#i'm rambling now yeesh

[bitterlyromantic]

den doodle !!! :3

from like 2 weeks ago?

[thirteenemeraldcats]

in one of your tags you mentioned-

'one of the things that gets chatted about A LOT in teaching is meeting students at their point of need- which ted does NOT do with jamie'

I would love to hear more of your thoughts on this! Both in terms of what that concept entails, and also what you think Jamie's point of need was at the time versus what Ted saw the situation needing

(You have excellent tags btw, don't know if anyone's mentioned that)

I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON THIS THAT I LOVE THAT YOU'D LOVE TO HEAR!

(I have more thoughts than I anticipated, this got errr, long. Whoops)

(potentially necessary/relevant background here is I am a high school teacher 👋)

Okie dokie, so, one of the principles of best practice in teaching is the idea I tag-rambled above; meet both the individual students and collective class at their point of need. Essentially this means practising differentiation in teaching and adjusting how content/ideas are communicated to students based on who they are as learners and people. Particularly if a student is performing outside the 'average' (either exceeding or still developing), this means adjusting to their needs by (among other things) curating differentiated resources and adapting delivery style. Differentiation is especially important in an all-abilities classroom, unfortunately public education is perpetually underfunded and overcrowded so everyone's just out here doing their best (the decent people of the world at least). BUT! WHILE I'M ON IT! SPEAKING OF THE THINGS I'VE TAG RAMBLED, the education system's (global) inability to adequately differentiate for students of different-abilities, particularly students with ADHD, ASD and Dyslexia, is perhaps the greatest failing of the whole dang thing and if anyone who ever stumbles across this is neuro-divergent and feels like they were a bad student or couldn't 'keep up' in mainstream education- THAT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT. You don't have to break yourself to 'fit', school is MEANT to bend for you. (Particularly when you're young, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU'RE YOUNG)

ANYWAY, the fictional football of it all!

We don't see a lot of Ted actually coaching in this show (stick with me). The scenes in which he 'coaches' are typically him and various other coaching staff standing on the sidelines while the team skirmishes or occasionally runs drills, so me saying Ted doesn't differentiate is more based around his patented Ted-talks. NOW, Ted PROBABLY knows the team fairly well as individuals, particularly in season 2 and 3, purely by having spent quite a lot of time with them, despite this the only times we really see him 'adjust' his style with the team are ironically season 1 (examples include conferencing Jamie and Roy in 1x04 For The Children, and allowing/facilitating Nate's speech in 1x07 Make Rebecca Great Again). The moment that always sticks out to me as most significant is when he goes and seeks out Keeley's advice on how to get through to Jamie in 1x02 Biscuits.

Side note: I will be forever obsessed with Keeley jumping straight from 'blowjobs' to one of the four operant conditioning techniques (positive reinforcement) when asked about this. That woman is a very fascinating puzzle of a person.

Ted recognises that his typical perpetual-optimism-style isn't cracking the Jamie-Tartt-nut and seeks out a different opinion. This kind of collaboration and whole-system approach is key in teaching too, either by tapping the knowledge-well of a student's broader school context or the difficult-to-crack student's parents.

SO, having gotten the Jamie-Tartt-cheat-code from Keeley he DOES meet Jamie at his point of need, speaks clearly to him and communicates what he needs from him. AND IT WORKS! Temporarily! During the conversation between the two in Ted's office we see Jamie engage, he even practises self-reflection! Granted it's about his left foot cross, but still! The nut is cracked.

Jamie even maintains the perspective Ted has taught him for about two seconds while talking to Trent, until Jamie's other (definitely not positively-reinforced) behaviours rear up and he reverts to what James others have taught him.

On the other hand.

Multiple times throughout the show we see Jamie be visibly or verbally confused by Ted's communication style. Ted often talks in meandering metaphors that Jamie doesn't seem to be able to follow. We verbally hear him state 'Why doesn't he just say that then, do you know what I mean?' in 2x07 Headspace after Beard has to translate Ted's 'peas and carrots/beefchunks' analogy to 'starters and reserves'. Then there's the infamous 'What the fuck are Denver Broncos?' from 3x09 La Locker Room Aux Folles. The only notable time we really see Jamie 'get' one of these metaphors is the sewer-system-tunnels from 3x01 Smells Like Mean Spirit.

(His understanding of that specific metaphor, along with his use of the magnets to demonstrate total football in 3x07 The Strings That Bind, and a Watsonian-perspective of his near perfect mimicry of movements he saw two years ago when executing the decoy play in 3x12 So Long, Farewell, are actually all examples I use to head-canon Jamie as a primarily visual/physical based learner. For whatever that's worth!)

NOW! Ted's willingness to seek and apply alternate techniques in season 1 when he should know the team as both individuals and a collective the least, coupled with his inability or unwillingness to practise differentiation in later seasons when he DOES KNOW THEM is why I don't think Ted is meeting the team, specifically Jamie at their/his point of need. Any person's ability to differentiate behaviour to meet the needs/requirements/comforts of the individual or group they're talking to is increased the more they know them. (We all do this in life, consciously or subconsciously we typically try and 'match the vibe' of whoever we're communicating with [doubly so for people who're engaging in masking.])

Ted should and does learn more about Jamie as a person and his background as the show progresses. He listens to Jamie vocalise both his internal justifications for his actions and his reflections of those justifications/actions in 1x06 Two Aces, he sees him being explicitly physically abused in 1x10 The Hope That Kills You, he listens to him describe a spiralling mindset in 2x02 Lavender, he sees him being explicitly verbally abused in 2x08 Man City.

Of course, one of the fascinating things about Jamie is how much he learns and grows over the course of the show, and there are instances in which I don't think Ted is recognising that (primarily his dismissal of Jamie in 3x03 4-5-1 and not utilising Jamie's knowledge of total football as a resource from the beginning in 3x07 The Strings That Bind).

Ted understands and has previously applied Jamie responding well to positive reinforcement, yet at multiple times in the series doesn't respond in a way that reflects his perspective being informed by that knowledge. Essentially not practising the appropriate level of care/caution when interacting with/around Jamie.

There's not intervening on Jamie's behalf in 2x03 Do the Right-est Thing or 2x06 The Signal when the team and Roy are targeting or ignoring him respectively. The assumed absence of any follow up to the events of 2x08 Man City, the Zava of it all in season 3, and of course the eternal 'forgiveness' kicker from 3x11 Mom City.

POINT BEING. And to actually answer your inquiry lol, I think Jamie is someone who needs clear communication, ideally bracketed in positive reinforcement based operant conditioning as a learning technique (reward behaviour you want reinforced by offering something desirable [praise in Jamie's case]) and visual/physical aid/references for concepts; as a LEARNER.

AS A PERSON, there's more. Ted can readily infer from all he's heard and seen that Jamie's a victim of child abuse. The long term damage to the adult psyche that abuse during formative years has is astronomical, it literally changes the foundational structures of a person's brain. And yet, again, we never see Ted even acknowledge this. Jamie in 3x11 Mom City, incidentally compares his father to Freddy Krueger, Ted elaborates on the comparison, then Jamie reiterates that Freddy Krueger's 'fucking terrifying'. Ted doesn't reassure Jamie (the requirement of his point of need), he gives him a Ted-talk (and in doing so doesn't differentiate his perspective/communication technique).

As far as what Ted thought the situation needed... search me I've got no idea. I do think Ted projects onto Jamie a hell of a lot. That he gets Jamie's personhood and life experiences all tangled up in the emotions he has about his father's death and his consequent perceived abandonment, his insecurities about his own ability to parent Henry and even in his own inability to clearly communicate with his mother. I do think Ted relies on his own forced optimism to 'get by'. Like how a great white shark dies if it stops swimming, if Ted stops being 'Ted', if he stops swimming, his past and his fears and his feelings will catch up to him and swallow him whole. (For what it's worth, I do think Ted is more unwell than even the show explicitly tells us, much like Jamie experiencing ongoing trauma due to childhood abuse, the effects both short-term and long-term as well as potential causalities of having a parent die by suicide are... grim.)

(Essentially the entire fandom has talked about basically all of this at one point or another, I'm just using slightly different language.)

NOW! These characters are fictional (obviously) and I am judging them based on real-people conventions and the best-principles of my own profession, as well as my background in theoretical psychology (which I think I forgot to mention and is also probably [??] relevant). My Doylist-perspective of Ted and his coaching/communication style is ...kinder, but if I get too sucked into the narrative it results in either brief tag-rambles or... whatever this thing I've just typed is. I think it's been too long since I've written academically, my thoughts have gone circular 🫠

ANYWAY! I hope this made something-approaching sense! Thank you again for asking to hear my thoughts! Always happy to word vomit!

ALSO, thank you for saying my tags are excellent (you are the first and currently only to say so!) - The tags are where I send my thoughts to die (in a 'I must banish them to move on' kind of way rather than a 'I'm strangling them' kind of way) so you saying they're excellent is even MORE flattering than you realise! Makes my brain want to purr 💚🤣

[sophieswundergarten]

.

[veinsfullofstars]

I'm so mad about the CSP color settings thing, guys. Why is it on perpetual by default if it desaturates everything?? I just went through and fixed the saved flats for all of my current prompt pieces for next week and kirbtober, and did a test post on here to see if there's any external influence on it (there doesn't seem to be), and my Nova, the difference!! is insane!! Stars, all my precious colors... years of them... unknowingly being eaten by my own art program T-T Guess I know what I'm doing start of November... ugh...

[zhongrin]

so many ideas of drawings to answer all the liwei & liwen asks yet here i am constrained by mortal responsibilities raaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

[goldensunset]

girl today in class was telling her friend how she had had this folder since freshman year and i almost told her that in my backpack i had a notebook i'd had since freshman year. of high school.

[reanimatedgh0ul]

ik jazz knows who valerie is bc of reign storm but like does she know abt valerie being red huntress or what

[mavibonghostexpress]

I'm ngl the oc posting was my cringe era

[sunset-peril]

Yeah... the stuff horror is made of.... *shudders*

I wonder that too. They had enough descendants that the Royal Family's program didn't have to inbreed any, the extreme amount of inbreeding found in Link was primarily due to the Hateno Region of Exile literally running out of people because they couldn't leave and others couldn't enter (and I wonder how many generations it took to do so/how many generations had to have done so) *shudders again*

Exactly like, how dare thee?? How dare thee take one's human soul and convert them to your pet??

Rinkū's era of Wolfbred were definitely pets, and they came some time before the genetic modification program, so it highly begs the question of "Excuse me? Who did this originally? If the person who made them genetically modified super soldiers didn't make them little puppy pets, who did?" Did a Zonai just scoop one up as a pet one day and no one questioned it because of the "Zonai are gods descended from the sky" thing? Were they already pets prior to the Zonai's arrival?

Ai, twisted entitlement indeed. The idea of Link existing solely to fight the Demon King but taken to the extreme and applied to all his children/descendants. And now, because of all that gene editing in the past, Wolfbred Link and his people are a very codependent and anxious group. They require something (usually each other or livestock) to protect/search for otherwise they destroy themselves. Link's 'something' specifically being Zelda, which only affirms the original belief of entitlement. Hang on, gonna ramble about some genetics.

For instance, some studies believe that over time dogs have been selected for a very specific genetic sequence without realizing. This gene sequence causes something akin to Williams-Beuren syndrome (a syndrome known primarily for causing overt friendliness). (It's been a while since I've read my notes on canine domestication, so I might be a little off on the wording there.)

However, while the Wolfbred are quite a friendly people (who really really like pets, and retain a precise mating season seen in animals and not Hylians) they weren't bred for their friendliness. They were bred specially for violence, hence, the monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) [which is known as the 'warrior gene' due to research suggesting it leads to 'increased aggression when provoked'] or a similar gene may have been the specific target of this breeding program, among other things needed to make Hyrule's perfect soldier race.

I forgot where I was going with this, hang on.

It's very likely that Ordona was absorbed into the kingdom specifically for access to Twilight's children/descendants, especially considering how almost no one lives in Faron in BotW/TotK despite how populated Central Hyrule, Necluda and Gerudo all were before the Calamity, which maybe means Faron's original inhabitants (for this case, I'm assuming Wolfbred and Zonai were Faron's ancient inhabitants) were either wiped out or relocated in a way that prevented their return. The Zonai obviously being wiped out and, if Ordona was absorbed specifically for the Wolfbred people, they were probably taken from Faron, put immediately into these programs and then discarded immediately afterwards to Hateno, all of which would prompt a sudden removal from Faron without return. Which would only strengthen Wolfbred Link's desire to reestablish Ordon at some point in his life. And I haven't even brought up the health issues brought on by all this, or the offshoot where the researchers involved started making Wolfbred-Zonai hybrids too.

Woof indeed

I thought too hard about my Werewolf Link lore and all the genetic modification that the Sheikah/Yiga did to make that man, like all the genetic mapping and sequencing and splicing that had to have been happening to make such a large scale project work

Under the cut for people who don't want the transcript of my crisis

Like they probably had the entire genome/genotype, the entire genetic makeup down to every last mutation, of each of Link's ancestors. Talk about identifying information!

They had to have had a list of what genes and traits and mutations were considered Wolfbred or not because obviously Twilight was Hylian and his children are all Hylian so if we're going to classify them as something Other Than Hylian we need to know exactly what makes them Not Hylian.

Like if Purah could access those files and records from 10,000 years ago she could probably recreate a very likely genotype for Link without ever taking a sample from him because the reason he's considered 'pedigreed' is because all this man's ancestors were registered into this system and so even with having no idea who married who after getting exiled, you still know almost exactly what makes up Link, sparing spontaneous mutations that occurred post exile.

Yeah, so, I sent myself into a philosophical/moral crisis

[kattythingz]

OH that's wonderful.

Honestly, Ling getting there first is not a bad thing if you consider that YJ was supposed to be a stealth based team at first (and at the end, and I'm pretty sure all around, except that they managed to blow something up every single time they left Mt Justice and yeah, they'll get along incredibly well with Ed)

I love how everyone knew Ed as 'The Fiance' but also how much of what they know is accurate? Because Ling could definitely just brag about his Love, who is Amazing and Sweet and Delicate but Strong and then they meet Ed and he's all those things!.. kind of. They've spent all that time imagining themselves someone to match Ling's sappynnes and now they have a short temperamental asshole who thinks Idiot is a term of endearment (it is)

OK now I started rambling, but I couldn't help it!! It's such a good AU I need more!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAH THANK YOU!! That means a lot to me 🥺 When I say I've daydreamed a lot of this au, I've daydreamed a lot. I'm glad you're enjoying it with me!! As a treat, here's a second scene that got out of my hands again. 2.7k, yeesh. I definitely should've been working on Solaris instead, lmaaoooo.

Part 1 here, for anyone new who's curious.

Robin had to admit, just to himself, that stealth wasn’t ideal for a facility like this. The walls were high and sturdy, composed of some kind of resilient metal that didn’t bend much, and the only space to safely follow undetected were the vents along the sides. Normally, he would’ve gone with the ceiling vents, but there were none here. They might’ve underestimated their resident bad guy’s paranoia last time.

He might’ve underestimated Ling too, as he’d chosen to travel by ground instead, and Robin hadn’t seen him again since. It should’ve been impossible in such an open space, but—it was like the guy had just disappeared. He would’ve been majorly jealous, if he wasn’t curious how that even worked in the first place.

The rest of the team were on standby in their own corners, waiting for Robin’s signal to intervene when needed. They’d initially protested the risk of a rescue mission, but Robin knew they all thrived on the same brand of chaos and rebellion; it was what had bonded them as a team. Obviously, they were on board.

He listened intently to the guards’ loud chattering as they walked their prisoner down an unfamiliar direction. The walls were getting darker here, and colder. The jails must’ve been close.

“—mean, it’d be a little funny if that actually happened,” guard one said with a no-doubt ugly grin. What was it with goons and ugly grins? “I’d kill for vacation time, at this point.”

“Talk a little louder, Jared.” Guard two rolled her eyes. “While you’re at it, why don’t you run back to the boss right now and tell him everything you just said?”

“Oh, come on, you’d pay to see it too.”

“I’m not putting my response to that on record.”

“Nah, you should just go ahead and say it.” It was Ed who spoke, and Robin’s eyebrows shot up, already leaning closer to hear the rest. 

He’d expected a lot of things from Ling’s infamous fiance, but a punch to the solar plexus wasn’t one of those things. He wasn’t anything like the team had envisioned. Needless to say, Robin was way curious about the guy.

“You’ve got a pretty shitty boss down there,” Ed continued, “and I’d know a thing or two about shitty bosses. I mean, no vacation time? Talk about a stick up his a—”

He stopped on a yelp—stumbling from a kick to his left leg.

“Watch it, brat,” guard two said. “The only reason you’re still here is because we need you alive to extract your meta gene from. If it weren’t for that—”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna fucking work, lady,” Ed snorted. “Like I keep telling you—”

He cut off again on a sharper, gritted noise, freezing with the visible shock from his inhibitor collar. Guard two smirked, putting away her remote.

“Your reaction to that says otherwise, boy,” she said.

“I’d think”—Ed heaved a clearly pained breath, still not moving. He was leaning most of his weight on his right leg now—“that anyone would react to being—”

He gritted his teeth again, shouldering another click and a shock.

“—fucking electrocuted,” he finished, biting out.

“You should’ve been paying attention before,” guard two scoffed as her friend pushed Ed to get moving again. He did so with an obvious limp now—to Robin, at least. He didn’t think the guards saw it. “That fancy collar doesn’t react to regular folks. If it’s not from a meta gene, then there’s something about you.”

“You mean a brain? I wasn’t gonna say it to your boss, but it’s pretty funny that your so-called head scientist can’t even grasp the basic concepts of, you know, a science. You sure he’s the right guy for the job, or did he just bang his head against the metal walls enough times before—”

Guard two let out a growl, and, oh, yeah, Robin knew what Ed was doing—and pretty damn well too. In the split second that guard two ditched her stance to strike Ed herself, Ed was already moving.

He ducked under her fist, letting gravity do its own work for a second before kicking the back of her legs.

She stumbled in true, and guard one went swinging too.

“You little shit—!”

Ed whirled around, prepared to dodge, but something else moved in tandem.

A shadow, emerged in a blink, striking the guard in the outstretched side.

Ed didn’t miss a beat and kicked out his right to get the guard’s other side. The guard twisted with his broken axis, and Ed got his hips with the knee. 

The guard yelped before toppling back.

“SON OF A—!”

Ed lifted his leg to deal the final blow, but his eyes widened that time when the shadow beat him to it again—kicking with much more force that sent the guard slamming into the metal wall.

Robin winced at the crack! that accompanied.

Well, he was never pissing off Ling again. Yeesh. 

“Holy shit!” Ed laughed when he registered too, though not fully. “You did not have to go that hard. Who—?”

“Ed.”

Ed froze at the breathy call, and there was Ling now. Crouching and just as affected—the eyes of a man to water in the middle of a desert.

Ed’s breath hitched. “Li—?”

Neither of them noticed guard two rising from her spot.

The jig was already up, so Robin didn’t wait to kick out the vent opening and fling a birdarang. Guard two cried out when it caught her in the cheek, disrupting her balance again as she stood. Ed whipped his head to Robin’s landing, mouth dropping in surprise a little when guard two was already down.

“What—?”

“Hey there!” Robin greeted cheerily, cutting him off. “Nice to meet, I’m Robin, can we get moving now? I think we’ve invited a party.”

True enough, pounding footsteps quaked the ground from a distance. Ling straightened up from his position before nodding, turning to Ed in a practiced motion and tugging him forward. Ed’s gaze darted back to Ling and he swallowed, drawing on nothing but air when Ling broke his shackles with terrifying strength.

“Ling,” Ed started again, stumbling, “what—where—?”

“There’s no time,” Ling interrupted hastily. “Do you trust me?”

Ed wavered at the final soft tone, stark eyes melting with uncanny resemblance to Ling’s when he stuttered, “What kind of question is that? Obviously—” 

“Then follow Robin.”

“What?”

Robin snapped to motion without further prompt and grabbed Ed’s wrist, pulling him along down the hall. “This way!”

“H-Hey, wait—! Ling—?!”

“He knows how to find us! Focus on yourself right now!”

Ed kept a good pace for someone spluttering, “I—I know that, asshole! How do you—?”

When he didn’t turn back in a blaze of fury for Ling, Robin released his wrist and focused on pulling up the building’s blueprints again. If they were tracking the right path, then their safest escape route for Ship to collect them was—

There! 

The halls opened for the VIP section of the building, flanked on both sides by large labs that they should’ve thought to explore before pulling this off. None of the scientists inside noticed them, but that was looking too good to be true any second no—

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

Intruder alert. Intruder alert. 

“Fucking hell!” Ed grunted behind Robin, slapping his hands over his ears. “Could they make that any louder?”

The adrenaline was kicking in now, and Robin let out a laugh. “I know! Come on, this way next! There should be—”

“—a VIP exit. Obviously!”

“You know your stuff!” Robin grinned, slamming the final key on his key-glove to hack the cameras and motion sensors. Sparks lit his periphery vision as the cameras drooped, and he heard Ed’s impressed noise at the unanimous reaction.

“Seems you do too. How—?”

Robin tossed him a smirk over his shoulder. Golden eyes were glittering now, just as charged as Robin. “I’ll show you later, if we make it out.”

“Is that a challenge?” Ed shouted back.

Robin almost answered that—totally—but movement around the corner behind Ed caught his eye. 

A wind whipped past them at the same time, and Robin grinned as they received an eager, “I’ve got this!”

“What the—?!”

“Kid Flash!” Robin said. “Another guy you can trust.”

Wally sped to their stopped side not a blink after, shooting Ed an exhilarated grin and a salute. “Hey! Ed, right? Kid Flash, greatest speedster there is and the coolest guy on this ragtag te—”

“Shut up, man!” 

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Ed blurted, deadpan in a way that clocked Wally flat and had Robin cackling.

“Hey! What’s wrong with my uniform?”

Ed didn’t get to further crush Wally when the announcement changed tunes abovehead.

Initiating lockdown in East Wing. I repeat, initiating lockdown.

BOOM!

Where the hallway once forked ahead of them, a great wall abruptly slammed down. Robin was already pulling up his schematics again, looking for the key to hack security, but—

“Crap! Security runs on a separate firewall!”

“What does that mean?” Wally yelped, eyes darting to the other end of the hall where the rats where gathering again. “And why are there so many of these guys?! It’s just one prisoner! Isn’t this overkill?”

Robin didn’t risk breaking his focus with an answer. Down the hall, guards yelped and grunted indignantly.

“ED!”

Ling’s voice echoed in the metal space, and Ed jerked in his direction

“Ling! I’m right here!”

At the same time, Robin cursed. “Crap! I can’t hack this in time!”

“Well, that’s great!” Wally exclaimed shrilly. “And nobody else’s on this side of the wall either! What do we do now, boy genius?”

“If you can just buy me some time—!”

“Forget time!” Ed interjected suddenly, catching both their eyes. His own glare was set ahead on Ling’s figure dodging guards, cutting his way to them. Something passed over his expression, and he set his brow before whirling on Robin.

“You can hack shit, right? Get this thing off me.”

He pointed at his inhibitor collar, and Wally let out another noise.

“Dude! Greater priorities right now, like us being cornered any second—!”

“Got it!”

Robin recognized a “fuck shit up” look when he saw one. He made quick work of the collar, and the light on it clicked green before snapping open.

Wally’s face twisted further. “Hello?!”

They both totally ignored him as Ed cracked his freed neck with a hand. “Thanks. Now step back.”

“I’d listen to him if I were you!” Ling cheered as soon as he was in reach, smiling wider and realer at Ed than Robin thought anybody had ever seen of him this entire time, and already retreated behind Ed. “Ed doesn’t give warnings lightly.”

Robin didn’t need to be told twice, unlike Wally.

He yanked his best friend back into their little corner, leaving Ed to stand in front of them, a stark silhouette in the low light of the hall against the mass of guards that stopped to blockade the other end of the hall.

“We have you surrounded, boy,” the head guard called with their weapon pointed. “There’s nothing for you to melt safely here, unless you want to cook your friends with the rest of us.”

Ling’s chuckle sounded before Ed’s—though the latter rang louder.

“Yeah, about that,” Ed snorted.

He clapped his hands together, and electricity hummed in the atmosphere, like every time Wally had tried and failed to speed through walls. Several guards tensed at the feel and Ling particularly grinned with more teeth beside Robin.

“Melting isn’t the only thing I can do.”

The head guard straightened, holding their weapon higher. “Boy, I’m giving you a chance here—”

“That’s funny,” Ed said. “So am I.”

He slammed his palms to the ground, and, all at once, the walls convulsed around them. Electricity zapped down the metal seams, quaking the ground with a mighty, unseen shifting in the cogs.

There was a split-second pause, as Wally whispered, “What the hell was that supposed to—?”

The walls exploded.

One by one, like endless dominoes left and right and up and down, metal branched from every which way to SLAM between Ed and the guards, shaking the ground with tremor after tremor, until, in a manner of seconds—

The entire distance had disappeared. 

Where a great hall once sat between them and the enemy, now stood a wall no more than a few feet from Ed’s nose.

Wally and Robin both gawked that time.

“God, that felt good,” Ed announced, wiping his hands from a job well done. “Fucking idiots. As if all I could do was melt shit.”

He turned to the stunned group of them, absurdly nonchalant for a guy who’d just molded the walls like playdough, and Robin seriously couldn’t help it.

“Holy shit,” he said, and Ed cracked a grin.

“Watch your fucking language,” he replied. “Not so bad yourself, kid.”

Robin was going to answer that, but a certain blur zooming past beat him to it.

It wasn’t Wally.

Ed yelped when he was abruptly lifted in a hug—a noise that ended in a squeak when he went spinning too. His face erupted in red as he slapped Ling’s shoulder, stuttering, “Hey! Your friends are right there, you idiot prince—!”

“You’re calling me that name again.” Ling’s voice came out muffled into Ed’s chest, and he halted his wriggling to look down wide-eyed at Ling. “You’re—you’re really saying it, and you’re yelling at me again—you’re really here. Ed, Ed, yáng’er—”

“Ling—” Ed started a little faintly himself now.

“Ed,” Ling choked out, so much and so suddenly like a prayer, Robin tore his gaze from the sight when Ed’s breath hitched too. Wally did the same in his periphery, and they both heard rather than saw the click of Ed’s boots touching the ground softly again.

“Ling…” Ed’s murmur, however low, reached them anyway. “Hey, don’t—”

“Don’t ask me not to make any faces now,” Ling said thickly over him. “You were an entire world away. An entire world—wěidà lóng, I couldn’t—”

“Babe.”

Robin shifted at the soft tone, really feeling like he was intruding now. There was a brush of skin on skin, and a soft tap.

“I know,” Ed whispered. “I—I missed you too, fuck. You have no idea how… when I heard from Lan Fan that you were missing—” A shuddering inhale, and an exhale. “What were you thinking, you idiot?”

Ling’s laugh sounded like a frozen breath in the air.

“I might not have been thinking at all,” he murmured, “if I’m being honest.”

“Of course not.” Ed mirrored the laugh. “That was a rhetorical question, dumbass.”

“Hey…”

The protest was absolutely nothing, and it hung the moment for a long, awkward beat on Robin’s part.

He was just about ready to burst when activity blessedly thumped behind the safe wall.

Ed and Ling looked up from their tangled position—oh, god, they had been touching foreheads, gross—Ed going a little wide-eyed when the gate was forced open, by none other than—

“Miss Martian!” Robin cheered fast with his relief. “Boy, am I so glad to see you!”

Superboy raised an eyebrow from the ground level along with Artemis, and Kaldur totally wanted to do the same but refrained. He had that Look on his face that spelled it out.

“We heard you required back-up,” Kaldur said, as close to smug as his politeness got, and Robin rolled his eyes good-naturedly. 

“As if,” he scoffed. “We had it totally handled.”

“Well,” Ed’s chuckle drew the team’s attention back to him, where he’d finally detangled himself from Ling, though they still had one hand on each other. “More like I had it handled. But you guys helped, I guess.”

“‘I guess’?” Wally squawked. “Dude, who took out half those goons earlier?”

“Definitely not you, kid idiot,” Artemis said with a smirk.

Ling hummed, “I must agree there. And, on that friendly note—” He glanced aside fondly. “Ed, these are—”

“Your friends?” Ed drawled, and Ling flushed—actually flushed! Robin didn’t think that guy had ever blushed around them before, that was priceless. “Yeah, no shit, babe.”

Artemis chortled at that, and even Kaldur and Megan were looking amused now at this new side of Ling. Ed caught all their fondness in a single sweep, and grinned.

“Yo. I’m Edward Elric.” He stole his own warm peek of Ling, and smiled. “My friends call me Ed, though.”

<- prev ◆ next ->

[emiplayzmc]

Random headcanon but I think Addisons giving gifts to each other or to others is an extra so so special thing for them. The closest these little guys go to gifts, usually, is splitting the bill with someone on things. If they give you something WITH ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE, you have won the LOTTERY. Many a time, even GIVING the gift is a pain between Addis because the recipient will usually try to insist on paying them back for it somehow. ✨️Capitalism✨️

In any case, the love languages of my Addis and Spamton <3 (these apply to both platonic / familial relationships in their lives and romantic ones ^-^)

♤~♤

Sample: Acts of Service.

Sample is completely the kind of Addison that would clean someone's apartment and do a lot of little things for people he cares about to make their lives easier :3. Breakfast in bed, letting people vent their problems to him unconditionally, taking their shift on a job, everything for people he cares about (and occasionally even people he doesn't particularly care for because he's just nice </3)

♤~♤

Broadcast: Physical Touch.

I have ✨️angst✨️ lore with this guy, and touch is something that's pretty important to him. It grounds him in reality and helps him realise, either physically or mentally, 'hey, I'm still here, I'm still around.' He has. So many. Fidget toys in his apartment. But when he's around people, he's BIG on doing things with touch (being respectful of boundaries of course ^-^). Hand holding, hugs, peeping over someone's shoulder and resting his chin there to see what they're doing, etc. It all helps to ground himself and let both himself and those around him know that he's mentally in the present and alert and listening!

♤~♤

Target: Words of Affirmation.

Target's not usually the type to do stuff for people nor want things done for him, and DEFINITELY not one to touch or BE touched, but they're definitely someone who gives out and needs himself comforting words or advice ^-^ Although usually what they give and need tends to land on the border of Harsh Truth TM as well. He will NOT sugarcoat things when talking to people, but if they genuinely need comfort, they're great at giving that, being a welcomed ear to listen and an offerer of advice or just a simple 'you're doing great, and please never forget that.' Despite his more strict exterior, they do tend to be a little bit more on the unsure side of himself and their profession, especially after [REDACTED LORE], so every now and then comfort is something he needs as well. :]

♤~♤

Banner: Quality Time.

Epitome of 'why so friends? -the visiter.' Always loves spending quality time with people they care about and has ALWAYS made time for people :3 It doesn't matter whether it's quality time out on the town, time spent rambling to each other, or even just sitting with someone for a while silently, they're ALL about being around people and wanting to show they care by spending as much time as they can with others. Usually, they're one of the first people there to be a shoulder to cry on or to come to a meeting or to arrive at a party and the last to leave ^-^

♤~♤

Spamton: Also quality time!! That or giving gifts :3

After so long of being alone, whether metaphorically in his Big Shot era or physically in his downfall, it would take him a while to be able to warm up to being around people again long-term (especially the Addisons, yeesh...), but when he does... the first way he shows that he WANTS to be with people again is by spending time with them - or at the very least, not pushing them away and letting THEM be around HIM. In all honesty, contact with other people is probably something he misses but would never admit because of his pride.

As for gift-giving, he'd probably still have the same reservations about it that he did as an Addison, but it's a little more loose for him now. If you're patient enough you can buy stuff from Spamton's shop for almost nothing. If you press F1 in battle with him, he'll give you a little healing Spam, even in the Weird Route. In the past, he gave Noelle a little Pipis gift since she was the one reading his emails. I think gifts for him after his downfall are more like loose 'you do something for me, I do something for you,' and only - ONLY!!! - for people he cares a LOT about. Beyond the salesman is a guy who does gift people things, but many a time, it's disguised as a transaction rather than an actual 'gift.' At least that's how I interpret him in-game, correct me if I'm wrong, so that's how I've chosen to interpret him for headcanons as well :>

♤~♤

Anywhooooo, there's my Addi + Spamton love languages - applying to platonic, familial, and romantic relationships alike ^-^✨️

[hairstevington]

"Ace!Steve 5 + 1" for WIP Wednesday (now on a Thursday)

Haha okay here we go, now on a Friday! This one is BRAND NEW and still in the idea stage, but it's going to be something along the lines of - 5 times Steve hooked up with someone and one time when he didn't - but despite the subject matter being about sex, I don't plan on it being explicit at all.

Instead of a traditional snippet I'm just gonna ramble about what I plan on doing lol.

It will start with his very awkward first time with a random fellow student, then his second time (probably with Carol or something), then his third time will be set during his King Steve era, fourth time will be with Nancy and that whole situation (angst galore, yeesh), fifth time will be when he's trying to date post-Nancy breakup, and the + 1 will be meeting Robin and having a super intimate relationship without sex in it.

I wanna write the whole thing very comp-het coded, and how he basically gets around because he feels like that's what he's supposed to do, when really he's more interested in the emotional stuff, but that feels "gay," and then Robin comes out to him and he's like, "oh well if SHE'S not straight I can be whatever I am too."

Yeah. Idk. As someone on the ace spectrum I really wanted to write an ace character and I LOVE Stobin (as my followers know). I don't know when I'll get to this fic but hopefully I do one day if people are interested!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for the ask my dear <3

[turtle--soup]

Next Mutation ramblings under the cut:

Monkey Man is back

Episode 11 stream of consciousness liveblogging first...

--

"Poof. No mowah dowah baws." Honestly I would kill to play one of these henchmen, they must have had the best time.

Oh, I see where this is going...

Mikey found a peanut. Cute that he's excited enough to sing a song about that

Is that Fruit Loops with Red Bull? Bro.

If I ever win the lottery I am also going to yell MEGA SHELLAAAAAGE. I do not play the lottery.

"It's really gross in heeyuh"

"I can buy a jet plane! I can buy TEN jet planes!" Bro gonna set up his own airline

"You're scaring our roaches" Finally a Raph who likes bugs!

Of course Raph would buy more motorbikes. But would they be as sexy and cool as the one he already has? I think every Raph should have a motorbike. I never ship Raph with anyone but I kinda ship NM Raph with his bike

FunKEE MunKEE

"Stop monkeyin' around" - of course, of course. The puns 👌

Yeah, stop calling him greenie. You can do better than that surely?

They have satin boxers? Yeesh. 🤢

"Muhayy name's not greenaaayyyy" Calm down Leo

I love the sad music in the background being overlaid with the cartoon 'boink!' 'splat!' sound effects

"I got beat by four guys with no pants!" Dude now you know why Shredder was so pissed off all the time

This Splinter is so crabby

I can't believe nobody is arguing that they should get the ticket back because

a) Silver might spend it on doing nefarious bad guy stuff, and/or

b) it belongs to an innocent person??

Bionic smoothophonic?????? Were the scriptwriters paid by how many words they could make up?

Groovalicious! Excellente!

GROOVY WOOVY BABY???!?! wtf Raph bro are you OK?

Ah, the bike. And the jeep. But mostly the cool bike. It's so cool. Look at it. It's so cool. LOOK. HE HAS A BIKE!

Yeah no seriously I get it but I am so confused that they're all 'yeah money though 🤑' like... completely. It seems so wrong for there to be such little push back. Venus kind of tried but... yeah, I expect there to be more moral undertone in my turtles - especially if it's going to be this cartoony.

His staff is a net launcher? Nice.

Love that the walls in Silver's hallway are climbing walls lol. Fair play to whoever thought of that

"I've never fought so many well dressed men" Venus buddy please use your eyes

She's so polite though

The scene transitions in this show really are something aren't they? Wow

"I know exactly what you're gonna say but we think you're wrong" Bro I don't think anyone's ever won an argument with their dad by starting off like that

Oh at least Splinter's actually suggested they should give the money to the guy it belongs to and chewed them out for being greedy finally

Lol they busted his legs

"I AM scary 😠😠😠"

That was the worst smoke bomb effect ever wow

...

I didn't make notes on episodes 9 & 10 of Next Mutation but the general overview is:

There's so much about Bonesteel that I love but I'm concerned that he's going to be completely pointless.

His design is top tier, I was convinced that either Kevin Eastman designed him or whoever did design him was very much taking notes from Kevin Eastman and lo and behold...

ALSO! I was wondering where I knew Bonesteel's actor from and he's frickin' Scott McNeil! How many other Transformers Beast Wars voice actors did they poach? Lol.

Anyway yeah love him.

Also Quease is really interesting. I want to believe that his relationship with Donnie will be developed on but I'm not going to hold my breath. Hopefully they do something interesting with them though.

[nightbirdbliss]

Ramble, rant, fun facts, ideas, anythin you wanna yap about

OH MY GOD OKAY AHEM

I'm gonna talk so, SO, so much about this. (I think. I have time to kill, so hey. Why not? Let's see how long I take. It's 9:38 right now.)

So I'm gonna talk about my OCs Aspen Burkholder and Riley Blaine. I guess with that comes their ship, Monster Energy but UH! I'M GONNA! GET INTO THIS INSTEAD!!

(TW: drug mention, familial death, dysfunctional family, divorce, BELOW THE CUT!)

Both of them stemmed from when I was really into That Handsome Devil. Like, brainrotting. I think if I assigned the two albums, Aspen would be "The Heart Goes to Heaven, The Head Goes to Hell" and Riley "Drugs & Guns for Everyone". I have specific songs in mind, but alas, I'm linda tired.

Anyway onto uhhh who did i list first..

RIGHT, ASPEN!!

Aspen's pronouns are She/They/It

So basically, Aspen is just a very scared and (mildly?) cursed teen. Aspen was cursed by a cursed book that presented itself as a diary/journal type thing, y'know? They wrote in it to cope, but the book pulled a Tom Riddle's diary (yeesh, little me would have gone crazy over that!) and started to write back.

It sloooowly took over their mind, and in the end told them if they wanted all the power of the book that they had to hurt the people hurting them. Of course, a moody and desperate teen would do just about anything to escape their hell, right? Aspen, blinded by the book's curse ended killing their parents (they're an only child) and becoming the monster they are. It's a physical representation of the monstrous things they did for the power.

To put it short, they are the monster almost permanently. They can change into a human form, but they can switch into the monster form as fast as their emotions switch. They flee into the woods behind their house, going missing for.. about a year and a half? Dunno, long enough for some hunters to see them and try to shoot them slash have them become local legend/cryptid type thing???

Let's switch gears and talk about Riley.

Riley's pronouns are She/He/They

Riley is the oldest child. Rebellious and headstrong, they're constantly in arguments or hiding from them at home.

Their parents are separated.

They can seemingly never catch a break, because even at school they're getting picked on for being different.

Don'tcha just *LOVE* bigots? /sar

Other than the dysfunctional and broken household, they had a mostly alright upbringing.

Okay, together now.

Aspen and Riley met in 6th grade after having been put in the same class. They were inseparable friends in middle school and their freshman year of high school, when they took each other to homecoming. (awwh!) When Aspen up and vanished, Riley was heartbroken. She looked all over for them, but never did find them. Well, until they were scouring the woods as an attempt to connect with Aspen, wherever they were.

Aspen found him, but Riley had nooooo clue who it was. They were terrified of Aspen. After a long discussion of what's all happened, Riley embraced Aspen. This caught the monster off guard, expecting Riley to hate them. Riley does know what Aspen did isn't right, but understands the headspace and tries to help Aspen get back into civilized society.

Aspen now has therapy.. and maybe the government asking to take them.. for "science" reasons..

But anyway they're back together and they love each other still :3

yeah lore dropped ouh woohoo. it's 10:06.

fun facts?

aspen likes really likes car trips, and sometimes acts feral

riley knows all aspen's quirks at this point, and 100% teases them.

hope this suffices. if not. ask this question again i'll definitely yap about some other ocs :]

[14-ds]

To Love an Eel Tamer

Alright, second Mediaverse bonus! Obligatory warning for all those Shivrye, Penper, and Papercut shippers; This fanfic features a fan ship that I have a gut feeling will definitely piss you off. If any of you go up to me on this site opposing to this in any way, I WILL draw Frye and Paper kissing to scare you away. I know I'm not a very talented artist, but that doesn't mean I'll ignore the amount of power I have.

All jokes aside, I hope you like this!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Act 1 of TOOTM (The Objective of The Mission), Shiver and Frye formally introduced themselves to Paper and Scissors. While Shiver and Scissors were busy with a quarrel of their own, Frye was poking around at Paper's different inventions in his room, while Paper himself was trying to figure out a way to approach the girl.

“These things look super cool!” Frye holds an invention up in her hands and it explodes shortly after. “Hm. Too bad they keep exploding.”

Paper paid no mind to Frye screwing around in his room, as he was lost in his own thoughts about the situation. “Okay, Paper, a weird..squid alien…is she an alien? Whatever. This woman is in your room right now. Before you mindlessly fall in love, think about what she could be plotting against you. She came from another world for crying out loud! And to top it off, she’s a bandit! She could steal your money, your friends, your….your brain…Okay before all of this, find out if she’s an alien.”

Frye continued to dig around Paper’s things and found a box that was labeled ‘box of failures’.  

“Hey!!”, she calls for his attention, breaking his train of thought. “What’s this box of junk for?”

Paper immediately turns to Frye in shock of her sudden call and spots the box. “...Oh, that's just a box of junk from my…failed..inventions, but trust me, most of them are guaranteed to work-”, he says right after yet another invention explodes behind him. “...I didn't even touch that one!”

Frye looked skeptical, but not from the exploding invention. “Uh huh…So, you just hoard all of this junk and not do something with it?”

“...what?”

She continued to dig through the box. “Think about it, man. You keep this box that's LITERALLY named ‘box of failures’. If you don't do anything with it, it's super pointless, and it'll remind you of your past screw-ups! Do you actually WANT to be reminded about how much you failed!?” 

Paper looked slightly offended by Frye's words. “Well…I don't, but…what you said can be true…but they failed anyway, what's the point of going back to it?”

An annoyed expression was on Frye's face. “Yeesh. I know you're an inventor, but you're missing A LOT of things about being one.”

Paper instantly looked fed up, not believing that he almost fell for this girl. He began to think to himself; “...Geez, Paper, you should've saw this coming when you first saw her. She's just a carbon copy of Scissors..”

Frye continued to ramble. “I mean, look at all this! So much potential from ideas that your brain forged, and you decide to just give up on them the second they fail? That's nonsense! I mean, if you don't want to bring these inventions back to life, at least try to mesh them up into one ultra-mega-big invention!” 

Frye began to dig through the box and grabbed some tools to build the ultra invention she was talking about.

While Frye built something with the junk, Paper turned around to see what she was doing. “Wha-...What are you doing??”

Frye scoffed playfully. “Pfft. What you shoulda been doing.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a few minutes, Frye was finally finished with building and eager to show Paper what he she did, and what he should've done this whole time. 

Paper was shocked and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “...So…what is this supposed to be…?”

Frye smirked. “What do you think it is~?”

The two were looking at a gigantic, menacing, evil-looking robot. Frye jumped up and down in an excited manner. “Look! Look! I built a robot that dispenses food, has speaker-shoulders so you can listen to music, a teleporter that can teleport anything a 100 feet away…and has a formula for no-smear makeup!!”

Paper was absolutely speechless. “..I-”

“And, you, Mr. Smart Guy, get to see what it does so you don’t think I'm bluffing.”, Frye chimed in as she pushed a button on the robot.

The robot did everything Frye had designed it to do, such as dispensing food like ice cream and cheeseburgers, blasts loud music from its speaker-shoulders, teleports a wrench to who knows where in 100 feet, and puts makeup on the both of them and splashes water on their faces to show how it doesn’t smear. It even wipes them off after it was done. What a nice robot!

Paper was still shocked. “...And, you built that?”

“Yeah!! Now, do you see what I was talking about?”, Frye said, still very excited about what she made.

Paper stared at her. “But if you built that…and now that I think about it, you were saying really wise stuff earlier…that can only mean…” His eyes sparkled while he looked at her. “...You’re super smart…”

It seemed like Paper’s perspective on Frye changed rather quickly. He went from loving her, to somewhat disliking her, to loving her again. He’d wonder how long this pattern would repeat if he wasn’t so attracted to her smarts at the moment…and her beauty again.

Frye however, was oblivious to his gaze on her. “So…now that you showed me your thing, why don’t I show you mine?”

Paper continued to give her a lovestruck gaze. “...Run away with me.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

“N-no, what did you say? Something about running away with geese? I couldn’t really hear you.”, Frye said, looking skeptical of Paper yet again.

“Well…I didn’t exactly….It wasn’t…uh…” Paper stammers while trying to compose himself and distract Frye from what he said. “You were saying that you had another thing..?” 

Luckily, Frye was distracted from him saying she was gonna tell him about her thing. “Oh, yeah!!” She grabs him and rushes outside. “Come on! Come on! We gotta be outside for me to show you!”

Paper was shocked once Frye pulled him with her. He thought to himself again; “A case of hidden smarts, I see…”, but that didn’t change what he thought about her overall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, you ready for this? You better be!” Frye flips onto a car outside and plays a short tune on a wooden flute.

…

“...So, is flute-playing your thing?”, Paper asked, confused as to why Frye brought them outside just to play a flute. 

Frye shushed him again. “Give it time..”

Cut to the portal where Deep Cut came from. A swarm of moray eels fly out of the portal, causing destruction in their path.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It did take the eels quite a while to get to Frye and Paper, however.

Frye seemed to get irritated. “Come on, come ON! What’s the hold up?”

Paper still seemed confused. “I’m sorry, what are we waiting for, again?”

Suddenly, the eels swarm towards Frye and create a tornado, which she’s seen on top of. “YES, YES, YES! About time!”

Once again, Paper was shocked. He couldn’t believe that what looked like hundreds of eels just swarmed over to his supposed dream girl, and she’s taming them like it’s nothing! “...HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!?”

“See, see? This is my thing! You like it? It’s amazing, isn’t it?”, Frye says while laughing away and spinning on the tornado of eels. “Wheee!! Wheee!!”

While Paper saw all of this, his brain screamed at him; “You are in love with a MANIAC!! This woman is insane!”

While Frye cackled and tamed the eels with ease, the eels suddenly left since something seemingly caught their attention, leaving her to fall right onto Paper.

“OW!! ….Hey, where are those eels off to!?” She noticed that she fell directly on Paper. “Oh. Sorry about that. Guess you lightened the fall, eh?”

“....owww…..”

Frye also notices that she landed right on her flute as well, and it broke on impact. “Huh? NO!! I didn’t just.. This can’t be!!”

Frye gets up and helps Paper up too. “Listen, we’re like friends now, right? You gotta help me get a new flute so I can get those pesky eels back!”

Paper just stared at her. From the looks of it, this girl was insane to him and the best option is to get away from her, but he couldn’t help but just look at her and have these mixed feelings of love, fear, and curiosity. Pencil is a great girl too, but Frye was entirely different. He never expected to fall in love with someone like her.

Frye gets irritated again and shakes Paper around a bit. “Hello!? Anybody home? I’m talking to you!”

He stopped Frye from shaking him. “Okay. Okay, I'm hearing you!” He thought for a minute. “...but…what if I build you a new flute and it can work just as well as your old one!” 

“....okay, cool.”

With that, the two went inside and Paper got to building. This felt so exciting to him; he was gonna show Frye his true capabilities of being an inventor…and maybe she’ll be impressed enough to be his girlfriend! Or not…those mixed emotions were still there..

He handed the finished product to Frye…and it exploded before she could even finish the taming melody on it.

“....Yeah, let’s just buy a new one.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two were walking down the street to the nearest music store in hopes of finding a flute.

Paper guided Frye to the music store. “Okay, we go to the music store, you get a new flute, you get the eels back and send them back where they came from, right?”

Frye angrily searches for her eels but still listens. “Right. I swear, those eels are gonna get such a scolding when I-” Suddenly, she gets distracted by seeing a skatepark. “Cool! A skatepark!!” She drags Paper with her.

Paper yelped as Frye dragged him. “W-weren’t you just angry a second ago?”

“C’mon, we can’t just be outside without having some fun!” Frye grabbed a nearby skateboard…well, stole one, and prepared to ride it. “Besides, didn’t you ever skateboard before? This could be a first-time experience for ya!”

Paper huffed. “In fact, I have experience riding a skateboard before, now can we please get a flute so-”

“Really!?” Frye’s eyes lit up in anticipation as she shoved the skateboard into Paper’s hands. “Why don’t you show me?”

“Uh…I don’t really think we have time to…you know…do this..”, Paper said, obviously having lied about his ‘past experience’ skateboarding.

Frye continued to encourage him, still believing he could skateboard. “Aw, come on! I’m sure it’ll be super awesome!”

Paper began to sweat and position himself on the skateboard. “Okay….here it goes ….about to skateboard…”  He knew there’s no backing down now. Frye and multiple people at the skatepark were watching him…but at least this was considered a chance to impress Frye since she seemed excited about watching him skateboard. “...One…Two-” While preparing himself, Paper slipped down a slope on accident, and to make a long story short, he got pretty banged up while slipping, sliding, and crashing around the park.

“Haha! Wicked wipeout, man!”, Frye teased.

Paper lies there on the ground in serious pain. “...I knew doing this was a mistake…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Paper got patched up, he and Frye got back to their original objective. 

Paper sighed, hoping that he won’t have to put himself into a situation like that today. “Okay, no more distractions. Just going to the music store and buying a new flute, got it?”

“Hm. Alright. I really gotta find those eels anyway.”, Frye huffed. She looked over at Paper again. “Hey…are you alright from crashing all over the place?”

“Oh… Yeah, I'm okay…” Paper looked away from Frye for a second. “Listen, why don’t we-”

Frye pointed out something once again. “No way! You got a candy buffet here!?”

“Hm?” Paper turned his attention to the candy buffet. “I…actually never noticed that here-”

“Well, notice it now, and come inside with me!!” Frye drags him inside the restaurant.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the two were inside, Frye was eating what seemed like a truckload of sweets, while Paper was eating a simple cake slice. 

“Uh… are you sure you’re gonna be.. Okay after you eat all of that?” Paper said, concerned about how Frye would feel after eating so much sugar. 

Frye laughed. “Psh. I’ll be fine! I ate a ton of sweets like this before, it’s what gets me goin’! Sometimes I wish I knew someone who could eat as much sugar as I can. Imagine the insane eating contests we’d get into.”

Paper listened. Perhaps this was another chance to impress Frye. It was a very stupid idea to do this but, hey, he’s taking the chances he gets. 

“Well, Frye, consider yourself to be looking at that very person.” Paper knew he’d regret this the same way he regretted lying about being good at skateboarding. 

Frye gasped happily. “Really? Well, I don’t wanna get into a contest right now…”

For a moment, Paper sighed in relief. “I'm safe…”

“...But just for confirmation…” She dumps half of her sweets pile onto his plate. “Can you show me how much you can eat?”

Paper sweated in fear but still smiled nervously. “Uh… yeah… alright…” 

His brain yelled at him again; “Why do you keep lying!?

Once again, to make a long story short, Paper felt sick like any normal person after eating that much sugar.

“uuuuhhggg…..”

Frye saw him lie on the table in numbness and abdominal pain. “Aw. Guess your stomach wasn’t up to the task today.” She got up and (literally) dragged Paper out of the restaurant. “Welp, there’s no use lying around now! We still got some eels to catch, and I'm hyped up now!”

Paper groaned again. “So NOW you wanna find them….”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two were on the walk again, and luckily, Paper began to feel a bit better.

He grumbled in annoyance. “That’s it. No more stopping for anything. We NEED to focus on what we’re doing!”

Frye listened carefully. “You’re right! I know i got distracted, but I promise that I got my head in the game. We’re finding those eels right now!”

Paper looked at Frye and thought about the things that happened to him today. How can someone so smart act so airheaded and get distracted so easily? He couldn’t really comprehend that factor about her. “That’s fine…” he sighed and looked away from her. “Let’s just really focus and-”

Frye gasped loudly when something else caught her attention.

Paper quickly turned to Frye again. “What? What happened?” 

“Is that…..a CARNIVAL!?” Frye eagerly pointed at a carnival nearby.

Paper knew that Frye would get distracted again. “Oh, lord…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two found themselves roaming around the carnival, Frye being excited about it, wanting to do about everything here, and Paper just wanting to do what he and Frye came to do in the first place. 

Frye happily bounced around. “So whaddya wanna do first? Ride a ride? Play some games? Get some food?”

Paper grumbled. “Whatever gets done quicker so your eels don’t destroy anything before you get them back..”

Frye frowned. “Aw, you’ve been acting a little boring today….I can understand why you’re like this..”

“Oh, yeah? Why am I acting like this?”, Paper replied somewhat sarcastically. 

“You’re super used to people acting the way I do, I can tell. Not being too pushy, but I already told you I’m not from here! I just wanna see what this place has to offer.” Frye smiled again. “I just wanna have a little fun, y’know? I’m sure you felt the same way, but if you wanna get this over with, can we do at least one thing here?”

After Frye spoke, Paper softened up a bit. Frye only wanted to experience a new world and look for a bit of fun, despite doing that at a bit of an inappropriate time, but he was just stopping her in some cases…Wait…

At that moment, Paper’s eyes widened. He finally realized WHY he fell in love with Frye. She was just acting like…herself!  She’s smart, mischievous, peppy, stubborn…all those traits and more bundled up inside of her. He finally came to terms on why he had these feelings of love, but…he wasn’t used to falling in love with someone like this.

Frye was waiting for him to speak up until she saw her eels riding the ferris wheel. “....WHAT!?!? HEY!!” Frye growled at the eels. 

Paper broke out of his thoughts after he heard Frye’s growl. “Huh??” He turned to where the eels were. “They were HERE this whole time!?”

‘Those darn EELS!!!” Frye hissed, but then turned to a street performer who just so happens to be playing a flute! “A-ha!”

Frye went to the street performer and took their flute.

“Hey!”

“I’ll give it back!”

Frye played the taming melody on the flute and the eels immediately rushed to her side.

Paper watched the whole thing unfold. “Well, I didn't expect everything to be resolved like this.”

Frye angrily scolded the eels. “So THIS is where you’ve been!? I can’t believe you’d disobey me like this and run off! You could’ve wrecked EVERYTHING!!”

While Frye scolded the eels, Paper began to feel a bit of sympathy for them. “Wait, Frye.. Maybe they had the same idea you had. Maybe they only wanted to experience a new world, too!”

“Hm… Is that really what you guys wanted?” Frye turned back to the eels, and they nodded in confirmation. “Aww… you guys just wanted to have fun, too!! …You can stay with us, but you better not leave without my permission!” 

Paper stood there and watched. A part of him just wanted to blurt out his true feelings to Frye right here and now, but the other part was too nervous to do so.

Frye suddenly wrapped a friendly arm around him. “So, all’s well that ends well, right? Things turned out just fine! And…sorry for getting sidetracked earlier. I know you musta felt pissed.”

Paper looked at Frye and smiled. “You don’t have to apologize for anything. Just getting to know you and doing things with you today has been really fun!” He frowned a bit. “But… I’m sorry for trying to prevent you from having fun here.”

Frye looked shocked. “You? Prevent me from having fun? Don’t be silly!” She hugged him a bit. “Today has been AWESOME! Creating a giant robot, hanging out at a skatepark, and now we’re at a carnival! This has all been amazing!”

…Paper smiled widely and leaned into the hug, feeling happy and…safe in Frye’s arms.

Frye only saw it as something weird. “Aaaand, this hug feels awkward now.”

Paper snapped out of it and quickly pulled away from the hug. “Uhm…s-sorry about that… What do you say we spend the rest of the day here? Neither of us have anything to do now, and I kinda want to spend a little bit more time with you.”

Frye smiled and hopped a bit. “I thought you’d never say that!” What was she excited about specifically? The carnival. She was happy she got to stay at the carnival a little bit longer.

She giggled and walked around the carnival with Paper. “This is great! We can go on rides and stuff… and do other things too! Look at us! Frye and Paper: a duo of awesome friends waiting to get into all sorts of adventures!”

Paper smiles at Frye’s enthusiasm “Yeah.. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for reading! A little progress update on the actual series, "One Job At A Time" featuring the Squid Sisters, Captain 3, and the Warioware gang is up next! This, "Expectations", and "Shiv vs The Siz" will be up on AO3 soon, so be on the lookout for that!

And with that, I finally got some of my little crack ship off my chest. :)

[fateinthestars]

Yeesh has it really been nearly a week since I did a review/ramble post for SCM?

Well as I've replayed some stuff as I'm working on something (I fear due to the way I've decided to do it in the end that it's gonna take a while!), I may as well cover one of the ones I replayed yesterday...

So let's cover 'Whispers of Love from the Stars'

This set includes stories for: Leon, Scorpio, Teorus, Dui, Huedhaut, and Ichthys

Spoilers under the cut

Whispers of Love from the Stars

This whole set goes into specific human myths to do with the constellations and it's rather interesting to see some more of those combined with the Gods' reactions to them.

LEO: Catching Lions with Honey

I'm struggling to think of stuff to say about this one (especially without switching the mature filter on) but the other Gods getting MC into awkward situations in Leon's route does feel rather common!

Ichthys, Teorus, I really think you ought to find a way to apologise to MC.

SCORPIO: Under an Aphrodisiac's Spell

Oh for goodness sake MC! The last thing you saw Scorpio doing was making something. Dui told you it was a poison. Why the hell did you even pick that glass up?!

Still Scorpio was straight and to the point and helped quickly. I am wondering how this would have gone down had it happened with one of the others.

(Yeesh for that matter considering what God's poison does to Humans, what would Zyglavis have done in this situation if it was early on in his route???)

TAURUS: Sweet Prince, Take Me Away

Pffft. Okay this might be one of my favourite Teo stories but I have to admit it's not really because of Teo.

I would say I don't want to spoil the beginning but I think as long as you've played any main story it's pretty damn obvious who the Teorus at the start of this really is.

And I'm still laughing at the fact that a major part of what gave him fully away (even if MC already had doubts) was using his own full name rather than the nickname Teo would have used.

It is interesting that Ichthys does make so many mistakes here though... usually he has impersonating the others voices and mannerisms down really well. The food thing I'm not surprised at, but not thinking about the fact that Teo calls him Ikky? I wonder whether that implies Ichthys doesn't actually really like that but doesn't bring it up with Teo because they're friends and he just lets him do it but might not from anyone else. (Actually Teorus seems to have an ability of getting the others to let him call them by different nicknames - Scorpio doesn't pull him up on calling him Scorpy but the one story where Ichthys does it he bit his head off!)

GEMINI: Lost Between Two Stars

And now we're onto the first of the three in this set where MC isn't dating the God in question yet.

This is a nice sweet trip for MC and Dui with quite a bit of insight into how Dui feels.

I'd be interested to know whether anyone read this one before they read Dui's main story, because the 'dream' sequence in this probably hits slightly differently depending on how much of his backstory you are aware of in advance.

AQUARIUS: Intoxicated by the Deep Blue Night

Ow, my heart. *hugs Huedhaut tightly*

The start of this is an interesting talk between him and MC, and of course Hue knows the human myths for his constellation well because, well, he's Hue... but then suddenly everything is focussed on the past and you can really feel the heaviness in Hue's heart, especially as this is set pre main path.

Sometimes it feels really hard to not want to go and find Hue and just shout tell her! at him. 😅

This does have one of my favourite light-hearted moments though, and that's this:

Pfft oh Hue. 🥰 Guess I was right in my post where I basically said it felt like sometimes you should ask Hue and Karno to step away from the others to trick them into having a break.

PISCES: The Tangled Red Thread of Fate

Oh I utterly adore this chaos. Yes it's another Ichthys story before he's with MC but this one really does feel like it could have been the start of something.

Although, Ichthys? You really do get a rush out of infuriating Scorpio don't you? There was no reason to use that specific thing to act out the myth!

I adore Hue's reaction to the situation in this too. (Although his comment about fate specifically? My heart's breaking again...)

Attempted ranking thingy:

Aquarius

Pisces

Gemini

Scorpio

Taurus

Leo

Odd, the three that are pre-relationship on the top? But I think even though these are really close together in enjoyment level (apart from maybe Leon's) for me, that those three are the highlight of this set. Scorpio's also adds some interesting lore which is probably why I've put him just above Teo's even though here Teo is charming and sweet and even Ichthys' prank can't really dampen his mood because it showed him how well MC knows him.

Those top three though: Dui's is almost like a missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that rounds off the start of his path nicely. An actual attempt to suggest to MC that there is a problem and what she would think if she knew... Ichthys' is the least consequential of the three but there's just something here that really sparks for me (I do wonder whether that is partly due to Hue's reaction - it's almost like he's realised something has started between the two of them and is happy to step back and watch. Like you get in some of the other main paths - he never interferes but is always making sure in his own way that MC is happy and not in danger)... which leads us nicely onto Huedhaut's own story - it just encompasses everything Hue is as a character in one short burst: from his vast knowledge (even of stuff like human myths) to his winemaking abilities, to his sarcasm (but ability to stop when he realises he's taking it too far), all the way to his complete and utter inner turmoil at having to see MC every day knowing something that he doesn't dare bring up but still cannot stop himself from vaguely murmuring stuff related to his secret.