#getting a hyperfixation for yet another ship i don't actually ship

[likecassandra-ao3]

the rumors are true... instead of focusing on my existing works I have a brand new fic on coming (probably) in july

[sleepy-grav3]

Glitching issue

So I was getting distracted again. I heard Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango, wanted a yandere playlist with intense ballroom songs, that types of thing.

And then I thought of another story idea for my current hyperfixation: DCxDP

One of my favorite ships in that fandom is Dead Tired/Brain Dead, cause I love them... so much...

Anyway-

With the context of the yandere ballroom playlist, you should know where I'm going. And I read a few fics/prompts/whatever else you'd call them where it portrays a normally pretty toxic relationship but they're actually in a really healthy relationship.

There was one about mutual stalking, another with kidnapping shenanigans, one that mentioned attempted deprogramming- you get it. (don't ask me for them, I don't know what they're called and there's too much to sift through to find them, very sorry, do feel free to reblog/comment the authors of them or ones that hold some relevance)

But yeah, now I'm making a fic with a playlist as storyline inspiration. Idk the layout yet.

1 Long Chapter : 1 Song

or

Story Arc (probably short) : 1 Song

Always a 1:1 ratio, maybe a special 2 songs here and there? Not sure.

But so far!!! I have the usual: Masochism Tango and Stalker's Tango.

Got the Cell Block Tango ready. El Tango de Roxanne will be there too. I got some waltzes and looking into other types of rhythms like them. Tango, Waltz, thinking about Salsa and Swing, got a few others too

Looking into some less yandere themed songs since I can't solely do it on yandere themes. I want it to be drama filled but with some healthy doses of attraction, y'know?

Yeah, that whole thing is going on a headcannon and an idea.

Ghosts feel things more strongly, so some unhealthy things to humans are meh or minimum level things to ghosts. Because of this, Danny's a bit unhealthy in what he considers love (his vigilante life didn't help with that, especially with Vlad), but his human side keeps it more on the downlow

There's a different species of beings that are immortal in a way: The Undying. Life loves them or they're obsessed with Life. Tim is one of the only true Undying. They're as rare as true Halfas.

So... yeah. Love this little idea. Been working on it for a few hours now. And I need help. Song recommendations mostly, storyline ideas are welcome.

I'll be posting a playlist once I get it all sorted out, chronologically, and the outline of the story put up. The summary will be a genuine summary and not just some background info or a quick sentence like I usually do.

But I want a happy ending. No bittersweet, no hurt/barely any or no comfort, no fully angst-

I need some kind of betrayal for someone to go to jail TvT

Will it be Tim or Danny? Who fits best as a viewer for Cell Block Tango, just casually listening to people talk about killing (and that one framed murder).

Who's the one that lives off the thrill of getting hurt (I'm thinking more of the bdsm way, but also the "I'll only let you hurt me" type of way too? Doesn't have to be physical or verbal or even intentional... I'm making this sound worse-)

I got this one part for the Roxanne one

The yandere is "cheating", no idea if it's fake or a previous relationship, or whatever. still under planning for that.

And the "victim" is the one who's begging the yandere to not deceive them. Maybe they've been lied to a bunch of times, maybe they really don't want false hope, maybe they're fine with an open relationship as long as the yandere doesn't leave- idk, but the "victim" is the one who's pulling the strings during then.

I'm trying to think of who's the other person, the yandere, and the "victim". Who's who? Not sure. And how does it fit with the rest of the songs too... Ugh, I really should just do oneshots T^T But I can't at the moment, not with the ideas-

So yeah

Ideas? Song recommendations? Character ideas? Scene prompts????

Please?

Oh, and this post is named glitching because it broke my fucking computer. I don't have a mouse anymore. Luckily, it's touchscreen and the keyboard still works. Still annoying though

[reginarubie]

Just read your new work and as much as I adore anything you write I must confess seeing the past jonsa tag hurt me. I just adore them and have been patiently awaiting for the day the jonsa inspires you again! I hope this doesn’t offend you, it was meant to be a compliment. I’m just awful at wording, like I meant your my go to jonsa author of choice so seeing that tag just left me with feels that your moving on but I know experimenting and dabbling in other ships are great for authors!! I don’t know I’m just in my feels I guess?? So many talented Jonsa authors have become in-active or deleting their works, discontinuing, etc and while I know it just part of life and I’m glad some still continue to write or are SELF PUBLISHING!!! (Although sadly they won’t share their official works-I hunt it down one day) I just feel an odd pang in my chest when another one goes down like dang I just wanna hold you all and never let go. God this sounds like I have abandonment issues, I’m just going stop now before I embarrass myself even more

Aw...hello!,

I am your to-go Jonsa author? That like made my day, so thank you! Also don't worry, you are neither pathetic, not have your embarassed yourself. You have just shared in our common love for Jonsa, which I still believe will be the open endgame of the books, tbh, and I could not appreciate you more for it.

Of course I love experimenting and for a long while I have been uninspired in Jonsa, mostly because I have been hyperfixated on Aemondsa (which I think Jon and Aemond share so much traits it's ridiculous), but I have not forgotten all my wips for Jonsa, to which I mean to return in the Summer (I am a perfectionist, procrastinator so unless I am on the wave of hyperfixation I am never quite satisfied enough with my work to share it, but the updates shall come soon).

You know what else shall come soon, because my muse actually is never satisfied with just one story and just one ship at time?

A new Jonsa story I have been keeping under wraps, a season 7/8 rewrite with specks of book canon as well.

Look, I'll even leave the edit I've done for it, and the summary. I plan to get it out by the end of June with the first chapter, so prepare your popcorns, seatbelts and fav comf food because I'll be back on my Jonsa shit again. And it's gonna be epic!

A song for wolves,

The South has a new queen, a dragon queen who wears her name like a true Targaryen. Mother of the Dragons. Mother of monsters. Dark mother, brought ruin, death and fire to the Realm, and put to torch her enemies. With Fire and Blood she has torn at the lioness of the Rock and the whole world shall bend the knee to this foreign conqueror, or endure become ashes. And yet, to the North a new enemy rises. House Stark. The ancient kings on winter, the last defence against death and ice; battered, exiled and tortured they rose again in the name of the King in the North. A bastard deserter and his sisters; a Lannister's wife and a girl. “They are Starks, and the northerners never forget,” When winter comes... You'll hear no lions roar... No stags grazing the fields... No roses growing in the meadows... No snakes in the sand... The krakens will freeze where they swim... The flayed men will rot and wither... No trouts swimming in the river and no falcons flying in the air... Not even the dragons breath will warm you in your halls. Only the wolfs howl in the night... Winter is coming.

As always, hope you stay tuned, and yes the edit's got better since I started to make them, but alas no, those clips, music and quotes do not belong to me, we all knew how things would go if they did.

As always sending all my love ~G.

[thehyperfixationspeedrunner]

HIIIIIIIIIII WE HAVENT TALKED IN A WHILE HRU

WHICH HYPERFIXATION ARE YOU ON NOW HUH 👀

AND WOULD YOU REC?

HIIIIIII, I FINISHED HIGH SCHOOL YESTERDAY AND I'M IN EXAMS SEASON SO I'M NOT DOING GREAT, HRU???

Girl, you just opened a big bag of worms cause this hyperfixation has taken over the other like 4 that were in my mind at the same time (one of them since January).

There are just a few things I have to warn you about the show before I throw my words at you: there is blood and violence, they do not shy from that; there is physical abuse mentioned and shown (although it's just shown in one scene, if that's the only thing bothering you but you wanna watch I can tell you when to skip); there is cursing, nothing major just what a high schooler would normally curse; abusive relationships and bullies are subjects that are heavily spoken about; death, don't know if that's a trigger but better safe that sorry and I'm pretty sure that's it

First, I have to ask you two questions:

Do you like supernatural stuff?

Do you like gays?

If the answer to both of them is yes, then you need to watch dead boy detectives. It's a series about two ghosts (Edwin Payne- "the brains", spent 70 years in hell, sassy little bitch, from London 1916 and speaks like it, gay, a fucking nerd, somehow everyone is in love with him except his crush (more like the crush doesn't know that he is in love with him, but whatever), so much trauma it's insane, tumblr's favourite; Charles Rowland- said crush, "the brawns", so bisexual but doesn't know it yet, do you know that character that is so charismatic and funny but actually has so much fucking trauma? That's him, daddy issues (because of abuse), from 1989, has a magical bag, so fucking british, so fucking protective of his friends it's insaneee like he will kill someone for them) and these two ghosts are detectives and solve cases to ghosts so they can move on to the afterlife.

This show is so fucking well written, you have no idea, like Charles and Edwin's relationship is so unique, because even though there is a romantic subtext they are best friends before eveything and they know eachother so well it's so rare to see such good friendship where they are so open with eachother in media specially between men (also their ship name is painland, if that's not enough reason to watch the show idk what is).

Another great example of the amazing writing is that characters like Charles normally have their trauma super overlooked, but in this show his trauma is treated so well, there is still a lot to work from it (reason 484837 why I need a season 2) but the other characters actually see his trauma and acknowledge it, it's so fucking satisfying to me because these type of characters are always my favourites but they always have that lack of development (I sometimes confuse between my mutuals who likes what but I'm pretty sure you have read hoo so you know Leo Valdez? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about).

Speaking of development, they do not leave characters behind. There is this character called Niko Sasaki, who is this girl who loves anime and loves love and is always so positive and so sweet and always thinking of others. Now, when someone describes this type of character, my first reaction is "oh, so she's just the comedic relief who is going to have a shallow ass personality" (no shade to that type of characters, shade to the writers who leave them behind), BUT SHE'S NOT. She also has her traumas (dead dad, literally almost dies, more shit that I don't wanna spoil) and they acknowledge it and they develop her. She may not be one of the main focuses of season 1 (I'm pretty sure if we get a season 2, she's gonna have more screen time because of... [spoilers]) but she still has some character development, in the 3rd episode they are solving a pretty brutal case and she says that she doesn't want to be part of it because she litterally almost died the previous week and it's totally okay, she stays at home watching scooby doo and eating noodles, again so fucking satisfying.

Since we're talking about Niko, I have to talk about the dynamics of this show because OMG THE DYNAMICS OF THIS SHOW. Like, you look at the way I described Niko and the way I described the boys and you would think that they would focus on Niko and Charles relationship, right? The two charismatic kids, makes sense. Wrong, it's actually Niko and Edwin's. At first, you're like "you're gonna pair Mr. Horrible at relationships with other people and hates physical touch with Ms. Loves love and hugs fucking everyone?" BUY IT WORKS, IT WORKS SO GODDAMN WELL, IT'S INSANE, they easily became my favourite dynamic of all times, it's so fucking good. Actually, Charles and Niko is the only dynamic that isn't really developed in this show (which is a crime honestly, how could they).

Another thing is that there is one (1) antagonist out of four who isn't likeable. And that fucker is litterally Crystal's abusive demon ex (I've realised now that I haven't talked about my queen yet, she's a bitch, she's a physic, she's fucking badass, she doesn't know who she is until the 8th episode (not in a philosophical way, she litterally loses her memory) and her dynamic with Edwin is fucking hilarious, it's an on going competion of who gets to be the bitcher). There is a witch who is immortal, kidnaps young girls to feed to her snake and has an obsession with getting revenge on the boys and Crystal (they hadn't met Niko when they confronted her for the first time), but she serves cunt everytime she's on screen and she's so hilarious, you love to hate her and deep down you also love her. There is a cat king who is the reason Crystal, Edwin and Charles get stuck in the town they spend the season (they live in London, the town is somewhere on the US coast, technically it's just Edwin who is stuck, but they're all ride or die) all because he wants to fuck Edwin but Edwin doesn't, but his hilarious and annoying in a funny way and a loser and a simp. There is a woman from the afterlife office who spends the whole season trying to catch the boys (who are running away from death, it's a whole thing), fails and ends up stuck with them, I just got mad at her when she interrupted a love confession, but we got it later so it's fine. Then there's David the demon (yes, that's his name, yes, that's hilarious) who is Crystal's abusive ex, is able to get inside her mind whenever he wants and is just so fucking annoying (but is such a great simbol of abusive relationships and how much they scare you even after it's over).

Also, no one, and I mean no one, in this fucking show is straight, whether it is confirmed or not it doesn't matter (although 4 of the nine recurent characters are canonically queer).

Don't know if you heard about it, but this is from the same universe as the show The Sandman and there are two cameos in this show (both Death and Despair get a scene).

There are two things that weren't perfect in this show: the fact that Charles and Niko got one (1) scene together (fucking crime) and the CGI, not that it's all bad it's just they focused on the more visual scenes that make you go uuhh and aaahhh but there is a roof where they sometimes talk where the CGI is so bad, but it's just background shit, do not decide not to watch because of it the only scenes like that are the roof scenes and a scene in the forest (again, background shit).

I did just spend around an hour writing all of this, you are not gonna read this whole ass essay, but just watch the show, it's on illegal sites Netflix (although if you have Netflix, put it, even if it's just background noise, we need the views, this is Netflix and a not that cheap queer show we're talking about)

[yeah-alright-brill]

To the lovely @mx-hyperfixation: Thank you for the request, you asked I delivered...late! Anyway, Merry Christmas while the decorations are still up, my 'drabbles' have a tendency to take on lives of their own, hence the wait. A lovely bit of Sam celebrating with everyone. I don't know your ship preferences, but I included a bit of mild romantic Sam/Annie cause I'm partial to them, and it's canon. Oh, and would you mind me posting it to ao3? If you have an ao3 account, I could gift it properly :) Please enjoy:

Christmas Special '73

Sam's memories of wherever it is he came from get further away, mistier every day. Memories of shallow, awkward office Christmas parties in the '00s, of Secret Santa and X-Factor number ones gradually fading into effemera, leaving him with a odd sense of peace.

Even stranger, he swears he can remember ration-book Christmases round the coal fire; one morning he wakes up convinced one Christmas he spent during the war with an evacuee family in the country. He should be disturbed; certainly a few months ago, it'd be a cause for for near breakdown; but these surrogate memories are weirdly comforting, much more so than his old ones, and with each passing day they feel more and more real. And at any rate, he can't stop them, and if he's learnt one thing this year, it's that not everything in life he can control.

Gene Hunt may think he controls this department, but even he can't stop the march of festive progress into his territory. Sam arrives at work one day armed with a box of the tattiest, 70s-ist Christmas decorations he can find, all out his own pocket. It's funny, Gene might be the 'fun one;' always up for a drink on the job or a glamour mag slipped between report sheets, while Sam is the stuffy boring one; but when it comes to Christmas, Gene is a right grinch, while Sam brings the cheer. Gene gives every reason under the roof why he won't let the decorations go up- workplace distractions, poofy bright coloured tat- even health and safety, in a turn up for the books- but this is going to be yet another hill for Sam to die on. He gets Annie in on side quickly. Chris looks awestruck at the box of festive crap- he's easily pleased, bless him. He's unsure at first, going behind The Guv's back and that, but once he gets into it he has the exitement of a kid- and the decorative competence of one too, and there's nearly a tinsel-related A&E trip. Sam actually has a rather lovely conversation with him about family Christmas traditions, though with the state of his memory, it's a bit weird. Alone, if you look past his idiosyncrasies, Sam's been managing to have some rather interesting conversations with Chris- he may be a few keys short of a typewriter, but Sam senses deep down he's perhaps more thoughtful than he looks, maybe even moreso than his fellows- but then that all goes out the window when Ray joins in and they start making jokes about handling baubles. In the end, there's nothing the Guv can do to stop Christmas coming to A-division, and for once, he concedes that maybe Sam's won this time.

Sam was expecting Christmas parties a'la 1973 to be pretty different from the modern 'Hyde's' - well for starters, he swears he remembers getting tied to a Christmas tree his first party on the force in the.... it could be the early 90s? Or the very late 60s? Anyway, he's not disappointed, when on the evening of the 24th, the festivities start with Ray and Chris disappearing off to tape a mistletoe over the door of the WPCs changing room and lie in wait- or rather, he's very disappointed, but it proves him right. While Chris and Ray are busy 'getting themselves on the registered pervs list'- The Guv's words, not his- he and Gene troop off down to the local off-licence to buy as much booze as they can with the money in the communal kitty.

"Right, uh, Sam?"

Gene piles a tin of Party Seven into Sam's arms, and he has to will himself not to drop anything.

"Guv?"

"Uh, now don't go getting any ideas in your funny head- but I know you don't have any folks to spend Christmas with this year, an' I presume you won't be staying with Annie's family yet, so... so if you fancy poppin' over in the evenin', after your shift, putting your feet up and eatin' leftovers an' that- well me an' The Missus wouldn't mind."

Sam can't help a big old grin. If he wasn't carrying 4 tonnes of booze, and feared the reprimand, he might even hug the man for saving him from his lonely little hovel.

"Guv! That's- that's so thoughtful for you, I'd love to."

"I'm sorry what was that!?"

Sam chuckles and rolls his eyes.

"I mean, yeah, alright, I guess I might."

"Yer welcome."

Back in the office, Ray and Chris have returned, rosy cheeked and looking well pleased with themselves. The Guv, of course, opens the festivities-

"Right! Let's get the booze flowin'- lord knows I need a good drink or six to stop those bloody streamers doin' me eyes in." He pours five whiskys and hands one to each, Ray, Chris, Annie, and Sam, then holds his aloft.

"To another year doin' what we do best: putting scum away!"

"To A-division!" Says Annie.

"To the Queen!" Says Ray, catching Sam off-guard with it's unexpectedness- guess your learn something new about people every day.

"To the boss!" Says Chris, rather embarrassingly for Sam, and that warrents a pointed look and a scoff from Ray- not that he's in a position to judge really.

Finally, Sam says "to The Guv!"

"Now that's something I can drink to!" roars the man himself.

So they all do.

...

Sam spends the first hour of Christmas morning with Annie driving Chris to his home passed out on the back seats, and he's reminded really of how young the kid is.

"Merry Christm's bossh-"

Upon waking he gives Sam a big, swaying hug, trips over, wobbles down the street, throws up in a neighbor's bin then collapses through his front door into the arms of his anxious waiting mother.

Then, they drive on to Annie's family's. They exchange presents from obvious bags in the footwell- suspiciously vinyl shaped- and then a kiss, followed by another, and then one more for good luck. With a 'Merry Christmas Love', and a promise to put in a good word for him with her folks, she's off, leaving a big, sweet, silly smile on his face.

He catches 40 winks in his run-down shack- God, he can't wait till he moves in with Annie in the new year- then it's up with a pounding headache for his grumpily-anticipated Christmas at the station. He arrives festively late, for once making use of The Guv's 'hair of the dog' hangover cure- it is Christmas afterall, and Gene's not here to catch him stealing from his decanter. Christmas with Ray Carling is not as bad as he'd feared, the man seems actually quite subdued today. He tells Sam in hushed tones he always works on Christmas Day because he 'doesn't get on too great with his old man'- and Sam knows that's the most candid he'll ever hear Ray. He certainly doesn't press the matter. They have an... edible canteen Christmas dinner with Vince and another guy from the department, whose name he really should know but can't ask now, and Sam wins the cracker pull to Ray's great chagrin.

Then finally, as the sun sets, and children play in the windows with their new toys, Sam gets off early to make it to the Guvs, for a proper slice of Christmas. Homecooked dinner leftovers, a nice big glass of sherry, a good laugh at Gene's expense with 'The Missus' and an evening spent in tipsy mirth and playful argument with the man himself, over Christmas telly.

"I mean seriously, a 'Time Lord' in a magic police box- what is he, some sort of time traveling cop? What a load of bollocks."

"Guv, You don't know the half of it."

[dizzythegreat]

Keeper of the Lost Cities meta: a hopefully-not-too-critical analysis

Starting off by saying that this whole thing is a just little too pretentious and a just little too fueled by irritation so don't take everything I say as fact! I'm just kind of ranting about things that I feel like most people are annoyed with (?) please share your thoughts with me! I think it's important for discourse like this to happen to keep fandoms alive!! non-Keeper mutuals feel free to DISREGARD!

First of all Keeper has such a special place in my heart, I started reading the series when I was 12 and I'm 16 now, so I really did kind of grow up with the books. I LOVED the series as a kid and hyperfixated on it for a really long time. As the series progresses and as I read it from a different lens, I'm seeing all of the flaws so much more clearly, so this whole rant basically stems from realizing something so special to me is flawed media and wanting to get my thoughts somewhere. All of this comes from a loving place! I'm just putting down my top few issues with the series and my opinions on a lot of different elements <3

DISCLAIMER I'm doing a reread but I'm only on book 1 and my memory is shit. Any false information is literally not my fault leave me alone

1. Length, redundancy, and predictability

This one really starts in Flashback #7 for me. It will always, always evade me why that book contains ~300 straight pages of Sophitz fluff and fucking around in the healing center. I know that a lot of people enjoyed those parts, which is totally valid! Shipping is a cornerstone of this series! But for me it felt so pointless and fan servicey, idk. And this is maybe my biggest problem with the books: they drag. We're at 9 and a half books now, each spanning like 500-800 pages, and the plot drags and drags and drags. I don't know if Shannon's publisher makes her fill a certain number of pages or what, but I feel like at least 100 pages of bullshit could be cut from each book and nothing would change. They start to almost follow a formula: 200 or so pages of figuring out the Neverseen's plan of the hour, another 200-ish to plan how to defeat them, and then finally we learn that the Neverseen is actually always one step ahead and the crew gets crushed oh my god tragic!! It worked as a subversion of expectations the first couple times but by now I feel like most people could basically just predict what's going to happen in any given book. Sometimes I wonder got left on the cutting room floor because it feels like SM wrote a first draft, barely trimmed it down, and published just that. The plot spins in circles, the protagonists are confused yet again, I am pulling my hair out in chunks.

It's a huge turn-off to a lot of new readers seeing these super thick books, and it's even a turn-off to me when I do rereads because surprise surprise, I don't actually really give a fuck if Fitz likes Sophie back, or at least not enough to read 300 pages on it per book. If the books were more concise, not only would that fix a lot of the plot and character development issues, it would also make them way more digestible because to be honest with you I probably couldn't remember half of what happens in most of them.

2. Sophie...

I think this is a very polarizing opinion but I just kind of don't like Sophie as a main character? I honestly think she's fallen victim to becoming a Mary Sue and not even in a "wehhh powerful woman make me mad" type way! It's just that Sophie at her fullest power is undeniably the most powerful elf in a battle, so to counteract this, Shannon has to keep finding ways for the Neverseen to take away Sophie's power. Whether through the whole "she can only inflict everyone at once" thing or breaking every bone in her hand or creating forcefields or literally fucking anything to stop this kid with five million superpowers, they have to find a way to effectively tie her down so the battles seem somewhat realistic. This then creates a weird pattern where every battle goes one of two ways: Neverseen finds a way to effectively debilitate Sophie and all her friends, or she just goes fucking sicko mode and destroys everyone. You just can't have a main character who's this much ahead of everyone else in terms of raw power.

For me, I think the biggest issue with Sophie is she's not relatable to the average reader. The age demographic for Keeper is preteens and teens. How many 13 year olds are the most powerful, unstoppable person in their friend group, in which three hot guys are head-over-heels in love with them, living in very comfortable conditions, with like five hundred friends? If you were that fucking baller at 13 then go fuck yourself that's super cool for you! But the core pillars of Sophie's life, disregarding the all the magical stuff (which obviously requires some suspension of disbelief) are simply not relatable or recognizable to the average reader. So how are we as readers supposed to feel connected to Sophie's life and situation if we never have (and let's face it, never will) experience anything close to the more realistically human parts of her life?

3. Character development (and the lack thereof)

Say what you will but to me the character development is so pale and arguably just doesn't exist. It feels like everyone has become so one-dimensional, so predictable, and so limp. Sophie has it the worst because we read from her POV, so all of her quirks and thoughts become really fucking annoying to read over and over again. For example, The whole oblivious "omg does Dex like me? does Keefe like me? DO I LIKE FITZ???" thing was cute when she was 12 back in book one but by now I am genuinely tearing my hair out when I have to read "Sophie blushed" every two pages. The whole "I'm a freak and nothing I do ever works and all is hopeless" thing was easy to feel sympathy for the first few times, but by now it's just kind of... exhausting? It feels like the naïve, oblivious Sophie from book 1 is exactly the same person as Stellarlune Sophie, no matter how many hideouts SM makes her burn down to prove she's ruthless or something. At this point, I feel like Sophie's choices throughout the series end up either being really predictable or wildly out of left field.

Every character other than Fitz, Keefe, and Sophie (and you could make a case for the three of them too) have become a shadow of themselves and they all get at most two conversations worth of pagetime. This can be attributed to a lot of things that I don't feel like talking about so here they are in point form: excessive focus on the main "love triangle", overloaded cast of protagonists, too much emphasis on A) furthering the plot and B) Sophie's inner thoughts instead of character relationships and found family. I think the books have lost sight of the original love, trust, and bond created by the five mains, and those super interesting dynamics between the different sets of friends that were so abundant in the first few installements have become few and far between. When I was a kid, I loved the books for the warm friendships and soft moments between Sophie and Dex, and now we're lucky if they even really talk to each other if not to push the plot. Biana barely exists, Marella and Linh show up every once in a while to be gay as fuck and then leave, Stina turned nice and then immediately went back to being a bitch because SM, for some reason, un-did all her redemption, and everyone else fucks around until they're plot-relevant. Where's the squad where's the crew where's the homoerotic undertones?!

4. Miscellaneous whining

Fitz's character is wildly inconsistent imo. I love you Sophie but I'm going to consistently get mad at you over irrelevant things and ice you out even though you need my support! Your boyfriend is for the streets girl

Fuck this whole half-book thing I'm sorry. Understandably, things have slowed down now that SM has two kids and I'm really truly happy for her and I'm glad she's taking time out of her work for herself and her family. But when she keeps releasing these weird novellas every year as some kind of "solution", it really just seems like a cop-out or a cash grab. I wish we could tell Shannon that we don't necessarily need a 700+ page novel to consider it a book! I personally would love if book 10 was more concise!! Let's just get this plot moving a bit!!

Sophie burning Gisela's book BURNS MY BLOOD. SM just had no fucking idea what she wanted that book to say + it would probably end the series too quick so she got Sophie to burn the most crucial piece of information they could have ever used under pretense of "refusing to follow Gisela's trap" or whatever OH MY GOD

Sooo many dropped plot lines/plot holes there is no way this shit is being resolved in the next 1 and a half books. See you all in 2034 for book 13.125

Sokeefe endgame was great but so predictable. Half the reason most people read this series is for the will-they-won't-they thing with Sophie, Fitz, and Keefe (justice for Dex!), and I think it was executed very badly. You could predict that Sophie and Fitz would burn out, you could predict that she would end up with Keefe, there was net 0 suspense by the time Fitz made his 500th dick move. I know I just complained about things being stretched out for so long but this one could have done with some taking it slow without making it obvious what was going to happen

Can Marella and Linh just kiss already

Anyways this all comes from a place of loving frustration. Oh Keeper my love, look what has become of you. Ultimately, SM started a fantasy series without knowing the ending, and it's spun out of control, but what can you do? I appreciate the series for what it is, I wish it was better, but I'll always love it. Through all my bitching and moaning I'm still rereading it to this day so who's really winning here? Please rb and comment and dm I love discussing Keeper!!! If you think I'm an idiot tell me!!! If you agree with me tell me!!! Don't be a dick!! Thanks for making it this far! Don't forget to like and subscribe and smash that bell

[anaer]

fic writer asks: 4, 14, 24

✍️ more fic writer asks!

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

SO MANY. Sukugo lives rent free in my brain. Here is a (not at all comprehensive) list of some of the Sukugo fics I have planned:

The main one on my list is a pre-Shibuya "Sukuna seduces Gojo to evil" fic that I've been thinking about forever. It will be no longer than ten chapters. Ideally, eight or so.

I do also have a big dark, alternate canon stsg/sukugo fic I've been planning that goes AU when Gojo kills all the cultists in Hidden Inventory before Geto gets there, and Geto gets radicalized in the opposite direction supporting the higher ups over Gojo and lowkey gaslighting Gojo into accepting the ensuing punishment and the disastrous way that impacts everything and the resulting fallout which mainly happens when Sukuna incarnates years later. Cuz Gojo is pissed. No one will be good or nice in that fic except probably Yuuji who doesn't ever deserve to be involved in any of this, hahaha.

Then, I also want to write just some toxic no powers AU filthy kinky smut with like 18-20 year old Gojo trying (and succeeding) to get into Sukuna's pants. Not BDSM because nothing about them should ever be safe or sane.

Then there's immortal crime boss Sukuna who kills this pesky guy getting in his way, but plot twist: Gojo is also immortal and pops back up. Annoyingly.

I have also actually started the coffee shop serial killer AU lol, but it feels like I haven't because I only have one page written.

I have more, but these are the main ones directly on my list. This is of course not including the ones I'm already writing. I actually have a written list of JJK fic ideas, for various different ships. Sukugo is just my favourite.

14. where do you get your inspiration?

My hyperfixations, fml. But also talking to other people.

24. how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

When it comes to writing, I don't really have a way of recharging? But I rarely don't feel creative, and if I don't, I try to just write a little bit more anyway. Or I'll rewrite what I've got word for word. Or I'll just jump to a different fic: I can't stay stuck on one fic nonstop; it wears me out on that particular story. I do get distracted with video games, but that doesn't help my creative process at all, hahaha.

If I feel particularly drained by one fandom, I will usually end up jumping ship to another, and finding something new that hits will always recharge my creative batteries. I.e. the reason I'm not writing DC anymore: I feel like I used up all my good ideas, and the comics also started just wearing on me. I'm mostly surprised I still feel like writing for JJK at the moment because when a story disappoints me as badly as this one has (and I could write an essay on all my issues with the storytelling that have brought us to this point), normally I tap out. I feel drained, canon isn't really giving me anything new, I'm honestly not even engaging with canon directly anymore. I hear about what's going on through my friends. That's way past the death knell of my time in a fandom, but. Idk, man. Something about Gojo keeps me going; he's a character I could write forever. I have so many ideas, and I find writing them more rewarding than engaging with canon, which has never happened to me before.

[yourlilkaiju]

I don't often talk about Kuroshitsuji but lets talk about Grell and her incessant misgendering....

First and formost, look at this gorgeous lady. She's a god damned trans icon. She just screams femininity.

[So before I proceed, I need to warn you guys that there will be discussions regarding misgendering and also topics regarding murder, dog whistles, strawman theory, and matters pertaining to using trans and the lgbtq+ community as a scapegoat. Especially in media and religious circles.]

So to begin, as I was watching Black Butler-I noticed the frequent misgendering of one Miss Grell Sutcliff. Not once, not twice, but on several occasions. It has been painfully apparent that throughout the Manga and Anime that she has presented as female and not male. She has always referred to herself as a lady. Never once did she ever refer to herself as masculine. She has a direct nature and I absolutely adore that about her. But opinions aside, when you see how she acts and presents herself, she is presented as the femme fatale. She is a well developed character, and though she is pretty you find that she is still presented in a way that is ill befitting of one who is on the trans spectrum.

But I mean....you gotta have haters at some point, right?

Look at this beauty.

But no, ehem, the thing about her is that her work with Angelina Dalles, also known as Madam Red became known-was when audiences across the globe either loved her or hated her. And keep in mind, Grell was very much an awakening to many, if not a question some. So the manga ran with it. It is also stated repeatedly by Grell, if not animatedly that she is female. Not male. Not only in Book of ship. Not only during the course of the manga, but every single time she makes an appearance.

Now because of her nature, and the fact that she is very direct in her advances she is frequently vilified for knowing what she wants. I admire that. She's confident. She's forthright and while she creeps the men in her life out, she brushes it off and keeps on going. However, once again, it paints her in a poor light. Especially given a lot of media and beliefs surrounding trans folks today have...been less than savory. It's no excuse. Being under the trans umbrella myself, it's actually not uncommon. However it is also very heavily connected to race as well. For example, some ethnicities have features that aren't traditionally feminine to non-melanated individuals. Ergo, that "trans-woman" or "trans-man" that is being kicked out of the bathroom might be cis and just want their privacy, or feel unsafe. This could be due to religious circles and social conditioning. However, due to the frequent villification of the LGBTQ+ community we have these issues. It is also the same for misgendering and discrimination and so on. And yet, to assert dominance or control, it is absolutely necessary to take away power from someone by denying them the right to express who they are.

Many of us have experienced this at some point or another. It's kind of a drag. Hell, it's displayed in our core memories.

I'm rambling.

Grell is one of those characters who does not get enough love and I go gaga over. I feel like maybe if she were observed a little more closely, perhaps she would have a better understanding? Although, I would need to stop hyperfixating on Sephiroth and Final Fantasy, and I don't think I'm ready to do that just yet.....or ever. <.<;

Because then there will be more characters for me to hyperanalyze, like her and undertaker and then that will end up being an even bigger problem.

[aesolerin]

You should tell your audience about The One AU Damian you like and who you're sad about the fate of. for funsies (and yes i AM taking about our cursed fnaf AU. i regret nothing 😎)

sigh

this ask has been sitting in my inbox for long enough.

because i am crazy, i like to mash my hyperfixations together in wild crossovers every once in a while.

yes, my friends, i have the bare-bones skeleton of a Darkest Dungeon x Five Nights At Freddy's crossover tucked away in my DD folder.

many words lie beneath this readmore, all of it silly and self-indulgent. you are not obligated to continue reading if you don't know/care about one or the other franchise.

to be clear, this is a characters from A in the situations of B crossover. i will not even begin with the time-space shenanigans requires to put Junia inside the FnaF 2 office getting all new kinds of afflictions while Balloon Boy laughs at her.

setting: a storage/repair warehouse for (company name)'s broken/discontinued/Quirky animatronics. a weirdly religious and/or moralistic company, thanks to the religious heroes.

animatronics: The DD Cast

Highwayman/Dismas: a rat, and one half of the 'face' of the company and the 'rebellious badboy', supposed to be under-handed and quick to jump to violence on stage, but ours is easy to work with on and off stage. but he doesn't like to talk about the accident at his previous location :(

Crusader/Reynauld: a horse, the other half of the company's 'face' and the 'noble goody two-shoes'. definitely there to teach kids (and remind adults) about Good Behavior, but our guy is a lot more erratic off stage, and holds everyone else to the standards programmed in regards to himself.

Abomination/Bigby: the only one of his kind, a prototype animatronic with a 'shapeshifting' gimmick, but it never worked right and focus group testing showed he probably wasn't gonna be popular enough to warrant further development. 😔

Antiquarian/Josephine: a miserly 'jerk' during the show, except it isn't an act. don't let her have access to wifi, she'll go on amazon and somehow get all kinds of junk shipped to the facility. for some reason making her some kind of bug calls to me, but she could be one of the few 'human' animatronics, just covered up by scarves

Arbalest/Missandei: maybe some kind of bird, haven't decided yet, but she's an older model that is essentially frozen in her archery pose (yeah, she isn't an arbalest in that case, but pretending to draw back and 'release' a bow is less of a risk than a crossbow). at least she's gotten access to the wifi. and does, in fact, sometimes orders things for Josephine.

Bounty Hunter/Tardif: another potential 'human' animatronic, who doesn't have to show any kind of face beneath his cowl (and therefore either doesn't have a face or it's just a bare-minimum structure). with his intimidating stature and scary voice kids either loved him or were terrified. Accidents Happened at the location ours came from, particularly to the bullies and troublemakers.

Flagellant/Damian: my only notes for him are 'So Fucking Defective Holy Shit', but then Kade here came in and was like 'what if he created a distorted version of (DD-religion) because he's essentially a madman trapped in a basement with scraps of a bible' and it made me sad :(

Grave Robber/Audrey: maybe a slight downgrade in being more of a treasure hunter instead of a straight thief/Grave Robber, but at least she's a lighter/more friendly 'villain' on stage. definitely a cat. her model definitely Awakened a few sexualities in-universe. ours was actually starting to steal things from guests and staff.

Hellion/Boudica: a boisterous tomboy beloved by the kids, but anxious deep down. yes, that does essentially make her Roxanne, but at least she's a bear instead of a wolf! 😃

Hound Master/William: a dog, duh. definitely a walking safety sign, giving tips and warnings and such. our guy, though, seems to be behaving more mistrustfully after an Incident(tm) with his former location's security guards.

Jester/Sarmenti: species: Clown. a pretty advanced animatronic, honestly, capable of lots of complex movements and even playing simple tunes on a lute! but, to save on having to program complex facial movements for all the talking and singing he does, he doesn't have a face behind his mask. nobody talks about what happened at the location ours came from :)

Leper/Baldwin: a prototype, an attempt at a human animatronic! but his advanced outer covering required lots of expensive maintenance that was no longer worth it. it's rotted and decayed by now, and he'd rather stay in his secluded corner of the warehouse 😞

Man-At-Arms/Barristan: maybe a cow or a rhino? he's portrayed as a goofy and stubborn old man on stage, but our guy came from a shut-down location and he's got some Erratic Behaviors(/animatronic ptsd)

Musketeer/Margaret: a prototype design in an attempt to 'update' Missandei's model, but development was shut down because Gun. she would have been a 'villain' at least, and there are still gaps in her incomplete programming.

Occultist/Alhazred: a protoype from the 80's at the height of the Satanic Panic, and yea if he isn't an anthro (is octopus too easy?) he's probably got a racist design 😔. development was shut down for Obvious Reasons. but weird shit happens in his little corner of the facility........

Shieldbreaker/Amani: if she's not some kind of reptile she could be a mongoose. very advanced design, maybe even the sole prototype, capable of complex dancing without needing the support of the stage's machinery. but ours at least was almost stolen and her hand was broken off in the process, with some expensive repairs required 😞

Plague Doctor/Paracelsus: mayhaps a Mystery Bird under her mask, or mayhaps Not..... does she even need a face? she's characterized as a quack/old-fashioned doctor on stage, but ours is frustrated by that after accessing Basic Research on the internet. no matter how many times her memory banks get wiped, she gets Right Back On Her Bullshit.

Vestal/Junia: a sweet lil sheep who is the most overt religious/moralistic animatronic of all the company's models. ours has weird Voyeuristic tendencies and has somehow developed a sense of Religious Guilt.

Runaway/Bonnie: tempted to make her a lizard or salamander, but some kind of small cute mammal is probably a better fit. our is for sure a busted-up model that's been in several locations where deadly fires occurred, and doesn't like to talk about that funny coincidence.

Duelist/Sahar: maybe some kind of bird of prey? very haughty and proud on stage with the pretend fights, and ours was starting to take it too far and genuinely attacking her co-animatronics before getting booted to this facility.

yeah, i guess you could say this whole thing is more of a Gay Baby Robot Jail than the overt horror of FnaF, but there could be psychological horror and questions regarding what it means to be human/alive and qualms about having to essentially lobotomize these sapient beings into being compliant with the Ancestor's designs/wishes. also why did the Ancestor found this company and develop such advanced robotics, hmm? 🤔

thank u for making it all the way to the end of this silly crossover. have a cupcake 🧁

[my-name-is-bunnyfoxy]

For the TMNT Ships Ask Thing:

Caseynardo (Leo x Casey)

and/or

Aprilnardo/Leopril (Leo x April)

I love these 2 ships so much. I know they are kind of rarepairs (though, MM gave a lot of love to Leopril and there has been a lot more Leopril stuff. Which is great!), but I love them.

They are very dear to my heart. Personally.

Caseynardo 2012:

I've never heard of it until long time later

Now I'm just kicking my feet

YESSSSSSS

Silly goofball jock x serious and quiet nerd RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SCREW LEORAI

TO MAKE THIS BETTER LEO IS PRETTY MUCH BI IN THE SERIES (He's stated to have a man crush on Captain Ryan)

THE WAY THEY LOOKED AT EACH OTHER IN THAT ONE EPISODE

I'm aware they were kind of trash talking big foot in a foot too big but they were STILL bonding!!!

Please read Breaking the Ice by @fabuloustrash05 . I stopped studying for a few minutes to just read it and I'm proud. Disclaimer don't ditch your studies to just read fanfics that is not my message.

Anyways the fnafic solified my love for the ship.

Opposites attract

I can also see them as two friends who act gay but actually aren't or maybe they are.

Or two guys who seem gay but~ (inset bisexuality)

It's amazing. A solid 10/10.

2012 Aprilnardo:

We sadly don't get too much content with them but like-

I remember I was kind of introduced to this ship because I followed one of my idols who shipped it and made fanart of it and it was on DA. This was back before it got deactivated my account.

I LOVE 'Eyes of the chimera' episode. They were basically supporting each other all the way.

Ngl the transfem Leo lovers made me love it even more because I love me some lesbians. TMNT is already filled with some lesbians so why not add more!

I love how April is always by Leo's side and we see how much she cares for him.

I love the idea that April used to be into Space Heroes and then Leo got her back into it.

(For those who headcannon as both autistic) they would so totally talk and rant about their hyperfixation.

I wish though they had more moments together.

They are legit underrated.

The ship will get 9/10 for me.

I'll include rise and the mutant mayhem version cause why not.

Rise Leo x Cassandra:

Meh not bad

It's okay at best

I do feel like they could have become very close friends if Cass left junior under Leo's care in the bad future.

They are both reckless and over energetic and yet still have a lot of insecurities and issues that they have to cover it up.

Not a bad idea I suppose.

I guess 4.5/10. I don't know. We didn't get much of them so I mean.

Rise Leo x Junior:

ABSOLUTELY NOT

DNI IF YOU SHIP THEM

LEO WAS LITERALLY A FATHER FIGURE TO CASEY

"But I'm shipping the teen version of Leo with junior not adult-" NO. IT DOESN'T MAKE IT ANY BETTER.

ALSO IMAGINE DATING YOUR FRIEND'S SON. THAT WOULD BE SO DAMN UNCOMFORTABLE.

AGAIN, LEAVE MY PAGE IF YOU SHIP THEM.

Negative 0/10. Get the f out.

Rise Leo x April:

I've seen and been bombared by a ton of art regarding this ship on YT.

Controversial opinion: It's cute.

They both have the same energy and another controversial opinion but, Leo has a way closer relationship with April then Donnie. I've kind of seen more scenes with them together then with her and Donnie.

Though just like last time I prefer her being an older sister figure to him that Leo looks up to.

They both care for each other and love each other no matter what.

April pretty much comforts the turtles about their insecurities so she would do the same with Leo.

Probably a 6/10 or something. Again, prefer them as siblings but don't hate it. I'll kind of indulge in it tbh-

Mutant Mayhem Leo x April:

Better then 2012 Donnie's lmao-

They do have sweet moments

It's sweet they went to prom together

Mah boi was simping real hard

I feel like they should have gotten more scenes

I do feel like maybe April and Leo won't really happen or be cannon though. I don't know man. I'll see how it goes in the Tales of TMNT that will happen in 2024.

I'm really hoping they don't make it into a toxic love triangle or make it creepy or toxic.

I'll take this ship anyway as one of the only few good Leo romances.

It took them after 1987 to finally give Leo a good love interest.

the way he looks at her AHHHHHHHHH

The fanart of them together is really cute and wholesome (that made me remember that I still had that art request from you just sitting in my files- I didn't draw it because I didn't see MM yet- I'll try and get to it at some point I swear-)

Hope we get more scenes of them together

I'm unsure where I sit with this ship just yet. Again I'll see how it goes in the show.

For now, 7/10. I feel like a bit too high but you know what, whatever. The ship is okay so far.

Now...

Is anyone interested in Caprilnardo~?

[starry-on-ao3]

✨20 questions for fic writers✨

Inspired by @naquey - thought it would be fun to chime in 🥰

How many works do you have on Ao3?

15

What's your total word count?

102,267

What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, All Creatures Great And Small. In the distant past, Harry Potter (and in the very very distant past, Dan and Phil). Have also brainstormed Good Omens fics but never written anything there.

Top five fics by kudos?

Home Is Where Audrey Is

How long have you felt this way?

Close To You (this fic is my darling baby, I am pouring ever fiber of my being into it, it occupies all of my blasted waking thoughts, it is my magnum opus)

The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot

See you at the end of the aisle

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! I only apologise if I am ever late to respond, but I always do, and they make my day. I have been spotted skipping happily around the checkout queue in the grocery store more times than I can count when I get those wonderful Ao3 emails 🫶

What fic did you write with the angstiest ending?

Research isn't as boring as it sounds, actually - this one ended sort of happily, but Tristan and and Richard had just had their first fight as a couple, and that was difficult to write 🥺 I hate causing my boys pain (I say, while Close To You is still in progress 😬)

What fic did you write with the happiest ending?

How long have you felt this way? - the candles, the Christmas music, Tristan very slowly building up to a confession - this one was everything 🥰

Do you get hate on fics?

Never have, but even if I did, I don't think it would faze me too much tbh, I have a think skin! If you don't like, don't read, I don't care :)

Do you write smut?

Absolutely 100% not, nothing makes me feel more icky 😣 I've no issue with referencing smut off-screen though, or writing it as a 'fade to black' thing, or writing a character's emotions about sex/intimacy, but the actual smut itself? nopenopenopenope I just can't–

Craziest crossover?

Haven't done one yet, but I am cooking a Downton Abbey / ACGAS crossover idea

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! (But if anybody would like fics translated into Romanian from English, or into English from Romanian, hmu!)

Have you ever co written a fic before?

Nope, but always happy to collaborate!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I sure hope not! 😐

All-time favourite ship?

That's a tough one...i have too many lol. My current hyperfixation ship is Tristan Farnon and Richard Carmody from ACGAS (those 102,000 words? they are all written since Nov 18th last year and are all about these dorks), but that's a very recent one. If I had to pick one which has stuck with me for years and years, it would be Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens. Also Mary and Matthew from Downton Abbey.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A Sirius Black/Severus Snape/OC love triangle which I very much doubt will ever be finished - it's on FFN, under a different name, good luck trying to find it lol 😂

What are your writing strengths?

I hope it's my dialogue, it's what I enjoy writing the most anyway. Have also been told my prose is very good!

What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing comedy/wit/sarcasm, smut, (and not allowing my WIPs to completely take over my waking thoughts to the point that I can't even look at a fucking treadmill in the gym without thinking of how this could be turned into a Farmody meet-cute), and fight scenes I guess?

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I don't have any strong opinions on this, never given it any thought. I have done it before but I didn't put much thought into it (it was a scene in the Snape/OC fic where the OC wanted to hide what she was reading from Snape, so she magically changed the text on the page to Irish, so that Snape couldn't understand it).

First fandom you ever wrote in?

Dan and Phil.

Favourite fic you've ever written?

Oh, I couldn't possibly pic a favourite :)

[daylander1000]

Hi, I just wanted to say I really love your fic. Aemond/Rhaena dynamics is so well written and I enjoyed their dialogues. There is a lot of shared grief, misunderstandings, compassion and banter between the two and I've actually always thought that their show versions could've functioned well as a couple because they are so different and yet so similar at the same time.

Also, I'm glad you didn't make Rhaena and Baela another Rhaenyra's worshippers like in the show because that doesn't make much sense and it baffles me that Baela in her deleted scene with Rhaenys sees Rhaenyra as "her queen" and supports her unconditionally. I mean, Rhaenyra is a woman who replaced her mother so soon, she is also their father's niece and a woman whose sons will inherit not just the Iron Throne but also Driftmark, even though they have no Velaryon blood. Moreover, Baela didn't spend much time with her on Dragonstone because she was Rhaenys' ward on Driftmark, learning there what Luke should have been learning. And somehow, we are still supposed to believe that Baela and Rhaena are perfectly content with their situation? They are not just happy to be betrothed to Jace and Luke but also, they are not upset at all after they saw how (and why) Vaemond was killed? It's hard to believe this.

Another thing that bothered me in the show is this forced hostility between Rhaena, Baela and Aemond, but even more the instant friendship and closeness with Jace and Luke. Baela and Rhaena met Aemond and Rhaenyra's sons for the first time at Laena's funeral and, according to the show, they just decided they hated Aemond for no reason at all? "It's him" sounded too hostile and while I understand Rhaena's anger and grief at that specific moment, it sounded like the girls already hated Aemond's guts before the incident with Vhagar which is ridiculous. Furthermore, why would Baela and Rhaena enter Jace's room and ask for his help ? Not their father's help, their grandparents' or even one of the guards', but the boy's they met that same day. It seems to me that the writers just didn't want or didn't have time to bother with deeper analysis and needed to make all the children from TB super close and supportive of one another, so that was apparently reason enough to gang up on Aemond. Idk, I just don't buy the instant unconditional friendship between the Strong boys and Laena's daughters, nor the hostility toward Aemond. That's why I'm glad you are exploring their dynamics realistically.

I'm so sorry if this was too long. Once again, love SWHHW and I'm looking forward to the next chapters, especially Aemond/Rhaena scenes. Oh, and Alicent and Criston too, you write them so well.

Too long? 😅 This is where I come to hyperfixate on all things fictional. Too long???

(this is gonna be long af)

First, thank you for reading. Rhaemond is so much fun. At first, all I had was hate for this series, but tumblr forced me to open my heart a little and let this ship in.

It's fun to try to be a little realistic about it. I love when people deconstruct tropes. Like The Boys taking a look at how someone raised in a lab with Superman's powers might actually turn out to be a nightmare. But it doesn't always have to grimdark stuff. We can do some shipping.

We had Sky High about how a boy from a superpowered family would feel if he had no powers. Why can't we explore life for a dragonless girl raised in a Dragon-Makes-Right family? And why not ship her with the only other person in her who can relate to growing up dragonless in a Dragon-Makes-Right family?. This is what fanfiction is for. 😅

I can't help but think about it.

Like, there are a lot of series/movies that are underwritten in the way that you get out of the cinema and then you think something like, "Well, no. The stock market would freeze financial transactions if a supervillain went after Bruce Wayne's holdings." But HotD is underwritten in the sense that you're watching it in real time and thinking "Okay, don't stop there. Finish that sentence in a way that makes sense." And then they finish it with something bizarre like for instance "history remembers names" as if Westeros isn't the country that invented special names for bastards because they take that shit seriously.

The insta-friendship with Jace/Luke, the insta-beef with Aemond... It's just so weirdly done. They took the time to write the scene where Rhaenyra tells Jace, "Hey, your cousins are sad, their mother just died," and he's like, "Yeah, well, I'm sad too. Remember Harwin?" And then he grudgingly goes over, and Baela just sort of latches on to his hand... It's too one-sided for me.

They took the time to let you know that he wasn't in a friend-making mood. And it makes sense, because we know that Rhaenyra is planning to go after Daemon and she's like, "They're gonna be stepsiblings by tomorrow," but Jace doesn't know that. Both sets of children there are grieving a parent. They're strangers. Who makes friends at a funeral? It's not the time or place.

And I know the goal is to make Jace look like the self-suffering type of chivalrous gentleman who befriends pitiful women in need, but it's just too overtly disingenuous to me. The whole friendship. It's just not organic imo. It's this contrived thing the writers just pulled out of their ass like a trump card because "they were friends in the book," failing to realize how incoherent their adaptation was turning out.

I mean, let's pretend Baela and Rhaena are fleshed out 3d characters instead of plot devices. At this point, pre-wedding, they have no reason to think that they're never going back home to Pentos or never seeing their actual friends again.

Are there children in this world who go to their mother's funeral who come out of it thinking "The important thing is the friends we made." ??? Are they really looking to be recruited into Jace's beef with Aemond? Are they invested in that?

Cause it's not even really the "green v black" drama if you think about it, because Jace gets along well enough with Aegon and apparently Helaena, so at this point pre-maiming, it's really just a general "this kid doesn't have the latest toy" type bullying of Aemond for not having a dragon.

After Harwin dies, is Jace really just seething over Aemond? Does he dislike Aemond to the point that he can't wait for new blood in his gang? Is he really taking Rhaena and Baela aside to pitch them on the benefit of making an alliance for the few days they're in town?

How does Jace even explain that they've been laughing at Aemond for not having a dragon? How does he do that in a way that makes Rhaena (who also doesn't have a dragon) want to join in? Is he just like "If Aemond comes bothering you, don't go to your father or grandfather, come to me and I'll handle him. See, I'm the sheriff in these here parts. I don't take kindly to dragon-rustlers, and mark my words, that boy Aemond is a rustler if I ever saw one."

It's him, who?

They never give us a single conversation between the children to show why Baela and Rhaena pledged allegiance to Jace and Luke and decided that Jace and Luke's enemies were theirs, now and forever.

The word "bastard" is clearly Jace's berserk button, so we also know he didn't pitch them like "So I'm a bastard, but we've all agreed to pretend I'm not, except for the queen who's a real bitch who's like 'bastards shouldn't inherit over trueborn sons,' or whatever. Anyway, Aemond is the nastiest skank bitch you'll ever meet. Don't trust him. He's a dragon-stealing fugly slut."

But anyway, let's say that Baela and Rhaena spent their mother's funeral drinking the Kool Kidz of King's Landing Kool-Aid™. And let's say they have zero post-maiming regrets about the 4-on-1 attack on Aemond even though we clearly see them stop taking part in the violence after Jace pulls a blade. Doesn't that change after the wedding?

There's no way you're fine with someone claiming your mother's husband if one day earlier you were pissed as shit about someone claiming your mother's dragon.

And then on top of that Baela gets sent away. All Rhaenyra's children stay huddled and cuddled while Rhaena and Baela get split up. For years.

Baela's been on Driftmark with Rhaenys for years. They go out of their way to present the situation as hostile. Rhaenyra and Daemon have one granddaughter, Rhaenys has the other one. Rhaenyra thinks Rhaenys is fully going to throw her under the bus and is desperately asking her to accept a betrothal as a compromise, so we can assume that Baela and Jace haven't been flying back and forth, hanging out and chilling, growing up together, etc.

And Baela definitely hasn't been flying over every weekend either saying "Hey, my grandmother is super cool with what you guys did to Laenor, come visit for Thanksgiving. It's all bygones! We started using the fireplace again for marshmallows and it's like she doesn't even remember her son burning to death in there. It's totally fine!"

And Rhaenys hasn't seen Rhaena in years so she's not going over to visit either. And yet, so many years later, Baela wants to go do another team-up beatdown with Jace because Aemond said the b-word again? Why?

Are she and Jace star-crossed lovers kept apart by her grandmother's sensless standoff against Rhaenyra for no real reason (aside from her murdered son)? She's been trying to talk Rhaenys into accepting Rhaenyra as their rightful queen? Trying to get Rhaenys to swear allegiance to her son's killers?

But okay, even if in some scenario we say that Baela's been flying over to Dragonstone to visit her sister and the others and she's good friends with all of them.

Why is it still so one-sided? That's the crux of it for me. She's giving up her claim on Driftmark out of her friendship withJace, and Luke and Jace are doing what exactly? What is Baela getting out of the friendship?

Rhaenys got shot down but we're supposed to believe that she's been raising Baela to think that Rhaenyra is beyond a doubt going to be queen and that "King Jace" is a sure thing, so "yeah, even though his mother killed my son, keep that friendship strong and hopefully he marries you. Fingers crossed. And hopefully he's a good husband. His mother and your father left my son to burn in a fireplace until he was unrecognizable just so they could get married but aside from that, I'm sure they'll be excellent rulers. You'd be lucky to marry Jace. Marriage is the best. Look how glorious my life's been as Corlys's wife. Don't you want this exact same life that I have, where I ask my husband to do things and he's like no? My children are dead because of his poor decision-making and my lack of a say in anything, but it's more fun than it looks. I am loving life. So glad I wasn't queen myself because it doesn't get any better than this, granddaughter. You should be this lucky."

I mean, it is totally possible that the showrunners went to all the actresses and writers and said that all the female characters should be treated like "women for trump".

Rhea—Big dyke energy from you. You die first cause you're not fuckable.

Laena—you're a nag and you have failed at childbirth. That is your one purpose in life. This is so embarrassing; you should just kill yourself.

Rhaenyra—were you groomed or were you into it? Domestic abuse isn't actually all that bad, it's a little light choking. You're into it. Women need to stop emasculating their men in the name of feminism. Upgrading wives 3 or 4 times is normal, he might have treated the ones before you like shit, but you're special. Maybe.

Alicent—You are a church lady. Be good and listen to your husband and your father, and just, you know, be obedient like it says in the bible. You don't do any plotting at all. Yeah, just turn that cheek. Keep turning it. Serve your husband. Marital rape isn't even a thing, so you know, take care of him like a good wife.

Rhaenys—well, you're the hypothetical postmenopausal crazy bitch who should not be trusted with nuclear codes because you'll kill a bunch of people due to hormones and mean girl catfighting, etc.

Helaena—*checks notes* are dreamers the same as manic pixie dream girls? you get to speak in riddles constantly. Like women do... Jace will dance with you and that'll sort of define you. We just need you to give birth really, so...

Rhaena—Your role is Dangerous Urban Youth, but you grow up and learn your place. Less is more. Remember: seen, not heard.

Baela—We let women inherit but only certain women, so you're essentially the Black Best Friend. You know. No purpose outside of defending the white main chracters in your life who you would gladly die for. You're the type of Good Woman™ who hands over her entire paycheck to her man because she knows he really needs it, mixed in with some Cool Girl™. You're cool with anything and everything he does. No opinions on nothing, sort of like your sister, but Cool.

What is this show and how does it exist in 2023 on HBO?

[cringelordofchaos]

(for"sendacharacterandilllist"askgame) DREWWWWWWWWWWWWW

YAYYAYAYAYAYA SOMEONE ASKED ME

ok so drew !!!

favorite thing about them

everything. But if I had to choose then maybe his attachment issues or those little spiky strane of hair above one of his ears

least favorite thing about them

just the fact that his backstory is not revealed yet. Like I hope the whole "he has family issues and feels detached from them making him have a complicated and toxic view kn relationships as well as attachment issues" headcanon ks revealed to be canon otherwise, if he's acting the way he is just bc he does, then he makes for a pretty boring character no matter how "realistic" it would be (which it kinda wouldn't but whatever that's a separate discussion). so yeah like the lack of traits rather than the traits themselves ig. Though rosyclozy said season 2 is druffering 2 so I am EXCITED

brOTP

dria. draisy. dracy. idfk which I should pick. endless possibilities. and they all parallel each other in one way or another and I fucking love them platonically but I'm not interested in them romantically if I'm gonna be honest. they'd all fix him

OTP

this is so unfathomably predictive and obvious of me but Drake/PlumPeach like come on a) I relate to Drew's "I'm in love with my best friend but they can't know and they're in love with someone else" situation heavily,there are endless analyses to be made and written, endless fic potential, SO MANY songs about breakups that just Fit Them, they make each other worse and also interesting characters. Someone once called me an abuse apologist that should never date anyone because I shipped them? LMAO. that was like 3/2 years ago though. without drake drew just like... wouldnt have character. Which says a lot. Second OTP is HOT TAKE droey. I made a whole fucking post abt them please don't @ me o can explain themselves - also droey angst. Also they're complicated af as well. But they are also pretty annoying so I'm not sure lmao. Dria rules too but prefer it platonic

nOTP

Idk drelliot .?? It's so unfathomably cliche and stereotypical toxic yaoi material and I hate it but I also think it's funny so idk I don't really have notps unless it's siblings or bad age gaps cuz they make me uncomfortable

random headcanon

do I have to share only one? I want more so I'll do more. I think he's Filipino, he had one of those glow in the dark shoes in elementary school and flexed them HARD, he has major depressive disorder and maybe borderline personality disorder, he hyperfixates on video games, listens to mostly emo rap, spends most of his time inside during summer, gets a new iphone every year, cyberbullies little kids on roblox, also still plays roblox, gets expensive watches just to flex and also bc he measures his worth by wealth his parents give him bc that's the only love they show him LMAO, and thinks furries and weebs are cringe, and also i love him

unpopular opinion

he actually loved/loves zoey

song I associate with them

ok how about I drop my whole playlist for them instead

Alex G - Nintendo 64

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

Annika Bennett - Boy Who Has Everything

Billie Eilish - Wish U Were Gay

BoyWithUke - Toxic

Conan Gray - Heather

DoshVO - Dear Jake

DoshVO - Do You Wanna Bully Hailey?

DoshVO - Like a Six "Zoey Diss"

DoshVO - Move Along

ElyOtto - SugarCrash!

Fran Vasilić - eyes blue or brown can't remember

5 Seconds Of Summer - Teeth

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

Jack Stauber - Cupid

Kaden Mackay - Don't You Dare (Make Me Fall In Love With You)

Kali Uchis - Just A Stranger

Laufey - From The Start

Laufey - Promise

Laufey - Second Best

Liana Flores - papercut

Mitski - Old Friend

Olivia Rodrigo - drivers license

Olivia Rodrigo - traitor

Olivia Rodrigo - vampire

Regina Spektor - Two Birds On A Wire

Rex Orange County - Best Friend

Rex Orange County - Sunflower

Rex Orange County - Television / So Far So Good

Steven Universe - It's Over Isn't It

The Front Bottoms - Be Nice To Me

The Vaccines - Heartbreak Kid

The Walters - I Love You So

...wow. I really thought I had more - whatever, more to be added w time, dw

Also the song "you better move on" I have no idea who made it ???????? I just listened to the cover by Frank Wattkinson lmao

favorite picture of them

ooof this one's heard. I mean hard. shut up

ok ok so I like this one .

cuz he's just done with him. looks angry but probably suppressing his years so fucking much. leaving Jake behind after such struggle and effort to keep him... dam (and it also shows their height difference lmfao)

Or one of these !!

Another ones from the finale, he's just laughing and smiling from the sheer pain he's in and the utter irony that is his friendship with Jake and he's so hurt but he's probably doing this to keep himself from crying but he's also probably just laughing at how pathetic he is for trusting Jake or believing that they really had something when it all turned out to be a huge lie and he just can't believe in himself or anyone anymore

ahahaha

this one's just him being jelly like eurgj. 😠😒

this one's a funny reaction image concept

and I also love this one cuz like, first of all lol at his eyebags he's either been crying or not getting any sleep or BOTH, he'd also in a call with Zoey trying to get him back and he's just looking at the side like he's mad at her and he's hurt by her but he also looks like he's trying so hard to resist idk how to explain it man he can't deal with her but he can't deal without her yknow what I mean

Thank you for asking !!!!!!

[shukakumoodboard]

anon i hope you are able to find this because you asked my original blog and i’m trying to stealthily migrate so my irls can't find me dkgjhfkjl

answers below the cut <3

would you like some fandomy thoughts?

1. list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s) [which ofc im answering for gaalee]

the discord i'm in for it is the highlight of my day and forms approximately 65% of my social life! who knew you could hyperfixate on some gay ninjas and as a result, end up visiting people irl and getting christmas cards and making incredible friends all over the world? pretty sure i have standing invites to homes in at least 3 different countries rn. incredible

fic quality is fuckin'. superior. and i'm not saying that because i write, i'm saying that as a reader. it's a smallish fandom and yet there's folks who can write full-length novels like @sagemoderocklee and @the-moss-project, people who can write every possible trope and au greyson's georg @ghoste-catte and @urieskooki and so many others i couldn't list them all. it's beyond obvious that the authors who write the gaalees are SO passionate about them. writers i lov you evryday

seguing from that into art!?!? pleas i have a dragon hoard of fanart only for my fics and there's over 100 pieces. A HUNDRED ARE TIOYU GIKISDINDIGME. giving u all a kissy rn. also the way i can get on discord and get immediately smacked in the face with bespoke paneenis liike every day help. gheelpp don't look at me. i will save my money and commission every one of u if its the last htign i do

2. a headcanon you weren’t sure about at first but have come to like!

oho! ready for this one? i was initially not super on board with hairy!lee. what was i on actually. me, a Wrong, and now i will purposefully include it in every fic as a sign of penance for my sins

3. answered!

4. say something nice about a ship you don’t ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual’s OTP, etc)

those who know me know that i strictly see leesaku as a brOTP, like those dudes are buddies to me. but that being said, i think leesaku as a romantic pairing is far healthier for sakura than her canon partner. lee is capable of so much love and forgiveness and they do parallel each other so much as the like... "underdog"/non-gifted member of their respective teams. she deserves love and support and understanding and lee would be genuinely ideal for it.

5. something you see in fics a lot and love

sunans (and team gai) being multilingual. oml one of my fave headcanons. you cannot tell me these different countries with different isolated villages are all casually speaking the same language when in big chunks of nart they didn't even like. get along properly. i loooove the concept of a shinobi common tongue and regional languages. further on that same thing, given team gai is pretty chinese-coded, i think it makes sense that they'd also be speaking another langauge, whether taught by gai or just because of their own independent histories or whatever. @sagemoderocklee has some truly stunning worldbuilding and it where i got my love for this hc from <3

6. something you see in art a lot and love

h-h-h-hHEIGHT DIFFERENCEEEEEEE

ok joking aside i refuse to believe gaara made it past like 5'3" that man did not sleep for his whole adolescence. conversely lee was probably on the Optimum Macros and that healthy eating would 100% contribute to maximum height gains etc. that man deserves to be 6 feet tall, that's my opinion and im right

thank you so much for the opportunity to gush about my blorbos <3

[lividria]

Pikmin Theory: The Sparkly Wraith

⚠️CONTENT WARNING: HEY! PIKMIN⚠️

This post is huge, so I'm just putting the entire thing under the cut.

Preamble

So, during my Pikmin hyperfixation, which I can't even tell if it's over or not, really, I was getting really into trying to solve Pikmin lore, and never really got to put the pieces together. The reason? I watched DazzReviews' decade-old video about Umibozu Theory. No offense to the guy, I used to watch his other videos, but that fucking theory gave me one of the worst headaches of my life with how horrible it was and how little sense the points made. It made me feel physical pain. So, naturally, when I saw references to the theory start popping up in the wild, I just... Gave up. I've been avoiding Pikmin lore theorizing like the plague ever since, because, like, I don't want that to happen again. But then I realized I can't escape it, even if I tried, and I know that because I just saw it brought up in passing. Again. I know there's modern updates of the theory to get it up to date to Pikmin 4, but I'm not checking them to see if they hurt my head too.

Meanwhile, I brought this up in a previous post, but one of my friends around this time started making terrible Nintendo game ideas as part of a long-term troll him, me and another friend have been planning for a while now, and I... Got way too into the Pikmin ideas for it. I was trying to come up with really dumb lore, using all the dumb trivia I've learned, and instead via divine revelation was given this theory. I thought I got myself out, but this has pulled me back in. I probably could've left all of this out, but it's a funny story, so...

I have at least one other big theory for Pikmin lore, so I may type that up some time, too.

Part 1: Prerequisite Knowledge/Assumptions

This is assuming you're at least familiar with all 5 Pikmin games and what happens in them. In other words, spoilers. But you've had years to figure this all out, I don't need to say that.

I don't know yet if this will be all too relevant, but I'm working under the assumption that the timeline is 1 -> 2 -> 4 -> 3 -> Hey!. The Koppai food crisis is mentioned to be incoming in 4, and the Treasure Catalog entries for the music box treasure with Pikmin 3's title theme imply that the game's events haven't happened yet, especially Olimar's. In Pikmin 3, Hocotate Freight's almost bankrupt again, Olimar's using the Hocotate Ship, and the S.S. Dolphin's seemingly been sold... Again (They probably bought it back in-between Pikmin 2 & 4 with the newfound company wealth), and Olimar mentions wanting to buy it again, and then he has the S.S. Dolphin II in Hey!, where he also recognizes the Pikmin 3 Pikmin, meaning it's either after 4 or 3, so there you go. No, I don't have an explanation for how Pikmin 2's globes imply PNF-404 looks like present-day Earth, when Pikmin 3 has Pangaea Proxima, or a couple other inconsistencies (The Voyage Logs do seem to be non-chronological, iirc the "I'm so very tired..." log with a picture of Hero's Hideaway appears before Olimar goes there, and Olimar was keeping logs in Pikmin 1 & 2 that we may also be seeing to explain why he's seemingly unfamiliar with things like Pikmin & Onions, so like... Other stuff besides those), you'll have to figure that out for yourself.

Speaking of Pangaea Proxima, yea, if you look at the map in Pikmin 3's area select, you'll see it's actually based on a speculative map of what the world will look like in roughly 300 million years, and it's named Pangaea Proxima... I think there was another name, Pangaea Ultima or something, but I prefer Proxima. The only difference is the Formidable Oak's placement, when it's not supposed to be there in the actual map. So that gives us a time placement for when the games are taking place, and humans went extinct... At some point. No, I don't know why Hero's Hideaway indicates recent habitation, or how all of the treasures are perfectly preserved, you'll have to figure that out for yourself. Or, more accurately, for me.

Anyways, Sparklium. A bizarre material that doesn't have mass, but is found in... Basically every object you can think of? All of the treasures in Pikmin 4 & Hey! Pikmin, but are primarily found in metallic objects. It also seems to manifest as gold nuggets, though it can also be red, rainbow, or an acorn... Wait, how can it be an object if it has no mass? Anyways, it can be used as fuel, and doesn't seem to ever run out, as you don't spend it in either game, you keep it all, and there's a ship part called a Sparklium Converter that... Converts Sparklium to usable fuel, I guess, and for some reason when it's lodged into the Leech Hydroe, that makes it incredibly angry. The solidified Sparklium primarily appears in Sparklium Springs, lakes of water with an inexplicable rainbow aura shooting up into the sky where Sparklium nuggets will periodically spill everywhere.

We don't know if those are on PNF-404, but they're definitely on the Hey! Pikmin planet, which was also home to a human civilization comparable to our own that is also gone now... Which doesn't make sense, if we're talking space colonization, but whatever. I've named this planet Heihei, because... Hey!, and also it's a word for Chicken in another language, which is funny. Heihei also shares wildlife with PNF-404, for some reason, somehow including Pikmin when you can assume that if Leafling dogs can't leave the planet, Pikmin shouldn't be able to either, but that's for you to figure out for yourself.

Also, someone did the math on all of the people who have crashed on PNF-404 because of the asteroids around it, and it's over 20 crashes. The only people who have gotten there without interruption have been Olimar & the President returning for Louie in Pikmin 2, Olimar and Louie returning to PNF-404 for more treasure in Olimar's Assignment and again to fix the Hocotate Ship in Olimar's Comeback, and Pom (Is it common knowledge that's the community name for the Pikmin 4 protagonist? Just in case, that's who Pom is.) coming to save the Rescue Corps (and everyone else).

Speaking of the Rescue Corps, you can unlock diary entries from the past that imply the little people are descendants of humanity after some sort of apocalypse drove them underground:

"The surface! We made it at last! Finally, we can begin making a fresh start here on this planet. Of course, it will take many long months and years before what we've built here will be anything like what we once had. But we won't be alone. Our beloved dogs will be by our side as we walk this long, difficult road."

"Many years have passed since we first began to make this land our new home. Still, we need more time to complete our environmental adaptations. In the meantime, we must survive so that, one day, we can pass down this new history to our children, and pass down the ways we've learned to rescue and protect everyone. One day we will live here in peace."

""Beyond the sky itself there lies a beautiful blue planet." Those words have been passed down from captain to captain, calling to each of us. I can't imagine what sort of place this blue planet might be, but it's said to be home to even more dogs and folks that we have here. One day, I hope to fly beyond the sky...and into space."

I'm probably forgetting something, I'll figure it out as I write out the actual theory.

Part 2: The Shining Demon

Humanity somehow went extinct on at least two different planets, and Sparklium is also absolutely everywhere on those two planets. The Sparklium Springs' rainbow aura is... Uh... Strange, that's not how things work, it looks otherworldly, and Sparklium is inexplicably spilling out of it, and they all have water. We already know about some otherworldly being associated with water: The Water Wraith. Them and a couple other instances (Glow Pikmin, the Smoky Progg and Gloom are the first things that come to mind) show that there's some esoteric unexplainable property of the Pikmin universe allowing for strange, almost paranormal things to occur.

I don't have a clean transition into this, but hear me out: There's a supernatural entity of some sort that I'm naming the Shining Demon, that somehow threatened humanity on all of it's planets, so the people got together and broke it apart into Sparklium, and sealed all of it away in the Sparklium Springs of Heihei, probably in some sort of extradimensional space (Fun fact, there's a random reference to the "Master of Dimension X" in a Pikmin 2 sales pitch that goes unexplained, so I'll refer to this as Dimension X from now on just to use the name), with that rainbow aura over the water being the magic seal. However, over time, the seal began to fade, and the Sparklium began to spill out, and integrate into all of the objects around the planet, probably spreading to PNF-404 when people went from one planet to the other, or there's unseen PNF-404 Sparklium Springs, either or.

It's safe to assume that the Sparklium Converter has Sparklium in it, and you know what it does to the Leech Hydroe. That thing was so aggressive, it was the final boss, and one of two bosses that give you any semblance of challenge in Hey! Pikmin. It's also shown to be in living (or previously living) treasures such as fruit, meat and fossils, and just about any other kind of object you can think of, so the Sparklium could've either gotten into animals & plants to make them aggressive towards humans, or gotten directly into humans to kill them from the inside, or something.

Now, where else could it go from there? You know how it's primarily in metal objects, especially in Hey! Pikmin? What object has strange properties in the Pikmin series that's made of tons of metal? THE ASTEROIDS. And if the Pikmin people are descendants of the humanity that the Shining Demon hated so much it drove to extinction, and it's in control of the things it's inside, AND Sparklium is used as a fuel source and is thus also in the spaceships, then you can put two and two together and assume that it's crashing people to get them stuck in it's territory where it can kill them to finish the job.

But, if it was originally a living being, if you were to put enough Sparklium together in one place, could it not form together once again? That's exactly what it did.

Part 3: Fool's Gold

The Plasm Wraith is a fragment of the Shining Demon. I mean, come on. Not only does it look like gold, it's Elemental Plasms are based on Cubic Pyrite. Fool's Gold. Olimar is demonstrated to be a fool, having been scammed multiple times if you read the Pikmin 1 Ship Part descriptions, and thinks that the Plasm Wraith is gold, which is why he goes to collect it, even when Louie is apprehensive, because he enjoys treasure hunting a foolish amount now.

In the Pikmin 3 Deluxe Piklopedia, Olimar speculates that the hole in the Plasm Wraith's face is a "manifested psychic wound". If it was torn apart and sealed in the Sparklium Springs, then magic or esoteric shit of some sort was already involved, so that could've been from when people were trying to kill it directly. Also, it makes sense that the psychic wound is where it's "head" is.

Remember in Part 1 where I mentioned 3 out of the 4 times people were allowed to come to PNF-404 without being attacked were Olimar? At this point, I think the Plasm Wraith, or more accurately the Sparkly Wraith, piece of the Shining Demon, recognizes that for whatever reason Olimar keeps coming back and putting a ton of Sparklium in one place, so it's just... Letting him come so that it can keep taking shots at him, and he literally walks right up to it. Why wouldn't it want him to put all of the Sparklium in one place? It'd help it form into another Plasm Wraith. It hasn't done that yet, I guess because he never gets enough together, but still, it's possible.

Also, you know how the Plasm Wraith seems to be caressing Olimar when the Koppaites arrive at the Formidable Oak? Two possibilities:

It likes him now, because it views him as an instrument it can manipulate to get back in one piece, so it just kinda... "Takes care of him". I don't know what it was planning to do, since Olimar was there, for like, at least a week.

It wants to figure out how to get into him like it might've gotten into the humans and all the other objects. Olimar's sealed up in a spacesuit, which it might view as foreign, so it's really curious about him... And wants to learn how to penetrate the suit, so that it can kill/control the current descendants of humanity. Speaking of...

If you check the Pikmin 3 Deluxe Piklopedia, Louie ate the Plasm Wraith. And a lot of other stuff, including the animals we know the Shining Demon might be in control of because of the Leech Hydroe, treasure in Pikmin 4 which I've established has Sparklium in it... Whoopsie. That'd explain why he progressively starts talking less, as Olimar mentions in Pikmin 3, and starts lashing out more and more... Then again, that unused cutscene has Louie reveal he believed he was kidnapped by the Koppaites, so, I don't know. Is that still canon if it was removed? Whatever.

Side tangent here, Louie wasn't controlling the Titan Dweevil, because if he was, he would've been able to control the Scornet Maestro to stop it from eating/attacking/kidnapping him, because that's also a bug. The Titan Dweevil probably just liked Louie's antenna, or something, as it likes shiny objects, and Louie's sociopathy and uncaring demeanor towards animals (He eats EVERYTHING which requires killing everything) rubs off on it when Olimar comes back, plus potential feelings of betrayal or anger or whatever, because the Volatile Dweevils mimic the behavior of the objects they carry so the Titan Dweevil might to, but all of that influence would've been accidental, as he's unconscious. He did, however, use the Ancient Sirehound to lash out intentionally, even after hearing Olimar's voice. Got it? Got it.

By the way, you know how in Pikmin 4 the Pikmin 3 fruits return, and have Sparklium in them? And the Koppaites bring all of that back home to eat? Shit. (I stole this from the Umibozu Theory video I complained about earlier, and I'm not sorry.)

I don't have a good conclusion here, just like how I didn't have a good start. Just... Deal with it.

Part 4: TL;DR

Sparklium is actually a fragment of an esoteric entity I've named the Shining Demon that tried to kill off humanity, that was sealed away in the Sparklium Springs by humanity, only for the seals to gradually begin fading and begin releasing Sparklium that then infects all sorts of objects and creatures, which it then used to kill humanity. However, some humans survived, escaped underground, and evolved into the small people we see in Pikmin over 300 million years, and are constantly attacked by the asteroids around PNF-404 and the Hey! Pikmin planet that have Sparklium in them, in an attempt to get them into it's territory to kill them off and finish the job.

The Plasm Wraith is a lot of this Sparklium fused together into a living being, much weaker than the Shining Demon, and Olimar's idiocy directly benefits it by hoarding tons of Sparklium, so it captures him and either wants to use him to further it's own goals or wants to figure out how to break through his spacesuit so it can kill everyone it can via it's Sparklium infection, and it's also potentially infected Louie due to him consuming Sparklium, as well as the Koppaite trio and potentially the rest of Koppai.

I don't know where the Water Wraith fits in here, but it may have some connection to the Sparklium Springs, I guess.

[lestappenforever]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tag, @lattesqueeze. 🥹

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 31! I used to have a lot more on my old account, but I deleted them all and the account ages ago.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 182,588 apparently. Jesus fuck, I did not realize it was that high.

3. Which fandoms do you write for? These days? Only F1 RPF, but I used to write for several others, including (but not limited to) Cut & Run, Men's Football RPF, McFly RPF, and Teen Wolf.

4. Which are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Devils Roll The Dice (Angels Roll Their Eyes) - My first Lestappen fic, my baby, my pride and joy

2. 19 Times The Grid Saved Lestappen (And One Time They Didn't Need To) - My first collab fic with the lovely Ilse (@f1writingbyme) 💕

3. Something Unholy - Lestappen lap dance/dirty talk PWP

4. Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace) - A personal Lestappen favorite

5. No Time For Regret (No Time For Sleep) - Lestappen PWP set after the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix

5. Do you reply to your comments? Why or why not? Yes, I do! I've made it my mission to reply to every single comment I get on my work, because the fact that there are people out there who not only read my work, but they also take the time to leave a comment, is such a huge deal to me and it makes me so happy. The least I can do is make sure they all get a reply.

6. Which of your fics has the angstiest ending? Ooof, I guess The Last Straw? The ending itself isn't the angstiest part of the fic, but the entire thing is angsty as hell.

7. Which of your fics has the happiest ending? I'd say most of my fics have happy endings, but the happiest? Probably Devils Roll The Dice (Angels Roll Their Eyes), or the first sequel Like Snow At The Beach (Weird, But Fucking Beautiful).

8. Do you get hate on your fics? Haven't gotten any hate so far on my current AO3 account! I used to get a bit of hate on my fics when I used to write for another fandom (1D, despite not being a 1D fan myself, I only wrote requests from other people) years ago, though, because back then there was apparently a "right or wrong way" to write fics, and there were always people who thought you were doing it wrong.

9. Do you write smut? I do. Admittedly, it's my least favorite thing to write, but I do write it.

10. Do you write crossovers? I've never tried, and I've never had an urge to so far.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Only one! (That I know of.) It was the first 1D fic I wrote and somebody tried to pass it off as their own. Didn't work very well for them.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not yet, but I was actually contacted by a lovely person who wants to translate some of my F1 fics, which is a huge honor. So it's coming!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic? Yes, I have! I co-wrote a fic with an old friend back in my McFly obsession days, and I've co-written two Lestappen fics with my darling @f1writingbyme.

19 Times The Grid Saved Lestappen (And One Time They Didn't Need To), and Ride The Bull (Giddy Up, Partner).

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? All-time? I honestly don't know if I can pick because all of my favorite ships have been my all-time favorite ship at the time I was hyperfixating on them. But, if I have to make a choice, I'd say it's a tie between Lestappen and Junes (Harry Judd/Danny Jones from McFly).

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but probably never will? Oh, man, I don't have one because my brain will not let me start a WIP without finishing it. Once I start writing something, my OCD and anxiety kicks in, and I just have to finish it. And if I can't finish it, I delete the whole thing and never think of it again. Which is both a blessing and a curse.

16. What are your writing strengths? Angst and endings, I think.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Smut, without a doubt. Despite having written a fuckton of smut in my life, there is nothing that stresses me out more than when I get to the part in a fic where smut belongs. Reading back my own smut makes me cringe.

18. What are your thoughts on writing in other languages in fics? If it's done properly, I say go for it! I personally don't mind it at all and find it adds depth to a lot of work. Just make sure you use something other than Google Translate if you don't speak the language, and preferably check with someone who speaks the language, to make it as believeable to a native reader as possible.

19. What was the first fandom you ever wrote for? McFly. God, those were the days. I was a literal child back then.

20. What’s your favourite fic that you’ve written? Definitely Devils Roll The Dice (Angels Roll Their Eyes). Writing that fic altered my brain chemistry, and I can still remember how I felt writing the different chapters. And also 19 Times The Grid Saved Lestappen (And One Time They Didn't Need To), because that was just so fun from start to finish.

Tagging @f1writingbyme, @nico-di-genova, and @f1posting (and anyone else who wants to do this and hasn't already been tagged!).