#just been rotating him around my brain like a microwave

[bellamuertes]

Boyd Holbrook as Clement Mansell

JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL (1x01)

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Yusei is just....so kidnap-able.

Hear me out.

Man either has bad tinnitus or just out-right hearing loss from years of working on engines with zero ear protection. We know this for two reasons: 1. When he's working on his bike and revs the engine, Saiga, Yanagi, and Himuro all flinch and cover their ears and Yusei...doesn't so much as bat an eye. and 2. When he's leaving to steal his bike back, Saiga hears when Ushio revs his engine from inside a building on the second story and Yusei? Normally when one hears an engine on an otherwise deserted street, one naturally turns to see the source of the noise. Yusei does not. The street is freaking empty, and somehow he doesn't notice the only vehicle that is clearly going slow enough to not pass him by. (And it's not like Ushio is just too far away to hear. He's not. He's shown to be not that far behind. And he's on a freaking loud motorcycle. Most people would notice that.)

Look, we all know Yusei would win in a fight, but not if he doesn't notice his assailant sneaking up behind him because he can't hear them before he gets whacked in the head.

In conclusion, it is very little wonder that he ends up getting kidnapped in canon.

[its-your-mind]

ALWAYS rotating TAZ: Balance around in my brain like microwave but ESPECIALLY with the announcement of The Suffering Game graphic novel

The dope thing they can do (and are doing) with the graphic novel series is sprinkle in moments of foreshadowing and hints to the reader about what REALLY might be going on here, which is so cool and I’m a huge fan of it, especially when you’re telling a story in this form.

But what is REALLY FUCKING TASTY about Balance as a story is that none of the motherfuckers telling it had any clue what they were doing when they started

Gerblins is dick jokes and not knowing how dice work and making fun of each other for voices. LICHRALLY the scene where Taako grabs the Umbrastaff is immediately proceeded by Clint trying different voices for Merle while Justin begs him to stop, as Taako. Merle gets launched across the room cuz he failed his save, and now Taako has an umbrella. The scene moves on.

Griffin brought them up to the BOB, introduced them to the Director, and gave them memories of a war fought over nameless, lost, powerful but mysterious artifacts. The memory that Taako takes from it is the idea of soured cream (ya know, for his taco quest).

And then they’re off, on different adventures, making friends, saving lives, making more dick jokes, and Griffin is in the background, slowly building in the meta-plot, as all DMs do.

But this meta-plot was HUGE. It was ALL-CONSUMING. It completely changes everything we know about this world and these characters. It takes the moments of dick jokes, and arguments about character voices, and flirting with death, and adds a layer of tragedy and complexity that just wasn’t present the first time they told that story.

AND THAT’S WHY THIS STORY KICKS ASS. The vibe of the story changed as Tres Horny Boys grew closer and closer to remembering the lives they had lost, as Griffin upped the stakes, as people started dying. They still don’t know shit for most of The Suffering Game, but you absolutely could not have predicted the tone of that arc after just listening to Gerblins. It sounds like a completely different story. And so when the other shoe drops, when shit breaks bad, when it’s the end of the world… again, and they have to reclaim their Stolen Century…

It makes sense. The tone has shifted enough to accommodate that kind of change. The characters have grown (back) into themselves enough to make this work.

Because TAZ: Balance is a tragedy. But the tragedy happened before the podcast even started, and had been erased. So of course it started off with goofs and dildo jokes. Of course the three of them started being standoff-ish with each other and making light of every situation that should have had a lot more weight. They didn’t know what they had lost, and we, the audience, didn’t either. So it was easy to laugh and joke… until slowly, it wasn’t so much anymore.

Plenty of people have praised Griffin’s storytelling abilities, but I think the thing that was most impressive to me was how he took the disparate threads laid out behind the Boys on their adventures, and followed them backwards, into the story they had lost, and forwards, into the ending they earned. I fucking love that he settled on Istus as the deity to interact with them, because I don’t think there’s a better representation of the story Griffin was weaving behind the scenes of the arcs.

Story and Song wasn’t really an arc driven by dice rolls and role playing - but it wasn’t railroading either. Griffin took every story they had told, every happy ending they had fought for, and twined them around and through each other. The world was saved not because of a lucky nat 20 roll, but because every person they had helped through the story came out in force to fight beside them to save their world.

And so in the end, the Stolen Century was a tragedy. But The Adventure Zone: Balance was a story of hope, of family, of the power that just a few loveable doofuses can have when they move through the world, making friends and saving lives. So when the world was ending and they needed help, there were dozens of people waiting to hear the Story and the Song that would give them the push they needed to fight, and the hope they needed to win.

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

I'm not a solavellan person I just really like rotating Solas in my brain like a microwave. He is so interesting. He's something different to everyone who knows him. Your intentions shape his approach when interacting with you. He is wisdom and pride and hope and a pain and a friend and a villain and someone's love. He's been twisted against his purpose so many times by so many people I don't think he even knows what his "purpose" is anymore. He is so fucked up. He's such a fucked up little guy. The only part of him that's remained the same all this time is tangled up in the tightest knot of regret you could ever imagine.

Everyone talks about whether they hate or love him. But like... that's kind of the point of him isn't it? If you hate him he commits to pissing you off as much as possible and if you love him he tears himself to shreds and ties his regret knot tighter just for you. There is no winning in his rule book. There is just failure or success, and he's experienced so little of the latter that it's made him willing to tear the world apart just for one tiny success. Just the smallest barest of successes. And then he'd turn around and see the damage left in the wake and fall apart all over again. He can never let go of anything.

As a character i love how he is written. As a person i think I would despise him face to face. He's like anxiety personified. All the what ifs lumped together. Every "I wasn't good enough" that anyone has ever thought. He's also none of these things. He could choose to be whatever he wants but he's so attached to his past and origins and chained to his perception of himself that he'll never let himself change.

I hope that after an ending where he's persuaded to join the veil, that he manages to figure out how to just be a little guy again. Just some guy. He deserves that I think.

[galaxythreads]

hi,

I'm fascinated by ur Loki works, and since I'm currently rereading all my favourites I wanted to ask about your general headcanons for Loki, and your opinions on all the movies and appearances Loki had. Basically, could you please talk about Loki, because i feel like my idea of Loki and your idea of Loki are similar. bye!!

"Do you want to rant at me about your favorite character?" I mean. do you want my first born?

general headcanons:

there's this scene in Loki: Where Mischief Lies where Loki has a throwaway line that talks about how it never matters when Thor hits him even if it gets violent and it rotates around in my head like a microwave all the time. Such an interesting concept that Thor took things too far but Loki never said anything because that's Just What Siblings Do TM

Loki's hair is soft to the touch, not greasy, because I will die mad about loki's hair in ragnarok

loki steals clothing. This is something you can see in all my fics, he's constantly stealing things from everyone.

Loki is ace, never had sex, and isn't interested in changing that. I don't think he's aro, I think he is interested in romantic love to some extent, but I think sex is just mid to him

loki's magic pokes at all five senses. It's something you can see, taste, hear, touch, and smell

loki got "food poisoning" a lot as a kid because his body was made for jotun stuff and like. asgard doesn't have that

Loki has a moral code, and there are lines he won't cross

loki doesn't lie that much, people just gave him the name because he's shifty and it was a rumor that was started by thor that he lies all the time

loki and thor's relationship has only gotten more complicated as they've gotten older and they have the brain chemistry to process things better, look at their childhoods and go, uh, bro, wait a minute

frigga wasn't a very good mom to loki, even though she tried

Loki can cook

loki uses magic less now that he's older, not because he's not good at it, but because he just like. he uses more subtle magic, and he doesn't need to turn his magic into a glowy show when he could just punch you in the face

loki is a man of few words

loki being captured and watching him lose his mind is straw that broke the camel's back for Gamora, who left shortly after he agreed to help thanos

loki wasn't mind controlled per se in the first avengers, the scepter was just affecting his feelings, but not more than anyone else? Loki was just genuinely tortured/coerced into this by thanos and they didn't have to force him to do anything. he was too terrified to say no. scepter was just an added bonus to cement the control

loki absolutely has permanent spinal damage from his time with thanos

I have a bazillion of these i could literally go on for ages.

---

thoughts on movies:

Uh. Okay. um. How do I say this without getting slain? I...do not think, objectively, that any of the Thor movies are good movies. I think they have fantastic concepts, and wonderful characters, and I adore poking at them, but I think one of the reasons that they're so beloved is because of their potential not because of what they are. People love thinking about what could have been and what they wished happened, because there's very little that's actually satisfyingly completed about the films.

Because the Thor movies are not...It. You kind of have to go hunting for outside material for pieces to be connected together and thor 2 has lots of issues that not even thor 1 could have dreamed of, and Thor 1 is just. A disaster, narratively. I think Thor 3 is definetly the most well put together movie, which sucks because it's the one that botched the characters beyond repair. You either have good characters and awful story or fantastic story and terrible characters with no inbetween.

Trying to talk about why I don't think the movies are good - objectively, as movies - has never ended super well for me, but yeah, i just. I don't. I don't think they're very good. I can break it down in more detail if anyone is interested, but there seems to exist two opinions on tumblr: you either think thor 1 - tdw is an untouchable master piece or you don't and there's nothing good to say about them at all.

I have endless praise to give the movies, but that doesn't mean I don't have criticisms, because, good lord, they suck in some places. Loki's character arc is the most baffling mishandle of a character that I have ever witnessed, and yes, I mean this from the get go. Connecting thor 1 - thor 2 takes some mental math.

Thor 1: Interesting set-up for Loki's character, I like how careful they are with setting him up to make sure that his arc was clear and the line between victim and villain was really blurred. They did a good job on making him sympathetic, and revealing an interesting concept with him and Thor, even if I don't think it was executed as well as I wanted.

Avengers 1: adore poking at Loki and Thanos's relationship here. I cannot get enough of it. I like writing with the avengers mostly because of all that didn't happen in the movie that I wished had. There's so many narrative secrets that don't get addressed or glossed over and I just want it picked apart

Thor 2: i enjoy seeing Loki and Thor working together, Loki's deteriorating mental stay in prison is always fascinating, and generally tdw is my favorite movie and portrayal of loki. It's what I usually base all my fics off of is how he acts in this movie. 10/10, will sing praises

thor 3: my loathing for this movie has shriveled considerably since i saw it the first time, but i'd still be hardpressed to say i liked anything they did with loki's character. Loki is self-sabatoging constantly, and his character makes no sense whatsoever. he is the village idiot, and like, i'm not really into that.

Infinity War: Honestly, i'm just gonna say it - i really did like what they did with loki in this movie. Like yeah, I wanted him to help and be an important part of the story, yeah, of course, but I also appreciate from a writing perspective what a powerful move killing him off before the credits was. Loki was the Big Bad of the first avengers and murdering him set the stakes amazingly. It carried Thor's entire arc, and it felt like a shroud that was layered over the movie. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I appreciated what they did with it, and I like the tragedy.

---

Appearance:

not a single scene in ragnarok with him it it did not make me want to chew off my foot, his character design was awful. I will never understand why everyone was drooling over the black suit, it looked like it was bought from walmart and then the wrinkles smoothed out with a flat iron. His hair is greasy af for no reason, all of his clothing looks cheap and ugly. there's nothing impressive or visually interesting about him. the choice to remove his colors so hela can take them will never not be annoying to me even though hela is my baby child

thor 1 has the best hair, in my opinion, but he also looks stupid as hell in his armor. loki's design, to me, works best when it has long lines and it's flowy and/or soft. visually nice:

and like the reason it's visually nice is because it's soft and doesn't make me notice tom hiddleston's hips. The moment i'm aware of his hips i get irritated as hell about it, because idk man, loki just. he does not look good when you're aware he has hips. tom hiddleston is like fine, somehow? i don't know why it doesn't bother me when he's wearing whatever he wants to - i also just like. do not care - but with loki i'm just like. oh good LORD stop making me aware of your hips.

It's why i can't stand his ragnarok suit but would sing praises over the thor 1 one.

It's something that's just like. confounded me forever, because i don't even know why it bugs me so much, but every time i see his TVA outfit, thor 1 armor, or that stupid ragnarok suit i want to shoot a canon ball into the sun.

Give the man a suit coat or do not put him in a jacket. loki has lots of skills but pulling off a jacket is not one of them.

He needs to look haunted, like, in general. Or like an 18th century tired man. it's integral for his character to me.

things that make galaxy happy:

loki soft hair

loki having suit coat or suit coat equivalent

things that will send her into a ranting, unwanted, nitpicky rage

loki greasy hair

loki dressed in jackets

[zzcrypticcoyotezz]

Read your Ian Malcom Nonbinary/genderfluid and now I can't get it out of my head. IT'S SUCH A COOL HEADCANNON THAT I SEE HAPPENING. Can you rant more about it, please? give more scenarios of what your take is LITERALLY ANYTHING GO FERAL. That is all thank you. Also Trans Alan?! yoooooooooo. Love the concept of Ian helping him come out more too. Just GRAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

aaaaaa thank you so much!!! AND YES i would be happy to! you're the first person to ever send me a question, i'm so excited my posts are starting to pick up and people like the dumb things i write haha. i've had this rotating in my brain like a microwave for a while so enjoy! doesn't make much sense with my headcanon being that malcolm messes with his gender after the events of JP, but i've been really wanting to reimagine the first scene of them together in the plane and make it extra fruity.

- - - -

"So... Are you a man, or a woman, then?" Alan asks, his eyes studying the mathematician carefully. He'd heard of Dr. Ian Malcolm and his work on chaos theory, sure. But he had no idea who the man himself (person?) was. He had absolutely no idea what to expect when he and Ellie boarded the plane, and he still doesn't know.

Ellie, gentle but still firmly elbowed Grant, giving him a glare. "Alan, you can't ask somebody you just met that question!" She whispered, sounding like a mother upset with her unruly son interrupting Sunday school.

Ian laughed, his sharp features curling into a smirk. He loved toying with the paleontologists, supposed men and women of science yet they couldn't wrap their head around someone defying societal gender norms. He leaned forward, his voice smooth, his long fingers gently pushing down the rim of his dark sunglasses revealing his big brown eyes, the windows to the soul some might say, and the makeup he had done that morning. Just something simple and easy to miss, just like his nails painted black or shoes secretly bought from the women's section, but undeniably himself, his style, his expression. He responded, his voice smooth with a hint of flirtation.

"I'm whatever you want me to be."

Alan sputtered. "I- uh, wh... What? What do you mean? That doesn't make any sense!" And Ellie couldn't help but laugh at his confusion. His voice grew quieter. "Pardon me if my wording isn't right, this isn't my expertise, but are you gay? One of those... Uh... Queers? I have no problem with any of it, I'm just looking for clarification."

Dr. Malcolm laughed. "Uhh... I, Well, uh, you could- you could say that, I suppose." The two still looked bewildered. "Here, uh, how about we look at it this way. Gender is.... Hmm... Something, uh, humans made up. A social construct. It doesn't truly matter what clothes we wear or what we put on our skin or how we style our hair. Life's too short to worry about that kind of thing. I'm just me. I'm not a man, or-or a woman, I'm a human being. And we're living things, we can't be put in- organized into a box. Life will always find a way to defy expectations."

Ellie's brows rose. "I actually think I understand. I've never really thought about any of this before, but it makes sense to me." She looked over at Alan. His face wrinkled in deep concentration, grappling with some kind of debate going on inside his head. After a moment, he finally responded.

"I'm sorry- but I'm still confused. How can you not be a man or a woman? The clothes thing, sure, okay, I get it." Before Dr. Malcolm had a chance to answer, Ellie spoke up.

"Just look at nature, Alan. There are definitely more than two genders or sexes. For fungi, there can be tens of thousands! And many animals can even change their gender or sex by themselves. Humans, we aren't separate from nature, we're a part of it. If Dr. Malcolm doesn't fit with either box then I don't see why they can't go past the binary."

Alan was starting to understand, but was still wrestling with a lot of concepts in his head. Things in his life he'd never told anyone before, things Ellie has no idea of. Alan Grant was not born as Alan Grant. Alan Grant wasn't born a man. He knew from the beginning that he wasn't a woman and he could never feel comfortable as one, and he was now dead to his family as they couldn't accept that. They'd rather have a "normal daughter" over a "transsexual for a son". He would lose his career if this came to light. He hasn't spoken to his parents since the day he left home at 18. They returned every letter he wrote.

Yet here now, in front of him, was someone who completely defied expectations. Someone who didn't care what others think. Someone who actively broke the rules. And this wasn't just anyone, but a world renowned mathematician! If a man, no, person of science can feel so comfortable with this part of themself... Then maybe he wasn't some freak of nature or mentally ill. That this is actually a normal human experience, that he wasn't alone or some kind of outlier. His expression softened.

"You're right, Ellie. I... I think I understand now. I apologize, Dr. Malcolm." His voice had a slight shake. Memories were flooding to his mind, memories he didn't want to remember, memories of his youth, and after he was kicked out of his parents' life. How much he'd fought to become the man he is today. How alone he felt, throughout so much of his life. He took in a deep breath, rubbed his temples and wiped his eyes, then cleared his throat, he held out his hand in a greeting. "I'd like to start over."

Ian smiled warmly, reciprocating the handshake. He felt like they have more in common than Grant would like to admit, and things were going to be alright.

-

[sighs-deeply-and-dreadfully]

,,, so, I’m being self indulgent,,,,,,,,,, haha!!

This isn’t a request! Just me being silly! :]

Love Languages

Wally Darling Love Language Headcanons, no assigned reader!

Headcanons format, not super specified romantic or platonic, so envision it as you please!

Honestly, I truly dearly envision Wally to have quality time, gift giving, and physical touch as love languages. Like, so dearly truly so, haha!!

I feel he’s the type to simply just.. hand a gift to someone. Randomly.

“What’s this?” “A gift!” “Is.. is this a bent paperclip?-“ “No, it’s a gift!”

I feel he tries to get personalized gifts, but— ah, he’s a bit silly, haha!! I feel sometimes it’d backfire, and his train of thought as to why this was the absolute most perfectest gift tends to twirl too much in his little apple shaped brain— to where it kind of just.. doesn’t make sense.

But a gift is a gift!!!! It’s the thought that counts!

As for physical touch, I believe he’s still learning it, haha! If I recall correctly, Clown mentioned he just goes limp upon being hugged— but I could be remembering wrong!

Either way, he can be instructed! He will figure it out! Even if sometimes it backfires, like his constant blowing of kisses (also mentioned by Clown!) !!

He strikes me as the type to just.. want to use someone as a pillow.

They’re just, sitting, minding their business, and suddenly he’s just.. at their side. Pillow……..

I think he’d like to hold hands. I think he’d just like hands in general. Maybe this is a smidge of self projection, but I’m an artist that loves hands. dearly so. I find their structure really interesting!! I feel he’s similar.

I think he’d just like to hold someone’s hand and look at it and how it moves. That’s real intimacy right there, folks!!! /lhj

If someone were to try and interlock their fingers with his, whether platonically or romantically, I think he’d just stare. Processing… until he gets it!

Don’t expect to be getting that hand back anytime soon, friend! That isn’t your hand, anymore! It’s our hand.

Overall, I feel he wouldn’t express physical affection in any normal way. I feel cuddling and the hand stuff is the closest exception, but other than that?

I think he’d just lay on someone. Like, you have yours legs sprawled out? Ahh, what a lovely hammock!

Are you laying on your stomach? Ahh, what a lovely pillow!

He just kind of.. compresses on impact. Pillow.

Gift that man a weighted blanket and I think he’d know peace. True peace.

I think just laying on him would content him, too, HAHA

He strikes me as the ‘likes physical pressure as affection’ kind

Also plays into quality time!!!

But, for the most part, quality time can just be spent in many ways.

Hanging out and chatting, doing your own individual activities in the same room, sleeping around each other,,, squeeshy

He just takes being in the presence of someone for a while as quality time, and he feels very grateful for his friends when he does <33

Just a silly little guy:)

Might be projection again, but I feel he struggles to express his affection in an easily digestible way— so just? Understanding his love languages and what counts as affection on his end? Is so delightful and appreciated

ESPECIALLY if it’s reciprocated

I feel how he feels loved, in return, are the same ones!!! Along with words of affirmation!! Squenshy

Bon appetite (???) HAHAH

I’m somewhat half awake, this has just been rotating in my brain like a microwave plate, so don’t mind any grammatical errors! I’ll fix them laterrrrrrrr

[bugwantsahug]

Hi!! You wanted requests? Nark and some headcanons maybe?

I apologize it has been a minute!! I’ve been rotating this around in my brain microwave cause I have so many thoughts about them!! (Also a lot of these are like- pre betrayal):

- Big fan of the FWB headcannons/fics but i present to you: “ I didn’t know how to ask you out, I wasn’t sure you liked me…” Lark, and “Wait, we haven’t been dating for the past three months??” Nicky

- Despite being the most intense of the kiddads, they are so very soft to eachother. Lots of gentle touches and kisses, especially from Nicky.

- Nick regularly forgets his leather jacket at Lark’s house. This is the only place he has ever forgotten his jacket.

- Nicky is Trans Masc, Lark helps with T injections!

- Smoke breaks turn kissing breaks VERY often.

-They are the worst PDA couple, fully on Nicky’s part. Lark will just be sitting there with Nick fully clinging onto him like one of those stuffed animals with the Velcro hands.

- they each have very distinct smells that remind them of eachother. Nicky’s, of course being smoke, but also cinnamon, and Larks is oranges.

Also, the nicknames Songbird and Hellcat have a chokehold on me, whoever came up with those I owe you my life.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Lance/hunk/shiro for character opinion bingo :3?

Hi!! Thanks for asking!!!!

Lance-

Everyone but me is wrong about them<3- Source: trust me bro. But ok seriously, everyone is going to have their own opinions and interpretations and they are more or less valid. I get that! And i also get that people are just having fun! I really do! I am not trying to be fun police! But also there is so much in the fandom that is Just......plain wrong whether it's coming from Lance stans or Lance haters or Keith stans who ship kl, i don't even know where to begin with. And even if i did know, if i started listing all of them we'll be here all day. Ok i think my biggest gripe is this insistence that if kl (or any Keith ship really) had became canon it could have saved vld, cause just no. No it won't. The writers hate their characters of colour and the Love Keith, if kl had became canon Lance would have just been reduced to being Keith's eye candy. Neither would making him Black paladin. Just look at what happened to Shiro and Kuron

They got done dirty by the fans- Kl shippers insisting that their fanon 'fixed' Lance and said fanon is Lance having every nuance or complexity removed with only things remaining is either his insecurities and him having a crush on Keith my beloathed. Please i need most fans (especially Keith stans) away from him, doesn't matter what their feelings about Lance are, all of them somehow come up with worse fanon

They got done dirty by the creators- Everyone and their mother has talked about this in great detail but still. Just. A farmer?!?! A FARMER?!?!?!!? Also apparently him moving to Altea even though he spent so much time missing Earth like?!??! I would have accepted that if it's because he is Allura's Prince Consort or a diplomat or something but this is just bullshit

Wasted Potential- Lance could have had such a great arc about being support and humility and finding his own place with his own strength but noOooOoo it's instead about how he'll only ever be second choice to fucking Keith

I am constantly going insane rotating him in my brain like a fork in a microwave- this fucker has been in my brain for 7 goddamn years and he is neither planning to leave nor planning to pay rent

Popular ships for this character suck- i actually like most of his ships except klance, the blight that it is (i enjoy it too occasionally but it's so everywhere it's getting on my nerves, free my boy i am tired of Keith)

Overrated- I love him. He is my most favorite character ever, but people need to shut up about him forever <333, especially because that fanon guy is not my son

Constantly listening to songs and mentally holding them up like paint swatches- i have. So. Many animatic ideas around Lance. So many of them

I WANT TO STUDY THEM LIKE COCKROACH- He's my little labrat and i am an unethical scientist about to have fun experimenting. He's just so intriguing, i think what's intriguing to me about is how much messy, contradictory and human he is as a character

FREE SPACE- Maybe i am bit biased here but in my opinion vld should have had three main focal points. Shiro, as he has connection with galra empire and the horrors they were committing in the present and the universe that needs to be rescued, saved and healed. Allura, as she has connection with the lions and their legend as well as the past of the galran empire and what was destroyed in their wake and seeks justice, healing, and remembrance. And finally, Lance, as he's connected to every member of the new team, no matter how uncertain and one sided those bonds were, to Earth and his family who never even knew about those dangers and are unprepared, what's at stake and the future that needs to be defended and protected.

What's wrong with him (affectionate)- He's so goddamn annoying<33333

Not Enough ScreenTime- Or atleast he definitely he needed more focus

My opinions would be received by most fans as akin to hitting a wasps nest with baseball bat- other than my dislike for kl? I think allurance was fine, yes the relationship needed better writing. But so did every relationship in this goddamn show buddy, as a matter al is one of the only ones that actually had some development for both the characters.

Also Lance should have stayed the blue paladin "He deserved to be someone's first choice" HE WAS ALREADY SOMEONE'S FIRST CHOICE!!! HE WAS BLUE'S FIRST CHOICE!!!! BLUE WAITED FOR HIM FOR 10,000 YEARS!!! SHE CHOSE HIM OVER THE BEST PILOTS, THE BEST ENGINEERS, THE BEST SCIENTIST AND SO MANY OTHERS!!!!! *rattling and gnawing on my cage bars*

BITING AND KILLING AND MAIMING THEM AND DEATH AND VIOLENCE- I am definitely Normal™ about him. Yup. Just don't look at my blog

Hunk-

i have answered him here!

Shiro-

They got done dirty by the fans- I do not get this opinion that Shiro staying dead would have fixed the narrative. Like Shiro had been dead since s2 and only came back at the end of s6 to be a side character. Him staying alive was not the reason behind the quality of the show decreasing. Also the entire "who should be the Black Paladin" debate is pointless the answer will always be the guy who fought Zarkon in the Astral Plane for it.

They got done dirty by the creators- Literally so fucking dirty, Shiro really goes from one of the most interesting character with compelling backstory integral to the plot, to a side character who may as well just not be there. The absolute bs of it all

Wasted Potential- Shiro had So Much going for him as a character, but alas

They work better as a part of a dynamic- Shiro and Black Lion parallel mirrored dynamic my beloved they'll never make me hate you <333. Cause seriously it's the most Lion-Paladin bond in the whole show, their shared similar trauma and that too from same people!!! How can you not???

The popular ships for this character suck- maybe this is just me being a Keith hater, but Shiro's dynamic with literally every other character was far more compelling then his dynamic with Keith. Like with Allura? Shared trauma from same people and also shared responsibility. With Pidge? Trying to find the same people they love. With Hunk? Two characters who struggle with their neurodivergency and need stability. With Lance? Character foils. In all these cases Shiro is in an equal position and feels like a character. With Keith however, platonic or romantic, the entire relationship is about how Keith feels about Shiro, and how sad Keith gets when Shiro gets hurt/missing etc etc, and just a completely one sided mess that is less about them equals and more about putting Keith on pedestal, which is just utterly boring nothing burger to me

I want to study them like a cockroach- Tell me your secrets boy <33

Not enough screen time- Yeah </3

My opinions would be received by most fans as akin to hitting a wasps nest with baseball bat- Like i said i find his dynamic with Keith at best boring and at worst detrimental to his character in canon in Doylist perspective way. Which sucks cause like it's fan favorite relationship in both canon and fanon and is also almost everywhere.

Also i know twinganes (Kuron and Shiro being bros) is really popular but i personally cant see them get along. Especially at first. Shiro canonically doesn't like Kuron and refers to him as an evil clone, which understandable, Shiro did spend months dead in astral plane while Kuron (unknowingly) took over his life and then goes on to nearly kill his friends. But it is also so unfair to Kuron who is not only dead but also no one is mourning him AND his body is being used by Shiro. So if Kuron were to survive all That™ i doubt he'll have high opinions about Shiro as well (hence my post s8 au)

And even if all that didn't happen i still think they'll have problems. Like at best they will be civil and friendly but also deeply uncomfortable around each other (Kuron cuz clone trauma and Shiro cuz Haggar trauma). At worst it's just this-

I like them but i don't think about him much- confession i personally found Kuron to be much more compelling as a character. Shiro is a good character! I get why people like him!!! But also if i had to choose between the two it would be Kuron without a doubt. Shiro just doesn't hit the brainrot levels of likability to me

[lordchickooon]

Aztec curse headcanons have been rotating around in my brain like a microwave meal... like dude I wanna see Barbossa do some freaky body horror shit while under that curse. I wanna see him get totally torn to shreds and just keep on fighting like it’s nothing. someone should draw this (me) (its me im gonna draw this)

[pumpkinsy0]

curlys been the only thing on my mind recently so can i please get ANYTHING involving him? hcs, bullying, thoughts, i just need him to keep rotating around my brain like a microwave

do it and my life is yours🙏🙏🙏

yknow what i havent made like a regular ole hc post for curly in a while so this is his time!!!

i love him i wanna chew him up and spit him out, mwah

•just like angela, he has some fucking CLAWS on him, he can scratch u rlly badly in a fight, like a cat

•sometimes hes running from police and he hears the cop say “suspect has____” and sometimes it sticks w him cause DOES he look like that??? he usually asks someone about it later if he rlly has that

•he can sing pretty well actually!!! nobody rlly knows it tho cause he doesnt sing that much

•look at him,,,,he definetly has silvercaps on his teeth, just a bad ass kid all around and the silvercaps prove it

•i think he actually looks a bit older than what he actually is, maybe like 2???4???? years older and he uses that to his advantage, this reason is y ppl say he looks like a mini tim and not just “he looks like tim”

•hes more of a piercings guy than tattoo guy

•christopher ‘curly’ ezekiel shepard, u would do WONDERS on the funny side of twitter

•modern day curly wouldve been that kid w a two wheeled scooter just rolling around and causing problems for everyone and their mama

•hes ALSO the kinda guy to literally steal the chair from u in musical chairs when ur the last 2 ppl, he literally snatches it before u can sit

•i think if u took him to a restaurant and there was a eating challenge, if u just didnt let him eat the day before, i THINK he could eat it all or at least get a good chunk of it outta the way

[rocksibblingsau]

i'm gonna be real honest right now, and this is gonna be long....your I'm Gonna Make This Place Your Home fic has had me in a choke hold since i found it like a week ago. it's so good and i love it and i've always loved the Rock Trolls (probably because thats the genre i've gravitated to the most since i was a kid) but i just adore the characterization, the exploration of Branch growing up in a different culture, exploring Branch's trauma. Barb being a big sister, Branch actually having a dad.

just i am in love with all of it.

i have so much i want to say but i don't know how to put it into words. it's also nice to see this one and another fic of Branch being raised as Rock called Burning Branches AU where Branch loses his memory and gets adopted by Thrash. like i don't mind the AU's i've seen of Branch being like half Rock or something but having Branch be in a sort of Cooper situation, adopted into another genre, just hits what i've wanted to see.

this fic has me chomping at the bit for more, and i can't wait for more.

and i will say this as well....Trolls has been a sort of guilty pleasure of mine since i saw the 1st movie on Netflix back in like 2017. it was something that looked like a fun time and an escape from college assignments and i liked it well enough. when, World Tour was briefly on Netflix in like 2021, or somewhere around that time, it was good and i loved the fact we got to see different genres of trolls.

but hooboy! when Band Together got added in like early August this year. i underestimated how much that movie would make me actually want to read trolls fic. and i gotta say i've got the trolls brain worms now and this fic has just been living in my head and rotating it like its in a microwave and studying it like a bug.

i am also the anon that said that So Called Life by Three Days Grace would be a song i could see Branch writing when he finally starts wring songs, and the anon that wanted Branch to where the shirt Val got him of Spider's band the 1st day of school to see his reaction in front of Val and Petra that this was the one who dethroned him at the arcade as a power move.

i also loved the idea of in ch 26 Branch thinking about what his life would have been like if his egg was found by Rock Trolls. i hope that is an idea either you or someone else will explore because now i really want to see that!

This means so much to me. Thank you, and thank you for reading my fic!

Branch being half Rock is a very interesting angle, but I really like the idea of Branch not being Rock but being Rock, if that makes sense. Identifying with their values despite not being a Rock Troll by blood.

Branch being adopted as an egg would be SUCH an interesting world to explore, I definitely have a few ideas about it if anyone wants to pick my brain about it.

[marshmallowprotection]

I’ve been recently having a lot of fun with a SE scenario where Saeyoung’s MC’s little sister moves to Korea to live with them, and Saeran and MC’s sister both bonding because while it’s for different reasons, they both struggle so much with feeling out of place. Maybe MC’s sister was used to making lots of puns and knowing lots of references back home, but their Korean isn’t very good so they can’t anymore. they aren’t as caught up with the culture, and tend to struggle with certain social cues in this new environment. MC keeps insisting on speaking to their sister in Korean to help them learn but they still struggle and only want to reply in English.

Idk, I feel like it could be a good bonding moment if they worked together to try and navigate just existing when everything feels so unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Saeran can help them practice Korean and the sister can help him adjust to interacting with people in general, especially because they don’t have the same history. This is just something that’s been rotating around in my little Brain microwave

God. That's adorable, and I've seen scenarios like this before but it's been a while since someone's shared one with me. See, Saeran feels like a fish of water no matter where he is, and it would be nice to have a friend who understands, sympathizes, even it's not perfect. There's not many people who have Saeran's exact experience, but having one person who understands his grief at not understanding how or why it matters to do this or that with others helps.

Just someone to turn to and say, "Yeah, I don't know why we have to do this with others. I don't get it. Does this make sense to you? Why is there so much pomp and circumstance? Why can't people just do the damn thing without a mess involved?"

And hey, Saeran can learn English to meet them in the middle. It's not like he has anything else to do with his free time... he's kind of... you know, trapped in the bunker outside of ice cream visits and the sky. That'd be fun for him!

[mug-of-shark]

Two things I wanna know! (feel free to ignore obviously ^^ )

What are your top 5 favorite characters and why are they your favorite? Could be current favorites, favorites over the years that you still like, favorites in general, etc. Also any media

And/or gimme 1-5 of your ocs - whether they're your favorite, most recent, the one you've been having fun with recently, etc. Tell me some fun facts about them, and why you picked them!

Hope you're having a great day/night - and remember to stay hydrated!

!!!!!!!!!

hi !!

OUGH hold on gotta . figure my top 5 chars rq. so many beasts are gonna be left out,,,,

gonna be long too so. uh. readmore

CHARACTERS !!!!!

Benrey from HLVRAI !!!! HES SO CREATURE! AND SO GENDER !!! he can be headcanoned as like any creature and it works bc he’s just. he’s not human. he says that pointblank like 15 minutes into ep 1 and it’s ignored but it’s so funny. also he has weird powers! 11/10 beast. spins him in microwave (but it just noclips out to fuck around n get lost in my walls)

C!WILBUR !!!!!! fuck the creator BUT LITERALLY ANY DSMP BURSONA (and also editor!bur) IS GREAT!!!! they’re horrible and great and so fucked up and they all need like. so much help. it’s wonderful. plus almost all of them have baller as hell designs and that’s a good thing to have in any character. there’s so much you can do with him yknow? he can be tragic (he is tragic) he can be just. irredeemable. he can be the most specialest little guy you ever did see. he can be a fucking Simp And a Half or he can be standalone. lots to do. he will always be Brother tho.

antisepticeye babyyy !!!!!! aka one of my first fandom hyperfixations. this dude made me insane and i was like 11 and i Could Not Share This with my family bc. well. sean’s vids exactly known for being ‘for-kids.’ luckily i already tended to draw fucked up bloody creatures with knives and violence n shit so like. subtleish fanart was not remotely out of my range. i think my mom still has one of the horrible bloodied cats w a knife i drew on a massive sticky note pad in her university office. possibly. BUT ANYWAY !!!!! THIS MAN HAD ME IN A CHOKEHOLD WHEN I WAS YOUNGER !!!!!! and still periodically will take over my entire brain for a few days when the rotating microwave that is my brain decides it’s his turn to be spun around

LILLIAN FROM THE CATS OF TANGLEWOOD FOREST !!!!! fucking. probably semi-niche. no idea how much traction this book has. but my dad loves it and introduced it to me when i was like 8 and i have not let go of it since. i’d read it when i got anxious at night n couldn’t sleep bc. magic. and fae. and cats! it was peak fiction to me as a kid and ngl still really is it’s a fucking baller book. lillian my beloved <3 i need to draw her actually she deserves fanart

SARAH WILLIAMS !!!! labyrinth also has me in a chokehold. no idea when i first was introduced to it but im 98% sure its my moms fault and i can blame her for making me insane abt it. i remember she once said when she was younger n watched the movie she was hella jealous of the actress for sarah for Getting To Dance With David Bowie. like. real as hell. also sarah bbygirl she is so sassy and . well. teenage larper. she is literally a larper in a park. chefs kiss to her

notable mentions: veronica sawyer, literally all of benchtrio, meg (n also aunt beast) from a wrinkle in time (FUCK THE MOVIE. THEY FUCKED IT UP SO BAD IM SO >:( >:( AT THEM), doctor whos 10 n 11 n 12, fritti tailchaser, any genloss character really but ranboo will always have my heart (main character, you know how it can be)

OC TIME!!!!

HERUGHRRGRHHHHH MY CHARACTERS !!!!!!

let’s see. i hav a lot. u can read abt (most of) em on my art fight btw (@/ellyssian)

FRITTI!!! (yes i stole its name from fritti tailchaser) (it/its) i torture fritti so bad. its so unwell. ace honey if you read this there is a secret i don’t think i’ve told you abt. uh. be warned i guess. ANYWAY! bbygirl is my favourite chew toy. it’s my first dnd character, n it’s a changeling who fuckin. forgot its a changeling. general backstory: it got separated from its fae family somehow n was homeless in some city. it would use its changing abilities to help it survive and when this was discovered by some of the shadier ppl in the area they would basically commission it to steal shit. it used some random tabaxi nobles face to steal most of the time and when it was finally caught (bbygirl put up a Fight) it was sent to a criminals-as-fighters gladiator ring and that’s pretty traumatic so it’s kinda blocked anything from the age of 14 n down (its uh. it’s like 32 or smn now. its only been out for 4 years). it’s ring burned down at one point n it escaped (presumed dead) now it lives in a remote-ish village hunting n baking (art below is it baking) and trying very hard to avoid any of its triggers. it’s so fucked. i love it. i don’t know too much abt the disorders i think it has but in general my idea is it has some hallucinations (psychosis of some flavor?), v frequent nightmares, panic attacks, and definitely ptsd (or would it be cptsd for fucking. whatever 14 years in a gladiator ring does to you?)

TOMMY !!! (he/him) ngl main thing i like abt tommy is his design :3 i just really wanted a kidcore character yknow? and then i gave him Issues And Problems. of course. so he’s a silly little guy with Hella Abandonment Issues. he wears bright colors partly bc he yknow. does actually like em. but also bc in his mind if you’re dressed in bright colors and patterns and accessories, they’ll always be able to see you, and can’t leave you behind. well. not by accident at least. and doesn’t that hurt the most? when you’ve done all you can to stay by their side, to make sure they can never lose you unless they try, and yet you are once again left behind, feeling like that little kid at the grocery store when your parents forgot you, forever. one of these days they’ll keep you around. you hope. (also, tho this isn’t really canon per se, i played a oneshot using him and the premise was we’d all died and were sent to some fucked up afterworld, and we had to figure out How we’d died and i went fuck it he killed himself. anyway !!!!)

REMI !!!! (aka remnants of history !!!!) (he/she) my other dnd character i made and then just. didn’t. do anything with. remi is v strong and not very smart, and really really REALLY wants to be an archaeologist. she wants it so bad. main reason is he wants to be known for Something. making a historical breakthrough? that sounds like a good way to do that! protecting people (shes technically a paladin. no idea what god she’d serve tho)? also a good way! she just wants to be known for something. he was never exactly singled out (for good or bad) at home, and now that he’s out in The Real World he wants to make up for that lack of attention. he just needs Someone.

NERI CALLISIAN!!! (they/he/it) neri is my silly little mc smp character who is a siren (based on ghost/ribbon eels appearance-wise, based loosely on eels as a whole in terms of abilities/disabilities). he likes birds and animals and such a Lot and has made a little aviary where he keeps all his birds :) he also enjoys exploring a lot. in siren terms it’s the equivalent of a lil guy who is fresh out of college or smn. left their school (lived in semi brackish waters all its life) and went up the river to explore. they’re a bit lonely but befriended a local witch and their pixie friend and they drag the two on lil adventures :3 neri is yellow/blue colorblind and really should have glasses but their entire school has fucked up blurry vision so they think everyone’s like that (theyre not). also neri, due to being a siren, has an affinity for singing and also generally just likes it so when out n about he’ll just be humming and such and animals will go O^O ? OwO !! and follow him. the pics are neri vibing w a duck and then also i put it thru a filter that supposedly simulates yellow-blue colorblindness :3

BLANK !!!!! (they/them) oughhhhhb blakn,,,,,,, one of my first like. storied ocs (got one hell of a revamp in like 2022) and i love them so much. so blank is a lil guy who i originally made for camp cgp, an event that the crankgameplays discord server held every (northern hemisphere) summer. it was v cool and i had a blast ngl, 10/10 for that first year. got scared the subsequent ones tho n left. blank was a part of. well. camp blank, one of the sub camps in Camp CGP, which we basically turned into the cryptic, lost, haunted camp full of fucked up cryptids n creatures. blank, like everyone else, used to be human. that was before they got a little too close to the signs that said to stay away. once you start to hear the static, it’s too late. he’s got you. and you are sure as hell not getting back out. you become morphed. corrupted. you can’t go in the sun; it hurts too much, the ashen tears trailing down your cheeks begin to burn anew. the night is when you feel alive again. for the most part, blank is a merciful ruler. bonfires, chants, feasts… the fun activities you’d expect at a summer camp are fairly common. there’s a lake nearby. sometimes you all go night swimming. the gongoozler sometimes comes up to play with you all. it can be lovely. but then, someone will get too jumpy, too homesick, too bored, too something, and they’ll try to run, and you will never see them again. that is, provided you ignore the fresh new roast at the next weeks feast. the static hurts your ears sometimes. you feel a little lost every so often when you realise you can’t see. you used to be able to. you have to force yourself to stay. you know the consequences of fleeing. it’s better to stay. it’s better to stay. it’s better to stay. stay in the static, in the moonlight, in the cheerful (sometimes too cheerful) voices rising high in the night. in the morning you will go to sleep and you will dream of going home and you will wake up and know you cannot. never. you are trapped, forever stuck in this hellish limbo.

ignore the fuckin. ramble on blanks. i got hella into it. anyway !!!

yeah :3 these are some of my little guys :3

thank u v much for the ask i had a blast rambling abt my characters and my comfort characters also and just . gah. thankies!

[kismetconstellations]

Shiro & Quinn Fabray

You've got it!

Shiro

-Everyone but me is wrong about them. To an extent. Every person I've directly interacted with on Tumblr has an excellent read on his character. But, Lord Almighty, are there too many people who see "tall, ripped cartoon man with sizable bulge in the crotch of his pants", and throw everything else about him out the window to turn him into a sex-crazed, high-libido "seme" stereotype. Not to mention the disgusting ableism surrounding his Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how it manifests, the fetishization of his second prosthetic arm, and the popular fanon characterizations that seem to have come out of absolutely nowhere. Where did the idea that he has a hang up on profanity come from? He doesn't strike me as someone who regularly curses up a storm, but he's not the Paladins' dad. Why would he care if they're throwing profane language around as long as they aren't offending potential allies or purposely antagonizing each other? And, don't get me started on the "Shiro and Adam adopted Keith" nonsense. I swear, people either overestimate how old Shiro was when he and Keith first met, or way underestimate how young Keith was, while forgetting about Keith's own father, and everything else going on in Shiro's life that guaranteed he had no time to parent a teenager. -I'm obsessed with their character arc. Everything that is and could have been. -They got done dirty by the fans. And, still is, every single day. -They got done dirty by the creators. Astronomically. Infamously.

Just give my VLD Meta tag a scroll, some time. If you want to see proof, and also have your blood-pressure reach record highs. -Wasted Potential. So much, it's physically painful. And, that's Bingo! -ADOPTION PAPERS, ADOPTION PAPERS! FILING THE ADOPTION PAPERS! Shiro is too old for me to legally adopt, being an adult in his mid twenties, but I will gladly take custody of him from DreamWorks and World Events Productions, so they can't hurt him any more than they already have. -I am constantly going insane, rotating them in my brain like a fork in a microwave. This blog, my sketchbook, and the two fanfictions I'm working on, which altogether have a cumulative word count nearing 60k, are testament to that. The Takashi Shirogane brain worms are real. -The popular ships for this character suck. When shipping him isn't the express purpose of a fanwork, people default to his canon romances. And, his ex is a jerk, and the man he's last-minute married off to after barely acknowledging for thirteen-plus episodes is a human-shaped piece of set dressing with less personality than a sheet of cardboard. So, yeah, two of the more "popular" fanon ships for Shiro are terrible. But, even when shipping him is the express purpose of a fanwork, there's a lot left to be desired. Mostly due to him being written wildly out of character for the aforementioned superficial reasons. -Not enough screentime. Nowhere near enough. We can thank the writers who hated him, wanted him dead, then, when they were forced to resurrect him, deliberately nerfed and sidelined him in order to keep the spotlight on their favorites, for that. -They've never done anything wrong in their life. ❤ I actually think Shiro should have gotten to kill more people, specifically Sendak, and Zarkon and Haggar- with Allura and Lotor's assistance- as a treat. -This is the best character in the work. By far. He epitomizes everything a true hero should be, while also being a disabled trauma survivor and proud gay man. I find myself questioning frequently how the brain trusts behind this show essentially created Shiro, themselves, then came to despise him, purely because they were informed by the Powers That Be that they were not allowed to permanently kill him. You would think any reasonable person would be thrilled to hear that their creation resonated so strongly with audiences that killing him would go over poorly. But, not "MonSantos" and crew. They had a ~vision~ for their 3Edgy5Me animated Sci-Fi/Action space opera aimed at seven year-olds.

Quinn Fabray

-They got done dirty by the creators. Jesus Christ, did she ever. I struggle to think of a character in this notorious mess of a series who was handled worse in every single regard than Lucy Quinn Fabray. And, it's all because Ryan Murphy hated Dianna Agron. -Wasted potential. Once again, so much of it, thinking about it causes me physical pain. -ADOPTION PAPERS, ADOPTION PAPERS! FILING THE ADOPTION PAPERS! Judy Fabray does get better after leaving Quinn's dad, but Quinn desperately needed an understanding adult figure in her life that she could feel safe confiding in, who would encourage her to gradually come to accept and love herself as she is, and seek out treatment for her objectively terrible mental health. I would be more than happy to be that adult figure. -What's wrong with them (affectionate)? Severe body dysmorphia, leading to her getting a nose job and forcing herself to lose a ton of weight going into her freshman year of high school. Deeply-rooted shame and self-loathing from being brought up in a suffocatingly repressive religious household headed by her abusive father. Lack of any real friendships. Being date-raped by a boy who plied her with drinks every time she had second thoughts about sleeping with him, resulting in her getting pregnant. Being kicked out of her home because of her pregnancy and shuffled about between her ex, her rapist, and a friend's homes like a cumbersome object. Giving up her newborn daughter after holding her only once. Spiraling further and further with every season... Like I said, Quinn's mental health is objectively terrible. But, rather than offering her any compassion, she's ostracized, vilified, and ultimately cast aside entirely. Because Ryan Murphy hated Dianna Agron for humanizing a character he intended to be a one-dimensional villain. -Not enough screentime. Remember when Dianna Agron said that she wasn't invited back for the tribute episode dedicated to Cory Monteith? Remember how Quinn bought Metro North Passes because she wanted to stay in touch with Rachel after high school, only for her to never get to use them? ...Yeah.

----

Thank you so much for the prompts! ( ´͈ ◡ `͈ ) ❤

[homerforsure]

Okay so for April's writing prompt in the 911 discord server, we had Buck & Chim — Buckley-Han Family on a Spring Day and this spilled out of my brain. It is deeply silly, but I tried!

Operation Easter Bunny

If Buck knew he was going to be reduced to bending forward and trying to ring the doorbell with his nose, he would have told Chimney to pick up his own damn takeout. His arms wrapped around three (three!) enormous, heavy, paper bags, one of which was almost definitely leaking something delicious all over the front of him. With his own bag in his hand, he couldn’t get even a finger free to push the button without risking everything toppling over, so Buck clutched everything tightly to his chest and leaned in, just managing to hit the doorbell with his face. 

“Ow,” he said, wrinkling his nose as the pleasant chime rang out inside the house (one of four dozen rotating sounds available on the doorbell that Maddie and Chimney had picked out. Buck had never imagined the sheer number of decisions that would be involved in refinishing a house. Doorbell sounds!) and standing up straight again…

Only to find Chimney already standing in the open door with a smirk on his face. 

“Dick.”

“What’s the password?” Chimney asked. 

“Let me in before I drop your egg rolls,” Buck groused.

Chimney laughed, but he pushed open the screen door wide enough that Buck could catch it with his shoulder and make his way inside. 

“You could have just made two trips.”

“I’m efficient.”

“That’s one word for it,” Chimney said. He reached out and grabbed one of the heavy bags from Buck’s arms and led the way to the kitchen. “Look out for baby debris. I put most of it away, but I think it spawns.”

Picking his way carefully through the house, keeping an eye out for Jee’s toys (and for random shoes, her new favorite toys), Buck followed after Chimney. Groaning dramatically as he finally set his bags on the counter, he said, “What did you even order all of this for? I thought the whole idea was that Maddie and Jee were going to be out all day.” There was nothing on his shirt, thankfully. Whatever moisture he thought he’d felt must have just been condensation from the hot containers inside. He set his other bag, a present for Jee, on the counter with the others and made a mental note to hide it before Maddie got home. 

“You’re kidding, right?” Chimney replied, pulling plates and forks out of his cupboards. It took a few false starts before he got them. He and Maddie hadn’t quite settled on a home for the dishes yet. Except for the wine glasses. They’d needed those to be in easy reach throughout the whole process. “I’m not risking my life by ordering from your sister’s favorite Chinese place and not getting enough leftovers for her.” 

“Yeah, but, this is like… leftovers for six.”

“Well, I invited a human garbage disposal over for lunch so I thought I’d err on the side of caution,” Chimney said, pressing a plate into Buck’s chest. “Load up, Uncle Buck. We’ve got a big project ahead of us.” 

Right, the project or Operation Easter Bunny as Chimney had taken to calling it in the family group chat. With Jee-Yun officially old enough to hunt down easter eggs, Maddie and Chimney were excited to start the first of many traditions in their new house. Buck was pretty sure there was a little more to it than that for Maddie, who was still hesitant about overly formal, overly perfect holiday plans, but who also held tight to every first she still got to have with Jee and Chimney just wanted to make sure that both of them had a perfect day. 

“So no pressure,” Buck had said, looking skeptically between the two of them at a dinner in mid-March. 

“None at all.”

“Why would there be pressure?” 

Still, one thing had led to another and soon they were staring down Easter weekend without a single Peep or chocolate rabbit purchased and with the homemade family brunch Maddie had been talking about rapidly devolving into a store-bought quiche and microwave bacon. She put a few window clings up and tried to get an Easter basket started, but with an inquisitive toddler underfoot, it was proving impossible. 

“I’ll take care of it,” Chimney had promised when he found the two of them buried in biodegradable easter grass and Jee’s basket barely hidden from her under a quilt. And on Saturday morning, he’d called Buck. 

“I did the basket after they left,” he said as he and Buck piled their plates high and each grabbed a beer from the fridge. “So that’s in the top of our closet and hopefully she doesn’t find her way in there while we’re sleeping. 

“Or learn how to use a ladder,” Buck added. 

“Hey do not think about teaching her that. The stairs are bad enough.” Jerking his head toward the back door, Chimney said, “I’ve got the rest of the stuff out here. It was the only place I could think to hide it.” 

Buck was about to ask if Chimney was living with a toddler or a secret agent, but the question was quickly overwhelmed by a dozen others when they stepped out onto the patio. “Whoa,” was all he could manage to say. 

An uncountable number of easter eggs spilled out of plastic bags on and around the new picnic table that Buck and Eddie had just helped Chimney move in the previous weekend. Giant ones, mini ones, sparkling ones, and neon ones. There were other bags too, filled with vanilla wafers and veggie straws and other baby-safe snacks that Buck could only assume they were going to use to fill the eggs. 

“Did Maddie really want us to fill all of these?”

“What do you mean? She bought all of them. Of course she wants us to fill them. I was thinking Divide and Conquer,” Chimney said, finding a mostly empty spot to set his plate down in. “You can fill them and I’ll hide them around the yard.” 

“Uh, are you sure the yard is big enough?” 

As if thinking about it for the first time, Chimney took in the pile of eggs and the spring green of the backyard and tilted his head. “Maybe we’ll put some in the front too. I’ll text Maddie and tell her to pull Jee’s hat over her eyes before she brings her in from the car.” 

“Yeah, but-”

“Pipe down and get to work, Buckley. We don’t have much time.” 

The order had a hint of Interim Captain Han about it so Buck didn’t bother to argue. He grabbed a bag of eggs so he had a place to put his own plate and then got to work. 

*

Two hours later, the patio was more of a mess than they started and Buck’s fingers were nicked from getting caught in a dozen slightly deformed plastic eggs that didn’t want to stay closed. The yard was more egg than lawn and Chimney still had two buckets of filled eggs that had to go somewhere. 

“You think I can hang some from the trees?” he asked, staring at the pile and the four eggs he was already holding in his hands with dismay. “She can see them up there, right?”

“Not unless you want me to teach her how to use a ladder.” 

“This is too many eggs. What was Maddie thinking?” 

“Don’t ask me. You’re the one living with her,” Buck replied, around a mouthful of wafer. 

The sound of a car pulling in the driveway brought an expression of panic to Chimney’s face and he started trying to shove the eggs into his pockets and down his shirt. “No! No, no, no. She wasn’t supposed to be back until six!”

“It’s six-fifteen.” 

“Hide these!” Chimney shouted, picking up the buckets and shoving them at Buck. Eggs shook free as he did, falling to the cement patio and splitting open, scattering cookies and candy everywhere. 

“Hide them where?” Buck asked. “You used up all the lawn!”

“Anywhere!” 

“We’re home!” Maddie’s cheerful voice called from inside the house. “Someone saw Uncle Buck’s truck in the street and can’t wait to say hi!”

“Uh, Uncle Buck went home!” Chimney called back as Buck held up his hands and the buckets in a “come on” gesture. “He had to walk because he got very very drunk, but he’ll be back tomorrow. So there’s no reason to come out to the yard!”

“Howie?” 

“I’m not here either!” Chimney shouted. “Daddy’s on vacation. No toddlers allowed. No. Stop! Don’t look!”

He flung his arms and legs out wide like a starfish and planted himself in front of the back door, eggs falling out of his clothes as he did. 

“You went on vacation without me?” Maddie asked, appearing in the doorway without a baby on her hip. 

Chimney deflated, dropping his arms, “Where’s Jee-Yun?”

“Trying on your slippers in the living room. What’s happening out here?”

“I think I’m getting easter egg elbow,” Buck answered. “Is that a thing?” 

“It’s not a thing,” Chimney said. 

“Are those-” Maddie frowned, opening the door to join them on the patio and get a better look at the yard. “Did you hide all of those eggs?” 

With a sad sigh, Chimney said, “No. Not even close. Maddie, I know you wanted to make this special, but there’s just no way we can hide them all. We’d have to spread them out all over the whole neighborhood and you know I’d do that, but I just don’t think Jee’s got the attention span to-” He stopped, noticing the way that Maddie bit her lip to keep a smile from escaping and then looked again at the mess he and Buck had made of the yard. 

“You didn’t actually want us to fill all of them, did you?”

Maddie shook her head and said, “They were on sale. I thought we could use some next year and some of them are always broken and, I don’t know. They were really cute. I didn’t want to choose.”

Coming in closer so she could take Chimney’s face in her hands and plant a kiss on his lips, Maddie added, “But I love how much you love our daughter. We are both so unbelievably lucky to have you.” 

“I’m lucky to have you too.”

“Okay, but what do we do with,” Buck lifted the buckets again. “All this? Because I don’t really think they’ll keep until next Easter.” 

With a shrug, Maddie said, “Take them to work? I’m supposed to bring something for the dispatch pot luck anyway.” 

“I’m sure Cap will be thrilled if I hide some of these on the engine.”

“Hey, it could come in handy,” Buck said, cracking open a yellow one and eating another cookie, somehow without dropping either of the buckets. “Having a stash like this on back to back calls. It’s better than protein bars.”

The smile Chimney gave him meant nothing good for Buck as he pulled the few remaining eggs out of his pockets and dropped them in the buckets that Buck was holding and said, “That’s a great idea. Why don’t you gather all these up so we can take them in? Just leave like one or two dozen for Jee to find in the morning.” 

“Hey wait-”

“Did you get extra Chinese food for me?” Maddie asked. 

“Please, have I ever let you down before?” Chimney replied. 

“Guys!” 

The screen door slammed shut over the rest of Buck’s protests and he sighed as another egg rolled off into the grass. 

“They are on their own for Halloween,” he huffed to himself, grabbing another egg to munch on.