#i haaaaaaate being called out

[brown-spider]

Your vibes are 1 C 4 to me tbh

Also drop some more Sunny lore if you have some!!

Peni's vibes were the ones i thought i was second closest to, and yet everyone is picking Hobie or Miles so huh, i guess i dont give off the vibes i think i do. I thought i had Pav vibes: friendly, kind of fast paced and with confidence that is almost unfounded

I have never touched a monster drink in my life tho and dont have any plans to 😂

Sunny Lore Drop below cut-!

Their Peter is the one who gets involved with Spider Society, then he later gets the green light to invite his apprentice to the fold. Sunny fucking haaaaaaates it. Almost entirely because it shatters their perception of reality and makes their existential dread 3x's worse. They have their worst panic attack in years, then after going home they deal with debilitating panic attacks a minimum of five times a day for weeks, the attacks usually last 5-30 minutes.

Peter advises Miguel or whoever that Sunny should never get the canon event explanation. Peter honestly doesn't know how they'll react, so Sunny is exclusively called in for capturing anomalies and sending them back home. Sunny doesn't really catch on to there being a bigger picture/something sinister going on because they didn't even want to be a spiderman in the first place and they hate the fact that sometimes they hear stuff like a spiderman has a sidekick robot named "Sunny" or there's another black spiderman with the last name "Brown."

It reaaaaally fucks them up to be surrounded by alternate versions of what could arguably be themself or related to them in a different world, so they keep their nose out of spider society and only come when their Peter calls.

When Miles gets chased out of HQ, Sunny has no clue whats going on because they've had their watch alerts on silent for months lmaoo. Sunny just watches everyone run past from a bench like "...... Wellll, there's already hundreds of spiderpeople on it, one more isn't gonna make a difference. So I may as well stay here."

[kupahdraws]

i love your splatbands designs!!! would love to know more about them and i want to give ossie a bracelet made of bones like it's a smarties candy bracelet for her 🙌

AAAAA thank u!! Hmmm some random facts...

Parsley is a nickname given by his friends that he goes by for simplicity. What he was called back when he lived with salmonid colonies was First in line Chef of the Great Horrorboros but that was a dead give away of being a salmonid. Plus he claims he pairs well with parsley.

Ossie and Stag live together! They live in a 2 story apartment that they both equally pay for. Ossie actually makes dresses as her main income. She made the dress she currently wears! Also she would LOVE a bone bracelet yummy 4 her

Stag has a bad habit of not washing his clothes. He's the damn bitch you live like this image and Ossie HAAAAAAATES it. She doesnt care as long as Stag keeps it to his room but the moment it breaches there she gets pissy at him. He does clean it if its out of his room tho. They split chores evenly

#9K's tentacles are cut by Parsley. When she was found her tentacles were very mangled. It took some warming up, but she only really trusts him to upkeep them. #9K is probably closest with Parsley, being the rock that keeps him grounded from doing some stupid impulsive shit and Parsley being the one who keeps #9K's spirits high. That isnt to say she doesnt care about her other band members, its simply that her and Parsley have a unique trust for one another. (This started from the both of them coming from groups that arent exactly favored by the surface world at large...)

[wwpia]

(Will add sketches/art separately. Cannot draw now due to injury dang it. Maybe for the best - can just concentrate on writing)

Descriptive: He’s a tall, slim build Caucasian male. He’s got straight blond hair that runs just below his shoulders, it it’s always tied in a fairly high ponytail. He has sort of layered fringe/side hair that he’s able to mostly tuck behind his ears. He wears a formal suit with a waistcoat. He’s clean shaven and very well presented.

NAME: Sydney Di Casio

AGE: 37

GENDER: Cis Male

RACE: Human - Warlock/magic user. Technically ALL humans in this world are ‘magic users’ and have degree of magical abilities. However only a minority can profess to be proficiently advanced enough to call themselves a Warlock/Witch/etc. Magic also comes in all sorts of flavours, encompassing main theories like Wicca, Nordic mythology, other religions, etc etc.

(Will write a whole thing on this - more of what human society is like as a whole. Being the dominant ‘species’ in the world.)

Sydney’s ‘preferred’ style of magic is a mixture of Nordic runes and Wiccan. Like many more advanced magic users - he uses a mixture of crystals and other objects to aid in more strenuous magic casting.

HEIGHT: 6’3”

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States, mother American/french. Father American/Finnish settler origin. Can speak French like a native. Spanish, German, Norwegian comes in very close for his proficiency. He’s obscenely good at knowing other languages outside of this too. He just absorbs languages I suppose.

ACCENT: California English, with a distinct french twang now and then.

OCCUPATION: WWPIA supervisor - senior level. Technically oversees a wide team that deals with more complicated and/or sensitive cases, with a while science, IT and tactician team. Famously oversees disciplinary meetings and employee reviews. (Oof, he would be my actual worst nightmare, he’d be so harsh it’ unreal.) He has his own private office separate from the same floor of his ‘employees’ that he shares with his partner (Initially Mx Lunez, then Faustus). He often entertains specific case requests there.

His ambition is to take over the US branch of the WWPIA - a tall order to be sure!

FAVOURITE FOOD: Okay this man is like a Michelin star chef. He makes Croquembouches like oh yeah whatever, baking, he would make Gorden Ramsey cry….

*Whisper* Secretly you know he likes a down n dirty chain restaurant dirty greasy hamburger, fucking filthy American. I love it.

FAVOURITE MUSIC: Classical music, overall more of the soothing spectrum of music? He doesn’t handle loud/clashing music well. He started to play the violin courtesy of Mx Lunez teaching him but… well yeah.

FAVOURITE MEMORY: Being with his mother who was near enough an angel incarnate? He always had a penchant for learning… being fascinated, excited about the about the wonders of life, magic and the mysticism around him… That has somewhat dimmed as he has grown more cynical and weary over the years.

BIGGEST SECRET: He knows his father basically killed his mother and he fucking haaaaaaates hiiiiiiim.

BIGGEST FEAR: Hmmm, he’s one of those people that seemingly don’t have any fears. Although he’s FIERCELY protective and spiky about his personal affairs. Especially regarding regarding his mother etc.

Honestly his biggest fear is really not living up his OWN expectations. Like his mother just wanted him to be happy but he’s so desperate to prove that he’s worthy of his mother’s life sacrifice - in part not helped by his father who constantly told him as much.

SCARS/TATTOOS/OTHER PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES: He has multiple thin scars across his shoulders, back of his legs and across the palms of his hands. His father basically caned the shit out of him at every slight infraction. The ones on his hands are actually fairly tender still, so he pretty much always wears seamless silk gloves.

He is actually fairly decked out in terms of tattoos - from neck to ankles, although you would never really know because he always wears a full suit, including the gloves.

The tattoos are not ‘decorative’, they all Nordic runes for specific purposes. He has a Helm of awe/a variation of it tattooed across the whole of his back. On the back of his left hand he has a simple line art of a enclosed pentagram and each of the triangular elements on the proximal phalanges. All of the tattoos are not matt black and are more of a muted dark grey. Tattoos related to spells illuminate a bright blue/white. The ones on his hand pretty much always illuminate when spell casting. (Need to look up specific Nordic runes… there’s a lot.)

STRENGTHS: Okay this man is actually pretty much a genius, no joke. He is amazing at languages, has a sharp and scientific mind and near perfect memory. He’s able to visualise/analyse his environment to an insanely accurate degree. Basically Sherlock Holmes’s V2. He’s able to emotionally mask and/or act very effectively.

Very proficient in using most weapons, especially guns. He has a set of custom revolvers made specially for him.

WEAKNESSES: He’s cynical, fed up and sarcastic. He often puts down feelings/instinct in favour of unemotional logic/tactics which is. Like Faustus he also has a fairly large ego (men, amirite?) but while Faustus will overtly kind of go ‘U WANNA GOO MATE’, Sydney will slowly. Bide. His. Time. He will have have an entire folder of mistakes you’ve ever made EVER. then he’ll turn it in a slideshow. And show your family/entire workforce. He’s helping.

He gets EXTREMELY flustered around raunchy/sexual stuff. The genius? Takes a dive out the window, only white noises remains.

He honestly has an OCD in terms of cleanliness/germs. He hates anyone touching him unprovoked, dirty surfaces etc. He also hates anyone chewing loudly in front of him, like an actual sensory ick.

FAMILY RELATIONSHIP: His mother was a white/Wiccan witch from France. Extremely wealthy and a family steeped in white magic history which in this world is historically very lucrative. (Understandably really.) His mother chose to veer more down the path of charity, healing, work and life saving - gaining her the nickname of ‘the Angel of the West’.

Her likeness can still be found in many gift shops on angel like statues and other blessed objects - being a petite, blonde haired, blue eyed and generally beautiful. Although she herself took great pains to remind those around her she was merely human, trying to do good.

His father… oof. A devout catholic priest, sadly completely indoctrinated into a very stereotypically strict catholic regime. At one point he obviously met Sydney’s mother - on charity aid work. Back when he was more open to the goodness of the world, he did genuinely love her and believed she was a god-sent blessing on the earth. That didn’t last.

Sydney lived with his mother until the age of 13, at which point she died. (She was killed by his father for attempting to make a pact with a demon, she did so in order to save Sydney’s life from an almost certain death via viral meningitis. The pact ceremony ultimately ‘failed’ but the demon went… ah fuck it. I’ll save the kid anyway.)

His father then looked after him, he was EXTREMELY strict. He trained to brainwash all the magic out of Sydney, He failed. Fuck him!

SEXUALITY: Demibisexual

KINKS(ooh la la!): Consensual fear, for himself that is? Bit of a masochist?

[abirddogmoment]

I’ve really immersed myself in dog training and sports classes since we moved to Edmonton and I have some Thoughts(TM).

(For a reminder, we moved to Edmonton from Yellowknife about a month ago. There are no dog sports in Yellowknife besides one group which does very chaotic agility training for three months in the summer. I gave that group a shot but it did not work for Mav or for me and we bailed after three weeks.)

I’m on week three of a barn hunt intermediate and an agility equipment skills class with Mav. They are taught by different instructors through the same facility. 

Barn Hunt: The class is structured so we usually do a very short run, work on indications or tunnels or building drive, then do a “real” run before the class ends, and there are six dog/human teams. It’s fast-paced but runs extremely smoothly imo. My issue going in to class was that Mav was not committing to indications - either due to not understanding the game or finding it more reinforcing to just keep sniffing bales instead of pointing the rat, and I went in hoping I could train a stronger, committed alert.

My biggest complaint with the class was that the instructor wanted me to grow Mav’s pointing indication to a barking/pawing/biting indication like many terriers/herding breeds do. It left me a bit disgruntled because Mav isn’t that kind of dog; he doesn’t get frustrated enough to start acting out and instead he just disengages from the game (which really, was my issue that brought me to class). I (politely) refused and explained why, the instructor took it well, and we’ve made some tremendous progress since then. The instructor tends to give his feedback in a “criticism sandwich” (something you did well, some things to work on, something you have improved since last time), which makes it much more reinforcing for me (and it seems the other handlers) to keep working hard in the class. I am hella proud of Mav and his improvements, and really enjoying the class so far! I will probably continue on to the advanced one next month.

Agility: I didn’t really have any issues with Mav going into this class. I want to get into agility because it’s such a cool sport, but frankly I am not looking to be competitive and agility in inherently a COMPETITIVE sport. This class is structured so groups of three or four dogs run at a time, on leash. I showed up to the first week of this class and the instructor set us off to loose-leash walking to see how our dogs responded (to body pressure? I don’t really know what she was looking for tbh), and she paused the exercise multiple times to criticize me on small things a) the amount of eye contact Mav was offering me, b) the direction I was pivoting while llw (there were no instructions besides “walk your dog to the wall, turn around, come back”), and c) that I wasn’t building drive before releasing my dog (”ready.... ready.... okay go!”). We have since moved on to obstacles and my issues were similar, so I’ll just use this exercise to describe my Thoughts.

I have a lot of distaste for this class and the way it’s taught. It’s a beginner agility class with no prerequisites beyond [the gym’s obedience/engagement class] or equivalent. The problems I’m having with this class really just boil down to me not meshing well with this instructor, I think. I’m finding this class intense (in the way that lots of competitive agility people are INTENSE, no offense) in that it seems that SPEED and DRIVE are the ultimate goals for the instructor (again, this is an equipment skills class taught on leash), whereas I just want to bounce around with my dog who, at the end of the day, I have to live with in my home. I am not looking to build drive so he’s launching himself to the end of his leash every time we start walking (god it took like 2.5 years to break him of that). I’m not looking for a dog who quivers in anticipation when I put him in a stay. I just want to learn how to safely do pieces of equipment in a way that my handling doesn’t confuse my dog and maybe Q some novice runs in a trial. I absolutely appreciate the tips when it comes to my handling around equipment, but I’m not looking to change my entire lifestyle to build myself a top-ranking agility dog. Again, I have to live with this dog and I ADORE living with him the way he is now. Mav is undeniably well-behaved in class environments - he is engaged, excited to do what I ask him to, but able to focus and not get too excited. I put SO MUCH work into this because I wanted that focus and he had no brain cells until he turned 2. I do not want a dog that can’t keep his brain in his head, and I’d rather Mav be slower and more thoughtful than fast and chaotically drivey.

These Thoughts have gone on long enough so I’ll end them with this: both of the classes I’m taking have taught me new skills, and both have made me a better handler. I got way better at reading Mav when he gets a scent in barn hunt, and I am much better at pivoting and watching my hands when handling Mav around obstacles (and omg, I’ve been practicing). Both trainers are undeniably effective at getting their points across and I have to guess they’re both quite successful at trials with their own dogs. But their teaching styles and the way they treat their (human) students is different, and one of the classes ends with people cheering each other on and thanking the instructor, and the other ends with sullen handlers gathering their things in silence. 

[wolfsuggest]

I have personal reason why I haaaaaaate ABO (which mainly have to do with it being sexist and homophobic at the same time lmao but I love omega/omega and occasionally alpha/alpha) but what I REALLY want is for the pack to be like ‘yeah this is alpha this is beta that guys omega’ and Stiles, spends too much time on the interwebs, is like ‘hey. Guys. We’re in public. Can we. Not. Use these terms?’ And Scott. That dense dork. Is like. ‘Why? It’s not like anyone knows what we mean?’ And Stiles is like ‘yeah. And that’s the issue here.’ And it’s beautiful and people keep avoiding them cause someone asked what the alpha thing was about and someone else kindly explained ABO to them and now the whole school thinks they’re some sort of sex cult and wondering who identifies as omega because LMAO (just by basic instinctual definition my GF called me an omega cause I don’t have a bed so much as a full on blanket filled nest that I sleep in and she’s still in trouble for pointing that out) and someone’s all ‘okay but at least ONE of you has to be an omega, right? It’s just obvious’ and Scott. Scott. You single minded delight Scott. Is all ‘oh. Well. I guess Stiles cause he doesn’t quite fit the same definition of non-human like the rest of us???’ And now Stiles is hiding under his bed for a full week cause someone asked him if that means he’s their dumb little sex cult’s boytoy and he’s never leaving the house again and the Sheriff had to deal with a teacher telling him it’s not appropriate for Stiles to go around telling people that sort of thing (HE DIDNT EVEN START THIS FUCK YALL) and now the pack is having to deal with their squishy little human being emotional and refusing to be seen in public with them cause people say he puts out too fast and now Scott is finally starting to get it. Okay. Yeah. His bad. This is his fault. Whoops.

[witch-without-gender]

This post isn’t gonna be witchcraft related this is about my gender identity and is gonna be mostly me venting and rambling. Absolutely feel free to ignore this if you want, I take no offense lol.

When I first started to question my gender I tried out several different labels but I ended up calling myself genderfluid for about a year. After a while, my identity seemed to stop being fluid and I’ve called myself nonbinary/lunarian for years, but earlier today my entire being just went “whoops I’m boy now” and I don’t know how to deal with that. I haaaaaaate when my gender changes like this and it hasn’t happened in years so I figured I wouldn’t have to deal with it again but now I’m just “aH fuck it’s boy time” and I don’t know what to do.

I’m also worried that my bf isn’t gonna understand or that he’s not gonna want to be with me anymore which I know is actually ridiculous but I’m a ball of anxiety so 🤷🏼‍♂️

Idk I’m just stressed and frustrated with my gender and how the world perceives trans* people.

[radiovisual]

11, 15, 20

11. On your character.

I've said it a thousand times before, and I'll say it a thousand times more--I love the Concept of Alastor!

I HAAAAAAATE his canon design.

I also absolutely Did Not Mean for my Alastor to become as Ooc as he has--I am Extremely aware that he's basically an oc at this point, but he's still so intrinsically tied to the original by Circumstances thats theres no Real way for me actually CALL him an oc bc he'd still... Very Clearly just look like and Alastor ripoff lmaO. I Love him, but i am a bit ashamed at times.

My VOX, however, I'm incredibly proud of! He got very lucky in that... I don't love him enough to get crazy with "just Because!" headcanons (like i did with alastor), but I DO love him enough to have gotten into the nitty gritty of how I'd like to see him if he'd been the protagonist of a story--He's one of the most realistically flawed, distantly sympathetic, undeniably human characters I've ever had the pleasure of musing for.

It is a struggle to roleplay him though, which makes me sad--he actually comes to me easier than Alastor when im writing fics (a Large chunk of my wips are from his perspective), but as soon as i try to do something with him on here, it just. Disconnects? Its weird--Im trying to find solutions for it bc I know its disappointed ppl before when theyve tried to interact with me; im very Sorry to those whove sent me asks and starters and not gotten anything back 😭

15. On tumblr.

The only social media i can tolerate--i hate twitters interface, facebook does something to my brain that i Dont like, and instagram pisses me off. Im not getting out of this chair, no sirry, you cant make me.

20. On 'popular' blogs.

They're either genuinely cool, friendly, welcoming, often very humble people who are popular for good reason, or they're the actual fucking devil who got there by stealing ideas, trashing other creators, and emotionally abusing their mutuals into a perceived 'dependency' by making them worry that they'lp be ostracized by Everyone if they so much as unfollow the popular blogger--no in between.

People need to make a more conscious effort of Recognizing and Pointing Out the people who Use their popularity to hurt and steal from and lie about others. Muse characterizations and aus are just as much of a creative property as a piece of drawn artwork--if you care about one being stolen, you should also care about the other. Stop letting Big Name Rpers get away with shit because you're scared of them not liking you--we're better than that.

[lycorogue]

Amelia and Trish🌺💐

Awww, yay! Someone sending me an ask from a list! 😍 I get these so rarely. This is such a fun treat! Thank you! (For anyone wondering, the “Soft OC Ask” master list can be found here.)

🌺 What does your OC do to calm down when they’re scared or after a nightmare? Do they have any special comfort items or need to be reassured by a specific person? How do they handle this if they’re alone?

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

Funny enough, the answers to most of these questions more-or-less happened canonically within the X-Future roleplay, so these are fairly easy to answer. Since each question is actually a series of related questions, and this ask is for two of my OCs, this got a bit lengthy. You can read my reply below the break.

Lia: 🌺 When Lia was a toddler, her mother crocheted her a little stuffed Calcifer the flame from Howl’s Moving Castle. Lia still has this stuffed Calcifer and cuddles it whenever she’s super stressed or awakes from a nightmare. If she feels she’s failing at reaching her true potential with her powers or as a leader, she goes to the X-Men archives of her mother’s training and watches those. If anything, doing so makes her feel worse because it makes her feel even more inadequate and tears at her grief of not knowing what happened to her mom, but neither fact stops her from doing so. Alternatively, if she’s stressed about generic Teenage DramaTM, she usually storms off to be alone, literally burning off some steam as she rages with her powers once she knows she’s in a safe location where she won’t permanently damage anything. As a child, she would also come to her dad (who was literally never too far from her at any given time, thanks to his powers; he was the ultimate helicopter parent) if a situation was too big for her to handle by herself. As a teen, she tends to vent to either her then-boyfriend-now-ex-but-still-friend Chayse, or her roommate Willow, or her current boyfriend Ripley. If it’s something minor that she needs to work out, she’ll sneak off to dance; just to get the positive energy flowing again.

💐 As the “mom friend”, Lia is much better at playing nurse than being nursed. Although, she is a bit naïve when it comes to emotional/mental-health support. She tries, but usually falls a touch short when trying to help out in those matters. She’s much better at nursing physical illnesses or injuries because she can study the most effective ways to heal those. When she’s the one sick or injured, though? She gets antsy if she’s forced to rest up in bed, especially if she feels like it’s overly cautious for her to do so. Now, if she’s majorly sick or in pain, she will gladly hide under her covers and ignore the world exists. Anything short of “OMG, I’m dying”? And she’ll fight bedrest tooth and nail. Her father is the #1 person to care for her, but since attending the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Jamie has allowed Lia’s roommate and friend Willow to take on the role of primary caregiver, with Lia’s boyfriend Ripley on stand-by to tag in. If neither of the teens are willing or able, though, Jamie will gladly jump back in to take care of Lia. Aside from being antsy and a bit whiny about being forced to stay in bed (if she’s feeling alright), Lia does accept being cared for fairly gracefully. She’ll comment it’s unneeded and that her caregivers should focus on “more important things” since she’s clearly “fine”, but will still gladly accept the soup, extra blankets, pillow fluffing, and so on. She’s a bit more grumbly if she’s recovering from an injury because she hates feeling helpless or weak in that regard.

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

Trish: 🌺 Trish HAAAAAAATES showing any kind of weakness AT. ALL. So she does NOT go to anyone for comfort when she’s feeling overly stressed or scared. The exception is MAAAAAAAAYBE Pyro if she is majorly shaken about something. She hates seeming weak and immature in front of Pyro, though (and hates adding to the father-daughter dynamic when she wants a lovers one instead), so there has to be something TRAUMATIZING to her before she goes to even him for comfort. Otherwise, she turns her fear into anger and rage. She’ll run the training obstacle courses to the point of exhaustion, just to give her mind something else to focus on, and something to aim her powers at. She overcomes fear by adding to the façade that she’s completely fearless. She allows adrenaline to completely over-ride her fear as she almost always goes for a “Fight” response. As for nightmares, she’ll usually calm herself down by playing with her butterfly knife; something else to focus on until she forgets the nightmare. She’ll also calm herself down with a shower, especially if she’s covered in sweat from the nightmare. She’ll chant to herself, “it’s not real. It wasn’t real. Ignore it” until the nightmare is forgotten or no longer intense enough for it to affect her.

💐 Trish is a TERRIBLE patient. She’s even more antsy and stubborn than Lia. Being sick or injured enough to be bedridden is a sign of weakness, and she CANNOT be weak for Pyro. The only time she’ll submit and actually listen to instructions to rest up is if Pyro himself tells her to do so. She’ll also gladly ravish the attention if Pyro is the one nursing her back to health. She’d even milk it, just to be doted on further by him. Otherwise, lord help the person playing caregiver. She will stubbornly battle them every step; again, only complying when Pyro tells her to behave. Once her roommate Nyssa was forced to play nursemaid when Trish was badly injured by a shrapnel blast. Trish was like an injured feral creature the whole time, snarling at Nys and trying to swat her away; claiming to be healed further than she was. Nyssa practically had to have Pyro there at every bandage changing to force Trish to accept the treatment. The major exception to all of this is a mutant vigilante Trish simply calls “Stranger” since he’s never given her his name. He was hunting down the anti-mutant terrorist group The Purifiers, and stumbled upon a few that were teaming up against Trish. He saved her, but she was still wary of him; attempting to leave him to the Purifiers so she could escape. When the escape plan failed, and he saved her a second time, she was more welcoming to him attempting to help patch her up (if nothing else, she didn’t want to worry Pyro by coming home injured again). They have since met up a couple of times to hunt down more Purifiers together; helping with Trish’s bloodlust and Stranger’s want of revenge against the Purifiers for murdering his whole family in front of him and leaving him for dead. They have an uneasy bond, and Trish wouldn’t go to him if she were sick, but if she were injured she might seek him out just so she had someone she trusted moderately to care for her without feeling like a burden on Pyro. As for Trish being the caregiver? HA! She is absolute trash at caring for anyone other than herself and Pyro. Exceptions being Stranger - she would tend his wounds as well so she didn’t lose her partner in these non-Brotherhood excursions - and anyone that Pyro asked her to care for. If it’s a request from Pyro, she’ll do the bare minimum to satisfy the request, and grumble about it the whole time. Even when caring for Stranger, she’d spend the whole time bitching at him for being so “careless” as to be injured in the first place (ignore that this also implies that she’s careless whenever she gets injured).  For Pyro, though? She’d go full on Florence Nightingale and dote on him every waking moment.

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

Okay! I think that’s everything! This was fun. Thank you so much for the ask. I hope you got to learn a bit more about my OCs.

Also, I’d like to note that Stranger is one of my husband’s OCs named Jack Knoife (yes, the name is a pun. Yes, Jack is Australian. Yes, Hubby leaned hard into the classic Marvel naming tropes)

Anyway, if anyone else wants to learn more about my OCs (or if you’d like to learn more, @doesnotloveyou ), feel free to drop me an ask. 😁

[doctorofmagic]

Top Five favourite and least favourite ships for Stephen? I bet I can guess no.1

Oh, good Vishanti, that will be hard. I think I don’t even get five ships for the top favorite, so I’ll have to think a little harder. About the least, I’ll leave it as it is, because maybe my opinions can hurt someone and I don’t intend to do harm. I have a personal guideline for ships: if it’s healthy and not controversial, then it’s alright, even though there are many that I don’t quite relate. For those which fit this description, I’ll keep it to myself.

5) StrangeNightmare

As I’ve explained before, that’s not quite a ship. I just liked their erotic villain/hero relationship in this comic. Since I’m having a hard time to find at least 5 ships, I decided to put it here anyway. And if the rumors are true, then Eva Green will be Nightmare and oh my Oshtur, there’s no way I can survive Benedict and Eva in the same room, especially if she portrays this kind of intimacy. I can’t explain what it is, you see. I’m having a hard time to process my feelings towards this, especially because as an ace, I don’t tend to see the world as most people do, which means I have a different perspective at romantic and/or platonic relationships. Anyway, I dunno, I’m just babbling at this point, sorry. (but the otp name is gold, wouldn’t you agree?)

4) StrangeNurse

It was a short relationship, but a good one. Linda brought Stephen’s best part to light and supported him when he felt insecure about protecting the New Avengers in the Sanctum. They broke up poorly because Stephen was a mess, but I’m glad they are friends now. I really am.

3) WongStrange

I haaaaaaate their relationship in comics because Wong deserves so much better. I know Stephen calls him “friend” all the time, yet it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a mere servant. He isn’t even paid. He doesn’t have a life. In fact, I’m glad he left the Sanctum. I don’t want him to be Stephen’s underling. I want them to be equals. Who stood by Stephen’s side during all his difficult times, even when he didn’t deserve? That’s right, that’s Wong. It’s not loyalty at this point. It’s love, no matter platonic, or romantic. They share a bond of love and that’s enough for me. At least, MCU did a good job at portraying him as a sorcerer. I wish comics followed something similar. He doesn’t need to be a sorcerer, but for instance, there’s Shang Chi. Wong could be a fighter hero, he’s that good in martial arts. But servant no more!!

2) DoomStrange

I blame @osheets for that. That’s all I’m going to say. Oh, the angst…

1) Stephen x Clea 

To no one’s surprise! Well, we do need a name for this ship. Cleaphen? Stranclea? StrangeClea? Or maybe Mystical Duo? I accept suggestion, we could make it official before the move is out. Imagine the honor! Anyway, I’m deeply, deeply soft for them. Sometimes I look at Stephen when he talks about Clea and it almost feels like I can dive into his eyes and see how much he loves her, how his life is meaningless without her. And it hurts me a lot because he’s so lonely and sad now. It’s like he was once whole and now he’s denied of being complete again. Stephen has never been the same after Clea. She changed him in ways no one could understand. Their bond is literally magical, their souls are linked and their relationship is so soft, so pure. It’s really special and I’ll never get over them.

That’s it! That’s my top 5, at least for now. I’m always open to change, after all. Thank you so much for asking it, I’m always a little nervous about shipping because I’ve seen war and now I choose peace, yet it was really fun! Thanks!

[abeautifulblog]

This is gonna sound weird but how would Robert and Gene deal with this whole quarantine thing? Will Amanda go home and stay with them? Will Robert check up on Mary since she and her hubby are trapped in the same space indefinitely (now she can't get way from him even for a bit and maybe Joseph can't do his thing and find other guys to sleep with)? HOW WOULD THEY DEAL WITH THE BORINGNESS OF IT ALL (maybe it's time they deal with Gene not being able to cook thing)

lol, that does seem to be the question of the moment for fic writers, doesn't it? "Imagine your OTP -- and they were QUARANTINED!"

(omg, they were quarantined~)

That said, Robert is an antisocial homebody, and Gene is an antisocial homebody, and so I expect their day to day didn't change much. (Like that meme, "tfw you find out your usual lifestyle is called quarantine.") But I'd forgotten that Amanda would have been sent home too, so the most interesting thing there would be her and Robert in prolonged contact, getting to know each other the way they really don't when she's only home for a week or so at a time.

The hookup AU, on the other hand, would be much more interesting, because their relationship in that is volatile and up-in-the-air and quarantine would definitely throw a wrench in the works. (And no, it’s not posted yet -- I’m timing the release to coincide with the last chapter of Beautiful Day.) They wouldn't be shacking up in that one, but it wouldn't be a stretch for them to include each other in their quarantine unit, so to speak, since they live right next door and are otherwise isolated. (ie, it's not like one of them has a job that's putting them at risk of exposure every day.) And Gene would be thrilled by that -- because with Robert cut off from grindr, that means Gene has him all to himself. (It's Gene or no one! 🙃) Quarantine would, effectively, shove them into greater intimacy.

Though again, the wild card is Amanda, because she haaaaaaates Robert in the hookup AU -- she's never actually spoken to him, so he's just this asshole who calls her dad up like a booty call and makes him cry sometimes. But if Robert notices that Gene's been living off cup ramen and skittles... and takes it on himself to cook for him and send him home with food after they fuck... maybe Amanda would start to thaw, at seeing evidence that Robert does care about her dad beyond getting his rocks off?

Meanwhile, Mary's situation is... unfortunate. (And unfortunately quite common right now -- the organizations that deal with battered women and child abuse have been grim about the effects of quarantining these people with their abusers, when they can't even leave the house to get away for a while.) I don't envy her being stuck in that house with Joseph and four restless children. (I mean... I don't think he's physically abusive, at least? Small mercies.)

I imagine they tried to stick it out for a while, until she was like -- Okay, YOU will go self-isolate on your goddamn yacht, or I'm leaving you here with the kids and *I* will go self-isolate on your goddamn yacht -- it’s your choice. (Assuming Joseph didn't think of it first and was already gone.) I don't think he'd be a hard sell on that, because she's almost as good at making life unpleasant for him as he is for her.

So yeah, Mary's at the house without him, letting the kids watch all the TV that Joseph doesn't ordinarily allow, drinking boxed wine and face-timing Robert when she's bored. :)

[makesometime]

20 FACTS! // tagged by @alethiometry

1. Do you make your bed? I generally reorganise the covers in the morning because my one bastard cat will find any opening to get in and under them if I leave him the chance.

2. What’s your favorite number? 21

3. What’s your job? I’m an environmental consultant/researcher.

4. If you could, would you go back to school? I thought that I was done with school when I finished my BSc, but as time goes on I feel like I’d probably do it. I miss learning.

5. Can you parallel park? Not well, I rarely do it - I did it perfectly on my driving test and have avoided doing it since, as a treat.

6. A job you had which would surprise people? I used to clean my father’s butcher’s shop on Saturdays? I got really over blood and meat being odd really quickly.

7. Do you think aliens are real? Yes, definitely.

8. Can you drive a manual car? I can, it’s what I learnt on. Automatic feels scary to me.

9. What’s your guilty pleasure? American chain restaurants that serve middling food, margaritas and Pop figures.

10. Tattoos? Yus indeed! And a great desire for more that lockdown has only made worse.

11. Favorite color? Red or orange.

12. Things people do that drive you crazy? Be idiot bigots.

13. Any Phobias? Not fond of heights. Clowns, dolls, mannequins, anything that looks human but isn’t.

14. Favorite childhood sport? Oh I haaaaaaated sport as a child. I was not a sporty child. Netball? I guess.

15. Do you talk to yourself? Yes, quite frequently, both in my head and out loud.

16. What movie do you adore? Galaxy Quest is my absolute favourite movie ever.

17. Do you like doing puzzles? YES. GIVE ME ALL THE PUZZLES PLEASE.

18. Favorite kind of music? Alt rock, rock, country, alternative, whatever the fuck lyrical guitar based music is even called now. Indie?

19. Tea or coffee? Coffee if I had to choose, but I love both.

20. The first thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up? a paleontologist or a vulcanologist, thank you 90s blockbusters

I tag @sweetlyfez, @youreallsofuckingrude, @ashesandhoney and anyone with such a desire to think about themselves a bit

[funforahermit]

a bunch of random thoughts about The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (SPOILERS for both the show and the movie!)

1. I love Hup so much I can’t even

2. The Skeksis are so fucking evil, way more evil than we ever knew in the movie, wow. And the Chamberlain especially is an amazing villain, and again with an even greater capacity for evil than the movie already implied.

3. I love love love the complexity of all the Gelfling characters!! The bravery! The prejudice! The kindness! The stupidity! The capacity to make mistakes and the capacity to forgive.... I’m just asghfkhsgfugvhggctfgagfvg

4. I haaaaaaate all the slime and snot, please stop

5. I called that the Hunter and the Archer were one, and I called that the Scientist would manufacture Garthim out of Arathim at some point, but then again I guess those things were pretty obvious

6. Also the Archer killing himself was kind of inevitable from the moment he said “I will stop the hunt”, and it hurt me

7. HOW HILARIOUS are the Heretic and the Wanderer omg I love them! Also the idea that there’s a pair of Skeksis and Mystic living together and low key longing to be one again is amazing

8. I never paid much attention to the individual names of the Skeksis, so I was very surprised when the General died, because there was a General in the movie and his relationship with the Chamberlain was pretty much the same, so it didn’t occur to me that it could be two different Generals ‘xD

9. Every now and then I remember that none of all my beloved Gelfling will survive this. They lose. We already know that. They lose until only Jen and Kira are left, hidden away and oblivious. And it hurts. This shit is DARK.

10. ...UNLESS the show will find a way of bringing everyone back. I think they are scattering hints that all the essence is not lost and can be stored in the crystal. Or something.

11. The Emperor yelling “I will never! Be! Dust!!!”, yeah guess again mate

12. A question I’ve had since the movie: Why does the original form of the alien beings (that were split in two and whose name escapes me) look NOTHING like Skeksis or Mystics?? I mean, the two parts look similar enough if you look closely, the Skeksis have a second pair of arms too for example, they’re just sort of withered and unused. I expected the whole being to look at least similar, like something in between, or something that can be extrapolated from the two halves. But instead they’re just like.... people with twigs on their heads?? Wh..??

13. Anyway I love this universe, it’s magical and strange and engaging. And have I mentioned Hup?

[gffa]

Hi! In my last ask you said you loved to talk so joke's on you, now I'm gonna flood you with questions xD There are a few things I'd like to have your thoughts on, from a nebie perspective. Here's the first one. Even when I hadnt' wathced the movies yet, I had inevitably heard a lot of negative things about the prequels. What are the reasons in your opinion? And since you are so positive about them, I would ask you to instead highlight some of their strongest points :)

Hello!  You act like I don’t mean it when I say I love to talk, but BOY DO I.  :DPrequels hate is one of those things that I think comes from a variety of places, so there are common trends, but we’re never going to be able to cover all the reasons every single person dislikes them, and I’m not even going to try.  These are going to be true for a lot of people, but there are going to be a bunch that have their own reasons that I’ve never thought much about–sometimes trash reasons, sometimes valid reasons.Mostly, it comes down to how they conduct themselves, that if someone just doesn’t like the prequels for whatever reason, but they’re perfectly kind to those who do, then their reasons are entirely valid for them and I have zero problem with them!  I have friends who aren’t really that keen on the prequels and we get along fine, because they’re sweethearts and I hope I can return even half as much civility.  (This applies to everything I like and someone else doesn’t.)That said, some of the biggest reasons people dislike the prequels, in my experience:- There’s a trend of people who really wanted Darth Vader to be a power fantasy character, to be an awesome badass, rather than a hot mess.  This tends to go hand in hand with people disliking the way Hayden Christensen played the character, because he was very attractive, because he was a whiny teenager, because he was an anxious mess, because he didn’t have this strong core identity.  I think this is part of the TCW!Anakin tends to be more popular with some people, because that Anakin does project himself better, Matt Lanter plays the character with a more polished voice and he’s more traditionally angry about stuff, instead of teary-eyed, fidgety angry that Hayden played him as.I’ve said this a bunch of times, but I think a lot of people disregard Hayden’s acting because they think Anakin is supposed to project this strong sense of self, that he should have a strong voice (literally and figuratively), that he should be clear-eyed and hold himself up well.  Instead, his voice is often thin and hesitant or arrogant and whiny, he fiddles with the hem of his sleeve, he paces back and forth, his lip wobbles when he cries.And this is a brilliant choice on Hayden’s part, imo, because ANAKIN SKYWALKER IS AN ANXIOUS HOT MESS.  That’s it, that’s who Darth Vader is.  Someone who had all this tremendous power, who believed he was more special than everyone else around him, who wanted to be more significant than everyone else, who was angry and confused and didn’t want to do the hard work of really looking at himself, that’s why all the theraputic suggestions in the galaxy weren’t helping, because he didn’t want to, that’s why his countenance on Mustafar is hard as hell to watch.  Because this isn’t someone breaking bad in an awesome way, this is a tragedy.  This is Anakin Skywalker, someone we care about, going over the edge in an ugly, uncomfortable way–and Hayden portrays that beautifully.I think a lot of people really didn’t want that, they wanted Baby Vader being some demon kid or they wanted him to be a badass who just sliced through everything with his lightsaber.  Not a young man who was so destroyed by the loss of his mother that he killed a bunch of villagers in a tearful rage and wanted to be soothed and absolved of it afterwards, instead of a HOLY SHIT THAT WAS BADASS moment, we got an awful, ugly moment in a way that we should think was awful and ugly.- George Lucas was always interested in pushing the boundaries of what was possible, which means that a lot of the stuff they were going (like the motion capture stuff, the background scenery CGI, etc.) are things that they had to create entirely new tech for, sometimes stuff that was so bleeding edge and so well done that they’re still using the same tech today.  But, because it was such new tech at the time, it doesn’t always age well.  Like, ROTS still looks really good, but even I, a staunch defender, have to admit that the TPM battle scenes are clearly very old and not nearly as integrated as they would be today.A lot of people judge the quality of the movies based on today’s standards, rather than taking them as part of the time they were from.  As well as a lot of people really like a more practical look effect and, honestly, they used THOUSANDS of practical effects and models in the prequels, they just look so much a part of the film that we often don’t notice.- I’ve heard this said before and I think it’s a good point–a lot of the problem for some people is that, for a long time, that’s all there was of Star Wars.  Right now, if you don’t like the sequels, you still have a ton of other stuff to be interested in, you can read in a whole bunch of other eras.  You can watch Rebels or watch The Clone Wars, if you don’t like Resistance, it’s not a big deal.  If you don’t like TFA and TLJ, you can just go read the Star Wars ongoing comic or the first Darth Vader series.  Right now, we can even read or listen to a bunch of prequels novels!People have calmed down a lot on the prequels, in part because those who enjoyed them as kids are growing up and getting a voice in media, and partly because those who really hated them now have other places to do.  “Eh, it’s not my thing, but it’s not the ONLY Star Wars coming out right now, so I guess it’s fine.”- When TPM first came out, there was a ton of love for it, it’s just that reviews on-line turned on it pretty quickly and started spinning stories about how it was fucking awful, and those voices grew so loud that that became the narrative.  There’s this idea that the prequels were failures or whatever, but in reality, if you look at the box office numbers (especially adjusted for inflation), they made plenty of money.  They’re all within the top 100 and, even without adjustment, TPM and ROTS made reasonably close to $1B each than anything.  And this was in a time before Marvel movies were a thing, where we’re kind of used to that happening, but it wasn’t always such a thing.- A lot of people dislike the dialogue and, hey, that’s fair, it’s not for everyone.  George Lucas himself said that he’s the kind of wooden dialogue, as well as a lot of people have noted that the movies are based on a style that’s out of step with modern audiences (George said this as well, iirc), and if you go watch a lot of stuff from the ‘30s and ‘40s, you can definitely notice a lot of parallels in the style of the prequels.It reads as stiff and awkward to a lot of people, so they think it’s bad (and that’s fair), but I think there’s a large element of that it’s a style that a lot of people just straight up don’t like.- One of the biggest problems is that the movies were made for kids, not for the people who used to be kids when the original came out and they didn’t like that the movies hadn’t grown up with them in the same way.  The hated podrace sequence and Jar Jar Binks are classic examples of this–a lot of adults haaaaaaate those things, but if you go around asking kids, suddenly a lot more of them could watch that podracing sequence ALL DAY LONG and never get bored, a lot more kids found Jar Jar genuinely funny.George Lucas has always been upfront about how the movies are intended for kids.  That’s not to say adults can’t enjoy them as well, they’re part of the audience too, but they’re very much movies that kept a younger audience in mind, and that frustrated a lot of people who had become adults themselves and wanted a more “adult” Star Wars.So, it comes down to a lot of different reasons that people don’t like the prequels, sometimes they’re fair (a difference of tastes, they’re out of step with modern audiences, the pacing isn’t always great, etc.) and sometimes they’re bullshit (wanting the movies to be something they weren’t and they’re inherently bad because Baby Vader wasn’t an awesome badass, but instead a crying hot mess with too much power).Here on tumblr, there’s a ton of love for the prequels, to the point that I forget sometimes that a lot of the rest of the world still falls into being kind of dicks about the movies.  But every so often, I’ll be listening to an entertainment podcast and they bash on the prequels or Anakin’s character, or even within fandom, someone will say that the acting was terrible or the dialogue was objectively terrible, and I remember, oh, yeah, that’s still a thing.Things are easier now, those who loved the movies are getting a voice in the media, there’s more stuff for non-fans to concentrate on instead if they don’t like them, there are more defenders now, more pockets to get lost in, but for awhile we all kind of had to be jammed together and that mean some voices were louder than others.  And that got perpetuated a lot so that’s what you heard.  “The prequels are bad.” was said over and over and over, until that became the only narrative that a lot of people heard.Whew, okay, that was long and there’s going to be plenty of other reasons that aren’t touched on, this isn’t meant to say non-fans are a monolith in their reasons why they don’t like them, etc.  But those are the major reasons I usually see.  But what do I love about the prequels?I love that the characters really spoke to me in a way I never expected.  I’ve dealt my whole life with anxiety, depression, and a difficult time really looking at myself and facing my inner demons.  I relate to Anakin Skywalker in so many ways, and even when I call him a garbage bag, it’s done with such affection because, I have been there, my guy.  I’ve struggled to really learn to let go of things, to make peace with a lot of the shit in my head, so when the Jedi came along and actually had some really good advice about calming your tits before you hurt someone, that you had to have internal self-discipline to overcome a lot of the shit inside you, that spoke to me as well.  I strive to be a better person, to let go of the anger that consumed me and cost me years of my life and friendships.  I fell in love with Obi-Wan Kenobi, who is pretty much the best person in that entire galaxy, that he doesn’t have to be perfect to be wholly good.  And also he’s hilarious.  I fell in love with Padme, a woman who accomplished such great things in the galaxy, who could move metaphorical mountains, while still being internally fragile in a lot of ways, that her heart broke so badly, she just couldn’t keep living.  I’ve been there, too.I am IN LOVE with the worldbuilding of the prequels–the worlds of the prequels are, honestly, the best of all the eras.  Coruscant is incredible, it’s easily my favorite planet.  But Naboo is gorgeous.  Getting to see a little of Alderaan is incredible.  Mustafar was INCREDIBLE to see.  Geonosis and Kashyyyk are incredibly cool to look at!  I kind of want to legit take a walk on Felucia and see all the flora.  Kamino and Utapau look amazing, too.  Umbara and Dathomir and Malastare and Mandalore and Christopsis and Cato Nemoidia and Mon Calamari all look amazing when we get to see them, too.And I’m in love with the more fleshed out politics of the era because it feels like they actually have impact and weight there.  Politics has always been part of Star Wars, but we really don’t see it that much in the Rebellion era and not even that much in the Resistance/First Order era.  We may get more of it as the New Republic is explored more (like we do in the Aftermath books) and I’ll be fascinated then, but the prequels went hard on politics and, yeah, a lot of people disliked them, but I think looking around at our current day setting kind of proves just HOW INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT POLITICS ARE.If nothing else, I love the prequels just for the Jedi Temple and Jedi Aesthetics, give me ALL THE WARM SUNLIGHT CORRIDORS, the sheer sense of peace and harmony radiating off that place, all the incredible art and design touches in pretty much everything, the ceremonial dance combat we see the younglings do in TCW, the giant open hallways and verandas, the star map that shimmers into view, the robes that actually look super soft, the gardens that are probably everywhere in that place, GOD, I JUST WANT TO GO THERE, LET ME IN, LET ME IIIIIIIIIINNNNNN.I love the prequels unreservedly because it was the point where I felt like the galaxy was really a genuinely huge galaxy, it’s the place I get the best sense of scale of how massive everything really is, and it’s the part where I love the pieces and the characters the most.  I think the potential–and sometimes even the realization of that potential on-screen–is the most and it’s the place where I want to play with the world and the characters the most, it’s full of hilarity and seriousness, tragedy and hope, good people making their way through a shitty universe, but still trying to help as many people as they can, and my favorite dumpster fire of a character that I could spend all day analyzing and digging into the reasons why he chooses to do things and never get tired of ANY OF IT.Honestly, this is not necessarily a great list of Why The Prequels Are Great, mostly because *waves hand at the general mess that is my blog* pretty much this whole thing here is my ongoing attempt to put it into words and pictures why love this corner of the GFFA so much.

[bigskydreaming]

gingerjab replied to your post “ANYWAY. The petition/prayer circle for Michael Trevino to be cast as...”

I’m forever an asshole obsessed with fire/ice ships so Thunderbird or Sunfire, fuck the inhumans one off and St. John. Also, Rahul Kohli as Neal Shaara/Thunderbird/Agni. Also I’m sposed to be asleep so ignore if this is a shit idea.

For the record, I actually kinda like the Inhuman guy, cuz I mean, its not his fault he’s part of a trash franchise. I think it probably helps that I’ve only ever read one issue with him, so as to render it absolutely impossible for his writing to piss me off. I like to just close my eyes and pretend he’s a mutant. Y’know. Like I do with Kamala!

Who is obviously a mutant.

(And like.....let’s be real. The dude is a pyrokinetic with a demon form, the codename INFERNO, and his REAL name is DANTE Pertuz. DANTE. INFERNO. Like, that’s the on-the-nose-fuck-your-subtlety-we-came-here-to-be-pretentious-as-fuck-with-our-literary-references-look-how-dignified-it-makes-our-character balls to the wall character concept I am HERE for. I’m like OH HAI I SEE WHAT U DID THAR. And they’re like “oh yeah? You got it? Hahaha, we were worried nobody would, phew, good job tho. Totally adds to the character right? Pretty clever of us.” And then I’d be like Hahahaha no, not even a little bit, but ‘scool, I like him anyway cuz I’m easy like that. I put out for puns.” And then they’d be like awwwww, dammit, we worked so hard on that. And I’d be like....well, that doesn’t speak highly of your abilities, I mean it was a super obvious joke. And then I stopped making up conversations with hypothetical people in my head.)

Also, in defense of comic book St. John Allerdyce and absolutely NO OTHER VERSIONS EVER because agreed, they all suck....

Comic book St. John is a snarky Australian asshole who in between acts of mutant mass destruction, has a side career as a successful romance novelist under a pen name.

(I’m not even joking. Comic book St. John, in canon, writes romance novels in his spare time as a hobby. LOLOLOL c’mon, how is that not a great character beat for a supervillain slash occasional kinda-if-you-squint-superhero).

Anyway.

I too am also trash for fire/ice ships because SCREW SUBTLETY, WE SHIP THEMATICALLY. But like, its gotta be the RIGHT fire/ice ship. I weirdly have standards with my fire/ice ships? Probably just because I’m obsessed with Bobby Drake but whatever, who cares, how is that relevant.

I mean, OBVIOUSLY, you have your proto-fire/ice ship, the one, the original, the Word I came out of the womb prepared to preach and ship and like, spread to the masses....Bobby Drake/Johnny Storm. Because like. They are elemental dorks whose competitiveness is only matched by their dumbness, how can you not love them, I DEFY YOU TO SAY.

I’m kinda meh on Iceman/Pyro, because like, original comic book Pyro and Bobby never even interacted I think? And in cartoons they’re always totally different generations/age groups, and in the movies they’re like....boring and stale and not even all that attractive and also did I mention boring, omg no offense to whomever wrote them, but I tried reading Bobby/Pyro movie fanfic years ago because like, that’s the only movie Bobby fic there is, unless you want to read about him being an asshole to Rogue and/or cheating with Kitty and just generally driving Rogue into the arms of the much (much much much much, like ewww) older Logan or Gambit. Because srsly, so appealing. So obviously, I caved and tried reading Bobby/Pyro fics because like, they had the word ‘Bobby’ in them, and the bar is too low in my X-Men fic reading habits. And omg I fell asleep. I just. It was all just the standard m/m cookie cutter generic ‘good boy plus bad boy uwu yaoi-zowey’ bleh starring two not at all deeply written or well-acted meh-looking white dudes, and just. Why.

But that’s what I mean when I say I’m wary of fire/ice ships, because sometimes with powered characters like, authors think oh hey, LOOK ONE IS FIRE AND ONE IS ICE, THIS TOTALLY COUNTS AS THEM HAVING OPPOSITES ATTRACT PERSONALITIES AND THUS I DONT NEED TO GIVE THEM A PERSONALITY, RIGHT? Like. They’re just very boring and unimaginative in execution, just because they expect the basic premise of fire and ice/’obvious opposites attract, obviously’ to do all the work for them.

(Katey if you’re reading this I’m super for sure not talking about YOUR superpowered romances, because you are wonderful and GOOD at writing and imaginative, and thus none of this applies to you. Requisite disclaimer.)

So, when they did this random Bobby/’New Pyro Dude like where did he even come from I still dont know’ hook-up, I was prepared to like, yawn endlessly, because I figured it would be more boring imaginationless ‘ooh look what an obvious pair they are and yet still praise me for how clever I am for pairing them’ crap. 

And I was absolutely right!

(But I mean, it was written by Marc Guggenheim, the odds of it sucking were totally in my favor. Betting against them being well-written under his pen might feasibly be construed as cheating. Whatever).

And also, the art did them ZERO favors, like I know they’re both generic blond dudes in their twenties, but I LITERALLY COULD NOT TELL WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHICH in any of the panels that they were like, in bed together or dressing or talking or literally anything until they started using their powers to fight bad guys. It was soooooooo bad. Like the art just manifested every ‘look at the white gay date his mirror reflection lol what is variety even’ cliche and beat you over the head with it.

(Also Bobby is supposed to have brown hair, which at least would’ve helped a LITTLE bit. Meh. Still was gonna suck because like, nobody had any intention of WRITING them together, like, developing their characters and laying the groundwork for a possible relationship. It was just ‘oh look, the fire and ice dude got drunk at a wedding and hooked up, cool deal, now on with the story.’)

Anyway, the ONLY redeeming potential for a Bobby/Simon relationship in my opinion is ENTIRELY due to a fic I read with them. Its probably the only fic written about Simon ever, lmfao, so its not like the writer’s characterization of him has any competition among either canon or other fans’ renditions of him. But it was pretty well written, I actually liked their portrayal of Bobby, which I’m SUPER picky about in fanfics, and they actually invested time in developing Simon and his POV and giving him an actual personality and shit, that wasn’t half bad. So if Simon was written like that in the comics and their relationship progressed in similar ways, I could feasibly be on board with them.

But it won’t, so I’m not. Meh. Anyway.

I actually really REALLY like both Shiro AND Neal, with the caveat that I hate Neal’s stupid offensive-ass codename, I know Claremont only named him Thunderbird because he introduced him in an anniversary issue that was supposed to be a call-back to the original Giant Size lineup, and he needed a stand-in for John Proudstar, but like....wtf Claremont, just use your brain and save Neal to introduce a whole issue later and stick Jamie in John’s place the way everyone else does. He literally went by Thunderbird in the comics already in his Hellion days, which YOU wrote, so why the fuck did you feel the need to be stupidly offensive and act like Native American people and traditions are interchangeable with those of a guy from India? Ugh he’s so....gah.

Anyway. So I actually like both Shiro and Neal, though pretty much only when people other than Claremont are writing them, lololol. Which is admittedly...rare. Because of all his pet characters, they’re both at the top of the list of ones nobody else has any interest in touching. Bizarrely, my favorite run involving Shiro was when he was randomly shoe-horned into that Alpha Flight relaunch in the late 90s, that only lasted a couple years? Dunno if you know what I’m talking about, the team with Radius, Flex, Murmur, Heather as Vindicator and Mac was a robot or some weird shit.

I have no real thoughts on either of them with Bobby though, for a fire and ice pairing. Tbh I can’t really see Bobby/Shiro like, at ALL lmfao. For one, Shiro’s always felt written as though he’s a good ten years older than Bobby at least. Like they’re not really compatible dialogue-wise lol. And he’s pretty much never had any patience for Bobby in the comics, which has a lot to do with most of their interactions being written by Claremont himself, and Claremont infamously haaaaaaates Bobby’s character and trashes him any chance he gets, aka the few times editorial makes him actually use Bobby in a script. But I also think even under other writers, like....Shiro honestly is not the type to have any patience for Bobby’s antics or brand of humor, like.....he’s like JP but without the superficial crush JP used in canon to view Bobby’s idiosyncrasies as endearing instead of migraine inducing. I don’t think any readers would buy someone of JP or Shiro’s personality-type crushing on Bobby twice, lololol.

I DO however kinda like the idea of Neal/Bobby? If someone ever actually brought Neal back and gave him a new codename and stuck him on a team with Bobby? They’ve also barely interacted in canon, and the only time I can think of, Neal was super rude and dismissive of Bobby, because like, Claremont was writing it of course, so it made total sense for him to have the dude who’s literally been an X-Man for two issues talk down to the X-Man of several decades like the latter had no clue what he was doing, lol. Oops, still slightly salty there. 

But honestly, I doubt anyone who didn’t have hyperfixation fueled grudges on a fictional fave’s behalf would ever even remember that one canon interaction, and tbh Neal’s pretty much a blank slate character wise. His only defining traits from what little he’s been used are that he’s fairly young, in his early to mid-twenties, from a wealthy family, a little full of himself but in a ‘really wants to impress people and prove himself’ kinda way instead of an overly entitled ‘i genuinely believe I am superior to all you buffoons’ kinda way. And he was always endearingly enthusiastic and eager about new stuff he encountered from being with the X-Men.

(He was also randomly obsessed with Psylocke, but I truly think Claremont was like, well I’m just gonna write him like I would Warren Worthington because why not. So yeah, obvsly he’s super obsessed with Betsy. Duh.)

Anyway - I would like someone to do something interesting with Neal, and I think his and Bobby’s chemistry has a lot of potential and they could bounce off each other well. 

Also, I like Rahul, but I was randomly fancasting some of the more obscure X-Men awhile back for Reasons (I forget what they were tbh, but I’m sure I had them. I usually do). I came across this Indian actor named Karan Tacker and was like ohhhhhhh he totally looks like he could be Neal Shaara.

I mean, I’ve literally never seen him act, so who knows what his acting is like, but since we’ve established Neal’s character is essentially whatever the person to actually use him next wants it to be, I don’t think that’s a big deal lol.

So this is totally superficially based casting, like I think this guy looks and ‘feels’ the way Neal’s typically been drawn and the kinda vibe he gives off.

Also, incidentally, having absolutely nothing to do with anything, let alone my selection process, by pure coincidence the dude just so happens to have abs for daaaaaaays.

But I mean. Like I said, that is neither here nor there. Obviously.

Of no relevance whatsoever. I didn’t even notice, tbh. Don’t even know who hijacked my body and ghost wrote these last few sentences, quick, call an exorcist.

....oh noes, is this one of the consequences of being an ‘anti’? IS THIS MY COMEUPPANCE? *flees*

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax finals preview

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White - This is the final match in the G1 Climax tournament.  Ibushi won A Block and White won B Block to qualify.  There is no time limit and there must be a winner.  The winner of this match earns a contract which entitles the bearer to an IWGP heavyweight championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 14, the biggest New Japan Pro Wrestling show of the year, in January 2020.

Unusually for New Japan, they’ve set up an angle for this match with White calling out Ibushi last night and attacking Ibushi’s left ankle.  Ibushi apparently had a legit left ankle injury after the first night of the tournament in Dallas, but he seems to have managed to work through it.  Whether the angle is meant to play on our concerns about the injury, or to create a kayfabe reason Ibushi is favoring one leg, remains to be seen.

In any case, this match may be the closest the G1 final can get to a WWE-style irredeemable douchebag heel versus a pure whitemeat babyface.  White is a delightfully perfect dick, to the point that the Japanese fans haaaaaaate him.  Bear in mind, the New Japan audience tends to at least grudgingly respect talent above and beyond heel tactics (hell, even Taichi gets mixed reactions) but they can’t stand this guy and I don’t blame ‘em.  White is like Triple H in 1999--you want Stone Cold or the Rock or Mick Foley or Undertaker, but fuck you, here’s this asshole that won’t shut up and won’t be beaten.  Okada and Tanahashi and Moxley and Naito couldn’t stop this toolshed, so now it’s up to Ibushi.

According to profightdb.com, these two haven’t even had a match against one another since 2015, when White was a young boy.  (I can’t believe that’s right, but I can’t think of a more recent match)  Suffice it to say, a lot’s changed since then--I don’t think anyone would have expected White to get an IWGP heavyweight title run before Ibushi.  So this ought to be an extremely fresh match in a tournament that’s been full of them.

My gut says this is Ibushi’s year.  For years he was on the periphery of the main event scene because they couldn’t put a major title on a free agent, but amid the AEW exodus Ibushi finally put a ring on it and committed to being a NJPW exclusive.  The timing is perfect for him to win the big one here and go on to win the bigger one in January.  It’d be an awful shame if someone was to spoil something so great, though...which is exactly what White does all the time.  So I gotta pick Kota to win, but I can’t shake the feeling we’re all gonna be super pissed at White in the end.

Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Minoru Suzuki - Normally the card for the G1 finals is just a grab bag of tag matches featuring everybody that didn’t win the tournament, but this one is actually pretty good.  Tanahashi and Okada formed a “dream team” against Jay White last fall, and I think this is the first time they’ve gone two-on-two with Sabre and Suzuki, who have held tag team gold from RevPro in the past.  This match could actually have ramifications on the heavyweight tag team title picture.

The main idea, probably, is that Tanahashi has pinned Sabre twice on this tour, and he’s the logical candidate to challenge Zack at the 8/31 London show for the RevPro British heavyweight championship.  That’s all good, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing Okada and Suzuki starting some shit for the next tour.  Tana should probably pin Zack just to seal the deal for London.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Bad Luck Fale vs. KENTA & Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI - The Guerillas of Destiny (Tonga and Loa) are back from their Ring of Honor commitments, and still have the IWGP heavyweight tag team championship even if they dropped the ROH tag belts.  I wouldn’t expect them to be programmed with any of the guys on the other team, but at least it’s interesting.  I guess Kenta could make a run for the tag titles, but I would have expected someone like Goto to team with him as opposed to Ishii or Yoshi.  Even a Ishii-Yoshi team seems a little unusual.  Regardless, I expect one of the Guerillas to lose the fall here.

Tetusya Naito & EVIL & SANADA & BUSHI & Shingo Takagi vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi & Hirooki Goto & Tomoaki Honma - Naito and his teammates in Los Ingobernables de Japon have been all over this tour, but this is their first match as a unified force.  Meanwhile, Makabe and Taguchi haven’t been on this tour, so they’re showing up on the last day to reunite with their trios championship teammate, Toru Yano.  Honma is Makabe’s buddy and Goto is in CHAOS with Yano, so it’s all connected.

The NEVER trios champions probably need to defend their belts on the next tour, so I would imagine this match will see one of them drop the fall.  I suppose Naito could get pinned to establish a challenger for his IWGP intercontinental title, but none of his opponents look like worthy contenders to me.

This match is, of course, a HIROMU TAKAHASHI ANTICIPATION STATION~!  The sixth member of LIJ, Hiromu Takahashi, suffered a brutal neck injury on July 7, 2018, and his fans have been waiting ever since for him to appear at a New Japan show, if only to give a status update.  (Katusyora Shibata dramatically made a cameo at the 2017 G1 Finals, and I think we all keep expecting Hiromu’s return to look something like that.)  If he’s going to appear at any part of the show, this would be the logical place to do it.  But Hirmou fans have told themselves that before, with little to show for it.  So we’ll see, but I’m picking LIJ to win just in case.

Jon Moxley & Syota Umino vs. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare - Moxley was knocked out of the running to qualify for the G1 finals by Juice, and that outcome puts Juice in a strong position to challenge for Mox’s IWGP US championship.  I’m pretty sure both guys aren’t done biting each other yet, so this’ll get rough.  That may leave Toa in there with Moxley’s faithful ward, and that sounds like a slam-dunk for Toa to win the match.  Good for Henare, he should win more often.

Will Ospreay & SHO & YOH vs. Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi - Ospreay is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion, but there’s no clear #1 contender just yet, so Ishimori would do well to pin him here.  Moreover, Ishimori is one of the IWGP junior tag team champions, so Roppongi 3K would do well to pin him.  Chase and Yujiro are just sort of there.  I gotta go with Ospreay’s team.

Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask & Jeff Cobb vs. Lance Archer & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Liger is back on the tour to remind everyone he’s retiring soon and he’s cool as hell.  Liger has been having issues with Minoru Suzuki for months, but tonight he’ll have to settle with the henchment of Suzuki-gun.  Archer vs. Cobb should be a good MEAN GUY MATCH someday, but I don’t think we’ll get more than a taste of it tonight.  Cobb should probably pin Kanemaru.

Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors vs. Ren Narita & Yota Tsuji - Narita and Tsuji are the Young Lions we see all the time in the undercard, while Fredericks and Connors are the American Young Lions who came over for this tour from New Japan’s LA Dojo.  It’s tough to pick a winner in a battle of jobbers but I suppose they might give the rub to the American jobbers on their way back home.

[missingno]

🔥 Pokémon and/or The Elder Scrolls?

This got. Really long.

Pokémon:

… Wow gen VII was a train wreck. I’m all for redeemable villains, but the problem presented was that neither Guz/ma nor Lusa were actually redeemable. Guz is noted repeatedly by his own grunts to be violent, one straight up calling him a bully, and is implied to have a pretty fucking terrible temper to the point he shatters bottles and destroys the house they’re hanging out in?? Like the grunts say that was his doing? His grunts are straight up afraid of him. He’s not very nice to you, the player either. I dunno, maybe I’m too biased because he reminds me of someone in my life but he seems way too horrible to be… Redeemed. Nor was there really any effort to show him changing… like he’s just suddenly “nice” now. At least with Archie and Maxie they were already pretty friendly to the protagonists and weren’t as threatening.

All of this criticism is two fold for Lusa. The problem is, Lusa is an INCREDIBLE villain. But GF for some reason doesn’t actually want her to be one? Sorry GF, but no, I’m actually not gonna be pleased by you redeeming a woman who abused her children. She says Lillie became beautiful and now we’re supposed to think she’s all good now? I can’t believe GF, the same company who gave us N and Ghet, are for some reason going “psyche, child abuse is okay if it’s your mom!!” They never even gave us a good fucking REASON for her acting the way she did!! Was she possessed by the Beasts?? Was she poisoned?? She was fucked up way before she fused with the jellyfish, so how the fuck does that justify her manipulating and emotionally abusing her children to the point that one runs away??? Like, Looker and Anabel are perfectly fine, so why is her contact poisoning her but not them??? WHY MAKE LILLIE HELP HER??? LILLIE, WHO WAS FUCKED UP FOR YEARS????? “Mother, you’re terrible!” to suddenly fucking off to go heal her mom because she’s “still my mom uwuwuwuwu”. That’s just such an UNBELIEVABLY BAD TAKE for a kids game to give to children. Kids with abusive moms owe said mothers FUCK ALL. There’s no justification for child abuse and it was such an unbelievably bad take I can’t believe this is from the same franchise that gave us a pretty good fukin’ take with N. She’s such a great villain, because she really makes me hate her and want to destroy her, but the game is more interested in making here a uwu mIsUnDeRsToOd BaBy than actually giving us a good villain. Who is, by the way, the only thing close to a female villain in this franchise.

Also the Ultra Beasts and Mega Evolutions are stupid but that’s just my onion there. Why are these aliens cooler than like… the OTHER aliens we have…? Like we have aliens already. Also why can some Pokémon evolve even MORE???

Also Sycamore can suck my dick but that one is absolutely because I think he’s annoying and not for any legitimate criticism.

For the Elder Scrolls:

… Todd…

I’ll start with Morrowind, since that’s where any self-respecting TES fan starts.

I’m joking, apparently Daggerfall is pretty good. I just never played it.

Anyways, Morrowind is conceptually good. I like… A lot of aspects about it. But here’s my HUGE beef with Morrowind: I work for the Imperials, yeah? And the Imperials are against slavery, yes? And House Telvanni practices slavery, mhm? So uhhhhh… WHY IS THE TWIN LAMPS QUEST NOT A MAIN QUESTLINE QUEST? WHY CAN I JOIN HOUSE TELVANNI? I DIDN’T because “slavery = bad” is an incredibly cold take at this fucking point but uhhhh hey Bethesda? What the fuck? Morrowind has a good storyline but that little fact about it kind of makes my skin crawl since it’s… So vile… I do the Twin Lamps questline of course but the fact that it’s an optional sidequest is very off-putting to me.

Plus Morrowind’s combat system sucks ass, but that definitely takes the backroads to you know. Slavery.

10/10 story but 0/10 game for letting people be slave owners because what the fuck.

Did you know Oblivion had their actors read their lines alphabetically? If you played Oblivion, you would. 

Shivering Isles is good, but both Oblivion and Skyrim suffer from the side quests being better than the main quests. In Oblivion’s Thieves Guild you have to STEAL AN ELDER SCROLL!!! Like how COOL is that!!!! Way better than the main quest where you just. Watch your buddy Martin. A lot of Oblivion’s quests feel like there could’ve been... So much more. For example, the Deep Ones. That could’ve been a really interesting quest but instead... It feels like it ended before it really began. The Mage’s Guild is just you being a hired thug for some magicians who barely teach you magic before promoting you, and the boss fight with Mannimarco is... So terrible. This man is a lich, almost a GOD, arguably BECOMES a god, and when you meet him he looks like a bitch in a dumbass Halloween costume. They did my boy Manni SO dirty. This is the KING OF WORMS and he’s treated like he’s just a bandit you have to kill and not, you know, the Necromancer’s Moon, the King of Worms, the GOD of necromancers, the man who tricked a Daedric Prince and almost got away with it. The Dark Brotherhood questline is good though, as is the Thieves’ Guild one.

Skyrim is as wide as an ocean and deep as a lake, I feel. A lot of the storylines feel half-baked. Again, the DB and TG are good questlines, but everything else feels a little... Less put together, and even those two suffer a lot. I hate the radiant quest system of post Hail Sithis! DB a lot... Mother, I am the Listener, the leader of the Black Hand, why am I the one who has to kill Idiot Farmer #3486 on a farm? I killed the EMPEROR, MOTHER! Have some respect for your favorite child! Seriously though, why can’t I pawn off these quests to the two new recruits, or to Nazir and Babette? Also why don’t the new recruits get names? Also why can’t I marry Nazir (please Todd I love him). 

Now, I don’t mind the radiant quests for the TG as much, to be honest, mostly because they’re optional and I can quit them. Plus, I like Vex and Delvin, so it makes me pretty happy to turn in quests to them. But goddamn WHYYYY do I need to go through so. Many. Fucking. RUINS?! I hate dwemer ruins with a passion, and I haaaaaaate that Blindsighted forces you to go through one. Also, somehow, the two trained thieves with my manage to alert the fucking falmer of our presence so I have to go save their asses because I’m the only healer. Also also why... Why can’t I marry Brynjolf... You give me a man who says “lad” enough to rival me, and then I can’t gently kiss his cheek?

Also the Nightingale Hall looks like shit even after you finish the quests. Which is stupid.

Also FUCK the main quest.