#like episode 5 and six may have to turn this all around

[mydairpercabeth]

One thing I’m really looking forward to seeing is how they convince Percy not to join Luke. Up until the end of episode 4, Percy doesn’t have any faith in his dad or the other gods. He resents them all for abandoning their kids and doesn’t like their excuses. He is disgusted by how Athena treats Annabeth. He detests the whole claiming system and that the gods can just choose to claim them if they feel like it. And he is also being actively targeted by Zeus. What will be the turning point for him to not join Luke?

[cryptidorchid]

Writing out my thoughts on Pearl and Scott’s relationship in the Life Series (with more focus on Scott cause I haven’t watched all of Pearl’s episodes)

Scott feels like Pearl being hurt isn’t his problem

Something that sets Scott’s relationship with Pearl apart from the other teammates he had around the same time is that Scott is never protective of Pearl. He was protective of Jimmy when he turned red in Third Life and he was protective of Cleo in Double Life basically the whole way through. But with Pearl, he doesn’t seem that concerned for her. This is a result of the way their partnership started.

In Last Life, Scott started with two lives and Pearl started with six. Scott was uncomfortable being so close to red so he specifically went looking for someone to obtain a life from. Scott found Pearl and agreed to team with her in exchange for a life. The deal went well. Scott got a life. Cool.

The problems started in episode 2 when Joel was the Boogeyman. After trapping them in their house, Joel started attacking Pearl and Scott ran in to save her and was killed instead.

Afterwards, Scott was back on yellow and Pearl still has 5 lives so he asked Pearl for another life, an ask he was clearly uncomfortable with. Pearl is hesitant at first but agrees to give him another one.

It works out but I think this is the moment that really convinced Scott that Pearl doesn’t need protecting; she has way more lives than him and is decent at survival besides. And even if she does need protecting, he definitely shouldn’t be protecting her when he could be protecting himself. And I think this mentality really shows in the episode that follows this one.

Last Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 3 - 15:06-15:14 Scar: You give me that or I’m going to burn you Scott: He does have a right to burn- PEARL! Pearl runs away with the cactus Scott: I take no responsibility for her. She’s a loose cannon. Scar approaches a dog with a flint and steel Scott: That is her dog Pearl: NOOO!

Scott realizes Pearl’s making enemies with Scar and when Scar starts threatening her over it, Scott instantly takes Scar’s side and distances himself from Pearl (“I take no responsibility for her”). In order to keep himself safe, he is actively choosing to help Scar instead of protecting her. To be fair this is a rather low stakes situation where if Pearl actually ends up in danger, she can just give the cactus back, but a less low stakes situation is when Lizzie Boogey kills Pearl.

Last Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 3 - 24:20-24:25 After Lizzie Boogey kills Pearl Lizzie: It was gonna be either of you. I didn’t care which one of you died. One of you just had to die. Scott: To be fair, Pearl had more lives than me so it worked out better that way

It’s not like Scott is particularly understanding towards Boogeymen. When Joel killed him last episode, he was not this calm about it and told Pearl to kill Joel in revenge. But in this case, he just grabbed Pearl’s stuff and said he was glad it wasn’t him.

On top of that, it gets even more obvious that he’s not that bothered by the idea of Pearl dying when you compare the way he treats Pearl to the way he treats Cleo.

Last Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 6 - 6:45-6:58 After Scott says he won’t Boogey kill Pearl or Cleo Cleo: I couldn't take the trauma again Scott: Yeah, I wouldn’t do it to you Cleo. If anyone, I’d go for Pearl because she has more lives and it wouldn’t be as hard to deal with. Pearl, if I don’t kill anyone between now and the end, I may need to out of desperation

It's pretty clear that this is a result of Pearl having more lives than both him and Cleo and Cleo having joined their team specifically as a result of being betrayed. But all the same, Pearl dying is acceptable to him in a way that Cleo dying isn’t. Which I think also shows in episode 8.

Last Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 8 - 36:10-36:30 Scott: I witnessed you run out of the forest with Joel chasing you. By the time I got down to the bottom of the tower, you’d died, and I was so upset, Cleo Cleo: It's okay  Pearl: You’re witnessing a lot of death, Scott, and you haven't been there to save our lives  Scott: I also haven't been your cause of death, Pearl, to be fair.  Scott pulls out a potion of harming Scott: All it takes is two of these apparently. It could be quick and clean.

The difference in treatment is incredibly obvious. He feels bad about not saving Cleo. He thinks Pearl should be grateful he didn’t kill her himself. Granted, there is a world where Scott is upset here not because he failed to save Cleo but because he failed to kill her to cure himself of the Boogeyman curse. I’m going to talk about why I don’t think that’s the case soon.

Regardless of his intentions with Cleo, him responding to Pearl by reminding her that he could be killing her instead does indicate that he’s annoyed by the idea that he should be protecting Pearl.

Tangent about why I think Scott was more concerned about Cleo’s wellbeing than his own in this moment: 

Right before Cleo died, Scott was aiming at Joel who was in the forest, rather than Cleo who was out in the open.

 In order to get Cleo's stuff out of the river as quickly as possible, he took the worst possible path down from the tower.  He took 9.5 hearts from fall damage. Even with regen he had 3 hearts by the time he got down there. Even if he was in a rush in case Joel tried to steal Cleo’s stuff, it’d be even worse if a red name was down there while he had 3 hearts total. 

Even after acknowledging that Cleo died because Joel caught her on her own, he goes out on his own in the middle of the night because he’s worried Cleo might be trapped in their secret base.

He runs into Grian and Joel on the way and as he’s fleeing, he yells “Why did you kill Cleo?”

In general, I think this entire sequence shows a lack of self-preservation on Scott’s part and implies he was acting emotionally rather than strategically. If he was really just concerned about himself, this feels like an odd way of going about it.

This isn’t to say that Scott doesn’t care about Pearl’s wellbeing at all. When he’s going to look for Cleo, he asks Ren to protect Pearl since Pearl was looking after Cleo’s stuff which was outside the safety of the wall. He didn’t need to ask Ren to do that but he did because he cares about Pearl. I don’t want to give the impression that they have no sweet and caring moments together. They do. It’s just not important to this analysis so I’m not going into detail.

TLDR; Scott never puts Pearl’s wellbeing over his own which is in contrast to the way he treats Cleo, his other teammate during Last Life. As much as he’d prefer Pearl to be well, if she’s not, he doesn’t feel like it’s his fault or his responsibility to fix.

This leads me into Double Life.

Scott never regretted rejecting Pearl

I don’t think Scott ever really hated Pearl. He was mad at her for not looking for her soulmate and going to the Nether. So he thought not teaming with her would be an appropriate punishment and would be better for him since he would be teaming with someone he feels is committed to him.

In spite of this, he still suggests there’s a possibility of reconciliation in both episodes 2 and 3.

Double Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 2 - 21:54-22:04 Scott: Me and Cleo had already bonded. We spent the entire day running on the server meeting everyone else and you never showed up.  Pearl: You can bond still with more people. It's fine. Scott: It's going to take time, Pearl

Double Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 3 - 26:02-26:08 Scott: Pearl, you come back after I’m done with these two and we can then go over our issues. How about that?

Him saying this implies to me that Scott never really meant to be angry at Pearl forever. So why did he break up with her in the first place? Well, he didn’t really expect her to take it as hard as she did.

Double Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 2 - 22:55-23:00 Pearl: I wasn't trying to be your soulbound, Scott. I never wanted to be your soulbound Scott: Then, why are you making a big deal about it?

Double Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 2 - 23:32-23:43 Scott: Maybe you have gone a little loopy irl! Like, do you want me to call someone in person?  Pearl: Look, Scott, you've done me some damage, alright? Scott: Apparently!

Even though she was struggling more than he expected and he’s not necessarily happy about that, this doesn’t convince him to change his mind though because again, he doesn’t feel like it’s his responsibility to protect Pearl’s wellbeing, especially not over his own. To him, Pearl being heartbroken over it, though unfortunate, doesn't make his actions wrong. On top of that, Pearl actively harming him through powdered snow and being liable to cause problems in his relationship with Cleo also wasn’t helping him sympathize with her. 

Double Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 3 - 19:20-19:44 Pearl: So, what you’re saying. Right now. Is that I should kill Cleo one more time and then you won’t be… even soulmates at that point Scott: See, you’re not red. You’re not allowed to do that Pearl: What do you mean? As far as I’m concerned I’m red as can be, Scott. Scott: As far as your sanity, yes. Gone! Gone. Far gone Pearl: And whose fault is that, Scott?! Scott: It’s not my fault you have separation issues! Pearl: Of course, I have separation issues! Everyone abandoned me! Of course, I have issues, Scott! Scott compliments Pearl’s build Pearl: Oh thank you. Someone’s being nice to me today Scott: I can be nice to you when you’re not being unhinged. If you’re less unhinged, people will be nice to you!

Pearl presents a threat to Scott and to his relationship with Cleo, if not Cleo herself yet. As long as that’s true, he will never feel bad enough to take her back. The only reason he teamed with her later was because the threat of red names outweighed the threat of Pearl. As much as he doesn’t enjoy being enemies with Pearl past the initial anger at her, he sees the situation as unfortunate but not really his responsibility to fix, especially if Pearl isn’t going to change. 

And I don’t really think Scott ever changed his mind on this.

Double Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 6 - 14:52-15:21 Pearl: You know what, Scott. It might’ve been hard to forgive you at the start of the season for just abandoning me like that but you know what, you’re pretty good. You’re a pretty good partner Scott: Thank you- I mean, we tested it last time and it worked well. It was just you hurt my feelings when you went away with Martyn and me and Cleo looked for you- Pearl: Hey! Scott: -for ages and then I couldn’t find you and I was sad Pearl: You know, I’m just gonna talk this out for a second. How about reverse, right? You ran off with Cleo from my perspective Scott: We bumped into everyone else. We were actively looking for our soulmates Pearl: I was looking!

Double Life - Scott’s POV - Episode 6 - 14:52-15:21 Pearl: Look, it's my time to ditch you after the first episode. Think of it as karma. Scott: So, we've done a full loop because you ditched me in the first episode then you came back and then you're going to ditch me again Pearl: You ditched me in the first episode. Don't you pretend to play it like that was never your fault  Scott: You didn't make yourself available, Pearl. How was I meant to find you if you were never available!

Whenever Pearl brought it up, he was incredibly clear that he felt the break up was Pearl’s fault. I know some people like to see the sacrifice as Scott apologizing for breaking up with her but everything he says before that actively contradicts that read. I personally believe that when he said that Pearl deserves the win, he was talking about Pearl taking out four other competitors basically on her own. You might think that his reasoning for sacrificing himself in the finale should have been stronger/more emotional, but well… it’s Scott. And he does genuinely care about Pearl to an extent. This read may be less satisfying to some people but I do feel it’s more accurate to his character.

TLDR; Scott always felt that rejecting Pearl was justified. He still cares about her but he doesn’t feel that her taking the rejection harder than expected is his responsibility especially since he considers her a threat to his well being. 

Pearl never forgave Scott for rejecting her

I know that Pearl explicitly said she forgave him in the finale but her behavior in later seasons and the fact that this was the second time she’s supposedly “forgiven him” really make me doubt that.

Double Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 6 - 40:20-40:22 Pearl: I guess I forgive you after all

First of all, this is the second time she’s said she’s forgiven him and yet the way she phrases this makes it sound like it’s the first time, meaning she took back the original forgiveness. Why?

Well, last time she tried to tell Scott she forgave him, Scott reminded her that he doesn’t feel bad about rejecting her. Which I suspect is what convinced her to rescind that forgiveness. I think that her forgiveness was intended less as expressing genuine forgiveness but a way of trying to validate her own pain.

The entirety of Double Life, Pearl has been trying to hurt Scott. She complains about not having friends but this isn’t making her any friends and she’s reluctant to be friends with Scott so what’s the goal? Well, I think she just wants Scott to regret rejecting her. 

Double Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 2 - 2:48-3:02 Pearl: I'm not gonna be as careful. You know what? It's okay. I'm not gonna be as careful. I'm gonna do my own self and Scott can do what Scott wanna do, you know? This is me now. This is Pearl now. You've done this, Scott.

She’s monologuing to a Scott that’s not there because this is what she wants him to think. She wants him to think “Oh, I’ve made a terrible mistake!” 

That’s why she’s telling him she forgives him later. Because her forgiving him implies that he was in the wrong. Which was instantly ruined by Scott reminding her that he was mad at her. So she revoked that forgiveness because it wasn’t accomplishing what she wanted.

And maybe, in the finale, Pearl did interpret Scott’s sacrifice as an apology or maybe she just wanted to say it again now that Scott wasn’t alive to contradict her. Either way, I think since Scott doesn’t regret his actions that forgiveness is inherently fragile and Pearl has proven that she’s willing to revoke that forgiveness. Her behavior in later seasons proves that.

Limited Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 5 - 25:00-25:06 Tango: BigB. Pearl, you guys are in with the TIES. Absolutely  Pearl: Alright, we don't have to make up with Scott now, BigB

Limited Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 5 - 26:21-26:34 Pearl: We got TIES now, you see, and now we don't need to ally with Scott. We don't need allies with the Clockers. We're good BigB: Now, I don't know if we need to make it up at all with the Coral Kid. But-  Pearl: Nah, we're good. We don’t need them.

Okay. Pearl. You know there was another member of Mean Gills right? He may have chased you earlier? Name starts with an M?

Secret Life - Pearl’s POV - Episode 9 - 48:08-48:18 Pearl: It's you and me, Scott. We gotta finish what we started from Double Life. We got something to finish up. I'm gonna murder you~

She’s clearly not over Double Life.

TLDR; Pearl's already revoked her forgiveness once and her actions after Double Life imply that she still holds a grudge against Scott. So it seems unlikely that her forgiveness at the end of Double Life was genuine.

Conclusion

It’s hard to say that Scott and Pearl hate each other because most of the time, they act quite friendly and closer with each other than with most of the other Lifers. But they never really resolved the conflict from Double Life. They neither changed their mind nor really sympathized with the other person’s point of view. As a result, there’s always some resentment under the surface. This goes for both of them by the way. Pearl may switch to spiteful at random but Scott can go cold and lose all affection for her at the drop of a hat. And now they’ve got this on-again off-again frenemies type relationship. They’re probably going to be friends again next season and decide they hate each other by the end again too.

[guywrestlingaddiction]

Frot Fighters: Jason Aleqsander v Aiden Langston (ucwrestling.com)

Sometimes the wrestling is not the only main event.  In fact, there are times when it's all working up to something else entirely.  Enter another episode of Frot fighters.  

Jason Aleqsander v Aiden Langston (ucwrestling.com)

SPOILER ALERT: I highly recommend viewing this match in its entirety before reading this post.

So let's begin with the "Fight": 

We begin with our two rookies circling each other in anticipation of the match.  You can tell from the start that both are filled to capacity with nerves and hormones and each has something to prove.  

Jason makes the first move, uncharacteristically flex-showing off for us to see.  The guy is really enjoying not being the newest guy on the block and he totally wants to win.  Now, while it may be all fun now, he'll later regret showing off that target, I mean bicep. 

Aiden: You have such a tight body... Not a bad view.

It's not long before they begin taking turns and putting each other in different holds.  It's all play wrestling really but I'm reminded that these two are rookies trying wresting out, so it's fine.  

Aiden: I'm just going to worship these muscles for a second.  Nice washboard abs, fuck yeah.

At some point you realize that this was never a fight at all but really just two guys using wrestling as an excuse to admire each others' bodies which brings us to the eventual frot ...

Then we'll get to the Frot: 

It's not hard to guess this would happen; throughout the match Aiden continually gushes about how amazing Jason's body feels and how much he adores those muscles.  All that mutual admiration turning to mutual worship, and here we are.  The biggest tell would be how Aiden has that perpetual smile on his face giving away how much he wanted Jason to trash him the whole time.

Aiden: Fuck, you're stretching me out so good.

Make no mistake however, all of this is leading up to the frot finale.  Jason is a little to cocky flexing that bicep so Aiden lures him in by worshiping that very bicep before reversing the hold and putting him flat on his back.  Jason will later regret putting those abs and biceps on display after Aiden gives him a taste of worship gone wrong.  He even rubs himself all over Jason's shiny perfect abs to claim him.  

Aiden: How you like that? Guys around here like being humiliated?

Aiden: I thought you liked this the last time? 

Aiden: There you go, flex that bicep for me.

------- So there you have it. This is what happens when two guys wrestle as foreplay and can't go 5 seconds without worshiping each other.  Our match ends with Jason congratulating Aiden with a handshake before launching into a cheap shot.  In the end, Jason was just not seduced by the worship and I'd like to think that Aiden really thought he was going to get some action before Jason pulled the rug out from under him.  

Aiden simply wanted this too much and while he was able to humiliate his opponent six ways to Sunday, in the end Jason got the last laugh, leaving a beaten Aiden on the floor writhing with lust.

[demonicc0024tt]

I’m tweaking so have this flippy age theory

So being in the htf fandom I’ve noticed that lots of people portray Flippy as this traumatized war vet in his early 20’s and it bugs me out because there’s no way this man is 20 by the time he’s “discharged” from the war. Although it was never confirmed by any means that he’s actually discharged, he may be on some leave or the war just ended. But what war did he even go to? Well it’s only mentioned he went to W.A.R wich stands for Weaponized Animal Regiment, but seeing that Fliqpy’s booby traps are heavily inspired by the viet cong many say it may be possible that he also went to the Vietnam war (i also thought that would be the most rational explanation) which would make sense considering the insane trauma he has but also make him 60 even if he was drafted at the end of it, so i think he was just really interested in it but never actually got to fight there since it ended. He could have taken part in the Persian Gulf War but i doubt that. All we know is that Flippy went to the W.A.R so let’s stick to that.

What age did he go to the war then?

There is a possibility that if he was interested in joining the military from a young age and enlisted by himself then he may have been 18 at the beginning , though if that wouldn’t be the case and he was drafted instead, he would be around 20-25 years old. So let’s go with 20.

In the W.A.R journal episode he’s said to be a private, which is considered the lowest military rank (E-1) , but seeing the patch on his shoulder that could be inspired (definitely is) by the military rank insignia he could be a E-2 second class private.

The mission Flippy, Mouse Ka-Boom and Sneaky are on where they have to confront a literal General, could be seen as a very serious and important mission that would take at least 4 years of amazing performance and service for a literal second class private to go on without any forces except for two other privates, which i think makes sense because Flippy killed a literal General and that on it’s own could get him promoted to a sergeant (E-5). While promotions from E1 to E4 are mostly gained by time, E5 and higher are mostly performance and binding time earned. For a E2 to get to E5 it would take a great amount of time. To get to E3 could take at least 10 months and to E5? That could even be three to six years based on performance or even more!

So let’s say that Flippy was a great soldier for at least four years, got assigned to a serious mission, completed it alone because his teammates died, and that got him promoted to a Sergant at about 24/25 years old.

Although there is no real number of years he was at war it would make sense for it to be at least ten years if we look back at how long he had to be a private to be promoted,and how long he could fight as a sergeant. If we went down that route then he was like 30 when he left.

His first appearance is the hide and seek episode that came out in the year 2000. If we used the year when the episode came out as the year that Flippy left the military then that would make him about 31. Why 31 and not 30? Because imagine you leave a war you’ve been fighting for ten years. You don’t just immediately move somewhere new and make so many friends that you feel comfortable playing hide and seek knowing about your ptsd problem in the span of like 11 months (not saying that’s impossible but just not likely).

The episode Party Animal where we see flaky and others prepare a party for his birthday aired October 2nd 2006 that means,of course that he turned 37 that day.

The last episode featuring Flippy was In Over Your Hedge that got released (for free) December 22 2018 and that would make him 49!

In conclusion Flippy throughout the whole series is in his early 30’s to late 40’s.

Im sorry in advance if some of this info is not right, i tried doing as much research as i could! If something is wrong pls say so i can correct myself!!! Also sorry if the grammar is wrong but English is not my first language😢

[crow-artworks]

Huskerdust Analysis and Prediction's for Season 2 (Also some goofy headcanons)

Besides a few writing and pacing issue's I overall fucking loved Hazbin hotel and can't wait for season 2. One of my favorite subplots being Huskerdust now I know some people think of them and prefer more a Mentor and Mentoree type of relationship between them. That's completely valid and I can see that but I think they can still have that with Husk helping Angel overcome more of his trauma but still be a romantic item.

Analysis: We see multiple moments between them of course the main episode between them being episode four where we really explore more of Angels character and his trauma we also see Husk calling Angel out for hiding behind this fake persona to cope with that trauma. Where of course we get the freaking masterpiece Loser, Baby and see them reconcile and bond over their shared and similar pain.

In episode 5 we see a bit more of Husk's issue's with Alastor come up when he confront Alastor about Mimzi. Where of course this leads to Alastor retaliating by scaring the shit out of Husk showing the green chains representing Alastor's hold on Husk's soul and literally leaves him shaking we can really see the deeper and hidden part of their relationship literally like Master and Plaything. Then in episode six we see Angel and Valentino and their confrontation where Angel is standing up for Niffty then leads to him say fuck you to Valentino (as he should fuck you Valentino) then leads to him to smoking the chains around Angel representing Master and Plaything. We can really see their similar, yet different situations and we can see them further even more bond over it in season 2.

That all sets up the rest of their moments for season 1 my favorite being the finale with their small bar scene where can see them looking at each other in some could say flirtatious and entraced manner.

The amazing thing about their relationship and one thing I see that Vivienne did actually great with in he writing is that it can work good as a romance or a deep friendship which both I would be ecstatic for either way. Whether you ship them or not they are still going to mean something to each other romantically or platonically and help each other over come each other's trauma.

Predictions:

With all the signs and hints from Vivienne and within the show itself I expect them to end up in a romantic relationship with each other. Now how I expect this to play out is in two seperate ways that blend together. One way exploring the more serious sides of what they bond over of course their trauma. Seeing Husk helping Angel confront Valentino maybe and digging deeper into Husk's past with Alastor and how Husk may break from that or another way this could go is they end up both still being trapped for season 2 but starting a relationship over their shared bonds, similarities, chemistry, and over all just being good for one another.

The second less serious part of it will I think be Angel trying to ask Husk out. We can see Angel oversexualizing and objectifying himself for others as other's also oversexualize and objectify him all the time to the point he's uses it as mask but Husk as seen in episode four helps break that mask down showing he want's to know who Angel really is not who other's make him out to be and he want's him emotionally and not just sexually.

In turn Angel not being used to this but wanting Husk not just as a one night stand but an actual partner will have trouble asking Husk out. Leading to some awkward moments like with Sir Pentious and Cherry bomb where Angel attempt's to ask Husk out in certain moments but ultimately at the last second fumbling over his words and changing the subject unlike his usual flirting. In the end I think Husk will catch on to this and ask Angel out himself or take a moment to ask Angel to breathe and just to say what he want's to say. Which will either way probably leads to a very cute and romantic date hosted by Husk.

Headcanons:

This is the least serious part of this just some silly and cute things I headcanon for them.

Pet names: I feel like they would use Baby and Doll the most.

Affection: Definitely physical touch but not in a sexual way I think Husk would hold Angel's hand or things like a small kiss or wrapping his tale or wing around him. Word's of Affirmation alot of discrete I love you's and such.

Husk I think would definitely be very protective over angel with cat callers or people oversexualizing him and just in general even though Angel would probably say things like "I can handle myself." Husk wouldn't care and be an overprotective asshole and Angel would act like he hated it but secretly loves it.

They would be jealous in their own ways Husk I would be more open about it like pulling Angel close or glaring at whoever he dislikes. Angel would be more grumble and hide it type but Husk can always tell.

Angel would be a flirt with him but in a more himself way and Husk would sometimes flirt back leaving Angel super flustered

Finally when it comes to sex I feel like consent and bounderies would be immediatly placed to make Angel feel definetly more comftorable to let him know this is because they love eachother and not just to use Angel. Husk would 100% be the top. I feel like their first time would be more intimate and slow but I feel like it could also be that one meme where afterwards the one person flustered just staring at the ceiling over what just happened (Angel) and the other is just also staring at the cieling with his hand behind his head unphased (Husk). Later on I feel like they would try things like BDSM and that stuff but later on in the line.

Anyway, there's my autistic info dump on Huskerdust if you read all the way down you are either a God or neurodivergent . Here's some cookie's for making it this far:

[lovemybluebully]

Loser Logan

X-men '97-verse

Post Episode 4 (Felt like a good place to stick this before the angst of Episode 5)

M/M Tickle fic

SFW (some swearing, but it's mostly fluff)

I can't help but love Logan and Morph's relationship. It's almost as good as the one Logan has with Nightcrawler. ^_^ This dumb little fic of mine just shows their close relationship, and as per my usual naturally has A LOT of tickling in it. This is a tickle fic after all. I can see Morph being quite the tickle monster, especially since he enjoys making Logan laugh. If tickling isn't up your alley then best to scroll on.

I wrote this showing hints that Morph kinda has a thing for Logan with Logan seeming to get that even though he doesn't reciprocate it, but still loving his friend all the same and letting him indulge a little. Nothing super blatant.

NOTE: I did write Morph as a 'he' in this story. I honestly was just getting confused on how to properly use 'they/them'. Morph has predominantly been depicted as male and goes by ''Kevin" so I figured it was okay. If that bothers you though then maybe you want to skip this one.

Holy crap! I did not mean for it to be this long, but I was just having too much fun writing these two interacting together. I kept trying to end it, but just kept writing more and more each time. XD This is easily the longest fic I've ever written.

Word count: 9,911

Logan winced as the flavor of the extra sweet liquid overwhelmed his sensitive palate once he took a swig from his beer bottle. Making a face of disgust and shaking his head he set it down on the edge of the pool table in the mansion's rec room.

"That's the last time I let ya choose the beer at the market," he muttered, looking over at his friend, Morph, who frowned in offense before transforming into an exact copy of Wolverine.

"ThAt'S tHe LaSt TiMe I lEt Ya ChOoSe ThE-....," he mocked in Logan's voice before returning to his normal form, swaying a little from the alcohol in his system, "Geez, just dump it out then! No one is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to drink it."

Logan grunted and rolled his eyes as he reached for his bottle of whiskey to pour himself a shot. Morph could be so overdramatic.

"Look pal, if there's one thing ya oughta know about me it's that I never waste a beer. No matter how bad it may be," he tossed the liquor down his throat.

"That's not entirely true. Remember the other night when I turned into Sabretooth to try to cheer you up? You stabbed the crap out of that six pack I had brought along. You're definitely going to Hell for that one," Morph was quick to point out the incident as Logan recollected and spit out a laugh.

"Oh yeah. An unfortunate casualty in the heat o' the moment. Well with the exception of that time it's not somethin' I do consciously. Not even a crap light beer like this one. An' what's that flavor? Is that....strawberry?" He made another repulsed face as Morph only shrugged this time.

"Ok, you made your point. You pick the next box. But for the record that beer you destroyed the other night, that was your favorite. Thought it would help make you feel better."

"Still did in the end. Even though it sounds like I almost fucked it all up. Hmph, speakin' of that night I never told ya thanks fer all that," a smile quirked at the corner of his mouth as the buzzed Morph threw an arm over his broad shoulders.

"Hey don't mention it. Despite you being a stubborn ass and trying to ignore me there was no way I was going to let you stay in that funk of a mood you were in," his arm tightened around Logan's neck while his free hand gave him a playful head noogie, making Logan growl and shove him away.

"Yeah yeah, I get it. I'm an asshole an' yer a saint." 

"Hey now, you're not just an asshole, you're my asshole........That came out wrong," Morph facepalmed while Logan chuckled quietly, "Oh hey, where's Jubilee at? Surprised she's not down here with us."

"Well she is gettin' older so I doubt she's wantin' to hang around a couple o' guys like us so much anymore. She seems to like that Roberto kid a lot, an' bein' that it's her birthday I imagine she's with him this evening," Logan growled a little as Morph laughed and patted him on the back.

"Easy killer. He seems like a nice kid. Just needs to come to terms with his mutant side, and Jubilee is doing everything to help him out with that. She's blossoming into a smart, beautiful young lady and you should be proud of her."

"Still I'm keepin' an eye on him. An' if he ever does anything to hurt her, I'll make sure he regrets it...slowly," Logan picked up his pool stick and bent over the table to play his next shot, but then chuckled as something came to his mind, "By the way speakin' of regret, real smooth with that jab at Magneto this mornin'."

Morph's face fell as he groaned while the moment from earlier replayed in his head, leaning against the table with beer in hand.

"Ugh, why'd you have to bring that up? That was so embarrassing! I mean, how was I supposed to know?"

"I gotta ask, is it unintentional, or do ya just really like makin' situations as awkward as humanly possible?" Logan was able to get his shot off and sink his ball into the side pocket, but it was immediately followed by a finger poking him in the ribs as he jumped with a half-giggle, "Shit! Quit doin' that!"

The shapeshifter gave a satisfied smirk at his reaction and grabbed a cue stick for his turn at the game.

"You asked for it. But seriously, I felt so bad about what I said. If he already didn't before I'm sure he totally hates my guts now."

"Well I wouldn't sweat it too much. The guy's a prick. Besides I'm pretty sure he ain't in his room cryin' about it right now. He's heard a lot worse than yer tasteless joke so don't flatter yerself," Logan shrugged, rubbing a big hand over his irritated ribs as he begrudgingly finished off his beer.

"I guess so. Still I feel like maybe I should go apologize later. He might appreciate that. What do you think?" Morph was toying with the stick in his hand now as his mind wandered, causing the bigger man to roll his eyes.

"I think ya oughta stop worryin' about it an' take yer damn shot already."

"Sorry, it's the alcohol, I guess. I'm a bit of a lightweight if you haven't noticed," Morph replied, the effects of the alcohol making him a bit unsteady as he squinted and tried to line up his shot, "You know it wouldn't kill you to show a little more compassion once in a while."

"That'll be the day. Besides I think ya do enough o' that fer the both of us, Nancy," Logan grinned and slapped his friend on the upper back right after he had hit the cue ball, sending him face down into the table.

"Excuse me? Did someone say my name?" Morph sounded off with his best Scott Summers voice as he lifted his head to reveal the face of their team's leader, making Logan chuckle dryly.

"Yer a real riot, ya know that?"

"I'm very aware, thank you. And I still scored a point despite you. In fact it looks like I'm winning so far," Morph transformed back to normal and stuck his tongue out at him as Logan surveyed the remaining pool balls left in play.

"Easy to be winnin' when ya cheat. It's a little hard to concentrate when some shit head keeps ticklin' ya," he gave a stern look as Morph just giggled at the thought. 

With Logan's natural hyper senses and Morph's spirited personality and tendency to be physically affectionate it didn't take long for him to discover at some point in their relationship that Logan was unbelievably ticklish from head to toe; something Morph found incredibly hard to resist exploiting at every turn. 

With his adamantium skeleton and healing factor Wolverine was practically impenetrable and his mind was very accustomed to handling the worst pain imaginable so Morph was beyond pleased to find something that could easily crack through his tough outer shell and loosen him up a bit.

It didn't help that Logan always let him get away with it unscathed, but Morph also had the feeling that Logan really didn't mind it too much, despite what he might say.

"It's not my fault the big, bad Wolverine is so adorably sensitive," Morph teased with a pouting face as he gently tugged Logan's sideburn, receiving a half-hearted growl and swat to his hand, "Besides it's the most surefire way to get a smile out of you."

"I don't need ya worryin' about me so much, Morph. It ain't worth yer time," Logan huffed and poured himself another shot of whiskey.

"I think I'm allowed to be the judge of that. You can't shut us all out, you know? No matter how hard you may try. Like it or not, you're stuck with me until the end of time," he smiled broadly as Logan let out a sigh and swallowed the shot.

"I get what yer sayin', but ya have yer own problems that ya need to work out. The things ya went through with Sinister.....shit like that doesn't go away overnight. I know yer always hidin' yer pain behind humor, but sooner or later yer gonna have to deal with it. Take it from me, ya got a long road ahead before ya can even begin to start healin'. So the last thing I want is fer you to be takin' on all my fuckin' issues too," he sulked, leaning against the wall as Morph looked at him thoughtfully.

"You're right about some things, Logan. It is going to take me awhile to get through it all, but I am dealing with it in the best way that I know how. You see, sharing my humor with you all does help heal me. I realize I have a family here; people who actually care about me, and it makes me feel good knowing that I have the ability to make others feel good too. I feel like everyone here brings something to the table, and just having that type of support means the world to me. I can't even imagine what I'd be like if I was out on my own." 

A soft smile came to Morph's face as his mind wandered back. 

"I'll never forget how you did everything in your power to try to get me back on the team, even when you didn't succeed right away. I owe you a lot and believe me I'd never consider you not being worth my time. You have to know you deserve that and more."

"To be honest I don't think I ever deserve anything worthwhile," Logan took it all in and after a few moments of silence he finally nodded, "But ok, I believe ya. Just promise me ya won't take on more than ya can handle. It ain't fair to do that to ya."

"Now it's my turn to tell you not to worry about me so much," Morph grinned and punched him on the shoulder with no effect, "I know I've had my weak moments and even some breakdowns, but I promise you that I'm managing just fine for now. The best medicine I have is being here with you....and the rest of the team. Trust me."

"Yer one o' the few that I do in this whole world, bub. I don't know if that means somethin' to ya, but it does to me."

"It really really does. Truly. I may be drunk, but I promise it's not the beer talking when I say that I love you. Anyways cheer up. This is supposed to be a fun evening, not a pity party," Morph put his arm around Logan's shoulder to give him a firm side hug, feeling his tense muscles relax considerably.

"Sorry. I really am a piece o' work, in case ya haven't noticed. Didn't mean to bring down the mood."

"You're forgiven, but I have to warn you that if you don't smile soon then I may have to do something drastic. I'll have you know that it's always worth my time to hold you down and tickle you until you can't think straight," Morph added, pleased to see it made Logan snort a laugh before he hastily moved away from the other.

"I'm pretty sure that goes against the Geneva Convention, but whatever ya dumbass."

"You know I'm kind of thinking about doing it anyways since you didn't reciprocate my proclamation of love for you," Morph tilted his head and raised a teasing brow as Logan backed further away while shaking his head.

"That ain't necessary. I do love ya, buddy. Yer part o' the family, an' the team's just not the same without ya. Now quit threatenin' me an' just stay away on my next shot here, okay? Hands offa me."

"Alright alright, I won't do anything," Morph made his arms get sucked inside his body, grinning when he saw Logan let out another chuckle, "Oh but first..."

Morph's arm reappeared as he scurried to the nearby radio to turn on the popular music station, the sound of Freak Nasty's "Da Dip" coming out of the speakers.

"Now lets get this party back on track!" Morph declared as he began swaying his hips in place and moving his arms around in flowing patterns, allowing the beat to take over his body.

Logan tried to hold back his amused smirk as he watched.

"Will ya cut that out? Yer ridiculous." 

Morph turned around and made eye contact as he smiled mischievously and started dancing and scooting his way across the room towards his quarry while he sang along to the song.

"I put my hand upon your hip, When I dip, you dip, we dip, You put your hand upon my hip, When you dip, I dip, we dip..."

While belting out the chorus Morph placed his hand on Logan's side as he grabbed at Logan's hand and tried to place it on his own hip with the man struggling to fight him off the whole time.

"Get the hell offa me," Logan laughed at the silliness of his friend as he slapped at his busy hands and pushed back against him, "If ya think yer gonna get me dancin' then yer dead wrong. I haven't had that much to drink. Besides I need to take my turn at the game now."

Morph finally allowed himself to be pushed away as he put on a face of mock pout.

"Aw fine, you old party pooper. I'll let you off this one time, but next time you are gonna be shaking it with yours truly," he snapped his fingers and rocked his hips some more before straightening up and gesturing to the table, "Maybe you can remove that big stick from up your ass long enough to take your shot. Go ahead, I promise I won't touch you."

Logan rolled his eyes and flipped him off as he looked down again at the pool table. 

The only good shot he had was extremely close to the 8 ball so he would have to calculate this just right or he risked knocking it in. He picked up the chalk and rubbed it onto the tip of his cue stick before looking over at Morph, who stood innocently on the other side of the table against the wall, and then bent down to get into playing position.

The prospect of hitting in the 8 ball had him a little nervous, but after a few tense seconds he made his move. The cue ball went hurtling smoothly towards his striped ball before striking it where intended and sending it rolling down the table into the corner pocket.

Logan smirked and was about ready to gloat, but he failed to notice that the cue ball had just knicked the edge of the 8 ball and set it into motion as well. Morph's little gasp and excited pointing of his finger alerted him to it, though all he could do now was just watch and hope for a miracle.

He held his breath as the solid black ball ever so slowly rolled towards the center pocket before teetering on the edge of the lip........and then stopping. Logan released his breath, ready to start bragging again.

"An' that's how it's done," he managed to say just before the 8 ball finished its journey and fell into the pocket with a deafening clacking noise as it landed on the other balls.

It was quiet for a minute before Morph let out a whoop of triumph and punched at the air as he began bouncing around the room.

"I aaaam the chaaampion! I aaaam the chaaampion!" He sang as he obnoxiously danced around his grumpy teammate.

"Bullshit," Logan grumbled and then glared at Morph with accusation, "Ya bumped the table."

"I did not! Don't be a sore loser now. I believe you owe me some money," Morph grinned with a raised brow and held out his hand.

"Alright fine. Even though I'm sure ya knocked that 8 ball in somehow, I'll let ya have this one. What did we say? Ten bucks?"

"Yup, that was the wager," Morph nodded, watching Logan pull out his wallet before opening it with a shake of his head.

"Hmph, I'm a little short on cash right now. I'll have to get ya later."

"Hey no worries, I accept alternate forms of payment," Morph's smile widened while he eyed the bottle of whiskey set out nearby.

"Oh yeah? Think ya've had enough to drink already, pal," Logan smirked as he observed his friend swaying a little on his feet.

"Uh thanks for the advice, dad, but I'll say when I've had enough. I'm starting to lose my buzz here!" Morph made a poor attempt at grabbing the bottle away while Logan just smoothly moved it aside out of his reach.

"Nah, yer done. Yer worse than a teenage girl on prom night. Just as annoyin' too." 

"Ooooh I'm gonna tell Jubilee you said that."

"Well can't blame ya fer that. Ya girls gotta stick together, right?"

"You are just so insufferable, do you know that?" Morph smirked with his hand on his hip, making another grab for the bottle as Logan easily held him back with one hand and grinned.

"Thanks. Comes naturally."

"Aw come on, please? Just let me have one more drink and I'll consider your debt settled."

"I don't think so, bub. Trust me. Fer yer own good." 

Morph had to take pause because Logan's voice had lost its teasing tone and sounded more of genuine worry now. His eyes moved off of the whiskey bottle and looked up to Logan's face to find a look of concern spread over his usually intimidating features.

Despite how Logan normally wanted to portray himself the man certainly could be caught wearing his heart on his sleeves on more than one occasion. Morph felt a little guilt that he was causing his friend to worry about him again, even in such a small way. He certainly didn't want to ruin the mood again.

"Huh. Do you really think I've had too much?"

"Not yet, but I guarantee if ya have anymore you'll regret it. 'Sides it's not a good idea to start drinkin' the hard stuff after ya drank so much beer. Especially when it's like that sweet tastin' shit ya bought," Logan released his hold on him as Morph took a step back and crossed his arms with a joking pout.

"I wish I had your healing factor. Then I wouldn't be such a lightweight."

"It's a gift an' a curse, bub. Really I wouldn't wish it on anyone," Logan cast his eyes down and sighed as he momentarily picked up the whiskey bottle to screw the cap back on securely.

Dammit! He had stirred some gloom back into Logan's current train of thought. All he wanted was to keep the good times going for as long as possible, but he just kept digging the hole deeper every moment he opened his mouth. Time to just give in and admit being wrong.

"Okay okay, you're probably right. No more alcohol for me. I concede," Morph nodded as he bowed out with his hands up in defeat; happy to see Logan brighten up when he did.

"Glad yer comin' to yer senses. Tryin' to save ya from a bad hangover here, idiot."

"Aww my hero!" Morph momentarily sprouted feminine facial features and batted his big eyelashes as Logan sighed and rolled his eyes, "But hang on, you're not getting out of it that easy. You still owe me some kind of payment since I won the game."

"Well I don't have the money so tough shit. An' ya ain't gettin' this alcohol either so what're ya gonna do about it?" Logan smirked as he squared up his beefy shoulders and extended the claws on one fist in an attempt to intimidate his friend into backing down. 

Too bad that whole macho act never worked on Morph, but hearing his smug response definitely gave him some inspiration. He knew exactly just how he could collect some sort of payment and also take Wolverine's ego down a peg.

"Oh I'm not too concerned with either. I'm sure you'll pay me in some way very soon," the shapeshifter dismissed him with a hand before looking past and pointing behind him, "But hey, do you think that maybe Jean would like a drink?"

Logan was surprised because he hadn't detected Jean's scent anywhere near the room, but he still turned his head to look regardless and retracted his claws at the same time. The second he did that Morph plowed right into him like a linebacker and took him to the ground; pool stick clattering to the floor with the both of them.

"MORPH!! What the hell do ya think yer....?!?!"

"Bahaha! I knew you would fall for that! Change of plans, buddy boy! Loser can't pay then loser gets tickled!" Morph crowed with inebriated glee as he scribbled his fingers all over Logan's stomach with lightning speed.

Normally Logan could hold his own for a short while, but the alcohol in his bloodstream and the joking mood he had been in had all of his mental shields disabled, making him feel especially ticklish right now. Not even the thick flannel shirt he was wearing was dulling the sensations and the tickling had him cackling immediately.

"N-No! Daahahahahhahaa-Dohohohon't! Geheheheddoffamehehehehehe, ya stuhuhuhupid ahaahaahasshole!" Logan's left hand reflexively shot out, landing on Morph's face as he used it to try to push the other mutant off of him, but Morph only ducked under his reach and continued his vicious attack.

"Sorry, not happening. You can just keep your alcohol and your lousy ten bucks. Tickling you to death will do just fine," Morph's nimble fingers dug into his wide ribcage, tickling methodically between every rib for maximum effect. With that Logan's raspy laughter deepened as he desperately tried to crawl backwards with one arm while clumsily attempting to fend off his friend with the other.

"Mooooorph stahahahahahop! I wahahahas juhuhust try'na he-help yahahaha!"

"Do I look like I need help? Don't think so! The only one who needs help here is you. Except no one's coming to save you, mwahahahaha!" Morph laughed maniacally while drilling his fast-moving fingers into Logan's sides as the man's arms finally weakened and caved beneath him, collapsing onto his back in a heap of giggles.

Morph observed him fondly as the normally bad-tempered feral spastically twisted and squirmed helplessly while his big arms reflexively wrapped around his upper body in a last-ditch effort to protect himself, even though he knew it wasn't going to help him.

"Aw what's the matter, big guy? Is somebody just a little bit ticklish? Coochie coochie coo!"

"Shuhuhut uhuhuhup! Bwahahahahaah! I swehehehehear I'm gonnahahahahahaha guhuhuhuhuut yaaaa!"

"Yawn. Boring. Heard that one before. You really need to come up with some new material, you know? But if you're serious this time, go ahead and do it. I'll wait," Morph dared with a smirk as he eyed the deadly hands and waited for the claws to emerge. But Logan's hands only flailed around as they tried to guard and block Morph out of gaining access to his sensitive torso; failing quite miserably.

"Yeeeah, I thought as much. I know you'd never hurt me if you could help it. So you just lay there and take it like the big, scary, ticklish man that you are."

Logan cursed that Morph had called his bluff, but what did he expect? The shapeshifting mutant knew him better than pretty much anyone.

"Shihihiiit! C'moohahahahahon! Quit-hahahaha-Quit ticklin' mehehehee!"

"Sure I'll stop.....once you piss yourself," Morph quipped immediately as Logan attempted to growl through his laughter.

"I f-fuhuhuhuckin' hahahahahate yahahaha!"

"Now that's a lie if I ever heard one. Fine, say something nice about me and I'll think about letting you live," Morph proposed while Logan quickly replied without any hesitation.

"Okaahaahaay! Yer goohoohood at b-bein' a dihihihihick!"

"Hmmm, while that may be true that's not exactly a compliment. Try again. Here I'll even give you a moment to breath in good faith," he paused the tickle attack as Logan panted from below him

"....Alright fine....I'll admit, ya are a good lookin' guy. I mean seriously, ya got model potential."

Morph wasn't expecting to hear something like that, and he was immediately put on alert as his face twisted into suspicion of Logan's exact intentions. 

"Oh get out of here, you don't mean that. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm no Sean Connery."

"Sure I do. An' ya know what? If this X-men thing doesn't work out for ya, ya could always take a job workin' as a department store manneQUINAAHAHAHAHaaahahahahhahaha!" Wolverine exploded back into guffaws as Morph jumped on top of him and resumed tickling him even harder.

"Ok, I have to admit that was a good one. But it was also RUDE! You, mister, have just earned yourself a nonstop tickle session!"

"W-Wohohohohorth ihihihihitahahahahahahaahah!"

The banter between them was always constant, but they both understood that it was all in good fun and never took anything to the heart. Not to mention it gave Morph plenty of excuses to really wreck his friend.

"One more chance! Come on, just say one serious thing! You know you appreciate my humor and wit, especially when I'm making fun of the other guys! I'm super good at making you laugh! You've said so yourself!"

Logan was really in over his head with Morph being very familiar with all of his most ticklish spots, but he couldn't stop himself from continuing to tease and provoke the shapeshifting mutant.

"Nohohohot hahahard! Aaahahahahaha! Ye-Yer fahahahaace dohohoes that alohohohone!"

Morph just sighed and shook his head with a pitying smile.

"Keep talking, dummy. It's only gonna make it worse for you. Speaking of worse, lets really get those lungs of your working!" 

From where he sat perched on his legs, Morph used his long reach to bury his furiously fluttering fingers into Logan's very ticklish armpits as the big lug howled in deep, rumbling laughter with his arms futilely clamping down; Morph being able to physically contort and manipulate his fingers to keep them easily working around in the tight crevices.

"Noooohohohohoho! Dahahahammit! Haahahahahahahahahaha! Nohohot thehehehere! Ahahahahalright alrihihihihight! Ju-hahahahhahah-Just st-stohahahahop fer a sehehehehehecond!" 

He was pretty surprised when Morph actually stopped as requested.

"I'm allowing leniency despite my better judgement, so this had better be good. No funny business," Morph crossed his arms with a smirk, looking down from his seat on top of his friend, who took a moment to catch his breath before nodding and taking on a more serious tone.

"Okay....Okay....ya win. Ya know what yer good at, Morph? I ain't lyin' when I say that yer one of the best people I know. Yer good at always showin' up fer the team no matter what the odds. Ya may not be the biggest guy, but ya got the biggest heart. I know I can always count on ya to have my back in a fight. Yer good at makin' things seem brighter when everything else looks grim. Ya have the most positive outlook of anyone I've ever met despite the things ya been put through. An' yeah, yer a pretty funny guy an' ya really do know what to say to make me laugh. On top of all that yer a damn good friend. No one appreciates ya more than me," he finished, seeing the complete look of surprise on Morph's face.

"Logan I....wow, that was.....I wasn't expecting all of that. Did you really mean it?"

"Yeah, of course I did. Ya know me, I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it. I'd go to the ends of the Earth fer ya, buddy," Logan's face was completely serious as he smiled up at him in the most genuine way, making Morph's heart melt.

"I know. You've proved that to me before, and I'll be forever grateful. I can't believe a blob of goo like me was lucky enough to land a friend like you," Morph reached out to put a gentle hand on his shoulder as Logan shook his head.

"No, I'm the lucky one, bub. Also worth mentionin' that yer one of the only people that can even come close to puttin' my mind in a more peaceful place, which ya know ain't easy," he joked, breaking the emotional tension as Morph barked a laugh.

"Hah! That I do know. You really are the most stubborn man I've ever met."

"But ya know what yer good at most of all, Morph? Somethin' yer untouchable at?"

Morph urged him on with his eyes, wondering what other compliments Logan could possibly throw at him, but as he watched his friend's soft smile turn into a smug grin he immediately knew something asshole-ish was about to leave his mouth. So much for that touching moment.

"Always makin' the worst jokes at the wrong times that just make the room so goddamn uncomfortable that ya could cut the tension with a-"

"YOU'RE DEAD!!" Morph declared and transformed into Spiral to give himself six arms as he took ultimate pleasure at seeing his friend's eyes widen in terror before all hands dispatched immediately to mercilessly tickle all over his ribs, stomach and under his arms.

The burly mutant instantly began laughing like crazy, unable to effectively defend against all the assaulting appendages at once and knowing he had completely screwed himself now.

"Mohohohohohohooorph nohohoho! Baahaahahhahahahahahaha! W-Wahaahaahaahaaaait! I tahahahake it bahaahaahaahaahaack!"

Morph temporarily transformed his face into Wolverine's to repeat his recent words.

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it," he muttered in Logan's growly voice and then just as quickly resumed Spiral's appearance, "That is what you said, isn't it? So sorry to tell you that your request for a take-back is hereby DENIED!"

Morph went in on him hard now with hands even reaching back to tickle around Logan's knees and squeeze at his thighs as the heavily muscled mutant kicked and bucked and used whatever little energy he had left to try to defend himself. They both knew he was done for though.

"You know, you're not that smart. You could've easily used that whole brotherly love distraction to escape, but yet here you are. I should've known, you're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

Morph then giggled with glee as he spotted a new opportunity. In all his thrashing about, Logan's button-down shirt had become untucked from his pants to expose a peek at his hairy, bare stomach.

"Ooooh now what have we here....?" Four of his hands immediately dove underneath the shirt to madly tickle the now vulnerable bare skin of Logan's upper body, causing him to let out an uncharacteristically high-pitched squeal before resuming his chaotic laughter and undecipherable babbling.

Morph couldn't help but laugh at his explosive reaction, still finding it hard to believe that the gruff and tougher than nails Wolverine was so helplessly ticklish; his bulky arms clamping against his body as he futilely tried to stop the hellish movements of the hands inside his shirt.

"So this is how the great Wolverine dies....his big dumb mouth getting himself tickled to death. Hey, that'll look great on your headstone, don't you think? Hehe, c'mon now. Say uncle, ya big lug," Morph smirked as he gazed down at the state of his friend, "You know you're kinda cute when you look like this."

Logan was wheezing for air between harsh laughs as tears leaked out of his eyes, weakly wriggling on the floor and resigning himself to his fate. He desperately scrunched up his shoulders as teasing fingers reached in to scratch all over his thick neck and under his chin before easily finding the sensitive spots behind his ears.

He couldn't even throw out any more of his smart ass replies and joking insults because of how hard he was laughing from the thirty fingers assaulting so many of his weak spots; currently massacring his rock hard abs and muscular obliques.

Big muscles, healing factor, adamantium bones....all completely useless against the tickles.

Morph was always content to keep him laughing for as long as possible, though he left the ball in Logan's court and gave him plenty of opportunities to get himself out of it. Seldom did he ever seem to take it and would blame it on his strong will and stubbornness.

His whole life the man only knew mistreatment and pain of the highest levels, so Morph never wanted to be the reason for Logan to experience anything like that. He made it his mission to only provide him with good touches including hugs, comforting pats and caresses, roughhousing and wrestling matches, and of course playful tickling.

He admitted tickling could be seen as borderline torture, but if Morph had any inclination that Logan really found displeasure in being tickled then he'd never do it to him again. His claws coming out was usually a good indicator when the feral mutant wasn't happy with something.

But no, Logan would goad him on and continue making asshole comments, and even when directly threatened with the consequence he'd refuse to back down until he struck the right nerve in Morph that would end in his own ticklish demise. Then he'd make a show to resist and curse Morph out and eventually beg for it to stop, but Morph could tell he was never entirely serious about it. 

Still there were many times that Morph in fact would stop if he wasn't quite sure, but then some smart-mouthed words from Logan would pull him right back into it. Not that Morph minded this one bit. 

All in all, he was pretty certain that Logan just enjoyed being involved in some harmless physical contact with someone that he fully trusted; someone he knew would never purposely try to hurt him; someone he felt safe with.  That alone was the biggest, unspoken compliment that Logan could ever give him.

Of course Morph would never force Logan to admit any of that though if that's the way Logan preferred it. For now, he would just continue in his quest to drive the Canadian berserker berserk.

"Give up? Are you ready to be nice to your old pal, Morph?" The shapeshifter smirked, finding that poking and probing into Logan's navel could force squealing giggles out of him as his bigger hands frantically tried to push Morph's devilish digits away.

"Quit fighting it. Just let it happen. Hmm let's get these arms out of the way, shall we?"

Morph now used four of his hands to pry Logan's arms away from his body and pin them to the floor while the remaining two dove in for the kill. The fingers began tickling a particularly sensitive area around Logan's hips where the adonis belt dipped into his pants, renewing the man's energy to struggle as he flopped like a fish and howled in hysterics.

"AAAahaahahahahaha! Nohoho fahahahahaaair! Stop stop-Ahahahahahhaahaa!! Pleheeheeheeheease!! No mohohohohohohore!! I caaaahahahahahaha- I caahaan't tahahahahahake ihihihihit!!"

It had reached Morph's favorite part where Wolverine started begging for mercy. It was quite amusing to Morph that the thought to do so would never even cross the tough mutant's mind when under duress and suffering extreme pain through an enemy, but undergoing a ruthless, although good-natured, tickling could always break him in the end.

Morph knew this meant that he was just about tapped out, but that left no reason why he couldn't tease him just a little more. See if Logan managed to work up a second wind.

"I absolutely will if you can answer me this one question........Who's a silly ticklish Wolvie? Huh? C'moooon, you know the answer," he was reaching underneath to tickle the backside of his ribcage while Logan snorted and giggled uncontrollably, arching his back in desperate attempts at reprieve.

Still being the man that he was Logan couldn't resist taking one last stand against his playful tormentor, even though he knew he was going to instantly regret it.

"Fuhuhuhuhuhuck yoohoohoohoooou!!"

Logan was just so adorably predictable.

Morph let his fingers respond to that as they immediately launched into the deepest part of his armpits, sprouting a few extra fingers to leave no spot untickled and causing Logan to scream with laughter as he had no way to guard one of the most ticklish spots on his whole body with his arms restrained like they were.

"OHAHAHahahaahaha!! No no!! Nohohohot thahahahaat!! Bwaahahahahahahahahaa!! Shihihihihiiit!! I'm sahahahahahorry!! St-Staahahahahahhahahaap!! Pleeeeease stahahahahahap!!"

"Stop? Please? You're sorry? What happened to the tough guy a second ago? Hm? What happened to 'fuck you'?" Morph teased him mercilessly as his fingers continued to knead into the pit hollows and squeeze the ticklish muscles on the sides of his pecs, watching a few tears roll down the red face of the hysterically laughing Wolverine.

"Gaaahhahahahhahahahaha!! Pleeheeheeheeease!! Stahahap ticklin'!! Aahahahahahahahaa!! Yer kihihihihihi-killin' meheheheheheehee!! I give up!! I give uhuhuhuhup! "

With that Morph smiled in satisfaction as his fingers finally pulled away and he released his hold on Logan's arms, transforming from Spiral back into his normal form. He'd love to just tickle him all day if Logan would let him, but when the man had had enough, he'd had enough, and Morph respected that.

Logan just laid there with his eyes closed and his head lolled back as he heavily panted for air, though still with a big grin stuck on his face.

"....Fuck......Am I....dead?"

"Nah sorry, you're not getting away from me that easily. But I'm pleased to inform you that your debt is now paid, loser," Morph grinned and reached down to pat his face gently on the cheek as he climbed off of him and sat to the side to watch him start to get his breath back. 

After a few long moments the bigger man slowly regained his energy and hauled the upper half of his hefty body into a sitting position, tugging his shirt back down from where it had bunched up under his chest.

"Shit, that was a helluva debt. Think after that ordeal I'm paid up fer the next several decades."

"Pffft! Yeah, you wish," Morph snorted as he stood up and reached a hand out to help Logan off the floor, letting Logan's hand rest on his shoulder to help steady his legs, "You alright there, buddy?"

"M'fine. Could definitely use a drink though," he smirked and playfully pushed Morph aside as he went straight for the whiskey, not even bothering with a glass as he drank a few gulps right from the bottle and felt his nerves start to relax a little.

"Go on. Drink up, big guy. Gotta get you ready for round two," Morph undeniably teased as Logan almost choked on the alcohol, letting out a cough as he glared over at the other mutant through a side eye.

"Next time I'm just gonna let ya drink whatever ya want an' let ya deal with the damn hangover," Logan grumbled as he lifted a meaty hand to wipe the drying tears off of his cheeks

"Now you're learning. I don't expect you to protect me from everything, you know? Sometimes I just have to face the consequences of my own actions."

"I can't help it, it's an unavoidable instinct. I just....," Logan sighed, "I'd never want anything bad to happen to ya ever again Morph, if I can prevent it. Even somethin' so small. Sorry, I don't mean to meddle so much."

Morph frowned a little that he said something that was making Logan's mood start to dip again.

"No no, you weren't so stop apologizing. I'm very grateful and appreciative that you would go out of your way to look out for me. You're the only one in my life who's ever done that and it's not something I take for granted."

"Yeah, well fer the record I really meant everything I said earlier. Yer my best friend an' ya mean a lot to me. Ya've helped me out in more ways than you'll ever know," his smile returned as he put the bottle down and looked back up at Morph with warm eyes.

"Thanks Logan. And I hope that me getting you to laugh all the time counts for some of that. I know you've got a lot of heavy things on your mind and it makes me feel good to be able to pull you out of that once in a while. Making you laugh always seems to put you in a better mood anyways," Morph smiled back, not expecting Logan to admit to any of that, but surprised when he did.

"Hmph, guess it does. I mean, when ya tickle me like that it completely overwhelms my mind to where I'm just focused on the current situation an' it's honestly hard to think about anything else. Which I guess what yer sayin' is the whole point?"

"Yup, exactly. It just drives all your bad thoughts away for the time being. Just consider me your personal therapist and do not question my remedies," Morph crossed his arms over his chest with a smug look as Logan just shook his head.

"Wasn't. Just wonderin' what goes on in that head o' yers sometimes. I'll admit it does make me feel pretty euphoric after it's all said an' done. My head feels high as a kite right now."

"That's because laughing is good for you! By the way, has anyone ever told you that you have the best laugh ever?" Morph asked with a giddy smile that Logan didn't seem to notice as he snorted and used a hand to dismiss his words.

"Aw cut that out. No need to drive the knife deeper. Besides not many people get me laughin' the way ya do so they wouldn't know."

"Well that's their loss. It's really a good look for you. I love when you smile," Morph threw his arms around him to give him a bear hug as Logan sighed in resignation and softly patted his arm.

"Still gettin' used to it. An' the torture method.....I'm sorry....yer therapy that ya use to get it outta me. Think ya almost broke my healin' factor with that last round," Logan shook his head with a smirk; the nerves below his skin still tingling from the overstimulation.

"Wellllll you did kind of ask for it. I would've stopped a lot sooner if you weren't being such an ass. I don't know if you know this, but you're quite the arrogant bastard. The biggest I've ever met, for the record."

Logan chuckled heartily at his comment.

"Yeah, I'm very aware of that. Not somethin' I can just turn off unfortunately."

"Oh no, please don't ever change. It's always a good excuse for me to tickle you crazy. I haven't heard you beg like that since that one time you thought you were being funny by putting your feet on my lap when we were on the couch watching the hockey game. Kurt was there too, remember?" Morph smiled big time with the memory playing through his mind as Logan squirmed in place at the thought.

"Believe me, I learned my lesson from that one. I'm surprised I'm still alive after what the two o' ya did to me," he shuddered as he remembered the incident.

Unluckily for Logan, Kurt also loved to partake in his ticklish weakness, and he did not hesitate one second to join in on the attack on his good friend as his three-fingered hands and prehensile tail attacked Logan's upper body, using his teleportation to get at him from all angles. 

Meanwhile Morph had decided it would be fun to transform into Nightcrawler as well, giving him the extra tail appendage to tickle between Logan's sensitive toes with the velvety tip while his fingers went to town on his bare soles.

"You have to admit it was pretty funny when Ororo, Jubilee and Rogue all heard your screaming and burst into the room because they thought you were being murdered," Morph giggled as Logan scowled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well, that's kinda what I would call it," he growled sheepishly as his toes cringed inside his boots, "Just dealin' with one of ya is more than I can handle. But the both o' ya at the same time? Yeah, that's pretty much attempted murder."

"Shut up, you liked it. So feel free to put those big stompers of yours in my lap any time you want," the shapeshifter gave him a wink as Logan just returned it with a blank face and a raised eyebrow.

"Pass."

"Aww c'mooon, not even for a little massaaaage?" Morph teased as he moved behind the shorter man and rubbed his shoulders before being shrugged off.

"Just fuck off, would ya?"

"Okay okay, no need to get testy. I'm really good at it though, just for the record. I've got plenty of references to back me up," he cracked his fingers and wiggled them up in the air with a cheesy smile.

"I'll keep it in mind," Logan couldn't help the smirk that came over his face as then he looked up at the clock mounted on the wall, "Hmph only 11:20pm, still early. Unless yer ready to call it a night."

"Not yet I'm still feeling pretty awake. I'm more of a night owl these days so I'll be glad to keep you company for a while longer. If you don't mind, that is," Morph added, making Logan glance back over at him questionably.

"Why would I?"

"I don't know. I feel like sometimes I annoy you too much and maybe you'd want some space from me," the shapeshifter answered, feeling a bit insecure as he crossed his arms in front of himself.

"Course yer annoyin'. Yer loud an' ya never stop talkin'. Ya drive me nuts with all yer crazy antics," Logan said matter of factly as Morph felt a tightness in his chest and looked down at the floor in shame until Logan continued with a gentler tone, "But that's on me, not you. Sometimes I just get a lil' bent outta shape too easily so don't take it personal. I'm just a grumpy old prick. If anything, I'd feel like yer the one who would want space away from me."

Morph immediately brightened back up, lifting his head as his frown turned into a soft smile.

"Just know yer great, Morph. Yer always goin' outta yer way to make people happy, even someone like me who doesn't deserve it. You'll never not be welcome to share in my prescence."

"Thanks for telling me that Logan. And for the record no, I'd never need space from you. No matter how much of an insufferable prick you can be."

Logan laughed loudly as he clapped a large hand onto Morph's shoulder and shook him a little.

"Appreciate it, bub. So ya wanna play another game or what?" He asked as he started pulling the pool balls out of the pockets and placing them back onto the table.

"Yeah sure, why not. But we're not going to bet anything this time, right? You obviously don't have any money to put up so unless you want me to tickle the shit out of you again, I'd say you're all out of bargaining chips, buddy," Morph crossed his arms with a holier than thou grin, watching Logan down the remainder of the whiskey.

"Tell ya what bub, if I lose again how 'bout I let ya give me that foot massage?"

Morph smirked at him, leaning against the pool table on one hand.

"Oh is that so? And what makes you think that's what I'd want as my prize?"

Logan just shrugged his shoulders as if he was unbothered by that and began setting up the pool balls.

"Alright suit yerself. Just forget it then."

"Now hold on, hold on. It was just a question. Hmmm but okay, it's a deal. No take backs. This is now a legally binding verbal contract," Morph momentarily transformed into a court judge and banged a gavel onto the table.

Logan chuckled as he finished getting all the balls into the triangular rack.

"Yer a crazy guy, Morph. If I win though yer buyin' me a new bottle....No....two more bottles o' booze," he declared and dangled the now empty whiskey jug in the air.

"Deal, but I don't plan on losing. But hey, it should be a win for you too. I bet with your heightened senses a massage feels extra good."

"I guess so, but I've never known it any other way so ya got yer work cut out fer ya. Let me at least get washed up first though, alright? I showered a lil' over an hour ago, but these boots have seen some miles," he looked down at his feet and rocked back on the heels.

"If you insist. But if you need any help in the shower, I'm always available. You know, if you're having any trouble getting those hard-to-reach areas...," Morph winked and nudged him suggestively, making Logan snort a laugh.

"Thanks, but I think I can manage. Oh an' hey, no cheatin' in this game this time around, okay? That means no bumpin' the table-"

"I told you I didn't bump the table!"

"Whatever. An' if ya tickle me even one time ya automatically forfeit the win. Got it?"

"Okay okay fine. Scout's honor," Morph held up his hand while sneaking his other hand over to give a quick dig into Logan's ribs as the man jumped with a yelp and then glared back at him.

"Dammit! What did I just-?!?!"

"Hehehe, that doesn't count. We didn't start the game yet," Morph snickered as Logan sighed and facepalmed before picking up his pool stick that was still on the floor from his earlier tussle with the shapeshifter.

"Ya know Morph, if I didn't love ya so much I'd kill ya."

"Awwww that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. You know option number two is that you could also just forfeit now and allow me to collect on my winnings," Morph teased as he draped arms over Logan's shoulder and squeezed his bicep, making Logan shake his head and squirm out of his embrace.

"Nice try bub, but Wolverine forfeits to no one. Now stand back. Maybe you'll learn somethin'," Logan leaned over the table, getting his stick into position as he got ready to break. 

He smirked knowing he was going to sandbag it and allow Morph to win again. Like he did earlier when he himself had unnoticeably bumped the table so the 8 ball fell in. Let Morph win just like he always did.

Just as Morph always wanted to keep him happy, he also wanted the same for his friend and more. To let him know that he always had someone rooting for him in his corner and actually gave a damn about his well-being. He'd do whatever it takes to keep his spirits high, even if it came at his own expense.

He knew Morph would be true to his word and give him an amazing massage, which was hard to come by these days, and Logan would relish in every bit of it. Even when it inevitably turned into tickling because he knew Morph wouldn't be able to resist himself with the knowledge that Logan's feet were easily his most ticklish spot.

Logan would of course play his part fully, protesting profusely and laughing his ass off all to Morph's delight while doing his best to not accidentally kick his teeth in with a flailing foot. Though he shivered a little knowing that Morph was more than capable of restraining him and then he'd just have to take it. Though in a weird way he found that he wasn't exactly bothered by the thought of that.

Thinking about it took him out of his game and unable to fully focus as he jabbed the cue ball to break, and while the balls all scattered over the table not one of them went into a pocket. He forced a grumpy face for show as he looked over at his grinning friend.

"Looks like it's going to be an early night. You know you can just skip the shower. I don't mind your musk."

Logan couldn't deny that a massage sounded better sooner than later.

"Well if ya really don't mind....," Logan gave the table a firm bump with his hip, making all the pool balls including the 8 ball fall into the pockets as he shrugged his shoulders while Morph looked at him with a knowing smile, "Damn. Guess I lose again."

"Nah, like I said you're still winning. Tell you what, I'll still even buy you another couple bottles of whiskey after this," Morph promised as he walked to the other side of the room and sat on the end of the large couch placed against the wall, "Here should be good. Whenever you're ready."

Logan was a little hesitant walking over as Morph made a big display of stretching and cracking his fingers before patting his lap. He sat down on the couch and then turned his body sideways, lifting his legs to drop his heavy boots onto Morph's thighs as the other mutant teasingly ran a hand over the top of them.

"Hm. Big feet, huh? You know what they say about that," Morph laughed at his implication, making Logan's mouth twitch into a smirk.

"Nah, what do they say Kevin?" He asked in a teasing tone, making Morph pause with a blush tinting at his cheeks as he was caught off guard by Logan's response and the use of his chosen name.

"W-Well you know.....big feet big.....boots. What were you thinking?! Jeez, get your mind out of the gutter, your pervert!"

Logan chuckled at how easily flustered Morph was as he leaned back on the couch armrest.

"Takes one to know one, bub. Now get rubbin'."

"See comments like that are what get you in trouble. I'll make sure you pay for it later," Morph warned with a devious smile and then got to work, beginning the process of carefully pulling off his boots.

Logan just watched it happening in slow motion, wondering exactly how he let himself get talked into this. Actually, he did know how. And he found himself looking forward to the attention.

"Easy now. Be nice," Wolverine growled a little, the realization of knowing what he was getting into really setting in now.

"Aren't I always?" Morph smirked as he dropped each boot on the floor as they came off and then in a couple swift movements had tugged off Logan's socks as well

"So delusional," Logan shook his head as his now bare toes wiggled a little from the exposure, "At least try not to tickle."

"That's not the current plan and I promise I won't be trying to, but if it does happen then I'm sorry, but it's your fault for being so ticklish," he reached down and firmly squeezed both of Logan's wide, meaty soles as the older mutant rolled his head back and groaned from the touch, making Morph grin, "Looks like you might be okay though."

He began further testing as his fingers pressed in hard and slid down Logan's soft arches to begin kneading into his plump heels while Logan struggled to keep the sounds of pleasure from leaving his lips.

"Fuuuuck.....Damn Morph.....Ya weren't lyin'.....That feels.....fantastic...," he squirmed and moaned with his eyes closed; his reactions causing Morph to beam with pride.

"Like that, eh? I told you I was good," he began rubbing circles from his heels back up into the balls of his feet, finding the skin to be surprisingly supple, "Now answer me this, how does a guy like you have such soft feet?"

Logan just threw his hands up in a shrug as his mind became focused on the sensations though he ended up rumbling in disappointment when Morph's hands pulled away for the moment.

"Easy big boy, I promise there's more where that came from. And if you really enjoy this then perhaps later I could interest you in a full body session," Morph offered with a hopeful smirk and a raised brow as Logan was quick to give a nod.

"Might actually take ya up on that. I haven't had a good massage in.....shit, I can't even remember."

"Well that's about to change right now. So without further ado let's get started off on the right foot here," Morph put his hand on the top of Logan's right foot and laughed at his own pun as Logan made a point to roll his eyes harder than usual.

"Geez, tough crowd. Come on, that was funny," he grinned slyly as his fingers now drifted around to give the sole of his foot a quick tickle.

"AHAH!" Logan barked out a laugh and jerked his foot away before delivering a warning glare and reluctantly placing his foot back onto Morph's lap, "Fucker."

"Hey I had to get at least one in. Now I'm going to keep it professional. If I accidentally do tickle you then just tell me and make sure to keep still. Though I'm going to warn you right now, if you kick me at any point then the massage is over and it's game on. So please give me a reason," Morph teased as he rubbed his hands together and prepared to really get serious.

Logan quietly considered the threat, and while he was looking forward to the massage, he also couldn't resist his urge to live life dangerously. And hell, maybe he was also a bit of a masochist sometimes.

While Morph was prepping, Logan pulled his foot back a little and aimed it right at Morph's stomach before thrusting it forward.

Morph got the wind knocked out of him ever so slightly as he coughed and grabbed the offending foot to push it back. He then squinted evilly back at Logan who had a shit-eating grin on his face while he sat there with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Whoops. Must've slipped."

Morph sighed, thinking he probably deserved it for sneaking in that tickle, and released his hold on his foot.

"Fine. You get one freebie. But do it again and I promise you you're going to be wishing so hard that you could take it back once you see how bad you're going to get it because I'm not stopping until the sun comes up and by the looks of that clock on the wall it's going to be several hours before that comes even close to-UGGH!" Morph grunted as the foot collided with his stomach again.

"Quit babblin' an' just do it, pussy," Logan smirked, the words no sooner leaving his lips before tendrils shot out of Morph's body and tightly wrapped around his ankles to keep him from ever having any chance at pulling his feet away until Morph decided he was allowed to.

And Logan wouldn't have it any other way.

[egophiliac]

This may seem a bit dumb question for someone who's main in en server. But I need to prepare myself before chap 6 is coming. Anyway, is chap/book Ignihyde gonna be THAT hard?? I've seen a lot people kept saying they're not ready for chap 6 or good luck for 'that' battle. Is it that difficult?

some preparation would be a good idea, actually! if you just want advice with absolutely no potential spoilers (even vague ones), then I'll say this:

the best thing you can do for yourself is -- for the later part of episode 6 -- try to have at least one SR or SSR card no lower than level 40 for as many characters as possible (specific ones at the bottom 👇👇👇). I've seen 40 as the minimum recommended level but honestly, go as high as you reasonably can, especially with your SSRs.

I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, hopefully it'll still make sense :')

SO! most of the frustration revolves around chapters 6-66 and 6-67, which are both split into subroutes with multiple subchapters/battles that follow three different groups of characters. you have to finish all three routes to get to the next chapter, and they force certain requirements that can make it a lot more difficult if you aren't careful:

you build your teams at the start of the chapter, and can't change them without resetting your progress. (if I remember right, you do get a chance to rebuild for 6-67.)

teams are built by character, instead of by card like they normally are, and each one has 2-3 required characters locked into that team. you can use any cards of that character, but you can't use multiple of the same character, or use them in a different team. also, no guest/friend cards.

they tell you what the element of the bosses are, but the other battles are just...whatever. if you can manage more than one 40+ card for a character, having good type coverage will help out a lot (why yes, I did get stuck for an embarrassing amount of time on a low-level rando because I got unlucky with type matchups, what about it).

there's a couple of points where you have to wait several real-time hours before continuing. this doesn't have anything to do with the team building, it was just annoying. c'mon. >:(

to be fair, I think some of the general frustration comes from how out of nowhere it was, so it's sure to be much easier if you go in with some idea of what it'll be like. (on my first attempt I tried to be cute and put everybody with their friends. it...did not go well.) I also had a particularly hard time of it because 1) F2P = less SSRs to carry me, and 2) I hadn't really focused on any cards outside of my special little garden of favorites, so not being able to use multiples of the same character for everything kinda left me boned. I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel great when I finally got through it though!

more specific info:

in 6-66, the bosses are a 5-turn survival battle; in 6-67, they're infinite battles (reduce their HP to 0 to win) and, subsequently, much harder to get past. personally speaking, the Wood one was the hardest for me because it heals itself between turns (and also I had literally no good Rook cards at the time). your mileage may vary!

Team 1 - required characters are Vil, Epel and Rook, boss element is Wood

Team 2 - required characters are Leona and Jamil, boss element is Water

Team 3 - required characters are Riddle and Azul, boss element is Fire

teams are 5 characters as per the usual, so make sure you have good cards of the required boys and at least six to complement them, plus a few more if you want to be careful. this is ONLY for those two chapters, which are pretty late in the episode (for JP it came out as part of the final episode 6 update) so you've got time to prep!

there's the obligatory overblot battle later on that is technically harder (stronger + more HP and all that), but it felt SO much easier in comparison just because it was back to normal Twst rules. really hoping that episode 7 doesn't pull its own shenanigans 💀

[ravenwriter16]

Creative Minds Think Alike

Episode one--Episode Two--Episode Three--Episode Four--Episode five--Episode Six--Halloween Special pt. 1--Halloween Special pt. 2--Halloween Special pt 3 (Here!)

Happy Halloween!

Come and join me on all the fun the castle is having with our annual Halloween Festival!

Enjoy! ~~~~~~~

(POV: Written by @lets-zofifi-stuff)

The witch weighed an apple in her hand, looking at it critically. The apple stared back at her with far less judgment in its brown apple-seed eyes. It was making calm movements with the tiny fins made of apple peel that caused the fruit to look like a very bulky fish. Unlike a real fish it did not need water to live so it was not in a hurry anywhere.

Zofifi gently tossed the dark water of the small kiddie pool. She smiled seeing it swimming away with a slight wobble, joining a flock of other apples that slowly circled the pool. there were red yellow and green apples, keeping mostly to the surface but every now and then one was diving under. Closer to the bottom she could see a few pears zooming, thick parts first with mouths half opened to present their soft juicy teeth.

Oh my!" A voice exclaims in surprise somewhere behind the witch. The Archivist walks up to the pool, a black masquerade mask covering the top half of her face. Her black cloak hides her raven wings, but as she walks the cloak swishes and some feathers poke out.

"You really did make pearrianhas (hehe). They look tasty and deadly!" Raven beams.

“Thank you!” Zofifi smiles back. “Well, they are really ‘deadly’ unless someone is very allergic. But some are still hard enough that their bite may hurt if they get your nose or finger. I tested!” They wave towards the sign post standing in front of the pool. “Fruit bobbing. Bite or be bitten.” it reads.

Raven snorts at the sign, covering her mouth slightly. “I love it!”

She looks back down at the pool, a twinkling in her eye. “I’m debating on whether or not to try my luck at this…”

“Oh oh but first! Let me show you the other games!” the witch shakes her hands. She pulls the archivist by the sleeve to turn her around.

“Here is a carousel! Well it will be operational in a minute. Guys are still finishing the montage.”

She waves at the two automatons, one gold, one silver, who are utilizing their amazing strength and installing figures on the colorful merry-go-round. The Sun variant turns his head around and returns the wave enthusiastically. The silver automaton still in his black robes seems completely preoccupied with the task. Their y/n sits on the merry go round platform, watching wide eyed the electrical fairy lights decorating the area.

“Oh my!” Raven exclaims, “this is incredible!”

Her wings puff up in delight, and her eyes sparkle in excitement. “You went all out tonight!”

“Yes yes! Oh and here-!” she turns the archivist around, “Toss the loop!” The witch pulls somehow dizzy archivists to the next stand. She pushes a frisbee size loop in Raven’s hand. Before her Raven sees a big table with a tiled surface and… A number of skulls on low perches sticking from the tabletop. The braze plates under the skulls have numbers on them 5, 10, 25, 50 and the furthest one, 100.

Raven looks at them, one skull's eye holes suddenly lights up. “Hello participant!” It speaks in a jovial tone.

Raven yelps, stumbling backwards before balancing herself. The downy feathers in her hair had poofed up. She shakes her head, “h-hello to you too.”

“Come here, come here! Test your skill! Toss the loop! I don’t bite! I am stuck!” The skull chuckles at its own joke.

Raven then looks down at the disk in hand. She tosses the hoop, scoring a modest twenty, smiling as ghostly numbers fly up in the air, showcasing her score.

“Amazing!” She looks back at Zofifi, “This is fantastic!”

The archivist's head turns side to side. She hums in question, "Are any of your other characters on the festival? I haven’t seen them."

”Oh! Well they are-”

*splash*

Zofifi and Raven turned around. There was a black and blue satyr standing grinning next to the fruit bobbing pool. He is holding onto another satyr with golden and fluffy wool who is handing over the edge with head in the water, short tail wagging in excitement.

“Hey! You!” The witch shouts.

The Sunny faun emerges triumphant with a sizable pearahnia in his teeth.

“You had enough of those already! Some have to be left for others.”

“But we are hungry!” Moon smiled innocently.

“Ghm!” Sun said.

“Then to the buffe! Steal some apple pie or something!” the witch waves at them. “Go! Shoo!”

The automatons near the carousel turn their heads to see if they need to intervene.

The sunny satyr took the fruit from his teeth. “Pie?! That’s… a great idea! Come on brother!” and he pulled the other satyr along.

Raven snorts, covering her mouth, “I hope those two haven’t been causing you too much trouble.”

The witch shrugs. “They are the ‘trick’ part of the trick or treating. Oh! Speaking of!” Zofifi drags the archivist to the counter. Two very slender figures already man the stand, another Sun and Moon variants. They are seemingly organic beings. Sun has pastel yellow skin, and gold lines spiraling on his skin, as well as a crown of orange feathers on his head. Moon wears a full body suit and a helmet with mirror visor. He leans back on the shelf and seems to observe the surroundings warily.

“Those two are me, alien Sun and Moon. I put them in charge of the prize counter. You only got 20 points so far but you must be very busy with the festival so maybe pick something as a treat? There are candies and toys! Some of them even have some magic!”

“Hello!” Sun waves at the pair, his triangle teeth in a wide smile. “Oh, I like your feathers miss!”

Raven smiles, wings relaxing against her back, “I like yours as well!”

She looks over the toys, eyes stopping on a small star charm. “May I have this one?”

She grins when moon nods his head and hands her the charm. She attaches it to her belt lace, letting it bounce on her hip as she turns to face Zofifi.

“Thank you so much for all the fun!” Raven gestures to one of the small outdoor dining tables, “if you like, I’m gonna set up camp over there and send some ravens out to gather the others to just hang out. Come over whenever you’re free over here!”

“Sure! Will do! Happy Halloween!”

“Happy Halloween!” Raven laughs, giving the witch one last hug before running off to claim the table before anyone else could.

(POV: Written by ME!)

I sigh, happily claiming a table for the night. I set down all my gifts, determined to share everything with my friends. I let out a shrill whistle while setting up the silverware.

One of my ravens land on my shoulder, cawing and nuzzling their beak into my cheek. I laugh, scratching their head gently. I pull back from the table, admiring my handiwork before holding my arm out to my raven. They climb on, tilting their head at me as I holding them out in front of me.

“I need you and the others to go out and tell these creators,” I snap my fingers, a tiny scroll floating in front of the creature, “That they can all gather at this table when they’re done with their tasks…Make sure to mention the food.” I add that last part after some thought.

My raven caws, spreading out their wings and taking off. I follow their flight path until there are too difficult to spot in the darkening sky.

Doing one last stretch, I pull out one of the chairs. Releasing a long sigh as I sit down. I pull off my mask and let it rest on the table then I grab a small glass of water. Sipping on it, I look around me, taking in everything the night had to offer.

I close my eyes, gently swaying my head to the music. I crack one eye open when I hear some shouting. I look down the path, smiling as I spot my group of friends walking towards me. I wave them over, planning to play my own tricks and give my own treats to these five.

When they reach me, we all laugh and chat. Enjoying the food, music, lights, and each other’s company. Letting the night wash over us and getting completely lost in the wonderfulness of it all.

...

... ~Meanwhile~

The being sneered down at the distant castle. It was all lit up and music could be heard even from the highest peak of the mountains.

Another being approaches the first, “Are we truly going to let those dimwits play around like fools while we sit here and wait?! Freezing to death?!”

“Yes.” Their tone is cold when addressing their companion, “Let them play their games and sing their songs.” They look back over their shoulder at the vast number of tents and troops, hidden due to the snowy mountain top. “It’ll make their defeat all the more gratifying.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you @lets-zofifi-stuff for your amazing writing! It was a blast and honor to work with you again! If you guys don't know this creator and their AUs? Then go check them out! Thank you everyone who did this with me! I am so flattered! I hope you guys enjoyed!

[candygalaxyyy]

I realized something very important about msp and the screenwriter/director’s choice in building the plot. And episode 10 is a great example.

As i was rewatching the brilliance that is episode 10, I thought to myself if this was any other standard bl it would have gone differently. A tumor is such a serious matter, especially when it’s your mother, the only immediate family Gun has, he’s only 17/18 and he lost his father at a young age in such a sudden way. So of course he is going to be upset or even mad when his mum keeps this from him. And Tinn being in on it too, because in a relationship being open is so important and trust/honesty is everything.

I also noticed that Gun may have felt insecure (or possibly threatened) by the fact that his mum and Tinn kept this secret from him (which are valid feelings). Mostly because he says things like: “stay the hell out, she’s my mum”, “I’m your son yet i had no idea you were sick”, “what did he do for you?” and “why are you adoring him so much?” (He doesn’t even say Tinn’s name because in this situation he’s an outsider, he’s not her son or family member). And at this point Gun doesn’t know that his mum knows about Tinn and him or about all the sweet things Tinn has done for his dream. So him being confused/insecure/upset is warranted because he only has his mum. He is possessive of his mum, because they only have each other and her trusting someone else who isn’t family with such a important thing is puzzling for Gun (even more with him thinking she doesn’t know). And the best part about all of this is that both Tinn and Gun’s mum knew it would upset him, so they came prepared for his reaction. Gun’s mum explains everything to Gun instantly and makes him realize how deep and true Tinn’s love is for him, plus she emphasizes that this type of love is rare and must be cherished. Tinn doesn’t get angry or hurt by his reaction, he understands it and even reassures him that he would react the same way.

GMMTV could have easily used this to create tension for drama and conflict. They could have thrown in some trusty miscommunication, a heated conversation where people say or do hurtful things, a gateway to the ‘cursed ep 11 breakup’ and they could have milked the f out of this conflict. But they didn’t!!! Instead they turned it into a touching episode about love, friendship, family and being thankful for the people around you. They used it to highlight six things:

1. The beautiful relationship between Gun and his mum. They rely on each other, care for each other and love each other. They are mother and son, they are family.

2. The deep and pure love Tinn has for Gun. It is unconditional. Tinn did all these things for him without expecting anything in return. He just wants his crush/now boyfriend to be happy!

3. Gun realizing that Tinn is precious and he means much more to him than he lead on. That this is not some little high school relationship, it’s much deeper and heavier than that. So deep that he comes to the revelation that he’s only singing his song for Tinn and not the competition.

4. Gun’s mum supporting her son in everything whether it be his dream or love life. And the growing mother-in-law and son-in-law relationship between her and Tinn, like this woman already trust him with her life. She’s planning the wedding as we speak.

5. Their friends are amazing. Tiw constantly supporting his bestie and giving him advice. The chinchillaz boys comforting and hugging Gun on stage when he finds out his mum his safe and the surgery went well.

6. TINNGUN ARE THE HEALTHIEST, SWEETEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL SWOONWORTHY BOYFRIENDS IN BL HISTORY.

‘My school president’ is truly a gem and GMMTV hit the jackpot with GeminiFourth. Case closed.

[rose-tea-and-strawberries]

Oh, but that one episode where Mortimer was lying about being the club critic and he demanded to have some cute girls to sit with him. With Yuu working there, Minnie and Daisy weren’t enough for him and wanted Yuu to sit with him. Cue the entire Fab 5 and all the patrons of the club putting all stops and not caring if the reputation of the House of Mouse goes downhill for Yuu’s sake. (Of course, that won’t happen because Lumiere quickly revealed that he was the critic)

Fun Fact: This was actually one of (if not the) first episodes of HoM episodes little me watched so this is going to be fun.

So since Lumiere got held up (I'm 100% convinced that it was because he was so excited for his job as a critic he somehow accidently caused a mishap in Adam and Belle's castle and now all of them ended up being late because Mrs Potts and Cogsworth forced him to fix it. Adam and Belle were especially upset because they had brought a few books from their library they wanted to lend to Yuu - Chip even pitched in a few of his favourite tea bags).

Now Mortimer, the scourge of the earth, the repulsive rodent himself. Yuu very much dislikes him and she practically likes everyone. When he first enters enters the club, the Sensational Six do their very best to make sure that neither of them get within each other’s sight but Yuu being Yuu thinks that he might not be as bad everyone tells her because hey, her friends at NRC didn’t exactly have the best reputation before they encountered The Power Of Love Friendship™. 

She immediately understood why everyone hates him three seconds after meeting him.

Thankfully she’s got overprotective work dads and mums that always have their eyes on him and her so she never has to stick around. Even when they are busy we’ve got the patrons ready to call on her the second she enters within six feet of Mortimer.

Also Pete may be an awful and downright cruel jerk but he's a jerk with standards. Even he hates Mortimer and finds it disgusting that the mouse makes advances on people that are clearly uncomfortable with him. I remember in the Christmas special, when he trapped Minnie under mistletoe and tried to force a kiss on her, Pete quickly took Minnie's place and kissed him instead. Yeah he tries to close down the club in dastardly ways but tricking a young girl like that? Pal, even he draws the line.

So whilst Mortimer is enjoying the fact that he can do whatever he wants and no one can deny him, he decides that it’s finally time to get to know the girl that everyone seems to love so he demands that Yuu sits at his table.

Mortimer: *smirking as he leans over his table on his elbows* You know what, doll? Hows about ya come sit here with me as well?

*record scratch* *entire club goes silent as everyone turns to stare at Mortimer and Yuu, the latter of who’s smiling yet looks both surprised and uncomfortable* *insert Kill Bill sirens*

Mickey: *looks straight at Mortimer with a forced smile, paws clenched, and completely tense with anger* Yuu, go to the staff room.

Yuu: But what about the-

Minnie: Don’t worry about anything, sweetie.

Daisy: Yeah, honey, you go take your break. We’ll handle everything.

Meanwhile Goofy is holding a very angry, loudly yelling Donald back from attacking Mortimer there and then. Yeah, he was angry that his girlfriend was forced to sit with him but Daisy is an adult and a very capable duck who is more than ready to prove how much of a spitfire she can be - Yuu is his kid a girl that doesn’t have that kind of power (to be honest though, if she did attack him, not only would the entire club provide alibis for her, he’s sure that the villains would throw her a party). 

Mickey makes it very clear to Mortimer that whilst he loves the club and would do anything to protect it, it’s not worth it if Yuu gets hurt. He’ll put on a show, alright, but if Mortimer even thinks of even looking at Yuu, then not even he can control what happens.

The patrons also collectively agreed that if the House of Mouse does get closed down, they’re more than happy to fund another one anyway.

Everyone’s 1000% more alert than usual. The animal characters all have their claws out and are balefully glaring at Mortimer whilst the adult humans make sure to keep an eye out for Yuu no matter where she is. Lots of the clients are parents so their protective instincts are on overdrive.

For the entirety of the night, Yuu finds herself seated at a table with Maleficent, Jack Skellington, Oogie Boogie, The Horned King and frickin Chernabog himself. Forget scary dog privileges, no one in their right mind would even think of approaching someone who's being guarded by the forces of evil, the powers of hell and the embodiments of fear.

I feel like some of the ladies would feel especially protective. Tiana was a black waitress in the 1920 so she’s definitely had her share of workplace harassment, Esmeralda’s been hit on quite a few times on men that have no concept of the word ‘no’ and same thing with Megara.

Meg: This is why I hate men.

Hercules: You do 🥺

Meg: All men except you, wonder boy. Now are you gonna punch him or should I?

You think the villains would be bad when it comes to people upsetting Yuu? Just wait until you see what her ‘big brothers’ would do to the poor unfortunate soul that hurt her.

To make up for the mix-up, Lumiere gets the castle staff to perform ‘Be Our Guest’ for Yuu. Even after the whole fiasco, everyone makes sure that neither of them crosses paths again. The clients don’t really interact with him but both the villains’ and heroes’ sidekicks make sure to remind him that he’s on everyone’s hitlist blacklist

Also Daisy gives Yuu a box full of pepper spray ‘for emergencies’

[aihoshiino]

I did some mathing in my brain about when is AI’s and the Twins birthdays since I’m trying to figure out with what we got in the prologue since Aka never gave anyone birthdays and the time line of seasons is a fuck here. but I’m thinking Ai just turned 16 around the same time she was discovered to be 20 weeks along(5 months) and it starts snowing when her death/20th birthday but the twins birth it also starts snowing with the reincarnation happens.Japan usually starts having snow around mid December til early April so I’m shooting that AI’s birthday is around December while the twins might be late march if im doing a ball park guess I know this is weird thing to bring up in a ask but if Akasaka doesn’t give us birthdays then the fans gonna have to do it with the context clues we get especially since she’s still 16 when the twins are like … 6 months. Idek I’m rambling and want to know of your take cause I love your takes

please undrstand i am saying this with nothing but love but this ask briefly sent me down a rabbithole of forbidden knowledge and insanity and i feel like a lovecraft protag who has seen too much. I THINK i have made sense of all this but.................... listen akasaka clearly didn't think about it the same way i'm doing here so really, i guess i'm the clown in this scenario. heehoo.

The most direct clue we get about when Ai's birthday falls is in Viewpoint B, during her conversation with Kyun. The flashback portion of the story is implied to take place in December (the framing device is set in December and Kyun's recent breakup happened 'right before Christmas') and Ai's upcoming fifteenth birthday is mentioned indirectly; she talks about being about to age out of the children's home she'd been staying in which would put her birthday either in December or January.

This is also supported by the fact that the the snowfall that occurs after her death is noted to be unseasonably early. Given that the series is set mostly in Tokyo which mostly gets its snow in January, December makes the most sense for her birth month. In addition, during the little happy memories montage at the end of the episode, we see the family celebrating Christmas in a space that has exclusively Christmas decorations — so Ai's birthday is not close enough to the 24th or 25th for those sorts of celebrations to overlap. With all that in mind, my best guess for Ai's birthday is late November/early December. I personally like to headcanon it as November 28th, as it matches the timeframe and is when the real life Strawberry Productions Fan Thankgiving event was held.

As for the twins birthday, my instinct was to try and guesstimate this based on the details of Ai's pregnancy. We're directly told by the text that it lasted the full 40 weeks (which is actually not as common for twins — Ruby and Aqua were a bit late!) and that a few months have passed by the time she returns to working as an idol; Aqua and Ruby are using walkers the day she returns from her hiatus and babies are not typically physically capable of using them until around six months old. Obviously the twins are a bit more mobile than a regular baby would be much earlier, but they do seem to be reasonably constrained by the physical limits of their bodies so I feel pretty comfortable saying around six months have passed by the time Ai comes off hiatus. This also makes sense in terms of Ai's health, since it takes about six months to fully recovery from childbirth.

20 weeks post hiatus pregnancy + six months postpartum recovery = ten to eleven months passed between Ai arriving at the hospital and returning from her hiatus. It's also worth noting that she may not actually still be 16 around this time? When Saitou talks about her age, he mentions her becoming a mother at 16 which is obviously the age she had the kids, but it does leave room for her to have had a birthday between getting pregnant and actually having them.

With that 20 week starting point in mind, though, we can use the remaining 20 weeks of her pregnancy to try and narrow things down a bit more.

Using the anime as reference, it seems to be around early/mid autumn when Ai arrives at the hospital. If you look at the greenery behind Gorou when he's up on the roof, you can see there's patches where leaves are starting to show their autumn colours.

Since the hospital is all the way out in Takachiho, where autumn typically lasts between November and early December (if I'm remembering right?), my best guess would be that Ai arrived at the hospital probably late November or early December.

With that in mind, the remaining 20 weeks of her pregnancy playing out in full, that means the twins' birthday must be in mid to late April. This is actually implicitly confirmed to be the case in the series itself: while Ruby's age (and therefore Aqua's by extension) is given as 14 at the start of volume 2, they are already sixteen by the time LoveNow starts airing, which happens not long after they start high school - and the Japanese school year starts in April.

I'm choosing to headcanon them on the earlier side of April, just because that places them smack dab in the middle of cherry blossom season for Tokyo, which both makes them spring babies in contrast to Ai and ties nicely into how cherry blossoms represent rebirth and new beginnings.

anyway watch me post this ask and then next chapter confirms the twins were born or october 5th or some shit.............

[oatmealdaydreams]

Invisibility vs Visibility

Theory Time!

A shorter theory because brain is low on braincells. Enjoy :D

Edit: haha, nope. Not short. It is, in fact, very long. Biggo post. Extra long motherf*cker. Giraffe-long theory we've got here.

Disclaimer: I am referring to the character Thomas Sanders, not the real person. I may make reference to the real person for a few different things, but the main one I will be discussing is the character.

Trigger/Content Warning: discussion of morals/morality, religious themes, discussion of intrusive thoughts, brief discussion of self-harm & grief/death

[Masterlist]

Thinking about the 5 Years Anniversary video, and how Remus mentions whispering the whole 'bubblegum shrimp' thing to Roman in his sleep. Then, I thought about how in Remus' introductory video (DWIT), there's the sticky note that says "Aunt Patty Naked" in the background. I remember how Roman had said the whole 'Aunt Patty Naked' thing in a previous video.

Which got me thinking: what if some of Roman's weirder outbursts were from Remus' influence?

And that got me thinking: but how would he be able to whisper things like that during a video? And before his introduction??

One answer: twin telepathy, which would be both funny and fun to mess around with as a fanfic writer.

However, I thought of something else.

What if the Sides had an Invisibility side effect?

I'll explain.

===

A. Imaginary Characters

The Sides are all imaginary characters, made of Thomas' psyche to better help him through dilemmas. They're all aware of being technically-real-but-also-not-real people. Metaphysical, as Logan might say.

They're just parts of Thomas, given specific roles to what they represent. Originating from Vine characters and turned into their own personas, sans Remus and Janus. They're fictional. They are aware of them not being entirely real, to some degree (the dark Sides moreso as they constantly break the fourth wall).

So, how would the imaginary appear on screen as if they were real?

Ignoring the fact that they're fictional and played by Thomas himself. We're focusing entirely on the Sanders Sides canonverse/Sanders Sides universe.

Anyway: they appear on screen like real people because it's Thomas' knowledge and awareness of them. They're Thomas' Sides. They're as real to him as the parts of his personality they're based on. It's his psyche, his imagination, his characters. As long as Thomas is aware of them, they appear on screen and become somewhat real (in the SaSi universe).

To prove my point: remember the first and only three Sides we saw visibly for the first two episodes?

Logan (Logic, Sense of Reason), Roman (Creativity, Passion, Ego), and Patton (Morality, Emotions/the Heart).

The "light" Sides, as they're called.

Why are they the only three on screen? Because Thomas is aware of them and already knows about them.

Just because the Others aren't seen doesn't mean they aren't there.

They're just not known to Thomas yet, sans maybe Virgil.

(he's a special case; you'll see what I mean a little later into the post)

-=-=-=-=-

B. The Lights & Being Visible

The Lights: Logan, Patton, Roman

Thomas knows these three the most out of the six of them. The Lights are the ones in the forefront of his mind, in the 'spotlight'. They're the ones labelled as 'welcomed' and 'good'.

Logic and Sense of Reasoning? Humans have Logic instilled in them since the beginning of their creation. Logic isn't just intellect and smarts, it's literally what helps the brain most when functioning a human being. It's something so physical that it'll never go away. It cannot fade away. It's there to stay.

That being said, it's still a part of personalities because it's also intellect and smarts. It's also Common Sense. It's Learning and Wisdom and all that entails.

Thomas is a very smart individual. He's neurodivergent (irl Thomas literally has ADHD and made a whole video about it). Neurodivergents (NDs) tend to have a higher intelligence. So yeah, Thomas is very intelligent and curious. He depends on his Logic for a whole sh*t-ton of things. He's used to Logan, his Logic.

Morality and Emotions/the Heart? Morals are such an important part of humans and their values. Emotions are something we can't always control. Our Heart and Morality goes hand in hand. Our morals can shape our heart and vice versa. Both are equally important.

Thomas has a big Heart. He feels things and Emotions very deeply. He's a sensitive person. Dare I say, he's an empath. His morals lay heavy on his Heart. Because of his Catholic upbringing, his Morality tends to follow that of a religious standpoint. And that affects how his Heart grew and got shaped during his childhood development.

Since Patton is also his Love for Dad Jokes, and an obvious dad character, it makes sense for him. Morality and morals? Well, who teaches you morals, right from wrong? Your parents do. The people who raise you do. So yeah, Patton has this Preacher Dad thing going on. But I digress.

Anyway: Thomas is used to Patton. He's the embodiment of some of his core beliefs. So yeah, definitely a Side he's well aware of.

Creativity, Passion, Ego? So many things to tackle here.

First off, Creativity is literally where a lot of his intelligence comes from. Thomas is a creative type, a creatively intelligent person. He made his entire livelihood based on his creative merits. Though only half of his Creativity, Roman is definitely an important character of Thomas' personality.

Passion means many things: romance, career/hobbies, creative passion, and just a whole lot more. Since Roman is definitely one of the gayest motherf*ckers in terms to romance, it's safe to say him being Thomas' Passion means a lot of different things. He plays a big part in Thomas' romantic love life. He's passionate about his creations, as Creativity, and what he provides for Thomas. He's passionate and dramatic in general, especially considering he represents most of Thomas' love for theatre and acting.

The Ego? Oh boy, is this an essential part to Thomas. The Ego, put simply, is a person's sense of self-worth and self-esteem. It's kept healthy by positive reinforcement and attention. It's in no way bad. In fact, it's a very good thing. It keeps peoples' mental states healthier.

Which explains c!Thomas' mental breakdown, but I digress.

Anyway: The Ego (aka: Roman) is super f*cking important and essential. Thomas knows Roman as the Ego (amongst other things). He's very much used to his Ego, his [family-friendly half of] Creativity, his Passion and romantic Side.

Thus: yes, these three are known enough by Thomas to be appearing on screen. They're visible to us because they're visible to Thomas.

Which explains the dark Sides (and Virgil).

-=-=-=-=-

C. The Darks & Invisibility

The Darks: Janus, Remus, Orange

As I mentioned above: the Lights are visible to us because they're visible to Thomas, known by Thomas.

So, it follows that because Thomas doesn't know the Darks until later, they aren't visible to us until they're visible to Thomas.

Deceit and Self-Preservation? Deceit/Deception and realizing your capacity for it is very important. Lying and deceiving others isn't exactly the best thing on its own, but it can keep you alive. It's a part of emotional/physical survival. It keeps you out of trouble. It can help protect your being and Self. Self-Preservation is, put simply, preserving your Self and your sense of Self. It's protecting your mental and emotional health. It's protecting your Ego and self-worth. It's keeping you alive, trying to preserve your mental state. It's trying to keep you from snapping and completely losing it. Self-Preservation will keep things from you because you aren't ready for them yet, because forgotten memories hurt you, because you need to be in a different place to handle certain things better. Having Deceit and Self-Preservation paired together makes more sense than not.

For Thomas, I'd say he had a lot of Deceit going on for the purpose of Self-Preservation and protection. Especially considering he grew up as a gay Catholic kid in 90s Florida. And thus is a similar experience for most of us fellow queers.

Anyway: Thomas hadn't realized his capacity for Deceit yet, not had he brought his Self-Preservation to light. His mental was indeed suffering, and he wasn't being entirely honest with himself. He was a bit deep in Denial. His Self-Preservation was keeping things from him (other Sides of him, Janus himself, the hard truths he had yet to face), which plays into Denial and possible Self-Ignorance.

The other Sides, that he knew at the time, were trying to hide the existence of Janus as well as convincing him Lying Is Bad, period. His Morality swore off lying, it wasn't right, we shouldn't lie. His Anxiety went off at the thought of lying, even if for good reason (this also had something to do with Virgil's general distaste for Janus). His Logic was a bit neutral to it, as far as I saw. His [known] Creativity, as well as his Ego and Passion, wavered between lying and telling truth. Roman mostly acted in Self-Interest, if only to boost Thomas' Ego or play positively into his passions.

Only did Thomas start to realize his Deceit, and his Self-Preservation for mental health specifically, when his Morality is faced with a more shades-of-grey question. Janus shifts into Patton to appeal to him as something he already knows and is aware of before revealling himself (CLBG). Things go from there to Janus helping him realize how truly f*cked his mental is (SvS & POF). Only then does he become visible.

Intrusive Thoughts and [Darker] Creativity? As much as they aren't welcomed, Intrusive Thoughts are important to note. The more frequent you have them, the more likely your mental health may need to be checked in on. They don't make you any less of a good person. Thoughtcrime isn't real. Thought doesn't equal action. You choose whether or not to act on the thoughts you have. You have control. You'll be okay.

I digressed a little bit. Whoops.

Anyway: Darker Creativity is super f*cking important, especially for a creative person (like Thomas). The darker side of Creativity helps explore more mature ideas and concepts. Without it, many things might not get addressed in your creative works. Things like self-harm, the darker things of mental health, the cruel reality of many different things, grief and death, etc. That includes Intrusive Thoughts (heh). With Darker Creativity, you could explore gore and such monstrosities. Horror games? Thrillers? Cruel realities and dystopias? Body horror? All from that comes from Darker Creativity. Your favourite shooter games? Zombie Apocalyptic fiction? Yep, Darker Creativity.

Having Intrusive Thoughts paired with Darker Creativity makes a little too much sense, honestly.

For Thomas, he had shunned away his Darker Creativity. He repressed his Intrusive Thoughts. Repression does no one any good. Ignoring something like that is more harmful than anything. He shackled his Creativity by repressing and shunning the darker parts of himself like that.

Funny how both of his Creativities feel shackled and restricted, huh?

Moving on: his Self-Preservation helped hide away (in a way) his Darker Creativity. A part of himself that just wants recognition and attention. Remus literally said, and I quote, "Thomas, you made me this way." When you shun a part of yourself and repress it, especially so deeply, it becomes intrusive. When something is so foreign to you and labelled as 'bad', it becomes intrusive. No matter how dark your mind or Creativity is, you're still a good person. Thoughtcrime isn't real.

I need to stop diverging from my point, jfc-

The point: Thomas didn't know his Darker Creativity until much later. He didn't recognize his Intrusive Thoughts as Intrusive Thought until much later. He was denying himself until much later.

Only when his mental was really drowning in the depths of a self-deprecating sea did he see those things. Only when he was so close to a mental breakdown did he start stop repressing those parts of himself.

Only then did Remus pop out, finally able to be recognized for something, and got seen.

Wrath, Jealousy, Regret, and every mystery of Orange? Yeah, this will be a tricky one. We haven't seen Orange on screen just yet, so this is heavily theoretical territory.

Basing everything of Orange on all the random theories I've collected in my lil theory hoard of him.

First off: Wrath relates to anger (it's literally defined as 'extreme anger'). Among that, I believe it can also relate to Righteous Anger. Both are 100% important for humans to have. Wrath, both repressed and expressed, is just as needed as any other feeling or emotion. You're going to feel angry when you're hurt or upset. You'll feel angry or mad when you've been wrong, or at least when you feel like you've been wronged. When you've been mistreated or shunned, there'll be angry. In the case of Thomas, and my fellow queers/minorities, there is the feeling of Righteous Anger. Not righteous in a religious sense/context, but in a sort of vengeful way.

When you've been mistreated for things you cannot change about yourself, you are angry and want Justice. Who are they to say such things about you? To assume this and that? They hurt you, so you want Justice. Sometimes, this can come in the form of vengefulness.

Aka: Karma.

Jealousy? You most often get angry when you get jealous of someone or something. You want to have what they have. You should have or be what they have or who they are. You want that career, that attention, that romantic partner, that family life, that friend, that house or car, etc. It's important to pay attention to that Jealousy, and to see what you really want. Chances are it's more than just wanting something of someone else's. Jealousy is what I believe to be a form of anger.

Regret? This can be more of anger directed at yourself. Guilt. Shame. Regret. You can be angry with yourself for doing or saying something dumb (or that you think is dumb). Why would you do that thing? You hurt that person; now look at the mess you've created. Why would you do that/say that? Why, why, why?

^Regret is important. It's a form of Shame and Guilt unlike any other. Regret also comes from your sense of Morality, and it can be a result of Anxiety.

And all those things I've said for Orange? They're all equally important things Thomas could learn and realize.

Only then, when he finally realizes whatever Orange represents, will we see Orange.

Overall: the Darks are not seen by us until they're seen by Thomas. They remain invisible to us, though they're still there. They're known to us once they're known to Thomas.

And Thomas still has some learning to do.

-=-=-=-=-

D. The Neutral Side & His Flickering Visibility

The Neutrals: Virgil

Virgil represents Anxiety. There's already a two-part episode entirely about him and his role (AA, part I & II). There are many parts to Anxiety, as we've seen. He's a former Dark, a current Light (as far as it's somewhat implied), and a definite Neutral. He's a bit in-between the black-and-white imaginary for the Lights and the Darks. He's both sides and neither of them at the same time.

And how does this affect his visiblity?

Well... it does and it doesn't.

The defining factor of being seen or unseen is Thomas himself.

Virgil is first seen, assumingly as a Dark, in the third SaSi episode (Taking on ANXIETY [TOA]). He goes through his arc and (also assumingly) becomes a Light during AA (parts I & II).

Going back to TOA: Thomas was already aware of his Anxiety, to some extent. Virgil popped in, scared Thomas (lmao), and Thomas immediately recognizes him for who he is. He recognizes his Anxiety; Virgil's no one new. However, at that point, Thomas recognized Virgil as a somewhat obsessive Anxiety. An overbearing Anxiety. Something only there to be negative and annoying.

This, of course, changed as the series progressed. Not the point, though.

He is seen because he is already known. BUT! He was seen as a Dark because that's how he was known.

He is then seen as a Light because that's how he becomes known as.

He never once, to Thomas, is seen or known as a Neutral.

This is important. Virgil is already seen. Then he is seen again, in a different spotlight. But he still isn't seen.

It's almost like his visibility shifts and changes, almost like a flickering streetlight. Like a transparent png file, he isn't all there. Not yet, anyway.

Virgil isn't entirely seen until Thomas recognizes and realizes him as a Neutral Side. As far as I know, that hasn't happened quite yet. Perhaps, with the coming days of Orange, he will be seen then.

And only then will he be seen in his entirety.

*Side Note: I cannot articulate clearly of what I mean exactly about the 'flickering visibility' yet. Brain ain't got the braincells for that today. May revisit and expand on this later.

[ailendolin]

Since we now know Ghosts will come to an end this year, I thought I'd write down some endings I'd be quite happy with:

Alison and Mike have a baby (version 1)

Since series 4 hinted that starting a family may be something Alison and Mike will consider in the future I wouldn't mind if the overarching theme of series 5 was them trying to get pregnant and succeeding in the final episode. If we get a Christmas Special, it could start with Alison and Mike coming home from the hospital with baby Cooper and then we get 30 minutes of wholesome family moments with the ghosts.

Alison and Mike have a baby (version 2)

The same as above except this time we already meet Baby Cooper at the end of episode 6 and then see her/him turning one in the Christmas Special. The ghosts are growing unusually quiet as the baby's birthday approaches and when Alison confronts them about it they remind her that babies stop seeing them around this age. The rest of the episode revolves around each of them saying goodbye to Baby Cooper in their own way (just as we are saying goodbye to the show) and it could either end on a sad note with the baby losing the ability to see them or on a joyful one with everyone realising Baby Cooper is like Alison (ghosts lore doesn't make sense so I don't care that it's unrealistic for the baby to inherit Alison's ability). I personally prefer the latter because it would mean the ghosts will never be alone again.

Mike being able to see the ghosts

I'm not sure this is a direction the Six Idiots would actually take the show in but if they did, the final episode would be the perfect time to do it without shaking up the dynamic we've come to know and love. Let's say Mike takes a tumble down the stairs and the final episode then mirrors the beginning of the show with a trip to the hospital, Alison saying he's been clinically dead for a minute or so and them coming home and realising Mike can see the ghosts now.

A timelapse of Alison and Mike growing old over the years

Again, not sure this is something the Six Idiots would do, but I wouldn't mind it if the Christmas Special showed us Alison and Mike growing old through various Chrstimases over the years and their child(ren) growing up with the ghosts. We could get glimpses of family traditions like bedtime stories Alison tells the kid(s) about the ghosts through which we learn things we don't know yet (like the Captain's name, for example), the kid(s) drawing pictures for the ghosts as Christmas presents and shaking Kitty's snow globe for her as they walk past it, everyone standing around the piano and singing carols, the kid(s) trying to communicate with Robin through the lights to find out what they're getting for Christmas ... Just little, every day moments that show us the family the Coopers and the ghosts have become over the years.

In the end, the specifics don't really matter, though. I just hope that the ending will be a hopeful one. I don't want it to be a goodbye with either the ghosts moving on and leaving Alison behind, Alison moving on and leaving them behind or all of them moving on and Button House standing empty in the final shot. I want a heartwarming ending that reassures us, "This is not the end; this is just the beginning of a new chapter in everyone's lives."

[bracketsoffear]

Columbo (Columbo) "A shrewd but inelegant blue-collar homicide detective whose trademarks include his shambling manner, rumpled beige raincoat, cigar and off-putting, relentless investigative approach. Columbo was the master of perp sweating. Though he generally settles on his horse from the outset, he never lets on, instead worming his way into their confidence via fawning adulation, begging their assistance as he "solves" the case. Usually he forces them to weave a huge web of lies until he can finally pull the thread — justified because he's always right. Without letting on that he suspects the perp, he'd have long, seemingly innocuous conversations with the murderer who would get more and more frustrated as they tried to get this annoying man to go away, and thus already be off-balance when the topic turned to holes in their cover-up. Columbo's favorite move was seeming to leave once the suspect thought they'd thrown him off the scent, then turning around and adding "Just one more thing," knocking them on their heels. He's overly nice to people in a bloodhound sort of way; he convinces people that he's just a country bumpkin more interested in whatever 'hat' the villain wears than solving the crime, only to reveal in the end a cold detachment and clinical mind that the bumpkin persona allowed free rein. He plays with the feelings of the criminals, making them like him (more often than not) or at least pity him and drop their guard, or he pushes them subtly and continuously to the point where they break. He attributes his success to merely working harder, thinking longer, and looking closer than anyone else would. However, Columbo has solved every case put before him onscreen (he sometimes claims that he only solves about a third total, but this could well be part of the humility act) and hasn't gotten his man only once — in which case the perp was dying anyway. In true classic mystery fashion, each episode wraps up with the Lieutenant confronting his prey with his train of deduction, culminating in the vital clue; the perp may not confess, but they know, and the viewer knows, they have been beaten. He also possesses an encyclopedic knowledge on some subjects, which he usually hides, and has explained to colleagues that his wife believes there is "something wrong" with him."

Jadis (Kill Six Billion Demons) "Jadis was born into a family of philosopher royalty who saw the Shape of the Universe as an experiment to study and dissect; they wasted ten generations in their efforts to witness the Shape (something that boiled a goddess’ eyes to see) and obtain all the secrets of Creation, a task she was prophecised to complete. She successfully saw the Shape, but it proved to be a thing beyond mortal ken and Jadis was shattered in both mind and body. She now exists inside a block of glass, a decaying, unmoving corpse, whispering prophecies with her perfect, terrible knowledge and worshipped by a cult devoted to recording and intepreting her whispers (and occasionally mis-interpreting them) while keeping their God-Queen alive. Book 5 demonstrates that, like the author has said, “Jadis knows the most, in fact. Of anyone. Ever”…and it has utterly destroyed her. Her perfect knowledge left her a deeply jaded, nihilistic woman who feels her actions, choices, and even her own identity (and everyone else's) are rendered completely moot when compared to the full shape of the universe. As someone who is ignorant of nothing, Jadis' limits are absolute and she is incapable of anything she hasn't already predicted will happen. She can't choose to do anything, because her decisions and their outcomes are already known to her. The alt text and some of her lines in her section of Breaker of Infinites discuss how if you can see everything, anything in it just becomes meaningless, unidentifiable noise in the infinite detail of it all: “When you see everything, there’s only one color left.” Jadis straight-up tells Allison that she, Jadis, does not exist in any meaningful sense because she can't tell where the lines between the Shape of the Universe and even her own mind are anymore. Consequently, Jadis tries to convince Allison to stop her mission to stop the destruction of the multiverse because she’s convinced that fighting is futile and meaningless in the end, so she should surrender instead of choosing more suffering. She takes Allison to see the machine that showed her the Shape, tells her the exact time from then she will die, comments on a personal detail of Allison’s past, and says what she’s doing before she does it (to make it creepier, her predictions were in the alt text several pages before). She then shows Allison the Shape and gives her a breaking speech to try and convince her to give up, and eventually talks Allison into accepting futility for months before she gets her shit together. Allison eventually realizes that Jadis is unable to change or recover from the traumas of her past because she no longer has a past - her perfect knowledge of everything that ever is, was, and will be means that she is constantly, continually reliving the complete and total despair that hit her when she saw the Shape and realized the futility of everything, and will do so for as long as she exists. Jadis wanted to know, believing that she could use her wisdom for the greater good, but the horrible knowledge she gained by seeing literally everything ever destroyed her so completely that she cannot comprehend being a person or making choices anymore--she has thus trapped herself in nihilistic certainty that she knows what’s going to happen and therefore nothing matters, and she wants to impress that mindset onto the only person she can even share her omniscience with anymore."

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Well I listened to an episode of the Peacock & Gamble radio show today that follows interestingly from the post I made yesterday about how the dynamic’s changed a bit, Ed and Ray have a somewhat more adversarial relationship, Ed in a more clearly “straight man” role, it’s still very funny but some things work less well. There was other stuff going on too, but it seemed to turn around a little bit in episode five (March 24, 2014 – the first episode in which they actually said the date at some point during the episode, and I’ve been able to work out the previous episodes’ air dates from that, so I finally have those). When they’re three hours each, a lot can change in just one episode.

Adding a cut because this got long. Some discussion of misogyny ahead. Not from the comedians.

Episode 5 immediately felt a bit different because Ed was doing a fair bit more talking than usual. And not just talking more but talking first, cutting Ray off a little quicker than usual, being the person to drive the direction of conversation slightly more. I’d noticed in previous episodes that he sometimes faded a bit into the background in these, as he’d occasionally done in their interviews from Edinburgh, but in this episode he was getting right in there.

I have a guess as to why this was, and it’s related to the fact that he’d developed a new running joke throughout the episode, which was cutting Ray off to say “Don’t start talking about your depression.” Which probably looks terrible out of context so it’s only fair that I clarify, at no point did it sound like Ed Gamble thought anyone, including Ian Boldsworth, should not talk about their depression in real life. He said it in a jokey way, had picked this as an episode catchphrase it’s of a funny thing to say (because you’re not supposed to say that and saying things you’re not supposed to say is funny, Peacock and Gamble based a whole double act on that principle) – but also doubled as a way to genuinely cut Ray off any time he started on something that could go off the rails. Like when he brought up his dead fish again, or his Muppet collection that was in the bath because he hadn’t unpacked his new place. Ed would shut that down with “Don’t start talking about your depression” and change the subject.

They also referenced the fact that Ed had been to his place the other night and found him in a bad way, and I’m going to guess that the balance of Ray Peacock’s mental health breakdown had recently been tipped to Ray being genuinely worrying to the people around him, and Ed didn’t want him driving the direction of the radio show in that state. Ed sounded slightly nervous about this, I think, and the dynamic was different again.

Then their fucking guest arrived. He arrived during this song, which I got fully caught up in. I’d never heard that song before, but since I first heard it on their radio show about six hours ago, I’ve downloaded it to my phone and I’m obsessed with it. I sat on the train to work today and was amazed at how good it was. I may have been especially drawn into it because it happens to be very thematically relevant to the Ray Peacock stand-up shows I listened to yesterday and hugely enjoyed (I say “happened to” as though it’s a coincidence, I assume Ray Peacock was into this song then because he was writing that show). Not just the general theme of mental health, but this song covers the specific topic that show explored, about nature vs. nurture and origins stories of issues, those topics had stayed in my mind because that’s what a very very good stand-up show will do to you, then then this song came on the next day, it was so good, I was enjoying it so much.

Then, this voice I haven’t heard before interrupts the song, and asks what the fuck is this rubbish. Ray and Ed interrupt their own songs all the time, it was a remark of respect for this song that they hadn’t interrupted it yet, but it was jarring to hear someone else get in there and be so rude about it right off the bat. They told him it was Amanda Palmer (helpful, that saved me a Google since I didn’t know the song but immediately knew I wanted it), he said it was fucking awful and they should turn it off. Their guest had arrived, and had immediately created a sour atmosphere both in the radio show in general, and in my specific experience of it, cutting that off so abruptly.

They said their guest was a porn star, and I immediately assumed it was a comedian who does a terrible character (the guests in the first four episodes were all comedians – Al Murray, Thom Tuck, Johnny Vegas, Angela Barnes), but I Googled him and he’s an actual porn star. He’s also a terrible person. Those things are not related, not all porn stars are terrible people. But fucking hell, he was.

It was all right for a while. They asked him a bunch of questions about what it’s like to do this job that most people know little about (little about how it works, anyway), a couple of the answers were sort of interesting, it was a bit awkward and the guy was being a bit of a dick but not that bad. Ray, who’d been fading slightly into the background (for the first time, as far as I can tell, ever) earlier in the episode, really came alive when he had the chance to ask a professional all his questions about dick size and gay experimentation and other topics on which he frequently fixates. They seemed to have more correspondence than they’d ever had before from listeners as well, constantly reading out questions they got over Twitter and texts from people who wanted to know things about the famous porn star (including one message from someone named Danielle Ward, and – I assume it’s not that one, surely she has better things to do than listen to this, but if she was listening to that horrible interview, makes it more understandable why she quit working public performance, you’d want to get away from that shit).

So it was all right for a bit, they were bantering with him and reveling in saying rude and inappropriate things because he works in sex and that’s inherently rude and inappropriate and that fits right into P&G comedy, and they’re so into it that it takes a little while for the atmosphere to catch up when it turns from funny-inappropriate to bad-inappropriate. The guy tells a couple of stories that have the tone and cadence of the funny-inappropriate stories, but if you think about them for half a second they’re actually about genuinely exploiting vulnerable people (specifically vulnerable women) in real life and they’re horribly fucked up.

Ray and Ed dealt with it relatively well, I’m not sure there is a really good thing to do in that situation unless you’re willing (and able) to just kick the guy out of the studio. Ray got back in charge a bit, started occasionally pointing out that these stories aren’t really okay, but the guy didn’t really seem bothered by that.

I found it interesting as a look at the old issue of irony in inappropriate comedy. You know, the thing that makes anything Peacock & Gamble have ever done acceptable. Saying awful things ironically these days is considered less okay than it used to be, and I think that’s a sign of the actual comedy changing, as well as audience attitudes about it changing.

Twenty, fifteen, even maybe ten years ago, if people said something awful ironically, it was reasonable for other people to assume they didn’t “secretly mean it”, the joke was that they understand it’s a bad thing to say and are making fun of people who’d say those things for real. At some point in the last decade, we’ve all figured out that the genuinely terrible people use irony as a shield when they say awful things, and if someone is saying that stuff “ironically”, there’s a decent chance that they do secretly mean it and are justifying it that way. Or that they might not personally mean it, but they’re happy to intentionally appeal to audience members who do, who will laugh because “You can’t say anything anymore, isn’t it great that that person’s standing up for my right to be racist!” Or that the joke “It’s funny because it’s true”, rather than “It’s funny because some horrible people believe this for real.”

Of course, sometimes, even ten or fifteen or twenty or thirty years ago, people would say horrible things as a joke, and the joke would be “It’s funny because it’s true.” But they didn’t usually wrap it up in irony, at least back then. You could tell the difference more easily. The difference between comedians saying awful things because they think awful things are funny, and comedians saying awful things ironically because they want to make fun of the people who actually think that way. I think there did used to be a much clearer difference than there is now.

And that is why I will accept a lot more ironic awful things in comedy from the 00s than in comedy that’s made today. Why I will laugh a lot at Peacock & Gamble saying something terrible in 2011, when if someone said the same thing in 2024, and tried to claim the same amount of irony, I’d say irony’s not a good defence for that. I guess in that one specific way, it’s true, you maybe can’t say anything anymore. But that's not my fault. It's not the Wokerati's fault (I am, to be clear, among the Wokerati). It's the fault of the terrible people who broke the pact where we all promised that irony means we don't really mean it.

Though to be fair, I have never heard any comedian from the last few years, who does material where they “ironically” say horrible things, and is anywhere near as funny as Peacock & Gamble. So there’s another extremely significant difference, I’ll laugh at Peacock & Gamble in 2011 and not at people who say horrible things in 2024 because the former was much much funnier than the latter. But there’s a political difference too.

This is something I think about at times, because to be honest, I’m surprised Ed Gamble hasn’t been canceled. Cancel culture’s not a real thing, most cancelations are just someone getting in trouble for a few weeks and then everyone forgets about it, that’s all that I’d expect to happen here. But with all the “re-surfaced clips of wholesome entertainer saying something terrible back in the day, people will get mad for a few weeks and everyone will shout ‘cancel culture!’ and then everyone will forget and it’ll be fine” – with all the times that’s happened, I’m surprised no one’s done it to Ed Gamble. I’ve tried to be a bit careful, while listening to the old P&G stuff, I’ve posted audio clips from it less often than I do with other stuff I listen to, and when I have posted clips, I’ve done some pretty surgical cutting to make sure I don’t get the worst stuff in there. Because it doesn’t seem fair to take some shit he said that long ago and post it on social media with no context in 2024, and I don’t have time to explain the massive amounts of context involved (including the stuff in this post, it would need to come with an explanation of “this was back when irony was used to demonize rather than normalize terrible things, or at least, that’s how most people thought it worked”, as well as “Okay they did plan all that out, the other guy was in on it, it’s all right”), and even with the full context there’s plenty of it that’s still not justifiable.

I’m careful in what I post on Tumblr because of theoretical principle, but to be honest, I could post whatever the hell I wanted on here and it would have no effect on Ed Gamble’s career because no one’s look at Tumblr. But I have definitely heard some things in those old episodes that have made me think “If I really wanted to ruin a few weeks of Ed Gamble’s life, and I wanted to clip the worst of this out of context and post it on some social media sites the people actually read and do that thing where you tag people so it gets picked up, I bet I could cause a problem.” I wouldn’t do that, to be clear. I’m just saying I find it a bit weird that I think I could. Because if I could, then that means anyone who’s heard those podcasts could, and I find it surprising that no one has. Surely someone will at some point.

Anyway. The point, to get back to that, is that this fucking guest really drew a line that illustrates how much irony does mean something. Maybe it doesn’t these days, maybe these days if you say something awful then that probably means you’re just awful no matter how much irony there is. But in that radio show from 2014 (not all that long ago, by some measures), there was an extremely clear difference between the guys who say terrible things because it’s funny to have a giggle about breaking the rules, and the guy who started saying terrible things because he was clearly a genuinely terrible person. That difference was so clear, and it became clear so very fast, and you could listen in real time as Ray and Ed realized it was there and didn’t know how to confront it, and it made for incredibly uncomfortable listening. Not funny-uncomfortable, the way I find a lot of things, I will frequently laugh at an uncomfortable comedy situation just because it’s uncomfortable. But this was a different thing, nothing about it was funny.

It escalated bit by bit, and by the time Ray said they only had a couple of minutes left and would wrap this up, I thought, that was rough but could have been worse. I thought it might end without too bad an incident. But then, in the “wrapping it up”, they brought up a show this guy did years ago on which Lucy Porter also appeared. The guest started talking shit about Lucy Porter, and even if I hadn’t heard him say a word so far that episode, I would immediately know he was a dick, because who talks shit about Lucy Porter? Lucy Porter is wonderful. No decent person hates Lucy Porter.

This guy starts saying “She was horrible to me on that show,” and I’m thinking, “Good for her, I’m sure you fucking deserved it.” Then he said “She thought I was some sort of misogynist,” and I’m thinking, “Good for her for working that out so fast.” Ed and Ray are hanging back a bit, obviously not willing to join in and talk shit about a comedy colleague live on air (actually, they have talked shit about comedy colleagues in the past, but ones who’ve deserved it, which obviously Lucy Porter doesn’t), but not able to just tell the guy to fuck off. Until Ray announced that a producer in his ear has just told him Lucy Porter is, by total coincidence, in the next studio.

I can’t imagine why anyone thought it would be a good idea to tell him that. That’s the only part of this that makes me slightly wonder if it could have been a setup – why the fuck would they tell compulsively impulsive Ian Boldsworth, who was known to be in the middle of a breakdown and even more impulsive than usual – that Lucy Porter was next door while this was happening? But apparently they just told him that because they thought it would be interesting information. Ray, of course, immediately announced that he didn’t feel comfortable listening to someone say those things about her when she had no right of reply, and he was going to go get her so they could settle this.

You can then hear him get up and run out of the room. Just as you hear the studio door close, the porn star guest makes his most overtly misogynistic comment yet, saying she’s not even funny and she only gets work because she’s a woman. There were misogynist undertones in nearly everything he’d said so far during that interview, there were misogynistic overtones in the way he’d talked about Lucy Porter, but that one comment crossed a new line, and he said it when only Ed was in the studio.

At this point, I hadn’t laughed in a while. I’d laughed a little bit early on in the interview, but my laughs had stopped once he started telling legitimately terrible stories that were just about exploiting women, it was bad-uncomfortable rather than funny-uncomfortable, the irony was long gone, it wasn’t okay. But I have to admit, when that happened, I did find myself having to cover my mouth and work really hard to stifle hysterical laughter on a crowded bus. But I took one moment to think about the situation Ed Gamble was in, and that suddenly seemed incredibly, amazingly funny. I still think that’s amazingly funny, I stand by my laughter there.

Fucking hell. He started that episode clearly a bit nervous about the way he needed to step up a bit and keep this show on track while Ray was having a breakdown, maybe handle a little more than he was used to (I mean, obviously he was very used to things like this as he’d been performing comedy for years, but he wasn’t used to being the main person driving the chat in this specific radio show), make sure it doesn’t go entirely off the rails. And then he had to deal with an incredibly uncomfortable interview where he and Ray were faced with the choice, live on air, of how hard to push back on this guy saying awful things, always a tricky balance to strike in the moment. And then this guy had suddenly escalated his terrible-ness, including attacking a comedy colleague, putting Ed in an even more difficult position. And then, just as it reached its peak, Ray ran out, doing two things to make it worse for Ed: 1) he had to worry about what will happen if Ray manages to actually get Lucy Porter in there because bringing her in might be the sort of “going off the rails for real” that he’d been trying to prevent, and 2) he was left alone with the horrible porn star, still live on air, excepted to talk to him, and just as he was left alone, the overtly misogynistic comment got said and he had to answer it himself.

That was the funniest fucking thing that could have happened. I laughed so hard. What a terrible thing to be dropped into. It was like it had crossed the line twice, reached farcical levels of awful that can only be funny. Not to mention, that’s just straight-up relatable comedy. We’ve all been left in situations, like that, right? Difficult situations where luckily you have a more experience partner whom we’re relying on to competently get us through this, and then they suddenly leave the room and you’re left to try to sort it out? I’ve certainly been there. And I found it very funny to imagine Ed Gamble there multiplied several times over.

Ed awkwardly asked the guy about his TV show, managed to turn it into a borderline normal interview for about 90 seconds. Then Ray bursts back into the room, and at that point I was so sure that either this had been some sort of setup and Lucy Porter was never there and no one told Ray anything in his ear and he’d say he couldn’t find her, or maybe she somehow was there but obviously she was busy and he’d have to say he’d failed to find her and this guy can get out of the studio now. But nope. I hear a voice that’s very familiar to me off Radio 4, he’d actually fucking brought Lucy Porter in.

I’m as sure as I possibly can be that this wasn’t a setup. If it had happened on a radio show I didn’t know, I’d automatically assume it was a setup. But I really don’t think this was. No one sounded prepared for it. They threw Lucy at him, explained live on air what had happened. She said she remembered that show from 15 years ago, she had disliked him. And then she apologized for that, which I didn’t think she should do because I’m sure she was the one in the right, but also I didn’t blame her for a moment, because what the fuck was she supposed to say? This went on for a horribly awkward minute or so, then they said Lucy Porter really does have to leave, and it turned out Ray had burst into Sean Hughes’ show that was actively recording in order to get her, and they needed her back in the other show, like really actually needed her back and you’re not allowed to just go into other studios and steal their guests, Ray shouted something about how theirs was pre-recorded and this was live so more important, but Lucy went back to the other show, and like I said, knowing everything I know about Ray Peacock, I fully believe that none of that was a lie for the microphones.

Anyway, they got both guests out of the studio, and then they had another hour of their show, just Ray and Ed, and that was different. They said they usually go for extra filth in the last hour, but they don’t really want that after listening to that horrible guest and all his filth (meaning “filth” as in sex talk and “filth” as in unironic misogyny, conflating them in a very uncomfortable way that highlights how careful they normally are to keep them apart, it also highlights how well they keep ironic misogyny apart from unironic misogyny, as soon as they had to interact with a guy who doesn’t), the mentioned thinking they need a shower.

Shortly after that, Ray put on the Ben Folds cover of Bitches Ain’t Shit (a song that Kitson was obsessed with in the 00s and used to play on his radio shows all the time, on the subject of comedians who used to do ironic bigotry but pulled back on that once the world moved to a point where it’s not so simple or okay). Ray introduced it by saying they’re going to play this now because bitches aren’t shit, and then he added “That’s not my real opinion I’m just introducing the song”. I had never heard Ray Peacock do that before. I’ve sometimes heard him say it in interviews, or when talking about something he’s done before – he’ll describe his own words and actions as ironic. But I’ve never heard him making a joke, and immediately before or after the joke, clarify that he doesn’t really mean it. He just lets the irony be obvious, which is always is.

Partway through the song, Ray and Ed started talking over it, explaining the obvious, that the misogyny in this song is ironic, it’s Ben Folds ironically covering a Snoop Dogg song, the original song may actually not have been ironic but the cover is. They were sort of semi-ironically explaining that (the irony being that of course they knew we don’t really need that explained, but they felt the need to say it anyway), but even then, they ran into more stuff on this theme, trying to explain that maybe Snoop Dogg was being unironically misogynistic but Ben Folds was only being ironically misogynistic so it’s all okay, but when you put it like that it sounds like a weak defence. Then Ray just turned the song off before it was over, Ed asked him why, he said putting on so much overt misogyny, even ironically, feels genuinely uncomfortable after the interview they’ve just had. And he was right, it did feel uncomfortable. I like that song (the Ben Folds cover, I mean), but I felt uncomfortable hearing it in that context. And that seemed like a microcosm of what was happening with ironic misogyny in general in around 2014. A perfect metaphor for it, really. Some guys are having fun and messing around with ironic jokes, then a horrible person comes in and says a bunch of misogynistic stuff and tells stories about exploiting women for real, he leaves, they try to put on a playfully ironically misogynistic song, suddenly it seems less funny. That’s basically what happened to all of culture in the last ten years.

So that was interesting. The last hour of the show was also interesting, because I think it’s the most comfortable with each other Ray and Ed have sounded since the FUBAR Radio run started. That was where this post started – saying I want to follow on from the post I made yesterday that said their dynamic has been slightly less cooperative, they’re a bit more stuck in adversarial roles. Well for the last hour of this show, I think that got a bit better. It’s like they were so relieved to have their guest gone that they just had a great time with each other. They did Ed’s Amazing Births and it actually worked, Ed relaxed into the silliness easily. It ended with Ray doing more Meatloaf karaoke and Ed talking over it about how bad this is (I’ve realized this will be a running feature, which I still don’t think is as good as Ray and Ed singing Meatloaf together, but I am finding it funnier as it goes along), but it felt vaguely cathartic and they sounded like they were having a good time.

What a fucking roller coaster for one three-hour episode. Maybe all they needed was a common enemy. Maybe they got along so well in the early days because they were united against Raji James, and they united so hard against Raji that they were able to ride that wave of being in synch with each other for years, and it didn’t start to fade until 2014, when a misogynistic porn actor brought them back together (not really, obviously I know what actually happened is they stopped spending all their time together and Ed started outgrowing Ray in a variety of ways, but I like my theory better).

[bunnywritesjunk]

Ruusaan | Captain Rex x Reader

Series summary: You missed your tropical planet, but coruscant had more to offer. You are a field medic in the 501st. you work closely with the captain in hopes of not losing your job. But how close is too close.

Chapter summary: You work get ready to leave Umbara.

Pairing: Captain Rex x Reader

Warnings: Canon level violence, mean general, Blood, Head injury, T for teen (for this chapter)

Word count: 2k

Genre: Fluff and angst

A/n: Hello! Chapter 5 is out and we are officially out of the umbaran arc. Next up is gonna be some more pinning fluff with rex and the Zygerrian arc. Stay tuned!

Chapter 5

You lay in your bunk motionless. You took deep meditative breaths. In for six counts, hold for two counts, out for eight counts. This was how you always calmed yourself. You heard distant explosions outside the base. There was still a battle going on and here you were, benched. You looked at your comm, you,d been crying for twenty minutes. You decided to get up to get fresh air. As you walked out of the barrack you saw Dogma and a few other troopers lining up outside of the hangar. Their blasters were at the ready position. As you moved closer you saw Rex approach them with Fives and Jesse in tow. You sped up to meet Rex.

“What happened to the court martial?” You asked him concerned.

Rex looked dejected. “Krell said there would be no time, he ordered their execution immediately.”

Dogma walked up to Fives and Jesse. “Will the prisoners request to be blindfolded?” They didn't respond.

“I'll take that as a no.”

You turned around. You couldn't bear to watch two good men get killed like this.

“I hope you can live with yourself Dogma.” You heard Fives say.

“Ready weapons, aim.”

“Wait!” Fives exclaimed. You turned back to look at them.

“This is wrong and we all know it. The General is making a mistake, and he needs to be called on it. No clone should have to go out this way! We are loyal soldiers. We follow orders, but we are not a bunch of unthinking droids! We are men. We must be trusted to make the right decisions, especially when the orders we were given are wrong!”

“Fire!” Dogma shouted.

You flinched at the sound of blaster shots going off. When you looked up, Fives and Dogma were still standing. None of the blaster fire hit them.

“What...What happened?” Dogma faced his firing squad. They all dropped their weapons. Rex walked up behind Dogma.

“They're doing the right thing Dogma. If this is how soldiers are rewarded for heroic actions, then one day, every man on this battalion may face a similar fate. Take off their binders.” Rex walked over to both troopers.

“We have orders!” Dogma shouted.

“Good luck finding someone to do them.” Rex said over his shoulder.

You walked up to Fives and patted him on the shoulder.

“Glad you're still alive.” You said while giving him a warm smile.

Fives chuckled “I'm still a little freaked out by your teeth, but it's not as bad as Krells.” You giggled lightly.

Rex and Dogma made their way to the main tower, no doubt about to get severely scolded by Krell. The other troops chatted among themselves while you eagerly waited for Rex and Dogma to get back.

After a few minutes, the elevator doors opened and the two men walked out. They made their way toward you.

“Prepare the troops, we are assisting General Kenobi's squadron in taking the capitol.” Rex told the group.

You looked at Rex eagerly. “You are staying behind. It's too dangerous without visuals and Krell still has you benched.”

You looked down at your feet. “I understand.”

The men went their separate ways to prepare for battle. You went back to your bunk. You figured since you were probably heading off the planet soon you should pack up and get ready.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were packed up completely. You also decided to check on any injured soldiers. Most were asleep and all were stable. You headed back to your barrack to watch another episode of your drama show. As you walked, you noticed the base seemed really quiet beside the distant explosions on the horizon. You made it back to your bunk and decided to see if Na'wi was ok. You commed her.

“Hey girl, you heading over here yet?” Her light voice rang through the comm.

“Huh? What do you mean?” You responded.

“Um, the Capitol. We took it, General Kenobi said the 501st should be on their way here.”

“That's weird. Krell said that Kenobi needs our help and sent them into battle.”

“I mean there's a few Umbaran troops left and we sent a battalion to take care of them. They are wearing our armor to try and sneak by us.”

Your eyes widened. “Na'wi...Tell Kenobi that Krell has betrayed us. I have to warn them.” You didn't give her time to respond before you ended the comm. You rushed out of the barrack door only to end up pushed backward by a hard force. You fell on your backside and looked up.

“Where are you in a rush to?” Krell stood before you, he made slow steps inside the barracks trapping you.

You scrambled to get up. “Um, I was just gonna check on the injured men.”

“Oh? But you already did that. Didn't you?” He circled around you, all two of his arms crossed in front of him and the remaining two behind his back.

You took a few steps back, and he matched your steps forward.

“Uh, I wasn't done with something. Excuse me.” You stepped to move past him. His hand wrapped around your throat tightly as he pinned you against the wall. Your vision went blurry and your head felt like it was going to explode. You gasped for air. He leaned in close to your face.

“Do you really think I'm that stupid? I'll have to dispose of you before you ruin my plans.” He said to you.

You started to see spots in your vision. You willed yourself to stay awake as you tried to pry his hand off your neck. Just before you lost consciousness you heard the blast door open and muffled voices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rex POV

Rex and his battalion stood in line. Confused and hurt looks were written on their faces. The horrible acts they committed unknowingly against their own brothers. They won't be the same after this, and neither will he.

“We all know who's responsible for what happened out there. What we don't know, is why. Something has to be done. What I'm proposing, is highly treasonous. If, any man chooses to opt-out, do it now.” Rex said.

All of the troopers stepped forward refusing to back down.

“From this point forward, we are entering uncharted territory. My orders are, we arrest General Krell for treason against the republic.”

His troops nodded and then moved out back towards their captured airbase. Their weapons at the ready position, the troopers made their way up the control tower to confront the General. Only when they got there, it was empty. They went to the brig to free Fives and Jesse. They suited up and went with the rest of them.

“Where is he?” Kix said.

Rex wracked his brain, trying to think quickly. Would Krell have made a run for it? Or would he underestimate the troops assuming they wouldn't find out that they were killing their own men? The only other person that could figure out something was wrong was...

“Men! Follow me. Quickly!” They shuffled back into the elevator and ran towards the barracks. His heart was pounding as he approached the door, unprepared to walk into what he might find. He opened the blast door and raised his blaster. Krell was holding Ruusaan by the neck, her feet barely touching the floor. Blood dripped down near her feet.

“Drop her! Now Krell!”

“You're committing mutiny Captain.”

Krell slowly let go of her and she slid down to the ground limp. The soldiers filed into the room surrounding the General.

“Honestly, I'm surprised you were able to figure it out, for a clone.”

The battalion moved in toward Krell. “Surrender General, You're outnumbered.” Rex said.

Suddenly, a force threw the soldiers back into the walls.

“You dare to attack a Jedi?!” Krell ignited his lightsabers. The men started firing at him. He managed to deflect every shot, slashing at the soldiers left and right. Krell managed to get himself near the blast door.

“I will not be undermined by creatures bred in some laboratory!” He stabbed the Door controls with his saber. The door hissed open and he ran out. The troops followed. Krell disappeared into the thick Umbaran Jungle. Rex circled back to the room.

“Kix!” The trooper seemingly materialized next to him.

“Make sure she's ok. We're going after him.”

Kix rushed towards the unconscious woman and started treating her. Rex ran with the rest of his troops to apprehend Krell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your POV

Your head was pounding. You twitched your fingers, not fully regaining bodily autonomy yet. You heard voices around you but couldn't quite pick up what they were saying.

“.....right-, con..........Fine.”

You squeezed your eyes before opening them slightly. The light of the room forced them closed again. You brought your hand up to your face sluggishly to shield them. There was a scratchy fabric wrapped around your head. You heard a voice approaching.

“Hey, you're awake.” You turned to look. It was kix. You tried to sit up but the pain in your head stopped you.

“Take it easy Ruusaan. Lay back down.” Kix gently pushed you back onto the bunk. Your eyes started adjusting.

'You took quite a hit there. Here take this for the pain.” It was a liquid painkiller. Kix gently sat you up by the shoulders to take it. Someone else walked up to the bunk, it was the Captain. Rex knelt down.

“How are you feeling?”

Not able to find your voice yet you gave him a thumbs up.

“Good, good.” Kix gave Rex a look you couldn't place and left the two of you alone.

“We managed to capture Krell. Uh, Dogma actually...killed him.” Rex said.

“Oh” Your voice came out raspy. The painkillers started to kick in so you sat up and gently swung your legs over to sit on the bunk. Rex grasped your shoulder to stabilize you.

“The shuttles are coming soon, we'll get off this planet for good.” Rex said.

“Thank you Rex, for taking care of me. I'd probably be dead if it weren't for you.”

“Well, we had some...unforeseen events. I'm sure you could hold your own, but you're part of the team. I've got your back.” You smiled and went to stand. Your knees gave out a bit. Rex caught you by the arm and waist.

“Take it easy.”

“I'm fine.” You tell him a little snappy.

“Just making sure, let's get you to a shuttle.”

The Captain grabbed your pack for you. You made your way out to the hangars slowly, Rex following very closely next to you. A shuttle was waiting with a few men already on board. The shuttle took off and you were on the star cruiser in a matter of minutes. You stepped out into the hangar and turned to Rex.

“Let me grab that.” You said while reaching your arm to out get your pack.

“I got it.” Rex shook his head.

“I'm sure you have more important things to do than carry my stuff and escort me to my room.”

“At this moment, you're more important.” You swear your heart skipped a beat.

You abruptly turned around and continued walking, trying to ignore the heat your face was producing. You made it to your room in about five minutes. As the both of you drew closer you felt the exhaustion catch up to you. Your body yearned for your soft bed with all your blankets and pillows. You made it through the door and headed to your side. Rex stood at the threshold of the small quarters you and your best friend shared.

“You can come in.” You told him. He gingerly walked into your room. You plopped down on the bed.

“You could just set it down anywhere.” Rex put your pack down near the door. He looked a bit awkward.

“I guess I'll go now, get some rest.” He turned to walk out.

“Thank Rex, I really appreciate you. I'll have to get you a gift or something one day.” He looked back at you.

“That's...really not necessary.” He chuckled a bit.

“You saved my ass more than once, I think I owe you one.”

“Well, like I said. I'll always have your back.” He left you to get comfortable and sleep.