#haven't read the rest of the series because I didn't know it existed though

[sleepydrownedrat]

They should have adapted Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks, the best Minecraft isekai, I'd watch it

My controversial Minecraft Movie opinion is that isekai could have worked for it, if they had just played it like a vanilla minecraft world. It’s even the game-movie most suited for an isekai storyline tbh.

A couple of kids wake up in a strange new place and have to figure out how to survive. And then, eventually, how to get back home. And this could take you all the way from punching a tree to killing the ender dragon, ending with The End Poem, which can be read aloud as it scrolls across the screen by all the weird helpful people the kids met along the way (steve, alex, mcyt cameos)

Also Steve isn’t white, the piglins aren’t evil or in the overworld, and the whole thing is animated. The kids are blocks in the block game and if you absolutely must have them be real people, have it be a split second of them waking up after the end poem

[sardonic-the-writer]

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 [+ 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥] 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐇𝐚𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐎𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞

↳ includes: dean, sam, castiel, and gabriel

↳ warnings: none

↳ song: dance macabre—ghost

masterlist | commissions | carrd

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐧

• When Dean first meets you in the middle of bumfuck nowhere on a hunt, he's not surprised that you know his name

• Afterall, he has brought on the apocalypse more than once, and the hunter community isn't exactly known for its ability for people to keep their mouths shut

• What does surprise him, though, is your knowledge on him as a person

• It's nothing creepy— the thought of someone knowing all about him in that way brings him back to where he first met Becky through Chuck, and the thought makes him shudder —but just enough to where it's obvious you've done some digging and people reading of your own

• "Brought back some pie with dinner; didn't know what you wanted so I got apple."

• "Careful handling this case, it's got some nasty demons. We don't want you diving head first into hell. Again."

• "No no, don't use that. It didn't work on that shape-shifter you ganked last year in Massachusetts, so it won't work on this one. Throw it out." You eventually say one night while looking in Baby's trunk for some ammo, and Dean finally turns to face you

• "How did you know that? How do you know any of these things?" He clears his throat, squinting. You shrug with a barely there smile

• "Who do you think cleans up your messes when you're done, Dean? And what can I say. Word gets around."

• It's a simple case of Dean's reputation preceding him. Although, as you discover, there's a lot more to the Winchester than just his precious car, a strange love for greasy food, and his ability to fight off a demon with his bare hands

• "You sure you aren't obsessed with me? Because its totally fine if you're obsessed. I mean, look at me." Dean asks you at one point while gesturing down at himself. He's leaning on his car door in what he probably thought was a sexy manner, watching as you lugged some equipment out to the vehicle. You manage to press your lips together just in time to hide your amused grin

• "Keep dreaming, man." You shake your head. "There's a difference between reading up on people, and stalking them."

• "So you admit it?" He grins misheviously, pushing himself off Baby. "That you've spent your spare time thinking about me?"

• "Sure. And those witnesses never mentioned you'd be this insufferable." You scoff light heartedly, even though thats exactly what some of them said, and leave it at that. But for the rest of the hunt Dean can't stop elbowing you in the ribs to make a playful remark; something that, strangely, you don't find yourself minding

𝐒𝐚𝐦

• Unlike his brother, Sam takes the information that you practically already knew him with a bit of embarrassment

• Sure, he had been (or was supposed to be) Lucifer's vessel, and sure he also had a habit of being at the center of everything world ending, but he never really conciders him anyone other than a hunter that just happens to get the worst cases

• So when you just offhandedly started dropping these facts about him, he's a little off put

• "How'd you know that?"

• "You're literally one of the most infamous hunters to ever exist, Sam. You tangle with angels. Most of us only ever get to meet a werewolf or two before a friend is organizing our funeral the week after."

• "Oh. Right"

• Gets a little curious after a while as to what you exactly know. It's not like he keeps a journal about his feelings that the public can read, and that this point he's just praying you haven't discovered Chuck's Supernatural series, so he'd probably ask you all of what you know and why you know it

• "So you're telling me you've done research on our hunting styles—" Sam asks you while leaning forward. You nod, so he continues. "—and all the people we've ever pissed off?"

• "Call it too much free time, which I certainly don't have enough of these days, but I knew if I ever ran into you two knuckle heads, and I knew it would happen eventually whether I wanted it to or not, then I would need to be prepared." You dragged a hand down your face and exhaled for a moment. "That meant making a checklist of every vamp, demon, or god you've ever had out for your head. And trust me, it's a lot."

• He's silent for a moment after you finish, but it doesn't take long for him to pipe up again

• "Can I see it?"

• Safe to say, after seeing the list, Sam started to rethink some of his past decisions

• "Seriously, how are we not dead yet??"

• "Buddy, I have no idea."

𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐥

• He does not understand why you seem to know so much about him. Not only as a person, but as an angel

• Castiel is used to the Winchester's asking questions. The first year of knowing them was filled with 'How Did You Do That''s and 'Can You Do This''s. He'd answer all of them, even if he found their questions to be on a kindergarten level most of the time, until eventually they had no more to ask

• You hadn't been like that. Castiel doesn't think he could ever recall you asking him things unless they were about hunts or special circumstances, like the time Sam lost his soul. Hell, you seemed to know more about him than some angels knew about themselves

• Grace knowledge, wing anatomy, biblical lore—you name it and Castiel's probably heard it come out of your mouth at some point

• He gets around to asking you about it one day, albeit very bluntly

• "You don't ask questions." Castiels voice sounds from behind you. You don't even bother to turn around; you heard his wings flutter the moment before he dropped in

• "What do you mean Cas?" You sucked some air between your teeth as you scribbled away at the papers before you. It was something Sam had asked you to follow up on, and you'd been at it for a hot minute now. Hopefully you could make this conversation quick so you could get back to it

• "About angels." A beat of silence. "About me."

• This time you do turn around in your seat to look at him. He's already studying you with that silent squint, and you resist the urge to mirror it

• "Why would I ask questions I already know the answers to?" You parry. The case papers lay on the table, forgotten by now. Your response gets you a rare, but endearing, Cas head tilt

• Upon further questioning, he finds out you'd spent a lot of your early hunting years doing nothing but reading up on anything remotely supernatural. Even calling them 'hunting years' was a stretch. You were more like a crazed researcher that never left the library than a hunter, even resorting to keep mountains upon mountains of notes on ancient lore stored away in the margins of dusty books

• "That's certainly explains why you weren't surprised when we met for the first time and I healed you." Cas's low voice drawled slowly after you gave him a moment to interject. "Or how you knew the symbol for sending us back to heaven before Dean or Sam ever did."

• "Like I said." You smiled to yourself, and Castiel got the feeling he was missing a part of the joke. "Lots of reading."

𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥

• Do not bring up that you used to have an angel phase back in college. Under no circumstances should you reveal that. He will never let you live it down

• Especially if he finds out you used to study artwork and literature about him specifically

• It's all over the moment he finds your old school books. They're stuffed full of old crinkled pages with his name thrown in there. Of course, this was way back when the idea of angels being real was laughable to you and you still had dreams of graduating college, but that doesn't change to fact that the notes are there, and that Gabriel found them

• "Wait wait wait listen to this—" An old binder is clutched in the hands of a very amused and very heavenly being as he paces around your spot at a table. His eyes are skimming the pages as a speed quicker than light, and Gabriel's shit eating smile grows as he continues to read

• "The archangel Gabriel isn't depicted as much as his brothers Micheal or Lucifer in classic literature, but when he is, it is often as a symbol of great power and beauty—"

• "I'm going to kill you." You cut him off and groan with hot cheeks. Your hands had come up to cover your face a while ago in an attempt to keep what little dignity you had, but something told you it wasn't working

• "Glad to know you think I'm beautiful, sweet cheeks." Was all Gabriel said. You could hear the teasing lit in his voice. Sure enough, when you looked up to glare at him, he was already looking at you and wiggling his brows suggestively. It took you a total to three seconds to throw the closest thing at his head

• "Hey hey! Watch the beautiful goods!" He laughed while dodging a pencil. It his his chest anyway and bounced to the ground with a dull thud

• "Gabriel." Your tone was downright murderous

• "Okay, okay! I'll stop!"

• He does, in fact, not stop. Someone restrain him for the love of Chuck, for he is getting way too much enjoyment out of poking fun at you

• You're gonna have to avoid him for the next few weeks after that if you want to keep your embarassment levels to a minimum. No other way around it

• Let's just hope he never realizes you had to spend time in art class analyzing renaissance paintings of him in the nude. Now that would be the conversation to end all conversations

• "Heyyy, you never told me you had an art folder—"

• Oh shit.

[xoxo-sarah]

I Wanna Be Yours || Part 1

Series Masterlist | Part 2

↝a/n: my first Robin Series. Set in season 4.

↝pairing: Robin Buckley x fem!Wheeler!reader

↝ Warning:slightly proof read. Possible spoilers if you still haven't watched season 4, everything that happens in stranger things, slow burn, Vicky doesn't exist here, not because I don't like her, but because it's easier to write for Robin when she's not madly in love with another chick.

↝⎙ 6.24.23

Nancy jiggled her keys, annoyed with the mop headed boy. “Mike! Let's go.” She turned, looking at you with an irked expression. “This kid.” She opened the door, walking past you as you put your backpack on.

Mike rolled his eyes, hunching over the toaster, impatiently waiting for the pop tart to pop any second. “Jesus. How am I gonna survive a whole week without you guys?” You grinned as he walked past, handing you one of the warm pop tarts. “Besides you. You're cool.” He whispered before practically jogging to the car, where Nancy sat with her head thrown back in annoyance. You bid your parents goodbye before following him to the car, deciding you didn't have time to argue over who was getting in the front.

“So, Cali, huh?” Nancy glanced at you from the rearview mirror, a small grin making its way onto her lips. You two have tormented him for weeks over him going all the way to California for spring break. You did it more than Nancy though, only because you loved his grossed-out reaction when you'd turn around, acting as if you were making out with someone, hinting at the two.

“Yeah.” Mike grumbled, looking out the window from the passenger seat.

You nodded, not mentioning it for the rest of the car. At least, until you got to school.

“And then there's Heidi tomorrow night, but the problem with Heidi is that she's going out of state for college. So, it's like, do I really wanna start another relationship that has no point other than sex?” Steve continued to rant to deaf ears. “I mean, I don't know. Does that make sense to you?” He rubbed his forehead, glancing to his side, where Robin was putting on mascara, solemnly paying attention to the mirror and not to the man who was ranting for the whole car ride. “Robin, are you listening?”

“Uh, yes. I-I'm lis-”

“What did I just say?” Steve threw his hand up, shaking his head, unimpressed.

“Something about sex with…Linda.”

“No! I'm talking about Heidi.”

“Cut me some slack, please!”

Steve bit his cheek before rubbing his forehead again. “Well-”

Robin began to rant, “Your love life is one of labyrinthine complexity. And it is 7:00 in the morning, we have this stupid pep rally and I woke up looking like a total corpse.” She stretched her hands on the sides of her face, surely not looking flattering at all.

“Oh, you're worried about a pep rally? You expect me to believe that?” He glanced over again, his expression showing he absolutely did not believe that, not one bit.

“Yeah? So?”

“So, we both know what this is about. Okay, I'm not buying that bullshit. This is about Y/n.” He had met you a few times, when he was with Nancy and when you guys had to fight some ugly parasite looking monster. You were quick to catch Robin's eye in school, which, in turn, made her turn to Steve and tell him all about this girl. There were a few characteristics that led him to know she fancied you before she even told him your name.

“Absolutely not.” Robin couldn't help the blush that painted her cheeks, moving to do anything with her hands. She began applying lip balm, staring back into the little mirror in the visor.

“Yes it is. You know what else I think?”

“I really don't care-” Steve could go on and on. If you were to ask Robin what he said, she'd surely say blah blah blah with a roll of her eyes.

“I think you gotta stop pretending to be someone else when you're around her. You just gotta be yourself.” He had his hand out, motioning around absentmindedly.

“You're literally quoting me to me. You do realize that, right?”

“Well, maybe you need to listen to yourself. Ever think about that, smarty-pants?” Robin stared at him with a look that could kill. Was she this annoying when she scolded him, telling to get his shit together? "I listened to you and look at me. Boom. Back in business.”

“It's not the same thing, okay?”

“Well…"

Robin made a sound of disagreement at that, not letting him finish that thought. “You ask a girl out and she says no, big deal. Nothing happens. Maybe your ego is a little bruised.” Robin looked at him with false pity, before moving her hands around again. “But I ask out the wrong girl, and BAM! I'm a town pariah.”

Shaking his head, Steve understood where she was coming from, but disagreeing with how she was going about it. “Yeah, okay, I'd buy that, except Y/n is definitely not the wrong girl.”

“We just don't know that do we?”

"She returned Fast Times at 53 minutes, 5 seconds. Do you know who paused Fast times at 53 minutes, 5 seconds?”

“...”

“People who like boobies, Robin!”

“Ew! Gross! Don't say boobies!”

“Boobies. It's not a big deal, okay. I like boobies. You like boobies. Y/n likes boobies. Definitely.”

Climbing over the seat after Nancy parked, you patted Mike as he held the car door open. “Use protection at least.” Before he could reply or grumble, you were jogging towards the gym, finding some of your friends in the process.

“Got any plans for spring break?” Chrissy asked, trying to keep in stride with you.

“Not really.” You hadn't made plans, but you'd probably end up staying at one of your friend's house. After walking in, you turned towards her, grinning to ease her nerves. “Have fun. You'll do amazing.” She smiled back, giving you a quick hug before running off.

Turning back to the bleachers, you tried to look for an empty seat, which was becoming harder with the people trampling into the double doors.

Hearing your name being yelled, you looked around, stopping when you saw Steve. He motioned you over, making sure no one sat down beside him.

With the glare he could feel on the side of his head, he'd definitely be getting an earful from Robin.

He held his hand out, helping you step up the stairs with all the people walking around you to take a seat. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He turned to face Robin, mouthing '53 minutes, 5 seconds'. She rolled her eyes before looking forward.

When everything started, he cheered with you as you not only cheered on your school, but your friends and all the work they put into the moves.

“And of course, I have to give a special shout-out.” Steve glanced over at you when he heard you scoff at Jason Carver.

“What? You don't like Jason?” His words were playful, already knowing you despised him for some reason, hearing it from Robin.

“I don't know. He loves Chrissy and shows it, but he's just a dick to everyone else.”

Jason continued to speak, “Chrissy…" He stared at her as they were the only two in the room. “Chrissy, I love you, babe.”

You made a gagging sound, only loud enough for Steve to hear it.

Jason went on to make another speech. “You know…I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss. And sometimes I wonder 'how much loss can one community take?' In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So, last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy I looked at my team and I said, think of Jack, think of Melissa, think of Heather, think of Billy.”

Both you and Steve looked down, searching for the red head you had seen climbing the bleachers to sit with your brother and Dustin. You both looked back at each other, taking pity on the poor girl.

Sure, you never got along with Billy. But you would've never wished that kind of death upon anybody, including him. Especially with the way it affected Max. You could tell she felt guilty. It wasn't fair for her; she was just a kid- a good kid at that.

"— Think of our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper. "

“You alright?” Chrissy almost walked past you in the hall, looking a little uneasy.

“Yeah, people died so they could win a basketball game. That's the reason.” You rolled your eyes, grumbling as you glared at the man screaming into the mic. “For a stupid trophy.” Sure, you will still congratulate Lucas if they do, indeed, win the trophy. But to say many people died for that was just ridiculous. Honoring the people who have fallen is different, but that's not what he's doing. Maybe Lucas would play in honor of them, but not Jason.

She blinked a couple of times before trying to smile. “Yeah-yeah. Of course. Just had to go to the counselor. I'm alright.” You slowly nodded, before wrapping an arm around one of hers and walking towards class. She had been acting weird lately. So you made sure to stay close to her, making sure she didn't do anything. “Would you like to do something for spring break?” You brought back the question she asked earlier.

“Like what?”

“I don't know. We could hang at your house-”

“No!” You looked at her, confused by her outburst. “Why would we do that when we have your house?”

“I mean, Mike's not going to be there, so sure.” You gently smiled at her, squeezing her arm affectionately when she stopped by the bathrooms. “I'll talk to you about it later, yeah?” She nodded before pushing the door open.

You began walking towards class, trying to wrap your brain around what was going on with her. She obviously wasn't okay.

•2021-2024 by xoxo-sarah on Tumblr•

•My work is not to be translated, copied, modified, and/or reposted on any other site without my permission. [!I don't give permission!]

[demigodsanswer]

Hello! I'm genderfluid I went searching for stuff on Rick Riordan after finding out he won a stonewall award on The Second Book from the Magnus Chase trilogy. I've read all of Riordan's books as a minor and, upon finding this stuff it's been disheartening to say the least. I'll come back, after doing some research on my own but I'm personally curious about how you feel about LGBTQIA+ representation in Riordan's books.

I want to lead with: if you feel as though the queer and trans representation in the series is not reflective of your experience, or worse, offensive in its depiction, then I am very sorry. I myself am a bisexual woman who was in a relationship with a woman for five years, so I know what it's like to feel like a depiction of your gender or sexuality is simply insufficient or downright offensive.

Your experiences of the representation in the series are valid, whether they be positive or negative. These are fundamentally very personal experiences, and it's rare that any media will ever be 100% representative of our lived experiences. It is completely okay to feel represented where others do not, or to feel let down by a depiction, even if others think on it favorably.

To that end though, I honestly can't comment in any meaningful way on the representation in the series, simply because I am out of touch with it. I never finished Magnus Chase or Trials of Apollo. Chalice of the Gods was basically fun fanfic in my brain, and I haven't read any Hero's of Olympus book cover to cover since they debuted, not 10+ years ago. The only series I regularly return to are the first five, which do not have any explicit queer rep.

There are posts on my blog from 2020 and earlier that are from a time when I was more in touch with the fandom, Rick, and the books, but alas that time has passed. In between when I was last active in this fandom and now, I have completed almost all of a PhD. So a lot of this just isn't in my brain anymore.

What is in my brain is how important Nico coming out in House of Hades was. I will never forget how it felt to see that leak, get the book, and flip right to the page to make sure it was real. It was groundbreaking and so important. It wasn't the first queer rep in a book for middle or high schoolers, but it didn't exist in a saturated market either.

When continually stands out to me about Rick is his willingness to learn, grow, and correct. Sure, I wish he did things right the first time. He probably should have had sensitivity readers for HoO, but it's nice that he did have them for ToA. I think he has proven to be willing to listen to fans and course correct when he needs to. He doesn't just rest of his representation laurels; he keeps trying to make the world more diverse. I think the TV show is a great show of that work as well.

But really at the heart of my inability to be overly critical of him is the reality that I fucking loved Harry Potter. I loved it so much. And I have other queer and trans friends for whom that series was their life. It was the favorite thing, it was their #1 fandom, it was everything to them in the way Percy Jackson is still everything to me. And all of us feel as though Harry Potter was taken from us by the rampant bigotry of JKR. The choice to disengage is obviously also political, but it feels so emotional first and foremost. I cannot separate art from the artist there, and that to me doesn't feel like a political statement; it feels entirely like an emotional one.

So when I think about Rick's efforts, flawed as they may be, all I can think is "There but for the grace of god go I," because if it was him succumbing to the black mold and becoming one of the four horseman of the rise of global fascism, I do not know how I would cope with the emotional loss of this series.

That's not to say that fans should not continue to hold him accountable or engage in dialogue with him. It's just me saying that I'm not the fan who's going to do that. I'm too old, too tired, too out of touch, and I need to finish this degree before it finishes me.

[bramblewhisker]

A very disorganized brain dump about Brambleclaw, my blorbo

I like Brambleclaw. The platonic ideal of Brambleclaw anyway. Like many characters who have been around for multiple arcs the actual in-the-text Brambleclaw becomes an inconsistent mess after a point, but that's nothing the Power of Imagination can't fix.

The thing for me about Brambleclaw is that I love his concept as Bramblekit/paw in arc 1 and the idea from arc 2 that he is an ambitious cat living under the spectre of his father, who was similarly ambitious, and having to accept that he needn't be defined by that one point of similarity as long as he's guided by his moral compass. I think it's silly that he hits Deputy so early, but a lot of arc 2 stuff suffers from "they didn't realize how long the series would run" syndrome.

I like him as nice noble dad man in arc 3, and I think it's reasonable within the bounds of his established character that he takes the parentage reveal thing so poorly. It's kind of weird that it continues throughout arc 4, but OotS is all over the place anyway -- his reconciliation with Squirrelflight just comes out of the blue at the end instead of being built up as a B-plot like it should've been because OotS doesn't even really have an A-plot to speak of xD.

That's sort of the end as Brambleclaw-as-a-character in any real sense, and from this point forward he mostly exists as a plot device. Really you could say that starts after Power of Three for all that OotS offers. Once he becomes Bramblestar especially, most of what he does is to move the plot along or to cause a problem for a POV character, and has seemingly little to do with his continuing character arc. In general becoming leader seems like a great way for most cats to just lose their characterization and become generic and/or a source of drama. There's even a point in AVoS where he expresses unease about "a Tigerstar leading ShadowClan" and like... come on. Of all the cats to make that specific remark, they pick the one guy who specifically overcame that exact bias earlier on??

Basically I like the guy who had an actual character arc in the first few series, and I like to imagine how that actual character would've moved through the rest of the series.

Note 1: I haven't read Bramblestar's Storm or Squirrelflight's Hope so I can't speak to those. From what I know about them, the former seems kind of boring and the latter seems like it's full of bad ideas and weird characterizations. Kind of unforgivable to me that they decided we needed another round of Bramble/Squirrel relationship drama. In general my take on Super Editions is to keep the bits from them that you like and put the rest in the trash.

Note 2: I like that the newest series seems to have settled on Bramble and Squirrel as an old couple who have Been Through It both as leader/deputy and as mates, who care for and trust each other deeply even though they bicker sometimes. This is how it should be with them, I think.

Thanks for coming to my TOM Talk (that's a TED talk for cats).

[phoebe-delia]

Read a better fucking book already jesus christ

Hello anon!

Thanks for your concern about my reading habits. While I'm admittedly surprised that you care what I read, I hope you'll be pleased to know that I haven't read the Harry Potter books in a very, very long time. More than 10 years, at this point.

I do, however, write fanfiction about it; though at this point I consider myself to be a fan of Drarry (+ the other characters) and fanon, rather than the canon and the series itself.

I assume you're here because you hate JKR. If so, I share your loathing of her, anon. On this, we can likely agree: JKR is a racist, anti-semitic, homophobic TERF with far too much power and money.

Here's some good news: nothing I do contributes to JKR or her wallet. I don't buy merch or the books or stream the movies. My fics don't help her, either. In fact, I'm quite sure she would hate the fact that I write Harry as queer and Jewish (like myself). I write what I do because it makes me happy, but knowing it would likely fill her with rage is a bonus.

Reading and writing fanfiction has made me a better writer and a better reader. Some of it has helped me discover parts of myself I didn't understand or know about before. It's allowed me to explore and learn about queerness, relationships, mental health, friendship and so much more.

Moreover, I have met people through this community who have truly changed my life for the better. I have made friends I probably never would have known if not for the existence of fandom. I sincerely hope you have a community of your own—fandom or not—that gives you the same gift.

Now. On the off-chance you're genuinely concerned that I'm reading a low-quality series, fear not! I read sublime fanfiction, anon. It's so incredibly fucking GOOD. And the best part is—a lot of it was written by my friends, so I get to yell at them in their DMs when I'm done without seeming like a weirdo! Because they already know I'm a weirdo. So it works.

Isn't this an amazing world we live in, anon? Where people can find scraps of goodness and inspiration in the remains of a once-great series and create something better? And then post it on the internet for free?

Anon, I know this was a long response. I am sorry I wasn't able to be as succinct as you were with your ask. But if you see this—thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope you're able to fill the rest of your day with something that brings you joy.

[pain-in-the-butler]

you said you've been a kuro fan since 2009, I have to know what got you into the series and what has made you stay with it for so long?

what about the fandom did you enjoy back in the old days?

Ahahaha, oh wow, these questions feel loaded. Thank you for asking them, though, I haven't fully considered them before...

I'll start with the second question, because it's easier to answer. What did I enjoy about the fandom in the old days? I didn't enjoy the fandom in the old days! Not on the whole, at least. I was just on the outskirts of it, more observer than participant. I wrote fanfiction, but most people didn't read it because it wasn't romantic. The memes weren't funny, the shipping wars were insane, and SebaCiel was completely unavoidable. The current fandom is way better than the old one! (I'm sure there were cool people around back then too, but I didn't go looking for them because I didn't think they existed.)

I kind of started dipping my toes in the fandom water in 2012 in the midst of the Campania arc. But even then, by 2014 I felt a little meh from all the cricket and I varied in my interest during Green Witch, so I really didn't participate much until around 2017. The Blue Cult stuff had me bored, but then when things started ramping up towards the twin reveal, I was back in the game. Or rather, in the game for the first time. The explosion of actual good memes had me hook, line, and sinker.

Now for your first question. My initial exposure to Kuroshitsuji was season 1 of the anime. It had wrapped in Japan less than a year ago, and my sister told me that she sort of liked it after seeing the first few episodes at our high school's anime club. She gave me a brief rundown of the premise and I guess the seventeen-year-old me was interested because I went to anime club for the first and last time next week. It was the episode with the corset scene and I was appalled. I was also appalled by my peers, because the teacher hadn't shown up that day to moderate, so a lot of kids were making out and drawing on each others' bodies with sharpies, and the few people watching the episode were wolf-whistling and clapping. It was a lot for a dweeby little goodie-two-shoes to take in.

But for some reason I persevered and watched the rest of the series on my own time. The first episode also appalled me. I think the whole show did. I don't really know why I watched it, other than perhaps a fascination with historical anime, but I definitely found Sebastian and Ciel worthy of parody, because a few months later, I was writing fanfiction about them. In high school, I wrote solely humor fanfics, and they were always about Sebastian and Ciel trying to make each other's lives worse through japes and antics.

Then in early college, I started reading the manga when I caught wind of Sebastian being "dead" and thought that sounded like an interesting development. I gave the earlier chapters a try and shocker, it was so much better than the anime (though I skipped the curry arc for some reason, only read it for the first time like a year ago). Then I got to the Circus arc scene where Sebastian has to help Ciel with his eyepatch strings and I felt the epiphany grow. Dadbastian is love, Dadbastian is life, etc. It was hard not to feel like a one-man army at the time, but a handful of others enjoyed the concept too.

And then the Campania arc happened and I was absolutely gobsmacked by how good it was. I will never forget what it was like to be there for the badass Lizzie reveal. That day, anime and manga fansites and subgroups across the net were all united in Lizzie love. It was so real 🥹😭

Moments like that kept me going, as well as a hope for small Dadbastian-esque moments and the promise of more Victorian flair. Over time, I've only gained more appreciation for the side characters and the themes, and I love the current fandom to pieces, so even though the story is slow, I'm more invested than ever.

I'm sorry that was such a damn essay, thank you for your interest in my little Kuro journey! 😊 I hope you are enjoying fandom life too!

[t1meslayer]

Trying something a little different today.

Inspired by the incomparable @alchemicallymoon, I'm going to do a postmortem commentary on my latest fanfiction. If you haven't read "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 on AO3, now's your chance!

I've done similar things in the past, with my Pre-Preparation of Shiver post for "Splatoon B-Mix," but I'm really testing the waters to make this a more regular occurrence — possibly even going back to older works. If you enjoy, let me know!

Tons of rambling beneath the cut. You've been warned <3

Alright. I can't think of any better place to begin talking about "Stone-Cold Lovers" than to mention it's a classic piece (in the era sense, though also in the literary sense). I started publishing fanfic in 2019, right around the time I was graduating from college. A bunch of pieces I wrote are still exclusively available on FanFiction.net, but I've slowly been transitioning them with a fresh coat of paint.

"Stone-Cold Lovers" was the sixth story I published on FanFiction. As I mentioned in Chapter 1 of the AO3 version, it came back to mind after Pokemon Masters EX introduced a Halloween alt for Roxanne.

Pokemon Crystal was my first "real" video game (not counting educational content like Sesame Street games), but Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire began my infatuation with the series. This was partially due to the fact that I could read the text on my own, which meant I could keep replaying to do little challenge runs.

===

Fun Fact: One of the most prominent challenge runs I can recall involved catching a full team of Wingull. I named the Pelipper of my team "Sergeant," and the rest had other army designations. I would later copy this idea using shiny Ambipom and Aipom in HeartGold and SoulSilver that I obtained through entirely legal means for a rare item Pickup group.

===

More Fun Fact: My favorite challenge run to this day is completing Pokemon FireRed with a single Clefable. I always really liked how many TMs a single Clefable could learn.

===

All of that is to say I seared Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald into my brain by playing it all the time on the schoolyard and at my grandparents' house in Florida. It remains my favorite region to this day. However, I didn't fall in love with Roxanne until the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire character designs came out.

Important note: I have shipping charts for basically every character-heavy... Anything. Something about pairing people up always makes my brain go brr. My body of creative writing speaks to many of the headcanons I've whipped up over the years. Similarly, I have headcanons about which Pokemon protag serves as the "main character" or "rival" in each title.

Yes, you can ask about my opinions. I will undoubtedly answer.

Brendan and Roxanne came into this framework because as much as I also love Brendan and May, I quickly fell into the rabbit hole of Brendan Champion/May Contest Idol, and therefore I'm legally obligated to ship May and Lisia. My original FanFiction Author Note says I'd been thinking about the idea for "a while," but frankly I don't remember where exactly it originated. All I know is that my goal was May scolding Brendan for being an oblivious dope.

This is not autobiographical.

As far as I know.

My truest sense-memory regarding this piece is writing the Rustboro opening in a Barnes & Noble parking lot at night, on the same night that I scored a new freelance gig (it didn't last all too long in the end). However, I helpfully noted that the Brendan and May banter was inspired by a FanFiction story called "Critical Hit" by Alphinia (it's still live!) and Carly Chaikin's Darlene from Mr. Robot. That was ending in 2019. Pokemon Sword and Shield were about to come out. The timeline lines up.

It's also very funny to imagine May as a raunchy, tomboyish smartass who also happens to love the fame that comes with princess-y Pokemon Contest shenanigans. Good headcanon.

The seeds of an idea for a date follow-up existed back then. My first inkling was to do a scene where, essentially, Brendan fucks the whole thing up by using Sandstorm in the middle of a food court because he's trying to impress Roxanne. Most of the set dressing around that, such as using ORAS' Street Thug trainer class (here portrayed by Shio — after ramen to reference the naming scheme of every trainer in Mauville Food Court), came later.

===

Fun Fact (again): This is the first piece I've written using a new program called StimuWrite by Eve Harms, which was suggested by my beta reader. I liked being able to put my brain somewhere other than a blank white page, though all of the extra bells and whistles aren't all that necessary for me. Plus, I wound up jumping back-and-forth between the page and my 20 tabs of research anyway, so...

We'll see where this tool lands.

===

A lot of my decisions regarding the style of "Stone-Cold Lovers" Chapter 3 were based on concurrent reading; I recently joined a book club, and we just finished Babel by R.F. Kuang. My experience with Zine editors such as @kiliofdurinsline (Shrapnel) on Homemade in Hyrule (still available to pre-order!!!) helped me focus on creative writing structure and clarity rather than the more "vibes" based approach I leaned on. But Babel's rich descriptions suggested that I perhaps moved too far in the direction of snippets. So, here I tried to more robust scene-setting.

The bit about Gardevoir reading Brendan's emotions is being back on my bullshit trying to capture "vibes," though. I'm often a proponent for Psychic-types having full telepathy, especially Gardevoir given its canon emotional connections, but I decided the silent implications were more fun to play. I'm also a big proponent of leaning into the medium by using all of AO3's formatting HTML for things like Gardevoir's text. Hence my abundance of italics, or even the House of Leaves-style page falling apart for Arven's nightmare in "Paradiso."

Another note from Shrapnel that I took to heart: Give each character a stable of description types to help them emphasize their personality. That's why Gardevoir's movements use ballet terms (many of which I had to look up, like "bras bas").

One bit that I thought about a lot was Roxanne's response to weather talk. I knew that she should flirt by saying any weather would be great alongside Brendan, and the verbiage "would that it were" stuck. A bit of Googling revealed that the phrase doesn't mean what my brain thought it does — it actually refers to wanting a better reality than you currently have. But it rolls off the tongue... So, I decided to play with that disparity by having know-it-all Roxanne correct her old professor, even when recounting a heartfelt memory.

Also, I'd be lying to you if I said goofy teenager who can't speak French wasn't an integral part of my planning.

The battle scene is pretty straightforward, it was mostly fun to incorporate the idea of Brendan being over-leveled by having him immediately wipe the floor with this tough guy, Shio. This especially goes well with the Mauville Food Court gimmick of finishing your battles within set time limits. Hopefully little descriptors like the space-warping Boomburst help make up for how short it is.

But with all of that said, there's only one place left to go:

Roxanne's outfit

That's right! Brendan wears his contest attire, but Roxanne wears an entirely unique creation. I did something very similar to my experiments with Shiver by digging around Tumblr tags for specific outfit pieces to cobble together as part of Roxanne's preppy and academic wardrobe.

I essentially wanted to put Roxanne in an "elevated" version of her typical uniform. For example, something with a nicer blouse. When I saw this post by stiefel-rock-bluse, I knew it was the one. That ruffled 'V' is perfectly suited for comparisons to a fossilized ribcage.

Had to tuck that blouse into a nice skirt, too. I did toy with the idea of going full suit-style with slacks, but Roxanne feels like a skirt girl to me. So I settled on this pleated skirt shared by zoesrepository, at least in-part because I wanted a brown-and-white motif to reflect... Rock stuff.

Having exposed legs also introduced the opportunity to describe a bit of Roxanne's obsession with fossils. If I get callouses on my hands from doing ceramics, she can have some scuffs on her legs from digging in the dirt.

My inspiration for her off-the-shoulder draped jacket is largely me doing silly cape shenanigans with my jackets, but for the style I went with this cover image from an article by The Girl From Panama:

In brown, of course. That really emphasizes the idea that it looks like strata.

Because rocks.

Unrelated to rocks, I was originally toying with a different idea for her jacket, one based on this image of Kendall Jenner uploaded by disarmluna:

Ultimately I liked the draped idea better, but I kept on the idea of it being corduroy. Also, I took Roxanne's "loafers" from here.

For accessories, I riffed on one of my favorite pieces of lore introduced by Pokemon Masters EX: the idea that Steven Stone is in a club with all of the Rock-type experts who love collecting shiny rocks. Steven knows how to give some specialized gifts, and in this case I gave Roxanne a single earring, as shared by gemville, because 1) red; 2) flowers; and 3) stalactite. I went with one rather than a pair because I think it's a cute asymmetrical thing.

Then, of course, I imagine her nails alternate blue and red ala Nosepass/Probopass. Finally, Roxanne's elevated school uniform look had to retain a tie. What better way to keep that tie in place than with a clip inspired by the one, the only, our boy: Anorith.

If the Yanma inhaler from "Peaks and Caverns" is anything to go by, y'all know I love to invent kitschy merchandise that will unfortunately never be acknowledged by Game Freak/The Pokemon Company.

===

That's about all I've got. I'm not sure whether I'll return to this story again — the five-year pipe dream is already a big accomplishment in my book. But I'm really glad I finally closed the book on a longstanding idea in celebration of Valentine's Day! And I'm sure one day, if I can get through the rest of my insane backlog, I'd be happy to write further shenanigans between these two Hoenn lovebirds.

[lovinggreeniehours]

📝🌦️☕️👀 with five? give us the deets (also want to hear your canon because canon doesnt exist <- doesnt watch just in support of pal @snowpuffclovers)

i would kill in your honor 🫶 you are amazing

im kicking the wall though because when i say "my canon" i mean i am just going to rewrite this entire tv show and. that is so hard 😭 you have No idea how many plot holes ive had to endure and tolerate throughout the series only for them to fuck everything up this majorly on the LAST SEASON okay inhale exhale i will not rant any further im happy today hfsgkhdhjdhj

📝: how would your story in canon go? how would you influence the events of the original story?

oh my goodness gracious this is Hard 😭 the story is so hard to self insert in because of how densely packed it is. there's not much wiggle room for ari to have his own thing going on. so i did have to make that his arc (him not knowing himself when he's not doing plot things) although i am changing it, i still think it's a fitting arc for him

as for what he'd change in canon, not to brag but five's life would be sooo easy if i was there. actually 🙄 he'd worry less because he doesn't always have to rely on himself, and since there's two of them to handle things, their missions go a lot smoother. there would be an extra pair of hands to try (keyword try) and keep the family from getting distracted in their sideplots, ari literally blocks bullets for him on the regular. guys

tldr for one, they're not going to die 💀 they can save the world Without dying. oh actually i wonder. since ari's powers let's him go through time and space in his dreams, would he be able to see the ending without realizing? 🤔

🌦️: would you be accompanied by mostly fluff or angst fanfics? both? explain why.

BOTH.

i actually haven't read a lot of shippy fics in this fandom (or fics of the show in general) so i don't know how they usually handle that. the majority of the fics are about family dynamics, so i think there's a lot of "ari bonding with five's siblings and five wanting to scream cry throw up /pos about it" hwdgkgsgjfsfh

i think (especially in the early seasons before i dig harder into ari's character) there'd be character study fics on the two of them and the codependency they developed in the apocalypse. and these could go both ways but that middleground hurt/comfort is my favorite flavor 🥳

angst fics DEFINITELY include the "five leaving ari in the apocalypse" aus. i used to have this Horrible idea of them having a fight before five leaves, and five doesn't say goodbye because he's convinced ari hates him now. but ari feels even worse because he thinks he's the reason five left AND IT'S SO HORRIBLEE,,,, THIS IS SO HORRIBLE TO DO TO THEM,,, BUT IT'S SO INTERESTING,,,,,

☕️: what are the most common plots of shipping fics between you and your f/o?

the ones i mentioned above for sure. some domestic retirement fics hdsgjgddgh the old men need to rest 😭

maybe (if the fandom will dare tread here) them trying to figure out physical intimacy. fun fact, 35 years into marriage and they didn't fully know how to kiss HDSHJDSFH toothbrushes and clean water were hard to find in the apocalypse okay they were so not doing mouth contact that's gross 😭 it is a bit risky to make fic of this because they're physically 13 and 14 during s1-3, so i don't think it would be a thing until s4

👀: how does your ship with your f/o influence both of your characterisations and the world? would there be any interesting metas written about your dynamic?

the entire show is about arifive if you squint hard enough /j

no listen okay there's so much interesting stuff about them. like their main theme of "your story saved my life" where ari found happiness in his mundane life through the umbrella academy hyperfixations. and then in the apocalypse, even if they used to butt heads a lot, ari cared about five so so much. he cared about five his entire life, and he refused to let him die. and five doesn't understand the reasoning of it, but it does move him. and it makes him keep going everyday for 45 years. of course, his main goal keeping him moving was his family back home, but ari was the person holding him together. ari reminded him everyday of what he was fighting for, and like. in a way, their sheer determination and devotion saved each other. i always thought that was really neat

there's also that strange inevitability they have going on. i like using that word for them a lot because all the external circumstances dictated that there's no way in hell these two would ever cross paths??? they were born across the world from each other, with the time separation of their births being 15 years??????? AND YET. five, being as stubborn as he is, will always try to time travel and get stuck in the apocalypse. and ari will always be there, practically destined to be the last survivor on earth. there is no way they should have met, but there is no way it won't happen

even their imagery and metaphors alone are to die for, like ari's powers representing the matter that makes up the universe, while five's powers represent the time and space that moves it. five having this theme of running and ari having a theme of being stuck, but five is always there to pull him along for the ride. five often being compared to icarus for his hubris, and ari being the sun (to reference the fact that five bringing ari with him at all is a risk to the timeline. but he takes the risk anyway because he needs Everyone in his family to be safe). even the way that their powers are colored red and blue?? the two colors that represent each of the two most major timelines in the series as a whole??????

[a-force-dyad-in-space]

A Fanfic Update

Hey guys, I thought I should give you an update about what's going on Ongoing-WIPs-wise just in case you've had some worries.

The short of it is that the writing juices haven't flowed well for a while now and I'm trying to get them back but it is a struggle. I've worked a bit on this fic or other but haven't made significant progress in a few months. I absolutely hope that will change soon but I unfortunately can't force it. It doesn't help that I'm going through some stuff IRL right now that I have to take care of (I am unfortunately an adult who has to do adulting and pay bills and shit 🥲). I try not to be too stressed out about it, but the more time passes the more the anxiety sets in. Wish me luck. 💪🏻

Anyway, here's a fic-by-fic overview, split up by fandom.

THE UNTAMED

The Angsty SongXue Fic — I'll be honest, I've written a little bit since I last updated you guys but I still haven't finished the buffer chapter (at this point I'm thinking about posting chapter 51 even though 52 isn't done yet), so nothing really new here. I really want to get back into a writing flow but so far it hasn't really worked. I am still working on it, though, so don't worry, I'm not going to drop it.

The It Follows AU — I'm ashamed to say I didn't even realize I posted that fic almost two years ago and I still haven't written the second half. I'm so sorry it's taking so long! I definitely still want to finish it! I might rewatch the It Follows movie before I do that, though.

The Observer Series — Oh yeah, remember that smutfic series I started a few years ago of which I've only posted part 1 so far? Yeah, I still need to work on that. I did write chapter 1 of part 2 a while ago, so it's not like it's forgotten, I just need to get my ass up and write the rest of part 2 before I can post it. 🙈

The Color Rush AU — Okay, technically I haven't posted that one yet but I did share a snippet along with a gifset a few years ago, so you guys know it exists. I haven't worked on it in a long time, though, and I don't know yet when I will find the spoons to continue writing it but I'm still intrigued by the premise and want to give it a go. Thank you for your patience!

The Somewhat Sweet, Somewhat Angsty XuanXian Fic — Again, haven't posted that one yet but I've been posting about it, so you guys know it exists. Nothing new on this front. I did want to rewrite the whole thing because I wasn't really happy with the way I wrote it thus far, so I'll probably go back to it at some point and do that, I just don't know when yet.

WORD OF HONOR

The Xie'er Deserves the World Fic — Listen, guys, I love this fic so much, I just haven't worked on it in a while. I'll probably re-read what I've written so far and go on from there, I've just been struggling with the latest chapter ever since I started writing it years ago. It's not dropped, though, I will get back to it! Pinky swear!

SAILOR MOON

I've mentioned here and there that I'm working on part 1 of an epic that is based on a doujinshi I started when I was 13 or 14. Unlike my other WIPs, this one really is 100% self-indulgent to the point where I don't even care whether people will read/like it once I post it when it's completely done. I'll just put it out there to make my teenage self happy because this story has been simmering in my head for over 20 years, and so that my IRL friends can read it if they want to. So, this one will be a long way out, but it exists. I'm only really mentioning it because I've mentioned it a couple of times before and because it's the fic that's been on my mind the most lately.

STAR WARS

You didn't think I forgot about TROBS, did you????? I did work on several beginnings of a draft during NaNoWriMo last year and I'm getting more and more of a clear picture of how I want it to go. For those unfamiliar, TROBS (or The Rise of Ben Skywalker, though I already changed the name of the fic again) is my attempt at an Episode IX fix-it fic that essentially replaces TROS. This one has been simmering in my head since early 2020 and I really want to get it out of there and onto the page for catharsis. I've even held off on reading any other TROS fix-its because of it, even though I've heard there are some really amazing ones out there (and I can't wait to read them once I've gotten my own out of my damn head). I really need to finally finish that beast. Wish me luck. 🥲

UNPOSTED WIPs

I still have so many notes for other fics (mostly for The Untamed) that I want to write at some point. Will I be able to get them all on the page? I honestly don't know, but I'll see where they take.

Anyway, that's all!

[sarrie]

Tagged by @ohbutwheresyourheart! Last song: Wild Horses - Bishop Briggs

Favorite color: I was the red-coded kid all my life lmao and that's still true! But I also love purple, and very specific shades of green, like Phthalo green and seafoam. Phthalo green looks so good with copper/brass I am definitely not planning our future kitchen with these colors in mind.

Last movie / Tv show: okAY SO LIKE. We don't really watch tv series so much - we don't have cable so we mostly watch like. a handful of youtubers we enjoy. That being said!! The last movie I watched was Fargo a few weeks ago, because I remember my mom loving it and finding it so funny (and fucked up) because we lived in Wisconsin for several years and The Accent (tm). As for TV show I dunno if it counts but I watched five himbos watch Attack on Titan on youtube (Studio Gek) because I remembered that series and while I Do Not want to support it in any way, I was curious how it ended/the plot.

Sweet/spicy/savory: Why would you pit three bad bitches against each other like this. I GUESS Sweet, because I would gnaw through drywall to acquire, like, ice cream. Or cakes. Story time: growing up I wasn't allowed to have candies because my parents were so worried about my teeth, so I was ONLY allowed to have chocolate. And my parents never really were into cooking/baking and fruit didn't make it into my diet a lot as a kid (too poor in areas where fruit was VERY seasonal, or was very expensive bc import) and I am now discovering the joys of fruit + sweets. Y'all i love blueberries so fucking much?? lmao. I will say I do love spicy food as well, though. And savory. But like. As a pasty ass redhead I got teased in Colorado a lot for not having a spice tolerance so I decided Fuck That and consumed so much spicy food lmaoooo.

Relationship status: In a relationship for six years. Also mentally rotating several blorbos.

Last thing I googled: 'Chipotle' and I haven't the slightest idea why. OH I was trying to sign into my rewards account lmAO. Before that it was 'Celiacs Diet' because I am waiting on bloodwork to tell me if I have celiacs lmao. (I also have a ton of auto immune symptoms that we're trying to pinpoint and I'm like it's this or lupus or something.)

Current obsession: Y'all I am DEEP. into Undertale right now. Which is hilarious to me. Nothing like rolling up almost ten years late to a fandom. Specifically I am obsessed with Gaster - a character that may or may not exist and is pretty much 100% fandom speculation at this point. Next to that I'm always on some Devil May Cry shit.

Last book: Going to be complETELY HONEST with you here and admit very lamely that it's been a minute since I've read and actual physical book and not, y'know, fanfiction. I do have a list of things I want to read, including my copy of Gideon the Ninth that is sitting on the coffee table. I think I'm afraid to commit because I know I'm going to read it in one sitting and order the rest immediately after. The last book I really remember sitting down and reading (that isn't reptile medical journals) is probably Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer. I saw the webtoon advertised a lot, read it, became obsessed, and devoured both books 1 and 2 from Market of Monsters.

Looking forward to: Y'all I have no idea lmao. I really want to try and bleach my hair platinum. We finally got a clutch of ball python eggs on the ground, which is exciting, and we're going to maybe try and buy a house? Hopefully?? Maybe??? Also I am tagging @faridahmalik and @stephanweaverofworlds and @kebbige if any of you would like. No pressure! :)

[spaceorphan18]

My apologies if you answered some of these before, feel free to ignore them!

What do you think of the Fox X-Men movies? I love the OG trilogy (particularly 1 and 3), as well as DoFP, but I'm kind of ambivalent on the rest.

Given that you apparently watched the 90s animated series of X-Men, have you also watched the Spider-Man series? I'd be curious what you might have thought about it.

Have you read recent X-Men comics? Do you have Opinions™ on the franchise, comics-wise?

I realize that your blog is Glee-focused, but seeing that you're a X-Men fan activated neurons in my brain I didn't quite know existed.

Also, have a nice day! 💛 You're a highlight of my Tumblr visits.

The only reason I'm glee-focused is because that's what you guys usually come to talk to me about. But dear, I'll chat about anything if you give me a platform, lol <3

I have mixed feelings about the live action films. There are some good and some bad across the board. I think they were revolutionary as they (with the original Spider-Man trio) kicked off Marvel comics in a great way. But they haven't aged all that well. I adore Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen and think they were brilliantly cast. And outside of, maybe, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, I think they could have done so much better by all the rest of the characters.

(oof - don't get me started on Rogue, though no hate towards Anna Paquin)

Of the later ones - I think Days of Future Past is a solidly good film, but the rest of them are kind of garbage. The X-Men definitely deserve some good live action films, and I'm hoping the MCU can go back on the upswing before they're introduced there.

I'm sorry, I haven't watched the Spider-Man animated series, so I can't give any opinions on that. :(

I have read nearly a good chunk of X-Men comics, everything in the main canon of Uncanny and mainline books, as well as (nearly) everything Rogue has been in. I'm a little behind on current comics -- as I usually wait until they're in trade or on Marvel Unlimited before I read them. However, I'm a little over the Krakoa ear, and am looking forward to it being done and moving onto the next thing.

I have a ton of opinions on the comics, lol -- was there something specific you'd like to chat about? It's a very broad subject. Overall, there are definitely things I love and definitely things I don't love as would be the case for any story that's been going on since the 60s. :)

Please drop more lines! I'd love to chat about anything Marvel related :D

[decovulous]

Hey! I’m a fairly new fan to Spider Gwen and I’m wondering if you had recommendations on where to start for the comics? Thank you!

hi hi! so awesome I love her books a lot! imo they're some of the easiest marvel comics to get into because they rarely require deviation from her own solo series. and a few years ago they released an omnibus so all of Spider-Gwen (her first solo run) is there! recommend picking that up (or y'know, alternate methods), and um honestly if you don't want any more information then stop reading this post! read the omnibus and stop there.

but anyways here's more information if you want to read more than just that. after her first issue (Edge Of Spider-Verse 2) she's in the Spider-Verse event. Which I wouldn't say is essential reading, but she's there if you want more with her and more context! and in my personal opinion that event is kinda nothing and you don't miss out on needed context for the rest of her solo run.

included in the omnibus are two other crossovers, one with Miles (that personally I don't care for at all! but it's not bad it's fine) and one with Silk and Spider-Woman. if you aren't reading the omnibus for some reason, you're gonna need to detour after Volume 1 (which is technically the second volume because there's a Volume 0, so sorry that comics are so confusing) and read the Spider-Women crossover. you don't lose out on any necessary context from the crossover with Miles (Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen: Sitting In A Tree), but that's between Volume 3 and 4 if you're interested.

after the first run she kinda gets passed around to different writers and a lot of her story feels directionless. but if you want to keep reading her books, next is Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider and then Ghost-Spider, both by Seanan McGuire. they're still pretty decent and have some really interesting stuff, but they get cut short and so many things introduced just get left there. if you plan on reading those, I recommend reading Spider-Geddon as well. it happens in the middle of the first volume of Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider, between issue 3 and 4.

I wouldn't normally recommend Spider-Geddon because I don't actually think it's that good, but Gwen experiences some trauma there and has to deal with the consequences in her solo run so unfortunately it's kinda important context.

She's shown up in some other things after that I'm pretty sure??? (like maybe some Spider-Man issues probably) but I never bothered to read any. there was Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse last year. which I own but I haven't read more than one issue because I didn't like it.

though I obviously don't know anyone else's personal tastes, if you want to read all there is go for it. but I find the ending in her original run satisfying enough and anything after that feels unnecessary and unfinished.

currently they're releasing Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones, which I also haven't read, but it exists and I highly doubt it would be a good introduction to the character. so probably don't read that unless you've read everything else?

if you have any more questions I will gladly answer em! thank you for the ask!

[throped]

Never Glory - Chapter 1

Tom riddle x reader

TW : blood, death gore and all that stuff

My breath quickened and my heartbeat rose as I suddenly jolted awake, feeling not in the slightest mood to get up. You see, I've been having these nightmares? One would call it nightmares but I consider them as visions. They somehow predict the future and tell me what is going to happen next. The weird part is that I haven't had visions like this since the year 1900 when Grindelwald rose to power. Quite infuriating really, I couldn't help anyone from death because my stupid self didn't know whether they were reliable or not. 

If I went into graphic detail as to what series of events exactly occurred in my 'visions', one would be horrified. The scene of blood, gore and death appeared right in the back of my mind and it was hard to believe that this was my life.

I swear on the gods that Salazar Slytherin had something to do with this. That pathetic excuse of a wizard cursed me for eternity in hell just because I didn't follow a few of his rules. Slytherin should of died before he ever even laid eyes on muggleborns.

Oh well, I can't really do much about it now, especially since it's been centuries since he died. I'm alive and well but it just seems as though I'm here for a reason, not just because Slytherin cursed me. 

I got up as the bed creaked underneath me. Mental note to myself about getting a new bed. The fact that I had a dream about someone killing a boy with a scar on his head. I wouldn't necessarily say 'someone' though.... He was more of a monster with only his body shape making him look the slightest bit human. I looked beside me to see the newspaper, 'Hogwarts: School for young witches and wizards'.

I had been to Hogwarts once and it wasn't the best experience but definitely not the worst either, I just didn't feel the need to re-make new stories about how my parents died and how I was born and where I was born. I couldn't risk being revealed to be immortal. They would throw me into Azkaban and make me rot there. 

If I however did go there, I would get amazing grades and top the class, considering me being centuries years old but still looking young. It would be quite the win-win situation if you really thought about it. 

I may even be able to make a future for myself, not being stuck as an auror for the rest of my life. 

I felt as if I needed to go back to Hogwarts. It may even be different for me, I might be able to find someone to love me if I failed at the prevention of that monster I saw in my dreams. Oh! And not to mention my changing of identity tomorrow! Happens ever 40 years, I reset to the age of 15, looking like a child but having the knowledge of a wise wizard. 

"Alrighty, so it's set. Y/N, your heading straight to Hogwarts!" I said to myself. I must admit, I didn't have many to talk to so it was quite the habit of mine to talk to myself at times. I grabbed some papers and started filling out my new identity for tomorrow's change. 

"Hmm, Daena is a nice name. And L/N sounds promising...." I said to myself, "that's it then,

Daena L/N."

Quite a pureblood name in fact. I indeed am a pureblood, born to my mother and father which of whom I never knew the names of. Saddening really. You're probably thinking about how I'm going to get into Hogwarts. Well, you know Dumbledore, that professor at Hogwarts? Well, he knows about my existence and knows how I've been hexed by Slytherin as I had trouble lying to him at a time we met at Three Broomsticks. He agreed to put a good word about my application and let me join the school whenever I wanted. I'm not exactly quite sure why he would help me out but I guess I might be saving him in the future or something. 

Who am I kidding though? No seriously. That old man knows quite a lot and just maybe I might play part to whatever he's planning. 

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Thanks for reading so far, I have pretty inconsistent posting times so I post whenever I can lol. Oh and also, that monster you dreamed of? Yeah, that's Voldemort if you didn't get the references! 

[slimeclimbtime]

Uriel Character Analysis Deep-Dive: Mingyu from GSM

hey yall! this is gonna start becoming a recurring thing; idk if anyone actually reads these but im starting this series so that you can check out how i meant for these characters to be portrayed, their character arcs, and so on so forth.

today's analysis is JUNG MINGYU from GOD-SHATTERING MANIA, the sequel to my infamous zoom-team centric fic FRACTALS AND DOMINOS. this was requested by @peridoughnutt, so here it is as promised (finally, lmao). THERE WILL BE HEAVY SPOILERS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

and of course, if you want to see my EVEN STARS DIE EVENTUALLY KAMDEN character analysis from last time, check it out here!

Mingyu's General Character Arc

Mingyu is one of the main five, and he's supposed to be the parallel to Hyunbeen — wanting to prove himself and be just as useful to the rest of the team. This ties in with his naturally-hardworking nature that we can see in BP—even though he was in on it as a joke and didn't really care for debut, he still gave it his all and tried his best to get as far as he could. His whole arc in GSM is quite similar—wanting to prove that he's able to be a useful member of the team. Unlike in BP, however, this backfires, due to the mistakes that he ends up making that end up proving fatal to his mental state.

Speaking of his mental state, he was already in a bad state of mind from the start of GSM. It's mentioned in his talk with Jihoo post-Hiroto that he never actually recovered from the trauma of Fractals and Dominos: "Honestly, I...I've always been acting like things have been okay for me since I got possessed, but they haven't. They never did. Sometimes, I feel like Mnet's...clawing its way back into me, like I'm going to spiral all over again because of what it did to me...I'll always feel like Mnet's somewhere in the back of my head, trying to corrupt me all over again." As the first district back in Fractals and Dominos, he was under Mnet's mind control the least amount of time along with Doha, making him one of the only other two aside from ZOOM team to fully remember everything that happened, with very very minimal gaps in memory. Unlike Doha, he never truly recovered from that hell, nor did he ever truly feel as if he really escaped Mnet. It's almost like he could subconsciously notice that Mnet wasn't truly gone, a backwards foreshadowing to what would come in GSM. It's why Jihoo couldn't empathize with him, because Jihoo wouldn't be able to truly understand the amount of mental trauma Mingyu was going through.

Mingyu and Hiroto

One of Mingyu's biggest mistakes, but also his saving grace, was befriending and later falling in love with alternate-universe Hiroto. He and Hiroto already shared a lot in common in both worlds, having the same part for the same song for K vs G. Despite all the warnings, Mingyu's more of a bleeding heart than anything else, and it shows in his caretaking side, which is why he ends up reaching toward an outside yet familiar face. His soft spot for Hiroto existed even before switching over to the other world. It's this kindness that he extends to Hiroto, who's never experienced that sort of hope in a long time, that causes them to get drawn to each other.

Despite their growing relationship, Mingyu already knew he was setting himself up for failure, whether or not he knew Hiroto would become a world eventually. He's already trying to hide all of the information about being from an alternate universe to Hiroto, trying to keep the fragile timeline together in order to stay undetected by Mnet (even though at that point there was no reason). Almost everyone warns Mingyu too, such as Gunwook ("I don't think you keeping this up is a good idea. Not because it's Hiroto, but because of the timeline and shit—he's not gonna be the same Hiroto when you come back, you know."), Woonggi ("Hiroto's memories won't sync up like Seowon's. I'm not gonna stop you, Mingyu, but it is a setup."), and Taerae ("Hiroto isn't going to become magically aware, like Seowon or Zihao did. He was never touched by the alternate reality back in our world, so there's no way he's going to change all of sudden."). Jihoo is the only one who doesn't say anything, but even he knew ("I know, Mingyu. But it's not our Hiroto.").

Mingyu still insists on sticking with Hiroto because he's grown too attached too quickly to the point where he ends up relying on Hiroto's existence as an anchor. Even though he's self-aware that Hiroto's memories won't sync up, or that eventually the timeline would be destroyed and Hiroto would go along with it, he wants to hang onto that brief moment of happiness and hope. In this way, he also still calls out everyone for being a mild hypocrite, with them still deciding to befriend Zihao even though his memories wouldn't sync up either (though to be fair, Zihao was possessed and later awakened). It makes Hiroto's death all the more painful and tragic, and it's why Mingyu is so devastated post-death. It takes Jihoo's comforting and words of encouragement, as well as seeing the creature that led Hiroto to his death, for Mingyu to regain his resolve: "No, I can't linger on him anymore. The only thing left to do is crush Mnet."

Mingyu's Ending

Back in the real world, Mingyu finally reunites with the original Hiroto, though this Hiroto doesn't share any of the memories that the alternate-universe Hiroto had. With Mnet's influence finally gone for good, and Mingyu still recovering from all of the long-term grieving and trauma, he's able to finally place that hope back in Hiroto again—though this time, there's no Mnet to take Hiroto away from him. Mingyu, being the hardworking person he is, has a lot of perseverance, and even when he's still in a low and trying to recover, he still decides to place his faith in something he knows is fundamentally good and he can trust—and to him, that's Hiroto. To him, Hiroto is like home, and even if that home has escaped him many times, he still tries anyway. It's a very hopeful ending, and maybe, just maybe, Mingyu will finally get the peace he deserves.

Thanks for reading this analysis! Not sure who I'll do next, but I think I'll be asking a fellow friend of mine for the next character arc :)

[autumnsup]

There are probably a million other (and better) lists out there like this, but for Pride Month and my own documenting purposes, here are the LGBTQ+ "classics" I've come across over the past several years of reading. My taste tends toward older literature and slash, so most of them center on gay stories and are somewhat dated in terms of general societal attitudes, but I know there are many other classics out there that are just as good and hope to get around to them eventually.

To be clear, my definition of "classic" is how often they crop up in various "best of" lists I've found on the internet (including this one), and who recommends them, as well as how long they've been around. For example, many of the titles here are based on the renowned gay author Edmund White's list of "representative freaks," which I haven't yet read through myself. (His books are interesting too, although they contain a lot of difficult themes, and are not always fiction or centered on gay characters). They are not necessarily recommendations, as I struggled with some or found them not so memorable, but I wanted to take note of them nonetheless.

The rest I've listed are books that I've just happened across, usually at a library or through a friend. I haven't included the YA books because in my mind they exist in their own category (although I'm happy to rec them to anyone who cares). Most, if not all, are written by authors who identify as LGBTQ+. And lastly, they are all in English because it's my first language, although I'm sure there are more I haven't yet discovered that originated in different languages.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin - I loved the first book, although I haven't yet read the series that followed. It represents all sorts of queer lives and experiences in 1970/80s San Francisco, including a truly memorable trans character.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters - a picaresque love story set in Victorian England. Not slash, although there is some gender-bending between the lesbian characters.

A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham - The Hours was a much more popular book of his, but this was the first book to introduce me to the idea of a polyamorous/throuple situation, including two gay characters.

Memorial by Bryan Washington - a searching look at a modern interracial gay relationship and its strengths and flaws.

Gay Bar by Atherton Lin - not fiction, but a very engaging sociological read, about the history of gay bars and the author's present-day experience of them.

The Merry Spinster by Mallory Ortberg/Daniel M. Lavery - I read this at the beginning of my deliberately queer literature journey and liked the dark gender-swapped versions of fairy tales it contains. The author transitioned while writing this book, supposedly.

"Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx - heartbreaking but good. Gods help me if I watch the film again.

City of Night by John Rechy - I didn't manage to finish this one because the style is very much of the Beatnik era, but I may attempt it again. It inspired the script for the film My Own Private Idaho (another queer classic).

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg - also challenging to read unless you're in a stream-of-consciousness poetic mood. He does have mind-stopping imagery though, and was considered quite risqué for his time.

Burning Your Boats by Angela Carter - dark, sensual, borderline horror. Not all slash, but inclusive of different sexual orientations. I particularly like her retellings of fairy tales in this collection.

London Triptych by Jonathan Kemp - a breath-taking (and spicy) narrative that interweaves three different eras of gay culture.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - probably the best known classic of the 19th century, although I don't remember if it's overtly queer or just contains subtext. Haven't read it in years.

Maurice by E.M. Forster - honestly it's been ages since I read this one too. I love everything else by this gay author though, so I will probably reread it some day.

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman - I tore right through reading this one after watching the film. A simple yet engaging coming-of- age story. I haven't read the sequel yet but will do so eventually.

The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst - I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one. Basically none of the characters are especially likable, although the story reveals interesting dynamics between them and their sexual escapades. I'm curious to read more by this author.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - this book rocked my world when I was a teenager. I've since come to question how representative it is of the intersex experience, seeing as it was written by a seemingly heterosexual cis man, but it was the first time I'd ever been introduced to such a rich and unusual character in literature, and she stayed with me for a long time after (re)reading.

As for the future, here are some titles I intend to read (among many more):

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood (story that the musical Cabaret was based on)

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Pageboy by Elliot Page

Nevada by Imogen Bonnie

Here's hoping I've managed to add a few of these to my personal list by the time Pride Month rolls around again. 🤠 And of course, if anyone else has books/stories to recommend, do share!