#im having a massive style crisis

[waitingawhile]

oh shiii-

[maareyas]

Are you pro-ai art? Because that one "copyright art style" post you reblogged is in defense of ai art, by an ai "artist"

my feelings for this are more nuanced but in general I'm vehemently against AI "art" in it's current state (I had my art that was A GIFT FOR A FRIEND used in an data set and I hated it) because of the unethical nature of how they generate shit in the first place.

HOWEVER. I think "making art style copyrights" a thing will objectively make things even worse. I've seen petty internet drama over "art style theft" and frankly I'd rather it stay petty internet drama only.

I didn't know the post was by someone who uses AI but I still agree with it.

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

hey silly question maybe. do you know why cars are so boring now? like im on the wikipedia page for the cadillac eldorado for Reasons and it's a really visually interesting car through all the generations up until like. the tenth in 1979 when it just kinda looks like. every other car (if a bit more square) is this just like, the Capitalism Thing of shit getting more and more boring and samey over the years? or is there like a reason. idk much about cars but this has always annoyed and confused me, i miss interesting looking cars :(

Well, it should be noted that the tenth generation Eldorado's case is a peculiar one. As I've gone over, old American cars tended to be refreshed every other year, and the Eldorado, meant to represent the top of the top of that uniquely American idea of opulence, was perhaps the car most supposed to do so. Hence, as you'll have found, its ninth generation launched in 1971, just 18 years after the first - thats' how long the only generation of Italy's best selling car at the time, the Fiat 500, was sold for.

You wouldn't have expected that generation to stick around for more than four years - no other generation did, and almost all lasted half that. However, 1973 had other plans. Namely, the fuel crisis that completely eviscerated demand for mastodonic fuel guzzlers.

Sales would decline the following years, with little tweaks here and there but no major update, which would have been money down the drain as existing owners could barely afford to fill up the damn things, let alone upgrade, and what were potential customers before couldn't afford to fill up the damn things full stop. So when the new model finally came, this big aspirational car was shrunken down to get on with times of shrinking aspirations.

Nigh on 5.20 meters (for yankees, that's roughly 4/207ths of a Titanic) will hardly seem short to European sensibilities, but let's remember, that's coming from 5.70. You could walk between two walls that far apart. The width, too, decreased by a whole 20cm (for yankees, that's roughly half a rabbit), which in car width terms is massive - like, it's the difference between a Mini and a Mustang.

This to say, the tenth generation Eldorado is oft maligned as a fall from grace, one of the most popular examples of why the malaise moniker stuck to this era of American cars - so not exactly the fairest assessment of how cars changed with time. How about, then, we start our analysis by looking at a car with a much better received update, shall we?

Of course, the Mk1 Volkswagen Golf (for yankees, that's roughly a Rabbit) was a smash hit the world over, so much so that in Mexico it remained on sale as the Citi Golf as recently as 2009(!), and if I didn't think it the best looking Golf that ever was I probably wouldn't own one...

...but unless the only kink you're into is the Hofmeister, I don't see how the second generation's styling is such a downgrade as to bemoan the state of things. And frankly...

...maybe it's just the boiled frog syndrome, but I can't spot a point in which anything 'went wrong', so to speak. Which leads to the all-important question:

You say you miss interesting looking cars, but I do have to ask - when did they ever leave?

Have a browse of my pride post (no, really, go read it, I think it's one of my best ever) and point me to the boring cars within it, because me, I don't see any. And I suspect the reasons are similar to why you see older cars as more interesting.

For one, given the point of the post, all the cars shown are some flashy color, and each is different from every other. This, however, is increasingly becoming an anomaly as greyscale gobbles up an ever increasing share of the market, meaning on average, modern cars are less colorful, and thus less visually interesting. I've written about cause and effect of the greyscalification of cars, and suffice to say I'm not a fan of it - but I feel like that is a discussion separate from car design itself.

Then, of course, there's that those in the post are all cars that I like, so that selection was curated (albeit only by my personal taste). But that is also the case when we look back at older cars: what you see around and what you hear about is what people cared enough about to preserve and to discuss - not just in terms of models but of versions, specs and even colors. If you look at car shows like Radwood or Oblivion, which celebrate 80s and 90s cars, the very time period you referred to as the beginning of the end for interesting design looks like its heyday!

Yes, that trailer is factory.

Unfortunately, it must be said that unique and interesting cars have become fewer and fewer, as the ever increasing regulations make it even more expensive than it already was for smaller brands to emerge and the economic status of things makes it increasingly harder to justify a funky, daring picks for the biggest purchase of the average person's life - let alone the purchase of a second car, which tends to be what more extreme offerings were bought as. A brighter future seems to be ahead, though, with Toyota's incredible GR Corolla/Yaris and 86 apparently about to be joined by yet more spicy goodness and Mazda teasing a return of the rotary engined sportscar. For the twentieth time, sure, but after having seen the Motocompo revival actually happen, I am ready to kick that football.

(because you knew about the new electric Motocompacto, right?)

But there's another thing that post's selection had going for it: variety. Pretty much every car in it was in a wholly different category from all the others, and that is bound to make each car within it seem a lot more interesting than if it had been surrounded by cars of its same segment.

The survivorship bias outlined above also results in far more variety than you would find in normal traffic: even setting aside the halo car dynamic whereby the most special -and therefore most interesting- cars are usually niche offerings with very low sales figures, people tend to remember, discuss and seek out cars that represent some extreme - be it the fastest, the most expensive, the greatest, but also the slowest, the cheapest, the worst... and the tallest, the lowest, the biggest, the smallest, and so on. In short, the cars you'll find the least interest for are the everyday, quietly competent cars that make up the bulk of vehicles on the road.

Although, going far enough back in time, even those appear interesting to us, because their context's norm was so different from ours that even the cars that most adhered to it seem exotic to our sensibilities.

But when actually viewed in their own context...

...that impression tends to be stifled.

Unfortunately, it seems to me as though variety is also being stifled nowadays, with a growing share of body styles on sale becoming SUV/crossovers, and the increase in platform sharing reducing automotive outliers (for better and for worse).

And I should note: as for the other industry shifts I mentioned, the driving force isn't Big Capital or The Evil Economic System or what have you. It's the consumers. Sure, we can blame manufacturers for turning every model into a more profitable SUV, but they couldn't do this if they didn't sell, and they wouldn't do this if people didn't see them as more prestigious vehicles worth paying more for. We can blame manufacturers for killing weird car projects, but usually they get axed because people don't buy the things. Dealerships still order grey cars because no one digs their heels about having theirs yellow. So on.

So in short, old cars have always looked more interesting, because time alters our perception of them in ways that make them seem as much - and it also happens that lately the car industry has gone in the opposite direction to those alterations, causing new cars to seem less interesting. So, in short, the problem is the comparison just isn't apples to apples.

I think this is why that Golf evolution does not show any trend towards boring or away from interesting in my eyes - because it mostly strips those factors away. Here's a bunch of generations of the same car, all silver, all presented with no context bar the version before or after, all in the same body style which, for its entire history, was a common sight pretty much anywhere. (Also helps, of course, that the Golf's evolution had no wacky twists and always nailed the zeitgeist.)

This not to say that I can't complain about modern car designs - but for that, don't compare apple to apple... compare it to Microsoft.

See, I can think of many modern designs I find bland and devoid of personality, not because of a lack of styling effort but precisely due to an overabundance of it: so keen were the designers to put a crease here and a fold there and a kink somewhere to make the brand's seventh SUV set itself apart from the other six that the design became too overburdened with details to have a clear message - like a story with too many events for them to express a cohesive point.

Or, indeed, like this parody of Microsoft packaging in which their design principles are applied to the iconic, nay, legendary packaging of the original iPod.

This is an actual Microsoft video btw. This was made internally by Microsoft's marketing department.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question: if you liked this post, you might like those - or the blog’s Discord server, linked in the pinned post!

[class-1b-bull]

What’s every clsss member’s strange/unique fashion choice? You don’t have to go off their character sheets, just go with your gut.

Not proofread we die like men

Also at some point when I wrote this it turned into how I thought they would dress before I saw their cannon outfit but oh well its kinda the same headcanon its just worded differently :>

Awase - his cannon outfit works well with him tbh but I feel like he would unironically wear a full neon orange fit.

Sen - the only thing I can see him wearing is a hoodie and jeans. Not even that honestly, jeans is too much work for him he just spends the whole day in sweat pants and a t shirt lmao

Kamakiri - even before i looked up their casual fits for a previous post I thought Kamakiri would dress the way he does lol.

Kuroiro - his entire wardrobe is just black hoodies and jeans except one outfit which is the most over the top fit you have ever seen. It takes him and 3 hours to get it on but its worth it

Kendo - even her canon outfit I cant see her wearing all that much. I like it but I dont think it really fits her but at the same time I cant think of anything that I think would fit her. Maybe ripped jeans and a turtleneck idkidk

Kodai - i honestly cant see her in anything exsept her skirt and turtleneck combo. It works well for her and her style.

Komori - i honestly thought she would wear cute but simple dresses that ended around her knees or something but her cannon outfit is so much cooler.

Shiozaki - id like to see her in sundresses or something of the sort. Those long ass dresses that are kinda plain and reaches her ankles but theyre pretty anyway. Ykyk.

Shishida - the only thing that he would wear other than his cannon outfit is a full blown tux. I can 100% see him dressing up to go to a fucking mcdonalds. Its just everyday wear to him

Shoda - I cant explain it but I imagined him dressing either like a dad whos in the middle of his mid life crisis or a ceo of a big company. And somehow his canon casual outfit is a mix of the two lmao

Pony - i imagined her in her canon outfit honestly. Not the exact outfit but a crop top and jeans with a few light accessories here and there ykyk

Tsubaraba - ya know those stupid ass t shirts that say dumb shit like 'i have mental Illinois' with Illinois badly photoshopped into a brain. His entire wardrobe is stuff like that

Tetsutetsu - the only thing he wears is t shirts and sweat pants. Jeans if its a special event. He thinks his style is cool so thats all that matters.

Tokage - i really like her cannon outfit and all its all I can see her in honestly. Her style fits her really well.

Manga - i really like the way he dresses cannonly but I cant shake the thought of his entire wardrobe either being hand painted t shirts and hoodies or it all just being tie dye

Honenuki - i honestly have no idea. I have let this ask marinate in my drafts for a couple days and I can not figure out what the hell this dude would wear. Even his cannon outfit I cant really see him wearing. He is a void of any style in my mind and I hate it.

Bondo - his canon casual attire is atrocious but its the only thing i can see him wearing honestly. But id like to see him in one of those massive oversized hoodies and just some jeans honestly.

Monoma - i want him to dress in the most over the top outfits the world has ever seen. I want him to walk out of the dorms looking like a fucking peacock each day (but he makes it work)

Reiko - i see her in jeans and a hoodie more than anything else. She just wears that 90% of the time and like once a month she will show up with the coolest outfit you have ever seen.

Rin - im sure he would like more oversized and comfortable clothes that are good at keeping him warm but I wanna see him in a black sleeveless turtleneck and those baggy pants with like 20 pockets

[its-koili]

hey guys. sorry for being gone for so long. heres an update

(tw for: mention of violence / gore, general distress, mental health issues)

(tw below)

.

basically i had a huge mental health crisis. i was having 24/7 constant rolling panic attacks from may of 2023 to january of this year. my last big meltdown was in early february. been processing a lot of CSA trauma and some recent trauma that ive gone through. i think i talked about my panic attacks before leaving social media but idk i dont remember. isolated myself from absolutely everybody.

the main thing that made me leave was that while i was keeping up to date on the g3n0c1d3 (censoring bc idk how tumblr is about it), and when i was looking in the replies / related of the awareness videos, i came across 4 accounts dedicated to using gore for clicks / shock. not videos of the g3n0c1d3 (thank god bc of how they were using the vids) but of unfortunate every day situations and cam footage. like, the kind of stuff you could see on liveleak back in 2010. just out in the open on twitter. they all had usernames like "(insert number here) ways to die)". they were all content farms for click/ad revenue. it was too much it was a huge trigger and i had a full on meltdown. the bluecheck ppl on twitter were using the replies of the videos people uploaded for raising awareness to upload mindless g0re for money. the fact that peoople have 0 compassion for human life sent me into a spiral that i couldnt get out of. (i reported 3 out of the 4 accounts i was able to and 3 got taken down but 1 is still up and it odesnt seem to be uploading the hardcore g0r3 anymore. so thats good. but that was one of the reasons i left social media. ive been keeping up to date w the news but thats it. i left my socials entirely and ive only been on my phone to look up recipes or to use my computer for media research groceries and gaming and shows

that was the main thing that pushed me to leave. i just couldnt take it anymore. during the start of my crisis last year, i was planning on taking a small break, but all of that pushed me over the edge and i dropped everything. after that, my issues got worse and i dont remember most of it. thankfully. but i couldnt bring myself to talk to anybody. i isolated myself and just. laid in bed. but im doing better so i guess thats good

on another topic ive beeen nervous to post this on main but during all of this (ive talked abt tihs a little bit on my priv before i left) i found out that im a system a long while back. my dad (one of my abusers) had/has DID and it terrified me to think that i could be anything like him. i also knew cereal abuser who pretended to be a system to get away with stuff/abusing their friends (and then years later admitted that they werent a system and siad that systems are fake.) LOTS of tears. lots of crying over this. was in denial for a few weeks. cried some more. then eventually came to terms with it.

i dont want to post abt my system online too much bc i dont want to act like this is some fun trendy thing bc its not. it makes day to day living very hard (some lighter/funnier issues that make it hard are: arguing with an alter bc YOU dont know where THEY put YOUR MEDS, not being able to cook because one alter can and the other cant, your art style not being consistent because their styles are different). i dont want to really make it a massive part of my identity online bc its not a big deal! theres just Multiple Little Guys in my brain. so. im a system! im the same but....this explains why i dont remember talking to certain people SUIDHUFHX. i always felt bad. makes conversing with online friends hard especially if icons/usernames are changed. ill make a separate post about this someday thatll go into detail a bit more.

i went years thinking it was just "kinning" but it wasnt lol. it turns out that your personality completely shifting, tastes in food / music / art / media changing, the way you walk / talk dress changing, and having complete memory blackouts when you """"kin shift"""" isn't normal. /lh (dw ive had a lot of time to come to terms with this)

but basically right now ive been spending time getting to,,know myself?? iive been using simplyplural for myself for several months and im uncovering a lot of my memories / trauma ect bc alters can write down what they need to in the chat. so i can go back later and read it. its been v helpful!

i will not be coming back just yet. i have no interest in using social media rn or drawing or writing unfortunately. ive been working on my original stuff here and there but i havent been drawaing fandom stuff bc im not hyperfixating on a fandom.

also. some things have come up. im not going to say anything until the party in question is stable/safe/comfortable before i even suggest anything for context (i dont plan on talking abt anything at all unless they start talking publicly). right now i am helping someone through abuse. their wellbeing is my #1 concern. i'll think about other things after im sure theyre okay.

i dont really have any resolutions as to how things are going but i do feel better and im not having as many panic attacks. i dont really know where im going with this now sorry. just trying to brush over the basic topics before i go. idk if anybody remembers me bc ive been gone for so long so idk if im just talking into the wind but if i am thats fine honestly this is helping me reorganize my thoughts (i type these vents out a lot on docs so i probably wont remember posting this hiudhvu)

other than that. i dont draw or write anymore. i think in the past 6 months ive drawn like....5 things. its. weird. im completely disconnected from fandoms now. coming up to a full year of not having a hyperfixation at all.

my bday was on the 6th. im 27 now im very old (everybody forgot it asides from my husband (and the people he reminded) n my abuser). ive been trying to cook and bake more and ive been playing video games again. planning on getting back into drawing soon and working on my original stuff. when i come back im planning on redesigning my profiles and updating my social media bios and stuff bc theyre so old. also ill make a section on my carrd for my system. there you go theres some positivity to the update nxfjdfjh. sorry if i dont seem very enthused im very tired so typing has been a chore hfuidshuifv.

sorry that this was a lot or if it seems disjointed i was trying to put down as much into this as possible without making it too long

bye!!! see u all soon!

[jewishrizahawkeye]

my tldr version of the media around brat v ttpd would be: the media and a loud group of fans are so focused on the potential conflict and drama (for clicks/views) that they neglect to engage with the music as an art form and then everyone is disappointed bc instead of knowing the background that’s needed to appreciate the art they’re just listening so they can dig for gossip that may or may not be there

but maybe you’re thinking of something else, I think there’s a lot to discuss

this is also true! i was thinking more about how we’re in a massive media literacy crisis and more and more people are getting upset when art isn’t easily digestible.

before i start this:

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LIKING STRAIGHT FORWARD ART!

but what i was thinking was that brat dives into complex emotions but in a more straight forward/simplistic way. that’s not an insult at charli xcx or the album at all! she isn’t going for the same type of lyricism as other artists (think taylor but also chappell roan or flyna boss). it’s all to personal preference. but a big issue with people discussing brat or preferring it is that they’re saying they don’t want to decipher a bunch of lyrics to relate to it, they just want it and can go. which is fine. but it does create a problem of people then misinterpreting other lyrics because they refuse to actually see what is being said or done. i really enjoyed ttpd:ta because im a pretentious english major but i knew i wasn’t gonna be for everyone or it would take awhile for others to understand it, which is fine. but instead of doing that people instead just conflated it all to being bad. which is where ive seen a lot of the two albums being compared to.

i saw people on tiktok (my first mistake was opening the app, i know) saying that charli is actually making GOOD pop music while taylor isn’t. and while ive already established “brat” isn’t for me i was still very surprised by how well recieved it was. it doesn’t seem like what mainstream pop music would want or like, and while charli has her fans and does deserve her praise and roses i was still surprised. i do stand by my statement that i think in 1-2 years a lot of the general public will say brat was an album of the time because it, to me in my opinion, won’t age well to the general public. i can be wrong, we’ll see. but i think people like it because charli is diving into emotions or relationships we’ve all had. sympathy is a knife and girl, so confused are at the top of my head because those are somewhat universal situations we all have been in. and with charli’s writing style she’s more straightforward so people don’t have to think to hard on it. they can get it on the first listen and go. but this is then tying back to what i wanted to discuss with the media literacy crisis.

i’m going to use my favorite album of all time, “the good witch” by maisie peters, to explain this since i think if i continue with ttpd and taylor people will ignore my point. but i loved tgw because it was not only phenomenal on my first listen but the more and more i listened the more details i noticed and the more i saw just how talented of a writer maisie is. history of man is a prime example obviously, but in watch she uses antanaclasis, which means using the same word but in different ways, with the line “I fought it, but I saw it and it sawed me right in half”! this is an incredible line and realizing she did that word play made me love the song more! and the more i listened the more i found stuff like this and became obsessed with it. and this was because i kept going back and listening to it because i wanted to know more. art and literature are supposed to do this, we’re supposed to sit and think about it and find deeper meaning. not all art but we’re supposed to sit and think on what we saw and what that means for us and the art.

another example with a movie is oppenheimer. i remember when the movie came out people were saying not to see it because it was problematic. and one review i saw even said “all biopics are problematic because the director controls the narrative and therefore controls how you’ll view the person” which was the worst take id EVER seen because this person just said they never think critically about any media they consume. they just let the person making it control them and don’t think about the implications. because oppenheimer is a great movie that explores and discusses war and destruction. and it is a good film to watch but i don’t think the guy who made the ATOMIC BOMB is a good guy and was rooting for him. i still think he is awful cause he is awful. but i still enjoyed the film and thought critically on it and what it means for society. like art should be. but not every movie is like that or intends to have that same meaning. another movie i like is bottoms, which is literally about lesbians starting a fight club to get pussy. no one meant for it to have a deeper meaning than that and it succeeds in what the plot is. this doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie but rather the art is doing something different. it’s a silly comedy for wlw to just have fun. and yet, both films are good.

or with books to. ali hazelwood is a fine author who writes cute romance stories and doesn’t go farther than that while RF kaung is writing books that ask you to think and contemplate what she’s discussing which has made people upset. i remember when babel came out a person read it and made a review talking about how she hated it because she thought it would be a fun fantasy book to read before going back to grad school and was instead confronted with colonialism and racism. she said she made this review to tell others it was okay to not like the book while missing the point that the book was literally describing people like her.

this has gotten slightly miss jointed and is all over the place, but my point is that people are slowly gravitating toward more simplistic or straightforward media that doesn’t necessarily ask them to think more on something. which isn’t inherently bad, you aren’t required to always think hard on everything you consume, sometimes you just wanna listen to fun club music or watch lesbians kill football players. there’s nothing wrong with that. but we’re in a media literacy crisis because a lot of people refuse to sit on media that makes them think. they refuse to think about how songs can have deeper meanings and will instead just focus on “the golden retriever line in the title track is stupid.” and ignore that it was intentionally done like that because taylor was trying to show her and her muse weren’t being smart or as tortured as they thought they were, they were just two idiots being high together. but people refuse to think on that and will only look at a surface level example.

which is what i was getting at, brat isn’t bad and if you like the album im happy! but ive seen a lot of people use this album to tear ttpd down and miss the albums are not only doing two separate things but also then trying to create unnecessary drama.

i hope this makes sense, it was why i wanted to kinda wait to post it so i can get my thoughts in order but this was what i was getting at. it’s not on charli or her album but im more so just talking about the general public.

[f0point5]

is george and carmen’s old money style “real”, so to speak? i remember you talked about how you previously thought george had a very posh accent but it turns out he doesn’t, and i’ve seen one of carmen’s stories saying that her family struggled financially during the financial crisis and that she paid off her student loans, but every picture i see of their family (incl old pics) looks like they’re incredibly well off so im not really sure. also idk much about GR’s background

i will say they definitely play into it, but not sure if it’s more authentic or more calculated/fabricated (which there’s no problem with)

Disclaimer - I am not an aristocrat or upper class or old money in any way.

But as a British person I can say with relative certainty, neither are they.

George comes from Cambridgeshire, from what I believe is a staunchly middle class area. He doesn’t speak Queen’s English, which is by no means a foolproof way of knowing someone’s social strata but it’s a pretty strong indicator. He went to grammar school, which doesn’t always mean you can’t afford private school (I went to a grammar school because of the academics (and then got kicked out and went to private school lol)), but a lot of the time parents who can’t swing a private education for all three kids but still want their kids to achieve academically will try and get them into grammar school. I am also pretty sure I’ve read that George’s brother had to stop karting because the family couldn’t afford both of them karting. Now, karting is very expensive for the average family so that doesn’t mean the family was struggling, but in contrast, Lando has several siblings who all attended public school and were fully supported in expensive hobbies. So George’s family probably didn’t have money money. So in summation, he comes across very middle class. He has such an Eton face and he’s at every high society event going so you just assume he’s Saltburn levels but I don’t think he is. Also, might I add, he doesn’t give rich kid vibes at all. Lando does, massively. George does not. To me, anyway.

I don’t know much about Carmen’s family, I read somewhere her dad is a lawyer, which again is a pretty standard white collar profession. I can’t speak to the socioeconomic level of her family at all as I don’t know too much about Spain. What I can say is that if you’re not a UK citizen (which I presume Carmen isn’t since she only came to the UK for university and seems to have Spanish/German ancestry) university fees will be on average 20k a year, and you aren’t eligible for student finance, which is the government loan which is set at very good terms. I think it would be unusual for Carmen to take out a loan for that amount to get her degree if her family could afford to pay for it upfront.

So that’s my evidence for saying I don’t think either of them come from generational wealth.

I could go on about the pure vibes but I would probably get roasted so I won’t. Suffice it to say I think their portrayal of themselves in the old money aesthetic is a little bit of a meta commentary on that trend.

I think it’s just how they’ve branded themselves. They both have the faces for it, George very much leans into the “English gent” thing, which fits with the Mercedes brand and also the Tommy Hilfiger brand. I think it’s a case of what opportunities you get offered and then you lean into the perception to keep up with those lucrative opportunities. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it’s definitely a curate couple image, in my opinion.

[readingloveswounds]

okay rlly gotta get my shit together here because it's literally just under a month before i go to france and i want to send three sections to my advisor before that PLUS submit my article to a journal

understand that while i think im behind, i'm technically at 2x the pages i wanted to have by this date. still. crisis time.

by sunday:

finish nimes draft

by august 31

submit article

send at least one of: sens or cahors (cahors is probably best bc shorter)

by september 17

MEET WITH ADVISOR THIS IS NONNEGOTIABLE

have sent advisor sens, cahors, and nimes

have at least started chapter conclusion

have at least started rewriting chapter intro

start frankensteining chapter sections into something coherent or at least have a reasonable idea of what a full document might look like

have a better site list put together and possibly have contact w the SHPF, BNF, and/or Louvre

by september 19

email J

give contact info for fellowship 1 (incl address)

give group pertaining to fellowship 2 my address + phone

things it would be cool to do but not strictly necessary:

go back through P's revisions on vassy

have a better idea of own style guide re names etc

read Foa

get further in LT reread

read more Martyrs - also talk to P about what the actual fuck im doing with martyrs bc im becoming less and less convinced i know how to handle the text wrt my dissertation topic/argument

figure out which chapter im writing next bc doing martyrs sounds scary but idk if im ready to do LT, and im waiting on a massive name in the field to publish his edited version of sancerre lol

[tiny-stack-of-knights]

Morpho Knight is finally here! Wahoo!!! Now I can ramble about her and finish up the general notes I have for the Galactic Crisis AU….

sorry this took me almost a year to finally get done……

If you want more context, refer to Galacta and Kirby’s old refs! I’m gonna briefly summarise the setting here in case you don’t feel like reading all that because boy howdy is it a lot…and thats the super condensed version. Anyway!

To recap.

-The AU takes place during the time of the Ancients. There are two factions of ancients who used to be one group, but split into two factions: the Halcandrans and Jambandrans.

-More specifically, this AU takes place during a sort of cold war between the two factions. The Halcandrans are building new technologies to possibly use in war such as Novas, while the Jambandrans are creating magical items like the Master Crown to possibly use in this hypothetical war.

-One of the main reasons for this arms race is because of a series of mysterious disasters that each side blames the other for.

I think that’s the main gist of the setting….so let me go onto Morpho’s story…this should hopefully explain a lot more of what was happening in Galacta and Kirby’s references.

-So here’s the big reveal that’ll add a lot of context to the story….Morpho’s a reaper!

Why exactly? Well

-Before her death, Morpho was an insanely powerful knight. She was ferocious and feared by her enemies and revered by her followers. She was a force of massive destruction and she loved it.

-She lived a life of glory before her untimely demise…since she was so powerful, she was immediately enlisted in the army of Reapers.

-For some context (I’m still working out how they work so this may be a little vague) the Reapers in this AU are a collection of souls who were powerful warriors in life. They work to maintain balance in between the living and the dead, and to harvest souls who will then be appropriately placed. The Reapers themselves are like the army of the dead.

-Well, the Reapers existed pretty normally for a bit, just harvesting who they had to and not interfering with the living. That was, however, until fears of a massive galactic war started when the Ancients divided into two factions.

-Cue the start of the mysterious disasters. These disasters were actually the work of the Reapers, who were harvesting more souls than were being given to them by the living in preparation for this massive war, in which they would need more workers to help sort the massive amount of souls that could be lost in this war.

-This is, quite obviously, insanely hypocritical. But the organization behind the Reapers is….well…we may come back to this later while I develop them more but just know that this organization is pretty damn corrupt.

-Back to Morpho specifically. Since she had a reputation for being so brutal and ruthless in her living days, the powers behind the Reapers thought she would be perfect for their new job of harvesting souls before they were supposed to be sent into the afterlife.

-And so, that’s what she did. However, instead of living a life of glory like before, Morpho was horrified by what she saw, and what she was forced to do. When she was alive, she fought great battle that always had a purpose. But this, she understood as mindless slaughter. And then that made her seriously reflect on her previous life….cue an existential crisis.

-Her first mission was to a small village on Halcandra….and if you’ve kept up with the lore, you may very well know what happens from here….

-This was Galacta Knight’s village….he returns from his knighting ceremony just in time to see Morpho shocked and horrified at what she had just done.

-This is where the two start to bond…Morpho feels immensely guilty after Galacta breaks down in front of her, and she comforts him.

-I just. Want to point out how similar their situations were….both of them were recently appointed to a new position, and soon after experienced a major crisis of faith. They’re able to seriously connect and bond through this, which is why they both latch onto each other so quickly.

-Morpho explains that she’s a Reaper and had to take the souls of the people here after a “natural disaster” wiped out the village. Before she’s whisked away back into the underworld, she tells Galacta Knight where her next assignment is supposed to be, and to meet her there.

-If you remember from Galacta’s old ref sheet, this is why the two are forced to meet at the sites of tragedies. Morpho intentionally asks to reap Jambandran souls so that Galacta won’t be so upset.

-After seeing this rising star in the Halcandran army at the sites of the mysterious disasters, the Jambandrans begin to suspect that Galacta is some sort of super weapon, and is the cause of disasters.

-Oh, I should mention here that Reapers ARE NOT SUPPOSED to interact with the living! Morpho can disguise herself as butterflies to avoid detection. Also she can summon her butterfly swords from the underworld and they appear through a flock of glowing butterflies….which is also how she manifests and disappears….I just thought that would be fun to mention….

-Anyway! This fear of Galacta Knight leads to a retaliation from the Jambandrans in the form of the Jamba Heart. Halcandran intelligence learns of this Jambandran super weapon, and, unaware of their perception of Galacta (who, at this point has risen the ranks to Halcandra’s most respected knight), send him and a crew of knights to seal the Jamba Heart. Things do not go well.

-Galacta’s entire squad is wiped out, which summons Morpho (she always keeps an eye on Galacta from the underworld….). She holds off the Jambandran troops defending the heart while Galacta is thrust right into it…

-After making contact with the Jambe Heart and manifesting Kirby (see Kirby’s ref for more elaboration on this), the heart is sealed, Morpho is called back to the underworld, and Galacta inadvertently starts a war.

Here’s where things get nuts.

-Halcandra sending Galacta Knight, the supposed super weapon against Jambandra, to take down the Jamba Heart, was seen as a declaration of war. The Halcandrans blame Galacta Knight for the start of the war, and send troops to find him. Morpho is able to warn him of this before she is suddenly called back to the underworld.

-Morpho’s interference with the living world is suddenly uncovered, as she was not assigned to reap the souls of those who died in the Jamba Heart incident.

-Before she can be placed in like. Hell jail. She flees from the underworld to be with Galacta Knight.

-So. Now the two of them and their strange….child…. are on the run from Halcandra, Jambandra, and the forces of the Underworld.

-Somehow, they manage to escape detection for about 2 years.

-During these 2 years, Galacta’s possession from the Jamba Heart worsens despite Kirby’s influence.

-A brief note about Galacta’s possession, since its still based on his wish for a peaceful universe and for a family, it twists this into an obsession with protecting them, which sometimes manifests in the slaughtering of those after the trio.

-Morpho and Galacta know that something is happening to him (I mean…his eyes literally change color of course something is wrong with him), so they sneak around Jambandran ruins to try and glean any information about the Jamba Heart.

-Eventually, Galacta’s rampages get too much for Morpho and she has to take a break for a bit. It’s really hard for her to see her husband going down an even worst path than the one she had in her life, and the one she immensely regrets.

-Unfortunately. Now that she’s away from Galacta and Kirby, Morpho is ambushed by Reapers and dragged back into the underworld. Her contact with the living world is severely cut off.

-Morpho’s smart, so from the beginning she thought of a backup plan in case this happened. Remember the side note about how she can turn into butterflies? As well as how she keeps an eye on Galacta? She does this through butterflies…so she can still kind of keep an eye on him through her butterflies.

-Anyway. Galacta is too far gone to be able to even think of this, and assumes Morpho completely abandoned him. This is what causes him to finally break.

-Galacta starts a rampage, sometimes even forgetting about Kirby because he’s so desperate to somehow get Morpho back. In his mind, he thinks he can ’summon’ Morpho back if he kills enough people.

-This, however, never works, as Morpho is in hell prison.

-Anyway. Now that Galacta starts leaving Kirby to go on his crusades, his possession only grows stronger. He doesn’t care about staying hidden anymore, so, obviously, both sides of the still raging war are desperate to take him prisoner.

-They’re no match for Galacta, so instead, they go for Kirby.

-Well, once Galacta notices that his child his missing, he goes absolutely ballistic. He knows they took him back to Halcandra, because he knows they’re setting up a trap for him.

-Enter the Galactic Crisis. Galacta destroys Halcandra in a fit of rage and retrieving Kirby again.

-Once back in Kirby’s presence, Galacta has a brief moment of lucidity and realizes what he’s done, and allows himself to be imprisoned by the remaining Ancients.

-I’d like to point out that Galacta destroying an entire planet had MASSIVE repercussions for both sides of the war. At this point, the war had been raging on for 2 years and was nearing a close, as Jambandra had invaded Halcandra. So when galacta wiped out the planet, he wiped out most of the Ancients.

-This sent the underworld into complete chaos, and in this chaos Morpho managed to escape.

-After this crisis event, the Reapers were disbanded, and the underworld was sent into a shambling mess. Because of this, Morpho lost some of her powers, and still had to restrict her presence in the living world to butterflies.

-Anyway. Since she was still keeping tabs on Galacta, she saw what he did and was absolutely destroyed. From this point on, she vowed to find a way to get her husband back from whatever was possessing him, and to give their child a better life than either of them had.

-Galacta was sealed and removed from time by the remaining Ancients, who eventually died out/integrated into other societies, as they were left a broken, scattered mess.

-Back to Kirby and how he gets to the future…well, the Ancients didn’t just seal Galacta knight….they sealed Kirby away too.

-From here on out, Morpho rummages through the ruins of civilization to find a way to unseal her child, and cure Galacta.

-It takes. A long ass time. For her to unseal Kirby.

-I don’t have too many specifics on how she manages to do this, however I imagine she found a way to repair and use a broken Nova from the war.

-I would also like to reiterate that Morpho can rarely exist as her humanoid form, she has to be butterflies most of the time since now that the underworld is also a broken mess, it’s hard to get back into the world of the living.

-When Morpho retrieves Kirby, she takes him to a safe place and watches over him as the signature red butterflies.

-Since it took Morpho so long to get Kirby back, the world has changed drastically. Now, Galacta Knight is only a legend, a cautionary tale told to aspiring warriors. And sometimes, she’s even brought up in those legends, which gives her more of a reason to refrain from using her humanoid form so as not to be recognised.

-Furhtermore, any races that were a part of the Ancients are few and far between. Which, as I’m sure you can guess from Galacta Knight, means that the legion of puff knights in the ancient armies were largely wiped out in the Galactic Crisis. What I’m trying to say here is that puffballs and wizards like Hyness are really rare now. And really, evidence and knowledge of the Ancients is very rare as well.

-Well…this leads us to a certain bat winged knight who I will discuss later….since I’m redoing is reference too! So stay tuned (:

I hope this massive lore dump was worth the wait….if you actually read all of this thank you for helping me indulge in my AU! I have way too much lore for this…like. Believe it or not this is me trying to condense things.

Anyway…thank you all for your continued support and interest in this AU! I’ve got a few things planned that I hope you all will enjoy (:

[many-gay-magpies]

shhhh if she says ur 5’6 ur 5’6 changbin is now short to u congrats

LOVE cartoon physics on the dark moon boys i think shion and jino in particular would like to test the limits of their immortal bodies like i can see jino learning to be a contortionist for fun and to scare people a lil bc why not??? it’s not like he has normal muscles and tendons ! he’s half dead !

YEAH NOA AS SHENANIGANS ACCOMPLICE. I LOVE IT. going back to an Old ask of mine i can see noa using his darkness/shadow power to cause chaos. shion needs some cover to be nosy? noa’s got it he makes shion basically invisible in the shadows. jaan can’t be bothered to go to class? noa causes a power outage (and lies to heli’s face abt it later). the possibilities are Endless bc noa really can do Anything under cover of darkness!

GOD THAT WOULD RLY BE A LIFE-ALTERING CRISIS TO HAVE. ANOTHER REASON AS TO WHY SOOHA ! SHOULD ! BE ! TRAUMATIZED ! GOD ! DAMNIT ! GIVE HER SOME ACTUAL BAGGAGE YEAAAAA

she’d enjoy sabotaging solon Wayyy too much and she would laugh right in his face when he bangs his head on his locker in frustration at yet Another love confession and she wouldn’t even MIND the jealous girls bc she’s very vocal about not actually having feelings for the guys and just being a good friend anyway. but eventually solon would come to her like “pLEASE WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO MAKE IT STOP” and sooha would smile so evilly and tell him he has to treat her to lunch every day for the next month and she’ll stop advertising his kindness

- vrvr anon

i will now mentally hold this superiority over his head forever thank you

JINO CONTORTIONIST thats such a cool idea bro . contortionists in general are cool but jino as one especially is a wonderful concept. it fits him oddly well, i feel like he'd totally be the kind of guy to screw around and test the limits of his newly-immortal body—how many limbs can he twist in unnatural ways now that he is effectively dead? he'd have fun with it, but ALSO have fun freaking people out lmao. someone jokingly asks him where his spine went once and he replies "idk i think i might have lost it some time in the 1920s". also on the topic of cartoon physics, jaan and sooha could both use their super strength to weild comically large hammers and less-comically wreck peoples' shit, bugs bunny style.

hell yeah noa using his shadow/light powers to assist in shenanigans !! that would be such a great tool to use in so many pranks and heists, and also he could make shadow puppets without using his hands. AND NOA LYING TO HELI'S FACE ABOUT CAUSING A POWER OUTTAGE LMAO YES

REALLYYYYYY THATS WHAT IM SAYING !!!! LIKE. THE GIRL HAS GONE THROUGH SOME SHIT LET IT HAVE IMPACT. GIVE HER SOME TRAUMA. SHE DID NOT COME OUT OF SEVERAL MASSIVE SUITCASE-SIZED TRAUMATIC EVENTS WITH ONLY COIN PURSE-SIZED BAGGAGE. PLEASE HYBE

oh my god i LOVE sooha blackmailing/bribing solon into buying her lunch for a month. peak little shit behavior so iconic of her honestly. the thing is, though, what if that only ENFORCES the whole romantic solon image? because students see solon and sooha going out for lunch together every day for a month straight and go omg are you dating?!? solon feels this bolt of pure FEAR at what sooha might say in response but instead she just goes "nah lmao i blackmailed him into buying me lunch for a month and hes being a big old grouch about it" and he might actually slump over in relief.

the concept of solon and sooha as bickering frenemie-bffs is so much fun to me, i love it so much honestly; i just adore dynamics where people bring out the snarky little shit in each other <3

[babycharmander]

I KNOW IT'S TWO DAYS LATE NOW BUT I'M DOING ONE MORE I DON'T CARE!! I wanted to recommend some fics! But I'm gonna specifically be recommending some that I haven't seen anyone recommend yet, so here we go!

Fic title: Las Memorias by abelrunner (@wee-chlo) What it's about: A fic showing some snippets of Héctor's afterlife as he's slowly forgotten, and also a bit post-movie. What I like the most about it: This was a much older fic in the fandom and one that introduced a headcanon I quite liked--that the dead can feel when someone who remembers them is forgotten. It's also got a very nice, brief look at Héctor's afterlife and the friends he made in Shantytown. The OCs in it are good too! Favorite scene: It's SO HARD to say for this fic because there's so many good ones. But there's one specific moment in the fic where each of Héctor's family members says something (I won't spoil it because it's a great moment) and it about destroyed me. Why other people should read it: If you want a really good oneshot about Héctor's afterlife and also some really good moments with his family, you should definitely read this. Other thoughts: This one influenced some of my own headcanons, haha. It's good!

Fic title: Elegy by @dogbearinggifts What it's about: An AU where Imelda is cursed and sent to the Land of the Dead, where she encounters a recently-dead Ernesto as well as Héctor, and... things play out from there. What I like the most about it: Living!Imelda interacting with dead!Héctor was really cool. It's also just an overall very cool way of showing how the story could have gone. Favorite scene: The scene where Imelda and Héctor realize what really happened. Why other people should read it: If you want to read a really fascinating AU and see some really well-written interaction between Imelda and Héctor.

Fic Title: For Whom the Bell Tolls by @im-fairly-whitty What it's about: Ernesto decides to settle some unfinished business in the Land of the Living post-movie. What I like the most about it: This is one of the first fics I recall that dealt with Ernesto's character development post-movie, and it does a pretty good job of it. Favorite scene: Héctor and Ernesto's conversation. I don't want to spoil it--it needs to be read. Why other people should read it: If you want to read something Ernesto-centric, this is a really good one!

Fic Title: Ojos Que No Ven by @endless-existential-crisis What it's about: Post-movie, Miguel dies in a tragic accident, and is taken care of by his dead family. What I like the most about it: In spite of its tragic premise, it's an incredibly sweet fic. There's a lot of really wonderful moments between Miguel and his family, though also a lot of sad ones too. Very well written overall. Favorite scene: Héctor and Miguel singing together! Why other people should read it: If you want some angst and h/c and Miguel interacting with the dead Riveras post-movie, this is a great fic. Other thoughts: It is currently unfinished, but what's there is still very much worth reading! Fic title: Recuérdame (Remember Me) by Xandynz What it's about: A universe alteration in which Miguel does NOT get cursed, but instead discovers Héctor is his real great-great-grandfather, and begins to unravel the mystery. What I like the most about it: THE STYLE IS SO COOL OH MY GOSH!!! If you've read Ernesto de la Cruz VS The Court of Public Opinion (which by the way is also an absolutely fantastic must-read fic), it's kinda like that, but with even MORE variety in the types of formats it uses. The story unfolds through a variety of formats--Reddit posts, news articles, text messages, and so on. It's SO COOL. (I think this type of fic is called an "epistolary"?) Favorite scene: I don't know that I could choose just one--every chapter is a surprise with how the story unfolds. Why other people should read it: It's a really cool UA (where, while Miguel avoids going to the LotD, things DON'T end tragically for Héctor) and seriously the style is so cool it really needs to be read. Other thoughts: This one is unfinished! I have no idea if it will continue, but it's still worth reading!

Fic title: Who Tells Your Story by @papergardener What it's about: Post-movie (pre-epilogue), while Héctor and Imelda are still in the middle of reconciling, the media is hounding Héctor and writing up a lot of sketchy articles about his past in the Land of the Dead. Imelda has a lot of questions, and Héctor is not the best at answering them. What I like the most about it: This is SUCH a detailed look at Héctor's afterlife--all the original characters have so much depth, and the historic details are really, really cool. A lot of research really went into this fic and it shows. It also covers some really heavy topics in a very respectful way. Also the way it's presented--we often see the tabloid articles and hear Héctor's shoddy explanations before we see the flashbacks, leaving both the reader AND Imelda wondering about things before they’re really revealed, so there's a lot of "OHHH" moments, as well as "OH... OH NO!!!!" moments throughout the fic. Favorite scene: Oh gosh it's really hard to say. I like the flashback with Héctor and Maris (the second part of it specifically), but I also like the moment where Héctor evades the press and mulls over how he's going to talk to Imelda about things (and winds up talking to a goat alebrije at one point, haha). Why other people should read it: If you're okay with reading some really heavy angst and dark subject matter, and/or you want a really really detailed look at Héctor's past, and/or Héctor and Imelda trying to navigate their relationship around all the post-movie chaos, you should probably check out this one! Other thoughts: HEED THE TAGS AND WARNINGS!! Also, fic is not finished yet, but you should still absolutely read it!

Fic title: Bitter Sweet Symphony by @tomato-bitch What it's about: Pre-movie, Héctor attempts to confront Ernesto and things go... poorly. Long story short, Héctor winds up as Ernesto's personal assistant, and it's... not the most enjoyable job, to be sure. What I like the most about this fic: This is such a different premise, and it's very well written. It's honestly kindof a nightmarish situation (being stuck in a massively stressful job that you have zero training for), but you really, really want to see Héctor succeed (and get some sleep, please get some sleep man). There's also a lot of really really good OCs in this one! And also Héctor essentially gets assigned a pigeon alebrije assistant and she's great. Favorite scene: Aaah this one's hard to say but I really like the scene where Héctor gets to go to the staff party. Other thoughts: Fic is still in-progress, but still absolutely worth reading!

Aaand that's all I've got for now! There's others I could recommend but I am Tired. @__@; But I wanted to highlight some fics I really like that I didn't see get recommended on Saturday, so... here we are!

OKAY I'M DONE NOW! Thanks again to everyone who participated in the event on Saturday!

[kiintsugi]

Vagrant's Rhapsody

“You can't change the wind but you can set your sails.”   ― Billie Joe Armstrong 

“Sometimes the world decides it doesn’t need you. Sometimes you decide you don’t need the world. But, you... fuck, I need you.”

+

Drink because you’ve got nothing better to do than wallow in self-pity on a Saturday night. Drink because you’re letting the straights play jump rope with your nerves. Fling your glass across the bar so you have to watch the whiskey run down your distorted, cracked reflection.  

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

+ 

Train hopper modern au. aka the road trip quarter-life crisis au no one asked for but i’m writing anyway

EXCERPT:

“Shit. What’s the order again?”

“Me. Nyko. Lexa. You.”

“See. This is why you should have done a rehearsal.”

“Rehearsals cost money, Anya.”

“So do weddings, asshole.”

Lexa pinched the bridge of her nose and gave Anya a shove through the open door. “I think you just proved his point.”  

“Shut up, Lexa,” Anya sneered as they filed through the door and down the hall. “Who’s on Octavia's side?”

“You’re walking with Raven.” Lincoln pulled at his tie. He had adjusted it at least a dozen times in the past ten minutes.

“Linc, you gotta stop doing that.” Lexa reached over Anya’s shoulder and grabbed Lincoln by his jacket to restraighten his tie.

“Who the fuck is Raven?”  

“Don’t worry. You’ll like her,” Lincoln assured. “And thanks.”

Nyko was waiting for them, already standing in position with Octavia’s brother as the first pair to walk. They wore the same matching black slim fit suits as Lexa and Anya with a pink collared shirt and matching tie under a gray waistcoat that was accented with a pink pocket square and matching boutonnière. But where Bellamy was clean shaven with hair styled in a short, curling curtain fringe, Nyko’s had a long beard and equally long hair tied back with braids.

He waved to them, and Lexa’s chin bobbed in response. She was supposed to be next but there was no one standing beside Octavia’s brother to indicate themselves as her other half.

“What about me?” She asked, looking around for someone else who might be marked with a pink boutonnière.

“You’re with Clarke.”

Anya slumped, pouting. “Can we switch? I love emasculating men.”

“No, you can’t.” Lincoln pressed his palms into their backs and marched them forward. “And Clarke’s not a guy.”

“What?” It was rhetorical, but she knew Lincoln would answer her regardless. She wished he wouldn’t.  

“Clarke,” he told her. “She’s right over there. Go get into position. Both of you.”

Anya clapped a hand on her shoulder. She felt it, so it must have happened. Just like she knew Anya shoved her forward. She felt herself moving, felt someone’s hands in her back, marching her down the hall. She could feel it. She could see it.

So why was her brain screaming at her to wake up?

The room was spinning, the world moving around her at a hundred miles an hour. Everything was a twisting blur that made her stomach flip and her head spin and she could hear Anya trying to get her attention through it all but, all Lexa could do was blink.  

Waiting for them were two women in silvery grey dresses with their hair drawn up into similarly styled loopy buns. They had their backs turned, heads bobbing with happy chatter as they shared something between them on their phones. One of them had a black and silver walking cane and dark hair, the other was blonde; not the pale sort of blonde or the dishwater sort of blonde, the golden kind.

“Oh, no.” The word escaped her like a whisper, as if saying it would change the truth; change gold into lead. She stepped back, her shoulder hitting something – Anya probably – sending them both stumbling.

“Watch where you’re going, Lexa. Shit.”  

Clarke’s phone hit the floor; her hand suspended – frozen – in time as the blues of her eyes are blown away. Clarke refused to budge; Lexa couldn’t. Blue eyes now black as night, staring.  

Something clicked in her head, time started to move again, Lexa’s lips slipped apart and before she could even think about what she was doing the halls echoed with her voice saying “Hello, Clarke.”

And then Clarke was cursing.  

“Fuck,” she spat, her body surging into a shaking frenzy as she snatched her phone from the ground and tried to do anything that didn’t involve looking at Lexa.  

Anya slung her arm around Lexa’s shoulders, squinting at the women as she gave them one of her infamous once overs and then looked at Lexa with those same judging eyes. “I expect an explanation later,” she said and then she unhooked herself from Lexa and strolled forward to meet Raven.  

Clarke was still cursing, still fumbling with her phone, still avoiding looking at her. 

Lexa swallowed. She deserved that.

“Clarke! Lexa!” Nyko’s voice hissed. “Get into position. We gotta go!”

Everything moved in a blur. Her feet were moving, music playing, but all she could hear was the thumping of her heart in her chest. There were lights, doors swinging open and music blasting even louder into her ears and then...

Clarke was touching her arm.

Lexa sucked in a breath, her spine going stiff and the room began to swirl around her. Nyko was gone. A push from behind. Clarke wasn’t touching her anymore. Octavia was there. Across from her was Lincoln, tears rolling down his cheeks. More music. Applause.  

The whole wedding done and over and all Lexa could remember was the sound of her heartbeat.

She came too sometime between the end of the ceremony and the reception, around the time that Anya had decidedly abandoned her in favor of the woman named “Raven”.

“Sorry,” she offered.

“No, you’re not.”

“You’re right. I’m not.”

Anya blew a kiss turned one finger salute and sauntered off to the buffet of food where Raven was standing in line and Lexa was left sitting alone at the table, watching as people she didn’t know gathered in celebration.

Lincoln and Octavia had their own table, as per some wedding tradition Lexa didn’t understand and everyone else had been assigned a table number that Lexa had no memory of reading. Still, she had the place card, “Lexa Woods, Table 3” clasp between her fingers, running her fingertips over the embossed lettering as she tried grasp the missing memories from her mind. But when she closed her eyes, all she could see was waves of gold, and the fury of winter.

She opened her eyes and sucked in a sharp breath when something clapped against her shoulder. She whipped herself around, tearing herself free from the unwanted touch, looked up... “Lincoln,” she breathed, relieved. “Congratulations.”

“Are you okay, Lexa?” Lincoln pulled out a chair next to her and sat himself down. He had two plates piled in one of his massive hands, one he set down in front of him and the other he placed before her. “You’ve been acting weird for hours.”

Lexa shook her head, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. “Yeah,” she lied. “Im fine. Just... Coming back here is harder than I thought it would be.”

Lincoln smiled softly. “I know,” he said. “I it’s a rough transition. I shouldn’t have asked you to be a part of the wedding knowing how jarring all this can be.”

“No,” Lexa rushed to correct. “It’s not that. It’s... I know Clarke.”

“You do?” he asked, stabbing at a piece of steak and shoving it into his mouth. “How? She’s hardly ever around.”

“Northfield. Minneapolis. Boston.” Lexa shrugged. “Around.”

“Small world.” Lincoln said between bites. “Octavia thought you two would hit it off.”

Lexa poked at her food. “That’s putting it mildly.”

“For real?” Lincoln leaned over the table to try and force Lexa to look at him.  

Lexa waved a hand and pushed Lincoln away. “It’s fucking nothing. Alright? Don’t worry about it.”

Lincoln sighed as he grabbed his plate and pushed away from the table. “Alright,” he said. “But try to eat something, okay? A lot of something. We got a buffet and an open bar for a reason so, make it worth it.”

Lexa grumbled and shoveled a fork full of food into her mouth. She had forgotten how good food could taste, her eyes rolling to the back of her head with delight.

Anya plopped down in the seat next to her with three piled plates of meat, sides and bread ready to be devoured. She glowered at Lexa, sizing her up as she hunched over her food. “I’m not sharing,” she announced.  

“I’m not asking,” Lexa said, taking another bite of her own food.

With a mouth full of bread, Anya sneered. “Good.”

Raven pulled out the chair next to Anya and dropped a single, mountain piled plate onto the table. “Table three,” she endorsed with a smile before her eyes trailed from Anya to Lexa. Her opened her mouth sucked in a breath.  

“Sit down, Raven,” came another voice; husky and familiar.  

Clarke sat down across from Lexa; her eyes glued to her phone and Lexa was sure she was avoiding eye contact until Clarke dared to stare directly at her from across the table. She had a small plate by comparison to everyone one else and a glass of either really flat beer, or an impressive amount of scotch that she was drinking with more than a hint of rage.

Lexa suppressed the urge to shudder from the bite of the icy blues across from her. “So, you’re friends with Octavia,” she said to no one in particular in a half assed attempt to steer the conversation away from the tension between her and Clarke.

“Not for long,” Raven said in a sing song voice.  

“What do you mean?” Anya asked.

“We sort of have this thing,” Raven started, her arms drawing a scene as she explained. “Like a box of long-term bets that we only open up on really big occasions when we’re all together. We take it really seriously and some of us are two hundred percent fucked.”

Clarke rolled her eyes and dived deeper into her glass of alcohol. “Thanks for reminding me.”

Lexa leaned her elbows onto the table. “Oh really,” she toyed. “Tell us more.”

Raven wrapped her arm around the back of her chair and pointed to a rusty red toolbox with a small rectangular slit cut near the top and a combination lock dangling from the latch that sat on Lincoln and Octavia’s table. Atop the worn red paint, the words “long term bets” were painted on in a glittery blue and there were several band stickers that were slapped onto the sides. “Normally, I'm the appointed commissioner. But my gift to Octavia was to let her be the judge of all that tonight.”

“You have a long-term bet box and an official commissioner?” Anya asked.

“Yeah.” Raven said flatly.

Octavia noticed them eyeing the box and she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and gave the box and excited rattle.  

Anya smiled. “I’m liking this Octavia person more and more by the minute.”

[taffystake]

So......Are you ready for the encore?

Taffy’s Take: Dark Nights Death Metal #1

Written by: Scott “Hallowed Be Thy Name” Snyder

Pencils by: Greg “Panikiller” Capullo

Inks by: Jonathan “Motorbreath” Glapion

Colors by: FCO “Fixxxer” Plascencia

So....it has all finally come to this. The finale. The ultimatum in a long saga of stories that started in the original Dark Nights, began showing its hand in No Justice, and was fully fleshed out with Snyder’s Justice League run. And it opens with a resounding boom that rivets your attention straight to the story and won’t let go until the pages run out. 

We open with Sergeant Rock, preparing himself and an unknown audience for a conflict to come. When or where this is set is somewhat unknown, but the massive futuristic assault rifle he levels to emphasis his last line says that Rock is somewhere in the modern day.

After the credits page, featuring a map of the current world of the DCU and a message that calls Death Metal an “Anti-Crisis”, we cut to Wonder Woman, hard at work deconstructing the invisible jet with a buzzsaw-like device in the literal depths of hell (Originally Themyscira) when someone interrupts her over approaching people. Said person is the flaming, green-covered skeleton that Swamp Thing has become in this world and he says that someone is coming with prisoners. And as Diana walks through her prison to meet these people, we get to see the absolute myriad of villains entombed in the place, including Joker. Once they reach the quartet, we get to meet Batmage, a red-suited Batman, a cloaked figure, and.....Bat-Tyrannosaurus. After some very terse banter, Diana is forced to throw this unknown prisoner into the pits of Tartarus. But before he is cast into the depths, he mutters something to Diana that makes her recognize the person for a moment.

After that, we are shown Castle Bat and given a backstory of a specific field within that area and the rebels who died within the tunnels underneath it before pulling back to a panel of a castle, with The Batman Who Laughs’ twisted Robins and Joker dragons dominating the structure. And then we meet The Batman Who Laughs’ League, composed of pairings of heros and Dark Multiverse Batmen. We have Harley Quinn and Dr Arkham, Aquaman and Bathomet, Wonder Woman and Batmage, and Mister Miracle and Darkfather. With each of them, we get a small question about their current work, with the most noteworthy being Mister Miracle revealing that Superman has almost succumbed to the Anti-Life Equation. Content with their briefings, The Batman Who Laughs begins to explain how Perpetua, the god who created their multiverse, has destroyed another of their universe, leaving only 8 before The Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua can remake the multiverse however they desire. Before we can hear more, we’re dragged into Diana’s perspective as the true Batman engages in a psychic link with her, trying to advocate for a small victory rather than the sweeping final win that Diana desires. As her thoughts turn towards what happened to result in the current state of the universe and her lack of memory about what caused it, The Batman Who Laughs interrupts her as he can tell that she is hiding something.

And at that moment, an explosive arrow fires out of the nearby woods and nearly vaporizes The Batman Who Laughs. Sacrificing one of his Robins, we soon see Bruce stride out to exchange threats with The Batman Who Laughs, who takes with some jest before ordering an entire squadron of Dark Multiverse Batmen to kill Bruce. While the enslaved Justice League does their best to take advantage of the distraction, their Dark Multiverse minders are quick to detain them from any rebellious actions. So Bruce is left alone, simply standing in this field to face down an army. And as The Batman Who Laughs monologues about how disappointed the brave men and women who died in this field would be at Bruce’s actions, he asks him what he would say to justify himself.

His answer?

One word.

“RISE.”

And so, with a BLACK LANTERN RING ON HIS FINGER, BRUCE WAYNE SUMMONS AN ARMY OF UNDEAD REBELS TO FIGHT THE DARK MULTIVERSE BATMEN JUST PURELY TO DEMONSTRATE WHAT HIS METHOD CAN DO TO DIANA BEFORE RIDING OFF ON A SKELETAL MOTORCYCLE AND LEAVING ZOMBIE JONAH HEX TO CONTINUE LEADING THE ASSAULT.

And now, as the audience both in the know about all of that and not in the know but hyped as hell because BRUCE WAYNE WENT FULL FUCKING NECROMANCER sits in the afterglow of that amazing moment, we cut to a single page depicting the planet Ossex as the Main Man, Lobo, unearths something from underneath the living bone of the planet.

Having made it back to Themyscira, Diana is quick to continue with the rebellion, setting off into Tartarus to see who this mystery prisoner is. And its...Wally West, with a Dr Manhattan-style hydrogen atom drawn into the forehead of his costume. And with Wally, we finally get an explanation of what the hell is going on. See, with the traditional multiverses, they are created using the positive energies that were explored in the Justice League run, things like the Speed Force, the Emotional Spectrum, Imagination. The inverse, stuff like chaos magic and the forces of doom that Perpetua wished to bring to power (and succeeded at doing) are what Wally calls Crisis Energy. And whereas the positive energies wish to create a strong united universe, Crisis Energies wish to simply make only one thing, one moment, one person important. And so, when Perpetua was trapped after her attempts to make a universe of war out of crisis energy, she did her best to instigate crises and came back empowered with all that energy. Meanwhile, the league, empowered by the slightly failed efforts of Dr Manhattan to ‘fix’ the multiverse, gathered all the positive energy they could and then, between the last issue of Justice League and Death Metal, the two forces clashed. Which, since they were basically smashing tow inverse forces together, resulted in both sides burning themselves out.

Now, that block of text could be extremely dry feeling, but it works really well in the two page spread, with the word balloons beginning to form an infinity symbol as images of past crises ranging from the original Crisis On Infinite Earths to Emerald Twilight to Dark Nights Metal in the background. 

But back to the story. With that explanation done, Wonder Woman begins to theorize potentially going back to those crises and gathering this information for themselves in order to reshape the universe themselves. Resulting in....”The first Anti-Crisis” The Batman Who Laughs interrupts with, striding into Tartarus to cut his own deal with Wonder Woman to let him take control over Perpetua. If she helps him, she gets all the people Perpetua has trapped and their own planet. And after that, he emphasizes how she can’t out-plan him, how he’s already prepared for her to knock him out, use the invisible jet she was being forced to deconstruct and melt down to give her armor that would render her undetectable. Wonder Woman is quick to counter that despite all the knowledge The Batman Who Laughs says he has, that entire plan is what Bruce would do. So he is quick to counter, stating so then she’d make a weapon, some sort of sword?

But it seems The Batman Who Laughs didn’t account for two things. One, for Diana to have already made her weapon before he showed up. Two, she didn’t need to make a sword. And so, with a pull of its ripcord, THE CHAINSAW OF TRUTH CLEAVES ITS WAY THROUGH THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS IN A SPLASH PAGE OF PURE ENERGY ERUPTING OUT OF THE DEMON WHERE THE CHAINSAW IS CUTTING THROUGH HIM!

The comic ends with two quick one panel stories. The first, with Batmage executing a final plan that The Batman Who Laughs had in place to unleash a final Bruce Wayne. Which only sounds mildly menacing, unti the art shows both a button with a watchmen-style frownie face and the final Bruce Wayne in silhouette, a glowing hydrogen atom on his forehead.

The other is a cut back to Sergeant Rock, still continuing with his tirade from the beginning of the comic before he is taken out of the moment by Batman coming to retrieve him for the big fight. And as Batman promises One last fight with everyone together, we get to see in silhouette that Sergeant Rock is missing his everything below his torso, revealing himself to likely be another resurrection from Bruce’s Black Lantern ring.

So, in summary, IM PUMPED TO SEE WHAT HEIGHTS THIS THING HITS! THE BIG MOMENTS WERE SO DAMNED COOL! THE ART IS STILL THE ABSOLUTE ALL KILLER NO FILLER THAT CAPULLO ROCKED OUT WITH IN THE LAST DARK NIGHTS METAL EVENT AND I CANT WAIT TO SEE WHAT NEW SPORES OF MADNESS HE GETS TO CREATE FOR THIS STORY! 

And while I’d like to be pure hype beast, that feels a little disingenuous when I do have some small moments that seem like they could be tweaked. Both of the long exposition scenes for the Dead Bats and the Positive Energy vs Crisis Energy could have potentially stood for another pass just to really tighten them up, but I will also admit that both those scenes kinda deserve to be long-winded. The Dead Bats to make sure that the setup for Batman with a Black Lantern Ring summoning an army at that point works and the Energy one because its explaining the entire setup for the rest of the event series and it helps lull things down so that the hype of Chainsaw of Truth can hit like it should. 

So yeah, this thing is absolutely something any Scott Snyder fan, any DC fan, heck Id almost venture to say anyone interested in comics read. None of the story elements of the comic intrinsically need you to know the backstory behind them, but there are definitely rewards for knowing DC continuity in general and Scott Snyder’s previous works in this arcing story. So yeah, I am going to sit here, vibrating in anticipation as I await the next issue of Death Metal from the Cowboys From Hell on their encore tour.

[coolgirl]

Jason expert rate Jason’s designs

sorry for being late i was busy with school but now i’m free so to celebrate. jason indulgence.

pre-crisis not robin

very cute. i like that it has a lil more of flair to it? the collar and the lines on the gloves and the shorter cape.. also love it has pants. king rlly king. wonder if they already knew he was gonna be robin anyways or if they were still considering nightbird. anyways, 8/10 bc its cute

pre & post-crisis robin (bc its basically the same)

i mean its a classic.. however it reminds me jason was the only robin who was simply given dick’s clothes rather than like. have an unique look? which sucks. 7/10 middle child syndrome is REAL

post-crisis robin (winter edition)

OKAY NOW THIS. i absolutely love. is it tacky? oh yes without a doubt. i still love the pants and the sleeves. finally winter clothes for this child, especially considering his new titans scene where he was bitching about the costume not being snow proof. he got what he wanted! 9/10

new 52/rebirth costume by

EPIC. IDC I LOVE IT.the circles on his arms and his boots.. the lines on his legs.. i just love it. i love the red mask too… it feels.. not more unique, but feels more jason-y than the other costume. 10/10

NOW. onto older stuff

hush

as u can see im VERY confusion about the pouches and the straps?? why??? whats the purpose.. generally its fine. the white strand moved a nation and i think the chest piece is cool, but everything else.. uglee. like the long as hell jacket and him looking 40 years old like why r u 19 looking like fifty? ugly white man. 5/10

winicks/utrh version

LITERALLY A CLASSIC. i love this costume sooo much. like jason obviously grew out of it, as in it wouldnt make sense for him anymore to go with something like this as his main costume because i feel like this fit the utrh mood (him not veing a vigilante/hero/villain whatver but trying to be a mob boss n shit) and it just. fucks. i love the helmet just being plain with no stupid mouth or nose shape. i simply love it. 10/10

nigthwing

its just. its just the nightwing costume. didnt even try he just stole that from dick. he still rocks it and looks better than dick, and u gotta give him points for accessorizing with his dagger. 7/10

red robin 

im not. a big fan of this costume.. i think the cowl is ugly, it just does not work for someone as big as jason… however i do like why he took this mantle and what it meant.. 6/10 no words head empty. 

oh brother. furryman

ITS SUCH AN UGLY COSTUME. muzzle batman walked so muzzle red hood could run. its just. ugly like ugly. i dont like the ears or again the muzzle or whatever the hell is going on in the arms.. its just so edgy. 5/10

WANNA KNOW WHAT A SEXY EVIL BATMAN COSTUME LOOK LIKE?

Injustice 2 batman

I2 HAD IT IN THE BAG BABY. i like that its like classic batman costume but again! with some jason touches! the red eyes, the electric tiddies making a comeback.. epic genuinely epic. 10/10

and if ur not into evil jason

100% dad ‘i have my life figured out’ batman jason 

just like the nightwing costume this is just. batman costume. nothing special or different from it so its like did u even try? BUT in this scenario it actually means smth that he stuck to bruces costume.. sweet.. but boring. 7/10

speaking of. evil ugly designs. ugh i hate this.

this motherfucker

ive never. ever. felt as humiliated by a costume than thetime jason wore this. like MORTIFYING RLLY. its DISGUSTINGGG. the helmet shape. the fucking WHITE. the SKULL PLEASE WHO DESIGNED THIS WHO HATES ME IN PARTICULAR SO MUCH??? THIS MAN DOES NOT FUCK! HES UGLY! HE STINKS!!!! the red guns are epic that much i can say. LOOK AT THOSE PANS GOD ITS SO HUMILLIATING. 0/10 WORST COSTUME EVER.

HOWEVER. winick and the artist spun GOLD from it, because next time jason wore possibly my favorite costume to date

this motherfucker…2!

like look how much better it looks with a little of swag.. the helmet without eyes.. the belts.. the fucking leather jacket.. keeping the red guns/gloves.. like seriously i dont know a better man. the skull is still awful and i wouldve replaced the white for black and MWAH best costume. like the black part at the top make it all red and the white make it black.. god this jason fucks massively i love him. 11/10 my favorite by a landslide perhaps

new 52/rebirth red hood

OKAY I KNOW theyre slightly different (rebirth has shorter sleeves and a more padded look) but to me its like. same thing. okay i think its.. fine. its not phenomenal but its not ugly.. i like the brown jacket more than the black jacket i have to admit, its more distinctive and i simply like the color more, however i do not.. like jason having the bat symbol.. but thats also a me thing about how badly written this is. anyways. the helmet with the mouth disgusts me and everytime its drawn like that its humilliating. like. 7/10. maybe 7+. when it has the mouth or like nose ANY FACIAL EXPRESSION RLLY its a 5. 

wingman

oh i absolutely despise that helmet. he looks like fucking. terminator. its the ugliest shape ive ever seen and the visor is.. huge. i dont like the shoulder pads either idk what the fuck its going on with the thing around his neck either.. like hes. knockout batman and i HATEEE IT. damians costume slaps tho. i just… its… ugly. like.. 3/10. 

get damian back arc red hood costume

oh im a HUGE fan of this design.i love how his costume is designed in a way thats like. if jason was a dnd character he absolutely would be a tank. the padding, the red undertones everywhere, i just.. love it. i like how all the costumes were done to reflect their personalities you know.. i like this robin red hood hybrid. 9/10 would even say 10/10 bc i just enjoy how gleason draws jason.

red hood/arsenal costume

its like. i dont hate it completely (i love the way the hood+helmet looks) and thats.. yeah thats pretty much all i like about it. i HATEEEE the vest i hate it fr.i hate how huge the sumbol is and idk this costume just does not spark joy. 5/10

outlaw costume

okay this one. this one drives me insane. because like. okay i dig parts of it. i like the lack of sleeves. i like the gloves thingies. i like the hood. i could get aboard him ditching the helmet - it breaks all the damn time anyways. i like the stripes on his pants in the boots. ALL SEPARATE? NEAT. now i hate. hate. the muzzle. like WHY IT LOOKS SO UGLYYY LIKE SO UGLY like unless the artist GETS IT and is SEXY it looks awful. look at this

AWFUL. also like it made sense for when he was on the run and he had to make do and assemble a costume from what he had but like now hes sponsored by lex, get that man a goddamn new suit already please. anyways. 6/10.. like i said i like many elements from it but its still.. kinda ugly all together and depends A LOT on the artist.

three jokers

im torn on this one.. i think its a bit boring.. i dont rlly like the top part, it reminds me SOO much of that one tt issue where he beat the fuck out of tim while wearing a robin costume like i understad the implications of him wearing a costume thats similar to the robin blouse but im not a big fan.. also i prefer the brown leather jacket. its like not his worst costume by far but not the best.. like pretty basic?  i would say 6/10

NOW SOME AUS.

tiny titans & lil gotham

okay these two are like. pretty much the canon versions of robin and red hood HOWEVER they both have details that are different from the original version and DESERVE a mention. the curls on robin jason and jasons red gloves/belt are ICONIC. whoever designed them knew what they were about, so 10/10 best bapy jason.

arkham knight

does the person who designed this know how much theyve done for the lgbt community? i hope they do. i love.. a lot about this costume. i love the ears, i love how techno it is, i love the layers to it.. im.. not a big fan of the whole military thingy but i have to admit that applying it to the design itself is kind of neat.. i love the colors too and how.. practical it is while being. well. kinda dramatic? the whole bat aesthetic.. yeah. i love it. 9/10

arkham red hood

this one.. when u think about it the outlaw version is VEEERY similar to this one: the pants, the hood, the jacket eve. however i like this helmet so much more, i have a weakness for eyeless (??) helmets.. i like the little details of it as well, i remember that pic going around of it being held together with like. fuckign stitches and bandaids. legendary. i love this look, i would say 9+/10

injustice 2 jason

okay gonna go ahead and say it: not a big fan of the helmet. it looks like.. a bug? the lenses do not spark joy. this bitch has many styles and like toners etc and i will no rate them all. i think its a pretty basic design, not the best but not the worst either. like if it was an exam i would make them pass but make faces at what im reading like eeehhhgh. 7/10.

hag jason

middle one is like literally, on the outside and superficial level, just. his usual costume. the jacket and the grey kevlar and the bat. now the gloves are sexy as hell.. and in the whit ebackground one u can appreciate the under costume better and i really like it?? i just.. like the design. I HATE HOWEVER the bat helmet. WHY IS IT HOLLOW?? BITCH HELLO?? AND THE BATMAN SYMBOL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE! and i like things making sense!!!. we will not talk about jason in this book. like.. 8/10. maybe 9 if im feeling it.

hag jason 2: the hagger and the furious

hes just.. a little old man.. he cannot change this.. i like this design. i like seeing jason grow old. wish it wasnt in this context. my father rlly. 8/10

—-

am i forgetting any jays.. i wont do all animated robins because they all look the same and the one that doesnt i do not like. SO HERES my thoughts..

[axther]

Heyo, can I get a bnha matchup? I'm a bisexual ENTP, but am mistaken as an introvert often due to being bad at social interaction and liking alone time. I talk a lot with people I'm comfortable with though. Sometimes I joke in serious situations. I don't worry that much and am carefree, though I can get randomly anxious sometimes. I'm a bit bad with emotions, but I've been told I can cheer people up because I'm optimistic. I'm a deep thinker and have been told a lot I'm smart.

Fnkdaofdnskao i really took a hot second with this one tbh 🥴 but here u go!! Also, since there was no gender listed, i just went w they/them pronouns!! If u want smth different, then just hmu and i can change it!! Also, i am so sorry i made the second one as more of a scenario?? And it was...oof. yikes. Sorry. This has become my style. Scenarios disguised as matchups. Im a liar 

AS OF 05/25/2020 IM A LIAR ITS OUT TONIGHTTTT

#1 is…Denki! 

okokokokok SO

Y’all meet during a training exercise! 

It’s something similar to USJ, except it’s across several different schools and classes

And y’all had to find a bunch of objects 

So there’s a mixed bundle of people 

It’s a sort of competition

And everyone is sweating bullets 

And honestly??

You’re just vibin

And i mean this like, you don’t really seem concerned. 

You’re just chilling while everyone’s fighting, trying to find the best solution. 

Naturally, you’re worried, too

But you know that it’s kinda useless to try and talk over Monoma and Bakugou 

Now

Denki’s staying pretty quiet, too. 

While it looks like he’s just vibing, too, but honestly? 

He’s crazy nervous 

Because here are all these super talented heroes-to-be, he feels like he’s gonna be glossed over 

So as everyone’s duking it out, the two of you are just kinda...hanging in there

Now the thing is 

You guys are avoiding eye contact. 

Not in the sense of ‘oh my god, you atrocity to man,’ 

But in the ‘two bros chilling in a hot tub’ way. 

So as the entire thing is falling on its head

You look over and notice that he’s trying desperately to remain chill. 

He’s kinda fiddling with himself

And you nudge him a bit 

And as he turns to look at you, you may or may not be screaming ‘what the FUCK did I just do??????’ in your head

But when he faces you, you just give him a thumbs up 

Like that 

And he’s kinda at a loss 

But he takes it, and gives you a smile and a big ol’ thumbs-up, too!! 

There’s no interaction again, until he nudges you 

“Do you think they’ll come up with something?” 

You shrug. 

“Considering that the only brain cell in my class went to the Class Rep, and it doesn’t look like these guys their class brain cell, I don’t think so.” 

Denki pulls back a snort before wiping his smirk off his face. 

“Do you think...we could try? On our own?” 

“Maybe.” You shrug again. “You’re the shock quirk user, right?” 

Denki is stunned

Did someone remember him? 

Woah

From here on out consider him whipped 

“Yeah! What’s your quirk?” 

“Crystallian.” 

You watch his face go through a journey of emotions before settling on muffled confusion. 

“Warping, basic elemental magic.” You play with some of your hair. “It’s all tied to a crystal I keep at home. If it’s safe, I’m safe.” 

Denki nods.

He hadn’t heard of quirks where they have a variety of unrelated uses 

But he’s there for it!! 

You two begin to make your own plan to succeed in the exercise 

And once y’all look over and realise that the arguing isn’t going to change, thanks to Monoma egging Bakugou on 

Y’all dip 

And by that, I mean you warp him and yourself to the highest point in the building 

Took one (1) look at the lights 

Shared a glance 

And y’all took out the power

Within about thirty minutes, y’all have all the goods!! 

Most folks are still trying to get used to the lack of light

So when your group presents the stuff to the teachers, Aizawa is tired but takes it 

And so you guys pass!! 

You and Denki talk more after 

And he finds out that you’re part of a special school for kids with special quirks

Which off the bat sounds really bad 

But you meet folks that are like you

and you tell him that he’d probably fit right in. 

He’s over the moon!!! For once!! 

Someone that takes him seriously!! 

Y’all exchange numbers and the entire class can’t begin to fathom that holy shit Denki Kaminari got a s/o before anyone else in the class

Throws them all for a loop

And meanwhile Denki’s thriving w hugs and cuddles 

#2 is…Momo! 

Momo is...complicated

She’s in a rich family with a strong quirk

She’s got more than enough pressure on her shoulders

Especially since she was in 1-A, so the entire literal country of Japan has their eyes on her 

And all the while she’s doing her best to focus, focus, focus

She wanted one day where she could be like Mina, Ochako, Tooru, Jirou, Tsu…

Normal.

So she does it

One morning, while her parents are gone, and before anyone else is awake

She ties her hair up and places it into a gaudy blonde wig 

(Which was a massive pain in the ass, but that was the price of freedom) 

She dons sunglasses, an outfit that in any other case she would die being caught in

Leaves her phone on her bed

Tiptoes down the stairs 

And leaves 

The moment she’s past the gates of her house and out of view, she lets out an enormous sigh 

She has no idea what she’s going to do 

But her heart races a little, because that was the beauty of it!!

She finally had no rules, short of the law 

So she waltzes down the road, the city wakes up, and as the first hour drips by, she notices a distinct wave of youth

They’re not doing much, just relaxing in cafes and alleys

and Momo wonders if anyone is planning to send truant police

but considering she’s doing the same exact thing, she’s not gonna call them out  

But as she passes by an arcade, she notices a group

They’re a bit more subdued than most of the others, just watching one of their friends play a dancing game and fail horribly

But most notably, Momo sees you 

You’re snorting at the lanky girl who’s tripping over her own feet, but at the same time, it looks like you’re cheering her on 

Momo’s curious, of course, but she also doesn’t want to intrude 

But then one of them, a boy, turns and waves her over

She jumps because oh my god and makes her way over 

“Hey, did you want to play? Sorry that Tsukki was hogging the game.” The boy says, and you turn and glance at her. 

At first, Momo’s wondering if she should really join in, but then she sees you, fully…

Ohnotheyrehot.jpg

Unfortunately, you seem a bit closed off because you start talking to the last member of the party 

Momo brushes it off and nods quickly

because goddamnit that’s what she’s here for

being a normal teenager

So she starts playing Tsukki

And Momo wipes the floor with her 

Tsukki takes it well, fortunately, but it sparks conversation 

“Where’d you learn to play?” The boy, Seong-Jin, kept on asking 

Momo wasn’t crazy comfortable telling the Korean transfer student that she had ballroom classes 

But as she’s about to make an excuse

She sees Present Mic out of the corner of her eye 

And immediately panics 

But before she can tell the four that she needs to hide, you come in clutch

You notice her look of panic and take off your jacket

And you drape it over her and pull up the hoodie. 

At that point, all you can see is the bottom half of her face 

(seeing as she never took off her sunglasses) 

And a tuft of blonde hair 

Present Mic even pops by for a second to ask how the kids were doing, and he didn’t recognise Momo

So crisis averted 

Almost immediately afterwards, the five bail from the arcade and ask Momo why she freaked out 

But then you speak up 

“She doesn’t have to tell us. But next time you might need to bail, feel free.” 

You gave her a soft smile, and when I tell you Momo’s face lights up 

You two stick together for the rest of the day 

And Seong-Jin, Tsukki, and the last person, Keito, are here for it

Bit by bit, they start separating into groups 

That is, the Momo/YN group and the Everyone Else group 

Soon enough, the three disappear to do something while Tsukki is shouting

And you and momo decide to take a break by a cafe, on a wall with foliage hitting your back 

and you guys are talking as the sun begins to set 

You guys talk about everything and anything 

And Momo confesses it was the most fun she had in years 

The way you talk to her is almost methodical, with how you seemed to tip toe around any insinuations or trauma.

“I know I only met you today, but if you ever need a place to crash…”  

You trail off, playing a bit with your hands, but more out of awkwardness than anxiety.

Momo’s heart swells. 

She manages out a ‘thank you’ before hesitantly leaning on your shoulder 

And you take a deeeepp breath in 

But you don’t nudge her off

And slowly she begins to fall asleep, and her wig is tilted and her sunglasses are askew

but you glance at her out of the corner of your eyes and give a soft smile 

(that was not the last time you two met, and five years later at the altar, she’s wearing the same damn wig) 

#3 is...Kirishima! 

PINING

This sounds really simple 

But Kirishima would absolutely pine after you for 3.8 million years

Y’all went to the same middle school and you were friends 

And he’s all over you 

Sometime between the first and third year of middle school he just fell head over heels 

And so he tags along with you the entire time 

But after the Giant Figure incident, and he says he’s won’t go to U.A., you get lowkey pissed 

You tell him that he’s worked so hard, he’s come so far, why give up now, he’s only fourteen for god’s sake. 

But he doesn’t listen

And you two don’t talk after that 

After he decides to go for it and not live a life of regrets, he’s doing his best to become someone he wants to be 

But the biggest looming regret he had was the fallout with you

And it was a nasty fall out-parents stopped talking, kids took sides, teachers knew 

You went to a completely different school than what he thought you were

And he was pretty sure that due to the fallout and the constant movement of time, you changed your number 

So he knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as just saying ‘You were right, sorry.’ 

It starts consuming him

Half of U.A. knows that he’s thinking about something 

But it comes to a head when he’s sparring against Bakugou 

And all he’s really doing is blocking

And bakugou loses his shit

“Get your fucking head out of the clouds and focus!” 

“Sorry, dude!” 

“What the fuck has you acting so damn stupid?” 

Kirishima tells Bakugou, who gets it, but doesn’t really try to help 

“Just tell her.” He hisses 

But Kirishima’s nervous 

And by the end of the week, he’s gotten a flurry of suggestions 

People are coming up to him left and right, telling him what to do

And he just gets overwhelmed

On Saturday, he locks himself in his room until Mina knocks 

She comes in and they start talking about you 

And she mentions that she has your number, and that it really would matter if Kirishima was the one to text first

“YN supported you, and then it got rubbed in the dirt, and then ignored again. You need to be the one to say it, honestly, otherwise it’ll mean nothing.” 

So he gets to work

He spends the rest of saturday trying to write it all out his emotions 

But eventually he gives on getting them all neat and tidy, and just lets them ooze out 

Sunday morning he gets up early and types it all out, willing his hands not to shake too much 

Mina and Bakugou are there with him, and though Mina keeps making jokes and Bakugou doesn’t offer much in way of help, they’re there to support him 

So when he sends it and lets out a sigh, Bakugou pats him on the back

“And now, we wait.” Mina murmurs, watching the phone with wide eyes. 

And watching

And watching

And watching

And three days pass before Kirishima gets any sort of response 

He’s expecting to be chewed out, to get the text equivalent of a teary welcome back

Not fucking eight ball. 

But he clicks on it 

And he wins, surprisingly 

There’s a moment between his win and your text where he doesn’t dare breathe, just stand still 

Before you text back 

So. 

ur in ua huh 

guess you did it after all. 

Yeah. 

Again, sorry. I didn’t think a lot of stuff through back then. 

figures lmao 

u free next week? 

For you? 

I always am. 

[blackhyena]

Quarantine Survey 😷👽💌🐛🦋

Thank you @bironism !! I hope you’re holding up okay darling!!!

~Where are you isolated? (Country or city too if you like)

At home with my parents! Luckily we all get on pretty well and tbh in a time of crisis they probably are the best company. Plus, there’s cats, and a nice big garden, so those are definitely a massive plus!!!

~What are you currently reading or watching?

I’m trying to get through Queer Eye rn but it’s become a little repetitive so I’m giving it a rest. I’m reading some Alisdair Gray, which is so alien to me in terms of style but my work friend reccomended it and i’m actually really impressed, it’s one of the most intriguing novel formats i’ve ever seen! I’m also reading Dante’s Divine Comedy because I want to write something partially based on it. 

~If you can go outside, what do you like to do during this time?

Oh I love reading outside, and I’ve been helping mum pot some little seedlings that are just now starting to sprout. My dad’s got a camera inside a nesting box too so we can see the birds start to set up for when they have babies!

~Any fascinating concept you’re studying?

More PhD stuff! I’m starting a new chapter all about Liverpool and LUCKILY most of the material is available remotely. I’ve been reading the poetry of Felicia Hemans, William Roscoe and Edward Rushton - all of them are really interesting, particularly Rushton. He and Roscoe are abolitionist poets, and Rushton travelled to the West Indies and contracted an eye infection on the way there that partially blinded him, and was not cured for decades until after he had married and had children!

~What kinds of acts of creativity/forms of art are you currently doing?

SO, I’m doing a poem every day this month and god that is so difficult lmao, particularly when I don’t have a lot of different stimuli at the moment. I’m posting them on my instagram story, and it definitely helps me keep up a hobby I often feel I lack the focus and time to really work on usually! Plus I’m trying to design a series of dresses from different decades of history and that’s really fun. 

~A song/s that resonates with your state of mind at the moment?

Probably Cyber Stockholm Syndrome by Rina Sawayama.... i do feel like im depending so much on internet interactions for my sanity rn

~Favourite impulsive/’bad’ coping techniques?

Uh, sleeping in really late and just not getting off the same sofa for the entire day? Having an insane amount of screentime? Getting loads of tinder matches I can’t meet and not bothering to message them? Take your pick!

I tag @beau--brummell, @wampiry, @goblinmarquess, @percvshelley, @ceolfriths and @halfsavages!!!!! i love you guys i hope you’re all okay!!!!