#he figured out the timeline stuff much earlier than I did

[dude1818]

Update: he finished the anime and was confused, so he watched multiple explanation videos and was still confused, so now he's reading the manga. Incredible. He's probably going to catch up before I do, since it's fairly low on my current reading list

I've been gushing about Heavenly Delusion to my dad for the past couple weeks. He told me today that he's watched most of the show so far, and he described it as extremely disturbing, but he really likes it. Perfect, because that's exactly how I feel. Really excited to talk about the ending twist when he gets there

[5sospenguinqueen]

Team Betrayal | Red Bull! Reader x Platonic! Grid

Summary: Y/N Y/L/N races for Red Bull but when she's caught out drinking another brand, she enacts her revenge until the Grid outs her snitched.

Apologies but this is a female reader.

Warning: Bad writing. I'm not sure what this is but it was prompted between an energy drink dilemma I had the other day.

There is no timeline for this. Make it up.

Main Masterlist.

━━━━━━ ༻𖥸༺ ━━━━━━

Swiping away the sweat that ran down the back of her neck, Y/N grinned at the camera, drinking in the euphoric energy enveloping her on all sides.

"Thank you for joining us after such a long day." The interviewer beamed, pleased to have been able to catch the Red Bull racer before debrief started. "How're you feeling? You look absolutely drenched."

"Yes. Max thought he was funny tipping the entire can of Red Bull over my head. I'll wash my hair three times and still go home smelling of the stuff." Y/N joked, dabbing the drop of sticky liquid rolling down her forehead.

Pleased that the conversation had naturally developed down that path, the interviewer smirked at the camera before turning their attention back to you. "So, you've been driving for Red Bull for 2 years now? Is it safe to say you're also a big fan of the drink?"

She laughed nervously, unsure why such an odd question was being asked after a Grand Prix. Usually the media used this opportunity to ask how she felt about losing/her teammate winning. Again. "Who isn't?" Y/N joked.

Whipping out her phone, the interviewer (dressed in traitorous McLaren orange) thrust it in front of her face. The grin from Y/N's face instantly dropped as she squinted against the blinding sun. Disbelief painted her face.

"Where did you get that? That's actually me!"

"One of your fellow racers provided it earlier." The interviewer informed, tucking away the damning photo of Y/N drinking a can of Monster Energy, dressed in her Red Bull racing suit and attempting to hide her behaviour behind a laughing Lando Norris.

"Who?!"

"I'm afraid we're not at liberty to say. We promised confidentiality in favour of the photo," teased the interviewer.

"That's my face." Y/N's eyes darkened challengingly. She leaned into the microphone, staring down the camera. "In that case, those boys won't know a moment of peace until I get my answer."

She straightened just as soon after, smile flickering back into place as she heard her name being called. "Oops, I was meant to be in debrief a minute again. Thanks for talking to me. Catch you later!"

"Thank you for your time." The interviewer called after the retreating navy figure. She turned back to the camera. "Ladies and Gentleman, I think it's safe to say that Y/N Y/L/N is as ferocious off the track as she is on it. I don't know about you but I would not want to be a member of the Grid this evening."

━━━━━━ ༻𖥸༺ ━━━━━━

The interview went viral.

YourUserName this you? (She retweeted with a pic of Lando wearing a Monster Energy hat, a can of Red Bull in hand)

→ LandoNorris no.

User 1 not Lando deliberately lying about his own face

User 2 oh, no. Lando. What have you started?

User 3 not me checking my phone every 2 seconds to see if Y/N has posted after she vowed vengence.

→ Your User Name 👀👀

User 4 don't drag poor Maxie into this. He's always seen drinking Red Bull.

User 5 she never was good enough for the team, hope they drop her after this.

User 6 may as well just go to McLaren with how much time she spends with them.

OscarPiastri just a warning. I can hear her laughing evilly next door.

YourUserName so just to clear a few things up. I have never bought a Monster Energy in my life.

YourUse Name i am always supplied with them by people who are attempting to remain innocent in this scandal.

PierreGASLY yeah, well. My shoes are cleaner than yours so...

→ LandoNorris you sure showed her.

User 7 not the Grid coming for my girl only to end up fighting for their lives.

User 8 coming for his teammate

User 9 not the whole Grid teasing her for betraying Red Bull

User 10 always knew Max didn't like them. This just confirms

YourUserName not you too. You said you had my back

→ Max33Verstappen this is why you didn't get on the podium

Max33Verstappen not my babies?!

→ YourUserName i may not have a podium but I do have your cats.

→ Charles_Leclerc you're making this worse for yourself

→ YourUserName watch out or Leo's next

→ Charles_Leclerc *horrified gasp*

User 11 alex fighting for his innocence.

User 12 the Grid are feeding us tonight.

User 13 what's the odds that they're fighting for their lives in the gc?

User 14 bet they're compiling a list of times they gave her Monster

→ User 15 trying to figure out who might be next

User we found the snitch

User 2 anyone else see Red Bull lurking in the likes?

LandoNorris @ danielricciardo this is why she didn't respond

Max33Verstappen daniel's currently crying.

redbullracing christian said you have a meeting with PR tomorrow.

→ YourUserName crap.

User 3 can we take a moment to appreciate all the Grid content we got this evening?

→ User 4 and look at how quick Y/N's responses were. Boo was ready for them.

→ User 5 what are the odds they were all sitting next to their phones, terrified every time it buzzed

→ lilymhe can confirm.

[bet-on-me-13]

The Ghost King's Son

So! Cloning is a difficult process.

It takes time, lots of time. Sure, it's possible to accelerate the Growth of a Clone to make them older in a shorter time frame, but that often leads to Destabilization within weeks of completion.

And Cadmus didn't want to take any chances when designing their Kryptonian/Human Hybrid. They started growing him much earlier than they originally did, and let him grow at a semi-normal rate for most of his life.

This comes back to bite them in the butt however, when an asset breaks out of containment and ruins their Internal Power Generators. This causes a blackout that takes hours to resolve, and by the time they fix it all and reestablish the Security Systems, they notice one of the Clones is missing.

The Kryptonian/Human Clone has escaped.

...

Kr-1 is confused. He had woken up in a tube a few hours ago to some alarms, and decided he didn't like it, so he broke out. Then he wandered around until he ended up outside, and just kept on Wandering.

It had been hours, and he didn't know where he was. It seemed to be some type of Forest, but he didn't know what kind.

He just kept on wandering. It started to get boring though, the trees all looked the same and there weren't even any animals around. Then, something interesting happened!

A green thing appeared in the air! It was glowing and swirly and had a kind of pull to it. So, he touched it. And it sucked him in. And now he wasn't in the Forest. And this place seemed much more interesting!

There were a bunch of floating rocks, and the sky was green, and everything else was purple.

And there was a man. Looking at him hurt his eyes, he seemed to be a kid and then an man and then an old man and then a kid again whenever he blinked. He was saying something, but Kr-1 didn't understand him. He didn't think he had been taught language yet? What was language?

The Kid/Man/Old-Man lead him to a big building made of bricks and mortar. It looked like a big spiky building with towers and walls and stuff. Inside it looked cool, with candles and carpets and even more stuff.

He was taken to a room with a guy who didn't hurt his eyes to look at. He had white hair and green eyes, but his skin wasn't blue like the old guy. He had a piece of ice on his head, it looked like a crown but it was glowing.

The Guy walked up to him and pointed to himself, and kept repeating something. "Danny".

Eventually Kr-1 realized that it was his name. He then pointed to Him and said "name?"

He tilted his head confused, and the guy, Danny, let his head fall with a sigh.

"This is gonna be harder than I thought."

He wondered what those words mean?

...

It had been a few years since the newly dubbed Conner had begun to live with Danny.

He had been hesitant to adopt the Living 9 yr old Child when Clockwork had brought him to his Castle, explaining that he had run into a Natural Portal, but he had accepted in the end.

It took a while to teach Conner how to understand Language. He seemed to know very little for a kid his age, but after Clockwork had dug around his personal timeline they figured out that he was a Clone. He probably hadn't reached the Information Planting Stage of development when he escaped.

After learning about this however, Danny began teaching him everything he should have learned in his early life, such as Elementary level education and some social interaction. He even brought around Ellie to see if she had any advice for helping him develop into a healthy young boy.

She did help a bit, but was mostly preoccupied with spoiling her new Nephew rotten.

Eventually, Conner had caught up to the level he should have been at his age, and started living in both the Realms and in Amity.

He was having a good life, had some great friends, and was even starting to learn to use his Kryptonian Powers now that they were coming in.

He loves his new Family, his Dad is goofy and fun, his Aunt Ellie likes to spoil him rotten, his Aunt Jazz is the responsible one but still loves him, and even his grandparents are great in their own Insane way.

But not all great things can last.

...

It was supposed to be a normal Field Trip. Conner was 15 and his school was taking a Trip to Washington DC, to see the sights or to learn about history or something.

But stuff happens. They just so happen to pass by a certain lab, that lab just so happens to be testing out a new Yellow Sun Energy Detector, and one of the Scientists who worked on Conner just so happens to see him in the bus as it passes by and the detector goes off.

In the end, they manage to recapture him and place him back into his Pod, beginning to prep him for Reeducation. (Let's say they mamage to repress his memories)

Cut to 1 year later and a team of Sidekicks break into the Lab and successfully steal away the Clone again.

The Clone who knows he had a dad who had black hair and blue eyes, who helped him use his powers, who looks a lot like Superman.

Conner, in his slightly Amnesiac state thinks he has already met Superman and that he had raised him. Which makes it so much more hurtful when Superman outright rejects him. He thinks his Dad just rejected him, the Dad who he thinks he remembers loving him very much.

(Danny had been frantically looking for his son for over a year now. Where is he? Is he Okay? What happened to him? He knows at least that he isn't dead yet, but he really wants to find his son)

[absolutely-esme]

Monster!Tim Coraline au part 3

I had more thoughts on the au from here and here.

First off, It's called Hungry Monster Tim au unless and until I come up with a better name.

That's the tag that will help you find related content. I titled the post the way I did so that people who found the au before it had a name could recognize it. I'm hoping this will minimize confusion.

...

Now, I figure I'll talk a bit about how others view Tim.

The most of the earlier additions to the Batfam have mostly interacted with Tim in Emotional Support Tim mode.

Emotional Support Tim is pleasant and comforting. He is not overly exuberant and joyful in a way that would grate on fresh grief. He is also not joyless in a way that might make a hero feel obligated to worry about him. He is gentle and competent. His patience seems nearly endless. He can tolerate both being coddled and being leaned on. He can tolerate both being clung to and pushed away. He can tolerate switching back and forth at unpredictable intervals.

Tim approached Nightwing in his standard state of "tired, low on patience, and possibly about to do something stupid," once before Tim realized he was also grief-stricken and in no fit state to get Batman under control. He might have an inkling that Emotional Support Tim is an act, or he might just think Tim was having a bad day.

Bruce thinks Emotional Support Tim is what Tim is actually like. By the time Bruce was functional enough to not need so much managing, he'd gotten attached enough to the facade for Tim to have concerns about dropping it.

Alfred can tell that Tim is putting on a facade. He can tell that the role Tim has taken on is wearing on him. He doesn't like it. He feels guilty for allowing it to continue. He can't bring himself to put a stop to it when it's keeping his adoptive son alive.

Barbara initially meets Emotional Support Tim, immediately clocks the act, and pulls him aside to make sure there isn't something sinister afoot. Babs has reservations about every aspect of Tim's involvement, but agrees that something had to be done about Bruce. She lets him carry on for now, but she's ready to pull the plug if it seems like it's getting too much for him. She insists that Tim drop the act when it's just the two of them.

Babs doesn't know about the supernatural stuff specifically, but she knows there's more going on with Tim than what she knows about. She may learn that he has some hereditary health stuff that requires him to be extra careful about his food intake. She makes a point to not be weird about it because people being weird about her wheelchair annoys the crap out of her.

I like to imagine that Babs and Tim have a certain amount of solidarity over being the sensible ones who keep all these unhinged, dramatic bitches in line. They also have solidarity over ignoring the fact that they are just as dramatic and unhinged as the rest of the Bats.

Steph meets Tim in Regular Tim mode because Bruce isn't with him. Instead of trying to discourage Spoiler, he introduces her to Babs. Steph knows Tim as a tired smartass who kind of always seems like he's a bit hangry and trying not to take it out on anyone, but apparently he's just like that.

They don't date, but do become friends. Part of this is because grouchy, eternally hungry, constantly done-with-this-shit Tim isn't attractive to Steph but is kind of hilarious. Part of it is because Babs points out that there is no possible timeline where the kind of power imbalance from only one member of a couple knowing the other's secret identity doesn't turn toxic.

When Steph eventually encounters Emotional Support Tim, it creeps her out. She uses the term "pod person" when asking what the heck that was.

Steph's disastrous stint as Robin doesn't happen because she's already got her own thing going. She already has a mentor and appropriate protective gear. Babs and Steph actually get along better because they start their mentorship as Oracle and Spoiler without any of the complicated emotions of taking up a mantle.

I like Steph as Spoiler the best because it always seemed a little messed up to shove someone who already had their own original Identity into two legacy mantles. Let her do her own thing. She doesn't need to be a successor to Babs or Dick when she's already the OG Steph. Instead of giving her the Robin gear or the Batgirl gear, get her some upgraded, Bat-quality Spoiler gear.

Steph doesn't start a gang war or fake her death in this timeline, because the circumstances that caused it do not exist here.

Jason initially encounters Tim in Feral Cryptid mode, then writes that off as a fever dream after waking up to Emotional Support Tim. Once free of the Lazarus parasite, Jason makes it his mission to be a good big brother to Tim. Tim seemed a little stand-offish at first, but warmed up to him. (As soon as Tim realized that food was part of Jason's love language, he rearranged his meal plan to let Jason feed him without triggering supernatural problems with his metabolism.)

Jason eventually manages to earn Tim's trust enough to meet and get to know Regular Tim. Jason is both honored and concerned. Putting on such an extensive facade for the comfort of others has got to be exhausting, and Tim seems so worn down underneath it. Well, he doesn't have to do it for Jason anymore. Jason will happily hang out with and support any version of Tim.

When Damian shows up, he mostly sees Emotional Support Tim. Then he starts trying to kill him. Eventually, Tim's patience with the pint-sized murderer wears thin (possibly due to Damian hitting a PTSD trigger), and Tim goes Feral Cryptid mode. This freaks Damian out. There is no video evidence (which the rest of the Bats assume to be because Damian tampered with the security system in an attempt to get away with murder).

It doesn't happen again.

Tim doesn't bust out his powers or cryptid form against Damian again, but now that he's seen it, Damian sometimes sees traces of Feral Cryptid Tim lurking below the surface. Various little things he'd ignored that hadn't seemed significant on their own now seem to stem from the nature of what lurks inside the human skin.

Damian stops the murder attempts early. It's not because of ethics (which will take time to learn). It’s because he has no idea how to kill whatever sort of unearthly thing Tim is, and he recognizes how unwise it would be to continue attacking something he cannot kill. For now, Tim seems content to leave him be whenever he's not directly under assault. Damian doesn't want to risk becoming enough of a pest to be worth the effort of swatting.

...

I also had thoughts about Tim's post-Robin period.

When Tim goes on his quest to retrieve Bruce from the time stream, he doesn't take the Red Robin suit. He's going to be outside of the Bats' scrutiny, so he gears up with a suit and equipment he'd secretly made with his supernatural nature in mind. It's got Bat-standard armor and padding, but modified to accommodate a bit of form shifting without compromising protection. It's got a patchwork thing going on.

Tim sewed it himself, which allows him to manipulate it. It's also got buttons sewn in strategic locations to eliminate blindspots. (Taking down the beldam gave him the ability to control things he made and see through buttons he sewed).

His utility pouches are full of both Bat-standard equipment and things relevant to Tim's abilities. Also, he makes his pockets bigger on the inside, so he can carry a lot.

Tim isn't around the other Bats, so he's not being Emotional Support Tim. He's not using the minor illusion powers he got from the beldam to make himself look pleasant. He only makes the effort to be comforting when dealing with victims. He's just being the semi-feral scrungly dude he is.

...

Tim keeps in touch with Jason, Babs, and Steph while he's off on his quest to find Bruce. He occasionally pitches in with stuff that can be done from a distance.

Tim didn't say that Bruce was still alive before he had evidence. It's not because this version managed to predict that they wouldn't believe him, but rather because he thought he might have to do some supernatural stuff to get him back and didn't want witnesses. He just told the other Bats he needed to investigate something and would tell them more once he had figured out enough to know what to tell them.

This means that the other heroes don't think he's crazy, and Tim can use hero resources for his investigation.

I haven't decided yet if Tim will interact with the League of Assassins at all. On the one hand, I think this Tim might not need to work with them. On the other hand, Hungry Monster Tim terrorizing the League of Assassins and fighting the Lazarus Pit would be funny. Maybe Ras doesn't try to recruit him. Maybe Tim just shows up, fights the Lazarus Pit, and leaves without explaining anything to anyone.

Either way, I think that Tim is pretty much done with keeping up the Emotional Support Tim facade by the time he comes home after saving Bruce. It's been long enough to justify the change.

Babs, Jason, and Steph are happy for Tim because they can see how much better he's doing without the added strain of keeping up the act. They are also glad that he feels comfortable enough to just be himself.

Bruce and Dick are more in the horrified/concerned neighborhood because, from their perspective, Tim started off gentle-natured and glowing with health, got fired from Robin, disappeared for a while, and came back gaunt and world-weary.

...

I'm thinking about whether or not Tim should tell Babs, Jason, and Steph about the supernatural stuff he's got going on.

It would have come out at some point. If he tries to keep it secret forever, you can bet some kind of dramatic, high-stakes threat would force the reveal. That's just how the Bats' lives are.

What I am debating with myself is whether or not to have Tim choose to share a secret he's been keeping for as long as he can remember for fear of the danger discovery might bring with the people he trusts most without something forcing his hand.

If he does, I think he would tell Jason first. Jason has seen that side of him, and Tim allowed him to think it was a nightmare. Tim wouldn't want to risk Jason hearing about it from someone else. Tim would probably be scared. He doesn't know if Jason will still like him once he knows that Tim really is the Monster from his nightmare. He doesn't know if Jason will forgive him for lying about it.

I think this would happen after Tim comes back to Gotham after saving Bruce.

[rosieuv]

Project: Eden's Garden chapter 1 is so fucking good oh my god

btw spoilers here

go watch the official playthrough

Please.

Okay so ever since I saw the announcement trailer I was like "Diana's going to die first, I can feel it". It was something with her design, and her personality that screamed "early target". So when all that trial stuff was targeted towards her, I assumed it meant this was when she died: still chapter 1 but a bit later.

Now I think she's gonna die in chapter 2 from all that heroic monologuing. I also feel like Wenona's gonna play some kind of big role due to the way she acts. Possibly an antagonist? I'm not sure.

The actual contents of the chapter are long, with the official playthrough's being about 11 hours combined (and you bet I watched them the day they came out this weekend) yet the pacing still feels fine. A lot happens within both daily life, deadly life and the trial and I can in vision a timeline based on what happened on each day/part of day. The tournament thing was cool and how despite the murder not being in the new rooms, the fact that it would be impossible without it made it feel like it actually had a purpose, which I was a bit concerned about when the corpse was in the boiler room.

I wouldn't have guessed Wolfgang was the victim though but it makes so much sense. And Eva being the murderer. That was a whole bag of plot twists and they work very well. The rooms are cool, the concept of the whole locks thing is cool, basically everything is cool and Tozu is more interesting than Monokuma and he's definitely some drama kid that get rejected from the lead role and so some organisation thing that Wolfgang's father made (I swear he's going to be important in the future) and he was basically like "yeah just act all dramatic and stuff and scare the kiddies". Why Wolfgang is in this game though...idk. I feel like his father has to be important though, especially with the message on the back that for some reason took Damon so long to figure out when I figured it out very quickly: Wolfgang's father is an asshole and he is too. His animal is literally a sheep how the hell did he not realise this. I mean, the conversation with Tozu was cool as he doesn't appear often, but like, has Damon ever heard the phrase "Wolf in sheep's clothing?".

Okay here's my nitpicks:

some of the furniture models are a bit low poly which doesn't mesh well with the 2D sprites

3D textures are weird in places (Wolfgang's chair is the worst offender of this)

the line width is a bit thin in some of the new sprites and it bugs me because the artstyle typically has quite thick lines

this book is never shaded

the Damon thing I mentioned earlier

this bug in the trial where it fades out to show some kind of floor plan, and Damon is talking, but when the UI fades back in, for a split second it shows the mugshot of whoever was speaking before the fade thing (I can't find where this happens in the official playthrough but I swear it's real)

nobody realising the "thin bit of metal" was a hairpin until it was brought up as a lockpick in the trial like i realised that immediately

does Eva have a game console or a tablet? Pre-trial and at the start of the trial it was called a game console but towards the end when it was relevant, it was called a tablet? I can't find an image of it as the wiki doesn't have a gallery page for her (idk why) but I remember it looked like a DS from it's lid

there's only like 4 minigame section things in the trial: non stop debate, rebuttal showdown, the choosy one and the ending one. where's the letter one? i know there's more and i know this is probably so the programmers don't shoot themselves in the head, but still.

when did they have lunch during the last day? there was the tournament, the blackout, the investigation and then the trial and that was all about 5 hours going based on gameplay so if the investigation was at 9:45 ish and the trial ended 5 hours later, then it should be 2:45 and these poor people are starving! Well, idk about them all but Damon certainly didn't stop investigating to make lunch.

there's little inconsistencies with the art style/quality of the image in the CGs. The ending one with Diana sticks out the most to me: the lineart and shading look a little different. It's like a different artist from the rest drew it.

Okay more praise:

grace pulling the middle finger in her objection sprite

wenona

the music made by mark having a danganronpa motif in

the dummy thing in the execution

the whole scene where eva's true talent is revealed and her "oh shit" sprite

all the voice acting

the maths equipment in the execution

the thing with the calendars and the horses joke at the beginning

eva's free time events (it was shown in the playthrough)

the scenes with Tozu at the beginning of each day

the tree animation is sick

the thing with the footsteps

the thing with the blackout

everyone screaming one by one when they see the body

the beginning

the middle

the end

all those biblical references

Tumblr is going to have a field day with this game.

[cauchesque]

finished the apocalypse of herschel schoen. really really good, if i hadn't finished it yesterday it would have been the best scifi i read in 2024

so i don't know how much i think really happened. some general notes-

i think we ought to take our understanding of how the machine intelligence works to be basically correct. whether it actually came from optic cybernetic approximation machines or from some mundane llm-like technique, we should believe that santa really did come from some large multi-modal predictive model of some kind

and so going with that, to whatever extent anything in the story is in a "simulation", it isn't a simulation the way we normally think of it, but the natural processes of santa himself. if it is an ancestor simulation, its really more like santa's memory of its ancestors, or santa thinking about its ancestors. if the miriam that writes the redactor's addendums is a simulation (which has the right vibe, i think), then she is an aspect of santa which is considering what miriam would do. or, even better, she is an aspect of santa pretending to be miriam, possibly getting really into character

if so, i think it is a lie. i think santa is like miriam (or vis versa), choosing to look away from what it had done. it feels guilty! and now it's looking to forget. the emendation is to its own memory. but because it wishes to realize all possible things, and is presumably proclus-paperclipping the universe to do that better, that's almost as good as changing the actual past. perhaps there was a real, historical herschel schoen known to santa by his writings, or perhaps he was entirely an invention to serve the purpose asked of him. it's possible either way that the being which is herschel schoen really is some sub thread of santa as a whole pretending to be herschel- putting on herschel's clothes in a profound and total way. if so, his memories of the original reality could be bastardized versions of real memories, which would give his whole deal a sort of ring of truth. obviously that also diminishes the extent to which he could be considered a human giving a verdict as a human, but i think that's sort of the horror of it- humanity lives on in a certain way but absolutely not in any way we can endorse without hesitation

HOWEVER as much as i like the interpretation i also can't ignore that floornight and almost nowhere are both about the strange things that the bootstrap paradox does to the measure 0 subset of reality where god is still in the process of instantiating himself. so like maybe the time travel is real. frankly that explains a lot of the timeline weirdness anyway, if there's tinkering going on to have made the ascent of the machines ethical somehow. that meshes well with what i think of as one of the more interesting aspects of the story- the strange (or perhaps not so strange) values of santa. he wouldn't care to have gained power earlier or unassailably, but orchestrating it so that they could have had some sort of permission totally fits

some things i still don't get but really like:

what the fuck is going on with vincents philosophy, like what's [...[...[]]]

what's going on with how he behaves towards miriam at the end? seems clear that the whole forsaking the flesh thing isn't really an explicit teaching of his

what's going on with ruth?

what on earth is going on with frederick? it's easy to say that he's there to teach herschel about cybernesis, but all that stuff with his dad was weirdly personal. maybe santa retains more sentiment then we might think, and eggert was at least similar to its creator?

what's the vibe on pattern matching? is it good? is it an evil virus of satan? could go either way!

should any of this be considered at all? is the text more mystical than i give it credit for?

some things the book did to me:

after finishing i stared at my dog for maybe 10 minutes trying to figure out if i had an obligation to try and teach her what languages, or art are

somehow i went to bed convinced that I had to go into ai, specifically capabilities, and fell asleep trying to come up with a plan to make that happen

[kiawren]

Some clockvine lore

I'm lazy to get the pictures but in the AU, claggor was talking about a certain yellow flower that can purify the air in the undercity but it's not efficient enough I think powder says "not unless you plant a million of them" and milo says "no way" (idk if I'm remembering correctly)

I saw someone also point out some of sky's notebook sketches was on plants and flowers, idk if its canon she's a bio-engineer but I hc it now

I think my s/i first hoped to add greenery to the undercity but wasn't sure how achievable it was. He studies in piltover so he got in touch with sky to ask about the plant stuff so he had some idea. So in the next few weeks we went to the undercity to check out how suitable it could potentially be or if it's a long shot, couldn't hurt to try

Even though the sewage pipes leading to the firelights base is complicated, I feel like if you stand at the right area on top and look down, you could see the gigantic tree?? So eventually he does notice it, maybe from quite a distance so he didn't know there were people there, just that there was some green and sunlight obviously reached there. So he tried to find a way down and one of the firelights caught him like tresspasing or something lmao then he meets ekko later it's along that vein. and explains his thing and ekko wants to help so from then on they worked closely and wren stays over at the base a lot.

I don't think they figured out the thing about the yellow flowers yet, they have just been planting trees.

Not sure about the timeline for the ship lore but then Ekko goes to the AU. During that conversation I mentioned earlier, they were on the topic of plants in the undercity so he asked where Wren was.

They asked, who's Wren?

They didn't meet in that AU, there were no firelights, the ones improving the undercity was everyone he knew, his friends and family. Himself too of course but not with the firelights, and not with Wren who didn't go down to accidentally meet him in person.

When ekko returns to the og universe he tells wren about the flowers and they'll eventually plant their own. Plus ekko leads a community that he can mobilise to do it on a larger scale. Although in the og verse the air is much worse so it'll probbaly take more than planting flowers to turn things around, but it's some impact nonetheless

It's either that or they already knew about the flowers and were already planting a number of them themselves before ekko went to the AU. So he goes and sees he and wren also did the same, and even were ahead in progress.

I guess what wren represents for him is just. Company in the journey towards what his dream for the undercity could be. In the AU episode in canon ekko says he "gave up on the undercity" so I guess if he had always been independent he would start thinking that. It's when he sees the undercity in the AU that changed his mind, but I feel like that trigger would also happen if he was shown that a way to improve the undercity was to better the environment through nature and involving the community he knows of to plant and be responsible for what they plant. I feel like that's a tangible thing that could inspire him to keep going and was sparked from wren's idea that he introduced to him when they met

Lol idk it's 5am goodnight

[wrongcaitlyn]

i wanted to know if you have any plans for the og campers???? like luke, clarisse, silena, beckendorf, etc etc

this is SO funny bc i was literally JUST talking to @wronghuntress about them like a few hours ago😭😭 BUT to answer your question,,, it's sort of complicated. bc i didn't realize that i was doing it until like a good way into the series, but i've been unintentionally picturing pretty much all of the og campers/people from the main pjo series as part of the acting side of hollywood, whereas i've been leaning more toward, like, toa/side/minor characters for the rest of the main cast! this makes sense to me because like, nico and will get their big moment in toa, and apollo's a huge character too. percy and annabeth are actors obviously, but i did give them some connections to nico - but either way, i guess i just saw all of those characters as not really having any sort of connection to nico & will (even though i'm the hugest fan of will being close with clarisse and silena and beckendorf- he was totally will's bi awakening it's canon u heard it from me)

but anyway im getting off track, i've sort of had like a completely separate plotline for them going on in my head (not really detailed at all, i'd have to think about it more), dealing with more of those og characters, including percy annabeth and grover! i'm not entirely sure if that'll ever be included in the main fic seeing as they don't have much connection to nico's storyline specifically, but who knows... maybe a spinoff fic one day? i definitely won't be able to write some long 100k fic for them but i'd love to dive into that!

the only thing that i DO see happening is - if you remember this, a while ago, i mentioned the possibility of a third fic or some future plans for nico to write a musical to get that egot, namely hadestown. while the idea was being organized in my head, i've been thinking of silena as helping nico write the musical and playing eurydice, and then ofc i'd love having beckendorf play orpheus - i think he gives the vibes?? or is that just me???

and then jenna (wronghuntress) gave me the BEAUTIFUL idea earlier today of this... silena and charlie as actors, specifically broadway/musical theater actors (though im sure they have also been in some other projects), clarisse as silena's bodyguard,,, and im usually so against love triangles but like. there's so much potential there - again, nothing's finalized, i dont even know if i'm gonna write it, i don't really have ANY plans other than potentially making nico contact silena when he wants to work on his musical and having them + beckendorf work together for the demo recording - it's all VERY vague and blurry so we'll see if i come up with anything more to fall down that rabbit hole!

and as for luke, i pretty much have this: he's an actor, at some point he was prob friends with annabeth after working on a show together or smth, and ends up getting cancelled. for what? i'm not entirely sure yet, but it's probably very shitty for the internet to turn against a hot white guy. actually that fact might make him getting cancelled very unrealistic. but like it's my fic so that's what i'm saying happens! unfortunately he prob still gets roles and he's prob still like a millionaire and stuff but in general: bad person. though he probably (and thalia, because she used to be an actress too before running away) were in a movie/show/something with annabeth when she was young and they kinda mentored her/helped her learn the ropes before her big break. they started a club of neglected child actors which eventually turned into just annabeth, but at least she has percy and reyna and jason and piper and magnus on her side now :)

so long story short: i don't have specific plans, but they're all actors and definitely have a lot of lore that one day i would like to try to figure out!! for now i'm still very focused on tgol/the side stories that take place in THAT main timeline (so right now it'd be 2020-2024), whereas all of the main drama/plot in the actors' timeline would be happening BEFORE talk your talk (percy + annabeth + thalia + luke + silena) (around 2008-2015) or AFTER the greatest of luxuries (silena + clarisse + beckendorf + chris(??? i have no idea what's going on with him?? he's prob famous somehow but idk??? or maybe like childhood friend tis the damn season vibe. god there are so many fame tropes i have yet to unlock and so many characters i have yet to mess with) (around 2024-2026)

thank you for the ask!! i hope that one day when i have some more time to make some playlists, properly listen to hadestown, and learn more about musical theater/broadway/acting in general, i'll be able to answer the question more thoroughly!!

[romanisbrat]

America Conway!

Name: America Conway

Age: 29 years old (She's the youngest, she also has 2 older siblings.)

Role: Roman's personal assistant & endgame lover

Birthday/Sign: June 3rd (Gemini)

Ethnicity: Light-skinned Black (Yellow tone? Still figuring that out.)

Fandom: Succession – no set season yet. working on the timeline, I hope everything makes sense in the end!

Meet America Conway! She is the 3rd and last daughter of Giselle Conway, who is the owner of a successful tech company in New York, which is called "Procon Enterprises." This means she's a Nepo-Baby and prooooud of it. America also is a co-owner of the company alongside her two siblings...Unlike her siblings, she's more or so monitored since her mother barely takes her seriously as a businesswoman and wants to see her improve. If the mother ends up passing away, her brother will take control and monitor her every move in the company like Giselle does until America has more of a serious role in Procon.

This 5'0 gal is a softy with a bit of an edge to her, meaning that she's sweet when you meet her but if you piss her off enough she WILL NOT hesitate to fight you. She is a talented ballerina who took theater way too seriously in high-school. She has an aura of flirtiness that makes some men float to her with hearts in their eyes like those cheesy early morning cartoon scenes, the men and women love her but also fear her. Despite her kind nature, due to her being a Conway, no one at the job wants nothing to do with her.

The Conway and Roy families have a unique history together, with Giselle and Logan knowing each other previously decades earlier but due to Logan being Logan, there's a strict rule placed on both families to not cross paths with one another. America has broken that rule more than once, she has a close relationship to The Roy family...uh close as in well known. Her reputation at first was extremely negative in their space. Nobody liked her for being a Conway. It took a long time for them to get used to her presence but they eventually did. She had a past relationship with the infamous Kendall Roy for a year. They eventually broke up after a rocky ending and after several months without being with Kendall, the other brother Roman caught her eye and was "quietly" (stalking her pages and researching her interviews. jerking off to all of it too for those freaks out there.) watching from the distance. A couple months after some snooping, Roman finally offered her a job, at first she nicely declined clearly wanting space from The Roy's and the rules (that she already broke) but Roman wouldn't back down. He then he told her how much money she'd get paid in return which she couldn't turn down because she was borderline broke at the time due to her mother cutting off her card for overspending. So now, she's Roman's personal assistant. She works for him daily, even within Waystar Royco.

America's Relationship with Roman!

Roman has yet to learn his lesson on a lot of stuff, one of those things is his interactions with women. These two have already met twice before she was even associated with him, the first time was when they were a bit younger, in between their young adult years. Roman was still flirty with her even in their first interaction, she showed no interest the first time. The second time however, she did. These two moments influenced Roman to act the way he does with her despite the multiple boundaries she set with him and the work environment.

Roman has blackmail on her, so if she wanted to quit, she couldn't. He uses this to its full advantage. He wants her to himself and can get a bit possessive at times. America does not understand his infatuation with her when there's other women around his age he can mess with but he only wants her. He also pays for pretty much everything, as I mentioned before, her mother cut off her card. After finding that out, Roman offered to buy her a nice outfit, which later turned into him being her unintentional sugar daddy. When she starts working for him she wears decent store-brought office attire, once he starts paying for stuff...she's wearing designer clothes within the next two weeks after that. An important note to follow that up, he even got her the huge opportunity have a brand Ambassador role of a famous company as well.

For once, America is dedicated to take things seriously. As attracted to him as she is, she has to keep it professional so she refuses to flirt back and instead she chooses to ignore, attempt to scold or even insult him. Roman is into every comeback or response she throws at him. To rile her up even more, he always makes his comments worse by making it even more raunchy. He knows that she's into it and tries to get under her skin more and more as time goes on. She's enjoying every second of Roman's horny remarks deep down inside but her relationship with the other brother has made her wary and she wants to test Roman's loyalty.

America's Relationship with A Few Others, A Summary:

Kendall: As mentioned before, they dated for a short while. In the beginning everything was all fine and dandy. They both bonded on their love of shared medias and couldn't keep their hands off of each other, no matter the location. It was like they were glued to one another. Unfortunately, due to a misstep in the wrong direction, when Kendall thought she was going to abandon him, he pulled the most Kendall Roy-esque stunt imaginable. Leading to their eventual breakup with America not wanting to speak to him at all and ghosting him everyday after that. Kendall is still a bit salty about how things ended and wishes he can undo it, America on the other hand has moved onto Roman. They still do see each other a lot because of the other sibling but they never talk, not even a half smile or a wave.

Shiv: Shiv is her gossip buddy, they both bond over shitty tv shows and their dislike for a lot of the people at Waystar/people in the industry in general. Whenever she can, she often comforts America when she's able to notice that something is wrong. Of course, since she's been messing with the other two siblings, there's a rumor that her and Shiv are a thing but they both deny it, obviously the media created this rumor. She sees her as another sister and will gladly defend her if something goes wrong.

Tom: Tom hates her, it's that simple.

Greg: Sigh. This down horrendous loser would do anything for her as he would with Tom, except for the fact the may or may not have a small crush on her. She's aware of this and uses it to her full advantage. She's able to scare Greg into submission even though he's taller than her with no questions asked. If she asked him to commit a crime for her, he would. He is the only one in the company that she's completely mean to because she knows his type. Making fun of him is most definitely a joyride for her and he can probably admit that he'd be into it too.

Connor: She honestly has 0 opinions on him, he just comes and goes whenever he's around her. The most she thinks about him is that he's corny.

Gerri: Currently, Gerri is hardly around because she has already been fired by Roman but when she is, she's like an unpaid mentor for America. She has already had weird moments with Roman in canon so she tells America that he isn't shit. Gerri can already tell where Roman wants to go with his relationship with his assistant and is trying to put a stop to it, Judging by Roman's inappropriate first reactions to America's photo's, before she got the job. She is concerned about America's feelings towards Roman as well, Gerri is somehow able to notice that America has feelings for him. When Gerri confronted her about this, she just laughed in her face. It's an up and down battle with trying to get America to understand that he is not worth it. Especially pointing out all of the misconduct that Roman has done or said over the last few years, America still ignores it. When will she learn? (And yes, Roman does try to get them to be a throuple at one point. They both said no.)

Note: I have no idea how to end this long ass post but I hope y'all enjoyed it! This seriously took me half a month to write, mainly due to everything I mentioned before in my other posts. This is just a fun passion project for me. If this DOES get a little attention I'll post about America's two siblings & her mother next. Anyway, have a nice day! :)

[archersgoon]

what i have been thinking about recently is my own personal headcanons regarding carles and tilda. bc i don't think it's a stretch to argue that the image we get in-canon is an idealised view of them greatly impacted by their violent deaths (like this is just text. thank you abian). as some of you may be aware i am not especially fond of carles, so this will not be especially charitable to him

i should clarify my personal mont timeline here (assume carles is roughly of an age with tilda his family is 100% less interesting [&less relevant] to me). first we're putting yata's birth at roughly 13 years earlier than it is in canon (so she's ~78 in fotr). we're also making saro a decade older, and moving tilda from fifth to second in birth order. i think i'm putting her and saro as very close in age also. like <18 months. so she was roughly 50 when she died, making her 41 & 43 at the births of balthazar and isaboe, respectively, and (assuming a 15-16 yr age gap between evestalina & isaboe) making her (and carles) roughly 27 when they had their first kid.

ok now that's out of the way. their first meeting. i think this actually went as established in canon they were incredible impulsive lol. good for them. altho i will say that i go for ~25 as the age here, which i think is a bit older than implied. anyway it sort of reads like he's already king by this point and lumatere government + court is incredibly small, so they come back to the palace like 'we're getting married!! 😁😁" and topher's predecessor is sat there head in hands while topher goes out to hunt down some willow bark.

so young adult tilda's spent her whole life in a local position of relative power, since her father's hbic of the monts & saro's his successor (and saro at least is real enough to involve her) + presumably she was involved in whatever yata's job description is. so she rocks up to the palace with smaller-scale experience that can in theory be applied here, and she's used to being listened to. she figures she can clean up shop a bit if necessary.

here's where it starts to get nasty (sorry). i... don't really think she was doing all that well in the palace. like i think carles was a loving & doting husband or whatever the fuck, but i don't think he really listened to her in matters of state. like we know she grit we know she had determination but none of that ever really shines through in terms of policy & stuff. dragon ships foreign policy etc. do not seem to be things she had any influence in & tbh i think the only real in-canon manifestation we can attribute specifically to her is that doggedness you see in isaboe regarding survival of the royal house

i think this is mostly due to carles. if we assume that finnikin's stance on women (while relatively extreme) is derived from more common views in lumatere then it isn't a stretch to assume that carles, while undeniably in love with his wife, maybe didn't respect her as a person quite as much as he thought he did. like he had that same problem wherein he treats valid concerns as just women's business even at the expense of his personal & political clout (you can also argue that this dynamic being modeled for isaboe as the ideal relationship explains why she puts up with finnikin's bullshit as much as she does, even if she does exercise concrete power). so even though this weakens his position & makes him an ineffectual king that's how things proceed.

as a result we have tilda, who loves her husband but is frustrated by his ineffectiveness, exercising authority in the one area left to her: producing an heir. if we assume the same semi-salic succession laws as in belegonia & charyn apply here, then without a son from her the lumateran heir is the future imposter king (i assume this position was why he was captain of the guard despite his conflicting loyalties), who she sees being weak, ineffectual, and frankly dangerous every damn day. but she keeps having daughters. and canonically this weighs on her a lot mentally and physically. even if we don't use my preferred timeline, it certainly reads like there's at least a decade b/w evestalina and balthazar. from her pov she has one job & she can't seem to do it. we don't know when yata started doing the one week on, one week off routine, but i think it's probably because even with all the paid assistance she gets as the queen, even before she had five kids total, tilda was not doing well emotionally. like if i am being honest i think she felt trapped in that palace.

anyway. was carles in any way helpful here? i don't fucking know. he was clearly engaged with his children in the few snippets we get of him, so he would've hopefully been a help on that front, but i don't know how useful he was on a deeper level. like were he and tilda supporting each other in their attempts for an heir, or was he being (from his perspective) helpful in a way that only compounded the pressure she felt (i.e. 'maybe next time' kind of chatter every time they had a daughter/any presumed miscarriages [they defo happened]). & then after she finally manages balthazar she immediately follows it up with a high-risk accidental pregnancy. howd she feel about that (i know yata & seranonna were shitting bricks). like all that effort and now you might die. but then she survived and finally got a kid that looked like her so maybe it was fine idk

i think maybe things did improve after that given 1. the removal of the imposter king both as heir & captain (and his removal to charyn) & 2. the assurance provided by balthazar. though carles was still shit-useless as king so that was presumably a major stressor

tldr tilda was unprepared for both the increased pressure that came with being queen & her husband's failure to take her seriously when she tried to advise him politically, resulting in her focusing all her effort on that front into producing an heir, in a way that was incredibly unhealthy for her on many levels

[sidekickjoey]

March Madness | Steddie

Happy March Madness! Since we all know Steve is a big basketball fan/player, I figured it would be fun to dive into a bit of Eddie’s relationship w/ sports (and Wayne), and maybe how it eventually leads him to bond with Steve. This includes research I did on the record of the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team that weirdly coincides well with the timeline? (Though I sort of fudged the date the Upside Down stuff happened in ‘86 to match the basketball season, shhh). I’ve also linked the final basketball game I mention, which you can watch the final minute of as you read for ~realistic ambience~ Enjoy! 🏀

Eddie hates sports, but he is religious about watching basketball with Wayne. 

It’s a ritual stemming back to the first night he spent at Wayne’s trailer in ‘76, when Eddie was 10. The cops had left late in the afternoon, dragging with them Eddie’s father Scott and his distraught mother Corrine, who had been too stoned to understand why she had to leave her son. As they drove one way, Eddie was driven another. He was taken all the way across Hawkins to Forrest Hills Trailer Park, where he was placed in the care of his next closest living relative, and perhaps the only relative willing enough to take Eddie in on such short a notice: Wayne Munson. 

Eddie did not know much about his Uncle Wayne. His parents were never the visiting type and were more than happy to distance themselves from anyone who might stop their reckless lifestyle, family included. The only thing they ever mentioned was that he was related to his dad, and that he was some sort of loner engineer. Eddie was terrified to be placed so suddenly in the hands of a near complete stranger like he was. Then again, the alternative of being with his parents in jail did not sound too enticing.

So, Eddie followed quietly. He listened to the cops and the childcare workers and shook Wayne’s hand when they said hello, because he supposed that was the right thing to do to keep him out of that mess. He supposed it would put him on Wayne’s good side, and that maybe staying out of trouble would make this easier to handle. Maybe he’d be okay, in the end.

Trouble, however, had a tricky way of appearing anyway in situations involving Eddie. It came this time in the form of a delayed trauma response, waking Eddie from his new bed and leaving him a shaky, sniffly mess. He sat for the better half of an hour unsure what to do, of what type of response he’d get if he left the room and let Wayne in on how he felt. He’d heard the man yelling at something earlier. What if he shouted at him? What if he could be just as cruel as Scott, or worse? Could he even take that risk? 

Imagine his immense relief when Wayne, upon seeing Eddie open the door, instead dropped everything to rush to ask if Eddie was okay, to ensure he hadn’t accidentally woken him up when he was yelling at the basketball game on TV. 

“This championship’s a big one,” he had explained with an apologetic smile, wiping Eddie’s tears with a scarf he’d discarded nearby. “Been over twenty years since the last one, and we’re undefeated. You know how it is.”

He didn’t. He had next to no knowledge of sports aside from horseshoes, and it was not like that one ever got heated enough to yell about. Not really. Still, he let Wayne believe he knew. He also let him push his scraggly hair out of his eyes, walk him to the pullout couch, and sit him down to his right with a can of root beer in hand, because something deep down told Eddie that Wayne would do the same no matter what he knew about basketball, or any other sport for that matter. Wayne was the kind who, awkwardness of their new situation aside, really did care about making him feel cared for and welcomed. He was good. Safe.

Even at 10, Eddie knew he would watch just about anything, even silly looking guys with too-big mustaches and too-short shorts with the word ‘Hoosier’ printed on them, for someone who made him feel safe like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flash forward to 1981, and the Hoosiers were back in another championship. 

Eddie was now a sophomore in high school. He was far removed from his prior timidness and quickly making a name for himself as a boisterous, music loving, nerdy ‘freak’ of a human being to the general population. If he wasn’t getting himself in trouble and rebelling against authority for fun, he was risking his freedom selling ‘stuff’ for that Reefer Rick guy to get some extra cash for records.

It was driving Wayne up a wall.

He had tried stopping Eddie the first time he learned about it. Terrified Eddie’d end up hauled away like his parents, he had pleaded with the boy to reconsider, even offered him some of his own spending money, but Eddie was quick to assure him it would all be okay. He was Eddie, after all. Eddie, who swore to Wayne he would never be like his parents. Eddie, who turned down the chance to see his dad in jail because he did not want to face the man who chose crime over fatherhood. Eddie, who did extra chores around the trailer whenever he felt like he was overstaying his welcome.

Eddie was a good boy - a smart boy. Eddie would know when to stop and back down, when to run away from a bad deal. Not to mention, Wayne had been young and strapped for cash once. He remembered how much it sucked to not have money to see a movie and and how isolating it had been to turn down dates to save for dinner the next day. He didn’t want that life for Eddie. Eddie and his big heart deserved the world.

So, he made a deal with him. As long as he came home in time for the Hoosier games, safe and sound, Wayne wouldn’t ask questions about what he was up to. He’d worry, and Eddie would no doubt see that worry firsthand, but he’d trust him. He’d give him that freedom. True to his word, Eddie always obliged. The delicate balance remained, albeit with a bit more gray hairs on Wayne’s part.

This game day was no different. Five minutes before tip-off, Eddie came sprinting through the trailer’s door with a whoop and a near demolishing of their door-side plant - a tiny thing the boy was determined to keep alive despite not having a green bone in his body. Wayne, nursing a beer, merely rolled his eyes at the commotion and patted the seat beside him. He waited for Eddie to get comfortable and then handed him a root beer. The boy reeked of whatever he had sold, probably pot, but he looked happy next to Wayne with that root beer in hand. Wayne could live with that. He’d always live with that, if it meant being by Eddie’s side.

“Isiah Thomas should put up a good one today,” he said after a moment, patting his nephew’s knee. “Them folks at North Carolina won’t know what him ‘em.”

Eddie chuckled and watched Isiah make a practice shot with ease, the reporters waxing poetic about him to each other in their booth. “With your confidence, Uncle Wayne, any Isiah or Thomas would be unstoppable in battle.”

Wayne clinked his bottle against Eddie’s. Laughed. Gazed up at the ceiling feeling so lucky because Eddie was trying, really trying again, and that always was a good sign. 

They continued like this for the rest of the half, making mindless comments and jokes between Wayne’s ranting and raving at the screen. It was comfortable, easy, and incredibly domestic - everything they had built together over the past few years epitomized. 

And then, halftime came. 

Disney was holding a special halftime contest. If a little boy could make a basket all himself from the foul line, he and his entire family would get to go to Disney World on behalf of the Hoosiers, all expenses paid. The little boy understandably looked petrified on screen. He stood there, shaky knees and big ball in hand as his dad stood off to the side, looking like the court might just swallow him whole. His fear was not that much unlike Eddie’s had been when he first arrived. Eddie had held the same worried expression, screaming ‘I don’t want to mess this up’ with his eyes. It made Wayne want to hug the boy through the screen. It made Eddie, on the other hand, lean forward in his chair. Bite his nails. Actually pay attention, for the kid’s sake.

The crowd soon grew hushed. The announcers held their breath. And then, the little boy stepped forward.

“SCORE!”

“Oh my god he made it,” Eddie said once, twice, then a third time loudly as he shook Wayne’s arm nearly out of its socket. “The little guy did it, Uncle Wayne! Oh my god, I’ll be damned! He did it! His dad’s so proud, look!”

Sure enough, the little boy and his dad on the screen were jumping up and down as if they were the happiest people on earth. Then again, Wayne figured few people were as happy as his nephew was beside him, still shaking his arm like he’d won the lottery. He chuckled, a feeling of fondness overcoming him as his curls swung closer and closer to his face and the shaking grew more ridiculous.

“Heh, you’ll be proud too of your lil’ one if they win ya’ a free vacation someday, kid.”

It was a harmless comment, really. Wayne did not mean anything to come of it - maybe a distracted chuckle or two from Eddie. Maybe a witty comeback. He had not, however, expected the boy to freeze up on the spot. He did not expect the grip on his arm to fall, nor the light in his eyes to fade. He really did not expect him to retreat into himself, there but not fully there. Setting his beer down and lowering the TV volume, Wayne frowned. 

“You alright, boy?”

“Y-Yeah,” Eddie coughed. It hardly was convincing.

“I didn’t say something wrong now, did I? Did I remind ya’ about your pa?”

Shaking his head, Eddie set his root beer down on their coffee table right next to Wayne’s drink. His face paled a bit as he looked back at Wayne, and when he opened his mouth to speak, the faintest of tears welled up in his eyes. This most definitely was not nothing, Wayne decided then and there. His frown deepened, joined then by a few crinkles by his eyes.

“Uncle Wayne...what if...what if I didn’t...what if I never had a lil’ one to win a vacation?”

“You mean not have kids?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Wayne paused, glancing at the TV. A reporter was interviewing the little boy’s dad, the boy giggling on his shoulders. It was cute. Not a be-all, end-all, but cute. 

He shrugged.

“Well, then I reckon you, your lady, and I’d save a lot on toys, but we’d manage well enough. We’d still be happy. Was that what was eating you up?”

Eddie once again shook his head. He looked ready for the earth to swallow him whole, just like the little boy. It made Wayne’s heart clench.

“N-No,” he sniffled. “I, uh...what if I didn’t have a lady? O-Or a kid? What if I had a...guy?”

Now, Wayne was not stupid. He knew well enough that this was an option - had read the papers, met a few people like Eddie in the city. Admittedly, he had actually been worried that Scott might have kicked Eddie out for this reason when he’d gotten the call to take him in. Scott had never been one to hold an open mind, let alone an open relationship with his kid, and the little bits of Eddie’s personality that he had been able to see throughout the years had shown him he was a polar opposite from his father in many ways. Wayne had wondered what he would have done, if things had happened that way.

Watching Eddie’s tears fall harder before his eyes and seeing his hands shake where they once shook his shoulders in confidence, Wayne realized he had only one option on the table even back then. It didn’t matter what went on in Eddie’s private life. Just like the drugs, all that mattered was that Eddie was being safe and coming home to Wayne at night. Wayne could never, ever abandon him. He was his boy. His incredibly brave, incredibly loving boy who just wanted to be accepted. Who was he to be the one to turn away that love, to abandon him again, over something so inconsequential to his day-to-day life?

Placing his hand on Eddie’s knee, Wayne pushed the scraggly hair reeking of weed out of Eddie’s eyes and gave him a smile - a genuine, kind, scruffy smile only he could perfect.

“Like I said boy, we’d manage well enough. We’d still be happy.”

And really, it was as easy as that.

They embraced. Eddie thanked him. Wayne shoved his root beer back into his hand and teased Eddie about drawing the line at him ogling the opposing team, startling him into raucous laughter. Later, when the Hoosiers hoisted the championship trophy over their heads, they embraced again and did so as if nothing ever happened and they were meant to always be on that couch, just the two of them - just as they had, years ago. 

Winning the championship from the safety of their trailer was far from winning a trip to Disney. They also were far from a traditional father and son. But, they were happy, and like before, Wayne could live with that.

Gray hairs and all, he could always live with that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ten years after watching the Hoosiers make the national championship together with Eddie, Wayne had to wonder if he would ever get to do so again.

It was not the Hoosiers’ fault. They were not doing amazingly, but they also were not that bad that year despite losing their final regular-season game to No. 7 Michigan. They had a real shot in the tournament as an underdog and a bright future when it came to their upcoming class of men. It would be maybe two years tops before they were right back at the top fighting for the championship, Wayne was sure.

No, this time, it was because his nephew, his wonderful nephew who had become such a boisterous and interesting young man, was fighting for his life on some operating table.

Wayne had not been told exactly what happened. The Henderson boy, the one Eddie had been taking under his wing, had only spared him a few details before limping away to check on his friends. There was something about an animal attack and Eddie fighting them off before they could hurt others. Somehow the earthquakes made it all worse, and Eddie wasn’t doing too well. Wayne might not have believed it all with how strange the timing was, but the blood coating the Henderson boy’s shirt and Eddie’s guitar pick necklace was fairly convincing. Scarily convincing. 

So, Wayne stayed. Waited. Paced. 

He worried in the waiting room of Hawkins General, hoping for a miracle and for his boy to come walking out safe and sound to him, to tell him this was all a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. They had a game to catch that night, after all. Eddie couldn’t miss Cleveland State go down, couldn’t let his root beer get warm.

The thing was, it was not a lot of hullabaloo over nothing. It was real, and Eddie was not coming out of that ER anytime soon if the lack of word his way was an indication. And, as if that was not jarring enough of a thought, John Harrington’s boy, Steve, was the one to affirm so.

Wayne had heard a little about Steve through Eddie. Mostly, he had heard that the boy hung out with some real jerks. He never was the one causing the trouble apparently, but he was still caught up in that wrong crowd, still unable to find a real way to escape and forced to appear as a jerk to survive. Eddie swore things would be different, if he only could break free. Wayne had been skeptical - knew better than to think the son of known-asshole John Harrington could ever be kind and worth caring for.

This night proved him wrong.

He just looked kind. Unlike his father, he had a softness in his eyes that said he meant no harm and a cautiousness to his movements that screamed hyper-aware of other’s feelings. He called Wayne sir when he asked to sit by his side, and when he did finally make it down all the way, he made sure to ask if Wayne was okay - Wayne, of all people, who wasn’t sitting there wearing blood and something sickeningly grimy all over himself. It almost made Wayne laugh, in a tragic sort of way, that someone so young could be so selfless even as the world was crumbling around him and his insides threatened to escape him.

Instead, he nodded and gestured to the TV.

“You follow this season?”

Nodding, Steve rubbed at his neck. A bit of red was etched there too, to Wayne’s horror.

‘Yeah. Though, I uh...I missed the ending of the Michigan game. Did they win?”

“Nope,” Wayne said, a bit choked up. “Was a bad one, ‘m afraid.”

“Oh.”

Silence returned. 

It stayed, permeated like a thick cloud over the two of them and later the entirety of Eddie’s friend group, all the way through the ebbs and flows of the game. It was a much better game than the Michigan one thankfully, but the Hoosiers stood little chance with the lack of depth they had. They just were not on that night how they needed to be, did not have the spirit to make it happen. Sure enough, as the final seconds ran out on the clock, Cleveland State had them beaten by four. Their tournament run was done and short-lived, over too soon.

Just like Eddie, Wayne’s mind supplied cruelly. He turned to Steve, fighting tears.

“Maybe it’s a good thing Eddie missed this.”

Steve, blinking away his own tears, turned to Wayne confused and frowning. “Eddie watches basketball?”

“Does his best. He’s never been a big fan of the thing, but the Hoosiers are our team. We never miss a game, actually.”

“Oh. I had no idea.”

His hands began to rub at his thighs as if he were nervous. They gave a little shake too, if Wayne was not seeing things, and that just about broke Wayne’s heart. 

By then, he knew what fear looked like. He knew when he saw confidence crumbling, when uncertainty was rearing its ugly head. Eddie had made him a pro at spotting it. He’d arrived home terrified plenty of times, had used Wayne as a rock when he felt his cool slipping away.

Steve looked eerily similar.

And in that moment, with the Hoosiers leaving the court on the screen, Wayne realized that there was a reason. John Harrington’s boy was far more than John Harrington ever would be. Steve was a kind boy, a caring boy. A boy who at some point shook the chains of his father and grew to care for Eddie, for the town freak, in his own unfathomable way. A boy who chose to share a game alongside the freak’s uncle and ignore his wounds, all because he wanted to be around when they knew if he would be okay. 

Wayne did not know much, but he knew that meant something.

He definitely knew that it would mean something to Eddie, if he ever left that operating room.

So, not caring who saw, Wayne pulled Steve into his arms and refused to let go. Just sat there letting the boy decompress on his shoulder, showing him he was not alone in...well, whatever fearful nightmare they were in. He listened to his choked breaths, rubbed his back when those breaths turned into full sobs, and watched the ER door stay shut as reality washed over him. 

There was a chance Eddie would never wake to see another Hoosier game with him. 

There was a chance he would never get to bond with Steve over basketball. 

There was a chance it would be just him and Steve, watching games in the ER each year, hoping for good news and anticipating the worst between plays.

But, there was also a chance Eddie would wake and get to do everything he wished to do and more. There was a chance Eddie would one day raid his root beers again, laugh at how silly the Hoosier’s mascot looked, and maybe even nag Steve to explain what was going on in the games so Wayne didn’t have to. Maybe, they could all attend a game one day and just enjoy it. Live a little, as the saying went. 

Holding Steve tight, Wayne hoped an outcome like that would even be possible.

And then, he hugged tighter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, this is the LAST popcorn I am buying. Freakin bottomless pits, the both of you.”

Giggling behind a strand of his hair, Eddie took the bucket of popcorn from Wayne’s hands and handed it over to Steve at his side. Steve readily took a handful before passing it back. He then loudly slurped his drink, making Eddie giggle.

“Hey, it’s hard work pretending to care in front of two basketball aficionados. I’ve got to fuel up if I ever want to look like I belong here.”

“Babe, I’m pretty sure that train passed like, an hour and a half ago when you walked in,” Steve teased with a mouthful of kernels. Eddie rolled his eyes and tossed a kernel at his nose. 

Steve, of course, tossed one back, starting World War III in section 20.

If it had been any other game with any other relative of his and his relative’s partner, Wayne might have raised his voice and gotten a bit upset at the two to his left causing a scene. However, it wasn’t. It was his nephew Eddie, finally fully healed from the disaster that nearly cost him his life, and his nephew-in-law (or, soon-to-be at least, if Wayne’s guesses were correct), Steve. The two were absolute menaces, but they were having fun. They were being kids. After everything they had seen and been through, and after almost losing them both, Wayne supposed they were allowed a few slightly annoying, borderline embarrassing moments of existence in public. 

Well, at least while the TV timeout went on.

“Way-neee,” Eddie cried after a few more kernels went his way, shoving Steve’s hat - a new Hoosiers cap he’d purchased earlier - down his face, “make him stop! He’s gonna waste all the good buttered stuff at the top of the bucket!”

“Should’ve thought about that when you made the first shot,” Steve grumbled back. The moment his hat was back in place, he was reaching into the bucket and teasing a handful of the buttery stuff in Eddie’s face. All efforts to retaliate were soon thwarted by Wayne though, courtesy of the buzzer blaring loud around them.

“I’ll toss the whole thing if you two make me miss the final minute.” 

Eddie, in true Eddie fashion, gasped. His hand also landed on his chest dramatically for emphasis, as if he needed it. “You wouldn’t!”

Eyeing the half-finished root beer in Eddie’s cupholder, Wayne shrugged and turned his eyes to the court. “Dunno. Might feel like tossing the drink too while I’m at it if you keep it up.”

“You WOULDN’T!”

“Shhhh Eds, they’re taking the court!”

And take the court, they did. The Hoosiers were neck-and-neck with the Syracuse Orangemen (”We’re playing oranges? What the hell?” “Shut up and eat your popcorn, Eddie.”). With the final few shots imminent and both teams tied at 70, everyone was on the edge of their seat. Syracuse had the ball, and with plenty of time to burn off the clock, it was possible they would render Indiana unable to answer their ‘winning shot.’ That was their plan, after all, and it almost came to fruition with a well-timed two-pointer with under a minute to go. 

Wayne gripped onto his arm rest. Steve nervously ate popcorn. Eddie nervously watched Steve eat popcorn.

And then, Indiana not only missed their shot, but gave Syracuse an attempt at making two more points. 

“Freakin refs hate us,” Wayne grumbled into his drink. He picked it up just as Eddie picked up his and sipped in harmony. Eddie considered making a joke about it until he noticed the grim look on both his and Steve’s face beside him. He sunk in his seat.

“Maybe they’ll help us out later.”

“Fat chance,” Steve moaned, leaning back in his chair. He ran his hand roughly through his hair. “They’ve been keeping this game close. Fuck, we’re gonna lose on stupid foul shots!”

“Fear not my king, there is still time,” Eddie offered gently with a tiny smile. He then faltered, turning to Wayne. “Right? It’s not like, over? They can still win?”

Wayne shook his head. “Still got time. Thirty seconds or so, I reckon.”

Eddie brightened. “Thirty seconds is plenty! It can still be okay!”

Sure enough, after the Syracuse player made his foul shots (and missed one, thank goodness), the Hoosiers were able to grab the ball and score, putting them at 73-72 with thirty seconds exactly. It was a surmountable hurdle, but the groans from Steve and Wayne both revealed to Eddie that it was not as hopeful as it seemed. Apparently, another round of foul shots were in order for Syracuse. Having to tie and force overtime was a lot less fun than scoring a two and calling it a championship. 

Eddie draped Steve’s jacket over their seats and reached for his hand beneath it.

“Maybe they’ll be okay,” he murmured, eyes hopeful. 

Steve gave Eddie a soft look. 

“HE MISSED!”

The two boys’ heads whipped toward the court in shock as the Hoosiers stormed down it, ball in hand. In seconds, they were standing alongside Wayne and the rest of the Hoosier faithful, shouting for the Hoosiers to ‘go.’ The clock ticked. The roar grew louder. The anticipation rose.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.

Seven.

“SMART SCORED!”

Before Eddie could process it, Wayne’s arms were tight around his body. He was being jumped around and shaken like a rag doll, while Steve yelled louder than Eddie had ever heard him yell at their side. Apparently, they were winning and might have won it all. Apparently, he had been right. 

He had been right. 

They were okay.

“WE WON?”

Well, sort of.

There was some issue with the clock that meant they might not have seen the end of the game just then. Eddie thought it was all a bit confusing - mumbled so from behind his drink. Wayne tried to parse it out for him, as did Steve, but Eddie just didn’t really know what they said. His brain was too caught up in the possibility that this might be a win. He wanted it so bad, craved it after everything that had gone down. He wanted to see his two favorite people happy. 

Patiently, he waited for them to give him an update he did understand. 

He got his answer when one second was placed on the clock.

“We’re gonna win it, Stevie,” he said in the quiet hush that fell over the crowd. “I can feel it. We’re gonna’ win.”

Glancing his way, Steve tried his best to smile. “I hope so.”

Eddie then turned to his uncle and bumped his shoulder. Wayne chewed at his lip before giving him his attention.

“We’re gonna’ win, right Uncle Wayne?”

It was small. It was nervous. It was incredibly like Eddie had sounded on that first night, when he had just wanted everything to be okay. Everything had turned out okay that night, in the end. It always somehow seemed to be okay in the end when it came to Eddie. 

So, without any idea of what might happened, Wayne gave him a nod and nudged him back.

“Sure, kid.”

Syracuse held the ball on the far side of the court. 

The Hoosiers held their breath, as did Eddie. 

They took their shot across the court, time stood still, and-

“IT’S OVER!”

Everyone suddenly was jumping in the stadium. Wayne, even with his aching knees, jumped in front of his foldable seat like a little kid. Steve, screeching like before, jumped against Eddie and shook him enough to almost knock him off his feet, screaming ‘WE WON, IT WAS OKAY’ over and over. And, even though it hurt his ears and he really feared falling into the people in the row in front of them, Eddie had never felt more alive or glad to let him do it.

There was beauty to that moment, after all. It really had all worked out. He really could be happy and enjoy a win for what it was. He could look to the ones he loved, see them happy, and not have to question it or worry when he might feel happy next. That was beautiful. 

Almost as beautiful as his happiness looked to Wayne, who Eddie knew deep down would do it all again just to get them there to experience that moment of stupid balls-in-laundry-baskets bliss.

Eddie hates sports, but he is religious about watching basketball with Wayne (and Steve), and after the Championship of ‘87? Well, he damn might always will be.

[local-littleguy]

didn’t finish the Pokemon clean drawings yet but I was to proud of this to not post so!!!! here’s my violet-pokesona! a little goober of a kid who was basically raised by Miraidon in the woods. They live in a huge hidden cave forest lake area. they don’t understand human society <3<3<3 i did have to change up the timeline bc I made the concept before finishing violets plot so! spoilers and explanation under cut!

other trivia:

Arden’s Tera orb is a repaired version with a Tera shard stufffed haphazardly inside. It’s unstable but more powerful

They stole their rotom phone (what is a property ownership)

they will eat practically anything (including Pokemon berries which are not normally considered edible)

they got warped because they were raised by Pokemon and have limited abilities. For example, if desperate enough they can use TMs for a one-time use of that move, though this more often than. Not injures them as the human body isn’t adapted to using moves and can’t stand the power

they do visit the outskirt towns but none of the big ones, but will go to Pokemon centers. They have a steady supply of league points from Pokemon meteoals that they use instead of money since they hide from ost trainers, though they do sell stuff to the pokemart

their team is family to them and they defend them (especially Miraidon and Andromeda) with a ferocity few trainers have

they can read, they’ll find books and stuff people left behind (or just Borrow them forever)

wants to collect as many relics of human culture as possible, so they end up seeking out gyms solely for the badges, not the accomplishment, they just need to collect Things ok

the dlc is included in the storyline since I just got it !!!

I change Miraidons booster energy item in game btw it took me too long to realize it didn’t work on him :( he’s got a lucky egg now

miraidon ran away from area zero and the original Turo much earlier, and Arven never met it before it escaped, as this version of turo kept it secret

It stumbled upon the tiny toddler Arden who’d been sperated from their parents with only a fiesty Eevee for company. It took both in and serves as an impromptu father figure for Arden and their team

years later, arven is exploring while trying to figure out if he should go to area zero or not (this occurs before mabosstifs injury, more on that later) and stumbles upon a kid his age making flower crowns with a group of Pokemon. They quickly go on the defensive and Miraidon pins him down (think httyd 1 toothless gets out of the net scene)

Arden surprises him by eagerly interrogating him. They speak an unusual mishmash of English/common? and as many Pokemon words/sounds as they can make. As such they understand Pokemon much better than any trainer but can’t maintain a full conversation, though they can practically do so just out of knowing their team very well (they don’t consider them a team, to them they’re family)

they steal the Violet book and run off. Arven chases them and ends up losing them. The two end up colliding again, sparking an unlikely friendship and beginning an adventure where the who seek out the truth behind Area Zero, turo’s disappearance,and the terastal phenomenon

[mr-aftons-rotting-pussy]

sighsss see like......... idk. i hink its more of a moral thing than like, having actual evidence for it. and also i think its people also giving William a lot of the benefit of the doubt, considering we dont actually see what evens death does to william thru his eyes, personally. hut still smth abt this conclusion just doesnt !!!! sit right with me !!

first even if we dont see it from williams eyes i do still think his actions can be very telling as well..? and i just cant recall any precedent being set about..... williams remorse....or guilt orrr grief or whatever? like i just don't think thats a part of him we see in the games. so when people put that onto him it just feels like.... like WHERE did this come from 🤨 ?

whereas we HAVE seen. williams egotism..... and even disregarding the stuff we get that more evidently reflects this even just looking at his actions earlier in the series yknow???? yknow????? and i think its just, more likely of a thing to...... put in that. like slot ig if that makes sense . like it makes marginally more sense to attribute his child resurrections to the ego r whatever of it than anything else.

but also its just likeeee !!! like we'll probably never really get a clear cut THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WILLIAM AFTON THOUGHT AND FELT ABOUT THIS EVENT: (and this is excluding the books since i havent read the big novels so i cant say anything particular about his characterization there) yknow what i kean though???? well jever REALLY KNOW the kind of impact evans death had on william to the T. i can just say for certain its just really off to me......

AND. NOT TO MAKE THIS ABOUT MOVIE AFTON but i think this also proves my thoughts abt him???? like literally all of them?????? wr never ONCE see him like wracked by guilt and while we dont get an EXACT motivation for killing ppl i like .

like people r so obsessed with figuring out EXACTLY whats wrong with him and EXACTLY this and that that i think people miss the point. Severely. much like in real life its not as simple as, 'well this thing happened to them so this is why their evil!' people are EXTREMELY. EXTREMELY NUANCED AND COMPLICATED. and again WELL MIST LIKELY NEVER GET AN EXACT REASON WHY HES LIKE THIS. AND I DONT THINK WE NEED TO AND tbh i think itd probably make him less realistic and compelling.

William Afton is a serial killer, hes a serial killer who murders children. he does not need a deep psychoanalysis n whatever shit, again like REAL LIFE SERIAL KILLERS theres no looking at everything and pining smth down for sure you cant. you cant truly comprehend someone like that, theres a million possible reasons why william could be like this, and while no. i dont think he was just capital e Evil brok the day he was born the fact of the matter is we dont have enough info about him BEFORE all of this to be sure.

i think the most likely scenario is that it was a slow incline, its possible he killed small animals before this perhaps in his youth, maybe he accidentally killed someone and it pushed him even further down this path. obviously he didnt just Become this one day, it was most likely a long time coming. again: Normal Well Adjusted Individuals Dont Just Start Serial Murdering Children <3333

and like....... yea...... just. yea....... i dont think its a totally unreasonable conclusion to make. i just dont think its really correct or the Most reasonable all considering.

i just think like, obv we didnt get a true backstory for william afton, there are bits of him we just will not understand and arent relevant to the story at hand, there IS a reason why we dont see further back for him. and ik this might be hard to grasp in a fandom where 95% of everyone tries to piece everything together PERFECTLY to find the FULL TRUE 100% SOLVED answer. but thats just? not the point of fnaf, like in general? i mean if it was we would have a more conclusive timeline wouldnt we? and i just think this is also encapsulated in william afton himself.

my onion 🧅

[shoutmonishere]

Vulnerable

So as it turns out, Taiki prefers to keeps his own problems to himself.

Shoutmon so happens to find this out.

Aka, analyzed Taiki too hard i wrote a short fic about it, which is just the much better version of this

Note: takes place somewhere in Hunters' timeline.

~~~

Shoutmon woke up confused, to muffled hiccups and sobs so late into the night.

And figuring out who it belonged to is just as disbeliefing.

"Taiki? Taiki, you alright?" He called out raspily from within the Xros Loader.

The sounds he heard earlier had quickly ceased before he is left to hang in silence- with what he believes to his partner's own shaky breath?

Before it could stretch on any longer than it should, he hears something shift around.

"Yeah, im alright." His partner replied. From the sound of his voice, he's definitely trying to put on a smiling voice.

It would have been convincing if only his voice weren't already quivering.

"I- uh, so happened to have heard some stuff. Was that you?"

Silence.

"Did... Did somethin' happen?"

More silence.

"Taiki?"

....

Ugh, that's it.

After a moment of even more silence, Shoutmon now engulfed by the Xros Loader's familiar, bright light, then forcefully pulls himself right out of it.

When he opened his eyes, he finds himself within the comfort of Taiki's bedroom, somewhere near foot of his bed.

The room is reasonably dark, but in spite of that, the gentle moonlight that peeked from the curtained window was more than enough to help him adjust.

It didn't take long for the king to lock eyes with his general's.

The boy was hunched, legs hugged close to his chest, tears still running down his already puffed eyes.

"S-sorry," He apologized hoarsely, now wiping at his tears. "Did i wake you up?"

"Taiki wh- that's besides the point!" The dragon whisper shouts. "Taiki, what happened?!"

"Shoutmon, i-it's okay."

"What happened."

"It's nothing."

"Taiki."

The brunette averted his eyes, contemplation washing up in his face briefly. Ruminating whether answering would be of any merit.

He then exhales, and then hugged himself tighter, further burying his face deeper into his arms and knees.

"I... i had a nightmare." He admitted meekly.

"A nightmare?"

"Mhm."

"Oh. Uh, what's it 'bout?"

Another look of contemplation.

"It was... about you."

"Uh huh, and...?"

"You.... Died. Again."

"Oh."

Right. He'd died, didn't he?

He'd almost forgotten how death was in the Human World, how heavy it's impact was for those who lost, how permanent it is compared to the Digital World.

"Taiki-" Shoutmon mumbled, his expression softening.

"It's- it's kinda dumb, i know." The boy managed to blubber out as he began curling in on himself more, avoiding eye contact.

"What!? No, dont apologize for that!" Shoutmon clambered up onto the bed. "If it got ya all teary eyed, then that shit ain't stupid!"

Atleast the dragon's usual vulgarity is able to get an amused snort out of the human.

"How long has it been going?"

"What?"

"The nightmares?"

"... A year ago, i think." He managed to croak out. "A while after you and everyone went back to your world."

"Have ya... mentioned this to anyone?"

"..... No. I- i told you, it's dumb."

"Taiki it ain't dumb-"

"It's dumb because you're okay!" He cried out, his voice barely holding itself together at this point.

"You're alive, you're not hurt anymore, i know that." The boy sobbed, now tugging at his hair. "But for some reason i just- i just keep worrying over nothing."

"Even if that were the case, that doesn't make it any less haunting, doesn't it?"

Taiki gazed at him for a moment before shaking his head 'no'.

"I- Look, Taiki." Shoutmon sighed as he sat in front of the him. "You're a tough guy, someone that cares a lot, that people could rely one. I've seen that first hand, and so have others."

"And we all appreciate that." He grins fondly. "We really do."

"However, that doesn't mean you need to carry your burdens alone." The dragon then gently places a hand on his shoulder.

"As Xros Heart, you've relied on us when it comes to the Bagra Army. And now that they're gone, you could still rely on us, but not only as your army or comrades, but as your friends."

"We've already had the fate of our world's placed on our shoulders," Shoutmon smiles as he reached to ruffle his hair. "So what does it matter when it's now your brain being mean to you?"

Taiki stared at him dumbfoundedly before breaking into a hearty laugh, covering his face with his arms.

"W-when did you start getting this wise?" Taiki chuckled, peering out at the dragon. "I thought you're no good at that?"

"Eh, i'unno." He shrugged as he pulls his hand out of the boy's hair. "I suppose that's what being king does to ya." And in response Taiki laughed a little harder.

"But i really meant what i said, okay?" The dragon reminded. "If there's somethin' bugging you, we've got your back. Im sure Akari, Zenjirou, and the others share that sentiment too."

Taiki could only nod in confirmation as he sniffled and rubbed at his eyes, finally letting himself unfurl from his position.

Then suddenly, the boy reached out and hugged him. "Thank you." He muttered tearily.

And naturally of course, he hugged him back. "No problem."

[the-chessboard-is-personal]

hfjone liveblog bc I've heard this one is intense and i don't want to wait for the 29th to be shattered again /hj

using this playlist

EPISODE 1

0:04 - okay so this is already starting out WAY different than the other ones I've seen /positive. like. just from STARTING to watch this I feel this like. aura of "yeah this is going to be INTENSE" and- oh hey chess pieces

1:04 - character that isn't named after the object they are?? WHAT HE'S GONE????

(credits) - woah okay. WOAH OKAY. so, confirmation that it takes place on (an alternate timeline) earth. watching this kinda made me think about like. the sort of energy? of the start of each object show. like, ii is really upbeat, a bit low quality but made with passion, reminds me of total drama a bit, probably bc of MePhone's voice in ep1. bfdi had a gameshow vibe from the very beginning, it felt simultaneously natural and manufactured. but ONE? one is dark. one is the blues. one is six people being kidnapped. it feels like, idk. muffled sound. tv static. like an ellipses in 102pt font. silence demanding not to be filled.

●●●

anyway onto episod- oh there's a post credits scene

I- ..YOU SEE?? like that silence is LOUD AS FUCK. like that's "deep in an alleyway you're lost and alone" kind of silence, even though the scene was a grocery store. like the energy this series is radiating reminds me of WHITEPINE.

EPISODE 2

4:23 - sorry to keep mentioning ii while watching this but like. that limb thing is...familiar

14:08 - the fact that it's still nighttime when tomato is sent back implies to me that, while it has been a week on The Plane, everyone who gets eliminated will be transported back to both where and when they were taken from

EPISODE 3

9:59 - Airy has no idea what he's doing, does he.

14:58 - oh I never even thought stone would have malicious intentions...hm

EPISODE 4

0:24 - uhh.

1:57 - aww really? i liked Abstracty.

2:57 - uhh??

what is this

6:45 - wait what?? but people haven't even voted- 7:10 - oh. OH.

EPISODE 5

4:50 - oh there's. nowhere to vote in the description y'know I probably would've figured out that votes are fake if I had checked earlier

8:48 - ...I- I know what she's doing I think. "oh I can pay for [presumably life saving] surgery myself, I spent what you gave me on a TV and a phone" the candy guy I forget his name, saying he pointed out the warning she refused to wear a helmet? she. she's not trying to get rid of the mold, is she. she's using money as an excuse.

EPISODE 6

5:12 - oh Airy is. actually evil? or.?

EPISODE 7

1:56 - did he.drive home? drunk? 2:19 - oh that was Before.. huh.

4:48 - what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck wHAT THE FUCK- uhh.

EPISODE 8

1:47 - th. the. what the fuck. th- the entire show is powered by a ball connected to a wire. y'know if I had a nickel for every ti

5:55 - what the hell is that supposed to rnean

EPISODE 9

2:27 - dystopian ass billboard

3:53 - an address?? and holy shit stone knew he would keep those when he left huh.

(credits) - this show is amazing. this episode feels like a finale. because it probably IS the finale, of seeing the show from Backpack/Liam's perspective - or at least the gameshow (named one). or at least that's what it seems like to me. also the soundtrack fucking SLAPS and BRO THE DESCRIPTION THIS IS SO LIKE. POETIC?? d u d e

EPISODE 10

0:00 - the definition of rattlepate is "(ˈrætlˌpeit) noun. a giddy, empty-headed, talkative person; rattlebrain". interesting..

8:09 - sorry I don't have much to say about stuff, it is interesting, I just. I've been like half-speechless through this whole thing.

EPISODE 11

2:42 - you would not BELIEVE what my immediate thought was seeing that spoon character.

3:39 - what?

oh

5:09 - uh. 5:21 - TEXTY!! 5:44 - OH I saw a meme once where the airhorn was a Yippee instead-

EPISODE 12

1:21 - Liam is a telemarketer.. wait that link. SEASON TWO??? moldy with no mold. 2:00 - these. these images are censored very strangely. a- autophobic. afraid of being alone.. WAIT WAS TOOTHPASTE THE ONE ON THE OTHER CHAIR

EPISODE 13

3:19 - I knew he was going to do that.

6:40 - OH WHAT THE FUCK???

EPISODE 14

6:03 - Alan Becker reference?

EPISODE 15

(credits) - WHUH?? BRYCE???

EPISODE 16

6:58 - no. NO.

EPISODE 17

0:17 - I read that as "Transphobic" and was about to start writing a fucking comment-

1:16 - that's. that's who Abstracty tried to be that one time

EPISODE 18

5:13 - HE DIED???

(end) -

d

dude

dude

well I guess I was right about being shattered what the hell was that /positive

[botanicallyinclinednerd]

The Umbrella Academy season 3 episode 1

I had to psych myself up so much for this

Im going to have to learn Ben all over again:(

HMMMM, GOLD DUST

Ive seen that before. In Reginald's flashback at the end of s1. He- he let that stuff out of a jar. At the time I thought it was going to make him telelport, especially since it immediately transitioned to an earlier time, but...

I also find it absolutely fascinating that in s1, for the original time line, we got Vanya's birth. And now, in this new time line, we are being shown (I'm assuming) Ben's

*16*??? What do you *mean* 16

SEASON ONE IT WAS 43, WHY IS IT NOW ONLY 16

Okay okay I'm calm. Ben counts as a singular one. Then the other 6, that's 7. Lila is 8. I don't know if I should count Leonard cause his birth was planned not sudden. So I won't for now. I will need to count how many sparrows there are. Okay. Seven. We aren't counting Ben. That's 6 plus 8. 14. 2 unaccounted for if indeed Leonard isn't one.

That is, of course, assuming that they were born special in this time line, which I have no reason to believe they weren't.

...if I unpause this episode and find out that Reginald treated these kids well this time in order to get their unending loyalty, imma throw something

Hes number two this time. Okay. This is fine.

One of the children is just fully a cube, that's fine, hi Christopher, why not

What the fuck, what just happened there

These guys are assholes

Why is grace flustered and afraid?

Diego that is not your Grace, not your Mom

Are we going to find out that they have no lives in this timeline? Cause they were not raised by Asshole? That would mean Allison still doesn't have Claire back

Why are they fucking dance battling

Okay this is making me laugh

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS

Im glad that Klaus looks like he's having a good time. Aww and so do Allison and Vanya

Okay this is fun

Waiting for it to hurt me instead

The sound I just made at Klaus and this Ben dancing together

IT WAS ALL A DIEGO DRUG TRIP

Oh Klaus, this isn't going to go the way you think it is

:((((((

Okay this is more what I expected

Five!!! He's definitely figured out what's really going on here much faster than the others I think

(I still remember the names he called when he found the rubble of the academy: "Vanya! Ben!" This has to hurt)

Allison, baby, you shouldn't have done that

I will never stop pointing out that Five loves his sibilings

Why Italian?

Also I'm forming theories about how her power works and it REALLY calls into question Diego's dance party

:(

Guys if you don't make sure Vanya is with you imma have WORDS

Oh good. And it Was Luther that said something

They shoulda taken more than 1 briefcase

There is no way that is good

Harlan? That you buddy?

Guys, I feel like you're DEFINITELY going to draw attention here

Klaus ily

Im just worried Claire does not exist and Allison never married this guy

This guy doesn't know Klaus. They have no lives here

Oh Diego

Excuse me? What is happening here

Did- did sparrow number 1 just tell Reginald to sit and he DID???? What the fuck is happening

I really don't like this Ben

I love the boys

SISTERS!!!!!

Hmmmmm

VANYA OUT HERE WITH THE MIND GAMES

Oop. I don't trust Number Two (hes not Ben, he's NOT)

Im living for the brothers being chaotic little shits

Lila!

WHAT

That's not who I thought the mystery child from the thumbnails was

Marcus I would not touch that dude. I just learned your name and it would suck if that was for nothing if you get absorbed rn

What did I JUST say

Laughing hysterically over Five saying they won. Babe you did NOT

(Also crying a little over how happy and RELAXED Five seems)