#i skipped some episodes but i might get around to writing those out later. for now i'm not making this too difficult for myself

[idkanythingbutiamtrying]

I Found You

Duskwood/Moonvale fanfiction

Even though mv had many disappointing factors I did like the story (especially the dw sidestory ending😅) and wanted to write my own version of how it could continue. This is probably not super realistic, just an idea I had. Also I never shared a fanfiction on here, so I wanna apologize in advance if it is not that great. 

SPOILERS FOR MOONVALE EPISODE 1

//gender-neutral MC 

„MC. I will find you“, flashed the message on the screen. MC could do nothing but stare at the screen in silent shock, every thought wiped from their brain. They watched the font glitch slightly and then disappear. Could it really be…? Was he really still alive? They had slowly lost hope that the possibility could still be real. Sure, they told Ash earlier that they still held out hope, but that was maybe more to convince themselves. But now, seeing this message…it must mean he was still alive, because what else could it mean? They felt tears welling up in their eyes, if because of relief or shock they could not tell. However they knew, this meant they still had to wait to find out more. And right about now, it seemed that wait might actually kill them. 

—-1 week later—-

They were just about to make themselves some coffee when their phone vibrated, signaling they received a new message. This could be anything, they reminded themselves to keep them from running to the phone. Maybe it’s not Jake. Maybe it’s the group. Maybe…but their thoughts stopped when they grabbed their phone to see a slightly glitching screen telling them they had a new message. With shaking fingers they pressed accept. A font flashed on their screen. Coordinates. A date. A time. They rushed to note it down and finished shortly before it vanished again and an all too familiar picture of a mask popped up. „I look forward to meeting you“, the screen now red. Then it glitched and went black again. Jake. Meeting Jake. Was all they could think, their heart beating so loud and fast they thought it might jump out of their chest. Then they had to sit down before their legs gave out on them. 

—- A few days later —-

They exited the train that had brought them to a small city, about one hour away from where they lived. They checked the maps application on their phone to see how far they still had to walk towards the location they received. Just a few hundred meters. They took a deep breath. Just a few hundred meters before they could see him. Then they started walking towards the location, trying to stop their circling thoughts. Thoughts circling around him. And between all those thoughts a tiny little voice that told them this could be a trap. They didn’t know for sure it was him who sent this message. It could have been everyone. But that was more than unlikely, they told that voice to hush it. It was bright day. What kind of trap would that be. Still the voice started to get louder as the forest at the edge of the city came closer. They took another deep breath. Almost there. Warily they looked around while walking. And then they saw it. A dark figure standing in a small street, leaning against the wall of a house. A dark hood and black hair. A dark mask covering the lower part of his face. MC stopped as their heart skipped a beat and their world stopped spinning. Then they noticed that he had started looking at them and took a step away from the wall he had leaned against. And then everything set into motion and they could just barely keep themselves from shouting out his name before running towards him. They embraced him as soon as they reached him and pressed their face into his hoodie. It took only a second before he in turn wrapped his arms around them. “MC”, he said quietly: “You came.”

They looked up at him, saw the glimmer in his eyes. They were dark and full of emotion. 

“Jake.”, they whispered, not able to say anything more for the moment. They saw tears building up in his eyes. 

“You kept your promise.”, they said, not able to keep the astonishment in their voice hidden. 

“I kept my promise.”, he assured them: “I did not get caught. And I found you.”

They felt tears in their eyes and hid their face in his dark hoodie again. 

“You should know, MC, that there is a reason I picked this town to meet you. Apart from the conditions needed to ensure us as much security as possible of course.”, he said and she could hear faint amusement in his voice. 

“What is it?”, they mumbled in return. 

“They have a Chinese restaurant here.”

[stacotto]

I shouldn't be surprised when the episode title is, "The End of Hope", but.....fuck. I can barely keep my thoughts together as I write this, but, here we go.

Watching Earth House deal with the fallout of Aerial being the new poster child for the evil Spacian overlords was damn sad, Aliyah pretty much nails how I feel about it, though Lilique going "not our problem" is both a mood and unexpected (not in a bad way ofc). It was really sweet seeing Petra be nice to Suletta, on top of commiserating over their love lives, really added some nice depth. Her dialogue was Death Flag city tho. For those that care, the post-episode radio program hinted that she might still be alive, though just judging by the rubble she was under she might not have working legs anymo- OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Clever.

Love to see Guel finally show off why he's always been an Ace in the making; my man faced off in his still school-spec'd Darilbalde vs a freshly upgraded Michaelis set to full power, and came out on top. Really appreciating his ability to use his drones, he's definitely the series' Quattro. Feeling bad for Lauda tho, dude just learned big bro just killed their father then gets the call at the end probably about what to Petra. Can already tell he's going to have a lot of internalized guilt over this happening because he skipped out on their date (for an admittedly important reason) unless she gets the chance to tell him otherwise.

RIP to the Earth House hangar and Chuchu's Demi, but I take solace in the fact that I called the Barding being her next custom suit the moment I saw the Gunpla images (obviously the Barding we saw in the episode was missing some details from the gunpla like the second head mounted on the backpack which is definitely going to be salvaged from Chuchu's old Demi but yeah, called it). Also now feeling the Felchu vibes, ya'll got me.

Speaking of new ships...why did I have to get so rabidly attached to 5nore only for her to get Anew'd literally one episode later, it's not fair. They were going to run away and see the things she drew then the rest would come later. It's not fair. 5 is either going to have a Guel arc or just go absolute villain mode, and I'm not ready. It's not fair.

Okay I'm going to ramble a bit because I have been absolutely normal about the fact that Suletta has been a rescue pilot for a significant portion of her life and that detail is only really known to those that read Cradle Planet but they absolutely showed that off right at the end because this girl is tearing her hands apart moving heavy concrete slabs because goddammit there are still people that could be saved and she did not memorize the canyon patterns of Mercury, learn to wield a beam saber with the precision of a scalpel and earn Eri's complete faith that if she said she could complete a mission in 4 minutes then it'd be done in 4 minutes for her to not put all that experience to good use. I hope her effort gets recognized. It probably won't, Gundams just attacked the school again and killed likely scores of students if not hundreds this time around, but she's gotta get some respect for this.

"What We Can Do Now" is a hopeful title, and probably another TitleDrop episode like "Not the Best Way", so here's hoping that it's either a breather episode gearing up for a descent to Earth or said descent episode proper. I mean, it's either that or Mio and Prospera coming back up to Plant Quetta to send Quiet Zero...into...oh no.

[cherry-berry-candy]

How do we feel about TEoD?

so, overall my feelings are... mixed. some of the problems i had last episode seemed to be confirmed, there were some themes i wasn't expecting (pleasantly surprised), and there were some themes i wasn't expecting (unpleasantly shocked)

soooo time for another cut and a lot of thoughts (including a lot of complaints, be prepared) (also, nyx did a lot of writing for this oops)

TRUMAN SHOW

(i promise this isn't our main gripe lol)

okay, first thing's first, elephant in the room- tv show theory wasn't confirmed. well... not necessarily confirmed, but still very possible. the TARDIS crew not-quite-literally (or was it literally...) watch previous episodes on a television screen, and mrs flood is mrs flood. or, is she? we'll get back to her.

so, we know people have said that this is more than likely not the end of the current story- we should wait to see where the second block of 8 episodes go! usually we'd agree with this, but we take issue with something for this particular theory. we're going to explain why we think this season is worse off without a confirmation for this particular thing- assuming it's accurate.

take mrs flood for a moment, in isolation. she does some odd unexplained things- saying ominous stuff, knowing things you wouldn't expect her to, speaking to and looking to camera, etc. that we don't fully understand her now is fine- there's a bit of mystery to chew on, and it doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the episode, unless we assume that the explanation won't be sufficient.

the tv show theory explains a lot more than this, though. yes it recontextualizes in-universe events, but it also recontextualizes the experience of watching the show itself. the relationship between the doctor and ruby growing so fast, the anachronistic music in Rogue, the musical number in The Devil's Chord, the choice to not show hardly any moments before or after adventures, and more.

before getting an explanation of these things, i feel these things are distracting. this doesn't feel, to us, like the type of thing that should be a long game. obviously, there's plenty more than enough for us to pick up on to give the impression of tv show theory being real. but, for anyone not digging into this, hoping, praying for an explanation for the oddities, like we have been- this is just a series of strange choices.

even for me, someone who is all aboard still- this is a full season of show! maybe "full" is an odd word for it being so short, but there is some intention of a contained arc in these 8 episodes. so, in some sense, it should be taken as its own. and on its own- these choices are unexplained. even if they get explained later, i think this season is forever weaker for it.

Thoughts from TLoRS

(and how they were affected by TEoD)

we made a post following TLoRS with some issues we had, that might be resolved by the end of TEoD. so here's how those panned out, in our eyes

im going to skip over anything that's just "well, tv show theory isn't confirmed yet, so this is still weird! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" to avoid redundancy.

some characters- in particular, rose noble, ibrahim, and carla- didn't do anything this episode. just like they did nothing last episode. so why were they here lol. carla being in this episode being seen getting turned to dust im alright with. but what's the point of the other two? why did carla need to come to UNIT? it seems like the reason rose was here was to bring carla in- especially since she just stands around, even when everyone else is firing at the TARDIS. she only gets one line upon waking up. and i don't think carla contributed nearly enough to TLoRS to justify either of them being around for this story. ibrahim doesn't seem to have a reason, even outside of that. lol.

one could argue that carla was brought to UNIT so mrs flood could have an excuse to be alone with cherry (oh hey. nice name sagkjsjakdg). but like... why did that need to happen? like, okay, mrs flood needed to spout some ominous stuff to camera, but she couldve done that to carla, no? or just done it to cherry with carla just... in the other room? especially with mrs flood's only role in this episode being to ~be mysterious~. a little of our feelings on this is flavored by That One RTD Interview, but... it just feels pointless to do it this way! maybe it'll be clearer later why we needed to have mrs flood be ominous to cherry specifically, specfically without carla around but... idk.

the thing with the radio reading "15:08" and "service not available" before susan's speech (immediately following Carla saying "go and get her!") still don't mean anything, yet. i guess. we saw it flicker a bit more, and see that 24 minutes passed (there were still nearly 36 minutes left in TLoRS when we saw the radio that episode. wonder what's up with that) but otherwise nothing.

the themes around sutekh actually did sell me on him being here! the idea that the doctor has been bringing death wherever he goes is a great one to explore this way! the reveal is still the reveal, but i was happy with the them explored here, and ill get more into that later down the road in the next section

FINALLY, THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE ITSELF

(still ft. some broader season thoughts, but more focused on this specific episode)

can we stop writing kate to be just. fully stupid. please. im tired of her just firing at gods like it's going to do something. im fine with her being morally funky because UNIT but oh my god.

the "there will be birds" line is cringe and out of nowhere and lame. LMAO like. i don't think i could put it in any way that's smart. it's jarring for her to say such a flowery line before she dies and it's odd and it's cringe and it's lame

satisfying susan (triad) explanation. neat

god we love 15. "ruby roo"? "melanie b"? absolutely lovely

the doctor closing the door behind him on all the death he's caused? mwah. chef's kiss

not going to think about the DNA data existing in 2046. it doesn't matter. not thinking about it

"i traveled to all those worlds. i thought it was fun." what a great parallel to the archeologist from Pyramid of Mars that the narrative once defended. someone smarter than me could say more, but im too busy complaining. oops

didn't watch the tales of the tardis, but from the outfits it seems like they slotted it chronologically in the middle of this episode. neat!

"cultural appropriation" is a response that tickles me, and is also appreciated. glad the acknowledgement is made. that said, i saw some people still taking issue with the portrayal here so... maybe that growth isn't all the way done yet.

the doctor not acknowledging that the 4th doctor was him is so interesting. it also recontextualizes him calling 14 rose's uncle a bit- he really is trying to separate from who he used to be. maybe this also adds to him still not visiting susan. this also plays into the theory that he was straight up lying about having healed from 14's experiences- this too could have been him trying to separate!

if you can't tell, im saying all this as i rewatch the episode. not much to comment on where we're at, so a good time to bring up- the effects struggled in this episode, just a bit. the greenscreening of the og tardis in the time window was a little rough, and the makeup is (imo) noticeably worse. or rather, noticably noticable. maybe it just shined in the lighting of TLoRS? it was odd.

feel like "silence can reign" instead of quoting "silence can fall" is a potential missed opportunity? this one doesn't matter really, i think i'm just surprised

also i was reaaaally think this was going to be a "ruby is a devilspawn" moment, it almost feels like it was teased? idk, maybe i just was theorybrained. lol

oh okay. the tardis just has a laser beam in it. alright. sure i guess

this face is so fucking funny to me LMAO

okay i actually don't really. understand what's happening in the vortex here. like what is the cause and effect. idc that it's supernatural i just don't understand what the supernatural thing is. maybe that's a me problem.

the corniness of them all silently stepping outside... okay

okay other people brought it up before but. what about all the identical-looking susans across the modern day 😭like are they just gonna live their lives and no one's gonna think about it?

wait how did they. how did they get the data on ruby's mother. why didn't they just do whatever that process was before.

just some girl! okay, sure! i like the idea that she wasn't actually special, there were just weird circumstances that caused everything-

"we invest things with significance" awww that's kinda sweet actually :)

...

okay but hold on. what was the snow all about though. why could ruby create snow around her. and why did the memory keep changing. and what made the 66.7 meters relevant to her mother and to 73 Yards. and also...

this season has done a lot with myths and stories and such, but usually there's something... more to it. as there has been in other episodes like this in previous eras, too! in space babies, the spaceship creates something from stories. in 73 Yards, the mythology of fairy rings is implied to be based on a true story, in some sense. but here, a story just... became fantastical. for no reason other than being a story. and only specifically for ruby sunday. half the story or not, this is incredibly unsatisfying for a finale, lol

the pointing thing is. lame. the pointing doesn't make more sense in hindsight. it makes less. who the hell dramatically turns around and points at a sign to unofficially name their child. 😭

i really like the doctor projecting his issues onto ruby. like i don't because don't traumatize her just because you've dealt with it LOL but i do like it because Character Flaw

HEY WHY DOES THE DOCTOR LOOK INTO CAMERA HERE.

wow, the doctor... basically kicks ruby out of the tardis. dude you suck so much ass 😭

"my real mum" your WHAT? what do you mean your "real mum" who the hell has been raising you this whole time? russell. russellllll. come on dude 😭

kinda weird ruby never mentioning the possibility of having a dad just... went away here. is that intentional? idk. i don't really get why or how it would be, so i guess it's just retroactively weird that she never wondered about her dad until now.

hi mrs flood! who are you!! people are pointing to missy vibes (the umbrella!), the outfit similarity to romana at... one point? i don't know classic who aslkgaklgd there are a couple other characters people have pointed out, as well as the "clever boy" reference. kind of reminds me of rogue being a seeming amalgamation of some other characters, like river, jack harkness, and the master. hmmmm

well! there it all is! our disorganized thoughts. too tired to make a conclusion though LOL so im just. putting this all out there lmao

[chaoticcornchip]

Yandere Error404 x reader!

Requested by April_Gianttale on wattpad!

A/n - just letting you know reader, the pov of the writing is kinda random, some chapters will be in 1st pov, others in 2nd or 3rd, sometimes a mix. Just letting you know. And more times than not you are referred to as they/them, might change later as my brain be like no this is weird to read. But yeah. 

Image by Mokutree3 on tumblr

Error404 belongs to @vibeless15

TW- possessive behavior, kidnapping, swearing, murder, mentioned guilt trip/manipulation 

3rd POV

It was a warm, pleasant summer afternoon, a h/l h/c middle aged person hummed a small tune. A smile on their face as they took care of a few more files to finish up the day at work. Y/n's mind began to drift aimlessly as the excitement to head over to their friends place and watch the newest episodes of f/s grew more and more potent.

Finishing the last file up, y/n eagerly placed it on the stack of papers that, like this one, were all completed and ready to be moved over to get sent and checked y employees in one of the other buildings. Packing their things they stood up and turned and walked into someone, causing them to drop the papers they were carrying all over the floor. 

Y/n's face flushed in embarrassment "oh shit. Sorry I wasn't paying attention, lost in my own thoughts heheh, here let me pick these up," they laughed nervously as they gathered the fallen paper.

Standing up they smoothed the paper out before handing it back, "it's alright, accidents happen," responded a male voice.

That got y/ns immediate attention, miraculously out of all those who are still in the office, they just had to run into the one person they have a crush on here.

"Say your name was..... Y/n right?" He asked, taking his work back.

A small tinge of red crept onto y/ns face, 'wh- omg...he knows my name! Hold on keep calm y/n it isn't too big of a deal- OH WHO AM I KIDDING I AM NOT GOING TO STAY CALM FROM THIS'

(a/n- sorry if this is cringy or whatever I am out of ideas, also refer to your crush however you want I just used he/him to make this easier to write and read)

"Y-yep, heh that's me alright."

C/n gave a small smile, "well it's nice to see you, last time we met was at your... application meeting, I believe."

Y/n gave a nod "yep! It's nice to see you as well........." they shifted there eyes side to side and rugged on the collar of their f/c shirt, "say is it hot in here or is it just me?" Y/n stammered out, sweat building up slowly.

C/n stood there a little puzzled, "uh it feels fine to me, say you look a bit red- do you need anything- here I'll get you some water" he answered himself and walked off before the stunned y/n could speak.

'Greaaaaattttttt- wait- maybe I could snag a hangout or maybe even a da- no, no you just freaking talked to him get to know him first y/n.' They thought for a few seconds, 'oh hey! Maybe 404 could help with this and give me some advice! He is smart he could give me tips, right?'

Shortly after that the h/c male returned with a paper cup filled with water in his hand, "here, hope this helps, if there is anything else you need, let me know." He says handing them the cup. Taking the it y/n took a sip of the cold liquid and already felt their nerves relaxing and thus them calming down.

"Thanks." They murmured.

C/n gave a nod, "welp I will be seeing you later, have a good night" he said walking away, leaving y/n to think.

*time skip brought to you by tiny bred factory🍞 *

*time 6:40pm

Y/n stood at the doorstep of 404's house and rang the doorbell. Waiting a few moments they noticed that the skeleton monster must've planted some flora of various types, seeing there was more green foliage around his home, mixed with some flowers.

'Huh, I thought he said he didn't really care about plants or how his yard looked, as long as it met the neighborhood standards. Guess your rant about plant life got to him y/n heh,' they thought with a slight smirk.

Y/n let out a small huff as he still hasn't answered the door yet 'I swear to fuck, if he doesn't answer I am breaking this door down.' They began to ring the doorbell a few (hundred) more times, breaking the thing in the process.

Finally there was motion and it quickly followed with the door being opened, revealing an exhausted, dead inside 404.

"Why are you so loud, I was taking a nap." He groaned, letting the human in.

"Why? Didn't you know I was coming at 6:40?" They responded.

404 was silent for a moment, yes he did remember but originally he thought y/n was coming a bit later, and thus he believed he could at least get a bit of rest after having to manage Error all damn day. "Yeah, just drifted off I guess" he says as he begins to head to the kitchen, "want anything to drink?"

"Sure, a f/b would be nice" the human responded their gaze drifting around and looking at some of the items their friend has cluttered on shelves and walls.

"y/n could you get the tv ready?" He called out.

Rolling their eyes y/n headed to the living room, "I don't see why you didn't have it turned on and ready already, are you getting lazy without telling me."

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FROM?!" He shouted, which was shortly followed by a bang and a muffled cuss.

Y/n covered their mouth in an attempt to hide their snicker, "oh nowhere just saying it to bother you."

After a bit 404 came back in with a f/b and a beer, he sat down on the couch next to y/n and passed the f/b over to them. After they both got comfortable 404 took the remote and started the show.

*skip cuz does it look like I am going to TRY and write a small show even in the background? No, no it does not.*

After like 40 minutes, the two finally reached the credits of the episode. 404 blinked once or twice before letting out a yawn and stretching his arms, "welp, that was disappointing." He says as he wrapped an arm around y/ns shoulder.

Y/n shrugged him off "yeah, but it was still a good episode." Y/n paused for a moment "Say 404, any chance you have uhm.... Any useful advice for dealing with your crush, like to hang around them and not be awkward?" They asked a bit hesitant.

The skeleton was a little bit stunned, not showing it he simply spoke, "no, not really, why? Who's the lucky person?"

"Just a coworker, who i haven't really gotten to know," y/n responded.

404 let out a small hum, "well I guess this isn't creative at all, but just be yourself ignoring what you humans usually say as "but what if they don't like who I am," if they don't like who you are, then that's their fucking problem. you shouldn't be wasting time trying to be what anyone wants you to be, become who you wanna be for yourself and others. Better live a life with the truth even if you don't like it than living in a life of falsehoods and lies."

Y/n listened to her friends words and thought deeper. They smiled "heh thanks 404 that actually helps a lot I guess," the replied.

404 shrugged "no problem, so what are we going to do now?"

*skip several weeks cuz I am lazy and don't wanna write more boring shat, deal with it*

It's been 3 weeks, y/n without appearing creepy or weird hung out and grew to know c/n, overall 404 was fine with it, no jealousy at all.... At least until the two started to get closer and y/n slowly began to spend more and more time with c/n instead of 404.

The skeleton has mostly been keeping it cool but the worry is thick in his mind, is he going to lose the only good thing he has? To some random human? As these questions and those similar repeated he began to have dreams about y/n leaving him or forgetting about him entirely. And that is where his paranoia led to him whenever y/n was around, he would find some excuse for them to stay.Whether it be about the weather, him needing "help" with something, ect. He even started going low as in guilt tripping.

But on the third week... when y/n finally introduced him to c/n. His jealousy sparked and turned into pure obsession, the obsession of keeping these two away from each other permanently . Time went on he tried intimidating his so-called competition, bribery, blackmail, anything else you name it. Amazing nothing worked it only got c/n to bond closer with 404's friend.

Y/n wasn't exactly oblivious, they notice 404s clinginess and how upset he has been lately, not to mention every fucking excuse he has for the human to stay. It utterly confused them, he was perfectly fine with it awhile ago, so what changed and what is with this new thing?

*done with overview thingy*

Y/n was at a park walking with c/n as the two chatted about random things that caused them both to laugh. Finally the two stopped and sat down on a bench and ate the ice cream they had gotten. There was awkward silence between the two, y/n was confused and a little worried, is something wrong with c/n too?

This deafening silence lasted for an eternity more before c/n spoke, "uhm, so I have been thinking y/n....."

They looked at him, "yes?" They asked worry building up in their head.

C/n was quiet for a moment, "I was wondering.... Would you go out with me?" He asked blushing a bit.

Y/n sat there astonished, "y-yeah of course!" They exclaimed. "When and where to?"

C/n thought "how about tonight at f/r? Would around 8 work?"

Y/n gave a nod and kissed c/n on the cheek, "it's a date."

Time went on the two left the park and went their separate ways, y/n was overflowing with joy and head over to 404s house, owing him a visit after not being there yesterday day.

*le skip*

Y/n knocked on the door, 404 shortly was there, "oh y/n, I didn't think you would be here, weren't you busy with him?" He said letting them in.

Y/n shrugged, "yeah but I felt bad about yesterday and so I wanted to stop by."

404 let out a skeptical 'hm'.

The skeleton couldn't help but notice that the human was a bit.... Cheerful, "what has you so happy?" He asked, growing a bit angry almost expecting it.

Y/n beamed "i got a date with c/n tonight at 8!" They exclaimed happily.

His soul dropped, a wave of terror and rage rushed over him, "that's......great" he forced out, grinding his teeth together, here it was. The moment he lost EVERYTHING the one good fucking thing he had to look for to. No he won't let this happen... y/n is HIS not some PATHETIC, weak human boy who just waltzed into existence.

As y/n headed to leave they got stopped in place by 404 who grabbed them "hey 404 what are you doing?!" They demanded.

The skeleton was silent and just swiftly wrapped his arm around y/n's soft, fleshy neck, tucking the joint of his elbow under the human's chin, his free hand then pushed the back of their head forward, cutting off the humans air. Y/n struggled and tried to get free with no prevail, 404 tightening his hold each time they fought, eventually their struggles weaken and he began to speak, "you wouldn't understand, but I am doing this for us. Everything will be fine y/n, it'll just be you and me." As the human started to lose consciousness they heard 404 hiss out, "and nothing else."

Once the skeleton was certain the human was out he let go and carefully laid y/n on the floor, he calmly blinked and looked at their peaceful form. 'I am doing the right thing, they're MINe and I will make sure they can't leave me E V E R' he thought picking them up and heading to the mainframe.

*8pm

C/n knocked on y/ns door, no response, the male has been there for a few minutes now and he was worried, there wasn't any sign y/n was home, pulling out his phone he dialed their number.

Ring....ring

C/n flinched at hearing the sound behind them, turning around they saw a dark figure, only visible aspect was two glowing blue eyes. "Who the hell" they growled.

The figure didn't respond except lifting up its hand revealing blue tipped fingers.

C/n couldn't even usher a breath before the thing lunged forward, grabbing the humans neck and squeezed tightly until there was a sickening crunch, and the male went limb.

Disgusted 404 tossed the corpse to the side and teleported away. Back into the mainframe where y/n was left, the human was conscious a long time ago, but that's alright. 404 isn't going to push anything, hell no, he's going to wait until the loneliness and emotional pressure of the void gets to them and they come to him. Begging for attention and escape and doing anything he wants.

A/n - and finished! Probably not the best but I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave requests reactions or constructive criticism!

(2431 words)

(minor changes and fixes: 9/13/2023 on quotev)

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent, Day 1: Abu Dhabi

With thanks to @madenthusiasms for bringing the idea of doing a big Cabin Pressure advent relisten to my attention... I'm doing a big Cabin Pressure advent relisten!

No idea if I'll be doing one of these for all of them, but I listened to Abu Dhabi in its entirety (I sometimes just skip around for the "why do airplanes fly" bits) for the first time in a VERY long time, and I had enough thoughts that I did want to share them-

One of my first thoughts: it is still (or rather already!) very funny, but the rhythms are, as Stanley Meadows might say, slightly off- I can't quite decide if it’s JF still getting used to the rhythms of the show or the actors getting used to the rhythms of his writing, and it isn't exactly obtrusive or anything, but it doesn't quite feel there yet, though it does feel very very very close.

The characters don't feel quite lived in yet (which makes sense, they aren't!), and though JF is very good at doing the setup gradually, it definitely feels a bit more obtrusive than it does in later episodes, for obvious reasons. To me, I was surprised to realize that the main character who felt exactly right from the get go is Carolyn- Stephanie Cole got the rhythms straightaway and her dynamic with everyone else is instantly understood.

The other characters... I don't really know. Now that I reflect a few hours later, I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I think the nastiness:niceness quotient might not have been fully balanced yet. Carolyn was fine (with one slight exception I'll mention below) because we KNOW she's kind of nasty and she stays that way, unrepentantly, longer than the rest of them- Martin and Douglas yoyo back and forth between being bitter/petty and relatively collegial in a way that is funny but isn't AS funny as their more "love to hate each other" dynamic ends up being later, and doesn't feel as natural (Douglas saving Martin's bacon with the match-lighting was a wonderful plotting moment but from their acrimony the rest of the episode you'd think he'd be happy to let Martin drown). Arthur I think felt basically like authentic Arthur, just a bit undercooked.

On a related note, this is the only episode (as far as I can remember- maybe I’ll realize that there is another one on relisten) that shows Carolyn and Arthur at home together- which I think it was a wise move to get rid of. Carolyn's nastiness at work is funny, and while sometimes it applies to Arthur it's usually less than she'd direct toward Martin and Douglas, and the whole four-of-them dynamic helps temper it. It's a bit less funny when it's just the two of them at home- she's not AWFUL but I definitely had a moment or two where I was like "poor Arthur" which, really, should not be happening on this show lol.

Some other early installment weirdness:

Martin and Douglas seem equally good at Brians of Britain, with Arthur being the only dunce. Is this the last time that Martin is any good at a game on the show?!

Benedict Cumberbatch sounds positively funereal doing those credits... I did a double take to make sure it was him.

This is a broader one, but JF pointed this out in a Farewell Bear Fact- that the conflict is really between the characters rather than the characters against something external. You can tell from the pacing- the story arc in the episode is really the power struggle between Martin and Douglas, with the actual events (the diversion, the cat, etc) more being the grist for that mill. I like the approach of the later series better- "how do these people deal with this thing" rather than "what is a plot that allows us to see this one core character thing"- if only because it generally leads to better story pacing, but this is fun too. (I do have to say, I love how the episode is about the power struggle between Martin and Douglas, with Carolyn proving herself the alpha dog, but at the end of the day it's Arthur, the only person who doesn't care, who makes the final decision about the cat.)

On a different note- I'm wondering if there was a conscious parallel between Arthur volunteering to take the front seat in the car and both Martin and Douglas turning him down and, in Zurich Part 2, Arthur volunteering to sit in the back of the truck and being turned down by the two of them (plus Teresa)? Seems like a stretch, but still, it happened twice in a 27 episode show, so maybe it's something.

Anyway, let's see if I remember/want to continue this tomorrow, when Boston is on the agenda- an episode I probably haven't listened to in even longer than it's been since I listened to Abu Dhabi! (I'm... not the biggest fan of Boston or Cremona, but after that it'll be smooth sailing for a while.)

Abu Dhabi was a great episode to revisit- definitely in the lower 50% of my ranking, but more because there are so many even greater episodes coming later. I should add it to my rotation a bit more frequently.

[momojedi]

— EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MY STAR WARS FANCOMIC "WATER GUNS"

I would've liked to see some more about the padawans, their life and the critical morality behind their affiliation in the war. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and make a comic about it !

all main characters (with the canon cast being an exception) are based on actual people. That means there likely will not be any romance between the characters, whether were talking OC x canon or OC x OC, simply because I don't feel comfortable romanticising these characters as they were originally created to supersede my friends' real appearance in the Star Wars universe

the stories will be told in arcs. I like the concept of clone wars where missions and tales are told through arcs so it'll be easier to read the comic, even if you haven't read from the complete beginning. that way, if there's a character you're not very interested in, you can simply skip it! the arcs' chapters/pages will come out episodic

this is my first comic in ages. I'm really rusty in drawing those, so the quality may lack a little in the beginning/the production might take me up some time!

I try to stick with the canon as much as I can. I like imagining my characters in the Star Wars story as it is and will treat them like actual canon characters in the comic, so aside from some headcanons/details sprinkled throughout the writing, everything will stay the same.

the story is fully set during the Clone Wars. The Galactic Republic is my favourite era in Star Wars - swiftly followed by the Empire - so the story will fully revolve around that time. I might add some story during the Empire later on but that's going to be it for now.

you'll get some clone shenanigans, these men deserve to be more in the spotlight considering these are the Clone Wars.

I might make a side blog specifically for this comic if you guys enjoy it !

I don't own Star Wars yada yada you know the deal.

I can't give you any details on when the first arc is going to come out as I'm still figuring the characters and plot out (currently sketching the first pages) - though I will post the characters in the mean time, to keep you updated! I'm trying to get the first arc out by December.

So far, these are my comic’s original characters who are padawans of / affiliated with canon characters :

JEDI

Kimea Orneem -> Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi

Mo Mynx -> Padawan of Shaak Ti

Nurifi Egaseer -> Padawan of Plo Koon

Cime Dafollah -> (former) Padawan of Tiplar (judgementally looking at Tup); supports Yoda with the Younglings

REPUBLIC

Senator Matide Zoni -> friendly with Senator Riyo Chuchi

CLONES

Proxx | CT-4922 -> 212th Medic

Burner | CT-6682 -> 452nd Commander

[bucketofbugz]

I wanna listen to your II x Grounded idea please 🙂 /sincere

!!!!!!!!OKAY!!!!!!

sorry this took a few hours I had to sleep. But you have opened the floodgates. Prepare for. a lot of reading.

I do plan to write this very very soon buuuuuuuuuuut if you wanna read some rambling about it beforehand then here ya go.

(I didn't mean to ramble so much about background stuff but I did so if you don't care about that [which is fair] then skip to the "and now onto the actual beginning" section)

Basic background information first.

I've had the idea in my brain since before episode 15's release, but I didn't start actually developing it until a few days ago. so it isn't too far plot-wise yet. BUT!!!! I do have ideas. many many ideas. and I am so happy to talk about 'em.

The idea originally came about because I looked at the final four and went "haha four of them. that's the same number of available characters in grounded :)", and of course I immediately began making a story in my head for it.

Originally I was trying to fit the whole "getting shrunk down to ant-size" thing into the show's storyline, but I was not able to do that without it feeling really off and out of place. And there is a pretty crucial element to the shrinking process in Grounded that led to the main characters being teenagers in the first place.

so Instead of just figuring out how to work it into the show storyline, I decided to develop an entire II high school au to act as the background for this. I won't go too into detail on that bit because that's notttt what you're here for (I can make an entire separate post about what that changes about the universe later). But I do need to add that detail because the show's events not having happened exactly is kinda important to certain things.

OKAY onto actual important background stuff.

Cobs! He's here! He is a guy and he exists. He is still the CEO of Meeple and is still making sentient phones but he also teaches a high school computer science class. because why not, right?

Well one of those sentient phones of his (3GS) is able to discover the shrinking technology! This is also around the time he is having the realization that listening to everything Cobs says doesn't really work out so well. So he hides it from him for a good while.

But thennnnn Cobs' two other sentient phones (4 and 4S) find out about it!! and they tell him!! because of course they do!!!

And Cobs gets mad about it!! because of course he does!!!

Rather than the closet he gets put into in the show, 3GS is stuck being the sole tester of the shrinking process. Cobs uses this to estimate the effects it has on technology and life forms. As you might expect, being shrunk and un-shrunk a bunch of times starts really messing with him! Especially since he's an older MePhone model.

MePhone4 eventually finds out about this and is like "wow! that's messed up!" SO he decides he wants to get 3GS out of there

how does he do that? well he shrinks himself and 3GS, attempts to destroy the shrinking technology (accidentally blows up a good chunk of Mecloud), and runs away to the island that Cobs was doing all of the shrinking tests on (the season 1 and 2 island). His plan was to generate a new SPAC.R once they got there and then they could truly escape, BUUUUUUT turns out he can't use his generation abilities while tiny. So they're just stuck on the island now.

Cobs figures out where they went and once he repairs the Meeple SPAC.R he sends 4S to the island to bring them back. But guess what? He doesn't do that. None of the phones come back.

Why they don't and what exactly happens with them after that is all Spoilers, though. so I cannot talk about that yet :]

So all of Cobs' sentient phones are gone. And he kinda needs them back. And he's discovered that trying to shrink down members of his staff to go find them doesn't work very well; shrinking adults is just Not working out.

And, hey, he is a teacher at a high school----

Yeah he throws a bunch of kids at the island.

And now onto the actual beginning.

OKAY WE'RE FINALLY HERE!! Maybe like 2 years since the phone stuff.

The final four are our main focus at this point.

As I said, they are high school students, specifically attending Cobs' class in computer science. Whether that is because they actually care about computer science or because they thought it would be an easy elective varies depending on which character you're talking about.

They're the last four left in that period of the class. There were about 12 in total that year, but 4 of them disappeared at one point and then the other 4 disappeared at another point. So it's just them in there now. Suitcase, Knife, Baseball, and Lightbulb.

Some people are very concerned about the connection, even wondering if it has something to do with the 5 students in that class that had disappeared the year prior. but of course nobody suspects Cobs because he's the CEO of Meeple, why would he do something like that??? You can trust CEO's, y'know (/sarcastic).

But one day they're all heading home after school, and then they're just. out. Blacked out, no idea where the heck they are.

They wake up in a slightly open case nestled into the soil. Of course they're all suspicious of one another for a while, before they realize the gravity of the situation they're in. None of them would be able to do this, they're literally just a bunch of high school kids.

So they're stranded on some random island, they're all relatively ant-sized, they're starting to suspect that this exact same thing has happened to the other 8 students in their class (and maybe the 5 missing ones from last year), and they have no idea how to survive out here.

So they're doing great.

This is where the actual story itself starts so I can't give too much away beyond this point. But I can say that the other characters to end up shrunk weren't chosen randomly, and the order is connected to the 4 focal characters being the final 4 of the season. :]

And I can also say that I am trying to fit in as many canon situations and events into this story as possible within the limitations the au creates. Like Lightbulb discovering Baxter? Yeah! That happens! Is he still a crab? Hah. No.

So the fates of certain characters (mentioned or otherwise) does kinda depend on how they're doing in the show. So.. how ARE some characters doing in the show? :)

uhhhh tdlr: the show never happened, due to how the shrinking process works all of the contestants are high school students, shrinking technology was discovered by Mephone 3GS and developed by Cobs, 3GS and Mephone4 run away to the island (they also shrunk themselves) and Cobs sends 4S after them, none of them come back, Cobs starts sending objects to the island to find them (specifically focusing on Lightbulb, Knife, Suitcase, and Baseball). Shenanigans ensue. We understand? Yippee.

Hope you enjoyed my nonsensical rambling.

Like I said in the original post this is such a niche combination of interests but they are my two biggest ones. So. It was inevitable.

Also I'm almost done with the character designs, so the other missing characters will be revealed soon (if they aren't already really easy to figure out).

[1427]

I’m like halfway done with something to prove pt 2 so it’ll probably be posted later today or tonight hopefully.

Still am not sure if I wanna make a part three cuz if I make a part three there probably has to be a part four.

Read more for a warning about my OC story (about drug use)

Oh and when the levee breaks might take me a week to update with part 5 because I have absolutely no idea how to write Daryl during the whole Sophia business without going back and watching those episodes. (Wish I could skip it but I CANT.)

Also; like maybe you’re all gonna hate me but if Daryl DID have Merle’s stash, and he DID sometimes (casually; people say you can’t do meth casually but you fucking can) partake with merle in the amphetamines, that bro would have done some to stay awake looking for Sophia. Not like a lot, cuz Daryl’s been around and knows how much he’d need.

ListeN. Be mad at me all you want but he’s gonna use meth in the next chapter (a tiny bit) and anyway, he’s gonna regret it and get rid of it okay? But we need character development and as a person who knows their way around amphetamines (I mean me), it REALLY just makes sense (to me). Especially if he was so sleep deprived he hallucinates merle. That’s meth 101. Also we need Beatle to find it and we need Daryl to struggle with believing she’s sober and that WHOLE conversation where their past is brought out in the open and. Idk. This is what’s gonna happen so I’m warning y’all now (I’ll warn y’all again when I post it obvi).

[releasemefromthevoid]

MY ATLA LIVE ACTION S1E4 THOUGHTS

EP3 - EP5

Oh boy do I have things to say about this one.

Firstly, the way they wrapped things up from last episode was good enough, I guess. I think they might have tried to push too much into these two episodes this time, so hopefully they don’t bite off more than they can chew in the back half of the season. There’s something to be said about how early some plot lines seemed to get resolved and new ones were introduced, one even being more or less forgotten until the final few minutes of the episode, to make way for other story threads that just didn’t hold up to me. 

Next, I have problems with Bumi. I think with Aang’s new character arc, the themes with Bumi makes sense, and I understand its inclusion as a whole, but Bumi was NOT the vehicle to present that with. The correct mannerisms are there, but I’m just not buying him as Bumi. 

Lastly, there’s something that was partly introduced in this episode that has me concerned, which I will make clearer under the cut for spoilers, along with something that decidedly Wasn’t introduced. 

Overall, there’s some sense of disappointment around this episode for me, here’s to hoping it gets better.

Live reaction and spoilers under the cut

shit i lowkey forgot they arrested aang? too busy writing the last review ig

this dungeon visually kinda has ba sing se lake laogai vibes. could be cool to draw parallels in later season(s)

cell mate iroh lets goooo

i’m not entirely sure i like the inclusion of the mechanist at omashu. i feel like his motives for helping the fire nation are a lot less believable to me in this location, since omashu is a stronghold and bumi is No Pushover. then again, we don’t know that yet, bc bumi has Just been introduced. considering we cut to iroh talking about how omashu is so impressive. idk

Other than “it is I who owe him” about zuko, idk if iroh is really hitting for me. this is the first time this season where i’ve been like “yeah that’s iroh”. he’s just sort of uncanny iroh most of the time

BUMI TIME

bros asleep hahaha

bumi: “tea?” aang: “okay,,” the inflection on that was great. great delivery dfksjdh

oh we’re skipping the whole trials thing. i’m not angry about that, but Where is flopsy???

okay bumi is good. we love live action bumi in this house. 

jet jumpscare

hell yeah katara get his ass

so this choice for zuko to make is def a parallel to the winter solstice episode where iroh was captured, right? 

is bumi. angry at aang? that doesn’t feel right. i revise my earlier statement. his mannerisms are perfect, but blaming aang is Not bumi. this does Not vibe

SECRET TUNNEL GUYS?????? the guys are here what??? i wasn’t expecting them

that zolly shot though

please just stop talking and sing secret tunnel i need it so bad. i don’t even care that it’s a season early

THERE IT IS

omg i was right with the whole zuko winter solstice episode conflict. almost a one-to-one in visuals

bumi aang does not need this right now. i appreciate the rock candy growing crystals, but god. bumi is being so mean

i have to say, i like sokka being the one to figure out the cave of two lovers path. they seem to be highlighting his intelligence more overtly in a way the original show didn’t do until later in book one.

also liking the conflict between sokka and katara making a return. i knew that ended too fast during the jet arc.

so this is a scene where it’s nice to have the perspective of some random earth soldier from ba sing se, but iroh shouldn’t need this conversation. it might have been better to be given this explanation a different way? or i guess. it’s to give exposition about lu ten?? is that needed right now?  

loving the white mourning clothes. loving that not everyone is wearing them, too. it would have been really interesting if one of those people who wasn’t wearing white was ozai. a little visual conflict for those who happen to know the significance of the color. weird that we’re getting iroh backstory before zuko though

ohhhh leaves from the vine instrumental. good, good inclusion there. for people who know from the cartoon, that really elevates that moment, and for people who haven’t seen the cartoon, it might elevate a certain moment from tales of ba sing se later since the association is already there

okay so the crystals literally don’t matter, fuck me AND sokka i guess

i need bumi to stop actually

goddam, zuko, just yank that knife out why don’t you. no concern for blood loss then

WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT’S NOT ABOUT THE CRYSTALS. they sense feelings??? what do you mean 😭😭😭 what happened to earth sense

literally shut up bumi

this is not the wise old bumi that we know

thank you cabbage man, you really rounded out the episode

okay, i’m starting to see iroh. thank you.

also the leaves from the vine backing is still nice. it has the connotation of iroh claiming zuko as a son this scene in my mind

likes: environment design, visuals, the mechanist, leaves from the vine placement

worried about: the lack of introduction to the war balloons, the slight retconning of earth sense (what will this mean for toph in a potential season 2??), overlooking a perfect setup for a white lotus introduction

dislikes: bumi >:( (and he was most of the episode), changing the glowing crystals in the tunnel to be useless??

[calyxthenerd]

In the 1 month skip between episode 59 and 60 in Season 3 of Soy Luna, what are some things you think happened?

Im going to do this summarized hc style because I’m at the airport and it would take a while to write down a month’s worth of scenes

Sharon spends the first two weeks in the hospital, being unconscious for three days after the rescue team manage to pull her out of the fire, when she regains consciousness and starts babbling on about Bernie and “How dare they steal my fortune” and stuff, they go to ask Alfredo if he agrees to send her to a mental health facility, which he promptly agrees to, and that’s how she ends up getting treatment there

The fire only damaged Sharon’s Lili and Bernie’s and Ámbar’s rooms, which half relieved Ámbar and half pained her, because, while she could fully refurbish it to fit her, now more mature, tastes, since everything from her spoiled brat and goth phases turned into ash which upset Simón quite a bit, since he loooved her goth clothes, that meant that all her memories from those times were also gone, and not even Luna could cheer her up when she realized that, she locked herself in her temporary new room and cried for days, letting out all the pain she held in her entire life, only opening the door to grab the food that Monica left on her doorstep

Luna turned her parents’ old room into a memorial, putting everything that was left of them in there, she keeps it locked most of the time, the memories are too painful but when everything gets to be too much, she goes in there and talks to them, or cries, for a few hours

Luna and Ámbar go to therapy, after Simón, the Valentes, Alfredo and Nina insisting for months, that results in Luna, who is learning to prioritize her own well-being over other people’s comfort, convincing Matteo to also get therapy, and he, in turn, starts unlearning all his harmful and self-sabotaging behaviors

This particular point is canon divergent. So, since I don’t remember it happening, I’m gonna choose to believe there weren’t any Niric scenes after the timeskip, so that + the fact that while all the other couples were next to each other in that shot near the end of the episode, they were apart, can only mean that Gastón visited during his vacation period from Oxford and apologized, so he and Nina got back together, as it should’ve been, but he has to go back before the festival and Luna’s birthday, but Nina applied to go there a few weeks before, because, even though she might run into him, it was her dream to study abroad, long story short, she gets accepted and then rest is history

Since Sharon made sure she couldn’t go to the school in Paris, Ámbar applied and got accepted into one in BA, starting a year later than she was supposed to, but she, if anyone, is gonna turn that around, possibly overworking herself so she can graduate early, but she’s got her Mexicans to make sure she doesn’t take on more than she can handle

Nico and Ada end up breaking it off, since I don’t see how that would work, and he comes back right after Luna’s birthday, making the band complete, and since everyone else gets busy and stops going to roller as much, they start getting gigs in other places, eventually catching the eye of a more ethical record label fuck you vidia and signing their first album

There’s not much to be said about Jim & Yam, except that they’re thriving at their

Matteo released his first record the week before, since his songs were already decently polished and well rehearsed, the process was really fast

And since the whole group agreed that the Festival was their last performance together, with Nina leaving to join Gastón in Oxford, the band going full swing with their first album, Ámbar starting law school, Matteo going on tour, Delfi going to college for journalism, Jazmin getting the offer to be a part of Fundom, and lastly, to everyone’s joy, Benicio disappearing off the face of the earth, Luna, Ramiro and a newly redeemed Emilia, decided to form a team together, with Juliana’s guidance of course, the process of finding other members was quite a pain, but eventually they managed to find other three people, and they became quite known in skating circles across the world, their team name? Eclipse, after their main founding member and captain

I got a little carried away and started getting into their futures afterwards, but I hope you like it!

[imsailorpluto]

It's Beautiful Now Lee Hyun-jae appreciation post

I'm writing this down way before the series final episode. I'm not even half way through so before there's some major plot twist (who knows if something might go wrong) I decided to write a few nice things about Lee Hyun-jae. There were moments of me being low-key angry at this character for a couple of reasons, but ... I won't be mentioning those reasons now, since those are minor. Plus he redeemed himself on time. He's a good one. This is all about his good sides and me idolising the sh out Hyun-jae. I think he deserves this afterall. Plus, it's fun.

It's some sports drink, no worries. Just imagine having a person like this in your life, ok? It's going to be good for your mental health. Let's go (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

Hyun-jae is first introduced as a highly professional lawyer. He works at his colleague's law firm and together they make a successful business duo. At job, he makes sure his clients are well taken care of and that they receive enough respect from his side, never crossing the line. His social skills are advanced and he reads people like they're an open book. Not only that, but he also successfully juggles between his three main roles: witted son/brother, serious lawyer and supportive boyfriend. Throughout many problematic situations we see him adapting quickly and responding in intelligent manner while being considerate and empathic. He has a special talent of getting the best out of people around him. And I'm here for it all the way.

He enjoys keeping his apartment sterile clean and his health in check, but also cooks way better than an average ajumma. If you ask nicely, there's nothing he wouldn't do for you (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

Then there's this other side to him. Writers spiced him up a bit before deciding which turn to take, which made him realistic for a brief moment. It takes some time before they show it to us, way more than for any other character. He's goofy. Witty. Easy-going. Honest. Straightforward. Extroverted. Emotionally developed. Like really well developed. This is how you know he's the only character writers had to make up as opposed to others who are so realistic it gets annoying quite often.

(skip this if you don't want to read about the actor) Also, one thing that is so important, but regarding the actor who plays Hyun-jae, this is already 2nd drama I watched where this actor plays very similar characters (first one being Hit the Top/The Best Hit), which I wasn't expecting at all. Even both characters have same names lol! I guess he sealed his career with his role choices, just like some actors are doomed to play villains. So, now I really want to watch his other dramas as well, just for this kind/good/playful energy this actor brings to life in characters he plays. And I already saw someone else mentioning this exact same thing here on tumblr, I'm not sure which drama it was about, but they mentioned this same character energy and then figuring out way later it's the same actor in both series. It's Yoon Shi-yoon. And I totally get why people like him so much. It's not so difficult to identify the characters he plays with his own personality, when he keeps playing the same role again and again. That seems like awfully a lot of pressure if I may add, no matter how ideal it may sound at first. But let's get back to Hyun-jae. Moving on.

This scene was heartwarming, honestly. Let me melt in his problem-solving energy for a while. Like, yes. I love this type of people. So much.

It seems Hyun-jae enjoys being the active one in a relationship, being the leader and provider. He takes the initiative while considering his partner's preferences. It's a bit difficult to stay indifferent to that. He doesn't stop being this ideal man just like that. He also kows his way around overly protective 2 meters tall brothers and doesn't let a perfectly healthy power struggle hurt his ego.

Oh and I never mentioned his relationship with driving.

Girls, if he doesn't act like Hyun-jae while driving, run! Honestly. Just run. That's the bare minimum. Driving style is a great indicator of a character. Especially if you ask him not to do something.

He's normal about driving. Almost as if he's written by a woman. First thing is he never drives when drinking (and he doesn't even drink much in general), second, he's calm while driving, and third, he listens to music while driving. Find me a guy who can do all three, I dare you. Also, he helps his girlfriend overcome her fear of driving. His fictional gf is lucky, lucky.

At first I thought Mirae and Hyun-jae are a bad match, but as the show goes on, they seem complementary to each other.

Men apologizing? I'm sorry, let me just.. (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) ..... Anyways, I really started to enjoy their dynamics, his patience towards her and her persistence to let go of angst. It's lovely to watch their progress. And lack of hot and cold behaviour. Yes. Give me that reassurance. Fix my attachment issues. Kamsahamnida🫰🏻

Other than that, be ready for some cute surprises. He prepares his delicious specialties for people he cares about. He casually serenades his girlfriend and gives her surprise visits before going to work. Also, if for any reason he needs to keep someone's secret, he'll actually do it. Efficiently.

Eomoni, I would, gladly, and every other girl probably. His mom is harsh because he's the middle child, 2nd oldest who isn't married yet, so it only makes sense, but she's such a sweetheart to her family.

Besides practicing assertiveness, he's pretty good at avoiding unnecessary family drama in a smart way. He makes it look so easy. Somehow he always stays true to his moral compass, plus if everything I mentioned before didn't already imply it, he is competent enough to take care of himself and is enjoying his independence. Where does this list stop? It doesn't, that's why non existent guys are the best. They act grown up, responsible and they're the whole package, a whole lot like all in 1 dishwasher tabs.

Nature's best anxiolytic in a human form. Well, he's as fictional as it gets and makes you wish you were too. At this point I'm not sure if I'd rather date him or be him.

If something changes about this character by the end of the show, then, oops. For now let's leave it as it is, hopefully he stays smart. With the power of Pluto, I summon more people like this one into all of our lives. (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

P.S. as I'm typing this Hyun-jae and Mirae are going on a double date/camp trip with Mr.Dolt and Hae-jun noona. As lovely and fun as it seems, that only means one thing. Season of bawling my eyes out is ahead. Bring it on Korea (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠)

[asian-fiction]

Romance on the Farm 田耕纪

Runtime: 45 Minutes Episodes: 24 Dubbed?: All own voices, but the sound equipment is really good for some reason. Because I've caught a few redubbed lines here and there mostly from Joseph Zeng. The sound is really high quality and well controlled for live recording.

This drama (so far as of episode 10) doesn't lack of pacing. It's doing really well.

This drama has floated to the top of my list... but it's my own personal taste, so I'll tell you why I like it.

Feminism tests: It does pass the Bechdel test fairly easily. The woman has a goal outside of a man--the Mako Mori test? Yes. Is the female lead a Sexy lamp--none of the female characters are (though you might hate them for it at turns as their agency might be too wide for your taste *cough Hua'er *cough*).

Premise: Man'er goes into a farming game to pay off her student loans. In real life, she doesn't have that great of a family.

In the game she meets Shen Nuo, who is not her distant cousin or relative, but has a rather obvious secret identity, as long as you pay attention and read between the lines of the action. He kind of gets tacked onto the family--which Man'er's parents, maternal family, and Man'er know to be true, but her paternal family doesn't.

Over the course of the drama, you get to work out Shen Nuo's true identity and what he's doing there. In terms of being tsundere, I don't think he is, he's just a mysterious figure. He's too warm to be tsundere.

But Shen Nuo and Man'er work together to solve various problems around the farm, and give Man'er a chance to earn 1,000 coins. The drama tells you why she needs 1,000 coins fairly early, so I won't spoil it for you.

Production The costuming is actually pretty good, but obviously not expensive--it doesn't need to be. I like the directing choices, like long bits without dialogue which leads to visual jokes in the show. The music is probably better than usual with some jokes inserted along the way if you read the lyrics.

I rather like the cinematography, even if not "artsy" special, it still shows some thought in terms of lighting.

Even though there are two idols in the drama, I wouldn't 100% call it an idol drama--I mean it's not pure fluff with no logic in it. There's several points of logic and you have to pay attention. There is definitely a little meat in the drama (you'll get this joke once you watch it.).

The acting is fantastic--you hate everyone you're supposed to hate almost instantly. You love everyone you love almost instantly. And Tian Xi Wei is acting her socks off. I mean you thought you knew her range and had it down pat? Nope. She shows she has so much more to give you. Joseph Zeng is doing pretty well too, but the role needs to be given more umph, which they keep promising will come. The chemistry on screen is pretty good too.

Writing-wise... I think for some people they will find the paternal family too unbearable and quit, especially if they have family drama trauma. But it's not lacking in the writing department for what it hopes to be. Even the annoying characters, you can't quite skip over--they aren't useless. The twists and turns are entertaining. It gives a sense of farm life with the ups and downs very well.

Pay attention score: I think is 3/10--you can't just listen to it and get everything. You'll miss plot points. So it's a grade above the normal C-drama. I had to back up the drama a few times to catch some details. And the thing is if you miss those details, the drama kinda loses you along the way, though they still drop the rule of three so you really get the fact, but it won't silver platter it for you and spell it out and then hit you with the cloche to make sure you get it. If you do pay attention, the drama will pause to reward you along the way. You really should pay attention to episode 1-4 and maybe 5 and 6. 'cause there is pay off later for that. Skipping around will severely hurt you.

So I'd rate this a chicken stirfry with the grandmother super upset one of her chickens was used up, and the rest of the family arguing over who gets to eat the meat because the rest of the stirfry is vegetables. (You'll get this joke when you watch the drama) It's surprising at every bite once you get into it, even if it's a bit burnt because you taste a ton of bitterness, it's still entertaining. P.S. Hua'er arrrggghhh only in fiction I wish for people to be burned alive.

[pepperpatrol]

I always tell people to watch both.

The original anime's problem is that it took the set up for the manga right up until rush Valley and followed it relatively faithfully. Then it diverged hard but the manga had set up in that half of the story a lot of little things that had massive payout in the second half that just plain never happened in that first anime.

You never actually get told what Hughs figured out before Envy killed him. None of the characters figure out about the nationwide transmutation circle they're just told about it by hohenhiem and Dante. Hohenhiem's entire storyline is pretty much dropped and his character assassinated. The boys never actually get to settle down and stop after that long conga line of traumatic experiences. Overall the ending is less satisfying and the second half doesn't tie up all the loose threads we're left with. I remember watching it as a kid and feeling kind of jilted bc the tone of the ending did not match at all with the tone of the beginning.

But. The beginning of Brotherhood doesn't cover the beginning of the Manga much bc, well, 2003 anime already did that. Nina tucker, a good 5 or 6 episodes in the original is 2 episodes in Brotherhood. Same with Liore, even despite the fact that what happened in Liore actually is one of those little things that ends up being critical later. I think it completely skipped the coal mining town, that guy comes back later with Scar's crew and his multiple episode storyline gets reduced to an evil Ed Chibi in the background while he complains about state alchemists lol

So. In conclusion one must watch both to get the optimal anime experience of Hiromu Arakawa's masterpiece.

Obviously I personally have a hard bias towards Brotherhood bc it is a polished story with a ton of moving parts whereas the latter half of the 2003 anime does rely heavily on tropes that were popular at the time to finish it out and Ive never been the world'sbiggest shounen fan. Granted I'm also not sure I agree with OP either. Both animes have a shitload of flashbacks, ed is extremely ripped for starting out as a 12 year old and EdxWinry is a canon romantic ship. I do agree that the way these elements are woven into the story isn't exactly shonen typical and the way EdxWin is put into the plot feels more natural than a lot of shonen designated girlfriends. Ed and Al also just had a lot of relationships with emotional weight so the existence of a girlfriend might have also felt less egregious when they also have like 12 sets of parents. But that's because Arakawa is a good writer lmao. She already had an enormous ensemble cast, Ed's GF couldn't be just there to be Ed's GF. She needs to pull some weight in the plot!

This may also be one of those things where it's just easier to write a plot around a massive nationwide conspiracy with only one cook in the kitchen rather than a writing team. I do like that Brotherhood maintained what I think was an important message that the 2003 anime botched hard. Dead people are dead. But I also enjoyed the Drama of the 2003 anime with what they made the hommunculi.

Anyway. Read them both. FMA uses most stock shounen tropes but it does so in ways that aren't genre typical.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood breaks so many shounen stereotypes and I'm shook tbh. There're little to no flashbacks. There's no filler episodes. Almost none of the female characters are sexualized. All of the main characters, male and female, dress practically. The male mc doesn't have a six-pack. There isn't a beach/pool episode. The mc, Ed, breaks an entire plethora of mc-specific tropes all on his own. The relationship with the most primary focus isn't romantic, but familial. And there's probably a bunch more I haven't recognized yet.

[itwoodbeprefect]

livewatch thoughts for sga 1x08 (or 09, because the order on my dvds seems to differ from the one on wikipedia), home:

rodney being so sure he can do a very risky but scientifically interesting thing that he doesn’t even deign to acknowledge that it is risky (because he’s the one doing it, so of course it will work, because he believes himself infallible, so basically there’s no risk at all!) is such a warning for things to come (cough-trinity-cough) and it’s not like i think they were intentionally setting up a single season 2 episode already, but it does make me appreciate that we get a whole episode exploring the consequences of this character flaw of his later on.

we can see john thinking for a second while rodney is talking and then he goes “eight hundred and four years” (how long it would take them to get rodney by puddlejumper if he breaks the gate on the fog planet) and that’s our first hint at math nerd john!! beautiful

rodney, talking about travelling 804 years by puddlejumper to come get him: “but you would do that, right?” john: “of course we would.” fjdkf.

ALSO the first time we see john with his brick of a copy of war and peace! many iconic sheppard things contained in these first six and a half minutes of the episode.

same point as the one above but i’m not done yet because he just... thinks he’s so clever for this, gosh. i feel like there’s something to be said here about how this is not at all a fun read (and he’s a very repressed man used to denying himself), and i don’t imagine john has some hidden deep interest in russian literature (i mean, possible, but unlikely), so the actual real point of it is just performance, start to finish. if he ever finishes it, that’s some weird bragging rights, but even better is when, like in this scene, someone catches him at it while he’s reading because they will ask because it’s not a very inconspicuous choice of reading material. and it makes him look smart, potentially, but it’s also a little “look at me! i’m weird and quirky! #sorandom.” (yes, i am diagnosing john with socially awkward lonely teen girl disease because he decided to bring russian classic lit when he moved to another galaxy. i am.)

anyway, here’s his face, now that i’ve spent so many words on this:

elizabeth giving john a chance to be the one to go home if rodney’s gate project works out (giving him an excuse, even, because she says he’d be the one most qualified to brief general hammond) is both kind, because obviously john entered into the mission very late and he did NOT sign on as military commander fighting wraith, and also extremely silly, for pretty much the same reasons. you found this man in antarctica, elizabeth. he was cut off from earth way before he left the planet.

rodney thinking he commands respect at the sgc and has a bunch of virtues of which “patience” is one is very sweet and very funny and i’m glad ford clearly recognizes it for that. the team bonding and found family of it all is very <3

john talking to teyla: “then there’s all those cool earth things i told you about. football, ferris wheels.” in part this is of course a function of this being a tv show and repeated mentions of the same little detail feeling like a fun callback that ties this moment to previous episodes (which it is and does!!) but in-universe it tickles me how incredibly specific and wildly misleading john’s descriptions are of what earth is like. it is going to be very disappointing when there is not, in fact, a football field full of ferris wheels at the end of every city block.

elizabeth making an argument for a continued presence in the pegasus galaxy is an interesting discussion because on the one hand she’s claiming that they have a responsibility to the people of pegasus after waking up the wraith and on the other she acts like they, the people from earth, are the only ones that could possibly do anything with the ancient technology, like they don’t have a pretty effective gene therapy and could give that to at least some of the people of pegasus, who could then operate atlantis mostly without the earthlings.

god, john getting compliments from general hammond that clearly mean a lot to him, while knowing that’s not actually happening as a viewer, that’s. that’s painful.

rodney coming home and turning on the television is great because a) he moved to another galaxy, possibly never to return, but kept on paying his cable bill? dude. and b) the tv plays something for which the audio is “we are controlling the transmission” and that’s FORESHADOWING. i love this. (of course alternately he did not continue paying for cable but he just doesn’t think about it and so the aliens make his tv work because they don’t know it shouldn’t, but my first interpretation is funnier, so i’m sticking with that.)

the way this contructed reality falls apart and the bits and pieces we as viewers see of where it’s not right is EXCELLENT and john’s undead buddies mitch and dex in particular are a whole eassay on their own, but rodney’s line about the laws of physics having gone out the window and that ��it’s like looking through a microscope at a cell culture and seeing a thousand dancing hamsters” is quite possibly my favorite thing here. A THOUSAND. DACING HAMSTERS. so it’s a+ content and would make you go viral in a second on youtube, is what you’re saying, rodney.

fake hammond: “major sheppard seemed uniquely capable of manipulating his own fabricated reality.” john: “when i think about the scenarios i COULD have thought up i’d kick myself.” GOD. lots of john thoughts, lots of fic space.

john: “this isn’t life! what do you want us to do, just pretend?” fjdkfd. okay, so, in a reading of canon in which john is queer man pretending all the time, this is an interesting dialogue snippet.

the discussion at the end honestly makes so little sense (the alien’s like, every time the gate activates some of us die, and the humans are like, hm okay, but we are human and we like living so you should send us back anyway, and the alien is like, okay that’s fair), but i don’t mind in the least. this is such a nice episode and the dilemma they’re faced with feels very star trek to me (vague fog aliens that are never given shape other than fog or a human illusion and a plot that leads to moral questions and a true test of the character and the intentions of humanity? PRECISELY the sweet spot for the tos budget), and i love that.

[blackbird-brewster]

Thoughts About Tara Lewis (CM Evolution Spoilers)

Tara Lewis is Queer.

I woke up this morning and the SECOND I was conscious, I turned to my partner and said 'Tara Lewis is Queer'. I woke them up two times last night to tell them the same thing. I have echoed this thought back and forth to friends for hours.

It almost feels like if I don't constantly remind myself that Tara is now canonically queer, then maybe it isn't real. Maybe it was a dream. OR maybe it will be taken from us.

The thing about being in this fandom since 2005 is that I've lived a WHOLE lot of life in that time. I have been through relationships and divorces and insurmountable loss. I can't even count how many times I've moved in that time. I have struggled, I have flourished. All the while, Criminal Minds was a constant for me.

If you're newer to this fandom (Welcome!) then you might not FULLY grasp how wildly improbable it is to be able to say: Tara Lewis, a main character on Criminal Minds, is canonically queer.

When the show first aired I was in college, I had graduated HS an entire year early because the homophobia I faced was suffocating and genuinely dangerous. I was threatened all the time in my school. I came out when I was 15, in a small rural religious town. It was horrific.

I graduated HS and started college by age 17. Criminal Minds started around then and I loved it, because I was already a huge fan of crime dramas (SVU, TXF, Bones). It became a comfort show to me.

It continued to be a comfort show to be for nearly the past two decades. I remember waiting week to week to find out what happened next. Or waiting all summer to find out what happened after a cliffhanger. Or waiting each year for news on whether it was getting renewed or not, especially through the 2007 writer's strike when the fate of many TV shows felt so volatile and unsure. I remember watching the Valhalla arc and Emily's 'death' live. As each season came out on DVD box set, I would buy them and re-watch them (This was when Netflix was only dvd rentals and not streaming. Streaming wasn't even a concept then. We all just bough 8-disc DVD box sets and had to change the DVD every 3 episodes to binge a show)

I remember when the interview came out about how Emily was originally supposed to wake up in bed with a woman. I remember how devastating that was to me. Emily was my fave character back then (now she ties with Tara) and she had always felt gay to me and to find out she COULD have been canonically confirmed as gay but they killed that idea, was really hard. We didn't have a lot of wlw rep in media back then. The L Word was a trailblazing show but it's representations of wlw ultimately did WAY more harm than good (imo. I could write an entire thesis about how tLw really fucked up my entire understanding of what it means to be gay, but I digress)

I remember watching the way CBS treated AJ, Paget and Kirsten. I remember following articles talking about why the women were forced to leave the show while the men were celebrated and doted upon. (Reasons why I hate certain characters that are popular here iykyk)

The very first scene with Tara Lewis in S11 made my heart skip a beat. My soul was screaming 'SHES QUEER!!!! SHE HAS GOT TO BE QUEER!' even though I never once held my breath that would ever become CANON.

Here I am, still in this fandom, seventeen years later, and I get to say 'Tara Lewis is canonically queer' on a show that has gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life. On a show I turned to for comfort when everything felt like Too Much.

Because there is something so incredibly magical about seeing my favourite character and saying: Tara Lewis is Queer...and So Am I.

I know people are already like 'Emily was right there!?' or  'Why not make Emily queer!?' to those people I have one thing to say:

Please stop. Please stop and understand HOW important it is for TARA to be queer.

We have A CANONICALLY QUEER BLACK WOMAN IN HER 50s played by a sapphic actor. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW IMMINESLY RARE AND SPECIAL THAT IS?!?!? Do you have ANY idea of how IMPORTANT that is for representation?????

Emily Prentiss will never be confirmed queer in canon for many reasons. I have a LOT of thoughts about this, but that's not what this post is about.

This post is about celebrating one, extremely special fact.

And I couldn't be happier.

[neonapocalypta]

Minky Momo ep 4

CONTEXT: I'm a big fan of Takeshi Shudo's writing. You prob know him from his work on episodes and movies in the early years of the Pokemon anime. He's my favorite author, though I won't be going into that here. This post is from me watching one of his other creations: Minky Momo. (Specifically ep 4, which he wrote from what I understand.) Originally this was a thread on twitter from March 18th 2022. (when I was sick.) I'm putting it here since I'm trying to fill my tumblr with stuff I find important.

I prob won't post my other first impressions, as those slowed down when I started feeling better. (I actually need to finish this series.) To be honest, this ep is something else, thus another reason why I wanna share it.

Also, this will be edited from its original form for anything I don't think need to be here in hindsight and spelling stuff.

--

Minky Momo ep 4 might be one of the most wild and maybe even sad eps Takeshi Shudo has written (to my knowledge.) Go watch, for real, I'm about to spoil it.

It's starts out fine. Momo's ma is threatening to divorce her dad, Momo DGAF about her grades, just normal shit for Shudo. Then we meet the character of the day, Ken. At first he's just some kid staring out the window during class. Momo is so curious about why he's looking out at the sky, she pokes him with a pencil getting them both in trouble (and failing their tests I think.) She keeps trying to hang out with him and he's all like "fuck off." (my words) For some reason another student knows that his dad is an archeologist and his ma "works late so he has to go home and watch the house after school."

Momo stalks him to his place and he's like fuck off. (again.) Like a week later his bird is sick and he comes into the vet Momo's earth "dad" runs and momo cures it. He asks her to, and I'm not joking to "see his room" tho not in THAT way I promise. Anyway, his house is full of ancient artifacts his dad "found" which includes a map of the fairy world Momo come from. (Honestly this is interesting stuff, I'ma skip it for pacing.) We get to the kids room and find out he's beyond "I'm feeding these crows because they're my only friends". His toys are his friends. Legit. Not making it up. This kid is so lonely that he's resorted to this shit.

Then to make his life worse, but actually in the end not, the one time Ken didn't watch the house his entire apartment catches on fire. He goes inside to save his bird and friends, a cop is like "fine, I'm not gonna go save you kid." and Ken is like an inch away from Death. Really. Ovi Momo tried to save him, but she wasn't gonna get to him in time, so she used her magic to make the toys come alive and (I think?) create a barrier around him until she could get to his room.

At the end of the episode he's like "I know they saved me and now they're from the dream world. Even if no one believes me" ( I can't remember what Momo's land is called rn sorry.) At least he's happy I guess. You know what's wild? This would be the episode most people would remember from the series. The poor abused child grappling with a slipping mental state due to isolation from his parents to protect their stolen property almost dies in a fire to save his imaginary friends. But instead, (unless there's something else I don't know about.) the truck-kun episode happened to be in the same series.

Sad dark plotlines mixed with the wildest of scenarios is one of the reasons I love Takeshi Shudo's work so much. This is peak his work. Damn, I don't even think Ken and Momo became friends. He's Fren exclusive to Mr. Peanut. (A lot of his friends seem to be from other IPs.) I won't forget Ken or this episode for a while.