#like there's no comics canon basis for it as far as i know?

[farshootergotme]

Let's pretend for this scenario that they're going undercover somewhere and they need an alias.

: Names

Dick: Frederick Loyd. And these are my cousins, Peter and little Tommy over here.

: You're in the clear. Go ahead.

Dick: Thank you.

Jason: Peter? Seriously?

Dick: Cut me some slack, nobody calls you that, Pete.

Jason: Tsk. Lost all the creativity after the first one? At least you attempted to be original with the little bat. Though going from Thomas to Tommy is no-brainer, really.

Dick: You're just mad your name isn't nearly as cool as mine.

Jason: Mad about Frederick Loyd? Please, at least mine is from a known piece of literature. Where did you get yours? Disneyland?

Dick: In case you didn't know, Peter Pan is technically from Disney, so I don't see you point.

Jason: Fuck you.

Dick: Right back at you.

...

Dick: Tommy, you've been quiet, everything okay?

Damian: Rich- Frederick.

Dick: Yes?

Damian: Frederick Loyd as in... Freddy Loyd?

Dick: ... you've heard that name before?

Damian: Just once or twice before, in the league... A failed recruit from what I heard. However, it was years before I was born. Their name only persisted so long because according to rumors the...child was never found and they were notably talented for their age.

Dick: That's...

Jason: Something you aren't telling us, Freddy?

Dick: It's not like that. It was a long time ago and it wasn't...

Jason: Jesus fuck, so you really were part of the league? Even before the brat? Now how did dear ol' dad let that happen to his favorite soldier?

Dick: First of, not a soldier and not his favorite—

Jason: Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Dick: —and secondly, he didn't 'let that happen' because I didn't tell him until later. I escaped after the first time he fired me and infiltrated in a school for kid assassins. Not the league.

Damian: 'Vengeance Academy'?

Dick: ...fuck.

Jason: Where's the golden child and where has this information been all my life? And here I thought your little perfect legacy had no stains.

Dick: Jay- Peter, this is really not the time. And I didn't join the league—I'll bother to process that later—to become a killer. They found me and I saw the opportunity to take down a possible evil organization that was recruiting children for assassins work.

Damian: Frederick is not like you, Peter. His mission was a success. The project was futile and it was discarded after being proved unsuccessful.

Jason: Jeez, you're insufferable. No need to get your panties in a twist for 'Freddy', brat. And on a side note, I'm really starting to hate the new name so fuck you for that too, dick.

Dick: Ha ha, real funny. You know I can tell when you're cussing, right? And we're using the aliases because we're currently in an undercover mission, in case you forgot.

Jason: Right, because talking about assassins and infiltrations is much safer.

Dick: You can never be too careful.

Damian: And getting accustomed to the names will result useful. So you should stop your childish behavior and stop using profanities to refer to Frederick, Peter.

Jason: I hope you know I'm never doing a mission with you two again.

Damian: Good because Richard and I have no need for bystanders. We are the best and we don't need an incompetent-

Dick: Tommy, names. And stop fighting, both of you, we're going in.

Has anyone told Damian that Dick trained under a group affiliated with the league of assassins once when he was young in his early teens? Because that would be fun to read.

[madcapberry]

One sec I need to talk about Shiva.

Lady Shiva was introduced in Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter in the 70s. She was a traveling martial artist hellbent on getting revenge for her sister, who she believed had been killed by Richard Dragon. She lured Dragon into a trap, revealed herself as Carolyn's sister, and tried to fight him to the death. Once she realized that Dragon had nothing to do with it, that Cravat and The Swiss (unimportant villain characters, they killed Carolyn) had been the ones to kill her sister, she helped Dragon defeat the villain (by giving him her shiny belt so he could redirect the beam of a deadly laser that was being pointed at them while they were fighting, don’t even ask) and Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva became allies, friends even. Dragon convinced her it would be a waste to kill Cravat and told her that he had killed the Swiss himself. She accepted this. They shook hands. This all took place over the course of one issue of Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter. It took ONE issue for Shiva to go from antagonist to ally. She then tagged along with Richard because she liked the adventures he got up to, the danger, the challenge, and the thrill of it. Richard even called her later on when he needed help on a different adventure. What I’m saying is she didn’t start out as evil.

Okay, so what do we know about Shiva so far? She’s a thrill-seeking peripatetic martial artist of great capacity and skill. She cared about her sister. She’s willing to kill. She’s an adventurer and a valuable ally. Great. Moving on.

The Question 1987 features THE Lady Shiva. A character capable of both ruthlessness and mercy, cruelty and tenderness. A curious, thrill-seeking, teasing character. She was vicious and nonpartisan and she was working as a mercenary for hire. But she was an ally, even when she was beating the shit out of Vic. She loved the O Sensei. You can tell she even cared about Vic in her way. I’m not saying she had a heart of gold, or that there weren’t tropes she fell into. She wasn’t and there were. But she was a fairly well-rounded, morally gray character that played a key role wherever she showed up. She was closer to a non-traditional anti-hero than anything else. Idfk, just go read The Question.

I read a tvtropes article describing Lady Shiva as “an archetypical Dragon Lady, complete with sinister motivations and exotic sex appeal,” which… she isn’t. She subverted this trope in several ways actually. She never had “sinister motivations” until Chuck Dixon got his grubby little hands on her. Her motivations were pretty neutral. She had her own set of principles, she was very morally gray. She wanted to travel and fight worthy opponents on her adventures for the thrill of it. She seemed to operate mostly on personal whims, and on the basis of building worthy rivals, out of love for the art of combat. And she didn’t use her sex appeal for shit (until the Richard Dragon reboot comic kms), she didn’t tolerate sexual advances or objectification. She just WAS NOT a conniving temptress, I don't understand where this misperception came from (but I do blame Dixon, I’ll get to that in a sec).

This same article states that she began as the arch-nemesis of Richard Dragon? Unless you’re accepting the version of the two of them from the very short lived Richard Dragon 2004 series as their canonical relationship then NO she didn’t. But I digress.

There was a marked change in the way Lady Shiva was written by the time Robin (1991) came out, this is where her character starts to lean towards the Dragon Lady trope imo. She also weirdly, and maybe arguably, leans more into traditional femininity while at the same time being written as more wild and uncontrollable. Chuck Dixon seemed to fundamentally misunderstand Lady Shiva as a character. He turned her (sometimes ironic) disdain for brutes who wouldn’t last a second in a fight with her into stereotypical womanly haughtiness. He turned her capacity for ruthlessness into bloodlust. And he made her into a conniving, somewhat deranged, villainous woman, tempting our young hero towards evil (oh my!). Again, I’m not saying she ever had a heart of gold, but Dixon changed core character traits (namely her respect for other people's personal code) to turn her into a villain.

“Kill him, little bird. Kill him and become a predator…Aren’t you my weapon? My instrument of death? Say you are mine.” Like?? She would not fucking say that, respectfully.

That isn’t even to mention Richard Dragon (2004) where Dixon turned Shiva’s relationship with Dragon into a resentful, sexually charged dick-measuring contest.

Even so, I don’t entirely hate Shiva as a villain, especially in Batgirl (2000). Pucketts Shiva is a bit less egregious imo. So she’s a passively suicidal evil mentor-figure who wants Cass to be a killer like her. Whatever, I can get on board with that I guess. I can enjoy it because I love Cass and this is a great comic run. But the retcon that–Listen, THE RETCON THAT IS SHIVA’S SISTER BEING KILLED BY DAVID CAIN, SHIVA DESCRIBING THIS AS FREEING, SAYING SHE’S GRATEFUL, THEN AGREEING TO GET PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD IN RETURN?? This boils my blood. Shiva, who was introduced as somebody who cared about getting revenge for her dead sister. Shiva, for whom freedom and autonomy were core character traits. That Shiva?? That Shiva is relieved her sister is dead and is willing to carry her sister's killer's child to term?? What the fuck?

I hate it. I don’t understand it. Why would you take a complex character who makes it difficult to tell who she really cares about, and flatten them into somebody incapable of love?

Okay I’m done, this is getting too long and I don’t even want to get started on New 52 era Shiva. I don’t have a conclusion, I’m just annoyed. Thanks for reading. The Question (1987) is NOT a perfect comic but if you’re interested in Shiva please please please check it out, it’s very moody and philosophical, noir-esque. Also Chuck Dixon suck my dick.

[zahri-melitor]

The thing that actually most frustrates me about Damian's pets is not only that it's turned into a gratuitous menagerie that only show up en masse because it's now turned into 'Damian likes animals, give him another pet' without considering how many he already has, but that the basis of a good story already existed before we ended up where we are today.

The problem is that we wouldn't be in the situation we are today with them if not for Grant Morrison.

Because look, if you read Batman and Robin 2011 on its own, Tomasi and Gleason do a solid job of using Titus as a route to demonstrate Damian's growing responsibility and ability to show affection and connect with Bruce. Titus is explicitly framed as a responsibility, as 'a boy and his dog', and one dog around the Wayne household is pretty common (usually an Ace). It's the opening steps to more story about Damian trusting others.

If Damian loved animals and stopped to play with kittens in alleys and just had Titus at home, we wouldn't be in this situation.

Bat-Cow, and honestly Alfred the Cat, are what caused the problem.

Bat-Cow as a concept is inherent Silver Age ridiculousness (what a surprise from Morrison), but also Damian saving a milking cow who is being sent to an abattoir is far more of a demonstration of what we end up getting, which is what looks like a possessive level of hoarding. Damian not only saves the cow, but wants it installed in the Cave, even though that is a terrible environment to keep a cow in, and there's very little point in having a cow living on the Wayne property. And what annoys me more is that nobody will let the cow just quietly disappear off panel never to reappear again (she's at least now been on a 'farm' since Joker War and Bruce losing Wayne Manor).

Alfred the Cat irritates me in that he's just a duplicate story to Titus, only done with less effort and entirely because Grant Morrison never reads anyone else's work AND Morrison wanted to give Damian a pet to humanise him right before killing him off. Alfred is a narrative device and annoys me because a good editor would have had Morrison just use Titus instead, who could have hit very similar beats, rather than Damian acquiring three separate pets in just over a year of comics, right before dying (and as far as Morrison was concerned, dying permanently). A pet is for life, not just a reward because you're getting killed.

And from there on, it's just turned into 'oh Damian likes animals!' so we get Goliath and Jerry the Turkey (who I believe recently emigrated to main canon in the last few years rather than being in Lil Gotham). And the story doesn't know what to do with so many animals, so they disappear entirely aside from occasional art cameos, Super-Pets stories, and about one story beat ever 3-5 years. He's endlessly going through the story of 'why' he acquired a pet to humanise him, rather than being humanised by playing with a long term pet.

There's also a narrative problem where we never actually ever see Damian caring for his animals (outside of Titus and occasionally Alfred the Cat), but what scenes we do get of people looking after the animals are all scenes of Alfred and Bruce checking in on them because Damian's not available. So while the dialogue in those scenes tends to be 'oh Damian would normally be doing this but'... we don't see Damian doing it. We only see Alfred and Bruce doing it. Or Maya, who's looking after Goliath. And given how often Damian runs off to find himself on an island, a lot of that pet care over the years has been from Alfred and Bruce, because he's not been living at home.

And yes, there's also the issue that Damian And His Pets is rather similar to the self-centred position Damian has on his various clones. He considers his clones his brothers; but the narrative is frequently setting that up in a manner that suggests this is grace that Damian especially extends to them because they are his clones. It's not really grappling with the concepts of extending that care and humanism to people or animals that are not 'his'.

It's just endlessly frustrating to me, because if Damian just had Titus, I think both Titus would appear on panel more often (and thus have more narrative use), and there would be the potential to build further plots out from Titus, if writers wanted to explore the themes around what pet ownership can demonstrate.

[plum-pitt]

X-Men Origins Rewrite

Ok I guess this is a follow up to this post i made not too long ago abt rewriting this shit, the brainworms rlly got to me here so you’re getting a follow up sooner than expected lol

Before I actually do any rewriting though I wanted to lay out the big changes I’d be making and why, mainly for myself as a guide and to organize my thoughts both about the original film’s issues and how these changes could potentially solve them, but also to allow anyone else with some ideas for possible changes to add their own thoughts or suggestions by engaging with the post.

As for what kind of final product you could possibly expect these ideas to result in, i haven’t quite decided if I want to just do an in depth outline for the story with my proposed changes or do like a full length fic novelization. It’ll probably depend on how motivated I still feel about the exercise by the time I’m finished and happy with the cleaned up outline, but I digress. Lets just go ahead and get into the changes I want to make:

Proposed Changes:

First off, I’m removing Blob and Gambit from this cut. I like both of the characters and think it’s cool they tried to include them but the cast is crammed enough as it is and those two serve very little narrative purpose that can’t be shifted to others just as easily.

Second, I’m adding Silverfox to Team X and letting that serve as the meeting point for her and Logan, it gives the audience more time to get to know her and come to care for her and Logan’s relationship, while also harkening back to the comics where she was also a part of the weapon x program. Also I know this isn’t a real film but let it be known that if it were i’d actually hire a Native American actress to portray her, i’m still shitty they whitewashed her.

Third, I’m removing the third act “Silverfox wasn’t really dead” twist. I really shouldn’t have to explain why, that shit was dumb and completely unnecessary, not to mention introducing a shit ton of plot holes with that whack ass mutant ability they pull from thin air. In my version she’s human(as far as we know) and when she dies she dies for real, full stop.

Fourth, we are GETTING a biblically accurate Deadpool. They did my bro dirty and I refuse to compromise on this. His role will be larger to compensate for his big ass personality and the fact that i’m affectively letting him take up Gambit’s role from the original in addition to what he already had. Also I just think he bounces off of Logan really well and could serve as a really interesting parallel with having such similar trauma and very different ways of responding to it and seeing the world. Like just imagine D&W if they accidentally traumabonded over their similar origin stories.

Fifth, I’m making Victor our stand in for the films Weapon XI! He doesnt get adamantium or new powers like Wade, only the dehumanizing psychological torture present in the original Weapon X comic. I think it works great for his spiraling arc, gives me a chance to squeeze a faithful weapon X adaptation in here without upending the entire film’s structure, and helps to better position his character on a trajectory towards his more feral appearance in X1 where he doesn’t seem to fully recognize Logan.

Sixth, I’d like to include Dr. Cornelius as the head scientist in Weapon X. My current concept is that he’s in charge of all the unethical mutant capturing and experimenting, working under Stryker’s supervision but still an outsider to the government, being sent in by Stryker’s most significant source of funding for his program in Nathaniel Essex. I know this has zero basis in canon I just think it sounds cool and makes sense for Sinister to have hands in a program aiming to create perfect mutant soldiers, as someone using mutants DNA to create a genetically perfect race of superhumans and become the ultimate life form. (Sinister would not play a large role, more of a looming presence pulling strings and fucking people over)

To get more overarching here, I wanted to hone in on the dynamics and themes present in the original that i thought had the most potential for further development. Victor’s spiral to madness and eventual complete loss of self under Stryker, Logan learning to let go of Victor’s influence and the violence that he let define his life only for both to drag him back after Silverfox’s demise. Really digging into that nature vs nurture shit, and adding more mutant politics (and their accompanying metaphors for the struggles of marginalized people) cuz honestly i feel like it’s absence in the original is very noticeable, and ties in really well with Logan’s arc of self acceptance and learning to see himself as more than the violent nature of his mutation.

Stuff I Still Want Changed:

Ok so here’s where I’m throwing my hat out for suggestions, because there are still a couple minor things present in the movie that i’m just not a fan of or don’t really know what to do with. The difference is, with these I can’t really think of tweaks that could fix/improve them. So if yall have any ideas on what I can do about these, or maybe some completely unrelated changes that you just think could improve the rewrite, please let me know.

One, not really sure what to do with Zero, he’s around for a lot of the movie but didn’t really stand out much to me. I just don’t know a lot about the character or what his deal is in the comics to find something cool to do with him. I’m going back and forth on if his role is ultimately necessary?? Does Stryker really need another henchman? Or should I use the space he occupies to hone in more on Victor and Logan’s rivalry? Idk i’m still on the fence so tell me what yall think.

Two, god I just fucking hate those memory wiping adamantium bullets. It’s such a stupid plot device that makes no sense conceptually and was clearly just thrown in as an afterthought at the last second like the writers forgot they needed to erase his memory by the end. That’s not to mention the fact that the bullets’ function was retconned later in Logan. Genuinely though I cannot find another way to go about fucking up Logan’s head without basically upending the structure of this movie in its entirety so any ideas on how to solve this dilemma are appreciated.

[i-wanna-show-you-off]

hey anon I really don’t want this to come off rude because I’m not mad or anything but I think maybe you just enjoy popular ships

those are called rarepairs by the way

ship rant (revolved around II)

i don't understand how some people just. see characters together. i get balloon and suitcase, balloon and nickel, people that interact. but why trophy and tissues, trophy and cheesy, trophy and knife or any enemies like that??

i know this rant is useless i don't know how many people will read it but why do they ship enemies... i see some people as siblings, like mic and knife, or trophy and soap they're siblings in my eyes please help m

fantube and lightbrush my beloveds tho <3

.

[carnation-damnation]

Here they are!! All my AU Shadow's!!

Some design info + small trivia bits under the cut:

Refraction of a Shadow:

Story takes place after Sonic Heroes but before SHTH 2005. Emerald and I go back and forth about how it's like Shadow The Hedgehog (2) in the sense that there's multiple endings but also like Sonic Adventure (3) where you'd follow different characters in overarching stories with different perspectives. It was, at first, a fun idea about what it'd be like if Terios (The prototype of Shadow during sa2's development) were to exist within Sonic canon. This rides off how Shadow NEVER joins GUN and as a result, they seek to create their own "Shadow" of sorts, as a basis for a robotic/organic army (Since Shadow never joined them, they view him as a potential threat, both politically in how they're responsible for the covered-up ARK deaths and shadow knows and physically, as the Ultimate Lifeform.) Shadow's design is close to how I'd draw him cemented into the Team Dark dynamic; he ditched the white gloves for fingerless black ones and wears red mascara. He's attempting to heal from his experiences and trauma, but this new threat is opening up old wounds.

Rumination in Saudade:

Oh this guy is just so fucked up

Sa2 but everything is so FUCKED amiRIGHT!! So uh. I'd imagine hurtling towards Earth and losing all your memories after this blue angel of a hedgehog tries to save you. That can kinda..fuck you up. Esp if you're a weird little alien thing. Like...Having to relearn how to be something, how to be personable, and mask (haha...autism) He doesn't remember how he was conditioned by Gerald and Black Doom to train and be the Ultimate Lifeform, and doesn't remember how he grew up with Maria, loving Earth and all the people in it. He doesn't have any of it. He's just a weird little freak of a guy. He's off-putting, doesn't know how to control his chaos energy and black arms DNA, and overall just...Trying his best to re-learn what it's like to be a person. No influences from anybody except himself and Sonic. His design elements are basically Sa2 But With Some Extra Bits. Thousand yard stare, singed from becoming a fucking meteorite, an extra eyeball, messed up little tail, 'n an awkward demeanor. So your average unmasked teenager

I Was a Teenage Werehog:

The anxiety and dread of not being able to remember anything but bits and pieces not your style? How about a werewolf au where I self-indulgently combine everything I love about werewolf stories and their tropes for shits and giggles? No please don't run awa-

Basically Unleashed..2. I was inspired by the zombot arc in the comics and was like "haha what if....werewolves" and it kinda went from there. Shadow is your typical Experiencing Werewolf Issues protagonist, except he's not patient zero. Like instead of the real werewolf protagonist dealing with the pain and turmoil of waking up in a mess of blood knowing that something horribly went wrong for some random joe on the street, you get to see what happened to that guy instead. Shadow keeps things to himself; he's the ultimate lifeform, nothing can hurt him! He fell out of space! He fought THE DEVIL !!! Sonic's fucked up werewolf virus will have no effect on him and his mobian/alien DNA <- Guy who is so wrong and incorrect. For design elements, I purposefully fuddled with his proportions to make them a bit less...?? Sonicy?? ig? To put everybody in clothes that didn't make my head spin in confusion. He's got the hot topic 'fit he's got the mascara he's got the RIPPED JEANS!! He's ready for a gritty 2000s teenage werewolf drama baby!!

anyway, thanks for reading this far! I like these guys they're cookin', these cats are swingin'

[crowkacola]

Welcome to another episode of Crowe's incoherent rambles, this week's topic:

Lawn, Lamp, and The Ripper :

The (somewhat) accidental crossover au

By now, you probably have seen Lawn and Lamp, they have become very prevalent background characters since the comic first began; and they have a ridiculous amount of lore tied between them. For those who really recognize them, their connection and lore is no surprise.

Also you probably see this coming, but Death Note spoilers ahead! If you are confused as to why, this message is probably for you anyway.

Lawn as a character was created waaaay back when I was writing chapter 1. My husband and I happened to be watching Death Note (for my first time) around the time I started working on Page 15. I was obsessed with the character of L, so I put him in the background as a subtle cameo. I nicknamed him "Lawn" from his full name (Lawliet) and that is where I assumed it would end.

However, when I started taking character submissions, my partner and I discussed the idea of creating Light as well. But unfortunately, we decided his Canon design was far too plain to even be recognized. So we had to get creative.

We made Light a hoardling, mostly to serve as a counter to Lawn, but it also gave us an excuse to spice up his design by combining it with Ryuk's look. Once again, meant to be a funny one off cameo. Since he was a hoardling, he got a goofier, hoard-worthy name: Lamp

But with a design we poured a lot of love into, stemming from a show my partner and I adored, we started to contemplate what could have happened to these two in this world. How did Lamp (formerly known as Lumen) end up like this?

Those who are familiar with Death Note know that L (or Lawn in this case) is defeated, and killed. But in Craftworld, Lumen (Light) died first. This brought several prompts to mind that became the basis of this new AU:

◇ How did Lumen Die?

◇ What does a "death note" look like in a world w/ life tokens?

◇ Does Ryuk exist? Does Misa exist?

It was all just too fun to think about. But copying the entire cast from Death Note wasn't too enticing, we instead had the idea to pair our silliest little guy patches, with the pair that were trying to find one of Craftworlds most renowned serial killers. What could go wrong!

The idea of Patches secretly being a hardened cop was too funny. This also gave us the excuse to have Patches be close to Lawn. Since they started out as the only two detectives for the knights, having them hang out was expected. This also gave us what I personally think is one of the most iconic panels in UVT's history.

And yes, Lawn does know that Patches eats the pieces. He believes this makes the game more challenging and fun for him to play. But Taffeta is getting really sick of buying these two more chess pieces.

In the end, the tragic story of Lawn and Lumen is one that will be told in the background over time. While I would love to make all the comics in the world to explain it, (and trust me I have PLENTY of ammo) I just don't have the time. Reguardless, they are both surprisingly complex characters, both of them having more lore than some of the main cast. I never intended to accidentally create a LittleBigPlanet x Death Note crossover AU, but I did. So that's something.

Maybe I'll write scenes from the Ripper case as a short story instead if anyone's interested.

[b00m-b0mb]

do u have lore/a storyline in ur head for wandering karate perchance? i love them a lot :')

AHHH... Wandering Karate, my truest beloved!!!! I do!! But I am rewriting my canon :3c so this is kind of messy and due for a little bit of changing maybe?! Orz !!!!!!!!

UH.. WEOW... cringe...

The basis for a lot of this is a really old fic I wrote for myself that doesn't exist anymore waaa qwqq sorry if this doesn't make sense!

• Joe's family lives in one of the villages Ronin (Wandering Samurai) has rescued.

• Specefically I imagine the one in "Super Samurai Slice", since he leaves unnoticed.. However, Joe saw the whole thing! (Imagine this is some like, 3rd incident lol)

• I like to think Joe would attempt to jump into action and help out (foolishly brave!), but due to being a teensy bit of a clutz he ends up being carried most of the way.

• But he still helped out you know, and like, real danger! Ronin is impressed. And gave compliments where it was due

• Samurai is invited for a drink / some steak and rice. They hang out!! They just chat. I think both of them are a little lonely, and it was just easy to talk. And they did, for hours.

• Joe's inspired by Ronin's skill. Ronin thinks Joe is inspiring for jumping into the situation despite his misteps. Like the desire, but weak energy for skill (Joe, who i project chronic fatigue onto lol), in contrast to the unstopping precise performance, that could fear nothing more than a mistep.

• To me, Joe is a guy who's embarrassed a lot, but he keeps trekking! But hes also frozen still into his current situation, unable to free his wings. While Ronin has light feet when it comes to his embarrassments. And, ofc, cannot let himself stay too long, anywhere! I think due to his nature, he's lonesome and is locked into a endless cycle of self reflection/percieved redemption (over critical)

• Anyways the family comes home. And Ronin's like, ah, I shall go. (Not wanting to be a disturbance) and heads out the door.

• BUT Senior is like "Joe, I need you to pick up my epic gi from -inserts convenient far away comical temple post office-" and Joe, somehow not irritated, and now given a journey, is like 💡‼️ and chases after Ronin.

• He really wants to tag along for just a while. He helped after all! Whats some more time together..? Ronin briefly attempts to decline, before deciding the company wouldn't be a bother... letting Joe come along- call this a ROADTRIP!

• Anyway, the idea was they had two nights of travel / chitchat, with a bit of shenanigans to themselves. Learn about one another. Kind of can see a glimpse into the others perception. And like.. yah... Dudes who want to be friends so bad, everytime they talk there's a silent spark inside both of them bc they're so lonely and a!!!!

• My oc, Karate Maccie, played into my fic uhmm,,, she became the unwanted child tagalong. She's the comic relief pretty much lol!!! but she also is like really trying to set them up as friends you know? She sees these two introverts trying to make it happen. She thinks Joe could use the friend :] She's also just nosey. I know what you are (lonely.)

• More shenanigans & silly adventure for Senior's mail... In the end, Joe and Ronin would have to part ways, but, they would keep touch in letters!!!! Joe being given a post office to write to, and Ronin promising to be there in time to recieve it!

Also I think Maccie + Ronin would have a mini rivalry arc, but it's mostly one sided from Maccie's end lol, and by the end it's somewhat resolved, and Ronin actually offers to train with her or something some time! They all had fun okay! Ugh!!!

I think from there their relationship is just you know, they get each other I guess? They share their thoughts in letters, and are honest and discuss anything and yeahaha... Sometimes a letter is just. "I saw a bird :)" -drawing-, and they get it...!!! they repeatedly will express in their letters how much they truly treasure the others company. Idk man!!! Queer platon guys okay!!!!!

Ronin would definitely make time to come around and visit the village, and Joe would up and leave the house w/o anouncing for mini trips to travel and meet the wandering samurai when hes close to the area!! Skipping practice?! For the samurai he holds dear?! It's serious, you know!!!

But I think the tension takes forever to boil over into melting their boundaries with one another. These dudes need to embrace. So bad. I think. But it's so hard, when you know the lack of it can hurt???? But one day.. I will feel confident enough in both of us, to hold you...??? And know that even when we part, ill see, and hold you again? Wails???

Uhgrhrbrbmammamaaammama 👍👍👍 normal about burnt out souls that are maybe a little mentally ill <33333333 I LOVE THEM SO MUCH ugh,h,m,m,,,,,,

Also they both have a somewhat similar family life in my hcs. Dead mothers, somewhat strained relationship with father, tradition, a clash in how they want to live? Something. They can't be together, but they treasure and hold their shared time dearly, and hold their long distance relationship with nurture :) I lovegh. Them.

Also, food for thought- Bon Odori is also in the village Joe lives in. (And I hc the toss boys are kids in this village, so fourth) maybe Samurai Slice Endless (DS) is there too :] I think he'd do that anywhere needed, but I like the idea of him going from not well known anywhere aside from few legends, to becoming apart of this community because of Joe? Or something? Sobs...??? Sorry idk...

Also I imagine a mini plotline of their relationship regarding the fact Ronin doesn't have a true name + Joe's rise to doing things outside the house ??? Things.. !!!

and and UHHHGGGGGGG rhythm heaven head canon world I missed you.....

[wolvertooth]

Did u see the news that sabretooth is confirmed to show up in xmen97 season 2? I'm extremely excited and giddy yet mortified bc of the whole useless [mag/rogue) "romance" 97 adapted/retconned into existence,

even if they had the whole ballroom dance together it was still very obvious they were showing both the implied grooming and the power imbalance mags had over her and seeing as 92 did adapt the whole silverfox flashback+ her death and the team X EP I'm really paranoid that the writers will suddenly tack on unnecessary SA implications both to torture logan and as a way to make sabes cruel and sadistic in a lazy ass way..

*sighing loudly* sorry for the long ask, I'm just really passionate about both their characters as a longtime fan boy and knowing the insane positive reception 97 got I'm just terrified that IF they do add on that implication ppl who like his character will never hear the end of it, or how he should be killed off forever bc he's a mindless murdering cannibalistic booty warrior who stomps on babies and makes kitten tacos on Wednesdays or WHATEVER lame shit they mame him do avoid writing a character that's both evil and terrifying yet charming and a lil sympathetic, God forbid we have complex characters that can still be villians and not cardboard training dummys for the heros to attack 🙄

dunno about the grooming thing, considering rogues in her 20s(possibly even late 20s). i think shes just a grown woman with a case of Wanting That Old Man Carnally. confession -> i havent actually watched past episode 3, cuz tbh i. dont care much for the xmen aside from wolverine. and he barely got to do anything. so all my context is just from tumblr posts.

also i genuinely thought u meant like. sabretooth SAing wolverine in the past. and i was like bro theres no way disney would allow that dw about it👍 then after rereading it a couple times i was like OH U MEANT THE 2003 COMIC THING LMAO. first of all, with the current rating they got, theres No chance they'd go that far. besides, shes alive, and logan knows all that was just implants anyway(i reallyyyy hope they dont forget about the whole implants thing...). second, i dont think morph would transform into sabretooth as a joke if he was really someone who fucked up logan That Bad.

anyway i literally forget that people like him as a Villain cuz im just over here seeing him as the rich merc whos an occasional annoying bastard with a heart of gold and a history of mental breakdowns.. like hes got a bit of a The Mask situation going on with his costume tbh, he'll just get written way more cartoonishly evil whenever hes got that thing on lol

anddd if they do decide to follow the previously established canon(and they likely wont do too much due to him still being on the villains side in the intro, just lemme dream for a sec here), i think him and logan are on somewhat good terms now! last time they hungout he only fought him for like 2 seconds cuz he thought wolverine was picking a fight, then dropped it pretty quick(it was also the episode that revealed any of the bad memories they had of eachother in the past were all just implants). after that, he was last seen without the costume, which is kind of a big thing for his character? i think?

..ok i just remembered the recent 97 prequel comics where hes just...#normal villain sabretooth working for sinister and the marauders. 😦😧chat......this better not mean what i think it means..........(CLONE PLOT PART 4?). but theyre also both on a last name basis with eachother so. ❓ progress?

at least the comics didnt forget about team x. so maybe we got a chance at something good

[the-meat-machine]

is stridercest canon-compliant

Hi. I'm not sure how to answer this question, but like hell am I going to let that stop me from rambling on about it for far longer than anyone would consider reasonable.

What does it mean for a ship to be canon-compliant?

My first difficulty is this: what does it mean for a ship to be "canon-compliant"?

I tend to be of the opinion that you can come up with a justification for nearly any ship that, at the very least, doesn't contradict canon. Whether that ship is probable or not is a different story.

To give an example of a ship that's technically possible but canonically unlikely… let's say I were to posit that Nepeta had red feelings for Aradia. Well, we get fairly direct evidence of Nepeta's romantic interests throughout the comic, and Aradia never features in her self-pairing fantasies. Not to mention that if she had such feelings, you'd think it would cause conflict in her relationship with Equius, who does canonically have feelings for Aradia. But Nepeta never says she doesn't like Aradia that way, so for all we know they could have had a torrid romance offscreen that is never once hinted at in the comic. Highly improbable within canon, but not strictly impossible.

A level above that, there are ships where there's basically nothing to go on. Nothing to contradict it, but nothing to really support it either. For example, how would Dirk and John get along? Well, they only ever meet once in the comic and it's when Game Over!Dirk is giving himself over to the glitchy void, so who fuckin' knows. You'll have to base their interactions on a general knowledge of their characters. And hey, you can probably come up with a pretty convincing argument that they'd be great for each other! You can equally come up with an argument that they couldn't stand one another. There's really no canon basis to say either way.

That said, I think Stridercest is on a rung above that. These characters have had significant canonical interactions that revolve around one another, giving a richer basis to draw from. Or at least… Dave and Dirk have. Which leads me to my second difficulty.

What is Stridercest?

"Stridercest" can refer to quite a few possible ships.

For example, Guardiancest. Do I think Guardiancest has a basis in canon? No. Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk lived in different versions of the universe and both died well before the end of the game. They almost certainly never even knew that each other existed.

That said, Homestuck is a pretty wild canon as far as possible character interactions go, what with all the various ways characters can hop between universes, time travel, get resurrected, meet up in dream bubbles, etc. Trans-universal communication is canonically possible (see for example Jade and Jake's letters to each other), so who knows -- maybe Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk could have met each other somehow. Does it seem likely? Absolutely not. But it's not impossible.

Now, if you were asking about the original Stridercest, Bro/Dave, that's a ship that clearly is logistically possible, at least. They spent 13 years in the same apartment. Something could have happened. Did it? I don't know. I don't consider myself a Bro/Dave scholar, so I'll leave that as a question for the reader.

But one pairing I have significantly more to say about is Dave/Dirk.

Here are some things that are canon:

Dave has had, at the very least, passing attractions to a minimum of two of his ectobiological relatives -- namely, Rose and Roxy

Dave has evinced attraction to both men and women

Dave used to idolize his bro, but later came to have more complicated feelings about him

Dirk has had a lifelong obsession with his own long-dead bro. He studied all the minutiae of Alpha Dave's life and patterned his own life after what he's gleaned from that

Dirk is definitely attracted to men

Dave and Dirk had a long heart-to-heart during which they hugged each other

Here are some questions that cannot be directly answered by canon:

Do Dave's incestuous inclinations extend to Dirk and/or Bro?

Is there a homoerotic dimension to Dirk's obsession with Dave?

Now, you could plausibly answer these questions with "no". Maybe Dave's upbringing with Bro made it impossible for him to see Dirk in a romantic light. Or hell, maybe he only likes blond hair on chicks, not on dudes. And for all we know, maybe Dirk's interest in Alpha Dave is strictly platonic. (…ha, that one's hard to type with a straight face. But it's possible.)

Of course, I'm asking these questions because I think you can easily answer them with "yes". There's significant canonical basis to suggest that these suppositions at least could be true. At the very least, conditions are ripe for these two to have some very weird, complicated feelings about each other that are laced with incestuous and homoerotic undertones.

So is Stridercest canon-compliant? For Dave/Dirk, at the very least, I'd argue that it is.

[mlmshipbracket]

Fourth MLM Ship Bracket Tournament

Welcome to the New Year everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Third MLM Bracket Tournament and its outcome. It's not over though, there is still more to come. Remember, the Masterpost shows the roadmap for MLM tournaments held on this blog. Feel free to check that out in order to know what to expect.

Next, I would like to announce that submissions for the Fourth MLM Ship Bracket are now open! This is the last opportunity to submit your favorite men loving men ships to be pitted against each other and see who will be crowned victorious.

This Fourth tournament is going to be different from the previous three tournaments. This Fourth tournament is going to be the biggest MLM bracket held so far on this blog, up to 64 spots open, therefore there will be more time to submit your favorite MLM ships.

Information and Rules for submitting your favorite gay ships can be found below, along with the submission form at the bottom. Please make sure to read all rules and information. If you have any questions feel free to submit an ask and I'll be happy to answer.

INFORMATION:

Submissions must be made through the form linked below

Multiple submissions are allowed per person, but only submit an MLM ship once

Previous ships from previous MLM ship brackets will not be considered for submission [Found Here],  [Here], and [Here]

Ships will be added on a first come, first serve basis, ships with more submission will take priority

There are 64 slots open, any remaining slots will be filled by me

Make sure to mark any spoilers

Submissions will close once all slots have been filled

If you have any questions about submissions, information, or rules please use the ask button

*RULES: 

Ships must be fictional

Ships must be male (cis or trans) or masc nonbinary /genderfluid 

Ships for this poll are couples only

Ships can be canon or fanon

Ships can be from a variety of fandoms and genres including but not limited to: TV Shows, Movies, Plays/Musicals, Games, Cartoons, Anime/Manga, Books, Graphic Novels, Comics, Webseries, Webcomics, and Podcasts  

No original characters (OC’s)

No Furries

No Bandoms

No Minecrafters

No real figures such as celebrities', youtubers, or streamers

Note: Any ships submitted which do not fit the above mentioned criteria will be disqualified from participation in the bracket

@tournament-announcer , @tournamentdirectory

[mewtwoandme]

Considering TC-96 has said stuff like "mewtosis" is just a joke only to make it the basis of the flower thing an at some point didn't want more babies after Huey, what are the chances you are not gonna retcon yourself to make Hugo canon anyway?

I mean...with all the AUs I have now, there's nothing really stopping me from choosing one to focus on in the future after the blog/story AU stuff is done. I don't know how far into the future that'll be or if I'll even still have an interest to keep doing these comics by then. But if I am, then I could always make the Hugo AU my main story AU, and make it canon that way.

[mayordeas-clone]

Smash Tier List, Ordered By Which Characters Have Canon Last Names

i decided one fateful friday evening to make this tier list cuz i was bored. shoutout to the smash prose server for helping me iron out any kinks and retrieve some obscure information to help make this tier list reach its fullest potential (discord link for the server on my blog if youre on desktop or in my pinned post on my art account always b pluggin)

below the cut is some extra details on the tiers and character placements.

THIS IS ROUGH AS HELL!!!!! and the research and sources aren't very cut and dry throughout ;w; a tier list i wanted to make for the sillies that ended up going deeper than expected but not all the way, so it's sorta in a weird gray area of reliability. apologies for not-so-clear info in advanced 😔

Official Surname

what it says on the tin. i'd put detailed explanations of where all of them were "confirmed" but i don't know the nitty gritty of a lot of the characters and just know em from official bios. will provide detail if i see fit cuz its my post.

Byleth: "Eisner"

Joker: Civilian name is "Ren Amamiya", from the anime. Akira Kurusu is another civilian name he goes by, coming from the manga, however Amamiya is more common in official media (and kind of canonized in the PC release of Persona 5 Royal, where changing the language to English from something else will default his name to Ren Amamiya)

Kazuya: "Mishima"

Samus (And Zero Suit Samus): "Aran"

Fox: "McCloud"

Falco: "Lombardi"

Wolf: "O'Donnell"

Terry: "Bogard"

Cloud: "Strife"

SImon and Richter: "Belmont"

Donkey and Diddy Kong: So we all pretty much agreed that "Kong" is a family name :P it could be moved to the yellow canon-ish tier but idk

Peach: "Toadstool", which she signs off as in Mario 64 (So that's pretty canon right)

Generally accepted fanon surname (or exists in obscure non-canon media)

these are kinda? surnames. theyre not official like the ones above or acknowledged in the main source material, but they draw from some sort of source that fans run with. usually, it's common for multiple fanworks to use them as last names when dishing them out :P there could be multiple of these for each character. this is where a lot of handy guidance from the prose server came in, thank you very much once again!!

Mario, Dr. Mario, and Luigi: "Mario", from the live action Super Mario Bros. movie (also, "Mario Mario" is the funniest shit ever to me). Also the joke of "hey if theyre the 'mario bros', then is their last name mario?!"

Yoshi: Alright apparently in the 1993 manual for Super Mario World, Yoshi's full name is "T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas". Alright then?? I was going to put Yoshi in the "species" category, but this bit surprised me :P not sure if it's like, a scientific name or something, but I guess this Yoshi is a special case.

Ganondorf: I think in a manual or something like that (Forgive my vague language, this was just something I recalled that the people I worked with agreed with), he is given the last name "Dragmire".

Marth, Chrom, and Lucina: "Lowell" was a last name given to Marth in the Fire Emblem anime. With Chrom and Lucina being direct descendants of him, they also inherit this last name.

Zelda: "Hyrule" is generally assumed to be her last name. I'm pretty sure Zelda's father in BotW is given the official last name, though I know there's some different reincarnation shenanigans going on. Still, no one stopped me 😎 it's a common theme for a lot of "royalty" characters to be assigned a fanon last name named after their respective kingdom (though I may have overlooked some, we'll get to those later).

Ike: "Greil", named after his father. I thought it was kinda dumb for his last name to be ripped from his dad's first name but idk maybe everyone is on a last-name basis for him (I haven't progressed far in Path of Radiance to know).

Sonic: This one surprised me. Apparently in the Archie comics, his full name "Ogolvie Maurice Hedgehog". So his last name is "Hedgehog"? I suppose this means Sonic's full name could also be Sonic The Hedgehog, with "The" being a middle name :P

Captain Falcon: I was going to include this in "canon", but given that it's technically from a manual and other surnames in this tier come from a similar source, so might as well be consistent. In one of the F-Zero manuals, he's given the name "Douglas J. Falcon" (baller ass name tbh). In the anime, he's also given the civilian name "Bart Lemming".

Sephiroth: According to the Prose pals, it could be "Hojo" or "Crescent" depending on who you ask (idk I'll take their word for it. Yeah sorry this isn't a very thorough list in terms of research and sources).

Ryu: Another Prose pal said that one of the movies gave him the last name "Hoshi".

Bowser and Bowser Jr.: Heard "Koopa" tossed around, given Bowser is the king of Koopas and Jr. is his son.

Mega Man: "Light", after his creator Dr. Light.

Roy: "Pherae", after him being the son of Marquess Pherae.

King K. Rool: I think I assumed "Rool" could be his last name, and the K. is an initialized first name. Heavily based on my own guess tho.

No Canon Surname

Yeah. Though some are Weird and probably misassigned.

Snake I could have sworn had some kind of fanon surname, but I drew up a blank when consulting with the Prose server :P any hardcore Metal Gear fans can swoop in and correct me though.

Corrin and Daisy are kinda... weird to me cuz I assumed they would operate on similar logic to Zelda, being named after their respective kingdoms ("Valla" and "Sarasaland"). But I've never seen those used in practice so it's probably negligible. They bounced between tiers a lot while I made this.

I suppose Dragon Quest 11 Hero could fall in the "kingdom last name" category but idk I'm still internally debating with Corrin and Daisy. Didn't do any research on the other Heroes and no one seemed to stop me. So sorry!! 😭

The only other thing I have to say about this tier is that I'm surprised Bayonetta, Shulk, Olimar, Alph, and Sora didn't have any note-worthy last names to speak of. Unless something slipped through the cracks!

Idk if Sheik would adopt Zelda's assumed last name which is why they are in this tier.

Title, no canon name

Pretty much a title given to the character, be it related to their occupation or status.

This was originally a "no canon first name lmao" tier, but I changed it to be more broad at the request of the Discord buddies to include weird edge cases like Dark Samus (who isn't really a species, but not really a person?) and Duck Hunt (who accounts for three separate entities in one lol so that kind of confused me, but a tier like this worked for him).

Species????

Pretty much a character that comes from a species of many, meaning they don't really have an actual name to begin with (Inklings technically count, since it's not like "Inkling" refers to status or occupation). Yes, I included R.O.B. there due to Subspace Emissary's lore :) one could argue that's not canon, but be fr does R.O.B. have any existing lore to work with? Brawl essentially made him its own OC for the story campaign and that's amazing. Anyway, unnecessary rant aside, R.O.B. is a species in my book, and he's the last of his kind (another detail originating from Smash).

Last two tiers are kind of joke tiers I came up with as the idea for this list cooked up in my brain. One could argue "Mr. Game and Watch" is a title, but I thought his own dedicated tier was funnier so I kept it intact :P

~~~

Thus concludes this dumbass tier list. Feel free to roast me in the notes for inaccuracies cuz there's probably a lot (Or don't I'm sensitive as hell)

[skaruresonic]

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media. Like, we know they were comfortable letting Archie kill off Robotnik in the original comic, but still considered Sally popular enough for the franchise to demand her ressurection, even though that was not a character they came up with. It really feels like they had no idea how to control their IP and just went with what stuck to the wall in the 90's and 00's, which culminated with that infamous lawsuit case.

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media.

Which is a fool's errand. This is why I'm always stressing the games as the core canon: if you ignore all offshoot media (and I mean all of it) and focus solely on the games, then a lot of confusion automatically clears up. The games are actually fairly solid about explaining themselves and tying up loose ends. It's only when you consider everything canon that things get dicey.

Of course, that's not to say the games handle everything perfectly. I feel Knuckles' character in particular has been rather inconsistent across the years. But even then, it's not like he changes so incredibly drastically that I might as well say he has no character at all. The latter approach, that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, is what we tend to deal with.

When others muck up the canon, it's always SoJ who are to blame. And while I don't agree with Iizuka's current, rather naive approach of unifying everything because I feel like he's trying to ingratiate the series to bad-faith actors, I also can't begrudge him too much. We're marinating in a fan culture desperate to make Sonic anything and everything but itself.

---

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, I feel like a lot of this aversion stems from an allergy to the games on the basis that they're embarrassing. The mainstream has made it painfully uncool to like Sonic games, therefore we have to move as far away from the games' "cringe" as possible. So then you have comic book and film and SatAM fans swearing up and down their offshoot media du jour is so much better and more fleshed-out than the games. Of course they're going to chafe at the notion of making their preferred niche more like something they actually hate. Maybe it's the game purist in me, but I have no idea why anyone would feasibly want to consider everything canon, because the immediate consequence of that is trying to fit square pegs into round holes, which just doesn't sound fun. It sounds like work. In addition, more often than not it's the games universe that gets retooled to fit the offshoot media, not the other way around. The cold hard reality is that the offshoot media would have to change on such a fundamental level to even begin to fit into the games, it might as well be something new entirely. And complete change is a risk many people just aren't willing to take, as Daniel Barnes illustrated with his tweet about Sally.

Not to mention the constant disappointment that would entail: Rally4Sally needs to hang up its hat because it's been three literal decades at this point, not because Sega's dangling her in our faces just out of reach. They already did their job in making Archie revive her. She's had her time in the sun.

My personal attitude towards the matter is that there isn't as much confusion and inconsistency in the games as people say; rather, the problem tends to be a lack of good faith and literacy.

Yes, literacy. There's a lack of critical thought about what happens in Sonic games because many people either paint their own version over it, or else assume nothing of importance happens because Sonic Games Are For Kids(tm).

That may sound harsh, but considering I frequently find myself explaining the most basic plot points screenshot-by-screenshot, I'm inclined to think there's a shortage of understanding somewhere. Most of the games are largely self-contained pieces of work. Some build on previous entries, such as Adventure-Adventure 2 and Battle-Advance 3, but I don't need any given Sonic game to do that in order to enjoy it; I just need it to be a good story on its own merits. The references are just nice cherries on top. It shouldn't be the main dish to the detriment to all other parts of storytelling.

This might also be a side effect of me getting older, but I find I don't really care about the nitty-gritty like I used to. "How come ShTH shows a whole moon in the opening cutscene when it was destroyed in SA2?" Well, aside from later games establishing that Sonic's world has two moons (therefore it's not an inconsistency), it's a detail not worth stressing about when the moon doesn't factor into the game at all. It doesn't play into the game's themes of moral agency. It's not like Shadow goes on a mission to repair the moon or anything.

To be frank, many "inconsistencies" fans point out instead imply a basic failure to understand the fundamentals of storytelling. Gerald's original motives for the Eclipse Cannon are meant to be ambiguous in SA2; we're meant to ponder the question because anxiety about WMD development was rife back in the early aughts. Shadow is not inconsistent, he's always been a little aggressive. Mania's place in the timeline becomes a lot clearer when you recall how, in Generations, Classic Robotnik decided to "dedicate the rest of his life to forgetting" Modern Eggman's failures and therefore rewrote history. Thus Robotnik dug up the Phantom Ruby earlier than he "should" have.

But nowadays, it's like everything that doesn't receive an immediate and concrete answer gets painted as an "inconsistency." CinemaSins style "critique" coupled with anti-games bias makes games discussion a huge headache.

[yukidragon]

I’ve seen someone taking the approach of Ian having a long term affair not just a fling, he was fooling around on the player for a while and keeping his home with them before getting caught. Although intriguing, part of me hopes that’s actually not the case. I know plenty of people do it but sexting and dating someone more exciting but taking advantage of the familiar comfort of might make Ian too far gone for a lot of players, that’s a little too fuckboi. Could tell a more intense narrative though.

Ah yes, I believe you're talking about this marvelously heart-wrenching comic drawn by Cannibalingus on twitter, right? As mentioned in the notes of the follow up comic page, canon has been changed up a bit. I think it's a really interesting AU to explore.

On that note, I'll give a quick warning that post will contain a lot of heavy topics such as cheating, chronic illness, lying, manipulation, gaslighting, destructive actions, the effects of sexual trauma, and a boatload of angst and drama among other sketchy implied things. This fandom is for Adults Only for a reason after all, and not just because of the smut.

For the most part, the fandom uses a picture Sauce drew a while back and posted on their old twitter as a basis for Ian cheating. Credit, as always, goes to them for their fabulous art. Remember, don't share anything privately posted on the SnaccPop Studios Patreon.

Technically, this picture is non-canon unless it appears on an official SDJ page like the tumblr or twitter, but development art like this tends to really capture our imaginations when it comes to lore and headcanons. I use this picture as the basis for my own headcanons and what happened when Ian cheated on Alice in Sunshine in Hell.

In the numerous previous posts where I talked about Ian's affair, particularly this lengthy one, I compared why he wound up cheating to a frog not realizing the water is getting gradually hotter until it's boiled alive. I think it happened with a series of lines being crossed slowly over time until finally a line was crossed that Ian could no longer justify it as anything innocent. This then would result in his guilt-wracked phone call that we see in this picture.

The comic proposes a different scenario, where Ian chose not to confess, but continued to cross the line. He has full knowledge that what he's doing is wrong, but he does it anyway. Maybe it just made the sex that much more exciting to him. Further, he told his affair partner so many things that he says to MC in the demo, both in the present and in the past.

Really, I find it interesting Ian can still a lot of the say the same things to MC that he said in the past even after cheating, but I digress.

In my version of the canon, the reason why Alice forgave Ian and still loves him is because he did confess right away. He apologized sincerely, and she knows him well enough to know that he is truly does feel immense guilt for what he's done.

Alice convinced herself that this really was just a mistake. Ian has a history of these sorts of mistakes in the heat of the moment. He's a sensitive person and reacts strongly. He wants so badly to be loved and cared for. It's not hard to accept that he got swept up in the attention and care in a place where he felt so lonely... and it's hard not to believe that he lost control of himself when he got horny when he's done so before when they were intimate.

It's a pattern between them, of Ian being apologetically himself and making so many mistakes... and Alice protecting him and forgiving him. She knows he's a wounded soul who has been abused, bullied, and isolated so badly when growing up. He only really had her, and when he left for that school to pursue his dream, he suddenly was without her and her support except over phone or text. She certainly felt lonely in their apartment without him, her family, or friends living nearby...

It's because of all that history together and knowing Ian so well that, unfortunately, led to Alice convincing herself that she needed to forgive him. She needed to be strong for them. He needed her more than ever when he was at his weakest. This was the man that she wanted to spend her life with, who she left her family to be with when the two of them moved far away from where their families lived in order to escape the grasping talons of his narcissist mother and her flying monkeys.

They were both hurting, and Alice believed that the only way to heal that hurt was forgiveness. The way she was going about things, and their relationship in general, was wildly unhealthy - kindness and compassion taken to toxic extremes. Mercifully others who cared about her helped her see that this wasn't healthy for either of them, and that the kindest thing she could do for both of them is to end things after things soured so bad and the trust was just... gone.

Everything changes if Ian's affair was similar to the one depicted in the comic.

Alice is a kind person, at times too kind to her own detriment, but a betrayal of that level would make her realize that she never actually knew Ian at all.

Ian didn't confess immediately, so it wasn't a mistake in the heat of the moment. This was a deliberate betrayal done many, many times over. So many lies are exposed in these series of texts. All those times he claimed that he only wanted and loved Alice... that he could only find her attractive... that he only really needed her? All lies. They're nothing but cheap, pretty words he tells to other people in order to get his dick wet.

Even if the screenshots are faked, the pictures are real. Alice knows Ian's naked body. She's intimately familiar with him. She knows it's him, and these are pictures that he never sent her. They were meant for someone else...

The content of the texts are just so painfully familiar too. So many things Ian used to tell her all the time... Were they just lines to make someone feel special so that he could sleep with them? Once upon a time, "I love you" and "I need you" made her feel wonderful, irreplaceable... but who knows how many other people Ian "loves" and "needs" besides her?

Then comes the part where Alice is referenced in the text. Maybe even she was mentioned by name so there's no doubt. Maybe there were even some chats about her, about how this other person is so much more attractive than her... This person Ian is talking to knows he's in a relationship and is just as cruel of a person to mock her just by having the affair... and fucking in their bed while she's out.

Hell, Alice might even have been friends with this person Ian cheated on her with. Sadly, a lot of times partners cheat with someone very, very close to the person they're cheating on...

Denial is the first reaction from Alice of course. This couldn't be real. This isn't Ian, not her Ian. It can't be. She checks timestamps, images... demands answers from the unknown person who sent it, who they are, how they got it, how they found out... She doesn't want this to be real...

The denial doesn't last long, not when there's too much proof that Ian was someone Alice never actually knew at all...

Pain, disgust, horror, betrayal, and all sorts of other awful emotions overwhelm Alice, and she has to go to the bathroom to throw up. The stress makes her chronic illness flare up, painful and awful... but she refuses to lie down in that bed knowing that Ian fucked someone else in it while he and that fake "friend" probably laughed about how she was too stupid to realize that he was just using her.

Did Ian ever care about Alice at all? Was she just useful? She helped and supported him so much... studying, moving, getting connections, pushing him to go for his dream... She waited for him to come back from that stupid prestigious college all that time, alone. Out there he had been surrounded by hot models and actors like his anime waifus and husbandos he drooled over in his "not porn" ecchi. How many people did he sleep with? What if he gave her an STI? What if he got someone pregnant and hid it?

Alice has to know. It hurts too much not to... but she can't let Ian stop her... lie to her until she does... So she uses one of those emergency travel locks used to make hotel stays more secure on their apartment door so the keys won't work when he gets home, giving her time to tear their apartment completely upside-down.

Every scrap of evidence on his laptop, in his room that Ian kept his stuff in but didn't sleep in is scoured through. Why the fuck did he not sleep with other people in his bed? Or maybe he did and that's why it still smelled clean because he was good at covering his tracks. Maybe it's because changing their sheets often was normal and thus easier to hide than his own sheets when he never used his bed...

Speaking of that bed, Alice gets all the dirty secrets Ian is hiding underneath his bed that he panicked about her finding. She always assumed they were porn mags, but they're far more incriminating things that make it clear without a shadow of a doubt that the screencaps are all true.

The videos of Ian having sex on an innocent unmarked USB drive hidden in a sock under his bed chases away the last of her denials.

Alice knows Ian's passwords, and those she doesn't, she can guess. He's a creature of habit - predictable despite his secret double life. She copies everything incriminating and deletes the photos of her. Most of them are innocent, but she sent some suggestive things while he had been away at school. It sickens her to see them now. Some of those shots... did she remember taking them? It's hard not to feel paranoid about pictures that were taken candidly that seem questionable now. Did she know Ian was taking them? Saving them?

Who was this man that she gave up everything for?

Sex and lies, sex and lies... It's sickening, and Alice throws up again, this time just bile since her stomach is empty. She feels used and violated in a way that makes her body shake. It hurts. It hurts so, so much... but she can't stop. Not now. Not with this ball of hatred festering inside her gut.

All the love Alice had for Ian has been irrevocably tainted into hate. There's nothing he can say to defend himself or fix things after everything she found to damn him. What of his she didn't send to himself as evidence, she destroys. The half heart pendant she used to cherish? She takes a hammer to it and smashes it on top of his laptop and his video game consoles.

The apartment is half destroyed by the time Ian gets home. He tries the lock, but it won't work for some reason. He jiggles the handle and knocks, asking Alice to let him in and worries about the strange noises he heard inside. Is she okay?

Silence is his only answer.

The sudden silence panics Ian, and he pounds on the door a little more, asking if Alice is okay. He knows even with prescription medication, she sometimes has really bad attacks of pain. Did he need to take her to the hospital? Was she lying on the floor, unable to call out for help because she's in so much pain? He starts banging his shoulder against the door harder, trying to break in.

The quiet clicking of a chain and the travel lock goes unnoticed as he keeps banging the door with his shoulder, and Ian goes tumbling into the apartment and falls to the floor when the door suddenly is flung open.

For a second, Ian is relieved to see Alice is on her feet, but then he realizes something is very, horribly wrong.

Alice has been crying. That much is obvious from the tear tracks on her face and the redness in her eyes. It's her eyes especially that seize Ian with a new kind of fear.

There's no love in her eyes as she looks at him. In her eyes he sees the same disgust he saw in his mother's eyes and in those of his classmates while growing up. It's a look that's utterly alien coming from Alice of all people, the one person who was by his side and protected him all this time.

Before Ian has the chance to ask what's wrong or even speculate, Alice flings something down on his face - an innocent little USB stick, snapped in half. At first he's confused, then comes the horrifying realization when he recognizes it.

That's when the protests happen, the apologies, the excuses... even defensiveness as Ian scrambles to his feet. It's not what it looks like! The people in those pictures and video aren't real - they're just AI - just some dumb guilty pleasure. What was Alice doing going through his stuff and looking under his bed? How could she violate his trust like this?!

After lying for so, so long, Ian can only lie more and twist things around on the desperate hope that it's not too late to salvage things.

Alice can only feel her disgust for this lying toad that she always called her prince charming.

How did Alice never see it before? Ian was such a good actor now. She helped him get so good to achieve his dream. Even in the face of irrefutable evidence, he still acts the victim. Poor, pathetic Ian being bullied again. How could Alice do that to him too?

The cold, unyielding silence and hatred shake Ian to his core. He's never seen Alice like this before, not to him. None of his excuses are breaking through the hatred in her eyes. Lying and acting won't work anymore and it sinks in that he's fucked up. It's over. She doesn't have to say it, he can see it in her eyes.

Ian breaks down, babbling out apologies and excuses, sobbing uncontrollably. This isn't an act, he begs for her forgiveness, begging her to talk to him as he starts clinging to her.

Alice slaps his hand away, hissing out a hoarse, "Don't touch me!"

Ian reels back, holding his hand. It stung, but the pain is nowhere near as bad as the hatred in her eyes.

The tension between them is thick, slimy, and acidic, as if both of them are breathing in poison.

There's so much Alice wants to say. She wants to demand how he could do this to her. Was it worth it? How many people did he cheat on her with? How long had this been going on? How much of everything was a lie? Why they hell was he even with her!?

Alice is so, so angry. She's never been this angry in her life. She should be screaming at Ian, calling him every horrible name under the sun... hurt him like she's hurting right now.

But Alice is in so, so, so much pain. Even the "just in case" pills for her worst flare ups aren't doing much except taking the edge off at this point. Only her anger is keeping her standing, but it's constricting tight around her throat, guts, and heart, choking the life from her.

The pain is too much. Alice can't even look at Ian anymore, can't be here anymore.

"Goodbye, Ian." The words are so, so hard to force out from her constricted throat.

Ian once more babbles apologies, cries and begs... but it's all white noise to Alice. She has heard this song and dance a million times, and she knows now everything that comes spewing out of that mouth of his is lies.

The friend she had for so long, the love of her life... they never really existed, did they? This is just like that other "friend" she had in high school who asked her out only to turn around and claim it was a joke, that she was far too disgusting and fat for anyone to seriously think about asking her out... only Ian took years to finally let her in on the joke he played on her.

Alice can't listen to Ian anymore. She grabs her essentials while Ian follows her around, pleading with her to just stop and listen. He can explain, really he can!

During her earlier rampage, Alice contacted the only person in the area she was close to - Shaun. He had moved to the area recently, even stayed at their apartment for a while until he got his own place.

Is Shaun coming? Her text was vague, just asking him to come get her and that she needs to leave. Now. She almost sent him the screenshots, but there's too many photos of Ian naked in them. At least Shaun said that he was on his way.

Mercifully, Shaun shows up. He's in a panic, worried that Alice got sick and needed to be rushed to the hospital. Their front door is open, and Ian's sobbing, babbling apologies reach him even before he comes inside. There's just enough for Shaun to get the gist... and he's enraged.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Ian?!"

Ian whirls around to see Shaun storming in. Shaun is so much bigger than him, stronger, and far more intimidating. If it comes to blows, he won't win.

Shaun doesn't take any of Ian's excuses or apologies, throwing back what he just heard in Ian's face. How could Ian do that to Alice? How can he ask for forgiveness after that?

It serves as enough of a distraction for Alice to finish putting her things together, at least the vital stuff. Everything else... she'll get later. She has the important things, and she needs to leave or she'll crumble and break to pieces. She cuts off the argument between the two men by tugging at Shaun's sleeve and saying near tears, "Let's just go."

Shaun doesn't need to be told twice. Ian tries to stop Alice from leaving, but Shaun isn't going to let him get in the way. Shaun escorts Alice from the apartment, promising that he'll be back for the rest of her stuff for her, and Ian better not break any of her stuff unless he wants his legs broken in return.

It's only when the two are in the elevator, when Ian is no longer in sight, that Alice can't keep it together anymore. She collapses against Shaun, weeping and wailing out so much pain...

The trip to Shaun's place is quiet except for Alice's quiet pained whimpering as she lies back in the reclined passenger seat in a near fetal position. She's not present enough to talk, just trying to escape all of the pain that she can. If not for the rage directing her on a path of destruction, she would've downed every bit of alcohol Ian stored at their apartment to try and numb the pain, but it's too late for her to take that option now.

Shaun lets Alice sleep in his bed that night. Though she's not used to sleeping alone and feels lonely, she struggles with being touched right now, feeling so used and filthy after what Ian did to her. She only sleeps when her energy is gone, and she wakes up still feeling miserable. She can barely manage to text work that she'll be out sick.

Shaun went to her favorite food place to snag breakfast back when they were at college and served it to her while she was still in bed. He knows about how stress makes her sickness worse, so he's going to do all that he can to make things easier on her.

It's after Alice manages to get some food and medicine down that she starts talking. It's just a couple words at first, then a few more, and soon it's just a deluge of everything she found out, all the lies and the shit Ian put her through both behind her back and in front of it. She didn't realize that there was so much more wrong between them until she started unloading, and she can't seem to stop. At some point she started clinging to Shaun, crying in his arms as he held her tight, but she kept going until all she could do was cry...

The days and weeks that follow are... rough.... to say the least. Ian sent so many texts that first day, and left so many voicemails... Alice didn't listen to any of them. She didn't read what he had to say. It was only when she had what she wanted to say ready in her mind that she sent him a long email that contained all her hurt from his betrayal. They had a brief back and forth, just enough for him to answer her questions like why.

All Ian has are excuses... and Alice has had enough of them. She ends things by telling him to never contact her again before blocking him on everything.

Ian isn't someone Alice loves anymore, can't love. His love for her was lies, lies, lies... Just one big joke at her expense. He used her for so much... support, to be an emotional crutch, a fuck toy that he played with roughly despite her trauma, all for the sake of "love"...

It disgusts Alice to think of how much she endured for a scumbag like that. She's been used in a way that makes her want to peel her skin off, and she's taken a lot of showers where she's scrubbed her skin raw.

Ian knows where Shaun's place is, but Shaun makes sure to let security for the building know to be on the lookout for Ian and keep him out.

Shaun, being the good friend he is, asks Alice if she wants to move in with him... but after what happened with Ian, she feels uneasy about that. Her trust has been damaged in a way that she needs time and space to repair. She does talk it through with him, and he understands. He even helps her move into a new apartment, one a good distance away from her old place and promises not to tell Ian where it is.

Alice changes jobs too. A yogurt shop right beside her apartment is fine. It doesn't pay as much as the gig at the library did, but Ian went to her place of work to talk to her, and just once was enough.

Fuck Ian. Fuck him in the way that he would hate the most and cry about. And fuck the small part of Alice that still loves him even as the rest of her hates him.

Word spreads about what Ian did, and friends choose sides, mostly Alice's considering the circumstances. Unlike in the main universe where some are divided or being neutral, few can buy that Ian really is remorseful after such rampant lies and cheating.

The King family is shocked and outraged at Ian. I mentioned their reactions to Ian cheating in a previous post, but the fallout is even more severe in this AU. After all... Alice no longer cares if Ian is hurt, and what he did to her is far worse than the normal universe.

After Alice moves, her whole family comes to visit her for housewarming and to help cheer her up. The new apartment is small, so it's a crowded party, but it helps. Mama King even brings her plenty of beautiful flowers to decorate the new place.

There's no more mention of Ian around Alice. She doesn't ask about him, and has asked others not to bring him up to her. Shaun still keeps an eye on things though, just in case. He heard from someone that Ian moved out of the old apartment and left a message that he's sorry and for Alice to have a good life. Shaun doesn't pass the message along.

Ian was also thoroughly exposed online. Alice didn't spread it, but screenshots were leaked, even on his socials. It seems unlikely that he would post his own sexts and nudes, so it seems a hacker might have done it.

Alice doesn't care to look into it even after some friends inform her of what happened. It must've been done by that unknown number that sent her the screenshots in the first place. They must've gotten all the dirt on Ian too. Guess saving all that evidence is pointless now. She deletes it all so she doesn't have to think about Ian ever again.

No one has seen Ian since. Some people think he moved back out to the area where he went to college, or went off to live with his affair partner and is hiding away in shame, as no one has seen them either, but no one has been able to contact him. Some are a bit worried about what this could mean...

Alice comes out of this incident even more wary and untrusting of people... and at the same time also lonelier than ever once her family goes back to their home and things settle in the new place. It's hard for her to get close to anyone new, and it's taking her a while to relax around her friends again.

Eventually though, a trip to the thrift store will wind up with an innocent purchase on a whim. Finally Alice will have a use for the VCR Shaun gave her when he upgraded to a better model...

Of course, even Jack is going to have a hard time helping Alice trust people again. Convincing her to be his friend and to help him is much harder too. She was used by "friends" before...

Despite this... even though she's been hurt so badly, Alice still can't bring herself to let an innocent soul stay damned in hell... She won't let what happened with Ian happen again, but she won't let him change who she is either. Not everyone is a liar. People do suffer and need help sincerely. She has been one of those people more times than she likes. It's why she still insists on living on her own despite how miserable she is. She'll be strong for herself and take care of those who deserve it.

That agreement of consent between them is even more strongly emphasized in this AU. A few less loopholes to be found, and a stronger emphasis that the agreement can be broken at any time without penalty. Alice makes it clear that if Jack ever lies to her or tricks her, he's gone. Jack, desperate, doesn't hesitate to agree. He doesn't have a choice after all.

Things are even more tense when Alice wakes up in the aftermath, far more distrusting of Jack, not wanting him to touch her at all, so she tumbles off the sofa this time. It leaves Jack feeling nervous and even more desperate to please Alice and earn her trust.

It's a slower burn in this universe. Jack is on thin ice at times at the start, but manages to pluck at Alice's heartstrings. The empathy bond between them makes it hard for her to be cold to him. She's not reaching out for him as readily as she does in Sunshine in Hell, but she's not scorning him either. She still errs on the side that if Jack is real, then it would be shitty of her to treat him like just a figment of her imagination.

Alice doesn't tell Shaun right away about her new roommate, though she is aware that he would probably believe her and would be excited for supernatural shit like this. It's only when things settle a bit and she starts getting used to Jack that she does.

Because Shaun is introduced to Jack as a new supernatural ghost(?) friend and there's nothing about Alice being in a romantic relationship with Jack (and neither Shaun nor Alice know about the whole soul agreement since Alice forgot her first meeting with Jack), it's treated as something exciting to Shaun. A friendly ghost clown pal who can write messages? Oh, he's so jealous of her luck!

Jack has to take things slow and be cautious, but he can't help but feel uneasy about Shaun's closeness with Alice, at least relative to his current closeness with her. He can tell there's nothing romantic about it... at least from her end, but Shaun is a closer friend to Alice than Jack is and Jack sees how Shaun looks at her sometimes... This is something that needs to change if he doesn't want to risk losing his sunshine...

At the same time, interacting with another person helps Jack get a more solid grip on reality. It's subtle, but he can notice. Shaun is treating Jack as a favorable presence overall, being excited at his existence. It's not so simple as to just eliminate the rival when Shaun is also useful... He'll have to play this cautiously.

Really, this AU would have a bit more tension and a thriller vibe under the surface, but, you know me, I can't help but be a sucker for healing vanilla sweetness with my OTP. Though it'll take longer and there'll be more bumps in the road, I'd like to imagine that eventually Jack manages to help Alice heal, like he does for him. Though it's possible there's going to be a bit of a love triangle along the way until they finally get together.

As for Ian... no one ever hears from him ever again. It's almost funny considering his big dreams of becoming a famous actor. Whatever happened to that guy anyway? Maybe someone decided that cheaters need to pay a heavier price than just getting their belongings smashed and their dirty laundry aired online...

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[thatnerddave]

I’m a man who grew up surrounded by strong women. Even as a child, I gravitated toward stories about women like those who helped mold me. This included stuff like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Tomb Raider”, and eventually, “Sailor Moon”.

I first encountered “Sailor Moon” as a young boy. I watched the 1990s anime religiously after school with my cousin. Beneath the silly slapstick humor of the anime, I detected characters with depth and pathos. It was love at first sight.

I eventually read the manga and adored it even more, particularly for how it approached the central romance between Usagi and Mamoru. I returned to the manga frequently and yearned for an adaptation that took these characters just a bit more seriously.

Little did I know, that adaptation existed. “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon”, a live-action tokusatsu series, never made it to the west officially. A chance encounter with a fan sub finally, quite recently, introduced me to what has become my favorite adaptation of “Sailor Moon”.

Here were the characters I loved, given room to breathe, their journeys fully explored. There was just one problem: those journeys ended after only the first arc of the manga.

So here we are. I have written stories for most of my life. I’ve even had the pleasure of having some of my comic book work published. Despite the fact that I always wrote for the love of the process, I’d never written fan fiction. Something about “PGSM”, however, urged me to put pen to paper and continue the story.

I'm sure in a fan community as vast as that of "Sailor Moon", I'm far from the first person to continue the story of "PGSM". I do believe I have a pretty unique approach that is ultimately additive to the fandom. Whether I am successful at crafting something worthy of the franchise is ultimately left up to the judgement of my fellow fans.

I did set some rules before I started writing.

1. Like “PGSM”, I will be adapting an arc from the manga, the “Black Moon” arc. Just like “PGSM”, I will follow the basic spirit of the arc while diverging, making changes, and taking BIG SWINGS.

2. “PGSM” was not blessed with a massive budget. To keep the spirit of the show alive, my second season will similarly stay quite grounded. Events here should at least be plausible in the context of the show.

3. Everything from the show is canon, including the “Special Act”. I knew this would create a challenge, since that final story jumped forward in time 4 years and saw Usagi and Mamoru get married. I jump forward another year after the wedding. We’re dealing with older Sailor Guardians, around 19 years old.

4. My biggest goal was to approximate the feel of a TV show. That is why the story is organized not into chapters, but episodes, called acts. That is why each act features opening and closing credits, as well as eyecatch (アイキャッチ) images common in Japanese television, particularly anime.

5. Finally, I wanted to not “impose my will” on these characters, but attempt to extend their journeys. Character conflicts, both internal and external, and relationships should feel like a natural evolution of what came before.

If you’ve never seen “PGSM”, but are a fan of Sailor Moon, consider my story an “alternative universe” and try to enjoy it on those merits.

I do recommend all fans seek out a fan sub of the show and watch it; it’s fantastic. Search the web for “Miss Dream” or “Sea of Serenity” and you’re sure to find it. The cast and crew really knocked it out of the park.

I will be posting new episodes on a roughly monthly basis and currently plan to write anywhere between 15 and 20 episodes. The whole season is already outlined, but I like to leave myself some room to improvise.

You can find my take on a second season of PGSM currently on three websites:

Archive of Our Own

Wattpad

FanFiction.net

I hope you’ll try and enjoy this little “what if” return to the world of “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon”. I know I am.