#if the clones have millions of fans i'm one of them if they have a hundred fans i'm one of them if they have one it's me etc

[bloodyarson]

no one could ever actually hate star wars as much as us star wars fans do. and yet i love it so much despite how fucking awful it can be. why.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

MIT libraries are thriving without Elsevier

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

Once you learn about the "collective action problem," you start seeing it everywhere. Democrats – including elected officials – all wanted Biden to step down, but none of them wanted to be the first one to take a firm stand, so for months, his campaign limped on: a collective action problem.

Patent trolls use bullshit patents to shake down small businesses, demanding "license fees" that are high, but much lower than the cost of challenging the patent and getting it revoked. Collectively, it would be much cheaper for all the victims to band together and hire a fancy law firm to invalidate the patent, but individually, it makes sense for them all to pay. A collective action problem:

https://locusmag.com/2013/11/cory-doctorow-collective-action/

Musicians get royally screwed by Spotify. Collectively, it would make sense for all of them to boycott the platform, which would bring it to its knees and either make it pay more or put it out of business. Individually, any musician who pulls out of Spotify disappears from the horizon of most music fans, so they all hang in – a collective action problem:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/21/off-the-menu/#universally-loathed

Same goes for the businesses that get fucked out of 30% of their app revenues by Apple and Google's mobile business. Without all those apps, Apple and Google wouldn't have a business, but any single app that pulls out commits commercial suicide, so they all hang in there, paying a 30% vig:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/15/private-law/#thirty-percent-vig

That's also the case with Amazon sellers, who get rooked for 45-51 cents out of every dollar in platform junk fees, and whose prize for succeeding despite this is to have their product cloned by Amazon, which underprices them because it doesn't have to pay a 51% rake on every sale. Without third-party sellers there'd be no Amazon, but it's impossible to get millions of sellers to all pull out at once, so the Bezos crime family scoops up half of the ecommerce economy in bullshit fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

This is why one definition of "corruption" is a system with "concentrated gains and diffuse losses." The company that dumps toxic waste in your water supply reaps all the profits of externalizing its waste disposal costs. The people it poisons each bear a fraction of the cost of being poisoned. The environmental criminal has a fat warchest of ill-gotten gains to use to bribe officials and pay fancy lawyers to defend it in court. Its victims are each struggling with the health effects of the crimes, and even without that, they can't possibly match the polluter's resources. Eventually, the polluter spends enough money to convince the Supreme Court to overturn "Chevron deference" and makes it effectively impossible to win the right to clean water and air (or a planet that's not on fire):

https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/us-supreme-courts-chevron-deference-ruling-will-disrupt-climate-policy

Any time you encounter a shitty, outrageous racket that's stable over long timescales, chances are you're looking at a collective action problem. Certainly, that's the underlying pathology that preserves the scholarly publishing scam, which is one of the most grotesque, wasteful, disgusting frauds in our modern world (and that's saying something, because the field is crowded with many contenders).

Here's how the scholarly publishing scam works: academics do original scholarly research, funded by a mix of private grants, public funding, funding from their universities and other institutions, and private funds. These academics write up their funding and send it to a scholarly journal, usually one that's owned by a small number of firms that formed a scholarly publishing cartel by buying all the smaller publishers in a string of anticompetitive acquisitions. Then, other scholars review the submission, for free. More unpaid scholars do the work of editing the paper. The paper's author is sent a non-negotiable contract that requires them to permanently assign their copyright to the journal, again, for free. Finally, the paper is published, and the institution that paid the researcher to do the original research has to pay again – sometimes tens of thousands of dollars per year! – for the journal in which it appears.

The academic publishing cartel insists that the millions it extracts from academic institutions and the billions it reaps in profit are all in service to serving as neutral, rigorous gatekeepers who ensure that only the best scholarship makes it into print. This is flatly untrue. The "editorial process" the academic publishers take credit for is virtually nonexistent: almost everything they publish is virtually unchanged from the final submission format. They're not even typesetting the paper:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00799-018-0234-1

The vetting process for peer-review is a joke. Literally: an Australian academic managed to get his dog appointed to the editorial boards of seven journals:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/olivia-doll-predatory-journals

Far from guarding scientific publishing from scams and nonsense, the major journal publishers have stood up entire divisions devoted to pay-to-publish junk science. Elsevier – the largest scholarly publisher – operated a business unit that offered to publish fake journals full of unreveiwed "advertorial" papers written by pharma companies, packaged to look like a real journal:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090504075453/http://blog.bioethics.net/2009/05/merck-makes-phony-peerreview-journal/

Naturally, academics and their institutions hate this system. Not only is it purely parasitic on their labor, it also serves as a massive brake on scholarly progress, by excluding independent researchers, academics at small institutions, and scholars living in the global south from accessing the work of their peers. The publishers enforce this exclusion without mercy or proportion. Take Diego Gomez, a Colombian Masters candidate who faced eight years in prison for accessing a single paywalled academic paper:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/colombian-student-faces-prison-charges-sharing-academic-article-online

And of course, there's Aaron Swartz, the young activist and Harvard-affiliated computer scientist who was hounded to death after he accessed – but did not publish – papers from MIT's JSTOR library. Aaron had permission to access these papers, but JSTOR, MIT, and the prosecutors Stephen Heymann and Carmen Ortiz argued that because he used a small computer program to access the papers (rather than clicking on each link by hand) he had committed 13 felonies. They threatened him with more than 30 years in prison, and drew out the proceedings until Aaron was out of funds. Aaron hanged himself in 2013:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

Academics know all this terrible stuff is going on, but they are trapped in a collective action problem. For an academic to advance in their field, they have to publish, and they have to get their work cited. Academics all try to publish in the big prestige journals – which also come with the highest price-tag for their institutions – because those are the journals other academics read, which means that getting published is top journal increases the likelihood that another academic will find and cite your work.

If academics could all agree to prioritize other journals for reading, then they could also prioritize other journals for submissions. If they could all prioritize other journals for submissions, they could all prioritize other journals for reading. Instead, they all hold one another hostage, through a wicked collective action problem that holds back science, starves their institutions of funding, and puts their colleagues at risk of imprisonment.

Despite this structural barrier, academics have fought tirelessly to escape the event horizon of scholarly publishing's monopoly black hole. They avidly supported "open access" publishers (most notably PLoS), and while these publishers carved out pockets for free-to-access, high quality work, the scholarly publishing cartel struck back with package deals that bundled their predatory "open access" journals in with their traditional journals. Academics had to pay twice for these journals: first, their institutions paid for the package that included them, then the scholars had to pay open access submission fees meant to cover the costs of editing, formatting, etc – all that stuff that basically doesn't exist.

Academics started putting "preprints" of their work on the web, and for a while, it looked like the big preprint archive sites could mount a credible challenge to the scholarly publishing cartel. So the cartel members bought the preprint sites, as when Elsevier bought out SSRN:

https://www.techdirt.com/2016/05/17/disappointing-elsevier-buys-open-access-academic-pre-publisher-ssrn/

Academics were elated in 2011, when Alexandra Elbakyan founded Sci-Hub, a shadow library that aims to make the entire corpus of scholarly work available without barrier, fear or favor:

https://sci-hub.ru/alexandra

Sci-Hub neutralized much of the collective action trap: once an article was available on Sci-Hub, it became much easier for other scholars to locate and cite, which reduced the case for paying for, or publishing in, the cartel's journals:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.14979

The scholarly publishing cartel fought back viciously, suing Elbakyan and Sci-Hub for tens of millions of dollars. Elsevier targeted prepress sites like academia.edu with copyright threats, ordering them to remove scholarly papers that linked to Sci-Hub:

https://svpow.com/2013/12/06/elsevier-is-taking-down-papers-from-academia-edu/

This was extremely (if darkly) funny, because Elsevier's own publications are full of citations to Sci-Hub:

https://eve.gd/2019/08/03/elsevier-threatens-others-for-linking-to-sci-hub-but-does-it-itself/

Meanwhile, scholars kept the pressure up. Tens of thousands of scholars pledged to stop submitting their work to Elsevier:

http://thecostofknowledge.com/

Academics at the very tops of their fields publicly resigned from the editorial board of leading Elsevier journals, and published editorials calling the Elsevier model unethical:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/may/16/system-profit-access-research

And the New Scientist called the racket "indefensible," decrying the it as an industry that made restricting access to knowledge "more profitable than oil":

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24032052-900-time-to-break-academic-publishings-stranglehold-on-research/

But the real progress came when academics convinced their institutions, rather than one another, to do something about these predator publishers. First came funders, private and public, who announced that they would only fund open access work:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06178-7

Winning over major funders cleared the way for open access advocates worked both the supply-side and the buy-side. In 2019, the entire University of California system announced it would be cutting all of its Elsevier subscriptions:

https://www.science.org/content/article/university-california-boycotts-publishing-giant-elsevier-over-journal-costs-and-open

Emboldened by the UC system's principled action, MIT followed suit in 2020, announcing that it would no longer send $2m every year to Elsevier:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/12/digital-feudalism/#nerdfight

It's been four years since MIT's decision to boycott Elsevier, and things are going great. The open access consortium SPARC just published a stocktaking of MIT libraries without Elsevier:

https://sparcopen.org/our-work/big-deal-knowledge-base/unbundling-profiles/mit-libraries/

How are MIT's academics getting by without Elsevier in the stacks? Just fine. If someone at MIT needs access to an Elsevier paper, they can usually access it by asking the researchers to email it to them, or by downloading it from the researcher's site or a prepress archive. When that fails, there's interlibrary loan, whereby other libraries will send articles to MIT's libraries within a day or two. For more pressing needs, the library buys access to individual papers through an on-demand service.

This is how things were predicted to go. The libraries used their own circulation data and the webservice Unsub to figure out what they were likely to lose by dropping Elsevier – it wasn't much!

https://unsub.org/

The MIT story shows how to break a collective action problem – through collective action! Individual scholarly boycotts did little to hurt Elsevier. Large-scale organized boycotts raised awareness, but Elsevier trundled on. Sci-Hub scared the shit out of Elsevier and raised awareness even further, but Elsevier had untold millions to spend on a campaign of legal terror against Sci-Hub and Elbakyan. But all of that, combined with high-profile defections, made it impossible for the big institutions to ignore the issue, and the funders joined the fight. Once the funders were on-side, the academic institutions could be dragged into the fight, too.

Now, Elsevier – and the cartel – is in serious danger. Automated tools – like the Authors Alliance termination of transfer tool – lets academics get the copyright to their papers back from the big journals so they can make them open access:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/take-it-back/

Unimaginably vast indices of all scholarly publishing serve as important adjuncts to direct access shadow libraries like Sci-Hub:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/28/clintons-ghost/#cornucopia-concordance

Collective action problems are never easy to solve, but they're impossible to address through atomized, individual action. It's only when we act as a collective that we can defeat the corruption – the concentrated gains and diffuse losses – that allow greedy, unscrupulous corporations to steal from us, wreck our lives and even imprison us.

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/16/the-public-sphere/#not-the-elsevier

[screamofdespair]

An An Magazine N°2394 (17/04/2024) : Interview with Miyamura Yūko (Kazuha's VA) & Horikawa Ryō (Heiji's VA)

General & Movie 27 (The Million-dollar Pentagram)

[宮村優子 Miyamura Yūko as 遠山 和葉 Tōyama Kazuha]

M.Y : Please, propose to me as soon as possible (laughs).

Can you tell us what you like about Toyama Kazuha ?

Kazuha-chan is a calm and peaceful character who almost never gets involved in incidents or crimes, unlike Heiji. She’s genuinely sweet and cheerful and her love for Heiji is sincere and deep. She’s so fixated on him that she doesn’t realize when other men are interested in her. I think she’s quite popular, though...

Kazuha is a character who speaks Kansai dialect, is Miyamura-san also from Kansai ?

I myself am from Kobe, so i can speak the Kobe dialect, but Kazuha-chan is from Neyagawa in Osaka, and speaks Kansai dialect. Actually, there are various types of Kansai dialect and the one she speaks is a very strong, somewhat classical version of it. I used to hear it a lot when i was a child. I think it's probably the Kansai dialect that my father's generation spoke, and that’s what i have in mind when portraying her.

How do you see the relationship between Heiji and Kazuha ? 

When will these two realize that they have mutual feelings for each other ? (laughs). I really don’t mind about finding a nice romantic setting for their confession... I just want them to confess as soon as possible. I hope they both jump straight to a proposal! (laughs). And honestly, Kazuha-chan seems to be giving off a bit of a resigned vibe lately...

When you heard that Kazuha will appear as a main character in this movie, how did you feel ?

I'm really hoping for some progress in their romance, so please make it happen! (laughs).

What do you like about Heiji ?

First of all, his sparkling eyes when he solves mysteries! Then, how cool he looks when he’s riding his bike. It’s also adorable to see that despite his abilities, he becomes clumsy in the presence of the girl he likes. Heiji also gives us the impression that he comes from a good family. My favorite moment between Heiji and Kazuha is when they are on the bike together, and Heiji says, 'If you let go, I’ll kill you! To me, that felt like a proposal on the level of ‘stay with me forever’.

What advice would you give to the two of them, who aren’t making much progress, as someone with more life experience like you ?

Well... to begin with, i think Heiji should hurry and go greet Kazuha's parents with a greeting like : Please, let me take care of your daughter!

By the way, there’s an episode where Kazuha carries a matching charm with Heiji. Do you have something similar that you carry around, like a charm ? 

I don’t have a charm, but i maintain my peace of mind by looking at pictures of my pet dog on my smartphone. (laughs).

Do you have any thoughts on the relationship between Kazuha and Ran ?

When there is progress in the relationship between Shinichi and Ran in the original work (manga), i'm as happy as if it were my own. Even during the recording sessions the scenes where they support each other's love are really fun and cute. I think there’s something only Kazuha and Ran can understand, like the ‘struggles of falling in love with a detective’. But at the same time, i also wish for Ai Haibara’s happiness. So, i want Dr. Agasa to develop cloning technology that can create multiple Shinichis (laughs). Also, there aren’t enough Conans compared to the crime rate! So i hope they increase the number of Conans as well. If it’s Dr. Agasa, he should definitely be able to do it!

Do you have any memorable moments from the recording sessions of this movie that you’d like to share ? 

Minami Takayama, who voices Conan, is always amazing, and this time was no different, she was incredible as ever. I even took notes, listing what exactly made her performance so impressive. It was just astonishing...

Each character in Conan is very popular. Do you hear such feedback from fans ?

Of course! As a fan myself, i watch the show with my Conan fan friends all the time. Every character is charming, and the story is interesting no matter where you dive in. Sometimes, there are occasional small plot elements, so i can't take my eyes off it from start to finish. Personally, i really enjoy the scenes where Kogoro looks competent, and even though Gin and Vodka don’t appear in this movie, their buddy dynamic is something that i love. Oh, and i was really moved by the relationship between Inspector Nakamori and Kid.

Finally, can you please share the highlights of this year's movie to our readers ?

This time, the culprit and the mystery-solving aspects are very intriguing, but there’s also... Kid’s secret!!! Look forward to it!

[堀川 りょう Horikawa Ryō as 服部 平次 Hattori Heiji]

H.R : I believe there's a certain appeal in things that are not easily achieved (laughs).

Can you tell us what you like about Hattori Heiji ?

First of all, he doesn't back down. Heiji gets really annoyed with people who give in and say things like "it doesent matter." That kind of passion is very much like him, and i like that. By the way, although he is the greatest detective in the West, he becomes a complete failure when it comes to Kazuha-chan. She is his weakness. That’s definitely where to hit him!

Heiji is a character who speaks in Kansai dialect. Horikawa-san is from Kansai, isn't he ?

You know, while portraying Heiji, i sometimes think, ‘nobody talks like that in Kansai these days!’ (laughs). Expressions like 'seyakate,' 'souden ga na,' and 'chaiman ga na' you wouldn’t hear them even if you crossed the street in Kansai these days (laughs). As a high school student, what era is Heiji even from? But well, since it’s fiction, i understand the desire to exaggerate a bit. This time, the story takes place in Hakodate, and the Hokkaido dialect 'waya' is used.

When you heard that Heiji would appear as a main character in this movie, how did you feel ? 

Here we go again! (laughs). I was really excited. Especially because there wasn’t any talk about him being a main character next year. About a year ago, i got a call saying, ‘sorry, we need to record a preview for next year’, and i thought, ‘wait, does that mean... next year?’ ‘Yes, that's right.’ That’s how i found out. I was really happy.

How do you see the relationship between Heiji and Kazuha ?

In the previous movie, ‘The Crimson Love Letter’, Heiji said to Kazuha, 'If you let go... I’ll kill you.' To me, that’s basically a confession. It’s almost equivalent to saying, ‘i love you’, so i think his feelings have been conveyed... But i wonder if they’ve actually reached her. It doesn’t seem like it, does it? (laughs).

What do you like about Kazuha ? 

She often scolds Heiji with some harsh words, but from my perspective, they are just messing around like a married couple's quarrel. I’m always like, ‘oh, they’re at it again’. But actually, i don't mind being scolded like that, as does Heiji. During the recording sessions, i often think, ‘she’s so cute’. Honestly, i wouldn’t mind if she scolded him a bit more… (laughs).

What advice would you give to the two of them, who aren’t making much progress, as someone with more life experience like you ?

I think their feelings have already been conveyed, so isn’t that enough ? (laughs). Of course, i’d love for them to finally get together, but that slow progress seems so typical of Heiji and Kazuha, don’t you think? (laughs).

Do you have any memorable moments from the recording sessions of this movie that you’d like to share ?

There’s a scene where my character has to fight an opponent in an unbelievable location, something that could only happen in an anime. It’s a completely unrealistic situation, but the characters are fighting with all their might. So, as voice actors, we have to give the same level of effort to make it work. That particular scene left me really exhausted during the recording sessions. But that’s exactly what made it so entertaining. Being able to immerse yourself in the role to the point where it feels like you’re stepping into the picture is one of the best parts of this job. The feeling of accomplishment and the exhaustion afterward were incredibly satisfying.

Each character in Conan is very popular. Do you hear such feedback from fans ? 

Yes… but it’s a bit embarrassing (laughs). Well, there’s no denying that all the characters are really cool. But if people feel that the appeal comes not just from the way they look, but also from the acting, i think it’s because all the actors aren’t trying to ‘be cool’. We’re just giving it our all. I truly believe that fully committing to the role is what makes it come off as cool.

Finally, can you please share the highlights of this year's movie to our readers ?

When it comes to Heiji, it's not only about his feelings for Kazuha but also his dedication to pursuing the truth. I hope the readers can truly appreciate this admirable aspect of his character. There’s plenty of entertainment too, such as Conan-kun’s skateboard sequences, but also more profound emotions and nuances of life that adults will relate to, alongside the action and mystery-solving. This film is packed with so many elements that i recommend watching it at least three times (laughs). You really can’t catch everything in one viewing. Personally, i watch any movie at least three times!

Note : The translation might not be the most accurate word-for-word, but i did my best to make it coherent.

[thedaughersofferrix]

Birthdays

(work is not nsfw, but this blog is generally intended to be 18+)

synopsis: cal forgets about his birthday. you don't.

pairing: cal kestis x gn! reader

content warnings: pining, fluff, reader is a jedi

word count: 1.5k

a/n: something short and sweet to say happy jedi survivor release everybody. game looks amazing & i'm so happy to see cal again. might be a part 2, but i'm not sure atm

if cal kestis has a million fans, then i'm one of them. if cal kestis has one fan, then i'm them. if cal kestis has no fans, that means i'm dead.

-

Cal decided that fighting the Empire would be a priority in his life five years ago.

After he destroyed the holocron so the force-sensitive children in the galaxy could live in peace, that was his vow.

The Mantis crew got to work; blowing up Haxion Brood bases and wiping out legions of stormtroopers at a time. The fight thrilled him and every battle only left him in anticipation of the next.

It got to the point where he struggled to think of anything but the fight. Every thought was the next move, their wrongs and the perpetrators. The scars, the injuries and the losses continued and Cal never wavered.

He knew it was an obsession, but he just couldn’t help it. It was a need, etched into his soul and a part of his identity. His was Cal Kestis. The rebel Jedi, the most wanted man in the Empire. And the most dangerous.

Then he met you. 

Well, he met you again, because he’d met you years ago, back when the temple on Coruscant was a Jedi temple. When Master Tapal was alive and little Cal’s mind couldn’t even fathom an Empire taking everything from him.

You’d been his crèche-mate and friend, long before either of you had been padawans.

In between lessons, you would spar or lounge in the dining hall, where most of the other younglings liked to loiter. He formed a puppy-love crush on you that made his Master chuckle. It’s only natural, Cal. The feelings will fade with time. He has half-right, Cal supposes.

He remembers vividly the last time he saw you when he and Master Tapal were minutes away from loading onto a cruiser with their clone troops. Thinking back, he’s embarrassed by how hesitant he was to leave you.

Don’t get all sentimental about this, you told him wisely. We’ll see each other when we get back.

It was so hard to tell himself you were dead. 

Cal Kestis was the last living Jedi, fighting against the Empire that deemed his kind a traitor and punished them for crimes they never committed.

You had died, so had your master and so had everyone else he once knew. That had been difficult for him to accept.

Merrin and Cere understood the pain and that helped, at times. Though sometimes he didn’t want to understand. He wanted to see you, feel your arms embracing him and hear your voice in his ear. He didn’t talk about you to them though. He wanted something for himself, a little what-if to hold on to during the nights he felt particularly melancholic. 

Then came his trip to Segra Milo, to speak with Saw Gerrera about his next move.

By that point, the Partisans recognised him on sight and offered him only a nod of acknowledgement when he passed by. 

There you were, in all your glory. Older, a bit more rough around the edges (like himself) and even more attractive than you’d been about nine years ago.

When the two of you locked eyes and time bowed at your feet, to allow you both this moment of silent disbelief.

“Cal?” you had whispered. He whispered your name back and you smiled widely. 

You embraced him like he had been so desperate for you to do. And he heard your voice, the one that had previously only reached him in dreams.

“I thought you died,” you told him.

“I thought you died,” he said, in a single breath. Emotion threatened to explode from his chest until Saw Gerrera cleared his throat.

“I hate to break up this lover’s reunion,” he said. “But we do have a war to fight.”

“Tonight,” you whispered into his ear and he felt like a padawan with a crush again.

Sure enough, the two of you made a rendezvous under the moonlight. The cavernous, dangerous terrain of Segra Milo felt so inviting that night.

You explained to him that you and your master had been ambushed by your own troopers. You and your master were separated when they received the orders and by luck, you weren’t the one in a room full of clones. Quietly you found an escape pod and left for the nearest planet. You cut your padawan braid and disassembled your lightsaber on the same day. The kyber crystal that powered it hung from your neck, hidden behind layers of clothing.

“One day I watched them string up a man for dropping his drink on a trooper's foot,” you recalled to him. “They claimed he had done it as an act of civil disobedience and that it was anti-Imperial activity. I rebuilt my lightsaber and started looking for the Rebellion the same day.”

You were the same person he remembered, only better. Now you were stronger and smarter, without losing your humanity. 

The next day, you were separated again. You were travelling to Devaron to provide the Partisans there with support. He tried to go with you, but you sagely reminded him of the danger of two Jedi being found together.

You exchanged comm links the night prior and hugged tightly before you boarded your ship and he the Mantis. It reminded him of the one you gave him before what he thought had been your demise. He prayed he wouldn’t have to remember this hug the same way. 

“Until next time, Cal,” you said, hopeful and bright.

“Until then,” he replied, leaving you with a smile.

The next time he saw you, he thinks he might have hugged you tighter than he’d ever hugged anyone.

There had been a next time, he thought. There could be another one.

And there was. In fact, there had been many next times. He couldn’t count on his hands how many times he had gotten to see you. On the good days, you spoke and drank together. On the days, you fought and mourned together. But you were together and it was so much easier than it had been before.

Recently he’d probably gone the longest without seeing you, which made him realise the effect you had on him.

The Empire was still are the forefront of his mind, almost always. It consumed his actions and words. Slowly but surely, however, you had been weaselling your way into an important position in his life.

He didn’t care about the Empire when he was looking at you and he may as well have not met an Inquisitor when he’s hearing your laugh. You were there and he didn’t need to think about any of that.

Then, when the gap you filled was empty again with your departure, he was consumed by the need to fight once more.

He forewent sleep and food, only collapsing when his body refused to preserve and eating when the hunger pangs came. Fight, fight, fight, was all he could think about. It never really occurred to him to celebrate his victories or even do simple things, like check the date. 

But you returned to him again and reminded him of what he was missing.

“A win like this is worth sitting down for,” you insisted, sitting beside him at the fire. “Besides, today is special.” His brow furrowed. 

“What’s today?” he asked you, which made you laugh, loud and beautiful.

“You can’t be serious, Cal.”

“I am! What’s today?”

“Cal,” you sighed. “It’s your birthday.”

His mind went blank as the gears started to turn. “Oh,” was what he came up with. You laughed at him again.

“Did you really forget?” you asked him. 

“I haven’t celebrated it in years,” he admitted and you frowned, making him wish he lied. He hated it when you frowned, though you did make a cute face when you were angry.

“Well we’ll have to make up for that, won’t we?” you announced, standing from your seat and downing your drink. “Stay here for a second.” He nodded and you slipped away.

You returned not long after, with something behind your back.

“Close your eyes,” you instructed. He looked at you curiously. “Just do it.” His eyes fell shut. He heard you shuffling and muttering something to BD-1. “Put out your hands.” He open one palm and pushed it toward you. “Both of them.” He opened the other. He felt a weight in his left hand, then in his right.

“Open.” 

Cal was greeted by a cupcake in his left hand and a multitool in his left.

“I tried to find a cake, but apparently Devaronians aren’t very fond of them,” you explained. “And this,” you pointed to the multitool. “I bought this for you back on Corellia, but you were gone before I could give it to you. It’s got everything you need to keep Beedee in working order.” BD-1 chirped happily at that.

Cal was starstruck. He hadn’t experienced softness like this since before the Clone Wars. Suddenly his chest felt fuzzy and his face was hot. 

“Thank you,” he managed. “No problem,” you answered breezily.

He shared some of the cupcake with you, but you insisted he had to eat at least seventy per cent of it. The multitool found a place on his belt, though with the amount of combat he saw, he’d be using it soon.

You sat beside him at the fire on his birthday and Cal Kestis felt hope again in a way like he’d never felt before. Hope for not just the present, but the future.

[dickarchivist]

I've got you

Clone OC Banshee × GN-Reader

Word Count: 727

Prompt: "back hugs" from @littlemissmanga and "comfort fic for nonverbal reader" from @nika6q

Song: Get You The Moon by Kina (feat. Snøw)

Rating: PG, but as always Minors DNI 🔞

Contents and Warnings: hurt/comfort, light swearing, Banshee kicks a door down in the name of love.

Summary: It's been a long time since Banshee's been home, and the stress of life has you overwhelmed at the worst possible time: right when Banshee gets home.

Author's Notes: another Banshee POV!!! Some hurt/comfort this day. Sorry it's so short, and not at all what I've been saying I'd write next, but at least it's something.

Taglist: @returnofthepineapple @wizardofrozz @eclec-tech @dystopicjumpsuit @clonethirstingisreal @wings-and-beskar @multi-fan-dom-madness @starrylothcat @n0vqni @sev-on-kamino @mythical-illustrator @523rdrebel @littlemissmanga @atomickidsoul @moonwreckd

"Hey Ban~ Today is day 43 of our tragic separation, you're millions of miles away, and it's not fair. So today at work..."

"Day 55 of "No Banshee hugs for me". Seriously, when are you coming home? I miss you. Anyway, my Tooka came back from the vet today- oh right, I adopted a tooka kitten yesterday, I bet you can't guess what I named him-"

"Day 97, Rai told me you miss me. I just... I wish I could hear it from you. I know, I know it's not easy, I know you don't talk, I just-- I'd do anything to have you with me, just so I could understand that you miss me..."

"Day 122... I wish you'd come home..."

I've been listening to your recordings every day since I was deployed. All 132 of them. Every single day since we left, you sent me a diary of your day, stars I can't tell you how much I needed every single one of those. Running through battle fire, hearing you laugh about what "Banbino" was doing. I can't believe you named your tooka after me.

I've thought about you every second of the days. How your hair is tossed in the morning, how you scrunch your nose at how I make Caf... don't be mad, but I still haven't learned how to make it proper. The way your voice sounds and feels when you put my hands on your throat and chest, so I can feel every way you say you love me... I've thought about being with you again since the second I turned to leave 132 days ago.

So why am I stuck behind your front door? I can't even raise my hand to knock. Can't even enter the code to your flat... it's my number, you told me that so long ago now... I've been keeping track, I know it's your day off, I know you're just right behind this damn door so why can't I open it!? Come on Banshee! Open the door! Open the damn door, they're right on the other side, just open--

I... I heard that. Did you fall? Are you hurt? No, no don't be hurt I'm so bad at medical. C'mon, karkin' door open! Remind me to fix your locks, I'll replace them, I swear. Oh fuck, the hinges too, I uh... I kicked a little too hard, I think...

"Ban...?" You're crying... why... why are you crying?

When you hold your arms out to me, I dont even take a full step forward before you recoil and cover your face with a racking sob. I don't stop moving. I can't, you need me. I get to one knee behind you and gently rub your back, but it only makes you curl in on yourself more... what can I do for you?

Carefully I sit behind you, and collect you up in my arms, your back pressed to my chest. With my helmet off, I put my head on your shoulder, "I've got you, Cyare... I'm here."

You sound like me a moment, trying to talk, trying to force words. I shush you, leaning my head on yours and swaying softly. Eventually, you turn around, and bury your face in my neck. When I hum, you start to relax in my arms, and eventually, I can't help the little chuckle in my throat. You're snoring... Stars I love you.

It's another hour before you wake up. I moved us to your bed, and had since changed into the civvies you'd gotten me. Softer clothes, I figured you'd like it more than my hard armor...

"Banshee? You're... you're really home? I'm s-sorry, I'm sorry for-- I-I was just- I was so--" your blush when I press my lips to yours, it's so warm I could feel it on my own skin.

"I... it's okay, y-you don't ha-have to expl-pl-plain." Your eyes shine at the sound of my voice... I wish I could talk better, I'd speak for you all the time. "I've g-got you, Cyare."

You nod and set your head back on my chest. As I hum again, you join in, mumbling the words under your breath when you feel up to it. Take your time, Cyare. I know how hard it is to talk, I'm not going anywhere.

[dippedinmelancholy]

I started really big into fandoms during the Twilight craze. ACOTAR is 100% just as cringey and weird, written by a white woman who is pushing her somewhat subtle racist (even if unknowingly) views through her writing unto her readers, who are mosty women. The intensity for the fans is just as insane for ACOTAR, but like . . . . when it comes to the male love interests and the "family", Cullens/Inner Circle, at least Twilight had the justification of these people are frozen at their age??? Jacob is literally like 16/17? Edward is frozen in the mind of a 17 year old. Bella is 17 when the book starts. So you look at them and go, yeah they're fucking dumb and dramatic but they're literally forever teenagers what do you expect? Rhysand and the IC are 500+ years old and have not changed from their 17 yr old mindsets. Why does Twilight feel like it had stronger lore/world building for how vampires work versus how fae work?

Cassian and Nesta might feel like a weird clone of Emmett and Rosalie, but let me tell you. Emmett would move heaven, earth, and 1 million bears for Rosalie. Yeah, she's bitchy, but he fucking loves her. No one would tear Emmett away from the angel that saved him. He would 100% rofflestomp Edward's ass for threatening Rosalie's life. I'm so baffled that my brain is stuck on this, and that ACOTAR is somehow bringing me full circle to my high school Twilight hyperfixation.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character — Unscripted Bracket — Round 2

Propaganda

Chine (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle):

”Look at how they grow ‘em here in Blackwick. God damn.”

taz fandom i'm begging to you please listen to fatt: sangfielle and experience chine please duck is an extended bit about wayne newton and he doesn't even try to blow up a carnival to upset mother nature and force a random town to forever be attendants to the aforementioned eternal carnival please oh please...

If Chine eating a mattress has a million fans, I am one, etc. etc.

just LOOK AT HIM

and he can turn into a shrew monster

this guy has great tits, this guy is a monster, this guy is nonbinary and all the bugs love them!! he's a dad, a writer, a macrame artist?? they're a goofball, they're deadly serious, they're shockingly competent! he's a vessel of the chaos of nature itself!! he's an animal control guy that sides with the animals, he's the living embodiment of adhd with a side of depression, and weirdly suspicious of the color yellow?? they swing a rusty poll-ax, they know how to read music and are completely comfortable singing with their co-workers..... which is to say:

vote for chinel <3

Vote for chine hes a wereshrew and morally ambiguous and easily lusted for

CHINE IS A BIG HAIRY EXOTERRORIST WOODSY FAILDAD WERESHREW DOG-GUY DOG-BOY... THEY ATE A WHOLE MATTRESS TO ESCAPE PRISON AND HE ATE A LIGHTBULB TO TOUCH THE GENIUS OF CREATION... AND HE'S REALLY GAY. THEY/HE LEGEND (AS IN ACTUAL LEGEND, PEOPLE ARE SCARED OF THEM)

GO MY PSIONIC WARRIORS!!!!!!!!

Tryst Valentine (Campaign: Star Wars):

Hot shot pilot/smuggler that will hit on anything that moves, but the best possible version of that character in almost a satirical way while also being super genuine. Too sexy to be able to read, to stubborn to admit they can't.

Han Solo but worse! A very funny little scoundrel stuck with a clone trooper and a mercenary (by choice). Mostly spends his time flirting, but gets serious when he needs to.

you know its trystan valentine i know it's trystan valentine what are we doing here? genderqueer freak of a man (the most positive voice in the world)

I wrote the first paragraph of Tryst propaganda. He's "oh no, I'm going to have to sleep with this idiot" sexy. He knows it makes you look bad for thinking he's hot and he uses that power for evil.

Art of Chine made by @wereshrew-admirer.

[roguedruid]

"Oh great druid this humble petitioner asks for your recommendations on fics you did not write but enjoyed greatly I look forward to getting your top 15."

Uhhhh Damn. Hold on. Lets seee..... I can give you eleven- in no particular order- that come to mind with a bit of searching. but questioner- I read so many fics. This is gonna be a crapshoot of fandoms, so hold on. Of Harrowed Hearts by Sable_Scribe: A Naruto fic which is sadly unfinished- but had an awesome vibe and really dives into the characterization of the Konoha 12 and their potential. It does have Naruto/Sasuke vibes- but when it last left off the slow burn was slow and Sasuke was barely realizing his emotions. The Games We Play by Ryuugi: It's posted on Spacebattles origionally- but it's been reposted a few other places. It's massive- nearly a million words. This was my first real 'Massive fic' i followed as it was updating- and my real intro to Space Battles/Sufficent Velocity as fanfic sites. Also- first Gamer fic that went *way* into the power scaling and endgame stuff. Jaune in this story escalates hard as fuck. I'm talking supernatural kung fu, elemental powers, the ability to destroy cities- And his threats are scary enough to match it. This was before Salem for most of the story- but the Grimm that show up are terrifying. Keeping on the forums real fast- Two Quests (Essentially reader driven stories) deserve to be on this list. Xander [Quest] by one Judge Mental is another of those Monolithic kind of reading experiences. it's massive- on a word count I can't even figure out- spread across like 28 threads. it starts as a simple premise- You are Alexander Harris- and you are born as the reincarnation of Ganondorf. Yeah- that Ganondorf. Things only escalate past that point- to where the last i checked we were possibly the strongest sorcerer on earth- and only 12.

"A Geeks Guide: CORE" series by Sage_of_Eyes. Again, monolithic in scope- it's a complete reimagining of the Highschool DXD mythology (yes, the ecchi novels/anime. Yes it's way deeper then it deserves. Yes, it's also metal as fuck)

Swerving back from forums:

A Drop of Poison by Angel Of Snapdragons: Naruto's Shadow Clones are fucking crazy- and if you've ever wanted to see the power fantasy of them escalating non stop- this is the good shit. Drifting by AlphaDelta1001: More Naruto- but this one has some of my favorite 'Kinda Genius' Naruto moments. It mixes up the timelines, throws in a completley revamped Chuunin exam, introduces tones of new characters- and completely revamps Naruto's methods- if you ever got bored of 'it's all Rasengan' in canon- this is definitely a suggestion.

From Fake Dreams by Third Fang: Fate Stay/Night. Supercharged. This is a bit of a controversal pick- mainly because Third Fang is one of those authors who's sense of humor is... off. Just a bit of that old school Shonen Jump Pervert vibe in the background- snarky comments and purile humor creep around the corners of his writing- but FFD is still immensly fun to read. The power creep- already high as fuck in Canon FSN- goes so high. Where recently Shirou isn't fighting Servants- But True Ancestors. Son of the Western Sea by Mac_Ceallach: If you want Percy Jackson going solo on a world-wide adventure- this is it. its after the War for New York, before the romans showed up- and Its got Percy just... being cool vibing. Hitting into other myths by accident. In contrast, if you want some true off the rocker Percy- An Impractical Guide to Godhood by Antony444 It's technically a crossover with A practical guide to Evil- but if you ever wanted to see olympus and the rest of the percy jackson verse just... implode with chaos? This is it. Flooding Hades with the flaming river- beating Ceaser in Gladatorial Events, fucking with the olympians? This goes hard. The Many Quirks Of Phantom Thievery by PsychicBeagle Persona 5, reloaded. Featuring New Game+ shenanagains, plenty of romance and memes, and puns. If you're a P5 fan, I highly reccomend it. It's Time For Another Good Idea, Bad Idea by Haurvatat: This is a weird one- for one it's Solo leveling, so it's fandom was kinda niche. on the other... It's got Cannabilism in it. But! As a Cook? this is a guilty pleasure fic. The cooking scenes are all written like Binging with Babish episodes, the humor is on point, there's actual stakes and emotions- theres closure? What more does a fic need.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Thank you for tag @searchforahero

rules: answer and tag nine people you want to get to know better and catch up with.

favorite color: Black, and I need there to be a ton of black surrounding any other color to enjoy it, but I'm also a fan of lilac and teal

last song: Uncle Sam Goddamn by Brother Ali

currently reading: Almost nothing tbh, though I am sifting through various comics off and on to try and get a handle on the characters I'm trying to write, so some 1900s Young Justice stuff, and I read a bunch of Robin Tim sorta recently.

currently watching: Helloween4545 playing Crow Country I really don't do TV shows at all these days, and my movie nights crew hasn't gotten together in a long while

currently craving: a nap with my boyfriend

coffee or tea: Tea. Specifically the kind of southern US tea that comes real cheap in gallon jugs or tea bags meant to steep a gallon of water at a time, like the red diamond kinda shit

hobby to try: Coding. The squiggly little lines that make the computer go intrigue me

current au: ooooohhh I got a million of these going at all times, here's the current crop:

Chained AU

Jason is set in front of a contract that will grant near omnipotence over every facet of reality. The catch is that it requires the person who actually gains the power to be permanently bound into the service of someone else. Afraid of what this could do in the wrong hands, Jason asks Tim to be his new Master.

This one has been on permanent rotation since I was like 16 tbh

Brothers In Blood Hive King AU

In which Jason was lying at the end of BiB and was not back to normal and is still some kind of alien tentacle monster and Jason and Tim and I get to be freaks about it

We Are One clone AU

So you know how most clone plots end up with the doppleganger trying to take over the other's life and someone has to choose the real one? What if the clone and the 'real one' decided they could share actually and were complete freaks about it?

In this one Jason dies and comes back to life as per usual, except he ALSO gets cloned by someone who doesn't want Bruce to go through the horrors of a dead son. Which then means that there is a very literal replacement Jason hanging around living the life Jason would have had if he didn't die. They fight for a while but then decide that actually, they both have equal claim to this life.

So they decide to get like insanely weird with it! They take turns carving their scars into each other and telling each other every last detail of their lives and memorizing each other's verbal ticks so that they can just... pretend they are one singular person. Forever. Every day they swap which of them is doing outside things and which is doing the indoor cooking/cleaning/resting. It's a drastic improvement in quality of life for both Jasons simply due to the fact that they now actually rest a lot, and get adequate time to heal from all their injuries. They take this as a sign that they were incomplete without each other and get Even Weirder About It.

A secondary fic would feature Dick's POV as it gets revealed that for the passed five years, his younger brother has been two different people who are continuing to insist that they are one singular person even now that they're both in the same room together, and Dick can't figure out if they're trying to gaslight him or if this is some kind of ritualistic mutual cult reinforcement thing that they've used to gaslight each other into genuinely believing it's true. They talk in unison for upwards of an hour without either flubbing anything, but there's no psychics involved so they have to have just practiced that shit which is actually a thousand times scarier than there being something supernatural about them. Also Dick's pretty sure they're gonna murder him if they realize he's taken blood samples and knows that one is a clone.

Both this one and the BiB Hive King AU originally started out as Chained chapters, with Jason from Chained having been the one to ensure Hive King Jason got to stay a tentacle monster and the one to convince clone Jason and birth Jason that they both had equal right to their life. (And that since both of them already knew who the clone was, the only thing they were really fighting over was the affection of their family - something neither of them had any control over and which neither of them was ever going to get. Might as well each focus on loving themself.) I'm def keeping the Hive King one as a Chained cameo thing, not so sure about keeping this one.

Jason marries Orcus, Demon Lord of Undeath, from D&D AU???

idk man my two special interests are Jason and Demons, it was bound to happen eventually, but this one is probably staying firmly locked up in my noggin forever tbh

Uhhhhh let's see, nine whole people...

@laufire @lazaruspiss @zeroducks-2 @deepwithintheabyss @acaffeinefiend

@cologona @kittykatninja321 @swamp-spirit @cleromancy

feel free to do this thingy if you want :3

[mrfandomwars]

Timely Meetings: How the Senate suffered a storm of Punches, Lord Jedi edition, please!

hey!!! Thanks for the ask!!!

This au/wip is very simple: essentially the Jedi Order from the Time of The Old Republic end up teleported to mid way through the clone wars...

...and are Very Displeased about the treatment of their fellow Jedi Family

I'm thinking that the Old Republic Jedi (Which I call Leige Jedi, bc of 2 things: The Rising Storm says that 'Lord' was the Jedi's old title to Stellan, and Leige was the closest I could find to a gender neutral term And because this way it sets it different from Legends: Old Republic) have like. A Lot More Rights and power over the Senate/the Republic Army than Prequels Army AND on top of that, Their Republic is Actually competent and helps them around as well as they get along really well

So all this treatment? It makes them... Well, protective and a bit angry.

This it when the storm of punches come in, because some are exchanged and honestly the Senate is torn into a new one

The video goes Viral on the holonet, and in the mean time, the rest of the Leige Jedi (which I headcanon are like. A Lot Numerous than the Prequels, think 1 million Leige Jedi Vs 10000 of the prequel jedi) are helping the Prequels Jedi pack and are going back to other temples until shit is figured out

On the side, the Leige Jedi are bonding with the clones (and possibly earning a fan club in some battalions/younger clones)

(If the Leige Jedi battalions came with them to the future, then you BET they are the ones who started the punches and are joining forces with the clones...

...and also sharing funny stories)

(Dooku get's kicked in the nuts by Yoda's Older Padawan Sibling at some point)

[magician-kitty]

Beach Episode

It was a hot day today at Megapolis, and when I mean hot. I mean very, very hot. Like it's so hot that you could probably cook some eggs on the sidewalk.

"Sizzle, Sizzle, Megapolis City. It's hot out there! But don't fret it or sweat it. To beat the heat, you just gotta hydrate and refrigerate. Get yourself a nice frosty ice cream cone. Stay out of the Sun, or you'll end up well-done. Find some shade, or better yet, go on and get wet, wet, wet! Talking about a fishing hole or a swimming pool, fool! Stroll down to your friendly neighborhood river, lake, or stream, and leave the cool tubes to me."

"Ugh it's so hot..." MK groaned as she was fanning herself, sweating a lot.

"You said it, MK. Today is very hot." Mei replied as she was sweating too, her jacket wrapped around her waist and slouching over her chair.

"Hey, why not go to the Weather Station?" Mei suggested, MK shook her head. "Can't, it's still being repaired after Red Son took over it."

MK groaned in frustration, the one day she couldn't be more mad at the fire demon.

"Pigsy, Tang? You guys, okay??" MK asked, she glanced down and sees them sprawled down on the floor. "Stupid hot weather." Pigsy groaned, wiping sweat from his face.

"I think...this is the end for me." Tang groaned as well, his glasses halfway off his face. "I always knew we'd go out together, my sweet."

"Aw that's swell Tang."

Mei was about complain until she came up with the perfect solution. "Ooh, I know! We should all go to the beach!!" Mei said as MK, Pigsy, Tang liked the idea.

It's been such a long time since they all went to the beach--probably because everyone just goes to the Weather Station instead.

"Ooh! That's sounds like a great idea, I can buy me that swimsuit I saw the other day!" She grinned excitedly, scrolling through her phone for swimsuits.

"It better not be inappropriate, young lady!"

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

"Yeah, I think I could get used to this," Tang sighed in relief at the cool shade that was the umbrella he laid under, swirling an icy drink in his hand, he glanced over to the grumbling pig at his side. "C'mon, cheer up hon, Enjoy yourself."

"How can I, I told the kid not to pick that damn swimsuit." Pigsy murmured irritatedly, eyes darting around the crowded coast. A hand grasped his, comforting thumbs that traced over his knuckles.

"As much as you don't like it she Is growing up, and you're going to have to accept that."

The chef demon just grumbled, "Hey c'mon, take a break and relax. Please, My big strong noodle maker?~" Tang cooed, scratching Pigsy under his chin, making him squeal in delight.

A soft smile growing on his face, before turning to the sea with uncertainty. "Okay, Okay, hon. Whatever you--Aaugh!!" His face was caked with sand as a volleyball hits him in the face.

"My bad, Pigsy!" Mei called out.

"Me as well!" Sandy called out.

Pigsy growled and was about to yell at the river demon and dragon girl, until they all heard screaming, they looked to see everyone running away. "What the heck is going on?" He questioned.

"Oh no..." Tang sighed, having a clue to what's happening.

"Peasants!!" A familiar voice shouted, The group sighed in irritation.

The bull prince, Red Son stands before the group with millions of his Bull Clones behind him. He wears a white visor, a pair of sunglasses with an indigo rim, a black tank top, a pair of indigo swim trunks with a white stripe running down each side, and brown flip flops.

"What do you want, Red Boy?" Mei demanded, tapping her foot on the sand. "We don't really feel like fighting you today."

He scoffed, taking off his shades. "Please, As if I wish to fight you peasants today, I'm here to enjoy myself, As like the rest of you."

"That's reassuring." The pig demon grumbled, sitting back into the shade. Red Son looked around, as if someone was missing. "What? Noodle girl isn't here to save you all today?" He cackled.

"For your information MK's here, she's on the other side of the beach enjoying herself." The dragon girl pointed to the other side of the beach, towards the water.

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

"Whoo!"

She let out a loud cheer as she jumped into the water, riding the waves wearing a black two-piece swimsuit with flower prints.

The brunette screams as she looses her footing off the board and into the ocean. MK's head shot up from the water as she laughed, feeling her body relaxed from the intense heat. "Whoo! Now this is more like it." She then started swimming as she got out and dryed herself with a towel.

She lie down on her beach towel and starts reading a Monkey King comic book. She started reading but five minutes later, she was just starting to doze off when two shadows appearing over her startled her awake.

"Huh? What the?" She murmured, sitting up to stretch, She looked up and saw two demons that were gawking and grinning at her.

"Oh no, not this..."

"Excuse me pretty lady, but me and my friend couldn't help but admire you from afar~" one of them said seductively, waggling his eyebrows.

He had dark green eyes, a pig-like nose, buck-tooth grin, and short, messy red hair.

"Yeah, smokin' hot in that bikini!" The other agreed. He had slicked back black hair, black and white horns, lavender skin and a little stubble on his pointy jaw. His brown eyes glinted with mischief.

MK rolled her eyes at their crude remarks. "Wow, that's very sweet of you to say," she said sarcastically before going back to her comic book. "But please go away, Thank you."

"Aw, no need to be so cold darlin' I'm Stone, this is my friend, Wayne." He introduced himself and his friend.

"Say, wait a minute," Wayne suddenly said, eyes widening in recognition. "You're that Monkie Kid chick!"

"Really?" Stone leaned in towards MK, getting far too close in personal to her face, peering at her with narrowed eyes. "Hey! You're right, She is!"

"Yeah, what of it?" She crossed her arms, clearly not in the mood to be bothered by these guys.

"Aw, no need to be so cold darlin' We're really huge fans of yours you know." Wayne nudged his friend in the arm, grinning.

"Hmph! Yeah, I'm sure you are."

"Oh, no, it's true, we are! Ain't that right, Stone?" He nodded quickly.

"Definitely! So whatcha doin' here all by yourself?" Stone asked.

"That's None of your business, jerk." MK replied hotly. "Look, leave me alone, okay?" MK shoved past them, heading back towards the water where she hoped she could cool down, not only from the heat of the sun, but from having to put up with these perverts.

"Aw Cmon darlin' don't leave," Stone growled as he and Wayne chased her down and gripped her both arms tightly. "Not without an autograph at least~" He cooed, wiggling his eyebrows.

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

"No fair, you cheated!"

"I did no such thing. I won your little game fair and square!"

"You didn't have to hit the volleyball that hard, you little punk!" Pigsy scowled the fire demon while tending to his unconscious husband, who has a shiner on his head.

As they continued bickering, a loud, panicked scream pierced through the white sandy beaches, Sandy's ears perked, his large amber eyes went out towards the area, scanning it. He gasped. "Oh no, no look!" He points to a spot further out into the deeper section of the water.

Red Son followed his gaze, squinting to find what the gentle giant was referring too. Once he saw it, his eyes widened then narrowed in anger.

He growled.

"Hey, what are you?"

Before Mei could question him, Red Son was shoving past the group, zooming towards the water, shoving past anyone in his path.

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

"Alright, I'm warning you pricks to buzz off, Or else I'll show you what happens to those who mess with The Monkie Kid!" MK hissed, towering over the boys hoping they'd buy her bluff and leave her alone.

Unfortunately, these two were smarter than she anticipated. "Oooh, sounds like fun! Can wanna see~!"

MK shrieked as she suddenly felt her bikini top loosen, the strings falling across her shoulders. "GET OFF ME!" MK screamed, She cried out when she found herself tackled from behind.

Oh, that's it she swore she would handle this and not pull out her staff but that's it!!

Unfortunately, someone has already beaten her to the punch, literally. An incoming fist landed on Stone's face, sending the jerk flying inches away from MK.

Both MK and Wayne froze when they heard the deep growling and the smell of smoke. MK glanced over Wayne's shoulder and saw the familiar red headed demon, His normal green eyes were glowing with a red burning rage, his hair blazing fire, smoke snorting from his nose and his mouth was drawn back in a menacing snarl, revealing his very sharp and deadly-looking teeth.

"I believe she told you both to 'Go away'," Red Son rumbled. "Or are the both of you hard of hearing."

"Woah, c-calm down pal. W-we were just playing around with her! Just having a little fun is all!" Wayne insisted, but immediately fell silent with the icy stare that was sent his way.

Red Son quickly glanced over to MK, who had her back turned to them, attempting to retie her top--surely to have come undone by those guys, The mere sight of her trembling state made his heart ache inside.

And he did like it. One. Bit!!

Red Son grabbed the two creeps by the back of their necks, holding him up in the air. The two yelped and struggled, but the fire user's grip was too strong.

"You hideous second rate demons have the audacity to harass an innocent young woman just because she said no!? It's filthy peasants like you who make it hard for women today to enjoy the beach comfortably."

"Wow, who knew Red Son was such a feminist."

"You can't help but try to get your grubby little hands on them and then assault them when they don't want to have anything to do with you. Well, let me just warn you..." He shoved them to the hot sand, hovering over them, a wicked grin plastered on his face.

"If I ever catch you fuckers pestering her or anywhere near her again, I will personally show you what happens to those messes with me, Understand"

Y-y-yes s-s-s-sir!" The demons stammered, giving him a shaky salute. "W-w-we promise! J-j-just spare us!"

Red's mouth turned up into an impish smirk. "Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of touching the likes of you, however..." he let his sentence hang there.

Wayne and Stone nervously turned around and his Bull Clones surrounded them, General Ironclad pounding on his robotic fists.

Extremely satisfied, The Bull prince left them to the beatdown they were receiving. He goes over to MK's side, who had finished fixing herself up. "Honestly, Noodle Girl, surely you could have put up a better fight than--" He was cut off when MK launched herself towards him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, making him freeze up.

"Thank you..." She whimpered, burying her face into his chest.

"I-I-I..." Red Son stood there flustered, his entire face pink, his heart pounding, he could swear he saw little hearts floating over him. "Y-You're...Your Welcome?" He finally managed to say.

"MK, are you alright?" Mei asked frantically as the prince wrapped his towel around her shaking frame, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'm okay," MK fixed her best friend with a tired smile. "Just a little worn out is all."

"Thanks for helping me, Red," the Monkie kid eventually spoke, smiling. The fire demon looked away uncomfortably, still trying to keep his composure. "I mean, I-I, Uhh..." He stammered, trying not to blush.

"Wow, never took you for the gentlemen type, Red Boi.." Mei said, crossing her arms.

"It's Red Son! And How dare you," Red Son screeched, looking rather offended. "I may be a villain but I was taught to respect a woman!"

MK gaped in awe as she could feel her heart race, 'A woman? Wow that doesn't sound half bad' Her face as red as a tomato at him referring to her as a woman rather than girl.

MK took a glance at the viewers watching, or reading.

"I think he's starting to grow on us, don't you think?"

"Uh, MK who are you talking to?" Sandy asked her.

"Uhh..."

[joju-but-trek]

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episode 1: Into the Breach, Part 1

Somehow, Robert Beltran has returned.

I didn't know that Netflix released Prodigy until about an hour ago, but I'm glad they did. For people who missed the entire saga, two years ago Paramount released season 1 of an excellent Star Trek series called Prodigy. The pitch was that it was a group of (mostly) kids from the far side of the galaxy escaping slavery to come to the Federation, and it was excellent. The characters were compelling, the stories were fun, and it was pitched as an entry to the franchise for kids. Also, the animation looks vaguely like the Clone Wars style. I was in. And then on top of that it's also a follow-up to Voyager, my favorite Star Trek show that I really need to finish writing my reviews for season 1 of.

Anyway, Paramount killed it and wiped it from streaming. After months of fan and crew campaigning, Netflix picked it up and agreed to release the already finished second season. It came out yesterday as a single 20-episode drop, and I've decided to watch it and keep up my reviews of it. I think I want to space out my reviews a bit so I can focus on the individual episodes, so that's how this will start. I would like to do an episode a day, but I don't trust myself to keep to that, so there will probably be some gaps.

So, episode 1. Is it a good premiere? Short answer, mostly. 8/10.

I haven't seen season 1 since I first watched the show, so I'm a bit out of the loop. This episode did a good job of reminding me who the characters were and why I liked them, but it did throw a few curveballs for character arcs that I'm not sure I love. I'm happy with how they handled Zero, Rok, and Jankum, but I think Dal needs a bit more expansion. He's the protagonist so he'll definitely get it, but for a first episode it's a weird place to leave him. Basically, the season starts with the kids in training (I *think* they're all kids, Zero's either a million years old or ten and I can't tell), and they're all adapting more or less OK to formal Starfleet life. Except Dal. Dal doesn't want to actually do any studying and just wants to be a spaceship captain who goes on adventures and shoots things. It's a pretty simple arc, but it's also a kids' show.

I do like the dynamic of all the other main characters wanting to be part of Starfleet and it putting strain on their friendgroup while Dal just wants to do what he wants to do, and the running gag that he refuses to read Temporal Mechanics 101 is a fun joke and a plot element. I'm torn because I kind of want more from the show than that, but also there's only so much you can do in 22 minutes and still expect kids to follow and I recognize that.

In terms of Voyager follow-up, Janeway has a secret mission! That's fun! I like the way her new bridge officers look in the animation style, especially the Andorian I can't name. That species just looks good in this definitely-not-Clone Wars render. Also, I like Andorians. Sue me.

The Doctor is also back! The Doctor is one of my favorite Star Trek characters ever, and I'll explain why if/when I do a thing about Voyager. I'm glad he's back. It feels like they struggled a bit with using Robert Picardo as a voice actor - it just feels a little stilted - but I've also only seen the first episode. I'm not sure why he's on the mission in-universe, but I'll give it time.

The Voyager-A is ostensibly studying a wormhole but secretly rescuing Chakotay, which is a good way to keep the threads from season 1 going and also giving the crew some conflict with Admiral Janeway. In season 1, they got pretty attached to Hologram Janeway, and not having the same relationship with the human version is going to be a fun dynamic to play out. I know they made this a while ago, but I am very curious how much they knew about Robert Beltran (Chakotay's actor) and his feelings about COVID vaccines at the time (he doesn't like them).

Two timeline things that are interesting to nerds - Voyager-A and the mention of the Romulan evacuation. I was halfway through an extended paragraph about the timeline of Voyager-A being here and what that means for the Lore before I realized what I'd done, so I'll make that a separate post. The Romulan evacuation comment is just interesting because that's a plot point from the Abrams Star Trek reboot that puts the events of this show way closer to Voyager than I thought they were, so it has not been that long for Janeway, Chakotay, and the Doctor. I wonder if this will come up, or if I'm overthinking it. If I had to guess, it's probably the latter.

[squirrelno2]

No actually I am gonna hit the hornets nest a little because Echo would have been such a good audience proxy character for the bad batch.

(before we begin none of this fixes the fact that the bad batch is fucking white but since I can't fix bad character design here's what I would do with my writing skills. Too late either way but. Here we are)

Like this is a character we already know, one whose life clone wars fans have literally seen from the start and who people are attached to and want to see succeed. What better way to introduce us to a heretofore unknown corner of the clones' world, a group so insular we never heard about them, than with an outsider who's recently been welcomed into their ranks? And like. Having the story be told from Echo's pov makes the framing of isolation between the bad batch and the rest of the clones easier to posit as an ableism thing because it would be Echo's own internalized ableism and trauma we see impacting that the most, and then if you really want to keep the bad batch being at odds with everyone you can dig into, like, the regular clones are uncomfortable with the bad batch bc they get celebrated for differences while most clones are punished and also the Kaminoans probably encourage a level of "us v them" so clone solidarity doesn't become a threat to their power bc how else do you handle living in a city that's millions of people you made for a war they didn't choose. Now we're getting into Other Things about how I'd write the show if I was in charge but I'm right.

Anyway Echo as audience proxy also means that to get to know the batch, we need individual episodes showcasing him bonding with each of them - fixing both the lack of Echo development and making it so I could actually tell you what the bad batch's characters are beyond, like. "Leader" and "smart guy" and "stereotypical blow things up dude even though hardcase already exists and did it better". (Also "fascist" but this is Not About him.) And then when Echo does inevitably leave, because of course he would when Rex is out there fighting for other clones, it would have a strong emotional impact beyond most of what I'm seeing from people who are watching, which - and this is ppl who LIKE the bad batch - mostly consists of "wait this means less Echo time and development" instead of "oh no but what about this tender moment or this relationship or whatever" like. Hm. Yikes actually. Imagine having that little impact with your main character relationships.

[collabs-bunny]

I saw your recent video essay/3 hour ttrpg understanding extravaganza and just. DAMN!

You're an excellent mind to listen to discuss a topic so near and dear to my heart. I'm a ttrpg designer with a couple little games; what's your reading list for ttrpg design as a topic? what books, videos, podcasts etc have shaped how you think? because i love the way you think, and would love to know more

Well hello, thank you for my first tumblr ask of all time. 😅 Congrats on tracking this blog down, and I'm glad you liked the video.

First of all, read Luke, Jared and Snow's blogs. Just read whatever strikes your fancy (https://lukegearing.blot.im/, https://jared.blot.im, nerves.games). Snow's most recent post is actually a reading list, I livestreamed a bunch of Luke's posts, and Jared is Jared. If Jared's ideas and opinions sound declarative, that's his voice. I think he dislikes half-committing to ideas, or couching his thoughts, and he has big opinions, so they can come off uh... standoffish? Unfriendly? But he's a big softie, I love him.

For proper philosophy, read Against Procedurality by Miguel Sicart (blog post: https://gamestudies.org/1103/articles/sicart_ap), and his book "Play Matters." His ideas on appropriation and playfulness have literally changed the way I move about the world in my day-to-day. Not every chapter is a banger, but it's good. The Forms and Fluidity of Play by Thi Nguyen is also great (https://gamephilosophy.org/pcg2014/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/C.-Thi-Nguyen-2014.-The-Forms-and-Fluidity-of-Game-Play-PCG2014.pdf), as is Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, even if it was written in the 90's. It's very readable, which is important, but also full of excellent ideas.

I'd also recommend um... just reading a lot of adventures. There's a lot of bad ones, but I trust you to form opinions! I'm currently reading Luke Gearing's Wolves Upon The Coast and loving it for different reasons than I loved his adventure The Isle. I'm a big fan of Mothership's instant classics Dead Planet and Pound of Flesh, and I hear the Warden's Manual in the upcoming Mothership boxed set will have some good practical advice. Dread Manse by Micah Anderson was a recent read I liked a lot. I also love/hate/love Orbital Intelligence, but buyer beware: it's a weird as fuck bibliography. XD Dip a toe in as a treat, and treat all of them (including Crapland) at least a little bit seriously.

Also go watch my Zedeck Siew video and pick up a copy of whatever you think sounds coolest. Spy in the House of Eth is a good start, alongside Lorn Song of the Bachelor and of course Reach of the Roach God (which I haven't read yet, but is available at spearwitch.com). This one's a bit sad because of some recent drama, but the books are still good. Oh, and go listen to the Adventure Tourism podcast, and if my episode on Deep Carbon Observatory sounds cool, go read the original (NOT THE REMASTER).

I will say: Don't read any rulebooks for context. Vanilla Game is alright, but people (including me) have said some really Forge-y stuff about Mothership's mechanisms, DCC is huge and its spells aren't especially fun to read, Best Left Buried is... like, I don't want to say anything bad about it because I was (under)paid to edit it, but ehh.

I say that because a lot of those adventures are for """"OSR"""" games, which people say are inherently high-lethality. This is almost always parroted and twisted to be More Forge Bullshit. The rules don't matter. Most of them are D&D clones in lipstick. I recommended adventures (not rulesets) because they're easily appropriated. Just ask how you would use any piece of them at your table, or how you would change them to fit you or your table. It's a good way to play! It's an inherent part of play. I've said it a million times, but my Mothership home game is 2% Alien, 98% Cowboy Bebop, because fuck the rulebook. I don't like the stress and panic rules anymore. Sorry, Sean!

Let me know if this is coherent or helpful at all, and thanks again for the ask. :)

[renton6echo]

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

🏷 Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon-compliant to wildly original?

🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

(It's a lot, so you don't have to answer all of them if you don't want to, but I was curious!) <3

Ooooooo. Here we go. I'm so excited to answer these. Thanks @floundrickthewayfarer. It’s a good ambit of questions and I love it.

❤️ There are a few from my recent work "A Honorable Burden Best Shared", but I was so glad I was about to articulate Dogma having a mini meltdown when he realized Rex isn't as by the books as he lets on. We obvious see that more in Umbara but I like to think that Dogma already had a taste of that "insubordination" before then.

"The kid has nothing on Dogma, though. The first time the private saw Rex and Skywalker skirting around GAR regs, Rex swore he heard the illustrious pedestal on which Dogma upheld the 501st captain break into a million pieces."

💥 easy the death of Fives in the Clone Wars. All our problems would be solved. 😭😭

🎁 Suurrreee. This is from an WIP that @floundrickthewayfarer and I promised to do. I promise I haven’t forgotten!

“You and I,” Dr. Hemlock grips his shoulder firmly as he stands over him looking into Echo’s eyes. “We are going to do so much good. Together.”

“You make it sound like I have a choice,” Echo grits out. “I never did. Not with the Kaminoans, not with the Techno Union and not with you. None of my brothers here do.”

🏷 Surprise, surprise, I am always crawling the CT-1409 - Echo tag on Ao3 because he is my absolute favorite right now. AND also no surprise to anyone, especially @thebispaceace, but I do check the CT-1409 - Echo Whump tag because I am an angst mongerer. I know who I am. I will not apologize!

📗 Outside of fanfic, I don't write a lot of fiction, but I write a lot for my job which is not as fun. I want to write something original but I find that sooooo intimidating. Idk if I could do it.

😎 I am all for wildly original fics, but what I do take issue with is if the characters are completely OC. I will check out of a story if I don't feel like the personality or, weirdly, some of their life story is not paralleled in an AU. So I guess that is me skewing more towards canon complaint? As long as the character's personality is intact, I'm game for anything!

🚦 I am not a fan of ambiguous because I flock to fanfic because an ending or outcome is ambiguous, so why would I want more than that lol.

I am totally okay with a happy/dark/sad ending because at least it's definitive, even if it gives my psychic damage when it's done really well. However, I think the best stories are able to just let the ending be what it needs to be. That sounds obvious, but I've read a lot of stories or fanfics where it takes you on an absolutely mind fuck of a journey that renders you hollow, but then does a complete 180 and puts a happily after-ever-after bow on it. That really shatter the conclusion and the journey leading it.

Whohoo. This was so much fun. In the wise words of our our favorite brawler: “What else you got? Give me more!!”

[somestorythoughts]

Narrative Role vs Personality

There was something that felt weird to me when I watched the 1st season of the clone wars, I thought I figured it out and now that I've seen a few more seasons and haven't changed my mind I'm gonna post about it and hopefully make some sense in the following ramble.

It feels like there's a bit of conflict between the writers giving the clones a narrative role and making them actual characters. Yes all characters have a role in the narrative that's not the point, the point is that, from the outside, the clones' role in the story is just to be an army. You need bodies to make up an army to show the audience that this a war, and the audience isn't supposed to really invest in them past wanting the good guys to win.

That's not a bad thing, it's normal when you have sci-fi/fantasy armies. That's the role these guys play:

We love the dramatic charge of the Rohirrim, we take a solemn moment to acknowledge the bodies in the aftermath, and that's it. We mostly feel actively sad for the characters we know, or sometimes background characters who are there for emotional impact. The role of an army in these shows/movies is to look good, die, and win or loose. It's the same kind of role characters in adventure movies like Indian Jones or the Mummy play, those people who get caught by lethal traps. You can expand that into "it's messed up that they're being used as test subjects for booby traps" outside the film but their only role in the narrative is to show that the traps are dangerous. Again, not a bad thing narratively. In a story, someone's gotta show that the 1000-year old knife trap is still sharp somehow and yes the evil scarabs are alive. And sometimes those are also minions or bad guys but it still applies.

I think horror movies do the same thing but it's not my genre so not certain how their deaths work.

And in aotc and rots, the clones are pretty much pure plot device. They've got a narrative role and they fill it. They're an army, they do the fighting the dying and the killing, we get very little personality out of them. Been a while since I've seen rots so I can't say if they get no characterization, but I'm pretty sure it's VERY low. We know the basics of their background, we don't know them.

And then the clone wars came around and it gave them personality. It gave them characterization. And sure the series seems to be largely focused on the Jedi, but they still took the time to give the clones some character beyond just being bodies to fill the ranks.

And it's not like you can't kill characters the audience cares about, everyone knows that isn't the case. But if you give characters personality, the audience is more likely to care. If the care, they might be upset that they're dying over and over so easily without much in story mention. And people really latched on to the clones.

It doesn't help that their backstory is kinda fucked up. I have no idea how much of the shit they go through on Kamino and in the wider galaxy in fanfics is canon and how much of it is fan-based (I haven't finished the clone wars series and I'm not quite invested enough to track down the comics right now) but even without that you're talking about millions of people cloned and raised for war by trainers that are at the very least unfriendly, a genetic donor that selected one for a son and does seem to care at all about the rest, and the war they're fighting is entirely engineered. They're made to fight a war and then wiped into blank slates by a bunch of mind-control chips (even if we look at the movies without the show since that was later, there's still plenty of messed up stuff in being bred and raised solely for war). It's messed up enough that people are gonna be interested in that backstory and that might be part of why people latched on to the clones in general instead of only individual troopers though I can't be sure. It's one thing if you've got people who's narrative role is to kill and be killed and look cool while doing it. It's another thing when that's their purpose in the story.

And the clone wars gives us these occasional episodes that show first that some of the clones actively don't want to be here and second that there are some even among the jedi that see them as inferior. Their reactions in the Umbara arc to Krell using numbers instead of names are strong enough that even without them saying something like "we don't like being called by numbers its dehumanizing" that idea still comes across clearly.

Umbara also tells us that they can be ordered to kill their friends, and they will have to comply.

One of the things the clone wars tells us is that this is a really messed up situation. That the story of the clones is a tragedy. But I don't think it always acts like it.

The thing that was bugging me was Plo Koon's declaration that the troopers mattered to him and Windu taking the time to rescue a trooper and later on Ima-gun Di's last stand with his troopers, juxtaposed with the casualness in the series as a whole with which entire ships are destroyed. And I know, its tricky to talk about this kind of thing when you're making a kids' show and you only have 20-odd minutes on top of that. I'm not really blaming them for treating the troopers the same way you treat an army in any fantasy war story. It's fiction. Explosions on a screen are fun. We all like a badass fight scene. I'm probably not the intended audience for this show anymore and that means my perspective isn't the one the writers are trying to hit.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it feels a little like the writers gave the clones too much character for their narrative role. And if you as a writer say in-universe that these people's lives matter, sometimes it might feel a bit weird when a ship full of them is blown to pieces and never remarked on again.

I want to end this by acknowledging that I am WAY overanalyzing a kids' show I KNOW so if you're going to criticize this analysis feel free but please criticize about a different point because I recognize the overthinking hell this took like three times as long as I expected to write I have no fucking clue where the time went.