#fun ship names are always better than name smashes

[movedtodykedvonte]

Spamvil winning out over funny business is never not gonna be the biggest tragedy in the utdr fandom in my eyes.

[zeestarfishalien]

Unwanted Farewells

[Day 5 DPxDC Week: Jason Todd // Soulmate AU // Funeral Rites ]

• Anger Management ship (Jasmine Fenton x Jason Todd) No relevant warnings beyond the usual DP stuff

Jazz has always had it the worst. Danny might have been the one to die but Jazz is the one who lost not only her soulmate, but her little brother too. It doesn’t matter that he’s still around, he knows the grief weighs on her sometimes. She overcompensates by being a massive mother hen and general pain in the neck but he tries not to get too upset with her about it.

With Dani with an “i” fresh out of high school and Jazz’s birthday coming up soon, he wants to do something special. He spends a lot of time bribing Ghost Writer in order to research his idea out.

It’s probably the most time and effort he’s put into a project that wasn’t about space.

Proposing the idea to her is the one big thing this all hinges on. He’s not 100% sure she’ll be on board with this but he’d like to try.

And trying is what kicks off the first part of his plan. It’s a little awkward to bring up the fact that he doesn’t have a grave and would like one. It’s almost physically painful to see the grief it brings to Jazz’s eyes. She tries to hide it but Danny has always been able to read her better than he lets on. It’s part of the process though. He needs her to see how this goes and feels. How it’s a celebration of life and honoring those who have passed and not just a somber reminder to the living of what they’ve lost. He needs her to see what it means to him. And what it would mean to her soulmate.

He makes the grave marker of course. They’re not about to buy one when he has the strength and abilities to carve it out himself. He makes sure that it’s vague unless you know him. No names, no identifying markers like age or dates. It’s simple and meaningful for him.

{May he rest here between walks among the stars, our friend and brother beloved}

From there it’s pretty much all fun and games. Literally.

Same brings the games while she has Tucker pack out the food. It’s a combination of some of Grandma Ida’s homemade desserts and various junk foods. Even Tucker brings some cookies his mom helped him figure out how to make.

Jazz is in charge of the drinks while Danny and Dani handled all the decorating. It’s a combination of solidified ectoplasm, his ice, and various flowers they’ve gathered and strung together in a flower chain.

It’s a smashing success and he sees something in Jazz release. Some niggling worry or grief she carried that is no longer there.

Now, he decides, it’s time for part two.

What throws part two for a loop is when Dani with an “i” brings up that she’d like a grave and proper funeral rites as well.

It’s not a setback. Definitely not when he sees how much more relaxed and content Jazz is at Dani with an i’s wake.

It’s only a couple days from her birthday when he brings it up. The funeral practices for soulmates are as varied as they are sacred. He proposes her options via a PowerPoint he put far too many hours into.

By the time he finishes rambling, she’s got this sort of startled look on her face.

He twists his shirt in his hands as he stands awaiting her judgement. The longer she’s silent, the more convinced Danny is that she’ll reject the whole thing and not talk to him for a month.

Okay, maybe a week but still a week is a long time.

Suddenly Jazz is crying and oh ancients he’s really messed up this time. She’s not even mad just straight up upset by his offer.

But then she’s hugging him, telling him she loves him, and thanking him.

It’s not as hard as Danny feared to actually track down the location of a Jason Todd who died before Jazz reached 16 (she never wanted to look him up before, didn’t want to know what she was missing) and the day before her 25th birthday Danny, Dani, and Jazz all pile into her little car to make the drive to Gotham, homemade foods in tow.

Danny and Dani made sure to swipe one of Vlad’s special rich dude credit cards to fund their trip and the stop at multiple flower shops to get enough flowers to make flower chains and crowns for all of them.

It’s closing in on evening, the day of Jazz’s birthday when they finally roll up and upload everything. They didn’t bring any lights, but none of them really need much light to see for eating food and drinking sodas. Jazz brought some jasmine tea and an extra cup to place on Jason’s grave. They make a funky, dark evening of it, but finally Jazz grows more somber and keeps taking long looks at the gravestone so Danny and Dani decide to make themselves scarce.

They’re about halfway across the cemetery when out of the shadows steps the looming menace of Red Hood.

“The fuck are you doing at that grave?”

It’s not his voice or his tone, but the sub vocal ghost speak that makes Danny and Dani freeze up ramrod straight.

That’s a revenant and they’re trespassing on his resting place without permission.

So of course like any sane person, Danny says something stupid. But he just can’t believe out of all the ridiculous coincidences to exist in the world, that Jazz’s soulmate is undead like him seems just too far to believe.

“Jason?”

Almost late despite having the day off work bc I had to go shopping and bc of where I live, shopping is essentially a full day affair. This is shorter than I’d like it but I also kinda enjoy where it ends XD imagine their next moments however you please or feel free to add onto this.

[lover-of-mine]

Personally, I like Tommy as a character, and I’m okay with BT for the time being, though I don’t really ship it. The biggest feature Tommy brought to the table this season was to make Buck realize he’s bi. But you could have replaced him with any random guy and I would have been just as happy about it.

My biggest issue is the toxicity from the BT stans. As in, I don’t appreciate being called a homophobe for thinking that the daddy-kink comment was out of place at the dinner date.

Look, we’re all part of the same fandom and if it makes you happy, go smash your Barbie doll’s faces together. Have fun with it. I support you 100%.

But the fact of the matter is that up until now, most of the things relating to Tommy come from head canons and Lou’s cameos. There isn’t much in the source material to go by. Mostly because he didn’t get a lot of screentime, and the writing of the scenes he’s been in, has been questionable. It’s not a very realistic show so why couldn’t they dress Tommy up for the bachelor party? It would have meant the world to Buck. (Oh, but guess who suggested matching outfits because he cares a whole lot about him?)

Yet, people are out here celebrating these two like it’s the most romantic thing since sliced bread. It’s jarring to see, how many people - especially former Buddie stans - jumped ships at the first opportunity they got. I don’t know if it’s a thing of instant gratification of having Buck in a queer relationship canonically or something else, but I don’t like it. The whole thing makes me worry, the show runners will change course to cater to the BT supporters and push for BT endgame. That would be the least satisfying ending to both Buck’s and Eddie’s story.

I will be honest with you, I think most of my dislike of Tommy comes from the way I am being called names because of him all season, it kinda kills a character's chances when the following of them gets so aggressive, he aggravates me more because of the way fandom treats him than because of anything he did this season because he was barely there this season beyond showing Buck he's bi, like you said. The fandom created this version of him and his relationship with Buck that's not backed by canon, because his scenes lack depth and the writers are not helping him at all and the way people flipped is actually disconcerting. Especially with how willing they are to attack everyone who doesn't agree they are the best thing to ever grace their television. But honestly, considering the way that buddie was still very much present and very much displaying the partnership and love they always had, I still think Tommy is a stepping stone that they are dragging out because it gave them better publicity that they were expecting. Buddie was the only thing that was handled carefully in both Buck and Eddie's storylines the whole season, they know the potential they have there, so I will keep the hope that they'll let this story unfold in a satisfying way. And yeah, it would be extremely unsatisfying to see Buck end up with Tommy with the way Buck was constructed and I like to believe they were way too careful with the construction of Buck in the love interest archetype to fumble the pass in the 2 yard line (I know that's not a saying but my brain is in football mode for some reason bear with me) and not give Buck the conclusion of that when they have been building Eddie in the way to fight that archetype by giving Buck someone who just loves him. And because no one they introduce for Eddie is gonna feel as satisfying as Buck with the way they kept playing up the way Buck is Eddie's life partner. And Buck is quite literally the only thing the show is allowing Eddie to keep. It would be unsatisfying to watch them end up with other people and that was very clearly exemplified by the season 6 finale and the way their ending were very 😬😬 yk? I have faith we will get there.

[october-faye]

The penultimate episode of Partner Track. The show has barely taken off, and now it has to stick its landing.

Ingrid drops by Nick's place to return the engagement ring. She looks like she's dreading the conversation. Not to rub it in (but also to totally rub it in), I'd like to ask her if this confrontation is easier than simply breaking up with him weeks ago?

She explains to Nick that she and Jeff have a history.

Girl!

👏 You 👏 slept 👏 with 👏 him 👏 once 👏 six years ago, never learned his name, and never saw him again. That's not history. That's barely a footnote. Look, I just summed up the entirety of it in one sentence.

Nick calls Jeff dark and tortured (LOL) and tells Ingrid to ask herself why she always chases the storm (LOL).

Jeff is not 'the storm'; he's that drizzly piss weather we get in London. Or maybe he means Ingrid's love life in general? Still not seeing it.

Nick tells her he'll have her stuff shipped over to her.

In case this is your last scene, Nick... uh... sorry. You did not deserve this shit. But also, you and Ingrid dated for a matter of months, and you can do better than a woman who's only sort of into you.

Opening credits.

Ingrid is at her apartment, microwaving a meal and looking sad. She must be missing Nick's cooking. But she forgets about all that when the doorman rings and asks if Jeff can come up. She says 'yes' and hurriedly tidies.

Jeff has bought dumplings (I suppose they were out of egg salad sandwiches?) but he sees Ingrid is already eating some. So I suppose he learned her preferred foods off-screen?

He tells Ingrid that he's cooled things off with Victoria, and she tells him that it's 100% over with Nick. They kiss.

The two actors are excellent screen kissers, by the way. It's an easy thing to forget about until you see actors who can only smash their mouths together in a way that just looks like assault.

Jeff and Ingrid agree to keep their relationship a secret in the office. Jeff reminds her that she jumped him in that same office. They giggle some more.

Cut to a montage where they walk past each other at work, eye-fucking so intensely that I'm surprised Ingrid doesn't get pregnant on the spot. Now I'm imagining the beautiful but insufferable and stupid baby they could make.

Seriously, everyone in the office has eyes. They'll see you two touching hands in the corridor as you pass each other. Do you think you're the first ones in the firm to have an affair? I shudder to imagine what a black light would reveal in your offices.

In the overly long montage, they hang around Ingrid's apartment while she dances sexily for him and strips before they have sex. They also make out in an elevator. These two only wish they were Meredith and Derek from Grey's Anatomy.

I'm making fun of them, but I do buy that they're having a lot of fun. It's a shame there weren't enough episodes in this season to let their early love affair play out more slowly so we could see what they're like as a couple when it's not all steamy looks and slow motion fucking.

The montage (finally) ends, and they're in bed. The dialogue tells us it's been a week and that Ingrid is going to a deal closing ceremony. Ingrid tells him there are three slots for Partner at the firm, and she thinks it'll be her, him and Dan who get it.

Jeff agrees and hands her a gift - it's a pretty diamond necklace with a rose pendant, (which is a callback to Rosecliff, where they met). Ingrid is touched, but she's still sad that she hasn't patched things up with Rachel and Tyler. Jeff tells her to give them time and keep moving forward.

They talk about ambition and Jeff tells Ingrid she lives for the gold star. She asks Jeff about his parents' expectations. Jeff tells her that he was the parent. He cooked and took care of his little sisters. His mother was mentally unwell (it's implied she was an addict due to their circumstances and the abuse from his father) and she set fire to a picture of the two of them because she said it had demons in it.

I like getting some backstory for Jeff, but again it's all tell and no show. They could've given him any other backstory, and it wouldn't matter because it isn't reflected enough in his behaviour. In fact, I half-suspect he might be lying about everything. I just don't know.

It's not the actor's fault. The writers waited too long to give us anything to care about with Jeff. But even this just feels like a set-up for the inevitable implosion of their relationship by the finale.

I do like these two as a couple, sort of. Which surprises me, because I wanted to murder Jeff in episodes 1 through 4, and intermittently thereafter.

If this had been better written, we could've had a solid enemies to lovers story. I've found it easier to find gifs on Tumblr for Paralegal Justin and Rachel's love story than for either of Ingrid's love interests. The side pairing was getting more fandom attention than the love triangle the show based a chunk of its marketing on. Whoops.

[aeghina]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @a-little-bit-of-ravioli

1. How many works do you have on A03?

31! Wow! Not even counting my FF.net and Spirit (portuguese site) fics too. I think adding them would be around 50? I know for sure I have much more than that in my drive.

2. What's your total A03 word count?

739.765 Whaaaaat? That's so many! And it's mostly the ones I write in english!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Inuyasha, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, My Hero Academia and Legend of Zelda, more specifically LU!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

A Link in a chain . My first LU fic! My baby <3 Modern day, soulmate marking and platonic soulmates. The main focus is Wild getting to know them, then Legend accepting the others and finally Spirit joining them.

All Might said 'No'. This was a prompt for a MHA server and I had a lot of fun! All Might is the literal quirk, like a ghost protecting the Midoriyas.

Alpha and Omega. That was a challenge! In almost every way possible. Omegaverse, Toshinko

Merman. Also from a prompt. Merperson au, Toshinko.

Soul clock. Also from a prompt. Soulmate au where there's a clock counting down the time until you meet your soulmate. Toshinko and some platonic relationships mentioned too

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always! I love to receive comments. Even key-smashing make my day a lot better when I check the email

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably The Sacred Trees. It's more like a happy ending with heavy consequences. I live for happy ending, not sorry about that. They will suffer but they will be happy eventually.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them? I'd dare say the happiest was Took You Long Enough, a Midlink reunion during LU and then afterwards. From the concluded, that's the happiest one but there's an even better one coming from a different fic not posted yet :D

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not recently, but I did in the Inuyasha and Katekyo fandom! I usually say a simple "thank you for your critique" because this usually throw people off enough that they leave me alone.

9. Do you write smut?

No! There's some heavily implied things, but nothing graphic or very descriptive (by very heavily, I'm counting the omegaverse fic too; I liked the concept but wanted something with less sex)

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not oftenly, but yes! The last one I wrote was a MHA and LU crossover when the brain was divided between them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once! The person copied one of my biggest series in portuguese, changed the name of the characters and some physical descriptions but it was basically the same. I asked them to put down, but had to dm some of the site's admin to make sure it was deleted.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Once by a friend from the MHA fandom and they encouraged me a lot to write more in english and give it a try. I'm here now so thanks to her!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! It will never see the light of day though, but my bestie and I created a whole novel about a couple and how the wife slowly got mad and then killed him in the end.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm, that's too hard! I have many favorites!

Probably Zelink. LoZ is my old new obsession, it always go back and forth between the games as they are released or as I play again and the animes I'm watching. BotW and TotK gave me so much shipping material I'll be happily reading it until the next game is released.

A close second would be Kyoya/Chrome from KHR. I just love their dynamic, specially when they help each other to grow (and Mukuro being a gremlin jealous older sibling, that's the cherry on top)

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A fanfic for the Grand Chase game when I played it. Ryan almost dies when they cross a desert, Ronan is sent to another world and needs to complete some quests to do that (he's my fav alright? I just needed a reason to send him to another world and do quests by himself, maybe question his faith and all that). I wrote maybe 30k? The idea is lovely and taunts me from a distance but I've never come back to writing it

16. What are your writing strengths?

A very good question... I'd say creating AUs. I love world building and leaving small details that have significance for the story later, I think I do an okay job at balacing dialogue and descriptions. My beta says I'm good at leaving crumbles in the story to solve the problem in the end too

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Punctuation in any language! Ugh, I just love commas sooooo much!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

English punctuation doesn't make much sense for me until now! I'm relying heavily on the corrector and trying to read more to see if I can absorb the info.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Inuyasha!

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

I'm very self indulgent when writing so I like most of them. I'd say the longest time favorite in portuguese is Librarian, a Toshinko fic where Inko is the hero and Toshinori is a librarian she meets because her son is a book geek. In english is A Link in a chain.

Wow, that was a lot! Alright, lemme tag @musical-chan , @arecaceae175 and anyone else interested in doing! :D

[hermanunworthy]

!DNDADS S2 EP37 SPOILERS!

im a bit late bc i was at work all day but time for ep37 reactions!! i cant believe its already here

- now ive heard everyone talking about the intro i bet its gonna be a rickroll or some shit

- ITS FUCKINF ALL STAR. I KNEW THEY WOULD PULL SOMETHING LIKE THIS

- A TEENAGE GIRLS PARENT JUST GOT SHOT AND KILLED AND UR PLAYING ALL STAR.

- hermie mention in the intro im so calm and cool and chill about this /j

- "ur enough as u are" AINT NO WAY UR ABOUT TO MAKE ME START CRYING OVER A PARODY OF SMASH MOUTHS ALL STAR. WHY DID U HAVE TO PULL OUT THE BIG GUNS

- I DONT WANT THE TAYLOR VOICE CHANGE GOD NO

- MATT IM SCREAMING

- WILL CAMPOS U ABSOLUTE MADMAN. i already knew he was gonna find a way around using revivify but THAT WAS WILD

- are people gonna start drawing normal w that piece of jewelry now. bc i wanna. i already like drawing him w bracelets

- oh god what is beths fact gonna be.

- "i just keep meeting all the right people at all the wrong times" BETH MAY U ARE EVIL. THE PLOT OF THIS EPISODE HASNT EVEN STARTED AND IM ALREADY EMO

- ITS STARTING. OH NO

- NICKY BETTER FUCKING SHOW UP im curious to see what they actually decided on for the reason for him not being there last episode

- HERMIE WAS REMEMBERED giggles and kicks my feet

- TAYLOR AND LINCOLN ARENT AWARE THAT TERRY IS DEAD RN.

- were getting terris reaction rn i cant believe this is happening

- IM starting to feel sick godddd

- i bet im gonna see art of the lincoln and taylor piggyback ride hehe

- OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD TERRIS ASLEEP THIS MEANS WERE GONNA GET SCARY BACK. ALSO IS SHE GONNA SEE WILLY OH NOOOO

- NO NO NO NO NONONO

- "theres my girl" STFUUUUUU

- DOES SCARY REMEMBER ANYTHING??? DOES SHE KNOW WHATS GOING ON????

- "just wake him up" I. HATE. THIS EPSIODE

- SCARY GETTING CHOKED UP I CANT DO THIS

- TERRY DIDNT EVEN NEED TO DIE FUCK THIS

- "whoooa shit thats fucked up!" anthony burch i know u are just so incredibly pleased w urself.

- SCARYS STILL PRETENDING LIKE SHE DOESNT CARE ABOUT TERRY. JUST FEEL UR FEELINGS GIRL GOOD GOD

- "EMBARRASSING"??? FOR A KID TO BE UPSET THAT ONE OF THEIR PARENTS GOT MURDERED???? WILLY STAMPLER WTF IS WRONG W U

- there was never a more obvious lie than willy saying hell revive terry

- 19 INSIGHT LETS GOOO

- THATS RIGHT SCARY. STAND THE FUCK UP TO HIM

- NORMAL DESPERATELY TRYING TO HELP AWWWW MAN :[[ I HATE THIS

- PUTS MY HEAD IN MY HANDS. THIS IS SO DEEPLY UPSETTING

- WHEN WE SAID WE WANTED MORE SCARY AND NORMAL INTERACTIONS WE DIDNT THINK ITD BE LIKE THIS!!!

- THE TWINS ARE HERE NOW OMG

- beth is out for fucking blood this episode. god she is so good at making the audience feel for her characters

- SHES TELEPORTING TO GRANT?? IM NOT READY YET

- "hes dangerous! get away from him!" THE FACT THAT THIS IS LINCOLN SAYING THIS ABOUT GRANT BREAKS MY HEART

- SCARY HAS A GUN FUCK YEAH!!!

- FIRST HERMIE SPEAKING LINE OF THE EPISODE YIPPEEEE

- halfway through the episode now. cant wait to see what could possibly go wrong next!!

- i love whenever anthony allows a fun rulebreaking idea to work

- IDK WHY THE IDEA OF THE KIDDADS HAVING A GC IS SO FUNNY TO ME

- rons status remains a mystery....

- "we could do a whole scene w just hermie and all the other ones" u joke matt but i enjoy every scene w hermie no matter how unnecessary and drawn out

- as always linc and taylor are such a funny iconic duo

- WERE FINALLY GETTING ANGRY NORMAL??? FINALLY????

- WILL WITHDRAWING HIS COOL MOVE LMAO

- i just realized WE STILL HAVENT SEEN NICKY!!! GODDAMN!!!

- "the gayest fucking mecha of all time" swiftli fans do u like the new ship name /j

- ig i cannot deny it anymore swiftli is practically canon atp

- NICKY!!!! NICKY!!!!! I SHOT STRAIGHT UP IN MY SEAT

- NICKY AND HERMIE ARE FINALLY INTERACTING. PRAISE THE LORD

- i thought nicky got all his limbs back?? did anthony just forget

- btw ive probably been waking up my whole house w how hard im laughing over swiftli this episode

- LINCOLNS GONNA PUNCH GRANT WHOA. WHOA

- "so what are u gonna do, ur gonna kill me?" as i said before. i hate this episode.

- SCARY OBLITERATED PAPA JOHN SO FAST WHOA.

- THE DUNGEON SETUP VS THE TONE OF THE EPISODE HELPPP

- i just had such a weird thought/prediction. but i will hold my tongue. bc the last time i said something like this it came true and i do not want this to come true

- IS SCARY GONNA BREAK IT W LOVE FOR TERRY. I CANT DO THIS

- "i love u and i hate that u made me love u when u are who u are and u knew it." I WISH U COULD SEE MY FUCKING FACE RN. HOLYYY SHIT THATS DEVASTATING

- oh. my. good. lord.

- GUYS????? I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW. HOLY FUCK. THAT WAS HEAVY AS SHIT

[katzell]

How I Met Your Father - Review

Seasons 1 & 2

First, know that I was there in the beginning. I watched How I Met Your Mother starting in season 3 and watched it as it aired until the very bitter end. Everyone has a show that disappointed them and let them down. But I honestly think that nothing compares to the horror of the last episode of HIMYM, because it made everything that came before it worse. Mayyybbee some LOST fans get it. But at least that finale wasn’t a character assassination in the name of one last smug trick. It was a rumination on love and humanity that allowed the characters a moment of grace in a world that denied it. HIMYM’s trashed seasons of character work for Barney and Robin and its own success in actually finding someone to play the Mother who was worth 11 seasons of waiting. But sure, wasn’t it clever they had footage of the kids before they grew too big saying the story was always about Ted loving Robin. Of course nothing that was filmed after season 3 really mattered.

I’m sorry to begin this way, but as Robin Scherbatsky and Barney Stinson appear in HIMYF, clearly in the between times, post divorce but before the titular mother’s horrible death, we have to talk about it.

I hadn’t meant to watch this show. Poor Chris Lowell will forever be Piz. The Veronica Mars trauma is another thing all together and others have written about that better. But as a lifelong Hilary Duff fan, I was curious to see her do a traditional adult sitcom.

In 2021, the pilot didn’t convince me. I agreed with reviews that said none of the characters acted or spoke like millennials. The side stepping of covid felt weird as well. Where HIMYM had a really eerie knack of conjuring NYC from LA, the reboot felt more soundstagey. I chalked it off as another mercenary move to mine IP and play on nostalgia.

But I guess this is why we live on Tumblr! Because the right gifset on your dash at the right time can make you reassess. And the right persons face can make you pause and go, I guess this is happening now.

In 2023, watching a comedy that was in fact pure shenanigans suddenly felt like a gift. As everyone reassess the changes in the US television industry, I hope distributors see the value in greenlighting shows like this again. I love my prestige comedies that want to incite anxiety attacks. But I also love seeing friends living in a city run around having madcap adventures. And I love a show that unabashedly wants me to ship characters and care about romance! Particularly the slow kind that works off dozens of episodes to establish.

And luckily for me, HIMYF has the very dreamy Sid, played by Suraj Sharma. I mean, who doesn’t at some point fantasize about a hot bar owner smart enough to go to [insert highly demanding profession here] but chose instead a cozy place where all their friends can hang. (See also New Girl). I need at least 3 more seasons, 20 episodes each, because I’m invested in the potential between he and Hillary Duff’s Sophie. Its nascent and yet so much more intriguing than Sophie’s other more obvious, but boring options. (Apologies to Chris Lowell’s Piz Jessie). Sophie and Sid have the easy charm to power a friends to lovers for the ages. And with his marriage on the rocks, and her dating his best friend, the melodrama is there too! The stupid concite of the show has its hooks in me again and I am definitely scared. You would be too if you saw the pathos and rawness Cobie Smuthers brings to her cameo. I’ve been kicked in the teeth before by this world. Neither of us are over it.

Fine, a brief word on Barney’s cameo. Awful. He talked about how he learned to respect women thanks to a special girl in his life. It was his fucking daughter and not Robin. I knew this and it still hurts. The electroshock pants weren’t funny. But I did like that he wouldn’t charge a nice girl for smashing his car if she had a fun enough story. That was the character I liked.

[hughiecampbelle]

HIIII OMG i would love a succession ship with one of the guys pleaaase! :)

My name is Ann, I speak (Austrian) German and English, I'm transmasc (go with they/he prn.) and demisexual and 20y.o. I'm have a lot of "different" personalities depending on how much I know/like the other person but typically I'm very introverted, make stupid jokes all the time, don't talk about my feelings, anxious and don't really think before I talk because my thoughts go 100km/h. I'm 1,62m tall, have an outgrown wolfcut red and black hairdye, snake bite piercings and a ton of moles all over my body - some look like starconstellations (i cut the tip of my left ringfinger off). I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression three years ago and my therapist also thinks I might be on the autism spectrum. My favourite bands are Depeche Mode, Interpol, Placebo, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins and Strawberry Swithblade (dark post-punk but also stuff like Geier Sturzflug, Blur and The Divine Comedy). I also absolutely love coming of age movies from the 90s early 2000s. I want to study Arts or maybe architecture in University and want to own a small vintage car and live in a really old building in vienna. I HATE when ppl are walking too close behind me, chew loudly, touch/breath on my neck and constantly bombard me without giving me a break. My favourite place is the big meadow in front of my house where all the flowers are blooming now and bees and bumblebees are flying around.

This is so long I'm so sorry! I really love your writing and everytime I'm on here I'm excited when I see you posted something :)

Hi my love! I ship you with: Lukas Matsson!!!

He loves all your moles and freckles. He can't keep his hands to himself when he's with you. When you're in bed together he traces them, counts them, draws little pictures with them. He loves your body and all those little spots it just make you more you. It's gets quite ticklish though and sometimes you have to beg him to stop so you can catch your breath. He also loves your hair. He's not very adventurous with his appearance, so he can appreciate when you are with yours. He keeps the hair dye brand you use stocked in the bathroom, just in case you feel like changing it up. He even tried to help once, dyeing your hair, though that ended up with little splats of color all over the bathroom and one of his nice shirts totally ruined.

You love his humor. It can come off as strange or dry, especially when you first met, but once you get to know one another, you can't stop smiling. He's always in a joking mood. Especially when you're not feeling your best or you're anxious about something, he'd always trying to get you to smile, to laugh, to make the situation a little better, a little easier. You have a lot of inside jokes as well that can always guarantee a laugh.

Your relationship is simple. You and Lukas both know what you like, what you don't like. You talk things through like adults, even when it's hard to do so. He knows that when you need breaks, it's not anything to take personally, rather it's just that you need you space from everyone. He constantly plays all your favorite songs for you, over the speakers, through the house. He puts on a one-man-show with them, singing into an imaginary microphone. It's adorable.

Your first date is watching a movie. He has his own movie theater in his house, so you've got the place to yourself. You put on one of your favorite coming of age films. He not so shyly puts his arm around you halfway through, too. You get all kinds of snacks and it's the most fun you've had in a long time. Lukas doesn't really care what you watch, as long as he gets to spend time with you, that's what matters. He's been trying to work up the confidence to ask you out for ages, though he'd always been a bit flirty even before you realized he meant it in a way that's more than friends.

Relationship Headcanon: Lukas buys a house in Vienna, the old one you've been eyeing forever. It has everything you've ever wanted and more. He's not a huge fan of the creaking floorboards or the few cobwebs, but the look on your face when you realize what he's done makes it entirely worth it. Now you've got a home in Austria as well as Sweden and a few other places around the world. You thank him a million times over, but he doesn't mind. Your happiness is enough.

Thank you so much my love!!! That means the world!! I really hope you like it! 💜💜💜

[gaykarstaagforever]

...They're doing a sequel / prequel to Slave Zero, the 1999 wonky 3D mech fighting game that seven people remember, as a 2.5D pixel art beat-em-up, where you are a red guy fighting demons with a buster sword?

Who...?

Did someone pay for this IP? Why? Who besides me and LGR would care about a Slave Zero sequel / reboot in 2024?

Maybe they just wanted to use the name, found out it was already a thing, realized that thing costs like $6, so they just bought it. Plus it was already a cyberpunk universe with tentacle monsters, so why not just drop your techno samurai fighting EVAs in there?

Truly there is no IP so old and obscure, someone won't try to desperately reboot it.

I mean this new game looks kind of cool so fine, I guess.

Don't get me wrong. The original Slave Zero was great fun, in the way all those early 3D games were fun. Just a big weird tech demo where you could smash tiny cars and throw tiny screaming people, with way too much story for the 6 hours of easy gameplay. Think Max Payne, if Max Payne was uglier and bad and a giant gorilla robot. 3D game standards in 1999 were non-existent. You could get away with whatever.

Look at this:

I was 18. I thought this looked AMAZING.

In 1999, Unreal Tornament was neon origami monsters firing lighting effects at each-other. FF VIII had static 2D backgrounds. Homeworld didn't expect you to actually zoom in and look at the ships. Age of Empires II and RollerCoaster Tycoon were two of the biggest games that year, and there wasn't a single polygon between them.

Hopefully this new game will age better than the original. Pixel art always does.

I mean, there is a reason people only think of the promotional art and not the actual game graphics when you mention EverQuest.

...Okay, two reasons.

[doubleddenden]

We're 5 months into 2022 as of May 22nd. It's time for another look at just how fucked we are by checking in on

The Timeline

Elon Musk buys Twitter to own the libs. Wait actually he changes his mind. Maybe actually yes. Wait. What about all the bots? Maybe no. Lots of people are jumping ship

Eurovision happened. Something about banana wolves and pussy salad? Idk man, but Ukraine won

Square Enix sold a bunch of IPs for... NFTs. Like Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. For. NFTs.

BTW NFTs and crypto fell hard recently

BTW BTW, one of the biggest NFT guys behind those ugly monkeys tried to make a dating site for themselves, then called it off because of too many dudes

Speaking of dating, Dead By Daylight is making a dating sim called DBD Hooked on You, made by the same people that made the KFC dating sim. Now you can date your favorite serial killers and be the "I can fix him" girl you've always wanted to be

Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers came back in the weirdest possible way. Look aesthetics aside, I mean it when I say weird. Like Ugly Sonic makes an appearance weird. Like two characters got together that had no business getting together weird. Like Chip n Dale not sounding like Chip n Dale weird.

You know that bird that was in Lion King? Zazu? Yeah his species is going extinct. I thought it was a toucan or something but nah, thats a Yellow Billed Horn Bill, and climate change is wiping them out.

MCR is back- again! This time Measles didn't come with them

Unfortunately Monkeypox did. Yeah turns out it's was around before in 2003 or so, even 2021. Do some googling but try not to panic. There are treatments from the looks of things so we're already better off than we were with Covid, but educate yourselves on the matter to be safe, and don't brush off warnings.

Fairly Odd Parents has a live action Paramount+ series where Timmy leaves very 2d Cosmo and Wanda to some very not 2d and live kids when he goes off to college or something idk. Btw, Vicky works at the school now. Btw btw, Vicky has a crush on- go ahead and guess- no seriously try it you'll never get it- it's Crocker. Twitchy ass FAIRY god PARENTS ass ear on his neck ass Crocker. Yeah she was 16 during the regular show and he was still middle aged and yes this did come out of nowhere, why do you ask?

Digimon Survive survived development hell and is actually coming out in like 2 months, and seems like it might be a VN with Tactical RPG elements and a karma system- oh and teens will probably die, most definitely

Avatar actually put out a trailer for its new movie. No no not the fun one with the bald kid or buff tomboy- the one with blue people that have sex with their hair

Warner Bros really weren't joking when they decided to make a co-op Smash clone of characters like Batman, Arya Stark, Jake the Dog, and Ultra Instinct Shaggy. It's real. I swear I saw it. I stg Batman and UI Shaggy really fought against Bugs Bunny and fucking Arya Stark. I wish I was lying.

Kingdom Hearts 4 is announced, and Sora has gone down from a size 32 clown shoe to a size 13 as he steps into the most disturbingly realistic world in the franchise yet.

Oh and this was a couple of months back, but Robert Pattison and Zoë Kravitz were interviewed by a Vtuber named LaPlus (La+?) Darkness from the Japanese side of Hololive, where she asked him how he used the bathroom in the Batman suit, and he gave a fun answer. He actually looked happy

And to end it on a somewhat bittersweet note. Scrat finally got the nut. That fucked up squirrel from Ice Age that caused several natural disasters, broke the laws of physics, broke EARTH- he finally. Finally got his nut. His struggle is over.

Until we meet again

[everysongineverykey]

Hello you-can-always-come-home,

For the past day or so you have been making your followers cringe with a hypothetical Deltarune MCU adaptation. In front of you is a computer currently displaying your tumblr account. You have 24 hours to write a cringeworthy mcu fandom-esc selfship fanfic with Berdly. Should you fail, your followers will instead fill this fandom ship niche with their own fanfic, almost certainly resulting in something far worse than whatever you could come up with. Will you succumb to the awful awful idea that you have unleashed, or will you finally get a taste of your own medicine? Live or die, the choice is yours.

christ alive. it's done. i really tried to write from the voice of a 13 year old mcu fan back in like 2014 and i really hope it doesn't come off as mocking anyone in particular. anyone who reads this i Promise you this writing style is put on and that i am a better writer than this actually

After the roaring knight turned out to be a personification of the fun gang's insecurities and was defeated by the power of friendship and also Triple Spamvil Neo 5000, the almighty fusion between Spamton and Jevil that had two laser cannon arms instead of one and flossed a lot, the heroes and all their friends decided to live together in Ralsei's castle in Castle town 2.0, a haven for all darkners and Lightners where everyone could live together and be happy since it was made of a different kind of darkness then all the others. Susie and Ralsei were now King and queen (Author's note: can be romantic or platonic depending on what you like best but all im gonna say is i LOVED the scene where he saved her from falling off a cliff and then said "I think you just fell for me" >_<) and Kris was Crown Prince(ss) (Author's note: haven't decided on a gender for Kris yet LOL). They were all roommates and everyone was happy.

Well, except for one person. Berdly, even though he was the reason the gang got out with their lives when he said "It's spammin' time" to summon Triple Spamvil 5000 (a.n: who else LOVED that morbius reference🤣), was still alone, his room in the castle was just a broom closet under the stairs and all he was ever fed was bread crumbs twice a day. Both Susie and Noelle had rejected him even though he was such a nice guy because they said he wasn't their type. Berdly's life in Castle Town 2.0 was TERRIBLE and he wished he had never helped them out at all.

Then one day he met someone who changed his life forever. She was half Darkner, half Lightner due to being born from one of the last Dark fountains to be sealed and her name was (Y/N). She first met Berdly when she was seeing King Ralsei and Queen Susie in the throne room to discuss her new job, the Lightner-Darkner ambassador.

Susie, Ralsei and (Y/N) were walking through the castle halls. "Well (Y/N)" said Ralsei, "I am very glad we got to meet you. It seems like you will be a perfect fit for the job of ambassador."

(Y/N) beamed. "Thank you your majesty. I will do my duty with pride. Being the only Lightner-Darkner hybrid in the world isn't easy, but I know it'll give me a special insight for this job."

Susie yawned loudly. "UGH," she complained, "Ralsei, didja HAVE to drag me along with you to talk to this priss? You know I hate di- di- diplodicus."

"Y-You mean diplomacy." Said Ralsei.

"Ugh, what-EVER," Susie groaned. "If I don't get to break something right now Im gonna explode" She turned suddenly and smashed an expensive vase sitting on a column. (Y/N) and Ralsei jumped back, (Y/N)'s kalidoscope orbs shining with fear.

"S-Susie!" sputtered Ralsei, terrified. "Y-You have to stop breaking vases! They're expensive!"

Susie roared with laughter. "Whatever toothpaste boy. Hey!" She looked around, snapping her fingers. "Where's Nerdly? He'll clean it up for me. Nerdy!"

Berdly came skittering quickly over from around the corner. "Y-Yes your ma-"

He stopped in his tracks, eyes landing on (Y/N). She was beautiful, there was no doubt about it. Her striped whitr-and-black hair humg around her shining skin like a halo, and she wore a gorgeous floor-length gown that glittered with every color of the rainbow.

Forget Noelle, this was the first real angel Berdly had ever seen. He suddenly realized hed been staring too long and cleared his throat blushing

"Uh... yes, your majesty?"

Susie motioned to the mess on the floor. "Clean that up. And don't take so long this time, I don't wanna see your ugly face stilll here in half an hour again."

Berdly looked miserably at the broken mess om the floor. "B-But your majesty, you said I could have a day off today-"

"Berdly" Ralsei said sternly. "Listen to your queen."

Berdly sighed sadly and dropped to the floor, and (Y/N) suddenly felt terrible for this boy who seemed like he just wanted to live a nice life in Castle Town.

"Excuse me," she touched his wing and he froze, blushing, "Don't worry about that. I'll clean it up."

She snapped her delicate fingers and in a second, the shards had disappeared. Leaving the floor clean again.

Berdly blinked in surprise. Susie's eyes narrowed. "Aw, c'mon, wheres the fun in that?! He always does the cleaning here! It's fun to watch him suffer!"

Ralsei tried to intervene, "Susie, please-"

"I don't care if you don't like him," (Y/N) challenged the dragon, stepping closer adversarially. "It's wrong to treat anyone this way. He obviously only wants to be friends with you and you're being very unfair."

Susie, not used to being told she's wrong, glared at (Y/N), smoke flowing out of her nostrils. "I'm Queen here!" she yelled. "I should be able to do what I want! Ugh, i'm gonna need some chalk for this" She stormed off, stomping down the hall. Good riddance, (Y/N) thought, though she was too polite to say it out loud.

Ralsei hurried after Susie meekly. "S-Susie, calm down-" Leaving (Y/N) and Berdly alone in the hall.

Berdly couldn't believe what had just happened. Someone had stood up for him! Someone cares how he feels! No one not even Noelle had ever tried to challenge the way he was treated ever since he moved to Castle Town 2.0 and now this gorgeous girl was leaning down and smiling at him.

"Are you alright?" She asked kindly, holding out her hand for him to take. "I'm sorry that happened. What's your name?"

"B-Berdly," he stammered taking her hand and quickly getting to his feet. "W-Who are you? I've never seen anyone like you before."

She blushed at that, and Berdly's heart skipped a beat. Her orbs turned bright pink, the color of happiness... and love?

"(Y/N)," she said quickly. "I'm the new darkner Lightner ambassador. Please to meet you Berdly!" Her face turned sad all of a sudden. "Do they... all treat you like that?"

Berdly's blue orbs turned dark with sadness as he looked down, muttering "Ever since I moved here. I helped them defeat the Roaring Knight too. And yet even my old friends seem to hate me now..."

"That's so sad!" (Y/N)'s eyes turned a deep blue to show her sorrow. "I'm sorry Berdly. You don't deserve this."

Berdly blushed again, shrugging. "Not much i can do"

Suddenly, (Y/N) reached out and took his hand, something that no one had done in a long time "Well I'm going to do something about it. Mark my words Berdly, no one'll treat you like a slave again as long as I'm here. Now, tell me about yourself."

She took his wing and they set off down the hall, walking and talking and laughing and Berdly could feel that this girl was going to change his life.

fucking. there. chapter one of The Reason I Should Not Have Internet. chapter 2 coming never because i've done enough

[yutoda-mn]

Anne with an E Review *spoilers for pretty much any adaptation of Anne of Green Gables*

Generally, I adored this show. I am devastated that it was cancelled. I am a longtime fan of the books and old Sullivan movies, but it's small comfort to go read or watch those when this show diverged so much from the original source material, and what I really want is to know the rest of the side characters' continued stories.

I do think that with some changes they made from the books, they fundamentally changed some of the essence of certain characters and the feel of the overall story, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Of course, we all know they made certain things darker and grittier and more realistic or what have you; that was a big marketing point of the show. But there are other things that changed alongside that as well, in my opinion, namely that they removed a lot of the fun, humorous, whimsical, romantical, magical sense that the books have by removing a lot of the relatably klutzy scrapes Anne is always getting herself into. So I missed a lot of those types of scenes, like Anne floating down the river imagining herself to be Elaine in a slowly sinking boat only to get rescued by her nemesis Gilbert; or Anne writing a tragically romantic short story titled Averil's Atonement and being devastated by its rejection only to have Diana go behind her back and submit it to the Rollings Reliable Baking Powder competition.

I also think that generally Anne and Gil's slow path from nemeses back to increasingly close sweet friends was a little hurried and strangely awkwardly done. Sometimes the pace of the show just felt strange compared to the book. Even just the scene of Anne smashing her slate over Gil's head felt a little rushed and backgrounded. Overall, I think this allowed for pursuing rich stories of deep friendships between Anne and other girls and boys whose backstories and personalities were sometimes more fleshed out than in the books, particularly some of the other girls and women, which is awesome. But it did lessen some beautiful relationships and stories and feelings that were more present in the books.

All this to say, I did adore the show, and I have a hole in my heart now that I've finished it and it's cancelled (*sobs*). I thought it was a beautiful interpretation of the books, with wonderfully fleshed out characters that had a lot of traits to love balanced with reasonable character flaws. The cast was incredible and all portrayed their characters fantastically in my opinion as a longtime, childhood lover of the books and the old Sullivan movies. For the most part I thought the characters and plot points that they added were wonderful. So now I'll dive into some specifics of the changes I liked, didn't like, or was neutral about, and the things I wish they had additionally included from the books, and what I wish we could see post-season-3 if it ever got renewed (*sobs*).

Changes I liked:

Miss Stacy's expanded character and backstory

The characters of Bash and Mary and Delphine and the laundry women and Bash's mom and Gil and Bash's time on the ship and in Trinidad and the inclusion and exploration of the Bog and the discussion of anti-Black racism (At first I didn't think they needed to kill Gil's dad and make his story so different from his book story in order to accomplish him being on the ship and traveling and meeting Bash etc. but in retrospect I do like that we see Gil get to be the head of the house and farm and share that with Bash and such and also those changes regarding his dad and whatnot really are not terribly huge or drastic changes)

The increased sense of feminism in Anne and Miss Stacy and Diana and Ruby and Tillie and Prissy and Gil and Marilla and others etc. and the school newspaper and activism and protest for women's rights and making Prissy and Ruby and other women smarter and more multi-dimensional than their book counterparts

The expansion of Prissy's character and having her call off the wedding to Mr. Phillips

The inclusion of queer characters and the discussion of queerphobia and making Aunt Jo lesbian and teaching Anne and Diana compassion and open-mindedness

Everything about Jerry, and also Jerry and Diana

Cole

Letting Matthew and Ruby live

The Mi'kmaq characters and the well done handling of the residential school storyline without having a white savior and really making the audience sit with the tragedy and discomfort of how horribly we white people have historically treated indigenous people

Anne learning to like and make spicy food

Changes I was neutral on:

Diana's family being more pretentious and rich and having a more bougie lineage and family history and such and the whole finishing school in Paris storyline and whatnot

Miss Jeannie

Matthew and Marilla having had another sibling

The way Anne and Gil eventually figure out their mutual feelings and keep missing like ships in the night their letters for each other and running around with their heads cut off and stuff

Winnie, maybe?

On both of those above points regarding Gil and also Winnie, I like that in the show Anne was worried about Gil choosing her over a different option that could allow him everything she thinks and maybe he thinks he wants in his life and worrying that she's second rate or something and Gil ultimately choosing her anyway and knowing it's always been her but I like that in the books Gil knew from day one that it was always her and was worried about not being enough for her and knowing she deserves the world and wanting to give her the world and telling her he was sorry he didn't have a lot to offer her but of course she doesn't mind because she realizes she loves him and all she needs and wants is him; like it's hard to explain but basically she goes through a lot of hardship and self-doubt and worrying she's not enough to be loved as an orphan and an "ugly" redhead and whatnot but she comes to expect romance and love and know she deserves it and it's never a question of her not being enough or good enough in the books

Changes I did not like:

Winnie, maybe?

Diana's parents disliking Anne so much from the beginning and kind of messing up the impact of the inebriated tea party scene

The unnecessary added drama of things like Anne being sent all the way back to the orphanage when Marilla thinks she's stolen her brooch

Other things that felt unnecessarily and unrealistically darker for pure drama purposes like the orphanage being so entirely terrible and everyone being so deeply horrendous to Cole (although I did like and was impressed with their handling of the storyline of Cole and the difficulty to find his place in the world)

Billy hardcore sucks more than he needs to and destroying their story club hangout was just awful (but again they did a great job with the handling of the story with Billy and Josie)

Killing Mary (not that Mary is even in the books, but just like there's at least 2 white characters that die in the books that don't die in the show and this felt unfair)

Not letting Ka'kwet successfully get away (again not like she's even in the books and it's most historically accurate for her to probably not get away but still)

The gold storyline, I just hated it

Additional book things I wish had also been included:

Anne's baking powder story contest submission

Anne floating down the river in a sinking boat as Elaine and being rescued by her nemesis Gil

Gil getting sick leading to Anne realizing she loved him

Roy, just why does no one ever include Roy??

Generally the lighthearted, romantical, magical, fantastical, whimsical sense of Anne's character in the books and to bring that magical whimsy and fantasy and romance to the show that the books have and to give Anne that same relatable character nature of being a klutzy who's always getting into scrapes and such

Anne doing dramatic readings that Gil sees and is just absolutely enamored with

Generally the level of hatred and length of time for which Anne hated Gil and then they're slow reconciliation and friendship before falling in love

Diana and Anne jumping on Aunt Jo in the middle of the night as Anne's first time meeting her

What I wish I could see post-season-3:

Gil learning indigenous medicine techniques from the Mi'kmaq and Trinidadians and more

Leslie Moore and Owen Ford

Davy and Dora

Miss Lavendar

Diana and Jerry reconciling and being cute and in love, namely Diana apologizing, and maybe a Roy-like storyline happening there leading to Diana realizing how dumb she was in messing things up with Jerry

Bash and Muriel ultimately falling in love

Also Miss Stacy is bi though, sorry not sorry, it's just the facts

Patty's Place and exploring the nearby graveyard and generally Anne just having a magical time in college writing magical, romantical stories and exploring the beautiful world

Love letters between Gil and Anne, and Gil and Anne just being as perfectly and radiantly happy as they deserve to be

Anne really sitting with the realization and discomfort that people, especially white people in power, do not always or often have inherently good intentions or good hearts, and Anne can't trust people to do right by people like Ka'kwet and Ka'kwet's family, and Anne grieving all of that, whatever the outcome is, with her family and friends and Gil

General college shenanigans

Breaking curfew to see boys

More gay shit and a bi character please

The girls learning sign language to communicate with the lovely Lily

Maybe Anne and Winnie become better friends

Roy is introduced (he's played by Timothee Chalamet) and is bi and ultimately ends up with Cole and they're adorable

Some cameo is played by Megan Follows

Anne and Gil have a cute picnic, just because I want that

[poohbea]

Why did you start writing? I’m honestly curious bc of your major and how busy it seems, like would you be able to balance writing and working in your chosen career field? Or is writing just a hobby and something for right now but not something you’re going to stay doing? (Sorry for these random and long questions!)

V I thought you were going to bed 😂 but random questions are fun so don’t apologise I like having convos like these it makes me think.

So in terms of starting to write, I’ve always loved creative writing since primary school and I found I was quite good at it by the time i reached high school (my english grades were tops). Like every time we had a creative writing assignment I’d smash it because I’m quite a creative person and have always found it easy to put things into words. I’ve come up with plenty of concepts the main four or five would be —

1. Scorchrose (which is quite complex and it’s about a vampire named Caelius Scorchrose who buys slaves from the black market of Rorrim (which is the realm that’s opposite to earth) so he buys them to kind of keep them safe in a sense because monsters of Rorrim are very unforgiving and will do anything and everything to humans because they can. So the main character Amara (she’s black and IK HOW IT LOOKS NO THIS IS NOT A NOD TO SLAVERY I SWEAR i just wanted to create someone that looked like me yk) is bought however she’s a bit different, she smells a bit different and it’s not often they get high quality blood through the black market auction so everyone jumps on this opportunity but Cae is the highest bidder naturally (he’s the founder and owner of a pharmaceutical company that deals in both Rorrim and earth) and then they’re relationship transpires — i made a map of Rorrim and everything (social classes, primary monster species, all with their own little kingdoms and laws, etc.

Let’s not talk about the werewolf orgy (where we get this is hotter with context I swear 😂 we get to meet Dimitri(os) for the first time (yes he’s the leader of the species)). I have a few unfinished scenes floating around my laptop for this story (yes I have some of the orgy scene written) — I can go on and on about this story

2. The Butterfly Effect which is now a mammon fic on my blog of that same name but it used to be a larger story of a prince/ royal or someone of that social class and a tracker. Now this whole story included topics of racism because there were two races called the Etherians (which is our tracker, her name is Seeris (Sear-ris)) and the Kertisian (Ker-tee-jan (pronounce the j like in jean) (which is our royal, his name is Dante). So the whole first chapter was what happens in the fic but the kicker is that you see Dante is engaged to a Kertisian well he just bred with an Etherian so uhh guess who’s pregnant. It was gonna be a whole lot of drama kinda delving into the realm of racism and social class, and SCIENCE I was gonna geek tf out with it but never got to finishing it. My first reader of that story was @the-australian-editor hahaha the way she loves that story.

3. Octavia which was really a self insert cause I was obsessed with the idea of space pirates. So this concept was turned into ‘Catch Me If You Can’ with Geto. The Geto fic was from a particular scene I was compelled to write. So that one was about captain y/n (in this case) and her crew stealing from the Paragon (think of them as the top 1% of those who roam space so your government officials, celebrities, kings, queens, etc.) and their whole journey being on the run. And who better to go after the captain of the notorious Octavia (that’s the ship’s name) than her ex lover. I made names for the different species of aliens that make up the crew and basically wrote little profiles for them and where they came from (and what those planet environments were like)

4. Honey which I scrapped entirely, it was gonna be your typical mafia love story. So Honey is set in Valencia, Spain and Honey the main character she’s been adopted by a family (she doesn’t know that she’s adopted - her birth parents gave her up when she was an infant). She works in the museum there and she meets a strange old man, who invites her to dinner (she refuses at first but in this case you can’t actually refuse the don of the biggest mafia in Valencia) so she goes there for dinner and she meets this man’s son, after a while she finally asks what this is all about and the father says “well according to the deal your parents made you are to marry my son”. It was a very loose and kinda cliche plot so I scrapped it.

5. Ray and Camille doesn’t have a title offically, but it’s about two opposites the sun and the moon. So Ray is born from a coronal mass ejection from the sun during a solar hurricane (the amount of research I did for this was insane, cause I wanted it to make logical sense) so the earth is not actual earth it’s like a pooh’s version of earth for the plot. So baby boy is from the sun and in the year XXXX he lands in Abadonia, more on the outskirts in this sweet black lady’s yard (she’s our mother figure of the story as is common for all beings from outer space). She raises him and as Ray grows he discovers his powers of light and heat (the sun) and uses them to become Abadonia’s hero essentially. Now Camille is cursed, our villainess and Ray’s arch nemesis. Her whole role is to bring about the end of the world (think enchantress from the suicide squad how she possessed Cara Delevingne’s character and wants to fuck shit up). Her curse comes from the moon, it was put upon her by her family who dealt in some shady magics. The whole thing is about their power struggle of being polar opposites, and the drive to stop Camille (does he kill her or does he try and save her from her curse). But yeah another scrapped idea cause it’s very very loose and cliche.

But as for why I started writing on tumblr, really it was to share my creativity with someone, anyone who was willing to read. I love story telling and I’ve had a lot of ideas over the years and I thought why not give it to an audience. Fanfic writing pretty much created a safety net because it has such a large demographic so it ensured my work would be read by someone and it’s easy to write these characters into a unique and creative narrative. Then the more I wrote the more I actually enjoyed writing fanfics and it grew into such a cool community so quickly, I met mutuals and now we’re here.

If we’re talking about the topic of my degree that’s really for stability reasons (and I really love science), if I could do creative writing I would but I just don’t see myself becoming an author hahaha it’s a very competitive and brutal occupation, not to mention making it big is difficult as well so it’s safer to do science because there will always be a need for science and I’ll never be without a job.

I think writing is more so a hobby than something I’d do for a job long term. I just really enjoy writing and sharing it with everyone and that’s enough for me. I’ll definitely do this tumblr and writing thing for as long as time lets me, I got plenty of juice in the tank so I won’t be stopping anytime soon 😊🤎.

[hamliet]

The Girl Who Gets to Have It All: Buffy Summers

So with @linkspooky​‘s encouragement, I have binged Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relived my childhood culture. And, it's a 10/10 for me. Not that it doesn't have flaws, but it's genuinely one of the best stories I've seen, with consistent character arcs, powerful themes, and a beautiful message. It's also like... purportedly about vampires and demons and superpowered chosen ones, but it's actually all about humanity.

Buffy was able to be a teenage girl, allowed to like the things teen girls are scorned for (boys, shopping, etc), to be insecure about the thing teenage girls are insecure about (future careers, dating, school, parents), and to be a superhero with its good and its bad aspects. The story wasn’t afraid to call Buffy on her flaws (sometimes she got in a very ‘I am the righteous chosen one’ mode) and to respect and honor each of her desires (to be a good person, to be loved, and more). The story listened to what she wanted and respected her desires, giving her the challenges needed to overcome her flaws while also never teaching her a lesson about wanting bad boys or romance is silly or any manner of dark warnings stories like to throw at teenage girls. 

It respected teenage girls--nerdy girls like Willow, jocks like Buffy, lonely wallflowers with trauma like Dawn, and popular/snobby ones like Cordelia, girls gone wild like Faith. It never once reduced them to the stereotypes that were lurking right there: each character was fully rounded, human, flawed and yet with respected interests and goals. This is so rare for a story that I’m still in awe. 

The story as a whole follows Buffy from 15 to 21, of her as she grows from teenager to adult. She acts like a teenager and grows to act like a young adult, wrestling with loneliness and duty. The adults, like Giles, Joyce, and Jenny, are not perfect either, but neither are they “bad parents” or “bad mentors” necessarily. Joyce in particular says something terrible to Buffy, but she tries to do better, and it’s rare to see a parent in YA stories shown with such nuance. Basically, it wrote the long-lasting adult characters as human beings, too. 

Speaking of growing up, I appreciated how Buffy’s love interests mirrored this. Angel was someone Buffy loved and admired, wanted to be like, but who was always either extreme good or extreme bad, and combined with Buffy’s own tendencies towards black-white thinking, made for a beautiful relationship to help her grow, but didn’t necessarily form a foundation for a long-term partner. Spike, on the other hand... they both saw each other at their worst and were drawn to each other even then, and were inspired to become better because they couldn’t bear to be a person who treated the other person so wrongly. They pushed each other to become the best them they could be, and believed in each other. Also, Spuffy is an enemies to lovers ship for the ages. 

(Also, most of the other ships were well-done or at least can be understood. Riley was very obviously wrong for Buffy which paralleled Harmony and Spike in being 100% wrong for each other. Cordelia and Xander were a fun ship even if we all knew it would never last, and Willow and Oz were beautiful and cute. But Xander and Anya and Willow and Tara? OTPs. As were Giles and Jenny, the librarian and the computer teacher.) 

That said, it’s not a perfect series. No story is. All of the characters and ships had problematic aspects to them worthy of critique, and the writing is very 90s in a lot of ways. It’s a product of its time, and in many ways it’s good society has progressed beyond some of the tropes/metaphors used in the show. In other way, though, the show was ahead of its time, and in a good way it wasn’t bound by the fear of purity policing with its takes on redemption (many characters would never fly today). 

So, in order of seasons ranked from my very favorite to my “still enjoyed it very much” (no season was actually bad, imo), here’s my review. I’ll also review my top 10 villains in the show, because Buffy does villains very well in terms of the redeemable and irredeemable.  

Season 7:  Yep, the final season was my favorite. 

Overall Opinion: Buffy's finale is literally "f*ck them men, our power is ours" and while it seems cheesy it actually works (also, f*ck in both a literal and figurative sense). The series strongly hit all the themes: love as strength, and redemption. Buffy consistently shows love as her strength--*all* kinds of love. Friendship w Willow/Xander, familial with Joyce/Dawn, romantic with Spike/Angel. These types of love are also never pitted against each other as is so often the case in current-day media. It's beautiful. Also, Spike’s confrontation with Wood was so powerful in terms of exploring forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation: where they overlap and where they don't, and what it means to move forward. 

Unpopular Opinion: I have seen a lot didn’t like the inclusion of Potential Slayers, and while I agree they could have been better incorporated/characterized, it was a great way to show Buffy’s final stage of growing up to be ending her chosen one status and projecting/multiplying her powers over the world. 

Biggest Critique: Kennedy was female Riley--the anti-Tara to Riley’s anti-Angel (by ‘anti’ I mean opposite in every way). Kennedy was annoying and immature. Her role, like Riley’s, was less about exploring her as a character and more about her just being stamped as “love interest: lesbian.” 

Favorite Episodes: Beneath You, Lies My Parents Told Me, Touched, Chosen

Season 6: 

Overall Opinion: I said this on Twitter, but I felt like this was Buffy’s The Last Jedi or Empire Strikes Back moment. It is polarizing and dark, deconstructing the tropes it stands on--but by digging to the core of these tropes, it actually makes what’s good about them shine brighter. Everyone’s enemy was the worst versions of themselves. Giles left Buffy, Willow's struggle to relate to the world led to her trying to destroy it, Buffy hurt everyone through her anger, Xander abandoned Anya at the altar, Spike... yeah. It ages well as an integral part of the story, and the Trio were eerily prophetic. 

Unpopular Opinion: Dawn is a great character with a good arc. A traumatized teen acting out and struggling to come to terms with loss and identity? She wasn’t whiny; she was realistic. 

Biggest Critique: Willow’s addiction coding (I’ll discuss this below) and Seeing Red as an episode. I see the argument for both of its controversial scenes from a narrative perspective: Willow starts the season not grieving Buffy but instead being determined to fix it with magic and needs to learn to grieve, but. Still. Bury your gays is not a good look. For the Spike scene... he conflates sex/passion and violence (”love is blood, children” is something he said way back in season 3), but like Tara’s death, it had more to do with Spike (as Tara’s death did for Willow) than with Buffy’s arc, and as for the actual execution... they really botched that. Did it like... have to go on that long or go that far? No. Also, the framing was good, but inconsistent with the rest of the series (Xander to Buffy in the hyena episode, Faith to Xander and to Riley, etc.) 

Favorite Episodes: Once More With Feeling, Smashed, Grave

Season 3 (tied with Season 5):

Overall Opinion: The opening continuity of Buffy meeting Lily/Anne after saving her life in Season 2 was sweet. The Witchhunt episode had really powerful subtext: stories of deaths that aren’t even true are actually demons that possess the town and convince them to turn against their children in the name of protecting the children. It’s a good commentary on, oh, everything in society. Faith’s character arc was fantastic, and her chemistry with Buffy was off the charts (look, I may be Spuffy all the way, but Fuffy has rights). The finale was satisfying in so many ways, seeing the entire graduating class unite to destroy the Mayor and the school with it, symbolizing Buffy et al’s readiness to move on to college. Oz's relationship with Willow was very sweet and meaningful for a first romance for Willow. 

Unpopular Opinion: I actually don’t really have one. Maybe that the miracle in Amends was earned? I think you can make a decent case that Season 3 is the best written of the seasons, but can only truly be thematically appreciated to its full potential in the light of subsequent seasons (which finish Faith’s arc and deconstruct Buffy’s).  

Biggest Critique: It forgot Buffy killed the hyena guy in Season 1, making her continual insistence that she can’t kill people very ????? 

Favorite Episodes: Lovers Walk, Amends, Graduation Day Part 2 

Season 5, which ties with Season 3:

Overall Opinion: The entire season is about family and what it means, from Tara’s to Buffy’s to the Scoobies. I loved Glory aka Enoshima Junko as the Big Bad, I loved Dawn’s interesting meta commentary on retconning (like, the fact that she’s retconned in matters), and most of my ships are still alive. Joyce’s relationship with Spike is one of the most heartwarming aspects, and Spike’s arc’s desire is clearly highlighted: he wants to be seen as a person. The episodes after Joyce’s death are the most honest portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen, and absolutely brutal to watch. 

Unpopular Opinion: Buffy’s choice at the end seems a deliberate inversion of her choice at the end of Season 2 (sacrifice a loved one to save the world), but it actually isn’t: much like at the end of Season 2 where Buffy skips town because she’s devastated after killing Angel and doesn’t want to sort out being expelled, her mom knowing she’s the slayer, and her own trauma, Buffy’s sacrifice here was as much about her wanting the easy way out of relationships, family, college, etc. as it was about saving Dawn. Buffy’s death is coded as a suicide, which Season 6 emphasizes as well. 

Biggest Critique: Like Season 3, I don’t have a lot to critique here. I wish the suicidal coding had been a little more obvious in Season 5 itself, but also I’m not sure it could have been more obvious; it’s pretty apparent if you pay attention. Maybe also that Buffy and Riley’s relationship failing should have been more squarely blamed on Riley, you know, being insecure and cheating. 

Favorite Episodes: Family, Fool for Love, Intervention. 

Season 2:

Overall Opinion: Heartbreakingly tragic but exciting and revealing at the same time. It asked the viewer interesting questions about redemption and forgiveness and atonement through Angel being honest about his past, and then decided to show us his past now reenacted, challenging us. And still, we saw them save him in a parallel to saving Willow in Season 6 (but Season 2 was tragic because it wasn’t enough, while Season 6 was not). Jenny’s death was agonizing, and the scene were Angel watches Buffy, Willow, and Joyce get the news through the window was powerful. We didn’t have to hear them to get the grief. 

Unpopular Opinion: Jenny’s death isn’t a fridging; it works for her arc too when you consider her history. She worked to save the person whose life she was tasked to ruin, and it cost her her own--yet she still succeeded, because Jenny brought joy and wisdom to the show. Kendra’s death, on the other hand... was because they needed the stakes to be high--but we already knew that before she died. So, her death was useless. 

Biggest Critique: The subtext was Not It. It was essentially “do not have sex. Your older boyfriend will lose his soul, kill your friends, you’ll lose your family, your school, your home, and have to kill your true love or else hell will literally swallow earth.” 

Favorite Episodes: School Hard, Passion, Becoming Part 2.

Season 1:

Overall Opinion: I really liked it; it’s just lower on this list because the others are just better. It’s a great introduction to the series and to its characters, from Giles to Buffy to Willow to Jenny to Cordelia. It has great subtext a lot of the time (for example, Natalie French as She-Mantis is a literal predatory bug who engages in predatory behavior with students). Additionally, it subverts the typical YA trope of two guys and a girl, in which the girl is usually the least interesting character. Buffy and Willow were both fully fledged characters from the beginning with distinct strengths (even before Willow became a witch, as she wasn’t one in season 1 yet), while Xander was the more ordinary of the group. 

Unpopular Opinion/Biggest Critique: Xander’s arc showed its first flaws that unfortunately continued throughout the series: his writing was either very good or very indulgent in ways it never was for other characters.  (cough, the hyena episode, cough, in which he gets to skirt responsibility--and acknowledges that he is skirting it--for something the show will later hold others to account for). Xander’s just kind of inconsistent, which weakened his character over all. (Which is why both his love interests--Cordelia and then ultimately Anya--were good for him: they did not indulge him.) 

Favorite Episode: Witch, Nightmares. 

Season 4:

Overall Opinion: it’s still a good season. It’s a good portrayal of college and the growing pains of branching out, the strains of college growth on relationships (romantic and platonic). It shows us the first hints of Spuffy, giving us some serious Jungian symbolism between Spike and Buffy early on, and does well in establishing Xander/Anya and Willow/Tara as beautiful OTPs. Faith and Buffy’s foiling is fantastic. The Halloween episode was very fun as well. However, it suffers because its Big Bad, Adam, is not all that compelling thematically--yet, he could have been. See, the final battle pulls off the Power of Friendship in a really strong way but notably the season does not end there. Instead, it ends on dreams of each character’s worst fears, continuing what we saw in Nightmares in Season 1. Why? Because it shows us that the characters’ wars aren’t against monsters, but monsters of their own making: their flaws. Adam, as a literal Frankenstein, exemplifies this, but it wasn’t capitalized on as well as it could have been. 

Unpopular Opinion: Beer Bad isn’t a bad episode, at the very least because Buffy gets to punch Parker. It’s not one of the series’ best, obviously, but it does give Buffy an arc in that she gets her daydream of Parker begging her to come back, but she has overcome that desire and her desire for revenge. If we wanna talk about bad subtext in Season 4, Season 2′s Not It sex subtext continues in the Where the Wild Things Are episode in this season; it’s a powerful callout of abusive purity-culture churches, until the fact that the shame creates a literal curse undermines the progressive message it’s supposed to send. Also, the Thanksgiving episode (Pangs) is a nightmare of white guilt and Oh God Shut Up White People. 

Biggest Critique: Riley is awful. Like Kennedy, he had “love interest:normal” stamped on him and that was it. The thing is, he could have worked as an Angel foil, representative of the normal-life aspect of Buffy to Angel’s vampire/supernatural aspect, but the writers never explore this and seemed to even try to back away from that later on. They threw all the romantic cliches at the wall to see what sticks, from klutzy “I dropped my schoolbooks, that’s how we met” to cliché lines that had me rolling my eyes. Do you know how bad a romance has to be to make me dislike romantic tropes? 

Favorite Episodes: Fear Itself, Hush, Restless

Villain rankings: 

Dark Willow, the only villain to be truly sympathetic. While the addiction coding was insensitive and, while unsurprising for its time, aged extremely poorly. That said, Willow’s turn to the dark side after Tara’s death worked well for her character and the story: it was believable and paid off what had been building since Season 1's “Nightmares” episode (Willow’s inferiority complex). 

Glory managed to be genuinely terrifying, and humorous/enjoyable too. Her minions and their numerous nicknames for Glorificus were hilarious, as was her intense vanity. Her merging with Ben--a human being who genuinely wanted to be kind and good--added complexity and tragedy to her role. 

The First. A really good take on Satan. The seventh season as well as the First’s first appearance in season 3′s “Amends” had kind of blatant Christian symbolism, and so the First being essentially Satan works. Their disguising themselves as dead loved ones and the subtle manipulation they used to alienate people was really disturbing and well done. 

The Mayor, who was a terrible person but a truly good father. He provided an interesting contrast to the normal ‘bad dad’ bad guy character, in that he provided Faith exactly what the other characters refused to: he saw the best in her and offered her parental support, while the heroes didn’t and wound up pushing her away. 

The Trio, who were villains ahead of their time: whiny fanboy reddit dudebros, basically. The stakes seemed so much lower than fighting Glory, a literal god, the previous season. But that’s why they worked so well for Season 6′s human themes, and were especially disturbing because we all know people like them. I also appreciated the surprisingly sensitive takes on Jonathan and Andrew, who got to redeem themselves, but Warren did not, and I don’t think he should have either. 

Angelus + Drusilla. I’m ranking them below the Trio because Angelus was just sooooo different from Angel that it was difficult for me to feel the same way for him. He was still Angel, so it wasn’t possible to enjoy his villainy, but he also wasn’t nearly as sympathetic as Dark Willow, had no redeeming qualities like the Mayor, and wasn’t as disturbingly realistic as the Trio. However, the emotional stakes were excellently executed with him as the Big Bad, in that you were never quite sure how to feel and it just plain hurt. Also, Drusilla was a favorite recurring character. She was sympathetic and yet batsh*t enough to be enjoyable as a villain at the same time. 

The Master, who was just completely camp and really worked as an introductory villain. He was scary enough to believe he was a threat, and was funny enough to introduce the series’ humor as well. He was, like Glory, an enjoyable Big Bad. 

The Gentlemen, the one-off villains of Season 4′s Hush who were genuinely terrifying. It’s not as if they got a lot of explanation or any backstory, but they didn’t need it. 

Caleb, the misogynist priest. Fitting with the First’s Christian symbolism, Caleb serving as a spokesperson of all bad religious beliefs felt appropriate. He was also a good foil to Warren--being actually supernaturally powered instead of a wannabe--and to Tara’s family in being full-out evil. I despised him. 

Snyder. Okay Snyder is not a Big Bad like Adam is, but let’s face it: Adam is lame compared to the other villains. But Snyder as a principal? He was so irritating and yet really well used in the series to critique overly strict, hypocritical teachers. Like, we all know teachers like him. I loved to hate him, and his ending was so satisfying. 

[seyaryminamoto]

my school works are piled up this past few weeks (graduating tingz) and i just started reading the deadlock novel it feels like i'm reading a sokkla fic every time Mcashe has a scene because they just give off the vibes skskskskksksks. BTW, what's your top5 fav scenes from the novel? PS: I'm smiling like an idiot while reading the novel ughh i hate myself

I KNOW, RIIIIIGHT?! *-* and don't hate yourself, my anon friend, I spent the whole novel smiling and laughing and losing my goddamn mind because I was having the time of my life xD enjoy this beautiful content as best you can!

I mean, frankly, Reunion already had all the Sokkla vibes I could've wanted/needed to ship these two like FedEx and I always knew I wasn't getting off this ride anytime soon. But gosh, this book... it gave me everything I wanted and MORE! Their dynamics are soooo similar to Sokkla team-up dynamics, two power couples kicking ass and taking names... oh, I just love it so much. I probably will end up reading the book a third time soon x'D

As for my favorite scenes, damn, this is tricky xD

KEYCHAIN! HE MADE HER KEYCHAIN!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! God, it's just amazing how the book explains the "vintage" look for Ashe's hoverbike the way it does, and that they literally built it together *screams!!!*, but then he gives her that keychain for her birthday present, and the implications!! THE IMPLICATIONS!!! He gave her a keychain she's held onto for TWENTY YEARS?!?!?! Ships in the OW fandom have sailed far and wide with less than breadcrumbs: we literally have been granted a boon from the GODS with all this extra context for the little things in Reunion xD

Ashe going to hell and back to save her kidnapped BFF-for-whom-she-totally-doesn't-have-feelings-yeah-yeah-sure-Jan. I love the fact that McCree is, in a way, Ashe's damsel in distress and not the other way around xD Of course, it's what you'd expect from an Ashe-centric story, but it's still an amazing sequence, all around. Gotta highlight how she loves the way he smiles like a madman when they have that shootout at the end, and how he worries so much over Ashe's injury when he took an even worse one than she did (the Sokkla vibes in that particular situation were SO STRONG! I SWEAR!).

"Jesse McCree, are you trying to make me say you're handsome?" "Am I?" ... do I need to say more. That FLIRTING. These two were on fire already and they'd only known each other for like... weeks, at this point? x'D He has no sense of moderation, he's soooo into her and doesn't hide it at all. Ashe is so busy trying to plot all the crime and Jesse's practically like a shojo heroine, "oh I can feel it, this is how my love story begins!", basically xD

Finally I pick a not-McAshe scene... to bring up the one where Ashe picks up the Viper on her last moment in Lead Rose Manor. That moment was just... POWERFUL. The feeling of epicness in that scene just overwhelmed me when I was reading it xD

The ending of the book :'D the fully formed Deadlock Gang ready for business, down to the explanation for the Est. 1976 in the logo... *sobs* the fact that so much about the character design choices in these two characters is a shoutout to the past they share is just... *gross sobbing* oh, I just love it to pieces, I'm not even sorry.

Ashe's bike race to save B.O.B. x'D that whole situation was bonkers but I looooved how fierce she was about protecting her one and only buddy while growing up (AND THAT JESSE BLUSHED WHEN SHE TAUNTED HIM WAS JUST THE CHERRY ON TOP!). I appreciated learning more about the Omnic War and its consequences, how Ashe reflects on having escaped it practically untouched in virtue of her money and societal privilege while her new friends all faced many hardships to survive. But I can't help but also love that, however uneasy others could have been about the Best Omnic Butler, Ashe was so fiercely loyal to B.O.B. that she nearly broke Julian's nose herself over his ridiculousness x'D That's HER big omnic buddy and she's not about to lose him to anyone, not her shitty parents, not a bet in a race, NOTHING! (and it's so cute that B.O.B. is just as loyal to her, too *sobs*)

Ashe grabbing McCree's arm to explain things to him on their first heist and him being all "you gonna leave that there?" and only then does she realize her hand's still on him x'D what a McCree line, and he was absolutely enjoying the attention, he doesn't even pretend otherwise.

Everything poetic McCree says or does... meanwhile Ashe's like "um yeah I don't care about poetry I want money", right until his poet soul totally smashes her square in the heart with the KEYCHAIN!!! But damn, I swear I thought McCree would hold back a lot more, and yet there he was, saying things like Calamity was brilliant and mysterious... you could practically hear B.O.B., Julian and Frankie going "I can see what's happening..." in the background xD

The conversation about what they wanted to do once they were loaded with all the cash they could possibly want. That one was a real number on my heartstrings. It ties up to what I said earlier with Ashe finally being in touch with people who are completely removed from the ridiculous social circles of her parents and her school, people who really lost a lot in the war. But where Julian and Frankie seem to look at the past a lot, I loved that Jesse is basically just thinking about the future. The fact that he says he wants to chill out in a farm and that this is what he wants in life... many, MANY, shippy wheels have turned in my head since I read that <.< maaaany...

WHEN JESSE NEARLY FALLS AND ASHE CATCHES HIM!!! UNDERRRATED AS HECK!!! The fact that he's taunting her about fear of heights, then he nearly plummets to his death because ironies are beautiful xD and Ashe pulls him back to safety only to say that she's not afraid of heights but afraid of ~FALLING~??? I mean, okay, sure, maybe I'm reading too much into that line... or maybe I'm not <.< either way, the truth is I just love how absolutely broad of interpretation that scene and that DIALOGUE are :> ehehehe.

Oh, their first encounter. The fact that it's so cute and fun, and that it's this low in the list tells you how GOOD this book was x'D "You've got an awful lot of grit for a rich girl," first words he spoke to the love of his life xD then how they talked and laughed together about the crazy stories he shared (she was crying of laughter for the first time in her life! precious girl!), and then how she sat in the car thinking about the strange feeling she was left with after meeting him... they seriously had a meetcute in prison, how can a ship get any better? xD

WHEN HE COMES BACK TO HER WHEN THEIR FIRST HEIST GOES WRONG!!! That Ashe expects him to just leave after she falls off their getaway vehicle, but Jesse saves her and goes "pfft that's just not my style", basically... *sobs* without realizing it she ends up picking up that particular philosophy of his, saving her friends no matter the cost...! Honestly, though, the fact that every time something like this happens it hits Ashe like a truck racing downhill with no brakes because she's NEVER been cared about by anyone but B.O.B. and she's completely new to friendships and bonding with people... and in the mean time, Jesse immediately is "ride or die" with her because that's how he rolls... beautiful relationship dynamics between characters who influence each other for the better are just beautiful :')

A silly one here: Jesse enjoying the good life in Lead Rose. That description of him looking like a marshmallow in the CHAISE LOUNGEEEEE!!! (the one he references in their in-game interactions *CRYING SO MANY TEARS*), was just too cute to bear x'D Ashe just jumping back into work mode... while he was just thrilled to be a marshmallow in a towel xD

... So, um, I went overboard because I love this book a little too much for my own good :> what can I say? When things I love are good, I go wild xD There's probably more scenes I loved, but these... thirteen? XD are the ones that came to mind.

I think one of my favorite things now is reexamining Reunion with all this extra context in mind. The first time I watched that cinematic I, of course, fell in love with these two outlaws because how could I not? But while subsequent rewatches revealed a lot of things I didn't pay enough attention to the first time around, the book has done even more than I could imagine possible for a short that was already as shippy as could be xD

Ooookay so, shippy ramblings about Reunion, coming up! (simply because I have to put these down SOMEWHERE XD and your ask was a good idea for that, anon!)

First off, Jesse very much staged the whole rodeo in Reunion. He sent the tip to Ashe, he wanted Echo's crate specifically. He thought they could work together, basically, despite knowing it was entirely possible that those hopes wouldn't pay off. This train, according to the wikia, was a government train, so Jesse is very much telling Ashe to give a finger to the government for all he cares, all he wants is one (1) crate.

Ergo, Jesse, for all his "nice guy bountyhunter" deal, doesn't disapprove of Deadlock's actions. If anything, he counts on them to be exactly what he needs in order to get what he wants. He practically trusts Ashe to pull off the train heist disaster perfectly and only steps up when it's time to collect Echo.

Then the wacky shoot-out happens, it's veeeery charged (the UST is so thick, I swear...), and Jesse wins. He ties up Ashe, floats her off on the payload with the rest of the gang, and he sets Echo free. He's helping her out very nicely and everything, but the context in question is... he received the recall notification thingy XD Winston called him back to Overwatch, and Jesse...

... Jesse doesn't want to go back.

Jesse says "they want me", and the displeased tone of his voice, paired with the look on his face when he says that line, speak for themselves.

That, in my humble opinion, isn't the sequence of expressions you'd expect from someone who intends to return to the group where he thrived, had the time of his life and found his true calling. To me, he actually looks irritated about the recall (the sequence of expressions during that line is much better when you watch the full thing x'D), as though he REALLY doesn't want to return. He's not against Overwatch, I'm not quite saying that, otherwise he wouldn't have set Echo free and told her to go back at all... but this isn't remorse. It's not "Oh, I'm not good enough for Overwatch anymore". Nope... this is "My time with them is over and I don't plan on going back unless I have no choice", as far as I can tell.

If OW2 does bring him back into the fold and he's a perfectly chill and happy guy about it, I'll seriously be surprised. I mean, he could have set Echo free and, once his business is over, returned to Overwatch with her, he could have been in the Paris cinematic if he'd done that...

But he's not there.

Which outright says he didn't do that :> oops.

Basically, I think Jesse's reaction in Retribution (where he's markedly the most morally correct one of the bunch, and he's the former outlaw :'D) tells you his displeasure with Overwatch ran very, very deep. And someone can very easily say he felt the same way about Deadlock and that's why he left them for Overwatch... but that's conjecture. His displeasure with Blackwatch (and, in consequence, Overwatch), however, is FACT. And the previous conjecture falls flat pretty quickly considering he's perfectly fine with Ashe's train heist, even sets it up himself, from what the story suggests, so... how ~appalled~ was he over her choices and actions? Not appalled at all, if you ask me, and after you read Deadlock Rebels, you actually understand why: Jesse trusts Ashe.

From the first moment she enters the same prison block he's in, he's drawn to her. He wants to impress her, he absolutely enjoys her company and making her laugh (just as much as she enjoyed laughing at his wacky stories), and he's plain thrilled that she comes back for him when she does. Ashe manages the gang with inexperience but she's always willing to improve, and you see Jesse sticking with her through thick and thin, supporting her at the best and worst times alike, always putting his faith on her and constantly watching out for her (he protected and shielded her from attacks with his own body sooooo many times *sobs*). Ashe starts out intending to keep most profits for herself, and Jesse doesn't care much at first... but then she starts to share profit equally between their team. She works on her own bike herself, her own ride, and she plans and solves problems as best she can, to a point of even going overboard with planning too much. She's wild, reckless and takes insane risks... and this guy loves every second of it. The matter of morality regarding the actions of a criminal gang is, of course, something to think about... but as far as the book goes, Ashe mainly targets her own family, their specific brand of bullshit, and in the process she ends up helping lots of people and even saving lives that might not have been saved otherwise. I'm not going to put my hand on the fire here and say Deadlock never ever did anything absolutely wrong to people who didn't deserve it... but for a criminal gang? They're honestly the most wholesome one the OW team could have come up with, if you ask me.

So where you see Jesse is very much antagonistic with Reaper/Reyes, where he loses his temper with the guy's choices, he doesn't ever do that with Ashe. Overwatch ARE supposed to be the good guys... so how weird that Jesse McCree, reformed outlaw, ends up so disappointed with these guys when he was actually thrilled with Ashe's managing of their gang, as far as we saw. So much so that, when it came down to it, Jesse McCree, 20 years later, still counts on Ashe to give him a hand (without her full awareness) with a little operation to help out an old friend of his. Also worth pointing out: he doesn't want to fight at all, while Ashe, of course, does. Deadlock for life, is what Jesse said... and he's not Deadlock anymore, hasn't been for who knows how long. Worse yet... his tattooed arm is gone. It's like all his ties to Deadlock have been severed.

And even so, he came to Ashe and hoped she wouldn't want a shootout with him. Even when he knows she might be beyond unforgiving because of the betrayal (he has seen directly how outraged she was about a certain someone betraying her in the book...), Jesse goes back anyway and hopes it won't come to this.

THE IMPLICATIONS, MAN!!!

Carrying on: Echo is surprised that Jesse shows no intentions of going back to Overwatch. She asks him what he's going to do... and what does Jesse say?

He puts his cowboy hat back on (the symbolism in this short, I swear...), and when she asks him what he's going to do, he tells her "I've got some business to attend to."

THE MUSIC PICKS UP.

AND THEN HE CLIMBS ON THE BIKE HE BUILT WITH ASHE.

YOU GET A DELIBERATE CLOSE-UP TO THE KEYCHAIN.

THEN THE CAMERA PANS UP TO FOCUS ON THE PICTURE, TORN AND TAPED BACK TOGETHER, THAT ASHE CARRIES ON THIS BIKE, A BIKE WHICH, LET'S BE REAL, IS BASICALLY A MCASHE BABY CHOPPER/HOVERBIKE HYBRID, AND AS SHE PUTS IT LATER, IS...

HER

BIKE!!!

When Jesse says he has business to attend to, he could pick up any bike he wants (since it'd stand to reason that the other guys Ashe came in with would have bikes of their own). He could escape on horseback for all we know xD so there are lots of options... but no. He takes HERS. Right after saying he has "business to attend to".

Look, I could be wrong. I could be dead wrong. I can absolutely be digging around and going INSANE because nothing I ship EVER gets this much content.

But we literally get a guy saying he has "business" to take care of, and the cinematic focuses exclusively on elements that, even BEFORE Deadlock Rebels, all point towards Ashe?! You could easily say that taking her bike is just the final nail on the coffin, his last trolling idea to mess with his one true love... but that picture is right there. That picture, with them in their youth. The picture, btw, was bigger than just them: B.O.B.'s hand is there. The top of the picture is uneven, suggesting Ashe probably tore it to shreds in a fit of rage... and then specifically put together THEIR PART. And then she taped that to her bike's dashboard. Meaning, she carries the goddamn memory of Jesse with her EVERYWHERE SHE GOES. And she does it WILLINGLY.

Which, in turn, answers why Jesse expects MAYBE Ashe wouldn't go full-on hostile when they meet: this trolling cowboy knows exactly what he means to Ashe. He's not surprised when he sees that picture on the bike. He doesn't toss it away, which he could have, if he were saying "we are history now, forget it gurl" (and let's be honest, what a dick move that would have been @_@), he doesn't flinch after noticing and then goes "yeah, no, I'm picking another bike".

NOPE. The familiarity with which they talk, the way he hopes she'll just let him walk away, the fact that she DIDN'T change the keychain and bike in all those years and he's not even SURPRISED...

Jesse knows how much she loves him, point-blank. He's completely aware of it... and he's very much okay with it.

So much so... that I'm something of a 90% sure that the business he intends to deal with is ASHE HERSELF.

And no, I don't mean he's going to go on another shootout with her... I mean, evidently, that Jesse wants to come home. That he's tried the life of Overwatch, and he's decided to leave it behind. He's turned bountyhunter now, vigilante, pretty much... but he comes back to Ashe all the same. He's come back for the first time in who knows how long (going by Ashe's expressions and sarcasm with the "you promised you'd write" line, it miiiiiiight be they haven't seen each other since he got recruited into Blackwatch), and he expected a peaceful encounter, no less.

A good question to ask here is... what did Jesse hope would happen, if the encounter HAD been peaceful? He would've released Echo, sent her away to her business, and stayed behind anyway because he had business to deal with. Which business? :'D why... the business that would've been standing right in front of him.

There's no other, logical reason why this cinematic would put Ashe and McCree's picture into focus right when McCree says what he does to Echo. There's no other reasonable choice why McCree would turn his back on Overwatch quite so firmly. We know he had two important ties in his life: Overwatch and Deadlock. And Overwatch stole him away from Deadlock for a VERY long time. Well over half the time Deadlock has been in operations, as far as I can tell. He picked Overwatch over Deadlock once before... and now, it seems he's picking Deadlock over Overwatch instead :')

The follow-up short, Roadtrip, doesn't do anything to change my mind. The trolling jerk, Jesse McCree, hovers past Ashe's payload, where she's just... complaining, as she hovers xD going by what I know of the game and that map, the payload may just be en route to the gang's hideout, so that, I'd say, could explain why she hasn't climbed off it or escaped in any way (which she reasonably would have, if Jesse was trying to, I don't know, send her and her people to the authorities).

My point here is, however, that Jesse is headed the same way the payload is. If his destination is the same one, he'll beat it there for sure. Maybe, yes, he'll go away and drive well past the hideout... but maybe that's exactly where he intended to go.

Maybe, in the end, Reunion is about a man who's finally coming home :D

In addition, goes without saying, Ashe's rant about how everyone falls to pieces over Jesse showing his "stupid mug" (uh-huh, stupid, ANGELIC mug, we know what you really think, girl xD) ends with her saying she should have "put a bullet in him the minute he showed up".

Which begs the question of why didn't she.

Then, of course, she says she hates McCree when he drives past her while listening to some really ridiculous honky-tonky-sounding music x'D I cannot even help but imagine him deliberately picking that radio station or whatever it was just to annoy Ashe when he drove beside her, and so that she can get extra pissed when she retrieves her beloved bike, turns on the music and it's just more honky-tonky stuff x'D but anyway, the thing is she shouts after him, tells him that's her bike and says she hates him. B.O.B. wordlessly speaks for us McAshe shippers by giving Ashe the most "sure, Jan" side-eye in the history of side-eyes, and Ashe notices and is outraged enough to knock B.O.B.'s little hat right off his head again.

Again... this is renowned outlaw Elizabeth Caledonia "Calamity" Ashe, sitting on a payload, groaning about the guy she once very much had feelings for (and that doesn't even begin to cut it, if you ask me x'D) and for whom she tooooootally doesn't anymore, that picture on her bike doesn't MEAN that, OBVIOUSLYYYY!!, and so, she sits up, complains and doesn't do much of anything to get out of her current situation, right? :>

So, summing up my current understanding of EVERYTHING, thanks to Deadlock Rebels and my obsessive rewatches of Reunion + Roadtrip:

Jesse deliberately sought out Ashe so she would indirectly, unknowingly, help him set Echo free from the government's clutches.

Jesse hoped for a peaceful encounter despite knowing he might not get one.

Jesse has no intentions of returning to Overwatch but was willing to perform one final act of service for them by releasing Echo so she'd go give Winston and co. a hand.

Jesse is NOT surprised to see that Ashe: 1. Didn't change bikes at some point in the twenty years since they built it. 2. Didn't swap the ignition key for a button, the way she says she thought to do it in the novel until he gives her the keychain. 3. KEPT THE POETIC AF KEYCHAIN, despite resenting Jesse for his betrayal. 4. KEEPS A PICTURE OF THEM IN THEIR YOUNGER YEARS PASTED ON HER BIKE'S DASHBOARD.

Jesse claims he has business to deal with: he doesn't clarify said business verbally, but every shot after he says those words focuses on elements related to Ashe... and then, along with the novel's context, it's elements related to their BOND. Everything in that shot, EVERYTHING, is connected to the two of them. Elements that weren't shown before or during their shootout, and that are only introduced in that final moment when McCree is off to deal with his "business".

Ashe doesn't climb off the payload or stops it (which, going by how McCree simply pressed a button, and Ashe isn't immobilized in the least, she easily could have done it too if she had wanted to). Suggesting that, wherever the payload is heading, it isn't anywhere dangerous for Ashe and her crew, ergo, she is 100% sure McCree isn't trying to screw her over by turning her in to the authorities or so (or, at worst, she's completely confident that, even if he is going to do this, she'll be able to get out of it easily).

Jesse drives in the same direction the payload is headed. Another hint that suggests he might intend to head to the Deadlock hideout and that, whatever business he has left to deal with, it involves them.

If his intent ISN'T to go to the hideout... Jesse is still guaranteeing that Ashe will come after him by stealing her bike, the 18th birthday gift he gave her, and the picture she keeps of them. That he takes that very bike practically serves as painting a target on his back for her to hunt down, and he KNOWS IT.

In short: Jesse will have plenty of business with the Deadlock Gang in his future, and going by how pleased he seems to be when riding the bike, he's perfectly happy to handle that business on his terms, whenever he wants to handle it.

Extra tidbit: there's nothing in Deadlock Rebels about Jesse's smoking habit, something he definitely did pick up at some point while in the gang because, hahaha, he IS smoking in the picture Ashe keeps of him :> Which makes me wonder why, of all pictures Ashe chooses to keep on her bike's dashboard, she picks one where he's smoking.

Then, it makes me wonder about the fact that Jesse deliberately starts smoking when he's standing right in front of her (and then he winks at her!). He tosses that cigar after things get kind of dangerous for him because B.O.B. does something, and then... then he goes back to smoking.

RIGHT WHEN HE'S CLIMBING ON THE BIKE.

Like... seriously...

*unintelligible fangirl screaming*

I could be looking too deeply into this. I know I could be. Maybe Blizzard just wants me to go CRAZY with little symbolism and hints charged with SO MUCH MEANING that maybe don't have as much meaning as I thought it did...

... But man, I've sailed into the depths of the shippiest oceans for many ships that have gotten actual breadcrumbs from canon. I've gone wild over ships that have zero opportunity to become a thing in canon continuity. I've written a nearly 3M words story based on a ship that is just UNEXPLORED AMAZING POTENTIAL and ngl, I love exploring it myself, so I don't even begrudge canon that much for not giving it to me anymore.

But the fact is, no ship in OW, as far as I've seen, has remotely as much content, hints and strong ties as McAshe does -- at least, no ships between heroes. We had a cinematic that was CHARGED with significance, with little gestures, with even the smallest facial expressions that carried soooo much more meaning than whole episodes or even seasons in TV shows. And then? We got a novel. A full novel depicting their origins and exploring their dynamics, how tight their friendship was, and how some strong feelings were certainly brewing there, even if neither one was ready to act on them yet (as far as we saw...).

Finally... I'll say I did start working on a Sokkla Western AU ages ago because the idea I had for one was pretty amusing. Then Reunion dropped, and I said "Why would I need to finish that story anymore when the Sokkla Western AU is RIGHT HERE?!"

And that's it, I will stop rambling now because this got insanely long x'D but thank you very very much for giving me this chance to go WILD on everything I can see, within all those canon hints, with these two *-*

[thornfield13713]

So, you've brought up the Torchwick-Lampwick connection. How does that play into a lot of how you write him?

Well...

I always did have a bit of a soft spot for Lampwick. He's a troublemaking kid, sure, but...his worst offences are minor bullying of one conscience-cricket, which mostly took the form of him just carrying on with his game of pool while said cricket was on the table, and smashing up a model house which was explicitly just there to be smashed. And the underage smoking and drinking, but those are just things which might be bad for him personally, not actual moral evils.

And the other thing is...Lampwick might be a bad influence on Pinocchio, but he does seem to sincerely care about the kid. There's even a deleted scene in the Disney version. where Lampwick accompanies Pinocchio and Jiminy in attempting to escape Pleasure Island after he's been turned into a donkey (in this version he is one of the rare donkeys who can still speak). In it, he is recaptured by the Coachman's goons, but urges Pinocchio to go on without him, since he's already a goner, but Pinocchio might have a chance.

All told, his final fate of being transformed into a voiceless animal and (in the original novel) worked to death seems a bit disproportionate.

Roman is a much worse person than his rough inspiration. He is a thief, a gangster, shows clear bigotry towards the Faunus, and is absolutely comfortable with having people, including teenagers, killed. But, as with Lampwick, the biggest hint we have that he's not all bad comes in his relationship with a younger protégé - Neo, who actually appears to be the more dangerous and the more actively sadistic of the pair, and the one person Roman shows any real concern or affection for. I tend to prefer to interpret this relationship as platonic, because...honestly, I just like platonic and familial relationships. Nothing against shipping, it's a lot of fun, but friendship and found family are classics for a reason. And enemies-to-found-family is my personal catnip - I really don't know why more people don't write it.

All of which is a big part of why the amnesia AU took shape the way it did. I sort of liked the idea of Roman being...still not a great person, but capable of attachment, even against his better judgement, and of putting the people he cares about before his own interests. There's a hint of this on the show - the moment Neo goes down, Roman flips a switch from 'funny, charming, will banter while fighting' to 'I am going to kill you in the most painful way possible while unleashing all my pent-up rage, even though that makes me a magnet for Grimm'. True, Neo survived, and Roman might well have known she had a chance of it...but it wasn't a certainty, and it's hard to be rational when watching the one person in the world you care about apparently falling to her death. If Neo's grip on her parasol had slipped at all, that might've been the end for her. It's a villainous manifestation of it, but I think it does make it clear that Neo and Roman are the most important people in each other's lives, and that both of them will respond to the other getting hurt by destroying the person they hold responsible.

The other thing we've had hinted at in the show is that Roman has a record of taking in strays. Namely, these lines from 'One Thing'.

I was nowhere, I had no one I felt nothing Lost without a voice And on my own Then a candle's flame brought a brand new name But now you've stolen everything And I'm all alone

Much as I love the theory that Roman and Neo were the two kids from the photo of Brunswick Farms, even if I’m not quite sure the age difference checks out, and the eye colours involved certainly don’t...that’s not what this song is suggesting happened. Neo was, for whatever reason, alone, isolated either by her disability or by some other circumstance - I lean towards ‘street urchin’ as a possible backstory for her, but we’ll have to see what Roman Holiday gives us - and then Roman came into her life, named her, and took her under his wing. If he did it once, it’s entirely plausible that he might do it again, especially if a potential protégé had some impressive skills that would make them worth keeping around. The really sticky part is that the protégé in this case is Ruby, his canonical arch-enemy, and...honestly, this is where I’m claiming authorial fiat and love of the enemies-to-found-family trope, with a healthy dose of ‘honestly, I think he would just find it funny’.