#i think about their life pre-apocalypse ok….

[h34rtcake]

devilcake / devilbong

[ashtheketchum]

●Just one night●

Daryl Dixon X fem.Reader

Era: Pre apocalypse

Summary: Merle and Daryl went to a bar to have a fun night. But then Merle found out that Daryl was still a virgin and he wanted to change that with a few "whores".

Warnings: +18 CONTENT, FEM.Reader, protected sex, against the wall, oral (f), Merle being Merle, mention of alcohol, mention of smoking, Insults, virgin Daryl, virgin Reader

Words: 3k

Masterlist!

_______________________________

PoV Daryl:

I had actually wanted a free evening, but of course Merle put a stop to my plans again. We had worked together all week because of his illegal business and I had to help him with everything. Now I couldn't even enjoy my Friday evening. We sat together in a bar, I had a whiskey while he had a cocktail. With a big grin he drank from his glass before looking after some women who were laughing and chatting at a table. "Well, lil' bro… how's your sex life?" "I don't know why ya should care." I just said coldly.

Merle laughed amusedly before leaning a little closer to me. His breath smelled of alcohol and smoke, it reminded me of the old man, but I constantly ignored this feeling. "Ya´re still a virgin, aren´t ya?" I didn't mind being a virgin, but I still didn't want to tell Merle. So I drank quietly from my glass while looking around the bar. But this only made Merle laugh again before he drank his glass completely empty and stood up. "Don´ worry, lil´ bro… I´ll help ya…" And with these words he walked away from our table.

Annoyed, I rolled my eyes briefly before I looked after him. He slowly walked towards the table where all the women were sitting. I somehow had a really bad feeling about this and when Merle pointed at me, I felt even more uncomfortable. Swallowing hard, I watched as the women looked in my direction, each one looking different from the next. After a few seconds, one nodded slightly and they all stood up. Only then did I see that there were three women. They were wearing very short clothes, you could almost think they were prostitutes. "Heyyyy, are you Daryl?" One then asked. Swallowing hard, I watched the women as they sat down next to me and in front of me. A few stroked my arms or leaned so far forward that I could see their cleavage. "Uh… I guess so?" I just said uncertainly. Damn it, I'm going to kill Merle.

The woman sitting next to me gently stroked my thigh as she moved closer and closer to my ear. Her breath gave me a cold, unpleasant shiver and I immediately backed away. "You're brother told us that you want some fun?" Ok, that question was definitely the reason to kill someone. I took a deep breath before shaking my head. "Nah… 'm good…" I said briefly. The women giggled quietly for a moment before tapping me again. Even though it was stupid, I looked at them again, but this time with an annoyed expression. "It's okay to be a virgin… just… how old are you again?" The woman sitting opposite me asked me.

Strangely, I felt a pressure building up inside me and I bit the inside of my lower lip. A stupid habit of mine. "Why?" I asked. The women looked at each other briefly before pointing behind them to their table. My gaze went there and I saw a woman there, about my age. She was staring at her cell phone and sipping a drink. She wasn't wearing such provocative clothes as the other women and she didn't seem as excited either. "This is (Y/N). She's a virgin too." The woman sitting next to me then said.

My confused look then went to her before I shrugged my shoulders. "'kay? And now?" The woman next to me grinned broadly before she stood up and went to this (Y/N). When (Y/N) sensed the presence of the other woman, she put her cell phone down and looked up at the woman. The woman who had just been sitting next to me pointed at me and made some hand gestures. Within a second, her cheeks turned bright red and she looked grumpily at her drink. "She's shy…" The second woman whispered to me. Grumbling, I looked at her briefly before looking back at (Y/N) and the strange woman. Reluctantly, she let herself be pulled towards us and the strange woman pushed (Y/N) onto the seat next to me.

PoV (Y/N):

Annoyed, but also unsure, I now sat next to this Daryl, who also looked at me annoyed. However, he didn't seem to be annoyed by me, but rather by my friends. We wanted a relaxed evening and suddenly they were talking about sex and relationships, even though they knew full well that I had never experienced either of them. "Hey…" I said quietly. Daryl looked at me closely for a moment before nodding at me and taking a sip from his glass. My friends laughed before nudging me lightly. "Merle, his brother, told us that Daryl wants some fun… this is your chance!"

I just rolled my eyes in annoyance before looking uncertainly at Daryl. His gaze was stubbornly directed at the table and he made no attempt to raise it again. "Merle, how much do we get?" My other friend suddenly asked. Frightened, I looked at all three of them grinning at the other man. This Merle also just grinned before walking towards us and putting his arm around one of my friends. "Well… for me it depen´s on how good ya ladies are in bed." He joked, which only made my friends laugh. I, however, looked at him annoyed and disgusted. Then his gaze went to Daryl and me. "And ma brother will pay her $200." Daryl just looked pissed at his brother before he stood up and grabbed my wrist. He roughly pulled me out of the bar, behind us we could still hear Merle and my friends laughing and talking.

"Where are we going?" I asked him when we were outside. Daryl rummaged around in his jacket pocket before he gave me $200. I looked at him in shock before he walked away. "Jus´ tell them, wha´ ya wan´." That's all he said. I should have been relieved that he just gave me $200 and that I didn't had to sleep with him, but somehow I was angry. I didn't wanted to be paid for sex and I didn't wanted to be paid for nothing. "What the hell? I'm not a whore, like other people." I snapped at him loudly. He stopped immediately and looked back at me, his blue eyes practically looking into my soul. "Wha'? Ya wanna sleep with someone, go an´ ask someone! I don' need this shit." And with these words he went to a motorcycle.

I immediately ran in front of him before he could even get to the motorcycle. My eyes stared stubbornly into his, but his eyes seemed much more intense. My knees went weak and my stomach tingled. "Wha'?" "Can you… at least bring me home…?" I asked quietly. Uncertainly, I pressed the $200 back into his hand, my gaze falling to the ground. Daryl looked at the $200 briefly before snorting loudly and nodding. Relieved, I watched him get on his motorcycle and then look at me impatiently. "Common." I stood quietly next to the motorcycle before climbing on carefully and slowly. Trembling, I held onto his shoulders until I was sitting behind him. Swallowing hard, I looked around briefly. "Don't you have a helmet?" "Nah, don' need tha' shit." And with these words he started the engine and drove off.

Startled, I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist and pressed my body against his back. Only now did I notice how broad his upper body was and that his hips were a bit narrower. But I couldn't really concentrate on it, I had my eyes tightly shut the whole time and my whole body was tense. Sometimes Daryl asked me where we had to go and I would lead him to my house with only quiet words. Daryl then stopped in front of my house, but I hadn't noticed that we were already there. With my eyes closed, I just waited for him to drive off again at some point. "Hey… we're here." I then heard him say.

I opened my eyes slowly before looking around. We were standing in front of my house, it was quiet, only the motorcycle engine was still running. I nodded slightly, nervous. "T-thanks… uhm…" Daryl just remained silent before he got off and looked at me impatiently. His blue eyes made me nervous, they made me tremble more and more. So when I wanted to get off the motorcycle, my foot got caught and I felt myself falling to the ground. But before I even touched the ground, I hit Daryl's chest. He had stood in front of me and wrapped his arms around me so that I didn't fall any further. With bright red cheeks I looked up at him, my heart was beating much faster and I couldn't breathe.

Daryl looked down at me, his blue eyes sparkled briefly and I felt his rapid heartbeat against mine. Our hearts were beating in sync, or at least it felt that way. "S-sorry…" After many seconds that felt like hours, I finally managed to say this. Daryl just grumbled quietly, but his grip didn't loosen. He just lifted me slightly so that I was now standing normally on the floor. In front of him. So close. I gently placed my hands on his chest, but I didn't push him away. My eyes looked deep into his and I could have sworn that his eyes became darker and more intense. "You wanna come inside…?"

How the hell could this happen? I wanted to have a nice evening with my friends and suddenly I was standing against my wall, in my bedroom. My pants were off and my panties pushed to the side, with a stranger from a bar between my legs. With one hand he held my panties away and with the other hand he held my leg, which he had put on his shoulder. Breathing heavily, I had buried my fingers in his short hair to push him closer to my throbbing cunt. "Fuck Daryl~…!" I managed to say, breathing heavily, while his nimble tongue quickly flicked over my clit and then sucked greedily on it. His eyes were always focused on my face, which kept twisting with desire. Sometimes I tried to maintain eye contact, but it was very difficult, my eyes kept rolling slightly backwards.

"Ya like tha'?" He purred softly against my pussy. Whimpering, I nodded quickly, his lips were now sucking greedily on my clit again. My breathing was getting faster and a certain pressure was building up in my abdomen. "Fuck, I'm gonna cum…~!" My words only made him suck harder on my clit before he pulled away and bit my inner thigh. Whimpering, I looked down at him as he sucked on my skin until a dark bite mark was visible on my skin. Then he went back to my pussy and let his tongue flick over my clit again. He did this until a huge wave of excitement overcame me and I moaned his name loudly. Besides my rapid breathing, I heard Daryl swallowing and moaning quietly, his vibrating tongue pressed against my clit, which made me tremble. "Fuck~…"

Daryl pulled away from me again, his lips and chin were slightly shiny, they were full of my juice. I was somehow embarrassed, but when he licked his lips clean and wiped the rest from his chin with the back of his hand, my heart started beating faster again. Without another word, he stood up again and pressed me harder against the wall so that my body pressed against his. "Ya got condoms?" He then asked in a rough and deep voice. The tone of his voice gave me goosebumps before I nodded slightly and kissed his lips gently before I pushed myself away from him to go to my closet. From there I pulled out a pack of condoms. "I wonder if they fit?" I teased him, with a slight grin. Behind me I just heard him snort in amusement before I heard his belt. It made me sad that he didn't take off all his clothes like I wanted, but I didn't want to pressure him either.

"'m sure they will." He growled quietly behind me. Humoring, I walked towards him with a condom in my hand. At first I thought we were going to bed, but Daryl had other plans. He grabbed my waist and pushed me back against the wall, his cock pressed against my inner thigh. He ripped the condom out of my hand, grabbed one of my legs and lifted it so that it was wrapped around his hip. He ripped open the package with his teeth before pulling the condom out and putting it on himself. Then he positioned himself in front of my entrance. I wondered how he knew so much about this. "Ya ready…?" Again his voice gave me a pleasant shiver before I nodded and held on to his shoulders. He slowly pushed his cock into my pussy and a loud moan escaped both of us. Daryl laid his head on my shoulder while I clung tightly to his shoulders and laid my head back. It was painful, but at the same time, desire was building up inside me and I was breathing faster and faster. "Fuck, you're so tight…" He growled softly in my ear.

While I got used to this new feeling of fullness, Daryl took off my shirt and covered my skin with kisses. He waited until I gave him a sign that he could move, and I did, after a few minutes. "Please, Daryl…~" These words seemed to be enough for him, because he pulled his hips back slightly before pressing them firmly against mine again. At first he moved slowly inside me so that we could both get used to this friction, this feeling. His shaft rubbed my inner walls while my inner walls rubbed his shaft and sucked greedily on him. Daryl had his face pressed against my shoulder the whole time, his hot breath made me arch my back. "You can move faster…" I whispered softly in his ear.

A quiet grumble escaped him briefly before he lifted my leg a little higher and then thrust into me faster. Luckily his other hand held my waist tightly, otherwise I would probably have collapsed in front of him. I closed my eyes and groaned so that I could feel this feeling better, and a pornographic moan escaped me. Who would have thought that sex could feel so good? And then also for the first time. Daryl's voice also got a little louder, he growled loudly against my skin, sometimes he moaned quietly. "So tigh´~…" His voice made me arch my back further. The movements became faster, our skin slapped together faster, our breathing became faster and my voice became louder.

His tip was constantly pounding against a magical spot that made me see stars. Even though my eyes were closed, they somehow rolled back into my skull, my fingers dug into his shoulders, which were still covered by his shirt. Even though it had bothered me so much just a few seconds ago, I didn't care at all at that moment. I just wanted him on me, inside me. "Daryl~! So good~…!" He only responded to my loud whimpering with another loud growl before moving even faster. Somehow he managed to move his pelvis against mine so that his shaft rubbed deliciously against my clit. A tight knot formed in my abdomen, which made me howl over and over again. "I'm gonna cum~…!"

Daryl moved his pelvis even faster now, if that was even possible. But Daryl was making everything possible at the moment. My voice got louder and louder, I couldn't get any words out and if I did, I shouted them very quickly. "Fuck, yes~! Yes, yes, yes~!" I put my hands on his neck and pressed my lips against his. For a moment I felt Daryl slow down, but he immediately moved at his own pace again while he returned my kiss. His growl against my lips made my inner walls pulsate more strongly around his cock and his cock twitched violently again and again.

"'m gonna cum too~…" He then growled softly against my lips. Daryl had closed his eyes and now leaned his forehead against mine. His lips were slightly open and a loud growl or a quiet whimper escaped him every now and then. "Fuck~! Daryl~!" "Fuckin' god~!" We both moaned at the same time before we came. My head spun and my vision went black for a moment before I hugged him tightly and held onto him, trembling. Daryl had pressed me tightly against his chest while he slowly lowered my leg. He stayed inside me for a while before he slowly pulled out and kissed me gently.

I hadn't expected this gentle kiss, but I returned it briefly before burying my face in his shoulder. "That was good…" Daryl only grumbled once quietly before he picked me up and slowly carried me to my bed. When he laid me down, he took off the condom and went to a trash can, into which he threw the condom. "Are you gonna sleep here?" I asked hesitantly. I didn't really want him to leave, but he had every right to. It was just a one-night stand after all. "Ya wan´ me ta go?" His voice was deep and much rougher. Although I was still sensitive from my previous orgasm, I pressed my legs together.

After just a few seconds I shook my head and looked at him pleadingly. "You can sleep with me…" It sounded more like a request than an offer, but Daryl agreed. He nodded briefly before lying down next to me and staring at the blanket. Swallowing hard, I looked at him before carefully laying my blanket on top of him and then turning away from him. "This was just… a one-night stand… right?" I wanted to hear from him what it was like for him. I hoped we would do it more often, but I would be fine if he never wanted to do it again. "… I dunno… I guess not?" He sounded very unsure, but the fact that he didn't see me as a one-night stand made my heart flutter briefly.

Before I could say anything else, I fell asleep, my eyelids were heavy and my whole body was tingling pleasantly. I could just faintly feel Daryl taking my hand in his and gently kissing my fingertips.

[leoserblog]

Ok this might be an unpopular opinion but someones gotta say it...

Cassandra is a better Casey Jones than Casey Jr

Ive gotta be honest... i think casey jr is a kinda mid and i dont particularly think all the fanfare about him is warranted LOL

I want to note real quick that i dont DISLIKE him! He is a good character who only got as much development that a 2 hour movie could give him, and he filled and satisfied the role he needed to play in the movie, but the way the fandom latched onto him over the og casey... kinda makes me raise a brow

(Essay/rant about the prioritization of casey jr vs og casey under the cut :P)

Fandom spaces love a traumatized boy from the future, and believe me i do too! But the amount of attention given to casey jr after being revealed as casey is a wild amount compared to the amount of attention the original casey gets. Maybe its just me getting into rottmnt after the movie aired, but this seems a little baised?

Not only that, but the amount of... idk the best way i can think to describe it is infantilization of casey jrs character isnt helping my opinion of him. It feels like most content surrounding him babify him and reduce him only to his trauma post movie. I understand that it can be interesting to explore his trauma now that he no longer lives in the literal apocalypse, but it feels strange to see him reduced to someone who cant get around on his own and lives with the turtles when the original pitch for the movies ending has him leave to explore the world, which i feel is very appropriate for him and wish they had kept it in

In the movie when april shows us where the og casey has been and what shes been doing throughout the film, it tells us that casey is friends april which in theory, shouldve also shown us that she and the turtles are friends to some degree as well and should already have her place established within the group as this generations casey jones

However the final shot of the movie is a group shot of the family+casey jr, which subtlety implies that he's the new casey instead, and that this is the main cast moving forward (should it move forward *sob*). While both caseys being considered in the main cast could be true, it does strike me as a little odd that this was the final direction the rot team decided on for the official ending versus the scrapped ending, especially because it complicates the pre-established canon. It wouldve been one thing if our og casey was a different character, but that isnt the case.. y... (<_<)

Casey jr is an interesting character though! And i can understand why he appeals to fans, especially as his character post movie is fun to expand on aswell as developing his past involved with future versions of the main5, but one (me lol) could argue that the og casey is just as interesting of a character to delve into as she was involved, when you boil it down, a cult most of her life, and that concept, as well as the guilt she could hold for working with the foot and releasing the shredder, ontop of trying to befriend and gain the turtles and aprils trust are also intriguing concepts that could be explored, yet finding content that mentions her at all beyond her relation to casey jr is scarce

It feels as though shes been reduced to a background character within the fandom despite being a reoccuring character for the entire show.

For the two seasons of rottmnt that we did get, we are shown just what kind of character casey is and her possible dynamics with the turtles+april. Shes passionate and powerful and beyond determined to prove her worth and reach her goals. Shes also playful and reckless, a side that fits well with the main cast and their humor and, if the show was given more time, couldve developed naturally as the newest addition to the family as most caseys are. I could also argue that her characterization fits that of previous caseys more than casey jrs does (though i will admit that considering the plot of the movie, i cant positively say what hed be like outside of life or death scenarios, but i also cant imagine hes going to make a 180 in personality without it feeling jarring and ooc)

Now, i wont ignore the fact that her arc was cut horribly short and her involvement in the movie was quite literally a brief mention, both of which definitely play into how under appreciated she is. But at the same time it almost feels like everyone, including the show runners, have willingly pushed her aside for this new boy version to fill the role of casey jones. Hell, even when you look up rottmnt casey jones, cassandra barely shows up. Its casey jr which further proves my point

Idk, TLDR im pretty disappointed that despite being a consistent character for the entire show, no one seems to write or acknowledge her and if she is mentioned, its only relevant to push forward casey jrs character development or a brief cameo. As much as i do love casey jr (i can feel like hes mid and i can like him!) it seems like most people forget about the original casey, or favor casey jr in her place and she deserves more love and credit than shes given!

[somepsychopomp]

Vampire!Simon AU Timeline

I tried to keep this loose and simple but it ended up being a lot more detailed than I expected. This is a pretty comprehensive timeline of my AU's backstory for anyone who wants to know more or just wants a clear idea what wtf is happening. Enjoy!

Ok so pre-Mushroom War:

This remains largely unchanged- Simon finds the crown, loses Betty, etc.

Maybe due to Simon’s interest in ancient artifacts, he’s aware of vampire lore and has even found some ancient stakes with traces of an unknown species’ DNA on them on past expeditions

He’ll never have the chance to publish the results of his findings

After the War (aka post-apocalypse Simon and Marcy):

Simon finds Marcy and instantly knows he has to protect her, she learns about the crown’s influence, etc

They encounter the Vampire King and his court

VK is initially surprised to see a non-vampiric magic user, especially one as strong as Simon, until he realizes that it’s all from the crown (he witnesses Marcy plead with Simon to take off the crown bc he’s going too nuts)

VK also has an interest in Marceline, the little girl that keeps trying to suck out the Fool’s soul as he toys with her. She's clearly not human and that piques his interest

VK defeats Simon and takes the crown. He’s not interested in Simon himself but does think Marcy might one day become a powerful member of his court. But she’s fiercely loyal to Simon so VK strikes a bargain- Simon lives if Marcy comes with him. (Really, at this point he was willing to kill Simon and just take Marcy but VK saw the madness the crown inflicted and thinks Simon can advise him on how to resist it)

As part of the King’s court:

The Vampire King isn't interested in letting humans live in his hive unless they're soon to be butchered.

So Simon is bit and turned. He’s told to abandon his human name and accept the once given to him- Temperance, one of the three arcane virtues. It represents patience and moderation ordinarily, but represents discord and conflicting interests when inverted.

Marcy still calls him Simon in secret

Simon is stunned that the VK can resist the crown’s madness to a certain extent as he masters its control over snow and ice

The hardest part about being a vampire for him is no longer being able to enjoy sunlight, as on his expeditions and while taking care of Marcy, he fundamentally understood that daylight = visibility and safety and that night= danger

Marceline will be bitten when she turns 18. In the mean time, she’ll be tutored by Simon and treated like a princess by the minions.

Marceline gets her own room, all the food she can eat, a soft bed, etc. She wants for nothing not out of kindness, but bc the VK knows this is an easy way to win her over. Marcy isn't stupid, but she is just a kid. After the trauma surrounding being sent away by her mom, and believing she was unwanted, Marcy is terribly tempted to follow her less than human instincts in the face of a better life for herself

Simon worries for her and tries to keep her close to him. Which isn't easy, as the VK is cunning and ruthless

Marceline also begins training at a young age. She learns to hone her power of sucking souls and when its learned that she can gain the unique abilities of her victims, the VK brings in all sorts of prey for her- humans, wolves, birds of prey, snakes, etc. in the belief it will make her stronger.

The VK is only ever kind and patient to Marcy as she grows up, almost like Simon but with an unspoken air of absolute authority. Still, it convinces her that he's not all that bad despite the fact that he's wiping out all the humans. Since Simon isn't human anymore, Marcy doesn't really feel that protecting humans = protecting him.

But the problem is that Simon hates being a vampire. He hates the taste of blood despite his inability to consume human food. He begins looking for alternative solutions and find that vampires can merely consume the color red

He's ostracized by the court for his meek personality and his frequent pleads for them to stop killing humans. What little power he had with the court is threatened as the VK requires his aid less and less over time. The VK begins to consider manipulating the sky itself so his kind is safer in the day

When Marcy is 16-17, Simon ushers her into a secret chamber beneath the vampire hive. For years, he'd been slowly stockpiling supplies so they can escape. Things like weapons, sturdy clothes, food, etc. What's more, he'd managed to find and repair a car! They can escape together and get away before anyone even notices they're gone.

Marcy is stunned that Simon wants to go back to a life of constantly being on the run, hungry and afraid. Having no home or safe place to sleep in. And with his condition, he'd have to be extra careful of the sun. Simon says how much he hates being a vampire and that he doesn't want this for her, he did all this to save her!

But he never did ask if Marceline herself was opposed to becoming a vampire. However, her love for Simon still outweighs her loyalty to the VK. She agrees to run away.

One of the funniest parts of the Stakes miniseries is that the VK is confirmed to have telepathy but he only really used it to psychically give Peppermint Butler and autograph. So I'm going to use that- the VK has been reading Simon's mind for years without letting him know and has known for a long time that Simon's been trying to run away

Simon and Marcy don't get very far before 2 things happen: the VK himself goes after them, and they're stopped by a small army of survivors lead by a pink haired girl (idc if PB would still be a tiny wad of gum at this point in the OG Ooo timeline it's my AU)

The VK ignores the attempts to assassinate him as he takes Marcy back to the hive. Meanwhile, Simon is captured by the humans and left for dead.

Here's the fun part- Simon's unique vampire power is a remnant of the crown's influence on him. He can cover his body in dense ice that acts like armor. It can be chipped away or melted, but resists damage really well

after multiple failed attempts to kill him, Simon tries to strike a bargain with Bonnie. Let him go, and he'll help her kill the vampire king

meanwhile, Marcy is crying in her room bc she thinks Simon is dead and she blames herself bc she never should've gone with him (something that the VK tells her he agrees with)

but Simon manages to come back unharmed. The only way he'd be able to do that was if he killed the humans that captured him. The VK is begrudgingly impressed. He'll still have simon separated from marcy for a year as punishment, though.

Marcy hugs Simon and tells him that she's glad he's alright. And that it'll be okay. He spent so long protecting her, from now on she's going to protect him (after all, the last time she thought she'd ever see him, he was about to be killed by a human mob. That event cements Marcy's belief that following the VK is what's best for her and Simon)

It absolutely breaks Simon's heart

Marcy turns 18 and Simon cannot stop her from becoming The Star

(while Simon is in isolation/solitary confinement, the VK frequently taunts him over a telepathic link- telling him how hard Marceline is working to become strong. To become a killer. The VK finds that messing with Simon is so utterly delectable)

As Temperance and the Star:

Marceline and Simon go by their vampire names when they’re among others but still use their human names in private

The VK brings on the sunless sky that allows vampires even more freedom than before

he ignores Simon's pleas to return the world to its natural ways. After all this time, he finds Simon's ways not annoying, but oddly endearing. He is the contrary voice to the whole court, after all; and though he might not have much power, the bravery to speak out against the king is commendable to some extent

Marcy begins her unending feud/hate-crush on Bonnie, who Simon secretly aids

Simon is mostly left to himself since Marceline is her own person now.

He starts growing a small garden of red food, assembling a library, etc. But most importantly, he tries to save any human child he finds

The VK got Marceline as his ward, why can't Simon have his own? He promises the court that the child will be his full responsibility and the king, mostly out of amusement and curiosity, lets Simon adopt his precious human children

however, Marcy can't help but feel like Simon is doing the exact same thing her mom did- he's scared of her or doesn't love her anymore, so he's trying to go away. Except this time, he's replacing her in front of her very eyes with some tiny, fearful brat that can't appreciate just how kind and loving Simon is

over the next few centuries, every member of the king's court except for the Star dies off. In every instance, Marceline takes advantage of their death to suck up their essence. The VK admires her for this.

at the same time, no ward of Simon's has managed to survive to about 11-12. Sometimes it was a hungry vampire that killed them, most of the time it was Marceline sneaking behind his back to kill off her replacement, and sometimes it was mere disease that ended them. He lost poor Shoko to infection after Marceline took her arm in a jealous rage and that put off Simon from taking on another ward for a hundred years

HOWEVER, Marceline still really loves Simon and wants to be close with him again. She's... just not sure how anymore. Simon still smiles at her and tells her stories and lets her crash in his library when she wants to avoid boring meetings or whatnot, he cares for her yes- but he never seems proud of her for accomplishing great feats like killing 100 human rebels in one night or taking Bonnie's eye

Simon still holds out hope that there's good in Marcy and that she can be persuaded to help him and Bonnie kill the king/her other dad

And then Finn comes along.

(For anyone wondering, I haven't really touched upon how the VK ends up infatuated with Simon bc I'm still figuring that out. But also, I don't think it needs to be clearly defined, it'd be a lot more fun to just see Simon winding up in essentially an arranged marriage

HOWEVER I will say this- the vampire king once asked Simon for a special gift in an attempt for them to become closer. He asked Simon to give him a mortal name, as all he knows is a life as an undying king.

Simon obliged and after much thought, he chose the name Leonidas. They are the only two beings who know the king’s secret name and use it, it’s something not even Marceline knows.)

[noahlivingston]

ok here's my Noah/Akio/Rachel proposal outline

Noah and Akio 100% had a thing during their murder days so their entire relationship is doused in this weird mixture of guilt and misplaced loyalty and internalized homophobia (IMO that last one is more on akios side bc look Noah has so much more on his plate that he's past that by now)

I'm working with the assumption that Akio is the father of Rachel's epilogue child and even if you assume they were together strictly to Further The Human Race I don't think Rachel would allow him to be a deadbeat dad. so theyre cosplaying as an expecting married couple when Noah gets revived in the epilogue

as a quick headcanon aside here I think they had a baby together because they were both raised Catholic

I have also decided that Repopulating The Earth was Rachel's idea and Akio kinda just went along with it bc he is at heart an extremely weird dude who can be very easily convinced of things

Noah and Min break up for being too mutually fucked up so Noah moves in w/ his buddy Akio and his totally not deranged baby mama and becomes their live-in nanny for their newborn

Rachel is obviously a requisite asshole to him at first but he's useful to have around so she chills out a little. by that point she also notices that Akio wants to fuck him and she decides she doesn't care as long as operation Repopulate The Earth is still on

like I think Rachel is probably a jealous person but her and Akio's relationship is already so screwy that she just decides to shrug it off

this puts Akio in the awkward position of being the husband in a 1950s Catholic family who wants to fuck the pool boy except the pool boy is deeply mentally ill, was just brought back from the dead, probably still thinks he's in the matrix, and he's like a week out from a murder spree

these guys are famously not very good decision makers so they go for it anyway, you the readers get to decide how that ends I am simply here to present you with options

in my mind Rachel and Noah never really get together even after living with each other and raising kids together for years, in fact they're wildly romantically incompatible, but crucially it is NOT a love triangle. this is not due to any amount of emotional maturity possessed by any one of them, it is purely because when Rachel decides she's joining the idgaf war she is WINNING the idgaf war and the other two got drafted.

that said Rachel and Noah do totally make out sometimes. for funzies.

crucial to understand here is that all three of them are basically playing house but the babyroll is a real life newborn. Rachel and Akio are having kids because that's what their parents did and that's what you're Supposed to do. Noah is with them because he needs to feel secure and it's easy to ignore his problems when he's juggling a newborn with sustenance farming for four people

like okay. they keep trying to frame things in terms of a pre apocalypse nuclear family even though that structure does not and cannot exist anymore. akio is the husband Rachel is the wife and they have a child (familiar family structure), Noah is the pool boy because he's around the family but he's not Procreating tm (deviant family structure but still a familiar pattern to them). they cannot under any circumstances acknowledge that anything going on here is abnormal by any means because that would mean having to confront why it's abnormal (guilt, trauma, the whole murder thing, the fact that they're bringing children into a world that is frankly not hospitable (guilt 2), Noah's entire thing generally)

also Noah and Rachel probably make lots of sister wives jokes about themselves. akio fucking HATES the sister wives jokes but the alternative is harem jokes and he hates those worse

[mika-mania]

My unfiltered first reaction to the album (and reading the lyrics)

Bougez:

Great start

Would normally never listen to sth like this but because it‘s Mika I love it?

I am INTO this, it's so stupid

(The bridge about god telling him to move in heaven lol)

Jane Birkin:

This has grown on me

The chorus is permanently stuck in my head

Sweetie Banana:

I… don't know

But the soft "bye bye"s are killing me

What the hell is this about

The only thing I understand is "I know your address" which is very ominous

("Candy in my bath" I'm sorry WHAT)

("All these words of love remain to be peeled" I am WHEEZING)

Apocalypse Calypso:

I do like this, still don't love it though

30 Secondes:

The sound is a bit too cheesy for me I think

The chorus IS nice ok

This is sth I'd listen to on repeat if I was in the right mood but would never admit

("You're like a bomb" um ok)

(He's talking about heaven and hell again uh-oh)

C'est la Vie:

God I hate this

I'd skip but promised myself I'd listen to the whole thing the way it's intended

Ok I don't HATE it, it just does absolutely nothing for me

Moi, Andy et Paris:

The beginning is so romantic WHAT

Oh this is such a vibe

Absolutely adooore ❤️

Every time he says "Andy" I grow stronger

At the end he sings "I love you but not him" WTF Mika (this was a betrayal by google translate, he is actually saying "I love you but he doesn't" phew)

Je sais que je t'aime:

The whisper part is so cringe I'm sorry

The rest is beautiful

The line "I hope life forgives us even if god has abandoned us" is still the saddest thing on the album for me

Ohhh the strings I loovee

(Every time I think a song is about Andy it turns out to be about his mum. This one is very sad though)

Doucement:

Mhm not sure tbh

I do like the chorus

Not obsessed yet though

(Not sure what or who this is about. Possibly depression and suicide)

Touche Touche:

Finally my fave from the teasers let's go

God this gives me energy, is this gonna replace Touches You as the song I listen to on repeat when I need a mood booster

Omg the sound of loading the gun in the second pre-chorus, this guy is insane

(Pure sensual filth. Like Tomorrow, BBB and Ice Cream combined. I love it)

("Prends ma main pour un slow" a slow what?! :O)

Amour Pirate:

I'm soo curious about these lyrics

Whyy did I learn Italian instead of brushing up on my French

Melody is simple but I'm not hooked (yet)

("Stolen treasure is not catholic" what)

(Aw so sweet, I AM an undiscovered treasure)

(I think he's telling us to take more risks in order to find love and he might not be wrong)

Passager:

Again nice but more about the lyrics I think

I wasn't expecting this many ballads

An unusually soft Mika album (not complaining)

I do wonder how that's gonna translate to a gig though since they are usually so high energy

Did he just say "Je parle francais et anglais"?! I'm dead (I found out later he does not, he says "un anglais")

[pleuvoire]

2023 books i liked recap because why not

top faves, new entries on the all-timers shelf:

piranesi is like a sweet spot of novels made for me i swear. aesthetically beautiful (as far as mental images go), themes of wonder at the beauty of the world, a slowly unfurling mystery, a simple plot but with vibrant beauty and meaning layered on top. It's Good

giovanni's room also has a very simple plot that is so overlaid with soaring passionate emotion i swear it feels like an opera in book form. timeless classic. it's good idk what to tell you

oh man ancillary justice is such good sci-fi. when you start out reading it you're like this is rather dry but it pulls you in so hard. the worldbuilding! the themes of identity! breq is such a good character!

not quite all-timer shelf but still really good

fish swimming in dappled sunlight is ultimately a story about stories and memory and constructed narratives and the reliability thereof. it takes place over a single night and mostly just consists of characters sitting around talking, but manages to pull some crazy twists on you regardless. love the prose style too

i'm glad my mom died lives up to the acclaim. mccurdy has a real talent for narrative voice, effortlessly inhabiting the viewpoint of her younger self at various ages. balances humor and tragedy with frank candor. i sound like a review pull quote here so i'll stop

infect your friends and loved ones is actually a novella so pretty short! it's by the author of detransition baby and has definitely gotten me interested in reading that. really vivid meditation on trans womanhood and transmisogyny that bounces between post-apocalypse and pre-apocalypse settings. pdf here

less stand-out but i still liked it

what are you are looking for is in the library is a nice little series of loosely connected vignettes about people who are stuck at some point in their life and find inspiration at the library. all the staff at my library job wanted to read it so the hold list was a mile long lol. has inspiring themes about always being able to find a way forward when you're in a rut and the power of community and stuff

a people's history of heaven is about the life and times of a group of girls living in a slum in bangalore, india. i liked how it interwove different people's life stories together and used lots of vivid detail and i like how the trans girl's story was written. some aspects were hit or miss for me but it was still nice

temple alley summer is a kids' book but i like kids' books so that's fine. it's about a boy who sees a ghost and the next day she's a student at his school and everyone seems to already know her but him and it turns out this is because his house was built on top of a mystical temple. i like the meditations on life and death and the simple heartwarmingness. it takes a long unexpected detour in the second half which threw me for a loop but ended up working for the story

stuff i started reading but didn't finish and i swear i'm going to try to get to it this year

to shape a dragon's breath is pretty long so i didn't get that far in before i had to return it to the library but i really liked what i read. the worldbuilding is really interesting and the narrative voice feels fresh and unique and deftly avoids the samey YA mold that tends to grate on me. and it's got commentary on colonialism! definitely check this one out

i got halfway through radium girls which is an accomplishment for me since it's long. rare nonfiction entry on this list. goes into insanely meticulous historical detail complete with fiction-style descriptions and embellishments of the girls' lives which just makes it more tragic

i own a copy of the haunting of hajji hotak but it's seriously harrowing stuff so i had to take breaks. it's good man. but whew it does not shy away from the realities of living under war and occupation. death to america

ok that's everything i think seeya next year

[best-nun-tournament]

ok so propaganda for sam & dean: they try to kill each other SO many times. well maybe not that often but more often that is emotionally healthy for both of them. dean tries to kill sam (4.14, 8.06, 10.03, 10.23) and sam tries to kill dean (4.14).

in s10 dean has this really shitty curse that basically makes him really violent and want to kill people. however he also wants to just try to deal with it instead of trying to remove the curse because they know removing the curse would cause something really bad to happen. they don't know WHAT the bad thing is but they do know it would be devastating. anyways sam goes behind dean's back and gathers a bunch of other people to try and remove this curse even though dean doesn't want him to AND even though he knows it would cause terrible consequences. eventually sam does get the curse removed and surprise! the bad thing that happens is THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE. basically.

in s9 dean lets an angel possess sam - something he knows sam would never consent to under normal circumstances - in order to save his life and then, when sam finds out and gets mad about it, dean basically refuses to apologize. and then he just never gets around to apologizing about it or even showing regret about doing it.

in s4 sam lies to dean continuously and works with a demon behind dean's back, and he's also doing the supernatural equivalent of drugs that give him powers. when dean finds out about this he locks sam up in a panic room to suffer through his (very painful) withdrawal completely alone. also sam is having hallucinations of dean calling him a monster. and when another character says that he thinks they should let sam out because sam is at risk of dying, dean says "at least he dies human." later sam gets out of the panic room, dean catches up to him, and they have this huge fight where sam just beats dean up.

honorable mention: in between s7-s8 dean dies and goes to purgatory. the concept of purgatory is previously mostly unexplored on supernatural so sam doesn't really know that dean is in purgatory in the first place but also he just straight up does not bother looking for dean at all and just goes back to living a normal suburban life for a couple months. and then when dean gets back he is SO upset about this and resents sam for it for basically the whole season. (this is also one of the reasons he tries to kill sam.)

also they continually try to save each other, at the expense of themselves + each other + everyone around them. they also treat cas (cas!! my best girl cas!!) really shittily on multiple occasions just because he's in the way of their goals.

ALSO. very important. sam & dean are, respectively, the vessels of lucifer & michael (like the archangels) and essentially they are destined to each get possessed by lucifer/michael and kill each other in the apocalypse (the 1st apocalypse, not the 2nd).

all this propaganda might be a little bit biased in favor of sam because i'm a samgirl but you get the point. they think they're so normal but they are SO fucked up. they hurt themselves AND each other in the pursuit of trying to do what they each think is best and they never ever learn from it. i don't even ship wincest i just think they are so interestingly fucked up AND that's not even going into all the stuff about their childhoods / pre-canon

You did just say Sam was a drug addicted liar who's possessed by the devil and causes the apocalypse, I hate to see what propaganda biased against Sam would look like!

[walksinlatewithcoffee]

How Martyn fucked up my timeline by reusing a skin

So since Martyn is straight up playing the Old Sheriff, and Jimmy and Scott agreed that this is what Tumble Town was supposed to look like, USSMP must be a prequel to Empires s2, taking place between the apocalypse of s1 and the founding of s2.

I know this doesn’t make any sense in the context of the smp being a separate world with its own story but like. Come on. Martyn was the final nail in the coffin here.

And because of this… due to the steampunk skin I’m saying that us!Scott is the ancestor of the twin False’s. Which makes this pre-False in Hermitcraft by at least 20 years but likely closer to 50 (Martyn needs to still be alive for Empires s2 but very old) so us!Scott is now False’s grandpa I guess?

And Eloise being a funko pop??? I mean. There’s an easy connection here. Eloise is a toy and the sidekick??? Of a sheriff, gets teased all the time, clearly could be an ancestor of s2 Jimmy.

Speaking of Jimmy, or Saint Jim, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in some way related to the god shenanigans of Empires whether that be Lizzie in s1 or Joel in s2. Or BDubs I suppose. But for now I’m going to tentatively say he’s a member of S2 Joel’s extended family, likely a demigod of some description, and known as a fierce protector of his people (though his methods may be… controversial)

And… a completely self indulgent piece… his godly lineage traces back to the same god worshipped by Technoblade, due to the fact that he LITERALLY DID THE EXACT SAME BELL THING TECHNO USED TO DO 😭 I’m not ok but it’s fine.

………that headcanon does make Jimmy’s family tree a little fucked up given who I headcanon the Blood God but hey. It’s just ONE instance of Jimmy. And it’s a common name. He could have been named after a different instance of Jimmy. Yeah. It’s fine.

Wait then who is his OTHER parent oh god. There’s… options there. Hm. I’ll need to. Think about that. Decide on a timeline. Cause if it’s pre-hermitcraft that means they wouldn’t know each other so… but Jimmy doesn’t look anything like him or him and that guy certainly isn’t an option…. It can’t be her cause they’re already related… she’s married… I don’t even know if they know each other…Oh wait. Duh. Canonical love interest! There we go! Hard to keep track of shit when you’re integrating events from series you haven’t watched.

Anyway. I know who Jimmy’s parents are. The god of War, Passion, and Devotion, and the Saint of forging paths and the eternal fluctuation of the universe, who was raised from the dead??? Or something to become a being further than mortal after the Blood God achieved apotheosis through a series of events including but not limited to: mass Murder, destruction of a planet, and the bargaining of a few dozen human souls in exchange for god powers. All to save the people they cared about (and cause they’re a fucked up little bastard but like. That’s a given)

That combination is why us!Jimmy Like That. The parents actual identities aren’t super important right now. Or possibly ever, I dunno.

Wait fuck that means s2 Joel is distantly related to…. Ugh fine. It’s weird but it’s FINE. It works with the Saint Pearl lore at least.

Now I just have to decide whether the pile of bullshit that eventually led to us!Jimmy’s birth happened before or after s1 of Empires. Based on sheer vibes I’d like to say after. Which would make Empires s1 officially the beginning of my personal timeline (the aforementioned pile of bullshit is usually marked as the first point in the timeline but it genuinely doesn’t make much sense for it to be before empires 1)

Which means that empires s2 Lizzie is officially the person whose personal family timeline goes back the furthest, cause I hc that her catgirl genes go back to the tiger blood prince of the Lost Kingdom.

So currently how it’s looking is:

Empires 1 > possibly afterlife smp???? > pile of bullshit > hermitcraft overall begins> Evo > smp earth > hermitcraft s6 begins > life series 1-3 > possibly dream smp??? USSMP > Empires 2

Undefined placement with no real ideas: X Life, Witchcraft smp, rats smp, Outsiders smp,

And that’s not even every smp in the overall timeline I just don’t have a scrap of a clue how to mesh Captain Sparklez into this even though he’s critical to the dsmp section of the timeline considering he literally is Tubbo’s origin story in my head

FUCK WHAT ABOUT OSMP

Fuck it that’s the far distant future. Five thousand years ahead. The only one who’s the same person is Phil cause he’s immortal by virtue of Death goddess wife. He’s seen these dumbasses reincarnated at least six times each.

[mitchelldailygames]

2023 Book Round-Up

This is going to be a quick list of some of my favorite books that I read this year. These aren’t books that necessarily came out in 2023 and they’re not in any particular order.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone OK, this one is in a particular order. It’s my favorite. I read this book twice this year, the first time based on the recommendation of that tweet a lot of people saw. I found it beautiful, and as someone who wants to eventually publish novels, very inspiring. The application of the epistolary style to its sci-fi concept (it is actually set in a time war) made for a compelling and unique feel to the book. The prose were absolutely gorgeous. The way the characters were human and the way they were inhuman was perfect. All of it got me thinking about how my own writing could reach further than I'd considered before.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir I also read and really enjoyed Nona the Ninth this year, but Harrow was my favorite. The mystery of it all, the intense necromancer action, and the angst all adds up to the perfect Locked Tomb book. And the payoff at the end is so good.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute I read this after watching Jacob Geller’s Art in the Pre-Apocalypse video, and this is the write up that will end up feeling the least like a recommendation. This book messed me up. I read it while fall was tumbling towards winter in the often dreary Pacific Northwest (of the US). This book made me feel like the world was ending. I became immersed in the state of living life while the end drifted closer to the point I kind of started to believe it in real life. I certainly found it compelling in its restrained doom.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers This one is also in a particular order because I read it right after On the Beach and it plucked me right out of my funk. Where the previous book left me feeling like precious few moments were slipping away from me, A Psalm for the Wild-Built said it was OK to just be. This is a beautiful solar punk novella as is its sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy. It presents a possibility for a better world while giving a glimpse into the pathways we can take as individuals to move towards something better (while acknowledging that big changes need to take place on a macro level).

The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson I tried reading this a long time ago because I was a fan of Gibson’s cyberpunk books and couldn’t get into it. I didn’t have that problem this year. Its steampunk London after the century-early arrival at the computer was very compelling. It fell prey to some tropes I’m not a huge fan of, namely that people in crisis will quickly resort to chaos and violence, but overall it was a story and setting that kept me reading all the way through this time.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer What a book! I’m currently reading Authority, and I love this brand of weird sci-fi/horror. I watched the movie forever ago, but really enjoyed (and am enjoying) the story that's told in the books. The unraveling of the group and of the biologist was a great read, and it was fun to see cosmic horror in the modern age done really well. The mystery of it all was really the hook of the book, and the things it leaves unanswered was really fitting for the story.

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King I finished the Dark Tower series this year, but this was my favorite. The doombot bad guys, the way it expanded on the lore, and the gunslinger action were all really cool. The characters were all operating at their peaks in this book, while dealing with some deep, dark secrets, and it felt like it held the best of all the things the series has to offer.

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt What a harrowing, powerful, complicated haunted house story this is. I will say this book is not for the faint of heart (and comes with trigger warnings at the beginning of the book), but I was left at the end of the story with the distinct feeling I had read something that would stick with me for a long, long time. It gets into the complicated ways identities interact and the way fascism breeds in societies and individual hearts. There are long sections that slip into disturbing rambles that become less coherent as they go on, which is perfect within the tone of the book. The things that haunt the characters throughout the story add and help give traction to all of these other pieces.

[notwithout-mymuse]

Ok so how’s this for a ‘secret’ theory:

I’m probably utterly insane but still, humour me.

So… season 4 opens probably a few weeks after season 3 left off, with soft, domestic just-engaged, deliriously happy Tarlos. Insert this scene here:

I’m thinking a soft morning just-woke-up-together scene, but honestly it could be anything.

Later in the episode we see Carlos meeting Andrea for lunch mid-shift pre-frog apocalypse.

Only, what’s so important that she had to meet him while he’s in the middle of a shift? Maybe because she wanted to talk to him alone? (cause we all know off-duty Tarlos are joined at the hip).

Here, we get our first hint at the big secret. We realise that whatever it is, Andrea knows and is trying to convince Carlos that he needs to let TK in on the secret now that they’re engaged. Insert this line here:

Then, the conversation gets interrupted by the disaster of the week, and the audience is left wondering.

Sometime later we get excited TK in wedding planning mode, probably featuring a lot of this smug playful face:

Only this time, the audience senses that Carlos is hesitating, maybe thinking about his mother’s warning, but it’s not the time or place to have that conversation (and maybe disaster of the week part 2 is kicking off), so again the audience is left wondering.

Very much this scene from S2 kinda vibes, where Carlos (bless his cotton socks) thinks he’s being smooth and subtle in his deflections, but he’s really, REALLY not and TK starts to realise that something is up:

Then we skip ahead to this angsty-looking scene:

I mean, think about this from TK’s perspective, with his past and previous traumas. The show literally opened with him getting his heart broken over a marriage proposal. If this poor little poppet starts suspecting that Carlos is hesitating when it comes to them getting married, that’s gotta reopen a whole lot of old emotional scars.

I still can’t work out which order I think the two photos from this scene will fall, but either way I think it becomes - if not an argument - then at least a very emotionally charged conversation (in which we will charge Ronen and Rafa for our therapy bills after) where TK says something along the lines of ‘if you don’t want to marry me then just say so’.

And Carlos, unable to bear the thought that TK thinks he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life with him blurts out the truth:

He can’t marry TK. Not because he doesn’t want that with all his heart..

But because he’s already married.

BOOM. MIC DROP. RIP lone star fandom 2020-2023. Of course the ep ends on a cliffhanger so that we all have to suffer for a whole week without answers. Hence the “gasp-inducing revelation”.

HOWEVER (stay with me here) I don’t think it will be quite as straight-forward as like ‘oh here’s an ex boyfriend I never mentioned before and oops we got married’. For one thing, there doesn’t seem to have been anyone cast who would fit that role, and that would be the obvious route for the story to go, for TK to meet this ex - accidentally or otherwise because DRAMA. Also, how would Andrea know if TK is the first of Carlos’ partners that she has met?

But also, you know who has a role in all of this that we haven’t really been able to figure out yet?

Iris.

Again, stay with me here…

Given that we know that Carlos came out as gay at 17 and has never been suggested to be anything else, I’m pretty sure he would not have married Iris out of love.

However, Carlos has been presented as someone who cares deeply about the people around him, who will do anything to help someone in need, and who struggles with not being able to make things better for people.

So what if Iris didn’t need someone to marry her out of love. What if she needed someone to marry her because she was desperate?

Remember - the last time we saw Iris she was homeless, penniless, traumatised and extremely mentally unwell. But in the new stills she looks in much better health. So who has been making sure that Iris is taken care of financially - her unemployed sister? Her retirement-age mother? And we have no evidence that either of them are even still alive or around to help - if they killed Gwyn off why not Michelle - especially if Liv Tyler is definitely not coming back which looks likely.

So who has been paying what are presumably exorbitant medical fees? It’s not likely that she had medical insurance after living on the streets with no job. But what if she had a ‘husband’ - one with a stable job, decent income, and presumably good health insurance benefits?

Only it would have to be a secret, wouldn’t it?Because the marriage is fraudulent, and Carlos is literally an officer of the law.

Of course this makes me wonder about time frame (always a risky thing with shows like this), but I’m wondering if it happened during the Tarlos break-up era. If Carlos thought there was no chance of reuniting with TK - and lord knows the poor boy wasn’t moving on no matter what he said - then what would be the harm in pretend marrying a friend for a little while so that she could get help?

Nothing. Until TK comes back, and proposes of course!

And understandably TK would have grounds to be upset about Carlos not letting him know what was going on (which is what I think Carlos’ real ‘slip-up’ is, rather than the marriage itself) but given everything that happened after the reunion - with Gwyn dying, TK nearly relapsing, the Sadie drugging, Owen’s cancer scare and a building nearly crushing him - I can see why it might have been difficult to casually slip a sham marriage into the conversation!

Ultimately though, the solution is simple. If Iris is doing as well as she seems, then explain the situation, get the marriage annulled - problem solved!

Which is what I think this scene is about, given that everyone seems happy. (Side note: I think that the image of them in the same clothes where TK looks worried, and Carlos seems to be comforting him could be from before Iris arrives and TK is nervous about how she might respond).

But it’s all fine, she’s happy for them and they make arrangements.

Only, DUN DUN DUN plot twist! Something happens to Iris (probably linking back to some other plot that has been bubbling away in the background) and she goes missing/needs rescuing first:

Anddddd, that’s all I got.

[bisupergirl]

Hey, don't mind me here! I'm going to ask you some random Supergirl questions because why not, but don't feel obligated to answer them. Cool? Cool. Okay, if you could rewrite one Supergirl story, which one would it be? If you could put Kara in any Elseworlds story like a zombie apocalypse or hunger games or whatever, which one would you choose? Have you read Convergence: Adventures of Superman? It's like the last arc of Peter David's Supergirl run, but better.

ok so THANK U for all the questions first of all <3 one of the story arcs i would rewrite for kara is her reintroduction back into the dcu in superman/batman (2003). it really had the potential to be an all-time banger of a story arc for kara but the constant over sexualization of literally every woman in that story is so off-putting to me. it also really set the tone for her early characterization in the 2000s as a stereotypical american teenage girl, which isn’t fitting at all for kara at that point in her life. so yeah, i really really love the idea of kara training with the amazons (and i don’t mind her being watched over by clark/bruce/diana either) and developing a strong bond with hippolyta, diana, and cassie. and i also really liked the idea of darkseid/granny goodness taking advantage of kara in her very vulnerable state and capturing her and forcing her to be a female fury. i thought that was such a cool idea but the execution of it was so lame to me!!

now i’ve talked about this before, but if i could put kara in an elseworlds story it would have to be a sci-fi horror type of comic. even something with a simple and familiar premise could be really fun like “supergirl vs alien” or “supergirl vs predator” or “supergirl vs alien vs predator”. and not to give any credit to the fl/sh movie, but i think kara immediately getting captured by the government upon her arrival on earth and having to escape her captors could be a really cool idea for a horror comic for her. she can be both the alien lurking in the dark picking off agents and scientists one-by-one, and also the central protagonist that you root for. “I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me” etc etc etc.

and yes i have read convergence: adventures of superman!! and i agree, i loved seeing pre crisis kara in many happy returns but i enjoyed c:aos more. plus she’s wearing her headband so <3 <3 <3

[doyouknowthemossinman]

okay someone asked me frfr for the RGB/Bad Suns song picks so HERE I GO ( @goosemagician i am forever in your debt !!!!!!)

i talk way too much so erm. BE WARNED, HERE BE WORDS

We Move Like the Ocean from Language and Perspective

The entire first verse of this song is literally RGB's headspace during Cut to, Greenlight, Dissolve, and Iris imo. like "I've been painting pictures in my head and falling short / Losing my direction, turn me around" THAT'S HIM AND MADRAS OK!!! HE'S SO SAD

The second verse is very much his weird not-his-death dreams. I just felt like is was kinda fitting? Maybe he's talking to Hate here? (The "didn't you used to dance" face and Hate's face in his flashback are the SAME has anyone talked about this yet)

To me the chorus is his relationship with Hero as it develops. They've got kind of a rhythm going now, they kinda know how the other works, they are getting closer emotionally hahaha, but RGB literally and figuratively can't swim. He's not as emotionally available as Hero needs him to be. Even the "anymore" on the end of that line implies that he has bonded with people like that in the past (at least romantically if i'm interpreting light entertainment as canon? it's canon right??) but he can't for Hero. Yet.

Even in my Dreams, I Can't Win from Disappear Here

Honestly this entire song is just him and I can SEE a little animatic in my head but I'll try to explain

The first verse feels like what his nights are like without a hero to guide, those inbetweens when he has to find the gall to get back up to the Inbetween (ha) and find another keyframe.

The pre-chorus and chorus is just his cycle of finding heroes and failing time and time again. rip.

The bridge feels like him getting frustrated and overwhelmed at his not-death nightmares and trying to explain them to Hero and this is all he comes up with lol. It's not even entirely accurate but I think he would at least try and explain them to her eventually.

Away We Go from Mystic Truth

honestly this one's kind of just an adventuring song!! Maybe cutting between his time with Magnus and some of the heroes? or just Hero? It feels simple to me and I kinda just picked it to have one song from each album lmao. BUT IT ALSO APPLIES I would never disrespect Mystic Truth like that

Life Was Easier When I Only Cared About Me from Apocalypse Whenever

This is basically "determined little ball of sunshine worms her way into a monster's non-existent heart" the song. Like the Iris through Flood era. Like "how does this little girl keep violently pulling her forcefully-adopted dad out of his depression"

First verse is sad dad!!!! I know "My thoughts came flooding in / I started to drown" relates to the title of Flood and he has come close to being drowned like twice, but it's more like that vaguely suicidal moment he has after Madras pushes him backward??? BABE ARE U OKAY

"Lit my own fuse, I could not blow it out / I was strapped to a rocket aimed right at the ground" is definitely one of their arguments/genuine heartbreaking fights but it'S OK THEY STILL LOVE EACH OTHER

AND THE CHORUS OH MY GOD. He realizes how much Hero really means to him and is just SO mad about it. Okay not mad but like!! He wasn't supposed to get attached and now here he is!!!! Also IF at the end of the story RGB turns back into a human (that's a theory people have right) "I had no reason to breathe / Until you knocked the wind out of me" IS GOING TO BE SO LITERAL OH MY GODDDD (I don't personally think that's where we're going but it would be sooooo niceeee andmy songs would work so well for thaaat)

Anyway!!! Thank you for making it to the end!! As a prize you get more song recs because GOD he literally is just Bad Suns to me

Okay wait actually, bonus Thoughts because i'm listening to L&P again, Salt is like if he ever got a weird dysphoria after becoming a monster??? IF THAT EVEN HAPPENED??? Mirror mention and my brain went insane sorry. "These memories are nothing to me, just salt" mans literally SOLD his so like. IT'S RELEVANT. idk please go listen to Salt it's so trans

Most of Language and Perspective (the album not just the song) is pretty relevant to him but that may just be my bias getting in the way lol. Cardiac Arrest, Dancing on Quicksand, and Salt would be my number ones but I'm so for real please go listen to the whole album

Disappear Here also has bangers but so far the only other song I can relate to this mess of a man is Defeated.

One Magic Moment is him and Hero for sureee but it's just a vibe, other than the first lines i don't have any deeper thoughts lol. Love By Mistake is also him idk.

Unstable is his denial song i think <3 babes is not okay

Most of Apocalypse Whenever is so happy in a genuine way, while TV boy here is happy in a fake way. Maybe it'll apply more by the end of the story but for now nothing really fits. EXCEPT FOR ELECTRIC CIRCUS AAAAHHH??? hOW COULD I FORGET. "Crushed by a tidal wave of lies an shame" OKAY GIRL. anyway never thought i'd tell you that the album with a PVRIS feature is too happy but here we are

The Infinite Joy EP is SO GOOD guys. Living or Dying is vaguely RGB-vibey? Maybe Astral Plans as well but it's very loose.

OK FOR REAL GO FORTH AND BECOME BAD SUNS FANS

[eamonorus-blog]

Why TLOU2 fails as a morality tale.

Ok, it may feel like it's not necessary in order to talk about tlou2, but I want to talk about the first game first. Specifically, the ways in which it fails to be realistic, but why that isn't important in the same way the failure of the sequel to be realistic is.

Obviously, stories in any medium feature impossible scenarios, contrivances and fantastical elements all the time, and they don't have to ruin the story. They can either have a minor negative effect, or in fact be part of the appeal.

So, I feel like I have to explain why the way that tlou2 is unrealistic is a problem first, and a great case study of the opposite is the first game.

tlou follows in the footsteps of many tropes from the post-apoc genre. Most notably for my discussion, in the way the world is populated by hordes of kill crazed bandits.

To a degree, this is the inevitable nature of the medium. tlou is a third-person shooter, so it needs a lot of hostiles, and hordes of vicious killers with a bad sense of self-preservation are a great way to add that.

But I think there is more to it than that. Cormac Mcarthy's The Road has the same set up. As does the Fallout series. So, I think this is more a matter of genre convention than medium convention. Plenty of games are just about killing zombies, so there is no reason that the killing of human enemies couldn't be very limited or non-existent.

And why is this a problem? This is a problem because its not how people would really behave.

Of course, I don't know that for certain, but I think I have a good argument to make. The world of tlou is a pre-industrial society basically, and we know what those would be like. We can look at all of human history. And what we see is conflict, sure, but not just hordes of angry bandits without women and children that they look after.

Its human nature to fight, but its also human nature to cooperate and breed. The all male groups of criminals who focus on material possessions are not the natural outgrowth of a collapse of civilisation, but instead its continuation.

We ascribe the presence of sadistic Mad Max style raider gangs to the post-apocalypse because that is the kind of social ill that actually plagues us in the here and now, in our modern world. In the presence of urban gangs, motorbike gangs, etc…

Even if you look at African modern civil wars with child soldiers, those conflicts are still based around racial and tribal loyalties which distinguish them from the multi-racial rootless gang which tends to predominate in post apocalyptic fiction.

In the first game the biggest culprit here is the Pittsburgh group, with their lack of women and children, and hence any wider society that they are fighting for, and their total lack of regard for their own lives in chasing after Joel no matter how many of them die.

In the modern overpopulated world, life is cheap. Whether we are talking about gang warfare or full scale conflict. But in a post-apocalyptic setting people would be risk averse, respectful, and would only resort to violence as a final choice.

Steppe pastoralists like the Mongols, Scythians, Turks, etc… who had a low population and lived in vast nearly uninhabited wildernesses tended to adopt fighting styles that minimised casualties as much as possible.

And people living in a wasteland caused by some apocalyptic event would act in the same way. They wouldn't attack a stranger for no reason, if only to avoid entangling themselves in conflict, with another tribe who would seek revenge. Ofc course, like I said, conflict would still exist over territory, resources, women, etc…

But it wouldn't be the way it is shown to be in tlou.

But why is this not that much of a problem in my opinion? For starters, one of the central themes of tlou in regard to violence is that we all just do what we have to to survive. That that is what drives conflict. And that is what David uses to justify his actions, and what Joel does to.

So the game is diagnosing the way conflict works correctly, even if the gameplay is doing a bit of a sloppy job of getting that across.

But the main reason why it works is because the game ends with Joel choosing to sacrifice hope for a cure to save Ellie. By doing this the game would have us believe he is dooming humanity as a whole to more suffering, but what has the game shown us humanity consists of?

Certainly not the tough and brutal but nonetheless sympathetic and rational people who would really exist in such a world.

Instead it would be to save a bunch of trigger happy fascist police, a whole city of murderous bandits, random bandits who attack people trying to rebuild society, and a bunch of cannibals lead by a pedophile.

Yeah, no thanks.

Sure we meet some good people, and we like Jackson, but if we got a broader sense that humanity as a whole consisted of decent people who would really benefit from the cure, we might feel a bit differently about Joels decision. As it is, we have Tess, Sam and Henry die as a consequence of being bitten, and that's sad, but still, thats already happened and cant be changed.

Having the world of tlou be more realistic would make how we feel about Joels choice more complicated, and I dont think it would make the game worse, but as it is the games failing in this way just makes us sympathise with his decision even more.

So the game is actually leading us into being ok with the ending.

If we never met any hostile humans, just helpful kind people who are desperate to avoid being infected and need whatever help they can get, who are traumatized by losing loved ones to infection, we would feel quite differently about Joels final decision. In that hypothetical situation, making the world unrealistically OPTIMISTIC about how humans would behave in the post apocalypse, as opposed to PESSIMISTIC, would hurt the story, since it would lead Joel to seem more villainous and unjustified.

So, with that extended preamble out of the way, let me explain why lack of realism hurting the story is exactly what happens with tlou2

First off, tlou2 fixes the problem I mentioned in tlou. In the sense that the rabid, mad max style, casualty careless, all male bandit groups of the first game are gone.

Instead we have group conflict happening between rational, capable societies that fight each other over land, resources, normal stuff, stuff that makes sense.

This is a good thing as far as it goes, but unfortunately this increased realism is countermanded at every turn.

Lets start with the opening, with Abby leading the Salt Lake crew to Jackson to kill Joel. Right away we have serious issues.

As I just laid out, in the real world people fight each other over resources, land, women, stuff that really matters. And they fight on behalf of a broader group/society.

Even the modern criminal groups I mentioned beforehand do this for the most part. Sure, lone vengeance killing unrelated to a wider societal enemy or resources do happen, like with the few famous cases of parents who have killed someone who raped or killed their child before they could be sentenced.

But even that is very rare. FAR more common is revenge killings in the context of a gang war over territory. Which mimics the historical pattern of conflicts over history I have mentioned before. When people seek vengeance over a murdered parent, historically that is within the context of their parents' killer being a part of a group their tribe/society is at war with. If the killing is within their own society in most cases, there are social mechanisms to get justice.

By which I mean that the vengeace, while a very real motivator, is actually given the ooomph to be carried out because it serves the wider purpose of fighting your societies enemies.

We see this in tlou2 with the way Isaac talks about the back-and-forth conflict with the Seraphites. That is an example of a realistic conflict leading to realistic revenge being sought by both parties. The fight is actually over ideology, territory, etc… The vengeance is just a factor that comes out as the conflict escalates.

Let me reiterate, human beings are risk averse, and are only usually willing to resort to violence to defend their people, and/or for a big material benefit.

And Abbys quest for revenge has none of these factors. Joel was a lone individual. He isn't a member of a group the Fireflies have a vested interest in fighting, or who will continue to be a threat to them. Ideologically it would make sense for them to go after him to get Ellie, but the game dismisses that with the claim that Jerry was the only person who could make the cure, so that's a non-factor.

All of this has a cascading effect that makes going after Joel a terrible idea. Finding him will involve taking a bunch of people the WLF can't afford to lose, across country on a massive trek where they are liable to get hurt or killed, in order to kill one man who is no threat to them, and who they have nothing material to gain from killing, and in doing so risk aggravating any community that he has become a part of in the meantime.

The game itself, to its credit is well aware of all these problems. We are told that Isaac green lit this operation off screen with the claim that he "cares about justice"

Well, it looks to me like Isaac, as a person engaged in an actually plausible example of group conflict, cares more about winning and fighting for the survival and wellbeing of his people against outsiders. It looks to me like that is his value, not justice.

But he does agree to this for some reason.

But then we have all the reasons why people in the real world don't act like Abby does begin to raise their heads.

When they get to Jackson, Owen discovers that the place is big and thriving. There is no way their small team that Isaac for some reason granted permission to leave is going to be able to attack this place. And he rightly says that the others are going to want to leave after this. But Abby ignores him, goes off on her own, and miraculously finds Joel and Tommy, miraculously in the middle of a zombie horde so they can bond fighting them off and it makes sense for them to trust her.

It's also necessary so that she can plausibly convince them to come with her to their hideout, where, as many people have pointed out, Joel and Tommy seem shockingly unconcerned about why a large armed group would have come all this way to Jackson and not have introduced themselves.

The contrivances, character assassinations and almost plot holes here annoy people. But they annoy them especially because even if they can't articulate it like I can, they know that this kind of thing doesn't make sense for people to do in this world, and it doesn't make sense that they would succeed at it.

The blizzard, the infected, Joel giving out his name, they are all needed to happen because logic needs to be bent out of shape for this to happen in the first place.

Ellie choosing to go after Abby is just as stupid. Some people felt that way too, but others didn't, because yes, we are more invested in Joel than Abby, and the human instinct for revenge does kick in, which is of course the feeling Neil wants us to feel.

Abby has gone out of her way to be unreasonable and stupid, so we feel that Ellie is justified in doing the same back.

But that doesn't make it any less foolish. Maybe if we had seen Ellie grow and get attached to Jackson, as she probably would have, we would realise more how stupid she is being by risking all that going after Abby. But just like the masses of decent people that we would have needed to see in tlou to get us to really question Joels decision to save Ellie, we don't see that here.

tlou2 wants to be a commentary on the nature of violence, and why the cycle of violence is bad, but it doesn't actually critique the kind of cycles of violence that actually occur in the real world. Neil is fighting shadows, wagging his finger at a kind of human being who doesn't really exist, shaming us for doing something people don't actually do.

In terms of the games actually believable conflict, that between the Seraphites and the WLF, the game tries to a degree to be nuanced and "both sides" but it falls short because the Seraphites are so over the top evil, in a different way than the Pittsburgh gang maybe, but in a way that makes them just as unlikable and clearly coded as evil.

The only Scar characters that we are meant to empathise with are defectors, we clearly aren't meant to actually understand or sympathise with their perspective like we are with Abby.

The game is about different perspectives, but only for someone who is engaging in a self-destructive, stupid, act of vengeance, not for a religiously minded oppressed people fighting for their beliefs and their way of life against a superior enemy.

And this is why the game doesnt work as a tragedy.

The idea of a tragedy is that the protagonist has a fatal flaw, one they are given opportunity, time and time again, to correct and overcome, but the flaw is a part of their nature, and they fail to overcome it and perish.

But Ellie does overcome, she lets go of the pointless hatred she and Abby have engaged in. And she still loses everything. If she had killed her, and lost everything, just like Abby did after killing Joel, that would have been something, but no.

Either a story is a hero's journey, where the protagonist learns the lesson and triumphs, or a tragedy, where they do not, and fail.

But Ellie learns her lesson and still fails.

tlou2 chastises humanity for a sin it doesn't commit. That is its great failing.

[icharchivist]

Ok ok but, I've already talked about it on Twitter but I gotta confront with you as well...did you notice how the characters fight Ferdinand in ch5 named retrograde and he is Mercurio hence referencing to Mercury retrograde in astrology not to mention he's the first planet of the solar system cause he's the founder hence the first member of Navis....also.... Does this mean the other planets exist in the granblue universe? Is Terra/Gaia going to be fucked up? Nereus herself seems to have perception of the pre bahamut world too....

oh this is such a cool observation and a good question

I think what's interesting to mention on that regard is that the world of Granblue is a world that is set after an Apocalypse. The islands are floating because the world has been broken and the bottom of the world, which was where all of life resided, has been scorched and unliveable.

In Old Bonds, Galleon mentions that the world used to be different and they want to return to the past world, and in doing so she describes a world that is much more similar to our own.

aside from Shalem mentioning there was a 7th secret element in the world that now makes people sick... and the fact the current Moon in granblue is an Island that formed during said apocalypse....

it's not far fetched to believe Granblue is actually set in a futuristic Earth setting, after Bahamut triggered an Apocalypse, destroying all of our world as we know it.

That, or the world of Granblue is its own planet in our solar system still.

Honestly they probably just didn't want to change the names, or maybe, like the Moon, they're going to explain that the planets in Granblue means something different than in our world despite looking fairly the same.

still. IT's really a cool thing to wonder about aahahhh

[roseyturtles]

I posted 6,570 times in 2022

98 posts created (1%)

6,472 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tharkflark1

@kr1llz

@kinkshame-the-courier

@wizardpotions

@voulinn

I tagged 293 of my posts in 2022

#fallout new vegas - 65 posts

#arcade gannon - 53 posts

#fnv - 52 posts

#benny gecko - 22 posts

#soupposting - 19 posts

#fallout - 15 posts

#courier six - 14 posts

#homestuck - 13 posts

#unreality - 12 posts

#goncharov - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 122 characters

#ok i can see the argument that the followers of the apocalypse don’t have nearly the education system pre-war america does

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Gonna say something similar to what I said about Encanto: Turning Red is a movie about growing up as a teenage girl, particularly as the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, before queer theory ever enters the picture. Do not forget that.

251 notes - Posted March 14, 2022

#4

The thing I love most about the "Humans are Space Orcs" style of writing is that it makes us look at our world from an outsiders perspective. We're so used to mosquitos and magpies and turkey vultures and geese and tornados and poisonous plants and the weird humanisms we do on a daily basis that approaching it from the perspective of someone who has little to know experience being an earthling adds zest to the whole world for a little while

252 notes - Posted November 27, 2022

#3

Boone, to Ceasar's corpse: Thumbs down, you son of a bitch.

Arcade: ...up.

Boone:

Boone: What.

Arcade: If you want to match his Roman aesthetic you would want to say thumbs up.

Arcade: When the ceasar gave a gladiator a thumbs down, it meant the losing gladiator could put his sword down because he was more valuable alive.

Arcade: But a thumbs up is believed to have been a signal to thrust upward into the heart.

Boone:

Boone: Do you seriously think he follows that level of consistency?

Arcade:

384 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#2

I hate when people interpret Arcade as your average blonde prettyboy with nothing behind the eyes because like.??? This is a 35ish year old man who has spent his entire life running from the government on the principle of who he was born to. He is rough around the edges. He has trauma. He has scars, mental and physical. His history is riddled with tragedy. He conceals his earnest love for humanity with dry wit and literary references because expressing too much love has brought him pain. If you draw Arcade and it doesn't feel like he's a man glued together by idealism and the hope humanity may finally learn from its msitakes then what is the fucking point

726 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

"Cryptocurrency is dying, repost this to make it die faster" No. No, I want cryptocurrency to die slowly, by attrition. I want it to stop being popular among rich people to have NFTs that harm the earth and start being popular to grow your own garden, I want crypto bros to scramble to find a real job or go back to school, I want the glaring blue light of their overloaded computer's screen to bore into their skulls as they watch that number get closer and closer and closer to zero. Cryptocurrency is a rabid animal, and as it grows out of the aggression stage, the seizures will get worse and more painful. I want everyone to refuse shooting this animal. I want cryptocurrency see the Earth staring coldly at its failing body and know that there is no mercy in this world or the next.

2,209 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →