#funniest part to me is that i still have no fucking idea what happens between like. july and october. or between april and july

[oh-meow-swirls]

they are approaching.

[yuwuta]

*TEST DRIVE — YUUTA OKKOTSU

❝I WILL NEVER LEAVE BY YOUR SIDE, DON’T YOU KNOW YOU GOT A RIDE OR DIE

pairings. okkotsu/reader, uhhh implied maki/nobara and sort of itadori/fushiguro but that’s not so important for now

warnings, themes. non-curse/modern au, marriage of convenience au, i thought long and hard about who would fit this trope best and all i can say is that i didn’t really pick just one in the end, so if this spirals in a wedding/marriage playlist, you’ve been warned, um… sort of implied possessive behavior on yuuta’s end but it’s only teased for now :)

word count. 2.5k i can yap about him all day

playing. test drive/ariana grande, going crazy/exo, heart of glass/blondie, idea/taemin, tipsy/chloe x halle 

“I just heard the funniest joke from Inumaki,” Nobara says, welcoming herself into your apartment. You’re not surprised, and continue with your dessert preparations. Yuuji, to your left, spares her a wave, before going back to diligently preparing the vegetables. 

Maki is the only one to respond by turning slightly in her seat to raise an eyebrow at Nobara when she walks up to the island, “Since when do you think Toge is funny?” 

“Not usually,” Nobara admits, taking the neighboring open seat. She crosses her arms atop the counter, and squints at you, “But he surprised me this time.”

Your eyes fidget to Maki, who seems equally confused by Nobara’s unnerving stare, then to Yuuji, who appears none the wiser, because he happily chirps, “Well, I wanna hear it! Tell us, Kugisaki!”

“He said that it was soooo kind of you to share your anniversary date with Yuuta and have us all over for dinner,” Nobara drawls, “Then I got confused, of course—but then I thought, ‘Maybe they’re secretly together and I just didn’t know. Wouldn’t be a huge surprise.’”

You flinch at that, “What do you mean that wouldn’t be a huge sur—”

“This is the funniest part, though,” Nobara squints, “He said that you’re actually married, and he meant that today is your wedding anniversary. He was pretty convincing, though. He’s very committed to the bit—even challenged me to ask you at dinner, but I figured I’d straighten it out now,” she drawls, reaching over to steal a cucumber slice from Yuuji’s station, “You’re not actually married to Yuuta, right?”

You pause, for too long. Maki’s disbelief shifts from Nobara to you, morphing into a threatening glare that makes you chuckle nervously. Yuuji keeps turning his head between you and Nobara, waiting for one of you to crack. 

It’s not her. “Okay… define married,” you mumble.

Nobara all but jumps across the island, standing up and slamming her palms on the counter top. “What do you mean ‘define married’—there’s only one definition!” Yuuji frantically sweeps his preciously sliced vegetables out of her range. “You’re either married to Okkotsu or you’re not, which is it?” 

You pause again. Too long this time. 

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Maki says, “It’s true? Toge says that shit all the time, how he can ‘still hear wedding bells’ when you two are around. Oh, I’m going to be sick.”

“Wait, you’re married?” Yuuji quips, “Since when? You should have told me, I would have gotten you a present!”

“Okay, okay—enough!” you yell, taking a step back, “It’s… true, but it’s not what you think. Yuuta and I are legally married, but we’re not together together.”

Nobara reaches to flick you on the forehead, “What the hell does that mean?” 

��It means, we’re married on paper only,” you explain, strategically placing your knife in the sink, far out of Maki and Nobara’s reach. 

“Say more words,” Maki demands, “Now.” 

You sigh. Even Yuuji has paused his preparations, blinking at you with those big, wide eyes, and you know for sure there’s no way out of this now. 

“It happened four years ago. I—”

Despite being the one who asked you to say more, Maki is the first to cut you off, incredulous, “Four years? You’ve been married to that beanstalk for four years and neither one of you twigs thought to mention it?” 

“Maki, let her finish,” Yuuji pitches in for you, reaching a comforting hand out to your shoulder, “Maybe she was dying and needed Okkotsu-senpai to sign her insurance papers so the government didn’t sweep her away! I saw that in a K-Drama once,” he smiles proudly. Nobara pinches her face in disgust, immediately refuting and calling Yuuji an idiot for believing everything he sees on TV. 

“Honestly, that’s not too far off. I’m not dying—and neither is Yuuta,” you hastily correct the worried faces peering at you, “But he was sick as a kid, and long story short is something got fucked up with his insurance when his parents died. It wasn’t a big deal, at first, but it spiraled into a bunch of issues, the biggest being the threat of taking his parents’ house away from him.”

Nobara pulls back, crossing her arms. “Why didn’t Gojo just do something then? That idiot has more than enough money to spare for some petty hospital bill, even with twenty years of interest.” 

“He did,” you assure her, “But then the house became its own problem. His parents didn’t leave the deed in his name, and the community board tried to say that Yuuta had no assets and wasn’t a favored candidate for their neighborhood, even if he was their son.” 

“That’s bullshit,” Maki interjects. 

“Yeah, totally not fair,” Yuuji pouts, “That’s his dead parents’ house and they wanted him to prove himself?” 

“Pretty much,” you sigh, “Basically marriage is something that helped prove his eligibility… plus some doctored philanthropic donations on Gojo’s end, and letters of recommendation from Shoko and her co-workers.” 

Nobara tuts her bottom lip out. “I don’t know, I’m not buying it.” 

“No, it makes sense. I’m sure by now all his parents’ neighbors are a bunch of uptight, old heads who didn’t want some kid throwing parties nearby,” Maki argues, “But once they hear he’s a young, married, nurse with a side hustle in philanthropy, I’m sure those geezers welcomed him with open arms. Sounds like some shit my family would do, too.” 

Nobara hums, factoring in Maki’s evaluation. “Okay fine. Yuuta marries you, he gets his parents’ house back and probably commits insurance fraud too,” she settles, “But what about you?—You said this was mutually beneficial, so what did you get out of it?” 

You probably should talk to Yuuta about revealing all the details of your marriage to your friends, but you knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. Yuuta’s parents’ death and the issues that came along with it weren’t a secret at the time, but your problems are something you kept private. It’s a miracle you’ve gone this long under the radar, and you know Nobara isn’t going anywhere with unanswered questions. 

“Permanent residency status,” you tell her, “Yuuta’s a citizen, so in marrying him, all my problems about finding a job in six weeks after graduation disappeared.” 

“But… you got a job?” Yuuji questions, head tilted. 

“Yeah, eventually, but I didn’t know I would, and it was either take that chance, or be forced to go back home, and my time was running out,” you reveal, twiddling your thumbs together, “Look, I would have said something at the time, but everyone had their own shit to deal with after graduation. I would have asked any one of you to marry me, but I knew Yuuta was the only one with a reason to say yes.” 

The kitchen falls quiet as the news sits with your friends. Nobara and Maki’s stern disbelief slowly morphs into empathy, and Yuuji’s bright eyes grow steely with concentration as he pieces your story together. 

Then he springs up, “Wait, I totally would have married you, senpai!” 

You laugh, a lightness easing its way back into the room. “Thanks, Yuuji,” you lean to give him a kiss on the cheek, but you’re met with Nobara’s outstretched palm instead. 

“Nuh-uh. Just because I think this marriage is insane doesn’t mean that I condone adultery.” 

“It’s not adultery. I told you, Yuuta and I are married on paper only—he’s free to date and kiss whomever he pleases, and so am I,” You roll your eyes, pushing her hand away and giving Yuuji a kiss anyway, which he happily accepts, sticking his tongue out in mockery at Nobara.

Maki scoffs, “Are we sure that Yuuta knows that?” 

“Of course he knows that.”

“So then why hasn’t he dated anyone?” Maki presses, eyes lowering into a teasing glare. 

“I don’t know,” you shrug, “Who Yuuta does or doesn’t date isn’t really my business.” 

Nobara pulls at her hair, “Yes it is. You’re his wife.” 

“His contractual wife,” you correct. 

“Contractual?” 

“Wait—have Yuuta and Toge not totally kissed on several drunk, or am I the only one who saw that?” Yuuji interjects.

“No, that was you and Fushiguro,” Nobara says, “And nobody cares about you two right now.” 

You put a hand on Yuuji’s shoulder, “I care about you, Yuuji. Please, tell us about your drunk escapades with our dear Megumi.” 

“Save it, Itadori,” Maki cuts in, crushing Yuuji’s bright demeanor, “You and Yuuta are way more pathetic. Keep talking.” 

“Since when do you even like to gossip?” 

“Since she met me,” Nobara gleams, proudly, “Now, keep going.” 

You give Yuuji an apologetic glance before continuing, “I just mean that by the end of this year, Yuuta and I can get amicably divorced without raising any suspicion. Our marriage can’t be contested as a sham, I’ll be eligible for citizenship and housing on my own, and all will be well.” 

It’s quiet again, for a moment. You bite your lip in anticipation. Ultimately, you knew that none of your friends would judge you and Yuuta for what you did, but it wasn’t exactly normal to marry your friends for legal benefits, and then hide your marital status from almost everyone you knew. Still, this conversation was going about as well as it could, until Maki starts laughing. 

Her laughter starts off quiet, then grows gradually, until it becomes concerning. You don’t think you’ve ever seen Maki actually laugh before—a few amused grunts, and occasional drunk giggles, yes, but full-on, blown laughter is a first. It’s scary, and as you glance at Nobara and Yuuji, you’re clearly not the only one worried. 

“You actually believe that he doesn’t feel anything for you—that’s rich,” she says through laughter, clutching her stomach, “God help you if you think you can just divorce him. You two are so fucked, you deserve each other.”

“Wait, speaking of rich, did you sign a prenup? Isn’t Yuuta totally loaded now that he’s a nurse and related to Gojo—I also don’t think that you’ll be able to divorce him that easily, but if you kill him, you could be an instant millionaire,” Nobara reasons. 

“That’s so shallow!” Yuuji exclaims, “Also, I’m a nurse, and I wouldn’t say I’m loaded.” 

“That’s because you’re not cute like Yuuta,” Nobara mocks, “If you were, then you’d make the big bucks.” 

“I’m cute!” Yuuji cries, turning to you, “I’m cute, right?” 

You reach to pat his head, “Yes, Yuuji, you’re very cute. And perfectly well off enough. Yuuta works inhumane hours for his money, don’t be like him.” 

“Itadori, you make, like, quadruple what the average person makes,” Maki reminds him, “You just spend it all just as quickly.” 

Nobara scoffs, “Which he can afford to do because he’s a nepotism baby.” 

“You just said I was poor and ugly, and now I’m a nepotism baby? Pick a story, Kugisaki!”

“I don’t have to pick shit. Nanami-san sponsors your entire life, and enables your bad spending habits,” she huffs, “Yuuta’s a nepotism nurse, too. In fact, you both make me sick.” 

“Okay, then by that logic Fushiguro is also a nepotism baby!”

“Well, duh. He’s, like, the poster child for nepotism babies all around the world.” 

You drown out Nobara and Yuuji’s argument, mulling over Maki’s words instead. Did she mean to imply that Yuuta would make your divorce difficult on purpose?—you don’t see why; Yuuta doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body, and it wouldn’t serve him any purpose. You didn’t sign a prenup, but you would never argue ownership over any of his assets, and you know that Yuuta knows that; he’d already given you so much, you would never try to take anything from him. 

In fact, getting divorced would only open more doors for him. You don’t know if Yuuta hasn’t dated in the past four years out of some lingering loyalty to your marriage, but if that was the case, then you don’t want to stand in his way for any longer than necessary, and you especially don’t want him to grow to resent you for it. He would no longer be unnecessarily bound to you; he’d be free, legally, to carry on with his life—you would be the only one indebted to him for his boundless kindness. 

Truthfully, you hadn’t thought much of your divorce throughout your marriage. You knew that after five years, you could get divorced without consequence, but you hadn’t pictured how that would go. The thought of it somehow messing with your relationship to Yuuta, and your mutual friendships makes your head hurt. Maybe you should have married Yuuji instead. 

“Are you kidding, Yuuta would have mauled him,” Nobara chuckles, “Plus he would have lost his childhood home.” You blink. Guess you said that last part out loud. 

Her words spark more bickering between her and Itadori, and this time you turn to Maki. It was evident that she was just as much in the dark as anybody else about your secret marriage, but, still, it seemed like she knew something that you didn’t. 

“Maki, does... you said I think that Yuuta doesn’t feel anything—then what does he feel?” 

Maki blinks, then shakes her head, “You clearly don’t know who you married. That’s for you and your husband to work out.” She continues, this time that same wicked laughter is back, “Just know that whatever your plan for divorce was, it’s not going to be that easy. Yuuta is stupid, clearly, but he’s not that dumb. At least, I hope not.” 

You pout, shoulders slumping. That was about the most cryptic and least comforting response a person could give, but you shouldn’t have expected more from Maki. Luckily, Yuuji moves to give your shoulders a comforting rub, forgoing Nobara’s exclamations of him being a homewrecking harlot. 

At this point, you can’t tell if their arguing or your overthinking is causing your headache. Maybe you should cancel this group dinner all together; there’s no way you and Yuuta won’t be the topic of conversation all night, and you’re not exactly looking forward to pairing Maki’s mystic messages with Toge’s public humiliation, unless you start consuming liquor now. 

Deciding that’s the best plan of action, you turn to your cupboards to reach for a bottle of wine, pawning off popping the cork to Maki when your phone buzzes, catching your attention. 

It’s a text from Yuuta, similar to one you’ve received on this day every day, for the past four years, with something a little extra tacked on this year. 

from: yuuta 🌟 — happy anniversary (and i’m not just saying that because the feds are watching) (＾∇＾) — cheers to us, and many more! 🖤

[specshroom]

★- Working out with Yuuji!

(NSFW, MDNI, AGED UP YUUJI! FEM READER, No use of Y/N)

You complained to yuuji about wanting to work out but not wanting to get a stupid gym membership. So your best friend comes up with the idea to just work out at his place. He gets really into the idea too. He buys gym mats, different weights and he consults YouTube for different exercises to try. He's really excited 🥺

So excited that he doesn't even realise how fucked he is until you walk into his apartment with your gym outfit on.

"You ready to sweat?"

You're so pumped that you don't see how he's looking at you with a nervous grin or how he slightly adjusts his dick in his pants.

It gets even worse when you actually start exercising and Yuuji has to try keep himself together and not combust while you both do squats in his living room. He can't stop his dumb guy brain from going to those stupid cringy pornos where the big buff guy helps the hot dumb girl work out and they obviously end up fucking. What if you two could-

"Yuuujiiii!“ He finally notices you waving your hand in front of his face.

"......yeah?“

"Where the hell's your head at?"

"uuuuh... sorry." He looks so bashful. He's so lost in it he couldn't even come up with a lie.

So it goes like that for a couple of weeks. You two meet up a few times a week at his place to sweat it out and Yuuji has to jerk off in his room when you leave.

The funniest part is that he thinks you don't know. He thinks you don't notice the tent in his pants during every session. He doesn't even suspect that you might be wearing tighter, more revealing gym clothes on purpose. He's not even a little suspicious of the way you push your tits and ass out when you stretch or the noises you make being a little too erotic.

Yuuji isn't slick. He thinks he can play off the redness in his face and the harshness of his breath. Truly it's starting to rile you up too. It's been fun teasing him but you're getting worked up yourself at this point. Yuuji respects you too much to just come out and say that he thinks you're so hot and he jerks off to the idea of fucking you in your tight gym clothes. You know you're the one who has to make the first move.

So you rock up to Yuuji's place in tights and a sports bra with a different kind of determination in your eyes. While Yuuji's stretching, unknowingly showing off his well built shoulders and forearms you sneak up behind him.

"I saw this stretch that looked really good, do you want to try it?"

Yuuji looks back at you and mumbles "Sure."

You motion for him to sit. "Okay, so spread your legs and put your hands on the floor between them, yeah like that." While explaining you kneel behind him, knees on either side of his waist. "Now I'll just push your back forward and you try and reach your toes" you say softly, close to his ear. You lean forward so that your tits are pressed up against his back. You can tell he's having a hard time breathing and you know it isn't due to the stretch.

"Doesn't that feel good?" You hum, breath fanning his ear.

Yuuji replies with a weak "mhm"

This is your chance. You lightly run your hands down his broad arms, keeping your chest squished against his back. "You alright Yuuji? You sound like you're in pain." You fain concern. You know exactly what hurts.

"Nah, 's alright. Nothing hurts." He breathes, genuinely trying to reassure you even though he feels he could die from blue balls at any moment.

"hmm, you sure?" Your hands slide from his arms to his thick thighs before one hand slowly makes its way towards the growing member in his loose gym pants. "Not even here?“

Yuuji just stops breathing for a second. His brain needs a few more seconds to fully comprehend what's happening. Your tits are pressing up against him and you've got your hand placed right on his dick.

"Yuuji? Do you want me to make you feel better or not?" Your voice jolts him out of his own mind.

"uuuh, y-yeah, yes....please." Yuuji stumbles out, back still slouched over, thighs spread out on the floor giving you perfect access.

"kiss me first then." You say suddenly, lifting your hand from his crotch.

Yuuji tries not to whine, looking back at you shocked once more. "What?"

"Well if I'm going to give you a reach around it's just polite to kiss me first" You say, oh so casually.

Yuuji lightly laughs at the ridiculousness of the situation and after staring at your lips for a second he leans in and you meet him half way in a deep kiss. It's clear that you both have been waiting awhile for this kiss with how passionate and deep it is.

Your hand cards through his hair and lightly pulls on it so that he leans back, resting his head on your shoulder, giving you better access to his mouth. Your tongue licks gently at his lower lip asking for entrance which he grants quickly and you explore each other's mouths. All while your other hand moves back to slowly palm him through his pants.

Yuuji lightly moans into the kiss and his big hand covers yours to gently guide you as he lightly grinds up into your palm. God he's so hot. You can't wait any longer and you push past the waist band of his shorts and underwear to wrap your hand around his shaft.

"fuck" Yuuji breaths into your mouth. He rests his head on your shoulder looking up at you with such adoring eyes.

"How much have you thought about this huh? A lot, considering how you stare at me in these gym clothes, you pervert."

His eyes go wide and he flinches "You knew? You were doing it on purpose?!"

You laugh at his sudden realisation. While your temporarily distracted Yuuji begrudgingly takes your hand off him and turns around so he's facing you now.

"You wanted me to have these thoughts about you." He says leaning closer so you're pressed against the couch behind you. His eyes travel down to your tits and then lower. "So you wore this for me?“

When you nod, Yuuji sighs and places his hands on the underside of the bra. "Can I?"

You nod again and he wastes no time slipping the piece of fabric off of you. You sit there feeling pretty exposed but confident as Yuuji stares at your free tits like he's never seen a pair before.

You laugh at his reaction and slowly take one of his hands to cup one breast. He plays with the weight of it in his warm hand, utterly fascinated. You encourage his other hand to slowly start moving towards where you need him the most.

Yuuji gathers up the nerve and cups your mound in his hand. His eyes shut and he curses at how warm and wet it is even through the fabric. He steels himself and with a determined look he starts palming your clit. In those shitty pornos he watches he always found it so hot when the guy would finger the girl while she's still wearing tights. So that's what he intends to do as he shuffles his hand past the hem of your pants and underwear. Finally, when he gets to rub his thick fingers against your bare cunt, you both audibly groan. He can't help but kiss you again this time it's much more feverish.

He takes his time rubbing up on your entrance getting his fingers all wet with your slick before he slides one in to open you up. You're moaning into his mouth and you think this truly is like your wet dreams as he slips his middle and ring fingers inside your needy pussy.

He takes his time finding the perfect spot that makes your eyes flutter and pussy clench harder and when he finds it he goes to fucking town.

He's pumping his fingers in and out rubbing up against your sweet spot and he brings the thumb of his other hand to rub against your clit bringing you closer to the brink.

A few more harsh pumps of his strong hand has you reaching your peak with a loud groan, mouth agape and tight clad legs shaking as he slows down allowing you to ride it out.

"That was so hot, you're so hot." Yuuji praises, dazed eyes never leaving you, sounding stunned like he can't believe he just made you cum so hard it messed the front of your tights.

You laugh breathlessly still trying to regain yourself. "Do you want to see me do it again?" You lazily look up at him, legs still spread out just for him.

Yuuji's amazed he hasn't cum untouched at this point. He nods enthusiastically while shoving his pants and underwear down then making quick work of yours. Yuuji stops for a moment to admire your completely naked form infront of him and you do the same to him before you two can't resist each other any longer and you both latch onto the other. Chest to chest now, so close you can feel each other's heart beats. You both grind against each other and when you grab Yuuji's cheeks and pull him into a passionate kiss he chooses that moment to start pushing his hard dick into your pussy. The stretch feels divine and thanks to the thorough prep he bottoms out in no time.

You both groan into each other's mouths, connected in such intimate ways. As your tongues explore one another Yuuji starts thrusting and you grind back in time. You both move together so in sync like you've done this a million times. As the kiss gets even more heated the thrusting and grinding gets faster and more feverish. You know you're both so close to release when the kissing gets even more sloppy and the grinding gets so hard and fast you have to cling tighter onto each other to keep pace.

And when you both cum together it's better than either of you imagined. His arms are holding you so tight to his chest and your arms cling tightly around his neck and shoulders. Your cunt clenches so hard on his dick as he shoots ropes into you. You both stay right there panting into each other's mouths, bodies basically glued together with sweat.

It takes a few minutes for you both to ease up enough to stop clinging to eachother and even longer for him to actually pull out. After which you both groan at the sight of his spent dick and your dripping pussy still linked by a string of both his and your cum.

You look up at him to see him already looking at you. You stare at eachother both still in a bit of delirium.

"we should exercise like that more often."

[beatcroc]

a year!!! as of today i have now been drawing these funny little pizza freaks, to the exclusion of almost everything else, for!!! an entire year!!! i wanted to do a nice group shot/lineup of everybody to compare to when i first started trying to draw them because oh boy were they bad. i never even posted most of them anywhere because they were so bad. but im posting them here, now, to see how everything's changed/evolved.

this is probably the hardest time i've ever had trying to figure out how to work with a style, but we got there eventually; i'm pretty happy with the handle i've got on everybody now...dont let ur memes be dreams. lots of unimportant journaling and idle thoughts abt it below.

older pics

the first one is the VERY first time i drew them, before i thought i was going to actually have any interest in drawing them [lmao]; it was just the one isolated image, for my friendserver, to illustrate the funney message, so there was no attempt to make it Good or actually understand anything going on w/ the designs or style.

second is the original run of practices sketches to start trying to figure them out for real; done after i started having ideas for the comics and such and realized oh god maybe i am actually gonna draw fanart for this. [again, lol, and lmao.]

third one is the first pt art thing i posted on here. there were a couple weeks of sprite studies between this one and the previous image. the one on the top right wasn't part of that post i just threw it on as space filler; i'd intended to shift to doing Sprite Redraws But Stylized to explore tings more, but that was the only one i did. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

individual characters

peppino: by far the hardest dear god. bro what ARE your shapes how DOES your face work. jesus christ. everything i have trouble with this style for, peppino has it in excess. i draw in polygons! i need consistency! and that is the last thing this kind of style is concerned with. they are made of squarshy clay and i do not understand how to mold them. i was really hoping trying to learn this game's style would GIVE me that kind of flexibility for fun exaggerated facial expression but i don't think much came of it in the end 😔. anyway on the bright side all this means once i got peppino figured out a little bit everybody else clicked way easier.

fake peppino: honestly i never did anything with him on purpose except for how his eyes work + the perma-smile thing. i figured ok hes supposed to look weird and off model so whatever happens with him happens. and it did. and it kept happening. it is still, in fact, happening.

noise/ette: somehow, for every bit that peppino was the least natural thing i've ever tried, these two worked pretty much right off the bat. i still don't understand it, seeing as pretty much all the things at play for peppino are also at work for them. i think the new sketches are actually a little worse than older ones but not enough that i care.

gustavo: really funny bc i drew him on model twice and just went 'okay, cool nice, easy, um. he doesn't have any fucking legs?' fortunately he was the only one i had a strong idea for how to stylize him [square] and it worked exactly as i was hoping so wahoo.

brick: is an animal and therefore 5000x easier and more natural for me to draw/stylize than anything else in the cast. that is Just a rat bro. i can draw a rat.

gerome: i think the funniest one here. the most drastic and least necessary change imo. i was gonna have him be really small at first, like smaller than the noises, but then i just... didn't. he's just peppino-sized now. also i gave him like. actual human facial structure, which is funny bc in most cases i'd do anything to avoid, but it works well for his being A Rock to give him some angles and definition like that+ to differentiate his vibe from the rest of the cast who are all very squishy. also since he is essentially Just A Head it's good to emphasize that too ig.

john: i only drew john a couple times but he gets to be here because i like him. and because most of the stuff i applied to gerome was readily applicable to john, though i did try to keep him a little more uncanny because he is a Huge And Lanky Freak. i hate that he is barefoot btw but idk how to make his color balance look right with shoes.

pizzahead: i did not want to put him on here honestly but i Have drawn him a handful of times and more importantly i didn't know what i was gonna do with john's pose if i didn't have him there to be glared at. the only thing that's different with him is giving him wider-bottomed pants, which i got from when i tried to draw these guys in clone high style [i never posted that one either][i will eventually]

snick: he gets to be here because 1. he's like 6 lines 2. i like him and 3. ive scribbled him a few times offhand and it went pretty well

misc

there are some guys missing because those are guys i didn't draw enough [or at all] to have gotten comfortable with them. sorry

i would have Liked to shade these but for the time being i have accepted that my grasp of light/shadow has decayed to the point im not going to be happy with anything i try there, so For Now i am working on my presentation with flats i guess. gerome has a shadow only because he's shaded like that ingame and looks naked without it

anyway if you are still reading [hi?] i get to shamelessly plug now. i'm over the hill of my pizza run now, and while i still have plenty of things i want to make here, most of the bigger more in-depth ones have passed. pizza tower was the first thing in THREE YEARS to get me out of my oc groove to doing fanart, and once i am done with my ideas here i will be going right back to it. if you like my art or how i write characters/interactions you should check out my oc/webcomic blog @jamverse . i can't promise people who like pizza stuff will be terribly into my designs, but i can guarantee i treat my guys with the exact same sort of tone i handle the pt guys with. and hell, i've mentioned it a few times before, but like 70% of my characterization for fake pep is just copied off one of my characters, so if u are going to miss him... he will still be there in spirit >;p

and if you dont care about any of that and are still reading thank you anyway. actually making these comics + seeing how shockingly well-received they've been has done a lot for my confidence, and for seeing that my kind of stuff IS something people enjoy :')

[maxwell-grant]

Fuck it, can you expand on your thoughts regarding What Can We Know About Thunderman?

One of the funniest and most horrible things I've ever read partially because like 60% of it is just pages and pages of Alan Moore stating industry facts and names with the serial numbers filed off, and if you have enough comic book brainworms to be reading Thunderman in the first place there will probably be at least one or a dozen references here and there that will spring out of nowhere and hit you like a punch in the gut (the one I remember was the Jack Cole one). A lot of the stuff in Thunderman that reads as absurd funny parody or metaphors too stupid to be real are actual industry facts that Moore has knowledge of, and even the stuff that isn't you can trace a direct line of what exactly it's referring to or who exactly this is referencing.

This is a story in part about how horrible it is to be a sicko with comic book brain worms that is mainly understandable if you're exactly that kind of person. Besides all the references to real-life people and events, most of the modern stuff he's making up are still just as incisive and accurate because literally nothing changed, not even in regards to the movie paradigm ("At last he has attained a semblance to a religious figure. Can we stop now?"). Much of this is Moore dunking on Certain Industry Guys he probably knew and interacted with and indirectly bullseyeing on more recent guys, because a lot of these guys are the same. There are your extremes like the one con-goer here who is pretty much just Max Landis verbatim, but there's also so much that's brutally on-point for industry practices and writers ("What if we had Thunderman do something, and then something happened?") that you can fill in your own names.

It's also an incredibly personal and tragic piece because the core story of it, in between vivid descriptions of Greg Land's office space porn oceans and self-destructive daydreams and rolling catastrophes, is about a guy who deeply loves his art form, deeply loves the creators and artists who gave him so much for so little in his life, and deals with so much horrible toxic bullshit that the only way he finds to live, the only way he finds to not be complicit in the pigsty, is to leave it all behind and work the poison out of his system forever. Like he very openly talks about the protagonist leaving it all behind to go write the next big novel and writing that note, and the non-superhero ideas that will come after, as something that nobody is going to care about, but that he has to do. I don't think I could fully appreciate the sequence where he quits his job at comics and walks out of the office feeling better than ever, until I myself got fired from an incredibly stressful job that made a thing I love (video editing) into the bane of my existence, and no amount of money worries in the world could make me not feel at that moment like I was walking home to the sunniest day of the year.

It wasn't only how much better life was without comics that had startled him, but also how the comics business looked, viewed from outside. How small it was; how cruel and how ridiculous. All the warped personalities the industry either attracted, or else bent and fashioned for itself out of naïve enthusiasts who'd been expecting something else. He couldn't understand why he'd not bailed out of the business years ago, though in a way he could. Part of the answer was just plain human inertia, and part was the fact that, from the inside, comics people and their weird behaviour could seem almost normal.

Dan was grateful he'd escaped in time, though he'd admit that even that escape was qualified. Removing himself from the comics field was one thing, stopping thinking about comics was another. Constantly, he'd find his mind alighting on some decomposing gobbet from the mental garbage-tip of trivia that his career had left him with, when that was the last thing he wanted to be thinking of. He probably should have anticipated some sort of reaction - thirty-something years in any field would leave you with a lot of baggage, and especially an enterprise almost designed to be obsessional, like comics -

His fantasy that he could be a proper literary author, living miles from anywhere and shunning interviews like Salinger or Pynchon, had congealed over this last few months from idle dream to psychological necessity. He'd put his farewell dossier together, and it was published without eliciting much in the way of a reaction or response, but the important thing for Dan was that he'd written it. His lip was better and he could speak normally again, since, for some reason, having quit the comics world, he was no longer trying to eat himself alive. Dan was committed, now, to his new life, and there could be no vacillating. Change or die, those were his options.

And putting aside the fact that "Dan" is killed by the Vince Coletta stand-in and the story itself ends in a much bleaker and more horrible note, to me that feels like Moore being very honest, as depressing as it may be, that nothing else he ever does is gonna get the kind of buzz and following and money and praise that he did for his corporate superhero droppings, and he still doesn't regret one bit what he left behind, and he's going to make the weird magic lizard stories he actually wants to do until he dies and try to not think about superheroes ever again even though he will obviously never fully succeed. Not just because it won't leave him alone, but because it's a part of his life. He loves stories, he loves art, he loves comics, and if not now, he very clearly deeply loved superheroes once, and maybe he still does if he can put aside the sheer nightmare bullshit toxicity attached to them that he's dealt with. I'd even point to a recent occasion he did try just that, with the character of Captain Universe, who accomplishes maybe the only real heroic act in LOEG: Tempest when he stops an atomic bomb from leveling England and ends the story with his big heartfelt wedding.

LOEG is the dead last place you'd expect Moore to place a heartfelt send-off to his superhero work, and much of it gets obscured by that asylum sequence where he savages existing IP capes and the farcical elements of the team and other criticisms at the genre, but it's there, and it's maybe the only story that has a happy ending in the book even. With Captain Universe, a character who has no real history, Moore is able to put all feelings for superhero IP and the big two aside and do this platonic ideal of a superhero and the creative possibilities and hopeful fantasy of a superhero. He's willing to poke holes in the guy and ruthlessly make fun of his shitty allies and villains, but LOEG affords Captain Universe an almost shocking degree of dignity (plus the existence of the canceled Superverse, which was going to be a LOEG-esque project with superheroes done with Rick Veitch tying in to The Show, showing Moore had plans to try writing superheroes again on his own terms even after everything). I think Thunderman in large part is about conciliating these feelings with a large degree of autobiography.

That's one emotional core of the story, but mainly I remember Thunderman for being really fucking funny. The EC Comics hearing. The porn ocean odyssey. Stan Lee Stan Lee-ing so hard he nearly gets killed by gangsters over it and one chapter detailing his transition from person to Character. Marvel was all along a CIA conspiracy to promote radiation poisoning. The chapter that's entirely dedicated to Moore stopping the story to riff and review the Superman movies. This books swings widly and it's an incredibly entertaining read.

And maybe the most horrible thing about Thunderman isn't in the way it's protagonist meets it's end or in the final chapter or even *gestures broadly at all of it*, it might just be the chapter before Alan Moore drops his Superman movie reviews, because with it comes the realization that yes, Alan Moore has been to Reddit, and has looked enough into reddit superhero discourse to be able to plausibly imitate it, which means he probably has sat through at least one argument about him too many. The stand-out of that chapter is the bit where he's riffing on Cavill's mustache fiasco and the DCEU, but it also includes some bits that now read as pretty perfect bullseye jabs at the MCU's current state of affairs.

[wolfdog-weatherman]

Oh PHIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL i am twirling into your inbox like a ballerina

PLEEEEASE TELL ME YOUR WILDEST GHD THEORYYYY

thanks :]

HI EDDIEEEEEE :D

Thank you so much for this this is EVERYTHING!!! to me

SO. Ultimately I do think the happy ending that we see is what really happened, but I still love to theorize and there are a lot of cool ones on the internet, so I’m gonna make a list of some of my faves. So buckle up!

1. Probably one of the most popular internet theories is the “purgatory theory”, which proposes that Phil died early on in the movie/musical and the time loop is his personal purgatory that he must escape.

I think my favorite part about this theory is all the different ways people think that Phil could have died; such as freezing to death when he left the van to talk to the cop or from getting hit by the shovel when he’s in the gas station.

2. The theory that Ned Ryerson is causing the time loop in order to sell insurance to Phil is probably the funniest one to me, and it also has a surprising amount of canon backing?

The only day where Phil buys all of Ned’s insurance is also the day he breaks out of the loop, and the way Ned approaches Phil to tell him that they went to high school together is uncannily similar to how Phil convinces Nancy of the same thing. So it’s interesting to think the Ned learned this about Phil and then put him in a time loop solely to sell some insurance lolllol.

3. Probably my favorite theory ever is video game theory. Idk what to say I just think explaining the loop by proposing that Phil is just a video game protagonist and the time loop represents a save point is really cool!!

I also fucking love undertale and I could draw parallels between Phil and Flowey for hours but that’s another post. Additionally I enjoy the idea that when Phil dies over and over it’s just the player getting super pissed and ramming their character into every hazard in the game.

Also this isn’t really a theory but I like the idea that Phil commits all of the seven deadly sins before he gets out of the loop.

Wrath- Taking revenge on the people that bothered him before the loop, such as punching Ned in the face numerous times.

Sloth- Sitting around memorizing Jeopardy episodes.

Gluttony- Gorging himself on breakfast foods.

Envy- His envy for the popularity of the groundhog as well as possibly envy for his colleagues.

Greed- Robbing banks.

Lust- Seducing practically every woman in Punx. using his ability.

Pride- His greatest character flaw.

So yeah thanks for the awesome ask Eddie this is one of my fave ghd topics !!!! ♥️♥️

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Not a Zucest shipper (more into Maiko) but that scene where Azula isn't wearing makeup and she and Zuko are in her bedroom and she's all touchy-feely towards him was honestly more sexual and intimate than the Zvtara cave scene. Honestly I would argue that Azula is a lot more on his mind than Katara, who only comes to mind when she's convenient for tracking down Aang. Heck, I would even argue Zuko has more chemistry and investment with Aang than he does with Katara.

Maiko might not be my OTP but it is still a personal favorite because MY GOD, these two are clingy with each other and it's so fucking cute.

Zuko and Aang's friendship is legitimately one of the best parts of the show, and, ironically enough, their dynamic is the closest the show ever got to the fanon zutara idea of "this hero can tell the bad guy has a heart and wants to offer him the chance of being a better person", only without the romance part - but it could have totally made for a perfectly reasonable endgame if just a few details had been changed.

Plus everything about them meeting the dragons was absolutely iconic, from "I don't care what people said, you're pretty smart", to Zuko suggesting they think about their place in the universe, to AANG ASKING ZUKO TO DANCE WITH HIM, to Zuko looking Aang straight (hehehe) in the face and going "You are source of my fire by the way. No homo."

I just love it whenever these two are on-screen together.

As for the bedroom scene between Zuko and Azula in the awakening... oh boy, did my mind go straight to the gutter the first time I saw it (and every time after that too).

Grey Delisle, iconic voice actor, former stripper, and former narrator of trailers for porno movies, really took a look at this scene of her character's older brother coming to her bedroom in the middle of the night and thought "Wouldn't it be really funny if I added some incest vibes here?" (not that the animation itself made it all that difficult).

And yeah, Azula was definitively in Zuko's mind ALL THE TIME. Like, this boy was trapped in a cave during a snow storm, Aang's soul had literally left his body and, for some fucking reason, he just... starts venting about the sister he has not seen in years. Like, I KNOW they are just setting up Azula as the villain of the second season, but that came out of nowhere!

And him imagining her as the blue dragon that represents temptation and is whispering in his ear stuff like "Just give into it" and asking when he will be going to his bedroom, even after he said he doesn't feel like sleeping... buddy. Buddy. What the hell is this?

Also I can't find that video anymore, but there was some panel Bryke was at in which they were "suggesting" many ships to the audience - and one just happened to be Azula and The Blue Spirit. If someone has a link to it, please send it to me because the audience's outraged reaction was the funniest fucking thing.

In case any of you want to see Grey being chaotic as fuck, and making Dante all embarrassed (and flirting with him) I recommend you check out these videos because they are HILARIOUS!

[xjustonemoremiraclex]

rwrb thoughts from someone who hasn't read the book (yet)

The good/general thoughts:

pleasantly surprised by the acting! which I know sounds mean, but listen, I saw these guys in other things and I wasn't suuuper into them, so it was a nice surprise lol

THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE TWO again, pleasantly surprised by that lol they played off each other SO well

10/10 soundtrack, it definitely took inspiration from older rom-coms and I loved it <3

PS I really liked all the side characters! I wish we'd gotten to spend a little more time with some of them, but everyone was pretty great <3 also, all the women were awesome, and I am very gay and very in love <3

Ok, I really, REALLY liked how they showed the two of them texting each other, and the whole editing around it. It was pretty cute

I was living for all the latine songs at the new year's party, that was a nice touch

ok, when everyone was getting down at the party and alex and henry stayed up and stared at each other and time slowed down, I know it was supposed to be romantic, but I have to say it: it was also the funniest shit I've ever seen lol

henry at the party is giving both 'i have social anxiety and my only friend here is a social butterfly and keeps leaving to be with other people send help' and 'i thought you invited me here as a first date kind of thing but you're dancing and making out with other people and i'm feeling so betrayed rn :('

'christ you're as thick as it gets *kiss*' LMAO

Listen, I'm not usually into rom-coms (I say, like a liar), but I was pretty happy with the writing, in general. I laughed at all the funny parts, got emotional over all the dramatic ones and swooned at the romance bits. Great job, everyone

'I just can't afford for you to fall in love with me' LMAO babe, we're WAY past that. On both sides

ok, full disclosure: I don't really like sex scenes all that much (there's nothing wrong with them, I'm just very ace lol), so I usually just use my phone while they're happening, and while I did that a little bit here too, I was still paying attention, and honestly, they were pretty sweet. They did a good job. And, like, I have no idea why the film was R-rated lol you literally don't see anything

again, love the little montages that show the passing of time, while also showing they're keeping in touch and getting to know each other better and stuff. It makes the relationship between the two and the way it's developing feel a bit less rushed, which is nice

ZAHRA MY MOST BELOVED

YES PLEASE I WANT TO SEE THAT POWERPOINT PRESENTATION THANK YOU

KARAOKEEEE

alex giving an impassioned romantic speech to henry, about to confess his love: // henry:

'I didn't want to break his heart' - oh, honey, you already did :(

'to tell you that I love you, knowing that you wouldn't say it back' brb sobbing

NOT CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE 😭😭😭

'because when they write the history of my life, I want it to include you and my love for you' help i'm dying 😭😭😭😭😭😭

MIGUEL DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW IT WAS YOU please die in a fire <3

alex's speech was really good by the way 🥺

LOVESICK HOMOSEXUALS LMAO ZAHRA MY BELOVED

'baby' screaming crying throwing up jgdkfk

I FORGOT THE KING WAS STEPHEN FRY why is this so funny to me

SEQUEL WHEN

The... less good?/general questions:

Kinda wish there'd been a bit more enemies in my enemies-to-lovers film

'he just grabbed my hair in a way that made me understand the difference between rugby and footbal'' - please, I beg you, someone smarter than me - what the fuck does this mean 😭 ppl are LIVING for this quote and I'm like ??????

this is probably me being stupid and ignorant lol but why would alex's relationship cost his mum the election? like, from what I've seen, her government has been very pro-queer, that's not really a secret, so her son being queer and in a relationship with a man shouldn't lose her any voters..? the people who are against 'the queers' were not going to vote for her in the first place, soooo..? me is confused

honestly, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but... the king was not that bad? like, i'm not saying he's not kind of homphobic and kind of a dick lol but i get the impression that everything stems from the whole thing about sticking to tradition and public image and bla bla. Like, again, obviously, part of that involves homophobia, but I think that on a personal level, he... doesn't really care? Even at the end, he's like 'ok, are you absolutely sure about this, cause there's no going back. Yes? Really? Well, go off I guess *long-suffering sigh*'. Like, I got way more homophobic vibes from phillip than the king idk 🤷‍♀️ (I really hope I don't have to clarify that this only applies to the film, and not like, the real life crown lol)

Sooo, as I said, I haven't read the book yet, but I've seen some posts about it, and I think after watching the film I've realized that it's biggest flaw is that it's that - a film. It's a great film, don't get me wrong! And it's pretty obvious I really liked it. But damn, I'm a firm believer that book adaptations only work as series. They don't have to be super long or anything, but there is just no way to fit everything in a book in a two hour film. And yeah, when you're adapting something you have to make some changes, but Idk, it's kind of a shame that you lose so much (and even without reading the book, I can tell there's a lot of stuff missing). In any case, I can't talk too much about it until I read the book, but yeah 🤷‍♀️ It does seem like they did a good job, though - like, it genuinely can stand on its own really well, but I guess I'll have to find out for myself

Also, tagging @silassstingy bc I promised her my thoughts on the film and she might give me some interesting insights on some of the stuff I mentioned, cause she's a queen like that <3

[video-gh0st]

So back in June I watched all the Ghostbusters films cause it was the anniversary of the original movie and I thought I'd do a quick bullet point review since it's been a bit since I watched them all together.

Ghostbusters (1984)

It's still a classic. Has memorable moments that will live on.

Fun scenes. Going after Slimer is always silly and chaotic.

Peter Venkman is a rough. I actually had a person tell me that Venkman is the reason why they never watched the first movie, and I don't blame them.

Wish there was a bit more build up to the confrontation with Gozer. Would be neat if they kept uncovering clues rather than just the moment they figured it out in the jail cell.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

I don't know why people dunk on this movie, it's great!

You can tell the cast and crew are having more fun and things are a bit more fleshed out.

Venkman actually has some good character growth and is not a total creep!

I actually like the build up to the climax on this one. Throughout the movie, there's a focus on the slime buildup in the city and the flow of the story feels good.

Some fun light scares.

I kinda don't like the whole "the ghosts just stop showing up" thing. It's a trope specifically for this franchise that's not really explained. Just "yeah nothing happened between the movies and people think, we're frauds again! Gotta do it all over again!"

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

This movie gets a lot of undeserved hate thrown towards it for being the female lead reboot. A bunch of misogynist trolls threw a fit and never gave it a shot the moment it was announced.

The cast was great tbh. Everyone seemed to gel with one another.

Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.

I really like the main antagonist in this movie. I think his character could have been fleshed out a bit more, but still fun idea.

The gear looks really cool in this movie.

Some scenes do keep going a bit too long and has like not good Saturday Night Live skit energy. I think they relied a bit too much on improv.

How the fuck is Chris Hemsworth the funniest motherfucker alive and why is he so cute?

There's a teeny tiny bit a queerness in this story, but I also feel like there's themes of found family going on here too and I like that.

Chris Hemsworth plays a himbo and we see him with his shirt off.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Trailers do this movie a disservice by making it feel like it's going for a Stranger Things feel, kinda relying a bit too much on nostalgia or even doing the "wow kids these days." It just felt like they didn't have any confidence on the movie itself when marketing this tbh.

The tone is a bit more serious, but honestly I'm fine with it. Still has some funny moments, but it's leaning more into the horror part a bit more.

Watching Phoebe learn more about her grandfather is honestly fun. And this movie does a great job with handing things off to a new generation in a way that doesn't feel like it's disingenuous.

Literally cried at the end. Honestly that ending felt wonderful and it felt like a good tribute to Harold Ramis.

I don't know why, but my first watch of this last year wasn't as good as the second watch this year. I don't know what happened. But I remember the first time I watched this and felt like it was just ok but not my favorite. Maybe it was just a bit of frustration that the sequel to Answer the Call got cancelled before it could even get into full production.

I appreciate the movie using some practical effects. There are just certain elements that you can't mess with in Ghostbusters movie and they nailed it.

Muncher is my least favorite ghost tbh. Idk, there are people who love Muncher and I do like the tardigrade inspired design, but idk, they didn't appeal to me like the other ghosts did.

[driflew]

i acknowledge that it is actually Wednesday and not sunday, but at the time my reminder notification went off i was in “the horror genre part of the woods” (description from a friend) for a photography project so i was not able to do the thing

anyway, six fun facts about heliography 2!

1. i have had the zombie thing written for. months. it’s one of my fave bits of lamplight world building and ive just been SITTING on it. god im so glad that is out you have no idea

2. i said in the authors note i gave Martyn an épée bc thats what i use and this is true but the full truth is that it would be... not ideal in an actual fight. it’s dueling weapon and not a battle weapon. however this is my fic and my rules so it’s basically fine  

that said here’s a convo from discord abt my choice to give him an épée that still makes me laugh 

my other fun fact is the line about the bell guard being dented being a bad thing is the funniest to me personally bc that’s just... it just happens to bell guards. it doesnt make it a damaged or bad weapon the way the fic implies. my bell guards are all fucked. every time ive bought a new weapon the other ppl in my weapon have immediately looked at the still-reflective guard and commented it was too shiny and they were going to change that 

3. there were so many ways the middle of this chapter could have went.... i had like 100000 fucking ideas that i came up with and scrapped due to not being quite right or disliking how the pacing of the overall fic felt by having too much or too little. deciding to combine the food scene and the river scene saved my life

4. honestly the whole reason i mentioned Martyn used to have a lute was bc i just. i know. in my heart of fucking hearts. if that man ever encounters lamplight--something that is possible due to cherri cherrifire rooting on my downfall constantly--that the first thing he is going to say is gonna be some shit like “paladin? i would definitely be a bard” and regardless of whether or not that is a valid assessment it IS going to make me scream like a godamn banshee. so. canonical acknowledgement. he just swapped classes alright

5. dont actually know if those zombies were dogwarts’ citizens. i didnt decide while writing it, i went back and forth between citizens and adventurers who fell victim to the watchers and decided to leave it vague. i do enjoy everything ive heard ppl say about them tho

6. the river scene is from a joke from the old lamplight gc between me, haunted, and three other friends. it’s like.... november old. week one or two of the fic existing old. i have been sitting on that stupid thing for so long. i am so fucking glad it’s free

[hereforyourdispleasure]

👀Favorite thing about the muse’s appearance?

💔Least favorite ship for the muse?

💢Something about the muse that annoys you?

😂Funniest thing that’s ever happened to your muse? 

📑 Favorite part of your muse’s backstory? 

🔮 What do you see in your muse’s future? 

💭 Favorite memory of the muse? 

😩 Hardest thing about writing the muse? 

🎭 How similar are you and the muse? 

-for whomever you want

- guess

👀- Mark's resting bitch face. Very accurately represents his emotions

💔- Honestly Alir and Lydia. Since there wasn't enough build up. Plus don't really know if it's an actual relationship. Theo and Darian. I just don't do that level of one sided emotional codependency. Too close to home

💢- Darian's whole thing of not telling people essential information to try and keep them out as much as possible. It's understandable, all things considered career and past wise, but he still fucking does it because he doesn't want to bother people 💀 and then purposefully bothers them

😂- Probably when Mark first found out Darian uses annoying songs to torture people. During a faked hostage situation. 10 hours of the duck song. Every time his speaker got destroyed by the people holding them there, he somehow had another

📑- The mirroring between Adrian and Alir. Both being brought into Commish at 16, both being very violent (at the time), Alir being lined up to be a project guinea pig vs Adrian being lined up to be a lead researcher, and inevitably a guinea pig himself. And the mirroring of the unwilling caretaker between Dani and Adrian/Darian, and Darian's learning to be better from her mistakes

🔮- I'm not sure to be honest. Likely Darian getting even more uncomfortable with the lack of constant life threatening situations

💭- Darian taking care of people in person. Stitching up Five's head in the bunker, dealing with high on pain meds Five, literally every time Lils has said something concerning and he's gone over with complicated food he thinks they'll like, when he picked up on what foods and drinks people like, healing Oli as sneakily as possible

😩- Think I might've already answered this, but I'll do another. 7/10 times when I was writing interactions and stuff for the August arc I'd literally burst into tears, honestly rough time I didn't know why I was so emotional over it

🎭- Feel like it's slightly obvious, but the sense of humour. Also the tone/writing style. It was just a lot easier without having to worry about if what I just posted didn't sound Darian enough, because sounding Darian was essentially sounding me except less explosion threats. Maybe. Actually now I think about it. There's also certain aspects of his background that are loosely similar, unintentionally. Alir, I don't think I honestly have much in common with. Except the idea that I've made my sense of humour their like actual character. Mark, yes, a few smaller aspects. And also some parts of his background too

[abyssmalice]

(yknow, one of my funniest stories for this blog is connected to one of my fave tol toni hcs that i ultimately came up with a random whim lmaoooo

let me tell u the (long-winded bc i type too much by default sorry) story LOL)

(so when i just came up with harbingy tonitoni and was moving to make her the primary muse on this blog, i decided that one way to differentiate between the smol and the tol is with their dialogue

before, when tol toni was the only toni on here, she was relatively Normal in behavior and speech - a gentle person with learned but casual speech who just happened to have abyss trauma, essentially. i was still trying to figure her out at the time since tonia as a character has Zero info, even today, and an AU version of her would be doubly lacking in any concrete basis to work with.

but anyway, when i left for a while and came back with the new tinier toni muse in tow, i had to figure out a way - besides icons and appearances - to Really make sure that the two tonis were recognizably different when written. i figured early on it would be speech; so tonitoni got the casual side (actually, even More casual, childish even now) of tol toni's speech patterns, which left her with just the erudite aspect that i basically tuned to the max in compensation while throwing in a layer of cryptic knowing-ness due to her irminsul connection

but the real funny part comes from me needing to figure out how to actually justify this new speech style for the elder toni. half of it can certainly be attributed to her being connected 24/7 to the irminsul and "speaking" on its eldritch but knowledgeable behalf - but the irminsul as i hc it is a hodge-podge mix of mindsets basically, so she could have easily just become foulmouthed or more deranged rather

so the real reason i eventually came up with is: larping

she's larping.

some ~1k years into her new abyss lifestyle or whatever, people (humans seeking knowledge or the abyss order or whatever) started stumbling across her and tol toni, as per her own backstory, is an avid reader of books and stories. and bc she spent a bunch of years traumatized, lowkey losing her mind and having no proper socializing whatsoever, her social skills went to Complete Shit so for her First Ever Visitor In Fucking God Knows How Long, she stood there like an idiot for a hot minute or so trying to figure out what to do, let alone even say, and then she had an eureka moment

aka she thought about all the old wise witches in fairytales and decided, ok, she will act like one of them. that is totally the perfect guideline for normal human socializing

anyway that idea stuck so yeah. this is the headcanon for why she Talks Like That now)

[dawllick]

Stranger Things Thoughts

No one asked but after my annual rewatch wanted to share some season 4 musingssss

Okay so first:

I really hope that Nancy ends the series single. I don’t see the writers back tracking to make Robin x Nancy thing (which I’m for and find delightful and hilarious due to their canon dynamic), and I don’t want her to end up with Steve or Jonathan at this point. Jonathan wants something different, and I feel Steve has this idolized version of Nancy. Her character is one I could see still seeking mystery and adventure in the future, if they kill Nancy in S5 I would be genuinely shocked. I truly love the idea of her ending the series single and on good terms with everyone, mainly due to her age. Going through college I saw way too many people that have been dating or haven’t been single since middle school, and it’s be cool to end the show with a character was a focal point in the romance aspect for a good chunk of it single.

Kiddos:

Dustin: I literally just want him to live. I don’t think they’d kill any of the kiddos but like….Max is on thin ice soooooooooo

Lucas: For the other kiddos to give him more love? Season four he gave and gave and gave and gave. Lucas needs more like…appreciation lol

Max: omg girl I need you to live or something pls

Mike: …..they won’t kill him and nothing bad has happened to him. Like no, the worst thing to occur to him was when Billy knocked him out in S3 and he was fine a few mins later. He’ll be fine.

El: my sweet baby angel, I want you to tear a whole dimension apart. I’d love to see her do smth new with her powers…idk what but like if she’s back to full steam I think she deserves some new tricks as a treat

Will: best boy for last, I am still holding out on Will getting powers. He was in the upside down for a week, AND had Vecna in his mind for like…..a few days and managed to still get a message to the gang. Plus! I wanna see more sibling interactions between him an El, I am more interested in that than whatever shipping is going on between the children which I can’t get behind bc….they’re like…13? 14? They’re babies. ALSO I hope Will comes out to his friends as well, but also I hope they don’t introduce some random new character for him to get a crush on. I’m not huge on Will x Mike mainly bc I’m not a huge Mike fan, and again….shipping….

Adults:

Joyce: this woman and her children need a fucking vacation, Joyce should get a gun and like….idk what else Joyce is a great woman and she and Hopper deserve a long nap

Hopper: I hope he has like something go right for him this season. Like have a super good time with something and it not be a direct part of story development let the man have emotional rest. Also get him some lasagna and bread sticks.

Enzo: pls give me more Enzo, he’s a lil daddy also seems like a…character who has more to add to the story

Murray: He’s my baby girl, he has a black belt, he speaks Russian, my father and I both adore him, he’s a bitch, he’s got the biggest heart, he flew out to check on Joyce after she lost the call, he went with her to Russia to get Hopper back, and the funniest guy on there (to me). IF he dies, after making me watch Bob, Aleksi, and my beloved Eddie die I actually become a hater. He is the one character whose death I don’t think I could handle, well maybe Steve but yeah

Teens:

Robin: let her function, like a bit better around Vicky, I still need her to be a disaster otherwise however. Also live, she’s sweet and should not be separated from Steve

Nancy: see above

Jonathan: I hope he and Nancy amicably break up, and be better friends because of it. They do work well together. If they stay together I’ll be surprised because they had some issues in season 3, and then more obvious ones in season 4. Narrative wise they are headed for break up city, I’ll be shocked if they make it.

Argyle: I need him to live, he’s the gentle giant, the Shaggy and scooby, he’s precious.

Steve:

…

Where do I start? Okay SO Steve is babygirl, and I’m over here thinking it would be neat for Steve to work on himself S5. I don’t see Nancy x Steve working again because 1: I’m not a fan of a character ending a relationship and jumping to another. I didn’t like how quickly Jonathan and Nancy got together in S2. 2., Steve had no romantic interest in Nancy in season 3. Literally none, it felt weird to have him pining over her in season 4. Steve has been used to subvert quite a few tropes already, and has become a very kind character because of it. He spends time with Dustin and gives him advice, he went to the basketball game and cheered for Lucas when everyone else was doing something else (Max gets a pass but she wasn’t there tho), constantly put himself between the kids and danger, accepted Robin for who she was when she came out to him, and ran back into danger for Nancy and Jonathan when they first fought the demogorgan.

I think Steve is my favorite character in this entire show, there are aspects of him that I relate to. He’s not the smartest guy there, but he tries, he wants to help his friends. He wants to protect, he wants to love and be loved so bad. Steve looks out for others so much, and I want to see him have a happy ending, but like…a satisfying happy ending. Idk how else to put it.

Hopes/Theories:

Eddie is still alive, because I’m delulu but also it would be fun to have him come back in season 5. He doesn’t have to come back as a bad guy, but I’m not opposed to him coming back with suddenly no memory and to be used against the kiddos and teens as a friend they left to die in the upside down (again), annnnndddd maybe having some more monstrous features about him…that go away as he remembers his friends and humanity. Anyways I really would love to see him again because also…like Eddie / Robin / Steve / Nancy as a group working together had such chemistry oh my God. Like they all had such fun chemistry together, and Jonathan is def better suited to be with Will/Mike/Argyle. Good dynamics.

Will should get powers and rip Vecna apart or at least help El in doing so. See above for more reasons why. But also Vecna put Will through a lot. Will needs some closure from the trauma he had.

Alternatively: Max gets powers from where El brought her back, being connected to Vecna who tortured her mental health, and being “blank” at the end of season 4. Her mind it’s own sensory deprivation tank, and during her “coma” maybe she develops something.

Thats all I got and if you read this, I’m so sorry this is just rambles and I’m not even going to tag it other than long post lol

[s1ater]

god, forgive me.

pairings. louis partridge x fem!reader

part two of n/a parts.

about. maybe lighting a girl on fire has more pros than cons?

warnings. foul language

ricky rocks. about time i update lol

seeing stacey golifolk get lit on fire was about the funniest thing louis had ever seen.

everything slowly went to shit and he just absorbed it all with a laugh caught in the back of his throat, rubbing his palms against his thighs as he couldn’t move anything else; completely glued to his seat.

not long after you pressed the gold staff against the cape did you drop the thing on the ground underestimating on how fast the cape would fully light on fire. you had jumped away quickly like a startled cat, eyes wide and a feeling of astonishment bursting through your chest at the chaotic sight.

now stacey wasn’t fully lit on fire, but rather just the old silk cape and some of her pretty hair, but otherwise, she was completely fine and safe the moment father george had come to realization what was happening and tackled her to the ground, then attempting to cease her wailing.

your eyes went wider and any urge to laugh was caught in the back of your throat as you felt multiple eyes on you now and the realization of how dumb of an idea it was.. came to light.

you could only imagine what odessa was thinking right at that moment, but you knew it wouldn’t be good.

**

“what a fucking show,” finn was clapping slowly as he made his way toward the corner of the courtyard where enya and sabrina already stood with not so impressed looks. “i think maybe they should crown bimbo blondes more often if that’s what entails every time,” finn begun to light a cigarette, “no offense sab.”

“none taken,” she raised her hand slightly, waving him off in a timid way. she could still smell burning hair and she didn’t find it amusing as much as finn did with the slim fact that stacy was a friend of hers, and she’d definitely be hearing about it whenever the girl decide her now half balding self. “just don’t vote me in.”

“no promises, sweetheart,” he leaned in with a wink causing her to scowl before snatching the cigarette that he had placed between his two fingers.

“okay, chuckles,” she rolled her eyes, taking a drag from the cigarette, “who even was that girl?”

“probably some ninth year,” finn tsked, “all those newbies are crazy this year.”

“no way,” enya shook her head, “how do you guys not know chicago, we’ve been going to school with her since elementary.”

“sorry, never heard of her,” finn extended his hand out, leaning against the wall.

“you would know her if you saw, you’re both potheads. you guys have noses for each other.”

“funny,” he scowls, taking a drag.

“now was that a show, or was that a show?” josh was grinning from ear to ear as he came stumbling into the courtyard with louis stumbling behind him. “almost thought i was seeing things for a minute.”

“oh, man, you know what i was thinking,” finn smiles now, looking between each of them as he now slings his arm around josh and sabrina, an idea popping into his mind. “now that it seems that all hell has broke loose here at saint mary’s, why don’t we ditch this place.”

“and do what?”

“what do you mean ‘and do what?’ sabrina, what do we always do?” he practically pulls her into a headlock with the arm he has around her, looking down on her like she was one of the dumbest people he had ever met.

“are you okay, lou,” enya interrupts the beginning of their bickering, noticing louis who seems like he is straying away slowly from the group as he tips back and forth on his feet. “you don’t look so hot.”

“thanks,” his voice is tart as he looks at her, his face almost turned sour with narrowed brows.

she wasn’t lying and suddenly they all take note of the sweat beading in his hairline and the redness of his cheeks. he looked winded, stressed out as he looks between each of his friends, but not directly into their eyes.

“you sure you’re alright?”

“fine.”

“josh, what’d you give him?”

“hey, hey, hey,” josh swings up his arms in defense, “why did this suddenly get turned on me?”

“because… you practically have pain killers and oxy falling out of your pockets, now what’d you pop to lou?”

“jesus, what is with all of you,” louis looks between each of them, “need to fucking relax, i’m fine.”

“don’t look fine.”

he ignored sabrina’s comment as he looks to finn, motioning at him, ��now what’s this plan about ditching school?”

**

“chicago, you are about the dumbest bitch i have ever met.”

“i hear that a lot,” you were grinning from ear to ear as you sat into a slump on one of the park benches laid in the outer grounds of the school, lighting a cigarette.

she ignored you, continuing, “you’re lucky they didn’t kick you from school or even punish you,” odessa shook her head as she paced back and forth in front of you—who couldn’t care less. “jesus, chicago, getting high everyday is one thing, but lighting a girl on fire? you’re fucking insane.”

“she fucking deserved it,” you giggled, shaking your head. “my luck is unmatched, o, should know that by now.”

“no kidding,” she shook her head before finally looking at you straight on. “try to restrain yourself from fucking someone else’s life up today, i’m going to class.” she didn’t even try to coax you to come with her to class, she was over it.

after everything was under control and half the students were in the court yard, father george had called you into his office where two other teachers stood beside him, overseeing the meeting—something you were sure was an intimidation method to get you to speak the truth—which didn’t work, obviously.

he had asked you if you had purposefully laid the staff on stacy, to which you said no and begged to be forgiven, popping a few tears. he fell for it like a fool, letting you off with only a small lecture to be more mindful.

odessa wasn’t very fond of this outcome, hoping you’d face some sort of punishment. sometimes you wondered if she really cared about you—which she did, you just both had very different ideas of how you should live. she had hoped if you were punished, or expelled, you would come upon a reality check and get your life straight.

that obviously wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“well i be damned, it’s the devil herself.”

somehow seeing you out and about was absolutely barreling to finn. he wasn’t sure whether or not he was seeing things correctly, but by the way you were looking at him, he was guessing yes.

“you stopping and staring and acting like you know every other person does not help us get to our objective.”

“are you fucking stupid, mate,” finn sends an elbow into josh’s gut, motioning out to you, “it’s the star of the show today, the leading lady, our lord and savior! josh are you blind?”

josh squints at you as you squint back, frowning hard at this already strange interaction. you knew people that went here were strange, but not this strange.

recognition kicks in for josh and a grin slowly crawls up onto his face, “chicago, you really saved us in there from that head girl and head boy bullshit, i’m sure louis would have to agree. that’s the best thing since jerry coles let one rip louder than… well whatever is loud.”

what the fuck. who were these people?

“yeah, don’t mention it,” you looked between the two who stared at you like a zoo animal, completely amazed by the simplest movement.

“i’ve heard you got a fix for the devil’s lettuce, how about we thank you and smoke you up?”

your ears immediately perk up to this and you suddenly couldn’t sit still on the bench, “sign me up,” you stood up, swinging your arms around both of the strangers, “just give me when and where and i’ll be there, boys.”

navigation.

@aliyahsutherland @ioveisabel @multifandom-obsessed @cryinginsanity @rebbyr @cc13723things @heyitsmeimdead @thehuntress09 @black-rose-29 @rrosecar @instabull @rudypankowisdaddy @lukewearingbeanies @kiramdd @kitkat-mini @spencybear @w0nderr @deadbeatbarb @phantompogues @i-love-scott-mccall @greengarsstuff @rowena-ravenclaws-diadem @felixulvr @demigirl-with-problems @whoreforpsychopaths @mxsmwndr @andrewgarfields-girlfriend @xivilivix @morganaah @eichenhouseproperty @alliechickens @moonlighy @ancientimes @thelaststraw3 @i44nishi @iluvt4ylorswift @liltimmyst @falcvns @alexxavicry @grxcisxhy-wp @esposadomd

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 316: We've Had One, Yes, But What About Second Explosion

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “[powers up like whoa because it’s time to end the fight]”, and he saved Overhaul from getting not-shot, and then smashed up Nagant’s arm with the power of his new rechargeable super knees. Nagant was all “yoooo this kid is crazy strong whaaaat, it’s like he’s some kind of protagonist or something.” Deku was all “I AM A PROTAGONIST, ACTUALLY, DO YOU WANT TO JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT BAD GUYS WITH ME?” Nagant was all “ah shit why the hell no -- ” and then AFO was all “SURPRISE” and everyone was all “?!?!?!” and AFO was all “TIME TO EXPLODE NOW” and made Nagant explode because he’s an absolute fucking dick. And then Hawks showed up, because Horikoshi just wanted to stuff as many plot points as humanly possible into a single chapter I guess.

Today on BnHA: Hawks is all “good job giving motivational shounen redemption speeches Deku but I’ll take it from here” and screams very earnestly right in Nagant’s face until she finally wakes up. Nagant is all “oh hey it’s my successor, you seem surprisingly unfucked-up from your own HPSC tenure, how did you manage that?” Hawks is all “fandom is going to love hearing this one, but basically it’s because I’m very upbeat and also I had the world’s best role model Endeavor to look up to,” and I swear this man stirs the pot on purpose, but damn it I still love him so damn much. Overhaul is all “HELLO AGAIN, JUST A REMINDER THAT, THE BOSS!!” and Deku is all “MAYBE TAKE TWO SECONDS TO REFLECT ON HOW YOU TORTURED A LITTLE GIRL,” which, thank you, lol. Nagant is all “btw AFO’s hiding in a house in the woods”, and so Deku and the gang go to the house in the woods. Video recording!AFO is all “hi I’m AFO welcome to Jackass” and blows up the house. Sometimes I wonder if this manga is just a weird dream.

I am once again reading the Bean version because I think it was actually the best out of all three translations last week. and that is surprisingly including Viz’s. “faux” is not nearly as entertaining as “knockoff”, and also I have literally no idea why Caleb thought Deku was saying the Third’s lines lol

oh hey, Endeavor’s here too! not that you’d ever be able to tell from this first panel lmao

glad you received All Might’s call, mysterious unidentified glowing smudge

oh snap he says he’s weaker in the rain. is that why AFO told Nagant to attack then?? except that as we discussed the other day, I believe that AFO fully intended for Nagant to lose the fight, so him giving her info that would give her an advantage doesn’t really fit in with that. maybe he wanted Deku to be separated from Endeavor and the rest for maximum angst, though

btw Deku’s eyes are unsurprisingly back to the new normal here

alas, the angst continues. I say, pretending like I’m not totally eating it up each and every week and writing essay after essay about it lol

anyway so apparently Hawks can’t actually fly lmao. he was just yeeting himself with style

for some reason this is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen omfg. wave to Hawks, kids! say “bye, Hawks!”

j/k of course Deku is catching them. -- except???

wow so he was just running on fumes there at the end. well, good to know there is actually a limit to his shenanigans, particularly regarding this new “knockoff” 100% OFA. it will definitely not alleviate any of the discourse, but it’s good for my own peace of mind because it’s solid confirmation that he still needs his pals in order to win this thing

anyway, but on to the rest of this conversation, which is basically Deku deducing what we all deduced last week -- AFO implanted some sort of trap into Nagant when he gave her Air Walk. though I’d still like to get the actual details from AFO and/or Horikoshi, because this was particularly wild even by quirk standards lol

omgggggg

she still has a face after all!! so it’s confirmed, Horikoshi has no idea what “blowing up” actually means. we might have guessed, based on what happened to Toga in the MVA arc, and also based on everything Katsuki does ever, but shhh

so now Hawks is all “NAGANT PLEASE WAKE UP, IF I SHOUT MY NAME AT YOU WILL THAT DO THE TRICK”

this is actually kind of touching though because even though we all know (or most of us acknowledge at any rate) that Hawks is a pretty caring person, it’s rare to see him actually panic over someone’s welfare like this

oh shit Horikoshi is really doubling down on it

I wonder how much Hawks knew about what really happened between Nagant and the HPSC. regardless, he probably sees her as a kindred spirit of sorts, and I’m more than happy for Deku to pass the redemption torch onto him now that he’s on the scene. like no offense Deku but they actually know each other and stuff lol

DAMMIT NAGANT CAN’T YOU SEE HOW LOUD HE IS YELLING

apparently being freed from his HPSC shackles has finally given Hawks the space to embrace his own inner shounen protagonist. is there anything more shounen than trying to motivationally scream someone awake when they’re lying in your arms inches from death?? 100% guaranteed to work

!!! IS THIS NAGANT’S POV OMG

SO SHE IS ALIVE. THANK GOD. Horikoshi doesn’t want to meet with my emotional distress lawyer today after all

love how she’s all “just gonna stir up the weekly Hawks Discourse pot here by implying that he probably committed a lot of Atrocities just like I did, so now people can get all hopped up about that, even though there’s no evidence he’s ever killed anyone aside from that one horrible ‘damned-if-you-do...’ situation with Twice.” no one asked for your provocative speculation young lady!! trust me Nagant, our rabbles don’t need the rousing lol

but nice save there with the “so how are your eyes so untainted” well you see it’s because even when he was following the HPSC’s orders he always went to great lengths never to go against his own moral compass. which just to be clear was incredibly difficult, and led to a ton of pain and suffering on his part, because the life of a spy is basically just one impossible situation after another. but in spite of that he never stopped trying to do his best to help people. I don’t really know where this tangent came from or is leading to, lol, but anyway p.s.a. I love Hawks a lot and he’s a good kid dammit

oh shit??!?

how is the League always able to swing all these fancy forest mansions. where do they find them. how many do they have

so Deku’s dropping them -- very roughly, not sure if he was reacting to finally getting AFO’s location, or if his energy really is giving out -- and now Nagant’s saying that AFO hired other villains as well. well of course he did. gotta keep chipping away at OFA’s ninth successor little by little

now Nagant is asking Hawks how he’s able to keep making “that” face. I assume she’s again talking about the fact that he somehow didn’t let the HPSC wear down his spirit

oh my god???

thanks for stuffing this chapter to the brim with good nutritional Hawks Feels, Horikoshi. what a good. he just keeps on trudging forward undeterred no matter what bullshit comes his way. what a steadfast little guy. I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM DISCOURSE MY SWEET SUNSHINE

lmaoooo

“SPOTTED THIS DUDE JUST CHILLING OUT THERE ON THE ROOF WITH NO ARMS, SEEMED PRETTY SUS” good job Endeavor

anyway so you don’t really need me to tell you that Overhaul is immediately starting in with the “BUT THE BOSS WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE ME TO THE BOSS YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD TAKE ME TO THE BOSS” stuff again. but I will go ahead and tell you anyway. so yeah. he’s doing that

OMG YOU GUYS LOOK AT DEKU’S “of all the fucking assholes to just randomly drop in on my life once again why did it have to be you” FACE THOUGH, OMG

fun fact, if you go back to chapters 124 through 160, there was an entire story arc where Overhaul imprisoned and tortured a little girl. yeah, I know!! suuuuuuuuper evil. anyways just an interesting little anecdote for you all that’s somewhat relevant to the current situation

OMG, YES. FUCK YES, DEKU

THEN WHAT ABOUT SPARING ONE FOR HER!!! YES!!! EXACTLY!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, SOMEONE GETS IT

HERE’S THE PANEL OF DEKU SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING I’M SAYING LOL

(ETA: so apparently there’s some discourse about this because some people are interpreting this as Deku saying “you should apologize to Eri”, which would obviously be a terrible idea even if Overhaul actually wanted to do that, because Eri shouldn’t ever have to see him again. however I just want to point out that there is a HUGE difference between saying “it would be nice if you could direct that feeling of regret/being sorry towards Eri as well”, vs saying “you should also apologize to her.” all Deku is doing is rightfully pointing out that Overhaul has hurt way more people than just his boss, and if he really is remorseful, then he should extend those feelings of remorse to Eri and the rest as well. it’s not a directive to take any specific action, and I’m 1000% sure no one at U.A. would let Overhaul within 100 miles of Eri ever again.

tl;dr “try feeling remorse sometime” =/= “do you want me to fly you over to U.A. right now to surprise the little girl you traumatized”, lol.)

[slings an arm around Deku’s shoulders] you’re a good kid. I like you. I don’t know if I tell you that enough, but it’s true

meanwhile here is Overhaul’s “spare... a thought... for Eri...???????” face sigh

the struggle is real y’all

(ETA: and that’s... the last we ever saw of Overhaul, I guess? well all right then. I assume Deku will make good on his promise, so we know he’ll get that little bit of closure before going back to jail or whatever, and I confess I’m more than fine with leaving the rest of it open-ended, especially given his character’s history. I think this was pretty generous all things considered.)

lmao holy shit

All Might what did you do to those tiki torch guys?? did you thrash them. did you give ‘em those hands. did you deliver their own asses to them complete with a sticker reminding them Amazon Prime Day is on June 21. we missed out goddammit

so Endeavor, who wasn’t the one he was asking, is telling him that they captured (well let’s be real, Deku captured, give the credit where it’s due) Nagant and Overhaul. and so I guess they’re going to take Nagant to the ER now

fire is no one’s weakness

-- oh my GOD I scrolled down and audibly gasped

[is politely but firmly approached and asked to remove my arm from Deku’s shoulder by the physical manifestation of all this Dekuangst] “we’re sorry, he’s not allowed to have visitors right now” oh shit, my bad. [goes to stand behind a police barricade]

lmao what. did you run out of room on the previous page

what an exaggerated fade to black lmao

-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually can’t see what he’s reacting to so maybe I’m just seriously jumping the gun here lol, but THE HELL WITH IT. the next panel appears to be a cut to Haibori Forest, so I’m just gonna go ahead and declare that Deku ran off on his own all wounded to go have more Dekuangst, just like I manifested. now go call Katsuki goddammit

[scrolls three more inches down] oh

yeah so like I said, Deku is walking very slowly a few feet in front of Endeavor, who’s telling him to wait up. yep. we’ve all gotta be so careful to not just jump to conclusions. I know we’re excited but still

anyway, so! welcome back to Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods (ARE YOU GUYS DATING) and Edgeshot! have fun walking into this obvious trap lol

dammit Deku why are you so determined to tempt fate

[monkey puppet meme faces]

OH MY GOD THIS IS PURE GRADE-A CHEESY COMIC BOOK VILLAIN 101 SHIT AND I’M HERE FOR IT

that’s such a weird way of clapping who claps like that

unlike certain other people who shan’t be named, AFO doesn’t feel the need to inexplicably take his shirt off when recording sinister villain monologues. I think we’re all pretty grateful for that

high fives to everyone who called it!! yep yep

anyway so this whole scene has major booby-trap vibes, which I’m enjoying immensely even though I don’t think anything is really going to come of it lol. probably just another long-winded AFO Speech. but wouldn’t it be funny if like the ceiling started lowering down to try and squish Deku afterwards lol

(ETA: well the explosion was still pretty funny too ngl.)

ffff

[“Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies]

anyway so yeah. he’s just hitting up all of his usual villain talking points. we get it, you’re so smart and you see right through the thin veneers of society and people who don’t conform are left to fend for themselves and labeled as villains and history is written by the victors, and blah blah blah dude are you just jumping randomly from one soundbyte to another lol. literally what are you talking about. what does this have to do with you blowing up Nagant

-- holy shit??

[”Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies MORE?????]

LOL WHAT

BRO. WHAT IS WITH YOU. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO LAY ANY OTHER KIND OF FUCKING TRAP GOOD LORD

“YOU’RE NEXT” THE CALLBACK?? THE PARALLELS?? THOUGH WHEN ALL MIGHT POINTED HE MADE IT LOOK WAY COOLER. AFO’S POINTING JUST LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY THE BEAR

HAS ANYONE CHECKED IN ON KAMUI WOODS I HEAR HE IS WEAK TO FIRE?? THE ONLY ONE WHO IS, APPARENTLY

r.i.p. to this particular forest mansion. don’t worry they have a ton of backups

remember last week when I said maybe AFO thinks explosions are gauche. well never mind. he fucking loves explosions

anyway so that’s the end of BnHA, everyone. hope you enjoyed. it was a good ride while it lasted. see you all, good luck in your travels

[thevindicativevordan]

On Kong Kenan/Super-Man

It should've been him. He should've been the Superman of 5G/Future State/right now not Jon, and he should be the one getting an HBO Max series not Val. Hell he should be getting a movie!

God this dude is literally the best legacy character Superman has ever gotten, wholly his own person with his own lore and status quo while still building on the idea of "Superman". I am so pissed at DC for essentially just dropping him after his ongoing ended, what the hell Lee? You keep trying to make the Wildstorm characters happen, I need you to get my man Yang another Kenan book.

Have to admit I was a bit nervous at first about whether or not Kenan would be a worthwhile character. Yang's New 52 Superman run had been a disappointment to me overall, with only the the arc where Superman has underground wrestling matches against forgotten gods really sticking with me. Now he was introducing a brand new Superman? Didn't feel like he had "earned" that yet. But from the first issue I was hooked on this new character.

Kenan was unlike any other member of the Superfamily. He wasn't kind or sweet, he was an asshole! He was a bully! He was fantastic! Right from the start Kenan was set up to undergo a very different kind of character journey than the other members of the Superfamily. Empathy, humility, respect for people weaker than himself, these are all traits most heroes wearing the S-shield already posses by the time they first don the crest, but not Kenan.

Like all bullies he was even a bit of a coward himself at first, trying to bail on the experiment meant to give him Superman's powers right as it begins. After "saving" Lixin (the kid he bullies and steals lunch from every day) from Blue Condor he demands all the money Lixin has on him as payment. He's not courageous or selfless either at the start, Kenan is as much of an opposite of Superman as you can get short of being Bizarro. Learning the appeal of these traits formed the basis for his growth over the course of his series.

Seeing Yang bring in a lot of recognizable "Superman" elements in the series, but with a twist, was also great. Kenan is the one who bullies "Luo Lixin" rather than the traditional Clark/Lex friendship of Pre-Crisis and Birthright. Initially Kenan develops a crush on intrepid reporter for Primetime Shanghai, Laney Lan, but she dismisses him as too young and Kenan eventually ends up pursuing Avery Ho (Flash) instead. Baxi the Bat-Man of China has a similar relationship with Kenan as the traditional Superman/Batman in terms of being vitriolic best buds, however Baxi is the one who has the most respect for authority while Kenan is the rebel. Kenan is a part of the "Justice League of China" which does not meet with the approval of the already established Chinese superheroes, the Great Ten. That contrasts nicely with the good relationship the Justice Society and Justice League have, as well as seeing Yang lampshade the "Chinese copy" trope and incorporate that into his storytelling.

One of the funniest differences is how Kenan chooses to immediately reveal his identity as Super-Man to the world by taking off the compliance visor he was forced to wear, contrasting with Clark's choice to hide his identity. He was so eager to impress people that he never gave any thought to the danger he could put himself or his family in by revealing his identity until it was too late, something Clark is well aware of and has taken great pains to keep his identity secret. Was a missed opportunity for DC to have Kenan comment on Clark copying him for once when he outed himself under Bendis.

But one of the most poignant differences between Clark and Kenan is the gulf in separation between their relationship with their parents. Clark has a loving relationship with Ma and Pa Kent, trying to live up to their lessons as best he can. In contrast Kenan's mom was believed to have died in an airplane crash when he was just a child, and he never really knew her. His father was distant from him after that and the two weren't really close despite Kenan's attempts to impress him. So Kenan lacks that strong connection while still clearly loving both of them.

Pa Kent's death is one of the most tragic examples of Clark's love for his parents, and I've always been a fan of takes where Clark promises his father to fight for the powerless on Pa's deathbed. Kenan gets a similar scene at the start of his career, his dad "dies" (after being exposed as Flying General Dragon, a pro-democracy "supervillain" from the Chinese authorities perspective) and wants Kenan to promise he'll fight for Truth, Justice, and Democracy. But because Kenan's dad never really bonded with him, Kenan doesn't know what those mean, and can only promise that he never wants to see people die, something his father takes comfort in at least. In classic comic book fashion it's revealed that Dr. Omen, Kenan's "boss" and the one who gave him his powers, saved Kenan's father, because she is Kenan's mother! Kenan's relationship with his parents forms a lot of the crux of his character arc, and seeing how Yang utilizes the classic Superman concept of family kept the storytelling exciting.

Yang's brilliant exploration of the concept of "Superman" through the prism of Chinese culture was a great way to differentiate Kenan as well.

I absolutely freaking love how he tied to the concept of Qi to the S-shield in particular. Connecting the shape of the shield with the way Kenan has acquired his powers along the path of the Bagua (eight trigrams used in Taoism that represent the fundamental principles of reality), with his octagon S-shield outline representing all eight principles together, was mindblowing! So was the idea of restricting Kenan's access to his powers unless he was actually acting in a Superman manner, that tied his character growth to his power growth in an entertaining manner. There were so many characters and concepts that meshed Chinese and DC lore together, like how Emperor Super-Man was Kenan's "Doomsday", they even recreated that iconic dual kill shot! The Chinese Wonder Woman Peng Deilan, being based on the Chinese Legend of the White Snake! There was even some Korean mythology referenced with the Aqua-Man member of the JLC "Dragonson".

Yang also managed to do a Superman Blue/Superman Red story with Super-Man Yin/Super-Man Yang!

Shameful that it took me a while to realize what Gene Yang was doing but once I caught on I was touched. You can tell how much Yang loved Superman and his mythology, and how he was excited to incorporate as much from Clark as he could, while still using it in a way that was solidly Kenan's. And not just Superman's mythology, but the history and lore of the entire DC Universe. I-Ching got to be brought in, fleshed out, and used as Kenan's mentor! The "Yellow Peril" villain from Detective Comics #1, the comic DC gets its name from was brought in and revamped as I-Ching's twin brother All-Yang! Hats off to Yang for taking a racist caricature and attempting to make him into something more.

This series was a beautiful attempt by Gene Yang to build a space for Asian heroes and villains where they could be more than stereotypes, Kenan himself being a defiant mold-breaker in every regard as the complete opposite of most Asian characters in Western media (a jock, a bully, loves his dad but not on great terms with him, a powerhouse as a hero, etc). So much thought and hard work was poured into this by Yang and his team of artist collaborators.

Especially the costumes, man Kenan had so many great looks. From his starting outfit (which is my favorite Superman variant not worn by Clark himself), to the one with the Yin/Yang shield he acquired later on, to his Super-Man Yin & Super-Man Yang outfits, Kenan looked damn cool. Part of me is bummed they didn't go with the Chinese character shield they toyed around with, but I loved how Yang used the "s-shield" as a plot point, so I'm not too broken up over it.

All that great work Yang did to build that space up has been more or less forgotten sadly. It was nice to see Kenan in the DC Asian Month Celebration issue. Avery is going to be in Justice Incarnate at least (unsurprising considering she was created by Williamson). So fucking bummed that Superman Family Adventures cartoon didn't happen, they were going to have Kenan and John Henry Irons in it! Would've been a dream come true for me to see Irons in animation again, and Kenan making the jump to outside media! Maybe that would've encouraged DC to let Yang keep writing New Super-Man, or at least encouraged them to use him elsewhere instead of allowing him fall into Limbo.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what the future holds for Kenan. Jon is being pushed as Clark's replacement in the comics, with DC keeping all the other contenders such as Kon benched. Calvin is leading the Justice Incarnate team likely due to the upcoming Coates reboot that will make Clark black. Val will probably get something once Taylor leaves Jon's book or once they officially announce the HBO Max show is happening. So where does that leave Kenan, my new favorite PoC legacy hero? Currently my only hope is that Yang is working on something for DC involving him. Yang left Batman/Superman, where I was hoping to see a Baxi/Kenan team up, to go work on "exciting other opportunities" per his Twitter. So fingers crossed that there's something in the works for Kenan!

One day I hope he gets his day in the sun again.