#i keep getting more ideas for it and adding stuff oops

[electric-plants]

i was estimating this cytham fic to total around ~5000 words but i just finished the second section out of five and it already passed that🙃🙃

[twstowo]

Twst/DDV AU? [OB!Characters]

Has anyone ever done a Twisted Wonderland/Disney Dreamlight Valley AU? A reader that comes from DDV, who knows and even grew up with all of the seven (I know not all of them are in the game, but they surely can be added with time), and the reader just keeps on talking about them as if they were friends. The scandal!

Riddle would collar you as soon as you dared to speak so casually of the Queen of Hearts, but once you showed him some pictures of you and the Queen going on tea parties, he would be so sorry for it. He would be fascinated with you because if the Queen was that close of a friend with you, surely it was for a good reason!

Leona would be somewhat impressed. I mean, Scar isn't one to be friendly with anyone, so you getting along with Scar would make him want to find out how interesting you truly are.

As soon as Azul hears that you are friends with Ursula, you are getting promotional coupons for Monstro Lounge. You want something that isn't on the menu? He's got you covered! Someone is annoying you? They will be taken care of! Of course, all of it comes at a cost. Azul wants to know everything about his greatest idol, Ursula!

Kalim would be fascinated to learn that you know any of the seven. He would want you to spend the day at Scarabia just so you could share all your childhood tales with them. Kalim might even host a party so that everyone could come together and listen to your stories. In the middle of all those tales, you notice that whenever you bring up Jafar, Jamil seems to be somewhat more interested in the topic.

By the Seven! Vil wants—no, he needs to know all the details. Is she as beautiful as they state in the stories? Just like Kalim, you spend most of the time telling everything to Vil like some gossip. He will be doing your makeup while you talk. Rook joins to ask you about Snow White, and you swear that you had never seen Vil roll his eyes so badly at someone.

Idia wouldn't be very interested in the subject. Or would he? He can't deny that it is kind of impressive you knowing the Seven and even being friends with all of them. He'd probably overhear some of your stories through some cameras, and soon Ortho would catch him being so enthralled in them that he would invite you over to meet his brother in person. Much to Idia's dismay.

This literally means you know Malleus's grandmother, you totally have her blessing for the two of you to get married. He would be so surprised! And when you go into full detail with various stories, he can't stop but hear them, almost as if he is looking at some gargoyles.

When you return to Dreamlight Valley and meet up with the Seven, you talk about all the boys you have met that oddly resemble each of them. Slowly, this seems to turn into a betting game between the Seven to see which one of the boys you will end up with. Each one of them will hold your attention for as long as possible to talk about their favorite, and they will sabotage everyone's ideas.

You will be having a tea party with Riddle, the two of you laughing at some silly stories you were telling him. The Queen of Hearts is so giddy and happy, and then it starts raining heavily, ruining the tea date. Maleficia grins at The Queen of Hearts for ruining her plans.

One day, you are napping with Leona in the botanical garden, enjoying such a peaceful moment. He is reaching for you, trying to take you in a hug when suddenly a bucket of water is dropped on top of him! Oops! You look at the student in question, and for a second, feel that their eyes had a weird tone of color to them but didn't question it as you watched Leona run after them. There you have Jafar mocking Scar's lazy tactics.

Eating lunch with Azul, the two of you talk about school-related stuff, his hand getting slowly closer to yours on top of the table. But before he can hold it, he starts coughing, needing to excuse himself to the bathroom. The Evil Queen laughs, having tampered with Azul's food, and Ursula can only watch as she plans her revenge.

Jamil and you are cooking; he is teaching you some of the dishes from Scalding Sands. You watch as he places his hand on top of yours, trying to demonstrate how to correctly cut the vegetables, and then a fire starts! Jamil apologizes millions of times, for this had never happened before. And Jafar rolls his eyes as he hears Hades's laugh behind him.

Helping you pick out some clothes, Vil decides that the best option would be making custom clothes for you. He takes your measurements, touching your soft skin with the excuse of getting the right fit. The intimate moment gets interrupted when a thunderbolt sounds outside, and you watch as Vil's face pales, he had nicked himself with the needle, piercing his perfect skin. He leaves you there alone for the next few moments, as The Evil Queen takes notes on how to ruin Maleficia's day.

Malleus and you are walking around the school campus at night on your typical stroll. There is a small lake next to the two of you, your hands touching from time to time as he slowly gains the courage to fully take hold of your hand. However, a fish literally spits water on him, ruining the moment. Maleficia needs to hold her own magical powers before she fries Ursula.

I didn't write about Scar and The Queen of Hearts sabotaging the dates because, to be honest, I don't know what they could do. I believe Scar would heavily focus on talking about how Leona is perfect for you in every aspect, flaunting his wealth and good looks. The Queen of Hearts would also have a similar approach, she would invite you to have some tea with her while speaking of Riddle's charm and his composed gentleman ways.

──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

If you liked this post check out @twisted-wonderland-but-gayer they have a whole collection of stories with the seven and they are all amazing!

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

medialog june 2k25

books

ok first of all to address the element in the room: i have not in fact finished moby dick lmao. however i’m more than halfway through and very comfortable reporting that it’s one of the most brain-meltingly incredible books ever written. anyway moving on to: The Month All My Libby Holds Came In Despite Looking Like It Was Going To Be Spaced Out A Lot More, Oops, Listening And Learning For The Future

jake bernstein, the laundromat: inside the panama papers investigation of illicit networks and the global elite - kind of dry if you, like me, are a money idiot and have a lot of trouble keeping track of or feeling like you truly understand financial crimes even when people are laying them out in very clear detail… however i feel like i have the important ideas down of what the panama papers even were now, which was not the case before i read this book! also i did find it picked up once it started getting into the investigative element of how this all became public, which ultimately wound up involving an unprecedented level of cross-border journalistic cooperation, which was very cool to read about. also one thing the book doesn’t really delve into but that i was left wondering about was the extent to which tax haven countries are often extremely small countries that don’t have much going on economy-wise… there was one example of a place that only changed its laws after new zealand agreed to just give it the money it would lose from the end of the industry, because it made up such a huge part of its budget.

sarah wynn-williams, careless people: a cautionary tale of power, greed, and lost idealism - wynn-williams chooses an opening anecdote that makes her seem unbelievably annoying and unsympathetic, and not in a way where it feels self-aware — like the vibe is very much that she thought this would be a fun hook to introduce us to the sheer bizarreness of her time at facebook, but the story involves her trying to swap zuck’s assigned seat at some international function with the spots of various ACTUAL PRESIDENTS of less important (“less important”) countries, so it’s like, well everyone sucks here… she should have just led with the anecdote about being mauled by a shark as a child and almost dying because her parents thought she was just being a baby about post-shark-attack pain, which i’m not sure is doing the explanatory work she wants it to be doing but which i can’t blame her for including because if that happened to me i too would put it in my book just because. anyway i’m not sure she’s the most reliable narrator and i think this review about what’s not in the book is an important companion, but tbh i read this for tech gossip about terrible people and i got sheryl sandberg lying on facebook about almost being in a plane that crashed and the fact that facebook employees let mark win at settlers of catan so often that when someone beats him he accuses them of cheating so… can’t really complain. most of the inner workings of facebook stuff is either already public knowledge (but still upsetting - i knew about their shit with targeting ads to teens who expressed sad feelings but it still almost hurt my stomach to read about) or easily inferred from everything we know about the company culture of Every Tech Company On Earth, but reading it all at length does really hammer home just how evil this company is, especially the chapter on myanmar, which does contain what i believe are some new revelations (such as the fact despite myanmar being the only company that really picked up facebook’s “let us help you get the internet” offer, the company had one burmese speaker doing content moderation for ages, and oh, by the way, for years the official facebook app was never available for download in myanmar, making reporting hateful content… literally impossible???). it’s also very clear from the book that mark zuckerberg is not only evil but also a huge embarrassing loser and thus i feel that the streisand effecting of this very book is a net positive if only because he definitely cares, like, a lot.

beverly gage, g-man: j. edgar hoover and the making of the american century - i wanted to read this because hoover had come up in killers of the flower moon and seemed like such a weirdo i desperately needed to know more, and, 700+ pages later, i do! this book is very much a biography, concerned with tracking hoover’s actions and motivations across his life more than delving deep into analysis or interpretation, but i would say there is a central argument to the overall project, and it’s an important one: that the (mostly late-in-life or posthumous) villainization of hoover, personally, as a machiavellian schemer of unique evil or harm elides the fact that the vast majority of what hoover did, he did at the behest of or with the knowledge of the eight presidents he served under and/or others in positions of federal power, and painting hoover as the mustache-twirler in the shadows essentially lets the US government off the hook. gage sets this argument out in the introduction, returns to it consistently, and builds a compelling case for it, ranging from the fact that FDR was the first person to ask hoover to look into rumors of government homosexuality around a federal official to the fact that bobby kennedy straight-up lied about whether he’d okayed the MLK wiretaps when the FBI had his signature on the forms. hoover was involved with SO much shit that at one point i told @rgr-pop this book was like evil forrest gump, which means that anything you’re more than passingly familiar with will probably feel somewhat glossed over or ignored, but when i thought about the things i happened to know more about than appeared in the book, i felt like the key Insight Into Hoover that those episodes provided ultimately came through somewhere else in the book. the breadth of it was also sort of nice for me as a lapsed history lover back in my books era, because it wound up providing kind of a useful refresher on many major twentieth century developments. also, i might make a post at some point just listing stuff that’s stuck with me or that i want to remember or found interesting or funny or whatever, but i case i don’t, i DO want you all to know that YES, hoover was… SUPER gay. canon gay homophobe. IRL roy cohn “i am not a homosexual i am a straight man who has sex with other men” vibes. a lot going on there.

matthew hongoltz-hetling, the ghost lab: how bigfoot hunters, mediums, and alien enthusiasts are wrecking science - i read this book after an interview in NYMag’s newsletter + a scan of goodreads reviews suggested there was paranormal community gossip to be had (as in, several reviews were like “too much focus on the interpersonal issues of these people he’s interviewing”), and on that front it delivered, tracing the rise and fall of a would-be research center for paranormal phenomena formed by a motley crew of wounded and curious denizens of new hampshire. i love to read about both paranormal phenomena, from the stuff that scans to me as Inherently Wacky to the stories that give a little thrill of “wow, that sure is one spooky coincidence… i mean… what if…???” and this book contains plenty of both, plus a lot of drama about what brought these people together and how their internecine resentments and opposing worldviews drove them apart. fun stuff. however i found all of hongoltz-hetling’s analysis about What This All Means For Society to be really QUITE bad. his argument, such as i could track it, sort of rests on the idea that paranormal beliefs are both a consequence and a driver of falling institutional trust and increasing importance being given to the individual. you may already spot some problems here such as “what institutions are we talking about here exactly?” - a problem the book does not resolve, as sometimes “institutions” means, like, church and science, two options for e.g. answers to questions about death and its aftermath, but sometimes it’s used more or less interchangeably with “evidence-based” which… lol? like i don’t really understand how a person could have lived through the creationism wars and write this book. (also the idea of the individual experience taking primacy over institutional knowledge is one with ummmm some history of consequence in the history of christianity… lol?) he refuuuuuuses to engage with any kind of context that doesn’t align with his thesis - like, he talks about the shuttering of mcintosh college, part of new hampshire’s public university system, but mentions only in passing, to dismiss as insufficiently explanatory, the fact that perhaps some non-“trust” based reasons had to do with the tanking enrollment of a college in 2009, such as the fact that the university had been purchased a decade earlier by a for-profit group, or the fact of ummm everything else happening in 2009 lol. he also mentions a decline in law school enrollment as an example of institutional decline which made me laugh because i remember like a decade ago if not longer reading blogosphere-era posts about how law schools were graduating more lawyers than there were law jobs, to a life-ruining degree for the unlucky many who couldn’t find work in the field… the school stuff annoyed me in particular because it was so reflective of the general incoherence that plagues ed discourse, but also the law school thing is indicative of another weird omission he mentions only briefly, which is the idea that trust in certain reasons may be down for like… rational reasons lol. like he cites a study about decline in government trust happening from 2001 to 2021… ok… can we think of aaaaanything that happened in those two decades that may have caused this other than “people value the individual experience too much”? like… be serious. he also basically doesn’t talk about the internet AT ALL, either as a force for turning paranormal believers into paranormal communities or as an engine for disseminating distrust both through misinformation and through a wider reach of facts that make it reasonable to distrust e.g. the federal government… he includes reincarnation as an example of a fringe paranormal belief despite the fact that it is in fact an institutional tenet of several major world religions… unserious. quite unserious. but reading about their little exorcisms and personality conflicts was fun.

movies

problemista - rewatched this with a friend, this movie makes me feel more alive than almost anything and is still so funny even my third time seeing it

glengarry glen ross - this movie is funny and looks great and features a lot of great actors doing great work and also the last 15 minutes or so will make your stomach hurt soooooo bad. al pacino really might be the most engrossing film actor of all time, i could truly watch him do anything and be entranced.

captain america: brave new world - at one point in this movie sam wilson says out loud "mind control. he created a technology that allowed him to control the minds of anyone he targeted" and i've been laughing about that all month. mind control: he found a way to control minds. incredible. the rest of the screenplay is about that bad but unfortunately not that unintentionally funny; this really is the least one of these movies has ever been a movie. sebstan innocent ofc but man i can't believe they dragged tim blake nelson into this

mountainhead - jesse armstrong’s first post-succession work has not been well received because everyone is over jokes about how comically, hyperbolically evil and stupid tech bros are, but i’m not and i had fun! on letterboxd i compared this to the luke combs fast car, in that it’s obviously not a transcendently powerful work of art the way the original/succession is, but, you know, you’re not always in the mood for art that makes you want to kill yourself. would maybe have liked to see someone else in the jason schwartzman role… he was a little go girl give us nothing for me

pee wee as himself - this is pretty whatever As A Piece Of Documentary Filmmaking and i feel like the filmmaker thought his tension with paul reubens’s control issues would be more interesting to the viewer than it actually was, but reubens is a really great person to spend some time hanging out with even if you were never a pee-wee person, especially if you like (1) art talk (2) gay stuff.

dark waters - really underrated/slept on paperwork movie that will make you want to burn dupont HQ to the fucking ground. something about this one even more than other exemplars in the investigative documents movie genre (erin brokovich, the insider) really brings home the pain and rage at the heart of a story like this… i feel like a lot of credit goes to director todd haynes for turning a quite competent but pretty standard into a movie that just vibrates with a kind of suffocating dis-ease. slight points docked for wasting anne hathaway in the absolute most Wife Role of all time but this one really moved me, much more than i expected at the start or even by the middle of the movie. also looks fucking great to my idiot eye - just enough interesting visual choices to make you notice, without ever feeling showy - lots of great colors, often in the shadows…

in the spirit - this is an almost never seen indie movie by elaine may’s daughter jeannie berlin (probably best known on tumblr as succession’s cyd peach), starring may and marlo thomas as a cynical socialite and a daffy new ager who wind up on the run from the mob. it’s not a lost gem the way may’s own the heartbreak kid is (which features berlin - if you ever have a chance to catch a screening of this movie you MUST go) but there were some real good laughs, although none of them quite reached the level of the moment in the Q&A where elaine may, a ninety-three year old jewish woman, told, and i mean this, the funniest holocaust joke i have ever heard. inspirational, honestly

in the loop - do you like veep and/or succession and/or politics jokes and/or C-list character actors? then you will like this movie. if you like all four of them, like i do, you will like it very much!

lady vengeance - not as deliriously fun and spellbindingly entertaining as the handmaiden, but (a) what is and (b) i found myself really, really stunned by it by the end… it almost feels like a movie that decided to take on the challenge of using a familiar set up - a woman, newly released from jail, plots to take her revenge - and then fucking it up as much as possible while still telling that story. despite, at core, resting on one of the oldest and tropiest of old tropes, i felt like i never had any idea where this story was actually going - it kept startling me, but never because of a “twist” or for shock value… just because, well, wait, that’s not usually how this part goes… i’m not explaining this well. it’s a powerful movie - and while it’s darker and heavier and more disturbing than the handmaiden, it is fun - sometimes even funny - and absolutely gooorgeous to look at, with an incredible aesthetic sensibility

in the mood for love - this movie comes up a lot as one of the best movies of all time and… well… it is! what really struck me watching it and reflecting on it was something i wasn’t necessarily expecting, which is that it captures a visceral sense of urban living better than almost anything else i’ve seen — this movie feels so crowded, always, everybody living cheek-by-jowl, which really works for a movie that is in part about the paradox of feeling deeply lonely but never being able to be truly alone… really beautifully rich to look at, and speaking of beautiful, you would be hard pressed to find a better-looking leading pair than tony leung and maggie cheung, who together do some of the best Eyes Acting i’ve ever seen… i thought about both edith wharton’s the house of mirth (for oppressive social mores) and portrait of a lady on fire (for a love story that can’t matter but still matters) while watching this, which, if you know anything about me, tells you i was really in.

the people's joker - this is a queer/trans coming-of-age story using the world of batman stories as a vehicle to talk about gender, toxic relationships, and the scariest villain of all: lorne michaels. very tumblrcore movie, which is at times a weakness (i didn't mind the checklist of toxic romantic traits but the callback later literally phrased as "remember, kids: this isn't romantic!" was a little over the line for me personally) but is also the source of much of the movie's ample delights, both in terms of its wild swerving ambition and in terms of its sense of humor. this is clearly a movie made for ten dollars by a bunch of weird little freaks with a real vision and sensibility, and it always feels good watching something like that be made real, especially when there are also good jokes; if i say that i want writer/director/star vera drake to be just a little less online (not that much! which is saying a lot because this movie is pretty fucking online and for the most part it strikes the balance well!), it's because her aesthetic and formal creativity and inventiveness is so clear and so cool and i just want to be able to vibe the whole time with that instead of noticing the moments where it feels like she let a twitterbot take over. (a good reminder for many of us tbh.) i think she's mostly a comedian and it seems like this movie happened somewhat unexpectedly, but i really would love to see another movie from her.

other

gypsy - the ads outside the theater called this the greatest american musical which is a bold claim but honestly… maybe valid. which is not to say that it’s my new favorite, or that the music is something i’ll have on repeat very often just as a matter of personal taste… but there are zero bad songs in this show and it’s about as impeccably structured a piece of musical drama as i’ve ever seen. like, it’s a contender for greatest american musical in the sense that’s made by people who have a perfect understanding of what this strange hybrid form is, what its strengths are, and how to wield them to maximize how effectively you’re telling your story. it was also at time genuinely really disturbing to watch after reading jennette mccurdy’s memoir, which is a compliment about how well it understands the psychology of the stage mom (although this artifact of my reading history did make the ending a little more challenging to appreciate lol). i thought the production was pretty great and audra mcdonald did some of the best musical theater acting i’ve ever seen, so much so that you understand why they accepted the inevitable vocal struggles of casting a soprano in a role made famous by ethel merman (close personal friend, i am not making this up, of j. edgar hoover)

atoms for war and peace @ poster house - extremely cool exhibition of nuclear propaganda (pro and anti) plus some classic nuclear kitsch (one of the blurbs made a reference to “the house in the middle,” which delighted me). we went for this because of me and the way i am but lucked out that it coincided with exhibitions of a set of cute subway cartoons & a cool puerto rican poster artist, plus a set of gig posters… strong rec if you’re in nyc! poster house is free on fridays or the third sunday of the month!

DSA fundraiser comedy show - went to this because a friend suggested it when we were making plans and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually funny! i think that’s a first for me and stand-up in NYC lmao. one point for the socialists! NO thanks to the absolutely horrendous audience member who wasn’t exactly a heckler but like just thought he was in conversation with everyone on stage even though the hosts told him to stop doing that in their intro and even though he got called out by two separate comics later on AND ALSO he was dead center in the middle of the room on his phone with the screen brightness cranked up to jesus the entire time. one of the most astounding displays i’ve ever seen by a person who just wants the world to know “hey: i have a terrible, terrible personality.” but like i said the comics were pretty good. special shout out because it’s technically still pride month to the lesbian comic with two moms who had a very cute riff about how growing up with two moms was hard because she never knew if she was being a rebellious teenager or just homophobic 😂😂😂

music

kind of regret singling out sorry mom’s “youngstown” earlier this year because my song of the month was absolutely the closing track of their new EP, which fills me with the kind of wistful ebullience (ebullient wistfulness?) that guarantees a spot on my forever faves list:

but in the interest of diversity, here’s a bonus song rec in the form of the poppiest, catchiest track from the yeule album, which has led to many intra-household texts reading simply “dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu dudu”:

katy rose, fully alive - this just didn’t sound very good unfortunately

julia wolf, PRESSURE - this actually sounded ok and i got excited during the first couple upbeat tracks but it did not sustain my interest

beach bunny, tunnel vision - remember in may when i kept listening to stuff and being like “this is ok but why isn’t it the 2015 chumped album teenage retirement”? it turns out i should have just been listening to this - sturdy female-fronted power-pop with decent hooks and a lead vocalist with just enough frailty in her overall clear voice to make it all feel nicely human.

yeule, evangelic girl is a gun - you may know yeule as the artist responsible for the anthems for a 17-year-old girl cover in i saw the TV glow, but it turns out they are also very good at their own songs, which have an ambient off-kilterness but are clearly made by someone with an ear for a pop likability. i also like that they have publicly claimed avril lavigne as an influence because i literally think all the time about how whatever you think of her it just is a matter of undeniable fact at this point that let go (2002) changed the game forever…

sorry mom, bummer! - my favorite scrappy punk act put out a four-song all-killer no-filler EP that brings down the volume, tempo, and vibe for something moodier and more indie-inflected than their previous work, and i loooooooove it, one of my favorite things i’ve heard all year - grabbed me emotionally instantly in a way that took me off guard even given my previously established fandom. i just really love their ear for melodies and juno’s husky-sweet voice, and the way that they’re continuing to explore the sonic ambition they first explored with last year’s "but i’m a quarterback…" the opening track of this one builds instrumentally in a really cool way and the closer is, as mentioned above, already one of my favorite tracks of the year.

lorde, virgin - i don’t know, guys. i was really worried the album would be bad, because i didn’t hate any of the singles but i didn’t LOVE any of them either, and i sensed certain dangers lurking re: the refusal to smash, but i was like, well maybe it’s a conceptual thing and they’ll make more sense as part of a capital-p Project, everyone knows lorde is an albums artist… and they do, and she is, and my first listen was really colored by relief that the album wasn’t bad… but… i don’t know. there’s just something… not quite there. i don’t think any of the songs are bad, and i like some of them quite a bit (“shapeshifter” the definite stand-out for me). there are moments, listening to the album, where i’m like, wow this is great. but… not that even. kind of fleetingly. i keep waiting for her to kick it to 11, and she just… won’t. and maybe this is on purpose — that’s certainly what i assumed when “what was that” came out, that it was a song about a kind of inner wrestling and so she decided to avoid the catharsis of something like “green light” — and… you know… maybe she decided to do that for the whole album. but… if she did, then that’s two albums in a row where she’s like, “i am deliberately leaving out the parts of music that are fun to listen to.” which… follow your truth… but… i like it when music is fun. and then, also… it doesn’t actually sound like an album that is deliberately un-fun and confrontational, either? there’s nothing on this album as abrasive as, say, brat’s “club classics,” or as just fucking weird as many of the tracks on kesha’s gag order… but there’s also nothing as catchy as “360,” or as viscerally affecting as “eat the acid.” the balance of lorde’s pop girl status and weird girl instincts, which has always been the source of her power, just feels off. it’s avoiding the crank-it-to-eleven power of pop (or even, mostly, the… fun hooks to listen to… part of pop…), but it’s not replacing it with something really out there or bold… just with like… more synthpop. and that synthpop is like… i dunno. like i listen to it and i’m like “oh i like this musical idea”... but none of it really digs in or makes me go crazy, you know? so… maybe the production is bad? it can’t convey the rawness, grossness, power, etc. lorde clearly wants the album to hold… idk. i feel like i want her to either start a band to get some actual sounds in there or hook up with someone in the hyperpop world. pick a lane!!! we’ll see if i turn around on it (i do like "shapeshifter" a lot and i listened to it while writing this because hammer was stuck in my head) but if not see you in four years i guess.

common holly, anything glass - i feel like if i say “the platonic idea of coffeehouse music” that sounds like a diss… but i mean it in a good way!!! this album is really pretty!!!

[greensagephase]

Hey pookie! 🥺

So uh- lately I haven’t had the time to draw any mafia Miguel (cuz I’m making a big project about my spider sona for SCHOOL and it has to be done by the end of May 🫠 and I can’t sadly include Miguel cuz I have to use original characters only for this 😭) but I drew THIS :D and I just wanted to share it with you :3

They are mostly sketches and ideas- (also, pls excuse the Romanian writing 😭)

The first are some sketches of the background characters ☺️ also, yes, the first one, the POLICE CAPTAIN is Sebastian (💀 we know how that’ll end…) anyway~ and-HAHA, Tyler Parker is Kira’s brother XD inspired by my one and only rat (lil brother)

On the right are some building sketches from Kira’s world. Basically, her world is full of life and greenery. Is inspired by ecourbanism :3 (an architectural style, I’ll leave some pictures below that shows the vibe a lil bit :)) that’s where the green from her suit comes from :) in that world, the color green means hope and life and the opposite (red) means destruction and chaos. ☺️🤭 also the reason why mafia Miguel’s eyes are GREEN 🥰 another thing- be because this universe is full of trees and fauna and more wild life than usual, her costume is inspired by A KNIGHT 🥰 (I like adding meaning to stuff :))

And on the bottom are some poster ideas 🫶💕

Pooks, oh my goodness… You're so incredibly talented, yet your work takes me by surprise every time you share something! 🥹💕💖 I’m literally like, “Omg, Lara is so talented!” 🥺🥺🥺 And then, you share more and I'm like, “RAHHH, LARA IS SO TALENTED!!!” 🥹😭🤌🏼💕

I had no idea you have more original characters already developed (besides Sebastian MJ), which are so amazing and cool! Your version of Jameson and Osborn are such fresh takes, I truly adore their designs!

And their names — I'm in love with them, especially with Nyanna and Olimpia! Also, I love how all the women are giving girl boss energy! We love to see it! 🙂‍↕️👑 I'm curious about Olimpia, pooks. Is she friends with Kira, or is she a villain? I’m curious since the Osborn character tends to have a villain arc. 👀

Also, I snorted when you said Tyler is based on your one and only rat (brother)! 😭😭 Not your brother catching strays on Tumblr! 💀💀

And then, there's Sebastian… 😞 I don't know much about him, but I keep thinking he's like the Peter in NC (Dulzura’s version) personality wise, where he was so sweet and loving, and I get all sad knowing he's eventually gonna pass away. 😞

THE ARCHITECTURE STYLE — POOKS! I love it so much! I would genuinely love to be part of that universe, no joke! It seems so peaceful with so much greenery. 🥺 I also learned something through this ask! I've always seen pictures of buildings like this (in fact, I believe the picture of the tall building covered in greenery next to the blank red buildings is a picture I've seen a few times in the past) on Pinterest, but I had never researched the name of this kind of architecture, so thank you for teaching me something new!

Also, the way the color green symbolizes hope and life in Kira’s universe! As soon as I read that, I thought about Miguel's green eyes and was like, “OHHHH! 🥹🤭 HIS EYES WILL GIVE KIRA HOPE AND LIFE 🥹🥹” and then, I read what red means, and I was like, “oop… Spiderman Miguel, my pookie… I'm sorry. 🥲”

Does Kira ever have a moment during the time she has a crush on Spider Miguel where she’s ignoring the fact his eyes are red and overall, his person is so intertwined with the color because of him being Spider-Man, even when the color symbolizes chaos and destruction in her universe? I wonder about that now that you’ve shared the color symbolism! Like, I’m imagining Kira being frustrated because she has a crush on him, but at the same time, the color of his eyes are associated with negativity due to the color symbolism in her world, and then, there’s Mafia Miguel with green eyes lol, symbolizing positive things. 😭

Either way, I LOVE the color symbolism! It’s so interesting because it foreshadows Kira ending up with Mafia Miguel! YOUR MIND>>>>>>

And omg, I was eventually going to ask you about Kira’s suit because I had noticed it’s like a knight’s! I haven’t said it yet, but I love that so much. 🥹💕 I find knights to be cool, so much that I have this original fantasy wip novel in which my female protagonist becomes one to pay a bargain to a king. Since she’s just a human (the king isn’t; I’m still deciding what his kind will be 🫠), she must train twice as hard to become a successful one, and that includes learning to wield a sword — so the sword Kira has is so exciting and cool to me! I LOVE IT SO MUCH! I also love that her suit is green. She’s a symbol of hope for the people in her universe! 🥺

GIRL, THE POSTERS? YOU COOKED! I saw them and I immediately was like, “LET’S GET A MOVIE FOR KIRA, PLS!” They’re SO GOOD!! I think my favorite one is the one with her facing us because of her posture, the wind blowing her hair and the piece of fabric on her suit, and the way she’s holding her sword. Plus, you can see more of the city and the greenery, bringing out the green in her own suit! RAHHH, it looks so cool, pooks! I’m getting the urge to print it out and hang it on my wall! 😭

Pooks… I’m literally in love with everything you’ve shared with me. If I could respectfully consume it, I would! 🥰💖 But omg, you say this is for a school project? How much do you have left to do? Thankfully, there’s still half of March, the entirety of April, and the majority of May, so hopefully, plenty of time to complete your project! I have no doubt you will finish it and that you will earn a high grade because you’re COOKING! Seriously! I’ve said it a lot, but you’re so talented! 💖💖💕💕🥹🥹

Thank you so much for continuing to share your art with me, pooks. I’m so, so, so honored! THANK YOU!!! 💕💖🥰🥹🫶🏼

I hope you're having a wonderful start to your week, pooks! Pls take care!💖🫶🏼

Alondra❤️

[froggibus]

Karaoke night with their s/o for Junkerqueen, Lucio, Mercy, and Venture? (I know you're getting soooo much Venture, I'm sorry, I adore them so much, I'm crushing so hard on them right now qq but I tried to include more people!!)

Karaoke Night - Junkerqueen, Lucio, Mercy & Venture

Genre: fluff w some crack

Summary: how your s/o would be when you take them to a karaoke bar

CW: drinking/alcohol, karaoke bar, mild public embarrassment, public singing, dorky ass ow characters

thank you for the req!! honestly this one was really fun to write & I appreciate you adding some variety to it ^^ i wrote this last night but work was so hectic i forgot to post it >~< hope you like it & that you’re having a wonderful day 💓

Junkerqueen:

she cannot sing for shit I’m sorry

probably didn’t know what a karaoke bar was until you took her

but she’s utterly fascinated by the idea of it and the fact people like it even if the people singing aren’t good

you probably have to surprise her by putting her in the queue without her knowing

she’s awkward when she first goes up but gets SUPER into it

chooses some fun sleaze rock song like Rock You Like A Hurricane and does dorky air guitar and stuff while she sings

has to announce to everyone that the song is dedicated to you too

drops to her knees at the very end and plays out the whole guitar solo with almost perfect air-fret/air-string placement

everyone loses their shit

she makes you go up with her after to sing free bird

the whole 9 minutes too oops

Lucio:

he is SO fun to karaoke with but also SO obnoxious

it was definitely his idea to go to the karaoke bar

probably buys you a couple drinks just to lower your inhibitions (so you’ll sing with him!)

while he’s comfortable in any spotlight, he accepts that you’re not (that’s what the drinks are for)

he signs you up without you ever knowing and when they call your name, drags you on stage with him

picks a super fun popular song & sings it with you

maybe a duet like Don’t Go Breaking My Heart or You’re The One That I Want

he busts out some silly dance moves while you’re up there just to help you feel more comfortable

he’ll start grabbing your hands and spinning you while singing

the crowd goes WILD for the two of you & people end up recording you

it goes viral online once people realizes it’s lucio oops

he has so much fun that he signs you up for 3 more songs >~>

Mercy:

she probably wanted to go to the bar just to watch

but after a glass or two of sangria she’s getting up on stage and grabbing the mic

sings a love song or a pseudo-love song, like Total Eclipse of The Heart or Dancing On My Own

she’s a totally good singer too

smiles at you the whole time and keeps pointing at you until everyone in the bar is watching you

she ends up reaching both hands to you and dragging you on stage after to sing a duet

if she drinks enough she WILL bust out some dorky dance moves (she LOVES the corny fake-rope pulling one)

again the crowd LOVES you guys even if you’re not the best singer

probably ends up going up 2-3 more times before the bar closes

Venture:

they LOVE karaoke bars however they’re too awkward on their own to get up and sing

get them a couple drinks first and they’ll practically be running up on the stage foaming at the mouth

they will do ANYTHING but they love cheesy 80s music and classic karaoke songs

not the best singer but they’re not bad at all

they do the little awkward side shuffle dance before they start to get into it

and then they bust out some CRAZY moves

I’m talking the worm, I’m talking break dancing—some WILD things

they’ll come back and beg you to do a song with them (but they won’t tell you what)

it ends up being something ridiculous like Tequila or something

and the two of you just stand there perfectly still until you say ‘tequila’

they’ll grab your hands after and pull you off stage giggling

masterlist | overwatch masterlist

if you like content like this, interactions go a long way! i appreciate every like, comment & reblog ^^

[wyked-ao3]

Wyked's intro

Hey, I'm wyked (wicked) been on Tumblr a while now and finally got around to my intro

About me:↪ Wyked, she/her/psycho

↪ writer questionnaire here and here and another one here

↪ I'm 23 and would prefer not to interact with minors.

About my blog:↪ This is the blog for interactions and reblogging and tag games.

↪ Reader, writer, nerd,

↪Alpha/Beta reader, idea bouncer. (Send a pm if your looking for an extra set of eyes, just tell me what your looking for. I can be brutally honest if that's what you're looking for but I'm still listing my favorite parts regardless.)

↪Taurus born

↪I write mostly fanfiction multi fandom and have a blog for it here @wyked-fanfiction

↪ I'm currently writing my first original work the TPCG series and all lore and a majority of writing shares and ask will be shared on this blog @wyked-original-writing

All fandom related stuff will be contained to @wyked-fandom

↪My current game fandom's

Zelda (it's more link than Zelda but whatever lol) I have played (wind waker , orca of time, twilight princess, and a little of skyward sword)

Elder scrolls (Skyrim is my favorite)

Devil may cry 2-3

Red steel

Assassin's creed (can't wait for the new one…although I'm still not sure about upgrading from the PS3 lol)

↪My movie/series fandoms

Merlin, Twilight, Supernatural, Lucifer, Grimm,Once upon a time, Stargate (all), Primeval, Criminal minds, NCIS, Star trek, Harry Potter, Hannibal, Marvel, Harley Quinn, Shadow hunters, Arrow, How to train your dragons (all), Troll hunters (they ripped my heart out) Avatar the last Airbender, Avatar (blue), Jurassic world, Jurassic park, Dragon prince, The last of us?(Not the biggest fan of it but I do read the fic's and wrote for ot occasionally, Lost, Charmed (original), Originals (didn't finish it….I'm a softie okay), and to be honest I'm forgetting some… may edit as I remember or hit a phase where they are my favorite show again….

↪Anime fandom's…..some I'm only in due to my sister but it still counts…..

Black Butler

Heavens official blessing

Skum villain D

emon king academy

Welcome to demon school iruma (I love this)

Fairytail

↪My Never seen but I could probably convince you otherwise do to my sister's rambling list that will update as I remember names

Inuyasha

↪My interest and writing memes will be posted on @wyked-rebellion

Herbs,plants,trees, mushrooms, nature (I can keep going) animals,fish,corals and aquatic plants, invertebrates, mythology, pirates, knights, druids,shamans, hanfu, feudal era, history involving any of the above.. writing, gardening, wood carving and burning, sketching although I think you get more detail with wood burning……I can keep listing but most of that will not be covered here so I will stop now but feel free to drop in my inbox to chat

I will add more eventually here

↪My mutuals original story recommendation list

My favorite western, time loop horror romance by @tragedycoded I can not recommend this enough it got me hooked on a western.

If you like gay pirates, kidnapping, drama and found family that will keep you on your toes then check out @the-golden-comet 's story (read the warning)

↪My mutuals fanfiction recommendation list (it will change as I think of some I added the recommendations last minute so oops)

If you are into sarcastic lovable OC's and mandalorians from star wars check out @lillybaaaka 's work

she also has a fem Harry Potter/startrek crossover that I'm in love with lol highly recommend it, it's more startrek then Harry Potter

if you are into the bat family you should check out @gods-graveyard 's work

if you like bananafish fanfiction then check out @gioiaalbanoart she has several amazing ones but my favorite so far is this one

if you are a Zelda fan who ships Ganon and Link then I highly recommend you check out @the-golden-comet just make sure to read the warnings

[ninawolv3rina]

Some Laz design work! All of this is stuff I KNOW will appear in the book - except for the modern AU lmao. Some design notes under the cut!

OC: Laz Atwater (he/they)

DESIGN NOTES: OUTFITS

These have changed a lot since his original design (shown below)

One thing that I’ve not only kept but expanded on is their skirt! I really like the skirt. Idk why but it fits him best, and in the time between this first ref and the newest one, it’s by far the one I’ve drawn them in the most. Usually without a shirt, which leads me to the next note—

I’ve added a little more practicality to his lore, including the idea that he mends his own clothes! This is most evident with his shirt and pants, but Laz’s clothes are pretty consistently getting torn to shreds and he doesn’t have the money to constantly be buying new clothes, so I figure that just makes sense. I love the look it lends to him as a bonus.

As for the demonias. Those are impractical and i don’t care, they look great on him.

I changed the party guest outfit from blue to pink because i realized my design was pretty much wholesale ripping off Dan Stevens’ ballroom outfit from the live action beauty and the beast, oops. Also, this color scheme gives him a mirrored scheme to Sophrina, who will wear blue and have a pale pink wig (her hair is red underneath it, too. God i need to draw her…)

Also sidewinder is thicc in this new ref, i don’t think that’s permanent. I actually think I’m going to draw it both thick and thin in the future, depending on the piece! In the text it’s definitely closer to a realistic greatsword but sometimes I’m just going to want to draw a huge anime sword and i don’t want to change that about myself.

DESIGN NOTES: HAIR

While the long hair is still probably the one I’ll draw the most and how i see him in my head, all 5 of these looks appear in the text, and everything in between! Laz has his head shaved for surgical reasons pretty frequently, so he’s pretty much given up on caring about his hair one way or another. He lets it grow until it hits the length i typically draw it, then keeps it trimmed, but if something happens that cuts it shorter he doesn’t pay it much mind. All of these styles are inspired by cuts I wanted to have when i was a teen in the 2000s/2010s lmao. Specifically, his very short fuzzy buzz cut is inspired by Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, someone who inspired me a lot as a kid.

I want to draw him with the shaggy cut more. Since I added the hair to his bases, I was able to play around with the outfits and combinations.

Anyway, I love Laz and I have a lot of fun with him! they’ve evolved a lot since their initial concept and i fall more in love with them every time i draw them.

[wildharesandboundteeth]

FREE No Effort Palestine Activism

(!!!Zionists hate this easy and simple trick!!!)

What you need

A device with a social media app (like YouTube)

A channel that uses ad revenue to fund Palastine donations and efforts such as Artistic Antics LLC on YouTube

Time

(Optional) A playlist of such videos

All you need to do for this is just to put on the video, mute it, and leave it in the background.

That's it.

You can literally help survive a genocide families while napping or taking a massive dump.

You might have to shake your cursor or tap the screen once in a while (or click the "Yes I'm still watching" button for platforms like YouTube) but that's literally it. (Though there may be extensions to remove that I'm not sure.)

Can be used for stuff like Ukraine, Yemen and other fundraising efforts as well!

Additional stuff you can do for good spoon days 👇👇

Additional ways to increase ad revenue for the video:

Liking

Commenting (you can literally just post quotes the bee movie script or talk about how your day was. Doesn't matter)

Sharing (most valued by algorithm)

For sharing, you can just click 'copy link' without actually sharing the video. You can also copy link on top of sharing the video with other friends or to those group chats that only contain you that you actually use as a grocery list or a place where you save cool videos.

Remember, viewer retention for YouTube is key. Not sure about other social platforms, though since I don't use them oops!

Ideas on what to do in the mean time:

Fixing phone a addiction (something I do). Do this while challenging yourself to not look at your phone for x number of minutes/hours. I've found that helping the Palestinian families while doing this actually motivates to keep to my goals!

Touching grass/going for a walk (I like setting up challenging myself by making myself walk for x amount of videos helps build up stamina/determination.)

Doing your homework on a separate device (stops from being tempted by doom scrolling 💀)

Using the videos as a timer/goal for exercises ("I'll stop planking after x number of videos finish" "I'll see how many crunches within the span of this video")

For laptop only users, doing something else on another tab. Don't mute the video using that speaker toggle thingy like a boomer. Just the tab itself. Mute the tab itself (left click the tab it's on and click "Mute Tab".)

Godtier Additional Help:

If you're able to, you can also set up your own YouTube channel, adopt a varified family or use funds to donate to reputable charities like Unicef. From your videos, others will be able to use your videos to generate ad revenue.

This post was entirely inspired by Artistic Antics LLC and not really my idea, so kudos to them. They're literally the best, please please please check their soap making YouTube Channel and their soap store out!

Rambing:

Now, as someone who regularly has really bad seasons when caused by various disabilities, circumstances and other mental health issues, keeping up activism can be a really challenging thing. Even thinking about the absolute codswallop going on in Palastine can be extremely risky on my worse days.

Outside of mental health and disabilty stuff, keeping up consistent and regular activism can easily lead to burn out.

Remember this: suffering is not moral. Even if whatever we may be experiencing may be a drop compared to what Palastinians may be experiencing but staying in suffering or 'muscling through' burnout is not the answer. In fact, it can actually make things worse. Using tools like this can help you to persevere so please use them.

Ignoring your own wounds won't make others' wounds disappear. Neglecting them will, in fact, get in the way of helping.

Please share with the class if you have more ideas or other easy activism ideas!

Photo of eepy cat made by Dương Nhân

[ofeliaxoxo]

adding onto what you said Charles doesn’t WANT to rate Lando highly as a threat but he literally has to he’s forced to by the carlando of it all and that’s a bitter pill to swallow

// yeah that's what i meant to say oops. he's like so annoyed that it's lando of all people he gets irrationally jealous of. also agree lando is just an rpf gift of a person that keeps on giving. multifaceted guy that can be put in all kinds of situation if you need a little bit of spice.

silly thought i just had: i just love the (unrealistic) idea of charles maybe even stumbling upon old carlando content on tiktok or something and pausing to go... hmm what's this. this bothers me i hate it i cant stop watching. and yeah i would loveeee to take a peek at their algorithms lol. or maybe it's better not to know... but charles used to have very aware twitter likes

Charles being jealous of Lando against his will is my favourite. I have this image of them all at a party and obviously drinking lowers your filters. And Charles is off doing his own thing and at some point he sees Carlos and Lando sitting together on a couch just talking. And he comes over and flops down between them forcing some space in the middle. And he’s smirking just like ha ha I Got Carlos and Lando’s like ugh come on. And Carlos is just fondly exasperated. He wants to be like stop bullying Lando but he’s too endeared with the evidence of Charles wanting him all to himself.

Lmao I’d love to know their algorithms but I fear it would be extremely Man stuff we’d all be faced too straightforwardly with the reality of these people it would make the rpf so much harder to do. I will have fun with their public personas because I do NOT want to think about what they privately like and believe😭

I DO think each and every one of them is heavily aware of a lot of what goes on fandom wise. Charles has shown multiple instances of trying to refute online fandom narratives [side note it is fascinating to me because I think he is out of all of them the one that actively tries to dispute fandom things the most. Literally multiple times on main has tried to argue with the charlos hatred/pr allegations. He either is bothered on a personal level or he can’t stand being seen as a guy who would hate Carlos. Deeply juicy to me] and I can think of 2 recent instances where Carlos has done so as well. Also being aware of memes, sure Carlos himself said on some podcast that if any driver says he doesn’t look at what’s posted about him he’s lying. Plus I know for sure in my soul that younger more online ones like Lando and oscar definitely know about rpf. So do max and his friends because of the lestappen joke. Theyre clearly very in tune. I think we can safely assume that if it’s posted on twitter or insta they have a solid chance of knowing about it. Thank Christ no one normal goes on tumblr or they’d see all this too

[day6source]

hello my loves!!! happy october!!!! 🍂🍁🎃👻🧡 personally, october is my favorite month since it's my birthday month (oct 5th, so soon!!), so i'm a bit biased hehe. i do have some small updates for you though, so, let's begin!! 💕💕💕

first: calendar is updated for the month with concert dates and whatnot on the desktop theme! so if you're curious as to when to expect a show, hover over one of the blue marked circles under the calendar tab!

second: the survey was so fun to read the results of!! it was so fun seeing the demographics and seeing what you guys had to say, also so many of you are so funny, i had a bunch of answers that made me laugh out loud. but as for things that'll be going into effect as a result:

- bubble stuff will be updated soon-ish! i have a backlog of things, so it might be a bit. i thought the way i was doing things looked a bit messy but you guys seem to not mind it, so i probably won't be changing the way they're uploaded aside from just not having them be as long and arranging them in two columns instead. - there's a couple interview things i have backlogged as well that'll come out, but maybe not immediately given their length, but they'll be done! if any new ones come out however, those'll take priority. - i've been inconsistent with updating on things like tickets and video calls and the like (mostly bc they keep catching me when i'm asleep, oops), but i'm gonna try and get those up more often if i haven't missed the window, primarily if it has to do with tickets. - things like old content and audios for stuff being uploaded will be sort of at leisure, but mostly because i don't have my own laptop right now! once i'm back with my own, things like that'll be more frequent, but this in particular won't be immediate. - you guys were actually pretty evenly split on fansite photos, so i'm going to hold off on them, BUT! a lot of you liked the idea of being able to find edits here, but i also wanted this to still be mostly news, so i came up with an idea. every wednesday & sunday (all day cst), i'll be reblogging things from #day6source onto the blog (and i'll be adding the tag to the pinned possibly and maybe description for easy access of knowing?). if you post any time during the week, i'll schedule them for those two days regardless. i'm actually pretty excited about this one, and hoping maybe it might mean seeing more content?

and that's pretty much it! i wanna try and get back into the habit of making posts like this again, this year got so crazy! but i hope it's been treating you well and you're all taking care of yourselves. make sure to bundle up (or not if it's hot. don't do that.), and get your halloween costumes ready, and favorite scary movies queued up! and of course as always, make sure you're drinking plenty of water and remembering to eat and stay happy and healthy.

love love love, tay 💕💕💕💕

[emiplayzmc]

Hey Emi :) Submitting my gal for the animal crossingfication…… Some really fast doodles cause I didn’t have much time oop-

Additional info about her! Tried to make it as short as possible ^^’

She used to be very peppy and excitable but due to Lore and Traumas (losing her pink and being Alone) she moved to work at this big corporation that focuses on making video-based ads, and buried herself in every kind of work imaginable to cope. She gets better and becomes herself again eventually! But mainly she is always Working and Tired. She's still a goof but mostly in like... 'how many keep-awake drinks can I mix together without them killing me' kind of goof. She may collapse of exhaustion any moment, silly Mo. Also she's the kind to write down when people go "man I owe you one" so she can cash in on favors later :)

As stated above she prefers masc clothing, in professional settings outside of work clothes she likes suits, and in casual settings more like, flannels and hawaiian shirt kind of stuff. She doesn't get to listen to music as often as she used to (gotta keep coming up with jingles and generic royalty-free music) but she seems to me like she'd enjoy rock and nighrcore. I also like to imagine that she likes to target ads to certain lightners to annoy when she's bored, like Berdly :3 I hope that's enough characterization-

I don't know what animal she'd be in AC, you can go wild with it if ya want. The only vague idea I had was she could be a wolf just cause the tufts at the sides of her face could probably work to do the fast-forward button shape of her hair, but also I barely remember how the AC models look so I dunno ahshsfjdk

MOBIII! THE MOBI LOREEE!! I am so sorry this took so long to get to!!

Aaand here's Mobi L.! Hope that I did her justice, she was super fun to draw!! (Ik I've said this about all of the reqs so far but they srsly are all just so fun to draw rahhhh :DD)

♤~~♡~~♤

The post with rules for requesting an Addison OC to be drawn as an AC character!

[talshiargirlfriend]

Oops, my hands slipped and I wrote a follow up to this one. (Still falls into missing scene territory is you like.)

Trip grumbled at Phlox on his way out of Sickbay more out of habit than any real reluctance to submit to treatment. He knew it was necessary; he just didn’t have time to think about that right now.  At least three people spoke to him in the corridor as he approached his quarters, but he couldn’t have told you who they were or what he said in response. 

As soon as he heard the reassuring click of his door closing behind him, Trip stripped off the hateful mining uniform and dropped it on the floor. He’d have preferred to set it on fire. Or cram it down Paxton’s throat. Or better yet, first one and then the other. Shaking those thoughts from his mind he picked up his pace. He had a sick baby to get back to. 

He showered quickly. Pain shot through his left arm when he reached up to scrub his hair, so one-handed it was. Just as well he hadn’t tried to pick the baby up earlier. The baby. His baby. He couldn’t quite get his head around that.  A whole little person made up of pieces of him and T’Pol. She was adorable, with her pointy little ears and bright blue eyes, and a pretty damn good impression of her mother’s Vulcan glare already. She was perfect. Seriously, what kind of insane maniac would-- he slapped the tiled wall of the shower and breathed in slowly through his nose. Nope, not thinking about that. She was here now, and they were going to take care of her.

Trip knew he wasn’t going back on duty anytime soon, but he dressed in uniform anyway. It was familiar. He had no idea how to be someone’s dad, but he knew how to be Commander Tucker. He was good at it. It sure seemed a whole lot safer to approach this crisis and whatever was coming next as Commanders Tucker and T’Pol, Starfleet’s Finest (and One Hell of a Team™) rather than Trip and T’Pol, Certified Hot Mess of a Couple. He snorted at that thought as he fastened his boots. 

He was halfway to the Mess Hall to grab a drink when he realized that facing the crowd there sounded like a special kind of hell and made a beeline for T’Pol’s quarters instead. Sure, he could ask someone to bring a tray down to Sickbay, but it felt disproportionately important that he handle it himself. He didn’t need Phlox’s five psychology degrees to understand that. 

Maybe coffee was a bust, but at least T’Pol had plenty of tea in her stash. The last time he’d woken up with her, Trip had joked that she was going to have to start keeping coffee as well - had that really only been a week ago? It felt much longer. Time flies when a madman creates a baby from your stolen DNA (and that of your off again-on again alien lover), and you have to thwart his evil plans. 

Trip took a moment to let the familiar scent of the meditation candles wash over him. He’d promised her a change of clothes… Purple. She looked commanding in purple. Regal. T’Pol would of course use whatever toiletries were available in the decon shower without complaint, as logic demanded, but she hated that stuff. He added her shampoo to the bag. 

Right. Tea. He set out a pair of small mugs and looked through the assortment of containers on the shelf. 

Chamomile for the lady. And for himself… Mint? No. He stared blankly at the options hoping for inspiration. Maybe she had some of that spiced Andorian blend left. He picked up an unfamiliar jar and lifted the lid. 

The heavenly aroma hit him instantly. 

Coffee.

The kind with a hint of nutmeg that he really liked. He didn’t even remember telling her that. 

Trip felt the sting of tears in his eyes and the back of his throat and swallowed against the sudden swell of emotion. She could be so sweet when she wasn’t driving him crazy. He knew she was just as terrified as he was, but she really was gonna be a great mom. 

Had he told her that before he left? Everything was a blur.  He pictured T’Pol, with her big worried eyes, holding that chubby baby and rocking her gently, and he felt something squeeze in his chest.

Maybe he’d tell her some other things while he was at it. 

And as for the other “her”… Well, what do you even call a half-Vulcan baby anyway? He considered as he slid the bag over his good arm and picked up the two steaming mugs. Other than sweetheart, he supposed. Or darlin’. Or daddy’s little girl. He grinned. Yeah, that’d do for now. 

[coolfire333]

Gender venting/introspection posting

Something about being online (therefore being faceless/voiceless) gives me a certain ambiguous gender that I'll never achieve irl. I cannot medically transition because I don't want to fully masculinize myself and therefore give up any chance of being able to be read as female when I want to be but that also means I straight up don't pass as male.

I mean when in really heavily dysphoric boymode I bind and try to wear masculine clothes, plus my hair is shorter now, but I honestly still probably just look like a tomboy girl.

There aren't really clothes that are "forbidden" for girls to wear (for example if a man wears a dress it immediately brings up a question of gender and "correct" presentation whereas a woman wearing a suit is nearly normalized) so I cannot wear something that immediately signals to people like "hey I just look like a woman but I am a man" which just sucks

I just cannot explain my gender to people because yeah I'm not exactly cis because I'm bigender but I'm not really trans either because I'm still a girl and on top of that I'm not transitioning medically so I'm not going anywhere.

Yeah I have two different name and pronoun sets but nobody has any idea when I want one to be used over the other unless I directly tell them (again going back to the point that there aren't "boy clothes" that are "forbidden" for girls to wear so much as there are "girl clothes" that are "forbidden" for boys to wear)

People who don't medically transition are a-ok to me but my attitude towards myself is just...I'm not even fully changing my name or pronouns I'm just kinda like...adding stuff on top of what's already there and maybe slightly changing the way I dress but to me it's hardly anything compared to my friends who are "full-on trans" (binary trans and nonbinary trans) and have changed socially speaking, even if it is just their pronouns that have changed.

I dunno, more people in my friend group have been coming out of the closet as trans and that encourages me to come out as bigender, but at the same time there's just this sinking feeling that people will just not understand me. I don't even fully understand myself and my own sometimes-here-sometimes-gone dysphoria and explaining it to others feels like I'm just begging to be made fun of.

There's also the special kind of torment of not being either male or female...like I'm very happy for my (binary) friends but at the same time there's probably gonna be a point where it's like "wow you are so (gender)" that they'll achieve presentation-wise that just isn't possible for me. At least that'll probably happen to my nonbinary friends too so maybe I can sympathise with them there but man that doesn't make the situation any easier.

Like man if I could just physically change my body back and forth between male and female that'd be great but my worst feelings are telling me that nobody is ever gonna really see me as a real man and when they call me "he" and by my male name they're just humoring some kind of strange delusion I have.

I dunno it's also kind of disheartening because my mom keeps misgendering (in private) my explicitly-trans friends with a singular name and pronoun set and then kind of being like "oops sorry I'm just not used to the new name!"

Like I get it that change is hard when you've known someone a certain way for like forever but it just takes continuous practice like??? Just come on man I love my mom and she's a decent ally in the whole "whatever makes you happy/it's none of my business/people should be allowed to do whatever" sense but please.

Like yesterday she tried comparing it to her favorite sports team changing names and the fact that she still calls them by their old name sometimes but 1. that's not comparable to literally deadnaming/misgendering someone even if it is accidental and 2. SHE LITERALLY CALLS THE SPORTS TEAM BY ITS NEW NAME MORE TIMES THAN SHE CORRECTLY ADDRESSES MULTIPLE OF MY FRIENDS.

Literally have never heard her use the correct name or pronouns for multiple people even once yet it's easier for her to do this when a place/company/brand changes branding like oh my god. Like ok yeah she's old and this is new to her but my god she'll literally get confused about "which way" a fully-out person identifies even if she's never known them before they changed names and/or pronouns.

And I don't even want to know what my dad's views on trans/gnc people are because from what I've seen he's not like a conservative bigot but he really is an ignorant jerk about anyone who isn't perfectly gender-conforming and he'll say the rudest things about anyone who "isn't normal"

Ughhh I just want to crawl back into the closet even further every time this happens like I just do not understand and it's really starting to piss me off.

[honey-minded-hivemind]

We must be psychically linked for real cause I was just thinking of the dark au and you start working on it again LMAO. Me personally I think reader should have some kinda mutation that allows them to copy other mutations or a time/dimension jump one so it could be revealed that oops! reader accidentally sent all of them away! And cause some big feelings in the yans, like they want to blame reader for what happened but they still love them so dearly and it wouldn’t be fair to reader who is still learning and growing their powers to be solely blamed, or it’s a wrong place wrong time type thing where reader and one of the teens powers interact in such a way that they get sent to where ever they are/stuck in the time stream a la batman the return of Bruce Wayne

Spino

That is a good idea, Spino Anon! It's really creative! I don't know if that's how I will write the au, but you have given me a thought or two on how to explain the four teens ending up in the dark future/au. I hope you are doing alright! I think as a treat, I can do a few headcanons I have for the Dark AU.... Let's do it:

• I headcanon that for the Dark AU, it's set in a reboot-esque au of X-Men Evolution, so things are mostly the same, but a little different. Such as more found family dynamics and less trying to toss children and rivals off of cliffs ( it's a reboot/retelling/reimagining due to platonic yandere stuff/adding Reader/adding more adventures/wanting to rewrite certain scenes/wanting to add further to it/etc.)

• Reader is a friend to both groups of teens, and likely joined one, if not both, at some point

• Reader took care of the others a lot. Reminding them to eat (mostly the adults for that, plus a handful of the teens, Reader would also make dinner/breakfast/snacks/treats for the platonic yans, maybe teaching a teen or two how to cook)... making art and craft projects for them (such as handmade scarves or stuffed animals, friendship bracelets and best friend necklaces, even full canvas paintings and notebooks full of sketches and drawings)... having small (platonic) dates where Reader does something they (the teen/s or adult/s) want to do, but can't do with the others or that doesn't interest the others... Reader was the sort to toss a blanket around someone if they fell asleep on the couch, made coffee or hot chocolate in the mornings/nights when it was cold, just trying to keep their friends family happy and cared for

• Reader was friends and still is in this au with the other teens who had the bad thing happen to them (being Kurt, Kitty, and Pietro). Probably was the one who played it straight between the four, still a bit more light-hearted and joking, but more toned down. I am undecided if Reader is the same age, older, or younger than them

• When the bad thing happens, let's just say the remaining X-Men and Brotherhood kinda... lost it. I mentioned before a person or multiple persons was behind what happened, but I never went into full detail on what it might have been. Whatever it was (no spoilers yet!) led the platonic yans to believe that they were dead, and that it wasn't quick or painless. They know it wasn't an accident. So they go mad with grief, in a way. They take vengeance on those who caused it, more-or-less send a message out warning what happens if anyone targets their loved ones, and (maybe?) take control over the world... Or at least parts of New York and Canada...

• The platonic yans become more... dark. If they were holding their punches before... they aren't now. They become ruthless when dealing with enemies, they learn new skills and tricks and tactics, they aren't going to let the same thing that happened in the past happen now

• I imagine that it's somewhere between three to five years before Reader and the others end up in the future/au, and they are still wounded from what happened. The worst of their wounds healed up enough, but not everything else, so they aren't as quick or as fast as they want to be when moving through the changed world around them

• When they are found to be alive and are confirmed to be the Dark AU platonic yans kids/friends/siblings, the platonic yans are hunting them down as fast as they can. They don't want them to disappear, they don't want them to die, and they aren't about to have them ripped away from them again. Even if it means they have to keep them under house arrest or sedated or otherwise...

(And this is what I can say without revealing any spoilers! Enjoy😊💛🧡🍯🐝)

[loracarol]

A friend of mine invited me to the live action httyd and honestly? I kind of liked it? Part of it is definitely that I never saw the original in theaters, so the live action is my first experience of seeing it on the big screen. I don't feel like writing up an essay, so in bullet points:

There are scenes where Mason Thames looks like he's on the verge of tears & I really appreciated it. (Weird place to start, I know, but it was something I noticed, okay?)

I liked the characterization they added to Snotlout and his dad. Yes, I know that that's explored in the tv show, but I liked that it was incorporated into the movie. Definitely added to the Snotlout + Hiccup parallels.

Like? I've seen the TV show, I don't want to dismiss it, but I have to admit there's something a little bit frustrating about people dismissing character development in the LA movie with "oh well they did it in the show (so it didn't have to be in the movie)". It's a very MCU line of thought.

I liked Ruffnut and Tuffnut and thought their joke about how "their mom can't tell them apart" was hilarious. Plus I loved how we got more than one body shape in the teen girls of Berk.

Actual mentions of Valka beyond the breast plate joke! Her disappearance haunts the narrative!

Multiracial vikings! I admit, I'm not sure that they needed to have an excuse for why all the different races were there, but I was fascinated by the idea that Berk is Berk because all these people came together to create a dragon-hunting village.

I liked Toothless. He had an iridescence at times. I wanted to pet him so bad. :(

There were several scenes were I was reminded of the triceratops scene in Jurassic Park in a good way.

I liked the chameleon terrible terrors. Sue me. I thought they were an interesting take on them. 🤣

I didn't mind the fact that they cut the scene where one of the terrible terrors swallows fire because they make it clear during dragon training that the green smoke is flammable & the Crimson Death is spewing that stuff. I felt, personally, that even with that scene cut, Hiccup making the connection still made sense.

Astrid!! I liked what they did with Astrid; we know Hiccup because the movie is from his POV, but honestly? I felt like her arguments were kind of valid; WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE of his internal feelings/how things go with Stoick, her seeing him as nepo baby that keeps causing problems (injuring other vikings mid-dragon attack, "luring" a monstrous nightmare into town setting fire to everything and losing the sheep) and not getting in trouble. WE KNOW OTHERWISE but I can 100% see why she is frustrated with him. And then she tells him she wants to be chief* and from HIS POV we know he's like "oh yeah, you'd be a great chief, you're what my dad wants", but from her POV it's like he doesn't even care about Berk.

I just liked it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

NGL, I do think she would have made a good chief of the original Berk, but Hiccup is the perfect chief for the new Berk. Together they fight crime.

We had a disabled actress playing a disabled character. A secondary character, yes, but still, 'twas neat.

I genuinely couldn't tell that the movie was longer. Oops.

Gerard Butler was. So cool.

Okay, so like I said above, I didn't see the cartoon version, so this is very much a, "I might have felt different if I'd seen the cartoon one in theater" okay? I'm acknowledging that right now, you don't need to tell me otherwise but.

Whenever I've seen the cartoon, the Crimson Death has been on a small screen + cartoony + we see the aftermath of her attack.

In the live action movie, in the theater, I saw her and thought, "oh, they're fighting a god".

I also liked how they let Astrid be the one to plan their attack. It played into her strength as a fighter/leader & as someone who had actually hung out with the other teens while Hiccup was more of an outcast.

Stoick admitting they rode the dragons home. Nice.

I just had fun. Admittedly, I might had less fun if I'd seen the original in theaters, but since I didn't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[kozykricket]

oops long post about minecraft

i hope that within the next 5 years i can see minecraft move on from the stage of Adding Content, and start making more changes... but at the same time, they've always mentioned how they want people to be able to always come back to the game and ... have it feel familiar. mojang wants people to be able to come back from a loooong break, and still ultimately play the game the same, even if it looks or sounds different. even if theres more options. i think logically thats why they never replace or reshuffle content. because... well, they'd rather add something to the side of the core game than change something thats part of the core... because they dont want to disrupt peoples traditional way of playing but like, with how much minecraft has evolved every aspect of itself EXCEPT the main, core gameplay? it feels like... at this point, i think they SHOULD change the core gameplay, even if its in ways that i dont even like. just, to fit in more with the rest... but do i fault them? no. they play it safe yet they also try daring new things, at the same time. its impressive the amount of effort they put into carefully thinking about new content... and i understand so many people would be up in arms, or would be saddened, if the way they played the game drastically changed. and thats why theyre just , giving us the ability to modify the game more easily than ever

i just kinda felt like i needed to get this out here, because. yknow, whenever people mention minecraft having Tons of Content I Can't Keep Track Of What When Did They Add That What Is That it slike yeah you're not really ... supposed to notice it? but you are supposed to?

you're not supposed to feel the need to engage with anything they add, but also Marketing(TM) denotes that they have to advertise the new stuff as something for you to engage with, and really, really encourage you to engage with it via stuff like advancements or the title screen even so i guess the game is at odds with itself in that way, because as said, things are designed to ... well, not BE noticed when they're added, at least not in a disruptive yet, yet they also try to make things noticable enough that you know they exist... and . well, its a careful balance... i dont think its entirely futile, but i think the fact that they kinda have to market content to Everyone even when they know they designed that content as Not Something For Everyone, is fairly ... awkward. cus then... yknow, they end up leading people towards stuff that they otherwise would've had not much of an opinion on, but now that they're being "forcibly shown" the content that they don't personally care about, they may see it as an attack towards their playstyle, in the way that changing the core gameplay loop would be. does this make sense? okay uhh example mojang adds... deep dark biomes, but theyre definitely optional to engage with, and you might not even know they were added, because of their optional-ness and arguably low relevance. its just a fun little sidequest in a way, a self contained Thing because they don't want to scare people away. but yet at the same time, the marketing goes all "HEY WE GOT A COOL NEW SPOOKY BIOME" and then even if you're disinterested in it, you now know its in the game, and you are led to believe that mojang WANTS every player to be using the deep dark, which... makes it seem poorly designed. simply because it WASNT designed for every player to want to engage with. it wasnt designed to be an integral part of the core experience. it was designed to be optional and is being marketed as a big part of the experience.

cus the thing is they DONT always design things for every type of player to want to use. you get me? they design the... allay, to be nice for certain types of players. but then the marketing gives off the idea that they think every type of player ought to enjoy it, even though it wasn't designed to be enjoyed by everyone and... yeah i guess thats also why i appreciate loosely themed updates like 1.8 or 1.20, because they have less of a deliberate focus on the One Big Thing and so people are less likely to end up noticing something that wasnt really meant to be noticed unless they liked it. people who dont like trial chambers will be noticing them since theyre on the title screen in 1.21... even though, if they are someone who doesnt like them, then they were meant to be sorta, yknow, optional for those people? though perhaps a structure that spawns anywhere in the overworld is a poor example. maybe stuff like the sniffer being shown so much is Worse in that sense this really became a bigger post than i imagined. i just kinda intended to make a post that was like "its kind of a bummer that mojang is basically restricted away from changing the core of minecraft despite the fact that theyve changed everything else so much that by proxy they've changed the core in every way that isnt straight up full on touching the core gameplay"