#i wrote this close to the same time

[tackykachowch]

Idk if I'm gonna get jumped for this but....Iiii don't know if it's really appropriate to call Vander Jinx's dad. He definitely was her guardian, with huge uncle energy for sure, but dad? Like, dad is something really personal and requires a high level of closeness, and they didn't seem to share that bond. Out of all the kids Powder seemed to be the most removed from him and share very little traits/interests with him, and after growing up we don't see Jinx care about him at all. So, idk, to call him her dad seems more like a fanservice to me rather than what can be confirmed by the show.

He's defo her dad in the au, tho, because there he would spend a lot more time with her and because of Vi's death pay more attention to her, therefore tightening their bond.

UPD: I mean, Vander isn't even a part of her hallucinations. Now, you could argue that it's too traumatic for her even to remember him as is seen in season 1 ep9, but I think it's the opposite, actually. Knowing Silco he probably yapped about Vander all the time (and he literally does this in ep5), so Jinx definitely remembers him and thinks of him to some extent. But why then his hallucination appeared only once? Well, I think it only happened because Jinx was under extreme pressure already, plus she recently had a shimmer operation, which could've worsened her mental state, hence Vander appearing as a hallucination. Again, this is just how I see it, I may be wrong, but I do think this view of their relationship is rational enough.

[funnydishserver42]

Nothing Wrong About It

Here’s a (cheesy) mellodramattic comic I made a couple weeks ago that I’m really proud of. I apologize for the bad coloring; finding the perfect colors is really hard when you’re doing traditional art with limited options for colors, so you end up having to work with what you have. Which is why Mello looks like he got spray-tanned. (I put my soul into trying to make him not look orange with the colors I had, since I headcanon him with a more tan complexion, so please don’t attack me lol)

I hope this resonates with a lot of you! And I’ll be submitting this for the free day prompt for @mattmelloweek.

[psychdelia]

wildflower by billie eilish except it’s post s3/4 billy feeling guilty and undeserving of steve, and almost bad for nancy? a weird sense of guilt because when he first moved to hawkins he would watch them when he thought no one was looking, lonely and yearning. wanted steve to touch him like that, treat him like that, love him like he loved her. but anytime he was caught, he panicked and spewed hate. anger was safe, anger protected him. a gay teen from california in hawkins? he didn’t have anything else to resort to. but now he’s too tired to be angry at the world and too in love with steve to ever feel how he did before nearly dying. but he never quite made amends with nancy. nancy, who he wonders if steve is thinking about every time he kisses billy. who he’s been too afraid to approach and talk to. who he feels hates him, and knows he doesn’t deserve steve. he knows she broke his heart, but he also knows steve pictured a life, a family with this woman. he doesn’t know if he can give steve that. billy wonders if he thinks about nancy more than steve does, too scared to ask. scared all his crazy thoughts will be confirmed. he knows she’s with jonathan, but he also knows that she was his first true love. she’s with jonathan, but he swears he feels her eyes on them whenever steve hugs, touches, kisses him. swears she’s giving them the same almost sad, wanting look he had to fight when he used to look at them.

[padfootastic]

v random rant ab next gen fics under the cut bc i wanted to get this out but also it’s just. very ridiculous and don’t want to subject unsuspecting people to it lol

i’m reading next gen fic and realising what it is that bothers me so much ab most of it. and just, many fics in general.

it’s the sheer thoughtlessness in the characterisation. i’m reading this potter kids at hogwarts thing and james is a horrific bully who turns on al as soon as he goes into slytherin. the rest of the weasley family is no better. rose is like hermione in first year but infinitely worse, with fanon!ron’s hatred of anything green and silver. all the kids are just. weird.

and it doesn’t make any sense???? like, on one hand you write harry and ginny as good, loving parents. if you take into account all the other adults, as well as the effects of the war and the collective history and experiences they all have, it stands to obvious reason that the kids would be raised differently. would have certain quirks. but won’t necessarily be the same archetypes ykno?

like, idk. it just falls into lazy characterisation for me, and that’s not a bad thing. it’s just so. annoying. bc these are literal blank slates and u can make things SO fun but just. don’t.

a lot of marauder era characterisation goes this way too. but i think i get so annoyed by the next gen stuff is bc i genuinely love all those little shits sm for characters who are essentially nonexistent. it is once again the same issue of me having extremely niche headcanons and getting pissy when everyone else doesn’t think so lol

[godsfavoritescientist]

Building off of what I wrote in my fic "Sparks," I'm really compelled by the idea of Ford genuinely no longer being interested in sailing around in a boat with Stan by the time they were seniors in high school.

I like the idea of it not being just a symptom of the resentment that had been building between them, nor it being a dream of Ford's that only paled in comparison to west coast tech, but it being a genuine loss of interest on Ford's end. I think it complicates things even further in some really juicy ways.

Like, imagine going through high school slowly losing more and more interest in the dream you've shared with your twin and only friend ever since you were little kids. How do you break it to him? How do you explain it to him without making it sound like a rejection of him? Without it making him hate you?

How do you explain it without it feeling like a spit in the face to all the hard work he's put into a plan that started out as a way of him comforting you by telling you "it doesn't matter what people say about you, you're going to be an adventurer who sails away into the sunset and never has to hear their mockery ever again, and there will be babes and treasure and heroism, and then they'll all see how cool you really are!"

And all through high school you think to yourself, "he's going to move on to more realistic dreams any day now, and then I won't have to say anything about it!" But no matter how many times you mention something else he could do with his life that he seems interested in, or bring up the challenging logistics of traveling around long-term in a boat, he sounds just as committed to the childhood dream as ever, and completely oblivious to how apprehensive you sound.

So resentment grows, little by little. Because that's easier than confronting the soul-crushing levels of guilt that are building up inside of you, every time you don't take an opportunity to tell him you don't want to do the plan anymore. You don't have a single person in your life who modeled how to have difficult conversations for you. As far as you know, having this conversation with Stan would crush him into tiny little pieces and then he would hate you forever, and you can't stand the idea of losing the only friend you've ever had.

So tensions grow. A lack of interest turns into a bitter resentment that, if you were really being honest with yourself, is directed more at yourself than it is at Stan.

And then the falling-out happens, and it seems like you were proven right. Stan hates you now, and he's never going to forgive you for giving up on his dream. But two can play that game, so you try to hate him too. Because if you hate him too, then maybe it won't hurt as much that he never came back. That he never even turned up at school, or by the boat, or in through your bedroom window in the middle of the night. He knows what dad's like, and how he says impulsive exaggerated things when he's angry, and haven't you both dealt with his harsh words countless times before and been able to dust yourselves off and joke about it later? So why isn't he back at home, joking with you about how absurd your dad acted that night, being impossible and belligerent about ruining your dream, but at least now you're even, because you've ruined his dream too.

-

And now imagine you find out he risked the lives of everyone in existence to bring you back, right after you had accepted your fate was to die killing Bill. It would be terrifying and confusing and infuriating. If he cared so much, why didn't he do something to reconnect with you sooner? Why did he ignore you in favor of trying to make it big without you? Why didn't he take the infinitely safer and simpler action of reaching out to you without you having to track down his address and send a desperate plea for help? You were convinced that he didn't care enough to bother with you unless you had an important enough reason for him to come. But even then, he thought your plans were stupid. He didn't want anything to do with you, not even with the world at stake.

Did he save your life out of guilt? Does he pity you that much? It doesn't add up with what he did in the decade leading up to shoving you into the portal. And the dissonance between the version of him in your head that hates you, and the man who held out his arms to welcome you back to your home dimension, is so strong that you feel like you're being lied to again, like you're back in the depths of gaslighting and manipulation that Bill put you through, even though there's no way that's what Stan is trying to do... right? You can't figure it out, so you run away from it. You don't want to know the answer to whether or not Stan hates you, because you don't know which answer would hurt more, so you try to make him hate you more than ever, because at least then you would know for sure how he feels.

And in the end, after he sacrifices his memories for you, and for the world, things seem clearer. The layers upon layers of confusion and anger and hurt seem to have washed away like drawings in the sand, leaving behind the simple truth: that you two had an argument, and didn't move past it for forty years, and despite everything you put each other through, you both still want to re-connect.

So you sail away in a boat together.

And at first, it's wonderful. It's exactly what you want. It feels like an apology to Stan, and a thank-you for saving the world, and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to heal the rift between you two, and it's good to be back on earth, and you wonder why you ever doubted the dream you two once had.

But then, after the first long journey you spend on the sea together, when you get back home to dry land, Stan is already talking about planning your next adventure out on the open sea. He recaps every adventure you had on the first trip, over and over again, and he wants to chat with you all through the morning and long into the night, and you don't have the words to explain to yourself that you don't have enough social battery for this, and suddenly you're slipping back into the horrifyingly familiar feeling of Stan being overbearing and needing space from him and how could you think that? How could you think that about him after everything he's done for you and everything he's forgiven you for? But the longer this goes on, the more you realize that you still don't want to spend the rest of your life sailing around with Stan. It's great fun in moderation, but the idea of your whole life revolving around Stan and going on adventures with Stan and being in a boat with Stan with no time to be by yourself thinking about your own things and figuring out your own dreams makes your skin crawl with a claustrophobic kind of panic that you still don't know how to put into words forty years after the first time this feeling grabbed you by the throat and ruined your friendship with Stanley.

But the first time this happened, it nearly ruined his life forever. You can't let yourself feel this. You don't feel this. You're happy to spend the rest of your life fulfilling Stan's lifelong dream, and making up for the time you crushed his dream, and sure, maybe he crushed your dream once too, and maybe it would be nice for him to support your dreams like you're now doing for him, but you can't say that. He saved the universe, and it would be horrible and ungrateful and cruel for you to try to voice these feelings, especially when you don't know how to voice your feelings without it making other people feel like you twisted a knife into their gut. So you try to pretend the feeling isn't there.

You go out on a boat with Stan again. You planned out another incredible journey together, and this should be fun, and you should be happy about this, but the unspoken feeling you shoved as far down in yourself as it could possibly go is eating you alive. The worst part? Stan is starting to notice. You have never been good at hiding your emotions. The trick to it has always been to convince yourself you don't feel it at all, and not think about it, and that has always worked like a charm. But whenever the emotion claws its way back up to the forefront of your mind, you can tell Stan knows something is wrong. So you can't even give him the happy ending he deserves. You can't even convince him that you want to be here on the open seas forever with him, like he deserves. And you keep trying and trying to hide it, but Stan keeps asking in roundabout ways, like "You're being awfully quiet, sixer," and "whats that look on your face?" and eventually it comes exploding out of you like a shaken-up soda bottle dropped on its cap.

And then it's like you're back at home in New Jersey again, standing in the living room while dad grabs Stanley by the shirt. It all comes pouring out of you, in the worst possible way, with the worst possible phrasing, like a pandora's box of monstrousness, and Stan tries to fight back against the sting of your words, but you're made out of acid and you're burning through him and you can see it on his face, and there's never any coming back from this, not this time, you'll just have to either jump into the ocean or become a monster forever, so Stan can hate you more easily again, and-

-and at the end of the outburst, you're still on a boat in the middle of nowhere in the ocean with your brother, in dangerous waters, and you have things to do to keep the boat running smoothly.

You can't run away from him. He can't run away from you. You're stuck here for at least a couple more weeks, even if you turned around and sailed back towards shore right away.

-

And the thing that compels me so much here, despite how unbelievably angsty it all is, is that it sets up a situation wherein the Stans might end up forced to actually address the decades of resentment and confusion and wanting-to-reconnect-throughout-it-all that they thought they could gloss over and heal with enough time spent adventuring together on a boat. They might end up forced to actually address the crux of the issue that drove them apart in the first place: Ford wanting a little more space to feel like his own person, and to feel like he's able to have his own dreams, too.

It wouldn't happen easily, nor right away, but if they were stuck together on a little boat in the middle of nowhere surrounded by magical creatures they have to protect each other from in order to make it back home alive, then after they had one fight where they brought up all the things they silently agreed to never bring up again, it would probably happen many more times, and each time it would leave them both angrier at each other than ever, until eventually something honest slipped through amidst all the saying-anything-except-what-they-mean bickering. And once enough of these honest moments slipped through, then they would have a thread to tug on to start to unravel the gargantuan knot of their decades of unresolved conflicts.

And then, eventually, maybe Stan could learn that he can have a good friendship with his brother without needing to be glued to him at the hip, and Ford needing a certain amount of alone time doesn't mean he dislikes him or wants to abandon him, and Ford could learn that he can be honest and have a meaningful connection with someone without it driving them away and making them hate him.

[sheliesshattered]

somehow, I don't know how, but somehow sewing machines always know when you're nearly done with a project and pick that exact moment to throw a hissy fit

[moeblob]

OK I swear the reason I'm showing you this will have context in a couple days! But also, the fact B&N has a section dedicated to "well he may be a ten buuuuut" and included my current crime of "he's blonde" is like. Dang. Called out.

Didn't help I saw this with a guy and I said "oh no, my blonde enjoyer crimes called out!" and he said "better than redheads" and I'm like. "Sir, I have to inform you of my previous crime." and he was not pleased as he said "Fish... why....."

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I don't know how to write this without it being horribly obvious who I'm writing about

[tackykachowch]

By the way, did we ever talk about how stupid it is that they made Silco the reason Felicia died? I don't mean that he killed her personally, but that he jumpstarted violence on a peaceful protest. Because that's sooo who Silco is, right? A character who makes impulsive and poorly thought out decisions, right? A character who goes into a fight headstrong without carefully planning his moves and strategy and just YOLO-ing it, right? Right?? ......sigh

And don't even THINK about giving me the whole "wElL hE cHaNgEd SiNcE tHeN dUh" crap. Even s2 is smart enough to show us him writing something in a notebook in a flashback, which implies that he was the brains behind the Lanes' creation/revolution as a whole. And if he was he would never sabotage his own plans with something so stupid as throwing a single molotov at enforcers. Literally who does that???? Silco we know would probably organize an attack under the guise of a peaceful protest, but not just. Straight-up ruining just a regular peaceful protest. That's stupid. And Silco is the last character in arcane that would do something stupid. Literally the whole plot of season 1 relies on him being intelligent and sneaky with his plans are you kidding me.

[tacagen]

eobard thawne is probably extra normal about the fact both him and iris have written barry's biographies bc i know he was really normal even about iris' one since oh you know. his very first appearance as a fan.

[spacedlexi]

[memento-morri-writes]

It's been well over a week now (maybe two??) but I'm still plugging away (ever-so-slowly) at this vignette about Zara and Rook. Zara's POV is a lot of fun to write, now that I have a better sense of her character. Writing this has really solidified in my mind the kind of person she is and how she acted when she was Rook's captain and mentor. She's very calm and collected in comparison to Rook, even when under a lot of stress.

Anyways, have a little snippet that I'm proud of from today, featuring the origins of the coin trick!

Pacing back and forth across her cabin floor, she rolled the coin back and forth over her knuckles again and again. The motion was easy, almost mindless, more muscle memory than real intent. The coin trick had been her favorite way to soothe her nerves for years now. She’d picked it up out of idle curiosity after watching a street performer dining in a tavern in Bon Largo, who had chatted with her for over an hour as she fretted about something mundane, never once dropping the coin from their fingers. The same performer had later tried to steal her coin purse and ended up with nothing but a new scar for their trouble, but Zara had learned two important things from the encounter: Not to trust a warm smile and a pretty face, and that keeping her hands moving kept her mind from dwelling too much on worrisome things.

one-time tagging @space-writes because they commented on my tags about Rook learning the coin trick from Zara in one of my other snippets from this piece.

[blossoms-phan]

me vs backtracking on the idea of m&g tickets every 5 minutes

[countlessrealities]

Unprompted Halloween asks || No longer accepting.

@muses-inn sent:

[📓]  "Trick or Treat", are the words Rick is being greeted with as he opens the door. They're delivered in a monotonous, uninterested tone. The kid in question is short, blue-haired with brown cat ears that are slightly folded sideways, and he's wearing a science coat. It looks like a wildly thrown-together costume, but it is in fact the kid's normal attire.

'I will go Trick or Treating so you stop nagging me, but I will NOT wear any silly costumes!' Leon proclaimed several hours earlier to Cloud. And that's how the humanoid-feline alien has wound up where he is now. Also, taking on the challenge that he would collect more candies than Precis, who' also up and around collecting candies elsewhere.

So, he's stretching out the wooly pumpkin bag, with this undoubtedly annoyed expression all over his face. And repeats the words again, this time with a more demanding tone. Just in case that old geezer didn't hear him before. "Trick or Treat!"

// Leon D.S. Gehste for Rick? Fashionably late as always, but I thought 'hey why not giving this a shot'

Finding out that the planet he has travelled to celebrated Halloween wasn't in Rick's plans. He's here to do some harvesting, nothing complicated or dangerous, but still time-consuming. The flowers he needs bloom briefly at specific hours throughout the local night and day, which means that he has to wait each time for it to collect their pollen.

He has figured out that, since they'll be stuck there for a few days, he could as well get started on synthesizing the compound he's working on, while Morty keeps an eye on the flowers. It's a good idea...if not for the fact that he hasn't foreseen being interrupted by trick-or-treaters.

With Morty out, when someone starts to insistently knock at the door, Rick is forced to stop what he's doing to go and see who it is. With the intention of getting rid of them as quickly as possible, naturally.

The sight of some kid in what he assumes is a cheap costume is definitely not a surprise. He can't tell who the boy is supposed to be dressed as, and he couldn't care less. These people have animal traits and magic. Who knows what sort of medias they consume.

What catches his attention is the teen's tone, flat and devoid of emotions. What the fuck is wrong with this brat? He sounds like some old guy with depression.

"I-I heard you the first time," he snaps back, leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed over his chest. "B-But more than treats, you should get your amigdala checked out. 'C-Cause, geez, there's obviously something wrong with your brain."

He taps his own temple with a snort, then reaches out as to close the door.

"I-I don't have any fuckin' candy anyway. N-Now piss off, I-I have some very unstable chemicals I-I need to keep an eye on. U-Unless you want us all to blow up."

[quinn-pop]

casually dropped the last half of this fic today, so for anyone interested:

[pinkfey]

tumblr overwrote my oc page and i'm being so brave about it