the thing.

It took a few more minutes of prodding on my part, but all of a sudden the MP3 player flew from the dresser. It didn't just fall -- it was launched from its hiding place with enough force to make the aux chord grow taut, creating some resistance that probably stopped it from crashing into the opposite wall and breaking. But it did end up landing on the floor.

Like I said, I didn't have a Ouija board and at the time I didn't know pendulum boards existed. I had no way of knowing if I'd contacted a ghost, a house spirit, something else, or if my hormone-addled brain concentrated energy in an already off-putting room and made something cool happen. The good news is, that's all it was. It never veered into dangerous territory and we moved out of state shortly after anyway. Still, I would've liked to know what I'd been talking to.

Since getting into witchcraft a little over a year ago, I've felt it almost necessary to find a mentor before actively practicing spirit work; obviously this is serious shit that takes a lot of energy, and I don't wanna irreversibly mess anything up, especially since I still live with people who aren't keen on spirit communication. But reliving this memory by typing it out has made me reconsider, at least a little: if nothing bad happened back then, when I didn't know nearly as much as I do now and had no protections in place, maybe I already have a better grip on this than I thought.

Feel free to share your own experiences/opinions in the replies!

[x3rrorx]

Here is the link to my live review of the Bad Omens Concrete Jungle [THE OST] album if you are interested — (LIVE REVIEW)

If you don’t care to watch the live review, I’ll also give my thoughts on it here.

I first wanna mention the C:\projects\ — I think that was a really cool idea. I still need to listen to them in reverse individually, but the person who was big brain and did it and put them all together for us… thank you. I probably wouldn’t have thought to do that honestly. Maybe, but probably not. So thank you to the fan that did that. Also, cool as fuck on the bands part. I think that was creative to do.

BEAT DEATH

I love V.A.N. — I wasn’t huge on The Drain but I don’t think it’s a bad song, just very repetitive. As I said before, it’s not something I would go out of my way to play. But if it did play I would listen to it. Maybe it’s great live. — Terms and Conditions, I don’t dislike the song, I think it sounds good. I’m just not huge on rap. So I’m still not sure on my opinion of it. Just doesn’t sound like a Bad Omens song. Like it was a song Bob Vylan did and added Noah’s part in. Not sure why they added it to the album honestly. — Hedonist (recharged) should be in the \FINDPEACE category, confused why it’s in this one, but either way… nope. Don’t like it. — Even, I liked it. Doesn’t really sound like Noah but it still sounds good. It’s very slow but I think it sounds pretty. — Loading Screen was nice. Not much to say about it cause it’s an instrumental only. But yeah it sounded nice. — Anything > Human is definitely my favorite new song. I think they did great with that one. — Digital Footprint was also good. Sounds like being at a nightclub. — Nervous System I thought was really good. She sounded similar to Flyleaf. I liked its.

FIND PEACE

Soooo… I really just didn’t like these versions of the songs. I only liked the two The Death Of Peace Of Mind versions. Didn’t like any of the others in this chapter.

CLEAR MIND

Absolutely love live tracks. I wish more bands did live albums because they are my favorite. I love feeling like I’m back at their shows. I love the stuff they added before and between each song. I’m very happy they did live music.

I do wish that they would make another album with the songs they do on tour but without the songs being live. I want the additional sounds and extra stuff they put in the live songs. You know what I mean?

The revamped / acoustic version of Just Pretend… I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I don’t really care for it, honestly, but I think it was beautiful and emotional. Like he was being vulnerable with it. I just don’t understand the point of that version of the song. Was it an addition to the song? Was it for/about someone? 

[sunhowler-art]

Give obscure facts about Gordie (or honestly anything about her/Benrey. I want more content to read >:D)

was wracking my brain for an answer for this but then i realized i've never talked about their jobs on here before!

so, it's a not-a-game post-canon au. gordie and benrey both got checks from black mesa that were called "compensation" but was really just hush money. still, it was enough for them to be comfortable and get the medical/mental help that they needed for a while. it didn't last nearly as long as either of them wanted, though, so they picked up new jobs.

gordie's an elementary/middle school science teacher! (hence the stupid science pun t-shirt i have her wearing in her reference sheet. she loves those.) she wanted a job that would let her flex her science muscles while also not being anything like her old job at all. no research, no testing, no resonance cascades, just baking soda volcanos and extremely controlled educational uses of fire. it's still a stressful job, of course, but it’s a different kind of stress than she's used to: the "dear fucking god i have to save the world from invading aliens" kind. it's rewarding for her too, she loves getting kids interested in stem. loves to talk about science. loves to embarrass joshua in front of his classmates just a little bit. it's incredibly self indulgent on my part because i have a huge soft spot for all of the women who taught me science when i was a kid, but i also think it just fits. i think she would be a great teacher, once she settles in. it doesn't make her a ton of money (that's the usa for you), but she likes it. besides, benrey's got his own job and he's happy to pitch in too.

benrey works a dead-end job at a shitty dingy gas station. this isn't because he's unqualified for other jobs, or because he had trouble finding anyone else hiring, it's just because he likes it. he likes shouting "what are you buying" at exhausted truckers from across the store. he likes following people around like that's a normal and sane thing to do in a fucking gas station. he likes standing in the freezer just to feel something for 10 minutes. he likes talking to the old woman he works with and learning about her shitty ex husband. he likes his weird emo teenage coworker who is entranced by all the strange shit he does. he likes getting gordie a treat after every single one of his shifts. it's just fun for him. and it makes him, like, a suspicious amount of money. especially for a guy who hardly does his job and just fucks around all the time. he might be the manager? he doesn't know. in the words of my friend @frenreyofficial : "the only way benrey keeps his job: his coworkers like him and the customers never complain about him because they don't know who to complain to."

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/7/2023

soooooo there's another classic Dad Movie character ive adopted bc ive decided he's bisexual

listening

Black Hole Baby by Superorganism. i would put a marker down and say this is the sound of the summer but this came out last summer :/ the very flat (slightly chiptune?) delivery of the lyrics combined with the hyper bouncy...squelchy??? lasers? is extremely fun. this song is neither creepy nor wet but it is viscous bc u are on a spaceship partying as a black hole is Getting You

listen. anything that starts off with subway chimes and the following lyrics is going to be good. these are good song choices in my mind.

I've been eating fruit I've been sleeping well when I can

the bridge in the middle with bits and pieces of radio hosts shouting them out-- i could take it or leave it. i do like how this band namedrops themselves constantly. it's like an oil painting at an estate sale with a huge legible signature at the bottom.

-

reading

i have read about three-quarters of raymond chandler's oeuvre (hardboiled detective/film noir author and screenwriter of note) this week. i cannot in good faith recommend these books because they contain some of the worst excesses of their time, which is good bc this is not a review series.

sometimes, i'm watching or reading something and i decide it would be a good tuesdaypost candidate. i hate the term consume but it's the quickest descriptor here, so bear with me. if i am consuming a work based on the recommendation of a friend, it changes how i consume the work-- i'm on the lookout for the elements they used in their pitch. if i'm consuming a work to write an article or paper (rare these days) i'm stopping halfway through to take notes, i'm rewinding to catch details, i'm delving into interviews, i often fully rewatch or reread. if i'm liveblogging something i am mostly on the lookout for humorous and/or gay bits. if in the middle of something i catch myself thinking "ooh this would be good to talk about for the tuesdaypost" that introduces another like, film or lit crit level to the rest of my time with the work. it's very difficult to turn that part of my brain off.

when i am reading things just for me, none of that is there. i am fully immersed, my disbelief is suspended. i am not thinking about anything else but the story that is being told to me. ive spent a great deal of time with these books this week and it feels weird not to talk about them, but they are something i really enjoyed that was just for me.

i honestly don't know how to unpack my enjoyment of works that (at times) reflect the quite extreme racism of their author-- the one that grabbed me the most, Farewell My Lovely, contained some of the most callous and exceptionally cruel shit i've ever read. it also contained some of the most fascinatingly complex inner workings of an extremely closeted bisexual guy with ptsd i've ever read. i don't know how to talk about these books in an interesting or balanced way.

even if i did know how to unpack these things, the brief and light weekly roundup post on goddamn tumblr dot com (home to no nuance whatsoever) would not be the venue. this is an anti-review, in a way.

-

watching

a fuck of a lot actually bc i'm really trying to crank out this baby blanket and podcasts aren't really doing it. same username on letterboxd if u want to see early drafts of this tuesdaypost section.

i watched many films that came on two vhs tapes when i was little, bc charlton heston was one of my mom's favorite actors. i did not see spartacus when i was little but i did see the entirety of ben hur AND the ten commandments before i was eight. i can't make that make sense either.

anyway i have a soft spot for epics but only when i am actively doing things with my hands. this one has a more interesting making-of story than the actual movie, imo. this one also had oddly christian overtones, for being set in a time where christ and christianity did not yet exist. like many critics of the time, i have no strong feelings about mr douglas' acting. i really, really liked the soundtrack-- a delight to hear the love theme in context after hearing it in a thousand different soundtrack theme compilations!

-

playing

nothing that wasn't a phone game i've already talked about

-

making

five and a half repeats!!! i am aiming for ten repeats plus some sort of i-cord border so this is roughly halfwayish

i took this in broad daylight after a meeting like "if i knit more tonight i'll take another photo" and then i didn't knit any more tonight i read a bad western and halfheartedly liveblogged it

[ill-written-god]

T | 809 | m/nb? human/the thing haunting his house | prequel to 'haunted'

Ed has been flat-hunting for the past two weeks daily. His brain was slowly becoming a blur of doors, walls, and smiling realtors. Every day he would see at least one place but none of them met his requirements, and if it did, it always had some hidden payments or repairs he couldn't afford. 

So when he was looking at another one on Friday - a one-story house in an old suburb neighbourhood - he didn’t have much hope of moving out of his mother’s flat. It was small, but still too big for his budget. Especially, when the realtor told him it had a huge cellar beneath, great for storing wine or preserves, as they said. 

He stepped in prepared to find water damage, leaky pipes, and drafty windows. When he found none, he asked about the price and looked twice at the paperwork. The realtor, a tired young man, waited patiently in an armchair as he searched over and over again for hidden expenses. 

“What’s wrong with this house?” he asked eventually, but as the man opened his mouth to answer, he raised his hand to stop him. "And don’t say nothing, there must be a reason why a place this cheap hasn't been rented yet.”

The man sighs. 

"Honestly? I don't know. It’s in good condition, all vital repairs have been done, and yet, the price keeps falling. People say they don't like ‘the vibe’,” he scowled, quotation marks in the air.

Ed looks around once again, at the fairly inconspicuous walls and necessities. 

"I don't feel any ’vibes’ here.” 

The man shrugs. 

"Me neither. Are you interested?"

Tentatively, Ed nodded.

"I think so? But I'm worried about… the vibes."

"Tell you what,” the man reaches into his pockets. "I’ll give you the keys, you can spend the night here, look around more, find whatever is wrong with the place. I'll be back in the afternoon, maybe you’ll have an answer for me then," he says, offering him the keys. 

Ed took them, stunned. 

“Really?”

“Yeah, just don’t tell my supervisors,” he winked. “Lock the doors when you leave and don’t break anything.”

“Of course,” he nods, watching the man stand up and put on his jacket.

“See you tomorrow then?” he extends his hand. 

“I’ll have your answer,” he promises, shaking on it.

*

He made multiple trips that day. First, he grabbed his son to give him a tour. He didn't get any bad vibes from the house either, and his kid’s approval was important in a decision that big. Then he drove him back to his grandmother, grabbing a sleeping bag to spend the night. Maybe whatever was creeping potential tenants out, was coming out after dark.

The neighborhood didn’t look any different than any other when the sun set. The trees loomed over the road, but not unwelcomingly. They wrapped around the fence like a dark green embrace.

The house was quiet and his steps echoed through the empty walls. Still normal.

He put his makeshift camp upstairs, where his bedroom would be, on an empty bed frame. After settling there, he took his flashlight and toured the house once again, shining light in every smallest nook and cranny, looking for anything that might have scared off potential tenants.

His last step was the cellar, which held the laundry room and wine shelves. There was also an old couch, which was probably too much of a hassle to carry up the stairs during renovations. He trails his light across the walls, layered with stones. In the corner hung a motion-operated light - now off, since the power was shut until a new person moves in. The ceiling was low, but due to the amount of open space, it didn’t feel constricting.

He sat down on the couch, surprisingly bouncy despite its age, and imagined a low table for card games, maybe a crate of beers next to the wine shelves. It would make a nice hang-out spot. 

His flashlight flickered, so he hit it against his palm a couple of times. The light steadied for a second, before completely going out.

“Fuck", he muttered to no one but the darkness. He now had to climb his way up guided by touch alone. He sighed, falling against the couch before the inevitable trip up the stairs.

Somebody sat down next to him.

He knew it wasn’t possible, but that's what his brain was telling him, his sixth sense on high alert. He looked to the side, but still saw nothing but the dark. He reached out.

Just air. 

But despite feeling and seeing nothing, his brain kept screaming at him that he had company. He stood up abruptly, determined to leave as fast as the lack of visibility would allow.

Something, unmistakable despite its absurdity, grabbed his ass. He ran up the stairs, trippin on the steps.

[ofallthingsnasty]

It's been a few days since I read your RD2 fic "through the briar" and AHHHHGHGHHH!!! I haven't been able to think of anything else since then, it is such an amazing read. Look I like a softened up Micah as much as the next person, but it was so refreshing to have him portrayed as nasty and horrible as he is in canon. Genuinely got chills and felt creeped out while reading it was great lol

So if its not too much trouble I would like to request maybe a small aftermath fic? Specifically the aftermath if reader did up getting pregnant from that terrible event in the woods. Either how things would play out with the reader being pregnant during the events of the game.

Or instead a mini fic about a few years into the future with the reader already having at least one child with Micah living in a small cabin somewhere. And deciding to grab their kid and make a run for it while Micah is away, and the terrible consequences of that :/

I will honestly be happy with either one of these, if you feel like writing them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this long rant and request :)

Oh my god, I got the notif for this while I was at the drug store and I just stood there smiling my ass off at my screen while people pushed me away -- thank you so much, and I am so so happy that you liked it!! Its anniversary is coming up and it's genuinely my favorite fic I've written so far 😭💖💖 I am so honored that it gave you something to chew on, I really wanted to creep my readers out haha

Micah just fascinates me. I really don't like him but his character is just so fucking good - he's positively mesmerizing, a huge part of that is because of Peter Blomquist's absolutely stellar voice acting. I've never had this with a character and haven't found it again so far, Micah is just special. (Hahaha sorry for the ramble lol)

Regarding your requests - have you been living in my brain? 😂💖 Those are exactly the two scenarios that intruge me the most and I want to write both -- because I can't pass up a fic with Arthur absolutely wrecking his relationship with you due to guilt and rage (directed at Micah) and the whole troupe reacting to what has happened (of course, they'd never know the full truth, considering Micah's ways with Dutch) - just a whole lot of suffering for poor, poor little old you. And the escape attempt scenario - and its consequences - have me feral. It's just getting worse and worse for you in this situation. Just a whole lot of delicious misery.

They both came up last year after I posted the fic - but because of me finishing up uni I couldn't even think about writing them. Now that I've got my diploma, I can finally tackle them -- so thanks for expressing interest!! I am putting them on my list for this year, I'm dying to write more Micah...

[yellowloid]

7, 8, 41 and 48 for the fic questions? 🥰

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

has to be the one i did for my 'satin and lace' series! i just love the backstory of their relationship, love the whole trip to france (amy my beloved <3 the universe hating alex my beloved <3) , love every little moment they spent falling in love in the french countryside as young puppies and then reliving all that once they came back, grown and ready to take the next step... and then the flashbacks to their wedding, and the honeymoon... ugh. i love researching for my fics and i just had so much fun doing it for this series, especially the 'geographic' aspect of their idyllic french summer and then their dream italian honeymoon. ugh i'm just so proud of this whole series and i love it so much </3

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

so many possibilities!! i think i've already said this in the past but i would absolutely LOVE to read/write a fic about the aviation/eycte/miracle aligner trilogy - i think that's pretty self-explanatory in and of itself jshfhsf. it has so much fucking potential and i'd write it myself but it'd be such a huge project and it'd mean so much i'd go insane trying to make it as perfect as possible and unfortunately i don't have time for that djfhshfhs but who knows, maybe one day

also bonus answers: dracula teeth because vampires (duh), sculptures because it'd make a great thriller, the bakery because of wholesome meet-cutes and coming-of-age vibes, the jeweller's hands because mysterious and crazy gay sex aura

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

aaaaaa that's such a difficult question... i think in this fandom we truly don't realise how lucky we are when it comes to fanfics - because trust me, i've read a lot of fics in oh-so-many different fandoms over the years and although i've read a lot of great ones... the moment i joined the milex fandom it was all over jshfdgf a while ago i tried reading something (*smut, but that's only relatively relevant) in another fandom, from an author i used to trust even - and trust me when i say i had to close the tab so fast because it was... meh. it was just not passing the vibe check. it wasn't even *that* bad, it was just... idk. there's a lot of great stuff out there but once you read about milex there's no way out and definitely no way back sjfhdfdxhg

however, in our little tumblr corner we have SO MANY different writers who are just so extremely talented it's honestly crazy. everyone has their own personal - and very identifiable - way of writing about those two silly idiots in love, and everyone writes slightly different versions of them, and all those little details come together to make every fic so special. i could recognise something written by a specific author rathen than another just by looking at their writing style and way of characterising alex and miles, as well as their dynamic with each other. and i think that's so beautiful and special and ugh <3 i really really love this fandom and all the talented people that are part of it. y'all are amazing <3

now to answer the question, there's just so many outstanding fics out there... but if i really had to choose just one, i'd go with 'Miracle Aligner' by WeirdChick333. that fic took me on a journey and literally changed my brain chemistry in the process; it's just so insanely good it blows my mind over and over again even just thinking about it. left me speechless when i first read it and keeps leaving me speechless every time i think back to it. absolute fucking masterpiece.

48. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

'going back to 505' by my lovely bestie @alexturne that i still need to leave a proper comment on bc i'm bad at being the ao3 equivalent of a tumblrina but just know i loved it very much and she always delivers the most wholesome fluffiest fluff xx

thank you so much for the questions, this was really fun 💖

[pancakewithsprinkles]

😅 Honestly just the whole fact that I'm shipping a human with an axolotl... I'm a proud believer in "cringe culture is dead" but my brain still gives me a side eye while writing about them...

🥺 Them being gay <3

🤡 This gem comes from Chapter 6: “Ohhh no, too much electricity. Waay too much electricity. Fuck, how do you get rid of it? Like, water or something??” In Frank's defense, he was panicking. It also didn't help that with his kindergarten level education he was stupid enough to think that'd work. He stole a cup of water from one of the Killers as lightning and threw it at Kinito to see what happened. What happened was he burst into flames."

😈 Frank's letters to home. Definitely.

✍ My best friends!!

🛒 I want my fics to be brimming with imagery and entertaining characters!

🎢 I literally only have one...

✨ I'm really freakin proud that I wrote 7 full length chapters in a month

💋 LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!

🎶 I listen to piano music <3

🛠 Google docs for life baby!!!

⛔ A first person TADC fic. I might start it up again though...

🙋‍♀️ One other person..

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

🍷 Nope :3

🍆 Nope :3

🌞 Anytime I feel like it

💖 Percy Jackson

💌 If I could hang all of them up on a wall and frame it, I would

❌ Bang or die

💲 Absolutely

🧐 It helps when your "research" is just reading a short character bio and a trailer.

🏆 "Dead by Daylight but Kinito is suffering through 50% of it" great title, I know.

🎃 I don't write seasonal fics, but I'm definitely planning on doing that!!! If I had to guess I think halloween would be the funnest

🎯 None surprisingly! I'm really happy about that.

🎨 Screaming sobbing throwing up- I do a little happy dance and stare at it for hours

📈 1 and counting!!

🦅 Fly by the seat of my pants baby! The readers dont know where the story is going next and I dont either!!

👀 Welll..... In chapter 8 there will definitely be some "Taking care of my partner who is sick and delirious" action. Is there a name for that trope yet??

🤗 GO FOR IT!!!! No matter how stupid or bad, WRITE IT!!! If nobody will read it, I'LL READ IT! I'LL EAT THAT SHIT UP FOR YOU! WRITE WRITE WRITE!

💞 I have way too many. Spamton G Spamton, Kinitopet, Leshy (Inscyrption).... the list goes waaaayyy on

🧠 Spamton G spamton

🤩 I love writing Frank honestly. He's my pookie bear <333 I never liked the legion much before writing the fic, but now I would literally die for them

🤲 this is the only WIP I have for chapter 8 lmao. Writers block got my ass: "USER NIGHTMARE, CLOWN GETS KINITO DRUNK, FRANKS COAT FOR WARMTH" I know, great WIP right?

😬 Lmao I show my parents my fic (Theyre huge dead by daylight fans)

🎉 Comments!!!

✅ Crying. Lots and lots of crying.

📚 Fuck yeah. I'm literally writing a book at this point in time lmao

⌛ An hour :3

🤯 Sex. Never writing sex.

💔 Nah, but having writers block sure broke my heart lol.

💥I will cry. Dont give it to me please let me live in blissful ignorance

🤭 Fluff and/or Hurt/comfort :3

🥰 I LOVE READER INTERACTION SO MUCH GIMME GIMME GIMME I WANNA TALK WITH MY FANS PLEASE PLEASE PELASE

Thank you for making this!!! It was super fun and it made me feel a little better about having writers block. Rest in peace everyone who's been waiting for chapter 8. I'm so sorry AND IF YOU DONT KNOW I MADE A FANFIC HERE YOU GO HERES THE LINK https://archiveofourown.org/works/55030426/chapters/139509355

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

🍷 Do you drink and write?

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

💖 What made you start writing?

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

📈 How many fics do you have?

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

[golem-boy]

DevLog 03: You… Are Late.

This month's post has been hella delayed… life got in the way and I really hadn't opened either of my writing programs like, at all. Kinda sucks, but--as they say, better late than never, right?

While hectic, I made a huge leap forward in progress, so here's to the jumps made so far, and to many more!

Neocities has been pretty slow. I got a bit stuck on flex boxes and decided to put it aside for the time being, until I feel more confident that the information has cooked long enough in my brain and I can jump back in and absorb the syntax required more readily. I did manage to make some writing progress elsewhere, though, and I've been plunking away at the site for my friend's use; it's also slow-going, as my focus is centralized on blender, but any progress is good progress and I felt it important to mention.

The real kicker has been the fact I FINALLY got a hold of how the fuck blender handles things like parenting, and figuring out how best to make use of topology to weight more smoothly.

In other words--I've become some kind of cracked rigging wizard, and I've only accelerated from there. Figuring out curves and hook modifiers has been a gamechanger for organic forms, and I've whipped through completely meshing and rigging some THREE SEPARATE PROJECTS in the span of a month. That is absolutely insane to me!

I did lose power while working and lose a bunch of progress, because of course blender's autosave feature gonks when you restart your PC… but whatever, I'm planning to tackle the problem in a new way later during the course of December. It's good practice to further hone my work anyway, and I honestly have a lot of fun doing this stuff now that I understand it better.

In other terms, stuff has been pretty slow… I'm sitting around waiting for a Warframe update to drop, and kind of tinkering around with looking for some reminder software--or learning bash and writing the damn program myself, as nothing has really been satisfying! I actually got the idea from a discord bot, which reminds me of another thing I've been rolling around, at least in concept.

I got my hands on Buckshot Roulette recently, and I absolutely love it to death (ha!). It's a really fun game, and I've really enjoyed the challenge and chance of it, though my memory struggles to keep up with it. I've actually come up with a logging system for rounds, that way I can keep closer track of what's going on during a given gameplay loop.

Usually I'll start with writing out the initial shell counts--2L3B, for example, to mean 'two live, three blank'. Then I note top-downward which shells are used as the round progresses, and add in any additional notes to the side, such as 4SB via the burner phone, or a little arrow indicating that a shell polarity was flipped (though that's obviously only applicable in Double-Or-Nothing mode). It's been great to be able to remember what's going on and enjoy the game to its fullest!

Which is what inspired me to look into writing a text form of the basic gameplay loop, allowing for two people to play on the same machine--the game's current multiplayer only allows for online connection, which is GREAT, but feels a bit of a loss when I want to play with, say, Axon. I debated doing something like a discord or revolt bot, which… why not both, but the problem thus arises when I get into server costs and hosting and so forth. Maybe someday, when I have more disposable income and the patience to do that. Not today, though.

Anyhow--I think I'll try to remember to share some of my blender work here on tumblr, though if you want to see it, you can also swing by my bluesky and check out progress shots and more of my yapping, hah. Next you see me, I might have FINALLY finished this avatar work for myself… so the next post might include selfies!

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[meandering-reality]

Fear of fear of fear of fear, ugg get over it

When I finally stepped out from under the avalanche of rainbows and unicorns I had pulled over my eyes I realized that I feared death. Or at least that's how my over-thinking, anxiety riddled brain decided its thoughts on “where the heck am I doing with this info” led me.

Again, I wasn't raised religious. My mother was angry about being raised under my grandparents' religion and so she was an atheist. And while we didn't discuss it much, the emotions I picked up from her were always very bitter and angry about it.

My grandfather and great grandmother I always saw as it was a place to go on Sunday. Well scratch that for grandpa, there was always a game on. 

My grandmother however put her all into it. She sat down every day and studied the Bible as well. She never spoke to me about it either (I found out later that my mom had basically threatened to never let her see me again if she ever spoke about or took me to church). The one huge difference between the two is that my grandmother always felt like an angel to me.

Maybe it was a difference in personality. Or how they moved through the world. Perhaps age and experience as well. Whatever it was I look back at my childhood and see me being torn between my grandmother's love and my mother's lack of it.

I've had years to work on forgiveness. To realize she did the best she could with what she had. To hear stories of what an amazing and loving person she was. To find a way to love that kid I was. The one  that just wanted to feel like their mom loved them. To learn how to stick up for and protect that kid out of time.

All of these things lead into this cycle of 7 to 8 years of being flung back into a position where I feel like I've unlearned everything I worked on before. All coming to a head with the question what's going to happen to me when I die?

It's funny that oblivion never entered into the equation. It is more a fear of being alone, conscious and alone. I do have a spiritual belief, it's not as simple as saying I'm a Christian. It's also not as simple as saying I'm spiritual (why too many ideas and choices). I could narrow it by saying awakened but honestly that doesn't really narrow it much either.

I (when I'm not spiraling in all my unresolved crap) do believe in God, or creator or source or whatever word you want to use. I just don't believe in religious dogma. So where did that fear come from?

Especially since I've said to myself over and over that I'm not afraid to die. I'm not a fan of pain though so could we avoid that? The diagnosis just sent me into this twister of self hate, self doubt, mental self harm and it centered around my age and not feeling like I've done whatever I was supposed to do here.

Does anyone know that? A lot do, what about those of us that don't. There is a lot of emphasis put on following your path or purpose but not all paths are known. There is also a huge confusion with the earthly idea of purpose. They think of wealth being the goal. The mansion with 15 bedrooms, 20 baths and 4 pools (so small).

Your purpose could have just been to smile everyday. When we don't know it's easy to condem yourself for not doing it and then dying “bad”. Like I'm dying this young cause I've always been a fuck up. That's where my head went. That's when the fear set in. That's when I all of a sudden had the balls to start looking at things I wanted to do or change about myself and actually started.

For years I've had a victim (though I really learned to word it so it didn't sound like it) mentality about my relationship with anger. “This is what I learned from my mom”. Snap and scream. Twirling whirlwind thoughts that make it so when I walk away I can come back hours later and still be as angry and mean as I was before I went to “cool off”. 

It's a pattern that has kept me blissfully satisfied with what a horrible mess I am and why nobody should love me, I'm just not worth it. 

Aww a mother's love and teachings. Ha! I moved out at 18. This is hardly her doing at this point. It has much more to do with my belief in it. And instead of taking my grandmother's opposite words to heart I took the other and have struggled with so many deep dives into oblivion I can't count. I don't want to go there any more.

I know habits take a while to make and I've only just begun. Here's to taking a giant step towards the light and the love that awaits once I'm truly done with this incarnation. We've always been worthy of a beautiful afterlife, we just have to live it the best we can before we go.

Much love.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

yo hey! anon w the shit grammar who sent an ask earlier today

where i live has a HUGE south asian diaspora so ig that explains why it was picked? i honestly... look i hate 2 say this but i am so happy (and kinda shocked) no one has died yet across the uk.

it surprises me in the best way (well i do want those rioters dead, ur right, they ARE domestic terrorists).

i would vent on my blog but saying this much abt where i live on there is something im NOT comfortable w/.

its so much more real when it's u and ur hometown being targeted. rioters r not going down my road but they r scarily close and it makes me feel sick 2 my stomach.

uhhh anyway have such a great day. anyone in the uk seeing this, stay safe and, actually, fuck those rioters. they deserve to be treated with as much hatred and loathing they have for non-white brits, and that tenfold.

Hello again!!

Where I'm from also has that, but I think because it's like, so so so much of the overall population, they're either unable to rally enough people or they're a bunch of racist cowards who are too scared to face down a crowd who'll push back against them.

I was talking to my mom about it this morning because the night before last, they were planning to start shit around Bordesley Green but when the local community (who I believe were mostly Muslims) came out to defend against them, they scattered like rats on a sinking ship.

The few who remained attacked two people who were both on their own, minding their own business, and slashed some tires. Because they're a bunch of pissbaby racist cowards.

I can't remember where it's from but like, it's true that every coward feels courageous in the safety of a crowd.

But yeah no, every time I check the news and no one's died yet, it's like a comforting surprising. Like it feels miraculous that no one's died yet.

In my brain, I know they're not gonna be marching down my road anytime soon, but every time I hear like anything that could be coordinated voices, my head's picking up like I'm a dog who just heard the word walk. And it'll just be some kids on summer holiday.

You're welcome to vent via my blog anytime you need to, and that's an open invite for anyone who needs to vent about it <3

[dycefic]

Have An Evil Day

No prompt this time, just a sequel to ‘Welcome To Evil-Mart’

Working at Evil-Mart is usually… well, it’s retail. It’s physically exhausting, you have to deal with a lot of idiots without being overtly rude, and your feet hurt. Even though the hours and pay are very good, the benefits are great, and our bosses treat us well compared to most retail employees, it’s still not what I’d call a fun job.

But it’s not what I’d call dull, either. Especially not on days like today.

I was promoted to supervisor after the Food Poisoning Incident, so I have a little more authority and a little less obligation to be pleasant and I got issued a weighted cosh because sometimes Evil-Mart customers get… feisty. I’d never had to use it, though, because those who hadn’t seen what I did to Majority Rules, either in person or on one of the cell-phone videos that circulated afterwards, had at least heard about it.  They didn’t give me any trouble.

I was halfway through my shift, and the worst things that’d happened had been running out of croissants and a machine oil spill in Aisle Seven, when our greeter pressed the alarm button, which sent an alert to my handset. As front-end supervisor, that meant me, so I went over. Sam, who is unusual in the henching community for having actually aged out rather than ‘being retired’ jerked his chin in the direction of a tall, swaggering figure. “He just came in,” he whispered.

I did a full double-take before I took it in. Superdyne. Fucking Superdyne.

We’d all heard about his dramatic heel-turn a couple of months ago. The whole world had heard about it. Superdyne, who’d skated closer and closer to the line for years, had decided to cross it in a blaze of bloodshed. He was a villain now, he said. There’d been a whole speech about how ingratitude had driven him to it blah blah blah.

I work at Evil-Mart. I’m from a hench family. If someone becomes a supervillain because they hate Mondays or want to turn us all into dinosaurs or whatever, I don’t judge. I will sell depth-charges and laser guns to anyone who can prove they’re over eighteen without hesitation. But even we get kind of grossed out by the ‘I am forced to turn evil because I haven’t been given enough love’ thing. People who are actually so fucked up by emotional abuse or neglect or some superhero killing their family, we’re fine with them. But they don’t say that’s why they do it, and most of them need a lot of therapy to even realize it. People who actually say that’s why are entitled dickwads.

And now the dickwad had walked into Evil-Mart like he was entitled. Like he thought he was one of us.

“Lockdown protocols,” I told Sam quietly. “On my authorisation.” That takes a minute or two, though, so I went over to talk to Superdyne. “Sir, I have to ask how you even knew where to find this place.”

He smirked at me. “I have my ways,” he said smugly. He’d either bribed or beaten someone, that was my guess. “So this is where the villains shop? We all thought you went to Wal-Mart.” He laughed, like he thought it was clever.

“Yes, so you all say,” I said dryly. I didn’t feel like pretending he was the first person to make the bad joke. “My next question, sir, is what made you think it was a good idea to come in here.”

He spread his hands. “I’m one of you now!” he said happily. “I’m a bad guy! So now I guess I shop where the bad guys shop!” He looked around, frowning a little. “Although I was expecting more weapons and explosives. A… more villainous atmosphere. I didn’t know Evil-Mart had fresh produce.”

“I don’t advise buying herbs here unless you’re a magical practitioner. Some of them have… unusual effects.” A lot of our produce is normal stuff, but some of it not only isn’t legal, it doesn’t exist anywhere else.

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. But the bright lights and the bakery?”

“We have excellent gluten-free breads. In many ways, Superdyne, this is just another store. We have sales, we mark down the breads in the afternoon, we even have a PA system.” I pulled out my handset, and thumbed the button that tied it to the PA. “Attention, shoppers,” I said in my most soothing Customer Service voice, which made him grin. “Evil-Mart wishes to inform you – “ The countdown on my handset reached zero, and I turned to look at the entrance as a huge blast door thudded down. That was the last part of the sequence – staff outside the area were already in lockdown and security were on their way. I smiled, and continued almost without a pause. “- That we are in lockdown at this time, due to the presence of Superdyne in the store. Please remain calm, and be advised that security are on their way to deal with the problem. If you have a personal grudge that you wish to address with Superdyne at this time, he is standing near Register Six with a stupid expression on his face.”

He was staring at me, stunned. “But… but…” he stammered, and damned if he didn’t look puzzled. “But I’m one of you now!”

“No,” I said flatly. “You were always evil, that’s true, but you’ll never be one of us. And for the record, I’m one of the people with a personal grudge. All those henchmen you’ve killed and maimed had families, asshole… and they all shop here.”

He swung at me, then, but I spent years in hench training. Even someone super-strong can be dodged, and once I slammed my cosh into his groin a few times his punches got a lot more aimless. Around then, Tiger Ty came over the register, claws out and snarling, and I figured I should stand out of the way.

About ten minutes later, I turned on the PA again. “Clean-up to Register Six,” I called, in the same special voice. “Category 7, class three. Shoppers, please be advised that lockdown is now lifted but Register Six will be closed until clean-up is completed.”

Hunter, who’d been working Register Six, came out from underneath it. He looked a little green. Well, he was still in his teens, this was probably his first fatal mobbing. “What’s Category 7?” he asked in a shaky voice. “I haven’t heard that before.”

“Biohazard.”

“Oh. Class three?”

“Send three people. He was a juicy one.” I stepped away from a spreading puddle of blood. “Run and get a couple of caution signs we can put around this mess.” I eyed it measuringly. “And one of those fifteen-gallon plastic tubs with a lid, I’ll damage it out.”

He eyed the mess. “Are you sure that’s big enough?”

“Yeah, the average human is only about seventeen gallons by volume, and I’m not going to put all the blood and mush in there, just the big pieces.”

He gulped. “Ah. Yes, ma’am.”

I called after him when he ran off. “One of the black tubs, not a clear one!” Which honestly should only be common sense, but you can’t count on a flustered teenager to have common sense.

We frown on killing customers at Evil-Mart, up to a point… but when a particularly murderous super-hero walks into our store, well, that’s something else. I’d have to fill out a ton of paperwork, though.

I had to chase off one of Doctor Malign’s minons and two members of the Genetic Reign before the clean-up crew arrived, both of whom urgently wanted samples. In the end I scraped a few pieces of liver and unidentified organ into two of the bags we use for possibly-contaminated money just to make them go away. (They’re good customers, and it was just going to go in the trash anyway.)

By the time the clean-up was done, all the big pieces were boxed up, and I’d finished the paperwork, my shift had been over for twenty minutes, and I’d been asked to come up to the boss’s office.

“Listen, I have no issues with how you handled the situation, I want you to know that.” Mr Trent leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingertips together. “It was quick, it was efficient, and… given your personal history with Superdyne, not to mention mine and that of half of our customer base… richly deserved.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. It came out too meek, and I cleared my throat and straightened up. It’s hard not to be intimidated by Mr Trent, when you’re in the same room with him. It’s not his fault, and he does his best, but even under the strictest control his fear-inducing powers tend to unsettle anyone who gets too close. We all know he’s not doing it on purpose and we try not to show our reactions. “Do you have any orders regarding the remains?”

“Doctor Order wants them.” He rubbed his chin. “Get someone from the pharmacy to prepare samples for him, please, including brain tissue. He’s our primary supplier, and we can’t offend him. As for the rest… as you know, I’m retired, and I don’t usually participate in the Endless War.” One of his hands dropped to his left thigh. His prosthetic leg is some of Doctor Order’s best work, but the injury that led to his retirement had been brutal even by our standards. “But this is different. Superdyne came here. To our place of safety. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

I nodded. “Do you want the remains dumped somewhere public? Some kind of dramatic display?”

“No. Something more direct.” He rubbed his chin again, then tapped the intercom on his desk. “Iris, please send up Miss Fedorova from Marketing and Mr Levy from the warehouse.”

“Yes, sir,” Iris responded, and he clicked off the intercom again.

“The three of you worked together very well, during the food poisoning incident,” he explained. “And I believe they can assist us in a satisfactory conclusion.” He hesitated, then smiled ruefully. “Perhaps you should wait outside until they get here. I can tell I’m unsettling you.”

“Sir, I know you’re not – “

“Not doing it on purpose.” He sighed. “I do appreciate how hard you all work to make me feel… accepted, I really do. But I’m very annoyed right now, which makes control more difficult for me, so I think we’d both be more relaxed if you waited outside while I do my meditation exercises.”

I waited outside. When the three of us went into his office again, the miasma of low-level fear was definitely a bit lighter, and he smiled. “All right. Now, this conversation is going to be very confidential, and I will remind you all of the agreements you signed when you were employed.” We all chorused agreement, and he nodded. “Good. Now, this is very much a secret, even among Evil-Mart staff, but we do have a few online clients who are… ah… on the other side of the fence.”

Ms Fedorova blinked. “What?”

Knuckles sighed. “We ship to a few heroes,” he explained. “The ones who are… less homo than sapiens, if you get my drift.”

I didn’t, and from her expression Ms Fedorova didn’t either. Mr Trent spread his hands, drawing our eyes to his fingers. Which as a rule nobody looks at, because there’s fourteen of them, with four joints in each finger, and we know he’s self-conscious about it. “The less… purely human ones,” he said quietly. “One of the reasons I created Evil-Mart was to give those who can’t pass for human, like me, a place to be… people. To have dignity. So that the obligate carnivores weren’t reduced to living on pet-food or scavenging for scraps, so that those with complex metabolisms could get the supplements they need so that people who are still people, for all their outward differences, could shop in safety. There are a great many more monsters, demigods, abominations of science and other non-standard persons among our set than among the heroes, and I wanted to meet their needs, as well as selling weapons and Lair-away-from-home sets and so on.”

“And there are a few heroes who order from us for that reason,” Knuckles added. “The ones who can’t get medications to suit their metabolism, or need to eat things that you can’t get easily anywhere else.”

I nodded, because that much I understood. We have some very esoteric ‘dietary supplies’ that start with fresh, healthy, well-treated and disease-free prey animals frozen whole (from mouse up to calf and goat kept in stock, larger sizes by pre-order, halal and kosher certified where possible) and end with human blood (rejected blood bank stock mostly, we have an arrangement), and human flesh and organs (sourced from hospitals, morgues and crematoriums, guaranteed no murder, at least not by us). “Well, I suppose that makes sense. I’m surprised we ship to them, though.”

“Oh, they don’t know we know. It’s all assumed names and secret bank accounts.” Knuckles grinned. “But Mr Trent has all our online customers identified before we ship. And for the ones who don’t have any other options, well… we let it slide.”

“I can see why you don’t want that to get out.” Ms Fedorova tapped her chin. “What does this have to do with disposing of the body? I was planning to set up a really ghoulish display in a public place somewhere, I already have some sketches.” Marketing for Evil-Mart is… well, it includes more than designing our sale flyers.

“No. We’re going to deliver them to a hero… one of the ones who owes us… and make it very clear that just because someone decides to admit he’s a villain, that doesn’t make him one of us and it doesn’t entitle him to union services,” Mr Trent said flatly. “I want to make it crystal clear to all of them that a heel turn does not mean their sins are forgiven, or that we will accept them as anything other than a very brief amusement.”

Late that night – we were all on overtime, but it couldn’t be done in daylight – we wheeled a cart down the run-down hallway of a shoddy apartment building. “This is a terrible address for a hero,” Ms Fedorova muttered. “Are we sure he lives here?”

“I deliver here a couple of times a month.” Knuckles was pushing the cart. “I’m sure.”

“Okay.” Ms Fedorova cleared her throat, coughed once or twice, and suddenly her voice was deeper and her very faint Russian accent was as thick as pea soup. “This is intimidation tactic,” she said, grinning toothily. “Do not act surprised.”

I knocked on the door, but let Knuckles do the talking. “Delivery, Mr West,” he called, using the fake name the guy had been giving.

It worked… the door was unlocked and opened almost immediately. “I scheduled the order for next – “ the mark said, and then we were pushing inside, slamming the door behind us.

“Do not be alarmed, Mr… Dinoid, is it?” Ms Fedorova said, folding her arms. “Evil-Mart is knowing all along your real identity. But you are needing to eat, and we are not turning down regular business, so we make no trouble.”

Knuckles rolled his eyes behind her back at how much she was hamming it up, but I waved a hand. Let her have her fun. So Knuckles started unloading the boxes onto the table while she talked. “First, your Budget Bunny Box. Your favourite, da?” The next box, smaller, plunked down. “Two fresh chickens, halal certified, healthy and having lived good life, gift for good customer.” Knuckles dumped the plastic tub on the floor. “And mortal remains of Superdyne, with note.”

Dinoid was staring at us, but that made him shift into a combat stance, his long claws spread. “The… Superdyne’s dead? And in there?”

“Well. Most of him. The big pieces.” Ms Fedorova shrugged an impressively Russian shrug. I hadn’t even known that was a thing, but when she did it, it was obvious. “You must understand, when a mob tears a man apart, it is hard to find every little piece.”

“I’m pretty sure Doctor Malign and the Genetic Reign took off with doggy bags,” I said, as if I hadn’t handed them over myself. “And Doctor Order probably has some of him too, by now. So looking out for clones would be a good idea, I don’t know if that’s in the note.”

Insofar as that reptilian face could show readable expressions, he looked shocked. “Why on earth would… why? He changed sides? And why did you bring him to me?”

“We know your address, we know you don’t want to turn us in because we’re the only ones who can supply your meals, and our boss wanted us to make this very clear.” I indicated the note. Since Ms Fedorova was hamming up her Sexy Russian Supervillain act, and Knuckles was very obvious Muscle, I figured it was on me to be the Reasonable One. “He might have stopped being a hero, but that didn’t make him one of us. That didn’t make him acceptable to us. Our boss wants it made very clear that your failures shouldn’t expect to be accepted by us… or even spared by us.”

He shifted slowly, the tip of his tail twitching. “I… see. I understand why you would reject Superdyne. He was notorious for killing and maiming people on… your side. But I know other defectors have been accepted. Philomel, for example.”

“Philomel was child of villains. She is young, she is rebellious, she sides with heroes for a while.” Ms Fedorova shrugged. “Is understandable, da? The young do foolish things. She comes home, all is forgiven.”

He nodded slowly. “Tenebrous?”

“That story I don’t know.” Ms Fedorova glanced at me.

I nodded. “Tenebrous was just a kid. He was twelve when Varide recruited him. Nineteen when he broke with the guy. Varide put a kid into combat, left him with massive PTSD, then ditched him when he had a breakdown and went too far. Mx Frantique at least made sure he had a safe place to stay and some therapy.”

“It’s happened a few times.” Knuckles rested his elbows on the cart’s handles, his inhumanly big, strong hands dangling. “But there’s a process. A system. If someone’s sponsored by a villain in good standing, like Frantique sponsoring Tenbrous, they can be accepted. Nobody gets to just choose to join. Especially not a smug, entitled prick like Superdyne.”

Ms Fedorova suddenly leaned forward, scowling. “And why are you called Dinoid? You are not dinosaur. You are clearly monitor lizard. Golden monitor, I think.” She reached out and prodded his arm. “And not healthy, either. Look at colouration! You do not keep environment humid enough. Are having trouble with shedding, da?”

Now we were all staring at her. “You’re a lizard expert now?” Knuckles asked.

She shrugged. “What? Is hobby. Mamma’s little Varanus Acanthurus are pride and joy. Sadly, cannot keep larger monitors in city. Is unkind.”

Dinoid ran a hand over his head slowly. “Not many people realize,” he said slowly. “That’s why I order from you guys. I used to get frozen… food… from a pet supplier, but then I got contacted by someone who told me there was another option.”

“Is good thing. Those pet suppliers, they are rogues. They do not keep animals healthy, can get diseases or mites from those things.” Ms Fedorova sniffed. “I would never buy from them. My babies would get sick.”

He actually chuckled, then, seeming to relax a bit. “You’re not wrong. After… this happened… I got really sick a couple of times before I figured out what to eat, and where to get it. And even the reputable suppliers don’t always have the healthiest stock.” He opened his mouth wide, making a gagging noise. “You have no idea how bad that ‘reptile food’ is. Eating whole animals may be a little disgusting, but it’s nothing to some of that stuff.”

“I believe it,” I said emphatically. “There’s a reason Evil-Mart has such an extensive pet-food line. The horror stories we hear from some of our customers… well, you’d believe it, I bet, but most humans just look confused.”

Knuckles nodded, and spread his hands. “People who can’t pass for regular humans… or even for people, the way most normies see it… are a lot more common on our side of the fence than yours. That’s why we delivered to you. We figured you really needed it.”

“Does he order from the pharmacy?” Ms Fedorova was around behind him now, examining his back. “He is having calcium deficiency, am betting. He needs nutritional supplement.”

“I take a nutritional supplement,” he said defensively.

“The one for normal-sized lizards is not enough for man-sized monitor/human hybrid,” she said firmly. “Check pharmacy section next time. We are having excellent selection of supplements for hybrids, and chart to tell you how much to take for body-mass.”

He looked back and forth between the three of us. “You people are… not what I would have expected from an evil supermarket.”

“We may be… morally challenged,” I said, shrugging, “but we’re not heartless.” I looked around his tiny, shabby apartment. “Unlike some of your lot. I thought you were on a team. Why are you living here?”

He ducked his head. “I couldn’t live at the base,” he said, his tail drooping. “My… I made people uncomfortable. And the stipend isn’t much.”

“Isn’t much? With the merchandising deals they have?” Ms Fedorova sounded shocked, and the accent had dropped back a lot. “I know for a fact that if the accountants ever got hold of their books they’d owe more in back taxes than… well, than Evil-Mart would if our illegal product arm ever got discovered. And we pay our taxes on the legitimate stuff scrupulously.”

Dinoid blinked rapidly, though I couldn’t tell whether he was more surprised by her suddenly dropping her act or the idea that Evil-Mart pays taxes. “You do?”

“Of course. Not under that name, of course, there’s a shell company.” She sniffed. “All villains do. Al Capone, you know. We’re not getting caught that way again.”

Knuckles and I both nodded when he looked at us, and he shook his head. “Huh. Makes sense, I guess.”

“It does.” I looked around again. The place really was crappy. “I know it’s a personal question, Mr… West, but under the circumstances I’d like to know… how much is that stipend?”

He looked down at the floor for a while, then cleared his throat. “Uh. $1100 a month.”

We all stared at him. Ms Fedorova’s mouth fell open. Knuckles looked shocked, and I was horrified. “$1100 a month?!” I asked, my voice coming out louder than I’d intended. “For risking your life on a superhero team?! I have teenaged cashiers working part-time who make more than that!”

He looked almost as startled as we did. “For working a cash register?!”

“Evil-Mart pays pretty good.” Knuckles shrugged. “But that stipend is disgusting.”

“You are being exploited,” Ms Fedorova said, sounding really aghast. “That is terrible. Why, baseline henchman pay is twice that, and there are danger bonuses and…” Her voice dropped suddenly. “You don’t have a union, do you?”

“A union? Of course we don’t have a…” He trailed off. “You mean you do?”

“Of course we do. An extremely well-armed one.” Ms Fedorova folded her arms. “Henchmen And Allied Industries has represented us for generations. The last time a supervillain executed a union henchman for failure, he was boiled in oil… literally. On camera. Oh, of course some of the less reputable villains just pick up small-time trash from the streets, untrained rabble from the gangs and so on, so they can treat them as disposable, but we union members are skilled workers, with rights and protections. I bet you don’t even get overtime.”

“Of course not. Crime happens when it happens, and we have to…” He trailed off. “You guys get overtime?”

“We’re getting double time and a half for this conversation. And an extra day off.”

His eyes widened again. “Really? Wow, that’s… even when I was working a regular job, before this, I didn’t get pay like that.” He looked down at his hands and bared his teeth in what looked like an unhappy expression. “And now I can’t work anything but this kind of job. People don’t like having a scary dinosaur in their restaurant.”

There was a long pause.

“You can cook?” Ms Fedorova asked carefully.

“Yeah. I worked in my parents’ restaurant before… this.” He gestured at himself. “They were killed when we were attacked, and I was… changed.”

We all looked at each other. “After you’ve returned Superdyne’s remains to whoever you consider appropriate,” I said, grabbing a notepad and scribbling down my number, “I’d like you to give me a call. Evil-Mart is always hiring in the bakery and deli, and I mean always. Most bad guys aren’t great cooks. We don’t know why, it just seems to be one of those things.”

“You want me to join the bad guys?”

“I want you to work in a bakery. Villains and henchmen need to eat, and so do their families. Nobody’s going to ask you to rip superheroes in half, just maybe make a sandwich that won’t give anyone food poisoning.”

“That’s a regular concern?”

“Six months ago the three of us ran Evil-Mart’s physical store completely unassisted for most of a day because the only people who weren’t down with food poisoning were the ones who’d had the vegetarian and kosher meals.” I shuddered at the recollection. “Trust me. Someone who can cater staff functions without a major disaster would never have to live in an apartment like this working for us.”

“And we get full benefits, including dental.” Knuckles was shaking his head. “I bet you don’t even get hospital.”

“What hospital would take me? I always figured I’d go to the zoo and talk to the vet if – “

Ms Fedorova actually put her arms around him. “You,” she told him firmly, “are going to resign your terrible exploitative job, and then I will personally sponsor you to the union immediately. I have a spare room. You will like it. Humidity and temperature can be set just how you like, and Mamma Yelena will take you to real doctor expert in health of hybrids.”

“Those exist?” he asked, sounding a bit overwhelmed.

“Yeah, the Genetic Reign has like three of them,” I said sympathetically. “Listen, you can take some time to think it over, but you don’t have to put up with this kind of exploitation just because you don’t look human. Nearly a third of Evil-Mart’s staff can’t pass, and they’re treated just like everyone else.”

Superdyne’s dramatic demise got a lot of news coverage. Apparently it came as a real shock to the ‘good guys’ that there were some monsters even the superest villains wouldn’t embrace.

Dinoid no longer exists. Ismail Jameel works at Evil-Mart, and has expanded our fresh food lines a lot already. He’s a nice guy, and after Ms Fedorova told everyone how disgustingly he’d been exploited by those so-called ‘heroes’, he was welcomed with open arms. Literally, in at least one case – he’s dating someone from the warehouse, I’ve heard, though I don’t know who. He says we should rename the store, because we suck at being evil.

But evil is a really relative term. It can mean the blackest depravity, or a moment of viciousness, or even just ‘people on the other side’. Evil-Mart is called that because everyone, at least everyone on our side, is welcome. Plus, we all think it’s funny that the least-evil megacorporation is called ‘Evil-Mart’. What can we say? Bad guys have a sense of humour too.

Have an evil day!

[hopelessrromantix]

Oh my god. Yet another teenaged afab asshole with internalized misogyny. Look, don’t worry about people interacting with your ‘writing’ (insert all the eye rolls). You may think you’re some huge talent that needs to swat hoards of unworthy readers away, but somehow I doubt that’s the case. I’ve never heard of you until I came across your unhinged tirade in a tag I follow. I suspect I’m not missing much. Also? You don’t get to speak for mlm because you’ve been identifying as a gay man for 5 minutes.

Good luck being angry at everything! Hope 2023 provides you with much fodder for outrage. You seem to live off it.

Hi! Allow me to introduce myself!

My (online) name is Roman, I'm a 19 year old transitioning gay man who has identified as such for 6+ years now. I am a writing major and screenwriter who also writes numerous essays on feminism in media and epidemic of women, POC, and LGBTQ+ people being mistreated and misrepresented! I've had several such essays reviewed as well as won numerous awards for my writing and live performances!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'm no huge talent. Never in my life will i pretend to be more than a guy with like five friends on the internet just posting shit I wanna write. If you haven't heard of me, it probably means you were staying in your lane until now!

I, as someone who's been in several MLM relationships, feel disgusted and fetishized by women consuming sexual MLM content. Honestly, with how angry y'all get at men fetishizing women I would've thought you'd had more brain cells.

As someone who is fueled by rage, I'm sure better people than you will provide plenty of fodder. I'll die on this hill and looking like an asshole doing it just to protect my five gay friends on the internet. And I'll gladly post stuff like this so everyone can see just why I hate women interacting w my stuff.

I tag stuff as masc exclusive, you so weren't meant to find it. I put this in general tags because some people clearly don't get the message. Btw, I've gotten mostly dms about men agreeing. Keyword: MEN. Go ahead, ask any MLM writers. You've got the 'related blog' section right? Link a MLM masc writer this and watch how hard they laugh at you.

Since you clearly don't like my material it should be really easy to stay the fuck away! In fact, either you were already doing it or you're a fem person trying to feel whole again once we call you out for being a fucking fetishizing pervert. Your call.

I know it may be hard to believe, but fem aligned people don't own all of tumblr! Some shit isn't for you and I don't care that you, for some deluded reason, believe I'm misogynistic.

ill have a great time fueling the fires of my rages with idiots like you