#obviously they’re going to try to work towards no one fighting anyone

[mega-banette]

In Quiet Girls the Hurricanes insinuate that some of the other crews are allies with one another which is making me wonder if after the events of the album the Warriors make friends given that they had none

Like I think it’s obvious that they’re going to have a connection with the Riffs, but I also think they could be friends with the Hurricanes given that they were the ones who gave them advice, but I’m interested to hear what other people think

[dr5amatic]

RUNNING TOWARD HOPE ,

a sentence starter prompts list comprised of quotes from the novel blood over bright haven by m. l. wang. please be advised that this list may involve topics including, but not limited to, murder, death, violence, alcohol, and religion. change verbiage as needed.

was that a veiled dig at my intelligence?

leave your tools and weapons. they’re just weight.

while you can still breathe, keep moving. stop for nothing. turn back for no one. not even your own blood.

it must be hard to be you! how terrible to be so singularly talented!

since when do you really care about people who aren’t you?

i take it that wasn’t supposed to happen?

be cold, be hard, and don’t give them an inch, you understand? no matter what they say of you.

when i care how attractive you find me, i’ll let you know.

you’re certainly not going to survive playing against me.

that’s a lot of power.

i already missed my train. i’m going to sleep here.

the world isn’t about love for me. it’s about power.

i think i’ve just had a problem with magic since the first time i tasted it–like some people have a problem with alcohol.

magic is the one area where i can shut myself in a room with my books and my thoughts and come out more powerful than i went in.

the unbreakable rules of magic are unbreakable for a reason.

don’t play dumb with me. it doesn’t suit you.

is there something unreasonable about wanting to do my own work correctly?

brilliant men–even moderately intelligent men–in this city get showered with opportunities to succeed. brilliant women have to fight for those opportunities, and, when we get them, we have to defend them tooth and nail, or they’ll be snatched away.

i’m not married, i’m no one’s apprentice, and i’ll be damned if i let a man find some other way to take my glory from me.

women are always told to be kind, be forgiving, be nurturing. as far as i know, it’s never gotten them anywhere. the men, who have the real power, won’t return the favor when it matters.

if you are capable of everything they are as a group, then who can say you’ve been arrogant or unvirtuous?

if i can’t clear that clouded glass, there’s nothing left to do but break through it.

i never said i didn’t believe your god existed. i just don’t believe he’s the greatest or only deity at work in the world.

a ravine won’t water crops or quench the dying. at some point, there has to be a river, or what good can you really claim? if the man of good intentions never manifests a river, only calamity, should he not go to hell?

this is the balance of the universe. it is only right for the world to bring back upon him what he brought upon the world.

anyone with enough self-delusion can admit himself to heaven. this is nonsense.

it’s much easier to tell yourself you’re a good person than it is to actually be one.

i can’t work with you if we’re not honest with each other.

i’m not trying to twist your words. i’m trying to make sure you mean them.

you want me to be honest. i want the same thing from you, but you can do that without disrespecting me, my discipline, and my culture.

i can be civil, or i can be honest. you can’t have both in their entirety.

my knowledge of magic and history is obviously nothing in the face of yours.

maybe you’re not remembering clearly. sometimes, when an event is too upsetting to wrap your mind around, your memory gets muddled.

you’re that committed to your god of greed? go on, then. serve him. destroy me.

you’re the worst kind of murderer, i think. the kind who won’t even acknowledge their crime.

you never worshiped a god of truth. you worship a delusion.

i lost myself a little. and it took today–took something terrible–to bring me back to reality.

let me pose you a question that’s been troubling me for hours: must i forgo brilliance–no, not even brilliance; must i forgo any sort of intelligence; must i forgo the baseline mental functions that come with being alive–for stability?

you must be the dullest conversation partner i’ve ever met!

they’re either evil or they’re the stupidest people who ever lived!

you have to play along. pretend to buy his cover story. whatever he wants you to believe, act like you believe it and go about your business like nothing is wrong. don’t ask questions. don’t antagonize.

swear to me on your god and your mother’s grave.

i’ll be happy when i see you alive and whole tomorrow morning.

i just want you to be smart. be careful. acting on your every emotion the way you do is going to get you into trouble.

the most powerful minds and hardest hearts have a breaking point.

your head will clear, you will remember who you are, and you will move beyond this.

your devotion has always been to magic. none of that has to change because you’ve uncovered a few skeletons.

it seems i misjudged you. my theories about you were flawed.

for many, the denial must be a necessary shield against the guilt.

we’re surrounded by devils.

someone’s going to bleed and nothing bleeds like a mage’s ego.

things are about to change. the future has to be different. it will be different.

are you really going to do this? is this the mark you want to leave on the world?

i’m realizing how ridiculous it is to demand civility when the world is so disgustingly uncivil upon closer inspection. so, i’m not here to ask for your friendship or your politeness.

mages are detached from reality. they’re obsessive, socially stunted egomaniacs. you know, like me.

good people will turn monstrous when it’s down to their survival or someone else’s.

all i can say is… if you’re going to do this, i don’t co-sign it. don’t do it for me–or for anyone else. be selfish. be arrogant. do it for yourself.

i don’t want to be the reason anyone gets hurt. i don’t want to be the reason you die.

is it better to be safe and broken than it is to be dead?

all this agony for your goddamn ego.

i can’t believe i ever called you my family.

the forces of darkness are nothing to the light of god. 

sorry about your reputation.

you could’ve been something great.

as far as the public is concerned, you will be forgotten–all your skill and innovation.

i never helped you for glory. i did it because it was the right thing to do.

i’m not your glory. i’m your penance. 

we have done a great evil, and you’re smart enough to know that, deep in your soul, no matter what lies you spin around it. and i’m your attempt to get out of that feeling, aren’t i?

we all bear the burden of knowledge in different ways. some of us endeavor to do good.

have i dragged you anywhere you weren’t determined to go by your own power?

if i was to be your penance for what you have done, is it working? do you feel absolved?

you want me to throw away honesty in exchange for my life?

i don’t know what you’re capable of.

i think it’s important to be honest with the people you care about.

i don’t want your protection! do you hear me? do you understand? if you harm any of those people down there, it’s for yourself, not me.

you still have a chance to do the right and honest thing.

you have a long way to go yet before you’re half the monster i am.

if i’m going to die, i want to go knowing i left you safe and right with yourself.

if this is the last night of the world as we know it, i want to spend it with someone who can appreciate that with me. i want to spend it with you… if that’s alright?

don’t stay because you’re hoping to talk me into your plan over the course of the night.

honestly, i don’t know why i indulge your pessimism.

remember all this grief and terror–and try to do something good with it.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

okay, so i have this oc that i want to make friends with killer. obviously more like a potential acquaintanceship.

thing is I don’t know how killer would treat them.

they’re basically a doormat of a monster. strictly pacifist to a saddening fault. they’ll let anyone hurt them be it physically or emotionally. never even fighting back at all. they are too kind for their own good.

that’s basically the gist of their personality.

any ideas? it doesn’t have to be in depth! I just need s little guidance. I rather not portray killer too out of character.

Oh. Uh..Warning for possible abuse, toxic relationships, conditioning, manipulation, and torture.

Assuming Killer is in Stage 2 and he is still with Nightmare, I can only see this ending badly for your oc. He may be curious if they’re something new, but if he finds them boring hed probably move on and grow apathetic and indifferent towards them and would probably not be a threat to them or anything. Not unless Nightmare orders him to be, or your oc provokes or triggers him.

If something about them gains his attention and holds it, he’s going to basically test them—as if they’re a little lab experiment. He will probably want to manipulate and provoke them into doing something that goes against their pacifistic beliefs and attitudes.

I doubt he’d genuinely trust their pacifism ideals and will seek to make them less so—either by trying to get them to hurt someone else or hurt him. Even if it’s very cruel and abusive.

He doesn’t trust people at all, and provoking this oc into going against their own beliefs only further proves his beliefs.

If the oc refuses to fight back or defend themself, im sure he view them as unbelievably weak; and deserving of whatever happens to them. The only thing that may stop him from killing this oc either intentionally or by going too far would likely be any orders from Nightmare.

He wouldn’t feel guilty or remorseful or see anything wrong about any of this in Stage 2. Hed view it as not his fault that the oc was weak. Similar to his interactions with Swap id say—although Swap did fight back eventually.

If he’s still with Nightmare and ends up in Stage 1, he’d probably avoid the oc out of guilt and fear of retaliation, and may even attempt to scare the oc away anytime they come close or keep consistently avoiding them and warn them away from him.

If the oc managed to get Stage 1 to trust or like the oc enough to affect Stage 2, it may manifest more in a twisted form of protection and terrorital behavior. He’d rationalize his abusive and controlling tortuous behavior towards the oc as “making them strong” and “looking after them.”

He may seek to gain control in this friendship dynamic, because clearly the oc is “too weak” to do so—and his conditioning of relationship dynamics dictates that he has the right to do whatever he wants because he is the stronger one of the two.

Things will be a lot more smooth sailing in his good ending with Color, where he is working on himself and getting therapy and away from the abusive environment that encouraged his worse behaviors and traits.

Stage 2 may still see the oc as weak, he’d still be instinctively manipulative and use the oc for his own benefit when he sees fit and lie when he thinks he has to, but Color would be around to curb his most violent tendencies and his conditioning. When in doubt, little bro will ask himself, “WWCD?” Aka, “What Would Color Do?”

Of course there will still be an element of danger to your oc’s health, safety, and life. He is still conditioned and programmed, removed from most moral considerations, and desensitized to violence and abuse—still coming to terms that what happened to him wasn’t inevitable or normal as well. That anything happened to him at all.

He may not feel any guilt or remorse for any time he does or says something that accidentally hurts or upsets your oc, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to do anything. Instead he may try to set an example for being more confident and standing up for yourself by just being his usual self—no shame or embarrassment and uncaring of most people’s opinions.

He’d probably try to imitate and mirror some of what Color said and did for him, because to him, Color is what a “good person” is—the only one who can teach him how to be anything like that. The only one he trusts and respects enough to care about his opinions. And he doesn’t want to let Color down or lose him after all the effort Color put in for him and keeps putting in for him.

[revlischarm]

Wouldn’t call this one of my most exciting edits for the Noodle Shop Ghost AU, but it’s what I was able to finish recently so it’s what y’all are getting since I’m impatient to share more details and have to divulge them NOW

More LMK Morro info under the cut

• Red Son’s nicknames for Morro include “Accursed witch” and “dead meat” (the witch one is due to Morro having spooky vibes and carrying around a broom)

-Deadass? The first time Red called Morro a witch, Morro did a full 180° and said “did you just call me a bitch?” (Credit to @breathlessmorro for this idea!)

•Morro’s still got some anger issues they’re working out

•Princess Iron Fan shows up with her wind and he’s like “bro I am unimpressed I could do that when I was like, ten”

-The teleporting à la wind gets his attention, tho, since he obviously can’t do that and is immediately jealous

•Morro was a big fan of JTTW Monkey King after reading the story, but then he meets Wukong irl and is just like “Oh. This is it?? That’s…disappointing.”

Wukong: “I haven’t even interacted with you yet and you already dislike me, what the hell.”

-Like Morro and Wukong definitely have some similar interests and hobbies, such as martial arts, protective over MK, a distain for rules…but Morro is still twitchy around him.

-Morro owns a JTTW shirt because he still thinks that the story slaps tho

•Morro thinks the Mayor has cool vibes upon first meeting

-Like, Morro respects how unhinged and creepy he is

•Morro does have a broom for a weapon I’ve decided! It’s comical and it works. He gets a new weapon during Season 3, tho!

-He absolutely 100% knows how to use a broom as a staff because he’s used a staff before. In Season 5 when he possessed Lloyd and was trying to steal Wu’s staff, in the tea shop fight he was kicking ass with it. He’s very proficient with a staff and you can fight me on that.

•Morro forgets that he’s mortal again and ends up walking into a lot of solid objects

•Morro strives for success and likes to be in the spotlight still honestly, he can’t help it.

-The man absolutely despises failing in any way; he doesn’t want to be seen as a disappointment.

-At least he’s ambitious!

•Morro’s working on his inability to let things go, and it’s going. Okay. Ish.

-He struggles so, so much with letting go of a grudge, he never forgets nor forgives but he’s trying to

-It’s part of his goal towards being a better person/not being evil lmao

-“I probably shouldn’t hold onto so much hate for what happened before, huh…well maybe I’ll hold onto a few things.”

•MK sometimes does morning exercises with Morro (stretches and stuff), so for the episode “Duplicination” he makes another clone to do said activities with Morro

-How would that go wrong? Contortionist clone is how. Motherfucker stretches himself into a creepy pretzel

-He crawls up a wall like a spider and gives MK nightmares

-“NOOOO!! MY WORST FEAR IS MANIFESTING!”

-He’s super flexible and very hard to catch; good at dodging!

•Morro definitely sees a lot of Lloyd in MK, but it’s not like he can go back to Ninjago rn (he doesn’t know how), and even then! Lloyd and he are on horrible terms. So Morro is inadvertently projecting onto MK to some extent the apology and like…just feeling guilty and almost responsible in a way

-They’re not doing it intentionally, they really aren’t

-MK just gives them Lloyd vibes that make Morro feel guilty

-Took one look at MK and went: “Is anyone gonna big brother that guy?” And didn’t wait for an answer (credit: @breathlessmonkie )

•Morro being referred to ironically as the “family pet” by Tang and the gang is a reoccurring gag in Season 1. It’s for comedy purposes.

-Pigsy: “This is my husband, Tang, our son, MK, and the family pet, Morro.”

MK: “He’s a rescue!”

-Morro just goes with it

•Morro has residual traits from being a former ghost and you can fight me on that

-For example, his teeth are just slightly more sharp than the average person’s. It’s barely even noticeable but it’s there.

-Morro’s eyes have eyeshine (tapetum lucidum?), basically if it’s dim lighting and you direct some light at him, his eyes seem to glow in the dark. That thing that some animals have, you know? Deer.

-On that note, Morro can see in the dark slightly better than the average person.

-There’s more stuff but I’ll go over it later

•Morro loves flying kites!!! He adores those super complex ones and is saving up money to buy one

•MK called Morro “responsible” one time/refers to him as his “responsible friend”, and Morro ends up having a whole new episode dedicated to him having a crisis over that

-Think a midlife crisis except more aggressive and despairing. Morro’s trying to find an outlet for aggression! He’s adamant he maintain his bad boy persona, and MK’s comment shook him

-Like, his whole thing was defying destiny, making his own path in life, beating the odds and being stubborn…and yet here MK is, saying that’s he’s responsible. It goes against what he thinks of himself and just sets him off. Man literally skips work (which he never does) and gets everyone worried about him.

-He’s just acting out to try and prove that he’s not some domesticated ex-villain, but it’s also about him having difficulty adjusting to this new norm

-Before, Morro was doomed to a cursed eternity for the longest time. He was pent up and bitter and focused on a whole lot of negative stuff, and now he’s waking up and going to work and living life like none of that happened. It’s jarring, and he’s realizing that it’s so far from how he once was.

-He’s thinking, “That angry person I used to be was me, that’s who I was. What changed?” When really he’d just been so bitter and upset for so, so long that that’s all he can think of himself as being—that’s who he was, that’s who Morro was. It’s just he wasn’t actively thinking about it or anything until MK prompted it. He’s changed, and he knows that, but now he’s like…he’s moreso conscious of it, like actually realizing it’s not just that he gave up being so spiteful and tried to redeem himself—he’s forgotten what he was like before he was a vengeful spirit.

-That was what defined them for so long. And now who are they?

-The other part of it is that he doesn’t want to feel like he’s conforming, doesn’t want to be responsible, that it feels like he’s just following along to fate’s rules. And he abhors that.

-Uhhhhhh anyways tl:dr Morro has an episode all his own about self-discovery and also demolishes some stuff along the way.

-OH ONE MORE THING Morro divulges some more about his past to MK and Mei in this episode and also I don’t have a title for the episode yet so suggestions/help with that is greatly appreciated

•Back to our regularly scheduled program

•Morro. Does not trust Wukong very much.

-Like, Morro already has past trauma with Wu, given how Wu told Morro he could be the Green Ninja and fed him a bunch of hopeful nonsense and all that. Morro knows that MK’s been told he has some big destiny and power and whatever by this mentor-figure.

-Also. The Golden Weapons’ parallels with Monkey King���s staff?? Fun stuff. The staff “chose” MK and all that jazz.

-Morro doesn’t trust him from the start, although it’s less of Morro being perceptive enough to pick up on Wukong’s crap and instead that his paranoia ended up being right

-Morro would definitely go “At this point I can’t tell if you or Wu are worse, and that’s fucking saying something.”

-There’s one instance in which Morro straight up punches Wukong square in the face. I’m keeping that scene to myself for now because I gotta have some secrets, you know? Heheh

•Mei’s green power startles Morro every now and then

-Like there’s a flash of glowing green in their peripheral and they jolt. Literally they don’t even do it on purpose, it’s a knee jerk response to glowing green powers.

•Morro drinks soy sauce. He’ll get a little dish and sip from it. Yes, I based this off of myself.

•Macaque is Morro’s dad now btw I should probably mention that /hj

•During the episode “Macaque”, Morro shows up when MK does and actually manages to like. Demonstrate a decently strong attack at Macaque’s shadow kaiju thing. Wind does wonders against smoke monsters (I think Mac called it that??)

-Anyways Macaque quickly takes an interest in Morro! Morro tags along with MK for the training stuff because they’re not letting the kid get taken to some secondary location

-…unless they goes too, lmao

-Plus Macaque doesn’t actually mind him coming along, Morro’s wind powers peaked his interest

•Oh also Morro @ Macaque: “You know back where I’m from, we have an elemental Master of Shadow—I bet they could kick your ass, lol”

Macaque:

Macaque: “a fucking what”

•Also Morro? Actually really vibes with Macaque’s teachings?? Like he definitely reminds MK to take breaks and take it easy every once in a while, but for the most part Morro is like “fuck yeah? This guy is straightforward and makes a good point. Although strategy is important to take into account first and foremost it also helps to actually have a sense of direction here”

-So Morro thinks that Macaque’s got superior skills as a teacher to MK here

-Up until the whole betrayal thing haha

•Macaque keeps a close eye on Morro throughout the episodes following all of this actually!

-Like Macaque checks in on him throughout Season 2 and so they cross paths again fairly quickly

-Morro is very apprehensive at first but begrudgingly understands that it isn’t anything personal against MK, what Mac did—Morro’s literally been in that kind of situation before, sort of. “Nothing personal, just doing this to achieve my goals, you just happen to be involved in this and got hurt.”

-Like Morro gets it. You do evil and fucked up shit because it’s fun at the time and you wanna get back at someone who hurt you

•He’s still very protective of MK but he genuinely understands where Mac is coming from when he pulled that stunt

•They both absolutely open up to each other about their respective deaths eventually, though it takes time

•Macaque shows Morro some cool fighting stuff! They spar together a lot

-Morro finds himself looking forward to those sessions (he can get an actual challenge lmao) and so does Macaque! Mac hasn’t had a sparring buddy in. Well. You know ;)

•Morro 100% picks up on the ex vibes Macaque and Wukong have

•But anyways Morro and Macaque have a great time training and sparring together! Neither of them are afraid to get aggressive, but not because they’re angry—it’s because they know the other one can take it!

•They just overall bond offscreen (and maybe onscreen too? Do I need to make another new episode dedicated to this??) during Season 2/end of Season 1

•Macaque and Morro have a fun dynamic that I’ll expound more upon in Season 3 stuff, but I’m saving anything s3 for a different post because spoilers

•I will divulge that LBD has some difficulty handling Morro for reasons that are ghost-related and that Morro wants to kick her ass

-Well, related to the fact that Morro used to be a ghost and I have a very specific headcanon about his new physical body in that regard

•Anyways

•The Macaque thing is pure self-indulgence on my end because he’s one of my favorite characters

•If it feels forced in, it’s because it probably is, but serotonin go brrrrr in my head and that overrules all logic

•I want to draw what Morro’s intro screen would look like for the opening but I don’t have the skill (can’t draw complex backgrounds well at ALL) rip

-Concept for seasons 1 + 2 would have him standing in the front with a clear shot like the other characters do, arms are crossed or he’s leaning on his broom, and in the background we see a cool dynamic shot of him flying one of those neat Chinese kites. Color scheme is mostly greens and grays? I’m not sure.

-My idea for the Season 3 intro I’m reserving for now

•Morro doesn’t know how to drive I should mention. Man needs to learn to, lol

•Mei and MK teach him lingo and Morro honestly picks it up shockingly fast.

-He can understand some things about it? But others he’s at a total loss for.

-For example Morro doesn’t understand surreal memes or deep-fried stuff, he just doesn’t get what’s funny about them

•Morro knows a lot of occult/spiritual info!! He’s your man if you’ve got some form of spooky trouble ailing you

-So for spooky or supernatural happenings, Morro can give some decent advice.

•Don’t get him wet, he despises water.

•Also he’s still absolutely unhinged. Redemption doesn’t mean he lost any of his violent tendencies, so that’s a lot of manic fun.

-The vibe of what he’ll be saying is all good stuff, but the way he says it sounds like he’s delivering a villain speech

-Oh and don’t get me started on his dramatics either because this man is the smuggest and most theatric bastard ever and I love him for it

-A sore loser and a sore winner.

-So a ton of similarities to Red Son’s behavior, just…toned down a bit more and he’s not trying to be a villain. That’s just how he is. He slips back into villain mode sometimes because he was a villain, and he’s also just kinda like that.

-Morro’s villain tendencies/vibes are always more…creepy? Dark? Than Red Son’s are. Macabre, I’d say. He could actually scare you if he wanted to? It’s hard to describe.

-To sum it up: trying to do good things, but his attitude about it is so diabolical and dramatic. Aaaaannnnd his methods aren’t entirely moral all the time, either. He’s trying, okay??

•Although on that note, Morro is still a master at manipulation when it comes to it. He’s very adept at twisting his words around and can occasionally fall back on old habits without meaning to

-Fucking watch out for him when he’s intentionally being manipulative though, you don’t wanna mess with that

•Morro 100% attends Mac’s shadow plays, they really enjoy them and are the most enthusiastic person in the stands

-Macaque: The hero and the warrior were like the sun and the moon—

Morro: FUCK YEAH LET’S GOOOOOO

Macaque, confused and embarrassed: Uh, anyways.

•Morro would either be very good or very bad at fighting Red Son; wind can either fuel fire or snuff it out. Depends on the oxygen and stuff.

•Anything involving flying/air/heights? Morro is adept at that. Man would kill for one of Wukong’s clouds

•Trans he/they Morro rights

•This post is long enough so I’ll end it here

[docholligay]

Foreign Films to Expand Into

I saw a post regarding the writer’s strike that suggested Americans maybe make the effort of watching a foreign film, and while I agree, I didn’t think its tone was super helpful. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the queen of “Pull yourself out of a rut!!” but I don’t think “Americans are so fucking stupid they don’t realize other countries make movies” is actually trying to help anyone, so much as add to the idea that I guess the rest of the world is being forced to watch Captain America at gunpoint. 

But I DO want Americans to watch foreign films, in the same way that I want them to watch indie films, and I want people of all nations and stripes to expand their understanding of what they’re used to, to push themselves into something else they might like. I think my family would say that it’s fair to call me a person who is open to experience. I love to try things! That’s why I have the book draw, that’s why I go see movies I’m not sure about, that’s why I actively seek out foods I’ve never tried. You deserve to make your life interesting, to be challenged, to provide enrichment in your enclosure. You are worth the effort of a richly textured life! And movies are often a pretty cheap way to go about stepping outside of your comfort zone. I can’t wait to hear what you thought of any of these! 

Obviously, if you are not American, one  of these may not be foreign to you. Yes, I know that. 

I don’t hold out that all of these are hidden gems--some of them are, or were, extremely popular movies. Many of them won awards. But I do hold out that these are some of my favorites, and I would love to share them with you. I did, however, try to avoid anything that I thought already got a lot of play on tumblr: I don’t need to tell anyone here to watch Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, or any given Ghibili movie (Though you should watch Grave of the Fireflies--it’s my favorite). 

Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico and Spain): This is my favorite foreign film of all time and I am breaking my, “I’m not putting any movie on here I don’t need to tell you to watch” rule right away because it is in fact one of my favorite movies of all time, American or foreign. It is a lush story about fantasy, facism, courage, and the horror of childhood. Warning: This movie is very very intense. Do not be fooled by the fact that Del Toro also does like fucking…Hellboy. He also can make very serious, very good movies, and he does not shy away from the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. If you liked Labyrinth but you’re fully grown now and I want a story about fantasy bargains for the adult crowd, this is for you. 

The Orphanage (Spain): I love Spanish horror, and so it was really, really difficult to only pick one. But this has been one of my favorites for years, a classic Spanish slow burn that deals with the long shadow of childhood and the line between the supernatural and the natural. If you like pensive horror movies like The VVitch, I really think you should give this one a try. 

Hero (China): I know a lot of y’all are into wuxia now, but back when this came out it wasn’t a thing I had ever heard of*. Hero is, as the title might imply, a sweeping historical epic with fantastic fight scenes and gorgeous cinematography. If you enjoy stories told in multiple interpretations, high-flying wire work, and with some ideas about war, peace, and truth that tempt without asking too much of you, you’ll love this. 

Cold War (Poland): Listen, I love Cuarón, Mexican and Spanish movies absolutely dominate my list of foreign films I’ve watched, but I genuinely thought Cold War deserved the edge over Roma for the Oscar that year. It’s a fairly short movie for the times, coming in at less than 90 minutes, and it wastes not even one second of that film time. Cold War is a bittersweet love story not only with two people toward each other, but feels deeply critical of Poland while recognizing the impossibility of unbraiding yourself from it. If you love impossible, bittersweet, happily never after love stories with stark and striking cinematography, you’ll adore Cold War. 

Tigers Are Not Afraid (Mexico): I adore an unflinching take on childhood, and this movie is absolutely that. It essentially asks, “How do children survive in a world full of trauma?” and the answer is that sometimes, they don’t. This movie is a little frenetic, admittedly, but the ways fantasy and imagination is woven into a group of street children orphaned by the cartels is something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first saw it, and I think the final shot is pitch perfect. If you liked Pan’s Labyrinth this is required viewing, as I think it shares a lot of themes. 

The African Doctor (France): “Holligay, if you put another fucking downer movie in this list I am going to BEAT YOUR ASS” Okay, okay, we’re going to ignore my general predilections and everything from here on down is fairly life-affirming or comedic or easy. This is about a little village in France in the 1970s that gets an African doctor. It’s sweet, and funny, and you come away from it feeling good. Also I still laugh every time Seyolo responds to the fact that most of the villagers had never seen a black person with: “So what? Now they will.” If you like sweet fish out of water stories with nice endings, this is for you. 

Om Shanti Om (India): I maintain that this is the best movie to watch if you’re brand new to Bollywood. It mostly avoid the worst of its excesses while delighting in all of its strengths. It is a genuinely fun film with fantastic songs, and a shockingly together storyline for a Bollywood movie (affectionate). I’ve actually done a full review of this one, but in the short version: If you loved Moulin Rouge and wanted more of that mix of tragedy and silliness on a operatic level, I think you’ll be in for a treat. 

The Warrior’s Way (South Korea and New Zealand): Okay, this movie is not good, and also it manages to be bad. But it’s in English, so if you’ve been sitting there like my dad going, ‘I am not gonna read a movie” well, here you go. If you’ve ever said to yourself, “I want to watch a Western, but I wish it were actually a HK style cheesy action movie” BOY HOWDY AM I HERE FOR YOU. I watched this one insanely drunk and still managed to be like, “wow! This is so bad! Maximum valid!” If you thought RRR** was good, but too deep, you will have the BEST time with The Warrior’s Way. 

Anyway, this is, of course, an incomplete list, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something I love, since this was just made off the cuff. I would love to hear if you watch or like any of these, and also, if, looking at this list, you have a recommendation for me, let me know! There are so so many fucking movies out there, and so many fall through the cracks. 

I’m thinking about doing another one of these on “Indie movies you might have missed” and also “Movies that were made before you enfants were born” (30+ years) so let me know if anything like that is interesting! Or, if there’s a category you think I might know about you’re into, let me know also.

*I actually have a lot of emotional attachment to Hero, as I have a very distinct memory of standing in the Hastings, in front of the small foreign-film section, and it being the first foreign film I picked up. I was, I think, sixteen, and I had decided that I was going to be worldly, and interesting, and cultured, and so I took a deep dive into cooking from other cultures, and watching foreign films, and buying old art history textbooks, reading classics, and listening to opera, and formal manners. Basically becoming the person I wished I were, that poised Grace Kelly type, even if I was born to the drone of the grasshoppers on the wind. To quote Reba Macintire, “You know I mighta been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name” and all that. And this movie was a distinct part of that, in that it was the first, in a long line of me trying to be a more well-rounded and interesting person. 

**RRR (India): Actually on that note, watch RRR. It’s a fantastically fun Indian action film that I keep meaning to watch again because I got a little too drunk for drinking on an emopty stomach the first time I saw it, so it might actually also be good, but I do remember enjoying the shit out of it and there is a scene that has such Fareeha vibes to me.

[msfcatlover]

@alycat76: And the perchance to dream one if it’s not too much trouble?

Oh, this one’s actually much simpler! Because it’s a story idea as opposed to a full AU (though one that could easily cascade into canon divergence, given time.)

So the base premise is that for one reason or another, Jason ends up plugged into Hatter’s dream machine. Batman’s not around, but he got some sort of cryptic warning and called Dick to ask him to please go check on Jason. This is in that period of time where Dick was being kinda a jerk towards the family (very justifiably, but still a jerk), so he grumbles about it and gets Bruce to agree Dick can call in any members of his team if Dick decides he needs them. But, y’know, the kid might be in trouble (and Dick knows the kind of trouble Robins can get into,) and Dick’s not going to let his own grievances potentially get Jason hurt, so Dick heads back to Gotham and finds him.

Dick does recognize the machine, and knows you have to break the dream from the inside in order to escape. Dick has no idea what sort of dream Jason might be trapped in, so he asks M’gann to project Dick into Jason’s dream so that Dick can try to help. But it goes wrong, the machine interferes with the signal somehow, and Dick finds himself as nothing more than a specter: invisible, inaudible, and intangible in the moments anyone else is looking at him. He can’t even write a note, because of the whole “reading doesn’t work in dreams” thing.  Here is Jason’s ideal world: his mother, Catherine, is alive and married to Bruce; they’re obnoxious & embarrassing about it, but so obviously happy & in love. They all still seem to live in the manor, though a considerably less extravagant version of it. Alfred is there, but he’s a bit easier going, allowing himself to be talked into eating dinner with the family for example. Dick is away at college, but comes home regularly for family dinners and to bond with Jason over gymnastics, mathematics, getting in trouble, and how disgusting their parents are.

Bruce Wayne is still Batman. Catherine knows, and though she worries, she supports him fully, even running mission control for them so that Alfred can sleep.  Jason… doesn’t have a cape. He doesn’t have a vigilante identity at all.  Because in Jason’s dream world, Dick Grayson is still Robin.

(Here is Jason’s deepest, unacknowledged wish: that he could know for absolutely certain that his family loved & wanted just Jason with no conditions. That he wouldn’t ever have to wonder if his true value was being Robin. And, hey, as a bonus, maybe his big brother wouldn’t hate him so much if Jason wasn’t Robin! Maybe Dick & Bruce wouldn’t fight so much. Maybe everyone could just be happy.)

Here is another fact you don’t have to be the World’s Greatest Detective to observe: Jason is miserable. Oh, he wants to give into the dream—wants it so badly you can see the pain tearing away behind his eyes. But Jason just… can’t. He’s read too many fairytales not to know how that ends. He doesn’t eat, no matter what is set in front of him. He doesn’t drink. He’s painfully polite until he can excuse himself back to his own room, where he locks himself in for as long as possible. He doesn’t accept offers or presents or invitations, and avoids everyone as much as he can. (Dick never gets in there before Jason slams the door, but if he listens carefully, he can hear Jason reminding himself, over & over, that none of it is real.)

(Dick follows Jason to the library, where Jason checks several books before glaring at the ceiling. “If you wanted to trick me, you should’ve left the books legible, asshole. Your stupid heaven’s got no reading material.”)

Dick tries to speak up, but can’t even hear his own voice. Dick tries to reach out, but can’t touch them any more than a gentle breeze. Dick watches this happy family version of them (and so many of Bruce, Alfred, and Dick’s mannerisms are so on-point, the way they talk are so accurate, has Jason really been paying that much attention to them? To all the little details, right down to how Alfred silently sucks his teeth when he’s thinking, or how Dick shoves his hands in his pockets & shifts back on his heels when he doesn’t know what to do?) especially how his dream-self keeps trying to reach out to Jason and cheer Jason up, and feels kinda horrible about everything to be honest.

Dick plays poltergeist in order to communicate with Jason. They work out a system where Jason sits at the grand piano with his back towards it, and Dick plucks the strings

When they escape the dream, the first thing Dick does is try to hug his little brother. Jason assumes he’s still in the dream, and shoves Dick away. Dick points out he hasn’t had any human contact for weeks and asks Jason to just let Dick be selfish for a few minutes. (Jason tells Dick to shut up as he lets himself be pulled back onto Dick’s lap. Dick just laughs and refuses.) (Then M’gann goes, “AWWWWWW! You’re so cute!” and they both jump away from eachother as fast as possible.)

[inuyassa]

Med Bay

Ace x Female!Reader

Warnings: Implied Injury

NSFW Warnings: None! All Fluff

“Hey, they’re bringing him back up to you in a second…” 

Marco stood outside y/n’s door, she slumped forward onto her desk and ground.  “What is it this time?”

Marco sighed.  “Possible dislocated shoulder, plus he fell overboard again so he probably inhaled some water.”

“You know Marco, when I said I wanted to learn more about medicine, I didn’t know I’d have to deal with one patient for ALL ETERNITY!”

Marco laughed, rubbing the back of his neck.  “Hey, what better way to learn! This guy has gotten every major injury short of stabbed in the last few months.  You’re getting to see it all!”

Y/n pursed her lips together, mocking the young doctor.  “Fine, send him in.”

Two more of Whitebeard's pirates ushered an injured Ace into the med-bay, sitting him down on the nearest cot.  He was holding his obviously messed up left shoulder, his clothes sopping wet.  Y/n placed her glasses on the desk and stood up to treat the newcomer.  He had spent countless hours in her care.  He was hellbent on taking out Whitebeard, but all his attempts failed.  The first time she treated him was in the middle of the night, two of the watchmen brought him to her quarters with a shattered nose. 

She looked over his injured arm.  “I’m going to need you to take off your shirt Ace.”

“Buy me dinner first,” he retorted, his words were a taunt but his inflection was deadpan.

“Har, har,” she mocked. “I need to set your arm and can’t do it if I can’t see it.”

Ace complied, taking the soaking wet button up off.  He winced when he got to the injured arm, y/n stepped in to help.  She positioned herself, both hands gripping him tightly.  “You know, the longer you fight it, the more Whitebeard is gonna want you in the crew,”

Ace rolled his eyes.  “I’m not interested in working for a man like him.”

“Why not?”

“For starters, he’s-AHHHH!!”

Ace’s words were cut short as y/n forced his shoulder back into its socket.  He hunched over, gripping his arm and shaking. “What the hell was that?!”

“Had to get you talking so you wouldn’t psych yourself out.  I honestly don’t care why you don't want to be here.”  Y/n walked over to the medicine counter and grabbed a small glass vile of ground herbs.  She tossed it towards the young pirate, who caught it with his good hand without looking up.  “You know the drill; steep that in tea when you get back to your quarters.  It’ll take the edge off.  SInce your arm was dislocated, if the throbbing doesn’t stop, come back and see me and I can fashion a sling. Try not to kill Whitebeard for at least a week, your arm needs time to heal.” Ace looked at the small vile, but his mind was somewhere else.  “Yeah…right…”

Y/n could hear real pain in his voice now, he had barely moved, still cradling his arm across his body.  She made her way slowly to the bedside and stood in front of him.  “You know, it could be worse than this.  There are a lot of other pirates out there that could have picked you up.  Then I guarantee you wouldn’t be in a medical bay getting free treatment.”

“I didn’t ask anyone to do me any favors,” Ace gripped the vile tight, y/n worried it might shatter in his hand.  “I have no interest in working for anyone else.”

“So it’s a masculinity thing huh? Every little boy wants to be a pirate captain, but they forget that the only way to do that is to be part of someone else’s crew first. So why not Whitebeard?”

Ace stood up, his tall frame towering over her.  “It’s not that simple, so don’t preach to me like you know me.  I WAS a captain, he took that away from me!”

“He absorbed your crew! Stop acting like he slaughtered your men and took you captive!”

“I don’t expect you to understand, you’re one of his lackeys!”

“Screw you!” Y/n shoved Ace with all her might.  He fell back onto the bed, her physical assault taking him by surprise.  She stood above him, fists clenched.  “You think you’re the only one who suffered? Who's lost shit?  Well, you’re wrong.  Each and every one of us has a reason to be pissy about being here, but at the end of the day, we owe Whitebeard a lot more than our lives.  I don’t care what you do or how long you stay, but I will not stand by and let you slander my captain's name because you’re a sore loser!  Now take your medicine and get the hell out of my office!”

Ace slowly stood up and made his way to the deck.  He felt guilty for some reason, unable to understand why.  He sat on the deck, a hot, untouched bowl of stew sitting beside him.  Marco approached him for a much needed chat…

***

Y/n stood on the deck, a hot mug of coffee in her hand.  After a long day in her small work area, she loved the feeling of the sea air at night to help her unwind.  She was starting to feel a bit chilled when someone draped a blanket over her shoulders.  She looked over and saw Ace lean on the banister beside her.  

“Nice night huh?” He said, looking out at the glistening sea.  

“Eh, you’ve seen one, you've seen them all,” y/n teased.  “What are you doing here? Whitebeard break your nose again?”

“Very funny,” Ace replied.  “I’ve actually turned over a new leaf; I think I’m gonna stick around a bit longer.”

“Lord help me,” y/n feigned shock and horror.  “I will never get a day off again.”

“Don’t worry, I plan on playing by the rules from now on.”

Y/n smiled, as annoying as he was, she had grown fond of Ace, he seemed like the type of man that would rise up in the ranks of the fleet very fast.  “Well, welcome to the crew then Sparky.”

“Sparky??”

“You know, the fire stuff?”

“It’s a bit more impressive than a spark, thank you very much!”

“Sure, uh-huh.  But it’s devil fruit power so your weakness is water either way.”

“You’re not very nice,” Ace snapped, playfully grabbing his chest like she had just stabbed him in the heart.  She didn’t bother pointing out that he was grabbing the wrong side of his chest.

“Look, I’m a medical nurse, you want nice words and affirmations, go talk to Thatch.”

Ace laughed, it was the first time y/n had seen him actually smile since he got there. 

 “I like this Ace,” she said, playfully nudging him with her shoulder.  “He’s fun when he’s happy.”

Ace laughed softly, looking back out at the sea.  “I like him too.”

Y/n found herself looking at him a bit longer than she intended.  She felt her cheeks grow warm and prayed to whatever god was out there that he didn’t see her blush.  

Ace scooted closer to her, gently pressing his arm against hers.  The two stood there in peaceful silence, listening to the waves and wind….

[duckiemimi]

i really don't wanna be that person but what is your thoughts on gojou with utahime as a pairing? like no hate to anyone that likes to ship them but i just don't see the significance in this relationship, especially since it feels like a reach when they try to compare utahime with geto for example, saying they have similarities supposedly, which?? utahime in general is like a typical girl from a manga that people seem to project onto because she has this tsukkomi vibes or something? like the whole dislike towards gojo is disregarded and treated as a joke despite adults in jjk are obviously capable of putting aside their distaste of one another to work for the greater good if goals aling. i honestly think these two work better as allies because they have rather sibling like type of dynamic. and i didn't mean for this to get so long and overboard but i needed to share and i hope you'll have some thoughts along the way because i really enjoy your theories and metas. have a good one :)

before i start, disclaimer: if you like gojohime, by all means, ship it! there’s nothing wrong with shipping two characters you think go together, so as long as you don’t pick unnecessary fights about it!

now let’s start.

i think i don’t see the appeal in gojohime because i see no chemistry between them. they’re professional coworkers who might even be acquaintances once in a while to me.

i think what i truly dislike, though, is how utahime is portrayed in the ship. if a woman says she doesn’t like a man, then she doesn’t like a man! but even through a reader’s standpoint, while these are fictional characters in a story we can find wholly knowable because they are readable (unlike in-real-life humans), there is no evidence to suggest that utahime even likes gojo. they work well together and that’s it.

i think because we don’t see much of utahime in the story, it becomes easy to see what isn’t there. most of her on-screen interactions with gojo, if not in tepid professional manner, are fiery, with her becoming defensive and quick to anger. i think many shippers read this as utahime becoming flustered and perhaps they see her as the quintessential “tsundere” who shows affection through irritability. if anything, though, i think we should consider the fact that teenage gojo used to blatantly call her weak and it’s definitely affected their dynamic as adults. utahime could still be a little resentful, and i don’t think gojo realizes this.

you also have to remember that gojo isn’t the most likable person (not character) in the series. nanami is not entirely fond of him, and neither are most of his students. they care for him, and they might love him, but he’s not an easy guy to get along with. it isn’t just utahime who finds him “annoying.”

as for the geto and utahime comparisons, they make me giggle a little. is it because geto is objectively the closest person to gojo, and that’s how shippers wished it was for utahime, or is it because they both have dark hair? besides the fact that pre-defection geto and utahime have a sense of duty as sorcerers (which also differ, by the way; their motivations were completely different), they have absolutely no similarities. where did this argument even come from?

i think it’s important to realize that you can ship characters without grasping at barely-there evidence. you don’t owe anyone your ship’s canonicity. you’re allowed to like a ship even if two characters have never even interacted with each other. of course, different people are bound to perceive the story differently, so i guess as long as you don’t pick fights, do whatever you want!

[belle-of-a-time]

Because the rot consumes here’s

Batfam-Soul Eater AU

Bruce is a weapon and he’s a gun. And he fucking hates it like Despises it

Talia turned him into a death scythe but lord death never makes him transform. He’s just a strategist and a teacher now.

Talia is a witch but she hid it until after she made Bruce a death scythe.

Also Bruce’s like honor code is a little different here since “no killing” is kinda silly when the only reason the academy exists is to kill kishins he thinks A: everyone is constantly teetering on the edge of madness all the time. And B: it is a moral failing if you succumb to the madness. Which is why he didn’t go after the joker after Jason, because doing so would have been giving in to the madness.

Dick is a meister

He bounced back and forth between Barbara who is a grappling hook and also a meister and Kori who is some sort of lava cannon or something.

Barbara got Severely hurt during a fight while wielding Jason and had to stop for a while. She’s back at it though, helping Bruce as a strategist and as like “Mission Control” Bruce is guiding her to take over for him someday.

Dick now fights with Wally who is his like electric escrima sticks because speedster=lightning in my mind.

Jason is also a gun but he thinks it’s Very cool. Barbara was with Jason when they were assigned to take down the joker who is a kishin egg. He killed Jason and severely injured Babs.

Jason was revived by Talia because obviously, using the black blood and he was overtaken by the madness for a while before being pulled back towards sanity by his friends.

Hes partnered with Roy now who Does have A daughter Lian. Teen pregnancy stuff. You get it.

Tim is a meister. He can resonate with anyone but he really struggled to find a weapon he really clicked with. So he fought by directing his soul wavelength for a while.

He met Bernard who is a bo staff and they clicked and are now partners.

Steph used to fight by herself using a non person weapon, no one is really sure where she got it. But now she and Cassandra are partners and No One but Steph and maybe Bruce and Barbara know what kind of weapon she is all anyone can tell is that she’s something small, she can also see soul wavelengths.

There’s a good chance though that when you see Steph alone that Cass is actually transformed and concealed somewhere on her person

Duke is a weapon who fights alone (like Justin law) I don’t know what kind of weapon but it’s something weird and COOL he’s got to be really super cool. It definitely glows and he can like “enchant” (not really the word I’m looking for but it works) it with his soul wavelength to like resonate/boost his own attacks.

Duke is the closest to becoming a death scythe of the batfam.

Damian is PISSED that he wasn’t born a weapon. He really really wants to be a death scythe, so it bums him out that he can’t.

I think it’s really funny if he Is actually a weapon but he’s even more repressed than Maka so literally no one knows.

That or Talia tried to ensure he’d be a witch and it backfired somehow and locked away his weapon transformation instead.

He’s partnered with Jon who is a sword

Damian is absolutely determined to make Jon into the youngest death scythe ever

Jon does not particularly care either way he definitely wants to become a death scythe but isn’t super bothered by timeline but if that’s what Damian wants god damnit he’s going to try his best!! Jon is very Tsubaki core to me. They are the tsu/blackstar combo of the batfam.

Back to Jason, Bruce understands Jason’s struggle with the madness and just really really wants his son to talk to him but he never ever gives ANY indication that he’d react well or even Want to talk to Jason about anything. Especially when he keeps reacting so high and mighty and preachy when Jason is Worse at dealing with the madness than anyone else.

Other—non batfam—headcanons

Clark and Lois are a death scythe/ meister combo In that order. They’re off doing shit constantly and Kon ends up basically taking care of Jon most of the time.

J’onn is a teacher (also a weapon) at the academy in my mind the like struggle with madness is split off onto Bruce but the like rest of stein is in J’onn mixed with Sid’s like dad energy.

J’onn is the teacher that Everyone goes to for advice about basically anything.

Also J’onn is a weapon who can change form like Tsubaki can but he’s got A Lot more forms. He can see wavelengths. And attack with his own wavelength. He’s basically super overpowered but he hardly ever has to fight.

Barry is a death scythe nuff said

All of the like magic users in the justice league including aquaman because… fish. Are witches

Zetanna’s witch form/animal form is a lion because she gives me ringmaster vibes? Idk.

Constantine’s animal form is the wettest saddest rat you’ve ever seen. It’s also huge. Also he is Literally trading off pieces of his soul and he looks SUPER freaky to anyone who can see souls

The main villain of the arc is the league of assassins. Run by witches. The academy and the justice league witches team up to take them down. They’re trying to turn the joker into a full blown kishin using the black blood which is a stand in for the Lazarus pits. I’m thinking like full on Pits of the stuff and everyone has to donate blood to the pits every time they walk past. All these assassins are Covered in self inflicted cuts so they can donate their blood.

When people displease Ra’s they get bled out into the black blood. Like draining an animal style. So ominously hanging over the pit by the ankles bleeding out into it are like a lot of bodies. And in the center in like a cage half submerged in the blood is the joker and they bring him all the souls after the people bleed to death.

They do kidnap J’onn at some point, also Tim, and Bernard, and idk Lian for the drama

So rescue mission! Also kill the joker! Is the main finale.

[gingerel]

Prompto thinks his sister might be in love.

A little ficlet sequel to Harbinger written for @mathclasswarfare

They’re separated by a table laden down with offerings wrought by Ignis and Monica’s hands, but Prompto keeps his eyes fixed on Luna as she mingles amongst the other Gods.

A sacrifice, truly, when Prompto’s favourite thing to do at these gatherings is spy on Noctis. In the scant few moments, they’re not together anyway. He’s changed in the past years, still shy and under-socialised but always trying, definitely easier with the people that know him best. Even now, he’s trapped under Gladio’s arm, weakly fighting him off as he and Nyx laugh at whatever is making Noctis scowl.

Prompto will rescue him in a minute, it’s just—

Prompto thinks his sister might be in love.

Selena has Luna’s full attention, standing together across the way from Prompto, but enough he can’t eavesdrop on what they’re saying. He thinks magic might have something to do with that, but he doesn’t know who has both the ability and foresight to set something up just to muffle sound. Suddenly, Selena laughs and Luna doesn’t, but her whole face goes a little soft, eyes widening and body leaning in towards her friend.

When Selena’s laugh peters out Luna starts talking and Selena focuses in turn. Prompto doesn’t know Selena well enough, not even after all these years now, to read if her expression turns as intensely or as tenderly as Luna’s obviously does.

Prompto’s staring, which is rude, but he can’t seem to stop himself.

It’s odd, right? Not that Luna can be in love but that she seems to feel that way and is doing nothing about it. She’s confident, she doesn’t like secrets, she sees what she wants, and she goes about getting it.

Prompto’s here isn’t he? Luna didn’t know it would work out quite as well as it did, but she put the wheels in motion. Prompto’s feelings about his family are a mess at the best of times, but he has to give Luna some credit for a fraction of the happiness he feels now.

For a moment, Iris steals Selena’s attention making their duo a trio, and though it’s obvious to Prompto that Iris intends for Luna to be included in the conversation too, Luna’s eyes don’t leave Selena’s face, more concerned with her response than formulating her own.

A warm arm hooks Prompto around the waist and he only avoids jumping clear off the floor because Noctis drags him backwards into his firm chest with a little hum.

“Why are you being weird?” Noctis asks quietly.

“I’m not being weird,” Prompto says quickly, craning his neck to look at Noctis’ face to catch him arching one perfect eyebrow.  “I’m always weird?” Prompto tries.

Briefly, Noctis squeezes him tighter, laughing low in his ear in a way that makes Prompto feel all warm in his chest.  It cuts through any annoyance Prompto might feel at Noctis’ uncharacteristic and awkwardly timed perceptiveness.

“Spill,” Noctis insists, arm loosening enough for Prompto to turn around in his arms. “Do I need to fight someone?”

Prompto laughs, though Noctis undoubtedly could and maybe would go toe to toe with anyone here if they upset Prompto enough. Might win too, now he’s gotten a handle on his magic. Gently, and quickly, Prompto kisses the corner of Noctis’ mouth, suddenly and deeply filled with a gratitude he can’t place.

“No fighting,” Prompto says. “I’m just being nosy.”

Noctis taps his fingertips against the small of Prompto’s back.

“What about?”

Prompto considers lying, or at least sidestepping the question for now. Gossiping isn’t something he enjoys—or nothing he’ll even admit to enjoying, anyway—but if he’s going to talk to anyone about it, it has to be Noctis.

“Do you think,” Prompto says. “That maybe Luna might—have feelings for Selena?”

Noctis rears back as much as he can without completely pulling away.

“What?”

“I mean,” Prompto defends. “She looks at Selena all heart-eyes and they spend so much time together.”

Noctis stares at him for a few moments, before rolling his eyes up towards the sky.

“Oh, I see,” Noctis drawls. “It’s barely been a decade and you’re bored.”

“No!” Prompto cries loudly, laughing. Must have been too loud, because almost every other person in the space turns to glance at them. “Not bored—never bored.”

Noctis drops his waist, but only so he can stroke the backs of his fingers along Prompto’s jaw. He smiles just a little, watching Prompto’ with eyes so soft, so patient and—

Noctis looks at him the way Luna looks at Selena.

“I really think I’m onto something,” Prompto breathes.

Noctis glances over at the girls, eyes only lingering for a few seconds before he’s focusing on Prompto again.

“Okay, say you’re right,” Noctis says, the curl of his mouth making it obvious he’s only humouring him. “It’s not like we can do anything about it.”

“They should be together,” Prompto insists quietly.

“That would be hard for them,” Noctis says. “You know, because they’re—”

“Ignis and Nyx are different seasons,” Prompto argues. “So were we, once.”

“Ignis and Nyx aren’t both Gods of,” Noctis reminds him. “Selena and Luna could never live together. And if we couldn’t—we’d still—I’d still…”

Noctis struggles, words Prompto knows but Noctis still occasionally struggles to say.

“You’d still love me?” Prompto breathes.

Noctis nods. “Always. But not being able to live with you—imagine that?”

Prompto does, but only briefly, because the concept is so terrible. 

Noctis looks sad, and Prompto aches somehow. He doesn’t know how they got here so fast, but he darts forward, pressing a soft kiss to Noctis’ mouth and threading the fingers of one hand into his hair to help soothe them, to remind themselves of how lucky they are to have found each other.

It’s Noctis that pushes forward to make it linger and Prompto doesn’t even think to push him away. It doesn't matter that the event is half formal, though much less fraught than Prompto’s been led to believe they were before once upon a time. When Prompto wasn’t really around, back when Noctis was simultaneously more and less than he is now. The world could dissipate to nothing but them for the rest of eternity and Prompto would be okay, would relish each and every second that he and Noctis are near each other, talking and touching and—

Noctis jerks forward, biting Prompto’s lip and crushing their noses together. Prompto presses the back of his hand against his mouth to soothe the sudden ache while Noctis whirls around to glare at where Nyx, Gladio and Ignis are standing.

Ignis is pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Did you just throw ice at me?” Noctis demands. Nyx shakes out his hand and water droplets splatter onto the grass.

“Stop canoodling in public,” Gladio teases, any attempt at being stern swallowed up by his smile.

“We’re not—we weren't…” Noctis stammers. “Shut up.”

“Smooth,” Nyx laughs.

“Nice come back,” Gladio puts him.

Noctis scowls, and Prompto clutches his arm, half burying his face in his shoulder so Noctis won’t feel betrayed by the fact he too can’t stop smiling.

[wqintraining]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 1, EPISODE 2

Storm is flying towards the school, speaking with Logan through an earpiece. Storm is eager to be going home, never supportive of how things ended. Logan gives her fair warning. He was only there for a few minutes, but he can tell her this is not the same place she remembers. Storm says she knows about the children and they aren't a problem for her. She’d spend entire days playing with the kids when she was worshiped as a goddess, and she’s sure this will be no different. 

Right on cue, Storm arrives and bears  witness to utter chaos taking place outside the school, as dozens of kids run around wildly with their powers, a stray fireball just missing her face, as they all scream at one another. Storm is more than a little off put, when she receives a telepathic message. 

JEAN: “Storm! Welcome home!” 

STORM,  laughing nervously: “Yes. It’s good to be back.” 

Later in the cafeteria, Noriko and Sofia are eating together, the latter uploading a reel of her doing ballet. They’ve been here for a week, and are talking about some of the weird stuff they’ve seen in class (and in the dorms). Noriko thinks this place is pretty cool. 

NORIKO: “Certainly beats trying to make things work with the rents who kicked me out.” 

SOFIA: “Did you just call your mother and father “the rents”?

NORIKO: “I’m bringing it back.” 

Sofia also prefers it here away from her dad who, unlike Nori’s, she never had a good relationship with, but she is itching for a little action. Nori mockingly asks if she wants to be an X-Man, and Sofia asks what would be so wrong if she did, making Nori snort laugh over how no one could pay her to get into the kind of crazy situations those guys do.

NORIKO: "I'll leave fighting the creeps who want to kill us to the professionals." 

Cessily and Sooraya enter the cafeteria. Sofia’s noticed those two are always by themselves and thinks they should invite them over. Nori has no complaints, so Sofia carries an invitation over the wind to their ears. They both perk up at this, but before they can get there, they’re intercepted by Julian and Brian. 

Cessily, assuming the worst from what she's seen, expects them to be a jerks, but Julian actually just compliments their performances in Powers for Self-Defense, saying they’re definitely way cooler than most of the losers here, and anyone icing them out or saying things behind their backs is obviously just jealous. 

JULIAN: “Why don’t you girls come sit with us?” 

The girls look over at Sofia and Noriko, but elect to follow Julian and Brian. 

Nori sighs, figuring they lucked out. Any friend of Julian’s is no one they want to sit with. Sofia, however, heard the conversation over the winds, and was surprised and impressed by how sweet Julian was. 

In Scott's office, Scott and Jean greet Storm, hugging her. Storm is so proud of how far these two have come, and, while it'll take some adjusting to, what they're doing here is something great. 

STORM: "Not every child should have to flee to Genosha to feel safe."

Storm does have one concern though. 

EMMA: "And whatever would that be?"

Storm absolutely hates Emma being involved, distrusting her even more than Jean does, but the others reiterate this is just a temporary arrangement. Emma, unbothered, drinks from her flask. 

Scott brings Storm up to speed about the Purifier situation. Jean tracked the brainwaves of some of the soldiers who attacked the school to the middle of nowhere. They're going to find their base there, discover who their leader is, and take out their operation. 

Laura enters, wanting to help. Storm hasn’t been told about her, so Jean telepathically gives the basics of her backstory (Clone of Logan trained to be the perfect assassin by the government, and who filled that role expertly for the people she worked for until a scientist she bonded with helped her escape. Eventually, Logan found her and took her in). Scott meanwhile tells Laura that’s not why she’s here. 

SCOTT: “Don’t you have lunch now?” 

A resentful Laura stomps off. 

Back in the cafeteria, Laura slams a tray down in front of Noriko and Sofia, asking if she can sit with them. They’re a little terrified of her, but they say sure. Noriko and Sofia proceed to watch Laura eat like an animal with her claws. They're off put, but still try talking to her. Laura responds by telling them the percentage by which their chances of death will go up if they get close to her. 

Sofia gets up to grab some more food (and get away from Laura), with Laura staring at her as she does so. 

On the lunchline, Sofia is once again approached by Julien, who thinks they got off on the wrong foot. Sofia thinks they may have as well, as Julian turns on the pretty boy charm. Noriko speeds over and shoves Julian back, getting some people's attention, as she says Sofia already said she wasn't interested. Sofia tells her to back off and that everything is fine, while Julian asks what her big problem is; she's been hassling him since they got here. 

Noriko can't believe he doesn't remember. When he was visiting the school a few weeks ago, she was homeless and only keeping her powers in check with drugs from a street dealer. And when she tried to come to the school for help, Julian shooed her away. 

Julian: "That trashbag lady was you?!"

Sofia blasts him back onto a table with a gust of wind, ashamed of herself for falling for his smile. 

Julian, covered in food, just smirks and says if they want to play, he's down to play, and lights up. 

In the Blackbird, Emma and Storm continue to dig into each other, with Emma mostly just having fun to pass the time, while Storm genuinely hates Emma, not having forgotten how she tortured her when they first met. 

Emma: "Ahh, good times."

Storm nearly takes the Blackbird out of the sky for that comment. Jean calms her down, getting between the two, but…

EMMA: "Do you feel compelled to act like everyone's mother, or is it just a fetish for you?"

Jean is dragged into the argument as well by that remark. 

Scott tells them all to knock it off as he struggles to keep the ship steady. They've almost arrived. 

In the cafeteria, Julian takes on Noriko and Sofia in something halfway between a fight and a foodfight, with everyone cheering him on. He's clearly more experienced with his powers than either of the girls, but it's still two on one, and he ends up getting slammed into his table and covered in even more slop. He asks the others sitting there why they aren't backing him up. They ask why they would, to which he just says…

JULIAN:  "We're friends aren't we?"

SOORAYA: "We JUST met you."

JULIAN: "And? Come on Cess, don't you wanna show everyone what that sick body of yours can really do?"

Sooraya still sits, though is intrigued by Julian's perspective, and Brian says his power isn't for fighting, but Cessily jumps into the fray to back him up, going after Sofia so Julian can focus on Noriko. 

While the four fight, Laura finishes her food and walks off. 

LAURA: "Amateurs."

In the Purifier base, Stryker is once again speaking to God, who's already informed him the X-Men are coming. When they attacked the school, they were merely seeing what they were up against. This time, they're ready. 

Scott, Jean, Emma, and Storm burst in. 

"God": "Then show me your strength. Show me your faith." 

Stryker, flanked by his men, introduces himself, expressing his pity for these poor souls, and promising they'll be at rest soon. 

The ladies mock this fanatic thinking he has a chance, turning their bitchiness toward a common foe, but the Purifiers reveal a trick up their sleeve: All of them have telepathy resistant, Sentinel based power armor. 

As Nori and Sofia vs Julian and Cessily reaches a climax, the degree to which Noriko and Julian in particular are charging up making it look like they might blow up the building, they're stopped, first by an authoritative shout and then by a swift series of martial arts moves, disabling each of them in an instant. 

KITTY, dusting her hands off: "That's enough of that."

BRIAN: "Damn. Kindergarten teacher kicks ass."

The Purifiers are able to put up an actual fight this time, but against Storm's raw power, they once again fall. However, Stryker had a backup plan, asking for the lord's forgiveness as he abandons his men and gets away in his own Sentinel suit. Jean, Storm, and Emma all try to stop him, but only get in each other's way, allowing him to escape. 

As the base is dismantled and Scott makes a call to his contact at SHIELD so they can pick up the terrorist group they just dealt with for them, frustrated as his teammates can do nothing but continue to argue with one another. 

In her classroom, Kitty has Julian, Noriko, Sofia, and Cessily sat down as they all explain their sides of the story at once. Kitty doesn’t want to hear it. She’s not too much older than them, only 20, herself, and she remembers what being a teenager is like. All the petty bullshit, the smallest slights feeling like the worst things possible, (staring at Julian) wanting to show off. But they’re all Mutants, and, as they showed off well today, they may be some of the strongest kids here. They don’t need to be friends, but they need to stick together and not fight amongst themselves. Kitty explains that Scott and Jean are planning on splitting up the kids into “Training Squads” after the first month, but she thinks they’ve found their first. Noriko is pissed, but Sofia is fond of the idea of Kitty being their mentor, since she’s also her dance instructor, and Julian likes the idea of being able to hang around Sofia more, also asking if Brian and Sooraya can join. As it so happens, they were planning on six to a squad, so she allows it. Kitty knows they have their differences, and they all come from very different places, but she promises the sooner they can accept each other, the happier they’ll be. They reluctantly agree to try. 

As the four kids exit, Scott enters, commenting on what he’s seen and heard. Kitty taking down four powerful students effortlessly without hurting them, AND actually managing to get a bunch of angsty teenagers to stop fighting? What happened to the brat he used to know who always started fights and ended up needing rescuing? 

Kitty teases him back, before, seemingly out of nowhere, Scott tells her he wants her on the X-Men. She’s got the skills, and while he’s a fine leader for tactical purposes, he’s not a people person. Stryker is still out there, and he needs to get Jean, Storm, and Emma on the same page. Kitty isn’t sure, especially since she’s no fan of Emma either, saying he should really be getting Kurt or Rachel, but he promises her he knows she’s up to this. Kitty excitedly accepts and joins the team. 

[who-is-muses]

@dcwnthercbbithcle | Shipping Bingo [ ACCEPTING ]

Shipping bingo for OUR Evan/Phiwip disaster ship and mayhaps Carmina and Sally too??

[ MY TURN TO GUSH NOW 🫵👁v👁💙 djdjjdjdjs ]

[ Like obviously I'm going to be biased because these are OUR little freaks, but !!! Evan isn't strictly the macho he-man testosterone fountain a lot of writers (INCLUDING THE DEVS) make him, and Philly is allowed to A) keep his specific intelligence instead of being dumbed down to a himbo that needs Evan to solve all his problems be they major or minor, and B) be a little Deeply Fucked Up instead of an uwu smol bean flavored bad circumnavigation of stereotyping African men. IT'S ABOUT THE NUANCE AND CHARACTER DEPTH!!!!!!! ]

[ And like! Their relationship doesn't have to be strictly perfectly smooth romance and roses because it won't ever be!!! They're both tragic victims turned monsters themselves, and the reality is they are always going to have rough edges! And that's absolutely okay!!! Fuckin hell!!!!!!! In both fiction and reality, healthy relationships experience turbulence! There will be arguments and butting of heads! While Ev and Phil aren't exactly the most healthy, they're gradually learning how to move past their respective limitations and actually communicate, including properly making up to one another after fights- which is also important! Hrhrnrrhrghrnrnrhrhn!!! ]

[ NOW TO COMPLETELY CONTRADICT MYSELF- bdjdjdjdkd not actually, but like. I think part of it is their respective temperaments- Sally's no-nonsense and Carmina's blunt-but-not-necessarily-cruelty- but they’re one of the best cases scenario for a couple to come out of the Fog on any side of the Campfire. Despite being partially and fully mute respectively, I feel like Sally and 'Mina have some of THE BEST communication skills out of the killers and I'd argue even the survivors. Maybe not always in the nicest ways, but they both make themselves VERY clear a majority of the times. ]

[ But at the same time, they're both relatively quiet ladies that lean towards getting lost in projects than large crowds or loud parties. One of my absolute favorite Romance Things is parallel play, being able to exist in a room together without necessarily doing the same thing, just sharing a space with your person being enough to feel their love and send yours to them as well qvq I could absolutely see them having one big ol "common room" type space where they can both work on their projects independently without getting in the others' way, but still sharing a room. (And where Carmina can keep an eye on Sally and bring her food and water when she herself has to force herself to take breaks.) ]

[ There's also. Like. The factor of Carmina's overabundant confidence. She can't fix Sally's body issues or the experiences she's had because of them- nor would she ever want to- but 'Mina can and will try to gradually help (not fix) her image of herself. 'All bodies are good bodies' is one of Carmina's strongest and most important beliefs- both in general, and personally in her life as a transwoman. While she's never been one to force her beliefs on anyone- another strong belief of her- she does her best to make it loudly and widely known that there is never one way to think about something. Body positivity wives qvq ]

[zukkacore]

This is gonna start off as kinda goofy silly but bear with me but the thing abt Togami and Mukuro is that in my mind the way the friend groups split up during the lost two nondespair years is that Junko can basically get along w/ anyone bc that’s her secret sauce so while she makes it her business to drift in an out of any social circle in my heart I do think her home base is converging with the other gay bitches whose personality is generally having disdain for the other gay bitches and setting themselves apart because of it i.e. Celeste and Togami. They are the fag, the goth girl, and the Cookie Monster pj girl walking the mile in PE.

Naturally Mukuro tags along passively and quietly w Junko where ever she goes & Togami is happy to ignore her at first and generally dismiss her as Junko’s weird sullen sister. & yes canonically Mukuro’s alienation from her classmates is part of why she feels driven to sink the cost and stay loyal to her sister despite her trepidation toward The Plan, but also like.

In the funnier version of events in my head I do think Togami and Mukuro could form a silent tenuous allyship because they’re literally just always around each other, in a way of being extremely tight lipped and privately grateful there’s at least one person here not trying to impose on my business or try to get me to be vulnerable. This guy gets the vision. Best friend I ever had.

The thing is that they’re a neat dichotomy because her trauma tanked her self esteem and view of her own personhood and his gave him a god complex and she and Junko struggled w poverty in their childhood while he is a billionaire heir and hence you would think they would not work as friends but once we and they realize that’s an awful nice dichotomy you got there, its like. It would be a shame if something were to lie outside of it.

And the thing that lies outside of it is that they were the weaker dog (“make two dogs fight, punish the weaker dog”) & have tried desperately to do something to overcome that. He sort of did, or at least he thinks he overcome being the weaker dog bc he “won” meanwhile whatever Mukuro has not stopped seeing herself as the weaker dog, no matter what she did to escape or distinguish herself didn’t matter in the end bc she’s still following orders. The thing abt them is that what lies outside the dichotomy is that they’re sunkest in the sunk cost fallacy. I invested the most, I endured the most, and it cost me the most and therefore I am special. He can’t opt out of this system of being pit against other dogs & she can’t turn against her sister bc he could be the top inheritor in a system of exploitation or be the person being exploited and she is about to aid in the end of the world or be ended along with everyone else. Which side do you want to be on? Theres a banquet and anyone who is not at the table in on the menu. Idk I just relate to that Goya painting of Saturn devouring his children for some reason.

There is something oddly sweet abt DR:S in which she in disguise badgers him into throwing a party at his private beach inviting all their classmates. & when he tries to back out of it in his typical way (fine you can throw a party but I would never go because I have better things to do obviously bc I’m just sooo busy and important) she insists he has to be there too. She’d never be so vocal and bold but in her attempt to perform Junko who is vocal and bold and unabashed abt what she wants she is forced to reveal now what SHE wants. He caves so easily, too. It’s technically not canon but it’s so revealing. What if we were all just friends hanging out on a beach. No fame no obligations no end of the world. This is the life I long for.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Is anyone else occasionally sort of nostalgic for early in the pandemic? I realize that might just be me taking my usual tendency toward nostalgia to ridiculous degrees. But I’ve heard a few other people talk about this before, so I know it’s not just me. Not people I know, or anything – no one I know has any idea why I’d feel this way, which is sort of part of the problem. I’ve heard a couple of comedians talk about it. And I hope this goes without saying, obviously I don’t literally want to return to an earlier point in the pandemic. Nostalgia paints a rosier picture than the one that actually existed, and obviously it’s incredibly self-centric to feel this way, because millions and millions of people around the globe had horrifying experiences that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

But. Okay, before the pandemic, for pretty much all my life, I felt out of step with other people. Your run of the mill level of autistic-related out of step. Didn’t understand people, they didn’t understand me, by high school I managed to find a community of people where everyone so outside normal society that they accepted me anyway and just sort of went along with my quirks, I hung on to that community for the next fifteen years, it was fine. Things were a little off, but they sort of worked out.

And now, I feel a gulf between myself and others that seems wider than anything I’d felt since before high school, since before I really communicated with anyone. I’m never on the same page as anyone else. Everyone else returned to the world in the wake of COVID ages before I did, so they’re all on a different timeline from me, things that seem new and scary to me are things they got through a year or more ago. And they returned so much faster than me, with so much less fear. They’ve all just moved on like the world hasn’t changed. And I know that maybe they’re just pretending it’s okay, same as I try to do, but this also applies to my close friends, whom I’ve talked to honestly about it, and there’s just such a gap between the way we experience things. I feel like I’ve come back into a world that’s wildly changed in my absence and that I now understand less than ever did.

Also, I can’t let shit go. Everything that got said during the pandemic, all the adults who are in positions of influence over children and teenagers and used their social media promote COVID conspiracies. All the people who illegally kept gathering all through the pandemic, and bragged about it, and now we’re supposed to just go back to seeing them as fun friendly rivals. All the people who drove to my own neighbourhood only a year ago to stand literally outside my fucking bedroom window with “No mandate” signs to fight for their right to kill everyone’s grandmother. I don’t know how to let go of the anger about that and see anything that they’re involved in as fun again.

I really love this Tweet:

Because that’s how it feels, like it isn’t fun anymore. People I used to dislike because they were dicks, I now dislike because they came to my home and tried to destroy my neighbourhood in the name of freedom to ruin the world. It’s not fucking fun to beat them in a fun game anymore. I have, however, started referring to several world-ruining people I know as “aforementioned lizard”, and that does make me laugh.

But there was a point in the middle, in between the pre-COVID time and whatever’s happening now, when I felt more connected to the world than I ever had. Like everyone was on the same page, more than I’d ever experienced before. Everyone was indoors, everyone was doing the same thing, experiencing the same struggles (obviously they weren’t, I’m ridiculously lucky that I wasn’t trying to take care of kids during the pandemic, that I had a job I could easily do from home so I didn’t lose my income, that while I did lose a good friend tragically in 2021, none of my loved ones became seriously ill with COVID - but it felt like everyone was in the same boat).

And I know it’s ridiculous to be nostalgic for that time – I actually have a way to go back and see how I was doing then, because I started this blog in August 2020. And I know I made posts on this blog in its first year or so that make it clear things were not going well. I desperately missed my life. But I was also looking forward to my life coming back, just the way I’d left it. That’s what I miss, that’s what I’m nostalgic for. The time when I was looking forward to that, because I hadn’t yet learned that it wouldn’t happen that way.

Anyway. The thing that got me writing this post isn’t nearly as dark as that. Well, I guess it is dark, but it isn’t nearly as dramatic as that. Does anyone else remember those couple of YouTube songs that went viral in late 2020/early 2021, by this guy calling himself Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq? I don’t know who he is. He’s British and he writes comedy songs, so I guess he’s technically a British comedian, but I’ve never heard of him outside this small number of songs he put up on YouTube. But he put them up at that point in the pandemic, the point where that messed up and misplaced nostalgia fits for me. They were timely and funny.

I spent a fair bit of late 2020/early 2021 staying at my parents’ place, because my mother was across the country taking care of her parents, and my dad was alone in the house, and got lonely during lockdown. And when lockdown was lifted, he still didn’t go anywhere except work, and when he was at work, the cats were alone all day, which wasn’t great. And I liked my dad, and got along with him, which is more than I can say for my roommate, so if I was going to be locked in the house for months anyway (which I was, I didn’t have any non-essential social contact during the pre-vaccination era of COVID, whether lockdowns were officially mandated or not), it may as well be with someone I like. So I stayed there for months, working from my dad’s living room, taking care of cats all day. In the evening, my dad and I would take turns making dinner and then watch Catsdown or QI, because we have a common interest and Canadian folk music and British comedy, and those are nice things to have in common for being compatible roommates.

And then, probably more often than a doctor would advise, after we’d finished eating dinner and watching whatever we watched, my dad would go to bed, and I’d get drunk on something from my parents’ wine cabinet, like I was a teenager again (except not really, because I didn’t actually start drinking until I was 19 and no longer living in my parents’ house). I’d watch Taskmaster and Mock the Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats and Amstell-era Buzzcocks, and make posts on this blog about how much I missed real life and how Britcom was getting me through this temporary break from reality. And I often listened to those few weird songs that were sort of viral at the time by this Thomas Benjamin person.

Anyway, he appears to have recently put up a couple of new things, which has put his old stuff back into my YouTube recommendations again. Which is the thing that actually started me writing this post, which was not meant to be all that dramatic. The point of this post was supposed to be: “Remember the funny songs by that guy that hit just right at that specific time and are so tied to that time that they give me a weird and ill-advised nostalgia for like December 2020″?

I know exactly how long ago I was into those songs - it was before Taskmaster season 10 had finished. I know because I took one of those songs, and used it as the background in a Taskmaster video I made in fall 2020, that used only clips from seasons 1-9, because I’m pretty sure season 10 had only just started at the time:

It’s worth seeing the actual video, though:

I think that went went viral during COVID because, you know, it was relevant. But it was written a while before it. While this one was actually written during and about lockdown:

And this one was also written specifically for that time period, in the YouTube description as: “dedicated to those out there who still refuse to wear a mask in public places”. Set to the Monty Python’s Flying Circus theme song (yes I realize it wasn’t originally the Monty Python’s Flying Circus theme song, but you can’t expect us to see it anything else by now):

Anyway, I’ve just learned he has a bunch of songs I did not previously know about that I’m going to get into now, sometimes the YouTube algorithm gets it right by reminding me of things like this.

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Give me the sun and roxy dynamic!

Okay so in terms of the programming conflicts – which I assume is where this sprang from, if not feel free to correct me so I can better answer this – the relationship is very uh… uneven for a while.

Roxy, in her first few months in the Plex, is learning to mix her two conflicting language processors into one that makes her actually understandable to the people around her, and also dealing with every other conflict in her programming. So for a while? She does not understand that a toothy smile is a good thing. And what does Sunny always have? A big ol’ toothy grin!

So she’s under the impression he and Moon really fucking hate her for some reason. She looks at them and Monty with their teeth constantly on display and is confused why they’re talking in chill tones yet obviously telling her to fuck off, and sometimes straight up asking for a fight. She just met these guys! Why are they like this?? Did she invade their territory or something?? Fine! She’ll just stay in her own territory! Fuck those guys!

Sunny on the other hand, is also under the impression that Roxy doesn’t like him. Why else would she growl at them so quickly? Why else would she go rigid and snap her teeth at them when he got too close? Why else would she keep such a big distance between them through the entire one-sided conversation? The difference with Sunny though, would be that they’d probably have been told about Roxy’s lack of clear communication ability. They were just trying to be as comforting, supportive and encouraging as possible and yet that’s how she reacted?? What did they do wrong?? Did he mess it up? Maybe he missed something obvious? Or maybe he was too pushy? He’s heard they can be pretty overwhelming at times but they tried so hard not to be this time! Did it not work? Oh, he’s so sad. He’s convinced he’s just lost a new friend because of something they’ve done and really wants to make up for it but she’s giving him such a wide berth that he’s starting to lose hope he ever will.

However, things do change of course! You can’t just leave Roxy thinking every big smile is some sort of threat, right? Well, this is where the others come in.

I like to give Bonnie this role but it could be anyone you want it to be really, outside of Monty, Moon and Sunny. DJ Music Man would probably be a much better fit for it anyway but moving on. They ask her why she keeps getting into fights with Monty and she stumbles on her words a bit, but manages to get them to understand that she’s convinced he’s starting it. The very moment she mentions why, it’s explained to her that smiling like that is just a natural thing people do, even if dogs don’t. It… takes a good few difficult to answer questions before Roxy is able to kind of wrap her head around that but it’s still going to take some getting used to.

Now, back to Sunny. Bonnie passes onto him that they figured out why Roxy didn’t like him literally the second she saw him and they’re relieved that it was just miscommunication but also feels awful that anyone would feel like he was threatening them so of course they have to fix that. Their next meeting goes a bit smoother, with Sunny making sure to keep some distance between them and not to make any sudden moves towards her to make sure she doesn’t misunderstand their intentions again but also quickly learns that she’s not much of a talker. Or at least, she’s not comfortable enough to be a talker. Or maybe she’s still not great at communicating and thus, doesn’t want to do it all the time, which he can understand! They get all sorts of kids in the daycare, he can handle a new nervous friend! Even if her chomping would ordinarily get her banned from the Daycare…

Yeah, she’s breaking rules all the damn time. Does she know she’s breaking rules? Nope. Sunny hasn’t told her yet. He’s so desperate to make her feel comfortable and make himself out to be as friendly as possible that they’re overcompensating a bit. They’re too nervous to ruin what progress they���ve made by enforcing the rules and she’s not broken anything yet, right? It’ll be fiiiinnneee… Moon doesn’t have this problem ordinarily but Sunny keeps fretting so much that now Moon won’t do anything about it either unless it starts to get out of hand and well. You can imagine that when it does get out of hand, there’s probably going to be some problems.

Anyway, on Roxy’s side of things, the teeth still have her on edge. She doesn’t want to run around or anything because it’s just making her feel like she should be ready to rip this guy to shreds. Also he’s so loud?? And them giving her space like this is both making her feel better and worse because what if they’re scared of her? He won’t be the only one if he is. She’s not sure how to feel about that since the dog side hates the idea while the character side thinks it’s funny, but she does know she wants to jump in the ball pit and chew the giant Freddy plush to shreds. She will not though. She will just not notice as she starts chewing whatever she picks up instead. Chewing stim go brrr

The relationship here is a slow one, just like it is for Moon and Monty. Roxy has to work on unlearning that teeth are a threat and that’s really hard to do when it’s hardwired into your very being. It takes time, and once she makes her debut and has to deal with this exact problem all day from hundreds of people daily that’s gonna get overwhelming fast and she’s probably not going to want to keep dealing with it in her off time so yeah. Once she settles a bit more into everything, things get a bit easier. Well that problem does anyway.

This is just one of her many problems to deal with. Don’t forget the anger issues from the constant conflicts in her programming making it difficult to feel like she is acting as herself or as intended, the frustration caused by language barriers and no one listening to her when she’s asked for help with it, the fact she has to interact with Sunny and Moon who both put her on edge all the time and also don’t seem to get her… Getting past the teeth thing is merely a hurdle in the Grand National here.

Other problems? The side of her that was programmed as the cool, and independent wolf character doesn’t fucking like him. Why would it? She’s cool! She’s clever! She’s a star racer! Why would she want to play Blind Man’s Bluff or Hide and Seek in her free time? She has better things to do! And yet her dog side loves him. He’s the perfect match for her dog side. So add this to the list of frustrating things!

Sunny is so fucking nice and kind and she’s just this ball of fluffy anger and zooms. He can’t tell her to stop breaking the rules because he’s too scared to upset her and she’s  too stuck in her own problems to notice he’s desperately trying to distract her from the Freddy plush she’s absolutely obliterating. He doesn’t understand her, she doesn’t understand him, it’s all a massive learning curve.

Actually you know what would be really sweet? Sunny high jacking the internet for information about dogs to make her more comfortable. He seems like he’d overdo it a bit though or read like… the ‘dominance training’ bullshit and royally fuck it up. But if he does it in a funny way? Well, kudos to him for making her laugh! He’s trying so hard, probably harder than literally anyone else because the one thing he can always do, is make someone feel safe and comfortable and god damn it he’s gonna do it for Roxy if it kills him!

Anyway, some ups, Sunny makes her – and everyone else of course – little gifts during craft time with the tots, and calls her down to the daycare whenever she’s needed for a birthday or when they really need to find something. Roxy meanwhile, starts to really appreciate the bells on him allowing her to know where he is in the room since that helps her nerves a bit and once she’s comfortable, she’s more than happy to find a kid’s toy or something else they’ve lost as an opportunity to show off. Sunny is always trying to coax her into conversation and is insanely patient when she can’t find her words. Roxy needs all the patience – and practice – she can get but also learns how to trigger an infodump or rant so that she can just vibe in the same room and listen without having to work so hard in the conversation.

Also, Sunny is the only one that has the same high level of energy as she does. Moon thinks it’s funny to trigger the zooms in Roxy right before Sunny takes over and mentally sits there with the popcorn as these two lose their absolute shit together. Roxy will just bowl him over and Sunny will jump back up and try and wrestle a ball pit ball from her or something. He has yet to succeed but one of these days they will! Just you wait!

Sunny loves having someone to share fidget toys with and Roxy loves not feeling like the only one that likes them. They get a new one and they can spend all night trying it out before either going back to one they prefer or deciding who gets to keep the new one. They can race each other to see who can complete a Rubiks cube first or run each other out of energy by playing some new fast paced game Sunny came up with or something.

It takes a while to get that far in their relationship of course. Roxy’s more cool and stoic programming makes it a little difficult too since this is kids stuff and not for someone cool like her so that takes some working through as well, but she can’t deny Sunny can be a blast. It also makes her laugh when Moon comes out specifically to cause a problem and then fucks off again, only to return after she’s fallen asleep in the middle of the daycare, pretending he’s not moved away from her because he’s just taken over and hasn’t had a chance to sneak away yet.

Also, oh my god I just realised it would be really sweet if the bells became a stim for Roxy too so Sunny ties one of his belled ribbons to her spiky collar or around her wrist so she can jingle with him. It has been tied around her tail at least once and it makes it even more obvious when Roxy is happy, the jingles making them both happier until her tail wags too hard and the bell falls off and now they’re both sad :(

Lmao anyway, yeah. It’s a slowburn friendship for a multitude of reasons. The unintentionally threatening teeth, both of them giving the other space, getting over the ‘this is childish and weird’ thing, figuring out where the boundaries are, the initial communication barrier, the sheer amount of rules Roxy keeps unknowingly breaking in the daycare until Sunny grows a back bone to stop her… the list goes on! Most of it is on Roxy’s side of things, girl’s just full of problems but they get there!

Probably the last person to get a special Roxy howl for them but that just makes it extra meaningful, right?

[inquisitorius-sin-bin]

19, 28, 29, 50!

Thanks for asking! I'm excited to dive in!

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

Ohh man. I could really say any of the parental figure OC's, because my parents were miserable to me growing up and I try to write characters who are more like the parents I would have liked to have growing up. But if I'm picking one of the bunch to talk about, it's Talia.

So my relationship with my mother was even worse than my relationship with my father. Not that it's much of an achievement, because they were both terrible. My mother in particular was incredibly critical of my appearance, my choices, my performance, everything. For a young "girl", this really manifested in constant comments about my weight, hair, clothes, the way I acted "boyish" and didn't cross my legs, etc.

Ultimately, I think it comes out in my writing because I definitely have way more fatherly figures in my works than mothers. So Talia is really special to me. We don't get to really interact with her directly much, since she's gone by the events of Ride or Die, but she is still very much present in the story through the positive impacts she had on others.

She's so strong in her convictions, and her sense of justice. She loves her son even when he makes mistakes, or doesn't end up being quite what she expected. She is, in the end, able to let him make decisions for himself, even if it tears him away from her.

Talia waited so long for a son she loved with every fibre of her being. She was afraid of his power, but knew the alternative to handling it was losing him, so she tried so hard to do what was best for him until it became too much for him to control. Only then does she seek out the Jedi, even though she is terrified of being separated, she lets him make the decision to go.

I think it's just kind of beautiful, and sad. I wish I had the power to make decisions for myself as a child, and that my parents would have respected that. That's something Talia embodies to her core.

28. Your most dangerous OC?

Hmmmm. This one made me think. The obvious choice might be one of my Jedi characters (NAJ, JKL, MXW) because they are obviously Force wielders, therefore more powerful. Then we have a couple of characters who we know are capable fighters, but do not have the Force (Renson, Vanyiel, Theo, Talion, Talia, Reegale). I think, honestly, another factor would be "if this weren't a 1-on-1 fight, who has the most destructive capabilities", and that pulls Theo and Renson towards the top, because Theo commands an army and Renson is part of the Emperor's Red Guard.

But under that logic, I would have to pick HRH. Renson is under their command, and I think at the end of the day, if HRH wants someone or something dead, HRH gets it. They have the entire might of the Emperor behind that.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

We know this has to be Dralla. This has her written all over that. She loves secretly getting herself into dangerous situations and not telling anyone else about it.

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

Okay! Let's see.

Not to be a massive tease, but I've found a bunch of OLD artwork of OC's of mine, some of whom never even made it into print, so to speak. Many of them are just Pau City citizens of sorts, which might make them... ideal for adaptation and insertion into other, more recent works.

Like this guy, for example (excuse the terrible quality I'm having to screenshot a screenshot on my phone):

(Idk why I gave every Pau'an golden eyes back then it makes no sense)

But what if Utapau'an Skyforce Montay Rheah finally gets his time?