#i wrote this like

[kindaasrikal]

It’s always at 3am that you tend to consider the unending pain the characters you fixate on suffer through.

Kai, straight from the beginning, has had to constantly sacrifice his self, his personality, his opinions, his morals, his power, everything that makes him him, up until the point where he had to sacrifice his body to its doom in the nether realm. To him, that is nothing compared to everything he has had to constantly sacrifice.

Lloyd has had to give up so much that was important to him. His family, his friends, his chance to grow up, his dreams, all for the sake of a title he never asked for. Yet was handed to him on a rusty silver platter from destiny. He has accepted the unending path of suffering he will always be subjugated too and has come to peace with it, because if he hadn’t, he would’ve fallen to his mental pain long ago.

Nya will always suffer through her self worth because in the end as much she tries to make her worth her own she has always based it on how useful she is, if she can do enough. Because if she can’t, what is the point of her existence? Even when she has reached a point of self confidence and surety, she will always feel guilt at not being able to protect the people she loves as much as she wishes she could.

Rgb siblings when will you get therapy is the true question. Even the other ninja God i should do this for them too

[amlettmarshmallow]

Anyone wanna read a strange story that won't make much sense?

@garlicbreadcat2006 gotta give credit where credit is due. Thanks to my awesome cousin. Some of these characters are theirs and they took all the messages I wrote this in and put it in a google doc. Now buckle up because this is gonna get weird.

Apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes.

It was a dark night. Nothing to be seen for miles in the empty wasteland surrounding the realm. There he was. Crouched on the city wall, surrounded in fog and gloom. Gavin. The Shipper Guy. Every night he could be seen, there on the wall, waiting for his sworn enemy to appear from the darkness to challenge his power.

Felicity was her name. She was so dark that even darkness feared her. But Gavin was not afraid. He had faced her many a time before. And each time she had retreated like the darkness at sunrise. And Gavin was the sun.

Gavin peered into the dark shadows before him. And saw her. The accursed one. She had created false ships and turned them into things. She acted as if she were everyone's friend. But in truth she was the darkest unclean evil ever to walk the earth. 

She tricked her aforesaid "friends" into doing her bidding. She laced her treats and delectables with poison that allowed her to control their minds.

Thankfully her accomplices had not accompanied her this night. That would have meant near doom for everyone in the realm. 

Rosie and Melody. Beautiful names. But their hearts were the purest evil. Both had the power of love. But they used it for evil purposes. Gavin himself had experienced Melody's control over the mind. It had been a horrible mind wrenching experience that he did not want to ever repeat again.

"Come closer if you dare to challenge me again," said Gavin, his cloak billowing around him in the wind. 

"You know that I am the best shipper in this land. You are just too weak to admit it," said Felicity, stepping closer to the wall which Gavin now stood upon. 

"Actually, I do not know that. I know that I am the best shipper. And that you hast failed in every ship you hast made," Gavin said leaping from the wall, drawing his sword as he fell towards the earth.

Felicity held a sword made of the water of the stream that flowed out of the city by the time Gavin landed on the ground. "I hereby challenge your right to the power which you now wield and as with this challenge like unto all that hast past before if I should defeat you in battle you should bestow the powers which I seek upon me," sayeth Felicity.

"And I declare that you speak too much in one single sentence," replied Gavin.

"Well you will not even be able to speak when I am done with you," said Felicity, advancing towards him. 

"You are the one who will be unable to utter a sound," retorted Gavin, raising his sword in preparation for her attack. 

Felicity made a move as if to attack him, drawing him to defend against her. But she dodged his attack.

Gavin just attacked again and again relentlessly. Felicity had great difficulty keeping up with his attacks. Then as their swords clashed, Gavin's sword unexpectedly sliced straight through her's. This left him off balance, and he tumbled to the ground, Felicity pinning him there with her sword at his throat. "This is the end." she said as the readers are left in suspense.

Gavin somehow maneuvered out of her grasp and did a back handspring to kick her in the face. "You are never going to be greater than me. I will always find a way to escape from your treacherous clutches." He said, and then jumped over the head of Felicity, landing behind her. 

Felicity spun around caught off guard by the suddenness of what he had just done. "You still haven't defeated me though. And you probably never will." She said as she ran back into the dark night.

Cal stood in the doorway of her favorite restaurant leaning against the door frame. Waiting for Gavin. He said he would come as soon as morning came. Cal just stood there in her jeans, tucked in t-shirt and jean jacket, chewing a piece of gum and blowing an occasional bubble. Then she saw a figure in the shadows. She thought it was Gavin for a split second. The two were roughly the same height. But as soon as he stepped into the light of the street lamp she realized he didn't have blond hair. And then  just as quickly she realized who it was. Tony.

"Well. I didn't think I would run into you here." Said Tony as he stepped closer to Cal. " I hoped that tonight would be uneventful. But I guess I hoped for too much." Said Cal, preparing herself to turn into a dragon.

"Well. Looks like your night just got eventful." Said Tony, turning invisible. "Darn it." Cal said under her breath. "Where is Gavin when I need him." She took her jacket off, threw it up on a lamp post, and turned into a dragon. "How is being a dragon going to help you find me?" Tony said, skepticism in his voice. Even though Cal couldn't see him she could hear the smirk in his voice. It disgusted her. He was nothing like Gavin. Even twins have their differences. "I know something about dragons that you don't. Well actually a lot of things. But one specific thing that matters right now." She said, following the sound of his voice. "And what is that exactly?" Tony asked. Cal replied "why do you think I'm going to tell you?" "Idk. It was worth a shot. " "Well then." Cal said. Then pounced on him. He landed on the ground with Cal the dragon sitting on him. He was obviously quite dazed. Cal turned back to her human form and picked him up by his shirt and tied him to a lamp post. The sun was coming up. Gavin should be there soon. "Where is he." Cal said quietly, returning to her place in the doorway.

Cal spotted another figure running across the rooftops. And again it was not Gavin. This figure was one that was.. Um.. Cat-like. And another figure less cat-like but still one who at least loves cats a lot. She kept seeing Parkersons today. The first one was Mooky. Who.. Is a cat. But right now he was in his human form. The other one was Sam "The Cat King" as he called himself. "Are the girls the only ones who try to act normal around here?" Cal wondered, shaking her head and smiling. They were awesome though. "Hey Cal!!" Sam yelled as he ran past. "Hey Cat King!!" Cal said, laughing. "Hey! I’m the one who's actually a cat!!" Yelled Mooky. "We know!" Cal yelled back.

"I hast arrived in your presence." Gavin said, stepping out of an alleyway, smiling. "Finally." Cal said walking over to him and giving him a quick kiss. They stood there smiling at each other for a moment then Gavin said "I see that my traitorous brother made an appearance this night." " Yes he did.  So I had to take care of him. " Cal said. Tony was still there, tied to the lamp post, out cold. "You want some breakfast?" Cal asked. "That would be quite enjoyable at the moment." Gavin replied. They walked into the restaurant together and sat down at a table. Gavin got a few strange looks. It wasn't everyday that you see a man with a cloak and sword just casually walk into a restaurant. But the sideways glances and suspicious looks had grown less since Cal brought him here quite often now. Cal ordered chocolate milk and pancakes with marshmallows on them. Her usual. Gavin could never decide what to get. He insisted on getting something different every time. Boys and their crazy antics. Cal smiled as she watched thoughts go through Gavin's mind of what he should get this time. Finally he decided on just a smoothie. But it was a banana strawberry smoothie with a mix of whipped and marshmallow cream on top. One of the many smoothie specialities of Zac. Drew brought out their order and put it on the table. "Hi people." He said. He didn't seem like he was having a very good day. He hated his job as a waiter. "Bad day?" Cal asked. "Yah. James won't quit talking." Drew replied. "I bet you I can get him to quit talking." Cal said, getting up and waking over to the kitchen door. "Good luck." Drew said. Cal pushed through the swinging kitchen doors. There was James. Washing dishes. Jabbering away. "James!" Cal yelled. James froze. "Quit talking or you won't be anything but a piece of toast." The rest of the kitchen staff snickered. Cal enjoyed annoying James. She walked out of the kitchen smiling and sat back down in her seat. "He shouldn't bother you too much anymore." She said, enjoying the look on Drew's face.

Cal looked around the room looking at all the different people. She knew quite a few of them, as she came here almost every day. But there was one she didn't quite recognize. He, or she, had its back turned to her, and was wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled up. He was sitting by himself. And it looked like he had several cinnamon rolls on a plate in front of him. And then it hit her. And for some reason she started laughing. "What is it that is such a hilarious thing?" Gavin asked. "Guess who that is." Cal said pointing at the person. " I do not comprehend who it is. " Gavin said. Then Cal watched as it hit him too. And he too started laughing. "It's Romeo. But what is he even doing here?" Sam and Mooky walked into the building and immediately  headed straight for their table. "You guys talking about Romeo?" Sam asked. "We heard Cal laughing and figured it was cuz Romeo was here." Mooky explained. " but why is he here? " Cal asked again. "I think he had a break in the work stream and so he came to see Jamie. And maybe some other people. But mostly Jamie." Sam said, Cal nodding. Just then Drew came back out from the kitchen. "Finally convinced Luna Girl to let me off work for the night." Drew said, exhausted from working all night. "I bet 'finally' is an overstatement." Mooky said under his breath. Cal sighed. Still working on some hard feelings between the two. "Ro! Come over here!" Cal yelled. Romeo turned towards her slightly and she could see him inwardly groaning. He motioned for her to be quiet. " I'm under cover. " he mouthed. "Srsly just come over here." Cal said. Reluctantly he walked over to them.   Bringing his cinnamon rolls with him.

"What do you want?" Romeo asked. "Nothing." Cal said, smiling. "Just to say hi and see how you're doing." Said Drew. "Well I'm fine." Romeo said, obviously not really wanting to talk to people.

"Work on any interesting cases lately?" Cal asked, trying to get Romeo to talk. "I'm actually working on one right now." Romeo said, kinda grumpy.

"Anything you can tell me??" Cal asked. She knew he would probably say no. "actually it has to do with Felicity and Tony." Romeo said, surprising Cal that he actually answered. "Well you have quite a few people who know quite a bit about them." Cal replied.

"I know." Romeo said. "That's why I'm here." "Well then. What do you need to know?" Cal asked. "Well, I'm trying to figure out why exactly they became evil. Tell me what you know." Romeo said, looking around at his friends. "Tony wasn't always evil. He was just really quiet. But then he got creepy. He had always been somewhat creepy. But now he was super creepy. I think that's what started it." Sam said. "And Felicity?" Romeo asked. Then someone else walked up to them. She had long brown hair about to her knees, and she had a bow and arrows slung on her back. It was Raina. "No one knows why she became evil." She said. "Not even me." Raina shy around most people, unless they were her friends- or her enemies. She tracked down evil doers and brought them back to the Society. It was an ongoing job, because often people would escape from the Society prison, forcing Raina to track them down and capture them again. "Nothing?" Romeo asked. "There aren't any leads or anything?" "Nothing." Raina replied. "Why does this have to be so difficult?!?" Romeo complained.

"Why don't we talk about this more later at the Society meeting tonight." Cal said. "Okay. See you guys there!" Drew said, waving and walking out the door. "You should actually come to the meeting Romeo. You haven't been to one all year." Cal said, turning back to Romeo. "Okay okay. I'll come. But I'm gonna go see Jamie first." Romeo said, turning to leave. "Bye Romeo!!" Sam and Mooky said in unison, as Romeo walked out into the night. Raina walked over, kissed Mooky and left.

Later that night at the meeting: It was noisy. No. It was very very loud. Everyone was there. Herself (Cal), Gavin, Mooky, Sam, Drew, Luna Girl, Raina, Haylee, Zac, Skylar, Jessica, Fansir, Meeky, Romeo, Jamie, Gabe, Free, Selia, Arlana, all the kids: Leo, Jake, Sylvia, Sophie, CJ, Aron, Kiki, Jackson, and Cleo. And then Zane, and..... Where was James.

Just then a huge portal opened up above the table and out fell James, followed by a girl none of them recognized. And she had a hoverboard. "Who be thou?" Asked Gavin. " I'm your sister. I'm from the future. I know that doesn't mean that I will exist one day. But it's very likely. You know. I might as well just stay here cuz if I do then I'll exist for real. So yah. That's what I'm doing. " the girl said. Everyone looked at James for an explanation. "Don't ask me! She just appeared, grabbed me, and we ended up here!" James said, practically yelling, as always.

Cal stood up putting her hand on her knife just in case this girl was lying. "What is your name?" She asked the girl. "My name is Emma. And I'm here to help you guys. Cal. Take your hand off your knife. I'm not gonna hurt you." The girl-Emma- said. "How do you know my name?" Cal asked, still suspicious. "Cuz you're my bros girlfriend. Duh." Emma said. Cal still couldn't tell if she was telling the truth. "Gabe? Is what she says true?" "Yes. It's true. At least, she thinks it's true. You never know." Gabe said. "Thanks." Cal said, "Okay Emma. Sit down. But you can not tell anyone anything you hear in this meeting, except for the people here. Are we clear?" "Okay okay. Yes." Emma said, sitting down next to James, who kinda inched away from her, obviously nervous. After all she had just appeared out of nowhere on a hoverboard.

"Okay let's get down to actual business." Cal said, sitting back down. "Ro. Shoot." " Soo... I'm working on a case right now. And I'm probably gonna need some people's help -sadly- so yah. " Romeo said, still not enjoying having to talk to people. "Aaand......" Cal said, trying to get him to tell them about the case. "And," Romeo said, grudgingly, "I'm trying to figure out the reason that the two became evil and started this whole mess." "I wanna help! I wanna help!! Please!!!! " James yelled. "Okay okay. James. Calm yourself." Jamie said. "We will figure out who is going on this... Mission I guess... And I will contact each of them individually. Meeting adjourned." Cal said. Everyone got up to leave.

James pov. Part. 😁 James walked down the hallway, down to the kitchen to do some final clean up before Luna Girl closed up the restaurant.  He started moving dishes and pots to their respective places. Then he heard a noise behind him. He spun around, freaked out slightly. This place was creepy at night. There was that girl - Emma - standing in the doorway, smiling at him. "Uh... Hi." James said, getting just a little more freaked. "Hey James." She said, still smiling. She walked up to him, James backing away until his back was to a wall. She came up to him, putting her hand on the wall next to him and smiling at him still. Okay he had to admit. She was gorgeous. But he knew nothing about her and she was kinda creeping him out. Then something happened. She kissed him. His eyes widened, he was blushing super hard. He had no clue why this was happening. She finally pulled away, smiled at him, and walked away. James stood there for a good five minutes, stunned. Then Luna Girl walked in. "James you ready to close up- uh.. James?" James just stood there not answering. "James. Bro. Come on." Luna Girl said, snapping him out of his daze. "Oh. Uh.. Yah. I'm ready. " he said, following LG out of the building.

Cal had decided on who to take on the mission and they had all been contacted. Romeo was going of course. He was the one who started this mission in the first place. Herself and Gavin were both going, Drew, James, Sam, Mooky, and Emma. She wanted to keep an eye on Emma just to make sure that she didn't get into any trouble, or was actually working for the enemy. She was also taking Gabe and Raina since they knew the most about Felicity, and how to talk to her and things. And mind reading would come in handy.

_____Drew pov. 😁_____ Drew went upstairs to where Luna Girl's office was. She was his girlfriend. But she was also his boss. He never really knew which one to expect. Hopefully he would get the girlfriend side today. Drew walked into her office and said "hey," and smiled. Luna Girl looked up from some papers she had been examining. "Yes Drew?" She said. "Just wanted to let you know that I got called onto the mission." Drew said, hoping for the best. "Really now? I'm guessing you'll be missing work again?" Looked like she was all business today. Drew sighed. "Yes. I will be missing work." "And you realize you will not be getting paid for the hours that you are not here?" They had been over this every time he'd gone on a mission. "Yes. I remember." Drew said. "We go over this every time." Luna Girl smiled. "Just making sure your memory works." Drew laughed. " I don't know how I could forget. You've only said it to me a kajillon times. " "It hasn't been that many." Luna Girl said. "Well remembering that you said it also makes it easier to remember." Luna Girl laughed. She got up, came over to him and kissed him. She pulled away. "Good Luck on the mission. Please try not to let anything happen to you" "I'll try. I've got Cal and the Parkersons there too. They'll I make sure nothing happens." "I sure hope so." They stood there for a moment smiling at each other. Drew kissed her one more time and said "I love you."  "I love you too." Luna Girl replied hugging him and watching as he walked out the door. Then Drew poked his head back in the room. "By the way James will probably be up here soon." He said. "Okay." Luna Girl said laughing.

Fansir walked into a dark room. "I did what you asked. I went to the meeting and got the requested information." "Good. Now tell me. What are they planning?" Said the voice from the darkness. "They are planning a mission. To discover why you became evil." Fansir said. "Well then. You may leave. You have served you purpose for now." Said the voice, Felicity. "As you wish." He said, leaving the room. He was glad to get out of there. There was just a dark coldness about the place. He was starting to wonder though. Had he really chosen the right path? It had seemed like the best choice at the time. But he had actually kind of enjoyed being with other people. And that girl Jessica was really nice. And maybe just a little pretty too... He smiled thinking about her. But then frowned. How did he know that they weren't all just acting nice. What if they were the evil ones. But what if he was the evil one. But even if he was on the evil side, would he join the good side? Here he had nice accommodation and plenty of food. He lived quite comfortably here. He had everything he could ever want. Could he give that up? But was he truly happy here? He tried to convince himself that he was. But he still had doubts.

[bookwyrminspiration]

sometimes a theme recurs in your work without your permission. and sometimes it reaches a threshold where you're like. well now i think this is saying something about me against my will. don't know what though

[arunneronthird]

he will use every chance he gets to be a drama queen and if he doesnt have one he will create one

[jamierthanyou]

as an aroace, im particularly dangerous, because i wont fuck or marry. i only know how to kill.

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[nataliescatorccio]

"Originally it was not called 'Good Luck, Babe!', it was called 'Good Luck, Jane!", but my co-writer and I kept getting in arguments about it, so it became 'Good Luck, Babe!'." CHAPPELL ROAN on 'Good Luck, Babe!'

[inkskinned]

i got rickrolled today but it didn't work because i have adblocker installed, so youtube just told me i violated the terms of service. yesterday i was trying to edit a picture as a joke for my girlfriend, and google made me check a box to prove i'm human because i wasn't "searching normally".

it isn't just that capitalism is killing fun and whimsy, it is that any element of entertainment or joy is being fed upon by this mosquito body, one that will suck you dry at any vulnerability.

do you want to meet new friends in your city? download this app, visit our website, sign up for our email list. pay for this class on making a terrarium, on candlemaking, on cooking. it will be 90 dollars a session. you can go to group fitness, but only under our specific gym membership. solve the puzzle, sign up for our puzzle-of-the-month-club. what is a club if not just a paid opportunity - you are all paying for the same thing, which makes you a community.

but you're like me, i know it - you're careful, you try the library meetings and the stuff at the local school and all of that. the problem is that you kind of want really specific opportunities that used to exist. you are so grateful for libraries and the publicly-funded things: they are, however, an exception - and everything they have, they've fought tooth-and-nail to protect. you read a headline about how in many other states, libraries have virtually nothing left.

do you want to meet up with your friends afterwards? gift your friends the discord app. you can choose to go to a cafe (buy a coffee, at least), a bar (money, alcohol) or you can all stay in and catch a movie (streaming) or you can all stay in bed (rent. don't get me started) and scream (noise complaint. ticket at least).

you want to read a new book, but the book has to have 124 buzzwords from tiktok readers that are, like, weirdly horny. you can purchase this audiobook on audible! your podcast isn't on spotify, it's on its own server, pay for a different site. fuck, at least you're supporting artists you like. the art museum just raised their ticket price. once, they had a temporary exhibit that acknowledged that ~85% of their permanent art galleries were from cis white men, and that they had thousands of works by women (even famous women, like frida! georgia o'keefe!) just rotting in their basement. that exhibit lasted for 3 months and then they put everything away again.

walmart proudly supports this strip of land by the street! here are some flowers with wilting leaves. its employees have to pay out-of-pocket for their uniforms. my friend once got fined by the city because she organized a community pick-up of the riverfront, which was technically private property.

no, you cannot afford to take that dance class, neither can i. by the way - i'm a teacher. i'm absolutely not saying "educators shouldn't be paid fairly." i'm saying that when i taught classes, renting a studio went from 20 bucks an hour to 180 in the span of 6 months. no significant changes to the studio were made, except they now list the place as updated and friendly. the heat still doesn't work in the building. i have literally never seen the landlord who ignores my emails. recently they've been renting it out at night as an "unusual nightclub; a once-in-a-lifetime close-knit party." they spent some of those 180 dollars on LEDs and called it renovating. the high heels they invite in have been ruining the marley.

do you want to experience the old internet? do you want to play flash games or get back the temporary joy of club penguin? you can, you just need to pay for it. i have a weird, neurodivergent obsession with occasionally checking in to watch the downfall and NFT-ification of neopets. if i'm honest with you all - i never got into webkins, my family didn't have the money to buy me a pointless elephant. people forget that "being poor" can mean literally "if i buy you that toy, i can't afford rent."

you and i don't have time to make good food, and we don't have the budget for it. we are not gonna be able to host dinner parties, we're not made of money, kid. do you want some kind of 3rd space? a space that isn't home or work or school? you could try being online, but - what places actually exist for you? tiktok counts as social media because you see other people on it, not because they actually talk to you.

there was a local winter tradition of sledding down the hill at my school. kids would use pizza boxes and jackets and whatever worked, howling and laughing. back in september, they made a big announcement that this time, rules were changing, and everyone must pay 10 dollars to participate. when im not scared shitless, i kind of appreciate the environmental irony - it hasn't gone below 40. so much for snow & joyriding.

i saw a bulletin for a local dogwalking group and, nervous about making a good first impression, showed up early. the first guy there grimaced at me. "sorry," he said. "there's a 30-dollar buy-in fee." i thought he was joking. wait. for what? the group doesn't offer anything except friendship and people with whom to walk around the city.

he didn't know the answer. just shrugged at me. "you know," he said. "these days, everything costs money."

[maeamian]

If you saw me agreeing with being annoyed about wasted helium in a fictional context and were like "I bet she has some more helium based anger in her life" good news LAPD fucked up a raid on a medical facility they thought was a pot farm and flat out ruined thousands of gallons of the stuff.

[gentil-minou]

Everytime I see posts like this I get filled with such profound sadness

Cause you know who has the same brainrot as you? The same unhinged feelings as you after you've read the fic? The person who always wants to scream about the fic with you?

THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT

I never used to leave comments but since I got into the habit of commenting on everything i enjoy it's been incredible. Especially when the author gets back to me about it and we get to have a discussion of what other ideas they had. One writer replied to my comment with a 5 paragraph essay detailing the Floorplan of the building the characters lived in and it was incredible

Anyways this is all to say that if you find a fic that just makes you want to scream from the rooftops, leave a comment saying that to the author and maybe they will join you and you can scream incoherently together

[stimmingandstruggling]

i’m still figuring out how redbook works so i can’t share the video here yet, but y’all.

a woman made a post on tiktok talking about li hua, a pseudonym students in china learning english would write under to american “pen pals.” these letters were never sent. apparently it was crazy common, hundreds of letters have been written from li hua.

and people have started saying they feel like li hua is getting a response.

this woman posted this on tiktok and the comments were full of people writing responses, apologizing to li hua for not being in touch for so long. and one american mentioned how when they were a kid they dug holes in the beach and thought if they dug deep enough they could reach china all the way on the other side of the world, and that just awoke some MEMORIES. like, i did that. i dug holes in the sand and wondered how close i was. “as children we dug holes at the beach to try to get to you. we wondered what you’d be like our whole lives.”

the same woman made a post talking about THAT on redbook, saying it feels like we’ve both been just struggling to reach each other for so long. “i suddenly realize, this meeting was actually a two way effort. it’s like you’ve done a lot of hard work and come a long way before a date, and the wait was too long that you gradually started to forget the original intention of embarking on this road, and began to doubt, is your date real? suddenly one day, they really appeared in front of you and tell you i also made an effort to see you. and that’s a wonderful thing.”

idk that just made me cry a bit. i’ve seen a couple people refer to the feeling of being a little kid at the playground again, awkward and clumsy and sometimes hurting each other but everyone just eager to meet and share what they love.

[lapdogchase]

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[dcxdpdabbles]

Teacher: Class, we have a new student joining us today. Danny, could you tell us a little about yourself? Danny, standing up: Ugh, okay. My name is Danny Fenton. I'm from Amity Park, Illinois. I moved to Gotham with my siblings. Teacher: That's lovely, Danny. Do you have any hobbies? Danny: I like to stargaze, but it's tricky here in Gotham to see them. Teacher waiting for more: *Stare* Classroom: *stare* Danny panics as the class stares at him. I also really liked helping Dan with his experiments. Teacher: Who's Dan? Danny: He's my eldest brother. He got a job at Wayne Labs three months ago, so we moved. Classmate: What kind of experiments do you guys do? Danny: Dan's a chemist. He likes to create antidotes to various poisons or toxic substances. Last month, he made the new Anti-Fear Gass Antidote! Classmate: *scoff* Yeah, right, and I'm the tooth fairy Classroom: *laughs* Teacher: Alright, everyone, settle down. Danny, welcome to Gotham, but you should be careful with your fibs. They can be dangerous in this city. Danny: I'm not lying. Teacher: Of course not. Everyone turn to pages three and twelve in your math textbooks- Danny, please sit down. Danny: *sits* It wasn't a lie Damian: I believe you. Danny: Really? Damian: Yes, my Father signs Dan Fenton's paychecks. Danny: Oh, does he work at Wayne Labs, too? Damian: .....In a way. Would you happen to know who I am? Danny: Damian Al Ghul. I heard you tell the teacher you prefer that name. Damian: .....Yes. Your pronunciation of my last is perfect. Most people claim it's too hard. Danny shrugs: If I can learn to pronounce Obi-Wan Kenobi, I can learn how to say your last name. Most people are just rude. Damian, under his breath: Is this the rush Mother felt when she found her Beloved? Danny: What? I'm sorry I didn't catch that Damian: Do not worry about it. Merely know that you belong to me now Danny: Like a friend? Damian:.....In a way. Danny: Cool :D

[carpboy3000]

Excerpt from A Pre-Rapture Pictorial History, 3rd Edition, p. 356: “...Of what can be translated from the surviving art and literature, Helianthian Summer solstices were days of song, spent in fields. The Farmer Queen is accredited with the composition of many of these melodies, some of which survive vestigially amongst modern-day citizens of Sanctuary.1”

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.