#my biggest beef with it so far though is that it wants me to believe beelzebub is a top

[tecchan]

Mammon, my guy, I now know you meant asses but I did NOT interpret that properly at first

[epickiya722]

Haha right? It's so normalized while it's actually so inappropriate to go to a stranger and talk about their sexual preferences.

I hate how "x fans" is called "x fuckers" now. Yeah I like Sukuna. No I don't want to fuck him. But all there is in his tags.

I'd go as far as to say that people don't care about characters. They just want to put them into tropes box to imagine them as their vampire/alpha male/ceo lover.

And I find it ironic how the same will trash talk about fanboys while they do the exact same thing. '"let women be horny" they will say, because reducing a story to you being horny is ok.

I still want to publish my stories because some fandom gave me hope. But I don't hold my breath anymore.

It is very inappropriate. Like, damn, I can't just like the character? I can't be entertained by their antics?

There are just so many things that shouldn't be normalized across fandoms and going into someone's inbox to be like "*insert character* fucker" is one.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind people having their fantasies about their faves, let alone am I gonna police anybody on or care to. Waste of my time, I got fics to write! Posts to post! 😭

But sometimes I do think "does this person actually care about the character's story"?

Because some of those same people will have so many takes on their faves that don't even be that character. That is a whole OC you created!!

I actually wasn't aware of this until only recently that people accepted for Sukuna to become some absolute horndog when Yorozu was up all over him. Maybe I missed something, but Sukuna only ever expressed being interested in fighting and killing people and personally, he never really came across as some sexual deviant to me.

I feel like sometimes if you have this fanon version of your fave, that is not your favorite. In no way, should you feel the need to like this whole other version of your "fave" in order to like him. Then why have them as your favorite in the first place?

I like Sukuna because he entertains me. He's this evil ass menace who wants all the smoke and the biggest beef he has is with a 15 year old (who is my all time favorite of JJK). Sukuna also this mysterious air about him because we still don't know much about his backstory, let alone everything he can do. (I had this recent thought about a technique that I should probably get to writing.) I have theories about his character, like how he may really be as a person, true. But at the same time, I'm not gonna believe my theories about him are canon because "I know him better than Gege". Anything I say isn't canon unless said so explicitly. I didn't create Sukuna. I am just another fan just vibing along with the story.

And it really is insane to me that people will do that. People were saying "female fans of JJK are ruining the fandom, they're all so horny" as if all us are horny, let alone engage in the anime for said reasons.

The same people *cough cough* misogynists *cough* who say that be the same people who will have a wallpaper of someone like Nami as their header and she'll have boobs bigger than what she has in canon.

Oooh, y'all don't like folks be objectifying the JJK men, huh? Even though for years female characters have gotten the treatment in Shonen. You cannot be dragging Gojo fans when you want to be Makima's dog. Stop that now.

Also, its not just the men! Uh, Yuki Tsukumo exists! She has a lot of fans who find her attractive. There's Shoko, Utahime, Takako, Mei Mei...

I'm waiting for the day 143 gets animated because I just know people are gonna go 👀.

Like, either way, if you're a person who gets constantly horny over your faves, why are you upset with someone doing the same?

I saw this meme post about how people tend to overlook the story and its details and only focus on the attractive cast and fights. And some people were like "but people are only focusing on the fights and attractive cast".

No, they're not. You're missing the point.

For one, you can find the characters attractive and enjoy the fights. That is fine. But at the same time, don't miss the story. Pay attention to it because it's just as important, if not more.

Second, not everyone is focused on just the fights and cast. If that was the cast, why do we have theories and meta posts? Why do we have people writing fics that study the character they're writing about? If no one is focusing on the story and only like the fights and attractiveness of the characters, then those kind of posts from fans wouldn't exist.

[discocandles]

Y'know, I think True Hearts Day was a good story, but that doesn't make me not want to improve it.

Firstly, Hunter's role. This is my biggest issue with THD. He should've been more active. Up until that point, he seemed to be following his destinies as the huntsman. The only claim he has as a rebel is siding with Raven in the food fight and being vegetarian. Also, Hunter is a big part of the Snow White story. If not for the Huntsman, Snow White would never find the dwarves. But Apple focuses more on Ashlynn than her own story, which is ooc, bc being Snow White is Apple's main motivation. She never seems that worried Hunter is going against his destinies(yes plural. He's also in Red Riding Hood)

In THD, he's barely there. We get him and Ashlynn getting caught, Gunter Guntsman, and the big reveal. There's no reason he's not with Ash in the book end, but he's missing from when they come out until when they break up. And I know, it's a girls show, why focus on the boy? But relationships take at least two people. And the break-up scene really shows how static he's been. Hunter is doing what he'd do for their dates in the forest, but Ashlynn's acting different, bc she's the only one who had development.

To improve this, I say Apple talks to Hunter after the reveal about destiny, bc it's bad enough Raven won't be evil, but Hunter too? Her talk isnt as effective on him as it is Ashlynn, bc he's not close to Apple like his gf is. But he thinks of how dating Ash changes his story. Hunter is talks to Cerise in the forest, who supports it, hinting to her dad's identity, which he misses. The next day, Hunter is excited to see Ash, but less grand gesture-y about it. Instead of a picture frame and flower path, he walks up to her and gives her a flower crown. The break-up ensues and she gives back the flower crown. Ashlynn considers not going to the dance, but Briar won't have that. Longing looks at the dance, Ashlynn confesses, Hunter accepts, and they're together.

Ok, that's the big one.

Next, the love triangle. My beef here is how all of them lose their personality in this plotline. Cupid, who is about the journey of love and taking your time, basically yells about her crush in a library. Dexter, who is very tech involved, says who his crush is on a live broadcast without a voice modifier. Raven, who always believes there is more than what meets the eye jumps to a conclusion and sticks with it. Like all of their personalities had a downgrade. Though I do like Dexter and Cupid's dynamic in THD. The idea that Dexter sees the book about True Hearts Day and knows it's right up Cupid's alley is cute. My biggest issue is Raven's personality shift. I firmly believe Raven should've been far more confused at the idea of Daring giving her a love note. He's a royal, and believed to be Apple's future prince.

I would improve this by Raven deciding the note is a prank from Daring, and Dexter's not sure what's worse, her thinking it's from Daring, or a prank. Raven confronts Daring at school the next day, bc she wants to dismiss it asap, and realizes it has nothing to do with him. So Raven knows it's real, and realizes as she's getting ready "oh. How did I forget Dexter is a Charming?" She tries to calm down, and looks for Dexter at the dance, but he's hiding, trying to gather enough nerve to confess, sees her, and loses all of it. Dexter decides it's hopeless, and sits down to mourn his bad luck. Cupid, who has finally caught a break, sits down and helps cheer him up, which Raven sees and believes she's too late. She and Maddie spend the rest of the dance hanging out. And it's left open ended.

Next, duchess(and sparrow). If I hadn't read the books and known Duchess's motives are bc she wants a story where she doesn't die as a swan, I'd be very confused. All I'd change is in her chat with Ashlynn to mention that she wants to actually see her own happily ever after like Ashlynn has. But it still backfires. And it's also never explained why Duchess and Sparrow are friends to start with. I like the dynamic they have, but a line of how they became friends would probably help given the clashing aesthetics. Like maybe Sparrow and the merry men sometimes have to play for dance class, so he and Duchess had a similar goal for it, and became friends? Idk.

Last but not least, Lizzie should have been stealing any of the heart-shaped decorations shown from cupid, hopper, and briar bc hearts are her whole thing

[generic-whumperz]

Sending hugs always!

🌙 What are some of your OC’s favourites? Favourite food, colour, season, stuff like that! Give some general simple facts that tend to get overlooked!

⭐ Does your OC like to sleep alone or do they enjoy sharing their bed? Have they been to any sleepovers? Have they ever been camping? What did they think of the experiences if so?

🍏 When your OC says “I had a bad day” what does that tend to mean? Is it really as bad as they’re saying or are they being a bit dramatic?

🐍 Is your OC a good liar? How easy is it for them to tell lies? What is the biggest lie they’ve ever told and did they ever get found out? On the other hand, what is the biggest lie someone has told your OC and did they believe them?

Please and thank you!

(From this ask game)

Yay, thank you for the asks! Sorry for the late reply; I’ve had a difficult, roller-coastery week and needed some time not only to ponder these questions but also to build up the mental strength to answer them. 

I know the only characters I’ve written about previously have been The Aid and Wyatt, and those are the only ocs people are familiar with in-text so far, however, there’s a lot more going on beyond just those two in the rewrites. So I’ll answer each question for all of my starting characters—The Aid, Benny, Wyatt, Vinny, and Waylon—so we can get to know them all a little better despite me not being down with Vinny and Waylon’s character sheets and having no chapters posted! 

🌙 What are some of your OC’s favourites? Favourite food, colour, season, stuff like that! Give some general simple facts that tend to get overlooked!

The Aid’s Favs

Food: he’s a veggie boy and loves a good smoothie. Some may argue that it’s a drink, not a “food,” and that he will argue against.

Color: orange

Season: spring/summer 

(Bonus) Band: No Doubt. He’s a Gwen Stefani stan.

(Bonus) Random Fun Fact I Want To Share But Don’t Know Where Else To Put: he always pulls/picks/guesses the correct number of something he needs because ✨heightened intuition✨

Benny’s Favs

Food: shrimp in any form, but his absolute favorite is a tie between shrimp gumbo and grilled shrimp skewers. Runner-up: crawfish boil. 

Color: green

Season: summer (best time for fishing)

(Bonus) Animal: gators (or, as he calls them, “water puppies” or “dino dogs”)

Wyatt’s Favs

Food: gas station snacks (salted sunflower seeds & beef jerky) or ribs. He’s a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy. 

Color: red 

Season: says he doesn’t have a favorite because he doesn’t care, but fall 

(Bonus) Cigs: Camels (filtered). Always has a box in his shirt pocket; it’s basically his calling card (pic).

Vinny’s Favs

Food: Philly cheese steak

Color: gold

Season: fall or spring

(Bonus) Gun: 24k gold Colt 1911, Glock 20 (I know nothing about firearms)

Waylon’s Favs

Food: beef stroganoff, filet mignon, smoked prime rib roast 

Color: black

Season: spring 

(Bonus) Cars: Maserati Quattroporte, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Cadillac Escalade 

⭐Does your OC like to sleep alone or do they enjoy sharing their bed? Have they been to any sleepovers? Have they ever been camping? What did they think of the experiences if so?

*All my ocs are grown-ass adults, and the Whumpers are all middle-aged, so they’ve all partook in sleepovers when they were kids and have camped at least once. 

Aid: prefers to sleep alone (traumatized). Liked sleepovers only with certain people, likes camping as long as there’s running water nearby and there are minimal bugs.

Benny: will sleep anywhere, at any time, alone, or with damn-near anyone. Liked sleepovers and was down for anything, loves camping, and frequently sleeps outside on a hammock or in a boat. His lifestyle is already very camping-adjacent since he’s so outdoorsy.

Wyatt: is too strung out and drunk to care but prefers to sleep alone. Usually passed out on the couch, though. Doesn’t like sleepovers, likes camping on occasion, and only if he gets to shoot things, but more of a glamper. 

Vinny: usually sleeps alone but wishes he had a hottie snuggled up to him all night. Liked sleepovers, hates camping, and will absolutely complain about it, but will tolerate staying in a cabin. 

Waylon: can’t sleep without his wife next to him. Only liked sleepovers if kids came over to his house as a child. Loves the camping lifestyle (forced to be the boss when really he wants to play cowboy), but his 60-year-old back can’t handle sleeping on the ground, so glamping in a cabin or an RV it is. 

🍏 When your OC says “I had a bad day” what does that tend to mean? Is it really as bad as they’re saying or are they being a bit dramatic?

The Aid: if he had a bad day, trust that it’s bad enough to make a butcher blush. Let’s just say that for every bad day he has, it equates to about three years of therapy, and by this point, he’d need to be an immortal elf to work through all the trauma. If he says he’s having a bad day, he’s having the worst time imaginable but is overall very underdramatic about it since he’s become desensitized. 

Benny: Benny is a very happy, go-lucky guy who finds a silver lining in every situation. Even if he’s having a bad day, he won’t admit to it (can’t let the bad vibes win!) Doesn’t deal well with negative feelings and will immediately try to make himself feel better by whatever means possible. 

Wyatt: 100% overly dramatic. Has plenty of bad days, but more often than not, he’s the culprit behind them. A bad day usually means losing money at the casino, but it can also mean him losing a lighter, running out of drugs, or getting pissed because The Aid didn’t bring him a cold one fast enough. There’s a range; most are not that serious, but he acts like they are. At the end of the day, he just likes to be mad and stew in negativity.  

Vinny: has a bad day when things don’t go according to plan—transport mishaps, a failed hit, an anthrophage attack that ate half his crew, or someone stole cargo right from under his nose; bad days are usually work-related. Probably wouldn’t say word-for-word, “I had a bad day,” but more so, “XYZ got me fucked up,” “fools trippin’ today,” “fucken cannies ate my driver,” “last thing that sonofabitch did was fuck around cause he found out real quick,” etc.  

Waylon: will never admit to having a bad day because that means something/something got to him and ruffled his feathers. He has an image and reputation for being stony and cold to maintain and will not show much emotional range beyond that. Things bother him, but he deals with them quickly and doesn’t make a fuss. 

🐍 Is your OC a good liar? How easy is it for them to tell lies? What is the biggest lie they’ve ever told and did they ever get found out? On the other hand, what is the biggest lie someone has told your OC and did they believe them?

*There’s lots of lying and backstabbing going around, most of which is spoilery and not figured out all the way yet, so I’ll only answer the first half of the question.   

Aid: doesn’t like to lie, but when he needs to, is an excellent one since he thinks about it beforehand and formulates a story or narrative around it. Important to keep in mind that he can emotionally manipulate people but chooses not to unless his back is up against the wall or it’s business. That being said, Wyatt usually knows when he’s lying because of blood-pact shit that I won’t explain here, but essentially Wyatt abuses a forced telepathic link he forges between them. 

Benny: horrible liar, hates lying, and doesn’t like liars

Wyatt: compulsive liar, calls it “alternative truths.” But he has a reputation for this, so people generally don’t believe him, therefore, I think that makes him a bad liar since he’s made himself so unbelievable.  

Vinny: lies frequently and is very good at it; and, more importantly, is good at keeping a lie going. 

Waylon: very good liar. He lies sometimes, but only when “necessary.” He doesn’t like it when other people lie and try to deceive him. He takes dishonesty personally and will use The Aid (since he can telepathically read people) to weed out shady associates and promptly “take care of them.” 

[squadrah]

Formaggio anon again. When you say Formaggio's arc was butchered by DP…I get what you mean, but respectfully, I disagree. I do know that the framing of that scene in the anime vs the manga does seem different. Manga Formaggio seems angry and justs wants to hurry up and get the information out of Narancia, while anime Formaggio starts going a bit "crazy" while talking to him, but they both say the same lines. In the past, I have seen someone make the claim that anime Formaggio comes off as someone who's only in it for the money, I just don't see it. Maybe this is just my personal preference, but I actually like it when Formaggio's a bit unhinged. This is Jojo after all, everyone is like that in one way or another. I also don't think he's always like that, he can absolutely be cold and professional when he needs to (after all, he's pretty two-faced). I just think him being unhinged when he's Really Fucking Pissed Off is interesting to me. But…perhaps it's not very accurate to his facial expressions in the manga, so that's why people are split on it. And I get that. I dunno, I just like all versions of him!!

Welcome back! I see where you are coming from, and I agree that all versions of Formaggio have something to offer, so the more we have of him, the better maybe?

But just to be safe, when I said that his anime character arc was butchered, I didn't just mean about his being characterized as more unhinged, which honestly seems fine if you have only watched the anime and have no reference to the manga, or the anime's choice of handling that part appeals to you more. I watched the anime first for all parts of JJBA so far (and have not read much of the manga beyond getting some way into Vento Aureo), so I would have accepted this at face value had I not been privy to a die-hard Formaggio fan lamenting all the changes that occurred. I did think at the time that his color palette was terrible in comparison to most of the characters, and when I saw how that bottle scene went originally, I felt a stronger dislike to how DP handled Formaggio.

However, what I really took issue with at the end was something that I actually made a passionate twitter thread about, which I will link here in case you want to read the whole. I will quote the part I'm referring to, the biggest issue I had with the anime adaptation:

i present to you: formaggio acknowleding narancia, and telling him he will tell his team how hard he fought when he finds them (and kills them). present in both translations, which means it definitely reflects the original's intent! and it's left completely out of the anime!

this is huge, for two reasons. one, formaggio comfortably expresses this respect. in the course of fighting, he and narancia had become equals. and formaggio also knows how important groups are. he takes pride in his own! so he knows they are important to narancia! (...) do you know who does this same thing? who stops mid-fight to openly acknowledge his opponent's skill and show respect, and who is allowed to have this moment in the anime? prosciutto. (...) and so it is a shame that the anime left out a moment that shows formaggio is capable of being just as genuine. he shows the same respect prosciutto does, and it is not even framed as an apology like prosciutto's acknowledgement is! it is a gesture offered freely!

THIS is my biggest beef with anime Formaggio - that he was denied this. I don't touch upon it in the thread I think, though I only skimmed it, but even Illuso is allowed a moment where he tells Abbacchio that he's got a good teammate in Giorno. Even Illuso can have a moment where we see that he can appreciate camaraderie and support when he sees it, and he is gracious enough to remark on it! Why DP denied Formaggio his gesture is therefore beyond me, and that is why I believe that for some reason the production team just didn't like him.

Anyway, I recommend the thread I linked because I really do go into more detail about everything and gush about Formaggio!

[walkietalkiemaniac]

hiii i’ve been collecting stupid takes about the beef and i want to share them here’s my list so far:

it was manufactured for publicity. yeah makes sense. drake had been getting FANTASTIC publicity since the beef i can see why he’d engage with something so beneficial to his career. it’s for the pr 👍

it was a distraction from palestine (if you’re able to let anything fully distract you from a genecide then oof you need to do better 😬)

kendrick / someone associated with him got a kid to artificially increase streams of not like us. as if there’s a reason,,, or a need for that. drizzy glazers stay coping POORLY.

kendrick is fake / performative because he had dre (only one of the biggest and most influential figures in west coast hip hop) up on stage with him. even though he’s a bad person.

just a moment ago while scrolling through the kendrick tag i came across a post saying that he’s dumb if he doesn’t release his most commercial / digestible album ever. to capitalize on this situation. also suggesting that the reason kendrick went after drake was because he wants to be him. or something. i um. damn. okay. i mean the op did admit to being team drizzy. so.

just the general misunderstanding of the whole thing especially the pop out. i mean there obviously is an element of hatred and hostility but if you actually listen to the lyrics and the message behind everything kendrick has done in the past couple months then it’s clear there’s much more to it. hating drake and what he stands for (or rather lack of what he stands for) seems to have become more of a rallying point and a genesis for love and unity and culture as opposed to the ENTIRE point ykwim? i don’t think it takes a lot to recognize it’s deeper than kendrick being a hashtag hater. kendrick is an incredibly deep and intelligent man and if you think he put on a show like the pop out just because Hater™️ then you’re not paying attention.

kendrick is one of those artists that just has so much substance and intellect behind his work that the general public doesn’t Get ykwim? yet there’s the dichotomy of being one of the biggest most popular hip hop stars ever. artists like that are interesting and i feel bad for them.

anywayyyyy sorry this is really long i just keep seeing tiktok ass opinions and i want to COMPLAIN 🙌

this is valid and an awesome ask cuz i HAD been bitching about moat of these lemme put my hating cap on.

1-this fight had been coming a long time, drake sneak dissing and kendricks possible references to drake and how back to back opposites they are on how they live, maybe drake thought itd be good pr in the first songs but it was just kendrick grabbing the chance by the balls to kill a man who is everything he stands against

2-palestine distraction stuff was weird as hell. people dont see hiphop and black artists as respectable so they cant grasp the importance of the moment, what it means for the entire entertainment industry.

3-just lies lmao kendrick doesnt move like that + that song is all natural

4-okay so dre. i talk myelf in circles about this so let me summarize it into a single sentence: I THINK, kendrick taking up the mantle, the torch, the favor of people from these men and giving it new life as the successor, better, kinder, smarter in his art, is objectively a good thing. it doesnt have to go deeper.

5&6 okay so kendrick ISNT going commercial and he ISNT the fucking dmx interview reference. you spend all your career explaining you think of your art as a tool for betterment, help for those who need it, how you were saved by community and god and self inteospection and you believe in loving yourself and your people into healing and freedom and people still say stupid shit. hes deep when hes on a radio hit and hes deep when hes on a poem. leave him aloneee

fuckkkk all these made me remember how mad i was on twitter 24/7 lmao people are addixted to being wrong about him youre so right tho, mwah

[smokeybrandcompositions]

Gecko

I live in California where our governor decided to hike the minimum wage for fast food workers from the statewide sixteen dollars an hour, to twenty. There are stipulations which need to be met, of course, the biggest of which is a chain would need more than sixty locations nationwide to qualify for this hike. That means, for the most part, only the nigger restaurants were hit with this increase. I’[m talking your McDonalds and your Jack in the Boxes, joints like that. Applebees and Dennys got a past because they aren’t considered fast foot, even though they are all supplied by a Sysco truck. Now, I’m not here to condemn California for making this move. To be perfectly honest, I think it doesn’t go far enough. This wage increase is only for a specific section of the overall workforce. Most people still make the sixteen an hour wage. I think that twenty should be available to everyone, not just burger-flippers but, at the same time, it’s not their fault that legislation has been hobbled politically for almost a decade. My personal beef aside, I’ve been seeing a TON of vitriol for these workers finally getting enough money in their check to pay bills AND buy groceries in the same pay period, because forty of their chicken nuggies cost twenty-six dollars. That sh*t boggles my mind, man.

Seriously, you’re mad these legitimate food service workers are making a decent wage, just because you’re fetid baboon butt cheek burgers are costing more than you want? Someone showed me a price grab of a McDonald’s Big Mac meal costing something like eighteen dollars and the outrage was palpable. You’re telling me the value of that food you want isn’t worth eighteen dollars, and you’re right. That sh*t is trash in every way possible. The aforementioned chicken nuggets aren’t even made of real meat. They’re made from chicken slurry, which is exactly what that sh*t sounds like. No fast food is worth the money you pay for it, and you should absolutely feel some kind of way about it, but that ire is misdirected at the sixteen year old trying to save money for prom, that twenty-two year old working their way through college, or that single mother just trying to make ends meet. You should be mad at the major corporations passing on that way overdue pay increase to you, when their CEOs are making millions a year. I mean, there is a certain societal stigma when it comes to fast food worker, I literally just referred to them as burger flippers, which sees that profession as less than.

We have been conditioned to believe that these fry cooked don’t deserve money to live, because they work a fryer and not a backhoe. I’ve worked at a McDonalds before. I know what goes into that sh*t. I lasted a day. Too much work, too little pay. I, personally, feel like they still don’t make enough with how many hats those cats have to wear, but this new wage is a strong step in the right direction. Those cats, the people on the ground serving you, more than earn that twenty an hour and then some. You know who doesn’t deserve their salaries? Corporate. Corporate doesn’t deserve that loot and they’re the reason your QPC is forty-three dollar, not that twenty an hour California is forcing them to pay their workers. McDonald’s made fourteen and half, BILLION dollars last year. Their CEO made nineteen million last year, alone, and eight percent increase year-over-year. At twenty dollars and hour, that roughly translates thirty eight thousand a year. Let’s say that CEO takes half that nineteen, which is still nine million and change in his pocket, and divide that by said newly minted minimum wage and you get three thousand, four hundred and twenty. Let me throw those numeric in there so I can be very clear, that’s 3,420 people HALF the McDonalds’ CEO can fund for a year. Half of that man’s paycheck, could pay the full years’ worth of wages, for 3,420 of his employees. And that’s just the CEO. That’s not the CFO, the COO, or any of the upper executives who are probably making six figures themselves. The reason your Filet-o-Fish is so goddamn expensive, is corporate greed and I can prove it. In-n-Out exists.

I’ve been seeing so many of these articles and sh*t on Right wing sites (the MSN at my job seems to think that I’m some sort of MAGA cultists but whatever), and they’re claiming the In-n-Out CEO is “standing up” to the draconian Gavin Newsom over his egregious, anti-business, wage increase. And, just on a personal note, f*ck yes we should be anti-business! Being anti-business is why monopolies and child labor are “illegal”, the f*ck? Anyway, the thing is, In-n-Out has always been ahead of the curve in regards to their employee pay. Way back when I worked for McDonald’s in the early Aughts, I was making the freshly minted sever and a quarter an hour. Animal Style was giving their guys two dollars more than what I was making back then. Right after the pandemic, there was one close to me shelling out nineteen an hour. They were paying that post-pandemic, when inflation was starting to ramp up crazy (Thanks. Trump), so I know for a fact why weren’t too far off the twenty. And guess how much they increased their menu? A quarter. Twenty-five f*cking cents. Your Double-Double is a whole ass quarter more than it was in March, and that kid pounding out fresh fries in that wall mounted Veg-o-Matic, made from real potatoes, sourced right here in the good ol’ US of A, can make a substantial wage to maybe impress his crush with a little movie date, followed by put-put, with a enough left over for some ice cream. All on a menu increase of actual chump change.

How is that possible, you might ask? The likes of McDonalds, by far the largest fat food conglomerate in the world with billions served. And billions made, can’t do it, but lowly, California based In-n-Out can while serving actual beef and potatoes in their burgers, can? It’s because In-n-Out is privately owned company. It helps, tremendously, that their CEO is only forty-one, my age, and took the big chair at twenty-seven after literally working her way up through the company. Ma is the legit In-n-Out heiress but made the decision to work on the ground to better understand what her workers were going through. That experience informs her decisions and, fifteen years later, she’s able to pay her workers fairly while treating the customer’s pockets with just as much care. There are no shareholders to appease, no buybacks for and stock packages for executives. Sure, she makes millions, but it’s organic in a way that McDs, and a lot of these other places, don’t. I cannot, for the life of me, find anything on what she makes, but most of her top executives only make in the mid hundred thousand. A comfortable six figures, not seven or right. SO I ask you, if In-n-Out can keep their workers happy, rein in executive pay bloat, and still pull in nearly two billion last year, all in California, why the f*ck can’t anyone else do it? In-n-Out is the blueprint. The only difference is the fact that those Corpos are greedy and there isn’t a check to balance them. Just ;like the In-n-Out thing, I got receipts to prove that sh*t.

You see, in Europe, where unions are strong and Labor has proper representation, workers are supported and the wage reflects that. They have contracts which put stipulations in on where, how long, and what age employees can work. There are night shift differential and increased pay for weekends. There is still traditional overtime but most companies try to avoid that as it taxes pockets hard. As it should. They are able to do all of this, while charging prices comparable to what we pay stateside, and no one complains. No one is standing against the work force, demanding cheaper prices for food that legally has to meet a certain nutritional standard that just doesn’t exists here in the States. Places like McDs are basically just like In-n-Out in terms of overall food quality, because the EU makes them be. That’s because there is regulation over yonder. There are unions. There is basically a worker’s bill of right and all corporations must follow them or they face consequences. Just ask Elon about that when he tried to export Sweden over a Tesla plant. Sh*t did not go the way he wanted and no one cared. In fact, the neighboring countries refused to receive the material to build his cars, in their ports, out of solidarity. And their Big Macs are, like, nineteen dollars apiece. They also have universal healthcare, universal day care, can take a month of paid vacation, and drink from the holy grail whenever they feel like it. That last bit is an exaggeration but the other stuff isn’t. It’s wild seeing so many people here, across the country, licking the f*ck out of that corporate boot, advocating for a system that is telling you they do not want you to have enough money to live, that if they must pay that wage, they’ll get it back by charging you a premium for food it costs them pennies on the dollar to provide. Don’t be mad at the worker for finally getting their due, be made at the corporation for making you pay for it.

[smokeybrand]

Gecko

I live in California where our governor decided to hike the minimum wage for fast food workers from the statewide sixteen dollars an hour, to twenty. There are stipulations which need to be met, of course, the biggest of which is a chain would need more than sixty locations nationwide to qualify for this hike. That means, for the most part, only the nigger restaurants were hit with this increase. I’[m talking your McDonalds and your Jack in the Boxes, joints like that. Applebees and Dennys got a past because they aren’t considered fast foot, even though they are all supplied by a Sysco truck. Now, I’m not here to condemn California for making this move. To be perfectly honest, I think it doesn’t go far enough. This wage increase is only for a specific section of the overall workforce. Most people still make the sixteen an hour wage. I think that twenty should be available to everyone, not just burger-flippers but, at the same time, it’s not their fault that legislation has been hobbled politically for almost a decade. My personal beef aside, I’ve been seeing a TON of vitriol for these workers finally getting enough money in their check to pay bills AND buy groceries in the same pay period, because forty of their chicken nuggies cost twenty-six dollars. That sh*t boggles my mind, man.

Seriously, you’re mad these legitimate food service workers are making a decent wage, just because you’re fetid baboon butt cheek burgers are costing more than you want? Someone showed me a price grab of a McDonald’s Big Mac meal costing something like eighteen dollars and the outrage was palpable. You’re telling me the value of that food you want isn’t worth eighteen dollars, and you’re right. That sh*t is trash in every way possible. The aforementioned chicken nuggets aren’t even made of real meat. They’re made from chicken slurry, which is exactly what that sh*t sounds like. No fast food is worth the money you pay for it, and you should absolutely feel some kind of way about it, but that ire is misdirected at the sixteen year old trying to save money for prom, that twenty-two year old working their way through college, or that single mother just trying to make ends meet. You should be mad at the major corporations passing on that way overdue pay increase to you, when their CEOs are making millions a year. I mean, there is a certain societal stigma when it comes to fast food worker, I literally just referred to them as burger flippers, which sees that profession as less than.

We have been conditioned to believe that these fry cooked don’t deserve money to live, because they work a fryer and not a backhoe. I’ve worked at a McDonalds before. I know what goes into that sh*t. I lasted a day. Too much work, too little pay. I, personally, feel like they still don’t make enough with how many hats those cats have to wear, but this new wage is a strong step in the right direction. Those cats, the people on the ground serving you, more than earn that twenty an hour and then some. You know who doesn’t deserve their salaries? Corporate. Corporate doesn’t deserve that loot and they’re the reason your QPC is forty-three dollar, not that twenty an hour California is forcing them to pay their workers. McDonald’s made fourteen and half, BILLION dollars last year. Their CEO made nineteen million last year, alone, and eight percent increase year-over-year. At twenty dollars and hour, that roughly translates thirty eight thousand a year. Let’s say that CEO takes half that nineteen, which is still nine million and change in his pocket, and divide that by said newly minted minimum wage and you get three thousand, four hundred and twenty. Let me throw those numeric in there so I can be very clear, that’s 3,420 people HALF the McDonalds’ CEO can fund for a year. Half of that man’s paycheck, could pay the full years’ worth of wages, for 3,420 of his employees. And that’s just the CEO. That’s not the CFO, the COO, or any of the upper executives who are probably making six figures themselves. The reason your Filet-o-Fish is so goddamn expensive, is corporate greed and I can prove it. In-n-Out exists.

I’ve been seeing so many of these articles and sh*t on Right wing sites (the MSN at my job seems to think that I’m some sort of MAGA cultists but whatever), and they’re claiming the In-n-Out CEO is “standing up” to the draconian Gavin Newsom over his egregious, anti-business, wage increase. And, just on a personal note, f*ck yes we should be anti-business! Being anti-business is why monopolies and child labor are “illegal”, the f*ck? Anyway, the thing is, In-n-Out has always been ahead of the curve in regards to their employee pay. Way back when I worked for McDonald’s in the early Aughts, I was making the freshly minted sever and a quarter an hour. Animal Style was giving their guys two dollars more than what I was making back then. Right after the pandemic, there was one close to me shelling out nineteen an hour. They were paying that post-pandemic, when inflation was starting to ramp up crazy (Thanks. Trump), so I know for a fact why weren’t too far off the twenty. And guess how much they increased their menu? A quarter. Twenty-five f*cking cents. Your Double-Double is a whole ass quarter more than it was in March, and that kid pounding out fresh fries in that wall mounted Veg-o-Matic, made from real potatoes, sourced right here in the good ol’ US of A, can make a substantial wage to maybe impress his crush with a little movie date, followed by put-put, with a enough left over for some ice cream. All on a menu increase of actual chump change.

How is that possible, you might ask? The likes of McDonalds, by far the largest fat food conglomerate in the world with billions served. And billions made, can’t do it, but lowly, California based In-n-Out can while serving actual beef and potatoes in their burgers, can? It’s because In-n-Out is privately owned company. It helps, tremendously, that their CEO is only forty-one, my age, and took the big chair at twenty-seven after literally working her way up through the company. Ma is the legit In-n-Out heiress but made the decision to work on the ground to better understand what her workers were going through. That experience informs her decisions and, fifteen years later, she’s able to pay her workers fairly while treating the customer’s pockets with just as much care. There are no shareholders to appease, no buybacks for and stock packages for executives. Sure, she makes millions, but it’s organic in a way that McDs, and a lot of these other places, don’t. I cannot, for the life of me, find anything on what she makes, but most of her top executives only make in the mid hundred thousand. A comfortable six figures, not seven or right. SO I ask you, if In-n-Out can keep their workers happy, rein in executive pay bloat, and still pull in nearly two billion last year, all in California, why the f*ck can’t anyone else do it? In-n-Out is the blueprint. The only difference is the fact that those Corpos are greedy and there isn’t a check to balance them. Just ;like the In-n-Out thing, I got receipts to prove that sh*t.

You see, in Europe, where unions are strong and Labor has proper representation, workers are supported and the wage reflects that. They have contracts which put stipulations in on where, how long, and what age employees can work. There are night shift differential and increased pay for weekends. There is still traditional overtime but most companies try to avoid that as it taxes pockets hard. As it should. They are able to do all of this, while charging prices comparable to what we pay stateside, and no one complains. No one is standing against the work force, demanding cheaper prices for food that legally has to meet a certain nutritional standard that just doesn’t exists here in the States. Places like McDs are basically just like In-n-Out in terms of overall food quality, because the EU makes them be. That’s because there is regulation over yonder. There are unions. There is basically a worker’s bill of right and all corporations must follow them or they face consequences. Just ask Elon about that when he tried to export Sweden over a Tesla plant. Sh*t did not go the way he wanted and no one cared. In fact, the neighboring countries refused to receive the material to build his cars, in their ports, out of solidarity. And their Big Macs are, like, nineteen dollars apiece. They also have universal healthcare, universal day care, can take a month of paid vacation, and drink from the holy grail whenever they feel like it. That last bit is an exaggeration but the other stuff isn’t. It’s wild seeing so many people here, across the country, licking the f*ck out of that corporate boot, advocating for a system that is telling you they do not want you to have enough money to live, that if they must pay that wage, they’ll get it back by charging you a premium for food it costs them pennies on the dollar to provide. Don’t be mad at the worker for finally getting their due, be made at the corporation for making you pay for it.

[papirouge]

Regarding the last post you reblogged (American Christians not caring about Middle Eastern Christians); back when my country of origin finally revolted against the communist government a lot of western protestant churches started sending missionaries to convert people away from Orthodoxy. Not a lot of people wanted to convert so my parents have stories of missionaries offering to only financially support the poor who were willing to convert.

What's mind boggling is that these prots looked at all of the faithful who were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, killed, sent to labour camps in Siberia purely for being religious and that wasn't enough for them to see us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Not that they could do anything against the communist government but it's funny that they suddenly cared for people's souls when THEY wouldn't have a chance of being persecuted for their beliefs.

"not that they could do anything against the Communist government" but don't Usamerican evangelicals have a pathological hate boner against Communism though? I mean, Communism have a know beef with religion as far as I know. Those protestants had the opportunity to match their action to their beliefs and take stance against communism and help their Christian brothers against Communism anti Christian dictatorship, amirite? 🙃

Anti communists always stroke me as pathological cowards, anyway. Like how can you be so obsessive and scared of some hollow political movement that hasn't been a thing since decades? 💀 This screams persecution complex and paranoia (there's no wonder they love labeling "communism" literally ANYTHING remotely critical of capitalism or liberalism: to make the threat of Communism bigger than what it actually is)

I always said that when God backed up people, they could really change the world. That's how Ghandi or MLK defeated the biggest empire of their generation by their non violent yet radical world changing actions. I genuinely believe God was behind the abolition/civil rights movement. That's what Romans 13 is actually about and that so little Christians conflate with passivity against government evilness (tbh very few people properly understand Romans 13)

Missionary selectively offering financial support has also one of the reasons colonialism worked so well in Africa btw. By offering "privilege" to specific ethnies or group accepting their offer for conversion they bred division and resentment between people. Stupid rightoids/racialist like to act like ethnic wars as the evidence that races aren't meant to mix/migration flux being the devil, but when you have a brain and look more thoughtfully into History you'll notice there are always economic/political reason to ethnic wars. 2 of the most powerful countries of the world are China and Russia and they are both constituted of a variety of ethnicities (because they took the radical political actions to fight against this division - whether people like it or not, Communism greatly helped on that aspect) yet it doesn't stop them to thrive. Don't say that to racialists and race essentialists - but I digress.

American evangelical are 99% of the time full of it, and my tolerance to their antics is becoming lower by the days....

[the-paris-of-people]

Hi. This is really not a question but more of a rant. A really really long one. I apologize in advance. I honestly care waaaaayyyy too much about this show than I should. Clearly too bored🙈.

After reading people's comments on this show and the ships, there are so many things that irk me and I thought I'd share even if I might get crap for it. So here goes:

1. "Ben only wants Devi when she is with Paxton." I.e. it's about Paxton. Lol people are funny. As though Ben thinks he can compete with Paxton on a social level. He's not stupid, he knows full well he can't. It's about Devi and in part her obsession with Paxton. People don't like thinking about things from Ben's perspective because they just don't like him. He's the one that finds out Devi is cheating, she runs after Paxton at the party ( now granted before she runs out, she's intensely staring at Ben and then realises Paxton is leaving but Ben's not gonna remember that) and she was busy chumming it up with Paxton in episode 3 in front of Ben with absolute disregard for him. So his natural defence is to guard himself and have his walls go up. It is a valid response. He burries his pain (exactly what Samberg said). And does not let his guard down around her romantically until episode 10 when Paxton literally rejects her at school. At the school dance, sparks are flying between those 2. Is Paxton around at the time...Uhm no (I'll get into the whole Aneesa thing). In his mind Paxton is out of the picture and it's like he can almost trust her again. And then when Paxton shows up with Devi, he basically feels like a fool for ever thinking that he was ever something more than 2nd best or sometimes anything at all ( especially considering Devi still wants Paxton after Devi and Paxton's last public interaction that Ben witnessed- I mean he does not get to see the shit behind closed doors). But then when Eleanor spills the tea, that look on his face is disbelief, yes a little bit of jealousy but overwhelmingly heartbreak. He is essentially watching the chance he never knew he had go away. Now you could argue that he should have known that she wanted him back but she broke his trust and does not explicitly say, " I want you back". Ben's not trying to get burnt again based on some assumption/hunch. He has been wrong before.

2. "How dare Ben be upset that Devi is with Paxton when he is with Aneesa". Fair point. Just like how dare Devi be upset and lose her shit over Ben and Aneesa. But yet it still happend. Devi gets 5 episodes allowing her to be upset and Ben can't even have one moment when a firkken bomb gets dropped on him.

Aneesa and Ben should have never date. Everyone knows that. He was never over Devi. He just pushed those feelings down to make him believe he was over her. I obviously don't agree with this. Aneesa doesn't deserve that. Ben needs to go to therapy. He needs an outlet. He is similar to Devi in that he doesn't want to process what happened and would rather move on and react. However, his reactions are far less impulsive/severe as Devi's. Him dating Aneesa is unfortunately a reaction. He didn't give himself time to really process how he feels. People say he dated Aneesa solely to spite Devi which is not true. Is there an element of " you never wanted me but someone else does"... absolutely but Aneesa is also very kind to Ben, they get along really well and she puts him first. Technically what's not to like. I mean if it was just to spite Devi, could he have not tried to hustle his way back in with Shira?? Problem is that dumb dumb didn't work through his Devi feelings and let's just be honest, the same spark and chemistry he has with Devi, is missing with Aneesa. It often feels forced, especially in regards to the pace of the relationship. I so wished Aneesa remained friends with Ben. That's what he needed...not another relationship.

3. "Aneesa is so amazing, she doesn't deserve to get hurt." I agree. She absolutely doesn't deserve to get hurt just like Ben and Paxton didn't deserve that crap Devi pulled. I think Aneesa is a great addition and I like that Devi has someone within her community to connect to. I'm South Asian myself and I genuinely value this aspect of my own life. I mean she is pretty great, kind and the anorexia rumour Devi unintentionally started was pretty heartbreaking. That scene where she talks to Devi at the relay about it, is so sad (especially coz we as viewers know Devi messed up). Now that being said is Aneesa also low key shady? YES. And it's not because she dated her friend's ex. It's because she started dating him knowing that Devi started the rumour about her because she was jealous about Ben and her. How does she think Devi would go from being so jealous that she starts a rumour, to the next week becoming their biggest "Stan". Come on girl. But there was no way Devi could say no after the crap she pulled with Aneesa. Ben did ask her out so if there is blame, he absolutely gets it too but he didn't know why Devi started that rumour (based on his surprised AF face when Eleanor spills the tea). Which leads me to my next question. Why didn't Aneesa tell him? Aneesa said Ben was supporting her through the rumour. She probably told him Devi started the rumour but didn't tell him why? That is odd? Clearly if Ben had known, he may changed his perspective on Devi actually wanting him instead of ignoring his feelings.

Lastly Aneesa knows there are unresolved feelings between Devi and Ben. This is evident from that dance scene. She literally runs to cut in their pretty intense conversation. Like why you running girl? I didn't think much of it at first but coupled with another moment, it makes a lot of sense. When Ben agrees to dance with Aneesa, he looks back at Devi and lingers and Aneesa picks up on this and pulls him away. It's a blink and you will miss it moment but it is there.

Now all of this doesn't mean she needs to get hurt but they probably need to break up. Ben needs to be single for a while and work through how he feels about Devi, Aneesa and most importantly himself. Whilst I don't particularly enjoy their relationship, you never get to see it from either of their perspectives. Maybe that could change things but honestly I just prefer Ben and Devi.

Also can everyone stop acting like Ben is dating Devi's best friend. Being brown doesn't make you automatically best friends and Ben and Devi met Aneesa the same week. People are acting like he is dating Eleanor.

4. "Devi chose Paxton". Please! The only thought through decision that girl made in regards to these 2 boys is when she chose herself and decided not to be Paxton's little secret. I mean in episode 1 and 2 she can't decide so she dates both. In episode 3, she interacts with Paxton because of the whole tutoring thing. He says they don't makes sense. While she seems a bit sad she doesn't seem too upset like she is season 1 and she isn't looking for any opportunity to spend time with him (unlike season 1). Episode 4,5,6,7 and 8 she is losing her mind over Ben. Half way through 8 she knows she has no choice but to let him go. But even after that she doesn't pursue Paxton. He does that at the end of episode 9 when in all honesty she hasn't really thought about him in a while. Then of course Paxton does what he does and she finally choose herself, issuing an ultimatum essentially. Paxton does eventually show up...but it's a choice by default. She just yo-yo's between them. She also needs to be single, deal with her loss, love herself and think about what she wants.

5. "Devi loves Paxton". Sure bud. Does have Devi have feeling for Paxton? Duh! But is it love. Nope. People like to confuse infatuation for love. She has been infatuated with this boy this the 3rd (she knew squat about him). When her dad died, she turns that infatuation into an obsession. It like becomes a full time hobby in season 1. She ruins relationships over it. In season 2 you can argue there is more depth to it and Paxton does grow in Season 2. But somehow she is still fixated on the fact that it's Paxton Hall-Yoshida. I mean she smells him (totally normal), Mc Enroe's comment at the relay was, "did this hunk of beef just say he likes spending time with her", when she breaks up him she says , "you are very good at kissing" not possibly any of his other good qualities. And at the end she says , "I guess I'm Paxton Hall Yoshida's girlfriend now". This boy is so far up a pedestal that if he fell of it, he'd break something. Now granted if he fell of it in Season 1, he'd be dead. So progress I guess...

Maybe the relationship will change in Season 3 and she genuinely falls in love with him. I mean Id be sad but obviously a real possibility. But also that relationship needs to move on from being just the "Paxton project" which it was basically all of season 2. Maybe actually talk about her every once in a while.

Also people who find the ending so amazing because he shows up...bare minimum bro. I understand his perspective, how does it look to go back with someone who cheated on you. Fair point 💯. However she didn't start this shit up again. He did. He liked her so much that he had to make out with her In the middle of the night out of the blue but not enough to respect her publically. That's some BS right there. If he started it, he should have thought it through instead of guilt tripping her. But he is a teenager and ALL of them make incredibly stupid decisions (we all have). Devi messed up big time too and she apologized. The same compassion must extend to him but in no way is it a grand gesture, it's the bare minimum...like her apologies

6. "Paxton forgave Devi forgave Devi so quickly whilst Ben didn't and was so mean". He did forgive her pretty quickly. Good for him. However let's not act like circumstance didn't carve the way for that. They were pushed together because of the whole tutoring thing and he knows that they have to see each other all the time. So logically just makes sense to keep the peace. But still mature oh his part. Also he wasn't as emotionally invested as Ben. Did he have feelings? Yes. However, based on his inner monologue (Gigi Hadid) his ego took more of a hit because how could Devi, the "weirdest girl" he ever liked two time him with Ben Gross. Did his feelings deepen by the end? Yes. But at the start...it isn't that deep.

Also it's great and all that he "forgave" her so quickly but he sure did like bringing it up a lot. Like at the relay guilting her, upset at the end of 6 because he failed...I mean wtf girl you owe me- I don't really care what else is going on in your life, again in episode 8 in the car and finally we all know the mess that is episode 10.

In regards to Ben. His anger is justified for reasons stated in point 1. In fact his reaction seems more real because he is deeply hurt by Devi. Do I like some of his reaction (i.e. nose piercing-will discuss this further) ...nope but she only sincerely apologises to him in episode 8 vs 3 for Paxton. He accepts it. People acting like they would be so calm and chill about being cheated on. And yes he did cheat on Shira. He tries to kiss Devi at party twice but apologises that day and the following week. He doesn't try anything with Devi the whole of episode 10 until she kisses him. He acknowledges that it was wrong and immediately breaks up with Shira. Although cheating is not something we should condone can we actually acknowledge that Shira was the worst and doesn't even remember Ben's name. Compare that to Devi's premeditated cheating. Her Eleanor are literally laughing at how amazing they are for pulling it off and Devi didn't care about either of their feelings cause she was going to be India. Sorry but that is far worse. She also thinks she can bullshit her apology with Ben. He isn't here for that...which is fine! He kept trying his level best to avoid her but even that she wouldn't let him do.

7. "Ben is Horrible". Has Ben done some shitty things. Absolutely. People complain that he has never apologised for anything. Fair enough. He needs to apologize for the UN comment and the psychosomatic comment. It was incredibly hurtful. However, no one does call him out of it. Now you could argue he should just do it. Please... have you watched these particular set of teenagers? None of them apologise without being called out on it first(except maybe Fabiola). And you only get called out my your support system ... which Ben does not have. He practically looks like he raised himself. He doesn't have parents to put him back in line or a sister to call him out on his shit. Devi has her mom, cousin, grandmum , Elanor, Fabiola and her therapist. Does she ever listen to them the first time? Nope. And her first time apologies are such messes. She only gets it right the 2nd or 3rd time. All of them have some form of support but not really him. And it is heartbreaking. It's why I genuinely believe he needs to go to therapy. He needs an outlet to express everything he feels. He also needs to be held accountable for those comments and understand the root of it (ok let's be honest Devi even in their rivalry was probably the most constant person in his life, and fighting with her meant she stayed close by- it's a subconscious thing). He should apologize to her and also find better ways to communicate what he is feeling. The nose ring thing was manipulative. I agree. He should apologize. But I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't piss me off as much because I think it's pretty messed that it took that for her to realise how much she hurt him. Also tbh if you were willing to alter your body on a 2 minute thought out dare, you wanted to do it anyway. But again not a healthy way to emote on Ben's part. The David thing doesn't upset me because he knows how to pronounce her actual name. It's not like he doesn't know how and doesn't bother to try. It was part of their rivalry to irritate her. I honestly find it quite endearing as part of their friendship and think Devi does. I may be wrong and she may not like it and in that case he needs to stop and apologize.

I am not upset by him coming over to her house and calling her out about Aneesa. She deserved it. Also if she was that uncomfortable she could have taken him outside to talk like she did with Paxton. She is clearly comfortable enough to have him in the house. And her therapist agrees with Ben. If he hadn't, she wouldnt have known that Aneesa was leaving. Her mom took away her phone. And even then her first attempt at an apology was soooooo bad. And I don't think Ben did it solely to get Aneesa to stay so he could date her. This is Ben, he was willing to do long distance with Devi from India, I think he could have done the same with Aneesa from like the same town 🙄

I genuinely like Ben because he is a good kid. He makes mistakes like they all do. His personality is hilarious to watch but also his and Devi's relationship is so special. Me liking Ben and Devi has nothing to do with what Paxton has or has not done. I just like the dynamic between the two. They obviously care deeply for each other. Their conversations are hilarious. I love their banter. I love how comfortable they are with each and am sometimes surprised by the depth of their conversations. But also they have amazing chemistry. All the jealous looks and angst are between these two idiots pining for each other. I think she does have chemistry with Paxton but it's more because he is PHY, school Adonis. I mean let's be honest, he'd probably have chemistry with Fabiola solely cause he is PHY. The two nerds just match each other and it's so funny how often they are in sync. It's honestly adorable. They just get each other. That bathroom scene was the sweetest thing and also proves he's not this terrible person. She only comes out of the stall because of his support. He is genuinely hurt for her when technically it should have been a great moment for him.

I do believe the two have to be single for a bit before admitting their feelings for one another and moving forward. That's why my main thing for season 3 is that he absolutely cannot interfere in her relationship with Paxton. He needs to give her the space to figure that. Do I think there will be moments between them... absolutely but no cheating please. Everyone needs to move on from that. If they do it...I honestly think il be done with the show.

Anyways sorry for the really long ramble. If you made it to the end thanks for your patience 😌

Thank you for this beautiful masterpiece, I pretty much agree with everything and need to put it out there for the world to see

[oh-boy-me]

Demon Outfits Discussed

The wait is over :) thank you for your patience and all the lovely comments on the casual discussion!!

I feel like it got longer this time, so I hope it’s all an enjoyable read!  Also, I apologize for the ugly pictures--it was the easiest and fastest way to both have all the design in one image and also prevent it from stretching so far.

Like last time, please don’t take this too seriously; we love these boys and Justin doesn’t know them but has no grudges against them.  We’re just harping on their fashion sense.  Absolutely no hate is intended towards the boys or the design team!

Participants in the discussion were

Jo ( @jodaneko ), our art major with storyboarding/character design experience, who finds they have more in common with Satan each passing day.

Justin ( @justinlester0629 ), our fashion expert, who dressed up and filled a wine glass with water for the occasion.

Noodle (Me), our untrained eye who owns the Barbie as the Island Princess video game on three different platforms.  It’s not even that good.

Featuring emergency guest star Megan ( @maggo77​ ), my sister who is physically near me as we look at the backs of their designs for the first time.

Edit: Distracted by the pretty jacket, we made a mistake when putting in Levi’s silhouette rating.  It’s the worst.  2/10, not 6.

Lucifer:

“Boy looks like he’s about to swing open the doors of an expensive mansion during a debutante party and give some SCATHING NEWS.” —Justin

“Short shoulder cape and a long split butt cape lol” —Jo

Jo has realized that based on both outfits, Lucifer doesn’t want people looking at his butt.  Possible reasons are: he doesn’t have one, or Diavolo someone was getting distracted.

His shoes match his outfit.  After last time that’s all I care about.

A triple popped color, and how many layers is the middle one?  Is that a book?  Dude has like 27 collars.

The forehead diamond is very important and it’s great that there are diamond buttons to match it.  But uh.  How about those red diamonds on his sleeves.  They.  They sure are there.  (I actually like the red accents and that they match his gloves; I just can’t take the diamonds seriously.)

  Lucifer 🤝 Some Horses Diamond on the Forehead

The peacock motif is HERE and we’re all living for it.  HOWEVER, the feathers on the cape and coattails should have matched, OR there should have been more lime green because there’s so little of that color.

The pants have a pleat in the front, which Justin says means he responsibly irons his clothes, and Jo says only heightens the fact that under the capes this is a marching uniform.

Can he fly?  Jo says these are baby wings that can’t support his weight, and his cape has a hole for the top pair but blocks the bottom pair?  Can’t believe Lucifer handicapped himself for the sake of fashion.

The red makes it regal and the wide flowy design makes it imposing.  Good job, Lucifer!  I might actually be intimidated if I saw you.

Definitely the classiest outfit.  You can tell they put care into it.

Mammon:

“BITCH MY BODY CANNOT TAKE THIS KIND OF SEXY, I THINK I AM OVERHEATING!  NO MORE FURTHER COMMENTS, YOUR HONOR.  HAUTE AND HOT.” —Justin

The whole thing does amazing with only three colors.  We’ve noticed the trend of black and white + one color, but I mean hey.  It’s working so far.

Damn those pants sit low.  No wonder literally all of you wear belts.

The leather jacket?  The studs and harness?  Bless.  Justin calls it “the perfect blend of stylish and ‘I’ll see you tonight *wink*’”.

Kind of don’t like how the belts connect to the pants, though.  It looks better in the back.

“He found a really cool jacket, but it didn’t pair with anything so he just didn’t wear anything.” —Jo

Honestly though?  We’ve all made fun of Mammon for having big hoe energy in his outfits, but like, he knew he had wings and planned his outfit to accommodate for that.  He’s the only one who didn’t cut holes in his outfit.  Maybe Mammon was the smallest hoe after all.

Also if there’s a motif it repeats elsewhere, like the studs and diamonds on his jacket and pants.  Did he and Lucifer have a “tastefully putting diamonds on my outfit” battle?  Because Mammon definitely won.

One of the charms broke off the belt loop and he never bothered to replace it, and honestly thank god there isn’t two of those anymore.

Torn between wishing the boots were tighter to match the rest of the outfit and saying “yoooo they’re open in the back!!!”

Ok so so far we’ve said generally only good things, but there is one major issue with the design: Its gravity.  Everything points down, his tattoos, the diamonds, even his wings.  The center of gravity in the image is his shoes.  Bitch loved his shoes so much he made his whole outfit point to them.

Either way this was universally considered the best and I mourn Justin who doesn’t know how far Mammon’s standards are gonna fall from here.

Leviathan:

Diagonal zipper

“Levi what the fuck.” —Megan

He looks like an e-boy.

Honestly it looks like he borrowed something from Justin’s wardrobe for Pride but he didn’t know how to put it on.

APPARENTLY the biggest hoe.  Abs that he shouldn’t have coming through a mesh t-shirt.  I thought Mammon’s pants were low, but Levi’s whole-ass ass is out.  Ok Levi, I see you.

The shirt pattern is good but he probably leaves it partially unzipped because it’d look really dumb fully closed.

Justin loves the funky pants pattern and Jo likes the pants but not with the outfit.  It’s because the devs were too coward to give him a thick tail base so his pants had to fill that role by sharing the pattern.

The shoes are good, and not just because they incited Justin’s deep-set hatred for Christian Louboutin and his uncomfortable red-bottom shoes.

Justin is offended that he’s hiding his suspenders; either show them completely or not at all, no in between.  Jo’s not fully convinced it isn’t just one suspender.  What are his suspenders doing?  What are they attached to?  Are they holding anything up?  Apparently not.

Jo pointed out that if you squint the belt on his waist looks like fangs and the orange dots on his sleeves looks like eyes so it’s like theres a snake head on his outfit.  Cute!

The gloves are throwing us off though.  Why is Levi of all other brothers need gloves?  I bet he has sweaty hands.

Ok really, does his sweater unzip all the way into two pieces?  Or does it hang by that tiny thread underneath the tail hole?  There’s even a button, just in case.

Can’t believe this antler-sporting, suspender-wasting nerd went diagonal zipper on us because we beat him at a trivia game.  Should have just zipped his hood.

Satan:

HONEY.

“I hate everything about this.” —Megan

First of all, he’s straight up wearing Lucifer’s casual shirt.  Does it only button down the back?  Can he take it off?

Then he spilled bleach on his pants.  Like I get what they were going for but with the white on black that is literally just bleach stains.

Incredibly differing opinions on the belt.  He got it in the cowboy department.  Justin adores it.  Jo despises it.

And are those… athletic slip ons?

And now the elephant in the room.  The ribcage made of ribbons.  The ribboncage.  The idea is great!  I love that they gave him a skeletal theme without throwing him into a Hot Topic.

But if you take the ribboncage and feather boa off he’s literally just wearing a dress shirt and some nice jeans.  And that’s the problem with Satan’s demon form.  Not that it looks goofy.  It’s that they took risks but then hid all the risks behind business casual.

Also Megan said that the back of the ribbons look like a rock climbing harness.  Someone (probably Justin) said the front reminds them of the underbelly of a green cockroach.  Ew.

The feather boa would look better if it was over something you wouldn’t literally wear at the office.  (And also didn’t look so much like worm on a string.)

“He is going to Dragcon 2020 and is definitely going to take a picture and ask to lip sync, but accidentally start beef with Acid Betty.” —Justin

On a good note, loving how the tail fades to highly radioactive green.  Feels dangerous.  Megan pointed out that it’s a pretty wimpy tail, though.  Jo enjoys the self-conscious posture it expresses.

That’s basically the only good thing we have to say, though.

I just????

Merry Christmas.

Asmodeus:

The kanji on the picture is just saying that the coattail is the same on both sides.

Ok now with that out of the way, HONEY.

I’m sure he says that to others but I hope he says it to himself too when he looks in the mirror.

Starting with the good.  The wings?  Adorable.  The heart-shaped hole to accommodate them?  Adorable.  One of the only good adjustments.

And I love that the tips of his horns look venomous, like a scorpion tail!

We love a good floral design and a good twin tailcoat.

But once again, the shirt just has too much going on.  The flowers.  The buttons.  The brick-pattern stitching.  The brooch.  The long collar.  The fact that if he closed the last button it’d end in a diamond covering his crotch.  Sometimes less is more, Asmo.

That scorpion brooch is the best thing to ever grace my computer screen and it shouldn’t have to share the spotlight with the rest of his shirt.  It should have wrapped around his arm and been paired with some more jewelry.  Then he could have ditched those giant cuffs.

The bleeding heart tattoos are a really good idea!  But they should have been angled better and not like someone else put them on at the roller rink.  And maybe they shouldn’t have been outlined in pink.  Those aren’t tattoos, those are gaping holes in his arm.  Is he ok.

I’ve been avoiding the pants, but.  The pants.

“Oh dear god. Oh no that’s… I thought you were a designer…” —Jo

One side is buckled the ENTIRE way down, and then the other side is COMPLETELY plain.  It’s too extreme on both ends.  It should have been only half a leg of buckles.  Not whatever this is.  I still don’t think he can bend that leg.

The shoes are ok but they COULD have been a stiletto so.

Jo is DONE with these demons’ inability to wear socks.

We expected better from you, Asmo.  I hope you have to fasten all those buckles every morning as retribution.

Beelzebub:

He said “how many belts can I wear on one outfit.”

Justin said it’s like Barry B. Benson and Post Malone had a beautiful baby boy, and Obey Me! is cancelled for creating a sequence of events that could lead to me hearing that with my own two ears.

The jacket?  Stunning.  “It’s steampunk mixed with Jack Sparrow, mixed with Billie Joe Armstrong,” says Justin.  It’s got puffy sleeves!  And there’s objectively too much going on with the jacket, but since it’s a leather jacket I can forgive it.  Justin and Jo can’t.

I’m not sure why they keep giving him weird jacket collars but I prefer belt number 9 to fur.

“Why is it bucked in the back?  Couldn’t it have just been a jacket?” —Megan

Good that the black tank isn’t only black, but he has so little color on his outfit that it would have been nice for it and the matching pattern on his boots to have been a color besides gray.

I don’t mind the belts down the leg because they’re not too in your face.  Jo wants the white belt to be thinner.  Justin wants him to just pick one and go with it.

Poor Beel, he can’t do his lil thigh pat pose without his right hand being assaulted by studs and that bear trap-shaped buckle.

Justin feels like the cowboy boots are too wide up top and it’s probably because they’re FAKE cowboy boots.  I don’t know why he didn’t just get cowboy boots instead of putting fake coverings over his dress shoes.

Can’t fault the twin belt, though.  And the wing hole isn’t terrible.

Idk I guess.  They knew what they wanted to do at least.  

That seems to be the pattern with Beel: they know what they want to do, but something weird happens in the middle of it.

Belphegor:

“I don’t know which Teletubby let their son go through the it’s just a phase mom phase, but they should be ashamed.” —Justin

A toddler who just learned how to cut holes in paper got a hold of his hoodie.

Is it a hoodie?  A jacket?  A poncho?  The cow print actually isn’t terrible.  At least it had the decency to be unique in its spotting.  And the actual presence of blue is very appreciated.

On the topic of colors, Jo is calling the devs out on their apparent fear of color.  “Put the pink elsewhere, cowards,” they say.

We actually don’t hate the horseshoe, and using it for the belt buckles is actually really clever.  Even if 75% of them are doing literally nothing.  Feel like he didn’t need that many.  Could do without the bottom one, maybe even bottom two.

There’s a teeeeny tiny cowbell on the back?  Megan apparently finds that VERY important.  Why do they go to such great lengths to remind us that Belphie’s a cow?  Beel doesn’t rub his hands together 24/7.  Mammon doesn’t even get bird wings.

Just like Satan spilled bleach, Belphie has tar pants.

It’s nice to see a change in pant style, but.  Am I biased because I hate harem pants?  Maybe.  Are these harem pants too short on him?  Yes.  Maybe they were supposed to be parachute capris?  But it just looks he outgrew them too fast and Lucifer won’t buy him new pants yet.  At least they look comfy.

If he puts his keys in those pockets will his pants fall down?  Probably.  That’s a problem considering his are the only pants that look like they could hold any keys.

The shoes are fine.  I can enjoy a high topped sneaker.  …Is that a security tag?  Did he steal his shoes.  Belphie stole his shoes.

On the tiny tail hole, I appreciate that Belphie went for modesty.  But I hope it’s impossible to wear these outfits outside of demon form because I don’t want him walking around with a tiny hole right above his ass.

Honestly he doesn’t even look like a demon?  He just looks like… a cow.

There’s one more aspect of their demon forms that I didn’t feel comfortable forcing into a smaller space than it deserved: Silhouettes.  Jo puts a lot of weight on silhouettes and their role in character design.  Is it dynamic?  Is it recognizable?  Jo ranked them as such:

1. Lucifer: 9/10.  Care and effort were put into this design and it shows. 2. Mammon: 7/10.  Points deducted for most of it being form fitting but otherwise still manages to get a passing grade. 3 (tied). Beelzebub: 5/10.  His wings have actual mass but his horns being mostly hidden by his head reduce his score. 3 (tied). Belphegor: 5/10.  Evens out since his clothes aren’t as form fitting as the others but they also kind of turn him into a blob. 5. Asmodeus: 4/10, and only because he’s got multiple wings and that his tailcoat breaks up the bottom half. 6. Satan: 3/10, for the fact HIS BOA carries most of the work in altering his silhouette. 7. Leviathan: 2/10.  The tail and horns prevent this from being a total flop.

Our (surprisingly unanimous!) ranking of their outfits (not counting Megan her opinions deviated) were:

Mammon

Lucifer

Leviathan

Belphegor

Beelzebub

Asmodeus

Satan

In conclusion, any M-rated fic that doesn’t have it take demon Satan 20 minutes to take off his shirt is too unrealistic.

[buffyandwillow]

i finished season 2 of Never Have I Ever and i really enjoyed it!! the one thing bugging me right now, though, is fabiola's relationship with eve.

while i appreciate the positive intentions behind including canon lgbt relationships, so many of them end up feeling.......... how do i put it.............. insipid and lacking depth? i have a number of problems with eve, specifically, the first being i don't think i can describe a single thing about her outside of mentioning, like, media she enjoys? she likes the movie carol? also she wears a leather jacket i guess. lesbian love interests being sort of one-dimensional side characters while straight characters get to date people who feel more complete is a problem i've seen a bunch of times and i always find it grating.

the main thing that's bothering me, though, is that i don't think their relationship is portrayed as being especially healthy... but i think.... we are supposed to think it is? and i am all about seeing flawed relationships explored!! that's not the problem. the problem is that i am genuinely not sure if the narrative is aware of the flaws in their relationship or not. it is made pretty clear that the way paxton was treating devi was not healthy, and that the way that malcolm was treating eleanor was not healthy. but with fabiola and eve.... instead of eve being at all questioned, we got a love declaration? we got a "look how happy our girl is" scene? and i want to be happy for her! i do!! but i just couldn't buy it at all.

my specific problem with fabiola/eve is that fabiola is constantly making sacrifices in their relationship.... while eve (as far as i can remember) doesn't make any. imo sacrifices and compromises are often necessary in making healthy relationships last - but it can only be healthy if it's a balanced thing. eve doesn't seem to make much of an effort to hang out with fabiola's friends. fabiola, meanwhile, spends considerable time with eve's friends even while they make very little effort to get to know her or to include her in their conversations. because of that, fabiola never seems very happy to be with them... and eve clearly knows that she is uncomfortable! i think she might make a "hey, be nice!" comment to sasha... once? seriously, what? you let your friends belittle your girlfriend's interests for an entire season without sticking up for her? come on, eve. you can do better. and... biggest of all... fabiola unwillingly sacrifices her leadership of the robotics team - something that is so incredibly important to her - to win a popularity contest... for eve. and like, yeah, i know she thinks she's doing it for a good cause. but fabiola's the one who has to give up her club meetings and get an entire makeover (in which she presumably had very little say). fabiola's the one who has to literally become a different person in order to win. eve doesn't have to do shit all! and we are supposed to support this relationship? am i really supposed to believe that eve thinks that fabiola is the most beautiful person in the world? (i mean, she is. but that's not the point, because -) am i really supposed to believe that eve even knows fabiola? if she really had fabiola's best interests at heart, she would have found a way to petition for cricket queen & queen while incorporating fabiola's love of robotics into their ~campaign~. like i don't care if it's not cool?!?! be creative!! basically anyone can be convinced to think robots are cool. it's not fucking mission impossible!

anyway - it doesn't feel at the moment like it's something that's going be addressed. it kinda feels like something the writers didn't think very long and hard about. and that's my beef with season 2 at this very moment.

[elisaphoenix13]

Once Upon A Summer (Ch.6)

Peter was content to sit on the wet sand and build sand castles. Or more like sand piles since beach toys we're not on Friday's "necessary supplies for temporary toddlers". Which was fine. Stephen offered to take a gateway to the store to buy some if it was necessary, but so far, it seemed it wasn't. While he built sandcastles, they relaxed in the cabana with one eye on Peter at all times. Two if they counted the one eye from both of them.

"Pete, you don't go any closer to the water." Tony calls out and gets an affirmative from the toddler. When he looks over at the sorcerer sitting on one of the cabana beds, he chuckles when he finds him applying sunscreen. "Got enough there?"

Stephen huffs. "Probably not. Even under here, the sun will find me and burn me if I'm not careful."

"Burn like a lobster?" Tony asks.

"Not everyone is blessed with skin that welcomes UV rays. I'm sure if you sit out in the sun unprotected, you just get a nice tan." Stephen says as he holds the sunscreen out to Tony. "Could you help me with my back?"

"You'll take any excuse to have me touch you won't you? You really just have to ask~" Tony smirks and Stephen chucks the sunscreen at him before he can grab it.

Tony chuckles as he bends over to pick it up, then sits near Stephen to help apply the cream to his back. The sorcerer took the responsibility of watching Peter in the meantime, giving Tony time to appreciate the skin under his hands. To appreciate Stephen in general. Over the past few days, Tony started to notice little things about him, but the biggest of them all was the loneliness he seemed to catch in Stephen's eyes. Just yesterday, Tony asked him if he was the only one that was living in the Sanctum but the sorcerer had told him that there was another man there. Who was currently watching the Sanctum until this mishap with Peter was resolved.

Something told Tony that this other sorcerer wasn't the greatest company...at least in the way of conversation. When Tony saw him at the beginning of this whole ordeal, Stephen had been terse and closed off. But over the past few days, his stress was starting to melt away and Tony was seeing the doctor relaxed and (hopefully) even enjoying himself. Even with their situation.

"Hey Doc." Tony starts.

"Hmm?"

"You're welcome to come here or to the tower even after the kid is back to normal." He says. "I'll tell Friday to give you clearance."

Stephen looks over at him. "...why?"

Tony finishes applying the sunscreen and closes the cap. "I'll admit that having you around has been a breath of fresh air. It's fun when someone can actually quip back...and...you also look like you could use the company. Or a periodic trip to the beach."

"You realize I can go anywhere in the world I want?" Stephen points out and Tony sighs.

"It was just an offer."

He wouldn't admit how disheartening it was to be brushed off like that, but it was probably just karma. Tony wasn't innocent of doing that to other people from time to time. He just didn't understand why Stephen and his well being was getting under his skin like this. Sure the younger man was very nice to look at, and Tony did enjoy their banter and his one sided flirting-

Wait.

Was Tony…? Nope. Impossible.

"Thank you." Stephen suddenly says quietly, pulling Tony from his thoughts. "Maybe I will."

There was that butterfly feeling. His chest fluttered and Tony couldn't help but smile. Maybe this was what he thought it was after all? He'd heard people explain the feeling...but he was just flirting with Stephen to get a rise out of him and because it was fun.

...right?

He honestly didn't know anymore. It started out that way at least. Stephen was more than nice to look out so his flirting was actually a little genuine, but it felt different from how he flirted with others. He actually wanted to do anything he could to keep Stephen happy, and he had been pleasantly surprised when the sorcerer accepted his invitation to take a small vacation in his rebuilt Malibu mansion. This domestic environment they had was...Tony couldn't even explain it. But he knew he liked it. He knew that he wouldn't complain if it lasted forever.

"Daddy! Look!" Peter calls out and Tony looks over at his sandcastle with a grin. It was more of a pile of sand but the toddler looked pleased with his work and Tony wasn't going to ruin that for him.

"Look at that Pete! How about we find some shells to decorate it?" He says as he gets up from the cabana bed he's sitting on to walk over to the boy.

"Shells?" Peter asks curiously with a cute tilt to his head.

"Yup. Come on." Tony holds out his hand and helps Peter to his feet.

The two spend the next ten minutes looking for the perfect shells to decorate Peter's sand pile and the boy even picks some to take home. Tony couldn't say no when he saw the pure delight on his kid's face so each hand held shells for either the sandcastle or to take home. Watching Peter decide what to do with the newest shell he found was adorable. He'd pick up a shell, turn to Tony, then look between each of his hands before making his decision and carefully placing it.

"Alright buddy. I don't think I can hold anymore. How about we go decorate your castle then go eat?" Tony suggests.

"Kay!" Peter scurries back to his sandcastle and takes a shell one at a time from Tony's hand after the man sits down, decorating his sandpile just the way he wanted. "All done!" He says after a little bit with a big smile.

"Looks great Pete."

"How about some lunch?" Stephen calls from the cabana.

"Turkey sammich!" Peter giggles and gets up to run over to the cabana, leaving Tony to get up with one of his hands still full of shells and brush himself off.

As Tony walked over to join them, he watched as Stephen got Peter settled at the low table with his sandwich, cut up into triangles as requested, and a juice box. Well he tried with the juice box anyway. The sorcerer's hands shook a little too much for him to put the straw in so Tony silently took the juice after setting the shells aside safely. Fortunately, Stephen nodded in acceptance and didn't take offense to the help Tony offered. Either he knew Tony was just trying to help, or he knew it was important to get the toddler his juice. Maybe both.

"Thank you." Peter says politely when Tony hands him his juice box and takes a sip before putting it down to bite into his sandwich.

"You're welcome. Did you say thank you to Mom?" Tony asks, ignoring Stephen's sigh.

Peter's eyes widen and he looks at Stephen. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." The sorcerer chuckles.

"Thanks for making lunch." Tony says as he takes his tuna sandwich from Stephen.

"Don't get used to it."

Tony laughs. "It was nice while it lasted I guess. Maybe I'll make you and Peter my mom's lasagna."

"You cook?" Stephen asks in surprise as he and Tony join Peter at the table.

"Every once in a blue moon. I'm honestly only good with pasta, sauce, and sandwiches." Tony admits. "And whatever I can nuke in the microwave. What about you?"

"Quite well actually. Just don't ask me to make anything too extravagant."

"No beef wellington. Noted."

Stephen chuckles and they enjoy their lunch while enjoying the warm weather, the gentle breeze, and the sounds of the waves crashing. Peter was too busy eating to fill the remaining silence with his usual chatter, but Tony took that as a win. Toddlers were notorious for picking at their food and talking a mile a minute. Peter finished his food without a fuss and even let Tony wipe his face and hands with a napkin before he got too sticky from the juice.

"Play?" Peter asks.

"For a little while longer. Then we'll go back home and wash your shells, okay?" Tony says. "Stay where we can see you and stay away from the water until one of us can take you."

"Kay!" Peter wanders away and Stephen pops the last of his own sandwich in his mouth and gets up to clean their mess.

"Either we're lucky or he's always been a good kid." The sorcerer says.

Tony shrugs. "Honestly? I wouldn't question it if May told me he was an angel from the moment he was born. Peter is a good kid. He has gotten into trouble once or twice recently but he meant well."

Trouble that Tony was pretty sure shaved ten years off of his life. The whole ordeal with Vulture? Peter ended up telling him what had happened and Tony felt sick to his stomach when he got to the part where Vulture dropped an entire building on Peter. Who even does that? Dropping a building on a kid has to weigh on one's mind, especially if you're a parent yourself (according to what Peter told him). What made it even worse was that Peter was in his sweatsuit and completely unprotected because Tony had taken away his suit. He still felt guilty for that. He took away his kid's suit and Peter still put himself into danger just to keep the villain of the week from stealing extremely expensive and dangerous equipment.

Peter had a good heart. The kid was completely selfless and was always looking out for others…

When May died, he had said that Tony didn't need to worry about him. That he would be okay.

Tony knew better. He knew Peter well enough that he knew the kid was terrified and on the brink of a meltdown. His eyes always betrayed how he was feeling and they were what made the engineer pull him into a hug. It was an attempt to comfort the teen, his kid, and Tony made sure to tell Peter that he wasn't abandoning him. Even Tony had to admit to himself that he would go through hell and high water to see Peter happy and safe.

"He has a certain charm." Stephen says.

Tony barks out an abrupt laugh. "That's for sure. He's like a golden retriever puppy. Cute and excitable. Can't sit still and always seems to be around. When you meet him at his proper age, you'll want to pet his head."

"I believe you." Stephen chuckles. "You better go let the puppy play in the water though. He's been looking at it since before lunch."

"Alright, alright."

Tony gets up and walks over to Peter who was drawing pictures in the wet sand with a stick, and offers to let him play in the water. Peter agrees immediately and takes his hand, and they spend the next hour jumping over the waves as they roll in and splashing around on the shore. One of the waves did catch Peter and knocked him down, but Tony swiftly pulled him up to his feet again, made sure he was okay, and they went back to playing. The engineer eventually found himself chasing Peter along the shore, threatening the boy with clawed hands and listening to Peter shriek as he ran away laughing.

Tony loved it. He liked hearing Peter laugh because the poor kid had enough bad things happen in his life. It always blew his mind how Peter managed to keep his pure heart and kindness when he was dealt such a crappy hand. Tony vowed to keep the smile on his face however he could.

Even chasing his toddler form around the beach and eventually catching him and scooping him up.

"Gotcha!" Tony exclaims and Peter giggles. "How does going home and washing your shells sound? Dad's pooped."

"Mama too?" Peter asks as he wraps his arms and legs around the engineer.

"Yeah. Mom, too." Tony confirms.

"Okay Daddy."

Tony smiles when Peter lays his head on his shoulder and the man walks over to the cabana. "Ready to head back?"

"Yeah." Stephen grabs the cooler and follows Tony to the path that would take them back to the mansion.

Two minutes into their five minute walk, Peter fell asleep against Tony's shoulder and Stephen quietly informed him of it. So the new plan was to clean the boy up and tuck him into bed. Which, of course, went well enough. Stephen helped Tony rinse Peter free of sand when they got back to the mansion, and while the engineer got him into a diaper, Stephen went into the bedroom to get his bed ready. Peter was barely conscious throughout the whole ordeal and dropped back off into sleep once Tony carried him to bed and tucked him in. Tony laid a gentle kiss on his forehead as Stephen left the room, and when he followed to join the sorcerer, he found the younger man looking at his shoulders and then rolled his eyes.

"You didn't put sunscreen on." Stephen says.

Tony looks at his shoulders and winces when he finds patches of angry red. He didn't even want to imagine what his back looked like. "Yikes."

"Come on. I'll help you put some aloe on it." Stephen says and walks downstairs to grab the aloe gel.

He was certainly two steps ahead because Tony didn't have any of that either. Stephen must have ordered it with the other beach stuff.

"Thanks, Doc." Tony says as he sits at the kitchen table and Stephen walks up behind him.

"Does it hurt?"

"Not right now. I'm sure it will soon now that I'm aware of it." Tony snorts.

Stephen nods and begins the task of applying the aloe gel to the affected areas of Tony's upper body and the man sighs. The gel was cool and soothing, and he definitely enjoyed having it applied by Stephen. He was already content enough to close his eyes and hum contently...but not enough to make the sorcerer uncomfortable. Though he was sure Stephen was aware how much of an effect aloe had on sunburns and wouldn't have judged him.

Unless Tony was openly moaning. That was over the line and inappropriate and he wouldn't. At least not when he wasn't in a relationship. If they were, that was a different story.

Tony's cell suddenly breaks the content atmosphere and he huffs before reaching over to grab it from the other side of the table. "Yeah?" He answers once he brings the phone up to his ear.

"Tony, I've got the results for the...test." Bruce says and Tony straightens.

"Already?"

"Is that Bruce?" Stephen asks as he finishes and walks away to put the aloe in the fridge.

"Yeah." Tony nods when Stephen turns to look at him. "So is Strange living up to his name or-"

"It's a match, Tony." Bruce interrupts.

Tony chokes and his eyes widen. For once he was at a loss for words and his tongue felt heavy. He barely heard Bruce's next words because he was pretty sure he stopped breathing.

"You're Peter's biological father."

[shesacinemaniac]

Scream 5 Review

Beware Spoilers Ahead

I have a tendency to think to highly of movies when I see them in theaters, probably just cause I love the theater and it clouds my judgement so I am going to try to be objective here.

First thoughts are as far horror movies go I think it was pretty good. I really enjoyed how they played on the trope of the killer being behind the door after it’s closed. I swear like 10 times the tension would build up as a character closed a door and the killer was never there.

As a Scream sequel I have some mixed feelings though. I like they tied it back to Billy Loomis with his daughter being the new final girl, but I didn’t like the whole part where Sam could see him. It was implied that she had some sort of psychosis but they didn’t really touch on that much. It gave me Scream 3 vibes where Sydney was having visions of her dead mom and I think that is one of the biggest downfalls of the “worst” Scream movie.

I loved the return of the OG’s and I liked that they weren’t the focus of the films, this was definitely a “passing of the torch” to new characters. I totally called Dewey being killed off, I figured they would kill of one of the 3 surviving characters and I figured it wouldn’t be Sydney, she is the ultimate final girl. And I didn’t think they would kill Gale cause Dewey would not handle her death well. Also dude almost dies like every single movie so it was bound to happen.

The killer reveal was pretty good. I saw it with my sisters since we grew up on these movies and immediately we guessed Amber as one of the killers. Richie did shock me though, I thought it was a bit too obvious for the boyfriend to be a the bad guy in what was clearly an homage to the original, but the played on that and it worked well. I think my biggest beef was the motivation. In all the scream movies at least one of the killers have like legit reasons for their murders. Billy cause Sydney’s mom had an affair with her dad, Billy’s mom cause Sydney killed Billy, Roman cause he believed Sydney had the life that should have been his, and Jill I think because of the jealousy she felt growing up in Syd’s shadow. In Scream 5 it’s like the motive was because they hated the last Stab movie? Being psychotic horror movie fans and wanting to immortalize themselves is pretty par for the course for a Scream movie but there’s usually a little something more and that felt missing in this one.

Overall, I did really like the movie! It’s not the worst Scream movie by a long shot, but to quote Sydney Prescott “Don’t fuck with the original.”

[sleepingcrisis]

Cherry and Adam taking Langa out for fathers day and being bad parents 😎

This one definitely needs a lot of editing but I really don't think Cherry and Adam would be good at stepping into a parental role, or maybe normally they would but knowing that it is purposeful I think they would just kinda fall apart. My Adam is probably super ooc but in my defense I haven't really written these three together before.

Anyway I didn't edit this at all!!!! Sorry if it is illegible :)

*****

"Well it is his first year without his father," Reki mentioned after having reluctantly approaching Adam and Cherry. Did he like Adam guy? No, not really. Reki was a laid back guy but not laid back enough to be completely okay after what happened during their beef. Yeah yeah — anything goes at S so he had basically been asking for it — but that didn't mean he had to be friendly with the guy. Still. He knew that Langa, one; thought Cherry and Adam were badasses, and two; had grown quite close with them.

"He might just want to be home alone then," Cherry pointed out. As rough as that sounded it wasn't like it was there place to get involved in his grieving process.

"He doesn't," Reki insisted.

"Sure little Red —"

"He asked me to go out with him," Reki explained, "He asked me to go skating but my family wants me to stay home."

"So you want us to take him out?" Adam asked with a small grin on his face.

"Don't be weird about it Adam," Cherry elbowed him before crossing his arms and considering it.

"Please?" Reki asked.

"Fine, fine, we will see if he wants to go out—"

"Thanks!"

And with that their fate was sealed.

***

That is how they ended up in Cherry’s car. Cherry and Adam sitting in the front with Langa in the back as he listened to the two discuss...

"What are you two talking about?" Langa asked. He couldn't hear them over the radio. Maybe that was the point.

After a few taps on the shoulders he finally got them to turn it down.

"What are you two talking about?" He asked again.

"Just trying to figure out what we should do," Cherry explained. Covering for what their actual conversation had been about.

"Skating would have been fine," Langa said.

"Well we should shake it up a little," Adam mentioned and decided he was going to strangle Joe for talking them into not just going skating.

"Alright, if you say so," Langa didn't seem to believe that either of the devoted skaters cared much if they shook it up or not.

Awkward silence passed. Silence that normally would have been filled by one of their louder friends. Adam was a completely different person without the mask on. Hair slicked back and a dress shirt and dress pants on (apparently this was him dressing casual though). Then Cherry was in a navy yukata and his hair was in some complicated half up half down look. Neither of them knew how to dress casually. Langa resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he leaned against the door.

"Is there anything you wanted to do Langa?" Cherry eventually caved. Neither of them wanted to ask, but they also just didn't know what to do with him.

"...Can we go get something to eat?" Langa suggested.

"Yeah sure," Adam chuckled softly. He supposed they should have known that much. This also bought them time to find something else for them to do afterwards.

When asked where he wanted to eat Langa said he didn't really care. This might have been a mistake since Cherry wanted to go to Sia la Luce for lunch and Adam mentioned some fancy place that sounded expensive enough to the point that Langa might feel bad about them paying.

"Where did you two go when you weren't so—" he is about to say 'old' but doesn't know if that will cause them to spiral into a midlife crisis and doesn't want to risk it. "When you were my age?" He finishes instead.

This is how he finds out that the two have always had quite a lot of money.

"Well my parents would never let me put processes crap into my stomach..." is how Cherry starts before going on some long talk about how processed food is bad for you before eventually listing some sushi place.

"Yeah," Adam agrees, "and I wouldn't be caught dead at—"

Langa doesn't let him finish since most of those places will probably be places he frequents.

"You two both knew Joe when you were younger right? Where would he drag you—"

"Most often to his house," Cherry explains.

This is how Langa ends up deciding as he carefully knocks his forehead against the window of the door.

A&W is probably on the list of places that Adam wouldn't be caught dead in, and considering how they go through the drive through as opposed to inside, Langa decides that he is right.

Regardless, they get their food (Langa orders for all of them after Cherry asks about their healthier options) and leave. Langa let's them find a place to park when Cherry doesn't want them eating in the car and they wind up at an old drive-in. It is run down and the edge looks out over some water.

"Why would you bring us here?" Adam asked in a hushed voice.

"I like coming here sometimes," Cherry fills in quietly.

Langa just knows that there is more to this place then what he is aware of. It isn’t just some run down place. Marks left from skateboarding proves that. He doesn't question it though. Doesn't dig up old memories that they seem to believe are best left forgotten, maybe normally he would. Today of all days though? He isn't sure he should have even left the house. Instead he sits on the curb as he eats and sighs softly when Adam and Cherry walk off to the railing to go talk.

Langa hates to admit it when his mother is right but she is indeed correct that he found it hard to let in any sort of father-like presence in his life after his dad died. Until today he never thought of it like that though. He didn't have to look at the adult males in his life and think that the way Cherry scolds, or the way Adam seeks a thrill, or the way Joe seems to always have a handle on a situation, or the way Shadow is able to cheer him up in his own weird way, or the way Oka is always ready to talk were anything like his father. Now it is all glaringly obvious, but at least it is countered by how out of depth they are. How they clearly don't know what they are doing. How could they? This isn't their fault. They are trying and Langa is old enough, nearly an adult, that he shouldn't need this. And he likes to think he doesn't.

He chuckled softly at the thought because, what the hell had they done so far that make it seem like they are helping?

Langa eats his food and cleans his face before taking in a breath and pushing himself back up so he could go see what Cherry and Adam decided to do since clearly they didn't want to eat.

"You know it doesn't taste that bad, although your body might go into shock," Langa said. He is joking but the other two don't seem to catch onto it.

"You two really are rich—" Langa is about to make fun of their years growing up when he catches a glimpse of the water. It is hot out and the light reflecting off of it is blinding. He wants to jump in though. He wants nothing more then to jump in and let the cold water freeze him.

So he begins to kick his shoes off and undo the buttons.

"What are you doing?" Cherry asked. He looks like he is about to scold. About to tell Langa to keep his clothes on and put his shoes back on.

"I don't want to get my clothes off," Langa replies.

"Langa you are going to have to swim a long way to climb back up—" Adam is the one scolding him now. Trying to make him see reason so he doesn't jump off the edge of the drive in.

"Carry my clothes over then?" Langa suggests and pushed his shirt into Adam’s hand.

"Langa—"

"Oh the two biggest adrenaline junkies at S are scared of getting wet," Langa starts. He is in some kind of mood today apparently because he doesn't stop there, "Joe would jump in, and Joe would have eaten the food I chose and he wouldn't have argued over where to eat. In fact, Shadow and Oka probably would too."

Langa is climbing over the railing and before a reply can be said he jumps out.

"The idiot doesn't even care to check how deep the water is," Cherry grumbled.

"Oh because you did when we were growing up?" Adam asked with an eye roll. He grabs Langa’s shoes and soon the two are heading around to where a ladder dips down into the water so that Langa knows where to go.

It is a mistake though because when they do make their way over Langa is grinning at the two.

"You found the ladder very quick."

"We have been here before," Adam defended.

"In the water or just looking at it?" Langa asked. There was sarcasm in his voice that normally wasn't there.

"Don't answer that," Cherry said to Adam since that was a trap.

"Cherry and Joe convinced me into it back when we were younger," Adam explained against Cherry’s wishes. He smiled slightly and set Langa’s clothes down.

"And you two can't do that now because..?"

"Because it will wreck our clothes and this isn't where we are supposed to be swimming. Besides have you ever tried to swim in a yukata?" Cherry countered.

"Only that last point is valid," Langa decided.

"You certainly got a mouth when little Red isn't here to speak for you hm?" Adam suggested as he sat on the edge. A dangerous choice.

"His name is Reki, he doesn't like you calling him that," Langa informed.

"He lets Joe—"

"That is different," Langa cut Adam off before he could argue.

"Alright, alright," Adam put up his hands defensively as Cherry sat down next to him. Well not right next to him, it was a safe distance so he couldn't be pushed in.

They were like this for awhile. Langa swimming around in water that was most likely freezing while he chatted away with Adam and Cherry. It was mainly the two adults filling empty space as he listened though.

He swam and swam and swam until the cold water had numbed him and the chattering of his teeth had ceased. At least now he wasn't thinking about anything other then — wait, what were the other two talking about? He wasn't sure he cared.

"Langa? You look cold, I think it is time to get out," one of their voices came.

He turned to argue but when they both saw the state he was in they looked worried.

So he let them help him out without pulling them in like he originally intended. Cherry brought the car around and took a blanket out of the trunk before he had a chance to put his clothes back on. Instead they helped him dry off and once he was wrapped up in the blanket he sat in the back with his shoes and shirt off to the side.

"Thanks," Langa muttered as he began to realize how cold he was. It wasn't the same as the chill of a Canadian winter, but still.

"Yeah no problem," Cherry whispered as Adam stepped away to have a smoke.

"Did I stress him out?" Langa asked.

"No it isnt like that, he just hasn't had a smoke since we picked you up and he has been addicted since we were teens," Cherry supplied with a soft chuckle.

"I don't care if he smokes around me," Langa mumbled.

"I guess he is just trying to be considerate."

A breeze passed by.

A breeze that had Langa shivering again.

"We should get going," Cherry mumbled and went to turn up the heat and get into the front seat again.

Once they have Adam back into the car Langa convinces them to eat (in Cherry’s car too) as they begin to head out. Cherry suggests Sia la Luce since apparently Miya will be around and Langa agrees immediately.

It isn’t that he wants this to be over, but he knows they are out of their comfort zone. They all are.

Still... it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

[davidmann95]

So... Crossover #1: any thoughts?

Anonymous said: You seemed not to think much of Crossover #1 on Twitter. Your full thoughts?

wcwit said: So Cates' Crossover #1, best bad comic of the year or just regular pretentious trash?

An incidental note upfront: What you’re seeing there is the apparently SUPER-RARE SECRET VARIANT COVER I unwittingly picked up at the store - at first glance indistinguishable from the standard cover, the kid getting four-color-fucked by mysterious comic book rays is in fact themselves reading a variant cover of the book, rather than the main cover again in an infinite painting-within-a-painting sort of deal that’s the standard.

So I wasn’t gonna get this: my initial post on the comic and what an obviously awful idea it was back when we only knew half the premise and it was known as Pray The Capes Away actually got some out-of-nowhere traction recently, and I’ve grown rapidly tired of Cates’ Marvel work. Even learning that it was going to be Image’s biggest debut in decades - Jesus fuck, how and why - mostly just made me wish it was Commanders in Crisis getting those kinds of numbers. But Sean Dillon/@deathchrist2000 and Ritesh Babu both got early looks at it and assured me that I, specifically, needed to see the last page, so in I dove. I’ll be posting my reaction to the last page below because I recorded it for their amusement, and below that I’ll talk about said last page. It may surprise you, however, that that wasn’t my main takeaway from the issue.

Let’s accentuate the positive first! This book is gorgeous. Geoff Shaw was terrific back with Thanos Wins, but this is an incredible stylistic level-up aided and abetted by Dee Cunniffe’s colors: it’s rote as hell to say “They mix the elevated and the mundane so well!”, but even beyond the obvious ben-day dots stuff there’s such a tangible sense that the comic book beings don’t belong here, that they’re of higher, misty, platonic stuff and we squishy non-paper-people inevitably crumble and break and bleed in their wake, communicating that big idea so much more powerfully than the actual loads of text on the subject. And if we’re talking good things, I’ll concede it’s possible that there could be subtleties that play out in more interesting ways as it goes on, and that not everything is meant to be taken at face value: a smart friend who actually did like it mentioned being interested in it as clumsy but potentially effective exploration of ‘what if the fun hobby you had inadvertently became contaminated and stigmatized by forces beyond your control?’ In a post-Comicsgate world where we recently ended up inches away from the Superman logo almost certainly becoming a fascist propaganda symbol ala the Punisher skull for at least a generation, that’s a defensible lens to view this book through.

For all Donny Cates’ legitimate talents however, I don’t think an expectation of subtlety is gonna work out with this one.

Okay first off getting into the rest of it the main characters’ name is Ellipsis because “Those three little dots...they can become anything”, so there’s that. More importantly, in the world of this story where comic fans face social oppression after superpeople materialize and fuck up Colorado, they face EVERY KIND OF OPPRESSION: there are clear parallels drawn in here to the violence and harassment faced by people persecuted for their religion, people seeking abortions, queer people, and people of color; this motherfucker even drops a “hates and fears” to let us know comic collecting basically makes you one of the goddamn X-Men. Which in theory could be a purely misjudged allegory rather than stemming from actual, obscenely inflated to the point of disgusting fears of ‘nerd oppression’, except that the book literally opens with a quote from Wertham. If Cates didn’t want to make the message “Hating comics? That’s bad. Like, racism bad”, he utterly, grotesquely failed by inextricably intermingling imagery of real-world bigotry with systemic, deluded fanboy paranoia, at least as of this first issue that’s supposed to meaningfully convey the premise. As a queer dude I think I’m somewhat in my lane to say it’s too blunt and broad and dopey to be particularly offensive, but the co-opting of oppression is what this is rooted in.

The idea of ‘comics good no matter what people think, ain’t it?’ extends to the last traditional local comic store standing in this world: much as superheroes are the primary cause of suffering in this world but the point of the story is still supposed to reveal the beauty in them, part of this is that the comics community isn’t perfect but it sure is great. Which is expressed here via Ellie’s boss Otto, a loveable asshole who yells at people coming in trying to sell the wrong kind of comics to fuck off, but at heart is we’re supposed to understand a good enough dude that the shop he runs is “the only home a lot of (the benighted nerds) have left” (because I guess in this alternate universe the physical stores are still the main hub through which comics fans talk with one another?).

So here’s a story of my very own! That’s me in 2013, it must’ve been some kind of special day because I’m wearing a shirt with a button. I’d at that point only frequented one of what would be my thus far four regular comic shops. The first was a great place, and while to say I had a sense of community there would be overstating it a bit, I was on really good terms with the owner and we regularly chatted when we had the time. When I left for college my store there wasn’t as well-stocked, and for some damn reason all variant covers were double-price, but I got along really well with the owner there too. The third I wasn’t so lucky; the guy regularly behind the desk was never overtly hostile, but clearly wanted to wring my neck every time I asked when a missing comic might get in or if I could update my pull list, and given I’m in the ‘ideal’ demographic for being a comic book store regular and was dropping a solid lump of money there every week, I wonder how others were treated there (the store nearly went under, was saved on the last day of operation by another store that wanted to incorporate it as part of its franchise, then shortly afterwards DID go under and is now I believe a beef jerky place). My current store is fine, I didn’t chat much with the folks behind the counter even before we all had medical incentive to get in and out of places fairly quickly but it almost always has what I’m looking for.

Just because those were my regular stores of course doesn’t mean those are the only ones I’ve ever gone to. About a year before that picture was taken - it’s the closest I could find - when I was 17 my store didn’t have something or another I was looking for, so I head across town to see if another place I had looked up had it. This other place didn’t have what I was looking for either, though I distinctly remember picking up a few issues of Hickman’s FF while I was there since I had foolishly fallen off, hence my remembering the year. I bought a couple issues, but hung around for a bit looking to see if I might grab something else out of a dollar box, setting my comics down. Without realizing it, I’d set my books down on top of another issue, and when I decided I wasn’t getting anything else, I just picked that up along with the rest of the pile and was about to walk out before the owner stopped me. He explained what I had done though assumed it had been deliberate, and because I was a good-hearted little geek I even recall thinking “Well, he’s gonna chew me out, but I guess I deserve it. I’ll try and take this to heart as a learning experience.”

Then he pulled up his shirt a little to show me the gun on his belt. He pointed at the security camera monitors at his desk, and explained to me that if I ever did something like that again, he would have it on tape, and he would pull that gun on me and hold me there while he called the cops.

As it turned out, the comic was free.

The whole thing was so sudden and bizarre and unexpected I didn’t actually freak out until the drive home. It wasn’t until weeks or maybe months later that I managed to tell my dad about the experience, because I *had* nearly stolen a (free) comic and my guilt was mixed in with my nerves and I guess I was somehow too close to register just how disproportionate his response was. It wasn’t until now, nearly a decade later and thinking about it for the first time in a long time as I write this, that I wondered if that might have gone differently - especially living in the midwest - if I hadn’t been a white, squeaky-voiced 17-year-old.

So, minor spoiler, when our cantankerous but well-meaning LCS owner yells to call the cops and grabs and yells at a small kid for pocketing a comic (and later displays fantasy racism towards said kid), I am not filled with nostalgic love for the brotherly safe space that is comic book stores, where this guy while not meant to be seen as perfect is still framed in part as a charming, witty representation of Why We Love These Places, And This Community, And This Genre, And This Medium. Cates is clearly drawing on real time at his local stores, but he equally clearly has a very different takeaway from those experiences than me. And I am, again, in a demographic - white, cis-male, abled, bi but more interested in women, disposable income, a lifelong collector - that the industry and a lot of the guys who sell it to us contort themselves around catering to, even if I had a single very negative experience and later an ongoing low-key uncomfortable one to help disabuse me of any notions of the purity of the dork community. In the world of Crossover as of #1, toxicity is intertwined, deliberately or not on the part of the creators, with what we love on the cosmic and small business scales alike, but at least in the latter case it’s the whole picture that’s beautiful, not any single kernel that needs to be worked on to be dug up.

So underneath is my video reaction to the last page of Crossover #1. Very minor spoilers because I mutter the last two words of the comic to myself, but under the video I discuss said final page and some other scattered thoughts. Whether you read that or not, my takeaway is this: I’m fascinated with wherever the hell this thing is going, I’m glad my dad liked it well enough to want to keep getting it because now I’ll get to see where it heads, but my first impression is that this is at heart meant as cheapass Oscar-bait for people who only read Batman. It’s big and high-concept but also small and intimate! It’s meta and about how great you, the reader are for your consumption, especially the consumption of this! It’s going to be in large part about a forbidden love between a couple divided across impermeable social lines (a couple where they’re a seemingly straight white man and woman, but one likes comics)! Maybe it’ll become Not That, and I’m sure it’ll do at least something interesting along the way because Cates has done good stuff before and there are some inherently interesting big ideas for him to play with here, but for the love of god if you’re thinking about getting this buy Commanders in Crisis too or instead, it’s another new book out of Image about superheroes dealing with the collapse of the multiverse but that one is really fucking good.

So the final page splash reveal is that when the comic book child discovered in here got out of Colorado, which has had an impenetrable energy shield erected around it by one of the heroes for years, she and others were ferried out of there...by Superman, as the narration declares that “This is a story...about hope.” They don’t say the word, but she sketches her savior, Ellie and Otto freak out and go “Is that---” when they see it, and on that last page we see that while a crude drawing it isn’t a rough analogue character, it’s a guy with a cape and trunks with an S on his chest. Surprisingly, I don’t have much to say: it’s just another blunt signifier that superheroes rule and are the best, paired with the most utterly devalued notion as of late of what makes Superman special in ‘hope’. I mean, I’m perversely excited to see whether this is building the entire series on a hook it can never deliver on, or if Cates actually has talked DC into an intercompany crossover; believable given they’ve done a bunch of those over the last several years, and why else would Mark Waid be supervising as ‘story editor’ on this? I guess it’ll shake out one way or another with #6 given Cates has said it “has one of the more epic and — I would argue historic — sequences in comic book history in it.” But I’m far less convinced this is gonna truly go into the meaty question of “What does Superman mean and what makes him unique in this world where superheroes in general are indisputably either failures or monstrous bastards given the scale of destruction their presence has brought about, and he himself failed to stop that?” than as some kind of holy grail of how great superheroes are despite how dang violent they’ve gotten these days for the crew to chase after, whatever additional twist will surely be placed upon it. At least he’s kinda helping an immigrant kid get over a wall, if that’s deliberate?

Random final thoughts:

* If I wrote the opening essay and turned it in in a college course, I would be expelled for plagiarizing Grant Morrison. This is not a joke.

* If mainstream American superhero comics ended January 2017 in this universe, its own last ‘crossover’ was Civil War II, which is hilarious.

* God, please tell me if it takes the dive after all that this isn’t somehow tied into whatever Waid’s Superman project is.

* I wouldn’t normally crap on issues with the finer details of worldbuilding, but A. This is rooted in a nominally ‘real’ world playing by recognizable rules, B. I’m ragging on this anyway so what’s the harm, and C. It’s really obvious. So: Why is one of the racists against the superheroes the guy who loves superheroes so much he’s the last holdout in the entire world still selling comic books about them? How does this modestly-sized shop exist long-term with apparently a significant regular customer base if there are no new comics or even reprints to restock with, ever? Who’s buying the serialized cop/cowboy comics that the U.S. government apparently created pretty much overnight (nobody, it’s just another Wertham dig)?

* The solicit for issue #3 proclaims “Don't miss this one, folks. If you do, it just might drive you...mad.”, so now I fear some kind of Ultra Comics riff.

* “Kids love chains” is the most metal-ass quote of all time and I hate that it’s being wasted as an arc title on this book.