#i just dyed it and its still like. glowy

[deoidesign]

Can you make a tutorial on how you world build and make ocs? I can't seem to make any people in my brain, but then when I try to come up with environments jobs, beliefs and little details to slowly come up with someone, I think: well I don't really know how people have influenced the world- it's a weird loop

To be honest, I don't think I can! Writing is an extremely personal process. The way I write is directly related to how I process things, what I find important in stories, years of my own analysis of my and other's writing, etc... The way you write will be unique to you, as well. But I can explain how I personally think of it.

The short answer:

Write. Write anything and everything, it's a tool to explore your ideas. Analyze your own writing, and write more. Then, as you discover which ideas you want to develop, write more to explore them more. You won't know what you want otherwise!

The long answer:

I think this kind of loop is common. It's easy to feel like everything needs to be done "at once," because our job as writers is to make elements logically fit with each other for our readers. But as you've discovered, developing multiple elements simultaneously isn't really possible, or at least is extremely difficult.

Personally, when I think of writing, I break it into three major elements; characters, world, and plot. As much as possible every scene explores one or more of these, and as much as possible these three things tie back into what I personally consider most important: theme.

Everything I do is in service of the themes I want to present. Without them my events feel aimless. It can take a while to discover them, but they're the core of my work. You will have to discover what you feel is the core of yours. Analyzing other media helps with this too.

Concepts in your brain exist in a state of infinite potential. But when you start writing you have to start making choices, which removes potential as you move forward... But you have to move forward anyways. If there's ideas you want to explore later, you can always explore them later.

What this ends up meaning, to answer your question, is that I don't think of my characters as "people in my brain" or my worlds as something people have influenced... Not at their core, at least. They are tools that I use to represent specific ideas. Obviously they're also my blorbos, but mostly they're serving a specific narrative purpose.

So above all else... Write. Write, and discover what you're writing about, and then start over and write with that in mind. Keep doing this. But you have to write!

[savanir]

The What Corps?

“we have you now spook! there is nowhere you can run and hide with our new spectral tethers active!”

Danny winces at the small metal clips that have hooked themselves in his leg, some new GIW tech that is messing with his powers.

“oh yeah? I was just dying for you guys to give me a challenge” plan. plan. He's gotta think of a plan to get out of here and fast. He takes a steadying breath and starts to look for anything that can help him.

he can’t get caught here. He just can't. He simply won’t allow himself.

suddenly the two GIW goons in front of him click their earpieces to clearly listen to what someone else is telling them, Danny is very glad for his own enhanced senses.

“Operatives K and O, be advised, there have been sightings of a new ectoplasmic entity near your location. Other operatives report that it’s incredibly small and moves fast. watch your backs, this may be an ambush”

small and fast? it better not be some poor little blob ghost, Danny sort of hopes it’s some manner of ectowasp, at least that could be entertaining to see.

“you better not be hoping for back up, ecto scum”

“I have no idea what you are talking about”

It's then that a small bright green light zips on scene and weaves through crowds in the distance with ease and then speeds up towards the two operatives who do not hesitate to shoot, missing completely like the storm troopers they are.

Whatever it is, it is indeed going very fast but Danny manages to figure out what it looks like and it appears to be a… ring?

“hold it you tiny accessory shaped ecto fiend!”

The ring does a speedy circle around Operative O while K is lining up a shot and ends up blasting the poor guy point blank in his face, “O!”

Danny takes a step forward with an arm outstretched and a “oh damn! Are you alright?” on his lips when the ring takes the chance to slip on his finger. “Daniel Fenton of Earth”

Danny already had a freakout about a ghost jewelry getting on him, his experiences with those so far have been incredibly bad after all, what with the rings and crowns and pendants… now this damn thing is just straight up outing him! 

Thank the ancients the two GIW stooges are too busy with each other right now to pay close attention to what this weird ring is saying.

“You have the ability to overcome great fear” ah so this is related to him steeling himself just now? Maybe? or something??

You have been chosen” never good, we are back to freaking out again.

“Welcome to the green lantern corps” 

… the what?

Danny notices that his usual outfit suddenly has more green going on, and his DP symbol has some sort of… he guess it’s supposed to be a lantern, maybe? shape around it.

He’s somehow even more glowy now, and there is something on his face. Feeling its shape makes him think it’s some sort of mask.

The metal clip things are no longer attached to his legs though so that’s great!

“You’re not getting away so easily ecto scum! sentient ghost paraphernalia coming to your rescue or no!” They both aim their weapons to take a shot.

Danny figures he can now easily hold them back with his usual shields,“you guys realize you just called this weird ring sentient and thereby negate the whole nonsentie-ack!”

“Attacking a corps lantern is punishable offense as of the instatement of the galactic diplomatic immunity as declared by the-” Okay so now Danny is just raising his eyebrow at this weird as fuck ring. Just what is it going on about?

“notifying nearby lanterns and requesting assistance with apprehension of hostiles”

what?

“getting your friends to help you out vile spook? such a thing is useless with the Blackout still very much in place”

Well… the two streaks of green light in the distance is making Danny doubt that statement.

Maybe there is more to this Lantern corps thing than he thought… And something tells him his life is about to get even more complicated than it already is.

[emerxshiu]

i forgot it was april fools lol. i definitly did not end up sprinkling in a bunch of memes in there, nope, not at all.

I havent checked my dashboard until a few minutes earlier, but now im booping everyone i find in there, its just so damm fun! its kinda sad that its just for april fools, i wish the booping stayed forever like its way too silly i love it.

Oh yeah the drawing yep aight. So uh, i had the idea yesterday and this looks NOTHING like what i had planned, it was just going to be a plain white backgroung, and i was trying to make it look like a pencil sketch (kinda). and simple coloring. but i had a lot of problems and drawing this ended up being really frustrating but im kinda happy with the result even if it difers so much from the og idea.

also here is a clean version (aka no memes)

i tend to change my idea as im drawing so after i realized this was not going to look like i thought, i tried some effects and i came up with the idea of making it look...off.

Backgrounf with saturated colors consisting of red and blue and a fecto elfilis who looks rather dreamy, wich is totally not kinda inspired by isolated isles and high school musical 2 believe it or not (im confused as to how that was present in my mind as inspiration but i guess anything works as a reference) and contrasting with the darker background from how light and glowy i made him.

Fun fact: when i drew elfilis here, they were reminding me of a bunny, so you could kinda count this as a bit of an easter post since im probably going to forget to do something for that.

fun fact 2: this image is based on a fanfic im writing right now, i havent posted it yet, and when i do im pretty sure i'll put it into the Anonymous collection, since what im writing is very different from my usual, i tend to write about my splatoon ocs or sometimes about kirby characters, most of these fics tend to be general with not a lot of archieve warnings and stuff (save for one but that one was very very tame and just had an implication of a character dying at the end) and they're oneshots, most of them, this one is also a oneshot. i just enjoy writing that, but its a little bit....how to say it? bloody, i just have like the start made and its probably going to take me a while to finish, im also thinking of reading it multiple times since most of my works are usually just the first draft. but uh since its quite different and has that im quite scared of the reception it might have when i post it, in fact a lot of times i dont post stuff since even tho i know i shouldnt worry about others, i still do like an idiot, i just cant help caring about what other people think of me. and yeah basically its just not like the usual fluff i write.

next post might be splatoon related since im redesigning some ocs i had, or it might be princess peach showtime because my father got me the game and im loving it

Thank you for listening to my unnecesarily long rambles and Jambuhbye!

[destiel-wings]

I've gathered some of my thoughts about The Winchesters season finale and here's why i think it gave me some peace

(yes, this does contain a destiel interpretation, too 💚💙)

Did i want to see Cas in it? Yes.

Was i disappointed that he wasn't? Actually, no (more on that later).

But I loved it. I was so stunned as I saw it and I felt like somehow it healed some of the wounds from the spn finale... but i couldn't quite understand why.

Here's why.

We basically watched Supernatural. Jensen reopened the finale and went further with it. What we saw in The Winchesters felt like a continuation of 15x20, even if it technically happened in between the last two scenes of the finale. But we got Bobby, we got Jack. They all actually talked, in a way that felt alive and real. Jack broke his rule of no interfering, showing that he still cared for Dean (just like he had broken his own rule off screen by saving Cas from the Empty). The Winchesters wasn't a prequel, but a sequel.

Dean got his own story, got to make something for himself (instead of just waiting for Sam on a bridge), and it's something that he wanted to do. He went back to look for hope and love, for a version of his parents where they could have a real chance.

We learn love (or we don't) and how to be in a happy relationship as kids by watching our parents, and Dean was doomed that way. He never had that example, to learn how to build a relationship and let himself be loved. He never learned that. So when he gets to heaven and he has the chance, before getting on that bridge, before meeting up with his family, with Sam... and yes, with Cas (even if we haven't seen him yet), he just needs a freaking minute. He needs a little time to himself. To reconnect. To understand. To reflect on love and what it means to love and be loved.

So he does what any fond child would do... he looks up at his parents. Only his parents that are right there in heaven didn't exactly have a happy ending (or even a happy middle), so he explores further, searching for a chance, a hope, a version of his own legacy where love was possible. Because if his parents can make it... so can he.

And we see all that through his own lenses (the weird use of the camera lenses with all those flares and glow resembles the aura of Dean's drive in heaven, thinking about it in retrospect).

screencaps of the glowy amber look and those camera flares, there's probably better examples but these are some of the best ones i could find

Dean's mission might have been the Akrida, but the reason he went looking, the real quest he was after, was hope. Hope for a happy ending. Hope for love, where said love was doomed from the start.

And it's not surprising that there were destiel parallels everywhere, because that was Dean's POV, and he's processing his own feelings. Which is something he needs to do before he sees Cas again.

And personally, I think Dean loves Cas back and he knew that before dying, but still, that doesn't mean that he's not afraid of messing it up. That he knows how to approach him, or face Cas, after all that's happened.

He may not even be doing all of this thinking consciously, but the Castiel subtext we've seen in The Winchesters, from a narrative POV, is Dean's.

We're seeing the parallels because he's seeing them, making them, it's his way of processing. Of seeing what he and Cas had, and what they could have. Looking for hope.

And, as he himself said before leaving again... i think he found it.

So i don't know how things are going to go on from here. I can't imagine how we could have Dean in a season two. I've been saying all along that The Winchesters might open the story for a SPN revival/s16, and i think it is perfectly possible that this might happen here.

The Winchesters might not have Dean anymore, becoming its own show (but still having lots of references and guest stars from Supernatural) and *as Jensen loves to say* when we get the revival, there will be the space to address Castiel's confession and give his character the importance that it needs.

It wouldn't have made sense to see Cas here in a little cameo, it wouldn't have been enough. But what we saw here, was the confirmation of Jensen reopening the finale, and his willingness to bring Dean back (as he's always stated), for whatever more he's allowed to do.

I love the way they handled it, we still got peace and hope (even if there were to be no s2), and i feel like we're all more confident that the bridge scene is not an ending, but a beginning of something more. Dean has said he's gonna go look for his family. That's not just Sam.

Of course he's gonna see Cas too. But i don't think any of us would've been satisfied to see him pop up randomly for a couple of minutes in TW, with little to no mention of what happened between them.

Also, i want to point out that this was supposed to be the midseason finale but they had to adapt it when they found out they didn't get a full season, we could've had much more (like more narrating voices as Jensen had teased) or even seeing more of Dean, instead of just seeing him in the pilot and the season finale. They even asked Misha to be there (and he refused for scheduling conflicts since he was busy filming Gotham Knights *but said he's absolutely willing to appear later*).

So i think there's still so much story to tell here and i am absolutely hopeful and trust that we will love it.

I think they did an amazing job in 13 episodes, and I can't wait to see what's next 💖

[ghost4ghosts]

i wrote down my live reaction to jurassic world: chaos theory s1 for you🫵 to read it, under the cut

darius baby boy!!!

NOOOO BROOKLYNN😭😭😭 i knew her voice was recast but i never expected that

ben being a redditor is so funny and believable

i never participated in the fandom outside of posting a couple fics but i ship ben/darius, they're so cute!!!! does anyone else see my vision

poor sammy😭😭😭😭

give my guy darius a rest, he's been going through it 24/7 since he was like 14 (<-i do not know their canon ages)

someone give the writers a firm handshake and slap on the back bc i LOVE the character interactions so so much. i think they talk really realistically for teens

BUMPY NOOOOOO

okay my guess isssss the dpw are somehow in on it

kenji #relatable asian american representation (including the shitty dad)

sammy🫶💖💖💖 i just love her

me the whole time during the end of ep5:

who tf is that guy

the flashbacks😭😭😭😭

i'm having as much fun trying to guess the dinosaurs🦖

oh yaz🥺

CALLED IT

mateo whistleblower?

is he filipino lol. new headcanon

dude this is wild oh my god

secret home?

huh????

so my guess is brooklynn was working undercover to expose the dino trafficking but got caught and they killed her

god i LOOOVE road trip stories

that awkward moment when your dead friend's ex wants to look through her phone but you spent like the past year blowing up her notifs because you miss her and aLSO YOU'RE IN LVOE WITH HER?!

😭😭they're bros😭😭

this guy's hat is so big lmfao

are those dinos brainwashed or sedated or something??

glowy eyes

ahh they're all together now

bumpy dead? bumpy sick? bumpy... pregnant?!

um??????

that woman is genuinely offputting, i LOVE her character design

dino fight!!!

so many people dying offscreen jfc

oh my god this is a lot

darius💔💔💔💔

WHAT????HUNH?g???

NO HAND?!/!?!

wait lol brooklynn still dyes her hair

all in all: GREAT television, feeds into my love of jurassic park, these kids need a BREAKKKK. i really like the art style+animation, it's so pretty!! they have glow in the dark dinos!!! i would genuinely recommend this and jurassic world: camp cretaceous if you also like dinosaurs and are interested in seeing 6 teenagers going through the wringer. its second season is coming out in a couple weeks and i'm EXCITED. i hope this story can be seen all the way through🤞

[jayenator565]

Trick or Treat if it isn't too late

Never too late how about my tanthamore week fic (yes i haven't forgotten it all my muse has just been going towards vampires lately x3)

Accidentally in Love ch 2 snippet

~~~~~~~~~

Married.

Of all the things for a completely wasted Kit and Jade to do, getting their nuptials was not on the Princess’ bingo card. Could she even get married, like legally? Technically she was still engaged or something? Right? I mean it’s not like Graydon would care but still.

And what about her mom? Sorsha missed her only daughter’s wedding. Something she had been telling Kit about for years. Something she had been planning when it was arranged, for months. There was going to be feasts and cakes and tournaments jointly hosted by Galldoorn and Tir Asleen. It seemed like Jade had also come to the same conclusion as Kit’s thoughts.

Jade started pacing in a frenzy, Kit was helplessly made to follow.

“Your mother’s gonna kill me.”

“Wait, Jade.” Kit tried fruitlessly to pull back but Jade had all the momentum on her side, not to mention all the muscles. Kit wasn’t a strong bean or anything but there was no arguing that Jade’s muscles were bigger.

“The queen is gonna call for my head.”

“Jade-”

“I’ll be locked up like Boorman or strung up in the gallows.”

“Jade! My mom is not going to hurt a hair on your gorgeous head.”

“You’re right,” Jade responded, finally stopping in front of Kit’s weide and relieved eyes.  “she’ll have someone else do it.” 

“No she won’t”, Scorpia watched the whole thing, her expression a mix between exasperated and amused. 

“Not if she knows what’s good for her. Tir Asleen doesn’t want to go to war with our people.”

“Ok scratch that, rewind about a few seconds. No one is dying or getting locked up or going off to war.”

Scorpia lifted a brow in question, “What about the Wyrm and the dreaded army of the dead locked in the other dimension until it awakens from its slumber?”

“Fair point ok...no one’s going to war right now. I’m sure everything’s fine, since when do some rings and glowy hand magic mean marriage anyway?”

[ketchup-monthly]

prompt S for the fandom ask because you have so many correct hcs and more people need to see them

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

The prompts for this one were pertaining to Lanterns (specifically Green Lanterns bc im obsessed and need help) and Kryptonians (specifically pertaining to physiology bc i have problems)

Kryptonians- -lets get into the weird kryptonian physiology. most of the time, people don't really notice the little things unless they look too closely, but kryptonians are just off enough that it freaks people out and they're a little wary of them. -kryptonians have an extra set of canines and their teeth are a bit longer and sharper than humans teeth. kryptonians have learned to talk and smile in ways that do not highlight those because its more than a little threatening when the 6'5" guy who is built like a brick house smiles widely and your prey senses activate. -their hair has a bluish tint, even kara's, which is blonde instead of black, so they frequently get asked (kon and kara at least) if their hair is dyed. -kryptonian eyes are weird as shit. those with blue eyes (really just clark and kara, who are pure kryptonians) are unnaturally blue and kinda creepy (kon has lex's green eyes and jon has lois's purple eyes). kryptonian eyes have a second eyelid that protects their eyes as well as opens when they use their various special visions. kryptonians cant see when theyre using their laser vision, but their eyes have the ability naturally to see ultraviolet and infrared light, so when they have their second eyelids open and are not using laser vision, they can see humans stripes! their second eyelids lubricate their eyes as well as protect them, so full kryptonians dont need to blink to lubricate their eyes. half kryptonians have to blink more than full kryptonians, but its still far less then humans do, about 3-4 times a minute instead of 15-20 times a minute on average. full kryptonians only blink about 1-2 times a minute, and mostly out of habit. they also have glowy eyes like cats when light hits them right -kryptonians dont need to breathe much, and sleep far less than humans because they derive energy from the sun. full kryptonians also dont really need to eat food, but they do so they can fit in, and half kryptonians need to eat almost more than humans do so they can fuel their kryptonian ability to absorb sunlight. -kryptonians dont have fingerprints like humans do. the tips of their fingers are completely smooth. their "fingerprints" are markings on their skin that are outside the spectrum of visible light that humans can see. -kryptonians have blood that is a darker purplish red, so they blush darker than humans do. they are also very warm to the touch like speedsters are since their blood absorbs and holds sunlight stores

Lanterns- -when lanterns power up, their eyes glow the color of their rings. you cant really tell with hal and kyle, who wear masks with white out lenses, bur john, guy, simon, jess, etc all have glowing green eyes. the lantern rings, when used for extended periods of time, and when worn over a long period of time, will gradually change the users body. before becoming lanterns, the characters have natural eye colors that they were born with, but after having worn their rings for a while, their normal eye color will shift to one closer to their lantern color. guys eyes change to a very pale green, hals to a green with gold sectoral heterochromia in his left eye, johns eyes become a hazel green, kyles were actually green to begin with, etc. carols eyes become a beautiful violet color. -use of the lantern rings will also dramatically alter the ageing of the user, and lanterns will begin having a hard time with their natural body rhythms since they move around through space so much with different time systems than their home planets. -The constructs that lanterns make have specific smells/tastes that they subconsciously choose. Hal’s constructs smell like pine sol, John’s smell like fresh cut grass, Guy’s green constructs smell and taste like rosemary and his red constructs smell and taste like hot sauce, Kyle’s constructs taste like green apple jolly ranchers, Alan’s taste like cucumber mint, Simon’s taste like lime, Jess’s smell and taste like cilantro, Keli’s taste like gamer fuel (mountain dew), Jo’s smell like new car -i think all green lanterns deserve to have a speedster friend but there arent enough speedsters who interact with GLs to go around :( anyway this is my petition for guy and bart to interact bc i think it'd be funny -hal and alan have the most tempestuous relationship (after guy and alan, i think, bc god the two of them are so different) but alan LOVES kyle and vice versa. kyle is like alans kid/grandkid depending on how old kyle is in relation to alan. -they basically all hate the guardians (except ganthet and sayd. kyle is ganthets little guy) -also literally none of them are straight. how can you be when not all aliens have male/female/boy/girl divides? aliens hot, man! -and most importantly, THEY ARE A FAMILY

[silent-partner-412]

i just beat the legend of zelda: the sealed palace (it was fucking fantastic) and i wanna rank all the dungeons because somebody’s gotta lol

11. fire temple

easily the weakest dungeon in the game. it was weirdly small for an adult dungeon and its position in the game (it was the second to last dungeon before ganon for me), and the stuff we got in it was really underwhelming. rooms ranged from bland to obtuse to frustrating. the only dungeon i didn’t like.

10. dodongo’s cavern

not a bad dungeon at all! i was actually really impressed by it the first time through cuz it was only the second dungeon i did. but it really isn’t all that special compared to the rest of the dungeons in the game, and it’s VERY similar to OG dodongo’s cavern which is unfortunate.

9. forest grotto

great first dungeon. it was a visual delight and actually had a pretty interesting layout. of course it was very simplistic being the first dungeon in the game but that’s not a bad thing. just means other dungeons could expand upon it.

8. forest temple

this one was solid, it just doesn’t hold up well compared to the og forest temple which is one of the best in ocarina of time. the main highlight for me was the one room in the basement that was blue and glowy, otherwise it was just fine. this is one where i really was yearning for minimaps lol

7. ice cavern

i love that the mini dungeons in this game feel worth a damn. i probably spent more time in here than the fire temple honestly. it functions mostly as a bridge between the second and third main child dungeons but i still greatly enjoyed my time here. loved the music, the visuals, and the layout.

6. sunken alcove

another mini dungeon that was really damn good! this one felt appropriately watery as it was the place where you get the iron boots and right before the water temple proper. it felt plenty substantial, was really well themed, and super satisfying to finish since i was dying to get the iron boots at this point.

5. ganon’s castle

really awesome final dungeon. using the layout of hyrule castle from the start of the game as the final dungeon was brilliant, and made traversing this area a treat. really not a lot to complain about here, it was just super fun and a great way to end off the game (unlike the og ganon’s castle lmao)

4. church catacombs

for some reason this is the only adult temple that didn’t follow the naming scheme, with this functionally being the shadow temple. either way, this dungeon ruled. it was super goddamn tough, had a confusing layout with a lot of confusing rooms, and required a hell of a lot of thought, especially considering when i did it (it was my second adult dungeon). just an awesome time all around, plus it was cool having both the lens of truth and hover boots as dungeon items in the same dungeon.

3. water temple

i was shocked that they managed to successfully incorporate the og water temple’s gimmick into this dungeon, and make a dungeon bigger and more confusing than said og. it was a joy to decipher the ins and outs of this dungeon, i love a good puzzle box dungeon and this was that and so much more. definitely lived up to the original which is probably my favorite in ocarina of time.

2. spirit temple

i’m surprised they managed to make this work honestly. having the dungeon change depending on whether it was day or night was fucking awesome, and it made traversing this dungeon require a lot of thought. plus it was a visual delight, having an entirely different desert temple vibe compared to the og spirit temple, and even getting some variety thanks to the time of day changing up how the dungeon worked. just very impressive all around, especially considering this is a rom hack.

1. link’s nightmare

wow. i can’t believe they managed to take elements from jabu jabu’s belly, the worst dungeon in og ocarina of time, and change them into something incredible. the entrance to the dungeon being inside a mansion at the top of a snowy mountain, the aesthetic starting off as adjacent to ganon’s castle and then morphing into jabu jabu partway through, the music, the fact that you’re a child for all of it, just the fact that it’s called link’s goddamn nightmare is cool. it definitely wasn’t as tough or mind bending as the previous three on this list, but it absolutely wins on creativity alone for me. this is honestly the biggest reason to play this hack imo, it was really something special (also, barinade being the best boss in ocarina of time and it being the boss here is just a nice bonus).

[achitka]

Doors (Chapter 45 - ¿Lo Entiendes?)

(Do you understand?)

Hello, this chapter is a little shorter than the last few. Thanksgiving is creeping up on me, so I gots lots to do before all my babies show up on my porch.

Summary - ish

Mirabel is finally figuring out that her gift of denial is really not working out the way she expected. Camilo shows his prima that box he talked about earlier. Luisa keeps getting stuck hanging about with the adults and Isa apparently wants to be a farmer.

Yeah, that about covers it.

¿Lo Entiendes? (Do you understand?)

Mirabel left the stairs and paused as she came onto the balcony. While she was still in the kitchen helping with supper, she had asked Casita to maybe tone down the glowiness of the magical doors while Señor Hernandez was here for supper. Something about that man was not quite right. This thought had also made Mirabel pause, she did not really know this person, and she was making a lot of assumptions about their character because of a few brief interactions. She’d seen how easily Tío Bruno’s visions could be taken the wrong way and were often misunderstood. Without context, they were just glimpses of maybes.

Still, she never expected Casita to completely change them. They all looked like regular doors, though each was of a different style and color. All except hers, Casita had kept it as it was, family decorations and all. She touched Dolores’s door with her fingertips and was surprised when they disappeared, and she could feel the warmth of the magic underneath. She moved down to Camilo’s room and tried it again, and the same thing happened. Mirabel had to admit that what Casita had done was pretty impressive.

Dolores came out of her room, and adjusted her clothes. She had her hair down for her date with Mariano, and Mira thought her hair always looked so different when she wore it that way. You could really see the red she’d gotten from her Mamí. She was wearing a pretty light green dress and Mirabel realized she’d never seen her cousin in that color before, and she couldn’t help but gape as she said, “Wow, Dolores, you look stunning.”

“Aww, thanks Mira, you don’t think the color is too different?” she asked.

Mirabel shook her head and Dolores tilted hers.

“Is everything okay?” Mira asked.

“Yes, Bubo just came in from the patio, but Tuli is still out there with their Tío. Oh, and I asked Luisa to look after her for you while you help Camilo study.”

“Thanks, Dolores, I was a little afraid I’d have to duck out on him early.”

“We got you, Mira,” she said and patted her on the cheek in much the same way her Mamí would, then she headed for the stairs. 

Mirabel looked back at Camilo’s door and frowned. “Casita, can you…” she started to ask as the door returned to its normal appearance, “… oh…” and Mirabel smiled, “Thanks Casita.” Casita clattered a tile, and Mirabel turned when she heard a door behind her open. Isabela came out of her room with their mother and Tía Pepa. Unlike Dolores, she was dressed more casually, and she looked a little nervous. Mirabel noticed her sister had re-dyed her hair, and it was once again braided. At first, she thought it black but realized it was more a really dark blue with yellow and red highlights near the ends. Isa waved, and Mirabel waved back. It was still a little strange to her that Isa included her in any part of her life. Mirabel watched as they also moved toward the stairs, so she knocked on Camilo’s nose.

“Hey!”

Mirabel pulled her hand back. Camilo must have opened his door whilst she was watching her sister. “Sorry Cam.”

Camilo was rubbing his nose, “You didn’t happen to bring any snacks…” he asked while looking at her empty hands.

“Camilo, we just ate.”

“What’s your point?”

“That we just ate.” He held on to his look of disappointment a little longer, then shrugged, and she followed him inside. There were books and papers on the desk, on the bed, on the floor. Pretty much any flat surface and a few that were not. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but where did you leave off?”

“Oh,” he said and stepped over a nearby pile and pointed to one under a chair, “here.”

This was actually how Camilo usually studied. The ones on the desk were completed items, and everything else were the ones he was working through. Lowest to highest, Mirabel thought as she too, stepped over a pile and sat on the floor. They had gotten through the majority of them when Camilo's mother came in with a tray. Tía Pepa set it on a small table, then turned and was back out the door. Camilo didn’t look up, since he was concentrating with his eyes closed as he tried to come up with an answer to: How many sonnets did Shakespeare write and what is the last line of his last sonnet.

Mirabel set the book she was holding down, and went to the table. She poured them both mugs of coffee and brought it over with a plate of cookies. She could see Camilo was struggling with this one, so she waited as she nibbled on a cookie in between sips of coffee.

“Got it,” Camilo said, “158 and the last line…Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.”

Mirabel handed Camilo his mug while pushing the cookie plate toward him. She set down hers and picked up the book and smiled as she said, “Correct.” She put the book back down and let out a yawn.

“Oh,” he said and took a cookie from the pile, “who brought the stuff?”

“Your mom.”

“My mother brought us coffee?”

“It’s really weak and nice and warm,” Mirabel said with another yawn.

Camilo took a sip and nodded. He looked around and could see there was only one pile left and said, “We don’t have to look at those. I already know them backwards and forwards.”

Mirabel yawned again as she nodded and said, “Can’t believe I’m so tired.”

Camilo took another cookie and leaned back against his bed and asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You won’t get mad?”

“Why would I get mad? What did you do?”

“That was probably not the best way to start this… do-over?”

“Okay, what did you want to ask?”

“You remember how you blanked out on me yesterday before dinner?” Mirabel nodded, “You said you didn’t remember anything. But then later it happened again when you were waiting for us all to get back from the mountain. Only that time it went on for a lot longer.” Mirabel wasn’t entirely sure she liked where this was going and shrugged. “Take my word for it. You were still as stone and completely unresponsive. Not gonna lie, Mira. It spooked me enough that I kinda went to my room and yelled at Casita to let you go.”

“Let me go? What do you mean?”

Camilo took another bite of his cookie then a long drink of his coffee and replied, “I was worried that the house had made you apart of itself. Like La Candela was. Yes, I know it sounds crazy,” he said when she frowned, “but that’s what I was thinking.”

“So, what changed your mind?”

“Well, I was laying on my bed, and Casita used a bunch of butterflies, like the ones we saw on the mountain, to show me something and I guess… Are you really doing all right, Mira? And I don’t mean because you’re being yanked in every direction these days. I’m talking about what happens when you… think about the breaking… and what happened to Casita… ”

Camilo stopped. Mirabel knew there were tears in her eyes and she wanted to just let it spill out, but something was still holding it all back. Casita must really be worried about her if she involved her primo. So instead, she shrugged and said, “I’ve been trying really hard not to think about all that. But sometimes... I mean, it’s like I get trapped in that moment of time. It fills up my head and I can’t shut it out. What did Casita show you?”

“You were talking to a younger you, that I assumed was Casita, but you were so frantic because of the guilt you’re still dragging around with you. I’m gonna have to agree with Casita on that one, Mira, what happened was not your fault. Not even a little bit of it. If anything-”

“Don’t say it, Camilo.”

He finished his cookie then set his mug down and said, “Fine, if that’s what you want.”

“It is. I know I need to find a way, but I won’t do it at the expense of Abuela’s feelings. That woman has been through enough.”

Camilo picked up another cookie and said before he put the whole thing in his mouth, “While that’s true, maybe you ought to consider it as an option.”

“No,” she said a little more forcefully than she meant to, “I can do this; I just haven’t figured out how yet.”

Her primo pursed his lips like he was about to say something but thought better of it. He shook his head, then seemed to recall something at that moment and leaned over to pull a covered box out from under his bed. He flicked off the cloth cover and dust blew up into the air. Mirabel caught a whiff of it and flinched as that nervousness intensified. He started shifting the contents around and said, “I found this under my bed after this Casita woke up, and I wondered why. Think I know now.”

“What is that stuff?” Mirabel asked, leaning in to see what was inside.

“Souvenirs of a bygone era,” Camilo replied cryptically.

“Really?”

He reached into it with a flourish and pulled out several small decorations. Mirabel looked at the ones he’d handed her, they were all adorable, and she smiled as she held up a cut out of a butterfly to the light. For whatever reason, as she examined them, she felt that nervousness that got a little worse when she noticed there was a small tear at the tip of one of the wings. “Where did you get these?” she asked as she picked up a half-finished paper boat.

“These? Just stuff I collected since they were all discarded by the maker because they weren’t perfect,” Camilo smiled. “This,” he said and pointed, “is my box of imperfections.”

“Your what?” Mirabel asked, curious now.

“Box of imperfections,” he repeated.

“Why would you have something like that?” Mirabel asked as she noticed a fold that didn’t look quite right on the prow of the boat. She ran a finger across it, then set it aside, not wanting to notice anything else.

Camilo had been watching her the entire time and said, waving a hand, “I don’t know, seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“So, what else is in there?”

“Oh, all sorts of things. A few tassels,” he said and held one up, giving it a jiggle. Mirabel noticed the strings were not all the same length and cringed a little. “A mostly finished painting of the Encanto. Not sure why this didn’t get finished.” Mira could see what the problem was. The colors used to paint Casita were all wrong. “I’ll have to find a frame for it.”

“Where did all this come from?”

Camilo sat straighter and handed her another cookie, saying, “You made all of this stuff.”

“I did?”

“Not surprised you’ve forgotten some of it. Who’d want to remember gifts that were made and dismissed. You never stopped making them though.”

Mirabel picked up the butterfly again and touched the small tear in its wing. She remembered then that Camilo had taken her discarded efforts on more than one occasion.

Camilo continued, “The fact that you don’t seem to remember most of this is also kinda weird, but there is one thing you should see.” He shifted a few things around, then pulled out a small box that was decorated with hand drawn butterflies and flowers. He handed it to her, and the contents rattled a little. Mirabel frowned. She did not want to take it, but Camilo gave the box a gentle shake, so she reluctantly accepted it. She carefully removed the lid and immediately put it back on.

“Where did you get this?” she said, trying to push it back into his hands.

“You know where,” he said, pushing it back.

Mirabel’s hands were shaking a little as she set it in her lap and stared at the box; she’d thrown this into the trash. She just couldn’t look at it after that day. She carefully took the lid off and stared at the tiny diorama it contained. She’d spent the months leading up to her Gift ceremony planning out with Camilo what their new rooms would look like. Tío Bruno had helped her make the tiny furniture, so she could move it around where she wanted. Camilo had found the tiny rug for her to put on the floor. He said it was because he hated getting out of a warm bed onto cold wood. She examined the scribbles on the walls and floor with her fingertips. She remembered they’d looked quite real to her then. Since she didn’t know what her Gift would have ended up being, she’d included all the things she might get a Gift for. In fact, everything in the little box was the same as her room was now, right down to the trees and mountains on the walls and the little map on the floor. Mirabel spent a little time righting the furniture, smiling as she moved each piece to its proper place.

“This was the first thing I put in that box,” Camilo said, “and I kinda understood why you didn’t want to keep it, but you worked so hard on that, seemed a shame to toss it.”

Mirabel couldn’t think of anything to say to that. She’d thought about this box over the years but figured it was long gone, and she asked, “Why show it to me now? ”

“I guess because you know there’s never going to be a perfect moment to deal with... what’s been bothering you. It’s very obvious that letting go of your guilt is really the only way you’ll be able to move past this. The truth is, I probably wouldn’t have put two and two together if Casita hadn’t made a point of showing me what it did. We both know that it is also not a coincidence that your ideas from eleven years ago got incorporated into your room... into the whole house really. Anyway, you may say you’re working on finding a way, Mira, but I think you’re lying to yourself.”

“No, no I’m not.” Mirabel snapped, “I told you I just haven’t had enough time to figure it out yet, and what would you know about any of that anyway? It’s not like you ever cared about what happened to Casita,” her tone was accusatory as she stood up, causing the box to flip onto the floor. She knotted her hands up in front of herself as her nervousness increased. She’d almost added ‘or me’. Camilo didn’t respond, but he must have finished her unspoken thoughts in his head, and her fingers tightened.

He still didn’t say anything, he just started to pick up the various items he’d taken out of that box of imperfections, except the diorama. That he collected and put the bits inside. Camilo was never one to shout when he was really mad, and Mirabel knew she’d done more than that. She’d purposefully hurt his feelings. She could always tell because he would just stop everything and give her the look he was aiming at her now. Mirabel would have liked it better if he shouted, then at least there was a chance he’d forgive her. Why was she doing this?

Camilo got up and pushed the other box back under his bed with his foot, and shoved the small box back into her hands as he went past her to the door. Before the breaking, he would have just expected her to leave in a huff, and she would have. Anything so they could get back to pretending to be that perfect family. Camilo was her first and sometimes only friend. He was trying to help her, and she was doing her best to push him away with flippant, hurtful words. She thought of the oak tree on the mountain and how she’d used it to free herself from similar things her abuela and the people in town would say. Mirabel’s sadness welled up again, leaving a painful lump in her throat. She knew those episodes really were getting worse, not better. She’d thought that when they moved back to Casita all those problems would just go away. Everything would be fine.

Camilo looked back at her as a few tiles above him shifted, and he paused then said, “Can’t say you’re wrong about that, Mira, but I do care about this Casita because I care about you. So, if you don’t want my help, or don’t think you need it, then I guess we’re done. Should probably leave it at that, thanks for the assist studying, prima. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Mirabel’s fingers tightened on the box as a tear fell. That guilt, that she was holding on to so tightly, was again being directed toward someone else. All because he wanted to help her. A second teardrop fell. Lately, she’d noticed that her buried anger with a certain family member about Casita falling was the actual source of that guilt. She didn’t want to be angry with them anymore, and she told herself she’d forgiven them for everything that had happened. Mirabel thought of the dream, that she was realizing, was not one. This Casita was new. One that the old had set into motion prior to the breaking, and Mirabel had really been feeling the weight of that responsibility.

A few tiles shifted nearby, and Mirabel closed her eyes as she took a breath to help push down that leftover guilt and pain. (I am my mother's Gift to you, Elegida.) Mirabel heard that little voice in her head say. Her new Casita had pulled her primo into this because he was someone she would actually listen to. Someone she could have an argument with and still want to have around. Someone who had collected her imperfections and stuffed them in a box... just in case. Someone who would never be afraid to tell her she was wrong.

She was lying to herself; magic wasn’t going to fix this problem. But maybe talking about it wouldn’t hurt as much as she thought. She set aside the diorama and said with a small sniffle, “I’m sorry, Cam, can I have a do-over?”

Camilo met her gaze; he wasn’t frowning anymore. He nodded and shut the door.

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

Luisa came out of the kitchen to the edge of the courtyard to wait for Tuli to come back from her walk with her Tío. She hoped that was going well. She’d noticed the way Tuli had been watching her Tío all through dinner. It reminded her of the way Mira would watch their Abuela. Always expecting and receiving a dismissal for whatever she had tried to add to any conversation. Luisa would watch her sister stow away her unhappiness and try again. She glanced up the stairs as Dolores came down. She told her that Tuli and her uncle were heading toward the front door. Luisa paused as she looked up. All the doors no longer showed their owner, but looked like regular doors. Now that was weird, since she didn’t feel any different and used two fingers to lift a very heavy planter a few centimeters off the floor. She wondered if when Mira was helping with the cooking, she’d asked Casita to do that and if so, why? She also realized that Tía Pepa’s clouds hadn’t really manifested the way they normally did.

Luisa turned when Isa came off the stairs, looking just a little frazzled. She came over to her, and it amused Luisa that she was nervous enough that she asked her opinion on the colors she’d used on her hair. Luisa couldn’t actually answer as their mother pulled Isa along into the kitchen. Tía Pepa was following along behind with a barely disguised look of amusement. When Luisa turned back, she realized the doors were all back to normal. She was curious now, so figured she’d ask Mirabel tomorrow. It was interesting that this Casita would do that, but after last night, Luisa was convinced that this Casita was Mirabel’s alone.

Abuela came into the courtyard with Tío Bruno, they sat down on one of the sofas nearby. Her Tío waved for her to join them and Luisa, a little reluctantly, came over and sat next to her Abuela and Tío. Her Abuela was holding a small box that was just the right size for a pair of shoes, and she was nervously tapping the top of it. Shortly after that, Rodrigo, her mother and Tía Pepa all came out of the kitchen. Her Tía was whispering something to her mother that made her mother snicker. They noticed her sitting there, and her mother waved her sister off, and Luisa felt weirdly uncomfortable. Just what were those two gossiping about.

Casita bounced a few more chairs in their direction and everyone had a seat. Once everyone was settled, her abuela opened the box. It was full of pictures, and she reached in and pulled out one that had four smiling young women. They had their arms linked with their heads close together. The only difference between them being that one was wearing a veil, while the other had rings of flowers on their heads. Luisa realized the one with the veil was her abuela. She was not sure who the other women were, but the family resemblance of a few of them was striking.

Abuela handed the picture to Rodrigo, and he was taken aback. He looked closer and seemed to recognize one of those people, and he asked, “Do you have any others?”

Her abuela nodded, and she took out another with just two women this time. Rodrigo handed the first photo to Luisa as he accepted the next and Rodrigo’s eyes went wide as he asked as he pointed to the other woman, “Santa Maria, could it be?” he asked himself, then returned his attention to Abuela, “Who is this?”

“That is my sister, Juliet.”

He sat back and said, “So what Señor Bruno thought was true.” he said, then leaned forward again and pointed at the woman in the picture. “This is quite remarkable,” Rodrigo paused and looked at the triplets, and said, “My Abuela, whose name is Juliet, recently shared a story about a missing family member. Her sister, who she thought lost at the beginning of the thousand’s day war.”

“I suppose, in a way, I was. When the Encanto came into being, the mountains that surrounded our village were quite high. And though we were finally safe from the dangers that brought us to this place, that safety came at the cost of my husband, Pedro.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. My condolences, Doña Alma, I did not mean to bring up old grief.” 

Her Abuela nodded, “Thank you, Rodrigo, but you’ve brought me something I never would have expected. You’ve brought me news of one of my sisters, so I am actually quite happy.” Abuela said as she handed off the box of pictures to Pepa who looked a little astonished. Her Tía stared at the box in her hands, then began to leaf through the contents. She looked up for a moment, excused herself, and moved to a table behind the sofa to take a closer look at the photos.

“Oh, then that means you would be my tía abuela?” Rodrigo asked.

Her Abuela nodded, and she smiled a little as she watched her other children get up and crowd around Tía Pepa. Her Tía looked mildly annoyed, but she didn’t have a cloud as she began pulling photos out one by one, passing them to her siblings after flipping them to examine any writing on the backs. They were pointing and whispering in a way that made Luisa think this was something her Abuela had never done before.

Her Abuela returned her attention to Rodrigo and asked, “Do you plan to remain here?”

Rodrigo was still holding the other photo and replied, “I was planning to stay here for a time. Perhaps a month or so. I’ll have to return to Cartagena eventually, as I am currently a post graduate student at the university. I have spent the better part of the last two years collecting stories about that particular era in Colombia’s history for my thesis. Speaking of, do you think it would be possible for me to interview you, as well as some of the other elders in the village?”

Her abuela looked over at her children again, who were now comparing the photos, and said, “Yes, I think that would be fitting. We will be having a town council meeting in a few days. I will put the in the request there for others at that time.”

“My thanks, Doña Alma. I am looking forward to recording your story.”

Luisa noticed the slight drop in her Abuela’s smile. Mirabel had told her and Isabela one night as they were sitting in their tiny bedroom at their Abuela Valentina’s house, some of what had happened the night of the miracle’s creation. Her Abuela really was trying so hard to move forward, and Luisa felt a little guilty for not wanting to sit next to her.

Casita clattered some tiles near the door and opened it. Tuli came in with her Tío José in tow, literally. She was pulling him forward as he gaped at the magical doors. Tuli did not look upset, but it was obvious she’d been crying.

Rodrigo got up from his seat and said, “Gabi, you’re never going to believe this. ”

Tuli had given up trying to make her uncle move faster and let go of his hand as Luisa also got up. She met Tuli halfway as her Tío continued forward. Luisa knelt down and Tuli asked, “Where’s Mirabel?”

“She’s helping Camilo study, so I volunteered to look after you while she’s doing that.”

“Oh, okay,” Tuli said, and Luisa noticed she was clutching something small and fluffy.

“Whatcha got there?” Luisa asked and pointed to her hand.

Tuli’s expression looked worried as she held up the toy and said, “This is Tena. My Mamí made him for me when I was really small,” a curious smile crossed her face and she added, “My Tío brought him, and he looks even better than before.”

Luisa wondered about that before. Tuli, she’d noticed, only talked about before in terms of her mother and then only in bits and snatches. Never her father and aside from Bubo, she preferred to be with females. Men in general she avoided.

“Can I see?” Luisa asked.

Tuli’s face tensed as she pet the stuffed rat, then carefully set it in Luisa’s hands. Luisa accepted the rat and smiled and said, “This is so beautiful, Tuli. Your Mamí had some talent. Never seen such a realistic toy.” The fur that covered the animal felt real, and there was a faint scent of daisies when she brought it closer to her face to examine it. “Kinda feels like he’s filled with beans,” Luisa said as she hefted it once, then returned the rat to her.

Tuli shook her head and said, “It’s mostly sand and pebbles from a beach that used to be by where we lived. So, I can do this,” and Tuli draped the rat on her shoulder.

“That’s pretty neat. Fura’s sure to be jealous. Come on, let’s go up to my room. I have quite the collection of stuffed toys myself,” Luisa said and held out her hand. Tuli left the rat on her shoulder, and together they headed for the stairs.

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

Isabela and Bubo were walking along behind her prima and her former fiancé, and Isa was once again delighted that she was not, in fact, engaged. She looked over at Bubo. He looked just as tense as she felt. She wondered if he was going over in his head what he wanted to say. Isabela was very curious as to what had happened on the patio, so she asked, “So how did you talk with your Tío go?”

“Better than I was expecting, actually.”

“That’s a relief.”

Bubo nodded and asked, “You wouldn’t happen to know if there are any flats for rent? I need to find someplace that isn’t a storeroom to live with Tuli.”

“No, I’ve pretty much always lived with my family, but there are a few older folks that might.”

“Well, if you hear about any... ”

“I will. Any idea where Mariano is taking us?”

Bubo let out a short laugh and said, “No, I forgot to ask,” he looked up at her and Isa felt herself blush. Bubo tripped a little, and Isa steadied him as he caught himself. Deciding they needed a change of topic, Isabela asked, “When are you supposed to graduate?”

“It was supposed to be last spring. But I missed my last semester because of the civil war.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

“Rodrigo reminded me that I already had enough credits to graduate. Will just need to see if I can get my diploma.”

“Well, that’s good news then.”

“Yes and no, Rodrigo also told me they’ve shut down the college indefinitely,” Bubo said as they turned a corner. Isabela thought of Luisa then. If her dream of going to school got thwarted once again, she would not take it well at all. “Either way, it’s a moot point because I would still need to get back to Bogotá to make the request. But enough about me, Mirabel mentioned that you and Luisa were considering going to university. Did you have a line of study in mind?”

“Line of study? “

“Yes, at most universities you pick something to major and minor in. My major was entomology, and my minor was in political theory. So if you had your grandest wish, what would you like to study, major and minor?”

Isabela thought for a moment, “I’ve always had an interest in plants, all kinds really. Trees fascinate me, before I got my Gift I would lie under a tree and look up at the branches and wonder how they made leaves and such. I actually still want to know that. After I got my Gift, still did that, but I almost felt like I could feel the roots talking to their neighbor trees. I remember I told my Papí once that the trees were talking to each other with mushrooms.”

“You say that like you stopped listening for some reason.”

Isa felt the beginnings of her vine sleeve and said, “I really don’t want to get into why that happened, Bubo. Maybe some other time.”

His surprised look worried her, but he just nodded and said, “As you wish, so we’ll move on to a minor.”

Isa’s vine sleeve dissolved, and she said, “Farming. I’ve actually learned a lot from the farmers around here. And my Tía Pepa knows a lot about irrigation.”

“So, botany and agriculture, then.”

“Yes, there’s just so many plants I don’t know anything about. Like this,” she said and turned her palm upward and a small plant grew, “I’ve seen pictures, but the text is in a language I don’t know, so it is my unnamed plant friend.”

Bubo leaned in to look at it and asked, “Do you know if it will flower?”

“No, since this is all I know, I would need to plop it in some soil and wait for it to grow up. Why, does it look familiar?”

Bubo shook his head and replied, “Since I’ve been primarily studying butterflies, I learned the names of a lot of flowering plants, but that’s mostly by the blooms.”

Isa turned her hand, causing the plant to dissolve, and she said, “Well then, I’ll just have to pot it and see where it goes.”

Bubo looked under her hand and said, “It’s gone... fascinating.”

Isa poked his glasses, deciding she did not want to talk about plants anymore, and said, “Tuli told me you’re originally from Brasil.”

Bubo nodded as he straightened to resettled his glasses and said, “Yes, my father was from Colombia. He was there for work and met and married my mother in Brasil. They settled there, and I lived there until I was about Tuli’s age.”

“Oh, did your family move to Colombia?”

Bubo paused and said, “No, my parents were killed in a bus crash and that is how I came to live here with my abuelos.”

“I’m sorry about your parents, Bubo.”

“Thank you.”

Isabela noted he didn’t seem overly sad, so she asked, “This is going to sound like a weird question, but were you thinking about them when those flowers bloomed on the patio earlier?”

Bubo did not answer right away, he looked thoughtful then said, “Not consciously, but I was talking to your sister earlier about them, and it did stir up some old memories. Not bad ones. My mother loved her roses, and I could have sworn that was what I was smelling,” Bubo said then went on to tell her about them then paused and asked, “Wait, my hand was tingling while you were holding it. Did you use your Gift to make the ones on the patio bloom?”

Isa was surprised that he’d even noticed. People might think having a Gift was great, but on some level, most were afraid of that magic, especially the newer folks in town. A little nervous now, she shrugged and said, “Maybe?”

She knew that wasn’t really an answer to his question, and Bubo raised an eyebrow as her face automatically shifted to Señorita Perfecta mode. Isa sighed; Her dislike when it came to explaining herself was something she still struggled with, and she really didn’t want to hide anything from him. Not being perfect meant she’d have to own up to such things. Killing off her old habits was turning out to be one of the harder things she was learning, so added, “I did, though I wasn’t trying to, or I would have asked first, but I’m finding that wrangling in some of the newer aspects of my Gift to be a bit of a challenge.”

“That is so interesting.”

She kept expecting him to react differently than he did. No fear, no anger, just curiosity, but still, she said, “Is it? Don’t get me wrong, Bubo, most of the time I feel like my Gift is really all just for show. Making flowers is not the most difficult thing for me.”

“You did just say earlier that you were trying new things. You just haven’t caught the knack of it yet, so I’m going to disagree with you on that one. I can honestly say, I’ve not smelled those flowers since I was a child, and it wasn’t until you grew them that I realized just how much I loved and missed that scent. So, thank you for that.”

Mariano stopped and turned back to Bubo and indicated he should join him. There was a small pastry shop that had opened on the main thoroughfare, and Dolores came and pulled Isabela to her as Mariano and Bubo walked away. Dolores found an open table with four chairs, and she sat with Isabela.

“Mariano is getting a little too good at surprising me,” Dolores said as she looked at the shop, “I’ve been wanting to come here for weeks.” Dolores paused when she noticed Isabela’s tense look and said, “Relax, Isa, you’re giving me stress looking like that.”

“Sorry, I don’t even know why I’m so nervous,” Isabela put a hand on her knee to stop it from bouncing.

“I’ll tell you why, you really like him, and you don’t want to make a bad impression.”

“Doli, I already tied the man up and hung him from the ceiling.”

Dolores let out a snicker and said, “I know.”

“How?”

“Tío.”

“Oh, for the love of puppies – does everyone know about that?”

Dolores shrugged and asked, “Why did you use your Gift to make those flowers?”

“I actually,” Isa paused as Dolores leaned in, “I actually just wanted to hold his hand, the rose part just sort of happened.”

Dolores giggled and said, “That is so cute, Isa. I am so excited for you.”

Isa smiled; it was so nice to have her best friend back. Isa felt the flowers sprout in her hair. Their scent was the same as the flowers on the patio. Isa covered her face with her hands and let out a growl. “Why does that keep happening?” she asked, as she gave her head a shake, causing the flowers to fall apart.

Dolores gathered up her hands and gave them a squeeze, “Isa you don’t have to be perfect, you just need to be you. That’s who he’s interested in.”

Isa was not sure how to take that and almost wanted to be mad, but she just couldn’t seem to muster that up because she knew she was blushing again. She tried to relax a little because she knew she would never have done something like this if not for her prima, so there was no point in getting mad about what was clearly obvious to her whole family. Still, she envied how easily Dolores had shifted from meek wall flower to someone who was so much more relaxed and confident. Isabela had never really felt all that confident or relaxed before the breaking because every day was a performance. She’d been convinced that if she failed in that, surely bad things would follow.

Her self-imposed isolation from everyone but her family after the breaking had given her a little time to figure out some things. Finding out that people she thought were friends, were really just hangers on made her more than a little angry. What made it worse was that she saw that she’d treated her little sister that way.

“I was going to try to warn you about Bubo’s parents since I heard him talking to Mirabel about it. Just didn’t get the chance during dinner. Mariano is quite the distraction.”

They both started laughing then, and their conversation ended when the menfolk came back laden with a pair of trays. One was piled with various beautifully arranged pastries that Mariano set in front of Dolores. Bubo was carrying a small tray with some drinks. They sat down, and she took the coffee that Bubo set in front of her. She noted there was just a touch of milk and she smiled. Isa felt the flowers resprout, and she decided she’d leave them this time. He did say he loved the scent of them.

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

If you were wondering what Camilo was going on about - I posted an almost edited part of that in encantober here:

Next chapter... probably before christmas... probably

Last Chapter:

[uncleasriel]

FromSoft Starter Guide For Everything Except Sekiro

FromSoft is a company known for their challenging (but manageable games. A lot of folks want to try them, but hit some rough parts getting started. Since almost FromSoft game (with the exception of Sekiro, which is just Built Different[1]) has a lot of the same gameplay loops and mechanics, I figured I'd list few common common techniques that can help you get started for pretty much every one (Except Sekiro. See my footnote below[1]). My advice here is not necessarily the be-all, end-all, but it enough to get you started and feeling comfortable enough to carry you through to the end-game. In SHort, they are:

Prepare To Die

Prioritize Permanent Investments Over Consumables

Level Up Your HP Stat

Explore The Environment

Upgrade Your Weapon

Co-Op Frequently, And In Other Folks' Worlds, And Often

Read Item Descriptions

Have Fun

1. Prepare to die.

I know, I know. This sounds like shitty advice, among the same level of usefulness as "git gud." But when I say you should prepare to die, I mean that dying from an encounter is not only normal, it's to be expected. The developers made death a core part of not only their gameplay loops, but also their lore. Dying repeatedly (and coming back again and again and again) is the exact intended experience. You are Undead, or Unkindled Ash, or The Good Hunter, or The Tarnished you dying, and for Plot Reasons you are incapable of staying dead. You'll just pop back at the spawn, ready try again.

Treat this as a learning experience. Something got you, and now that it has, you know its deadly tricks. As Frank Herbert taught us, "Knowing there's a trap is the first step in evading it" and now you know that This Area Has Poison, or That Shadowy Area Has Things That Grapple And Eat Your Face you will prepare you for the next run. Plus, if you drop a large payload of Souls/Blood Echoes/Runes you can always run back, grab said Souls/Blood Echoes/Runes then race to the spawn point. Even if you lose them, don't worry. Trust me when I say there will always be more where that came from.

2. Prioritize Permanent Investments Over Consumables

Consumables can be bought at merchants, and the longer you play, the more of them you can find or farm. Early game you'll be tempted to buy them, but the thing about consumables is that when they're gone, they're gone! Buying something permanent (like a new weapon, or armor, or upgrade material) will go a long way. This isn't to say that you should never buy consumables (Hell, Bloodborne's healing system requires it!) but you should always remember that when they're gone, they're gone - and so are the souls/echoes/runes you spent on them.

3. Level Up Your HP Stat

Even with taking the approach that Each Death Is A Teachable Moment, you're still gonna want to avoid having too many deaths, if only because loading screens are less interesting to watch than actual gameplay. Thus, you'll want to see fewer of them.

Leveling HP literally increased the number of hits you can take before a loading screen, giving you more time to pop off a healing item and keep fighting that good fight. Eventually you'll want to stop leveling this (Somewhere between forty and sixty, depending on which specific game and/or build you're playing) but until you each those caps, it's never a bad idea to spend your Level Up XP on hitpoints.

4. Explore The Level

There are plenty of secrets hiding, even in the early levels! Go diving into nooks, crannies and weird corners, seeing what can be seen! Oftentimes, among clusters of tough enemies, are are glowing Items that can be picked up and retrieved by rushing in - you keep the items you gain when you die - you only lose your Souls/Echoes/Runes between loading screens, and even tehn they require retrieval. Doing a suicide run to That Special Glowy Thing can pay off unexpected dividends.

As well, exploration can revealing hidden shortcuts that speed up traversal around levels. You can also meet helpful NPCs who can be merchants, teachers, and have fun questlines which break your heart are delightful and silly and give you cool items! Remember: try not to harm the NPCs - you can tell whether they're enemies by whether or not you can lock onto them. A friendly NPC can go a long way in teasing out the game's lore and setting, though don't be surprised if you don't finish their questline on your first play-through - FromSoft designs their quests to be deliberately obscure.

5. Upgrade Your Weapon

In most of the games, the starting weapons that come with your class range between okay to solid. decent. While some individual choices are less than ideal (*glares at the Bandit class*) the rest either are solid melee weapons or else have respectable starting spells.

Exploring the levels can reveal lots of helpful upgrade materials, and even getting them from +0 to +1 which makes them do a lot more damage with each hit. Taking the weapon or magic catalyst to blacksmiths or workbenches (usually located near a hub or bonfire) will bring out more in your weapon. Just remember that while you'll eventually get infinite upgrade materials to take you weapons to about halfway of their upgrade tree (usually +3 to +6 in most FromSoft games), this comes later. Usually, it's wise to commit to a solid early weapon wealy on - I recommend shortswords and longswords for beginners, but if you find yourself falling in love with a rapier or katana or Something Fancy, feel free to switch to that.

6. Co-Op Frequently, And In Other Folks' Worlds, And Often

On my first playthrough, I was so scared of playing online and looking bad in front of other players. "What if I die like a chump in front of someone? What will they think of me? Will I be paired with folks who are so much better, and outclass me? " I played offline, hollowed, and barely reached out to others..

This is, in retrospect, silly. These games are designed with co-op elements for a reason. By playing online, you get the notes (which alternate between incredibly helpful and absolutely hilarious in tone), bloodstains (which show you how others died, turning their teachable moments into yours as well) and, most importantly, synchonous multiplayer. Whether it's putting down Summon Signs, ringing your Small Resonant Bell, or using the Fingers in a Summon Pool, offering to help others is one of the most delightful and rewarding parts of the experiences.

By the time you've gotten the Multiplayer Items, you've probably noticed that, when you die and don't collect your Souls/Echoes/Runes, they're Gone For Good. This is entirely how the gameplay works - in your world. But when you visit another players's world? Everything you earn from killed foes returns with you when you return to your world.

This means you can earn oodles of Souls/Echoes/Runes by just camping in front of the same Boss Walk, and doing it over and over again. You can afford to take risks, because (so long as your host doesn't die) they can resummon you again and again using the same Humanity/Insight/Furlcalling Finger Remedy from the same starting point. On a good run, even a newer player and a weaker Host can make a lot of progress by summoning the same guy over and over to clear through all the monsters, get all the loot, and turn even a slog into a delightful day out. What's better - you get to learn the layout of the place, get more comfortable with the enemies there, and gain aboatload of experience in the process.

Eventually you'll start to carry weaker players and show them the way through - it's one of the most delightful feelings ever. Sure, there are Invaders here and there - but you always be summoned again, to fight another day.

7. Read Item Descriptions

These will give fantastic advice on how to use them, and tease out bits of lore. It's surprising how easily folks miss this, and how often reading an item description can reveal a clue that can make a boss much easier or help reveal a Shocking Secret about the history of the setting.

8. Have Fun

It's corny as hell, but it's true. These games are meant to be played so they can be beaten. When you've spent all your Souls/Echoes/Runes at the end of levelling up, splurge a little on some weird item. Try following one of those notes that says "Treasure ahead" at the edge of a cliff, or experiment with that weird item you found. it might be awesome! It might be useless! It might be hilarious! Regardless - these games are meant to be played, and to delight, so leap into it!

FromSoft games are hard, but I sincerely believe the reputation that "FromSOft Is SOOO Hardcore "reputation is grossly overrated. They can be frustrating, at the end of the day they were design to give you an enjoyable challenge. For all the jokes about "lol, you died" the design teams and even the other players want you to succeed.

While these games pose daunting challenges, they are also made with loving care that generously grants you the tools to overcome the challenges they set. I firmly believe that their difficulty is based more on obscurity of handing out How To Play information than raw Skill Challenge, and the means of overcoming this obscurity is through trial and error. Not everyone has the time for that. But that's why I wrote this guide. It's enough to help you to get started

I hope you found this guide helpful. It's probably not going to be the be-all, end-all for FromSfot advice, but it should be enough to help you get started. Please, let me know if there's anything I left out, or anything you wish I'd mentioned. I want to help folks get into these games as much as possible, so any feedback is welcome!

PRAISE THE SUN!

Footnotes

[1] Sekiro does have quite a few Souls-like elements, like the use of Idols checkpoints, doors you can later unlock to create shortcuts, replaying levels over and over until you have mastery of their geography and monster layouts, and so on. But the game's lack of a conventional leveling or weapons upgrade system puts it in a different methodology of play - in a Souls game, using some of the tricks I mention by farming enemies for items or XP is a fine strategy to power through tougher moments. In Sekiro, you have to learn the specific set of inputs and specific mechanic needed to overcome the boss ahead of you. It's much tighter, but at the cost of demanding it be played in a highly specific specific way. It's a great game, but my advice is less useful here.

[sycamorality]

this was during like middle of winter. snow and ice everywhere. it took place in my old school in norway except there were really big stair-like stuff at the top and bottom. there was a kid that wasn't going to school and iirc it ended up with him just…. destroying a lot of things with absurdly powerful bombs or grenades. i think i was either myself or a bit creature.

but i realised i wasn't going to school for some reason. first time around someone's aiming powerful explosives everywhere for some reason and somehow i come to the conclusion it has to do with that kid. all these loops take place within a week.

i wake up again. it's just the same thing except this time i go for the kid that's not going to school. i do his things for him [shapeshifting to look like him so he isn't absent in class, his assignments i think too] and there's this weird green glowy bar with rounded lines like at the top of my field of view at all times. that doesn't work either. now whoever's shooting the explosives is targetting me, so i have to avoid explosions to survive. i do end up dying like twice or thrice to this, it… don't recommend it, painful/10.

i think i end up following the kid after this to some big, rectangular building near the back of the city - there's a train station behind it i think, but that's not important. iirc its kind of cold this in building and there's some ice and i think… weapons or something? the lighting is a cold blue.

i follow him a bit and then ask him why he's not going to school or doing anything, and he answers by starting a fight with me for some reason, and then it loops again and i'm going to school again but still know that i need to talk with that kid. i don't know why, i just know i need to.

so i head down to the building i saw him walking to but then get targetted by grenades from a tower that's up at the school that wasn't there before, but i have to avoid the bombs and then the explosions to live and get down to the building. the kid has caught on by now and apparently knows about me being in a loop for some reason, and keeps trying to fight with me.

it loops again. i head for the kid immediately as i'm walking in the middle of the town instead of getting close to school. being targetted by explosions again, but this time it seems like they're targetting everyone else too. i get to the kid and he's in the building and it gets targetted and starts exploding and that's when i either wake up or forget the rest of the dream

dated april 12th, 2024

[existentialmagazine]

Review: Plastic Harpoons new glowy single ‘Better Than Dying’ delivers warm and groovy alternative-rock, weighted in a narrative of disappointment

After meeting in Santa Barbara while performing in the local music scene, the four-piece Plastic Harpoons came to life. With shared influences in acts like Rolling Stones, Queens, Mt. Joy and more, the alternative-rock group deliver work that carries through stylings of the past with a modernisation you cannot help but love. Now since sharing singles from 2022 onwards, they’ve built up a well-loved discography of music that proves why they’re sure to go far.

Bouncing into 2024 with something refreshing and bold, the group now share ‘Better Than Dying’, a groovy alternative-rock anthem made for the days where you’re feeling gloomy even under the summer sunshine’s rays. From a dazzling introduction that slowly leads you in with vibrant little pops of cascading piano, it’s hard not to feel better under the comforting arms of Plastic Harpoons. Funky bass twangs and bright electric guitar riff also weave through the introductory little taster of sound, a slow and mellow harbouring of tranquility made for you to sit back, relax and listen along to outside of life’s fast-paced expectations.

Settling into just steady beats, short bursts of guitar strums and lulling bass, the verse finds its way into your eardrums like it’s always been there. Little segments of bright keys, backing effects and instrumental moments set up the more atmospheric edge of the song too, carefully crafting your experience down to the smallest of details. The warm vocals are what truly mesmerise though, a rich performance that carries through a soft raspy twang you can’t help but want to sing along with. With charisma and emotion melted into one, you’re left lingering on every single line with an extra little bit of thought that’s only made possible by their vocalist’s stand-out tone.

The chorus is just as serene and slow-paced as ever, maintaining the track’s staple drowsiness, almost mirroring the more defeated lyrical admissions beneath. It does however pick up lightly, pushed along by concurrent repetitions of plucked guitar strings, matched by continued tumbling drums and some newfound dreamy backing vocals that add a haunting echo to every single line. The profoundly central lyrics are even harder to ignore here too, singing ‘the sun’s in the sky, so why am I crying?’ Finding that sometimes your emotions contrast with how you think you should feel, Plastic Harpoons narrative rings out at the most unavoidable yet, asking the questions that we all often feel - but can sometimes feel guilty for too. Continuing ‘didn’t get what I want, I got what I need. Still better than dying’ and looking for the positives in a deflating experience, there’s a ray of light in an otherwise dark moment, even when they got what they wanted and still found it just didn’t deliver what they really expected.

With an electric guitar solo filling the bridge, along with a stripped-back little intermission for the gorgeous vocals to soar, you’ll find that ‘Better Than Dying’ is that perfect pick-me-up tune for all your sad cry-it-out moments and feel-good playlist needs, somehow finding its way between the two. Keep listening here to really understand the power their sound holds, you won’t be able to find anything else like this.

Written by: Tatiana Whybrow

Photo Credits: Tynan Daniels

// This coverage was supported and created via Musosoup, #SustainableCurator.

[femme-gremlin-energy]

They put Sawsbuck in this movie lmao. I know a pokemon when I see one.

There's also like a lot of soft core porn in this for a 2018 movie

"It's not me you hate. It's yourself." "No, Dan, it's you too."

Damn, this is really dramatic for someone not wanting to disclose their dying husband to you. The obvious reason not to tell would be possible conflict of interest/being compromised and the only one being unhinged here is you. Especially given the "unit leader" clearly knew and gave the OK.

Also the prior unit filmed themselves cutting into each other, if it was madness it was mutual consensual madness not secret murder madness AND you've seen the alligator.

"or maybe I'm going mad and we're all going to fuck each other up. That's theory two."

Ooh can the bear mimic voices? SCP-939

Damn the bear dying as it says "Help me" in the voice of its victims love it.

Okay so I guess the thing is if they are actively being mutated by DNA changes is that...a lot of DNA mutations like that wouldn't be viable, but it seems like most of the deaths so far have been caused by other creatures and not just spontaneously dying from a mutation (though that does seem like that might be what is up with Lena's husband). That would suggest their immune system is doing a pretty good job at keeping up with the cell damage all things considered and it even appears to be keeping up for a while once Lena's husband exits.

but it also seems like The Shimmer forcefully keeps things alive somehow which would explain why Lena never remembers eating and her husband clearly also has done and experienced things that would not be physically possible for humans to do.

I think it's more realistic that the bear mutated voice mimicry capabilities without additional testing (that I assume we want to avoid)

Oh hey, its an actual lighthouse I thought that was like a metaphor

Clone shit??

Remember during Sea Fever when I said I was bad at distinguishing men?? This is making determining if it is clone shit really hard.

Dr. Ventress' voice is screaming. Bear Part 2?

Sure, let's go down into the dark hole after we've established dangerous things can sound like friends who need help.

It looks fungusey?

Okay, fragmented, I mean that makes sense if Kane 1 and Kane 2 are somehow both parts of Kane and only part of Kane made it out.

No offense Lena but we should probably try and put some distance between the weird swirling mist

It kind of looks like the plant/fungi thing made of people

I see, yes weird clone shit it is. Though that seems really inefficient if you need to consume 1 human being and then you can clone some other dude hanging out there.

I mean, yeah not only does that make Kane's huge knowledge gaps make sense, it also makes sense why he was being super weird when he got back if it's not actually Kane but the alien clone. It also also explains why when "Kane" got out The Shimmer was still vibing but when Lena got out The Shimmer died.

I wish we had Kane's POV honestly because it sounds like he and the clone built some sort of relationship in a way that Lena did not with her clone.

I guess this solves their cheating problem if this is the quasi-Kane quasi-clone. Though I am confused why Kane's clone would have stabilized when the alien died.

I mean the glowy eyes means Lena may not be all Lena but Lena seems to be more Lena than "Kane" is Kane. I want the military to run some DNA samples though.

It also seems like since the whole thing was that DNA was getting sort of fragmented and mixed up that a person becomes physically not perfectly themselves after x time in The Shimmer. But is that necessarily any different for the fate of "the self" than if you get radiation damage or a tattoo or a cochlear implant or lose a limb?

This was a fun movie, I liked it. However, the more movies I watch the more I feel like we should be kind to aliens. They seem like they may just be confused and unaware of their impacts.

Is this now just an Every Thought I've Ever Had About Movies blog?

The Annihilation:

I like the hazmat suits I'm seeing this is promising

Unrated is also a point in the horror column

ooh husband back from being MIA for a year

oh hey! I think I watched a speculative biology video on this movie

fear not, I remember nothing other than the weird glowy bubble where stuff is timey wimey and that the lady goes in for some reason related to her husband (thanks ADHD!)

ooh hey guy bleeding into a cup I had a nightmare about that when I was like 10 or something and it still haunts me

shit its the men in black

I'm ruling this a horror movie given that it's plot is heavily reliant on body horror. It's cool body horror though.

It gives me SCP vibes. Off the top of my head SCP-3333

I also really enjoy that the man has been fridged so that the lead woman can go on adventures with other women.

Okay To Be Continued, the movie is about halfway through at this point.

[tonystarktogo]

A fact of life: There is no evidence to suggest that a proper alliance between Tony, Natasha and Pepper couldn’t save the world. Eventually. There may be some collateral damage.

[consider this an AU of my time travel crack fic]

Natasha is pissed.

No, wait. 

Natasha was pissed when some nobody alien with illusions of grandeur dusted half her planet’s population because he could. She was pissed when Clint went all Black Arrow on her and — worse — ditched her to go on a killspree with whatever worthless scum caught his eye next. Natasha was pissed when she realized that Tony had made her his daughter’s godmother and never so much as said a fucking word to her about said daughter’s existence because ‘aren’t you a super spy? Oh my, Rushman, I think you’re losing your touch’, the vindictive asshole. 

[She has no illusions. The only reason Natasha’s name is on that paper is because Tony Stark and Pepper Potts take each other’s pettiness to new heights when properly motivated. That they’ve waited five years to reveal that they’ve pulled this stunt on her says it all. And proves just how much surviving half the end of the world hadn’t softened either of them.]

Now?

After enduring five too many attempts of Clint trying to sacrifice himself in her place — like he doesn’t have a family waiting for him when this is over, doesn’t have Laura and the kids, like she’s gonna let him use her as an excuse so he won’t have to face them, like he has the fucking right to make that choice for her — before she killed herself to give her team a god damn chance to fix their greatest failure?

No, Natasha isn’t pissed. She’s so far beyond pissed, they’re not even existing in the same timeline anymore.

Literally. 

How is this her life—

Because the universe just can’t resist fucking with her. Obviously.

Sacrificing herself so Clint can get his hands on a glowy space orb with the power to obliterate all life everywhere? Fucked up for sure, but that’s been her life since Earth’s first (public) alien invasion all these years ago. 

Natasha can roll with it. 

Not a nice way to die perhaps but... There’s worse ways to go. She would know. She’s got no regrets. Not regarding that choice at least.

So no, it’s not the dying part that has Natasha mentally spewing exempletives for seventeen minutes by this point — she’s switched languages a couple of times because her creativity does have its limits — and she’s still going strong.

It’s the part where she opens her eyes.

And stares down at an official SHIELD mission briefing.While standing in the middle of a vaguely familiar conference room in the helicarrier Clint crashed during Loki’s invasion. [Which is what they call the Avengers’ first mission because Natasha has the misfortune of having lived a life in which neither the term ‘New York City Invasion’ nor ‘Chitauri Invasion’ are specific enough to avoid confusion.] With four dead agents at her back, only one of whom she’s sure isn’t HYDRA.

Gods fucking damn it. She thought she was done with this shit.

*

Aaand that’s all she wrote. Because I couldn’t decide how far back Natasha would’ve gone — I’m going back and forth between right before her mission to infiltrate SI or right before Loki’s invasion like the first AU. Thoughts?

[stxleslyds]

You always seem down on the idea of the Batfam. I mean, it is hard to take seriously when writers make Bruce hostile or downright abusive towards his kids, or when Batfam members never interact. But do you think the concept itself is good, and it's just been the victim of bad writing? Or do you think the Batfam is a bad idea that can never work?

Hi there Anon! Thank you for the ask!

Hmm, this is a difficult question. Maybe I can answer this better if I do it in parts because the concept of “Batfamily” is used in different ways currently. A way to separate them can be, DC’s Batfamily, Fandom’s Batfamily and Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon.

DC’s Batfamily:

My rejection of this version of Batfamily comes from all angles, it is not a good concept within comics lore anymore, it’s badly written and used to hide and move on from truly horrendous actions done by Bruce towards the rest of the family, and DC uses the concept of “Batfamily” that fandom has become so attached to, so they can profit off of it without writing anything of real essence with it.

Why did I say that the Batfamily isn’t a good concept anymore? Well, because the Batfamily that I first came across in comics included, Bruce, Dick, Alfred, Barbara, Tim and Cassandra. It was rather small and their books interconnected and had pretty solid relationships with one another. Dick and Tim got along and spent time together, Barbara mentored Cass so she could become Batgirl and so on and so forth. The family was smaller and more connected. But they still had problems and bad habits then. So, I liked them as a group of people that worked together and the name they received was “Batfamily” as a way for DC to profit from it.

Right now, the Batfamily is huge, I don’t know if you have seen those splash pages with all the members of it for Rebirth and Infinite Frontier, but those promotional pages were crazy big, characters like Harley and Clownhunter are now considered part of the “Batfamily” and all that. Then there is the kind of characters like Cass, Steph and Kate who are all connected to Batman but that haven’t been appearing in books for very long, so putting them on that page really feels like DC is trying to prove that their “Batfamily” actually has women on it, but it’s just for show.

And then there is Dick, Jason, Tim and Damian, the most recognizable faces of the Batfamily aside from Bruce and Alfred (but Alfred is dead now so he doesn’t really count), all of them have had issues with Bruce or are indifferent to the existence of one another. Yes, Tom Taylor has included Tim in Dick’s book but here is the thing, it feels like he put him there just to make fans shut up about the lack of content with both of them acting as they used to do. But its false and lazy, Taylor just brought Tim to the book but we don’t get to see Tim and Dick interact in ways that can explain why they drifted off, it kinda seems like all those years where Dick and Tim were pulled apart never happened to DC and that makes me think “cash grab”. I would have loved to see them interact again if it meant that we would have some solid story for them to develop their relationship once more.

At the end of Rebirth, Damian was pissed off at Bruce and they had a fight and Damian left the manor completely. Bruce beat up Jason, then gave him a hug but still told him that he was banned from Gotham and all that abuse and manipulation was swept under the rug when DC came out with Urban Legends: Cheer, all they did with that story is lie and made-up stories about Jason wanting Bruce to go on a killing spree so Gotham can finally be the home to his beloved family (lies, lies, lies).

On top of all that we have the neglect, abuse and manipulation that Bruce had going on with Dick, ever since Bruce manipulated Dick into joining Spyral his actions haven’t faced any consequences (the family still believes that Dick was the one who lied about dying). And as recently as the end of Rebirth, Dick suffered from a head injury that left him amnesiac and Bruce absolutely didn’t care enough to look after him when he was so vulnerable and alone. DC had the audacity of having Bruce say that he was looking after Dick while Dick went from one villain manipulating and hurting him to another, and if we look at Batman’s run, we can see that he spent some of that time in a weird pit or playing catch the pussy with Selina in a tropical island.

So, taking all those things into account, I honestly believe that the Batfamily is a concept that absolutely does not belong in comics. If it were to be taken seriously then DC should come up with (organic, not forced) stories that make these characters connect once again, but they have to be careful, just because they can connect it doesn’t mean that everyone gets along and they have group chats and eat dinner together of Fridays, that would be a blatant lie and just too out there for their kind of dynamic, so, they should take things slow, start re-building what once was an make it better (if they want to make it work and feel like less of a cash grab).

I heard that there is a book with Cass and Steph being mentored as Batgirls by Barbara coming out in December, that to me is a good thing, what was done in Robin #5 was awful, Jason didn’t have or want to be there, Tim, what the hell was Tim doing there? The only ones that have gotten along with Damian and have had a solid relationship with him were Dick and Steph. Dick had a very nice moment with Damian in that issue, but Steph didn’t, they preferred to have Jason wanting to hug Damian instead (what the actual hell was that?).

Fandom’s Batfamily:

Fandom is a place where people can take any concept from anywhere and transform it into whatever they please. This fandom is just like any other in that matter, but I have noticed that sometimes the Batfamily Fandom tends to blur the lines between what’s fanon and canon. Their lore is so deep and established among people that they sometimes (willingly or not) make new readers or other people believe that how things and perceived in fandom is how things actually are in comics, and that is a huge problem.

Things like “Dick sent Jason to Arkham when the Joker was just a cell away”, “Jason has pit madness and when he gets mad his eyes turn glowy green”, “Dick was a horrendous brother to Jason before Jason died”, “Jason would be good friends with Tim and Cass”, “Jason is the only one that sees the world differently from Bruce and the other robins because he is the only one that comes from a life with no luxury” and so on and on and on…

All of those things are sometimes treated as the absolute truth by fandom and no matter how many times people have debunked and explained that those things aren’t part of comics’ canon because they are simply not true, fandom stills treats those things as the basis of their Batfamily lore.

That lore would be actually fascinating if people didn’t lose sight so easily of the fact that at the end of the day none of that lore can be applied to comics’ canon.

When you enter this fandom things can be extremely confusing and the way some of the characters are characterized are completely different to their canon characterizations, I knew that the Dick fandom was writing about was not real, but I had no idea that Tim being a coffee addict that hasn’t slept in five months and is an absolute genius in everything and anything that he does was completely out of character for him, I just thought that was true to his character in comics too. Something like that happened to me when I took a peek at Jason’s side of fandom, by that time I had read Red Hood/Arsenal, UtRH and New 52 RHatO (yeah in that order, Red Hood/Arsenal wasn’t finished yet though), with the already conflicting characterizations of those books, the first look that I had at fandom’s Jason confused me even more. After considering all those I decided that the Jason that I wanted to see and actually looked appealing to me was UtRH Jason.

Not all people in fandom read comics and that is ABSOLUTELY VALID, I have zero problems with people not liking the comic characterizations of the “Batfamily” characters, but that in itself also creates a rift between fans themselves.

Fandom’s Batfamily lore being introduced in comics’ canon:

This is obviously the intersection of the other two points and this is the biggest problem that I have with the Batfamily concept. The fandom lore has been leaking into comic’s canon for a while now but right now we are kinda drowning in it. Decisions that have been made recently in DC like, Jason giving up his guns, the group chats in Nightwing issues, the family dinners that were hinted at in Cheer #6, and Bruce having had at the ready a Red Hood suit for Jason with a Batman logo in its chest, have been proof enough that DC is planning on skipping any kind of solid writing for these characters to actually get along. We are never going to see these people sit down and talk about their differences and respect each other’s work ethics.

We are never going to get stories of actual essence that prove that these characters understand and care for each other, we are just going to be told that “all is good” and now everyone loves one another and they will build from there.

That is a problem for me.

-

And it also takes away duality from Gotham’s vigilantes, I know I say this too much but it’s the truth, putting all these characters under the ruling of Batman makes them all bland. Jason shouldn’t be part of any sort of group that involves Bruce! My god, I don’t want to see them interact anymore! Bruce has been absolute trash to Jason ever since he came back from the dead and I am tired of DC trying to make them be on good terms!

Jason and Bruce not getting along can co-exist with the fact that Jason isn’t a villain to Batman’s legendary hero. Jason is his own character, with his own morals and he doesn’t need a bat symbol on his chest or book logo to be relevant. Same with Dick, Tim and Barbara, let them be characters that can stand on their own because they have already done that!

Barbara as Oracle worked WITH Batman if she wanted, she had her own logo and had passed on the mantle of Batgirl because he had grown out of it.

Dick is Nightwing and has become an even better hero than Batman could even aspire to become, he has contacts with everyone in the DC universe, has led countless teams, he doesn’t NEED a batman logo on his book or to be constantly dragged back to him just to make the Bat more compelling.

Jason, my sweet Jason, he had his own logo! It was gorgeous and then Lobdell had the audacity to stamp a Batman logo in the middle of the book name and in Jason’s chest! Have we gone absolutely mad? Why did they do that? Lobdell’s constant back and forth with Jason and his feelings for Bruce, he respects him and he doesn’t, he kills and he doesn’t… each issue felt like a new take on the character! It was crazy!

And that has happened with everyone in the “family”. I will end this by saying that Bruce/Batman being at the centre of this “Batfamily” dynamic is the most laughable thing in the DC Universe. Batman isn’t family to any of the people that they constantly surround him with, he is a piece of shit.

Anyway Anon, I hope this answer doesn’t ruin your day and that you understand that even though I really don’t like the “Batfamily” concept, you and everyone else are allowed and encouraged to think differently!

Hope you have a marvellous day Anon!

[sunsetcurvecuddles]

hi!! can i request willex and “cuddle”?

- @julieandthequeers

(i cried at 9am reading touch starved willie i LOVE your writing)

this was for the send me a ship and a prompt game and these responses are super late but i am simply going ahead with it as though nothing happened (also I LOVE U SO MUCH)

so here ya go this is a follow-up to touch-starved willie which you can read here, this installment is also available on ao3 here

--

Alex is doing his best with Willie.

He’s been doing his best the whole time, obviously, but it’s hard. Willie won’t talk to him, or to any of them, about what happened in the in-between time. It’s just a mystery, from when Alex said goodbye to him outside the Orpheum to when Julie broke Willie’s curse on the street corner where they freed Nick from Caleb’s possession, all of it this blank, empty picture frame where Willie won’t connect any of the dots.

So Alex has been trying not to push him. At first he was trying to give him space, because that’s what Alex knows he’d want if he was in Willie’s position. Which, in hindsight, was stupid, because Willie is nothing like Alex at all.

Since the night when Alex checked on Willie before bed, and something in Willie cracked open and, bright and burning, spilled out of him right into Alex’s hands, Alex has realised he has to do his best in a different way.

So he’s doing what he can. Pressing their legs together on the couch, when they’re sitting in the garage. Putting his arm around Willie’s shoulder when they’re walking. Running his fingers through Willie’s hair when they have a quiet moment alone.

It seems to be working, for the most part. Willie’s eyes are brighter, his smiles are easier. Whatever weight was on his shoulders seems to be easing off. He still won’t talk to them about anything Before, but he’s more like himself, even if it’s a different self to the one Alex met when they first escaped from the dark room.

(He feels like Willie’s time away is sort of a dark room of its own. He gets why Willie doesn’t want to share it.)

One night when they’re finishing up from dinner, Willie comes up to Alex, asks him quietly, “Hey, hotdog, can I talk to you?”

He looks sun-touched, and glowy. He’s been spending a lot of time skating at the beach, down by the pier, which honestly makes Alex relieved and anxious in equal measure. Relieved, that Willie feels safe enough to venture further from the house than he did, because for awhile, he wouldn’t even let Julie out of his sight, let alone go exploring on his own. But anxious, too, because Alex still worries that something will happen to Willie, even though he doesn’t want Willie to be scared about it any more. There’s been no sign of Caleb, but still. Alex can’t help but worry.

“Oh,” says Alex. He glances back over his shoulder, but Luke and Julie are clearing the table, and Reggie’s started the dishes. Catching his eye, Reggie gives him a big, soap-sudsy thumbs-up, which Willie definitely sees. Alex dies a little inside. “Yes, sure, let’s just - move somewhere else.”

Willie stifles a laugh, but it seems nervous, flighty, like his lungs are too much for his body. So Alex nods up the stairs, and follows after Willie.

Willie takes him to the spare room, the one Willie’s sort of made his own.

(Luke pretended to throw a fit about being Ray’s least-favourite son-in-law, but they all knew it was to save Willie from having to share the already crowded studio with the other three restored-to-life boys. Alex thinks this is reasonable, since that studio bathroom is definitely at capacity with the three of them.)

Willie turns to Alex as soon as they’re both inside with the door closed, and he looks resolute, but there’s an edge of nerves to his movements. Sighing, Willie runs his slender hands through his long hair.

Alex forgets what he’s thinking about for a moment. He’d seen guys, before, when he was alive, attractive guys even. After all, it hadn’t taken dying to work out he was gay. But whenever he saw Willie it just seemed like whatever he’d felt with those other boys had been a mistake, an imitation. Willie was the prettiest boy he’d ever seen.

“You said I could ask,” Willie says finally. His hands are clasped behind his head and he presses his elbows together, partially obscuring his face from view as he exhales. “You told me to.”

It takes Alex a scrambly moment to work out what he means. “Yeah. Yeah, I - is this...?” Are you asking? he wants to say, but he doesn’t know if his own asking that would defeat the purpose.

Willie grips his own hair for a moment and then shakes himself, puts his arms down. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m asking for cuddles. Lame as that feels. Could I have a hug? Please?”

“Not lame,” Alex reminds him softly, smiling, even though it absolutely makes his heartbeat triple. Maybe he’s the one who’s lame. “Of course.”

“And I want to talk,” Willie says, just when Alex starts to reach for him, so he pauses. “I - can I tell you about what happened? I was worried about making you worried. But you told me not to worry about that, anymore.”

Alex feels a lump in his throat. Willie really listened to him. When Willie looks at him, resolved but a little haunted, Alex realises how much Willie must trust him, to ask for both those things at once.

“Okay,” he whispers, then hastily adds, “only if you want to, obviously.”

Nodding, Willie rubs down his own arms with his thumbs. “I do want to, I think. I think I’m ready.”

Willie sits on the edge of the bed. Alex sits down next to him. Almost instinctively, he realises he’s reverted to that same jumpy caution he had around Willie for weeks after they were reunited, but that was exactly what had caused the problem last time, so he takes a deep breath and pulls Willie close.

The warmth that blooms in his chest must be nothing compared to how Willie feels, because Willie’s body melts, practically turns to putty in Alex’s arms.

Willie’s been there for Alex through so much, listened to so many anxious rants, helped Alex express himself in so many ways he never felt able to before. It’s just what Willie’s like, and always has been, right from the start. It’s a relief to be able to finally return the favour.

“Talk to me,” Alex murmurs, hiding his face in Willie’s hair.

Willie reaches for one of Alex’s hands, and links their fingers together, one by one, his fingertips tapping Alex’s knuckles like they’re piano keys. He takes one last deep breath. And then he talks.