#not that i'm going to any fam events this year but

[yuri-is-online]

Happy Little Trees (Good timeline! Fyuutue Kid Ayuu: Rook, Vil, and Trey)

Yutu has some weird nightmares on occasion, but other than that he has a pretty good life, he thinks anyway. The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if his parents could avoid embarrassing him now that he's old enough to go to NRC like they did.

Here's hoping things are less eventful!

notes: Yeah this is like, 100% self indulgent don't look at me they/them used for Yuu, everyone say thank you to confused, he wanted a chance to see some freaks getting to be happy with their fams and yeah I agree. I've been killing my boy too much. This post features Rook, Vil, and Trey's Yutus with some guest appearances from some friends of the blog's o.c.s, archetypal-archivist and twisted x hearts. This won't make sense if you haven't read any of the ayuu, which can be found on my masterlist under the series section.

Rook! Yutu

"Oh come on it's not that bad." Roland has the audacity to sound smug when it very much is, the techwear doesn't look awful but the mere fact his brother is wearing it at all makes it hideous. "It stands out so much less than what Pomefiore has you wearing-"

"You can't wear neon blue in the woods." Yutu snorts, he wanted to yell but there's so many new sounds in the NRC forest and he doesn't feel safe making a scene just yet.

That and he feels like he is being watched, something Roland must feel too since he's making a show of being unbothered. "Right back at you with the royal purple. And don't get me started on the heels, these boots I've got are super comfy I should see if Dad knows where to get something similar for Ama."

"You are not getting our sister gamer shoes." The noise is on their left now, Yutu can make out that it is breathing. The heartbeat is too fast to be human or mer, a beastman of some sort then. Avian if Roland was in the mood to take bets. "Doesn't that bother you at all?" Roland shrugs.

"Just because my dormmates don't want to go outside doesn't mean I can't. And no before you start I'm not going to transfer, I was sort of hoping to end up where I did." He's serious, Yutu can tell by the way his brother sternly looks at him as they pause in the trail. There's logic to most everything Roland does, perhaps Yutu should have placed his emphasis on the most instead of trusting they would always be together. He wants to scream at him, but he can't do that here. Not while they have an uninvited guest.

Roland turns to move down the path so Yutu can twist into the shadows and yank their prey into the open. The beastman screams needlessly loud, Roland would have been so much worse with him but maybe he can tell that by the way his older brother is laughing.

"Hey there mon ami, didn't your parents ever tell you it's rude to eavesdrop?" Roland squats down to get closer while Yutu stands tense behind the new boy.

"Heartslabyul." He says impassively. "You win that one Ro."

"Ah do I? Nice to know." Roland makes no move to help the kid up to his feet, and doesn't move to give him room as they look down on what is undeniably a avian beastman. The colors of his hair and the long eyelashes suggest a humming bird, but the groan he lets out is far from elegant.

"Seriously? You guys suck, I was just coming to say hello." The boy rolls just enough away from Roland to sit up, seemingly unafraid in a way that unsettles Roland slightly but feels... nice to Yutu. He finds himself relaxing like he would around- well only his family up until now.

"Then why were you following us huh?" Roland slips back into his normal cheerful self, still on edge and looking at Yutu in concern. "I could have been about to say something embarrassing!"

"Then it would have been worth it!" He laughs like it is the most obvious answer in the world and not a potential crime, if Yutu was allowed to talk. "Sides I was curious, I'm Fiore! First year Heartslabyul dorm. My older brother is there too so when I saw you guys I went huh, wonder what's up with them? You're twins aren't you? So why go so opposite..." He looks over the two of them and Yutu straightens up just a bit. Roland has more muscle, the nicer more open smile. He's stronger than Yutu is, if you looked at the two of them and had to guess who was the tech guy and who was the nature one before they slipped into their uniforms you would fail.

"Well we're not twins, but we're not opposites just because we've got different houses." Roland stands up, politely keeping his eyes on Fiore but still talking to his brother. "Oli and I are two sides of the same dream. He wants everyone to see the beauty of the world in its purest form, and I want them to be able to see what he does."

"... well that's the first time I'm hearing of this." Sighs Yutu. He reaches down to help Fiore up, trying to hide his smile but not doing as well as he could from the teasing look on the humming bird's face. "Don't spook us like that again, I won't be as nice about it next time."

"Noted! I'd hate to see what mean's like shit. See you in class?"

"Yeah." Yutu waves him off as Roland puts his hands in his pockets. He looks smug. "What? Weren't you saying something about not being able to talk for me forever?"

"I meant it you know." Roland hums. "You always get upset when [parent] can't join you when you go to take pictures yeah?" Yutu breaks eye contact. Not like his emotions were ever a mystery to Roland but this was a particular sore point. "If there was a better way to keep them safe we'd all be able to have fun together! That's why I'm glad I'm in Ignihyde." He's much too proud of himself for Yutu to say thanks, or wonder if this was always the way things were going to play out or if something else was twisting this.

"... your unique magic breaks the sound barrier when you scream dude, I still don't think you belong there."

"Rude! I can control myself you know~" He does of course but still. Yutu isn't Yuu so he isn't so overwhelmed with how sweet Roland is to want to say thank you just yet.

Vil! Yutu

Sometimes Yutu is made forcibly aware of just how privileged he is and it always causes him to become deeply frustrated with his own complacency. Today for instance, he had begged his father to let him go for a ride on his bike by himself "We're on vacation! It's not like everyone knows what I look like, I'll be super careful and call immediately if something happens and I already have the map downloaded-" he was starting to wonder if maybe his parent was right and his father really was too soft on him sometimes. If he had put his foot down then he wouldn't be making a fool of himself right now.

"U-um. Are you alright?" The girl in front of him is clearly concerned, Yutu wants to say something to help calm her but something about her keeps him from speaking immediately. The thick head of golden curls, cute floppy ears and upturned nose are familiar somehow, as if he's seen them somewhere before. It would explain the overwhelming feeling of happiness and breath he takes as if he knows a name to speak before his paints fall out of the bicycle basket onto his head.

"Yeowch! I mean yes sorry ha ha ha." He untangles himself and his bike from the grassy field he had accidentally veered into and rights it before looking around to make sure he has everything he came with. Thank goodness he didn't bring his good brushes, he'd cry if he broke those. "I didn't hurt you did I? I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention to the road and-"

"Oh no no, I jumped out of the way just in time." She laughs with a slight snort that settles Yutu's nerves. If she is able to laugh then she's ok, what a relief. "I'm Henrietta by the way," she holds out a hand and Yutu gladly shakes it, "Henrietta Wendimeere, but you can call me Henry!"

"Nice to meet you! I'm-" Oh this part was always hard. Father never stumbled through these things and encouraged him to do the same but still. "I'm Yutu! My family's on vacation in the Queendom so I wanted to try and paint some of the scenery but well. I'm not as good as navigating as I thought apparently."

"Yeah the Queendom isn't laid out in the most obvious way." Henry sits herself on the fence Yutu crashed into as he leans on his bike idly. "At least that's what my mom says, you just have to get used to it after a while." She twists the fabric of her dress, the fairest queen's purple, Yutu notes the shade with a smile. "Sorry about scaring you by the way, I was waiting for someone and thought maybe-"

"Oh no worries! Like I said I wasn't paying attention." He is now though, he hears someone yelling his name just up the hill and he sighs. "Hey do you mind if I give you my number?" Henry looks surprised and Yutu silently curses, both himself and the person yelling, louder now because clearly if he had heard he would be there already. "I feel bad about almost running you over, let me make it up to you before I leave yeah?"

"S-sure." She stammers and Yutu scribbles on a sheet of his sketchbook paper and tosses it as he scrambles back up towards the hill.

"Thanks a ton for being so chill about this! If my sister doesn't kill me I'll be sure to be in touch! Don't be a stranger yeah?" And just like a vision of the future he's gone again, just alive and happy this time.

"Yeah. Don't be a stranger, Yutu."

Trey! Yutu (ft. Yutres and Yushi)

"C'mon~" Yushi swirls the beverage under Thrush's nose with a big grin on her face. "You like this sort of stuff, yeah?"

"That," he sighs "is without a doubt the most offensive thing I have ever been asked."

"Oh?" She pulls back the cup in mock surprise. "I guess I'll just go give this to Fiore the-"

"Absolutely not." Thrush snatches the drink and fiddles with the straw as Yutu sighs. "Seriously Yutu just what did you tell your sisters? If I didn't know any better I swear they were trying to poison me."

"Sorry, if you don't like it I'll get you something else." Yutu smiles apologetically as Yushi kicks him for not denying the poisoning bit. He doesn't blame his friend though, not really. Between his dad asking him and Fiore questions about what their teeth were like and the amount of sweets Yutres had wanted opinions on its little wonder if Thrush and Fiore were feeling a little overwhelmed. Still, it wasn't like either of them had said they were never going to talk to him ever again after this, and if Fiore shared his brothers opinions he hadn't shown any hesitation when Yutres asked him to play whatever board game they had hauled out of the boba shops shelves.

"Well? Whatdya think?" Yushi asks eagerly. "I picked one made mostly with fruit, is it any good?"

"It's way too sweet." Fiore says, chewing on the lychee jelly impassively. "But I can't stop drinking it how weird." It's not the answer she wants clearly, but a simple adjustment of their dad's glasses is enough to quiet anymore needling questions.

"That's just how those sorts of drinks tends to be." Trey chuckles. "It probably would taste better to you if it didn't have as much green tea in it." Surprisingly Fiore nods.

"Yeah I thought there was something a bit off about it, you think about this sort of stuff a lot don't you Mr. Clover."

"Ah well I do like to do more than just bake, no matter what some people-" Yushi rolls her eyes "say." Yutu's phone lights up with a notification and he hears his dad laugh before he can check it himself. "Ah I'll leave you kids to have fun. Just make sure to let me or Yuu know if you plan on going somewhere else after this."

"Seriously [parent] wants that?" Yushi snorts and puts her back in her pocket. "You should get them something more exciting."

"Nah don't listen to her Mr. Clover." Despite his earlier protests, Thrush hasn't exactly stopped drinking his tea, there's an alarmingly little amount left for something that didn't taste good. "She just wants to start experimenting on Yuu next."

"Ah she does that already." Laughs Trey ignoring Yushi's whiny protests. "It is fun to tease but all good things in moderation." And with that he's gone. Yushi slithers off to bother Yutres and Fiore leaving Thrush and Yutu in the booth watching their younger siblings.

"You got anywhere you want to go?" Thrush asks, unlocking his phone to look at what's around without much urgency. "I didn't look too many things up, Fiore might've but he didn't mention anything."

"Eh there's some shops if you want some souvenirs for your parents. And bakeries but dad might kill us if we send you back with other people's stuff." Yutu's mostly joking and Thrush knows from the way he laughs and rolls his eyes.

"You guys suck you know that?" And he does. He says it himself when describing his family and so does Thrush in that laughing way that shows neither of them really mean it. It's nice, there really is nothing to care about other than what sort of nightmare Crewel will have for them when they get back to school and Yutu accidentally calls him grandpa again. He really hopes this strange feeling of joy he gets when he sees his family together with his friends never goes away, it makes almost everything he does worth it.

[ace-of-spaders]

*taps the mic and laughs nervously because of the major stage fright*

Lizzington shippers, fam, grandmas and grandpas, can I have a moment of your attention, please?

It's not a secret that, while some people in Lizzington community are still active, whether they write or make gifs or keep our dash full of Lizzington even in this trying times ( @melbob26-blog, thank you for this! ), Lizzington community as a whole went into hibernation over the last couple of years.

And I get it, interests change, especially when one show ends and there's another ongoing, moving on from the show that ended is totally natural, especially when it didn't give your favorite characters the happy ending they deserved.

I get it.

Hell, for a pretty lengthy while there I focused on other ships and shows, too, especially after TBL ended ended last year.

But you know what I realized earlier today, when I reread some of the old fics, browsed through gifsets and text posts, watched some fanvids?

It's the show that ended, for some in 2021, for others in 2023. And the only thing that means is that it cannot disappoint us anymore.

( it's not like we were suddenly deprived of quality content, because let's face it, the fans have been the main source of the quality lizzington content for years now, while the show gave us mere crumbs, on a good day )

But Red and Liz?

They are still out there, fighting criminals, catching Blacklisters, travelling the world, shamelessly flirting, toppling shadow organizations, raising Agnes and/or any other children they have, and generally being the sexy badass power couple they are!

Nothing changed in that regard.

So why would we mourn them, when they are out there, healthy and happy and in the middle of yet another adventure? I'm sure right this moment Red is drawing Liz into another one of his heists and she's only too happy to join him, even though she pretends that she's not, for the sake of the game.

There's literally no reason for us to stop writing, giffing, editing, sharing theories and headcanons and memes and just talking about our favorite couple.

And by writing all of this, I want to propose something daring to you:

Let's revive the Lizzington community!

Let's rewatch earlier seasons and gif the hell out of them because it's been a while and because precious moments between these two are not going to become less precious even if it's giffed 10 or 100 more times, not to mention that ever gifmaker's style is different, so there are virtually no two identical gifsets as there are no two identical snow flakes.

Let's make fanvideos, picspams, picture edits, fanart, moodboards! The amount of songs, quotes, moments etc that can inspire you is virtually endless!

Let's write fics, let's explore AUs, let's give each other prompts and challenge each other to try something new or practice some aspect of writing, like writing kisses or AUs or hugs or making up Blacklisters etc!

Let's share headcanons and theories and ideas and what our versions of Red and Liz are like, because everyone has their own unique versions of Red and Liz living in their head, and it's just beautiful, if you ask me!

Let's reblog stuff, filling each other's dashes with Lizzington!

Let's scream about Lizzington because no one does it like them!

Let's revive the Lizzington Community, we all miss it!

PS. Feel free to reblog this post – spread the suggestion!)

PPS. To assure you that I'm not the type of person who encourages others but doesn't do anything themselves, I can tell you I've already got some ideas for a couple of Lizzington events in mind. Those include challenges, thematic weeks etc.

PPPS. I'm not sure how many people are checking the tags these days, so I'm gonna tag some people I know under the cut, just in case, to spread the suggestion. If you weren't tagged, trust me, it's nothing personal!

@meetmeatthecoda @iwouldlovetoeatyourtoast @agxntkeen @factoseintolerant @tale-xistime @james-baeder @lettie1609 @withwhatiam @peace-love-on-planet-earth @missourired @felilaprivada @strawberry-pills @roominthecastle @codewordpumpkin @my-robot-heart @kitkate91060 @imyourplusone @shelly1952 @itsjustme-itsmylife @castle2cute @nancyjocom @cress-26 @lunaarlilacs @femaleoptimistic @scifi-gk @greeneyedsoul88 @figureofdismay @shippinglizzington @kissthefuture @thetwistedargent @actuallylorelaigilmore @sorrydearie @turningtimeinthetardis @buildinggsr @apicturewithasmile @windfalling @piketrickfeet

[crystalelemental]

Full tier list is here, breaking down the F-tier. Time to expose my Hater Tendencies.

Red Realistically, Red is not inherently awful, my hate is a byproduct of the franchise itself constantly pushing him as the biggest most importantest trainer ever to live, and I despise that. He exudes nothing to me. I think his challenge in GSC also sucks, the remakes actually made it way worse, and Let's Go's conditions are so annoying I refused to even entertain the idea. I have no respect for him, and think the general fanon perception of selective mutism is giving credit where it's not due. He's just supposed to be strong and silent warrior man archetype, which is boring as sin, and people are out here making him actually interesting. Stop it. I'm trying to be a hater.

Brendan "Your dad's a gym leader so I thought you'd be a guy." "Unlike you, your dad seems tough." Brendan is a piece of shit masquerading as your first "nice" rival and I never got over the bad vibes. Fuck this dude.

Flint He looks stupid, and is in love with Volkner. Atrocious taste.

Thorton He's just kind of a dweeb, and then Masters had a really early event where he's supremely rude to Hilda for literally no reason. His vibes are rancid.

Flannery Every tier has one I look at and go "I am being a little unfair, but I must be true to my feelings." Flannery is that pick. I cannot stand Flannery for entirely unfair reasons, but nothing gets me past it. I'm sorry, it's an ongoing hangup, but I cannot get over how much I hate when they make a female character whose thing is being shy or self conscious, and put her in a revealing outfit. Like come on. I know what this is and I'm mad about it. Consider her my entry point onto some guys being just really skeevy about female character designs.

Volkner "Oh, I'm so bored of battling because no one is a challenge to me, guy who isn't even on the Elite Four." Get over yourself, loser.

Klara/Avery I'm lumping them together. I hate them both equally. Galar is already fighting an uphill battle with its atrocious aesthetic, and these two being petty losers is doing nothing to help their case.

Sordward/Shielbert I mean...do I really need to explain? His head is a penis. Literal dickhead. Worst post-game segment of the series.

Ball Guy Originally omitted, decided to include just to shit on garbage reddit meme culture. Masters, you fucked up putting this thing in here.

Mohn/AZ Okay, these two are the actual, beyond all else, bottom of the barrel losers. Why? Because they are the only inclusions that I think actively harm their games. In the case of Mohn, the only emotional center Gen 7 has is the Aether Fam, and the husband/father is literally just hanging out on an island. We know where he is. He's the bean man. And this angst gets absolutely annihilated over the fact that he's literally just right the fuck here. USUM even has him interact, only to shut down a real resolution with him. Like great Lusamine, glad you've decided to move on, that is a choice, but like. We're all really going to pretend like this wasn't the entire core of the issue and just let it all go in a half-cooked scene? I wish he never showed up.

AZ is much the same. His presence as an eternal entity wandering the earth bothers me, because honestly bro, it's been 3000 years. Do you know how quickly people change who they are? I'll give you a hint, it's fewer years than that. And at no point was there any real attempt to like. Reflect or undo his previous actions? Like you could've dealt with the machine since you knew where it was, man. You could've done literally anything. And his resolution is supposed to be one (1) battle with you where he suddenly feels like he can just let go of the weight of his sins of creating a doomsday weapon that runs on Pokemon life and committing a genocide with it. Hooray. Glad we wrapped that up. He should've just been a cautionary tale that existed in history, not a literal guy who continues to be here. I hate him so much.

[crossroadsdimension]

Friend, amigo, fam Plz tell me about your OC, I'm all for that stuff 🙏

@metalmewtwo-kxb, I hope you know what you have unleashed.

Time to talk about the two characters I've made for FFXIV!

To preface -- you can have multiple characters attached to one account for this MMO without paying extra per character slot. Since I'm paying the Entry-level of that, I can have a total of 8 characters, 1 per server. I really don't need more than that, since I was planning on having just my main and that's it, but then I got interested in a defunct FF mobile game, and I needed to play through the story on a fresh save. So that's where #2 came in. (He'll get a separate post, if people are interested in him, too.)

Anywho! Let's get this ramble rolling -- under the cut cause it's gonna get long.

First, I'm gonna talk about my "main" character, the one I've been playing for the last two and a half years and have done...almost everything on, at this point.

I don't have any screenshots of her because I don't mess around with gpose that much and only figured out recently how to take screenshots on my PS5. Sooo -- here's the profile picture from the Lodestone for reference.

Behold, Cross Sylvan!

I didn't come up with a lot of backstory for her when I first started the game back in October 2021, right before Endwalker's release. Because miqo'te -- or cat people -- have naming conventions that have an apostrophe in their name after a "clan letter" (i.e., Y'shtola is of Clan Y, and is only Shtola to her friends), I wanted to pick something that would have something of a pun involved, and I like the word "Cross" too much to leave it out.

So she's M'Cross (pronounced Macross), but dropped the tribe letter for her own reasons. Her parents were booted from the M tribe, you see -- her mom married a male miqo'te who wasn't the leader of the tribe, and because the two of them broke tribe rules, they were kicked out.

(Further context -- the leader of a Sun Seeker tribe, the Nunh, gets to lay with every single female miqo'te in the tribe. Yes, they get a harem; no, I'm not making this up. This is in-game lore. Moon Keepers, a different group of miqo'te, tend to do it in reverse.)

Anyway, Cross' parents left their home in Gyr Abania and moved to Thanalan, a desert region located at the southern region of the continent of Aldenard, which contains the region of Eorzea (If it helps you picture the region, the continent is basically shaped like Africa, with some differences in climate). They raised her there, and Cross' father eventually left to become an adventurer, while her mother stayed at home and focused on becoming a half-decent merchant in the Silver Bazaar.

And then the events of FF14's 1.0 happened. I'm not gonna go into detail here because I didn't play 1.0 before they shut down the servers and restarted them with 2.0 as the starting point, but suffice it to say that Cross' father either died or vanished during a big battle in a place called Carteneau. During that big battle, something happened that wiped out everyone's memory of how that battle ended. It had the side-effect of preventing everyone in Eorzea from remembering certain people clearly. Including Cross' father.

So you can imagine how confusing and distraught she would be to not only realize Dad wasn't coming home -- but also that she couldn't remember his face, his voice, the sorts of things he liked to do...very traumatic.

Cross leaves five years later -- the start of 2.0 -- to become an adventurer herself. Mom got overprotective and more than a little overbearing after the Calamity, and Cross wanted to get away for a bit. She still likes her mom, she just wanted space to breathe. That, and something's driving her to travel. See the realm that her barely-remembered father sacrificed himself for.

And then the game starts, and Cross gets rapidly pulled into events that...might have been what her father had been involved in before his disappearance. She wouldn't know, much less remember.

Backstory out of the way -- time to talk about Cross as a person!

Cross is a sponge when it comes to absorbing knowledge. She's naturally curious and wants to get her nose into everything -- different jobs, cultures, food, history...you name it, she's probably got a cursory knowledge of it. As a result, that means I can say she's at least picked up every single job in the game, but she has her favorites.

Her parents taught her archery from a young age, and she has some magical talent as well. She prefers Black Mage over Bard, and between fighting melee and ranged, she'd prefer ranged. She didn't have a healing job that really clicked with her until Sage, and out of the tanking jobs, she prefers Dark Knight and Warrior. Paladin is in a strange position with her, because she believes that's how her father used to fight, and she made an effort to learn the style, but it hasn't sat right with her.

She's also picked up all the crafting and gathering jobs, but she prefers the hard work of botany and miner over the patience of fishing, and likes weaving and leatherworking more than the rest of the crafters.

As Viper and Pictomancer are the newest jobs added to the game, I haven't figured out if they're going to be among Cross' "favorites" yet, but since I like Pictomancer a lot, she's probably going to like that one, too.

Cross has a little bit of snark, a little bit of a temper, but neither really show up unless you've pushed her buttons (temper) or she's comfortable enough to let down her walls around you (snark). She's been known to trade banter with the young twins who are a part of the NPC main cast, for example, or join in the berating of other characters if her fellow miqo'te mage (another NPC) is unleashing a rather nasty burn in someone's general direction.

She likes writing music based on her surroundings. More than a few orchestrion rolls have shown up in shops based on some of her scribbles and playing around on her harp and the like. Some of the songs based on strange, faraway lands have gotten the attention of those who are too young to travel, making them want to follow in her footsteps.

She has a chocobo. His name is Cloudstreak, and she's considering changing his feather color to sky blue (yes, you can do this in-game, I just haven't done it yet). Cross has other mounts, too, but Cloudstreak is her first and favorite of the bunch.

Over the course of the first "book series" in the game (A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker), Cross grew from a young adult who was somewhat inexperienced with the world outside Thanalan to a worldly woman who has traveled extensively, and grown in confidence, knowledge, and strength as a result. She's become a hero of the realm. The Warrior of Light in more than name, because she got that title way back in A Realm Reborn and has only reshaped its meaning repeatedly since then.

She is a Traveler, and Travel she will. There's a desire to see the world beyond what she's already seen, and she will see every nook and cranny of her planet.

If you get into the game and want to see a somewhat shortened version of her journey through A Realm Reborn...I've got a fanfic going for her. The Chronicles of a Young Adventurer is the first part of her series, which I'm separating out according to main expansion and patch content. It's mostly journal entries, letters, and the occasional scene that's been more written out, but I like what I'm doing with it so far!

[alicentsultana]

hehehe thank uuuu, I'm very much a sucker for modern aus 🤭 I did make one up for one of my asoiaf ocs (if you want to hear about it I'd be happy to share) I don't think I can write it all out by myself honestly but I could co-author/come up with ideas if you or anyone ever wants.

Random Lore that's all over the place so please bear with me:

I feel like the Targaryen business is like something in steal? (Valyrian steal lol) And they have heavy political influence? Are somewhat fallen royalty? Kinda hc that basically every asoiaf region is modern au is independent and not conquered, individually used to have royal families then revolutions happened, now there are elections and vice-presidents for ever region, rather than absolute monarchy. (The latest VP for the crownlands is Lyonel Strong)

Old grandpa Jaehaerys was a raging misogynist, and he didn't want Rhaenys to become the new head of the fam so he gave Viserys 80% of company shares, 10% for Daemon and gave Rhaenys the remaining 10% percent. The Velaryon's own a shipping business and the Arryns have an airport business.

Between managing the company, being sick and playing with his legos Viserys doesn't have a lot of time overall. He neglected bby Rhaenyra, as in didn't spend much time with her and mostly left things to Aemma because she's the woman and that's her job (fuck u Viserys) then Aemma dies and he sorta overindulges Rhaenyra as in let's her do whatever she wants and gives into any demands she has, and trys to spend some time with her because he's guilty af about Aemma.

After marrying Alicent he basically dose what he did before Aemma died, leaving everything the childrearing to Alicent because she's a woman sooo 🤡 stars neglecting Rhaenyra and just doing whatever he did, this is also a reason why Rhaenyra comes to mislike Alicent, since belives that it's all the evil stepmoms fault that her dad is ignoring her again, this if fuled by Daemion too who hates Otto and Alicent's guts since a new wife means there could be boys and he's gonna get even less of the company shares.

Alicent dose try to be a good Stepmom (In my head Alicent's mom Clarice Florent, and she died a year after Gwayne was born so Alicent was about 8 herself when it all happened, she understands what Rhaenyra is going through and doesn't hold it against her) Alicent shows up/ plans every important event in Rhaenyra's life (school events, dance competitions, plans birthdays...) and eventually Rhaenyra somewhat warms up to Alicent and her half-siblings, but I feel like there would still be a somewhat resentment because watching Alicent give birth to baby boys something that her own mom had died for ... Yea Rhaenyra is complicated but I love her.

Meanwhile Daemon is being Daemon lol he's the cool uncle to Rhaenyra who's travelling the world and pops by occasionally to cause a ruckus then bounce off (I hc modern!daemon being a racer/nepo baby who gets into scandals left, right and centre) also him and Rhea Royce had an old money/arranged sorta marriage and then divorced after Jaehaerys dies.

Okay so I picture Alicent as someone who's been sheltered to an extent especially in regards to her sexualities, gets taught the standard things (a woman's greatest joy in life is being a mom, a woman must save herself for her marriage, a woman must be obedient towards her husband...) and Otto especially encourages all of that. collage stars at? Idk we don't have college in our education system it's straight to uni after highschool lol. Either way picture Alicent is a first year in university at 18, she's so excited to make friends and do new things, Otto somewhat indulges that and let's her be.

Then Viserys comes along, Alicent who's not yet finished her first year catches his attention at sunday church. He goes to Otto and basically asks for Alicent's hand in marriage to which Otto says yes, because this is a great opportunity for the family to social climb.

I feel like Alicent has mixed feelings about it when Otto tells her, on one hand she has to leave her studies, and barely realized dreams to marry a man years her senior, on another hand isn't this what woman have to do? Isn't this all that her father and religion have taught her? Her own parents got married straight out of highschool so it's the right thing to do isn't it? But what about bet dreams? Is she even ready to be a mom? What dose it mean to be a wife? Will her new husband be kind to her?

And her mixed feelings about it all makes it easy for Otto to push her forward in the direction he wants, he also moves to KL with Alicent after her marriage just to ... Help her fit into the new role of wife and mother (he just wants to control her and social climb lol)

Years later when Alicent is planning for her divorce:

Otto: he's a good man Alicent!

Alicent: why didn't you marry him then!

Otto: ...

I think Viserys genuinely wouldn't care all that much what happens to his kids with Alicent... Plus I feel like at that point he's also dealing with his sickness too and seeing as Alicent is so determined to get a divorce he just goes along with things. As for company shares he gives majority to Rhaenyra (basically made a will after Aemma dies that almost everything will go to Rhaenyra) after marrying Alicent he gave her 5% shares as a wedding gift of sorts, as for their four kids... He gave them 20% to divide between eachother equally. So Rhaenyra still has 55% which wins her majority, this is also Alicent's motivation for divorce she thinks it's absolutely unfair for her kids to each get 5% shares and Rhaenyra to get 55%.

Picture Alicent finding Viserys's will in the safe and going crazy lmaooo she's like wtf I've spent years in this hell and now this... then she argued with Viserys and tell him either he changes the will or they're getting a divorce.

I love Alicole too! (the knight and his queen can't get anymore romantic than that tbh) I actually picture Criston getting fired by Rhaenyra, something about how she asks him to sleep with her on her 18th birthday and he says no, but paparazzi take weird photos of them and that pissed Viserys off so he fires Criston. I think Alicent would be against it she's known Criston for years and he doesn't seem the type to be unprofessional so she vouched for him but Viserys didn't listen.

But yea getting fired by the Targaryen's left a bad stain of Criston's flawless record and he couldn't get hired as a bodyguard anymore 😔 Alicent heard about it and arranged a job for him at Oldtown as a security guard in the Hightower University. This boosted Criston's good impression of Alicent, since she helped him in his hour of need. But I don't think anything happened between them during Alicent's marriage (she's too much of a religious girly to cheat no matter how miserable her life is) it's only after she divorced and moves to Oldtown that she truly gets to know Criston and they bond, he also helps her with the kids and overall everything becomes a constant in her/the kids lives.

Throwing in uncle Gwayne in here because I feel like he'd be so sad for his sister, nephews and niece. And then sees Criston around and gets all protective because one man already fucked up Alicent's life he's not about to let another one do the same, but then ends up getting to know Criston and becomes best buddies with him lol. Also picture Gwayne who's a teen being the only one who didn't want Alicent to marry Viserys and leave Oldtown, since she's more of a mother to him in all honesty given how he was barley a year old when Clarice dies.

Rip this got so long lol I'm sorry.

Please share you md about your oc, I would love to hear about it!

Gosh I really might invite you to write it with me, I'm seriously considering it! Loved this entire au.

The targ background is on point, it makes sense being a steal company + political presence, power and royal roots. Very consistent.

Jaehaerys would 100% do this, I didn't even bat an eye. Daemon as nepobaby doing rich people sport is so him, I can see him racing and raging if he ever loses, his divorce was the fastest ever, it happened two days after grandpa's demise.

The Targs and the other families going Samsung Circle* is so real, I loved it. "Fly Today With Arryn Airlines 🦅✈"

Daemon would 100% undermine nyra's relationship with alicent, it's a very him thing.

I too picture Ali as sheltered, her mother's death played part on it too. We don't have college here either, so straight to uni! Her uneasiness would be used by Otto, he has a chance in a lot of money (wait until he discovers about it).

I like to think that at some point between Aegon being around six, and before Daeron pops out Alicent start to become more smart inside her household like well no one is actually paying much attention to me, might as well snoop around. Maybe after her father says or points something out about the children's inheritance/their future and she grows suspicious about what is really to their name - she have a vague idea about it. Alicent have her four, Rhaenyra turn eighteen and has her first scandal that Alicent tries to cover with the best of her abilities, Nyra tells her off as if it was her fault and Criston loses his job and Alicent helps him under the wraps after he tells her what really happened.

Aegon turns nine and Alicent has enough proof of having wasted her life, not much to fight for, already traumatized and rather lonely depressed children. Bad family examples, bad family relationships, is RVDR playing family and them in the corner as a separate thing, she has had enough. I like to think she goes around the red mansion opening financial book after book, vault after vault and boom, she calls 0-800-10-Larys Strong, provides paper after paper, including the recently diagnosis of her husband, and when everything is practically ready she goes to Viserys, if he splits everything equally to the children good, if not, he can rot in hell.

I pictured she looked at her children and said "Let's see what they are made off" and just put the baby in her hip, placed them in a car and left. "Mom where are we going?" "Somewhere we will be happy."

Aegon probably understood it better than his siblings who wanted to go home, because this new house is smaller and where are the servants? Though it probably took a toll on his mental health, he only started therapy in late teen years, after his uncle and criston realize he's alcoholic. He helped his mother raise the children at first but it made his relationship with her very fragile and distant, I believe he likes Criston because he's good with his siblings and mother.

Aemond and Helaena probably learned to accept it, but turned out a little better than Aegon, a lot of therapy for them too. They liked the guy that picked them after school.

Daeron was a baby, this is the life he knew since 1 yo. He was the one who turned out mostly okay. He doesn't know who Viserys is.

I wonder what Alicent does for a living, I doubt Viserys would pay her anything beyond two cents for food.

There's also something I would love to see: Rhaenyra's eventual visit. I think Aegon goes what is she doing here? And Alicent just drive them away while they talk. But what would they talk about? Rhaenyra have her convictions but those are her half-siblings, Viserys is going old and sicker, he never asked to see any of them, she thought Alicent placed a restriction, but she discovered that wasn't the case.

Uncle Gwayne would 100% be team no new in-law, Criston would have a lot to prove.

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

plant, I’ve been reading your blog since the engagement (seriously, I used to sit in my college dinning hall and unwind by reading all your anons LOL). There’s so many things I brushed off as too outlandish- surely they didn’t actually announce at eugenies wedding, they used that stupid coat to get attention. Of course Kate and charlotte didn’t cry over the dresses, there was probably just some annoyed comments from Kate through the grapevine. No way he actually shouted “what Meghan wants, Meghan gets” over a piece of jewelry that is being generously loaned out to them. It was all just too outrageous- surely there was some kernel of truth and then a ton of embellishments by the media? But nope. Here we are years later. They did all of that and it’s worse than it had been reported. They didn’t just announce to the fam before eugenies wedding and get congratulated by family since that was the first time they saw them since the announcement, THEY PULLED FAMILY MEMBERS ASIDE DURING THE WEDDING FESTIVITIES TO ANNOUNCE A PREGNANCY. The “UN feminist” told a woman that her opinions on how her public figure child would appear at a televised public event were just “hormonal baby brain”. God only knows what they’ll say about tiara gate, but obviously it’s going to make them look worse than ever. M loves to hit back at what people say about her, but at least she does it in a thinly veiled excuse for feminism so it doesn’t make them look stupid. H is convinced the more details they give, the more they will be loved. You have to be an absolute idiot if you think somebody is going to hear about you announcing a pregnancy at somebody else’s wedding and think anything other than “god how tasteless. I’m glad they weren’t at my wedding”. Nobody is going to hear the lipgloss story and think anything other than “wow, I’d be uncomfortable too if somebody asked to use my lipgloss”

They think people will hear details and think “god, I want to be you guys” but all anybody is thinking is “god, I don’t want to be around you guys”

I'm flabbergasted too. Everything was true. Everything.

And they seem to think that it makes them look good? That's the most baffling part of this. How does "baby brain" make you look good? How does any of this make you look good?

The pettiness of it all is mind-blowing. You blew up a centuries-old institution over a bridesmaid's dress? Seriously?

Because that's what it all boils down to. The bridesmaid's dress blow-up was leaked and the palace wouldn't deny it because it was true and the papers had a credible source...and they decided to walk out. It's ridiculous.

They don't really have an explanation for the tiara story, apparently. Just that they didn't believe the priceless, historic, six-figure piece of jewelry really needed a police escort.

[nights-flying-fox]

☆ ROTTMNT AU MASTERPOST ☆

☆ TMNT Blog: @eughboi ☆ ok to reblog ☆

✭ Dimension Hopper Leo AU: Leo managed to escape the Prison Dimension, but now he is in an alternative universe almost same as his. He has to go through many portals, trying to find his way back to his dimension.

[leo-centric] [MASTERPOST]

✭ Where You Belong: Mikey is the only turtle growing up with Splinter. When he becomes 13, he accidentally learns he actually had brothers. He and April try to connect to them once they find them with none other than the people trying to kill him for some reason.

[mostly mikey-centric, but POV changes often] [cw: abusive/manipulative parent]

✭ Let's Grab a Slice Together: Leo, Mikey, April, and Casey Jr end up time traveling all together. They are too late to find the key though, and now have to help their past selves to get it back and stop the Krang.

[cw: war themes, even if not detailed it is the bad future so beware; character death; temporary character death (?); injuries] [multiple povs, focused on the bad future fam]

✭ Last Hamatos Standing: Mikey is the only one escaping from the technodrome. Krang Prime has caught Leo and Donnie, and got Raph back in control. Now he and his family have to figure out to save the brothers and stop the Krang.

[cw: mind control, torture, hallucinations, manipulation, war themes, grief, body horror, loss of limbs (?)] [mostly mikey-centric]

✭ The Furthest Shores: After escaping from Draxum's lab, Splinter doesn't return to New York City, instead he hides in the Hidden City. He ends up in the Pirate Bazaar and meets with Piel. Seeing that Splints is just a poor guy with four babies he decides to give him a chance, inviting him to join his crew. Eventually the family grow up as pirates...

✭ We Ride at (Alien)Spawn: Apocalyptic AU except it somehow takes the turn of the cowboy concept- the boys become sheriff somehow (nobody questions mutants after being saved, especially since not many people are left). Join the new cowboys who ride Krang Hounds and a Krangfied train as they try to survive against Krang.

✭ Believe Me (I'm Warning You): Things turned out differently with the last fight against the Shredder. The Hamatos and Cassandra Jones never became friends. However, in the future a boy named Casey Jones Jr. is tasked to stop the Krang by Leonardo Hamato. How can he convince them, when no one believes him?

[casey jr-centric]

✭ Are We Pokémon, Dad? : Everything is same, except they are in the pokemon world... and maybe because they are in the pokemon world, everything is not the same...

✭ A Turtle Like You: A Separated AU inspired by the classic Barbie movies, that was a joke. Now it is about how the twins change roles for fun but things go bad, and how Mikey wishes to be freed from Draxum's lab, and how Raph and April accidentally discover the Hidden City and three turtle mutants.

[cw: manipulative/abusive parent] [mostly disaster twins-centric, but other have major focus too]

✭ Too Little Too Late: Donnie years ago watched his own Leo sacrifice himself and get trapped in Prison Dimension. For years he searched a way to bring him back. Now as he continues his studies, he is also making sure no other Leo suffers the same fate by traveling to any timeline that may need him.

[cw: hallucinations] [disaster twins-centric]

✭ Hopelessly Surviving: They saved Leo, but it was too late. As the family was still not accepting what happened, hours later Draxum shows up, and somehow he has the help they need. Now Leo is back to life, but something is different. Something is wrong and Leo has to figure out what is true and what is not to win this battle (with the help of his family).

[cw: temporary character death, hallucinations] [leo-centric]

✭ Future Genius vs. the Past: Donnie manages to go back to the past from his future accidentally. He can save it all by changing the events that lead to the apocalypse, but what about his family in the future?

[donnie-centric]

✭ Literally Purple Dragons: Aside from his twin being the most annoying brother ever as usual, the day was going well for Donnie. Until he found Kendra right out of the manhole as a mutant komodo dragon, asking for help from him.

[donnie-centric]

✭ Stuck: Mikey and Draxum practice mystic powers to get stronger against the Krang. Something goes wrong, and Mikey is now stuck in a timeloop and has no idea how to escape.

[cw: time loops, but in the worst way ever; depression (?)] [mikey-centric]

✭ [to be named]: Draxum succeeds. He raises the four brothers as warriors and Lou Jitsu is kept as a prisoner until he decides to join him (he believes one day the man will see the right path). Things go much differently than what the yokai expected. After all, Lou wouldn't let anyone suffer like that- not even turtle mutants.

✭ The Mummy inspired Kendratello (crack) AU: What the title says. Nothing serious, I just think it would be silly thinking them in situations like in the movie.

[imgoinginsanefr]

my fav super specific royal family dynamic in fiction

(SORRY FOR TYPOS) The older siblings and parents are these scary and well trained royal members of whatever court they're in and/or experienced warriors and they all are these feared individuals but whenever their youngest child walks into the room they turn into the most golden retrever ass people ever just "so whats your favorite meal? I remembered you like pasta" / "So what do you do in your free time" / "I'm going to an event later (they made this up on the spot as an excuse to spend time with them - and if they say yes they'll scramble to make it happen just so they can sit and talk with their youngest over dinner) I bet people would love it if you joined us!!" and the youngest does not care at all to the point they are trying to avoid it.

The whole fam is so envolved in the youngests life now because after like years they all colectively realized (maybe after an argument or a threat to the youngests life) that they had Fucked Up and had basically been neglecting them for so long and now their all scrambling to get back into the kids life but they haven't realized how much the youngest has changed as a person and just assumed they we're the same as when they were a cheerful little kid. Now all these respected individuals are trying so hard to get their family back together and get their youngest to therapy and they have to face how crappily they treated the kid and how they're not who they used to be.

Bonus if the youngest is now this all powerful warrior (extra points if they could defeat the older and more experienced fighters in the family) or super skilled in smth and only now are the fam finding out about it, and extra extra points if the youngest is a total sunshine character to everyone except for the fam (can be personal to the fam OR it can be that their a people pleaser and then they become exhausted when they get home and just don't keep up apearences anymore)

IF YOU KNOW ANY SERIES WITH STUFF LIKE THIS LEMME KNOW 🙏

[radioactive-earthshine]

Political Thriller AUs..... where the Arranged Marriages are more lethal than the cyanide-laced donuts. How are you feeling around this AU?

10/10

Arranged Marriage AUs or Betrothal AUs are sort of a weakness of mine particularly when the author is wise enough to include more of the political reasons behind the union rather than "force my idiots to fall in love" which is the common path a lot of these AUs take. It's not a BAD direction and I do sometimes want to see End Game of my idiots falling in love but that's not necessarily what's important.

It's the why, what is this world, what are the stakes, what's going to be broken if one, or both REFUSE, do they have other people they want to marry etc.

There's a lot you can do with these AUs other than "teehee they had no choice but to fall in love"

As for who I would do this to I have a Konbart one pingponging in my head that the concept is Krypton never was destroyed, Tomar-Re managed to stabilize the planet and save them all, but Jor El sent Clark to Earth anyway because he was certain it was going to happen, and the fallout afterwards was a lot of political upheaval and he was caught in the crossfire and was murdered (possibly by Dru). Things unfold more or less identically except Clark finds out where he is from, that they are all alive, has his own adventures there as a adopted child meeting the bio fam and their culture some 25 years later, meets his mom who did manage to survive the post-near-apocalyptic event. He has a lot of inner struggles of 'what is home' and knows in his heart it is with the Kents and his mom knows this too.

Eventually Kon comes along, but he's created on Krypton, not on Earth, as a sort of co-opt project between planets. Krypton wanted a way to try to genetically engineer Kryptonians to be able to have their powers AND live in any environment regardless if they have a red sun. Earth was needed because Krypton does not have as advanced of knowledge on genetic manipulation as Earth does, and use with the Earth Metagene was something even their own geneticists were curious about. The only way they were able to do this was cooperation between planetary governments. Kon was a secret side project that when exposed blew up because 1.) they used Kal's dna 2.) they were successful and 3.) they have a fucking clone running around and Krypton had actively BANNED cloning due to the last time they dabbled it and it ended badly.

Clark finds out about this clone and storms there like WTF - It's a mess. There's back and forth bs on what to do with him - some politicians are just 'kill it' but most are 'well no hold up, he actually has some intriguing abilities, we can use this!' Meanwhile Clark is just - 'sort this out, now, or I'm taking him to Earth.'

So they agree, he is an El, so he is released to Lara to protect and raise. Lara by now has high status (for now) and power under her so while critics might grumble, there is nothing they can do less they be shot off to the Phantom Zone.

Things settle down, but only so much.

Earth starts becoming a bigger presence in the interstellar community, Krypton is ever paranoid that Kal on Earth with an endless supply of Metas is a threat to them and so tensions begin to rise.

Some of the more warmongering Kryptonians want to conquer Earth, its conditions are ripe for them to be as their ancestors should have been under a young sun, and humans are soft and need help from aliens and only a spare few of their own kind are even worthy their grace as something approximating equal (metas, Amazons etc).

Clark knows if he just evacs Kon and Lara from the growing tensions on Krypton it would send a message to various Kryptonian politicians that Earth just may be that shady after all and Clark really is plotting against them so he works with his mother to try to find a solution. What would make the tension lesson so diplomacy talks could go positively.

Lara suggests an arranged marriage, because nothing makes Kryptonian's more excited than the prospect of legally bound by blood and law cooperation.

Clark says no before he even hears who or why. Lara persists and explains that while he, who was raised among people that do not partake in arranged marriages, and he who has a very singular mindset of what a marriage should be, arranged marriages are common among Krypton and nothing will show the wide majority of their people that Earth is willing to be neighbors and allies than by participating in one of their most time honored traditions.

Clark relents, and asks who. It is Kon. He has to think about it because that's his little brother. After much self reflection and dismantling his initial responses to the suggestion he relents that it is not a bad idea.

The hard part is deciding who would be a good match for Kon - but the fact that any gender is open for consideration makes things easier. After weighing all the options they have, and getting a lot of "wtf no!" Bart is suggested partly as a joke by [redacted].

Fucking Bartimus. At first he is written off as absolutely NOT eligible due to his more or less canon impulses but out of all the suggestions between metas and Amazons and Atlanteans Bart is the one who is in a position best suited to protect himself against literally everything. No one can touch him unless he wants to be touched. He's also from prominent Hero Family and has a name for himself on Earth as Impulse so it's not as if he's really ineligible.

So they agree.

Bart's not happy about this AT ALL and he thinks they chose him just to get rid of him because this takes place just little while after Max vanishes and he's feeling like he's being yanked around (he is 18 though, he just had longer with Max) and he's had so little control of his life this is just one other thing he has to deal with. Wally tries to explain but he does it badly so he pisses him off even more. Iris explains and he's beyond listening at this point. It takes Helen letting him rant at her and talking through things for him to come down that maybe they really don't HATE HIM.

So he shows up and lets Clark explain it and he, after thinking about it for 2 seconds (for Bart he was going back and forth for about 20 minutes though) agrees that this will be interesting and might just be the right thing to do - and because no one else will I guess it should be him.

Kon meanwhile wasn't taking the whole thing seriously enough because he didn't honestly think it would happen.

He was wrong when Lara told him they found him a husband. Cue record scratch, glass shatters and a cat yowls sound effect. Cue panic. Cue the last 5 years of being totally out of control of his life and being yanked around by anyone and everyone as a political pawn exploding.

It takes a long time for Lara to calm him down but she has a tough job because everything that Kon is freaked out about is TRUE. She reminds him that this good for him and their people, that she too was from an arranged marriage, and that the match they secured for him was a good one and it is for the good of everyone and, dickishly, what would Kal do?

So Kon is sort of guilt bullied into it even though he agreed to it in the first place (very quickly and was just like 'hey just so long as they're hot!') and knew it was happening but he didn't think it would actually happen.

Seeing Bart's picture does dispel some of his anxiety, he is cute, he's attracted to him, he has a nice bod, super speed sound pretty neat and he knows Clark wouldn't choose someone who was creepy.

Little does he know Clark didn't even choose Bart at all at first and Bart wasn't even an option until everyone said NO.

So there they are, both initially GRRRRRR about the whole thing not because of the other but because of the situation. Kon feels like he just a tool to be used, and Bart feels like everyone just wants him gone even if everyone has done everything to explain that's not the case and they believe in him. Bart's older and wiser to know that if they really did believe in him, he would have been up for consideration at the start instead of [redacted].

Overall the stakes are pretty basic - get married just to open the door to start a meaningful conversation. Not even to STOP a conflict, just to hopefully get communication better. If either Kon or Bart balk on it it has the potential to exacerbate tensions between Earth and Krypton though Earth has more to lose.

In the end Kon and Bart do find love.

And that's what I have for this Arranged Marriage AU on my spreadsheet that MAY or may not ever be written, and as always some details may just change entirely.

Send me a fanfic/media trope or theme and I'll rate and tell you what I might do with it or something.

[updates-from-po-town]

We’re back in business, baybieeee!

Long story short, being disbanded didn’t last long. You numbskulls missed us and we missed you. Team Skull is a family yo!

So since our poor Shady House just sat empty in our brief absence, we decided to slap a few dozen new coats of paint on it and move back in! And with Aether outta our hair, we can leave all that crap behind us and get back to our regularly scheduled chaos. No more wormholes and interdemensional horrors, just good old, family-friendly, petty crime.

Follow to stay up-to-date on what’s going down in Po Town, and send your asks if ya got ‘em!

Wanna be a part of the fam, but you're not in Alola? Check out the Team Skull Expanded Directory HERE!

NEVER LET UP!

~Account run by Head Grunt Calla

Pelipper Mail: OPEN!

((Follows from @ratt-teeth , ooc rules and info below the cut, please read before interacting! Last updated: 10/24/23))

__________

Heyo, it's the mun here! Everything here below the cut is blog info and housekeeping~

GENERAL INFO AND BLOG CANON:

This blog acts as the in-universe "official" page for Team Skull. It's run by Calla, who is considered the "head grunt" of the team. While it's supposed to be run as an official update account, she often uses it as a personal blog. More info on Calla can be found here and here.

While this blog is mostly gen, it's definitely more on the pg-13 side. Given the nature of Team Skull, there will be swearing, adult humor, and innuendo. If this makes you uncomfortable, feel free to block, I promise I won't get offended!

In the history for this blog, Team Skull reassembled about a year or so after disbanding, this time without any influence from Aether. They're back to just being a gang of goofy hooligans.

Should also note that this will more or less follow Sun and Moon's canon. I didn't particularly care for a lot of the plot changes in USUM, especially regarding Lusamine’s arc, so I'll be disregarding most of them.

While anyone is welcome to interact, I generally prefer other human characters over sentient pokemon. This blog follows the canon that pokemon are only slightly more sapient than real life animals, and Calla will assume most pokemon-run blogs are just people role-playing, and she's just playing along. (Whoa, meta!)

The above rule also applies to canon characters from other franchises/series.

Pelipper Mail is open and will be treated as if it was actually delivered via Pelipper (or other flying Pokemon)

RULES AND BOUNDARIES:

This blog is generally LOW-STAKES. While Calla may occasionally make commentary on higher-stakes events, please do not attempt to rope me into high-stakes scenarios without discussing it first. Absolutely no ultra/death-stakes. While mentions of death are fine and expected (such as in a backstory or in reference to agriculture/Pokemon as food) I prefer not to participate in it directly. I'm mainly using this blog for goofy fun-times, so please be considerate.

If you OR your character are a minor, absolutely NO flirty/romantic interactions. Friendly interactions and banter are fine and encouraged, but both me and my character are full-grown adults. This is a hard line to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety.

No magic anons!

This one isn't a hard boundary, but I tend not to lean too far into things like fallers/alternate realities, Pokemon-human hybrids, etc.

☆ Overall, this blog's canon tends to be more on the realistic side. I started this blog because I loved the idea started by @/realpokemon of combining the whimsical Pokemon world with the mundane-ness of the real world, and the challenge of balancing the two. While a lot of blogs in the community lean into the more zany and fantastical side of Pokemon, I just personally prefer keeping things more in line with the mainline games but with a touch of realism more akin to the real world.

TAGS:

Original posts/relevant reblogs: #updates from po town

Asks: #answered asks

Out of character/maintenance posts: #ooc , #housekeeping and #behind the curtain

Posts involving Guzma and Plumeria: #guzma and #plumeria respectively

Posts involving my various grunt NPCs: #grunt spotlight

Posts that revolve around Calla or her opinions: #all about calla

Posts including the Team Skull regional branches: #team skull expanded

[aspecpridecalendar]

2024 Aspec Pride Calendar Update

Here's the sitch, fam. I mentioned that this is the last year of APC due to me (almost entirely) leaving Tumblr due to all the constant bs and its toll on my mental health. One of those things was the constant, incredibly ugly aspec discourse that just never goes away. I've mentioned in the past that queueing posts for this event can be really stressful because I inevitably run into a lot of it. I didn't expect to end up neck deep in it on day one. I vastly underestimated how seeing that again would effect me. I wanted to cancel the event. But I promised you guys, and I still feel strongly about this little blog's mission.

So I came up with a compromise. In the past, the days of APC have looked like this: a sort of "shout out" post in the morning ("Happy Pride to all [people who identify as today's theme]!", flag, and definition) followed throughout the day by reblogged posts related to the theme. Since I'm not up for the tag deepdives this time around, I'm going to cut the reblogs and go to two "shout out" posts a day (planned for noon and 6 pm CST). I apologize for the much-reduced content this will mean. You're of course encouraged to look into any terms that catch your interest, either here on the hellsite or elsewhere. On the bright side, though, this will allow me to include even more individual identities as well as adding back many to the list that I cut because there weren't extant posts to go along with them.

I hope you guys stick around and this still ends up being a nice little event to make more people feel acknowledged and included during Pride Month. Keep an eye out for an updated themes list by the end of the day Tuesday.

[canonicallysoulmates]

New episode got me thinking about the books and made me realize I never shared my thoughts about the rest of them; I finished the series while I was on my hiatus which is why I didn't make posts about them. Usually, I would make an individual post for each book but I'm just gonna cover them all here with my rating and a quick summary of my thoughts/feelings.

If you have not read the books there will be spoilers ahead from Merrick all the way to Blood Communion.

Merrick

1 ⭐️

How are you going to write a book where one your main characters, one of your most important characters, a character that is part of your foundation is depressed and attempts to commit suicide because he is still grieving the loss of his daughter a major event in your own series and have it all from the pov of a different character that has no connection to that situation (meaning the events from iwtv) or the child, and have the focus be on this and another character and their relationship?

Louis looking at Anne like Am i a joke to you?

Here's what's funny, I don't hate this book as much as i despise TOTBT but I have to rank it lower because at least that piece of garbage gave me something. In totbt we get some exploration of Lestat being haunted by Claudia and his thoughts and feelings on this and towards his daughter. In Merrick we don't get any exploration of Louis's inner thoughts and feelings, we don't get to see what led him to this point after so many years, we don't get to see his and Lestat's conversation afterward, we don't get to see his emotions when it comes to Claudia- this could have been great if Anne hadn't decided for some reason to hate louis cause I can only assume Anne wrote this during her Louis hating era.

The potential was there, the execution was not.

Blood and Gold

3 ⭐️

I'm just gonna say it, I don't like Marius. I don't hate him. But I don't like him.

Marius is the type of man who if he met a woman with a PhD he would mansplain her own field to her. He can't handle not being "the smartest" or "the wisest".

I've said it before I don't like Marius and Armand's romantic relationship and this book kinda solidified some opinions I had regarding it but I'm not gonna get into that- as I am writing this, however, I am just now realizing that even though this book is like 5 chapters too long (seriously there was no need for this book to have so many pages) I never got Marius reasoning for turning Armand's kids Beni and Sybelle which was the thing that pissed me off the most about him in TVA....the one thing I actually wanted his POV on....

Anyway, I did like reading this book more than I thought I would even though as I said I did find it too long and I'm not particularly a fan of the character. That being said, and this might come as a surprise, but-

Fam, how we feeling about Marius x Pandora??? Because I like them together a surprising amount which is funny because I don't think he's good enough for her but at the same time I am a sucker for devotion and pinning and longing and this man was hardcore pinning and longing like everything came back to her every single time and their reunion was the highlight for me (well that and Bianca leaving him because that line delivery? 🔥). so if anyone reading this feels the same way and likes them together let me know, am I alone in this boat or not?

Blackwood Farm

4.5/5 ⭐️

I loved this book. There were times when I forgot that I was reading a Vampire Chronicles book because it didn't feel like the series I don't know if that makes sense and I feel like that should take points away from it but I got so sucked into this story. The mystery of Goblin was easy to figure out but the rest of the Blackwood family history, and the other mysteries, and the atmosphere it really drew me in and got me hooked. Very enjoyable read. Really liked the character of Quinn too.

Blood Canticle

2.5 ⭐️

RIP Anne Rice you would have loved booktok and insta romance 😂

I don't know if by this point I had just read so much of this series that I had gotten used to Anne's writing...or if the writing in this is really more simplistic. Cause the writing felt off, it felt more simplistic than the rest of the books in the series and Lestat speaking modern was weird- I was not a fan of the writing style in this one.

I won't go into Rowen and Lestat's relationship, but I will say what that girl needed was orgasms and therapy, not a vampire lover. But it was really lovely Lestat's final point about having learned from her and it showed maturity and growth on his part to let her go.

Prince Lestat

4.5 ⭐️

Is my rating partially influenced by Lestat and Louis saying "I love you""my heart is yours" to each other and the book ending with Louis deciding that he will be joining Lestat? yes, and it's going to stay that way

It's also partially influenced by the fact that after what felt like a million years Louis was finally being acknowledged as being important to the story again. I greatly enjoyed this book not just because of the shippy moments but because I love Lestat and I feel like in this book we see him display maturity and growth and he's learned from the shit he's done in the past and I'm just so proud of the man he's become I love him so much he's my baby 🥰

also, i have a love for my favorite characters having to become leaders for their people i don't know how to explain it but yeah

Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis

3.5 ⭐️

I am here for the Loustat, and the Loustat only.

I didn't particularly care for the whole alien thing, it's kinda dumb. I would have been good leaving Amel as just a spirit but it is what it is. What I did really enjoy about this book- like the main things that I enjoyed were the things that had to do with the court, seeing Lestat deal with the responsibilities of being a Prince, the Loustat moments that we got were top tier including my favorite quote/moment ever which is when Louis accepts to join Lestat at the Court and tells him:

"He leaned close to me, and he put his hand on my arm. “ ‘Wither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people’; and because I have no other god and never will, you shall be my god.”"

I need the show to give me this.

Blood Communion

5 ⭐️

The stress that I felt when Gabrielle got taken I was ready to burn it all down if she had died. I felt all the character's emotions to the point where I even felt bad about Marius being taken because he's so important to Lestat and Armand and their grief over losing him and the others was so palpable. And the sense of danger could also be felt.

It makes my heart so happy that Lestat got his happy ending and everything he wanted. just thinking about it makes me so emotional to think about the man he has become leading his people with his family and friends and loved ones by his side, and accepting himself, and learning from his mistakes- I'm so proud of him like I genuinely feel pride when I think of him and how far he's come 😭💕

It was a great way to end the series. There are some pet peeves but they don't matter, I loved it. You know when you finish a book that's so good that you have to sit in silence and reflect for a minute? this is one of those books for me.

[lanceappreciationblog]

this is so silly but seeing starter headcanons reminded me of my own and it’s really silly tbh

it’s hard to explain in full without just absolutely infodumping about how i think Lance’s family dynamic works and every detail about them but i PROMISE it’s all connected in some meaningful way. and if i infodump anyways? im so sorry 😭

but ive always headcanoned he raised at least one of his Dragonites from an egg, but it wasn’t his first. my headcanon is that his first Pokémon was actually a magikarp when he was a wee small child on his birthday. to get into the fam dynamic for a moment, my headcanons are whacky but im the captain of this ship and im going down with it. his mom was a blackthorn dragon trainer and his dad was a random flying specialist and delivery guy and yada yada you know how the rest goes. but the parentals decided the best way to bring themselves together for such an important gift was to give him an almost-dragon with a flying typing thrown in it. but maybe not tell little baby Lance what he’s in store for right off the bat. too young to realize magikarp —> gyarados he was not too thrilled about getting Some Fish as his first. dad would always say though: “be patient little one! you’ll understand soon enough”. and it was a STRUGGLE (no pun intended[?])for the longest time Little Lance struggled hard to make any sort of progress. tragedy struck before the magikarp could evolve which takes Dad Man out of the picture. but when the magikarp finally evolved it was like everything clicked and made sense for Lance, for once things made sense. The gift that kept on giving with some love and patience, and I’d like to think this sort of “exercise” taught him what unconditional love meant at such a young age <//3. so in my messed up world, Lance’s oldest Pokémon is the (blue) gyarados!

bonus: this made the red gyarados event hit home way harder than ever, and boy did it hurt lance to see that since he has such a profound soft spot for magikarps and gyarados (bonus bonus(??) if he reacts poorly to people even joking about mistreating a magikarp even in the slightest)

bonus x3: before Lance’s first magikarp evolved, he found out how to make roses out of it’s shed scales and would give these “scale flowers” to his mom to try and cheer her up because that Tragedy really really got to her. little guy was trying his best.

SO SORRY FOR THE LONG RAMBLE ive been thinking about this for almost 2 years it’s actually insane. —🐌

I'm totally with you anon, Lance brain dump is an addiction, but I'm all here for it. 💪

But anywho, I ADORE this idea!! Lance always reminded me personally of a strong, fierce, Gyarados, but where does a Gyarados come from but a weak frail Magikarp? Lance never strikes me as a "prodigy" child, however, one who suffered immensely and had to work so much for where he is now.

Your idea of his parents being there for him and then half of them being suddenly taken away, (hey btw what is THE TRAGEDY? 👁 ), must've been so rough for him and I can only imagine the stress in his trainer life only became more difficult.

Also, Scale Flowers are soo sweet aaaah. <33

Gyarados will always be Lance's most personal Pokemon to me. They just have so much in common man. :')

[thedawningofthehour]

Welp, at least it's reassuring to know that when the can of worms is opened Tigerclaw will take Donnie's side.

Baron Draxum and the audacity of that bitch is my new favorite band.

I really hope this encounter pays off and helps cass realize the truth later on, but considering we're talking about the same girl who agreed to release a demon to enslave humanity.... I think we'd better sit tight and wait.

Speaking of which, way to call the kettle black, cass.

I must admit, I'm scared, I have no idea what Galois plans to do, and I'm scared. On the other hand, Galois setting up listening devices to spy on the fam is something I've been thinking about since literally the first kidnapping attempt. I'm surprised it hasn't happened sooner. On the other hand, I wonder if this is how the bitches faction will figure out that Bella is working with the fam.

I've been thinking a lot about why Cass would decide to do something like that, and I'm split on a few things. My first assumption was that she just fucking hates people. Cass hasn't exactly had a lot of good role models throughout her life, her mom cared more about getting high than taking care of her and her dad has his own host of issues. And there's the whole systemic thing in play as well, she grew up impoverished in a poor area with a ton of crime, and all the bullshit that comes with being poor. I think I cut this but I had a line where she mentions her dad's mom being a really stabilizing presence in her life, and her dad had his shit mostly together until she died when Cass was eleven. (which is when she started getting taken away by CPS and stuck in foster homes while he got his act together) There could have totally been an event there, maybe her nana received extremely poor medical care and Cass believes that she would have lived if they'd been wealthy? I think about what a teenage girl her age with her background could be going through and I feel like she'd be incredibly disillusioned. She's realizing that society sucks, and she's mad. She wants to tear it down, and maybe she doesn't care what goes up in its place.

But I also think about the fact like...she's seventeen at the start of the show. A seventeen-year-old in a gang, who's been training in martial arts for a decade and sees this as the cumulation of her skills and efforts. She would be incredibly easy to manipulate. This is even before you factor in any daddy issues and longings for parental approval; the foot husbands could have told her to jump off a cliff and she would have done it. I mean, she would have done it anyway because she's Cass, but you know what I mean.

Oh, no, Gale found the bug on Cass. Was that not clear? I can go back and edit it if it was confusing, lol.

[navree]

Aemond/Luke is THE most unlikely out of all the ships for exactly the reasons you outlined. Imagine becoming permanently disabled because of someone and then forgiving them? Betraying your mother, the only person who cares about your pain for the person who maimed you? Not in a million years would Aemond do such a thing-

Listen, if you ship it, that's your thing, live your life, I too have liked many an unpopular ship in my time (you are currently looking at someone who is forever bitter that Dair broke up and that Jeronica will never be canon). But a lot of the content for that ship hinges on Aemond either somehow already being over something we know he's not over, to the point where his idea of restitution is the exact same thing that his mother said would be adequate restitution back when the event happened because it was such a formative moment for him at such a young age.

There's a way to make it work, if that's your thing, but you need to put in the effort to make it work, and I haven't seen a lot of people do that. There's a common scenario that's just "Luke agrees to stab out his eye and Aemond suddenly realizes it was bad and pledges his sword to Rhaenyra" or something and it's just.......Would he tho? Would he think it's bad? Or would he decide that justice has been served and go on his way and leave Luke's healing to his own people? A lot of the shippers also tend to be Team Blacks (again, fair and valid and etc) so there's not much of an impetus to reconcile the idea that Aemond has to forgive someone who has never shown any remorse or guilt and hasn't tried to give any restitution or atonement towards Aemond for what happened, which makes the whole thing hard to reconcile.

And just, nah Aemond isn't betraying his fam any time soon. He's way too attached to his mother and it's clear that he loves his siblings enough to go to bat for them (well, loves Aegon enough, they've given Helaena next to nothing and Daeron is error 404 right now). I'm all for AUs and canon divergence and all that, but that doesn't necessarily mean I gotta like it or think it's good storytelling.

[cosmic-ships]

3 11 15 for the watch dogs s/i >:3c

Ask Game: Self-Insert Lore

3 - how do the other characters generally feel about your self insert?

At first everyone was a little weary about Kaden. (They were right to feel that way tbh considering who my s/i is at the start of this. they just don't know it) after awhile Sitara warms up to Kaden and they soon become fast friends. Marcus and Wrench follow soon after. Josh basically tolerates them, neither likes or dislikes. Saying "oh good, now there's two of them" (referring to how loud both Kaden and Wrench can be at times lol) Horaito welcomed Kaden no problems and they instantly become friends. Eventually it feels like a found family to Kaden and vice versa. Co-Workers at blume have a lot of trust and faith in Kaden. Kaden ends up sharing all the same enemies as DedSec does later on.

11 - what kind of outfit(s) does your self insert wear?

Here's some examples! I was going to make like cool collages and stuff but my pc is being a weiner and I'm using my slow laptop lol but basic fashion for Kaden would include the following:

15 - how does your self insert play a role in the plot of the story? do they help directly defeat the villain, support the heroes, etc.?

They are the villian at the start of the story. Kaden was sent in by Blume to infiltrate the DedSec group and leak information from them back to Blume. At the start it was all a show. Kaden leaked thousands of files back to Blume at the start. Eventually however, Kaden came to love their found family and even caught feelings for Wrench. They didn't want to be the bad guy anymore and they stopped leaking information. Then a little later after that Wrench and Kaden entered a romantic realationship together. Kaden tried so many times to tell everyone the truth but they didn't know where to start. That was until some months later when Blume directly contacted Kaden as they were working along side their fellow DedSec fam and everyone found out about Kaden's betrayal and Wrench was hit the hardest, he thought everything up until this point was a complete lie, that Kaden lied about their feelings for him and everything, which wasn't the case. Eventually Wrench spoke for the group and told Kaden to leave and NEVER come back. As for canon events while Kaden was undercover, they helped assist DedSec in any plans they had like helping with the cyberdriver car and when all the shit hit the fan with the FBI and Wrench got captured, Kaden helped rescue him and get his mask back to him. (Even managed to use their prime mode of transportation (a skateboard) to crack an agent across the face in order to escape with Wrench. It as fun! :D ) Kaden supported the 'heroes' while simultaneously was a 'villain' don't worry though, eventually it has a happy ending...just not as soon as one would hope. It took defecting from Blume, anonymously leaking information from Blume to DedSec, running away to the UK, and joining the DedSec Resistance there for Wrench and Kaden to reunite and work out things. (That's years after the events of WD2!) As for everyone Kaden has met in the UK for the most part they get on well. Hell Kaden's best friend is an AI DedSec stole! (Bagely) (Kaden plays roles in the resistance just as they did with Wrench's group however, this time there are no lies or betraying. They've grown and they've learned who the real enemy is.)