#not to say the latter movie is BAD or the former is GOOD

[catherinnn]

This kinda inspired by one of your enemies to lovers stories where eddie says “you wouldn’t be able to handle me” but reader instead says “oh yeah i couldn’t handle the two-centimeter-pussy-defeater bc id because i would be too busy laughing my ass off at your angry half inch.”

Sorry i have been holding that one in for quite some time 😤

Beg for it

enemies to lovers - one bed trope - eddie munson x fem!reader

warnings: SMUT +18, piv, oral ( f & m), choking, degradation, unprotected sex (don't do this, this is fiction), porn with plot, fluffy at the end.

a/n: thank you for requesting babe, hope you love it!

5.7k words

“Game night at my place, the whole group will be there” Steve announces after greeting you. You went to visit him and Robin since you were already near the place. Also, maybe you could find a movie to watch tonight.

“Ugh, really? They all said yes already?” you ask.

“If you’re expecting me to say that Munson hasn’t, then I have bad news” he confirms.

“Fuck”

“You’re not even trying to be friends at this point” he complains.

“It’s impossible with him being so mean all the time” you tried to defend yourself but Robin was quick to refute your statement.

“You sure are mean to him as well, don’t act so innocent”

“Well, he started it! I didn’t even know him and he started with the jokes and asshole comments” you weren’t lying.

You were new in town, and new at the summer job your dad had found for you. He wanted you to already have some experience at working so you could make a better curriculum later. There was were you met Nancy and instantly became good friends. So much so that she had introduced you to her friend group she has had for years already. Steve, Nance, Jonathan, Robin and Eddie. The former four had been sweethearts to you since you first met them, easily becoming good friends as well. The problem was with the latter. The night Nancy had introduced you to everyone, he started being a little distant and cold towards you. You tried not to feel offended since he could just be shy or introverted, but then he started throwing snide comments and sarcastic mocking your way. You were not going to sit there and take that, so you equally threw cutting remarks at him.

That’s how the current war with him started. And that’s why your friends keep insisting with this forced proximity, so we could all be a happy family.

But it was useless, you and Eddie do agree on that.

The game night arrived that Friday. You were at the Harrington household with several board games awaiting on the table. Battleship, Clue, Guess Who, Monopoly, Scrabble, you name it.

“We wanted to make different groups and play all of these, then see which team is the best” Robin explains. “Steve and me will be team one” she says as she writes that in the whiteboard. They really went all out, since we could all be pretty competitive.

“Group two!” Jonathan exclaims quickly grabbing Nancy’s hand.

“Wait… no, definitely not” You start complaining after realizing that would mean you’re stuck with Eddie.

 “No way! I’m not teaming up with her, she’ll make us lose at everything” he complains as well.

“I will? I think the actual loser here it’s you”

“Oh, am I now-?” The metal-head starts responding when Steve steps in, cutting him off.

“Okay! Stop yelling, we’re not even playing yet! The teams have been chosen, try and be faster next time”

“We’ll start with Guess Who” Robin announces.

As the game progressed, the bickering continued.

"Does your person have brown hair?" Eddie asks Nancy and Jonathan, who nod.

You reach over to flip down the characters with blond or red hair "See, this is why we should’ve picked someone with a hat, it's less obvious"

Eddie rolled his eyes "Oh, please. Like your guess was any better. We’re losing here!” Eddie complains.

"Only if you keep making terrible guesses" you shoot back.

"Does your person have a hat?" you ask the other team.

"No"

"Still think the hat was a good idea?" Eddie raised an eyebrow at you.

"It was strategic" you huff, flipping down the characters with hats.

After playing most of the board games you had, you were tied with the second group, Steve and Robin had already lost.

“Last but not least, to decide the winner of this evening, I present… battleship” Robin announces once more.

"You sure you can keep up with this game? It requires more than just a pretty face" Eddie asks you.

"Don’t worry, I have enough brains to make up for your lack of them" you respond.

“Quit it, start playing” Steve orders.

"Let's just get this over with" you roll your eyes.

They set up the Battleship boards, each team carefully arranging their ships. Eddie and you hunched over the board, whispering fiercely.

"Put the battleship here" he insist, pointing to the top left corner.

"No, it’s too obvious. Let’s hide it in the middle"

"Fine, but when they hit it right away don’t blame me" he groans.

As the game progressed, your bickering intensified.

"B6" Jonathan called out.

You glance at the board and softly nod your head "Hit"

Eddie leans closer, his voice a teasing whisper, "I told you the corner was better"

"Just focus"

When it was your turn, Eddie called out "G4"

Nancy checks their board, "Miss"

You smirk "Looks like your guess wasn’t so great either"

Eddie rolls his eyes "Just wait"

A few rounds later, it was your turn again.

"E5" Eddie calls out.

"Miss" Nancy announces.

"I told you they wouldn’t put it there" you huff.

"Like you’ve done any better"

"How about C3?" you roll your eyes.

"Fine, C3" Eddie sighs.

"Hit" Jonathan says between his teeth.

"See? I told you" you smirk.

"Don’t get cocky, princess"

The tension built as the game neared its end, each team with only one ship left.

"Last shot, let's go with G3" Eddie says

You nod.

"You sunk our battleship" Jonathan confirms after a long sigh.

“YES!”

“COME ONN” both you and Eddie shout in excitement and before even thinking about it you hug tightly.

Robin and Steve watch the scene with wide eyes and smirks on their faces.

And the second your bodies touch each other you realize what you’re actually doing. The hug only lasts few seconds before you both back away awkwardly.

“See? You actually do make a pretty good team” Robin comments.

“Only because I took the last shot” Eddie says.

“Oh please, if it were up to you we’d still be guessing corners” you reply.

"And if it were up to you, we'd be stuck in the middle forever”

Your friends roll their eyes as the bickering continued. And as you act indifferent, you try not think about how you had to stand on the tip of your toes to wrap your arms around his neck, or how soft his hair had felt touching your skin.

His frizzy and chaotic hair. But so curly and soft.

--

Couple of weeks after that night had passed, you hung out with the guys almost every weekend. You favorite nights were the ones Eddie was busy and couldn’t make it. Like tonight.

“Pass the salt, please” Nancy asks Robin. You all went out to have dinner together. Not all actually, Jonathan was too busy as well, him you did miss.

“It’s like we’re having a girl’s night!” you say excitedly and both girls laugh as well.

“No, you’re not about to count me in as a girl” He complains.

“Oh please, you have better hair than me!” Robin comments and he rolls his eyes.

“I’m just teasing, jeez! Someone has their panties in a twist!” you joke.

“Are you on your period or something?” Nancy joins in sarcastically.

“Alright, not even funny” Steve interrupts. “Let's focus. I think we should keep planning the trip, even though we’re not all here tonight”

“Don’t even mention it. I miss Jonathan so much, he’s been so busy lately. I think he really needs a break” Nancy complains and Robin agrees with her.

“I know, it’s really noticeable when Eddie’s not here either”

“Oh yeah, he’s the one I miss. His irritating voice and loud comments. His annoying essence it’s what’s missing here!” you joke but they don’t find it funny.

“We’ve been through this, you’re gonna have to learn to like each other”

“Sure sure, so… the trip?” you change the topic acting foolish.

“Yeah, I liked the hiking option. We always go to the lake every summer, we should change it up” Nancy votes. You’ve never went to any lake with them since this is the first year you’re joining them. But they had told some stories about this hidden lake they usually go to in summer.

“I think so too, plus we should do something different since we have a new integrant” Steve comments smiling at you. Robin and you also agree to go with that option.

The guys make sure of telling the rest everything you have agreed on that night. You’ve settled on where to go hiking and the cabin that would be waiting for you at night.

A few weeks later you're all set to go.

The trip to get there was...

Steve and Jonathan took turns driving. "You must be a really shitty driver if no one here trusts you behind the wheel" you notice and tell Eddie.

"I'm not a bad driver, princess. Maybe we could go for a drive sometime and you could judge for yourself! We'll call it a date" Eddie teases you the way he knows will shut you up, it always worked. As soon as he started flirting with you, it was like you got shy all of the sudden. Replying with some nonsense that would make Eddie laugh harder because he knew he had won.

"I'd rather get eaten by a shark" you respond ignoring the nervousness that ran through your body.

"Alright, we still have a few hours ahead of us, and I'm not gonna make them with you two bickering the whole way there. So calm down" Steve —or actually, mom Steve— told you off.

Once you got to the cabin, you parked the car, settled everything down, ate something and got ready for today's hiking exercise.

Eddie was never a big fan of sports, so he knew that after an hour or so of hiking —no matter how slow they were walking or how much water he was drinking— he would just start to stay a little behind. Not a lot, but definitely the last on the row.

Also, he started to get bored. Eddie was chatting with Jonathan, but he started to take pictures of every little plant or flower he saw, and the higher you got, the more pictures of the view he wanted to take.

So Eddie started to walk in silence, taking notice of other little things, like the fact that you and Steve look pretty close and pretty giggly with each other since you started hiking. But not only that, obviously, it's not like he's jealous or anything. For him to be jealous he would have to like you in the first place, and there was no way Eddie wants you.

You're the obvious person to like; everyone in Hawkins is already smitten with you. Every guy has a crush on you because you're undeniably beautiful. He knew from the first moment he saw you that you'd never go for a guy like him. So, to keep himself from showing any sign that he wanted you, he did the opposite —he started to hate you.

So he is definitely not jealous. He was only noticing that like he noticed the colourful rocks that he walked by, or the clouds in the sky, or the way those shorts hug your body so nicely.

But he keeps hearing your laughter every ten seconds. Was Steve really being that funny, or you were acting all giggly for him? Did you like Steve? It certainly seems like you do.

You, however, were having so much fun. In the middle of a funny story Steve was telling you about some guy who tried to flirt with Robin at work and the look on her face not knowing how to tell him she didn’t like him —or well, any men for that matter.

The forest path was rugged, but you welcomed the challenge at first, feeling the cool morning air on your skin. However, after a while, your legs began to protest, your breath came in shorter gasps. It was hard to keep up with Steve. Swimmer and football player Steve. So you had to slow down a little, now walking alongside Eddie.

“What’s the matter, princess? Can’t keep up?” he teases with a mocking tone.

“You literally got behind sooner than me” you answer, shaking your head. “If anyone’s slow here, it’s you”

“But it looks like we're both walking together now, so who's really winning?” Eddie chuckles, unfazed by your sharp reply as his eyes twinkle with amusement.

You decide to ignore him. How foolish of you to think that he would accept that silence.

“So what’s the deal between you and Steve? You looked pretty cozy back there. You’re not very subtle, you know”

“There’s no deal with Steve, we were just talking” you roll your eyes, irritation flaring up.

"Right, just talking" he says, his tone dripping with scepticism. "You’re so obvious, it's almost painful to watch"

“Why don’t you stop jumping to conclusions and mind your own business” 

“Ohh, is the princess mad at me now? I’m so scared!” he grins, clearly pleased with himself.

“You’re impossible” you say almost to yourself.

You kept walking for a few more hours, taking occasional breaks to catch your breath and sip some water. The trail seemed endless, but the beauty of the forest made it worth the effort.

As you trudged along, you noticed the sky darkening. Grey clouds, rolling in with alarming speed. The wind picked up, rustling the leaves more aggressively.

A man in uniform hurrying down the trail called you out. "Hey, you guys need to find shelter! A big storm is coming in fast. There's no way you'll make it back down in time"

Panic start to appear in all of your eyes.

“Wait? Seriously?” Nancy asks.

“Yes! There’s a motel that’s a few minutes away, to your left” the guy informs you. “I don’t know how much room they have left, cause I’ve been sending some people there already. But you should go now”

Finally after quickening your pace, you spot the outline of a motel nestled among the trees. You hurry towards it. As you approach, you see the motel was old but resistant.

You reach the door and push it open, stumbling inside just as the storm unleashed its full fury. Inside, it was dim and musty, but at least it was dry.

“Hello, uh, we need room for six, please” Nancy is the first one to get to the register and talk to the old woman who was reading a newspaper as if she hadn’t heard you coming in.

“$70 the night” she answers without even looking up at you.

“Uhh… okay, we’ll take it” Nancy says and as you all reach for you wallets, the woman gives you three keys.

“There’s only three rooms left, two with queen beds and one with two separate single beds” she speaks again, as slowly as she can apparently.

“SEPARATE BED” Robin shouts fast.

“ME TOO” Steve is quickly to join her on calling dibs for that room. Not wanting to share a bed.

“Wait! No!” you complain. “Why would you get it just cause you screamed?”

“We called dibs, sorry sweetie” Robin explains.

“But that’s not fair, we should have discussed it!” Eddie joins in.

“Too late” Steve says handing the money to the woman and taking the key of their room.

“Come on guys, maybe they have a couch” Jonathan tries to make you feel better as he also pays and picks a key to their room.

“Are you actually making us share a bed?!” you ask them offended.

“Maybe it’ll help you become friends!” Robin tells you.

After paying and grabbing that stupid key, you all go to your rooms. As you walk in you notice that, in fact, there is no couch.

“Fuck” Eddie complains once again. “I’ll take the floor, let’s just find some blankets that I can sleep on”

And you turn that room upside down trying to find some. But the only blanket in the room is the –only– one on the bed.

“There’s nothing here!” you sit on the bed admitting defeat. “We’re both gonna have to sleep on the bed. I’m gonna freeze without a blanket and you can’t sleep on the bare floor, you’d freeze too”

“If you wanted to sleep with me, you could’ve just said so” Eddie jokes.

“Not now, Munson! Really not in the mood!”

After each getting ready for bed, you start building a wall of pillows in the middle. Separating his part of the bed from yours.

“I bet you wouldn’t make Steve have a wall of pillows” he mumbles, but you’re able to hear him nonetheless.

“Did you not listen when I said not now?!”

“See, that’s the problem with you. You think you can just walk in here acting like you own the fucking place. Newsflash, princess, not everyone is going to fall at your feet following your little orders!” Eddie gets mad for real this time, but so are you.

“I’m so sorry for trying to make this less uncomfortable! Actually, if you want I’ll even cuddle you while we sleep!”

“Shut up” Eddie rolls his eyes.

“No really, we should even make out before sleeping while we’re at it! Maybe that’ll prove to you that I don’t fucking like Steve”

“Yeah, you wish” Eddie comments.

“Actually, I think you wish. Giving that you’re always trying to flirt with me when we argue and giving how jealous you seem to be about Steve” you notice.

“I’m not fucking jealous. And you’re the one suggesting to fucking make out!”

“See, I think you do want to. You’re just too much of a pussy to even admit it” you whisper close to his face.

“Oh my God, princess!” Eddie starts laughing arrogantly. “You wouldn’t even be able to handle me”

“Oh yeah, you’re right! I could not handle your two centimetres because I would be too busy laughing my ass off at your angry half inch” you respond at his face.

But he doesn’t say anything back. He just looks at you. His jaw clenching, eyes darkening, breath heaving.

Before you can react, he closes the distance in one swift, aggressive movement. Gripping your arms tightly, he kissed you fiercely and angrily, his lips bruising against yours, as if trying to channel all the pent-up emotions into that kiss.

To say that you're shocked would be an understatement. But you did kiss him back. How could you not? With all the ardor and sentiment that he was putting into that kiss?

That fucking kiss.

After he felt your lips moving along with his in a dance, he let all the anger go. The kiss became passionate and intense instead of angry. Like you were finally letting go. Stopped overthinking and finally giving in.

You didn't need to talk. You didn't want to. Instead, you put one hand on his haw and the other on his hair, feeling it in between your fingers, bringing him even closer.

He sighs, holding a grunt as he feels you play with his hair. His hands move lower to your hips, feeling the upper part of your body in the process.

A fight for dominance is held up between you two. He bites your lip harshly, and you let out a little gasp that allows him to win. He's playing dirty. You're not surprised.

He starts to push you down slowly, so you're lying on the bed with him on top of you.

Your hands travel lower as well as you feel his back. You wonder if he has any tattoos there as well.

He dares to leave your lips alone as he lowers his kisses to your jaw and then your neck. He kisses and bites and licks all over your neck. You can bet that he is leaving marks as purple as a grape.

It turns you both on even more.

Eddie feels like he's flying. He's even touching the clouds. Marking you all up is only an image that haunts him in his fantasies. Like when he can't sleep, or is in the shower, or after fighting with you all evening and you're looking so beautiful and you're being such a brat. That's when he imagines leaving you all bruised out. But he's actually doing it right now, and he's going feral.

You start to feel like you're too dressed. His hands go under your shirt, and he starts to pull it up. You pull your arms up as well so he can take it off. His kisses keep traveling lower on your body. Your chest, your shoulders, the top of your breasts. He stops there. Making out with one of your nipples over the lace of your bra while pinching the other. You start moaning, your hips move searching friction on your core, and he lowers his hips so you can start dry humping him.

You feel his smirk against your sensitive skin as well as his hard on against your centre. Mocking your desperation. You're not surprised.

He moves up, meeting face to face once again. "So desperate for me, aren't you princess?" he whispers so closely to you face you can feel his lips moving and his evil smile too.

He watches you breath hard and your legs trying to close searching for that friction in between once more.

"Ask me nicely and I'll take care of you" he proposes and you roll your eyes.

You can't. You won't.

"Beg for it, princess" he tries again. "Let me hear you"

You shake your head. You're playing difficult, but Eddie likes a challenge.

"No? You're not gonna beg for me? Alright princess, you know what I'm gonna do?" he pauses to think. "I'm gonna make you cum so fast on my tongue you'll be embarrassed, and then you'll know how much of a desperate slut you can be for me"

You want to laugh and tell him off, but you are so intrigued by his confidence at the same time. You settle for a defiant look thrown at him, he catches it and smirks again. Something tells you you'll be seeing that smirk quite a lot tonight.

He unhooks your bra and throws it somewhere in the room, he squeezes your tits and caresses your nipples making a mental note to keep playing with them later. His hands travel down to your pants which are the next item being thrown away inside the room.

He takes a second to admire the view of you only on those white panties and he feels his cock jump. He proceeds to take your underwear off too, but this item is put inside his back pocket.

He puts your legs over his shoulders and lowers to be closer to your pussy. He bites his lip admiring how fucking pretty and perfect it looks. He wastes no more time and dives in.

He licks it and kisses it and sucks on it drunk on your taste. He fucking makes out with your clit and has you meowing and arching back like a damn cat.

His hands grab your thighs so hard he's probably leaving marks there too. He sighs and hums and laughs against your pussy hearing your pretty moans.

He looks up at you as you look down at him and you both feel like you could just cum at the sight alone. Your cheeks blushed, eyes watery, hair a mess, lips swollen and little moans are still coming out of them. He looks up at you while still sucking on your clit so fucking good. His eyes are covered by his bangs so you reach to move them to the side. His puppy eyes look straight at you, his hair is also a mess, and his hands are gripping you with so much force his skin as well as yours becomes whiter. And his rings feel cold and addictive against you.

You try to fight your orgasm but looking at him makes it impossible. It hits all throughout your body so good that you cry out his name as you pull on his hair.

As you catch your breath, he sits up and washes all your wetness off his face with the back of his hand, all that with a big smirk on so proud of himself.

"Still doubting me?"

You grunt, annoyed, and bring him closer. You pull his shirt over his head and take a second to admire his bare chest and arms covered in tattoos. You unbutton and unzip his pants. He's just watching you act so desperate for him to undress, enjoying every second of it like the cocky motherfucker he can be.

"Need help?" he whispers on your ear, and you nod with a pout. He stands up and takes his pants of slowly.

"These too?" he asks, signalling his boxers. You nod as you feel even hotter paying attention to the big tent he has on them.

He puts them down too, standing up proudly as you look at his big cock. "Half inch you said?" he teases you, and you look up at him as if telling him to shut the fuck up.

You sit up facing his dick. You grab it gently as you keep looking at it. How is it so... pretty? How the fuck does Eddie manages to be pretty everywhere. Even what you thought could not be pretty. He manages to make it look beautiful.

A mischievous thought crosses your mind. And you start leaving some kisses on the tip. Even a lick here and there.

He gasps unexpectedly. You put the tip in your mouth, moving your tongue around it. He lets out a little moan. You look up at him, he's already looking at you. And you proceed to slowly put all of it in your mouth while maintaining eye contact. His tip touches your throat, and you have to fight a gag. You still have a full fist grabbing the rest that didn't fit your mouth. He moans again at your little show. You close your eyes and start moving your head up and down. Eddie moans louder this time, and hands stop your movements.

"As much as I enjoy this, princess, and I really fucking am" he lets you know. "I want to cum once I'm inside of your perfect little pussy, can I?"

You take him out of your mouth with a 'pop' at the end and look at him defiantly once again. "Beg for it" you challenge him feeling proud of yourself.

He laughs. "Are you seriously telling me to beg for it while you're still practically on your knees for me?"

You won't let him win this one, so you lay back again resting on your elbows. "Beg for it"

He takes a big breath in ogling over all of your body on display for him and only him. He'll let you win this one because his dick is throbbing at the sight before him.

His hands travel up your legs and your hips to your waist. "Please, princess" he says once his face is closer to yours.

"Please, let me fuck you so good" he starts humping his dick against your pussy which makes you both gasp.

"Please, please, please" he kisses your cheek to sugar-coat you.

"Eddieee" you move your pelvis up and down against him. "Do it, put it in"

And he wastes no time to do so. Pushing his tip inside and you both gasp. He bites his lip and thrusts to enter you completely.

"Oh, fuck" your head is thrown back and you lay back down. He feels so big and so fucking good in you.

"Mhh, fuck princess" he lowers his body to be chest to chest with you. "You feel so good baby, so tight around me"

You have to bite your tongue to stop you from moaning his name, you can't keep inflating his ego.

"Don't get all quiet now. You're always talking and the one time I wanna hear you..." he teases you.

"Earn it" you manage to get out. It's ironic how your lips are almost bleeding from how hard you're biting on them to stop you from moaning as hard as you want to, but you still tell him to fuck you better.

Eddie knows what you're doing, but he likes playing with you too. So he accepts the challenge.

He gets up on his knees against the bed and takes your legs to pull you closer to him. You instantly wrap them around his hips. He wraps a hand around your throat and he looks like he's about to say something, but instead, he enters you again. A moan escapes from your mouth instantly, and you see his big smirk back.

He starts a hard and fast pace with his thrusts as you hear his sighs against your ear. You can't help the whines and moans that escape you now. Your hands go to his back scratching him, and pulling at his hair, but it only makes him moan harder.

He lowers his head to your breasts once again and keeps kissing them as he fucks you. You arch back again, because you can feel him everywhere. And he feels so so good.

He feels you clench around his dick and he thinks he could just cum right now. So he starts playing with your clit with his fingers.

"Eddiee... 'm so closee" you whine pulling him somehow even closer.

"Yeah? You are?" you nod desperately. "Beg for it" he whispers and smirks right after saying it.

You roll your eyes but it doesn't take much to convince you this time.

"Please, Eddie," he was about to tell you that you can do better, but beat him to it. "Please baby, you feel so good inside of me, so big. Eddie, please"

Eddie has to stop himself from cuming -which he almost does. "Cum for me, baby"

And you do. Your orgasm hits even harder than the first one. You gasp and whine without even thinking about it.

Few seconds after that, Eddie can't take it anymore. He feels you clench even harder while you cum and it becomes too much. So he lets go too while moaning your name against your skin.

You take a few seconds to catch your breaths when you feel Eddie pull out —and after admiring how his cum drips out of your pussy— he gets up, puts on his boxers and goes to the bathroom, only to come back with a wet towel to clean you up. To say he surprised you again was an understatement. Who would have thought he would be so careful?

After you go to the bathroom as well —with wobbly legs Eddie smirks about— and change into some comfy clothes, you both lay down. No wall pillow this time. And are quick to fall asleep after all the exercise you did today.

The next morning wasn’t so sweet. Loud knocking on your bedroom’s door accompanied a loud Robin telling you to get up already.  

Waking up all curled up with him was bound to happen. But if someone would have told you yesterday morning that today you would be waking up with Eddie Munson spooning you, you would have laughed at their face.

But here you are, and to be honest, it had been a while since you slept so peacefully.

You feel him groaning against the skin of your shoulder, holding you tighter.

You slowly opened your eyes to accustom to the light.

“Did you end up killing each other last night?! Answer me!” Robin shouts again from the other side of the door.

“Certainly feels like it” Eddie murmurs and laughs at his own joke.

“We’re awake! Calm down!” you let her know.

“We have to leave so then we can breakfast, so hurry up!” she lets you know.

You get up and start tiding up. Eddie is slower, he sits on the bed barely opening one eye to look at you and smiles. “Good morning, princess”

You look at him and a little smirk escapes from your lips. “Hey” you greet him shyly.

You both start changing to get down and tidy everything down. After you both brush your teeth, you go to pick up your backpack but he stops you to pull you in close to him.

“Good morning” he says again with his face close to yours while he pulls a strand of your hair behind your ear. Then he proceeds to kiss you, sweetly this time. Which warms your heart. You kiss him back playing with his hair once again.

“Hi, Munson” you say sweetly against his lips.

“You look beautiful in the morning” he admits but before you can even react, the knocking on your door is back.

“Okay! Okay! We’re coming!” Eddie stops them. “Jesus”

After getting down, you were waiting for them to explain where you would be having breakfast but as soon as they see you they start looking at you funny.

“What?” Eddie asks being as confused as you but they all start laughing.

“What is going on?” you ask again.

“Are we just gonna pretend like nothing happened?” Jonathan asks now.

“Yeah, were you gonna act like you still hate each other today?” Steve teases.

And you understand all the laughter. You and Eddie look at each other surprised and apparently this is also very funny because they start laughing again.

“Oh fuuuck” Jonathan starts mocking the way Eddie sounded last night also acting like moaning your name.

“Oh Eddie, so close!” Steve joins him acting like you.

Your face is as red as a tomato right now and you feel like you could just die, it would be better than taking whatever this is. You hide your face in Eddie’s shoulder after he just rolls his eyes fighting another smirk.

He laughs at you, put stills hugs you.

“You wanted us to like each other…” He defends you two.

“Yeah, apparently you took that very literal” Robin teases after catching her breath.

[arcielee]

How House of the Dragon’s Ewan Mitchell became TV’s most chilling villain [interview + pictures]

He played Barry Keoghan’s geeky friend in Saltburn. Now, the 27-year-old from Derby is riding dragons as Matt Smith’s terrifying nephew.

House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series, is coming to the boil for its second-season finale, a cauldron of Targaryen civil war, court skulduggery and dragon-on-dragon dust-ups. For many, the highlight of this season has been the emergence of a beguiling new villain in Ewan Mitchell’s Prince Aemond Targaryen, who has a character arc that’s more like a zigzag. Spoilers follow.

Aemond lost his eye to the knife of his cousin, Lucerys, got airborne revenge when his dragon, Vhagar, swallowed Lucerys whole and is now on the Iron Throne as prince regent after Vhagar barbecued the king, Aemond’s despised brother Aegon, into a walking kebab. What makes the character, though, is the chilling panache with which Mitchell plays him; an impassive psychopath behind his eyepatch.

The showrunner, Ryan Condal, has said that he was at times taken aback by the Derby-born actor’s intensity. “I sometimes forget to blink,” Mitchell, 27, says with a smile. “I need to just chill out a little bit.” Not if it means losing the edge that defines Aemond, the same contained menace that fuelled Michael Corleone. It’s a Dornish-hot day in Covent Garden. Mitchell is softly spoken like Aemond, with striking blue-grey eyes, but considerably more courteous and less terrifying. His hair, which he buzz-cuts for the show to accommodate a wig, has grown to a tousled mop, dyed a Targaryen peroxide for this publicity tour.

To help him to get into character Mitchell listened to Metallica and Slipknot (“Aemond’s straight out of heavy metal”), while cinematic inspirations included Kirk Douglas’s titular swashbuckler (“with his strong chin”) in the 1958 movie The Vikings, the icily evil android played by Michael Fassbender in Prometheus and slow-walking horror villains such as Michael Myers in Halloween. “That’s the message that Aemond wants to give off: that he has you in his sights and you won’t be able to escape him,” Mitchell says. Sometimes he took it too far. In one scene he stalked into the council chamber, “and [the director] Alan Taylor said, ‘Can you speed up the walk, please?’”

His dragon’s knack of pouncing midair (“She comes up out of nowhere like Jaws”) helps Aemond’s aura, as does that eyepatch, even if it took Mitchell a while to get used to when riding horses. He often kept it on between takes, he says, “because over the course of a couple of hours you develop a headache”. That, in his world, is a good thing because it helps to suggest a “volcano that’s boiling underneath the surface”.

We are increasingly invited to compare Aemond with the show’s other compelling bad boy: his uncle Daemon, played by Matt Smith. Both are spares who believed they deserved the crown more than the heir. “Aemond is a prince who stands to inherit nothing,” Mitchell says. “He recognised, similar to Daemon, that everything he wanted to achieve he’d have to go out and get himself. Daemon and Aemond — their names are anagrams of each other and he definitely looked up to Daemon growing up.”

Similarly, Mitchell was a fan of Doctor Who as a child and Smith was his favourite Doctor. “There is a certain resemblance as well. I remember my nan saying that,” he says. Now, though, Aemond and Daemon are on opposite sides, the former fighting with the “Greens”, the latter, nominally, with Queen Rhaenyra’s “Blacks”. Two men with brutal self-confidence, a sense of grievance and prominent chins … the stage is set for a bloody confrontation, as it was in the original Game of Thrones between the brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane. Aemond has already said he would “welcome” a chance to test himself against his uncle.

When it will happen, Mitchell can’t say. In preparation, though, he and Smith have been avoiding each other on set. That was Mitchell’s idea, but Smith and Condal agreed that it would help them to keep their grudge-match powder dry. “In the same way that Aemond keeps Daemon on that podium, I wanted to keep Matt Smith on that podium,” he says. “Our stories are very much contained and we shot in different studio spaces, so we never really brushed shoulders.”

Mitchell has also decided not to watch or read the original Game of Thrones. “I didn’t want it to influence me whether it be subconsciously or consciously,” he says, before asking me, “Which one do you prefer, House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones?” It’s hard to say until this show is over, I say, although both are equally obsessed with incest. He looks puzzled. “There was only one Targaryen in Game of Thrones, right?” Erm, not quite but I don’t want to spoil it. He smiles. “I’ll get around to watching it.”

He has certainly steeped himself in the world of House of the Dragon, which was adapted from the book Fire and Blood by the Thrones creator George RR Martin and is set more than a century before the first saga. Mitchell drew Aemond’s family tree when he got the part and can’t hide his annoyance when he briefly confuses Driftmark and High Tide, respectively an island and its castle in the show. “I’m kicking myself,” Mitchell says, which feels typical of his obsessiveness.

What is it about the Midlands that produces actors with such bristling presence? Mitchell, like Paddy Considine, who played Aemond’s father, Viserys, in the show, is a working-class son of Derbyshire and studied at the Television Workshop, an affordable, inclusive drama school in Nottingham whose other alumni include Samantha Morton, Jack O’Connell, Bella Ramsey and Vicky McClure.

“It’s just an amazing platform that champions raw talent,” Mitchell says. “I didn’t necessarily possess the means or the finances to go to drama school — no one in my family has ever done it.” His father’s side is “very much military”, he says, his grandfather having served in the SAS in Malaya and Oman after the Second World War. “He was very stoic; didn’t show much at all.” So that’s where Mitchell gets it from — his friends in Derby, where he still lives, call him “the Iceberg”. “I keep my cards quite close to my chest,” he says and he certainly does when it comes to saying if he has a partner.

After graduating he got his break in The Last Kingdom, the medieval drama series, playing Osferth, a kinsman of King Alfred. Good practice for the sword swinging, horse riding and dagger tossing to come. There was also a small role in High Life, the sci-fi-horror film starring Robert Pattinson, and a bigger one in Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s remix of Brideshead Revisited, as Barry Keoghan’s geeky mathematician friend — one of the few non-plummy characters. “Emerald would give me something new every single take: ‘Play this one like Travis Bickle, play this one like a serial killer,’” Mitchell says.

• Before Game of Thrones — the story behind House of the Dragon

Like Robert De Niro as Bickle, Mitchell is brilliant at showing vulnerability beneath the menace. He loved shooting the scene in House of the Dragon where a smirking, pre-barbecue Aegon finds a naked Aemond in bed with the brothel worker who has become a mother figure. Aemond’s real mother is Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), whom he, as regent, has just ruthlessly stood down from the Small Council. “He doesn’t want anyone else to notice that he actually really loves his mum,” he says. “Once the war ends he wants to be sat on a Dornish beach with her sipping piña coladas.”

“Horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.”

They may not get that far, although you sometimes feel that Aemond knows how things will pan out — he accepted the regency with a cool sense of inevitability. Condal has stressed the parallels of his story with the Greek myth of the Cyclops, Mitchell says. “He traded one of his eyes to Hades so he could see the day he would die.” Recent events have tested Aemond’s prescience, though, notably Rhaenyra’s recruitment of low-born Targaryen bastards to ride dragons. In the finale “you’ll see Aemond lose that composure”, Mitchell says. “He’s gonna get desperate, and you don’t want Aemond desperate because that’s when he starts to overextend.”

What next? Mitchell won’t say how many seasons of House of the Dragon he has signed up for and we know by now that anyone can be killed off with zero fanfare. He clearly loves movies, peppering his chat with references to Inglourious Basterds, The Untouchables and the M Night Shyamalan film Split, and says he would love to work with Jodie Comer, the Safdie brothers, who made Uncut Gems, and Rose Glass, who directed Love Lies Bleeding. Oh, and “horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.” He would be a natural.

tagging my beloved @assortedseaglass fuck the paywall

copy pasta from The Times

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

How House of the Dragon’s Ewan Mitchell became TV’s most chilling villain

He played Barry Keoghan’s geeky friend in Saltburn. Now, the 27-year-old from Derby is riding dragons as Matt Smith’s terrifying nephew

House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series, is coming to the boil for its second-season finale, a cauldron of Targaryen civil war, court skulduggery and dragon-on-dragon dust-ups. For many, the highlight of this season has been the emergence of a beguiling new villain in Ewan Mitchell’s Prince Aemond Targaryen, who has a character arc that’s more like a zigzag. Spoilers follow.

Aemond lost his eye to the knife of his cousin, Lucerys, got airborne revenge when his dragon, Vhagar, swallowed Lucerys whole and is now on the Iron Throne as prince regent after Vhagar barbecued the king, Aemond’s despised brother Aegon, into a walking kebab. What makes the character, though, is the chilling panache with which Mitchell plays him; an impassive psychopath behind his eyepatch.

The showrunner, Ryan Condal, has said that he was at times taken aback by the Derby-born actor’s intensity. “I sometimes forget to blink,” Mitchell, 27, says with a smile. “I need to just chill out a little bit.” Not if it means losing the edge that defines Aemond, the same contained menace that fuelled Michael Corleone. It’s a Dornish-hot day in Covent Garden. Mitchell is softly spoken like Aemond, with striking blue-grey eyes, but considerably more courteous and less terrifying. His hair, which he buzz-cuts for the show to accommodate a wig, has grown to a tousled mop, dyed a Targaryen peroxide for this publicity tour.

To help him to get into character Mitchell listened to Metallica and Slipknot (“Aemond’s straight out of heavy metal”), while cinematic inspirations included Kirk Douglas’s titular swashbuckler (“with his strong chin”) in the 1958 movie The Vikings, the icily evil android played by Michael Fassbender in Prometheus and slow-walking horror villains such as Michael Myers in Halloween. “That’s the message that Aemond wants to give off: that he has you in his sights and you won’t be able to escape him,” Mitchell says. Sometimes he took it too far. In one scene he stalked into the council chamber, “and [the director] Alan Taylor said, ‘Can you speed up the walk, please?’”

His dragon’s knack of pouncing midair (“She comes up out of nowhere like Jaws”) helps Aemond’s aura, as does that eyepatch, even if it took Mitchell a while to get used to when riding horses. He often kept it on between takes, he says, “because over the course of a couple of hours you develop a headache”. That, in his world, is a good thing because it helps to suggest a “volcano that’s boiling underneath the surface”.

We are increasingly invited to compare Aemond with the show’s other compelling bad boy: his uncle Daemon, played by Matt Smith. Both are spares who believed they deserved the crown more than the heir. “Aemond is a prince who stands to inherit nothing,” Mitchell says. “He recognised, similar to Daemon, that everything he wanted to achieve he’d have to go out and get himself. Daemon and Aemond — their names are anagrams of each other and he definitely looked up to Daemon growing up.”

Similarly, Mitchell was a fan of Doctor Who as a child and Smith was his favourite Doctor. “There is a certain resemblance as well. I remember my nan saying that,” he says. Now, though, Aemond and Daemon are on opposite sides, the former fighting with the “Greens”, the latter, nominally, with Queen Rhaenyra’s “Blacks”. Two men with brutal self-confidence, a sense of grievance and prominent chins … the stage is set for a bloody confrontation, as it was in the original Game of Thrones between the brothers Sandor and Gregor Clegane. Aemond has already said he would “welcome” a chance to test himself against his uncle.

When it will happen, Mitchell can’t say. In preparation, though, he and Smith have been avoiding each other on set. That was Mitchell’s idea, but Smith and Condal agreed that it would help them to keep their grudge-match powder dry. “In the same way that Aemond keeps Daemon on that podium, I wanted to keep Matt Smith on that podium,” he says. “Our stories are very much contained and we shot in different studio spaces, so we never really brushed shoulders.”

Mitchell has also decided not to watch or read the original Game of Thrones. “I didn’t want it to influence me whether it be subconsciously or consciously,” he says, before asking me, “Which one do you prefer, House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones?” It’s hard to say until this show is over, I say, although both are equally obsessed with incest. He looks puzzled. “There was only one Targaryen in Game of Thrones, right?” Erm, not quite but I don’t want to spoil it. He smiles. “I’ll get around to watching it.”

He has certainly steeped himself in the world of House of the Dragon, which was adapted from the book Fire and Blood by the Thrones creator George RR Martin and is set more than a century before the first saga. Mitchell drew Aemond’s family tree when he got the part and can’t hide his annoyance when he briefly confuses Driftmark and High Tide, respectively an island and its castle in the show. “I’m kicking myself,” Mitchell says, which feels typical of his obsessiveness.

What is it about the Midlands that produces actors with such bristling presence? Mitchell, like Paddy Considine, who played Aemond’s father, Viserys, in the show, is a working-class son of Derbyshire and studied at the Television Workshop, an affordable, inclusive drama school in Nottingham whose other alumni include Samantha Morton, Jack O’Connell, Bella Ramsey and Vicky McClure.

It’s just an amazing platform that champions raw talent,” Mitchell says. “I didn’t necessarily possess the means or the finances to go to drama school — no one in my family has ever done it.” His father’s side is “very much military”, he says, his grandfather having served in the SAS in Malaya and Oman after the Second World War. “He was very stoic; didn’t show much at all.” So that’s where Mitchell gets it from — his friends in Derby, where he still lives, call him “the Iceberg”. “I keep my cards quite close to my chest,” he says and he certainly does when it comes to saying if he has a partner.

After graduating he got his break in The Last Kingdom, the medieval drama series, playing Osferth, a kinsman of King Alfred. Good practice for the sword swinging, horse riding and dagger tossing to come. There was also a small role in High Life, the sci-fi-horror film starring Robert Pattinson, and a bigger one in Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s remix of Brideshead Revisited, as Barry Keoghan’s geeky mathematician friend — one of the few non-plummy characters. “Emerald would give me something new every single take: ‘Play this one like Travis Bickle, play this one like a serial killer,’” Mitchell says.

Like Robert De Niro as Bickle, Mitchell is brilliant at showing vulnerability beneath the menace. He loved shooting the scene in House of the Dragon where a smirking, pre-barbecue Aegon finds a naked Aemond in bed with the brothel worker who has become a mother figure. Aemond’s real mother is Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), whom he, as regent, has just ruthlessly stood down from the Small Council. “He doesn’t want anyone else to notice that he actually really loves his mum,” he says. “Once the war ends he wants to be sat on a Dornish beach with her sipping piña coladas.”

They may not get that far, although you sometimes feel that Aemond knows how things will pan out — he accepted the regency with a cool sense of inevitability. Condal has stressed the parallels of his story with the Greek myth of the Cyclops, Mitchell says. “He traded one of his eyes to Hades so he could see the day he would die.” Recent events have tested Aemond’s prescience, though, notably Rhaenyra’s recruitment of low-born Targaryen bastards to ride dragons. In the finale “you’ll see Aemond lose that composure”, Mitchell says. “He’s gonna get desperate, and you don’t want Aemond desperate because that’s when he starts to overextend.”

What next? Mitchell won’t say how many seasons of House of the Dragon he has signed up for and we know by now that anyone can be killed off with zero fanfare. He clearly loves movies, peppering his chat with references to Inglourious Basterds, The Untouchables and the M Night Shyamalan film Split, and says he would love to work with Jodie Comer, the Safdie brothers, who made Uncut Gems, and Rose Glass, who directed Love Lies Bleeding. Oh, and “horror is definitely a genre I’d love to venture into at some point.” He would be a natural.

[eldritch-bf]

Having a super normal one about an AU idea:

Herbert is Dr. Hill’s assistant and they developed the serum together and they have an extremely toxic relationship. Dr. Hill has been manipulating Herbert since undergrad convincing him he’s only a good scientist bc of him etc but Hill got caught with the corpses on his basement and is currently in jail awaiting trial but Herbert managed to get the notebook containing all their research out however he was staying with Hill in his house hence why he suddenly needs Daniel Cain as a roommate

No one really knew about their affiliation either because Hill insisted they never interact at the university except for as normal in class or something. Dan suspicious of Herbert’s late night phone calls where he’s always arguing with someone in a whispered voice.

Hill is still manipulating Herbert from jail and wants him to post bail for him so they can finish the research but Herbert has been enjoying not having Hill tell him how worthless he is all the time and boss him around etc

especially since now he has Dan helping him and Dan seems to think Herbert is a good scientist and smart etc and is nice to him so maybe Herbert is just gonna let Hill rot in prison until the trial bc Dan is cute and is giving him self-esteem and feelings which kind of confuse him bc he was taught not to be distracted by human desires. or he simply can’t because Herbert already paid for his tuition for the year and Hill had wanted him to get a refund but he couldn’t.

Hill probably manages to get Halsey to post bail for him instead idk

They have a super toxic dynamic esp considering Hill tried to model and groom Herbert after him aka a perfect emotionless scientist concerned with results and nothing more. and he was also the one who did Herbert’s top surgery and hysto and gets him T. dude controls all aspects of his life claims to be the one who made him a man made him a scientist made him worth anything etc. it’s about Herbert unlearning that.

also if you really want you can interpret them as having a physical relationship as well. just another way for Hill to manipulate Herbert but that’s probably only vaguely suggested.

Meanwhile poor Dan just wanted a roommate who could also double as a study partner and now he’s pulled into the middle of this weird psychosexual relationship between his roommate and one of his former professors the latter of whom is trying to kill him so he can exert total control over Herbert and the former of whom is so confused about his feelings he isn’t sure if he should kill or kiss Dan because Hill always taught him sentiment and affection were bad

Also imagining the climax of the movie when Herbert is rescuing Dan and Dr Hill saying “oh my god, you’re actually in love with him!”

[audreyscribes]

Ω PJO MISCELLANEOUS DEMIGOD HEADCANONS: 💤 MORPHEUS: GOD OF DREAMS 💤

A/N: I see you Morpheus demigods out there, this is for you. Also because in the books, there was a reference that there are demigods of Morpheus, but we don't really see any but they exist sort of? So, we all know the drill! Thanks for reading and have a nice day!! MISCELLANEOUS DEMIGOD H/CS MASTERLIST LINK: [TUMBLR] || [AO3]

When you get claimed, you have a very similar experience to the children of Hypnos; where it involves sleep. However, instead of falling asleep as soon as you get a claim like a Hynos demigod, you have a dream where Morpheus used his realm to meet you and basically say, “You are my child” while everyone is forcibly evicted from their sleep and dreams to see the claim hanging above your dead-asleep body.

You were still dead-asleep in the dream realm and after Morpheus left, cause this was a major gray zone he was doing, a chosen child of Hypnos would appear in your dream and give you the down-low, while the rest of them had to trudge up the Hermes cabin where you were in, and basically carry you to the Morpheus cabin. Why you may ask? Well Morpheus’ claim was dreams and touching your vicinity would make anyone else fall asleep and have either a russian roulette of forced dreams; whether they were good or bad dreams, no one knew but anyone who had fallen under the spell would not wake up easily. The only exceptions to this case were the children of Hypnos and a few children of Hecate. 

So your first morning as a child of Morpheus would be greeted by the children of Hypnos looking down on you as you stared up at their eyes and a new roof of the Morpheus cabin. What a way to wake up.

Being a child of Morpheus obviously deals with dreams and sleep, but your powers are more in the former than latter… and no, it’s not Morbin time. Yes you have the power to make someone fall asleep but you can’t hypnotise someone like a child of Hypnos.

 At the minimum, you can give someone a nice daydream or daymare (day-nightmare) and making someone fall asleep and manipulate their dreams. To the max, if you’re a powerful Morpheus demigod, you know and can see people’s dreams, peering into their psyche as if to even bring it into the reality. You can also bring their nightmare to life and truly make it a living nightmare.

With Morpheus being also referred to as the Sand-man, you also inherited this aspect. You can manipulate sand or dream-sand to be exact, and you can use that as your advantage. Think of Sandy from the movie “Rise of the Guardians”.

While the children of Hypnos have this duty as well, they’re basically chronically asleep so you’re the next person to go for deciphering dreams. You make good business in helping people decipher their dreams, to see what the future is talking about and the occasional love drama you get from the children of Aphrodite. On a serious note, the children of Morpheus act as consultations on dreams; especially if they are Prophetic dreams. While prophecies are not your realm, you learn a thing or two from the children of Apollo and Hecate (maybe sometimes even from the gods themselves), deciphering dreams based on symbols, places, and etc.

On the flipside, Morpheus is also considered the messenger of the gods who appeared in the dream of kings in human guise, so you’re also relegated as messengers of the messengers of the gods.  Depending on how you feel, it is either awkward, terrible, fun, or an honour in delivering messages to certain recipients that you get from your dreams. How you feel depends on the context of the message and who you have to deliver it to. You did not enjoy delivering a message to Clarisse la Rue from her godly half-brothers Phobos and Deimos, nor did not absolutely enjoy almost feeling the wrath of her spear and rage. This is why people keep saying, “don’t shoot the messenger”

You’re also chronically tired ™ like your Hypnos cousins, but just 40% of the time. Instead of falling asleep like your cousins, people often find you daydreaming and being in your own little world

Your godly father’s reputation precedes you in more ways, with him being responsible putting all of Manhattan to sleep during the Titan War, and in the Roman’s eyes, they stiffen around you and act very tense on the job, as Morpheus’ Roman side, Somnia, alongside his father Hypnos, Somnus (r.), killed those who weren’t alert at their jobs.

Despite being the child of Morpheus, the god of Dreams, there’s a good chance that you don’t have many dreams yourself. It could be because you are perfectly able to lucid dream or are like the children of Hypnos who enter people’s dreams and float through the astral realms, or your dreams are hijacked being a messenger of the gods, dealing and talking to gods, or having to oversee people’s dreams; no matter how you feel on it. You’re also busy taking people’s bad dreams away and making them good dreams (or vise-versa), taking that energy to yourself as a sort of substance. However, just like the children of Hypnos, don’t spend your time too much in the other realm or you won’t find yourself coming back to the land of the living.

You felt like you were having a headache but you weren’t really sure if you could have a headache when you were technically passed out and asleep and be lucid dreaming all at the same time. 

Especially when you’re face to face with the man you’ve seen in your dream occasionally, only to be revealed that this entire time he was Morpheus, your godly father who revealed to you just now. 

“Wait, so all this time I thought you were some boogey man that’s been haunting my dreams for years, was you? Morpheus? The god of dreams who is also my father?” you asked, trying to wrap your mind around it. 

“Boogey man, sandman, however the mortals like to call me, they’re all me” said Morpheus as he leaned against his seat. 

“Wait, should you be even talking to me? All the other demigods say that the gods don’t really talk to their own children cause of some law?” you said, panicking. The setting of your dream world shook in response to your emotions. The dreamland you were in was created by Morpheus was modelled after a place you felt more comfortable to you; as he said, it allowed him to see more about you. 

Morpheus waved his hand flippantly, switching and stabilising the dreamland to something else that you were familiar with. 

“Bah, as if they don’t do the same here in the world of the wake and the world of dreams,” said Morpheus with slight distaste, “Besides, the dream world is a different reality that is made and managed between me and my father, Hypnos. I would like them to see them have any thoughts and be barred from seeing their own children in their dreams.” 

“Do gods dream?” you blurted out. 

Morpheus gave you a look that started to make the world around you distort. Your ears were ringing while also sounding like it was being put into a vacuum chamber and it kept building and building until-

Everything was back to normal. 

“Of course we dream” Morpheus stated before he cocked his head to the side. “Now my time has come and by now everyone in that camp knows who you are.”

“Wait what-” 

Morpheus waved his hand and the world distorted for a moment before another kid like you came stumbling in, as Morpheus scoffed. “One of my mortal half-siblings will fill you in the rest. Have a good time and learn well from Chiron, [first name]. Until we meet again.” 

Before you could even process what he said, Morpheus disappeared as he came all of a sudden. 

“I’ll never get used to him doing that” said the mysterious kid. 

“Wait, who are you? What did he mean that everyone in camp knows?” you stammered out.

“Hi, I’m Clovis, son of and cabin leader of the Hypnos cabin” he introduced as he yawned. “That’s why Morpheus referred to me, and the rest of my siblings as mortal half-siblings.” 

“Okay…can we get back to what did Morpheus said that everyone in camp knows? What do they know?”

“Oh, right” said Clovis as he seemed more awake. “Well…apparently, while you were talking with Morpheus, he basically ejected everyone in camp from their sleep to see you being claimed…while you’re still sleeping in the real world.”

“WHAT?!”

“Yeah…even us the children of Hypnos were ejected out too. I’m here to explain everything to you while the rest of us are currently carrying your actual body to your cabin.” 

“Wait, why are you carrying my body?” you asked, your mind reeling from everything.

Clovis waved his hand and showed you what was basically you being carried by a bunch of kids who all shared the baby face appearance. There were also some holding people back and some further ahead to clear a path while you were still dead-asleep like a pile of rocks. All in the dead of the night. The rest of the campers were either looking very sleepy and dead on their feet, or were lighting the path in front of you. 

You felt your face burning as Clovis patted your shoulder. “Yeah…basically Morpheus’ claim is so strong that anyone who is close to you or tries to wake you up puts them to sleep…and while that may not be a problem right now, since it’s night, everyone who touches you gets thrown into a nightmare. So it falls onto us, the children of Hypnos and the few children of Morpheus, to carry you to the Morpheus cabin.”

You had your face in your hands to try and hide but because this was a dream, you could see yourself putting your face in your hands and still witness the scene in front of you. Clovis finally releasing you from your embarrassment waved his hands away to clear the image before he spoke to you. 

“Well…you’re the first child of Morpheus that we’ve had in a while, and the last one isn’t used to this procedure yet so it falls onto me to give you the rundown of everything. Welcome to the Morpheus cabin Cousin” introduced Clovis as you groaned. This dream was actually a nightmare in disguise.

[supercalifragipopculturevomit]

I love your blog, and you seem to be a Daniel Brühl expert, so I thought I'd ask you:

If I've only watched Rush and Der ganz große Traum as films of his, and enjoyed both, what would you recommend me to watch next? I'm particularly looking for something historical fiction (though it feels like he's done a solid tonne of that) and/or some piece where he looks like Konrad Koch because that was a great look, and criminally underrated.

Just looking for some help!

Hey there, Anon! 👋 Those are great movies to start with. If you want more historical fiction from Daniel, you can't go wrong with Good Bye, Lenin! and Inglorious Basterds. They are classics and make up my Top 3 favorite DB movies, along with Rush. It's a TV show, but The Alienist also falls under your requirements. He's incredible as Dr. Laszlo Kreizler! Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is based on true events but the character it centers on was such an enigma and often told conflicting 'truths' so I imagine poetic license was exercised in the writing of the miniseries. You don't have to be into fashion to enjoy it, it's a compelling character study, much like Rush is. It's also set in the 70s.

If you want to stick to movies though, I'd say check out Woman in Gold and The Zookeeper's Wife after. They're not exactly fiction but they are historical. He has a minor role in the former, but it's a fascinating story, and worth watching if you're into art history. In the latter, he has a bigger role and a 'stache you might appreciate since you find Konrad's look underrated. I mean, look...

If you're in the mood for something heavier, proceed (lightly) with John Rabe, Joyeux Noël, and All Quiet On The Western Front. Ideally in that order. They're not related, though they're all set in World War I, I just think that's the best way to go about it. I hope this helps! Sorry I got carried away with my recommendations. I tend to do that 🤷‍♀️ I've also talked about many of these projects on THIS POST. p.s. if you do check any of these out, I'd love to hear your thoughts, good or bad, anonymously or otherwise.

[gregxb]

Part of what is problematic to so many writers about the term "filler episodes" is that for some viewers, stories only count when they're sprinting breathless through the events of the story arc, if things aren't directly moving ahead or blowing up, which ignores the reality that those events have to have meaning to the characters, have to change them and react to them, and we can't see those changes, or understand those reactions, unless we understand the characters.  This is the crucial difference between incident and story.   Incident is "the king died, then the queen died." Story is, "the king died, then the queen died of grief."  There's emotional connectivity that has to be built into the story.  Yeah, you can jump into sex and just do all the things without emotion or foreplay or having any idea of who the other person actually is, and for some people that's just fine, but not, I suspect for everyone.   Pausing all the Big Events to do a character story isn't "filler"…it's a part of setting the stage for the impact of those events.  If someone doesn't care about the the people who these things are happening to, then there's no point to the story. Story events are things that happen to people; if you only focus on the former it's basically porn structure and empty; if only the latter, it's uninteresting naval-gazing.   You have to service both sides equally. That's why character episodes aren't filler; they're where we see consequence and understand what all this means.  Some folks say that because they're "filler" they must have been easier to write. Nothing would be farther from the truth. Take a movie structure: you know how you want to start the story, and how it ends…big, easy stuff…the hard part is keeping the audience's attention through the second act when there's not as much inherently exciting stuff to work with; usually just a lot of shoe-leather. There's a term writers of movies and novels use for the second act: "The desert of the middle." It's always the hardest part to write. Ditto TV episodes where you have to write the strong character episodes between the big explosive episodes.  But if you don't have those things then you're not going to care about the big things when they happen, and for some folks, that's fine, they just want to see shit blow up.  But I don't think that applies to most folks who want to relate to the characters in the story and to feel for them, the bad to fail and the good to succeed.   One last point about "filler episodes" is that the term has, or had, a very specific industry meaning only when it came to daily soap operas.  Soap opera weekly structure is: Monday resolves the Friday cliffhanger and introduces a new story element or controversy. Tuesday nothing new is introduced, it's everyone talking about, repeating, or worrying about what it all means. This is a filler episode.  Wednesday there's usually some small spike, a new bit of information.  Thursday back to talking about, repeating or worrying about what came up Thursday. Filler.  Then Friday comes the cliffhanger/story event, which is resolved Monday, rinse and repeat. (This is more relevant to old-school soaps than some of the newer ones, but even there you can see echoes of that structure.) That's how "filler episodes" were/are generally seen in the industry. Within some of the public, it's anything that doesn't rocket forward. I remember when "Comes the Inquisitor" was described as just "filler" when it first aired because it didn't move the story along. But would the story have been as meaningful without it?  To dismiss something as "filler" is to hand-wave away the effort that went into it, and ignore the point of character-based episodes: to make the story matter to the characters and the audience. Otherwise, why the hell even tell it?

-J. Michael Straczynski

[howlingday]

Vanilla Movies

Setting - After nearly dying while fighting Cinder Fall, his former ally, Jaune Arc, aka The Huntsman, is dragged to safety by Qrow Branwen and Velvet Scarlatina, the latter of whom was forced out of her early retirement to help save the young hero. Now, the trio are in hiding, possibly forever while Cinder and her crew are hunting down The Huntsman.

Qrow: ...Alright, should be safe to talk again. Nobody's gonna find us here for a while, so get some food and rest in ya while ya can.

Velvet: ...M-Mister Branwen. B-Back there, I... I saw some things I shouldn't have... didn't I? A-And that means Miss Fall is going to kill me when she finds me... r-right?

Qrow: ...Yeah.

Velvet: S-So... So I can't call my family ever again... huh?

Qrow: ...Nope.

Velvet: F-Forever?

Qrow: ...Prolly.

Velvet: ...

Velvet: ...Thank goodness~.

Jaune: ?

Velvet: I f-finally have an excuse to get away from my family...

Jaune: Your... family?

Velvet: My m-mom... and my dad...

Jaune: ...

Qrow: ...I'm gonna get some grub and hit the sack. We're getting up early tomorrow, so I suggest you both do the same. (Lays down)

Jaune: ...Velvet? Why are you shaking?

Velvet: B-Because this always happens... I-I'm always getting the short end of the stick, a-and I'm probably going to die... I... I don't want to die...

Velvet: Y-You don't have to worry about that b-because you're a superhero. N-Nothing bad ever happens to y-you.

Jaune: ...I know it doesn't look like it, but I actually feel like crap. Like, the worst kind of crap. I just watched my best friend die in front of me, and it was at the hands of someone I thought I could trust, and now I'm probably gonna die somewhere in a ditch if Cinder doesn't get to me first. And even if I do manage to somehow survive this, I'm just going to be fighting for my life against somebody even worse than Cinder later.

Velvet: ...B-But isn't that normal?

Jaune: ?

Velvet: Th... The only place you can ever be happy... I-Is in a good dream...

Jaune: ...

Velvet: ...

Jaune: I... I just wanted to be special and...

Velvet: Y... You want to be special, Jaune?

Jaune: ...

???: The Huntsman...

Jaune: !

TV: (Reporter) There's not a man, woman, or child alive who doesn't know the name of The Huntsman, a hero among heroes who towers above the rest!

Jaune: Th... The Huntsman...

TV: (Crowd) HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN! HUNTS! MAN!

Jaune: They... They love me...

TV: (Young Woman) I mean, he's a superhero, right? Who wouldn't want to go on a date with a superhero? I totally do~!

Jaune: (Leans against the TV, Sobbing) THEY LOOOVE MEEE~!

Qrow: Ugh... Pipe down, will ya?

Jaune: I... I can't believe I'm saying this, but... I'm tired of eating dino chicken nuggies! I want... I want to eat steak and lobster! Every morning!

Jaune: And I know that's selfish, and so is not being happy with just one girl! I want five- No! -ten girlfriends! I WANNA HAVE A TON OF SEX!

Velvet: ...

Qrow: ...

Jaune: And that's why...

Jaune: THAT'S WHY I WANT TO BE THE HUNTSMAN.

Qrow: ...You go out there, and Cinder will hunt you down and cook you alive. The instant you don that cape and mask, it'll be the last time you ever do anything ever again.

Jaune: ...

[hrodvitnon]

Y'know, for all its failures, I believe GxK is the biggest win for Godzilla's overall reputation in the Monsterverse. What I mean by that, is that when you have a character referred to as "King of The Monsters", you're basically placing said character at the very top of the food chain, or damn near close to it. And as such, it sets up the expectation that said character will be peerless, with only a handful of others who can match his strength. And unfortunately, the Monsterverse had not really showcased that all that well. Because every major fight Godzilla's been in had been a major struggle up to this point, with him nearly dying to the MUTOs, Ghidorah, and MechaGodzilla. Granted, there were outside factors at play, but the end result is still that Godzilla nearly died and his title got chipped, losing it's gravitas as a result. Why should one believe him to be the strongest, or even close to that, if every other fight he gets into has a 60% chance to end with him getting his teeth kicked in? If you're gonna give someone a title that implies strength, you have to either play it straight, or for irony purposes. Out of the top of my head, two examples of the latter case are Sukuna and Gojo from JJK. Both of them are referred to as "The Strongest" or "The Honored One", with the whole cast of both heroes and villains acknowledging their strength and ability as being unparalleled. But we don't just stop at saying they're the strongest, because every time either of them is on the battlefield, the whole game changes. Every time they fight somebody, you get the sense that they're not taking it seriously, and that they are operating on a wholly different wavelength from everybody else. And that goes to great lengths to show that the title of Strongest is not just for show. And, one example of the former is, ironically, Invincible from "Invincible", whose most defining trait so far is nearly dying every fight he has. It's not even funny anymore, you just feel bad for the guy. He could be having a nice dinner with his girlfriend when suddenly, a superpowered alien chick for his dad's world rolls in, and basically goes "If we don't go out and fight right now, this bitch dies." And he has to oblige because his girlfriend's life is on the line. What proceeds is what can only be described as a beatdown, with him getting his face caved in and then left to rot. Of course, you do have the angle of "Oh, his Indomitable human spirit is what keeps him in the fight, that's what makes him invincible." And yeah, sure. But that human spirit of his does fuck all to keep his teeth where they should be, which inside his mouth, not outside of it. Thankfully, Godzilla is no longer at risk of falling that hole, because GxK basically gave a flawless run. Of course, that came at the expense of Scylla and Tiamat getting turned into tuna, but it untimely did wonders to put some much needed respect in Godzilla's name and title, and I do hope they keep this trend going in the next movie.

I wasn't all that bothered by Godzilla having rough fights before GxK, because I'd marathoned most of the Toho movies in the leadup to KOTM and my line of thinking was, "Yeah, historically Godzilla has gotten his ass beaten before, so this tracks. This isn't FInal Wars, so why should I expect these fights to be easy?" His opponents had advantages over him in some ways, like the MUTOs outnumbering him and Ghidorah being a flying extinction event with vampire energy succage and Mechagodzilla being a Terminator on meth; naturally he would almost die at some points, and that made it exciting or even scary to me.

If Godzilla suddenly became Final Wars-tier overpowered it would be awesome, but at the same time it could run the risk of turning him into a Boring Invincible Hero, and Godzilla should never be boring. Easy wins are well and good, but must all of his fights be easy? I kinda like that he had to struggle before and he's only now cutting out the bullshit, like he's thinking "fuck this git gud horseshit, I'M TURNING THIS INTO METAL GEAR RISING." I do look forward to seeing how he performs next movie (Sputore, please do not let the evolved form be a one-time only thing, that would be stupid).

(Also, speaking of anime and things: I've never watched Invincible and still haven't watched JJK but I have watched and read Rurouni Kenshin; Kenshin is legendary in his series but also has the handicap of using a fighting style too strong for his body type and a reverse-bladed sword that prevents him from killing, and after a certain point he's being given opponents who are physically bigger and stronger and have no qualms about killing, and have tricks of their own that kick his ass. Sometimes you have to fight or even struggle to maintain the legend, and I'm okay with that. It's what I grew up with.)

[neonponders]

Part 13 for @wrecked-fuse ‘s pocketverse 🐇

Part 12

(Part 9′s art 🌹) ( pt. 7′s art 🧁)

~ on ao3 ~

• • •

Billy never expected to be left alone in Harrington’s house, but Steve and Robin had to go to work, and the little ones were thrilled at the idea of having Billy all day.

Of course he wasn’t alone. Max sat on the floor while the littles played on the coffee table. Billy sat on the couch, arm outstretched across the back while the movie, Clue, played. He couldn’t tell if his smaller counterpart was arguing with Max or if it was an animated discussion.

“No! They’rwe all bad.”

“Yeah, that’s the point. It’s like a plot with only villains.”

“Then what’s the point!”

“It’s based on a board game. It’s a puzzle You’re supposed to match the weapons to the characters and their victims.”

Small Billy looked affronted with a grimacing frown. “It’s not a storwy?”

Big Billy intercepted in a deadpan voice, “Are you enjoying this?”

Max cocked a brow at him. “Well it’s not any different than car rides with you.”

Little Billy’s gaze darted between them as he repeated, “Thewe’s no storwy? That’s stupid!”

He kicked a bottle cap, which pinged off a porcelain bunny on one of the entertainment unit’s shelves. When the tip of an ear clattered ominously, Max and Billy looked at each other. Exhaling heavily, he got up and took the bunny and its ear to the kitchen in search of glue.

Max offered, “You could just push it behind something.”

“And that, shit bird, is why I’m leashed to you all the time. Make sure they don’t dive off the table.”

“Biwwy! I’ww helwp!” little Steve summoned.

Billy found the glue and brought it back to the table. “Don’t touch the glue, or else your hands will be stuck forever.”

Brown eyes went huge. “Forweverw?”

Billy nodded ominously and Max rolled her eyes. To his credit, Steve was able to hold the ear tip in place. Small Billy gave him a boost onto the tissue box so he’d be high enough, and then he went back to arguing with Max.

“So what’s a puzzlwe?”

“It’s a problem that you solve.”

“What for?”

“Fun.”

“What do you get if you do it?”

“A superiority complex.”

“Hmm...” little Billy rubbed his chin, tapping his foot as he thought about this -

He gasped when Steve screamed. In a panicked rush, he peeled his hand off the porcelain bunny and gaped at it before holding it up for large Billy to see. “BIWWY! Am I okay?”

He leaned forward to squint at the small palm. Meanwhile, little Billy climbed the tissue box to see for himself. “Still got skin, pwetty.”

But Steve’s lower lip pouted as he stared at his hand. They both looked up at the massive can of beer being set next to them. Large Billy consoled, “You just got spooked, you’ll be fine. Touch the can, you’ll feel better.”

Steve pressed his pink palm to the cold metal, peeking once at his hand again before he let his hand rest on the lip of the can.

Billy, however, sniffed the bronze puddle in the crease at the mouth of the can and leaned down to take a sip. He came up sputtering and coughing. “Agh! It’s sharp! Hey!”

Big Billy hoisted him up by the back of his linens. “That’s not for babies.”

“I’m not a baby!”

“If the bubbles are as big as your eyes, it’s not for you,” he revised.

The former scoffed, “I’m bigger than teenie weenie bubbwes.”

“Max?”

Attention returned to Steve as she replied, “Yeah?”

“Did you say Cwue is a game?”

At a loss, she considered, “Uh...yeah. It’s not as easy as watching a movie, though.”

Large Billy watched small Billy gaze, riveted at Steve while he asked, “Can we pway?”

Little Billy gasped, “You said puzzwe! Not a game! A game is way coolwer.”

Max looked to large Billy, who smiled mercilessly and pointed at the shelf of board games. “I see it right there.”

So emerged the Clue board, which looked like an artistic blueprint of some rooms. Billy and Steve walked over the corridors and rooms, the latter pausing to read, “Kit...kit. Chen. Kit. Chen. Kitchen.”

Large Billy lifted his brows, admittedly impressed and said as much. “Good job. I didn’t know you guys could read.”

Steve started towards another room as he said, “Stevwie and Wobin hewlp me. Ugh...it hurts my eyes.”

Billy frowned as he watched little Billy catch Steve losing his balance with crossed eyes. “West yourw eyes, Stevie. We got kiwwers to catch.”

Steve rubbed his eyes and mumbled, “What’s a wibrwarwy?”

Max and Billy exchanged looks before she blurted, “I’m sorry, what?”

Small Billy pointed at one of the rooms. Large Billy enunciated, “Library. It’s where the first kill happened.”

Both littles gasped and stood holding each other with riveted eyes on him. Steve breathed, “Weally?”

Billy reached for the box and pulled out one of the figurines and set it down in the library, but on its back. Small Steve began to approach the body - 

Little Billy ran up and kicked the plastic figure, sending it spinning over the edge of the table and subsequently stabbing Max. “Ow! What the hell was that?”

“Stinky!” Billy accused. “That’s not Mistewr Boddy! That’s the butwer!”

“This isn’t the movie,” she tried to say patiently but firmly - with no help from large Billy holding his chest with laughter.

Then his eyes shot wide open as an idea occurred to him. “No, you’re right. That’s the butler. But the owner of the house has not been seen all night. Let’s see who found the body and who is in the house.”

Instead of playing the game, Billy and Max weaved together a story. They set figurines through the board, and went through the cards while the movie played in the background. Little Steve giggled as he was given the candlestick, and Billy would not take anything other than the revolver. He even ran for his Indiana Jones hat before he declared, “Okay. I’m weady to pway.”

It was a long game.

It was also the longest Max and Billy had ever gone without butting heads or yelling at one another.

But their luck had to run out at one point or another, but it wasn’t the large peoples’ fault. Max noticed first how little Billy held his tummy. “B? Are you okay?”

His eyes watered and he shook his head. “My tummy’s uppy.”

Steve gasped and ran across the board to him. He crouched and pressed his ear and cheek to Billy’s belly before he exclaimed, “It’s noisy!”

Max looked to her stepbrother. “What do we do?”

“I doubt there’s an antacid that’s been tested for them,” he remarked.

“Then we need to call Steve.”

“And tell him what? That these guys slipped a little beer in their system and are having a reaction?”

Max cornered, “I thought you were the one who fixed the rabbit instead of hiding it?”

Little Steve interrupted with his hands on the smaller Billy, who was sinking down to the table top, in more and more pain. “Biwwy? Pwease? Helwp.”

He sighed and stretched his arm up to ruck up his sleeve and look at his watch. “Come on. Nobody will be at Family Video right now. Max, call Robin to see if their dweeb of a boss is there.”

Max jogged to the kitchen to get the confirmation that Keith wasn’t in today, but kept repeating, “We’ll explain when we get there. Billy’s getting them in their box room.”

“Let’s move!” he ordered, and she hung up on the loud voices in the receiver.

[alangdorf]

Aaaaand next off the checklist is Manager Magolor, it seems! I feel the need to clarify this is a while post-RtDL and most likely post-Star Allies too (and probably post-much-needed-therapy) given the temporally anomalous nature of Merry Magoland.

I also feel the need to clarify something weird I said in the initial theory post, even though it most likely goes without saying given some of the design decisions I made here and the sheer power of saying “you know what I mean”, but I think I finally have my thoughts coherently together about The Discourse. Going under the cut given that it is about The Discourse, and also about my personal experience with gender, transition, and internalized misogyny.

First off, if you don’t know what I mean by The Discourse, or why the heck I’m drawing Magolor as a Doomer and not a catboy, in the latter case see my previous posts, and in the former case, there was a line added in Return to Dream Land Deluxe for 100%ing the game where Magolor says he was lying about being from Halcandra. Now I’m not particularly entrenched in the Kirby fandom and generally avoid discourse, but even I’ve seen a lot of people say they think this lore addition was bad and stupid. I totally understand wanting to ignore it, given that the fanbase at large is full of Magolor likers that have elaborate headcanons about Magolor as a Halcandran, and various worldbuilding about Halcandra and the Ancients as informed by the concept. Personally, I had no previous stake in this given that the lore addition was actually the catalyst that got me to really care about Magolor in the first place, and obviously I think it’s interesting to extrapolate from.

Now, the ostensible gut reaction to finding out that Magolor has just been dressing up as an Ancient this whole time is to get really nervous about cultural appropriation. I personally think it’s likely to be more nuanced than a cut-and-dry case of an oppressor stealing from the culture of the oppressed, but given how little we actually know about the Ancients’ place in the Kirby universe both at their height and in the present day, and the fact that I myself am a white American, I’ll just cite Metal General’s RtDLdx pause screen lore, whatever the heck Grand Doomer has going on, and the short story Passing by Nella Larsen (Ok hi! Anxiety-ridden Kit from a week and a half later coming in to clarify that I’m not trying to equate funny little video game aliens to the severity of real life race struggles. As with everything please give me the benefit of the doubt in believing that I have good intentions and understand that there’s nuance but am just not the greatest at talking or thinking and I’m fighting for my life in here[my brain] ok thx bye) that I read in high school as sources for my personal thoughts, and leave the discussion on that subject there. (Oh, I also do like to think about the fact that he said he’s been studying the remnants of the Ancient civilization in Halcandra, for years, alone. Not much of anything with a concrete point to say about that though)

When I last talked about this in my theory post I said I saw it “more like uhhhh trans coding, kinda” and of course drawing this design forced me to confront the question of: now what the heck did I mean I mean by that, exactly?? Well, I thought about it more, and I realized that the much simpler thing to compare it to would be any teen coming-of-age movie where the protagonist dresses up as someone they aren’t because they don’t like who they are until they learn to accept and express themself for who they really are, though this message’s impact is often obfuscated somewhat in practice by Hollywood’s double gut-punch of beauty standards and misogyny. But as for what I was more closely reminded of when I called it trans coding, it was, as it often is, my own complicated journey with gender.

Speaking of, I realize I haven’t been very talkative on tumblr in several years, preferring to talk with close friends on discord rather than with the wider internet and you all know me as afab nb, so I suppose this is the time to come out as… cis, actually. Or rather, uh, transgender/cisgender/genderqueer/nonbinary/female. (Perhaps you can tell why I generally talk about this with people who already know me.) You know how it starts. I never really felt like I fit in with girls growing up, I held disdain for people who were “too girly”, I generally only made friends with nerdy guys, avoided wearing makeup, didn’t care overly much about how I dressed.

Then, five years ago, I discovered that being referred to as “they” made me really happy. I never experienced body dysphoria, but I liked to be able to have a flat chest sometimes. These are things that are still true about me. But feeling decoupled from the concept of womanhood, and, of course, simply growing as a person over time, allowed me to reassess my feelings and internal biases on it. I discovered I have very particular aesthetic preferences, some of which are traditionally very feminine. I started getting into fashion and sewing and started to be happy rather than ambivalent about the way I present myself. (I still don’t wear makeup barely at all.) I realized that what gender you are doesn’t have to mean anything about your particular gender presentation, and that your particular gender presentation doesn’t have to mean anything about what gender you are. I’m still addressing my own internalized misogyny every day, though I like to think I’ve gotten better about it. I’ve learned more about being queer and I’ve learned more about myself.

Over the years I’ve been slowly swinging back around to being comfortable identifying as a woman, and I’m not 100% there yet (I still have a bit of a dysphoric gut reaction to other people referring to me as female, I’ll likely always prefer they/them on the internet at least, and man oh man don’t even get me started on the religion thing. It’s even more complicated somehow and I have trouble talking about it even with close friends and family. I often feel caught between sides on a lot of things just because there’s just very few people who understand wholly where I’m coming from. For one thing, do you know how many weird reactions I’ve gotten to telling people I’m aroace and also getting married in two months? From all kinds of folks), but yeah. That’s how it is. Definitely genderqueer regardless what happens.

So uh, what the heck does any of this have to do with Maggie? I just have a relatively similar thought process regarding him. Uh, metaphorically, I mean; not necessarily with regards to gender. His gijinka designs have definitely turned out really genderqueer but as I’ve said before, this is just what happens whenever I get my little baby hands on new favorite male characters, especially given my penchant for selectively feminine aesthetics and the fact that I’ve never really learned how to draw cis men all that well. He’s also just really hard to put in pants & I wanna show the legs off, I paid money for those

Now for the million dollar question. Do I think any of my interpretation is how HAL actually intended it? Perhaps, but they seem to often leave deep lore things like this deliberately open-ended. So do I think they’re gonna actually do anything with it and make Magolor stop dressing up like an Ancient? Probably not, especially given that the lore bit is a reward for 100%ing the game, practically an easter egg at that point. Magolor is probably the one character who they’re most willing to give new outfits to, but I don’t see that extending to his mainline canon appearance. I think Kirby is a bit too much of a mascot-based franchise to comfortably depart from iconic aspects of their characters for that. They still haven’t given poor Taranza his own theme that isn’t a remix of Dedede’s, for crying out loud.

End of thoughts. Usual disclaimer that I am just one person with limited knowledge and judgement. I wanted to write out this clarification because I was worried my previous comments might look weird in isolation and because I know my Magolor headcanons are very intrinsically tied to The Discourse. It honestly kinda sucks a bit cause while it has been nice to be drawing again, I’ve also been relentlessly serotonin-seeking and I’m way too hungry for interaction & engagement on this, especially given how niche its particular appeal is. Ask box is always open but be warned I have no qualms about setting boundaries and won’t answer anything I don’t want to. Thanks for reading! - Love, Catboy “🪺” Discourse

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

Disney and Dreamworks have been locked in combat since day one, and honestly, can you blame them? The Katzenberg/Eisner feud is pretty legendary, with both men taking potshots at each other in films, and the drama behind stuff like A Bug’s Life and Antz has been done to death. The thing is, in the early years of Dreamworks, it was pretty clear that no matter how hard they tried, Disney was the one who was taking the Ws when it came to the cinemas. Stuff like Sinbad and The Road to El Dorado were flopping pretty hard, and while The Prince of Egypt was a success, the failure of the former two ended Dreamoworks’s hopes of ever competing with Disney in the 2D animated market. What’s a studio to do in a situation like that? Well, someBODY ONCE TOLD ME...

Shrek didn’t just solidify Dreamworks as a contender, that movie changed the course of animation in the 2000s all on its own. With its snarky humor, pop culture references, awesome pop soundtrack as opposed to musical numbers, and celebrity cast, Shrek codified many trends for animation going forward—for better and for worse. But whatever impact the film had pales in comparison to one simple, unignorable fact: This movie came out on top over Disney. It won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, and considering how long Disney was in that game that must have really fucking stung. While Disney spent the early 2000s floundering and releasing flops that would only become cult classics later, Dreamworks was riding that green wave Shrek produced all the way to the bank. What’s a studio to do in a situation like that? Well, someBODY ONCE…

Oh no.

Chicken Little was Disney’s blatant attempt at making their own Shrek (with blackjack! And hookers!), but to say that things didn’t pan out well for Disney there is a vast understatement. Michael Eisner made sure to meddle as much as possible, turning a more straightforward adaptation of the fairy tale into a snarky, self-deprecating comedy about baseball and aliens, which certainly is a choice. This choice had some dire consequences; while not a bomb by any means, the film ruined the already-struggling career of The Emperor’s New Groove director Mark Dindal, producer Randy Fullmer left Disney with Dindal and went into making guitars, and ultimately Eisner himself became a victim of the film as well, with it being the final blow to his tenure at Disney after a decade of failed investments. Eisner ended up passing the torch to Bob Iger, who turned out to be a better leader than Eisner who never did or said anything quite as stupid!

Audience reaction to the movie has always been pretty mixed, to say the least. Reviewers on YouTube such as Schafrillas, Doug Walker, and Mr. Enter have used the film as their punching bag at various points, with the latter in particular helping shape the image of Buck Cluck as Disney’s most vile father figure. Audiences these days aren’t particularly receptive to it either, with most people considering it Disney’s absolute worst film, though there are nostalgic viewers with a soft spot for it. I first watched the film myself a few years back, and I was thoroughly disgusted and unimpressed by what I saw; for the longest time, I had it higher than Doogal on my list of the worst films ever. Fucking Doogal! Can a film really be that bad?!

Well, I decided to give it a second chance and find out if maybe my perception was just colored by all the negative reviews. Is Chicken Little really that bad, or is this just a so-so Shrek ripoff that people overreacted to?

THE GOOD

Most of the characters in this movie are actually decent, even if they’re a little cringe. Chicken Little himself is a likable dork, which only makes all the suffering and setbacks he goes through that much harder to watch; I think they made him too likable, y’know? His friend group is pretty solid as well, with Abby being an okay love interest, Runt being a nice guy (or maybe I should say Nice Guy considering what he does with a bimbofied Foxy Loxy at the end), and Fish Out of Water being a cute “lol so random XD” character. They aren’t the best thing ever, but they’re all pretty decent. I can see why Zach Braff likes voicing the title character so much, and it is cool he got to be in the best Kingdom Hearts game, so that’s something!

Though of, course none of them hold a candle to the absolute Chad that is Morkubine Porcupine, a character so fucking cool that he refuses to give this movie the dignity of more than three single words out of his mouth. If he had more dialogue, the whole movie might collapse under the sheer power of his voice. He’s like Black Bolt, except a porcupine, and in a marginally better piece of Disney media.

There’s a great sequence at the end of the movie that has a Pee-wee’s Big Adventure-esque film within the film about Chicken Little’s exploits… except he’s a ridiculously buff rooster voiced by Adam West in a film that looks like an insane version of Star Fox from the brief clips we see of it. Runt is in there as a hardcore, ugly warthog and Abby is an overly-sexualized space bimbo, but I’m not even particularly bothered by the fact they gave the girl chicken breasts because Adam West’s chicken breasts are so much more massive. 

The entire scene, as brief as it is, is delightful thanks to West being West, and it honestly makes you wish that the whole movie was just a ridiculous space battle adventure�� And everyone’s wish was granted when they released a pretty good video game based on this silly concept!

Of course, as is typical of any Disney movie, the best part is without a doubt the villain: Buck Cluck, Chicken Little’s own father.

 In his youth, he was a strapping sports star, and because of this he feels a deep sense of shame at his son’s wild antics and is completely unable to relate to him. He constantly puts him down in front of others to try and salvage his own reputation, throwing him under the bus at every opportunity and refusing to support him. And even after Chicken Little pushes himself to the limit and becomes a baseball star all so he can earn even the slightest smidgen of his father’s respect, Buck is quick to cast him aside once more all so that he can try and keep the dignity among the townsfolk he mooched off of his son’s victory. Buck Cluck is the proto-Mother Gothel, a distant and absent parent for the ages, and one of the most despicable foes the studio has ever produced. Hell, I might even go as far as to say he’s one of the greatest villains of all ti-

Wait, hold on. I’m being informed that Buck… isn’t intentionally a villain? He’s supposed to be… sympathetic…?

THE BAD

I’VE COME TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT! BUCK “THE CUCK” CLUCK’S A BITCH-ASS MOTHERFUCKER!

Ok, ok, let’s be serious for a second. I’m gonna get a bit controversial here, but Buck Cluck isn’t nearly as evil as people make him out to be.

Let me explain: While the film’s narrative completely and utterly fails to make his redemption feel earned at all, it’s not like he was ever really intentionally or even physically abusive like Frollo, Gothel, or Lady Tremaine were. Buck Cluck has a very real problem a parent can have, in that he has a hard time relating to his son while being a single parent that is likely still dealing with the loss of his wife. The issue is the movie doesn’t bother trying to flesh him or his feelings out and tries its damndest to make him look like a good guy all while he emotionally neglects his child.

All this being said, his vocal performance from The Princess Diaries director Garry Marshall is actually pretty great, he gets a few good jokes here and there, and it’s actually really endearingly goofy when he overcompensates with loving his son in the third act. While I’m never going to stop treating the character like he’s Chicken Hitler, I want it to be clear that my jabs at him are very much in the same vein as someone like Huey Emmerich. The difference, of course, is that Huey is an intentional case of making a character you love to hate, while Buck is accidental. And that’s why this segment is here, in “The Bad” part of the review: The movie failed this man so bad that he is put alongside characters like Shou Tucker, Ragyo Kiryuin, and Fire Lord Ozai in animated parent rankings. How do you fuck up that badly? Mainly by deleting the scenes where he actually gets development or characterization beyond being a lousy parent, that’s how!

These writing issues don’t just affect Buck, though; literally the entire movie is as messy as that Kentucky fried bastard’s characterization. The main issue is with the story itself. Now, when you have a movie called Chicken Little, you kind of expect an adaptation of the fable of the same name. And since this is Disney, you wouldn’t be stupid to assume that’s what they’d do, considering adapting fables, myths, and fairy tales is basically their bread and butter. But that is decidedly not what they did here; instead, they decided to make Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius by way of Shrek, because movies like that were popular at the time, and what we’re left with is a film populated by mean-spirited jerkasses who do nothing but dump on our likable main character as he takes part in a story to win the love of his dad via baseball that suddenly, out of completely nowhere, turns into an alien invasion movie about halfway through. Absolutely none of these elements work well together, and the film comes off felling like it was stitched together from unrelated scripts and turned into an unholy Frankenstein of bad ideas.

Not helping helping the disjointed story are the desperate attempts to seem cool. I like Morkubine Porcupine, he’s one of the better gags in the film, but he is so plainly a desperate attempt at creating an ensemble darkhorse that it hurts (the fact it actually worked in spite of this is nothing short of miraculous). The humor is very much aping Shrek, with lots of snarky humor and mean-spirited characters which ends up not working because it’s too cruel, and even ignoring that the pop culture references (a staple of Dreamworks at the time) just all come out of nowhere. Why is the fish reenacting King Kong? Why are these animals watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, and why is Indy still a human? Why did Disney think referencing the lemming suicide myth was a good idea when they literally perpetuated that myth by driving lemmings off a cliff for a movie?

Then there’s the animation. It is so blatantly obvious that this is Disney’s first time making a fully computer animated movie without Pixar’s help. A lot of characters look really unpolished, and even worse is that a lot of the characters are extremely overanimated. If you wanna see what I mean, watch Abby at the end of the dodgeball scene when she’s talking to Chicken Little. She just never fucking stops moving! Once you notice it, it becomes really distracting.

But by far the worst thing this movie does is the constant needle drops. This movie would make The Super Mario Bros. Movie blush with its overuse of licensed music, and it sure feels like Suicide Squad took notes from this because they cram so many tracks in here it’s not even funny. Sometimes they even just have thew characters sing them because… who fucking knows. Barenaked Ladies gets a pretty fat W with their song “One Little Slip” playing over our introduction to Chicken Little, but after that we either get the most obvious songs possible for any given seen (“It’s the End of the World as We Know It” plays over the alien invasion at the end, because of course it does) to “what the actual fuck is this doing here in the movie” (“Wannabe” by the Spice Girls is sung by Runt and Abby during a karaoke session, proving that canceling the Spice World review was not enough to save me from this band).

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

Alright guys, here comes my hottest take ever: Chicken Little… isn’t that bad.

Now, don’t get me wrong! This movie is still not really good at all. It’s disjointed, mean-spirited, confused, and stuffed to the brim with the tropes and trappings of every bad animated movie of the 2000s. But all of that is also what helps make this so genuinely fascinating! When Dreamworks did stuff like this, it was whatever, that studio is a rising contender in the animation game… but this is Disney! This is THE animation studio, the biggest around, and they’re making every single mistake possible because they want to try and beat Dreamworks at their own game, and they are failing at it! It’s honestly so funny that they tried to make their own version of Shrek without any sort of understanding of what made Shrek work.

But even beyond that, even though this movie is bad, it’s not really worse than Shark Tale is, and that is a premier so bad it’s good film. Really, this movie is the opposite of that film in many ways. Where that film had a world that was too overly nice and propped up the shittiest main character animated at the time, this movie has an insanely cruel world where the sweet, charming, heavily traumatized child is incessantly beaten down and belittled to the point you half expect him to try and dive headfirst into a deep fryer; where that film had a single generic plot that was at least remarkably consistent, this film has two separate plots that don’t go together at all and just end up making both halves of the film feel stupid and pointless; and where in that film Oscar is desperately seeking love from his peers due to his sheer selfishness, Chicken Little just wants the love and respect of his father. Pile on that the mountain of similarities, from the overuse of lame pop culture references for the sake of pop culture references gags to the bland love interests, and you have the Awesomely Bad Animation Double Feature of your dreams.

So yeah, I think the rating it has is about what it deserves. This is easily one of Disney’s weakest entries for sure, but it’s not without its moments and it has some amusing jokes, charming characters, and Adam West as a buff space chicken. If you go in with lowered expectations, you might be amused, but honestly I get why this film is so absolutely despised. It really isn’t great at all, and is firmly in the “so bad it’s good” category. You can’t really expect much more from a movie that presents a character whose biggest crime was just being an asshole getting their personality overwritten with a girly-girl one that the comic relief fat guy insists is perfect as a hilarious joke and then leads into a dance party ending where the whole cast sings Elton John.

...Or you could expect more if it weren’t for that son of a bitch Buck Cluck. Fuck that guy.

[freelanceexorcist]

OK, one last Remake bit of speculation before Rebirth drops.

Cut for spoilers and length (Remake, Game of Thrones and Split).

TW: discussion of mental illness and child abuse.  

This one is only half serious, I think. I just REALLY can’t accept that Sephiroth went from a great guy to 100% Chaotic Evil in Remake/Rebirth. The original game’s version? Sure. I could totally buy that he was a ticking time bomb.

But the good guy buildup Ore Sephiroth is getting just doesn’t happen with designated villains. It doesn’t align with a complete change in personality.

Even on Game of Thrones, the golden girl with the dragons had hints that dark things were in her future (oh, she was plenty cruel, murderous and power-hungry all along, she just did it to bad people who had it coming until she ran out of bad people. There was plenty her more level-headed advisers had to talk her out of. There were screaming hints all along that her story would end that way.). Sephiroth? Not so much. It’s as though they’re going in the opposite direction with him and beating us over the head with what a mensch he was.

Anyway.

So I’ve been thinking. And you’re probably going to think this is really stupid, because it is. This is me reaching.

Both Ore and Watashi have dissociative identity disorder (DID) with vastly different outcomes.

For those who don’t know, DID-or multiple personality disorder-is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct and enduring personality states in a single person. This ranges from the ego state to alters, which is two ways of saying “alter ego.” The former is distinct behaviors and personality traits that possess boundaries while the patient retains their sense of self. In the latter, each state has its own autobiographical memory, autonomy and sense of self. Think of movies like Split and Identity for the last one.

There are two schools of thought on what causes this disorder, and one of them is the trauma model, which deals with severe early childhood abuse or other traumas. Ever Crisis tells us that Sephiroth is a survivor of child abuse both physical (“endure the pain, Sephiroth”) and psychological (being isolated from others, generally having to interact with Hojo, who gloats about how much better it is to destroy a subject psychologically). There’s also the trauma from witnessing war, either as a civilian or a child soldier.

I think you can see by now where this is going, and I’m no shrink, so I’ll get to what I came here to talk about.

My proposal is that there are at least four separate personalities rattling around in Sephiroth’s head besides the mind he was born with.

The Core is Sephiroth. We already know him.

Then there’s The Mother. She is who he didn’t have as a child so she emerged to protect him. She is kind and helpful to others and fierce when it comes to protecting her child. She may emerge when Sephiroth sees someone who had a similar background to his, either an abused child or an adult survivor.

Next up is The Boy. He’s about fifteen years old, the age Sephiroth was when he first went to war. The Boy doesn’t come out much. The other alters keep close tabs on him to protect him. He only sees daylight at times in Sephiroth’s life when he is completely calm, in control and around people he trusts.

Then there’s The Smart One. This is the one who steps in when Sephiroth is stressed and nervous in front of others. He emerged after Sephiroth met Glenn, Matt and Lucia and is the result of Sephiroth seeing how normal people interacted with each other and him. The Smart One combines Lucia’s sass, Glenn’s smart mouth and Matt’s wisdom. He’s the one who explains things to people and handles the social aspect of Sephiroth’s life. He’s the one who’s there to help Sephiroth get through those tedious Shinra parties and media events. He’s the one who claps back when Genesis’ claws get too sharp. He’s the one who explains the concepts that Sephiroth has trouble with. He has gotten good at matching Sephiroth’s core personality even though he’s the type to verbally shoot first and ask questions later. Wouldn’t want Sephiroth getting in trouble or anyone suspecting that something is off about him, after all.

Finally, there’s The Conqueror. This is the one to be afraid of. This is the rage. The bloodlust. The cruelty. The god complex. This is the one that the others work hardest to keep down. He is the one who believes himself to be Sephiroth’s greatest protector, and if he thinks you’re going to hurt him, he’ll make you wish you died as a child if he can fight his way out of where the others keep him.

Sephiroth’s mental defenses were down at the end of his time at the library, and that made it easy for The Conqueror to get past the others and emerge. He was the one boiling with barely-contained rage that spilled over as he read the passage about Jenova’s discovery. Those shaky breaths were the others trying to drag him back in, but they failed and Nibelheim suffered for it.

Watashi Sephiroth is the integration of The Conqueror and The Core and the utter destruction of the other three. Even mother. He found his true mother, and she’s real. He’s helping her. They’re working together to burn away the old world and create a new, perfect one. He's "cured."

Ore, on the other hand, was the result of the alters getting the reins back on The Conqueror and stuffing him back in the box. The lock isn’t as strong as it used to be, so the alters have to work a little harder to keep him under wraps. The Smart One doesn’t hold back anymore and is quick with a caustic comment when he thinks someone is getting to close to Sephiroth. The Mother fiercely protects The Boy and Sephiroth. The latter can’t come out anymore because it is so unsafe out there now.

Maybe trust Ore Sephiroth to have the party’s back, because he has all his ducks in a row now and he has “people” to help him.

My pet crack theory these days is that Sephiroth is essentially the Kevin Wendell Crumb of the FFVII-verse, but without taking on the actual physical traits (Jade’s needing insulin, Orwell and Dennis needing glasses, The Beast’s superhuman strength, etc.). Fight me all you want, but I’m sticking with this until proven otherwise and when/if it does get Jossed, I may dust off my godawful writing skills and get started on an AU fic with this as the plot. Because seriously, Sephiroth’s Heel Face Turn in the trilogy’s story is as inexplicable and makes as much sense as Genesis’ redemption arc with the way that character was written.*

Look, I get it. He’s the Designated Villain. He killed some people’s favorite character and is super mean to their other favorite character and for that he’s irredeemable forever and ever amen. It’s hard to hate a villain that may have some sympathetic traits. It’s not as much fun to gleefully destroy a Final Boss when you come to the realization that this is the final moments of a life that was fucked before it even began. Just let everyone else look for nuance and maybe hope his story might turn out a little differently this time around. There’s Hojo if you want an irredeemable monster, he just wouldn’t look as good in black leather. And I doubt we’ll be seeing any backstory to explain that he is the way he is because he didn’t get enough hugs growing up.

*And what I mean by that is that the potential for a sensible redemption was possible with Genesis just as it is with Sephiroth, but the writing was whiffed so badly it actually makes me a little mad that Genesis was handled with such kid gloves and given a pass in any other media he’s appeared in. Fight me on this if you want, but I blame G*ckt’s involvement.

Anyway, another long one on the books. As always, if you’ve made it this far or read it at all, thank you.

[istadris]

Any Mario bros headcanons (together and individual!) that you’d like to share/info dump about? my hyperfixation is rotting my brain and I need fuel 🥲🥲

OH BOY DO I HAVE HEADCANONS

Okay to be fair that's more worldbuilding with Bros headcanons thrown in between but here we goooooo!

Mario & Luigi centric :

The Bros are the best friends and brothers anyone can find and it's the most wholesome thing ever...until sports get involved. Peach didn't believe her eyes the first time she watched them play Strikers and Luigi almost bit Mario's hand off after the latter tackled him into the electric wire. Kart, tennis, even golf, the moments the boys are facing each other in a no-stakes competition, the white gloves are OFF

Luigi is ridiculously perceptive and attractive to paranormal and mystic stuff. Ghosts love him (with their love ranging from worship to the desire of shaking him apart like a dog's chew toy), he waltzes into dreams and strange dimensions...Thankfully Mario is there to ground him into reality.

I used to say Mario was a cat person and Luigi a dog person but NO! Both bros are cat persons, Polterpup is just Luigi's exception to his fear of dogs.

It's not that Mario is a bad cook, it's just that he doesn't hate the patience to go through all the steps to cut vegetables, boil the water, heat the oven, etc...and most of his favourite dishes are rather long to prepare. He prefers baking, at least you can snack on the ingredients while cleaning up.

(depends on my mood and the tone of my writing but generally :) Mario can usually talk normally, but he sometimes goes through periods of mutism, Luigi or Peach acting as his spokespersons when it happens.Even Bowser has gotten pretty good at reading his non-verbal communication over the years.

Because the Firebrand and Thunderhand are reliant on the magic of the Bean Bean kingdom, they can't use it as much outside of it, not without hurting themselves...but they absolutely took the risk here and there to mess with the other (Mario warming up random stuff that Luigi would touch on a hot day, Luigi sending a small jolt to tickle Mario).

General lore

In most kingdoms of the magic world, no matter their age or marital status, rulers are Princes or Princesses. They only get granted the title of King or Queen once they produce a heir. Boos are...not exactly an exception. They don't really have Prince(sses) and come into their title of King when they manage to create a sentient copy of themselves that they send into the world. Thus why there are many King Boos.

Bend or Break/Movie verse: Bowser's kingdom and the Mushroom Kingdom have very different views on Power ups : the former considers them shameful cheats to make up for a lack of personal power/magic, while the latter appreciates how they give a chance for anyone to fight against a danger without having to be a real soldier.

Power ups can be found in two manners: 1) naturally in the wild (especially mushroom-based power ups), but they're very difficult to find and in dangerous places. 2) The Question Mark Blocks appear in zones when you have more chances to find a natural power up : they act as a sort of magnet for that power up, and as they're more accessible and visible, they're a safer method to collect them. However, once punched, you need to wait a certain time before the box "recharges", and only if it's put in a zone with a chance of natural power up showing up.

Power ups have secondary effects if you use them for too long, usually affecting body then mind on the long term. Thankfully it's very rare to maintain them for long, since getting hurt or knocked up happens a lot.

[captmickey]

Seriously I could ask every single one of the meme game, get right into your head. But. We can limit to five, I guessss. 1, 12, 15, 34, 35.

1 - What inspired you to start writing fanfiction? Spite. I'm not even joking or trying to be funny. Spite was what got me into writing fanfiction because I got so frustrated with how people were writing Guybrush and I didn't want to be that gremlin who went into people's comments and went "uM aCtuAlLy..." (because it's both rude and because I was a coward to leave comments at the time). Soooo I decided on the next best gremlin-esqe thing to do: Write the darn fic myself. And here I am, a good several years and Monkey Island stories later. Still writing it and still inspired by spite haha. 12 - Are there any cliches or tropes that you actively avoid in your fics? Hmm...Flanderization and the Woobie Trope. The former because, well, remember the spite inspiration? It was a fic where it MASSIVELY flanderized Guybrush and Elaine and I can not stand it in any fic. At all. Characters have depth, stop being such a coward about it. As for the latter, not because it's bad entirely, in fact, when written really well (and not to the point of flanderization) it can be a strong trope! But I just... it's not often done well? It's often removing the character's agency and has them go from scared but heroic to just straight up cowardly and weak and I'm just... no. I don't want to do that to the characters. I don't mind (and actually love) putting them to their limits, but they have got to keep that agency. 15 - Do you plan your fics or prefer to let the story unfold as you write? I actually answered this, haha. But yeah, still prefer planning bigger fics, even if they're one-shots. But for like, lets say, prompts or asks? When it's on the spot? That's when I usually let it unfold. And uh... that's usually when those short prompts become long ones or I accidentally make multi-parts. 34 - Are there any fic writing tips or tricks you've learned along the way that you'd like to share? Uh... haha, this one took me a minute to think of a tip or trick. But really? It boils down to "READ. MORE. BOOKS." for the most part! I've been on a bit of a reading kick the last two years and I've been hopping genres: from action/adventure, to comedy, to slice of life, to contemporary.... it's been helping with getting ideas of how to get a point across, what worked in a narrative and what didn't and seeing all types of writing styles. Fanfictions count, yes, but it doesn't hurt to try something outside your usual reading wheel (example, I prefer murder mysteries or something with comedy, but I've been venturing to fantasy, action/adventure and even contemporary). Same goes for movies/shows. It always makes me cackle when I'm told the way I write banter is my strongest suit because my favorite movie since I was in high school was practically banter-heavy and the director has been a massive source of inspiration for me... especially when they said the same thing of "READ. MORE. BOOKS.", but in relation to movies. And from there, from all that, try and understand why it worked so well, why it felt so strong or so natural or what have you. Don't be afraid to get floral with your words, sometimes building up so that final punch is something simple is just as strong.

....I really hope I'm making sense. OTL 35 - What do you enjoy most about being a fic writer? Also answered! But aside from the quicker route of getting it out (I say quicker but it's not really quicker), I really enjoy finding unique ways to get the imagery across without it being too descriptive or run-off-ish, how to get the action across without saying "He stepped his left foot, then his right, then his left". It's easier in comic format to get them from point a to point b, you can make up excuses, but writing? That's a challenge and a fun one for me... sometimes.

[caffeine-clouds]

All your Sonic takes are valid, okay?

Hello, today I am your pastor. Where is your regular pastor? I totally didn't throw him off a bridge. Anyways, sit down because I'm here to preach about a blue hedgehog man. I've seen a lot of discussion around Sonic's characterization in Sonic Prime and how some people absolutely adore the show's take, and some people hate it. Now this could have led the fandom to having interesting debates but alas this is the internet - where interesting debates simply do not happen. (I've seen a lot more toxic arguing on Twitter, the Tumblr crowd is much cooler) But it got me thinking, at least - what is Sonic supposed to be? Who is he?

And I think that answer will change depending on who you ask. Sure, we can get some basic traits of him down. We know he's a good guy, he fights for freedom, he a bit snarky, but loves the people around him. But this is surface level stuff, right? Let's discuss his overall demeanour- "He's relaxed and nonchalent!" This half yells. "He's hyper and energetic!" The other shouts. Hold on, how did this happen?

The answer is simple, my friends - it's the Sonic franchise's inconsistent writing! You are not the problem. Sonic has had so many different takes on his personality throughout the years and throughout different media that it's gotten to a point where there's no 'correct' way to write or interpret this little blue guy anymore. "Black Knight is peak Sonic!" someone cries "No, Movie Sonic is!" Another claims. How can that be when they're so different? Because there is no right answer. People have had different experiences with his character depending on what they were first introduced to or simply what they like better. A lot of people don't like 'meta era' Sonic but there are some people who still do and think Sonic is just supposed to be a quippy goofball in colourful environments in basic stories. It depends so much on personal preference.

This isn't just limited to Sonic either - who is Shadow supposed to be? "The man who learnt to fight for humanity, upholding a promise to the one that meant the most to him - learning to put the past behind him and fighting on for the good of others with a stoic, no nonsense attitude" or is he "Haha Sonic's rival go brr, he so obsessed with him and wants to kick his ass" Shadow has been written as both of these throughout his lifetime, arguably he has spent his time in the more recent games being written as the latter - as much as so many people prefer the former. However, some people interpet the most modern entries as more canon - so therefore, they accept and prefer the latter. I am honestly surprised at the amount of takes I saw that saw Shadow as just a meanie rival until I came to this conclusion. I could go on for every character, but I'm not going to because that would take too much time. So all in all, your takes? So valid my man. If you don't like Prime because of Sonic's characterization - that's so cool, just don't call the show objectively bad for it - because it is not. It's a you thing. And there are plenty of others who agree with that opinion. If you love Prime Sonic - also great, don't shit on people for thinking otherwise - your opinion, and there are plenty more that agree with you. Honestly I think the best characterizations of Sonic I see in the fandom spheres are the ones that can pull inspo from a lot of the different Sonic media throughout time and can mix and match the stuff they like. That's uniqueness, that's fun - I wanna read that. It may not be 'accurate' to the version of Sonic you like, but who cares? If it's not your thing, don't like - don't read. That's why, in terms of writing Sonic fanfiction - saying "make sure to not make the characters OOC!" is like- one of the worst pieces of advice?? Like what is even 'in character'?'? That advice simply doesn't WORK for this series. All you need are the bare minimum basic traits, and the rest - develop as you like. Their basic profiles are the pizza dough, and you are choosing your toppings. Choose the Sonic media and fan content that you like to consume, and respect the people who like the toppings that you don't - because no one is forcing you to eat their pizza.