#i miss thier blog so much they are out of this world

[shameless-army]

Again today thinking about the fic mastur-bait and how it's a stellar fic. I have NEVER seen anything like that again. And i think about it till this day. And the fact that I can't reread it!!!! Criminal!!!!!!!

[silverstagspirit]

Survivor of Ramshackle -part 1

This is based off a scenario I mentioned earlier in my blog about Yuu's home being destroyed whilst they were away. There will be multiple parts to this.

A/n: I try to make the MC gender neutral, but I'm sorry if I make an error whilst writing. This Yuu is GN, by the way.

Warnings: mild swearing, Angst, Ace implies keeping you hostage as a joke, but Deuce quickly puts him in his place. The later chapters will get darker.

PART 2

-

Everyone had gathered into the mirror chamber to bid Yuu farewell. The boys had really taken a liking to them. Even if they would put them through a lot of trouble at times. Likewise, they loved the boys, too. As each of the boys take thier turns to say goodbye, they admit some tears were shed. Crowley had found a way home for Yuu right after Grim's overblot, but he informed them that once they went back, they would not be able to return unless extra steps were made. Which of course won't happen. And they accepted the offer. After all, they still had a life and a family back home who were wondering where they were.

"It's not fair! I don't want them to go!" Complained a certain fire-eared monster.

"Grim, we cannot just keep 'em hostage here... but that would be a good backup pla- OW!!"

"WE ARE NOT DOING THAT!"

"Did you really have to hit me that hard Deuce? That hurt man."

"Ace, we must respect thier decisions."

"Yeah, I know I know."

It was now Jack's turn to join the conversation. "Plans have been made for you Grim. So you don't have to worry about needing Yuu for school."

"The Great Grim still needs his henchman to do his bidding and clean Ramshackle."

"Just admit it weasel, you're going to miss them too."

"Fgnaahhh!!"

"You're not helping Ace." Epel turns to Grim. "We understand Grim. Yuu has become a great friend to all of us. But it's time to say goodbye."

"Hnnngghh"

"Yuu! Don't go! Who will feed me tuna? Who will scratch my ears? Who will wrap me up in thier jacket during the winter break? I'm ordering you to stay minion!" Grim cried. Yuu kneeled down to comfort him. "Grim, listen to me. I am going back, yes, but I will not forget you. You mean so much to me Grim. But I still have others at the other side of that portal who are waiting for me. I need to meet up with them." You brush a stray tear from his face. "Do me a favor Grim. Stay here, attend your classes and study well. So that when I return to you someday, you will be the Greatest Mage ever like you wanted and we can go on more adventures together. Does that sound alright?" Grim sniffed and nodded. "Please come back some day." "I can't promise it, but I'll try."

"Oi! Herbivore. Just get going already. I want to leave now."Some things never change." They sighed as Leona sulked. Leona wasn't the only one who was feeling annoyed more than sad at this time. They admit that some of these boys were assholes. Some of them have even yet to apologize after all they've put them through. But they won't let that get in the way of the good memories they had in this world. Or at least they hope.

-

Yuu had just said goodbye to the last person when the headmaster came in.

"Prefect! The dark mirror is now ready! You must come immediately if you are to return home!" He hollered.

"Well, here I go."

Yuu stands up to the portal with tears in their eyes. Their heart hammering. This was it. They were finally going home. They can't wait to see their family again. It's been so long. What has changed since they left? Is everyone doing alright? They needed to know. The mirror pulsates with magical energy. Sparking up at some parts. Yuu turned back to look at the other students one last time. Then, with bated breath, they stepped through the portal.

-

"So that's it."

Besides this one remark. The mirror chamber was filled with silence. No one dared say anything. Everyone filed out of the room and went back to thier dorms.

Two idiots were helping Grim settle into Hearstlabyul. And got collared after breaking three Queen of Hearts rules whilst doing so. Trey baked cookies for them so they didn't complain as much after. After they made it to thier room the three students began to chat and banter with each other. Nothing had really changed for them. Same for the other dorms. Vil did his makeup. Idia did his tech. Leona slept. Azul ran the lounge. Overall, nothing had really changed.

"Kalim. You need to do this assignment."

"Oh, sorry Jamil. I'll be right there."

The vice pressed his dormleader to do what needed completion but something was distracting him.

"Do you think Yuu made it back safe?"

"..." Jamil had a suspicion that that was what was on his mind but he was not prepared to answer that question. "I'm sure they're happy Kalim. Now please get this done. Crewel will not show mercy if you fail."

"I know it's just... I have questions: What do they do? What do they have to eat at thier welcome home feasts?-" "I doubt that they have feasts Kalim." Kalim ignored what he said and kept going. "What are thier family like? I mean they are from another world so thier family structure could be different to ours. Hnnnghhh! Why am I only asking these questions now that they are gone?!"

"KALIM!!"

The housewarden went quiet immediately.

"They are fine okay. Yuu would not want you to spend all your time worrying about them. So just relax. They are fine."

Kalim thought about what Jamil just said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You're always right Jamil." The boy beamed whilst the vice rolled his eyes.

----------

I apologize for any mistakes. I also edited this into they/them pronouns because I find it easier to write with.

A/N: Go check out probablynoposts blog. They did a series on this prompt whilst this was still in the drafts. They did a very good job I must say. So kudos to them.

Taglist: @kami-kun1003

[sa1lorsp3lllz]

So I finally finished Wednesday, I have a lot of thoughts about this show.

First of which I absolutly love this show it had me hooked from beggining to end. The story was great especially for a first outing to ease you into the world but more than anything what spoke to me was Wednesdays character.

As somone with high functioning Autism I releate to her so much the dry monotone voice where people cant tell if youre serious or sarcasic, The standoffish nature towards overs, The wish to never be touched and of course the hyperfixation.

I genually have never related a character so much I see a lot of myself in her espeshally when I was the same age as her. The most of which is the masking of all emotion like when Enid moved back into thier room you could tell that wednesday just wanted to say that she missed her but couldnt bring herself to do it. This is one of the biggest things I struggle with to this day, I will want to say somthing nice or do somthing nice for somone but for some reason like there is like this restraint in my mind to not do it and to just keep the wall up.

I have a fear just like her that letting my gaurd down to anyone even those close to me will expose me to somthing bad so its easier to just keep the wall up and show no emotions to anyone. I have to say though the end there where she let her gaurd down and huged Enid really hit home too as someone who does not like to be touched by others sometimes you do just need that hug to to know everything is okay and then its back to no touching.

I also have been though my fair share of being totally obivious to other peoples emotions focusing purly on my goal. I oftern dont mean to hurt or upset others but I oftern find it just happens and it takes me by suprise that they are offended cause to me I'm just trying to achieve a task reach a goal. Just like Wednesday trying to do everyhing possible to find out who the monster is and get to the bottom of the mystery almsot at the peril of everyone who has tried to make friends with her along the way at school.

Finally one of the things that seal the deal on how much I releate to her is that we're both obsessed with writing. For me at least it is kind of ironoic since im also dyslexic. But I too dedicate at least an hour a day to writing of some form. Usally my book of which is also a mystery novel. However sometimes I write unrelated things for example today it has been dedicated to writing this blog post.

So to summerise, I coudln't be more thrilled. Im not sure if Tim Burton was intending for Wednesday to be autistic but as an autisitic person I strongly relate to her so I'm happy with the decisions he and Jenna made for the character and I'm happy for that representation on screen as many oftern misunderstand autism.

I love this show so much I'm going in for another watch tomorrow and I hope to the dark lord that we get a season 2 I need to see more of this Wednesday.

[moved-to-piersgender]

So yeah, the ayes have it, here's the story of how I first met Mettaton. Put under a cut for way, way too much discussion of silicone weiners and age inappropriate Google searches

So it's the year of our Lord 2015, and the game Undertale's been out for a few months. I don't have a Tumblr account, but I lurk there a fair bit, and so of course I hear a few things about it there and at school (I went to a charter school for nerds, it was pretty great actually). I knew there were skeletons and a fish lady, but nothing peaked my interest enough for me to go out of my way to play it.

What did interest me as a teenaged nascent monster-fucker was bypassing the houses' parental controls and googling things I shouldn't. One of these things was the wonderful world of fantasy d.ildos. Not even in an "ooh, titillating" way at first, but very much in a "damn, just what are people gonna make to put in thier holes next" kinda way. To put it simply, I was a prurient little freak. Of course B.ad Dragon was the first one I heard about, but that opened up the opportunity to ogle other silicone members other sites were selling through the forum they used to have, where discussions of just how good the dicks were at thier... function were had.

A lot of people talked about paying extra for custom prints so thier sex toys would better match whatever character they were lusting after the most. And one site (Frisky Beast) for a while specialized in robot dicks for the robot fuckers. And one person, of course, was paying over $100 to get one in the colors of an Undertale character, one who's name I hadn't heard through passive pop cultural absorption. She planned and bought a truly impressive disco stick of pink, silver, and black, and linked to her Tumblr where she discussed the ordering process and showed off pictures of it further. You could beat a cop to death with this magnificent beast, I'm telling you.

And the funniest part? I checked her Mettaton tag because I was curious about this character I hadn't heard of and what he looked like to inspire such lustful enthusiasm... and my takeaway from the pages and pages of Mettaton railing and getting railed on her blog was that he was way too feminine for my taste. It was only after actually playing the game myself in 2021 that I realized that she was completely right actually.

Damn I miss old Tumblr sometimes...

TLDR: So yeah, I found out about Mettaton's existence via a robot fucker paying a fair bit of money for his fucking massive cyber-schlong... it's exactly what he would want.

[breaniebree]

Dear Brea,

I've been struggling with the site to let me comment to no avail🙄

So anyway here is a long rant:

First and foremost, I just wanted to say thank you, thank you for all that you do for all of your readers, for posting on this blog, answering questions, for giving us an idea of what each character looks like in your prospective, for giving us an idea of what thier lives is like with your pictures. Thank you for updating On ao3 and ff.net . Thank you for the Beautiful moments and for not giving up on this story despite whatever you might have going on in your private life outside of the world of Harry Potter.

I just dont think we/I say thank you enough.

No my thoughts on the latest chapter:

At long last we gave our fav Wizarding family together again 🤗woooohoooo🎉🎊

I love me some Weasley family fluff❤

Thank you for dedicating most of the Chapter to the family and not bringing anyone else into it . I truely missed all the Wealeys together.

Can we have more of that please?

Now Brea i beg of you CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ONE FROM RON'S ARSE?🍑🤭 🙏🙏🙏 i just don't see Ron to be THAT narcissistic about it and the storyline is getting repetitive.

One more thing : i understand hiny is the main focus of this story but considering the amount of time and chapters you've dedicated to other couples I am very peeved with you why haven't you given more attention to Bill and Fleur?

Bill is my favourite Weasley brother & he is so much more interesting to me then Charlie and given the fact that niether the books or movies gave us anything , i thought you might be diffrent sadly i have yet to satisfy my thirst for Bill and Fleur content. Unfortunately there is not enough FanFiction out there about them and few that there are , aren't finished or are unreadable.

You might disagree and you have every right to to but I love Fleur and i feel like she is over looked by her in laws and we havent seen much of her in ASC either. Which is sad because she is so interesting. I mean she is a champion in her own right, she fell in llove with someone so diffrent from her and choose to live in a diffrent country with a diffrent culture, she choose to stay and fight a battle which had nothing to do with her as it was in Britian ,for love and i just dont think the Weasleys appreciate her enough. She's more than just one dimensional ,and i feel like there is more to her and same to Bill. Its unfair have she get treated by the fandom 😤😭

Sincerely

New Fan

Hi, New Fan,

Thank you very much for your kind words and encouragement!

I am sorry you feel the story involving Ron is too repetitive. I will continue to write what I like there and I rather enjoy Ron and his fantastic bottom.

Bill and Fleur are not essential characters to this story. I like to drop in and check on them from time to time, but we will not really be seeing a lot more of them than you already do. This is not a Bill and Fleur story. I do agree that Fleur is a great character and it's fun to show her and Bill and how they are doing from time to time. But that will be it.

If you are looking for a Bill and Fleur story, I highly recommend More Than A Pretty Face by lilyevansjan30.

Thank you.

[world-of-puppets]

Puppetry Lost Media

In honour of reaching 50 followers last week (now 55 followers, as of writing this) I decided to cover two subjects of great interest to me: puppetry (of course) and lost media.

Everybody online loves a good old bit of lost media. Whether it be being a part of the many searches for the media in question, or watching documentaries about them on sites like YouTube. I’ve been mildly addicted to the latter kind of content for a while. From what I’ve seen, though, there aren’t many videos or articles out there specifically covering lost puppetry. So, in no particular order, here are a couple of pieces of lost puppetry I found while scrolling through the lost media wiki.

銀河少年隊 - Ginga shounen-tai AKA Galaxy Boy Troop (1963 - 1965)

Osamu Tezuka is one of the most pioneering figures in Japanese art and animation. Starting as a manga artist in the 1940s inspired by the animated works of American studios such as Walt Disney and the Fliecer Brothers, he adapted and simplified many of the stylistic techniques of both artists to create his own signature style of big shiny eyes, physics defying hair and limited animation. A style that would go on to heavily influence the world of anime and manga as a whole.

But animation and graphic art were not the only mediums Tezuka would dabble in. Ginga Shounen-Tai, or Galaxy Boy Troop in english, was a television series that aired on the public broadcast channel NHK from April 7th, 1963 to April 1st, 1965. Running for 2 seasons with a total of 92 episodes.

The series was a mixture of marionette characters that utilised the Supermarionation marionette technique, popularised by Jerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, and limited traditional animation. The story revolves around a child genius named Roy who leads a rag-tag group of heros around the galaxy in a rocket ship in order to revive the earth’s sun and later protect it from alien invaders.

Out of the 92 episodes that aired, only episode 67 still exists in its entirety with French subtitles, and the full episode can be found on YouTube with English subtitles uploaded by user Rare TezukaVids. According to user F-Man on the Tezuka in English forums, footage of episode 28 exists but with no audio, and episode 87’s animated segments exist without the marionette segments. F-Man also claims the reason for Galaxy Boy Troop’s disappearance is due to Tezuka not being proud of the series and having all episodes of it destroyed.

Personally, I think it’s a shame that pretty much all of this series is gone. From what I’ve seen in episode 67, it looks really charming. Tezuka’s signature character design style was adapted suprisingly well to marionettes, and the puppetry itself isn’t that bad either. I love the little face mechanisms like the blinking eyes, flapping mouths and others. It gives the puppets a lot of personality and charm. Like, just look at this old mans eyebrow mechanism and tell me you wouldn’t want to watch 92 episodes of this show;

Tinseltown (2007)

Tinseltown was a 15 minute sitcom pilot created by the Jim Henson company under thier Henson Alternative banner. The pilot was commissioned by the Logo Network and aired as part of the Alien Boot Camp programming block in 2007.

The pilot (and likely the series, had it been picked up by the logo network) features a cast of both puppets and live actors as characters. The premise revolves around Samson Kight, an anthropomorphic bull preformed by Brian Henson and drew Massey, and his partner Bobby Vegan, an anthropomorphic pig prefomed by Bill Barretta and Michelan Sisti, as they attempt to balance thier lives working in Hollywood with life as parents to thier sullen 12-year-old foster son, Foster, played by Paul Butcher. Other human characters included Mia Sara as Samson’s ex-wife Lena and Francesco Quinn as the family’s manservant Arturo.

The Tinseltown pilot used to be available on the Logo Network’s YouTube channel, but was later removed for unknown reason. Since then, the pilot has not been made available online. However the characters Samson and Bobby have made appearances in other Henson related works, such as the improv stage show Stuffed and Unstrung, where they played the role as the shows producers, and in a 2011 video on the Jim Henson Company YouTube channel celebrating Jim Hensons 75th birthday.

I find Tinseltown pretty interesting as I feel like it should be more noateable or known, considering that this is (as far as my knowledge goes) the first Jim Henson Company project featureing openly lgbtq characters as its leads, and would have been the first Henson show to do so had it been picked up. As someone who’s interested in lgbtq+ representation in creative media such as animation, I realised that there’s not many examples of canon lgbt characters in puppetry. The only ones aside from Samson and Bobby I could think off the top of my head would be Deet’s Dads from The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Rod from Avenue Q. Though, obviously, there could be more I’m not currently aware of. I don’t think the Tinseltown pilot was a masterpiece or anything. After all, there’s probably a couple of good reasons Logo didn’t pick it up for a full series. But I think it be cool if either Henson co. or Logo made this available online again, if just so we could appericate it as an interesting little footnote in the history of lgbtq rep in puppetry.

With that said, considering the pilot’s obscurity and the fact that it’s main couple haven’t been used in any Henson Related projects in almost ten years, as well as the possibility that there may be legalities preventing the Henson company from releasing it such as Logo still owning the rights, it’s unlikely we’ll see the Tinseltown pilot anytime soon.

Sonic Live in Sydney (1997 - 2000)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a fictional character no stranger to multiple interpretations of him and his universe across a diverse range of media. From the more light-hearted and comedic stylings of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Cartoon Networks Sonic Boom cartoon series, to more serious faire such as the Sonic SatAM cartoon and the Sonic Adventure videogame duology. One of the more obscure and stranger adaptations of the character came in the form of Sonic Live in Sydney, a one an a half hour live show hosted at the former Sega World Sydney amusement park in Darling Harbor, Sydney, Australia. Originally beginning as a live show with actors in meet-and-greet style costumes, the show eventually was replaced with a puppet show during its last two years.

The shows plot was set in an alternate timeline whos continuity was a mix of the SatAM cartoon and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Doctor Robotnik’s Death Egg crash lands in Sydney, Australia instead of Angel Island and attempts to take over before being foiled by sonic and friends. According to Phillip Einfeld of Phillip Einfeld Puppetoons, the company that made the puppets, Sega felt the costumed actor version of the show wasn’t dynamic enough, and wished to replace it with a version featuring live puppets with animatronics. Both versions of the shows plot are identical.

While Sonic Live in Sydney’s soundtrack is available on YouTube, and some photos of the show are available on the Lost Media Wiki, no footage of either the costumed actors version or the puppet show version have resurfaced. The show was closed down in 1999, possibly due to cost, shortly before the Sega World park as a whole in 2000. So unless there is someone out there who viseted the show between 1998 or 1999 who recorded the show via a handheld camera, footage of both incarnations of the show are likely forever lost to time.

On a personal note, I don’t have much to say on this one other than how gloriously peek gaudy 90s Sonic the set/puppet design is. I have no doubt finding footage of these puppets in action would truly be a silly delight to behold...

Legend of Mary (year unknown)

This one is a little different from the other entries on this list as while the film itself in its entiraty is available on YouTube for anyone to view, the information surrounding Legend of Mary, specifically its year of release, remains a mystery as of writing this.

I have mentioned the film before on this blog so I’ll keep it brief here: in summary, Legend of Mary is a short film retelling of the Nativity featuring the Rod puppets of Austrian puppeteer Richard Teschner. the video was uploaded to YouTube by user canada 150 archive. I looked up the people credited in the film and was able to find most of them, but didn’t find Legend of Mary listed in thier credits, and was unable to find the film on sites like IMDB, tMDB or Letterboxd. I reached out to Canada 150 archive asking if they had any info regarding the Legend of Mary’s release date, and after a coupe of months, they replied saying they didn’t know.

And that’s as far as I got on my search for answers, if anyone of you guys has any information regarding Legend of Mary, then it be of huge help in finding the release date.

Sam and friends (1955 - 1961)

Sam and friends was the very first puppetry television series created by Jim Henson alongside his colabarator and future wife Jane Nebel. filmed in Washington, D.C. and airing twice daily on WRC-TV and the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. from May 9, 1955, to December 15, Sam and Friends would mark the first apperence of Kermit (though not yet as a frog) and paved the way for Henson’s iconic and revered legacy in the realm of puppetry on film and television.

With the impact this show had in mind, it may come as a shock to some that almost half of Sam and Friends, specifically, 42 of the 86 episodes, are considered lost. With 16 existing, 8 documented, 9 known from memory, plus 8 existing Esskay commercials and 1 memory-known Esskay commercial. Some taped episodes have been shown at venues such as the museum of the moving image while others have been erased. It’s unknown if copies of these erased episodes still exist.

This post would become far to long if I were too list every episode missing from Sam and Freinds, but if your curious, the lost media wiki article has a comprehensive list of all lost episodes.

Annnd that about it for this post. This type of content is pretty different from the stuff I usually post. So I’m egar to see what you guys think about it. If you enjoyed this article, want to see more like it or have ideas for what puppetry-related topics I should cover in the future. And again, thank you all so much for helping me reach 55 followers. Your support really does mean a lot to me, and I hope you enjoyed this as a follower milestone gift.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this dip into lost puppetry, and have a happy holiday season!

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

You are the king of daddy finders and the king of asks! I love how uninhibited your posts are. It's so fun in a world that seems so prudish about sex appeal and sexualizing another person. It's not an act of violence to find someone sexually attractive. It's not disgusting to fantasize about another person and what they would look like naked or having sex. The only difference is that we used to use magazines and our imaginations until we were ready to fuck, but everyone and I mean everyone was loose about their sexuality. Orgies were a big deal. Now there's porn everywhere but no hookups around the corner or discreet meetups with frustrated husbands. In the 70s and 80s I would have been giving these guys like Tester, Blocker, and Patterson blowjobs on the regular, maybe even a hole to own for the night. It sounds like bullshit, but it's all this surveillance now that keeps the curious ones or the ones that are dripping bravado and high libido from acting on thier impulses to fuck another man's brains out. It's so easy to be blackmailed by a douchebag with a spy camera. I miss that freedom of sucking and fucking around and neither side cared because only you two (or three) would ever know. And it was always hot and uninhibited. So when I see some of the comments on your posts I remember how much things have changed, especially after the AIDS epidemic, and how much older I must be than some of you. Trust me kids, we used to run this shit before you even understood what being gay was. We used to live the erotic fiction written on this blog. But that's not a jab at you, I hope you get the full sexual experience you're looking for. We all deserve it. If we can restore ourselves to that time while having our current rights and voices, we would have been having us an Asner spit-roast buddy.

Thanks. I enjoyed reading this. It actually made my day.

[badbookopinions]

Chain of Iron - The Last Hours #2, Cassandra Clare

B: Shadowhunters is my favourite hate-read series, so imagine my surprise when I ended up genuinely liking many aspects of this book. I think Clare has improved as a writer by incredible amounts since City of Bone came out, and it’s really amazing to see sometimes. That doesn’t mean I didn’t still occasionally want to throw the book across the room.

Recently fake-married to the love of her life, Cordelia Carstairs is dealing with her alcoholic father, looking for a mysterious murder of Shadowhunters, and is trying to become the hero she knows she can be. Her husband James is trying to figure out why the so-called love of his life is actually not treating him that well and whether his status as the grandson of a demon is going to cause problems for him in the future. His sister Lucie is trying to marry a ghost. And, of course, Magnus Bane is there, so the Shadowhunters can profit off his unpaid labour.

I want to take a second to shoutout James and Cordelia, the best protagonists of all these series. I will freely admit to wanting to drop Jace down a well and every time I read a Julian-Emma interaction I’m going ‘you said she was your SISTER do NOT kiss her’, but like. James is literally just some guy! He’s normal and emotionally stable and I love it. And he and Cordelia are so good to each other!

And, of course, Cordelia and Alistair Carstairs supremacy. Even when they’re miscommunicating with the world and jumping to terrible conclusions, they’re both wonderful and I love them. Cordelia goes through life like ‘I’m here to make friends and fuck shit up and I’ve already made friends with every person in this city.’ As another mean gay brown person I’d be constitutionally obliged to like Alistair, but the way he has this capacity for gentleness he hasn’t been allowed to use gets to me.

Unfortunately, this time the side characters don’t shine as much - normally for me they steal the show. Like, Lucie is fine but I enjoy her hanging out with her brother and Cordelia so much more than her trying to marry a ghost, and the rest of the Merry Thieves have great banter with each other but don’t stand up as well to me when they’re doing solo scenes.

Also, as anyone could tell, this is a Kamala Joshi appreciation blog and an Anna Lightwood hate blog. Kamala, babe, you have nothing to apologize for, leave this girl who treats you terribly and reconnect to your culture, it’ll make your life better. Maybe talk to Alistair, I think you could both use some company.

Regarding race in this book, I have my opinions. Firstly, though, I do want to mention that while I don’t always think Clare sticks the landing, I have to recognize the role she’s played in increasing mainstream diversity. She and Rick Riordan had nothing to gain and everything to lose by making thier books as diverse as they did, but they chose to anyways. So whenever I’m frustrated by the way Magnus Bane is treated, I’m still remembering these books have the highest concentration of queer people of colour you can find.

But, like I said. It doesn’t always stick the landing. While I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of research Clare put into her character’s Persian heritage - the stories they grew up on, the food they eat - something felt like it was missing. I realized it was the fact that no one in Shadowhunters ever thinks about race or empire. This book is set in 1903, the apex of High Imperialism, and living in London they’re all profiting off of that, but it’s never mentioned. Nor do Cordelia and Alistair ever seem to realize they’re the only people of colour in a room. It seems like a small thing, but the fact that race didn’t seem to matter to them pulled me right out of the world.

Plot: I’m not going to lie to you, I skimmed this for the character interactions. Something about demons, something about murders. I will say that I loved Cordelia’s arc over this book, as her searching for a way to be a hero gives her a job as a paladin and then it all comes crashing down around her.

Characters: Cordelia and Alistair supremacy. Magnus Bane I am begging you to start ignoring these teenagers’ calls. Or at least charge them.

Setting: London was wonderfully realized. Again, though - the London of 1903 was not ignoring the empire it sat on top of. Even the culturally isolationist Shadowhunters had to have opinions on it, and I can’t believe they weren’t perpetuating colonial dynamics in the Shadowhunter world itself. Like. You can’t tell me for 15 books that the Clave are committed fantasy racists and expect me to believe you when you tell me they aren’t real-life racists.

Prose: nice. Wish people would stop quoting the Bible, though. Mostly just because I’m not from an Abrahamic faith and don’t recognize all these references so I think they’ve just started speaking strangely.

Diversity report: queer characters, characters of colour. I’m going to classify this as West Asian representation, but not as South Asian representation.

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Reviews: The First Temple or Bessie and Joe: The New OTP

Hello all you happy people! Amphibia season 2 moves right a long and it’s time for some video game shenanigans as we enter The First Temple! Family drama, snail on bird action, and outhouses await you under the cut with a recap/review with full spoilers. 

So we open with the Plantars having chocopillbug pancakes. Ironically my mom offered me chocolate chip pancakes after this and thank god for that. This is a rare treat to the point Anne didn’t even know they had choclate, and is suprisingly not strangling Hop Pop over this. Unsuprisingly he broke out the good stuff to try and make up for hiding the box and things are still VERY awkward between the two, with Hop Pop walking on Egghshells around Anne and Anne doing the same when he brings it up with both desperatley trying to avoid the subject and Sprig not helping by bringing it up a bunch. 

I like this a lot and didn’t really think about the series continuting any tension over his decision.. but should have. Partly because this is a modern animated show and most of this wonderful new wave of shows have a LOT of emotional nuance. ANd partly because this show dosen’t forget things even most nuanced shows forget: the fact the characters cause chaos and learn life lesons is outright RECOGNZIED by the show as a pattern and brought up quite often, as are the patterns that lead to it, like mostly being sprig and anne, anne’s impulsivness that sort of thing. It’s the kind of thing you just gloss over in most shows but this one lampshades to hell and back for funsies so when something THIS important happens, you’d better belivie it’s not just going to disappear. 

The tensions thankfully broken by a new arrival, as a massive sparrow shows up in the yard. “It’s a giant bird with.. books on it’s back.. what. “ Great delivery from bill there. Naturally it’s Marcy! 

I missed this little goober. Such a joy to be around, and she of course marvels over the Plantar’s house before getting back on track: She’s found the first temple.. even though she sent a letter saying that and it’s not commented on that she did. It set off the whole previous episode Marcy... you okay Mar-Mar?

That aside though it’s time for the first temple and Marcy asks for the Box, with Sprig trying to make a joke about how good thing she didn’t ask for it a week ago. 

Polly rightly punches him in the ribs... do frogs have ribs? Hold on.. okay here we go

Huh.. so they do not You learn something new every day. Well lack of ribs or no our heroes are ready.. while Marcy’s sparrow Joe is also ready TO GET IT ON. Yes really, he does a mating dance for Bessie, complete with an intersumental version of “Sylvia” from last season. God damn that bird’s got game. The only time i’ve seen more game is THIS. 

 Marcy tells him to knock it off. Look marcy your a pet owner now and as a pet owner, it’s your responsiblity.. to let your giant bird do horrifying things with a slightly smaller but still giant snail. it’s what nature intended. Nature was doing a lot of cocaine that day but we still honor her wishes. 

But anyways Marcy’s figure out something intresting about the box.. by winding it just right the gems pop out, which allows her to take one, we later find out it’s the green one, to use in the temple. So off we go with Marcy and the rest of the kids up top and Hop Pop.. screaming in Joe Sparrows claws. He’s fine. 

So while they get ready, Anne worries about the amount of puzzles and hazzards Marcy’s hyping for this but Marcy shurgs it off and gives her own big boast about how may RTS she’s beaten.. suspciously like Yuaan as one post on here pointed out. Not a huge suprise though, to Marcy she’d just be the grand hero out of one of her rpg’s and not think of how many people she probably killed or who she’s working for.. though you’d THNK given all the RPG’s both tapetop and on her switch she’s played, that Marcy would see that “the benevolent king turns out to be the big bad” trope coming. 

But Anne’s worry is not on the big bad of the show but on Marcy who has a tendency to get so in the zone she ignores the world around her, which goes from focusing on her game while helping anne get softserve leading to a mess, not letting Anne down in a play and.. Anne catching Marcy on tv as all the snakes escape from the zoo. 

Regardless our heroes arrive and while the awkwardness between anne and hop pop continues, they find a majestic temple.. and what appears to be an outhouse. Hey we all gotta poop sometimes, even people making a majestic temple.  If you don’t it comes out like this. 

So they head in and we get our first puzzle, a mysterious cube that lifts you into the air and allows you to tilt the thing around. 

Those of you wondering why I have such a strong reaction have ever never played breath of the wild or played it with a pro controller, i.e. NOT having to tilt the very thing your screen is on because Nintendo has failed to grasp that MAYBE people don’t like that, that it takes you out of the experince and that it’s really hard to focus on your screen while having to move the fucking system about. And the plantar’s getting horribly jostled around as she moves it is EXACTLY how it feels to play a puzzle requring that shit. 

Next is a color based tile dungeon leftover from Link’s Awakening DX. As marcy figures out the reds do fire and the blues do crushing... but she reads the language (And as she put earlier “Guess who learned an entire dead language?” God she’s precious. ) and finds a green with envy pun (Which Hop Pop takes offense to.. several of his friends are green.). Which is curious as given several citzens of amphibia are green.. why would they make a green pun? So she gets on one tile and Hop Pop plans to take the risk of getting on the other green tile, but Anne does it instead.. and things get heated between the two as Anne reveals she no longe feels like family since he did what he did for polly and sprig and hop pop takes offense as she IS. Even if he screwed up with her. But Anne’s near death experince activates the tile. 

The final challnge switches us from Zelda.. to Harry Freaking Potter. 

Now I used to love Harry Potter, with all of my heart. Then JK Rowling turned out to be a transphobic piece of shit who thinks she’s an ally, but is really a bigot who wants to “accept” trans people without giving them any rights. So yeah while I still love the starkid musicals, ore more accuratley the music from them, and own a copy of lego harry potter I got as a gift recently as both parties had no idea she was a monster when this stuff was made. Still a sore subject though, but if I didn’t bring up the similiarties I wouldn’t be doing my job as a critic and this was likely thought up long before JK outed herself as well...

No no the great mighty poo respects all peoples.. and wants to take their heads and ram it up his butt. He’s an equal opportunity butt rammer. 

Anyways this is the frog equivlent of chess flipfrog, and just like with Wizard chess, our heroes end up as the pieces minus marcy.. and in a nice twist on that scene, Anne ends up on the other side. Marcy is a grandmaster at it though so after an hour or so of play she almost wins.. only for the king equilvent to refuse to be taken and the automatic board she’s up against to send Anne against hop pop, and with our heroes magically restrained and given stone weapons, this can’t end well. Eventually though Anne’s forced to hit HOp Pop multiple times and while he says “well isn’t this what you wanted”, she says no.. she didn’t want to phsyically hurt him it’s just complicated. So we get one heck of an emotioinal scene as Hop Pop just wants to help and wants this to stop and dosen’t knoow how to fix this which as someone who desperatlyt ries to fix most emotional situations right away this hit very hard.. and her response of needing time hit harder. The two while not reconciled, ar ecloser to it and Marcy realizes what she’s done getting so obessed with winning and forfits for thier benifit. Our heroes leave, seemingly having lost.. only to find glowing arrows to the crap hole, which turns out to be the pedistal. The temple wasn’t just an intellegence test but empathy.. and the temples are clearly built to specifically test each of the chosen three, our heroines, specifically. Marcy’s tested her intellegence.. but also her willingness to let go of cold clyincal thought to do the right thing. That earns her her gem recharged and a flash in her eyes and her gem starts pointing to the next. She needs time to triangulate and hop pop and anne are back on workable footing... though our heroes offer to take a break instead of going to the next temple. 

Back in Newtopia, Yuaan reports on the toads gathering.. but dosen’t get to mentioning sasha before Marcy’s letter interrupts and Andridas oddly and aburbly dimisses her.. and goes to talk to a watcher with a thousand eyes, his “master” who has plans to undo the prophcey and get their revenge. 

Final Thoughts: This was a damn fine episode that gave Marcy some much needed character development, and gave the reveals of last episode some more emotiional fallout.  It also had some really great jokes as always. Top notch stuf. 

Next Time: Marcy tries to win everyone over through science and we FINALLY get an episode with the Frog Robot apparently. Horay

Next on this Blog: We go into final space yo! It’s unexpected births, ho yay, and horrifying zombie gary’s galore! 

Until then if you liked this review, follow me for more, join my patreon, comission a review if you please and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. Play us out jeff... and I haven’t done THAT bit in a while but eh. This song was too perfect. 

[flameontheotherside]

Why I still call Erik my TF in spite of despising the TF fad

Twin flame, twin soul, soul mate, etc. It's basically the same shit. I realized that the fad is a joke for another reason. It doesn't promote authentic unconditional love. People read all these stupid "Twin Flame Signs" and use those to place conditions on people for whether or not they will love another. Most people wouldn't just love someone regardless if they meet the "criteria". That's not unconditional love.

I've changed the way I thought about all of it because even if my tf was just a demon with a heard of gold (joke) I'd still love him. Even if he were alive, I'd still love him. It's unconditional love! I lack other ways to call Erik something besides my TF. Maybe spirit spouse is okay but my relationship is kind of private in that I don't go out of my way to detail all the intimate things. I don't want people getting ideas.

The TF thing is just toxic bullshit.

I cant associate myself with the toxic people who have thier heads up thier ass but for the sake of sharing my story and my journey with my TF, unfortunately this is how it has to be. I don't do TF readings anymore or market my tarot work for that. I don't want to be part of the problem but part of the solution.

When people tell me how I should view my journey or stick thier dirty nose in my business with gaslighting, I don't listen. They behave out of ignorance and maybe fear. It's likely they haven't read my blog to gain clarity. They just want to be dickheads without two braincells to rub together.

Whether I like it or not, --Sometimes I hate it.

Erik is my Twin Flame. That's it. I've dealt with this for over 5 years. We've done so much work, I've learned so many things, I've had so many miracles happen that it would be a crime to deny it all. It would be a great failure. I have the advantage in that he's in spirit to know for certain because of all the things we've worked on in the past 5 years. Most people don't get that. Me and a handful of others with a TF in spirit know this.

I didn't believe in TFs. To me it was a joke so to have Erik tell me we're TFs was a shock. The initial shock was difficult and then I thought he could be a demon or fucking with me. In the beginning it was easy to convince myself I was just crazy. As time went on it wasn't so. Now these days I don't worry if I'm crazy but I wish I was just because some days it's hard to have a dead TF. Who wants that?

A psychic told me that he would die.

For a few days in a row back in early 2009, I was having dreams about being with some guy hovering over the earth. My whole life I felt an urge to find a guy who didn't live in my state but was in the country. I wasn't looking strictly for love. I had a sense that time was running out and I needed to find him; to protect him. The psychic knew right away what I was saying without really saying it.

It tore me apart. I cried in my closet for a long time begging for it to not be true. I had to force myself to believe the psychic was wrong. Then when I felt Erik was really dead, I slipped into a very dark place and had to again make myself believe he was still alive. I HAD TO believe he was still alive even though I felt his spirit with me and the dreams where he'd show up began. My attempted suicide happened and I really needed to believe he was alive for the sake of my own life.

Today is the anniversary of his death.

I'm not okay. All I can think of over and over is what the psychic had said to me. I remember his voice. He was a world renowned psychic and the son of one who interested me. I didn't know if I believed in psychics but I grew up an intuitive in denial. They way he said what he said cut and burned.

Was supposed to go out with my bf today but I can't leave my bed. I can't stop beating myself up. I miss Matt too. Erik told me in a dream that one of my closest friends died. It was confirmed by looking at his FB page with RIP written all over it. I followed Matt to Texas where Erik's also from. We went coincidentally on his bday. Now Matt's dead. These past two months has had me so fucked up.

😘💕 -Hadassah Monique

[captzexx]

The Shadowlands - Blog Roll

The Lich King is usurped;  the Scourge have gone mad;  the way is open to the Shadowlands.  

No one is safe.

OOC: I figured with the impending coming of the Shadowlands I’d offer a quick update on all my blogs (hopefully in story form just much as I still have...alot of October stuff to write).  I am recently returned to the game because I am weak in the face of my obsession that is Warcraft despite how I feel about their actions in the past.  That’s my cross to bear, but my hope to be creatively fulfilled again with this bunch of characters I can’t quit.  I’ve opted to list the main characters as well as  big list of minor characters for both retail and classic.  SO here’s the list and a quick blurb on what’s to come for each of the mains, some have ends and others beginnings.

Mains

Eldridge Candell - Inquisitor of the Order of Embers - (Hunter 50, WRA)  @eldridgecandell Eld has returned to Stormwind, buried his father, and been asked by the Argent Crusade to aid in the coming war beyond life.  His service always remains with the Order of Embers and the Crusade is counting on his knowledge of what hides in shadow.  A deep hatred runs through the witch hunter for the Scourge and he is eager to aid in their destruction as he is to help end this dark invasion.

Zexx Candell - Hero for Hire - (Warrior 50, WRA) @zexxcandell The would be hero from the depths of the Multiverse has returned to his sea legs, having escaped the clutches of past enemies to find a home aboard the G’nash.  Keeping his head down for the most part has kept him being noticed and enjoying his time of quiet among the crew but that never lasts.  A stranger lead him to an even stranger funeral and to confront people he’d never though he’d meet.  In this world or another.  Now the way to the Shadowlands opens and a new desperate plan comes to fruition.

Reyomara ‘Rey’ Candell - Soldier of Fortune - (Hunter 12, MG) @gatesofthetroupe Youngest of the Candell children, Reyomara has decided that despite her lack of knowledge or history with her father that there should always be a Candell to cause trouble.  Taking up the family sword and having it adjusted for her height, the young soldier has taken the tales of her family from her Uncle Lan and sought out adventure again.  Recently her older sister Xaya and herself were forced to rescue their brother from the clutches of a Zandalar prisoner ship with mixed results.  Gendry was pulled from the clutches of his captors but at the same forced to reveal the stolen artifact that got him captured to begin with.  With Icecrown abuzz and the way made open, the sisters of Candell have joined thier brother follow the quiet words he hears now from the artifact.  Come to me, the way is made clear.  Come to me.

Oplisca Du’mere - Bearer of the Key - (Warlock 25, WRA) @opliscadumere  What do you do when you’ve won?  Oplisca was plagued by this for a time having finally caught her quarry and imprisoned him in the unbreakable puzzle box of the Dark Irons she designed.  You wait for a sign.  Sadly that sign began with the unescapable being escaped.  Alone, destitute, and even more depressed the half elf cultist had begun to suspect the end was the only way out.  But a chance moment in time set the walls of reality thinner and a voice called out to her from a broken treasure, a familiar voice.  Her master’s, her true love’s.  Now bearing the emerald pommeled sword, Oplisca follows the thin whispers northward and the chance to be reunited with all she had lost.  And to complete her task.

Minors

These are Alt characters or former Mains that may return at some point but for now are more fun times or when I want to try something new but are always up for stories or interactions. Erlain Candell - IC: Deceased Paladin (Paladin 50, WRA) @erlaincandell Fenrag One-Hand - IC: Wounded Warrior (Monk 50, WRA) @fenrag-sonofsevlaz Alfred Klaudin - IC: Sylvanas Loyalist (Warrior 28, WRA) @alfredklaudin Edmund Dumast - IC: Stormwind Scout (Rogue 35, WRA) @edmunddumast

@gatesofthetroupe​ Xaya Candell - IC: Eldest Candell Sibling (Monk 10, MG)  Gendry Candell - IC: Middlest Candell Sibling (Priest 10, MG) Gwynn Candell - IC: Youngest Missing Candell Sibling (Druid 10, WRA) Beatrix Gallina Candell - IC: MIA Paladin (Paladin 15, LH) Arallan Daemir - IC: Bronze Guardian (Paladin 45, MG) Coldbringer - IC: Enemy of Life (Mage 10, WRA; DK 10, MG) Coren - IC: Herald of Bronze (Druid 40 WRA; Priest 10 MG; Mage 1, LH)

Cheryl Duun - IC: Order of Embers Inquisitor (DK 10, WRA) Josiah Nubern - IC: Order of Embers inquisitor (Rogue 10, WRA) Sarasam Styrnlock - IC: Wayward Tidesage (Shaman 10, WRA) Ganus Klaudin: IC: Artificer (Mage 40, WRA)

Kinowin Du’mere - IC: Misplaced Twilight Cultist (DH 10, WRA) Fredman - IC: Drust Cultist (Druid 10, WRA) Classic ( @azerothiancausalityparadox​ ) Sevlaz - IC: Orc Pirate (Rogue) Grumvald - IC: Dwarven Solder (Warrior) Hornur  - IC: Holy Warrior (Paladin) Crawlen - IC: Servant of the Shadow (Priest) Juandia - IC: Speaker of FIre (Shaman) Kinowin - IC: Corrupted Wizard (Mage)

[science-lings]

You have made me curious. Please tell me about your oc's! What are their names? Why? Are they from a specific fandom or from a world of your own making? What do they look like? What is thier favorite fruit/color/food/drink? You made a spidersona a while back, right? Have you developed them more or have you moved on? (Sorry theese are a lot of questions at once you don't have to awnser all of them if u don't want to lol)

Okay so I have a great many main ocs so I’ll make little intros for them that answer each question lol

also here’s a link to the masterlist that might be more helpful and less rambly lol, it also links to art of the characters if you’re interested:

OC MASTERLIST

First of all, we have Rosalia (Rose) Scarlett Dawn who has healing powers, she (or at least her main design) started out as the spidersona you mentioned, but she evolved beyond even marvel oc territory lol. I draw her the most, she’s the one with red fading into white hair and sectoral heterochromia/ gold eyes, you can probably find her very easily on my art account @sciencelings-arts. Her image is also what I use as the icon for my writing account @sciencelings-writes which was a commission I got done for her last Halloween. She has become a very different character, although I still really vibe with her spidersona origins. She exists in the marvel universe as a SHIELD agent that does her best to use her powers for good but once SHIELD falls she works for Tony Stark and the Avengers as their on-call medical professional as she is kind of the expert in weird shit like injuries and sickness that originate from magic or alien stuff. Her sister Artemis also works for SHIELD as a field agent and does not have powers. Their relationship is kinda complex and depends on the universe that they’re in, like my original series is set in a bunch of different universes as I don’t want to constrict myself with just writing fantasy or sci-fi or whatever. Anyway Rose is a lesbian with underestimated powers and all that kind of shit. She’s fruity, they say an apple a day keeps the doctor away but she is the doctor and she will consume any apple within her eyesight. 

Second of all, this one will be shorter, Andromeda Starling, Basically her parents were scientists for hydra and she found out and ran away, resulting in her getting lost in space and gaining shapeshifting powers that evolve from partial shifts like gills and wings to full transformations like turning into a dragon because she wants to. She’s a sapphic asexual and is endgame with Rose, Her image is on my art blog (linked above) and my rarely used OC blog @sciencelings-ocs, After her transformation, her blood turned purple and her eyes turned purple and all her hair turned a cold white. She actively avoids going to earth and is the basic lone wolf type that comes across as mean but it’s mostly due to trauma and mental illnesses. She kicks ass and has no idea how to talk to people. She likes space fruit and actually knows how to cook space food. 

Next, we have Adisa Crow AKA Doctor Plague who is Rose’s nemesis, She got her powers from trying to recreate Rose’s powers within her and it going very wrong. Her powers can reverse other character's powers and skills, whether that’s a direct opposite like making a fire-themed character control ice or whether it’s just twisting the power against them, like making Andromeda’s shapeshifting uncontrollable as her power normally relies on her focus and complete control. But her powers come with a price as they are constantly affecting her, giving her hallucinations and manipulating her thoughts and emotions drastically. She wears a plague doctor mask when in full supervillain mode. She and Rose have a full friends to lovers to enemies to friends kind of arc as when she is released of her powers she might be forgivable with a whole lot of therapy. She only drinks Redbull and coffee. 

speaking of therapy, next we have Alexandria Iriklitis. She’s a superhuman therapist with a magic voice. She mostly uses her voice to manipulate emotions but it’s powerful enough to levitate objects and break glass, and even bring down buildings and stuff. She has very colorful hair and very solid black geometric tattoos all over her body. She’s not normally a fighter type of character but she does appear as a peacock siren bard in the fantasy au and that comes with having wing arms and a big dramatic peacock tail. She is the only emotionally stable one usually but she’s not perfect and although it takes a lot to rile her up, she can lose her shit and no one should be within fifty miles of her when that happens. 

Next, we have Ma’at Ramses who is a necromancer goth mom who adopts death kids that are ostracised from the normal magic organizations. She has a magic sword hilt that shifts into different weapons at will and a magic helmet that resembles an Egyptian pharaoh's crown that gives her extra abilities. She’s constantly in contact with the dead and her mission is to give them peace but more and more keep coming to her for help and no matter how much she works, she is never finished.  She constantly feels the rage from the dead that need to be avenged and it takes tremendous control to not take it out on the people around her. Eventually, she figures out that those feelings are not her own and she can control how much they affect her and she becomes a much less angry person. She’s kinda morally gray as she has no qualms about things like murder of she decides that the person really deserves it. She really hates injustice and doesn’t just sit around for people change and you know, heavily bigoted politicians just disappear sometimes, that’s just how life is. 

Next is Diana Schmitt, a mutant who can control the heat of objects (mostly metal and glass) and the molten outcome. She’s heavily scarred on half of her body including her face and she’s missing an arm and a leg that she replaced with layered metal and glass prosthetics. She’s trans and sapphic because I can’t make cishet characters to save my life. She uses her powers to make weapons and tools as she has big blacksmith energy. also, she's six feet tall and super buff. She's the whole gentle giant type and is super friendly. Her scars and limb loss are from a malicious attack with ice which causes her to hate any kind of cold and even makes ice a trauma trigger for her. She hates the winter and tries her best to avoid cold places. She is immune to incredibly high heat and has literally slept inside of a volcano with a magma blanket. cozy. 

Lastly (I think) we have Guinevere (Gwen) Kaimana. She’s an actual mermaid. and a Pirate. She can control the sea and temporarily turn her tail into a skirt over fishnet tights covering human legs. When out of the water she has to take special care to be very hydrated. She can faint if lacking enough water in her body.  She has Polynesian tattoos on her arm and torso that glow white in the dark but only when it’s very dark like when she’s very deep in the ocean. She wields dual scimitars (those curved pirate swords) and is bisexual. She has a very unearthly energy and is basically a myth to the people on land, but on the seas, she’s known as the Queen of the Seas and is feared by the people who don’t know her. She has big found family energy with her crew and mostly just focuses on saving sea life and causing trouble for the us military because she thinks it's funny. They tend to overreact and try to find her and “bring her to justice” but they can never find her, no matter how much they search. Before becoming a pirate she had spent several unaging decades in isolation in the ocean before she was willing to associate with people again. Sometimes she gets confused by current events and technology when she visits the land but she hates showing it. 

[mittensmorgul]

Paging Mr. Werewolf

We were robbed of the Wayward spinoff, but s15 of Supernatural seems to be connecting the underpinning themes back into the main narrative. Rewatching 13.10 right now, and even from the opening scene, I can’t help but see Chuck’s hands all over the Wayward story and characters, and on s15 in some of the exact same ways. Like Chuck borrowed from an abandoned show, or in-narrative terms, an abandoned universe. The Bad Place. And I can’t help thinking of that world now as one of his abandoned drafts. The connection to that world was Kaia, and Chuck couldn’t quite figure out how to send Darth!Kaia back to her own world, or reunite her with her “dead” half.

But Claire and Kaia both are being mirrored in Eileen in s15, sometimes quite literally and directly. It breaks my heart that Eileen’s salvation has yet another casualty tied to it, in Kaia’s death and stranding in an “underworld” from which it seems there’s no hope of saving her now.

15.05, however, directly connects Wayward to Chuck’s “process” through the otherwise seemingly irrelevant-to-the-larger-narrative cold open to 13.10.

Claire shows up to rescue a kidnapped child from a pair of werewolf brothers (or at least they certainly seem like brothers) in a dilapidated and isolated cabin. The two werewolves bicker like brothers (one “playing with his food” by frightening the girl, the other chastising him for it while seemingly attending to more practical matters).

In 15.05, we know they’re werewolf brothers Chuck used as specifically as “foreshadowing” to show Sam and Dean a parable about themselves, and how Chuck intends their “story” to end. One werewolf brother kills the other. Those werewolves also lived in an isolated cabin together, but it was warm and homey, and they’d isolated themselves intentionally. They didn’t want to eat humans-- or at least one of them didn’t. The other had been humoring his brother, but then confessed that he had no intention to stop feeding on human hearts. And his brother killed him for it, and then killed himself. Because it became clear after both brothers were dead that THEY weren’t the point of this hunt, it was the supposedly innocent victim the brothers had kidnapped that was the actual danger to them.

In 13.10, Claire nearly missed the third werewolf while she was distracted untying their innocent victim, but she had just enough warning by the girl’s reaction that there was another danger in that cabin, and she easily pulls out her hidden gun and kills the third werewolf.

In 15.05, Sam and Dean never saw the true danger coming, Chuck’s “mole” in the story, that thier innocent victim was neither, and was actually Lilith acting directly and without artifice as Chuck’s Plot Device. Her goal was to destroy the one weapon they had against Chuck, and torturing them like a cat playing with a couple of mice was just gravy.

Nobody ever said Chuck was a subtle author.

In this way, though, Eileen is being paralleled to Claire. Claire wanted to hunt alone, to prove herself, to do what she could to save people and hunt things. That’s very much what Eileen had always done before becoming wrapped up in the BMoL nonsense that brought about her original death. Her communication came too late for Sam and Dean to have helped her (they only received her letter asking for sanctuary after she was killed). She’s also paralleled to Claire through Patience and her vision of the future.

Patience gave up everything-- her education, her relationship with her father, her entire life as she knew it-- to go to Jody and warn her about the vision she had of Claire’s death. Patience... is paralleled to Sam in 15.06-15.08, and his “agreement” with Eileen.

CLAIRE: If this is about me hunting alone, I know I should’ve called more, but I’m fine. I’m good! I’m safe. JODY: No, you’re not! Patience had a vision, that’s why she’s here. PATIENCE: I… I saw you die. [We see a flashback of PATIENCE’S vision. It is set in THE BAD PLACE, we see forest, a gigantic claw, a spear piercing a body and an unconscious CLAIRE in JODY’S arms.] JODY: Claire, she’s the real deal. CLAIRE: So every vision you have, it always comes true? PATIENCE: I don’t know. I’m still figuring all this out. CLAIRE: So you might be wrong. JODY: Claire this is serious, I’m trying to protect you! CLAIRE: Jody, that’s always your excuse. Every time we’d go out on a hunt together you’d take care of the monster while I’d just wait in the car. JODY: That happened one time! CLAIRE: It happened every time, Jody! You, you’ve never even seen what I can do. JODY: Claire, if I put the brakes on you it’s because you can’t go dive bombing into every fight… CLAIRE: Yes I can! That’s how you save people. Sitting back and making the perfect plan, losing time, that’s how people end up dead. JODY: And if you end up dead? [Both of them are now standing. JODY is visibly upset.] CLAIRE: I won’t. JODY: Claire, you can’t just run away from this. CLAIRE: Watch me.

Sorry for the length of this snippet, but it’s all there. Well, all except for this bit:

PATIENCE: Those monsters? They’re coming, lots of them. KAIA: They’re after me. CLAIRE: Then we should stay and fight. PATIENCE: There’s too many, they’ll kill us. CLAIRE: Maybe, maybe not. PATIENCE: Look, I gave up a lot to come here. To do what was right, to save you. You want to brush that off? You want to think I’m a fake, fine. But I’m telling you right now we’re all in danger. KAIA: Claire…

Because this is EXACTLY how I have seen Sam’s “visions” in s15. And exactly how I’ve seen his resurrection of Eileen, too. Just as Patience saw her own visions, and accounted for her own actions toward Claire. She gave up a lot to try and save Claire, and Claire... was just... dismissing that sacrifice. By the end of the episode, though, they had “reached an agreement.” Exactly like the agreement Sam and Eileen seem to have reached. Sam wasn’t being “overprotective” of Eileen, he was being reasonably protective based on everything he’d sacrificed to bring her back, and what saving her has become a symbol of to him as a result.

Eileen’s salvation isn’t his descent to the underworld, it was-- like saving Claire was for Patience-- The Illusion of Success. Claire was never the one in danger. It was Kaia all along, but Patience had an “incomplete vision,” that led her to believe that it was Claire in danger. Like Sam’s visions in s15, that seem incomplete, that only show confusing repetition of the theme of him and Dean killing each other over and over in different alternate scenarios of reality. Like Patience did in 13.10, Sam still lacks the complete picture to understand the context of what he’s seeing.

I’m looking forward to Sam’s talk with Chuck in 15.09, where he will finally understand the full context of what they’re actually up against in “Chuck’s story.”

Going back for a moment to The Illusion of Success, I’ve been thinking a lot about the meta @flyingfish1 wrote a while back (I believe the last update was during s12, actually) about The Heroine’s Journey. Because I believe with the re-incorporation of a lot of the Wayward themes into s15 that this is a structure that Supernatural has folded back into the narratives of TFW with a vengeance. For a quick refresher on this type of narrative, here’s a handy recap:

https://mythcreants.com/blog/using-the-heroines-journey/

And for more posts about Supernatural on the subject, starting with that original post I referenced above:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/heroine%27s+journey/chrono

Tell me this isn’t the journey all of TFW in s15, and honestly Chuck’s journey as well? And considering Chuck DIRECTLY painted crosshairs on Jody and Donna in 15.08 (apologies for the formatting, but the official transcript still isn’t posted so I’m working from my personal unfinished version, but this is the relevant bit of dialogue):

DONATELLO/CHUCK: Oh, Donatello's not here any longer. Hey, guys. It's Chuck. Prophets speak the word of God, sometimes indirectly. Sometimes they're my bluetooth. So, here's the thing. Usually, I really love our little... process. I toss something at you guys, and you slam it right back. It's fun, like tennis. With monsters. But this... Let this one go.

Or what?

CHUCK: Or I go all-powerful. Maybe not on you. Not right away. But, let's see, there's... Jody, Donna, Eileen. Pretty much everybody on your speed dial. So drop it. 'Kay?

Please also reference the post I made yesterday about 13.09 for additional reading on the subject of blood and death and monsters, and Chuck’s planned ending:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/189786572395/blood-and-death-and-monsters

The descent to the underworld of The Bad Place, and the descent to the underworld of Purgatory are beginning to look horrifyingly similar, yes?

Hell, and the Cage specifically with Michael’s return from the underworld, is Sam’s trial.

Purgatory and everything it represents from s8 is Dean’s trial.

Which leaves Cas... to confront his own trial, versus the Empty.

We’re going deeper and deeper through the layers here. TFW stood together in Hell, and failed. Dean and Cas will have to stand together in Purgatory (and I suspect they will fail on some level), and then Cas... I’m not going to speculate further outside of gesticulating wildly at what the logical progression of his personal arc must bring him to face.

The main thing I think it’s important to remember is that Chuck has deluded himself into thinking his story is a Hero’s Journey-- fighting the monster and returning victorious, but typically combined with a tragic loss. He’s entirely unaware of the fact that we’re not telling that story-- and HAVEN’T been telling that story-- since Amara was freed from her wrongful imprisonment. The Divine Feminine has returned to the universe to restore the balance, and this is now Her story to tell. If only Chuck will stop meddling in it and trying to make it all about him.

The goal of a Heroine’s Journey is, after all, the reintegration of the masculine and feminine, resulting in Union. The Heroine (male or female) must then fulfill the story by helping others find this balance themselves. And from the linked post about “Using the Heroine’s Journey,” the final step gives me hope that this is where Supernatural will find its ending:

“If it fits your story, this is also the time to discard your duality altogether. The heroine could reveal that it is false, arbitrary, or destructive.”

This seems to be where the narrative is pointing right now, at any rate. I wish I had enough time to address this more fully-- including Billie’s place in the story, as well as Mary’s, Rowena’s, and Amara’s. There’s just so much.

[weirdisnowthenewcool]

What's your favorite part about making music?

oh my god, you have no idea what you’ve released.

There are so many parts of making music i like. its hard to even begin.

There is something so wonderful about covering a song you love, you just embodying it in this viseral way, its simulatiously yours and its not, it blurs the idea of ownership altogether and challenges you to think about art as something you build on not something you finish. YOU get to partcipate in the creation in a way that other mediums don’t lend themselves as well to

Making you’re own music is a weird experience. You have these sounds in your head and then you try and capture them and get them out. Or sometimes you’re just, playing around and song appears out of nowhere and you have to chase it down before it disappears. There are so many ways to compose as well, i love challenging myself to play with new ideas, and learn about the theory of things, its like learning the grammar of a langauge you’ve always spoke and suddenly everything is so much more clear and this whole new world opens up

Releasing songs is also amazing, i’ve talked about it before, but the idea that something i’ve made being a part of someones life is truely overwhelming. Music is part of our world, its in our dna. The idea of someone having a song of mine stuck in their head as their shopping? humming along to it in the kitchen? showing it to thier mum? listening to it when they fall asleep, or the idea that it helped someone get through something, helped them express the ineffiable? i can’t think about because its like,,, too much. The absolute honour of decorating a little bit of someones life, of being a peice of the background it just.... I really can’t think about it, some of my songs have over 6000 plays and i can’t even begin to visualise that. It truly wonderful.

MAKING MUSIC WITH PEOPLE???? UNPARALELLED. Like i am pretty much writing a story about who completely awesome making music with people is, its honeslty transcendent. I know that sometimes the stuff i write can come off as romantic, but honestly? thats just how playing music with someone is. You are play Together, you are neither independant or the same, you’re stands of the same rope twisting around one another to creat something bigger than the sum of its parts. i miss it a lot, even collaberating wiht someone online for welcome to the cave was so much fun, I’d do it again in a heartbeat

I could go on for hours and hours, infact i do, i literally have 14333 words of writing about making music with people in the folk au im doing. God i haven’t even talked about listening and joing in with music from other cultures, its dkagjfdj

have i answered this on the right blog?

[marcoacesabo]

Hey! I was just wondering, if you were taking requests, could you please write a continuation of the Cinderella AU? Also, I absolutely love your writing! Your blog brightens my day every time! 😊❤

“Where have you been!?”  His stepmother screams the moment he walks through the front gate of thier property. Her fuffy inflated hair is lopsided- probably because Ace wasn’t around to make it- leaving some stands to fall into her face.

She has fist balled on her hips and Ace shrinks in on himself when she storms over.  “You insufferable brat! I sent you hours ago on a simple task and then I get word from the castle claiming you have a private dinner with the prince!? You think you can steal my sons’ future you little whore!?” 

He opens his mouth to defend himself, it not like he wanted to there but before he can so much as make a sound she backhands him. Her large rings cut his cheek, slicing right through it the skin and filling Ace’s face in red. 

He moves his hand upwards merely on instinct to protect his face but by doing so his stepmother see her chance to turn the tables in her favor and starts screaming  “Barbarin! Help! He’s attacking a lady of society! Help! Someone help!”

Around them people stop, staring at Ace with disgust. Men leave their places running at the servant with murder in their eyes. 

 “Get away from her street crawler!”

“Monster!”

“Thief!”

“Barbarin!”

Ace has a moment to stare in horror before his step-brothers are upon him having been watching from the porch the whole time. He tries to fight back he truly does, but one grabs his arms while the other begins punching him in the stomach. 

The pain rises with each blow, his breath getting knocked out of him and he can’t even break free from the hold unable to do anything other than grunt in pain.  

A mob forms around him, fancy skirts and expensive suits everywhere Ace looks with some varies of middle and upper class but no one seems to be on his side. Hands appear from all sides each inflicting more pain. Ace can’t tell up from down, can’t tell which voice is who and he thinks he’s going to die.

Beaten to death by a mob.

“What are you doing!?” Some shouts somewhere out of Ace’s line sight. He sways between consciousness bruises and blood alike coloring his face but he can tell the crowd is losing its momentum.  “Release him at once! What is wrong with you all?! He’s just a boy!”  

Someone pushes their way to the middle of the crowd. Somewhere along the line Ace had fallen to the ground, having used his arms to protect his face so all he sees of his savior are expensive boats, shined to perfection before his vision goes black.

 Ace woke slowly. It wasn’t overly pleasant as every nerve in his body fired off in pain as soon as he did. A moan of pain slipped from his mouth as he tried to crack his eyes open.  One was too swollen to do so, but the other followed his mental command better. 

It took a quick turn of the neck to learn he had never been in this room. It was white with splashes of blue along walls giving the room a sense of both high class but homey.  

White furniture decorated the room, with varies shades of royal blue but the majority of it all had a whale of some kind. 

As he was looking the door was slowly pushed open, causing Ace’s head to twist in that direction. A maid stood there, her gaze downcased and politely standing. 

“How are you Sir Portags?”  

The wounded man blinked forgetting for a second that he went by that name. His mind was still slightly foggy.  “I am...well. Where am I?”

The words are slower then he intended them to be but it’s rather hard to think at the moment. 

She tilts her, before bolding stepping towards him, completely ignoring his question. Ace watched her approach but was surprised when he felt her hand on his shoulder even though he thought she was still too far away from him.  

She holds up her hand, lifting up four fingers as she asks seriously  “Sir Portgas how many fingers am I holding up?”   there is a slight pause where she hastily adds “If you can not count please do not worry-”

Ace cuts her off with a grunt  “I can count. Four”

The woman’s lips thin before he puts two down  “now?”

“Two”

“How about now?”

“Six”

She sighs stepping back.  “Sir Portgas I am afraid you hurt your self more then we thought. Do you have any pain in the head?”

Well now that she mentions it Ace did wake with a might headache but it was ignored in favor of everything hurting.  He told her as much making her nod.  “It seems you may have a concussion. I will inform my Lord and you can rest. Please try to avoid the sunlight.”  

Ace watches her leave but just as she nears the door he remembers his manners and the way Rouge taught him to teach the help.  “Thank you very much. I appreciate it Miss...”

He can’t tell but he thinks she smiles at him, though she seems a bit blury.  “Bay. Whitey Bay, Sir. And no trouble at all. My Lord was quite worried about you after coming across that...unpleasant scene.”

Despite her polite tone Ace can still hear her disgust and it makes him like her all that more. 

“Who is your Lord if you do not mind me asking?”  It had to be someone very high standing. Someone far above those attacking him otherwise that mob would never have stopped.  

Miss Bay makes a hearty chuckle.  “Why only the greatest man in the World. My Lord, King of Moby Dick kingdom. Edward Newgate.”  

With a click, the door closed behind her leaving Ace wide eye and highly surprising.  He places his head in his hands ignore the sting that runs through him for it as he sighs. 

Great. Even more royalty. Just what he needed. As if he hadn’t had enough for a lifetime with the day alone. Just this morning everything was so normal but in a couple of hours, his life had been flip upside down due to two unfair, annoying, self-righteous pair of the most insufferable princes he’s ever had the displeasure of meeting!

The door is suddenly slammed up causing Ace to jump, swinging his head to the doorway-

“Sir Portgas! Are you alright!?”

“Who dare hurt you!? I will have them punished at once!” 

Perhaps Miss Bay was onto something when she mentions the concussion. Because Ace could swear there were four huffing blond princes standing near his bed. He squinted at them until they started to focus a little more and Prince Marco worried face was easier to see.

Though it blurred after a few seconds he knew it was the two prince he left with the last word earlier that evening. “ Er...”

“We understand if you are displeased with us!” Prince Sabo hastily said as if though he was worried Ace would yell  “After you left, we sat like civilized men and talked it out. We came to the realization that we have been unfair to you.”

“We wanted to make things right”  Prince Marco picks up right where he ended sounding just a tad bit desperate  “Please allow us to apologize properly. We were raised better-”

“-Not that our standing is above yours! It’s merely we were taught  to behave-”

“-It was a misunderstanding-”

“-I wish to change the treatment of the helping class-”

Ace head spun with the multiple sentences coming at him at once so he held up a hand happy that they both became silent as soon as he did.  “I just wish to rest. Please.”

“O-of course” Prince Marco stumbled  “Please rest. I shall send for a doctor soon.”

Ace nodded eyelids slipping but a hand on his cheek made him jump as Prince Sabo gently caressed the bandage covering the cut of his stepmother’s ring  “Please do not sleep. The maid- I mean Miss Bay informed us of a possible concussion. It would not be safe to-”

“Don’t touch me”

Ace bit his lip as soon as the words left his mouth but surprisingly Sabo let go.  “I am-”

“Please forgive me I did not mean to be so forward!” 

Ace raised a brow at Sabo’s high voice. He then stares unimpressed at him while the blond prince squeaked.  Next, to him, Prince Marco made a very loud gulping sound and Ace rolled his eyes. 

Royals are idiots he decided. 

[murdocsagaypirate]

Mental illness rant~

I feel like I'm waking up from a coma into a my normal reality of crippling depression and anxiety. Where instead of looking forward to talking to my favorite cartoon character I'm looking forward to paper deadlines I can't meet because I'm literally physically encapable of focusing on forming sentences... besides like. stream of consciousness... Ranting like this of course... I don't know like... How my body and mind does this. I don't understand. It doesn't seem to corralate to anything. Because when I'm depressed I make an effort to come out of it, I eat better then when I'm not depressed and get better sleep because I'm actively trying. Where as when I was writing everyday and painting and activily practicing my religion and loving it and enjoying life and not feeling too stressed about school I would just straight up skip meals and stay up late because I was too busy enjoying whatever activity I was focused on and still felt perfectly find.... As I'm writing this I realize I'm just straight describing a manic phases so... Idk. I guess it's not really a mystery, I have bipolar. Plain and simple... I... I hate it. Lol I get that fucking. No one doesn't hate thier mental illness. But I hate it so much. And I haven't been legitimately suicidal in a while but like. I don't want live like this and I'm afraid one day I'll REALLY not want to live with this anymore. I just want to feel some kind of lasting sense of control. If not the world around me but AT LEAST my own body.........

Anyway I miss Murdoc. That's how this ties into this blog.. yeah......