#like a good chunk of the time thats just some dude

[bevebevo]

i was joking about this last night but sometimes i wanna be like those artists whose entire brand is drawing wlw art but i dislike 90% of popular wlw ships and the only gay people i draw are the ones from my brain

and i dont like vampires very much so that puts me at a disadvantage

[electoons]

guys this "keeping myself busy with distractions so I don't get sad" thing isn't working

[dr-spectre]

The autism representation in Splatoon needs to be studied and celebrated because oh my god it's actually really damn good and some of the best in media, especially compared to how its usually portrayed in popular media....

As someone who is on the spectrum and has been diagnosed, it's really comforting to know that one of my favorite game series has such positive depictions of autism and isn't just stereotypical depictions we commonly see in media.

Autism in most media is either portrayed as white nerdy dudes who are cold robots that have super intelligence, can understand alien languages and see the world like they are a fucking Lego master builder or some shit and see blueprints in the sky like in The Good Doctor or The Big Bang Theory with Sheldon. Or it's portrayed as people who are incredibly disabled, cannot communicate and have constant tantrums as seen with the dogshit movie Music (2021). Literally the depiction of autism in that movie is actually fucking dangerous as it shows a person pushing an autistic person who is having a meltdown onto the ground and RESTRICTING THEM! WHICH IS VERY VERY VERY BAD! DO NOT DO THIS!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! AUTISTIC PEOPLE HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF THIS!!!!!!!!

Now I'm not saying that these types of autistic people don't exist, remember, it's a spectrum so there's a ton of variety in people who have autism, some people have really high intelligence, some have low social skills and need help, some can talk for hours and hours to anyone, some need serious help to function day to day living and thats perfectly fine. however the type i listed of the super cold robotic genuis is just the really popular stereotype which impacts the perception of autistic people just trying to live and enjoy life like everyone else. Some autistic people are just in the middle and aren't on any of the extremes. There are tons of people who fall into the "low needs" and "high needs" sides of autism of course, however there isn't exactly a ton of representation for people in the middle and sometimes those popular representations of autism can damage the entire perception of the spectrum. And there still isn't a lot of fair representation of "high needs" autistic people in media and that needs to change as well.

Thankfully Splatoon doesn't go for any damaging stereotypes but instead goes for something a little more positive. I think the best examples of this are Marina, Marie and Harmony. While they haven't been canonically confirmed as being on the autism spectrum, they are heavily hinted that they are and show some evidence that supports it.

Harmony for instance is just.... a regular autistic girl, she isn't some incredibly smart girl, no, she's just a regular girl who speaks in a blunt and neutral way but that's about it. As someone who is autistic i can relate somewhat to how she speaks, in real life i tend to just say a few words when talking to someone and i don't really sound energetic or loud about it. i just go "Hey. Hi. Alright. Okay. Oh ok. Uh. I'm good." Some autistic people normally do not speak like they are the nerd emoji and sound hyper smart like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, and they are not able to speak entirely. That's not what ALL autistic people sound like. There's a decent chunk of them that just speak regularly or speak a little quietly and thats okay. Harmony captures the speech of what a fair portion of autistic people talk like, but not every single autistic person of course. There is a large chunk of autistic people who need support when it comes to communication, and that's perfectly okay. They are just valid as human beings as the ones who can speak.

She also has an interest in music as she is the singer of Chirpy Chips and is seen stimming and fidgeting with an Ultra Hand. Autistic people usually fidget and stim to calm themselves down and keep their emotions in check, maybe Harmony plays with the Ultra Hand because it helps her stay calm when running Hotlantis.

Now it's time to talk about the most popular example of autistic representation in Splatoon. Marina.

She is quite shy when you zoom in on her in Splatoon 2 when you play as an Inkling, but is known to ramble about machinery and excavators to Pearl and Acht for hours at a time. Technology and machinery seem to be a special interest for her as shown with her creating the Shifty Stations for Splatfests, having hacking abilities and building the Memverse. She gets so much energy and excitement from working on the Memverse as shown by her dialogue in the Dev Diaries. However she is not a flawless super genius like in most depictions of autistic characters, she is known to have uncontrollable emotional outbursts, when Pearl even suggests the idea of Off the Hook breaking up she becomes extremely devastated and thinks of the worst case scenario in her dialogue from the Chaos vs Order Splatfest. She sometimes can't control her anger and snaps at Pearl after losing multiple times in a row in Splatfests.

She also has issues with proper work life balance as she overworks herself with working on the Memverse alongside going on a world tour with Pearl, she vents abouts this in her 10th Dev Diary in Side Order. And speaking of order, she chose team order because she wanted to maintain the balance in her life that she has found. A lot of autistic people have strict routines and any changes to that routine will cause them to get really distressed. If someone comes into my space and says "hey we're going out in 10 minutes." I'm gonna get pissed off and be in a terrible mood as my routine has been disrupted and i wanna do something else. Routines give autistic people a lot of comfort and predictability.

Marina's deepest flaw she kept hidden was the desire of a perfect world of order where nothing can change because she's so scared of her new life being destroyed, but she learns to overcome this fear of change with the help of Pearl by the end of Side Order which may inspire autistic people to learn to be more okay with change, even if its very hard.

Marina is also seen wearing her headphones quite often and rarely takes them off which may indicate she might have sensory issues. Some autistic people may suffer with sensory issues and need to wear headphones or certain pieces of clothing to stay calm and keep their emotions from becoming too much. I tend to wear headphones often because i hate my ears being exposed and I'm very sensitive to certain noises.

She also may have another special interest which may be the Squid Sisters as she litters her laptop and keytar with Squid Sister stickers. Marina also talks in a very excited tone when you get Marie's and Callie's palettes in Side Order. She also acts very giddy and excited during live performances with them and starts stimming which is shown by her moving around in place and clamping her hands together.

Another character who you might not think is autistic right away but shows signs of it is Marie. And to be honest i find her to be very relatable.

Marie is known to be more quiet than her cousin and she acted like this since she was a child. Marie also seems to struggle with social situations and struggles to talk with Agent 4 and Neo Agent 3 and wishes they can just leave her alone when you keep talking to her. However she seems to be a lot more comfortable talking with people she trusts and loves like her cousin Callie. She also makes quite snarky and sometimes rude comments but that doesn't mean she's a rude person, she just likes being cheeky and truly cares about the people around her. She even self loathes and worries about her cousin to an unhealthy degree.

A lot of people tend to say that autistic people have low empathy when in reality some autistic people are far from the case. Some autistic people might be TOO empathetic but they cannot show it because it's just so much for them that they can't properly express it. Marie may appear as rude and non caring but she's genuinely a very caring and emotional person but she doesn't know how to show it due to not having developed communication skills compared to neurotypical people. A fair amount of autistic people are not shy people that don't care about you, they just have a different way of speech and communication. 2 autistic people can talk vastly different from each other. It is a spectrum after all. There are some who may have low empathy, but they are not psychopaths who don't care about human life. It's really, really weird to think that and kind of damaging to see autistic people in that kind of light.

Marie is also known to be a picky eater and despises vegetables, refuses to eat the ends of bread loafs, hates tomatoes and pineapple on pizza. (she's literally me holy shit...) some autistic people can have sensory issues when it comes to certain textures and smells and vegetables usually have a weird texture compared to meats and other food groups. They can be seen as "picky eaters" that don't wanna try anything but, some autistic people genuinely cannot eat certain foods and may get sick in the stomach if they see that food and would rather eat anything else. You cannot get me to eat carrots, like I'm sorry but that's not happening buddy. I don't care if they are baked or boiled, i refuse to put that shit in my mouth.

She was also on team order like Marina as she likes to keep things nice and tidy like with most autistic people. Not all but most.

A little tidbit i wanna add as well is that since Splatoon 2, Marie has been seen holding an parasol and for seemingly no reason. Some may say she holds it to seem more professional, however i think she has it around because she likes to hold it in her hands and use it to fidget with, much like Harmony with the Ultra Hand. You can see her spin it around when you stay around her for a little bit in Splatoon 3's story mode. Although I might be looking too deeply into this but i think it might be a cute little detail.

I find it really fantastic that Splatoon not only has good representations of autism, but it's also pretty diverse and shows different elements of the spectrum. Not every single aspect of the spectrum as there isn't an example of a high needs autistic character in Splatoon that I can think of unfortunately, but if you can think of a character who may be in the high needs category of the spectrum then let me know, however we got a pale skinny sea anemone who runs a general store and uses an Ultra Hand to fidget with, a tall black woman who's extremely passionate about machinery and technology, and a Japanese squid woman who would rather eat a Splattershot than a tomato. (Callie and Marie are based off of Japanese culture, look at their clothing and styles of music. If they were humans they would not be white women, sorry to break it to you bud.)

Before this ends i wanna say, if you disagree with me then that's fine. I get it. They aren't canonically confirmed to be on the autism spectrum and a lot of this is just speculation and observation. However don't be a fucking dick about it okay? Don't say that i don't know anything about autism and that I'm crazy and dumb. Don't do that shit. Seriously. I am allowed to look deeper into these characters and find relatability and comfort in them. Don't try to make me feel like a freak for this.

Anyways if i did get something wrong about autism let me know in a fair and polite way. I am human and I'm gonna make mistakes, but don't be a dickhead about it, k? Good. Have a goodnight or good day wherever you live.

[yujateaandpi]

Hihi!! Just wanted to say off the bat that I just LOVE your art and the 30 more years au, it's one of the first I was exposed to on tt because I'm a new fan, anyway here's my questions (Sorry that I'm probably gonna say/ask a lot 😅)

Mabel is in shock for now, right? So will she eventually come to accept Dipper/"That person" being Dipper? And if so, would she see him more as an older brother instead of her twin? As in like, coming to accept him, but unable to have the exact "twin bond?" Because while the energy may be there, I'd assume that there could've been a bit of disconnect whether from life or whatever else happened (Like Mabel doing adventuring with a continuous "kid body and mindset," then Dipper with school)

Will Ford eventually visit Stan with Dipper and/or Mabel? Or with just anyone else? Or go on his own to visit his brother?

Is Fiddleford going to be involved in the Au in any way/important way?

Also this may be an invasive question (as in revealing lore or something I'm not quite sure how to phrase it) but will/is Stan resentful towards Ford in any way? Or is he just in the state of reminiscence or desperation for his brother-

It was also insinuated he may flip out if he saw him again by Dipper but is it just from the generally traumatic events like the initial portal one and then the same happening to Mabel? Or would it be from a mental condition that appeared over time? (We need more really old man Stan but dude I don't want him to go insane 😔😔😔)

Okay thats it, take things at your own pace and keep creating :DD it's such a cool take and all and your art is just really good, like I initially said. But yeah that's it dnfnfnnf

Whoa thank you for all the lovely questions!

Mabel is definitely in shock now, yes. That will get processed eventually. A lot of this story will actually be about her and Dipper trying to figure out that second part--are they still twins or older and younger siblings or if he even became more of an uncle than a brother? All I can say for now is: they've both got a lot of growing up to do.

Yup, actually Chapter 3 is all about Stan. The Reunion is a big chunk of that.

Fiddleford does play a big role, but a lot of it is resolved in the prequel fic. In the timeline of the comic, he's playing his banjo with the angels.

Stan's internal processing is a big part of Chapter 3 and some of it will also be discussed in the prequel! Sorry, spoilers for now. :)

Haha thank you, I'll keep trundling! Thank you for reading.

[helluvapurf]

Welp, after a long... loooooong road of S2 to sift through in HB, here's my official review of the "Sinsmas" finale to wrap things up (*no Christmas pun-intended lol*):

NOTE: My thoughts below will contain some obv spoilers so you miiiight wanna skip this post if you haven't watched "Sinsmas" yet; also like with all my past reviews these are just my personal opinions alone (+fair warning that I'll be getting a bit rant-y later too), so... do remember to keep things civil if you disagree with anything here (and if not, welp... yall are free to block & move on, I guess lol 🤷‍♀️), thank you 🙏🙏

Loona continuing to show more appreciation & excitement around her dad/I.M.P. is great to see, and about time we finally got her joining in on an assassination gig again (which I don't think we've had since S1's "Spring Broken"?). I like her new Hellhound friends shown towards the end too, they look chill~

As much as I've lowkey grown a bit... disinterested in M&M these past few episodes (not to a hate-level or anything but they just don't really... "spark" for me, OTP-wise?), it is nice to see a return to their bloodthirsty-based couple fluff (aka: their lil Sinsmas-based playfight at the beginning), bringing me back a bit to the og pilot days (ex. "Oh Millie" ❤️). -Buuuut dang, who would've thought things would escalate to Millie turning out pregnant?? .o. I know there's been some controversy for Millie's less-than-happy reaction about it towards the end; but honestly I absolutely don't blame the poor gal if you consider: 1) She's a proud fighter & trained assassin who's always been passionate about her current line of work, and (depending on how imp pregnancies work) having this potentially putting her out of a job for a long while would make anyone stressed out imho 2) Imps are considered the lowest-of-the-low ranked species within Hell as it is; with not a whole lot of access to good paying jobs + medical coverage (given Blitz's struggle to get Loona her vaccinations). Imagine you were someone who found yourself expecting a child with a good chunk of Hell not considering you "high-up" enough in the food chain to care... wouldn't you get freaked out too? 3) Lastly, and this being among the biggest points to me personally... did her & Moxxie ever talk about having kids before? Given the implication that they rushed to get married so soon after dating (+Millie not even knowing about Moxx's mafia background til WAY after), I... can't say I'd be surprised if Millie's fear is partially based on how Moxxie would react (for better or worse). Kids are by-far among the biggest dealbreakers for any relationship, so while I don't necessarily think this'll cause something like a split between M&M... yeaaaah I wouldn't be surprised if this still caused some lingering-tension either way, regardless of if they go through with this pregnancy or not 🤷‍♀️ (On a side note; loved seeing Sallie May popping up to give that well-needed support to her sis on the phone, aww 🥺)

The side-story with the "karen" sinner and her ex-drama was... weird, all things considered? .x.;; Like, yeah I can see the importance of how this plays into Blitz's relationship woes & such... but, am I the only one who found it weird the writing going all "moralistic" with Blitz NOT going through with the job, solely cause he imagined his idealized family in Stolas (whom I'll cover in a sec btw-) upon spying on the target + his partner & kids? 🤨 Like... I know I've seen some argue that this is "character development" for Blitz, which I normally wouldn't mind seeing... but mind you, this is the SAME dude who was all-too-fine killing a bratty kid, a wife & her happy (albeit cannibalistic) family, a whole bunch of random college kids on spring break (all for the sake of some parking spot drama with Verosika btw), and not even two shorts ago some horny fangirl got met with the same fate by his hands (mostly due to getting caught up in her own fantasy world... and thats it lol). So I just... have a hard time buying into this being some grand "change of heart" moment for Blitz tbh, cause with this whole episode taking place during the winter holiday season (an already money-draining time irl as-is), I... can't help but find it a lowkey dick move of Blitz to rob his fellow employees of a chance to have some more cash on-hand (esp. after the events of "Ghostf**kers" and him draining the company's finances over his Stolas mope-fest, like come on dude-🤦‍♀️). Heck, if he really-really didn't wanna do it (and this target family seems innocent enough to potentially escape Hell if-killed)... couldn't they have just lied to the lady that they did the deed & take her money anyway (-instead of Blitz immediately punting her out the window 'cause she was bitching about Stolas' writing😑)? Again, this IS Hell we're talking about, so a bit of dirty-dealing doesn't seem far out of the realm of normal there lmao. Buuuut idk, that may just be me... 🤷‍♀️

We're back again with Andre leading the story as the "main" bad guy, and I'll admit his final confrontation with Stolas & the I.M.P. gang was pretty kickass~ From Stolas throwing the first punches at his smug-ass face, the action-increasing with the ice dragons & Loona going "feral"-mode, and even Octavia coming in to defend everyone from her uncle (with her own personal magic) was pretty rad! 🤩👏👏 One thing that's bothering me about it all though... where tf is Stella during all this going on?? 🤨I know the show's pretty much committed atm to making her as one-dimensionally dumb & evil as possible (not even giving her much substantial dialogue after her repeated "hiLARRRIOUS MUAHAAA~" lines 😒 ), but surely someone like her wouldn't miss the chance to see her ex (+affair partner) smacked down by her brother?? Especially once Via arrived, just imagine the juicy drama potential of seeing Stella having to force herself (+Andre) to call off their attack to appease Via (further adding in salt to the wound for her later decision to walk away from Stolas). Hhhhh Viv, why must u be so allergic to developing Stella (antagonism-wise)... 😔😔

Now, as far as Stolas himself is concerned... *-sighs-* I know I'm gonna get some flack for saying this, but I caaaaaan't with his dude anymore🤦‍♀️ Yes, I get he's going through a tough time losing everything + adjusting to a simple life now (along with implied-withdrawal symptoms from the lack of "happy pills"). But just... the way Stolas kept getting MORE & more whiny/unappreciative of Blitz (after all he's done to accommodate Stolas, defend him against other imps, giving him a job at I.M.P. on top of everything-), then never uttering a single "thank you" for Blitz's efforts frustrated tf out of me 😑😑. You expect to buy that these two are these "deep destined soulmates" at the end of the day, to the point of Blitz practically becoming a giddy cheerleader to boost Stolas at every turn... ...and yet, at the same time you're telling me Blitz has never asked about Stolas' eating habits before, nor Stolas ever asking about Blitz's love of horses?? That outside of their failed date at Ozzy's, they never once tried to actually talk, share a meal or hangout aside from their once-a-month hookups (pre-"Full Moon")? Sure, the show implies that Stolas has asked about Blitz's day before (via-some throwaway lines + blink-and-you'll-miss-it texts)... but if the audience never actually sees those friendly gestures on-screen, how am I supposed to buy them being in-love now?? -_- Like, to take a note from "Swan Princess":

Taking away their childhood memory of playing together for a day, the sexual chemistry, the grand gestures, them both having goth angsty daughters... what else IS there for Stolas & Blitz to love about each other, truly? Its one thing if you wanna show them starting over as friends first (awkward roommate-vibes aside), then hell yeah I'd be down to see their rebuilding bond as a more balanced, genuine pairing down the line (making moments like their big kiss + balcony dance 10x more impactful imo)!👍

...But, with how things are now with Viv & crew rushing to go full-romance mode already (regardless of either character's emotional well-being in the story), I... don't think I can see myself joining the Stolas/Blitz ship hype tbh, regardless of what's to come in the next couple seasons...🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Now, to cap things off regarding Octavia in all this... She. IS. A. STAAAAARRR😭🌟👏👏By far the best thing to come out of this finale IMHO; just seeing Via standing her ground as strongly as she did, both in-defense of her dad AND against him... goddd, that was powerful q-q💜 And before anyone mentions it, no I don't think Via was in anyway "wrong" for her reaction to Stolas (regardless of his efforts to reach her by the end). Imagine you're in her position; the product of an loveless, toxic marriage forced upon by a rigid society, living your childhood blissfully unaware & happy until everything comes crashing down in your teen years (through your father's public affair + your mother's rampant rage). All you thought was true is now a confirmed lie, you're stuck in an emotional mess dealing with your parents, and your beloved dad is constantly putting his booty call (+marital drama) a bigger priority over you (albeit unintentionally, but still-)...

Time & time again, Via's been let down by Stolas, the one parent she's always been closest to since the beginning... and to top it all off? Several episodes later, she's watching her father live on TV willingly ready to be executed in Blitz's place (without so much as a single goodbye message to Via, mind you-), effectively breaking his promise that he'd never leave her...

...So, really, how can anyone blame Via for simply being done with her dad, by that point? Stolas may be "trying", I know... but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter that he didn't "mean" to hurt her. What matters most is that... well, he did. More than he can imagine... 💔

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

...weeeeew okay that was a bit lengthy my bad- lmao. As a whole, I'd say "Sinsmas" was an... ehhhhh-kinda finale? Like yeah I enjoyed the Via focus we got (+her song💜), the ice battle & the improved M&M + Loona writing... buuuuut oof, am I just exhausted by the Stolas/Blitz-melodrama at this point, oml >>;; No shade to those who did enjoy the finale regardless though, yall are more than valid! 👍👍 Maybe later on I'll give my overall thoughts on S2 (+the overarching story of HB) further down the line if I'm up for it... buuuuut yeah, hope yall enjoyed reading & thanks for sticking around my page~ (for any newer/older Hellaverse fans alike)!👋✨🌙

[m0llygunn]

Strat and Jag (Eddie Munson x fem!reader)

Summary: an unfortunate bout of eavesdropping rocks the boat of friendship between you and eddie, and ex-sailor steve helps steer you right...

Warnings: 18+ for mature content (not too explicit yet) and eventual smut, mature language, mentions of eddie trauma (parents/alluding to drug issues). Authors note: howdy this is part 2. also i take back the prologue being a prologue, thats just part one idk what im doing. This part and the 3rd part will be the main chunk of this series, then I have bonus chapters coming after! ty! wc: 6.7k+

01/02

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The Fire of All Hells

“I can’t fucking do this anymore, holy shit. She’s killing me.”

“Killing you? I don’t think it’s that serious, man.” Gareth laughs.

“No.” Eddie says harshly. “If you heard what she was saying yesterday… holy fuck, you’d understand. She is killing me.” He groans. 

“Well, dude, you know what you could do?” Jeff replies sarcastically.

Eddie, Jeff, and Gareth were all setting up in the drama room and you figured you’d show up a little early with the cookies you made after Eddie left you yesterday. 

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While you didn’t play DnD, you were an odd sort of an ‘unofficial’ member. You and Eddie have been friends forever so it was kind of pushed into your lap when he wanted to start his little club. And since it was a group of dimwit boys, you unwarrantedly became the founding mother of the club… alongside the founding father, Eddie— who, have it be noted, has zero organizational capabilities, not an ounce of time management skills, and absolutely no faith entrusted in him by any school faculty members. And for all of those reasons, that is why you were roped into this weird little club.

Eddie practically begged for you to be the one to ask the teachers to start the group. His far from perfect rep with them would have made the teachers obviously turn him down… but you on the other hand… you're liked enough, get good enough grades, and although have been tied to Eddie in numerous ways (including physically that one time when Eddie bought industrial level handcuffs, brought them to school to show off, cuffed you and him together to demonstrate, realized he lost the keys, and then you both spend the day cuffed together until Wayne got home to saw you free), you keep out of trouble for the most part. 

After a week of Eddie groveling and a few deals set between you too, you gave in. At the time, you were in your freshman year, and Eddie was promised Wayne’s old van once he got his license, so he set the deal that he would drive you to school and home everyday (which now that you're both in your senior year, it’s a promise that he has mostly held up overtime). He also promised his eternal friendship, which was already a given so that barely sweetened the deal. It’s kind of foggy at this point, being so long ago, but you’re sure he also bought you some other shit, probably stole you some beer too, because god knows you two were fiends for any alcohol back then. 

Since you had to ask to start up the club, it was your name under the club registry so it was always the drama teacher up your ass about making sure everything was cleaned properly, put away, no food left behind because of the mice… blah blah blah. So yeah… you’re practically the sole standing reason hellfire exists at Hawkins High but you don’t like to think about that… if you think too hard about it, you can’t help but cringe internally. You don’t mind their little group but you’d rather not be known as their leader— that’s all Eddie.

You knew Eddie because his dad and your dad were friends back in high school. The only difference between the two men was when your mom got pregnant with you, your dad cleaned up his life. Eddie’s dad on the other hand was the first to get a girl pregnant out of the two of them— which coincidentally happened in the same year; however, Eddie’s dad couldn’t quite give up his lifestyle. He tried for a bit, he really did, especially after Eddie’s mom skipped town, but it was just hard for him. It didn’t help when he got an injury doing some kind of labor job either. The doctors prescribed him some heavy pain medicine and that’s kind of when everything went to shit. 

As a kid you never noticed. At 8 years old, you were oblivious to the havoc being dragged through the lives of everyone around you. You thought it was all fun and games. Eddie had come and stayed with your family for a few weeks and you thought it was the best. It was like a giant sleepover, probably the closest thing you’ve ever had to a sibling. 

Then Wayne came into the picture. He was living down south, working as a truck driver. Once his brother got his sentence, he moved up, got the trailer, got a job at the plant, and started taking care of Eddie. He was a saint in the body of a mean-looking, tough talking trucker. Not really mean though, he’s a big ole softy, he just doesn’t let most people know that. 

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You take a step further into the drama room, not purposefully trying to eavesdrop, you just didn’t mean to interrupt their conversation so abruptly.

“I can’t do that.” Eddie says flatly.

“You can dude. There’s no way she doesn’t know already. Everyone already thinks you’re together since you touch her nonstop. Seriously. You’re like, attached to her at all times.” Gareth says.

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Eddie’s always been touchy. Always. Gareth’s not wrong, he always has some part of himself connected to you, whether it’s a knee under the table or an arm around your shoulder, that’s just how he’s always been. He’s never shied away from physical touch and that’s normal for you two after all these years. He was your first hug with a boy, first hand hold with a boy, first kiss, second kiss. It’s always been innocent enough though, he’s your best friend after all, it just so happens to be that he’s a boy. Not a boy boy. Just a boy. 

At 7 years old that’s when you two had first kissed. Then again at 10.

The first time, he was making you play some stupid game where he was a knight and you were a princess and according to him, obviously the knight had to kiss the princess. The second time he wanted to ‘practice’ playing spin the bottle. It was only the two of you so you had thought it was a dumb idea but it was Summer and you had been banished from the trailer after spending the weekend blasting the TV and probably stopping Wayne from getting any rest. 

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Summer of 1978

Eddie had spun the bottle 27 times before it finally landed on you. 27 times. You still remember counting each failed spin, laughter getting rowdier and rowdier at your best friend's terrible luck. The 27th time, he lit up like a damn Christmas tree when the neck of the bottle finally slowed, landing point blank in your direction. You couldn’t help the laughing fit that overcame you and you had thrown yourself backwards, clenching your aching stomach, head softly hitting the dirt floor of the forest clearing you two frequented. That’s when Eddie snuck up and stole the kiss. 

You would have let him kiss you, cause that was all part of the game after all. You both had agreed on the rules before starting, but that didn’t stop your surprise when his scrawny little 11 year old body fell over yours. 

You still remember distinctly the way he had grabbed your hands to pull them away from where you were holding your stomach. He pinned them both beside your head, similar to when you’d wrestle, and he looked at you with the biggest signature Eddie Munson smirk known to man. At this point, you were stronger than him still and could have easily tossed him off but it shocked you having him so close and so quickly. It took you by surprise so much so that it knocked all the giggles from you. You just laid there, in Eddie’s hold. His smirk fell and after a moment, he dipped his face to yours, and he kissed you for the second time. 

“Gross Eddie!” You shrieked when you felt his slimy tongue harshly poking past your lower lip and into your mouth. He started to get up off you but you were embarrassed, so you pushed him making him land harshly on his butt. 

“It’s called a French kiss.” Eddie stated matter of factly, face scrunched, hands rubbing over his lower back that stung from the impact of his landing. 

“It’s disgusting and you smell like cheezies.” You say pushing yourself up from the ground and wiping his spit off your mouth. 

“It’s practice.” He huffed. “And you taste like cheezies. It’s not just me.”

“I do not!” You shrieked before hauling yourself up into a standing position ready to stomp away from him. You were already embarrassed by Eddie shocking you into silence, then him telling you that you tasted like cheezies… even at 10 years old you knew that’s not what a boy would want to taste during a kiss. 

“We ate cheezies, Strat.” Eddie said, rolling his eyes at you. 

‘Strat’ was a nickname that your dad started. He was the guitar guy, and spent a lot of time teaching you and Eddie about music since you were toddlers. Once you got old enough to actually hold a guitar, he had two that he’d let you both mess around with; a Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Jaguar. The strat was a pretty baby blue colour that you adored, so naturally, you always called dibs on it, and Eddie got the red Jag. Your dad would call you both ‘Strat’ and ‘Jag’ and unfortunately the nickname stuck for you and you only— probably because you would whine and cry about the strat if Eddie tried to steal it from you. 

At the roll of Eddie's eyes, that really set you off. You turned, stomping your feet back to the trailer park.

“Hey, I like cheezies, Strat! Don’t go!” Eddie called after you. “We’re not done playing, you still have to spin!”

“I’m telling Wayne!” You screamed, running faster to the trailer once you heard Eddie’s clumsy steps behind you. 

“No! Please, don’t!” He yelled back pleadingly, making you smile to yourself revengefully. You heard his steps quicken behind you so you sprinted, making it to the door of the trailer in record speed. 

You threw open the door, startling Wayne who was sat on the couch, and just as you were about to speak you felt Eddie’s hand clamp around your mouth from behind. 

“Edward Munson. You take your hands off that girl.” Wayne warned sternly. 

“B-but-”, Eddie began before you interrupted him by elbowing him in the stomach.

“Yeah. Hands off.” You said turning to face Eddie as he held onto his stomach. You smirked at him and he sent you pleading eyes not to tell. You weren’t going to. That never was your plan, you just wanted to see him squirm as payback for him embarrassing you. 

“Ohhhhh Wayne.” You sang. Eddie’s eyes widening, his features turning increasingly pleading for you not to tell on him. 

“What in god's name happened to you, you’re covered in dirt, missy.” Wayne said ignoring you. He stood from the couch, making his way over to you before his hands were patting at your back trying to get the dirt off. Your face fell and you couldn’t think of a response. 

“She-she… we were playing a game and-” Eddie’s pleading look stopped and his gaze dropped to the floor. You could tell he was about to rat himself out. This boy couldn’t keep one secret from Wayne…

“I fell and Eddie helped me up.” You interject. Eddie’s gaze locked into yours, eyes wide before relaxing, sending you a small smile when he realized what you were doing. 

“Her mom’s gonna kill us both, boy. You better go find her some clothes so I can throw these ones in the wash.” Wayne huffed.

Eddie ran into the trailer to his room.

“Clean clothes too, boy! Don’t give her dirty stuff!” Wayne yelled when Eddie was taking too long. 

“I know Wayne.” Eddie yelled back, voice full of attitude. 

After a few moments, he emerged, with his favourite Black Sabbath shirt that your dad bought for him for his birthday last year and a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. 

“Go change, missy.” Wayne gruffed, patting you on the back. 

Back in Eddie’s room you both sat on his floor reading his comics.

“You look pretty in that shirt.” Eddie said, interrupting the silence.

“Shut up Edward. I still don’t forgive you for trying to french kiss me.” You say, cheeks turning hot in anger, prompting you to pick up the closest discarded piece of clothing from his messy floor to throw at him. 

“I'm sorry! It was just for practice.” Eddie groaned dramatically. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Before you both reached puberty it was all hugs, holding hands, sharing seats, sharing beds, just being innocently close to each other. After puberty his touchness did simmer a bit. Albeit not much though. Eddie still barely knows what personal space is, but he’s not grabbing at your hand every second like he did when you were kids. 

“I don’t always touch her! Besides, it’s always been like that since we were kids, it’s normal.” Eddie says, focusing his attention on setting up.

“There’s nothing normal about the way you act around her.” Gareth says with a laugh. 

“Yeah. You love her.” Jeff teases. 

“And that’s the fucking problem. Thanks for really rubbing it in guys.” Eddie says exasperatedly, throwing his bag of dice onto the table carelessly. 

“Just ask her out.” Jeff says, patting Eddie on the back as he slouches down onto the table.

“Oh great idea! Strat, I fucking love you. Please, go out on a date with me and potentionally fuck up our lifelong friendship. Great idea guys. Thank you so much.” Eddie says sarcastically. 

During Eddie’s spiel he had picked up his bag of dice again. Finishing his scornful remark, he had thrown it down on the table, this time the dice falling out and skidding across the floor, most of them landing at your feet. 

All three boys turn at once, moving to pick up the dice before they spotted you. 

“Shit.” Gareth says, filling the silence of the room. 

You look at Eddie and he’s gone pale, his whole face null of expression. 

“I- Hey.” You stutter, clearing your throat. “I was just gonna drop these off.” You continue, stepping forward to place the container of cookies on the table. 

“Hey Strat.” Jeff says nervously, being the first to snap out of his surprise. “You gonna stay today?” He asks. 

“No, no… gotta help my mom with.. something.” You lie. You were gonna stay. You told the little twerps you’d stay today, but you really have to go now. 

“I swore you told Dustin at lunch that you’d stay?” Gareth says, eyes narrowing in on you. 

“No, I-”

“Hey guys! What’s up?” Grant greets excitedly as he enters the drama room.

“Hey Grant.” You smile before taking steps towards the door.

“Strat? You’re going?” He questions, brows furrowing at you. “Dustin said you were staying and that you had something for us?”

“No, I have to go. Bye guys.” You say, turning quickly before exiting the room.

“What’s up with her?” You hear Grant say to the guys from the hall. 

“Strat! Where you going?” Lucas calls from the other end of the hall. You turn briefly, still walking backwards towards the school exit. 

“Gotta go home! I left cookies for you guys in there.” You say, putting on your best cheery voice before turning and walking as fast as you can out of the school. 

Shit. Eddie was right. He can’t just ask you out. That would be ruining a lifelong friendship. He can’t do that. He can’t like you. You guys are best friends. He can’t do that to you. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

At home you flop yourself on your bed. What the fuck are you gonna do?

Nothing. 

You’re going to do nothing. 

You’re going to pretend you didn’t hear that. Eddie doesn’t like you. He doesn’t love you. He’s not ruining your friendship— you won’t let him.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

You spend the weekend convincing yourself you made up the entire conversation you overheard. Eddie called 6 times since Friday evening, but you needed the time to erase whatever you overheard in the drama room from your memory. 

You spend Sunday evening contemplating if you should even take the ride from Eddie in the morning. He barely shows up Monday mornings so, who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky and won’t have to see him anyways.

You were wrong though. You decided to start your walk, and halfway there, you heard the familiar rumbling of his van approaching before slowing at your side. 

The van halts and you look over to see a fairly normal looking Eddie smiling at you. You try to muster a smile but you know it must look weird because he retracts into himself before motioning for you to get in. 

You stop, contemplating if it’s a good idea before you hear a car coming up the road that makes the decision for you. You quickly hop into the van, buckling yourself in as Eddie starts driving before the car behind him has time to honk. 

“Hey.” Eddie says.

“Hey.” You reply.

For a moment all that’s heard is the rumbling of the van engine. 

“Haven’t heard from you in a while.” He says cautiously.

“Yeah. Sorry. Was busy.” You lie. You spent the whole weekend in bed doing fuck all but thinking about the situation at large. 

“Busy?” Eddie asks. He knew you weren’t busy. You told him a few days that you had no plans. You were supposed to go over to his, but obviously that didn’t happen. 

“Yeah. Busy. My mom needed help with something.” You say, sticking with the same lie from Friday.

“Something?” He questions. Without looking at him, you can tell he's smiling.

“You’re just full of questions, aren’t you?” You say flatly, copying his same avoidant statement from Thursday night when he claimed to be helping Wayne with ‘something’. He huffs a breath out of his nose in what sounds like amusement, but you don’t think this is funny.

You don’t say more and neither does he for the rest of the ride. When you pull into the lot, you both get out before walking into the school. It’s mostly normal, except for the fact that it’s dead silent between the two of you. You don’t think it’s ever been this quiet between you.

When you see Robin, you use her as your escape.

“Robin!” You call. She turns to you and you wave at her. You start walking towards her and out of your periphery, you can see Eddie still trailing beside you. 

“Bye Eddie.” You say, stopping to turn toward him. You can’t look at him though, not in the eyes. You haven’t yet, apart from through the window of the van. 

“Bye Strat.” He says quietly.

You quickly push your way through the halls, leaving Eddie behind until you get to Robin.

“What was that?” She asks as soon as you’re close enough to hear her.

“What was what?” You question.

“What did you say to him, he looked like he was gonna cry?” Robin says furrowing her eyebrows at you.

“I just said bye?” You say.

“Just bye?” She says skeptically. You nod your head at her.

She grabs a book out of her locker, eyes still on you, clearly not believing you. 

“Steve said that those little twerps said something happened.” She says flatly. 

“Like what?” You ask hoping she has some drama that’ll take your mind off of all this.

“Something with you and Eddie.”

“Why’d they say that?” You roll your eyes.

“Cause something did happen?” She says, waiting for you to fill her in but you don’t. 

She stares at you, waiting for you to spill but truly, there’s nothing to spill. You let your eyes roam the hall, feeling awkward under her scrutinizing look before the slamming of her locker startles you. 

“You heard them talking didn’t you?” She asks.

“Heard who?” You ask and you physically feel Robin's annoyance rising. 

“Strat. Stop playing dumb.” She scolds.

“Robin. I’m not playing dumb.” You reply, sticking to your guns. It didn’t happen. You didn’t hear anything. Nothing happened. 

“Strat-” Robin starts, getting interrupted by the first bell. 

“Gotta go Robs! Good talk.” You say before bolting to home room.

You usually sit next to Eddie, but it’s fine. Nothing happened, right? Don’t need to be weird around him, right?

You cross the class to your seat at the back of the room, the spot next to you still empty. Little by little the class fills and by the time the second bell goes, you’re still left sitting alone at the back of the class. 

Halfway through the class, you’re still sitting alone. 

You try to focus on taking notes— especially now since you know you’re gonna have to teach this shit to Eddie who’s currently skipping, but you’re having a hard time focusing. 

When the teacher steps out of the class to get her forgotten worksheets from her office you lean forward in your chair, poking Jeff in the back. 

“Where is he?” You ask, when he turns.

“Seriously?” He laughs. You frown, not appreciating being laughed at right in your face. 

“Yeah. Seriously.” You reply sharply. 

“I think you know the answer to that.” Jeff says before turning forward again. 

Okay. Ouch. You always thought of Jeff as being the nicest out of the three older hellfire guys, but that was cold. 

You didn’t see Eddie for the rest of the day. Matter of fact, you didn’t see him until the next morning when he did the same thing. You had started walking and he drove up behind you, slowing, and you got in. The ride was in complete silence. Not a word or a glance. 

When you got to school, you parted ways immediately, without as much as a goodbye. Eddie didn’t show up to homeroom and Jeff didn’t look your way, not that you would have started a conversation with him after yesterday. 

You had seen Gareth and Grant walking in the hall and you waved. You know they both saw you but they kept walking, not reciprocating your wave, and it really fucking stung. 

That evening you walked home again. Alone.

The next morning, you walked the whole way to school. Alone. No Eddie in homeroom.

You were miserable. And to make matters worse, that morning, the drama teacher called you to his office over the intercom and proceeded to tear you a new one about how things were left in the drama room last Friday. You lied and said you weren’t feeling good and left things a bit of a mess, and that you were very sorry. By the end of the conversation, he was less so scolding you and more so giving you a pitiful look. Maybe you appeared as shitty as you felt, who knows, but you didn’t get detention so at least you got that win. He let you off with a warning instead but made sure to add that if it happens again this Friday, that’s it for your club.

Before lunch you set out to find the only hellfire members that you were certain would not give you the cold shoulder.

“Dustin! Mike!” You called, stopping them before they could enter the cafeteria. You really didn’t want to go in there, knowing Eddie would be there for sure. 

You jogged to catch up with them, both of them stopped right at the door. 

“Hey, do you mind doing me a favor?” You ask, trying to not seem like the shell of a person that you feel like. 

“Yeah? What’s up?” Mike replies. 

“Mr. Joels called me to his office and said if you guys leave the drama room like that again he’s gonna cancel hellfire permanently. Can you tell Eddie?”

“Can’t you tell him?” Mike says before Dustin hits him on the arm.

Dustin turns slightly, peering into the caf and your eyes follow, narrowing in on the person you’re always first to look for in a room. You feel whatever shards of a heart you have left dissolve when you see how miserable he looks too. 

“S-so can you tell him?” You stutter, trying to pull your attention away from Eddie. 

“Strat? Why didn’t you stay on Friday?” Dustin asks quietly.

“B-because.” You stutter again, feeling far too terrible to put up with any more interrogating and far too tired to keep up your lies.

“You heard him didn’t you?” He asks. Yeah. You heard him. You can’t lie to yourself anymore. You can’t pretend you didn’t. It’s not helping anyone. It’s not saving any friendship, because look at this. This isn’t preservation. 

All you can do is nod your head, eyes glued to your shoes.

“He likes you, Strat.” Dustin says. You shake your head, disagreeing. 

“He does.” Mike adds. You shake your head harder.

“No. He said he loves me.” You say, voice coming out croaky, lowering lip jetting out like you're about to cry. 

You bring the palms of your hands to your eyes, pushing until all you can see is black. You’re not about to cry in front of these freshies. You’re not. 

You hear the scuffing of their shoes on the floor before you feel a hand on your arm.

“Hey. It’s okay. Strat. Seriously, we can tell him. Don’t cry.” Dustin coos nervously, obviously not having the intent of making you teary eyed. 

“I’m not crying.” You huff, pulling your hands from your damp eyes. 

“No-yeah! You’re not crying. Don’t worry, we'll tell the guys.” Dustin says genuinely, his demeanor remaining soft yet incredibly nervous. Mike continues looking back into the caf, obviously looking for help from anybody. “So you’re not gonna sit with us?” He asks tentatively. 

You shake your head, not trusting yourself to speak. 

“Well, if you want to come back eventually, uh- we miss you.” He says. You laugh and both boys look taken aback. 

“Gareth and Grant pretended I didn’t exist when I saw them in the hall. Jeff laughed in my face when I asked about Eddie and then proceeded to give me the cold shoulder. They don’t miss me, trust me.” You say, exhaling deeply before standing up straighter, ready to end this conversation.

“We do miss you! Seriously.” Mike adds, looking nervous like it might not be the right thing to say. 

“Thanks guys.” You say, accepting their sentiments. “Tell Lucas I said hey and sorry for running off on him on Friday. And sorry to you guys too, I did say I was going to stay and then I didn’t.” You add before turning on your heels, heading off to the library without waiting for their reply. 

That evening, instead of moping in your room again, you decided to walk to family video. Making matters worse, your dad bought a new distortion pedal for his guitar and he’s been bugging you about getting Eddie to come over to check it out since Sunday. You're clean out of excuses and can’t handle him asking you again tonight, so getting out of the house seems like your best option. Robin usually doesn’t work Wednesday, which leaves Steve closing by himself. You’re not mad at Robin, you just can’t handle the interrogation.

Steve wouldn’t push you for answers like Robin would. He wouldn’t give you the cold shoulder like the other guys. He wouldn’t be the first person you’d hang out with, that of course would be Eddie but… yeah. Steve is a good friend though.

As soon as you walk into the video store you hear Steve calling your name from the register. 

“Hey! Long time no see!” He says happily.

“Yeah. How are you!” You ask, trying to return his chipper attitude but it comes out meek.

“Eh, living the dream.” He says, smiling. He rounds the counter, leaning against it, beside where you’re standing. “And what about you?” He asks, quirking a brow. 

“I’ve been better.” You say honestly. “Mind if I chill with you for a bit?” You ask, looking around the empty store.

“Not at all, in fact, I welcome it.” He laughs, his own eyes grazing the desolate isles.

You take a seat behind the counter with him, just talking about nothing. You can tell Steve’s waiting for you to bring something up though, he keeps giving you knowing looks whenever there’s a lull in conversation. 

When he turns away to help some customers you mentally give yourself a pep talk to talk about it. You’re not going to cry. 

“So… I assume the children and Robin filled you in?” You say, once Steve joins you again after the customers have left.

“That they did.” He says, smiling at you with a nod of his head.

“And?” You say, waiting for him to bombard you like Robin did.

“And what? What do I think?” He asks. You sit back, surprised by his response. 

“I guess.” You say shrugging.

“Well… you and Munson are close. Obviously. Totally and completely close. I can see why you’re like… y’know… freaked out or whatever. In denial, like Robin said.” Steve says, shrugging his shoulders, mirroring your action. 

You look up at Steve in total shock from his extremely validating answer and he just smiles back at you. 

“Don’t you think… Am I not.. in the wrong? I mean, it feels like everybody's mad at me… but like, I don’t know what to do?” You say quietly, stumbling through your thoughts.

“I don’t think you’re in the wrong. Feelings are complicated, there’s not really a right or a wrong.” Steve says genuinely, surprising you.

“Wise.” You laugh.

“Well, you know. I’ve had my fair share of feelings.” Steve laughs.

“How did you know when you- uh…” You trail off. Steve waits patiently for you to speak and you’re beyond thankful for it. “With Nancy, how’d you know?” You say, mustering you all of your courage. 

“I think that’s a little different because we weren’t close friends first, but… it’s hard to say. I guess I just really wanted to be with her, even if it was just hanging out. Thought about her like 24/7. All of that corny shit, like butterflies and blushing and feeling like you can’t breathe.” Steve says, grabbing a tape off the counter and fidgeting with it in his hands.

“Sorry for asking about Nancy.” You say, picking up his discomfort as soon as he starts playing with his hair, pushing it back over and over again.  

“Don’t worry about it, seriously.” He says, reaching a hand across and patting your knee in a friendly manner. 

“I guess, I’m just confused cause… I’ve never thought of Eddie that way, but… maybe I have?” You say, questioning yourself. 

“Hmm.” Steve hums, thinking to himself.

“Like, I feel like Eddie’s my person. He’s the only one that I want to hang out with all the time, and I always think about him… but the butterflies and all that other stuff you said, I don’t know. I feel like Eddie's just Eddie, he doesn’t make me nervous like that. 

“Well that could be because you’ve known him your whole life?” Steve gathers. “And I’m not trying to fuck with your head or anything, but you can’t say you don’t blush at stuff he does. I’ve seen it before.” Steve smiles at you genuinely.

“What?” You scrunch your face. You so do not blush because of Eddie. “When?”

“Halloween. Jonathon was taking all those photos and Eddie kissed you on the cheek for one of them. You seriously went bright as a tomato and there’s photo evidence.” Steve laughs.

You remember that night. You did blush, but you blamed it on the alcohol consumed… even though you only had half a beer at that point. You literally went hot all over and then you blamed it on not eating enough before drinking.

“Oh my god.” You say, mostly for yourself. Eddie had made you blush. He made you blush hard. 

“Am I right?” Steve says smugly. You reach across, hitting Steve on the shoulder but he swats you away with a laugh.

“I hate to say it Steve, but maybe you’re onto something.” You smile in disbelief.

“You people have no faith in me.” Steve says, faking hurt. 

All you can do is smile at him because things are finally starting to make a little more sense. 

“Well, want to keep going or are you tapping out of feelings?” Steve says, quirking his brow at you, making you laugh. 

“What are you? Dr. Harrington? PhD in love?” You joke, grabbing your own tape off the counter to fiddle with. 

“Oh yeah. Took a lot of heartbreak to get my PhD but hey, if it helps at least one person, maybe it was all worth it.” He laughs.

The conversation lulls for a moment but you quickly break it, deciding you’re not tapping out of your feelings, how could you when you’re so close to understanding?

“Do you think it’ll ruin our friendship? Like what if it doesn’t work out?” You spit out your worst fear, but it doesn’t even phase Steve.

“Well, from what I heard from Robs, how’s your friendship going right now?” Steve says cautiously with a softness to his voice.

“Horrible. I’m miserable. He looks miserable, but I haven’t really talked to him since last Thursday and even then he was acting weird.” You frown thinking about how Eddie looked in the cafeteria, slouched in his seat at the table, eyes all sad, not even talking to the guys— and Eddie is a talker, it’s not fucking normal for him not to be talking.

“Right. And you’re still confused about if you have feelings for him?” Steve asks genuinely, curious but not prying.

“I mean yeah. Like, I pictured Eddie in my life forever, but I never even considered it in that way or really any way at all. I never put much thought into it, ever.” You say honestly. 

“You don’t… you know.. think about him sexually.” Steve asks, grinning. You look down into your lap, shyly and you feel your cheeks heat but it’s an easy question you know the answer to.

“Truthfully? I always blamed it on him being so close to me. Like proximity planted all that shit in my head. And like… obviously I trust him and stuff so, like… if I thought about him like that, I always told myself it’s because I could trust him and that’s it.” You say, hiding in your hands. Steve grabs at your hands, before shooting you an amused smile. He’s so stupid, but this is fucking working, he’s actually making everything make sense. 

“So you’re attracted to him?” Steve says once your blush cools.

“Eddie’s fucking beautiful. I’ve never been shy to say that. Well, except when he was, like, going through puberty, that was scary.” You say widening your eyes, remembering how gangly and extra clumsy he was right after his growth spurt, and the awkward squeaky voice he had for an entire summer before his voice dropped. Steve laughs at you, clearly enjoying the terror that flashes over your face when you remember the first time you found his porn stash that somehow moved in right along with puberty. 

“And… correct me if I’m wrong but you’ve never had a boyfriend, right?” Steve says.

“You are correct.” You say sheepishly. 

“And why’s that?” He asks. You shrug, starting to feel nervous. 

“You don’t have to tell me. I’m not judging you for your choices, just might be helpful to think about?” Steve says softly, leaving it as an optional question with a way out if you so please.

“Yeah. I think, just… dunno. Whenever I’d think about going on a date, I’d always think about Eddie and that would kind of cut the idea short, if that makes sense? Not that I’d think about going on dates with him, just like, if I thought about going on a date it was more so, like… ‘well I usually hang out with Eddie so there’s no time’.” You ramble, nerves getting to you.

“Makes total sense. But you don’t think you associated Eddie with dating because…” Steve leads, leaving open space in his point for you to conclude.

“Because I want to date Eddie?” You say out loud, trying to piece together the puzzle that you’ve been recklessly throwing the pieces around to for far too long. 

“Once again, I’m not trying to make you think any particular way. Just helping you get to your own conclusions. Think of me as an impartial mediator.” Steve says, standing up from his spot, starting to pile some tapes back into a cart. You stand too, starting to help him since you’ve stolen so much of his time. 

“You really should consider getting a PhD or something, cause damn. Much to think about.” You laugh. “When did you get so wise.” You joke, pushing at his shoulder. 

“Yeah. Definitely would never qualify for a PhD, but thanks.” Steve laughs, placing the final VHS from the counter into the basket. “Now, want to do returns with me? Either that or we leave them for Robin tomorrow and when she chews me out I'll totally blame it on you so…” Steve says, tilting his face at you, raising his brows waiting for your response. 

“Already had Robin chew me out enough.” You smile, grabbing the return bin for Steve. 

You ended up staying with Steve until close. After he dropped you off at home, you spent the whole night thinking about everything you talked through with Dr. Harrington. 

Even after a night of contemplation, you kept thinking about it into the next day. You thought about it as you walked by yourself to school, sat through home room alone, ate lunch alone, walked home alone, and spent the evening alone. 

You like Eddie. 

It’s so fucking clear now. 

I mean, every time you’ve ever pictured your future? It’s always been with Eddie. Every dirty thought, every wet dream, every time you touched yourself, it’s always been about Eddie. You don’t go on dates and you’ve never cared to, because you have Eddie. Eddie is your person though and through. 

You don’t just like Eddie. You love him. 

And when that thought crosses your mind, you feel sick. Feels like someone is both tickling you and also absolutely bludgeoning you from the inside out. Is this what butterflies are? Holy fuck. 

When you think about Eddie spilling his guts to Jeff and Gareth in the drama room, you get that feeling and, god, is it horrible. But also… it makes you giddy?

You think about Eddie and suddenly you can’t wipe the stupid grin off your face. You think about his eyes, his nose, his stupid jokes, his laugh, and you get that fluttery feeling.

Deeper into the night you think about Eddie’s lips. You think about his hands, his arms, the way he always is touching you, the ways he could touch you, and you get a different feeling. Like a heat brewing in you. A desire, a neediness. Sure, you’ve thought things about Eddie, but never this purposefully. It makes you squirm in your bed until you get up and go grab water to cool yourself down.

You wake up befuddled with feelings. Like Steve was a fucking train conductor and you just got run over. 

It doesn’t help that you remembered that you kind of fucked this up already. It’s Friday. It’s been a whole week since you overheard him. 

It’s barely been 24 hours of you feeling so full of feelings. If Eddie was sure enough to admit he loved you to the guys, how long has he been feeling like this? If he’s felt anywhere near the way you feel now, he must have been drowning. And you were just letting him. And now, you’ve made him go a week, knowing that you know that he loves you, and you just went awol. 

Your mind goes to what he said in the drama room. 

“She’s killing me.” 

You’ve been killing him. It didn’t make sense at first, but now it does. It makes perfect sense and it took you until 5PM on Friday night to understand it after a long day of skipping school, laying in bed, and stress baking. And you need to stop it. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

ty <3

[pumpkinsy0]

PUMPKIN I NEED YOU TO GIVE ME AS MANY REASONS WHY PURLY IS THE BEST SHIP!! MY FRIEND IS TRYING TO CONVINCE ME THAT IT SUCKS AND I NEED TO PROVE HER WRONG

-🍵🧊

this feels like the equivalent of giving the bat signal in the sky for me to come

ANYWAYS LETS GO🚨🚨🚨

shipping papercut is like making a sandwich at subway, u can say it sucks all u want, but my brother in christ, U made it that way, this ship is like one of thee “u can do whatever the fuck u want w these two and u can make it make sense” ship u can possibly have in this fandom, if u dont like papercut, maybe its just UR rendition of it u dont like, pick it up n try it again w different things added to it to see if u like it🙄🙄

this ship is literally at the VERY BASE of it, opposites that compliment each other attracting and high school sweethearts and ur telling me ur not at least a lil interested🤨🤨AND I WASNT KISSING W THE ARTISTIC LIBERTY U CAN TAKE W THESE TWO, they can literally be enemies to lovers, that aloof couple trope, fake dating that turned real, u can even make ur own way on how they got together, u can pick and choose its like an all u can eat buffet, ur not rlly “trapped by canon” here

these r literally two dumbasses together like all the time, just imagine the dumb but sweet things they find themselves doin, and the ppl they annoy, just have a heart

if u like angst, curly was in the reformatory for 6 months after ponys life was quite literally changed forever, curly doesnt quite understand his own emotions, pony tries to see the good in the world while curlys always in trouble, AND THERES OTHERS IF U JUST DIP UR TOES INTO SHIPPING EM, the angst potential is RIGHT there🗣️🗣️

at the very base of this ship, theres nothing wrong w it, theres no weird age gap, they wouldnt be abusive towards each other, and ik some ppl have issues w this but also, but its a rare “not dating within the gang” ship, so u would HAVE to go out of ur WAY to make it weird, literally nothing wrong w this ship

if u love the relationship pony has w the gang, this ship can definitely help u expand on ponys relationship w everyone as a whole and u can show off just how protective the guys can become when it comes to pony in his own romantic relationships, what other ship u know is doin that🤨🤨BARELY ANY OF EM IF U DID NAME SOME🗣️🗣️🗣️

honestly same thing goes w the shepards, theres no other ship where u have angela and tim’s relationships w curly being explored through any other ship

while pony and curly r friends during the outsiders, its obvious they arent THAT close to each other, and so what i find interesting about this ship is that u can imagine their own little relationship actually building up and the trust in each other growing, as time goes on, i just think its cool to see them actually flourish, just make something entirely new because of the other and with each other, in a different way from other ships in this fandom

im a literal suckerrrr for cultural hcs so i love when theres cultural aspects actually shown with this ship i think its so cool bc it can get pretty intimate, like curly showing and introducing pony to parts of his culture???? so intimate actually SO underrated, and thats rlly only something i see done w the shepards and it rubs off on this ship as well and i love it 1000/10 (while we here can i convince u of haitian shepards🤔🤔 /lh)

they have shared experiences!!! yes they r opposites attract but they r also just some guys who r put in the same situation, trying to navigate life and protect each other, together, and even in their personal lives, theres things that should push them away from the other but it doesnt, they r this fandoms ship equivalent of the indomitable human spirit and thats all bc they r stupid lil dudes together

are u not a sucker for a guy whos pretty much been closed off emotionally a good chunk of his life finding someone to share his life w and finally finding learning to chillax once in a while w that person and that person alone cause theyre special to em?? boooooo🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱thats such a good trope

this is like the only ship where u actually have “rival” gangs interacting w each other,,,WHERE IS UR SENSE OF ADVENTURE

every shipper of them is literally so cool, like literally, ive never met a shitty shipper of these two, shipping them is like having a vip pass, and its not even like a huge group of ppl, its a small community, we r like a quiet village, unlike SOME SHIPS HERE🙄🙄

ANYWAYS i rest my case, ur just bein a lil haterrrr

if this aint convince ur friend that they arent at least a lil good, the problem isnt the ship,,,its ur friend,,,drop em immediately, but if this did??? welcome to the cool club

[mechanismslorearchive]

I'm trying to find lore on Ivy, but somehow can barely find anything- I'm very bad at getting details out of big chunks of text so I was hoping to find someone's summary or explanation. Would you happen to have something like that? Or a link you could direct me to?

You know, this is a very good question! I don't honestly think anyone has written a post about Ivy's lore, I am quite tired atm, but I can bullet point out the main points!

Or well, some fun facts I guess, because thats me, travis, the fun fact guy.

Ivy was the third Mechanism to be Mechanized by Doc C, this is proven by the fact she appears in this doc carmilla art on Maki's blog!

Ivy was, presumably, mechanized either in a Space libary of Alexandria, of sorts, given the library theme, 'alexandria' etc etc. And the fact in her backstory fiction the entire everything

Ivy's age is unknown.

In several photos, Ivy is seen reading a [i forget the language rn, maybe german?] translation of a Tolkien book. So thats a fun fact!

flute player.

Ivy once upon a time had a song called The Librarian. This song was never recorded, and the lyrics do not appear on the site like Cyberian Demons, and this haunts me. It was preformed live at a DC&TM gig along with the fabled song Fantasia, and several Lorelai songs.

although, in her fiction, its sort of implied Tim was mechanized by the time she was mechanized? Or at least there. "a figure strides out of the smoke towards her, the hem of his coat smouldering, reflected firelight glinting in the glass lenses where his eyes should be."

his implies one of the dudes, coat implies tim somewhat, and so does 'glass lenses where his eyes should be', but given she was number 3, and Tim was well after the fact, either time is wobbly (VERY LIKELY) or this figure was Jonny. Either or. It could very well be Tim burned down a library for shits and giggles at some point, found a mortal ivy, went oh shit, dragged her out of the flames and left her outside, where Doc C picked her up. these are both just as likely tbh

you know rereading the fiction its heavily implied she is on the moon.

Tim is implied a LOT in this fiction so ???

Regardless, the bones of it is

Ivy does not recall and remember like a person, rather like a computer - an encyclopedia. She is a book not a person, its said in the text

If i'm missing anything very important, feel free to reblog with it!

[caiusmarciuscoriolanus]

Guys Richie is actually super heart breaking as a character…

Let me explain myself. I was watching ebon’s colbert appearance and they were talking about Richie’s accent and how he’s meant to be this sort of army brat that moved to Chicago so his accent isn’t necessarily a constant thing. He makes a point to say that it comes out particularly when he’s “performing” or putting on a persona of sorts. I don’t know if that’s something he’s talked about before or not because I haven’t watched a ton of cast interviews. But it got me thinking about how genuinely kinda sad of a character Richie is. This idea of him being an army brat that moved around a lot as a kid and doesn’t really talk about his own family. He’s got this best friend that he loved and is now dead, and he’s sort of planted himself in said best friend’s family drama. He’s divorced and having to jump through hoops because of it. And everyone’s telling him that he’s not useful. And LIKE YES HE HAS HIS REDEMPTION ARC MOMENT BUT THE FACT THAT HE PUTS ON THIS ACCENT THAT DOESNT REALLY FULLY BELONG TO HIM BECAUSE HE FEELS SO INSECURE AND DISPLACED AMONGST PEOPLE AND IN SPACES HE SHOULD FEEL SAFE IN. TO HAVE TO EVEN DO IT INFRONT OF SAID BEST FRIEND. THE AMOUNT OF TIMES THROUGHOUT THE SHOW THAT SEVERAL CHARACTERS HAVE TOLD HIM THAT HE’S OCCUPYING A SPACE HE DOESNT BELONG TO (“you’re not even Italian” “I should have cut you out” “not right now cousin” etc). AND ITS ONLY AFTER HE FINDS “PURPOSE” THAT THE OTHER CHARACTERS MAKE IT A POINT TO LISTEN TO OR TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY. LIKE BEFORE HES TRYING SO HARD TO USE THIS WHOLE FACADE THAT HE THOUGHT WORKED WELL WITH MIKEY. LIKE THIS WALL OR SOMETHING THATS BEEN KEEPING HIM SAFE FROM HAVING TO FACE THE REALITY OF HIS SITUATION. AND MIKEY DIES AND THINGS ARE CHANGING AND HE REALIZES HE HAS TO FACE IT NOW. IM SOBBING DUDE WTF. BRO HAS PROBABLY SPENT A GOOD CHUNK OF 46/47 OR SO YRS FEELING LIKE SOME SORT OF OUTLIER BECAUSE LIFE WAS JUST BUILT FOR HIM LIKE THAT.

IN SHORT RICHIE IS SUPER TRAGIC AND INCREDIBLY COMPELLING AS A CHARACTER AND IT’S BECAUSE OF ATTENTION TO DETAIL LIKE THAT. EBON YOURE RUINING MY EMOTIONS BRO.

[calronhunt]

would love to know some fun facts about any of the bbd guys!

Less Fun Facts and more so just Facts that come to mind but still!!

- Raphael knows how to play the violin! Though he doesn't play anymore for Reasons.

- Raphael likes to read! Though he won't admit that cause it's lame.

- every other fact i can think of has to do with his trauma and THATS NOT VERY FUN. Dude just gets fucked up for 23 years and then the story happens.

- Lionel has crazy bottom dysphoria. Like. CRAZY crazy bottom dysphoria.

- the scars on Lionel's wrists are from handcuffs that were imbued with fire magic. They burned the fuck out of them

- Lionel has OCD im pretty sure. A lot of his throught patterns are based on my own before I got told I have "moderate OCD symptoms" so like. Take that as you will.

- the paladin order is an almost entirely female order. There's def some men but i would say the ratio is like. 85%/15%. A fair amount of men are people like lionel who transed their gender after joining

- sigthy used to be afraid of fire as a kid : )

- Another Sigthy fact; his full name is Sigurther.

- Ariel (Raphael's mom) Ascended to the throne when she was 18 after the sudden death of her parents. It hasn't gone well.

- Cassiel, my baby boy, is an alcoholic

- Jett (Raphael's boyfriend at the start) runs an Inn after the very sudden death of HIS parents that he definitely has 0 guilty feelings about. He's also a major pushover coward bitch to basically everyone. The consequences of this is a need to have control over Raphael's life to feel in power of SOMETHING.

- Romu and Remus are the sun god's very first kids. They are several thousands of years old.

- like every fun fact about the sun god is spoilers but she's got some shapeshifting powers she likes to use.

- Jo joined the paladins after a fire burned down a large chunk of her home village. This fire is the one that Sigthy started to burn his house down with his family inside.

- Jo is beginning to have mixed feeling over whether the paladins are good bc of their treatment of Lionel <: ) but they're gotta be good, right?

- Sarah was forced to join the Paladins by her father bc he didn't want her to inherit all the land the family owner (she's the eldest child)

- The nicks in Ericka's ears were from when she got captured by the paladins for a short time and they tortured her.

[epikonionman]

UUggh I COULD do Milenko and then jeckel bros but I wanna vent my frustrations and other things about Bang! Pow! Boom!

Intro. Obviously 10/10, intro freebie and what not, kaboom bang pow cleansing. Though i am wondering why hes cleansing them, clearly its unknown if theyre bad yet, why explode sinners as well as possible good people, stupid spiky explosive.

Beautiful Doom. I am aware that this song is a mashup of like 3 different songs and what not but oh dear does this song really send me on a rollercoaster. Especially from freaky creep show to the clowns are back. But a fine song overall. 6.8/10, would give it a 7 but i didnt feel like it.

In Yo Face. A fine song, nothing noteworthy particularly, i do like the instrumental, its a good saving grace for it. 5/10, no good instrumental can save a facial and/or acidic pie attack threat.

The bone. I do like the background whateverthefuck stringed instrument, im gonna say guitar or bass because thats broad enough. Though, the song is extremely repetitive. Its just killed a guy, he got the bone, heres another way i punched a dude. Though, i will appreciate the extra beats when it’s mentioned he ran over some dude with a golf cart. 7.5/10, another mediocre song, has some fun parts, and by that i mean guy getting mowed down by golf cart.

Zombie Slide. Wake the dead. Wake the dead. Wake the dead up. Wake the dead. I adore this song and i really dont know why, the first few times i listened to this id just zone out during this and mainly only listen out for its awesome transition into to catch a predator. But i do like this song, its one of the few things ive got a soft spot for: the living dead. 8/10, this will be my fate when i die, this including the headless boogie will be on my kicked-the-bucket list.

To catch a predator. I love this song, i love chris hansen’s sting operations, and i love j butchering predators.While i do love the song, i do feel like it overstays its welcome. Like after a certain point the whole “im probably gonna burn for this” part doesn’t feel the same as it did earlier in the song. But i still do like this song and think its one of the best on this album. 8.5/10

Boing Boing. Imagine if lil somthin somthin just sounded stinky. It just isnt my thing. I know it has its fans, everything does. But i sure as hell am not one of them. 4/10, only because i got to hear about their asses, J’s and Shaggy’s to be specific.

I Found A Body. Before i even say anything, this is the gay version of cemetary girl, maybe the loon in cemetary girl realized hes bicurious. Now to the song, its fine. I dont mind it, i like the instrumental slightly, i also dont like how most of the vocals are said, like low and building to high for a good chunk of it. 6/10, for the gay necro represenation (Even though there are better groups to represent.)

Love. I like how the song sounds, i adore the instrumental. But lord are these lyrics very rape-y. Either that or it makes yandere icp canon. 6.5/10. Like the instrumental, the lyrics not nearly as much.

Fonz Pond. I like this song, its one of the few songs that i would willingly listen to  in this album. It has a good instrumental, some pretty awesome lyrics. 9/10, love ponds, and you, yes you better not be a baby pussy about it and come with me.

Imma Kill You. Fine. The lyrics flow well, the beat is nice to listen to. This is what i imagine non icp fans see their whole discography as. 7/10, i will be clapping my enemies’ balls with two bricks.

Juggalo Island. I don’t like this song. I can’t really explain why, but whenever i listen to this song i feel a mixture of disgust and anger. I really just don’t like its sound. 4/10, caused me a whole list of side effects, each of them dehydrating me in some way.

Vultures. Badabadumdumbadumdadey we are the vultures feed on the dead. Vultures is FINE. Theres some parts i like, but most of it feels very bland. But its not terrible. 5/10

Vera Lee. The beginning part i never liked, i grew on me eventually. Ever since then ive grown fond of this song. It sounds nice, ever so slightly tragic and overall is just enjoyable. Yippee. 7.3/10

Miracles. Not the biggest fan of this song, it has some nice enough lyrics. The instrumental is my main problem. Very similar throughout, but still has a nice sound. Feels like a massage from a masseuse who has slightly too long of nails. 7.8/10, GoTtA lOvE mOtHeRfUcKiNg MiRaClEs ThOuGh :o)

Bang! Pow! Boom! I like this song a lot, i like its instrumental. I like the lyrics. Its just fun, fun fun fun. I wish i could blow up sinners in ass nevada. One could only wish… Overall a fun song that i would gladly flop on the deck like a fish to. 8/10, you didnt hear this from me, but… they say the show is the bomb.. Heard its even straight explosive.. Maybe call it napalm..

Bonus tracks :o)

Over a Bitch. I like the instrumental, or beat I guess, it's mostly beats. Quite the tragic tale might I add. No one likes to hear their girl is being buttfucked by their so-called friend. 6/10, only because our hero is the better version of this tale.

Our Hero. Gotta love the other patients being jovial over the goulash, corn, kool-aid, and cookies!!! The instrumental is better than OaB, has fun-er? Lyrics than the other. He’s quite the intelligent hero too, placing his own doings on some rick the dick. Good on him, a good way to teach people not to fuck a killer’s bitch, and to keep your dumb dick in your dumb pants. Remember fellas, you're better off, beating off. 7/10.

Chop Chop Slide. It's like the cha-cha slide, except there are no cliffhangers. We never even got a part two to that. This is why any songs that sound similar to this, aren't as good as the best. Juggalos, what is our signal?

Supernatural. Kinda like that one show. The song is fine, kinda like if J was Jesus and decided to freeze water instead of getting dudes buzzed. 5/10, I see why this was but a bonus track. Nothing noteworthy.

Tonight. I like the instrumental for this song. Nothing better than some sparkly-sounding thingies. Gotta also love getting some fine honeys. How fun. Not much else to say. It’s a sex song. 6/10

It’s All Over. This song, oh this song. I adore this song, it sounds fun. I love the feeling of everything being legitimately hopeless, there's hail, fires, tornadoes, and other shit. A good thing to listen to late at night when you are feeling particularly good about anything in the world. I also recommend the music video for this song. It's (likely) unintentionally wacky, only because of the dodgy effects, which is exactly why I recommend it. 7/10, I would as well like to see the world end rather than begin.

[hvwks]

and listen i get it i understand a hefty sizable chunk (honestly, the vast majority) of the fandom wants endeavor dead, rendered useless, written off, etc, for his actions and thats fair and completely valid bc like. its a fictional dude. actions were reprehensible, you may have those opinions.

but... i just... the potential for those kids to finally heal and move forward. and begin a life for themselves free of the shackles that their family's fucked up dynamics created... so much of that can come from seeing what brought you pain and misery and choosing to move forward, anyway. i'm not saying you need to forgive your abuser or anything of that nature. absolutely not. but i can tell you. if... my mother, who spent so much of my childhood and adolescence telling me how useless i was, how i can't do anything right, won't achieve anything with my life, and fostered these severely debilitating neurodivergencies that i know have to be in full-time therapy for the forseeable future with no real "cure" for it (woohoo lets go bpd!) .... so much as apologized to me even once. for the things that i went through. i think i could heal so much of my inner. i wouldn't be fixed compeltely. hell, i will still need to do my dbt worksheets and my grounding techniques. but at least i won't have to spend the rest of my life dealing with a "would she ever say sorry? would she ever recognize what she did to me?"

and the thing is, at least for shoto, fuyumi, even natsuo to some extent.... they are choosing to be there, choosing to listen to the man that made their life a living hell in his apologies. enji didn't force any of his kids to listen to his apologies. much less accept them. and that's said time and time again. shown multiple times, too. the way those kids choose to step up and move forward is completely of their own volition--and whether YOU, the viewer, an outsider's perspective, decide hes worthy of "redemption" (which!! he explicitly said he didn't want! he specifically said he wants to atone for his actions!! not be seen as a completely different person, but the same man who recognizes his evils and is actively making the choice to see where he can make things better, even by a small fraction if he can!!) doesn't change the fact that there are people out there who would give up their pinky toe to have a parent that hurt them so badly acknowledge their actions and apologize for them.

not because it makes them a btter person all of a sudden. but because it gives the people affected by them the chance to find closure and move forward to grow into something new and transformed.

and THAT is why endeavor's survival, ESPECIALLY after the climax of the todorokis vs dabi, would be important to the narrative as well as the overall growth of the todoroki family. dabi felt what it was like, for the first time, to be seen. he's a boy that never got to grow or learn how to handle his very big emotions. he was a victim in all things. whether that was with endeavor or with afo. but the potential for him to see what could be, see where things can, maybe, just maybe, one day become what the little touya that died at sekoto peak always wanted is too good for me to ignore.

[13thdoctorposts]

chris chibnalls era was the most conservative nuwho has been. remember when he made the first non-white master dress up as a nazi, and the white protagonist purposefully reveals his race with the intent of getting him sent to a concentration camp? or when he queerbaited thasmin? or when the female protagonist knelt down to a man and called him her master? or when yaz instantly shut down ryan when he was talking about his struggles as a black person? or the concept of a pregnant man being used as a joke? please try to see through the performative activism.

Thanks for the question. I think most of the questions are rhetorical because obviously I’ve watched the show and saw these things, I think the question is just asking me to see through the performative activism. I don’t think it was performative activism but I thought we could go though each part of the question together as I’m happy to breakdown my thoughts on the situations mentioned. This might be TLDR for some people just warning you now 😅

chris chibnalls era was the most conservative nuwho has been.

I find it interesting the asker is saying the show is conservative while also saying its performative activism so essentially that it was trying to be woke.

Personally I don’t think Chibbs was trying to make a ‘Woke’ show, I also don’t think he was trying to make a ‘conservative’ show. I think he was trying to make a show with diverse stories. I think series 11 did this best. The ending of Keblam! was definitely not ‘Woke’ so all the talk about the show itself being ‘Woke’ I don’t think is correct but I also don’t think the show was trying to be actively conservative either since it was talking about issues like racism and partition of India and Pakistan, and making fun of a trump like figure, for example. It’s just a show about time and space, sometimes you see politics in it sometimes you don’t. I’ll talk about my thoughts on ‘performative activism’ during the Chibnall era at the end.

I think its important to remember Chibbs is just a dude going to work doing a really big job trying to use his position of power the best he can… it doesn’t mean every decision is going to be right… sometimes I make a bad calls at work, we all do… people are human… I can empathise that people can try their best and sometimes get it wrong but also often get it right, the world is nuanced not black and white. However this doesn’t make a whole show bad, can anyone name a show with 3 series that doesn’t have any bad decisions… can anyone name a different Doctors run that was perfect and no mistakes or mis-steps were made?

remember when he made the first non-white master dress up as a nazi, and the white protagonist purposefully reveals his race with the intent of getting him sent to a concentration camp?

I most definitely do remember this, and I think it was a bad call. However I can also acknowledge that Sacha was hired when everyone was already in South Africa a week before shooting Spyfall, which means the script was already written and pre production was well under way so they probably didn’t have the ability to change a major chunk of the script, thats just the logistics of shooting a TV show. It would have been great if Chris had unlimited money and time to change things but thats just not the case. I would think this logically means they couldn’t change the fact that they had the Master in a Nazi outfit… I also think its possible when writing the episode Chris probably wrote it with the subconscious bias that he was going to have a white male as the Doctors Master. Although Chris was very good about hiring diverse actors, subconscious bias sits in us we aren’t always aware we are doing it, hence the subconscious part. This isn’t great on Chris’s part but I don’t think he was being deliberately malice either. I think they also thought once they had Sacha that they needed to acknowledge race… and they did in the worse way possible, it was unnecessary and was a terrible look for the Doctor.

or when the female protagonist knelt down to a man and called him her master?

Yeah I do also remember this, it was uncomfortable to watch, I think the purpose of the scene was meant to make us really dislike the Master, to kill any good will the audience was having towards ‘O’. Him killing people is horrible but its the Master its expected and random characters who are extras that we as an audience aren’t attached to isn’t going to have the same effect as him doing something horrible to a character we are attached to like the Doctor. I wish what he had done wasn’t this. I don’t think it’s a good look, a female Doctor having to be submissive to a male in this way. It’s not appropriate. However I have to praise Jodies acting here because she acted this scene in the most unsubmissive way possible. This is just a decision I don’t agree with, it doesn’t make for a bad show overall.

or when he queerbaited thasmin?

Thasmin wasn’t queerbait because the characters canonically admitted having feeling for each other. You can be disappointed with the way it ended… I am… but a bad ending isn’t queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is implying their might be something queer happening only for it to be dropped and often a heteronormative ending is what is actually depicted on screen and was primarily used by shows as a rating kick. I would say it would be the opposite for Doctor Who, since people were vocal about not wanting a female Doctor, not wanting the Doctor to ever have a love interest etc. it likely wouldn’t have given the show a ratings kick in the same way other modern era TV would hope to get when queerbaiting. Thasmin isn’t queerbaiting its just a disappointing end

or when yaz instantly shut down ryan when he was talking about his struggles as a black person?

I don’t think this is what Yaz’s intention was but people can read the scene as they wish.

or the concept of a pregnant man being used as a joke?

I don’t think it was being play with as a joke. I think Ryan and Graham’s reaction in this episode was how a lot of people would act and through the episode seeing them coming to terms with the idea a male can be pregnant is a reflection of society and you see them work through being uncomfortable, not really being sure how to act or what to say but in the end they get to where they need to be, seeing the miracle that is life. This also touches on Ryans father issues so theres a lot going on in this situation and although theres some comic relief moments I don’t think it was trying to make the whole situation a joke.

please try to see through the performative activism.

I don’t think the Chibnall era was performative activism because he wasn’t all words, he was actions. There were more diverse voices in major positions, in the cast, in the writers room and with Directors.

So what do I mean by this? Well we didn’t have a white man write ‘Rosa’ and then have an all white TARDIS team take on racism in 1955 and defeat it. That would have been performative activism.

First of all and most importantly we had a woman of colour hired and paid to write a story that was in a very well known TV show giving the story a huge audience on a platform its never had before… thats not performative, that’s actively doing something, Chris hired, paid and gave a platform to a person of colour to tell their story.

Giving people real opportunities in areas they haven’t had opportunities before on a large scale like Doctor Who and trying to create an environment where that is normalised and diverse voices are a common place has to start somewhere, it doesn’t just happen fully formed and Chibbs was clearly and deliberately trying to normalises having voices of women and people of colour in front and behind the camera in senior positions like actors, writers and directors.

I think it’s important to remember Chibbs was trying to be the beginning of this change so its not a fully realised idea, there aren’t as many writers and directors who are women and people of colour, so you bring in as many as you can, which I think Chibbs did, then you try and grow it from there. If more show runners did what Chibbs did in years to come we would have more minority writers, directors and show runners. It has to start somewhere and the more opportunities that open up the more people will enter these professions and so more voices will become normalised in the industry and more representation will be found in media for all of us. The fact he was trying to build this systemic change clearly demonstrates this isn’t ‘performative’ activism.

[polyhexian]

Is it worth it to upgrade from csp pro to ex if I'm looking to get more seriously into animation?

It depends. I suppose a good half answer is: would I take the money I spent to upgrade ( usually something like $180, but I got base csp in a humble bundle and upgraded on black Friday so I basically spent $80) back and go back down? No. Never. I wouldn't even take the full $180. Worth it in every possible way. I use the ex features every day and have the entire time I've had it.

In the pro version you can only animate 24 frames at a time. In EX you have unlimited frames. Ultimately, that's what matters here.

So it depends on what you mean by "more seriously" I think. If you are already making videos that need you to make more than 24 frames at a time then you should upgrade because it's time to make the thing you're already doing easier by using that tool. If you're not, don't stress yourself with a fairly large purchase for something you're not sure you even need. If you are making smaller animations, you can export 1 second videos from pro and then put them together in another program. You probably need to re save it in something else anyway- exported csp videos are HUGE. A thirty second video could be 10 freaking gigs. I always have to re export it in a different video editor actually made to do that. YouTube actually compresses your video a small amount anyway, so that perfect crisp quality... Is going to get lost. Even if you export in 4k. god it annoys me.

In any case. If you can possibly get away with not upgrading, don't upgrade. Even if it means cutting up the audio into one second chunks in audacity to import into CSP. With a big purchase like this, and obviously. Things can just be. Pirated. But I don't know if there's any good cracks of csp ex and when I got it there CERTAINLY was not because that was back in like. 2018? 2017! Because it was for black Friday. Ages ago!

But also like if you want to know like. What programs I suggest or use in general vs have access to. I always prefer to draw or paint in medibang (free). I always animate in CSP EX (not free). I do any basic video editing like just adding two clips together, text, etc, I use wondershare filmora (not free, but much much less expensive than csp ex). I have Sony Vegas (not free but industry standard), adobe animate (not free, do not use), Adobe After effects (not free), and Photoshop CS6 (not free, maybe not available as single purchase anymore?). Vegas is theoretically great but I can't adapt to it so I don't use it. Didn't like animate. I use after effects occasionally for specific things, complicated panorama shots, complicated compositions, effects, layered looping animations, some other things. I don't use Photoshop. After effects is basically "you can do a lot in csp but it is primarily an art program, not a video editor and there are some things I really need a dedicated video editor for" program. And usually thats wondershare filmora which is reliable and lightweight. And can kinda do a lot these days.

Just. You know. I mean if you can find a torrent of ex yeah dude absolutely

[pwnyta]

Genshin character Judgement after all these years of playing. I will judge looks, personality, and say my favorite voice! Now with 5-stars, alphabetical order.

(under the cut)

Still a goofy ass design. WHY DIDNT THEY JUST GIVE HIM PANTS? I dont understand. He'll probably never get a costume either since NO ONE FUCKING HAS HIM LMAO. His lore & personality are S-tier tho. Love his relationship with Klee and the brief time he was with Cyno.

I like all his VAs except his CN voice which makes him sound like... 8? girl what? Another rare L for CN casting director.

I fucking love Alhaitham. Hes such a dick.... but hes only a dick to people who step on his toes... which I think is fair. His design is terrific. i did have some pretty high hopes for him... and still kinda do since his design is so sus... but right now his lore is pretty underwhelming. Also hes one of those characters Id think look significantly better with a darker skin tone. Pasty bitch.

I like all his voices but JP is my favorite. KN is a close second.

SEE HYV you can make a sexy character that doesnt randomly show skin in weird places... Funny that. Arlecchino is great. Her lore is great, her personality is great, her design is great, her colors are great. Thumbs up all around.

Her voices are also great! I especially love how masc her JP voice is. Killin it as usual Father.

Ayaka... overall gets a resounding MEH from me.

I like her JP voice best. Which I guess is appropriate!

MY MORTAL ENEMY. never speak to me or my son (Venti) again. (I do like his relationship with his sister and Itto)

They could never make me like you Ayato. (I actually like all BUT his JP voice)

Baizhus design is so pleasant. However I saw someone say it looks like he accidentally put his clothes in the dryer and they shrunk.... and thats all I can think when I see him now. LMAO.

His EN voice is my favorite... I swear i thought he'd be shadier than he is because his voice reminded me so much of James from Pokemon or Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh... LMAO I dont even have to listen to his other voices... his EN just cracks me up. His CN voice fits his personality significantly more tho...LMFAO

OOH CHIORI. I dont really care for most of the Inazuma cast TBH... but DAMN Chiori... its like she took all the good design with her to Fontain. Whyd she do that to them. Shes also a BITCH. Its so funny. There was a dude crying because he was grateful for something (I dont remember) and this bitch said '...EW' and I fuckin lost it. Shes so good. GEO never misses with characters its crazy. Geo characters are either perfect aesthetically or personality or lore... most of the time ALL OF THEM (with the exception of Albedo who looks like a fuckin dork but his personality and lore S-tier)

I like all but her JP voice. But her EN voice sounds the bitchiest and its my favorite.

Another design where I saw the concepts and was completely disappointed by the design they chose. Honestly if they didnt go with this blue-purple color palate I probably wouldnt even dislike it... BUT HERE WE ARE. Her personality is great tho and her story with Navia is... *chef kiss*

All her voices are pretty good. I like her KN best! Rare W for KN!

THE BABIEST. I know Ive said this before and I will say it again... buy Cyno is the babiest. I love an Anubis theme. I love the colors. I ADORE his personality. It makes me so sad... in the Windblume festival he said his subdued personality is from when he was a child and the people would judge him for being from the desert region... and that he only tells jokes to people considers his friends... but all his friends dont like his jokes and get annoyed with him. Why do they do this to him... he also has a little tree branch he only brings his friends to... HES SO FUCKING CUTE. The fact a good chunk of the fandom characterize him as some tough dom daddy for Tighnari is fucking DIABOLICAL work. Never talk to me of my son ever again.

All his VAs are good but his CN is best.

Ya know what I JUST said... ANYWAYS DEHYA IS THE BABIEST. She is so god damn cute... and she looks so rough and tumble... I love that shes a girly girl at heart and her relationship with Candace is CRAZY work. HYV did me SO god damn dirty when being sent off to Fontaine by her... and she was so sad... I would NEVER leave her. My sister be damned.

I love all her voices! EN is my fav tho. It reminds me a lot of Beidou.

Oh Diluc... my former enemy turned ally. I dont like how he treats Kaeya... BUT it turned out a lot of my aggression for him was because I was scared Qiqi would be the last standard 5-star I would get.... & it would take forever to get her... tbf it did take until Zhonglis 3rd? banner before I got her. And I got her WITH Zhongli and I have never been happier playing GI. Zhongli saved Diluc for me. I hope you appreciate that man Diluc. I also didnt mind that I got him instead of Chiori.... I wanted Chiori significantly more but... w/e. ANYWAYS great colors, great lore. If he stopped being a dick to Kaeya we might get somewhere with him.

I like all his voices except JP where he sounds much younger... and I dont like it.

Now I dont think Eis design is bad in the least but she just looks like every other female character in Inazuma. In fact she basically has the same exact silhouette as Kokomi but I like Kokos design better. They also kinda dropped the ball on her whole character... Shes never recovered from her second story for me. Still my least favorite Archon. I do like her relationship with Yae tho.

All her voices get a MEH from me. KN is best I guess.

UGH. Some of her concept art was SO FUCKIN GOOD... and this is what we got... smdh. I liked her puppy idea the best... cuz shes a perfumer and also works for the cops... I just think that concept was fun.

I dont know her voices either but HER EN IS DEFINITELY MY LEAST FAVORITE. IM SO SURE OF IT.

I had a hard time warming up to Eula... I found her SO annoying in her quest and her constant 'At least LUCK doesnt discriminate due to clan' or some shit just irritates me... like... GIRL. Your clan was slave owners and theyre still shitty... just fuckin disown them and start a new life bitch. Her relationship with Amber is very cute tho and her design is great.

I dont really care for ANY of her voices but especially JP...

Furina is one of those characters that are annoying but its still hard to hate her cuz shes funny. (Like Fish) and i really didnt like her at first until her story played out... my poor hapless bitch. You didnt deserve any of that.... her design is great. I like her dark outfit significantly more than the light so Im glad its the more useful mode. Her relationship with Neuv is also just terrific.

Much like with Fish... her EN voice is best for me because its so dramatic and comically annoying. All her other voices make her sound way too young for my tastes.

I love Ganyu! I guess shes also in the running for sleepiest girl with Layla and Sayu. Shes super cute... I do have a lot of issues with her outfit design... just cuz it doesnt even look like an outfit. Thank goodness she got a costume... not that I have it but I also dont have her and I would never pull for a Bow DPS 5-star so i never WILL have her LMAO. Still love her to death tho.

All her voices are good! KN is probably my favorite.

I think Hu Tao is one of the best designs in the game. Its so simple but so effective. Shes so cute and cheeky. Love her. Her personality is also top tier. Im so happy she had such a confrontational relationship with Baizhu... cuz that was my headcanon for the longest time LMAO Cuz shes a funeral director with a massive respect for the life/death cycle and he wants to find a cure for death or someshit.... They had to have some sort of clash. And they did. It reminds me of that one Jojo meme.

I LOVE Hu Taos EN voice and her JP voice is also fun. Her CN and ESPECIALLY KR (have I been puttin KN this entire time...) voice sounds too babyish.

MY MANS ITTO. Such a fuckin idiot. His design and character are great its just a shame... when he was first leaked his model was super tall (way taller than Zhongli) which fits how people describe him in game but they pussied out and gave him a standard male design. We coulda had it all Itto.

I dont need to listen to the other VAs Ittos EN VA is just the best. The only way anyone else could have competed is if the JP voice was the same VA as Franky from One Piece.

I used to really like Jean.... but I dont really care for her anymore. Tho I think she looks better in her censor outfit she still inexplicably has the detached sleeves....

All her voices are fine. EN and KR are probably the best.

Kazuha is unfortunately a victim to HYVs inability to implement good cloth movement in the game. The shorts look SUPER goofy but I guess its fine.... I think he'd look better with his hakama tucked in like Itto & Gorou rather than cut short... but W/e besides that his design is great. I like when characters dont exactly have the color of their element and the autumn maple leaf design of Kazu is great. His personality is also great. Super chill in even the most tense moments... with the exception for when Xinyans family were nitpicking her and he got annoyed. RELATABLE CONTENT.

4 good VAs for Kazuha you go Kazuha!

I have an EXTREME soft spot for Keqing... she was my first 5-star and she helped me so much on Dragonspine when I had no business being in Dragonspine. LMAO Detached sleeves aside I rather like her standard outfit but her costume is MUCH cuter and if I had the money... I would have bought it in a heartbeat. I also like her personality for the most part tho she does bully the shit outta you if you stop moving for .5 seconds.

All her voices are pretty good but I still have a soft spot for her EN....

Klee is SO DAMN CUTE. Does her pale skin hair and red eyes make her look like a bit of a troglodyte? YES. but.... I mean... w/e. Shes very cute. Shame about her kit being so fucking clunky. My greatest achievement is incidentally getting Kazuha instead of her... I wanted her for how cute she was but I needed a good Anemo so i figured a 5-star Anemo would be best.... so I got him instead. Then his universal appeal and fun play style really helped me for a long ass time and people begged for his rerun cuz they skipped him. NOT ME BITCH.... anyways Klee is baby.

I think Klees EN voice is one of the most egregious when it comes to the 'this is obviously a grown woman doing a baby voice' and it takes me awhile to adjust to it... but she does have moments when she shines... like the birthday song. Her CN voice is best.

As I said with Ei... Kokos design reminds me of hers but I think its stylized better. Combined with her in-game movements... I think shes one of the more interesting Ina designed girls. She does have a lot of HYV typical girl design elements tho.... Also her lore and personality really didnt meet expectations. SORRY KOKO. I am suspicious about her lack of pupils... Vishap ass lore ass...

I dont really like any of her VAs either...

This is just Albedo in a sluttier outfit. MEH. Lore and personality-wise hes actually great! I love his relationship with his family its really a stand out big brother (ok Hoebedo) vibes.

I dont really mind any of Lyneys voices... his KR VA stands out?

Mona my babygirl. I used to hate her based on her design. I just didnt like the swimsuit look... but like Fish I ended up loving everything about her and she got a censor outfit that is much better and now shes one of my favorite characters. Shes a goofy broad. Loved her in the 2nd Summer event.

Her EN voice is BY FAR my favorite.

My baby Nahida... youre design is so fucking boring.... and I knew that even before I saw your extremely good concept arts. Luckily her personality and lore HARD CARRIES her to top tier.... and also her kit. Her kit is also good... tho I dont get why she got a weird digital aesthetic? Theres so much good aesthetic designs in the Persian empire you could went with so much... howd she end up so boring... I dont get it.

No complaints for any of her VAs but CN is my favorite.

UGH... on the opposite end of designs... Navias is fucking TERRIFIC. I actually love the dark navy blue with this goldenrod. I like her Princess Peach hair especially since in this Summer event she wore a Peach like crown(and a Mario mustache) her Lore is SO GOOD. I knew when she was added to the Summer event cast it AT LEAST would be better than last year the writers have never missed with Navia. AND I WAS RIGHT I loved this years Summer event. I think her character is what Kokomis character coulda been(impact-wise) in Inazuma was good. LMAO

I dont mind her VAs but EN is my favorite!

Similar to Kazuha I sorta just incidentally pulled for Neuvillette since I had been saving to get Zhongli but my computer didnt come until the day after his banner ended so I was like ... fuckit. May as well get A dragon guy... turns out he was VERY good and I havent regretted it. I also managed to get his C1 and his BiS weapon... got super lucky as a reward for missing out on my C4 Zhongli that I had been waiting a year for...His lore and personality were a great surprise too. 10/10 would pull again.

I dont like JP voice... His EN voice is great but similar to Zhongli(hes SO SIMILAR TO ZHONGLI IN EVERY WAY) his EN voice gives a different vibe to his CN its weird. Theyre both so much more soft spoken... especially the fighting noises... whyd they do that? Weird. I love theyre EN voices tho so... w/e... at least they sound soft when theyre speaking normally.

...UGH.

UGH. (I actually didnt mind her in this years event... but Navia hard carried her)

Her CN voice is good.

MY BABY!!!! I wanted her for so long. Thank you Zhongli for bringing her to me!!! ;w; Shes so cute... I love her so much. I hope we get her story quest soon.... her colors are so good... I love cutesy Jiangshi designs ;w; the baby. I also first cleared the Abyss thanks to her!

Her CN voice is SO cute. But I like all her voices... I didnt like her EN voice at first but it has grown on me.

Part 1 END.

[helluvapurf]

Thoughts on latest HB ep "Ghostf**kers" (*now that I've regained a bit more energy post-Halloween weekend lol*):

So the newest ep of HB has came & went from what I've seen- aaaand naturally feels like the best time for me to finally ramble about it now that its settled in my brain some more .3. Thoughts (+Spoilers) below~ NOTE: Most of this -does- get a lil rant-y below sooo... read at your own risk lol .w.;;

First things out of the way to start things off on a good note, the Pros:

To start off with... FINALLY we got some Millie focus for a major episode plot (-or more specifically, focus that doesn't get revolved back to Moxxie somehow lol)😭👏👏. Even if Millie's spotlight here did have to be shared with Blitz for a good chunk of the ep, their friendship was actually genuinely sweet & compelling to watch (esp. their backstory & how Millie was allowed to stand up for herself, give him space, BUT also coming around to acknowledging the good in Blitz, when it all came down to it🥺👏). Which ngl, after these previous episodes reigning down HARD on this dude... idk, just felt refreshingly wholesome to see for this series, yknow?😊

New villain Rolando was pretty cool, and surprisingly spooky to watch as the second-half went on oml- .o.;; While I'm still a teensy bit confused how his powers/demon lore work (at least to what we already know about Hell limitations crossing to the human world, ex. succubi & their crystals), his underwater monster vibe gave some fun visuals to watch up until the climax. I'm not 100% familiar with John Waters' works, but damnnn he should take up voice-acting more often ngl~ 👀

FINALLY MAMA TILLA MAKES AN (on-screen) APPEARANCE 😭😭Her whole vibe & Blitz's clear love and regret over what happened to her... hhhhh my whole heart ;n; 💔

That pink client lady (Rita, I think her name is?) who assigned the hotel mission? I dig her vibe, its cute~ :3

I.M.P. feeling like a legitimate workplace family for once, with even Loona & Moxxie getting a nice lil moment towards the end?? More. Of this. Please. 👌👌

Even with the lil undertones of the Stol*itz drama from the past couple eps, I very much appreciate Blitz (+the show itself) acknowledging that what's been going is NOT a breakup ('cause... yknow, they never actually dated to begin with lol🤷‍♀️). It may not 100% fix how messy that particular narrative's been handled as of late (which I'll get to in a sec-), but eh... its a start in the right direction, I guess? .3.

Enjoyed all the colorful flashback looks given, never would I have thought I needed mercenary!Millie with a fluffy ponytail til nowww hlkjlk😩❤️

Aaaand as for the not-so-good bits (imo), aka the Cons:

Pacing felt kiiiinda all-over-the-place, I'll admit; like one min we've got a whole intro & a half to deal with Blitz's whining fest (+some other pointless banter at the hotel)... then the next it feels like we're breezing past Rolando's whole presence as the "big bad" villain. Which... idk, I guess I shouldn't be too harsh on given the production drama behind-the-scenes (aka: the leaked content that had to be cut & redone awhile back)... buuuut yeah, its just one of those things you can't help but take notice of, critique-wise lol 🤷‍♀️

The humor wasn't... exactly at its strong point here, mainly just a lil overdone in the sex joke department imo though I guess thats kind of "par-for-the-course" in the Hellaverse series nowadays, so lol

Now, idk if this may be an unpopular opinion or not; but was I the only one who felt like Blitz's month-long mope fest over Stolas was rather... OOC, all things considered? .-. Like, okay its one thing for Blitz to still be (understandably) upset over how the last two eps went down (but being the "boss" he is, continues working anyway to keep I.M.P. afloat, like in the latest HB shorts)... but for Blitz of all people to just randomly use ALL his company's funds on useless junk, force his daughter Loona to stay up all night/not go home, drive Moxxie in a panic from all the budgeting issues this past month was just... wut- 🤦‍♀️ ...Mind you, this is meant to be the SAME Blitz who not even a few episodes ago begged Stolas to not take away the Grimoire (aka the key to his + his employee's livelihood), clearly being willing to do anything to not lose all that he holds dear. You seriously expect me to believe he'd be the type to throw that all away (for a WHOLE month)... all to simply whine over some blue-blooded bird not noticing him? ...Yeaaaaah sorry, but I'm gonna have to call bs on that, chief- 🙄

Kiiiinda tying in the last point, but as much as I enjoyed the tense thills gained from the "Rolando enters Blitz' mind to make him see his own flaws/past mistakes" sequence... I do have a few issues with some of these other "flashbacks" added to the mix: 1) Loona's groin kick towards Blitz in "Seeing Stars" (*wasn't Blitz's fault since ALL he did was tell her to be nice to clients... and was right about to apologize to Loona just seconds before the kick 😒*) 2) Blitz pushing Stolas' hand away in "Ozzies" (*which Blitz only did after Stolas hide his face/didn't defend Blitz during the song*) 3) Stolas' hurt expression at the end van scene of "Ozzie's" (*mind you, taking place while Blitz is rightfully standing up for himself/telling off Stolas for being a privileged creep all of S1*) 4) Stolas trying to present the Asmodean Crystal gift in "Full Moon" (*a whoooole mess in of itself I already covered prior-*) 5) Stolas angrily walking away from their pool fight + trash-talking Blitz in the "Motherf**kers" song + drunkenly dumping his problems on him + making out with a whole other dude in front of Blitz (*again, a huge mess I covered prior but TL;DR... most of that WASN'T fully-Blitz's fault in those instances??😑*)

Like... I dunno man, I don't mean to sound like I'm just ragging on Stolas per-episode as of late... but these last few points just keep giving me mixed signals than any genuine idea as to WHY Blitz even has these "feelings" growing for Stolas, atm?🤨For any canon couple in fiction, I WANT to see reasons for why they work best together, what kind of interests/aspects they've got in-common, what special "spark" is there that helps them stand out above all the other dynamics in-canon... but from what I see so far on Blitz's end (& the narrative continuing to guilt on him being "the problem")... it honestly feels more like he's only now fallen for Stolas out of pity... not because of any genuine affection or attraction :/ Which... ngl, sounds like a really sad precedent to send for a main-endgame couple, regardless of series genre imo... 🤷‍♀️

-------

Soooo yeah, all that rant-y rambling aside... not a bad ep in the grand scheme of things! 👍👍Here's hoping the last few remaining eps (+possible shorts) for S2 keeps up the good work! 🙏