#oh wow this is. long. haha

[pizzacastella]

anyway bc of the residual Workplace Violence™ im feeling

what if aguefort hired another sorcerer teacher (could be full time, could be a sub) bc its his solution to jace's complaints abt how heavy his workload is. the new hire comes in and jace acts very polite and cordial bc hey its work, its easier to just smile and nod. its all fine until jace realizes its even more work.

starts as something small, mayb jace doesn't like how they teach (saying that as sorcerers they need to be perfect, no point in casting if you dont have it down to a t, etc etc). then some students go to him w concerns abt how they dont feel they're applying themselves properly, asking if they could transfer to his class instead. then he tries to talk to the new hire about those concerns but they just insist there's nothing wrong w the way they teach, even puts down jace's own method of teaching and starts giving him pointers on "how to improve it". jace gets so mad at this ofc bc why tf is this person treating him like he's the new hire? who tf do they think they are? he's been here for four goddamn years, and they're what? two weeks in? FUCK OFF!!!

"thank you so much for your input." jace would say to them instead bc it isn't it socially acceptable to banish people to the red waste for a month.

jace goes home to porter and he immediately starts ranting about the whole thing, talking so much shit about this new hire. porter listens to him quietly bc its better to let jace have it all out. however, it does takes jace the entire night. they're already getting ready for bed and he's still yapping away to the point where jace is so preoccupied w talking that he mindlessly follows whatever porter gestures. he doesn't even realize that he's straddling porter's lap until he felt porter kiss up a particular spot on his neck and suddenly he forgets his words.

"keep talking." porter encourages him but it's so difficult to form sentences when porter's hands start to feel him up under his sleep shirt and he can feel porter's hard on. he starts whining, desperate and needy, hoping porter would just get on with it. jace abandons the ranting entirely and goes to kiss him, feeling porter smile in the kiss. "'ya done?" porter chuckles a little bit when they pull away for air. "y'know, i could always just kill that guy off for 'ya." jace is aware of how that shouldn't turn him on, but it does.

anyway porter fucks it right out of him (sorry idk how to write it) and jace actually mellows out after. yeah he's still mad but after he found out someone slashed their tires and their teacher evaluations came out bad, he feels pretty good :3

[heyitspersephone]

Thinking about stranger things again now that the strikes are over and how, narratively, it would be way, WAY cooler to have Mike get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5

It’s just something about the way Mike’s trauma is never addressed or handled in any way?? Like, he hugs his mom twice and then when he was depressed in season 2 and 4 nobody did anything (his parents scolded him for his behavior in s2 ig but that’s not support). His best friend went missing leaving from his house, he watched his body get pulled from the quarry, watched El (in his eyes) kill herself stopping the demogorgon, watched Will be possessed, saw Bob die, was in Star Court when everything went down, saw Billy die, had his best friend move away, was SHOT AT (and really too few people talk about the shooting in Cali bc omg??), buried a body, and watched the apocalypse start. And that’s just off the top of my head.

(And yes I’m aware that the other characters (especially Will) are traumatized too but I will get to my point in a second just hold on)

The plot is geared towards this idea that Will and Henry have to have some big face off (and they should, in my opinion, but I don’t think it should be in a possession, or at least not the the Vecna kind of possession, yk?) but that makes it all the better, writing wise, to have mike be the one in danger. Will was helpless and hiding in s1, I think Will should get his big strong moments in s5 where he gets to be the hero of the story.

It would just be a lot more fun to work with Mike being Vecna’d than Will, because what are we going to bring up with Will’s visions? His dad? His sexuality? The events of s1 from his perspective? It would be cool to see, for sure, but we already know most of that. Mike, on the other hand, has a number of untapped things, like jumping off the quarry, why he’s so hesitant to tell El he loves her, how someone who was smart and kind enough to take El in in s1 and come up with the spy and sauna plans in s2 and s3 could turn into the oblivious asshole that he was in s3 and s4 (he needs therapy, ik, I still love his character but I want to explore the reasons he went from his s2 characterization to his s3 one)

It would be a very interesting parallel, I think, to explore Mike’s thought processes in this way, especially with all of Mike’s repression business (bc whether you ship byler or milkvan he is repressing his feelings HARD. Like, beyond his inability to say I love you there’s the fact that he doesn’t bring up the apparent many times he called pre-s4 during the Rink O Mania fight?? That literally would’ve absolved him of guilt in that argument since he WAS reaching out to Will the whole time? Hellooooo????).

Anyways, this all brings me to my main point: Vecna targets isolation as much as he targets trauma and guilt. The whole party was traumatized by the events in s1, s2, and s3, but Max was the one targeted. Plus, Henry went for Fred, Chrissy, and Patrick (I think his name was Patrick) instead of going for the perceivably easy targets that the mcs would make (ik narratively that would’ve made it more boring but shhh), so why Max and those three specifically? They were isolated. Lucas and Erica have each other, Dustin goes to Steve and Robin, Will and El have each other and Jonathan and Joyce, Nancy probably goes to Jonathan, and who does Mike go to?

No one. And don’t say Nancy because if those two have heart to hearts then I’m the next coming of Christ. Max separated herself from the Party in the aftermath of her grief and guilt over Billy, and it feels quite obvious that Mike was doing the same (like I said, he has repression issues). So Mike is traumatized, alone, and guilty (be it Will getting taken from Mike’s house, losing El in front of him multiple times, the many deaths he has witnessed, or the internalized homophobia angle), which makes him more of a target than Will, in my opinion (or at least an easier one, especially given his tendency to put himself on the line during fights (quarry, most of s2, s3 mindflayer fight), which would set him up on the suicidal ideation path)

Furthermore, as I’ve seen a few other people point out (and I can’t find the posts but one of them had eight screenshots of the various moments), Mike is always the one getting in the way, so it would be a strategic move for Henry to target him to get him out of the picture. Mike was the one that found El and got her involved in saving Will s1, he was the one who came up with the spy plan and called out the ambush in s2, he was the one to monologue Will out of his possession s2, he was the one with the sauna plan for Billy in s3, he was the one trying to help El get the strength to fight s4 (even if the monologue sucked ass it’s the intention that counts). As much as people like to hate on Mike, he is in the leader position most of the time when the party is grouped up (barring his mental health struggles slowing that down beginning of s3 and throughout s4, but he’s still capable of it). He’s the idea man, and he’s the one whose character’s foundations were built on the desire to keep his friends safe, so it would be a very fun plot line to watch him be the one targeted in s5. Like Will said, as lovestruck and cheesy as he was, Mike is the heart of the party when he’s on his A-game, so Henry should 100% be trying to keep him in the issues he’s been struggling with.

Obviously, Will and El are the Targets with a capital T for Henry since they’re the ones that got away or whatever, but I think Mike is a weakness of Will’s (and El’s tbh but also I think they need to have separate character arcs and I don’t exactly ship milkvan) that should be exploited.

TL;DR: Mike should get Vecna’d instead of Will in s5 because it would make sense in lore and be a very cool way to resolve his character arc

[anghraine]

Aww, Ash admitted to me when we were discussing Star Wars opinions that she's not only thought about these things before, she's actually really feeling like using her advanced creative writing degree to write ...................... fanfiction, and has actually done so in the past.

me, shoving my 67 SW fanfics on AO3 under the bed: Oh hey, awesome! That sounds really interesting.

[bleaksqueak]

see, ppl can say what they want about the resi 3 remake, but the remake got Mikhail perfect. Also i actually really love weird Puppy Nemesis lmao

[lilidawnonthemoon]

[stars-and-wildfires]

bone thin dog. it is never satisfied

[ID: a collarless dog sniffing the ground. dirty fur. caked in muck. garbage.

the dog sniffs the ground searching for scraps, crumbs. anything left. anything at all.

bone thin— its rib cage visible through its skin.

the bone thin dog, dirty fur dog, nothing but waste eating dog, it looks at you. deep black eyes, it bores into your own. it burns.

the bone thin dog, it walks across the streets: head hung low. no sounds. no barking. silence.

it growls at you alone. is it invisible? are you invisible?

It looks diseased. blood clinging to the fur, almost desperately. you can’t tell if the blood belongs to the dog or the streets.

bone thin dog finds Dead body. rotting. flies.

two rows of razors in place of teeth, the dog’s tongue bleeds as it eats.

blood coating the flesh. it eats. and eats. and eats. and eats.

devours.

flies buzz around the vacant space which the Dead body left in its disappearance.

no flesh left. nothing left: maybe this is not a dog at all. it looks like one. does it?

bone thin dog: it approaches you.

blood coating its maw.

two sets of razor teeth. you can see them better now.

bone thin dog opens its mouth for you. it does not bite. it waits. almost like a bear trap. bone thin dog does not move closer: it waits.

it waits for you. blood on the inside of its mouth. you can see it.

the bone thin dog devoured a body in minutes. you stand at its gaping muzzle. deep black eyes, they look at you. you look back.

the bone thin dog eats you, hungry. starving. /END ID]

[how-did-i-get-to-here]

okay y'all, i've never actually done something like this but i decided on a whim the other day to start a sewing project, and i'm gonna do my best to document it here just for my own enjoyment lol!

the goal is basically to take this jacket (pictured below) that I bought on amazon for a kotlc halloween costume a few years ago and spruce it up a bit

the current plans are to:

reinforce the bottom edge of the skirt part so it has a little more structure

replace the buttons with ones that a) look nicer and b) are more durable (right now they're plastic and also have this crown/crest design that almost feels like it belongs on a flag or something??? idk I just don't like them very much and wanna have different ones)

maybe do some embroidery on the bottom edge of the skirt (and potentially other areas as well)??? i haven't fully decided yet but leaning towards yes if I can manage to teach myself embroidery before my interest in this project disappears lol

(i might also do something with the zipper pull, i can't really decide if i fully like it as is but that's a thing for future me to worry about haha)

but yeah i think the vision is mostly just fun jacket with vaguely steampunk-space-pirate vibes (à la the mechs lol) so we'll see what happens!

[way2gosuperrstarr]

I'm glad my ask made ur day! I’ve literally talked to friends and even coworkers about the AU lmao. It’s such a good idea and a so many hilarious (and angsty) scenarios could happen. I keep wondering most about Moon and how he handles his new role. I imagine its quite difficult for the DCA after having spent most of their functioning lives as stage performers. The first time Moon successfully and confidently completes a naptime must be so comforting for him.

hello again!! gosh thank you once more, again its just so crazy to think this thing like . Exists outside of just my little Bubble of Thought and Space, wow 😭

regretfully i havent drawn or shared much of moon in this au yet (i will remedy this in the future! sun just seems to come by default </3) but he is handling it .... about as well as sun is (very clumsily!). funny enough, considering he's literally from the theatre, moon has a sort of "stage fright" in his new environment. he's very awkward, kind of offputting, and stumbles over a good chunk of the more "interactive" parts of his new job, like talking to the children or to mc/yn. he's not really used to talking to others except for sun, and he doesnt exactly have the same instant charm and charisma factor that sun has and flaunts. he wasnt like this in the theatre; this is new to him. feeling awkward and shy is a sort of new feeling to him; at least feeling this much of it is.

he still has a lot of his "theatre villain" antics (both of them still have a lot of their 'theatre days' in them). sun and moon's childcare protocol was sloppily slapped over their preexisting programming, so it's still there. just sorta .... mixed into the untested childcare programs. he feels a little worry about scaring the children with his posture and mannerisms.

yes, i do imagine his first successful naptime on his own would be quite uplifting :} yn is only supposed to be an assist in the daycare; the one legally required human to be around the children, and there to make sure sun and moon's programming is running smoothly and fill in spots anywhere they're lacking. they aren't supposed to be running anything. that's the dca's job. and moon is..... sort of hiding from that responsibility at first, i suppose? and he does feel a little terrible about it. even when he's down and helping, yn's still doing a lot of the heavy lifting during naps at first. his first truly successful and on-his-own run would surely feel quite rewarding and nice. :}

moon hides away for the first naptime or two. in fact, yn doesnt even know he exists at first— sun never really gets the chance to tell them. their first meeting is quite the shock, to say the least. or, a shock for yn, a little bit mortifying for moon.

[sqlmn]

Local man who survives by identifying smells dragged into a candle store and promptly suffers. (I got so lazy in the end on the last part sorry it's very not accurate heights and stuff)

[saph-y]

What’s the name of your Tarnished? Do you have any headcanons about him?

I have a few ! Nothing very precise, as I'm still playing and try to avoid spoilers, the lore of ER is pretty obscur. So instead my headcanons about my tarnished are just whatever happens in my game or how I play. Here's some !

His name is Thomas-Feguson, that... is an elaborate private joke between me and @/selkys about one of our OC (Fergus, who would be his brother in another universe xD) and wanting my chara to be named "Tom" in honor of Tom Cardy, but sounding more... idk. Medieval appropriate I guess xD

At the begining Melina says that Torrent chose the tarnished and I like to think this is the only reason he was raised : the horse has a good vibe about him

Same for Ranni's spectral wolves. I guess pets like him ? x)

Doesn't know what "becoming the Elden Lord" implies and at this point he's to afraid to ask.

Right eye is blind. He used to be a good archer but not so much anymore.

At first he fights like a coward, it forces him to become ingenious

Right until he finds a strange dagger drenched in blood... He's still cautious but sometimes now he gets a little blood-drunk from its use. This is probably fine for his sanity.

He starts to care about all this shit to help the few friends he makes. He's actually super loyal and would die for them. Unfortunately they often die first. He kind of carries on a bit for them, and a bit because... well he doesn't know himself I think. To see where this goes maybe.

Moustache.

(this is my guy btw. He's very on brand of my OCs both for his design and his story, I didn't try to be original xD)

[ban-joey]

oh they sure do show keelhauling in black sails

[actualbird]

a little no-spoilers rec list of other medias ive been enjoying very much recently

Countdown to Countdown by Velinxi - webcomic, updates every thursday. magical/sci-fi dystopia with rich worldbuilding to die for, a fantastically gripping plot, incredible character dynamics, and the most gorgeous art style in every page. when i first found this, i had bingeread everything thus far in one night up til 2am on a work day because 1) the story is Amazing i literally could not put it down until i had no more pages to read and 2) it took me longer than usual to read through because every single page looks breathtaking, i had to stop and fully savor each one.

Uncanny Charm by COM - manhwa, im not linking anything because i dont wanna get sniped for where i read it from, research and find a link urself HAHA but my god, go read this. supernatural drama with horror, character pair chemistry off the CHARTS, and also you will cry. i have cried at so many portions of this manhwa. i have also laughed my ass off at many parts, but whenever i reread old chapters (which ive done several times) i always still end up crying at the bits. whenever this updates i rejoice and then feel immense fear for the state of my feels. so VERY well done.

BobbyBroccoli's video documentaries on scientific fraud - swerve, ive also been watching a lot of video essays these days and my gripe with a lot of the video essay genre is "why does it have to be a video?" as in, what does the visual and audio form of this piece in particular add to the work that wouldnt have been possible as a written essay? and BobbyBroccoli's vids not only justified the form but knocked it outta the ballpark. very well written and visualized so amazingly that it's an artform to me, there's Visual Metaphor going on in there. my personal fave of his right now is his most recent 2-part series The man who faked human cloning and its sequel How to catch a criminal cloner

[duckiemimi]

heartbreak is when your therapist asks you to come back with homemade food the next session so she can taste your cooking but then discharging you twenty minutes later </3

[running-in-the-dark]

a super fun thing that my brain is really good at is hearing a random fact and remembering it forever. but only if it's bad :)

[foxgloveinspace]

oh my god you gave permission to send vids and i lasted all of 30 minutes before needing to send something 😂

BUT!!!

iv crying 🥺🥺🥺 the love for iii these last few shows has melted my heart and clearly the bands too

https://x.com/vesseltoken/status/1734391886901616999?s=46

i cannot suffer alone with this one i’m so sorry

Well, as I watch this and suffer. here, sleep token official instagrams account second to last pic…. Our boy AdamRosssi knows what we want, haha.

🥺🥺🥺

Oh no……

[feline-evil]

🐈