#i'm trying to both give credit to the images source (when there even is one. text screenshots are usually source-less when i find them)

[seventh-district]

Figured I'd try my hand at some Redacted character post/text edits!

[ 1 / ? ]

Credit to @/sainthowlzon for all the Listener icons, and to @/elisacaleisa for their google drive with all the canon icons!

(slightly alternative version of the Solaires' GC edit below the cut bc i had a lil too much fun with what Vincent would name his contacts)

[michdoodles]

mmk, so my thoughts on Sonic movie 3

I very much enjoyed myself watching this movie although I did find that the jokes were pretty darn corny but I knew they would be corny heading in and I still laughed at them so corny but funny. Jim Carrey had no right having so much chemistry with himself in a silly goofy dance scene no less. It was annoying watching eggman/Robotnik call Gerald anything but grandpa like a normal person but I also cringe inside when Boom!eggman tries to use "hip" language so that's just me not liking boomers and early gen x trying to sound like stereotypical gen z teens lol (and I've personally never heard teenagers say stuff like that so come on, writers. Get off of tiktok please). Gerald as a character was also weirdly wacky in this but he was being played by Jim Carrey, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything like the game characterization lol. Speaking of characterization, Shadow's was great! I am stealing that revenge guac line. But seeing him dream with Maria and relive the ptsd of her death and the relationship they had with each other was very good, better than what Sega did to him during the 2010s (good thing I was out of the loop then). That moment where he sees Sonic's reaction to injured Tom and has the flashback to Maria... yeah. But boy still had his mind on revenge and we needed the movie to be nearly two hours long so he doesn't let that change his trajectory, yet. Rewriting his backstory so that he was not made by Gerald but discovered inside a meteorite is alright, his canon backstory in the games isn't realistic in any way so I get it, and this will likely lead up to introducing the Black Arms to the SCU.

But since I am on the subject of Shadow here, what I did not like was that they don't give you time to let it sink in that Shadow has um, "died". I say it in quotes because we saw no body but the explosion is meant to make you assume he's dead. Also, if the games didn't kill off Shadow for good, what makes you think these lighthearted comedy films for the family will? I mean, the end credit scene introduces Metal Sonic, who can only really have been made by Robotnik so I'm assuming neither he nor Shadow are really dead cuz he probably used Shadow's quills as a power source now that they're talking about Chaos energy. But anyway, instead of the movie giving you the time to realize oh wait, Shadow sacrificed himself and just let you sit on that feeling of this poor alien hedgehog who had everything taken away from him dying for the good of humanity because that's what his human sister would have wanted, Tails did an exposition and just... tells you. And then Team Sonic has their moment or whatever, it just... didn't feel quite right. Whereas in Sonic Adventure 2, you have the whole cast just being like "wow, that just happened", Sonic gifting Rouge Shadow's inhibitor ring, the image of Shadow superimposed over the earth... I get emotional thinking of that part and I haven't reached it in my own gameplay. There was like literally no time to get emotional during the movie. It's like Tails pretty much said "Shadow and eggman died" and they move on even tho Sonic was the one that had the moment with Shadow that helps turn him around, that they teamed up to save the earth, they had a BONDING MOMENT. WHY AREN'T YOU MOURNING HIM MORE??? Probably just the executives butting in and saying "nooooo, don't make the kiddies cry, they're here to laugh and make us money enjoy themselves with silly talking superpowered animals!" They did Shadow so much good for his characterization in this movie and then just sweep him under the rug like that? Nawwwwr

I have more thoughts on the movie but I ranted enough lol. Still think it was worth going to the theater for, and like I said, it was a fun watch and I liked it. Just kinda mad with how they ended things with Shadow... for now. And I was quite excited to see them introduce both Metal and Amy, yay! Am I excited for Sonic movie 4? Not really, as this is starting to look like the mcu and I say that as someone that was a big fan of the mcu back in the day and had a freaking crush on Tom Hiddleston because of it. But, I'll probably watch it anyway cuz there's no way three movies can condense the vast amount of history, stories, and characters that exist in Sonic's universe[s]. As long as they don't make another Knuckles show that focuses more on human OCs than the titular anthropomorphic character, we should be fine.

[coldshrugs]

mustering

characters: estinien varlineau; io laithe (wol) | pre-relationship word count: 900 note: i'm having a lot of feelings about siblings, accidental family, and the way men love. [divider credit]

“Have you noticed our little shadow? He's been following us since we left the city.”

Io’s ears shift a degree, but Estinien suspects she doesn’t have to apply much focus to pick out the clumsy footsteps in the brush. She grins, eyes trained forward so she doesn’t disturb their company.

“And here I was thinking you'd taken the long way round for my benefit,” she says, and his skin tingles with the shy mischief in her voice.

He turns to her, strafing sideways, then walking backward down the well-worn path that slithers beneath the canopy. He takes stock of both his companions. The boy–in shaggy hair and tattered clothes, creeping through tangled plants several feet behind them–still thinks he’s unseen. And Io–in the dappled green light, she is more beautiful than the image he’s kept in his mind these past months, and looking far more healthy–is only teasing him

Are they back here? In the place they can laugh together, or make jokes that almost touch the heart of the thing that goes unspoken between them?

Noted.

“Two birds and all that.”

That makes her eyes widen, and makes her smile. Estinien is unable to resist joining her, even if he has to look away.

He continues, “I am worried for him, though. One needn’t have a scholar’s wit to see that the merchant has the boy leashed. He’s being used.”

Her ear twitches again when their follower snaps a branch, but they are careful not to give him away.

“You do this often, you know?”

“Hm?”

“You have a knack for finding wayward souls. Little lambs.” Her laugh is a familiar melody, quiet but uncouth. Something he didn’t realize he missed. “It’s like you call to them, or they to you… Like you can’t help but care for them.”

“Hm.” He returns to her side, an arm’s length away. Both too close and too far.

Estinien thinks of his brother, as he often does. A little thing, wiry but tough. He liked to chase the sheep to try to rile them up, to rile Estinien up when it was his watch, but they would simply follow him, as sheep are wont to do. It wasn’t long before he’d made friends of the entire flock and took as much pride in their care as Estinien had. Even with so few years between them, their parents trusted Hamignant to watch over the flock, and Estinien to watch over Hamignant.

He thinks of the first time he saw Alphinaud. Never mind the ghost he saw in the lad’s face… there was something else there. He was lonely and lost, carrying the weight of a sin he could not have predicted. A haunting, and a mirror. In the end, he became a source of inspiration, though it took him far too long to realize it.

Vrtra and Aymeric, too. As alone when he met them as he has been at one point in his life or another. Wanting for company, for connection. Wanting to be chosen based on fondness and merit. Wishing for family.

Lost lambs…

Hamignant’s name hasn’t left his mouth in years.

He wonders if Io would care to learn about him. She is a shepherd too, of a kind. He thinks they might’ve liked each other, or that he would have found a way to make her laugh if nothing else.

“Hami…” he begins. The pause lasts too long. Maybe this is stupid. Why dig up the past when he is only so recently able to see a future?

Io smiles patiently.

“Your brother?”

His eyes fall to the leaf-covered ground and he nods. “He would walk our sheep into the fold from pasture. He named them all. Even if they already had one, he’d change them to something he liked better–insufferable, really. Anyway… when one went missing, he’d beg me to join him in the search, make me scour the fields and nearby forest with him until we found whichever young, or old, or lame sheep had wandered off alone, staring up at us with that look of relief. And I was a bit bigger than him, so I would carry it home while he doted on Flopsy, or Custard, or whatever the fuck he’d named them–” he feels his smile spreading as he shakes his head, and the vacuum in his heart surrounding Hamignant shrinks, just a little. “I suppose what I mean is, he still holds me accountable.”

They walk on in silence–Io looking faraway and wistful, and himself feeling lighter having breathed life into the memory–until the trees spread out and give way to the Perfumed Rise. A mile away, the jewel-green sea meets the pink shore, but the wind carries its roar up the hill.

Io’s steps bring her closer. Out of interest in his story, perhaps. “What will you do with this lamb, then? I presume he intends to follow us to Akyaali… We can’t expect him to find his way back to the city alone.”

Estinien sighs. He already knows how this will play out.

You see, being a brother is much like being a shepherd: watch the horizon for danger, be willing to fight it off, carry home the lost and the hurt. The roles are inseparable for him, because he learned them at the same time, with the same person.

“Focus on convincing Matsya to put in a good word with the locals for our boat. Leave the boy to me.”

[illmetkismet]

Do you think Leon managed to at least move on and let go of his past a bit after rescuing Ashley? Game seems to imply heavily the whole metaphor//theme about redemption loss and moving on and also the credits song too

curious to know what you think?

I really hope so!! On the one hand, the way they handled the end of the game is very different from the OG: like you said, they really paid off the theme of things being different this time, and Leon gets that cathartic smile with the sunrise on his face. On the other hand, as far as we know, Vendetta is still canon.... It's hard to know what Capcom has in store for Leon, how much they want to deviate from the established continuity, and judging from what they did with Chris in Village, I'm a little worried...

I do think Capcom has a huge tone problem, where there are so many different hands in the Resident Evil pot that it's hard to get a single coherent and definitive image of who their characters are supposed to be. Remake Leon is very different from Vendetta Leon and Death Island Leon and even Infinite Darkness Leon, which was made so close to the remakes that you'd think the two would give us a consistent characterization, but I don't think they do.

So who knows where they take him from here! I'm happy to continue thinking of the different versions of Leon kind of as separate characters, despite what Capcom might have to say about that, and if they take remake Leon in a direction that doesn't feel true to his arc so far, I'll happily fork his story into yet another version in my head.

I've said this before, but it's hard for me to imagine Leon getting a canonical happy ending I'd be satisfied with, and I've made my peace with that. I think if that's what you're hoping for too, we're just gonna have to roll up our sleeves and envision a future for him where he does move on and let go and reconcile with the past in a satisfying way (and not in the flippant Death Island 'it's a living' way...).

So I guess that's my answer - personally, and going off what they've done with the remakes so far, I do think that post re4r Leon is in a much better place than he was going into it. I like to think of it as like.... He's gone on so many horrible missions, both before and after Ashley, right? So why are we coming along with him on this one, in particular? Because, I think, this was his 'dark night of the soul', so to speak. He went into this mission at the end of his rope with it all - the pain, the loss, the sheer senseless of all the violence he'd witnessed - and he came out the other side with a little bit of hope and a clearer view of the path out of his suffering: trusting people, being able to rely on others, not giving into hopelessness.

It's so interesting to me when people say Saddler wasn't a compelling villain in the remake, because what was so menacing about him was deliciously metatextual to me. Yeah, he had his plan with Ashley and las plagas, but throughout the game his main role was to keep trying to convince Leon to give in, to submit and let go of fear. He was offering Leon a way out of his despair: a nothingness, a numbness, and that's what Leon was fighting against the whole game! He needed to face the source of his pain head on and arrive in a place of hope, instead of continuing to ineffectually push it all down, to numb himself.

I think at the end of re4r he did just that. He stood at a fork in the road and he chose hope over despair. So ok, I'll do the same, and allow myself to hope that his story keeps going down that road!

Thanks for the ask, and sorry for the goddamn journey my answer became lol....

[cescalr]

Appearances: Harry Potter Ensemble - Pt 1.

So. As someone who writes a lot of fanfic, I don't always decide to borrow directly from the source material for the appearances of the characters. I'll admit that my canon compliance for that can be tangential at best; mostly down to hair and eye colour, whilst everything else is different. This can lead to some confusion in my fics, because my worst sin in this regard that i'm inconsistent in how I portray them. I have multiple fcs and sims of characters, and I sort of just swap between them at whim. So this is a masterpost list of all the different appearances each portrayal of the HP ensemble cast I use. I'll also try and say which fics I pictured as which faces, because why not.

Let's get started, shall we?

Harry Potter. [+ James Potter, because they're meant to be almost identical.]

First, we'll go with documenting the protagonist.

For a canon-compliant Harry, I made this artbreeder a while ago;

Lord above that's ginormous. Anyway. I'm not, like, 100% happy with this, but here it is.

As may be a fairly obvious choice, my main fc for Harry is Darren Criss. He does a great job fitting the visual aspect of Harry, and an even better job of him being identical to his father; Darren Criss makes a perfect James Potter. All you need to do is watch AVP to know that one.

And, as a sidenote; Look at them <3 this is the golden trio, right here!! Sure, Ron's a bit off, not tall enough, nose not long enough, but he works really well for the role, so I don't care.

But he does a pretty good broody harry, too, so I tend to think Darren Criss when I think Harry James Potter.

Again; for a slightly more book compliant Harry (aka; a wholly white Harry) there's a young Peter Capaldi. In these pics specifically, lol.

James Potter by Michelle-Winer on DeviantArt <- there's also this depiction of James as the actor for Will Graham from Hannibal, which works pretty damn well for both James and Harry.

Unfortunately, people don't credit as often as they should on Pinterest; (1) Pinterest this is a very good James, and if anyone happens to know who drew it, that's really necessary to know. He looks just like my James sim, fr. Took the image right from my brain.

He looks a little less like his dad and more like his mum here, which is Incorrect, but I still like these sims.

Ron Weasley.

Next up on the list is Ron.

I made this artbreeder a while ago. I think this is basically perfect, and looks exactly like how I think of him, except the nose is too short.

The blog is gone, but this art by xia-hainex has always been my favourite Ron fanart.

I'm very picky about Ron's face. I don't have an actor fc for him.

But I do have a sim :). You can see the influence, lol.

Hermione Granger.

Hermione has the most fcs out of the Golden Trio. 5 in total. First, her more canon-compliant artbreeder;

Next; those five fcs.

First up; a duo of fcs - one for her younger years, and one for that version's older years. Ella Eyre + Stevvi Alexander.

Of course, as shown above, there's always Bonne Gruesen, who played her in AVP. Which, as you can see, was an image that held a lot of mix dominance in the artbreeder (which I did through combining various images of these five women, plus some general tweaks.)

Nathalie Emmanuel is a version where Hermione kept the buck teeth :D. Would mostly be used in muggle AUs.

But this ^ really does look like book 7 Hermione during the horcrux hunt, don't you think?

Grace Byers is a bit glamorous for Hermione, I'll admit. Sometimes I use her for her mother, instead.

Elarica Johnson is the final fc option for HG, very similar to Nathalie Emmanuel. If I were to give HG a sister, she'd probably end up with Elarica whilst Hermione keeps Nathalie. Also an option for her mother, I suppose.

Because I should mention this; I often use Hayley Law for Mrs. [heacanon name: Eudora] Granger. I haven't actually got an fc for her dad, but the one consistent thing about him is that he's Jewish, but he can be european or african or middle eastern or whatever, I don't care about that part. (Same, really, for Mrs. Granger. The one prerequisite I suppose is that they not match; my Hermione is biracial, and has the specific complication of passing as (depending on the person guessing) either ethnically White British or solely Ashkenazi Jewish, even if her father is not that. Most people miss the black half of her ancestry if they never meet her parents. And, to note, thanks to the schools she was sent to and the care her family took, Hermione has never experienced explicit racism towards herself, and her first personal exposure to prejudice is the whole Muggleborn mistreatment thing. It hits her pretty hard :(.)

[And, to note; I know that my Hermione's ancestry does not match the ancestry of the FCs, and that the situation regarding... all that doesn't really work with some of them, but I'm also not really happy with any one of these, particularly. Hermione's always been the one I find hardest to cast, because my thoughts are so specific but not... exactly refined.]

This is my sim of her, which of course matches what's in my head better than any fc ever realistically could. She's also pretty close to the artbreeder, just, you know, better. Because it's not ai generated. (I tend to use artbreeder as a visual aid when creating the base ideas for things, nothing more.)

Her mum and dad, for reference.

And that's the GT, so. Onto the next part! [For those wondering; I will keep hitting the image limit, doing this, so need to move on once I do.]

[kinopioa]

Woah, Issue 62 was out since the 5th? How'd I miss that!?

Alright, lemme tear into it @randomthefox @darklightheart

For recap...

"Even though one villain's relevancy was literally over 10 issues ago, and the other is a char that never was introduced in mainline IDW till now"

Lovely start, and the art this issue by Roth. Admittedly I don't dislike his stuff like current ABT and Evan, but I'm expecting meme faces

For the story...

Ian, not every racing game is continuity tied to main games like Riders. This also laughably makes events in Zombot MORE avoidable if everyone had transforming vehicles that fly outside Tails!

Ian also shows he misunderstands why Knux is on Angel Island. Or that Eggman legit has no interest after Adventure 2

In fairness, this is partially cuz Sonic Team is aware fandom is too tied to the idea of him being a guardian for title, even though the reasoning (Angel Island's landmass is risen from survivors of the Chaos incident, to ensure Chaos trapped in the ME isn't accessed), though said reasoning sadly is limited to Japan guides in noting survivors existing (though in game for the Mystic Ruins shows that survivors did indeed depict Chaos, so fans pls)

Regardless, I'm getting too agitated for a small remark from Amy

As she falls in the pit trap-

Oh, it's just...unstable ground? She wasn't in Marble Garden. Knux's patrols also seem poorly done given the ME is still open. Whatever

Amy shows the statu- hey

Wait wait wait (issue 61)

Also Amy oddly is taking credit for this, but Roth is misreading emotions this scene. Also Knux oddly has 2 cheek creases, but meh

Anyway, he teases her for falling through a hole (why is there one), and deduces that the relic that I doubt will be explained why Eggman has it is from Marble Garden mashed with Mystic Ruins. When the latter is literally on Earth...

I love mislabeled geography

Anyway, we cut to this

So first off, when and how do you guys know each other? A phone call to a secretive merc traitor makes sense if Mimic was bounty hunting or an assassin, even had Starline erase records. He's legit been trying to lay low after Bad Guys

Second, Ian, you established that Clutch also wanted to lie low. Why start a public company (which he definitely did not have in the Chaotix issue 48 story)? And why do one that legit was just doing what the Resistence/Restoration was doing? This is genuinely stupid for both time and competition in business

Like salvaging and recycling in an underground market maybe, or for ulterior reasons like a scrap mecha army, but a public company that cleans up? That's stupid

Alright so bar my rant, Mimic doesn't want to infiltrate the Restoration at first, but then Clutch tells him that the lesbians are there

Because clearly, Mimic can't simply bug off rationally, we apparently need backstab drama

Back to Knux-oh come on! (See last panel)

You really expect people to search for the Free Comic day issue? That's bad planning! Same with relying on alt spinoffs!

Worse, they resolved the issue of the burrowing mechs last year (our time) in said Free Comic Day issue! So that's not even an excuse here

That said, half of this page makes me laugh

At least Ian is partially aware no one gives a cent for Jewel. Which is kinda sad

Part 2 cuz image limits: https://www.tumblr.com/kinopioa/723682040470487040/part-1-continuing-on-so-anyway-we-have-amy?source=share

[utilitycaster]

Ruidus Astronomy

Inspired to do so by this post; making my own post so as to not do weird things to other people's notes should I wish to respond to questions.

What we know from the current episode: Ruidus does not have phases (ie, doesn't wax or wane), and is visible for half the Exandrian year. It also sometimes flashes.

These two things are incompatible if we assume Ruidus's light works the same way as our (Earth's) moon or Catha presumably does, ie, as reflection of sunlight; the flashing is definitely weird. Therefore, we can determine Ruidus's light source is not reflection from the sun:

Visibility for only half the Exandrian year implies one of two possible orbits. One is an orbit slightly off from a true geosynchronous orbit (geosynchronous=in sync with Earth. In this case it would be an orbit that is very close to the length of the Exandrian 24-hour day, but not exactly the same). In that case it would be almost but not quite synced up with the planet's rotation and therefore would appear to move very slowly across the sky over the course of the year, relative to people on the planet. In this case, it is truly not visible to those on the opposite side of the planet, not even during the day. It would only appear to rise and set once per year; basically it makes its way across the sky bit by bit over the course of half the year, and then is not visible from that point for the other half of the year.

Alternately, it could have an orbit that is the same length as the Exandrian calendar year. This means it's technically up there in the sky during the day, since the planet makes a full rotation each day and Ruidus is, with this slow orbit, relatively stationary compared to the rotation of the planet; but it would be only visible at night for about half the year for most latitudes (tbh I do not have it in me to figure out the details about polar latitudes. Also the Nein were in Eiselcross in summer and it still had night so I'm going to say we do not have the required information re: the tilt of Exandria nor the precise latitudes involved).

Episode 2x76 actually already confirmed that the latter case, where Ruidus orbits Exandria once an Exandrian year, is indeed true. Note that during the half of the year when Ruidus is considered not visible, it technically is there in the sky; it's just that it's above during daylight hours. Per the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, page 9, it is "nearly impossible" to see Ruidus during the day.

Also, note that in both cases Ruidus is always visible at night to someone; it's just not always visible at night in a certain part of the planet. Presumably this is how the scholars of Exandria determined the orbital length; someone in eastern Wildemount, for example, would have different dates of visibility for Ruidus than someone on the other side of the world in Issylra, and then they could also try to see Ruidus during the day to verify which scenario was true.

However, in either of these cases, the position of Ruidus relative to the position of Exandria and the sun changes which means that if its light source were the sun, it would appear to wax and wane, albeit at very different rates than Catha.

To not have phases while reflecting the light of the sun, Ruidus would effectively need to be not a satellite of Exandria, but rather a planet with the same length year as Exandria, in an orbit slightly further from the sun. For an illustration of moon phases see the below image, credit Karl Tate/space.com:

As seen, a full moon occurs when the planet is between the sun and the moon. Therefore, for Ruidus to always be full it would need to always be on the outer side of Exandria relative to the sun. However, in that case, it does not orbit Exandria; it orbits the sun (and the 'only visible for half the year' thing falls apart as well).

Therefore, the source of Ruidus's light must be an internal one, such that its relative position has no impact on the light it gives off. The source of the glow and flashing is unknown.

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

It started with a whisper

I originally wrote ‘Like I did with you’ as a one-shot but people wanted a sequel. This turned out to be waaaaay longer than expected (4.7k word count). Inspired by Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. I hope you lot enjoy!

Ao3

(Also this is Mari’s new outfit, all credits go to the original artist)

————

Two teens stood upon the balcony of a large banquet hall, exposed to the midsummer night air. The sky was a lilac blanket that hung over the Parisian buildings, speckled with glowing stars. The moon, with it’s crescent smile, beamed down of the young couple.

Hey, baby, won't you look my way?

Marinette’s eyes were closed as she rested her head upon his shoulder, relaxing after the night’s rapid escalation. Tonight she had arrived at the ball with the intent to be there for her friends, but somehow she found herself within the arms of Gotham’s (and probably Paris’) Ice Prince. She had overheard his nickname from the Gotham students, one of which being Jon, who was in the middle of mocking the young Wayne. She had never considered that nickname as suitable; sure he was temperamental & had a tendency to snap, but icey to the core? No.

I can be your new addiction

Damian was calm. For the first time in his life he felt like he could take a breath. His exhale was carried off by a small gust of wind, the bush over hanging the stone railing rustled. With his inhale, the scent of Marinette’s perfume became present once more. Mixed with the crisp night’s air, her usual scent of pastries was mixed with what could only be described as ambrosia. His phone vibrated within his pocket, it was never on volume due to the potential risk it caused during his heroic activities.

“Shit.” Notifications covered his screen, multiple tweets, Instagrams and Tiktoks in which he had been tagged in. But the alert came from his family’s private messaging chat. The whole thread was a shit storm, Grayson and Todd’s messages were completely capitalised (he learnt years ago this meant ‘to yell’ in writing form) and both had multiple ‘keyboard spasms’. Drake, like the thorough detective he is, had combed through the images and videos, investigating their validity. His honorary sisters had replied with ‘awwwww’(s) and ‘Omg we MUST meet this girl! I need to know how she tamed the demon!’. He could practically hear Brown’s shrill voice from across the ocean.

Hey, baby, what you gotta say?

No reply from his father or Alfred. The two of them were the only semblance of ‘normal’ paternal figures he had within his life, after the sham of a relationship he had previously held with his grandfather. Their silence unnerved him.

Marinette had noticed his attention had shifted to his phone, her own mobile was buzzing away within her baby pink purse. Messages, notifications of account tagging and comments galore. A sigh left her lips when she saw her parents seemed to be none the wiser. Good, she didn’t need to deal with future adoration for ‘The boy who swept our daughter off of her feet’ (or something along those lines).

Her cheeks regained some of the warmth they held before as she thought of her parent’s reaction. Scrolling through her Twitter she saw her friends had posted multiple images of the night’s events, majority being her shared dance.

Chloé Bourgeois @TheBestBourgeois

what kind of Disney shit is this? (Insert video of two teens dancing around an mostly empty dance floor.)

Alix Kubdel @Sk8trGirl

Replying to @TheBestBourgeois

I KNOW RIGHT?! THEY WERE FUCKING FLOATING!!!

All you're giving me is fiction

She was thankful that they hadn’t tagged her but she hadn’t been spared by others in attendance. Her post thread had blown up, thousands had commented and even more had viewed the evidence. There was no way she would come out of this unscathed.

“Has anyone been on Twitter today?” The blonde of the family asked as she walked into the dining room. Her eyes focused on her scrolling screen, brows furrowed in confusion. “Actually has anyone seen what’s happening on any of our socials?”

It was early in the afternoon and the family had recently returned home after a straining stakeout. The Joker had broken out of Arkham and the Batfam had to deal with his minions. Dick’s arm was in a sling (sprained from a grapple gone wrong), Jason was icing his hand, Alfred was stitching Bruce’s chest wounds while Tim and the girls escaped without severe injuries. All were still recuperating and finally able to recharge.

Alfred always enforced a strict ‘no devices at the dinner table’ rule; no matter how urgent it was, it could wait until after sustenance was consumed. Tim strongly opposed this, but there was no arguing with Agent A. This all surmises that probably no one had seen the crap storm on social media.

I'm a sorry sucker and this happens all the time

Bruce sighed, bringing his free arm up to rub his eyes. Tilting his head back to look at Steph, “Who was it this time?” Barbara quickly took out her phone to see what Stephanie was talking about, all the while glancing accusingly at Dick and Jason. Both of whom held up their arms (or in Dick’s case arm), declaring their innocence.

“It wasn’t fucking me!”

“Jason! Language!” Dick shot a glare at Jason and was met with one in return. “It wasn’t me either.”

“Then who-“ Bruce started before being cut off by his most rambunctious daughter.

I found out that everybody talks

Stephanie with a squeal, exclaimed that it was Damian. Visions of what the Wayne brat could have done flashed through the heads of everyone in the room. He had been sent overseas before the quarantines and lockdowns hit. During Damian’s first month in France he had been forced into online schooling and then finally when he got to go to in-person classes he hated it. Described the class as a kindergarten with petty and vindictive toddlers.

Had he broken someone’s arm? Was that person of such importance that it had spread over multiple social media platforms? France’s government had announced on June 15th, that teens were now being inoculated so him having COVID-19 was doubtful. Had he insulted the wrong person? Had he taken over the government? He certainly had the potential.

Everybody talks, everybody talks

What they saw stunned them, even Steph as she watched it for the 7th time. Damian Wayne was dancing. But not only that, he was dancing with a girl.

It started with a whisper

“What is this shit?”

No one verbally objected to Jason’s outburst but he was sent a harsh glare from Alfred, Dick and Bruce. Their focus soon returned to the images and videos before them. Babs’ and Steph’s phones were returned to them as the others ran to grab their own devices. They all met back at the table, comparing the posts and comparing their notes.

I can hear the chitchat

“There’s no way this can be real.”

“Jesus Tim,” Barbara rolls her eyes, “have you seen the amount of posts there are? You’d be an idiot to think otherwise.”

Take me to your love shack

“I’m with Tim, how do we know this isn’t some skit. I mean, Demon Spawn almost looks normal. That’s a matter of concern.” He almost dry heaved when he agreed with Tim. Damian couldn’t be capable of naturally exuding that amount of humanity unless there was something in it for him.

Mamas always gotta backtrack

“I was just saying Babs, that we should check the credibility of these images. For all we know they could be gorilla glued together and trying to get unstuck.” Tim cringed at his own reasoning, he really needed to either sleep (probably not going to happen anytime soon) or find his favourite coffee brand (which had been one of the first to vanish after the covid hoarders appeared).

When everybody talks back

Dick was too busy freaking out and spam messaging the youngest Wayne, to defend Damian’s humanity. The family saw this and followed suit, wanting to get information from the source.

Chat name: Alfred supremacy

BigBird: AHHHHHH DAMIAN!

BigBird: YOU LOOK SO CUTE!!!

BigBird: HAIFJDNDNFI

LittleWing: WTF HAPPENED DEMON SPAWN YOU LOOK ALMOST HUMAN

Babs: who knew the city of love would influence the brat

Blondie: they are so cuteeeeeee!

Blondie: We HAVE to meet her!

Silent-but-deadly: agreed.

Timbo: YO DEMON

Timbo: Apparently the videos are legit

Timbo: are you being blackmailed?

And it just devolved into more chaos from there, fueled by the fact that they saw Damian’s ‘Blood Son’ account appear online before vanishing once more. Dick shrieked, “I FOUND HER ACCOUNT!”

The family gathered around the eldest son, peering over his shoulder to view his iPhone 12max screen. They saw a young girl’s Instagram account. It was locked but they could see her profile pic, the girl had black hair and looked to be if Asian decent. They compared it to the videos but it was hard to see due to the hall’s lighting and the minimised facial features of the pfp. Alfred suggested that they search up her username and see who has tagged her, some might have other photos of her.

After research for awhile, the family began to get frustrated with lack of results.

Hey honey you could be my drug

You could be my new prescription

“Come on!” Jason complained, “What kind of teenage girl doesn’t post her life online?” He ignored the girls glares and went back to researching. How had the account by the name of ‘mariiiiinette’ to managed to prevent the entire Wayne clan from accessing it? Damn Instagram privacy settings. He groaned, dragging a hand down his face, “We are fucking stupid. Why don’t we just use the Bat-computer? It would be so much fucking easier.”

“It shouldn’t be used for civilian issues-“

Too much could be an overdose

“The girl could be a meta for all we know! We aren’t safe until we know who she is.” Jason points a finger at Tim, his paranoia flared up and even though he would never admit it, Jason would do anything to protect each member of his family (although Bruce is still debatable).

All this trash talk make me itching

Barbara and Tim took their usual positions as Oracle and Red Robin (who had been banned from patrol due to lack of sleep). The rest of the Batfam stood behind them either with arms crossed or still failing at researching.

Oh my my shit

“The account is owned by a girl called Marinette Dupian-Cheng. She is French-Chinese and her parents own a popular bakery. Also if it wasn’t already obvious, she goes to Collège Françoise Dupont, aka Damian’s French school.” Tim begun informing his nosy family, “But this account has been inactive for the past 6 months, which is strange due to her frequent posting schedule before hand. It seems she probably has a second account and this is her old one.”

Everybody talks, everybody talks

“Not only that,” Barbara interrupted. “There are unopened messages from other accounts that accuse her of being a bully. There is a whole Facebook page about this girl and how she has been hurting her old friends, but neither side seems reliable. The so called victims seem to be twisting the truth but there is barely any information about Marinette so we can’t disprove it either.”

“Read out some of the messages.” Bruce took a cup of coffee from Alfred and sipped it.

The main screen of the bat computer displayed a Facebook group with the banner picture being a photo of Marinette. “They are mostly complaints expected of teen girls when there is a girl they don’t like; ‘Marinette is such a know-it-all’, ‘She is constantly insulting Lila’s intelligence’. They go on to talk about how Marinette was briefly expelled from the Collège before being reinstated by the principle for a reason unknown to them.”

Everybody talks too much

“Her school reports up until this year were good. The newest one states, ‘While Marinette is a wonderful and bright student, I encourage her to settle her disagreements outside of class. This seems to only be a recent occurrence and I implore her to go to the guidance council if she is in need of help.’” A beat of silence echoes through the cave, Tim sighed. “Jason’s meta theory could be correct. She could have just recently started exhibiting her abilities and using them to get what she wants.”

“Bruce what do you want to do?”

“We’re going to Paris.”

She opened her eyes to the blaring morning light that streamed through the blinds. Her lashes still painted with mascara that refused to leave. She felt a pang of sorrow when she was removing her makeup and dress last night, she never wanted the night to end. She shuffled down the stairs to the kitchen, covering her mouth when she yawned. She greeted her mother as she entered the kitchen to get breakfast.

She glanced at her phone and there was the chaos that was started hours ago and it was still occurring. It was the weekend, she wouldn’t need to deal with her classmates until Monday. But she would still have to survive her parent’s interrogation. Out of the corner of her eye she caught her mother smirking at her.

Everybody talks

“Nadja told me some interesting news about last night.” Marinette held her breath, glaring at the toaster, willing it to hurry up so she could escape. “Well,” Sabine patted her shoulder before rubbing Mari’s back. “I know you didn’t want to go but I hope you had fun.”

With that she exited the kitchen, probably going to help her father in the bakery. The ravenette stared after her, eye widened in shock, jumping when the toaster went off. Buttering her toast she went over the conversation, her brows furrowed in confusion. She had expected a ‘When do I get to meet the oh so famous prince?’ or ‘Should I be expecting a new guest sometime in the near future?’ or at least a ‘Who was that young man, Bǎozàng (宝藏 it means treasure)?’ But she said nothing.

A small smile was plastered upon her face as she changed and went down to help her parents in the bakery. Her father didn’t say anything either, he gave her a knowing smile before continuing to kneed the dough. She sat at the the store front as the cashier whilst her parents were busy making ‘Paris’s Finest Pastries’.

Her musings slowly faded as she was brought back to reality by badly hushed whispers. Two young preteens were by the bread roll casing near the door. She had seen them come in before with their parents, the girls went to the prestigious international school over in the 16th arrondissement. The one with purple hair kept whispering to the brunette, both ‘subtly’ glancing towards her. Using her enhanced hearing she listened in on their conversation.

“That’s her, I swear that’s her in the video.”

The blonde’s face soured likes she sucked on a lemon. “No, it wasn’t good lighting there is no way he would dance with someone like her.”

Everybody talks

Marinette had tough skin but their words had an impact, only a small one due to her defence mechanism of repressing emotions. She stopped listening and went back to drawing in her sketchpad, she was in desperate need of a new school outfit.

The two girls eventually came up to the counter, goods in hand. Marinette rung up and bagged their items (paper because save the turtles sksksk) in a tired daze. A phone was shoved into her face, her eyes barely adjusted to view the screen before the blonde spoke.

“Is this your instagram?” She asked in a tone so snobbish that it should be illegal from a person her age. Marinette finally was able to view the screen that was barely an inch from her face. Her old Instagram ‘mariiiiinette’ was displayed on screen, she hesitantly nodded, gaze flicking back to the two in front of her.

The blonde’s nose scrunched up and the purple goth girl squealed in delight. They soon after left the store, their conversation had devolved into ‘See! I told you’ and ‘Yeah, yeah. You were right.’

Walking to school on Monday, she had finally come down from cloud nine. She still rode the tail end of her high as she rushed along her path to her campus, she wasn’t going to be late but she sure wasn’t going to be early. She had spent the better part of the weekend designing and sewing a brand new outfit. Her new look was composed of a black cropped singlet (L'amour gagne hemmed into it and it’s straps), paired matching peach plaid cropped overshirt and a-line miniskirt. Her hair was down, ballet flats were worn and her makeup was the usual with the added edition of a rose gold eyeshadow.

Even though her face was covered in a black and gold mask, she looked hot.

She reached the campus and the whispers started again, people were still buzzing from Friday night. Her classmates, the majority of her grade and the younger years seemed to gossiping before class about the formal’s events. She couldn’t spot any of her friends or the two Gotham transfers, so she was stuck listening the the chitchat. Why couldn’t she have been late like usual?

Damian had a fowl disposition and it showed in multiple icey glares (and that was before he even reached the collège). His family had made their appearance known in Paris at 1am Sunday morning. He could have used his dorm to escape but his family didn’t have the word ‘privacy’ within their vocabulary. He didn’t want to have to pay for a lock replacement due to his brothers’ (most likely Todd with Drake & Grayson laughing at him) lock picking habit.

The Ice Prince was back with full force. He had just been... influenced by all the other couples. Yes he did respect Dupain-Cheng and he appreciated her company & pleasant conversations. He would struggle to hide a small smile at the memory of the dance, even if he denied himself the happiness of normality, he felt content when reminiscing.

“Ooo the Ice Prince is here, did he have a fight with his princess or something?” The voice seemed to mock him.

“The Disney Magic is gone. The demon is back.”

Everybody talks

At the second jeer he shot a glare at the perpetrator. Jon held his hands up in an ‘I surrender manner’, laughing as he joined Damian at his side. The two entered the school’s large foyer and looked to see if any of the classes were open yet. Sadly they weren’t, before he was wrong and the his class was plain torture but this was truely hell.

He saw Dupain-Cheng sitting alone on the stairs, drawing within her sketchpad. He wondered how a girl like her, who always seemed to be involved in other’s lives (for the better) was ignoring all of the comments about her. She felt his focus centre on her, eyes flicking up to meet his, she provided him with a small wave before continuing to draw.

Jon nudged him with an elbow to his ribs and dragged him off to the side, into the boy’s locker rooms. Jon scowled at the door, “It’s a mad house out there. You’ve heard what some people are saying right?”

“Why would I care about these imbeciles?”

Jon jabbed Damian in the chest, causing the demon to stumble. Green eyes darted from blue eyes to the tan finger. “You care when lies hurt people you care about.”

The day began to rapidly decline once the two dance partners took their seats, next to each other. They had both been placed up the back of the class and them sitting together hadn’t been a problem until now apparently. She wasn’t even safe when the teacher started their lecture, whispers and glances were cast towards them. Once the two got to biology it was better, Ms Mendeleiev was a strict teacher and was able to control the class.

Everybody talks

But the recess came. When the bell rang she slowly started packing up her equipment, Alix and Max (who she shared biology with) waited for her; she watched as the Ice Prince left through the door. She knew she didn’t need to be concerned about her friends joining in with the gossiping, if anything they would dispel people and tell them to ‘Mind their own fucking business’ because this whole situations is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

She did receive some slight teasing from Alix about being a Disney princess, but Marinette quipped back about the skater’s fairytale story being ‘Pinknette, the Geek and the Beast’. The three met up with the other two of their group, they had just come from geography. Kim was complaining that Argentina was a state in America.

“That’s Arkansas you idiot!” Chloe shrieked, lightly hitting his arm with her white handbag. Max held his head in his hand as he approached, how had his tutoring sessions failed so badly?

Chloe turned to Marinette, a smile forming from her glare. The blonde examined the designer’s clothing, nodding. “You look like you are about to have a hot girl summer.”

Marinette’s face burned, the tips of her ears coated in red. Alix chuckled and nudged her shoulder.

Everybody talks

“Look at her, she is so desperate for his attention that she probably copied those designs.”

“Why do you think he danced with her anyways? Maybe she has something on him? I mean, she forces him to sit next to her in class, who knows what else she has done.”

What. The. Fuck.

Chloe glowered towards Lila’s posy. “We have a fucking seating plan, those cretins-“ She made a motion to storm over but was caught by the ravenette, looking back to Mari, her rage decreased from a boil to a simmer.

“No Chlo. It’s fine, it’s not worth it.”

Everybody talks... back

The group walked out to the school’s front steps, it was a mad house... a mad courtyard? Students sitting on the stairs, on the grass and standing around mingling, all of them now were staring at her. She held her backpack close to her chest (she had swapped her signature coin-bag purse for the pastel pink bag), pretending its a shield. Her friends circled around her becoming an obstacle to prevent their stares. If people were afraid of a scowling Kim then they don’t know the scorn of Chloe or Alix’s bite. And Max, sweet quiet Max.... you better hope he doesn’t have blackmail on you (he probably does), he can dismantle your life with a single anonymous post.

Rushed footsteps approached them. The group was broken apart by a rude Wayne boy, he swept Mari away from the school and the gossip crowds within. Her four friends shouted at him and he kept walking, shooting a glare at them in response. He kept pushing Marinette forward with a hand placed on the small of her back, her backpack was now swung over his other shoulder.

They ended up in her favourite alcove. She had brought him here with the other Gotham transfers for a native’s tour of Paris. It had always been her safe place to be creative.

It started with a whisper (everybody talks, everybody talks)

“My apologises for our rushed departure but you seemed to want to get out of their anyhow.” His gruff tone danced through the silence, his head still peaking around the corner; watching for any unwelcome guests.

“Thank you.” She whispered, her voice almost being carried off by the gentle wind. A genuine smile illustrated upon her face.

“We weren’t able to converse after the events of the other night. I would like to formally apologise once more for my actions causing this adverse reaction. If I had kn-“

“You don’t need to apologise!” She squeaked, hiding her eyes behind her fisted hand. Her shoulders curled inwards as she tried to make herself seem as small as possible, a side effect of her common use of her secondary miraculous form: Multimouse.

“I chose to dance with you, you don’t need to apologise for my own actions.” He stared at her with confusion. He had taken the blame so she wouldn’t need to do so herself; but she had taken it anyways. He had given her an out. Why does she always take the blame, even for things out of her control?

“But if I hadn’t danced with you then you wouldn’t have been the focus of the entire school.”

Marinette stepped forward, her eyes hardened and blazing. “Damian Friday night I went there out of obligation to my friends, I didn’t want to be there. But dancing with you? That was the highlight of my week, probably my month too. I enjoyed our time together.” Her face softened, lips twitched downwards ever so slightly. “I don’t regret anything about that night, but do you?”

He was bad at comfort. Everyone in his family avoided him when they were in need, he plainly didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t visibly upset but he sensed that she is disappointed that he apparently didn’t share the same opinion of the night. The only thing he regretted about that night was letting Jon call him a coward, but then again if he didn’t he never would have danced with Dupa- Marinette.

He picked up her clenched hand, the tension in her body alleviated at his embrace. He remembered how Grayson would apologise to Kor’i or how his father interacted with Ms Kyle. He brought their hands up and placed a kiss upon her knuckles.

And that was when I kissed her (everybody talks, everybody talks)

“I do not regret anything either—“ he cleared his throat, “In fact, I’d appreciate if we would be able to interact more, especially outside of that cesspit.”

Was he...?

It didn’t matter.

She smiled the same dazzling smile she gave him at the dance. She nodded while laughing, “I’d love that.”

Everybody talks

The two stay talking, hidden within their secret alcove for the rest of the day. She texted her parents to say she was with a friend and would be back later that night. Damian didn’t bother texting his family, Marinette knew he had to be back soon due to his dorm’s curfew.

The sun was setting at they walked back together, he did the gentlemanly thing and dropped her off at her bakery door. She could see her mother behind the register inconspicuously looking over at the two of them. Damian’s lips quirked upwards, she was satisfied with his kinda-smile.

He walked back, hands in pockets and a neutral expression upon his face instead of a scowl. He reached his door and took his keys, he found that it was already open. Damn.

His family was splayed out within his two roomed dorm. Todd and Drake were fighting over a place to sit on his bed, whilst his father sat at his desk, watching the commotion. The three of them turned to him as he enter the room, they were the only family members able to attend on short notice; Cain had a ballet audition, Gordon & Brown had concert tickets for tomorrow, Grayson had to take care of Mar’i while Kor’i was on Tamaran and Alfred stayed to ensure no one died during their night time activities.

“We need to talk Damian.” His father stood, leaning onto the desk chair. “The school called and said you had an unexcused absence for half the day. Where were you Damian?”

Damian stared into his father’s eyes. He was fifteen, almost an adult, but was treated like he was ten again.

“I was with a friend.”

“Probably the girl from the dance. Marinette, right?” Todd mocked him. Damian snapped his head in the direction of his bed, glaring at both his brothers.

“That’s what I want to talk about with you Damian. Now I don’t know her personally but from what we’ve discovered through our investigation we have some concerns. What’s happened Damian?”

The youngest Wayne’s glare shifted off of his brothers to the floor, and then finally to his father; his family sitting in wait for his answer. Straightening his posture, his shoulders clicked as he rolled then back. His statement’s tone was sure and steady, “Everybody talks father.”

Everybody talks... back

[book-o-scams]

Ed, Edd n Eddy Series Bible (1996) -Analysis-

You can all finally read/download Ed, Edd n Eddy's official Series Bible right here! Thanks again to Chuckletons for sharing this with me and to Joey/Kongiscool0518 for sharing it in the first place, the Holy Grail of lost Ed, Edd n Eddy trivia!

One of the first posts I made for this blog was the Series Bible page. It was a composite of every source we had ever seen reference the series bible so far-- storyboarders in interviews, CN's old character guides, and the biggest source, an old CN UK posting about the show. Well, I figure now that we have the official source, I better update the old page (so everyone knows it's out of date), and make this new Series Bible post using the official source! Not much new information, but I was intrigued to finally learn the true phrasings of some things we had only heard paraphrased, as well as at least one detail from the movie that I couldn't believe came up this early in conception...

Unfortunately, Tumblr has apparently updated its post system to only let me add 10 images? Gonna try and only use images for what I need since you can read the actual document above, I guess I'll transcribe it too for easier reference and so we don't ever lose some archive of this.

Quickly, let's review what a series bible is:

A series bible is how creators pitch shows to networks. They can be called “pitch bibles” as well. Bibles do not usually get posted publicly, because they are initially under a strict Non-Disclosure Agreement by the network; also the creator may simply not wish to share it because it reflects the earliest stages of development.

The pitch materials typically include early concepts for characters, locations and episodes. Sometimes it exposes secrets, in this case, Ed and Eddy’s home lives, and sometimes the stuff in it is completely abandoned because it’s so early in production, in this case, casual references to school and adults.

Alright, everybody, it's time to gather 'round and read the Ed, Edd n Eddy Bible!

THE YEAR IS 1996.

YOUR NAME IS LINDA SIMENSKY. YOU WORK AT CARTOON NETWORK. A FRIEND OF YOURS, DANNY ANTONUCCI, IS WRAPPING UP A SHOW ON MTV. YOU GET THIS FAX.

Linda Simensky immediately fell in love with this concept because as a child, she was best friends with 2 other Lindas for seemingly no reason other than the shared name.

I love how Danny decided last second to pencil in the correct names over each Ed, since they're arranged out of title-order.

"They're friends because they have the same name."

-the Logline for the series.

Fun fact: one storyboard artist for the movie observed that the movie is essentially all about challenging the series' original notion that the Eds are friends ONLY because of their name.

"A Danny Antonucci Cartuna"

-the label Danny used to use under announcements of new productions.

PAGE 1:

Ed, Edd n Eddy

They're best friends because they have the same name.

A gag laden, beat generated CARTOON bumper car ride of 3 misfit youths on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America.

Through summer vacation, part-time jobs, or just hang'n out at the corner mail box, they want to belong....but CAN'T.

From home chores, helping neighbors or eating jaw breakers, they want to fit in...but CAN'T.

Ed is into "B" monster movies, model kits and is quick to break out into rashes.

Lots of luck...

Edd is into chemistry, biology and prone to crushes.

Later...

Eddy is into pranks, is stylish and flaunts himself to the world.

Ya Right...

Ed, Edd n Eddy is a show about confusion and contradiction, that awkward part of youth, pimples, big feet, oily hair and... girls???.

Puberty is unforgiving.

I was fascinated by the lack of art on this page, it makes the pitch feel very focused. AKA logo in the corner, the title logo again up top, then the logline appears again below.

I really love the breakdown of Danny's vision of the show. "Gag-laden, beat-generated, CARTOON bumper ride." Very accurate, and I think "beat-generated" is the phrase that interests me the most. I typically think of "animation beats" as sort of a give-in-- technically all things fit a rhythm, so all stories are essentially just a montage of beats. But this does make me realize how important the strength of the beats and their rhythm are to the pacing of a cartoon and making you feel like "that was a good one." I feel like the "seasonal rot" viewers feel over the course of a show, and the way that perception differs from person to person, depends on the type of beats you want. Even though I am very into the experimental beats of a show in its later seasons, I can definitely see how season 1's beats are more typically appealing to a wide-audience, and how important a focus on that is to the longevity of a show.

I found it really interesting how the scams are initially conceived of here as "summer jobs." It adds to the sense that adults were originally meant to be present. Honestly a little surprised nobody with access to this bible had ever thought to mention that-- scams are not referenced ANYWHERE. Their image in the Series Bible is that they have summer jobs and help neighbors, which is certainly a much cleaner reputation than the Eds ended up with in the show. Makes me realize though, were some of the early scams, like Ed's Hive Bee Gone and their newspaper routes, supposed to be leaning into this early idea of them with almost legit jobs for unseen adults?

I was very amused by the repeated phrase that the Eds simply CAN'T fit in.

Loved to finally see the official phrasing for the confirmation that Peach Creek is in America. Not much different than I was led to believe, but still nice to have the true quote.

Also love Eddy being described as "stylish and flaunting himself to the world." The bold-print reactions to each micro-description is a cute idea too, I truly wonder who we were meant to picture saying those things in reaction. Each Ed? Kevin?

The "corner mail box" is an oddly specific phrase-- the Eds do hang around mailboxes throughout the series, especially seasons 1-3, and I believe the canon map does have a corner mailbox, but the idea that the Eds hang out at one specific mailbox went the way of Bro's supposed secret treehouses.

PAGE 2:

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Show Description

Gag laden. True cartoon style, inventive, non parody, fast paced, stretch and squash

Beat driven. (even when characters stop they hold with a bounce cycle. Adults never bounce. Music can play important part, not just fill.) But not a musical.

Cartoon surrealism. (viewers see the show as Ed, Edd n Eddy would, less important things tend to blend into the background, while objects of Ed, Edd n Eddy's desires are focused. Premise driven.)

The school year's over, (yeah!!!!) and the long HOT summer vacation begins (gulp). What to do?

Stuck on a cul-de-sac in the suburbs of America is the last place you want to spend summer break, especially when you find life confusing and contradicting.

Ed, Edd n Eddy is about friendship, and serves to remind us that they're no "good ole days," just smelly runners.

You can tackle anything, when your with your pals.

Their days are spent, for knowledge, acceptance and some cash for jaw breakers. Armed with pimples, big feet and oily hair the three amigos trek into the unknown.

Ed, Edd n Eddy are dying to be grown-ups, but they're kids, and attack adulthood as only kids would. Simple situations turn into a manic rollercoaster ride. (Don't forget your barf bag).

They just want to belong, and they're willing to pull off any insane stunt to prove it. First they need to figure out what it is they want to belong to.

Found it interesting that on this page, the show's logo is replaced with the title written in a jumbled font. Seems like the font from the show's end credits.

Hehe, the continued reactions to the descriptions. Allow me to be Double D for a moment and point out the increased use of parentheticals on this page, as well as one wrong "your".

I love Danny's insight that season 1 is framed by the context of how hyped everyone still is just to be out of school, but also the sense of pressure to make use of their break.

I really appreciate Danny getting further into the details of his summary of the show's style on the previous page. It only makes sense that he had this much of a vision that early.

A second confirmation of the cul-de-sac being in America! I'm also really into the repeated focus on the Eds finding the world "contradicting." I always loved how EEnE's inexplicable cartoon antics supported that sense that the Eds are highly aware of contradictions in both societal things and the actual characters.

WOW, so I'm fascinated by this dual reveal. Before the wiggling outlines, which Danny usually calls a "boiling line" and describes as a tribute to wiggling inking in early animation, the series bible instead refers to him wanting the characters to do the iconic Fleischer "bounce," which is a much more commonly recognized rubberhose animation technique. Very interesting that Danny decided not to stick to that. Did it feel too out of place? Or was the overseas team not willing to animate a weight-shifting for every single held pose? Haha, guess I can see why boiling was an easier compromise. I wonder if he had any other ideas for how to make it more of a 1930s cartoon.

The other reveal to me here is that the movie's choice, that adults don't always wiggle in the show, was an idea from the very beginning! I guess I can better understand now why it's just too difficult to communicate a stylistic choice like that overseas-- no point making Bro not wiggle, that'd just create confusion.

Also, really disappointed that my wish for a musical is officially squashed in the series bible itself. That's a tragedy. The show's over, ya couldn't let me dream, Danny!? Conversely, I love Danny's forethought to say "non parody," I definitely noticed and appreciated EEnE's avoidance of derivative parody humor.

My spouse had to point out to me that Danny probably means sneakers here, lol. Canadianisms!

The comments about the Eds wanting to grow up but needing to figure out what they want to belong to are so great and relate to the movie so well. I've heard those comments before, but the correct phrasing was cool to see.

PAGE 3:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Ed in right corner)

Character Description

Ed

Attention deficiency syndrome.

He has trouble...

He can't....um...

OK, he draws all day in class.

When Eddy gets a bright idea...Ed's in.

Ed is easily talked into doing Eddy's "hard work". He has great physical strength.

Ed's happiest with his Model kits and B-monster movies. He draws his knowledge from his movies.

Ed smells. Flies are attracted to him.

Ed has sayings for all situations

ED: "you can change your shirt, and Bingo was his name..."

Ed's perpetually a slave to his younger sister's whims and whines.

Ed may have to baby-sit his sister, or let her watch whatever she wants on TV, or let her dress him up in mom's clothes.

Ed breaks out in Rashes. He's allergic to practically everything, especially Guinea Pigs.

Ed's Mom xerox's his sketches and doodles for her therapist.

Ed's Dad hopes to pass on to his son, his knowledge on "pre-owned" auto sales.

Very cute bit wasting the space at the top of the page. Danny seems very invested in Ed's personality already. The old sources we used to have definitely tried to condense these down to simpler blurbs.

Weird how Danny wants to essentially diagnose Ed with ADHD here (phrasing it very poorly, but it was the 90s and... Canada?). I don't know enough on the subject to debate it, but I still gotta point out Ed's canonical cracked skull!

Interested in the comment about Ed being most allergic to Guinea Pigs. I don't think that animal was ever even mentioned in the show. Eddy mentioned an old gerbil once....

Neat to finally have the real phrasing of the official word on Ed's parents! I saw someone comment earlier that this seems to be hinting Ed's Dad is selling stolen cars. I've never thought to question the legality of his apparent second-hand-car dealership (I imagined he works with Eddy's dad, who has received a legitimate award for his salesmanship), but those quotation marks are certainly making Mr. Ed's practices questionable! Best case scenario, Danny meant that more like italics or something, but maybe Ed's dad IS up to no good...

PAGES 4 & 5 (Ed's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGE 6:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Edd in right corner)

Character Description

Edd

is really smart.

is really quiet.

Edd is unnaturally-- polite.

Edd hasn't been allowed to take gym ever since the Dodge ball incident. He's been excused to free study time in the library.

Edd doesn't like it when people touch his things.

EDD: "You may enter in my room, but don't touch my Lego robot. Thank you."

Edd's learning to play Peddle steel guitar. (his Mom makes him)

Edd's prone to "crushes". Girls in School, in his neighborhood, TV, anatomy books. He mails "true loves" his socks.

Edd is always ready for action, even though he can calculate the implications.

Edd constantly mumbles.

No one ever sees Edd's parents. They both work nights. They communicate to their son solely through Post-it notes. Edd's not allowed to touch anything in the house while they're gone. Anything.

Interesting how Danny slightly differentiates the barely-used space at the top here from Ed's description, to characterize Edd as more quiet and mumbly, adding an awkward "--" mid-sentence, perhaps to create the impression that Edd halts to choose words carefully.

Everything on this page feels familiar, from the character guides and other old sources. The most interesting thing to me here is that Edd's Mom forcing him to practice Pedal Steel Guitar is established this early, don't think I knew that, but I had noticed that it existed in his room from ep 1.

I love how the explanation in the beginning for why Edd goes along with their dumb schemes even though he's smart is basically just "he's always ready for action." ?!? I guess in a way???

That weirdly phrased Edd quote amuses me because it references Lego, just like the original concept background for his room before somebody nixed the copyright-namedrop.

Edd's prone to crushes thing has been reaffirmed over and over in character bios even though it really doesn't come up outside of the cupid magic in HPH and the pilot-episode heart eyes at Sarah that are barely canon. Still, I've always loved the truly disturbing statement that he mails "his true loves his socks" and how that managed to make it into canon with a comic book example, a cel animation example and a digital era example.

PAGES 7 & 8 (Edd's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGE 9:

Ed, Edd n Eddy (image of Eddy in right corner)

Character Description

Eddy

Exhibitionist.

Megalomaniac. (quote from his report card)

Eddy is the unofficial leader of the trio.

He's always got a plan, a stunt or a weird noise.

Eddy's the "class clown". He loves showing off. He loves being the centre of attention-- no matter how stupid the reason is.

Eddy is the only kid in his grade to have been expelled for aw hole week from school. It was his turn to set up the video for science class. He switched "Our Friend Yeast", for a video he "borrowed" from his parent's room.

Before Eddy's brother went....away, he enlightened Eddy with the "legends" of the neighbourhood. Eddy knows where all the abandoned tree houses are, which sewer pipers are safe to spelunk, and the secret recipe for the "El Mongo Stink Bomb" (it's been in the family for years).

He is the one who is most able to pretend that he knows it all... and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about him.

His genes are working the fastest.

Eddy's Dad is constantly concerned that Eddy may grow up to be a ...figure skater.

Eddy's Mom never believes his little darling was involved in such a heinous act.

Funny choice that Eddy's wasted-top-space is just two one-word descriptions, and allegedly lazily swiped from his negative report card.

Wow, we knew the report card quote and the "Our Friend Yeast" story from the UK show guide, but now we also know Ed's page says that Ed draws in class, and now I realize that Ed and Eddy have series bible school blurbs to match Edd's classic dodgeball incident blurb. Anyway, it's great that Eddy's showed his entire school some sort of sex video his parents have.

Very interested that the phrasing for the Bro/El Mongo Stink Bomb blurb even seems to suggest it's a family recipe. Eddy's Dad did have prankster stuff in his closet in JJJ... did Bro learn his prankster ways from Dad?? The neighborhood's secret tree houses have come up in other descriptions (at best, I'd say this could be related to that creepy shack the Eds found in the woods), but I think it's new info that Eddy personally learned the sewer routes from Bro. Interesting...

Thankfully, I had already heard about the Bible's awkward reference to Eddy being the most pubescent as "his genes are working the fastest," lmao.

Once again the Double D in me comes out to point out that the description of Eddy's Mom seems to switch to the Dad's pronouns.

PAGES 10 & 11 (Eddy's turn sheet and expression sheet)

PAGES 12-14 (Sarah, Jimmy, Rolf, Jonny, Nazz, and Kevin lineup of all 6, then 2 zoomed in lineups of the first 3 kids and last 3 kids)

(Funfact: the kids' designs were allegedly freelanced to an outside studio, hence why their refined later-season designs are so different from these lizardy starting places, lmao)

PAGE 15: (images of Sarah and Jimmy next to their blurbs)

SARAH

Ed's baby Sister.

It's her way or the Highway.

She has everything done for her, if NOT she'll "make" them do it.

She can be quick to judge.

Whinney.

A tatrum for every occasion.

More than a handful for Ed...or Edd and Eddy.

Thinks Edd is kinda cute.

Wants Eddy to MOVE...to another planet.

JIMMY

Sarah's best friend

He is always playing with girls, boys are just too tough.

He is accident prone, when ever we see him he has a different affliction, ie: band-aids, patches, casts, lumps...etc.

He is very clean.

The Ed's frighten him, "They're such brutes".

I'm surprised how much of the UK guide was accurate to what was really in the bible for them! Also surprised Danny misspelled "whiney" and "tantrum," one right after the other. Is this how Sarah spells them? ...Sorry, Danny, I yam what I yam.

PAGE 16: (images of Rolf and Jonny next to their blurbs)

ROLF

First generation of a landed immigrant family.

Nationality not important.

He's proud of his heritage.

He has peculiar traditions and/or customs.

He eats "weird" things.

He has hair on his back..... "yuck".

He confuses the Ed's to no end.

He confuses the other kids to no end.

JONNY 2x4

He is a wanderer and very inquisitive

From early morning to supper time, he is always outside playing, with his buddy, "Plank".

"Plank" is a wooden board that Jonny drew a face on with a crayon.

Jonny has wonderful conversations with Plank. ...Plank is a piece of wood.

Jonny makes himself very "accessible" to the Ed's.

Found it interesting that Rolf's bio is less clearly phrased than the UK bio set it up to be-- there they made it sound more like he mixes up who the Eds/kids are, here it's unclear whether it means that or (more likely) just means the obvious statement that everyone finds him confusing. If it's that, what a lame hollow bio Rolf got. This kid's based on you Danny, show some of that personal side!

Always loved Jonny's description, his life sounds so cute. Playing outside literally all day. Interesting to have it confirmed that Jonny drew Plank's face, I preferred to think the Eds drew him and sold him to Jonny, but whatever.

"Accessible" has always been an important vague description of Jonny to me. It really only applies to how chummy they could be with him in season 1, but it still sorta applies to his personality throughout the series as well.

PAGE 17: (images of Nazz and Kevin next to their blurbs)

NAZZ

She's cool, calm and assertive.

She is the most matured of the kids, or so she thinks.

She's into make-up and fashion magazines and Boys.

Sarah thinks she's awesome, wants to be just like her when she grows up.

When she enters a scene, all activity stops... boys freeze, they sweat, their hearts beat faster and faster. They lose their ability to talk. When she leaves, they recover and conclude it was something They ate.

She thinks the Ed's are funny.

KEVIN

He is cynical and sarcastic.

He thinks he knows the "routine". That's because he watches "60 Minutes".

It got a big laugh out of me that Kevin's description is only 2 sentences long. Nazz even has a more detailed character description from inception than Kevin. Love this for them.

Who's the Eds' rival? Well, he's cynical, sarcastic and he watches 60 Minutes, doesn't that tell you enough!?

I love the "mature... or so she thinks" remark about Nazz, a grounded flaw for her to have, being a little overcommitted to being mature like Eddy. It also perhaps suggests naiveté that makes it a little more reasonable that they didn't notice they were dumbing her down at the end of the series, but I do think the movie version of her better reflects the Bible's concept.

PAGE 18:

The Other Neighborhood Kids

Lineup of May, Lee and Marie.

The Kanker Sisters

These gals are tough. They bother, bully, provoke and bewilder everyone.

They live in a motor home park on the other side of the Cul-de-sac. The other kids have never been there.

They are proud of their Tammy Faye Baker memorabilia.

Their project "Cooking with Ketchup" closed down their school for a whole week.

No one likes them, especially the Eds.

They are determined to marry the Eds. They want them to do their dishes.

Amused that the Kankers are essentially being labeled backgrounds characters here, the role they mostly fell into in season 5. "Other" neighborhood kids...

I love that the Kankers have a school blurb to match each of the Eds', and that theirs has similar destructive-intentions to Eddy's video premiere story.

I believe all of this was all known from the UK guide as well, but still, neat stuff!

PAGES 19 & 20 (zoomed in Kanker lineup and their height chart with the Eds)

PAGES 21 & 22 (early promo art that used to be on CN's old Eds webpage, the art of the Eds eating jawbreakers at the end of ep 1 with the overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy love JAWBREAKERS!!!", and the art of the Eds all running with overhead text "Ed, Edd n Eddy see something shiny...."Jiggers." That weird "jiggers" statement at the end was normally edited out and I don't know what it means. Looked it up and it seems to be Chinook jargon (like when Ed said he was "skookum at X's and O's") usually said in the same sense as "CHEESE IT!")

PAGES 23+:

The rest of the pages in that bible download are from a 2004 storyboard test. The storyboard sample "It's Raining Eds," which we've seen some submitted samples of before, interpretations with Ed attempting to fly or chew gum and Edd making radioactive gum, I was surprised to find out the outline is just the original outline for the opening sequence to season 3's 'For Your Eds Only', seemingly Jonny was not written into the original outline (or was excised for easier testing purposes) but Kevin's brief cameo was. Now I wonder if they knew this would be used for a test when they wrote it, and if they would've come up with a less random way to include him if weren't forced to be a concise bit for testing's sake. (Your limit is typically 40 storyboard pages in my experience.)

I also noticed that in the included background references, the anonymous adult neighbor house next door to Ed's is officially just referred to as a "generic house."

My analysis ends here, but be sure to download that sometime and enjoy all the raw storyboard sketches at the end of the document!

[muchtodoonterror]

I think there are a few things going on here, none of which really have to do with rationality or planning.

Treason charges: Hickey is notoriously good at talking his way into and out of things. As you say, Hodgson did jackshit at Hickey's trial; that passivity alone is potentially useful. He also notably didn't denounce him, and Hodg is great for an anecdote but he's no master manipulator. Hickey could have hoped to be able to convince a court martial that a mere caulker's mate couldn't bear the brunt of a mutiny charge when there was a lieutenant right there, and surely the higher rank should take the higher blame. (I'm not saying this is how it would have borne out, but an officer who isn't going to argue back is an officer who you can paint how you will, both in your own weird mind and to an outside observer).

Crozier: I actually do think this is a bigger motivator. We the audience know that Hodgson just kind of landed in the mutineer camp, but Crozier doesn't. And again, who is going to tell the more persuasive story here? There's a reason he brings Hodgson to Crozier's kidnapping. Just having Hodgson standing there doing nothing is a power play. Hodgson's inaction in that moment is a statement unto itself, implicitly condoning what is happening. Crozier doesn't know how he got there and hasn't seen any coercion that may have happened; for all he knows, Hodgson packed up and left by choice and is in the thick of the mutiny. Hickey absolutely would have known this and counted on what damage it would have done to Crozier's morale. It also reinforces the dwindling leadership. Irving is dead, Hodgson has defected. Jopson obviously doesn't count here, so command is down from six lieutenants to two. It's about showing that Hickey gets what he wants, that even those in the inner circle don't believe in Crozier anymore. The practicalities of what Hodgson actually brings to the mutineer table are irrelevant in the symbolic power of having him there.

It's also not about food. Hickey brought the bag of Neptune in to prove a point to Hodgson specifically. That was a gambit based on what he thought Hodgson's weak point would be, in this case the practicalities of food. I think Hickey has been planning on indulging in the "custom of the sea" the whole time, it was only a question of who would go first. In which case, actually, he may have brought Hodg along not just as a power play but as a possible very expendable source of food.

In the larger picture, what Hickey has done is recreate the broader naval structure writ small. He has ABs, stewards, a mate, marines (both private and sergeant), an assistant surgeon (gunroom officer), and a lieutenant (wardroom officer). He's got a boat, supplies, and with their stove and table set up he's effectively recreated a mess room on the shale. Hodgson completes his command structure, showing that the dissent is through all ranks, not just before the mast. It also gives more merit to Hickey's power that he's able to bring the full array under his sway. He's recreating the navy in his image. It says to Crozier, you should have respected me. It says, I too can command men. It says, I am your equal - if not your better.

For all Hickey says to privilege ones "practicals", he is not actually particularly interested in doing so. The mutiny is practical in some respects (mostly in regards to the very valid point that fewer men means fewer to share in meager stores) but I think trying to rationalize what Hodgson actually contributes to the mutiny (weird monologues) misses the point of his presence there and also gives Hickey way too much credit for practicality when his real priority is neither that nor morals but creating his own world of symbolic significance (and cannibalism).

hickey's smugness as he boasts to crozier of 'turning' hodgson is so fucking funny to me because...what exactly did that accomplish? how did hodgson in any way contribute to hickey's Deviously Evil Plan? i love that damp bug-eyed religiously-ambiguous weirdo dearly, but he's not the brains, he's not the muscle, he contributed exactly one (1) thing to the mutineers, and that was a haunting catholic monologue.

when the hunting parties set out, did hodgson use that time as a chance for some light conspiring with hickey? did he hell; he fucking ran away from the guy (and left irving to be turned into a colander). nor does hodgson's backing up of hickey's lies come across as particularly treasonously motivated on this part: this is some excellent meta of how hodge genuinely believes that the inuit slaughtered irving, so probably the paranoia induced by irving's murder would have been the same with or without hodge's turning.

and you can't tell me hodgson was insurance against hickey being punished for treason: the man did absolutely jack-shit at hickey's trial, he was hardly going to rush the gallows and save hickey before he was hung. you could, potentially, make the argument that hickey knew his plan needed the validity of an officer's presence because of Ingrained Victorian Morals, but hodgson does absolutely zero leading in the mutineers. everyone and their (dead) dog knows hickey's in charge of the mutineers. even the idea of it being a symbolic 'fuck you' to crozier by having one of his lieutenants betray him is kinda let down by the fact that hodgson's 'betrayal' is...not all that much? he freaks out about the perceived inuit attack (which he likely would have done anyway), he gets lost in the fog, and then ends up with hickey's mutineers because they're literally the only people he can find. it's not exactly an et tu brute moment from poor old hodge there.

so what exactly was the point? what is hickey boasting about? all he managed to do in turning hodge was give himself another mouth to feed. and it's even funnier because hickey's whole spiel in the scene with hodgson is basically: it's all a matter of numbers, the three of us here can have a nice meal of this dead dog, if it gets shared out among forty-odd sailors we get barely a mouthful each, dividing our food more than we need is going to screw us over. and then he consolidates this argument by...giving valuable protein to Lame Duck hodge and dividing his food more than he needs. he could have shared neptune's flesh quite easily between himself and tozer and very very little would have changed. literally all hickey achieved in the tent scene is to give himself a nice little power trip of having an officer agree to do what he says and reduces his own food intake substantially for no good reason. machiavelli my arse. what the fuck are you boasting about, hickey? giving away a good meal?

[taeggukstime]

The hate has gotten so bad against Jimin that Tkkers who are Jimin antis have started creating false rumors and narratives about him that he is an alcoholic with daddy issues (because they claim his dad is an alcoholic that cheated on Jimin's mother) that sleeps around with a bunch of women they even tried to claim he slept with a porn star during the whole Paris incident. They try to paint him out to be an abuser, narcissist, user and a manipulator as well as a fuckboy it's honestly sickening to say the least. They all claim this is the ''true" Jimin because they have some sort of insider info from staff and managers or some shit. I cannot believe it's gone this far. This is a level of delusion and conspiracy theory bullshit that I thought only existed in the political sphere I was completely wrong. It's that bad now.

In relation to this :

1. Those claiming to have inside info are the worst 🙄 Anyone can lie about having such connections, and even if they were somehow in contact with BTS' world they can still fabricate rumors out of thin air. It frustrates me how people are so hungry for this type of gossip when it's BS 99% of the time, yet they speculate about it and fall into the game of the "what ifs". They give it way too much credit and thought. If you happen to hear something and there's no solid evidence just forget about it as if you never heard it and move on, especially if it's negative. I know there's people that eagerly follow these type of "sources" and it sounds like a huge waste of time. For example, JM having daddy issues... he's always talked so fondly of his father and even shared an endearing Kakao Talk convo with him. There's no red flags and I'm sure there's no proof of what they're saying. Also, it's just not our business. Same with him sleeping around, which shouldn't even be a problem if it were to be true (but still, no proof). About him being an abuser, etc, for all I know Jimin is one of kindest souls out there.

2. It's horrible how the hate towards Jimin & Tae within the TK & JKK communities, respectively, seems to be increasing like a snowball rolling downhill. This is what fanaticism results in. As I previously said, I do think that a big part of the problem is the rivalry between sides and how they start believing that a member is a nuisance, which affects the image they have of them and how they judge them. They may start to truly believe they're a bad person and sometimes it turns into targeted harassment, trying to actively drag them down and even creating lies. What do they gain out of it? I don't know...it's pure evil and hatred. It's so sad how both communities are normalizing having certain disdain for either Tae or JM that simply showing love for them can make people suspect you're a "traitor" or something of the sort, let alone showing appreciation for the rival ship's bond. I'm sure it would be a lot less toxic if people admitted that we only get a glimpse into their lives and we don't truly know them, if they weren't so intense about their beliefs = speculations. They are not worth all the fighting and the fanwars, and definitely not worth attacking and defaming a member. Having said this, I don't think the targeted harassment is just a result of shipwars since there's also the problem of solo stans that victimize their bias and don't know their limits. Since we can't get rid of these people and fights are draining + not so effective, best option is to show love for all 7 members, though it's also convenient to calmly condemn someone's hateful behavior if you're associated with them and cut ties if it continues. With this combination you're already actively combating hate.

~ Answered on February 2, 2022 ~ 6 asks pending

[scentedsongrebel]

Broken Pieces (1/3)

Pairings: Steve Rogers × female! Reader

Summary: Even after everything he has been through, Steve won't be suprised if his children are the ones that get him killed.

Warnings: Language (cursing), Little angst, fluff, dad Steve, Reader is not in this part.

Word Count: 4278

Happy Birthday Steve Rogers

Image not mine. Credit to the owner.

SERIES MASTERLIST    MAIN MASTERLIST

It started with a loud screech that set every set of nerves in his body alight with fear.

The sun had already set as he was laying in his bed, scrolling through the news article about the threat dismantled by the new Captain America with a huge grin on his lips and proud glint in his eyes. He always knew Sam had what it took.

That is when the offended screech had ignited a flame he had long let go.

In all the hundred something years of his life Steve had never had a reaction as fast as he did in the moment when he runs towards the source of the noise.

Thamp Thamp Thamp. His heart screams loudly and every inch of him can hear  the attack of his heart against his rib cage as if trying to escape itself to assure the kids’ safety clearly. The fear surrounding every cell, every piece that joins to make his body whole, grows and grows until he can't think, feel, or do anything other then run like his life depended on it. Which it did. He prays through the countless steps he takes in his run, he prays his kids were safe. That they remember what he had tought them for situations like these.

In all his years since he passed on the shield to Sam this is the first time he regrets it as he pulls out the gun from the secret safe on the hallway floor and the makeshift shield tony made for him in case of emergencies.

Expecting a complete army of Hydra soldiers here for him and his family Steve prepares himself for a fight. Every moment of his life he has been afraid of the dreaded day. Even after all the security they had, he somehow always predicted this day would come. And even though he feels a little relieved you are not home and in safety he also finds himself wishing you were here so he could have some help saving his kids.

The emergency button to alert Bucky and Sam has been pressed, others were far away today. He would just have to stall until Bucky or Sam or both if they could find a safe place for their own children could come and help.

His first priority right now are his children.

And with that in mind, he rushes through the living room door, banging it open with a harsh kick, his gun raised high, eyes roaming around in search of the intruder

"Oh my god!!" His 13 year old daughter screams, horrified before she along with all three of her siblings raise their hands in surrender

Steve looks around the room in confusion, his eyebrows furrowed as he assess the situation.

His 15 year old son sits with his legs bent and hands raised on the edge of your favorite sofa that you had purchased from IKEA, besides him sit all three of his siblings, the other end of the couch is occupied by his 13- year old daughter while both the 6 year old boy and 3 girl year old girl are in the middle. All of them have their hands raised in surrender, looking fearfully at the gun.

"Dad?" his oldest cautiously asks and Steve realizes his gun is still raised and pointed at the kids and he moves it to point down, pulling the safety back on and looks around.

Pieces of glass, varying in their shapes and sizes decorate the entirety of his living room floor, from the looks of it and the center table laying on the floor. Steve has a fair idea where the glass may have come from.

He sighs but before he can say anything, the window behind the kids is shattered with a loud bang and then a screech of glass breaking and a figure breaks in.

Steve quickly raises his gun at the figure while the person does the same. Their long dark hair cover a portion of their face. The light of the chandelier above his head shines as its light is reflected back from the man's metal arm.

"Bucky?" Steve questions as he looks his friend over. His hair is completely disheveled and seem to be hastily tied together using a rubber band. A shirt that Steve is sure is inside out, awkwardly covers his chest and he still wears his pajama shorts. Several knives protrude out of his pocket which Steve is pretty sure he put in hastily.

Bucky nods his head, gun still raised, looking around for an intruder and completely prepared for a possible fight.

When he is done with his assessment and finds no one in sight, he turns back to Steve, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, the gun still raised now points at Steve

Steve closes his eyes for a second and faces his gun down again before sighing

"Max answer in yes or no, did someone break into our house?"

"Yes" the young boy answers, his arms still raised and Steve quickly regains his alert stance looking around as Bucky does the same

"Uncle Bucky did" the boy points at Bucky accusingly

With that Steve whips his head towards Bucky who gives Steve a look as if asking seriously? before Steve turns back to his 15 year old and sighs

"Except Bucky did anyone break in?"

"No"

With a sigh Steve drops his gun, making his way towards his kids, not caring about the glass pieces that pierce into the souls of his shoes he hastily put on. He goes on and takes all four of the hooligans in his arms and they hug him back in a big family hug before he pulls back and assess all their faces, looking for damage

"You all okay?" they collectively nod their heads as Bucky carefully makes his way towards the small party

"What the hell dude?" he says and Steve glares at him

"Bucky"

Bucky rolls his eyes

"What the Heck dude?" He puts extra emphasis on Heck

Steve just shakes his head and turns back to his children

"What happened here?"

Lana snifs a cry as she looks at her father

"Max was cleaning the center table when the glass fell off"

"The center table glass fell of while cleaning?" Bucky asks startled

"Anna spilled water on the table and Mom says wood gets bad if water stays on it so we were cleaning the water but it got under the glass so we slanted the table so the water could come out by gravity but instead the glass slid off due to it"

Steve sighs

"God, please tell me no one was around when it fell " Steve says worriedly looking at all four of his children

Lana shakes her head

"We made the little kids sit on the couch when Max and I slanted the table. The glass slid off towards the forward side while we were behind it and then we quickly climbed on the couch"

Steve sighs in relief and takes a look at both of his older children's feet just to make sure.

"Good good" he nods, still trying to calm himself from his initial shock as he examines their blood less, dirty but still blood less feet

Little Anna taps her tiny hand on his thigh to catch his attention and Steve looks at his 3 year old. She motions towards his feet and babbles before tears start to fall down her eyes. Outsiders may never understand what his non verbal baby often says but Steve knows clearly what she is asking and he quickly takes her in his arms, placing her in his lap and hugging her tight, running his hand up and down her back

"Daddy is fine sweaty" he coos "Daddy's shoes saved him"

She keeps crying trying to recover from her initial shock before Aiden follows the lead of his younger sister and starts crying as well and Steve pulls him in the hug too.

He tries to console the children as they keep crying, their older siblings trying to lighten the atmosphere by banging Anna and Aiden's toys together to catch their attention. Something that only increases Steve's boiling irritation.

Steve sighs, looking at the sky before he motions for a shocked Bucky to come close

"I pointed a gun at my children" Steve whispers in Bucky's ear

"Yeah man" Bucky says "Think you've traumatized them for life?"

Steve glares at his best friend before turning back to look at the kids

"Its fine, its fine" Steve pats their backs before pulling away to look at their faces. A jolt of guilt spreads through him as he looks at their faces, red with fear and he sighs before wiping off the tears on both their faces with the edge of his sleeve

"Dad" Max calls out from his side "We scared you didn't we?"

Steve turns to his oldest and nods his head

"Its fine. I'm just a little paranoid"

"A little?" Bucky snorts "You know how frightened I was when that alarm rang through? You ruined my dinner by the way. Now what am I gonna tell Sam?"

Steve just rolls his eyes and ignores his best friend

"I'm sorry dad" Max whispers and Lana nods her head besides him

"I'm sorry too Dad"

Steve just shakes his head

"No, no need to apologize. Its fine"

"We didn't think the glass would fall off" Lana shakes her head "Mom bought it so we thought it was glued in"

"Who even put it together?" Bucky asks crossing his arms and before Steve can turn to glare at him, little Anna starts to babble again

"Dadadadadada" She smiles at Steve, clapping her hands proudly. Steve gives her a smile back and Bucky lets out a laugh

"That explains so much"

"Just sh-" Steve shakes his head and stops himself from saying any bad words in front of his kids. He would have to find Bucky later to give him a piece of his mind.

"He was gonna say shut up right?" Lana turns to Max who just nods his head

"Yup"

Steve swallows at that and has to close his eyes for a second before he turns to glare at the two

"What? Dad we know what shut up means" Lana rolls her eyes

"Watch your tone with me young lady" Steve raises an eyebrow at her and then sighs "Just don't say it in front of the little kids"

"I will never understand one thing" Bucky says scratching his head "I mean why are we so careful in not saying any bad language words in front of the kids when they will eventually learn them in the future"

Max and Lana laugh at his comment, the little kids copy their older siblings as they too let out a series of laughs themselves and Steve finds himself smiling at the scene before Bucky's words really sink in.

Anna raises her hands forward asking Bucky to pick her up

"Buck Buck Buck" she babbles as Bucky takes her in his arms and turns back to the glaring Steve after shooting a wink at both the older kids' direction

"I mean my parents tried so hard not to curse in front of me and yet here I am" Bucky motions his hand in an up down gesture

"Yup and they are so proud" Steve rolls his eyes

"How come you are allowed to roll your eyes but I'm not" Lana asks crossing her arms

"Because I'm an adult" Steve sighs and raises a finger at her to stop her from saying any further. He was not in a mental state to have one of those daily debates with his daughter "Yes the moment you turn eighteen you can roll your eyes as much as you like"

Lana just sighs

"I'm gonna tell Mom" she sends him a look and he suddenly sees so much of his wife in his daughter that he has to hold back a smile. This one really is a handful.

But before Steve can say anything about it Max takes a deep breath in horror. Everyone in the room turn to look at him

"Mom" he says horrified "What are we gonna tell Mom?"

And the silence that follows is pin drop. They know it is because at that exact moment the hair pin Anna had taken out of Bucky's hair falls down on the floor and they can all clearly hear it.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh god" Lana screeches "no no no no no"

"Mom spent at-least 6 months looking for the perfect table" Max says as he pulls at his hair "We have to do something, Dad what do we do?"

"We?" Steve raises a single eyebrow at his son "What are you gonna do son and what it is is that you are gonna tell her the truth"

"Are you crazy?" Lana screams "She will kill us, do you know how close Ana and Aiden were to that thing?"

Steve narrows his eyes at her "How close were they exactly?"

Her eyes widen as she realizes her mistake and gives him the fakest laugh he has ever seen. A laugh that may as well qualify as a cry.

"What? Hahahaha What? They-they were really far- far away."

"Lana" he says sternly

"They were on the couch Dad" Max sighs "Promise"

Steve stares at his son for a second and then nods his head

"Lets just clean this up first" Steve sighs "Then you can tell Mom"

"No no no no no" Max whines as he takes hold of Steve's hand "You don't understand. Mom can't know"

Steve raises an eyebrow at his son

"She will find out eventually"

"Dad please" Lana whines and puts her arms around him and Aiden to take him in a hug. Max moves to join the hug to before he pulls away and motions for Bucky to give him Anna. With Anna in her brother’s arms all four children hug Steve

"Dad please" The two older ones whine together while Ana laughs as she is made part of the hug

"Dadadadada"

"Dad please please" Aiden is now begging too, helping out his siblings.

"Mom and I are on the same team"

"There is no team in family Dad. We are all together" Max says resolutely "And just think about how heart broken Mom would be when she finds out what happened to her favorite table that she spent 6 months looking for, not to mention the fact that she warned you against putting it together yourself"

Steve whips his head to look at his son in the eyes who shoots Steve a knowing look and in this exact moment he decides Bucky is not coming anywhere near any of his children ever again

“Not to mention how you were boasting nothing can go wrong in the house in your presence when Mom was leaving.

He will agree that had him

"Fine"

"Yeah" Bucky claps his hands and Ana joins him

"Mission: Replace the table"

Steve lets out a breath but before he can say anything Aiden points towards the floor.

"That is a gun" he says, his eyes directed towards the gun Steve had dropped on the floor along side his makeshift shield 

Steve's eyes widen in fear and he shots Bucky a horrified look who just shrugs and discreetly pushes his own gun under the sofa with his boot clad feet. Not even trying to protect the gun from the little glass pieces.

"A real gun" Aiden is now impressed and tries to get off the couch to reach the object of his fascination

"What?" Steve laughs loudly taking hold of his son from the waist and bringing him to his lap,he laughs again, a laugh that surely contests his daughter's in the best horrible fake laugh contest "That's not a gun"

"No that is gun" Aiden states excitedly "I have same gun"

The moment stops right there and he can feel several eyes him. Bucky behind him chokes on his own spit and Steve's heart seemed to have stopped beating.

How the fuck did his kid even have excess to any of his or your guns? He was pretty sure you had them in high tech password protected safes all over the house that were impossible for children to access. Then how? Were they careless in one of the hiding spots and the little boy has now procured a gun.

His little boy had a gun.

What the hell was he gonna do now. This surely is parenting low right? Oh god. What was he gonna tell you?

His mind is fighting with itself trying to find the right words or actions for a situation like this and when it turns up blank, he tells himself that saying anything would be a step. But anything does not seem to leave his mouth and so he sits there, looking at his son with his mouth open and a low pitched noise the only voice coming out of it.

This was more than what he was trained for

If it were some other day, Max may have had enjoyed his father's predicament and the expression on his face. But today it feels the old man has had enough of these mind blowing problems for his age and so he decides to pull his father out of his misery

"Yes Aiden" He says and Steve shoots him a warning look which he promptly ignores "This is exactly like your nerf gun. Dad and I had a gun war today but because of the broken table we had to cancel it"

Aiden furrows his eyebrows "I wanna gun fight"

"Yes" Max nods his head "we were all gonna participate even Lana and Anna, but maybe tomorrow"

Aiden stares at his brother for a second before shrugging "Okay"

A surge of relief is all Steve can feel at the moment and he shoots a thankful look at his son who just gives him a teasing smile

"Nerf gun is this toy gun dad" Lana whispers in his ear as she comes closer "I know you have a hard time understanding modern things"

Bucky lets out a laugh from behind him as Steve closes his eyes

His kids are gonna be the death of him.

----------

"Okay I called Sam and he'll be here soon" Bucky re-enters the room careful not to step on any glass pieces

All the kids sit on the sofa with their feet up as they watch Steve carefully swipe off the pieces

"What is Uncle Sam gonna do?"

"Take care of you guys while Steve distracts your mother and I get a new glass"

"Wait wait hold on" Steve stops his work "Why am I the distraction?"

"You are her husband" Bucky says matter of factly

Steve shakes his head

"Me crashing her girls' night is suspicious especially when I specifically told her to take time away from the family" Steve says "Why can't Sam do it?"

"He's tired dude" Bucky says crossing his arms "Being Captain America is exhausting"

Steve rolls his eyes as he crosses his arms. How would he know anything about that right?

"And taking care of six kids is relaxing"

"Well two of them would be put to sleep, two would be too guilty and would take care of the remaining two"

Steve shakes his head

"Okay fine then you go distract her"

"She's your wife"

"And your friend"

Bucky crosses his arms before he huffs a sigh

"Fine I will distract her"

Steve nods his head and turns to his children who all sit obediently on the sofa. Even little Ana and Aiden stay silent and Steve can't help but smile at them

"Its fine" he sighs as he sits down in front of them after having cleaned the floor and wiping it out with flour dough to make sure no pieces were left "Its just a piece of furniture"

He moves both his hands to his eldest son and daughter's cheek who he knows would he extremely scared

"I am not angry" he smiles at them and Lana nods as tears stream down her face

"Thank you" she says and Steve's heart breaks too much for his daughter who has been through so much in her life "One time I broke this glass cup and Max took the blame and he hit Max and he broke his hand"

She starts crying and the little kids stare at their sister in concern and shift towards her as Max puts his arm around her. Aiden wraps his short arms around her arm and hugs her as Ana offers her her Peppa pig stuffed toy

"Its okay sweety" Steve says softly taking his daughter in a hug and trying to control the extreme rage he feels towards her previous adoptive father.

Max and Alahna were both in the system since they were born having no knowledge of their respective biological families. They were both separately adopted in the same family and became siblings through the adoption. But as cruel as life was, their adoptive father turned out to be extremely abusive while the mother turned a blind eye to it.

The abuse was generally targeted towards Max and he always took the beating for Lana too. It was not until the father decided to attack Lana one day that Max decided enough was enough and contacted DCS.

They were separated despite their pleas to be put together even if it were a group home and were finally reunited when You had fallen in love with Lana 5 years ago during a visit to her group home and when she told you about her lost brother, you decided you would adopt them both.

Steve had just needed to meet them once before tearfully declaring they were his kids.

"If someone" he says patting her back "anyone touches anyone of you guys, I will make sure they are punished"

And he means it. With everything in him he means it. He knows they think by punish he means put them in jail like he made sure had been done to the abusive man. But he also knows they don't know the revenge he took for every single ounce of pain that man put his son and daughter through, his personal justice.

"I love you dad" she says and he pulls back, smiling at her and repeating the words back before patting Max on the shoulder who tries to hold back his tears, He pulls Max in for a hug too patting his back before pulling away and pulling both Ana and Aiden in each of his arms.

"I love you guys more than you can think of" he kisses the heads of both the kids in his arms who still look at their older sister with concern. His heart feels full with how much all his kids loved each other and cared for one another.

Steve sighs, shooting a look at Bucky. Time to lighten the mood.

Bucky jumps up from where he was sitting cross legged on the floor, watching the happy family scene.

"Okay, now that we are proceeding towards the next step of our plan, I need to ask you a question"

He turns to Max in all seriousness and Max looks back, seriously listening to whatever his uncle has to say

"Can you cook?" Max furrows his eyebrows before shaking his head

"No, I-I"

"What the heck kid?"

"Bucky!"

"I was supposed to cook the food while Sam took the kids to the store before your alert sounded. Now what am I gonna do?"

"So you were gonna make my 15 year old son cook dinner for you?"

"For all of us"

Steve rolls his eyes, shooting a glare at Bucky as Aiden and Ana let out little laughs as he tickles them.

"Just order pizza, Sam would understand"

Bucky rolls his eyes

"Fine" he says crossing his arms "But you better learn how to cook kid, we can't just order pizza all the time"

Max laughs at that and shakes his head

"We can order pizza anytime"

"Nice point"

"I will never understand how Sam agreed to have children with you"

"My children love me and so do yours" Bucky winks at Lana and Max and they nod their head, laughing

"That's because you spoil them"

"Kids like it when you spoil them"

"Of-course they do-" Steve shakes his head "You know what? I'm gonna put these two to bed while you order pizza and then we can wait for Sam after which we'll get a new glass"

"Dad" Max calls out and Steve turns back to look at him "Can I come with you"

"You wanna put these two to bed?"

"No no" He looks exasperated "To find the new table"

"No" It doesn't even takes him a second to reply

"Please" Max whines and Lana decides to join him

"Please dad" She makes perfect use of the remnant tears that still remain on her face as her eyes sparkle and Steve feels his resolve breaking "It was our fault. We wanna help"

Steve tires to shake his head but that resolve takes no time to break as a fresh tear slides down his daughter's face

"Fine" he sighs before begrudgingly leaving the room

The kids he carries in his arms loudly giggle as Bucky makes faces to them behind his back before he shuts the door to the living room, he just knows Bucky is imitating him with the way his kids laugh.

Well at-least they were laughing.

---------------

Part 2

--------------

Tags: @kayteewritessteve @anjali750

[fri-conz]

Rules

This list is non-exhaustive and may be edited as time goes on. I use the block button liberally

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🔥 Ship IRL people

🔥 When making a request, please state the character as well as the piece of media it is from, even if it should be obvious (ex: "Hekapoo from Star vs. the Forces of Evil")

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🔥 All posts that I make are okay to tag as "kin", "me", or anything similar. If you don't want your request to be tagged this, lmk

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[yvesdot]

I'm going to give blogs like this the benefit of the doubt, especially since this one seems new, and explain something about Tumblr. When you hit "reblog," the entirety of a post shows up on your blog (excluding tags-- you're welcome to add them as text, or as your own tags), and by default it links back to every single user in the chain.

When you screenshot a Tumblr exchange and repost it, not only do you break the credit, but the exchange gets harder to read. Screen readers have no hope, but this image in particular (as with many on this blog) are super crunchy. It's a worse reading experience, objectively.

It's also not hard to find the sources of posts. Don't try Tumblr if you have; asking this website to search for posts is like asking a dead rat to shine your shoes. Use Google, where a search in quotes for "the house where clio fell in love with him" immediately brought up a reblog of this post as the top result. If that hadn't found you the exchange with the last reblog here, though, you could always continnue by adding "my favorite example of this is dragon age" to that same search, ensuring you'd only see results containing both of those exact lines.

You can also run a blog of "writing advice" solely by reblogging others' posts with the tags "#writing advice." Many people follow me because they like my writing advice and memey reblogs, not just my original content. I'm sure half my followers have never read my writing, but appreciate the tips I occasionally throw at them, and that's alright!

While likely unintentional, the only thing this repost says is "This post is good enough to give me attention, but not good enough to allow you credit." Because there is no benefit to the "original poster" of the screenshot here other than breaking credit to the last several people in the chain, who made the contributions they liked so much they wanted to save them. Each person in this thread also likely never got so much as a peep from OP letting them know their words were valued.

Speaking as somebody who makes silly writing advice posts on the Internet, I work full time. I write on the side instead of getting a full night's sleep. I post many, many free writing advice posts on the Internet, and all I get from them is the hope that they have helped someone and the linkback credit, which might lead to someone appreciating my work enough to subscribe to my Patreon. There was a point a few months ago where my insurance refused to cover HRT and I was only affording it because of the amount my Patrons were contributing; even now I would have no savings without them. Each reblog and linkback is a potential reader who might like to buy my book, order it for their library, give word of mouth recs to their friends, drop me a ko-fi, etc. The only thing a repost like this does is take that possibility away. Far fewer people will open a new tab (or completely move out of a blog) to search up a URL as opposed to those who will follow a link.

I'm actually fairly certain the original blog knows this, because, again, I would be shocked if they were asking permission before reposting this stuff. With that said, it does hurt to see someone racking up a few thousand notes off the backs of random Tumblr users who used their own free time to help other people.

EDIT: Honestly? why not. My city now:

Support the author: all posted writing | ko-fi | Patreon

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[simkjrs]

Hi please PLEASE talk to me abt the socioeconomic state of japan in bnh verse I am SO interested to hear ur thoughts? I'm a poli theory major and let me tell u im a SLUT for fic that deal w the political/social repercussions of fictional happenings

sure thing! 

disclaimer: i only just graduated high school so i’m pulling all of this out of my ass one semester of macroeconomics i took in senior year. feel free to add onto or correct any of this 

edit: if anyone wants to use this for reference when writing boku no hero japan, feel free! i’d appreciate any credit, but it’s not necessary. 

--

what really got me thinking about the socioeconomic state of boku no hero japan was probably the difference between orudera junior high (bakugou and izuku’s school) vs. yuuei, both of which are in the same city, musutafu. orudera junior high gives off the feeling of a school that’s a bit run down; not terrible enough that it obstructs the kids’ education, but enough that you think the school probably can’t afford to keep it in good repair. 

here’s a screenshot of bakugou and izuku’s classroom:

and then here’s izuku’s desk, which has details indicating that it’s in slight disrepair: 

if you go back through the chapters and look at the setting at yuuei, it’s spic-n-span. just super clean and well-kept. it’s an entire world of difference… so already there is this huge disparity between the junior high school in izuku’s neighborhood, and yuuei, which is a 40 minute subway ride away (chapter 3).

makes sense that yuuei would be so nice and expensive if it’s the most prestigious hero academy in the country, right? but there’s more details too, like this brief exchange between bakugou & iida right at the very beginning: 

bakugou’s resentful comment about iida being an “elite” really only makes sense to me in the context of economic disparity. let’s infer that soumei junior high is better funded, better equipped, better everything in general. of course bakugou will resent iida for that, especially coming from the more ill-maintained orudera junior high. the difference in their economic status is already apparent. 

this isn’t even going into the difference between yaoyorozu’s incredibly rich status vs the rest of the class vs uraraka, who has decided to become a hero because she wants the financial security, and who also lives in an apartment by herself and skips meals to save on money. so even within the class itself there’s a huuuge difference in economic status. 

you could just think of it as the individual circumstances of the characters, but i think it’s more of a systematic problem – see, again, the difference in infrastructure quality between the different schools (the public school is not doing so great but yuuei is doing fantastic). maybe the city is poor, or maybe all of its funds go towards repairing the constant property damage from villain attacks, or maybe there’s just some areas they don’t care to maintain. either way: just by traversing different parts of the city you’ll probably see big differences in how well the neighborhoods are kept. 

and now, for a different question: if this is the golden age of peace, why are there still so many villain fights? 

looking at chapter one (the first villain we see is a guy who stole a purse and then tried to fight back when he was caught) and chapter 115 (villain activity increases sharply after all might’s retirement), i feel like… these attacks are driven by financial need. look at this: 

a group of adults gathered to commit crime… just to steal a register from a convenience store. that’s such a small sum of money! but they were so elated to get just that amount. it seems like the kind of thing that would happen if you were strapped for money, right? 

and then the villain from chapter 1: why would he fight so hard just because he got caught stealing a purse? he stopped the trains, for pete’s sake. all i can think is that a) he needed the money he’d be able to get by selling the purse, or b) he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford the fines, and that’s why he fought. 

maybe i’m reading too much into this, but based off these crimes, plus the other details provided above, i really feel like there’s a growing problem in boku no hero japan where there’s an increasing disparity in wealth. 

another thing to consider: in the golden age of peace, you’d have to be pretty stupid, pretty reckless, or pretty desperate to commit a crime where heroes frequent. (or you’re a black market dealer and/or evil.) if you’ve got an increasing number of people who are poor, who are dropping from the middle class to under the poverty line, or who have no upwards economic mobility, then you’ve got plenty of people desperate enough to try some petty crime for the sake of just a bit more cash for rent this month. that would be enough to explain the frequent villain fights that heroes get into – which are common enough that people will stop by and watch the show on their way to work. (chapter 1) 

this is really just a theory… but what could you use to explain why there’s a growing number of people struggling to make ends meet? 

here’s some factoids about japan (this article is from 2016): 

its real wages were falling, and as such, had weak domestic consumption; people buying less & saving more, or people just not having the money to spend in the first place, resulting in less money circulating in the economy and causing the economy to slow down. efforts to stimulate wage growth in 2015 did not make it down to the workers 

there was an increasing number of people with non-regular jobs, part time jobs, etc. as opposed to full time jobs, so they couldn’t get the financial security of a full time job (source)

one in six people in 2014 were living in relative poverty. this rate is higher among single mothers and among middle aged men without families, i believe. 

japan was like, 39th of 41 developed countries in terms of child poverty (the higher the number, the worse it is). something like that

this is despite japan having a high labor participation rate and a low unemployment rate, and also a low violent crime rate 

basing boku no hero japan off of actual real world japan’s current economic problems: we could surmise that, in boku no hero japan, although nominal wages are rising, real wages are falling; infrastructure spending is poor and disorganized, geared towards repairing villain-inflicted property damage and not enough towards everything else; and people are finding difficulty holding onto jobs (as seen with uraraka’s parents) and are forced into low-paying, part-time work, and may find themselves struggling with debt. 

oh, and here’s a quote from the guardian (jan 2017): “experts say programmes to help needy children are underfunded and held back by bureaucratic inefficiency and political apathy.” 

so it’d actually be quite viable for boku no hero japan to be doing quite badly, economically, and to be struggling with wealth inequality and other super fun things like that. 

boku no hero japan is also like centuries in the future, one where villainy is commonplace, so it’s not a surprise that people’s response to struggling to make ends meet would be “well, i have a pretty good quirk. if i’m lucky, i think i’ll be able to steal some cash, and i’m desperate enough to do it, too.” SO, my personal guess, is that this is a biiiig portion of the crimes that heroes fight. 

i mean, it doesn’t really make sense for villains to do so much… villain-ing… when there’s footage almost every single week of the heroes taking down yet ANOTHER criminal. why do they keep coming out of the woodwork? why’s there still enough criminals to keep all the heroes in business? ‘cause they’re desperate and need the money, probably. which is understandable. so even if you eliminate a villain, you haven’t addressed the economic problems that drove them to become a villain in the first place; hence, there’s always someone else rising up to take their place. 

on that note, let’s take a closer look at the hero industry! 

in chapter 1, horikoshi gives us a brief history of heroics. quirks emerged, the government wasn’t sure what to do to combat quirk-related crime, heroes emerged, and heroes eventually became sanctioned by the law. and when that happened: 

so that’s pretty cool! seems like heroes aren’t specifically a government institution, but they are affiliated with & rewarded by it. makes sense, since heroes have to work closely with law enforcement on some matters, anyways. heroes =/= police only because heroes are specifically there to combat quirk-related crime. 

but times have changed since then, as shown in the latest manga chapter: 

“it’s all about entertainment and approval ratings and whatnot.” 

we know from the stain arc that heroes are still paid by the government: 

‘given my status’ – in other words: his hero ranking? popularity? how respected he is as a hero? hmmm. 

uraraka’s mentor that arc explains that heroes are sort of “paid on commission” by the number of crimes they can resolve, but said commissions usually get sent their way by the police: 

but to get your name out there (both to the police and to the public), and to become higher ranking in the popularity polls, you need to cultivate a public image, too. get yourself some attention. 

so to cultivate a public image, one thing that heroes can do is to conduct a fight in a public, open space where anyone can see. apparently this happens often enough that izuku would actually regularly run into one of these fights on his way to/from school, and would stay to take notes and learn from them. villain attacks are ALSO frequent enough that apparently all might keeps arriving at yuuei late because he stops to help out: 

in other words, villain attacks and fights are a regular, almost quotidian experience. more on that in a sec. for now, just think about how the heroes benefit from public fights: they get to show off, and their fights are broadcasted, and they can get a boost in their rankings. fighting against a villain, they don’t just have a motive to do their job and save people; they have a motive to grab the spotlight and show off. popularity boost! we actually see this happen in chapter one, when mount lady leaps into kamui woods’ fight and defeats a villain in one kick. 

so, as a citizen, you may be grateful to the heroes for saving people – but you might resent them for turning these situations into a spectacle for showing off. incidents sometimes turn into competitions between heroes. if you take that a step further, you might think some of the heroes are only helping because they want to look good. and hey, that’s not the kind of person you’d want to entrust your life to, right? 

because heroics is now partially driven by entertainment and image, heroes are all forming their separate hero agencies to try and differentiate themselves. for example, this list: 

while they work together to fight crime, they have to battle for popularity and attention… they probably even have to vie for commissions/crime cases from the police. they all need to make themselves stronger, cooler, & a better choice than the other hero agencies. it’s something of a conflict of interest. you can imagine sometimes that gets in the way of cooperation (i.e. endeavor’s forever grudge against all might. y’all should read the illegals spin off.) 

and if you’re battling for popularity and attention… it would also make sense for you to center your hero office somewhere with lots of crime, and lots of people to see you fighting crime. right? urban centers would provide plenty of both. what about slums, and the underground, and the outskirts, then? these are places that news reporters and cameras can’t reach easily – and possibly might not want to travel to at all. these are also places where passersby and onlookers might run away instead of praising you. you won’t get a lot of return (in terms of publicity) by working here. so if you’re business-minded… you’re not going to conduct your hero investigations here. 

i mean, yuuei even has a business department. heroics is a business. you make money off of this, and you have to sell your image to the police and the public. if you focus more attention on places that are profitable to you, then the other areas lose. there’s no way around that. 

so poor neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, camera- and television broadcasting-inaccessible places get the short end of the stick. the heroes don’t go here as often, because it’s not profitable. (well, the heroes probably come down here if they get a police commission. but where are they if a spontaneous crime happens, hm?) meanwhile you turn on the t.v. and you see like five heroes show up at one battle downtown, which is complete overkill. you’d feel pretty resentful, right? do the heroes think your area of residence isn’t worth protecting, just because it doesn’t get them as much attention? do the heroes think it’s okay to just ignore your area of residence? fuck that, right? heroes are supposed to serve the public, and you’re still part of the public too, right? 

that’s gonna build up more resentment between bad neighborhoods & areas v.s. the areas that heroes frequent (often urban, downtown, lots of people to witness their good deeds). and it definitely builds up resentment towards heroes who aren’t so discreet about the money-making aspects of their businesses. 

like: all might sells merchandise. okay, understandable. present mic has a radio show (which probably gets paid to run advertisements). okay, that’s pretty cool! but then you get things like this: 

a hero using their public service, publicly paid hours… to shoot a commercial and make themselves a little bit of cash on the side. if you’re in one of those areas that heroes don’t frequent so often – wouldn’t you be pretty furious to find out that the person who’s supposed to be fighting crime in your neighborhood just made $500,000 by filming a commercial instead? 

you’re going to turn on the television and see ads with pro heroes in them – pro heroes who used their public service hours to do something for their own profit. this isn’t to say that heroes can’t film commercials, or make money on the side. if they’re helping people, it’s great that they can make a living! but they’re making that living by pandering to the entertainment industry when they’re supposed to be… you know… helping people. even kendou (in the picture above) comments that it’s not very hero like. the next page, momo replies that this aspect of the hero business is ‘unavoidable.’ ads, entertainment – it’s all part of the hero industry now. 

and they don’t feel that good about it. 

if all this conjecture is true, then – as grateful as people are to the heroes – they might be quite critical of the hero industry itself, and the heroes that embody the worst parts of it. i’m not surprised that there are a whole bunch of people who feel “othered” by heroes, and by society as a whole. 

like… that’s no excuse to be a villain. stop that. but it would certainly be a reason for people to dislike the hero industry. AND it would explain why it is that stain’s ideology resonated so deeply with other people. 

AAAAND that’s basically the rundown of what i think the socioeconomic state of boku no hero japan is like. sorry this was horribly long

[silverjirachi]

Hey! So I was wondering how you came to be a christopagan and how you handle it? I'm drawn to pursuing that path but I'm unsure of how to go about relationships with other deities and maintaining the "no other god before me" thing. Thanks and sorry if you've already answered this and I just missed it!

Hi there dear!  Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything.  I recently made a pretty lengthy post about my journey into Christian witchcraft, but I cut it off before I got into Christopaganism because I figured it was getting too long.  This is a great question, one that I struggled with a bit myself.  So buckle up for what will probably be an even longer story.

So Christian witchcraft and Christopaganism are two slightly different things - I see the witchcraft as the “how” you practice, and the Christopaganism more of “who you interact with.”  When I started witchcraft, because of this commandment “You shall have no other Gods before me,” I felt pretty comfortable not really interacting with any other deities.  I had spoken with a couple different tree and lake spirits, but didn’t really consider myself a “follower” of them as rather just friendship, so I figured that didn’t really count.

Basically I started off only as a Christian witch with no other need or want to go to other deities for anything.  And that was cool for a while, but God had different plans for me.

Context: growing up, when I first learned about Greek mythology and pagan religions, I always viewed them as kind of valid.  Because I was raised believing in one God that was literally everything, as a a child I saw these multiple Gods as offshoots of the same thing - like branches coming off of a tree.  That’s as long as you’re viewing God more as an infinite, divine energy, rather than a literal man in the sky. (I tend to look at him as a bit of both).  So I could see how really, at the end of the day, all religions are in search of the same, divine energy, (some call it “Truth”) regardless of how they try to get there.

So my non-pagan Christowitch self basically believed that other gods were out there, and totally legit, but I had no need for them because of my own personal path.  That was until one day I was meditating and Aphrodite came to me.

February is a really important month to me (mostly because it’s my birthday month and I’ve always been really drawn to the concept of love).  So at the beginning of February about a year ago, I was meditating when a very strange, high energy cherub-looking creature appeared to me.  I knew that he wasn’t actually a cherub, because I work a lot with angels and they were VERY different from him.  So I inquired for his name.  “Eros,” he said.  “I’m here to help you.  I’m really excited for you.”

Eros.  I couldn’t believe it.  Cupid, aka Eros, the son of Aphrodite, had literally come to me in a diaper in February with some kind of message for me.  He was so high energy though, I couldn’t make out a lot of what he was saying.  He went away and I kind of brushed off the encounter as a weird thing.  If the Greek pantheon was interested in me somehow, that was cool, as long as they understood I only had one God to serve.

A few days later, I’m meditating again, and I’m struck with this sudden force.  I somehow instantly knew who she was without having to ask, but she announced herself anyway.  “Hello dear, I am Aphrodite.  I’m with you and I have always been with you and I’m here to claim you as your patroness.”

This is where I began freaking out.  Patroness?  Claiming??  I had read about these things, but never really thought they were for me.  So now I’m worried I’m gonna piss off God somehow, so I look up to him for guidance.  “Is this okay?” I’m asking like a scared child.  The image I got next will probably stick with me for the rest of my life.

I saw an image of God - like the old man we all picture him as, beard and all - and he was smiling the hugest, cheesiest proud grandpa smile I had ever seen. He seemed to be telling me, “We made it.  Now we’re on to something.”  He nodded at me, and I took that as a pretty strong Yes.  It felt in my heart like I was doing the right thing, and that, most importantly, God was really proud of me for doing it.  My father, a very religious man himself, always said that God is like that fire or warmth you feel in your chest when you know something is right.  This was one of those times.

So I began my relationship with Aphrodite, and it turned out to be just the thing I needed.  There are aspects of her that taught me about aspects of myself, that I just couldn’t have gotten from male-dominated Christianity.  And God seemed to know that.

So I view God as the “source” energy that flows through all things, and Aphrodite as an individual, but equally divine and connected energy that helps me relate to different aspects of that source.  What I learned from her was that I was lacking in a lot of self-love, and it was crucial for me to find it so that I could become even closer to God and the divine spirit.  To me, it became like God saw that I had a Father, but was lacking a Mother, and Aphrodite elected to take that role.  She fits in with a lot of what seems to be my life path, which has to do with love and self-love.

That’s my story, maybe it will help give you more comfort to trust and follow your heart if you are being drawn to this.  As for the more Biblical/theological approach, a lot of people interpret this commandment, “No other gods before me” to be referring to the pursuit of physical and material things, rather than a spiritual quest.  (Money, possessions etc).  A couple other Christian witches have pointed out before that “no other gods before me” inherently recognizes the existence of other gods, and as long as you do not place those gods “before” him on your pantheon, you’re technically in the clear.  (I forget who said this, I would love to credit them but I can’t find the thread right now).

I hope this helps you a little bit.  Like I said in the other question, personal prayer and more research will definitely help.  Spending some time in the “christian witch” and “christopagan” tags and reading up on it really helped me when I was starting out.  Each person’s path, Christian or otherwise, is totally unique, so the way that you come to discover, understand, and accept Christopaganism (if you decide on it) might be different than me.  I’m a bit unique in that I got forcibly pulled into it when I wasn’t actively seeking it, but then again, God in mysterious ways, right?

Ultimately though, don’t ignore a calling if you’re feeling drawn to it.  There’s probably a very good reason for it.  I wish you the best of luck as you continue to figure things out - and don’t worry if you’re not feeling drawn to any particular pagan gods right now.  Those kind of things generally tend to work themselves out in time.

If you have any more questions or want to chat, please feel free to come talk to me.  I’d love to help you out