#i will die on this hill. it's never okay.

[nobodysnowhere]

A needless contest

A How-To Guide to Breaking a Table

Summary: A friendly „discussion“ about who’s the physically strongest breaks out after reviewing pictures from the Ghost camera. What better way to solve this issue, than to test it with an arm wrestling contest?

Cast: First years, gn reader

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

„You guys are so childish.“ You watch as your friends set up a table in the middle of Ramshackle Lounge, making sure that there aren’t any tripping hazards around.

„You don’t have to participate if you’re that scared of coming last.“ Ace replies as he and Deuce push one of the couches further out of the way.

„I never said anything about being scared.“ raising your arms in surrender before continuing to write down the tournament tree onto a blackboard you found in some random closet. „It‘s just that I can acknowledge that this is a kind of childish hill to die on.“

„It’s only childish if we let it be, for as long as none of us throw a fit over losing, then there won’t be a problem.“ argues Epel, as he prepares his wrist for the battles ahead.

„So who’s up first?“

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀𓇬⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

„I can not believe this…“

Ace stares blankly at the results of the tournament.

„How do Grim and I have the same amount of wins?!?“

„I mean it’s pretty clear to me how that happened. You won once against Grim and Grim won once against me. I don’t see what’s so confusing about that.“

„You let him win against you! There was no way he won that legitimately.“

„It’s okay to lose sometimes Ace. No need to get mad. You have other important qualities.“, like being a smartass, but you decide to let that part stay quiet.

Before Ace can continue his complaints, you turn around to congratulate Ortho, who is currently being celebrated by the others, on his effortless win.

You wait for the others to finish with their congratulations, even Ace as miffed as he is congratulates him, before chiming in with your own praises.

„Congratulations on the clean sweep. I don’t know what I expected would happen, after all, you were able to carry an entire Amusement Park back to shore once. It’s no wonder the table broke under all of that force.“

„I‘ll make sure to order a replacement to be sent here, but more importantly is your arm alright? I slammed it pretty hard into the table before it broke.“ Ortho asks Jack with concern.

He shrugs his shoulders, dismissing the boy’s concerns. „It’s fine. The table broke because of your fingers hitting it, so my arm had not a lot to do with that.“

You nod your head relieved that nobody was injured. „Congratulations to you too Jack. Second place is nothing to sneeze at.“ Jack acknowledges the praise with a simple nod, though his real feelings are being betrayed by the wagging of his tail.

„I‘ll make sure to work harder next time to beat the two of you.“ Sebek loudly declares.

You look over at a disappointed-looking Deuce, patting him on the back to try and console him. „It’s ok. The competition was pretty strong. See the positives. At least you beat put Ace.“ „Hey! Stop slandering me.“

Deuce looks at you and gives you an appreciative smile. „You’re right. I‘ll just beat them at something else later down the line.“ he points at Jack, „Get ready for the next track meet. I won’t hold back.“

Jack meets his eyes looking confused for just a second before nodding his head with determination. „Challenge accepted.“

You back yourself out of that conversation and meet up with Epel. You hold your hand up for a high five, which he gladly returns.

„Fifth place eh? At least we don’t look like those two.“ he says while looking over at Ace and Grim who seem to have started arguing about the legitimacy of their rankings.

„As long as no more tables get destroyed I’m fine with whatever they decide to do.“

[bannerville]

Some folks on here treat people like inanimate vending machines they can pull and poke and rattle to get a prize out of for amusement, even if it hurts the person. That's sad.

People aren't things.

They're not wind-up monkeys you can abuse until they break because you're bored and chasing a dopamine high. People are people.

Treat them like it.

[mid-knight-black]

Eddie’s face in this scene always breaks my heart 🥺

[ @911gif tysm for making this gif set 🥹]

[tinderbox210]

Thinking again about the way Kay's feelings are very much written all over her face when it comes to ND and at the prospect of losing him.

!!!Spoiler Warning!!!

The way she looks just always so worried for him when he's malfunctioning/hurt and how her first instinct is to get close to touch and comfort him and make sure he's alright.

Also the way he calls for Kay sounding so uncertain and distressed when he's malfunctioning gets me everytime 🥺

And I can't get over the way she looks so softly at him during this little exchange, like so much tenderness there!

And the way she looks so shocked and devastated when she thinks she has lost him...

And Nix jumping on the table and giving that sad little head bump... 😭 god damn, why don't you rip my heart out a little more?

And in the end, the way her eyes go all soft again and show just all that relief when she sees he's okay, and again with the touchyness, like she needs the physical confirmations that he's alright.

And ND's "never better" which just says so much, not just because he's finally free of his strings but also because he has the one person that came back for him and that matters to him by his side. This is definitely the moment he decided to never leave her again.

[mosscaps]

let's all think about roman literally on his knees at gerri’s feet, begging to be saved. but you can’t be saved from Logan, that’s the whole point, he is a planet of a person he’s a black hole he is every decision already made. gerri tries to get him to see this — there’s no way out, no move they could possibly make against him, because Logan. always. wins. maybe if roman could give her one reason to fight for him, but there aren’t any. it’s pointless. it has nothing to do with roman, really, and everything to do with the harsh reality that Logan is the center of their universe. but all that nuance is completely lost on roman, because in that room he is seven years old again and always. and when she asks how it serves her interests, what she is saying is show me a way out, but what he hears is that she doesn't care about him. and maybe she never did.

[starscreamingg]

Honestly transformers one deserves a medal for being the first transformers. Thing. In like five years to make me actually like and want to see bumblebee

[cupophrogs]

I honestly dont trust Ollie either. I do wonder if he’s tried to tell drew to not trust daddy or pops. Cause like poppy Ollie seems to not care of the bigger bodies die or live.

“Poppy ain’t perfect, but trust me when I tell you that she cares. But you’re right about one thing, I don’t trust Ollie worth a shit.”

(This is a joke, please do not take this seriously! I thought it was funny)

[ladamedusoif]

Yes and SOME OF US (me) have been saying this for some time and have plenty of ideas that don’t involve Austen or a British setting so, y’know, I’m a historical gun for hire on this one.

I’m just feeling very validated that people are seeing my vision.

[eiitsuya]

i die a little every time i see a bat in jason's design

[dukeofthomas]

I will forever maintain that Jason would've been fine and Not a vigilante without Bruce making him Robin

[time-is-restored]

btw this might be me swinging a bat at a hornets nest but like. absolutely none of my disappointment from the tl finale comes from ship baiting or any relationships that didn’t happen (though to be clear, i think the tedbecca fake outs were meanspirited and served no narrative purpose - in noted contrast to the season's earlier jamiekeeley fakeouts, for example, which were explicitly there to demonstrate jamie's growth + maturity)

tedpendant is a really fun concept for me, and i LOVE the characterisation + thematic potential there!

but as someone who personally resonated with a lot of ted’s struggles, the idea that ted could leave richmond so… seamlessly, for lack of a better word, really doesn’t sit right with me. the thesis of the shows entire first season - assuming it can be said to have only one - was about how everyone needs the love and support of a community, whether that comes in the flavour of someone who hypes u tf up or someone who will relentlessly call u on ur shit (or, as happened quite frequently, both!).

rebecca, roy, jamie are the clearest examples as the characters with the most screentime: they were all deeply isolated and disconnected from the people around them, and that was making them miserable. the connections they made with the team, the vulnerability they finally allowed themselves to express (the ghost banishing ceremony comes to mind!), and them going on to want *more* out of their life are what made their arcs about *progression* rather than *regression*. without that clear theme of compassion + community inspiring positive growth in everyone who encounters it, there is, frankly, no season one.

my personal favourite scene from season one comes right after michelle walks away from ted, when they’ve agreed to get divorced. ted sits down on the bench looking gutted, and a little shell shocked - and beard sits down with him. hands him the drink, and they sit there together. silent, but together. to me, that scene is an implicit promise from the episode, to the audience: ‘it’ll be okay. it’s going to be hard, but ted isn’t alone, and his friends won’t leave him behind.’

it also makes it clear to the audience that ted isn’t the saintly-giver-of-grace who needs nothing in return, as one might assume on first brush, but rather that he’s Also struggling with his own shit (as is everyone, always, in real life!) and he has something he needs from the people around him too.

and looking at the text of s3, and the conclusion to his arc in the finale, i just don’t believe that he got it. he wasn’t just sad that he was leaving (which would be understandable!), he was completely closed off. unresponsive to the people around him reaching out, borderline confused as to why they were trying so hard!

(side note, while i completely respect the read of ted and trents last interaction being rather rude + ooc on ted’s part, i personally read a different motive into it. for me, it was more like… he didn’t understand where trents enthusiasm was coming from? like, he read that as trent being too invested in what other people think of him, and responded in a way that he hoped would emphasise that ted doesn’t *need* to laugh at everything trent wrote, bc trent Already Knows that he’s done something really cool and kickass, and he shouldn’t value anyone else’s reactions above that. basically, based on his demeanour in the episode, i genuinely don’t think it would’ve even occurred to him that trent was more invested in HIS reaction than he would’ve been with anyone else.)

again, looking purely at the text, the show had already established that ted has really strong depressive + avoidant tendencies, as well as panic attacks (largely triggered by his fear of not being ‘good enough’ in various roles, ie: a father). we saw one area he was able to calm HIMSELF abt these fears (worry for henry, which is a Hell of a choice considering the ending…), but in literally every other heightened moment, he had to rely on his support system to help him make the choices that he WANTED to make, rather than ones inspired by avoidance and fear (ie: confronting michelle abt jake, talking to his mum abt why she was visiting + his dads death).

and to be clear, this is a GOOD THING! we’re not supposed to go through life alone, no matter how bad OR well we’re doing. rebecca and keeleys friendship isn’t worth less for all the scenes where they’re both in good places. if anything, the opposite is true - it’s lovely that they both have someone who want to celebrate the achievements in their life!

and fuck it, we’re sure as hell not supposed to go through life with exactly one (1) person whom we expect to fulfill ALL of our emotional needs at all times either! like, im sure i don’t need to labour my point here, but tying everything to one (1) person in ur life doesn’t make u any less isolated than if u were going it completely alone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a partner. i won’t pretend to know the first thing abt what it’s like to be a parent, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that no parent would be at their best if they had absolutely no support/camaraderie/general love provided to them from Anyone other than their child.

so when ted is SPECIFICALLY shown to be in a bad place, over and over again (did he come to terms w his fear to be close to henry overnight???????), and then removed from his community? of COURSE the audience is left feeling unsettled, and like the rug has been pulled out from under them. there was no time in this finale dedicated to how ted would still be in contact with anyone from richmond. no promises of visits, or phone calls - fuck, nothing about emails!! according to the text, we might as well assume this is a clean break (and the maybe-dream-sequence does Fuck All to assure us otherwise. if ted doesn’t go to beards wedding, what WOULD he go to????). and since the show has ALSO completely failed to give us even an IMPLICATION of who/what ted’s support system would be in kansas, there’s… a reasonable argument to be made that this is It for ted. that, after two seasons doing NOTHING but attesting otherwise, the audience is supposed to suddenly believe that ted can (and SHOULD!) pull himself up by his bootstraps, and cope entirely on his own.

that, to me, is a betrayal of the show’s premise. we were promised a show about how, no matter how dark things may get, none of the characters would be left to struggle alone. and then they ended the show with ted alone.

i don’t know. i guess if i had to give this post a tldr; if anyone has any gen fic/meta/Literally Anything in the pipeline, i would absolutely love to be tagged/directed towards it. i’ll be endeavouring to write something myself, as well, but it might take a while before i can return to my WIP, lol.

[age-of-moonknight]

“Under the Same Moon,” Vengeance of the Moon Knight (Vol. 2/2024), #6.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Devmalya Pramanik; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[sweet-star-cookie]

so i finished the teal mask dlc

[mid-knight-black]

my pookie needs to be scooped up into a bear hug by a blond bisexual himbo ASAP!!! 😭

[dennisboobs]

im gonna let you guys in on a little secret.

the more macden shippers shit on other pairings, the more multishippers like me will move towards their secondary and/or tertiary pairings. if i can't go into the charden tag without seeing a post intentionally tagged with multiple ships and trying to spark discourse between them by saying people who ship "rarepairs" are stupid and delusional, first of all, that's an instant fucking block, but like. I'm not going to feel like talking about macdennis when it feels like there's such an obnoxious pressure on you to fall into line and accept the widely preached and accepted fanon canon.

I love macden too. and I would post about and enjoy it a lot more if y'all didn't make it feel like we had to pick a side. just because you prefer the big popular ship, that doesn't make you smarter, or more correct than anyone who ships charden or charmac, it just means you have different preferences. i think macden has the biggest chance of being an actual couple on the show, and obviously mac and dennis are both gay and queer respectively, but if i want to ship charden, why can't i do that too? fandom is supposed to be fun, and it's supposed to be enjoyable, i don't want to have to fight to prove that this ship that i personally see working and enjoy the dynamics of is a "valid ship" when i am fully aware that they're not going to be canon that's kind of the point, and why i prefer it. and for the love of god... if you hc a pairing as platonic, that is perfectly fine. that's how i see charmac myself, but that is your view and your problem, not the shippers'. just block the tag so you don't have to see it if it bothers you that much.

and i don't like several of the other common rarepairs, but have any of you ever seen me talking shit on charmac or chardee shippers? no. stay in your lane and let people live. i'm sick of seeing people acting superior over a fucking it's always sunny in philadelphia ship.

[vault81]

ik i already did smn like this before but im doing it again!!

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