#hope you have fun with the chronological timeline!!

[codecicle]

wanted to apologise for possibly being someone who fucked up ur tl with 18+ slime posts (coming to grips with how tagging works on this here webbedsite!) please take my sincerest (anonymous) apologies ur a cool goober 🙏

ay man it's alright!! really!!! i understand most of the 18+ people are coming from websites like twitter or tiktok so they don't quite understand how it functions :-) if you ever need a tutorial or any help with understanding the culture here, shoot me an ask! it's insanely different from other social media and i completely understand its weird to adjust to and navigate. peace and love + have fun with your slimeposting ✌️

[erinwantstowrite]

erinwantstowrite on tumblr dot com how do you get the motivation to plan & outline & write & finish ur fics

well, anon on tumblr dot com, motivation comes in waves, and i've simply learned how to ride it

we're all in different boats of many colors, shapes, designs, and sails, so we all have different ways to ride our waves safely, creatively, and while having fun. my methods might not work for you (i hope they do!) but they could give you an idea. however, there are basic fundamentals that every sailor (writer) should know:

taking care of yourself, body and mind

going outside to enjoy the sun and live and breathe

taking time to learn new things

outside of the box thinking

your motivation will come to you better when you figure out what helps you feel good. create a schedule or set out a certain time of day to write, and don't beat yourself up if you find that your writing isn't coming to you on certain days. it'll come back, it always does

when planning, i like to use notebooks. i have two notebooks (so far) for LoF, notebooks for my original works, etc. I treat them like it's an extension of my brain (or like a journal). it has all my brainstorming, lists and facts, timelines, calendars, etc. i have research notes in here too! the notebook is a conglomeration of everything all together, and some things don't end up looking pretty or end up in the fic at all

outlining is different. outlining is taking your brainstorms, figuring out what is "needed" to drive the plot forward, what is "wanted" to fill in spaces between plots (example: i wanted tim and peter to meet, and i decided it makes the most sense if tim was stalking him, and what was needed for the plot was for tim to figure things out from that conversation). put it in a chronological order and try to make it read like an episode or "mini-book" each chapter, if you can. no pressure on that last part.

your outline will constantly change (think like how the wind and currents in a boat could shift and you have to adjust so you can get where you're going). do not fret about it, just continue forward. make a new outline with your new ideas, reflect and keep the old one around. you might scrap a scene and then find out you can fit it in somewhere else later on

when writing, you want to know what you can handle within a day. on average, i can set aside 80 minutes a day, and write about 2000 words. but it entirely depends on my mood, if i slept right, if i have plans that day, etc. sometimes i write 2000, other times i write 20 or nothing at all. do not push yourself to write every day or write a certain word count, it will come to you naturally. you'll also get better over time and with practice, and when you find and get comfortable with your writing style, you'll be able to make your plans, outlines, and write with no problem at all

and with finishing... i'll admit that i have an issue with that. i find that endings are the most important part of a story, and sometimes i don't want it to end. but alas, it must. endings are never "endings", because there will always be a set up to what comes later, even if you don't write it. you want your characters to finish their arc, but also have room for growth once the reader has stopped following their journey. it's satisfying to get to that end and see your characters off. it's on you to figure out your way over that hill

[chdarling]

Snape slipping Lily the Felix potion OH MY GOD. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. BRILLIANT!!!!

I was absolutely floored. The foreshadowing is amazing. The last chapter got me thinking. I'm curious how much outlining have you done for TLE? Do you outline every chapter or just vague overarching themes? You may have answered this before, and if so, I'm sorry! I'm just more or less curious about your writing process since your work is so good.

I just wanted to send you all the good vibes and fairy dust. Thank you for sharing this story. I hope you're doing well and resting when you can. Burn out sucks.

Hi! Thank you!! And sorry I’m responding to this like months after you sent it!

I do a LOT of outlining. As a matter of fact, plotting is one of my favorite parts of writing. I just love taking two random, completely unrelated scenes that occurred to me separately and then trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B.

For the case of the Felix, I always knew there would be an attack on Hogsmeade at the end of TLE2, but I didn’t have a lot of the details worked out. It wasn’t until much later in the plotting process that I was working on a scene that I was 100% writing for the jily tension (their first potions class together) and I decided to go the Felix Felicis lesson route, mostly because coming up with new potions is hard and I figured Slughorn seems like a dude who loved his little traditions. It wasn’t until I got to the end of that scene that I realized I didn’t want Lily to win the potion because it would add too many variables, but SOMEONE had to win it….and then 💥bam flash pow 💥 I gave the Felix to Snape and suddenly alllllll these other plots went spiraling out of control hahaha.

So I guess I would summarize my process as:

1. Hoard snippets and scenes in my notes app for a long time

2. Put them all in a semi chronological timeline

3. Let the imagination go wild as I try to make it make sense

I also redo my plots more times than I can count. Things are always moving about because sometimes a scene will logically make sense at x point in the timeline, but then when I get to writing the actual scene, emotionally and narratively it doesn’t work.

But that’s part of the fun!!! Yay problem solving lol

Anyway! That was rambly and a bit inarticulate, but thanks for the ask and thanks for the kind words ❤️

[happyhauntt]

➡ gold rush masterlist.

here you can find all content for the gold rush universe, a nikolai lantsov fanfiction featuring anya kamenev, an original character. their story is told through a series of connected one-shots and is cross-posted on ao3.

─── summary:  She calls herself Anya Kamenev, the future Duchess of Balakirev. It doesn't matter where she comes from, or where she goes  ━  there will always be a child named Nastya in her heart, a little girl with grubby hands and a sweet smile, the kind who climbs trees and runs, giggling, through the rose garden. They call her soldier. Nobility doesn't save you from the draft, and Anya would sooner be an army grunt than the alternative. If she must go to war, then she'll do it well  ━  for this country that sits in her gut like a stone, for the family who will always be proud of her, always, until the first day she makes a man bleed without a weapon in her hands. She'll swallow that secret until the day she dies. Let her be a soldier. He calls her darling. The only one to know the truth of her, the only man who looked at her with gentle eyes and swore he'd give up his throne just to spend forever in her arms. But they are both too smart to be so naive  ━  their country is an open wound, and the pair of them have duties to fulfil. He, to rule. She, to fight. It doesn't matter what she calls him. Pirate, privateer, prince, sobachka. As many names as faces, her heart aches for a man she knows she can never truly have. Nikolai Lantsov, the hope of Ravka. Anya Kamenev, Ravka's bane. Oh, what a pair they make.

─── warnings: disability rep, ptsd & mental health, canon-typical descriptions of injury, war, trauma. angst, fluff, more angst. swearing. specific warnings will be included in each fic.

𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠. works will be posted in chronological order of the timeline.

forgiveness with teeth [1.6k] ➡ there's something about nikolai lantsov that makes her want to break things. (pre-shadow & bone.)

give your tears to the tide [2.8k] ➡ nikolai learns the truth at the heart of anya, for better or worse. (pre-shadow & bone.)

and i am coming home to you [2.5k] ➡ there are some things that cannot be saved. nikolai swears she won't be one of them. (pre-shadow & bone.)

if my wish were granted [1.4k] ➡ anya likes teasing nikolai. it’s far too easy to get under his skin. this time, enjoying some peace aboard the Volkvolny, anya claims that she prefers sturmhond’s rugged looks over nikolai’s princely features. (pre-shadow & bone.)

stay, i pray you [2.1k] ➡ nikolai has a decision to make. anya makes it for him. (during seige & storm.)

keep my hand in yours [2.4k] ➡ nikolai sees anya all dressed up for the first time since they were children. he doesn't handle it well. (post ruin & rising/rule of wolves.)

everything i touch turns sick with sadness [3k] ➡ anya still believes, sometimes, that nikolai made a mistake in marrying her. he’ll spend every day for the rest of their lives proving her wrong. (post ruin & rising/rule of wolves au.)

garnet & silver [0.9k] ➡ requested. nikolai has a gift for anya. (post ruin & rising/rules of wolves au.)

five fun facts about anya.

modern!anyalai headcanons.

𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐬.

gifsets ➡ 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

videos ➡ 1 / 2 / 3

misc. ➡ 1 / 2

[giantchasm]

“What is it that the child has to teach? The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everyone should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not. And the child is right.”

WOO! After a little over a month and 60+ hours of drawing, it's finally finished. The Peony animatic I promised you has, at long last, arrived.

It took a lot of work, but I'm super happy with how it came out! And, tbh, I'm already planning more animatics I want to do in the future.

I think the majority of you are already acquainted with Peony, but just in case you aren't, here's a quick rundown of her story, or at least what's covered in the video:

Peony has always known her family experienced quite a bit of strife before her birth, but she doesn’t quite understand the full extent of it until getting caught up in a horrible accident. After nearly losing her life, the young magician develops an affinity for Soul magic— more specifically a connection with the spirit plane, and thanks to that, she’s able to meet two very special people. Her deceased granddad and her father’s long-gone ex-best friend are far from perfect people, but Peony quickly warms up to them anyways. She can see they were dealt an unfair hand in life, and that the tragedies they were involved with weren’t necessarily their fault. As she sees it, they deserve a second chance. So that’s exactly what she’s going to give them! Peony resolves to find a way to bring her dead loved ones back to life… developing her powers more and more along the way and providing her family some much needed closure. But is something like resurrection really possible? It seems Peony may be flying too close to the sun. A certain fluttering fiend is keeping an eye on her, telling her it won’t allow her to disrupt the natural order of things, and that one can’t undo what has already been done. But Peony? She doesn’t know how to listen. The young girl will stop at nothing until she saves her two guardian angels and sets her family right.

...She's a stubborn little goober, that's for sure.

I love her, though, I really do, and I hope you love her too. This video was a real passion project, and I'm super happy with how it came out. I'm glad I could get it finished just before the round 3 polls of the OC Tourney start.

Remember, everyone! Peony for president. Girl's already ready to throw hands with a god.

@kirbyoctournament

Some of my favorite frames will be under the cut with annotations/interesting details pointed out.

I really enjoyed the crayon drawing aspect of this video. The doodles were super fun to do and added a lot of character to it!

One may have noticed that the way Peony drew her mother's side of the family changed, though, as she told their story... and that's not just to represent them getting older! The way she drew their eyes and other stuff changed because during the later half she depicts them with their cybernetics, whereas during the beginning of their tale, she doesn't. Pretty cool stuff.

Technically, in Peony's story, she can't really touch/physically interact with the ghosts... at least not at the point in the timeline this part of the animatic takes place during. All the same, though, I decided to fudge it just a little for more interesting character interactions.

This frame depicts Peony's near death experience, LOL. Don't worry about it... she's fine in the end. In general, this segment of the animatic displays her story a little more chronologically, showing how she developed her powers, learned who the ghosts were, and got better and better at using aforementioned powers.

Shortly after Peony's near-death-experience, Morpho Knight tried to reap Sectonia and Haltmann for interfering with the living world and helping save her life. However, Peony, even not knowing who they were at the time, stood up for them- offering up her life, instead, and Morpho Knight, impressed by the display of bravery, allowed it to slide for now.

...Stars, it's going soft, isn't it? Stupid Kirby

Peony doing some detective work! I really like the framing of this drawing. Here you can see Taranza and Joronia when they were younger alongside Haltmann and Susie pre-cybernetics, like I mentioned earlier.

This bit is meant to be Peony finally confronting the ghosts (or- well, more specifically her granddad) about knowing who they are. She points out that she and him HAVE to be related. Look! They share the same hair fwoof!

There's a very distinct scene I have in my mind for the first time Peony is ever able to physically interact with the ghosts. She's making flower crowns and jokingly tries to put one on Sectonia's head, only for it to work. Needless to say, they're both shocked, then delighted.

These reunions make me feel things. Admittedly stuff is still a little complicated between Susie and her father, but ultimately she is glad to see him... and as for the spiders? I think they missed each other more than they could possibly put into words. They're so, so happy.

This is one of my favorite sets of frames. It took FOREVER to do all of the little doodles, but it turned out looking awesome, as did the ripping effect! See if you can spot all of the different family traumas she's depicted.

I like to think eventually Peony acquires some precious heirlooms. Sectonia hands down the matching scarf she had with Taranza but discarded when she went mad. Haltmann, meanwhile, no longer has his pocket watch, but when Peony tries to surprise him with a new one as a gift, only to realize he can't really hold onto it, he tells her to take care of it for him 'until he can.' This is something she does with pride.

Originally, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with these sets of frames. I mean... I knew I wanted to have Peony walking past her family thriving, but I didn't know how I wanted to orient the group. I figured they'd be best in sets of two, but wasn't sure how to sort them out.

If I were to draw her parents with their dead loved ones, I feared I'd sort of be insinuating their bond with each other wasn't as important now that they had those dead loved ones back, and that isn't true at all. But if I were to draw the living characters and dead characters together... well, that wouldn't really represent how Peony changed the family, now would it?

Ultimately, I decided to draw Susie hanging out with Sectonia and Taranza talking with Haltmann. I thought it'd be a nice way to represent the group as a whole have become a ragtag sort of family. Everyone loves everyone here.

This is one of my favorite frames. I simply think it's so cute. Peony is so, so beloved, and she loves her weird little family so much, too.

I adore these final three frames. Throughout the animatic, the crayon drawings are used to represent her family's tumultuous past, but finally, Peony depicts a more positive moment, quite literally slapping it over a sad one. It's a symbol of her determination to rewrite their— rewrite her— story, no matter what it takes.

Little does she know, even if she ultimately can't bring Sectonia and Haltmann back from the dead, she's already given both them and her parents a happier ending. They're all together, at least, and that's what matters most.

[kwillow]

Yo I tried to see if I could find it anywhere, but do you have like a timeline of events for your awesome unicorn guy/rabbit bastard story? I'm so invested but going into the archives is rough since so many comics jump around chronologically, I can't even find out how the rabbit guy survived into the future :(

Unfortunately we don't - Amaranthine is very much a work-in-progress illustrated in fits and spurts and we also never expected it to garner the attention it has.

But! @chocodile made a gorgeous webpage that summarizes major story beats and goes over the important characters, locations and magic fantasy vocab terms.

I hope it's helpful! We plan on continuing to refine the information here, including adding things like a timeline, something that sorts the comics we've posted into chronological order, and a system to find information we've posted more easily. That's something that will take a while, but will hopefully make this all easier to understand once we're done.

Also... we just haven't posted some character beats yet, hence why some information might be missing - like how exactly Hyden survived as a wizard popsicle for 300 years. Everything is still very much a WIP and there are holes and gaps because it was never meant to be a complete narrative, just a for-fun side project while we work on our game Wishbone.

Perhaps one day it will exist in a more complete state, but for now we're still making things up as we go and illustrating scenes whenever the urge strikes! Thank you for being interested in this patchwork puzzle regardless. xP

[arcadia75]

Someone tell me they had him see a therapist....

Let's just outline some of the things that have happened to Chakotay in the last 20-ish years or so

Organization that he spend 20+ years of his life in fails to protect his family and home planet

He resigns from said organization

Signs up with rebel organization and who knows what he saw or did those years

Gets flung across the galaxy 70 years from home, x number of his crew killed probably

Sacrifices his ship

Made to put back on the uniform of the organization he abandoned and he has a lot of anger towards (probably)

Finds out his former girlfriend is a Cardassian spy

Gets tortured by aliens and has his ex-girlfriend steals his DNA and says she's pregnant with his baby

get marooned on a planet from a bug bite for the rest of his life

falls in love with the women he's marooned with, who finally comes to terms with being marooned there, and then gets rescued and they go back to being Captain and First Officer

Gets marooned on another, less fun planet

Has some Ferengi mess up a chance to get back to the AQ

Almost dies from a macrovirus (assuming)

Watches his best friend/love of his life die

Gets used by former Borg woman

Has his two best female friends die and has to become Captain (in an alternate timeline)

Brainwashed into fighting in an alien war

Brainwashed again by aliens who capture the ship and make them fight in simulations

Falls in love with a women who forgets him (and he also forgets, so maybe this one doesn't count)

Only one of two survivors of a failed slipstream flight and changes time to save everyone

Goo version of him dies

Sees his captain and best friend and whatever else she is to him lose her mind when they run across another starship in the DQ

Watches his would be girlfriend get it on with a hologram

Has to save the ship when it's splintered into 37 different timelines

Makes a bad choice to date a woman half his age

(I'm probably forgetting a lot from Voyager and have things in the wrong chronological order, but you get the idea)

Then we have like 4 years we know nothing about. Let's hope he was sitting on a beach somewhere relaxing

Becomes captain of an experimental ship and gets lost 52 years in the future on its first mission

Loses his entire crew

Has some Starfleet Cadets change the timeline and instead of being 52 years in the future, he gets throw 10 years into the past and marooned on a p-class planet with his first officer, who then dies

Has to escape from the Mirror Universe

Finally reunited with his former Captain, now Admiral

Becomes Captain of the Voyager-A

Has to drag his best friend/friend with benefits/whatever she is out of a peaceful retirement cuz the synths attacked Mars

So like, he saw a therapist right?? Please? At least once?

[nefarious-nightjar]

Jack's list of Various Omega Red Media

@strongestbanner this is for you, if you are still curious about getting more into Omega Red's character! :D

EDIT, as of 09/17/2024: THIS LIST IS OUTDATED GO FIND THE SPIFFY NEW ONE HERE :)

———————————

Beneath all the murder, the bloodshed, the Soviet State intervention, and the medical malpractice, I really like Omega Red and I find him to be such and intriguing character; if not, in the least, quite the illusive one.

Marvel has never really given him a proper origin story, nor have they fleshed out his background like they have for other villains (like our boy Sabretooth). We don't really know all too much about him and his past apart from the few bits and pieces dropped here and there throughout his very scattered appearances. Even then, there are still some contradictions in the little we do have about him, so good luck with piecing together his past lol.

Regardless, I hope this list can at least give a glimpse into Arkady Rossovich as a character, and how he has been written and portrayed by the various writer throughout his 30 years of existence :)

— Comics —

So! We start with the comics! I'm going to try and place these in a roughly chronological order, but some of it gets a little hard to place timeline wise. This is also by no means a wholly comprehensive list, but I thought I'd highlight some of the more prominent ones I like and let you go from there!

X-Men (1991) #4-#7 Omega Red makes his first ever comic book appearance, yippee! These comics officially introduced Omega Red and his powerset, a well as his history with Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Maverick during their time as CIA operatives.

X-Men (1991) #17-19 Enter, the Soul Skinner! This little ark isn't too widely talked about (at least where I am), but I find this to be an intriguing one nevertheless, especially in it's regards to Omega Red. With a mutant that is terrorizing an isolated Siberian town, the Russian Government sends Omega Red to investigate. Turns out Omega is just as vulnerable to his psychic powers as the rest of the village, and he Soul Skinner ends up mind-controlling and manipulating Arkady into fighting the X-Men when they arrive to help.

Maverick: In the Shadow of Death (1997) This little one-shot is about as close to a 90’s followup to Omega Red’s debut as you can get. Focusing almost entirely on Maverick, Omega Red, and John Wraith, this little comic does a decent job at trying to explain his mutant death factor and his motivations for all of his killings, as well as using the words “carbonadium synthesizer” and “mutant death factor” more that was probably necessary. (also John Wraith gets to use a bazooka and i think that's fun. they need to let him do that more often lol)

*Iron Man (1968) #295-#297 Another one of his earliest appearances. Being such a new character, there is, sadly, not too much to him here. BUT it does establish the character of Olinka Barankova, Arkady's creator and someone who remains an important figure to his history.

*Cable (1993) #9-#11 This ark gives us some very good insight on how Arkady views himself, especially during the early period after which he was unfrozen in the modern day.

*Generation X (1994) #10 and #11 Arkady attacks Emma and Banshee’s little team in the present, while Banshee has flashbacks to his time as an Interpol agent, when he chased down and arrested Arkady BEFORE he went through the Carbonadium bonding process.

Wolverine (1988) #170, #173-#175 Here he shows up, working alongside Lady Deathstrike for Sabretooth.

Wolverine: Origins (2006) #6-#10, and #36-#40 I have not read all of this run yet, so I cannot speak too much on it. Only that showing up briefly in issues #6-10, Omega is mostly there as a back ground antagonist. And, come issues #36-#40, he reappears to be killed off.

X-Men Gold (2017) #9-#11 To Quote the Stone Roses, "I am the resurrection and I am the life". The ones in which Arkady gets his ass resurrected, yay! Can't say much on the run itself, but I'm mainly mentioning it to help place the status of Omega Red, so that you are not left questioning why on earth he's suddenly alive the next time he appears :/

Weapon X (2017) #17-#27 With Sabretooth newly leading Weapon X, he ends up being lured and dragged away by Omega Red during a mission. After a good amount of back and forth and a lot of bloodshed, Creed ends up offering Arkady a chance at redemption from all of the Soviet medical malpractice and lack of autonomy he's been put through at the hands of S.I.C.K.L.E. Accepting the offer, Arkady ends up joining Creed's X-Force in defeating S.I.C.K.L.E.'s Director, Vassily Rossovich.

Now I feel like I need that Gordon Ramsey meme with the "finally some good fucking food" text. These issues, especially #17-#21, are some of the best for Omega red and his characterization. Hands down. As well, this is technically the first time we every get to see him be a “good guy” of sorts, and joining Sabretooth’s version of Weapon X/X-Force for the rest of the comics' run.

Now, this brings us to the Krakoa era! There is quite a bit, so bare with me. Outside of his prominent presence in the X-Lives of Wolverine special, his appearances are very sporadic and a little hard to follow, though you'll usually find him kicking around in both Wolverine or X-Force. I will also admit that I am NOT up to date with all of the krakoa era stuff, so there may have been a good few comics in which I've missed.

His Krakoa appearances, in order (that I can remember) are:

Wolverine #1, Wolverine #4, X-Force #12, X-Force #15, Wolverine #8, Wolverine #11-#12, all five issues of X-Lives of Wolverine, X-Force #27-Present, and Wolverine #26-#27

* Lastly, there is also this website you can check out for finding all of Omega Red's comic book appearances in chronological order. I will admit, I found this a hard list to start with because it can very easily get overwhelming from the sheer amount of stuff to it. But then again, I'm not your boss, and if you want to got combing through every last little bit of Arkady's appearances, then by all means go hog wild and check it out! for yourself :)

— The Animated Series —

I thought I would add Arkady's appearances in the Animated series for the sole purpose of verity. He is in no way a major occurrence, but when he gets his spot light, I feel that he shines like like hell.

"Red Dawn" S2 Ep.4 Outside of a very brief flash of his face seen in Sabertooth's flashbacks during the S1 Ep.4 "Deadly Reunions", this episode is Omega's first real and proper appearance, as well as his introduction into the animated show. Having been resurrected by some radical Generals looking to reclaim and reform the Soviet Union, Arkady wrecks havoc on the Republic's capital and ultimately tuns on the Generals to try overthrowing the Russian Parliament and take control of the Soviet Union for himself.

"A Deal With the Devil" S4 Ep.2 Arkady gets his ass unfrozen by the American government to clean up the remains of a Soviet submarine filled with nuclear war heads off the Hawaii coast. This episode really showcases his cunning and his drive for self determination, even as he drags Wolverine and Storm kicking and screaming into his evil plot to nuke the world.

"Weapon X, Lies and Video Tapes" S4 Ep.16 Not much to mention of Arkady here, but he does shows up in flash backs to the Weapon X Mission where they were tasked with retrieving the C-Synth.

— Fanfiction —

Yes, I am recommending fanfiction, sue me. But honestly, although fanfiction is fanfiction and "rrraaagh Not Canon Material™!!! >:(", I still wanted to honourably mention the work of Soviet_Supersoldier's Living Weapon, Living Computer and a touch of Luck on ao3. It is, as they describe, "A behind-the-scenes journey through the 2019 X-Force and Wolverine series."

With passionate dedication to weaving together the gaps of the sporadic appearances of Omega Red through the Krakoa Era, and to giving characters outside of Wolverine their due, I find this work to be a lovingly crafted case study of Arkady, Sage, Neena, and other non-titular characters we see in the Krakoa Era. I will happily pour my heart out for this work, even if it one day bleeds me dry.

[hexhomos]

HI! hope your day is treating you well, i’ve been interested in doomreed for some time but cape comics are sort of daunting to me just because there’s so much content and i really don’t know where to begin. what do you suggest? thank you!

STRAIGHT OUT THE GATE ill say, read [ "My Dinner With Doom" ] (this is a rly high-qual upload, open it up on desktop!)

It's a key issue oneshot with a lil bit of backstory retelling, featuring a private dinner that happens in the 00's - a good entrance point if you're curious about doomreed in summarization + generally speaking a Real Good Comic overall.

LONG POST INCOMING THIS IS A LONG POST / click readmore

the fantastic four are one of marvel's darling old founding teams so there is pretty much... endless archival, ongoing, multimedia and games content popping up all the time.

They are also kinda one of the rare teams where the growth of the characters is consistent? The kids are allowed to grow older and events from every major run are carried/referenced by the next author so if you want to do chronological there's a lot of incentive and fun stuff.

If you wanna dip your toes into the F4 as a concept, check out:

*the #1 issue of Fantastic Four By Waid & Wieringo (1997) *Mythos: Fantastic Four (2007) [ *The FF (1994) movie that is up for free on youtube!! ] *Fantastic Four (2022) by Ryan North as the current ongoing!

(Some) Singles centered on Doom/Doomreed:

*Fantastic Four (1961) Annual 2 is Doom's original backstory issue *Marvel Two-in-One (2017) by Zdarsky issue #11 & Annual #1 are both crazy good but they spoil big events/conclusions from previous runs if u care abt that!!! (My current fav fic came from these issues.) *Doomgate (novel) by Jeffrey Lang is a good option if you want something that is mostly prose, instead of a comic or movie

NOW BEFORE YOU JUMP AHEAD WITH ANYTHING I *am* following [ this reading guide ] which breaks down specific issues relevant to their relationship as a line through all the different authors over the years.

[ There's also this 2021 guide w/ a few other story/AU highlights! The author said u can send the blog questions and theyll answer too ]

The 'Modern era' (late 90s/00s/10s/Now) Starts with Waid and McDuffie's stuff. The latter wrote My Dinner with Doom!

If you're scared by all the names, don't be - when searching for the issues, just pay attention to the year, # number & author/artist creds.

What I'm reading/liveblogging rn is Hickman's Secret wars era, generally regarded as yaoi ketamine; It's a good epic narrative entrance point if you want to jump into it, and it eventually led into this huge marvel event that changed the multiverse and even brought miles morales into the main timeline, so its BIG and it happened in multiple books - the best way to go about it is;

Pre-hickman:

Fantastic Four (1961) #551 #552 #553 ➡️ (these introduce main ideas we will touch again in secret wars)

Fantastic Four (1961) #558 to #562 ➡️

Doom appears in these too, first/last issues more heavily. Stuff here will be ref'd during the next era.

If you're having fun and want to keep reading you can! Just know that the next storyarc has gathered a largely mixed response bc..... its Millar going hammywammy....... not that necessary.......

anyway when you see hickmans name in the cover STOP and

Jump to actual Hickman secret wars era:

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The complete collection➡️

(optional, side plot) If you like Val + Doom, read specifically; *Fantastic Four (2014) #3 & #5 + Fantastic Four Annual (2014) #1 *Agent of Asgard #6 & #7 *Avengers World (2014) #15 & #16

New Avengers (2013) ➡️ check issues on picture, or, if you're a completionist, look for 'Avengers by Jonathan Hickman; complete collection' and skim for the doom/reed relevant bits. There's a lot of characters here but this is a buildup to the big secret wars. Secret Wars (2015) ➡️ (All issues!) Infamous Iron Man (2016) ➡️bendis' doom writing is not very good but hang in there because right after him: Marvel 2-In-One (2017) ➡️ (All issues!) is a banger. Yaoi btw.

You can basically read all the future/past ones as listed, or starting from the beginning of that author's period without worrying, bc they aren't as indebted to each other storywise.

You can also start somewhere else if you want or check out other single issues on the reading guides; It's not a crime! There's a lot of stuff with different takes and genres, I'm slowly chipping away at the secret wars era bc its just very thick and like a serious television drama attempt, except its also insanely funny sometimes.

(I'm still making my way through it so that's what I have at the moment!)

[a-little-bit-of-ravioli]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @the-real-azalea-scroggs! Had to wait until I was of my phone because doing these is a nightmare on mobile lmao

1. How many works do you have on A03?

18 as of a few days ago!

2. What's your total A03 word count?

157,937! Which is. Only a fraction of the word count in my Docs folder. Be prepared.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mainly write for The Legend of Zelda; specifically Linked Universe! In fact, that's all that's posted on my Ao3 currently, since my fall into that fandom began with me uploading there! Pre-Ao3 I wrote for Black Cat (Anime/Manga), Megaman NT Warrior, various Pokémon things, Assassin's Creed, Yugioh, Final Fantasy XIV and Octopath Traveler! Some of these I still write privately, but I haven't gotten around to re-posting any.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Whistling on Deaf Ears - My longest fic on Ao3, focusing on Wild and Twilight's friendship and how good intentions can lead to disaster.

Iconoclasm - Warriors deals with the room full of portraits in Cia's palace. The Chain also deals with it, but with a bit more fire.

Deserving - Twilight finally tells Rusl that he was the wolf in the village during TP, but that also means dealing with some heavier topics. Colin half overhears them and forms his own conclusions.

Something Greater - The start of the "Hyrule can see magical auras" series! In this one we deal with Legend and his many rings.

Ocean Magic - Mermaid Legend and Zora Time have a race and then fight one of the Big Octos from WW! Fun times.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Every single one!! I love comments, they give me an excuse to ramble about my fic more!! I am always down to ramble about every single insignificant detail of any line and/or section. If you ever want more background info about one of my fics, look to the comments!

So please, I adore comments, I treat them like treasures, not responding to them would be a CRIME.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

There's no contest; Inevitable, my (so far) only MCD fic.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmmm, that's hard to quantify. I usually try to end fics on a hopeful note regardless. I'd say possibly either Deserving, where Twilight reconnects with his family, or Shimmering Blue, Striking White, where Time meets the Fierce Deity settled down on Satori Mountain and they both get closure.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no! I've been blessed with mostly amazing and patient readers, even when my upload schedule isn't the best.

9. Do you write smut?

No, not really. I've attempted it, but I'm too asexual for it lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

Very, very rarely. Mostly privately, and only very specific ones. Only a single one has had an actual plot, so far (more on that one in question 15!).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also a nope! I tend to write for smaller fandoms, where these things don't tend to happen a lot!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! But it's been a while. Over a decade, in fact! I tried to find the fic to link it here, but it was on the German fanfic website fanfiktion.de, and my friend who posted it back then must have deactivated her account, because it's nowhere to be seen (I still have the Word file though!). It was a Multi-Crossover that started as an RP in a forum, and we took turns turning the RP into prose one chapter each. "If a Hero Turns to Dark" was its title. We were edgy teenagers.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Hissssss. Bad question. Shoo. They are all equally important!!

But it's probably TenRose from Doctor Who.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

One of the very few crossovers I've ever worked on; a crossover fic between Assassin's Creed and Doctor Who, that I have mapped out in both chronological and timeline order, and yes, those are different. I only ever wrote about a quarter of it, since my primary audience of it disappeared when we graduated. I doubt I'll ever pick it back up properly, and if I do it'll probably go through heavy rewrites first since it's so old. Finishing it is a nice thought, but realistically, after 9 years it'll never be high priority enough for it to actually happen.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially arguments, and emotional impact. I've been told I do really well making characters feel alive and believable! Also I like to believe I'm decent at setting a scene and giving it the vibe I want it to have!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with dialogue tags when nothing much is happening besides the talking. I always feel it's too bland, and fall back on the same phrases. My scene transitions could use some work too.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've done this with Japanese phrases, because I was a massive weeb. Usually I followed them up with their own translations, though; I'm not the biggest fan of footnote translations, unless they are properly linked to. Simple dialogue tags are my favourite way of indicating a language switch.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Black Cat the Manga/Anime! It's a series about an assassin turned bounty hunter trying to live a life separate from his murdery past, but getting dragged back into things by still wanting to avenge his best friend's death. The series has a special place in my heart and my bookshelf, it left an imprint on 13-year-old me that will never leave.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Probably Jailbreak, uncharacteristically enough! It's one of the only fics I never got stuck in once. Writing it was a great feeling from start to finish. I love writing all of my fics, but that was a special few days.

Tagging @ahrva @nowhere-to-go-but-down @silvercaptain24 and @aeghina! And anyone who wants to do it, really, go wild

[wholesome-cryptid]

I would absolutely love to read that if you posted it ^^

OKAY BIG GRIMSLEY HEADCANON POST

IM NORMAL ABOUT GRIMSLEY I SWEAR I SWEAR

-Okay so a lot of this directly ties to my boyfriend @plushegutzz's oc Blaine and their lore so be prepared to see their name a lot. Also I'm not gonna include Bug in this because as much as I love her she's mostly just a silly little fankid i have for fun domestic fluff stuff so she doesn't really have a concrete timeline. Anyway i'll try my best to go through this chronologically.-

TWs for: gambling and gambling addiction, trauma, vague references to childhood abuse, Grimsley just generally being severely mentally ill

Grimsley Gore (birth name Gabriel Gore) was born into a wealthy Unovian family alongside his twin brother Garry. Being born into a rich family the two brothers had a lot of really strong expectations placed onto them from a very young age, with the two basically expected to be perfect all the time. Because of this stress growing up the two brothers developed a very strong bond as they really only felt like they had each other.

The mother of the Gore household was a very controlling and manipulative figure putting a lot of pressure onto the twins to be perfectly behaved golden children. Their father meanwhile was very emotionally distant towards his family and the rare times he did interact with his two sons he was generally pretty abusive. Growing up Grimsley/Gabriel tries his best to keep the uglier side of his home life away from public eyes, instead bragging to his friends about how cool and spoiled he is instead.

Grimsley's first pokémon was his Liepard (nicknamed Violet) who he met at around 8 years old, he spotted a wild Purrlion with an injured foot wandering his family's estate and immediately dropped everything to go check on the kitty. He got in a lot of trouble with his mother for doing so as his outfit ended up covered in dirt during his rescue of the pokémon but he was mostly just excited over having a pokemon of his own. He ended up nursing Violet back to help and it caused the two to develop a very close bond. Even as an adult Grimsley is super attached to his Liepard and basically treats her like his baby.

It's shortly after catching Violet that Grimsley meets Blaine A. Platinum the child of another wealthy Unova family with the twos parents pairing the two together in hopes of them getting married in adulthood. Both children absolutely hate this idea and don't initially get along with each other, but after a while of being forced to spend time together they start to realize that they're stuck in similar situations of shitty home lives and form a friendship over their shared struggle.

During his teen years Grimsley views his life as “going pretty good” in his eyes, he's still dealing with an actively abusive home life but he's kind of repressing all of his emotions about that. Instead he's clinging onto the bonds he formed with Blaine and his brother Garry. His dynamic with his brother is very “we've only got eachother” meanwhile he and Blaine are in this mess of “kinda dating but also kinda not dating we're 16 years old and it's complicated.” and both relationships are kinda overly dependent on Grimsley's end. Overall during this point of his life Grimsley just kinda acts like a spoiled brat rich kid who's better than everybody else because it's easier for him to accept than look inwards and try and process the trauma he very clearly is struggling with. (Grimsley spends a large chunk of his life running away from his trauma.)

Grimsley putting all his emotional stability on two people unsurprisingly ends up shooting him in the foot as his life kinda ends up falling apart at 19 years old. It starts with Blaine, They've personally had enough of the stress of their home life and now that they're an adult they're planning to run away and had been hoping that Grimsley would join them. Unfortunately Grimsley can't bring himself to abandon the only life he's ever known, a part of him knows deep down that he's not happy in his current situation but he can't bring himself to admit that. His life with his rich family being the only sense of stability he knows and he turns Blaine down. This turns into a huge fight between the two with Blaine basically accusing him of choosing his spoiled rich kid life over them and storms off.

Unsurprisingly, Grimsley takes Blaine leaving very badly with his emotions about the situation eventually starting to turn bitter with him viewing it as though Blaine abandoned him.

Things only get worse for poor Grims as not too long after he loses his brother too. Unlike Grimsley, Garry has been processing his emotions about their home life and also has decided he doesn't want to put up with it anymore. He informs Grimsley that he's intending to move away to Paldea to be with his fiancé, and much like Blaine offers his brother resources to get out himself but Grimsley isn't in the headspace to hear it and denies all of it feeling like his brother is abandoning him too.

Needless to say, Grimsley is in a pretty bad headspace at this point due to losing the two people he put all of his emotional stability into. (Even if it was a large part his own fault and refusal to process his emotional issues that caused him to lose them.) And things only get worse when his family falls into debt.

Grimsley's father was a gambler, it was a well known fact even if everyone in the family pretended it wasn't, and the kinds of casinos he was associating himself with weren't exactly the most legal ones. His father found himself owing quite a lot of money to Team Rocket causing the family to go bankrupt.

This all just sent Grimsley into a mental spiral with him basically having a full on episode. Not being able to let go of the spoiled rich life he was living because it was his only sense of stability was the reason he had lost his connections with Blaine and Garry in the first place and now he didn't even have that. Gambling was the reason he had lost everything, and in his state of mental instability he rationalized that gambling would be the thing to get his life back. It was during this episode that he decided to abandon his birth name is Gabriel and start going by Grimsley feeling as though he needed to abandon the “pathetic” person he used to be and reinvent himself.

Thrusting himself into casinos run by Team Rocket didn't exactly go well for Grimsley, with him getting roughed up for lacking proper funds on more than one occasion. But it was enough to get Grimsley addicted to the thrill of gambling. The rush of adrenaline it gave him distracted him from all the bad things going around in his he was already trying so hard to repress, it was something to make him feel ALIVE in his depressive state.

Still though hanging around these shady casinos and just getting pushed deeper into debt wasn't doing much good for him, and the only reason he was able to escape falling deeper into the organization was him meeting Nanu. Nanu was still working for the international police at this point and had been working undercover on a job related to Team Rocket and pretty quickly noticed that Grimsley was out of place. He gave him an out noticing that he actually had some really impressive pokémon battling skills and put him down the route of becoming a professional dark type pokémon trainer.

It didn't take Grimsley too long to rise up as an up and coming pokémon trainer and he definitely loved the attention and success that came with being a big name trainer. Eventually he ended up grabbing the attention of the champion of the region Alder, who saw potential in him to be successful as an Elite Four trainer and wanted to train him for the job.

His dynamic with Alder was, complicated, with Alder being a very mentorly almost father-like figure which made Grimsley and his repressed daddy issues panic. This only being furthered by Grimsley being close in age to Alder’s actual children and Alder being very aware of the fact that Grimsley was a very troubled young man who needed guidance. Grimsley did still accept the offer of the Elite Four job from Alder and did let him help out when it came to improving his pokémon battling, he did end up telling Alder to “watch it old timer” more than a couple times when it came to his personal life.

Despite his current success Grimsley still kept his gambling habits from before though and the thrill seeking that came from it although he was spending his time at more legal casinos this time. It was spending his time going out gambling that he found himself bumping into Blaine of all people again.

The two reuniting was fully by chance, Blaine finding a very hungover Grimsley passed out next to a casino with his Liepard Violet protectively coiled around him. Blaine was still fairly upset about their fight from a couple years ago at this point but could also tell that Grimsley wasn't exactly in a great state at the moment and decided to make sure he got home safe because a part of them still cared a lot for him. The two ended up catching up and while things were still very awkward between the two they decided to try and be friends to some degree again.

It was through Blaine that Grimsley ended up befriending Burgh as well, with Blaine having befriended the man through their shared passion for art. Grimsley being deathly afraid of bugs from a very young age wasn't the biggest fan of Burgh’s choice in type speciality he thought the man was fun to hang around with and so he had no choice but to put up with it, especially since Burgh was determined to help Grimsley get over his fears.

Burgh found Grimsley rather endearing in general, in fact he found himself kind of crushing on the man. Blaine, rather heavily protested this crush, pointing out that Grimsley was rather obviously very emotionally unavailable. But Burgh couldn't really help it, he could tell that underneath all the facade he put on all the time he had a softer side underneath it all and he just needed help getting it all out.

For once in his life Grimsley found himself genuinely doing pretty good, he was successful in his job in the Elite Four, he had friends in his life that genuinely cared about him, he was even starting to reconnect with his brother and get to know his nephew Giacomo (the young Giacomo really looking up to his uncle.) Unfortunately for Grimsley having people that genuinely loved and cared about him in his adulthood meant that he couldn't keep getting away with an unchecked gambling addiction and repressing all his negative emotions and pretending they didn't exist anymore. He had people that wanted him to get better and he basically got dragged kicking and screaming into therapy and working through his issues by Blaine, Garry, Alder and Burgh.

Grimsley hated working through his big pile of traumas and mental issues at first, it made him feel vulnerable and exposed and he didn't like that. But slowly over time he started to make progress and allow himself to be emotionally open with other people and starts dating Burgh during this time with the man encouraging him to be more open to being his genuine self. He also is a bit more willing to accept Alder as a father figure at this point. (Also diversity win! Grimsley realizes he's nonbinary at this point! yay! This is why you'll occasionally see me talk about headcanoning Grimsley as Bigender and using He/She/Any pronouns.) He even starts allowing people to call him Gabriel again on rare occasions, although this permission is really only given to Burgh, Blaine and Garry it's a huge sign of progress for him.

He eventually fully talks his emotions out with Blaine as hard as that is for him to do, and the two of them finally get over the fight they had all those years ago and start dating as well because I think Grimsley deserves two partners actually.

Aloan Grimsley is him taking a much needed mental health vacation after everything he's been through and allowing himself some rest and relaxation. Besides what's better than surfing on a Sharpedo in order to cope with your repressed emotional issues? He chose to hang out in Alola due to his previous connection with Nanu.

My version of Grimsley is just generally very special to me and is something that is very very dear to me so hopefully y'all enjoyed this big wall of text as well haha! i do have some vague additional headcanons but those aren't as heavily fleshed out and i wanted to just include the fully concrete stuff!!!

[cucuumiia]

Hi there ^^ I hope everything is going well and that you had a good day ^^

I just wanted to tell you that I just discovered your art on Stardew Valley and I love it!!! Your style is just so beautiful and your OCs are adorable! Shane is also one of my favorite characters ^^ I find him almost more interesting than the others with his story, we always want to make him happy ^^

But…. I admit to being a little lost in the story that you present to us. I understood that he was a single father after losing his wife (Farmer Claire if I understood correctly) but… the story is a bit messy.

Would it be possible to put it back in order that I can understand? Do you plan to do comics about it? In your style, that would be adorable!!! Sorry if I sound boring…

Hi there!! Thank you so much for your kind words🥺🥺 I‘m so happy you enjoy my stuff!!

God, you’re so right I should make a master post with my drawings sorted in a chronological order. It’s so messy help

I mostly draw these for fun whenever I feel like it, although I‘d love to have a coherent story with some sense of order. The problem is mainly that I am a bit scared to commit to for example a comic project because I can be very inconsistent, be it because of school getting in my way, life or a stupid art block and I don’t want people to frustratingly wait who knows how long for a continuation ;;;; (I started one small comic a while ago and haven’t finished yet either I am so sorry I‘m working on it!!)

Plus, I am still just conceptualising stuff here, I may rewrite some stuff later on.

But yes, I will definitely try to make a post in the future where I have my works in a somewhat coherent order so people can vaguely get a grasp of the timeline :,))

I‘m so slow with everything ;;; this also goes for all the amazing, sweet and thoughtful asks I get and I‘m trying my best to answer them all in an equally thoughtful way! I read through each and every one of them and I‘m slowly working my way through!

I hope you have a good day too!!!

[rachelfoleyisntdead]

Thoughts on MK1

I'm going to try to go in chronological order, and I might miss something and make another post about it later but let's gooooo (obviously spoilers below).

I think the first half of the story is really good. Yes, it relies very heavily on tropes, but they serve the story well and work.

I love that Outworld is a matriarchal society and that Sindel is the ruling Empress, not the Emperor's consort. Not a huge fan that everything is also based on nepotism/everyone inheriting their position from their family. Apparently meritocracy does not exist in Outworld and I get the vibe that this is in fact by Liu Kang's design.

I don't like what a hypocrite Liu Kang is. He says everyone is 'free to choose peace' but literally all of the characters have had their lives manipulated in an attempt to force this 'peace'. But we're supposed to condemn anyone who doesn't like that. Yeah, honestly--Shang Tsung and Bi-Han are valid, I'll say it.

Which brings us to Bi-Han. Oh, Bi-Han. I really want to give him a cough drop, his throat must be so sore from gargling gravel all day (I say this lovingly). I actually don't hate Bi-Han's heel turn, I just think it needed more build up. It could've worked really well if we had spent more time with Bi-Han first. I'm probably going to make a longer post about this.

I do like the new Syzoth a lot… but he's a bit much. He's really on the edge of being a Wattpad OC with how tragic and pretty he is, his whole 'saddest boy in the world' thing. Immediately offering to just die made me cringe. But, you know, hopefully he'll have fun in Earthrealm with Ashrah and Kung Lao and chill out a bit.

Baraka's whole story slaps. It's easily the best part. It is tragic, but not overdone, it's over all really great. No complaints about that at all, I just wish there was more. But maybe we'll get a Baraka expansion where they do more about the Tarkat.

Ashrah is… not as good as she could be. I love her design, love her fighting style, love her story in general and LOVE that she's here. But uh… are we not gonna talk about how she thinks killing other demons to purify herself is fine? This feels like a bug when it should be a feature. I really want them to explore this, there's so much potential here. This will also be a longer post at some point.

Shang Tsung is that bitch. Love him. 11/10 SLAY FACTOR off the charts. NRS gave the people what they want. So glad he's our villain and not Kronika. God, that smirk. What a guy.

Megan's delivery is bad, but I don't think it's entirely her fault. People should've told her. And they shouldn't have given her a character that was so serious. She works very well with a sort of dry humor, they should've played to her strengths instead of… just letting that situation happen. Cut her some slack.

Why are Liu Kang/Kitana and Hanzo/Harumi being pushed as the 'tragic lovers separated in every timeline' when that's Bi-Han and Sareena??? Like. yeah. I'm biased. But Harumi was not even a character, and Liu Kang and Kitana were not tragically separated, they were together all the time??? They ruled the Netherrealm together??? I don't get it.

I really like how story mode acts as an origin story for some of the characters and you 'unlock' their powers. I also LOVE how they used it to tease new cosmetics.

Love it when they said the thing. "mortal kombat", "deadly alliance", "armageddon" yes yes yes.

Also loved when Johnny made call backs to the OG timelines, ie "the flesh pits". Johnny really is perfect for that.

Johnny and Kung Lao are perfect.

Kuai Liang and Tomas are such daddy's boys and I hate it for them. This will probably be expanded on in the Bi-Han post but shut. the fuck. up. about. your. dad. I hope Kuai Liang never becomes grand master. I'm so sorry Kuai Liang fans, but this version of him is NOT it.

Smoke using his power to levitate up the wall was unintentionally hilarious. Especially since he didn't use it to break his fall. Bro???

Everyone in the game kinda easy to lie to/convince, but this might be a feature. Liu Kang sorta 'raised' everyone to be guileless and kneecapped the development of anyone who might be manipulative. I'll let it pass but honestly, I don't think Liu Kang needed to provide 'proof' of anything.

The entire royal family needs to apologize to Li Mei right fucking now, I am so serious. They continually did her dirty when she was nothing but loyal, and questioned her even when she was saying shit Kitana already knew (that the thing with Earthrealm was a misunderstanding). Apology, or Li Mei enters her villain era. Fuck y'all.

Basically, Li Mei, Shang Tsung, Bi-Han and Baraka get to do whatever they want as far as I'm concerned. Everyone else, I'm keeping an eye on. Oh wait, no. Kung Lao can have rights too, bc he's hilarious. Yall stop sleeping on him.

Anyway, that's my takes, I'm sure I'll have more thoughts. Overall, story mode was actually great, and I think there's a lot they can build on for DLC or even course correct, so I'm excited to see where that goes. If yall want to know my thoughts on a specific plot point or character, feel free to hit up my asks, love to make long posts about this stuff.

[tyrantisterror]

Quentin Tarantino gets a lot of flack for acting as if his movies are deeper than they actually are, which I think is for the most part pretty fair - the dude is very much up his own ass as a writer and his later films suffer a lot for it. But I do think there's some genuinely good writing of substance in his movies, and in particular I think Jules from Pulp Fiction is, like, one of my favorite examples of a villain redemption arc in fiction.

This whole exchange sticks in my head because it's a great example of a character expositing on their character arc while still feeling in-character - I think one of my favorite bits, one that really makes it feel genuine, is when Jules brings up his little Bible speech pre-kill catchphrase and mentions that he originally only said it because it sounded raw on a surface level, without ever thinking about what it meant until recently. It feels like a person genuinely talking out the process of self-examination they've been going through, and the admission that some of their actions were done without thinking, but still have weight anyway, is just really... I dunno, it's good man. He's trying to figure himself out in the context of this quote he originally only liked on the surface level, peering into it closely to figure out why he liked it, why it appealed to him, and hoping that figuring that out will help him figure out how to be the better man he now finds himself wanting to be.

It's meta but in a genuinely clever way - a person finding themselves in the context of a piece of fiction that they initially liked for shallow reasons. A character who becomes a well-rounded individual by living through a throwaway badass line - a piece of pulp fiction, one might even say.

And in this short exchange they really sell that character change. You believe that Jules is truly trying to be the shepherd, to be a better human, to no longer be the tyranny of evil men and help other weak men who could become it find a better path instead. He gives those lovesick kids a chance to make something of themselves, a wakeup call not dissimilar from his own. He's not the shepherd yet, but he's trying real hard. It's lowkey inspiring and something you don't see coming in a movie that's otherwise been kind of devoted to shallow fun - I think that's why it's put at the end despite chronologically taking someplace in the middle of the film's timeline. This is the moment that makes the movie have a point beyond just fun violence and excess.

[ask-zerotrio]

Epilogue/Author’s final note

Idk if anyone’s been paying attention to how the blog has been transforming over the course of the story, both in answers + meta blog layer, but I hope it’s been a fun ride! I wanted to thank you those who wrote really nice words again ;u; it means a lot, especially when I poured a lot into this blog (Probably more than I should lol.)

Anyway, I really wanted to do a full write up of the blog’s plot/timeline... A summary of the vision, if you will.

Arc 1: An idyllic universe

I’d be lying if I had this plot from the beginning, but the whole of it certainly came in a rush. Anyway, the beginning of this story was very much an AU where Sada and Turo did leave the crater, reuniting with Clavell and Arven before dying. It’s a universe where everything is perfect, and certainly one that Clavell of every universe dreams of, regardless of whether he’s romantically involved with anyone.

Arven gets to have his parents, Clavell gets to have his childhood friends by his side, Sada and Turo see that Paradise was never something found in the past and future.

Arc 2: A crumbling dream

Then, a desire to explore zerotrio “canon” overcame me, and I thought it might be fun to pursue a change in direction via story, as opposed to usual ask blog announcements/retcons. So... upon the mention of harm coming to the trio, Clavell assures himself that Sada and Turo are fine.

Thus begins the crumbling of this ideal world, with Clavell becoming sickly and grieving for something he doesn’t know... But Sada and Turo do. Throughout these few asks, whoever’s responsible for this dream is implied... and I think I’ll leave that for you to guess :)

Reality is rushing back at Clavell, and eventually time runs out for him. Sada and Turo know this, and I hoped I made it clear how apologetic they are (Love these complex, problematic, but fiercely loving professors lol. Their personalities are so intense, Clavell always in the crossfire)...

Arc 3: Zero Lab era

Suddenly, Clavell was no longer available to respond... as per his injury. Instead we have the Zero Lab Search queries: An opportunity for people to investigate what truly happened between the trio historically. No better certainty in happenings than real video footage, no?

An added plus was to show the trio’s early relationship together during the Tera Orb research eras... Fluffy filler between the grimness of what becomes of them.

Although the “footage” isn’t posted in chronological order, they are all still roughly dated to show a coherent-ish timeline of Sada +Turo and Clavell beginning to have different priorities for Arven’s sake. Arguments had and never truly resolved... logs of Sada and Turo’s absence in Arven’s young life... so forth.

Peppered amidst all these were little clues, as well as puzzles. I attempted to throw a red herring, wanting to keep Sada and Turo’s deaths a not so secret for longer.

Eventually however, we reach present day, with lots of footage locked or damaged. Clavell, Sada and Turo are never shown, but their impacts of their action are. (These poor poor wild Scream Tails haha.)

Arc 4: Present day

We finally arrive at the true present day... with Clavell facing off Protocol Sada and Turo on his own.

The reveal isn’t a crazy twist, nor did I really want it to. But the build up had been for a tragedy we already knew/are familiar with: that Sada and Turo died for their dreams....

But in these final moments where Clavell woke from a vision that felt too real, Protocol Sada and Turo weren’t immune to it either.

Zero Lab queries no longer function as they used to, and asking about the past hurts. Sada and Turo’s conscious speaks through the logs. (Its true workings I leave to your imagination, but I liked the thought of the AI and Protocol representing the two parts of a whole Professor.) We see the final moments of Sada and Turo in what is a death-defying retrospective.

What next... complicated/messy resolutions. Clavell saved, Sada and Turo “alive” but different. It’s more open ended than I intended, but I think it’s also alright to leave things to the imagination... 

The trio have always been in search of their respective treasures, and though it takes a long and rough journey...

... lost treasure can always be found.

[browa123]

Ok Here's a Giant Reginald Ramble

If no one else wants to over-analyze the funny nyeh man with the banana stache then I will. I've talked on and on about this on discord because I actually Roleplay as Reggie on the regular, so I've talked about how I characterize him a LOT.

The following is a collection of random headcanons in an attempt to keep them in chronological order, along with some screenshots and images to back up where these ideas come from, take em with a grain of salt ^^

Inspired to ramble by @the-irken-pony so I hope you have fun reading this

Alright, lets get this thing started.

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Chapter 1: Pre-Leadership

Reginald joins the Toppat Clan around when Wilford the Fourth is either high up in command or the leader himself. Wilford stacks the hats of clan members he's defeated on his own, is a no-nonsense leader and leads a very respectable era of the clan's history. Reginald IDOLIZES Wilford, so that when he takes over the clan, he starts stacking hats too, specifically Terrence's to use as a trophy for his victory, once he's in charge.

This is a no-brainer, but Reginald HATES Terrence. Where Wilford was a strong, guiding hand that lead the clan to greatness, Terrence leads the clan into ruin.

The fact that it's canon that the leader that came right before Reginald is specifically stated to be the worst Toppat Leader EVER, compared to candidates like T.R.N.K who went on a rampage instead of actually leading and Randy Radman who bankrupted the clan after partying too hard, it means that Terrence's lust for cheep thrills got SO MANY TOPPATS arrested or killed in one leadership, it probably scarred Reginald for life.

Now Reginald IS a coward. He never fights anyone directly and would rather have other people fight his battles for him. Namely, RHM. Perhaps even Wilford the Fourth before Reginald met his Right Hand Man. So, how does he stand a chance against someone who keeps doing these kinds of terrible things and making it out alive where so many other toppats suffer?

He plays dirty.

He rallies the entire clan against Terrence using his greatest weapon, his mind. And one way or another, Reginald ends up throwing Terrence off the airship to his doom, and Reginald takes his hat as a trophy.

Sound Familiar?

It's how the Toppat Civil Warfare path starts, with Henry in Terrence's place. Called out by Reginald very publicly after Ellie gives him an opening. Funny how the Toppats specifically have an area to make traitors and prisoners walk the plank, eh?

Even in the betrayed, Reginald is clearly no stranger to throwing people off the ship. Dangling Henry over the abyss, you get the impression that this isn't the first time Reginald has done something like this. He can't fight for himself, but when it matters, he'll finish what's been started.

Although...

If this grey hat with the gradient split is Reginald's original hat...

He takes the one he stole from Terrence and puts it on....

Ohhhh now we get into the real subtle machinations of Reginald's mind here. Now, this is exclusive to the Rapidly Promoted Executive branch of timelines, but it's really the most in-depth path for Reginald. We don't see him much in the other branch he's able to appear, Pure Blooded Thief that defines how he works outside being a smug bastard on the outside.

Chapter 2: Henry Ruins his Life

To be fair, Henry also gets a hat in Toppat Recruits, but this hat is custom made and tailored TO Henry. Henry gets a proper initiation ceremony and earns his hat in TR alongside Ellie. Reginald doesn't have any major issues with Henry aside the ruby thing, so he doesn't need to act against Henry in this timeline.

All four of the RPE timelines on the other hand...

Anyone who was in the clan during Terrence's leadership and survived it should KNOW that particular black hat. What Reginald has done here, in the most subtle way possible, is WARNED everyone about Henry being a terrible leader. That black hat is a red flag in the eyes of everyone that recognizes it: Henry is an outsider and is not to be trusted.

And it's not like Henry knows that's what that hat means. He just got put in charge of the Toppats and got a pretty sweet new hat too. Yay!

Reginald doesn't see Henry in charge of the Toppats. He sees Terrence Suave 2.0, coming to undo all of his hard work. And it's a LOT of hard work on Reginald's part.

Reginald took a clan that was in shambles from Terrence's cheep and reckless raids, erased any trace of the Toppats on government records around the world to the point where they're desperate for evidence on the clan and brought it back to the great heights he always wanted. Henry threatens all of that.

"I just wanted to look you in the eyes as I took it all back," is a really telling quote. Because it's true. Henry had taken everything from Reginald in RPE. Leadership, status, respect, his clan, his significant other. Henry tore a path through the ship with RHM as part of the carnage and left nothing for Reginald behind. Even in the entire RPE end card, you can see how blank and unhappy his subtle, neutral expression is.

He wants Henry gone. But some of the junior clan members are starting to like his style of leadership, like Thomas and Geoffrey. So if he's going to make Henry disappear, he's gotta make it subtle, like...

Chapter 3: Get Someone Else to Do It

"What is this?"

"I found potential asset."

"Henry Stickmin. Why does he belong here?"

"He was arrested for breaking into a bank."

"We already have very many thieves in here."

"Yes, but he also escaped from prison. He is also the one responsible for the disappearance of the Tunisian Diamond."

"I did hear about that."

"There's more. You know the Toppat Clan."

"Of course."

"Apparently he had some sort of incident with them as well."

"What do you mean by incident?"

"There are conflicting reports."

-Fleeing the Complex Trailer.

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This is more of a personal headcanon than anything, but I solidly believe that Reginald sold (RPE) Henry out to the Wall in an effort to get rid of him.

There are confirmed undercover Toppat spies in the Wall Staff like Wallace Pemberton, who have been undercover for at least 3 years. So, Reginald is well aware of the Wall and its reputation for not being broken out of for 50 years. It would just take a bit of passing hands to get files on Henry from the Airship to the Wall in order to make Henry disappear.

This is further backed up by how surprised Reginald is to see Henry in every single RPE branch the moment Henry returns.

Funny how it sounds like he wasn't expecting Henry to come back, huh?

Of course, this leaves us with Reginald's most character defining moment: when he throws Henry off the ship in The Betrayed. In this timeline, Reginald is well aware Henry is trying to escape and come back to the clan well before he's actually succeeded yet.

Prime opportunity to silence him for good.

After all, Reginald doesn't know Henry. He only knows that history is going to repeat itself all over again if he doesn't get rid of Terrence Suave 2.0 all over again. His own pride blinds him to who Henry is compared to the man Reginald sees him as.

A lot of paths Henry takes define his character, like Ghost Inmate timeline Henries being selfish, or Pure Blooded Thief Henries being greedy. Betrayed Henry TRUSTED the Toppats enough to call them for help, so it could be implied he would have been a good leader to them had Reginald given him a chance, just like in Toppat King.

But, being it Pride or Misconception, Reginald only sees someone who would bring him back to the worst time in his life all over again, and he lets him fall instead. Because Henry took everything from him, and Reginald will do anything to make sure it can't be taken again.

Chapter 4: Complete the Mission

Okay, so for a moment lets put ourselves in Reginald's shoes for a moment as the four timelines in Completing the Mission for RPE come to a head.

You lost EVERYTHING. You gave everything you owned to the guy who shoved your husband off a bridge. They're still cleaning his remains out of the engine while you wait for a miracle worker to bring the one thing you had left back to life.

You also just witnessed him betray the people who sent him to attack you in the first place. You don't know this man, you don't know his loyalty lies, if he even has any. Your only impressions are that of a reckless bastard who took everything from you and nearly killed your husband.

And then you went and put him in charge of your family out of desperation.

-

TCW: You knew it.

You knew Henry was a traitorous bastard with no loyalty with anyone but himself. You might just recruit this Ellie character on the spot for finally giving you your opening.

You've had this planned out for weeks. Every word of undignified, dishonourable rot Henry had left the clan with ever since he took over. He only cares about himself, and soon enough you've gathered an entire rally. You even get to carry this out with some dignity, and you've solidified yourself as this clan's true leader.

He's not worthy of being our leader, he was never worthy. And Ellie had just given you cold, hard proof. So, your rally moves to throw the imposter overboard.

But, not without your prized trophy. That hat is a symbol of your victory over Terrence, and it would be your symbol of victory over Henry as well.

Except your arm gets grabbed as you reach for your prize, and as you fall you begin to wonder if this was really for the clan, or just for yourself.

-

TK:

This was an unexpected turn of events. Down on the ground, and with no one left to turn to, you beg the only other person in the room to do something!

And he does do something. He saves your life. You're at such a loss for words you can barely speak, watching the helicopter fall and explode on the ground just inches behind the other. He risked his life to save you. The evidence was at your feet in the form of dead soldiers.

The Rocket is Launching in 4 Minutes

Damn it all, you don't have time to ponder this. You need to get to the rocket before launch. Though you grab a pair of binoculars as you leave the control tower and hitch a ride with some of the members. You're intrigued now.

And your intrigue soon grows to gratitude. You watch from the loading bay as Henry moves to assist your Right Hand, your beloved husband. You see them defy the odds and work as a team to save each other. You can only mutter out the word "wow" as your mind moves a mile a minute. Had you misjudged Henry?

Finally, the ally he had brought with him unannounced helps get everyone up the rocket just in the nick of time. Well, everyone except the man that made this all possible in the midst of the chaos caused by the raid.

You could have shut the door as soon as Ellie and Right left. You could have dropped him and no one would know. You makes this clear to him as he dangles by the arm, at your mercy.

But, he is one of your own. He's just as much a Toppat as your are. He's earned his place, and your respect.

You pull him up.

-

T4L:

You thought Henry was dead. You heard it in all the news reports. Captured Toppat Leader dead. Fell off a cliff into the snow never to be seen again. You almost wish your hand was a part of that fate. You would have loved to look the smug bastard in the eye before he fell.

But clearly you don't have to worry anymore, as he was apparently alive, riding a tank up to the rocket base with the stupidest, smug grin on his face.

What's he doing here, alive, in a tank no less? Where did he even get it? He tosses you something, and it's barking orders.

"Repeat, Toppat Raid has been aborted, fall back!" A gruff voice calls from the walkie-talkie.

He protected the clan. Everything Henry could have done. Run, hid, just come back to them unannounced. But he went and stopped an entire planned raid that You didn't even know about. By Himself.

Ok. So maybe you misjudged him. Things might turn out okay under his leadership. Even if he is more of a lone wolf rather than a team player.

You put off your plans to dethrone him. If he can garner this much respect, while doing all these crazy things by himself and coming out fine, you can find it in yourself to put up with him until his own reckless solo missions do himself in.

-

Betrayed/ R:

Finally.

You were alone. No one was around to save him. He dangled helplessly in your grip, looking so relieved you caught him. But no one was watching. This was probably the most easily staged accident you'd ever made. You wanted to see him squirm.

He took everything from you. Now, you were going to take it all back. The look in his eyes is something you've been dreaming of since you started plotting. The utter despair, the look of betrayal on his face is everything you wanted it to be.

Finally you can rid yourself of this parasite that has been plauging your clan for good. They will never have to suffer under a foolish leader again.

You let him go.

-

He lived.

Everything you planned for and he ended up surviving the fall. Damn it, damn everything, damn it all to HELL. He should have known that salty cybernetic surgeon would find some way to get back at him after making her do that surgery at gun point.

You weren't just gonna let your beloved right hand die that day, can you blame yourself for that?

Still, you know that your no match for Henry. You hardly were before, you're the brains of the duo you and your right hand made, hardly a fighter. And the cybernetics didn't help that prospect.

Right takes the fight outside, while you can only silently hope the best for him. You know he won't go down as easily the second time. You know he wants you out of the line of fire, but you can't help feeling anxious. Last time he left you to fight Henry alone he nearly died.

A loud explosion overhead, and scorching heat. Alarms are blaring, your airship is loosing altitude. There's a high chance your going to crash. You can only hope Right made it out okay with his upgrades.

Your hopes are dashed when Henry drops into the cockpit with his own weapons at the ready. It's a sickening thought, but the only logical conclusion is that Right didn't survive this time.

Still, in a rush of adrenaline, you draw your pistol and attempt to fire. Henry grabs your arm and points the gun back at your own head. You're at his mercy now.

He staples you to the wall. Smug bastard even when he's pissed huh? You hate the stupid grin on his face. Though, you do what you do best when he turns his back. You shoot him in the spine.

Like hell you're letting him walk away from this. You'll take him with you for Right's sake. The explosion hits. You're quickly loosing consciousness. Everything you loved is up in flames. Your husband is dead and you're hanging from your own grave. You're sure the impact punctured a lung, it's hard to breath with the smoke.

But you still have enough life in you to ask the million dollar question.

Was it worth it?

It wasn't entirely directed at Henry, but you take that thought to your grave