#joke answer but also partly true

[topazshadowwolf]

random question but does the Nootmare pay taxes?

Sale taxes, yes. But he is not reporting his income and his property is hidden from the Multiverse IRS. So, for the most part, no, he does not pay taxes, he opposes taxes, and will gladly toss tea in any bay to prove his antitaxes point. In the end, he will eventually be brought down by the Multiverse IRS for tax dodging.

Sorry for the spoiler for the end of HNBD, which does not actually stand for How Nightmare Became Dadmare but How Nightmare Began Dodging (taxes).

[fear-is-truth]

𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐂𝐘 . . . hc .ᐟ ⭑ 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐡𝐞𝐰

⟢ tags — fem!reader﹒headcanons﹒domestic fluff﹒nsfw﹒mdni﹒smut﹒kinky rp﹒blasphemy

a/n: requested by… i’m pretty sure i remember who sent the req but not confident enough to @

you’ve mastered the art of meal prepping for him—chicken breasts, egg whites, protein shakes etc. he’ll sneak up to you from behind while you’re cooking, kissing the top of your head as a thank you.

his “controversial” youtube channel, where he films fitness and cycling classes, is something you secretly love to watch him record. you’ll often peek from the doorway as he’s filming, watching as he passionately leads the class, shirtless and full of energy, talking about strength and spirituality.

the two of you have a growing collection of houseplants that charlie swears he’s responsible for watering (even though you know you do most of it). he’s also been talking about getting a pet dog—and he gets excited just thinking about it.

you have a ritual of watching true crime documentaries in bed. he’d throw in some commentary during the episodes, pointing out details others would miss and making sarcastic remarks about the criminals’ poor decisions. you can tell he’s fascinated by the psychology of it all, even though some of his comments make you playfully swat his arm for being a bit too dark.

he’s dedicated to his morning jogs and always tries to convince you to join him, but on most days, you’re still in bed when he gets back, all sweaty and smug. he’ll kiss you awake like sleeping beauty and tell you that he’s already done your workout for you.

he’s super buff. strong enough to lift you effortlessly, and loves showing off. charlie would sweep you off your feet at random moments—like when you’re about to leave the house, or after a long day when he insists on carrying you to bed. he always jokes about how he’ll never get tired of it, no matter how many times you roll your eyes at his over-the-top gestures.

nsfw — mdni

after groundbreaking sex, you’ll be snuggled in bed, and suddenly, he’ll ask, “so, if you had to commit the perfect crime, how would you do it?” charlie loves watching you try to come up with a serious answer, and then he’ll one-up you with some morbid trivia or a clever solution.

one day he got his hands on a nun’s habit, and casually suggests you try it on. the whole thing was more than a bit blasphemous, considering his position, but you decided to humour him. as soon as you put it on, he was all over you.

confessing (in great detail) to him in the confessional booth about how you touched yourself when he’s not there.

christening your shared apartment by fucking you in every room, and on every available surface.

when you’ve ran out of surfaces, it extended to the church.

he has fucked you in the confessional booth at least once.

charlie has crazy stamina—partly because he works out and partly because he’s “blessed by god”.

you have a stash of homemade porn videos that you’ve filmed together.

talked you into wearing vibrating panties to mass. sitting in the front row for him to admire the tiny expressions in your face.

using holy anointing oil to give you full-body massages.

rehearsing his sermons while you cockwarm him.

charlie likes to leave the bathroom door slightly ajar when he’s taking a shower, knowing you’ll peek in. more than often, you join him, the sound of your clothes dropping to the floor muted by the running water. steam fogs up the bathroom as his hands find their way to your hips, pulling you under the water.

he’d scoop you up in his arms, pinning you securely between him and the wall. you’d cling onto charlie like a koala, wrapping your legs around his waist while kissing him, fingers tangling in his hair as he kissed you back with equal fervour, him slipping his tongue past your lips and exploring your mouth lazily.

when he senses your impatience—the telltale tightening of your grip on his hair or the small whine that passed between your connected lips, he’d waste no time lining himself to your entrance and filling you with one deep thrust.

MLIST  fear-is-truth 2024 — all rights reserved. do not modify, repost, translate, or plagiarise my content.

[createserenity]

Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship dynamic fascinates me and what fascinates me even more is how people perceive them, partly because I seem to have a much more optimistic view of their dynamic than a lot of what I read suggests they do.

With that in mind I started trying to unpick how I see their dynamic and why and what I ended up with was a series of rambles on various aspects, including confidence, trust, silliness and what they ask of each other. This one is about what they ask of each other and why their relationship isn't some weird one-sided thing where Crowley gives Aziraphale everything he could possibly want or ask for.

I see a lot of posts and things suggesting Crowley always rolls over and does anything Aziraphale asks of him. I don’t know to what extent most people really believe this or if it’s just a fun joke (and I’m not saying that’s bad, I think it’s a fun joke too, I love reading all that stuff and it makes me laugh). The point I wanted to make here though is that I don’t think it’s true and also why I don’t think it’s true.

Everything from here on out is my opinion, but I won’t keep stating that in order to make it more easily readable, just take it as a given. If your opinion is different that’s absolutely fine, I love that we can all see this stuff in different ways depending on our experiences and personalities, it’s why the fandom is so fun. (It’s also why my opinion on so many things in season two ricochets wildly from one theory to another).

So back to Crowley and Aziraphale – I don’t think Aziraphale walks all over Crowley, or certainly not to the extent that people sometimes think he does. Also Crowley doesn’t and wouldn’t allow himself to be walked all over anyway. Why is this even relevant? Because I’ve seen people say that in the final 15 minutes Aziraphale finally asked Crowley to do something that pushed him over the edge and that Aziraphale was shocked when Crowley didn’t roll over and do it because Crowley always does what Aziraphale asks. This isn’t at all true for a start, but also this view tends to include a second assumption, which is that their relationship is one-sided and Aziraphale never does anything for Crowley, that he dismisses him and takes him for granted, which also is not true in a lot of ways. I think it’s a fundamental misinterpretation of their relationship dynamic.  

First of all why can Crowley’s actions be interpreted as just rolling over and doing whatever Aziraphale wants? Well, the answer to that is three-fold – firstly Crowley is a genuinely unselfish in many ways, he does things for people because that’s the way he is, it doesn’t make him a pushover, it just makes him nice. Secondly he loves Aziraphale deeply. Whether he knows it or not doesn’t matter, he cares for Aziraphale and wants him to be happy. This isn’t the same as being a complete doormat, it’s simply compromising with the person you are in a relationship with and occasionally prioritising them over yourself. Both these things come together in the third thing, which is that Crowley’s love language is acts of service – he enjoys doing nice things for Aziraphale, he enjoys rescuing him, or going along with him and letting him have his own way, so why not do it? The point is he’s never railroaded into it by Aziraphale, it’s always a deliberate choice. He is literally saying, I will do this thing for you because I love you and I enjoy making you happy and this is something I feel I can give to you.

How does Aziraphale see this behaviour?

Well that’s a tricky one, because in many ways Aziraphale is the more complex character, not least because he changes the most over the course of their history together. Is there a slight element of him taking Crowley for granted in some of their interactions, especially in season two? Possibly, but mostly I don’t think that’s it at all. When someone gives you things because their love language is acts of service you develop a (mostly sub-conscious) confidence in that relationship dynamic and if you also have confidence in yourself (which Aziraphale absolutely does – I’ll write more on this another time) then when you want something you ask for things. You ask not because you learn to expect, but because you think you’re worthy of asking and you think that your relationship is strong enough to stand up to the ask. I ask my husband for things all the time, sometimes they’re things I know he’ll give me – these are easy asks (I don’t just mean physical objects, I also mean acts of service such as helping me with something), sometimes though I’ll ask for things knowing he probably won’t give me that thing or without having a clue what his answer will be – these are harder asks, the sort you don’t do early on in relationships because they might break it either in one go or over time. Sometimes a hard ask results in me getting what I want, sometimes it results in a bit of back and forth before I get what I want, sometimes I get a no and I’m temporarily annoyed or upset, sometimes I get a no and I accept it because I knew it was the most likely outcome.

The point is that I ask, and so does Aziraphale. You ask because you have confidence that you are worthy of the ask and also that your relationship is strong enough to bear the request, even if the answer is no. Can a no still be annoying or upsetting? Yes absolutely. Can a no still be wrong on the part of the other person? Also yes. The point is that sometimes the no isn’t wrong and it doesn’t necessarily break the relationship. By the time season two comes along Aziraphale is confident enough in his relationship with Crowley to feel it can bear the weight of him asking.

So what happens when he asks? Does Crowley roll over?

Well no, he doesn’t. One big example of this is right at the beginning of the series, in episode one. Here Aziraphale makes a massive ask of Crowley and he knows it’s a big ask. Even before he tells Crowley what the problem is he’s aware of the possibility of a no. “Is it something I can help you with?” Crowley sayss, and Aziraphale merely shrugs. It’s not because Nina is there, she’s gone by that point. It’s also not because he doesn’t have faith in Crowley’s ability to help him, he always has faith in Crowley’s abilities (this is a whole other thing on trust). What he’s doubting is whether Crowley will help him. It’s why they’re meeting in the café, not the bookshop. He wants to break this one to Crowley a bit at a time – there’s a problem and I need help. I want your help, it’s why I called you, but you aren’t going to like it and I’m not even sure whether you will help so I’m establishing that I need help first, rather than showing you Gabriel immediately, so that you aren’t completely surprised when I present the whole problem to you.

Once they go to the bookshop and Crowley is confronted with Gabriel he offers the help he feels able to give by saying that he’ll drive Gabriel somewhere and dump him. He’s stating his willingness to help (which is important later), but for now he’ll only help in one specific way. What he isn’t willing to do is any more than that, not even for Aziraphale.

Help me take care of Gabriel. Help me sort this mess out, Aziraphale says, and what does Crowley say? No. Absolutely not. You’re on your own with this one. Even after Aziraphale practically begs him for help, complete with puppy dog eyes and the magic word, “I’d love you to help me,” Crowley still says no. That is not the reply of someone who lets themselves be walked all over or who rolls over every time the angel they’re in love with flutters their eyelashes.

Okay so what about the fact that he returns? Well, the stakes have been raised: for a start Aziraphale is now directly in danger, which alters the balance in favour of helping him, and remember he was already willing to help, he said as much, but he was previously only willing to help in one way. Now that’s changed. Doing things you wouldn’t normally do for someone you love when the stakes are raised is a perfectly normal rection in a relationship and does not indicate an unhealthy dynamic. Crowley has now realised that getting rid of Gabriel is no longer an option - his preferred plan (dumping Gabriel somewhere) will no longer work, so the only choice is now Aziraphale’s plan of keeping him in the bookshop and taking care of him.

This is why he returns.

A quick note on the call

Just backtracking a bit here – when Aziraphale calls Crowley to ask him for help Crowley agrees to be over in two minutes. It’s instant, no questions asked and at first glance looks like Aziraphale calls and Crowley comes running just because. But nope. Later we are very clearly told that Crowley knows something is wrong the moment he picks up the phone and Aziraphale starts speaking, “This was your ‘Something’s Wrong’ voice.” Crowley already knows there’s a problem and what do you do when your closest friend calls you and tells you about a problem? You try to help. Whether that’s advice, comfort, physically going around to help out or whatever the situation calls for. Of course Crowley says he’ll be there in two minutes, he doesn’t exactly have anything else on and his friend has just indirectly told him something is wrong. He’d be a pretty shitty person/entity if he didn’t agree to drop round and try to help.

So what about the 'I was wrong' dance?

This whole interaction, that many people say indicates how under the thumb he is actually shows us the exact opposite. What’s the first thing Crowley says when Aziraphale asks him to do the dance? “I don’t do the dance.” This tells us a hell of a lot about their relationship dynamic up to this point – for a start Aziraphale has clearly done the dance before, at Crowley’s request, and he lists off the occasions. The dance is silly and slightly demeaning and Aziraphale has done it several times for Crowley, whilst Crowley has never done it, yet somehow we read this whole scene as Crowley being the whipped one? Um. No. Also heavily implied in Crowley’s, “I don’t do the dance” statement is, You’ve asked me to do this before, I’ve always said no because I don’t want to. You’ve always accepted my no before and I want (expect!) you to accept it this time.

But this time Aziraphale doesn’t accept the no. Just like Crowley wouldn’t go along with his plan earlier, Aziraphale now won’t go along with Crowley’s no. Clearly he has done so in the past, but this time their dynamics are different. They’ve been much more open about their friendship for the past four years, they’ve both accepted that they are at least close friends, if not more. They’ve saved the world together and saved each other. They both acknowledge they “carved (this existence) out for ourselves” and that brings strength to their relationship. Now that Aziraphale has more confidence in what they are to each other, he takes that confidence and tests the limits of what Crowley will do for him, to push them more towards equality. Why should he always be the one to do the dance? Crowley responds by acquiescing not because he would just roll over and do anything for Aziraphale but because he recognises three things. Firstly that Aziraphale is pushing and that this is new and that this means something to him in the context of their relationship, secondly because he reluctantly accepts Aziraphale’s point that it isn’t really fair that he never does it, and finally because the request for him to do the dance isn’t about him refusing to help (Aziraphale was never certain he would), it’s about the fact that he’s broken Aziraphale’s trust by refusing to help (which is a slightly and very subtly different thing). To illustrate this, right before Crowley does the dance, just after he says “fine,” he gets this very brief, soft look on his face – this is him acknowledging to himself that Aziraphale deserves this dance, that he loves the angel and that he’s doing this because of both those things – he could have continued to insist on a no, he clearly has before, but this time he chooses not to.

I will do this thing for you because I love you and I enjoy making you happy and this is something I feel I can give to you.

All right, what about the car thing?

What about it? Lending your car to the person you love is very normal. Ok so the car means more to Crowley than a normal car does to us, but the point still stands. Aziraphale is making a reasonable request here. Does he expect a yes? Absolutely, because he also knows it’s a reasonable request given where their relationship is. Does he flirt to get his own way? Hell, yes. Does Crowley know exactly what Aziraphale is playing at? Also a hell yes. And Crowley totally plays up to it, he’s not as opposed to it as he claims. He’s playing up his “no” and his grumpiness for effect, to encourage Aziraphale’s silly flirtiness. Look at the difference between this no and the no he gave Aziraphale earlier. There’s no anger here, there’s no real sense that he thinks Aziraphale is asking too much, he’s playing a role in their relationship and they’ve both played this game before. Look at that little slap of the hand, which Aziraphale responds to equally playfully. The game even continues after Muriel turns up at the shop, when it’s already quite clear that Crowley is going to let Aziraphale use the car (he’s already taking the plants out). Even in the back-room Crowley still teasingly grumbles about trains whilst Aziraphale smiles flirtily, and Crowley playfully withholds the car keys when Muriel interrupts them. They both know Aziraphale is going to end up with them, there’s no point to him not directly handing them over in spite of the interruption, it’s just an excuse to tease Aziraphale back. I mean, look at him – he spends the rest of the conversation wiggling his hips, grinning smugly and confidently handling the Muriel problem by talking about love. Aziraphale’s very overt reaction tells you all you need to know about the dynamic of this one.

Two can play at this flirting game, angel.

But he follows him around like a little puppy!

Well, yes and no. Sure he follows him around whilst he goes around asking all the shopkeepers to the meeting, but he does that because it’s fun for him. He’s curious, Aziraphale is acting oddly, doing something he’s never done before and Crowley wants to know what it is. He’s always found him fascinating – what silly and ridiculous thing is the angel up to now?

Also wanting to hang out with the person you are in love with isn’t at all strange or a sign you are in some sort of weird relationship where only one of you calls the shots. It’s normal. Crowley knows Aziraphale has a tendency to be silly or do unexpected things and he wants to watch him do them and also flirt with him whilst he’s doing them. Looking grumpy and reacting to Aziraphale’s silliness with disbelief is how Crowley flirts-without-flirting. Both of them know, understand and like that dynamic, and he has that role not because he’s unhealthy levels enthralled with everything Aziraphale does but because of the levels of trust they have spent millennia establishing.

What Crowley doesn’t do is wait around for Aziraphale. Look at the scene where Aziraphale daydreams about Job. In that scene he’s aware Aziraphale has something else to show him (the record clue), but he doesn’t stick around whilst Aziraphale ignores him. He could have sat down somewhere in the shop and waited – he’s got an eternity, waiting an hour or so is no big deal, but waiting around like that would suggest he really is a doormat, just waiting for the next time Aziraphale shows him any attention. He doesn’t do that, instead he goes off and does… well, something. There’s a lot of speculation over what it is, but whether he goes off to read Pride and Prejudice or just wanders off to find something more interesting to look at than the back of Aziraphale’s head, he’s clearly saying here that he has a life outside of whatever Aziraphale wants to do.

Also side note - you know what else he doesn’t do for Aziraphale? Adjust his driving style. Aziraphale clearly hates it, it makes him nervous and he even asks Crowley to change several times whilst they’re in the car together, but Crowley never does. This is how I am angel, accept it or don’t, but this is the line and I’m not changing this for you. Related to this is his refusal to accept Aziraphale altering the Bentley. Aziraphale tries to persuade him, “But it’s pretty,” and Crowley really isn’t having it. It’s another hard line and he’s not going to let Aziraphale cross it.

Anything else?

There’s a few other examples that I’ve seen listed in the, “Crowley does whatever Aziraphale says/wants” evidence piles. Things like Aziraphale assuming he’s going to get the drinks in the pub. Well, someone has to get them, and it makes perfect sense that they both assume it’s Crowley here because he’s the one more comfortable with pubs. Having a role that you take on within certain situations in a relationship is healthy and normal, imagine how exhausting it would be to debate who is going to do every little thing all of the time.

In the first series the coat cleaning is another example often cited, but this is something Crowley is perfectly happy to do. Aziraphale is flirting, which is delightful, and he’s not being asked to do anything difficult or dangerous. I will do this thing for you because I love you and I enjoy making you happy and this is something I feel I can give to you, which is totally different from, you always ask, I always give, and you always take.

What about Aziraphale. When does he give?

All the damn time. We just don’t notice it as much because Crowley asks different things of him. His love language is acts of service towards others, but he doesn’t really ask or require them in return. Sometimes he gets them from Aziraphale anyway (Holy water anyone?) Also notably in the Globe Theatre when he’s clearly the one pushing the Arrangement, and Aziraphale more or less agrees to do his work for him (“That doesn’t sound like hard work”) even before he’s asked, before they’ve gone through their little dance of Crowley pushing and Aziraphale supposedly-reluctantly agreeing.

The other things Aziraphale gives Crowley are much more nuanced, and much less measurable to us as the audience, but he gives them constantly, or more or less constantly, throughout their relationship. He gives him acceptance (although he occasionally partially withdraws it, such as in the bandstand scene), his silliness (which is more important than it first appears), a safe space (not just the bookshop, but also a safe space for Crowley to air his real views without fear of consequence, which is important irrespective of whether or not he persuades Aziraphale to agree with him), his physicality (by 1826 he’s really in Crowley’s space so much of the time) and most importantly he gives Crowley himself. Crowley constantly pushes Aziraphale to grow as a person, it’s one of the original reasons he entertains developing a friendship with him. What he asks of Aziraphale is for Aziraphale to think – really think – about what he believes. And Aziraphale does so, but only for Crowley. Humans have constantly questioned religious beliefs throughout history, they’ve written books, made speeches and even had wars over religious doctrine and the problems, inconsistencies and absurdities within it. Crowley is saying nothing to Aziraphale that he won’t already have indirectly heard from humans and dismissed or ignored. But when Crowley says it, he thinks and he changes. That’s what Crowley asks of Aziraphale and it’s what Aziraphale gives him.

What was the point of all this waffle?

Well, honestly there isn’t much of one. Only that their relationship is much more balanced than some suggest and I think I just wanted to spell that out. It also has an implication for the final 15 minutes. There’s no way Aziraphale goes into that with some sort of fake confidence that he can persuade Crowley to follow him to heaven simply because Crowley always follows him – Crowley doesn’t, he has very clear limits that he enforces with Aziraphale and Aziraphale knows this. He might feel confident for other reasons (such as thinking Crowley will be happy to be an angel again) or something else entirely different might be happening (so many theories!) but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing to do with thinking Crowley always does what he asks, because he very clearly doesn’t.

It's also why Crowley waits around afterwards to watch Aziraphale leave. It’s a way indirectly of saying one final time, I love you and I enjoy making you happy… but this is something I cannot give to you.

[zoeykallus]

hai!!! how are you doing? i saw ur doing requests again soon... and i wanted to request a tbb something ^^

how would they react to their s/o like. BITING THEM. not full on CHOMP! duh. but a little soft nibble anywhere(jaw, cheek, neck, hand, nose, YOU GET THE POINT)... like the same way you would bite when giving a hickey or biting an earlobe. cuz holy moly i need to bite the FLIP out of these guys.

thank you and i hope you're doing well :D

Aloha! Interesting Question 😁

The Bad Batch x Reader HCs - That Little Bite

Warnings: Mostly Fluff/ Partly Suggestive

Masterlist

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

Hunter

If you suddenly nibble his ear while he is cuddling, you will certainly not hear any complaints from him. In fact, it doesn't matter where you're gently nibbling, you'll hear Hunter humming contentedly. The next moment, you have at least one of his arms wrapped around you and are pressed close to his body.

He's crazy about your every touch anyway, and the more sensual and closer, the better. Small bites and nibbles are actually a good way to get his motor running if you're in the mood for more.

In any case, Hunter is a big fan and not shy when it comes to returning the gesture.

Echo

At first, he may be perplexed and keep completely still. Echo is trying to make sense of what is happening, but shortly afterwards you hear a soft laugh coming from his mouth.

“Am I that appetizing?” he teases you.

An approving coo from you and more small, gentle bites make him melt away. Whatever jokes may have occurred to him a moment ago are quickly gone again.

Don't be surprised if he sighs and shivers under your teasing touches, he enjoys every second.

Wrecker

He giggles, surprised, perhaps a little startled at first, but quite taken with the very sensual touch.

“Didn't you get enough to eat today?” he asks you teasingly.

Cling to him and keep nibbling, the jokes will soon be forgotten. His strong arms will pull you closer to him and a little later you will hear pleasurable sounds coming from his mouth.

As he gives in, he says softly, “Go ahead, make me your feast”

Tech

Your gentle nibble triggers a very abrupt, unexpected reaction. Tech jumps up and stares at you with wide eyes from behind his lenses.

“What's wrong?” you ask gently.

Tech clears his throat, pushes his goggles up the bridge of his nose with his index finger and seems to collect himself before answering in his trademark matter-of-fact tone.

“I'm confused. At the moment, I'm trying to categorize your actions on my body, which are new to me. Are these touches of an erotic nature? Do you just want to cuddle? Or should I perhaps be worried about a previously hidden tendency towards cannibalism?”

Disguising and suppressing the impulse to laugh with a cough, you finally answer, “Well, I'd say the first two options are true to a certain extent”

A small sigh of relief crosses his lips, then a smile twitches at the corners of his mouth before he lies back down with you and says, “I'm not averse to that. Go on if you like”

Crosshair

You hear a coo coming from his throat, a satisfied grin on his face. Crosshair is a connoisseur, especially when it comes to physical contact between the two of you. You certainly won't hear any complaints from him.

He lolls around like a cat, snuggled up to you, his long fingers trailing under the fabric of your clothes. Physical contact between you is like a balm for him.

But he doesn't just take, he's also only too happy to give. Don't be surprised if you suddenly find yourself lying under him, his teeth gently grazing your neck or nibbling teasingly on your earlobe. Basically, he's interested in just about every sensual touch in your relationship.

Don't hold back, you won't regret it.

Little Bonus

Gregor

He giggles his adorable giggle.

“Pretty daring today, I like that,” he says, quite taken with it.

Expect him to want a nibble too and very likely to leave a tender mark or two. Gregor is sensual and playful. Such moments often end in you rolling around in the sheets.

But it doesn't necessarily have to end like that, Gregor is also a cuddly bear and his strong arms are a great place to rest and recharge your batteries.

@rintheemolion

@andyoufollowyourheart @clone-whore-99

@brynhildrmimi @kaliel2310

@misogirl828 @tech-deck

@meshla-madalene

@chxpsi

@thebahdbitch

@nahoney22 @ladykatakuri

@darkangel4121

@ttzamara

@arctrooper69

@padawancat97

@agenteliix

@allsystemsblue

@palliateclaw

@either-madness-or-brilliance

@ortizshinkaroff

@andy-solo1

@hunterssecretrecipe

@heyitsaloy

@greaser-wolf

@extrahotpixels

@hated-by-me

@hunterxcrosshair

@malicemercy

@bebopsworld

@echos-girlfriend

@cpnt616

@dangraccoon

@jediknightjana

@pb-jellybeans

@antishadow2021

@sleepycreativewriter

@projectdreamwalker

@1vlouds

@clonelovr

@ivyyyyy

[charlesslut16]

hiii if you like the idea could you make a cute and a (bit smutty but mostly cute) Yuki imagine? I was thinking on the reader joining the paddock for the first time, as Yuki’s girlfriend and if Gasly can be featured being a tease to them both would be so cute! I’ll leave the rest to you thank you in advance! 💙

-joining the fun-

summary : you joing the paddock for the first time...

PAIRING : yuki tsunoda x fem!reader

WARNINGS : none

note : i hope that you liked the first season of the year, loves!

december masterlist ; masterlist   

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If someone asked you how you felt right this second, you could not answer it. You were excited and happy, yet you were also a bit unsure and insecure about yourself and how you would show this relationship to do in public. 

Today was the day, the day you went on your first F1 race. And it was the first time that you and Yuki would show your relationship in public, in front of thousands of fans.

You and Yuki have been together for so many years and everyone knew that he had a romantic partner in his life, but you never showed it in public. It was long overdue.

 Partly it had been because Yuki wanted to experience being in a relationship without any fans interfering in his love life, and on the other part it was because you were not in the public or any famous person.

You had never told Yuki the reason why you didn't want to go public with him when he asked, you had always said it was because you did not want to share your relationship with thousands of people.

But after weeks and months of begging and pleading, you gave in to Yuki and told him that you would go to the next race with him. You could swear you never saw him smile bigger.

So the day came when you and Yuki went to the Bahrain GP.  Yuki drove you there, and you exited the car and took a deep breath. You needed a moment to check your surroundings. But the moment did not take long.

As Yuki went to your side of the car and took your hand in his, he kissed your hand and led you to the entry of the Grand Prix. Yuki was a ray of sunshine, as always, but you were a wreck, you were nervous.

But the time to be a wreck was over, now was the time to be the best version of yourself, so you composed yourself and gave yuki a light smile that indicated that you were ready.

You walked up and scanned your tickets and off you went. In mid-walking through the paddock, with lots of fans screaming and admiring you and your relationship, pierre came up.

"How are you doing, love birds? Is it like you expected y/n?" Pierre nudged Yuki and laid an arm around you to tease you a bit but also taking you off the stress with his little jokes.

"Yuki, you can't keep your hands off of her, can you??"

You looked over to yuki to his annoyed but cute face, that you loved so much. Yuki hated it to be teased, but as you were with him there was nothing to kill his mood, not even pierre.

"As if you could keep your hands off of your girlfriend, p"

With that statement, Pierre backed off of the two of you and went to his girlfriend, who was talking to some staff members. And you and yuki walked away to talk to fans or to sign some things.

And as you walked to the fans, you were nervous. What if they didn't like you? But as you came to the fans, they were very welcoming of you. They asked questions and complimented you. 

It was as if you were on an all-time high. It was nothing like you expected and imagined days and weeks before. Likewise, it was like a dream came true, even though you did not even dream this.

And after all the talking, you and yuki separated, he walked with pierre while you walked with Kika and some other wags that were in the paddock that wonderful day.

But before you walked away, yuki pulled you into his arms and gave you a big warm hug, a kiss to say goodbye to each other and a hand kiss for the appreciation that he felt.

"Thank you so much for coming with me today, love. I know that you did not want to make it that public, but I still think that it was a good idea, don't you think so?"

"Yes, handsome, the idea was very good. But enough off that you need to drive a race and to make it memorable because it is the first race that I see live. I do not want to be disappointed. Maybe there will be a reward later. I love you."

And with that you finally walked away, leaving the men standing there and you girls walking away. They were really like to have all of their girlfriends and wives.

[thus-wrote-mrs-zeppeli]

Various jjba characters in:

Bringing him home to meet your family

I have always thought this idea was interesting

Content: mentions of hookups, traditional family expectations and pressures stuff, pressures to get married

Headcanons style

Characters: Joseph Joestar (part 2), Bruno Bucciarati, Leone Abbacchio, Guido Mista, Gyro Zeppeli

-Joseph Joestar: a rich, handsome young man with a confident and charming personality didn’t sound so bad, but you had begged Joseph to behave himself around your family, and even with your pleading he wasn’t able to curb his arrogance or hold back a single comment that was almost too clever for his own good.

You were definitely getting worried. He was the smartest and most observant guy you knew; you were sure he understood your very subtle messages to tone it down a bit, but the show-off in him simply Could Not. They absolutely need to hear about how he defeated the Pillar men (your family has No Idea what a pillar man even is so it’s not nearly as impressive sounding as he wanted, even after a brief but vivid explanation) survived two plane crashes already, and despite all his dangerous ventures only came out missing one hand, replaced with a prosthetic. To your quiet little family that only wanted you to be safe and settle down with a nice person, Joseph wasn’t really winning anyone over this time-

You know he knows he’s not making a great impression either, and getting increasingly confused as to why your family is so difficult to impress. He didn’t realize your bloodline lacked a sense of ADVENTURE. Thank God he met you when he did. Lucky you.

So he uses his secret technique. Mentions casually that he’s also in the Real Estate business. Now THAT they like!! Real Estate is a very Stable career!

You send him a subtle glare that says he BETTER get into real estate.

He winks at you.

You hope it’s a “Yeah I’ll get into real estate” wink.

Score: 6.8 out of 10. He is undeniably charismatic, but he doesn’t really seem like the type who will ever settle down for real, they do worry about how happy you’ll be in the long run. Sure he’s exciting and fun now, but maybe he’s a bit TOO exciting. They do like that he’s financially stable though. As long as you promise to be careful and deeply consider what you want for your future, then they will support you.

-Bruno Bucciarati: Well everyone who has at least Heard of Bruno Bucciarati tends to have a favorable impression of him, and now that your family is actually meeting him in person they completely understand why.

He had actually seemed a bit nervous about meeting them. He worried very much about what they’d think of him, partly because he doesn’t have a lot of romantic relationship experience in general, and he really wanted to make this work with you, since you’re the only person who he’s ever felt this much affection for in his life.

You don’t think he has anything to fret about though, since he is the greatest guy you know, as long as he was himself, you knew he’d be fine; but you must admit, seeing Bruno anxious over something made you a bit nervous too.

He brought flowers for your family, talked respectfully but with that usual confidence you admired so much. And even from the way he carried himself around you, they could tell he had a deep love and admiration for you. His hand casually on your knee when you sit close together, always standing close enough to you that at least your arms are subtly touching, or his fingers are intertwined with yours. Romantic and affectionate, but classy. He is definitely protective, they wonder if he even notices the way he stands ever so slightly in front of you most of the time. They think it’s sweet that he’s always subtly looking out for you, even subconsciously.

By the end of the night, any nervousness he felt before had completely vanished, and he was comfortably laughing and making jokes and answering questions about himself honestly but not Too honest for them to grasp the true severity of his role in the mafia.

Before you leave he insists that he must meet with your family again sometime, and dinner will be on him. Your family is already treating him like he’s your beloved husband, and they are all too eager to take him up on that offer.

He is so lovely it kinda backfires on him honestly. Next time he gets to see your family, he’s being asked when he’s gonna pop the question to you. You know that’s not something that would scare Bruno away, but you still feel the need to apologize for how embarrassing it is that he’s getting nagged like that-

Of course he doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but it was one of the first times he’s ever been momentarily caught off guard and genuinely didn’t know how to reply beyond an awkward laugh and a: “when the moment is right, I’ll know.” Smooth save, Bucciarati~

Score: 8.5 out of 10. -1.5 purely because he IS mafia and that’s a little worrisome, no matter how kind a man he may seem, you don’t get into the mafia through pure compassion.

-Leone Abbacchio: He’s surprised your relationship has gotten far enough that you actually want him to meet your family. Frankly, he doesn’t think it’s a great idea. He knows he’s not the sort of man parents would want to see their kid bring home.

It takes a LOT of convincing, and a fair degree of arguing to get him to agree to it.

You even have to pull out the: “Leone. If you love me…”

And he scowled and grumbled out a: “now that’s not fair,” but reluctantly accepted that he should do this if it would make you happy. He’d go, but don’t expect him to stay long or wear anything too fancy. And he’d prefer it if you did most of the talking.

He’s quiet, as you suspected he’d be, and right at the doorstep he starts letting you know he thinks this is a bad idea and you shouldn’t go through with this. At least not yet.

Right as he starts turning around to try and sneak away, the door opens, and like he suspected, your folks are super excited to see you, but suddenly go more quiet when their eyes land on him. The awkwardness level shoots through the roof as they literally don’t know what to say about your boyfriend, this was not what they were expecting at all when you said your boyfriend had experience in “law enforcement”. It really looks like you brought a delinquent home…that long hair and dark clothes and purple lipstick, not to mention how he literally won’t make eye contact with them, and speaks curtly and only when spoken to. You were mostly expecting him to be rude. But to your surprise he was acting much more shy than anything.

Really he’s just nervous and frustrated that this is going so poorly already, and you had never felt him grab your wrist and squeeze it to stabilize himself like he did when your parents turn around to lead the way inside.

He can’t stop fidgeting, his leg bouncing or him drumming his fingers on the back of the couch, staring down at the carpet and going along with whatever you said to make your relationship and situation sound like something your parents would approve of. Something about how he studied law, and the two of you met at a fancy restaurant through a mutual acquaintance. The two of you were fast friends, and shortly afterwards: lovers. He doesn’t correct your flimsy fake story, but your cute little retelling definitely sounds much better than the real story. The two of you had actually met in the trashiest bar in town, and you had only intended for your “relationship” to be nothing more than a one night stand between two pathetic people. Though the mutual acquaintance wasn’t a complete lie. You had technically only learned his name after Bruno Bucciarati helped both of you clean up your acts and recruited you into his squad. Though it was almost cosmically funny that Bruno unintentionally reunited you with the very same man you spent one messy, regrettable night with.

Not that the unpleasant truth mattered right now, since your parents seemed convinced enough. And they must admit, as alarming as he was on first sight, it’s sweet to see the way you sit closer to him, and lean your head against his shoulder and even though he stiffens a bit at the physical touch, he’ll let you have this if it makes you happy.

Your little white lie makes the evening go well, and like you promised, you don’t make him stay long.

“Getting kinda late,” you comment. It’s really not that late, but Abbacchio fakes a yawn to cement the idea.

You guys make your escape, and he visibly relaxes with an exhale now that he’s out of your parents’ house.

“How horrible. Don’t ask me to do that again anytime soon,” he grumbles, and you gently headbutt his arm for being so dramatic, but he has a weakness for you, and you for him, so you give him a break and spoil him a bit as a celebration for a successful first meeting with your family.

Score: 5.5 out of 10. He’s quiet and blunt, but he seems like a decent man underneath. They worry you won’t stay happy with him.

-Guido Mista: He’s not that nervous at first by the idea of meeting your family, but he’s realistic enough to know he’s definitely not some rich and proper gentleman like your parents were hoping. He mentally prepared himself for them to be surprised, and unhappy at the sight of him.

And sure enough, a few minutes after speaking to your parents, you’re being dragged into the kitchen and getting scolded for bringing home a delinquent and they want that “ruffian of a boyfriend” out of your life immediately. They said he had no manners, he was much too comfortable and touchy with you, and he had a bit of a temper, combined with how he walked around with a revolver shoved into his pants and his first impression was Not the greatest. You insisted that you loved him and wouldn’t be breaking up with him. They did Not like that, and decided to kick him out themselves.

He said he wasn’t moving from his spot on the couch unless you were coming with him.

You didn’t like where this was going, so you quietly told Mista it was time to leave.

He made a big deal out of sending your parents a pointed look after very intentionally sliding his hand into your back pocket and kissing your forehead on the way out the door.

He tried to stay positive, for your sake, even though you’re both upset about the whole thing. He cheerfully told you that you could easily just get someone else to give their blessing for the two of you to be together. It wouldn’t even be hard to find someone! Bruno could do it, and Mista respects that man’s opinion much more than your parents’ anyways.

You’re a little disheartened, but you appreciate him trying to cheer you up. You never thought yourself the type to elope. You had always tried to be good, and keep your parents happy with your choices and what you did with your life, and you had never stepped out of line or rebelled before. Guido Mista was your one and only act of rebellion. A new and exciting perspective. You always had to be so careful, so polite…but he said and did what he wanted, took life into his own hands and didn’t let someone just write out his entire path for him. It’s not like you had plans on letting some gangster whisk you away, honestly at first your plan was to convince him over to your lifestyle, try to get him to settle down and start a more conventional life with you.

Now came your second act of rebellion.

“Take me away from this all,” you mutter to him as the two of you step outside of your parents’ house.

He intertwines his fingers with yours, rubbing his thumb along your knuckles, understanding immediately what you mean.

You wanted to join the mafia and escape your former life in a comfortable cage for a life of danger and adventure, with him.

You’re suddenly finding yourself in a significant amount of gunfights and attacks by enemy stand users…but you’re making your own decisions now, in everything you do, and you don’t ever turn back, only moving forward with Guido and your friends supporting you.

Score: ??? out of 10, doesn’t matter since you don’t talk to your family until they accept that you’re gonna marry him.

-Gyro Zeppeli: “You sure, sweetheart?”

He’s not the textbook definition of boyfriend or husband material. He’s wild, rugged, quick to react with violence, and he’s said it out loud and repeatedly that he’s “not a nice guy”. Hell, your relationship with him started as more of a casual hookup thing than anything else, but you stuck around and he liked you enough and you were never really an official thing but…clearly you were head over heels for the handsome Italian cowboy.

Okay, if you really want him to, then fine. He’ll meet your parents. But he makes it clear to you beforehand you shouldn’t expect him to suddenly marry you and settle down and play a doting hubby for you.

You had written a couple of letters to your parents beforehand, trying to prepare them for when they finally got to meet him.

He tries to be somewhat more civil and respectful for your parents-

And they try to be polite too, but they could NOT hide the way their eyes widened when they first actually saw him. He’s. Huge. Muscular. And with long, wild hair. You had to refrain from laughing at how they visibly flinched when they first saw his golden grillz too. You TOLD him he might not want to wear them for the first meeting. And he acted offended at that suggestion. You didn’t want to fight with him over it.

Admittedly it’s a rocky start. Thank goodness he actually had a medical background. And they weren’t convinced at first because….look at him…but after some conversation it’s clear he’s an intelligent and educated man. They liked THAT a LOT. Dr. Zeppeli sounded pretty good to them. They’re willing to give him a chance and admit to themselves that they may have judged him too early.

And well.

The more they get to know him, they see that rowdy, stubborn cowboy and talented medical prodigy are both fitting labels for him. But he’s a genuine man at heart, even if he has his secrets, they can tell. Even if he’s keeping something large from you and your family…he won’t hurt you. At least, not out of malicious intent.

You should be more worried about when HE brings you home to meet his family. If you really want to be with him, you have a lot to learn about the weight behind the Zeppeli name, and what it means to be with the eldest son of the current generation.

Score: initially……maybe 6.2 out of 10? His appearance IS kinda alarming, and his personality is LOUD. They are concerned he’ll end up being too much for you, and he didn’t seem like the settling down type at first glance.

[kumerish]

really love blind alley, i have an odd question though: do you have a pronouns guide for the kids or are you just leaving them up for reader interpretation? (other than red who has already been asked about)

Thank you!

A: Not an odd question. I think about this a lot too. I've spent a really long time trying to order my thoughts on this in a coherent way.

I am intentional when I use pronouns. When we know, that means it's part of how a character conceives of themself. The reverse is also true. I feel a bit at odds with myself here though; despite previously making a post about the importance of ambiguity and interpretation in my storytelling, this is one area where I'd prefer people just accept that lack of certainty instead of theorizing.

I want us to be able to conceive of them as people and characters without categorizing them. Unfortunately, I can't force anyone to do this without being extremely didactic or overt and I find that sort of writing to be boring and easy to dismiss. People always misgender my characters. It doesn't upset me but it does make me feel like I am failing to get across my intentions. As with all art, you can't force someone to read and engage with it how you intend. Maybe I am just not conceptualizing this properly and there's a better way to do it. However, I am not comfortable imagining readers theorizing on a characters gender because that makes it feel like something withheld for some grand reveal. Gender just doesn't matter to some of these characters and within my own relationship to them; I would like that to be the case for my readers too.

This isn't to be dismissive of gender/sexuality and how strongly this can inform ones identity. However, and maybe it's naive of me but, I'd love to live in a world where gender and sexual orientation do not always factor in to our ability to relate to each other. Writing this way feels like putting to practice something important to me.

This desire to be comfortable with not knowing is partly in response to my general frustration with our inclination to constantly categorize people, ideas, and processes. I believe this inclination does endless harm. We want things to be finite, fixed, and known but when reading about biology, philosophy, and ecology, it's clear there are no fixed or singular points. It's all process, flux, and in between; that's where we live. That's also where cartoons live.

Blind Alley doesn't exist. There is no way for anyone to confirm anything about it. It is all relational cartoon abstraction; it is only what I draw and say and what you take from that. My hope is that, while an individual may have an interpretation of what I've written, a reader will also consider why it is written that way. I'm not certain how to force readers to sit with not knowing things - it's clear we all want answers but, philosophically and artistically, I think that getting comfortable with not needing to know is an expansive thing.

I'm also aware I am writing a comic strip; people engage with them in a certain frame of mind. I shouldn't overstate any of this because I am incredibly aware that I am writing a dumb comic strip with fart jokes and stupid gags. I unfortunately put a lot of pretentious thought into this.

So, to answer your question, I only know when it matters to the type of character I am writing. I am not withholding this information so I can do some sort of reveal later; it just feels right to write characters this way.

[alpaca-clouds]

Queer people in the middle ages

So, the whiny manchildren, who want the middle ages to conform to their white supremacist fantasy, also keep claiming that there were no queer people in the middle ages - or that in fact queer folks just miraculously materialized at some point in the 1970s. But let me talk about one thing: How do we know that there were queer people in the middle ages? And how do we know that actually apparently at least some queer people in the European middle ages were living fairly openly?

Now, the very obvious answer to the first question is, that we do know that biologically queerness is simply a part of human nature. We know that just some people will be queer. How many people are queer... Well, biologist and psycholigists will argue with no end about this. Because of course we cannot look at someone and say "Oh, definitely a queer person", so we can only base our assumptions on what people say when asked. And we absolutely do know that how many people will admit to being queer the less afraid they are of societal consequences. Of course, biologically we can look at some apes and will see that their group behaviors work centrally over exchanging sexual favors with basically most apes being bi... But yeah, currently we can only guess. Maybe 10% of all humans are queer in some way or form - maybe it is more like 50%, maybe even more. We don't really know.

But what about the middle ages?

See, here I gotta say that I at times am annoyed with the way a lot of queer folks interact with history by just speculating about the queerness of some well known historical figures. Don't get me wrong, quite a few of them might have been queer. But this also falls into a very typical falacy.

Basically, when we talk about history we have the bad habbit of talking mainly about a few well known historical figures. When it comes to the middle ages, this narrative tends to focus mostly on clergy and nobility. This is partly because we have the best historical record of them - but also because to this day we tend to overvalue the lives of people who have influence.

And the other falacy is, that we just assume that the Victorian ideals about sex were true in the middle ages and that henceforth people were not able to be open about it.

Because here is the thing. We actually do have records of people being fairly open about it. This is partly records we have from lower nobility and especially gentry, but at times also from the peasants and normal folks that history often tends to ignore.

See, when I look at the historical record I could not care less about the richer nobility and royalty. Because their lives could not be further removed from normal society at the time. And especially I do not really care about the politics in terms of wars and aliances and such. Because it tells us fairly little about what LIFE at the time actually looked like.

No, the stuff I find interesting is the letters send by normal people - and stuff like grafitti. Maybe diaries, we still have access too. Or one interesting source I found for the middle ages: A collection of jokes a French monk wrote down over the course of years.

Because this is the kind of source that reflects the life of normal folks a lot better than whatever political drama some duke or king or bishop was involved in.

And in those sources you will find... that people are actually fairly open in talking about queerness. Heck, we even have sources in this regard that talk about specific sexual acts. Going so far that through this we have at least some vague ideas about kink at the time (though that really is a topic on which the historical record is super light).

In fact we have sources of this sort going back to the ancient times, even. Which is also why we know that the Romans in general were a lot more put off by queerness than people in the early and high medieval times. (Mind you, this did not stop the Romans from having gay sex, they were just a lot more scandalized by it!)

Of course, this is nothing that people are taught in school. Heck, you can manage to study history and still be ignorant of this, because this is not the type of sources a lot of history is concerned with or was concerned with for the longest time. Recently this is shifting a bit - but shifts tend to be slow.

So, yes, we know that queerness was definitely something that existed in the middle ages. Yes, the time was still very heteronormative - but it was clearly also less scandalous about queerness than either the Romans or the folks in the Rennaissance.

[nicohischierz]

the less i know the better: quinn hughes 

as per traditions, the hughes brothers had invited their friends to the lake house for the summer. the boys friends all got along together so it was always a blast. quinn was talking to josh when he spotted a familiar face. 

your face. 

quinn excused himself from his conversation and headed out back in the direction you were headed in. josh followed him immediately cause he too saw you. 

both boys glanced around the backyard looking for you. a smile made its way onto quinn’s face when he saw you again but the smile only lasted a second when he saw trevor’s arm around your shoulder. 

your fingers intertwined with his as you talked to cole and alex. call him crazy, but quinn could hear your laugh through the noisy backyard, he turned to josh. the taller boy gave his friend a sad smile. 

quinn was dejected. 

josh gave his friend a pat on the shoulder. “hey, don’t let them put you down. maybe you can try your luck with heather?”

quinn nodded and turned to find heather.

he was going to try and forgot you.

the next day quinn approached his brother “did you know they were together?” he asked jack. the middle hughes brother bit his lip. quinn took that as all the answer he needed. 

“apparently they’ve been together a year,” jack answered truthfully. 

quinn just nodded. he had broken up with you three years ago, he had no right to question who you were dating. quinn also didn’t want to know about your relationship with trevor. 

he didn’t mind the younger boy at all. sure, when he was younger he knew trevor had a tiny crush on you but he never imagined that the two of you would split so he didn’t worry about trevor. 

but now he was worried. 

after asking jack about your relationship status quinn avoid any conversation that involved you or trevor.

the less he knew the better.

quinn hated seeing you and trevor together. the thought that just a couple years ago you were his girl irked him. he didn’t have a clear answer as to why he broke up with you. 

maybe it was because he thought it was the right thing to do and that you would benefit from dating someone who wasn’t a hockey player. but obviously that was useless as you stood next to the league’s cover boy. 

as he laid in his bed at night, quinn recalled the time you would tease trevor on his crush on you. he remembered how you would always “if in ten years q and i aren’t together then ask me again zegras,”

of course at that time, neither you nor quinn really expected to break up. 

quinn had been doing a good job at avoiding you. trevor not so much. it seemed as if the bubbly boy had a knack for finding quinn wherever they went. 

it was one night were jack and his friends decided to go out just the boys. this ultimately meant that you and quinn would be home alone. 

“hey quinny, i made some dinner if you want,” you told the boy. quinn hadn’t expected you to acknowledge him. in reality, he thought you would hole yourself up in yours and trevors room. 

“thanks,” he mumbled 

in a non-weird way, quinn had been watching you. 

he watched how you were more outgoing than when you were with him and how you were completely content playing housewife to trevor. he watched as you joked with jack and cole about trevor’s shenanigans and how you made your relationship with trevor extremely public. 

quinn didn’t want to admit that he was jealous of the relationship between you and trevor. it would be ridiculous for quinn to be jealous of his younger brothers friends. 

sure, quinn did wish he got to experience all the things you did with trevor. but ultimately he was the one to break up with you. 

the media had thought quinn’s so called hatred for trevor stemmed from the fact that he spoke too much to the older boys liking. whilst that was partly true, quinn truly hated trevor because he managed to steal you away from him. 

even now as quinn heard jack’s shouts of excitement at the announcement of your engagement he put his head phones on and drowned the noise out. 

the less he knew the better.  

[fansplaining]

IWTV is the best show on TV. In today’s media environment, it is singular to be able to enjoy a show without the toxicity of the large fandoms. I have found that a majority of the show’s fans are hardcore Anne Rice fans making conversations about the show far more interesting. I am concerned of how this will change once S1 premiers on Netflix. The show deserves a larger audience and it will get it after it premiers on Netflix, but I hope the show runners remain true to the source material and continue on the path they have laid. Looking forward to future IWTV episodes.

Hello! Apologies for the delay in answering this, which I believe was in response to this article I wrote about the show and its audiences. With the official announcement this week that the AMC slate of shows are coming to Netflix on August 19th—

(also: lol Netflix, thank u)

��I was reminded to come back to it!

I totally agree with you re: the show itself, of course—but I also think you've curated your feeds very well haha. I've been observing many corners of the fandom throughout s2, partly because I was reporting on the fan/creator stuff, partly because I'm in the fandom, too. Fandoms are multifarious, and I'm not trying to paint with an overly broad brush—I've seen a ton of creativity and plenty of smart analysis etc. But I have also seen *so* much toxicity and *so* many willfully bad readings over the past few weeks, it's been shocking. Twitter in particular seems to have a literal Discourse of the Day and I don't understand how this is going to be sustainable over the year+ until s3 (lord help us all when s3 arrives lol).

There's a running joke—made so many times I'm not even thinking of a specific post—that people fear ~the Netflix masses~ will bring Bad Takes, but it seems highly likely a casual viewer will go, "Wow! Entertaining!" and move on with their lives, whereas existing fans of this show are already rocket-launching The Worst Takes at each other like clockwork (and even at random viewers who love the show but aren't a part of fandom conversations—because they don't like a person's phrasing, or the picture they chose for a post, etc etc etc).

As far as the idea that Rolin Jones or AMC will waver from their plans, I absolutely don't see that happening. AMC has long licensed their shows to large-audience platforms (Netflix in particular), but they're not making TV *for* those platforms. Jones and (IWTV EP) Mark Johnson have been pretty explicit about how they only could have made this show at AMC. I also found these post-finale comments from Jones very interesting:

I’m confident that we made the best vampire show we could make. I’m proud of the adaptation. There’s the element of second windows, how these things are going to be disseminated going forward. There does seem to be a lot of legwork done by fans. I look at 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and part of me is like, Ugh, that’s way too high. If the intention here is to make something that will haunt you and that will work 15, 20 years from now, did we piss off enough people?

There was another interview I cannot find now about how a larger viewing audience in those "second windows" means more chances for the people who really connect to the show to find it. I've loved seeing that this season, even—people who hadn't checked it out for whatever reason and have now been changed by it. When I wrote that article, fans were kind of cycling in an information vacuum, with minimal signals from AMC/the creators that the metrics for success weren't a pure numbers game. But in the final press run, they hit that message hard—they are in it for the long run, they want to make the best show they can, and they understand this is a sustained partnership with fans. I think they're going to continue taking the biggest creative swings they can, and I can't wait to see what's next.

(BTW, IWTV folks: I pulled @flourish away from their baby for 90 minutes and despite their combined total of perhaps 10 hours of sleep over the past 4 weeks lol we managed to finally record a season 2 special episode. It should be out for patrons early next week!)

[bookwyrminspiration]

Quil! Thoughts/predictions for unraveled before the official release, as the kotlc guy I follow?

Well I still don't have it, so even though it's officially released, I can still share thoughts and predictions. and all my mutuals who have already read it (>:() don't get to say shit!

Alright, so Keefe's in the human world looking for London and answers. I think he's going to get nearly hit by a car (twice). I think he'll accidentally command someone, then run away in a panic, and that's when he finds the fox. And I think he's going to cry himself to sleep thinking about Sophie (more than twice).

As for more serious thoughts. I think despite all the sokeefe promotion and jokes, it'll be background. yes it's important to him, but as far as he's concerned he's never going back. as for secrets uncovered that he'd have good reason to keep to himself (as Shannon has said there'll be), I'm thinking he does actually learn more about Ethan? and perhaps even recovers his own memory of the day they were killed? gonna throw out maybe he was there and remembering it is the final straw that makes him go numb? he says it's from being overwhelmed, which may be partly true, but I'm suspicious there's more to it

as for the mystery figure...unsure. I want it to be banoffee guy, but Alvar does also make some sense--perhaps keefe learns more from Alvar, and that's the breaking point for going numb. and it's another thing he'd have excellent reason to keep quiet.

oh and I'm gonna throw out he sees at least one disney movie, since this is Shannon we're talking about

these are my general ruminations going in, but we'll see! and if you've read it keep ur mouth shut <3

[the-whispers-of-death]

Why Those Nicknames?

If you ever looked at the basic info posts for my COD OCs and saw their nicknames and wondered, "why?", this is for you. Just something fun. This is solely for the COD OCs that are in "The Lions" squad (Kali, Sarabi, Simba, & Nala) because there's a post about why Stone's nicknames are his.

Kali:

Mufasa- This is technically a callsign, but I put it in the nicknames section because only The Lions and Stone use it to refer to Kali. Everyone else, including me, uses Kali when referring to him.

The Phantom of the Opera- This was sorta touched upon but here's a more in-depth explanation. Kali's light on his feet, like a phantom, but he also sings (hence the opera part). During his earlier years in the Marine Corps, Kali used to sneak up on people and sing songs from the musical The Phantom of the Opera, just because he could and it sparked the nickname.

Harbinger of Death- Harbinger means a person who announces or signals the approach of something, which is fitting for Kali considering as a sniper, he kills people. But also no enemy has ever seen him and survived, hence the nickname.

Sarabi:

True Leader of The Lions- Partly because he's the one that does the most of Kali's paperwork (because Kali, despite being a captain, hates paperwork) but also because it's a play on the fact that prides of lions are usually a matriarchy. So since Sarabi's callsign is a feminine name whereas Kali's (at least in the squad) is a masculine name, people joke Sarabi should be the actual captain of the squad.

Shadow-Man- Sarabi manages to blend in the shadows somehow, he hides there and no one really knows he's there because he usually doesn't talk much. Also, some people have said he manipulates shadows when he moves (which is just to further the legend of him).

Simba:

Geek-Man- It's not because he's a math prodigy, I swear. It's because he has these "geek-outs" as he calls them, where he just info-dumps about a certain subject. It's mostly about math or animals, don't ask him about fun facts about zebras. He will talk your ear off about zebras.

Greene Day- He loves the band Green Day and if you hear him humming, it's most likely a Green Day song. Combine that with the fact that his last name is Greene, you get the nickname "Greene Day".

Chaos Himbo- You may be thinking, if he's smart, how can he be a himbo? It's the energy. He doesn't seem smart, especially not with the way he has often accidentally set a fire in the microwave by trying to microwave different things. He's also chaotic in the way he has run several times on all fours, like he's a four-legged animal. He surprisingly runs pretty well on all fours.

Nala:

Daddy Williams- He got this nickname before he became an actual father and it's because he made the mistake of saying he once had a partner (not his wife) call him "Daddy" in bed. And no one let him live that down. It's gotten to the point where his daughters call him "Papa" and yes, that was his conscientious choice to teach them to call him that.

Man with a Bunker- It's self-explanatory; he has a bunker. Everyone found out when he just said "I do have a bunker" when someone joked he'd be the type to have a bunker. It's speculated that he might have more than one bunker, but he refuses to give a distinct answer on whether or not he has more than one.

Lord of the Weapons- Just a funny nickname because of the fact that he has a bunker and is a weapons expert. Other soldiers, non-weapons experts, revel at his knowledge of weapons and the fact that he can assemble and reassemble a sniper rifle blind-folded. Yes, people have actually seen him do it. In-universe, there are videos of him doing so.

Reblogs are welcomed & appreciated! Asks are open, feel free to pop in and talk or request something! (SFW requests only, please and thank you)

[chaoticmannamedoliver]

Short sweet mechs thing i wrote. It isn't too good, but it's good enough that im ok posting it.

It's about a sweet headcannon of mine that's also present in downtime (my mechanisms fan game)

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- The Coat And Stardust -

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She had been out of it for days, and he knew it.

considering where she was taken from and what the doctor had done to save her, quite the understandable reaction, but this state was different than the ones he had noticed from her before. Something was missing, no, something had been missing even when they took her, a spark.

her eyes were missing a spark, a sense of wonder and fascination, to him, she looked dead, like she gave up, and that he couldn't allow. Partly because the doctor had told him to monitor her while she was out, and partly because he cared for her, his first sister and honestly, real family in a very long time, aside from the doctor.

He liked to joke around his sister, make a fool of himself, all just to make sure she at least smiled, but recently, it hadn't worked at all, she just started at him and looked so, so cold which gave him an idea.

He had gone to a market recently, per order of the doctor, to buy himself a coat. He had found one he somewhat liked. It was a tad bit too big for him, though, and hadn't worn it yet because he hadn't bought it for himself, but for her.

He snuck up on her and scared her, which very deservedly landed him a punch in the face, which he just laughed off but would regret later. He gave her the coat, saying it was just hanging in his closet and would just catch dust since he didn't wear it, which was partly true. He continued by saying how he noticed that she seemed cold and probably needed it more than him and that the coat is a gift, that she can keep it.

Once she put on the coat, he took her hand and dragged her to a place he hoped she'd like, a place the doctor told him not to go and a place if she knew he had been there, he'd be a dead man. He dragged her along corridors, halls, and through doors, answering his sister's confused questions with giggles and hushes until he covered her eyes and made her sit, uncovering them shortly after and telling her to look out the window.

She looked, fascinated and stunned by the glittering stars and colorful stardust the spaceship flew through. Beautiful swirls of blues and greens, sometimes mixing to make many vibrant shades of cyan. She stared at the beauty of space, a small spark having returned to her eyes. His plan had worked, so he sat with her and, after a little while, told her about what he knew about the stars and space, it wasn't much but she listened, seeming much more comfortable now.

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[peabrainedraccoonlady]

Overwatch Headcanons (based on the canon lore and several in-game events and things) that I really want to be true.

A lot of it is Junkers, sorry.

~~~~~

☆ Ever since April Fools, I love the thought that Roadhog watches 'mom shows.' (Oprah, Bachelor, Bachelorette, etc.) I also love to think he gets really into it, like he's dead silent and perfectly focused on the episode or he'll mutter stuff under his breath during The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. Like, "... how dare that sludge talk like that..." or "... you go girl, tell him off..."

☆ Cassidy: WHY DO YOU KEEP LOSIN YOUR KEYS, DANG NABBIT?!

Tracer: Why do you sound like a prospector when you're angry, cad flabbit?

☆ Hanzo snorts when he laughs too hard... thats it. But he'll deny it if someone hears it. Hard deny.

☆ Junkrat is the equivalent of that one guy in Ratatouille ("I killed a man, with this thumb." Can't remember his name for the life of me.) when anyone asks what happened to his finger. From 'Extreme Thumb Wrestling Gone Wrong' to the simple one answer that is 'Koalas.' No one truly knows what happened to his finger.

☆ Odessa doesn't know how to write. (Junkertown Education System.) But she does know how to draw just a bit. So when doing autographs, she doodles a tiny version of her. With little stars.

☆ Speaking of Junkertown and Australia in Overwatch, the place is basically like Mad Max and Fallout had a baby. Even Junkrat sees the difference between normal dirt and radioactive dirt. And thats just facts. If you look at the Junkertown map, you'll understand what I mean.

☆ Sombra was an orphan, she hadn't felt a familial bond until Sigma. Come on, the man is like a science dad. He has that energy. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't see him as family. Sigma is the only (from my current research (not counting Doomfists 'jefe.' Jefe justs means boss.)) one that has a consistent nickname that translates (sorry if its wrong) to 'Old Man.'

☆ Moira knows how to dance every single anime dance... no no no, you don't understand. Every. Single. One. Will she ever show it? No. Definitely not.

☆ Tracer has adhd. Not because of her ability. That's a stupid reason. It's cause she just... seems like she does you know?

☆ Junkrat actually has a love of singing. As shown in the random chatter he has and the interactions with Lucio, Jamie likes to sing. Although, from when he's demonstrating to Lucio, it kinda seems like he's nervous. The "Sausage Roll and Batter Sav" tune he sings isn't bad. He's just a silly little guy.

☆ Speaking of my favorite silly guy, Junkrat is actually smarter than people give him credit for. He can keep a conversation with Sigma, he knows Xenos Paradox, he gets Winstons Periodoc Table joke, it's just that he expresses himself differently. I mean he was theoretically raised in the radioactive outback, you're gonna wind up a bit weird. I think he partly hides his genius so no one can take advantage of it.

☆ Opposite of Junkrat, Roadhog seemingly has made friends with a lot of others. They're more willing to talk to him than the rat man. I mean, come on, Mako gets along with D.Va, Ana, Junker Queen, Kiriko (i think), and Lucio. Maybe Mercy as well, but I couldn't figure it out. I have a feeling that Roadhog thought that no one would like him cause he's scary, but everyone on the team just sees him as a gentle giant (which he honestly is, have you seen his cute little interactions and the plethora of Pachimari things he has?)

☆ Mercy really cares about those around her. So much so, that she believes (if going by some of her chatter is anything) anyone can be saved. Even Widowmaker. I'm guessing from what she had done with Genji, she had proved to herself that she could save anyone.

[funnywormz]

Did we ever get that rimmer gender analysis you promised us 🥺🥺🥺 if we did I missed it and I'm so sad and crying

I'M SO SORRY IT TOOK ME LIKE A WEEK TO ANSWER THIS ANON.......i can't quite remember, i think i may have done a small post abt it but it wasn't as detailed as i wanted??? sorry my memory for most stuff is pretty awful rip........

since i'm thinking abt it again now i will put a little rimmer gender ramble under the cut!! it's kinda repeating stuff that i've said in other posts but it's how i feel abt him and his identity, i hope you like it!!!! apologies if it doesn't make sense my brain has been full of sludge lately

OK SO. i think that masculinity has always been a very important part of rimmer's life, but a very toxic form of it. it's clear that his parents prioritised his brothers over him partly because they embodied more traditionally masculine traits, like confidence and physical strength. growing up, rimmer got the message from his parents that to be masculine was to be admired and loved. his parents abused him, and his brothers bullied him, and i think that although rimmer resents them for it he also sees it as being his fault?

i think it's because of this pressure he felt to be gender conforming growing up, that he feels he needs to force himself into some kind of macho man role. he fails at it miserably, and it's obviously not his true self, but he tries to keep it up because at his root, rimmer really does just want to be loved. growing up his parents showed him that their love was conditional, and he assumes everyone else is that way too, so he tries to shape himself into someone he thinks is lovable. unfortunately it only leads to unhappiness for everyone involved bc he's obviously putting up a front but he resents anyone who tries to pry it away.

rimmer's attempts at masculinity are clearly ridiculous, to the point where the show makes fun of him for it too. he's a coward, he's very petty and picky, the show takes every opportunity it can to have him crossdress, and it's sort of a running joke that lister's dick is bigger than his. to anyone around him, it's pretty clear that rimmer is often trying to pretend that he's someone he's not, and the show makes it a comedic thing a lot of the time.

rimmer doesn't know it's obvious, though. he's certainly not good at reading or understanding other people (i also heavily hc him as autistic but that's a post for another day), and i think a lot of the time he assumes he's successfully fooling everyone when he isn't. rimmer also has a longstanding habit of lying and then doubling down when he gets caught in the lie, even if it involves him doing something he finds unpleasant. i think his gender is one of those cases. his attempts at masculinity are "lies", but when that's pointed out to him he refuses to admit it even when it's clear he's putting up a front. admitting that he's not masculine would be, in his mind, admitting that he isn't worth his parents' (or anyone else's) love, and he can't stand that thought.

it's pretty telling, though, that whenever rimmer's inhibitions are removed or part of his hidden inner self is revealed, it's often feminine. when rimmer was infected with the holovirus, it seems like practically the first thing he did was put a dress on. wearing gingham dresses is NOT a universal holovirus thing. dr langstrom definitely wasn't wearing one. that's a RIMMER thing.

when the crew meet the "low" versions of themselves in demons and angels, while all of the other characters get relatively generic "evil" versions of themselves, low rimmer is basically wearing sexy lingerie with a dominatrix look and openly flirts with lister. considering that the lows are all meant to express the parts of the characters that they hate or view as the worst parts of themselves, i think it's a very direct (albeit unintentional?) way of showing rimmer's internalised homophobia and transphobia towards himself.

it's ALSO telling that rimmer specifically accuses ace of doing both gay and feminine things, like "wearing women's underwear" and "whipping the house boy". after all, ace IS rimmer. rimmer resents ace for being a better version of himself, and the most cutting insults he can think of for HIMSELF are insinuating that ace is gnc. stinks of projection to me. i think kryten agreed too, in dimension jump he almost seems to point out that rimmer is projecting before he's interrupted.

for most of the series, rimmer is, to me, someone who is miserable abt being potentially queer and is attempting to suppress it. however, the promised land changes this.

in the promised land, rimmer initially resents his status as a hologram, but by the end of the movie he wears it as a badge of pride. likewise, his hero-sona the "mighty light" is kinda campy, he's wearing sparkly tight fitting clothes with expertly styled hair and all. you could definitely read the promised land's rimmer arc as a metaphor for him accepting himself for being queer, but i would argue there's a self acceptance there that goes deeper. perhaps he's finally accepted that he can be admired AND be more feminine. it's not a big step forward but it's SOMETHING.

rimmer's identity as a hologram is also something tpl reckons with. rimmer fully grapples with realising that his "true" self is dead, that he isn't "real". i think that gender could be a part of it. the movie doesn't touch on it at ALL, to be clear, but as rimmer learns to be confident in who he is now and embrace his status as a hologram, i can't help but feel that his connection to strict gender roles must have also lessened. after all, gender and sex are very human concepts, and he isn't human anymore. being a hologram, he could change his body and voice any time he wanted (or at least any time holly felt like being nice lol). him being a man seems sorta irrelevant in that context. he's out in the middle of space with the last human being left alive. i don't think that a strong sense of gender identity could even really be possible for him when he's so isolated from the world that invented those things, and when he has the ability to play around with it so easily.

this last part is definitely projection, but i just feel like being a hologram has gotta eventually lead to a more nonbinary identity. so much of what we consider sex and gender to be is tied up in our perceptions and interactions and what we feel is expected of us. rimmer doesn't have that anymore. human society is gone, he isn't even human himself........ his parents are dead, too. why should he keep on playing this charade with himself that he doesn't even believe in?

i'm not necessarily sure that canon rimmer would have the self reflection abilities to realise any of this stuff, but in my mind he becomes more comfortable with being nonbinary and queer after tpl. it feels like a natural progression from accepting his status as a hologram to accepting the other parts of himself he used to hate, y’know?

ANYWAYS, i think that's all i can really say on the topic at the moment. this post isn't really an analysis, more of a word vomit about my personal headcanons and things i've noticed. still, i hope you enjoyed reading it and knowing my thoughts about the Rimmer Gender Situation lol. if anyone wants to add anything feel free, but please be nice

[perenlop]

OOPS i forgot to send you some pmd questions too. 3, 4 and 9 ^^

YAYYY its ok love <3

3. fav partner character?

Honestly, I constantly flop between Explorers and Super. I guess if we go to my specific interpretations (Nimbus and Nova) it's Super? I think they're the best-written one at the very least.

4. what did you name your hero and partner characters? and why?

Nuri (Rescue Hero): Nuri can mean "my light" in arabic and "world" in korean. I figured both were fitting considering her role in the plot, both genuinely and ironically since she's a pretty terrible hero at first. (Nuri is on a redemption quest as opposed to canon) Despite her rough start, she ends up becoming so important to so many people...

Chip (Rescue Partner): It's partly because the name is just super cute for a Skitty, and it's also a reference to his tooth and the phrase "chip off the old block" considering how much he takes after his rescuer father.

Rin (Explorers Hero): Tbh I don't remember my original reason for naming her that. I think it's because the name can mean "dream" in japanese and that's important to pmd2 hero's deal? I don't recall though.

Nimbus (Explorers Partner): Nimbus clouds!

Eris (GTI Hero): Eris means "strife" and is a reference to the Greek Goddess! I didn't pay too much attention to the Greek part though tbh. The name refers to how Hydreigon chose him as a Hero on accident and turned him into an unfitting Pokemon, so he had a hard time adapting to his situation and believed that he'd never be able to stop the Bittercold because he'd only make it worse with his own mental illness.

Kiran (GTI Partner): Kiran is an Indian name that refers to a ray of light, and it can also mean hope! Perfect for Kiran's goals of creating a Paradise and spreading hope and sympathy across the land. Also how xe's the light of Eris's life...

Kit (PSMD Hero): Can mean hope and hero! Also very simple and cute, which fits Kit.

Nova (PSMD Partner): Astrology/Universe themed, which fits with her true identity, but also means "new"...

9. what do you ship in the games? just like. in general.

Hmmm that's a bit difficult to answer because I'm not a huge shipper anymore... I like polyam future trio, romantic pmd2 hero/partner and psmd hero/partner (but not for pmd1 or gti). Hydreigon/Eris is a ship I REALLY wanna do more with.... Gengar/Nuri is like a joke ship to me and idk how seriously I'm really taking it since I don't know if I want all of my heroes to get into a romantic relationship, but I love the idea of it.