#honestly good old family shenanigans are my jam

[in-tua-deep]

i need you to know that every once in a while i go back and read your whole responsible luther au from start to finish and like.... i would legit read 100k of that and still want more, i LOVE that entire concept to PIECES and just kdjdjfhfl thank you for elaborating on that plot so much

adsfdDFSGHF i’m v flattered i will admit I myself didn’t expect to become as fond as I have with that particular au lmao i think it’s a combo of the way luther in that au is generally unflappable and “same shit as always” and the family actually getting together and being an actual family

Not even the big family stuff either just the dumb little interactions

(posts for this au here: one, two, three, four, five, six)

Like Luther comes home from work, exhausted, walks in and the first thing he sees as he walks in is Diego standing at the open fridge drinking straight from the milk carton.

“Diego.” Luther states, halfway incredulous because come on, “Do I live in a frat house? There’s glasses in the cabinet to your right and I know you know that.”

“What do you know about frat houses?” Diego sneers, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, “Not like any of us went to college, ‘les they give out degrees in sucking up.”

Luther presses his hands together and touches them to his mouth for a second of patience. “Diego,” He starts over, “What are you doing here?”

“Babysitting.” Diego shrugs, placing the milk back in the fridge and closing the door. Luther makes a mental note to buy more if only so that he doesn’t have to share in Diego’s gross mouth germs.

He can’t contain it. “For fu - is this what you do at home Diego? Do you even own glasses?”

Diego shrugs again, not even disguising the grin across his face. He likes pushing Luther’s buttons, like the absolute dick he is. “Just saving you on some washing up, Luth.” Diego informs him cheerfully, moving to pass him and clapping him on the shoulder in faux friendliness. 

Luther is about to make an very inadvisable movement (that movement being grabbing Diego and tossing him across the room and maybe pouring out the rest of the milk on top of his smug little - ) when Five pops into the room in a flash of blue.

“Luther!” Luther’s favorite brother greets him enthusiastically as Klaus stumbles out of his bedroom, brandishing a bottle of nail polish like a weapon. Judging from Five’s half-done fingers, it’s clear what they were up to. Luther has a feeling he’s going to end up with nail polish on his coat in a hot second.

It’s more of a surprise when Vanya walks out of the room as well, sporting electric blue painted nails and looking mildly uncomfortable. Of course, mildly uncomfortable is pretty much Vanya’s default state so Luther doesn’t think anything of it.

“Hello Five, hello Klaus.” Luther greets his roommates, smile plastered on his face, “Hello people who do not live here.”

“You need to get more eggs.” Diego tells him, not even looking abashed at Luther’s implied reprimand. Which, considering Diego procured a key weeks ago (which Luther did not give him) might be a little fair. It’s not like Diego isn’t invited maybe 25% of the time.

“Klaus called.” Vanya admits, “He said Diego was being boring and I needed to come over before someone was murdered. Probably Klaus, if we’re being honest.”

“Hey!” Klaus protests automatically, before tilting his head to acknowledge the point.

“Luther!” Five tugs at Luther’s coat insistently as he’s been doing pretty much since they walked out of the bedroom.

Well, time to pay attention to the little monster. Luther reaches down and swings his littlest brother up into his arms, earning a shriek even though it’s a familiar move at this point. 

“Ooh! Me too, me too!” Klaus crowds closer, making grabby hands. Luther sighs deeply but obliges, swinging Klaus up and over his shoulder easily and earning another delighted shriek. Luther wonders what it would be like without his super strength. Wonders how the rest of the world manages.

He ignores Diego’s look as he makes his way over to the couch, swaying both his brothers from side to side as they try and grab at one another. It’s a little bit like trying to balance a very tall stack of books with a wine glass on top - difficult but not exactly impossible. They certainly don’t try make it easier on him.

Having had enough, Luther calmly dumps both of them onto the couch. 

Vanya strolls over and plucks the bottle of nail polish out of Klaus’s hands, circling the couch and nudging him over so she can sit by Five where she wordlessly unscrews the cap and reaches out a hand for Five to put his into. Apparently it’s nail painting time again.

“What did you want, Five?” Luther asks, amused as he collapses into the big thrift store armchair with a quiet oof. 

“What’s for dinner?” Five asks, rolling his eyes.

Diego groans, “Ugh, that’s all he’s been asking for like, an hour.”

“I’m a growing boy!” Five protests, jerking his hands and earning himself a scolding shush from Vanya as the nail polish smears. She uses the corner of one of her own nails to clean it up a little. 

“Growing sideways,” Diego teases, reaching a hand out to ruffle Five’s hair. Unfortunately, it seems Five anticipated the move and Diego narrowly avoids the snap of Five’s teeth and the resulting shit eating grin.

“Luther!” Diego sounds scandalized, gesturing at their grinning brother as Klaus laughs quietly to himself.

“Children, behave.” Luther deadpans. 

“That’s what they say when we’re together!” Klaus immediately sings at the top of his lungs, making Vanya wince away and give him a look. Klaus shrugs unapologetically and she rolls her eyes, turning her attention back to her task.

“We should liberate Luther’s records from the house.” Five says, looking thoughtful.

“No one’s going to the house.” Luther vetoes, again. It’s like Five is just looking for excuses these days to suggest exploring the house for things.

“Maybe when Dad’s dead.” Diego says, finally coming around the sofa to sit in the last remaining armchair. Luther winces and doesn’t respond. As much as he doesn’t see eye to eye with Reginald these days - there’s still a part of him that loves the old man, even if therapy is making him see more and more that the feeling wasn’t exactly returned.

“God,” Klaus sighs, throwing his head back dramatically, “If you had my powers you wouldn’t be wishing for the old man’s death, ugh.”

The family shares a collective wince as they remember that for Klaus, harassment from their father wasn’t exactly something that stopped with his death.

“Aw, don’t look so glum! Ben here has promised to be my guard chihuahua.” Klaus informs them all cheerfully after noticing the long faces. He turns his face to the side, where it’s probably Ben exists. “What? Chihuahuas have a great and noble history! You should be flattered! What? Wait, Ben, no - ”

The rest of the family decides to move on as Klaus devolves into a whispered half-conversation with their dearly departed sibling. It drives them all crazy that they can’t hear one half of the conversation.

“You never said what’s for dinner.” Five points out, just a little petulantly. Vanya gives him a gentle nudge as reprimand for moving too much, but she’s finishing up with the last nail anyway so it’s not terribly important. 

Luther really doesn’t feel like cooking. Mainly because he’s really bad at it. He looks over at Vanya, who is the only person who has been keeping them all from eating like freshman college students and getting scurvy, but she’s studiously examining her job on Five’s nails. Clearly she doesn’t exactly feel like cooking, either.

“Chinese?” Luther offers, hopeful. 

Five pulls a face, but Klaus brightens up, head snapping around from his little argument. Luther’s hope dies in his chest. Feeding their whole family is an adventure in juggling - how their Mom fed them all for so many years without snapping in half from bending over backwards to please everyone.

Then again, it’s not like any of them had the choice to refuse their food in their father’s house no matter personal preference. It was wolf it down regardless of taste or starve and potentially faint during training.

But there is one thing they can all agree on. t’s just a last resort because Luther is so very tired of having it every other night but hey, when needs must, right?

“Pizza?” Luther offers and everyone sort of nods and hums their agreement at that. Luther knows all of their orders by heart at this point. Even Diego “my body is a temple” Hargreeves doesn’t say no to pizza, usually. 

“You know, we could make it slightly healthier and make our own?” Vanya points out, but it’s only halfhearted. “I heard you can make the crust with cauliflower or something.”

“You think we have cauliflower in this house?” Five asks with an arched eyebrow, and Vanya concedes the point. Luther feels almost offended at the implications about the state of health food in his place, but it’s also a fair point so. No like he can rebuff it. 

“Pizza it is.” Luther states firmly before this can devolve into an actual debate on the state of their dinner. 

He gets up to go grab his phone and can hear the sound of a fight breaking out behind him, Klaus’s voice being the loudest. Luther had so hoped Vanya sitting there would have prevented the inevitable but she was in on the shenanigans far more often than Luther would have expected.

(Sometimes he wondered what their childhoods would have looked like if Vanya had been more included. He had suspicions that she would have never been on his side in an argument, anyway.)

Luther shakes his head as he punches in the number for the pizza place. For a few minutes that mess in the living room is not his problem.

Of course, a few minutes of peace never lasts for very long. Not in this family.

[coffeesuperhero]

leverage fic recs

So, I needed a better organizational system than my AO3 bookmarks (boy do I miss delicious!), so I’m just going to start a post for myself here and reblog it occasionally as I add to it. Most (all?) of these are OT3 fics, because I am who I am and I read what I read. If you want non-OT3 fic recs, I am not your person. Probably you have read these, but if you haven’t, what are you waiting for! 

Gen: 

01. The Fake Geek Boy Job, by shinealightonme.  It’s casefic at a fan convention and Eliot has to cosplay. In spandex. Go read it and enjoy yourself, already. 

Beautiful shippy fic (everyone is together/small moments/slice of life): 

01. The Three Rings Job, by HugeAlienPie.  Sophie POV. The OT3 at Nate and Sophie’s wedding, where Nate and Sophie are not aware that there is now an OT3. It’s soft. And so sweet you could serve it as dessert. And it has the best boat name for a Nate and Sophie boat in the world. 

02. hacker/hitter/thief/home, by AtlantisRises.  A collection of short OT3 fics that hit you just right in the feels, in the best way. 

03. Nothing’s Exactly What We Need, by BabylonsFall. The OT3, on vacation. 

Everybody is together and also there’s a con: 

01. Covenants, Conditions, & Restrictions, by page_runner.  We love a good long fic where the OT3 help an old lady and con an HOA, because HOA’s are the worst. This fic also gives me deeply hurt feelings about the team having to leave Portland, which I know in my heart is probably the Way of Things, but which I will never write myself because heartbreak. But this deals with that reality so beautifully, and it’s a good con, too. 

Getting together OT3:  01. just want you close, by biblionerd07.  Eliot-POV, post-rundown, man am I a sucker for Eliot-POV stories where Parker and Hardison just...love the hell out of him, and this is just a lovely, careful, sweet version of that. 

02. international small arms traffic blues, by ftmsteverogers.  Eliot POV, character study + get together fic. Makes you very sad for Eliot, and then happier for Eliot. And I’m a sucker for anytime someone has to call Sophie for advice. 

03. So Come On, Avalanche, by elysiumwaits.  It is Eliot POV snowed-in at a cabin OT3 getting together fic, so idk what more you need to know to read it. 

04. Rings a Bell, by venilia.  Eliot wakes up with amnesia and thinks he’s married to Hardison and also has a Parker, it’s silly and sweet. 

05. The Thunderous Roll of a Tropical Sea (the moonlit memory I can’t seem to lose), by phnelt. **content notes: canon-typical violence + Mature! grown and sexy content ahoy!** I have classified this as a “getting together” story, because ultimately that is what happens, but it’s probably more like “eliot getting his shit together, and now they’re all together,” which is my favorite flavor of OT3 getting together fic, anyway. It starts out a little sad, because gasp! They were together but they split up!! But it has a happy ending. It also has fake marrieds, my favorite trope of all time. Eliot feeding Hardison strawberries and playing with his fake husband on a beach while Parker watches? Please. 

06. Happy Meal, by @leiascully Listen, I admit that I am biased, because my wife wrote this for me, but it is this really hilarious flirting-over-the-comms-pre-OT3-sort-of-getting-together story, and I laughed, and it was great, so you should enjoy it, too. 

07. Oklahoma’s Next Top Model, by Hedgehog-O-Brien (Roshwen).  Hardison POV. This fic has the greatest tag of all time, which is: “Title not entirely accurate bc Eliot's clearly a bottom but who cares“ and I knew I was in good hands solely on that basis before I read a word of the fic. Tbh I put this in this “getting together” category because I feel like it’s heavily implied at the end that there’s a getting together situation happening, but like, that’s not why you read this fic. You read this fic for the ridiculously over the top OT3 photoshoot of your wildest dreams. You will laugh. You will be entertained. Enjoy!

08. Fifty Fake Dates, by calico_fiction. WIP, Hardison POV. nb: This hasn’t been updated in a minute but a) I too have WIPs that take a long-ass time between updates, if this updated in ten years I would still be excited to read it and b) the chapter that’s up is such a delight to me that I really think it’s worth a read even if this is all of this story the author wants to post. It’s a great Hardison POV with some delicious pining and fake Hardison/Eliot dating, which is my jam. 

09. For Real, by BurningTea. It’s hard to do an accidental marriage in this canon, but this fic did that! Hardison’s technical expertise goes a bit awry and everybody has to have....a talk. About feelings. 

Hurt/comfort: 

01. Dig Deep, by BurningTea.  Eliot has to dig his own grave and climb into it. It hurts a lot!!!! And then it’s comforting. So, exactly what it says on the tin. Good character observations and nicely written, hurts exactly right and comforts exactly right, too. 

Hot (nsfw, 18+, Mature, grown and sexy content for grown and sexy adults): 

01. Don’t Come Late, by @leiascully.  It’s just...the OT3, having really hot sex. That’s it, that’s the review. (The writing is delightful and there’s like, funny stuff in with the sexy stuff, which is real life and always nice to see, you know?) 

02. Take the Leap, by Penknife.  Hardison POV, first time OT3 threesome/verbal domination. The characterization in this is just **chef’s kiss** perfection. Funny, and hot. My favorite combo. 

03. The Post-Rundown Job, by DelektorskiChick.  Eliot POV, demi-Parker, mostly Eliot/Hardison but Parker’s participating in her own way. I’m a sucker for some good sexy post-injury care and this is right after Rundown, so it checks that box big time. 

04. In Sync, by monsoon_moon. Eliot POV, first time OT3some. 

Character studies: 

01. Dawning, by @darkfinch. Eliot POV, mind all the warnings.  This (read with its sequel, a WIP linked below) is probably one of my favorite Leverage pieces in existence? It is just the most beautiful, dark, horrible look at Eliot-works-for-Moreau you could hope for, except that also there’s a sequel called Reverberate, and that is also perfect and intense and really digs into what’s happening in Eliot’s mind and life during s3 after Nate drops the “we’re going after Moreau” bombshell. Both of these stories are painfully perfect and believable and real and I love them with my whole heart. The story structure and writing on both of those pieces is just excellent and the characterization is pitch perfect, and along with the stress and trauma you really get some just fantastic character moments. Idky you’re reading my review instead of the story tbh go read that, thanks!

02. Ten Prides in Portland, by @leiascully.  I put this as a character study because it is one? It’s about queer shit, and learning to be part of a community of queer people, and learning that you can be a mentor and a role model for other queer people even if you don’t have your own stuff figured out. I am extremely biased because this is my wife and I got to watch this story grow into existence every day, but I think it’s a really beautiful look at the queer community broadly, all the people who fit under the umbrella, and belonging. It’s sweet and funny and beautiful, and I really needed to feel like I was at Pride this year, and this helped. 

03. Different, by @leiascully. Hardison POV. Honestly this just made me want to go find baby Hardison and hug him for a really long time. 

04. The Twine and the Things We Bind, by @darkfinch.  WIP, H/C, big on the H. Parker and Hardison taking care of an extremely fractious, extremely injured Eliot Spencer is my jam.com forever and this is all of that with beautiful characterization and writing. Also some of the best action scenes I’ve read in a while. I do not write action At All and this does it SO WELL. 

05. A Kiss for Luck, by AlannaOfRoses.  Parker POV. A good look into Parker’s thoughts on luck during the Rundown Job/feelsy flashbacks. 

OC/Outsider POV: 

01. Let’s Go Steal a Protege, by @innytoes. WIP.  Gosh I adore this. It’s found family shenanigans from an outside-the-OT3 perspective. Jamie, the main POV OC (nonbinary rep!!), is a fucking delight of a human and their interactions with the super!married OT3 are all incredible. It is sweet and funny and sometimes sad but almost always in a happy tears kind of way, because it’s about finding a family. And there are so many genuine laugh-out-loud moments in this fic that I reread it a lot lately or think of it when I need something to lift my spirits. (There is a bit in chapter six with some thrift store purchases that I just absolutely lose my shit at every time.) I very badly want this story to just be canon tbh. Petition for that. 

AU’s

01. The Out of This World Job (Or, Per Furtum Ad Astra), by pathera.  It’s a job, but it’s IN SPACE. Parker, Hardison, & Eliot find a spaceship; shenanigans ensue. Beautifully in character, some poignant character moments, awesome writing, and just a really vivid world. 

02. Plastic Pearls, by BabylonsFall.  Kidfic! Various POV. Parker and Hardison move in across the hall from single-dad Eliot. I adore this, it is sweet and soft and everything you could hope for in a story where Eliot is raising a smol Molly. 

[sandu-zidian]

Blabbing about this Musician!au I started last summer that has now also turned into a marching band!au because I got sad and nostalgic because despite how shitty it could be, marching band defined my high school life and social life and I couldn’t had asked for anything else.

I also don’t have every single prequel character (because this au is surrounding the prequel characters) in Star Wars smacked into here, and I gave up halfway through a couple of months ago in terms of brainstorming. Anyways, this is hella long so check everything out under the line if you’d like! don’t want to spam everyone with something that’s like, 4 pages long

Now, you might be asking. What instruments are these characters playing, or what are they doing in marching band? well, boy oh boy do I have some lore for you.

Anakin Skywalker: alright lets start of with the “Chosen One”. Now, I gotta say. He’s got some intense brass vibes, specifically high brass. But I don’t know. He didn’t really mesh well. And given his natural talent with the Force in canon, I thought that Anakin would be a sort of prodigy. And we all know the two instruments associated with that: the piano and violin. He’s more of a piano dude, so here we go! piano prodigy Anakin Skywalker. He also gives mad drumline vibes, and I can see him as either the lead snare, setting the tempo, or the main quad player. He’s brash, slightly obnoxious, but damn is he fucking good at what he does.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: I literally started this AU on the idea that Obi-Wan would play the cello. One of the defining quotes for him is that fucking “infinite sadness” quote. And we all know that cellos play some of the saddest pieces out there. (see: Elgar cello concerto) However, I can’t see him as a marching band dude. He doesn’t really give off color guard vibes (since that’s where most non-band people go to) so I have him as the resident student helper who everyone tolerates because he brings ice cream after band camp.

Ahsoka Tano: Ahsoka is a flute player. As a flute player, I have intimate knowledge on this. She’s like the chill flute player who’s competitive enough to keep her position as principal, but is also chill enough to not have a big ego that butts heads with everyone. She also gives mad color guard vibes. Also speaking about that from personal experience (am I lowkey projecting my own experiences on her? you didn’t hear that from me). She seems like the type to love swing flags and sabre, and is 100% captain by senior year.

I have Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka as siblings in this AU because I say so. Qui-Gon is around here somewhere as the resident hippie dad who lowkey smokes pot and will support his children while giving a big ‘fuck you’ to Dooku. 

Yoda’s also in here somewhere, and I love the idea that he’s an old Chinese/Asian man who refuses to speak english and will only do so with the most backwards grammar so his grandchild (Qui-Gon) and great-grandchildren (the trio) are forced to speak Mandarin/Cantonese to him (pick your poison). He just spends his days cutting up fruit and also might pull out his erhu if everyone asks nice enough. (I want to say he was a Peking Opera musician, but immigrated during Mao’s reign after he lost opportunities during the cultural revolution)

So, I know that it doesn’t make sense for a family to have 3 sets of twins and one triplet set, but fuck that I do what I want.

Cody Fett: okay so, Cody 100% plays the french horn. I don’t know, he just, he does. He’s got that air of sophistication because he can play the hardest brass instrument, but at the same time, he’s incredibly good at it and is matter-of-fact about it. He also would be the mello section leader (I was playing with the idea of drum major, but for now, leaving him as a section leader for now). He’s a bit uptight to be a low brass player, but cool enough to still be associated with the general brass group.

Rex Fett: I got Rex and Cody as the eldest Fett twins. Rex feels like a string player, so I have him on violin. I can see him be very hardworking and practicing diligently to the point where he easily sweeps through to concertmaster in high school and the local youth orchestra. He also gives of mad drum major vibes. I can see him copying music, handing out drill charts, and hauling the met around. Also, just think about Rex doing a fancy ass salute at competitions. Yes.

Next round of twins lets gooo

Jesse Fett: You could say Jesse has brass vibes. I see him as a reed person though. In concert band, he’s on clarinet. I used to think clarinets were as stuck up as us flutes but no they’re literally balls of chaotic energy ready to be unleashed. Just imagine Jesse blaming everything on his reed. I see him as the guy who switches to saxophone for marching band, though. He’s got the energy of the clarinet and the saxophone harnessed. Also, wouldn’t be surprised if he knows how to play the sousa.

Kix Fett: Y’know, when I originally made this AU, I had Kix as a musician as well. I’m gonna scratch that. He’s going to medical school, or at least, he’s planning to. He’s on the pre-med track and is dying in organic chemistry and wishes there weren’t so many pre-requisites. However, in high school, he definitely played the oboe. Of course Kix chose one of the hardest instruments to play. Also, just imagine him trying to make his own reeds. I don’t see him as a guy who’s in marching band. He’ll come to competitions and maybe football games if he’s bullied into it. Kix is the guy who’s classes are all AP and he’s dying inside.

Next round of twins yeet:

Fives Fett: shit, I forgot I gave them all real names. If I remember correctly, Fives is Frank. Anyways, trumpet vibes. Need I say more? He’s on the trumpet in marching band as well and he’s the dude who’s obsessed with DCI and always tries to play as high as he possibly can and absolutely demolishes his chops. I would say he’s section leader as well. He also hangs with the drumline at the back of the bus and always plays meme songs on blast and sends weird pictures to people’s phone via open airdrop.

Echo Fett: I think his birth name is Ethan??? I’m spitting thoughts not checking my old documents. Anyways. Echo feels like a string person. Specifically, low strings. So, he plays the bass. Upright bass. Whatever. You get what I mean. He sleeps in the case after school and hates hauling it everywhere. He was in marching band as a mello player (the easiest brass instrument to pick up for the activity so) but he was in a car crash that left him paralyzed from the hip down, and had to quit to recover. He never stopped playing, and found ways to adjust. (I do not know how exactly this would work, since I’m able bodied and also don’t play the bass, but I know he’d at least have a stool to sit on in order to lean his body on. let me know if you have other ideas i’d love to hear them!)

Finally, we got the triplets:

Dogma Fett: Dogma plays the bassoon. He’s a low reed kinda guy and between the bari sax, bass clarinet, and bassoon, he fits the last one the best. He and Kix moan over making reeds and he’s on the quieter side. He just vibes and plays all the low notes and has fun whenever he’s got some moving part. I see Dogma as someone who is only casually into marching band. He uses Jesse’s old student clarinet as his instrument and he’s always on time, knows his sets, and his technique is on point. He always finds himself roped into his brothers’ shenanigans though.

Tup Fett: Tup plays the harp. I like to think he met Shaak Ti (we’ll get to her in a bit) when he was young, and she was playing with an orchestra. He met her backstage and she offered to give him lessons. Tup’s not really a part of high school orchestra but sometimes he’ll be brought in. He’s more involved with solo work and the youth orchestra more than anything. Tup’s another on where I don’t think he’d be into marching band. Though I can see him being in winter guard as the dude who just shows up and is lowkey rip and therefore is a hunk on the rifle. His technique’s good but they’ve never been able to saddle him into fall guard.

Hardcase Fett: (i’ve given up on remembering the birth names so i’m just gonna not) Hardcase is 100% low brass vibes. He can’t be anything but a low brass. I see him as a tuba player. He’s chill, laid back, but also reliable for being the foundation of the band sound. He plays the sousaphone in marching band and always blasts either Seven Nation Army or some other popular show tune right after rehearsals. Hardcase also can play the bari sax and no one knows when he learned how to. 

OKAY we’re done with the Fett’s! Jango and Boba are in here somewhere but honestly I don’t have enough brainpower to come up with what their roles are. Jango’s gonna be a good dad though. Maybe he was a musician and that’s why most of his kids are going into music. Or maybe he’s just a supportive father. Boba’s the youngest though, that’s for sure. And he’s a little shit. Don’t know if he plays an instrument (probably) or what it might be.

Now lets get into some other characters! There’s a lot. And I wasn’t even halfway done with the characters I wanted to include. What the hell was I on last summer?

Padmé Amidala: Padmé is a flute player who quit after freshman year of high school and started taking music production and music theory classes. She loved it so much that she decided that composing was her jam. Now, she’s highly successful and often works with well known pianist, Anakin Skywalker, on piano concertos. Also, she may or may not be dating said pianists but you didn’t hear that from me.

Satine Kryze: twosetters don’t shit on me but Satine feels like she’d play the viola. She and Obi-Obi-Wan definitely dated in high school but after a year broke up on mutual terms and are just good friends now. A lot of people feel like she’d have been a better political science/international studies major than a music major but she’s good so no one complains (until she gets into a fighting match with someone and wins smugly)

Bo-Katan Kryze: shes Satine’s younger sister and is a mad athlete. She doesn’t play any instruments but she’s deeply active and is on scholarship for college, on the pre-med track with Kix. She’s very scary and most people are too intimidated by her to approach.

Plo Koon: I originally had him as an asian man, but I can see Native American as well. He plays the euphonium and he’s just a sweet man. He helps out a lot with private lessons at local high schools and is often brought in to help with low brass during marching band.

Wolffe Koon: Wolffe and Gregor (get to him in a bit) were both adopted by Plo when their parents died when they were very young. Plo was their godfather and he took them in like they were his own. They’re cousins to the Fett brothers (though don’t ask me how I have no idea). Wolffe is an engineer and works close to home.

Gregor Koon: Gregor is Wolffe’s younger brother and had a short stint of musical interest in middle school but quit after he entered high school. Gregor was in a serious car crash during college that left him amnesiac for a year before some of his memories returned. He now owns a restaurant and sticks close to home. Wolffe often comes around to check up on him because his brain injury still impacts his current life in small physical and emotional dips

Kit Fisto: Kit gives off mad trombone vibes and it’s mostly because he seems incredibly laid back. He’s one of those brass players who’s just a nice guy and while jokes around, never got pulled into jokes as a student.

Shaak Ti: like I said above, Shaak Ti is most definitely a harpist. She has that ethereal quality I think is common in harpists. She’s a tall Indian woman and she loves her job! She’s a private lesson teacher and instructor at the conservatory on top of her job in the orchestra since she’s not called in often to play. She loves all her students and gives good hugs.

Mace Windu: Mace is the director of the Jedi Symphony, the orchestra which almost everyone is involved with. He is a bass player and he likes his more classical pieces over contemporary music. He’s good friends with Yoda and sometimes the old troll has to wack some sense into Windu and have him take on newer pieces. Windu 100% gives off unhinged director vibes because mistakes and lazy musicians definitely don’t end after high school/college is over.

Quinlan Vos: this lil shithead definitely is the obnoxious, slightly arrogant, but kind of deserving of that, percussionist. He loves his snare drum and is also in the drumline. He’s the same age as Obi-Wan and the two are close friends. Quinlan is definitely slightly unhinged and is always at the back of the bus causing havoc after competitions. He’s the guy that I (OP) hate but also can’t help but respect cuz yeah he’s annoying but at least he’s good.

Aayla Secura: Aayla is Quinn’s half-sister, and plays the French horn. Again, like Cody, she’s got this air of professionalism that I associate with French horn players and like, we gotta represent the girls in brass somehow. She just fits it really nicely.

I feel like now is the time to list who’s still in conservatory and who isn’t: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Rex, Cody, Jesse, Quinlan, Padmé, and Satine are all recent graduates. Ahsoka, Aayla, Fives, Echo, Tup, Dogma, and Hardcase are still in conservatory (at varying years of course). Kix and Bo are entering med school/frantically applying and banging their heads cuz MCATs. Wolffe and Gregor are older and have been in the field for quite some time now. Plo, Kit, Shaak, and Mace are all faculty/seasoned professionals.

Somehow, I was gonna bring in The Skiratas (with proper research cuz I know very little about them), Dooku, Ventress, the Oppress siblings, rest of Domino Squad, Cut Lawquene, the other CCs, and more. I designated a page out of my sketchbook for this and my oh my the flow chart was hella confusing. How I thought I was gonna handle that in the summer before my first year of college, I have no idea. Maybe I’ll brainstorm more in the future but for now, this is all I have :]]]

Also excuse some of my slightly unhinged language I started writing this a few days ago while slightly unfocused and tired and stressed so my language is a product of that

[galaxy-parchment]

Nepotism at its Finest

I’m back on my bullshit, fellas! This time we’ve got something fun. A fic that I wrote based on another TMA AU, ‘Timeline of Theseus’, by @creativitycache.  All you need to know is Jon has been the Archivist since he was 8 because time-travel shenanigans and now Elias is his reluctant dad, I would highly suggest reading ToT if you enjoy this fic and even if you don’t. This also hasn’t been beta-read because this is spoiler-y and my usual beta-reader hasn’t listened to TMA and honestly this is pretty self-indulgent.

--

Jon, despite being an Archivist for as long as he could remember, only got the ‘official’ title of Head Archivist once Gertrude finally died. He knew Jonah was the one that did it, but honestly, Jon was just glad he didn’t call in someone else to do his dirty work for once. He always hated when a random avatar barged in and somehow always left some kind of damage in their wake.

Working as an archival assistant wasn’t so bad, other than that. After a while, just to justify him hanging around the Archives all day reading statements, Jonah had given him a position as Gertrude’s assistant. Not that she ever asked him to do anything. It was just a formality.

At this point he’d given up on only reading statements that included people that were already dead. He’d take one over the newer statements, certainly, but the problem was that there’s only a certain number of people that have had supernatural experiences, and if they survived the encounter, they don’t tend to die as quickly as the ones that didn’t make it.

He still occasionally got odd flashes of things he never actually did, but it wasn’t like they had a manual about how his powers worked. Jonah just half-explained that it was probably something to do with his omniscience filling his head up with blanks that didn’t exist. The fuzziness and lack of detail certainly matched up with that theory. Just one of the perks of suddenly gaining knowledge powers at the age of 8, he supposed. At least he’d finally managed to get a grip on what exactly he Knew at random intervals. The Eye still liked to give him the odd unwarranted insight or two, but he didn’t mind all that much.

Strangely, though, he did ‘remember’ all of the assistants Jonah had chosen for him on his first day as the Head Archivist. Sasha, Tim and Martin, although for some reason Sasha didn’t look like how his ‘memories’ picture her.

—

Jon was weird, to be honest. Tim knew it the moment he walked in and saw the guy. Looked like he’d been raised by wolves then taught how to act like he was a respectable academic. Sure, he looked the part, but you could tell he didn’t care about being a ‘scholar’, he only cared about the statements.

He also obviously had some weird tension with Elias. Whenever Tim mentioned him Jon would always change the topic and refuse to acknowledge the man’s existence. He’d worked here for a while, though, probably just a standard ‘gradual resent for your boss’ scenario.

At least Tim thought that was it until Monday.

They were all in the break room, Jon included, eating their lunch, when Elias wandered in and gave them all a polite smile.

“So, Jon,” He said pleasantly, “I was wondering how you were settling in as Head Archivist.”

Jon glanced back from the coffee pot, “Doing fine, thank you…” he grumbled.

“That’s great to hear,” Tim could hear the condescending tone dripping from his voice, “I know that you’re not used to such an active role in the Archives, is all,”

“What? You don’t think I’m capable of the job? You didn’t need to give me the position you know, I can do what I need to do here without it,”

“Oh, goodness, no, you were fully deserving of the promotion,” Elias said, raising his hands in defence, a knowing smile on his face.

“And as I told you when you promoted me, theres no need to worry about me,” the archival assistants stayed silent and glanced at each other awkwardly.

Elias grimaced, “Is it really so bad that I just wanted to see how you were? I have every right to worry,” Tim didn’t know what the relationship there was, but that was definitely a weird thing for your boss to say in his books.

“Elias, I am 24 and an adult who’s been working here for a while, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself,” Jon said sternly, turning to face him with his arms crossed. Okay, that was definitely a weird thing to say. Sasha hid her face in her mug and Martin was fiddling with his hands and staring at them.

“Fine, but you know where to find me if you need anything,” Elias sighed. He turned and walked out the door.

Jon scowled for a moment, the tension in the air thick. He suddenly marched up to the door and yelled down the hall, “You’re not my father, you know!”

Tim was about to ask what the hell that was about before he heard Elias call back.

“I have paperwork that says otherwise!”

Well, that certainly explained a few things.

—

The ‘break room incident’ was still a talking point among the assistants, but at this point it was mostly just Tim complaining that Sasha just didn’t get the job because of nepotism. Jon didn’t even have a degree of any kind, he just got a position as an assistant and then got the Head Archivist promotion.

Martin tried to connect with Jon, though. He’d heard about how all of the old assistants just went missing over time. That must’ve been lonely for Jon. So he brought him tea every day. Sure, Jon didn’t always drink it, but hopefully it helped him feel more comfortable with them.

He did give Martin odd looks occasionally, though, as if they’d known each other and Jon was trying to place his face. He certainly would have remembered meeting someone like Jon, though.

When he wasn’t reading statements, Jon actually came out and spoke to all of the assistants directly when he needed something, which was a bit odd. Not spooky odd, but still odd.

Jon was instructing Martin on some follow-up he would need to do at his desk when Elias made his second appearance of the month. The others stayed quiet, knowing how things went last time.

“Jon, I have some good news!” Elias said, unusually chipper.

Jon seemed unimpressed, “Do tell.”

“Peter and I are getting married!” Martin was about to congratulate him when Jon beat him to it.

“I give it three months,” he deadpanned, not taking his eyes off Elias, who seemed far less offended than Martin would have been in his situation.

“Give me some credit, Jon”

“You’re right, he never even replaced the vase he broke before the last divorce did he? Make it two.” Wait, divorce? Last divorce?

“He’s changed, really, he even said he’d actually replace it once it was official,” Elias defended. Martin spotted Tim in his peripherals jamming his face into his elbow to stifle his own laughter. Sasha had a not-so-subtle smile creeping onto her face.

“Oh, and let me guess, he also promised you he’d ‘start trying to really connect with Jon’ like he does every time, as if he doesn’t literally feed off of doing the exact opposite.”

“No, but he did-“

“No, wait, I’ve got it this time, he said that this time, he’d keep his voyages short and make more time for you!” Jon guessed, intently waiting for Elias’s response

“Yes.” He said curtly. What on earth was happening? Martin wanted nothing more than to be anywhere but this exact position, right next to both of his bosses having a family squabble.

“Let me guess, you came down here to tell me right at this moment because you need me to drive you? Of course,” Jon ran his hand flat across his head to give his hair the gelled flatness Elias’s always flawlessly maintained, “I’m Elias, I’m going to ask Jon to drive me and my fiancee to the courthouse for our tenth marriage! I can’t drive myself, though, because then Peter is going to insult my driving and then I’ll tell him that he has no place to do so since he doesn’t even have a license! Then we’re going to cancel and try again the next week!” He ranted in a tone that was obviously meant to imitate Elias.

“We’re going next Wednesday.” Elias said.

“Fine.” Jon replied without a second thought, turning back to Martin, who hadn’t realised he was holding his breath. Elias silently turned and headed out of the Archives.

The room was silent for a moment. Sasha spoke up first.

“Did you say tenth time?” She asked incredulously.

“Yes, and that’s only the legal ones. I’ve seen them ‘get married’ one night and the next they’ll swear vengeance on each other. Peter gives excellent Christmas presents, though, what with the insurmountable wealth.”

Tim barked out the laugh he was suppressing, “Jon, I just really want you to know, that is the funniest thing I’ve witnessed in my life, thank you,"

--

For the record I’ve changed a few rules of how the whole Jon situation works and I mostly just took the concept of adult Jon and Elias father-son dynamic and sprinted with it.

[belphegor1982]

So Evy telling Anaksunamun to "pick on someone her own size" is my favorite thing because I think that people forget that Evy is just as protective of Jonathan as he is of her. Then there's Rick who probably went from "I'm only trying to protect Jonathan because Evy would be sad if I didn't" to "Damn, I've gotten used to him and I'd be sad if something actually happened to him". What I'm trying to say is that this is a trio that lives by "if you mess with one of us, you mess with the rest of us.

YES. Characters being protective of each other is the jam I will die on (I know, mixing metaphors, but what the hell). And, well, let’s see what we have in canon before going into headcanons:

• Like you said, Evy telling Anck “Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size” before yanking her off of her brother just as he’s about to get stabbed through the throat. (In the novelisation she says “Leave my brother alone” and honestly I don’t know which I love more.) And in TM, when they’re cornered by the mob and backing up against a wall, Jonathan tries to shield Evy from the brainwashed zombies in front of them. In both movies they hold hands when they run. MY HEART.

• Much has been written (to my eternal joy) about how soft and protective Rick is of Evy even early on, when his version of “MUST PROTECT” consists in dipping her over the rail of the boat. And yes, there’s definitely an element of keeping Jonathan safe because Evy would be sad otherwise, but they also seem to just like hanging with each other? Like, when they get back to Cairo and Rick has his fight with Evy re. bailing or staying, he goes to the same bar Jonathan (and later the Americans) is and has a drink with him. And when they’re in Hamunaptra and Jonathan’s gun runs out of bullets (and he just... chucks the gun at the mummies XD) Rick physically drags him away. Also he takes a moment to ask Jonathan if he’s all right after making a door with dynamite and practically hauls him out of there. In TMR when they’re being shot at by Hafez’s men and they hunker down behind the statue, Rick has his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder the whole time. Don’t tell me they don’t like each other, because I will Call Shenanigans. (Of course I also think they’re vitriolic best buds/brothers-in-law and know they can throw all the snark at each other with no filter because they’re family, and a ridiculously small family at that.)

The thing is, Rick being The Protagonist(TM) (even though we all know it’s Evy, I mean, come on), the movies never place him in a position where he needs someone else protecting him, which is a damn shame. I mean, Evy essentially goes with Imhotep to protect him, Jonathan, Ardeth and the Curator, and we all know she would and could cut a swath through the Army of Anubis to defend him, so that’s something. But, y’know. Not all protection needs to be physical. 

And now I’m picturing a party after a conference in London or something and Jonathan lounging about and enjoying the free buffet when he hears someone speak about (or to) Rick in a less than flattering manner - the kind of cold contempt disguised as politeness, refined and cultured and so very civilised it hardly sounds like they’re comparing him to an ape at all. It’s all in good fun, old chap.

And, you know, Rick is perfectly able to defend himself, savvy enough to know when to throw a punch and when not to, and quite smart enough to come up with a few barbed retorts. But he doesn’t have the codes. He’s not playing by the same rules these people are, which makes him even more of an outlier and just a tiny bit more vulnerable than usual.

Now, Jonathan’s best weapons were never his fists, but his words. He and Evy grew up in this kind of milieu. This is a language he’s learned to speak, if only to shield himself because when your mother is Egyptian and your father comes from English gentry you either grow a thick hide or you break. So he ambles in, glass in hand, looking harmless and a little ridiculous, and he just. Rips into the guy. Talks circles around the bloody twat in that same fake-politely savage manner until the bystanders are all laughing at the aforementioned twat. Never raises his voice, never loses the slight smirk that makes the twat want to throttle him, until the twat mumbles an excuse and flees.

Because they might not agree on a number of things, but Rick is a capital fellow and Jonathan Carnahan will not have his new brother-in-law vilified and ridiculed by this lot, thank you very much.

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

It’s week three of my Global-Pandemic-Induced decision to rewatch all of Supernatural, and so I’m still attempting to make this watch more productive than the last show that I binged.

So I’m on disc two now - that’s episodes 5 - 8 for those of you watching on Netflix. By the time we get to this disc, we know the basic formula for Supernatural as a series - Two Hunks + Fighting Evil to the Power of Acceptable Levels of Gore x Missing Dad = Ratings Gold. Or at the very least, good enough ratings that we’ll give you a season (or fourteen). And then...well...then.

Episode five is “Bloody Mary”, easily the scariest episode of this first season and, based on the nose dive that the formula takes after season 1, probably the entire series. Maybe it’s that the Bloody Mary legend was one that really got me as a kid, maybe it’s just that I don’t do so hot with ghosts, but guys this episode still made me turn on all the lights and avoid all my mirrors. I accidentally turned this episode on at 9pm and regretted it immediately. I walked away at one point to go clean my kitchen to strategically miss some of the spookier points and I walked back in during an even spookier point. I was mad that there were no commercials at the commercial break cut-to-black! The first time I watched this episode, I’m pretty sure I watched it through my fingers. This most recent viewing, I ALSO watched it through my fingers. Guys, THIS EPISODE. 

I will say it a-hecking-gain: This episode scared the SHIT out of me.

AND THEN, THEN! Then this show has the gall to go ahead and drop a major season/character plot point right there in the middle of all this content that I am actively trying not to look at: SURPRISE! Sam has premonition powers and sorta kinda knew that his girlfriend was gonna die a terrible death weeks before she dies. Because sure, why not? 

Ohmiglob the DRAMA.

I’m gonna take a moment to say that, yes, technically this piece of plot gets dropped within our first six episodes, so we can still safely say that, you know, they’re still setting up the story for the rest of the series. It’s not like a sudden twist they drop half way through the season, it’s being laid down as ground work. And I know that this turns out to be a MAJOR issue for the next four seasons at least, but can I just say: Kripke, you’re really throwing a lot at us. I mean, OK. here’s what we’ve got - 

The Winchester’s lost their mom at a young age to some evil thing. Cool, got it.

THEN they have daddy issues with C-minus Single Dad John Winchester. Alright, that seems logical. 

The brothers hunt bad guys looking for the thing that killed their mom. Ok still on board. 

There’s family drama, relatable. 

Dad’s gone missing and we gotta find, ok ok ok. 

Also Sam’s girlfriend dies in a fire, alright, so we’re looking for that thing now too. 

OH! And now Sam has magic powers. 

I mean, it’s a lot, right? We got a lot of layers here. That’s all I’m sayin.

So “Bloody Mary”, right? Big episode, big bad guy, they kinda loophole their way into defeating her but I’m not mad. Big reveal at the end, so kind of an important lore episode. And then...well...then we get the following episodes:

“Skinwalker” - gross-out fx, establishes Dean as a lonely asshole with a lot of APB’s out on him

“The Hook Man” - takes the Urban Legend angle of the show and dials it up to 11

“Bugs” - Does what it says on the tin.

Now to be fair: all three of these episodes have at least ONE shining moment that reveals a little more about the characters we’re working with, and that character development plays out in important ways in the rest of the season/series. But all three of them are arguably---

FILLER EPISODES-ODES-ODES-ODESSssssssss. 

Alright, maybe that’s unkind. Maybe we should call them standalones or self-contained. A Filler is an episode designed to “fill out” your season. It doesn’t necessarily move the overarching story of the season forward, although it may contain some concepts or revelations that are important later. I’d argue that Supernatural has only ever had two kinds of episodes - Series Arc and Filler. Not that that’s a bad thing -  I like a filler episode now and again. Depending on how heavy your season gets (and by all accounts Supernatural gets pretty heavy), they can be a nice breath of fresh air - also known as a Breather Episode. Or they can be just for fun. I’mma reference “Once More with Feeling” again because sure, why not throw in a musical episode in season 6 of a show about vampire slaying, that’s fine. I wanna reference something from Community here too, but honestly anything after season 2 could probably be called filler or self contained, so who even knows. I’ll point at the Voltron episode where they spend a day in the mall to gather some unobtainium for the ship and wacky shenanigans ensue. Point being, they can be times to break the mold and experiment and have fun with what you’re writing. Or they can be ridiculous nonsense. Mileage may vary. 

The crazy thing about these episodes is that they most closely resemble what Kripke intended the show to be in the first place. Kripke wanted a show that revolved around characters investigating American urban legends. What is more quintessentially urban legend than Bloody Mary, the Hook Man and curses from ancient Native American burial grounds? These were stories that I as the viewer was already sort of familiar with because I’d heard of all of them before. What I appreciated, specifically about the Bloody Mary episode, was that they a) acknowledge the fact that these are Urban Legends (capital letters and all) and then b) acknowledge that the legends vary wildly so a part of their job is figuring out what is true and what is rumor. I guess you could also call that a cop out but when I was a kid, I was told that Bloody Mary was the ghost of Queen Mary of England who was sister to Elizabeth I and was also violently anti-protestant. WHERE did I get this story? I have no idea. But I also have no idea where Sam got the “mutilated bride” story from either. 

In an old article I found circa season 2, Kripke actually talks about preferring standalone content to mythology/lore episodes in television. Both as a creator and as a viewer, he wants a show where people can jump in at any time and “join the party” wherever they are. That’s the beauty of procedurals - you don’t need to start from the beginning to enjoy them.

But what really got me personally hooked on the show was the mythology, was the season long arc to find John Winchester and whatever killed their mom. Those mythos episodes were where the meat of the show was for me - it usually involved a lot of feelings and a lot of character development which is still mostly my jam. If I’m obsessively watching a show, it’s because I’m connected to the characters and watching them struggle through the challenges in their path, not because I want to see what monster they kill next. 

And again, I’ll reiterate that each of these episodes contains an important nugget of character. In “Bloody Mary”, easily the least likely to be called Filler, we find out that Sam has weird magic powers that are the real source of his guilt over Jessica’s death. 

In “Skin”, we find out a lot about Dean’s inner landscape from the DopppleDeaner, who reveals that Dean is probably most afraid of people leaving him (be still my 19-year-old heart). 

Wasn’t mad about this bit...

Coulda done without this bit tho...

In “Hookman”...alright, you kinda got me on “Hookman”, but we do get the first appearance of the rocksalt shotgun and Sam talks with a girl about her dad issues which is really Sam talking about his own dad issues in the language of tv shows. Also, he maybe starts to move on from Jessica???? It’s unclear, and also a little weird but I guess he’s only 22 and that’s not that far off from 18/19. 

Really, WB?? Sneaking into sorority houses?

And then in “Bugs”, yes, even in “Bugs”, we get juicy little bit of tension between the brothers as they advise some teen boy about family dynamics. The fight shows a lot about what each character feels about their own experiences growing up the way they did, how they manage the expectations from their own father, and how they believe those family dynamics should exist. I mean I guess you could also argue this is the episode that plants the seed for Wincest, but I don’t really want to go there, let’s not talk about it.

This kid’s like, “This is...not a conversation about me and MY dad, is it?”

So they could be worse. I mean the last two definitely aren’t great, and we’ll see how they measure up to the Monster Truck episode later in the season, but they’re not bad episodes. 

So let’s flash forward to Now again - have we seen the end of Filler Episodes?

As I have mentioned in previous posts and will probably continue mentioning in future posts, the 22 episode season is not the norm anymore. A lot of articles I’ve read point to Breaking Bad as the first American show to really break that mold. Breaking Bad released only 7 episodes in it’s first season in 2007. When you’ve cut your story down that much, there’s no room for filler - you’re basically producing a 7 hour movie. 

Now notice I said American TV show. I’m pretty sure for most of the rest of the world, 22 episodes is way outside the norm, but really I can only speak to UK TV. Seasons in the UK do not last as long as seasons in America. Doctor Who, one of, if not the, longest running show on BBC, aired its first season with 42 episodes, which is mind boggling. But since the series revived in 2005, it hasn’t had more than 13 episodes in a season. Spooks/MI5 never had more than 10 episodes. The IT Crowd only aired 6 episodes per season. Broadchurch had only 8. And because I must complete the Superwholock trifecta, Sherlock seasons were only 3 episodes a piece. These are the shows that spring to mind while I’m writing this, but you get the idea.

So why does American broadcast TV have such long seasons? Well, the answer is: moneymoneymoney.

We live in an age of “prestige” TV. Some throw around “Golden Era”, but there’s been like, a Golden Era of television every 10 years since tv’s became household commodities, so that phrase basically means nothing. TV today is more similar to long-form film making than it was a decade ago. We associate terms like “film” with other terms like “art”, and sometimes we forget that television is, and always was, a business. It’s a business that’s making a lot of money entertaining you for hours on end, but a business nonetheless. I’d argue that it doesn’t mean it’s not art, but I don’t think we can separate the art and entertainment value of tv from its actual monetary value. 

Strategically, the 22-episode season was to get a show to a magical number of total episodes - 100. Once you hit the 100th episode, somewhere around season 5 (thanks math), then you can sell the show in syndicated reruns. This is also referred to as second-run syndication or off-network syndication. When a show is syndicated, that means the production company that produces the show can now sell the right to air episodes to other channels. Think channels like TBS or TNT or even USA Network - they don’t really dabble in producing their own content, they just repackage content from other networks to plug in to empty slots in their programming. And because these channels can air episodes 5 days a week, 365 days a year, that means the production company can actually make more money by selling the show in syndication than when they sold the show to the primary network. The more episodes you have in a season, the faster you get to syndication, and sometimes that means a show that’s on the brink of cancellation due to poor numbers may still get greenlit for another season or two if they’re closer to that magic 100th episode. For a show like Supernatural, that has a very procedural, not-super-heavy-mythos, structure, you can do very well in syndication. Just cuz another network agreed to air your show doesn’t mean they agreed to air it in order, so procedurals work better in syndication than your season-arc shows do. And that’s why we have episodes like Bugs, that have nothing to do with the overarching plot of the season and also phone in some questionable CGI. 

Apparently they DID use real bugs to shoot this scene and everyone got bit to hell but the bugs didn’t show up good and they went with CG anyway?!?

But these days, you don’t have to hit 100 episodes. Sometimes only 80 episodes will do. Sometimes, you run a streaming site and you don’t have to worry about reruns at all because your revenue isn’t generated from air time or even ads, but from subscription prices. Honestly, when you think of it that way, it makes way more sense to greenlight shorter seasons so that you have the budget to buy more and more diverse shows that will appeal to a broader audience of viewers. 

So if Supernatural was produced today, would we get these off-shoot, self-contained episodes that have little to do with the plot of finding Sam and Dean’s dad? It’s hard to say. Knowing what I do about Kripke’s original plans for the show and his thoughts on procedural standalone episodes in general, its possible that he’d still try for a traditional season aired on a traditional TV network. But in that same interview I quoted above, he also mentions that the only way to get into a show with a heavy mythos is to buy the DVDs. We don’t need DVDs anymore - we have Netflix. And Hulu and Prime and any number of other streaming services that pick up any show they can get just to have a larger library of content and attract new viewers. I think a good indicator of what Supernatural would look like if it aired today is Hulu’s Helstrom - a show about two siblings with a childhood marked by strange and terrible happenings, who spend the season trying to defeat an evil demon. This show is a Hulu original that dropped all 10 episodes on October 16, 2020, and damn if that doesn’t sound familiar. I told a friend, “it’s like Supernatural but more emotions.” (Her response was, MORE emotions?!?!?) And before you dive down the rabbit hole, the characters in Helstrom made their debut in a Marvel comic back in the 70’s, so you can just chalk it up to nothing new under the sun. 

Big Mood, guys. Big Mood.

I’ll close this one by reiterating I don’t mind a filler episode. Some fillers can be weird and great and wonderful. I’d say “Tales of Ba Sing Se” (Avatar the Last Air Bender, Season 2)  is a great example - with the possible exception of Appa, the vignettes presented in “Tales” are basically side quests that have nothing to do with the main quest of season 2 and only serve to develop characters. The stories are sweet and touching and also light and fun.

I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying! It’s ok, I’m also crying. 

 And the longer a show runs, the more likely you are to run into these fillers - episodes that take a break from the main action to bring something that’s new and out of the box and possibly/probably writers getting bored with the every-day formula of the show. I think season 1 of Supernatural does a decent job of balancing the two styles of episode so that neither gets boring. In fact, I’m pretty Supernatural was what taught me the difference between the two episode styles in the first place. And the first time around, I was hyped for those season arc episodes, because back in the late 2000’s, I hadn’t seen a lot of TV content like that. Now, 15 years on and mired in a sea of seasons that stick mainly to a season arc story with little to no room for breathing, I think that if all TV became nothing but season arc episodes...well, it’d get pretty boring. 

[entamewitchlulu]

Homura’s Flash Reviews [Winter 2019]

What’s up nerds I finished watching all of the anime I was following through winter 2019 and I am READY to TALK ABOUT THEM

The Price of Smiles

On a faraway planet, two nations are engaged in a long running war.  Princess Yuki of the Kingdom of Soleil, however, has been kept in the dark about the ongoing conflict, until her best friend is killed during a skirmish.  Meanwhile, in the Empire of Grandiga, a foot soldier named Stella tries her best to stay smiling through the horrors of war.  Presenting the war through their eyes on both sides of the conflict, both girls will affect the flow of the planet’s future and the outcome of the war.

Whew okay, this one was absolutely a hit or miss show. It started off really strong, with some actually decently designed and built characters, some good dynamics shown off between characters within just a few moments, and some not too shabby animation.  Plus, the OP is a jam.  Unfortunately, by around episode 5, the animation had taken a steep dive, and the theme of the show seemed to have turned into WAR IS BAD WAR IS BAD WAR IS BAD as slammed into you repeatedly with a baseball bat, by killing off one or two named characters per episode, and making you absolutely feel like hope was completely dashed.  IMO, the ending was a relief and a joy, though I can absolutely imagine many people feeling sort of cheated, because

[SPOILERS] after all of that pain, death, and sadness, it sort of just...wraps up with a neat little bow.And dammit, I feel like I EARNED that happy ending, as stupid and unrealistic it might have been.  I feel like it was worth watching just for a few of those shots in the last episode. [END SPOILERS]

Unrealistic, to be sure, and definitely emotionally exhausting, this isn’t one that I would actively recommend, but perhaps it’s easier to swallow when you’re not waiting weeks between episodes.  Honestly I would rather have had these characters in a totally different series.

overall: 5/10

The Promised Neverland

Emma, Ray, and Norman, three incredibly smart eleven-year-olds, live together with the rest of their family at the Gracefield House, an idyllic refuge for orphans where there is always enough to eat, they get to spend all day in play, their ever-caring mama is always there for them, and every orphan is adopted by the age of twelve. But when they learn a horrifying secret about the House, the children must begin a battle of minds to outwit their caretakers and escape into the unknown world beyond the House.

God wow okay so that was a fucking RIDE.  I had not read the manga or heard anything about this one until everyone started going apeshit over the upcoming anime, so I had NO SPOILERS.  And HOLY S H I T.  This was incredible.  The animation and music direction are spot on, the designs are so nice and clean and still capture the essence of the manga’s art.  And the twists!! holy shit the TWISTS.  I don’t want to spoil a damn thing so people can watch this and experience it on their own!  I’d be so shook after an episode that i would LITERALLY be shaking!  The cast is so endearing and amazing, and I can’t talk about the plot twists enough.  Excellent excellent excellent!

Though, unfortunately, there is one thing that does drag this show down quiteee a bit...and that’s the racist caricature of Sister Krone. She is almost lifted straight out of an old racist cartoon about Black people and it’s absolutely discomforting. Definitely do recommend that if that’s something that will discomfort you, that you either skip this show, or at least you have the knowledge that it’s coming.

overall: 9/10

Mysteria Friends

Two princesses, Anne and Grea, become friends at a magic academy, each episode following their daily lives from shopping outings to performing in a school play as the leads.  Based on the Granblue Fantasy mobage.

Ohhhh my gosh okay this one was SO CUTE....not really anything happened in any episode, it was very much a magical slice of life show, but GOD IT WAS SO CUTE!!  Anne and Grea are very much in lesbians with each other, and while it’s definitely queerbaiting as they never actually do anything with it to confirm their relationship, I didn’t care that much because they were just so adorable.  And with each episode only being 15 minutes, it was an easy and relaxing show to watch at the end of watching those last two shows. 

overall: 8/10

Mob Psycho 100 II

Following the first season, this time our powerful psychic Mob meets new friends and new enemies, all while learning how to accept and allow himself to feel the emotions he’s kept under wraps for so long.

Just as good as the first!! This is definitely one of the best shows to tackle the concept of pacifism that I’ve ever seen, doing it in a way that’s sensitive without being naive. Once again, Reigen steals the show by being the world’s first reasonable adult in a shonen anime, and the rest of the new cast of characters are also each fun and lovable in their own way, even the villains!  Animation is on point to wild effect, and the atmosphere of this show honestly blows me away every time.

overall: 9/10

Ace Attorney s2

Continuing the courtroom shenanigans of Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, and friends, this seaon focuses on a series of cases, most of which all lead back to the same unfinished case once prosecuted by Mia Fey.

Well that was fun!  It was pretty much the same as season one in terms of writing/plot/etc.  Fun, comical, a little sad at times, and full of fun characters who can point hard enough to cause wind gusts that knock other people over.  Is this a courtroom or is this Dragon Ball Z??

overall: 8/10

[roxannc]

❝ Girls like her were born in a storm. They have lightning in their souls. Thunder in their hearts. And chaos in their bones. ❞ AISHA DEE? No, that’s actually ROXANNE WEASLEY. A SIXTH YEAR student, this RAVENCLAW student is sided with MCGONAGALL’S ARMY. SHE identifies as CIS-WOMAN and is a HALFBLOOD who is known to be DRAMATIC, HAUGHTY, and TEMPERAMENTAL but also PASSIONATE, SOCIABLE, and OPENMINDED.

LINKS: stats, pinboard, character tag. CHARACTER PARALLELS: donna pinciotti (that 70s show), amy pond (doctor who), amy santiago (brooklyn 99), dan wilds (aftg) HELLO just a quick note from me mar, some of this is for sure up for change, mostly regarding the wotters and family in general!! besides that, here we finally Go

history

roxanne voice: i was born in an iconic family because it was my destiny to be iconic! but --- in all honesty --- she is right. roxanne is born to george & angelina one hot summer morning, waking up the whole damn hospital with her crying and huge lungs. she has a brother --- fred, who’s officially her half brother, but that’s not something that makes him anything less than her brother. and then there’s heaps of cousins, almost too many of them, and uncles and aunts and other people to call family, and from day one, it’s all good.

roxanne was a chaotic kid, growing up. a cheerful and energetic and exciting one, but a chaotic one. dirty walls and destruction followed her wherever she went. a bit of a hurricane of a girl, even then. roxanne discovered her love for quidditch at a young age, too, and how couldn’t she? it was in her blood and all around her and there was something bloody magical about flying.

a love for people and laughter and loving people was also discovered. roxanne grew up in a warm environment and had plenty of reasons to love the people she loved, even if she needed none. there was, of course, tragedy in her blood too, an awareness that there’s horrible things in this world --- an awareness that she buried as soon as she was able to.

upon arrival at hogwarts, the hat took a while to decide between gryffindor and ravenclaw but went with the latter, in the end. was roxanne disappointed? a bit, maybe. she would have liked to be sorted into the same house as her parents and brother and a lot of her family but the hat had made some solid points and heck, she wouldnt be roxanne if she looked at ravenclaw as a challenge.

was eventually sorted in ravenclaw because her mind, in the end, is her motivator. she might be a very physically active and present person, but she thinks. a lot. about everything. ( with an exception for moments where she acts on impulse. ) roxanne is a very bright individual, to be honest --- she’s able to be booksmart and she likes learning. she likes challenging herself. above all, she just has a Very open mind and is always looking to broaden it.

is a whirlwind. roxanne joined and dropped clubs like no other, switched favourite subject every month, delved into odd sections of the library to become an expert on rare subjects ... it was a lot. her grades suffered under it, too --- roxanne might be a loyal person, but she’s damn flighty. there were, of course, passions that she stuck with. quidditch, of course, but also justice. roxanne, as a queer woman of colour, has always felt very passionately for human rights issues and knows shit about it too. always down for a debate over lunch. getting on the quidditch team was one of the best days of her damn life. getting the quidditch badge later on was an even better day. roxanne loves the sport so much, wants to go pro once she’s graduated, is crazy competitive. she’s a gay jock. another cliché character by mar learned eventually how to focus and keep her grades up, but she does have trouble motivating herself for things that dont interest her. she’s just not an academic. she likes learning, loves it actually --- but hates the way she has to do it at school. hates it. she’s still working hard to get good grades, of course, because she gets that that’s part of life but she just really... wishes it wasnt. [ death, murder tw  so life was going pretty good and then her uncle was murdered and everything went to shit like that. and--- here’s roxanne’s question: how in the living hell do you deal with that? she doesn’t know, that’s for sure. she knows that she’s angry. that she’s absolutely livid and not sure what to do with the grief in her chest because damn it, that’s not her thing, not at all. she’s sickened with worry. she mostly is enraged at the world and that this is happening and that people can be like this. end of tw ]

so joining the DA was something roxanne didn’t even think about. she just did it. her studies, once again, have taken a backseat while she pushes all her energy into the DA and the team, as that functions as something ... as close as therapeutic as she can get, i suppose. leading her team, searching that snitch, hoping to win, win, win --- all things that in the grand scheme of things dont matter but do make it easier to deal.

roxanne ... she’s a lot. she’s a fucking lot. she’s a mess. 

personality & rambling

roxanne does NOTHING half heartedly; she either commits fully or doesn’t do something at all. she doesn’t do half-assing, doesn’t believe in it — this got her in a fair amount of trouble at hogwarts (handing in 10/10 homework or ,,, not doing it or barely doing it) and she knows it’s a bad attitude to have, deep down. not that she’s admitted that to herself yet, though. things have been put in perspective now, though. it’s clear that there’s no room for just doing what she wants to do and what she feels like, so she’s ... improving ( and yet completely abandoning her studies lmao )

when roxanne is passionate about something, she goes on about it for a long time. loves ranting about topics that drive her, is very vocal of her views and thoughts and hardly shuts up about it. can be condescending, at times; roxanne believes she’s always right, has little humility to her — she often doesn’t try to put herself in other people’s shoes, thinks that anyone who disagrees is simply wrong. it’s a thinking pattern she’s trying to shake, but alas; it’s easier said than done.

this is also a way for her to cope with her insecurities, tbh; she puts others down in her head so she can lift herself up. unhealthy!!! yikes! it’s something she’s pretty unaware of.

i mean, roxanne is, deep down, very fucking insecure. she has this surname that’s got a bit of fame to it and she has such high ideals for everyone around her including herself. especially for herself. her confidence is not completely feigned, i think part of it is definitely real, but part of it is definitely a mask

roxanne LOVES music. she’s into everything that either is a jam, old classic rock or has a damn good message. she’s v passionate abt it. her spotify? gold. she’s also a good singer! this video is literally roxanne im sorry aisha dee move over! honestly if she had mroe time she would try and get into music bc she would love that but yeno quidditch is the name of the game (someone show her hsm and show her that u can do both)

she’s so competitive someone please stop her from fighting everyone over quidditch

uh she’s just very... much. she’s outgoing and loud and dramatic and her emotions are like! all over the place! and change very easily! she thinks she’s a lot herself too tbh she’s constantly exhausted from herself which i think is valid and relatable on a personal lvl for me. 

possible plots

friendos roxanne loves ppl and loving ppl so let’s go and have some FRIENDS up in this building. couldve met through family things, in the library, on the pitch, in dueling club, in any other club that roxanne was in for a short amount of time, etc etc etc. roxanne is fairly easy to place at hogwarts bc she’s everywhere

quidditch competition just give me all the plots if you have a fellow quidditch pal because roxanne is ready to fight to the death for that cup!!

dumbledore’s army bros people that roxanne got to know better through the da would be v interesting because it’s a ??? weird base for a friendship or dynamic ( i mean, a tough one. like ... we’re buds because we’re fighting for a cause whihc we shouldnt even be fighting for bc the world shouldnt be like this )

idk roxanne is literally so all over the place, if your character is at hogwarts im sure we can plot something??? enemies, shenanigan pals, exes, study buddies, etc etc etc

[kusunokihimea]

                                                  [ Art || Background ]

     [ Hey y’all! So uh...while this iteration of my dinky blog isn’t three years old, I have been lurking around this site in total (for RP) for three years now, as of...technically yesterday, eh heh. And good golly there has been a LOTTA growth since then. My muses and I have come a looong way, in regards to writing, editing, and getting to know so many people over the course of three years. Some have come and gone, and some have stayed...though few since those beginning days when Sylvie had NO idea what they were doing, ha!

     And though I’ve only recently gone through my second revamp, there’s still a gaggle a’y’all that have stuck around. Some even from those very beginning days. So, I’d like to take a minute to just...gush about some of ya, cuz you’ve made being in this community fun, welcoming, and honestly like a second family to us. While I don’t have time to ramble about EVERYONE, I’m gonna do my darnedest to do as much as I can, and just...say thank you for making me able to stay this long, and have as much fun as I’ve had. It means the world to me <3

     Now, on to the ramblin’! Under a cut, cuz...it’s probably gonna get long xD Still, I’ll try to be brief so it doesn’t get too out of control, lmao ]

     [ The Fam Jam ]

     So these are the peeps that have stuck by me through thick, thin, and many blog changes xD Those who have consistently interacted with us, and have developed amazing bonds between muns and muses alike. <3

@13lilypetals - Little sib Ghost. Fellow SH trash. Also a multimuse juggler. You’ve been someone who’s become a close friend, wonderful RP partner, and a great member of the community as a whole. Keep up the awesome work!

@ascxndinggg Matt, my son, darling baby boy =P With such a creative, intelligent mind, wonderful diverse muses, and one of the few things keeping me sane both on this hellsite, and in life in general. Love you bud.

@duckbuttavenger / @cutelittlemuffins / @straycatanbu Sanjiii, such a sweetheart. I love your beans, and I love you! You’re always a blast to write with, even if we know some muses better than others. They’re all 11/10!

@despairinghxpe / @masterofwar Phoenix, omg I’m so glad you’re back. I’ve had some of my most in-depth threads with you and your boyos. I always look forward to your replies. And you’re such a darling - always a joy to talk to ooc about our beans!

@gentlegraceful-and-fatal Dani, I know you’re not on much anymore, and I hope life’s not kickin’ your butt too hard. You put so much love into your muses, and I love when they interact with mine. Here’s hoping you can creep around more soon enough x3

@frogprinceus / @redlineoffate / @red-winged-hero-hawks Omg Mitsuki where do I even start with you xD You have such a wonderful cast of muses, so many of which have bonded so wonderfully with mine. I always enjoy our interactions, no matter what combo of beans!

@flakclad I know you’re not on too much anymore Rhi, but I still love your boys (tho I think this is the only one I’m currently following after remaking, whoops). You give them such wonderful personalities, and I love writing with them any day of the week.

@yukaikokoro Another OC bean! Star oh my goodness, you’re such a great friend and writing partner - you let me drown you in all my OG verse shenanigans, and I love it xD

@twojackalsandahedgie Apricot! I’ve stalked you around through a few blogs now, haha! You’re such a sweetheart, and your muses are great. I can’t wait to see how your blog takes shape once it’s even MORE of a multimuse!

@hotmessofmuses I’ve loved all our threads, Bailey - you write all your muses so well, and I’ve been so psyched to get to interact with them, especially in the famjam verses. It’s so much fun. And good luck with all you’re doing irl!

@roaringxflames Lief dear, I know you’re not active much anymore, but I just want you to know I’ve enjoyed all of our interactions, here and on other bloggus. I hope life is treating you well, and you find greener pastures in new fandoms :3

@cinderspewed / @bitebxck Oh goodness Verona, you’re just! Such a cool person, and your muse is so dynamic and intriguing and drives my marshmallow nuts xD I hope school isn’t crushing your soul too badly, haha! Good fortune, friend!

@kyuuzuchiha / @thebubbledome / @xkaekox BOOOOO I LOVE YOUR BEANS. I know that feel about having trouble writing/catching up lately, but! No matter your pace, we love writing with you, and I hope you find your groove soon!

@quiet-kunoichi Ahaha, Jack, another fellow OC bean. I love your muse. I think you know that but just to be sure, lemme say it again. And you’re great. You’re both great. I love ya. And I hope you’re well!

@abyssaldespair Meeeg...your boyo has stolen my gorl xD We’ve had so many shenanigans since we met I can’t count them, but gosh you’re so fun to write with, and even tho you’ve abandoned me (jk, jk), I still love writing our babbs in drabbles. I will sink with this ship xD

@wanderingmelodies MEEEY I know you’re super swamped but I hope you know I love ya and your beans and I hope you get your zine work done! Good luck and stuff, and hopefully life lets up for you soon, dear!

@multicanon-rp Bruh, I love your Itachi (and I’ve seen snippets of your other beans, they’re great!). It’s been so much fun to see him and Ryū get to know each other from that initial drama. I love writing with ya!

@hushedsunflower *squints at* Who even is this nerd? Oh right, you’re the one responsible for me even being here! Not to mention one of my oldest friends, nbd =P I love your Hina, and I’m glad you’ve gotten back into RP, my friend~

     [ The Inspirations ]

     These are the ones I’ve maybe not RPed with as much as I’d like, but who inspire me to be better in my writing, my lore creation, and characterization! <3

@hyugainterior / @clanburden Your storytelling skill just...blows my mind, holy smokes. Though I miss bits and pieces, your narrative on HI has been enrapturing, and I always try to catch all the drabbles. I never know what’s gonna happen next, but I can’t look away - it’s like a beautiful, horrible car crash! With Hinata in the driver’s seat!

@sennenryuu / @raikirisms N, your OC is just...so amazingly in-depth. As someone who adores making lore and characters, yours has been one I’ve looked up to since being introduced to your blog. And don’t even get me started on your Kakashi, or how beautiful your art is, my goodness. I love it all!

@houndnin / @mactabilis A blast from the past! I know you’re uber busy so you prolly won’t see this, but omg your muses are the bee’s knees. Another well-crafted OC, and an awesome take on Kakashi. Definitely a blog that inspires me to keep improving!

@masshirohebi Oh goodness, this blog is one I’ve looked up to for a long time. You write Orochimaru so beautifully. They’re so intricate and full of life and detail. Your replies are so well put-together, it always blows me away. I know our interactions have been brief, but I’ve enjoyed them so much!

     [ The Neat Beans ]

     Those on the ‘outer fringe’ - maybe we’ve poked at each other’s muses once or twice, but we’re still workin’ on getting muses to know each other - here’s to more! <3

     ~*~ @silverfaxg ~*~ @ketsuekki ~*~ @i-minato-chan ~*~ @kotoanatsukami ~*~ @crackuzu ~*~ @the-younger-umino ~*~ @origami-goddess ~*~ @inumbratte / @willsoffire / @leafstruck ~*~

     [ The Lurkers ]

     And last (but certainly not least), the beans I’ve not really talked to, but appreciate for bein’ around nonetheless! Never be afraid to say hi <3

     ~*~ @betterhealing ~*~ @tennome ~*~ @hiramekxrei ~*~ @tentaiiled / @sandsharrk ~*~ @dirt-ninja ~*~ @strengthwilled ~*~ @silentyoru ~*~ @blossomfury ~*~ @inotheflower ~*~ @cxmpetitivecaptain ~*~ @malacusleana ~*~ @granddiviner ~*~ @avengeriiism ~*~ @xchidoriisms ~*~

     All right, I really hope that’s everyone - my following list is still rather short after the move, so I wanted to at least give everyone a mention and a lil thank you. Here’s to another three years, fates allowing! Thank you all again for your support - it means the world <3

[eldermillarmissionblog]

Mountain YSA Transfer 2 Week 5

Good morning!!

I am alive, happy, and doing well!! I apologize that I have been inconsistent with writing emails recently. I'm not the best at time management on p-days and have run out of time to write before I have to get back to work at 5:30 pm. I'm writing early this morning so I don't run into that problem again…haha!!

First and foremost, I'll give y'all a little update on those we are teaching:

Juan is a stud. A few weeks ago we stopped by a house looking for a member of our local congregation but found out that person didn't live there anymore. We started talking to the man who answered the door (Juan) and just had small talk. He said we could come back another time but didn't seem too interested. Well, we've now gone back multiple times and he is very open to talking with us!! We've come to find out that during high school he had a lot of friends who were members of our faith and frequently went to activities with them. He even attended seminary. After high school he made a few wrong turns in life and has had a lot of challenges, but now is looking for a new start and change. He is so humble and ready to let God into his life. Without us even talking to him about it, he has already begun to pray often. He goes on walks and listens to General Conference talks, and since our last visit he has started to read a little in the Book of Mormon. It's so wonderful to see his progress and see light and happiness return in his life. Please keep him in your prayers. He has such pure and honest intentions and is seeking a better life :)

Brandon and Jason: both of them are people we met on Facebook and have been talking to for the last little while. Brandon doesn't live in our area so we will have to refer him soon to missionaries near him, but we have had two lessons over video chat and he is so awesome. Jason is a young man who actually lives in a neighboring town to Snowflake and we are trying to schedule a time to visit. Just like Juan he also grew up around members of our church and is open to talking with us. I will keep you updated on how it goes with them :)

P-day shenanigans: 

Our p-days recently have been jam-packed. Two weeks ago we went down to a town called Show Low and played tennis, frisbee golf, and Spikeball for like 7 hours. To all my friends in Provo...get ready! When I come back to BYU you already know we're gonna have Spikeball tournaments…haha. Then last p-day we went on a hike, played board games, and ate at good ol' El Cupidos (a Mexican restaurant that is pretty famous here in town). Thankfully, since we are already at 6,000 ft elevation, we didn't hike up mountains like we did in the valley. Instead, we went down into a ravine and walked along a dried riverbed. There were some old Native American petroglyphs which were pretty cool. I'll include some pics. 

Random people I've met:

So I haven't met anyone famous recently, but I have run into two people who know my family. One older gentleman I was talking to asked if I had a grandfather from Idaho. I said yes and told him his name. Well, come to find out, my grandpa performed a quadruple bypass heart surgery on his father and saved his life. It's a small world…haha. Then a few weeks later we were standing in line at a restaurant and a man started talking to all the missionaries. When he saw that my name tag said “Millar” he asked if I knew Benny Millar. I told him yeah that was my dad. Turns out he went to medical school with my dad, and my grandma is the reason his wife agreed to marry him…haha (long story). Crazy times!!

Mission tour:

This past week we had a mission tour with our Area President Seventy named Elder Pieper. We had one or more meetings each day throughout the entire week. He talked a lot about the principle of faith unto repentance and also how we can improve as missionaries and change the way we teach. I'll include some of what I learned as part of my spiritual thought today, but the whole week was just awesome. It has honestly changed my mission and helped me view the gospel in a whole new light. I am exceedingly grateful for the inspired men and women that have been called of God to lead this church. :)

Spiritual thought:

I love hope. :) There is so much that changes in life, but there is one source of perpetual hope, truth and stability—Jesus Christ. During our mission tour this past week, I learned much about what hope is and how we can have more of it in our lives. One thing I understood is that hope is the ability for and expectation of change. It is a desire for better circumstances, more joy, and more stability. Well, Jesus Christ is that source of joy, stability, and ability to change. To elaborate more, it's important to recognize this truth in reference to the Savior's sacrifice for us. Yes, Christ suffered and died for our sins, but He also suffered for all our trials, sicknesses, weakness, pain, and shortcomings. He knows it all, and He knows how to overcome it all. In turn, He knows how to help us change, or have hope. This change is often referred to in the scriptures as repentance. Repentance is such a wonderful thing. :) As we exercise our faith in Christ unto repentance, we can change for the better and find incomprehensible happiness. Sadly, there are many external circumstances that no matter how hard we try we cannot change or get rid of completely. However, through Christ and our efforts to become closer to Him, we can always have hope in Him that change is available, whether in the near future, or in the eternities. Find one way to draw closer to Him this week. :) Have hope through Christ. Do what you need to to have faith unto repentance (change) and I can promise the Savior stands by you every step of the way. In the name of Him who is the source of all that is good, even Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all!! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. God is good! Have a great week!

Elder Millar

Pics:

The hike

Me and the legend Elder Walker

Blurry pic of petroglyphs

[miss-m-calling]

Fandom 5k letter

Requests:

Adult Wednesday Addams -- Wednesday Addams

American Gods (TV) -- Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

Cabin Pressure -- Carolyn & Arthur & Martin & Douglas

Moonlighting (TV) -- David Addison/Maddie Hayes

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with.

I do give more or more detailed prompts for some of these canons than for others – that’s not because I want some more than others, but only because for some I get lots of ideas, for others I’m more “waves arms all over the place give me more of XYZ I love in canon!!” I hope whatever I put down sparks your creativity, and feel free to reach out through the mods if you have any questions! My likes and DNWs are all the way on the bottom of the letter.

Without further ado…

Requests:

Adult Wednesday Addams

Wednesday Addams

Genres: Action/adventure, Canon-style plot, Humor, Slice of life, Worldbuilding

I belatedly discovered this webseries, and it resurrected (see what I did there?) my love for Wednesday and how the Addams Family canon runs on the endless possibilities of this loving, happily eccentric family being 100% true to themselves and the world just having to deal with it. The show was everything I never knew I wanted till I watched it, the perfect blend of Addams-macabre and cozy slice of life with bonus Wednesday navigating the world alone, without always knowing her family will back her up, and it made me crave more of adult Wednesday’s mini adventures in LA. For this canon, I’m good with gen or, if you want to write that, more of Wednesday’s adventures in dating guys who really aren’t up to the challenge, and you can absolutely have Wednesday interact with OCs I haven’t listed as part of a pairing. I’m keeping the prompts pretty short, just to (hopefully) pique your creativity, as I expect I will love any way you make these or any similar scenarios play out:

-Wednesday goes to IKEA

-More of Wednesday’s interactions with the nice interns at her receptionist job. Maybe they invite her out to happy hour, or to the beach or a club. Or maybe we get to eavesdrop while they shoot the breeze on their lunch break, possibly over barbecue-chicken pizza from CPK.

-More of Wednesday’s gigs. She already babysits and walks other people’s dogs, what else might she do for extra cash that would be both really common and seemingly ill-suited to Wednesday, except she totally makes it work for her? Cat sitting (especially if the cat belongs to someone incredibly rich whose house is full of secrets – and expensive things for the cat to knock over), driving an Uber/Lyft, becoming an AirBnB host, catering/server, working the late shift in a New Age/occult supply store where none of the woo is real…?

-Or, alternately, Wednesday finds a career that is perfect for her, in which she can have success and respect. What ever could that be and still fit into the non-Addams world?

-Wednesday tries speed dating

-Or, she runs into Brian a.k.a. chains guy (I cackle with glee every time I rewatch the bit when he tries to kiss her at the pet store) a third time – how does it not go quite as he wanted or expected this time?

-Wednesday’s family comes out to sunny, plastic, image-conscious LA to visit her and make sure she’s doing alright. She gives them a tour of the city, and LA will never be the same again.

-Wednesday takes an evening class, or goes back to school part time, or enrolls in an online degree program

-Wednesday takes a road trip, alone or with her apartment mates/colleagues/Brian/strangers she met for carpooling purposes. Bonus points if you work in real roadside attractions, or tourist traps, or famous sites/landscapes.

-It’s Dia de Muertos, and Wednesday goes out to celebrate and soak up the atmosphere. It may or may not live up to her expectations.

-If you wanted to get a bit meta and/or enjoy playing around with different formatting, what does Wednesday’s Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook/Tindr look like? Or, Wednesday gets tasked with updating company social media at her receptionist job, and she does it with her own special flair.

American Gods (TV)

Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney

Genres: Action/adventure, AU - canon divergence, Canon-style plot, Character development, Getting together, Smut, Worldbuilding

Let me preface this by saying how much I appreciate that you are willing to write for an ongoing canon! I love this pairing, and while most of my prompts are basically the same ones I’ve used in exchanges before S2 (which I am watching) started airing, let me assure you that I am 1000% fine with your fic getting jossed, or including a divergence from what we already know or how things happen in canon. You can work with the canon -- or as much of it as we have by the time you’re done writing -- or diverge in a way that works for your story. Really truly honestly it’s all fine since you are writing for an active canon, and I really truly honestly appreciate you wanting to tackle this! Canon divergences and canon-flavored-if-not-entirely-compliant stories are my jam, so please don’t feel anxious as the canon keeps unfolding, nor pressed to keep up with S2 if you can’t or don’t want to watch it right now. (I tried to keep S2 spoilers to a minimum in my prompts, but there are some spoilers.)

So *clears throat*

I ship it. Yes I do. They had me at “gimme-my-coin-dead-wife��-flicks-him-into-wall. The snarky road trip was the best thing I never knew I wanted until it happened, and I adored every second of it. They’re both such assholes and so fascinating, even if they start to mellow toward each other a bit toward the end of S1, and all the gods/magic/resurrection stuff swirling around them begs to be explored further. Also I love love love how their dynamic is about equal parts spikiness, pathos, and humor (they’re funny! and the canon doesn’t shy away from putting them in ludicrous situations), and it weaves seamlessly between those three. Plus she’s half his size yet can and does beat him up with literally one finger, and then there’s the angst of he having killed her, feeling really guilty about it, and then bringing her back.

Please give me either missing scenes from the road trip (if you can work in a divergence, that’s great - for example, I like Salim, but if you want to have him boot Sweeney and Laura to the curb and go off on his own, or Sweeney to boost his taxi before Salim catches them, or whatever else to have those two alone, go for it!), or a S1 divergence (instead of going to Ostara, they go where? to see whom? about getting Laura resurrected) or something about these two post-S1/during-S2:

-Laura discovers (how? you decide!) that Sweeney gave her back the coin after their accident – whatever happens next, some punching may be involved.

-Wednesday’s big war finally comes, and “don’t you dare die on me, you asshole” is a line either Sweeney or Laura (or both) might say to each other.

-Laura asked “What does Wednesday have to lose?” and the answer is…? (Yes, give me that sweet poetic justice. One possibility, though not remotely the only one, but as of S2E3 Laura is technically a god-killer...)

-On a similar note, Wednesday told that luckless cop that Sweeney had been against the big gods’ war from the start, and while Wednesday lies, Sweeney definitely seems to be participating out of a sense of obligation and lingering guilt over the war he ran from long ago, rather than lust for a good fight or even a dominant death wish. What if he decided to hell with Grimnir and his war and his having Sweeney kill random people? I’m guessing Sweeney too drank three glasses of mead so he can’t back out without dire consequence - but he does have a fierce, dead woman in his corner.

-They go to some as-yet-unnamed old god (feel free to bring in whatever mythology you want) in order to bring Laura back to life. Between Sweeney’s mouth and temper, and Laura’s mouth and temper, it doesn’t go well. Now one or both of them are in big magical trouble with a pissed-off deity and have to get themselves/each other out of it.

-Things happen and Laura finds herself in the position to throw Sweeney under the bus but also help/save him, and while he knows it’s only karma, he can still be pissed about it - how do they navigate this?

-Laura gets fully alive again, but traces of her (un)dead state remain – what are they, how does she cope, what price did she/he/they have to pay for her resurrection, and how does their relationship change? I’d especially be curious how it would work if they’re already a sorta-maybe-item and *then* she’s alive again and it’s weird in a new way.

-For reasons I’ll leave up to you, Sweeney and Laura have to stay put in a single place for a while and end up essentially cohabiting, regardless of what their relationship is at that point. Take “cohabiting” as literally or as creatively as you want -- in any case, I’m sure it will be marvelously disastrous and amazing.

-Slight or major AU from the opening of “The Ways of the Dead”: Laura has hitchhiked with Sweeney instead of going off in a huff with Wednesday, or she otherwise gets to New Orleans sooner, and she and Sweeney tear up the town together. Gimme bar fights, carnival shenanigans, backstage craziness with the Christian rock band (Sweeney seems to have a backstage pass on a lanyard around his neck when Laura finds him)… Maybe they even cross the paths of some loa and it doesn’t get all angsty (for what it’s worth, I think the reason the sex magic didn’t bring Laura back to life was because she couldn’t accept the truth(s) revealed during the astral-plain sex – see how she defaults straight to “this is all Wednesday’s evil plan” the morning after – not because the loa fucked them over as Sweeney said). They were actually getting along nicely in those first couple of scenes, only ribbing each other a little while still being their grouchy selves, before they got to Le Coq Noir. I wouldn’t have minded seeing some more of that.

-All the old gods hide their true appearance to an extent. A situation arises in which Laura sees Sweeney’s true, or at least old, self (I’m thinking of his surprise!poignant monologue about when he used to be a king, and the glimpse of him in full Celtic warrior mode in the S2 teaser). Or Wednesday’s war ends in victory, meaning the old gods again get belief, worship, and sacrifices. How does Laura, the ultimate skeptic even when she’s on the other side of the mirror, react? How does this new knowledge and new reality change her opinion of/attitude to Sweeney? Or to flip that around, if Sweeney were again relevant and believed-in, would that actually change his bad attitude and fix his issues (my guess is it would be complicated)?

-The power of names: for all his “dead wifeing,” there comes a time when Sweeney (has to) call her by her actual name, and that’s a tricky moment for them to navigate. Or, Mad Sweeney is almost certainly not his actual name, since true names have great magical power and so must be kept secret; Laura discovers or learns his name, from someone else or from himself; what does she do with that knowledge? Or, Sweeney gets to say “cunt” in a situation (sexual or otherwise) where, not only does Laura not peel his lips from his gums, but she finds that she can’t object, even though she knows that he knows that he’s getting away with it.

-So far in canon, it’s pretty clear that Sweeney has a lot of complicated but sincere feelings for Laura. But Laura is still pretty focused on Shadow (or rather her idealized vision of Shadow and what their relationship might yet be), whom she seems to equate with her own lost-maybe-to-be-regained life, although she’s starting to soften toward Sweeney as she realizes he’s doing things for her that are not all about getting his coin back (and her sparring match with Wednesday in “Muninn” may finally force her to accept that her relationship with Shadow died alongside her and Robbie on that road in Indiana). Tell me the story of how Laura stumbles her way to starting to feel more complex, maybe kinder or softer, really annoying for her blunt-force-trauma-personality things about Sweeney and about the notion that her dynamic with him is different from the way she tended to use men for her convenience without really letting them in in the past. Also I’m pretty sure that even if they felt the same – or sorta in the same ballpark – about each other, their relationship would still run on a lot of conflict, and I would so be here for it.

-On that note: in “Munnin” it also becomes clear that Laura has, without realizing it herself, started to rely on Sweeney. The “I trusted you” line made me think, whoa she’s too mad to catch herself doing it but this is huge for Laura, and the fact that she goes off with Wednesday (!) basically because she’s mad at Sweeney because she thinks he’s prioritizing his debt to Wednesday over her… Yeah, I would like to see that explored some more and/or to see Laura and Sweeney get to a point where they trust each other and rely on each other, and know it and accept it, however difficult the getting there and being there may be for them.

-And since I’m on the subject of Laura, you know how she’s not actually an abrasive bitch all the time to everyone? And when she is, the people on the receiving end of it sometimes richly deserve it, and anyway it’s refreshing to see a female character who doesn’t bother flirting and accommodating others for the sake of social harmony? As much as I enjoy watching her rip into people (ahem, Sweeney), I also love it when she acts differently, like her genuine interest in getting to know Salim and her joy in seeing him again in S2, or her running passive-aggressive battle of wills with Wednesday, or even her general disaffection and numbness in “Git Gone.” Her beginning to feel sympathy for Sweeney and her anger and disappointment when she feels let down by him are a part of that, and I’d love to see all that explored more. Nuance! Give me all the nuance and seeming contradictions in both Laura and Sweeney’s characters!

-My perfect AG spinoff would basically be Sweeney and Laura tooling around America, looking to get her resurrected (whether they succeed or not is up to you), stealing ever more ridiculous vehicles, arguing/fighting and having those pesky moments where vulnerability and genuineness creep in – and fucking. So yessiree I’d be down for porn, including “it’s technically necrophilia/zombiesex” porn.

-All the petty, ridiculous ways in which Sweeney’s bad luck manifests itself make me laugh (can’t help it, won’t even try), and I’m down for more variations on that theme.

-If you wanted to throw in some worldbuilding, maybe something exploring living death. Magical bargains. What kind of favor did Sweeney do for Ostara that would be worth her bringing someone back to life as repayment? What other powers might Sweeney have (he doesn’t seem on a par with someone like Wednesday and Ostara, nor is he really a god, more a mythological being/kinda-deified former-mortal)? How long can a dead wife keep going before she’s “soup”? What other superhuman abilities might dead!Laura have? Can the dead do magic? What even are the rules governing and the limits of different beings’ magical abilities?

If it helps your inspiration, you can find some of my meta and lots of tag-burbling about these two here. I have read the book though I remember it only in bits and pieces, and while I prefer the show characters and the fact that they get thrown together, you can use or riff on book material if you want. With reference to one of my DNWs, for this canon, describing Laura’s physical decay is totally fine. Also, Shadow/Laura don’t interest me except as a part of Laura’s backstory (so if your story wants to include Laura figuring out or having already figured out that pinning all her hopes on Shadow to make everything right is unrealistic, unfair, and not how it works – by all means, go for it!), and Shadow/Sweeney interest me not at all.

My one canon-specific, really strong DNW for this pairing is this: I’m not into Laura being Essie’s reincarnation/descendant or – as fanon suggests and canon hints she may be – some sort of reincarnation of Sweeney’s wife from back when he was a king in old Ireland. Reincarnation/“new love looks like old love”/“lost love found again” plots bore me, and I don’t enjoy ships that hinge on characters being somehow destined to be together. Characters having agency is my jam as much as canon divergences are. Or if your fic really needs to go there, please please please don’t dwell on the Laura-Essie-Sweeney’s-wife-of-old thing, a brief mention would be more than enough. I’m certain Laura would have neither time nor patience for the notion that Destiny Fate and All That Jazz threw her together with ginger minge, and even if it were technically true, she’d still want this relationship to work on her terms – and Sweeney obviously has a problem with Laura’s cheating, her relationship with Shadow, her personality (though he also recognizes they’re alike in many ways), and all that maps onto his anger and sadness over becoming irrelevant over time, so it’s not just about Laura. So yeah, let them be their own (grumpy, spiky, dysfunctional) people, and let Laura’s dynamic with Sweeney not be shaped solely by his past and his issues.

Cabin Pressure

Carolyn Knapp-Shappey & Arthur Shappey & Martin Crieff & Douglas Richardson

Genres: Action/adventure, Canon-style plot, Humor, Slice of life

I just want more canon-y stories with their loopy humor and their weird yet loving family dynamics among the crew. Shenanigans in mid-flight or in the tedium which precedes and the tiredness which follows them. Someone smuggles (knowingly or not) an exotic animal on-board, legal, security, medical and/or slapstick chaos ensues. A mechanical, passenger- or smuggled-goods-caused problem arises and is solved during a journey. More games played on board GERTI. Playing around with a specific destination, like in many episodes, would be a plus. If it helps inspire you, my favorite episodes in terms of tone and content are: Douz, Gdansk, Johannesburg, Limerick, Ottery St. Mary, Uskerty, and Xinzhou.

For this canon, I prefer gen with maybe, if you want to go there, some Douglas/Carolyn on the side. That’s a ship I always thought had potential – they understand each other very well and trust each other... some of the time, but they’re both also snark-masters, tend to look down on anyone not as smart or quick-witted as they (Arthur being the sole – occasional – exception), and are really good about keeping their defenses up against other people. But I requested the gen group, and I definitely want the gen group – please don’t feel pressed to write the ship, that’s just a wild suggestion I threw out there.

Moonlighting (TV)

David Addison/Maddie Hayes

Genres: Action/adventure, AU - canon divergence, Canon-style plot, Established relationship, Getting together, Humor, Mystery/procedural, Slice of life

I osmosed tons about this show over the years but didn’t get around to watching it myself till recently. And then I loved it much more than I thought I would! Yeah, sure, some of it’s dated, and some of it’s ropey in terms of how the characters interact ( all the casual sexism and battle of the sexes stuff are very 80s indeed), but the chemistry! the banter! the funny! the shiptease! Gimme!

I tried to come up with lots of prompts, but ended up with a list of stuff I love about the show – and would love to see in fic – with some prompts mixed in. Hope it helps! Basically, give me as much of the show’s “flavor” as you can, and I’ll be happy.

My two DNW requests for this canon would be: please ignore everything that happens post-S3 (so if you want to write Maddie/David in the aftermath of their resolving their UST, please go ahead with the canon divergence of your dreams, I bet it’ll be a million times better than canon), and please don’t have secondary characters (Agnes and Herbert, or Maddie and David’s relatives and exes) hijack the story. They can be in it, but I really do want a David/Maddie story, despite the canon sometimes sidelining them due to behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

Prompts/likes:

-all the banter, wordplay, innuendo, puns, comic repetition

-arguments – those long, explosive, funny, overlapping, always hilarious fights they have

-breaking the fourth wall – yes, please. In canon, they often seem to know they’re fictional characters but ones that exist in the real world, with studio lots and such. Do they now know they’re characters in a fanfic of fictional characters that also exist in the real world, or something even more mind-screwy?

-David calling Maddie “blondie blond” – it just makes me laugh – and Maddie calling him “Addison” when angry but “David” when worried or when shit hits the fan

-random cultural nods – off the top of my head, canon referenced Spanish poetry, objectivism, American realist drama, Dr. Seuss, Shakespeare, of course all the Hollywood tropes and genres; go high or low culture, go famous or obscure, even if I don’t know the reference, I want it! Ditto if you decide on a plot that parodies and pays homage to a cultural landmark story (The Silence of the Lambs? Much Ado about Nothing? A Hitchcock movie? Something else?), I’d love it!

-speaking of: I love the pun-tastic episode titles referencing everything under the sun

-all the canon-era detail which both takes me back and jars me with how much things have changed: people smoking in public buildings, seeing someone off at the boarding gate, dial and push-button telephones, VHS rentals, no cellphones/internet, all the 80s fashion and permed hair… Throw it in just for kicks or weave it into the plot (e.g., they’re following someone and only have a paper map and their own faulty sense of direction to help them)

-casefic – I love the silly plots (and chases! All the chases!), which often combine really gruesome outcomes or real violence with slapstick. I’d be especially tickled if you wrote a plot that starts out silly and seemingly innocent (e.g., they get “hired” by a kid who lost their homework) but ends up deadly serious, or vice versa

-I also love the flashes of really dark humor, usually provided by David snarking about plot developments, though my favorite example remains the intro to S3E1, with David assuring his sick mother that they’ll sweep the Emmys, and then they lost big time and we see a title card saying that the mom died on Emmy night. What can I say but: ROFL

-Maddie and David are really pretty terrible detectives, but they always manage to solve the mystery – or a solution falls into their laps – and I’m here for it

-Blue Moon almost never seems to take on actual paying clients – what else might David and Maddie do for much-needed cash? Bodyguards, extras on a movie, professional consultants on a movie (probably a really shlocky, C-grade production being filmed in the middle of nowhere), dance marathon, talent contest…

-all the shippiness before the UST becomes RST – in canon they slow-danced in a bar, they slept side by side on a plane, he’s snuck into her house multiple times when he was in trouble, etc. etc. etc. The sky’s the limit!

-maybe they get together in a different way than in canon and/or they have a relationship that departs from canon? Or how about if they resolve the UST as they do in canon, but then find a way to be both partners and lovers, without getting so wrapped up in what they each think the other one should be that they spoil everything? Basically, could they be mature enough to have a relationship that works for them both, or be friends with benefits, or hell even break up but remain each other’s most important person (and maybe still have sex occasionally)?

-tropes – the canon plays with so many tropes, you could too! Some suggestions: there’s only one bed, undercover as lovers/married/client and bodyguard, waking up married, any variation on Lady and the Tramp you can think of (including David having to pretend he’s a class act while Maddie has to play the slob, for a case or because of a situation with their families or…), they get zapped by a mad scientist they’re surveilling and swap bodies, etc.

-road trip! Oh the possibilities...

-playing Twenty Questions or another game during a boring stakeout, and personal revelations come spilling out

-Maddie’s experience as a model proves key to cracking a case, whether you want to make the whole story a riff on the world of fashion (The Devil Wears Prada parody, anyone?) or use that as a surprise plot point

-they get tangled up (again) in international espionage and go on a globe-trotting adventure, either chasing a MacGuffin or being chased – basically, get them out of Los Angeles and their relative comfort zone, and send them Indiana Jones-ing all over the world

-the show often makes 80s-typical mean jokes about Russia and the Cold War – what if a case took Maddie and David to the Soviet Union in its last years? Give me all the culture clashes, David being obnoxious and Maddie trying to be diplomatic, all the vodka, chases down frozen streets and over the frozen Neva River, dodging the KGB, sneaking around behind the scenes at the Bolshoi or Kirov Ballet and winding up on stage…

-when they visit a “rough” dive bar in S1, there’s a whole scene of David teasing Maddie to show tough-girl attitude, and she quips that she can’t wait till he has to accompany her to a high-society event. Um, yes please!

-they attempt to date like a regular couple, and stuff keeps getting in the way – whether they go to the opera/ballet and a fancy restaurant, or a basketball game and out for beers, or they try a quiet dinner and a movie at home (or all of the above!), canon-like complications keep interrupting. But then again, the ridiculous way they work is what brought them together in the first place. Bonus points if the fish-out-of-water partner ends up getting into the other one’s date-activity of choice, while snarking all the way.

-David has been to Maddie’s house multiple times – including to sleep over, both platonically and not – and they’ve both crashed at the office, but what little we see of David’s place, it seems to be a bachelor pad/hovel with a large yet mysteriously unfurnished living room. Maddie visits David/comes to spend the night/hides out with him from villains, and shenanigans ensue.

-canon often resolves the clash between David’s opportunism, happy-go-luckiness, and cockiness, and Maddie’s gentle idealism, worrywartness, and romanticism, by having David “win.” That can be funny, but what if the plot gave Maddie the right a bit more?

-I’m honestly not that into smut for this pairing - a fade to black, something implied, something referenced, innuendo, maybe brief flashes (heh) of what the characters think about/imagine/remember work much better with the canon’s overall tone, I think.

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, faithfulness, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, kinks, incest, underage, genderswap/genderbent characters, xeno, non-/dub-con, torture and abuse (this and non-/dub-con can be mentioned if the story needs it, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it), dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore/blood and come are fine), toilet humor, character bashing, issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons, unrequested ships, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (unless it’s canon), serious illness or injury, pregnancy and children, holiday or wedding setting/theme, secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job, reference to RL current events, 1st/2nd person POV, AUs which have nothing to do with canonf

[kaesaaurelia]

from your fic "never a lovely so real" - what did you think about when you wrote the first sans fight?

This got LONG AS FUCK, so it’s behind a cut.  For reference, this is in response to the DVD commentary meme:

Sans’ countdown: 5, 4, pi, e, 2, square root of 2, 1, 0.

I had this in my head for like months, to the point where I would be out doing an errand for work grinning like a maniac, and trying to figure out if I should come up with a constant between five and four.  I also kept trying to fit i in because Euler’s identity is neat, but that just isn’t how countdowns work.

Belmont takes his barrier down and Asgore throws his trident.  It whizzes right past the personal barrier Corcoran has thrown up.

“You missed,” says Corcoran, sounding baffled and a little disappointed.

“Oh, no,” says Asgore.  "I jammed the door behind you.“  He conjures another trident, and throws it at the door towards the rest of the building.  "Now no one can leave.”

I really really wanted something to echo Asgore’s shattering of the Mercy button, since that’s such an oh shit moment in his fight, and it’s also pretty important that Asgore was Sans’ original boss and there’s a hell of a lot Toriel doesn’t know about any of this.

I think this is as good a time as any to stop for a couple stories about Papyrus, don’t you?  I mean, what kind of wacko wants to hear all about all this depressing violent bullshit I’ve been talking about?

Don’t give me that look, buddy.

So!  Let’s talk about my brother.

When I first wrote this bit, I was genuinely not sure what kind of reception this would get, given that by now a lot of people were really really looking forward to seeing Sans kick some ass.  But Sans-as-narrator has motivations that don’t always jive with my motivations as someone who just wants to tell a story, and this is a part of the story that he’d want to stall for as long as possible, partly because he’s horrified by his abilities, and partly because he’s ashamed of what he’s done with them.  I’ll skip doing commentary on the Papyrus backstory stuff here, unless someone else wants me to do that, but suffice to say Sans always seems more comfortable talking about Papyrus than himself.

So, where was I?

Oh, right, this asshole.  I blip to stand on the ceiling as soon as everything goes topsy-turvy.  There’s a brutal snap as Noyes makes contact with the ceiling headfirst, and he lies there at the top of the room in a limp pile.  It’s too bad, because that means no more Noyes puns.  Noyes will be silent forever.

I have so. many. notes. on who was killed when and how and by whom, in which scene, for this whole jailbreak plot arc, so by this scene I was really happy to be working with only two students and Corcoran.  Having some cannon fodder was really important, though, because I had long since reasoned that for a fight scene with Sans’ powers to be interesting and not just impressive, to really show them off, you either have to have a character who can reset – not an option in this case – or a fairly worthy opponent.  So I erred on the side of making Corcoran’s barrier magic more powerful, but I also really wanted to make sure Sans had a couple of other people to pick off first, to represent those first few times someone tries to fight Sans and gets instantly killed.

“He shot at everyone who tried to leave!” says Fullerton.  He struggles and gets up, but I think I see him grab something first.  Nice try, but no dice.

“Yeah, I guess you got a good point, kid,” I say.  "C'mere and get your hall pass and you can go back to school, no harm done.  We’ll shake on it.“  I walk over, real casual, and hold out my hand.  But when he draws Corcoran’s gun, I’m ready.  As six long bones pierce his stomach and chest, his body jerks backwards and he staggers and falls.

And obviously this is the part where Sans offers fake-mercy.

“How are you doing this?” he demands.  He jumps, experimentally, and falls back to the wall.  "This is the wall.  If I broke through the wall would I fall to the ground, or –“

Partly this is just an excuse for the barrage of horrible gravity puns Sans unleashes but I’m gonna be honest, if someone was breaking the laws of physics while they killed me I’d be damn curious how they were doing it.

the old stories call ‘em “grotesques,” but Dr. Gaster and me always called ‘em blasters

I think in canonverse Undertale fic, Gaster is usually the originator of Gaster blasters, but since I wanted Papyrus to have a blaster (per canon hints) and since Papyrus is neither related to Sans or Gaster, nor was he involved in the mad science/time travel shenanigans, it kind of had to be a general skeleton thing.  I’m still kind of figuring out my backstory for the blasters/grotesques, but I’m kind of thinking of them as something that most skeletons are capable of, in varying degrees, but they rarely bother to learn to do it.

He’s got his barrier up before it hits, and when I call the blaster off, he looks relieved – until his barrier goes a sickly purple color and starts to flicker.  He’s looking as tired as I’m starting to feel; he’s breathing heavy, and his hair’s plastered to his skull with sweat.  I kinda suspect his barriers ain’t up to the usual abuse.

I mean, Corcoran being the purple soul and all, I had to work Karmic Retribution into it somehow, it being one of two purple mechanics.  (The other one, Muffet’s webs, are kiiind of referenced in Corcoran getting tangled up in wires, although I don’t remember if I actually meant to do that?  Let’s pretend I meant to do that.)

Then, out of the corner of my eyesocket, I notice – oh hell.  Sellers is creeping up, holding Noyes’ pipe wrench, and before I can tell him to stop he throws it at Corcoran’s head.  Of course it bounces right off his barrier, hard, and goes flying into the air.  Fortunately I duck before it knocks me out.  "Nope!“ I say, pulling him back with magic.  Corcoran rewards his incredibly stupid ingenuity by trying to fry us both, and it’s all I can do to blip out of the way of that flame.  "Go find something to hide behind, kid, you’re a danger to yourself and others,” I snap.

“I had to do something!” says Sellers.  "Everyone else is doing something!“

“Everyone else is a goddamn moron.  Go!” I say, waving at him.

OKAY SO THIS PART.  I remember writing this in the Yulechat IRC and consulting my notes and being like “wait, what is Sellers doing?”  While Marty Szczepanski is not like, Mr. Self-Sacrificing, as written, I figured he’d be feeling kind of inadequate with all these weird magic things going on – even the useless-seeming Belmont has magic, and is working together with always-anxious Alphys, and he’s just not doing anything.  So I decided that it’d be totally justified to have Sellers sit this one out but I just didn’t see him sitting it out.

The other thing you might notice, if you read it as soon as I posted it – I changed the dialogue, and I still kind of wince at this.  The dialogue was originally Everyone else is a schmuck – schmuck, in the circles I’m in now, is a casual mild insult for a useless dumbass.

But see, then I sat down to watch one of the Presidential Debates with my grandmother, and she called one of the, uh, esteemed candidates a schmuck, and she pretty much spat the word, and then she apologized to me for using such language.  And I remembered that in Yiddish it technically means “penis” but more accurately means “dick, but not just any dick, the most festering puss-filled godawful worthless dick you can think of, what a fucking asshole, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire, that’s the kind of dick he is.”

Sans would probably not have known this at my age – his mother was vaguely Jewish in a secular way – but after years working in Vaudeville BOY HOWDY WOULD HE KNOW IT, probably because using That Word onstage probably got him banned from somewhere.  (Also, Alphys’ family is actualfax Jewish and probably so are the Blooks.  I hemmed and hawed about including this in the fic, but y’know what, fuck it.)

Corcoran’s not standing anymore.  He’s on his knees, still breathing, but clearly having a hard time of it.  His white coat is now blackened and charred.  His skin also blackened in places; in others it’s a livid red.  "I – I’ve changed my mind, I can, I can help you, I, I, stop, please!“  He throws his hands up wildly, and manages to stand and stagger backwards a few steps.  "Patience!  Please!  You can’t – you can’t let him –”

I actually initially had Corcoran give in to death, but that seemed wrong, and then I remembered he’s the fucking soul of Perseverance and will continue at all costs.  I honestly feel bad for Corcoran for reasons that probably aren’t clear from the fic just yet, but suffice to say he hasn’t had any enjoyment of life in a long, long time.  And yet.

“I could be useful!” says Corcoran.

“Can you believe this guy?” I ask Asgore.

Asgore doesn’t say anything, but he looks very doubtful.

“Well, I don’t,” I say.

I was a bit anxious about writing Asgore in this scene, I guess – I hope I conveyed both that in Toriel’s absence, Sans kind of considers him to be in charge (until Sans has a better idea), but also that Asgore really does not want to be making decisions to kill people anymore and would rather Sans made up his own mind.

All that’s survived untouched are his ankles and feet, which is just disconcerting enough that I briefly consider wasting magic to fix that.

[…]

“Well, I guess that’s gotta be good enough, we can’t exactly wait around for the coroner, huh?”

OKAY IS IT JUST ME, or is that part at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, with the Wicked Witch of the East’s feet sticking out from under the house just really disconcerting?  Also how cool would it be to have a singing Munchkin coroner around to declare people officially dead when they get houses dropped on them?  Like, not cool if you personally had a house dropped on you but tbh if I had a house dropped on me I’d be too dead to mind the singing, so I’d have no objections.

…….So, anyway.  This image is probably a combination of too many Wizard of Oz viewings and my having only recently read waaaay too many Search And Rescue Woods stories on r/nosleep, wherein the author is fond of saying “and we only ever found half an inch of his kneecap and his left ring finger!”

“Um.  Can we.  Can we cut his head off and stuff his mouth with garlic?  I just want to be sure.”

I would like to remind you that they never got a chance to do this.

“My mom woulda been so pissed off if she ever knew,” I said.  "Conforming to speciesist stereotypes and all that.“

She snorts, to my surprise.  "I think my parents would have a few things to say about my career choice as well.”

There is… backstory here, for both of them.  In Sans’ case, his mother was pretty concerned that Sans did not present himself seriously enough and that no one would take him seriously in the real world.  Never in her life would she have expected him to become a mob hitman, but in the present/future of this ‘verse, there are still a lot of really negative stereotypes about monsters, and skeletons in particular, and she has had to face a ton of them in her own job – she works in tech – so she tried very hard to make sure Sans didn’t give people the wrong impression.  They didn’t have the easiest relationship.

In Patience’s case, she came of age in the ’60s, and so she had to work very hard to convince her parents to send her to college in the first place.  She was very smart, and very ambitious, and very, very idealistic, and extremely naive, and they worried a lot about her – a girl! alone! in the city! – getting mugged or falling in with the “wrong crowd,” although by that they were probably thinking, like, hippies, not organized crime.

[aurimeanswind]

It’s Very Hot Outside—Sunday Chats (6/25/17)

I’ve got a nice cold glass of water by my side, air conditioning, and video games, so let’s chat.

Lack of Update

Usually here I have a little blog-y editorial-esque update on my life, what’s going on, and all the complicated things. I don’t know if I have anything I necessarily want to share here. Things have happened. I had some ups and downs this week. A reviewer of video games from the 90s would have probably called it a “mixed bag”.

But there are some things I’m working on that I’d rather not share. A first, for Sunday Chats, I think? But I’m doing alright. I’ve managed to surround myself with supportive and wonderful folks.

To make up for not getting up to anything crazy or fun this week, I’ve tried to watch more stuff that people are out there making, so I’ll try and share that out in today’s chat.

Onto the next thing...

What I’ve Been Working On

My rut of not getting anything interesting written or done continues. But it’s very much self-inflicted. Essentially everything I want to write is a rewrite or a reworking of completed things, and that means I have to go back through the whole thing and find where I need to add, to tweak, to change. I haven’t been making enough time everyday when I write, so instead I’ve been writing new intros to things, or just jotting and half-establishing loose ideas in my head. I’m going to try and dedicate more time to actually writing some things this coming week, but with how my mental state has been, it’s been a bit tougher than usual to focus. I’ll try and get better with it.

I did, however, finish a big post-E3 write up and published that. Making it the first big thing I’ve published in quite a bit. Go check it out!

http://irrationalpassions.com/editorial-who-really-took-e3-2017/

What’s on Tap

Alundra

So I’ve come back to Alundra. I think I may have mentioned it in last week’s Sunday Chats, but this is a very good game.

It’s a Zelda-like, and its definitely up there with Okami as not-Zelda games that are great games. Rivaling even the Zelda games they tried to compete with.

While Alundra is no Ocarina of Time, or A Link to the Past for that matter, it is still really rad.

Alundra has a big focus on platforming, which doing that from the isometric/Zelda perspective is, as you could imagine, challenging. It’s hard to know where you’re jumping to and so there is a pretty wide disconnect with when you jump and where you think you’ll land.

The different planes of view really effect this too. Sometimes platforms are up too high, but positioned in front of you so they kind of look like they’re right next to you.

What I’m saying is Alundra needs a 3DS remake.

Resident Evil 5

Anyone who follows IP on Twitch may have seen I started a new streaming series with this and Jacob Bryant. I’m pretty stoked about it, because Resident Evil 5 is great.

The game is just crazy fun with two people, and the way the arenas and set pieces fall into place is great. It’s a little bit of tension, very RE style, but it’s more an action-based tension, because you’re never without the tools to do something about the onslaught of enemies. 

It makes for a really great challenge. Also we’re playing on Hard Mode for some reason, and we’re probably going to die a lot more.

I’m archiving all the streams on YouTube so go watch them!

Questions

As always thank you everyone so much for your questions <3. If you want to get your question in, find my tweet with #SundayChats in it from sometime Sunday afternoon and reply to it with your question! That’s all ya gotta do.

Colors is easy. My favorite color is red. I prefer Scarlet, as for a specific shade, but any passionate red color is good. Red is passionate. It’s bright and hard but soft and warm at the same time. The same is true of my second favorite, Blue, which I would always go back and forth with when I was younger. Blue or Red? I love them both honestly. 

My third is probably purple, honestly. Which I am coming to realize is very funny because that is red and blue together. But purple is just gorgeous. On a good day it may even be number one.

As for a boy bands... Well, I feel like I’ve been disappointing a lot of people on this recently, but I don’t really have an opinion. I’ve never really listened to them? Like, I respect them from afar, but I think I’ve heard like, two N Sync songs. There is this one Backstreet Boys song I really like, but I can’t even think of the name of it.

So I’m sorry that I’m a disappointment, is what I’m saying I guess.

I could spend forever on this question, so I’ll stick with broad themes and vibes that each gives me.

The first book is just magical. You get whisked away to another world. It totally encompasses you and really makes you feel like every kind of magic is possible.

The second book is great because its so juxtaposed to the first. It becomes so dark and dreary so quickly. It pulls the film back and shows you how dangerous magic is, and how deep-seeded hatred and prejudice runs through this world, just like ours.

The third is awesome. It’s so much about James and what he was like, and hearing more about that is great. It’s the only book Voldemort isn’t in at all, but you can feel him in every corner. You can feel that foreboding horror that is coming in the next book, but you don’t understand it at the time.

Goblet of Fire is like a highlights reel. It’s the summer blockbuster. It’s the high flying action piece of the series, from the World Cup, to each task, to the finale. It’s dark, it’s horrifying, it’s sad, and it’s full of emotion and angst. 

I love everything about Order of the Phoenix. Being so deep in Harry’s mind when he is going through living and watching a friend die. His insecurities, his self-doubt, his self-hatred, his disgust with himself, his dramatic tantrums. Every moment is genuine, and as someone who struggles with depression and hating himself and doubting every decision he has made, that shit hurts and hits home. I love Harry so much because there is so much of me in him, especially in this book.

Half Blood Prince may be my second favorite. It depends on the day. Finally getting all the secrets unveiled and seeing the relationship between Dumbledore and Harry really blossom. It’s all top notch, with an excellent turn of events and set up for the finale.

The seventh book is excellent too. It’s probably my favorite end to a series, one that’s spanned multiple things at least. It’s full of death, and regrets, and struggle, but it blossoms that same home that came from the first book. I adore it.

I have not read Cursed Child, and still know next to nothing about it.

HI!

Now I saw all the internet debates over Keenan and Kel vs. Drake and Josh, and I get it. They are two different eras, and I loved both of them. Drake and Josh was just more my jam.

That’s probably my favorite Nick live action show, just because I remember laughing the hardest I’ve ever laughed watching that show. 

But a special shoutout to iCarly. I know it gets a ton of shit, and I was just starting to grow out of that kind of show when I started watching it, but it was a show about three friends starting an internet sensation and growing into popularity. It was really ahead of its time, because it was about a show thats live-streamed on the internet. That’s like, half my life now? It’s crazy to think that started in 2007.

For a free bonus, to answer the Disney Channel OGM question, which is definitely a lot harder for me, some special shoutouts:

Smart House and Halloweentown are classics. But the real number one in my heart is Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. I fucking loved that Disney Channel jam to death as a kid. Maybe the “Zequels” weren’t as good, but I liked the first a ton.

Also like, hey, I enjoyed my time with High School Musical. Just the first. And I watched all the Camp Rock movies. But that’s mostly just because I’m a trash human.

I am not going to RTX, unfortunately, but I will be in Austin the same weekend.

Checklist

A few to throw out there. First up:

Persona 3′s Ending made me appreciate all of life’s little endings - Are Technica - By Steven Strom

A really excellent piece on Persona 3, which is now 10 years old in the US. As someone who has also written out a thing on Persona 3 and holds it in high regard, Steven really nailed his message here. I just stumbled upon this one too.

Kinda Funny Games Daily - new show from KF!

I was really worried about this show. It’s hard for me to keep up with daily content and I was concerned that it may lose the magic of that format I really love from stuff like PS I Love You. I am happy to say I was worried for nothing. Greg is excellent as always with his one-on-ones, and hearing that dynamic across different folks like Andrea Rene, who I also adore, is awesome. 

Nite Two @ E3 2017 - Austin Walker, Griffin McElroy, and more - GiantBomb

In my attempt to slowly catch up with the GiantBomb E3 content, I picked a couple of gems out. This was the first one. And whooooo dang is it funny. Having Griffin and Justin McElroy in the same room as Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek, and Jeff Gerstmann = very exciting for me.

The Adventure Zone - The McElroy Family of Podcasts (and Podcasters)

The big god’s honest truth as to why I am so behind on all my stuff is because I’ve been re-listening to The Adventure Zone from the beginning. I am already back on Episode 43 after just two weeks of doing this. And oh my god is this show so good. Griffin is such a good DM, and it’s so funny. The four McElroys have too much fun with their shenanigans in dungeons and gerblins world, and I can’t recommend it enough.

A shorter, more consumable Sunday Chats today. I’m getting excited for my next trip coming up, and I’m hopefully going to start working on some new ideas soon, so I am stoked for what’s coming in the future! 

Thank you everyone for your support, and hey: keep it real.

[morgaine2005]

Tressia BACC: Round 6, LeBeau

It’s that time again ... time to see GASTON!

(And if you’re wondering, “Hey, wait, shouldn’t the Birgils be next?” first of all, I commend you on remembering all of my families. Second of all, keep scrolling, I did the Birgils this evening as well.)

Anyway, let’s see what kind of trouble Gaston is going to get into this evening, shall we?

(Answer: All of it.)

So, if you remember Gaston (though how could you forget GASTON), he’s a romancer, hunter, with a LTW of 20 Woohoos. As of last round, he was up to 16. (I thought he was at 17, but I counted his memories and no, it’s definitely 16). That’s only four more to go!

And lookie here! Here’s a prospect for #17 & #18. This is Serri Pepedes; you might remember her as the manager of Maylis and Mercan’s apothecary/herbalist shop.

She’s a Family Sim, but she and Gaston have two bolts - probably because she meets Gaston’s turn-on for brown hair and Gaston meets her turn-on for fitness. Gaston’s Massive Attraction bonus probably isn’t hurting things, either.

So I have Gaston ask her for a date ...

And she turns him down!

“What do you mean, ‘no’? No one says no to Gaston!”

Uh oh.

Maybe your relationship scores aren’t high enough? Try buttering her up a bit first, Gaston.

(Double hearts - crush & love - for Gaston!)

Let’s try this again ...

Still no!

“Dismissed! Rejected! Publicly humiliated! Why, it’s more than I can--”

Let’s not break into the entire song just yet, ok? Try buttering her up a bit more. Can’t hurt to at least try.

Three strikes and you’re out!

“But--”

I have a backup plan, ok? Your faith is up pretty high, so ... just head home for now.

Meet Alice Forest, AKA the Unibrowed Backup Plan. You might remember her as one of the women Everin Tuiney dated before he settled down with Zenna. Or you might not remember her at all, which honestly wouldn’t surprise me, given that she was around for a single date.

She and Gaston have only 1 bolt, but for notches #17 & #18, one bolt is plenty.

After he invites her over, I have Gaston ask her out ...

And Alice says yes!

We get a double crush pretty soon into the date. Nice!

Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing.

But it’s not long before things are going very well indeed for Gaston and Alice. This interaction is regular Maxis, not even ACR.

Of course this is, but when a guy wants 20 woohoos, sometimes you just have to take advantage of the hacks you have.

17 down, 3 to go!!

They even make Best Friends ...

She even makes Gaston dinner. Mostly because he influences her to. He’s got influence points to burn.

“It would be nice to have a little woman around the place, taking care of these things.”

Or you could learn to cook yourself. Especially since she’s making vegetable soup.

“Well, most soups have vegetables in them. What else is in the soup?”

“What do you mean? It’s all just vegetables! Vegetable soup!”

“Watcher, save me now!!!”

I don’t save him. And Gaston still manages to fall in love with her before she leaves, because of course he does.

But before we move onto Day 2, Eleanor Armestrong (a date Gaston had last round) drops off a Bust of Tylopoda ...

AND a TV!

*kaching*

*kaching*

And after that jam-packed Day 1, we can NOW move onto Day 2!

What’s this?

It’s a new business! Gaston got his market stall to Level 10 last round, so this round he gets a real live business. He’s selling trophies from his hunts, both game he’s caught ...

And various, uh, hunting trophies (i.e. all the dead animal heads, antlers, etc. I had in my catalogs and could stick on the walls).

And since Gaston made Merchant status, he also gets some new duds!

“I knitted them myself!”

(He seriously did.)

First customer is Maylis.

“So, Maylis, I only have room for three more notches on my bedpost before I meet my LTW. What do you say we--”

“Gaston, I’m married, and I’m only looking for something to put on an empty wall.”

“But we could--”

“Just show me to the nearest deer’s head or bear’s head.”

But it’s not all disappointment for Gaston. Maurice swings by and blesses the lot.

He also hires Breth Lewichel to help him around the shop. He already has a Bronze Fishing badge, so getting him up to manager status shouldn’t be too awful.

We start him off on the cash register because he has lots of Logic points, so hopefully he’ll gain badges quickly.

Serri also swings by, but though Gaston gets some stars and some cash out of her, he doesn’t get what he really, really wanted out of her.

After work, he heads to the docks (with a “k” even @andavrii!).

Let’s see if he and Alice can get to woohoo #18.

We move right into the clothing store, and it isn’t long before Gaston decides he wants to “try an outfit on.”

It surprises no one when Alice follows him into the changing booth.

Least of all the poor cashier.

“Oh Watcher, not again.”

Sorry, hon. This is #18, though. He should stop doing it soon.

“Hah! This is Gaston LeBeau! You think a little detail like ‘I’ve already met my LTW’ is going to keep him out of my changing booth?”

... Now that you put it like that, no.

18 down, 2 to go!!!

Back home, Gaston spends some time improving the homestead.

But as he munches his supper, Gaston has a confession to make.

“Watcher, I’m afraid I’ve been thinking.”

A dangerous pastime.

“I know. But--”

If you say anything about wacky old coots, I am going to find out what the Smite option on the batbox does!

“... Er. I have no idea what you’re talking about. But, well, you may have noticed that I have only 2 woohoos left before I hit my LTW.”

I did.

“And it’s possible for them to be with the same woman.”

Yes, that’s how you got this far.

“And, well, I think it’s time for me to settle down.”

*spits drink across room* What?!?!?

“Look at this place! I’ve worked so hard to build it. And my shop, too! I want to pass all of this on to someone.”

... Ok ...

“And I’ve been thinking about Serri.”

*sigh* Of course you have.

“She’s a good, virtuous woman, isn’t she? So of course she wanted nothing to do with me. But if I turn over a new leaf - well, I’ll have a happy little wife and a happy little life.”

... Gaston, this is Bors-level logic, or rather lack of logic.

“Who’s Bors?”

Oh good Lord.

“So that settles it then! I shall marry Serri - hey, that rhymes! - and I’ll fulfill my LTW that way.”

What could possibly go wrong ...

Thankfully, Gaston is limited in the shenanigans he can accomplish ... because Bimbette is having her puppies!

The first one is a girl, named Desiree.

The next one is a boy, named Grumpus. (He’s super aggressive, so I thought it might be a good name. Of course he’s also super friendly.)

And the last one is a boy, named Rogan. He’s actually of average doggie intelligence - all of his other sibs are doofuses. So he might get to breed!

That’s it for Day 2. Let’s see what trouble Gaston gets in on Day 3.

Breth gets his Bronze Cash Register badge! Other than that, nothing much interesting happens at the shop.

After work and hunting ... Gaston calls Serri to meet him in the woods.

“It’s not scandalous or anything. I mean, look around, half the town is here.”

He tries to ask her on another date ... but Serri is still a little bit skeptical.

“But I’m a changed man, Serri! I’m willing to turn over a new leaf for you. Picture this - a rustic hunting lodge. My latest kill, roasting over the fire. My little wife, massaging my feet, while the little ones play on the floor with the dogs. Oh, we’ll have six or seven.”

“Dogs?”

“No, Serri! Strapping boys, like me!”

“... You want lots of kids?”

“Of course!”

Don’t listen to him, Serri!

Serri’s still keeping him at an arm’s length, though. Sometimes literally.

But right before she leaves the lot, she develops a crush on him. I barely see it, and I certainly don’t have time to catch a pic of it.

But Gaston ... Gaston isn’t happy with how quickly things aren’t progressing. And Gaston has needs. So he calls Jayla over for a date once he gets home.

He has two objectives: scratch an itch, and get some advice.

“So what would you advise me to do, Jayla, with a woman who’s fair weather one minute and foul the next?”

“... Let me get this straight. You told her you’re turning over a new leaf. Going to be a family man, keep your feet on the straight and narrow, etc.”

“Yes!”

“And yet here you are, asking my advice, while we’re both naked in bed and  you’ve already paid me.”

“... Obviously, yes, that is what is happening now.”

“And you don’t see why she might be a little cautious about you?”

“No? She doesn’t know about this.”

“You know what, Gaston? Let’s just get to what you paid me for.”

“Because trying to think like you is going to give me a headache, and in my line of work, headaches are the last thing I can afford!”

“Thank you!”

That wasn’t a compliment, Gaston.

And that’s it for Day 3.

Day 4 starts with a friendship I never thought I’d see.

Although I guess Gaston’s Best Friendships with Maylis and Mercan are far weirder.

Gaston gets a Gold Restocking badge, but he’s a bit too distracted by Melaflynn and Jayla pillow fighting to appreciate it.

“I’m just picturing them pillow fighting in a much more ... appropriate location ... wearing--”

GASTON!

OH SHIT.

Mellie doesn’t appear to notice, thankfully. Unless she stuffed that pillow with bricks ...

“I feel like I just dodged an arrow.”

You did, Daran.

DAMMIT, DARAN!

(Thankfully, Mellie didn’t appear to notice that, either - and I got Jayla out of there pronto!)

In other news, I get the business up to 50 stars, putting us comfortably at Level 6. Not a bad place to be!

And later on, after work and after Gaston has done his hunting, he calls Serri up for an actual date in the woods ...

And she says yes!

“She has realized I’m a changed man!”

Or I got rid of the crush she had on Breth Lewichel, since it was effectively taking her off the marriage market and would never go anywhere.

“Serri. SERRI! What are you doing? Are you out of your mind? Back away from him!”

You can try, Maylis, but I don’t think she’s hearing you.

Gaston tests the waters, and finds that Serri permits him quite a few liberties. ... Any chance this changes your mind about Serri being a “virtuous woman”?

“Of course not! Besides, just because I want a virtuous lady for a wife doesn’t mean I want a complete prude. Where’s the fun in that?”

Uh oh. Unsavory Charlatan off the port bow! Gaston, at least try to keep her from being pickpocketed!

“What? That fine fellow can’t possibly be a pickpocket!”

But Serri isn’t having any of the Charlatan’s tricks!

“I don’t get it. She’s out with Gaston of all people. She should be an easy mark! How did I screw that up?”

A question for the ages.

Uh oh. Serri’s in love. And Gaston has been in love with her since the beginning of the round.

“So, Serri, what’ll it be? Is it yes - or is it, oh, yes?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!”

Oh, no.

“Gaston? I thought you said you were turning over a new leaf. Why is your memory red?”

“Uh ...”

Yes, Gaston, why is that memory red?

“You know what, Serri, it’s late, I’m tired, you’re tired. We’ll get married early next year. How does that sound?”

RUN, Serri! Run while you still can!

Gaston goes home, prepared to spend the rest of the day patting himself on the back for his conquest - and maybe selling Desiree and Grumpus to good homes, because 5 dogs is a lot of chaos.

Fate and I have other ideas in mind.

“Brother Cernin! How good to see you. Tell me, are you here to ask about the dogs for sale?”

“Um, no. I’m actually here to ask about a baby.”

“... I don’t have any of those for sale. That would be creepy.”

And if Gaston’s calling something creepy, you KNOW it’s creepy!

“Er, no, I don’t think you’re selling one, either. I found one on my doorstep. He’s a cute little chap - black hair, dimples like yours. He couldn’t possibly ... you know ... be yours, could he?”

“Mine? You’re asking me? Now, Brother, we’re both men of the world--”

“Actually, er, I’m really not--”

“Oh, yes, I know, you have to say that, but you know how these things go, don’t you? I won’t lie to you, Brother, I won’t pretend I haven’t sown some wild oats.”

In every fucking field. (Pun completely intended.)

“But I’ve only sown them in common fields, you might say!”

“I’ve actually taken confessions from some of the women you’ve, er, been with, and they say--”

“Nonsense, Brother! I think I know women a bit better than you do!”

He’s channeling Bors, isn’t he? He’s totally channeling Bors.

“And since I do know women better than you do, Brother - I think I can say, quite emphatically, that even if I’ve been with that little chap’s mother, there’s no way to say he’s mine. He could be anybody’s!”

“So you say. But I talked to Serri Pepides today. She says you’re engaged?”

“Ah, yes, we are, Brother! I was hoping--”

“And she says you’ve turned over a new leaf.”

“I have! I intend to--”

“Then prove it. Give that little boy a name and a trade.”

“What? You want that boy to take my name? But he could be anyone’s!”

“No, not your name. I won’t ask you to do that, especially since we don’t have any proof that he’s yours. But give him a trade - teach him to be a hunter like you. And that’s where the name will come from. Rostan Hunter.”

“But--”

“Gaston, I’m going to be very blunt. That little baby might or might not be yours, but given the way you get - or got - around? If you haven’t fathered a dozen little ones, it’s a miracle! I won’t argue with you about what you do or don’t owe the mothers. And I can’t make you provide for children you don’t know you have. But I can say this: if you want to make things right with the Watcher, if you want to try to repair some of the harm you’ve done with your philandering ways, the least you can do is take this boy on as an apprentice once he gets old enough to need apprenticing.”

“But Brother--”

“And if you refuse to do that much, then I shall have to tell Serri that I can’t marry the two of you in the church. She can marry anyone else she wishes, of course, but I won’t marry you.”

Whoa! You tell him, Brother!

“I ... see. You drive a hard bargain, Brother, but ... you have my word. I’ll take the boy on as an apprentice once he’s old enough. ... Are you sure I can’t at least interest you in a puppy before you go?”

“I’m afraid I would not be able to care for a puppy right now. Not with little Rostan and everything else on my plate. But I’m sure the Watcher will send along someone to give it a good home.”

Speaking of which ...

“Nelarie! How good to see you!”

“A pleasure to see you too, Gaston!”

“I hear you had another strapping son. Congratulations!”

“Oh, thank you! Donas is such a cute little boy! But he’s a bit colicky, and--”

“Yes, yes, of course. But, say, Nelarie, since you are the mother of two fine sons ... you know what every boy needs when he’s young? A puppy of his very own! And I have two inside here, looking for good homes. Would you like to meet them?”

“... Did you say puppies?”

“Oooh, he’s adorable! What did you say his name was?”

“Grumpus.”

“What a sweet name! And is he housetrained?”

“... I have done some training in the house, yes.”

“Then I’ll take him!”

*kaching*

And a little later that evening ...

“So Shola mentioned to me that you sold her her dog, Alexia. And you say you’ve had a new litter?”

“I have indeed. There are two pups left. I’d like to keep one of them to train a bit more, but you’re welcome to take your pick of the two!”

“This is the girl?”

“It is. Her name is Desiree.”

“And she’d be the little sister of Shola’s Alexia?”

“Same parents, so yes.”

“I’ll take her!”

“Excellent! Er, as for housetraining--”

“Gaston, I might be new in town, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I’m sure she isn’t housetrained yet. I’ll take care of it.”

“All right then!”

Since it was dinner time, Gaston invited Kerrick to stay, and Kerrick was polite enough to accept, even though he could probably make himself something much tastier at home.

“So I hear you’re engaged.”

“I am! The lucky lady’s name is Serri Pepides. I’m turning over a new leaf! I’m ready for children, a little wife, someone to cook my meals and massage my feet ...”

“And fidelity? You’re ready for that, too?”

“... Eh?”

And that’s what I thought! We’ll see if Serri and Gaston are still engaged next round, or if Gaston’s ACR shenanigans have put an end to that.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Thanks for reading, and happy Simming!