#i love this edgelord rabbit so much

[monsterwithasweater]

I still love you Cherubimon

[saintsenara]

as part of my attempt to get attention on the internet, @celestemagnoliathewriter sent a lovely message about bookbinding, which tumblr decided to eat.

that actually seems apt, i suppose, for my best girl myrtle elizabeth riddle (née warren). after all, she starts the story being mercilessly teased by olive hornby and her gang of villains; she feels awkward, disjointed, and unlovable; nothing ever seems to go right for her; and she'd just like to be noticed and liked for who she is.

and she gets all of these things, teaching us all a crucial life-lesson in the process: no matter how annoying you are you can still finesse yourself into being anyone's dream girl.

yes. even a sinister teen edgelord who spends his evenings killing roosters and coming up with anagrams of his own name, who aspires to rip his soul into shreds and become a dictator, who hates your parents and everything they stand for until he accidentally becomes your dad's biggest fanboy. turns out all he needed was a firm hand (behave) and a chocolate frog or two.

i think this may well be the thing i've enjoyed writing the most. certainly, i was chuckling self-indulgently at a lot of it - the rabbit! the sugar mice! slughorn's party! - but i also liked that so much of it - the cave! myrtle's journey to body neutrality! dumbledore! - ended up being so straightforwardly hopeful. for a series which prides itself on the value of choice, so much about the arc of harry potter canon feels inevitable - and the direction tom riddle's life takes is one of those things.

this, with its emphasis on the transformative power of chance encounters, of love and luck and longing, of tiny kindnesses takes a different view. and, as the comments have told me, the little flickers of a changed world we get as a result have reduced more than one reader to tears.

myrtle would, i have to say, approve.

[sanchoyo]

i promise i will read the manga!! but um. well. now i’m just so curious i gotta know. just how blorbo can cara go. i wanna take a graceful step backwards and head-first into the rabbit hole. please i gotta know

- saguaro anon pt 2

(i promise it’s me again i swearzit. not that it isn’t easy to lie of course i just think that’d be the funniest thing in the world. there can only be ONE saguaro liker everyone pass the original anon message around the circle if you’d like a turn with the saguaro anon.)

(speaking of i’m chewing on the art of them. i love them so bad they make me wanna draw swords. obsessed also with the dichotomy of physical/spiritual prowess that contradicts a more common “pacifist priest” archetype through swords. still a very graceful way to slay but between that strength/faith dichotomy and their dichotomy with the queen’s science... it’s so evocative of a righteous paladin. but they are also so eepy.)

not u sending this right after I sent a friend a 10000+ word essay to a friend on discord abt cara. pls. the timing is incredible im bouncing cara around in my brain…

SAGUARO ANON!!! HI!!! (wait thats cute. naming urself as an enjoyer of them. my heart will explode fr thank u sm for enjoying my ocs ;_; u are the champion liker of them….this is ur burden to bear)

I mean, don't feel obligated to read the manga/watch the show(s)(either of them! still so happy we got a reboot 20 years after the original…) its just. would fill on context for Some Things (also is a gateway into magical girls if ur not already into them) and I always take a chance to rec it. but..I do try to make things understandable w/out it? I hope?

Cara…im trying to think of what I can say publicly abt her without spoiling her whole story. (I plan to probably make it a novel-sized fanfic and...with 2-3 illus per chapter…it works better as a comic, but the energy to do it + how little reception I got when I tried it…TwT </3) this got. erm. long. so under the cut? I dont THINK anything is TOO spoilery, but if anyone wants to wait until the story is actually being written, maybe skip this one :3c

ok so. my sweet caroline (ba ba ba) 'cara' testout-seebauer, (god what a good name)...… she's like. my wildcard character. full of surprises. full of anxiety. as someone who is also full of anxiety I can say sometimes getting too anxious makes people lash out, seem irritable. get this girl some noise-cancelling headphones tbh. she's also quiet, which, people around her misinterpret as 'oh shes brooding and mysterious' but she's 15. she's the Most 15 Year Old, and all that entails.

She, uh…let me just say she is about as aware as magical girl tropes as Mira is. she makes a point to declare herself as the 'dark magical girl rival' to Mira's heroine persona. which is totally a Normal Thing for anyone with Normal Motivations to say, obviously. (mira aggressively turns a blind eye to how absolutely weird that is because it fits with what she also wants, but other characters are even like, hey thats..questionable? why is a human working with the Aliens Who Want All Humans Dead?? you might ASSUME tragic backstory, but I Love Subverting Expectations. she has a pretty good family life!) she's not as much as an edgelord as this type of character should be in theory, but she IS dramatic 🤔

she's actually somewhat naive and makes the worlds most questionable judgement calls and has the worst sense of who to trust. she's a nerd. she speaks like 4 languages because she was moved around a lot up until she was about 13 and has lived in a handful of countries (if you ask her, she'd say shes american bc thats where shes lived the longest, but her dad is half british half japanese raised in japan and left when he was 18 for america, and her mother is afro-latina american. she strongly takes after her mom in looks but got her dads hair texture :> )

it's a running gag that she knows how to do an improbable amount of things and she always brushes this off her parents were very indulgent and she had a hard time sticking to anything. why does she know origami and karate and how to make balloon animals and ballet and sword fighting and art?? oh but she can only do the very basics of any of the various things, she's not like, outstanding at very many things admittedly and cannot commit to anything. she has...approximate knowledge of many things...It must be said, for the majority of the alien ocs I have...shes the first human theyve met. so u can imagine this gives them very skewed idea of how many things humans can do...

a lot of the characters n plots in tm2 are things I think were tragically underused and under-explored in tmm. in particular the things about her that I draw from are largely things from tokyo mew mew a la mode. (which as of now is free to read on archive.org and is only two volumes!! its the sequel to tmm ^_^...) anyway regarding that...there's a hint in her full name no one as picked up on yet and I shant say more on that. (...do people not pick up on certain naming schemes in tmm aside from the girls having food names? I dont know. this is one of those 'would only pick up on it if ur familiar w tmm things but! I dont even think ppl who HAVE read it have noticed yet.. tbf I only revealed her full name last year I think!)

all of the girls have symbolism with the animal dna they're infused with. cara's a snake. which is such a double sided thing. a lot of people are scared of snakes, lots of imagery of being two-faced or deceitful BUT also, like, 'transformations/rebirth' (shedding of the snake skin) and the caduceus!!! (hermes association, loosely :)) fun. her weapon being a shield + gramophone combo thing now reflects a lot about her too :)

shes SHORT. shes freckled. she cuts her own hair. shes objectively just really funny in a messed up way because everything is extreme when ur 15, its seriously so. just. shes so so so dramatic and gay, my god. its painful to watch. its painful to WRITE. rancid at just COMMUNICATING. she doesnt necessarily even want to be a magical girl its rotten work but my god she'll do it she DOES like the genre but she is so so scared and would probably rather NOT be doing more than like, cosplay. fighting things or people = scary. anxiety is real. but here she is! for some ungodly reason! eeey exposure therapy amiright fellow anxiety sufferers. queen put her and sapote together because sapote was the only alien whod volunteer to get infused and become a mew mew lol sapote is outgoing and queen figured this would offset cara's...*vaguely gestures* everything pretty well. and that sapote would be able to sus out anything cara might be hiding. queen knows sapote's smarter than expected and trusts her a lot cara and sapote are SUCH a funny duo 😭

cara is like. she has problems. and instead of solving them in any rational way she ends up creating 15 more severe problems about it. pitiful little meow meow mew mew

also I'm glad u enjoyed the lil doodle of them, had to toss them in after ur nice message :) (+I will take any excuse to draw or talk abt my ocs r u kidding. i love them)

replying to the very last bit of ur message abt our friend saguaro: WAAAA THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY THAT THEY MAKE U WANNA DRAW SWORDS!! (do it. swords are fun to draw) u hit the nail on the head with: 'the dichotomy of physical/spiritual prowess that contradicts a more common “pacifist priest” archetype through swords. still a very graceful way to slay but between that strength/faith dichotomy and their dichotomy with the queen’s science… it’s so evocative of a righteous paladin.' the. understanding. the analysis. u are so correct. holding ur hand about this. thank u. thank u.

since u arent a tmm watcher/reader. I have to tell you. deep blue, their god? is the main final bad guy in tmm. we have SO SO SO little info about him. I had to make up so many stupid little headcanons surrounding him + the religion and what would possibly happen post-canon. which is only vaguely tangentially related but I have Many Thoughts. he uses a sword, so of course saguaro would Want To as well! and as far as 'gods' go, deep blue is. hm. a violent one. saguaro is incredibly nice! but is still a devout cult member follower of a violent god who they WILL spill blood in the name of. they WILL tell queen to her face that no, she should NOT be the leader, that should be someone who follows deep blue-sama! and they are only following her for a good view from the top to spot carry out his will, because surely deep blue guided them to be so skillful for a REASON, they MUST be useful to him when he finally reappears! and there is NO room for doubt in their mind he WILL. (jaws theme ominously plays in the distance)

queen and saguaro are both ppl who pride themselves on being civil and well-mannered, so you can imagine the sheer passive-aggressiveness in their convos. they're useful, they're probably the BEST swordsmaster, and they've proven to be very diplomatic and can bridge the gap queen sorely needs to with the other straggling deep blue followers, and queen isn't one to throw away a pawn, so she ultimately sees it as putting up with an annoyance for the greater good. (its not like deep blue could possibly return or anything! jaws theme sounds louder and closer)

everyone else in queens little upper posse thinks theyre super weird. …except cara! (we've come full circle!) because shes human! and! has no frame of reference! for deep blue related things! (well…at least, not in the way everyone else would've) shes dealt with like, mormons or thse door to door religious ppl, to her its like. whatever. same difference. saguaro isnt mean to her solely because shes a human like SOME people in queen's upper circle are. in fact, they're really actually very nice to her! and hey, she likes swords! and they have a calming presence, which is GREAT when u are a little shaky chihuahua abt everything.

I have this scene planned out where cara wakes up from a nightmare SCREAMING, sapote's room is right beside her and hey thats her little buddy so ofc she runs in. but cara wont talk to her, and sapote is like. kid I Am Not Leaving You Alone rn I Am Vaguely Worried and you need someone Adult Shaped to talk to. so caras like. whatever get saguaro then. and sapote is BAFFLED, but it makes perfect sense. because unlike sapote, they won't badger her or try and get her to spill anything, they won't try forcing her into a hug, if she asks them to just talk and distract, they're happy to. they aren't going to go spill her secrets and they CERTAINLY wont rat her out for saying anything untowardly about queen.

sapote accuses them of trying to yank cara into their little cult over this of course. kadskj

oops. thats a very long ramble about nothing very clear. I'm trying to be GOOD about not spoiling my own darn story, but the temptation to talk about it is so strong. I'm always super happy to share stuff on it and when ppl show interest it makes my heart explode. thank uuuu so much again TwT

[dragynkeep]

How do I write Adam Taurus? Like, more specifically, how do I write him being an edgelord, a revolutionist and an abusive mentor without victim blaming him or downplaying how Blake felt working with him? How do I fix the White Fang plot in general? (Sorry if this ask is a bit much, it’s just a large overwhelming topic and such an integral part of RWBY in general.)

Jesus, there’s so much with this topic that you’d have to overhaul a lot of it.

Honestly, I would not go into the abusive mentor thing. Simply because that abuse is such a sensitive topic that needs time to tell respectfully, and that’s time being taken away from the racism and ideology that ultimately put Blake and Adam on these paths. 

And it’s just not needed? The edginess isn’t needed, the abuse isn’t needed, they feel too campy when put in a storyline as serious as the White Fang. I made Adam abusive in AZRE, but it was ultimately what he had done and his ideals compared to Blake’s that drives their story. 

So when writing him, and by extension the White Fang, you have to remember that not one side is right. It’s not violence vs peace, it’s how much is someone willing to go before they reach their limit. Adam is willing to use force, whereas Blake isn’t, but both want the same thing and neither is wrong for their way of going about it.

And the thing is with the White Fang is that this organisation is not just one being. It’s made of countless people, all with their own stories, feelings, ideals that might not coincide with what the main character is thinking. That’s an issue in the show, as this group just follows the next leader without much thought, acting more like a stereotypical gang of mindless thugs than a civil rights group that are struggling in a world that hates them. Keep in mind that you can’t have the only civil rights group be dehumanised into villains like the show did. 

Not only that, but racism comes in different forms. Human against Faunus, Faunus against Faunus, what is the idea behind mixed race people between humans and Faunus? Faunus that can pass for human like Ilia? Faunus that look more like “scary” animals such as snakes, insects, etc compared to Faunus that are “cute” like cats, dogs, rabbits, etc?

Because if you want to write Adam and Blake, you have to realise just how much the racism and White Fang forms the foundation for them. One is a runaway slave who was disfigured with the brand of the company that enslaved him since he was a child, the other is a girl who lived in an ethnostate with two loving parents and in relative luxury. 

How do some Faunus feel when Blake talks about discrimination? Something she has faced outside of Menagerie, something that effects her people and kingdom, but not the same way as it would someone like Adam or Ilia or Sun, Faunus that don’t have near the resources or privilege that she does? How does Blake feel about that?

That’s the simplest way I can talk about this. There’s honestly so much you have to think of that it’s not a light topic to tackle in stories, and I wish other writers would put more thought into it before slapping it into their fantasy stories. 

[omg-snakes]

You have hoggies right?

What do you feed them? Cause in the wild they would eat more amphibians and some reptiles and I’m feeling very conflicted on getting one cause in captivity we generally feed them rodents.

What are your thoughts?

Hey there!

Though I have moved away from hognose snakes and only have one left, their diet and nutrition is a subject very close to my heart. I spent a lot of time reading and researching hognose diets and trying to determine how best to feed them in captivity.

You're right, they predominantly feed on amphibians and reptiles in the wild, and hognoses in captivity are prone to obesity on a rodents-only diet. Though they can be managed with smaller meals or less frequent feeding, it's not exactly ideal to feed them nothing but rodents while it's not exactly economically feasible to feed them nothing but amphibians and lizards.

Enter a solution: Reptilinks sausages for reptiles. Though meal-replacement sausages for snakes have been around for a long time, they are historically maligned for offering poor nutrition and marginal convenience at best. At some point one of the reptile diet producers (Purina I want to say??) tried offering one that was made with beef and it was just... all wrong. The product was targeted at giant snake species who would already be conditioned to eating chickens and rabbits so they wouldn't accept a Delicious Cow "Meat" Cylinder™ without some serious cajoling, many giant keepers at the time were notoriously edgelords who got giant snakes BECAUSE they liked watching them eat whole prey, the meat was heavily processed and mostly low-grade cuttings, the product came in a plastic non-digestible casing and fell into hamburger meat immediately when you cut the casing, and a recall over salmonella concerns pretty much put the final nail in the coffin. It was a good idea, but a bad execution.

Reptilinks are different because it's whole prey ground up in a digestible human-grade sausage casing, the product is small batch, the prey types are varied for different species of reptile, and they can be mixed and matched and even customized to meet your reptile's nutrition needs. Meats offered include frog and iguana, which are both excellent choices for a hognose. I've used Reptilinks on rotation with rodents to feed all of my snakes, and I know of keepers who use them exclusively. They're a little spendy but overall less expensive than whole reptile and amphibian prey, and they provide the peace of mind that you're offering complete nutrition to your reptile pals.

Please note that I am not affiliated with Reptilinks in any way, I just really love their product and I think it's a great idea to help keepers offer the best possible husbandry.

[davids-cartoon-corkboard]

I have said a Lot about the “Raph is a system” theory over the past several months, so this is something of a compilation post. It’s got some new stuff, it’s got some old stuff. (You’re reading Part 1) (Part 2 is here) (Part 3 is here)

---

Firstly, “system” is the term for someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID. (The term can also apply to some folks with OSDD.) Someone might develop DID after experiencing long-term trauma at an early age- roughly five or six years old. To paraphrase the DSM-V:

1. We’ve seen three (possibly four) distinct personality states who speak, act, and perceive others differently.

2. The personality states, or “alters”, don’t necessarily share memory, and Donnie insinuated in “The Clothes Don’t Make the Turtle” that Raph has a bad memory in general.

3. Problems arise when alters don’t get along or aren’t on the same page. That none of them seem to be quite aware they’re a system doesn’t help either; it’s hard to work on communication and cooperation when you don’t know they need to be worked on!

4. This whole situation isn’t a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice, or just Raph playing make-believe. (Though I wonder if he had “imaginary friends” when he was younger...)

5. It’s also not because Raph’s been smoking the devil’s lettuce or whatever. “Pizza Puffs” was one long weed joke and he was the only one “sober” (not poisoned) throughout! We don’t see this happen to other mutants, so it’s not a bizarre side effect of mutagen either.

(I’ve seen a few people joke that Mikey has “multiple personalities”, but that’s a tad yikesy and also just plain incorrect. His “doctor” personas are something he does deliberately, and youngest siblings are just Like That.)

So yeah, Raph is pretty heavily DID-coded. We’ve seen four alters so far:

“Host” Raph (HR): He’s our everyday Raph. A “host” is an alter who fronts most of the time and takes care of “business as usual” situations. They are often unaware of past traumatic events, such that they can appear “normal”. (Ex: the host of a child who lives with an abusive parent could be unaware of the abuse. Otherwise, they might cry or be uncooperative whenever the parent is near, further invoking their wrath. This unawareness allows them to be a “good child”, and stay under the parent’s radar sometimes.) Some systems have more than one host, but that the others have shown up so rarely in this story suggests HR is the only host (for now?).

Savage Raph (SR): Debuting in “Man vs. Sewer”, he’s a survival-oriented alter. HR probably could have defeated the Sando Brothers on his own under normal circumstances, but being in the middle of a breakdown doesn’t do much for your fighting skills. SR got pulled to the front to deal with them instead.

“Red” Raph (RR): “Red” is just a placeholder since we don’t actually know his name yet (or even if he has one, not all alters do), though I’ve also heard folks call him “Angel”. He’s got a “tough love” approach to problem-solving, which was probably a helpful thing in the past. LDM were no doubt rowdy children! We were (officially) introduced to him in “Pizza Puffs”.

Mind Raph (MR): MR could just be a manifestation of HR's thought process via Cartoon Goofery, but that possibility doesn’t give me anything to work with so I’m ignoring it. He’s pretty similar to HR, maybe a tad more upbeat. We (officially) met him in “Raph’s Ride-Along”.

When “Pizza Puffs” first aired, I was like “ah yes, this is the alter who has the cranky edgelord tendencies we’ve seen in previous iterations of Raph. He probably broods on rooftops in the rain when he’s in a bad mood.” Combining that with the whole “Red Angel” thing gives off some Batman vibes. And, of course, SR is similar to the Hulk. Those two heroes are pretty different, but they do have one major thing in common...

A sudden, violent loss. Given how prevalent rushing water is throughout “Man vs. Sewer”, I’m thinking a flood came through and separated Raph from his family. (You could probably argue that turbulent water symbolizes a turbulent subconscious? 🤷) Again, DID stems from long-term trauma, so Raph must have been gone for... a while. A couple of months, maybe more? It’s hard to say exactly; we have a little wiggle room when applying human developmental psychology to a human/turtle mutant. Since Splinter still needed to care for the other three, he wouldn’t have been able to devote much time to searching for Raph, and the New York City sewers go on for miles and miles. The longer Raph was alone, the more convinced he would have been that the others had drowned and he was the only survivor.

How old would he have been? I know the turtles are “different ages”, but they were all mutated at the same time so I’m pretty sure Splinter was just like “the littlest one is the youngest, the biggest one is the oldest, and the medium-sized ones are the middle children.” They’re all probably fourteenish by “Finale”. Back in “MvS”, Leo said, “You know how savage Raph gets when he’s alone”. He didn’t say anything like, “You know how savage Raph gets when he’s alone ever since such-and-such an incident happened”. This suggests that LDM straight-up don’t know something traumatic happened to Raph; they were too little to retain concrete memories of that time. In their minds, Raph has always been like this. Draxum isn’t known for his patience, so even though he wasn’t able to immerse the hatchlings in mutagen for long, they probably mature a bit faster than humans. And since humans usually can’t remember anything from before four years of age, three sounds about right for the turtles, though they would have been stronger and steadier on their feet than any human toddler. I doubt Raph would have survived otherwise.

I think he’s sort of... “stuck” back in that trauma. Catching food, building a fire, making a weapon, and getting camouflage aren’t the behaviors of someone who’s only been gone for a few minutes.

When SR called for help, I don’t think he was expecting anyone to answer.

But Raph did manage to hang onto something as he was swept away! It wasn’t much, but that little ragdoll gave him comfort while he was scared and alone.

(The rabbit design on Bruce’s pajamas is probably a coincidence, but...)

Raph seems the type to have sympathy for odd-looking toys. His knockoff Mrs. Cuddles plushie was the emotional crutch he needed back then.

And then he was separated from that as well. Lowkey associating Mrs. Cuddles with this traumatic event would explain why HR was so scared of her. That he doesn’t remember the trauma means he has no context for this fear, making it seem silly and baseless to him (and to the rest of his family), which is why he denied being scared at all in the first part of the “Mrs. Cuddles” episode. It would also explain why he collects teddy bears instead these days, they are a “safe” toy. (The moral of the story is to not make fun of triggers that seem silly.)

(I wonder what would happen if Mrs. Cuddles encountered Savage Raph? Perhaps he’d be quite sympathetic towards such a lonely little raggedy thing! Timestuck as he is, he probably wouldn’t question why a stuffed animal can talk... and it wouldn't be hard for her to persuade her “new bestest fwiend” to get rid of some “mean ol’ nasty sewew monstews” for her.)

That whole “sewer monsters” thing suggests Raph ran into... something while he was wandering alone. Y’all have heard those rumors about alligators living in the New York City sewers, right? Encountering Leatherhead could trigger a flashback.

It would be pretty easy to introduce Leatherhead into the narrative. One of the episodes the Rise crew had planned was titled “The Island of Dr. Noe”, and alligators have very impressive teeth. The Mirage comics had a story where Leatherhead and several cryptids were brought to an island to be hunted for sport.

Noe seems to have quite a few cronies/friends/rivals he could entertain this way. Since he’s got that obsession with Raph, Noe captures him as well, knocking him out with those darts so he can’t waste his energy trying to escape too soon. (Let’s just assume everyone’s powers are glitchy because they all hit another wave of puberty, meaning they can’t just curbstomp the lower-level villains lol.)

HR wakes up on the island and, of course, starts to panic because he’s lost and alone. While wandering, he runs into Leatherhead, which would trigger a flashback to getting attacked by that alligator all those years ago. But Leatherhead doesn’t want to fight! He’s just as scared and confused as HR is, and could really use a partner to help him survive this island.

HR and SR come into conflict because Leatherhead is/isn’t/is/isn’t/is/isn’t a threat. HR eventually wins out, reasoning that even if Leatherhead is that alligator, it wouldn’t be fair to judge him for what he did back when he was an animal.

But time and dissociation can make memories unclear. That our first look at Leatherhead was in Draxum’s “bluh bluh I’m gonna mutate all the humans” bit in “Bug Busters” means he’s a human-base mutant. He wasn’t the alligator back then, but the hunter tracking it. Leatherhead isn’t one of Noe’s targets, he is one of Noe’s guests! And he wants no one to interfere with his quarry, so he’ll play nice long enough for him and the snapper to take out the rest of the hunters and the freaks. Then the two of them will have the island all to themselves...

Years and years ago, Jack Marlin was a big game hunter prowling the New York City sewers in search of an alligator. He did manage to find and kill one, only to realize it had also been hunting! He had inadvertently saved the strangest little turtle creature.

Marlin had become too skilled at this point, the hunt held no challenge for him. This turtle sounded very young, and he was quite big and strong already. An adult could be tough and intelligent enough to entertain him. Marlin tried to get Raph to lead him back to “the others”. But Raph had been lost for some time, and as far as he knew, his family was dead. Hearing that put Marlin in quite the sour mood. A little mutant snapper is a better catch than none at all, so Marlin tried to haul Raph off. Raph fought back and bit off Marlin’s hand. He escaped, but lost his rabbit in the scuffle. Marlin retreated as well, taking some time to recover, scheme, and hunt other game. (And to pocket that rabbit. The blood loss had made him woozy, and he wanted to have some kind of proof he hadn’t just hallucinated the snapper.) Perhaps he turned that alligator’s hide into a vest, which provided the genetic material for his mutation when he eventually got bit by an oozesquito. Like his Mirage counterpart, Marlin didn’t take losing a limb as a sign he should retire, and instead got a tricked-out prosthetic. Who knows what he could do with it in such a mystic setting as Rise.

Raph eventually reunited with his family, but those distrustful, high-strung survivalist traits he had picked up weren’t helpful anymore. He once again had to be the good and patient big brother who didn’t bite when someone play-tackled him or shook him awake at three in the morning because they’d had a nightmare. Those two states gradually got partitioned off more and more, and now they know little, if anything, about each other.

So Leatherhead and HR are chasing away some mothmen or whatever, and things are going pretty well... until one of them knocks Leatherhead over and a familiar ragdoll rabbit falls out of his pocket. SR realizes that Leatherhead is Marlin and switches in to fight him off again. They’re evenly matched, or perhaps SR is even in danger of losing, when LDM arrive to provide support. Leatherhead is enough of a tactician to know that he should retreat. Donnie and Mikey pursue him while Leo stays behind, placing the rabbit in his stunned brother’s hands. “Remember when Pops made this for you? You were always really gentle with it, ‘cause he wasn’t good at sewing back then...”

(This thing really needs patching up, he’s got sewing stuff for whenever he needs to fix his bears/Blue isn’t a threat on his own/Wasn’t he just back at the lair?/Blue gave back the rabbit/Why does he feel like he got hit by a train?/Blue doesn’t want to fight?/ ...Leo?) And that’s enough for HR to switch back in. He’s probably missing memory from his whole time on the island, so while Leo does his best to tell him what happened, they don’t have enough puzzle pieces between them to truly figure out what's going on.

They defeat the bad guys, release the cryptids, save the day, etc. (Leatherhead managed to lose Donnie and Mikey in the woods. A battle for another day.) Once they return to the lair, HR gets help from Draxum to modify the memory spell from “E-Turtle Sunshine” so he can try to fill in the gaps. Surely he wouldn’t get rejected by his own subconscious... right?

Cue part three in the saga of Raph Punches Himself In The Face. SR isn’t happy that HR is essentially trying to poke at an improperly-healed wound, and attempts to chase him off. HR assumes that SR is just a psychic white blood cell like the Lou Jitsu constructs in Splinter’s mind, and retaliates.

But, of course, fighting is not the answer here. All that accomplishes is giving the body bruises. Eventually HR realizes “stay away” and “back off” are a little different than “get out”, and that SR is just scared. So HR tries another tactic. Over the following days and weeks, he tunes in to calmer memories and just sort of... talks. About what happened yesterday, about his teddy bear collection, about how he finally managed to get a good picture of that pizza pigeon. It takes a while to establish a connection, and even then, it’s spotty at best. Using the spell too much can cause headaches and nightmares. There are days when SR is nearby, and days when he’s not there at all. But he shows up when he can.

And then there’s awkward, stilted conversation and questions neither of them know how to answer and questions neither of them want to answer and more scrapes and bruises and strained silences and apologies, but they finally, finally reach a compromise. SR still doesn’t let HR near those memories, but he tells HR what happened as best he can. (The audience would see those memories, with SR as a voiceover.) Afterwards, HR still visits the mindscape that’s starting to become more solid. They talk some more, they watch light and shadow flow around them, they listen to half-forgotten lullabies on scratchy old cassette tapes. Eventually, HR doesn’t even need to use the memory spell, meditation is enough.

They’ll never get along all the time. But it’s a start.

(SR is going to be so clingy when it finally clicks for him when he finally lets himself believe that his family is alive.)

---

This took eight million years lmao. Parts 2 and 3 will come out eventually, they’ll focus more on MR and RR. Let me know if I need to tag this stuff as anything.

The usual disclaimer applies, I am not a system or a mental health professional so if you’re one or both of those things then feel free to give me some of that good good constructive criticism.

[wm-paintbrush]

🖊

So you're letting me pick? ... *laughs maniacally* THAT WAS A BAD IDEA HUN ---------------------------------------- So i have alot of ocs actually- and alot of sonas also from the past, present, future- so excuse me but you GAVE ME PERMISSION TO GUSH. But to keep you sane, i'm gonna skip over most of the "dead" characters Savvy is one of 4+ characters that i absolutely still adore, and keep in my little oc-world A grey to red and reddish pink color pallette, fennec fox-plushie. I mainly inspired her personality of the vibe i give off to any newcomers- and well- she also has 1 different form that i previously called "Darkus" for some reason Void is the next, a white to turquoise and cyan color pallette, glitchy fox. I think she's kinda like the vibe after you've known me for awhile? But that might have changed- all i know is she glitchy and cool lmfao Also previously shown to melt, might keep that Mayah and Daeva simultaneously are Bacterial Contamination Cats Because DAMN if being edgy wasn't enough, add the spooks! and stabs Enough of the jokes though, Mayah is the one with a scarf and is overall shy for some fucking reason and Daeva is an edgelord due to- well i'll mention them later. Both are (darker) grey and red with possible pink/white stingers... idk yet it's been a while! Molse, who i actually felt like should have kept the albino-mouse-rat species, might become a rabbit later on. White-black-red and neutral. Smol boi lmfao. Might have been a victim to either Mayah or Daeva- I forgot the name of this one, probably was too complex- I have a molecule-alcohol-dog character and i think they're absolutely NOICE! Might have to explore this character more so their story could begin showing to me. I have a few others somewhere but those are the most interesting... But i bet you wanna know that guy who corrupted Daeva, didn't cha? Corrupto is currently their/his name, and currently is a loose runaway corruption. Took a liking to Daeva, but.. they still are a fuckass even if that liking exists (= Oh and they probably will stay like that until showing a clear sign of redemption muahahahaha i'm evil Now for some of the interesting ones Starting of with another corruption who'se previous host i won't say.. We have my little experimental creature, Vortex! They're a little mess, learning as they go. But man, they're a BIT different from the others, and fun to draw for some reason. Btw both corruptions are black (white or red) goopsters lmfao Honorable mentions before the ones i've drawn more often: Pencil [AU], kinda child and bean, might not be innocent deep down though. Zodiac dream demon, and of course you already have the possible right guess at who their origins deprive from. That one roomba and (grappling+something else) gun who if i draw more often, will be to background tests or other fun shit Emma and that one sign, two characters i entirely made up just from the game and previous arg that i love(d) as fuck [Changed | Pooche and Pansy] Now excuse me, but i wanna talk about Tempus! That one bibically accurate angel looking clock! I love that one. A time entity who i'm starting to suspect might be related to Painty over there- Also they have a cracked side of glass for some reason?? Hmmm.. Well i obviously know why for that one, but go ahead and theorize. Also i haven't choosen their colors yet but they have a tail, lmfao- that's mostly all Chi, who i might be mashing up with the other heart character in a weirdcore post, is my little emotion/soul demon who started of as a pure vent character but now might just be an emotionally unstable bean. Can't decide if they're blue or purple, but otherwise i just love my little heart fello <3 Also she chills around PaintBrush cause yes. And PaintBrush, my dearie self, multidimensional zodiac dream demon! Creative, unpredictable, and matched to my chaotic personality, and i absolutely love her so much i swear to axol- Um anyways, she is really respecting and caring, but can lose herself to demonic senses and also emotions (cause i lose myself to emotions sometimes

no cap) and might or might not have been- [spoilers] Also she's friends with a Bill cipher, how perfect, totally not the same Bill cipher that hangs around me. And i think that's most that i can gush about.. for now. If it sounds like i rambled then sorry, but.. not sorry agDSGOPIEOSPRHI- Anyway this is from a while ago, but shows alot of the characters i've talked about here. NOW MERRY CHRISTMAS SHOOKAS

[pop-goes-the-sneasel]

My favorite Pokemon, Umbreon? {no need to be nicer just cause fave, be honest} ~mod of 24-7-pokemon

Okay, Umbreon!!!!!!

You don’t gotta worry about me being nicer to Umbreon because I already love Umbreon, actually! It’s got a slick, sleek design with a bit of edge to it and forms a masterful dichotomy with its day-themed counterpart, Espeon. The striking red eyes are great, the bioluminescent rings are great, the distinctive fox-rabbit silhouette is great, the moon/nighttime motif is great, great vibes all around. No wonder it’s the most-popular pokemon of Gen II!

Umbreon is also our Dark-type Eeveelution, and as such, serves a special role as a primary representative of the Dark-type itself. Unfortunately, this is an area where Umbreon actually falters quite a bit. The Dark-type is defined by dirty tricks, unfair fighting tactics, and general assholery, and Umbreon kinda has none of that going on, like, at all. In fact, its dex entries mention its poisonous sweat, and whilst that DOES coincide nicely with Umbreon being an excellent user of Toxic due to its high defence, it doesn’t actually learn the move naturally and poisonous sweat is obviously a much more Poison-oriented than it is Dark-oriented. The reason for this? According to the GS demos and betas, Umbreon was actually originally going to be a Poison-type, complete with purple markings rather than yellow. I guess they wrote the dex entries back then and forgot to come up with something more thematically appropriate after the type change.

Nonetheless, poorly repping its type doesn’t change that it’s an INCREDIBLY strong design. And even if it’s not quite thematically Dark, in the context of the other Eeveelutions, it does stand out quite well as the resident edgelord amongst them. The rabbit aspect is also worth mentioning as corresponding to the moon rabbit of East Asian folklore, given Umbreon’s association with the moon, which is also the case for Sylveon. Funny how two entirely different Eeveelutions ended up with moon motifs.

It’s also got an absolutely INCREDIBLE shiny, one of the best in the franchise. Bioluminescent cyan rings are like, the best kind of rings. And the yellow eyes are great too!

Overall, Umbreon’s fantastic, and one of my favourite Eeveelutions. The only criticism I have is that because it’s so linked to its counterpart Espeon, my fondness for Umbreon is eclipsed, as I adore Espeon even more. That’s a review for another time though! uwu

Somebody request Espeon/10.

[osakaso5]

Riku Nanase Chinese Zodiac Rabbit Chat Part 5: More Proactively..? 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Tsumugi: Riku-san, good work today! Since you used projection mapping for the dance, it looked incredible..!

Riku: Good work, manager!

Riku: How'd you like me as the monkey?

Tsumugi: You were very cool! Your energetic gestures matched Iori-san's dynamic tiger dance so well..!

Riku: Was I cooler than Yaotome-san?

Tsumugi: Yes, I liked IDOLiSH7 the best!

Riku: Great, that means a lot coming from you.

Riku: Sogo-san was the horse, so he had those cool hoof boots..!

Tsumugi: Tamaki-san was terrified of his whip, but he handled it very well...

Riku: It looked like it became one with his arm..!

Tsumugi: I know..!

Riku: Nagi was channeling his inner edgelord! He kept asking Iori to cover his eye and go "My eye..!" and he told Tamaki to say his left arm had been sealed.

Tsumugi: He's kicking off the year with some very Nagi-san-esque antics! lol

Riku: I want to do something like that again! It was fun to dance with Iori. I even did a few ad libs, and he responded to them instantly!

Tsumugi: You worked together perfectly!

Choices/outcomes:

1. I was surprised by how much use you got out of the prop, too!

Riku: You mean the long staff I had! I almost hit Iori over the head with it during our rehearsal, so I practiced secretly with a laundry  pole we had at the dorm. Ah, but just so we're clear, I asked Mitsuki for permission first!

2. I loved the facial expressions you made when you were provoking Iori-san, the tiger!

Riku: When I made those faces, I was thinking about the fact that Iori's secretly a crybaby who loves to be babied by Mitsuki! lol But don't tell him that!

3. Was it hard to move in your costume?

Riku: Not for me! Apparently Iori had some trouble with those long sleeves and the stuff around his neck, but it didn't look that way at all from his performance! He's really something!

Riku: Oh yeah, Iori gave me a New Year's card in return for the one I gave him!

Riku: Here, I'll send you a picture of it.

Riku: He drew what looks like birds and a portrait of me! Iori's a pretty good artist, lol

Tsumugi: Wow! That's wonderful. He must've really liked the card he got from you!

Riku: His autograph looks like something you'd put on official documents, so I never thought he'd make a card so cute! lol I need to keep it safe!

Riku: He agreed to play shuttlecock with me like we did last year, so maybe his prickly period is over for now.

Tsumugi: Prickly period, lol

Riku: I want to beat him again so we can go buy him a birthday present together. We know we probably can't pull off the kind of surprises we did last year, but I'm still trying to come up with ideas.

Riku: Once I have a few in mind, I'll run them by you!

Tsumugi: Iori-san's birthday isn't too far in the future, after all!

Riku: I wonder what kind of celebration he'd like. He's not really the type to laugh a lot, but I want him to be all smiles and full of happiness on his birthday, at least!

Riku: And I want him to stop being so distant and call me "Riku-san" already! lol

Tsumugi: Hearing someone call you by first name feel special when they don't usually do it!

Riku: Tsumugi!

Tsumugi: Huh!?

Riku: Ehehe, I'm just copying Yaotome-san. I think it's pretty nice when people refer to you differently from usual too, though.

Tsumugi: U-um...!

Riku: Just kidding! Did I make your heart skip a beat?

Riku: 

Tsumugi: 

Translator’s notes..? 

next up, Torao’s Twelve Hits Rabbit TVs! 

[valkerymillenia]

@animecat33​ tagged me for this

Rules: Name 10 characters from 10 different fandoms that you like, then tag 10 people.

I enjoyed this but... At first I thought, do I even have 10 I consider favs? And then I ended up with a list of, like, 25, and couldn’t pick 10 so I chose more or less at random. And I admit I cheated seeing as some kind of fit in the same fandom in some way.

It’s just too hard picking favorites. 

Undercut, cause it’s gonna be a loooong post.

1. Morticia Addams (Addams Family)

My tattoo probably makes this one obvious. 

I love Morticia so much, not only do I love her aesthetic, I just love her personality and attitude, not to mention her marriage is ‘goals’ and as a mother and matriarch she’s incredibly supportive and loving despite the unorthodox life the Addams’ live. I love a character that can be a mother without having it define her completely.

2. Catwoman/Selina Kyle (DC)

Selina was one of my OG crushes back before I even understood what I crush was or that being queer was even a thing (looking at you, Michelle Pfiffer).

I love her style and strength and personality (when she's well written), her grey morals and competence, and cats are just my thing, ok? Plus bisexual icon.

Have you noticed I have a thing for a dark women with grey morals?

3. Raven/Rachel Roth (Teen Titans/DC)

I kinda share a name with Raven but that's not why I like her. I've always loved the emotional complexity of this character, her incredible power (and how it's also her weakness), and style as well. I'm not too thrilled about some more recent incarnations of her but she'll always be an OG fav.

4. Nightwing/Dick Grayson (DC)

Yeah, yeah, DC again, look the other way, please (they have individual comics anyway).

I couldn't leave out my darling Dickie. I grew up with this dude and I love his backstory and relationship with his family. He's a beautiful ray of sunshine with a dark streak, a competent leader without being a broody bossy jerk like some and he's very well rounded and consistent in his characterization (plus that design is top notch). I know the Romani thing was a ret-con on something just vaguely implied in the past but honestly it was a good one and some much needed rep despite the constant whitewashing (though not as bad as others in his family).

Also, he drinks his 'respect woman juice', he's flawed without being edgy, and has been queer-coded and female-troped for decades which makes him much more likeable as a male character. He actually became an LGBT icon despite the cowards at DC constantly trying to shove heteronormativity into his storyline.

5. Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond (Steve Universe)

Is she problematic? Yes and that's part of the appeal.

I already loved Rose when she was this sweet, compassionate and wise old soul, this rebel and leader and mother with many secrets.

I guessed really early on that she was PD so that part didn't surprise me but when the backstory of her as PD finally appeared to give us so more in-depth knowledge I was surprised by the amount of hate the character got. To me, her flaws, pain, mistakes and growth were part of the allure.

Also, gorgeous and much needed plus-size rep. I loved cosplaying her more than anything.

6. Princess Leia (Star Wars)

Did I like her style or design? Nope, I much prefer her mother's but Leia is an immensely competent, wise, strong female character that takes no bullshit from the male-dominated plot around her, she deserved so much better. Honestly, she deserved her own goddamn movie.

Carrie Fisher was a feminist icon and an advocate for mental illness visibility. She's was also fucking hilarious. All this translated into Leia's character very well and she deserved so much better from society than being sexualized in a metal bikini and remembered that way forever.

7. Hela (Thor Ragnarok/Marvel)

I already loved Hela's character in the comics (except the arc where she sexually abuses Thor, that was shitty edgelord writing and I refuse to acknowledge it's existence) but Ragnarok gave her a whole new meaning.

Firstly, my God is she hot! Just.... Umpf! Step on me, queen.

Secondly, she's dark and evil but she has a goddamn point (people are hypocrites). And in the comics she's not even evil, she's neutral and only a villain because she opposes Thor on a personal level. She's also incredibly competent at what she does and if that isn't a turn-on idk what is.

8. Korra (Legend of Korra)

Korra will always be bae. There's a reason my behemoth of a fic revolved around her.

Not only is she incredibly well-rounded and fun, she's also very competent, has a fascinating backstory and is immensely powerful, plus she grows beautifully through her show. Not to mention she's GORGEOUS.

POC and LGBT rep, plus she showcased one of the most incredible arcs on disability and recovery that I've ever seen in a family show.

9. Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Marvel)

You can pry Wanda from my cold dead hands.

I'm not even the biggest fan of her movie version, I'm all about comic Wanda.

POC rep and an incredibly visceral portrayal of mental illness and trauma. And she's beautiful beyond reason, morally grey, and powerful as hell.

Most of all what I like about Wanda is how loyal and family-oriented she is without letting it diminish her as an individual or as a powerhouse character, so many female characters loose all agency and individuality when they have kids, they get delegated to role of mother and lose their heroics or become extensions of their husbands and children, Wanda was nothing like that. Her relationship with her brother is fascinating too (let's pretend the incesty vibes in certain alt universes don't exist).

I only hate that she and Pietro always get the short stick in adaptations and their origins keep getting needlessly retconned (Magneto's kids with his Romani wife, raised by someone else- that's it, stop trying to change it and then change it back over and over). That and how she's not allowed to have her well deserved relationship with her babies because of stupid old-fashioned comic rules that led to a needlessly convuloted and far-fetch story arc (the erasure, reencarnation and hyper-aging of her sons).

10. Jessica Rabbit (WFRR)

For most people, Jessica's appeal is "she's hot" and yes, this "pinup femme fatale" look really does things to me, I won't lie about that, but that's not why she's my favorite.

Jessica is fav because she's loyal and loving to her goofy husband, she completely turns the femme fatale trope upside down for love and doesn't give a damn about looks, she uses her appearance as a weapon and she's confident but she's clearly not vain ("I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" and "He makes me laugh"). She's also hilarious in her own deadpan way.

.

Other worthy mentions to this list are:

Wednesday Addams

Mystique (Marvel)

Shuri (Marvel)

Maleficent (Disney)

Vanya Hargreeves (TUA)

Blind Mag (Repo!)

Venom (Marvel)

Lust (FMA)

Evelyn O'Connell (The Mummy)

Alice Lidell (Alice Madness)

Jessica Jones (Marvel)

The Kagamine twins (vocaloid)

Amon (LoK)

Sesshoumaru (Inuyasha)

Loki (Marvel comics)

Liadan (Sevenwaters)

Furiosa (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Crowley (Good Omens)

Jericho (Titans/DC)

Sadako Yamamura (from the Ring BOOKS)

Susan Sto-Helit (Discworld)

.

I tag... @dymosara @abnaxus @polyx @bluetalesoftheheart @adka2333 @shinladyanarki @i-have-all-these-freaking-uwus @frank-a-lank @fluffynexu @teddy-fluffnhugs

[smokeybrand]

Breaking the Rules

So the Snyder Cut finally dropped. Four hours of Snyderisms like slow-mo, dumb kinetic camera work, and relentless edge. Now, I'm a card-carrying Marvel shill. Been real transparent about it for years. Marvel is my sh*t and Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. That said, i do like DC. I always give them a fair shake. Hell, my favorite capeflick is The Dark Knight. I even like Watchmen and that was a slog to get through. I’ve seen every film in the DCEU and they have left me wanting. A lot of DC heads write off my opinion because of my Marvel bias but let’s be serious; The DCEU is inferior to the MCU in almost every way. As it is, the DCEU needs to be better. It needs better storytellers. It needs a better plan. It needs a Feige. Snyder is not that dude and i don’t think Wan is either. I think WB and ATT have to figure out a way to coalesce this sh*t because it’s all wonky, especially now that we have this Snyder Cut. I’ve already reviewed a Justice League before so all of the observations i made about performances in that, stand. This is more what i think this version does better and worse.

The Better

This opening is much better and makes more sense. That Super Death Wail as the principal genesis of Steppenwolf’s conflict, the thing that wakes that first Motherbox, makes way more sense that whatever the f*ck Whedon did.

This thing definitely looks so much more gorgeous that that first run. Zack Snyder can’t plot a story to save his life but this motherf*cker can compose a shot, for real. Snyder is an idea man, a cat that just wants to make cool looking sh*t, but this ain’t the medium for that. You can have all the beautiful shots in the world but if they are tied together by a shoestring of a narrative, then it’s just polished sh*t, you know?

The extended Aquaman intro was outstanding. Whedon didn’t let this scene breath and, seeing it as it was intended, that was a mistake. Seeing this version of Justice League kind of makes Josstice League in it’s entirety, a mistake. It’s weird that this was cut because it’s so good and shows so much more of Arthur.

Jeremy Iron’s Alfred continues to be my second favorite Alfred after Michael Caine. Sorry, Michael Gough...

Wonder Woman’s first scene in this, the one with the terrorists, is ridiculous. This one scene is a perfect example of the difference between the two versions of this film. Snyder’s is better, if way more brutal than it needed to be. Still, i love the warrior version of Diana so I'm good with this.

Speaking of Amazons, Snyder, apparently, put them in more clothes this time around? I couldn’t really see for sure because of the color correction but it didn’t seem like they weren’t rocking those iron bikinis like in the Whedon cut. I think Joss Whedon might be a bit more problematic than we think. Between the half naked chicks, the way he kept sexualizing Diana, the fact that there are no people of color in his version or the way he shortchanged the entirety of Cyborg’s plot... Breh.

Steppenwolf is SO much more menacing in this version of the movie. Dude feels like a force, like a proper threat an not just some stop-gap for something better. Ol’ Wolfie was a decent antagonist for an initial run at an Avengers-esque team up for the DCEU. Definitely more Loki this time around and less Ultron like the first time.

Also, the Parademons look much more dope. The first time, they looked like fodder. This time, they actual felt like a force, like a horde.

Hey, we got an Atom sighting!

Not a ton of Iris West but enough to wet my appetite. Anytime i get to see Kiersey Clemons in stuff, I'm happy. Having it tied to an outstanding sequence demonstrating Flash’s powers was just icing on the cake. Seriously, Snyder did a great job visualizing Barry’s abilities. That scene where he saved everyone from the debris and then the subtle reversing of time; All of it was dope to see.

Are those Starros that Steppenwolf is using to “interrogate” the cats with Motherbox stink on them? They look like little mechanical Starros. I hope they’re Starros.

Lots of Cyborg stuff. Like, intricate Cyborg stuff. The sh*t Whedon cut of Vic was instrumental to the coherency of this story and dude was just like, “Nah.” It’s no wonder that version of the movie doesn’t make any f*cking sense.

Hey, we got a Spectre sighting! Nice.

The explanation for the Motherboxes and their mcguffin-ness goes a long way to soothing the whole “resurrecting Superman” thing. Snyder basically tells the audience they’re magic boxes that can do anything because of magic-technology. It’s a little ridiculous considering what Motherboxes actually do in the comics but whatever. It makes sense in this universe i guess.

All of the action scenes are better. All of them. Snyder is nothing if not a cat that can actualize a dope punch-out. Dude can’t get out of his own way when telling a story but if you need a fight scene, Snyder is definitely your guy.

Speaking of, that climax was WAY better. It carried far more weight and there were times when the heroes felt like they could lose. There’s an unrelenting tension that grips you hard and doesn’t let up until it finally does. I appreciated this way more than the first one, even if it’s dumb edgy for no reason.

The Worst

Zack still doesn’t understand these characters, man. It’s very apparent to me that a lot of this is just window dressing for kind of a Zack Snyder fan fic version of DC and that’s fine i guess? Sh*t’s not my cup of tea but a great many people seem to like it. Dude’s writing can definitely be tighter and he can skew a little more toward the heart of these characters but i mean, it’s called Zack Snyder’s Justice league for a reason.

The Snyderisms, man, they are all over this thing. Look, i just don’t like how Zack makes movies. Too much style, not enough substance, or rather, not enough focus. He has a ton of great ideas but gets too bogged down in how sh*t looks, or tumbles down his rabbit hole of concept but never expresses any of them clearly enough. Outside of 300 or Dawn of the Dead, this film is probably the most focused I've ever seen Snyder and it’s still kind of all over the place yet, never where it needs to be.

So many plot holes, man. Less than before, but so many threads left untied.

This thing didn’t need to be four hours long. Not even close. There were several shots that i thought could have been cut. Like, that three hour version which got the standing ovation was probably the best version of Justice League and we’ll never see it. This version is definitely better than the theatrical run but f*ck is it long. You really feel that sh*t, too.

Cyborg still looks gross to look at. You’d think they’d try and make his weird, angular, body look a bit better upon the redo but nope. This what we get i guess.

Also, why the f*ck the Atlanteans sound British? Why they make Amber Heard do that accent? She can’t do that accent, man. You’re actually asking a chick who’s professionally pretty to act and she can’t act. She’s just pretty. That actually brings up an interesting question; Is Aquaman canon to this universe because Mera in that doesn’t have an accent and her Pops is still alive. This one has an accent and her parents are dead. Or maybe the accent makes it easier to recast Heard later with a British actress? Maybe the Mother of Dragons really is about to be the Queen of the Seas?

Why is this Knightmare sequence in here? Sure, it was awesome to see, pure fan service, but this is the blue balls of blue balls because we don’t have a movie to follow this one. This is it. This is all the Justice League we’re getting. There is no part two or whatever. Why even hint at something more?

The Verdict

There’s a lot to like about this version of Justice League. It is, hands down, better than Josstice League in almost every way. Sh*t is a better film, man, and should have been what we got to begin with. WB did Snyder a disservice by letting him go and then letting Whedon butcher his movie. I don’t like Snyder’s take on DC. I think it’s try-hard, edgelord, nonsense but it is it’s own thing and i commend him for that. Dude has a vision and I'll never take away from from a creative’s inspiration. That said, this thing was a slog to get through. It’s definitely better than what we got before but it’s still not that great and it’s way too long. Three hours is more than enough to tell this story if you make prudent cuts. Still, I’m glad it exists and, if you’re a fan of this world, a fan of Snyder’s work, you’ll love it. For me, as a cat who has no skin in this game, I'm not all that impressed. Per usual, Snyder has too many ideas and that leaves the plot unfocused and meandering at times. In a genre that is predicated on storytelling, you can’t be a bad storyteller like that and just gloss over it with spectacle. That’s disingenuous. At the end of the day, it was entertaining. It was pretty to see. It was a Snyder film.

[marshmallowprotection]

I saw you talking a lot about "Obey Me", could you explain what is it please? ;; Thank you so much and sorry for the disturb... PS: love your blog!!

You’re definitely not bothering me! I’m glad to clear that one up. 

That’s another Otome game that a lot of people have taken to playing since it came out a couple of months ago and that’s Obey Me, Mystic Messenger still has my heart and 100% of my attention but I’ve really fallen into the rabbit hole with that one, my dudes. 

Basically, you get to romance demons, there’s seven of ‘em and there’s a character trope for everyone pretty much since they’ve covered most of the basis for types that people love. I have to say I’m partial to the greedy bastard but hey, I’m a sucker for two character types and that’s either the resident tsundere or the edgelord.

Not to spoil anything but it’s basically one of those games where you collect character cards and grind daily to keep the story going, which is a lot different then Mystic Messenger if that’s the only Otome that you’ve ever played. I more or less wound about playing a while ago because people kept asking me to try it out. 

I’ve written some content for it, too, but haven’t shared much of that here since this is a Mysme blog.

[neon-green-reagent]

Ranking the Halloween Franchise

Watching the entire Halloween franchise was never a thing I intended, but damn if it didn’t happen and only took about two weeks. This is the fastest I’ve ever watched an entire series of films before. And I have OPINIONS. Let’s do it. 

11. Halloween II (2009) - I’m not saying anything original here. This was a mess. It was highly pretentious and didn’t achieve the heights it strained for. It’s ugly, even just in terms of the way it was filmed, and mean-spirited. There’s not any acting so much as screaming and roaring. The characters are edgelord caricatures of themselves. By the time we reach a shot of our three main characters dying in a circle, I thought, yes, movie, that is what you did. You killed these characters and what I loved about them. Thanks. 

10. Halloween: Resurrection - Again, am I being original here? Maybe a little. I didn’t dislike this for the reasons I hear most fans list. This is a film I can barely even remember watching, and it’s only been a couple of days since I did. It’s so bland, so cookie cutter, so early 2000s and empty. Not a single character stuck with me. Not a single kill felt memorable. The gimmick was dated. Boring. Nothing. Nada. 

09. Halloween (2007) - Not the worst thing on earth. I admire the attempt to give some backstory, to make it match up with what we know about serial killers and the typical things you hear. I don’t think of this as some Phantom Menace mishap like others do. But then the attempts at backstory were really the only thing I liked. It’s very tough to watch someone retell a story you’ve heard before, only the other guy told it better. So when the movie becomes a rehash, it’s tiring. 

08. Halloween (2018) - Here’s where it gets a little controversial. I did not think this was the living end. I think things about it worked. That long shot of Michael stalking through the neighborhood. Anything with Laurie and her family dynamic. It has very strong points. But ultimately there’s a lot of humor that didn’t land for me. There’s Dr. Sartain and that whole mess. There’s teenage drama while Michael is a half a mile away doing something I know has got to be more interesting. It needed better flow, more consistent tone. It was made by comedians, and I hate to say that it shows. 

07. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers - Of the era I clearly liked best, this is the weakest movie in it. I don’t normally critique Michael’s mask, but this one is so glaringly weird and wrong. Loomis dives far down into a rabbit hole that I was really not fond of seeing. It made sense for the character, but I still felt worn out watching him act a fool. And remember when I mentioned above “humor that doesn’t land”? Yeah. That. BUT. Jamie’s story is great. Lots of pathos. And believe it or not, I like what they set up for here.

06. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers - I watched the Producer’s Cut and didn’t even bother with the theatrical cut here, just to be clear. And I kinda love this story. But it’s probably because of another movie in this franchise that I love, which we’ll get to shortly, and the way it added a touch of magic. I’m not someone who is deeply attached to the idea of Michael as a force of pure evil with no reason for it whatsoever. So the explanations don’t rub me the wrong way at all; I enjoy speculating about it. And this was a very strange path to take, which makes me respect it and think of it as a fun turn. Also, Loomis goes back to being the kind of character I absolutely love, and Tommy Doyle is brought back into the fray. All good things. The downside being the treatment of Jamie. I’ll never quite forgive it for that. 

05. Halloween H20 - This was that post-Scream slasher world, and it was penned by the very man that brought us that wave of meta horror. Meaning this was wildly fun, but it never veered too far from what makes Halloween great. Meaning the brutality of Michael coming up against the strong-willed spirit of Laurie Strode. Watching her call his name, ready to rip him in two, giving him the fight of his life... I mean it’s better than the most recent movie for me. Honestly, we could’ve stopped here, and I wouldn’t have complained. 

04. Halloween II (1981) - I love how this movie is a smooth continuation of that first night. It feels like it belongs back to back with the first. Watching them that way for the first time felt really natural. It has the same level of tension, but the kills get ramped up. It’s what a sequel should hope to be. A natural progression and more of what people loved. 

03. Halloween III - I say that, and yet this movie, the most controversial Halloween film ever made, is very high on this list. Yes, I wish Carpenter had gotten to explore the idea of a series of different horror stories all set on Halloween. If they’d been anything like this, they’d have been a blast. This movie is so standout and different and creative that I don’t feel like I have enough room to explain why it’s worth loving. Tom Atkins. Magic and science in an unholy union. Robots. Stonehenge. It’s just great. 

02. Halloween (1978) - This is what brought us all to the party. When I put this movie on for the first time, I thought I knew everything about it. Pop culture osmosis had taught me all I needed to know, right? Couldn’t compare to actually watching it. Perfect score. Terrifying killer. So much tension. Beautifully shot. I see now why a craze began for more movies like this, and we’re still demanding them. 

01. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers - And yet? If I’m really being honest? This is my favorite. It’s a very biased choice, but then so is this whole list. Loomis is at his most badass. Jamie is the most precious character, and you feel for her so much. Rachel is an incredible final girl. There’s a glaze of 80s laid over the top of this movie, but it never gets obnoxious and maintains a perfect balance. More so than 1981′s Halloween II, this felt like a return to form with an added punch. It’s why even halfway through Rob Zombie’s shenanigans, wanting to turn it off and forget the whole thing, I couldn’t stop. Hoping I’d get another Halloween 4, seeing now it’s pretty singular. 

And there you have it! That was a labor of love, mainly for Donald Pleasence, I think. You’ll notice Loomis lies heavily in my choices, and that’s not random. I know people love Michael a lot, but Loomis is really what I watched for. That became pretty obvious to me about halfway through the second film. And I admit that I wish there was still as much gravitas as he brought to the series.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Edgelord Zootopia

I watched all of Beastars and i don’t understand why the f*ck this show is so goddamn popular. Seriously, it’s kind of terrible. The drama is cliche, the stakes are derivative, and the characters are characterless. There is nothing about this show that is unique or f*cking good. I mean, this is, effectively, some edgelord’s take on Disney’s Zootpia but, where Zootopia was an easily digestible take on very real social issues, Beastars is melodrama for melodrama’s sake. None characters are real. None of their prejudices feel real. none of the stakes feel real. And that’s fine, you can tell a story of fancy and still be decent but the writing just ain’t there. There’s nothing to endear you to these facsimile of characters. The writing for this show is so goddamn poor, it hurts. Seriously, the main cast is little more than narrative tropes.

Lugosi (and, yes, that’s his actual name not Lughoshi or whatever the anime keeps saying) is basically the “quiet giant” that we see in literally every type of these shows. He’s that guy who is gentle most of the time but pray for anyone who harms his loved ones. That rabbit chick, Haru, is very obviously the whore-with-a-heart-of-gold and it’s ridiculous. And don’t get me started on the-damaged-prince, Louis. There’s just SO much to unpack with that rushed characterization. And that’s the bulk of my frustration with this sh*tty ass show; The characters. They’re so disingenuous. Even the “tragic” backstories they all have feel like pandering or, at the very least, emotional manipulation. Beastars is the cheapest, most unearned, type of manufactured drama that plagues US television. This sh*t tries to worm it’s way insidiously inside of you the same way sh*tty, tear-jerk narratives, like This IS Us inflict themselves upon the public. It’s lazy. It’s insulting. It’s garbage. Beastars is not a good show and i don’t get why it’s so goddamn popular.

The Furry energy in this thing is palpable. Like, i saw more rabbit tits in those twelve episodes, than i would ever have liked to see in my entire life. Seriously, i watched a dwarf rabbit try to go down on a grey wolf and that’s the tame sh*t. F*cking, why, tho? What the f*ck did that scene have anything to do with anything? Why was all the almost-graphic sex between literal animals, necessary? Weird and gross, man. Weird and gross.

[ruthlesslistener]

for the get to know the blogger questions - 11 and 12?

11. If you had to get a new pet right now (ignoring price), what would you get? What would you name them?

-Ooo boy. I’m honestly super down for any animal that I can adopt, but tbh? Probs ball python. Not only do I love them dearly, they’re also much safer to keep with my other animals (a cockatiel, parakeet, and a bunny) than a dog, cat, or another rabbit. I can just keep them upstairs in my room with me, away from the others! And because they don’t require personal attention/socializing, I’d be able to just sit with them and work on my homework or my art without worrying about understimulation. For names, I’d either go for Ryo (for the Satan reference, bc I’m an edgelord) or Spongebob (because they’re a good noodle! :D)

12. If you had to get a tattoo right now, what would it be?

The Hunter rune from Bloodborne, emblazed over a bleeding moon. I love that game and the symbol itself just looks so fucking good. For placement, I’d say probably at the nape of my neck, right where Gherman decapitates you if you choose the easy ending, so it’s easy to cover and easy to show off

Send me asks!

[bubbly-stripe]

Short Fic (4dow + Stary-Sonic)

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Quick little thing..its 10pm and i forgot to do my homework :D

Also..lets say this takes place in Sonic X..? S3 tho👌

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Tired.

That's all the small little fox felt as she quietly scrolled through her Tumblr feed.

Why was everything suddenly so dull and uneventful ? Waking up in the morning was already a chore ! And it didnt help that Shadow wasnt around anymore.

He wanted to 'make the world a better place' so he flew back up into space with the blue blur Sonic to finish off what was left of Eggman and the Meterex.

Why couldnt he make HER world a better place !? What happened to always being there for eachother through thick and thin !?

Maybe these thoughts of hers were selfish..but she couldnt help it..

She missed her cute little hedgie.

And would do anything to see him again.

A soft knock could be heard from the front door. Since the house was already dead silent, Helena heard it and got up to answer it.

She opens the door and is greeted by a soft rabbit. Her old time friend,Me'Re.

"Oh hey...you ok ?" Helena steps aside to let her in.

"Yea..I'm ok...I just..felt lonely.." She says, forcing a smile. She sits on a sofa and looks at her shoes.

"I understand..but..I'm sure they'll be back soon !" She says as she closes the door, walking back to her respected spot on the other sofa, just across the room.

To be honest, she didnt think they would come back.

They have been gone for almost a year. She was certain that they both forgotten about the ones that loved them most.

The men didnt even bother giving them a call or sending them any letters...

Sure, Sonic has been imprisoned twice and Shadow thrown through space and falling down towards Earth on multiple occasions. But they always managed to find their way back to the ones they love.

Helena was so lost in her thoughts, she didnt hear the rabbit hiccup gently across the room.

"I-I thought they loved us Helena..."

Helena snaps out of her thoughts at looks at the little rabbit. She sighs and walks across the room and sits next to her, pulling her into a hug.

"No need to cry...its ok...maybe one day they will come back."

Stop lying.

They wont come back.

They never will...

Helena teared up alittle gripping the small girls shirt gently.

"O-Of course they w-will come back Me-Me ! D-Don't be foolish !"

They were both foolish if they think they'd come back after a year.

Face it...they...were gone.

She broke down. And it seemed like she wasn't gonna calm down for hours on end.

All they had was eachother for the time being.

No friends.

Just eachother.

Hours went by and the two had cried eachother to sleep on the couch. They didn't bother locking the front door for safety...

Not like anyone would come in..

The time read 1:55am.

The front door gently opened to reveal, yes, two extremely tired and beaten up hedgehogs.

To clarify, fighting in space was very hard for the two amateurs. Sonics speed abilities were limited due to the lack of gravity and so were Shadows chaos abilities, due to the fact that the Meterex had all 7 of them. The first plan of theirs was to beat the emeralds out of the Meterex and find them all before they could. Classic yet dumb Sonic move.

Just that alone took them months.

The galaxy was so big...and....endless...

The REAL fight probably only took them an hour or two.

They obviously win the fight. The Meterex was destroyed for good..and well...so was Eggman.

The fight took a toll on their physical forms though.

Sonics eye was scratched up, leaving him somewhat blind and his legs were damn near broken due to all of the kicking he's done. Shadow on the other hand was slightly worse. His body was weak, fur discolored. Bloodshot eyes and broken fingers. Not only that, but scars littered both of their small bodies. Lets just say...these men aren't very..pretty while angry.

Anyway, the present.

The two hedgehogs walk into the small house and sit on the couch.

"Damnit...I can't feel my arms.." Shadow growls out as he lays down.

"Haha..my legs...theyre so numb !" Sonic awkwardly laughs as he lays next to him.

They silently stare up at the dark ceiling for awhile..

"Do you think they remember us Shads..?"

"....Dont be stupid Sonic...of course they remember us.."

Sonic shivers a bit and turns to face him

"What if they're mad...? What if they dont love us anymore !? What if--"

Snoring cuts him off.

He stares at Shadows peaceful sleeping form and sighs.

"Guess we'll see tomorrow" he tries his best to shift into a comfortable position and rests easy.

Finally free.

Finally home.

Morning time ✨

It was 11am.

Shadow yawns and jolts up. He frantically looks around the room.

So comfortable...so..soothing..

He examines the room...

And his heart instantly melts.

The first thing he notices is his beautiful lover and her bestest friend cuddled on the couch fast asleep.

His emo heart throbbed at the pure and gentle scene. He tapped Sonic on the shoulder to wake him. Sonic, being a gentle sleeper after a year of constant battle, woke up instantly. He looked at Shadow and then directly in front if him.

Gah two mushy hedgehog hearts..

Sonic blushes at the sight of his baby craddled in Helenas arms. Hes quick to notice dry tears staining both of the ladies pretty faces.

And well..

Tears start to stain both of their faces as well.

"Damn..we really have been gone for a long time havent we...?" Shadow huffs out looking over at the azure hedgehog

"Y-Yea...I...I guess so" He wipes his tears away and sniffs softly.

"God I missed her" they sung in unison.

This of all things woke Helena up.

She yawns and looks down at Me'Re. She squeaks and eventually wakes up too.

"Good morning Me'Re..".she smiles at her

"Good morning.." She smiles, still tired.

"....good morning.." The hedgehogs once again sang in unison. More quietly this time however

The pair are quick to snap their heads towards the sound and they freeze.

They quietly stare at eachother.

Mind racing.

Heart racing.

Were they really here...? Alive ? Well ?

Still theirs ?

Helena is the first to stand up. She awkwardly and slowly walks towards Shadow.

She cups his cheeks and stares into his shiny ruby eyes.

God how she missed those eyes...

"...Shadow..?"

"...hi...Blue Stripe..."

She cries instantly and passionately kisses his slightly chapped lips.

So much love and care went into that one kiss.

One kiss. That she hoped would never end..

As the two slowly start to kiss even more passionately, Me'Re is still staring at Sonic And sonic still staring at her.

Its almost as if their brains havent fully comprehended what was happening.

This wasnt a dream.

It was a reality.

So..to make sure his mind wasnt playing games on him again, Sonic attempted to get up but fell back down due to the numbess in his legs.

He hisses and rubs his legs, attempting to wake them from their never ending slumber but, of course, failed.

Me'Re quickly gets up and runs over to him, helping him on his feet

"..a-are you ok 'nikku ?"

"I-I..."

He stares into her eyes and analyzes them more closely.

"I dont think I'm dreaming.." He says as he gives her a gentle hug.

She's quick to start crying and hugs him back.

Shadow breaks the kiss and hugs Helena tightly, tight enough to remind himself that she was there. Finally in his arms again. Where she belonged.

"I missed you..way too much..." He whispered in her ear, a tear seeping its way out of his eye. Helena, on the other hand was a crying mess.

"I-I-I-"

"Shhh..its ok..save your voice.."

They stay locked in that position. And they didnt dare move.

They needed this

They needed eachother.

Sonic is quick to pull away and stare at her again.

"My god..its the eyes I fell inlove with."

Me'Re blushed and looked away, though Sonic is quick to put a finger under her chin and make her look at him.

They kiss.

Not as long as edgelord and the artlord in the corner though.

But still sweet, nonetheless.

They break it and sit on the other couch aross the room. Sonic lays on his back and Me'Re lays ontop of him.

"Promise me Sonic..."

"Hm ?"

She cries again and looks into his dreamy eyes.

"P-Promise you wont leave me alone like that again..."

Helena is quick to look at Me'Re then back at Shadow, who simply nods his head and pecks her forehead.

Sonic looks over and Shadow who smiles warmly at him.

He looks back down at her

"I....no....WE promise."

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Donee !

Hope you likey sissss ily <333