#i can tell he was one of those kids who had a magic phase

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Ayo why Hobie be speaking in riddles and rhymes like the lorax

No wonder Jessica be ignoring him

like okay Rumpelstiltskin this is not a game of two truths and a lie 😭😭

walking around speaking in clues and doing hand tricks and making shit disappear

are you a spider person or an amateur magician you gotta pick one

[wilwheaton]

I have a small part in the 1987 television movie (failed pilot) version of The Man Who Fell To Earth. Lewis Smith played the titular character. Beverly D'Angelo played my mom, his love interest. (Fun Star Trek connection: Bob Picardo is also in it).

My character was a Troubled Youth, which I gotta tell you was not a stretch for me at all. I was deeply, deeply hurting at the time we made it. I was struggling not to suffocate on all the emotional and financial burdens my mom put on my shoulders, and fully aware of just how much my dad hated and resented me. You need a kid who doesn't want to be an actor, whose eyes can't hide the pain? I'm your guy.

Anyway, one of the scenes I was in took place in a record store, where Troubled Youth steals some albums, before he is chased by the cops and saved by the Man Who Fell To Earth, who uses a glowing crystal to save his life from ... some scratches on his face.

We filmed the interior of the record store at Sunset and La Brea, in what I think was a Warehouse, and at the end of the day, I was allowed to buy some records at a modest discount.

I was deep into my metal years, on my way from my punk years to my New Wave years, so I only bought metal albums. I know I bought more than I needed or could carry (I was making a point that I was allowed to spend my own money, mom), but the only ones I can clearly remember are:

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind

Judas Priest - Turbo and Defenders of the Faith

W.A.S.P - The Last Command

(I know this was in March of 1987, because Turbo had just come out.)

Of those, Piece of Mind is the only one I never really stopped listening to, even through all the different it's-not-a-phase phases. I still listen to it, today.

Ever since I became an Adult with a Fancy Adult Record Player And All That Bullshit, I have kept my records in two places: stuff I want right now, and stuff I keep in the library because of Reasons.

Generally, records move in one direction toward the library, even if it takes years to happen. I just don't accumulate albums like I once did, because I'm Old and set in my ways.

Earlier today, I decided that I wanted to listen to an album while I cleaned up the kitchen, and because I wanted to make my life more interesting, I opened the library cabinet for the first time in at least five years.

There was the very same W.A.S.P album from that day in March, 1987. I don't have any of the others -- I looked -- but The Last Command was right there.

Before I really knew what I was doing, I put it on the Fancy Adult Record Player and dropped the needle.

I watched four decades of dust build up with a satisfying crackle, and there was something magical and beautiful about hearing all the skips and the scratches, realizing I remembered them from before.

The title track was just as great as I remembered it. It struck all the same chords in me that it did in the late nineteen hundreds. The rest of the first side was ... um. It just didn't connect with me, and for the few moments I spent trying to find a connection, I don't think it ever really did. I would remember.

But I did remember how much I loved making those mix tapes, and what a big part of them that song was. I did remember how empowering it felt to not just spend my own money that I earned doing work I didn't want to do, but to spend it on music my parents hated, right under their noses. I did remember how impressed Robby Lee was, when I showed him my extensive heavy metal album collection.

Remembering all of that, in one of those cinematic flashes of rapid cut visuals and sped up sounds, told me why I kept this record, while I gradually sold or replaced the other records I bought that day with CDs, then mp3s, then lossless digital files, before finally coming all the way back to records, where I started.

I didn't listen to the second side. I didn't need to. I took it off the Fancy Adult Record Player, and put it back into the library, next to the George Carlin records.

[fbfh]

tristan dugray with baby fever

STOOOOOOOP PLEASE PLEASE KEEP GOING

no bc we've already established a LOT about Tristin. he's dedicated. obsessivley so, even. once he HAS you he doesn't get jealous in a petty way as much as in a puffing out his chest birds acting eccentric to defend their turf way. when he gets jealous the pda goes in FULL SWING. he is so shameless and has just a little sprinkle winkle of bull energy. so you would think that his baby fever comes from this obsessive lovey dovey I want everyone to look at you and know you're mine place right???????? not quite. like it does but not till later. Tristin's baby fever is soul crushingly gut punchingly triggered by watching you interact with a little kid. Chilton is a k-12 school, so this probably started late in your senior year. there was some little kid who was new and got horribly lost and ended up in the high school building instead of the kindergarten building. you and Tristin saw her hiding behind a bench and you stopped to help her. Tristin stood nearby, watching the way you crouched down and introduced yourself in a gentle voice, the softness of your demenor to not scare her. you told her you get lost all the time, and it's normal for a new school to feel scary until you get used to it. you smooth her hair and tell her chilton is really fun and the other kids are nice. you tell her how great the cafeteria is and how cool the junglegym is at recess. you offer to help her find her kindergarten room, and Tristin watches with wide eyes and changing brain chemistry as you scoop up this adorable little kid wearing a backpack as big as she is and walk over to him.

"This is my friend Tristin. Tristin, this is Lilly. Do you wanna walk with us to the kindergarten building?"

Lilly tries to say hi but hides shyly as you chuckle. Tristin walks with you two all the way across campus as you two show Lilly all the cool statues and portraits, all the old trophys and class photos along the way. Tristin works his magic, charming giggles and smiles out of Lilly as you two turn a terrible first day into a pretty good one. You each hold one of her hands and swing her along as you finally reach the kindergarten building, smiling and giggling right along with her until she's safely dropped off at her kindergarten room. Mrs. Benning, the teacher, thanks both of you profusely. Before you part ways, you give Lilly a hug and high five for good luck. Mrs. Benning sends ahead a note so neither of you get in trouble for missing class, and I swear to god, Tristin does not stop thinking about it for weeks.

Flash forward a couple years, Tristin is almost out of college and ready to step into the marketing department of the family business, just like his parents and grandparents planned. One day he gets a call from his dad, telling him that his cousin Honor's baby shower is coming up soon, giving him the details of when to be there and what to bring, but he kind of stops listening after that. Honor's having a baby? like, his cousin Honor? the one that's not too much older than you and him? he stares at you sitting on the floor in front of a mirror, doing your makeup and wearing one of his shirts with the coffee he made you at your side, and suddenly he can't stop thinking about a little toddler that looks just like the both of you running over and sitting in your lap while you do your makeup. calling you mama, shaking a rattle or whatever toddlers play with, wearing those little pajamas with the feet on them... and now it's all he can think about. he knows his dad and grandpa have had his life planned out for him since before he was born, he always knew the timeline was graduate, marriage, kids, take over the family business and he really never had like... a resentful "I hate my destiny" phase with it. Up until high school he was very much in the "oh that's years away that doesn't have anything to do with me and my life yet" mindset. then he met you. and now, standing in the doorway of your shared bedroom in your shared apartment watching you get ready, Tristin is overcome with desire. he wants you. he wants a life with you, he wants to hear you say that he's the father of your child. he wants an unbreakable, irreversable bond of every possible kind with you. chemical, social, legal, eveything. he wants to cuff you, to lock you in. he wants to sleep at night knowing that your and his babies, toddlers, kids, are sleeping soundly in their cozy rooms right down the hall, that you get to sleep next to your husband Tristin, the father of your children Tristin. he wants to hear people call you Mrs. Dugray, wants to bump up his old man to a grandpa, prove to his dad how a dad should treat his children. he wants to break the godforsaken generation cycle that always seems to come with the generational wealth, and raise your kids to be loved and happy and secure. and in that moment, he speedran through all the stages of baby fever to stage 4 extreme terminal the baby fever is baby fevering kinda baby fever. god help you, the (surprisingly short) span of time between now and when you get pregnant???? he's going to be more insufferable than ever.

I will be writing more about how insufferable and nightmare and evil /pos tristin is with baby fever just not in this ask cause it's getting too long. send me more excuses to talk about this.

[linzerj]

Just getting this idea out there so that maybe I'll actually finish writing it one day, but -

I've been on a Legend of Zelda kick recently. Currently replaying BOTW. Never played AOC but I've watched gameplay and all the cutscenes so I know what happens. Planning to play that and TOTK again soon. But I've got this idea cooking in my head.

Theres a post that talks about "what if you could find the Divine Beasts in the Depths", and another funny post that was just "what if Teba was the sage of Wind and not Tulin?" And I remembered when BOTW had just come out, and then AOC after, and people were speculating about the characters, like Teba, being the New Champions and getting to bond to the Divine Beasts.

That didn't happen in canon, but. Hear me out. What if even just one of the Divine Beasts bonded with a New Champion... like say, the one who doesn't become a Sage?

Teba, Sidon, Riju, and Yunobo return from their adventure in the past/alternate timeline/whatever, having saved those Champions and that Hyrule from destruction. Their own timeline is still the same, but they continue on as they do in canon.

Except they all meet up shortly after returning home, and one of them (Sidon or Riju maybe) asks "hey did anyone else try going to the Divine Beasts only to get rejected" and while the rest are like "yup wonder what that's about, sad" Teba is like "no wtf are you all talking about I was settling back in with my wife and kid."

But something about it sticks with Teba. He goes home, looks up at Vah Medoh, and thinks, 'it probably won't work but I may as well try just to confirm.'

...Vah Medoh accepts him as its new pilot.

I'm unsure as to whether or not Revali's spirit will still be there for a quick hello - but if he is, he'd be like "whomst?!" And Teba would be like "if you were still alive I'd definitely adopt you because thanks to some time travel shenanigans i know that you desperately needed a parental figure in your life".

Mostly everything else proceeds as is canon up to the start of TOTK - except for the other Divine Beasts continuing to chill at their resting places, because upon hearing about Teba successfully bonding with Medoh, the others want to keep trying.

But, for whatever reason, Hylia decided that you cannot be both a Sage and a Divine Beast pilot, so the Beasts acknowledge them but never quite accept them as their pilots.

Then, TOTK. Then the chasms. Then, the other 3 Divine Beasts taking a plunge into the Depths.

Teba freaks out a little bit, but Medoh is circling Rito Village and is fine, except now there's these random floating islands but also a fuckass blizzard that's making it almost impossible to keep everyone fed, and Teba's just been saddled with Elder status so he's super in charge and Tulin is in a bit of a "I can do anything let me prove it let's go" phase and is trying to convince Teba to use Vah Medoh to fly up and stop the blizzard, but Teba is way too busy trying to keep the village from falling apart to go right now -

Then Link shows up, and Tulin runs off, and Link follows him, and the two go up and find the Stormwind Ark and fight Colgera and as the magical blizzard finally ends, Teba is just like "what the fuck".

Tulin tells him he's become a Sage, and isn't that cool dad?! And Teba is like "you're 12 and you're going to help fight a demon king?!?! Wtf?!"

But then at some point, Tulin (who knows the other Sages from that time he was in AOC, and meeting them a few times with his dad after) one day looks up from his breakfast and says "oh hey Sidon just became the Sage of Water! I saw it through my connection with Link!" And that's when it clicks into place for Teba why the Beasts never quite accepted the other "New Champions" - because they were destined for something else.

But Vah Medoh is still here. And it's pissed that it's fellow Beasts are gone and it also wants to blast Ganondorf in the face.

Unfortunately, Teba can't let it blast the castle when Link and co go to confront the Zelda illusion, because Tulin is there, Link is there, Sidon and Riju and Yunobo are there, and it's not the real demon king yet anyway.

Teba is grumpy about it, about letting Tulin go off and risk his life when he's a child and Teba is an adult, but then a huge dark dragon explodes out from the chasm below the castle and Vah Medoh is all too happy to fire upon it, knowing it's Ganondorf and wanting some sweet revenge of its own.

Teba's just surprised he can see the dark dragon, it's huge but he'd heard tales of only the young, or those chosen by thr goddesses, could see dragons. Maybe it's because of Vah Medoh that he can see this one, and the little light dragon that comes in and - hey is that Link?!

Maybe it ends with Teba going down to the Depths with Link to visit the other Divine Beasts, and suggesting that the locations stay known so that future generations may try to awaken them. They don't really need the Beasts anymore since both Calamity Ganon and Ganondorf have been defeated, but Medoh doesn't want to turn off and is happy just chilling at Rito Village with Teba. The end.

I have like 2.5k of this already written, I just wanted to use this post to write more of the ideas for the fic structure before I go to bed lol. And this idea probably doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense canon-wise, but it doesn't need to because the only reason this exists is because i love Teba and wish he'd gotten more screntime (or at least some spoken dialogue in the cutscenes!) in TOTK.

[reslari]

The lifting the lore does in glazing when none of the demigods are actually all that powerful is so funny. In fact, neither is Queen Marika.

When GRRM said, "I wrote these guys to be normal humans a long time pre-canon," he wasn't kidding.

Marika, all-consumingly powerful, can rewrite reality with the reality rewriting macguffin! Except where she can't rewrite her children AND herself not to be cursed, and can only just barely seal a couple of Outer Gods and not actually kill them. Where she can't just write the Hornsent or the Crucible out of existence, and instead has to sacrifice people for a miserable, honorless war. Turns out, she's just an average, rote god, but she has propaganda on her side, and maybe a slight homefield advantage. But she isn't special and never has been.

Radahn, mightiest demigod of the Shattering! Who got his ass kicked by some sewer-scented old man with a walking stick. Twice. Plus he couldn't properly siege Stormveil Castle. So his official score in "notable battles" is 1/3/1. That's a championship record if I've ever seen one, truly worthy of the "mightiest" title.

Malenia, the undefeated!!!! Because she had to throw her pride away just to *tie* the dude that got his ass kicked by a stinky geriatric, when she was actively trying to kill him. Sure, Caelid is a mess now, but all she did was slap an aeonia down; the scarlet aeonia and the rot itself propagated under its own power, she wasn't controlling it once it was unleashed.

Morgott: should therefore be as powerful or more than both of the above, but is a midgame boss, and not even a particularly difficult kill, with no particular skills other than a little holy magic, so who knows how he even got Radahn in the first place. Except if Radahn isn't actually as powerful as the glazing tells you he is, and therefore neither is Malenia.

And all of the above can get absolutely humbled by some naked dude with a stick.

I could also go on about how Miquella's plan makes a ton more sense if you take away the bullshit anime superpowers, but bullshit anime superpowers is what makes the video game a video game, so they gotta stay.

PS: "Prime Radahn" isn't actually that powerful; if his fight was only phase 1, he would be easier than Malenia, even before the nerfs. He is buffed by Miquella to be as punishing as he is in Phase 2 - You're not fighting "Prime Radahn" acting under his own power, you're fighting "Prime Radahn" with a pocket buff machine enhancing his abilities; it's the combined strength of Miquella and Radahn, actively trying to defeat you... and you STILL win.

But this is a poignant point about the way FromSoft makes their characters: Even in their "prime", they are still defeatable by a naked dude with a stick. Even in their "prime", they're not all-powerful. It's for the same reason FS never writes people in positions of power as unambiguously good: You are supposed to realize how falliable those in power are. You are supposed to question them, their intentions, and see through the illusion and transience of their "power". GRRM wrote the characters even weaker and more falliable than FS would, it seems, but even "buffed" - just like Radahn - they are still people, and just as susceptible to the faults that come with that.

[destinygoldenstar]

Due to the results of the election, things look bleak. And I live in a red state.

So in case anything were to happen, I want to be open about my experiences a lot more. I'm going to try and live as long as I possibly can, and I can tell you that if I get jailed, assaulted, or killed, it's NOT by my hands.

I'm an asexual lesbian woman in my twenties. I live in a red state.

When Donald Trump became president the first time, I was still a kid. So I couldn't get too caught in the crossfire of what he was doing during that term. That, and I had not figured out my identity yet. It wasn't until a couple months after Trump became president that I discovered from Internet browsing that "Wait, men x woman is NOT the only form of romantic love that exists? You can do that?"

Before that, I've been writing since I was six, never stopped and became self taught how to write fiction. Even as a kid, when I was a shit writer and just ripping off from the media I consumed, I would always make the straight pairings a 'friendship' between two girls instead. Because it was what I understood then. For awhile, after I got out of the phase, I dismissed that as me being a mansogynistic child. But no, turns out there was more to the story than that.

There was other things that became hints as well before I became aware who I was. When the other girls in my school were gushing about cute boys and teasing about 'do you like this boy? You talk to him so obviously you like him.' I would be in my corner minding my own business, not interested in the topic. When it was directly targeted at me, I would say 'yeah I like him', because due to my autism, either my reaction sent mixed communication signals, or I would think they meant platonically. Then they would either tease that I confessed to romance, or they would get I got it wrong and say 'I meant as a boyfriend'. And I wouldn't answer because I didn't want to be rude.

What was wrong with only seeing boys as friends? Well back then where I was from, everyone assumes everyone is straight. A boy talks to a girl, obviously they're gonna smooch.

So I, as someone who didn't know queerness existed, had to assume I was like that as well. And I was just "Not old enough to get it".

And then as I get older, that mindset turns into 'men and women always want to kiss and fuck each other all the time'.

But I wasn't interested in that at all, especially not the fucking. But there was no awareness of queerness in public and I didn't use social media, so I had to assume I was like that as well, just that I wasn't old enough to get it.

Which that became a weird excuse, I learned how babies were made when I was SEVEN.

All the while, while I NEVER dreamed of ever fucking anyone, I still had some PG-Loving fantasies about the women in those 'girls cartoons' I'd watch. Winx Club, Totally Spies, the Disney Princess Movies, etc. I read the Sailor Moon manga ALL THE TIME in Middle School. I was NEVER interested in the boys they were into, and I would never get it. Even as a kid.

Maybe I was just someone who was into femininity. Maybe it was something about how they'd stylize their hair or fashion, or their softer voices, or their more delicate approaches that touched my heart. In a way male characters didn't.

Later I would realize that applied to real life too.

Then my family watched the Cinderella Live Action Remake, and let's say, I found it magical. After the movie, my mom told me "You'll find your prince one day."

She assumed I was straight. Like everyone does before they get told otherwise. She assumed I was fantasizing about the prince that swept her off her feet. But... I wasn't. I was more interested in Cinderella herself and her pretty dress and eyes and how she stood up for herself to leave her abusive household. (Celebrity Crush?)

Then there's when my family got me in the MCU. You know, before Phase 4, which after that... EW.

My family would always GUSH about how CUTE these MEN were, as celebrity crushes. And they kept saying this was completely normal. My mom was a HUGE Captain America kinnie, my sister was into Thor (& Aquaman), etc. And I... did not get it. I didn't get any crushes on any of these guys. I liked them as characters, but crush? No.

And my mom was confused by it. Why isn't my daughter blushing mad at these movie men?! "Well maybe she'll like the actor for *this new MCU male character that shows up later*."

Nope. Nothing.

You know which celebrity from the MCU I did consider hot though? Scarlet Johansen. But I was casual about it and didn't say a word and kept it to myself.

I guess it clicked to me too late what I was ACTUALLY interested in.

Not in a 'I wanna fuck them' way. HELL NO. But I am an ace who doesn't have a problem with casual kissing. Dating someone? Sure. Potentially marrying someone one day? Of course. Isn't that normal romance and what people value in their crushes? (In person crushes, obviously.)

And then there was my 'first boyfriend'. BIG quote on quote there. He was a guy a year older than me in my school that CLEARLY was crushing on me. He would constantly follow me around to try and talk to me awkwardly, compliment me, etc. (Would I say 'stalker'? Not really. He could've been worse.) And I just found it AWKWARD.

He once tried to put his arm around me lovingly, and I was uncomfortable and made an excuse to leave.

I later talked to my mom about it, and she suggested I avoid him. And I did. I never talked to him again.

Was that the right call? Not sure. But I don't want to know what relationship that would've been if I did accept his loving gestures.

And he was just the first. Through Late Middle School and Early High School, a TON of boys were after me and wanted me. And they became OBNOXIOUS about it. And EVERY TIME they confessed their love to me, I would always, right there and in front of everyone, reject them.

That didn't stop them, as they would proceed to bully me about it and get in my face about them LOVING me. Or something.

It turns out most of them were just a 'this girl is hot' thing. Some even admitted that. I asked one guy what he liked about me. He said "looks". And when I asked, "Anything else?" And he said "Nope."

That boy was a MISOGYNISTIC PIG btw. And NO SHAME too. He constantly bullied me and made jabs at me, and he said the reasons were, "Because you are a woman. You belong in the kitchen."

I'm NOT exaggerating, btw. This is actually straight up what he said.

From then I became self aware and insecure about my appearance. Like, I'm hot? People think I'm hot? For awhile, I wanted to try and ruin my appearance so I wasn't so 'traditionally attractive'. I would draw a marker all over my skin, for example.

I mean, sure, these boys were assholes. And sure, people there, before I moved, hated my personality. They like my appearance, but the moment they get a taste of who I am, they say, "What a WASTE of good looks for a woman."

But I DO NOT want this to come across as "I'm queer because I hate men". Because I don't. It was just where I was and how the boys treated me back then. Nowadays, I have a couple of male friends who are good people, and don't treat me like dirt. It's just that I only consider them friends.

Combine all of these experiences, and I guess I subconsciously realized "OH MY GOD... I'M GAY."

But I never CONSCIOUSLY wanted to confront that. You know?

I only knew of the gay people on TV at the time. And in real life, I only knew one girl that was also lesbian, but uh... she was toxic, and really hurt me, and I DON'T want talk about that.

Everyone else in my real life was straight. And openly so. I was the ONLY person in my life that wasn't. And without social media (I didn't get it till I was a proper adult), I thought I was a broken human being.

"I couldn't like girls! I'm a girl! I'm supposed to like boys! I just haven't found the right boy yet, that's all! I'm not queer! I'm not broken! I can't be more broken than I already am!"

And people already WEREN'T very accepting about me being autistic. Something I outted. And what proceeded was years of bullying, discrimination, and ridicule. Even from adults. So if anyone started to process I was gay? I WOULD BE DEAD.

And then it happened. This AMAZING girl is a part of my life, and something clicked between us. And I started to process that she really liked me. (She's demisexual) I mean, I already knew she did, we've been friends for awhile before this, but there were other feelings she was blossoming for me. Romantic feelings. I didn't confront her about it because I had to think about it myself. And then I realized it myself. I had feelings for a real life person. Romantic feelings.

A couple months later, we confessed to each other, and we became official. I'm still with her to this day, and we're in a very loving healthy relationship and we feel safe and supportive of each other.

I wish I could say that I 'came out' properly to my parents, but I didn't. Six months into my relationship, my mom caught us, and found out.

I didn't tell my parents I was gay, they found out. Simple as that.

One, it had to do with fear that they wouldn't accept me. Two, I found it RIDICULOUS that only gay people have to come out.

Straight people don't! Everyone just assume you're straight until you tell them otherwise! At least bi and pan people have an easier time pretending they only like the opposite sex!

So I just... didn't want to tell them.

I did end up coming out to my cousin on the phone, the first person I properly came out to. And all he said was a casual, "Okay. Nothing wrong with that."

Which did make me feel better and understand I wasn't broken and I was valid.

So when my mom found out about us, she confronted me about it. And I told the truth and confirmed that I was in a relationship with another girl. And... she only expressed confusion. She said I could be whatever I wanted to be, but it's clear she didn't understand it at all. Neither of my parents did.

A few days later they made it clear that even if they didn't understand it, they were going to accept me, and they broke my fears by making it clear they were not going to disown me.

My mom told me that I shouldn't be open about my sexuality to anyone else. It's 'inappropriate'. "We will accept you, but there are people in this world that won't. They will bully you to no end and hurt you."

To which I responded, "They already don't accept me."

Referring to the years of bullying I endured for my autism.

I mean, to this day, I still love my family, and are grateful they love me and want to do everything for me. But only now is my mom getting around to trying to understand my autism through research. There's something to be said about whenever we're in public, or my mom is talking to a friend of hers, she refers to me and my GF as 'best friends' and nothing more. Or how she talks about how I haven't found a boyfriend yet.

It's because of this, that when asked, I use the vague gender neutral term 'partner' when talking about my relationship in public. So while I'm not 'hiding', I'm not opening myself up for backlash either.

It just, sometimes, feels weird. While my family and my GF's family accept us, everyone else in our families are straight, as far as I know. We are the only two queer people in our family.

As for my asexual side of my identity and how I figured that out, there's not as much to the story other than what I've already said. I never found any desire to have sex with anyone, and I found the explicit material of that subject matter revolting. I always did, and I never grew out of that. Whenever someone at school started talking about something sex related, I turned the opposite direction.

One time I couldn't, much after I got my relationship, and I said very bluntly I didn't care about sex. Then they asked "Are you asexual?"

And I researched it, and realized, "Yep. That sums it up."

I told my GF that same day, honesty is the best policy after all, and she strongly accepted me and promised not to make me do anything I was uncomfortable with. And she never did. Love her.

I did research, and realized, YES, Asexual Lesbians EXIST. You can be Asexual AND be a Lesbian. There's no contradiction.

It just makes my identity more specfic.

I admit, I'm still trying to come to terms with my identity and that I'm not broken. There are times where I feel like I am, whether it's liking girls the way I'm supposed to like boys, or having no sexual desire.

And still, to this day, where I work, ALL of my other co-workers are straight. Or at least, either straight, or hiding. I am the ONLY queer person I know in my community. (Well, aside from my GF, obviously)

So when the Election happened, is it any wonder how scared I'd be?

I casually admitted to a few of my co-workers that I'm dating a woman. And I haven't been 'harassed' by any of them. Mostly because where I work, there's a bullying policy and they would get fired.

But NOW? Living in a red state? With people I work with and for casually supporting Trump's win? I feel UNSAFE. I feel ALONE. I feel like if I tell someone the truth, I'd get arrested or assaulted or something. It's bad enough that I'm a woman. But an autistic woman? A queer woman? BAD COMBINATION.

Just the other day I was working, I confessed to being terrified of the election results, and why. And there were two people I told this to.

One of them gave me a warm and caring hug and told me I would be looked after and we would be okay.

The other person I told this to looked at me in confusion and told me, "There's nothing to be scared of. Things would be far worse if Harris won."

I don't like Harris either, but they don't know that. Trump WAS in office once, so we had something to go off of.

I should be appreciative that the place I work at has told me I'll always have a safe place there and nobody that works there will hurt me, and they wouldn't let anyone hurt me if they could help it. And I am.

But there's something to be said about the people around me DISMISSING my fears. Dismissing that I am at far more risk of assault now. Dismissing that I could lose my opportunities to work and get money to feed myself now, if any laws are to get signed against neurodivergent people. Dismissing that there's now going to be more backlash for queer people more than ever, and people that will treat me like a disgrace and a villain.

Living in a red state makes this worse. My body is sensitive. If I ever get pregnant from rape, I could DIE. My GF is on disability, so if she ever gets pregnant, she could DIE. We both could DIE.

But I wanted to get my story out on the Internet, because if that ever were to happen, if in the future I get killed, I want to make it clear that I am choosing not to give up now in the present day. I am choosing to live with myself. And I am choosing to NOT abandon my GF and stay with her. Even with the backlash we'll get. Because I love her, and it's nobody's choice but my own to be with her.

Because THIS IS ME. And no one can take that away from me.

And whether I die from getting killed, or I survive the four years and die of old age, I choose to die as ME. And as nobody else.

And my story will be here, so even if it gets lost, it can be found.

You Are Not Alone. We Are In This Fight Together.

Keep Living. Keep Holding On. They Can't Take Our Identities Away From Us.

[kankuroplease]

hello! i must say, i adore your work! and how are you?? how would the uchiha brothers be as fathers? <3

Thank you! I’m doing alright, I hope you’re doing well 🖤

Disclaimer: I’ll reject canon events for fun and also because I strongly believe most of the canon Uchiha’s would be great papas

Sasuke

Starting controversial here

Him not seeing or spending time his child for years?? Nope. I reject the notion, IMMEDIATELY

Idk who that man is in Burrito, but Sasuke would be there for his kid while still “redeeming himself” not that he should have to but that’s another argument for another day that I don’t feel like having

He’s a damn UCHIHA that can basically TELEPORT like?? So you just want to do him that wrong for what? Whyyyy

Anyways, probably has a special stuffy he swaps places with in the kid’s nursery

It’s a whole magic trick to his child that never gets old

zip zap, daddy’s home and baby is giggling, reaching for him

Not saying he’d wake them up on purpose if he arrives and they’ve fallen asleep

But he’d definitely try to hold their hand and poke their cheek a little and would chuckle to himself when they furl their brows

Looking like him when they do that

This man has no clue what he’s doing at first tho

Babies are complicated and he’s never had to be delicate with someone like this, help?

He’s not going to actually ask for help, just look pleadingly at his partner or Itachi

He doesn’t baby talk his child and would discourage the others from doing it

Once the child is out of the baby baby phase. He’s got this

Will talk to them about their ‘so bad it’s cute’ art and want to hear about all their little ideas

Nearly cried when they said “your the best, dad ever” because he doesn’t agree but at the same time his kid doesn’t care about his flaws

Takes said artwork with him on missions along with his favorite photo of them

Will have beef with a 5 y.o. If he hears they’ve mistreated his kid. That little shit, Kabocha smh

Itachi

Gentle father

He takes to being a parent so naturally that you would swear he’s done it before

His kid will always come first, which might (will) be a problem for his any of his work

But assuming he’s left the Akatsuki, he’s raising his family in the countryside

Lots of family time and forehead pokes

Cuts their food up until they’re old enough to tell him to stop he’s crushed

If his child gets scared because of thunderstorms, he’d let them sleep in his bed. Might even give them a pleasant genjutsu filled with all their favorite activities to ease their worries and help them sleep

And speaking of his abilities; his sharingan? Yeah, he’s comparing their height to Sasuke’s when he was little

Will join them in their silly adventures. Lizard watching? Why not

Let’s them get away with almost anything

And that’s exactly how they would end up with a bunch of cats and chickens

He’d regret a lot of his actions in the past and that would make disciplining them tough

Hates being away from them because he feels he’s going to miss something important

Madara

All those brothers were training material, he’s beyond ready to meet his child and hold them

From day one he’s so proud of them

That first cry filled him with so much pride

His partner is definitely going to have to ask him to give them the baby

He’s going to brag about this child, his heir, future leader of the Uchiha no one can tell him otherwise

His partner will find him knocked out with their little one resting on his chest with a bunch of rolled blankets and pillows around them on nights they’re particularly fussy

They want ups, they’ll get ups and he’ll carry on with his conversation

Seriously the only man that can get his nose honked by his child in the middle of a conversation with Hashirama and act like nothing happened

Can’t help but prank his kid a bit. He can’t help himself

Definitely let the kid play with a blunt kunai before. “What? They like it.”

He takes taming their hair on skillfully if they inherited his fluffy mane

He’s not going to coddle them but if they get hurt running about, he’ll help them up and dust them off before ruffling their hair and giving them a small nod

They got this, they’re HIS child after all

Teaches them how to play shoji so they can hone their strategy skills

If they want to cry to him about their blues, he’ll listen, but he also wants them to think of how they can change what’s bothering them

Gives them exactly one warning before the kid gets to learn the hard way

Fully for letting kids be kids

But also a “did you win?” Father. Fights happen, but as the clan leader’s child, they shouldn’t be losing fights

Would snag and carry them like a sack home if they were causing problems around town

While loving parenthood, He secretly would hate them going on their first mission. He’s going to basically quiz them on different scenarios and push them in their training

If he thinks they’re not ready, he’ll tell them as much he’s also going to go to Hashirama to make sure they actually have a team that can make sure his child doesn’t die on their first mission. But shh

Kid gets a little sweetheart they’re stealing kisses around the village with? He’s disgusted

they’re still wet behind the ears wtf kid could be 18 and he’s still not going to like it

Izuna

This man was in denial that he was going to be a father until he was holding his child and was like “woah”

He’s nervous around the baby

Take it, QUICKLY

He’d warm up to them immediately once they look at them

Thinks they look hideous tho. Sorry, kid

He’ll watch as they’re changed and fed, wondering how tf these things survive when they’re so fragile

Sort of a worrywart and extremely selective of who gets to hold his kid

Smiles really warmly when his kid smiles at him

The excitement he feels when they take their first steps surprises even himself

He’s having to question who this excitable person he’s morphing into

They are the best dressed kid and he makes sure of it

Also makes sure they’re keeping up with Madara’s kids in their training

Brings them treats regularly as they grow up

Tells his kid that they are better than others

And DO NOT speak to his kid if you have a problem, speak to him directly. Unless you want a bigger problem

Don’t think for a second his child wouldn’t be his minion

They will collectively diss people over dinner and laugh about it💀

Tells them stories of when the Uchiha were rightfully leaders in their own rights before this whole Konoha BS

Uncle Madara is great, but he’s still not on board with this plan

He will coddle them a bit. It’s not that he’s trying to necessarily, he just cares too much and can’t bring himself to not protect them from everything

As long as he’s breathing he will personally insure that they’re safe at all cost

Inari

Also can’t believe he’s going be a father, but he’s excited

Very prepared for parenthood

He’s taken advice from clan elders and has a naturally warm relationship with his child

Makes them eat healthy all the time

Reads to them regularly

Loves taking them out for walks and beans with pride any time someone compliments his kid

Believes education is important and reinforces a love of learning

Genuinely gets concerned about the friends they surround themselves with

Accepts that they are their own person quickly

Teaches them basics of making medicine and how to identify herbs

Tenko

He’s talking to his kid before his partner is even showing, he’s that excited

Will poke any foot or hand he sees pushing out from said baby bump because he thinks it so amazing and a little funny when they “fight” back

He would NOT sit outside and wait for the birth like most men of the time

Yes, he will argue with a midwife or two, his partner needs him and he needs to be their

tears of joy for their new baby

Love at first sight. his kid is perfect in his eyes no matter how they arrive

Lots of kisses to their sweet little temples, hands, and feet

Thanks them for choosing him as their father and promises he’ll make their life full of laughter and love

Definitely the dad that has to carry/wear his baby everywhere

Plays with them all the time

Definitely made friend with some Aburame and Nara to make sure they have butterflies access and fun shadow access

His get will get told all the fun fairytales and get a dramatic reenactment of them as he’d dress up as one of the characters

Let’s them splash their heart out in puddles

If his kid gets sick, he’ll probably get sick too from cuddling them to sleep

Gets a little emotional when they outgrow certain things and activities

This kid has the ultimate accomplice; Tenko is not going to tattle on his kid if they didn’t do anything wrong. Heck, he is more likely to help them get away with it

Cheers for them the loudest during their training with other kids

Kota

Having a kid brings out his softer side

But send help

He’s clueless and knows he’s clueless

He’s seen battlefields and those didn’t make him nearly as nauseous as blowouts and spit up do

Is genuinely afraid he’s going to mess this kid up, so seeks advice from his brothers

He’s not very interested in trying to hold them as a newborn, but will hover over his partners shoulder to look at them

Most likely to laugh if the kid snores because, what is that?

Takes pride in his kid

Dad jokes

Another one that will have beef with a child on his kid’s behalf

Takes his time to try and understand their POV on matters

But still might argue with them if he doesn’t agree. However he will always apologize

Can’t stand seeing his kid cry and will do just about anything to cheer them up

Wants his kid to be a bit more bold than he was as a child and encourages them to speak up for themselves

He leans on the tough love side of parenting as they reach their teens if they want to act out

[kawaiijohn]

Danny wakes up in PMMM and wants to murder the weird God cat that's bothering the kids

Ok I wanna write this

"Get back here you rat!"

The white rabbit-cat thing dodges another three of Danny's ecto rays as he races through the back halls of a mall under construction. He has no idea where he is, only that the thing he's chasing is bad news.

It has eyes not unlike the Observants, and a voice laced with double meanings. Danny didn't appreciate it staring into his soul- his Core, as though it could sense it.

The creature keeps running for its life, able to appear in places it shouldn't be near before Danny can strike it. The strange ring-like structures around its long ears seem to ring strangely when his blasts whiff the beast.

The short chase comes to an end when he hits a dead end. He skids to a stop, panting- somehow unable to summon his ghost form after the portal tossed him here. He's shocked he can even call upon any of his powers, stranger that the only one he can access are his ecto blasts. But it's not completely shocking- places outside of Amity tend to be less forgiving with their low ambient ectoplasm levels. The halls are dark, ominous- there's a tension in the air not unlike a ghost attack waiting to happen.

He doesn't like it.

Danny uses a ball of ectoplasm as a flashlight as he creeps through the more chained-off sections of the mall, a tingle creeping up his spine. He wants explanations, and the creature knows something- it has to with how it stares into Danny's soul. It's the only lead he has, and he's too stubborn to give up on it.

"You know, you would make an incredible magia- all it would take is making a contract with me."

Danny nearly screams as he whips around. The strange creature sits perched, not unlike a cat, on a construction barrier directly behind him. Its eyes stare once again into his soul, digging into his very essence. Danny's eyes dart around the dark, trying to find anything to use to his advantage. He comes up empty handed, so he does what he knows, and stands his ground.

Intimidation it is.

"I'm not stupid enough to do something for a creature that really shouldn't be able to talk. Especially if it involves contracts." Thank the Ancients Sam had a phase where she obsessed over Faustian tales and fae folklore. That and his firsthand experience with Desiree. Be careful what you wish for, and all that.

"You do seem to be someone who has had dealings before. You are one step away from being a Magia, after all." The creature appears directly next to him on a pile of equipment and grooms itself with a paw. "It would be rather easy on both our ends to embrace your full potential. All you would need to do is Wish for something- anything you desire. And you'd finish becoming what you were meant to be- a Magia."

Danny starts, jumping back with his hand glowing. He hadn't heard it approach.

"Jokes on you- I know how wishes work!" he exclaims, taking a fighting stance. "No matter what, you'd twist it into the opposite of what I want, and I'm not gonna fall for it." The ecto energy crackles in his palm, anxiety at being stared at by those beady, soulless eyes gathers in the back of his throat like acrid lightning. Or like the nerves before a test.

Danny bristles as the creature pads up to him from its perch and tilts its head.

"Interesting- although you have no contract written binding your soul, you are somehow more like magia than human. Tell me, Daniel Fenton, did you receive anything in return for the sacrifice you've made? Do you have a reason to fight the Witches wherever you hail from? Or were you granted this terrible responsibility without fair compensation- no benefit to your life for the amount of magic you expend fighting."

Danny stills and shudders, still unable to force a transformation in the low ectoplasmic atmosphere of this place.

"I simply wanted to offer my services. To help you fight, for protection- to make you feel... whole. Tell me," it looks once again into Danny's soul, unblinking, "Are you aware of how close you have wandered to a truly Hopeless being's lair?"

The walls around him shimmer with unreality, he can hear whispers of a bastardized, corrupted form of Ghost Speak echoing in his head. It physically pains him to listen. He slams his hands over his ears to drown out the noise, but it tickles the back of his brain, makes the space behind his eyes itch. His Core pulses in warning as the room shifts as though it were underwater.

"What is this?!? What are you doing?!"

"Nothing. The culprit to this disturbance is a Witch- a creature made of the despair that lives in the darkness of humanity. A being that wishes to spread misery and corruption upon the innocent." its eyes remain staring at him. "With how you are now- incomplete in your form, you will not survive should you be pulled in to this labyrinth you have wandered near."

Danny looks up from where he'd ducked his head. His Core pulses again. Whatever this thing messing with his mind is, it's similar to a ghost- but wrong. Corrupted. Evil. And yet... sad. He steels his face and glares back at the creature.

"Witches are creatures of pure darkness, they cause unexplained suicides, death, sickness, catastrophe. You are simply unable to unleash your full potential in your current form, but if you make a wish, sign a contract- you would be unstoppable."

"I don't need to be unstoppable. I can handle... whatever this witch thing is without your help- and it's not like I plan on getting caught in a labyrinth. I'd rather not fight another Minotaur."

Danny begins to walk away from the shimmering spots, but can't find the way he came. The chains hanging from the ceiling whisper with anguish.

The creature continues to follow with its blank expression.

"Suit yourself, Daniel Fenton. My services are only a call away. You'd be surprised how amicable I am to those who change their mind last minute- in fact, we encourage it."

And with that, the creature leaves.

Danny clamps his hands over his ears again. The padding of his sneakers through the endless maze of mall construction echoes hollowly through the otherwise silent back halls. "Sam would be pumped to find out the backrooms are real." He laughs joylessly. Danny has no idea how long he's been wandering, but he knows he's not lost. The mall is shifting around him as he wanders, and he knows he's being watched.

He scratches at his wrist idly.

It had started itching, right over his death scar, about fifteen minutes ago. The whispers make it itch more, and he grumbles. He's getting frustrated- usually by now the ghost watching him would have jumped out and attacked, but whatever the thing watching him is (the witch thingy most likely) is biding its time to piss him off.

Another wave of empty emotions waft over him from a doorway that wasn't there the last time he circled this very hallway. His wrist itches more before suddenly burning as though electricity shocked him once again. He looks down and gasps at the strange butterfly marking that's appeared on his wrist, just as his hand reaches for the door of its own volition.

Danny seethes as his body disobeys him, but is brought to stunned silence when the door opens, sending the hallway it leads to flying towards him. The next doorway barrels at him, and he closes his eyes to brace for the impact before it opens as well.

Again and again doors race forward and open, before he finds himself in a domed garden of brambles and roses.

Danny feels his Core lurch as the mark on his arm burns brightly before fading.

"That was weird..." he whispers to himself. He only takes a few moments looking around before finding a rock made of paper to hide behind. The inner sanctum of this Ancients forsaken Labyrinth is enormous- everything looks as though its made of collage paper and watercolor. There's a large chaise lounge in the center of the room, surrounded by strange creatures shaped like dandelions with mustaches.

"Okay that's even weirder..."

The dandelion beings pass roses between them, piling them on and around the lounge in the center of the room. The lighting overhead in the glass dome is dim, but it seems to be getting brighter- the light itself pinpointing on something resting on the chaise.

Danny's entire being revolts as he looks upon the strange black jewel. The bottom is needle thin, resting on a soft silk pillow without making nary a dent. A strange flash of light bursts from it- pure black as void and cold to the touch. It begins to break, forming into a disfigured shape. The shadow it becomes undulates and pulses, growing more and more gargantuan as it explodes from the jewel with a shattering scream of terror.

Danny feels his eyes involuntarily water, the tears falling freely down his cheeks as the jewel produces something similar to a Death Echo, forming into a being made of rose bushes, butterflies, and pure sorrow.

Danny witnesses the birth of something horrifying and his Core screams at him to run. This thing is dangerous, it's dangerous and wrong and will be his End. He stands to leave, but finds his legs unable to move. He struggles, panicked.

Roses appear from nothing as they quickly morph into black tendrils and ensnare him. He's lofted up, up, up to the Thing's- the Witch's 'face'. A corrupt butterfly stares back at him and howls. Danny shrieks in response, summoning an ecto ray in defense. He blasts the witch in its 'chest'. It doesn't appreciate this much, tossing him to the ground.

He shoots another few blasts at it as he falls, smirk on his face through the panic. But without access to his flight or intangibility, he plummets to the brambles below.

Danny forgets he can't summon his ghost form here. He remembers too late that his human form can't handle as much as his ghost form.

"Shit-"

"Oh so now you show up again."

Danny sits up from where his body crumpled. Thankfully, he only has a broken arm and a ton of scratches to show for it, having landed mostly in a fucked up rosebush.

"Have you given my offer more thought?" the rabbit-thing asks from its perch behind him.

"Sorry, I was too busy being jumped by a plant from my worst nightmares to think about wishing for a million bucks or whatever." Danny rolls his eyes, trying to hide the terror in his shaking body. "Seriously, do you have anything better to do than stalk me?"

"You are in no real position to ask this many questions, Daniel Fenton. This witch will kill you and devour you, and not necessarily in that order. It would be beneficial on both our ends for you to sign a contract with me."

Danny hates how right this little shit cat is. Without access to most of his powers, he's practically useless against a monster this large. And if he's useless he can't defeat, let alone escape. Not to think about what this thing will do to innocent mall-goers should it get bored of eating his corpse or whatever.

He shudders.

"They say dealing with the devil never goes well." he responds to the creature. "Although it's kind of a dick move, waiting to prey on me at my lowest point."

The creature stares at him with its infuriatingly neutral 'cute' expression. "Oh but I'm no devil. You may call me Kyubey. I am simply the familiar to all magical girls- in your case, magia. A contract with me would grant you the power to take on this witch, to embrace the potential you've already started to accumulate."

The witch watches angrily in the background, trying to seek him out amongst the brambles. Danny shudders.

"You keep mentioning potential. The hell does that mean?"

Kyubey stares at his soul with its vacant, beady eyes. "Never before have we seen someone manifest their own magic without a contract. It should be an impossibility! Bringing you to full potential could make you one of the strongest magia of all time. You could wish for nearly anything, and your potential would grant it!"

He considers it for a second as he hears the chains above them shaking. The noise blends in with the cacophonous whispers of dread.

"I..." Danny starts, another question on his lips before he feels the tug of magic on his Core, the sense of gears and hourglasses gripping everything around him. His head slowly turns as everything is frozen in place.

He blinks.

Kyubey's form fills with holes as the sound of gunfire reaches his ears.

Time resumes.

Kyubey's corpse collapses before him in a puddle of red and white viscera.

Danny screams, and the witch roars.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way.

In the near one hundred times she's done this month long song and dance, these back halls have only ever been occupied by four creatures. Herself, Miki, Kaname, and the Incubator.

So why is it there's a new presence? Why is Kyubey stalking a foreigner through the halls?

Never mind that.

She cannot fail. Her mission is clear, and she's once again ready to strike when Kyubey inevitably finds Madoka again, as it always does when this mall trip comes to pass.

Homura finds her patience wavering- it should have made its move on Madoka by now, but for some reason it's focused on a boy who clearly has no idea where he is or what he's doing. An anomaly in all these repeated timelines who won't even be able to see the incubator stalking him. She shouldn't waste her time following, but as soon as she loses sight of the damned incubator it'll strike. With her luck, it will snare Madoka in its claws in five minutes or less if she loses her nerve.

So she follows, shield in hand and ready to pounce.

It doesn't take too much longer for something to happen.

The boy, impossibly, sees Kyubey approach. Even more impossibly, he hits it with green fire when it asks for a contract. Her trigger finger itches, but it lacks a pistol for the moment.

Homura has no idea what to expect, but she did not expect for the boy to start threatening Kyubey, the same green magic being shot at it while in a fully human guise. Even stranger, the boy doesn't have any sort of indication that he's a magical gir- no a magia. He'd be a magia, she realizes.

Homura continues to follow the boy, long after Kyubey 'gives up'. With how he ignorantly walked right into a hatching witch's lair- Gertrude, one of the weaker witches to encounter she muses to herself- she doubts he's any sort of magia himself. Yet. Especially with how Kyubey is pursuing him. She wonders if this means Kyubey will leave Madoka alone for a while, with the boy catching its attention.

However, hive minded creatures can be everywhere at once.

Homura's momentary distraction causes her to stumble when a wall juts up from the floor beneath her. She curses when the labyrinth opens fully, separating herself and the boy she's investigating. There must be a reason he's shown up this loop, with how he can manipulate magic without a contract. There might even be the possibility he can help save Madoka this time, but she won't get her hopes up too high. Allies are far and few in between with how callous she must be to survive, and she doubts a normal looking foreign boy will put up with her aloof and cruel facade.

She fights her way through the labyrinth, using her magic to track the inner sanctum just as the boy witnesses the birth of a witch. There's no way he's a magia- not if he's reacting in enough fear to chill the room. No seasoned, or even new magia would dare show so much fear towards a witch. Not this openly.

Homura readies her gun as the boy is lofted in the air, almost too quickly for her to interfere.

Time pauses and he blasts the witch with his strange magic.

Wait.

How...?

Homura's brow furrows in distrust.

How is this-

Time resumes.

The blasts hit. The witch shrieks.

Homura is not close enough. She is not fast enough.

She is too surprised to stop time again.

And the boy falls.

Kyubey is a bastard. This is a fact.

The amount of times Homura has seen it approach Madoka or her friends at their lowest is astronomical, so she's not at all surprised to see it approach the boy after he takes what should have been a deadly fall. She's glad she's seen so much brutality in her short yet too long life- the sound of crunching bones is much easier to handle this way.

She wonders why Kyubey is being so persistent, but even more so, she needs to know how he was able to nullify her time stop, or at least how he was able to continue to move somewhat. She doesn't appreciate unknown variables, let alone ones that can be a threat to her mission. So she listens in- masking her presence best as she can from the Incubator.

"Oh but I'm no devil. You may call me Kyubey. I am simply the familiar to all magical girls- in your case, magia. A contract with me would grant you the power to take on this witch, to embrace the potential you've already started to accumulate."

Homura rolls her eyes. The Incubator might not look like a devil, but it is one she knows deeply.

"You keep mentioning potential. The hell does that mean?"

Homura prepares one of her more efficient guns, not liking the tone of the Incubator, nor the nervous panic in the boy's shoulders. Potential is power as a magical girl. The more potential, the stronger the magic and the more terrifying the witch. She reaches out to try feeling for the threads of potential surrounding the boy, shuddering as she does. Her eyes widen in surprise when it whispers the same tune as her own abilities- Time, but something more, something Other.

A possible ally, if she plays her cards right.

"Never before have we seen someone manifest their own magic without a contract. It should be an impossibility! Bringing you to full potential could make you one of the strongest magia of all time. You could wish for nearly anything, and your potential would grant it!"

Homura jolts to awareness then and there. The boy's eyes look resigned, his shoulders slump. He's going to do it- and she doesn't quite want to deal with either a new magia or witch with her mission on the line.

"I..."

Her decision is made. She winds up her shield and freezes everything as her gun unleashes a barrage of ammo at the Incubator.

Satisfied with the gored mess of the creature, she approaches the boy with a toss of her hair to soothe her nerves.

She's not surprised his eyes follow her despite the frozen time.

So she releases her hold on it and watches as he takes a shuddering breath and Kyubey's corpse collapses between them.

"You should not be here."

Danny snorts in response. "Believe me, I wouldn't be here even if I wanted to."

[artist-issues]

please trash Marvel's Phase Four with your mad skills, I hate it so much (the Hawkeye TV show was the best thing that came out of it) and Im in the mood to have someone share my rage over it lol

It’s been so long since I’ve seen most of them! Sorry. I’ll try to put my vague disappointments in them from back then into words:

Black Widow: The main problem with this one, if I remember correctly, is that there’s no build-up to Natasha’s connections with her family, or the other Widows. We like and accept Yelena because of the good writing and Florence Pugh’s charm; we like and except her parents for the same reasons—but do we feel for Natasha when she’s figuring out how much to love and worry about them? No. Not like we did when Pepper had to choose to blow up the roof Tony was on in the final battle of Iron Man. Not like we felt when Steve lost Bucky. Why? Because the whole “family,” all the “other Widows,” have no real, human depth to them, and no time for us to see that humanity displayed.

The dad’s a caricature, not a guy we can relate to. So’s the mom. And the other Widows are non-characters; they’re pretty faces representative of a conflict, who can have tragic music played over their death scenes so we remember “why Natasha fights.”

Pepper and Tony fear for each other’s safety and wonder what they are to each other, just like the sisters are supposed to in Black Widow. But we care about Pepper and Tony, because we’ve seen what a day at the office looks like with them. We’ve seen their normal. We’ve seen who they are as people, and how they interact on a normal level—so that when the extreme interactions come, we’re already invested. Black Widow doesn’t have that. It’s “weird caricature group gets turned into weirder super-spies and they spend a few minutes worrying about each other out of nowhere at the climax of the film.” That was my impression of that one. But I only saw it once, and liked it better than the others.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Normal human moments, but way too much time spent on retroactively revealing layers of backstory. Heres the dad’s backstory. Just kidding, that’s not all of it, here’s some more. And here’s the part you missed. And here’s the backstory of this magical world. Just kidding, here’s some more. And here’s backstory on the main character. Sorry, he forgot to reveal the Big Emotional Part, we saved it for the pre-climax, so have a little more backstory.” You’re so busy keeping all that straight that you don’t have as much capacity leftover to care about the main characters, even if those main characters do have some human moments to appreciate.

Compare it to Thor. Both movies have “hard-to-swallow magical realms existing near the Normal World.” But not both movies set the audience up to accept, believe, and keep up with that. Thor does. Shang-Chi doesn’t.

The whole introduction to Thor carefully tells you the full “outer boundaries,” the hardest stuff to swallow about the magical world of Asgard. And it helps you understand and swallow those things well before you need to be really invested in the emotional reactions of the characters. In the first half of the movie, they neatly go: “Guy walking out of a tornado and getting hit by a car, seemingly impossibly; he must not be normal. Let’s show you why. Ready? Here: 1) Frost Giant war + how this realm relates to the normal world, 2) Asgard & the king’s sons, plus their different motives 3) how the rainbow bridge and Thor’s banishment works. Got it? Back to the Normal Story.”

By the time you’re jettisoned into the Normal World part of the movie, you care, emotionally, about everything Thor and Jane care about, from her losing her lab equipment to him thinking his mother hates him—without having to take breaks in their story to remember how a rainbow bridge works or what the Frost Giants want, etc. But Shang Chi is all over the place, back and forth, up and down, three layers of tragic hard-to-believe backstory on top of each other. …And it delivers all that backstory in bits and pieces, as interruptions to the “normal world” or “present adventure” part of the story.

Plus, the “normal world/present adventure” part isn’t even that good, I’m so sorry to say it. Our previous heroes had normal-human obstacles to overcome, sure, but those relatable obstacles were still severe. Big character flaws that would come back to haunt them. Steve wonders if he’s all alone in his resolve and responsibility—and that keeps coming back up no matter what his circumstances are. Tony wonders if he can ever accomplish his full potential and make up for his past mistakes—and that keeps coming back up, no matter the circumstances.

But you’re telling me I need to not only believe that Shaun and Katy “wonder if they’ll ever take life seriously enough, like adults”—not only believe that—but that after this adventure, that’s the struggle he’ll always have to overcome?

Seems to me it should be something more along the lines of “have mercy instead of controlling everything through conquest like my father.” They kinda tried to do that. But the problem is, it doesn’t connect back to his “relatable human flaw.”

Steve had to realize he wasn’t alone fighting Nazis and Hydra and Thanos—sure—in big moments, like the one where Shaun chooses to spare his father. But guess what? Steve also had to learn to overcome his flaw in little moments, too. He has to realize he’s not alone in waiting for “the right partner;” Peggy is also committed to waiting. He has to choose to believe he’s not alone even though he’s a man-out of-time—by taking an active role in the present, by asking his neighbor out on a date.

Shaun’s little “when am I going to grow up and be an adult” thing only pops up in his human moments. It doesn’t have a parallel in his superhero moments. So then I don’t care as much, or relate as much, to his character.

Because honestly, not every member of the audience can even relate to worrying about that. Only young adults and teenagers. Maybe some 30-40 year-olds. But it’s not a universal thing, like Steve’s broad loneliness or Tony’s broad pride.

Eternals - Without a doubt the most horrifyingly bad MCU movie I ever saw. Worse than Captain Marvel.

I don’t even know where to begin. This movie had no idea what it wanted to be, except a direct smack in the face to anyone who believes that humans should submit to a deity who made them and accept their purpose. Obviously that most closely fits the description of a Christian audience, but this movie really alienated audience members with worldviews that have any monotheistic religious leanings. Or just…audience members with a worldview that values humility, and service, and self sacrifice, and knows that love without this values is not actually love, in general.

The characters have no humanity. They lack depth. There’s a weird fixation on slow suffering and memory loss with Angelina Jolie’s character. Not one character is likeable because we spend barely any time with any of them. Not one is relatable because they do that whole “live for thousands of years” thing, without taking their time and showing us a believable version of ‘what’s normal” to these characters.

And like I said, the message is garbage. It’s appalling.

Spider-Man: No Way Home - This movie was good, I have no notes.

I have a brother who likes to say that the whole first half of the movie is worthless because you only care after the other Spider-Men show up, but I totally disagree, because the point of the movie was “who is (MCU) Peter Parker?” So at the beginning you have him trying to figure that out based on public opinion of Spider-Man and a college;s acceptance of him, and trying to fix his “image” of himself, essentially, so his life can go back to normal. Then by the climax he’s got two other Peter Parkers there, reminding him of what being “Peter Parker” means. You take responsibility to do what you can to help people, no matter what everybody else does. No matter what it costs you. That’s who Peter Parker is.

And they needed to speed-up the maturity level and raise the stakes of their particular version of Peter Parker, because he’s supposed to be a recurring part of this high-stakes universe they created—but they also needed him to return to feeling like a more traditional, “friendly neighborhood” Spider-Man, within that context. And they solved both those problems. And they did it with Andrew Garfield and Toby MacGuire, so I liked this movie, sorry.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness - Stupid and wrong.

I have never liked Sam Raimi, but I didn’t have a problem with his editing style or over-the-top drama this time around. I had a problem with the way the characters were handled.

We still barely know Stephen Strange, and we certainly weren’t given the impression that his love interest from the first movie was the great love of his life, so that emotional thread in this movie was flimsy.

The America character was barely a character.

But the worst of the worst of it was Wanda.

You mean to tell me, Raimi, that the Wanda who was experimented on and used for her power from an early age would have willingly murdered a superpowered little girl in a demonic rite? You mean to tell me that the Wanda who just spent a whole expertly-written television show showing me that she’s learned she can’t manipulate people’s lives, and she’s willing to sacrifice her own happiness if it means sparing other people suffering—you mean to tell me that THAT Wanda, the one I’ve spent five stories over several years getting to know—you mean to tell me that Wanda read one vaguely evil book and now she’s willing to slaughter her friends and a little girl so she can steal children from other, weaker versions of her own sad self?

That doesn’t make any sense.

You COULD have it make sense. You could show me her corruption. Show me what the Darkhold’s doing to her. Show me how she got from point A (WandaVision’s ending) to Point B (murderous careless rampage and smiling at the thought of murdering a little girl.) Use your runtime to do that.

But no. We’re going to use our runtime to throw in pointless cameos with no build-up, no real weight or gravity, no genuine excitement. To play with out special effects and CGI. To spend lots of runtime on arbitrary horror-movie scenes and gore.

And then kill Wanda off? …What?! It was idiotic. It was so contrived. I felt like I was watching a forgettable DC movie, or a Batman movie where the star of the story is just shock-and-awe.

Thor: Love and Thunder - This movie couldn’t decide if it wanted to be funny or serious. So it failed at both. First Thor’s making a joky explanation retconning Jane, breaking up with him, as a silly rom-com parody. Oh, then he’s holding her in his arms crying and claiming he’d rather be with her than win a fight, like that’s the big momentous moment-of-change for his character.

Sorry, I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you that Thor loved Jane. Because they barely show any serious, grounded, genuine, human affection to each other the whole movie. All I’ve seen is a parody of that, and de-masculatung mockery of Thor himself. You want me to believe he’s losing the love of his life and it’s devastating to him because he’s a human being with depth of emotion? Then don’t set him up as the star of a bad Will-Ferrell comedy.

And of course the “message” is crap. And every situation they get into is unbelievably stupid and unfunny. This is actually the movie that made me give up on Marvel.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - I didn’t see this movie. I love Leticia Wright, I’m on her side. But I had to give up on the MCU after Love and Thunder. I wanted to give up on it after Eternals, but I told myself I’d stick it out for the OGs (any movie about characters from the original Avengers squad or Guardians.)

The television shows during Phase 4 were all pretty good, for what they were, except for Moon Knight, in my opinion.

To sum it up: Phase 4 rushed everything, cut out the grounded human moments and feared all genuine displays of emotion in their characters. Instead they jammed in heavy action sequences, some more gore, and soulless, arbitrary, quick-flash cameos. The only exception was Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Thanks for asking! I could be open to changing these opinions; I’d have to go back and watch them over again, it’s been so long. But I think I’d rather put on wet socks, heel-to-toe, than watch Eternals or Multiverse of Madness, ever again.

[steddieasitgoes]

written for @eddiemonth Day 5, Prompt: Role Model (and Brave if you squint)

read on ao3 | link to my ao3 Eddie Month series

“Will’s out of practice, but I think he’s excited to play again,” Mike says, sliding Eddie’s worn D&D notebook across the small hospital bed tray. “You know, when you’re up for it, of course. I mean, one of us could DM me or Will, I mean, but we’re not as good as you.” 

“Who told you flattery works on me, Wheeler?” Eddie jests, grinning up at him from his hospital bed. “Yeah, yeah, of course, I’ll DM something for you sheep. It’ll give me something to do in here while those government people work their cover-up magic.” 

Eddie watches as a smile takes over Mike’s entire face, eyes crinkling in the corner. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen the kid so happy before. And all over a game. They really are nerds, aren’t they? Before Mike has time to give his input, something Eddie knows he is gearing up to do because he always has input, there’s a knock on the closed hospital door. 

“Mike?” Nancy calls as she cracks the door open. “There you are. The boys are looking for you. Something about a vending machine?” 

“Oh, shit,” Mike swears, eyes wide. 

“Duty calls?” 

“Yeah, we’re trying to bride the guy in charge of stocking the machine on Max’s floor to give us snacks for free,” he says, walking backward towards the door. “I’ll bring you back something if our mission is successful.” 

Eddie places a request for a Milky Way and a bag of chips, which Mike mentally notes before disappearing into the hallway. Nancy’s about to head out behind him, already pulling Eddie’s door shut when he calls out to her. 

“Got a minute, Wheeler Senior?” 

Nancy hovers in the doorway, nose turned up. “Only if you promise never to call me that again.” 

Eddie laughs, mimes crossing his heart as best he can earning a shake of Nancy’s head. Still, she steps into the room, closing the door behind her before making the short trip to his bedside. 

“How are you doing?” she asks, eyes scanning him from head to sock-covered toes. 

“Now that I’m finally awake, I just, uh, wanted to properly say thank you,” Eddie says, wincing as he tries to adjust his position in the bed. It’s already raised to a seated position, but he’s still not comfortable. His torso burns and the wires hooked up to him clink against the bed frame and it’s hell, but if he doesn’t adjust himself soon his foot is going to fall asleep and the only thing worse than getting nearly mauled to death by bats in a hell dimension is the feeling of pins and needles in his feet. 

“Thank me?” 

“Oh, don’t play coy, Wheeler. You saved my life,” Eddie says, finally settling on his side. “Henderson told me how you took over carrying me back after Harrington’s own wounds got the better of him. You didn’t have to do that.” 

“Of course, I had to do that! I wasn’t going to let you die down there.” 

“I wouldn’t have blamed you. I mean, I almost got us all killed.” 

“You— what?” Nancy asks, eyes wide in confusion. Reaching behind her, she grabs the spare chair (the one Wayne’s been sleeping in every chance he gets) and drags it towards the bed. The legs screech against the linoleum tile, but it doesn’t seem to phase her. “You saved us, Eddie. Saved Dustin, definitely.” 

“Tell that to his fractured leg.” 

Nancy shakes her head and reaches for his hand that doesn’t have an IV needle shoved into it. She looks at him with a face of determination. One not unlike the face she had when she explained their plan two weeks ago in the stolen Winnebago. This is Nancy on a mission. Except, Eddie’s not sure what the mission is this time. 

“Stop,” she says, squeezing his hand. “Just stop, okay? You didn’t fail us or whatever you think you did. You kept Dustin safe. You bought us more time. I would have liked it if you didn’t use your body as bait.” She glances at his exposed arms, wrapped in gauze, some already bloody again. “But you did what you had to do. We all did what we had to do. And we’re alive. That’s all that matters.” 

“Yeah, but I—“

“No,” she scolds, glaring at him this time. “I don’t want to hear it. You don’t get to downplay what you did or think you’re some— some fuck up. Because you’re not. You are a hero. A brave hero! And I won’t let you say those things about yourself, especially not when Mike could overhear you. You’re his role model, you know?” 

It hurts to laugh, but it bubbles out of him anyway. It’s not the happy kind of laughter, though. It’s of the unamused variety. The kind of laughter he’s used at aiming at Jason and the rest of the jocks in the Hawkins High cafeteria. 

“Don’t bullshit me, Wheeler. M’not that kid’s role model.” 

“You are, though,” she says, doubling down. “Mike never shuts up about you. He was miserable this summer when the Byers moved, and he realized he was starting school without his best friend and girlfriend. I swear he almost jumped out of my car on that first day of school. So imagine my surprise when he climbed in the car at the end of the first day with a genuine smile on his face.”

“All I did was give him a place to eat lunch.” 

“No, you gave him so much more than that. Mike’s always had friends, sure, but he’s never had a role model. Not like the others do. I mean, Dustin has Steve, which is weird. but it somehow works. Will has Jonathan. Lucas has his dad. But Mike? Mike’s always sort of floundered in the role model department. I mean, you’ve seen our dad. He doesn’t exactly get Mike.”

“What? And I do?” Eddie asks, still not entirely buying Nancy’s words. Though, he should know better than to doubt Nancy Wheeler. After all, this is the girl who has guns, plural, in her bedroom. 

“Yeah, you do. More than either of you realize.”

Eddie considers that for a moment. Thinks about the way Mike’s cheeks have always turned the slightest shade of pink in his presence. The way he always, always found a way to bring up Baby Byers in conversations. The memory is hazy, but he remembers watching him in those first few hours he woke up from the coma. Mike reaching for Will’s arm when Eddie’s eyes fluttered open.

And then he thinks of himself. The lingering glances he’s snuck in the hallways. The flirtatious jabs he threw Steve’s way when he was running for his life, sure he was going to die. 

Once again, he’s left stunned by Nancy. Though, really, he should have seen this one coming. She is a journalist, after all. It’s her job to be observant. 

“Alright, fine,” Eddie concedes. “Maybe I’m Mike’s role model. But if I’m being straight with you, Wheeler. I don’t think I’m going to be any good at the job.” 

“You’re already good at the job,” she says, squeezing his hand once last time before pulling away. “Just keep it up. And you know, get better so you can play that damn game of yours.” 

“You know, there’s always room for more players at the table.” 

Nancy laughs as she peels herself off the chair. “You’re funny, Eddie. Unfortunately, I’ve got a real battle to get ready for. Not to offend, but I prefer to take on the monsters in real life now.” 

He shakes his head, smiling fondly as Nancy makes her way to the door. “You know, if anyone should be Baby Wheeler’s role model, it’s you.” 

“Yeah, well, Mike’s still a stupid teenage boy,” she shrugs. “But thanks for the vote of confidence.” 

Eddie salutes her before letting out an embarrassing yawn. Nancy muffles a laugh into her head before reaching for the door. “Hey, Eddie,” she says, glancing over his shoulder. Eddie hums, eyes already drooping. “For what it’s worth, you should also maybe stop being so hard on yourself when it comes to Steve. You’re good for each other.” 

* * * 

Eddie’s woken from his brief nap a few minutes later by Steve. “Was that Nance I saw leaving your room?” he asks, dumping an armful of vending machine snacks onto the hospital bed tray. The shitheads must have had a successful mission, after all. 

“Uh, yeah,” Eddie nods, dazed from being woken up and also the reality of Nancy’s final words to him finally hitting him. 

“Oh, no, I know that look,” Steve says, collapsing in the chair previously occupied by Nancy. He kicks his feet up on the edge of Eddie’s bed and tears into a bag of Doritos. “She gave you one of her ‘cut you to your core’ Nance speeches, didn’t she?” 

Eddie just nods. 

“Shit, I’ve been there,” Steve says, patting Eddie’s shoulder. “It sucks in the moment, but let me tell you. Eventually, you’ll realize she was right all along and thank her. Nance is never wrong.” 

“Yeah,” Eddie says, stealing a glance at Steve. “I’m never doubting her ever again.” 

[ipoxcky]

🕷️

spider-verse_headcanons

MILES MORALES:

whenever he gets nervous/embarrassed, he'll turn part of himself invisible, like maybe he'll stick his hand in his pocket and make it go invisible

SCENARIO: at the college admissions office, rio would tell the lady, "he makes sure that he recites his time tables every night so that he can't mess up on those challenging calculus problems!" and then he would do the invisible thing and go "stop, mami, she doesn't need to know that..."

he'll also put his head on the desk with his hood up and turn his face invisible in school if he's bored

he would probably also do that when he's crying

did the invisible hand thing with fake blood to prank ganke on april fools, ganke freaked out and almost called an ambulance before miles told him it's a prank

had a shoe-collecting phase at some point

aggressively tender headed bc his hair is always nappy from putting on the suit and his mom goes CRAZY with the comb

got little twists in his head when he was younger, but now he keeps it out. his mom will still twist his hair occasionally just for fun and he hates it

secret SoundCloud rapper whose account has like 20 followers and it's him just freestyling. the only person he told about the acc was uncle aaron who's his number one fan

PAVITR PRAHABKAR:

always pulls the "is it bc i'm _____?" card, ESPECIALLY with hobie just to mess with him and hobie would go "don't chat to me mate i don't even like the u.k. myself"

talks with his hands definitely

has seen every romance movie known to man and forces the others to watch them with him if they can

VERY facially expressive, throws the STANKIEST faces at people he doesn't like, yes he's good at reading others but it doesn't take much to read him

falls over when something shocks him bc it's like his little joke

laughs to himself a lot but doesn't tell anyone why

knows a bunch of horror stories on command, the first spiderpeople sleepover he freaked everyone out and miles couldn't sleep without the light on

just dance GOD

can raise both eyebrows individually

GWEN STACY:

had an agressive minecraft phase when she was 8 where she got the creeper hoodie and never took it off

definitely had a full pixie cut at some point

theater kid, definitely goes to watch broadway shows with her dad every so often, has met famous people because of it, her favorite one is probably dear evan hansen (idk i haven't seen it)

ben platt worshipper

drums on anything she can get her hands on

music blaster

tried electric guitar for a blip of a moment

morning person, stretches anywhere and everywhere

her favorite thing is DESTROYING pointe shoes because she can take out all her anger. this one time it got to a point where after her shoe destroying sesh she started crying because she didn't realize she had so much pain built up inside her

tutu hater

takes french and already knows a ton from ballet

wheeze laugher

pastel note taker

really pretty handwriting when she tries, chicken scratch when she doesn't

HOBIE BROWN:

surprisingly good american accent

knows a bunch of magic tricks to entertain kids experiencing homelessness on the street

headphones always on so they're absolutely demolished and holding on for dear life, too bothered to get a new pair

REALLY good with kids, does anything to help them preserve their childhood because he feels like his was gone too quickly

good whistler

beats everyone in board games

knows a lot about politics for someone who doesn't rlly like them

can judge people's character based on first glance

black nail polish never leaves his fingers

goes on really long rants about the state of the world

reads self help + philosophy books

hops the subway/metro thingy

lips always moisturized, but his hands and knees r lowkey ashy sometimes (i'm blk it's okay y'all)

doesn't drink soda

tries to be vegetarian because of the stuff he's seen (worked at a fast food restaurant and was grossed out about the stuff they were serving), that and he loves animals so

natural remedy kind of guy who would drink chlorophyll water

dreams of being a tattoo artist

uses sound effects of random things in his music, raps/sings his poetry about capitalism and stuff

keeps tin jars and cans

doesn't kill bugs and instead lets them go free

[bsnotoneaskedfor]

Tired MK

Before you judge, hear me out.

MK goes through SO much shit because of his "Monkey Kid" status. Like, a ton. As someone who is a teen and struggles with mental health it is so obvious that MK has been spiraling since day one. The poor dude is going to die of anxiety and depression before the Lady Bone Bitch tries to order a smackdown with a side of trauma. MK is also a people pleaser. He legit is always trying to live up to people's standards and be "just like Monkey King".

Here's the thing: I also suffer from trying to please everyone and let me tell you that shit is exhausting. Fuck magic, the thing that really makes this show fiction is that MK hasn't had a massive mental breakdown. He's had baby ones, that are still valid, but he's pushed them aside because "he has to be the hero". He never really shows signs of emotional distress besides the show poking fun at it or using it for plot. For those in the comments, please don't try to psychoanalyze the show to prove me wrong. This is just what I have seen. So, with this being said, there is something I really would love to see and have adopted it as my personal headcannon.

MK being done with everyone's shit.

Not, "MK's tired", or "MK's sassy ;D", or even Mk going through an emo phase.

I want absolutely 100% done MK.

I want to see him surviving on coffee or energy drinks because the weight of everyone's expectations keeps him up at night. I want him mad when people start blaming him/looking to him for answers because "he's the Monkey Kid". I want him done with Wukong's bullshit. I want my realistic representation of burnout and mental illness. I want to see him trying to get better and no longer caring about calling people out for being toxic.

I don't know if I'm 100% explaining this right because words are really hard so here are some examples of what I see my MK head cannon as.

(This one's based off that one TikTok audio where the guy yells at the cats to get off the couch)

MK: *Sitting peacefully, attempting to do homework or some other quiet activity*

Macaque and Wukong : *fighting like feral cats*

MK: (almost roars it) STOP IT!

Macaque and Wukong : *is startled and a little afraid*

MK : LEARN TO FUCKING GET ALONG OR SO HELP ME I'LL TEST THE LIMITS OF YOUR IMMORTALITY

Macaque and Wukong : *obeying, nearly about to piss themselves out of fear*

MK: *Deep Breath. Goes back to what he was doing*

Every Demon Within 50 miles : wtf was that?

--- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

MK: *chugging a coffee or energy drink*

Some Demon: *starts destroying the city*

MK : Dammit *Chugs faster. *

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wukong: Hey bud! When's the last time that you've slept?

MK: *completely deadpan* It is finals week.

Wukong : That doesn't answer-

MK:*getting angrier* I have to defend the city every damn day. I have to deal with your messes, including you. I train every day for at least 4 hours even when we don't meet up. I WORK FULL TIME AT THE GODDAMN NOODLE SHOP AND THEN I HAVE TO FUCKING STUDY FOR COLLEGE. WHEN IN THE NAME OF BUHDDA WOULD I BE ABLE TO SLEEP?!?!

Wukong : *sweats* So I see that you're stressed-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Team Monkey : Why didn't you use [ insert power] to start with?!

MK: *sarcastic* I'm sorry. I thought we all deserved a nice bonding trip where we spent the entire time bickering and getting the shit beaten out of us. Was that supposed to be next week?!?

Team Monkey : . . .

MK: How about you guys make a list of everything I can do. That way, next time, we can just all look at it together and none of you blame me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Son : * trying to pick a fight and just being a dick in general*

MK: *Not having it* Do not make me duct tape you down so I can embroider your worst nightmares onto your skin, you pompous little fuck!

Red Son : . . .wtf

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Son : *Is pretty*

MK: *deep sigh of disappointment* I need therapy . . .

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mei : * Gets the Samhadi Fire*

MK: *remembering all the shit and expectations he went through once he got his powers*

Mei: *About to have a breakdown*

MK: *laughs* Have fun

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Red Son: *breaks in at the middle of the night in an attempt to capture MK*

MK: *is awake because insomnia* So, do you , like, want some tea . . .?

May do a Pt 2

[polyamorouspunk]

How would you tell the story of your life up till now through music? Artists and bands that marked key moments, lyrics that changed how you thought, albums that helped you grow and live, etc.

This might be the best ask I’ve ever gotten.

The first music I remember listening to is what my mom played in the car: classic rock and hair metal. Specifically my mom was the one who drove me around everywhere, but that’s not to say that I didn’t listen to my dad’s music either. He would play old country on Pandora. I liked some of those songs enough that they ended up in my own music for a while, as did my mom’s.

I also remember knowing the words (in part) to a lot of my favorite kids media. Nothing specific comes to mind outside of some Scooby Doo movies. I mean, who doesn’t know the chorus to the Hex Girls song?

Middle school I had my own iPod/early iPhones/DSI that played music.

You could find songs ranging from Jingle Bell Rock to Kesha to Elvis on my DSI.

You could find AC/DC, Kenny Rodgers, Katy Perry, and more on my iPods/early iPhones. My music was really a mix of what my parents and my contemporaries listened to.

Around this time a few things musically happened around me, that I remember.

First, I also started paying more attention to the music my brother played. My brother played 90s pop, as he grew up in the 90s. Therefore there were some traces of the songs HE liked in my music too, like Gwen Stephani.

Second, my mom started playing Elvis Gospel in the kitchen radio on Sunday mornings. I’m not religious, but Elvis Gospel still brings me some childhood comfort. I also know there is a South Park parody of a very specific Elvis Gospel song.

Third, my mom would play film scores on Pandora in the living room. The channel was called “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” and it had film scores from things like Indians Jones to Game of Thrones to Harry Potter to Inception and more.

Around this time I started listening to film scores on my own, to a point I was very invested in them and really felt like maybe that was something I wanted to do as a career. This was around 12 years old roughly. You can even find diary entries where I mention my favorite parts of film scores.

This brings me to the first favorite song I had: Forbidden Friendship by John Powell from the film How To Train Your Dragon.

I used to listen to this song on the way to school as I watched the snow fly around outside and it was truly magical.

This was peak nerd phase for me. I was heavy into Lord of the Rings and Marvel. I was even writing my classmates into a self ship LOTR fanfic and reading it to them with permission from my teacher. Ultimate cringe. I was OBSESSED with The Avengers. Still has a great film score. I was in LOVE with Pippin from LOTR, and Billy Boyd’s performance during Denathor’s order of the raid of Olisgilith to take back control, though different from the movie, was one of the most cinematic and poignant moments of the triology. Also Vigo Mortensen singing while Aragorn gets crowned as the rightful heir to Gondor? Also amazing. I really love the few reoccurring overtures in LOTR. There’s also a specific track from the third Harry Potter movie (understand, this was before anyone knew that Harry Potter was problematic, and even reading in the text I was too young and naive to put 2 and 2 together) I liked. I was a VERY avid reader at this point. I had read the Harry Potter books multiple times, starting in 2nd grade. I had read LOTR once and once was enough because honestly the books kinda suck ngl. I was high cringe because I would listen to film scores in computer class where we were allowed to listen to music (WHAT???) and I would hum VERY loudly and not realize (hello, autism?) and I was bullied for it, but I didn’t give a shit. However, I was still listening to the music of my peers, but being a bit more selective about it. Around this time I was listening to actual artists like Johnathon Young (because he covers movie soundtracks and I was really into film scores) but also more mainstream artists like Imagine Dragons, which was my best friend’s favorite band at the time.

In fact, there was one Imagine Dragons song I liked in particular, and it even came off of a Marvel soundtrack, but tracking down this song is VERY difficult outside of YouTube.

Thus enter my second favorite song ever.

I loved this song because it fit SO WELL to a ton of my favorite books and movies.

Actually, speaking of, my favorite book series, Skulduggery Pleasant, had one particular scene that I always listened to the SAME song whenever I read (and I’m telling you I probably read this book like 5 times at least). I can’t remember the song, but it was on my DSI.

Back to Imagine Dragons, by this point I’m leaving the music of my mom, my dad, and my brother behind. I’m rarely touching music on my DSI, and around this time is when I’m starting to find “my” music. This is 9th grade for me.

I love Ready, Aim, Fire by Imagine Dragons so much I cry myself to sleep at night with it I start offering it as a “music trade”, asking for my friends for song recommendations in trade for this recommendation. Two songs in particular stand out.

1. Centuries by Fall Out Boy

2. Mona Lisa by Panic! At the Disco

Thus, if YOU are my contemporary, you know this means one thing: this is 2/3 of the emo Trinity. 1/2 of the emo quartet. I’m about to become. EMO.

Summer of I wanna say 2015 was the summer of Fall Out Boy for me. I fucking LOVED Fall Out Boy. I would sit on the couch reading my YA fantasy novels for HOURS listening to Fall Out Boy. It’s funny, I used YouTube, but if I had Spotify, a decade ago FOB would have been my top artist too. Literal insanity.

I actually was able to go see Fall Out Boy, my first “real” concert, on the Boyz of Zummer tour in 2015. I still have both my tour shirts.

When I did arts and crafts, sometimes they revolves around FOB. Oh we’re face painting? Put on your war paint! There is a photo of my buried somewhere with my hair all in a frizz I think wearing my Boyz of Zummer tank top with AB/AP face paint I did myself on my face looking like a frumpy as fuck tween. It might have helped too that the person who gave me the FOB recommendation was my FP, probably my first FP tbh.

It’s the summer of 2015, I’m dating a guy, my first real boyfriend. Shitty relationship. Traumatic. I don’t want to get into details. Dumps me over text like 2-3 weeks after being MIA after I almost died at his house. Actually let’s talk about that. First songs to ever keep my sanity and basically save my life? You’re Gonna Go Far Kid by The Offspring and WTTBP by MCR (we’ll get back to this in a second). I’m listening to this, I’m fighting tears, I’m texting my FP freaking out, I had a gut feeling as my mom dropped me off that something wasn’t right and I should have listened. Baby’s first Big Trauma™️ to the soundtrack of YGGFK and WTTBP. Over and over and over again. Like my life fucking depended on it.

It’s 2015, I just had the worst night of my life up until that point. My ex doesn’t talk to me for 2 weeks straight and dumps me over text and I respond with “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” and never text him again, and I swore when he dumped me I was going to make the sweatshirt he gave me into a FOB sweatshirt. My FP’s favorite band. My favorite band. And the first person I tell is my FP. I loved my FP the whole time, and I hated myself for it. How could I love someone while dating someone else?

It’s 2015, my parents are getting a divorce. My brother is moving out of the house and we’re going through his things. He has a stack of CDs. I see Blink-182’s Enema of the State. I don’t know what an Enema is. I grab it and say that I’m taking that CD. I don’t think I even asked. I just said it was mine now. It was my first CD, passed down from my brother, even if unwillingly. We’re nothing alike, but at the same time, super similar. I’ve never heard him listen to Blink-182 ever. But I think music was almost less segregated back then. MTV. Teeny bop girl magazines I didn’t read because I hated boy bands with a diehard passion. The good old days.

It’s 2015. I’m uprooting my life. We’re moving house. I’m watching emo band music videos. I hated music videos up to this point. The main music video I remembered was a Nickleback music video from a song I honestly loved but was super depressing. But I had never seen anything like Danger Days. I LOVED Danger Days. And I decided that while making music was cool, directing music videos seemed a hell of a lot cooler. And I thought that’s what I wanted to do.

It’s 2015 and I become close with the person who recommended me PATD’s cousin. Really close. And he likes MCR too. I got him into it. So we start writing Ferard smut together. One day I’m staying home sick with cramps and I’m reading Ferard smut in my new bedroom and I’m thinking man I wish I was gay. And then I realize. I think I am gay.

It’s 2015 and I’m having a sexuality crisis. And I start falling in love with someone I bonded over MCR with. And our characters are in love but that’s not a story, surely that doesn’t mean anything between us… right? Or does it? And then suddenly it’s my 16th birthday and I’m feeling high on the rush of being infatuated with the person I still consider to have been my soulmate and I ask them out and they say… no. They say no. Until. They change their mind. And then they say yes. And suddenly I’m dating someone in a GAY relationship that I’m writing MCR fanfic with. And our characters had relationship issues but surely it wasn’t a metaphor for us…

By this point I wasn’t just listening to FOB and MCR as I read my nerdy YA books. I was also listening to bands like CTE, BVB, FIR, PTV, SWS… full on metalcore emo. Some dark shit. I mean, have you ever listened to Knives and Pens, and seen the music video? But I wasn’t that mentally ill, of course. I mean, other emo kids I met cut themselves. I would never do that. And I didn’t. Until this year. And I wasn’t suicidal… until, I guess, I was.

By this point I had my first internet friends I had made by being dragged into a FOB group chat. I knew these people for years, and when I disappeared one night after telling them I was thinking about killing myself, them and my ex freaked out. By this point it was senior year, I was hardly talking to my own best friends. I had a group of younger emo kids I sat with in the morning instead of my friends I grew up with. I was truly One Of The Emos™️. That night my mom had enough of my undiagnosed BPD and cut my internet. I was able to listen to music and that was what held me together. I don’t even know what I listened to. People thought I was dead.

2017, 2018, 2019 same deal, musically. I was clinically diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I was on antidepressants. I was listening to emo and metalcore music.

2019 I moved to North Carolina. That winter I started to feel… different. Like. There was a part of me who loved artists like Halsey and Hayley Kiyoko… and a part of me who loved BVB and shit… and I felt almost… torn.

Covid hit and I started feeling more that way. Like there was the “bad”, angry part of me, and the soft, gentle part of me… so I… split. Not in a BPD way but a… I guess system way.

And thus I made this blog. This was angry me, metalcore me, and my main blog was light me, airy me, soft core me… nothing much has changed, really.

2021 I saw Ice Nine Kills for the first time in concert intentionally, my favorite band. Met a guy there, we started seeing each other, it was unhealthy, but I loved it, because my ex had just dumped me, the person I thought I was going to marry after falling in love over MCR fanfiction, and this gave me an opportunity to break out of that domestic lifestyle and be a bit of the person I felt like I couldn’t be before. 2022 I started listening to more bands like Motionless in White, who I saw with Ice Nine Kills that year. They joined my main playlist with Fall Out Boy and All Time Low and Panic! At The Disco, titled “system failure”, a reference to me realizing I was some sort of plural system, because I felt so at odds with the self who was angry and listening to metal music and using he/him pronouns to the self that loved dressing in yellow, listening to Tessa Violet, recommended to me by people who watched soft core Dan and Phil…

2023 I discovered a song by one of my favorite artists Maisie Peters, who specializes in “shitty ex boyfriend” music, that PERFECTLY highlighted the guy I had been somewhat with during that time period:

In fact, Savvy’s playlist was (and still is) filled with this “shitty ex boyfriend” genre of music. Eventually, though, that year, we even started adding some metalcore into her playlist, like In This Moment, who we saw with Ice Nine Kills again.

2024 rolls around and I am HYPED to see OG metal band Metallica headline on a tour with 5FDP and INK (again). Did not get to see INK play because they got rained out (devastating) but around this time I’m checking out some other OG metal bands that were too heavy for me at the start of my emo era, like Slipknot.

Growing up I saw older emo kids who intimidated me, but I wanted to be like them… and that’s what I aspired to be. A metalhead dude.

Backtracking a little, end of 2023 I discover a musician I’m super into as a person and an artist. Talking to him every day was a blessing during that time. Around March 2024 I started to get really depressed and started to lean into the band Beartooth, which really has some heavy music, lyrically. I spent nights upon nights crying to Beartooth in my car on the way home from work, if I wasn’t already crying at work. I had 3 bands I wanted to see last year: Tallah, Beartooth, and Electric Callboy (and INK ofc). I technically went to all of those concerts but like I said INK got rained out.

And welcome to 2025. Honestly I’ve been listening to Savvy’s playlist a lot, which contains pop music, female-led metalcore, and more.

There’s a lot more that I didn’t quite include as well.

I had a few phases where I listened to a lot of wlw music pining over girls, or at least songs that weren’t outright heterosexual, even if it was implied.

There are some classic 2010s songs on Savvy’s playlists, the highlights from that time where even if we weren’t super into pop music, the songs were good enough that they survived the test of time (aka being majorly overplayed).

We took a music production class senior year where our main influence were artists like Skrillex, who we used to hate but found a love for playing Just Dance 2014 (?) which was the artist of our favorite track to play on that game, playing it year after year.

In 2023/2024 we also discovered a love for “female hysteria music” with artists like Ethel Cain, Kiki Rockwell, Paris Paloma, and more. Songs that take history and horror and blend them into a narrative of historical suppression and exploration of women by men.

If any of these things interest you, check out my and Savvy’s accounts on Spotify:

Punk:

Savvy:

Joint playlist:

This is probably the most interesting ask I’ve ever gotten, and though it’s been sitting for a while, it was a joy to work on. Thank you so much.

[geehollow]

*waves arms* I HAVE IDEAS for future Loki things. I briefly thought about writing some fics but lmao I've got enough stuff to write already.

(In the spirit of the MCU taking things from the comics and taming them down) We see Kid Loki from the Void wandering the new branches of Yggdrasil. He is not sure what has happened, and he doesn't know why he has this affinity for walking between the worlds (nice that Loki's Tree could be the reason every Loki is able to walk the "hidden paths"), but he does have The Wanderlust and he is also homeless. His alligator friend has found a magic pond, he Does Not want to return to the Void, his native timeline has been pruned for what, centuries? He's all alone. He has thought about finding a timeline with no Loki but the thought of trying to add himself into a Kid Thor's life makes him feel weird because Unresolved Issues. And then the magpie comes, first in his dreams, then out of them. The magpie talks, and is a trickster, and the Kid calls it Ikol. The magpie tells him they have to retrieve the flaming sword from wherever it was left (hmmm how does Ikol know where it is?)–first adventure–then rescue a lonely Loki, the one that would become Classic Loki after hiding in the asteroid after Infinity War–second adventure, or perhaps the last one, because hey if Thor really had to be stuck with a child, it could have been Kid Loki–and whoa there's so many adventures to be had. If some people ever figured out a Loki can power the whole fucking universe, a smaller one would be a smaller battery but an easier one to get. Ravonna Renslayer could pop up again. Kang, of course. Isn't the MCU gathering Young Avengers? Kid Loki's in the playing field, hooray, can't wait for the bad handling, hooray... wouldn't it be awesome if the "big bad" of the new phases was actually The Loki Who Sits In A Tree Of Time and the TVA trying to stop everyone from causing multidimensional wars, of course it's from the pov of those trying to travel through dimensions so they're not aware it's dangerous and those trying to stop them look evil until the whole picture is revealed to them.

Anyway, on-screen it would've been an easy guess because it would've been voiced by Tom Hiddleston, but Ikol the magpie is in fact the Loki that sits in the Tree, and projects outside of it (didn't Tom Hiddleston say it would be "unwise" to consider Loki's journey done?) to not be lonely and to watch out for the child he'd met. Like in the comics, only the Kid can see him.

The cameos Stan Lee used to do could be Mobius hanging around occasionally talking "to himself" if you know what I mean. I want him randomly dropping by in every single new movie, occasionally together with B15, Casey, Brad Wolfe, Ouroboros or someone else from the TVA.

(The fic title would've been The Kid, The Magpie and The Flaming Sword 👀)

[naoa-ao3]

A Free Man

Alone in his cell, counting the days and weeks, months and years Ethan waits but nothing comes.

Prison life is not for him.

If it were a normal prison he could escape, if it were a normal prison where they didn't know about or believe in magic he could have done something and gotten away but it isn't a normal prison and there isn't anything he can do.

Padded walls and lights that go on and off at the same time every morning and night.

He isn't a demon and the place is built for them.

He wonders sometimes if Ripper had ever thought of that or if he thought of him now at all.

He's bitter and wants revenge.

His little trick hadn't warranted all of this, whatever he had done and so he waits, waiting for the chance where he might finally escape, the chance when he can bring hell and chaos to this place.

He thinks when he does escape he'll go and have a nice kebab. . . maybe hit a beach of course that's after he pays dar old Rupert a visit.

He'll get his revenge and really there's no one he's ever enjoyed fucking with as much as Ripper. No one who takes it so poorly.

Rupert never was very good at managing his temper.

He thinks back on his own miscreant youth, tattoos and demons and spells they hadn't been ready for.

Those years had been a delight and he had never felt so a part of a group of friends. . .

Now they were the only ones left, him and old Ripper. All the others dead like Randall on the floor.

He whiles away his days and weeks, his months and years.

He tries to keep his mind busy and wonders at how strong the prison's fortifications are. He can't get out but what's to stop something that really wants him from getting in?

High above his subterranean world is the Nevada sun.

The last time he'd seen it had been when they'd moved him here, hands cuffed and soldiers acting tough.

They're young, young as he had once been and he feels only contempt for them because they aren't wise and they don't want to learn.

All but one who he's seen watching him. The boy wears fatigues but there's magic to him and he watches him hungrily as if waiting for Ethan to share a secret.

Once he'd spoken to him, jested that the boy aught to give chaos a try, even recommended a few words to use and suggested he try burning some candles.

He knew the boy went home and tried it, he could smell brimstone and hell smoke on him the next day and it thrilled him just a little.

This one is on the edge and all he needs is a little push, a few words of well placed encouragement.

One day the boy comes to him, tall and sharp boned.

"What are you?" He asks.

Ethan looks at him, amused it's taken so little time to tempt him. "Only human." He say's.

"You wouldn't be here if you were." The boy say's, face pressed to the little window in his cell door.

Ethan chuckles. "There are only a few things I can do that you can't." He said. "And with enough practice you might be able to."

"Tell me another." The boy say's. "Another spell."

"You liked that one, did you?" Ethan asks, grinning ear to ear. He can't help it. The kid is so easy.

"Listen-"

He gives the boy the words. Maybe with enough promises he can get the lad to let him out.

The boy goes away and Ethan waits.

Three days later he smells hell smoke and smiles.

The boy is back.

Back at his window and angry.

"What the hell was that?" He asks, face screwed up.

Ethan shrugs from his bed. "I gave you a taste of the good, thought you should have a taste of the bad too."

"Don't fuck with me." The boy say's, ineffectual and furious.

"Wouldn't dream of it but you do need to know what you're getting into. Wouldn't be fair of me not to give you some warning."

The boy backs down, not stupid enough not to trust him. "How do I know the difference?" He asks.

Ethan just smiles on. "I could show you. Save you a lot of trouble during the trial and error phase."

"You're locked up you old has bin, what could you teach me?" The boy asks but he doesn't sound like he believes himself.

Ethan shrugs again. "I guess we'll never know." He say's.

The boy disappears but he's back a day later.

Ethan waits to hear what he has to say.

"If I got you out. . . how do I know you'd help me?"

"You don't but the only way you'll know is if you tried." Ethan said, nothing to lose.

The boy shakes his head and leaves but he's back the next day again. "If I got you out, you'd just kill me and run."

"Thought I was an old has bin." He says dryly.

The boy frowns. "Three days from now. If you try anything I'll blow your head off."

He nods and waits his three days and then at night the boy is there again, key card this time. He looks wary, like he doesn't trust him and he shouldn't. Ethan isn't going to teach him anything.

"You swear it?" The boy asks through the door.

Ethan nods and get's to his feet. There's nothing here he wants to take.

The door opens and the boy motions to him.

"We have to go now."

Of course they do, it's an action movie and he runs after him, adept at running away.

Up they go, up slanting corridors under fluorescent lights and out until they're crawling through a vent and he can taste fresh air.

There are demons he owes back rent to waiting and so he encourages the boy to go first.

The idiot does, hearing warning bells down bellow, back in the subterranean kingdom of slanting corridors and fluorescent lights they've just left.

The demons make a mistake and they tear at the wrong man, getting their blood debt and what was due anyway.

He waits, crouching in the vent. He's waited this long and then it's silent and he pokes his head out.

He can smell hell smoke in the air but the boy is gone and so are the monsters.

It's just him and he shrugs it off, looking to the stars to tell him which way is west and once he's got his baring he heads back to where he thinks Sunnydale still is.

Where he hopes Ripper still is and all that payback he can muster.

Stars over head and tunnels down below be damned, he's a free man now and the world is probably just a little worse off for it.

[randomnameless]

Thinking about different languages in the Fodlan verse -

(Duscurian, Srengese, Almyran and Brigidan are mentionned/refered to in supports, so I wouldn't be surprise if Dagda, Morfis and Albinea have their own language)

What if Sothis and the Nabatean had their own language?

Let's say Sothis lands in modern Fodlan, and the humans around speak a weird language she doesn't understand, but thanks to "god magic" she manages to learn it in 1 day.

And yet, when she creates her kids, she gives them her own language (from the blue sea star?) which de facto becomes, on this planet at least, Nabatean language.

Of course her kids have to learn the "human language", and in turn, for the humans who want it, they could learn the Nabatean one.

(Cichol had a cringe phase where he tried to use agarthan slang, but no one is alive to tease him about his younger days)

Zanado 1 (the place where Sothis lived) became some sort of university-giant library-thing where humans could come and study languages of other places, like people from Thinis could learn Agarhtan, Nabatean or proto-Morfisan, etc etc.

Nabatean language was used as liturgy language (since some people considered them gods?) in early Sothisism practices.

Thales was kind of pissed, because there's no need to learn anything about Thinis and those other trash states since they're going to be destroyed, then he started to war against Sothis herself, and we know how that ended.

Fast forward to Zanado 2 (built on the ruins of Zanado 1) - Nabatean is exclusively used as liturgy language, even if it falls more and more because there's no official Church or cult, and after the war, there are less and less Nabateans roaming around to talk to or to share their culture (but the few who travel bring back the "modern and updated" versions of the human language they learnt back then, like, idk, Archaic Palmyran became Early Almyran, or something like that).

Nemesis parties in Zanado, and Rhea is persuaded Nabatean is, bar her, an extinct language (since some humans who worship the Goddess completely forgot the earlier Sothisism rites (tfw 1500 years happen) and sort of do it in their own way).

Getting a new language update (tfw Rhea still think humans in the south speak "Old Enbarrian" when they now use "Classical Enbarrian" and "Vulgar Enbarrian"), Seiros feels conflicted about the new hymnals and preachs of the newly founded "Church of Seiros" being in "Classical Enbarrian" ; it should be in Nabatean, but why teaching those humans a language only spoken and understood by the dead?

Besides, as long as Nemesis exists, Nabatea and everything related to Nabateans should be hidden, else she might be turned in a golden weapon.

Of course, for "Willy reasons", she ended up trying to teach him some words, and Willy was very surprised to learn that in the Nabatean language, there are no swear words so he decided to translate swear words, a roundabout way of telling her Nabatean language isn't extinct yet, it survives and can even evolve by having new uses!

(Now, did Rhea overthink too much about this and thought Willy was really a genius, or was he completely stupid just wanted to insult people in a different language, we will never know)

Thus, Seiros the Warrior believes she can teach, after the War, when all Relics will be found and Nemesis dead, Nabatean language to her followers, so they could share the language and sing hymnals in Nabatean language.

(This idea is fairly popular in the Northern provinces, because it'll another language and not "Enbarrian", so in a way, this church business isn't another way to "Enbarrianise" them (or so they think?).).

But after the WoH and Lycaon's death - Rhea loses faith in humanity, and, in turn, reconsiders her idea of teaching Nabatean language to humans through the Church, after all humans are humans, and Nabateans cannot coexist with them even through language, only Sothis can help them and save Fodlan.

So the CoS will use Classical Enbarrian (lingua franca in Southern Adrestia), but she'll allow people to preach in their vernacular languages, because the most important thing is for the CoS's message to be spread (and not to pretend a dead language of dead people, or people near extinction can survive, because Nabateans need the Goddess).

Fast forward to centuries of years later...

Yuri finds an old bottle of hair dye in the Abyss that was definitely hand written by the Archbishop - when he confronts her about storing her personal belongings (she tried to bullshit him about "Saint Seiros' old belongings" but he has none of her nonsense, why would Saint Seiros use hair dye??) in the Abyss - Rhea's very surprised because Yuri was able to read Nabatean alphabet, and knows the language.

The hair dye incident makes her reconsider, is Nabatean language really dead? Why Aubin taught Yuri the language? Can she have faith in humanity, again? And hope that maybe, one day, Nabatean culture can be revived?