#mostly because i do subscribe to the sibling theory

[the-game-spirit]

this post is pretty funny but it actually does hit on something pretty prevalent in the loz fandom that tends to irritate me, especially in regards to "power level" discussions

because Fierce Deity is, like... NOT some all-powerful warrior god who can defeat anything ever and makes the holder of its mask completely undefeatable

Fierce Deity is the culmination of all the feelings and fury of TERMINA against MAJORA.

its whole, entire purpose is pretty much solely to fight Majora.

proof being that you can ONLY wear it when fighting either Majora or the 4 bosses, who are proxies of Majora.

perhaps it could give a power boost against other foes, and yeah it unlocks sword beams (beams that, as you say, other heroes like Legend and Sky don't need a fancy mask to use), but it's only as intensely powerful as it was in MM's final battle entirely because you were fighting Majora. its super-effective against Majora, so to speak.

people like to say that, since Majora can basically use the moon as a bomb, Fierce Deity can also reach that level of insane power

I think they forget that you can actually defeat Majora without the Deity mask. it just takes a bit more effort because you don't have the fury of the entirety of Termina behind you lmao

(also, gameplay wise the Deity has the same damage as the Great Fairy Sword and Biggoron Sword, and, hilariously, does half as much damage as the Golden Sword from ALTTP

though the beams it shoots are nothing to sneeze at-- doing both significant damage (enough to bump it up to rival the Golden Sword) and stunning foes)

Why are we even making fierce deity special when legend exists

Fanfic prompt:

You know what in comparison to like the canon gods we met fierce deity is just a 6,3 dude with a big unpractical sword and that’s it

Like that’s literally it the beams it can shoot legend was capable of shoot as young as link to the past lol

Four can shoot beams in four swords adventures

Sky has his beam fancy and called a skyward strike

And in triforce heroes legend has a legit cosplay that guess what …can shoot beams

We don’t need to make the fierce deity feel special because it really really isn’t lol

The windfish can create a whole island on a whim and we know that marin at the very least exists so that cannot just be a dream

Because she is chilling in hyrule warriors very much real looking in my opinion

Fierce deity can’t do that from what I saw of it

Fierce deity just a rat in comparison

Honestly would be hilarious if time was worried about the deity until he realized that the deity is his least worrying problem next to legend

Legend clowned on the deity,…

Just saying the den of trials is not the hardest dungeon he had to deal with

Honestly now that I think about it

Legend might actually be a deity

Like death is no problem because you die in cadence of Hyrule for upgrades and with barely any consequences… like at all

He can shoot beams (which seems to be all you need to be a deity nowadays)

Eats ganon for lunch every other week (or adventure)

Has the fierce deity outfit from an actual trial in hytopia

Interacted with …the windfish and has the ability to wake a god,… and build dungeons in its dream

Saved din and Nayru in the oracle games (farore was there as an easter egg)

Fought onox a non ganondorf evil demon thingy with god like powers who tried to control the concept of time by possessing Nayru, and tried to light the flame of destruction to annihilate the whole world

He could control time and space

Change the seasons on a whim

See the future and met the fates of past, and future in cadence of Hyrule (past let’s you come back to life , future tells you where you have to go )

He has like the golden three

The Windfish

And the fates as friends (or acquaintances but then again the windfish likes him canonically for waking him… the fates kinds are actually helpful)

Like honestly legend probably is more of a god for having the golden Doritos every new adventure for breakfast (he probably carries them after cadence of Hyrule or maybe the fates go out their way to revive him anytime he dies … but it’s probably the Doritos

He wishes on the triforce enough to have it on straight up speed dial

Like… probably literally having it on his hand because everyone gave up on building temples for it when they can just give it to the guy who holds it as often as one holds their tooth brush

If we include the royal blood thing as in the mortal with the blood of the goddess

And him and fable being siblings

Then he should be named legendary hylia and nothing else will be tolerated

Like dude is already named legend

And names hold power and significance

Fierce deity probably is his guard dog

Not because hylia's true reincarnation needs help but because it is the legendary hylia's purse dog Anna fun accessory

While time is freaking out that legend could be off legendary status,… honestly I think that was obvious

I feel so bad for hyrule because how the hell can you possibly even TRY to live up to the legacy of a god like being beyond death and capable of ending world destructive threats and has more godly friends then he has mortal ones

It's like ridiculously unfair lol

The chain has a few deities on their group yet sky is not the god in this scenario

Warriors was making fun of a literal god like being , time, sky , etc. probably realize that while he doesn’t lol

And legend probably doesn’t even know that he is as close to a god as one can possibly be

[gierosajie]

Very basic summaries of my silly little Genshin AU's (the full ones, at least) because why not

Oh Archons There's Two of Them AU

Run of the mill Nameless Bard revival au

Except it completely operates on the rule of funny and now there's two Ventis in Mondstadt who claim to be siblings who keep giving conflicting information and clarify NOTHING

Anemo Archon Dvalin AU

Dvalin becomes the new archon after Venti dies during the Cataclysm

500 years later he befriends Celio, the reincarnation of Nameless Bard, and they both try to uncover a divine conspiracy

Roleswap AU

If Venti still somehow managed to pull through the Cataclysm in the previous AU.

Dvalin proceeds to become stress incarnate just trying to get Venti some help with the poison and everything just keeps going wrong

They'll be fine

Modern Twin AU

In which no one believes Carmen has a twin that is never seen with him

I Love You Since AU

Legend says of an arch that traps you somewhere in time if you pass through without a prayer to Time and Wind

Someone disrupts the timeline by killing Nameless Bard before the revolution reaches its goal and Aether has to bring back the killer before they do (and before Venti passes out from trying to keep the timeline intact)

Demon Slayer AU

Nameless Bard brings his (dying) younger brother Venti to Dr. Tamayo and Venti chooses to become a demon when nothing else could be done so NB wouldn't be left alone

They constantly travel

Post Canon Modern YouTuber AU

Venti doesn't change his outfit and just lets his subscribers think he just likes to wear historical clothing

There are "Venti is an immortal vampire" theories floating about online

Spy Venti AU

In which Venti is a former spy of the Thousand Winds currently working for Celestia

Mostly domestic shenanigans and Venti trying really hard to keep Dvalin out of his real work

Zhongli is practically the only one who never faked his death.

Nameless Bard has acquired tools to be a menace to society ever since he met Venti

Cecilia Garden AU

The Promised Neverland AU where Kaeya, Jean, and Diluc discover that their caretaker Venti and the orphanage may not be what they seem

Rozen Maiden AU

The archons are doll siblings that get forced to fight to the death

They are also in a time loop and only Venti and Paimon, the Sustainer's assistant, know about it

Mostly inspired by Rozen Maiden Traumend

Lumine and Aether are new in town and through some letter shenaniganery, welcome Venti as their new roommate

Ajax is an actual toy maker

Venti dies, but he gets better don't worry :D

Starfall AU

Ghost Trick AU

Nameless Bard, Gunhildr, and their silly gaggle of ghosts attempt to investigate Dan's (sir Ragnvindr) murder and clear Nameless Bard's name

NB has a meteorite lodged in his heart that basically makes him Danny Phantom and cause ghosts that die in his vicinity to gain powers

Actor AU

Zhongli is very present on social media while Venti is a straight up cryptid that is rarely seen online

Shadows of Time AU

Shadows House AU

Makoto, Ei, Venti, and Himmel try to overthrow the nobility after their friend Zhongli's disappearance

Ei is Makoto's shadow while Venti is Himmel's shadow and they are currently part of the star bearers in the children's wing

A's AU

Venti is the consciousness of a magic book called the Skyward Atlas

He and Carmen can do magical girl transformations and also do a little fusion

This is technically a magical girl au

They're on a universe road trip

The two are actually on the run from the government because Venti is classified as a Very Dangerous ancient artifact and neither of them want to get separated

Wrong Star Themed Travellers AU

Everything is the same except the Traveller Twins are replaced by Akai and Hosshi from Kaitou Joker

Too much stays the same, in fact, to the point where the world ACTIVELY changes around them just to keep what happens in canon

Hosshi is the Traveller

Only Kaeya and Venti are aware of this change and it's honestly so weird for them to see everyone act like there's nothing strange about the stretchy green cat running around

Fairy AU/Winds of Change AU

Tinkerbell (and the Great Fairy Rescue technically) AU

Venti is a wind fairy that guides the spring breeze that befriends a sickly young human

Nameless Bard is usually stuck inside because of his poor health and overprotective parent, but Venti often visits him in the spring and brings him little things like flowers and bird feathers in the breeze

Venti had lost a wing during an incident and Nameless Bard ran through a storm to get him to safety, making his health turn for the worst in the process

Still, Istaroth, the queen of the fairies was so moved by the lengths the two would go for each other that she lets the Bard visit the forest as much as he wants and gives him her favor

Filo Highschool AU

An entire AU inspired by my own highschool experience in a small school somehwere

The divine beings are part of the staff

Project Fate AU

As an attempt to take control of the Loom of Fate, a group attempts to clone Istaroth, the Master of Time

Basically Venti learning to see his own existence through his loved ones

Gathering of Cloudy Days AU

BlazBlue AU

There's just. Too much. Sorry.

Basically multiple factions trying to get Istaroth to come out of the Abyss and stop the neverending cycles that restart every time Venti dies

I take both games' lore and throw them into a blender to create a convoluted concoction

It's almost a sci-fi now

The Nameless AU

A Honkai Star Rail AU where Nameless Bard had been part of the old Astral Express crew before it broke down

The Bard is on the Destruction Path while Venti is on the Harmony Path (and may or may not be one of Xipe's Emanators)

They got separated at some point, and due to some time dilation shenanigans, the Bard ends up a thousand years in the future trying to look for any traces of his old friends

I Sleep When I'm Dead AU

Venti's "slumbers" are actually just him being dead

He comes back to life whenever Mondstadt really needs him

[arinlangdon]

thinking about the Langdon family...

what we know is that Arin has “innumerable siblings” (according to Fergus), so i’m going to go with like. eight (8).

it seems to me that Arin is an eldest, but not The eldest. more likely a middle child slightly on the older end—probably 2nd or 3rd eldest. if we want to subscribe to birth order theory, i’d say:

they have the conscientiousness, ambition, and organizational skills of an eldest. stereotypically, eldests are leaders (or bossy), but that quality is something Arin grew into.

yet they also have the sensitive and accomodating personality + peacekeeping skills of a middle.

imo, they’re least likely to be a lastborn

as for the siblings? let’s say they have

an older brother (29),

an older sister (28),

here’s Arin themself (22)

the 4th is, idk, another sister (16).

then i’m betting there’s at least a set of multiples, just to spice it up. twins—no, triplets?? i want to say they’re fraternal, a girl and two boys. let’s put them in the 5th through 7th slots (14).

and the 8th and last is the baby sister (12).

(this is just a random configuration i thought of off the top of my head, and subject to change, of course. i already have headcanons about the siblings’ personalities and interpersonal dynamics yo)

what about momma Langdon? we weren’t given much about her either.

we do know she often works night shifts, and probably works a lot in general.

maybe she’s in healthcare or retail, or is a waitress (i think it’s less likely but still possible that she’s like, a bartender, firefighter, police officer...)

mostly i want to say it’s kind of a blue-collar job: not very high-powered or high-paying, and physically demanding, so she’d come home tired a lot.

between that and all the kids, this poor woman is Overworked.

how was she with Arin?

we know Arin’s always been a stickler for the rules, and i surmise, pretty quiet as a kid, so she probably always expected them to stay out of trouble. this made them more or less self-reliant... or inadvertently fell through the cracks.

and though she probably always knew how smart and diligent Arin always was, i’m not sure she ever thought they’d turn out to be particularly remarkable or a great success in the conventional sense.

maybe she was just laissez-faire in general⁠—not the sort to either discipline harshly or actively encourage any particular values, if only because she’d always been so busy trying to cover everyone’s most basic needs.

but, inferring from Arin’s memories of her making them treats after they’d come home from school as a kid (still such a sweet mental image btw), she seemed like the caring or even doting sort whenever she had the time and energy to be present.

tl;dr: mom was busy and overworked, and therefore not often around, so in effect left Arin (at least) to their own devices, even if that wasn’t her intention. loving when she was present, but didn’t impose a lot of expectations.

their father doesn’t seem to be in the picture, and probably never was?

i’m curious about what kind of relationship he had with their mother.

if it was a bad one, that’d be another reason for Arin’s apparent cynicism re: romance.

if a good one, then... well, the only explanation i can think of for why he’s never mentioned is that maybe he’d died, which would also add another, if tragic, layer to Arin’s views on romance. i kind of want this to be the case, if only because i like to think of Kate Rusby’s song “My Young Man” to be emblematic of their parents’ relationship. sweet yet melancholy.

in any case, his absence would leave a void for a father figure to fill later, that being, of course, Tutorea (<3)

[number5theboy]

answering some of @honeybeesblr‘ tags on my post because I’m fired up and want to keep talking

#op your metas are just *starry eyed emoji*#this is BEAUTIFUL

First of all, thank you!!! I spent over an hour on that meta and you’re the only one to comment on it and add your thoughts, so I am beyond grateful for that already.

#im actually curious#do you subscribe to the 'r*ggie is going to play five like a fiddle' post that's been going around?

This is about this post, which is an interesting read. And the answer to the question is partially, which is also why I haven’t reblogged it, because I don’t want to go around nitpicking posts. In short, I agree that the season 2 plot twist is mostly on Five’s head, because it was Five’s insistence on involving Reginald, Reginald knowing of them in 1963 is completely Five’s fault. I also agree on some of the reads of Five’s trauma, like his conflicting emotions on Reginald. I do think, and I’ve explained that in the post linked above, that Five isn’t as quick to villainise Reginald. As I’ve said, Five underestimates Reginald. And I think Five will understand that this is mostly his fault, and I agree that it’ll add to his guilt. What bothers me mostly about that theory is twofold. First, I think the reading of the dinner scene is overly focused on Five, and pre-supposes that Reginald is out to get him specifically, which is not how I interpret that scene, and I also think that looking at Reginald as always being on the worst possible behaviour, especially in the bar scene, makes for a less nuanced and potentially less interesting character. It gives Reginald way too much credit in my opinion, although we don’t know anything about his alien powers or the monocle in the show, so I could be eating my words at some point. If that’s your interpretation, that’s absolutely fair, no problem with that, it just isn’t mine. And I agree to a degree with the fact that Five was treated badly by his siblings this season, but I’m also hesitant to go all out with the idea that he is done, that he is at the end of his wits, and would thus be vulnerable to be completely manipulated by Reginald. Mostly because it is the fandom interpretation that Five deserves better than what he gets from his siblings, in comparison to how they treat each other, but a) in-universe, he knows little about the happy reunions, and b) I don’t think that Five expects love or gratitude to be thrown his way, I don’t think he does what he does to be loved, at least not overtly. He does it because of love, but the way I interpret him in my mind, he doesn’t do it for love, not consciously. And I think Reginald knowing and understanding all of that from the literal one interaction he’s had with Five would be too much, a quite boring way of dealing with the very interesting dynamic they’ve established for them. And this is all speculation anyway about how this character is feeling at that very point in time, with very little to go on in canon to base that interpretation on. Depending on what the writers will be on when writing the continuation, should we get one, he might react differently. I can see anger, I can see a complete deflation, I can see a tactical retreat, I can also see Reginald sic the Sparrows on them immediately, it’s all a wait and see. I think the post is an interesting read, it just doesn’t align with my personal view on Five and especially Reginald, which is completely fine, what else is art for if not to be interpreted differently? 

#also it really does feel like five embodies the abuse victim mentality 'it wasn't so bad b/c of x reasons'#all the siblings have their different reactions to abuse#but i always thought it was interesting the most pragmatic and logical of them is the one who would rationalize it as being okay#the siblings also probably still see five as someone who would openly defy their father#idk i just want s3 to give me more Reginald content#i hate him but im so interested by him

Absolutely agreed on all counts, especially the attitude towards Reginald!!!

[spacehimbos]

I did another tcw characters as youtubers because I have nothing else to do

Hardcase

Have you seen this dude????? Prank channel all the way

It’s probably just stuff around the house

Pranks mostly torrent

He also tries diys from channels like troom troom

Chaotic editing style

The amount of explosion sound effects is concerning

Posts a lot

Not everyday a lot but maybe once or twice a week

I’m not saying Jesse and kix show up a lot

I am saying Jesse and kix show up a lot

1 million subscribers because he deserves it

Cody

Workout Channel

He owns his own gym

I only thought of this bc I was like “I’m p sure Cody kicks droids”

Ig the correct term is CrossFit box

He posts pretty infrequently

The other trainers there are Ghost company

At some point we see most of the clones there

Has at least one video flexing how much he can back squat

I’m looking at you rich froning

500,000 subscribers

I’m sorry Cody I had to use teamrichey as an example

Echo and Fives

CONSPIRACY CHANNEL

Fives:”I’m leaving my window open for Mothman tonite”

Echo:”This is the tenth night in a row pls stop”

Rex accidentally interrupted once and will never do it again

Fives:”And here we see the rarest cryptid of them all, Rex”

Echo:”And in his natural habitat, literally anywhere else then his bed when he’s supposed to be asleep”

Rex: 🖕

Post weekly with 20-30 minute videos

Echo 100% believes in cryptids and ghosts but doesn’t believe most conspiracy theories

Fives believes everything was made up by the government

Echo:”Someone commented a conspiracy that you, me , Rex, Wolffe, Cody, Hardcase and all of our other vode are clones”

Fives looking into the camera with a deadpan expression”of course not that would be crazy”

(I guess in this au they’re not clones)

They’re very quoteable

They go to a haunted house to paraphrase the tittle of the video “Twerk for ghosts”

Tup goes with them to record

Tup does not want to anger any ghosts

5 million subscribers

Boba Fett

Family vlogs

‘How I get up every day knowing I have to deal with my siblings’

‘Stopping Plo Koon and Shaak Ti from stealing my family’

He doesn’t edit his videos

He puts the footage on his computer and the next day it’s edited(we think its dogma)

All of his comments are asking where all his siblings came from

“Does it look like I fucking know”

‘Every shows up for family dinner’

‘Boil and Waxer attempted to adopt another child’

Most of these are just the titles of Boba’s videos but I think that best conveys it

‘How many times DOES Wolffe Roll his eyes’

(Spoiler alert, it’s a lot)

He posts fairly frequently

It’s because of how often shenanigans happen in the Fett household

A lot of people who watch boba came from the Boi’s(clones) other channels and videos

3 million subscribers

Should I do more? Idk maybe

Part 1 is here btw

[italian-pastry]

Rambling about the Family Tree

Here’s the Family Tree!

And under the cut is all my rambling about designs or whatever! (this ended up not being about designs too much. Hm)

OK WE NEED TO BE ORGANIZED HERE I’ll be going generation by generation, from left to right. Everyone will be here, just for organization sake. Of course, some people are more important than others, so be warned for long rambles (in generation 2 especially) OK LET’S GO

Generation 1: Iida Parents: Idk man. They don’t even have designs. They’re probably cool Enji: He doesn’t deserve to be drawn well :) That and he doesn’t deserve to meet his grandkids :)) Rei: She deserves to be pretty and be a cool grandma. Her grandkids adore her. Hisashi: This mans is kinda wildin’ in my universe. Whatever he’s up to, it’s not being Inko’s husband. Inko: Soft grandma!!!!! We love her and she loves her grandkids and husband. Toshinori: He deserves to retire and settle down and be happy with his family and be adored by his gandkids. Emiko’s Father: He and Yukie got married (and Yukie got pregnant with Emiko) almost right out of highschool. He expected Yukie to give up her career to care for Emiko, but that didn’t gel with Yukie, so she divorced him when Emiko was little. Idk where he is now. Yukie: We love her. I love her. She’s super sweet and super cool and super short and that’s all you need to know. She also looks a lot like Eijirou (or, at least I tried to make them look similar) Crimson Riot: I subscribe to the Dad-Crimson theory, so here we are. After Emiko started elementary school, Yukie tried to get her career back together, but after meeting and having a thing with Crimson Riot and getting pregnant with Eijirou, she gave it up to be able to care for her kids. Nadie: An American journalist who moved to Japan for work! She and Yukie met and got married when Eijirou was 9-10. She has 3 kids from her previous marriage (that ended in disaster). Christopher Skyline: (Yes, THE Christopher “Captain Celebrity” Skyline. We’re just ignoring the Vigilantes canon over here.) Nadie’s ex-husband and the father of Hanae, Etsuko, and Suzume. He was a serial cheater, and the kids was a desperate attempt made by Nadie to try to make him stick around. Sperm Donor: Just a sperm donor. Mitsuki: Still looks SUPER young. She doesn’t like it when her grandkids call her “Grandma” or anything like that because it makes her feel old. Masaru: Loves being called “Grandpa” or whatever by his grandkids. He loves them, and likes to visit them a lot. Mika: Still quiet and chill. We love her. Kyotoku: Still loud and fun. He’s a cool dude, and he got them smile lines Beru: Her head is weird. I’m sorry queen, but it freaked me out. Ganma: He freaked me out even more. He was my least favorite to draw. Sorry bro. Uraraka’s Parents: Her dad reminds me of my dad (vaguely). They don’t have names, but they’re cool. Also, Ochako was able to get them a nice house, so good for them. Shouta: Just go look at @nartothelar‘s Silver Fox AU that was my main inspiration. He a grumpy old man who only likes his kids and grandkids and family. Hizashi: Same thing as Shouto. I like to think that all of his hair has grayed, so his hair is like Platinum Blond now.

Ok! Gen 1 done, and it was mostly me rambling about Eijirou’s parents. Maybe one day I’ll dedicate a post to them.

Generation 2: Tenya: I had him grow his hair out because 1.) I thought it was cute and 2.) it represents him loosening up a lil’ after school. He wears contacts during Hero Work, but wears his glasses casually. Tensei: Literally just the same dude. He’s Tensei and he’s chill and he’s cool. Dabi: I gave him an eyebrow piercing and a fun new cut. (Fun fact: That’s his Fantasy AU fairstyle) Fuyumi: I hope her hair looks very Teacher-y and Motherly. I think she looks super cute. Natsuo: A simple dude. He finds a cut that works and sticks with it. Although I did give him sideburns and a lil’ touch of beard. Shouta: Instead of shaving his red side, he combs the white side over it. Also, I hc that in his left eye, he’s half blind. Izuku: Yikes. He got the wound early in his hero career. He went blind in his right eye, so he and Shouta together are like 1 and 1/4 blind. Emiko: Eijirou’s older half sister. I would say she’s Girlboss and Natsuo is Malewife, and I think that’s accurate - even if only a little. She’s a social service worker, and met Natsuo in college. I had an old design before, but I like this one A LOT more Eijirou: I am a simp for long hair Eijirou, so here we are. ALSO freckles!!!! I love freckley eijirou. Also stubly beard and cool new scar. He is very dad. Hanae: The chill little sister. Probably a lawyer or professor or something smart like that. Etsuko: The crazy sister. She works in the hero field! If as hero support or as an actual pro, idk yet! Suzume: The ex-crybaby sister. She’s prolly doing something fun and artsy. Also, HUGE demigirl vibes Kane: The energetic little brother! He has most certainly gone pro, since he’s like very early 20s now. Fun Fact!: He was 6 when Mieko was born, so a lot of people thought they were siblings. It only got worse when Akio rolled around. Katsuki: hehe Undercut Bakugou. Also, hearing aids! I put his eyebrow scar there so he and his hubby are matchy matchy. Actually, both of their scars are pretty matchy matchy.... huh. Also, I’m totally not saying he was invloved in the fight that gave Izuku his scar, definitely not. Mashirao: STOP SAYING HE’S PLAIN AND ORDINARY. HE’S BEAUTIFUL DAMMIT. Every time I draw him I think about how darn pretty he is and that he could be like a KPop star or smth Tooru: It’s tooru! Super fun lil’ lady. What a queen. Mina: Look at that kick-ass scar I gave her. It’s what she deserves. Although, that eye may be a lil fucked up. Ah well, at least it looks cool. Yuuga: LOOK AT HIS HAIR. I am so happy with how it turned out! He so pretty. He and Mina are DEFINATELY Girlboss and Malewife. Hado: Also a simple lady. Prolly also needed to stick to her brand of long hair. She still super pretty tho. Lowkey disappointed I didn’t give her the stereotypical Anime-Protag’s-Mom hairstyle Haya: Completely shaved her head, and got more piercings! Like, 100% more Punk Rock. Itsuka: FRECKLES FRECKLES FRECKLES. And short hair!!!!!! Sigh, I love her. Tetsutetsu: I tried to make him look like Ejirou, even if just the face structure. I like how his hair and scar turned out tho. What a lad. Mezo: What a cool dude! Got a sick nasty scar, but covers it with his hair. I think, even with a majority of his face covered, he is still very handsome Miya: She has a name now!!!!!! What an icon. She’s a Hero Costume Designer, and she has a spider mutation. Wolf Spider, specifically (I think). She is so adorable and spunky I love her. Momo: Short hair!!!!!!1!1!1!11! God, what a goddess. We love her so so so much. Also, she gets to have a cool scar, too Kyouka: While she’s in UA, she straightens her hair, but after she graduates, she doesn’t care abt it. Momo rlly likes it curly. She also has that thing going on where you shave all of ur head except for ur bangs (and the side thingies). Oh! And eyebrow piercing! Satsuki: Pretty! Also, I made sure that all the girls who would’ve been 6-7 during the current time all had ponytails now (Satsuki, Etsuko, and Eri) Samidare: He’s super cool, and I decided to give him long hair to make him cooler. Also, Demiboy vibes, anyone? Tsuyu: A queen!!!!!! I love her so much!!!!!!! When her hair is down, it reaches to her shoulder blades. Ochako: SHE LOOKS SO BADASS I AM SO HAPPY. Look at her, with those cool scars, and that cool hair! What a queen! Mirio: Classic Mirio! Tbh, idk if I’ll give Mirio his quirk back. Like a lot of the stuff in the recent arc I’ve ignored, soooo......... Tamaki: He has SO MUCH HAIR. It ridiculous. Since growing it out, he uses it to hide behind if it’s left down. So Mirio likes to do stuff with his hair and make it look cute. Nikko helps, too! Eri: A queen!!!!!!!!!! Idk if she’ll be a Pro Hero or doctor that specializes with pro heroes, but I want her to be happy and help people! Hitoshi: Hanta and Denki weaves flowers into his hair a la Rapunzel all the time. The braid is really loose and shitty a lot of the time tho. Ah well. Denki: Because I moved his black stripe to down the center of his hair, my little sister keeps calling Denki and Race Car. And I agree. He got those scars because he was able to train himself to really not fry his brain anymore, but that means if he overloads, his electricity escapes some other way, so through his ears and into his face. Hanta: That scar was very strategically places because I am a firm believe that Sero will uncannily resemble Shouta when he gets older. I hadn’t done a really good job at that tho....... hm.

Gen 2 is done!!!!!! It was my fave generation to draw UwU. I’m not sure what to say with Gen 3, since I’ve already talked about them a lot. Jeez, idk. I’ll think about something to ramble about later.

@questionableholidayreally Tozen rlly said “I am literally just vibing ;)”

[normal-thoughts-official]

Raphael and madzie!! please I will sell you my firstborn for some Raphael and madzie content. Like him babysitting and sleepovers and playing dress up and watching Disney movies together. Raphael wearing this tiara and him and madzie playing together. Baking and singing together, going on trips to the park together and Raphael just being so happy.-

-Like if you think about it they are technically cousins🤔 with the whole found family thing, Catarina and Magnus are siblings Raphael is Magnus’ son ergo madzie and Raphael are cousins but they still think of each other as siblings. Raphael is her big brother! Please🥺

ok anon i hope you know that you are literally my new favorite person in the whole wide world and this ask is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. i will literally never shut the fuck up about raphael and madzie i will make this brotp a thing if it KILLS me just you watch

idk if id say they are technically cousins because i don’t know if catarina and magnus consider themselves siblings - definitely family for sure, but i get the feeling it’s more of a “generic” family feeling rather than a Specific Dynamic you know? but either way this is found family so it’s not like family tree/architecture is actually that stiff and matters that much, RAPHAEL IS MADZIE’S BIG BRO idc

and it’s literally canon that raphael is the best, most thoughtful, caring and dedicated older brother so like!!! honestly it’s what madzie deserves. she has a wonderful mom (two if you subscribe to dotarina raising madzie together <3) and underful uncles and a wonderful brother who is always on her side and would do anything for her, and that! is! fantastic! 

especially because like madzie is implied to be used to big families, since iris was going around making an army of warlocks basically lmao and like of course that was an abusive family dynamic but the point is that she was used to having siblings. but she was also implied to be the eldest and now she is the youngest! and she gets to have a nice big bro who takes care of her and plays with her and has her as a priority and i just 🥺🥺🥺

and god not to be a slut for raphael and rosa but i picture raphael just telling madzie all that he could about rosa?? you know??? he’s all like “you have an older sister too, you know? it’s a shame you never got to meet” and madzie kind of tilts her head and asks him to tell her about it. so raphael does. he sits down with her and shows her pictures of the both of them together from their childhood up until her death, and he tells her all the stories he possibly can. he says, “she would have loved you just as much as me. she always wanted to be someone’s older sister. said she wanted to take care of them like i take care of her” and madzie is all like “she sounds sweet. i wanted to know her, too” and raphael tears up slightly and he’s like “yeah. yeah. me too, cariño” and she hugs him

and like not to slut over this but i like to think that raphael teaches madzie about the monarch butterflies and día de los muertos and one day they are playing outside and a monarch lands on madzie?? and madzie calls it “rosa” and the butterfly is just flying over her head, alternating between her and raphael, for the whole afternoon? and raphael chokes up. fuck it all the legends are true, i love this alright

just like.... obviously raphael’s relationship with madzie is not some kind of substitute for his relationship with rosa, because madzie deserves better than that and no one can be rosa but rosa. raphael loves madzie for madzie, because she is sweet but fierce, extremely intelligent and with a playful/slightly mischievous (in a good way) side that is slowly blooming as time goes by and she heals from her abuse more and more. she is also good, endlessly caring, kind, compassionate, imaginative, affectionate. madzie is madzie and that’s all she needs to be. but the idea that raphael has someone to share rosa with, even if madzie obviously doesn’t feel about her the same way raphael did as they never met, but to bring her into this new family in a way... and let madzie knows that she also has another sibling looking out for her, even if from another plane... that’s nice and good food okay. and i think madzie would want to know about her, just like she tells raphael about her other siblings from when she lived with iris, even if they never got to be too close (cuz i doubt iris would risk letting them become very close and eventually realize her abuse and possibly rebel against her) 

maybe it’s madzie herself who brings it up, she asks raphael about the pictures in his home or about his “ave rosa” plaque 🥺 and he tells her about it and makes sure that she knows that he doesn’t love rosa more or less than he does madzie, just differently. they are both his little sisters no matter what

anyway! onto more rapha&madzie focused headcanons. first of all you are so correct about playing dress up and shit, raphael is a SIMP and a sucker for his lil sis so he absolutely will wear a tiara if she asks no questions asked. simon sees it one time and he doesn’t even consider making fun of him because raphael shoots him a glare that absolutely reads as “i double dare you, motherfucker”. not because uwu girly stuff just because he has this whole serious vibe and there he is with a tiara and tiny braids. we stan

also look i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, raphael absolutely learns how to handle black/kinky hair for madzie. he was used to doing rosa’s hair but that was very likely straight or just wavy hair. madzie’s hair texture is different and raphael makes it a point to learn everything he can about how to take care of it and make hairstyles that she might like and won’t hurt her, okay? and yes i know that madzie straightens her hair but i like to think that over time she stops. i kinda headcanon that one of the reasons she did it was to look closer to iris, plus just the fact that as a white abuser i doubt she exactly planted it on madzie to love her natural hair. but over time living with catarina and being closer to a mostly-poc family and seeing maia and other beautiful black women with their natural hair and/or afro hairstyles, she stops straightening it, and everyone encourages her, raphael included. he even uses that, like, “i’ve been learning how to do these hairstyles for you, you know” and he shows her some and she gets so excited about trying them and it’s great

(initially he has catarina’s supervision, because again black hair is important and even if raphael is a moc he’s still nonblack. but catarina trusts him and he’s always so careful and makes sure to always listen to what she says, asks questions and all but takes notes lmao, so it works) 

and baking!!! i mean look madzie is gonna be naturally prone to liking to bake, as a warlock and shit. and if regular kids already play with making potions, warlock kids are definitely even worse, especially because she does see catarina, dot, and magnus doing that all the time so it’s one of the things that she likes to mimick. and baking is basically potion making but edible and solid lmao. but like she loves it, mixing the batter, adding sprinkles, seeing as the textures change and the taste builds and stuff like that, you know? she’s definitely fascinated by it especially because she does it without magic and it’s just, wow, so cool to her?? and raphael as the cook that he is is more than happy to teach her, bake with her, and see her enthusiasm. raphael with oven mitts taking a batch of cookies out of the oven yall. i need a second

and like i absolutely subscribe to genius madzie because LOOK that girl is endlessly fucking smart and so intelligent especially for her age, not to mention powerful and observant and just, she’s brilliant. and with both catarina and magnus, huge nerd extraordinaires, and possibly maia because i like to pepper in the fact that maia and raphael are dating, she gets all the incentive she could possibly want to want to learn about both mundane science and magical theory

but in short like! raphael getting her those chemistry sets for kids, you know? where you have some recipes and you can mix up ingredients and they change color or otherwise change and shit? my friend had one of those when we were kids and my god i loved it so much, i was just fascinated. i think madzie definitely would love it, and raphael knows that she will, so he takes a whole day off for when he brings her this gift because he knows they will be playing all afternoon. and they do! she’s super excited about it and raphael as usual is all careful and teaching her how to do it properly without spilling and taking the measures appropriately and stuff. and it’s super sweet

initially they follow the recipes and raphael’s autistic ass is just delighted to do that, but madzie quickly starts doing some #improv, and again, because she is a genius, she quickly starts to figure out what each substance does. so she’s texting theories, trying out experimenting, seeing if she’s right, trying to asses her work? you know? basically literally a mini scientist using the scientific method and stuff and raphael is so proud of her and in awe of how smart she is and he tells her that she’s the smartest kid he’s ever met and kisses her forehead and she giggles and is just super excited?? 

also sometimes she asks raphael what he thinks and he’s just like “uhhh” because he has no idea lmao he’s just happy to see her do her thing and help her with the practical parts. and she giggles at him and she’s lowkey outraged but again, she’s just sweet and he loves her

i also 100% think it was madzie who figured out a potion to make raphael able to eat (oh look what is this fic that mentions that doing here) because FUCK mundane raphael all my homies hate mundane raphael, the heavenly fire made him a daylighter. and she could see how sad raphael was that he didn’t get to eat at all, especially because he clearly loved food and he always had this sort of longing when they were cooking together, you know? it also made her sad that he couldn’t try her cooking, and he was always telling her that to cook, you need to always taste what you’re making, and once she says “but you can’t do that” and he looked so sad she immediately felt bad about it, even if obviously it isn’t her fault

anyway my point is she knows how much this means for raphael and she wants him to be able to eat human food again, both for him and for herself. so she spends a long time studying vampire anatomy/digestive system, food properties, and magic, and she eventually figures out a potion that he can take before a meal that makes him able to eat. it goes slowly, initially he can only drink, but eventually she does figure out a way to make him eat anything and he just cries like a baby tbh. she is worried for a second but then he takes her in his arms and hugs her fiercely and peppers kisses on her face and says that this is one of the best things anyone’s ever done for him and that he’ll “forever be in her debt” or something that makes her laugh because raphael doesn’t owe her anything, he’s her brother. and he tears up all over again

of course that takes some years but they’re immortal so who cares. and catarina is SO proud of her little genius for that, too. raphael and maia include the potion as courtesy for any vampire who orders food at taki’s and share the recipe and it’s just a small revolution in the vampire world and madzie is already making history like hot damn. GENIUS MADZIE OKAY

but of course first and foremost she is a kid and deserves to be a kid, i just love her being naturally curious and interesting in researching and learning and stuff. but of course they also play a lot, and keep trying to out-cheat each other as she has magic and he has super abilities and the game becomes more seeing who can cheat the most and get away with it than anything else lol. and it’s its own brand of fun

also, raphael keeps trying to get madzie to eat healthy but the second he averts his eyes she’s like “abrakadabra this is now ice cream” and he’s SO frustrated. absolutely nothing can stop her from doing it. “if you eat these carrots i’ll buy you ice cream later”. guess what she can just turn it into ice cream now. your tactics are meaningless

also madzie playing dressing up! and she wants to be Stylish like her mom and her big bro and her uncle magnus but of course she’s a kid so her sense of style is essentially book magnus lmao but raphael 100% indulges her in all her endeavours and helps her make her outrageous outfits and shit. she likes colorful stuff as we’ve seen and he paints her nails and stuff. sometimes she makes herself mini suits mimicking or straight up matching raphael’s and raphael thinks it’s the cutest thing. especially when she like, imitates his blazer but keeps wearing a boa as well or something. aioudjsauihda i love kids and fashion can you tell

and she sometimes picks out clothes for him and guess what? raphael 100% wears them because it’s madzie and he is s o f t for her

and singing!!! and DANCING!!! there is no way raphael can’t dance no matter how hard he tries to pretend otherwise, and between him, dot, and magnus, madzie just loves to dance and becomes a great dancer in no time. raphael loves twirling her around. also him teaching her the jarabe tapatío you can’t tell me that she wouldn’t be all over that shit. the playing with the dress, the bright colors, dancing around the sombrero.... bitch she would love it. and they have so much fun doing their little improvised version of that and she claps and he has his hands behind his back and has the greatest smile on his face and she’s having so much fun

also raphael loves reading for her!!!! and eventually when they move away from reading books with pictures she starts creating her own “holograms” to illustrate the stories with magic, and raphael is so proud of her!! she’s just immensively creative and makes such beautiful illustrations for the stories and as raphael reads she changes around the setting she’s creating and it’s so fun and they both like it so much?? and she eventually falls asleep on his lap and he tucks her in and kisses her forehead and 🥺🥺

she also likes to paint and idk why but i have a feeling that raphael fucking sucks at painting, so that’s funny and he smiles and says that she has so much more talent than him... 

and every time they are together raphael has the hugest smile on, it just doesn’t leave his face for a second. especially when they are playing outside in the sun and he just so fucking happy and basking in the warmth and playing with her, you know? and as madzie grows older, talking and just chilling together as well? you know? he just loves her so much and his cheeks almost hurt by the end and just aaaaaaaaa they are the sibling dynamic we DESERVE and DEMAND 

[purplesurveys]

494

Do you own a pink toaster? No, I don’t. I probably won’t get one either even though I like the color pink. Do you live by yourself? No. I still live with my family at home and would probably live like this until a couple years into my first job when I can afford to move out. Do you shower everyday? If I have to be in school, yes. But on my off days I let myself skip a day. Is English your native language? No. I was raised in a Filipino-speaking home, so I learned English in school, by reading, or from cartoons. Do you like cleaning? If it doesn’t feel like a chore.

Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? Do you hear any music now? Nope, I just hear my really loud aircon. Do you watch PewDiePie? He’s my go-to channel when I’m upset and need lots of cheering up, but right now I’m not as updated with his material. Are you married? Nope, that’s quite a long way from here my friend hahaha. Do you like Despacito? I never really liked songs I couldn’t understand. Do you drink coffee? As much as I can. It’s my bloodstream. Do you know any Swedish words? Only cuss words because PewDiePie used to swear in Swedish in his old videos lmfao. He did also use to say “sluta,” which I think he translated to “stop” or “stop it.” Maybe @badsurveyshit can help me out! Hahaha. Do you play Pokemon Go? Only when it was like crazy popular three years ago. My phone died soon after that and when I got a new one, I couldn’t be bothered to revisit it. Do you think you're fat? No, but I think I’m too thin. Did you ever color your hair pink? I haven’t and I dunno if I would. Do you press Caps Lock or hold Shift for capital letters? I do Caps Lock. I never did get used to just holding Shift. Do you own any pop figures? Nope. But I’ve given it as a gift. All of the possible spaces in my room are just kinda filled up at the moment and I’m not sure if a Funko will stand out here. Do you like Dr. Phil? I like his show, mostly because PewDiePie will sometimes do reaction videos to ridiculous bratty guests from the show. Do you prefer to be inside or outside? Depends on my mood. I can be both, really. Do you drink energy drinks? No. They smell like pure sugar and it’s super sticky and I feel like my body would implode if I drink a bottle lmao. Do you eat meat? Yep. Do you need to do the dishes? Nope. Do you have any posters in your room? I have one. But I also have several frames of Audrey Hepburn and one painting that Gabie bought me me, and another painting that she herself made. How old were you in 2010? I was 12. Are you scared of clowns? I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one IRL...they always seem to be like a Western media thing. We don’t have circuses or anything like that, and parents don’t usually get clowns for their kids’s parties. Who is your favorite youtuber? Probably Shane Dawson because he’s so goddamn versatile and is great at being it. He’s managed to evolve from comedy skits to watching things explode in the microwave and making giant pumpkin spice milkshakes to explainers for conspiracy theories and alien sightings to casual vlogs to full fucking length documentaries about real-life people and said conspiracies. Do you have any subscribers on YouTube? No. I don’t want to have any, I just use my channel so that YouTube knows what material I’m into haha. Do you believe in ghosts? I do. Do you salt your popcorn? Yessssss. The more the better. Do you like McDonalds? I can take it or leave it. They have a really boring menu. Do you have a Steam account? I don’t. Is the sun shining right now? It’s a little cloudy at the moment but I’m sure it’ll peak out in a minute or two. What time is it? 8:59 AM while I’m typing this down. How much battery do you have on your phone? 16%, oops. What device are you using while taking this survey? I’m always on my laptop when taking surveys. Do you brush your teeth everyday? Yes, but I’ll occasionally forget. Do you bite your nails? Only if I’m starting to get increasingly anxious or overwhelmed over something. Do you like gaming? I like *watching* people play (which stems back to my childhood when ALL the boys and men in the house knew how to play video games and it would always be a bonding thing for us), but I can’t figure out video games myself to save my life. What's the first word that comes to your mind if I say: Boop! Hannah Hart. What month is it? It’s already July, what the hell? Do you like reading books? I used to...I think I mostly got disinterested because there was a time when the popular books that kept coming out were all fantasy or dystopian, e.g. Percy Jackson, I Am Number Four, The Hunger Games. By the time the more IRL-based fictional works came out, like the John Green works, reading had already become a little boring for me. Have you ever played Five Nights at Freddy's? Nope. And I don’t think I would want to lol. Watching people play it is enough. Do you like horror movies? Love them, it used to be my favorite genre until the industry just kept making a bunch of remakes of already-great horror flicks. Is your favorite animal a dog? Yes. Do you have a pet cat? My sister does, but since she’s living in a dorm for college all of us have at home have to take care of her. Do you like chicken nuggets? Meh, I can also take it or leave it. I like chicken fingers better. What color is the ceiling in the room? White. Do you own a car? I drive one, but my parents bought it. What age do you turn on your next birthday? 22. Do you like religion? Not really. Have you ever tried Akinator? Yes. I used it a whole lot when it was new. Tbh I’d still pass by it sometimes these days if I was in the mood for it to guess what I was thinking. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Yes, there’s always something to do on that game haha.

Are you wearing socks right now? I am not, but I probably will later when I head out to school.

Do you have a headache? Not right now. Do you cry a lot? Hahahaha yep, I really do. Can you twerk? I never tried. Do you like dabbing? Nope. Name four things in the room. An electric fan, a pack of microwavable popcorn, a plate of sisig, and a glass of water. Can money buy you happiness? It definitely could. What was the last country you visited? China. Do you like fishing? I’ve never fished before. Do you want to be famous? It’s a nice thought, but I don’t actively want it. Do you have any siblings? Yes. Have you ever been to a funeral? No. I’ve been to wakes though. Do you have a Spotify account? I have my own, but I stopped using the one meant for me because Gabie lets me use her premium account. Have you heard of Blizzard Entertainment? I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know much about them. Do you drink milk? I can’t drink milk. Are you tired? A little bit, yes. Do you like bananas? I don’t like fruits. Are you addicted to anything? Nope. Are you in love? Sure. What's the temperature outside? It looks like it’ll be humid today. Do you like snow? I’ve never seen it. Where are you from? Manila. Would you rather Play, Pause, Rewind, Fast Forward or Stop? Fast forward. Do you know your phone number? ??? Yes I do. What do you think of Fifty Shades of Grey? Never cared for it. Do you swear in front of children? Nope. Is my grammar fine? Sure.

[occupyvenus]

Great post - "about why Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly thought about" and I think your really nailed a lot of the key factors, especially how the San/San people like Sansa, are more likely book readers and can accept the Jonsa ship maturely. There is definitely a pathological hatred of Sansa that drives the fanaticism against her being with Jon. You really captured a lot of the thinking (if you can call it thinking!) on a tv forum I've been following for about a year. People literally (1/2)

will dream up any reason to keep Sansa away from Jon. There is essentially a subculture that allows the Jon/Ary@ ship and the Jon/D@ny ship to coexist. Even kind of support each other. Dany might die and then Arya and Jon will raise the Targcest baby together. Pretty crazy stuff. Anyway thanks for writing so clearly on this topic. (2/2)

First of all … that was supposed to say FOUGHT ABOUT!!! NOT THOUGHT ABOUT!!!  WHY JONSA OF ALL SHIPS IS SO BITTERLY FOUGHT ABOUT!!!

I lower my head in shame, while contemplating my bad habit of never proof-reading the stuff I write. But as the previous anon so correctly pointed out my spelling isn’t exactly top-notch. Most of the time it’s honestly  p r e t t y  bad. If words sound somewhat similar, by stupid brain assumes they’re interchangeable. Seven hells.

Though I think this - Sansa being regarded as a side character or at best, the least important main character - also explains why Jonsa isn’t seen as a possibility by the general fandom, not just the radical antis. People look at the infamous original outline, believing that Sansa never gained any real importance as a character since then, like she was just allowed to tag along with the “real” key five (Arya, Bran, Dany, Jon and Tyrion). She was supposed to marry Joffrey and die at some point and the crazy folks think she’ll not even survive but also get THE MALE LOVE-INTEREST?  I suppose, to people who don’t realize (or don’t want to admit) that Sansa was “upgraded” to key-status (GRRM always includes her when talking about the most important characters nowadays), any serious theory that claims she could be Jon’s grand love interest sounds as implausible as if it was … idk, Arianne or Brienne or whoever. Those two are great and all, but Jon Snow is on an entirely different level when it comes to significance to the narrative. Why would he of all people end up with some puny side-character? Shouldn’t that “honor” go to one of the real heroines? Makes sense. It’s not just the people who actively hate on Sansa, but also those who simply don’t care much about her character. 

I guess you call this hypothesis “Why Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly FOUGHT about and/or not taken seriously”. 

I’m honestly not an expert on what’s going on between the other camps (ie the general attitude between J0nry and J0nerys shippers), but according to my experience these two subgroups (together with the Sansa/P€tyr shippers) make up the majority of devoted jonsa-haters and put forth the most obsessed ones as well. If I remember correctly, a few years back before canon!jonsa gained so much momentum those two groups weren’t getting along nicely either. There was a lot of bickering about who’s more important (Ary@ is grrm’s fav!, D@ny has dragons and all, so shut your piehole!), mixed up with some shipping wank and as far as I can tell (as I said, I have a very limited perspective on this. I don’t really interact with either group), that has gotten a bit better since Sansa entered the stage as another key female character. What do people say? The enemy of my enemy … 

I don’t think that shipping is super important to asoiaf, I care about the story first and was pretty indifferent to it before I jumped on board the Jonsa ship, but I do think that we’ll get one “main” romance between two “main” characters. It would simply make sense to me, Grrm was never shy about including romantic love in his works, even if it was never the main focus. Now, this will more likely than not end in tragedy, but since asoiaf can be read as a coming of age story for at least 5 of the key six, and settling down with a spouse and a couple of kids is one common way to end such a story, maybe that will belong to the “sweet” part of the bittersweet ending. Idk, anything’s possible. (Btw, I don’t count Sansa and Tyrion’s marriage as a “romance” for obvious reasons.) If you don’t subscribe to the idiotic assumption that Jon and D@ny are the “real” real main characters and assume that all six are of equal importance … why is shipping either of them (other than the biological siblings, perhaps, that would be a bit weird even by grrm standards), less legit than the other? (Of course, if you do subscribe to this assumption, there probably only exists one “legitimate” pairing in your opinion. In which case, no argument about this could ever be solved until finding a common denominator to this question of principle, so why even bother…)

If one of the male characters can be seen as the “romantic lead” it would be Jon (grrm even sorta confirmed this in his “fake” -lol- medusa interview), simply because Bran is just a kid and Tyrion, well some people will accuse me of ableism, but I don’t get any “romantic lead” vibes from him. Not because he’s a dwarf, because he’s the only “grownup” of the key six. So everyone can keep any accusations to themselves. I also don’t think that Grrm will stride away from hetero-love, to be honest. HE COULD. But I don’t think he will. That leaves us with the three possibilities mentioned above: Jon and one of the leading ladies. I think it’s rather inevitable that that will happen. 

But when it comes to the ladies … things simply aren’t as clear. They’re all similar of age, neither of them is closely related to Jon (at least, not THAT closely related), they could all work. I obviously don’t like J0nerys, but I can totally understand why so many people believe in it. I would maybe even ship J0nrya a bit, if it wasn’t almost impossible to find shippers who don’t hate on Sansa/Jonsa. And I would never call either of those groups “delusional” because it basically comes down to personal preference and a couple of other factors, most notably how you judge the future projective of these three characters. 

I also hate the assumption that J0nerys is the only pairing with solid foreshadowing in the books. I read the books a few times, all j0nerys meta I could find, plenty of J0nrya ones and, well, I don’t have to talk about all the jonsa-metas I’ve consumed xD. Trying to remain as unbiased as possible, there’s an almost equal amount of foreshadowing for all of them. I simply came to the conclusion that Sansa is the most likely candidate because a) I’m pretty sure D@ny will go dark and there will be a targbowl of sorts. She could just as easily be a love interest, as she could be an adversary. b) The age-gap between Ary@ and Jon is a bit too big for my liking. Especially at their current canon age. Also I love them siblings so much. And c) Sansa’s upgrade and the drastic change in her narrative must have a reason. Martin liking the idea of tormented pseudo-incest, and the reveal of Jon’s parentage making such a relationship “proper” but deciding to emphasize the brotherly bond between Jon and Ary@ and “using” Sansa’s character as the love interest instead simply makes sense to me. 

But I only came to this conclusion because I consider Sansa to be of equal importance. It’s more or less a precondition of even consider Jonsa, even more so to ship it in a canon kind of way. 

Now, to put an end to this little rant and get back to the original topic, D@ny and Ary@ stans regularly accuse Sansa of “stealing their narrative” or at least “Sansa-stans want her to have it all”, so it’s no surprise that they a) don’t want her to be key player and b) subsequently don’t want her / can’t see her ending up with Jon. There are a few very great posts out there dealing with the issue why Sansa is hated so much, but I think it comes down to (to get off topic one more time, because it’s my speciality)

Misogyny. Feminine characters always attract a lot of unwarranted hate (female characters and general, but at least on tumblr … one can undeniably see a certain trend), more so the ones who don’t take off their clothes. There’s this really nice post going around that as a female character you either have to a) be a sex object or b) act like a man. I would link to it if only I could find it. I’m not going to add much to this, it has been talked about many times. 

You can’t live vicariously through her. Sansa’s narrative often is … very frustrating. Nobody “wants to be Sansa”. People want to be the rebellious, fighting girl who doesn’t take any shit, they want to be the mother of dragons who goes around the world freeing slaves, they want to be Jon kicking some White Walker ass, they want to be the future three-eyed-raven (though Bran is seriously underappreciated by the fandom), they want to be a smart ass know it all, like Tyrion. They don’t want to be the girl stuck in situations she has almost no means of escaping. The sad truth to this is though, most people, if they found themselves in the same situation, “would be Sansa”. Most people aren’t active heros who fight against the unjust system all the time, most people aren’t geniuses, or brave enough to put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of other all the time. I actually fell in love with Sansa’s character because of that. (Though I have to admit myself, I was rather indifferent to her character for partially those exact reasons myself). It’s refreshing and a honest take on human nature to have a heroine who mostly has to resort to endurance and passive resistance. Mostly, not always. I don’t subscribe to “Sansa is weak and useless” weekly. Don’t get me wrong. She’s awesome and badass in her right, it’s just a bit harder to notice and appreciate. In this aspect she’s probably the most “realistic” character of the key six and people don’t like to read the truth about themselves. They wanna read about what they want to and could be. 

People are projecting. HARD. I spent a lot of time wondering why Sansa gets so much shit for her “evil deeds and traits”, in a series where people kill other people, shove children out of windows, burn people alive, rape a slave prostitute, and so on and so forth. And you know what? It’s easier to “forgive” those things because they are so absolutely horrendous. All these things are so far removed from our everyday reality (for most people at least), that it severs our emotional connection to it. Don’t get me wrong, we can still judge their behaviour, we can still emphasize with the victims, but we have no personal experience to connect to. But Sansa’s “villainous characteristics” (especially those of s1/agot)? An ignorant, privileged white girl who is mean to her little sister for being different, is caught up in some naive classicism, does stupid shit because she has a crush on some asshole everyone else could sniff out a mile away and always has to be so fucking perfect all the time. NOW THAT IS A “BAD GUY” WE KNOW! That’s a “villain” we all encountered in real life. To put this in different terms: I’ve never been pushed out a window for witnessing a incestous relationship between two people of high social standing (nor has anyone close to me), but have I felt victimized by my sister being the pretty, perfect girl, while I was the loud, unruly, unattractive tomboy? Yeeeeeeeeeeees. Have I ever actually lived through the experience of my elder sister getting nicer gifts than me, because “I would just break them”? Yeeeeeeeeeeeesss again. I grew out of it after elementary school, of course (okay, to be completely honest here, I might have still struggled with it during puberty, but thank god that’s also behind me). This also works the other way around: I have never been in the situation of “having” to push a kid out of a window, because it witnessed my incestous relationship and I, my sister-lover and our three children would lose their heads if he told anyone. I’ve never had slave master nail 163 children to crosses to piss me off. Idk, man. I have no idea what I would do. I never had to deal with shit like this. Who am I to judge? But then people look at the “mean” things Sansa did and go I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER. (though they probably did at some point in their life). 

Since this is tumblr, I have to note something: I don’t think this applies to everyone who dislikes Jonsa. I don’t think that everyone who dislikes Jonsa also dislikes Sansa. I’m not even saying that everyone dislikes Sansa for the reasons listed above. Before you accuse me of any of this, make sure you didn’t fall victim to a logical fallacy. I had enough of those lately. Those are just a few of my personal observations and conclusions, that I think, apply to quite a few people. If your reasonings and opinions are completely different, great, I’m not arguing, just don’t give me any shit about it.

So to draw some final conclusion for this long ass post: Jonsa of all ships is so bitterly fought about and/or not taken seriously, because a) Sansa attracts a lot of hate for several reasons, b) Sansa is considered to be too unimportant to be the “romantic lead” kind of main character grand love interest.

Shipping Jonsa is not��“delusional” if you a) consider all three lead ladies to be of equal significance and b) don’t dislike Sansa. (Though since this is Tumblr, I might point it out one more time: This does not mean that anyone this applies to also ships Jonsa. This does not mean that this doesn’t also apply to people who don’t ship Jonsa. This does not mean that only people who stan Sansa hard ship Jonsa - I myself actually started shipping it because I staned Jon so much and I need my baby to be happy. Some people who fulfill both a) and b) might still believe that Jonsa shipper are “delusional” simply because it’s the common narrative of a big portion of the fandom.)

… Now that I think about this, the entire question could have been answered with the last paragraph alone, but you know how we do, go big or go home.  

[shirlleycoyle]

OK, WTF Are ‘Virtual Particles’ and Do They Actually Exist?

Last June, Boston University professor Gregg Jaeger travelled to Växjö, Sweden for a conference. It was the twentieth time that philosophers had gathered there to discuss questions that strike at the foundations of physics. Jaeger had been invited to give the opening talk, to speak about mysterious and sometimes controversial entities called “virtual particles."

Whereas matter had long since been recognized to be made up of particles, the existence of virtual particles had been debated by philosophers of physics for at least thirty years. Mostly, they leaned towards their dismissal, but Jaeger is a believer.

Like ordinary particles, virtual particles come up incessantly in physicists’ work, in their theories, papers, and talks. But as their name suggests, they are far stranger than ordinary particles, which are already notoriously odd. Particles are the chief representatives of the world of the small, the quantum world. If you scaled everything up so that a particle was the size of a sand grain, you would be as tall as the distance from Earth to the Sun.

Physicists know from experience that particles are undoubtedly there, beyond sight. Virtual particles are much more elusive, to the point that the non-believers say they only exist in abstract math formulas. What does it even mean for “virtual” particles to be real?

What is a virtual particle?

Jaeger is a physicist-turned-philosopher, who published important quantitative results early in his career before spending the last ten years focused on the philosophy and interpretation of physics. He arrived at virtual particles as only the latest stop in a long journey of making sense of the quantum world.

There are two distinct narratives for virtual particles, and Jaeger subscribes to what philosophers call the realist position. Believers or realists argue that virtual particles are real entities that definitively exist.

In the realist narrative, virtual particles pop up when observable particles get close together. They are emitted from one particle and absorbed by another, but they disappear before they can be measured. They transfer force between ordinary particles, giving them motion and life. For every different type of elementary particle (quark, photon, electron, etc.), there are also virtual quarks, virtual photons, and so on.

Jaeger in his office. Image: Author

A useful analogy to the realist narrative of virtual particles is to imagine going to a big family reunion, full of cousins, parents, grandparents, and others. Each group of relatives represents some different type of particle, so for example, you and your siblings might all represent electrons, and your cousins might all represent photons. At this reunion, everyone happens to be a little stand-offish, mostly tucked away out of sight. When you see your sister, you walk up to shake hands, but when you look at her hand and go to grasp it, you find that your cousin has stuck his hairy hand in. He quickly shakes your hand and then your sister’s. But when you look up, he’s somehow disappeared, and your sister is walking away. Your cousin, the virtual photon, has just mediated the interaction between the two electrons of you and your sister.

Other philosophers have mainly upheld an opposing narrative, where virtual particles are not real and show up only in the mathematical theories and equations of quantum physics, which describe the particle world. The equations are correct, the doubters recognize, predicting all sorts of things like the peculiar magnetic properties of electrons and muons, for example.

But the entities called virtual particles are just parts of the math, these experts claim. Virtual particles have never been and cannot be directly observed, by their mathematical definition. They supposedly pop up only during fleeting particle interactions. And if they are real then they would possess seemingly unacceptable properties, like masses with values that can be squared (multiplied by themselves) to give negative numbers. They would be entirely out of the ordinary.

That physicists still claim these things to be real has haunted philosophers. Philosophers of physics, often highly trained physicists themselves, demand a story of reality that makes sense—at least, as much as possible. Can the realist narrative really be true? Do bizarre things called virtual particles pop up and mediate all the interactions between observable particles?

Virtual particles in physics

As Jaeger explains, there are at least four different overarching mathematical theories of the quantum world. The most basic of these is called quantum mechanics. Virtual particles originate from a more advanced mathematical apparatus known as quantum field theory (QFT). If quantum mechanics is like the children’s book Clifford the Big Red Dog, then QFT is the Necronomicon, bound in skin—far more arcane and complex.

Physicists use quantum mechanics to explain the most fundamental quantum phenomena, like the simultaneous wave and particle nature of light. QFT on the other hand is used for predicting the results of extreme experiments at places like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). QFT does the heavy lifting, in other words.

The LHC is famous for its scattering experiments, where two or more particles are collided together and “scatter” off one another. During the collision, old particles are destroyed and new ones created. Physicists perform collisions over and over again in highly controlled circumstances and try to predict what particles come out and how. Recalling the metaphor of a family reunion, scattering experiments tell the story of how likely it is that your sister walks out from the handshake, and not some other relative—an odd and yet distinct possibility.

In QFT, the probability of what particle comes out is decided by a complicated equation. Physicists solve it with a clever trick. They write out the solution as a sum of much simpler terms (summands), which is then squared. Technically, the sum contains infinitely many terms, but for many scenarios only the first few terms matter. Each of the terms in the sum contains physical quantities related to the incoming and outgoing particles, like their momentum, mass, and charge, all of which can be directly observed. However, each term can also contain physical quantities (like mass or charge) that correspond to entirely different particles, which are never observed. These are what are known as the virtual particles.

Before the LHC existed, in the 1940s, the renowned physicist Richard Feynman introduced a diagrammatic technique that made the role of the virtual particles clear. For each term in the sum for the QFT calculation, a so-called Feynman diagram can be drawn that depicts the incoming and outgoing particles. Virtual particles are drawn popping up in the center. These diagrams greatly aid in doing the complicated calculations. For every line in a diagram, for example, a physicist simply sticks another variable in their solution.

Feynman diagrams can seem to provide a temptingly accurate picture of what goes on in an experiment. However, for any experiment, there are actually infinitely many different Feynman diagrams, one for each term in the sum. This poses an interpretive problem because it seems incoherent. The theory suggests that anytime particle relatives shake hands at the family reunion, every other relative (an infinite number of them!) also stick theirs hands in.

One of Feynman’s well-known contemporaries, Freeman Dyson, addressed this problem by making it clear that Feynman diagrams did not show a literal picture of reality. They were only supposed to be used as an aid to doing the math. On the other hand, Feynman sometimes suggested that the pictures actually were representative of reality.

But regardless of their interpretation, the diagrammatic technique caught on. And the virtual particles in the diagrams and the mathematics became objects of constant reference for physicists—even though the math was only meant to predict the outcomes of scattering experiments. The process of particles colliding into each other, which one would naively expect to be about forces and energy, turned out to be about virtual particles.

Image: Wikipedia/Krishnavedala

“The fundamental thing that makes you know that the physical world is there is forces. Like you bang into things, right?” Jaeger said, hitting his hand on the desk in his office. “Ow! So that’s something there. There's a world out there that's transmitted by a force. But when you try to [mathematically] understand this process of transmission, from the point of view of what’s out there, and what’s its structure, you end up with these virtual particles.”

Many physicists who focus on quantitative results believe in a reality filled with virtual particles because QFT performs astoundingly well, predicting the outcomes of countless experiments. And QFT is rampant with virtual particles.

“I have no problem at all with the fact that these virtual particles are real things that determine the forces in nature (except for gravity),” said Lee Roberts, an experimental physicist and professor at Boston University, located only two blocks down from Gregg Jaeger’s office.

Roberts helps lead current efforts to measure the magnetic properties of muon particles with greater precision than ever before at Fermilab’s Muon g-2 experiment. And whatever the questions may be around the existence of virtual particles, physicists like Roberts can hardly interpret the properties of muons without them.

Muons are like heavy electrons, carrying negative electric charge and a quantum property called spin. Roughly speaking, the muon’s spin can be thought of like the actual spin of a tiny rotating top. The rotation of the muon’s intrinsic charge produces a small magnetic field, called its magnetic moment.

Because it acts like a tiny magnet, the muon interacts with other electromagnetic fields, which are represented in the particle world by photons. To calculate the interaction, physicists use a similar process as for scattering experiments, writing the solution as an infinite sum. The terms in the sum are represented by nothing other than Feynman diagrams, where one muon particle and one photon flies in, and one single muon flies out. Virtual particles are drawn in the center —hairy relatives, sticking their hands in.

All these interactions sum up to give the muon an “anomalous” magnetic moment, anomalous compared to the results of theories that came before QFT. But with QFT, physicists have predicted the magnetic moment almost exactly, like marking off the lines on a football pitch blindfolded and getting them accurate to the width of a hair. The accuracy of these calculations relies indispensably on the virtual particles.

With QFT being so accurate, it is clear that there must be some kind of reality to it. Perhaps the question then is not so much whether virtual particles are real, but what exactly the general picture of reality is, according to QFT.

Virtual particles and the nature of reality

Oliver Passon is one of the physicist-philosophers who object to the notion that virtual particles are real. He earned his Ph.D. in particle physics and is a highly experienced physicist, but now focuses on education research at the University of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studies how particle physics should be taught to high-school students, for whom it has become part of the standard curriculum.

“Virtual particles are a mess,” Passon summarized for Motherboard.

For Passon, the realist view arises from a sloppy interpretation of the math, and it has led physicists to make other interpretive mistakes, for example, in explaining the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC. He wrote about his views in a paper last year.

Passon’s objections can be explained in the context of the famous quantum mechanics test-case known as the double-slit or two-slit experiment. In a two-slit experiment, physicists fire particles such as photons one at a time at a wall with two tiny slits. The probability of where exactly a particle lands on the other side of the wall is related to the square of a sum, similarly as in a scattering calculation from QFT. But in this case there are only two terms in the sum, each reflecting the narrative of the particle passing through only one of the slits. Which slit does the particle pass through? Quantum mechanics cannot say, because the mathematics requires the term that represents each possibility to be summed with the other and squared.

“The question whether one or the other thing happens makes no sense. It’s not a tough question—it’s not even reasonable to ask,” Passon said. “This is what I take to be the key message of all of quantum mechanics.”

The two-slit experiment seems to show that individual mathematical terms by themselves have no realism, and only their superposition (summation and squaring) have meaning. Thus, in Passon’s view, virtual particles that show up in individual QFT terms should not be considered real. This argument against virtual particles is known to philosophers as the superposition argument, and it can seem like a strong one.

But Jaeger thinks the argument is besides the point. Ironically, he sees this critique as being stuck in mathematical abstractions itself. He agrees that the individual terms cannot tell the whole story, "but it doesn’t mean the particle didn’t go through space,” he said.

The mathematics may not tell which slit the particle passes through, but it doesn’t mean that the mathematics is wrong. The mathematics still correctly predicts the passage of a particle through intervening space, and the probability of where it eventually lands. And in QFT, the mathematics indisputably relies on the presence of virtual particles.

Interestingly, quantum field theory actually says matter is fundamentally made up of fields rather than particles, let alone virtual particles. For every elementary particle, such as a photon, QFT says there is a fundamental field (such as a photon field) existing in space, overlapping with all of the other particle fields. Most of these fields are invisible to our eyes, with notable exceptions like the photon field.

“Ask any physicist on the planet, what’s our current best theory of physics, and they’re going to give you a theory of fields,” said David Tong, a theoretical physicist and professor at the University of Cambridge. “It doesn’t include one particle in those equations [for fields].” Still, physicists more commonly refer to particles than their underlying fields, as particles can provide a more convenient and intuitive concept.

To question the existence of ordinary (non-virtual) particles would be counterproductive, according to Brigitte Falkenburg, a professor at the Technical University of Munich who wrote a comprehensive book on the subject, Particle Metaphysics.

“The evidence against their existence is that they cannot be directly observed, but then, this was the argument of Galileo’s enemies, who refused to look through the telescope to observe Jupiter’s moons,” Falkenburg said.

Particles and fields might instead be looked at as two different interpretations of the same thing. The physicist Matt Strassler has blogged extensively to try and clarify the interpretation of virtual particles based on an understanding of fields.

As he writes on his blog, particles can be thought of like permanent ripples in the underlying particle fields, like ripples fixed on the surface of water. Virtual particles on the other hand are more like fleeting waves.

As Jaeger points out, under this interpretation, the narrative of infinitely many virtual particles popping up makes more sense. There are only a finite number of particle fields, since only a finite number of elementary particles have been discovered. An infinitude of virtual particles popping up would be just like the infinitude of small changes that we can feel in a single gusting wind.

Jaeger is currently refining his own picture of virtual particles as fluctuations in the underlying quantum fields. The key part about these fluctuations for Jaeger is that they must conserve overall quantities like energy, charge and momentum, the key principles of modern physics.

In the end, there seems to be good reason not to think of virtual particles as ordinary, observable particles, but that whatever they are, they are real. The difficulty of interpreting their existence points at the complexity of the quantum field theory from which they originate.

As of now, no one knows how to replace QFT with a theory that is more straightforward to explain and interpret. But if they did, then they would have to settle the question of the true nature of the virtual particle, perhaps the most enigmatic inhabitant of the smallest of scales.

OK, WTF Are ‘Virtual Particles’ and Do They Actually Exist? syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[wholitzukoonfire]

Modern/YouTubers AU Klance Pride Headcanon [Part 1]

So this is from a hc convo I was having with my klance shipping buddy @destielschild 

So basically klance meet at a Pride parade and these are also my general Voltron gang Pride headcanons. 

So the voltron team is split into 2 friendship groups Lance’s friendship group (Hunk, Hunk’s moms, Shay, and Lance’s lesbian sister - Elena)

Hunk 

Hunk in this au is the lovable straight ally - he’s been to Pride every year since he was a child because of his Moms, it’s a thing they do - a tradition. 

He and Shay are dating they are the most adorable couple 

He’s wearing his “I <3 my moms” rainbow shirt and its so wholesome

He once got shouted at by an angry gay for being there and not being LGBTQ+, but Mom Ana tore the guy a new one telling him how supportive and amazing her beautiful son is.

This year he’s holding a sign that says “You know it’s bad when a straight guy is marching” - you know the one

He and Shay have a YouTube cooking channel called Hunkalicious and PassTheShay cook things - They’re pretty well known and do lots of collabs with Lance.

Their YouTube name is Hunk-A-love-&-A-Pinch-A-Shay 

(They have so many Shay is Salt memes bc she can be sALTY AF when needed)

Hunk also has a side gaming/sciene-y things channel (How he met Pidge) 

Shay

Shay is bisexual

The two of them are so in love and sometimes they sit in coffee shops and admire pretty girls together (Shay always adds on ‘Of course she’s not nearly as pretty as you.’ Hunk is the prettiest boy fight me on this. he giggles every time and blushes)

She’s wearing a ‘bisexu-whale’ top Hunk got her bc she majors in marine bio and she ADORES whales.

Lance

Lance is tagging along with Hunk’s crew - He hasn’t been out for long (his family are v Catholic and traditionally Cuban - his dad didn’t speak to him for a month after he came out) and it’s his first EVER Pride.

He’s super nervous although he’s literally been adopted into the Garrett family he feels like hes intruding tagging along on their traditional Pride march.

Shay notices INSTANTLY and makes him feel right at home in the bi community.

“Lance, I know you haven’t been out for long, but you are a valid bisexual, no matter what anyone says, your sexuality is yours to define and nobody else’s. You belong here.”

(This is why we love Shay) Lance cries for five minutes and is enveloped in a group hug.

Shay paints Bi hearts onto Lance’s cheeks (one gets smudged but he doesn't care) 

He does his make up (he hardly every wears make up, but he loves doing it) - Purple to pink to blue eyeshadow, and a touch of eyeliner.

Of course he also sprinkles a fuckton of pink glitter over himself, the Moms, Hunk and Shay

Lance is a pretty well known YouTuber - SirLancelot (he does mostly Vlogs, make-up tutorials, random funnies, relatables videos, occasional gaming sessions and he also pops up frequently on Hunk and Shay’s channel - it’s adorable and when Lance is involved they’re always “w/ the bestie” videos) And he decided to Vlog the whole thing - telling his subscribers in a mini vid that he’d be going to his first Pride and uploading a Vlog of it the following day. 

When he first get’s there there are so many people and it’s all so much he thinks he might just faint, but as soon the Parade starts, Lance is on cloud nine. Hunk is manning the Vlog camera (he offered to as it’s Lances first one and he wants Lance to enjoy it)and captures Lance grinning and chanting and waving his “AIN’T NO LIE BABY, BI BI BI” sign with gusto.

He turns to grin at Hunk who is literally internally screaming and shaking Shay gushing to the camera about “LOOK AT HIM! HE’S SO HAPPY AND ADORABLE!!! HE LOOKS SO CUTE, LOOK AT HIM SHAY- MY BEST FRIEND!! I’M SO PROUD!”

Lance is wearing a “my BI-FI signal is strong” shirt that the moms got him. 

Elena 

Lance’s sister, they’re the same age - her mom is actually Lance’s Aunt, but the pregnancy was accidental and Camille never wanted children, so at aged 5 when Camille finally told her mother to stuff it and that she did not want children - Rosa took Elena in as one of her own

From then on the two of them were permanently joined at the hip (Elena is just as goofy and just as stubborn as Lance - and both of them are strong willed and will Fight You about womens rights, POC rights and LGBT+ rights)

She is a Lesbian™

She came out when she was 15 - she had a massive crush on her best friend Lucy and told mom and Lance first (their other siblings found out through evesdropping and general sneakiness) and told dad a few days before her Quinces. He didn’t show up so when the father-daughter dance came up Lance was the one who calmly got up - as if it were meant to be him up there with her and danced with her as she tried not to cry. And the first person Lance told he might be Bi was Elena. (She always kinda knew)

She regularly features in Lance’s videos (she sort of half lives at his and Hunk’s place - crashes on the couch every other night) known (early on) in Lance’s post-moving-in-with-Hunk videos as That Cuban Lesbian™ who always interrupts Lance’s videos to complain or yell at him in Spanish. Ofc anyone who’s a real Lancelot fan knows who she is. 

She was in his Coming Out video where he told the world he was Bi - and they called mom together, for support, and then told Hunk. (Hunk cried many tears)

She had a Very Gay™ crush on Shay when they first met and it’s a running joke that Hunk got to Shay first and that Elena is Bitter about this.

She has a mini lesbian flag tattooed onto her shoulder blade - Lance went with her to get it.

Keith’s friendship group (Pidge, Shiro, Matt, Allura, Coran and Alfor)

Pidge

Pidge is Nonbinary They/Them or occasionally She/Her pronouns

They identify as an Ace Lesbian (just hear me out - cute dates where Pidge is all flustered bc Pretty Girl!!! And just talking about Science Stuff™ and blushing aaraarrrrrrrgggghhhh)

Pidge is also a YouTuber but like an actual Big Time™ YouTuber - They used to be HackerKatie but then they came out and changed their name so now they’re HackerPidge (If you’ve ever watched MilesChronicals that is what Pidge’s Channel is like - also a Gaming Channel - for Gaming) 

They live in a space-y flat with Keith, Shiro and Matt but they’re like never there??? (Once they straight up disappeared for a week and one morning Keith walked into the kitchen to just see Pidge sat on top of the fridge eating a bowl of Lucky Charms™)

One time they pulled a massive prank on Shiro (which they ofc recorded and put on YouTube) and when Shiro found out he banned them from YouTube and all Social Media for two weeks. Turns out that was a Bad Idea™ because Pidge fans (Hacklets) started Major Discourse on Twitter and Tumblr bc they didn’t get updates and there was nothing on Pidge’s social media (there was a theory that Pidge was dead). Shiro allowed Pidge back on YouTube and stuff and Pidge made a video explaining with Shiro in the back of the video holding one of those Shame Signs that said “I banned my child from social media for two weeks and accidentally started an internet war”

wait wasn’t this supposed to be about Pride???

help

Pidge is wearing a top that says “Male/Female/Don’t worry about it” - their galaxy backpack is littered with buttons about gender (e.g. ‘ask me about my pronouns’, and the nonbinary flag) and their sexuality (e.g. ‘beautiful day to love girls’, ‘girls, girls, girls’ etc.)

They have the nb flag and the lesbian flag painted on their cheeks and THEY/THEM painted in block capitals on their forehead.

NEXT PERSON

Shiro and Matt

Shiro is a very Bi Dad Brother and he is Very Tired™

Matt is the Gayest being you will ever meet.

He and Matt have been dating since High school, they were best friends until Matt blurted at Prom to the entire student body that he’d been in love with Shiro since middle school

Shiro felt the same and they started dating (The entire school was relieved - there were betting pools on when one or the other was finally going to fess up)

They have a joint YouTube channel (GaysInSpace - Matt-Man and SpaceDad) Its mostly a fitness/yoga and some make-up videos (they did the Boyfriend Does My Make-up - it was horrendous) He did a galaxy make-up tutorial ONCE because he and Matt had just got into loads of space shows/films and was forever named SpaceDad because of it. 

They mostly do couples yoga and fitness videos which generally turn into shenanigans after the first like ten minutes - they are the power couple of space and their fans named themselves the ‘Gaybies’

Shiro and Matt have matching shirts and hoodies 

Hoodies: Matt - If found return to Shiro / Shiro: Keep him.

T Shirts: Matt - My Boyfriend is Bi-Lingual (bc Shiro can speak fluent Japanese) / Shiro - My boyfriend’s gay, but I’m not. 

They have their flags painted on their faces - Gay for Matt and Bi for Shiro.

Matt bought a giant gay flag at the start of the parade and has since tied it around his shoulders 

Shiro’s holding a sign that on the front says “God said Adam and Eve so I did both” but on the back has a message that Matt hasn’t seen “My boyfriend has no clue I’m going to propose today.”

Shiro proposes halfway through the parade (Lance’s group was actually just a little behind them and he and Hunk caught the entire thing on camera). The music from the parade cut out and all of their closes high school friends, Shiro’s dad and Matt’s parents emerge from the crowd whilst a song they both adore (“Marry Me” by Jessica Smith - when Lance uploads the video he makes sure to link the song in the description to credit the artist) starts to play, Shiro gets passed a mic and he starts to sing (his voice isn’t perfect but it’s damn good) When the chorus (May All Recognise Real love Yours and mine Make all love Equal) comes on the friends and family members hold up the lyrics to spell out MARRY ME. Matt is completely stunned (the gay flag cape had been stolen by Keith earlier so at least he didn’t look like a complete idiot) Then Shiro’s getting down on one knee and opening a box with a ring in it at Matt’s crying. 

“What do you say, Cadet? Wanna get hitched?”

“Oh for christ- Just put the ring on my finger and kiss me idiot!” 

Matt’s still crying as Shiro slides the band onto Matt’s finger and swoops up for a kiss, before turning around to yell “HE SAID YES!”

The crowd goes wild

Allura

Allura is a beautiful Lesbian and she and Elena get on swimmingly (Elena has the biggest crush on her and she and Lance cry about how beautiful she is from her videos)

Her user is PrincessOfAltea she does beauty tips and tricks as well as a gaming channel - she’s surprisingly good and is one of The Best players in a game called Altea (It’s an RPG Quest series) - her subscribers love how amazing she is and she usually plays with Matt, Pidge, and Shiro - Keith sometimes joins in and he’s surprisingly good. 

She’s Alfor and Coran’s daughter (Alfor’s biologically - they got a surrogate mother - who they still keep in contact with - she’s Ace/Aro and also goes to Pride with them but she couldn’t make it this year)

(Coran is wearing this )

She met Shiro through working out at the same gym - He mad a mini bi crush on her and gushed to Matt about the Pretty Girl at the gym for weeks

(Matt didn’t get too jealous - as soon as he lent over and pressed a kiss to Shiro’s lips, he would generally shut up about Pretty Girl and think about Pretty Boyfriend instead)

Allura is covered head-to-foot in glitter (as are Coran and Alfor) because of an incident that happened at Shiro’s flat with Pidge, a pop-tart and glitter Allura was opening to dab on her face. 

She has the lesbian flag painted like war paint on her cheeks and a pastel top with two girls kissing on it that says “Girls like Girls like Boys Do” on it. 

She’s also parading around with a sign that says “I love my emo gay son” with a picture of Keith’s face on it.

Keith

Keith has been out for years. Literally since he was thirteen. 

(He came out via a dinner conversation, when Matt was over for dinner at the Shirogane Household one evening. Matt had been talking about how all teenage boys are supposed to be obsessed with girls and wanting to date girls etc. and Keith had simply said “Well I don’t like any girls but I was in calculus the other day with Jared and I thought he looked cute. I wouldn’t mind being his boyfriend.”  A bug eyed Papa Shirogane had asked “Keith are you gAY?” - Keith had asked what that meant and after Shiro had explained “B-boys who l-like other b-boys... romantically.” Keith had shrugged dismissively and said “Well I guess then, yeah, I am.”)

He’d also been watching SirLancelot’s videos since Lance had begun YouTubing (at first they’d just been braces-Lance and Hunk prank videos and relatables middle schoolers version) And has pretty much been In Love since.

However, this was Keith’s first ever Pride - the only reason he’d actually agreed to go was because he knew Shiro planned to propose and he didn’t want to miss that, despite the overwhelming threat of an large-crowd-induced anxiety attacks.

He’d gone with a simple gay outfit, black shorts, ratty converse, flannel around his waist, rainbow suspenders and a tank top Shiro had gotten him especially (that said Too Gay For This World)

At first Keith had refused to wear it (he secretly adores this top and Shiro Knows)

He has his own YouTube channel which isn't isn’t nearly as popular as Lance’s - but he has a solid fanbase

His user is CryptidKeith and his channel is called The Keith-Files - Conspiracy Theories

His fans are called his Cryptids and he is continuously referred to as “The Wild Keef” due to a comment Pidge once made in one of their Conspiracy collabs

Of course Hunk and Pidge have done many collabs and when its mentioned that most going are YouTubers they decide to meet up and introduce their friendship groups - Lance decides to vlog it all as he is anyway - First Pride.

[Part 1]/[Part 2]

[elizabethrobertajones]

"God appointed him (Dean) to look after the Earth and said he was the best guy for the job." Doesn't Sam fit in there, too? God said : Earth will be fine. It's got you. And Sam.

Yeeeah, I know, and I almost put that but I thought that would require a tangent which there was no place for in there. So you get a full-length tangent for asking about something I unfortunately already had a whole list of mental bullet points on, so buckle up XD

Essentially it boils down to my “dean is the centre of the universe” theory which of course has the flipside that I really do not subscribe to “the winchesters are the centre of the universe” because I feel like the cosmic order goes absolutely out of its way to pander to Dean, and Sam is an afterthought. Read into that as much unexpected bitter Sam girl-ing as you like as the other side of the coin of this being one of those ultimate Dean girl theories, it does happen over here sometimes :P 

6x09 and 9x11 both place a magical weight on being the older brother, but it’s also a curse in a different way that it singles him out. The burden in season 5 is on him not saying yes to Michael while since at least season 2 Sam’s been saying stuff that thematically puts him on the side of letting Destiny happen and fighting it from the inside - as he eventually did with Lucifer - Dean’s always wanted to flip the whole thing over and reject it outright. So his season 1-5 stuff and 9-11 stuff were both about fighting a immense cosmic pressure and rejecting it, emphatically, and ending a seemingly fated and unstoppable thing just by sheer force of will. At this point Dean’s ability to dig in his heels and shape the course of the world around his stubborness is literally equivalent to god-like power. He can MAKE it about Sam, like in 5x22, but it’s coming from him.

Sam obviously gets much more screwed over by being “and Sam” in the season 9-11 arc rather than the 1-5 arc which was properly tailored to them with Michael and Lucifer, because the new template is Cain and Abel. The whole point of that is Abel’s dead, so as a mirror, there’s nothing left to swing at, which is why I think even some meta writers on our side when we were speculating season 10 contemplated Sam as Dean’s Colette (platonically, as the one who would fill the same sort of role) just because there needed to be something to compare him to and there wasn’t even a dramatic re-enactment to look at aside from Cas’s stock movie footage in 6x20 :P In season 11 we got Sam thinking he was talking to God but it was actually Lucifer which belatedly used something out of the parallel, but it wasn’t a whole lot and of course was like 35 episodes since Cain said that, and meanwhile the Destiel parallel to Colette had been there the whole time.

In Chuck and Amara, both of them got paralleled to Dean, Amara as his dark mirror (in 10x05, Marie promises in the second act Dean becomes a woman) and Chuck literally just mimicking him as if Dean’s pull is so strong it absorbed God into it when God couldn’t push the other way and get Dean to treat him with any awe or respect. (Meanwhile: Sam asked him why planets were round or whatever.) Can’t remember now what they were exactly but Sam did get some parallels to Amara - mostly being the angry sibling in the face of a rather absolute brother, where Amara seemed to have a younger sibling dynamic if only for “create” has to come before “destroy” and I think if I remember correctly without going to look, in the 11x23 resolution her dialogue was more obviously mimicking Sam issues and Chuck’s were Dean issues, depending on which version of the Carver era bro drama you saw it as (I thiiink I saw it as a resolution to 8x23′s dirty laundry airing that spiralled into Gadreel then to the Mark etc). Honestly I think Amara’s anger goes either way, especially since she and Dean clicked so well over season 9-10, and especially when she was fuelling demon!Dean’s rage against Sam and everything he says in 10x03, you can see her anger behind it once you know she’s there too, as the rationale they came up with for why the Mark makes its bearer so determined to kill their sibling. (It took another season and a half but there’s finally enough retcon to make the “how demons work” errors in 10x03 make sense because you can just blame it all on her :P)

I can see a kind of line of dominoes from the start of the show and the way they set up the dynamic where it gradually puts Dean more and more in the spotlight, especially when Sam’s ~out of commission~ as a reliable POV character in season 4 & 6, and just small choices along the way (since Kripke era mind you. Early Kripke era) which end up with Dean holding the emotional spotlight, and a cosmic power to shape events that Sam doesn’t really have. At which point the “and Sam” in 11x23 as the culmination of all this, seems laughably token to the dynamic, both in-world and to the fans, like, you can’t JUST make it all about Dean, and at the end of the day it will always default back to Sam n Dean against the world, cue musical number from 10x05… But somewhere between season 6 and 11, Sam became an accessory to Dean on the cosmic level, because of these unfortunate elements of the way their earlier rounds on the merry-go-round went. So Dean walks in to confront Chuck and Amara alone, and Sam gets the Mark of Cain for 3 seconds without us even seeing the conversation where he decided to do it. And it was pretty obvious Chuck was using him since the whole point was he was avoiding dealing with things properly and Sam’s personal development made him so easy to manipulate Chuck probably barely felt bad about doing it, especially when he’s probably got a messed up sense of what people do for him out of faith. (And Sam’s the one who has a line back in 9x22 about people doing messed up things in the name of faith >.>)

Anyway, cosmically, Sam spent all of season 9, 10 and 11 left out and on the side as an “and Sam” who at best wasn’t falling foul of Dean’s shot at the mytharc and getting fratricided for his trouble of sticking it out with Dean… Chuck’s “and Sam” considering the location and circumstances of that conversation where Sam was off watching Crowley eat beer nuts in the bar at the end of the world, honestly sets off a latent bitter Sam girl feeling I didn’t even know I had until the end of season 11, and this is probably why I spend 99% of the time all snuggly and warm in my Dean girl cocoon where I feel the narrative has basically never done him wrong in such a way as Sam crawled through Carver era and emerged a strange sad empty moose in season 12. 

I mean I honestly do not see these complaints now in season 12 in the same way because I’m trying to figure out what the hell they even rebuild of Sam from and figure 12x04, 5 and 6 did a brilliant job with him, all things considered. And he HAS been more emotionally present and involved in stuff or at least a spotlight is being shone intentionally on him mediating and withdrawing even when you’d think he really should have more to say and Dean’s doing all the shouting for him. Which basically means that at least they are now intentionally making Sam like this, whereas I honestly can’t tell in Carver era if they were shooting for one thing and got another, because once this season really began pointing it out, I started seeing earlier stuff in a much different light and retroactively got a lot more concerned about Sam, like the Sam girls had been for ages but I hadn’t listened. >.>

(And as a side note, I think this is why Eileen hurts so much that I’m still equal parts pissed off for the representation issue AND hook line and sinker for the Sam man pain and I see a lot of the fandom outcry between ourselves rather than Angry Open Letter Time involves Sam’s feelings too, with most of the coda fics I’ve reblogged so far angrily proving she’s fine and immediately flinging her at Sam, and my response to the episode was to go plan ahead huge chunks of the Saileen stuff in the long fic I’m working on too. He’s been so sad and empty I honestly think Dean’s reaction in 11x04 to Sam hooking up was understated because he was trying to play it cool :P Now I can’t help thinking all the progress Sam made is directly linked to how many youtube ASL classes he took >.>)

tl;dr, the way Sam’s been sort of moved to the edge of things a lot lately, I think tracks all the way back to the way he interacts with the mytharc on a cosmic level, and the “and Sam” line now genuinely bothers me on Sam’s behalf that God treated him as an afterthought to Dean, but when I’ve got my Dean girl hat on, it’s easier to treat Sam the same as that then write all this, which means I’m part of the problem aaaaah :P

[solrosan]

Mycroft’s eating disorder

During the first hiatus there were a lot of Mycroft Has an Eating Disorder discussions, fics and meta. I have spent the last six years disputing this for various reasons (mostly because people who think ascribing Mycroft an eating disorder will somehow make Sherlock’s snide remarks about diets kind need to be told otherwise). I still don’t subscribe to the theory that Mycroft has an eating disorder, but in the light of series 4 I think you have a really good case for it if you want to go there and I want to discuss it. What’s below the cut is not to be seen as a meta, but more of an exploration of a possibility.

(It still won’t make Sherlock’s comments about diets kind or good or caring in any way. It will make him the complete and utter jerk he is at the start of this show.)

Disclaimer: I don’t have any medical degree. I haven’t studied psychiatry or psychology. What I know about eating disorders comes from observations, conversations and internet research. 

Eating disorders are as varied as the people who suffer from them, but just as everyone bleeds red eating disorders have similarities. Far from every eating disorder has to do with weight, but a vast majority of them have to do with control. When the rest of your life goes to chaos, this -- your intake of food -- is the one thing you can control. It’s for good reason people often fall back into old habits when other parts of their life fall apart.

Without going into a too long elaboration about parental expectation (his mother giving up his career for him), loneliness and buying (transfer every headcanon you have about bullied Sherlock to Mycroft, Sherlock is shown to be able to make friends over and over while Mycroft isn’t), and loss of identity as an older sibling when your younger siblings outdo you in the one field you thought you were special (Eurus is THAT much smarter than him, being smart was the one thing he had) Mycroft didn’t have an easy childhood.

Fanon has been proved right: Mycroft was a chubby child. Fat even, perhaps. We don’t know why, but his siblings weren’t and stress eating/comfort eating because of All The Above (+ a sister who wanted to kill your brother) isn’t impossible reasons. It’s not impossible to imagine that the Holmes parents tried to put Mycroft on diets and make him lose weight either.

Then, suddenly, the unthinkable happened. Eurus actually did kill a kid (luckily not Sherlock, but you can’t really talk about luck when a kid is dead, can you?) and then burned down their house. Sherlock blacked out, shut down, reverted into himself and dug up the garden (imagine the therapy time they probably put into that kid). Eurus was put away.

Everything is turned on its head. And there’s Mycroft, about 15 years old at the time. Hyper intelligent. Probably forgotten about in the utter chaos created by his younger siblings. Perhaps always forgotten about, but even more so now.

And he needs to be better. He needs to compensate. He needs to be as smart as Eurus and as well adjusted as Sherlock (I know, it’s laughable to say that now when we’ve seen him as an adult, but he probably was pretty well adjusted as a child). Everything is out of his control. Everything. Absolutely everything. Eurus. Sherlock. Their parents. Victor. His peers. 

He can lose the weight, though. Mind over matter. Mind over matter. Mind over matter. It’s no problem. The more weight he loses, the more respect he gains. He loathes everyone around him for it, because he was just as smart when he weighed 4 stones more. He sees the point of it, though. How easy it is to manipulate people this way.

Idiots.

No one would probably call it an eating disorder at this point. The boy just lost some weight. He grew a few inches. He stretched out. But Mycroft knows the exact number of calories in just about every product they have in the pantry, and he can calculate his BMI in his head (it’s a really simple equation).

The slimmer, the better.

Uncle Rudy says Eurus is dead. (Suicide, he tells Mycroft in confidence.)

Sherlock wonders if they can get a new dog.

It’s not an eating disorder. He just doesn’t eat after 6 o’clock. 

The slimmer, the better. Mind over matter.

Sherlock shoots up for the first time. Their parents shouldn’t have to deal with that too, so Mycroft deals with it instead.

It’s not an eating disorder. He just shouldn’t have eaten that, because he had met his calorie intake for the day.

Uncle Rudy takes him to see Eurus, who clearly isn’t dead. 

Sherlock overdoses for the first time.

Mind over matter. Mind over matter. Mind over matter.

The one thing in Mycroft entire personal life he can control is his food intake, and whenever he manages he seem to gain others’ appreciation. Losing weight is a quick way for a positive reinforcement loop. 

And based on this, I can see it. I can see Mycroft developing an eating disorder during his teens. The chaos at home, the pressure from his parents, the constant stress, the lack of approval from anyone, the isolation he must have felt... 

I can see him intentionally planning meetings the entire day so that he can’t be tempted to eat. I can see him wrecked with guilt over that one sandwich he ate late at the office that night and make himself throw up in the bin under his desk. I can see him go on extreme bindges when nothing matters anymore.

I still don’t believe Mycroft has an eating disorder, but in the light of series 4 I don’t feel I can argue against it anymore, and above is why.

-x-

Edit: I accidentally ficced!

[thehenryhiggs]

bre’s big ol podcast rec list

heyyy everyone! so @bodhilukes​ asked for podcast recommendations on twitter and @czarrish​ and i immediately jumped on that. i was gonna make this list sometime this month away, and im super excited to do it! this is probably gonna get long so under the cut we go!

COMEDIES:

1. Hello From The Magic Tavern

Updates: Every Monday

Current # Of Eps: 101

General Length Of Eps: 40 mins to an hour

Synopsis: Arnie Niekamp fell through a dimensional portal at a Burger King in Chicago into the magical, fantastical land of Foon. He’s still getting a slight wifi signal from the Burger King, so he hosts a weekly podcast with his buddies Chunt (a shapeshifter who normally takes the shape of a badger) and Usidore, a wizard. They interview different creatures from Foon each week as Arnie tries to learn about Foon, while also trying to figure out how to get back home.

Notes: Okay, I have to say it. This is my favorite podcast. I love it to absolute death. It 100% got me into improv comedy and comedy podcasts, to the point where that’s pretty much all I listen to anymore. Arnie, Matt, and Adal are sweethearts and the show is so genuinely funny and interesting. Please give this one a listen.

2. The Adventure Zone

Updates: Every other Thursday

Current # Of Eps: 57

General Length Of Eps: An hour, but there are a few that are two or three.

Synopsis: The McElroys play Dungeons and Dragons. But it’s also so much more than that.

Notes: Okay you all know how much I love this podcast. I love it to death. I’m still only like halfway through it but god it’s amazing and I’m so angry I didn’t start it earlier. All of the characters are amazing and Griffin is truly such an amazing storyteller. It’s so much deeper than you would originally think, and it will make you cry like a baby. Please listen to The Adventure Zone. Holy shit.

3. CoolGames Inc 

Updates: Every Friday

Current # Of Eps: 45, with some CGI Jrs mixed in.

General Length Of Eps: An hour (CGI Jrs are 20 mins)

Synopsis: Polygon’s Nick Robinson and Griffin McElroy take listener suggestions and make video games out of them.

Notes: These are my favorite soft boys, and they are just too funny. Some of the games they come up with are genuinely good games that you’ll be upset don’t actually exist, but most of them are just silly goofs that are guaranteed to make you laugh. This podcast single-handedly got me through last semester, so shoutout to Nick and Griffin for that. You should also check out CoolGames Inc Animated!

4. Improvised Star Trek 

Updates: Every other Monday

Current # Of Eps: 157, with a BUNCH of bonus eps mixed in

General Length Of Eps: About 30 mins for regular eps, 5 mins for bonus

Synopsis: These are the voyages of the starship Sisyphus, Starfleet’s worst crew. Captain Julius Valentine Baxter and his crew, including First Officer Corbomite Hayes, Science Officer Crick Watson, Ensign Laserbear, and Chief Medical Officer Zarlene Zonaldson, just to name a few, get into way too much trouble out in the final frontier.

Notes: I started listening to this because of Matt Young from HFTMT (and because I got super into Trek), but god I fell in love with every single character. Quite a few guests from HFTMT are regulars on IST, and their shenanigans are just amazing. If you love Trek, you’ll love this.

5. Siblings Peculiar 

Updates: Infrequently

Current # Of Eps: 29

General Length Of Eps: 30 mins

Synopsis: Adam and Sarah Peculiar (pronounced Pec-U-lAr) are trying to figure out what happened to their parents, paranormal investigators that suddenly disappeared 10 years ago. They interview conspiracy theorists of all sorts as they try to gain any information they can about their parents’ whereabouts.

Notes: I started listening to this one because of Adal Rifai from HFTMT, and I’m glad I did because he and his sister are so funny together. Their conspiracy theories are so off-the-wall hilarious (there’s a whole episode about Grease being propaganda where they interview the real creator of Grease), although I will say the comedy might not be for everyone as it can veer a little into the offensive (but it’s satire and I personally love it). It’s less frequent now because Sadieh got cast in a tv show, but I still recommend listening to it!

DRAMAS:

1. Welcome to Night Vale 

Updates: Bimonthly, on the 1st and the 15th.

Current # Of Eps: 103

General Length Of Eps: 30 mins

Synopsis: Cecil hosts a radio show in the mysterious town of Night Vale, where abnormal things like Glow Clouds, angels, ominous dog parks, and floating cats are commonplace.

Notes: We’ve all listened to WTNV at this point, right? Or at least heard of it? Besides an old Fringe podcast I used to listen to back in like 2008, this was the first podcast I ever listened to. Cecil’s voice is just incredibly soothing, I find this podcast really helps when I’m super depressed, and I used to stock up on eps specifically for those times. 

2. The Black Tapes/TANIS 

Updates: they used to be weekly but they look pretty infrequent now

Current # Of Eps: TBTP has 24, TANIS has 25, both with several bonus eps mixed in

General Length Of Eps: 30-45 mins

Synopsis: TBTP is about journalists Alex and Nic investigating The Strand Institute’s Richard Strand and his various black tapes that may be evidence of the paranormal. TANIS is the spinoff, where Nic focuses more on real life conspiracy theories as he tries to find the location of the mythical TANIS.

Notes: I’m not gonna lie, I did drop both of these podcasts and I’m not sure if I will pick them back up. But the first season of both were incredible, and @czarrish introduced them to me and they really got me into podcasts. In my opinion they both declined in quality during their second seasons, but that’s just my opinion!

3. The Penumbra Podcast 

Updates: I think it’s on hiatus? But I think it was bi-weekly at one point

Current # Of Eps: 19, with bonuses mixed in

General Length Of Eps: 30-50 mins

Synopsis: The Penumbra is the grandest hotel this side of Nowhere.The series mostly follows Detective Juno Steel trying to solve mysteries, but they’re all stories you recognize told in ways you won’t expect. 

Notes: Again, I’m not gonna lie, I’ve barely listened to this and I really don’t know that much about it. I had to take a lot of the synopsis from the actual one on their website. But the first two episodes were awesome, so I feel confident in recommending it. I think they might be rebooting it?? Idk, you might want to ask @czarrish for more details.

4. Alice Isn’t Dead

Updates: Season one wrapped in Jul 2016 and it’s been on hiatus ever since. edit: s2 is starting soon!

Current # Of Eps: 10

General Length Of Eps: 30 mins

Synopsis: Alice is a truck driver who’s driving across the country in search of her missing wife, who she thought had been dead but now has reason to believe otherwise.

Notes: This is from the creators of WTNV and features the voice of Jasika Nicole, who I know and love from Fringe but also does the voice of Dana on WTNV. It’s spooky but not too much so, and I’ve admittedly only listened to 3 episodes but just like Cecil, Jasika has a wonderfully soothing voice.

MISC:

1. Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

Updates: Every Monday

Current # Of Eps: 148

General Length Of Eps: An hour

Synopsis: Basically what it says on the tin: two guys explain in detail everything that has happened in the X-Men universe, starting at the very beginning.

Notes: Again I haven’t listened to too much of this, but it’s really fun. I’ve loved X-Men for a while but I always get confused with all the retcons and different verses and stuff, but Jay and Miles do a wonderful job of explaining everything without making it confusing.

2. Terrace House Mafia 

Updates: Infrequently

Current # Of Eps: 14

General Length Of Eps: 10-15 mins

Synopsis: Polygon’s Nick Robinson and his roommate Chad watch Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City and talk about it. That’s it. But it’s cute as fuck.

Notes: I absolutely love listening to these guys talk about Terrace House because they’re going through the exact same journey that I (and probably everyone) went on when I first watched it. It’s quick and super fun to listen to.

3. The Probe 

Updates: Was weekly, but s1 wrapped in November so it’s been on hiatus

Current # Of Eps: 8

General Length Of Eps: 30 mins

Synopsis: A satirical take on news podcasts, two journalists follow the election at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, and learn about the country’s political climate along the way. 

Notes: Again, I started listening to this because Matt Young from HFTMT produced it, but I really enjoyed it beyond that. If you like HFTMT, you’ll recognize a lot of the Chicago-based actors in The Probe. Also I wasn’t exactly sure where to put this so I just put it in MISC cuz it’s like... definitely funny and improvised but also it’s a little serious, maybe? Idk, it’s satire. And it’s great satire.

I’m also gonna include the podcasts that I’m subscribed to but I haven’t actually started listening to yet. They piqued my interest but I just haven’t gotten around to listening to them yet! So here we go: The Bright Sessions, Darkest Night, The Hilarious World of Depression, Hollywood Handbook, Homecoming, Lore, My Brother My Brother And Me, Reply All, The Room Where It’s Happening, Wolf 359, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus.