#genuinely a massive huge fan of this ship

[franklyimissparis]

Hi sorry if this is a little bit creepy but I noticed your tags on your post about Alex and drugs about your dad being in the music industry and I have so many questions (Totally feel free to ignore this though lol) But uh is he famous? 👀 And it sounds like he knows Alex in some sense? Also if he does know Alex, my Milex heart is very curious if he’s heard anything about them. it must be so cool to hear stuff behind the scenes like that

okay so i’ve gotten variations of this question to some degree before but i ignored them ngl 😭 but anyway i probably won’t talk abt this again unless it’s particularly relevant (or funny tbh) so here we go lads.

my dad isn’t like PROPER famous but he’s well-respected within the industry. i’m a little hesitant to give more detail than that given that this is a music-related blog and some of you may have heard of him and could potentially work it out if given more clues (though i’m sure most of you probably wouldn’t bc again it’s not like he’s a household name or anything mad, thank god tbh 💀) also a little reluctant to discuss too much about things bc though i love my dad, he’s kind of a prick and we have a bit of a difficult relationship. music is quite literally the only thing i have in common w him so the idea of anything i post here (especially my Gay Antics) somehow getting back to him actually makes me feel ill lol.

anyway to answer your questions about alex, i would say “know” is a strong word but yeah they’ve bumped into each other quite a bit over the past like 20 years AM has been on the scene. my dad is also good friends w a few people who have worked closely with him. but i wouldn’t really say they have a direct connection or anything and i deffo wouldn’t want to make it out to be something it isn’t lmao. personally i’ve never met alex or had any special perks or anything at any AM gig (though tbh if my dad would actually ever agree to go w me i probably could have gotten backstage so that’s unfortunate). i did technically have the opportunity to meet him and some others one time in like 2018-2019ish but i got violently fucking ill and couldn’t go 😭😭 little bit glad in hindsight though bc i will say that once the hero illusion breaks it’s significantly less fun to be an unhinged fan of someone.

re: milex, i’ve never straightforwardly asked my dad about it bc i don’t want to hear his thoughts tbh lmao. i know he’s heard rumours abt miles’ sexuality because he brought that up out of nowhere once but to my knowledge it was more along the lines of vague gossip (tho i can speculate of course). he hasn’t mentioned anything to me abt alex’s either way but i’ve also never asked.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Epic Fandom We Need To Talk! (An Open Letter)

As a former survivor of severe Cyberbullying and harrasment I can no longer stay silent anymore. You have forced my hand.

This has gone way too far and I am massively disappointed. All I ask is that you listen to what I have to say. This is no longer a joke as a survivor of Cyberbullying and harrasment I can say that a misunderstanding has turned into The Epic Fandom putting the livelihood and well being of artists in danger. I ask you to be respectful and understand I am speaking from old wounds and experience. Please don't twist my words, I don't support 🍇 or Antinous he is a horrible character.

Tw: Mentions of Cyberbullying, 🍇 and harassment

Dear Epic Fandom,

You are better then this, I know you are. Polites taught us to greet the world with open arms and accept when people make mistakes and stop holding onto are anger. The fandom is growing and we can't stop it but I'm really disappointed in the people letting hate win and turning the fandom venomous and toxic

We are all Epic Fans but behind the glass on your screen there's a person, a person with feelings who you know nothing about. You all don't know the real Melody typing this but your all probably gonna make assumptions based on what you dont know and that is the danger of being online. The person who posted fanart of Antinous and Telemachus you didn't like, they have real feelings. Complicated messy feelings that aren't able to be articulated enough online.

As a survivor of bullying myself my motto is block or scroll. I myself am very uncomfortable with a lot of the ao3 tags shipping Odysseus with Poseidon or Zeus but do I go angrily type on my keyboard? No I don't cos it's none of my damnn business. When I saw that art, I was confused and uncomfortable but instead of being reckless and sentimental I asked for clarification. Taking Polites advice I used open arms and talked about what was bothering me without attacking the artist. Instead of being like Polites you all became Poseidon. Ruthlessness Is Mercy is not the way to go, it's a toxic way to go about life. Did you all not listen to that Thunder Saga and see how it destroyed everything Odysseus had known for the past thirteen years.

You should all be absolutely ashamed of yourself. This is not what the Epic Fandom should be. You don't like someone's fan art ask for clarification and or block. There is no need to be Ruthless and cruel. The fact two genuine heartfelt Apologises have been made and you still can't let it go very much clearly shows your character. You are very much like Poseidon and Zeus and should be ashamed. In Ares words you are all sick cowards. Not only that but you are clearly projecting. I suggest you go to therapy if you think your time in the Epic the musical fandom should be spent bullying and harassing people then leave. The number one rule is that there is always a person behind the screen and that you should think before you type.

I'm still not over the fact how you have twisted and triggered someone's truama. I also can't believe hate is being given after the artist mentioned her experience. 🍇 is not a thing to weaponise. I feel like the Wisdom Saga has made you far too comfortable in how you handle and discuss 🍇. The artist forgot her trigger warnings and wasn't even trying to imply the twisted image you put on her. Also I pointed out she shouldn't have tagged it Epic and apologied. Jorge has made adaptations to The Odssey a piece of fiction. What Jorge has done with Antinous is his own creative liberties. If you can't have sensitive and respectful conversation about something that is still happening to people I don't know what to say. Accusing someone of supporting 🍇 is not okay at all. The artist wasn't attending that way and understands she shouldn't have done what she did but it goes both ways. Look for context before you slam. Judging someone based on an honest mistake and huge misunderstanding is dangerous and cruel. Do you not understand the dangers this could put the artist in in real life. Please have open arms and think before you type. This is a serious topic and not a joke.

Moving on I want to talk about why I think this blew up so bad. It's because Elian was commissioned to do an animatic for Jorge. Listen you all would have blocked if it wasn't for that. I read comments saying they idolised her and that is a really f**** dangerous thing to do. Idiolising someone because they've been noticed or hired by Jorge isn't healthy at all. At the end of the day we are all human beings. Elian is allowed to make mistakes and grow. Outside of Epic this is becoming a massive problem in genuine.

Worse I've seen and heard about Artists like Mirscy and AnniFlamma getting attacked just for defending their friend. I'm sorry are we not allowed to defend our friends now from bullying? I can't speak for them but if I saw my friend getting hated and harassed on I'd be angry too, it's like a natural emotion to feel. Then again you are the same fandom that mocks Eurylochus for sticking up for his crew so I'm not suprised. These artists are human beings and not God's because Jorge noticed and appreciated their work. Stop twisting these artists into people there not.

I'm not Tiresias but I can see Jorge stopping collaborating with artists on animatics if you keep this disgusting behaviour up. Constructive criticism is okay but falsely twisting the image of an artist is not okay at all by doing this you are dehumanising artists and doing exactly what Hollywood does. Jorge will have to stop commissioning people it you keep using the fact he noticed them against them when they make mistakes like all human beings do.

Please do better and stop being Poseidons. An 8 year grudge was unhealthy and got him nowhere. Be more like Polites and Greet The World with open arms. Not everything is black and white. Tik Tok built the Epic Fandom up and you hold all the power.

Stay kind and great the world the world with open arms.

Yours Sincerely,

Melody

They/Them

Ps: If you send me hate and twist my words be warned I have friends as well. One particular friend was there when a lot of my Cyberbullying truama happened and is aware why this has triggered me so badly and caused an episode.

Attack you will be blocked. I'll also remove reblogs.

Attack and you will be reported.

You don't scare me.

Be nice Epic Fandom and don't become The Monster. I'm willing to have civil conversations but that's it.

[o-sachi]

─── A Letter for @strawchocoberry ✦

If you have received this, it means you signed up for Sachi's Selfship Event !

Thank you for requesting, ml. Thank you for hyping me up and the silly stuff that I write. YOU ARE THE BEST! I love you and your amazing brain. Mindy lore goes hard by the way. My ship. I hope I do your ship justice mehehe.

✉️ Attachment: ABCs with Michael Kaiser

[C] Comfort Honestly, he's a bit lost with how to comfort you at first. But he knows first hand how it feels to be down and not have someone there to support him. So he does his best; he asks you what you want and what you need. If you want space, an ear to listen, or comforting words; Mihya will try his hardest to give you exactly that. Although, most of the time he'll comfort you through physical touch rather than words. Oh, and he leaves a lot of surprise gifts for you to find so that he can see that smile on your face again.

[D] Dates He takes you out on dates as if it's always your first; Mihya always strives to impress you after all. One for theatrics, he usually takes you out on fancy dinner dates or shopping sprees. But if you insist on a more "toned down" kind of date, he won't mind either. BUT, he will always find a way to spice it up. Movie date? He has a big ass projector rented for the two of you. That or maybe he takes you to one of those drive thru movie screenings (the old fashioned kind). He will ALWAYS give you princess treatment.

[G] Gifts Like I said, one of his love languages is gift giving. He was definitely deprived of this kind of love as a child, so he makes sure you'd never feel the same as he did when he was younger. He has the thinking of, "money can be earned again," so he's not shy about splurging on you. He also likes receiving things from you—doesn't matter if it's a small or huge gift. Mihya only cares that it came from you and you thought about it with him in mind. A gift he has given you before is a shiny golden locket with a picture of a blue rose inside. And a gift he likes receiving from you are the baked goods that you make every week. He finds it extra thoughtful.

[I] Intimacy You form a deeper connection because he finds himself drawn to your genuine personality. He was fully expecting you to fall for him at first because he was a famous football star and he had good looks. So imagine his surprise when he found out that you weren't that simple. You may have fallen first, but he fell harder. And it was all thanks to the support and presence you had in his life. You were the thing he never knew he needed. However, he's quite aggressive with romance—wanting everything to be fast paced. But that's mostly because he feels safe and secure with you. He's just that sure of you.

[J] Jealousy Normally he'd be on high alert if he knows someone is trying to get into his territory. But you've reassured him enough to a point that he feels fine most of the time. Just don't do it on purpose or tease him about it because he'll begin to overthink (poor guy). But if he does get jealous, he's the type to confront the other person directly. There is no beating the bush with this man, especially when it comes to you. Although, I feel like you'd be the more jealous one with the relationship... y'know, having to deal with the massive Kaiser fan club. But he tells you time and time again that you're the only one for him.

[N] Nicknames So shameless that he calls you darling and sweetheart right off the bat. Even when you were doing your research on him and his team—he'd call you those names behind the scenes. It pissed you off at first, honestly. But as you two got into a relationship and things got serious, Mihya started calling you petnames in German like Schatz and Liebe. To him, those feel more meaningful, thus you deserve them. He doesn't mind any name that you call him... just don't call him by his actual name or he'll start pouting.

[T] Time Apart You think that you have it worse because, of course, he's always the one away for football, right? He'll even tease you about being so "clingy" whenever you'd hop on a call together. But, deep down, he is suffering more than you are. He'll try to laugh it off though. Mihya also buys you plushies that you can have on your bed. He says it might help you remind you of him (he also spritzes a bit of his cologne on them before giving it to you because he's sneaky like that). He'll definitely send you a shit ton of pictures of him and the places he has been going to. Be sure to send some back or else he will bug you for them!

[W] Wildcard He actually likes listening to you yap about whatever it is you're currently reading or writing at the moment. He'll look at you the entire time and nod along. You know he's actually listening because he asks questions. Random thought, but you two have definitely done the ribbon-bicep trend before.

[X] XOXO I feel like he enjoys reading in his free time hence the reading glasses. Sometimes, when you're settled in and reading something, he'll sit down beside you and read along with his own book. You two just sit there together—appreciating each other's presence silently. Yeah, he has started reading A LOT more because of this. He really just wants you to feel that he's into the things you're into.

[Y] Yin & Yang You two are kind of opposites? Like I said, he's very aggressive when it comes to love while you're softer and more gentle. But it works out because you balance each other—leading the relationship at a moderate pace. However, you complement each other based on your "maintenance." You like getting princess treatment and he would happily fulfill that for you. But you also like to give the same energy back. And for Mihya, someone who has lived for most of his life with below the bare minimum, your love was something that blew him away. That's what got him hooked on you tbh.

Thank you for participating. I hope you like it :3

Want to participate? Give this a read.

o-sachi © 2024 pls do not translate/copy/reupload my work on other platforms.

[tingedautumn]

Hey just wanted to say you really opened my eyes to Charlastor and now they’re my otp <3

I’m aro ace and because of that I’m normally adverse to Alastor ships (I get that aces can still date and have sex, but I feel like a lot of people in the community use that as an excuse to completely ignore that part of his character.)

But with Charlastor it just feels different??? Idk but most Charlastor content I’ve seen are about actually exploring both their characters and the foundation of their relationship is more solid than bickering masquerading as sexual tension

Even the smut I’ve seen weirdly enough also doesn’t feel like a disregard of Alastor’s sexuality? Most of it is pretty in character which is a feat for most fandoms lol.

not to be a weepy bitch all over your message but this is so sweet im going to cry???

genuinely im so glad you’ve found enjoyment in the ship, and not just because i’m massively biased towards it myself! i know a lot of charlastors have enjoyed exploring alastor’s asexuality and his identity in fanfic and art, and it’s been a big part of charlastor fandom to explore how and why they’d fall in love and come together.

not to slam on other alastor ships because this is a good vibe, but it’s nice to see depth explored in charlastor. of course there’s nothing wrong with writing just the wham bam, but a huge part of charlastor is really exploring who alastor might be and how that might evolve with someone like charlie.

sincerely some of the best artists / writers are in this fandom and it’s a glut of incredible work and fans, and I’m so glad you’re a part of it!

[mvmnbnv]

Just saw a post that said they wanted people to stop saying that Caitvi won’t end up together (which I agree with because their literally a canon couple and it’s kinda getting annoying) but then they said most fans of the show don’t like or accept their relationship….

I’m sorry, but the lack of self awareness and victim complex is irritating. I do love Caitvi, but that’s literally not true at all. Fandom content is centered around them and the entire discussions are about their sex scene and them being endgame. They’ll see one person dislike them and act like the whole entire fanbase is out to get them and that like only two Caitvi stans exist in the entire fandom.

I’ve even seen other comments like how they’re in the minority or “one the very few that don’t want to see the sisters reconcile”. As well as how their bothered that supposedly, “Some fans undermine the importance of Caitlyn’s and Vi’s relationship with each other, that yes arcane is about the two sisters but, you’re lying if you think that vi and cait’s relationship isn’t also a huge part of the narrative”

Umm actually it’s the opposite!!! That’s not true at all! The only reason people even say things like that IS because they treat the show like it’s just about Vi and Caitlyn’s relationship.

Like are you really that obtuse??? Because there’s a massive difference between fandom content between Caitvi and the sisters. They vastly out way everything centering them. Even I see people say that music and dialogue that’s about Vi and Jinx is about Caitvi lol. I’m one of the few who genuinely loves the sisters relationship and not just into Caitvi and that’s just wrong.

In reality, the sister’s relationship is the one that has approximately like two fans. People are just straight up lying now because all of these are objectively not true at all lmao.

This is why I just root for vi atp and whatever she decides to do bc caitvi stans are starting to become insufferable...hell you can't even ironically ship vi with other characters without them being up your ass about it. Everything about the way people talk about them and how they act like no one cares is just gjnffnfndnfn

[infiniteetcetera]

MORE RAPID FIRE ACTOAR HOT TAKES BUT THIS TIME THEYRE 🔥HOT🔥 TAKES

🔥Most people who claim to hate Nesta for what she did to Feyre actually just hate her personality and don’t want to admit it. If she were more like Elain or just generally more kind, open, reserved (✨demure✨ if you will) than she wouldn’t get half as much hate, people just like to hide behind the hunting excuse even when it doesn’t make sense as an expectation. even the characters do this themselves (why Rhys/Cassian/Mor have issues with Nesta but not Elain) because Nesta is strong willed and presents as “strong” on the surface there’s this expectation she should have put her life in danger and been able to hunt while Elain as viewed as “fragile” and therefore it’s not a big deal but the reality is personality does not equal hunting ability and this expectation should have been on none of them.

🔥Cassian is NOT and never has been a himbo/golden retriever guy. Like is he a little dense and theoretically attractive? sure, but one of the big components of both those archetypes is respecting women which he NEVER has. He constantly makes sexist jokes, has treated his LI terribly, and the only woman he shows real respect to is Feyre who is an extension of Rhysand in his mind. he definitely wasn’t as bad in the earlier books as recently but he has never been who his fans characterize him as.

🔥Eris has somehow become massively overhyped😭 I see so many people praise him and cheer him on over/as better than the bat boys and I don’t think they realize they have made up a character for him entirely. At best, Eris falls somewhere in the realm of Rhys in morality. He may be “faking” a lot of the bad things he’s done but he has done them (your boy was utm supporting amarantha just like Rhys & may have tried to stop Lucien from literally getting killed but that’s the bare minimum). I do think he’d have been a better/more interesting love interest for Nesta but that’s just because Cassian set the bar SO low. Most of this man’s interactions with women is calling them derogatory terms he is not perfect and has not shown himself to be above any of the other male characters in his actions.

🔥Of all the mated pairs we’ve been shown in this universe the only two who I think genuinely love/wanted each other is Feyre and Rhys. They are FAR from perfect but the mating bond feels almost inconsequential to the start of their relationship. Feyre doesn’t really know/care about it bc of her human roots and Rhys never wants it to influence her decision and admits more than once it makes him worried she feels like she has to be with him (even after they’re together). Cassian’s opposition to that when Rhys brings it up and the entire way he treats Nesta makes it obvious he just wants a mate (or more precisely, he wants what Rhys has) and Lucien obviously would not have given AF about Elain without the bond. I am not a huge fan of mating bonds in this world in general but Feysand is the only ship where it feels like it’s being done right and more just one aspect of their relationship rather than the reason behind it.

🔥The Valkyries winning the blood rite is not that weird when you spend five minutes actually thinking about it, especially with the fact the bat boys are some of the only other people to do it. Like hmmmm what do these two groups of people have in common that the other Illyrians don’t?

1) Weren’t malnourished, sleeping out in the cold, and probably rife with injuries and sickness for YEARS before the rite

2) Have actual people they can trust with them for at least most of the rite

3) Not dealing with the whole wings being bound thing?? like seriously if they’re so sensitive that’s probably incredibly painful or at least annoying. The girls don’t have to deal with this at all and for the boys Rhys probably didn’t, Az is probably used to it (sobs), so it was just a factor for Cassian

4) Were well looked after, had access to education and information on the rite beyond word of mouth in the camps

My point overall is people tend to forget the Illyrian training camps are literally building child soldiers amongst terrible conditions. You are not fighting 100% or even like 50% of the blood rite, things like being well fed, physically able, and even just having someone who can watch your back while you sleep are so important so it is not surprising at all to me the girls made it while most Illyrians don’t, especially when theyre trained to belive it’s all about going in their to kill and be violent/a warrior (and this all doesn’t even touch on the weapons thing). It’s annoying and borderline sexist so many people complain about this, like just let these girls and their friendship bracelets be winners🤧

🔥Rhys’ trauma is so massively overlooked when people talk about his character/decisions. Not only was he essentially a sex slave for fifty years but Amarantha was also constantly psychologically torturing him all the while being the woman who literally tortured him and killed his friends years prior. To top it off, before Feyre there was literally no end in sight for him??? He couldn’t even hope to die because that would mean his magic couldn’t protect Velaris and his friends??? Even once he escapes the mountain he kind of just has to…move on? ) He doesn’t get any break or trauma therapy, he’s dumped right into it all and he literally doesn’t even tell anyone what happened?? The first time he brings it up to the IC in ACOWAR they’re all stunned to hear him say the words and then he breaks down to Feyre afterwards (literally probably the only person he talks to about what happened). It’s known to everyone including his people what he’s been through and it’s weaponized against him constantly. If he weren’t making bad choices, hurting people around him, and just overall struggling to be a good leader his character wouldn’t be realistic. This isn’t an excuse for every bad thing he’s done, but it’s a reality that most people in his situation wouldn’t do any better and couldn’t even handle being in his spot in the first place. There was a Rhys that existed before this series started and it makes much more sense to believe that guy was the decent male that shines through in some of his scenes with Feyre then to belive he’s always been cruel and evil and all his moments of kindness are just a bit (the evil!Rhys theories will never not be laughable to me, this man bawls in the crowded streets of his city just bc he loves his wife so much, he ain’t plotting evil in his spare time)

🔥The ship wars surrounding next book have gotten so over dramatic😭 most of these couples have barely even interacted on page. I get having preferences and seeing a vision for a pair, I do it too, but people fighting tooth and nail against these ships and swearing they won’t read next book if it’s not what they want are doing the most. Especially when these characters/ships actually…arent that different?? There’s so many similarities between Azriel/Lucien and even Gwyn/Elain, and the only character we know anything about thought/motivation wise is Azriel and even that is barely. I could see any of the pairings working perfectly well or also being written terribly, I think we should all care more about how next love story is written rather than who it’s with because the romance in the last few SJM books have been majorly slacking (Quinlar and Nessian are two of my least favorite ships she’s ever written like she must do better) and no matter who ends up together we probably will see some of the these ships (Elriel/Elucien at least) in a romantic sense before any sort of endgame is decided

[microchive]

either cam or gideon for the character thing!!!

GAH!!!! picking gideon because you already did cam also i want to talk about gideon nav my best friend gideon nav

favorite thing about them: how do i even begin.... i love that she isn't a hero and doesn't become one through the narrative, i love that she is so blatantly posturing all of the time and she builds herself up to be this big confident sexy funnyman because she needs that to keep herself afloat but what she is in reality isn't any lesser! she is funny and she's shy and nervous and she's so powerfully butch to the bone in a way that avoids all negative stereotypes but still manages to highlight the pitfalls butches find themselves in. she has so many layers and people reduce her to some kind of himbo when in reality she's objectively both too mean and too intelligent to be a himbo. i love that you can sense from the very beginning that she is sitting on a massive broiling lake of sadness and for all of her posturing she is both incredibly delicate and one of the strongest characters in the story. i love that she sucks so bad and died a virgin like christ jesus and even missing half her soul she remains consistent not in her outward personality but in her ability to shield her soft underbelly through some sort of performative attitude but EVERYONE can see right through her except gideon herself because everything she does is loud and annoying. she's impulsive and passionate and. incredibly annoying. i hate her and she's my favorite person ever

least favorite thing about them: probably the war crimes but it's not like she's passionate about war crimes she just doesn't gaf. this is just what a lesbian situationship will do to a guy

favorite line: literally all of them man everything she says makes me laugh.... here are some standouts though: - "If my heart had a dick you would kick it" - "I have lots of fealty in me. I fealt the Emperor with every bone in my body. I fealt hard" - "You've got two short minutes left before I punch you right in the butthole" - everything she says when talking to ianthe

brOTP: her and camilla ooooohhhh..... also her and pal. gideon works so well with the sixth house because they're just as annoying and generally peculiar as her they're just more lowkey about it

OTP: i'd have to say griddlehark because i have never stopped thinking about them ever but i do enjoy gideon x camilla (i forgot their ship name) because the cav4cav shit is so good godddd they're just two sides of the same coin, the same story with different upbringings they would help each other out

nOTP: not a huge fan of gideon and corona just because i think corona needs to chase someone who doesn't like her for enrichment purposes and gideon's schoolgirl crush on corona probably doesn't translate well into an actual relationship (let's be real though none of these relationships are going "well") but it is an interesting dynamic

random headcanon: i think she is really gross. genuinely. she picks her nose and doesn't wash her face and harrow gets on her ass about it which i guess is reasonable. also more intense but i definitely think both gideon and harrow have food issues but while harrow copes by being intensely picky gideon has some textual evidence of binge eating which makes sense to me character wise and also would explain why she developed muscle on planet malnutrition

unpopular opinion: i don't really have any once again?? i guess i like to imagine she isn't as attractive as she thinks she is but a lot of people write and draw her as a lesbian adonis which i understand because thats how she describes herself lmao. i think she's kind of cute in a weird way and tamsyn describes her as boyishly pretty so in my mind she's the kind of hot a straight man would never agree with. she is still the hottest person in the world to me

song i associate with them: I HAVE SO MANY. main ones are: father by the front bottoms, dance in room song by sipper, bodysnatchers by radiohead, suffering jukebox by silver jews, knife in the coffee by car seat headrest

favorite picture of them: this fanart: (this artist does such a delicious gideon ohhh i need her.) https://www.tumblr.com/bastardnoodle/741903153830723584/im-in-the-middle-of-reading-harrow-and-i-miss-her?source=share

[youcouldmakealife]

LBTE: Jared (136-137)

I love it when a plan comes together. Especially when, as in this case, the plan has been in motion for years (on my part, at least. More of a day-to-day thing on theirs)

If you want to follow along, you can here.

136. Hostage Negotiations

Fans howling or not: he’s a star player and you do not hand a star player to your divisional rival. You just don’t. Unless you’re like, the Leafs back in the day, but Lapointe had a bad season before that, and Jared suspects that deal was made on the winged feet of homophobia. The former GM of the Leafs and Deslauriers are probably poker buddies or something.

I like to picture the Old Boy’s Club as a real thing sometimes. It’s at a golf course, naturally. The only women are decorative. Scotch and cigars and toxic masculinity and white privilege and unearned cockiness. Random deer skulls because they like to mount their trophies. Etc.

“I mean, I hope I’m staying in the West,” Bryce says. “Calgary’s probably going to start reaching out, seeing who’s interested, ship me off before the NTC kicks in.

That would certainly be the clever thing to do, considering how few options they’ll have come July 1st. But then, when have the Flames done the clever thing in this universe?

The Senators beat the Scouts in a massive upset.

Scratch and Money become ScratchnMoney. And a Cup for Dan and the boys!

Greg goes back and forth with the Canucks. They ask for 5.5, even though Jared would have been content with the initial 4.5 offer, told him that, Greg exasperated with him on the other side of the phone. The Canucks agree to 5. He knows the two years combined are less than Bryce makes in a single year, but it’s — huge to him. They send him the papers, and Jared doesn’t know whether to sign them or not.

That’s 2.5 AAV on a two year deal, which is pretty fair as far as bridge deals go for a middle-sixer you use heavily on special teams. Jared could have, but didn’t want to sign for longer, with no idea where Bryce was going to be in two months, let alone two years.

“Still,” Jared says. “Foster’s like — he seems like a genuinely nice guy, maybe he’d—”

“He’s a GM, babe,” Bryce says. “He’s not going to just let you like, go because of love or whatever. It’s a business.”

If any GM would…

Jared signs everywhere he’s supposed to sign it, and that’s it. He’s a Canuck for two more years. Bryce has two more years on his contract, so — maybe in two years they’ll figure it out, manage to get to the same place together. It’s hard to be happy about that when two years sounds like, well, two years, when Bryce is already frayed close to snapping.

Obviously the situation is vastly improved very shortly, but I think Bryce going just about anywhere would have probably improved his mental state, though being in the East would be undoubtedly hard on them as a couple.

They crack open a nice bottle of wine, eat good dad cooking, and Jared gets his hair ruffled by his parents like, a billion times, like being a millionaire means they get to treat him like a kid again.

Jared gets so huffy when people fuck with his hair. Which of course both parents are aware of. Gotta keep him humble. (They’re also, you know, proud of their boy!)

“You were already a millionaire,” Erin says, her hand outstretched. Jared eyes it.

“What was your signing bonus, Jared?” Erin asks sweetly.

“Nothing,” Jared says. “Not a cent.”

“Jared,” Erin says, hand still outstretched. “The internet exists. It is literally public knowledge.”

Money please.

It was a quarter of a million dollars of his contract up front and Jared isn’t going to give her any of it. He already offered his parents a cheque and was rebuked and then offered again, citing financial support being the reason he had a hockey career, and had it very grudgingly accepted.

They both have well-paying middle-class jobs and aren’t hurting for money, but they are currently paying for Erin’s schooling and expenses, so it is eventually accepted (very grudgingly).

“Am I boring?” Jared says.

“You are the most exciting person in the world,” Bryce tells him, all earnestness, and takes his hand at the next red light.

Jared squeezes, then lets go. “Both hands on the wheel, babe,” he says.

“You can sometimes be a little boring,” Bryce says.

I mean —

Free-agency comes Bryce is still a Flame, which means all the leverage is his now.

Dropped a punctuation mark and/or word, whoops.

“Who’re your three?” Jared asks that night, fingers running through Bryce’s hair as Bryce drowses beside him.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Bryce says. “Like, I’m going to put Vancouver on it, obviously, but it’s just going to be a flat out no from them.”

“I know,” Jared says.

“If they gave in they’d ask Vancouver for way too much in return and they’d say no,” Bryce says.

“I know,” Jared repeats.

Bryce blows out a breath. “I wanna go so bad,” he says. “I just—”

The scheming is underway.

“I trust you in absolutely everything,” Bryce says solemnly, which automatically puts Jared on guard.

“Except?” Jared says.

“Be patient with me during the negotiations?” Bryce says.

Dave’s now involved in the scheming.

“Are you going to be booed the next time you play in the Saddledome?” Jared says.

Bryce smiles, and Jared doesn’t care if that means Bryce is playing further from him, that they may give up the apartment that’s felt like home since Jared was seventeen. He doesn’t care. Bryce smiled.

Jared really would light the Saddledome on fire for him. And not figuratively speaking.

137. Culmination

It’s all of twenty four hours after Summers comes to town that Bryce literally comes jogging in the door, yelling, “J?” like Jared isn’t sitting on the couch ten feet away from him half-watching the news. One nice thing about living in Vancouver is he doesn’t have to listen to the fucking UCP. “J, turn off your phone.”

He ran the entire way home. It was not a long run — partly due to distance, partly due to speed. He wanted Jared to hear it from him, especially if the ‘Bryce Marcus to Tampa’ came separate from the follow up ‘and then to Vancouver’.

“Your phone was about to go crazy and I need to tell you this before someone else does,” Bryce says, kneeling in front of him like he did last night, clean pressed suit and earnest eyes. “I’ve gotta sign papers still but—”

Practically a proposal, which is fitting because Bryce just did everything in his power to be where Jared was. And yes, it’s his hometown, and his childhood team, and his mom’s there, but he would have done it wherever Jared was (would have been easier to swing, in fact, were they not divisional opponents)

“Please tell me it’s a Western Conference team,” Jared says.

“It is,” Bryce says.

“If it’s Edmonton I’m going to be—” Jared says.

Bryce kisses him. “Shut up for a second,” he says.

Jared scowls, but does.

He knows your proposal derailing ways, Matheson.

“Three teams on my list,” Bryce says. “They picked one of them.”

“They would have to if you’ve been traded, unless you waived your NTC,” Jared says. “You know I know all of this, stop being all weird and cryptic and—”

Jared let him explain his and Dave’s plan to you, he wants you to be proud of his scheming!!!

“Tampa’s over the cap,” Bryce says. “And they were desperate to shed salary so they could re-sign Tanner before someone bit and offer-sheeted him and they gave Calgary Schlitz and Barbieri and a second for me.”

Dear RL NHL GMs: use more offer sheets, you utter cowards!!!

So, deal wise, Tampa comes out of this very nicely. They get cap space they needed, they shed good but too expensive players, and they trade a second for a first (from Vancouver when they flip Bryce), and a goalie prospect when they don’t have anyone particularly promising in the prospect pool.

Calgary gets a decent if not terrific haul from Tampa, and it looks like an okay if not great deal for them, but understandable given the short trade list. Until, well. The second flip. Then they look like dupes.

“Tampa can’t afford to keep me,” Bryce says. “Which is why Vancouver offered Tampa a first, a third, and a goalie prospect because Summers told Foster, strictly off the record, I’d re-sign in a heartbeat when my term was up and I’d give them a significant hometown discount when I did as long as my husband was still in the Canucks line-up when that time came. Do not fucking tell anyone that last part, not even your parents or my mom.”

Obviously Vancouver is over the moon about getting Bryce. Hometown hero, on a sweetheart deal for two more years, going to sign for cheap as long as Jared’s by his side.

Dave Summers was in violation of NHL rules and ethics for conveying that message to Vancouver and we should all tsk and shake our heads. (But we’re not gonna)

Jared beams at Bryce.

Bryce beams back.

This is what we’re doing instead.

“I can’t believe I made you this Machiavellian,” Jared says.

He’s so proud.

He IS so proud of your scheming, Bryce!

“They weren’t really — big on moving me at first,” Bryce says. “Like, even with the media shit and all, I’m on a deal that was pretty normal then but cheap now and they figured my play was back on track so like, may as well wait, see if they could get more for me next season at the trade deadline or throw me at someone before I was a UFA. So I maybe like, held out until my NTC kicked in and then mentioned that my trade value was higher right now because I hadn’t come out yet and I was considering it.”

This isn’t technically against rules or ethics because ‘player wants to come out’ is legally protected, at least in Canada, but you know, it's probably not morally in the clear. But I think weaponizing your sexuality against bosses who have been absolute shits about it falls under ‘they have it coming’ branch of ethics, ie: karma’s a bitch and so am I.

“You’re not considering it,” Jared says. If Bryce was even remotely considering it, Jared would have caught on.

Bryce shakes his head. “Not to media,” he says.

Famous last words, though that shoe won’t drop for a year and a half.

They're both smiling too hard for the kiss to be any good but Jared doesn't give a fuck, he hauls him in, tastes Bryce’s smile against his own, feeling like he can breathe easily for the first time in months.

All of Jared’s favourite kisses with Bryce are objectively bad because they all involve them both beaming their faces off and I love that, especially since Jared isn’t much of a grinner. (Bryce increasingly is, especially after moving to Vancouver, but Jared mentions Bryce grinning so much you’d think he has a perma-grin — he doesn’t, except around Jared.)

As much as ‘actually on the same team now’ calls for some terrific celebratory sex, it’s going to have to wait. Bryce has papers to sign. They have people to talk to. They are grown ass adults who cannot have celebratory sex.

Maturity is so boring.

“Foster wants to talk to you?” Bryce says.

Jared takes the phone.

“Hi Jared,” Foster says.

There’s a bit of a laugh in Brian’s voice right there because he’s been gleefully laughing to himself all day. He did absolutely nothing to earn this deal that makes him look like a genius except be a stand up guy and I am delighted for him.

“You tell Bryce he has the biggest brass balls I’ve ever seen,” his dad says.

This is the most Don has ever liked Bryce. And really the moment Don puts down the Flames fandom. He doesn’t know what was involved, but he suspected it was complicated, and that Bryce did some shit, and that he did that shit so he could be with his son, and Don can’t not admire that. (Also the brass balls.)

“How’d he keep this a secret?” Elaine says, now sounding completely incredulous.

Bryce is way better at keeping secrets than Jared or Elaine. But only if he considers the secrets GOOD secrets. Like ‘I want to marry you, I bought a ring’ — hidden for months. ‘I have been setting up a charity’ — four months of steady work before he felt confident letting Jared know about it. And some of that is Jared being oblivious, but Bryce is perfectly good at hiding something he considers a surprise rather than a secret.

He’s got a next text when he gets off the phone with her, Stephen has not stopped laughing since we found out. Legit is going to make himself puke. Imagine you’re slammed right now but give us a call when you get a minute?

Stephen is DELIGHTED by this. Gabe’s a little concerned honestly, the dude is puce coloured at this point.

“They’re going to boo you,” Jared says.

“I know,” Bryce says.

“Not just the first time,” Jared says. “They’re probably going to do it for years. They might do it for the rest of your career.”

Bryce shrugs. “I know.”

A lot of Bryce’s complete and utter exhaustion in the run up to this deal involved him coming to terms with and making peace with that fact; that he was going to leave Calgary on poor terms, that he was going to get a boo from the crowd rather than a tribute video and a standing ovation. And this was going to happen no matter where he went, but yes, going to Vancouver significantly upped the chances of that happening for the rest of his career.

Bryce shrugs again. “It’s going to suck,” he says. “I’m probably going to feel like shit. But like. I get to play for my hometown team, and live with you all year round, and be near my mom and my grandparents and it’s like — it’s worth it, so. Whatever I have to deal with, I’ll deal with. Plus like, it’s nice knowing going in that it won’t be a shitty room. Because if it was a shitty room you would have bitched about it. Hell, you bitched about the Oilers’ room being nice.”

How dare Darryl Rogers exist, being friendly and supportive to rookies.

“Well,” Jared says. Fair. Stupid Darryl Rogers being a nice guy and welcoming him kindly.

Literally Jared, tho.

“Dmitry—”

“Sounds like a totally normal dude, you just hate everyone,” Bryce says.

This is also probably fair.

“He pied my face,” Jared says. “Twice.”

“On your birthday,” Bryce says. “With shaving cream. Which is a tradition.”

“He pied my face,” Jared mutters.

God I love Jared.

“Want to rail me in your Canucks jersey?” Bryce asks.

I would suggest against this for purely Pavlovian reasons, but you do you boys.

Canucks blue really brings out Bryce’s eyes. It’s like, stunning, how beautiful they look.

“Less talk about my eyes, more getting your dick in me,” Bryce says.

The ONE time Jared tries to be romantic.

“Look at me?” Jared says, and when Bryce does, his eyes are so fucking blue.

“Vancouver,” Jared says, and tastes the grin that spills across Bryce’s face in response.

They did it!!! Took 137 parts, but they made it to the same place!

[winns-stuff]

LO RANT:

In light of Lore Olympus dropping another episode Ive just got to say that this hiatus just made me really look at Lore Olympus even worse than I have before. Like listen, I know that a lot of media around greek mythology comes up in our society and stuff and I’m not saying I’m against it I really have no ties to it culturally so I don’t know if it’s my place to say who does or doesn’t get to retell the myths but Lore Olympus has to be the worst representation of the greek gods I’ve ever seen in my life.

At least other retellings give the gods some sort of grace that can give them some correlation to their actual counterparts, Lore Olympus literally made Persephone into an “uwu” sugar baby but not actually because she’s too pure and innocent to manipulate and use the money of a much older man. Like Persephone is literally a homewrecker, a liar, a borderline cheater, she’s extremely weak, she’s a massive crybaby (which is saying something because I am too but like she only cries when she’s not getting her way) and she’s overall just a morally terrible person and a huge coward. You’re telling me that Rachel actually read, not skimmed over, but read those myths and got that from the versions of Persephone that are provided in the mythological texts? That’s honestly so embarrassing, every greek god she’s touched she’s absolutely ruined. I don’t even understand how people can genuinely with a straight face say that any of this content is good it’s just really disrespectful at this point.

Never would I ever want to be represented by Rachel and it’s only because she doesn’t put any thought behind these characters. It’s okay to slow down and think about something other than fan service and ships, and if that’s something she wanted to focus on then she should’ve just formatted it like those slices of life webtoons where it’s just two characters and each chapter is a different day with new challenges but nothing actually relating to one another. That would’ve been better than trying to cram together an entire series with no real story or plot written down it’s just really reductive at this point.

[girl4music]

I keep saying how Xena and Gabrielle are the only textually non-canon couple that never needs manips.

That’s not exactly true. The creators just did it for us.

But like… if the creators intend this and put it in the actual show…. Is it really a manipulation? 🤨🧐😏

I’m comparing this to Supergirl and ONCE where while there was actual queerbaiting from the creators, almost everything their fandoms love to ship as “canon” had to be manipulated by the fandom because the creators didn’t agree and didn’t “ship” along with them but still wanted to use it anyway for their own selfish purposes in baiting queer people in.

You see the thing with Xena is that while the creators did have to contend with strict censorship, they were very adamant that they saw Xena and Gabrielle as either already a couple or evolving into a couple so it wasn’t queerbaiting. It was just “we have to do this cleverly and carefully but don’t worry, we’re with you.”

And it’s just such a huge difference, you know? From creators that actually want to take the piss with the characters with you rather than take the piss at you. Because let’s be honest - we all did take the piss with Xena and Gabrielle. You know we let the jokes be jokes. Didn’t take them so damn seriously. Watched the subtext, had our laughs, but ultimately thought “nah, it’s not gonna happen”. But the thing is that the creators were doing the same alongside us. So it never felt insincere or insulting to us. It’s just we agreed unanimously that nothing real was gonna come from it in the show itself. And it was neither of our faults for that. It was just how it was. We couldn’t really change that. The studios were what they were back then. Which were either full out against it or users. So maybe the Xena creators did get away with the excuse of queerbaiting towards the studio to keep them happy. But it was never what they actually intended. What they intended was genuine WLW representation.

And that’s it isn’t it? That’s the big difference. What the creators of the show actually intend by the subtextual homoerotic nature of their characters. That’s why Xena wasn’t Supergirl or ONCE or Rizzoli and Isles or any notoriously known queerbait-y show.

It could have been. Oh, absolutely. But it wasn’t. Because the creators weren’t with the studio.

They were with the fandom. The shipper fandom.

You go watch any behind-the-scenes interview or footage whatsoever from the Xena creators/cast/crew… and then go watch the same for Supergirl or ONCE. There really is a massive fucking difference.

I mean I still remember how disrespectful and discriminatory that one Supergirl cast interview was. I mean I think it was an interview. I can’t remember. But somebody in the cast, I can’t remember who, brought up the subject of Kara and Lena being a canon thing - like having any romantic interest in each other whatsoever, which the fans hoped for any validation at all with this from the cast. And the next moment another cast member makes a really cruel comment that was directed at the shipper fandom itself. Again, I can’t remember. I’d have to find the interview or whatever it was and watch it again to remember exactly what was said and who said it. I just remember it hurt a lot and I didn’t even watch Supergirl. I still haven’t. It’s just with being queer. Of course it would hurt for that to happen because you feel disrespected.

But that’s something the Xena creators/cast/crew never did. Ever. In fact Lucy Lawless even declared about this once. About sometimes show’s creators/cast/crew want to make fun out of the shipper fandom and she said “I’m not going to let them do that.” Because she understands. She gets… how it feels.

And I know personally that had I even watched that trash show…. I would have felt significantly worse.

[gemharvest]

Hiii local pico fanboy here to request him for the character thing :))

YES!!! PICO BRAINWORM, ACTIVATE !!!!!!!!!

favorite thing about them: TBHHHH idk. I like his silly maybe. His whimsy. I angst his ass so much but he's such a goober in canon. I want to put him in a hamster ball and watch him run around and I genuinely think he'd enjoy it.

least favorite thing about them: I feel like every time I mention him I run the risk of someone making a weird assumption about me. Pico toxoplasmosis curse: will someone yell at me because my fave, my little scrunkly, my blorbo, originates from the Newgrounds school shooting satire game. The answer is to tell myself not to worry about it and I go "Okay💗 Yay💗" and continue brainrotting.

favorite line: What does this guy even say fuuuuufhfhuhhkkckkk. Guy who mostly thinks about FNF and has barely touched Pico's School stuff. Unfortunately might have to pass on this for now sorry. You can give me a bad grade on being a Pico fan LMAO. /j

brOTP: I'm going to be so fr I am obsessed with the dynamic you can get between him and Nene. I am studying them like bugs. Tho of course Pico & Darnell's friendship is so good. Newgrounds trio you are so fucked up I love you guys.

OTP: Hey guys do any of you know about this niche little thing called the RGB polyshioGFOKMKFGMLKM>. Very obvious answer but yeah. OT3. As of late I've been having so much fun with romantic PicoGF. PicoBF gets a lot of focus and it has from me too, but there's such a fun dynamic you can get from GF and Pico. They can have something fun even if you take a platonic/ QPR angle, tho I said already that I like exploring a romantic dynamic between them.

nOTP: I don't knowwwwwwwww. I don't think I have a nOTP for him. Yes, even considering Cass (huge-ass disclaimer that I do not ship them, but I can't see myself caring if others do). Sorry LOL.

random headcanon: I think if you asked him if he'd jump off a cliff he'd say no, of course not wtf, but then if you asked him if he'd jump off a cliff because Boyfriend did he'd take a suspicious amount of time to answer. Like that one Dan Vs. bit. Idk I'm trying to think of something I haven't mentioned before. Secondary answer that's more of a headcanon is that I really do think this guy would be a non-traditional pet owner. Like snakes/ tarantulas that kinda thing. I think he'd like rats/ other rodents too but the idea of him handling a snake makes me bounce off the walls.

unpopular opinion: The curse I bare is that I barely go to wider fandom spaces I don't know what a popular opinion for him right now would be. Idk I think people sometimes write him to be way tougher than he'd be. Like, OK I'm tired idk how to fully explain it but in my head this guy's a softie once he lets you past his exterior. He's kind at heart even if he has his whole Thing going on and I've seen takes that ignore that/ aren't aware of it, and I feel like that's the surface-level read people might get off of him. Might be able to put this better when I have a rested mind LMAO.

song i associate with them: *cracks my knuckles and opens my playlist for him* Oh I was built for this. Two because I an never content picking just one, my playlist for him would be massive if I remembered to add songs regularly LMAO.

favorite picture of them:

I feel like this is a very funny choice for "favorite image" but it's specifically this bit in his character sheet. "Kind like how cats stretch out look longer" you don't say... Guy who isn't even beating the kitty allegations in his fucking character sheet. My non-funny answer would probably be his game-over sprite for when you lose to one of the spray paint cans:

>> original ask game here; feel free to send more, I don't bite <<

[garfunclegaming]

Fallout: London Review

I recently completed my first playthrough of the ambitious total conversion mod for Fallout: 4, Fallout: London. For those unaware, Fallout: London is a full-scale open-world RPG game experience set in London after the bombs fell in 2077. It is impressive in both its creativity, using Britain instead of America as the setting of a Fallout entry, and the simple fact that this is a free fan effort made possible by the time and toil of talented and dedicated fan developers.

What London is not: The game uses Fallout: 4 as its base, so the core movement, shooting, questing, and enemy design are very much the same. If you did not like these in Fallout: 4, you will not like them here. There is also the unfortunate reality of it being on Bethesda's antiquated Creation Engine. The latest patched version of London is extremely stable, but you will encounter glitches, eventual crashes in prolonged play sessions, and rarely bugged quests that might need you to restart your game or consult troubleshooting via the official Reddit or Discord.

The Good news is that London does more than 4 with most of these systems. Your SPECIAL points and perk selection can frequently allow you additional choices in dialogue. With how Fallout: 4's dialogue works you can boost these stats further by stepping out of conversation to take some chems to meet the point threshold of a dialogue option. The game world is a lot more scarce with healing items such as Radaway and Stimpacks, and there is a much larger emphasis on hunting, cooking, or buying food for your healing needs. There is also a new type of food available with a dedicated crafting station which is of course tea which provides benefits that are not as powerful as chems but without addictive debuffs.

What London is: in my opinion, this mod has the best 3D world space in any creation engine game. Fallout: New Vegas's map might have a clearer design, but London is jawdropping for its ambitious scope and blending of historical, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic aesthetics. It is a massive map that is brimming with landmarks both big and small and tons of British charm and character. From ruined pubs to cannibal castles to St. Paul's Cathedral, it was a genuine joy to explore the map. What elevates this further is the dedication to setting the game in an Urban Jungle for at least eighty percent of the player's experience. Even though London has been compacted to fit into a Fallout game, you always feel London is a properly huge city because you spend most of the game sifting through its rubble-strewn streets and landmarks.

The story, plot and characters are all impressive for a fan project of this scale. Finding Angel's goals and secrets is an interesting hook to propel the main quest. From there you entangle yourself in Peaky Blinder's esque gang warfare or help the mutated fish people of Thameshaven to further open the map.

There are highs and there are lows. The Roundel's quests felt a bit forced, and the Pistol's quests are very much "Go here, get a thing, or kill stuff." But then there are great quests like helping mutated tree-ghoul stop feral tree-ghouls from threatening his peaceful commune and reuniting him with his equally mutated partner. A German submarine pokes out from the irradiated Thames which results in you helping a pair of Ghoulified German officers to stop an AI Philosopher programmed into a Nuke from launching. Something they have only been able to delay indefinitely by asking the AI inane philosophical quandaries. The Vegabonds send you on 007-inspired missions to sink a warship being used as a gang prison ship and raid an underground supply train like a certain mission from Goldeneye 64.

The third act has you pick a major faction and I went with Camelot, who appears to be backward medieval larpers, but in reality, is a revolutionary army gathered in the countryside to overthrow the oppression of the Gentry and install a true democratic government. A great contrast to the Caesar's Legion faction in New Vegas. With them, you can storm Westminster and have one of the most genuinely exciting battle and finale sequences in any Fallout game.

The companions need special mention of their own having surpassed the companions on offer in Vanilla Fallout: 4. Archie is a kid street urchin who gets himself into trouble with his ability to pick locks and pilfer valuables, but his quest involves him coming to terms with the grief of having lost his previous band of friends and the parents he never knew. Mad Jack is a rage-filled boxer whose anger is fueled by a horrific past of abuse at the hands of Raiders and Slavers, but behind the bulk is a wounded soft soul that self-harmed. Kiera is a self-made treasure hunter who loves breaking the rules and sniffing out truths, but behind her adventurous persona is a deep insecurity about herself and how others perceive her. Then there's Mountbatten, a former gentry clerk who is now an old ghoul who is slowly losing himself and his memories. He has a list of things to do on a bucket list but wants to spend the time he has left with a true friend.

There is so much more to cover, but to summarize: Fallout: London is the best Fallout thing since New Vegas. It is brimming with the things current Bethesda entries have lacked for some time. Passion. Effort. A coherent vision. A will to be creative beyond the brand-recognizable stuff. That's the most important element of a Fallout game, not the surface-level Americana, or dogmatic insistence to shove the Brotherhood of Steel and Vault-Tec everywhere and on everything.

Fallout: London gives me hope for Fallout. Someday we'll meet again not as a product for a brand, but as a passion project by energized developers to explore Fallout as a world.

We'll meet again, my friend, on some sunny day.

[floradinterlunium]

Question

I don’t really listen or follow any other K-pop group other than Jikook so I would like to know from people that do...are ship wars common in other fandoms? Or are they less common.

I’ve been trying to do some research on this and I’ve come to believe that they aren’t. Like this level of toxicity in shipping is pretty exclusive to BTS and “one” group of shippers. And I wonder why??!

Is it because in every other group the closest pairings are the ones that are genuinely shipped? So there’s no need to debate because everyone can agree that the pair being shipped are the closest. But in BTS the two closest members, JM and JK, aren’t the most shipped (even though they have a massive fan base just not the biggest).  The most shipped pair is a visual pair that have very little content together but still alas more shippers.

 I wonder if this is why ship wars in BTS have reached the heights they have...because things are out of order. One ship has all the facts and receipts...the other more fans. This has to be the reason for all this tension. On one hand you have a huge amount of fans confused because facts don’t lie and on the other hand you have a bunch of fans screaming their ship is real with zero facts to back it up and resenting the other hand for having all the facts. 

Am I making sense? Are my questions making sense? I’ve been perseverating on this because I just am genuinely so confused as to why ship wars are so bad in this fandom and I think it has to be because the fandom isn’t as a whole “shipping” the closest pairing with all the receipts and facts. They are shipping a visual duo that is propped up by an idea with no facts. This has to be the root of the resentment and the wars.

[kedikatzen]

To be honest, I don't know where I stand on this whole Afraid of Monsters overhaul thing. On one hand, it was a decent alternative to Zoophobia and had some fun cartoony art style and character designs and I remember the fan blogs being fun. On the other hand, it had nothing to make it memorable outside of it being an alternative to Zoophobia same problems included. Different stories interrupting each other, no direction and what direction was explained at the end felt thrown together last minute. Having to follow multiple blogs just to get breadcrumbs of personalities that should've been in the comic in the first place. ect.

Either way it's your choice on what you want to do with it. But I will say that even with an overhaul, Afraid of Monsters would be an uphill battle.

I mean, for one, AoM doesn't hinge on shipping humans together with straight-up animals. And not like, pseudo-animals like anime cat-girls or adventuring werewolves, just full blown quadruped animals.

It's funny because most people who came to read the comic were like "Oh hey, a cool comic", and it's literally only that one person's fans who cannot wrap their minds around the fact that she doesn't own basic concepts like demons or cartoony proportions. That fandom is a huge problem in itself between the massively parasocial relationship they've built and the fact that they'd rather harass people over being forthcoming than admit that their favourite content creator might not be the world's greatest creative/employer.

I also really like getting criticism on my work, and accepting criticism in general makes you really good at spotting the difference between genuine criticism (even if bluntly phrased) and poorly disguised seething over anyone coming near that precious, precious general concept. I'd say it was a good attempt, but the oblivious passive-aggression is a dead giveaway.

That said, it is my choice, and the fact that her, her friends, and some of her stans seethe over the mere concept that AoM exists only makes me want to return to it more, because I'd really hate to give them the satisfaction of seeing it dissolve.

[lizzxrd]

So I came up with this little silly idea at work to briefly distract myself from The Horrors (mental illness)...

and it wasn't supposed to be anything more than that but I just keep rotating it in my mind now..

Like I just keep thinking abt the canon blade eaters and Silva (my oc, who'd probably be a bit of a special case bc he got a full core crystal that was modified to replace his heart)

I think Torna wouldn't rlly have any moral qualms abt letting Mik occasionally munch on some people and they'd probably even let him sap some energy from their core crystal collection so he wouldn't die. Mik probably wouldn't exactly love it but he's like kind of "whatever" about it. He's working towards destroying the world anyway. Doesn't really matter when these people die.

Zeke would probably despise Amalthus for having him turned into a blade eater and he'd probably despise himself for what he has to do to survive to an extent too. He'd still be happy about him and Pandoria being able to continue to live alongside each other but ough the misery. That one scene where Zeke talks to Amalthus in Indol would hit so different too. Him telling Amalthus he thinks those who kill others are weak and then the realization slowly kicking in. He'd probably be awful at coping with it. Zeke is such a silly goose in canon xbc2 so it feels weird imagining him in any even remotely angsty situations but Idk I kinda vibe with this. Also I'm not a huge fan of PanZeke as a ship usually. They just have such oomftacular bestie vibes to me but I think I like it in this context. PanZeke angsty hurt/comfort. Pandoria comforting messed up vampire-ish Zeke, reassuring him he's not an awful person and also being his source of ether. And also she feels kind of guilty because it's a part of her core that turned Zeke into this so he also comforts her, reassuring her it's not her fault at all and he always makes sure to be extra kind to her bc of how much she does for him and how unbelievably much he cares abt her. [Explodes]

Rex would not be affected. He's not really a Blade Eater in the way the others are. Aegis cores are weird and special. And he's technically kind of dead already so even if they weren't he probably would be unaffected. U cannot convince me that Jin's attack somehow left him barely alive. He's basically a walking corpse and only tethered to the world through that part of Pythra's core and the conduit.

Amalthus would have absolutely 0 issues with being a fucked up vampire/cannibal Blade Eater. Both in terms of morals and getting ether and blood/flesh for sustenance. Tbh he'd probably get a kick out of doing fucked up vampire things even. Indol has a massive amount of core crystals he can sap energy from and nobody will truly notice/care if occasionally a few of the refugees go missing. (And even if people care, they wouldn't really be able to do anything about it. Enough people in positions of power in Indol and in Indol's military force have a cult-like devotion to Amalthus and revere him as some kind of deity. Trying to pose a genuine threat to him would be akin to commiting suicide.)

And last but not least I get to be cringe abt my oc. :3 Normal Blade Eater Amalthus and Silva are, like, two awful guys who hate but tolerate each other because of Circumstances. Silva is such a repressed but very desperate loser type of gay guy that he occasionally has Thoughts but he'd rather die a thousand deaths than actually admit anything to Amalthus or even himself; he just represses it further.

In Blade Eater vampirism AU they are awful guys who hate each other who are soo codependent and toxic. Cannibalism as a metaphor for love, enemies AND lovers, they're tearing each other apart (literally), neither of them has a normal understanding and concept of love, etc. Do u understand.. (I am,, so very Normal about them).

Silva's core was specifically modified to function as his heart since his original one was more than just a little faulty. The technology used to achieve this and research regarding it was lost like almost everything about Judicium upon the devastating attacks on Temperantia during the Aegis war. But anyway despite being a very early Blade Eater experiment - from far before Indol started dabbling in making Blade Eaters - he turned out surprisingly well. The physical link between his organic cells and his core are strong and deteriorate at a much slower rate; the only thing that got really messed up by this was his mind. He's still a fucked up vampire like the other Blade Eaters. He just needs to consume ether and blood/flesh far less frequently. He also has some of the regenerative abilities of blades. He's able to recover faster from wounds than non-blades but not quite as fast as blades and he still grows scar tissue on wounds that are severe enough.

Having a singular guy who's a source of both ether and organic material for sustenance and can regenerate is very convenient for Amalthus and far less suspicious that what he was doing before! Especially because Silva cannot exactly do anything about it. He stumbled his way into becoming Amalthus's blade and acting against him would be awfully unwise (AND being an important asset to Amalthus also grants him easy access to ether and blood when he does need it). Also while Silva is stuck in this situation Amalthus does let him get away with a lot more things than he really should (including but not limited to: verbal and physical threats and letting him bite him as well)

:33 giggling, squealing, kicking my feet, etc. They're so bad for each other but they deserve each other so very much. I love thinking abt them. They're my horrid old men babygirls ❤️

[true-blue-sonic]

HI HI BLUE!!

Sonamy for the Ship Ask Game because I'm guessing Espilver was already taken so...

Hello ^-^ It isn't, but no worries!🍀

when or if I started shipping it.

Hmm... I do not recall. I guess it's simply one of the OG ships I came across when I first became a fan, and it kind of stuck? Sonamy is definitely one of the bigger ships in the fandom, and considering how Sega also seems to push it on occasion, I figure it's hard to miss!

my thoughts:

It's cute! I don't ship it hardcore, but I think Sonic and Amy nicely complement each other. Sonic likes adventure and travelling, and Amy is willing to travel all over to get to him. And I like how in recent years, we've moved away from the "but Sonic doesn't actually seem to like Amy so much" angle (such as him just putting his whole hand in her face in Generations when she tried to hug him) and Amy's "you're gonna marry me RIGHT NOW!" (in Heroes) and more violent tendencies a la Sonic X, Rush, and Battle. They are genuinely good friends, and people who I can truly see fall in love, simply because they like each other and like spending time with each other.

What makes me happy about them:

Their above-described development! They've moved away from Sonic being very evasive and Amy being highly forceful towards them finding lots more middle ground and acting like it, in my opinion. Sonic and Amy definitely were friends before already, but it does look a lot more genuine now.

What makes me sad about them:

I think Amy does eventually wish to settle down in life and do things like start a family, but that might highly clash with Sonic's sense of adventure and unwillingness to be clustered to one place for too long. That is one thing where I think the two of them might not be able to find a middle ground, actually.

things done in art/fic that annoys me:

Hmm... I'd say ship bashing other ships, or making one character (for example Shadow) a jackass to justify Sonic and Amy becoming a couple (which of course also counts when either Sonic or Amy are massively mischaracterised to support another ship with the other character). Since Sonamy is such a relatively large ship and Sonic of course gets shipped a lot with other characters due to being the main protagonist, I feel as if this ship experiences such issues of ship bashing and mischaracterisation a lot more than others. But that could really just be me.

things I look for in art/fic:

None.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Hmm... I don't really ship either with anyone else, I must say!

My happily ever after for them:

The two of them having the freedom to do what they want (Amy finding a place to settle when she's older and Sonic keeping up his many travels), but always finding each other again!

what is their favorite non-sexual activity?

They both seem to be huge nature fans, so probably going into nature together; studying the sights, hanging out with the Animal Friends, going to the Chao Garden and stuff like that. And of course, going on runs together!