#it doesn't have to be good just functional and tbh 90% of that is just measuring things correctly

[david-watts]

my wardrobe is now purple and not covered in weird grimy spots from the past sixty years of existence as a wardrobe so give it an hour or two and I'll have my clothes in it. then I might take a picture because !!! it purple

[palmettoshenanigans]

Aftg is really a Shakespearean tragedy. I’m learning about Titus right now and just.. Nora really checked all the boxes for a Shakespearean tragedy

Hello Anon Bestie, I've returned from war with my essay as promised! Okay, quick and dirty Betty Crocker Box recipe for a Shakespearean Tragedy (nuance and academic rigor not included):

A person with a flaw that can get em killed - spoiler: it gets em killed. (Tragic Hero + Hamartia)

Ghosts, witches, gods, oh my! (Supernatural Elements)

Good deeds go unnoticed and bad deeds go unpunished and everyone dies, hero included (Tragic Waste + Lack of Poetic Justice)

Look Anon Bestie, I took pages of notes, and I was almost going to talk about how everyone's Hamartia (Ambition, Devotion/Loyalty, Power, etc) were just functions of Love where Exy was the conduit everyone had in common. I even almost talked about the importance of how everyone's Deep Wounds had their origins in Parents (sins of the father, parental neglect and attachment, parents as one's first lesson on love). And THEN I almost talked about how neither villains nor heroes are born, they're made and the personal decision to remake one's self in the aftermath of the forge that shaped you-

But fuck all that honestly. All I care about here is the classic Tragic Hero and Tragic Waste hooplah. "The hero dies in the end" and all that.

I know what you're probably thinking, "But Tragic Waste doesn't apply to AFTG because the Tragic Hero doesn't die in the end! Neil is alive and so are all the Foxes!" I get it, I do, but here's my take. The Tragic Hero isn't Neil.

It's Nathaniel.

Which immediately brings me to my opinion on how AFTG manages to have a Supernatural Element as well. "But AFTG takes place in the real world!" stop interrupting me- listen- Neil isn't fucking real. He is not a real boy. Pinocchio in his wood state is more real than Neil is. Andrew knew Neil wasn't real from the fucking jump and was on that boy like white on rice. Nathaniel knew Neil wasn't real - how many times did he try to hold back his home grown Smart Mouth A La Attitude Problem for the sake of his store bought Meek and Mild disposition? AKA how many times did he suppress his Material because it would ruin the integrity of his Form? From page one our Tragic Hero was Nathaniel Wesninski trying to survive blah blah blah pretend to be Neil blah blah blah leave Nathaniel buried in Baltimore with his father yadda yadda roll credits- Throughout the entire first three books Neil Josten starts basically obtaining Life and haunting the narrative. He was a painting that triggered the uncanny valley, he was a statue that seemed like it was gonna reach out and touch you, he was a mask that accidentally welded itself to your face like that one movie from the mid-90s. Nathaniel is trying to beat this fake-boy back with a stick while also keeping his name but it doesn't fucking work that way. Neil wanted friends. Neil wanted Exy. Neil wanted a home. Neil wanted to stay. Nathaniel? He could have had friends and a home and Exy in another life. But Mary rewrote history and said "Put on these masks. Hide, Nathaniel. These masks will help keep you safe." And it was working tbh. But then one of them came to life. And our Tragic Hero died to make room for him.

Whoops.

There's nothing fancy about my arguement here, only that AFTG really does fulfill the Shakespearean Tragedy format, Supernatural Elements and Hero Dies and all. Anyway, here's a couple excerpts from my notes that didn't make the cut in my final essay: "The tragedy? All the villans are dead. Drake, Riko, Nathan, etc. But the ghost will forever haunt the house (flashbacks, nightmares, triggers, scars) and those who remain inheret the ruins they didn't raze (Ichiro, Exy)." "The hero dies and the villain dies but both good and evil still prevail so catharsis is bittersweet and yet that's what makes it the most realistic."

[courtofmatchups]

ooo could i possibly get an obey me matchup? :) i’m an aries, entp, bi, she/they pronouns

i’m about 5’8 with shoulder length hair that’s relatively straight. i like to wear crop tops and high waisted stuff, my fashion taste is pretty androgynous overall and is kind of an 80s/90s vibe. i almost never wear makeup or do my hair. and i’m always bumping into things so i have several bruises at any given time

i make comics and i’m a grad student TA. i have a caffeine addiction and the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy. i’m known for my ability to remain calm and optimistic, and also for being relatively quiet but when i do speak it’s always something out of pocket. i’m not shy i just don’t got shit to say. i love to help people and also make them laugh and/or cry with my art

hobbies/interests/likes: gossiping, funny movies, making playlists, singing/karaoke, acting, writing screenplays and songs, drawing/animating, traveling, going on walks/hikes, sending cursed images in the groupchat, and every animal in the world except dogs and spiders. love any excuse to wear some sort of costume or goofy outfit

dislikes: i hateeee cooking it’s so boring. also hate being dirty i can’t function when i feel gross. not a fan of loud music or weed/cig smell either so i don’t go to parties/clubs often. i have massive sensory issues when it comes to bad smells. i dislike routine too i love change and challenging norms. i couldn’t be with someone who gets secondhand embarrassment easily cuz i’ll be weird in public and not care. in fact i’d hope that my partner would join me

my red flags are i’m terrified of aging and being undesirable and there is not a single body part that i haven’t been insecure about at some point. i’m stubborn and i’m a complainer i love kvetching about random shit. i am rather skittish and look scared/confused all the time like a wild rabbit. i don’t bring much to the table tbh but i can make you laugh i am always eager to try new things and my heart is true. i imagine i’d be pretty low maintenance in a relationship, as long as u are nice to me and don’t cheat on me we’re good

It seems to me you have captured the heart of...

The Scummy Second-Born,

Mammon!

:0

Someone who is chaotic as he is?? And smart as hell?? He's already interested. And as he learns more about you, that interest soon spirals into infatuation. But Mammon, being the tsundere he is, will try to deny these feelings, and ultimately fail. You're just *that* charming

Your sense of humour is what stands out to him the most. It's a little juvenile, but that's what he likes (Lucifer, prepare yourself for some bad joke induced migraines). And your calm and optimistic nature is something he can get behind. And when you say something completely unhinged, it might take him aback at first, but it'll grow on him

A lot of his interests line up with yours, like karaoke and movies, so you can expect him to take you to karaoke palours and to movie theatres. If it ever gets to crowded or too noisy, he'll get you someplace calmer and quieter as soon as possible. He'll notice it pretty quickly, as he's pretty observant, especially when it comes to you (in a wholesome way that doesn't make you feel like you're being viewed under a microscope, that is)

Whenever the two of you are apart, you can expect him to send you lots of cursed images to you also. Of course, you cannot forget about the unhinged yet wholesome texts you send to each other

You draw comics? Mammon LOVES that about you too, so please, draw a silly little comic about your misadventures. He's not gonna sell them though. You made those comics especially for him. As money-hungry as he is, those comics hold a special place in his heart.

He can understand your distaste for being dirty (he lives with Asmo after all), so he'll send you care packages with cute little soaps, shampoos, and different body lotions

You don't have to worry about Mammon ever cheating on you, as he's clingy as hell

If you ever overwork yourself from a caffeine-induced high (being a grad student TA is no walk in the park), he's gonna drag you to sleep. Please do not resist

In a nutshell, your relationship would look like this:

[riverofrainbows]

Because of a fanfiction, i have been trying some new teas (not been much of a tea trinker before tbh), and it turns out to be exceedingly difficult to find a tea made of just one ingredient. Especially fruit or flower teas. It also turns out that 80-90% of all fruit and flower tea mixes are based on Hagebutte, regardless of what the package claims to be the main ingredient. I do not like Hagebutte and am specifically here to taste the other ingredients, those that are on the name of the tea. This is a problem. I now have personal beef with whoever is so madly in love with fucking Hagebutte of all things that they set the industry standard of putting it in everything. If that person exists. Otherwise i have personal beef with the personification of that fact, and i will fight them.

I was able to find an assortment of black teas, from a british brand even (yes the fanfiction was set in britain), that was apparently packaged in poland from importet tea, but i suppose the british people also drink polish tea then so it still counts. I was also, through some miracle and thanks to the plant biology course in uni, able to connect "Malve" with hibiscus, because they had little pictures of the flower on it (one of the only uni courses i actually enjoyed), and thus able to source a solely hibiscus hibiscus tea (no Hagebutte), so that has been a success.

I have not been able to find any jasmin tea, nor cherry that doesn't have not only goddamnmotherfucking Hagebutte but also about 5 other ingredients so the cherry component of the taste is negligible, so i will need to find some other source for them (i will try a big department store, this was a supermarket).

I have also, by staring at the tea shelf for too long, formed the theory that british people aren't unique, people in general are just weird about caffeinated beverages. Sometimes it's quite benign or actually has reasons (like green tea leaves burning at too high temperatures), but i promise it's possible to drink coffee that wasn't prepared with the whole thing with grinding the beans yourself and doing the thing with the little broom and doesn't have a "perfect crema". I also promise that it's not a crime to drink black tea that's been differently prepared with regards to sugar or milk. Even oversteeped green tea is still perfectly ok.

I don't mean cultural traditions or personal tastes or people who do this as a hobby, i mean how (some a lot of) people insist that you need the best quality and the best quality preparation for it to taste good, and that everyone else is low-key uncultured.

I promise that a not supremely optimally prepared caffeinated beverage is not impeded in it's main function.

[dearhopps]

— introducing judy, nick, fru fru and finnick in my au

^_^ judy!!

> she/her | 19 | enfj

is on her junior year of college

studies "criminal law" with nick

used to roommate with fru fru

has been living with nick for a 6 months

has been dating nick since her sophomore year (a little over a year and a half)

yeah she's an extrovert, but can't seem to order at a restaurant without messing up her order

she's a perfectionist, so she tends to try to right every of her wrong doings

very very very obsessed with "criminal minds"

had her enemies to lovers arc with nick

is good at cooking

met nick in their first "introduction to criminal justice" lesson. she was pretty excited to be paired up with nick to do a project together, but that went out the window when they spent 90% of the time being stubborn and bickering

besties with fru fru, weird friendship (?) with finnick

can't function without nick

cries to anything disney/pixar releases

has a light academia/soft aesthetic and uses lots of pastels

doesn't take much time to make friends

overall, very loved, friendly and kind! has an amazing group of friends she wouldn't trade for anything in the world:>

;> nick!!

> he/him | 20 | entp

is on his senior year of college

studies "criminal law" with judy

used to roommate with finnick

has been living with judy for 6 months

has been dating judy since his junior year (a little over a year and a half)

yeah he's an thinker, he literally can't go five minutes without getting distracted in class

was voted "most likely to ask for a pencil and never give it back" in the yearbook

the amount of knowledge he hides inside that brain is pretty scary

puts up a front for everyone, but is a sucker for judy's morning kisses

finnick's 4lifer, fru fru's buddy

no rlly, him and fru have a lot more in common than it looks like

blueberry enthusiast. that's it

skater (?) boy aesthetic

daily fit is just jeans and a long sleeve/hoodie

has matching film cameras with judy

realized he was in love with judy when she got sick and no one was there to take care of her. i guess yk how the trope goes

overall, sly dude that isn't scared to admit he has a soft spot for all his friends;>

ᰔ fru fru!!

> she/her | 19 | esfp

is on her junior year of college

studies "media studies"

used to roommate with judy

has been living by herself for 6 months and is neighbors with finnick, judy and nick

she went through a lot of roommate options but decided to stay with judy bc of how much they had in common

met nick and finnick through judy

works at a boutique a few blocks away from college

very. very famous on instagram

usually walks to classes with finnick

knowns as the junior's sweetheart

generous. too generous actually. can't go a week without gifting her friends things to show her love and appreciation

the mood maker of the friend group

refuses to refer to finnick as anything that isn't annoying, "idiot" and "mf"

but she's the one spends more time with finnick (other than nick ofc)

even if finnick is 10x more quiet than her, she enjoy his presence regardless

there isn't anyone she isn't already friends with tbh

a very lovely soul. she's happy when her friends are having a good time and enjoying themselves. that's all that matters to her <3

;< finnick!!

> he/him | 20 | istp

is on his senior year of college

studies "dance technique"

used to roommate with nick

has been living by himself for 6 months and is neighbors with fru, judy and nick

lives off of instant ramen and coffee

was the leader of a street dancing crew in his hometown before moving to college

met nick at a crowd in one of his performances during campus orientation

i mean it when i say that he doesn't wear anything other than a pair of jeans and a big hoodie

secretly very sentimental

as opposed to fru who was very emotional when judy moved in with nick, he was thankful nick was gonna go somewhere else to make his mess in

he's the only introvert in their friend group. that's enough to say he probably spits 2 or 3 sentences out at every hang out

tired of the being the third wheel

he won't admit it to anyone, but he worries abt fru the most out of the friend group

his conversations with judy don't last anything longer than 3 minute before he wants to run back to nick

a sucker for hand holding

the groups designated driver

as cold/quiet as his personality is, he loves his friends and their company, and wouldn't ask to have any other lifestyle:>

[bigskydreaming]

You're asked to choose one and only one or DC's future stops existing immediately. your choices:

1. Jason Todd the anti-hero who seldom works with only a couple of the bats he doesn't hate, for example Dick and Cass VS. Jason Todd who came back with healed body but broken spirit, folded back into the Gotham gang and learns to be part of the society again.

2. Tim Drake who makes all of his mistakes as canon but realizes he's been wrong and apologizes to people VS. Tim Drake back in his first iteration, a cute little brother character who is a reader insert and a fun teenager.

3. JayKyle VS DickKyle.

4. Jason Todd with a sword VS. Damian Wayne with a sword.

5. Chris Kent VS. Jon kent.

Okay but which DC future? Its omniversal future? Its hypertime future? Its multiversal future? Its Elseworlds future? Its dark multiverse future? Mwahahaha your threat is useless because the sheer wtf of DC's continuities, timelines and conflicting declarations of what to even call their multiomnihyperverse makes it impossible to target simply A future! DC's overly unnecessarily complicated nature renders it functionally immortal and impossible to ever truly destroy, take that Darkseid.

I mean. But anyway. Whatevs:

1) I honestly do prefer the idea of Jason someday fully reuniting/reintigrating into the Batfam as a whole, because fuck it, the found family I'm here for is the one where they actually act like a family....I just think it takes actual work to get to that point and I get irey when people are like we're here! We found it! And its like meanwhile, abusive dynamics still abound. Mmm. No thank you. But even though I've been on a huge Jason and Dick and Cass kick for like, forever, I do still aim for him having a dynamic of his own with the rest of the family.

Like the thing is, I hate playing the favorites card in families, and I think the emphasis on so and so being Bruce's favorite child or so and so being this kid's favorite sibling, etc, like it really does feel like to the detriment of the whole family, because once you start validating the idea of favorites, ESPECIALLY in a found family that is CONTINUOUSLY growing....I think you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot because you're kinda creating a situation where either no future new additions to the family can EVER be Bruce or one of the kids' 'favorite' or else you're innately positing that said fave status is conditional and even a current fave of Bruce or a sibling can be bumped down the ladder by the addition of a later arrival....

Which is LITERALLY the entire essence of the eternal conflict between Dick and Damian and Tim fans. Its not even that Damian is Dick's favorite, allegedly, its that prior to Damian's very EXISTENCE, fans felt comfortable declaring Tim unilaterally to be Dick's 'favorite'.....and then all it took was the addition of a single family member who had specific NEEDS in regards to Dick's attention and focus, largely because of his age and needing a legal guardian while Tim was old enough to literally jet set around the world on his own.....and like, everything went up in flames in large corners of fandom.

So I'm just like, death to the fave family member myth, its just incredibly counter productive to the idea of found family as a whole especially when it usually only exists to prop up a preferred character as better than others via the proof of see, these other characters say he's their fave or whatever...but also like, its not even necessary?

Because the thing is, you can have Jason reintegrated into the whole family overall, and still prioritize your personal narrative FOCUS on characters you like more than others, like say Dick and Cass.....because of course its natural for even people in the same family to have entirely different DYNAMICS with different family members....and these dynamics don't have to come with a ranking system in order to prioritize which ones you just focus on more in a story. Because its not necessarily that Dick has to be Jason's fave brother, y'know, just for Jason to prefer spending time with Dick simply because he's more comfortable with him due to knowing him longer or being more secure in the idea that Dick doesn't judge him based on their greater shared history.

This doesn't mean that Jason doesn't care for his other siblings, that he can't have strong dynamics with them as well, its just about finding a reason for why these two specifically might be in a story without the others that doesn't demand putting a definitive ranking on which one Jason considers his FAVE. Just like Damian doesn't have to be Dick's FAVE just for them to have the super close canon relationship they have, even relative to the other siblings, because there's everything needed in canon already to establish that the mere fact of Dick essentially RAISING Damian for a year, and being the first one in the family to really take a chance on Damian, like, this lends itself naturally to them maybe more naturally gravitating towards each other than other siblings due to comfort level and familiarity, etc, but it doesn't have to be like....oh but yeah, I just like Damian more than you, Tim, y'know?

So my answer on this one is a total cop out of both, both is good. Jason totally reintegrated back into the family, but with dynamics that still lend themselves fairly easily towards story lineups where its just him running missions with Dick or Duke or any other one or two specific family members even if for no other reason than they gel together best in the field, y'know?

2) Hmm. I honestly really do love and miss 90s Tim Drake and just....don't see him in a lot of what I read these days. I'm like no, why did he have to go, he was doing so well! BUT I'm also on a big accountability kick, and like, I'm so steeped in fics where Dick GROVELS for forgiveness for every little slight he's ever done real or imagined, with every character but Tim in particular, so its like.....I'm not gonna lie, I really have a preference these days for seeing stuff where its literally anyone actually owning up to shit they've done to Dick and apologizing or groveling or making it to HIM, like, completely unconditionally. In the same manner we usually see Dick apologizing, glossing over any reasons he might have had for doing what he did or feeling the way he did, and saying oh it doesn't matter, putting the entirety of his focus on what HE did and why it was wrong no matter what and he's sorry.....that's what I would kill to see from more fics, just in reverse.

Because so often even in the all too rare fics where we DO see other characters apologizing to Dick for shit, its watered down with Dick volunteering that oh he messed up too, it was a two way street, and its like no! This is Pettiness Hours! I want the unconditional apologies! Give me the groveling! From anyone, I don't care at this point, lol, just show me characters actually PUTTING IN THE WORK to make it up to Dick for harm they've caused him, even if completely unintentionally or via neglecting his feelings or considering the repercussions their actions or words would have on him. Aaaaaaand, frankly, Tim's a good place to start there, because of how one sided all the takes on their conflicts have been for so many years. I mean, if people need a place to start, Batman and Robin Eternal gets enough praise it can't be pretended that people in fandom don't know that story exists, so how about some stories where Tim says he's fucking sorry for punching Dick in issue #4 or #5 of that one, and it was uncalled for and he was clearly just looking for an excuse to unleash some more of his resentment and upset for the Spyral/Forever Evil stuff, and family deciding that its totally okay to punch Dick whenever they're mad at him and need to work off some aggression so they can then finally forgive him (for now) is a trend that needs to die in a fire post-haste? I mean just as an example.

But the thing that kills me about fanfic trends is like....the sameness of so much of it. There's SO much room for variety and diverse takes, and like....I don't actually hate Tim! I'm just cranky because of the imbalanced nature of most content out there for literal years at this point. Push the pendulum BACK in the other direction, create some balance by showing the flip side of things.....and that leaves a lot more room for me and others of like minds to then be more amenable to - and even interested in - other stories that don't scratch this particular itch, but don't need to, because other stories are doing the scratching by then, y'know?

And THEN like, at that point, I would be ALL FOR more stories that are just callbacks to classic 90s Tim who I adore, with his skateboarding and his EARNESTNESS and his go-get-em spirit and also the gumption. All the gumption. I like that Tim. I do miss that Tim. But like, for the moment, like, I want accountable Tim because I am tiiiiiiiired of groveling Dick and tbh at this point its not enough for me to just see people move past putting Dick in that position and just have mutually respective and doting brothers Dick and Tim having adventures together......nah, first I want some reciprocation. Ngl. Gimme the apologies for actual mistakes actually made.

3) DickKyle. Easy question, c'mon, you gotta know that. LOL. ;)

But yeah, I've been shipping these two off their like, two shared pages from way back in the Obsidian Age story years before Jason even returned, let alone was in Countdown together with Kyle, so like, its no contest. I don't mind JayKyle, I certainly prefer it to JayRoy tbh, but there's not a ton of appeal in it for me, particularly in how its usually depicted, because like....the entire basis of JayKyle is that they DO have stories together and spent a whole year worth of weekly issues traveling the multiverse together in Countdown.....but there's like, practically no trace of their actual dynamics from that series or any specifics of literally any issue from that entire comic in most fics I’ve read, so its like.....idk, it tends to come across as more generic, not in the sense that it cant still be interesting, but more in the sense that it feels like just someone paired with Jason just because history between them EXISTS without any interest in exploring what that history actually IS....and at that point, its like, well there's no reason TO prioritize that ship over DickKyle for me personally, when like, I have a shit ton of headcanon reasons for why those two in a pairing specifically. *Shrugs* My logic. Its not for everyone, but it works for me.

4) Jason with a sword or Damian with a sword? I don't understand the question. Both. Both is good. All the characters should have swords. Swords are awesome.

5) Chris Kent vs Jon Kent - oof. I adore Jon, I really do. I love his dynamic with Damian, I love a lot of their specific stories, the parallels between them as friends and Bruce and Clark as friends....its all very bien. But I gotta give this one to Chris, because I'm always gonna have a soft spot for him because I'm a sucker for all abused kid heroes, and I just miss that funky little dude so much. There's so many stories we didn't get with him and were just ripe for the picking, but nooooo, DC's like lol you can't have nice things, here we just rebooted the entire multiverse and now Clark and Lois never adopted the son of Clark's worst Kryptonian rival and raised him with tender love and care awww does that make you sad, were you invested in him, WELL TOO BAD, HE'S GONE NOW AND BASICALLY NEVER EXISTED, NOW GIVE US YOUR MONEY ANYWAY MWAHAHAHAHAH.

Yeah. I'm still not over that. Probably will never be tbh, so I with great grudge-bearing do affirm that I'm gonna go with Chris on this one and like, he is a Priority for me and I'm still very keen on the idea of him and Duke being besties for random reasons that might not make sense to anyone but me, but eh, whatever.

[ithil-ithil]

elves: "excuse the quenya." nice, concise, refers to the old language ban. a good turn of phrase.

men: "pardon my elvish." you think the majority of men remember the difference between quenya and sindarin by the end of the third age? no. i barely remember the difference between quenya and sindarin and i have the dictionaries bookmarked on my computer. what they do remember is that elves are weird bug-eating peeps who live in trees, and it's maybe best to just stay away from them.

hobbits: "pardon my french." do you really think hobbits give a fuck that france doesn't exist? there are christmas trees in the hobbit. 90% of the shire has no functioning government, yet it's still about the only place in middle earth that has its shit together. hobbits don't give a shit about your "logic," and neither should you tbh.

dwarves: bold of you to assume a dwarf would apologize for saying fuck.

ok but does the phrase “pardon my french” have an equivalent in middle earth? are people just like “excuse the quenya but FUCK OFF”