#his need for control is so great

[hcnnibal]

and what qualities does a1 fear having assigned to him?

a1 thinks about what people are thinking about him all the time so the list is quite long:

-uneducated and/or dumb

-poor

-unattractive/undesirable/unpopular

-behind on trends

-weird/unpleasant/out of place

-his authority not being recognized

-incompetent/inexperienced

[aroaceleovaldez]

listen I know everybody makes Orpheus and Eurydice quest aus of Nico bringing Jason back BUT we already did Orpheus and Eurydice in canon like at least three times (Nico bringing Percy to the Styx, Nico bringing back Hazel, and Piper in general is Orpheus as an Argonaut) AND we are missing the much simpler canon-established method.

Remember the whole soul-trade thing Nico was doing in BoTL that got dropped completely? Even though it was like the entire subplot with Minos?

The requirement is a soul that has cheated death for a soul that has died. Now, quickly ignoring the convenient emperors running around who very much cheated death and the entire main conflict in TOA is Apollo trying to get rid of them. There are a ton of escaped souls from the whole Doors of Death/Thanatos getting captured thing. They're just kind of around. A lot of them were in the Giant Army but not all of them and a good number of them are random mortals and they're just. Somewhere.

So that's two loose plot threads: Nico is 100% fully aware of a completely Underworld-Legal method for bringing people back from the dead and there's an absolute ton of random souls-who-cheated-death running around who knows where completely unaddressed. Also, we know from BoO that Nico has changed his stance since BoTL and is now completely down for some murder.

Now, is there a very compelling plot within there about Nico and his sense of Underworld justice/Nico's morals and how he views the situation (insert the "That word ['please'] didn’t make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice." quote from BoO of Nico killing Bryce while he's begging for mercy here.) vs Jason's own sense of justice/morals and the knowledge that Nico 100% actually murdered somebody to bring him back. THAT'S FASCINATING. It's a good conflict for a story and it ties up loose threads! We don't need to invent new mechanics the worldbuilding writes the plot all on it's own.

[mwolf0epsilon]

The Unlucky Tug's season 13 & Hero of the Rails Retrospective video got me thinking about Spencer... As a character we really don't have much on him do we? (Which is ironically fitting since he's a private engine)

Come to think of it, most of what we know of Spencer are a handful of crumbs you can count off your fingers (that he's proud of being a speedster, that he enjoys his work as a private engine, that he's not overly fond of Sodor's engines, etc...), and just a few personality traits you can parse from watching how he interacts with others (which often amounts to him being a pompous jerk who cares more about his status than actually behaving in a way that upholds that status with grace). Other than that, we don't really know who he is or what he did before he became the Duke and Duchess of Boxford's privately owned engine...

Sure, he's an A4 Pacific but... Is he meant to be a specific one?

Every engine in the railway series and the tv shows has a proper basis one can refer to. Even if some of them are fictional members of a specific line of engines or heavily altered (Gordon as his class's imperfect but no less endearing prototype, Edward being a surviving member of his class despite all of the Larger Seagulls having been scrapped in actuality, James being a custom fleshed out in the series, and Henry being a personification of one class configuration being rebuilt into another, etc...the list is never ending here!) they still have a concrete basis you can look at and equate them to.

With that in mind... Is Spencer supposed to be one of the Silvers? The first batch of A4s that pulled the Silver Jubelee and didn't escape scrapping? If so, is he meant to be a fifth fictional member of the Silvers or is he actually one of them under a new identity?

I've seen the latter idea being toyed with a lot (and I do vibe with it because second chances at life freaking slap as a character arc!), but the former idea... The one where maybe he's a secret fifth member that was never really in prominence compared to his older siblings (overlooked and ignored)... It also does seem fitting doesn't it?

Especially considering none of his fellow Silvers survived.

What I'm getting at, is that Spencer strikes me as someone who's deeply insecure to the point he'll latch onto what he thinks is his (his status for example), and protects it with such jealous ferocity that it makes him a very difficult engine to get along with.

If he were one of the Silvers who somehow miraculously got bought by the Duke and Duchess of Boxford when he was going to be scrapped, it definitely makes sense why he tries to seem like he's more than he really is. Making himself out to be important would ensure he continues to remain useful enough that he won't see the cutter's torch so soon...

But it also makes him a potentially very unstable and volatile individual if he gets it in his funnel that someone is threatening his position/existence. Literally anything minor can be blown out of proportion. Including something as harmless as a cheeky little tank engine trying to show him up, and humiliating him in front of his lifeline...

Because trying to get a fellow steam engine scrapped due to a wounded ego is DEFINITELY a disproportional response to his petty squabble with Thomas. And his later reaction when Hiro rescues him shows this too. If Spencer were that much of a jerk that he is all for getting someone else scrapped, he wouldn't have changed his mind so easily.

Spencer's lack of a backstory not only bothers me, it also makes his behavior all that much more interesting to study under a microscope... Just what did he go through that THAT was the only way he thought was appropriate to get back at Thomas? Especially when later it becomes very apparent he didn't mean it...

Who were you Spencer? What did you see?

[diskusaurus]

My biggest issue in Epic the Musical is Odysseus, actually. In this essay, I will....

[science-lings]

I have very specific thoughts about Bruce's 'childhood' and how he tried to do things differently with Dick than what happened with him because of how badly it affected him. He knows what it's like to have everything change so fast and to be so angry but too young to actually do anything about it.

I can see him making sure Dick doesn't get too close of a look at his parents because Bruce remembers being stuck with his parent's corpses until the police got there, all alone with no other way to call for help than screaming. I can see him hiding Dick from the flashing cameras and hiding any newspapers about the 'story' so that Dick doesn't have to see how the press spins everything. Bruce has that picture of himself sitting shellshocked from the ambulance on the front page and he knows how violating that felt, how publicized his trauma was, even if he can't completely prevent it for Dick he can do his best to make it hurt less.

Bruce suffered being helpless for years, being so angry at Gotham and the world and not having a good outlet for it, he had no control over anything that was happening with him, so with DIck he knows how important being Robin became because he knows how becoming Batman felt for him. Bruce got into fights because he couldn't hold his anger in and had to turn that anger inward in fear that Alfred would get sick of him and leave too. Robin was a productive outlet, even if it was a dangerous one, but who knows what would've happened to him if he didn't have it? He already got that taste of freedom and feeling like his intervention could actually make a difference that Bruce took years and years of stewing in trauma to find.

The most important thing to Bruce is that Dick doesn't become another Batman.

[e-adlirez]

This is how vampire AUs are made right

So in my research, I've found that vampire AUs come in roughly two categories: either it's for the sexy vampire times or it's for the wholesome [insert aesthetic] goth love story. Very valid, very understandable.

And then my aroace ass went

SOOOOooo

TW: blood (a lot of blood), whatever's morbid in watching a rabid animal, and animalistic self-harm (and unfinished sketches)

So basically the gist is that vampires are a bit of a rarity that do in fact exist in this world, but some random-ass cult read the Necronomicon one too many times as of late and decided it'd be cool and the perfect excuse for immortality to revive THE Count Dracula that y'know, Abraham Van Helsing and dudes fought and the cowboy died killing, the one that threatened to conquer all of Europe.

Yeah :D flawless immortality plan if you ask me :D

Anyway Vi accidentally walks in on them doing their thing just as the ritual finishes and uhhhh yeah she's the first thing a very hungry Dracula sees soooooooo uh yeah he quickly drained her and then shoved some of his blood down her throat to turn her

Now she's a fledgling vampire, which in this AU is a vampire that hasn't gotten its first taste of human (or in this case mouse) blood yet. Now uh, Vi did not ask for this, she really doesn't wanna be a vampire and really wants out, and while Dracula's like "mmm yeah no I've gotten that sentiment a lot before and all of them either turned around or died", he's also very intrigued at Vi's perceived naive stubbornness, and does acknowledge the fact that at this stage in Vi's vampirism, her soul technically isn't bound to her vampire side yet until she drinks blood and becomes a full vampire, so technically speaking she can try to ride out the vampire blood Drac put into her system until it dies out. So he decides to indulge Vi's attempt at doing the vampire equivalent of an alcoholic going completely sober while working as a bartender, purely for the entertainment value because this is probably the most interesting thing that's happened to him since his revival besides the whole modern world thing; and now Vi is trying to go completely cold turkey with drinking blood.

While still doing daily life things.

In a university with at least a couple hundred students.

While she's somewhat influenced by Drac and thus feels whenever he's ravenously hungry.

This can't go wrong at all :D

Totally nothing's going wrong :D even when some students start complaining of weird feelings of weakness and low blood pressure and weird bite marks and the local security guard ( @soda-gremlin's OC Parker) turns out to be a vampire hunter :D It's fine :D it's fine it's fiiiinneeee :DDDD

Anyway I am E I bring blorbo angst once more, for SPN readers a chapter teaser is coming out tomorrow, enjoy :]

[keikokasugawitch-blog]

The choice of not making a choice at all

Day 2 of @scottappreciation

CW: Graphic Depictions of violence, animal death.

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 1256

Characters: Scott McCall, Roxie the dog, Theo Raeken, Stiles Stilinski, Kira Yukimura, Noshiko Yukimura

Sumary: The Dread Doctors must be stopped, so Scott and his pack have to read the Dread Doctors novel in order to better their chances at success. This experience proves to be a challenging one when memories best remaining buried resurface to haunt the True Alpha.

Warning: Not Beta Read.

Author's note: While not explicit, the violence depicted in this fic is between two dogs, and it may be disturbing for some readers. I attempted to not duel too much on the act as much as much as what the event represented for Scott and how it informs the way he views himself.

Reader discretion is advised.

When the rest of the pack started having the nightmares, Scott wasn’t sure what he’d find in his own. The book of the Dread Doctors seemed like a long shot when it was first pitched. It mostly sounded like it wasn’t all that possible at all.

So, when he finally started to have nightmares of his own, he had to deal with the profound sense of loss and anxiety that overwhelmed him even when he was awake.

He started to get general flashes of recognition when the supposed unlocked memories started with his younger self, at the ripe old age of eight, being carted off on a stretcher, getting rushed to the ICU. He could recognize blood on him, even smell it.

He wasn’t even sure if that blood was his though.

Scott also managed to notice his younger self clutching a thin scrap of fabric. By the third time that the memory replayed in his mind, he realized it was a dog leash with a name tag on it.

It read “Roxie”.

He dreamt about that particular segment of his repressed memories a few more times before the nightmares shifted.

This time, the nightmare started similarly to a dream.

He was walking a small dog, it seemed to be a Cairn Terrier, and his younger self was humming a tune from one of the Saturday morning cartoons he used to watch with Stiles.

Now that he thought about it, Theo wasn’t really allowed to go to other people’s houses all that often.

Back to what his dream was showing him, young Scott started to walk along the edge of the Beacon Hills Preserve. He had a vague memory about children not really being allowed to go into the woods.

That seemed silly at the time, but knowing what he knows now, it was a smart idea.

The next scene was sudden, and he couldn’t make out the details, even though he had his eyes peeled for any sign of the Dread Doctors.

Suddenly, the next scene was clearer.

A neighbor, some forty-something year old man, was fending off a large Doberman, basically the same size as young Scott. The large animal had blood on its maw, but Scott didn’t see any obvious injury to his younger self.

Instead, most of the blood came from the smaller body, motionless in the cold curve.

Roxie lay motionless as Scott became paralyzed with the realization that the small animal would not survive the attack.

Younger Scott, on the other hand, did not seem to comprehend what was going on and was actively attempting to wake up his pet dog, becoming more and more restless as he was unable to get any sort of response from Roxie.

This naturally led to the shortness of breath characteristic of his asthma attacks.

Next thing he knew, younger Scott was fiercely clutching at his dying pet’s fur, with tears running down his face and trying to get air inside his long, desperation settling on both versions of the boy at the knowledge that this was clearly his fault.

While the neighbor went back home to call for an ambulance, he left both versions of this boy to wallow in their feelings of self-loathing.

He shouldn’t have taken Roxie for a walk this late in the afternoon.

He should have gone to a more populated area.

He shouldn’t have been so close to the forest, where animals can hide more easily.

He should’ve done more to protect Roxie.

He should’ve fought.

He should’ve taken her in his arms and run away as fast as he could. Never mind his asthma.

He should’ve done something.

Anything at all.

He just stood there.

And all the fault was his.

Roxie would never be able to play with her favorite ball anymore.

She wouldn’t be able to cuddle next to him or his mom on the cold nights of December.

She wouldn’t be able to perform silly tricks just to get her favorite treats.

She would never bark at him to demand pets.

She was cold, and bloodied, and her heartbeat was dim.

And it was all his fault.

That day he woke up with a start.

Theo was in the armchair next to him and the boy turned teenager arched his brow in a silent question.

“I didn’t see him, but I think I know what the Doctors did to me.”

Theo seemed to accept this answer, as he simply nodded and continued reading his own copy of the Dread Doctors novel. And though he didn’t seem bothered at first glance, his brow was furrowed in concentration and maybe something else that Scott couldn’t quite place.

These days the pack spent less and less time with one another.

The next few times the nightmare repeated itself, Scott noted more details.

And with more details came the shame and guilt flooding.

The Doberman clearly went for Roxie first, but when she stood her ground, his focus shifted to a flinching Scott that couldn’t process the larger animal charging at them at full speed.

Though the dog tried to prance at him, and he would later know that the poor animal had contracted rabies due to the irresponsibility of its owners, Roxie apparently took notice of this, as she leapt into action by biting the Doberman near the genitals as it was passing her.

What came next was that younger Scott let go of Roxie’s leash out of shock just as the Doberman turned its attention back to her.

“I mean, is it really your fault that some guy didn’t take proper care of his dogs?” asked Theo when he decided to open up to someone.

“Well, no, but I feel like I should’ve done something.”

Theo scuffed at that.

“Sure, Scott, because a ten-year-old has the strength to fend off a whole ass Doberman, okay.” There was a bit of mockery in his voice and something Scott couldn’t quite place.

“I was actually eight.”

“Even worse then. You could’ve died Scott, your dog gave up her life to save you, its owner,” Theo emphasized every word with a pointed stare at the Alpha. “That’s real loyalty right there, hard to come by in the best of days.”

Later, when Theo turned out to be just as bad as Stiles had suggested, the guilt was there.

He felt stupid.

For trusting him.

For letting him in.

For giving him a chance.

For letting himself be manipulated by easygoing conversation and concerned grievances.

It was his fault.

“Nah, Scotty, it wasn’t your fault. I was the one who suspected him first. I should’ve known better.” Reassured Stiles, on the way back to Beacon Hills, after they picked Kira up from the Skinwalkers.

“I let him in. He manipulated everyone because I thought it was best to keep him close in case he had bad intensions.”

“Which he did,” Stiles pointed out, “and now we’re going to kick his ass, the Dread Doctors’ asses, and save Mason to boot.”

Stiles gave a bright smile in Scott’s direction.

“Eyes on the road.” Scolded Noshiko Yukimura.

Stiles visibly cringed at that.

“Sorry, forgot we had company.”

Scott heard Kira snort at that, and he felt one of her hand reach for his shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance.

And maybe they’re right.

Maybe this wasn’t his fault per se.

It still was his responsibility to stop them. Theo and the Dread Doctors.

And he was gonna do it.

After all, his friends were with him, and nothing else mattered more than that.

[torchickentacos]

me after my mom called and said 'hey I found this old canon eos 400D with a bunch of lenses if you're interested'

[tripthelightfandomtastic]

Also, any time someone says "Josh speaks in pure nonsense" or "he's always blabbing a million miles a minute" or whatever dumb shit, I hope you know every adhd person sees your post and internalizes it bc I know I do.

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

john @ sam

[telesodalite]

Can't sleep, but I'm thinking about FulCrank(crankful? lol) in a silly way, and how it's like, technician x mechanic

Like, Fulcrum's long gotten used to responding to others bringing him "broken" tech with the whole "Have you tried turning it on and off again?", only for it to restart and be fine, because it just needed like, a hard reboot or update or something.

But then Crankcase pulls him aside, because maybe the TVs not working for reasons other than them physically damaging it, and Fulcrum's thinking it's the usual same old problem, so he sighs, and goes to ask the question that haunts his choice of work, but Crankcase interrupts, because of course he already did that.

He already tried restarting it, and checked all the cables, the antennas, and unplugged it a couple times, and checked the connections, and- etc etc. He goes down the list of everything he already checked before giving up and asking for help once he realized he was out of his depth, because, while this isn't his exact specialty, he gets it.

And its like-

Scene: Crankcase explaining everything he already tried, while Fulcrum's optics widen a bit, his breath catches in his vents, careless whisper starts to play somewhere in the background as Crankcase goes into detail about what he thinks could be the problem as a soft light frames his disgruntled expression, and Fulcrum's just like, oh..., he already tried turning it on and off again... I- I wonder if he'd be cool with making out sloppy style after we fix this...?

Idk lol.

They'd compliment each other on the cable and pipe management of the W.A.P's old shoddy computers and pumps. Just them being nerds about stuff like propulsion systems and data collection with eachother <3

Do they always understand and get everything the other's talking or complaining about? Not exactly. But they both bond over all the repetitive or crazy situations where they've had to fix and repair stuff, the thankless work they did to keep their respective stations functioning around them, and then maybe they kiss or something over the W.A.P's shitty GPS

[shima-draws]

Rewatching a playthrough of Danganronpa and it actually shocks me how chill Monokuma is. Even when Kyoko goes around stealing his shit and he finds Makoto with it later he's like. Yeah okay. I don't hold it against you or anything it's cool. LMAO

He has every available opportunity to just kill everyone whenever, especially when they break the rules, but he never does. I really love villains who stick to their own rules so it's fair for everyone else :")

[imagionary]

Unhinged Graham for someone on Twitter

(He hates Zak; AU stuff, as per usual)

[kalosian-woods]

clemont post-crisis really needs to be studied. but like also, so does everyone in kalos. clemont specifically i can see being really paranoid, cause even after taking back his gym and getting his invention and gym team back, it was taken away from him, right under his nose, the result being him losing his gym and soon, the city of light will fall with it.

so i can totally get why clemont would be really paranoid and overly cautious and prepared. but like geez man, this kid's rivals are full grown adults who just wish they could be as smart as him so they don't have to work, like wow.

the episode in general is so messed up in so many different levels, he was kidnapped, almost got mind controlled and after xerosic was put to jail, he immediately brushed it off like "okay! lets get back home now guys! :D" but like... what if we don't clemont. what if we talk about it. time to face another one of your fears-- addressing your feelings. your emotions. your thoughts.

(also not too mention, what happened to his gym team when team flare was taking over the tower??? did they get captured?? were they with clembot?? even then were they okay when clembot got destroyed? WHAT HAPPENED???)

-⚡ (yeah! i might talk about the other characters, mostly the gym leaders, elite 4, professor and his team, etc! i really like the pokemon league... especially the electric type leaders, they're so silly. from surge to volkner, to elesa, to clemont, to iono, we have such a wild variety of them.)

It's definitely the thing where everyone was affected by the Crisis in some way, but some had more of a role to play and thus took a harder hit with the whole situation (or at least should've). Clemont could've been semi-okay bar the fact that, y'know, Clembot as we knew it died (and also losing the Gym again), but then that episode had to happen and I'm at a loss. What did he do to deserve getting kidnapped after the whole ordeal??? I love how it's not even Ash going through the reprecussions because of Greninja/just being that OP or even Bonnie for having a connection with Zygarde, no, Xerosic felt so horrible about getting beat by a child back at a building he stole from said child so he felt the need to just control him instead. His priorities lol... (But even so, the fact that his whole Gym got taken away was probably one of the worst nightmares to him. He had so much trouble taking it back from a rouge invention and now it's happening again but the world is falling to pieces as well. Because of the device that is in his own Gym. The accountability he must've felt for it, undeserved as it was, must be crazy. If he wasn't already oerly-prepared before, you can bet your socks he's got an invention for every possible bad thing under the sun after the Crisis lol.)

But even with Clemont, he really did just brush it off so casually and that makes me even more worried, if that's even possible. He's so blase about everything that was happening around that fact. Weird man I met once (1) before in my life literally stealing me alongside a part of a Legendary Pokemon?? I'll just ask what's his buisiness and use my highly-specific anti-measure against his device that will cause me unimaginable amounts of pain. Same weird man who tried to control me trying to jump off the plane (in which who is steering this thing??)? Nah, I'll catch him and tell him to repent. Like I'm with Xerosic with this one, what is actually giving you your strength ability to move on so easily?? They watch that guy go to jail so casually lmao. And I get that the whole Squishy + Greninja thing happened right after, but was no one going to talk about it?? No??

I think, in a way, being controlled like that really parallels what happened with Clembot in the Crisis. The body is still there, but the memories, the feelings and decisions that can arise from that, can't be drawn from anymore. You are not you anymore. Xerosic aims to puppeteer him fully, denying him of any autonomy, and it's also so similar suto how Clemont sort of carried himself around before at the start too. He thought that he couldn't do both Gym stuff and being an inventor at the same time. He made an invention that looks like him to carry out the Gym Leader role of him (and now Xerosic wants to make him a tireless inventor at his beck and call). Clemont initially was very closed off and wasn't as interactive, and throughout this journey he had learnt to live as boldly as he ever could. And now, after everything that has ever happened, he was faced with the terrifying ordeal of losing that all over again. I think, maybe, he doesn't want to confront that reality, that he could've lost all of his freedom and his own autonomy and having to go through that alone, at that. There is no physical proof, after all. He does not 'have' to face it fully. The problem is solved, and so, to him, there is no use thinking about it. Not when the rest of Lumiose is still under heavy construction and he needs to be the beacon of hope and standing tall (just like Prism Tower, just like a Gym Leader would, just like everyone would expect from the inventor lighting up the world).

About his Gym Team, we do see Heliolisk with Clembot in the crisis, so I presume they're just always?? With Clembot?? Tbh the anime absolutely ignores the heck out of them at all times and I don't think we even see the Mags after the Gym Takeback (okay I checked the only other time is 'Battling With A Clean Slate'... yeah). But nooo, you've got me thinking about the death arghhh I would hope that the Pokeballs are durable, and also I am of the firm belief that Clembot would've at least tried to protect them to his very last moments. In the anime proper they're probably just all with Clembot for infinity times forever, which I guess isn't a terrible fate but also yeah. Sad. At least they're alive though???

[thesymphonytrue]

GUYS WE CAN NOW LISTEN TO JEREMY JORDAN SING THE ROLE OF JAY GATSBY ANY TIME ANYWHERE

[benjingler]

Ieoove youuuthustke dujgeinmeshi