#it probably gets to that point in this timeline

[madamadamiu]

This is lowkey gonna be a delerious worldbuilding post while I’m sick and writing and sketching issue 2. I’m experimenting with different styles of workflows. On issue one I just wrote and drew it page by pge, but this time I’m writing the whole thing out first with planned panels and scripts.

I’m trying to figure out a good year for the cat shelter AU to take place in, and so far I’ve settled on the timeline of 2005-2010 range. This is gonna sound crazy but I want it to make sense for Ravage to be emo(and crying over Black Parade) as well as the lack of cell phones besides flip phones or somethingS

As for the actual cat shelter, the entire facility is a converted two-bedroom house that got turned into the shelter. The driveway got turned into a parking lot and Whirl lives in the bush next to the entryway stairs. The shelter is almost at the edge of town where a forest and mountain range is, think Appalachian mountains-esque in nature. Winding roads, humid summers, snowy winters, unpredicable weather, that whole shebang.

Iacon city itself is a medium sized valley city with many stray cat colonies, and their animal control takes themselves very seriously, not just for the sake of the cats but to preserve the native biodiversity. However, the decepticats put up a large fight.

I’m trying to figure out what kind of car Rung would drive, since he would need one to get around town. I’m thinking a car like this👇 1967 Mini Cooper, but more orange and run down obv. A stupidly old car to have even in the 2000s, but for some reason it’s a very reliable car for Rung.

Orion Pax would probably be riding in a pickup truck of sorts, it doesn’t really make sense for a guy to be riding around town in a big rig. I’d say 2004 Chevy Silverado. I’m still in the process of figuring out what his actual job would be. Maybe a firefighter? Someone who works with Animal Control enough to know both Rung and Prowl.

In regards to Ravage I wanted to give them more accessories bc they’re emo, but if you’ve worked with animals then you know that any bracelets or necklaces can be a hazard. So for the sake of the kitties, Ravage dresses more casual. Also for those who keep commenting that he looks like an Uchiha from Naruto… yeah….

It’s hard to figure out who to make human characters vs who to make cats. I want Overlord to be a human character, but I’m still on the fence about the DJD and the Scavengers.

When it comes to how much the AU follows the original MTMTE comics, I’m at a point where it’s 50% following and 50% me making up my own plots. Overlord being human doesn’t make sense when Megatron is a cat, but here we are.

If Ambulon joins the au I want him to have a patchy coat, a little half bald goober.

I don’t want the au to be 100% realistic, otherwise that would be BORING. If the AU was 100% realistic then the plot would just follow Rung doing a stupid amount of paperwork and vet financing.

I think it’s really funny when people comment “I’LL ADOPT THEM!!!!” On my art bc it reminds me of how some animals who are perfectly nice sit in shelters for YEARS but when they go viral theyre adopted in 10 seconds flat. Fort Max is too big to be adopted in Iacon, gets adopted by random person from Arkansas.

I love angst as much as the next guy but trust there shall be hella comfort at the end of this h/c train.

I figured I’ll end this off with the very first drawing I made of the captain trio as cats, which promptly bloomed into the full LL Cat Shelter AU. Oh how far we have come.

[belli5]

⌗ . ᵎᵎ ⸝⸝ Current boyfriend .ᐟ ೀMC⁷¹

doing the current boyfriend prank on Mack, because you know how tiny bit sensitive he gets when it comes to you.

˚₊· ᥫ᭡ Macklin Celebrini x fem!reader ➜ Fluff. Note: Graduating tomorrow and dont know how to feel.. masterlist

You weren’t even trying to be mean. Really, you weren’t.

It all started that morning, laying in bed while Macklin was still passed out, hair messy, mouth slightly open, one arm sprawled across your stomach.

You’d been scrolling through tiktok aimlessly, sipping on iced coffee and trying to wake up, when you came across a video that had you nearly snorting it out your nose.

A girl was filming a video with her boyfriend, and mid intro, she casually said “I’m here with my current boyfriend,” like it was no big deal. To be honest, this was not your first time seeing this trend, so why not?

You grinned. It was dumb. But it was also, hilarious.

And now you couldn’t stop thinking about how your boyfriend might react.

Macklin was a softie, and just tiny bit sensitive when it came to you.

You weren’t planning on torturing him or anything—you just wanted to see his pout. Maybe the little frown he got when he was annoyed but too polite to say so. You’d kiss it away right after, of course.

So that afternoon, while he was out grabbing smoothies for you both, you set up your phone on the kitchen counter with the front camera flipped and a couple takeout boxes spread out like a casual mukbang setup.

Which Mack was already familiar with your spontaneous “we’re filming this” energy, so he wouldn’t suspect anything.

When he came home, wearing a grey hoodie and sweatpants that made him look unfairly good, he placed the smoothie cups down and gave you a sleepy smile.

“I got your strawberry one,” he said, leaning over to kiss your cheek. “They were out of boba though.”

“Still love you,” you replied with a smirk. “Wanna do a little mukbang real quick? Figured we’d do it and then chill after.”

He blinked. “Like a TikTok thing?”

“Yeah.”

He shrugged. “Sure. Do I look okay?”

You bit back a grin. He always looked good.

“You look hot, babe.”

That made his cheeks go pink. He tugged the hoodie sleeve over his hand like he always did when he flustered. “Shut up.”

You got the phone set up. Mack sat down beside you, opening a box of fries, and waited. He even sipped his smoothie in sync with your breath like he’d done this a hundred times, because honestly he had.

“Okay,” you started, smiling sweetly at the camera. “Hi guys! Today, I’m doing a little mukbang with someone special..”

Mack smiled beside you, chewing. You continued. “I’m here with my current boyfriend,” you turned and pointed to him.

The chewing stopped. Mack blinked and then blinked again. “..what?”

You bit your lip, trying not to laugh.

“What’d you just say?”

“What did I say?” You feigned innocence.

His face crumpled immediately into confusion, and then offense. “Current?” He repeated, his brows furrowed and mouth twitching in a way that was both endearing and heart wrenching. “Why would you say current?”

You shrugged, still trying not to smile. “I mean… I didn’t lie.”

He dropped the fry he was holding. “That makes it sound like there’s gonna be, like… a next boyfriend.”

“Nooooo,” you said, dragging it out teasingly.

He looked from you to the camera and then back, his jaw tightening like he knew you were probably messing with him, but couldn’t risk being wrong.

“So what am I?” he asked, voice soft now. “A temp?”

“Mack,” you laughed, finally letting yourself smile, “you’re so dramatic.”

“I’m not dramatic,” he insisted, definitely being dramatic. “You just called me your current boyfriend. That implies there’s, like, a roster.”

“Not a roster,” you said, nudging his arm. “Just, like, a… timeline.”

He squinted at you. “You’re being weird.”

You lost it. Laughed out loud, leaning into him with your head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I saw this TikTok earlier where girls were pranking their boyfriends by calling them ‘current boyfriend’ and I had to try it. Your face was exactly what I hoped it’d be.”

Macklin groaned, face dropping to his hands as he slumped forward in betrayal. “You’re evil.”

You wrapped both arms around his middle, giggling into his hoodie. “But I’m your evil.”

He turned his head toward your phone, half heartedly glaring at it. “Delete that.”

“No.”

[startedwellthatsentence]

Something I’ve noticed that’s frequently been brought up between book and show canon that I think we’re just going to need to internalize and embrace:

The show canon is placing everything in an earlier part of the timeline from its book canon counterparts:

MB has been rogue for a significantly shorter amount of time, so it hasn’t settled into its existence as a rogue SecUnit yet

Mensah seems less experienced, and her relationship with MB is less calm and parental

The Preservation Alliance is a newer organization finding its feet in the universe’s economy, not an established, self-sufficient colony

Gurathin seems to have defected pretty recently from the Corporation Rim

The Pin Lee/Arada relationship seems newer and less settled than the Arada/Overse marriage

I think it’s working, but that’s my opinion. The books had a lot of room for exposition and could more easily portray MB’s internal conflicts as major plot points. Stable background players and settings were a good way to highlight its own journey of change. But in the new medium, where we can’t spend large amounts of time inside its head without just making the show into a radio play, need ALL of the aspects of the world to be in more flux and conflict.

This will probably also mean that if we get new seasons, this will continue to be true. ART may be a more newly emerged AI consciousness with a less-established relationship with its university. GrayCris might be an upstart startup instead of more of a hidden power player. Etc.

[lotties-ashwagandha]

(adult timeline) tattoo artist!natalie scatorccio x fem!reader.

(nsfw on one of the headcanons. I’ll probably make this a full fic at some point bc it was a request but I figured I would just post some thoughts)

when you first come into her shop and tattoo artist natalie sees that none of the other artists working have grabbed you yet, she knows that she’s just found herself a new favorite customer. she’ll have you sit down and will do any art you want as long as she doesn’t have any other appointments, even though you’re a walk-in and she hates catering to walk-ins. she wouldn’t mind spending the whole day looking at you and touching you and spending just a little bit too long on your tattoo.

tattoo artist natalie casually gets you to admit during your session that you’re into women. she’s not usually a big talker while she’s working, but she wants to learn anything she can about you during the time it takes to do your tattoo. she asks you if you have a partner, she asks about your job and your family and if you’re going to that pride event next week that will be passing by the shop… and when you say yes, she tells you she’ll be there, too. it’s unprofessional to ask if she’ll see you there, but it becomes an unspoken agreement. when she does see you there a week later, you end up leaving the event with her to go get a drink and maybe you hook up after. it’s her turn to give the explanations, how she got into tattooing and what it’s like running her own shop and who she’s into.

tattoo artist natalie gives you really cheap tattoos and then lies and says she’s running some sort of sale. you never see any of her other customers getting the discounted prices, though, and it makes you wonder just how exclusive the sale really is.

tattoo artist natalie doesn’t mind if you stay a while after your appointment to help her close down the shop (she usually books you as her last customer for that reason, too). she keeps a secret stash of beer somewhere in the shop and occasionally pulls it out to split with you, and if you get really drunk together maybe she will end up giving you a horrible drunken tattoo or fucking you on the reception counter or both — she just doesn’t like it when you ask if all of her customers get this treatment.

sexy yellowjackets taglist: @eatingouturmomrn @webism @chaithetics @ahauandthesun @szczurkanalowy @marleymarleymarleymarley @aphrodyk3 @ludasgf @pnsteblnme @il0veb0ttomsthem0vie @neighbourhoodspidey @dorotheareid @jackiesjersey2-0

thank you for reading :)

[phoenixyfriend]

So let's talk about the Plagiarism thing

This is going to be a timeline, and a statement of facts.

Before we start, I want to say three things up front.

One: The facts are not at issue. We know that they got the idea from my post, because they told us exactly which post inspired it. We know that there were not fics in this intersection of tropes before my posts. (Or rather, I know it, because I looked it up when this all first started happening.)

Two: Your perception of the facts may differ from mine. Whether or not you consider it plagiarism per se may differ. I'm not really sold on it being plagiarism as such myself, I just think that doing things in the manner they did violated fandom norms and was a dick move.

Three: This is not a call for harassment. Don't harass Radish. I'd appreciate you offering up this timeline if the issue comes up in a discord server or a tumblr community or whatever, just so people have all the facts, but do not harass Radish. I just want to counter a narrative that I personally think is quite one-sided and makes me out to be unreasonable for... paying attention when they told me which of my posts they used as a prompt.

I am going to be as honest as I can about my own failings here. I will not shy away from admitting when a factor in it was my own pride, cowardice, pettiness, or lack of emotional control. But I will also have screenshots and timestamps.

Okay? Great, let's go.

For several years, I would make a point of talking about how more modern AU CodyWan fics should play the age difference straight. This was because, for much of my time in this fandom, I've been frustrated with people doing large age mods on CodyWan to make it less of a power imbalance, but then getting upset with me for doing small age mods for RexSoka.

You can check timestamps if you want. Here is a selection of reblogs from the other day, so you can see the original text and timestamps on the posts. You can check anything with a 'self reblog' tag in the notes to confirm for yourself that these are not edited to rewrite history:

Originally posted Dec 1, 2021: Young Adult Cody in love with his middle-aged boss.

Originally posted Mar 30, 2022: All of Cody's brothers being confused about Hot Young Successful Cody being enamored with a walking sweatervest. Mentions of Bio Researcher Obi-Wan. I credit about half of this one to @masteryaddleisagilf.

Originally posted Feb 7, 2023: Hot Young Successful Cody falling for a bedraggled wet scientist who got covered in mud trying to get a sample. Had several variations in the reblogs. Fun fact! Someone in the notes said I wanna write it and I told them to do so. I was very okay with the idea of someone other than me writing this. Literally just want people to link the inspo post in their A/Ns.

Now.

April 15, 2023: Someone sends me an ask letting me know that there is a fic with the above premise, including some eerily similar phrasing, on AO3. There's no mention of me, and lbr college AUs are very common, and I'm not the only person to talk about age diff CodyWan, so I figure it's maybe a coincidence?

Here's the thing: I went into the comments. I thought "hey, if someone came to my ask box with this, then probably multiple people noticed, and maybe someone asked!" There were no comments to that effect, but there were a decent number of comments talking about how unique and original it was to do, very specifically, College AU CodyWan with an age difference, focusing on science disaster Obi-Wan and Hot Young Cody. I checked over multiple days, just in case someone saw the ask and decided to present the question on my behalf because the idea of reading the fic itself was giving me anxiety.

And I did get jealous. I did not act on that jealousy. In fact, given that I've previously gotten Really Weird about attribution for things that weren't actually my original idea, and feel embarrassed about it (this was over a decade ago, and I'd put a lot of effort into growing from it), I tried pretty hard to dismiss that jealousy.

I did think 'wow, if these people had just come across my posts instead of this fic, they'd have realized I came up with it first! Maybe. I mean, it's pretty long, and I don't remember posting about this specific dynamic before February' [I had, across several years] 'so maybe they started writing it around the same time I started chatting on tumblr just by coincidence. Maybe I should have written it for real instead of just chatting on tumblr, then I wouldn't feel so weird about people telling someone else that they invented such a cool and unique premise.'

There are fewer than I remember there being, so I don't know if this is an issue of my memory having overblown how many people commented on it being unique and original, if those comments were deleted at some point, or something else. It's possible it's a memory issue.

I checked on the intersection of modern AU and age difference Codywan fics. There weren't any. The only ones that came up during my search, the age difference applied to a different ship. Maybe more have been written since then, but at the time, the only places that had age diff modern CodyWan were my blog, and this fic.

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, only one person brought it up on my behalf, with my approval, and they were very polite. I was pretty insistent on keeping it nice and polite because it was still unknown! Still ambiguous!

No response, oh well. I dismiss it. I put it out of my mind as best I can, don't talk about it again, move on.

I also, for unrelated fics, start following Anonymous Radish. I was a big fan of Kyrbej Riduur and Trespass, in particular, along with Hierarchy of Needs.

Jan 6, 2024: I recommended them, publicly, as one of my favorite authors of 2023. I do not joke about actually having loved their other works.

Jan 7, 2024: Someone asked me why I was recomending them after people had brought up that it seemed they were using my work without credit. I very explicitly said that I had no proof and had planned to just move on with my life. I did not intend to pursue this, and the plausible deniability was there. You can open the link, but here's a screenshot of the answer I gave:

Jan 9, 2024: Someone tells me that they do have a tumblr now, and also says "Honestly, I'm this invested because I kinda put them on a do not read list because that thing was just too specific to be a coincidence in my book, so I was surpriesed you recced them. Like who cares if they use a prompt but give credit please."

Again, you can visit the link, but here's a screenshot:

Later that same day, I sent an ask.

Their answer included:

Mandela effect or whatever but I could swear you were part of the thread that had me inspired to do a 22 year old Cody thirsting after mid-thirties Obi-Wan but it was.... not the post you linked? It was some super long convo post and I didn't link anybody because 'Modern college Codywan AU' is so common.

They then found the exact post that had inspired the fic, and linked it. It's the March 2022 one.

So we now have the facts: the fic was, explicitly, inspired by my post. The very specific premise was from my work.

Now, that doesn't necessarily count as plagiarism; it might be enough for a court of law if we were making money, but probably not.

But in most fandom circles, it is a dick move. You don't necessarily have to ask permission, but you have to link to an inspo, right? It's just polite. Linking to your inspiration/prompt is just polite.

This is why I added the "all roads" joke. I hoped it would prompt a moment of 'oh hey, this would be the polite thing to do.'

...I was, I'll admit, spiraling. A bit bitter, resentful, jealous, etc. I didn't want to keep pressing myself, but it was weirding me out.

Two people, friends, offered to send asks saying 'hey, it's a bit of a faux pas to not link the post when you know where you got the prompt/idea from. Maybe just add a line about it in the A/N?'

They were polite. I think there were three asks sent, in total, from people I know. One of them sent twice; first time anonymously, second time in person. Both times very polite, because I was still in 'plausible deniability, maybe they just don't know' mode.

If other people sent messages, I did not know. I did not suggest or request a harassment campaign, I just had two people I know in the DMs ask if I wanted to see if getting that commentary from a person who does not benefit (since I benefit) would jog a reaction/reconsideration from Radish.

If other people sent messages, it was not at my request, or with my approval.

About two months later, Radish hid that fic along with a dozen others. They also nuked their tumblr and blocked me on AO3.

Ironically, I never even brought it up on AO3. But the action did support the idea that the fic was taken down because people had started to point out that they'd pulled a wee bit of a James Somerton.

To me... to me and a lot of people in the DMs (iirc I didn't discuss this publicly?) the energy of that fic being hidden was that they were resentful of the idea that people knew they weren't responsible for the origination of the core concept and main attraction of their fic, and that it bothered them that the praise wouldn't be going to them for coming up with something cool and unusual and Unique.

Now, I will admit that I was petty. I did occasionally go searching for the fic to see what people were saying, on tumblr and on reddit. Mostly, I was trying to see if anyone had comments on the validity of my own claims regarding 'was it rude to not cite the concept origination,' but also to see if... IDK Radish had put out a statement.

Pretty much all I found, though, was people looking for that hidden fic.

If someone was looking for the fic, I would explain that the fic had been taken down because people wanted a statement on why they were so uncomfortable with citing the post they used as a prompt. I'd link those posts above; on reddit, I'd usually just copy-paste in the bottom section of this post, where I discuss a more rudimentary timeline of events.

But I was being petty, and I'll admit that. I didn't like the idea that a person could violate the rules of fandom etiquette and then just come back a bit later once it had all blown over. If it were a one-time interaction, that would be one thing, but this was an ongoing doubling-down on a situation where they had already said that they got it from me.

...yesterday, Jun 10, 2025, they unrevealed their fic with the following:

Bit weird, you know, to say "this fic was not based off the tumblr prompt," when they told me exactly which post had inspired it.

Clearly, Radish and I have very different views on what is or isn't appropriate levels of attribution in fandom. Personally, I like to link things even when they're only tangentially related. For instance, I cite a glimmerglanger fic as inspo for a fairly generic Sex Slave Obi AU (here) and a Bleach fic as inspo for Slaves of the Senate AU, along with multiple Star Wars fics that are so widespread at this point that people are probably treating them as fairly standard, non-attributable settings at this point. I thought the core concept had drifted too much for me to actually link via "Inspired By" for Shmi Acquires Some Teenagers, but I still cited "it took a wild heart to tame mine" by NeonFaces in the A/N because I felt it would be disingenuous not to.

On an occasion where I was subconsciously inspired by someone, even for a concept that was pretty common, I went back and added attribution once I realized. I take this shit seriously.

Anyway.

Radish's comments are now full of people talking about how incredibly original and unique Age Diff Modern AU CodyWan is, and how they've never seen that done before so clearly I must be insane for suggesting it came from me.

Very disparaging things about my intelligence and research ability, too. People seem to think that I don't know college AUs are bog standard.

Fun how they don't mention that they once told me, in public, exactly which of my posts inspired the fic.

(I will lock this post against reblogs if you guys get weird about it.

[mikkeneko]

The fundamental differences in character between Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan

I see a lot of meta posts/analyses/headcanons arguing to the effect of Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu being the same person/same soul. Usually with some layer of "same person/soul at different points in their reincarnation timeline" or "same person/soul if they had grown up in different environments." And while there's room for any number of different interpretations and headcanons, well. I just don't subscribe to this one. A lot of the proposed similarity between Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan boils down to both characters having pretty broad traits like "being smart" or "being mean." But while those may be traits they have in common, I don't think they express in the same ways at all.

It's super hard to distinguish what makes a character -- or a person -- and how meaningfully that can be distinguished from the circumstances they grew up in. Trauma shapes you. The people you're surrounded by during your childhood -- family, friends, caretakers or lack thereof -- shape you. The values of the society you are raised in shape you, whether you end up accepting them or rebelling against them. Making a declaration to the effect of "if Character X had grown up in the same circumstances as Character Y, he would probably be a lot more like Character Y" is fair enough, but can you definitively state that he would be Character Y? That's a bit more farfetched.

Here are the things that, by my read of these two characters, distinguish them pretty clearly from each other:

Shen Jiu is ambitious in ways that Shen Yuan is not. Shen Yuan seems remarkably undriven to be the best, or most, or top of anything; while he certainly doesn't enjoy being insulted or put down, he doesn't feel a compulsive need to always be the Most Whatever in the room to preemptively get ahead of other people criticizing him. Shen Jiu, meanwhile, did not climb from the lowest ranks of society to the Lord of Qing Jing Peak without some serious fire under his feet.

Shen Jiu is able and willing to be selfish in ways that Shen Yuan is not. Even when Shen Yuan acknowledges in an objective way that a selfish or ruthless action is the best option for him, he almost always caves when he is faced with the impact of that decision in the real world.

Shen Jiu is able and willing to be cruel in ways that Shen Yuan largely is not. Yes, I'm aware of the latter's history as an internet hater and troll -- but it's critical to that history that he was only able to develop those habits in an anonymized environment where he was never faced with real people who could be really hurt by him. Once that buffering layer is removed, he finds it much harder to be cruel to people unless they are offending him very directly and egregiously.

Shen Yuan is consistently compassionate, even towards people he was initially predisposed to dislike. We see this pattern with Ming Fan, or Zhuzhi-lang during their first meeting, and even ultimately Shen Jiu himself. Shen Jiu could never have afforded that level of compassion towards others.

Shen Yuan is slower to anger than Shen Jiu is (though he can get very heated when his anger IS roused,) and more likely to forgive the grudge once the initial offense has passed. Shen Yuan's anger is not self-directed or self-damaging the way it is for Shen Jiu (or Luo Binghe.)

Shen Yuan also has a much much stronger sense of justice than Shen Jiu does, and will get very angry about perceived injustice, even on other people's behalf. Shen Jiu fundamentally does not believe the world to be a just place, and while specific offenses and misdeeds may hurt or enrage him, he doesn't view them as an outlier against the proper order that needs to be corrected. And this to me is the key difference:

Shen Yuan has a much stronger sense of what he thinks the world should be like than Shen Jiu, and allows that to guide his behavior to a much greater degree than Shen Jiu does. (Count how many times in his narration he rationalizes that 'anyone would' do or think a certain thing, even in the face of direct evidence that nobody else does.)

This also means that while Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan both have a strong preoccupation with their image, Shen Yuan's is internally motivated -- he thinks this is what his image, as a platonic ideal, Ought To Be -- where Shen Jiu's is externally motivated, a need to control other people's perception of him as part of a constant self-defense campaign.

Shen Jiu, ironically, has a greater degree of emotional intelligence (the skill of being able to intuit what other people are feeling) than Shen Yuan does. Failing to understand other people's emotions and how those emotions steer their actions is Shen Yuan's biggest blind spots throughout the series. While Shen Yuan has a vague, abstract concept of his reputation as something he needs to be concerned about, it tends to be attributed to the world as a whole, and he is consistently extremely bad at determining how specific individual people actually view him.

While they are both smart individuals, Shen Yuan's intelligence manifests in ways that deal with the absorption and cataloguing of large bodies of information, and with constructing complex multi-step plans -- which often don't play out to great effect in the real world -- and he can lose himself in complex thought-trains even in crisis situations. Shen Jiu's intelligence is much more pragmatic, immediate, and effective; he stays aware of his environment at all times, is always on the lookout for threats and opportunities, and can act swiftly to take advantage of them. But Shen Yuan is also more aware of the greater picture than Shen Jiu is, and less likely to get derailed by immediate distractions.

In conclusion:

Stacking them up against each other, it's very clear how their respective environments shaped them: Shen Jiu grew up in a painful and dangerous survival situation which required constant hypervigilance of the world and emotional states of adults around him. He had to be quick in order to seize on things that would increase his chance of survival, he had to be ruthless and willing to fuck other people over or he would be dead, and he could not afford to invest in a worldview that included things like justice and righteousness. Shen Yuan grew up in a stable and comfortable environment unthreatened by starvation or violence, and spent more time exploring abstracted environments where he could learn at his own pace and specialize in things that suited him.

But I don't think that, had he been in Shen Jiu's situation, Shen Yuan would have turned out to be Shen Jiu. I think he would have just died. And that's not meant as a value judgment; most people in Shen Jiu's situation would have died, most of his fellow street kids and child slaves did not make it to adulthood. (Though as a contrasting data point we do also have Yue Qi, who in many ways is a lot more like Shen Yuan than Shen Jiu.)

As for what sort of person Shen Jiu would have become if he had grown up in Shen Yuan's life, if he had been free of the killing pressures that shaped his childhood? Much, much harder to say. Like with Xue Yang, if you go back far enough and change the narrative drastically enough to sidestep all the trauma, you are going to end up with an entirely different character. But I think certain traits -- his sharp attentiveness, his driving ambition, his aggressive readiness to stake claims on the things and people that he values and fight for those claims -- are pretty intrinsic to him, or else he wouldn't have survived that childhood the first time around.

[diminuel]

So a lot of people HC that if Dragon and Crocodile were partners (by any definition) they probably fell put over Crocodile’s ruthlessness or transition

But ive speculated a third option:

I think it would make a lot of sense for someone like Dragon to not understand the emotional weight of a young pirate-idolizing upstart to get rejected and destroyed by White Beard.

Dragon is pro-equality so probably anti-hierarchy by default. Why should it matter if a strong or popular pirate dissuades you? He’s not the boss of you!

…which is NOT what you want to hear when your celebrity-pirate idol has just crushed all your sense of pride and confidence in this line of work.

I don't personally think that the transition was ever a problem. Dragon would be kinda boring if that was the issue.

What you suggest is interesting, but timeline wise it doesn't entirely fit (if you want to bring Luffy into it) as the defeat against Whitebeard would have happened a couple of years before Luffy's conception. But that aside, it's possible that he doesn't understand how difficult that is, because he managed his break away from the marine differently. What does it matter if Whitebeard crushed him? Just get back up, get stronger and try again.

I generally don't think there really was a falling out, but there was a separation out of necessity. I think the baby is often suggested as a cause for separation.

We can get back to Crocodile's ruthlessness. He got pregnant in the years were we know pretty much nothing about him. Only when Luffy was two or three, does Crocodile reappear on the scene as the Hero of Alabasta. So he probably didn't quite know what to do with himself after his defeat at WB's hands. Needed some time to figure out where to go next. He was still a Warlord but with no particular ambition of his own anymore. Maybe he did sort of believe in what Dragon's goal was, so the idea of building up a military force that could oppose the WG would appeal to him. And looking at ways to make the RA stronger would have led him to research Ancient Weapons maybe. But did he, at that point, have a reason to say "I do not want this baby, this baby gets in the way of my ambition" if he had not yet figured out that ambition or if the ambition alligned with Dragon's?

But if he had ambition it makes sense he would not have wanted to stay and take care of the baby. Or for anyone to know he has a child. But I'm not sure that would lead to a fall out between Dragon and Croc, just a parting of ways. And I'm not sure Dragon would have disagreed with Crocodile's choice.

Because Dragon is also facing an issue when presented with a child. Having a relationship with Crocodile is one thing. It's possibly dangerous, but ultimately the chance of them being found out and Crocodile being used against Dragon was rather slim and there are ways that Crocodile could talk himself out of it. (And it's possible Iva knows about how Crocodile feels about Dragon and that is the weakness Iva knows about.) But a baby? Dragon cannot afford a weakness - would he classify Crocodile as a weakness? Would Crocodile tolerate being seen that way? Him and the baby a liablity?

I like to imagine that they parted ways not because they disagreed with each other or didn't love ach other enough, but because of the baby. Because it was too dangerous to stay together and raise him. To protect him, they need to sacrifice being partners and parents. Maybe you can sprinkle in Crocodile not feeling ready to raise a child because of his ambitions. Maybe you can sprinkle in Dragon offending Crocodile by suggesting that he's a liability and chosing the revolution over his family.

[princess-ibri]

Darkside Disney Princesses: Belle

(Edit-put my original picture for her under the cut)

(So this one does rely somewhat on the backstories made up for my DisneyVerse versions of the parents of both Belle and the Beast. But I think it still has good precedent because of the whole Belle and Rumplestiltskin thing that happens in OUAT)

In the Darkside version of Belle's tale, Felipe never makes it back to the village to let Belle know something has happened to Maurice, either he gets lost in the woods, or the wolves find him again. And so Belle waits patiently for him to return. Waits, and waits, and waits…

Finally a month has passed, and Belle is desperate to find out what's happened to her father. With no way to know where along his journey he went missing though, she has no way to know where to start looking. And the town isn’t too worried about chasing after “Crazy Old Maurice”, gone into the blue.

Her own circumstances are getting dire as well, without Maurice there to bring in their little income from helping repair the villages various items, her resources are running low. She's taken in sewing or whatever small work people might give her, but its a small town after all, and the people are used to doing their own labor, and couldn't pay her much besides.

The kinder townsfolk give her what they can, but with winter coming on they've got to look out for themselves and their own families

Of course, there's always Gaston's ready offer of marriage, but Belle isn't that desperate. Yet.

Her refusals don't stop him from coming over and offering nearly every day, and they certainly spur him into making sure the town gets the idea that Belle is "too proud to accept charity, don't bother giving her any supplies"

So the winter closes in, Belle finds herself colder and hungrier, and her firewood is getting low. Finally, she bundles up as warmly as she can, and braves her way into the forest to gather what wood she can.

And in the glamor of the sudden snow, she too becomes lost within the trees.

The cold closes in around her. Deep and biting. The trees seem to twist around her, and finally she trips and falls, losing her axe beneath the snow that's piling higher and higher. She has no idea where she is or where to go, as the darkness deepens

Then suddenly, a light. Just ahead of her in the trees, flickering like a flame. She manages to stumble towards it. Following the dance of the light as it seems to lead her onwards, almost beckoning. Every bit of her is numb, but at last she makes it to the door of a ruined looking old tower. And inside, lounging by a roaring fire, is someone, something, between a man and a beast. It bears the shape of a man, but it's skin is mottled green, like the stuffed crocodile she'd once seen hanging in a church as a girl. It's eyes are black as coal, save for the irises, which shine-- like it's hair--like burning gold.

"Hello there Dearie", the being says, with a smile that glitters like a row of needles in the firelight. "Won't you come in? What is it that brings such a pretty young thing out into these dark and dangerous woods?"

Too numb with cold to feel fear, too desperate for warmth to think with caution, Belle accepts the offer, and lulled by the warmth of the fire and the being's careful coaxing, she begins to tell her tale. Her missing father, her growing desperation as Gaston drove away those who might have helped her, the dwindling food and firewood. And through it all the being listens, sympathizes, and finally, offers it's aid:

"For a price of course"

Belle is not put off by this caveat. She has read enough to know of Les Fées and the bargains they often make. She knows of the tricks and traps they lay. She also knows that at this point, she has little left to lose.

And so she agrees to make a bargain with this strange Imp

“You don’t know it, but there’s a power in you dearie. Flowing in your veins, deep down, like an underground spring. I can teach you to draw it up, so that you’ll never know weakness nor want again. You’ll be able to do all the things you ever dreamed of dearie, fulfill every wish—even finding your father”

The promise of this wished for dream above all lights a fire inside of Belle hotter than the one she sits by, but she asks warily: “And, what is it you get out of this?”

“Let’s just say that I’ll have the opportunity to pay something forward”

So Belle begins her lessons, she has always been a swift student. Drawing out the latent fairy magic that lies sleeping within her, waiting to be called forth. In another life she might have discovered it with the help of a more benign teacher. But that is not this life. And she learns to call forth her power through the lens of her fear, frustration, and anger over the willingness of that small and small minded town to so easily cast her and her father aside.

Time passes differently within the environs of the old stone tower. When Belle finally leaves, for her months have gone by, and yet as she reaches the edge of the forest, clad in a gown of midnight blue, her eyes dark as the winter sky above her, she perceives that less than a day has passed since she entered the woods, seeking wood to keep back the cold.

She has no need of warmth anymore.

She reaches out with the power she has learned to yield, seeking the bonds of blood and love that link her to her father. She sees them, feels them, faintly running through the forest. She follows them through the trees, unafraid of the wolves that once would have stalked her, and now slink away in fear at her approach.

She follows them to the gates of a vast and terrible castle, echoing with dying magic, a curse reaching completion she thinks, with the new arcane knowledge she holds. But she does not think on that, but on following the call. Through the door, along empty passages,up the winding stairs, to a jail cell atop a tower. Where lies the frozen body of her father, long gone.

Belle’s grief consumes her, feeding the cold flames of her power. She stalks through the halls, seeking the one who locked her father away, who left him to his fate.

She finds him at last, a snarling beast, crouched around a bell jar that holds a rose, with but one petal left upon it. Magic swirls about it, the center of the web that binds this place. Once Belle might have been curious, wished to learn the secrets of this place, and it’s strange enchanted inhabitants.

Now, she wishes only for revenge

The beast is strong and fierce, savage, the last vestiges of human thought quickly fading away as the curse nears completion, for he has never learned to love, nor earn love in return. But for all his brute strength, he is still only a mortal, and once more finds himself overpowered by a sorceress’s magic

When Belle leaves the castle, crumbling into smoking ruins behind her, she holds in her hands a staff, grown from the dying stem of a rose; once the blushing pink of hopeful love, hope that withered as its petals fell, now burst forth into bloom, the deep dark blue of a winters sky, of a heart gone dark and cold.

She walks steadfastly, resolutely towards the small town she had once called home. There are more scores to settle. Somewhere on the wind, she thinks she hears the echo of the Imp’s laughter…

[egophiliac]

A-anime?

you know, sometimes I forget that Twst is actually an isekai that starts with the protagonist getting run over by an inexplicable horse-drawn carriage. and every time I'm reminded is a delight because that's AMAZING.

also. look. okay. there's a lot of very fun stuff in the trailer but I am obsessed with that Crowley surprised pikachu face. me when I spend all my keys and gems literally hours before they announce overblot SSRs and drop the anime trailer:

[makiswirl]

in reference to my last reblog. what do you call this subgenre of 70s-80s manga protag

[asgardian--angels]

mage viktor discourse again on twitter and all i can say in my little corner over here once again is, I don't know why the entire fandom takes it as canon that mage Viktor failed to save every world he manipulated.

Canon does not provide evidence of this. This is fanon speculation. It's a fine headcanon to have, but everyone talks about it like it's canon when it isn't. Canon is ambiguous about the outcome of the timelines mage Viktor altered. The little nods we are given point, in my opinion, towards the opposite conclusion, that he successfully averted destruction.

I've written meta on this before but in summary:

1) 'In all timelines, in all possibilities' is worded precisely, it's not 'out of all timelines'; the implication is that every time, Jayce brings Viktor back from the brink, not just in our timeline. 'Only you' doesn't refer to our timeline's Jayce, it refers to all Jayces. Jayce always brings him home. If Viktor continuously put the fate of each timeline in Jayce's hands and Jayce failed over and over, I don't think he'd say those words. And the way he says them matters. His words are tinged with wonder, not sorrow. As if over and over again, he is shown that Jayce saves him, and it continues to amaze him. He doesn't sound defeated, like this is the next in a long line of Jayces he's sending off to die. The feeling is that Viktor's faith in Jayce has not been misplaced.

2) If mage Viktor doomed every timeline, there would be hundreds (or more) mage Viktors. All running around manipulating timelines. I highly doubt the writers wanted to get into that kind of sticky situation. The tragedy of mage Viktor is that he is singular. Alone. Burdened with the responsibility of the multiverse. The emotional gut punch of his fate is ruined if other timelines led to the same outcome, and from a practical standpoint, having multiple reality-bending omniscient mages would rip apart the fabric of the arcane.

There are other points, such as there being only one corrupted Mercury Hammer and our Jayce is the only one to receive it, and the fact that if mage Viktor is as omniscient as he is implied to be, he could easily step back into other timelines and correct course, because it's highly unlikely he could sit still and watch things go down in flames. But these things can be argued elsewhere.

While I love conversations about mage Viktor's motives and selfishness vs altruism, the writers & artbook have expressed that Jayce and Viktor care greatly about Runeterra and want to fix their mistakes to save it, and that their reconciliation is symbolic of Piltover and Zaun coming together as well. Yes, they make disastrous decisions towards each other, making choices for the other or without the other, which has negative consequences for their relationship and for Runeterra - but I think fandom pushes their selfishness even past what's canon sometimes, as if their entire goal hadn't always been to selflessly help the world around them. Their final reconciliation is about bridging the gap that grew between them - the pain and grief and secrets, betraying themselves and each other - to mutually choose each other openly and honestly. Part of the beauty of their story, as expressed by the creators, is that in their final moments, they chose each other and took responsibility for their actions by sacrificing themselves to end what they started, together - and that choosing each other saved the world. TPTB have stated this - that Jayce and Viktor are the glue holding civilization together, and when they come back to each other, they can restore balance. It's when they're apart, when they hurt each other and miscommunicate, when they abandon their commitment to each other and their dream, that the greater world suffers. Their strife is mirrored in the story-world at large.

Mage Viktor is framed as a solitary penitent figure, damned to an eternity of atoning for his mistakes. He paid the ultimate price and now is forced to live his personal nightmare of exactly what he was trying to avoid for himself with the glorious evolution. The narrative clues we're given point more in the direction that he saves timelines rather than dooms them. If Viktor's actions kept killing Jayce, the very boy he couldn't bear to not save each time, it would undermine these narrative choices. Yes, Viktor couldn't stand to live in a world where he never meets Jayce, so he ensures it keeps happening. But in that same breath, he couldn't bear to see a world where his actions continue to destroy Jayce and destroy Runeterra. His entire arc in s2 is born of his selfless desire to help humanity, help individual people. He would not lightly destroy entire worlds. That's his original grief multiplied a thousandfold, and narratively it would lessen the impact of the one, true loss he did suffer, his own Jayce. It wouldn't make sense for him to be alright with damning other timelines to suffer the same catastrophic tragedy that created him. I mean, maybe I'm delusional here, but is that not the entire point? Because that's what I took away when I watched the show.

As I said, I love discussions about mage Viktor, as there's a lot to play with. All I wish is that the fandom at large would not just assume or accept the Mage Viktor Dooms Every Timeline idea as canon, when there is nothing in the actual canon that confirms this. Maybe people need to just, go back and rewatch the actual episode, to recall how mage Viktor is presented to us, and what it's implied we're supposed to take away from his scenes, and separate that from the layers of headcanon the fandom has constructed.

[necrotic-nephilim]

i personally have very complicated feelings on the Gotham Knights video game and the routes it takes with characterization. i think it has a charm to it and it goes in an interesting direction with everyone (especially within the confides of the plot of the game) but it does have certain moments that veer painfully fanon for me. (such as: the dialogue where Tim drinks too much coffee) it's an interesting story for what it is but i don't view it comics-based for characterization and therefore don't care to interact with it much for like. fanfic purposes.

that *said* though. i do have to give the game some kind of credit for giving one of the top five JayTim moments that lives rent free in my mind. every since i played the game, the cutscene lives in my mind daily. it's the specific cutscene where Jason and Tim are arguing about whether or not Jason's non-lethal bullets are too dangerous for the field, and the argument leads to TIm *standing in front of the target* Jason is shooting and telling Jason to shoot him. it lives rent free for me. i never stop thinking about this.

the absolute certainty Tim has that he is in no danger standing in front of Jason, who has a loaded gun pointed at his face. the way Jason *hesitates* for just a moment before lowering the gun. he thinks about it for just a second. Gotham Knights JayTim seem to get along very well and can rely on each other, but Jason still clearly holds a bitterness about his death and Tim that flickers through in some lines of dialogue under the guise of jokes. especially since this game deals *heavily* with concepts of Pit Madness causing an altered state of consciousness, i think it's believable that occasionally, Jason fights the urge to fight and hurt Tim for the feeling of being replaced.

i like their tension so much in this canon. they get along but you can *tell* Tim is afraid of addressing Jason's trauma or even addressing Jason head-on, and Jason leans into spooking Tim about it. which isn't very comics feeling in their dynamic, but it is an interesting way to place their dynamic if you're playing with a more timid Tim who's newer to the role of Robin. (which he seems to be in-game) he really doesn't want to offend Jason, or worse, piss him off. but he'll still face Jason head on for things like this, while completely aware of what Jason could be capable of.

and Jason seems very protective of Tim and respecting Tim as a Robin in typical Jason fashion. if Tim pushes, Jason *will* relent. he knows this is a kid who's proved himself and should be treated with equal respect, sometimes even more than Dick and Babs do in-game.

so for all that to culminate in Tim stepping in front of Jason's loaded gun that he *knows* is on the edge of being too dangerous, just to force Jason to listen? it's the most unhinged way Tim could've gotten his point across in this scene. he was literally daring Jason to hurt him and playing with a very dangerous fire. but he did it anyway bc he believed he could make Jason heel just at the thought of hurting Tim. and he was *right*. they're gay and i'm feral ty.

[skeletoninthemelonland]

a glimpse of what their early dynamic looks like

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 273

You know what? We need more Good parents Fentons. 

And you know what else? Technically, Jack helped Danny defeat Pariah via the use of the Ecto-Skeleton. And like, that’s his son, his baby boy. Sure Danny is and has always been a mommy’s boy, but it doesn’t change that fact. They’re both already feeling horrible about the fact they could have hurt him, they could have hurt their son- they have hurt their son, killed him with their inaction and never again. 

So when these oversized jello-eyeballs try to insist that their baby, their precious baby boy, take a crown? Become a king when he’s not even out of highschool, when he doesn’t want it? No. Hell no! That is his Danny-o, his baby boy who was terrified of his own parents! 

Which is how Jack, despite technically still being alive even if so-very ecto-contaminated, became the Ghost King. 

And for some reason there’s several ghosts rather happy about this- oh, these are his Danny-O’s ghost-parents? Not-ghost parents seeing as some of them have never been anything but a realm denizen? That’s really fascinating- y’know what, want some fudge and we can exchange childcare- Maddie dear come over and meet our co-parents apparently!  

Now it’s not all easy, but they’re trying their best, and that’s all that can be asked. 

…

Which is perhaps why it’s so exasperating- or as Maddie would put it, downright infuriating- that it is now, almost an entire year and a half later that the Heroes finally arrive to investigate. Well, at least he has plenty of fudge since it’s almost time for the council meeting. 

[javierduffy]

hi something true and beautiful happened just as i was gearing up to do short walk in a pretty town and it made me think of ur art

YOU. HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUVE JUST DONE FOR ME WITH THESE IMAGES

[project-sekai-facts]

Do we know exactly when was BAD DOGS created? (And when did Akito and Toya meet for the first time). Also do we know since when do Akito and An know each other?

Thank you so much for your hard work!

the timeline around rad weekend/middle school is a bit vague because they cram a lot into like one year. main story says ken retired around 2 years ago, but summerfes says RW was the year after akito quit football which would make it 3 years ago. LSV is consistent with the three years thing so we'll go with that. it could just be there was a year gap between RW and Ken opening WEG. that would make sense.

akito met toya at some point after that. toya says it was 2 years ago in his 2* story from stray bad dog, so when they were around 14. funnily enough despite us seeing the exact scene where they met like three or four times it's never been marked with an "x years ago" so i'm taking toya's word. it must've been just after fawo flashbacks because that's also two years ago and he hasn't met toya yet.

as for when he met an, i don't think there's ever been confirmation. they first see each other in fawo but never actually interact. an says in main story that she's know akito and toya since junior high, so presumably she met them after they formed bad dogs and started hanging out at WEG. maybe she met akito a bit beforehand but i can't remember it being stated.