#i love ''person A gives person B a new name'' as a concept i realize i dont employ that nearly enough with my ocs

[sableprince]

nobody else has made times and galaxy ocs yet. somebody has to do it. i guess.

no text versions under the cut

[emberfrostlovesloki]

Space-Time Continuum [Hotch x Reader]

Photo credits: Left (@everydayschristmas) Center (@masterwords) Right (@happyheidi)

Prompt: Aaron and the reader take down the last of the Christmas decorations. As they work and spend a relaxing afternoon together, Aaron realizes he wants to ask the reader to move in with him and Jack. 

Pairing: [established relationship] Aaron x fem!Non-BAU!reader. The reader uses she her pronouns 

Category: fluff/comfort 

Word Count: 4.4K

Content Warnings: mention of Haley’s passing, implied intimacy. If I missed any, please let me know. 

A/N: Hi loves! Here is another fic based on the amazing @imagining-in-the-margins January/February Writing Challenge about New Beginnings. This story is inspired by the dialog prompt: “The time will pass anyway.” This is pure domestic fluff. I can just imagine Aaron looking forward to asking you to move in with him. I hope this story warms you up as winter keeps wintering. If you like this story, likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated. If you’re starting school (uni) next week, or you're already back, just know I’m proud of you! Love Levi - ❤️

List with all stories 

_y/n_ = your name

_y/f/c/b_ = your favorite caffeinated beverage 

_y/f/c_ -= your favorite color 

_y/f/s_ = your favorite scent  

_t/c_ = tea or coffee

_y/f/c/b_ = your favorite caffeinated beverage 

_y/f/p/b/s_= your favorite perfume or body spray 

_u/sf/d_= up, straight forward, or down (depending on your height)

_f/b/c/m/m_ = your favorite book, coming, manga, magazine 

_y/n_ woke up warm. Aaron had his arms wrapped around her and he was already half awake. He murmured, “Moring.” _y/n_ smiled into his chest and replied, “Good morning. Have you looked out the window yet? The weather said it might snow overnight.” Hotch shifted in the bed and sort of repositioned _y/n_ to his left side while he used his long muscled arm to pull the curtain on the window to the side. _y/n_ could have done this herself, but she wanted to bask in the warmth of Aaron’s broad chest just a moment longer. After a second Aaron said, “Well the weatherman was finally right. It snowed. Still is actually.” _y/n_ hummed to see for herself. Outside small flurries gently fell from the side and to the frozen pavement three floors down from Hotch’s apartment. It looked like about five inches had fallen overnight. _y/n_ was very grateful that it was the weekend and that she and Hotch could sleep in for a bit longer. They could also let Jack sleep in too. When _y/n_ and Aaron had gotten serious, Hotch’s son had taken to _y/n_ quickly. Over time when she started staying over more often, not just on the weekends, she’d started getting Jack ready for school if Hotch was rushed to get to the office for a case. Then _y/n_ dropped Jack off at school for the first time and they’d sung songs in the car on the way there. Aaron was so relieved that Jack and his partner had bonded. It warmed his heart that _y/n_ loved his son so much. Even though _y/n_ was younger than him, _y/n_ had great parental instincts and often spoke to Jack when he threw a fit or got into trouble as well as he would. _y/n_ was very good at putting difficult concepts into understandable, neat packages. It was one of the things Hotch loved about her. If they had a fight, or needed to talk, he always had her full attention, and if she didn’t understand where he was coming from, she tried to see it from his shoes. That was something he’d never been great at in his personal life. After a moment of quiet, _y/n_ sat up and asked, “So, what are the plans for today? I hope they don’t involve a lot of going outside.” Hotch chuckled, knowing that _y/n_ didn’t love dealing with the cold and snow. Aaron stretched giving _y/n_ a small peak of his stomach and elastic of his briefs for a second. Aaron cleared his throat and said, “Well I need to shower first. But one thing that’s been on the list forever is taking down the Christmas tree and decorations. It feels overdue.” _y/n_ nodded. The tree had been up for some time after the holidays. Neither of them had had time with the return to work bustle. Then Hotch had been sent to cases back to back and had been too exhausted to think about it last week. But not that he was rested it felt like as good a time as any. _y/n_ nodded and said, “Sounds good. We can figure the rest out as we go. I’ll change, start breakfast, and get Jack up while you shower, okay?” Aaron smiled and replied, “Sounds great, _y/n_.” 

Under the hot water, Hotch lathered his body with soap. As the foamy lather rinsed off his body and down the drain, he contemplated how relaxed _y/n_ could be. He appreciated that she didn’t have to have every second planned. He’d had to do that more at work recently. There had been a threat to national safety and the team had made it in time, but Strauss was still slightly unimpressed with how long it had taken the BAU to take down the threat. He had started seeing things in timed chunks and thinking about efficiency, even in his personal life. He didn’t enjoy the feeling. But _y/n_ was a reminder that it didn’t have to be that way at home. It was doubly admirable because _y/n_ had stress in her life too. Stress with family, and work, and friend, and her crappy apartment that was literally falling apart. It wasn’t the same kind of stress he faced, but it was still stressful, and Aaron admired her ability to put those things aside and still see life with optimism and happiness. After a few more minutes under the flow of water, Hotch turned off the tap and stepped out of the shower. He dried off and wrapped a towel around his waist. He moved over to the sink to wash his face and brush his teeth. 

_y/n_ heard the shower start running as she quickly made the bed. She made sure the sheets and comforter were neat and tucked in at the corners. She then moved to Aaron’s closet and grabbed a comfy outfit for the day. She settled for some soft leggings and a _y/f/c_ shirt that she layered under a knit cardigan. As _y/n_ pulled through her clothes in the walk-in closet, she realized how much of her stuff had migrated to Aaron’s. At least half of her wardrobe now resided in Hotch’s space. It had been a slow transition, but once Aaron had bought her favorite _y/f/s_ed body wash, hairspray, and sanctuary products, it was pretty much an invitation for her to start getting more comfortable in his space. And boy was his space more comfortable than her leaky, small,  cold, old apartment much farther from her job than Aaron’s. _y/n_ smiled knowing she was so welcome here. Even if she didn’t get to spend as much time with Aaron and Jack as she liked, when she was here, it felt just like home. With her outfit on, _y/n_ moved to the kitchen and started making the batter for some pancakes, eggs, and bacon. She woke Jack, and then Aaron joined them and they had a relaxed morning. Jack watched some cartoons, and _y/n_ and Hotch worked on a puzzle from Rossi from Christmas. In the early afternoon, they all started to work on taking down the tree. Aaron got the boxes from the closet and they all set to work. 

After an hour of work, Jack gave Aaron his biggest puppy dog eyes possible, and after a minute, Hotch said, “Alright Jack, what do you want?” Jack’s face burst into a smile, and the little boy replied, “Hot chocolate!” Hotch sighed. It was still cold enough out for a sweet cup of cocoa and it wasn’t too late for his son to have one more small sugar rush before naptime. With a fake look of defeat, Aaron said, “Well alright, but just a small cup. I can’t have you bouncing off the walls while we’re all trying to take down the Christmas decorations. Isn’t that right, _y/n?_"_y/n_ nodded with mock seriousness saying, “Of course. Dad’s right. Remember when you ate all of your Halloween candy two months ago? You couldn’t sleep and then you couldn’t wake up for school the next day?” Jack’s face took on a little frown, as he nodded yes. Aaron’s eyes moved over to _y/n_’s, and he gave her a smile that was just meant for her. Hotch got up from his seated position and said, “Let me see if we have the stuff to make it here.” Hearing this, _y/n_’s ears perked up, and she said, “Oh. We do. Or we did, but I used the last of the milk in my afternoon _t/c_. Sorry, Aaron. I forgot to put it on the list. I was going to run to the store later tonight to get stuff for dinner. Hotch didn’t mind and said, “You don’t have to apologize, _y/n_. I’ll just run to the coffee shop on the corner. Do you want anything?” _y/n_ grinned at his consideration and said, “No. I think drinking _y/f/c/b_ right now would have more than just Jack bouncing off the walls.” Aaron chuckled and said, “Alright. Well if you change your mind, you can text me.” _y/n_ nodded and tipped her head up and back, as he stood behind her and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. He then moved to his son, ruffled his short dirty blond hair that always reminded him of Haley’s. When Hotch was at the door, _y/n_ called out in a clear voice, “Be safe on the roads. I’m not sure they’re all done thawing, even with the sun coming out.” Hotch replied, “You got it,” and then slipped out of the door. 

_y/n_ listened as Aaron grabbed his keys from the stand on the kitchen counter, then as the door swung open and clicked closed. Now that Hotch was gone, _y/n_ moved to the space where he’d been next to Jack. She could feel his residual body heat on the carpet, and it comforted _y/n_ to no end. Jack was reaching for an ornament above a level that his arms could grasp. Without saying anything, _y/n_ got up and picked the boy, so he could reach the ornament. It took a moment for _y/n_ to realize that Jack was crying now fully. _y/n_ set him down, got on her knees in front of him, and wiped away one of the tears coming from his eyes. _y/n_ hadn’t expected this and asked, “What’s the matter, Jack? Why are you crying, sweetheart?” Jack sniffled and said, “I don’t want Christmas to end. I don’t want to go back to school. I don’t want you to leave.” As _y/n_ processed the emotions Jack was feeling, Jack continued in a voice obscured by a small hiccupy cry, “Why can’t everything just stay the same? Why can’t it be Christmas all the time?” _y/n_ didn’t fully understand where the core of these feelings were coming from, but she could agree with the sentiment. The week of Christmas had been so nice because they’d all just got to hang out and be together. The stress of work and the often boring tasks of cleaning the dishes or taking out the trash seemed so much less terrible when they were happening with Aaron and Jack. Sure, part of that was that she and Hotch shared the tasks and split things between them, but it was more than that. Just being with Aaron made life better. The small things felt alright when she was near him. It wasn't that she tried to hide anymore. In the early days of their relationship, _y/n_ had feared that the simple joy of being near Aaron would scare him away. After all, he was an intense man, but as it turned out, under all the suits and his tough exterior, he needed someone who cared for him as much as _y/n_ needed him back. Now, in front of Jack, _y/n_ tried to think about the right thing to say. She thought about her own experience first. The feeling of being jerked around sometimes with Aaron’s inconsistent schedule, and the constant danger he was in didn’t help either. _y/n_ didn’t talk about that often. What good would it do? She had slowly become content with praying or wishing him a safe return when Hotch told her he was heading on on a case. If it was hard for her, then it must be much harder for Jack, who couldn’t fully understand exactly what his dad really did. Not yet at least. Add onto that the fact that Jack had been in the house while Haley died. One hour his mom had been alive, and another, she was gone. _y/n_’s heart ached for Jack, as she said in a soft, reassuring voice, “That seems nice, Jack. I think I’d like that too. But that’s not how life works.” Jack sniffled and said in an angry voice, “Why can’t it? Why can’t it be nice all the time?” _y/n_ took the ornament from Jack’s small hands and quickly put it away before taking his hands in hers. She replied, “Because time, as mean as it can seem, knows what’s best for us.” Jack had such big eyes as he asked, “How? How is it good that we can’t have it be nice all the time?” _y/n_ bit the inside of her cheek and tried to think of an appropriate and understandable way to talk about the need for balance in life.

With a small breath, _y/n_ realized that she could use his candy incident as an example. _y/n_ cleared her throat and said, “Well, think about Halloween. Did you think you were going to like having all of your candy in one night?” Hesitantly, Jack nodded yes. _y/n_ replied, “Good. Do you think you’ll do that again next year?” The little boy shook his head, no, and _y/n_ smiled at how hard he nodded. _y/n_ ran her sleeve under his nose that was dripping and said, “Sometimes life is like that too. It sounds fun to have Christmas, Thanksgiving, and your birthday all back to back. It might even seem nice to have that happen forever. But once we have it a lot, or too much, the thing doesn’t taste or feel very good anymore. It just turned into another day or toy or sweet. But, if you just let time pass, then you get these really special pockets that mean a lot. Not that every day isn’t special, just that it’s good to have some normal ones too. Does that make sense buddy?” Jack stood still for a moment while he processed what _y/n_ had said. After a few seconds, he said, “I guess so. I just wish it didn’t take so long.” _y/n_ waited to say anything because she felt that Jack would say something more, and he did in a voice just above a whisper, “Mommy really loved Christmas too.” _y/n_ nodded and blinked back tears. She didn’t want to seem sad in front of him and make him cry again. _y/n_ leaned forward, taking him in her arms, and said softly in his ear, “I bet she did. I bet they were the best Christmases ever, but just because we’re taking the decorations down doesn’t mean you have to forget her. We can remember your mom every single day. Just like your mom loved you every single day.” _y/n_ could feel Jack nod against her shoulder. When _y/n_ pulled back, she asked Jack, “How about I pick you up and we get the last of these ornaments? Maybe you could tell me about some of the happy memories you have with your mom during Christmas?” Jack agreed, and _y/n_ helped him onto her shoulders and let him talk and remember. By the time Aaron got back, Jack was happy and animated again. Hotch walked into the room and smiled at the scene before him. The sight of _y/n_ and his son in the light of the Christmas lights still on the tree. Jack ran over to him and hugged his legs like he’d missed him a lot. Hotch smiled and said, “Your hot chocolates on the table Jack. Why don’t you drink it in the kitchen?” Jack smiled and said, “Sure Daddy.” The child let go of his father and moved into the kitchen on excited legs. _y/n_ who was still standing stepped toward him and kissed him softly. His mouth was still cold from being outside. His lips were slightly chapped, but _y/n_ didn’t care as she warmed them with her mouth. When they pulled away, Aaron reveled in the scent of _y/f/p/b/s_. He said, “Sorry I was so long. The light was out on the corner and there was a line almost out the door at the shop. _y/n_ smiled and said, “It’s alright. Jack and I had a good conversation.” Aaron raised an eyebrow and set his arm around _y/n_’s lower back. He noticed that all of the ornaments were off the tree and said, “How about we tackle the lights? I can take the bottom strand and you take the middle?” _y/n_ agreed and they set to work. 

Hotch sat down with a small grunt. They could hear Jack from the other room pull out his chair and sit at the table. _y/n_ and Aaron would go to check in with him in a minute, but Aaron wanted to take just a minute alone with _y/n_. These moments were rare these days with their busy schedules. Aaron started unspooling the lights around the bottom of the tree. He looked over at _y/n_ and asked, “So? What did you and Jack talk about while I was gone?” _y/n_ gave him a little grin and said, “Oh you know, just the inevitable, unstoppable march of time. I don’t think you’d understand it. It’s adult stuff.” Hotch, chuckled, the sound came deep from his core and reverberated up his chest. He shifted around _y/n_ to continue removing the lights and said, “Well I’m willing to learn, _y/n_. If you’ll teach me?” _y/n_ smile grew. She loved it when Aaron played the bit. Hotch being more than a few years older than her had worried _y/n_ for a while. They wondered if the differences in culture and knowledge would make them an unequal couple. A couple set up from scrutiny. But, as it turned out, age was just a number when you were both that in love with each other. Out in public, they did get a few stares, but Aaron’s practiced glare worked well on everybody, so _y/n_ didn’t worry. Over time, _y/n_ had started joking about their age gap much to Hotch’s amusement, like they were doing right now. _y/n_ cleared her throat and said in a mock educational tone, “Well, I told Jack that you can’t have all the nice things at once. You kind of have to spread them out so they become more enjoyable. Life gives us lots of nice things, but an equal amount of mundane things. So the highs and the lows feel big, and we need to enjoy them and understand them as much as we can.” Aaron let out a breath. He loved the way _y/n_ spoke about everything. Condensing ideas into little ways of understanding like he did with information in a case. Even if it was just silly banter, Aaron loved it. He loved all of _y/n_ and a realization he’d been contemplating for some time now, clicked. 

Gently he said, “Well that was quite an analysis. Thank you. I think I understand the space-time continuum much more clearly now.” _y/n_’s clear laugh washed over him like a shooting star. He stopped with the light strand and said, “Mind if I add to your lecture?” _y/n_’s eyes glistened as she nodded yes. Without overthinking it like he did most things in his life, Aaron said, “Yes, it’s important to highlight the big things. The weddings, birthdays and holidays. But there’s pleasure in the small things too. Seconds make up minutes, which make up days that go on and on forever. We only have so much time in those moments. So who you spend them with becomes pretty important if you think about it in that context. Who do you share that time with.” _y/n_ looked at Aaron with wide eyes. They wondered if this was happening right now, in early January. _y/n_ wanted to be at eye level with Aaron and sat next to him. _y/n_ asked, “What are you saying, Hotch?” _y/n_ needed to hear it from him, to know they weren't making this up. It was important because as relaxed as _y/n_ was on time, she did value knowing where their relationship was going. And Aaron had agreed that they should move in together before progressing to a thing like a proposal. But moving in was the next big step for them. Aaron took in her beautiful curious face. He pondered how _y/n_ never could keep her emotions at bay. How honest _y/n_ was without even having to try. He smiled and said, “I want you to move in with me, _y/n_. When the time is right and you're comfortable with it, I’d like you to live with Jack and me. I want to spend all my time when I’m not working with both of you. Does that sound good to you?” _y/n_’s face lit up and she had to stop herself from laughing because Aaron looked so serious, and _y/n_ felt like she was swimming in a tub of serotonin. _y/n_ pulled Hotch to his knees and into a tight hug. _y/n_ looked _u/sf/d_ at the love of her life and said, “Of course, I’ll move in with you both, Aaron. When I’m here, I’m home. I’ve felt that way for about a year, but this makes it official. Aaron Hotchner, I feel more at home here than I’ve ever felt in my whole life.” All Aaron could do at hearing _y/n_ say something so special was to kiss her forehead and say, “You make this house a home, _y/n_. You have no idea how much joy you bring here.” _y/n_ traced a hand down his shoulder and to where Aaron’s heart was steadily beating in his chest. The rhythm of the muscle kept track of each second they stood in each other's presence. The idea of being home, made _y/n_ think about Jack’s comment about her leaving, and _y/n_ said, “Speaking of Jack, he was afraid that I might go away. I think maybe we should tell him about this. I think he’ll be happy.” Aaron’s brow furrowed slightly and he repeated, “Jack thought you were going to leave.” _y/n_ brushed a hand over Aaron’s knuckles and replied, “Something like that. But I think that’s more of a long conversation we can have later. Once he’s in bed.” Aaron nodded just a tiny bit. Jack’s happy behavior and _y/n_ saying they would talk about it later allowed him to relax and believe _y/n_ was right. This conversation, whatever it was, could wait. He did want to let his son know that _y/n_ was going to be a more permanent fixture in their lives going forward. 

Jack was ecstatic at hearing the news and _y/n_ pulled him into her arms and said, “I’m not going anywhere, Jack. I’ll be here for you and your dad for a long time to come. Aaron moved behind his son and embraced both of his greatest loves. That evening, after a lengthy conversation about Jack and making sure Jack felt the most secure as possible, Hotch and _y/n_ moved to bed. As Aaron stroked a hand over her naked back, her body was pressed to his under the covers. He kissed down her jaw and the ghost of stubble rubbed against _y/n_ skin. She made small contented noises, and his hand traced lazy circles over her back. Hotch asked in a bit of a husky voice, his thoughts more on the feel of _y/n_’s skin under his fingers than his statement, “Would you send me a copy of your lease tomorrow? Maybe I can find some loophole to get you over here more quickly. I want all of you here.” _y/n_ shifted up onto her elbows, giving Aaron a better look at her bare body. _y/n_ smiled and said, “Sure love. But I think even your JD is going to have a difficult time getting me out of this lease. My landlord was such a pain when I renewed for half a year instead of the full twelve months.” Aaron smiled and said, “We’ll see about that, but I think there are more pleasant things to think about right now, don’t you think.” _y/n_’s eyes gleamed with desire in the dark space as she said, “Say less.”

It wasn’t until the next weekend on Saturday that Aaron had the time to look over _y/n_’s lease. They were sitting in his office in the field office. Aaron’s long sigh had _y/n_ look up from her _f/b/c/m/m_ and say, “Is there no way out of it?” Hotch ran a hand through his hair frustratedly and said, “Apparently not. That is unless you want to pay the last two months' rent plus interest without a chance of you getting your deposit back.” _y.n_ cringed at the idea of how much money that was.” Aaron looked up at _y/n_ and she seemed disappointed, but not crushed. He said, “I was hoping to get you out of there sooner.” _y/n_ leaned closer to the desk and took his hands in hers saying, “The time will pass anyway. It’s just two months and the important thing is I have you. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.” A smile tugged at Hotch’s lips. He appreciated how differently _y/n_ interacted with time. Aaron was used to tight timelines and all-nighters on cases. Aaron reflected again about how _y/n_ saw life. Even though she had her moments of stress or insomnia, just saw time as a thing that happened. She saw the good and the bad but chose to focus on the good when she could. Like the fact that she was moving in with him at all. She didn’t complain that she would have to wait to have that dream come true, because the dream was in front of her at all. Aaron hoped that with _y/n_ living with him, some of _y/n_’s view of life would rub off on him. He hoped to just see things as they were. To accept the good and let go of the bad, even in cases. With _y/n_ and Jack by his side, that didn’t seem so impossible after all. He’d take it a day at a time. As _y/n_ had said, “‘The time will pass anyway,’” and it was going to be wonderful to pass it with her.

______________________________________________________________

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[callibones]

UM HI HI HI ITS ME. 🩸🟪 AND I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU I AM VERY SORRY!!!

this week ive been exceptionally busy. a lot of stuff has been piling up for me with university and work and it didnt really give me a lot of time to look at tumblr OR read the fics! ill get to them! i didnt forget i swear ive just been EXHAUSTED this message is just being pulled out of my ass since i didnt expect to write to you today so i dont have any topics planned to ask you about. i didnt wanna take the time to think of something because i didnt want it to seem like i was ignoring your poast (despite the fact you wouldve never known if i had seen it or not .. but MENTALLY i'd feel bad, you know?) but uh. yeah

i don't know how people talk. um. how are you? has your week been particularly busy? what DO you do outside of tumblogging actually .. im curious

OH AND ALSO i very much appreciate the backstory info you gave me on callibones. i MIGHT take inspiration from it for my fanart? maybee? and uh i will send that to you SOON! very soon. i guess in the meantime id just wanna polish it more before sending it to someone out of like. principle?

i looked through your friends blog.. i like the concept of a blood bag person thing. there were probably better ways of saying that but IDK!! once again though i think it is Extremely Drawable so i have a small request ..

and regarding CALCIFER .. i think i would appreciate a deity to deity chat. or an potential acolyte to deity chat or I Mean Ha Ha. and those pronouns are Pretty Cool if i do say so myself! im worried directly sending in an ask would be strange so since you said you were friends with them can you parrot my question? i rlly wanna know whether drawing fanart of their OC is okay. sorry what else. im going to try and plan my next correspondence out ASAP so ill probably go through the cedardivine post before the post you made with a ton of fics? just because the list is shorter. idk what ill do after that--maybe ill rank them or something and you can tell me how wrong my opinion is or something Haha! just kidding im always right. i create new truths as we speak. as im typing this im overwriting just a little bit more of the world's knowledge. im just cool and awesome like that. theres nothing else i can think of at the moment to ask you.. OH UM when you mentioned callyris i realized "hey wait dont i know a blog called that" and Look Who It Was! so thats neat i also think i found another blog that may be under your posession but i dont think i can ask about it at the front desk.. so when i message you in some other manner ill probably ask you about that! who knows i might even be Completely Wrong

well anyways sorry for the delay. it will probably take a while longer for me to compose my thoughts so the delay will continue but. idk. i hope this message isnt TOO INCOHERENT but again i am not proofreading at all for this one.

also im definitely using gooby forever now. thats great. what a peculiar phrase.

GOOBY!!!!

hi hi hi hi! i took a million years to get back to this so NEVER apologize or rush about sending me things. anon asks r a tough way to communicate cause i dont got an online indicator for u so i just gotta guess... and u dont got a notification for me! i hope u see this even tho its been a bit.

ive been busy too cause university's also piling up for ME. i'm gonna respond to this one first, and then i'll take a crack at your mysterious coded message! and then i have to do a million homework because grad school. outside of tumblogging im trying to destroy the world with the infinite power amulet, so i'm majoring in general supervillainy! and also urban planning

for the blood bag: @rigormarcy LOVES fanart. marcy, if u see this, respond with your ref, 'cause you have a super drawable OC! the fans wanna draw u so bad. So Bad.

u found another blog that might b me? omg.... here. how bout this. send me an ask with just the name and i wont publish the response. if youre REALLY curious. but youre probably right, because i invented every blog on tumblr GOOBY

[lordfreg]

Hi! I was wondering if you could share with us b&b Mikey dating headcanons if you'd like ofc!

Have a nice day and here is a cookie :]

🍪 <- for you

OMGGGGG absolutely anything for you anonymous user 🧡🧡

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

-he absolutely ADORES you! Would give ANYTHING for you!

-He loves to give you gifts, as well! Anything he could think of, it’s there. Mention you want that pretty necklace? At your door. You wanted a small bracelet? Done and done. Baked goods? His specialty.

-He’ll absolutely PAMPER you with everything he has! Love, affection, words of affirmation, gifts, quality time and much more!

-Mikey is ALWAYS down for cuddles. But if you don’t want too, he’ll respect your personal space and try to love you from afar.

-expect texts every morning and night, just so you don’t forget how much you mean to him! If you’re being negative about yourself, he’ll kiss all that doubtfulness away💖

-he’ll ALWAYS try and take you out on dates. Wanted to see a movie? No problem! Snuck you in. Wanted to go to the zoo? Ninja-ed you into the exhibits to see the animals up close! Wanted a food they where sold out of? ….don’t ask what he had to go through to get this for you.

-he’s LOVE anything you make for him. Supper supportive of anything you want to do! Art? Lemme give you ALL the tutorials. Writing? I have a bunch of books we can spend time together reading! Dancing? You already KNOW we’re hitting the dance floor every night

-he likes to call you pet names a lot; usually one of an animal like “bunny” or “doe”. He also likes old fashioned names like “sugar”, “dearest” and “babydoll”. He’ll call you “doll” or “doll face” a lot so prepare

-he absolutely LOVES to hold you; he likes being small spoon but his shell can get in the way. (Dw, it’s dull and not spiked too much). His favorite positions are ones were he can just watch your face, and easily place kisses all over your face. He loves to shower you in kisses!!

-he’s honestly the most lovey dovey one of the group, and is MORE then willing to talk about problems in your relationship then any of the other boys (except for Leo lol). If you see an issue, he will change immediately. Because he loves you so much🧡

The Bad

-this dude is ALLLLLLL over you all the time. He just always wants to be touching you

-dude doesn’t listen either, you’re going to have to explain to him why you don’t want to be touched, or how constant touching is over barring. He still won’t understand and just assume you don’t like him anymore :(

-Mikey will talk VERY publicly about your relationship, any part, and will not hesitate with details. Your his, why should he worry about people?

-he’ll say things like “I know that you don’t really love me.” and “It’s okay if you think I’m a hideous freak.” You’re going to have to CONSTANTLY validate him

-he’ll tease you SO MUCH, to the point of bullying. He doesn’t grasp the concept of having sensitive feelings (despite him being sensitive himself) and will just relentlessly pick on you

-Mikey will just randomly bite you out of nowhere. “Gah! Why, Mike?!” He’d stare at you and say, “I dunno, just felt like it.”

-he’s really insensitive to your feelings in all honesty. Mostly because he doesn’t realize that he’s supposed to be nice and take your feelings seriously. He doesn’t quite grasp how much your dog really meant to you, and doesn’t understand why you can’t just get a new one and by happy

-Mikey wants you to be happy and will do ANYTHING to ensure that you are; even doing risky things like shoplifting or bribery to get you anything and everything you want or need.

The Ugly

-he’ll DEFINITELY get possessive over you, and how much time you spend with his brothers. Not saying you would replace him, but he’d rather not take that chance

-Bro has the DIRTIEST minds of all the brothers, ALWAYS taking things the wrong way and making the worst jokes about it

-Before you started dating, he would follow you home and leave mysterious love letters in your mailbox

-he’d follow you on EVERY social media and like every single one of your posts; downloading every image of you or your face/pets/family/whatever else you post

-not to say Mikey would KILL over you, but he’s been thinking about cutting off that connection with Casey a lot…

[rrxnjun]

I HOPE YOU NEVER HAVE TO TAKE THE BUS AGAIN CUZ THIS JUST SOUNDS SO ANNOYINNNGGG

I LOVED EVERY SECONF OF THE YANGYANG FIC BOTH CUZ OF THE STORY AND THE SONG CHOICES!!!! awsten being a guitar teacher is just such a weird thing imo like i would've never imagined that about him ngl :o but now i see the fic in a new light might reread it once more later in the week🫢

I LOVE LOVEJOY SOOMUCH AND ITS SO RARE TO FIND SOMEONE WHO ALSO DOES!!!! (THAT IS ONE OF MY FAV PARTS FROM THE FIC!!! LIKE THE LOVEJOY LYRICS TOOK ME BY SURPRISE) perfume is one of their best songs istg!! i'm so glad tommy convinced them to release it!!! i was(and still am) such a diehard mc youtuber fan;-; wilbur and tommys vlogs are just so funny!! i'm glad they led u to lovejoy cuz their music is truly amaziiinnggggg;-;

aespa are so amazing i'm so excited about their upcoming album all of the songs sound like such a bop!! U SOULD CHECK OUT BEABADOBEE I HAVE BEEN IN LOVE WITH HER MUSIC SINCE SUMMER SHE IS SO GOOD!!! I RECOMMEND HER VERY MUCH!!! AND I HOPE U WILL ENJOY HER MUSIC AS WELL

HIHIHI OFC I LOVE 5SOS🫢🥰 tbh when i realized how many of the same artists we both listen to i was like this person was meant for me💆‍♀️i love ur music taste so much!!!! and i will check out wallows cuz i listened to a couple of their songs before that were popular but i never really checked them out so thank u💞💖💓 (i'm an avid listener for both chase atlantic and the driver era as well🫡) wahhh i will check out baekhyun too i always see his name but i never listened to him!!! (and the way u wrote that made me laugh so hard, i hope u will win against haechan some day don't give up the fight🤞)

i'm so scared to recommend cuz they might not be ur taste in music😟buuttt some of my fav songs atm: kár by elefánt, macskák by elefánt, bálnák by dzsúdló, sprint by dzsúdló, na mindegy by carson coma, porszem my carson coma (and tbh i recommend anything by carson coma i feel like they would fit ur music taste the best if u happened to like any of these)

i may happened to be from hungary yesss🫣so hi neighbor🥳🙋‍♀️

(IM SORRY FOR WRITING THIS MUCH I KNOW U PROBABLY DONT MIND BIT I STILL FEEL THE NEED TO SAY SORRY - liebestraum anon💕)

I PROMISED TO MYSELF TO NEVER FEEL PRESSURED TO DO SO EVER AGAIN HAHAHA.

AAAAH thank u sm for saying that!!! awsten being a guitar teacher is a weird concept i agree but it strangely fits?? also i remember him saying he used to teach 5sos songs which made my heart so happy AHAHA anyways perfume is literally the best song ever and lovejoy slap idc what anyone says. tommy deserves the whole world for convincing them to keep the song i owe him my life AHAHA you being a mcyt fan is so valid of you. i had my mc phase when i was younger (mainly bc i have an older brother so we played together) so i was big on my slovak/czech mc youtubers back in the day HAHA but nowadays i dont watch many youtubers tbh,,, i WAS a big sidemen girlie tho DJFKLA i still watch their vids sometimes. also the uk commentery scene back in the day had such a chokehold on me that i still follow will, alex and memelous on instagram lmaoo

DID U SEE THE CLIPS FROM AESPAS CONCERT ningnings solo killed me. i love that girl w my whole heart and thIS ?? if they dont add the solos to the album im gonna riot

i havent had time to check up beabadobee but i promise to do so soon and then give u a report!! if u have any favorite songs from her pls send them my way!!

GIRL WE ARE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER our music taste matches so well what the fuck this never happened to me before AAA YOU EVEN LIKE THE DRIVER ERA????????? ross lynch was my first ever celebrity crush and im afraid to admit that he has the same hold on me now that im almost 20 than he had back when i was 9. i dont know ALL wallows songs btw im more of a casual fan but the ones i know are so good omg. also baekhyun!!! my kr&b king!! pls listen to his music he is such a good vocalist AAA (i dont think im winning against hyuck any time soon tho >:()

also im now listening to the songs you recommended so let me give you a live reaction. kár sounds very very vibey omg i love it actually ???? went straight to my playlist i love the synth?? macskák has very edgy depressed vibe i love it too omg?????? in my playlist you go. bálnák sounds like a nct dream b-side but in hungarian i stan. very very vibey. sprint has a very good beat!! its enjoyable to listen to but not really my vibe tbh. na mindegy is sO FUCKING GOOD WHAT ?? you were right this is truly my vibe i added this to my playlist too omg. porszem towards the end when it gets louder?? slaps. my favorites were definitely the first two and then na mindegy !!!!!

hello neighbor hhhh im slovak <33 (if you didnt know already bc i slap it to everyones face LMAO)

dont apologize for writing so much i really enjoyed talking abt music w you!!!!!! <33

[baku-bowl]

broke 1,000 followers (the fuck? I don't even make content people), so decided to write up a list of some (but not all, I'll make other lists later) of my favorite Bakugou-centric fic recs. my tastes run towards hurt/comfort, as you'll probably figure from the list. if there are some Baku-centric fics that you've enjoyed that aren't on here, please add them - this is definitely not a complete list of the ones I've read and love, but I'm always up for some recs. <3

fair warning, most of these are wips.

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

Social Media 101 by WindsChild8178

Part 1: Survival Guide to Fucking Up

[Solely Bakugou’s point of view]

Katsuki Bakugou doesn’t have a gentle bone in his body. He’s aggressive in everything he does and does everything with 100% of his heart in it. After the Sport’s Festival, Katsuki starts to get harassed by strangers for his unheroic demeanor. It starts with letters but it doesn’t end there. The moment Katsuki realizes the harassment has entered dangerous territory and he needs to tell someone, it’s already too late.

Part 2: Post Traumatic Life Disorder

[Point of View opens up to Bakugou, teachers and classmates]

When the Dorms are finally built, everyone is settling in well, but things become tense as people begin to realize something isn’t right with the recently rescued Bakugou.

[Cannon compliant right up to after the License Exam]

hands down my favorite fic in the fandom right now. it’s the one that converted me into a Bakugou lover. if you have any fondness for Bakugou as a character then it’s likely you’ve read this one already, but if not, I can’t recommend it enough. incredibly depressing, but with the hope that comfort is coming soon in the next few chapters.

The Kids Will Be Alright, Eventually by NotWithThatAttitude

Bakugou is spiraling in the aftermath of Kamino and his friends are starting to notice. He's stubborn, aggressively independent, and less than willing to dig into his past, but after a breakdown that ends with a painful secret revealed, he starts to get help.

Whether he likes it or not.

Meanwhile, a new kind of villain threatens an uneasy peace following the loss of Allmight. Whispers build as a new narrative slowly takes shape:

Hero society needs to change.

Feat. Therapy, Dadzawa, best boy Kirishima, dysfunctional families, healing, growing up, and the mortifying ordeal of being known

guys.. the medical accuracy of this fic is just... *chef’s kiss*

I rarely see mental health genuinely handled well in fics, but this one goes above and beyond. kudos to the author for doing such excellent research into psychology, and making the application of it in here not-boring. also, while this one does have abusive!Mitsuki, it’s done in a way that feels realistic, and how I usually will see it occur in real life, rather than just for the hurt/comfort feels.

fair warning, the fic can be incredibly triggering (themes of severe depression, PTSD, panic attacks, rape survival, abuse survival, suicidal ideation/attempted suicide, among other things), so be safe and heed the tw’s if you decide to read. legitimately one of my Top Favorite fics in this fandom.

Lock and Key by autochorystalize

Bakugou made a choked, gravelly noise before croaking out a low, “You can’t be serious.” His fingers ached to blow up everything in the room.

“I’m sorry, young man, but you can’t change reality! This sometimes happens.” Recovery Girl clicked through his file, adding a new symbol in a previously empty slot.

- - -

A pair of eyes discreetly locked on to an explosive blond plowing his way forward, parting people in his path. He recognized the kid, of course. Anyone in the underbelly of society would recognize him, after the publicity of both UA’s Sports Festival and the events leading up to All Might’s fall. The uniform he was wearing cast away any doubts about the young man’s identity.

It was a bit of a surprise that the little firecracker presented as an omega.

- - - - - - - - -

Or: there are certain types of evil that seemed too distant, archaic violations and perversions that would never actually threaten bright-eyed heroes-in-training in the clean, modern world...but sometimes those evils aren't as distant as one might think.

remember when I said that I love a/b/o fics that are full of plot and world-building and gender-induced tension? that’s this one. the OC’s are fabulous and you love to hate ‘em. also, it’s the fic that made me fall head-over-heels for the TodoBaku dynamic, so it’s got a special place in my cold, dead heart. 

be warned, there are rather explicit non-con scenes between an adult (OC) and a minor (Bakugou) in this one, but the author warns for them in advance, and you could likely skip those parts without missing too much if you need to.

Never and Always, Eventually by Wawa_Boonliang

"Katsuki can remember the exact moment that he and Deku…that he and Midoriya Izuku became friends. He can also remember the moment he and Izuku became fierce rivals, a time when they were almost enemies.

However, what he remembers most clearly about their relationship is the moment that they moved passed rivals and became something more close than mere friends. Something more like brotherhood, something forged in fire and secured in the middle of a battlefield or in the midst of natural disaster where the number of the dead was climbing ever higher. And then it was torn from him."

Katsuki is given a second chance. A chance to save everyone. A chance to change everything.

But should he?

y’all. I’m a slutty, slutty whore for time travel fics. a time travel fic with autistic!coded Bakugou? it was love at first read.

Lessons Learned by Sif (Rosae)

Rather than the police station, Katsuki's friends bring him to a hospital after rescuing him from the villains. His wounds were minor, but it didn't make having them treated any less important. As it would so happen, Best Jeanist was also brought to this hospital after the attack.

Sometimes, small choices have a big impact on how a story plays out.

classic Bakugou hurt/comfort. this fic opened me up to the potential that could be a genuinely good Best Jeanist & Katsuki mentor-mentee relationship, and I kind of dig it and search ravenously for it in other fics now. I’m also a huge fan of the behind-the-scences Pro Hero Chat group.

Slope by sunfleurmoon

“I’m not a hero. Or a good person,” Katsuki says, giving Aizawa a pointed look, “So leave me alone. I don’t care about the League or UA, or you—” The two years he’s been away have been fine, more than fine, fucking fantastic actually if you ignore the bi-monthly near-death experiences. He doesn’t need this place. He doesn’t miss this place.

And yet, longing, a childish desire to tear up, or maybe blow something to bits, they all twist in his chest like a band of traitors regardless. “—I just want to go home.”

Or: the one where Katsuki and Izuku fail the first term exam, Aizawa discovers their pasts, and Katsuki is booted from UA. Featuring questionable descriptions of villain organizations, a slightly illegal moving shop, and your favorite emotionally constipated badass in distress with a newly discovered penchant for collecting strays.

paaaaaaiiiiiiiin. the hurt is ALIVE in this one. lots of tortured, angsty exploding child goodness. the OC’s are excellently crafted, and the Bakugou & Eri relationship? beautiful. definitely deserves a read.

Ground Zero by WindsChild8178

In the wake of Kamino, Katsuki is tested more than anyone could imagine. Bound by a villain’s quirk to keep his silence or die, he lives each day knowing it might very well be his last. He continues to work towards becoming a hero, keeping his secret from his classmates and teachers, focusing on making it through each day and trying not to allow the panic or depression to get the best of him. When the villain finally corners him with demands in exchange for his life, there is really only one answer Katsuki Bakugou can give.

honestly don't know which I want updated more - social media 101 or ground zero. this author's fics are amazing, and I really wasn't expecting the twist in this one. can't wait for windschild to come back to this fic some day.

The Defect by LadyGreenFrisbee

"Why do you want to win the Sports Festival so badly?" 

Because I want to see if the defect could usurp the masterpiece.

(In which Endeavor holds a terrible secret and Bakugo has to suffer since childhood for it.)

a great concept, and I adore the shouto and Katsuki sibling interaction here. hoping the author will come back to this one some day.

A Name That You'll Remember by Heronfem

Kirishima Eijirou is a Hero. Bakugou Katsuki... is not. Trapped in his toxic workplace and increasingly desperate to get out, Red Riot's days are only brightened by a new villain known as Caution, who's not exactly villainous and keeps accidentally doing good deeds. But when a real villain appears, a threat from the past that demands that Red Riot make the ultimate sacrifice to keep the public safe, Bakugou is forced into saving the day... and eventually, Red Riot himself.

sob story good guy villains are my weakness, this fic is a gem, and I'd kill for the sequel.

Our Hero by AnonymousTwit

He felt everything jerk to the side and throw his balance off before he saw anything, dust clouding his vision and irritating his lungs as the earth itself opened up to swallow them whole. For a single moment, in a millisecond's time, his wild eyes locked with Raccoon Eyes', hers alight with fear and adrenaline-fueled desperation. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that it was the first time she'd looked at him with something other than long-deserved hatred in days.

And then he was free falling.

Or

After a particularly nasty encounter between childhood friends, the class learns about Bakugou and Midoriya's dark history and practically ostracizes Bakugou while trying to defend Midoriya. An earthquake during an outing has all sides regretting their decisions.

just fucking tear apart my self-sacrificing faves in every way imaginable while their loved ones watch on in terror. 💖���💖 this one is heavy on the Bakusquad and Class-1A feels, and VERY heavy on the Mina & Bakugou relationship (platonic).

Running back the tape, watching it replay by Faralyne

For someone ripped from their time, ripped from the few but strong relationships built by time and personal development, by self-reflection and swallowed pride, ripped from the one thing that made him feel worthwhile and needed and put-together, and forced to forge everything over again—Katsuki thinks he is handling it pretty fucking well.

Or

A villain’s quirk sends a 29-year-old Bakugou back in time to his middle school days.

am I a sucker for time travel? yes. am I a sucker for vigilante!bakugou? also yes. am I a sucker for this fic? literally refreshing the page in wait for an update as we speak.

Liability by sandelf

After All-Might dies rescuing Bakugou from the League, Bakugou is determined to prove it wasn't for nothing.

But the world is against him, his grief is overwhelming, and his stability is splitting at the edges.

very self-indulgent bakugou angst. tw for harassment, severe depression, and suicidality.

Special Mentions:

How To Win The Sport Festival: A Step By Step Guide by mhwright

Short re-imagining of the Sports Festival Arc if Shinso had planned a little better and worked a little harder to win the Sports Festival and if the match-ups had been slightly different. Self-indulgent fic of watching him succeed.

this is completely Shinsou-centric, not Bakugou-centric, but I love and adore it and am dying for a sequel. Shinsou is Best Boy here and you'll be rooting for him the whole time.

[wetbloodworm]

reposting some meta i wrote about zenith on my dw specifically so i can reblog and add to it, b/c i like to keep things together. what’s under this cut is gonna be partly outdated b/c i’m tweaking some stuff in the reblog don’t worry about it. if you haven’t read it or plan to reread it i’d maybe recommend waiting until i reblog the additions so all the info is together. though also there’s a lot here because i got that wordy bitch disease so like kudos if you make it though any part of this at any point. okay yeah so everything after this paragraph is Older Content

first, because i haven't talked about him here aside from some outdated aside in a list somewhere, a brief rundown! zenith (pseudonym, he/they) or vol'gelmeth (true name, it/they) is an aberration from the far realm who has projected an aspect of himself into the material plane in the form of a dhampir avatar. his plan is to gather enough strength to eventually be able to manifest fully in the material plane, and also to explore and experience and learn about the material plane because he's fascinated by it. zenith presents himself to others as a human cleric of the vol'gelmeth who's totally a different being and also has an eight pack. the intent WAS for his avatar to be fully human but sometimes you're too alien a being to stuff yourself into just a normal human body, and also he eats dreams, so, dhampir. it's fine. just gives him an extra layer of things to try to hide. second, pics! newest first 

most recent design-tweaks to make him easier to draw, so this is his most up-to-date design. he looks more blond here than in other drawings but that's just shading though, his hair is white. the amulet is his Amulet of the Devout, since we were allowed two magic items to start, and it's not shown here but it has the symbol for vol'gelmeth that zenith designed himself lol

drew this when i had the realization that as a dhampir he'd have fangs even if the thing he eats isn't necessarily tangible. i toyed with a design that was ALL sharp teeth instead of just the incisors and i love that but eh. his true form has all sharp teeth so i'll get my fill there. not that anyone but haley as DM gets to see his true form yet. i've got my kid's secrets all laid out for the rest of the party i'm allowed to keep the design a secret even if no one cares but me lmao 

drawn when i decided i was going to play him for CoS 

lyrics from 'community gardens' by the scary jokes 

one of my first pics of him, i kinda miss the scruffier outfit vs the more put-together outfit he's got now but we can mix and match. it's fine. it's all flavor text. and finally... the bullet points

to explain the pronoun situation a bit better, the actual character is comfortable with he/they/it. as zenith, the dhampir avatar pretending to be human, he uses just he/they. when referring to vol'gelmeth as if they're a separate being, it/they. the reason for the difference is one part zenith trying to create differences between his two aspects to make his disguise/deception stronger, one part him picking up on how humanoids most commonly use pronouns and adding that to his disguise/deception (meaning like, it/its isn't a common pronoun for humanoids, but they DO use it/its when talking about non-humanoids), and one part him gaining more of an understanding of gender as he spends time on this plane and deciding he/him is fine

if forced at gunpoint to describe his gender, zenith would go with 'agender' or 'no' or something along those lines. i have no idea what his species is like culturally, but i do know that gender is a new concept to him. he's largely uninterested in it personally, like it's a neat enough thing to learn about but it's separate from him, y'know? he generally prefers neutral language, so they/them and it/its feel comfortable and correct, but as his avatar is seemingly AMAB he's had masc language used for him by others who assumed and he's decided that's fine, both in that it doesn't bother him and that he likes it, again, as a thing that separates Zenith from Vol'Gelmeth. so i guess it's less that he likes he/him on a personal level, it's more just part of his disguise? he hasn't had enough experience with she/her to feel comfortable with it yet so he's just avoiding that set. 

i swap his pronouns around more while talking out loud, like in-game. in writing you'll notice it's mostly he/him. that's just easier for me. it's fine. 

i talked so much more about gender than i originally intended but like [gestures at self] to be expected i guess 

from reading the WOTC lore, my understanding of how dhampir work is that they feed on aspects of humanoids but they don't necessarily need to in order to survive? they're described as having ties to the undead/vampires but not being fully there, and they have their hunger but can control or suppress it through intense willpower. which to me reads like they can eat other stuff due to being partly/technically alive but they crave whatever it is they hunger for? if they NEEDED it they couldn't control/suppress it without starving, right? if anyone has a different interpretation of the text lmk. obviously we can throw WOTC lore in the garbage as necessary and as approved by the DM but i like having the framework sometimes and dhampir are new enough to dnd that i only have so many sources to formulate opinions on. 

zenith in his true form i think like... ONLY eats dreams, or at least primarily does? maybe just primarily, the way i designed his true form he's got a mouth and teeth and all of that implies to me that he's a creature that at least CAN physically eat things, not just psychically. zenith as the humanoid avatar... i'm not sure??? i know he CAN eat other stuff and does, and i think right now i'm hesitantly going with 'needs to eat human food to maintain the humanoid body, needs to eat dreams to maintain the rest of him and get stronger'? so i'm backtracking on the 'dhampir don't NEED to feed their hunger to survive' thing for zenith specifically, not my concept of dhampir in general, since he's a weird situation being an aberration which isn't necessarily supported by the game stats, if that makes sense. 

NEW BULLET I'M CONFUSING MYSELF okay. zenith has to eat both human food and also dreams. needs human food more regularly perhaps so that the humanoid body doesn't just fucking collapse, craves dreams more intensely. i think that's what we're going with. maybe. 

i like being able to do whatever i want with the lore but i also struggle if the framework given isn't clear enough by my standards and i'm struggling here 

god looking at the dhampir stats and i forgot zenith doesn't need to breathe and also has natural spider climb. fantastic. just a normal human dude, hello fellow humans 

he also has the fanged bite ability which i'm looking forward to perhaps using some day 

zenith definitely had a ROUGH time when he first manifested on the material plane because of a combo of four things; 1) being in a new alien plane, 2) being in a new alien body, 3) being in two bodies/places at once, 4) being exhausted from whatever ritual or spell or whatever he did to accomplish the split in the first place 

some differences between the far realm and the material plane are that the far realm is composed of an infinite number of layers that shift continuously, and the air is described as syrupy thick with time and gravity being things that don't exist. far realm denizens move through the air by 'swimming' and can pass through the layers with a thought, or exist on multiple layers at a time.  the far realm is specifically described as Lovecraftian and being 'beyond sanity', and is so far outside even the outer planes that it's often not included in the standard cosmology. which is why it's also referred to as just 'Outside'. so basically it's a real fucked up alien world 

zenith, while very much an alien, is not the same degree as Unknowable and Unfathomable as other far realm denizens can be. i imagine it's a scale, and he falls significantly closer to the end that doesn't drive you crazy if you look at it. this allows him to (mostly) successfully communicate with dreamers of the material plane (though i imagine that took lots of trial and error) and gives him motivations that normal people can understand for the most part; he's driven most by curiosity and by hunger. so he's got a good head start there for successfully transferring to the material plane. he's at least not so completely divorced from reality as its known there as to make him incompatible with it. 

doesn't make the transition easy, though! for all the reasons why waking up in the plane i described a couple bullets up would be jarring for us, waking up in the material plane is jarring for him. i imagine gravity is weird to contend with suddenly, the air simultaneously heavier and thinner. less resistance and more resistance at the same time. the surroundings aren't just completely different, the way you perceive the surroundings is different with the lack of shifting layers. i'd imagine everything feels incredibly still in comparison. so there's all that and more as a thing to adjust to! 

also, new human/dhampir body! his true form is a (mostly) physical one that's very different from a humanoid but it's got a head and eyes and limbs so that's a good start, but still. new body. it's weird. 

ALSO yeah, existing in two places at once! piloting two bodies at once! that can't be easy on top of everything else, there was no way for him to practice or gauge how any of this would feel, he just fucking did it, so it'd just be.... 'disorienting' is probably putting it mildly? 

at the start of the campaign it's been uhhhhh i think we determined like 6 months or so since he manifested on the material plane. so he's had the chance to figure this out! this plane is still alien and weird to him but he can move around in it without feeling like he's having the WORST kind of bad trip anymore. the biggest thing that's still a factor is he's still got two bodies in two different planes. i imagine he has to cope with that by like... focusing 100% of everything on one body at a time. i'm thinking he like parked himself somewhere safe back home, somewhere quiet and secure where he could puppeteer his material avatar from, so he just has to settle in and focus completely on being Zenith and it's fine. 

i'd think that he can't ignore his original body all the time, so when it's safe he'll switch focus and like... stretch, move around, check things out. not for long, he doesn't want to get used to what home feels like and then have to go back to the material plane and adjust to that again, and also the humanoid body is so much smaller and squishier and more vulnerable and he doesn't like leaving it unattended 

he largely avoids switching between the two as much as he can, because it'll always be jarring and it'll always leave him vulnerable. 

one big drive for him to gather enough strength to manifest fully in the material plane is so he doesn't have to be split like this anymore. that's probably like one of the top two motivators, have access to all his power and not be in two places at once. 

i don't fully know what 'eating dreams' looks like yet. i'm sure we'll figure that out as we play but right now i don't know if it's a fully psychic thing or what? i feel like it's not as easy for him to do now that he's split vs when he could just hunt for dreamers from home with whatever psychic power he's got that lets him cross the planes to eat dreams. i don't know if he has to be within a certain physical proximity to the dreamer now that he's on the material plane, or if he has to actively touch/interact with the dreamer, or how exactly it works. i have no fucking clue. i know there's some aspect of hunting dreams down, just not 100% sure what that looks like. on the outside like some form of meditation maybe? idk!

deep speech is the native language of aberrations, and it has no script on its own but mortals use the espruar script to write it down, which implies to me that far realm denizens don't have a use for reading/writing. which means that zenith has taught himself how to read and write, probably mostly while actively on the material plane. maybe picked up a little while he was learning common via dreams but dreams aren't reliable. you ever try to read in a dream 

since he's proficient in deep speech, common, and abyssal, he can definitely read and write fluently, but i think he has the classic problem of not always knowing how things are written/pronounced if he's never heard/read it. like he'll tend to say and write things phonetically and need to be corrected. there's also just a bunch of words he hasn't encountered yet though understanding context clues helps 

his handwriting his probably atrocious 

he doesn't NEED to be able to write in deep speech, it's not a super well-used language in the material plane, but he absolutely learned how because that's his language and he wants to be able to write in it! 

before coming to the material plane, zenith LOVED talking with humanoids via their dreams! they're interesting and he likes talking to people! and then he gets to eat the dream when he's done so it's a great time for him. socialization/entertainment and food. 

i think that if someone were to pray to him zenith would be able to respond back, but i'm not sure if he can communicate through dreams while he's split like this? mostly because it feels OP to give myself that ability. the Dream spell can do that but it's a lvl 5 spell and i don't feel like i can just say Oh I Can Do That y'know lmao. that was very frustrating for him to discover, that he can't do that anymore. another reason for him to want to manifest fully in the plane, hopefully be able to manipulate dreams again instead of only eating them, he likes the manipulating part. 

zenith has absolutely no idea what the experience is on the other side of the dream-eating thing. no clue what it feels like or if it hurts or what happens at all. he'd be interested in knowing but he doesn't particularly care on an emotional level. he's pretty sure it doesn't KILL the dreamer because he's talked to people more than once before but it wouldn't stop him if it did tbh 

part of the reason i'm writing all this down is b/c i know i've been asked if zenith wants/has followers and i have absolutely no idea what my answer was because i said it out loud and didn't write it down but i'm pretty sure my answer has changed? maybe? i have no clue. any way zenith would be thrilled to have followers. i don't think he's tried taking on warlocks or anything like that, like he hasn't shared his power to be anyone's patron, but it's not something he's opposed to. not his priority at the moment but like, sounds like fun! he likes attention and seeing what people do and as long as it doesn't rob him of too much of his own power he'd be down to try! he'd be down to be someone's god. the idea of being a god sounds REAL nice, actually. he loves that. 

outside of actively being a patron, does he have followers? people that pray to him? i don't know! the idea is interesting to me! he'd be happy to chat with people though i don't know what all he'd be able to do in return outside of share any info they want about the far realm or any other realm he's learned about. i know in this split state there's even less he could do than if he was at full power. 

i think right now he's mostly focused on just exploring the material plane and gathering power to manifest in it fully, but after that.... after that, being a patron sounds like fun. being a god sounds like FUN. 

something i wrote before on a related topic; "zenith doesn't necessarily WANT to kill anyone. he'll do it if he feels he has to but that's not his goal. the likes the material plane and its denizens! they're interesting! he just wants to explore and learn and experience! and eat but don't worry about that one. and maybe gain followers but that's one's fine. it's a plane full of creatures that dream and if you play your cards right they might worship you. just gotta get stronger and put out feelers and consider giving gifts of power in exchange. power can be exchanged for worship and services. and perhaps food. he loves this plane." 

aberrations are generally considered monsters and zenith would be mildly offended at the implication though he also wouldn't fight it too hard. he preys on people for food so like he doesn't have much room to argue. but like don't be rude about it 

zenith's only introduction to the material plane before showing up on it was via dreams, so his concept of the world and its general culture was very skewed, though he figured that out quickly. he's still learning stuff and i've got a google doc with a list of facts and 'facts' he's picked up on in the campaign so far. he's now under the impression that mushrooms can talk just in general, though it's not recommended, and as far as he knows it's normal for water ordered at taverns to be murky. 

i wouldn't say that he's gullible, he just... y'know, he's an alien. and he doesn't want to tell anyone that he is so he's afraid to ask for clarification on things. so people say things with a certain confidence and he makes assumptions. or he asks for water at a tavern and he's handed a glass of water that's murky and he figures that's technically what he asked for, so, guess that happens sometimes! 

i've also got notes on the lies that he has planned for his disguise. he picked an isolated town he visited once as his fake home town and has a story about his fake family and why he might not know things that he perhaps should etc. 

i think... that's it for now... i'm sure i'll have more to talk about another time. i like this character a lot so i think about him a lot!!

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 3

Apritello, my dear friends, is really all hints, devil in details, little pieces that, in the end, become a huge picture.

I can't say that there are a lot of episodes with April and Donnie spending quality time together, no. But all episodes are important to understand how their relationship are involving, growing. If you have sharp eyes and think about all of this even a little bit, you will be surprised how gracefully their relationship changes and grows, how characters evolve.

Dear passengers, we're about to start. Mind the gap!

Episodes “The Gumbus” and “Mrs. Cuddles”. 

I think it would be appropriate to analyze these episodes in bunch, because they have common situations of spooky supernatural stuff and reactions of characters to this.

When you watch these two eps in raw, it's easy to see how alike are reactions of Donnie and April in some scary, really odd situations. 

Adrenaline ‘n’ reclessness

April is really into all spooky things in “The Gumbus”, she's not afraid of some creepy stuff and she's really brave girl who easily copes with stressful and life-threatening situations.

Donnie is incredibly calm and collected when alive doll talked to him.

But still, April was frightened about plush rabbit because it was really unexpected for girl, she wasn’t ready to realize that plush doll that she’d worked with is alive fear-eating monster who will hurt and intimidate to get their precious screams. But point remains: Donnie and April share crazy fearlessness, which turns into an adrenaline addiction.

And here I am, a science guy, who tell you: adrenaline is a big deal for our body. This hormone can even provoke an onset of romantic feelings. Chemistry and anatomy come to fill the gaps: when a person is afraid, their pulse quickens, a cocktail of hormones is releasing into the blood, which sharpen the senses and reflexes. It will create a strong emotional bound, that's important for maintaining romantic kind of feelings. The more impressions there are (even negative ones), the higher the chance that person will remember his|her partner, and want to see them again – the body gets hooked on adrenaline, like a drug.

That’s why D&A have so strong, unshakeable boundaries. They are so alike: their attitude to scary things, the way Donnie and April cope with them, the adrenaline addiction their share. They even express feelings the same way.

And one tiny detail: April and Donnie start the teasing Raph for his fear of mrs. Cuddles. So they become the first victims of plushie.

Friendly reminder: they were the 1st victims, and what’s happened with them we don’t know, because it wasn’t shown due to not ruin the atmosphere of suspense.

But we have a beautiful quote of mrs. Cuddles and this precious shot which explain everything

Raph: Where’s Donnie?

Cuddles: In a happy place where he’ll scream and I can grow forever and now you’re gonna join him!

In a happy place, huh? Tied up with April in Splinter’s bedroom, a really happy place. Hold a sec, are they -

And after that Donnie’s responding is killing me.

Donnie:[OS] I'm afraid of togetherness.

Yep. All normal here. We should continue.

"Operation Normal" even though doesn't show a lot of interactions between April and Donnie, however continues the general outline highlighting the topics that were mentioned earlier in the show.

Firstly, April's relationship with her classmates. We're able to see how poor her scholar life is in "Hypno Part Deux" and "The Purple Jacket". She has no "normal", human friends except some strange remora guy, more like acquaintance than friend, though. But still, having "be normal" kick she's fine with Donnie's weirdness ( Mikey is always beyond all normal comprehension, Raph goes weird while he's alone, without brothers, and his fear of miss Cuddles is no big deal to fam, Leo didn't show any weird stuff during the series, like, reeeeal weird, m'kay?).

Conversation between April and Donnie at pizza spot

Really interesting and smooth scene. We’ve got Donatello who stares at April while he’s waiting his favourite pizza, no big deal.

And his legs.

If a person is interested in you, during a conversation, they will put their right foot forward (a left-handed person is more likely to put their left foot forward) in order to close the distance between you. - Check.

being in company, peson will point the sock at the most pleasant interlocutor for them. - check.

April’s legs are ponted at Donnie. Checkmate.

Yeah, April is hanging out with Donatello and Leonardo, but the main focus of hers is on Donnie. 

All these scene makes me think that Donnie, knowing about how badly sometimes April  wants to be normal, is up to help her overcome this. Fight fire with fire:  fill up her life with all of this weird, mystic stuff so it will be normal with time. Regular people go to pizza spot to spend some quality time together, so we have pizza restaraunt here, in Hidden City. Make all odd normal, and problem will solved.

Donnie really tries his best, look at his face. Dee’s fine with all this bizzare things what happens to April, he’s fine with her. But still he fails, because April’s concept of normalcy differs drom Donnie’s.

And again, for Donnie it’s not a problem at all. He’s always was at the opposite side of normalcy and it doesn’t matter for him if April is in the same boat with him. Cause, as I said, Don’s fine with that.

Second, how much Donnie knows about April.

- Scoff! Are you really still on this whole "I want things to be normal" kick?

- Yes, what big city girl doesn't have a kayak and has hazmat suit?

Interesting detail here: this line launches Donnie’s flashback (because the first scene is from “Purple Jacket”, it’s Dee’s episode, obviously). And Don, as far as I can tell, has in his flashback moments with April when she did something reaaally impressive. His face is way more louder than any words.

- Short answer: no. Long answer: nnooooooooo.

- Oh, no! You know how April freaks out around the cosplay wizards!

These tiny lines are containing a lot of background, stories, intimate conversations that April and Donnie share. This show always does the same trick: we never see a direct action, we are only able to see a result or statement of the result. But series do a great work telling us with such small and imperceptible gestures that their bonding at this point is mutual. Not only D tells April about his inventions, family and fam's issues he has and even his falls, mistakes and failures. April does the same thing, sharing with Donatello one of the most important things to her. Problem that really bothers her.

C'mon, he'd even memorized Sunita's name, though April messed up with this situation a bit. It seems Donnie memorizes facts about April - he remembered the wi-fi password from old April's work as we can see in "The Longest fight" (he could hack it easily, he's a genius, why he's been keeping in mind some piece information that useless for a year? It doesn't make any sense)

Oh, and that. Just a coincidence, I guess?

Just alike suits, no big deal. Plus, the whole family has it (and something tells me that guys have suits at the behest of Don, so probably April does). But Donnie and April has a lot in common like emotional expressions, reaction about some kind situations, fight style and even tastes in fashion.

Also, it seems like Donnie's been watching April for sometimes.

While Leo was hiding in trash can, to not catch anyone's eye rather than April. He definitely couldn't know who was passing by, but there was Donnie to observe from above. That's why he was hanging down the stairs when Leo spoke to April.

It’s not the first time Donnie dress up as old lady to monitor April’s day.

Leo: Why do you always make us dress up as old ladies? Donnie: №1: confort, №2: to blend in as we monitor April’s day for max normalcy.

 3. Even when D took away this cosplay wizard, he's still keeping eye on her.

Oh no, you don’t. Grandmas here!

Donatello changes his foe to save April exactly. He fought all evening with Brutus, but when April slightly gets in danger, Donnie just attacked anyone who has intention to hurt her and ruin her evening.

Is that a flying turtle in an old purple dress?

April, who all evening was trying to look “normal”, hiding her real friends because they are mutant turtles and pretending that nothing unusual happens here, finally gives up when Sunita mentioned Donnie. Even though new April’s friend has asked her before about Leo.

His eyes. 

Donnie is really impressed but what he saw, and the reason - April O'Neil.

The episode "Warren & Hypno, sitting in a Tree" is another incredible piece of whole picture.

Turtle tank is decorated for April birthday in purplish scheme, definetely Donatello's work.

Dee's nonverbal speech.

• He seems more interested and softer than usual looking at April. It's easy to say comparing him with brothers. Mikey is in anticipation of fun mode, Leo relaxed and show his "whatever it will be fun" attitude, Raph is listening carefully, but still, Donnie could just turn his head in April's vouce direction, not a whole body.

• Warren felt Don's gaze while talked with April, so worm made the remark. Pay attention to the construction of the frame of neighboring scenes. The second frame is April's perspective. And Don is looking namely at her.

Indignation. Disappointment. Spark, storm, madness (i love this russian meme, sorry not sorry)

• Donnie seems sincerely sorry for this situation with April's b-day. And again, this soft gaze and "Raph, shut the shell up, your nonsense is upsetting her"-eyes.

• Donatello is kind of person, who’s avoiding a proper confrontation, so he rarely stands up for someone.  He were remaining silent, when Raphael tried to cheer April in the most radiculous way, but when Hypno tried to play with April’s feelings, Donnie blew it. 

He’s obviously in wrath as D emote that expressively. Yeah, he had much on his plate at April’s birthday, but it’s her b-day on the line, not his pride.

Warren used April, playing with her fan feelings. Her idol betrayed her, she was locked up in a cage, and now we have Hypno who wants to use her again by pitting and pushing for her compassion, because, it’s obvious - boys would do everything she said. 

And Donnie tries to keep Hypno away from her, protect her feelings from another betrayal. 

As he’s already stated - “For you, anything”.

The show always tells us: if you wanna trigger Don, bring April in. 

Hypno tried to turn this thing around, Leo did the same in “Al be back”. 

If Hypno-tamus did that accidentally as he found out that April O’ Neil is a birthday girl, so her wishes that day were laws, Leo did it on purpuse.

Leo is good at manupulating and pulling some strings, plus he knows his twin as back of his hand. That’s why Leo mentioned April in the end as she was always the most powerful argument, the reason and motive for Donnie. At second he’s even panicked, but remained calm. He almost blew up his coolheaded image because of one certain girl in yellow.

• Donnie is really happy to present Warren's arm to April. He even holds it like a rare, priceless treasure. D is really proud of himself right now: he saved the day, after all. The emotional reaction of hers is exactly what Donnie wants to get. And then, his final pose, while April is on 9th cloud from happiness - that's really territorial gesture, D claims his supremacy and confidence, telling "See? That's my happy birthday girl".

Leapfrog with a composition

Donnie and April are more and more eager to be together in the frame. Composition’s boners, m’kay.

Special ride for April

Yeah, Donnie used to offer his battleshell to give April a special ride. It even has  a seat and handlebars for her comfort. She can control the flight as well as Donatello, they are like co-pilots. But he never carried her on his back before.

Usually, April is carried by Raphael, on his neck/shoulder, and she’s fine with it. Raph is strong enough to carry her without any difficulties or slowing down.

It’s not Donnie’s weak to carry her - no, he strong enough to carry his battleshell with a lot stuff in it everyday, Don can carry Splints on his shoulder without any apparent difficulty. He strong enough to hold the weight of his battleshell+April. Oh, c’mon, D assembled the Turtle tank only by himself and this for sure requires a lot of physical strength in order to engage in auto mechanics. Try lifting the wheel with tyre, and you'll see what I mean. Of course, there is a jack, but it will not solve all the problems. Don could use hydraulics and Archimedes ' laws, but I'm sure he did most of it with his own hands. Lifting and carrying, all by himself.

Not the strengh what’s matter but another point.

The sequence where Donnie carries April on his back doesn’t last long, it’s pretty easy to miss, while Raph openly do that with April on him. 

Plus April’s gaze: she’s staring right at us with her “ninja-eyes” as if they were caught in the middle of something. The duration and length of the sequence, the way it is made all of this arouse certain thoughts. 

It’s like nobody should see this. Too personal. To be more specific - too close and intimate? 

Donnie stated a few times that he’s not into togetherness, tactile interaction and phisical side of contacts. Although he's fine with his brothers, don't forget that April is a girl. Even if she feels like part of family, she’s not his relative. She’s not his sister. 

Some people tend to avoid physical contact with the objects of their interest. And this behaviour fits in Don’s character. He’s anxious type with a lot of psychological and emotional issues. Yeah, he tries to cover it up, built a shell to protect himself, behave as confident extravert but he’s nothing like that. Sometimes D tends to distance himself from his family, to hide in his shell, and we've seen that throughout the show. 

Don hangs by his phone quite often, he addicted to this as his comfort zone, his peaceful cave, where everything is much easier,

Don pretends he’s so busy with his science stuff to ward off his brothers (ep. Mind Meld), 

Don went to the lab to work on his projects, while he could hang out with April and the brothers (ep. Mrs. Cuddles). And he left for what? To work on self-cleaning tooth pick, or the titan bust of himself? It’s seems like lame excuse to be alone. He’s definetely an intovert, who sometimes needs some space and time with himself. 

All his cocky behaviour is showing off to hide insecure, diffident and vulnerable creature, softshell purple turtle. Yeah, Donnie has confidence in what he’s great in: tech, science stuff, where he’s only one is capable of. But if someone steps on his domain or doubts his authority, his true colours exposed.

And, once again, “Mind meld” is a great evidence of that. Would callous, unsumpathetic guy without heart have a wall with pictures of his fellows? I’m afraid not. Donnie has a soft, caring heart.

There’s an alley of his the dearest moments, because photos - are always memory, precious moments we want to keep. 

1 - from “Minotaur Maze”. Don loves good pizza, loves his brothers, and they have a little adventure together. Yeah, this photo isn’t on champ wall, but still.

2 - from “Mascot melee”. Important day for bros as they show themselves to people at daylight to rescue Raph and their operation to buy a new robe for his father. It’s their joint brothers dance, and D is loving to dance, remember? Definetely special occasion.

3 - from “Mascot melee”. Splints was really glad to receive a gift from boys. And Donatello, as we know, is always eager to achive for pop’s approval. This for sure must be in his precious moments collection.

5, 7 - from “Donnie’s gifts”. He even keeps a dorky photo, which Raph uses as profile pic at Donnie’s number.

8, 9 - “Down with the sickness”. It was funny to survive all the 7 stages to achive what boys wanted. They failed, but still.

10 - from “Al be back”. Who knows that Splints is so good at singing?

4, 6 - from “The Fast and the Furriest”. Strange choice, cuz, you know, photos ten seconds before his collision with April bat?

And yeah, he HAS April’s photo here. And at this pic it’s April, and April alone,without his brothers. 

Don’s a real softie, see?

And avoiding physical contact is a way to protect Donnie’s already shattered self-esteem. To not cause any doubts in front of girl which he’s interested in. That’s possible reason why we did not receive any heartwarming hugs in “The Purple Jacket”.

But Donnie carries April, because it’s her birthday. On the one hand, the girl claims that  her b-day is cursed, and Donnie could, by any chance, do something nice for her, and on the other hand - any request of the bithday girl - is the law, as we could see earlier.

Gift for birthday girl

There is no Donnie in the scene after Draxum throw off Warren's arm. While Raph comfort April about her birthday, Donnie was looking for it to present it to April.

He knows the best what is the most precious gift for her. Warren Stone, her idol, goat of making news; she have been in Stoneheads fanclub for 9 years. Also, it seems that Donnie is the one of turtles, who collected info about this worm.

Also, he stopped immediately when April stepped between them and show no disappointing (remind you about Donnie's sadistic science guy nature). The reason is April.

And another cute detail: their glasses are the same form.

Another episode "Mystic library" has slightly touched D&A interaction. But were talking about Apritello, it's all hints but quality.

When Mayham trapped in the mirror and Raph, Leo and Mikey obviously are not coping, April decides to call Donnie to clear situation up.

Donnie, mister "I ruin everything", she's going to call for help. I repeat this. April calls for help Mr. Science to solve mystic problems with her pet. MYSTIC PET.

 And he AGREES.

Turtles dissuade their friend from calling Donatello but after a while, April returns with Donnie, and sees the bathroom in ruins.

I'm gonna clear this moment.

1. April haven’t called Donnie.

2. Some time later she returns with Dee.

3. Our girl is pretty shocked to see her bathroom in ruins, argo she didn't see/hear Raph chose to solve problem with smashing.

It must mean only ine thing: April went for Donnie by herself. We don't know where was he, we don't know what the reason April brought Donnie with her by herself, 'cause we know that if she call Dee, he will definitely get to her immediately.

Something is definetely off.

By the way, April changed Don’s profile pic.Yeah, the first one is very informative since Donnie is a turtle and he’s purple and he has bandana. Seems like April have done it by herself, editing the photo of real turtle. She didn't put a lot of effort into this, this image doesn't show her real attitude towards Don. But second is more personality-tinged. Sleeping Donatello in all his gear - this detail can tell us about only one thing - he was photographed when he fell asleep after his sleepless night(s) working hard at something - is something she can catch or receive by boys (namely speaking, it’s Leo, according to Ben Schwartz stated in an interview, that if Leo had an Instagram account, that 60 to 70% of his photos would be his brothers caught sleeping or slipping on things). And still. April has a dorky and little embarrassing pic of Donatello and this is... Interesting and cute?

This profile pic remind me about ROTTMNT: Sound off! (2nd issue)

The next station is “The Purple Game”.

Another episode in which the interaction of the characters is small in timing, but great in content.

And once again: they have a lot in common. I’d never tired of repeating this thing ‘cause the series do the same trick, showing one thing from different points of view. April and April shares the same taste in games, the same attitude, the same mojo. 

But the most important thing here is how D&A interacrions are shown in this episode. Unlike other episodes, the interaction here is indirect, is provided by gaming.

Their customized avatars reflects their personality. I mean, the colour schemes (though Donatello has never shown any interest in yellow, he used it for customization of his persona), the way their avatars looking. Game even refering to Sherlock_Corn as “she”, albeit it’s impossible to refer to her avatar in female pronoun. Because, you know, design and nickname?

And the in-game interaction of the avatars resembles D&A irl relationships. Bootyyyshaker 9000 don’t like togetherness, he’s looking like Donnie’s expectation of himself (cool and tough guy, as D sees himself in his own dreams)

Their dialogue

Actually. Actually, Donnie and April are not able to hear each other as game has no voice chat, but their lines make an perfect dialogue nevertheless.

April:Bootyshaker9000? Donnie? 

Donnie:April? You’re the last person I need to destroy to achive rank №1!

April:Ditto!

Both:There can only be one!

Donnie said the cheat combination, so April would know for sure what he is supposed to do, but she has no idea.

So, once again: their sync is incredible.

And can we talk about that?

April’s attack

As it seems, attacks may be customized by players. Bootyyshaker has attack that refers at Donatello main feature - superior intellect.

And this attack isn’t effective, because REAL April O’Neil has a resist towards it. She has known D for years, she knows what he’s capable of, she’s aware of his nerd side. April’s immune to it, so Sherlock_Corn is.

 Sherlock_corn has a default attack - kernel cannon. It’s nod to her nickname: kernel, corn, the same book. But her second atteck is something reflecting her personalitiy. Plus, April is aware of Donnie’s “fear” of togetherness. All’s fair in love and war, right?

April took a lot of BS9000 hp by her “friendly hugs”. And, by the way, his sweet reaction for hugs.

So:

The selection of the final opponent. It might be literally anyone, but we wouldn’t be able to see Dee’s obsession in that case. Yeah, he’s already had a  demon possesion ™, but it was too easy to him to win. No challenge. No “kill or be killed”, “It’s me or you” mojo.  He needed some tough gamer for challenging, to develop his character, push him too far. And  April, actually, is an excellent choice to reveal the character of certain purple turtle.To expose his true colours. And April do a great job: they know each other, so battle will be spicy, they are both compepitors, they are so alike, so it would be intersting to watch Donatello vs April. And it will, ‘cause In-game April and In-game Don is somewhat different than them usual.

April is Don’s slayer for sure. She’s good at gaming, her last attack was almost fatal for him. So he had to to cheated on her. 

Captain Cuddlecakes. Yes, she know about his afraid of togetherness. And there’s lovey-dovey attack animation with this cuddling and Donatello’s persona behaves like him. And it was SPECIAL RUN, so... I haven’t the foggiest why. Cute detail, I mean.

Just look at it.  Isn’t it cute?(at least we got their hugs somewhere... kinda. kinda.)

“Snow Day“, albeit  being family episode, shows a lot about D&A relationship through “family war”.

First of all, the same taste in films.   

Donnie’s already shown the same attitude to fashion, scary things as Cap O'Neil, April shares the same gamer’s mojo as Donatello, but now? We have Donnie and April that are loving the same movie.

For love of purple supernovas, of all the Jupiter Jim’s movies (and there are more than 60 of them), that's a convinient coincidence, they like the same movie.

It stated in series several times that Dee is fond of Atomic Lass. He had crush on her when he was child, he admires her by all his heart, so it will make sense if films with this character he would be his favourite. It’s logical, isn’t it?

Atomic Lass, even if she is part of JJ-universe, however, isn't in every movie. Leo described "JJ: Pluto vacation IV" and there is no sights of Atomic Lass. Like, at all. 

Nevertheless, April’s claimed that “PV-4” is the best movie of the time, and Don agrees. 

April:What the whaaaat? Hold up, Skip. “Jupiter Jim Pluto Vacation 4″ is the best JJ movie  of all time.

Donnie:Ranked, by us, just now. So it’s basically official, no arguing.

And they do this thing again. Reflecting each other. Facial expressions, intonations, poses and etc. Haven’t I mentiones that? Mirroring is natural way to build communication. People, who communicate enthusiastically, who have sympathy to each other, feelings of certain nature, unconsciously copy each other's poses.

Direct reflection and close contact have a strong effect. This is used between lovers, people with close relationships or interested in each other.

And you can see that during not only episode, but through the whole series. 

Poses, gestures, facial expressions they share constantly. Even if they are apart, they are mirroring each other, showing their bound. Because Apritello is not always about sitting close, holding hands and blushing. Apritello is about staying together even if they are not.  It’s about solid foundation, about synergy, about chemistry Donnie and April share. And all of these are not always so obvious and clear, evident. But so realistic nevertheless.

And that’s why they splitted off the fam - they are too close and alike. 

I stated it before but DonniexApril team is way more effective than Donniexbrothers team. Donatello and April are equal, worth each other. They are comfortable with each other, their teamwork is amazing. 

They are always near, close to each other for the entire episode. Stand up for each other, side by side. They have no need to do team-building, because their sincronization is incredible. April works well together with Donnie, their skills compliment each other. 

I love that April in a first place look at Donnie to check is everything alright.

And a cherry on top?

This inviting gesture. Donnie just watched all along how his brothers and April try to throw some cold water on this situation (khem, it slipped). But when April call him with this inviting gesture, he’d like to help. 

In other words, he was waitng when April requests for his help.    

Composition’s boners

Sometimes it happens during the show, but this episode beat hte score at this point. I say only one word: physics. Or, more precisely, the force of attraction. Or, maybe Mayham.

... Anyway.

Fitting in the type

April can play not so nice against her enemies, she got steady hand and meanness, merciless and reclessness. She’s passionate and kinda badass, sassy - in a positive way, she’s baddest girl who can kick your butt if you mess with her, and she really good at this. 

She has a fire, and Donnie likes that. Dee never stated that directly but miss O’Neil impressed him so many times and in different way so it’s kinda pretty obvious. 

Just look how Donatello reacted the way April took Raph down a peg. Her actions are elegant, relaxed but really sly. She almost dare Raph to put his flag on top only to bring him down to Earth in really painful way. She destroyed Bros’ team so easily just by waiting a bit and by calling Mayham. 

She’s definetely got some pepper.

Pretty cute but baddest, don’t you think?

And Donnie was impressed for sure, he admitted it - “That is fun for me”. He don’t even stand a chance, c’mon: she’s smarass and elegant, she can be mean and cute at the same time. 

Even though that’s it for season 1 analysis (the last series is more appropriate  to review as part of 2nd season, plus it was a reaally big post, I need some time)

You can refresh this whole situation in the car 1 and the car 2 or follow the hashtag #apritello express as you please. It’s a pleasure of mine, keep in touch :)

[brockadoodles]

morning flights to toronto - b. boeser

AN: I couldn’t give you too many Christmas fics without a splaaasshhhhhhhh of angst, that simply would not be true to my brand. Sorry fic Brock for how often I break you? But it’s okay because it’s just a character and not real hehe. Hope you enjoy this one, it’s a concept I really love.

Word Count: 2613

Warnings: Angst but a good ending I promise. 

A month and a half ago, if someone would have asked you what you were doing for Christmas, you would have smiled at them and told them you’d be in Minnesota, likely cuddled up by the fireplace with snow heavily falling outside, your boyfriend asleep next to you and your dogs at your feet. You would have told them how excited you were to go back to the place you had started to realize felt like your second home, a place where you pictured yourself raising a family, transitioning to a stage in life that you were starting to feel ready for. A month and a half ago, you would have been happily in love, instead of mending a freshly shattered heart during your favorite time of the year. 

You replayed the conversation in your head, circling over and over his words that echoed through your mind, wondering how you could have misinterpreted the signs for so long. You thought you and Brock were on the same page, you had moved in together, and had even adopted a second dog together, a husky mix named Milo. But it turns out, you weren’t on the same page at all you were two souls who had found yourself so consumed by the love story you thought you had that you ended up not realizing that Brock was still on book 1, while you had steadily moved to book 2. 

“I just don’t know that I see all of that right now,” he sighed. His head was resting in his hands and his eyes were blurry from his own tears that had started to fall as he spoke to you, a conversation that to him was the hardest thing he ever had to do. He loved you, that was never the problem. But sometimes, love isn’t enough to build a life with someone, sometimes you need something more than a connection that the two of you had. 

“Right now? Or ever?” You whispered, your own tears falling freely as you desperately wished for him to say anything but ever. You could give him space, you could give him time, but you couldn’t rationalize the idea that you had loved him in a way that he didn’t love you. You couldn’t accept that it had been one-sided, not when you were starting to build a life together. Brock ran a hand through his hair, his voice was scratchy from the dryness settling into his throat, the lump choking back his own tears as his voice pulled your heart out and tossed it on the ground. 

“I think we need to not be together right now.” 

That phrase struck you in a way that nothing else had before. It settled into your chest and pitched a tent there, a tenant that wasn’t paying rent who you couldn’t evict. You weren’t even sure it felt entirely real until you were sitting with him and having a serious conversation about moving out, and taking Milo with you.

You tried not to think about the reality of it all, losing a three year relationship seemingly in a matter of moments. It didn’t matter how long you and Brock spoke in circles that night, it didn’t matter what shape you tried to construct to fix everything and hang onto him, he was holding a box and you were holding broken pieces that didn’t fit. 

You were doing your best at what you hoped looked like starting over. You were trying to navigate finding yourself again after being so tied into one person, but it was nearing Christmas and as you sat in your friend’s sublet apartment with boxed of things around you that you and Brock had bought together and Milo at your feet, you wanted to be anywhere other than Vancouver for the holiday.  

It had taken you four days to call your parents. Four days of replaying everything in your mind and wondering if maybe he’d call and say it was all a mistake. Four days of cycling through the same routine of going from the bed to the couch on autopilot, tears springing to your eyes each time something reminded you of him. Four days of wondering if he even was hurting at all, a question that you weren’t sure you even wanted the answer to yet tortured yourself with anyways. But it only took five minutes for your mom to convince you to come home. 

That’s how you ended up back in Toronto, tucked away in your childhood bedroom that had been converted to be a guest room looking out at the blanket of snow that was dumping into the city. You settled into a new routine, waking up each morning and watching Milo out back playing in the fresh snow. You tried not to think about if he was missing Coolie as much as you were. You also tried not to notice each time Brock’s photo popped up as a viewer on your story, knowing that losing Milo was probably killing him. 

Brock spent the weeks following the breakup leading up to Christmas poorly attempting to convince himself that what he did was right. He agonized over it, constantly telling himself that you were two people who had been lost in each other for so long, that you needed to find yourselves again. He tried to convince himself that the codependency was the problem, that you weren’t growing together anymore, hell, he even tried to convince himself that he was the one holding you back from your dreams, feeling guilty for just how willing he knew you would have been to follow him if he were ever traded. But the thing about telling yourself something until it's true is that it doesn’t work, and that was a lesson that Brock was painstakingly learning the hard way. He couldn’t even pretend it was any easier when he was back home in Minnesota, because at each turn his dad asked him things about you and it broke his heart each time he had to remind him that you weren’t. 

Brock watched your story of Milo in the snow for what felt like at least the tenth time that morning. He heard your laugh in the background and you calling for Milo softly. He knew you were back home in Toronto, probably at your parents house running through the traditions your family had at Christmas. He remembers when he got to experience all of those with you, the year before. As he heard your laugh one last time from your story, he thought back to that Christmas, his own heart twisting when he thought about how he was always the one who could make you laugh, stealing wine drunken kisses in the kitchen in the dim light.

It took Brock one hour after you left to know that it was a mistake breaking up with you, but it took him three weeks and a Christmas Eve without you to come to the understanding that maybe, just maybe he could fix it. 

You groaned softly as you blindly reached for the source of the buzzing on your bedside table. You had half of a mind to turn over and curl up in your blanket and ignore it, the last month your phone had been filled with messages and calls, each person offering what felt like faux sympathy at your broken heart. It got to a point where you dreaded seeing a notification, just wishing that your friends would give you space to heal on your own. They could only express so much sympathy for a situation that they didn’t understand. But it was Christmas Eve, and as you adjusted your eyes to your phone screen, you thought about how whoever was calling this late must have been important. As soon as you picked up the screen and saw the photo on it, him with Coolie curled up against his chest, you felt your eyes water and your mind twist. You wondered if you were hallucinating, but your finger slid across the accept button anyway and you held your breath as you lifted the phone to your ear.

“Are you there?” His voice came through when you didn’t say anything. It was soft and strained, and you felt your heart clench at hearing it after trying to forget about how he sounded over the last month. You sniffled slightly, wiping your eyes and sitting up in bed as you nodded as if he could somehow see your movements through the phone. Milo shifted slightly at your movements, and your heart broke even more. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry it’s so late. Fuck, it’s like 2:30 there. I’m- god please don’t hang up.” He whispered. For a moment you felt like you could see him, probably pacing back and forth in his condo, hand running through his golden hair. You didn’t know why he was calling, and you didn’t know why you chose to answer, but you stayed on the line anyway, because what’s a broken heart at Christmas without the added pain of the one who shattered it waking you up at 2 am? 

“I’m here.” You said, your voice shaky. You leaned down to scratch Milo’s ear, your heart-tugging a big at knowing the breakup had not only affected you and Brock but the dogs as well. 

“Uhm, I..” Brock started, and you sighed softly into the phone.

“Brock, why are you calling?” There it was, the question he had expected. The question he had spent the last month preparing himself for, running through the lists and reasons in his mind constantly, and now that he was here, listening to you cry on the phone, he seemed to forget all of them. He felt like shit, not only for himself for ruining the best thing he ever had with you, but for calling you in the middle of the night on Christmas and making you cry all over again. 

“Come home. Or I’ll come there, I was wrong. I was so beyond wrong and to be honest, I’ve spent the entire last month knowing that. We were so happy, you know? I was thinking about rings and starting this whole life with you and I just lost myself, I started doubting us when it got serious because I was insecure, I was afraid you’d wake up one day and realize you don’t want me or this life. And I was wrong. I was wrong to hurt you, I was wrong to not talk to you about how I was feeling and I was wrong to break up with you when really all I want to do is marry you and have kids and, fuck, I just want all of that with you. So come home, let’s try again.” 

You curled into Milo, letting the tears fall down your cheeks as you took in the words he spoke. You knew Brock, and you knew he was telling the truth but was he worth risking everything for again. Could you realistically come back from this knowing that you could be sent packing up and back to Toronto at any time should he change his mind. It was a gamble, and you were never one to place bets when it came to your heart. 

“I’ll come to Toronto, I’ll book a flight right now, just to see you, just to try to show you that I want to make this up to you. I love you, let me show you that again.” Brock begged. 

“You’ll come to Toronto?” You squeaked, biting your lip in the darkness. 

“I already looked at flights, I can be there by 10.” He said. You let out a sob at his words, glancing at the clock and counting down how many hours that would be until you would face him. 

“I can’t lose you again. If we do this, I can’t.. Brock, I really can’t.” You whispered. 

You opened the door to him standing there, a bag on his shoulders, and his hands nervously tucked in his pockets. You passed over his hair that was covered in a dark beanie, his eyes tired and lacking the brightness you once always saw in him, his beard longer than he usually kept it. Brock looked like a reflection of you, a broken person who was wandering around trying to piece back together their own heart. You stepped out onto the porch, not caring that it was freezing cold and the snow was heavy. You didn’t care that you were just in leggings and an old sweatshirt of Brock’s you didn’t want to admit that you had taken from him. You reached out for him, burying yourself into his chest and letting the tears fall as you held each other for the first time in over a month. His hand ran through your hair as he pressed a light kiss to the top of your head. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He spoke, tilting your chin up so that his eyes could look into yours. 

“I missed you, and I love you, and please just-” Brock cut you off, pressing his lips against yours in a tender kiss. You felt yourself melt into him, the familiarity rushing back to you as he pulled you closer and deepened the kiss. You knew that the kiss couldn’t fix everything, that him coming to Toronto and back to you didn’t change what happened. But what you did know was that you had someone standing there who wanted you and had made a mistake, and maybe it was the holiday spirit talking, but you wanted to give him a second chance, and it was the only Christmas present that mattered.  

You held onto him tightly, tears stinging your cheeks from the cold. You didn’t even notice your mom had opened the front door behind you, instead you pulled apart from Brock when Milo came running up to your feet, jumping all over Brock and whining at him. 

“Milo, hi buddy, hi.” He cooed at the dog, squatting down and letting Milo jump all over him. It made you cry even more, realizing how hard the last few weeks without him had been. Brock looked up at you, a deep frown settling on his features because he knew all of your pain had been his fault. He stood up, letting Milo continue to jump on his legs as he grabbed your hands.

“There’s someone else who came with me.” He smiled softly. You furrowed your brow as he tangled his fingers with yours and led you down to where the car he must have rented was parked. You saw Coolie’s face in the window and you squeezed Brock’s hand tighter, your smile growing with each step closer to him you got. Brock opened the door, letting Coolie jump out and run all around you and him and Milo. His excitement coming out in loud whines. You watched as he and Milo started running around your yard together, standing close to Brock.

“It felt wrong without him.” You commented softly. Brock wrapped an arm around you and kissed your temple tenderly, a move that sent waves of calm through your body. You didn’t know what it would take to fix everything, but you had him here and he wanted to try. Maybe it would be rocky, maybe it would be hard, but losing each other even for just a few weeks only cemented in how sure you were about a life with him. So, even if it all crumpled later on, he still took an early morning flight to Toronto, and you weren’t going to send him away. 

[book-o-scams]

Ed, Edd n Eddy Series Bible (1996) -Analysis-

You can all finally read/download Ed, Edd n Eddy's official Series Bible right here! Thanks again to Chuckletons for sharing this with me and to Joey/Kongiscool0518 for sharing it in the first place, the Holy Grail of lost Ed, Edd n Eddy trivia!

One of the first posts I made for this blog was the Series Bible page. It was a composite of every source we had ever seen reference the series bible so far-- storyboarders in interviews, CN's old character guides, and the biggest source, an old CN UK posting about the show. Well, I figure now that we have the official source, I better update the old page (so everyone knows it's out of date), and make this new Series Bible post using the official source! Not much new information, but I was intrigued to finally learn the true phrasings of some things we had only heard paraphrased, as well as at least one detail from the movie that I couldn't believe came up this early in conception...

Unfortunately, Tumblr has apparently updated its post system to only let me add 10 images? Gonna try and only use images for what I need since you can read the actual document above, I guess I'll transcribe it too for easier reference and so we don't ever lose some archive of this.

Quickly, let's review what a series bible is:

A series bible is how creators pitch shows to networks. They can be called “pitch bibles” as well. Bibles do not usually get posted publicly, because they are initially under a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement by the network; also the creator may simply not wish to share it because it reflects the earliest stages of development.

The pitch materials typically include early concepts for characters, locations and episodes. Sometimes it exposes secrets, in this case, Ed and Eddy’s home lives, and sometimes the stuff in it is completely abandoned because it’s so early in production, in this case, casual references to school and adults.

Alright, everybody, it's time to gather 'round and read the Ed, Edd n Eddy Bible!

THE YEAR IS 1996.

YOUR NAME IS LINDA SIMENSKY. YOU WORK AT CARTOON NETWORK. A FRIEND OF YOURS, DANNY ANTONUCCI, IS WRAPPING UP A SHOW ON MTV. YOU GET THIS FAX.

Linda Simensky immediately fell in love with this concept because as a child, she was best friends with 2 other Lindas for seemingly no reason other than the shared name.

I love how Danny decided last second to pencil in the correct names over each Ed, since they're arranged out of title-order.

"They're friends because they have the same name."

-the Logline for the series.

Fun fact: one storyboard artist for the movie observed that the movie is essentially all about challenging the series' original notion that the Eds are friends ONLY because of their name.

"A Danny Antonucci Cartuna"

-the label Danny used to use under announcements of new productions.

PAGE 1:

Ed, Edd n Eddy

They're best friends because they have the same name.

A gag laden, beat generated CARTOON bumper car ride of 3 misfit youths on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America.

Through summer vacation, part-time jobs, or just hang'n out at the corner mail box, they want to belong....but CAN'T.

From home chores, helping neighbors or eating jaw breakers, they want to fit in...but CAN'T.

Ed is into "B" monster movies, model kits and is quick to break out into rashes.

Lots of luck...

Edd is into chemistry, biology and prone to crushes.

Later...

Eddy is into pranks, is stylish and flaunts himself to the world.

Ya Right...

Ed, Edd n Eddy is a show about confusion and contradiction, that awkward part of youth, pimples, big feet, oily hair and... girls???.

Puberty is unforgiving.

I was fascinated by the lack of art on this page, it makes the pitch feel very focused. AKA logo in the corner, the title logo again up top, then the logline appears again below.

I really love the breakdown of Danny's vision of the show. "Gag-laden, beat-generated, CARTOON bumper ride." Very accurate, and I think "beat-generated" is the phrase that interests me the most. I typically think of "animation beats" as sort of a give-in-- technically all things fit a rhythm, so all stories are essentially just a montage of beats. But this does make me realize how important the strength of the beats and their rhythm are to the pacing of a cartoon and making you feel like "that was a good one." I feel like the "seasonal rot" viewers feel over the course of a show, and the way that perception differs from person to person, depends on the type of beats you want. Even though I am very into the experimental beats of a show in its later seasons, I can definitely see how season 1's beats are more typically appealing to a wide-audience, and how important a focus on that is to the longevity of a show.

I found it really interesting how the scams are initially conceived of here as "summer jobs." It adds to the sense that adults were originally meant to be present. Honestly a little surprised nobody with access to this bible had ever thought to mention that-- scams are not referenced ANYWHERE. Their image in the Series Bible is that they have summer jobs and help neighbors, which is certainly a much cleaner reputation than the Eds ended up with in the show. Makes me realize though, were some of the early scams, like Ed's Hive Bee Gone and their newspaper routes, supposed to be leaning into this early idea of them with almost legit jobs for unseen adults?

I was very amused by the repeated phrase that the Eds simply CAN'T fit in.

Loved to finally see the official phrasing for the confirmation that Peach Creek is in America. Not much different than I was led to believe, but still nice to have the true quote.

Also love Eddy being described as "stylish and flaunting himself to the world." The bold-print reactions to each micro-description is a cute idea too, I truly wonder who we were meant to picture saying those things in reaction. Each Ed? Kevin?

The "corner mail box" is an oddly specific phrase-- the Eds do hang around mailboxes throughout the series, especially seasons 1-3, and I believe the canon map does have a corner mailbox, but the idea that the Eds hang out at one specific mailbox went the way of Bro's supposed secret treehouses.

PAGE 2:

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Show Description

Gag laden. True cartoon style, inventive, non parody, fast paced, stretch and squash

Beat driven. (even when characters stop they hold with a bounce cycle. Adults never bounce. Music can play important part, not just fill.) But not a musical.

Cartoon surrealism. (viewers see the show as Ed, Edd n Eddy would, less important things tend to blend into the background, while objects of Ed, Edd n Eddy's desires are focused. Premise driven.)

The school year's over, (yeah!!!!) and the long HOT summer vacation begins (gulp). What to do?

Stuck on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America is the last place you want to spend summer break, especially when you find life confusing and contradicting.

Ed, Edd n Eddy is about friendship, and serves to remind us that they're no "good ole days," just smelly runners.

You can tackle anything, when your with your pals.

Their days are spent, for knowledge, acceptance and some cash for jaw breakers. Armed with pimples, big feet and oily hair the three amigos trek into the unknown.

Ed, Edd n Eddy are dying to be grown-ups, but they're kids, and attack adulthood as only kids would. Simple situations turn into a manic rollercoaster ride. (Don't forget your barf bag).

They just want to belong, and they're willing to pull off any insane stunt to prove it. First they need to figure out what it is they want to belong to.

Found it interesting that on this page, the show's logo is replaced with the title written in a jumbled font. Seems like the font from the show's end credits.

Hehe, the continued reactions to the descriptions. Allow me to be Double D for a moment and point out the increased use of parentheticals on this page, as well as one wrong "your".

I love Danny's insight that season 1 is framed by the context of how hyped everyone still is just to be out of school, but also the sense of pressure to make use of their break.

I really appreciate Danny getting further into the details of his summary of the show's style on the previous page. It only makes sense that he had this much of a vision that early.

A second confirmation of the cul-de-sac being in America! I'm also really into the repeated focus on the Eds finding the world "contradicting." I always loved how EEnE's inexplicable cartoon antics supported that sense that the Eds are highly aware of contradictions in both societal things and the actual characters.

WOW, so I'm fascinated by this dual reveal. Before the wiggling outlines, which Danny usually calls a "boiling line" and describes as a tribute to wiggling inking in early animation, the series bible instead refers to him wanting the characters to do the iconic Fleischer "bounce," which is a much more commonly recognized rubberhose animation technique. Very interesting that Danny decided not to stick to that. Did it feel too out of place? Or was the overseas team not willing to animate a weight-shifting for every single held pose? Haha, guess I can see why boiling was an easier compromise. I wonder if he had any other ideas for how to make it more of a 1930s cartoon.

The other reveal to me here is that the movie's choice, that adults don't always wiggle in the show, was an idea from the very beginning! I guess I can better understand now why it's just too difficult to communicate a stylistic choice like that overseas-- no point making Bro not wiggle, that'd just create confusion.

Also, really disappointed that my wish for a musical is officially squashed in the series bible itself. That's a tragedy. The show's over, ya couldn't let me dream, Danny!? Conversely, I love Danny's forethought to say "non parody," I definitely noticed and appreciated EEnE's avoidance of derivative parody humor.

My spouse had to point out to me that Danny probably means sneakers here, lol. Canadianisms!

The comments about the Eds wanting to grow up but needing to figure out what they want to belong to are so great and relate to the movie so well. I've heard those comments before, but the correct phrasing was cool to see.

PAGE 3:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Ed in right corner)

Character Description

Ed

Attention deficiency syndrome.

He has trouble...

He can't....um...

OK, he draws all day in class.

When Eddy gets a bright idea...Ed's in.

Ed is easily talked into doing Eddy's "hard work". He has great physical strength.

Ed's happiest with his Model kits and B-monster movies. He draws his knowledge from his movies.

Ed smells. Flies are attracted to him.

Ed has sayings for all situations

ED: "you can change your shirt, and Bingo was his name..."

Ed's perpetually a slave to his younger sister's whims and whines.

Ed may have to baby-sit his sister, or let her watch whatever she wants on TV, or let her dress him up in mom's clothes.

Ed breaks out in Rashes. He's allergic to practically everything, especially Guinea Pigs.

Ed's Mom xerox's his sketches and doodles for her therapist.

Ed's Dad hopes to pass on to his son, his knowledge on "pre-owned" auto sales.

Very cute bit wasting the space at the top of the page. Danny seems very invested in Ed's personality already. The old sources we used to have definitely tried to condense these down to simpler blurbs.

Weird how Danny wants to essentially diagnose Ed with ADHD here (phrasing it very poorly, but it was the 90s and... Canada?). I don't know enough on the subject to debate it, but I still gotta point out Ed's canonical cracked skull!

Interested in the comment about Ed being most allergic to Guinea Pigs. I don't think that animal was ever even mentioned in the show. Eddy mentioned an old gerbil once....

Neat to finally have the real phrasing of the official word on Ed's parents! I saw someone comment earlier that this seems to be hinting Ed's Dad is selling stolen cars. I've never thought to question the legality of his apparent second-hand-car dealership (I imagined he works with Eddy's dad, who has received a legitimate award for his salesmanship), but those quotation marks are certainly making Mr. Ed's practices questionable! Best case scenario, Danny meant that more like italics or something, but maybe Ed's dad IS up to no good...

PAGES 4 & 5 (Ed's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGE 6:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Edd in right corner)

Character Description

Edd

is really smart.

is really quiet.

Edd is unnaturally-- polite.

Edd hasn't been allowed to take gym ever since the Dodge ball incident. He's been excused to free study time in the library.

Edd doesn't like it when people touch his things.

EDD: "You may enter in my room, but don't touch my Lego robot. Thank you."

Edd's learning to play Peddle steel guitar. (his Mom makes him)

Edd's prone to "crushes". Girls in School, in his neighborhood, TV, anatomy books. He mails "true loves" his socks.

Edd is always ready for action, even though he can calculate the implications.

Edd constantly mumbles.

No one ever sees Edd's parents. They both work nights. They communicate to their son solely through Post-it notes. Edd's not allowed to touch anything in the house while they're gone. Anything.

Interesting how Danny slightly differentiates the barely-used space at the top here from Ed's description, to characterize Edd as more quiet and mumbly, adding an awkward "--" mid-sentence, perhaps to create the impression that Edd halts to choose words carefully.

Everything on this page feels familiar, from the character guides and other old sources. The most interesting thing to me here is that Edd's Mom forcing him to practice Pedal Steel Guitar is established this early, don't think I knew that, but I had noticed that it existed in his room from ep 1.

I love how the explanation in the beginning for why Edd goes along with their dumb schemes even though he's smart is basically just "he's always ready for action." ?!? I guess in a way???

That weirdly phrased Edd quote amuses me because it references Lego, just like the original concept background for his room before somebody nixed the copyright-namedrop.

Edd's prone to crushes thing has been reaffirmed over and over in character bios even though it really doesn't come up outside of the cupid magic in HPH and the pilot-episode heart eyes at Sarah that are barely canon. Still, I've always loved the truly disturbing statement that he mails "his true loves his socks" and how that managed to make it into canon with a comic book example, a cel animation example and a digital era example.

PAGES 7 & 8 (Edd's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGE 9:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Eddy in right corner)

Character Description

Eddy

Exhibitionist.

Megalomaniac. (quote from his report card)

Eddy is the unofficial leader of the trio.

He's always got a plan, a stunt or a weird noise.

Eddy's the "class clown". He loves showing off. He loves being the centre of attention-- no matter how stupid the reason is.

Eddy is the only kid in his grade to have been expelled for aw hole week from school. It was his turn to set up the video for science class. He switched "Our Friend Yeast", for a video he "borrowed" from his parent's room.

Before Eddy's brother went....away, he enlightened Eddy with the "legends" of the neighbourhood. Eddy knows where all the abandoned tree houses are, which sewer pipers are safe to spelunk, and the secret recipe for the "El Mongo Stink Bomb" (it's been in the family for years).

He is the one who is most able to pretend that he knows it all... and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about him.

His genes are working the fastest.

Eddy's Dad is constantly concerned that Eddy may grow up to be a ...figure skater.

Eddy's Mom never believes his little darling was involved in such a heinous act.

Funny choice that Eddy's wasted-top-space is just two one-word descriptions, and allegedly lazily swiped from his negative report card.

Wow, we knew the report card quote and the "Our Friend Yeast" story from the UK show guide, but now we also know Ed's page says that Ed draws in class, and now I realize that Ed and Eddy have series bible school blurbs to match Edd's classic dodgeball incident blurb. Anyway, it's great that Eddy's showed his entire school some sort of sex video his parents have.

Very interested that the phrasing for the Bro/El Mongo Stink Bomb blurb even seems to suggest it's a family recipe. Eddy's Dad did have prankster stuff in his closet in JJJ... did Bro learn his prankster ways from Dad?? The neighborhood's secret tree houses have come up in other descriptions (at best, I'd say this could be related to that creepy shack the Eds found in the woods), but I think it's new info that Eddy personally learned the sewer routes from Bro. Interesting...

Thankfully, I had already heard about the Bible's awkward reference to Eddy being the most pubescent as "his genes are working the fastest," lmao.

Once again the Double D in me comes out to point out that the description of Eddy's Mom seems to switch to the Dad's pronouns.

PAGES 10 & 11 (Eddy's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGES 12-14 (Sarah, Jimmy, Rolf, Jonny, Nazz, and Kevin lineup of all 6, then 2 zoomed in lineups of the first 3 kids and last 3 kids)

(Funfact: the kids' designs were allegedly freelanced to an outside studio, hence why their refined later-season designs are so different from these lizardy starting places, lmao)

PAGE 15: (images of Sarah and Jimmy next to their blurbs)

SARAH

Ed's baby Sister.

It's her way or the Highway.

She has everything done for her, if NOT she'll "make" them do it.

She can be quick to judge.

Whinney.

A tatrum for every occasion.

More than a handful for Ed...or Edd and Eddy.

Thinks Edd is kinda cute.

Wants Eddy to MOVE...to another planet.

JIMMY

Sarah's best friend

He is always playing with girls, boys are just too tough.

He is accident prone, when ever we see him he has a different affliction, ie: band-aids, patches, casts, lumps...etc.

He is very clean.

The Ed's frighten him, "They're such brutes".

I'm surprised how much of the UK guide was accurate to what was really in the bible for them! Also surprised Danny misspelled "whiney" and "tantrum," one right after the other. Is this how Sarah spells them? ...Sorry, Danny, I yam what I yam.

PAGE 16: (images of Rolf and Jonny next to their blurbs)

ROLF

First generation of a landed immigrant family.

Nationality not important.

He's proud of his heritage.

He has peculiar traditions and/or customs.

He eats "weird" things.

He has hair on his back..... "yuck".

He confuses the Ed's to no end.

He confuses the other kids to no end.

JONNY 2x4

He is a wanderer and very inquisitive

From early morning to supper time, he is always outside playing, with his buddy, "Plank".

"Plank" is a wooden board that Jonny drew a face on with a crayon.

Jonny has wonderful conversations with Plank. ...Plank is a piece of wood.

Jonny makes himself very "accessible" to the Ed's.

Found it interesting that Rolf's bio is less clearly phrased than the UK bio set it up to be-- there they made it sound more like he mixes up who the Eds/kids are, here it's unclear whether it means that or (more likely) just means the obvious statement that everyone finds him confusing. If it's that, what a lame hollow bio Rolf got. This kid's based on you Danny, show some of that personal side!

Always loved Jonny's description, his life sounds so cute. Playing outside literally all day. Interesting to have it confirmed that Jonny drew Plank's face, I preferred to think the Eds drew him and sold him to Jonny, but whatever.

"Accessible" has always been an important vague description of Jonny to me. It really only applies to how chummy they could be with him in season 1, but it still sorta applies to his personality throughout the series as well.

PAGE 17: (images of Nazz and Kevin next to their blurbs)

NAZZ

She's cool, calm and assertive.

She is the most matured of the kids, or so she thinks.

She's into make-up and fashion magazines and Boys.

Sarah thinks she's awesome, wants to be just like her when she grows up.

When she enters a scene, all activity stops... boys freeze, they sweat, their hearts beat faster and faster. They lose their ability to talk. When she leaves, they recover and conclude it was something They ate.

She thinks the Ed's are funny.

KEVIN

He is cynical and sarcastic.

He thinks he knows the "routine". That's because he watches "60 Minutes".

It got a big laugh out of me that Kevin's description is only 2 sentences long. Nazz even has a more detailed character description from inception than Kevin. Love this for them.

Who's the Eds' rival? Well, he's cynical, sarcastic and he watches 60 Minutes, doesn't that tell you enough!?

I love the "mature... or so she thinks" remark about Nazz, a grounded flaw for her to have, being a little overcommitted to being mature like Eddy. It also perhaps suggests naiveté that makes it a little more reasonable that they didn't notice they were dumbing her down at the end of the series, but I do think the movie version of her better reflects the Bible's concept.

PAGE 18:

The Other Neighborhood Kids

Lineup of May, Lee and Marie.

The Kanker Sisters

These gals are tough. They bother, bully, provoke and bewilder everyone.

They live in a motor home park on the other side of the Cul-de-sac. The other kids have never been there.

They are proud of their Tammy Faye Baker memorabilia.

Their project "Cooking with Ketchup" closed down their school for a whole week.

No one likes them, especially the Eds.

They are determined to marry the Eds. They want them to do their dishes.

Amused that the Kankers are essentially being labeled backgrounds characters here, the role they mostly fell into in season 5. "Other" neighborhood kids...

I love that the Kankers have a school blurb to match each of the Eds', and that theirs has similar destructive-intentions to Eddy's video premiere story.

I believe all of this was all known from the UK guide as well, but still, neat stuff!

PAGES 19 & 20 (zoomed in Kanker lineup and their height chart with the Eds)

PAGES 21 & 22 (early promo art that used to be on CN's old Eds webpage, the art of the Eds eating jawbreakers at the end of ep 1 with the overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy love JAWBREAKERS!!!", and the art of the Eds all running with overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy see something shiny...."Jiggers." That weird "jiggers" statement at the end was normally edited out and I don't know what it means. Looked it up and it seems to be Chinook jargon (like when Ed said he was "skookum at X's and O's") usually said in the same sense as "CHEESE IT!")

PAGES 23+:

The rest of the pages in that bible download are from a 2004 storyboard test. The storyboard sample "It's Raining Eds," which we've seen some submitted samples of before, interpretations with Ed attempting to fly or chew gum and Edd making radioactive gum, I was surprised to find out the outline is just the original outline for the opening sequence to season 3's 'For Your Eds Only', seemingly Jonny was not written into the original outline (or was excised for easier testing purposes) but Kevin's brief cameo was. Now I wonder if they knew this would be used for a test when they wrote it, and if they would've come up with a less random way to include him if weren't forced to be a concise bit for testing's sake. (Your limit is typically 40 storyboard pages in my experience.)

I also noticed that in the included background references, the anonymous adult neighbor house next door to Ed's is officially just referred to as a "generic house."

My analysis ends here, but be sure to download that sometime and enjoy all the raw storyboard sketches at the end of the document!

[mojoflower]

WHY is fanfiction not the appropriate venue for your political or social battle?

We can all agree, I posit, that there are changes that need to be made in the world (racism, for example;  patriarchal inequalities;  rape culture;  capitalism;  plug in your personal cause here).

We can all ALSO agree, I think, that the way culture, media, etc. portray things influences a consumer on an unconscious level.

We can agree that, in real life, certain things are clearly bad:  abuse of others, non-consensual sex, systemic inequality, I can go on….

So.  Let me feel my way through this.  I, personally, feel like fanfiction (specifically on AO3, since that’s where I encounter it) is NOT an appropriate battleground for enforcing cultural change by:

Leaving comments about how someone’s work is (in your, the commenter’s, opinion) wrong, damaging, unfair, insensitive, etc.

Telling the writer they should change this or that.

Telling the writer they must add or delete tags.

Broadcasting your opinion of the writer’s egregiousness outside AO3 (twitter, for example, or here on tumblr).

Organizing a campaign of harassment against the author if they don’t change to suit your personal requirements.

First of all:

 Be the change you want to see.

Fanfiction, unlike any other media out there, is INDIVIDUAL.  It is one work, from one single person – voluntary and unpaid.  You yourself are one single person.  You can have as much influence as this writer.  Write the works you want to read, instead of demanding that the writer change to suit you.  This is how romance novels changed from non-con, non-condom-wearing, shudderingly unequal stories in the 70s and 80s to where they are now, for example.  New people started writing stories, and eventually established authors started changing, too (or dwindled away).

Remember that you know nothing about the author.

You don’t know their culture, their skin color, their age, their gender.  You don’t know their socioeconomic status or how much free time they have.  You don’t know their current mental or physical conditions.  You don’t know any of the things going on in their life.  AND.  You are not entitled to know these things.  When you lash out at an author for not doing research, for not editing, for… anything at all… you cannot assume that they’re not fourteen, not suicidal, not a native speaker, not disabled such that writing a single paragraph is a tremendous effort.  You don’t know they’re not in an abusive situation, or economic peril.  You do not have the right to tell them to change.  Whether you are asking them to change text, tone, tagging, ships, plot, you name it.  Anything.

Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat.

Don’t like, don’t read.  These are simple concepts, and the tagging system on AO3 helps you to avoid many triggers.  Simple common sense, once you're into a story that’s raising your hackles, will warn you away from the rest.  If you say, ‘no, this person can’t write that, it’s contributing to pain in the Real World’ then you are functioning as a censor.  I mean, at its most basic level, a censor is someone who strikes out passages in books or other media because it’s… immoral/bad/etc.  The problem is that morality is incredibly tailored to the group you’re in, and also incredibly fluid, shifting over time.  So… why do YOU get to be the censor and not the author?  What makes YOU the final word?  Seriously, think about it.

Fanfiction writers are the most vulnerable group you could target.

Which makes them easy prey, and possibly makes them the juiciest and most satisfying targets.  Address your anger to Hollywood or Simon & Schuster or Congress – and your voice will doubtless get lost in the shuffle.  Address it to an author on AO3 and you can deliver your blow personally, one on one, and witness the damage.  There is no professional buffer between your resentment and their reaction.

Who are fanfiction writers?  Overwhelmingly women, overwhelmingly queer, often very young and inexperienced.  Wow.  What a rewarding group to start slapping around.  You wouldn't be the only one to think so.  Seriously.  Aim your anger at someone who is STRONGER than you.  Not someone who is (likely) weaker than you.  You’re kicking a kitten, while a lion lounges behind you.

Censoring someone’s thoughts is bad.

People should be allowed to THINK.  And they can think whatever they want.  Whether and where and how it should be expressed is another matter.  AO3 is a safe place for whatever weird-ass thoughts you have.  It is expressly written into their mission statement.  AO3 was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED so that authors could have a place for their dead dove fics.

So.  Why is [your pet cause] okay on AO3 and not on a script in Hollywood?

AO3 requires membership before you can post anything, so it’s arguably private.  AO3 provides tools for readers to avoid works they might find triggering.  AO3 profits no one.  Follow the money, and there are your true culprits.  Not a housewife from Hoebokken.

Fanfiction writers make no money.  When they write, they are not lawmakers, filmmakers, teachers or preachers.  This is not their job.  They do not have a responsibility to the community, because they are vested with no power and no paycheck.  Please move your battlefield to one of these other venues.  Your fight will be harder, but it will also do a lot more good than traumatizing some naive  kid away from writing forever.

Fanfiction comprises an individual’s personal thoughts and personal works, written for their own enjoyment, shared only through AO3 to (presumably) like-minded readers.  Fanfics are a person’s fantasies and daydreams.  They might be an author’s therapeutic exercise.  Or someone trying to explore something new, whether it be cultures, ideas, sexualities or kinks.  Humans need a place where they can be wrong and make mistakes.  Think about that, I implore you.  If you are constantly pointing out someone’s errors, you may eventually either silence them forever, or instill in them permanent resentment.  This does not further your cause.

You have your personal cause.

I’ve seen a lot of them.  Incest is bad, you’re not allowed to write about it.  Pedophilia is bad, you’re not allowed to write about it.  Abusive relationships are bad, you’re not allowed to write about them.  Racism is bad, you’re not allowed to write about it.  Genderswap is transphobic, you’re not allowed to write about it.  A/B/O romanticizes damaging gender inequalities.  There are many.  If every single one of you got to stamp out your personal crusade, then fic would be scant on the ground and many people wouldn’t try to create anymore.  It’s stifling to creativity and terrifying to an author that they might slip up and be called out.  No one, as far as I know, likes to think of their fanfiction as something that will be turned in for a grade.

Your standards are your own.

What are the precise parameters of an abusive relationship?  Transphobia?  Racism?  Pedophilia?  Fetishism?  Where does dub-con become non-con?  No one is the mouthpiece for the whole world.  You are only the mouthpiece for yourself.

If you think to yourself that it’s not okay to tell someone they can’t write about, say, a gay relationship, but it IS okay to tell them they can’t write about a certain ship or dynamic (for Reasons), then maybe you should step back and check yourself and your entitlement to someone else’s endeavor.

In conclusion:

I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist in fanfiction.  Or creepy sexual abuse, or glorification of harmful dynamics.  It certainly does.  I’m not trying to play semantics with you.

But when you see these things, when they bother you... back right out.

That’s it.  Just back out, ignore it and find a different fic.  (Or better yet, write your own!)  Shower the fics you approve of with love and comments about why you think they’re great.  Give them kudos and bookmarks and shout-outs on your blog.  Eventually, if your opinion is popular, authors who thought otherwise will realize that readership is looking for something different.  They’ll change or they won’t, but the body of work will change over time, and THAT is what you’re looking to accomplish.  Not to stamp out fanfiction altogether.

[little-diable]

Fluff Alphabet - Jasper Hale

Request by anon: May I request a Jasper hale fluff alphabet please and thank you ☺️ 🥰💖

Took this from @pimaginecollection, enjoy my loves. xxx

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Jasper would take (y/n) on many trips, either on a hike, or even up to the mountains for a weekend. It honestly wouldn’t really matter to him, what they were up to, as long as he’d be able to spend some quality time with her, he’d be happy with snuggling her on the sofa, while they would be watching some old classic movies. 

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

I doubt, that there’d be anything Jasper wouldn’t find beautiful about (y/n), he’d think that she’d be beautiful inside and out.  

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Thanks to his gift, Jasper would know from the get go, if something was wrong with (y/n), she wouldn’t even have to voice it out, something she’d be very grateful for. Cuddles, cuddles, cuddles would be the name of the game, he’d wrap his arms around her, her head would be buried in the crook of his neck, while he’d tell her to take deep breaths. 

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

It would obvious to the both of them, that he’d turn her at one point, so that they’d be able to spend eternity side by side. Jasper would see themselves travel the world together, exploring new places and cultures, at one point he’d take her to Houston and show her where he grew up. 

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Major Jasper Whitlock. Don’t think we need to say anything else about this, do we? 

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

Fighting wouldn’t be a regular part of their daily lives, Jasper wouldn’t be one to lash out on her, he’d feel guilty as soon as he’d notice the way she’d turn her back on him, trying to swallow down the wave of sadness that was crashing upon her. They’d only fight, if Jasper or (y/n) would be worried about each other, too into their heads to think straight any longer.  

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Oh, Jasper would be the most grateful partner ever, he’d appreciate every little thing about her and the way she was caring for him, no matter how, no matter what, (y/n) would always have his back, something he’d never forget. 

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

No, absolutely no secrets. Jasper would value honesty, just like (y/n), there wouldn’t be a way to hide stuff from each other anyways, Edward wouldn’t be able to drown out their thoughts and would speak out at one point. 

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

She’d inspire him, to become a better version of him. To talk about his past, knowing all about the cruel things he did, trying to make him understand, that what he did was wrong and there was no way to forget about it. 

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

He wouldn’t get jealous, but he’d definitely get possessive relatively quickly, reminding her once again, who she belongs to. 

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Ohhh, let me tell you, Jasper would be an exceptionally good kisser. (Y/n) would be ‘addicted’ to his lips, trying to sneak in a good amount of kisses every hour. 

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

I’d say, it would be pretty obvious for Jasper from the start, that she was the one, after all he would have to realize the signs, that she would be his mate. He would take her on a few dates and would try and make her understand the concept of mates, it would probably take (y/n) a while to understand it. 

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Yes they definitely do, after all they belong to the Cullen clan, Alice would go all out for their wedding, just as big and wonderful as Bella and Edwards had been. He would take her on a trip, to one of her favorite spots, they would probably stargaze and Jasper would prepare a long monologue about the fact, that he won’t be able to survive, without her by his side. 

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Darlin’ 

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

He’d shower her with love and affection, maybe not so much in the public eye, but definitely behind closed doors or at home. They’d hold hand in school and share a few kisses, but as soon as they’d be on their own, it would be a different story. It would be pretty obvious to their friends and family, so there was no reason to hide their feelings anyways. 

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

Jasper wouldn’t be one to brag, of course he’d be proud to have her as his mate and wouldn’t have a problem with kissing her in front of other people, but he wouldn’t go all out in public. 

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

I mean he’s a vampire, he’s got a special gift, I think that helps a lot. 

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

He definitely would be creative, he’d think about date ideas, trying to surprise her with new stuff every time, he’d love to watch her eyes light up as she’d kiss him and thank him for taking her there. Jasper would be pretty romantic, he’d take his time in making her happy, he’d put his heart into making things work.  

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Oh yes, he’d be supportive, would have her back no matter what and help her through every decision. There wouldn’t be a thing he wouldn’t support, when it came to achieving her goals. 

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Oh Major Jasper Hale would definitely be up to try out new things. 

U nderstanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

This is pretty self explanatory, thanks to his gift. He’d know her like the back of his hand, would be able read her all the time and help her through her sometimes confusing thoughts. 

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

She’d be the most important thing to Jasper, he’d give up anything for her, they would be mates after all, something that goes way beyond a typical relationship. 

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

He’d always carry her favorite snacks with him, or at least bunk them in his car, if she’d ever feel down or cranky, he could at least take her mind off things, for a good few moments. 

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Yes, he’d be a soft boy behind closed doors, would love to cuddle her, he’d be the big spoon, kiss her all the time, just to feel the warmth, that would be taking over her body. 

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He’d try to avoid situations, where they’d be apart from each other for a long time, but if he’d be away for a few days, they’d talk on the phone every day, he’d snap her a few pictures and tell her how much he loves and appreciates her. 

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lenghts for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

There wouldn’t be anything he wouldn’t do for her, no matter what, Jasper would go through hell and back for her. He’d probably even leave his family behind, if he really had to, in order to save his mate. 

[multi-lefaiye]

Blorbo Blursday!

So. Alekto and Narkissos have Top Tier names. 10/10 i love them, i could vocal stim them, i could steal their names even /lh

In honor of that, have any spare content about them to talk about?

Happy Blorbo Blursday!!! :>

Thank you,,,,,,, Alekto and Narkissos are some of my favorites in the cast and I know I'm not subtle about that. I am glad you like them!!!! Especially their names <3

And YES I do have some spare content about them to talk about!! Namely, I can talk a little about some of my original plans, now that I've changed both of these characters a LOT from their OG concepts. Namely... Narkissos used to be a HUGE sack of shit. She still kind of is, but she's gotten better.

I won't go into all of the original ideas for Narkissos b/c honestly a lot of them make me 😬, but just know. Original Narkissos is not a character I would ever be interested in giving any form of redemption because I personally feel like she went too far. New Narkissos gets a redemption arc but also didn't do as Much bad in the first place as the Original Narkissos, so it's not as necessary.

I don't want to spoil All of my plans for this story, but I will share a couple of things under the cut that are from the original plans for Alekto and Narkissos and the relationship between them! Some memes, some concept art, and an excerpt or two from a Narkissos Essay I started writing and ended up abandoning <3

Okay so here's a sketch I did in like...... the Very Early Days Of CUDAAS when I'd just decided that Alekto would be a protagonist. Iwas listening to Backstabber by Kesha and it made me think of these two, so I whipped this up as fast as I could <3

Essentially the concept is that this would be the moment Alekto finds out Narkissos was the one who essentially ruined their life and caused them to go through an incredibly painful and traumatic experience, all because she was jealous </3

I'm not gonna go into too much detail 'cause I am still keeping some elements from the original storyline, but uhhh Alekto has a different reaction in the new version <3 And also I've since realized that the actual villains of this story are the gods (especially the Mountain King) so even though Narkissos Fucks Up Big Time, his motivations are different and ultimately it's a lot less about personal vengeance against Alekto.

Also this isn't what Narkissos looks like lmao, this was before I properly designed her <3

And here's a meme I made with tupperbot, based on a running joke I used to have with some friends about Hekate tormenting Narkissos via telepathy (since that is one of the only ways Hekate can communicate):

Was this planned to be an actual scene? Maybe.

Essentially Narkissos's original motivations centered a LOT around him being jealous of Alekto and Hekate and ultimately I decided I just... didn't like that. As fun as it was to joke about it, it didn't make Narkissos a very compelling character to me. I like him much better now as a complicated character struggling with the pressure and duty placed on him who eventually learns that he has worth as a person outside of what he can do for others and how good of a soldier he is for the gods <3

Anyway ok last thing I'll share is an excerpt from the Narkissos Essay I ended up abandoning, which was less of an essay and more a summary of early plans for the first book from Narkissos's POV. This is the scene I like to call "Narkissos gets her ass beat by Alekto and then goes 😳 about it"

I just realized this was very Narkissos centric whoops-

To make up for that, I will also share the first picrew I made of Alekto when I was first conceptualizing them <3 The skin tone is too light, but I still like this vibe for them otherwise. Might bring back,,, Alekto with a little stubble,,,, that's a Look

(Picrew Link: [here])

And actual last thing I will share. Misc. notes I made about what I think Alekto and Narkissos's voices sound like (I have notes for all the characters' voices, but since this is about these two <3 yeah):

[stxleslyds]

MY TOUGHTS ON PART ONE OF RED HOOD BY CHIP ZDARSKY :)

Finally I have read part one of the Red Hood story in Batman: Urban Legends!

This story is very interesting, we start with the Red Hood looking for the people who are providing Gotham with a new drug. This drug “Cheerdrops” has been passed around for weeks at this point and it has had devastating results among it's users. If you know Jason you understand that drugs are a big issue for him and one that he treats very carefully and seriously. 

As he interrogates people he arrives to the building where one of the dealers of this drug is supposed to be, there he finds a horrific scene, a boy is desperately trying to wake up his mother who appears to have overdosed in her bed. Jason is quick to call an ambulance and get in contact with Oracle in order to find the boy's father who is (as he finds out later) the man that he was looking for. 

Jason sees this scene and can't help but compare it to the time he went through this situation with his mom all those years ago, so he takes the boy with him so he can take him to his father, who Jason is hoping is a good man that had to sell drugs in order to help his family.

That's basically the premise of this first part of the story but now i will write about my thoughts on the specifics of the story.

The story begins with Jason giving a speech about fear and how it's used, 

"Fear. Its a tool, it's his tool. I never really adopted it, maybe because he kept that fear all to himself." Then he continues with "Never had to rely on it, had to work harder to take out the bad guys, had to be...more direct." he finishes that thought with "Rubber Bullets. So that fear doesn't get turned around on me."

I for one really liked this Fear speech, it does really sum up what the Batman does, he relies on the Fear that he imposes on Gotham's criminals and such while Robin on the other hand was never meant to work with fear, which is true.

It did remind me of the speech that Alfred gave in issue #10 of Under the Red Hood about how Batman works with fear and Jason had some thoughts on it, here is some of it, 

"Master Jason had a condescending practice of referring to the costumed criminals elements as 'dress ups'. He also noted that such individuals did not fear the Batman the way street thugs and mafioso did. The 'dress ups' did not believe he was a monster." "...the boy did say something to me that chilled me to the bone...even then. 'They all know he won't kill them.'"

Anyway let's go back to the actual comic I am talking about...

Jason speaks from his position as Red Hood in current time and says that he uses rubber bullets in order to keep the Bat at bay, the fear that the Bat uses against other criminals cannot be used against him if he plays within the Bat's rules.

As he was doing that he was actually trying to get info about who is making the drug but all he was able to get was who was selling it to the person he was interrogating. This drug is dangerous and Jason has to work fast. 

Here is where we see the first flashback scene, we see Jason in the cave before he was able to go out as Robin and he is not to happy about it. The art is very beautiful but sadly in these panels i found my first problem with the context of Jason becoming Robin and how Zdarsky seems to set Jason's feelings on the first Robin.

It seems that Zdarsky is going for the “Jason believed Dick was the perfect Robin and no matter what he did he would never be as good as him” route, which fine ok, that's your right but, is it really necessary? I must admit i am a little tired of this particular thing because i adore the fact that when Dick and Jason first met they were fine with one another (even if a little wary at the very start). And the whole competitive and “i will never be as good as X person” is really tiring in the Robin/Batfamily fandom.

That problem is not as significant as the next one though.

Jason not thinking that Robin was “badass”. Well this is not only a bad take but it's completely OOC for Jason, no matter how you see it. From his first appearance as Robin to the flashbacks in Winick's UtRH and even through both of Lobdell's runs Jason has always loved the concept and the mantle of Robin as a child. 

Batman v1, #385.

So that whole take is wrong, i don't like it and also who on this or any universe would rather call themselves Batboy? Honestly i hope this is never brought up again or i will cry. ((((Also in this house Robin will always be the name that Mary gave Dick and then he used as his hero name so it hurts a lot more))))

Also at the end of this first flashback Jason discovers a room full of firearms and is obviously surprised because Batman hates those so he asks why he has them, B responds that he has to understand how they work for his detective work, but that's not all he says, he also says this “...Guns are a coward's weapon, and we will not be cowards.”

Alright Mr. Zdarsky i see the irony... i also see the Daredevil / Punisher thingie right there.

Anyway we are now back to the present where we see Batman seeing the effects of the drug in one of its victims, after saving that person he takes some samples of the drug. We also get to see two police officers with different views on the “masks”, that's a nice way to set the story after the Joker War and before the Magistrate. 

Back to Jason, he seems to be struggling, he can't find the people making/providing the drugs in Gotham and is also doubting his skills, he tells a man that if the information that he gave him is incorrect he “will find him” followed with another internal speech full of self doubt, “...sure thing Red Hood, right now you can't even find a street drug. Half of Gotham's teenagers could find it no problem. You never were the best detective.”

Alright, so Jason feels insecure about his skills now? First you have pre-Robin Jason not feeling like he could be able to keep up with the first Robin and now, Jason as a grown man has doubts about the skills that he has used for a long while now? I mean, press X for DOUBT because UtRH showed us how much of a badass and extremely skilled he is. This man planed everything in order to turn the Bat's world upside down (and this story has references to UtRH so it definitely happened) and now he feels like he is not that good? 

Shit. i know where this is going, first the insecurities that he has already worked out... I can see it coming, the next big thing will be Daddy issues. Wonderful i hate it and i hope i am wrong because those “issues” are more than resolved, i know that's the only trope DC throws at Jason but honestly how different will it be this time?

Fine, lets move on. Jason finds himself in one of the apartments and what he sees is horrifying. Lying on a bed there is a woman completely catatonic with a horrible smile on her face and right next to her a terrified little boy.

Here is the best take on Jason's character so far. 

Realizing that the child is scared of the situation and the masked man that just came into his home Jason takes off his mask and reassures the kid that he is there to help, it's quickly made obvious that the woman has overdosed on Cheerdrops, he makes sure to call an ambulance for her stating that she seems to be in a  drug-related coma.

Its important to note that Jason is doing this as he is having troubling thoughts about how much this scene reminds him of the time he was in this little boy's (Tyler) shoes. Its hard for him but he soon realizes that he needs to make sure Tyler is safe. 

He asks Tyler if he has another parent, he does and his name is Andy, after taking a look around the house Jason deduces that maybe the father is also taking drugs so if the police comes they will surely take Tyler and put him in the system, this idea is not one Jason is fond of so he calls Oracle, he asks if she can locate Tyler's dad's phone, when she asks about the kid Jason says that he will be the one keeping him safe.

Now we find ourselves back with Batman where he is investigating the components of Cheerdrops, he finds out that the drug is a modified version of Scarecrow's fear gas that gives the victim a sense of extreme happiness instead of fear.

Here we get confirmation of when in the timeline this story occurs, which is after the events of Infinite Frontier (where there was an attack on Arkham and many patients/prisoners were killed or escaped).

B suggests to Oracle that maybe Crane didn't die there and that he might be behind this drug, he will be on the job right away! To this Oracle is like well shit, so she tells B that Jason is also working this case...and here comes a funny yet confusing interaction. 

Barbara says “I know you two aren't exactly friends right now but...” before she finishes Batman interrupts her by saying “He is a killer Barbara. I will do this alone.”

OH BOY is this interaction confusing! First of all may i point out how different this conversation is from the one in Three Jokers where the roles were basically reversed??? Please tell me that i am not the only one who finds that funny! Anyway that story doesn't matter here, but Red Hood Outlaw from Rebirth does, right?

Here is the thing, the last person that Jason “killed” in rebirth was Penguin and he actually didn't do it, he had him trapped in a panic room in his own Casino. Batman already beat the living shit out of Jason in RHatO #25 for it...and some time has passed, B surely found out that Jason didn't kill Penguin by now, i mean isn't he like the best detective to ever detective in the history of the universe??

Not only that but Jason has been using rubber bullets for a while and even at the start he mentions that, he basically implies that he is playing by the Bat's rules to keep him off his back. Maybe B hasn't let go of the duffel bag full of heads or any of the shitty people Jason killed during UtRH??? If B still holds that against Jason then why would he try to make Jason part of his Bat clan at the beginning of RHatO Rebirth? 

Maybe he still thinks that Jason killed the penguin...but even then isn't B working with Harley and Ghost-Maker? You know, people who have killed? Why is Jason different? Did Jason kill someone recently that we don't know about? Jason only kills a very distinct set of people (that are very not nice) so i guess i don't see the logic...

Anyway second flashback, and this time we have a look at what was going on in the Batcave with B and Alfred during the events of UtRH! Nothing that wasn't explored in UtRH is said here but we do see Alfred explicitly telling Bruce how much they failed Jason. There is a heavy insinuation that the fact that Batman keeps sending the Joker to Arkham only for him to escape and kill more people actually makes B responsible for those deaths and i love that. Thank you. 

Back to Jason and Tyler we get to see some very adorable scenes between the two. Jason gives the lower half of his mask to Tyler to protect his identity like a superhero and we have a really sweet moment in which Tyler chooses the Blue Hood as his name because he likes the colour blue (same Tyler).

After he leaves Tyler in a place where he will be safe he goes to the building where Andy should be and let me tell you the more Jason sees the less hopeful he becomes about Andy being just one of the people selling the drug... He does some shooting and incapacitating and then follows the man that is trying to escape and here is when shit hits the fan. 

Andy is a disgusting human being. He hates Tyler's mother and doesn't care that she might be dead and the piece of shit hates his son so much that he gave a barely 10 year old drugs. 

Yeah. BANG BANG BANG MOTHERFUKER. 

If you think that this leads to Jason being a little more like his UtRH self, you know the guy that said that people who gave drugs to kids will get killed without a thought...yeah that's not happening, here comes the guilt!

I get it he just killed a man, but, did you read what that man said?

Anyway that's how the first part of this story ends. 

The story is good. it has things that don't make much sense but i think it's because Zdarsky is a Batman fan and not a Red Hood fan in the sense that he doesnt know much about Jason's character and that this is his first ever DC work.

I cant wait to see where this story goes, while i hope “unresolved daddy issues” doesn't become a theme yet again in a Red Hood story i believe it's where we are headed. I will keep on reading because i am invested in Jason and Tyler's relationship and what is going to happen now that Jason killed Andy.

Let me know what you thought about the issue and my post if you want! Bye!

[cloudybarnes]

Fluff Alphabet | S.R

Fluffy concepts for y/n and Spencer Reid! Not my idea so credits to who came up with it, sorry I don’t know for sure :(

Masterlist

***

A = Attractive

(what do they find attractive about the other?)

Y/n definitely finds Spencer’s smarts really attractive. She’s always so entranced by how much he knows, and how passionate he gets about what he’s talking about. She likes hearing him talk about everything from the amounts of corn kettles on the average cob, to how many boats are on Lake Mead. Beside his smarts, Y/n loves his nose. She thinks he has the cutest, most boopable nose. 

Spencer can’t decide what he finds most attractive about Y/n. He really likes your confidence. He thinks it’s really attractive that you are so undeniably yourself. He also loves your lips. He often finds himself staring at them, so entranced by how they move when you speak. He also can’t get enough when he kisses them. 

B = Baby

(do they want a baby? why or why not?)

Spencer definitely wants a baby or even multiple. Spencer loves being with kids, and the thought of having his own with you just warms his heart so much. He would love to be able to see a little mixture of the two of you that represents your love for one another. 

Y/n also would love kids, but only with Spencer. She never really wanted to have children before she met him, but the sight of Spencer with JJ’s children and her other friends’ kids just makes her melt. She loves seeing Spencer playing with them and making them laugh, and she would love to see that every day with their own children. 

C = Cuddle

(how do they cuddle?)

Spencer a Y/n are huge cuddlers. Most times Spencer is big spoon because he loves to hold her in his arms. He likes the feeling of being her protector, and just holding onto her. Other times they face each other while they cuddle. It’s like they’re hugging while laying down. Y/n likes to face Spencer because she likes resting her head on Spencer’s chest and listening to his heart beat.

D = Dates

(what are dates with them like?)

Dates between Spencer and Y/n are always fun. They both are more stay-at-home people, so they just like to spend time with each other. Dates often entail cooking a meal together, reading to each other, and just spending quality time together. If the do decide to go out, it would be some place quiet with not a lot of people. 

E = Everything

(”you are my ____” ex. my life, my world...)

You are my best friend. Spencer and Y/n had been best friends for years before they decided to start dating. Y/n had started to develop feelings for Spencer, and once you knew you were falling for him, you were done for. Everything you loved about his as your best friend just magnified when you developed feelings for him. 

F = Feelings

(when did they know they were falling in love?)

Spencer knew he had feelings for Y/n ever since he met her. They were best friends, and he just couldn’t help but fall for her. The first time he really knew was when he was running late for work. At the time, they had only been friends for about a year. Spencer was stressed out and had forgotten to pack a lunch for himself. On his lunch break, he called Y/n as he usually did, and let her know he had forgot his lunch when she questioned what he brought that day. When they hung up, Y/n surprised his by bringing his favorite Thai food takeout. From that simple gesture, Spencer knew he felt something special for her.

Y/n hadn’t known about her feelings for Spencer until a while after their friendship had started. Just one day out of the blue, she found herself watching his as he spoke, completely entranced by what he was saying. She was amazed by him, and captivated by the way his lips moved as he spoke. From then on, she couldn’t stop staring at him. She started to notice how attractive Spencer was. Soon, she was completely smitten with him. 

G = Gentle

(are they gentle? if so, how?)

The two of them are so gentle when they’re together. They love soft touches, and gentle kisses. Spencer is always so gentle with Y/n. He acts likes she’s a fragile piece of glass that needs to be held with care. With anyone else, Y/n wouldn’t like being treated that way, but because it’s Spencer, it’s just endearing to her. She, as well, loves to be gentle with Spence. She likes to massage his face and just leaves soft kisses all over him.

H = Hand/Hold

(how do they like to hold? how do they like to hold hands?)

Spencer and Y/n love holding hands; they just love touching in general. If they aren’t holding hands, they’re interlocking pinkies, or their arms are brushed against one another. They just like to be sure that they are near one another. They like to have that physical touch to connect them at all times. 

I = Impression 

(first impressions)

Spencer’s first impression of Y/n was that she was undeniably beautiful, and that he really wanted to get to know her. She was sitting along in the coffee shop, reading a book that Spencer had read several times over. He was excited to see someone reading it as it wasn’t a very popular selection. Naturally, he was drawn over to her. Once he heard her talk, it was over. She had such a way with words, and a way of explaining her thoughts that really made him want to get to know her more.

Y/n was definitely a bit skeptical when she first met him. She thought it was a weird style of flirting to talk so passionately about the book and his thoughts on it. Once she started to get a better feel for him, she realized he wasn’t flirting, and just being friendly. She would soon find out how awkward and bad at flirting he was down the line.

J = Joker

(are they into pulling pranks?)

They aren’t too much into pulling pranks on one another, but occasionally they have small prank wars. They’re never extreme though, it’s always very small pranks like hiding the remote when one of them wants to change the channel, or Spencer changing Y/n’s ringtone to be him singing to her. 

K = Kisses

(how do they kiss?)

Y/n and Spencer love to kiss one another. Y/n loves to pepper small, short kisses onto Spencer’s face to make him laugh all the time. Beside cute, little kisses, Spencer and Y/n just get lost. They often find themselves lost in one another when they kiss. They often get so out of breath after they kiss because of how wrapped up they get in it. Kiss are always steamy and heavy between the two of them, showing exactly how much they love each other. 

L = Love

(who said I love you first?)

Spencer was the one who said he loved her first. Ever since their first meet in the coffee shop, ever since he forgot his lunch and knew he loved her, he was sure. While Y/n was the one to initiate them dating, Spencer’s feelings had grown so strong, he couldn’t stop himself from just blurting it out. 

It wasn’t even planned, it wasn’t something cute or romantic. Spencer and y/n were cuddling in bed trying to fall asleep when it happened. Y/n was laying on Spencer’s chest, just listening to his heart beat and breathing in his scent. Spencer ran his fingers through Y/n’s hair, a contempt smile on his face. Before he could even think, he confessed his love for her. Once it happened, the hand running through Y/n’s hair froze, and his heart sped up. Y/n lifted her head from Spencer’s chest, grinning, and whispered those three words in return.

M = Memory

(their favorite moment together)

Spencer’s favorite memory of the two of them was when he was coming back from a case. It had been a long one with the team gone for a week and a half. Spencer was drained, and his body was sore. At two in the morning, Y/n was still sat up on the couch waiting for his return. Once he set his eyes on her, he noticed what she had around. Y/n was sat with some candles burning for a soft light, some oil sat out, and his favorite DVD waiting in the player for them. Spencer had ranted to Y/n a few hours before about how sore this case made him and how draining it was. It was a very pleasant surprise when Y/n was waiting to give him a massage and put on his favorite movie. 

Y/n’s favorite memory of them was really any time Spencer gets flustered around her. Even though they’ve spent such a long time together and are super comfortable together, Y/n still loves those rare occasions where she can make Spencer flustered like when they first started getting to know each other. Y/n thinks it’s so adorable when Spencer get all blushy and starts lightly stuttering. She thinks it’s endearing how he still gets flustered and entranced by her. 

N = Nickel

(do they spoil? do they buy the person they love everything?)

Y/n spoils Spencer so much. She’s always surprising him with new books, new clothes, random things he points out at stores, and so much more. Y/n loves to give to her lover, so buying things that she knows will make him smile is one way she shows him her love. Sometimes Spencer likes to return the favor. He’ll treat her to her favorite dinner, buy her new jewelry, but it’s mainly Y/n who loves to spoil him.

O = Orange

(what color reminds them of their other half?)

Y/n thinks Spencer is like the color yellow. She thinks he’s yellow because of how happy he makes her. He’s like the sun to her day, and the person that makes her the happiest. 

Spencer thinks Y/n is like the color pink. He thinks she is pink because of how bubbly and happy she is all the time. She’s always there to cheer him up when he’s upset, and she always has a positive outlook on everything. Spencer is so lucky to have someone so optimistic to spend his time with. 

P = Pet Names

(what pet names do they use?)

Y/n’s has multiple pet names for Spencer. She calls him baby, which is pretty common. She’s also taken up pretty boy from Derek, and similarly, she calls him handsome. 

Spencer’s favorite nickname for Y/n is just baby. He likes calling her baby because, well, she is his baby. Spencer thinks the nickname fits for her because of how soft and gentle she is, especially with him. 

Q = Questions

(what are the questions they’re always asking?)

They’re always asking really wholesome questions. “How can I help you?” “You know I love you, right?” “Are you sure you love me more than squiggles?” (their cat) “Why did you eat my bagel?” 

R = Rainy Day

(what do they like to do on a rainy day?)

On rainy days, they like to stay inside. They like to curl up by the heater or the fireplace, and cuddle. Rainy days are good for cuddles and sleep, at least that’s what Y/n and Spencer believe. They like to just spend the day relaxing, cuddling, reading together, and sleeping. 

S = Sad

(how do they cheer themselves/each other up?)

When either one of them is sad, the other one can always cheer them up. Spencer can always cheer Y/n up just by giving her attention and love. When she’s sad, he knows to just be quiet and hold her. The warm hold of her boyfriend is just what she needs. In his arms, she instantly feels more relaxed and less upset. 

When Spencer is upset, Y/n can’t just wait for him to talk to her because he never will. Spencer likes to bottle up his feelings and brush them off like they’re nothing. Y/n knows to sit him down with some warm tea, get him all comfy and be there for him. She reassures him that his feelings are valid, and gets him to talk out what’s been bothering him. Releasing his emotions to his loving girlfriend is just what he needs in times of sadness. 

T = Talking

(what do they love to talk about?)

Spencer and Y/n talk about anything and everything. They talk about planning dates, they talk about starting a family together, how many children they would want, they reminisce on and memories together, talk about Spencer’s line of work, and everything else under the sun. 

U = Unencumbered

(what helps them relax?)

Y/n loves bubble baths; especially if they’re with Spencer. She likes to sit in the bath, back to his front, as he washes her hair. It’s something so relaxing to her: the feeling of his fingers massaging her scalp. Soft, gentle kisses pressed into her neck and shoulders help her relax even more. 

What relaxes Spencer is reading. Sitting down by the heater or fireplace with Y/n curled into his side is where he will always want to be. He loves to have a good book in his hands and his girl right up against him. It’s so relaxing, and always puts him in a better mood. 

V = Vaunt

(what do they like to show off? what are they proud of?)

Y/n shows off Spencer. She loves to tell people all about how smart he is, how brave he his, delving into his job. She’s so incredibly proud of him and everything he’s accomplished, so she can’t help but show him off. Every time Spencer goes on his information tangents, Y/n is so fascinated by him. She’s thinks it’s incredible how brilliant he is, and how lucky she is to be the one to witness it. 

Spencer, shockingly, also likes to show off Y/n. He thinks she is the most beautiful girl in the world, and loves to show her off to people. Not just for her looks, but when people meet her, they instantly see how sweet she is. Spencer loves how kind and compassionate she is, and he wants everyone else to witness that as well. 

W = Wedding

(when, how, where do they propose?)

Spencer has been planning on proposing for a long time. He wants it to be some place that holds a lot of meaning to them. His proposal spot is the cafe they met at. After their meet, it kind of became their spot. Every morning when they could, they’d go to that same cafe. That’s why Spencer thought it would be the perfect place. 

They could go early morning like they usually do, when barely anyone was there. Spencer would place it on top of her favorite cupcake, one that she would order every time they got there. Once she sees the engagement ring sitting on top of the cupcake’s frosting, she’ll start tearing up. In the midst of her tears, Spence will give a short speech of how much he loves her and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She’ll say yes, and they’ll have a beautiful Autumn wedding. 

X = Xylophone

(what’s their song?)

Their song, as lame and cheesy as it sounds, is Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis. It was one of Y/n’s favorite songs growing up, and when she showed it to Spencer, it instantly reminded him of himself and Y/n. From then on, they would always play it gently in the background while they read together, while they cooked, while they cleaned, anytime. It would also be the first song playing at their wedding. 

Y = You’re the ___ to my ___

(ex, the cookies to my milk, the macaroni to my cheese)

You’re the Harry to my One Direction. Obviously, when Y/n tried to tell Spencer this, he had no clue what she was talking about. Y/n tried explaining it was a member of a boyband she liked, but he wasn’t really following. 

Spencer would say she’s the sun to his Earth. She’s the one person that he is so dependent on. He loves her so much, his world basically revolves around her (as cheesy as that sounds). 

Z = Zebra

(if they wanted a pet, what pet would they get?)

Since they already have a cat together, Squiggles, I think they would definitely want another cat. They think cats are lower maintenance, especially with how Spencer’s schedule is. They’re both cat people over dog people, so another cat would be the ideal for the two of them.  

[ljf613]

Colonization & Imperialism in ATLA

One of the things I’ve noticed in fandom complaints about the ATLA comics-- namely, “The Promise”-- and subsequently, LOK’s worldbuilding, is the way the narrative handles colonization. 

I see a lot about how what the Earth Kingdom chose to do with the former colonies is “none of Zuko’s (or Aang’s) business.” (I also see people talking about how Katara would never support colonialism, in any shape or form, no matter the circumstances.) 

And I just.... don’t vibe with those ideas? At all? 

Like, I definitely have problems with the comics-- especially “The Promise,” where all the drama centers around Miscommunications of Epic Proportions and could have been resolved in Part One if all the characters just sat down and listened to each other (not to mention that Aang would never have agreed to make that promise, nor would Zuko have asked it of him (Sokka would be a more obvious choice, but that’s a different discussion))-- but I never had any issues with their worldbuilding. 

I love the idea of Yu Dao, and the fact that the narrative acknowledges that a new kind of world has new kinds of problems. It makes sense to me that we can’t always just “give back the land we took.” And I found the idea of the end solution being  “give the people who live there their own country” really cool and empowering. 

So I want to talk about why I feel this way. About what kind of real-world parallels can be made here. About some little-known bits of world-history that compare. 

(Please note that for this meta I am only going to be discussing the relationship between Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. As far as I am aware-- and I could be wrong-- there is no real-world genocide quite comparible to what Sozin did to the Air Nomads, and most of the people alive in ATLA were not actually around for or involved in that. And the relationship the Fire Nation has with the Water Tribes-- and that the North and South have with each other-- is worth a whole separate analysis, and doesn’t deserve to just be shoved into this one.)

(Disclaimer: While this is in response to some of the interpretations I’ve seen on this site, it is not meant to discount or invalidate those fans’ views-- I’m just trying to show my take on it. I am a firm believer in the power of active discourse, and the value of looking at the same scenes through different lenses, rather than just getting one opinion and accepting it as Absolute Truth.) 

The main thing I notice in general ATLA discourse-- and not just on this topic, but in any sort of meta about the Fire Nation, colonization, and global impact-- is that the fandom mostly compares the war and its after-affects to real-world Imperialism, the Age of Imperialism, New Imperialism, and Colonization. 

And I understand why that is. In the grand scheme of world history, that era is still fairly recent, and we are still dealing with the afteraffects from it. It has shaped the Western World’s worldview on every level. (Not to mention that the Euro-centric way we’re taught history means that this piece of world history is the one we’re most exposed to, and so have the most understanding of and room to analyze/criticize.) 

However, there are a few issues with sticking only to this perspective. 

First off, the Age of Imperialism was a direct response to the Age of Exploration. This was the period of time when white Europeans sailed around the world acting as though they were discovering new places and pretending that there weren’t already existing civilizations there. 

[ID: Two dots meme, edited so that Guy A says “i’ve discovered a NEW WORLD,” Guy B replies “you didn’t discover ****,” and Guy A insists “i’ve discovered it” / End ID.] 

Now, I’ve mentioned this in passing, but the world of ATLA doesn’t appear to have had an Age of Exploration. There’s no vast “undiscovered” land masses, the four nations have always known about each other, and they all have a shared language. 

The whole foundation for the Age of Imperialism was “oh, look, there are all these ‘unexplored’ lands with resources ripe for the picking (who cares about the indigenous people, they’re just simplistic savages who don’t know what’s best for them), let’s see which European country can grab the most land first.” 

This was a race. This was sudden. This was Europeans coming in and taking over while viewing the natives as bothersome pests. This was about multiple major world powers competing over resources. 

This was not 100 years of active warfare between a single conquering country and the very people they were trying to conquer. 

The parallels don’t hold up. 

Secondly, by focussing only on this one kind of historical narrative, we ignore any others. 

I will admit that I have used the word “imperialism” in reference to the Fire Nation a time or two. However, upon further reflection, I realize I didn’t really mean imperialism, which is actually a fairly modern concept. What I feel the Fire Nation is really an example of is centralism and expansionism-- two ideaologies that have been a way of life for conquering empires throughout history. 

(I am in no way qualified to explain the differences between these concepts-- I recommend doing your own research if you’re curious.) 

The Persian Empire. The Greek Empire. The Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire. The Mongolian Empire. The Russian Empire. The First French Empire. 

You could take any of these (or numerous others) and make an interesting analysis between the similarities and differences between their behaviors and that of the Fire Nation. And maybe I’ll do that someday. 

However, I started this to talk about Yu Dao and all of the other so-called colonies (I really feel like territories would be a better word, but, again, that’s a whole ’nother discussion), and I’d like to focus on that. 

FYI, here’s a basic history refresher: If two countries are at war, and then they decide to end the war, neither country is required to return captured territories. They can make a treaty and agree to do so, but there is no obligation to. The Fire Nation didn’t just march in and say, “this is our land now”-- they fought for it. They captured that land. Just because the war is over doesn’t mean they need to just give it back. 

Like it or not, that is the way the world operated for thousands of years, and so that is the interpretation I’m working with here. 

In any case, “The Promise” actually presents this as a three-way conversation. There’s Zuko (and, by default, the Fire Nation), Kuei (and, by default, Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom), and the people of Yu Dao themselves. 

(My understanding of the Earth Kingdom’s style of government is that it’s made up of a large collection of different ethno-cultural regions who all answer to Ba Sing Se.) 

I’ll let Sokka explain it: 

[ID: Comic panel from Part Three of “The Promise.” Sokka and Katara are talking, both in obvious states of agitation, while Suki and Toph are looking at something in the background. Sokka is saying, “Let me see if I got this. The protestors and the Earth Kingdom Army want the colonials to go, the Fire Nation Army wants the colonials to stay, and the Yu Dao Resistance just want their city to be left alone?” Katara responds, “Yes!” / End ID.] 

The people of Yu Dao don’t care about the war. They don’t even really care who’s in charge. They just want to be left alone. 

This speaks to me on a very personal level, so I’m going to make another real-world comparison here: 

My ancestors first came to America to escape from the poverty and opression they were experiencing in a place known as “White Russia”-- that is, Belarus. To be clear, I am not talking about the country “Belarus,” but the region, which includes the modern-day countries of Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Moldova, as well as parts of Poland and Russia. 

I looked up White Russia, trying to find out how much information someone who didn’t grow up hearing stories about what it was like (that is, most of the people reading this,) might have. I didn’t find much. Most of what I found talked about political ideologies and such-- things that your average poor peasant, struggling just eke out a living, didn’t have much energy to care about. So let me paint a(n oversimplified) picture for you. 

Imagine you’re a poor shoemaker in a small town on the Russian border. You spend your days hard at work, trying to earn a living to support your wife and nine children. You’ve never left the town you were born in. One day you get the news: Russia and Poland are fighting again. Your two oldest sons (ages 15 and 17) are forcibly drafted off to fight in the Russian army; you never see them again and have no way of knowing if they’re dead or alive (they’re probably dead). Poland wins-- this time. Congratulations, your town is now part of Poland. 

Does suddenly being Polish make a difference to your life? Not in the slightest. Two or three years down the line, you’ll go back to being part of Russia again. This is the third or fourth time you’ve seen your town switch hands, and you can’t say you prefer one government over the other. It doesn’t really matter who’s in charge-- you’re still faced with crippling taxes, forced drafts, and various other forms of oppression. (It doesn’t help that you happen to be part of a persecuted minority.) 

(This is why I have many ancestors who may never have left the town they were born in, and yet records show that they were born in one country, got married in another, and died in a third.) 

This is the kind of worldview through which I am looking at Yu Dao. (Obviously, it’s not an exact parallel, but neither is the standard “colonizers vs oppressed natives” lens.) 

My ancestors eventually got fed up with the treatment they were receiving from their respective governments, and left to build a new life, in a new place. But the citizens of Yu Dao don’t have anywhere to go. The only two real world powers in this story are the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom, neither of which has ever before expressed any true interest or concern in the actual people of Yu Dao. 

The Earth Kingdom didn’t really care about the city before the war-- they were just another poor, struggling town, whose citizens were barely able to make ends meet. And while the Fire Nation may have helped the place grow into a bustling town, they also established a hierarchy that did not serve in the citizens’ best interests. 

And so, in “The Promise,” these citizens’ frustrations come to a head. “Enough,” they say, “we don’t want to be used as a pawn in your games anymore.” 

And Zuko and Kuei (and Aang) actually listen. They say “we need to start thinking about these people as people, not as symbols of one side or the other. It’s time to give them a say in their future.” 

And a new country-- a new way of life-- is born. 

(Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it is constantly evolving and changing, trying to do better, be better. And that’s more than you can say about most of the other countries in this world.)