#good thing they're temp names

[dravidious]

a

Thought it'd be neat to have a mechanic called "hierarchy", so I made one and thought it fit the Orzhov pretty well

[tackrusso]

show tempe gang crossover with the morris islanders would actually have been the best episode of bones ever. btw

[mintincubus]

the party in-game btw :^)

[miasmaghoul]

whos the best ghoul cook? do you think they have any weird eating quirks (like water ghouls eating raw fish, mountain chewin on his terra cotta plant pots, fire ghouls needing to eat more bc of higher body temp, anything like that)?

Did I ever tell you guys that I earned a scholarship to culinary school? I couldn't go, but cooking and baking remain passions of mine that I do NOT get to talk about enough.

But now you've given me an excuse >:)

So here, a BUNCH of my cooking (and favorite food) headcanons for the ghouls and Papas alike!

(There's some murder ghoul content here, mostly in Alpha's section - couldn't help myself 😌)

Aeon isn't one for cooking. Loves eating food, certainly, but not making it. He's more of a snacker, partly because it's more convenient but mostly because he doesn't have the attention span to do much more than microwave instant noodles. He's not picky though, will eat whatever is put in front of him as long as someone else has prepared it. Also doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, more of a salty/savory guy. Favorite foods include hot cheetos, thick cut beef jerky (good to gnaw), and whatever appears on his plate at meal times.

Aether is a ghoul of simple tastes. He'll cook when he has the time, but it's going to be one of his four go-to recipes every time. Always some format of protein + starch + veg, with a complementary sauce. He meal preps every weekend after his retirement so he can have easy meals to microwave and eat in the infirmary. Isn't the biggest fan of cooking with company, unless they're willing to stay out of the kitchen and not interrupt his routine. Has a weak spot for bananas. Favorite meal is one-pan roasted chicken, potatoes and asparagus with rosemary and garlic from Mountain’s garden.

Alpha does not cook, wouldn't dream of it. He doesn't even deign to eat human food most of the time, turns his nose up at it when offered. He likes his meat raw, and wants to hunt it himself so he can feel the blood run down his chin. Any prey is fair game - if he finds you in the woods, you'd better hope you can outrun him. (You cannot.) Favorite foods include the flesh and organs of anything with a pulse.

Aurora likes the idea of cooking, but in practice...well, she tries. She's impatient, is the problem - what do you mean simmer for 20 minutes? She's hungry now! She inevitably rushes everything she makes, no matter how much input she gets from the others, and has yet to learn her lesson. She also has a MASSIVE sweet tooth, they can't keep enough sugary snacks in the pantry as far as she's concerned. Favorite foods include spaghetti with butter and cheese (one of the only things she can always get right), boxed brownies and any kind of fruity candy she can get her paws on.

Cirrus can cook pretty well, if she says so herself, but it's rare that she does it for anyone but herself. She has very particular tastes, and doesn't want to have to adapt them for others. She loves organ meat and bitter vegetables, enjoys the intensity of those flavors while the smell alone keeps most of the others away. Oh well, more for her! She'll eat anything thats made for her though, especially if its served on a silver platter by someone on their knees. Favorite foods (aside from the aforementioned organs) mostly include healthy things like fresh fruit and veggies, steamed shellfish and lean meat.

Cumulus is more of a baker than a cook, but enjoys any time spent in the kitchen either way. She's the type to make a day of it, in her comfiest clothes with music playing while she dances in front of the stove. Her food is never the prettiest, but it's made with love and tastes so much better for it. Her favorite things to bake are cookies and pies, but she doesn't eat many sweets herself. Prefers seeing the others enjoy them. Favorite foods include homemade bread (she has a sourdough starter named Breadly) with lots of butter and flaky salt, anything citrus-forward and wants her proteins heavily spiced (not spicy, she has a low tolerance, but loves the fragrant flavors of herbs and spices).

Dewdrop doesn't advertise it, but he's one of the best ghouls to have in the kitchen. His precision and attention to detail are second to none, and while it doesn't make him particularly fun to share a kitchen with it does make him an outstanding cook. He likes very intricate, involved recipes because he can use them to showcase his skills (and earn a whole bunch of praise at the dining table as a bonus). Loves spicy food, which everyone assumes is due to him now being a fire ghoul, but he's actually always enjoyed a good burn. Favorite foods include any meat served on the bone, fermented foods (kimchi and sour pickles especially) and anything smoked.

Ifrit does not know how the stove works. He survives on protein bars and any leftovers he can pilfer from the abbey kitchens. Food is not a thing he's super interested in, just takes what he needs to fuel himself, and would rather follow in Alpha's footsteps anyway. He likes to hang out at the lake every now and then with Mist, though - she'll pop up from the water every now and then with a nice plump trout to toss his way, which he will roast with his bare hands. Doesn't really have a favorite food, but does like crunchy things.

Mist, if she isn't sharing her spoils with Ifrit, will keep her catch for herself. She's small enough that one good-sized lake fish will tide her over for the day. She does prefer them raw and whole, always a bit on the feral side, but she can be convinced to join the others for sushi if the offer arises. Favorite foods include anything alive and not poisonous in the lake, and cookie dough ice cream (don't tell anyone).

Mountain is overall considered to be the best cook amongst the ghouls, and definitely has the goofy apron to prove it. Naturally skilled and adaptable, he enjoys preparing meals for his pack and will do so with anyone that wishes to lend a hand. Usually it's Cumulus or Sunshine, but they all keep him company at one point or another. He grows much of the produce used in their kitchen himself, all of it fresh and delicious, but Mountain does not eat a bite of it. He's a total carnivore - the closest he gets to eating his homegrown goodies is including them in a stew but avoiding them in his own bowl. Favorite foods include rabbit, venison and this one Vietnamese style grilled beef and rice noodle dish that Dew makes.

Omega learned to cook by osmosis, if you ask him. Time spent under three Papas will do thay to a ghoul. He doesn't cook much, but he's excellent at crafting simple, filling pasta dishes that are good for the soul (so to speak). Also treats it as an excuse to drink plenty of the good wine stashed away in the abbey's cellars - blame Terzo for that habit. Favorite meal is fresh pappardelle served with roasted tomatoes, basil and spicy sausage.

Rain doesn't cook if it involves more than the microwave, not because he can't but because he prefers to be waited on. Breakfast in bed, charcuterie plates in the afternoon, specially prepared dinners to make sure he's kept happy - none of it is necessary, but Rain can't help how much he loves being served. Good thing no one minds giving him the royal treatment. He will also indulge in the odd raw fish during a swim, but only does it beneath the surface, away from prying eyes. Favorite good is soup, any kind, but he prefers brothy ones over thick or creamy styles. If he had to pick a single favorite varitey, it would be miso.

Swiss is only allowed in the kitchen because he's good with a knife. He can burn through prep work like nobody's business, but that's where his skill set ends. He's caused one too many greasefires to he trusted at the stove, and every time he's put something in the oven he's forgotten about it until smoke filled the room and the ghoulettes had to magickally air it out. But he can chop like a food processor, so he gets the knife pass. He's another one that'll eat anything put in front of him, with one exception: eggs. Can't stand them. Favorite foods include red meat served rare, really dark, bitter chocolate and anything with hideous amounts of garlic.

Sunshine is chaos personified in the kitchen. She loves to experiment with flavors and techniques, but has yet to have anything close to a success. Pasta with pesto and pineapple (alliteration is fun), chocolate covered avocado balls (with bacon, because why not), a tuna sandwich made with coconut yogurt instead of mayo (it's healthy!) - these are but a few of the food crimes that have lost her solo access to the kitchens. This girl could burn cereal, and no one wants to see that. She does love to eat though, and will frequently hang out when someone else is cooking so she can sneak bites whatever they're making. Favorite foods include cheese (all kinds), sour candy and all the orchard fresh peaches she can get her hands on.

And for the Papas:

Primo had to learn his way around the kitchen from an early age, thanks to the responsibility of raising his younger brothers falling onto his shoulders. He learned by watching the kitchen staff - a pair of elderly Sisters with so much skill in their gnarled hands that Primo couldn't look away. He never got very good at it, mostly sticking to a handful of reliable dishes that could be made cheap and easily for the three of them. His favorite of the bunch was also the one thing he was best at making - a simple mushroom risotto.

Secondo took to the kitchen like it was second nature, once Primo could trust him to not chop a finger off. Would spend hours poring over cookbooks and learning by doing, eating his own failures so his brothers wouldn't have to. He really enjoyed making simple but hearty comfort foods, lots of rib-sticking braises and stews filled with herbs and veggies from Primo's modest garden. He even cooked the last meal they ever shared together, on that fateful Uno night. It was his favorite, a lasagna constructed from fresh sheets of pasta, homemade ricotta, spinach and a simple tomato sauce, served with roasted garlic focaccia.

Terzo did not get the cooking gene, aside from being able to boil water for his tea. It wasn't a big deal since his brothers picked up the slack, and he decided there were other things that took priority - like music, history and how to retain a full head of hair after age 30. He preferred drinking over eating anyway, mostly saw food as something to put in his stomach to cushion the wine. He was a man of simple tastes, and his favorite thing was a humble sandwich of mortadella, provolone and spicy pickled peppers.

Copia never had to learn to cook, raised by the Clergy and doted on thanks to a not-so-subtle suggestion from Sister Imperator. More than a little spoiled in that sense, he would also go on to be the most worldly Papa in terms of his tastes. So much time spent traveling the world helped to expand his palate, and he got into the habit of sending pictures and descriptions of his favorites back to the abbey so the kitchen staff could figure out how to replicate them. It's impossible for him to pick a favorite, but thanks to so much time spent in LA he does have a real soft spot for Mexican food. Tacos al pastor in particular, but without the cilantro (he has the soap gene).

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How to Build a Team, Fixing the Recruitment of the Temp Heroes

I've had a few people ask me questions about Miraculous rewrites, so I wanted to quickly touch on something that doesn't get discussed much. Namely that the recruitment of the temp heroes failed at a fundamental level IF the end goal was to make a team. If the end goal was to have one-off episodes where the temp hero of the day shows up and is then forgotten, then the way canon did it is fine. But I think most rewrites that include the temp heroes want to actual give Marinette a larger team, so let's talk about how you do that.

The issue with the temp heroes lies in WHY they're recruited. To demonstrate what I mean, let's quickly talk about Rose's recruitment in Guiltrip.

In Guiltrip, Juleka tells the class that Rose suffers from a random, unnamed chronic illness. This leads to Juleka getting akumatized because she feels so guilty about outing Rose's secret. In order to save Juleka, Rose gets the pig miraculous, becomes Pigella, and gives her girlfriend a look into a fake world where everything is happy and perfect! (The pig is weird.)

The problem with this setup is that Rose is functionally nothing more than a random power up that Ladybug needed to help fight the akuma of the day. The episode would have worked just as well if Ladybug dual wielded and, after the episode is done, there's no need for Rose to stick around because Juleka has been helped and Juleka is an outsider to the team. Let's look at how you rewrite this setup to make it feel like Rose is being recruited for the good of Ladybug's team.

Instead of the episode being about Juleka exposing Rose's illness, we're going to have the episode start with Marinette getting upset about something. What that thing is really doesn't matter, but for ease, let's say that she gets a bad grade and is feeling down. Alya tries to cheer Marinette up, but it doesn't work because Alya's not good at that kind of pep talk. Marinette asks to be alone and wanders off, going to sit alone in the courtyard or something. Enter Rose, who overheard Marinette and Alya talking. Rose will manage to do what Alya can't and cheer Marinette up. Once the pep talk is over and Rose is long gone, Tikki will comment on Rose's ability and Marinette will say something about how Rose is good at knowing what to say/keeping a positive attitude in the darkest times.

Cue the akuma of the day coming in. For the sake of this hypothetical, let's say that Ladybug has built up her team already, so Alya and Nino are both full time heroes. This means that we have Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, and Carapace charging into battle, but it's a tough one. The akuma is crazy strong and, the longer the fight goes, the more they all lose hope. They try to encourage each other, but it's not working. The words feel empty.

Then Ladybug remembers Rose.

Ladybug rushes from the battlefield and recruits Rose, who joins the team and changes the tide by restoring the team's hope with her encouraging words and dauntless spirit. The episode ends with Rose joining the team because they clearly need someone there to keep their spirits up when it feels like hope is lost.

Do you see how that simple shift changes everything? How Rose is no longer a one-off, easily-forgotten power-up?

Now, as much as I love Rose, I personally wouldn't recruit her to any team I make because the role she's most suited to feels too close to the role I think Adrien should have, but this was just an example so that doesn't matter. What matters is that this is how you should approach the temp heroes IF you want to create a strong team dynamic. They shouldn't be recruited just because a random loved one is in need. They should be recruited because team miraculous is missing something it needs and that person fills the gap.

This is what I mean when I say that a small team works because you can center them around Marinette and Adrien. I don't mean canon's creepy shipping thing, I mean that you can focus on what abilities Ladybug and Chat Noir lack and build a team around filling in those gaps. For example, Marinette is really good at thinking up creative physical solutions, but her creativity doesn't extend to thinking up stories. And Adrien may be an actor, but his improv skills are focused on word play and romance, not crafting stories via pure imagination or a mix of imagination and putting together subtle verbal clues. Meanwhile, Alya comes up with stories all the time, so it makes sense that they'd recruit her to be the person who wields illusions, which is all about storytelling.

[heademptie]

Ghoap x Comms!Reader continued...

Reader avoids Ghost as much as they can, not wanting to stir things up more than they already have, but they're only successful because Ghost allows it. And Ghost only allows it so he can better observe them. He's tried pulling strings, using his rank and reputation to try and find out more about reader. But it comes up short. He gets access to their file, but its all fluff inside, lots of it confidential or just blank. Their name isnt even on the file, just the callsign (to keep reader anonymous) Laswell gave out. He asked her too, but she didn't have the answers he wanted.

"Tell me about them." "Not much to tell, I'm afraid. Why? You think they're a threat?" "Don't know yet." "Should I be worried, Ghost?" He pauses, thinking it over. But Laswell knows well enough, that if there was a threat, Ghost wouldn't hesitate. So she sighs and hands over the lackluster file. "They work behind the scenes, no field record. They were brought here-" Her voice drowns out with information Ghost already knows, the extent of Laswells knowledge on the matter. On first glance the file looks fine, personal information left blank or blacked out, a brief service record. Nothing in the field, like Laswell said, but a few listings for assistence with signal decoding. But most of their work is as a mundane office drone, 'A temp,' Ghost thinks amused.

So he skulks around base and observes.

Johnny is confused. He's been able to read Ghost for some time now, their connection and dynamic so intertwined, so in tune with each other, thriving since Las Almas. He notices almost immediately, the sudden hostility and caution Ghost displays on base, it takes him a bit longer to find the target.

He tries to ask outright, of course he does because why wouldn't Ghost talk to him, but he gets shut down. A gruff response. "Don't know what you're talking about Johnny."

Soap pushes, of course, but he gets repeatedly shut out. He moaps a bit, like a kicked puppy, before he catches on to who has made Ghost like this. He's surprised when he cathes the critical look of Ghost when Reader walks by, and he doesnt miss the quick glance they flick over Ghost. Then that glance jumps to him and reader gives a small smile and nod, one that looks a little too nervous to be oblivious to Ghost's scrutiny.

So he finds them the next evening, Reader is leaving tomorrow, going back to wherever they were before, so they went out for a drink. He slides up next to them easily, and gives a bright, syrup sweet smile to ease into things. Reader is a bit tense to begin with but relaxs just a bit once conversation starts. Soap starts slow and vague, idle chat morphing into talking about readers time on base before eventually reaching his desired point of discussion.

Immediately, the mood shifts. Reader is subtle with it, smile becoming a little tighter at the corners, and eyes scanning over him with an increased intensity. They play dumb, not lying to him but repeating his words, asking thier own questions, faux confusion furrowing their brows.

'They're good at this,' Johnny thinks as reader gives another vague answer, easing him in the direction to make a false assmunption. He's not mad, a little annoyed, but mostly he thinks that they're clever. 'Maybe this is why Simon is suspicious,' reader is still on guard, but as Johnny relaxes into the back and forth, so do they. Its like a game now. 'A simple desk worker shouldn't be this good'.

The night comes to an end and Johnny insists on walking them back to base. He'll bring it up to Ghost again, mention how reader easily navigated the pseudo interrorgation, get him to talk. Its on the walk back that reader looks over to Soap, eyes kind yet critical and sighs. He looks over and reader offers a smile. Theres something in that smile he doesnt have the chance to decipher before they've caught him off guard.

"It's his business to tell you what's going on. I don't want to step on any more toes, especially since im out of here in a few hours."

Soap goes to ask more, opens his mouth, ready to launch into his questions, eager to finally get answers. But they put a hand on his shoulder and he falters.

"But for gods sake just tell him already."

He's confused, but the look they give speaks volumes. Oh. Oh. Johnny understands now. The hostility, the caution, the observation. Just as they saw through Johnny and cupped his weakness in their gentle hold, they had done the same to Simon.

Oh. This is...

Reader is gone the next day, as was expected, but Ghost is only slighty eased, and Soap finds himself a little on edge. It's not till weeks later, with readers voice nagging at him with that kind exasperation, that Soap (a little liquored up) is in Ghosts barrack.

They're shouting at each other, fear turning into misplaced anger before it goes quiet in the small room. They're both breathing heavy, Ghost, Simon in this moment, breaks it.

"I'll kill anyone who hurts you. And I'd be pleased to." He follows closely, closing the gap until uncovered hands grasp Johnny's face, as gentle as Simon can manage. "If you're mine, no one, no one, can touch you." Johnny is thrilled.

As the sun rises, the two are twisted together in the sheets of Ghosts too small bed, Johnny wears a tooth rotting smile. They think, seperately, offhandedly, that they really should thank that too clever reader.

[skepsiss]

For Steddie prompts -- I'm always a fan of older Steve and Eddie, like them in the 90's and still pining type of nonsense

That or them as camp councilors, for Summertime for us Northern Hemispherers ♥️✨

Pining in the 90s.... hmmm, as in they're not together yet? I'm going to take this in a rather AU way, hope you like it! Ooops, it's almost 2,000 words.... but whatever. (Anyone can send me a prompt! Please do) --

Eddie hoisted his guitar up his shoulder, grunting as he picking up his duffle and staggered away from the bus. It was a mild summer day, and he was pleased he had gotten in early to camp, even if he missed getting the extra sleep.

Eddie wasn't exactly 'a morning person,' but mornings came with their perks as Eddie took in the familiar sight of Camp Callingwood. He had never frequented the camp as a kid, but he had started as a seasonal camp counsellor in the late 80s as a last-ditch effort to not be homeless for the summer. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life because he had met some of the best people in the world. It was 'one of those perks' and Eddie couldn't help but look around to try and catch a glimpse of the guy he was looking for.

Like a sunbeam on a cloudy day, Eddie caught sight of Steve Harrington making his way down the dirt path toward the bus drop-off. He was talking to a younger woman who was also wearing the counsellor uniform, but Eddie didn't waste time waving Steve over. It took a beat, but Steve smiled wide when he saw Eddie.

"Hey!" Steve called over before saying something quickly to the young woman and then trotting up to Eddie. "Hey, man. I wasn't sure if you'd be coming around this summer."

"Wouldn't miss it," Eddie said cheerfully, letting Steve grab his duffle bag so they could start walking toward the cabins.

"No big break yet then, huh?" Steve asked, saying a few quick hellos to the other counsellors that had just been dropped off.

"You seen my name in the tabloids?" Eddie joked, only feeling a small pinch of embarrassment over Steve's comment. He hadn't made it big despite how much he talked up his music. He knew he was good, but there wasn't always an agent who could see that in the music biz. Still, he was nearly 26 now, and without a break soon, he feared he wouldn't make it at all.

"I guess not," Steve laughed, talking easily with Eddie along the quiet forest path. "Definitely would have taken notice to seeing you. You still selling songs?"

"Yeah, doing pretty good there," Eddie admitted, shyly glancing at Steve as he tried to gauge his attitude toward all of this.

Eddie was doing well in the 'selling songs' department; he could churn out hits for anyone, but it wasn't the music he wanted to play. It sucked that metal didn't seem to be in fashion right now, but no part of him wanted to change his whole personality to fit what was 'popular.'

"Wrote one for Whitney Houston recently," Eddie proclaimed, feeling a bit proud of that sell.

"No shit?" Steve asked, sounding surprised before he bumped his shoulder into Eddie's. "Good for you, man. Cool."

Eddie smiled stupidly, liking the roughness and how boyishly charming it was. When he had first gotten to Camp Callingwood all those years ago, Steve had already been a seasoned veteran at the game. From what Eddie knew, he ran the site year-round now, and maintained the grounds during the off-season too. Eddie was only a temp, but Steve seemed so pleased to see him every year. And every year… Eddie always tentatively sussed out whether or not Steve was still single.

"Any interesting changes?" Eddie asked, glancing at Steve from under his lashes, trying to keep things casual. "No… well, I got a dog," Steve smiled, opening the door to Eddie's cabin for him. "Pepper--she's great company during the winter. It can get pretty lonely up here by yourself."

"New dog, but no lady?" Eddie joked lightly, hoping the answer was no.

"No, no lady," Steve laughed, dropping Eddie's bag on the bunk bed. "They tend not to be great company in the winter when they have to rough it--in my experience."

Eddie laughed lightly, unable to hold back the little bloom of heat in his chest. Steve really was 'one of those perks' and Eddie could hardly wait for camping season to begin so he could sign up as a counsellor again. He liked the kids, and he had fun teaching everyone how to play the guitar, or hosting the 'in-door activities' for the kids that didn't quite fit in with the others, but the real reason he kept coming back was Steve. He wished it wasn't just a temporary thing, but he chickened out asking for more every year he was here.

"Don't get too comfortable," Steve offered, swaying and leaning on the pole of the bunk bed, looking casual as could be. "We've got a lot of kids these first few weeks so I might need to move you into the big house. You don't mind dogs, right?"

The big house was Steve's permanent residence, and it was a proper home rather than the bunk rooms the counsellors and kids usually slept in.

"No--yeah, dogs are fine," Eddie said quickly, "wouldn't mind meeting Pepper though--if you're not up to anything else right now?"

"Sure, I'll see if I can find her. She's probably running around somewhere. She's a bear dog, you know? Well, not for like attacking bears or whatever, but she does a good job of keeping them away," Steve explained, motioning for Eddie to follow him.

Eddie put his guitar down on the bed and followed Steve out, not sure if he knew what Steve meant by 'bear-dog.'

Almost as soon as they got outside Steve was yelling Pepper's name and whistling as he walked toward the mess hall.

"Did you get some new tattoos?" Steve asked as they continued to walk around the camp. Other counsellors were moving about and setting things up or settling into their cabins, the site a hive of activity.

"Yeah, one on my arm and one on my thigh," Eddie said, twisting to show off his new ink. That was another thing he liked about Steve: he didn't seem bothered at all that Eddie had tattoos, even though they were still considered quite scandalous to most employers.

"One more too on my chest, but I'll save that one for later," Eddie joked lightly, pleased to be asked about his ink.

"Later for sure," Steve retorted with a smile, and Eddie blinked at him as he tried to decipher what he meant by that. Later how?

Eddie didn't get the chance to dwell on that thought though as Steve hollered Pepper's name again and Eddie watched as a large white mass bounded toward them through the trees.

"There she is," Steve said pleasantly, crouching down to greet the dog.

Pepper was a Great Pyrenees and far too big for Steve to be crouching down for.

She bounded into him and turned happily, letting Steve rough her up with pets and scratches. He was cooing and making pleasant sounds of affection at her as she wagged her tall and rubbed her head under his chin.

"She's still a puppy, only a little over one year old," Steve explained as he stood back up and Pepper turned her attention to Eddie.

"She's big," Eddie said, a little surprised by the dog's size as she bumped into his hip, looking for attention. He gave her a few good scratches, unable to stop himself from smiling.

"She's friendly--might try and sleep with you," Steve joked lightly, motioning for Pepper to sit.

She obeyed quickly and Eddie grinned as he watched her pant happily, looking for more commands.

"So this is her first summer with the kids?" Eddie asked, crouching down like Steve had before and scratching and rubbing Pepper's neck.

"Yeah, well, in this amount. We get some winter scouts and groups like that, so she has been around kids and she's great with them, but she'll probably be excited to have so many people to spoil her."

Eddie laughed, charmed by how in love Steve was with his dog. If Steve was still single, and he was pouring all of his affection in to a dog… Eddie couldn't see why shooting his shot would hurt. He had backed off every year since he met Steve, but he was feeling determined to at least confirm that Steve wasn't interested in him. They were pals, and sometimes they wrote to one another during the year, but Eddie really wasn't sure how receptive Steve was to the whole… queer thing. He did know that they'd had queer kids at camp before, and Steve had always been gentle and accepting of them, so his attitude couldn't be all negative.

"Let's go grab your keys," Steve said suddenly, and Eddie stood up to follow him. "I'll just give you a master this year, easier that way. It opens all the bunk houses and the utility rooms--and the big house. Easier than trying to sort out all the rings."

Eddie nodded, feeling a small flush creep up his cheeks. It felt rather intimate to be given a key to Steve's house, even if it technically was part of camp property.

Steve handed him the kitschy keychain and Eddie quickly added it to his own keyring.

"Don't lose it," Steve said, sounding only moderately strict. "I only have three of those. You and me are the only ones that'll have them, I don't want to hand out the spare."

"Oh," Eddie frowned, glancing up at Steve. "Are you sure you want to give it to me?"

"Yeah, I trust you, man. Plus, I don't mind you letting yourself in whenever," Steve grinned, walking over to his desk and rooting around the papers there.

Eddie pinched his brow in with confusion, not sure how to react to that. What did he mean by 'letting yourself in whenever'? It sounded so off-handed, but Eddie had no clue if he was supposed to take that seriously or… flirtatiously.

Steve had always been friendly, but this felt like it went a bit beyond friendly.

Eddie swallowed lightly, mustering the courage to speak as Steve turned back around with a clipboard in his hand.

"I could move my stuff into your place now, if you want," Eddie asked, idly picking his nail polish. "Easier than having to do it later. Just… make it my spot for the summer."

It was Steve's turn to stare as they stood there quietly for a beat, before Steve seemed to shake himself from his astonishment.

"Yeah! For sure---that's cool, let's do that," Steve agreed quickly, smiling again but not making a move toward the door.

"You want to show me the room I'll be staying in?" Eddie asked, feeling his confidence grow a bit.

"Yes--yeah," Steve waffled, sounding pleased but a bit surprised for some reason. "Follow me."

Eddie chewed his lip lightly and looped his arms behind his back as he followed Steve out of the cabin. He wasn't certain, but Steve had seemed sort of… flustered by the prospect of them actually sharing a living space. The idea of that encouraged Eddie, and he grinned privately to himself as he thought about retiring for the evening with Steve in his little cabin in the woods. It felt… romantic and it really did set Eddie up to succeed.

Eddie was going to make this summer the summer he asked Steve on a date. He wasn't going to chicken out again.

[sinner-sunflower]

SPN Sinister AU

You guys know the Sinister movies? With the entity that takes children, possesses them, and makes them kill their family?

I just got an idea for that but with the Winchesters.

It could be them settling down for a while in this house where a family was killed. It was abandoned and no one was there for miles so John thought it would be a good temp base for a few months.

They've been following a trail of a creature who is killing families and abducting a child from each family. John decides to take this hunt because he thinks it might be a demon and related to Mary's death. They've finally caught up to the killings to this no name town in the middle of bumfuck, USA. He enrols Sam and Dean to school and takes a part time job as a mechanic for the time being.

While left alone at the house, Sam finds a box of films in the attic, each with their own seemingly innocent titles.

Logically, he knows he should tell Dean or his dad about this, but next thing he knows, he's putting it in the projector and watching the first film.

It's disturbing and terrifying but he couldn't turn it off. He almost vomited twice before it finished.

He's not stupid. This has got to be related to the thing his dad is hunting. He needs to show this to Dad. He can save people with this.

.

Dean and Dad came home, the box stayed in the attic. (And he keeps watching the rest of the tapes)

Sam gets nightmares and constant night terrors. Dean is beyond worried and John has a bad feeling.

Sam gets moody. He snaps at Dad but that's normal, but then he also snaps at Dean. He says stuff to Dean like the urge to hurt the annoying squirrel in the backyard. Dean sticks to him like glue because he has a sinking feeling.

Sam won't eat, drink, sleep. He scribbles concerning signs and symbols on the walls and looks a little too long at their arsenal.

They still haven't got a clue on what this creature is but there's not doubt in their minds that it's what's messing with Sam.

It gets so bad that John decided to abandon this hunt and let someone else take care of it for the safety of his son.

They leave first thing in the morning.

Settling down on one of Rufus' many cabins across the country, Sam begins to show signs of health again.

Dean is beyond relieved and John is just tired.

One night, he's in his room, head in hands and documents all over the desk. Dean and Sam are in the living room watching a movie. He was taking a sip of his coffee when his phone rang.

Bobby.

He picks up to a frantic Bobby and the roar of an engine.

"It's Bughuul! Babylonian pagan ancient deity, like really ancient! It consumes souls of children!"

"Figured as much Bobby. Took the boys outta there as soon as I found out."

"You don't understand, John! That's the problem. You moved!"

"What?"

"The patterns! Each of the families experienced shit in the previous victims' homes but the killings only happened when they moved! I'm almost there but you didn't save them John! You moved up the timeline!"

Suddenly John felt a wave of dizziness. He looks at his coffee and finds a strange liquid in it. He shoots up, staggering out of the room to where his sons were.

He finds Dean passed out on the floor, movie still playing, but no Sam?

He falls to the ground and sees his youngest's bare feed and pajamas in front of him. Then nothing.

John wakes bound by ropes. He's laying on his back to something hard, wood?

He looks around and sees Dean in the same position, awake and freaking out.

"Dad! What the fuck is going on?!"

Now that he can see Dean fully, he knows now in what kind of position they are.

'A Hunter's funeral pyre.'

"Dad! Where's Sammy??!"

"Dean, it's the thing we were hunting. It got Sammy possessed. We need to get out of here now before he kills us."

"It got Sam?! What- before who kills us?!"

Sam then comes out pointing camera at them, Bughuul behind him looking at them menacingly.

Dean is shouting for Sam but his brother is under the creature's control. They're both flailing now and John only hopes Bobby arrives on time and finds them.

Sam puts down the camera to pour gasoline of their pyres.

"Sam! Sammy please snap out of it!"

"Shit!"

Sam lights a match.

But before he could throw it to set them aflame, Bobby arrives and hit him in the head, making him fall unconscious to the ground.

----------

Not really sure how this will end cos the movies never killed Bughuul. But this is Bobby so he might find an obscure exorcism or smth and expels the hold on Sam.

[hottakehoulihan]

Hench

by Natalie Zina Walschots

(tl;dr: It's capepunk. There's a sorta-Accord-like character? The book uses some JKR words. : ( ...but it's a book with some good ideas. Like measuring cape-hero damage in 'lifeyears' and opposing it therefor and arguably for ACAB reasons.)

There is no ethical employment under capitalism, but people still gotta eat.

So if you can't make a living wage slinging fries or answering phones, you try dipping your toes into henching for B-lister criminals.

Like Uber and Leet. Or, in Walschots universe, Electric Eel, a villain who seems like he likes incense and peace signs when he's not throwing victims into a pit that's full of ethically-sourced sharks?

The book was readable and I thought it had a lot of promise.

The author is mostly new but clearly into the subject (her other book is apparently erotic love poems to supervillains) and seems like she'd be fun to hang around. The book is pretty good. 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5. It has some new ideas I greatly enjoy. My normal instinct would be to puff the book up to and beyond its deserts, because I parasocial easily and also I want to get new authors a leg up and especially if they show promise to grow into something I'll like even more.

Which is to say that although it doesn't deserve fulsome praise, it deserves praise and I would ordinarily overdo it because--as G. K. Chesterton did NOT say but maybe Oscar Wilde would have (and as HotTakeHoulihan ABSOLUTELY says), "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth overdoing."

But first, before I get into the plot, why am I restrained?

Our protagonist ("Anna", when she's not working) is a woman in her...early 20s? And once, back when signing up at a temp agency, went by the Harry Potter surname "Tromeldov" and regrets it. ..but this is the best name we have for her (the other alternative is her never-used work-name "Palindrome"?) As far as we know, she's "Anna Tromeldov" on her birth certificate or...something?

The author published this book in 2021.

In book publishing years, the timeline between 2019 (when JKR went fully mask off) and 2021 might be longer than it seems.

And maybe the author didn't know because she doesn't pay attention to these things. Plausible deniability exists, and sometimes it's because it's the honest truth.

But it's as if the main character had a crush on a character who happened to be named Hank Atlas Rearden or Eva Dolph Brawn. It's distracting and hinky, but could be not-a-dogwhistle at all. Here's hoping I'm not helping platform a hate-group person. : /

Also, spoilers:

Protag gal signed on for a short gig just standing around with other bodyguards/henchmen at an event for her C-list supervillain boss. She's not strong or powered (maybe in a subsequent book--the sequel comes out in March) but he wanted some women in with all his muscle (which are common enough they're referred to as "meat", in-universe.)

Alas, this wasn't the minor stand-there-and-look-like-a-scary-fireplug job it was set up to be. Electric Eel is a villainous tinker and while his gadgets are usually about as reliable as the X-ray specs from an old magazine catalog (I have never held one of those but I've seen simulations on YouTube), he's got an enslavement ray going and he's kidnapped the mayor's kid.

Protag is unhappy, because she got handed the slave-ray just after the boss told the kid to cut off part of a finger (to demonstrate the ray) and the kid was gearing up to do his best and was clearly going to be allowed to.

It's not at all clear if protag was going to stay obedient much longer, but she seemed pretty frozen by indecision.

Fortunately, a flying brick burst in and knocked her out of the way, destroyed the dingus, beat up all the 'meat', and chased the villain (who was hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ing his retreat and spraying murder-clouds everywhere, killing some people our protag knew.)

And then our protag realizes she can't stand. Later, in the hospital and having to undergo multiple surgeries to partly-reconstruct her leg (Supes hits hard) she learns she's fired for being no-longer-useful as a physical hench, that she's not going to walk for at least six months and will be using a cane after that, and the cops and superheroes have decided the official report is that she was hurt by the villain because superheroes do no wrong.

Shortly after she's evicted, but her best friend takes her in, and during this time?

This is the interesting part

She starts internetting and studying natural disasters and hits on the concept of the "Life Year", which is measuring the impact of things (like COVID) based not merely on how many deaths they caused or on merely how many dollars of damage or lost income they caused, but also things like impaired ability to live life--such as she's enduring--at that time.

And she's meticulous about documentation, and conservative about how she notates her assertions, so when her blog is discovered by pro-cape media they mock and deride it with the spin they can muster, but she starts acquiring her own community of contributors and corroborators.

Bluntly speaking, hero activity isn't just more trouble and damage than its worth, but this is true on an immense scale. Unless you're a mayor's son, I guess.

Soon after, protag acquires a new A-list supervillain employer, who is meticulous and precise and also a powerful combatant with mechanized mail and claws and mask. He'd like her to both continue her research and also--now that it's clear that she's on the same page as he is--help him come up with ways to utterly destroy (what we might call "cancel") or at least nullify the cape threat.

And she does. She becomes pretty cool, and her fellow henches end up with a cute office culture and get. shit. done.

Another review I read (after I finished the book) says she goes full-on-evil. Maybe they're more right than I am, and of course few IRL villains would admit they're being and doing evil to themselves...but she's doing the wrong things, for the wrong reason, but to accomplish the right ends. ...and she'd freely admit this even while twirling the modified cane her employer gave her.

Alas for her, she's made the more amoral facets of the superhero community Very Angry. And so for the final third of the book? She's gonna have to deal with the upcoming climax.

(Also, she's got a crush on her new boss. ...and her best friend--who doesn't mind henching or supervillains at all--is freaked out by her prominence and her importance and...and it sucks to have your BFF cut comms. I expect this'll pay off in a subsequent book, with BFF either becoming a hostage, an adversary, or a secret third thing.)

(Author is demonstrably pro-woman (Yay!) and LGB friendly (Yay! 3/5!) , which are things I'm a fan of, and there are some same-sex couples in the peripheries of the book, but protag seems pretty into only dudes, so I don't really think her profound attachment to her BFF is latently romantic or sexual.)

I can tell you how it works out, and there are some fun bits of media manipulation, office snark, and combat shenanigans. ...and if you ask in the comments I'll answer.

But that's the book. I'm kind of--guardedly--a fan of the protag (and the author), and am sorta cheering as these well-meaning heroic doofuses are retiring or 'being retired' as a result of the protag's efforts. ...because they ARE well meaning. ..and they're killing the mosquitos on the playground with industrial quantities of DDT.

The sequel, "Villain", comes out in March. I'll probably wait until I can get it used, but will want to read it just to see where the story goes.

3.5 stars out of 5, and the protag is more morally gray than Taytay. I love the ideas and approach. At no point in the first third of the book did I successfully guess what direction the story was going (I legit thought maybe she'd end up being courted by the contrite-and-trying-to-do-better flying brick hero, for a time. Also, I did not expect her to get knocked out of the henching junior leagues so decisively or early.)

Maybe I'll check out one of the fanfics (there are at least two) on AO3.

[beth-purcell]

Tell me more about your Finding Frankie OC!

Alrighty, here are some tidbits that I've figured out:

Admittedly she doesn't have a name yet; I've been toying with the idea of the name being Henrietta/Henri, because it could lead to some shenanigans, but given we've already got Hotline, I'm not sure. Open to suggestions, though. Pretty confident that they use she/they pronouns.

During the "Season", they are the Head of Chat Moderation, making sure that the chat's not going too wild (things that become slightly more difficult post the end of the current season). They introduced a system where if they have to be away from the chat, it turns the usernames all to "Anonymous" so they don't deal with "He said, She said" when back at the chat. During the off season, they're the IT guy, general mechanics, and anything else that needs to get done. It is a bit of a running joke that their job is just "Lead" because they're doing mostly everything besides what the temp employees do.

Their office is roughly the size of the Contestant's apartment, built into a back area of the park to make that it's relatively comfortable when she has to hunker down during the "Season" and moderate chats among other tech stuff. The office is locked from the inside and there's enough soundproofing to make sure that the focus is on the chats and not anything else.

She totally sneaks cake pops to Monster Frankie when she heads to the coffee shop down the street. Whether it's bribery or some weird form of bonding, nobody really knows, but it does help during the off season when you gotta do the weird shorts to keep views going.

Despite working at a parkour place, they're not exactly the most agile or athletic. Much prefers to stay with two feet on the ground, using "normal" ways to get to one location to the other. Moving around the park via giant animatronic rabbit carrying her is the most she's willing to do. (maybe she's afraid of heights, not entirely sure atm lol)

She's very good at keeping a straight face at her bosses and the contestant, despite the fact the things they've had to pull from chats and the forums would paint them in a vastly different light.

[kaelinlikespeas]

Kaino and Rosie HCs again!! (Supa Strikas)

Everything platonic except Ja Nein,Miko and Tiger !!

'Kaino Lin' (She/They)

She's Malaysian-Chinese(even though her name originated from Finland)

Her parents taught them English first,which was troublesome in her later stages in her life. She struggles a lot in Chinese,but she knows a few words and sentences in her dialect (Hokkien).

She's a minute and 20 seconds older than Rosie.

They usually had some As and frequent B's when grades were shown.

Their handwriting is really good,somehow.

Hates vegetables with all of their heart.

She used to be an errand girl (intern) for Hydra when she was 19 and couldn't describe the experience properly,but she's on good terms with Skipper. (They're friends, your honour)

Her favourite Super League teams are either Supa Strikas or Nakama, there's no in-between. (They're basic,she knows)

When she arrived at SS,she was shocked when she saw Twisting Tiger. They've been a fan of him,even before he joined Supa Strikas.

She mostly watched on TV,even when it was super late at night,she'd turn the volume down and continued watching matches.

But, during their internship,she was mostly awkward around him due to the fact that they'd be working with the Twisting Tiger.

But they grew closer together and became good friends when Tiger noticed her nervousness.

He also got them matching outfits.. (As you have seen in the arts, I post ..)

But back to their hcs,she really loves art and photography and joined many photography competitions. (And got participation medals,trophies,and a few 3rd place medals.)

She would spend their late nights drawing and sketching,which would get Rosie annoyed since they stayed in the same room together. So they had to leave the room to let Rosie get some sleep.

Her side of the room is really clean here and there. But their closet is a huge mess.

She prefers to be alone but wouldn't mind a friend or two to accompany her.

A secret fan of Croccie the smile-dile..

They have the same type of humor as Klaus,a bad one at that. She'd pull a quick joke and have the room turn silent immediately.

She dresses up nicely for some important stuff. (Formal,dates..whatever yada,yada) otherwise you'd see her in their supa strikas singlet,jacket,baggy sweatpants and slippers. (Only wears sneakers whenever she's around ss)

Likes drinking their drinks in those plastic bags that you ikat (tie) and drink out of.

It'd be a miracle if you saw her improve her sleep schedule.

When friends send her gifts,Kaino feels really appreciated. They do,but feel undeserving of them,so she tries to get them better ones.

She can remember the small details of people.

A huge nerd for certain stuff like jellyfish,Inspector Von Spector, and a lot of cartoons she'd remember at the back of her brain.

Randomly can sync the timing of what her and Rosie are saying at the same time.

She's Bisexual in terms of sexuality.

They like savoury things rather than sweet things.

Has a secret collection of beanie boos she would never let go ever in their whole entire life. (She showed it to Tiger,Miko, and Klaus once)

Miko let's them talk about photography mostly to him and really likes it when she yaps about different photos she took on one of their trips.

She has an itabag of Miko and Twisting Tiger but hides them whenever they visit her after the season.

Likes talking to herself for some reason,if you're next to them while they're thinking,you might hear some incoherent mumbling coming from them.

Hates the cold temperature with all her might but loves the air conditioning,they just can't stand the cold winter temp while she was at the Fortress Stadium.

They can fall asleep anywhere,they're just really talented like that.

Sometimes, she envies how easily Rosie could be so social because whenever she tried to,Kaino was just considered really awkward.

'Rosie Lin' (She/It)

Actually really bad at speaking Chinese too,like it's sibling.

Younger and gets annoyed whenever Kaino pulls out 'I'm the oldest' card.

Really likes doodling,would doodle everywhere when she was younger,and still loves it to this day,and surprisingly rlly good at it.

Gets away with practically anything,it's like magic. (Aswell during her internship,but it's a 50/50 chance if she gets scolded by Colonel or not)

The happiest person you can be around!

Yes,her side of the room is also clean too,and her closet is also neat too.

Was a huge straight B student back then,Kaino and her would always compare grades.

It applied to Iron Tank due to wanting to impress her sister.

She's randomly good at translating bad handwriting,give her a crumpled up note with smudged ink and smudged letters,it would have the message figured out in no time.

Has really, really,good handwriting.

Her favourite Super League teams are Iron Tank (of course!!) And Technicali... (IT'S BEST FRIEND IS ON THERE OF COURSE ITS HER SECOND FAVOURITE.)

She's pansexual !!

She loves vegetables,except for yam..it can't stand yam.

It really loves sweet things! Usually sneaks in a snack or two.

Is really brave to defend a friend if she needs to. Literally doesn't care if they're tall and huge,she's still defending it's friends.

The other Iron Tank members except for Ja Nein treat Rosie like a younger sister, which includes practically annoying her a lot.

Rosie and Ja Nein usually work together and would spend sleepless nights to think of plans (totally not cheating dw) (it is cheating.)

Rosie likes leaning against practically anything or anyone whenever she wants to nap for a bit,she mostly does it to Ja Nein,but not that he doesn't mind. (JaRosie real)

Loves to cook for others,randomly whips up anything in the fridge, and feeds it to her friends,which always end up for them asking for more.

Rosie also makes tea and hot chocolate for Ja Nein and her whenever those sleepless nights happen again.

Likes yapping abt dinosaurs,especially the Velociraptor. (Ja Nein has heard her speak abt it a dozen of times)

She can yap abt random things and be so inconsistent with its topics to the point she flips through everything and literally just talks randomly.

Hates it whenever a room turns quiet all of a sudden,so it'd ask a question and hopes it would revive a conversation (usually works except for her team)

Likes reading a ton of comics,would also yap abt those comics..

Also a fan of Croccie the Smile-dile,but is actually more open to it than Kaino is.

Has an in-progress ita bag of Ja Nein hidden in her room.

Loves badges and bottle caps,she really likes collecting them and keeps them in a small trinket box.

It was not easy for her to immediately get used to the cold temperatures at Iron Tank,to the point where she got a small cold the first week there,but it got used to it soon enough.

Has a random sense of humor,she laughs at everything.

It has a good fashion style,likes wearing cute things when the season's over, and Ja Nein and her have some time to hang out together.

It wears mostly comforting and pinkish colors and loves,loves winter outfits with all of her heart. She also dresses up really well for events and really likes them.

Gets annoyed whenever Kaino does something very late,since Rosie liked it when they both had synced sleeping times to the point Kaino had to go into another room to continue whatever they were doing to let Rosie sleep.

Rosie likes it when someone praises her for her hardwork. And always responds with a smug reply.

Accidentally says something really dumb whenever Colonel,Uber,Ja Nein, and her are discussing plans of totally not cheating, and gets really embarrassed if no one gave her a proper reply.

She envies Kaino's smarts,even though Rosie was a bit above average,it feels the need to be better somehow.

Credit to Pinterest for the photos,what would I do without it..

[blackjackkent]

OK, time for another boss battle report, Cazador Szarr edition. This one got pretty elaborate. XD

Opening state of play:

Enemy list is Cazador plus two ghasts (labeled "Fallen Gur Hunter," upsettingly), four werewolves, a skeleton named "Chatterteeth," and six bats. The bats have one hit point each but I'm making no assumptions at this point.

Cazador starts out with seven stacks of a buff called "Ritual Sources" - corresponding to the seven spawn currently being held in magical fields around the arena - which gives him 70 temp HP, 7m extra movement speed, and extra necrotic damage. He also gets an individual unique buff for three of the spawn (For "Yousen", he gets an extra 2-16 hitpoint regain every turn, for "Violet" he gets a +5 to AC, and for Astarion himself, he gets an extra bonus action.)

All of this also means we are shorthanded by one person because Astarion is currently being used as a power socket. (On the bright side, despite the cutscene, he still has all his armor and stuff on, so maybe we can get him back into the fight and let him get the killing blow.)

Cazador can apparently use Call Lightning for ten turns without using a spell slot, with which he immediately beats the shit out of Jaheira on his first turn.

He can turn into vampire mist and run around the arena which makes him immune to non-magical damage. "This status is removed by sunlight," says the description of the form. Well, this at least is good news, because guess what Jaheira has:

The spawns themselves all have a "sacrificial lamb" condition which states: "If Cazador draws power from all the spawns bound this way three times, he will ascend." So we're on something of a time limit.

By the way Cazador has 270 hit points, including the 70 temp HP he's getting from the spawns. O.O;

We do get a bit of a hint to kick things off.

"Those runes," Karlach says. "Cazzy's using them to suck the power right out of those poor fuckers."

"If we can reach the glowing sigils, maybe we can redirect that power from him to us," says Hector.

First of all, I love that Karlach calls him "Cazzy". Second, I can't imagine Hector is much more thrilled about taking that power for himself, even temporarily, than he is about Cazador getting it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I think our top priority here is as follows:

a) Get everyone onto one of those sigils (ideally Astarion's? maybe we can get him back into the fight?) to start disrupting Cazador's power sources. b) Get Daylight cast on as much of the arena as possible. c) ????? we'll figure it out from there.

Let's go.

-----

Combat report:

Getting Karlach onto one of the sigils on her first turn passed one of the "Ritual Sources" buffs from Cazador onto her, so that seems like a good start. The problem here, though, is that stepping back OFF the sigil immediately gives the buff back to Cazador. So the utility here seems a bit limited since most of our squad is kinda up close and personal.

Not entirely clear on whether I am supposed to be trying to kill the non-Astarion spawn, although that does seem like it would certainly remove the buff more permanently. They're basically resistant to everything so it doesn't seem like a GREAT use of our time, but options feel really limited.

The ghasts are surprisingly annoying as they all run straight at Hector and cast Stench to make him nauseous, meaning he can't take actions. He's so powerful tho that he kills one of the werewolves with bonus actions alone.

Karlach meanwhile gets surrounded by all five bats and bit a whole bunch and Jaheira gets downed by the second round of Call Lightning. This is off to a great start.

The one spore zombie that was still following Jaheira around from the fight earlier misses every single one of its attacks in this fight, bless its heart.

Hector manages to take out all the ghasts by turn three but is now the only good guy conscious on the field as Karlach has gotten bitten into unconsciousness. More bats have spawned at the start of the round. Cazador has managed to avoid starting his turn in the Daylight spell repeatedly so he has not yet taken any damage from it yet. All the bats have now come over to surround Hector instead. This is going terribly.

DISCOVERY: When Jaheira's spore zombie kills something (in this case, a bat) it turns into a new friendly spore zombie! That's nice! Everything else, however, is terrible.

At this point, Cazador ascends. All of the spawns, including Astarion, explode into a giant pile of wet meat. Astarion's personal quest is marked complete. I sigh, very heavily, and reload. Yeesh.

Attempt 2!

I feel like there's a trick here that I'm missing, but the second pass does start off much more optimistically; Hector and Karlach are able to take out all three ghouls immediately and Jaheira gets Daylight up again.

Once again Jaheira gets wrecked at the top of the second round when Cazador gets his next turn. She really is squishy as fuck and I am not sure why I suck so badly at playing her. :( I love you, Jaheira, I'm sorry I keep getting you killed.

Eventually I got frustrated and sent Hector over to just whale on Cazador, and he's such a battering ram that he did manage to get him all the way down to 100HP. However, it was on turn 3 and so Cazador promptly got up afterwards and turned everyone into marinara sauce.

Realistically, Hector and Karlach are powerful enough between them that I'm pretty sure we can cheese this fight but just going straight to Cazador on turn 1 and beating the shit out of him; however, I would kind of like to figure out how to do this fight the "correct" way. Reload.

Attempt 3!

New strategy - what if we ignore all the enemies and just run all three of us onto three of the sigils immediately? (Specifically, the three sigils for the spawn that are giving him extra buffs. Unfortunately, they're of course the ones furthest away from us but we have dash actions for a reason.)

With this in mind, backing up an extra save and doing some pre-work. Jaheira gets the Misty Step amulet back, ritually casts Longstrider on everyone which will give them extra movement speed until long rest, and precasts Conjure Elemental, Conjure Woodland Being to get more bodies on the field, and Heroes Feast too, why not (immunity to the Stench poison for one thing), then casts Protection from Energy on herself to help offset the fucking Call Lightning that's wrecking us right out of the gate.

While I'm doing this, @ryssabrin comes in clutch with some advice in the replies in my previous post, pointing out that we can use the Help action on Astarion to pull him out of the ritual and back into the fight. "cazador will focus fire on him but he won't do the ritual." This is HUGE because that three-turn limit was what was really fucking things up.

So that's our new priority. Jaheira and Karlach go to stand on two of the sigils, and Hector books it towards Astarion to free him. Ryssabrin also pointed out the utility of Sanctuary in this case - presumably to put on Astarion if Cazzy is gonna focus fire him - so I have Hector load that up too, and cast Protection from Evil and Good on himself.

Heroes Feast is fun. It also gives us a big hamper of camp supplies in addition to all the buffs. Please fill in your own joke:

Mad prep, let's go:

OK let's give this another try. I'm not scared, what are you talking about.

In addition to all the buffs, we also luck out here somewhat in that on this run, all three of the team get top initiative (second only to Cazador himself). Jaheira's concentration on Protection from Energy gets broken INSTANTLY but she does take less damage than she did previously.

Jaheira misty steps onto Yousen's sigil, stealing Cazador's per-turn heal and one of his ritual stacks (and casts Daylight). Karlach goes to Violet's sigil and steals Cazador's extra AC and another ritual stack (and rages for extra DR). Hector as planned beelines straight for Astarion, Help-actions him into the fight, casts Sanctuary on him, and barrels towards one of the other sigils. Cazador is now down to four buff stacks and no special buffs, and cannot ascend. QUICKSAVE.

"YOU ARE GOING TO SUFFER FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID TO ME!" Astarion bellows, and then I have him stand absolutely still and not do anything, because he can't be targeted by attacks in Sanctuary but only while he doesn't attack anything. I like to think he is debuffing Cazador with the pure power of his ANGRY GLARE, though.

Jaheira once again gets fucking trounced immediately but at least her unconscious body is on top of the sigil so it's still debuffing Cazador.

Round 2 - Cazador's out of mist form and I could keep Hector on the sigil removing the extra stack from him - but realistically the dangerous ones were the two that Jaheira and Karlach are on. Hector is best served barreling straight at Cazador and battering ram smacking the shit out of him. So that is what he does. For a total of [does quick math] 183 DAMAGE! :D Cazador lost Call Lightning concentration too. Big moves from Team Juggernaut and this is all looking much more manageable. (For insult to injury he still had enough movement left to go and stand on the nearby sigil again too. XD )

Karlach hurled two separate health potions at Jaheira, using up both of her actions, and neither of them did anything useful for some reason. Very annoying. So now I just sit here while the 513451345 enemies on the field take their turns and hope for the best.

Time for some roleplay choices. Cazador is down to 65 HP and still prone, which means Astarion can get a sneak atack on him. So I make the executive decision to SCREW SANCTUARY because Astarion needs this killing blow.

Jaheira dies. Again. And, again, from a story perspective, we are pretending this didn't happen. XD

Round 3 - Cazador once again mists up, so I spend Hector and Karlach's turns taking out some of the adds. Astarion tries to take a stab at the mist form just to see if it works. It doesn't.

Round 4 - Hector flattens Cazador down to 13HP and positions himself to give Astarion sneak attack. Karlach stares menacingly at everyone...

And Astarion gets the killing blow.

And then we killed the 113451324 bats that had spawned during this whole process. Victory!

[imthepunchlord]

What's your opinion about the temporary heroes?

I think they're VERY unnecessary,especially once the unification being introduced as literally as a way to use 2+ powers at the same time,not mixing the powers to create other one,some just have miraculous bc yes(half of them,actually),if there's going a actual miraculous i think it should be the top 5(7 at the end)to keep the things okay,season 2 baby,yk you are the best?

I do agree. Ultimately, they were pointless to do and were the wrong choice of direction.

A big part of it is that unification reveal, all those Miraculous Fu has could've been shared between Marinette and Adrien. Also, Hawk Moth is not a big enough threat to the heroes to warrant expanding the team. Why, the one time they did a "Miraculous Team" it fell apart in minutes. And it still came down to Marinette and Adrien to save the day.

By this narrative, there's no good reason to share Miraculous with others and do temp heroes as Marinette and Adrien are confirmed by the narrative is that they themselves are all they need. And a lot of the episodes with temp heroes getting focus, could be solved by the heroes doing a unify instead, like Pegabug could've appeared in... what Startrain? Marinette could've become Dragonbug to fight Hearthunter, there was no need for her to go out of her way to go get Kagami.

Also some temp heroes were pointless. You could cut Carapace out of Anansi and not miss much. He's also not the only solution to Anansi's web. A burning candle could've taken it out, or Chat could've Catacysmed the web. Ladybug's yo-yo could've been sharp enough to cut it.

Carapce wasn't really all that needed for Anansi.

From what I remember, Vesperia was also pretty pointless in her intro ep, especially as she got knocked out pretty quick. You take her out, only thing you miss is Chloe getting upset that someone else has the Bee, which isn't going to be exclusive to Zoe.

If they were to expand the team, they need to up the threat. And as HM himself doesn't cover that, that could've been done with Mayura.

The other factor is that, doing temp heroes, skips out on needed character growth, and skips out on kwamis being characters. Like, if Alya was a full time hero instead of temp, there's a lot you could do with that.

You can cover Alya struggling to juggle her now double life, cause she's living the dream as a hero! Why would she want to go back to the dull, drab civilian life? This could be a better way to work off Lila alienating Marinette at school cause Alya is living the dream as a hero and isn't paying attention to her civilian life too much. It could even explain her being dismissive of Marinette and her views of Lila cause she's not there enough to see the details.

You can also cover the risk vs reward of reveal vs secrecy, as both sides should have pros and cons to them. And it is a canon issue with Alya that she wants to unmask the heroes, and she's up for a reveal and share that she's a hero. If Marinette represents the pros and cons of secrecy, Alya can cover the pros and cons of a reveal.

And there are other aspects that canon has introduced to work off of. Like, Alya trying to pick the perfect hero name during an akuma attack, showing she's not taking things as seriously as she should. There's her eager for public attention. That being a hero is more for ego and glory, and she can learn that being a hero is a lot more serious and harder and to see if she has what it takes to step up to the plate.

And of course, what Miraculous and kwami she's paired with can influence how she could've grown.

Mindful, all Miraculous by default would work off that secrecy vs reveal, but Fox would specifically really cover that as it's tied to deception and secrecy. It's also set to be a struggle for Alya because she WANTS to be in the limelight, she aims for leadership and to be directly involved, and Fox isn't built for that, it's built to be in the background. Which can help her growth, but can also clash with where she wants to be.

Bee meanwhile has a good few similar appeals for Alya as it does for Chloe. Alya does have similar issues to Chloe in being literally pushy, taking over projections, pushing her agenda, aiming for leadership but not always being the best leader, and can be oblivious to others, their feelings, and any backlash she's causing. Bee ideally could help her learn to ease back, be a team player; and it has the bonus of allowing Alya to be where she wants to be, and can offer some leadership skills to develop, and work on communication and listening.

Over all, the temp heroes were a bad and pointless choice. The narrative doesn't warrant expanding the team as Marinette and Adrien hardly struggled against HM, and the s2 fianle actually discourages it. It skips out on needed character development and allowing kwamis to be characters. And, honestly, not all characters warrant getting a Miraculous.

Max I could get cause he did step up in Robustus. Juleka I can get cause she's set up to learn confidence, find her voice, and has a lot of bottled up emotions to let loose. I could even get Ivan as in Origins, everyone is kinda terrified of him because of his size, so there could've been an arc to change that view, someone who's feared to becoming a hero, become associated with safety instead.

But what's up with Alix to really warrant a Miraculous? Mylene didn't want one and yeah I don't think she really needed one. It's even more wild as I feel like the power to shrink down would just make her anxieties worse. What about Marc who's barely a character? Is the bar so low that you just have to be good at sports?

Yeah, temp heroes aren't worth it nor were they needed. They were a bad choice of direction.

[brucewaynehater101]

More Power Rangers Digital Division!!!!

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As established or at the very least implied, the Rangers put their superpowers (equivalent in Tim's case) to use when on duty or in the Digital World away from Real World eyes, but when they're pretending to be ordinary civillians, they play the part

Because of this, it's primarily their hero sonas that have to concern themselves with shooing away people questioning their krytonian heritage, speed force, demigodhood and "100%" human rating

They also display traits completely wrong to their character, and other deceptions that'll throw people off their civillian tails

Why? So they can request training their powers without fear. On the conditions they be allowed to preform their DigiDestined duties as usual, nor be forced to disclose their civillian identities of course

They're kids and teenagers, they need all the help they can get

They accept team-ups when the time calls for it

Honestly seeing the Digital Division team up people from the Real World for a mission would be fun, esp w/ all the adjusting the temp teammate has to do, real world or digital world

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Technology is kind of everywhere. That means w/ foes without a reason to stick to or spawn from a particular area, the Digivision will likely have to do tons of travelling around the worlds

Technology can ease that unless a black out fucks them over, that could be another episodic plot point, team being seperated cuz of a blackout and other technological errors or not being near technology

Honestly there's loads of scenarios that could lead to the team being seperated and some of the Division has to stall or make do until the team backs them up or make do without their aid

Geting back on track---

Due to all this global travel and world hopping, nobody can pin down their precise location

Missions also take place in the Digital and/or Real World, so factors like Luthor or Batman or anybody else not panopticonning the Digital World only knows a fraction of the Digital Division's activities

Same with the low level street stuff because they also do the same in the Digital World too

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Maybe Bart Allen doesn't even go by Bart Allen; not even as a legal name. He grew up in the digital world with hardly any humans at all I would imagine that'd affect more than his vocabulary

I'm willing to bet his idea of identity, gender, etc is wildly different since it's Digimon he grew up around

Maybe his name is something like Speedmon since he discovered this thing called the Speed Force in his own data in the digital world

so what he doesn't have a .mon file extension like Terriermon? His name, his choice

Either way, not going by Allen whatsoever would delay him getting clocked as a speed force user/flash family member

But for conveniences sake, lets say he somehow still knows his given name is Bart Allen, decided given names were for losers, and goes by a chosen name with his friends

It's all nice and good. If they discover the Flash family are also the Allen family, he and Tim will have to pick between saying "not all Allens are related to eachother, unrelated people share surnames all the time!" or getting away with replacing his surname and wiping out the Allen one if they think it's vital or are panicking af

Oh frick, he'll have to be careful about slang as well, Vaccine Ranger can call the slang of the worlds in the future present digital world slang since they're likely no/few people who'll clock him as lying

But it'll be mode having to adjust to present day lingo as Bart

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I can't let go of the relationship development that can happen between Superman and Thorn dammit!

There's so many plot points that can happen and you can arrangement in basically any order I dunno which order to present!

Do-It-Yourself Timeline Outlining! by anon

"put the boxes in different orders to get something fresh and new from the same thing, every time!"

【 Superman learns he has a clone 】

【 Superman learns Thorn/Data Ranger is his clone 】

【 Superman learns Thorn = Data Ranger 】

【 Superman learns Thorn or Data Ranger is kryptonian 】

【 Superman/Clark and Thorn/Data Ranger become acquainted 】

【 Superman trains Data Ranger 】

【 Superman discovers Thorn/Data Ranger has kryptonite 】

【 Superman discovers Thorn/Data Ranger wears kyrptonite 】

【 Superman trains Data Ranger 】

【 Superman teaches Thorn/Data Ranger Kryptonian culture 】

【 Thorn learns that Superman = Clark 】

【 Thorn learns that Superman/Clark knows he's a clone 】

【 Superman/Clark confronts his clone about being his clone 】

【 Superman/Clark confront Thorn/Data Ranger on being kyrptonian 】

【 Superman/Clark confronts Thorn/Data Ranger on having kryptonite 】

【 Superman/Clark confronts Thorn/Data Ranger on wearing kryptonite 】

【 Superman/Clark confronts Thorn/Data Ranger on being Data Ranger/Thorn 】

【 Thorn learns that Superman/Clark knows about [X] 】

【 One party learns the other knows they know 】

brain fried

theres more timeline moments I might've not thought of

I think you could come up with a different way to reorder these timeline events, make a fic, and I'd eat it up every time

obligatory you don't have to do every box point comment, not just use one per timeline, etc.

duplicating some of these events would be very fun, it might even be needed sometimes

it's got built-in father/son!sqauredom Miraculous style but platonic, what more could ya want?

wait what if it's louis first?

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I know I'm repeating myself but it'd be neat; seeing Cassie wind up an unwitting bridge between Digital and Real world equivalents would be funny to see

Preemptive give poor Cassie a break but onwards!!

Hijinks where Cerberumon and Ceberus swap places and now it's up to Cassie to navigate the Greek Gods scene, get her team the chance to convince Hades and other greek figures to give them the time to set things right

Meanwhile Hadesmon, who the team will learn exists the hard way, is finding themselves attached to this weird fleshy version of their loyal companion

Which is going to make more work for the team when they try to convince the two dogs to swap back forever---as the real world greeks want--- but Cerberus and Hadesmon want organized playdates and/or swaps

And that's just one example, but hey maybe the digivision can take advantage of these opprotunities to get favors, blessings, and whatnot once it hits them it's an option

But as the Digital Division, Cassie particulary, makes a name, for themselves in the divine/supernatural scene for resolving Digital World or related conflicts, their fame could be a problem

Number one, is it their civillian, ranger identities, or a blend of both passing through the grapevine?

Number two, as they become more esteemed, more eyes will be on them, and both worlds will want the rangers/civillians on their side

Perhaps even permanently tied to them in ways the digivision does not want!

Hell maybe the quest to recruit the Digivision/Civillians results in more conflicts between supernatural/divine scenes and digital world, interally and externally

Or maybe some factions want the Digital Division destroyed or whatever and now they're joining in the fight to keep the Digivision from growing in power. As civillian or rangers? You choose

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Drake Industries entwining itself with the Digital World, a blessing it remains, circles too into being a curse

Due to so many Digimon concentrated in Gotham as Drake employees, their foes are paying more attention to Gotham than ever, Drake Industries specifically

Which means the few time the Data Division is in action in the real world for people to see is noticably a bit more often in Gotham and the skyrotting D.I.

Which could result in Batman investigating, meaning the team has got to nip this in the bud

But even with other branches opened in places outside Gotham, it just means more focus there, so they gotta be subtle about where Digimon are employed to fight off suspicion

Nevertheless, it's a wee too late

The combination of Virus Ranger and Dobermon's intervention alongside the (admittingly mild) increase in Digital Worlder activity is getting Batman to finally put his thinking cap on

Tim recently had two homeless friends move in with him

Cassie is a friend who makes frequent visits (as recent as Bart and Thorn---if Tim has to arrange the parents meeting so they could have an alibi---is another nail in the coffin)

Drake Industries is booming in business and expanding into technology around the time Digital World and Digivision activity became more frequent

The rangers hold some knowledge that Gothamite residents would naturally possess

The Virus Ranger had unnatural intellect, he could be aiding Jack and Janet Drake behind the scenes for the Digital Division's benefit hence why Drake Industries was booming

Or if Tim is CEO in this au, Tim being the Virus Ranger would explain things, including why he went for a fast acting plan where he had to put in minimal effort unlike, say, becoming Robin if he had his own heroic and CEO duties to worry about

He already had some interest in the case, what with a demigod, speedster, and kryptonian and another unknown suddenly popping up with zero gain of learning their identities, practically more elusive than the Bats

especially after multiple appearances in Gotham

But not only is he busy with Gotham as a whole, the Digital Division made it clear their mission involved the Digital World and they want other heroes to stay in their lanes while they stay in theirs

His many attempts and trying to gather info ran into dead ends

Yet perhaps someone with more tim on her hands could . . .

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Barbara deserves to be worshipped and praised you say? Batman recruits Oracle? Say no more!

Barbara gets requested by Bruce to investigate the Power Rangers who have become increasingly active in Gotham

She winds up stumbling upon the Digital world, not unlike Tim did, and up in no time (okay maybe there were obstacles along the way) girlbosses her way into Digital God-Queenhood

Like she isn't divine down to her bones per say, but she has way more time and experience on her hands to master the Digital World in ways Tim can only dream of at his age

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And it's a whole mystery, maybe in a fic not even the audience would be privy to the truth minus some clues for keen-eyed readers here and there

There's this talk of Oraclemon, and unheard digimon of the Unknown Attribute *shivers* who came into power at an such an unbelievable speed you'd bet she had the speed force on her side

Her allies and subjects experience a dream come true of prosperity

And those who stand against her never even realize they've been deleted

She look perfect on and even below the surface, but some things are too good to be true. They can all testify individually and together

When they first see Oraclemon---not even in action, but fighting from an unseen distance---they're horrified when their X-Antibodies register her targets as having been deleted by the X Program

Which secures the idea that Oraclemon was a key factor in the future digital world's apocalypse and they're training and prepping harder than ever for the inevitable confrontation

But when they finally confront the God-Queen in person they're horrified to learn she is even worse than any foe they could ever imagine

She isn't in search of destroying them and the worlds

She's in search of canidates for heirs to pass on the God-Ruler mantle once the time has come; A Bat looking to adopt

and the most perfect of them all have just presented themselves

"Run, run, run, as fast as you can!"

they do not escape orphans

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tl;dr --- Barbara found out about the Digital World, and since the Digital Division does the rest of their work there, she needed to learn everything she should

When she saw the state of the Digital World, she went "hmmm, I could do you one better"

Using recorded Data of the few times she could directly observe the Digital Division in action, plus the DigiMorphers and other observed data of the squad she went from there

If she could get this world to bend to her will, she could figure out just what the Digital Divison's secrets where

The most logical solution? Be to powerful to ignore. She quickly figured out how to get herself the best of both worlds

being a perfect hybrid between human and digital monster, said .mon half being custommade by her, and able to swift between near-wholly human and near wholly-digimon is needed

She also is working on travelling freely between worlds without her own homemade digivice but she's getting there

Hardly going a day without upgrading herself or her arsenel, she makes a name for herself, laying down the foundations for her forces, her Kingdom of Oraclemon

at some point she realized she had gotten sidetracked, but that was no matter, tracking down the Digital Division should be no issue now

She didn't expect the group to just waltz in to fight her, but it's perfect timing given some of the political issues it would solve

If Batman finds out about what Oracle just did, he's gonna pull his hair out, dammit Barbara this wasn't the assignment!

Jim is probably proud AF of his girl

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I did not plan for the X Program to be made by Barbara instead of Luthor or another foe instead but lmao.

Hey maybe she takes her Digivice to the next level and makes it a fullblown DigiMorpher where she's the Digimon and the Ranger, becoming the Unknown Ranger

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identity reveals would be fun af, whether you do it Tim & Bats, Bart & Flash Fam, Thorn & Supers, Cassie & Amazons, and whoever else you want, or go the extra mile and instead of the expected identity reveal way, you scramble everything up

Like say for example, Superman and Bart, blah blah blah, and then the Flash Family, or Cassie and Barbara, then the Amazons, etc

I absolutely love the idea of Oracle being a digital world badass monarch. She is powerful and terrifying, especially when she's connected to technology.

I do enjoy good identity shenanigans regardless of who or what. If you want even more chaos, you can add in Rogues/villains finding out some of the info before the other heroes do (Two-face figures out that Thorn is kryptonian, Ra's learns about Cassie's heritage a bit, some of Flashes' enemies figure out that Drake Industries is involved with Digital Division, etc).

How does the digital dimension work? Is it like a real place you could theoretically live at? If so, it'd be cool if the team made themselves a hideout.

As far as Bart's last name, there's a ton of people with that name. However, I totally get the "maybe we should change it anyways"

[silviakundera]

DRAMA REC: So I feel like any real review of Thai drama Moonlight Chicken is hard without heavy spoilers because honestly I don't know how to talk about what makes me passionate about it without discussing all the character relevations that occur over the course of its 8 episodes. I'll try to be generic as much as I can.

The thing about why it's hard to discuss without spoilers is that the characters and their full baggage are revealed slowly episode by episode, because like in real life you often learn about new friends & love interests slowly as intimacy deepens...

But from what I can see online, it's very subjective for viewers - depends on the person if they find these themes and personal challenges compelling or not. This doesn't fit with the typical "BL asian drama" format.

My personal viewing stake: There's an otp that has TAKEN OVER MY BRAIN. I have been searching for this energy ever since finishing Lighter & Princess. Gotta confess that I couldn't care less about the second couple who are teenagers. Apparently MDL and a lot of tumblr only liked the teen couple (valid!), but I just skipped over them mostly because when my brain locks in on Real Adults with Adult Problems I often cease to connect to high school student storylines. But the age gap couple with a 39 year old character who is FEELING his age... Jim & Wen. I've watched all 8 episodes now and they are like cocaine to me.

Ep 1 setup: We're not in Bangkok! (gasp) Jim is almost-40 and runs a late night diner in the less upscale part of town. Wen, about 10 years younger, is drunk at his diner as he's trying to close for the night. They pick up on the unspoken signals, instant electric connection, and end up wandering back to Jim's place and having what looks like fantastic sex together (without exchanging names).

But then after that first night, in the remaining 7 ep of the show you get a slowburn build up from zero as Jim doesn't want a relationship - with anyone. This is truly, sincerely a 'it's not you, it's me" situation. He is mired in baggage and the angst is SO DELICIOUS to me. Angst and soft hand touches and late night conversation. There's YEARNING. SO MUCH YEARNING.

And then my darling Wen! Who brings almost the same energy as the Lighter and Princess FL. @dangermousie I never thought I'd see this irrepressible determination and tender, good humored patience again! He is deeply sure that there is something special here with Jim and is unrelenting about trying to scale Jim's walls. I know that sounds like psychotic SML material lmao but it's all about the tone and context. It's very clear that Jim is allowing Wen in his life and doesn't, deep down, want Wen to give up on him. He's damaged and scared but I always felt he wants Wen to be right - that they are falling in love and can build something real together. He just can't make himself take that step. I mean, in their 2nd meeting he is EQUALLY INSANE to agree that it's v normal and hinged behavior to let his 1 night stand start randomly showing up to work shifts at his diner as 'temp staff' he can't afford to pay because... um. Basically to stalk him? idk I don't think it's stalking when u have a mutual agreement?? 🤔

Wen falling deeper into Jim and KNOWING the feeling is mutual no matter how many times he's (so gently!) pushed back... can be sooooo personal. 😭😭😭 The vibes of this "we're Not Together™" but it's inevitable, I'm just waiting for the timing to be right... reminiscent of the last 10 episodes of Lighter & Princess. This building intimacy and tenderness that stretches on until as a viewer you feel like... They ARE in love, they're together but just without the sex. They just have to stabilize their lives first before committing whole-heartedly. THE BITTERSWEET PINGING. (screams)

One thing I've observed is many people seem to struggle to connect with Jim's character. The closest thing we have to a protagonist (?) Maybe. Anyway, I suspect it might be a generational thing. I found the drama incredibly compelling, but I grew up queer in the 80s and 90s. I'm well into my 40s, a bit older than Jim, but I think the generational queer experience overlaps pretty well considering the sociopolitical differences btw us/thailand.

The screenwriter is an older out gay man, so I presume that's also a factor in how he did a pitch-perfect depiction of Jim's struggles to find home.

Wen has his own baggage that feels very real and raw. I loved his storyline because I could personally relate to it also from my queer relationship experience.

I've blabbered on here before about how I feel like there's something different about queer stories being told to other queers, not targeted to straight viewers primarily - I'm not saying it's better than the big brands and popular international media including lgbt rep. It's just different imo and I do think it's valuable. I want to see stories about the complexities of the experience & about the gay community that can't just be mapped to straight people. Where the story would not feel the same if you flipped the sexualities. That's what Midnight Chicken was to me: the characters of Jim and Wen and their personal development & slow love story together felt very queer and the age gap was a relevant part of this. And that called to me. I could recognize parts of myself in them and my personal experiences as a gay woman.

I was impressed by the writing. Strong acting. The directing of individual scenes is excellent BUT the 1 big flaw is the editing. Very amateur, super abrupt scene changes! Just jarring. But whatever, I've seen some terrible editing in cdramas too. Also note the storytelling tactic is to show a series of meaningful moments & interactions over like 6-8 months of time. Events progress in ways we don't always see and it's not always spelled out to the audience, everything that happened since we last saw them. That may or may not work for the viewer.

[Plus there's a very sweet & wholesome teen love story that also gets a happy ending, if you're into that. One of the teens is deaf and there's no "cure the disability" nonsense, don't worry. I was adult-focused but I did appreciate the complicated family relationship subplot with Jim trying to caretake his nephew and their relationship to the mostly-absent sister.]

ok so now into spoiler territory. Letting the relevations come out organically would be a much better viewing experience BUT...

SPOILERS ON JIM & WEN BACKSTORY

Jim's whole deal is he had a big love in his late 20s-early 30s that fucked him up good. He grew up being told gay love isn't real, leaves his rural farming town with his sister in their teens, disconnected from his family... But even his sister, who loves him, had the perspective that it's Just A Phase. Jim expects to Prove Them Wrong. Then his boyfriend cheats on him.... With a woman. Activate that generation's internalized homophobia and self-doubt. And then before he gets to truly confront his partner, his partner dies in an accident. So he never gets resolution.

And he's stuck under a mountain of debt, on the edge of poverty because he didn't get any of the guy's assets when he died of course. No rights under Thai law. Partner's family takes it all but the old car & the cat. All he has is the small chicken rice shop they had bought and ran together and it's killing him, he both hates and loves it. He's this amazing member of the local community but doesn't see himself and his own worth clearly.

Wen is working through the guilt of falling out of love from his 1st gay relationship that lasted 5 years of his 20s. Broken up but still living together. Trying to stay in each other's lives (I've seen this a lot, because in small gay communities you don't just cut ties with good people you care about). But living together is toxic for both of them, despite the real care that's there.

He also feels disconnected from a community at the start. He has work collegues, all straight friends, and his now-ex boyfriend. But you get the subtle sense that his local ties are all with the boyfriend Alan's family and mutual friends with Alan who don't all know about the breakup yet and he doesn't know how to interface with them anymore now that he and Alan aren't the same. He's the one who fell out of love, so he's "the bad guy" here and the straight friend he tries to talk to about trying to co-habititate with his ex and stay close friends doesn't really get it, because that's just way more typical behavior for older generation queers - it's notable that when the situation is fully explained to Jim, he doesn't seem to find it bizarre at all (as said, I've gone through that myself, and known friends in that situation; found that subplot to be very well done.) (I read that many viewers were disappointed this wasn't a standard infidelity situation where Wen is just regular cheating on Alan, but I have to say that I feel the opposite. The subplot and how it played out felt very relatable to me. I didn't need a cheating angst plotline in this drama that could be transplanted into a straight drama. I wanted more stories that represented my lived experience as an adult lesbian, and Wen's narrative gave me that.)

Wen keeps searching for a home even while living with Alan and having loved him in the past. Which to me was a sign that he'd moved to this smaller city, living in Alan's condo and in Alan's life with Alan's extended family... He started eating beef because Alan did and following along. He doesn't know where HE feels at home, what Wen needs to be comfortable and happy. When he more & more starts to believe he can make this home with Jim, he's determined to make it happen.

[walkman-cat]

Happy STS! Please tell me more about the thieves and their life outside of heists :)?

hihi happy sts(unday)!

these thieves are part of my heist/slice of life story, skyfish! (pictured below, with their roles in the heist team). some of them have names but 2/5 do not yet :')

the grifter (named Nobody) and the hacker (unnamed) live together (they moved in when Nobody was in university)! most of their routine involves an old sing-and-dance of the hacker being a nuisance (playfully) and Nobody acting like he's annoyed and bickering with them :D.

outside of heists, the hacker spends their time hacking for funsies, playing video games, or programming. they don't really leave the house that often unless Nobody's joining them.

Nobody spends their tiem outside of heists mostly working on keeping up the multiple masks/identities they have, and coming up with new ones. they also work as a maths tutor on occasion, but the bulk of their time is making up new characters to play.

sometimes Nobody and the hacker will go out and do cons of their own just for funsies! they've been working together since the beginning and have lots of manoeuvres and joint-disguises they do!

similarly, the fixer (Spencer Spades, but no-one calls her by her first name) and the hitter (unnamed and it's vexing me) have worked/lived together for six years by the start of the story. outside of heists they're temp workers who do odd jobs around the city (which is part of why everyone in the city at least knows someone who knows Spades).

when not working, Spades is either found tinkering with her old skyskiff (still on the fence about that tbh but she's got the greasy mechanic vibes) or gambling.

the hitter, when not following Spades around, usually helps out families in the undernarrows/helps out at the Night Market in the narrows. he likes cooking and loves stargazing, but he doesn't often get to do the latter. he also spends time just training/working out, but since some of the jobs he and Spades take on are stealing-things related, he also gets practice then.

the thief (Snake Eyes) is the newest addition to the heist crew, and probably has the biggest life outside heists. he loves games and, as such, his time for the past four years has mostly been spent at gambling parlours and arcades, to the point where it's recognised by many of the regulars of most of the Narrows' gambling dens. it enjoys card games, loves dice games, and is willing to play anything as long as it'll have a good time (Spades- who gambles for the thrill- has often interacted with Snake Eyes in the past). outside of playing games, Snake Eyes ususally haunts the Night Market and picks pockets (it's how they've gotten by for so long, though he sometimes help out with one or two stalls).

he's also always wanted to be a magician, so he'll practice tricks and sleight of hand if he's idle, but most of his time is spent either gambling or stealing on his own. after he joins the heist crew he starts spending more time with them and it's funky wbwbw!

literally all of them spend their free time either working on things that'll help them in heists or stealing things. only Spades and the hitter really know how to interact with people normally (Nobody doesn't count because her normal is lying about being normal). they're very silly and i like thinking about how they become closer and sillier over time wbwbw!