#i just have Things to say about zippy

[pebblezone]

Feeling like a Yuma morii Pokémon card

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/24/2024

you might be wondering “is my dear friend tumblr user girlfriendsofthegalaxy still unemployed?” the answer is yes. take this cat off my hands please i don’t think he’s causing the unemployment but he certainly isn’t helping

listening

via Wendy @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, Huoy Meas' ប្រគល់ក្ដីស្នេហ៍មកខ្ញុំវិញ. figuring out what this incredibly zippy Cambodian rock song is named and what it's about was really difficult bc spotify is a bane upon this earth and won't let you fucking copy-paste and OCR was not working on the Khmer script. i ended up listening to the first couple seconds of each of her songs on apple music, and finally figured out this roughly translates to Give Me Back My Love and is about begging a fuckboy for closure.

via the spotify discover weekly, Night Club's Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things. all Night Club's songs sound the same so if you like one, great news! i had this song on for a full gregorian hour bc, i am only a tiny bit ashamed to say, i was storyboarding a The Man With No Name fancam to this. i think it would go pretty hard.

Smoke you like a cigarette Choke you like a lariat Fatalistic tourniquet Do you want more?

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i did not Adore any of these comics from the library. i sort of enjoyed Night of the Ghoul, a one-volume TPB by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla. i think ive blogged about this before but every once in a while i'll get a bee in my bonnet to read some horror comics even though i am a giant baby about horror movies.

Night of the Ghoul is about how you can't save your dad from PTSD but also about a lost horror film and also about the extremely dad behavior of tracking down every scrap of info about an auteur. there's also a monster.

the subtle art changes from present day to the remains of the film to the non-film flashbacks are well done, imo. the cover screams mignola but the inside pages are really fun pulp nonsense. i love a piece of genre writing that rolls around and delights in being a piece of genre writing.

im doing my level best not to get sucked into tiktok but i DO love watching this lady revive antique nail polish and look for dupes for shades from like the 20s. she found an almost exact dupe for a shade produced during wwii which is crazy insane to me!!!

-

watching

The Asphalt Jungle (1950, dir. Huston), it's a very painterly heist noir. i even like Sterling Hayden in one of the more prominent roles, even though i think he generally has the appeal of undercooked dough.

much like Fritz Lang's M, it presents the criminal element of the city as its own class with its own reputation and reference systems. it got in some trouble with the censors for having a VERY clearly laid out heist plan and execution. it's also got the babiest Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles

this was such a gloriously messy movie. everyone is such a fucking mess. this woman only known as Doll is heartbreakingly, head over heels in love with Sterling Hayden's character. she's a little flighty and bumbling and silly, but determined! they're constantly orbiting the gravitational weight of her desire for this man and desire for a real life with this man. and that's just one subplot! she has maybe five minutes total screentime! she should have gotten a supporting actress oscar!!! everyone acted their fucking hearts out and it was so much fun to watch!

-

playing

monument valley is in the netflix games library this month (i don't actually know what their liscencing agreements would even look like, they and the studios they worked with were very tightlipped about that when they were rolling this out three years ago) but i assume it's going to be on the service for a while. i have never played this game, which makes me feel a little bit like a bad gamer. you can tell it's ten years old from some of the color and texture choices, but WOW did literally everyone take inspiration from this game.

this is the platonic ideal of a phone game. i get why everyone went insane about it and there was a brief boom of geometry-based puzzle mobile games. it is MUCH much harder now to get people to pay money to play a game that has a planned endpoint and planned number of levels, so netflix is a good home for it.

i was often frustrated but always delighted. the level below involves making something happening that made me genuinely gasp out loud in glee. well worth the annoyance of downloading the netflix app and scrolling through the poorly labeled and poorly sorted carousel of games.

great retrospective, a bit about how you need to have tiny teams go off and just kind of fuck around and bring weird stuff back, and a lot about how they actually designed the levels

The end result had a pixel-perfect axonometric aesthetic that not only went hard on its references to Dutch master artist and printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher, but also dug deep into classic video game design, going right back to early arcade machines and 8-bit titles. Each of the ten levels is like a piece of fine furniture, built with invisible dovetail joints and inlaid with marquetry, stuffed with secret compartments and little design flourishes. Gray cites the world of theatre and stage design, as well as graphics, as important keystones in the way the levels were constructed. ‘Ken would always talk about flower arranging, and how you frame a silhouette of a level on the screen,’ he says.

-

making

update on the Phantom Menace fabric: pinked the raw edges and threw it in the laundry again with a very large quantity of vinegar. 50% poly was too high for it to really do anything, which is interesting. it didn’t lessen the seam edge effects either, which is a little annoying bc the seams were so gigantic and that’s a good chunk of fabric to lose. i am going to buy a camp shirt pattern at some point when i have money again but for now it goes in The Box

also! thrifted a pack of o-rings for jars for a dollar and finally put my grains etc in my pretty jars. they’re going to live in the pantry but today they live out on the countertop

[ladyluscinia]

2x08 Reaction #4

I'm legit stunned how bad of a job they did at using Izzy's death to further Edward's character arc.

Like.

That's the easy, shortcut method of trading onscreen manpain for not having to actually do character work. You fridge a guy's wife so you don't have to come up with a realistic motivation for him to do the rest of your story.

Izzy legit dies in Edward's arms giving him a motivation speech and it's absolutely meaningless???

For one, if you are going to motivate with grief you kinda have to have time with the grief? Izzy dies so close to the end of the episode, and they really want that last bit to be happy, so Edward like. Isn't really sad? I mean I assume he's sad but he spends less time with a camera pointed at his mourning Izzy face than he spends watching the zippy LuPete wedding?

And Izzy's deathbed wishes are either Things That Were Explicitly Already Done or Things Edward Ignores Completely.

Why is he telling Edward to retire Blackbeard and go be with Stede outside of piracy like this is a new thing he's blessing and not the same thing he encouraged literally last episode? "Maybe you should listen to it" about tossing the leathers means nothing? I mean, tbh, no it doesn't lol because he's literally still wearing them in the last scene but I guess whatever.

And then the whole "You're my only family" "Bitch, you have a whole fucking family over there (not remotely attempting to comfort me as I die)" and then they just fucking dip? Like the union is sailing into the sunset for pirate adventures and leaving the co-captains to be shack hobos? So glad Izzy's dying wish was for Edward to experience family for literally the amount of time it took his body to grow cold and that was it!

It's just... It's so utterly underwhelming. He doesn't even, like, get some memento of Izzy to meaningfully promise to live his best life for. If you really want to scrape the barrel for some impact then maybe vaguely-suicidal Izzy saying "no I'm cool with dying" magically cured Edward of his own suicidal desires... but that's absolutely nonsensical. I'm just saying words now.

You fridged his wife and you had him listen to her whole dying speech and then he stood up, walked to the kitchen, and made a sandwich? The only thing that changes about his life is he's now unemployed, and he gave his notice before she died.

Most non-impactful death-solely-to-impact-other-character I've ever seen.

Fascinatingly bad.

[3gremlins]

feel like im having a DA2 experience again where I really liked it and was in my little "this is good" cocoon where i played it many times only to emerge from underground and find everyone else hated it (i mean ive found the other da2 cicadas since but at the time it got really slammed). i've been really enjoying DA:TV so far ( lol tho obvs have notes) here's an early thoughts review, may be a bit spoilery, def rambley, trying to stay vague on stuff still (i think i'm about half way maybe? im trying to not look things up and doing it blind on my first run through. it's hard to tell b/c i went hard on all the side quests and am now way over level for the msq)

the combat system is a little jarring at first and i still miss at least being able to switch to and play as party members if your character dies (instead of the god of war style of full wipe), but i've gotten used to it (it's more annoying for boss fights, regular combat it's very zippy and fun). the targeting at least on controller is kind of annoying sometimes- i'll think i'm pointing at one enemy only to have rook turn and fire at nothing or companions to hit an add instead of a boss. I wish we at least had more control over how it queued who it was hitting. some of the arenas are obnoxious design wise - there's bosses that teleport to you and they give you like a tiny little box to dodge around, not the most fun. i do like that you can punch way above of your weight class sometimes which reminds me of DAO a little bit (like how you'd just wander into a fight or hit a gong and be like oh no, those enemies have skulls over their heads, oh well YOLO). sometimes it doesn't work out but when it does it's very satisfying. It's nice to be able to conquer something mechanically even underleveled (smol fromsoft vibes) Having always been a big fan of the strange composition parties (i.e not just war/rogue/mage), i like that this is now even more viable (and not just me being cheeky "we're having a leather party!" of all squishy rogues). but like the main thing about bioware games is the companions/interpersonal shit and i'm enjoying the heck out of that .i only do main quests to get more side quests from companions (or more side quests in general so we can troll around for more banter). i like petting griffons (and cats and dogs) and playing games with manfred*. I wish the gift system was more interesting like DAO or DA2- i was so excited to see it again and then it was a little disappointing to have them barely react when you get them stuff.

my current fave party are rook and the poison boys (emmerich and lucanis) since they're a rogue too and we just stack necrosis, bleeds and other elemental effects on things till they disintegrate. i like the lighthouse, it feels much cozier than skyhold. I love that you can just wander up to companions having convos and awkwardly eavesdrop. I do miss the little interactions/quests you could get with cole esp*** i think the animations are a little lack lustery? Idk there's something with the face model morphs that sometimes feels weird but the voice acting is strong enough that I don't notice too much. i do miss some of the more bioware-y cheeky things like item descriptions or weird notes near random silly environmental tableaus (there's a little but i just want to read all the notes! there's some in the grey warden areas where i was just like WAIT I HAVE QUESTIONS but there was no plaque about them T.T). where are the stacks of cheese (i do appreciate the fereldens love cheese jokes tho and harding getting so excited when someone says something nice about ferelden) i was esp bummed that there were no random things to read in the black emporium and it's all codex entries instead (that's my favorite tiny bit in DA2 where there's junk you can click on and xenon says weird shit to you). i also wish more had been done with accents of npcs- like i wish all the antivans had similar accents or your crow rook had an antivan accent, stuff like that (having a lot of "ferelden" generic british accents everywhere is disappointing. takes you out of the immersion a lot) My biggest gripe is probably the pacing - I wish it had more horror/mystery pacing like dao and da2 had- the reason we're all scarred by the brood mother is b/c the build up to that was so so creepy (also the necromancer bit w/hawke's mum in DA2). They gave us time to be unnerved or afraid and I do feel the evanuris reveals have been a little rushed so you can't really feel that worried about them (some of the side quests get close to this but still not quite there**). I wish they'd let them breathe a bit more instead of rushing from one giant world changing event to the next. Some of the reveals have been not so great- like lore that the fandom has poured over for 15ish years explained in one line?? i wish there'd been more build up of rook as a character too, maybe even a time skip from a prologue to finding solas kind of thing. the first trailer made it seem like that's what was going to happen but then it in media res'd us in a strange way. the first 10 hours of the game are probably the weakest imho, it took it a bit to get rolling and feel more natural. I appreciate that the first major decision doesn't really let you scum save for it (bit of a jump scare for me lol).

I also don't really need this much varric anymore, i kinda wish we had a different narrator if we have to have one. He feels really awkward to just have there and not doing anything(and not just kill off or have something happen to him? he got stabbed by the dagger and harding only touched it is what i'm saying). at least let him get better pjs and slippers or something Idk it does feel like bits of previous iterations they were working on are still there and they don't completely serve the plot well. And ofc there's the decisions not meaningfully carrying over thing- which is a huge bummer. But in reality they've never been good at that- the characters from previous games we see in new games don't really carry through their plots/arcs that much (it's more like cameos or they're a new person now) and the world states are usually effectively the same just with aesthetic faction swaps. I was sort of hoping we'd get some solavellan SOMETHING but it doesn't look like we will get much at all past the stuff in minrathous. i feel like if they were going to only include the one choice it really should have had more impact on the story. (i am also still a clown and want to talk to solas constantly still even tho he has no reason to talk to my rook at all, i do not care, i love a sad woof. i wish we could just casually visit him in the fade. i wish we could switch to lavellan and visit him in the fade, idk something. need more gareth david-lloyd pls) the interpersonal character decisions have been the only ones that mattered much and then only within the constrains of their own games- the bigger world changing stuff is usually the illusion of choice. It would have been nice if they let us have one protagonist carry through but i can also see why they liked changing it up and felt stuck in that format. tl;dr: i'm really like it for what it is but it's def got flaws. Parts of it feel super polished while other bits do not- i think knowing how game dev works that they had to make decisions on what was going to get prioritized and some of it works while others not so much. I wish the pacing was better for sure but i love the characters/companions which is generally what bioware is best at. sad it won't get meaningful dlc, i don't really care about mass effect 5 tbqh. So far I like it better than inquisition for the most part- it feels like a bigger/more polished DA2 in a lot of ways if that makes any sense (with similar budget/pacing issues, but the environments are more fun). as i mentioned in my other post, i really appreciated the trans/non binary inclusion into the story/cc tho. like that can't be discounted, even if the rest of the game has issues. (all the holes in the narrative make me want to do fan art and fan fiction tho so idk, maybe that's an okay thing. maybe dragon age is best at inspiring us to sandbox around in it)

*side note, i am surprised at how much i like emmerich like holy shit what a lovely soft nerd of a man! going to have to play through a few times and romance him and also bellara for sure (romancing lucanis this time round) i find myself shipping my companions with each other more than i normally do too. I just want them to be happy! I wish they'd let us have polyamory, like i could see little polycules in this squad so easily. i need to give bellara hugs and lucanis head pats. taash deserves head pats too, but my rook will need a ladder.

**i am going to cry if they do with the griffons what i think they're doing with the griffons. like straight up, feeling like it was a cursed wish to have them now T.T *** do we think the caretaker is cole? the character design makes me wonder (like the hat/silhouette is very cole like but maybe not. maybe i just want it to be cole lol) there's def characters i want to see show up that aren't going to and then bioware is like "what about this fan favorite??" and i'm like "eh".

[grif-hawaiian-rolls]

Anyways the “essay” about the energy sword to character development pipeline below the cut

Ok so like yea tucker-crunchbite-junior is, obviously, the first instance of the sword-quest-companion theme/trio that im like, rattling in my head rn

Tucker finds the sword, crunchbite shows up and theres the “quest” that challenges tucker both in the false intent (you need to be the hero) and the true intent (SA leading to Junior which is not handled well but it IS important) which is a push against tucker’s character thus far in that he’s the comic relief, make everything a sex joke archetype— he doesnt take it seriously, he doesnt see himself as important beyond getting just enough recognition to be “hot” and now he’s made to be the so called “hero” and the true plot puts him in the one position that he probably never thought could be him. Bc he wants to get laid so… yeah. Pushes his character if you give it like three seconds of critical thinking and not just the standard “haha alien baby bullshit” (that said, i do enjoy fics that explore crunchbite more and play with the potential of the “joke” shitty character into someone less sinister, but im doin my best to stick to canon rn)

And JUNIOR, oh man, because theres the thing that really solidifies this for me like

The dude who doesnt care doesnt bother is all jokes and ‘man whatever’ energy is a dad, and it starts with him trying to avoid it but he really fucking quickly steps the FUCK up for Junior and its the start of his development that people are like “oh he learns to be a leader on chorus” which i mean kinda yeah but he never struck me as a Leader even on Chorus even tho he does decidedly lead, its not the same as when kimball leads or when wash leads or carolina

He’s leads as a dad bc he is a dad

Not always a good one, but he’s trying and yea sometimes that means being the asshole, sometimes that means screwing up but it also means you fucking care and you take responsibility and you put yourself in danger first (the rescue mission, leaving the lieutenants behind)

And that doesnt start on chorus! Its the most evident there sure but

it starts with junior

It starts with him going after tex to protect his son, it starts with him trying to be a diplomat so they stay together, in sending junior away so he is safe while tucker buys time protecting the temple, it STARTS with him looking at church and going “leave my kid out of this” and yeah the way rvb was written and approached does Not take that seriously bc it wouldnt and if it did it would be a very different show but the implications are there and its acknowledged with tucker’s photograph of junior with his 5th grade basketball team (“i know right? Who carries actual pictures anymore” -tucker) which i could go on about THAT too but suffice to say its very clear that tucker cares so gd much about his kid and yeah his character development isnt super linear but you can basically pinpoint when it starts with the sword and junior

The second run of this trio of things is actually grif which is admittedly, a stretch, a big ol reaching for straws (okay, TECHNICALLY grif is the third run, but i’ll address that in a minute) largely a stretch bc grif… does the pattern backwards

This IS S16 stuff so if ur a shisno paradox hater i respect that, i however am gnawing on it with everything i have and will be going feral so this is your warning thank u for reading the tucker side of it mwah appreciate ya

Anyways

Grif does his plot backwards during timetravel shenanigans

He gets the alien companion/friend who contrasts his character first in Huggins

Grif is a loyal friend, but he is lazy, even after s15’s breakdown and apparent change of tune, he’s still looking to take the path of least resistance, avoiding the call, trying to keep things from moving

Enter Huggins: zippy, full of energy, excitable and just so different in that she is not only so proactive she puts herself in danger (which helps everyone in the long run/plot but its the principle) but shes so fucking lonely

As far as she knows, her family is dead, except for muggins who is so dettached from her, he might as well be a coworker and not her brother

Compared to grif, who has a family even when he tries to push them away (the reds, the blues, KAIKAINA) but hates taking action

Huggins is the start for grif’s arc of “it sucks but someones gotta do it” which in their case is best shown as the trudge across the bottom of the english channel which is so fucking funny to me but it really pushes both of them and puts them firmly in the friends category

Huggins cant zip ahead without grif, grif cant stop moving because huggins wont let him, so they find their little balance of gas vs brakes and together they cruise along p well

The actual push of the “quest” is grif having to be the one who steps up (kinda like tucker but its to the left) he’s the one who starts getting everyone together again across the timeline, even if he is very,,,

Well he’s very Grif about it, but it is still fundamentally, the change in character

Tucker isn’t a always good dad, Grif isn’t always a good instigator of action

But theyre trying and theyre working on it and grif’s arc suffers a Little from being so late in the show and thus not having much of a parallel to pull on but you could argue he gets the parallel from s15 anyways with the refusal of the call (from fake church/loco) and rescue mission but i hesitate to call that a parallel bc its literally back to back but an argument could be made for it which i love

Enter part two: the alien quest giver

“Wait wasnt that huggins”

NOPE huggins was alien companion! The Bestie in grif’s case,

The alien fetch quest comes from atlas, in that stupid wishing sequence but cmon it wouldnt be rvb if the character development wasnt sandwiched inbetween obnoxious gags and stupidity

The quest is less important here admittedly bc again, with grif doing this in reverse its not the challenge to his principle character that it was for tucker, his connection to huggins was the challenge, and this becomes the final push into the development, the “you have a role, now play it” that gives grif the final shove into Doing Things literal!! And his prize? For this character development arc? An alien sword

And thus the inverse version reaches an end, sort of (im pissed that technically he loses his sword, im also ignoring that he loses it in canon bc he fucking earned it okay this is a bit of canon i will ignore and loophole my way around it)

And now we track back to Chorus and to the second iteration of the sword-quest-companion plot

Locus

Now okay i will admit this is conjecture and pepe-silvia-on-corkboard-with-red-string fuckery at this point but hear me out okay!

He gets the sword with Felix’s death. We know this. What we dont know is how the fucking hell he gets off Chorus! We just see him show up later with A’rynasea. The vaguely alien (maybe sentient?? AI? Its implied with the way he addresses her but we literally have her for like two episodes) ship that seems to be the driving force (literal) (bc shes his ship) behind his chosen redemption arc where he pushes himself to help others at no apparent benefit to himself, but because it is, and i quote “the right thing to do”

Arguably, Santa could be Locus’ quest giver, seeing as how he is the one who triggers the whole shift in view for Locus in the first place and that is, technically, what crunchbite does and what atlas finalizes for grif! But the problem is we simply dont have enough of A’rynasea to draw the parallel between her and Locus as personalities, as companions for it to work for me??? But that might just be me overthinking? But it does make Locus’ version is a bit messier depending on who you consider his quest-giver but as far as I’m concerned, he’s still on his quest snd its just up to interpretation if A’rynasea is his companion?? or if theres a secret third alien for Locus that we never wouldve seen even if they planned for that bc its red vs blue and im just delusional about locus and his role in plot and this is just me firing concepts blindly into the sky at this point like - yeah i could still theorize what kind of companion characterization i think locus would work well with bc its more about the wielder than the companion in this sense (sorry junior and huggins i love yall i promise) but thats a completely separate rant at this point and not nearly coherent enough at this exact moment to add it PLUS its ridiculously self indulgent and only marginally canon compliant/adjacent but i will never not be amused by this very specific plot beat happening enough to draw these parallels, as tenuous and vague as the parallels are

[ashwii]

Celestial AU FAQ

Usually I prefer pinning my favorite artworks to the top of my profile, but over the last couple weeks I've gotten MANY repeat questions about my rottmnt celestial AU. I never mind answering questions, but I want to limit how many asks I answer to keep everyone else's dashboard's in mind [i.e. I don't want to clog up other people's tumblr with several asks that have been answered in the past.]

Below is a list of general frequently asked questions regarding my celestial au. Even more detailed information and questions can be found in the "#celestialFAQ" tag on my blog.

What is the Celestial AU?

It's a ROTTMNT au where Leo, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey embody celetial bodies. Leo embodies the stars, Donnie embodies the Moon, Raph embodies the Sun, and Mikey embodies the comets.

Can you tell us more about what they are?

Leo is the stars — he overlooks the stars as a guardian figure. While he thinks of his stars as his children, he is also an embodiment of the stars — he IS the stars. They are one and the same.

The same goes for Mikey and his comets. Although, while Mikey specifically embodies and overlooks the comets, he also overlooks all them zippy lil' things in the galaxy [meteors, asteroids, etc.]

Donnie and Raph are a little different — Donnie specifically ONLY embodies Earth's moon, and is the overlooker of all the other moons in the universe. The same goes for Raph and Earth's Sun.

Are there any other characters in this AU [Splinter, April, Drax, Krang, etc]?

[As of writing this] The only other characters in this AU are April [an astronaut who works for NASA / an aspiring astronaut], and S.H.E.L.D.O.N. [a robot made of lost junk and lost space tech that Donnie found]. I do not plan for there to be any other characters in this au, as I mainly want to draw and focus on the turtles.

There have been lots of fun headcanons in the askbox about who else could be in the au and what they would embody, and I think that's great! I love all the fanart and creativity everyone is doing for this AU, I will never be mad at exploring fun ideas [I've even doodled some of these ideas for fun] — as for what is "canon" in the AU though, at the moment I'm going to keep it as the turtles, April, and S.H.E.L.D.O.N.

What's the lore behind this AU?

There is no real lore behind this AU, just a bunch of fun ideas in a fun concept. Lots of other people have had fun coming up with their own lore and ideas for this AU, and once again, I think that's great! There's so many ideas other people came up with that I love — but again, in terms of "canon" and what I'm willing to draw, there's no legitimate lore for this AU.

The Sun is also a star. Does that mean Sun!Raph has a special relation to Star!Leo in some way?

Yes! Leo and Raph have a very strong special connection in this AU because of this.

Do the celestials control what they embody?

Control isn't exactly the right word — say for Star!Leo, for example, he's more of a guardian figure to the stars. "Control" implies that the stars have no personality of their own whatsoever, but that's not exactly true. They almost have their own little life to them — like a healthy tree —that Leo can understand since the stars and Leo are one in the same.

What are Moon!Donnie's alternate phases?

Moon!Donnie's alters are Blood Moon, Harvest Moon, Blue Moon, and Super Moon. Moon!Donnie's design also changes some depending on the phase of the Moon [eg. During the Full Moon phase, Donnie has no shadow up his arms and legs. During the New Moon phase, Donnie is all encompassed in shadow].

Is there any more info about these phases?

During Donnie's Blood Moon phase, he tends to be a little more mischievous and violent. He's ready to kill, no questions asked.

During his Blue Moon phase, he's a little sadder than usual. He's not breaking down every minute or endlessly sobbing — he's more just a little blue (heh) and the unending river of tears just comes with the phase. He just needs some cuddles and comfort during this time <3

Harvest Moon Donnie is a happy lil guy! He's a little chipper and cuddly during this time, hapoy to help and talk with his brothers on end.

These phases don't COMPLETELY change his personality — he still the same Donnie, but just with little changes to his overall mood.

There are many more types/names for the Moon [Snow Moon, Worm Moon, Flower Moon, etc.] — will you be drawing those as designs for Moon!Donnie as well?

While I think I may sketch out some of them for fun, in terms of "canon" to the AU, I want to keep it limited to what I listed above in the previous question.

Are there any alternate versions of the other celestials?

Sun!Raph gets sun flares when he's upset, and I have a Nova!Leo design in the works. I haven't thought of any alternate versions for Comet!Mikey, but I don't think he needs one, haha.

What happens during an eclipse?

During a solar eclipse, Raph gives Donnie a hug from behind. During a lunar eclipse, I like to imagine that Donnie is hiding behind the earth because he ticked Raph off.

Can Star!Leo feel it when any stars die?

Yes, he does. I explained in much more detail in the "#celestialFAQ" tag, but when his stars die, it hurts him some emotionally and physically.

Whenever the Sun [Raph] would explode in the future, Star!Leo will be out of commission for a while because of how much it would hurt him.

What is Star!Leo's relationship with the stars?

Leo is the stars, point blank. He is the personification of them. He's all the stars, he is them, they are he. One and the same. BUT there's also a special relationship there — Leo looks at the stars like they're his children, almost. A very deep connection and love. The stars feel that deep love for Leo too, they see him as almost a guardian figure. They love him more than anything, and Leo knows that.

Now HOW can the idea that Leo looks at the stars like they're his children, and the idea that Leo is just straight up the personification of the stars (him being all of the stars) both be true at the same time? Ah — no real answer there. It just kind of is, and it's more of a feeling that I myself have. That's just the way that I personally feel Leo's relationship with the stars is, even if I'm never able to describe it quite perfectly, and even if it's confusing to everyone else lmao.

Do the celestial turtles still have their weapons like the canon turtles?

Yes they do — Star!Leo has katanas made of constellations, Moon!Donnie has his staff made of shadow, Sun!Raph's fists fire up, and Comet!Mikey's comets and meteors spin around him and he can shoot them where he pleased.

Is this AU meant to be accurate about how astrology and space works?

Not at all — there are a lot of inaccuracies in this AU. But what's the fun of making an au like this if I have to keep everything pinpoint accurate! This AU is for good, fun vibes, and it's ok if not everything matches up with exactly how space works.

Can I make fanart/fanfics for this au?

Yes, you can! If you do, please tag me and lmk, I'd absolutely love to see what you guys make. Oc's and fan characters are welcome as well.

[ofmermaidstories]

You have such a great grasp on dialogue. The way you weave the things that are being said with the body language and the actions of the characters flows so nicely. I struggle to not let my dialogue be a he said, she said type of deal so I was wondering if you had any tips? I really admire how you create such magic with your writing!!

Oh, shucks. 🥹 You flatter me. But—he said, she said can be really impactful!!! i don’t think you should consider it a struggle. 🥺 it’s so—zippy, and quick! good for funny scenes. 🥹 and if you’re in moments in your writing where you don’t want the dialogue to be so snappy, having your POV character just take note of how the other/s are saying what they are is a good way of grounding the scene. And obviously what they observe (or don’t observe!) is dependant on who they are. A more confident character might just directly meet the other’s gaze, head on, in a convo, while our shier friend might distract themselves with watching the other’s fingers fanning out on a table, or something. If they’re not people who are attracted to each other (thus making them more likely to clock tiny details) then maybe one character is watching the other’s face and feeling something like, disgust for how it’s moving, lmao. Or they’re looking beyond them, half listening, and missing the small, important details that body language can do to recontexualise a convo, like… shrugging, or raising an eyebrow. Play act! Have the conversation with yourself. Imagine you’re having it with someone you’re painfully in love with, or you can’t stand, or your best friend—do you relax? Do you tighten up? Adding that kind of detail is just about asking yourself a hundred different questions, and then testing out the answers. 🥹

[edgy-ella]

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice thoughts

Overall I really liked it! This is definitely Burton’s best outing in years. His signature quirky sense of humor is back, and it’s got some fun performances and a nice blend of practical effects and CGI. Go see it if you can.

From here on out I’m gonna get into spoiler territory so proceed with caution.

This movie along with the original Beetlejuice have made me realize that one of Burton’s unsung strengths as a director is his strong pacing. Both movies are very zippy, never lingering on one shot or scene for too long. That’s a good thing, too, because I don’t think this movie would’ve worked otherwise. The script juggles a lot of characters, old and new, and subplots that don’t tie in very well to each other, leading to a climax that feels like everyone lining up to get a slap in the face before exiting stage left. Burton’s directorial touches—snappy pacing and cartoony German Expressionism visuals—are what make the movie work.

There’s some sequel gap syndrome at play here but it’s not very distracting. I think it helps that there is a huge time skip between the two movies rather than something like Psychonauts 2 which takes place literally the next day after the first game ends. You don’t really question how Beetlejuice unshrunk his head or how he has a bunch of other shrunken head people working for him now; so much time has passed that you can just sort of infer it on your own. That being said, the movie seems to have abandoned the concept of afterlife social workers all being suicide victims.

There is meta humor but it’s all very subtle. It’s never a big punchline where the actors pause for the audience to laugh, it’s always incorporated into the dialogue fairly naturally and there for people in the know to chuckle at. One character says that she’s “never doing Disney again” while talking about Halloween costumes. Neither of my friends picked up on this bit, but I got a nice giggle out of that one. Like you go Tim you’re finally out of your abusive relationship with the mouse.

For those of you that have seen the musical, it is a little distracting early on in the movie because it seems like Lydia and Astrid’s character arc is the exact same one that Charles and Lydia go through in the musical. The kid’s got a dead parent and living parent won’t talk about them, which becomes a source of tension. Astrid doesn’t go running into the Netherworld to find her dad like Lydia does for her mom in the musical, but strangely enough, she just…kinda bumps into him? It’s very strange. He’s working for customs in the afterlife and they just so happen to pass by each other as Astrid is nearly sent to the great beyond. I’m too tired right now to go into what this kind of thing means thematically.

Jenna Ortega gives a good performance as Astrid, but I wasn’t really sold on her character. I appreciate that she’s not just Lydia 2.0, but the Snarky Politically Active Teen Who’s Above All Of The Superficial Blonde Girls™ has been done to death already. I don’t see her having the same cultural impact that Lydia had when the first movie came out.

Monica Bellucci’s character, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife Delores, honestly feels like trailer fodder. She suffers the most from the movie’s lack of focus, especially for how much she’s hyped up at the beginning. Once again, she gives a good performance, but the script isn’t doing her any favors. Bizarrely enough, they didn’t really keep the gag of Beetlejuice keeping her chopped off finger/wedding ring? She’s still missing a finger, but she doesn’t get it back from Beetlejuice. It’s just there with the rest of her. She staples it back onto her body the same time she does her torso and legs.

One of the writers definitely has a pregnancy kink. There’s a couple of those “the writer’s poorly disguised fetish” moments in the movie, which honestly got a laugh out of me for how blatant they were. Congrats guys, you got to see Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega give birth. There’s also an inflation scene, but that only happened once, not twice.

Lydia is shown taking either antidepressants or schizophrenia meds, which her fiancé throws in the trash in like the first scene of the movie which just made me think of that scene in the Fnaf movie where Vanessa throws Mike’s sleeping pills in the lake.

On a similar note, there’s a shot that is more or less frame for frame that scene from the Casper movie where Kat and Casper start levitating while they’re dancing. It even serves basically the same narrative purpose. Seeing it gave me whiplash. You can’t do this to me Tim.

Kind of related to the meta humor, but I got a kick out of how they wrote Jeffery Jones (the actor that played Charles) out of the movie. I mean, they definitely had to, but still. We see Charles’ death through a pretty goofy stop motion segment, and in the afterlife he’s walking around without a head (presumably played/voiced by a different actor). Conversely, the Maitlands (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) don’t show up at all. Lydia says that they “found a loophole and were able to pass on” and that’s it. I wish they got a stop motion segment the same way Charles did.

Bob is my goat. He’s very Sir Dan-coded. He did not deserve the fate this movie gave him.

I wouldn’t say I prefer this movie over the original, but my god, it’s leaps and bounds better than all the remakes, reboots, and gap-sequels we’ve been getting for the last ten years. It could’ve benefitted from a tighter script, but in a movie like this that’s not really what matters. It’s dark, it’s funny, it’s charming, it’s memorable. It doesn’t feel forced or corporate the same way that movies like Hocus Pocus 2 or that new Indiana Jones movie do. It’s worth a watch.

[riptidesblog]

Ninjago hcs

Kai's(Smith-Jiang family's) eye color hcs:either amber,brown or sea-green eyes just like Maya's,while Nya has brown(I think this one is canon) and Ray has amber/brown eyes

After unmerging with the sea Nya's eyes started changing colors to match the nearest body of water:sea-green when near the ocean,grayish when near something like a bottle of water or sink water and etc.They will also turn glowing blue when she uses her powers on a large scale (they once turned blood-red bc she was treating an injury and blood has water in it)

Post-Crystallized:sometimes parts of her body would turn into liquid during the adjusting to being a human again(during which her eyes would be white like the foam)

After unmerging with the sea her powers became even more stronger and easier to control.After all,Nya was one with them for an entire year

The reason Nya couldn't get out the water in Jay's lungs during Seabound was because all of it kept responding,including blood and the water in Jay's body and she couldn't risk drawing out too much water and/or blood to help Jay

Pixal has Jay saved in her contacts as "extra charger"

The pink clothes Nya wore during Prime Empire shorts were given to her by Cole(they used to be Lilly's)

Nya makes the best coffee,not even Zane can match her skill there and surprisingly enough, Cole is a close second when it comes to drinks

The public didn't know Nya used to be Samurai X until a new one showed up and ninja had to answer some questions during interviews

Kai is a history nerd

All the ninja know basic first-aid,though Nya and Zane are the best medics.Kai is/was good with taking care of dragons

For a while after he learned that he was a nindroid,Zane didn't know how his body functioned beyond the basics.It's after HoT that he started learning more about himself instead of relying on Pixal,Jay or Nya all the time

All the ninja wear a bracelet that is made of interwined threads of their colors (gray for Nya,purple for Pix,gold for Wu and the rest are obvious)

Nya loves animals(this one is based on Wu's teas ep and how she seemed to like Zippy in the Island)

All the ninja+Pix see Wu as a father figure(even if some of them already have fathers)

Same with Misako

Mrs.Benedict constantly scares Lloyd by appearing out of nowhere in the weirdest places

Mrs.Benedict loves Nya and Pixal the most out of the entire group

After Seabound-Crystallized Nya always smells like sea and the salty air of the beach

Wu and Misako are best friends(the love triangles/angles in ninjago are a pain,so I'm ignoring them),but when it comes to history they're rivals worse than Oni and Dragons,FSM and Overlord combined.It's always fun for the ninja to watch their debates(especially when Misako is right bc those are the times when Wu says that he was there when the events happened)

Garmadon and Maya were best friends,same with Ray and Wu

Wu is Kai's godfather,Garmadon and Misako are Nya's

Wu anonymously helped Smith-Jiang siblings when he heard that their parents were gone,but he didn't take them in for two reasons: he wasn't doing well after Garm's banishment and he didn't have a legal identity to prove that he could take the siblings(not that it would have stopped him,but the first point stands)

Jay and Nya weren't in a relationship until s6, they weren't a couple during or before s3,but did go on dates or hangouts

Nya has a green burn-scar thing from Tiger Widow venom

Nya misses being a part of the sea and hates herself for it

Zane sometimes missed the cold of the Never-realm and how close he was to his element as Ice Emperor

Nya still has marks all over her body from merging with the sea and sometimes they glow

Elemental masters are naturally more durable and stronger than humans(the reason Cole managed to survive the Oni clouds) and once they master their powers,they age slower too (they look younger than they actually are)

[sirfrogsworth]

Wishlist Haul

All I asked for were pants, and those are coming Saturday. But you all came through in a big way with my wishlist and helped me solve some problems that have really been bugging me lately.

One of my biggest current issues is my decision to use my M1 MacBook Air as my main computer until I can move my PC upstairs at some distant time in the future. Which means I need to ask a lot more of it. And it is capable, as these Apple Silicon devices are amazing and very zippy, but I only got 256 GB of storage because I thought this would just be a secondary computer while I was taking care of my dad.

So I need storage. And if you do photography and use Lightroom, you know you need *fast* storage. In the days of spinny disc drives, going back and forth between images was maddeningly slow. I already hate the process of culling photos and picking the best ones. And sometimes you'd need to find 5 winners out of a few hundred. And when it took 3 seconds to switch between every photo, I wanted to die. And honestly, it could still be better.

But one of the best solutions is a super fast SSD. Which I had. I bought it right before my parents got especially ill and was planning to install it in my PC. But my priorities changed and I just never found the energy.

The problem is that was an internal NVME SSD. I needed it to be external.

Which is where this little thingie comes in.

This is an NVME enclosure, and if you are looking for cheap, fast external storage, this is so much better than those external SSDs they overcharge for. For $200 they give you a 2TB drive that can read about 2000 MB per second. Or you can get a 2TB NVME and this enclosure for the same price and get 3000 MB per second. Not only that, but it is upgradeable. In a year when 4TB is $100, you can plop that in. And the Mac's Thunderbolt 4 has a max speed of around 5000 MB/s, so there is room to improve there as well. Though sometimes advertised speeds are not reality speeds.

The only thing you need to be aware of is these drives run hot. You're going to think there is something wrong with them. Like, they top out at 90C. Which is nearly 200 degrees in freedom units.

I wanted a convenient way to mount my drive, but I didn't want 200 degrees on the back of my screen, so... MAGNETS!

And I can stack a few more if that section starts feeling too hot.

So, I have that problem solved. I can now use this as my main computer and work on my photography.

Next up... fashion!

I'm going out more and I want to look a little more presentable. I thought these two tone shirts looked a little more fashionable. And they are very comfortable too. I have a red one that I think I'm going to wear on my trip. I know you can't see the two tone well in the picture, so here is the product photo of the red one.

Next problem?

Well, it's maybe not a problem so much as something cool I wanted. A black light!

My mom had all of this uranium glass and I had no idea my salt shaker was marginally radioactive all these years. I really wanted to take a proper photo of some of the glass before it all gets sold at auction. So this should be a fun experiment.

I will say, if you don't have uranium glass, don't get a black light. You will want to burn your house down. It does not matter how clean you think you got something... you didn't clean it enough. And I have all of this dry flaky skin on my feet. It doesn't hurt. It doesn't bother me. You can't even really see it unless you look really close. But when I shined the light on my feet they looked like they had some undocumented disease. I will not be sharing a photo of that.

But the depression glass, that's super neat.

Some proper photos coming soon I hope. Maybe after my trip.

Next problem!

My key fob. This thing is a piece of shit.

Even if it looks cool under a black light, it is THE WORST.

It's cheap plastic, it takes a stupid watch battery, the symbols on the buttons all wore off. And all of that I could handle, but for some reason this fob has an effective range of about 2 feet. I literally have to be standing next to the door before it will work.

I had a black fob that worked much better, only the plastic casing was falling apart. But I taped it up as best I could and hoped it would not fall apart. Then I went to get my tires changed and they needed the fob to do some special reset of the pressure sensors and the battery died before they could. I went home to try and change the battery, and the entire thing basically disintegrated on me.

The inside looks like this.

The battery retention contact is held on by a tiny dab of solder. And if you pull the battery up even a little, it snaps off. And that's what happened. And to make matters worse, the rubber buttons were falling apart and the unlock button just... fell off.

So I was either stuck with the 2 foot range green one or I needed a new fob. Thankfully, they are only 20 bucks for 2 on Amazon. Unfortunately you need a dealer or an auto locksmith to program them. The lowest quote was $100 for about 5 minutes of work. The dealer actually wanted to sell me the fob as well, which they quoted as $150 for ONE. Same cheap plastic piece of shit and everything.

So, I got all of the parts from the broken fob and I hot glued that battery contact back into place and I transplanted that into a shiny new casing.

Works just like new. The buttons feel much better, I can actually see the symbols, and it has a range of at least 100 feet. And that hot glue isn't going anywhere. Changing the battery might be an issue, but these lasted several years.

Next problem!

An intervalometer is a fancy shutter button for a camera that allows very long exposures. It is detached from the camera so you don't shake anything and it needs a backlit screen because if you are using it, you are most likely in the dark.

My intervalometer is about 12 years old and uses another dreaded watch battery. And the backlight on the screen seems to be dead. So it is pretty much useless.

But look at this!

The light even works in the... well, light! And it takes normal batteries. Seriously, watch batteries need to stay in watches.

I don't know if I will get to take a long exposure in Florida, but I want to have this with me in case I do.

Next problem!

This one I actually solved on my own. But I found these stainless iron (yes, iron!) shims and I covered them with black tape and now all of my most used kitchen items never take up counter space.

Yes, I use magnets and hot glue to solve most of my problems.

Next problem!

My garage door is not very smart. And the remote control for it is huge and does not fit in my man purse.

So I downsized the remote.

But I wanted to fix the non-smart thing as well. A while back my brother got into my garage without me knowing. He must have taken a remote of his own. And I really don't feel like figuring out how to change the frequency, so I now have a sensor that lets me know when the door is open with a phone notification. Beyond that, I can open or close the door from my smartphone from anywhere. And I can give access to anyone with a smartphone in case of an emergency.

I will say, this company is really paranoid about people being crushed by garage doors. The instructions tell you to put up this sign in your garage...

And if you use the app to close the door, you get a light show with annoying beeping...

And I know that these accidents happen in real life. But whenever I think about how that could actually happen, all I can imagine is that scene in Austin Powers...

In any case, I am really glad I have this now. And I also like that if I forget to close the garage door, I can check the app and not have to get up to do it.

OH! I almost forgot. If I want, I can have Amazon place packages inside my garage.

Next problem!

What in the heck do I need galvanized steel plates for?

In product photography you need a diffusion panel called a scrim. If you try to buy one of these already made, they are hundreds of dollars. They are mostly made for movie productions, and those items always have inflated costs.

So most product photographers make their own out of tracing paper or a special plastic called Translum. It's $80 per roll, but lasts forever. I used to hang my scrims from the ceiling. But you can't really angle or move them, so you have to move the object you are photographing instead. Which is just a backwards way to work. So I invented my own scrims with two strips of very thin wood, metal chip clips, these little plastic feet that held up plexiglass barriers during COVID. And to weigh everything down... steel plates.

This is version 1.0 where I glued the plastic rather than affixing it with the chip clips.

The clips work much better and allow me to put different weights of plastic on, or even double plastic, for more or less diffusion. And I ended up not needing that board at the bottom which allows me to curve it as well.

And these scrims let me take this photo...

It's called graduated lighting and it makes things look neat.

I also got a backpack for my trip and shorts, but I am going to forego an explanation of those.

To all that helped, thank you so much. I hope you can see I am putting everything to good use.

[thirteen-jades]

Finally got around to playing Armored Core 6 (thanks @self-loving-vampire!) and I’m loving it so far. The movement is a hell of a lot of fun, which is a good sign as movement is usually the first thing I start complaining about in a game (this is mostly a me thing, I just like being fast and zippy and it’s very easy for games to start feeling sluggish if they have fairly normal movement). The weapons feel nice, I’m getting a feel for how it plays, and I quite like the aesthetics. Mechs are cool!

I had some vague knowledge of the game before playing but even so I wasn’t really prepared for just how blunt and on the nose it is about the fact that you’re the bad guy here. In one of the early missions, you come upon a pack of trash mobs and a radio line plays of some guy talking to his comrades. He says something to the effect of "there's just one of them, we can do this!" in the wavering voice of a man who has never fired a gun before trying to find any amount of confidence before he puts his life on the line for his home. And then you unceremoniously blow him and all his friends straight to hell and move on. It doesn’t even tell you which enemy was talking, he’s just another faceless mook for you to brush aside on your way to destroying the objective.

Every now and then one of them will ask why you're doing this, and there's literally no answer to give them even if you could. The game doesn't even pretend that you're fighting a ~just war~ or something, they're just like "yeah, these guys are the Rubicon Liberation Front. They're getting in the way of our corporation exploiting their world, go destroy them" and then you do. And it's not even very difficult. They've got terrible equipment and no training whatsoever and just don't stand a chance. But you keep getting to hear their comms, and those comms keep painting an ever clearer picture that you’re not a soldier fighting a war so much as a grown adult beating a bunch of children to death. Nobody tries to justify what you're doing in any way whatsoever, your handler in the intro makes a comment like "y’know, if we make this job work then we'll strike it rich and you can buy your life back" and that's it. Regardless of what “buy your life back” is referring to here, it’s plain that you’re in this purely for selfish motives.

And that’s to the extent that 621 is even deciding to do this at all. So far it’s also done a great job of dehumanizing the main character completely, and you never really make any decisions beyond which of two missions to do first and how to build your AC. People keep referring to them as their handler’s dog, nobody expects them to have anything to say or any opinion whatsoever, and that’s great because as a matter of fact they don’t have any opinion about any of this. They’re just here to blow up whatever they’re told to.

The most memorable instance of this so far, and what really made it clear that this isn’t just the game not wanting to voice the MC or something, was one of the early mission briefings. You’re tagging along with some ACs from one of the corps, and the guy in charge of their in-house fighters at the end of the briefing says something to the effect of “now sound off!”, followed by a beat of dead silence. Then he says “eh, good enough” and ends the call. This makes it clear this isn’t just a pre-recorded message; it’s someone talking to 621, expecting a response, and not getting anything. It’s a little detail that I laughed about in the moment, but I really like how telling it is about your character as a person.

[ginger-snap-makes-art]

Lucky: Tales From the Backlot

Lucky

Memoirs from the Backlot

By: Ginger Snap

1914

There are many things that one may constitute as ‘lucky’. It is lucky, for instance, to find 10 dollars on your way to work. To see your cat sleeping comfortably on the neighbors porch after he took off through the open front door. To have a warm, safe home and parents who love you. To not be turned into an immortal creature of the night by a nefarious nosferatu with a textile mill to fill, and to love someone very dearly and openly without societal or personal repercussions.

If you were to judge one’s luck on those factors, Benoit Blanchette (or Blanchet, if you asked him how to spell it) and William O’Reilly were possibly the two most unlucky people alive.

But, none of that was enough to ruin them. After all, the two had managed to find each other after all their time apart, find new friends and new found glory as a preteen pair of vampire abolitionists, and even began to heal the many wounds their impossible childhoods set upon them. Now, decades away from where they had begun, the two maintained steady employment, changing the world in whatever ways they could through film making.

Benny winding days away rearranging scenes and talking actors through motivations to characters lives they would never fully want to understand. William spending hours upon hours putting pen to paper-dutifully writing dialogue and prose burning with love and longing and passion that would put a tear in the eye of any easily impressed actresses on set. Then, every night they could look forward to coming to their small, one room cabin and sharing their woes and wonders from the quick days around the lot. Talking long into the night about new ideas, old friends and adventures journeyed on together, and sometimes just lying next to each other-both feeling content in each other's warmth and company.

To spend not a day apart from one another, and to feel fulfilled in their livelihoods was to feel quite lucky indeed.

It’s a shame that their luck always found a way to run dry.

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

“Two days???” William repeated, incredulous to his boss as he reiterated the information for the 4th time.

“He’ll be completely safe, we just need him for a meeting in Chicago with some benefactors. They’re very surprised we’d even allow a vampire on set and we just think Benoit will be a better representative for the company. He’s less….”

“Tall?” Benny offered.

“…intimidating. You’re very good with the people on set but I worry your stature and quiet demeanor would make them nervous. Also Zippy stares and it frightens people.” Mr. Horsley finished as delicately as possible. “Anyway, we can’t force you to do anything but we can’t afford to take you both. It’s Benny or I have nothing.”

William wanted to call bull. He was just as charming as Benny. Sure, Benny had those soft, deep eyes and that warm country twang and that bravado that came so naturally when telling a story you’d think he was born for entertainment; but he also had a propensity for putting his foot in his mouth. Like everything else about him Benny would let his words get too fast for his own good and wind up saying something that would earn him a death glare at best and gunshot to the chest at worst. What if he wasn’t there to stop any problems, what would happen then? God he couldn’t handle it if Benny got himself hurt because he wasn’t there to balance out all his loud bombastic energy.

“But I-“

“William,” Benny interjected. “It’s fine. I can handle two days with Horsley and a few other oldies.” He gave William an assuring smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “I’ll be okay.”

“Well…if you’re sure, I trust you…” William replied nervously.

Benny threw another shirt in his suitcase. “Alright, I’ll call that packed. When do I get going?” He asked, pulling the bag over his shoulder.

“The car is just about packed up-just give the driver your bag on your way out and we’ll leave in 30.”

Benny’s face paled a little. At the best of times moving machines made Benny ill. Trains, boats-even carousels got his stomach to lurch uncomfortably-but cars were the absolute worst. They were too slow for him and made little rocking and ricketing motions that felt so unnatural. But, Benny couldn’t afford to get lost running there himself and the producers felt the need to ‘coach’ Benny on proper etiquette for the meeting. He supposed that you could only tell so many stories about turning well-to-do mages into paste before someone got nervous introducing you to wealthy folk.

William nudged him and gave him a look, silently asking:

“You gonna be okay?”

Benny swallowed hard and nodded. Horsley turned around and left the room, leaving the two alone.

“Hey, you know you don’t have to do this, right?” William asked.

“I know but, it’ll be good for the company. They’ve done a lot for us, I can manage this.”

“This is the longest we’ll have been apart since….” William trailed off.

He didn’t need to finish, they both knew what he was going to say.

“Yeah…I know…but, hey! We’ve been through worse! We can handle two days away from each other! Hell, it’ll probably be good for us: we need to know we can still survive on our own, right?” Benny asked.

William felt his throat tighten a little. He couldn’t even fathom going through a whole day with his best friend being there at some point. It wasn’t like they were in danger or anything, not like before they joined Nester studios. But still, he couldn’t imagine going to sleep alone tonight. Part of him did worry like he’d somehow be unable to make it through two boring days alone on a quiet, unassuming film set in the middle of nowhere. Stupid as that felt.

“Yeah. Yeah that’ll be good.” He finally responded.

If Benny felt any more confident than William he might’ve commented on how he obviously didn’t believe that, but it felt a little like calling the kettle black. So instead he changed the subject.

“Alright, well, since I’m gonna be gone and I do most of the chores around here I should probably run down what needs to be done.”

William groaned. “Oh come onnnnnn, they can’t wait a few days?” William hated doing chores. Anytime he tried anything around the house it was like his brain leaked out of his ears and he would manage to screw the simplest things up. He just wasn’t built for domestic labor. Thank god Benny was so naturally good at it and got a weird joy out of keeping a home, so it never seemed to matter.

Benny rolled his eyes. “No, dummy. We got a schedule to keep up with, if we give up on it now we’ll never get back on it. It’s just a few simple tasks: I think you’ll manage while I’m gone. Yer the smartest guy I know, after all.”

“…how am I a dummy and ‘the smartest guy you know’?”

“I don’t know a lot of people.” Benny shot back a shrug.

“On second thought, why don’t you up the trip to a week?”

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

Benny waved one final goodbye to William and Zippy before hopping in the back seat of the car and speeding off onto the main road.

Zippy and William watched the car disappear into the distance until only dust clouds remained.

“Alright Zippy, it’s just you and me for the next two days! What’s the play? Chess? Darts? You wanna get really into wood carving and then give up on it a week in?” William asked.

“Oh.” Zippy scratched the back of his neck. “I actually have plans.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah I’m gonna go dig a really deep hole in the desert with some of the grips.”

“Why?”

“Seemed fun.”

“...Can I come?”

“I don’t really think it’s my place to invite anyone…”

“Oh…well…have fun?”

“Yeah…”

The two stood next to each other awkwardly for a few moments before Zippy cleared his throat and walked away to find his hole digging buddies.

“Welp….guess I could get started on that chore list…or maybe I’ll get a head start on my script revisions for Saturday? I’ve got this, I’m not gonna let a little loneliness get me down! I’m also gonna stop talking to myself…publicly…like a total freak…” William’s eyes glanced around at the few crew members giving him confused looks before spinning on his heel and walking inside.

“Okay, I have two days to revise my latest script, do the laundry, sweep the floors, and clean those blood reserve bottles that have definitely coagulated by now. And then I’ve just got to fill the rest of the time with super cool, fun stuff that I’ll brag to Benny about. Piece of cake!”

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

Two Days Later

Benny stopped on his heels in front of the one room cabin he called home, panting slightly after his journey. It may have been a long run home, but he could not handle being in that car the whole back. For multiple reasons. He rubbed a hand on his face roughly, trying to steady his breaths and soften the obvious anger lines on his face as he approached the front door.

He reached for the knob, but stopped when he heard William talking on the other side.

��Honestly, who do they think they are? ‘Oh, Benoit is just less intimidating than you!’ Bullshit, what does he have that I don’t? Of course between me and Benny it’s always him, isn’t it? Always the talented one, always the charming one-just so lucky to be so blessed. Bet he’s having a wonderful time right now schmoozing rich bastards out of their fortunes with that stupid country accent and those big, ridiculous stories. I’d have stories too if I wasn’t rotting in a mill for a fucking decade. But no, instead Benny is out there living it up while I’m stuck here like a loser who can’t shake out a fucking plot to save his life! God, why is script writing so fucking hard?!” Benny heard the clattering of something crashing against the wall.

Tears burned the corners of his eyes. He took a shaky breath, steeled his nerves, wiped his face, and turned around. If that was really how he felt then he wouldn’t bother burdening him with an early arrival. As he went to step down the front steps he lost his footing, cursing as he tumbled into the dirt below. As he struggled to his feet he heard the sound of the door swinging open and William was standing above him on the porch. As if he didn’t feel small enough already. Ugh, and his hair was down. He had no idea why but somehow William’s hair being in that messy, unruly state of curls and frizz like he had just woken up from a hard night's sleep always made his mouth go dry and-

“Benny? I thought you weren’t supposed to be back for another 8 hours.” William’s voice broke through his racing thoughts.

“Meetin’ ended early. I chose not to stay behind for the drive back. Ran home as fast as I could.” He hoped his words didn’t sound too bitter. “You seemed busy so I figured I would come back later.” He dusted off his jacket and started walking away.

“No!” William yelped suddenly. He paused awkwardly, seemingly surprised at his own outburst. “I mean, uh, I just wasn’t expecting you so soon but it’s really great to have you back early.”

Benny scowled. “You sure? I would think my ‘stupid country accent’ would just distract you while you tried to work.” He spat.

“Oh…you heard that?” William looked at the ground shamefully. “Benny, I didn’t mean any-“

“I’m sure you didn’t.” Benny cut him off haughtily. “I’m sure you didn’t mean for me to overhear any of it.”

“Benny, come on I was frustrated. You know I don't actually think any of that stuff.”

Benny huffed and crossed his arms, looking away.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure the only reason Horsley picked me over you was because the old rich bastards had way more fun making fun of me than they would’ve anybody else. Just one more person out there who can feel better knowin’ they’re smarter than me, right?”

“That’s ridiculous-Horsley is a nice guy, there’s no way he’d bring you along just to throw you to the dogs.”

“If he wanted someone that makes vampires look good he would’ve just taken you.” He sat down on the front steps, head in his hands. “God, I’m such an idiot; I seriously believed that someone saw somethin’ worth seein’ in me. Somethin’ besides a complete joke anyway.”

William sat down next to him, unsure of what to do.

Benny looked up at him, wearily. “ Do you have any idea what it’s like bein’ friends with someone who’s better than you at everythin’ that matters?”

William looked back at him, incredulous. “Are…are you fucking serious right now?”

Benny raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Everyone knows it-you’re the one who’s got everything going for him. Looks, smarts, talent, charm. I’m just the guy who can run fast and is lucky to be your friend.”

William’s eyes narrowed. “ That’s not funny, Benoit.”

“What’s not funny?”

“This. This bullshit you’re pulling on me right now.” He stood back up, fiddling with his needle as he paced. “Do I know what it’s like? As a matter of fact, I do. I’m not an idiot, Benny. There’s no way you don’t notice the way every crew member is enthralled by your stories, how everyone seems to be saved just in the nick of time by your oh-so-sage wisdom about cowboy bullshit, how every two bit actress on set blushes and giggles around you like a braindead, lovesick, basketcase!” He made a frustrated, strangled noise and flopped back down. “Meanwhile, I’M the loser who writes crappy, pulpy, mediocre romance he’s never actually experienced and gets left behind when it’s time to do any of the real studio changing work.”

“Oh don’t give me that.” Benny responded, face flush. “I’m a novelty to our crew, your writin’ is the only thing good and earnest enough to keep these films afloat with all the trashy actors comin’ and goin’, and don’t get me started on all the actresses who I have to hear gush about that ‘tall, mysterious writer’ who gives them their scripts every week!” He groaned. “I’m not even a good director, I’m just a lousy stagehand with a fancier title to make me feel better-you’re the real creative genius.”

“You’re plenty creative.”

“Name one thing I do that isn’t yell ‘cut’ and ‘roll’ and do whiskey runs for Fahrney.” Benny grumbled.

William paused. He hadn’t expected to bring this one up today but he supposed if they were truly airing it all out.

“...You used to play music a lot.”

“Psh. I knew, like, one song.”

“Oh come on, don’t lie to me. I know you wrote some songs yourself. You just don’t ever share them for some reason.”

The color drained from Benny’s face. “How did you- Y-you haven’t heard any of ‘em, did you?”

“No. But I know you write them sometimes in your journal-don’t look at me like that; I know you journal when you think no one’s around, dumbass-and you hum when you write music.”

Benny stared down at his boots. William took his lack of response as clearance to continue.

“I miss your music. What happened to it?”

“Honestly? My guitar broke in Virginia when we had to fight through that swarm of-”

“giant bees with the silver tipped stingers, oh yeah. You broke it over that mage’s skull.” William finished.

“Well he was gonna get the jump on you; I couldn’t let that happen!”

William smiled for the first time since the conversation started, but quickly waned again. “ So, why didn’t you ever get a new one?” He asked. “It’s been years.”

“Didn’t think anyone cared for it much. Gets disheartenin’ after a spell to keep doing somethin’ that everyone around you doesn’t seem to like.”

“I liked it.”

“Why? You don’t listen to music much. Last time we were in the city you hated all the music we heard. Said it was just noisy bullshit.”

“I don’t know…I guess it’s different when it’s you.”

It didn’t seem possible for Benny’s face to get hotter and redder. He said nothing. William shuffled in closer, placing his bad hand on top of Benny’s. Benny gently brought it up to his bad cheek, and the two sat there, any remaining frustration from their spat evaporating and disappearing like mist in the wind.

“We can’t do this to each other.” William said. “We can’t get this jealous of each other. It’s not fair-it just hurts us. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my fill of leaving you with scars.”

Benny pressed William’s hand harder against his cheek, like he was trying to memorize the feeling of his coarse, black palm contoured against his skin. Normally he’d flinch or wince if that part of his face was touched, but if it hurt he didn’t show any sign of it.

“I’d do anything to keep from leaving you hurt again, Willie. It’s just so hard to see myself as someone with anythin’ when I’m standin’ next to you, you’re so just so…lord I can’t think of a word strong enough to describe what you are. Some days I wake up and I think I must be the luckiest guy in America to be lyin’ next to you.”

“Psh, you’re one to talk.” William smiled, heat burning at his cheeks. “Some days when I wake up next to you and see your face it’s like I’m staring at the sun…but if it didn’t hurt to look directly at the sun, I mean. It’s not that you’re hard to look at, it's that you’re-I’m getting off track.” He took a breath. “I can’t believe I know someone like you. You’re not just something Benny-you’re everything I want.” William paused, eyes flickering with the recognition of what he’d just said, muscles tightening. “ Uh, to be. Everything I want to be.”

“Even with my stupid accent?” Benny laughed, somehow missing the obvious faux pas just committed in front him.

William’s body untensed. “It’s like honeyed silk on my ears.”

“I don’t think that makes sense.”

“It doesn’t have to, it sounds nice.”

“Well you would know-you’re the talented writer here.” Benny smirked up at him, like he had just won an argument William didn’t know they were still having.

William laughed, playfully shoving him away. “Fine, you got me. Maybe I’m not the worst at my job or something, I don’t know.”

The two sat there for just a moment more, wondering if the air felt this warm and comfortable to anyone else in the world right now.

“Alright, enough sappy shit, I need a drink and a change of clothes.” Benny stood up, preparing to head inside.

William shot up, looking more nervous than ever. “Uhhhhh, you sure you aren’t in the mood to go visit Zippy or something first? I hear he dug a really deep hole while you were gone!”

“What?”

“Yeah I don’t know. Or maybe we could-”

“William,” Benny stopped him. “Did you not get all the chores done?”

“Well, I, uh-”

“Come on buddy, it’s okay.” Benoit assured, opening the front door. I'm sure what you did manage was plenty goo-oh dear lord what did you do?”

“I can explain.”

“I have no idea how you possibly could in a way that makes sense but I am dyin’ to know what’s on the ceilin’.”

“That would be our bedsheets.”

“...You know what? If I had seen this before I overheard you talking shit I might’ve been more less upset because if I managed to do this to the house in two days I’d have a breakdown too.”

William laughed nervously. “At least you know for sure there’s something important that you’re always going to be better at than me?” He shrugged.

Benoit blinked a few times.

“Are you mad? You can be mad.” William winced.

Benny’s eyes scanned the room, still in disbelief before a cackle escaped his throat. William looked down at him as he started to double over with laughter and smiled, only one thought going through his head.

“How did I get so lucky?”

[androgynousblackbox]

Welcome to Hazbin Vale. 6 [Appleradio, Radioapple]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2qk6VZokx0 Song on the background] "Greetings, everyone, good morning to all of you. Apologies for the late broadcast, there was a sudden issue I had to take care of that couldn't wait. Now thankfully it's all sorted out now so there is no need to talk more about it.

In fact, the less we talk about it all the better. If we can just pretend that never happened at all that would be just peachy. I am a profesional after all. A profesional who would never mix up personal affairs into his job.

Absolutely not. You all can trust on that.

But why dwell on nonsense when we can start the day at last? I hope our selection of music while you were waiting on your dear radio host was at the very least tolerable for all of our listeners. I didn't choose any of it so I can only hope. If they are any like the music that is on the background right now, then probably you all didn't had such a bad time.

Good. I am glad for that.

And the issue that is totally sorted out and that I totally didn't mix with my job can find her zippy cup on the left. Right there where I put it. Follow the direction of my hand, dear. That is right. Excelent.

Mmm. Let's start with the first order of business. I am sure that a good number of you already know, but for those who don't, today we are welcoming in our beautiful community a new resident.

Remember how we talked about the death of the old man Jenking? That poor man whose mental capabilities were already on their way out and made him say all kinds of crazy ideas at the pub? Well, apparently he wasn't just a noise maker.

He was also a grandpa. Which does explains the boxes full of baby stuff in the attic now that I think about it. Not that I ever saw them, by the way.

Anyway, because of that he had his own grandson that now has decided to come reside on the old house. I even had the pleasure of running into him during my morning stroll while he was bringing up some stuff inside.

I would have stayed there and talk some more to rely you more information, but as we established before, I had other things to take care of. I did managed to tell him to tune in with the rest of us, so hopefully he is listening right now.

Are you listening? Are you really listening?

Don't open that folder.

My friends, please give your warmest welcome to our new neighbor, Anthony.

I am sure he will be a valuable member of this community and won't cause any sort of problem for anyone. Hopefully he will remember our safety guide to keep himself safe.

Don't feed the raccoons, unless you have to, then denying them food will only make things worst. Remember to close your garbage can because nobody has to care about your business and, above all else, have fun! We love fun around these parts!

I hope you find that our beautiful town Hazbin Vale just about as beautiful and wonderful as we all do. There is a good reason why is that here where you can find your best friends…

What is that?

Oh, a phone is ringing.

Our own phone in fact!

I had no idea that we had a phone here or it was still working! Nobody has ever used it before. What a delightful surprise. Well, I guess since this listener took the time to give us a call, we should respond accordingly.

What button was it…

Oh, right, that one.

Hello and good morning, dear listener. You are on the air right now. What can your favorite radio host do for you on this lovely day?"

"Hi, sweetie. How are you and Charlie doing over there? I wanted to call you over, but you don't have your own cellphone so this was the best second option. Hope that is okay.

That is a lot of static right now. Hello, can you hear me?"

"We are both fine. I hear you perfectly well. Everything is fine and oh… yes, that is your dad. Do you want to…? Sure, why not. Just give me a second.

Alright, here we go. Dear listeners, for the first time in a long time we have a guest coming in the air with us today. Everyone be nice and pay attention to our very own small resident Charlie Morningstar. Say hi, Charlie."

"Hi, daddy!"

"Hi, duckling. How is my little princess doing?"

"I am good! I made a drawing of you and Alie like duckies!"

"You did? Aww, I bet it's the cutest thing I have ever seen. Make sure to show it to me when I go to pick you up. I am glad you are having a good time, baby.

Alastor, I just wanted to thank you so much for taking care of her so suddenly. It's my fault, I forgot that I had this reunion with the investors today and I didn't call the babysitter the night before so I really didn't have a lot of options. You really saved my life there."

"It's fine, unexpected things happen all the time. We have a lot of space here and Charlie is a good kid so she won't cause any trouble. Right, dear?"

"Nope! Alie wanted me to tell you that he gave me cookies and limonade! I liked the ones with strawberry yam inside."

"Off air, dear. You were supposed to say that off air."

"That is wonderful, duckling. I will try to wrap this up as fast as I can. What do you both want for lunch today? Alastor, you are coming of course."

"If you insist."

"Can I have burgers, daddy?"

"My baby girl can have anything she wants. Alastor, burgers are okay with you too?"

"Sure, sounds good to me."

"Then burgers for everyone it is. With some fries on the side?"

"Yes, fries!"

"Ha ha, I knew it. Alright, I will get them as soon I can. Right now I see that the bunch of old geezer coming back to the office so I should be going too.

I-I mean, the respectable members of the board! Who I totally respect and don't look a day older than 20!"

"Nice save, darling."

"Oh shush you. I will see you both later. Love you lots, Charlie, be nice with Alastor! Alastor… you should really do something about that static. I am sure that is not coming from my side. Yes, I am coming! Talk to you soon! Bye!"

"Bye, daddy!

The noise is gone now, Alie."

"Well, would you look at that. The issue was solved by itself and that means we don't have to talk about it ever again. How convenient.

You are rubbing your eyes a lot, dear. Do you have some kind of infection or are you sleepy?

That was a big yawn you let out just now."

"MMmmno sleepy."

"Well, you can be not sleepy on the couch over there if you want. Grab my coat if you get cold. I won't take too long here. I just need to take care of a couple of things and then we can get you home."

"Okay…"

"Good girl. Down you go.

That was our guest star of today, dear listeners, our very own Charlie Morningstar. Isn't she a doll?

But anyway, I know we are all eager to get back on track so…

Another call?

Well, this day is just full of surprises, isn't it? Wonder who that could be. Greetings, dear listener, you are in the air right now."

"Hey. So. What was that about being a professional that doesn't mix personal affairs with his job?"

"Oops! Clumsy me!

I accidentally pressed the button to end that call. But don't worry, officer Husker. I am sure that while you were wasting your time making that call only a handful of criminals got away. I am so glad to know that our tax money is being put to such good use.

You are still on time to catch them though, if you start moving fast. It could be a good exercise after eating all those donuts. If we are ever so lucky you might be able to find a manhole to fall into from the streets and get lost in for all of eternity. Wouldn't that be so grand?

If I do ever need advice on how to be a waste of air, I will be sure to call you.

Don't push your luck, old pal.

Ah.

Are we done with the unexpected interruptions now? Are people going to stop requiring my attention? Mmm, mister telephone? Some people can be so rude and then they just advantage of your good manners, dear lsiteners. You give them a hand and they take a shoulder. Must the suffering of yours truly never end?

I think we are good now to finally return to our schedule.

As I was trying to say before a much less wanted interruption, the cemetery as of today is also off limits for everyone.

Try to avoid it as much as possible and, like always, don't pay any mind to any sounds, no matter how loud or frequent comes from there. There is nothing to worry about at all. If you find yourself on the same street, change your ways. You will thank me later.

Your dead will be taken care of anyway. Just leave them where they are and walk away. As fast as you can.

The workers are working to get rid of some pests just to feed a few mouths that have been hungry for far too long.

The moon is smiling upside down for all of us. Let's be in our best behavior tonight and not turn it into a frown. The night doesn't want to claim anyone else, it won't need to, so let's try to come back to home early and have heavy, uninterrupted dreams.

Goodness me, is that really all the time we have left? Where did all those minutes go? I was planning to add a little something there, a bit of a friendly words for our new resident, but I guess it will have to be for tomorrow. For now, I can tell you this, Anthony.

Don't let your curiosity get the better of you. No matter how tempting. No matter how much you want to.

It could be the last thing that you do.

Now, for the weather…"

[bratdotcom]

It Had To Be You

( Best friend!Scout x ftm!reader - watching a cowboy flim with your best friend reveals more than you think )

before you read: this fic is EXTREMELY self-indulgent and somewhat angsty. Also, this is my first tf2 fic! Be nice to me, please ♡

"Keep actin' like this, and it's gonna get you killed."

Your words ring through Jermy's ears as he tries not to react too much to the strong sting of alcohol on the bridge of his nose, his right hand balled into a fist to keep his pain to himself.

He got into another fight again. You'd think growing up with seven older brothers would teach him a thing or two about starting fights. "I'm here now, aren't I?" He questions you as you dab more of that weird, strong smelling stuff onto the cut in between his eyes.

"You are." You look away from his face to grab a bandaid from the zippy pouch you kept your bandaids in. He remembers buying that for you at a pit stop on the outskirts of town. "But," There was always an exception with you. You continue on your tangent as you place the bandaid on his nose.

"How're we gonna watch Danger in the Badlands if you have a broken nose and a bruised up eye?" You ask, a smile growing on your face when you see his face begin to light up.

Even though it hurts to smile, Jermey smiles anyway.

"Tell me you didn't."

"I did."

The back and forth between the two of you continues, and a smile spreads to his cheeks.

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

And that's when you had him sold. He wraps an uninjured arm around you and pulls you in for a hug.

"I owe ya one, bud." He says quietly, just loud enough for you to hear as you pull away.

You pat his shoulder lightly as you get up. "Gonna get popcorn. Pop the thing in for me, will ya?" Jeremy responds with a curt will do as he gets up from his spot on the couch.

His finger traces over the harsh, rugged font that titled the VHS tape. "Danger in the Badlands, huh? Can't believe ya got this with your work money." He says to himself, as if you were there. Jeremy saw you run into the bathroom to put your bandaids and all that medical crap you had lying around away. He genuinely didn't know when you had the time to buy all that stuff.

He pops the tape in with one finger. Awkwardly, he grabs the remote in his right hand, flicking on the TV.

"Yo uh, dude?”

"Hm?" You poke your head out of the kitchen, looking at him over the countertop. "How much money did you spend on this thing?" Jeremy asks, sounding a bit guilty. He felt bad for making you spend your own money. Weirdly enough.

"I rented it for a day or two. So about..five bucks? It's an old movie." You say as you toss a bag of popcorn into the microwave. "You like your popcorn burnt?" You ask in an amused tone, making the other man groan.

"You're weird, man. Nobody likes their popcorn burnt. Freak."

You roll your eyes, walking back into the living room with a bowl of not so burnt popcorn.

"What's this movie about again?" Jermy asks while you watch the movie, dipping a curved hand into the bowl of popcorn nestled between the two of you.

You give him a look in reply. He stuffs his face with popcorn as you hold eye contact with him. You love him, you really do.

"Just watch the damn movie." You say, in the most endearing tone you could muster. This shuts him up, his head leaning against the couch closer and closer to your shoulder.

Every time you glance at him, his eyes glued to the screen in awe, your own soften.

Jermy was a very expressive person, every gunshot and cock of a shotgun makes his eyes go wide as he eats up half of the popcorn bowl. You barely got in a couple of bites yourself.

He winces when the main character gets a knife twisted into his back by his supposed right hand man. His Sancho.

You were watching him more than the movie itself.

Every now and then, his shoulder would brush up against yours. Every tilt of his head brought the side of his face closer and closer to your own.

It was tempting to kiss his bruises. To hold his cheek. Tell him that everything will be okay, even though you weren't certain about that yourself. You'd get out of this town together. You wouldn't die wondering what life would be like without being surrounded by people who look at the two of you, like strays in the checkout line at the grocery store.

Tell him that you love him, idiot. Like they do in the movies.

“Promise me ya won't do me dirty like that bozo back there.” Jermy points at the screen, completely unaware that you've been staring at him this entire time.

The movie was on a still frame of the main character, bleeding out on the desert floor. A cowboy ballad plays in the background as the camera zooms out, revealing that the man was just barely on the outskirts of the town he and his Sancho promised to reach together. So close, yet so far. It felt oddly familiar.

“I promise I won't.”

The screen fades to black as the credits begin to roll. You see your own reflection in the blackened background, your face blank. That's all you could say.

Maybe one day, those words would come easily to you. Like how they do it in the movies.

[khmemeries]

Theory: Sora was supposed to use the Power of Waking on Xehanort at the end of KH3

I am pretty certain that the final battle from the Keyblade Graveyard onward in KH3 was altered late into development. The whole sequence feels off and at times even confusing. Nomura also described having difficulty writing this part of the story:

—The story's endgame where all your friends and foes gather at the Keyblade Graveyard was a masterpiece. Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. [...] At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm.

No shade to Nomura for dealing with creative restrictions imposed on him... but yeah, it shows. I think the very end was also a casualty of these sorts of restrictions. One of the most nonsensical scenes to me in KH3 was this:

Riku: It's Xehanort. During the Mark of Mastery exam, we learned that he can transcend space and time. He's a portal. And we can use that to trap him. (Mickey nods)

Followed by this when Sora does a little Keyblade zippy zap:

I know we learned a little about portals in 3D but there was no foreshadowing that it was a way to trap someone like this. And the idea of portals was totally absent for KH3, but suddenly it's the way to beat the Big Bad?

And then we are magically in... Scala ad Caelum? Not sure how that would trap him because he can just Keyblade Scooter back...

Xehanort says this about it:

Master Xehanort: Of all the places to be sent.

Master Xehanort: Here, I and my other selves can be one. United…in Scala ad Caelum.

Okay? Why can he be one with his other selves? Why does he even care? He was about to win, he was opening Kingdom Hearts!

Everything that follows remains almost entirely unexplained. Like, I am bewildered that they kept any of this in because it's so bizarre. We aren't told who these creepy dudes are, we don't know why they merged, we don't know what Xehanort being a portal means or how that can be used to trap him.

But what if Riku's explanation was retroactively applied over a different, original intention? What if Sora--who believes in the light in every heart--decided to use the Power of Waking on Xehanort and rescue him as well?

Consider how Riku uses the Power of Waking in Dream Drop Distance:

He opens up a portal which is visually identical to the one Sora opened for Xehanort to dive into Sora's heart

2. He collects Soras

3. He fights the nightmare imprisoning Sora, which takes the form of armor of darkness surrounding him

4. He is suddenly in Sora's heart's Destiny Islands and gets a pop quiz on the meaning of the Power of Waking from Sora's heart & co.

Then Sora's heart wakes up.

The entire sequence is really similar to the Xehanort battle:

Sora uses a portal to trap Xehanort somehow, which ends up being in Scala ad Caelum

2. Sora sees several Xehanorts wandering around, which Xehanort identifies as his "other selves"; they morph into the creepy darkness things, which Sora defeats

3. Sora then defeats this Xehanort, whose armor shatters

4. Sora talks to Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum

Basically, all the ingredients for the Power of Waking are there. But in KH3, it's not explained that is what's happening. The whole thing makes far more sense if Sora was opening a portal to Xehanort's heart, not trapping him in the real Scala ad Caelum. That's his home world--the world that would be in his heart, just like Destiny Islands is the world in Sora's heart. It also explains how he is able to bend the physical space--it's not real. And it explains why he could be his "other selves" all together.

Okay, but WHY would he need the Power of Waking used on him? Well... what if everyone realized he was possessed by Darkness--namely, Superbia?

Sora first sees the heart-Xehanorts normally, but then they morph into the creepy darkness things: the twelve Darknesses that were released from the other just-defeated Organization XIII members. (You see the streams of darkness leaving their bodies as each is defeated.) Darknesses as in, Darknesses whose desire is to possess bodies with strong hearts, of which there are thirteen in total.

Reconsider what Xehanort says after all the Darknesses merge into him:

Master Xehanort: Here, I and my other selves can be one. United…in Scala ad Caelum.

It is somewhat weird for Master Xehanort to say (he never cared about uniting himself into one--he was about to achieve his goal after he opened Kingdom Hearts). But it's not weird for Darkness, which can act separately or as a hive mind, to say at all. And of course Xehanort would be Superbia since he actually believes he is entitled to direct everyone's fates. Sora would have learned about this if Scala hadn't been cut as a world.

So, the reason that the Xehanorts would "glitch" and turn into Darkness is because of his possession. More speculatively, it was probably a willing possession like Xigbar's which allowed him to keep his sense of self, but become half Darkness. It just got removed from the story.

With Xehanort's heart freed from the clutches of Darkness, he would now be free to converse with Sora in his heart. Sora would reawaken his heart by reminding him of his old friend Eraqus, his light and what matters most to him. Then back in the real world, he would voluntarily give Sora the χ-blade and more understandably live happily ever after with his boyfriend Eraqus.

It really sends the message that you can light the way back for any heart in the darkness out of love. It's why Xehanort has that happy ending--it was necessary for the meaning of the whole story. But with this part stripped, it ends up uncomfortable because it was unearned.

[annellspethraven]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sloan Spencer (@sloan_spencer_author)

It all started here. I woke up and looked at 'my' Discord server for the bloated tic of a fanfic (hey that rhymes, neurospicy two seconds!) I write with my partner SonaBeanSidhe, Aran Thranduil's Dining Hall. There hadn't been enough tea yet so the natural response was 'wth is this?' Well, THIS was going to Hoover my next two days and counting. Just visit the post, dear friends of the writing persuasion and you would see (I'll save you time because I'm nice this way) that there are many screenshots supporting just what the meme says: This Instagram OP knows a writer who found herself in a steaming pile of mess with the Google Docs TOS (which is really also the Google Drive TOS, making it somewhat difficult to locate said TOS. I'll save you more time. Here:

This information comes from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/148505#zippy=%2Csexually-explicit-material So, it was the act of sharing the files, not having created or stored them that triggered what had happened. Okay, still not reassuring. In the meantime, I was concerned enough to post what had happened to r/FanFiction. Within minutes, my post had been frozen by the mods there. I can see their concern. I believe they had only seen the meme-like first screen of the Instagram post, and it does come off like a bad Snopes Fail. They asked me for more proof. The first thing I did was a search for previous instances of Google having frozen Drive accounts previously. They are limited, but they exist. The concern here had to do with the current lack of information as to why the action happened, and whether we who collectively authored and had shared Docs with explicit content were about to have our Drive accounts fall before the scythe of an overzealous AI rollout on the part of Google. Which led to the second part of this. My first response to the mods was as follows:

A little while after I sent this, an update appeared on the Instagram OP's account (easy to find) so I added this:

The salient point of the update was that the author had received restored access to her Drive, but NOT the Doc that had started the entire difficulty. I waited for a response. And waited, and waited. In the meantime, I had no means to add to, respond to, anything to my original post or defend myself against some fairly sharp initial criticisms leveled against me by individuals who clearly hadn't read anything beyond the initial meme. Special. While I understand a sub this large likely has a lot of messages to field, I also felt that given they managed to freeze my post in a matter of minutes, they were really taking their time responding. So I weighed in on Instagram with a message of support. If nothing else is taken away, please take this: Back up your files. It's easy to create an alt Google account; this other account will have its own Drive storage. Share your folders and files with yourself. If you don't already realize, in Docs under the File dropdown menu the third option is Make A Copy. If you have shared the original document 75 times, you won't have shared that copy at all. Consider backing up your works to Indie platforms like Get Hermit, Ellipsus and The Quill. There may be others. Your own external hard drive is also a very good idea. But wait, you ask. What about just using MS Word, or having copies as a PDF file in the Adobe cloud? Not so fast, my friend. Look at Microsoft and Adobe's TOS regarding sexually explicit content...you'll get an unpleasant surprise. I did. In the meantime, a third update came from the OP on Instagram shedding far more light as to what had likely gone wrong. She had shared the Doc with she guessed 18-20 people as beta readers. The belief is now that one of these persons actually turned her in to Google via their abuse form. To quote one of the commenters on that update: "I heard from an agent that Google will only do this to your account if someone reports it. Google isn’t scanning docs for explicit content (except maybe images), but yeah, for this to happen, someone had to report her document to Google." This felt like a relief...and yet is still packaged inside a cautionary tale. How many of us have shared by 'whoever has this link'? I have, or rather, I had. I revoked all such permissions to all large stories and folders in favor of my few trusted long-time friends and beta readers. The works are on AO3. I don't need those Docs links to be free floating all over the place, not after seeing what can happen. I was on vacation in England some years prior when I realized I had lost the ability to send out all outgoing Gmail. It took me several days to figure out what had gone wrong and nearly lost me my ability to receive Covid test results at a time when that was a travel necessity...almost disastrous. Fortunately I had multiple email accounts and could work around the problem. Which brings me to the last of this.

While including the subreddit mod's responses here may seem retaliatory/petulant on my part...I'm at best miffed at their shortsightedness, maybe mildly insulted, mostly shaking my head at the fact that there is something to have been learned here that could have affected any one of us. No one was spreading misinformation. Something had indeed happened. The source of it had been unknown at the time of posting. Had they left my post alone I would have gladly redacted as it unfolded; the reason for placing it on that sub was not to create a giant stir but to let others know of the risk of this happening at all and to encourage backing up that which most writers invest a considerable amount of their emotional well-being; the safety of their written works. Yes, I'm neurodivergent. No, I don't always see the world as others do. No, I still don't think this difference allows the response to be interpreted as much other than a slight and working against the interests of authors (I'm on their side and last I checked, readers need the authors to have the things that are written in order to have the things to read. Just saying). Whatever, what really matters is, if you feel this is worth sharing, share, take away the important bits, and if someone out there just wants to write it up in 3 sentences so it isn't a tl;dr, do that too.

Have a Googly day, to all near and far, in these times in which we live...>.>