#like these wild ppl do exist and it’s not all fantasy

[cynical-things]

some of the g0re / bl00d kink blogs on here are literally insane. imagine getting an ask saying will you ever carry out ur murd3r fantasies and you just say yeah one day I will k1ll my SO (with their consent) 😭😭😭😭 psych hospital for you broooo

[drdemonprince]

Hi, I am a person with a bit of a reputation in my irl community of pervert transsexuals, and like, I often feel like I absolutely fail to live up to that reputation. I'm very physically identifiable and have thrown events and had my porn screened places (among other things I'll exclude as to not make myself any more identifiable) so like there's this mismatch where it feels like I'm widely (among this community) known by people, a lot of them who I don't really know. And so, frequently I'll get into conversations with ppl who know me from various things and they seem to be surprised if I'm not this very wild and crazy and experienced and kinky person. I'm just very public with those parts of myself when they do show up. I almost feel like I'm disappointing ppl when I'm lower energy or less wild or don't have any escapades to divulge. Sometimes I feel like I have to watch ppl in real time reconcile their imagined me with the awkward, quiet, and boring person in front of them. I just feel trapped in a lot of ways! Do you have any relevant experience or thoughts that might help my perspective or attitude shift?

I have a lot of thoughts about this as a person who also has a reputation.

It sounds to me like other people are objectifying you, and projecting their desires onto you in ways that are uncomfortable and exhausting. They are crafting an unrealistic fantasy of who you must be all of the time, and what being a sexually adventurous person must look like, and so it is GOOD FOR YOU TO DISAPPOINT THEM. You shouldn't try to live up to their fantasies. You should be yourself and disabuse them of the notion that only effortlessly cool, outgoing, wild, unrestrained people ever get to have fulfilling sex, or that having fun sex carries over into how someone acts and lives all of the time.

The folks approaching you in this way also need to learn that other people (including other sexually active people) do not exist to titillate them or entertain them. Your sexually adventurous side is a GIFT that you choose to give to people when they have earned it and made you feel comfortable enough to unleash it. You do not owe that side to anyone.

Having great kinky sex is a TON of fucking WORK -- vetting, rapport building, self-exploration, communication, gear collecting, location scouting, and more. It makes sense you can't be the person in your porn videos all the time. Nobody is. I'm certainly not the guy who wrote Unmasking Autism every day. I was that guy for a period of a few months in the winter-spring of 2021, for about five hours per day, in a locked brick room filled with coffee cups and egg sandwiches. The rest of the time I'm just some idiot trying to pick up some LaCroix at the store or whatever. It's weird for people to expect me to be some sage, patient, insightful person all the time just because I wrote a book that has some of those qualities, and it's weird for people to expect you to be an entertaining sexpot all the time just because you made a porn.

Be fucking boring. Let a conversation trail off. Be shy. If anything, you can take pride in being a complete, complex human being, not someone else's overly heightened jerk-off material. Let them be disappointed, it's a lesson they need to internalize.

[ranticore]

answering an ask from @coyoteworks under a readmore because it's mildly spoilery for said the black horse :)

Coyoteworks asks: ive been sitting on this one for a while because its so in my head.. i really like how you write the werewolves in mvf. it really taps into my love for examinations of human and animal behavior, because as much as i love when a character goes 'berserk' in some way like a werewolf or monster transformation of any kind, i often feel like the execution of it being a result of a well of hidden evil is a bit too 'easy'... when bowman first turned i genuinely sat forward because i was so fascinated & delighted by his behaviors. the idea that these werewolves, with their reputation for being cruel and vicious, known for having the intelligence of man and the bloodthirst of a predator animal... arent actually all that vicious the first time they turn... it's just a really lovely take on what our "base" instincts actually are, and that cruelty is a learned/taught trait rather than an inherent one... same goes for jean's first transformation, and his fear, and bowman willingly turning to ease that fear and communicate as wolves... aughhg i just love it so much... the boys are playinggggggg

---

Answer:

I have to confess to being a little bit spiteful when I formulated those werewolf portrayals... I find that the idea of what a werewolf IS has been turned into almost a fandom in the sense that if you go against their established rules, it's decried as not REALLY a werewolf or a dilution of werewolves etc. And I find that really interesting; once I saw an entire rec list of werewolf media by a fan of werewolves who was deeply dismissive and disgusted by works which didn't have the werewolf being a rampaging beast every full moon because, to them, that was the whole point of a werewolf. To not have it be that way would be like making a vampire that doesn't drink blood. The narrative is that it's always about the fear of some primal bestial anger or energy inside oneself and that this is a struggle of man vs evil primal nature.

But it also strays close to something i also don't like about a lot of 'fae' tropes which is that it becomes played out, tired, predictable, and let's all be so honest with ourselves a lot of werewolves are the way they are because the writers find it hot as well in the same way vampires are hot - some kind of surrender to a raw bestial nature (often extremely masculine.. u can't tell me there's no reason ppl keep making lumberjack werewolves). it's part of a power fantasy when approached from that angle, the fantasy of being dominated/being dominating

So those are the metaphorical seeds inside most werewolf portrayals in media. To me, I was interested more in the former stuff than the latter, but the latter interests me too. 'Man vs evil wild nature' is a common theme in fairy stories as well, with wild spaces representing a threat. On the one hand I did want to subvert an expectation, but it's also part of a long-running main plot point in the series which will become obvious soon (sorry). For the werewolves, what they represent isn't the fear of the animal inside (a human is already an animal) but just the space to be the animal that you already are. I also want to refute the evil wild nature thing too - animals don't rampage about for no reason, there's no evil inherent inside a wolf. There's no mindless violence or attacking - the werewolf rampaging on the first full moon in Inver is doing it because they are frightened. It's not a harmless animal by any means and you still need to avoid provoking it, but it has no malicious intent.

The playing scene was really important to me also as a pivotal point in Bowman's arc but also Jean's and the book in general. If we're going to look at a werewolf as an externalisation of baser nature or a glimpse into what might go on inside the soul of a person (such as any exists), why is it necessarily violent... in Jean's own words, he often wanted to play with Bowman when he was younger, but could never bring himself to approach due to the constraints of society around him. playing is more fundamental to animals (both canine and human) than being a scary monster. so in this version of monstrosity, the monster is unbound from societal convention, finally free to play

Also wanted it to be quite clear that the avatars do not rampage without reason, either; they're scared, too.

[sergeifyodorov]

please disregard if this isn't for you, and my apologies if that's the case, but if not. hello! i would like your opinion on what would be in the leafs' (or other hockey players if you wish!) scent profiles in the omegaverse

first couple lines of that scared me WHEW ok ok. im not like. an a/b/o Guy as in. like. it's not entirely my thing but ive been known to dabble occasionally if the going's good. that to say i'm taking "scent profile" to mean like. a) what "designation" they have (a/b/o) and b) what like their Smells are. if that's not the commonly accepted meaning of the terms that's ok but it Is the question i am answering

am34: to me in my beautiful world am34 is an omega BUT not in a standard way... he's transgender but re: a/b/o designation not gender. like a/b/o is essentially just a second sex class (there exist in the a/b/o universe 6 "sexes" (not accounting for intersex people in the normal way/intersex people in the a/b/o way): alpha male, alpha female, beta male, beta female, omega male, omega female) and auston is transitioning/has transitioned from alpha to omega. in my mind this works basically the exact same way transitioning does irl, but with different hormones, because obviously a/b/o hormones are diff from m/f hormones!) anyway he would smell similar but different pre- and post-transition: sharp, hot and chemical, like jet fuel and citric acid. eating grapefruit at the airport. it gets sweeter as his transition goes on. lemon slushy by a construction site. they're putting tar on the sidewalk.

mitch marner: mitchy's alpha thru and thru... the leafs uncles do Nawt enjoy this because why isn't he using his ALPHA VIBES to intimidate the other goaltender into sucking... ah well. anywhay... mitch smells animal. sticking your face into a cat. wet dog. wool. locker room, but how you imagine the locker room in gay porn fantasy smells. a little bit of light petrichor when things are getting Really weird.

william nilliam: ALSO alpha. when the leafs drafted am34 ppl were suddenly Weird about this realization there were 3 alphas on the team... were they gonna fight? for a while there was really only the one alpha (phil kessel) and now all of a sudden the big three prospects were all alphas. there was concern! they should trade the little swedish brat! and then auston transitioned and the core was balanced (2 alphas, 2 omegas, and morgan <3) and everyone was like. ok. okay. mitchy and willy (and auston pretransition) were all fun and cool with it they WERE. it's harder now that am34's an omega and they have to regularly resist challenging each other over him but it's all fun and good! they're friends! anyways william nilliam smells like open sky. the wind off the water. wild grasses and night air. ozone.

john tavares: jt has been bonded to his alpha wife since his isles days and understandably as a result he smells Super bonded, but also like leather and rubber and polyester. blue jeans. ironic for mr kombucha man but what can you do

matthew knies: OMEGA !!! two arizona omegas wrow! sidenote for the readers in this a/b/o world a's and o's aren't like. A huge section of the population but they also don't entirely tend to get filtered out of or into the nhl... alphas exist in the nhl at similar or higher rates to the genpop, and omegas at similar or slightly lower rates. if alphas and omegas are each 10-15% of the population (combined 20-30%) that means that there's usually ~4-6 alphas + omegas combined on any given nhl team, give or take a few because percentages don't usually work that way. leafs have 5 alphas (mitch, willy, max, benny, dewar) and 3 omegas (am34, jt, kniesy). kniesy is one of those handful of people who is randomly like super educated about a/b/o biology etc etc. like dude paid attention in sex ed class??? i guess??? he smells a little bit like cheap tequila and a Lot bit like breakfast food, scrambled eggs and that very specific diner toast smell and those maple breakfast sausages. don't forget your orange juice!!

max domi: max is an alpha, like his father. and he smells alpha like his father, salted caramel and bitter coffee and sour apple.

connor dewar: pine tar and unscented soap and smoke and a bloody steak. a lot of people don't always clock him as alpha because he doesn't have the often like. strong or dominant scents of a typical alpha, but he's just a Nervous Guy. get the right omega around him and you WILL be able to tell he's an alpha lol

simon benoit: also coffee like max, but much less of a cheap cup made by someone trying to stay awake and much more of a seven-dollar latte made by someone with a nose ring. a bowl of ramen noodles with the highest spice level they'd let you pick. spring onion. farmer's market in a big city with food you've never seen before.

[madame-cookie]

janthir wilds thoughts

im having a lot of fun. i dont really have a lot of nice things to say about it except the maps are fun to play in and the housing is cool. but that being the case i dont want to come across as coming away from the expansion feeling negatively. bc despite not liking a lot of details about the expansion, it was still as fun as others. i think i maybe even liked it more than some of the larger living world plots and its just started.

mostly, im just not interested in many family-based narratives. i dont have a family so it just usually takes a more... impactful relationship to make me interested in the dynamics. it being a whole cast of new characters and a new fantasy group of people made me even less inclined to invest myself in their issues bc i was still trying to figure out the context for these characters and this place.

it did explain why caithe went with us though. i thought that was so random but then it went on to be the unresolved mommy issues chapter and she is like the grand champion of mommy issues bc she just made them all up in her head. like... i always thought it was SO WEIRD how caithe treats aurene so much like a mother to child. like except for weird dragon bond magic i dont really understand how or why her character has gone from being calculated and cunning to just like, doting and brooding over a child that was really the player characters' if anyones. she says like "our daughter"or some shit to you at the end of this one and i was like ooooooooo ehhhhhhhh about that. i love u caithe... and i think u rule.... but you are my least favorite member if every group we are in together so its a little weird for you to talk about the baby u have with me sorry.

malice it was like. cool to remember she exists. she is still just an extension of other characters and not really speaking for herself in a way that matters. just too shy about her position to do much. dont know where thats going but it could be cool to see her become important as a character for how important she was in specifc parts of the story. shes neat! i wanna be excited to see her but rn for her and caithe i was just like. oh :/ was literally everyone else busy? lol

poky is weirdly just like braham. i kinda wish braham just came bc i think its crazy we just sort of touched base and that was it. like dude whats up!!?

omg real quick. Stoic Alder. i am so sorry. you talk WAY. TOO. SLOW. i cant stand it. i never do this but his was the first time playing in 12 years that i actively sought to miss a character's dialogue. i was getting drinks etc every other time he talked bc it was largely summative in nature and soo. slowwwww. all the lowland koda sort of talked that way but his was so hard for me. do they pick leaders based on who talks slowest? lol. the council was dope i like them. but especially when it was all about his estranged relationship with his son bc of his dead wife or whatever. like thats sad bear stuff i guess but it happens bro lol. i dont think the first 5minutes of Up is said either bc like they lived a happy life together ppl die and thats normal.

but thats beside the point. i guess it just felt a little like we were mostly dealing with slice of life issues while what could very well be a devastating threat was brewing just north all the while.

i didnt think titans were ever coming back tbh. sort of a deep cut while being relevant no matter what bc of lore reasons. its kind of cool bc pretty much everyone has a potential stake in it. if their people werent directly affected by the titans of the past, the actions of the peoples they manipulated were pretty much felt by everybody.

im not happy about having to wait to unlock the rest of the core crafting disciplines for my housing since im fairly certain there will be many future ways to craft expanding on that. diverting the access to the last (better, likely) half of recipes is kind of frustrating. i missed when they manipulated our gameplay in more subtle ways. there are a lot of things about this and the last expansion that really make it seem like theyre trying to negotiate with your willingness to waste your time. and i dont appreciate it lol. but its not a big deal. im mostly excited about future expansions.

like i loved in the prologue how they walked us around the room to tell us more or less the next things the alliance would be dealing with. v excited to go back to elona in the future. and the tengu... how long must i bang my fists against the walls of the dominion of winds before they let us innnnn. in my truest fantasy its bc theyre going to let us make tengu characters. but i know its delusional dont worry. the hope keeps me young.

overall i LOVE the spear skills. huge spear fan here. i really wish they hadnt just stopped making underwater skins for black lion weapon lines bc a lot of them would probably have nice spears we could be using. its... a little silly of them when you think about it. im starving for a better variety of spears! and i did sort of expect more than like 4 when the expansion came out. the spear expansion with a spear on the cover.

whispering sorrow is a very complicated character that i still feel as if i have learned the most about from lore documents despite having met her. i want to like her, and i think she's really cool because of what she can do. but i want to like her because of why she does things too, and im just sort of waiting to see why that could be. or at least to hear it from her mouth.

also just bc i remembered it. i hope poky joins our little guild. i want to like him bc i like braham and theyre so much alike. i wanna see how theyre different too. but i feel he hasnt had as much time yet to banter with us bc we have been mostly dealing with his personal issues. and rightly so! but we got to play w braham a lot before his life fell apart so idk i just think it would be cool if in like a year i was drawing poky and braham doing karaoke together or something lol

[spikeinthepunch]

i wanna say i hate to compare BG3 and DAI buuuuut you know they have similar intentions not including the combat system. theyre both high fantasy RPGs that focus on major story choices/consequences and making a protag that you can shape based on personality options, along with class/race specific effects on the way characters mold with you.

so. i think they can be compared, without any note of the technical advancements from since DAI came out of course.

and i say this just based on my current progress (i guess the first 'part'? i just got to the end of the druid grove stuff). i think the bg3 protag is fine! no issue there really, its different but i like what i can do. but i can feel the issues with romance in this game creeping up, as i had heard some things started before by others... that theres a very quick focus to romance. and honestly.... is it romance even at this starting point? immediately i am just asked about who i want to fuck. i like to fuck, i like the sexual relationships. but i can see where ppl may have their issues here.

on this first celebration with the party members, the woman who i helped do the raid with, who i literally dont know, before i even got to the party was like- i am talking to you in your mind and i want to fuck you in thanks for this. and she is the one character you can just fuck without any relation with. and then i talk to Astarion who is like, who do you want to fuck tonight lol? and even if i hadnt talked w him, every other character there except Gale had the option to suggest i wanted to fuck them. bro i hardly even know these guys still. i want to fuck astarion eventually and im glad he turned me down bc honestly why would he accept?. but shadowheart and laezel were totally up for it!!! and man i hard travelled with laezel bc i dont like her lol.

and listen i am sure i will get to learn way more abt these characters that i romance but the fact i am opened up to the sex option immediately is just. so strange when i compare it to the romances of DAI. i think i could take a few characters who just want sex. thats normal. not everyone wants commitment and i would actually like that nuance. but also, really putting the sex on so quick and so blatantly is a surprise to me even as someone who wants to have sex stuff all the time!! but i like good writing too! and i imagine its even more uncomfy for others who really didnt expect or want that. to just assume you character wants to have sex so fast is weird and the only other option denying everything (no implication you want just romance/are interest but dont want sex) is just wild to me too.

DAI has such well written romances. really. i saw ppl saying they were excited this game would blow bioware's romance writing out of the water but i dont think i can say that at all rn and im not sure this current impression will change enough for me to say otherwise entirely....

this also goes into why "everyone is bi" isnt always good. because i think it takes a lot of potentially personal weight out of the writing. not even in that if one character is gay then there will be oppression angst between them and you for being gay. or that the straight one will voice their straightness in context of gays existing in world. its about how "everyone is bi" isnt actually good, chosen bi rep. its just a game mechanic thrown in to satisfy all ends. we can have bi characters, we just cant have them all being labelled that in order to fill that check mark.

dorian is a really good example in DAI of how a character being strictly gay and also facing in world oppression makes his romance storyline SO good. its so important for sexuality labels to exist bc it makes you an individual of your own. and for it to be EXPRESSED in some form too. a character should be able to voice their thoughst on their unique sexuality when you romance them. but the 'everyone is bi just because' means like no character is every talking about that, let alone in a meaningful way when the reason applies to every other companion.

sorry did not mean for this to become a rant on romances. im still looking forward to the writing that will unfold with these characters but i think its so important to not get lost in the hype (and the hate to DAI? which i think is just hate to bioware really) bc people ALWAYS get to ahead of themself when they hear "you can romance anyone regardless of gender" without thinking twice about whether or not that makes it good writing or rep

[the-tzarina-alexandra-paracosm]

I've been thinking about what I said in my last post re: my earliest stories taking place in the same universe. i think I'd still like to do that, or at least take elements from that approach.

So far I have the following worlds:

TLOEW: post-apoc, steampunk vibes, mythology about there being 'people on the moon' but not yet expanded upon

Real life a little to the left: the contemporary stories as well as the near-future sci-fi ones

Fairytale retelling: worlds akin to their respective inspirations but also like real life in other ways

Fairy insects: an independent worldbuilding project

The Scroll: a thought experiment on the nature of free will/ predestination. Had a story concept for this but honestly several stories can take place in this allegorical world

And now I'm thinking which stories from my 2013 era or even more recent than that could benefit from being put in another universe and thus have the same story told with a different spin. The main one I'm thinking of is my second novel, The 5 Books of the Immortals. The development of that was wild cause it started out as a wizard academia then irl academia then a ww2 story... somehow. And I COULD just up my history game, and probably should. But I could also place them in a world that's parallel to ours. And not in a lazy way. In fact, the story first way better in a fictional universe than the real world, because the events are not structured in a way as to be compatible with a pre-existing war, but may be compatible with a more 'fantasy' war (as it was originally imagined, mind you!). I would like to write a story taking place during a real historical war one day but idk if that one is the best fit.

A lot hinges on what answer I give to the question of whether the 'moon people' alluded to in TLOEW are real or just legend. I really wanna make them real haha. But not aliens-aliens. More like humans who colonised some planet a long time ago. After all TLOEW is post-apocalyptic in its origin. Yes, 1000 years after the fact, but still. So then the existence of stuff like space travel wouldn't be incongruous, because the people on Earth, they're the ones who were left behind, and the apocalyptic event caused huge technological regression too. (Now I do kinda wanna go the Dune route and have some tech abandoned intentionally because it is now seen as evil and the main cause for the apocalyptic event but yeah. Much to think about).

The world of TLOEW is compatible with many of my 'fantasy' stories, except they're now historical looking sci-fi (I long ago decided I'm very uncomfortable with writing magic and stuff so I never really wrote fantasy for the past 10 years or so anymore. I do love sci-fi though and it makes for a magicless world that still contains a lot of interesting worldbuilding). The 5 Books story would fit right in! Idk when exactly during the historical timeline but yeah.

But at some point I had established that Ernest Arthurs of my Love is a Choice story (2017), the Victorian romance (!!) is the ancestor of Zephyr Arthurs. So I either break this familiar bond or otherwise transfer Ernest into the TLOEW world. I'm not sure hm. I feel like Ernest fits right in the actual real world 19th century too much. On the other hand he is an engineer (and clockmaker hobbyist) so there are like potential steampunk elements too. Again much to think about.

On the other hand, if the TLOEW world actually has space travel etc I could incorporate stories such as the imm 14, the one with Thea the tragic alien princess. Except in this world alien means human born on some other celestial body than Earth (which is perfect considering I designed her appearance to be completely human, too). And I do LOVE the potential for the characters on Earth to look longingly at the Moon or a planet etc and the ppl on the Moon etc to look longingly at Earth. Both think the other group is long dead.

And the main thing about the worldbuilding in TLOEW is that its starts with the 1000th anniversary of that apocalyptic event (I mean, rather, of the international peace treaty that was signed afterwards). And we only see one perspective, the East, as it were. Another story might deal with however the West would handle this in their culture. And yet another story might handle how the Moon people see this history. The possibilities!....

Of course even so there are some stories that are still unclassifiable as of yet. But it has been very helpful to brainstorm the above-mentioned ideas

[cloudslou]

i think it is wild when ppl say that they dont learn anything from romance books or theres no like. Value. or that romance books are an easy read, or your brain can check out while you read, or its a "palette cleanser" between heavier books. even romance readers!!! voracious romance readers!!!! i find it so odd cus i think there is SO much to learn from romance books.

sure most romance books r not spoon feeding you new information or Written w the purpose of informing or educating or even eliciting deep thought, but as someone who has gotten into the genre in 2023 and is continuing in 2024, i think its so interesting to read both contemporary romance and dark romance and ask questions like. what structures are being repeated in all of these books? how do these books, 95% written by women and for women, engage w patriarchy and work to Support patriarchal structures? why Would women do this in their writing, and does it say something about the authors who go into the genre and the people who read it?

in what ways is troubling behaviour justified, and should it be by either authors, readers, or characters? what kinds of fantasies are being played out, and are they ones that exist outside of the book or not?

in the case of dark romance, is there a reason to write love interests who are ostensibly horrible people? what kinds of "darkness" are considered acceptable and what isn't? are there misogynistic ideas written on an exaggerated scale, and does it disturb or comfort the reader?

i just think its wild that so many people think there is nothing to learn from the romance genre. or think that by answering questions like that you could come away not liking the book.

[bryht]

if  ppl  could  stop  apparently  saying  cha.rlie  &  ow.en  are  dating,  that’d  be  great

[rondoel]

“The King returns” - masterpost

Do you remember your childhood being like fairytale, so different from the world you know now? That’s because when HE is in charge, your reality itself changes.

For better or worse

When he ruled he had the absolute power over everything. He’s The Imagination - most powerful force in child’s mind.

Until Logic starts to question everything. Making Thomas wonder what reality is like. Which will eventually lead to clash of these forces

---

King’s power comes from having Deceit on his side who is happy in the world they are living in, even If it’s a lie. But when Logan introduces him to the real world it’s suddenly Janus’ choice who will win: truth or lies.

And there would be whole Imagination VS Reality showdown where Logan totally wrecks the king in kind of fashion like he wrecked Remus by pointing out how preposterous are fantasies when confronted with reality.

And defeated King is bewildered. “Why are you suddenly so powerful, Logic?”

And then BOOM

Janus emerges from behind Logan with simple “sorry” or “it’s over” or just guilty silence. And you can see hatred in King’s eyes because Deceit - probably the closest side to him before - is a traitor.

The King, removed from the throne, defeated and weakened, devoid of most of his power was utterly unprepared for development of Morality - which gradually but eventually lead to The Split.

---

The Twins

Roman and Remus don’t possess memories of this. They have no idea how King was like, only that he existed. And it doesn’t interest them until later on.

Because of constant pressure Roman often feels that somehow he isn’t enough. That he’s incomplete. The feeling progresses until the climax where Roman sees the only one solution.

Remus doesn’t feel the pressure himself, but can sense his twin’s distress - which now is so overwhelming it works for them like a magnet until they re-fuse into the King.

Roman is power and Remus is confidence. They genuinly think they do the others a favor. That the King is a better version of them.

They couldn’t predict the outcome

King does not represent Roman or Remus’ hidden intentions or demons. He’s his own character who doesn’t care about callbacks or being good/bad discussions.

It’s all about vendetta.

But King is living in the past. He does not realise how much Thomas has grown since then or how much he’s hurting him now.

He doesn’t know he’s the childhood that can never be back

---

Few optional ideas:

- King absolutely hates Patton and Logan but he underestimated the other two. So by sparing Janus and giving Virge a creative power, he also gave them a weapon to beat him

- Deceit being half snake could be King’s doings for the betrayal

- King has nothing against Virgil so they could use it to get to him. But keep in mind he will be very wary of trusting any side again

- sooner or later King will have to be confronted with the truth that he’s living in the past and his time is over. Will he back down voluntarily or will he fight to the end - it’s his decission

- I have no idea what mental condition he represents. Your choice

- Whole backstory with King may be a reason why Logan wasn’t always on good terms with creativity. He might be afraid of letting the imagination run wild ever again

- To stop Virgil from thinking too much they give him baby Patton to hold and it works but he basically ends up carrying him everywhere

Other ppl’s amazing ideas:

---

Some fitting songs:

The All American Rejects - Real World

Coldplay - Trouble

Thousand Foot Kruth - Incomplete

The National - Exile Vilify

Michael Giacchino - Stuff We Did (I’m crying when I listen to this thinking about the scene where King realises Thomas is a grown up now and needs the twins not HIM 😭)

---

Links to the comics:

Bow to your King part [1] [2] [3]

The twins fuse

Virgil’s apology

This post is a reference for anyone who wants to take over this story and draw/write something. I’m leaving this idea to you guys, do what you want with it, have fun, Cheers! ♡

[planet4546b]

question time my beloved!! what sort of threats exist in s/n? in the sense of like. a) corrupt govts or cults or whatever but also b) u know how in fantasy stories there are bands of robbers alongside the road to waylay unsuspecting travelers. monsters in the woods. that sort of thing. ALSO is it possible for ppl to live outside the spire observation zones? ik it would be fucky because of quantum stuff but like do people do it anyway??

omg hi sorry it took me like 3 days to get to this. but ohohoho do i love making vaugely sort of fucked up factions and also weather that kills you!!!! im actually gonna answer these in sort of a weird order because they all relate to each other sorta weirdly but well get there hkjdasg

ok so im actually gonna start with natural/environmental threats (ie. why the world outside spire observation zones is dangerous) so that i can get to ppl that live outside those zones so that i can get to weird little robber bands. this post comes with a table of contents hjdlsakg.

most of the environmental dangers outside of observation zones have been sort of colloquially recontextualized as weather in the 200 years since the resonance as a way of normalizing them, but they're just manifestations of the quantum rules that places not being observed function by. these are things like reality storms (think what the end of spiderverse looks like - buildings appear and dissapear, places become physically uncertain, people just vanish as multiple dimensions overlap at the same time), quantum tides (what if collisions got turned off for everything in an area at the same time, which sounds silly but has literally swallowed whole towns), probability storms (a worse version of a reality storm, when the actual fate of an area becomes uncertain, like if you put the box for schrodingers cat around like, 50 square miles. these are TERRIFYING), and things like time and space just sort of getting unstuck, so time can pass much quicker than normal without you realizing it or you can walk for 5 minutes and travel 50 miles or space and time physically 'looping' in on themselves, etc etc. also, because of how the resonance worked, there are entire chunks of the world that are unfamiliar landscapes - just 20 miles of the kind of fantasy forest that has giant spiders in it in the middle of like, kansas - and animals from other worlds, but these are both inside and outside of observation zones and are mostly a known quantity. like yeah if you want to get to jims house you have to go through the poison mushroom zone. it happens. (however. long term exposure to quantum environments is dangerous, and there are odd, incomprehensible, 'mutated' creatures that arent more dangerous than normal wild animals, but would probably be classified as monsters, living outside observation zones. think the fucked up animals from annihilation. i picture these guys a lot as like. ominous silhouettes and shadows on the horizon. you know theyre out there, but thats about it)

SO living outside observation zones is dangerous because its unpredictable. theres a handful of ways around this: either you watch the weather (spires put out 'weather reports' that are accesible via radio that list places that have increased quantum activity, but its not the most reliable), you travel/stay in a group that essentially works in shifts so that some people are always observing the area around them, which kiiiiiind of stabilizes it (this works up to a point, but requires a large group, is taxing, and still could very well fail), or you set up brand-new, proprietary tech from the moraine transportation, infrastructure, and protectionary division - portable radio towers that will stabilize the area around you. maybe. this tech, which allegedly works by outputting radio waves of the opposite frequency to the mar (the connective tissue between universes), is able to make small scale safe zones outside of observation zones, and is what mtipd uses to stabilize the path between stitch and staple, which is the largest area outside the observation zones that's regularly traveled. all of these options.....kind of suck. regardless, people do try to live outside the observation zones, but they pretty quickly figured out 1. its much, much safer not to settle in one place for a significant period of time and 2. if you have a group of like, 15-20 and someone always listening to the radio, you can moooostly keep ahead of the weather. what im saying is that outside of the observation zones theres essentially an entire ecosystem of biker gangs and cowboy posses that are all SUPREME weirdos. they have their own complex web of political interactions that frankly i havent bothered working out, but for the most part, they only really affect each other (travel outside the observation zones is rare enough that you just dont particularly need to worry about it, and if you do need to travel there you just need to hire one of the groups for protection and youll be fine). theres ALSO im sure little highway robber gangs inside the observation zones, theyre just not as bonkers.

as far as sorta big scale threats, we've got all the fun ones - shreveport, while isolationist, has been building up a military for years (including refurbishing automatic weapons which is. Bad.) and no one truly knows why, stitch and staple have reinvented capitalism and are each run by a large corporation with all the corresponding dangers there (as a bonus, the two corporations hate each other and are constantly threatening to go to war with each other), backstay had a warmongering past and while their current ruler wants peace, this opinion isnt shared among many of the city's aristocracy, theres a rising political faction called the eigenvector that wants the cities of the verge to be united under one banner and to be a single 'nation' and they suck supremely, theres rogue scientists trying to build a stable portal to another dimension that is this close to collapsing and destroying the entire area around it, theres a cult that believes exposure to quantum environments is good for you but at least they stay out in the wilderness, missionaries from the major religion of the gloaming protectorate sort of wandering around, etc. the most plot relevant big threats are the corporations that run stitch and staple, (geodesia logistics and shipping and the previously mentioned moraine transportation, infrastructure, and protectionary division respectively) and a mysterious group rising to power known as the ekp (which stands for the eschatologic-kymoptosis presage because theyre pretentious assholes), or the ekpyrotics who believe the end of the world is coming and want to make it happen faster. because theyre pretentious assholes.

which is all very fun!!!!! i hope this makes any sense at all but as always thank you for the questions muah a kiss for you

[puppy-phum]

fic tag game

thank you so much for tagging me @i-am-just-a-kiddo ♥ i love rambling about my fics and my writing even if it always also brings up all the doubts and insecurities i have but. these are my children so i will show them some love :’) and it is always just wonderful to share this all with you my dear ♥

placing under cut bc i do ramble, as yall know to expect by now!

Name: VishCount i’ve already explained the origin of that name a couple of times so am sparing you from that but gotta just say that i never expected to get so fond of this username and the nicknames that followed ♥

Fandoms: wow ok so buckle up, this is gonna be a ride first i gotta mention the finnish fandom for this youtuber group called LaeppaVika. i adored them as a teenager and i still watch the videos sometimes :’) couple of the members still stream stuff even if the group has pretty much fallen apart by now and am just very fond every time. they feel like home in a way. those fics were my first ones and am still kinda proud of some of those?

then there’s this one random finnish utapri fic i once wrote... tbh i’m not sure why my anime fandoms never made me write anything? maybe it was the inexperience and the fear of using a second language lol 

after i got over that and got into BTS, i’ve written a ton for them. most of those are oneshots that vary from 1k words to 10k or something. a couple of longer ones have sprouted too and one is still in the making and i have sooooo many ideas. mostly just random aus. i adore to write those. 

lately MDZS has been my favored fandom and it has gotten some oneshots too as well as my gigantic xicheng fic that hangs somewhere well above 100k now. i wish to finish the last part for that soon but who knows, maybe it will take longer than expected sigh. and now DMBJ has pushed in as something that yells at me to write tho i’ve only posted a short oneshot for it for now. and oh, last year i also posted a couple of silly oneshots for 2moons! that was... weird tbh but am glad i did that. 

i wish i had more fandoms tbh bc there is so much interesting stuff there and i have so many ideas and inspirations but i’m very slow at writing. things don’t always just come out and some fandoms don’t grasp me for long enough that i would be able to tap into any projects. but i have no hurry, right?

Tropes: hmm do i have any? am not sure. i thought that maybe soulmate aus or some abo stuff was my thing but i’ve slowly drifted away from those. then it comes to just... idk. hurt/comfort? found families? i also adore slow burn these days and i feel like i’ve gotten a bit better at writing that but it’s still a struggle. also just, as already noted, all these different aus? mostly fantasy based ones. those are always so cool and somehow very whimsical? and lately i’ve also just fallen into this hole where i love to write some bittersweet tragedies or at least stuff that feels like a tragedy in some sense (and i blame my dear kiddo for that bc they’ve written the sweetest of tragedies and i want that too ok)

Fic I spent most time on: how do you count this? do wips count? bc if they do, then I feel like my xicheng fic called you’re the sunset and i’m the last purple left behind is it. it just keeps on going and i feel like i’ve given it all of my waking hours and heart and soul.  then it could also be my BTS abo fic My Lungs for You to Breathe that is slowly reaching its second year? am not sure. but it has been going for ages bc sometimes it comes and sometimes it goes and currently i’ve spent over six months without updating it and. yeah.  (it would be nice to mention some fic here that i’ve made some research for but tbh i never do any research. am horrible like that but i’ve never just. had the energy? tho i have hopes that i could go on this wild research spree for this one guardian idea i have but let’s see...) 

Favorite fic(s) you’ve written: (making a list bc am unable to choose, fight me)

and you remain - my pingxie oneshot that just helped me to get all of the feelings i had after tlt2 pour out. am very fond of it destiny tied us together - some introspection of lwj and jc’s relationship and how it changes throughout the years as they both mature, learn things about themselves, fall in love and realize that they share the same ppl in their hearts (and maybe develop a tentative friendship bc they’re so similar in so many ways). i had so much fun with this and it just felt like my brightest moment haha painting your skin with all of me - the xicheng soulmate oneshot i wrote at some point and still adore. it just seemed to work and in the middle of my xicheng struggles writing them so briefly and gently just felt right pouring love (growing flowers) - the ot7 oneshot i wrote bc of this one amazing twt prompt/moodboard. it was the last part of my mono series. i love it so much. joon was so nice to write throughout the whole thing ;;  lilies bloomed under your carpet - my god au for taejoon. it poured out of me so wonderfully and it was so amazing. still one of my favorite creations, this whole au.  Stories Untold / chapter 3 - this was a collection of taejoon oneshots that i was trying to make but am not sure if i will ever finish them all. but this one, where tae is a forest god and joon a human able to see supernatural things, is very dear to me bc it just feels complete

Fic I spent least time on: gosh i think it must be either my first wangxian oneshot we had it almost or my touch-starved joon oneshot show me my skin and touch my heart with very soft and lovely taejoon. both created themselves in a couple of hours?

Longest fic: currently my xicheng monster but i somehow expect my bts abo fic to get even longer if i ever manage to finish it

Shortest fic: it’s apparently my namseok fic for joon’s tokyo called missing you (i’m homesick). it created itself out of my own experiences of living in a long distance relationship and is one of my faves in that series.  

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks: most hits and comments go for my bts abo fic which doesn’t really surprise me when it’s a multichapter fic :’D most kudos go for the already mentioned xicheng oneshot and most bookmarks go for the bts ot7 fic!

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: hmm if i could rewrite something, it would probably be my first bts fic and my second long fic called Even the Universe Makes Mistakes. that soulmate au now feels a bit outdated and there are many parts i would like to change and things i would love to think again.  then if i was allowed to expand some world, i would love to write more for the xicheng soulmate au bc there are many other pairings i would love to explore there too or just to see lxc’s take on the events perhaps. other thing would be my namgi oneshot it passes (for us both) bc i adore namgi and the love they create in that brief moment. 

Share a bit of a WIP: it hasn’t been long since i shared snippets of several wips but let’s go with my pingxie which i’ve been working on and am just so damn excited about (especially now that i can use the bazaar photoshoot imagery as inspiration):

“He moves, pulled in by the darkness of the lake, mirroring the softly blue sky with its gray, heavy clouds. The snow lands on his nose, into his lashes, clings to his coat and his shoes. He doesn’t feel cold, doesn’t hear anything beyond the softness of the snowfall. Nothing exists and everything does, real and fake at the same time, comforting but still making him feel afraid.

He could lose himself here, could be lost from everything. He could stay and be forgotten, could join those people that tried to make him remain, could take the easier way. He could rest, just like he was supposed to do so many times before.

Maybe he does belong, after all. Maybe he is part of this place, so awfully familiar with it, so willing to even stop his own heart to get here. And maybe he is not, this place only hungry for those who don’t yet remain, refuse to give into this dream-like space.”

thank you once more for tagging me my dear! this was fun even if looking back to my old fics and all the lack of updating and posting these days makes me feel kinda bad... i’ve just been in a slump lately and am slowly trying to get out of it even if i almost fall back in all the time. it’s funny when last spring i felt like i was at my peak sigh. but well, as i’ve already said, i have time right?

i dunno so many writers over here but i’m tagging @cross-d-a and @kholran bc i’m curious about your work. also tagging @inkblue-black and @jockvillagersonly if you want to blabber about something or if you just want to see this. and oh also tagging @wangxianbunnydoodles bc am always open for new ppl and i know that you write ^^ 

[reversecreek]

clicks onto the dash wearing kitten heels n coyly holding my bang....... hi. me again. it took me so long to select a gif to use on cricket’s intro n i settled on this one bc he looks so unsure abt his smile n it’s rly his essence <3 u can find his pinterest board here n his (work in progress) spotify playlist here. hmu to plot!!! 

* alex wolff, cis male + he/him | you know cricket donahue, right? they’re twenty-two, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, all of their life, on and off? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to should have known better by sufjan stevens like, a million times this year, which slipping on wet leaves to photograph a tree struck alight by lightning, delivering a tedtalk to your own reflection to hype yourself up to buy groceries, hiding your hands inside of your sleeves in case you grew an impromptu megan fox thumb overnight thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is october 1st, so they’re a libra, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( nai, 24, gmt, she/her )

HISTORY:

cricket ws born to a couple tht lived in lilac ridge. their trailer was tucked closest to the woods n always fell under the shade. it was like the leaves wanted to pretend they were a perpetual hanging cloud on the family n that was kind of fitting. their only reason fr having him in the first place was a kind of shrugged like........... we’re under the income bracket we’d get child benefits so why not! may as well try it to rake in some extra cash! needless to say they didn’t rly think it thru or anticipate all of the responsibilities tht came w children n wound up seeing him as an extremely large burden n boy didn’t he know it!

(child neglect & abuse tw) i’ll try to keep this part vague n brief but things were Not Good for cricket growing up. people in lilac ridge didn’t like his parents n it was for a gd reason. he remembers foggy things. being little n wandering around combing the grass with a stick to search for wrappers to suck on bc he was hungry. feeling uneasy when the front door opened. finding out his name was cricket bc the insects used to crawl into their trailer thru the vents n his parents liked to squish them into the carpet -- his mum told him as much once. i think this says a lot. to excessively trim the fat of the story he wound up entering the system at around 8 after his latest and most serious hospital visit. his parents hd to deal w the authorities n last he heard they bounced to evade charges.

(anxiety & violence & trauma tw) cricket sustained a few lifelong injuries from his time in lilac ridge. his knee didn’t heal right which meant he had (n still has to this day) a limp n he’s partially deaf in one ear. he’s always been an incredibly insecure n anxious person so this mde him rly self conscious going into a strange n new environment tht wld b difficult fr any kid to adjust to, nvm w these added worries. he jst felt like something weird to ogle at honestly. he probably wld have felt like that no matter where he was or what he looked like. he cld be in a huge hall of 200 people all wearing the same uniform n he’d still feel like the odd one out. needless to say this didn’t rly help him make friends

cricket’s coping mechanisms were romanticising the things tht other people found ugly or embarrassing or painfully ordinary. he liked it when the rain hit clunky drops against school windows n forbid everyone from playing outside bc he could feel the vibrations through the rubber soles of his shoes n it was a little bit like hearing all of the world at once fr just a moment. he liked medieval fantasy lore about stout gnomes w crumbs in their beards n cheeks red from ale. he liked fallen nests with the remnants of hatched eggs still dirty from the branches n soil they’d hit on the way down. he liked the way the sunlight leaked thru the leaves of the trees in the woods and how, when he sat very still, he could tune into the ringing that was always in his ear n pretend it was coming from the same place, that light thru the leaves, that the angels were trying to talk to him.

he spent a lot of time in the red room at his high skl (i’m begging u this is not a 50 shades reference) (after googling i jst realised it’s called a darkroom bt i’m leaving this fr the sake of sexy bimbo authenticity) n felt quite at home in there. he borrowed a camera whenever he cld (maybe he did yearbook) n photography became his way of immortalising the world as the romanticised version he wanted it to be. his memories were bad bt his photos were beautiful. maybe if he took enough they’d paste over n bleed into each other. maybe bad cld be replaced w beautiful if he tried his very best.

he got placed into fostering w a family once bt apparently didn’t meet the vibe check of their tastes so he wound up returning to the group home he’d initially been placed in. overall this is where he grew up n he aged out the system rather than getting adopted. there was a sense of floundering/isolation/not feeling gd enough in tht bt cricket made do the best he knew how. 

that said there were some gd points! (shocking i kno bc his life hs been so fking bleak so far bt please it’s ok........) (is it?) (🤔). basically he interned as an assistant at this local photography studio during high skl working under this kind of whimsical yet endearing old man. suspected wizard possibly in cricket’s eyes, as an avid fantasy genre reader. for one of his bdays said old man / his boss bought him his very own film camera n cricket cried bc he’d never been bought a bday gift. this ws rly embarrassing bc this old man didn’t know how to emote n neither did cricket so he ws jst sort of sat wiping his eyes n sniffling saying he wasn’t crying as the old man pretended to suddenly clean his lenses. when cricket graduated he offered him a full time position there. they do like. wedding photographs n family portraits n all kinds of things...... pay isn’t huge bt it’s something n he Loves taking photos so it’s sexy <3

PERSONALITY:

SUCH an anxious person it’s actually unreal. overthinks absolutely everything he’s ever said. one morning he might hv put green socks on n for the rest of the day he’s nervously looking around like omggggggg they’re all looking at my socks probably thinking im a little green sock boy thinking i’m a fool n a jester this is all everyone’s probably thinking about i hv to hide my green socks..... even tho literally no-one cares

once saw a girl eating a chicken wing n in his head was like ok she likes chicken good future gift idea..... n turned up at her house with an entire rotisserie chicken

probably thinks WAY too hard abt what to write in bday cards n googles like generic ideas that he can use.... u open a card from cricket n it always says smthn weird like “Warmest wishes and love on your birthday and always!” or “You deserve everything happy. Wishing you that all year long!” tht he got off google

nervously fiddles w things a lot. literally anything. his hair. the cuffs of his sleeves. a thread on his bag. u name it

struggles w eye contact sometimes............ it’s like. he wants to talk to ppl n make friends bt he’s honestly so bad at it. he’s fumbling thru life like a nervous headless chicken

ALWAYS has his camera on him. like always. will tke a photo of u bc he thinks u look nice then be like im so sorry im so sorry...... bowing his head shakily holding his camera bc he doesn’t even kno what possessed him he jst thought it’d be a nice photograph bt boundaries exist. probably breathes very heavily over this later in his room panicking thinking he nw seems like hannibal lecter

probably more confident online bc he has time to think abt what he says more.......... i can see him hving a group of online friends tht he’s more confident w. honestly he’s pretty witty at heart he jst has a hard time verbalising things so ppl overlook him sometimes bt once u get to know him more / he’s more comfy he can b a funny little man.....

loves photographs where he cuts something out of them. loves missing spaces n voids. thinks it’s a rly interesting concept when something that isn’t there becomes the focus of a photograph where everything else is. probably loses his mind fr a collage like a front row 1d stan. likes experimenting w light n perception. pretty artistic honestly hs probably made a stop motion film in the past bc that’s just an extended form of photography in his mind bt i doubt he showed anyone

ummm...... very sweet bt like. he reminds me a lot of this quote. “he had the awkward tenderness of someone who has never been loved and is forced to improvise.” feel like tht sums him up quite nicely

WANTED CONNECTIONS

someone he met at a wedding: cricket probably ws forced to photograph a wedding fr his boss one time n it cld b interesting as a place to meet from that....... like. i can imagine either it being rly awkward maybe he accidentally spilled a drink on ur muse n was stuttering rly apologetic n it ws just a train wreck. or mayb they took pity on him or even (in a shocking turn of events) a shine to him n invited him to drink n dance. omgggg the thought of cricket trying to dance makes me wna die n probably mkes cricket wna hyperventilate bt idk maybe he went wild n let loose. mayb they wound up damaging the camera somehow. mayb they had to scramble to get another one n ur muse covered the cost n it was a strange late night excursion tht cricket thought about a lot since. cricket probably vowed to pay them bk somehow no matter what. idk. we can work things out. lots of diff options here. doesn’t have to b a wedding either can b any event tht required a photographer

ppl he went to school w: pretty self explanatory i suppose...... maybe they were frm completely different worlds..... mayb ur muse was popular n cricket was definitely not but they got paired fr an assignment n had to work on a project together....... mayb cricket asked ur muse on a date one time n it was completely embarrassing bc he didn’t realise they had a bf n it haunts cricket at night still bc he’s rly dramatic.... mayb ur muse felt sry fr him n ate lunch w him n inducted him into their group like a lost puppy finding a home.... world’s our oyster

neighbours from his brief time at lilac ridge: not to reference taylor swift but i’m gna reference taylor swift n say we cld do a seven inspired plot here. sighs a little..... then sighs a lot. he was here ages 0-8 so idk. we cld work out childhood plots perhaps....

sickening simp: i mean.............. cricket probably gets crushes on ppl so easily like just. anyone who’s the slightest bit nice to him.................. he’s a disgrace. ok i take it back. bt also please get it together freak............... i didn’t say that. he’d probably b extra nice to this person n try n pay close attention to things they liked so he cld get them little gifts. just a bit embarrassing n lovestruck bless his heart. wldn’t expect anything back tho honestly that just isn’t something he tends to do.

let’s go gays: cricket’s bi but he probably was rly in his head abt liking boys n tried to sort of squash it internally during his younger yrs...... i think he’s more comfy w it now MAYBE idk bt back then i picture him having a friend tht ws kind of like. similarly loserish as him perhaps (no offence to ur muse potentially filling this plot or cricket bt let’s face the facts) n they’d hang out n play games a lot n one time it jst kind of happened n he was like............. *struts in looking around sharply* What going on here? except not. bc it’s cricket. more like *shambles in looking around anxiously* What’s, uh... What’s... the happenings? S--... I’m sorry. (immediate apology for saying what’s the happenings bc nobody talks like that n it was an impulsive panic bc he didn’t know what else to say)

those who grew up in the system w him: maybe at the group home or i’d also like the family that fostered him n said sayonara. honestly i imagine the parents just thought he ws a bit too much of a handful / had too much baggage which is rly quite merciless n terrible but. if u think that aligns w ur muses home situation hmu......

um. can’t think of more bt just anything honestly. jst go wild.......

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

can you please give some reasons why you don’t think Caryl is done after this? Don’t see how it can happen now unfortunately.

not to invalidate your feelings, but are we even watching the same show, my dude?? 

there has never, in ten years, one decade, 87,600 hours, been a more caryl heavy season of twd

i’ve done several in-depth analysis posts, and i gotta get to bed soon, so here are the highlights just to ease your silly lil’ mind (under the cut bc it ended up being a stream-of-conscious novel):

first and foremost, we have a new showrunner, who is a woman, which is always a plus for our female characters bc we have someone who will make sure they’re three-dimensional people, and that was a big problem with caryl for a while. gimple put carol into a “i was abused but i got strong but now i’m sad bc i killed ppl :(((” corner and let her collect dust, and tbf, he also put daryl in the “i was abused but i got strong but now i must wallow in my Man Pain in silence” corner, and then he kind of just forgot about how they had an amazing chemistry and focused more on his three season-long dick jerking contest between Rapey Man #3 and Main Lead Male Grappling With Loss and Morality. so that helps us out a lot!

now in terms of the actual show, i’m just gonna like, list things without giving analysis or clarifying bc i’m tired and have already explained a lot of it, but if you need me to explain again you can just message me and i’ll answer it when i’m awake:

caryl’s storyline has been set up to sail since the start of s9

carol and zeke were always going to breakup, and she only married him for henry and escapism bc she’s never dealt with any of her trauma ever in her entire life and there is a lot of it

the title cards indicated as such

carol’s wardrobe change between the time jump in s9, and between “the calm before” and “the storm” indicated as such

carol’s wardrobe this season also indicates where her mindset is rn

kang is rewriting carol’s storyline, and in effect, rewriting caryl’s storyline, in order to right the wrongs done before, and that’s why it’s taking so long, bc she wants to tell it properly instead of just having them smash in the middle of a field with no build-up

not that we’d be against it, but i personally prefer it this way

carol trusts daryl as a father figure more than zeke. see: her asking him to watch over henry bc zeke is too idealistic, and “so what if i dream about you being my husband and henry’s dad sometimes? shut up”

carol went to visit daryl in the woods to escape her marriage that she didn’t actually want to be in anyway

carol got daryl to stop isolating himself

daryl then proceeded to do all his therapy homework and has settled down and is like “cool, time to finally get with carol!”

except kang is telling carol’s storyline properly

which means that carol is in CrazyTown rn, bc she has 1. been in an abusive marriage 2. seen her daughter walk out of a barn as a walker and then get shot in the head 3. seen a small girl stand over her dead sister while wielding a bloody knife and smiling like a maniac 3b. after having promised her late father she’d protect her 4. had to shoot said maniac girl in the head 4b. after having promised her late father she’d protect her 5. made a connection with a small boy against all efforts to the contrary and then he got eaten 6. finally saved a child and thought she finally broke her curse and got into a rly boring weird fantasy marriage in order to protect him only to see his reanimated head chilling out on a pike among a line of all of her dead friends

AND SHE REALLY NEEDS TO DEAL WITH THOSE THINGS, OK?

so she has #cracked and is spiraling, and daryl’s entire storyline this season has been “shit carol is trying to smuggle guns to rendezvous with the enemy,  wait shit lydia is getting beat up let me help her, wait shit carol is kidnapping whisperers and torturing them in the basement, wait shit lydia ran away, wait shit...” etc

SO HE HAS A REASON TO BE KIND OF TIRED RN 

but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care, it just means that all this tension is leading up to something INTENSE between the two of them. it’s going to come to a head Big Time, and i am v v v hype

anyway back to random things that have been pro-caryl this season

they keep juxtaposing zeke and con with carol and daryl, and caryl pick each other every time

carol’s choice of weapon suddenly being a bow

flower symbolism

boat symbolism

new mexico

acorns and bracelets and their subsequent #meanings

THE FUCKING DREAM WHY ARE WE NOT STILL OBSESSING OVER THAT DREAM THAT DREAM WAS SO IMPORTANT???

she. literally. dreamt. she. was. married. to. daryl. dixon. in. literal. canon. and. stated. it. wasn’t. the. first. time. and. that. she. thinks. the. dreams. are. good. like wtfffff

daryl does not have feelings for con and is very explicit about it

the fact that it keeps coming up is delicious tho

“follow my voice” vs “follow my light”

“i’m the one you talk to”

the repetitive use of we/us

“if i only knew what you told me i wouldn’t know shit”

“i NEED you to stay”

alpha/beta foils and parallels

repetitive reminders of both carol and daryl’s past abuse

did i mention the dream where she dreamt that she was married to daryl bc i feel like that might have been important

carol having sex with zeke

yes that’s a good thing

yes i’m entertained by it and totally chill

we are at the very top of the roller coaster, lads, we are tying up all the strings, we are making sure carol and zeke have closure, we’re gonna get (probably in an irritating murder way) closure with connie, and Then There Were Two

10.14 is called “look at the flowers” for christsake

“i could never hate you” ok fanfic trope number 6 billion

all of it

literally all of it

this has been a crazy romantic, tumultuous season, and some really meticulous and purposeful and beautiful storytelling and it is about to pay tf off

until i am given E X P L I C I T reason not to:

I WILL STAN KANG

and also, just to add, there are characters and plotlines that exist outside of caryl, and the writers have to incorporate all of them. there are gonna be scenes with them, there are gonna be things that happen that seem negative but that make sense when you look at them on a larger scale. you cannot, CANNOT, look at each individual thing and take it at face value. we have a showrunner who knows how to write now, so little things mean bigger things, and not always the things you expect

i know this is not the proper use of bullet points

it is past my bedtime

but anyway caryl is coming ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

stay hype, stan kang, and get daryl to call carol sweetheart 2k20

the end

-diz

p.s. remember that dream? wild huh

[mychemicalaromanticism]

things ive already established r on this post

besties this got so fucking long but heres a giant ramble about cherri

okay so. there are huge differences betwn cherri as a hyperviolent drac hunter and cherri as a friend of the four and cherri as the girls mentor. with the first one he was 17 and desperate to distance himself from his upbringing so he went all in on Being A Killjoy. he was always one of the first ppl to rush into a fight and he fought hard. he blew up his fuckin hand with that attitude. and all the while he was just racking up more unaddressed trauma and eventually he ran away from that, too. giving himself radiation poisoning was more appealing than facing his problems.

so as a teenager/young adult hes kind of constantly in a panicked state. hes scared the people from his past are going to find him and drag him back with them. so he lashes out and he runs away over and over again.

i said in another post that he has some past life shit goin on which usually would give him a connection to the witch that manifests early in life, but with all the stuff hes gone through he has been Preoccupied. he can become oblivious to almost anything that doesnt apply to whatever hes focused on. not in a hyperfocus way its likeeeeee. when u live on survival mode during prolonged periods of stress. hes immune to magic bullshit bc hes too tired and scared.

anyways around his mid-20s he finally has a little more stability (as much as the average person living in the zones can have, that is) and he finally notices that Weird Stuff happens around him. basically: out of my list of Powers People Connected To The Witch Have he has the prophetic dreams/enhanced intuition as well as a form of sensing ghosts where he can see auras and kind of like, echoes of past events in ppls lives. that look like auras. itz complicated and not of utmost importance so im leaving it at that.

anyways thats what makes him start writing poetry. just 4 funsies he'll describe his weird experiences and embellish them to make em pretty. just as a casual hobby n all that.

he would forget fun ghoul in between the times they ran into each other but its pretty easy to be reminded of who fun ghoul is. the most insane 10 year old cherri has ever met. cherri isnt a brother figure to ghoul. hes just. his friend that happens to be more than twice his age. its whatever lmao

to cherri, ghoul is kinda like a stray animal he keeps seeing. which is hilarious. ghoul actually goes and finds him to introduce him to jet when they start running together, and cherri meets party and kobra (spark and birdie at the time) when he drives the four of them to a party. because he has a truck hell yeah. so now instead of one stray animal he has, like, a feral cat colony that he drives around occasionally. i have no real-life human relationship equivalent to them because irl if some guy that is not related to any of you and isnt even a childhood or family friend and theyre hanging out with you? they are usually not a safe person lmao. but this is my fantasy land and im too stubborn to change anyones birth years even though ghoul being born in 2004 makes everything really hard to make not creepy.

so yeah hes a casual somewhat friend of the fab four. hed probably get more and more concerned as they got famous. the beginnings of any sort of protective feelings, awww :) that sets him up for becoming the girls mentor.

OH FUCK. THE GIRL..... i think if i was in my late 20s and i heard that the gang of 13-17 year olds had adopted a 5 year old kid i would go bananas. what the fuck. it is a LONG while before cherri meets her. but he has the strongest affection for ghoul (if you could even call it that) and ghoul absolutely adores the girl and swings her around under her arms like a cat to show her off to cherri and its very endearing and the girl is sweet and funny so its easy to be around her. and (unfortunately) she is somewhat used to interacting with weird easily agitated people so she kinda gives him space. cherri isnt quite the uncle figure the fandom usually makes him (i luv uncle cherri sm but he simply cannot exist in the universe ive created, f), but hes a little similar.

and then the four had to go and pretend to die. lol.

when the girl was kidnapped, fucking everyone who knew her was ready to storm the city then and there. like regardless of how little you knew her, if you had ever met her you would fucking die for her. she is pure childish charisma and shes precious. i love the girl. so cherris immediately on board with whatever plan the four make to get her back. ive already talked abt how it fucked up the girl tho; there was no way to tell her that the four werent actually dead, she sees the building collapse and she shuts down. and cherri has to fight against his instinct to leave the radio station and never come back when he sees an eight year old girl sitting dissociated on the couch. that fucks everyone up.

i just realized i havent talked about literally anyone else at the radio station. i think cherri started lingering around the station bc it was safe and sheltered while also not being a popular spot. there are less kids there (people pass through but its not a hangout spot). he was kind of just hanging around to get away from the heat and noise and dr d took notice. because that man can see ur soul and no one knows if thats literal or not. so theyd chat a few times a day and show pony was the one 2 get him out of his shell a little and also was the first one he mentioned his poetry hobby to. im making this all up right now as im writing bc i dont know anything about LITERALLY any of the ppl associated w the radio like im not even going 2 try with chimp n newsie i do not have the willpower to tackle all that. justttt. cherri pony n D become bros and live 2gether there.

back 2 the regular timeline. the rescue mission happens in 2019. the girl lives at the station until 2023. during that time she is very much depressed and withdrawn and is only happy when the four come to visit. none of the Adults know how to help her so they just keep her safe and cared for and hope she'll open up to them.

she does not. she takes the weird cat thats been hanging around and she runs away.

cherri does not see her for three years. shes still worse for wear in the mental health department and he can see all kinds of visions of what shes been through since the last time he saw her and he fucking hates the ultra vs bc they remind him of his past. he does not want her going down that path but its obvious that she isnt crazy abt the ultraviolence thing either so thats a relief.

they have a kind of tense relationship throughout the comics. he feels like he failed her and that spirals into feeling like he failed the four for not being a good adult to them and fun ghoul for not helping enough when his commune was bombed and all kinds of shit and that irrational thinking mixed with plain old, yknow, caring about the girl, is what makes him take a bullet (laser. whatever) for her.

i was trying to figure out the timing of each of their ghost experiences, but i want both of them to talk to the witch and im just gonna make it like dreams where a whole buncha stuff happens but irl its been like seconds. so its like barely a second while the girl has her Witch Convo and cherri FINALLY gets a straight answer, yes there is weird shit going on with him having powers. he doesnt have any story-significant past lives because im lazy, hes just an old soul. like really fuckin old. the amount of latent life experience and stuff his soul/energy/whatever has picked up along the way makes him VERY noticeable to gods n stuff. he fuckin lights up all the alarms like what the FUCK is that over there. she wasnt rly able to get to him or even properly notice him while he was a kid and a young adult so shes happy to finally see him again. he has a STRONG sense of familiarity with her. they know each other on a wild ass level that he cant really comprehend.

welp thats some more lore I'll have 2 think abt. anywayz

post canon is when he and val get to have the most awkward spiderman meme moment of realizing that they have the same trauma SOOOOO thatz fun lol /s sorry kings i thought it would be fun to give u something fucked up to bond over <3

not much changes in his personality. he has a better understanding of Weird Magic and delights in freaking out the ultra vs but for the most part he returns to his life at the radio station. i love him

THIS GOT SO CRAZY LONG I DID NOT MEAN 2 GO THROUGH EVERY PART OF HIS LIFE LIKE SOME WEIRD CHARACTER STUDY but here we are. this is basically a first draft like almost all of this is subject to change but u gotta start somewhere. so heres my start i love this guy. its probably obvious but i have not read ANY twitterverse killjoys stuff </3 maybe i will someday idk

[sexysilverstrider]

probably already gotten this one but tell me how u feel about white

i feel a lot of things about white. quick note: we are referring to the game protag who is touko/hilda but we are so used to calling her white so lol

How I feel about this character: so much??? i love her ‘dont fuck with me’ design eventho its just short jorts but man those jorts get me. i LOVE writing her coz shes so fun and unhinged and it just. fits you know when i write her? plus thanks to pokemas its canon shes just as fiesty. i just made mine fiesty but with curse words lol

All the people I ship romantically with this character: N lol im a sucker for enemies to lovers and i cannot believe pokemon really gave us that. i also love her with cheren because of the childhood friends trope AND serious boy wild girl trope. also her with tht one ace trainer whos afraid of heights and holds her hand during their ride in the ferris wheel. thats just cute for my sucker heart.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: cheren and bianca! god ive never felt this much for an ot3 but i really do. i LOVE their friendship so much i actually cried. a few times. thinking about them lol.

My unpopular opinion about this character: its a long time ago but i remember reading some fics that depicted white as this weak, frail fragile damsel in distress swooning and crying over N. let me tell you i hate it so much it became the very reason i started writing white LMAOOOO i get tht ppl hv preferences and white technicaly is a blank slate protag (before pokemas came out) but like......man it was SO bad and i cringed a few times when i remembered this one series tht was so adored and accepted by the fandom. white just went ‘oh gosh im so weak and helpless woo woo i want N help me wuuu wuuuu’ and Ns just....purely abusive. they really just channeled some abusive yandere shit on N JUST for their fetish fantasies......the nerve

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: LET WHITE REUNITE WITH N!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

my OTP: again. ferriswheelshipping aka N/touko. pokemon stepped up their game and gave us enemies to lovers. they even gave us a ferris wheel scene with N confessing hes the villain to her. cant believe pokemon gave us peak romance.

my cross over ship: OOOOO hmmm touko/touya? i know touya technically exist in her bw timeline too but like. hes not PART of the team so i enjoy the dynamic in pokemas.

a headcanon fact: MAN I USED TO HAVE A POST OF IT HAHAHAH I CANT FIND IT but yea lets see....one of my fav hcanons is that she is the hero of truth. shes fiesty, says her mind, a bit wild and reckless but shes also very loving and loyal to her friends and family. she sees her pokemon team as family members. since her parents divorce when she was 12 white is VERY bitter about her dad and it took her mom and friends to convince her on the pokemon adventure when shes 16. she stands true to whats right to her and she very much stands her ground against people/pokemon/ideals that are wrong to her

done! feel free to send an ask about characters/ships!