#granted the person who said this had said this kinda shit before so like. that ice is broken through

[sopranoentravesti]

Man it’s really fun when goyim just cannot cannot resist letting rightful criticism of Israel descend into the whole “Jews control the media.”

Take it from someone who has bitched about Hasbara for longer than you’ve known what it was. Please stop saying shit about “Israel’s PR Army.”

[love-hs28]

Give me the chance to explain

Summary: You had been giving JJ the silent treatment all day and he can’t figure out why. It only takes you accidentally hurting yourself while cleaning for the two of you to see eye-to-eye.  Hurt/comfort & Angst  gn!reader CW: Reader accidentally gets cut with a shard of glass  1.3k words  Posted on: 5-24-24

a/n: My second post!! Hope you enjoy, I promise I'll write a happy one sometime haha :)

You and JJ are alone in the chateau one night while the others are out getting snacks for movie night. They had convinced the two of you to stay home while they went out because you had kinda been fighting all day. ‘Fighting’ meaning you had been ignoring JJ and he had been desperately trying to get you to talk to him. 

You had all gone to a party the night before, and you thought you saw JJ flirting with another girl (granted, you never really gave him the chance to explain himself… you’d kind of just been shutting him out all day.) Kie, Pope, Sarah, and JB had also so kindly given you guys the job of cleaning up the chateau. There were beer bottles scattered around and paper plates and cups littering the floor. Right as the group walked out, you stood up from the couch and started cleaning up. 

JJ sighed and leaned back into his seat. “Y/n, come on. You gotta talk to me.” You continued cleaning up, moving into the kitchen to grab a trash bag to hold as you walked around. You had been giving him the silent treatment all day and he wasn’t having it anymore. “Y/n. This is bullshit, whatever this is can’t be fixed if you won’t even look at me! Come on, they expect us to have all our shit figured out when they get back, and honestly, I would like to not spend the rest of the night in awkward silence.” 

You sigh and bend down to pick up a beer bottle, but it slips out of your hand as you stand up and shatters on the floor. You straighten up and rub a hand over your face, take a deep breath, and roughly set the trash bag on the floor to crouch down and get ready to clean up the glass. JJ sighs again and stands up to come help you. “Here, let me help.” 

You stand up and push his hand away from the trash bag. “No! Cut it out, JJ, you know exactly why I’m acting like this! Quit pretending like you’re clueless and like you don’t know what’s wrong.” 

He frustratedly laughs and rubs a hand over his face. “For fucks sake, y/n, I’ve been trying to talk to you ALL DAY to understand why you’re so upset! I legitimately have no idea what I did wrong, so please, just cut the bullshit and tell me!”

It’s your turn to laugh now, and you aggressively sit on the couch and throw the trash bag on the floor. “No, YOU cut the bullshit. You can’t expect me to act perfectly fine when we go to a party and I see you flirting with another girl who is basically THROWING herself at you and you just let it happen!” 

JJ looks at you like that’s the craziest thing any person has ever said. “Are you serious?? I was absolutely not flirting with another girl. Not only was I completely wasted, but I was literally with you the entire night.” 

You roll your eyes and get up from the couch to pick up the broken bottle. “Whatever, JJ. I’m done talking about this. If you wanna lie about being with that girl and about ‘being with me the entire night’ then go ahead, but you can do it to someone else because I’m not having this conversation anymore.”

JJ looks around like he’s about to go crazy. “Y/n. I swear to god. I was literally with you the entire night! From when we got there, to when we got drinks, to when we left! You’re acting ridiculous, I genuinely don’t know what you’re so mad about.” 

You stop in front of the damn glass shards once more and angrily pick up the trash bag again. “I just fucking told you what I’m mad about! And I never got drinks at the party, you did. You left about ten minutes after we got there and I didn’t see you again for the rest of the night.” 

JJ sits down and rubs his hands over his face. “I’m actually so confused right now. I know I was wasted but literally remember spending the whole night with you. We got drinks and danced and then left at like 2.” 

You shake your head, internally realizing that maybe he mistook some other girl for you. It had kinda been a rough week for you overall, and maybe you were overreacting just a little bit. “Whatever. Everyone’ll be back soon and I need to get this shithole cleaned up.” You start to pick up the shattered beer bottle but end up accidentally being too rough and cutting your hand on a big sharp piece. “Shit,” you hiss and suck in a breath, dropping the bag to hold your hurt hand in your other one. 

JJ looks up from his hands and sees you bleeding and immediately gets up. “Y/n, jesus.” You can feel tears prickling from the cut, and also probably from being stressed all day - no, all week. 

You pull away from JJ and wipe a tear with your good hand. You sniff and try to stand up. “I’m fine. Stop.” 

JJ puts one hand on your holder and the other on your elbow to gently make you sit down and kisses your head. “Let me help you, honey. Sit here, I’ll get the first aid kit.” 

You sit on the ground and clutch your hurt hand as tears stream down your face. You’re beginning to feel absolutely horrible for treating him like shit all day. 

JJ returns from the bathroom a minute later and sits next to you. “Sorry,” he whispers, “It was shoved under the sink. Took me a minute to find it.” 

You sniff and look away from him as he starts to clean out the cut. You can see him out of the corner of your eye and he keeps looking from your hand to your face. 

“Doesn’t look deep enough to need stitches. It should heal itself in a week or two.” Once he’s done cleaning it, he covers the cut and gives it a kiss. You let him hold your hand and rub it. 

You couldn’t stand not talking to him all day, and realize now that he made an honest mistake, and you felt like a complete bitch for acting the way you did. You guys had never fought like this before and it hurt so much that you knew you would do anything to prevent it from happening again. You start to cry and he gently pulls you into him. 

“Oh, honey.” He rubs your back as you cry and grab onto his shirt with your good hand. He sighs and starts softly talking. “I think you realized this by now, but I still want to say it so you know what happened. I thought I was with you the whole time at the party. I swear on my life. The other girl must have looked very similar to you, or maybe I was just wasted out of my mind, but I swear on everything I would never flirt with anyone other than you. I swear to you I remember being with you the entire night. Not some stupid touron. I would never do that to you.” 

You lift your head and rub your eyes, letting out a sigh. “I know. I think that’s why I got so upset about it. It wasn’t like you and it scared me. I’m sorry. I feel like a complete bitch, I should have just talked to you about it. I’m sorry.” 

JJ shakes his head softly and holds your face in his hands. “Don’t apologize. You had every right to be upset. If I was in your position I would have probably assumed the same thing. We just need to talk to each other first when things like this happen. I hate fighting with you, y/n. And I hate seeing you so upset, especially when I’m the one who caused it.”

You lean your forehead on his, and he kisses you sweetly. You sit like this for a few seconds more, then JJ starts to get up and helps you do the same. 

“Alright, let's get this shithole cleaned up before everyone comes back and bites our heads off, yeah?” 

You softly smile and nod, wiping your face again. JJ sweetly smiles and comes over and hugs you. 

“You and me forever, okay? I got you.” 

a/n: I hope you enjoyed, thank you to the moon and back for reading <3. Again, PLEASE leave requests, prompts, questions, or anything for me!! I want to make this a usual thing of posting so please give me any & all feedback. Love ya!

xoxo

[slytherinboysvip]

soooo like idk if u write angst. But from ur page i feel like u would be good at it. Maybe like a theo x slytherin!reader who like gets bullied by them and it’s kinda unrequited love and one day she gets entirely done with them and doesn’t leave her room for a while because something happened. Then classic theodore nott goes for a smoke seeing her alone in the courtyard or something and feels a little bad and they talk and he realizes how much of a dick him and his friends are because reader “is so done with all the shit” and plans to try and leave

bully theo nott x slytherin reader

angst

not exactly sure what to title this one but i hope it’s enjoyable, i don’t do angst much but it’s so much funnn

𓆙

while going to hogwarts seemed to have been most young wizards escape, you unfortunately didn’t have the luxury of seeing it that way. ever since you’ve started at hogwarts and were sorted into slytherin you haven’t had such an easy time. granted now that you’re a 6th year you have a few friends, however one thing stayed the same since you’ve started; you were constantly bullied by the most popular of the slytherins.

you genuinely didn’t understand what made them dislike you so much, you didn’t agree with their pureblood praises though you were a pureblood yourself. maybe it could’ve been the fact that you weren’t necessarily the richest, coming from a lower class wizarding bloodline nobody knew of your family and simply getting the money together for your school supplies was often a challenge.

you tried everything you could to drown out any bullying, trying your best not to let any of it effect you or your studies. unfortunately due to you also being a slytherin not even your common room was an escape for you.

walking out your dorm as quietly as possible you held a book tight to your chest tiptoeing down the stairs making your way to a secluded chair, you sat down in front of the low fire and read to yourself silently for a few minutes before hearing laughter echoing from down the hall muffled voices becoming clearer and clearer.

trying to ignore the voices you regrettably recognized you kept your head down and in your book, not even reading the words simply trying to keep your breath at an even pace. “mate is that y/n” said a muffled voice. not looking up you closed your eyes tightly really hoping to be left alone. you had hoped coming down at one in the morning would give your freedom, not anxiety.

before you could process it there were footsteps heading towards you and a flick on your forehead “are you that dumb that you can’t even read a book, i mean don’t know your eyes have to be open for that” mattheo laughed at his own joke elbowing theo who was egging him on chuckling himself. “don’t touch me.” you gritted through your teeth still sitting looking at both of the mocking boys.

you attempted to get up and rush off to your dorm but mattheo grabbed your arm “you didn’t answer my question, that’s soo rude” he mocked still gripping your left wrist. “let me go” you protested struggling to get your arm free as theodore watched snickering. “alright let her go i’m trying to smoke” theo huffed snatching the back of mattheos jacket and dragging him along.

a large breath you had no idea you were holding onto fell out of your mouth the second they were gone. you plopped right back down into the cold leather chair and silently sobbed. so many thoughts ran through your head about how differently you should’ve handled the situation, how you should’ve shoved him harder, maybe you should’ve screamed, maybe if you just knew how to stand up for yourself. maybe you were stupid?

everything these boys did effected you so much to the point you became a shell of the person you were. your grades weren’t the worst, but the more the boys would mock, the more they’d tell you how dumb you were that you were a lost cause, you unfortunately began to believe it even if you didn’t admit it to them directly. never giving them the satisfaction of seeing you break down, never letting them know how it effects you.

“i think you might need a jumpscare warning, next time don’t come to class if you wake up like that” draco mocked giving you a disgusted look the second you sat down on the end of the slytherin table. a small eruption of laughter fell from all of the boys and their little follower pansy parkinson. “you guys have no clue i swear this morning her eyes were so swollen she looked like she got stung by a bee” she snickered trying to gain the boys attention.

not wanting to deal with this today you got up and walked out of the great hall not looking back. you didn’t feel like you had the mental capacity to deal with them and so you made your way to the only place you knew you could breathe.

you made sure to watch out for any oncoming professors and for filtch, knowing you’re not supposed to be out on the astronomy tower at this time of day or year. the walk was as long as ever and luckily most of the halls were empty besides a few students making their way to the great hall.

finally reaching the million stairs you made your way up to the tower slowly walking up taking your time. you began to think about everything these people put you through, thinking about how much everything they do makes you hate yourself and this school more and more everyday.

not a day went by that you weren’t picked on at least once by one of them, this realization and sad reality made a stream of tears fall down your face as your legs walked up the stairs starring down onto the wooden steps.

just as you were beginning to reach the top of the steps you quietly sniffed smelling an odd odor. you couldn’t quite put your finger on what you were smelling but you continued till you were at the ledge of the astronomy tower sitting down. you sat looking out towards the clouds covering the sun and tried to control your breathing and stream of tears.

once your tears began to dry up you noticed a thick trail of smoke coming from the right of you. you looked behind you and there stood theodore nott. he walked over cautiously, and here you were coming face to face with someone you definitely did not want to see. “ah, y/n what brings you here” he spoke taking a drag of what appeared to be a cigarette. you didn’t know wether to answer or just leave but you spoke out cautiously “attempting to get away from you and your goons” you huffed turning back around to face the clouds.

“come on, you know i don’t bite” he chuckled and you just shook your head in annoyance looking back up at him, “you don’t bite yet you’ve bullied me for over six years makes perfect sense theodore” you rolled your eyes standing up to face him. “seriously.-“ he scoffed “you know i’m like the least brutal of them i don’t even touch you” he added taking another drag. it was almost as if he was mocking you even more without even realizing it.

“i don’t care if you think that just because you don’t fucking touch me that it makes it okay?? you watch your friends bully, touch, and harass me nearly everyday what about that makes you any less of an awful person than them.” you let it all out with more emotion that intended yet the small tears coming out were nothing but anger induced.

“listen y/n i didn’t think it affected you that bad we make fun of so many people” he shrugged scratching the back of his head not sure how to react to your outburst of emotions. “that’s your problem, you don’t ever realize that you’re bullying your own housemate. you and those fuckers haven’t left me alone since year one and for what? all because i stood up to a fucking bleach blonde bitch? like seriously you take orders from a daddy’s boy and a guy who’s practically an orphan.” your voice was getting louder and louder, soon enough you were face to face with him just yelling.

“look y/n im sorry okay i swear, i don’t like doing it alright why do you think i never touch you i try to get these fucking assholes to leave you alone you’re just an easy target to them” he tried pleading with you but you weren’t having any of it. “what makes you think i’ll believe you?” you scoffed “you’re trying to excuse yourself all because i stood up for myself?? and what exactly do you do to get them to leave me alone because that obviously isn’t working” your tears dried back up and now just pure anger was holding you together.

“you see when i tell them just to come on, and most times they just say something to you and don’t even touch you.” he was searching your face but your expression stayed the same “have you ever heard of telling them to just stop? and what about me seems like an easy fucking target” you didn’t know what to even ask of him anymore not even understanding yourself why you were still standing here.

“y/n come on.” he looked at you but you didn’t budge just awaiting his response. “you said it yourself you stood up to malfoy, he didn’t like that so it started it. listen overtime it got more than that i guess matt went at you cause your grades are- were better than his . and well pansy goes after you because you’re hotter than her, blaise just goes along, and enzo does whatever enzo does.” he shrugged attempting to explain this twisted reasoning.

“well why do you go after me? because all of this shit seems so unserious for all of you to make me want to leave hogwarts and even this world all together.” you scoffed still heated at these other absurd reasons. he looked at you for a moment contemplating before he sighed “look i really am sorry i didn’t know it was that bad” he pleaded ignoring your question.

“i don’t care if you’re sorry or not that doesn’t take back all of these years theodore. and besides you don’t even have the fucking balls to tell me why you bully me so obviously you don’t feel sorry” you began walking away from him and he reached out grabbing your arm “y/n i just told you so many times i tried getting them to stop, look i don’t know why and i don’t expect you to feel the same but i just over the years ive wanted you more and more and look i just knew i couldn’t ever have you.” he loooked away yet still held onto your arm.

you stood there almost in shock. here you were complaining about everything your bullies put you through to one of those said bullies, and he confessed his crush on you. you didn’t respond just staring at him. “what.” you managed to let out. “i know it’s insane.” he sighed “look i don’t expect you to forgive me but i’ll try and get them to back off.” he spoke up letting go of your arm and walking off.

you didn’t follow or speak up to him, just allowing him to make his way back wherever he came from. sitting back down at the railing you took a deep breath trying to piece together what exactly just happened.

i’m not sure if this is good enough to match what was asked but i hope so😭

[peaterookie]

Lupin Week 2024 Day 4: AUs and Mythology

Goemon's face looks like he's seen a ghost.

ahhhh god ok my stupid stupid silly au i made a year ago.... this will be a bit long so get ready

tldr: lupin died, the gang is alive. goemon finds lupin but he's a shark merman!? and lupin remembers nothing!!!

long version:

so this AU follows upon the story of shin lupin, which basically, the gang gets killed off by zenigata because he rigged an island full of explosives.

instead of them all dying however, lupin decides to knock the gang unconscious and find a way for them to escape off the island safely, leaving only him in the island to die.

the rest of the gang had no idea how they escaped and assumed that lupin had sacrificed himself for them. they woke up adrifted on the ocean until they eventually got picked up by a ship where the invisible captain from new adventures returns. but ah ill spare the details for another day

---

2 years have passed and the gang just kinda separated to do their own thing. we'll only focus on goemon cuz he's the featured character of this comic.

goemon decided to escape the life of crime that has burdened him for years living as a part of the lupgang. he's mostly a wanderer now and tries to do good and help people along the way

funnily enough, goemon is not the first person to find lupin, but I'll talk about this later. but goemon is definitely very mixed about seeing his friend who he thought was dead for years. he doesn't know whether to be happy or worried.

---

lupin, at the brink of death after the explosion, plummets down the ocean and wakes up one day, feeling like he's been rebirthed!

essentially, lupin became a merman because right before he could die, his body (i mean what's left of it 💀) interacted with a magic crystal that has the ability to grant life to a living being.

It's really rare, but it exists in clusters deep in the ocean floor or- deep under the rocks of an island :) you can say im bullshitting, which i am but i dont think exploding an entire island down to every rock has happened before, so it can kinda make sense why something so coincidental about these crystals could happen. (I AM TOTALLY MAKING EXCUSES I JUST WANTED TO MAKE LUPIN A MERMAN.)

and so these crystals used whats left of lupins body and reassembled him back, and idk other essences of the ocean to make him a merman!

the memories of his past life have definitely been buried deep inside his brain to the point he can't remember any of it though, so he thinks that he was born under the ocean and has lived there for his entire life. other than that he retains almost everything about himself, down to stealing stupid shit and messing with humans just for the fucks of it. he's kinda seen as like a nessie.

---

anyways, y'know how i said goemon wasn't the first one to meet lupin? that's because lupin has met zenigata before!

living a life with only fishes around means lupin's kinda lonely and likes to stalk humans sometimes. the interaction with him and zenigata did not end well though, and lupin has no idea why zeni wants him dead so much.

after that he's way more cautious around people that look like zenigata- hatted big men with guns. its gonna be fun once he sees jigen.

ok what else... i think that's all i want to reveal now. will i do more of this? maybe. maybe not. kinda embarrassed of this because of how silly it is but i hope you people find this interesting! byebye

[jess-the-vampire]

You know it's stuff like this why I partly can't join the owl house fandom. The fandom seems to persnickety about liking certain charactersand headcanons, especially as someone who has dealt with similar shit before in my other fandoms. Granted there are other reasons I hate the fandom, but this is the worst one. It kinda soured the show for me, granted I never cared for it, but they just worsening it for me.

At times like these, i think it's important to remember posts like this

Bigger fandoms, will always end up looking worse by comparison, it's inevitable unfortunately.

For me, this is also unfortunately nothing new, anyone whose been with me since the start knows that.

It was a decade ago, in another fandom, that i was harassed and accused of being homophobic, because i shipped some characters together that wasn't the popular same sex ship.

I shipped plenty of other same sex ships, heck, i considered the characters in question to be bisexual. But that did not stop me from being publicly mocked, harassed, and put on block lists.

I was underage at the time, this was my first fandom experience, and it also soured that fandom for me, even the show itself.

People go into these things, thinking they're protecting people, or helping others.

And on the surface, i could see how one would think that.

But you're really not, people are not that simple, and neither are what they enjoy or are drawn to.

I was a teenager having fun in my own little space, with a ship i knew was noncanon, and it wouldn't of taken much research to find out i had no issue with the lgbt community at all, but no, it was "You are erasing us, you only ship this because you hate gay people, you're a horrible human being and yada yada yada-"

now, a decade later, it's "You are ignoring the poc cast because you're racist, you only like this character and are invested in him because you believe in what he believes in, you're a racist and sexist being for enjoying him and yada yada-"

Look, people do this because they want to protect people who have been screwed for centuries, it's perfectly understandable to worry that people who think belos is a cool character could like him for the wrong reasons. But people who genuinely think this way are a minority, and will be way more outspoken about those beliefs, is the solution here really to go up to anyone who likes something you don't and ruin them without evidence? To accuse them all of horrible beliefs?

this entire belief system removes the possibility of many MANY other reasons people enjoy media, and is straight up jumping to conclusions that if someone doesn't fundamentally agree with what you think, they MUST be a bad person. No critical thinking, no trying to understand others, just straight up assuming things.

Which btw, ironically, is actually acting WAY more like belos then anything the artists doing wittober were actually doing. Even the idea people are making art about his childhood and therefore sympathizing with him falls apart because there have been just as much art about his crimes so far.

Belos is a villain in a cartoon, people have latched onto villain characters since the dawn of time, it's nothing new. If you're going to keep this train of thought going....is disney just bad for their villian brand? are people also horrible for similar reasons if they have a favorite disney villian?

This entire thought process can be applied anywhere if you try hard enough.

Which is the kinda thing that allows actual human beings to be genuinely hurt here.

like are people going to be hurt more because people make aus with belos, or are they going to be hurt more because people who make said aus are accused or being racist people worth scrutinizing?

This thought process also doesn't take into the account of the fact that the people who like belos, might also be lgbt or poc, which....a lot of them are from my experience.

You can't both preach the show's message of accepting people who are different from you, and then also try and justify harassing people because they fandom differently then you. Unless the wittebane people are actively spouting out racist and sexist stuff, they're not doing anything wrong by engaging in the parts of the fandom that interest them.

Not everyone will be drawn to the show for the same reasons, you always gotta remember that, everyone has different favorite characters, different ships, and different things that make them happy.

Fandom is meant to be fun, people make aus because they're fun, they want to play with the media they like and do new things with it.

I strongly doubt everyone who has made an au staring hunter, or belos, or who thinks the wittebanes are interesting, sat down and said "Man, i like this show, but there are too much minorities in it, i hate minorities, i should make an au removing them or draw the wittebanes because they are white".

as a fan of these characters myself, i like them, but don't care too deeply about the blights, other white popular characters. I feel that should imply my investment in them has a lot more to do with other aspects then race.

in fact this makes me wonder if the person complaining in the tags would have the same argument about aus staring eda or amity in the same vain, even though hunter eda and amity are all lgbt, and two are disabled.

If you are doing stuff like this, either don't engage with stuff that doesn't interest you, because it's really weird to be this obsessed with a part of the fandom you don't care about.

or maybe, actually try to understand why people like it, rather then assume it's for the wrong reasons.

just my thoughts.

[meeks-just-wants-to-scroll]

I KINDA HAD THE SAME IDEA with the low honor high honor thing! Im currently figuring exactly in what way the story would change [granted it does involve one of my ocs so maybe a lot more than it should] but its fun to think in what way Micah would be 'better' or more loyal to the gang

I feel like he'd still pick fights in camp, but like in a way older siblings would. Its more teasing/bullying and shit instead of straight up slurs. Idk, might just be me NNXJXJC

I also think he wouldn't go out of his way to help someone if they asked him to, but he'd watch them continue to struggle with mayne like a gun to the point where he like has to get up and be like 'OKAY you are so pathetically shit at this - im going to show you how to do this and we're not taking a break until you shoot 3 targets in a row' or something

I dont think he'd willingly be vulnerable anytime soon based on his upbringing and shit, but iiii like to think it happens sometimes accidentally idk JXJXJC

Weep weep weep this is making me wanna explore what RDR2 would be like if Micah was a marginally better person (mainly what id he never ratted).

i am glad we have converging ideas when it comes to high honor micah! I’ve talked with mutuals before on wtf micah could do that could be considered high honor, and we came up with little. One idea i suggested is that he accidentally saved people)s lives through his own selfishness (ex: saves someone from rabid dog because “if i didnt kill it, it would have gone for me next.”)

Micah's high honor is selfish in a unique way compared to low honor. Instead of focusing on himself and his survival, it more becomes a common goal to keep the gang as a whole surviving. He is no hunter, but he can bring in money and be a daaaaaamn good shot. Guard duties are often reserved for Lenny and Sean and Charles and whoever else is free. Micah *can* go on guard duty but keeps himself out of that tiresome job by being out of camp and bringing in money. “Sorry, can’t got on guard duty, I just got back from a stage coach robbery and I want to enjoy my well deserved relaxation.”

he is still a snarky sounding piece of shit, but like you said, he is less of a full on hateful man. He is still a sly, observing snake and studies the flaws of his gang mates, but he keeps his fangs sheethed. The idea with the snake animal for high honor is that Micah is still as lethal and capable of assholery as he is in bad honor, he is just deciding to not. He holds his venom to be inflicted on those who the gang need (or want) dead. He also leans into the snake vibes by being a slimy slithering manipulator. He isn’t a charmer, but he has a skill for talking people long enough to get plans into action (or to just backstab the enemy).

i feel like Morgan would still dislike Micah for being a man with bad vibes. Morgan is also just a hater sometimes (look at how he perceives Kieran). Micah still murders and has bad plans like Blackwater so it’s not like Arthur has *no* reason to distrust Micah.

i imagine high honor micah makes an effort on occasion to be involved in camp socializing, Sean and Jack’s return for example. He mainly drinks and flirts with the girls and boys at the event.

and because i like the red vs blue honor color association of the game, Micah’s design would be a little different, making the blue in his design a little more present. A neckerchief is an example of blue, but i am sure more blue could be worked into his design somewhere. Idea is that the ratio of red to blue in character’s designs can allude to how honorable they are (though it is not a 1:1 visualization). I imagine Micah would be 1:3 blue to red. Maayyybe. One quarter an okay man, three quarters a pretty sleazy man.

micah is still deeply troubled soooo no sweetie pie vulnerability for him! At most he tries to flirt (like asking Mary-Beth to dance) and the people are 1-2% more polite about turning him down when he’s high honor. He’s still all alone and his prickly exterior deeps people at arms length from him. He is both deeply dependent on attaching himself to a gang/someone to follow (my hc), but he also aspires to be independent and run his own gang. I suppose in high honor, he hopes to earnestly stick with the VDL gang and rise in the ranks by impressing Dutch (because Dutch is kind of an easy man to impress when you bootlick).

[radio-navlee]

Spill!

So he’s a little angsty (this makes up for that frown he did at the end of ep 2, PLEASE UNDERSTAND!!)

Lee: Jax

Ler: Ragatha

Summary: (Hurt to comfort) Jax finds himself back at his tree crying until a familiar doll comes to help him

WARNING!! ⚠️: TICKLE FIC!! Gagging, mentions of puking. Self harm? (Depends on what you call self harm)

“Jax was nothin but a lowlife jerk!” “He was so mean!” “I hated seeing his dumb bunny face!” A few things said by the circus members when asked ‘How do you feel about Jax?'. “Well, he’s got something wrong up there” said Ragatha. She didn’t think he was all bad, there was still a little bit of human in him.

“I’m just too real!” Jax thought. Yeah, that was it! The truth was he just knew to much, other just didn’t want to hear it! Ha, yeah no. The real truth was that Jax bottled all his feelings up, he only released them once nobody was around, while he was alone. Sure it was funny watching the other members get pissed at him over a little harmless prank, but he was just mad, grumpy, and sad. He pushed himself away in fear of ruining the way people see him.

“He was never nice!” “Yeah he was so annoying” “even when I tried to get away from him, he’d find me anyway!” “I wished he’d abstract” “He’s such a dick!”

Jax shot up from his bed, rubbing his head. He groaned wiping the sleepy tears from his eyes. ‘Just a dream,’ he thought ‘they don’t really hope I-…’ Jax gulped down the lump in his throat. ‘It’s not real! Don’t think like that’ Jax straightened his head massaging his temples. Jax then felt tears warming up in his eyes, ‘crap’ he thought. He snuck out his room, down the hall, out the circus, and under his favorite place to cry. His tree.

Ragatha heard a door shut from outside. ‘Somebody's up? At this hour?’ Granted, there were not clocks but anybody could tell it was late. She laid in her bed listening for foot steps to go away before getting up to check on it. ‘Weird… how creepy’ She thought as she opened the door to see a shadow leave the circus tent. Still curious, she followed it.

Jax fidgeted with his ears, scratching at them till they became numb. From a distance Ragatha could only make out shapes of the mystious figure. ‘What even is that? A hat? No.. ears? Wait.. JAX?’ Could it really be Jax? Sneaking out of the circus? To do what?

Ragatha watched from afar, hiding in places that would be hard to make out in the dark. Peering out every once and a while to get closer, until... *SNAP* A twig had snapped underneath the rag doll.

‘SHIT!’ Ragtha dashed and hid behind a tree as Jax snapped his head around. ‘Weird...’ Jax thought as seeing nothing. Though, Jax wasnt a realigous person, due to Caine being the fake god and losing his memory from the digital world, he prayed to who ever was out there that nobody followed him from the circus.

Jax continued on, finally reaching his tree. He knew it was dumb to be attached to such an object, even if it was made of pixels, it’s what kinda comforted him in a way. He even carved a J into the trunk of the bark. He curled up to the trunk, pulled his knees up to his chest, his head to his knees, and cried. It started off soft, quickly escalating to a sob.

Ragatha took a minute to catch her breath, she was so close to geting caught. Now paying attention to the floor, she walked at a steady pace, creeping up to Jax. ‘Is he... Shaking? No I get it! He's laughin-‘

A loud groanish sob was heard from Jaxs direction. ‘That is NOT laughing!’ Concern growing in Ragatha as she was finally close enough to see.

‘C-CRYING? JAX CAN CRY?’ The doll was astonished at what she was seeing, Jax, the prank puller, no feelings, Jax, was crying! Jax wasnt even crying, he was sobbing! Out of Ragathas whole experience of this digital world she had never, NEVER, seen a single emotion come out the said rabbit.

"UGGGHHH- *HCK* *cough cough* NGGH!!"

"I should say something..."

"*HACK* *GULP* MHYHYHY HEAD!" He clutched his head, digging his finger nails into his scalp

"I should do something...

.

.

I'm doing it!" Ragatha stepped forward another twig snapping in the process. How comedic

Jax' sobs stop imidently, looking upwards slowly

"...Who ever you are, go away!" Jax backed himself further into the tree

"I mean it!" His voice quivering, his vision blurry from the tears.

“Jax, it’s just me!” Ragatha tried to sound chipper to not worry or scare Jax further

“Were you just- Well I mean-*sigh* are you ok?” The dolls questions blurting out of her. Jax unfolded himself, standing up, putting his hands to his face, and bent over. Ragatha inched closer with a hand out stretched until Jax popped up putting his hands on his hips.

“Yup! Just fine actually! Now it’s your turn dolly, why are you out of the tent?” Jax’s mood changed completely

“No. Don’t do that!” Regatha grabbed at his wrist to pull him back down to a sitting position with her.

“Do what doll face?” His smile now wobbly

“Don’t act like you weren’t just crying a minute ago! I want to help you Jax!”

“What ever do you mean? Heh, I don’t n-need help.” His façade fading as quickly as he put it on

“Cmon Jax!”

“Y’know, you’re acting like a real pain in my side!” Jax furrowed his brows

“Tell me what’s going on!” Ragatha insisted

“There’s nothing going on!”

“Then what’s this from?” Ragatha reached up to poke the indented skin from Jax’s finger nails. He hissed in pain

“Ow!”

“Hm?” Ragatha asked, waiting for an answer. Jax sighed

“Ok you got me! I have feelings like everybody else! Now leave. Me. Alone!”

“What kind of feelings?” She asked softly

“What?”

“What kind of feelings do you have?”

“N-normal ones?”

“Talk to me!”

“if I talk… will you leave me alone?”

“I swear on it!”

“…..Fine!” He sighed

“First, welcome to my tree. I even wrote a J on it, ain’t that stupid!” He chuckled as himself, but it didn’t seem like a joking chuckle, it was more of an awkward pitiful chuckle.

“Fuck it, let’s just get over this as fast as possible..” As embarrassed as Jax was he took a deep breath, and spilled

“Well, it’s been happening for a while now, I’ve been getting these crazy dreams, this time it was about… you guys actually.” He scratched his head

“You guys were talking about me, RIGHT in front of me, but that’s not my worst dream, there was the one with my abstraction, one of everybody just gone, which isn’t to be confused with the one where you all just died, and don’t even get me started on the corn one-” Jax rambled but was interrupted

“And these dreams make you feel like- wait you said corn?”

“D-don’t worry about what I said” Jax breath quickened as just thinking about it scared him a bit.

“Ok well, you come out here after you dream?”

“Mostly after I dream, y’know it’s funny, sometimes I come out here during the day.”

“The day?”

“Anyways, that’s not what makes me… cry” Jax paused at the word, weirded out he even admitted to crying

“Crazy to think it’s actually my mind, what little mind I have left, it jumbles up thoughts and pieces them together that don’t make sense. It makes me go crazy! It’s like a never ending insult that keeps getting worse with every word. Like a stab at my ego, my confidence, my self respect…” Jax hugged himself and he felt the tears itch in his eyes

“It’s like my minds in a tornado, everything spins and my vision blurs like vertigo, my arms and legs feel all tingly and shit,” As Jax explained himself, he felt tears fall down his cheeks. Jax raised his head to look at the doll, her face flooded with empathy and understanding, it made Jax sick.

“D-don’t look at me like that!” He cried, the dam breaking down, the flood gates opened.

“Like what?!” Ragatha asked in confusion

“Like you understand!” He sobbed

“But Jax, I do understand! I feel so sorry that you’ve been going through this and nobody’s bat an eye in your direction!” Ragatha tried to comfort him

Jax tugged on his ears is distress “I don’t need people to pay attention to me!”

“No? Then why are you here then?” Ragatha signaled to the tree. She was right in some ways, Jax crying to a tree was pretty upsetting to her, and it didn’t make it better that Jax didn’t want her anywhere near him.

Jax took a pause for a second to think of a response, ‘Why was he here?’ He felt his head start to hurt again, pulling on his ears harder to help him distract himself from the pain.

“I- *HURKK*” Jax felt like he was nearly going to throw up, gaging and putting his hand over his mouth

“Woah,” Ragatha blurted, motioning towards Jax to help.

Jax put his free arm up to stop her, pausing, then swallowing it back down. Did he really just throw up at the thought of people helping him? Did comfort really make him that sick to his stomach?

“Jax, calm down!”

“Gughh..” He groaned holding his stomach

“Why does this keep happening!” His eyes watered from the puke, tears pouring down his face again.

“Jax listen! Just calm down!” Ragatha held onto one of his hands, but it trembled at the touch, shaking for who knows what reason.

“Jax you hav-”

“Jax isn’t even my real name! I don’t know what my real name is!” Jax took back the hand Ragatha was holding onto, tugging and digging his nails into his ears.

“Jax stop this!” Ragatha pleaded with him to try to calm him down, his breath hitched as he made a realization.

“Wh-…Why are you still here?” Jax look straight at the poor doll. She gulped at the question,

“Because I wasn’t going leave you like this! Jax, you understand people in your ‘life’ don’t want to see you suffer right?”

“You should ask the rest of the group that”

“Jax I’m serious, they care for you! Even if you are a pain sometimes, they’d never want to see you like this.” Ragatha cupped his face. Jax gagged but kept it down, counting and following Ragathas breathing. The sickening feeling slowing going away.

“Now, let go of your ears! They're turning red!" Ragatha uncupped his face, moving her hands to push Jaxs hand away and using her own to try to sooth them.

There was a pause, Jax felt numb as her hands slowly massaged into his ears. He was so confussed, so comferted, but most of all... angry. Angry that he was; 1, letting it happen, and 2, enjoying it.

"This is bullshit" he whispered, loud enough for Ragatha to hear.

"No its not Jax!" Ragatha sang. Jax sighed.

Jax sat infront of Ragatha, thinking. Ragatha hummed as she slowly tried to ease the pain in his ears. She noticed scars at the base, tiny scars, finger nail scars. She felt bad for him, he probally didnt even know he was scaring himself.

"Jax your do realize your hurting yourself right?" She muttered

"What?"

"You have scars at the base of your ears,"

"Oh. I guess I didnt realize." He moped

Ragtha moved from massaging to lightly tracing the scars, how interesting how in the didgital world you could still get scars. She felt the grove of every tiny dent.

"Doholl!" Jax giggled as the sensitive tracing tickled his ears.

"What is it Jax?" She smiled at the low giggle he let out.

"Dohohont do thahat!" He put his hands up to her wrists.

"What? You dont like the tickles?" Ragatha began to spider her nails across his ears

"GAH! Rahahagathaha!!!" He gasped at the sudden change in tenquine.

Ragatha giggled at his reaction. Jax went from mopy and sad to a giggly mess. His face instantly brightened up, he felt his sadness wash away.

"Stohohop!!"

"Cmon Jax! laugh a little!" Ragatha teased

"I ahaham lahaughing!!"

"Yeah, I know!" She smiled, moving a hand down towards his side

"EHEH! Rahahagsss!" He squirmed

"Sorry sorry!" She appoligized, but not really meaning it.

Ragatha moved her hand back up to his ears, he squeaked with the touch. He covered his mouth, not even knowing he could have that noise. The doll chuckled at the squeak stoping her fingers.

"Ohoh my god Jax!"

"Shut it!" He scowled embarrssed. She finished up her last chuckles, getting up to hold out a hand. Singaling to help Jax get up on his feet.

"Guess we better head back to bed huh?" She sighed pulling him up

"Yeah, back to this prision we go.." He joked

"hehe, yeah."

"and uh, hey!" Jax excailmed, grabbing Ragathas attention.

"Yeah? Whats up?"

"*sigh* Please dont tell anybody about this! I already have Gangle and Pomni on my ass from my pranks, if they find out I... come here... I dont know if theyd let me live." He explained.

"Yeah of course. Your feelings are safe with me!" She put her thumb and index finger together and motioned a line over her mouth, closing her eye as she smile. Jax just assumed it was a wink.

(Lord this took way longer than possible, writers block hit as soon as i posted the draft. With school almost being out, teachers have been giving students alot of work, and yes I am still a student so 😞)

[streamdotpng]

The streamer Enid au

---

Wednesday Addams sighted in San Francisco!

After the recent hit on her latest book: Viper de la Muerte: Lunal Curse, Wednesday Addams mentioned going off the grid for personal reasons. A hiatus from our so studious author? More likely than you think!

But what people definitely didn't think would happen is to see her out in and about in the streets of San Francisco. No one has been able to reach out as to why specifically she is in such a sunny place but the tall figure she was with might just give a hint! Several witnesses have mentioned them being rather close and isn't that so shocking from the usually touch averse writer of gore?

Read more at…

–

"Wednesday is here!?" squealed a streamer. She seemed a lot sparkly today, her bangs falling to frame the side of her face and her scars stretched as she smiled brightly at the camera.

This is Enid or Endespair if you want to go by channel name. She is a small twitch streamer who regularly posts her videos on YouTube and is known for her rather upbeat personality. The contrast of such a sunny person is why most would take a peak on how she would react whenever she'd play this year, month or day's horror game.

Safe to say, she reacted like most would do. Very loudly. Atleast at first, until slowly but surely you'd see her screams tamper from a shrill shriek to the barely contained jump. It has her chat becoming nefarious little shits and doing the best they can with horrible timed sound alerts and donations with text to speech.

She also is a werewolf and in a world where most are normies, a lot of people were rather intrigued and some monsterfuckers took solace by lurking in chat.

The mods had to ban a few people when the streamer bared her teeth at a character once or twice. For an outcast, Twitter murmurs that she's rather good at controlling her instincts.

Anyways, talking about Enid's background aside, the reason why she's squealing and clapping her hands like a seal today is for one reason alone.

Wednesday Addams, the ever so revered thriller and horror author. One who is very well known for her graphic depictions of gore in her books. It was a shock to some newcomers when the ever so jumpy Endespair genuinely loves and adores such literature but it definitely painted a confusing picture.

However, it isn't just the books that Enid loves but the author too.

Yeah, chat can put two and two together. Enid was simply a masochistic dog who liked things that scare her. All jokingly said of course, her fans know better than to push boundaries. But the contrast of such a colourful person enjoying all things dark and macabre is the opposites attract trope that most would fall for.

"Do you think I could try to bump into her?" Enid gasps before her brows furrowed. "Wait no that feels kinda creepy, seeking her out like that is weird as hell don't do that guys."

"so true, just go about your daily day and maybe luck will grant you a wish"

"I ROLLL UP IN A NEW BUGATTI"

"woo her with your cute beanies and sweaters!"

"imagine walking around with flowers, she likes black dahlias right?"

"this some gay shit right here"

Enid turned a little red at the support of her making a move towards the author, her cheeks blooming as she pushed up her glasses. "Now guys, it'd be weird if I just came up and besides!" she picked at her nails, a pretty colour of black turning to white, the sparkles of beads shining in the light. "She's here for vacation so let's not be bothersome."

"Tru Tru but who's stopping admiring!?!"

"pull some main character moment and bump into her at the grocery store"

"she's very pretty"

"one day streamer, one day"

The blond sighs, her hands cradling her chin as she pouts. "if only I could see her! Hopefully she's fine with a little hug or maybe a hand shake-" her hands flew about, a cheap attempt to explain. "For someone who only dresses in shades of black and white, she makes it work so well.." a dreamy sigh escapes Enid as she sinks into her arm.

"why's the stream tagged for RE when she's just simpin?"

"games extracting give her a sec"

"bc it's funneh"

"god I can't wait to see how she reacts to the daughters"

"streamer got a type and we will exploit it"

It's the ding of her pc that reminds her that she has a game to play and with a rather dramatic sigh, she straightened up in her seat to stare down at the newly extracted game.

Her brows furrowed as she grinned at the camera.

"Simping time over chat, let's get over my fear of flesh eating zombies over before dinner!" she cheered, clicking onto the new shortcut on her pc. The Pic of a half man and half wolf making her smile as she enters into Resident evil: Village

In an hour or two, the horrified stare of Endespair has people clipping as she watched Ethan get his hand cut and sipped on. The scene made her brows furrowed and her nose scrunched as a look of disgust came over her face.

"Oh God- that's disgusting," the horror in her tone is obvious but the blush splattering across her skin made others think that something was running through her head.

Enid ends the stream with a slump against her seat, a whole eight hours spent on the game as she finishes the Dimitrescu castle. It shouldn't have taken so long but she got distracted, lost and very confused so many times she considered quitting once or twice by the fifth hour.

Chat was as unhelpful as always but some donors took pity and helped her out. Luckily, after hours of mind numbing game play, she got through it.

As Ethan stumbles into the church and she saves, for some reason the sight of a typewriter brings a rather beautiful smile on her face as she leant on a hand. Chat chitters at the bared teeth, cheering and spamming.

“YOOOO ANOTHER CLIP FOR THE MONSTERFUCKERS”

“Those teef are BIG”

“With the headphones youd think she’s a normal”

“Lowkey forgot shes a werewolf until this, im so thankful for the reminder”

It makes Enid blink as she notices the rather fast speed chat. She rolls her eyes and gives a tight lipped smile this time, shoulders shaking at the influx of sad and pleading emojis.

So once the beating of her heart finally slowed, she couldn't help the sigh of relief as she sunk deeper into her comfy ass chair. But, such peace didn't last and her ears burned when she vividly remembered black gothic clothes on women.

When Enid managed to catch her breath and sit up, she pointed at the cam with way too bright cheeks.

"You guys know how I react to people in black!" she pulled her glasses off, rubbing at her eyes as she waved the frames around. "I should've known when you all clamoured for RE:8 instead of the fourth remake, yall are so luck-"

There's a ring of a phone and almost immediately, she perks up, nearly throwing her headphones off her hair as she stands to get her phone.

The stream ends suddenly after that.

–

Raven in love? Wednesday Addams seen with an unidentified man in San Francisco!

To think the ever so elusive Wednesday Addams would be out with a person today! We are just as shocked as you readers.

Our sources have seen the oldest Addams seemingly pressed next to this unidentified man in a park far from any noticeable place. Perhaps… Star crossed lovers? From the photos, the two would be friendly if this was any other person but to the Wednesday Addams, this is a completely different stance!

Read more in…

—

[izunias-meme-hole]

Since I already posted my favorite Sailor Moon Villains but I didn't exactly rank them, so here we go.

My Top 10 Sailor Moon Villains (From Both The 90's Anime & The OG Manga/Crystal & Eternal)

Number 10. Wicked Lady - No, I will not be calling her "Black Lady," but aside from that, this is Chibi-Usa at her undeniable worst, no matter the version. Though execution-wise, the anime wins out purely because of her resolution, and the showcase of some level of good still being in her.

Number 9. Mistress 9 - Ah, pure evil done well. She didn't exactly have a lot of screentime in the 90's anime (and she was sadly kinda basic), but in the manga she's an entirely different story. Mistress 9 is the child and herald of Pharaoh 90, and is hellbent on eradicating all life on earth because she sees them as inferior lifeforms. Oh, and let's not even bring up her possession of Hotaru Tomoe, the fact that Chibi-Usa's pure heart was used to give her power, and overall she's just heinous as hell. In short, Mistress 9 was definitely something in both the 90's Anime and Manga/Crystal, though her appearance in the latter elevates her into the 10th spot on this list.

Number 8. The Shitennou - Ah yes, Beryl's servants. The loyal supervillain Jadeite, the passionate Nephrite, the ever so underhanded and insecure Zoisite, and last but not least the "cool" Kunzite. Surprisingly, Crystal botched these guys really bad, while the anime basically expanded upon the other 3 and gave Kunzite, the best one in the manga, the literal shit end of the stick after a good run. Still, all four of these guys are absolutely phenomenal minibosses.

Number 7. The Amazoness Quartet - God, they look absolutely ridiculous, but that doesn't stop them from being great minibosses like the Shittenou. Between their unique personalities, relations with Chibi-Usa, and overall just how solid they are as a group just sold me on them.

Number 6. Crimson Rubeus - Ah yes... the second most consistently heinous member of the Black Moon Clan. Rubeus is selfish, cowardly, sadistic, arrogant, manipulative, loyal to the literal worst people ever, and overall he's just a very hateable villain on so many angles. Though this hateability, his effectiveness as a villain, and just how much of a good addition he is to the Dark Moon Clan cements this guy's placement on here.

Number 5. Queen Nehelenia & Zirconia - Life is funny sometimes. In the manga/Eternal, Zirconia has nothing going for her aside from design and the fact that she's Queen Nehelenia's other self, while Nehelenia herself is almost like Snow White's Evil Queen mixed with Maleficent and its genuinely great to see. Yet in the 90's anime, Zirconia is expanded upon so much more to the point where she's legit entertaining, while Nehelenia gets expanded upon too before being brought back from the dead with a tarnished character. Still though, in both of the mediums where they're at their best, this evil queen and the personification of her inner ugliness are great.

Number 4. Prince Demande - What a delightfully twisted, vile, yet tragic villain. Granted the 90's anime take on him falls short because the guy had a half-assed "redemption," but it doesn't neuter all of his best qualities, nor does it ruin the OG Manga/Crystal's take on him, where he fully commits to that bit.

Number 3. Queen Beryl & Queen Metalia - Nothing wrong with a classic wicked witch. Especially if said wicked witch is an envious and hateful woman that's in service to pure unadulterated evil as a means to get what she wants most. Granted Beryl alone could've made the list, especially since Metalia doesn't have a lot going for herself, but the anime had the perfect resolution for these two by just fusing them together.

Number 2. Death Phantom/Wiseman - No matter the iteration, no matter the medium, Nazgul Charles Manson here is pure, unadulterated, unrestrained evil done right. Death Phantom is a manipulative monster who sees no value in life, who's made it his personal mission to become a dark god of death and nothingness. He's not a complex character, but he has substance, his evil deeds remain significant across the entirety of the Black Moon Clan's arc, and he leaves an impact as the most evil villain in the franchise and its best final boss. TL:DR: Death Phantom is objectively the best villain.

Number 1. Professor Souichi Tomoe - I shouldn't even need to explain this, but I will. Tomoe in the anime is hammy as hell, an amazing boss, shining with personality, nuanced as hell, carried the Infinity Arc on his back, and surprisingly enough gets a shot at redemption after his evil Daimon side, Germatoid, is split from him. Meanwhile, Tomoe in the manga/Crystal is initially shown as a somewhat shady figure who possibly cares about his daughter, before slowly being revealed as just a nicer looking Professor Hojo, complete with him making his own daughter the vessel for Mistress 9 all for the sake of becoming the god of an entirely new race of super-beings that will inherit the remains of the earth. It doesn't matter if this man is a corrupted magnificent bastard or a complete megalomaniac, this man is a stellar Mad Scientist who's undeniably human.

[sweetaliencheeks]

THE ONE WHERE HE KNOCKS

“Who is it?” I threw my cardigan over my shoulders as I approached the door, barely missing to trip over the corner of the rug. It was late at night, and I had taken my shower, swiped my make up off, and sat down in front of some stupid reality show with a hot tea. I had been enjoying the relaxing scent of dried leaves and honey, and the comfort of a warm blanket over my legs when someone knocked on my door. I was most definitely not expecting guests, so my first thought had been a neighbour in trouble or in need of sugar or flour, my second thought had been a scam to have me robbed. Either way I had gotten up and walked towards the entry.

“It’s me” nothing could have prepared me for the voice that echoed in the hall on the other side of the door. It was like hearing a stranger, only I knew him by heart, like the palm of my hand. I took a deep breath, wondering if I really should open the door, if it was a good idea to let him in again both literally and figuratively. I exhaled slowly, almost disappointed that I wasn’t a robbery and that I was about to be put face to face with heartbreak.

“Hey” the door swung open and my eyes locked on his, my breath hitched in my throat “What are you doing on Earth?”

“Visiting a friend, thought I’d come by” he replied calmly. He seemed bothered, almost uncomfortable. Maybe by the sheer fact that he was standing in front of me covered in guilt and the lies he had told me, or maybe by the way my question might have made him feel like he wasn’t welcome.

“How did you find me?” his eyes darted from left to right, before landing on the printed carpet of the building’s hallway. It was terribly ugly, a faded deep red with yellow lys flowers printed on it. Nothing that deserved the attention he was granting it “Nevermind” it was an effort to make him feel less pressured to answer, not that I actually wanted to hear said answer. All that I wanted to hear was an explanation. After a few seconds of silence, fearing that I might have come across cold, I finally spoke “I’m sorry, I’m just surprised to see you”

“Yeah, thought you’d be. That’s why I decided to knock instead of coming in through the window” he nodded towards the kitchen window right behind me “I saw it was open, that’s uh, kinda dangerous”

“I know” my voice sounded like a child who had just been yelled at, I was almost embarrassed and looking for a way to make myself sound like a big person who could live alone safely. I sniffled and looked over my shoulder at the small window just over the fire escape that he would climb to come and visit me during the time period of the blip “It’s been open ever since you left, guess I’ve always hoped you’d come back” a dry chuckle echoed in my chest, not knowing what else to say “Maybe that’s why I was so surprised” I had initially gone for a shrug, but the way my shoulders dropped in absolute defeat, made me go for a self hug, arms crossed tightly over my cardigan and around my body “Because you knocked”

“Yeah” he forced out a chuckle, and we resumed looking at the floor.

“Shit, sorry” after a few minutes of looking in between one another, the floor and the ceiling, I finally caved in and stepped aside. Letting him come into my home again was only one step away from letting him back in my life and into my heart “Come in. Do you want a drink, or something? I’ve got like whisky, I think? I don’t drink much anymore” I began frantically roaming through the cupboards, trying to find something that he could have enjoyed. I was afraid that if I took too long, he might change his mind and leave.

“What are you drinking?” I looked down at my cup, which was still sitting on the coffee table where I had left it. I scrunched up my nose thinking about how cold it must have been by then “I’ll have that” he nodded towards it, sounding both very confident and completely terrified of trying something such as a Terran stupid calming drink.

“You drink tea?” I half chuckled.

“I do now” something about him drinking tea made me smile. He wasn’t a tea kind of guy when I met him, I wasn’t even sure he was a water kind of guy when I met. But the idea of him holding and drinking a calming, sweet, comforting cup of tea was absolutely precious to me.

“So… how’s life?” I asked over my shoulder as I made my way to the kitchen. He seemed to have found a comfortable enough spot on the sofa, although he still seemed quite awkward and stiff. The silence was heavy, and it would have been deafening if it hadn’t been for the water boiling in the pot. I added the teabag and some honey in the bright pink mug and walked over to him “I’m bad with small talk”

“Look, I’m sorry I left” I was taken aback by how quickly and harshly it came out. He probably thought I was still angry at him, but I could tell there was regret in his words by the way his voice trembled.

“It’s ok, I understand” I handed him his cup, and proceeded to pick up mine from the table before plopping down next to him “I mean, you got your family back and a whole galaxy to save. You had no time to waste with a human” I had always known that I was never a priority in his life. How could I be? He was a modified literal space genius whom, on multiple occasions, had had the fate of the entire galaxy between his tiny little hands. And I was nothing but ordinary. So when he left, I didn’t try to find a reason, or which one of us was to blame. It felt like it was just the way it was meant to be.

“Still shouldn’t have left like that” his reaction to his first sip of tea was somewhere between expected disgust and happy surprise. I smiled and watched him go for a second one, with a giddy shimmy of his shoulders this time.

“You shouldn’t have… but apology accepted” the tv remote was right next to me and I had to fight the urge to turn it on. I couldn’t take any more of the silence and the terrible dread that it was to sit in face of someone I cared about so deeply, with whom I had shared intimate moments and secret thoughts, and feel like he was nothing more than an acquaintance that I was smiling at out of politeness. He had changed, that was a fact. But he was still himself, only a better version than the one who left in the middle of the night a few years back. So although I wanted to blame my distancing on him, I couldn’t. He was being nothing but nice and sweet towards me, I was the one to blame. I had been alone with myself for so long, that the reflection on the mirror had somehow convinced me that I was over him, that I was no longer sad, that a nonchalant approach was a far more appropriate way to deal with things than to drown in alcohol and hold a grudge forever. I was the one who was angry and bitter and revengeful, I was the one who wanted to hurt him for the hell he had put me through, but he seemed to have worked so hard to fix himself, that it didn’t seem fair to punish someone who no longer existed “I forgive you, as long as you let me know when you leave this time”

“I will” a small smile tugged at the corner of my lip at his answer, maybe because it would stop me from crying, maybe because I just wanted him to feel like I would believe it this time “I, uh… I wanted to ask you something”

“Sure, I’m listening” I had to fight a scoff, but couldn’t help my eyebrows from raising in astonishment. I clenched my jaw, teeth grinding against each other and a ball of rage building up in my chest.

“Are ya still good with animals?” my eyebrows twitched before falling into a frown. But the situation was so preposterous, that I laughed.

“Yeah, why? Need your shots?” I nodded towards him in a taunting way, as angry as I could have been at him, I would have done anything to catch a smile on his face.

“Very funny. No, I need you to look after someone” without any further explanation, he reached behind his back and handed me something. I wanted to ask if that was the reason why he had been sitting strangely from the beginning but I didn’t have to, since he instantly leaned back on the pillows.

“Oh! Oh, my God! It’s… Is it…?” I reached out for him too, and grabbed what he gave me. The little raccoon instantly began sniffing my hands, small whiskers tickling my wrists and tiny claws scratching into my palms. It was so small and so soft and fragile, the fact that Rocket had been like this once before he was pulled apart and put together was heart wrenching. It made me sick.

“It ain’t mine” Rocket scoffed “I’m just looking after him”

“He’s so cute, look at those little hands” I brought my face closer to the little creature and cooed “Hi, baby”

“So, will ya help me look after him?” I looked between the little puppy and the pleading eyes behind him. I was about to make a mistake and I knew it, but saying no to those two sets of eyes was impossible.

“Coparenting sounds like a lot of fun, but what? Do I send him on train to Knowhere on the weekends?” joking had always been my go to coping mechanism and an easy way out of tough situations, and this one was particularly complicated.

“No, you uh, you come with us” he avoided my face, he didn’t look at me, not even a glance. It was a mix of frustration and anger that tightened the grip around my cup until I could see my knuckles begin to turn white.

“To fucking space?” honestly, I couldn’t tell if it was a laugh or a growl that passed trough my teeth.

“To fricking space” Rocket pointed at the baby with a quick motion, arm extended and palm turned towards the ceiling. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that, as a regular raccoon, this little guy wouldn’t be able to swear either he heard the words or not. I set the small baby on my lap, and kept petting him, focusing on his soft breathing was helping me keep myself together.

“I don’t know… you do realise that I can’t just go and move to space?” thinking that it would have been obvious enough for the space genius was a mistake. Given the expression on his face, it seemed like all I had to do was throw my toothbrush and a pair of fresh underwear into my handbag and fly away into the stars “And did you seriously come all the way here to ask me to babysit?”

“I came here because I missed ya” his voice changed in a split of a second, and all I could do was bury my face into my hands, elbows set on my knees. I didn’t know what to say. I missed you, too. Why did you leave? Do you love me? Have you ever? I would go anywhere with you, the galaxy, the sea, the edge of the world. Did you think of me as your spaceship took off? When you looked up at the sky? Because I did. All the damn time.

“I’d have to sell my appartement, and my car… Quit my job, say goodbye to everyone” and that was only to list a few of the things I had thought about saying instead of what I really wanted to say “It’s really not that easy…”

“You don’t have to answer now” his eyes were glossy when they finally met mine and it hit me so hard that I had to look away. Too many memories were brought up in that second and it was like finding a piece of my past that I wasn’t ready too deal with. Not again. Not yet.

“Yeah” it was a whisper, nothing more, and a trembling lip that quickly turned into a sniffle and an awkward change of sitting position as I tucked my legs under my body, ready to change the subject “Where did you find the emotional bribe?”

“Some lab was gonna test on him. Had a whole bunch of them, found them homes” he replied plainly, as if it was nothing and as if he hadn’t mentioned having been on that same terrible situation when he was just a puppy himself. I wasn’t about to bring it up, or to ask questions or to push him to tell me more. He never shared much anyway, and I was trying too hard not to cry to throw myself into a subject that could so easily be the last straw. I have to admit that the idea of going to space to look after this small loving creature and help him look after an even smaller and just as lovely creature, was beginning to sound more and more like a future. But I knew I couldn’t and now I had to give Rocket my answer. But as I was about to open my mouth, he grabbed the baby from my lap and lifted him up to his eye level “But this one was different”

“You’re different” I blurted out. This loving, kind, nurturing side of him wasn’t new, he had many times spoken about Groot and how he had raised him like his own. But witnessing it first hand and drunk on nothing but tea and nostalgia, was making me fall for it. The love in his eyes and in his voice and in his touch, made me realise that maybe I had never fallen out of it in the first place. He lifted an eyebrow and put his cup down on the table, right next to mine.

“What?” he chuckled, and that’s when I saw him. I saw that mischievous grin and challenging gaze. I saw that one twitch on a certain point of his muzzle. And just like that, I knew I had lost a battle I hadn’t even signed up for, amidst a war I had surrendered long ago. I had fought my feelings for way too long, choosing to ignore them and finding ways to tell myself that it was better that way, that things had always been meant to be like that, that it was cosmic will or fate or anything else out of my reach. That it was anyone’s fault but mine. And at the same time, I often found myself lying awake in a state of haze wishing I had made him stay, knowing it wasn’t someone else’s fault.

“You’re different. You’re healing” tears started to pool in my eyes as a wave of realisation and relief slowly took over me. He was broken and torn and painfully tormented when we met, he was like a ticking time bomb, that could have blown up at any moment. And I worried for him, I worried every day that he was around and even more everyday that he wasn’t. Even through tears and a broken heart, I wished him peace and now, looking at him on my sofa holding a tiny little part of what he once was, I saw it. I saw peace. And I saw hope and love and joy, and so many other things he had never let me see before. My hands travelled up to the sides of his face and I brushed my thumb across his cheek “You’re softer, stay soft” I whispered, a tear now running hot down my cheek. As his hands went up to hold mine where they were, I looked him in the eyes. And in that deep dark brown, I found hope, too. And I found the love he had taken from me all those years ago, and accepted that he was willing to give it back if I only gave him the chance and the time. And just like that, I found myself wondering where I had put my suitcase “It looks so good you”

This is so long and I’m sorry, but I haven’t written in so long and gotg3 really put me in my feels. Hope you enjoy it! Also want to say thank you to all of the love you guys have been showing to my old stuff, it means the world to me x

Love,

Your local Rocket Raccoon fanfic dealer <3

[swanimagines]

Hi :)

I just want to say that I love your work and am so sorry about your mental health (I can sympathise❤️). I know it is much, much easier said than done, but please try and give yourself as much grace as you can - with both writing and life.

With writing, it is ok to fail with it, and I know you want to beat yourself up with it - but experimentation is where you can find things about your style you'd never know.

I'm sorry if I come across as preachy at all, but I wish you well and, once again, adore your work ❤️❤️

I'm so sorry it took this long to reply, I was at my mum's and didn't really check Tumblr during staying there.

But thank you for your comforting words, I'm trying not to beat myself up over not being able to write right now. I have a lot going on irl*, so I guess that also affects my mood and why I feel so stressed about this. Usually, writing is my outlet for these situations, when I'm stressed and have my head full of thoughts, writing makes me calm down. But now I just can't get anything out, no matter what or how I try. I got a suggestion to clear out my inbox a while ago when I last made a post about this, but the problem isn't my requests, I have LOADS of ideas for my requests, and I'm excited to write them, but I just can't get it written the way I wanna get it written. I'm advised to write my own ideas. They have the same problem as my requests. I'm advised to write whatever I can think of. The moment I try, my head just empties itself.

"Hmm what to write, can't think of anything, well if I force myself to write: Horses are green and they eat marshmallows. Uh. I don't know, I just can't think of anything sensible. Even writing this is kinda a struggle because I just? Can't write the way I'd want to, these aren't the thoughts I'd want to write but I already forgot what I was going to write, I thought of that like 10 seconds ago and already forgot. And not to mention that writing this is boring af. I'd much rather to clean a bathroom, bleh."

And it goes on and on and on like that.

*Looooong story and I don't have patience to write it all especially when most of it irritates me a lot anyway, let's just say I was promised something a year ago to happen soon after London but I've had to wait til now because of stuff not dependant on me (the person who would grant me a permission was on a sick leave til July and insists on seeing me on 5th of November before giving the permission and I want to strangle her for that, because I've been forced to wait for 6 extra months because of her sick leave), now it's finally happening next week but I'm still kinda furious about it because a lot of things have been ruined/delayed/cancelled because of it being so late, and I'm terrified this will negatively affect next March. It wouldn't affect it if it happened when I was promised it will happen, but unless some stuff will happen instead attached to this thing that's happening, I'm forced to change my plans for March a quite a bit (mainly meaning I wouldn't be able to get many photo OPs and would have to choose the most important people I want to get a photo OP with, and whose autographs I want) and it would crush me because it's my last convention ever with Shadow and Bone cast and I'll be mopey after that anyway, so a possibility that I may not be able to gather as many memories as I intended at first, and it's because THINGS DON'T WORK like they should and I'm forced to pay for shit service like this... yeah. I'm sure you understand why it's extremely annoying and unfair.

About the "some stuff", I'm HIGHLY doubtful about it because basically it'd mean a bunch of extra money for me to spend every month and I just can't believe that's possible before the institute who's paying confirms it. Everyone around me says it's true and my calculations are 100% correct etc, but like? I just can't believe that before they themselves confirm it. If that's indeed true, then everything is fine and I'll forgive them all their sins because I'd be able to buy more than what my initial plans included. But again, I highly HIGHLY doubt that because that just can't be true unless I'm living in some kind of fever dream, not with this government 😅

[the-s1lly-corner]

Random Eyeless Jack tongue hcs

Cw// kinda borders into suggestive territory if you squint, but nothing intentional? Writing this before actually putting down the hcs, but

Yeah

Nothing too crazy, obviously

Also cw// for body horror and shit since I also wanna dive into his whole.. how he got messed up

Getting the body horror stuff out of the way, I hope yall already know ab my whole curse hc/interpretation on jack

If you dont/if you're new; hi! Welcome to my blog! I hc that jack used to be a normal dude but got dragged into a cult that made him the way he is now!! Real important and relevant to my take on him/I haven't seen many other people use that spin on fan story for this sort of thing

Anyways

As per the whole "his body is shifting into something horrific," thing, his tongue literally. Splits into several tendrils

Havent decided on an exact number, but hes got.. a few alright!

Thick, but get thinner to the tips; and they have the same goop that leaks from Jack's eyes! Sensitive sense of taste; and he can kinda detect scents with them, like snakes do!!

His mouth is kinda crowded, though, so sometimes he'll talk with a bit of a lisp (?), or accidentally bite himself

Now onto the real horror; the process of his tongue splitting was painful, and long. He felt all of it, and given that he's literally turning into a man eating monster, he was unable to seek medical help; so he had to suffer alone and without aid

Obviously, if your tongue is splitting itself open, there's gonna be a mess plus lots and lots of pain

Poor dude

Moving on

They writhe

A lot

Especially when theres... food.. nearby; they tend to flick out (snake like!!!) If hes hungry (tends to lose himself for a while)

In the most sfw way I can say it because there is literally no way I can say it without being sus, they kinda??? Wrap around things??

Like okay I had an art idea, to draw jack with a blood-popsicle, since summer is coming; and with the previous hcs it'd make sense that his tongues would just naturally latch around it and grip said blood-pop

So that's my hc now

Also back to horror stuff i feel like that'd make his feeding frenzies all the more terrifying

I mean when he goes into one he completely loses all his humanity and thoughts and just jumps on someone

Imagine he latches onto someone and like

Idfk anchors them into the persons flesh so they cant just easily shove him off

That's terrifying

I love it sm

Downside; kissing jack is not fun since 1) it's a legitimate choking hazard, and 2) the goop makes his tongues taste gross

I feel like the goop is also, to a degree, corrosive

Or at least, an irritant

Like super powered saliva that can break down meat fast; also explains why I draw jack with huge dark circles n shit around his eyes

I bet yall (who follow my main) just thought I made him tired

Nope, it's his flesh being slowly burned away!! Granted hes more durable to it since the whole monster thing + it's his own material but

Still

So

Yeah!!!

Take what you will with these hcs

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #5

Late, but who cares? Let's go.

So, I've made no secret that I thought Kwannon wasn't really being given enough to do, these last few issues of X-Men, and it's for the same reason I'm happy to see Greycrow here - Zeb Wells' Hellions was amazing. It was one of the few Krakoa era titles that actually bothered to examine the moral double standards of the era, that really took advantage of its unique status quo, that looked at mutant resurrection and thought, okay, how can we mine this, not for obscure background cameos that will make a person on Twitter happy, but for actual drama? It was a truly great series, and I was hoping it would be followed up, if only in small ways.

I do like that Kwannon and John have a cabin together. With how they left off, it felt very personal and intimate between them, like they truly didn't need anything else to be content with one another, and neither of them struck me as people who need action to be fulfilled - or, rather, they don't see action as a means for enjoyment. As Kwannon says here, it merely gives them purpose. So far, so good.

Wasn't expecting an Amelia Voght callback, of all characters. Then again, this is a Jed MacKay joint.

Psychics and death, name a more iconic X-Men duo.

It is interesting that we get kinda sort of confirmation that Quentin remembers being a head, since I would've figured that the Cerebro cradles were down and he'd have lost those memories, but I suppose it's also possible he could have just heard about it second-hand and been like, wow, I got turned into a head in a box? Weird.

Yeah, no, you don't get to call Scott Slim, Quentin. Only Hank, Bobby or Warren get to do that. And Jean, if she's feeling quirky.

Can I also say something? I actually dig Quentin's fit? I don't know if that says something about my fashion sense or what, but I actually like this look for him more than . . . pretty much any other look he's had. Granted, that's not saying much, given his other uniforms were black blazer with t-shirt, the 60s retro-futuristic mutant fascist attire, or the bland melange that was his X-Force uniform, but I do actually like it. Purple and checker pattern work.

So, this whole issue is an homage to New X-Men #121, which was part of Marvel's Nuff Said initiative, and it, along with all the other issues published that month, had pretty much no dialogue in it, it was all told purely through art. It's not a direct homage, of course, since dialogue is happening, but I appreciate the lampshade being hung on it here, with Quentin both pointing out that this isn't like the other homage, and then not-so-subtly pointing out why it isn't like them.

Because Quentin can't shut the fuck up.

Honestly, that's a fun spin on it. That's how you iterate on something you've seen before.

I'm a sucker for mental landscapes. Always have been, always will. I just like getting to grapple with a character's psyche in a tangible way, it's why I like series like Silent Hill or Star Trek's many telepathic episodes. And if I had to break down why I like them?

Well.

Pretty much.

You really could've just called this New X-Men volume 3, Jed, and I don't think anyone would've objected. That being said - I couldn't have given less of a shit what happened in Marauders volume 2, so seeing that Cassandra Nova is back and wasn't consigned to the dustbin because of that series is a win in my book. She's a top tier villain, tbh, one of the best new X-villains of the last 20 years, and her particular incisive methodology for breaking down heroes' psyches feels like it's perfectly suited for the team of this book.

As she demonstrates.

Ahhhh, good foreshadowing earlier, good stuff. And I have to say, Stegman's Sabretooth is fucking top tier. Excellent rendition of the big man himself (whom I already miss, even if he does have a miniseries coming up very soon).

This is a great sequence, tbh. Like, poor Quentin - this is actually the most anyone has made me feel for Quentin since Aaron, about ten years ago - but in terms of threat and character exposition, it's very good, with some excellent art and very Nova-esque deconstruction. I also particularly like this panel composition.

His head is in a smaller panel. His head is literally in a box.

Good stuff, tbh. Again, this is the most useful Quentin feels like he's been in a while, because if he did anything of real worth in X-Force other than die, I'll freely admit that I do not remember it.

Hank, Scott, do you . . . wanna get them some paper towels, or . . ?

Overall, not a bad issue - definitely not as memorable as the original psychic rescue, though.

Now, originally, I was gonna say, you can't hold that against it, it's not easy to match Morrison, that's just common sense, but then again, most writers don't directly invite the comparison, so, I really hope Jed is cooking up something long term and satisfying, because constantly referencing Morrison is all fine and dandy, but it needs to go somewhere.

Still, I'd say the title has been squarely good thus far, and it still has room to get better and better, so I'm gonna give it time to breathe.

Also?

Our expert panel of judges have concluded that Hank McCoy once again wins the title of Original X-Man with the Dumpiest of Dump Truck Asses. Thanks for trying, Scott, but, uh. Your nickname is Slim for a reason.

Conner, you and I are gonna fight.

Damn right. It's not Hank's fault comics readers don't read anything from before 2010 . . .

[scammydoesstuff]

heya, I saw your post and I'm really sorry you had a disappointing experience with Neil; I get that BG3 and Astarion shot him to fame but there's still a lot of fans around for his older roles actively posting fics and art (karl, nikolai ginoviev, kamsi etc), so it's not a dead fandom by any means. Village isn't an 'old' game either (it's only 3 years old??) and anyone who says so is wrong imo. I hope your week gets better~

Thank you for the kind words.

I've been mostly spending the last week recovering from being sick and drawing to get out the negative feelings while also trying to rationalize a lot of that interaction.

Honestly, I didn't want to make that post super long, so I didn't go in-depth with all of it for the sake of brevity (because I tend to over explain and get to be very long winded - as you're about to see). I do want to insist that I don't necessarily blame Neil for it being negative. I'm sure it was mostly on me and I'm also sure I was overreacting. Drawing that was just my way of getting out some of those negative feelings instead of spiraling.

So, in regards to the convention: we wound up waiting basically 2 days to even meet Neil. Not...because we wanted to, mind. His line was crazy long every day and it wasn't uncommon to see people sitting down in his line, usually waiting for him to come back from a panel or a photo op. All the lines were moving slow all weekend, though. Not just his. That was one of my biggest issues with the convention as a whole and a critique genuinely unique to this one since the last Fan Expo I went to wasn't nearly that bad.

Our weekend was unfortunately pretty booked as well, so we couldn't wait all day and, after being in his line for nearly 3 hours that morning and barely moving, we had to leave for a lunch reservation with some friends who could only be there for one day after he left for a panel, cutting the line off. They did give out little numbers to anyone who'd been waiting up until that point to hop back into line later that day, however, if we had somewhere to be.

Due to short staffing at the restaurant, lunch also ran long and we didn't end up getting back until about an hour before the convention hall was set to close. We ran to Neil's line where they were cutting it off and, I'm super ashamed to admit, I let my boyfriend lie our way back into line (he told them we were leaving that night instead of staying the full 3 days we'd paid for, which coerced them to let us enter the line anyway) and spent the rest of the wait feeling guilty and really tempted to leave despite knowing on some level that this would likely be our last chance for the weekend. That's still on me. I could've said no and just left and not been a total piece of shit, but I didn't. Granted, other people got in line after us, so they weren't being that strict about it anyway, but I digress.

Regardless, we were already pushing it and I know that and I regret it. When we get to the front, I already wanted to keep things brief; get an autograph if I could, but mostly show him the Heisenberg plushie I'd made not long after the game came out.

(this is the plushie, btw. He took months to complete because he's entirely hand sewn - with the face being hand-embroidered - and was a major comfort project because of a lot of things going on in my personal life at the time that were causing me major stress. I've been hoping Neil would come to a con close enough for us to travel to at least so I could show him and this weekend was finally the opportunity I was waiting on).

So, we get to the front of the line and I see that he doesn't have any Village prints. Frankly, outside of Astarion, he doesn't have any other character prints except for one, which was a general Resident Evil group kinda thing with all the Resident Evil characters he'd done. There might've been one other, but I don't think it was for a character? It might've just been a headshot, but I could be wrong. I just know it wasn't Heisenberg-related, so I do not remember it clearly.

I was disappointed, but I decided to get the Resident Evil print anyway. I was initially going to have him sign a trench coat I'd made while working on the plushie. It was kinda practice to learn how to make the coat for that project and now it's just...my Heisenberg coat that I wear in winter. It's very warm. But I never ended up showing it to him after we finally get in front of him because the guilt was just too much.

So we start off and I was trying to be jokey and playful as I said 'I'm kinda disappointed you didn't have any Heisenberg prints' while showing him the plushie, but I can definitely see how, regardless of the tone I was trying to use, didn't come across right. So maybe *I* came off as rude instead despite trying to just...start a conversation about how I really liked Heisenberg? Totally possible. I'm not denying that.

And that's when Neil said that they don't bring prints along for Heisenberg anymore. That Village is an older game, so they don't get a lot of requests for it anyway and thus they save space when traveling. More disappointing. I started feeling worse because I could tell he was tired. It was the longest day for the exhibition hall to be open and he was still going even after everyone else was closing. He did arrive an hour after the hall opened, but it was still a long day, I know. I felt guilty and shitty, but, once he was done signing, I could properly show off the plushie - including the little cigars I'd made that he can hold cuz he has magnets in his hands. Maybe that would make him smile and lift his mood, y'know? So I was excited for his reaction and...

Nothing. Maybe a little laugh in that 'oh, that's cute' kinda way. He kinda did the voice when he saw it, but not really. I just...felt myself sink. I felt so embarrassed to have been so excited for this. My boyfriend asked if he could get a picture of Neil holding it and he did, but I was just...done. I wanted to leave because I realized that this was a mistake. It was late, he was tired, and this character doesn't mean much anymore because it's an older game that's been well overshadowed by Baldur's Gate III.

We wrapped up and left and that was it. I couldn't bring myself to say anything about how much Heisenberg meant to me as a character. I couldn't make myself show off the things about the plushie I was so proud of. I just wanted to leave because I felt like such a leech and that I shouldn't have done this.

I'm not dismissing the way I handled all of this. Looking back, I blame myself for my own bad time and I definitely blame myself for that interaction being as bad as it was. Neil was tired and, to a degree, he's right; it's not the new game that everyone's obsessed with right now. I shouldn't take it personally.

But it's easy to say that. It's so much harder to actually follow through with it. I couldn't help but feel upset because everyone else in line who'd seen the plushie would get excited to see it. Even the event manager who was hanging around at the end of the day told me I should sell them. Hell, back in April of this year, I even got to meet Maggie Robertson, who happened to be going to Fan Expo Cleveland (I live in Ohio, so less travel for that one). I thought it'd make her laugh (cuz, y'know, the size difference is accurate, right?) and, despite acting offended that I'd even bring him before her at all, she was still excited to talk about it and seemed to enjoy engaging with it. She was delightful and clearly still loves her character and that game, which made the contrast of meeting Neil so much more striking and...kinda hurtful...

So yeah...Sorry. That's a whole lotta words for 'I'm surely the reason it was so bad', but ye...Kinda got me out of an art funk, I guess. So that's something...maybe...

[bigfan-fanfic]

How do you feel about Damien’s Mom Talia Al Ghul? Because some people said she’s a victim of bad racist writing and she’s had a bad portrayal in the animated movies. Is Talia really just victim of bad writing or she’s actually a horrible mother/person? I’m just confused because when I read the comics about Talia and the bad things she did and I just assumed that’s was part of her character because she’s a morally questionable villain of course she’s not a “good civilian person.” I knew DC is a dark adult comic book series and I already expected going in that the villain characters like Talia would committed terrible/horrible actions against the heroes. Like for example when she drugged Bruce and took advantage of him, I was slightly shocked but wasn’t surprised. Cuz to me this was the dark stuff DC was known for doing.

Alrighty, so the answer is a little bit of both!

TW for sexual assault mentions, miscarriage, parental abuse, etc.

There's a TL;DR ("too long, didn't read" summary) under the cut if you don't wanna read my report which is pretty awesome and was fun to write.

So, nobody seems to be able to agree on who Talia is at her core, and that's generally par for the course for a comic book character with multiple writers. She's been around since 1971, so that's already 52 years! And like Greek myth, there's just a lot of different interpretations of the character.

Let's get to the nitty gritty before we talk history. In 2006, writer Grant Morrison established that Talia drugged and raped Bruce, conceiving their son Damian (and also for some reason adding a whole unnecessary "artificial womb" thing? I don't get it either). However, this is based off the fact, which Morrison later admitted, that they misremembered the story they based the Batman and Son arc off of, and later comic arcs (in 2012 and 2014) would retcon the incident as consensual. Put a pin in this.

Talia was originally more of a damsel in distress slash prize for Bruce. Remember, this was the 70s. Her main deal is being the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and thus if Batman marries her, he becomes the heir, which Ra's wants. Despite not wanting to succeed Ra's, Bruce and Talia do share romantic attraction and Ra's considers them married. Then, later on, they do actually marry and she gets pregnant, and then Talia realizes that Bruce will always be in danger having to protect her and their child, so she fakes a miscarriage and they dissolve their marriage. She gives the child to an orphanage, and he is given the name Ibn al Xu'ffasch, or "son of the bat". This is the story arc Morrison adapted later.

Talia was kinda badass in the period before 2006, where she was sort of an anti-villain. She breaks out and starts having her own self after Ra's engages her to Bane whom she despises. She, under the name Talia Head, runs LexCorp as CEO while Lex Luthor is President of the United States, and basically not only tips Superman off about all his plans, but sells LexCorp's shares to Wayne Enterprises leaving Lex functionally penniless. Then she gets brainwashed and basically evil-fied by her half-sister Nyssa Raatko who literally kills her over and over, resurrecting her each time in the Lazarus Pit as an extreme form of torture and reprogramming. She usually does more evil shit after this like joining leagues of supervillains and such. However, her motives of helping Jason Todd recover and train are usually ascribed to her love for Bruce and not wanting Jason to kill him.

Then after 2006 she goes full tilt crazy ex girlfriend and murders people, trained Selina Kyle to resist any and all psychological coercion to reveal Bruce's identity, and PLANTS A DEVICE IN DAMIAN'S SPINE THAT LETS HER CONTROL HIS BODY, and reveals that she's started cloning him because she thinks he's too weak and disowns him.

Then comes the New 52 (the part where DC did a reboot to make everybody darker and "more realistic" that absolutely nobody liked, so it started in 2011 and then DC did another reboot in 2016 to make it better) and Talia is just off the wall completely evil. Genocide, cloning Damian, killing Damian, being resurrected, then fighting an ancient alien cult and claiming she's redeemed, then literally rejoining the League of Assassins moments later.

Incidentally, apparently Grant Morrison wrote Bruce, Talia, and Damian from their own experiences as a child of divorce, which is just... wow. Like... that's just a lot to unpack there, but we're just gonna step past it.

As of the DC Rebirth reboot, Talia is more or less sort of back to being anti-villain, still yes a killer, but also more emotionally open and supportive of her son and back to trying for true redemption.

Let's take, as I usually try to do, the sum total of these experiences and from other sources and try to average it out.

Unfortunately, despite the retconning, a lot of people now still see Talia's rape of Bruce as canon. I did too for the longest time, and honestly, although it makes Talia despicable and completely irredeemable in a very visceral way, it also does allow for interesting dynamics for Bruce and Damian, the batfam and Talia, Bruce in general, and allows there to be discussion for the tragically underconsidered circumstance for female-on-male sexual assault, and by having Batman, who is often used by hypermasculine dudebros for their weird ideals of stoic toxic masculinity be a victim, and be vulnerable, and go through this could be a deeply powerful arc that nobody in comics really wants to touch. It does however, deprive us of an interesting and nuanced Talia and instead catapults her right into mustache-twirling evil.

Ultimately, Talia is the daughter and heir of Ra's al Ghul. She sees no problem murdering people, and in fact she usually shares her father's genocidal ambitions of culling much of the human race to help preserve the planet. Ra's boils down to an ecoterrorist and genocidal maniac, and Talia his henchman, though when she does strike out on her own, I can't quite get a handle on her motivations. She does tout a desire for "equality and peace" but there's really no standard she gives for what this means, so I can't really see if she's just crazy or if she has good intentions.

I think, even at her best, Talia is a perfectionist and is very strict, intent on Damian being who she wants him to be. I think she has very little empathy or compassion for others, although parts of her, at her best, regret this and she tries to grow. At her worst, she is irredeemably evil, and at her best she is... morally shady to the point of never really being able to be thought of as a good guy.

I can't speak to whether or not racism plays a part in her portrayal either as mustache twirling villain or whatever. I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing because I don't know if Talia was ever intended to not be a horrible person or morally ambiguous, apart from the early days when she was mainly a figure to be pursued by Batman. When it comes down to it, adding sexual assault to her list of crimes is not going to change much because she's a mass murderer, an ecoterrorist, an abusive mother any way you slice it because she's training her child as an assassin, and generally just not great. A fascinating character, yes, but a terrible person.

TL;DR: Talia al Ghul is a terrible person in general, but the Big Incident you refer to has been retconned and is based off a poorly-remembered story. However, considering she's a mass murderer, assassin, eco-terrorist, and also let's face it classist villain, she's still not great even if you remove that from her rap sheet. She's done some cool stuff like putting Lex Luthor in his place and that one Elseworlds story where she left Bruce and gave her son to an orphanage to protect him, but otherwise, once she was made her own character and not just a love-interest-of-the-week, Talia has been morally ambiguous at best and irredeemable at worst. I can't say if it's racist or not because I don't know the motivations in her writing, but I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing to make her unsympathetically evil.

[styxisms]

// Okay I am going to RAMBLE a little bit about Mouthwashing. Namely, Curly.

Anyway this is all my take. I have only played the game once and watched another playthrough after.

So I think it's basically established that Curly cares about the crew. Jimmy is CLEARLY an old friend that he has helped out before. So I kind of want to go into my take on the entire situation leading up to the crash.

So Curly obviously does call Jimmy out on the weird pervy stuff he had said to Anya in the psych evaluations. Even if he did it in a more lighthearted way. So I want to kind of go over some basic thoughts I had regarding his poor response to the situation with Anya.

For one: I do not think he grasped that Jimmy raped her at first. The way he acts seems like he genuinely thinks it was just something that happened. UNTIL Anya gets the gun. It seems like, at that point, he understands. This was NOT just an encounter. This was not what she wanted. Because I think at first, these were two people he knew and cared about. The idea of one doing such a thing to the other was unthinkable. But he still thought she might kill herself. And when she said she wanted to hide the gun from him, I think it was pretty obvious.

But he didn't act on that knowledge. They still had 8 months on the trip. I think he was more concerned with keeping the peace than taking real action. Jimmy was his friend and he wanted to believe in him. If Curly would have actually taken action, it would have saved everyone.

Now when he confronts Jimmy, he tries to go easy on him. Again, to keep the peace. And Jimmy instantly throws all of it on his feet, Implying that they would BOTH be ruined. Which Curly, as a massive people pleaser (as far as I can tell) instantly deflates because of. Just like in the birthday party before. And I kinda get the feeling this was their dynamic the entire time. Their entire friendship was warped. You had Curly, the people pleaser, and Jimmy, the narcissist.

Curly tries to not take a side even though he SHOULD have. He said he would do anything to help Anya but he DIDN"T DO WHAT HE SHOULD HAVE.

To be fair, this was right before the crash. Maybe something WOULD have happened. But it didn't. Because Curly should not have allowed Jimmy to freely roam the ship. He failed to protect Anya from him to start with, then failed to protect them all from him.

Sadly, it is not uncommon in real life for even "good men" to minimize the damage their friends do to women. They want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Jimmy was a scumbag and Curly kept giving him chances that he did not deserve. It was a massive blind spot. Curly isn't a bad person. He's a spineless coward who got bulldozed by his friend and didn't see it until it was too late. I am not gonna sit here and say he was a villain like Jimmy. But he wasn't a hero. He failed Anya and then he failed everyone.

He didn't deserve what happened to him. But yeah sadly men often do this kinda shit. So in that way I am so mad at him too. He didn't see Jimmy for what he truly was until he realized that he was crashing the ship. He was a rapist piece of shit that was going to take all of them with him rather than face the consequences for his actions.

I do think there is a sort of irony that he did not protect Anya and then he had his autonomy taken away. He was made to feel exactly how she did in her situation. He was also a massive victim of Jimmy. I think him and Anya were his biggest victims. Granted they ALL were victims of him. But he very clearly directly abused them.

So while I think that Curly is partially to blame. He should have done more. I don't think he deserved what happened to him (because I did see people saying that). He enabled Jimny. He put Jimmy in the position where he could do what he did. Obviously, he meant well. But yeah, it was not good. His biggest crime was inaction. And I am sorry in a case of abuse, inaction/silence is siding with the abuser.

One thing I CAN say is that collective punishment seemed huge in Pony Express so it is also possible that they could have lost all their pay for this incident too. So that may have given him pause (along with his own reputation being fucked up but that SHOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED COMPARED TO WHAT HAPPENED LMAO). So I feel like Curly is super complex and more of a gray character.

Anyway, Curly was a people pleaser than didn't want conflict and if he wasn't that, none of this would have happened. He is partly responsible.