#its fuckin looong post

[bthebeachboi]

LA WON <3 aka LA n how I see him

Kinda sad that my boi SF didn't win or Oakland since I didn't make anything of him before, but!! LA it is (and for the people who wanted San Diego, there's smth small under the cut, tho remember that's how I see him)

LA, since he's not built like Austin, has his own body. He suffers a lot for beauty, since he fully believes that he has to. Him and San Francsico are totally different that way, since he doesn't care how people see him and still ends up being usually beautiful.

Things that LA did for beauty: he dyes his hair blond, since he got Cal's hair color (like most cities); he keeps his hair long and spends hours taking care of it, usually loosing his sleeping time; he uses different online diets and it gets bad enough that Oakland gives him a visit with an actual dietishan(?) so he has a proper one; he keeps himself smooth, so he shaves a lot since all of the cities are prone to have some body hair.

I am a firm believer that LA doesn't exercise that much, he usually likes to keep himself skinny, not buff. A lot of his beauty standards are very female beauty standarts, which does come from the fact that ma Cal is trans! When none of the cities ended up being female (how I see it - there's a version of male and female states and their cities and some of the versions disappear (("male" Hawaii exsisted, but was removed for obvoius reasons; since My Cal is trans, his "male version" would be B!))), people who were "watching" them didn't know what to make of it and the more popular cities (San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles) were being "pushed" toward the female stuff, but with SF they failed, SD was used as "male California" since he couldn't get a word in at that time (ignoring the when he went full cryptid few times and ended up killing Gov. men :D), somehow Los Angeles was a very easy target.

California still feels guilty that he couldn't keep him safe, though he shouldn't have to in the first place.

BUT, SINCE THOSE HC WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MORE "PRIDE"

LA is pansexual, he never really questioned it much, which is the only thing he never questioned, even if he's an overthinker. He realized at his first Pride Parade when he saw how he loved everyone, he was actually overwhelmed by how he found so many people attractive, since he tried his best at distancing from people for years.

I feel like LA, from all the cities, would be the one to like and feel good with They/Them pronouns, but he also doesn't fully care about them! He believes more into catching people with his looks than catching people with who he is.

He is lowkey poly, but he doesn't actually realize that, since he believes that it "comes with his sexuality" that he loves a lot of people. Not fully his fault, since he actually likes to say that "he is still learning about himself and who knows, stuff might change!" (it will.)

San Francisco knows. He was the one who mentioned to him the "pansexual" stuff, since he's questioning himself all the time (the only thing he overthinks.)

From other cities n stuff, those are the ones that he had/has a crush on:

Austin, because he's the only reason he actually can survive Texas without trying to skin him (SF is holding a rock, a very sharp rock.); he ADORED NYC for a while, but it was only because of the idea of him, not actually because of him; he's aroused and scared every time he sees any city from Alaska or the bearman himself; flirted with a lot of fem NY cities, not proud of it because it made him like B (who still flirts with every fem state that is interested in men in one way or another); he did like Mom and he still believes that her father was a dilf (he was).

Since I believe that B is like the sun and Cal is like the moon, LA would make a good polar star, wouldn't he? He shines the brightest, still believes that it's not good enough. And like a star, one day the fire - the thing he feels he needs more of - will be his end. (I believe that my boi would absolutly wear glasses too, but i hid most of his face anyway)

Now!! Some stuff for the San Diego fans:

He is the one I see as most likely not minding he/she pronouns, he believes that since Cal is both versions, then he must be too!! But that comes from the fact that he's very very queer, he doesn't know any specifics nor does he care about them. He likes the good vibes and colors, but he'd like it more if people wouldn't try to get him into "a box", even if he's okay with being called "queer", he likes how it sounds, doesn't really care about it much more.

He likes pretty peope and he has a lot of body art (tattoos) made by pretty people ;) do the math yourself.

If Cal is the moon, B is the sun, LA is the star and SF is the eclipse then San Diego is the earth.

He is us, he is our love and he is everything that we love. He looks at us with softness that one isn't born with, but that one made by seeing us at our lowest. He is the one thing that would stay if it could, for us, but it only depends on us. (am sorry that sky is so fuckin bad I just suck at 'em).

He's also one of the only California's cities with natural blond hair!! I usually imagine him looking closely to Florida - shirt with no sleeves to show off his tattoos, sunglasses n messy blond hair - he's every "stereotypical surfer" combained.

[matchamabs]

BIG FUCKING SIGH ok look ive been sat on this for like. a looong while now so i consolidated all my shitty ideas into some headcanon pages. im bad at sharing stuff so now its ur problem. tbh some of these are a mix of canon and headcanon so it all kinda makes sense somehow. i would looooove to hear hcs from other people tho just chuck em at me. ill eat them.

a lot of these r referential to other things so ill put my thoughts in a read more,,, ur walc. tis a good read.

- for people unaware, corvus is crow’s name in the spanish translation, but i think it fits better as a name. who tf just names their kid straight up crow.

- ofc u recognise mama, my beloved

- crow and pipper look so much fucking alike i refuse to believe they aren’t related, but i was unsure if i was gonna make her like a younger sister. for now they’re cousins.

- i swear to god if i mixed up the maltese and polish flag for marilyn im gonna eat my desk no i will not factcheck we die like men

- scraps mentions having a mother, and since he also mentions wanting to take care of her, u kind of have to figure there’s no dad. i made her kind of weedy to suit it

- another mix of localisations, with tweeds and gus being the US and UK names respectively, so i thought why not mix them. actually makes for a good name right??

- we all know about nabbys runaway dad so it goes without saying there’s a single mama there

- also another US & UK crossover. ill b honest, i had a weird dream regarding this where it said roddy was his real name? but since nabby kinda implies the act of ‘to nab something’ it makes a good nickname for a pickpocket

- dont ask me why he’s scouse i can just feel it in my soul okay

- also canon has a dad which he mentions worked at the factory

- i was gonna make badger have a real normal name but like. i know someone mutually who’s real name is actually just badger which i find way funnier lol

- ofc we all know shackwell is louis’ dad, and that he’s canon the oldest too

- gave him a dead mum :(( felt that in my soul too. buuut shackwell mentions having a wife so. gotta slot that in somewhere u know.

- he fuckin looks welsh anol

- okay it took me fucking a whole year to realise wren is like. a pun on wrench to go with socket, but it’s 10 times funnier if her name is actually wrench and she hates it

- i actually made their last name nutten bc the US localisation has them saying ‘nuttin’ quite a lot and it weirdly fits. 

- socket mentions having a dog in the game, and his japanese name is pochi, which is also like the JP equivalent of ‘fido’ so thats a happy coincidence

- i dont know if its canon that wrens older? i feel like that’s mentioned somewhere. if not, it still works for the dynamic

the more u know. anyway. if u made it this far down the post thank u. here’s a hint coin for ur time.

[sluckythewizard]

EVERYONE GGET BAAACK IM ABT TO RAMBLE ABOUT FINN TIDESTRIDER. SPOILERS FOR EEVERYTHINGGGG ALL UP TO EP 113 YOU GOTTA RUN!! YOU GOTTA RUN AWAYYYY!!!!

ITS FASCINATING to speak to someone who has lived 80 years. almost every conversation involves me asking about a story of theirs, places theyve been, things theyve done. i feel like ive seen so much in only 20 something years of life, imagine that 4 times over?

all those stories, to have each and every one of them written down i feel like would be a beautiful thing. record keeping, storing that experience in an edible form, preserved for the future generations to study and cherish. imagine how many stories could be collected from not just 80 years of life, but 200? maybe more? imagine?

i LOVE characters that live to observe and document, keeping all their findings and knowledge and memories in tomes and records. i have several ocs that are functionally immortal, owning vast libraries holding all the knowledge of their lives. one of them is a man losing his memory, who has all his most vital memories tattooed onto his arms, so he will never forget what matters. FINN TIDESTRIDER. A MAGICIAN? WIZARD? SCIENTIST MAYBE. RESEARCHER ABSOLUTELY. CHRONICLER. LIBRARIAN. I HAD NO REAL STRUCTURE IN MIND FOR THIS POST. WHICH IS WHY ITLL SHOCK YA WHEN I BRING UP:

SEXUAL REPRESSION UNDER A CORRUPT RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION. MORMONISM AND SOME OTHER JESUS CENTERED RELIGIONS WILL TELL YOU THAT YOUR BODY IS A SACRED THING. MASTURBATION IS EVIL, IT CORRUPTS YOUR BODY, WHICH SHOULD BE SAVED FOR MARRIAGE. CELIBACY PRESERVES YOUR BODY, FOR YOUR ONE AND ONLY LIFE PARTNER. SEX IS NOT AN ACTIVITY, IT IS SACRED, RESERVED ONLY FOR PROCREATION.

i dont know if the undersea is Perfectly comparable to religions like that, but it is certainly a culture that upholds a very 'the elders are always right and must be followed'. polygamy is punishable by death, releasing spawn is a natural step after marriage, etc etc, i wouldnt be surprised to find that the undersea has a crazy Purity Culture thing going on. to live your whole long life down there, where so much is forbidden, and finally breaking into the surface world to explore the unknown, who knew your own body would be part of that 'unknown'?

in that episode, in the uh. Book. he says 'his first man was a (shiphand)' or whatever idk i dont feel like relistening. but HIS FIRST MAN!! ur telling me Finn Sexguy Tidestrider wasnt banging dudes down in the undersea?? maybe hes just talkin about his first Human but whateeverrrr. is homophobia a thing in the undersea?? i guess itll be a while before we know.

EITHER WAY. to break free from an oppressive climate and finally having the chance to be sexually free. to finally be familiar with your own body and the bodies of others, to LEARN so much about what makes you and others tick, to experience a unique form of intimacy with another. while having sex is not a VITAL experience, to have the freedom and choice to explore that IS SO IMPORTANT...

sex isnt a disgusting thing, its not wrong and its not naughty its not sinful its not gross. but sex also is not sacred, its not a big important thing, its not vital. sex is JUST an activity. a fun thing to do with ur homies or someone youre close to. there are dangers of course, which is why KNOWLEDGE about it is such an important thing. ohhh my god i constantly have a huge ramble locked n loaded about sexual education but ill GET INTO THAT ANOTHER TIME.

TLDR i reaally like finn tidestrider because TO ME, he is not just a wacky funny old sex-having wizard. hes a man who lived a looong fuckin time under a religious climate that discouraged sexual exploration, and after he left, got to spend decades and decades of being FREE to explore. in MY heart.

i get like, haha funny old man yaoi, the shock of the old guy havin sloppy gay fuck sex, but yknow. i dont expect it but it would be neat i think if this sorta thing would ever be taken seriously and explored.

THE TIDESTRIDERS FASCINATE ME. for finn to say YES i LOVE having SEX all the TIME; and for gill to say NO i am NOT interested in sex EVER.. those are BOTH forms of sexual freedom. its the choice!! THE CHOICE!!!!

[bio-nerds-corner]

orange and yellow!!! — 🎲

dice!!! hi!!

ok since i already went. absolutely fuckin wild with yellow as far as extra worldbuilding stuff goes ill post a bunch of shitty sketches when i was first making the au, and one decently good picture too ;P

from the top - techno's first design, tommy and wil, a more detailed picture of dragons that i made Much later on ;P, another tommy, and dream. notice dreams tendency towards emeralds, and tommy's one piece of jewelry :)

Dragons actually do have thumbs on their forepaws, though they're not nearly as dexterous as human hands are.

now, as far as the apocalypse au, ive been tossing around an idea for a while of a partial sequel to the fic, and considering how other humans who have been changed forever by apocalypse beasts may interact with one another. ranboo isnt the first human to be 'adopted' by a beast, that title goes to philza, the herald of one of the oldest beasts. he and his patron beast, the ordovician extinction (also known as kristin ;P) have a complex relationship, as its hard for beasts to interact in ways that humans entirely understand. but well, hes been alive a looong time now. so long that some dont even know if he was human to begin with, or if he was some other ancient creature warped into a human shape.

to put him in the same room as ranboo, who was very recently entirely human and isnt about to forget about it... phil would be very confused by his apparent lack of ability to communicate as the beasts do, by his fear and such small-minded mortality. dont you know youre part of something greater now, ranboo? something far more terrifying and beautiful than just yourself?

[chironshorseass]

ANNUAL WRITING SELF-EVALUATION

thanks melissa @estrangedlestrange for tagging me! ok *cracks knuckles* i guess we’re doing this

1. number of stories posted to ao3:

23……someone fucking restrain me pls

2. word count posted for the year:

165,511

i’m crying what is this😭😭😭😭😭😭

3. fandoms i wrote for:

pjo

4. pairings:

percy/annabeth

clarisse/silena

annabeth/reyna

poseidon/sally. (these are the main ones, i think)

5. story with the most…

kudos: Just Add Water

bookmarks: Just Add Water

comments: also Just Add Water el oh el

6. work i’m most proud of (and why):

it’s a tie between it feels so scary, getting old and the vine hanging over the door (both of them with titles taken by a lorde song💀) because i feel like i was so at peace with myself when i wrote them, and when i’m at peace with myself i just write like fjakdjasjsjsjsisnsk that bc i can’t stop and pure gold comes out <3 it’s a mix of nostalgia and pride of what i created. also they both have very specific aesthetics and Existential Themes that scream mari bc ofc they r my babies xxx

7. work i’m least proud of and why:

through the ruse i just feel like it’s a bit of a mess and i didn’t plan it properly nor did i make it interesting enough for me to keep going🤨 i really like the concept, though esp since during that time i kind of really wanted a bridgerton au. but like, i honestly don’t think i’m NOT proud of anything i’ve written (idk maybe) but that doesn’t mean i won’t cringe once in a while when i reread something i wrote lmaooo

8. share or describe a favorite review received:

there are plenty i’ve kept close to my heart but taylor miss @posallys gives the best reviews, and i’m still recovering from the one i got in the vine hanging over the door 😭😭😭 and this other one she wrote for the seaweed is always greener that had me dying eye-

also bonjobiggles idk if u have a tumblr but all ur comments are so sweet and gave me motivation to write more<3 like EXCUSE ME someone rereading my fic is just😭 also ash @skaterannabeth had me screaming crying after she left a comment on it feels so scary, getting old lov u <33 and how can i forget @jeanjacket-lesbian every time u comment my heart kinda goes like💗💗 one that had me sobbing tho was from an anon (for it feels so scary, getting old) bc wth how DARE u say such things and think it will be ok😭

9. time when writing was really, really hard:

i’d say most of the time but y’all will think i’m such a clown bc i literally have THIRTY works on ao3 and that is very much illegal but I SWEAR!!!! it’s so fuckin hard to write, like i feel like i can never finish things and my motivation comes and goes, and so does life so🤠🥲🥲

11. a favorite excerpt from your writing:

Their laughter carries on like music as the wind dances around its melody, drifting it up, up into the starry sky. (from it feels so scary, getting old haha typical😗)

tho i feel like anything from magnificently cursed bc i say so: But it was more than just the horror that connected them. In the vibrancy of Olympus, it felt like they were creating the beautiful moments, too. They’d become a luster that outshined the rust in their thread of life.

12. how did you grow as a writer this year:

dude i’ve improved so much it’s crazy. in 2020 when quarantine started and i also started writing fic it was like. my first time in a looong time of writing something in english and i had to search up so many words and shit but now…..it all comes like the tears of jesus istg lmaooo. i also feel like this year i really honed in my writing style, because in 2020 it was all over the place i’m sure, and now i can truly say that i have a specific way of writing (correct me if i’m wrong bc maybe it’s just me since m i’m a clown)

13. how do you hope to grow next year:

i’m copying annie bc i need to finish all my wips so i never write fic again i am BEGGING

14. who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

clown car (my frens) bc coincidentally they are all amazing writers and i love them very much. syd @annabethsinvibilitycap tho u make me especially evil and give me the silly little motivation to go unhinged in my writing 😛 as for other motivations, i think reading other works, fanfic or books and hmmm when folklore and evermore came out it was over for me so 💃🏽 also when i started listening to mitski

15. anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

when sally kinda contemplates life as she watches the trash fly around during august (the vine hanging over the door.) yeah that was hashtag me too😔✌️ but yeah if u mean existential dread and all that good stuff it’s taken from my real life <3 and mostly the beginning of purple pink skies was 100% taken from my life haha….

16. any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

read lots of books lol i swear every time i do writing is so much easier bc im reminded of how words are supposed to um. work. and never write something you find slightly boring. just create the weirdest plot line or whatever, as long as it’s interesting to YOU and it’s fun to write for YOU and no one else.

17. any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) this year:

finishing any of my (existent) chapter fics bc i need them to stop haunting me in my sleep😭

18. tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read. (totally not required to do this y’all I always hate when things say you gotta do it):

@posallys @annabethsinvibilitycap @skaterannabeth and anyone who hasn’t done this feel free<33

[fogsrollingin]

Posted this to reddit yesterday here 😊 Spoilers for Walker up to ep 2.

So there are questions I have about the status quo as of S1E2 that could be solved with a big corruption-within-the-force story.

Emily dies (read: may have died) and they quickly find the killer, and yeah maybe he's the guy who pulled the trigger but how did that guy find her when Walker had told her the safe routes? This is still a mystery! Episode 2 did not wrap it up, unlike the other 2 mysteries of the Poker Chip and the Closed Eyes.

Next, it's highly suspect that Walker's thrown straight into an undercover operation that takes him 10 months to see through. Like, who got him that gig? Why do they hate him and his family? "I'm gonna take this career cop away from a stable life while he grieves his recently-deceased wife, rip him from his kids (they prolly don't need him anyway right?), and make him risk his life undercover."

And ok so maybe I've only been informed by The Departed and Johnny Brasco when it comes to undercover officers, but it stands to reason too that undercover cops are supposed to be young or at least with very few ppl waiting up for them, and expected to burn out/retire once their cover's up. So, I have a whole buncha questions to ask about who would've greenlit Walker for that. Extra questions about how he's back on the force afterwards? Are we not afraid of retribution from those he put behind bars (or their family)? He's kind of identifiable; he has a striking appearance and he's like 6'4. He could very easily get made if he's as visible as a Texas Ranger.

So idk, I can only conclude it's kinda bad writing that a corrupt-higher-up stupidly thought an undercover gig would take Walker's mind off the things that don't make sense about Emily's death, would cool him down, chill him out.

...and it would be super funny if the villain gets taken down by a flawed understanding of grief psychology. Bc they sent Walker undercover for him to get him away from the case, to chill out but really they just got him to press 'pause' on his entire friggin life. As time passed, they felt its passage, and think water is streaming under that bridge. They lull themselves into complacency Walker's gonna come back having come to terms with his wife's death.

Meanwhile Walker's like nowhere even close to that. He's busy pretending to be someone else, actively not processing anything bc he's compartmentalizing. And when Walker returns to Austin, psychologically presses 'play' on Emily, it's literally as though she'd just died a month or two prior for him.

nobodylikedthat.jpg, but especially the ppl who'd sent him undercover to stop him from doing that very dang thing 😂

To bring it back to the brilliant irony of a villain getting taken down by a flawed understanding of grief psychology. Immediately after Emily's death, all parties involved may have been stressed, cagey, wouldn't talk or maybe even had a script memorized down pat. But 10 months later? Another questioning about that murder case which was solved? Probably not.

So it's like if the villain had just let Walker freak out and investigate Emily's death at the same time everybody else was, his issues might've been put to bed. But now it's 10 months later, and Walker's got the same passion as he would've had 1-2ish months after her death, and he's in a fantastic position, time-wise, to shake some trees and discover some mysterious discrepancies about Emily's death bc nobody's expecting him to ask anymore ("It's been so looong Walker, what are you doingggg")

I would love this.

Kind of a sidebar: as for suspects, there was that older gentleman in the pilot who attended Walker's homecoming while Walker was drinking at the DWG (Dead Wife Gazebo). I think he must've been Walker's police contact while undercover? There was something about how he really praised Walker for everything he did undercover. So that fuckin guy. I don't trust that guy. 😂

Sub-sidebar note: I wrote this like I think Emily's dead but I'm really hoping Emily's not dead. Most of this is about Cordell's grief though, and for sure in this series so far he definitely thinks she's dead as a doornail .

[ryttu3k]

I want to have them all on Tumblr, so. Here are my reaction posts, in order, for Resolution of the Daleks and season 12, part 1!

Resolution of the Daleks

Thoughts on Doctor Who - Resolution! Spoilers, obviously!

Okay, negative first, just to get it out of the way. Doctor Who, I really appreciate that you consistently have queer minor characters and queer couples. Just super casual and all, as it should be. Now can you please stop killing off half of said couples? Angstrom's wife, Frankie, now this young guy? It's really not cool.

Don't think the voiceover worked. I feel the prologue would have worked better with just visuals.

Again, Yaz didn't have much to do. The Doctor got a ton of action, Ryan and Graham both had significant interactions with Aaron, Yaz was... just kind of there. I'm hoping that when the show comes back in a year, now that Ryan has largely dealt with his issues, Yaz will get more attention?

UNIT was killed by Brexit?! Fuckin' rude!

Okay, on to the positive!

The Dalek was, frankly, fucking scary. Despite knowing that the Doctor would beat it, obviously, it caused huge swathes of damage and racked up a... rather high body count. Like it felt like a proper threat. Also, its ability to stop the TARDIS tracking it and stuff. Lin's terror felt extremely genuine and it was just nice and horrific overall, like - if it wasn't for the Doctor, it would feel like a genuine threat to the entire Earth.

(Also, it shut down the wifi. On New Years Day. What a monster!)

Oh man that Dalek laughter. Creepy as fuck. The Doctor dragging it in via hologram to dare it to laugh in her face? Fucking iconic.

"I've learned to think like a Dalek." Oof.

Doctor vs Dalek. Not just the physical aspect, but the mental part - the Doctor recognising the seriousness of it, but also having that element of cockiness ("Oh, mate") because, frankly, she's dealt with bigger threats. She's right when she points out that the biggest problem will be if regular humans try to engage it!

Elements of Dark!Doctor when she asks the team - almost desperately - if she gave it enough chances, if she was nice enough. Because the Doctor can get fucking scary around Daleks and she knows it. She's nice. She's friendly. But she's also the Doctor, and the Doctor has done some really damn questionable things to stop the Daleks, and she knows that. Fantastically done and I still desperately want some proper Dark!Doctor.

Really liked the parallels between the Doctor using scrap to make her sonic screwdriver, vs the Dalek using scrap to make its armour. The Doctor makes a tool, the Dalek makes items of war. Of course, well, the Doctor is probably more dangerous just with a swiss army sonic than a Dalek blaster...

I love how the whole, "Dads are complicated... so I've heard" bit could refer to either the loom thing or the Doctor having actual parents or the Doctor being a shitty dad themself XD

Graham was so excited to show off the TARDIS! Like he's just going, "How cool is this?!"

There were some legitimately funny moments! Graham's chair, "I suppose... we'll have to have a... conversation?", "Junkyard chic"... UNIT was killed by Brexit like that's so awful but. But in a kind of funny way.

Okay, now the unsure. Ryan, Graham, and Aaron. Ryan and Graham have sorted out their issues - but Aaron is still such a big overshadowing part of it that it's a bit of a shock when he comes back in. As someone with a similarly shit biological father, I was completely empathising with Ryan in the coffee shop conversation. And I do understand why they wanted reconciliation, so they showed Aaron as acknowledging his bullshit and Ryan ultimately choosing to forgive and save him.

But it's just... not that easy. It's not all going to be perfect just because they stopped a Dalek together. Aaron's neglect hurt Ryan really badly, and it just felt... too easy? Like it helped that Aaron was genuinely contrite, and that he had that good stepfather talk with Graham, but just... yeah, not sure how I feel about it, honestly.

The Doctor's first words to him being, "You weren't at Grace's funeral. Ryan waited for you, you let him down" were so, so good. Like the Doctor is just going "fuck you I'm his father now". Like tbh I think she was 100% prepared to yeet him off the TARDIS and be done with it. Like damn don't emotionally hurt one of her crew.

Some wonderfully savage lines, though. The Doctor's, "You're almost making up for your parenting deficit!"; Aaron and Ryan's, "Is that how you talk to your dad?" "I don't know, he's not been around"; Graham's fucking smirk when Ryan pointedly calls him 'Gramps'.

I did see a suggestion that would have made it much better - instead of the Dalek capturing Aaron, it captures Ryan. First, it ups the threat in the mind of the Doctor and Team TARDIS - this isn't some dickhead, this is one of them. And instead, it's Aaron who reaches out to Ryan, Aaron who risks his life, Aaron who has to come through for Ryan, instead of the other way around. Also would have tied in beautifully with, "Family isn't about DNA, or a name. It's about what you do, and you haven't done enough."

Also, 'srs tech skillz'. With a Z. Doctor why.

In conclusion, I am going to fight Nigel Farage for killing UNIT.

-

Spyfall part 1

Current response to Doctor Who: making a near-literal SDKFJHGSDASDKFH sound, grabbing a cushion, nearly throWING THE CUSHION.

More intelligent commentary when my brain comes back online.

-

Okay. Am calm. Am good! We're good.

MAJOR SPOILERS for Doctor Who: Spyfall, part 1!

So yeah I actually literally screamed (kind of... scream-laugh-holy-shit-yes). Like, even before Dhawan finished speaking the, "Or should I say spy... Master?" line because of the way he had said 'spymaster' in full in the line before and there's nothing that grabs my brain like that one word in that one context. It wasn't quite as mindblowing as the Utopia reveal, since, let's face it, it's only been a season since we last saw that magnificant arsehole, but still.

(Actually, since I didn't watch Twelve's run, the last time I saw them was exactly a decade ago in The End of Time, broadcast New Years Day 2010. And I still fucking cry over, "Get out of the way." So. That may have been why I literally screamed lmao)

I mean. It's the Master. I can't not. They're my favourite jerk. This is probably slightly concerning.

Anyway. Comments!

The good

Episode was just flat-out exciting. It reminded me both of the Three and Ten eras, a bit? Fun gadgets, fancy suits, and what ends up being a giant game! Did start wondering when they were talking about spies and codes and stuff. It's basically a puzzle that's been set up for the Doctor to solve. Plus, the way she was pretty much enlisted into it! Thirteen and Dhawan!Master might end up having a more Pertwee-Delgado-esque dynamic, maybe? I would be down for that!

(My introductory episode to the Master was The Mind of Evil. Let's just put it that way XD)

"I'm her best enemy." <3

I mean, in retrospect, isolated house full of high-tech stuff and a wall full of books about the Doctor... oh honey. Long, looong game of playing Spies and Conspiracies just for, apparently, the sheer funsies of it. Oh, honey. They're such a disaster and I love them.

The reveal scene, Jodie's acting. The way she just... freezes and hunches in on herself. She's been hiding her past more than other Doctors have in the past, and suddenly, here is her past!! Right here!! Laughing and joking and right there in front of her! And she's just like, "Ohhh shit, I was not ready to have this conversation again..."

Yasmin and Ryan's dynamic. I do like that they split up the usual combos of Thirteen-Yasmin and Graham-Ryan for once, because I do like seeing the way they play off each other! It makes them feel more cohesive as a group. I liked Ryan trying to comfort Yasmin after her experience.

Post-reveal, I'm now wondering if the weird zappy forest thing is the Master's TARDIS? Something to do with changing and processing DNA into something else? Something based around neurons, with the electric travelling system? Am also wondering what happened to Yasmin while in there, since she seemed to be processed in some way, and I'm wondering if she had part of her DNA rewritten as well - or maybe if she's been replaced entirely, like she's currently piloting an alien version of her own body while her actual self is still in there. They did already do that with Flesh!Amy, though.

Once this arc is over, I think Thirteen is definitely going to have to sit down and tell the Fam who the hell she actually is. Graham is having some serious questions, and the Master was definitely egging that on, pre-reveal.

How much do I love that even in a tux, the Doctor still has the culottes and boots? A lot, that is how much. Also, how much do I love the Doctor in a suit and on a motorbike? A lot, that is how much.

"I've had an upgrade." <3

Thirteen playing Snap. It's okay, Thirteen, you still win my heart <3

"Worst! Uber! Ever!!"

"Kisses!" Yes, we know ;) They've been texting! Someone write me a WhatsApp chat fic with plenty of subtext and double meaning, I require it. Also, memes. You know it's true. The Master isn't a Time Lord, they're a Meme Lord.

"Everything you think you know is a lie." Season hook? :o

The hmm

Main concern is how they're handling the Master's characterisation? Last we saw, they were so ready to jump the Doctor ship. Now it's back to games. Kind of wondering if that means the Master is just at the point of being resigned that they and the Doctor just don't work and so is going back to games because at least it makes them happy, but I'm happy to wait until next week to see how things play out!

Did see a suggestion that this is the Master from one of the alternate universes (or at least that seems to be the general consensus on why there were multiple maps), so not actually necessarily the same version as Missy. Alternatively, this could actually be a pre-Missy version! Maybe between Simm!Master and Missy, since we never actually see that regeneration?

Actually, if this is the one immediately before Missy and this two-parter ends with the Master regenerating and we actually do get Thirteen and Missy together on screen I may cry.

(Like I'm aro-ace and agender but I'm still so gay for both of them. There is no word other for this emotion other than 'I'm gay'.)

I kind of wish someone had double-checked the name of the company because VOR running the world is. Is. "Right now, VOR is more powerful than most nations." Just. *pinches bridge of nose* Like okay you know how we say 'oh yeah just google it' 'yeah I googled it' are they really gonna say 'yeah I just VO

'I'm going to V

I can't say it. I can't.

Apparently the Australia scenes were filmed in South Africa. Kind of assumed it wasn't really Australia as soon as I saw actually greenery in the background h e h.

Highkey wish I could have seen Missy and Thirteen together. Dhawan!Master is very fun so far but. Missy and Thirteen. See comment above about the Master's characterisation!

...ABC are you really going to keep to Thursday night broadcasts even after the UK switches their Sunday nights / our Monday mornings? Well that's a good way to guarantee I'll be watching them online first! I was happy to wait twelve hours or so so I could watch it with Mum, but like hell I'm going to wait three and a half days!

In conclusion, am dead, send help, is it Monday morning yet?

-

Spyfall part 2

Thoughts on Doctor Who: Spyfall, part 2!

GALLIFREY LOOOOORE.

Oh man I'm hyped. We got a teeny teaser to the Timeless Child way back last decade but now we may actually get to see what the fuck is going on. And hell, if nothing else, at least the discovery is being teased to be so devastating it did undo Missy's characterisation. If this incarnation of the Master is after her, at least. Still not necessarily anything to suggest that. The Master will likely be recurring over this season, so we'll find out more, at least!

God, the Master is so fucked up. Like. He's seen something apparently so massively traumatic that he had to destroy his own planet and legitimately does look broken by it? Unless he was acting, but I did not get that impression from the message at the end. And the only way he can think of to get the Doctor's attention is to start his old tricks? Not sure if it's better or worse for him to be pre-Missy tbh.

It's just... such an interesting dynamic. Also I really want to read into the whole... scene where the Master asks the Doctor to kneel and call him 'Master' in front of everyone - then, when she does (defiantly! Stubbornly!), he... kneels to be at the same level as her. Like, "I'm going to play these BDSM-esque power games with you but when it comes down to it, I still consider us equal."

Anyway the Master is def a service top.

This comment from Tumblr user upslapmeal:

"'why would it stop? I mean how else would I get your attention’ what did I say about the Master being like a cat knocking things off shelves"

I mean. Yeah.

"Contact." Old school.

The Companions! They get a capital C because they were rad as hell. I love them all deciding that what they do next is: carry on to save the world. Like they're all heroic af without the Doctor and it's so good.

"Don't make me do a soft-shoe shuffle!"

And questioning at the end, oooh man. There are some Implications there, yeah. They've found out some surface information, yes, but no real hint at the deeper trauma. And given what this coming season is hinting at, I strongly suspect we will indeed be getting that deeper trauma and maybe even Dark!Doctor. Gallifrey does tend to bring it out of them...

The whole on-the-run thing seemed to definitely be a callback to Sound of Drums. Uh, what's that going to do long-term? Send out a worldwide message saying, "Sorry, our bad, they're fine"? I mean, last time that happened... okay, Jack was already with Torchwood and so is used to Not Really Existing, but Martha definitely couldn't go back to fuckin' medical school. She ended up at UNIT and then went independent. They did not return to their normal lives.

Barton: needs a goddamn punch. He killed his mother what the fuck. On the plus side, at least he seems to have thoroughly destroyed his career? Be interesting to see if he reappears later, you don't go from the most powerful person on the planet to massive pariah overnight without Repercussions.

On to our guest characters! I hate to brag but I guessed who Ada was as soon as I heard her first name and saw her outfit. I mean the computers theme was already there, who else would she be? :D And I admittedly didn't know who Noor Inayat Khan was except in passing, but still. Little upset about the erased memories (Donna ;_; ), but I can see why the Doctor did it and like... this way, I'm glad they were able to avoid the implications of, "Ada only developed computing because she had already seen the future." Like people said that with Rosa Parks even though the Doctor said explicitly to only ensure there were enough seats filled and the act itself was all Rosa, so they may have wanted to play it safe.

I... really want to comment on how Ada definitely was crushing on the Doctor (and really, who wouldn't?), but she was a real person so I shall avoid those implications. (But really though!)

Doctor how many times have you been in someone's liver. This is some Magic School Bus Inside The Human Body bullshit and I love it.

Doctor's recording: "First of all, you're not gonna die! Second of all, don't talk back to the screens, obviously I'm a recording and I can't hear ya. Third, don't panic. Especially you, Graham."

Graham, panicking: "I'M NOT PANICKING!"

Doctor's recording: "Yes, you were! And I did just say, don't talk back to the screens!"

Graham: "????!?!!"

I want an entire series of the Master having a really infuriating seventy-seven years on Earth. Please.

Comments on continuity issues regarding that, "It's worse than Jodrell Bank!" "Did I ever apologise for that?" "No." "Good." exchange XD;; Like people are going, "Continuity error!! It was the Pharos Project, not Jodrell Bank!!" and like. Pharos was a project. Jodrell Bank is an observatory. You can do projects at observatories. Also, you can refer to projects by location, too. Am I referring to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Project or Tidbinbilla Station? Both! They refer to the same thing! In the Whoniverse, they likely did the Pharos Project at Jodrell Bank, and just had some lighthearted bantz about that time where the Master killed the Doctor, no biggie.

So, onwards to... an apparently unrelated episode for next week! Also, the Kassavin? Still there. Like. The Master only gave suggestions. They still have all those agents everywhere! They're still ready to act! And yeah, now they have the Master in their hands, so... I wonder if they'll make the Timeless Child a long, ongoing arc, and have the much more immediate threat of the Kassavin as the season finale?

-

Orphan 55

Thoughts on Doctor Who - Orphan 55!

...whew.

First thought: anvilicious, but some anvils need to be dropped, because, uh, have you seen the world lately.

It feels like quite a brittle episode? Even beyond the immediate tension of 'there are large angry creatures trying to kill everyone', there's just this sense of... like, tension. There's the tension between Benni and Vilma, which at first is kind of a sweet tension then becomes a life-threatening and sad tension. There's the tension between Roger Parslow Silas and his dad, with Silas not being taken seriously (although I do think him running out while they're in life-threatening danger is a bit much). The obvious and major tension between Bella and Kane that drives the whole episode, yes.

And there's also the tension amongst Team TARDIS! The episode starts with the Doctor still in Some Kinda Way about last week, and I felt a bit of tension between Yaz and Ryan? She seemed rather unimpressed by Bella, at any rate. I do like how organic the relationship between Ryan and Graham feels, at least. "It ain't the aliens that are gonna kill me, it’s worrying about you!"

Set and costume building, I felt, was kind of... eh? I liked how Tranquility itself looked, but the tunnels looked Very Generic, and some of the looks I felt didn't really work. Silas and his dad's green hair just looked very obviously fake, and I saw a description of Hyph3n-with-a-three looking like a cross between a Jellicle Cat and John Candy in Spaceballs (which... yeah, honestly). And I'm not sure about the Dregs, although I did initially have the thought that whatever the original inhabitants of the planet were, they must have been humanoid was amusingly accurate...

"I just pulled this out of a friend of mine! >:("

"Oh! ...We do not make any judgments on our guests and fully support any way you choose to enjoy yourself here at Tranquility Spa! ^_^;;"

"... ... ...It wasn't recreational! o.O"

God you could feel Hyph3n-with-a-three's embarrassment...

"If I had crayons and half a can of Spam, I could build you from scratch!" Excuse me I am at least Tofurky.

Also a logical issue on the whole journey to find Benni, because frankly, it just wasn't... sensible. Okay, bring a kid. Father of the year right there. Okay, bring an old woman. Granted, she could have insisted because it was her man-friend they were looking for, but surely she would have known she would slow them down? Her 'heroic sacrifice' felt very wasted, because dammit, she could have survived if she had stayed in the Dome where it was at least a bit safer!

"At least three eighths of a plan, right here! ...Two eights. I'll be honest, all I've got is the letter 'P'..."

So the Doctor is almost at the point of passing out from oxygen loss but hang on, let her first indulge her curiosity...

The sheer existence of orphan planets is very depressing. The sheer fact that there's at least fifty-five is very depressing.

There's an interesting comment about how straight after discussion of the reveal, the first shot of the preview is the Statue of Liberty. Very Planet of the Apes! (No apes next time, just Tesla vs Edison!) Also feeling a strong connection to Midnight (stunning resort on dangerous planet with a very personal enemy), and I saw a comment about Thirteen unintentionally The-End-Of-The-World-ing the Fam (and making a connection between 'very angry trees' and the Forests of Cheem). Bit of Ravolox. Bit of... fuck what was it... Curse of Fenric.

Although, we know that the Earth will eventually be consumed by the sun, and it was done in a way that was like... it was its time. This was not its time, was a colossal fuck-up on a planetary scale (and the Doctor continues to be 'eat the rich'), but it's also only one potential future. Which is good, because that got dark. Even more than The End of the World, even more than Utopia, even more than fuckin' Frontios, because this is the near-future. The shots we saw of the destruction were modern day! That was the Dome of the Rock you saw getting bombed!

"Be smarter than what made you." PAGING THE GOVERNMENT...

Going to put it on a solid... maybe 7/10? Some really good elements in there, but also some clunkers, and unfortunately not a patch on the same writer's It Takes You Away, which was one of the strongest of the last season.

-

Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror

Thoughts on Doctor Who - Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror!

Opinion before episode: man, Tesla's cool. Opinion after episode: man, Tesla is fuckin' cool! :D That was a well-done personality-based historical, absolutely - I think it's my second-favourite personality-based historical only to Rosa (there are other pseudo-historical based ones set in the past that I love, but they're not personality-based; the Human Nature duology is a good example).

But yeah, Tesla just came across as a really, really cool character. Genius and he knew it, yes, and the real Tesla did have some questionable views (sexism, mostly), but otherwise the archetypal Idealistic Genius who wants to change the world for the better. Contrast with Edison, who was... a businessman. With, like, a really punchable face. Still pretty intelligent, but... very, very punchable. I've read about the Tesla-Edison feud before and always sided with Tesla, and let's face it, so did the writer XD

Good mix of character combinations - with a lot of characters, it's easy for someone to get sidelined, but this managed to handle Thirteen and the Fam, and Tesla, Dorothy, and Edison, pretty well. There were some neat combinations, like Ryan and Dorothy bonding over the sense of adventure, and Graham and Edison's confrontation; I also really loved the whole conversation between Thirteen and Tesla on the joy of just... creating. There's actually a very nice overlap between arts and sciences.

Antagonists - not bad? I feel a lot of people were expecting the Racnoss, and there was such a similarity that I would have liked at least a throwaway line about how the Skithra were related or something. Ooh man she definitely brought out Dark!Doctor, though. Teleporting the queen back to the ship, specifically so she can be fried? I mean, she might have survived it. Might. And just that fantastic little change of expression when the queen asks the Doctor if she's ever seen a dead planet before! Whittaker pulled that one off.

There's a very interesting compare and contrast between the Skithra and Edison, I found. Thirteen has her speech about how once the Skithra are gone, they won't be remembered. Caput. Forgotten. They left nothing behind. Compare and contrast to Edison, who was openly accused of using other people's work, but who's able to learn from his mistakes, end on an even(ish) setting with Tesla, and who does get remembered. Which kind of stings, honestly, if you look at Tesla's actual history.

Like. Apparently that, "The man just didn't understand the American sense of humour," line was an actual historical line, according to Tesla's own records. The absolute main reason for the difference in fame and recognition is that Tesla was a genius who didn't know how to market. Edison was a marketer who could invent a bit. So in conclusion Edison is a dick and Tesla needs more respect, the end.

Favourite lines and scenes:

Tesla: "Is - is this your own design?" Thirteen: "I made it! Mainly out of spoons! :D" Tesla: "You're an inventor! :D" Thirteen: "I have my moments." Tesla: "I knew it! So you... so, you can understand how it feels, you know, when you have an idea, and - and to make it real. I don't think there's any greater thrill!" Thirteen: "I couldn't agree more." Tesla: "You... you spoke of aliens. People here laugh at the very idea." Thirteen: "But not you." Tesla: "Well, apparently I'm not like other people. It can be difficult, you know, to feel no one else sees the world the way you do. It's like you're, uh..." Thirteen: "...out of place."

Graham: "Yeah, still. I bet you'd jump at the chance to have him back working for you, wouldn't ya?" Edison: "Yeah?" Graham: "Yeah!" Edison: "How d'you figure that?" Graham: "'Cause I had a supervisor like you at my old depot. And men like you don't pay a bloke that much attention unless you think there's a payout comin'."

Thirteen: "I wouldn't go killing me and Yaz. 'Cause Yaz... can tell you what this is." Yaz: "It's a camera!" Thirteen: "Bingo!" *FLASH!*

Edison: "I couldn't figure it out either." Tesla: "The internal dimensions transcend the external." Thirteen: *GRIN* Edison: ._.

Thirteen: "You do realise, it's killing Edison that they want you and not him? ;D"

Graham: "Don't worry. This ain't our first rodeo!" Ryan: "We've never been to a rodeo." Graham: "...you're not helping, Ryan..."

Thirteen: "And what are you queen of, exactly? A stolen ship and second-hand guns? A queen of shreds and patches. You're not a ruler, you're a parasite." Queen: "And what are you? So clever, stealing onto my ship, taking what I claim as mine. But where has it got you? No weapons. No armour. No escape. Just the desperate hope you might change my mind." Thirteen: "No, we are way past that. I gave you your chance." Queen: "A chance to be like you?" Thirteen: "A chance to evolve. But you were too stupid to take it. When you die, there'll be nothing left behind - just a trail of blood and other people's brilliance. No one will even know you existed."

(Side note: I love that this speech was actually in front of the companions. They're starting to see that things are Not Okay.)

Thirteen: "Don't give up." Yaz: "Whatever anyone says." Tesla: "Well, let them talk. The present is theirs. I work for the future... and the future is mine."

Favourite incorrect lines:

Thirteen and Tesla, firing at the ship: "VIBE CHECK!"

-

Fugitive of the Judoon

I'M GONNA... NEED A HOT MOMENT TO PROCESS THAT...

-

WELL I. UH. OKAY.

lmao I'm serious I don't even know where to begin.

Uh, some very disorganised comments on Doctor Who - Fugitive of the Judoon!

I squealed when I heard Jack's voice then saw him in the flesh. I gasped audibly when 'Ruth' broke the glass. I yelped when we saw the buried TARDIS. I MAY HAVE SCREAMED A LITTLE WHEN 'RUTH' INTRODUCED HERSELF.

(Also can we talk about her outfit. That was on point.)

I'm getting a very... very early vibe? She didn't know what the sonic screwdriver was, and that was introduced with Troughton. Since we saw the Hartnell-Troughton regeneration, she must be pre-Hartnell? Maybe a Doctor whose memories were rewritten to the point that they thought the Hartnell incarnation was the earliest? Not to mention that was a pretty old-school-looking TARDIS!

Alternatively, maybe between Troughton and Pertwee? Either option has some inconsistency - if she's post Troughton, she should have known what the sonic was, although it admittedly did look very different. Plus, her TARDIS is already its police box shape, which was implied to have set in the junkyard. Also, we never actually do see the regeneration between Two and Three, and it could explain why Gallifrey was after her - she escaped after her trial after The War Games!

Definitely early, though.

Alternatively alternatively, Thirteen actually does say 'time is swirling around me'. Maybe an alternate timeline. Something to tie back to the Timeless Child?

"I've lived for thousands of years, so long I've lost count. I've had so many faces. How long have you known me? You don't know me. Not even a little bit."

That wasn't just aimed at the companions. I feel that was aimed at the Doctor themself.

(Related: the response from the fam was flat-out beautiful. Doesn't matter who she was or who she'll be. They know her now, and they love her.)

Just. Wow. Wow.

Really cool note from Twitter - disguised name was Ruth Clayton. Ruth = 'friend, companion'. Clayton = 'of the Earth'. She literally named herself 'friend of the Earth'.

"You're probably a bit confused right now."

I mean. Yeah. Confused and intrigued and what.

"Don't do points! I do points! Points are my thing!"

Jack. Jack. Smooching Graham, hitting on all the companions, getting into Shenanigans! The Lone Cyberman - I wonder if that's a totally different crisis that isn't even related to the current Gallifrey-Timeless Child one? The more important part is Jack's presence - the presence of another time traveller with a... unique relationship with the universe. The actual warning could be a red herring, but Jack showing up anywhere in the first place is a sign that something is happening with time?

Orphan 55 had a timeline that may or may not have been the 'real' one. Being only a potential future kind of doesn't work with what we know of established DW continuity, so I'm liking the 'alternate timeline' theory, maybe?

Ryan: "I liked him. Kind of cheesy."

Yaz: "But good cheesy."

Thirteen, smiling: "That's Jack."

Graham just standing there going, "He kissed me tho? ...Wasn't bad, actually."

"Is she safe?" Jack, honestly, is she ever safe?

"When she needs me... I'll be there." Oh yeah, he's so coming back later this season.

Also, Judoon, chameleon arch, the Master, Jack - getting big season 29 vibes here and that's a big thumbs up for me because that's my favourite season. We just need Martha to make an appearance now!

...hehe honestly, between Jodie's entire existence, and now, in the span of five episodes, introducing Dhawan!Master, Gat, and now Jo Martin as the first black female Doctor, and reintroducing Jack, one of the most overtly and openly queer characters on the series, the 'Doctor Who is too PC!' bunch are going to be so mad XD

"A platoon of Judoon... near the moon." / "Look at you, your platoon of Judoon near the... that lagoon..."

Man. The close-up in the very first shot of the watch. Nice tie-in.

"The Doctor never uses weapons!" "I know! Shut up! >.>"

Where do the Kasaavin come into play? Is this something they've done by integrating themselves throughout time and space? Maybe they're fraying the fabric?

My mind is blown. I can't wait for the rest of this season :D

-

[Part 2 - Praxeus to The Timeless Children]

[wayward-pendragon]

Klance Rec Part 2

Hello and welcome back to another Klance rec! Since the last rec was a success I have decided to make another one. I just wanna say a huge thank you to everyone, you were all super sweet and enthusiastic about the last list :)))). For any newcomers, I will link the first rec list here. Without further adieu, lets begin!

AU

Roommates by manamune 

Summary: (13:24) Lance: Thank you!! Love you, Keith!!!

(13:55) Keith: I’m screenshotting that for the next time you deny it.

One of very first Klance fics!! Klance become roommates and they’re hella cute. Idk what else to say that’s really it. 

Would You Like Fries With That? by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee

Summary: “Hello, welcome to Burger King, can I take your order?” And that’s about when it all comes crashing down on him, and like a tidal wave of terrible, Lance realizes, on an emotional level, how truly awful his day was. For no good reason at all other than here’s a human voice – steeped in apathy perhaps, but not overtly antagonistic – and literally all he wants is a little human comfort… he starts sobbing in the Burger King drive-thru.

Keith is a junior in high school just trying to get through working the midnight shift at Burger King when Lance staggers into his life. The course of true love is a freaking disaster.

I laughed my ass off holy. I can picture this happening so vividly it was such a fun read. Plus, high school klance is fricken cute as hell so squishy and fluffy. 

it had to be you by Redburn

Summary: Keith and Lance are both professors at Garrison University.

“... I remember Lisa saying it was when you ship two people together, romantically, for your own enjoyment. I’m sure…” Shiro trails off when he sees Keith’s eyes start to grow impossibly wide. “Uh, Keith?”“What the fuck?” Keith manages, his heart suddenly beating faster, his face warming up despite himself. “They ship Lance and me romantically?”

YOO. Basically all of Keith and Lance’s kids ship them and its a good time. I love oblivious Keith honestly, oblivious Keith is the best Keith. 

Dorks by GriffinRose

Summary: Inspired by a post on Tumblr!

Lance is the only one listening to the current presentation, and oh boy is it something to listen to. The kid has been rambling on about aliens for ten minutes and he is trying so hard not to laugh. So hard. Turns out the kid didn't even think Lance was paying attention, so when he finds out Lance was he books it. Like, as fast it takes Lance to turn his head, that kid was gone.Keith wants to die. The Hot Guy in his bio class was actually listening to him talk about aliens. That's it. He's done. Kill him now. Poor Shiro is just trying to keep his little brother sane.

AGAIN YO. You know how I said oblivious Keith is the best? Whelp embarrassed Keith is also fuckin great. Honestly now that I’m in Uni I relate to this so hard, its really a fun read. 

Hearts Don’t Break Around Here by klancekorner

Summary: Lance and Keith have been best friends since first grade. Lance’s brain is always on overdrive and Keith’s blunt, realistic ass can never keep up. They both come to realize that sometimes you can learn a lot about loving yourself by loving someone else.

So this is a longer one, its over 130K but don’t let that deter you please. This fic is so good and everything a friends to lovers klance AU should be. I cannot scream about this fic enough its like a young adult romance novel, honestly I’m shitting its so good.  

Better than coffee by Anonymous 

Summary: Lance can’t help but linger around a perpetually grumpy-looking employee who works at the nearby teahouse. Keith, despite all the Yelp reviews, turns out to be surprisingly kind. Lance starts coming every day—although he insists it’s only for the boba.And to complain about the customer service, of course.

Hehehehehe grumpy and soft Keith mixed with Lance being Lance. A shorter fic to last one on this list its really sweet and fluffy please enjoy. 

Shut Up and Dance With Me by wittyy_name

Summary: Lance and his friends have been regulars at the Altea Dance Studio for years. Not just for classes, but to hang out, practice, and spend time with good people who love dancing. Every year, they audition to be one of the few representing Altea at the regional dance competition. Lance always auditions solo, but this year he misses out on auditions and blows his chance to participate. And so does his self-proclaimed rival, Keith. Luckily, Shiro comes up with a brilliant plan: convince Lance and Keith to audition as a duo. With a little convincing, and a lot of effort, these two might just be able to pull it off and go to regionals... or they might crash and burn.

This fic is the real deal holy crap. wittyy_name my god istg one of the best klance writers out there. The relationship built up from enemies to lovers and the sexual tension omg this fic is a masterpiece js. I cannot stress enough read anything klance by wittyy_name and you will be happy. This fic also has art!!!

CANON

All the Way Down by speaks

Summary: “You make it sound like we’re going into battle,” Hunk laughed worriedly on Lance’s other side. “I thought this was like, some kind of carnival.”A chortle bubbled of out Coran’s throat as he slapped his side in amusement. “Some kind of carnival, he says! What an understatement! Allura, I think it’s high time to show the paladins precisely how and where we’re going to be spending the next three days. After you, Princess.”A happy, childlike grin rapidly overtook Allura’s regal professionalism, and then a brilliant chink of light shone into the castle hall as she opened the front doors to the mountain they’d landed on twenty minutes ago.Lance went slack-jawed as his eyes adjusted to the white-blue light of Krossin’s distant neutron star, and he almost stumbled as he and the other paladins followed Allura and Coran out onto the grass to take in the view laid out before them. This place was a utopia.

This is a more recently written klance fic in comparison to some others on this list but oh man. Basically klance being all cute out on a date on an alien planet. The build up omg and fluffffff I was squealing. 

Red is the Coldest Color by EnglishCivilWar

Summary: Keith’s startled look had quickly turned to one of annoyance. “You’re in my way,” he stated. Lance blinked uncomprehendingly. Keith let out a groan. “Lance, MOVE.”(In which Lance is an epic fail at flirting, Keith is an oblivious walnut, and the rest of the team collectively groans and sighs.)

Oblivious Keith is back kids!! 

Love Bug by Cour104

Summary: While exploring an alien planet, Lance get's bit by a strange bug whose venom causes him to fall in love with the first person he sees. Of course that person had to be Keith. I've seen a lot of fics based the Love Bug AU where Keith is bitten by the bug and I thought: What if Lance is bitten?

Literally out of all of the fics I’ve read about klance and the lovebug AU this one wins. It’s almost always Keith that gets bitten but I really loved reading the story from a POV of Lance being bitten it was great.

Make Me Your Home by Reader115

Summary: “Oh my god, Keeeith,” Lance wheezed. “Keith you’re the best drunk space cadet I’ve ever seen.”“Space cadet,” Keith mumbled. He repeated the words again although his eyes had zeroed in on Lance’s hands and Lance offered no resistance when Keith picked one of them up and pulled it possessively towards his lap. He began to gently trace over Lance’s fingers, sending shivers up Lance’s arm and down his spine. “You have looong fingers,” Keith murmured after a few moments.Keith’s face perked up then, as if he’d just had a brilliant idea, and Lance could almost not wait to hear what new obscure thought had entered Keith’s pretty head. He was prepared to laugh, and instead found himself shivering again as Keith leaned far into his personal bubble, lips practically touching Lance’s ear when he spoke next.“I bet you could reach all kinds of things, Lance.”

Set in season 2. These boys crushin hard even if they don’t realize my god. 

Your Love Has Shown Me Proof by freshia

Summary: “This situation is a bit more complicated than we initially realized.”Lance raises an eyebrow, but Pidge is the one to question that. “Define complicated.”Allura takes no more time beating around the bush, “Well, I received a transmission. Keith and Lance--from the future, that is--would like to have their daughter back."or: Lance and Keith deal with a walking spoiler, in the form of a little girl who just wants to get back to her own home.

Klance and a kid oh my god. Watching the teenage versions of klance deal with a child was so pure and their reaction to them being married in the future, priceless. 

time out of mind by aknightley

Summary: Keith and Lance wake up married. In the future. He lays there a moment, processing the faint throbbing in his head, a strange bitter taste like lemons in his mouth. When he opens his eyes, the room spins wildly into a kaleidoscope of colors, so he closes them again, breathing in and out until he feels less like he might throw up. He suddenly registers a warm weight over his waist, and lifts his head to see a brown arm thrown over him. It looks startlingly familiar, but different, bigger than he remembers, more toned. Keith turns all the way around and comes face to face with Lance sleepily blinking his own eyes open.

Another future marriage fic. These awkward little beans omg its really cute. 

Cheeky by rideahorse 

Summary: Keith pinches his eyes shut, slamming the book down again and swiveling to face Lance. “Oh my god,” he groans, standing up and crossing the two feet between them before Lance can get out a word. He grabs Lance’s face between his hands (perhaps a bit rougher than needed, but hey, he’s always wanted to slap Lance’s stupid face) and the last thing he sees is an expression of pure surprise before he leans down and presses his lips against Lance's.It’s a peck, and it lasts a second, and then it’s over. Keith leans back, releasing Lance’s face, and hisses, “There.”

Cute and short fic basically just klance kissing with some feelings involved. The summary really says it all. 

Well, we’ve made it to the end of this rec list. As always, please rec me fics I love getting recommendations. I loved reading all of your comments from the last list so please keep them coming, I love to hear from all of you, so feel free to message or ask a question. Hope you’re all doing well, until next time :)

[ladyloveandjustice]

Reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its characters

I did a breakdown of how Attack on Titan failed the potential of its premise due to its commitment to being edgy fascist garbage, but I also want to talk about how it failed a bunch of characters who were brimming with potential.

(This is gonna be messy and loooong, because I have a lot of feelings. Someone on the last post noted my “rhetoric blows” and I will freely admit I’m not really trying for coherent “rhetoric” here, I’m just venting my frustration so I can get it all out of me and move on).

Yes, it wasn’t solely the premise that drew me and so many others to Attack on Titan and its potential. There were a lot of unique and exciting elements with the way this shonen manga handled its characters.

I said before that Isayama never cared about his characters, but that was a bit of a exaggeration. I think he did start out caring about some of them...it’s just he quickly got bored with them and started treating them solely as tools to serve the “plot” and the screwed message he wanted to impart.

Isayama does have one strength as a character writer- he excels at  showing characters who are messy, flawed and selfish but nevertheless sympathetic. Nobody in Attack on Titan is a classic unselfish “pure” hero, they are all deeply flawed. Isayama’s characters were compelling in the beginning because of that. He allowed his characters to exhibit cowardice, he allowed them to fail spectacularly, and that made Attack on Titan stand out. Despire the melodrama of their situations, actions and personalities, there’s a rawness to (most of) his characters that fits the horror of the setting.

Even the protag Eren, who a lot of people dislike or find easily the most boring character (honestly I found Levi the most boring though), has this ugliness to him that makes him distinct from the billion other teen boy protags in shonen. He is genuinely unstable and honestly a bit disturbing, as this collection of weird murderfaces he makes shows (behold my post popular aot post, ah memories).His obsession with killing Titans was unsettling, it was the classic determination of a shonen hero through a screwed up horror lens, this kid ain’t all right.

Historia especially resonated me because she was TRYING to be that classic pure heroine- but she was selfish like everyone else deep down. She just wanted to be SEEN as an pure-hearted martyr who sacrificed for others, when really all she was doing was giving into her suicidal urges. It was criticism of the very concept of the “immaculate woman”, and that’s pretty cool. So was the fact she was seen through by Ymir, someone who embraces selfishness in all other aspects of her life but is ultimately selfless when it comes to her love for Historia...that’s some good shit. It’s fantastic as a character concept, and Ymir and Historia’s initial character writing and backstory will stick with me because it was genuinely good in all its melodrama. 

Historia and Ymir were nuanced queer characters whose relationships were fleshed out well. I do believe Isayama put care into crafting their initial arcs and developing them.

But then we run into a problem. A problem that eventually we run into with every character in AOT. Isayama stops caring about them. After their initial big arcs or moments in the spotlight or backstory reveals, he just doesn’t know what to do with these characters anymore. So they completely disapppear from the manga or fade into the background only to matter again when he decides to kill them off for some cheap shock moment. Either that, or they just exist to further the narrative of how the military is cool and we have to exterminate all our enemies and blablabla.

 Because he ultimately cares about that narrative far, far more than he does giving these characters the full stories that resonate, make sense and are effectively paced. He's completely willing to undo all the character work he did previously if it means he can be edgy or impress his ideals on the reader.

That’s why Ymir and Historia have this dramatic parting that gets the audience pumped to see what happens to both of them and when they’ll reunite...only for Ymir to just completely disappear from the narrative, then be killed offscreen without even really re-entering the story again. That’s why Historia has this whole big arc about reclaiming her agency, resisting her abusive family and learning to live for herself...only to be intimidated into becoming Queen even though she’s not super into it, because she needs to serve the military and NOT live for herself after all, I guess? And oh, now she’s numbly accepted her duty to endlessly make babies for the sake of the nation! Turns out her real purpose is to be something for the other characters to be sad about. 

Isayama got bored with Historia’s arc and Ymir’s arc and their relationship. He may have fun coming up with characters backstories and the big dramatic moments, but once those are over? He doesn’t care enough to do the work to conclude their stories. He gets distracted by his next plot point, his next action scene. The characters are toys he discards or breaks for the sake of either some edgy ‘anyone can die!’ moment or to push forward whatever new stupid plot point he’s thought up for his fascist narrative. (Links to evidence of Isayama’s views in this post).

Even in the (dumb) sense of “oohhh doesn’t this impress life’s cruelty upon us”, Ymir’s death is a failure. When she’s been gone from the narrative so long, to have it suddenly be like “oh, she died” just makes for a reader feeling confused and cheated, not devastated. It becomes painfully clear she’s an afterthought to the author, a loose end that needed to be cut. Same with Sasha’s recent death, I saw no sign she’d been anything but background in the narrative for a long. looong time before she was killed off.

 Heck, look not further than Annie, who has now been trapped in crystal for what, 800 chapters? It’s been YEARS, both in universe and out. It’s honestly FUNNY at this point that she’s still fuckin’ in there, literally just frozen until Isayama can decide what he wants to do with her.. I hope the manga ends with everyone dead and then 1000 years later Annie emerges like “hey guys I’m back!” Then a meteor hits her or something. The intrigue surrounding her fizzled out a long time ago, yet Isayama still expects the reader to care whenever that hunk of rock shows up?

Let’s bring it around back to Eren. There were a lot of interesting directions he could have actually gone as a character, had he been forced to actually, y’know, deal with the fact he was channeling his grief in an unhealthy way or his worldview had ultimately been challenged at all. But Isayama actually agrees with Eren for the most part, he does think enemies should be exterminated without fail and genocide is cool and stuff. So Eren’s development throughout 800 chapters was just to ultimately get more and more obsessed with killing enemies, to the point where he doesn’t even enjoy seeing the ocean for long before deciding that was more important. Only his targets are definitely people now, and he doesn’t care about children or civilian casualties anymore, and yeah he’s screwed up, but doesn’t he have a point???? You can almost hear Isayama say this.

 Eren exemplifies how Isayama approaches character development. He allows his characters to get more ruthless, more calculating, more fucked up, more comfortable with killing and torture as time goes on, but they can’t develop in a positive way ever- if they start going in that direction, it’s time for them to either die or regress. Nobody’s allowed to find any sort of lasting happiness, nobody’s allowed to become softer or kinder. “Cowards” (like Armin or Sasha) can become “brave”, but they’ll eventually lose most of their softness and empathy too. But that will be excused at every turn, because that’s apparently the price, the sacrifice of being a soldier. It’s “necessary” and it’s something Isayama very obviously admires. “Bravery” trumps compassion, soldiers must be ruthless to win and in the end, any growth is meaningless.

To be clear, a lot of negative character development isn’t a bad thing and “anyone can die” narratives aren’t either (though both are very tricky to pull off without losing audience investment- if you know it’s all just gonna be suffering, why keep reading?). But even when your story has those elements, you, as an author, have to have some respect and perspective in regards to your characters and Isayama has neither. He AGREES that his characters terrible actions (like torture) are necessary, because he thinks what Japanese soldiers did to Korean civilians was A-OK too...so it all just comes off as sickening.

And in a story, even if you’re trying to impress that death is random and arbitrary, that your story’s world is dangerous for everyone, those deaths should still mean something to you. the author. Otherwise the reader can’t feel their impact. It shouldn’t be easy to kill off a character. It shouldn’t be simply because you’re bored, or don’t know what to do with them- yet Isayama has openly admitted what he does. A character ceasing to matter, and then dying, has no impact. A character must matter up until the moment they cease for their death to matter.

( And lbr, if “anyone” could really die in AOT, the four main characters wouldn’t have gotten a million miracle reprieves by now).

It’s not surprising it ended up this way, though. It’s not surprising a man who has no sympathy or compassion for victims of war crimes has no sympathy or compassion for his characters and slowly drains them of their humanity as the story goes on. His love of war and domination is more important to him than human beings, and that comes through in his narrative, where characterization takes a backseat to his love of depicting war and violence, of impressing its necessity on the reader.

The characters of Attack on Titan deserve better than to be embedded in this cynical, cheap, fascist narrative. Fortunately, there are a ton of stories out there, and you can find similar characters with authors who actually care about them and aren’t openly fascist. For instance, while thinking about Historia’s arc and how good it started out, I remembered that one of my favorite narratives has a very similar main character. If you like Historia and wish she had a better narrative, I encourage you to check out the anime or light novels for The Twelve Kingdoms.

Similar to Historia, Youko is raised in an oppressive environment and constructs this entire personality around the idea of being an ideal good girl who lives for others, even though deep down she didn’t really care much for the people she was pleasing. When she’s stranded in an unfamiliar world, she slowly finds who she really is- and she’s pretty hardcore. She comes into a royal position of power too, but needless to say, it’s handled much better than Historia’s arc in AOT. 

True, she’s not explicitly queer, but there’s no explicit love interest either (the anime does add a “crush”, but he disappears pretty quickly and she gets over him amazingly fast), and ton of strong female relationships in the story too, that don’t end with one party dying and the other becoming a baby machine. And it’s written by a woman who’s never openly supported war crimes, so. 

So yeah, there are so many better options than Attack on Titan, and so many better ways these character concepts can be used. If you’re as disappointed as I am, it’s important to remember that. These character were failed, but characters like them can still be given the narratives they deserve.

Here’s the final part of this series:

The final reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its potential in regard to gender and queer themes.

[idexstuck]

what is kissing various ccuers like? find out

vivian: awk af and will force ur hands up to touch her face. altho thinks its 10x more hot for u to just touch her lips not actually smooch her. might end w her trying 2 like eat ur hand killian: hes a dad. also divorced 2 times. so weird is an understatement. also full indiana dad semi-aftershave beard so double awk. altho if u like that good on ya. needless to say he kinda is occupied w trying to eradicate humanity but he makes time exceptions 4 u. lips taste like regret and $5 cedar lake beer c(d)r: again awk as hell. high energy tho. prefers little 'muah' pecks. if on lips: redbull and coffee. makeouts r rare but cdr isnt rly a ~sexy~ person (lawyer). would love love love if u initiated smth further tho! but if u are not comfy thats ok :) xiang: gravity increases in a good way like when u get underwater so far & water pressure does that thing it does where you just feel .zip'd. soft lips rating = 12/10 kris: dont try to be sexy and bite his lip you might catch his lip ring and that hurts him be careful :( otherwise also p awk but in a very endearing way pre gb emerson: apyr :) post gb emerson: his lips taste like broken dreams, expired yogurt, and porn. 0/10 but he likes to shove his tongue down ur throat and if u find that hot congrats. also will use his es. just enjoys the idea of escalation. rly hard to 'just' kiss him bc if he wasnt already horny for everyone its ESPECIALLY bad for u. ender: doesnt know what human affection is but hypothetically will not have an understanding of being normal. will try and succeed to hurt you. if you dont like it he wont be affected (MEAN!) unless he cares abt u (partner on his quest for revenge). if you like it congrats hes not abt to go bdsm and hurt u unless u ask tho eva: not interested in romance but you're special :) at first shes eh to the idea of making out bc tht takes up time but it grows on her. likes human intimacy ig. kisses are very sweet and very nice :) 20/10 jacobi: smoker so not great. also doesnt shave so not great. kinda awk and not rly in an endearing way either. you have to teach him. but hes trying ok???? juno: electric! loves kissing thinks the idea of smashing faces is weird but also AzanPog. will like it if u run ur hands thru his hair so do it :) ruth: has never been a romance guy post-HS and frankly has naught the time nor energy for it rn (except for u). so hes just kinda rusty. likes to be guided and told what to do not in a weirdo way just ig u gotta let him know cos he needs to know ur boundaries if escalation. otherwise hes super nervous. will maybe surprise kiss u if he is brave! :) holo 0302: kiss -> makeout -> devolves into (if you so desire) hard and heavy fuckin. cant really control itself enough to stop UNLESS you give the word/it senses u arent having a good time. otherwise its rly possessive of u. always wants to be the instigator. always tries to get ur clothes off as fast as possible lol tour: AWKKKKK but it is ok. she isnt for pda or hell even private da so moments are rare w her. u have 2 initiate. super duper rusty also lips chapped af. not rly one for making out tho. sometimes u get insecure like oh does she not love me and the answer is no, she does, just bad at showing it smop: weird she doesnt rly care abt romance or face smashing at all. also unphased by 99% of advances or innuendos or anything remotely romantic. have 2 tread carefully w her. first kiss probably 6mo after u started dating but shes like huh i thot we were jus rly good friends. its super sloppy and she has no idea what shes doing but its ok cos its endearing rich: need i say anything. its perfect every single time. pure euphoria. rly good kisser too. ur welc johanna: messy & sloppy af because she insists upon not initiating intimacy unless shes super inebriated. she doesnt want you to overwrite trevor in her mind so she just hopes the alcohol will get rid of the taste of ur lips. doesnt work. first sober kiss is still weird and shes rly hesitant. u got 2 feel it out w her. takes a looong time to escalate since shes uncomfortable but thats ok. when shes at that point then o ya she loves nice long chill makeout sessions. probably with the caveat that every so often she takes a massive swig of beer (remember to work out this idea with her beforehand as to not overstep boundaries). lips obvi taste like beer. sooo much jack daniels. nikolai: will never initiate intimacy. u have to sit him down and tell him its ok but he still wont. loves it if he is never in control of the scenario. would love it even more if u escalated w/o him asking and hes afraid to ask. but if u eventually deprogram him he might initiate sometimes. kisses are super weird hes not used to em. whys his mouth taste so salty wtf? clara: very clinical. she is not by any means a romantic. but still nice tho since any intimacy is a good act of opening her shell! issac: CHEFS FREAKIN KISS BABY. better than rich. even if u just have a fling u will never ever find anyone who can even just smooch u like he does. filled w emotion and also hes super nice ig so :). handles u so carefully not in a fragile way but in a loving way. mouthtaste for sure some kinda minty flavoure. or a nice wine :) reina: she makes u feel so safe. thts all i have 2 say. u are Held ingrid: are you crazy? schuyler: actually not as bad as one might think. prefers u to initiate. obvi used to be a heavy smoker and drinker so he is kinda bad for the mouth ya feel. acquired taste for sure. if u like southern men, congratulations. dr.w: go grandpa go jim: would start happy crying if u asked if u could kiss him. then would say no. ur gonna have to wait a LOOOOOOOOOOONG ASS TIME to kiss him. just be patient. notice that his acts of intimacy are skewed towards nonphysical- hes a great listener and is very attentive to u! those are good :)