#pretty boy meets big alien/monster

[kabukiaku]

wow i can't believe zeb and kallus are officially husbands!!! (mr filoni told me so!!)

yes i have a ship type.

[brawlite]

some horror fic recs for october 👻

i wanted to put together a rec list of my favorite horror fics for the spookiest month. there are a bunch of different flavors of horror in here as well as a number of different fandoms, so hopefully you can find something that tickles your fancy (though ngl i would still rec reading these bad boys even if you don't know the fandoms at all).

i tried to tag tumblrs when/where i could find them, but if i couldn't, the author name links to ao3.

a reminder as always: this is horror—please read all the tags.

thanks for reading and i hope you find something to enjoy!

also, pretty please feel free to reblog and add your favorite horror fic recs.

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

the ghost apple tree by @thefearofcod

10k words, rated m song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Fixing up a decaying house in the woods is the same as addressing your problems. (sxx is haunted)

brawls' notes: i think about this fic a lot; i'm haunted by it. this is by far one of my favorite horror stories i've ever read—the vibes are off-the-charts and horrific in a very visceral, tense way. made me feel weird (positive). i hope it makes you feel weird too (this is a threat).

—

convergence by @astrophyllitely

33k words, rated e lan zhan/lan xichen, lan zhan/jiang cheng (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Lan Wangji regains consciousness in a crashed spaceship on an unfamiliar planet. He is not alone; Lan Xichen is there. He is not alone; Jiang Wanyin is there. But never both at once.

brawls' notes: space horror? check. psychological horror? check. uneasy and tense alien vibes? also check. beautiful push and pull of the narrative, paired with an an intense feeling of claustrophobia. there's a particular moment that had my heart right in my throat. stunning.

—

mockingbird by MarInk

82k words, rated e stiles stillinski/peter hale (teen wolf) summary:

Stiles works tirelessly to keep the roof over his heads and longs for a proper challenge for his brains. Peter chafes under his sister's authority and nurses big, bloody dreams. One day, the two are connected by a mistaken text message. One never knows who is on the other end of a wrong number. Sometimes it's somebody one will come to cherish and adore. Sometimes it's a ruthless, unapologetic monster. Sometimes it's both.

brawls' notes: sometimes you read something and are just blown away by it, forever altered. that's what this was for me. want a type of monster-au you've never seen before? this is it. also: ostensibly a wrong-number au, but don't be fooled. (i was.)

—

never meant by nonhicsumus

3k words, rated m alex krycek & dana scully (the x-files) summary:

Sometimes the past isn't worth digging into.

brawls' notes: whump and psychological horror? plus alex krycek?? my favorite. every word of this is perfection—i instantly wanted to read it again for the first time. you can.

—

fais do-do by @moku-youbi

18k words, rated e will graham/hannibal lecter (hannibal)

summary:

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (this fic does not have a summary, but begins with this quote)

brawls' notes: a different-meeting au packed with everything you need for the perfect horror story: violence, blood, a chase scene, and an unreliable narrator. delightful.

—

blackbird, fly by @acroamatica

19k words, rated m kylo ren/armitage hux (star wars: tfa)

summary:

One sunny afternoon in the mountains of Washington state, Ben Organa-Solo walked out into the woods. He never came home. Six years later, a journalist specialising in missing-persons cold cases decides to follow his footsteps and see where they might lead.

brawls' notes: a masterpiece of vibes. this reads so much like a spooky mystery novel, but with a creeping, anxious dread. perfect for the season if you want that true autumnal sort of chill. i've carried this fic in my heart for nearly a decade now—it has inspired me in my own writing so much over the years.

—

grey stars on the rise by @iodhadh

4k words, rated e song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

Xiao Xingchen comes back. Xiao Xingchen comes back wrong. It takes too long, maybe, for Xue Yang to realize something is wrong with Song Lan too.

brawls' notes: the exact embodiment of: be careful what you wish for. brutal and crushing and so deeply, utterly satisfying. absolute yi-city perfection: the vibes are wretched but strangely romantic (chefs kiss).

—

half your life you've been hooked on death by @whatever-you-can-give-me

4k words, rated m vash the stampede/nicholas d. wolfwood (trigun) summary:

Wolfwood is cornered in an alleyway. Things get worse before they get better.

brawls' notes: and what's a horror rec list without a little bit of gore? whump and blood and near-death-experiences—oh my. this is brutal and feverish and exactly the right flavor.

—

black rock mountain by @bokuno-jinsei

24k words, rated e will graham/hannibal lecter (hannibal) summary:

Will is a hitchhiker with questionable hobbies. Hannibal is a man who has questionable motives. When Hannibal drives by Will who just so happens to need a ride, things quickly take a turn from the questionable to the downright depraved.

brawls' notes: you know That Fic that is really the epitome of that pairing for you? yeah, this is it for me. perfect alternate first-meeting fic. lives rent-free in my head.

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

and hey, why not be a little self-indulgent: i can't help but rec a few of my own horror fics here, too:

old growth

21k, rated m song lan/xue yang/xiao xingchen (the untamed/mdzs) summary:

There’s something in the woods outside of their hometown. Xue Yang and Song Lan are going to find it.

brawls' notes: i tried something new with the formatting on this one and i think it panned out solidly and was a desperately fun way to tell the story. this is full of spooky, sleepless forest vibes.

—

what's real or isn't

57k, rated e kylo ren/armitage hux (star wars: tfa) summary:

Hux's new house is not haunted. It isn't.

brawls' notes: i honestly love playing favorites and this is one of mine. this was a load of fun to write—it's chock-full of vibes, personal experiences, local history, and love notes to my favorite horror stories.

—

acquiesce

16k, rated e original luo binghe/original shen qingqiu (svsss) summary:

After seeing the gentle and loving Shen Qingqiu of the other world, Luo Binghe returns to his own with a hunger that can only be satisfied by one thing—a Shizun of his very own.

brawls' notes: this isn't spooky or haunted, but it is psychological horror—packed with nightmares, flashbacks, dread, and manipulation. enjoy!

👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪👻👁️🎃🔪

and that's it! hope you find something fun to read for this october 🖤

and again—please reblog and add your own horror recs if you are feeling so inclined!

[yumedoca]

Non-Urusei Yatsura fans, which of these IS NOT an actual character? (Answers)

The poll is over and thanks to all who voted since it's pretty fun to see how UY characters may seem from an outsider's POV! And since many were curious, here are the answers for the poll. The characters are listed in no particular order, except for the last who will be the fake one so if you just want the actual answer, just scroll down to the end; and since the poll was aimed at non-UY fans, I'll provide context for the real characters' descriptions so there will be character spoilers ahead!!

A cow monster, who is also the most handsome character in the series.

This is Rei, the female lead (Lum)'s ex-fiancee. The description I gave may sound kinda weird but it probably wouldn't sound as weird if I had stated that he has two forms: one being a mostly humanoid form and the other which is the cow monster one. He swaps between forms at random, mostly depending on his mood and comedic timing.

A princess who wants to lose her virginity.

This is Princess Kurama. She's the princess of the alien race, the Karasutengu (Crow Goblins). Since her royal line was fading away because there were no more humanoid men on her planet, Kurama decided to find a suitable man to mate with, but has no luck when it comes to that since her standards are way too high for the any of the males in the series.

A fire breathing bumblebee.

This is Ten. Like his cousin Lum, he is an oni alien and his abilities are to fly and breathe fire. Ten ended up getting a good number of votes in the poll and I'm guessing it's because people thought I meant a literal bumblebee. I gave that description to poke fun at his character design and I'm pretty sure most UY fans were able to recognize him from the description, and his resemblance to bees has been stated in canon too. But if you did vote Ten because you thought he was an actual bee, I am so sorry, please don't kill me, I should have added the word 'alien' or 'kid' to the description.

A school nurse who regularly beats up her male students.

This is Sakura. She is a shrine maiden and a school nurse at the main high school in the series. I don't think I need to give much of an explanation for her description; she's hot and all the male students are horny so it shouldn't be a surprise that she beats them all up.

A woman hater whose diet consists of baseballs.

This is Tobimaro Mizunokoji. He hates women, which is most likely a result of spending time with his rival's sister who treated him horribly when they were children (and she still does, by the way; we'll talk about her next). Oh, and as the description says, he can eats baseballs whole.. and is able to spit them out entirely too.

A teenage girl who kills boredom by plotting and attempting murder.

This is Ryoko Mendo. She is a rich, well mannered young lady and her favorite hobby is torturing her big brother and his rival (aka baseball boy from above) in many different ways for fun. I wanted to add a bit more to explain exactly how sadistic she is but the wiki does it better, so have that instead:

She will throw grenades and bombs at people while acting calm and composed, and yet will cry over them when they return to her charred to a crisp. She often acts in total secrecy without telling anyone of her plans, such as setting bombs in a giant Christmas Cake, turning a giant Christmas Tree into a firework, and retaliating to people by setting off bombs near them. She also shows an interest in black magic, having used hypnosis and voodoo dolls to torment her brother.

So yeah, she's fucking insane and I love her for it. Have my favorite Ryoko image ever as a bonus:

A sheltered girl who ends up falling in love with her brother.

This is Asuka Mizunokoji, younger sister of baseball boy from above. I feel like her she needs the most context since I think this might be the most questionable description of them all.

As per tradition, the women in the Mizunokoji family are not allowed to meet a single male until they are 15, this includes their father and brother; which is the case for Asuka. Because she has never seen a man, she doesn't know what they are (or anything that falls under 'men', like father, brother, etc.) and was raised in isolation by her mother and her family's all female guards. But her first, unfortunate encounter with a man, which happened before the arranged day ends up terrifying her and as a result, she gets a phobia of men, no matter who they are... unless they are a 'big brother'. You see, when her female guards' explained to her what men are, they unintentionally had them sound.. scary; but they also tell her about 'big brothers' (since she'll have to meet hers) who are a special type of man who look like her and are very nice. Eventually, she finally meets her big brother, Tobimaro (who didn't even know she existed till then by the way), but since the description on what a 'big brother' given to her was incredibly vague and because she has no knowledge of how siblings work, she ends up falling for him unaware of how big of a taboo it is. Naturally, it is a one-sided crush since Tobimaro knows better but that won't change the fact that it causes a lot of trouble for him.

Ok, I'll stop here because that took forever to write. Also, I took some help to write the above part from Asuka's page on furinkan.com, I needed a reference for the entire paragraph because Asuka and her shtick needs one hell of an explanation.

A TV addict with zero social skills.

This is Shingo. He is a boy who went missing during an experiment when he was small and because of that, he grew up by himself (asides from some animals) in a jungle. His only source of entertainment there was a TV, which only has historical dramas. As a result, he became very attached to TVs (he used to think the TV was his grandfather, and no I will not explain), even after he was found and brought back to society. He is also terrible at socializing since he grew up on Japanese historical dramas which are incredibly outdated. He is already weak when it comes to interacting with men, but he is the worst when it comes to interacting with woman since he has no respect towards them (again, because historical dramas). I find it funny he got a lot of votes and according to tags, it's because his description sounded more normal than the others, which makes it even funnier because he's like the only character who actually watches TV (asides from watching TV during lunchtime and stuff).

A cowardly kid who aims for a life of crime.

And here it is, the fake one! With how many characters there are, it was hard to come up with someone (for some reason, I can't be creative when I really want to be) but after I posted the poll I realized that there is a minor character who fits half of the description: He is a kid who aims for a life of crime, but he is pretty strong willed and isn't exactly what you would call cowardly or timid (His name is Kintaro, in case you are wondering- he is only in the manga and 80's adaptation).

And that is all! Thanks for joining me here and I hope you have a great day ahead!!

[bestanimatedmovie]

List of accepted movies!

Let me know if you find any mistakes

101 Dalmatians

5 centimetres per second

9 (2009)

A Goofy Movie

A Monster in Paris

A Silent Voice

Adolescence of Utena

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Anastasia

Anomalisa

Asterix the Mansion of the Gods

Astro Boy (2009)

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest

Bambi

Barbie & the Diamond Castle

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses

Barbie Princess Charm School

Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island

Batman and Mr. Freeze: Sub-Zero

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Batman Ninja

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Beauty and the Beast

Bee movie

Belle

Big Hero 6

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

Brave

Brother Bear

Captain Underpants

Chicken Run

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Coco

Coraline

Despicable me

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!

Emesis Blue

Encanto

Ernest & Celestine

Fantastic Mr Fox

Fantastic Planet

Felidae

Ferdinand

Finding nemo

Gnomeo and Juliet

Grave of the Fireflies

Green Snake (or White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

Hercules

Home on the Range

Hoodwinked!

How To Train Your Dragon

Howl's moving castle

Ice Age

In this corner of the world

Inside Out

Interstella 5555

Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus

Isle of Dogs

James and the Giant Peach

Jin roh: The wolf brigade

Kiki's Delivery Service

Kirikou and the Sorceress

Klaus

Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Kubo and the Two Strings

Kung Fu Panda

Kung Fu Panda 2

Lilo & Stitch

Liz and the Blue Bird

Loving Vincent

Lu Over The Wall

Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro

Madagascar

Mary and Max

Meet the Robinsons

Megamind

Metropolis (2001)

Millennium Actress

Monsters inc

Monsters vs Aliens

Mulan

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks

My neighbor Totoro

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl

Night on the Galactic Railroad

One Stormy Night

Paprika

ParaNorman

Perfect Blue

Persepolis

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension

Planet Hulk

Pocahontas

Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias

Ponyo

Porco Rosso

Princess Mononoke

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Promare

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish

Quest for Camelot

Rango

Ratatouille

Ringing Bell

Rise of the Guardians

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie

Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Shrek

Shrek 2

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

Song of the Sea

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Spirited Away

Spookly the square pumpkin

Star Twinkle Pretty Cure the Movie: These Feeling within The Song of Stars

Summer Wars

Suzume

Tales of the Night

Tangled

Tehran Taboo

Tekkonkinkreet

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

The Aristocats

The Book of Life

The Boy and the Beast

The Brave Little Toaster

The Congress

The Emperor's New Groove

The Garden of Words

The Great Mouse Detective

The Incredibles

The Iron Giant

The Jungle Book

The Last Unicorn

The Legend of Hei

The LEGO Batman Movie

The LEGO Movie

The Lego Ninjago Movie

The Lion King

The Lion King 2

The Little Prince

The lorax

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Pagemaster (1994)

The Penguins of Madagascar

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Prince of Egypt

The Princess and the Frog

The Princess and the Goblin

The Sea Beast

The Secret of Kells

The Secret World of Arrietty

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Sword in the Stone

The Tale of John and Mary

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

The Thief and the Cobbler

The Wind Rises

Tokyo Godfathers

Toy story

Toy Story 2

Treasure Planet

Troll In Central Park

Trolls World Tour

Turning Red

Unicorn Wars

Up

WALL-E

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit

Waltz with Bashir

Watership Down

We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story

Weathering With You

Whisper of the Heart

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Wolf Children

Wolfwalkers

Wreck-it-Ralph

Your Name

Zombillenium

[angelmichelangelo]

without a parachute

verse: tmnt 2012 rated: g word count: 4k pairing: woodyangelo series: part two of the pizza bros

ao3 link!

x

There’s the unmistakable sound of chain going swinging through the air, pulling taut before it reaches its intended target, his chucks come into heavy contact with the Purple Dragon’s face, knocking him off his feet with a splutter that comes out pink against his chin from the blood and spittle spat there as soon as he’d hit the floor. Mikey runs circles around these guys because he’s fought aliens and monsters and big bad guys with real, fierce intent to kill and all Woody can do as he remains hidden out of sight behind the smell old dumpster is watch in awe as his friend takes out the goons one by one without so much as breaking a sweat. Eventually, the small handful of gang members are spilled across the darkened alleyway, either groaning through their newfound headaches or straight up K’O’d, once Mikey is sure his work here is finished, he’s looking for Woody with a big, breathless grin. “Dude!” Woody exclaims as he unsticks himself from the back wall, toeing off a receipt that’d stuck itself to the bottom of his sneaker. “That was awesome! ” The turtle shrugs, effortlessly tucking away his weaponry into his belt, he’s looking back at the Dragons that aren’t getting up just yet. “Piece of cake, really,” he’s telling him, lifting his gaze to meet his again. Something flutters about in Woody’s chest, so he sinks it down with a shallow gulp . “Wish our hangouts didn’t have to be so rudely interrupted, though,” the turtle adds, a crease forming in his mask between his eyes. “You’d think they’d get sick and tired of having their butts kicked, huh?” He’s grinning, all teeth like he often does, and that airy, fluttery feeling comes back in full force like the most pleasant type of vomit on earth when Woody smiles back, all wobbly, he responds, “Yeah. Right.”

Angel corners Woody a week later, partly because she enjoys intimidating anyone she can just about cross paths with and partly because when her roommate had come home those few months ago with a swollen face and a rather sketchy story to explain it all, she’d been hot on Woody’s tail about where it was he snuck off to of an evening. “It’s no big deal,” he’s telling her around a laugh as he fairly dishes out both their share of Chinese takeout. His mouth goes wet as he forks over a heaping of shrimp fried rice across his plate. “I’m a big boy, Ange. I can take care of myself.” The girl comes up around him, sweeping a cracker out of the little styrofoam box, crunching down on it deliberately hard, he just deadpans her with a somewhat unimpressed look. “Uh huh. Not suspicious at all, you going out all hours of the night. You come back all beaten and bruised…” She narrows her sharp eyes towards him as he sets the fork down to face her entirely. “Angel,” he levels with her. “I told you. I got mugged. It’s New York – is that so unbelievable?” She smacks her lips together, still not looking entirely convinced. “And this… friend of yours?” She presses. She could keep pressing, but there wasn’t a force in the world that was going to have him willingly give up Mikey’s secret. Even if Angel was stronger than he was. 

“Just a friend,” he says, offering up a gentle smile and a single pork ball as a resolve to their small interrogation session. She plucks it up off the fork and walks back to the couch, dropping onto it heavily, she calls out, “Yeah, any trouble, you send ‘em my way, Woods.” Woody continues to fix up their dinner and grins wickedly. He’d love to see her try. *** “Dude, no that’s—” Mikey’s laughter rings out around the dojo, resounding in Woody’s face suddenly going very hot. He undoes the stance he’d been posed in, feeling pretty lame as Mikey rushes towards him to grab at his hands and rework it. “Sorry,” the turtle says, biting his lip to badly hide the smile that was currently creeping across his face. “I’m not laughing at you.” Despite the way his ears were currently on fire, Woody finds himself smiling back, only barely able to try and fight it off. “Yeah you are. You’re laughing at me because you started all this stuff since before you could walk and I have all the ninjutsu talent of… of a chicken.” That has Mikey snort laughing – a rarity that apparently only he himself could coax out of him, his face all screwed up, it wasn’t even that funny of a joke but Michelangelo seems to disagree before he’s catching his breath once more to try and teach his friend the very early learner defense stance.

“Here,” Mikey tells him, gently grabbing his wrists and raising his arms high. “You want your shoulders to be equal with your hips, that way you have center gravity.” Woody raises a brow at him. “And your dad taught you this?” He asks, only a touch incredulous. “With those… big ol’ clunky shells of yours?” Mikey blinks then blows him a raspberry. “Shut up,” he’s telling him, entirely non serious. “Do you want me to teach you how to not get your ass beaten or not?” Woody hums; Mike still has his wrists wrapped up in his big, oversized hands and neither of them make an attempt to pull away from the touch. “If you do, does that mean you won’t be saving said ass when we come across danger on our hang outs?” Mikey deadpans him, something playful flashing across his face when he lifts his arms just a tiny inch higher. “Only when I’m not there,” he says. “Duh.” And it feels like it should be a joke. But there’s a slight edge of truth to his words that Woody doesn’t comment on again. He just lets Mikey try and teach him, only for him to fall flat on his face five minutes later, drawing out that crazed snort laugh once more. ***

His keys are still in midair, thrown from where he’d walked in through the door when Angel calls out from the living room, “How was your date?” The keys skitter harshly across the kitchen countertop, coming to a stop as he does. His roommate rounds the corner, her hair wrapped up in a towel, dressed down in her loungewear and a knowing smirk, Woody tries to stop his face from flushing. “I–I didn’t. I didn’t go on a date.” He tells her, gently pushing past her to seek retreat in the fridge. Angel hums, twiddling the drawstring of her pants around a finger, watching him as he pulls a soda can from the back of the shelf. “Hmm, sure.” He closes the fridge with a bump of his hip and draws the tab back. Frothy, fizzy sweetness dances to the top of the can and he brings it quickly to his lip to still it. That, and any other choice words he may have for his friend before him. “Dude, I don’t know what the big deal is,” she laughs airly. “If you want me out the apartment, just say the word! I’d rather you be… hookin’ up someplace safe, at least.” Woody splutters on his drink as it slides down his throat and into his lungs. Foam froths up behind his eyes and nose making him cough weakly. Angel finds it all very amusing. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and sets the now sticky can down on the counter. “I’m not… hooking up,” he says, cringing a little. “I told you. I just hang out with some friends and we just–” “Hook up?” Angel says with a shit eating grin. God, her and Raphael would for sure get along like a house on fire, he thinks almost bitterly. “No,” he tells her plainly, something close to seriousness webbed around his tone that gets her to back off (for now). “It’s just… complicated.” Angel sighs, unraveling the drawstring from around her finger, she’s looking at Woody a little gentler now, something that in itself was rare and uncommon but very much welcomed. “Okay,” she tells him. “But you have to promise me–” she adds, voice climbing steadily before Woody can butt in, stepping forward he lands a hand on her shoulder to still her. “--he didn’t give me that black eye or the split lip.” Angel chews the inside of her cheek before she lets go to smile at him. “So it’s a he?” Woody groans, swiping up his soda and heading for the refuge of his bedroom, leaving behind her laughter. *** Woody is only caught in the downpour of the century for a minute after rushing out of work to his nearest sewer tunnel, shaking off the droplets of rain that clung to his hair as he descends the ladder into the underbelly of the city. When he reaches the lair, pushing through the turnstiles, the pizza boxes that he’d crammed into his delivery bag were still warm, sniffed out by three wanting turtles who greet him with grabby hands for the zipper. “Mikey’s not here,” Raph explains to him quickly as he fishes out one of the boxes. Woody frowns and only Donatello looks up to offer him explanation. “He’s out with Leatherhead,” he tells him. “But you're welcome to stay for dinner.” Woody hums, handing off the last box to them, he fiddles somewhat nervously around his bag strap. Whatever vibe he was giving off, Leo is fast to pick up on it. “He won’t be long,” the turtle tells him. “Eat with us. Save you going back up there in that storm.” Woody goes, sitting with the brothers, he picks at his singular slice listening to the sound of the pipes up ahead creak and groan. 

He makes light of conversation between them, asking about patrols and training and somehow divulges into a lengthy discussion with Donnie about the structure of the tunnel system against such fierce storms when there’s the unmistakable click of the turnstiles that has Woody rising to his feet. All three pairs of eyes are on him and so he awkwardly lowers himself back down again, waiting for Mikey to emerge. “Aw dudes, tell me you left some for me!” He skips into the room, swamped in an oversized raincoat with the hood still pulled over his head so only his snout can be seen as it sniffs out his dinner. Woody slides him his box, sharpie scrawled across it with the words: jellybean..?

“Course, amigo.” He tells him with a grin, expecting Mike to pull up a chair and drop into it and inhale his pizza. But he doesn’t, instead swiping the box up off the table with one hand, the other comes to pull Woody to his feet. “Cool. Wanna watch that crappy chick flick we started on the other day on the Hallmark channel?” Woody chortles a laugh, allowing himself to be lead without so much of an actual state on the matter, they’re only ever stopped when Leo is standing up from his seat, wiping greasy fingertips over his belt, looking at them ever so seriously, “Door open, kay Mike?” Woody has never felt hotter in the face before, like he could just melt and he’s expecting maybe Mikey to un-liquify him with a snappy, sharp remark but he just laughs and rolls his eyes like he’s the one starring in a bad C-Lister rom-com and says, “Sure Leo.” Before pulling his friend along to his room. He’s flopping onto the bed, throwing Woody a glance over his shoulder looking so amused and unbothered by it all, “Weirdos,” he throws Woody the remote to search for their movie; he only just about catches it, fumbling it slightly before clutching it tightly. “If they wanted to come watch with us, they only had to ask.”

And as Woody drops into his beanbag chair, so does his heart, all the way to his gut, because…

Because oh. This was not good.

***

He unpicks the bathroom lock and barges in, knowing it’s safe to do so because Angel only ever locks it when she’s hanging halfway out the window to have a smoke — which is exactly what she was doing now.

He flips the toilet seat closed and sits on it so heavily it draws her back in, stubbing out the last of her cigarette against the now ashy frame. 

“Oh, what happened?” She asks, drawing back all her hair in her palm to sweep it off her face as she perched herself against the lip of the bathtub.

“I think,” Woody says with a gulp, his heart swimming up in his throat. “I think… I like my friend.”

There’s a beat of silence that allows Woody to believe that maybe his friend won’t be so hard on him and actually impede some wisdom, but that doesn’t happen.

What does happen is she tips her head back, whole body following after that she nearly falls into the tub and laughs loudly.

“Yeah,” she says once she’s stopped. “No shit.”

Woody whines, dropping his head into his hands to fist at his curls tightly, just to stop his head from spinning clean off.

First Angel believed there to be something, then Leo… it was onto a matter of time before that weighty realization caught up and slammed into him with full force.

Which is exactly what this was right now.

“Okay,” Angel is leveling with him, patting him generously on his knee to get him to stop folding himself in half. “First things first, is he gay?”

Woody’s gut swims about in a whole river of uncertainty. He'd never really picked up on any… hints, per se but Mike wasn’t like most guys Woody got close to.

Being a mutant turtle kind of blocked out that particular radar for obvious reasons.

“I don’t know,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t know, Angel. This friendship, it’s… it’s super important to me and him.”

His throat goes right as he’s reminded of the follow up conversations to that whole shebang with the Foot Soldiers, about how much it meant to Mikey to having a friend outside his usual circle of insanity that followed his normal day to day life.

Angel presses his lips together, weighing up what kind of helpful response she could share.

“Woods,” is what she does say eventually. Their bathroom smells like smoke, there’s no way they’re getting their deposit back on this place. “Sometimes you gotta just go for it, man.”

He lifts his gaze to meet hers. Something soft glimmering in her eyes.

Trust Mikey to somehow bring out the kinder side in Angel without even meeting her first. 

“But what if I ruin it?” Woody says, dragging a hand down his face tiredly. He’s sure he’d rather go another round with Mike’s chucks that endure this any longer. “Then what?”

Angel pats his knee again and smiles again.

“Yeah,” she says, head tipping to the side. “But what if you don’t?”

Woody remains silent, afraid that if he opens his mouth more of this word vomit might come up with the rest of his courage.

“Never gonna know if the chutes workin’ unless you jump, dude.”

And damn, if she didn’t have a point.

***

Woody doesn’t really have a plan in his head when he very inconspicuously comes out to Mikey.

He figures that Mike was the type of guy that was pretty made up of pure unconditional love; he’d seen it with all of his other friends and his family. If there was one thing Woody could count on with his mutant friend, it was that he was the love first, ask questions third type because the second thing he was doing was wrapping you up in a very tight hug. 

They’re hanging out on one of their favorite rooftops because the storm from a few days ago had finally settled and washed away the humidity in the air and it was nice not to be stuffed away underground all the time. Woody slides a particularly greasy slice about in the box, watching it before he rests the box on his lap and clears his throat.

“Hey, Mike?” He cranes his head upwards, looking out towards the starless sky. “Did I, uh. Did I ever tell you ‘bout the time I came out to my Ma?”

Mikey dances the straw of his milkshake about on his tongue. There’s nothing written across his face to indicate any strongly held emotions.

“No,” he says, genuinely curious, it helps ease some of the worry that’d settled heavily in his chest.

“Well,” he says, picking up a tiny little meatball of one of the slices and rolling it between his fingers, greasing them up. “It was in middle school, and I liked this kid in my class.” He swallows, wishing now he’d caved and got himself a shake too. “He was in the school play so of course, I joined the school play.”

Mikey spits his straw out, eyes going wide.

“Oh cool! I always wanted to be in a school play!” He clutches excitedly at his foam cup. “I mean, I did a few performances as a kid for my dad but it was kinda hard to direct your three brothers that were like, totally not interested at all.”

Woody chuckles softly, trying to picture a smaller Mikey picks up a slice, folding it lengthways and sliding it over his tongue.

“Sorry. ADHD Brain. Carry on.”

Woody presses the meatball into his mouth, chewing on it only once before swallowing it down. 

“I got cast, only a minor role, but it meant I got to spend most lunch periods with him or going over lines or just hanging out between classes,” he tells him, dragging the toe of his sneaker across the gravel, his laces becoming loose.

Somewhere in the distance, a car horn blares loudly followed by a string of curses strewn from either side of the road before the commotion moves on again.

“I was so wrapped up in crushing on this guy I forgot two pretty big important things,” he tells him. “One, I forgot to act on it, and two, I forgot that I had to actually, like, perform in the play.”

Mikey grins. “Was it cool?”

Woody scoffs, with all the good intentions in the world and watches the way Mikey’s smile creeps off his face, shoulders sagging. “Ah. Sorry.” Woody has to resist every little bit of force that is making him want to reach over the very small gap between them and grab his hand and maybe not ever let go. “It’s alright,” he tells him. “But it was not cool because I totally chickened out.” Mikey’s face falls. “Oh,” he says softly. “Oh no.” Woody huffs a laugh, then, just to give his wanting hands something to actually do, he sweeps his hair across over his forehead. “I had like, a bit of a meltdown backstage because here I was, this idiot kid that liked a much cooler kid, about to make an absolute ass out of myself.” Thinking back on the memory, he can still feel the blinding heat of the spotlights against his blushing face – like he was there now, standing under the lamp about to puke up all his guts and feelings in one giant dry heave. “My ma had to come around and get me,” Woody explains. “And she sat with me, trying to calm me down, tellin’ me of all the ways to get over stage fright.” His voice wobbles and that is all it takes for Mikey to be the brave one and reach over and grab his hands. Woody stares at them for a moment; those big, green three fingered hands that just one of which seems to swallow up both of his, and how normal it all feels. How never out of place this turtle has ever made him feel in the months of knowing him. “It’s then,” he says with a long, drawn out sigh, “that I told her that the tears weren’t just because I was scared of getting up on stage.” He looks down. “I told her then, about the kid, about how I felt.” He finds Mikey’s gaze boring into his – baby blues so unwavering. “What happened then?” He’s asking quietly. 

Woody smiles. Blinks back some of the burning behind his eyes. “She, uh, She took me for ice cream.” He remembers how she’d only asked him once do you want to stay and he’d simply shaken his head and they’d packed up in her beaten up minivan and left the play and the boy behind in search of cherry garcia. Woody only pulls his hands away to scrub at his face. “So, uh. Yeah.” He says after a moment. 

Mikey fidgets with his hands for a moment, in a way that Woody had come to learn that was an outlet for him juggling his thoughts and words that tended to swirl up in his brain, too blizzardy to say straight the first time. His voice is small and unsure when he speaks. “I… I never came out to my dad.” Woody’s heart stills in his chest, a breeze dances across the roof, brushing his curls over his eyes. “I planned on it,” he adds leaning back ever so casually, but the slight tremble in his voice gave him away. Woody wouldn’t dare comment on it either way. “It was after he… he died,” he says, forcing the word past his lips. “I told Leo about it. I thought for the longest time that– that maybe I’d missed an opportunity to do so. Cos, y’know. I was never gonna know how that conversation played out, cos I told myself I was too chicken to do it when he was here–” Woody finds his courage, snatching up his hands with his. “You’re not chicken,” he says, so solidly the words might as well form like rock where they sit between them on the cool rooftop. “You’re not.” Mikey sniffs, eyes sparkling. “Yeah,” he laughs wetly. “I know that now.”

Woody searches his face – the face that ever rarely gets to look so hurt like it did right now, even when he was smiling at him like he was now, it was like he got another little bit of Michelangelo to discover each day, starting on that day he’d popped up from the manhole, he was always finding more and more to… to… Well. To fall in love with. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to come out to your dad, Mikester,” Woody tells him, squeezing his hands best he can. Mike squeezes them back. “It’s alright,” he tells him, and the way he says it, it sounds like it might just be. “I might not ever be super sure what would have happened but I know that he loved me. Like Leo and Raph and Dee love me.” He sniffs again. “Kinda like–” “Like I do.” Woody says suddenly. If the city could be still for even a second, now was that second; long and drawn out and perhaps the longest second ever before Mikey is laughing – snort laughing! He tips his head back and squeezes his eyes shut and doesn’t let Woody go.

“Yeah,” he says. “Me too. With you.” Woody exhales, all shaky and wobbly and a teeny bit scared still because there’s still the middle school version of him deep down in his soul feeling the heat from the stage lights and the sound of a crowd too big for him to bear. But here on the rooftop, it’s just them. It’s just him and this wild ninja turtle he never wants to let go of. So when Mikey rushes forward and plants a chaste, nervous kiss on his lips, eyes still tightly closed when he pulls away, Woody just laughs. “Don’t laugh at me,” Mikey says with a pout, refusing to open his eyes still. And Woody only untangles their fingers to cup at his face, thumb slipping beneath his mask to pull them together again, their center of gravity becoming one as he kisses him back, longer, sweeter – a little braver this time. “That better?” Woody says as they pull away. Mikey has finally found the courage to open his eyes. He’s beaming like he’s going to split his whole face in half, and he hums. “Uh huh,” Mike tells him. “Least we can skip the awkward conversation with my bros. They already think we’re dating.” Woody laughs loudly, and so does Mikey, both their joy traveling across the rooftops of the city around them. And later when Woody returns home with the taste of Mikey’s lips on his still (jellybeans and milkshakes) he calls out to Angel who’s dozing off on the couch, “Chute’s working, by the way.” She gives him a wordless thumbs up. Later when he goes to bed, not before sending off a text to Mike, he wonders if perhaps Angel’s metaphor was just another one of her well hidden crude euphemisms, but he quickly realizes he doesn’t quite care. He fell. And Mikey had fallen with him. 

[sleepyscxry]

Peridot x Gender neutral reader!!

A/N this might be pretty short because I’m tired asf.

the car comes to a halt and my eyes jolt open. “WERE HEEERRREE!!” Said my very awake friend, Bullet.. he’s been awake on monsters since we got out of Alabama. He’s been awake for two days.. “are you okay?” I said with worry.. “don’t worry y/n I’m fine we just gotta get the stuff in as soon as possible before I crash.” “Ooook” with that me and him start moving boxes and furniture in. The appliances came with the house on both floors!! Sinks, washers, dryers, dishwashers and a big doggie door!! ‘Will be perfect for king he’s fucking huge. Why did we decide to get a Great Pyrenees again?’ by the end of the day we were surprisingly done! We laid on our beds on our sides of the room and immediately crashed. the next day we wake up to king scratching at the door like a zombie. “I’m comin’ ya big goof.” Bullet said with his groggy Italian accent. I giggled because he sounds so silly. I got up and went to the bathroom to splash water on my face to wake me up. Putting on a snazzy sweater and some jeans I go to the kitchen and bullet is already making breakfast! “Your hair looks like an aliens trying to abduct it lol” I said with a still pretty sleepy tone. “What do ya mean?” He looked at the camera on his phone and said “oh my god I look like I’m in the 80’s jeezus.” We laughed it off as he fixed his hair and finished making breakfast. It was a waffle sandwich. “Huh?” “Oh that’s just something this dude over by the shore told me about. But said he went veggie and doesn’t like ‘em anymore so I stole the recipe!” “Wow.. sounds like you, talking about breakfast to someone you barely know.” “Oh no I’ve known Steven ever since we were twelve!” “Oh wow..” “there are a lot of things you don’t know about me. Let’s go talk to ‘em!” “But I haven’t finished-“ “it’s fine don’t worry about it king will!” He dragged me to the car and started driving to the shore. I will admit the beach is very pretty. We get to this ancient looking statue thing with a house built into it.. “what the hell?” “Don’t worry about it! Top secret stuff!!” He giggled and ran up the stairs. He knocked on the door and yelled “STEVEENNNNN ARE YOU HOOOMEE??” Then a boy with poofy curly hair like bullet answered the door. “Hair buddy!!” “Hiya steven so I just wanted you to meet my friend y/n!!” “Oh hi! It’s nice to meet you come in!” He was as cheerful as bullet which surprised me. ‘In my 4 years of knowing this man I’ve never seen anyone as cheerful as him until now.. wow’ and then I see weirdly colored people come into the house through this crystal portal thing? “Omg these are the crystal gems!!” He then goes on to tell me all of their names.. but only one catches my full attention.. “and this is peridot. She’s mostly sweet but a bit of a gremlin..” “HEY!! I AM NOT A GREMLIN!!” “My proof.” “Oh.. SHUT UP YOU CLOD!” ”Hi I’m y/n it’s nice to meet you all!” “It’s nice to meet you too.” Garnet said with a bit of a serious tone. Bullet saw me and said “you ok? To many people? You’ve got that look on your face that usually means you’re feeling a strong emotion” he led me outside to talk about it. “I’m fine it’s just that the last one.. peridot she is..” “different, short, loud, kinda annoying?” “I guess but she’s also kinda cute-“ “AYO- SUS? Sorry but uhm that’s actually really funny. Y’all could be the shortest couple known!” “Hey it’s not my fault you’re 6’2!!” “Ok true buuut you are only (I’m sorry to do this but-) 5’3” “I- eh- UGGGH” I stomp back in there. Him walking in with me wheezing. “What happened” steven said with a concerned voice. “Y/n is mad because they’re short lmao” “well that’s nothing to be to ashamed about..” peridot said with a smile. I notice that she is pretty short compared to the others.. “wanna be friends?” I said with a sweet gentle tone

I’m SORRYYY. I know I haven’t been updating ANYTHING! And yes I’m making this slow burn because peridot is ARO. ACE. Get it right you fools. bullet out >:)

[changingplumbob]

Knightstone Household: Chapter 7, Part 1

Next household for this rotation is the Knightstone household. Just your regular neighbourhood aliens. Hot-headed art critic Adam, toddler Silas and scientist Suzanna. In part 1 the family have a pretty chill Saturday, playing with Silas and doing chores. Then I have the audacity to host a dinner party and send the charmer toddler to bed before the chatter begins.

The Knightstone household. Or as I think of it, the lot where the bird life mod goes manic. Pictured are three different areas where the birds love to pile up.

6am and toddler Silas is up! He's an early riser. He goes in to his parents room and wakes up Suzanna.

Silas: Mummy! *cries*

Suzanna: I'm awake, I'm awake

Adam: I'm not

Suzanna: Liar

Silas: Mummy I sad, made potty mess

Adam: Eww

Suzanna: Don't worry starshine, pops will fix it

Adam: I will?

Suzanna: Just as soon as he wakes up

Adam: *pretends to snore*

Silas: Mummy I did bad

Suzanna: What do you mean

Silas: Big puddle

Suzanna: Come here, don't worry about that now starshine, you're still learning

Silas: Breakfast

Adam: Not cereal, can't trust it

Suzanna: How about some nice yogurt huh

Silas: Mummy, why yoghurt not come with spoon

Suzanna: I don't know

Silas: It should

Suzanna: I agree

Silas: Mummy not sad about my potty mess

Suzanna: Do I look sad *pulls funny face*

Silas: *giggles*

Adam: My squeamish self is sad

Silas: Pops sad

Adam: Don't worry son, I'll be fine, keep up trying

Silas: Pop look bad

Adam: It's those frogs, so slimy

Silas: Don't worry pop, I sing, make it better

Suzanna: How kind of you Silas

Silas: I made this

He launches into a new composition, featuring words such as yoghurt, cube, and frog, mixed with the traditional nonsense sounds. Adam rates it 7/10

Suzanna: What do you want to do this morning

Silas: Outside time

Suzanna: You got it, let me help you out

Silas: Thank you

Adam: Good boy using your manners

Silas: Thank you *beams*

He spins into his hot weather outfit and is ready to have fun while his parents tend to chores.

Adam practices his cooking to stock the fridge while Silas toddles outside.

Silas: Birdies!

The seagulls and pigeons carry on, undisturbed by the tiny alien.

Silas: Come here birdies

And Silas launches himself forward, scaring all the birds away in the process. He laughs it off, funny things happen.

I remembered to set all the plants to blossoming stage so Suzanna is able to harvest her garden this morning.

Silas: Vroom vroom, watch out birdies

Suzanna: Drive careful starshine

Silas: Mummy you want food

Suzanna: Do you have a menu

Silas: Burger, fries, shake shake, it milkshake with extra shake

Suzanna continues tending the garden, whistling away. Silas joins the whistling with his songs now and then before he's finished with the food truck.

Silas: Mummy time how fast I do tunnel

Suzanna: Okay Silas

Silas: I ready

Suzanna: Go!

Silas squeezes himself through the tunnel

Suzanna: So fast

Adam comes to check on Silas as soon as he's finished his work prep task.

Silas: Pops play with me

Adam: What do we want to play

Silas: Adventure

Adam: Watch out, we dropped into a pit! Oh no, I have lost Silas in the dark

Silas: *giggles*

Adam: I hear you cheeky monster. Let's fly out of here!

Silas: Pops have to work today

Adam: Yeah son

Silas: *sulks*

Adam: How about I try working from home, then we can still see each other

Silas: YES. Will I be big brother soon

Adam: Maybe, mummy and pops are trying

Silas: I be great big brother, I fun

Adam: Hello fun, nice to meet you

Silas: *giggles*

Work task 1 is to write a book. Adam has only done columns before. Since he's feeling flirty he tries to craft a romance novel. Silas busies himself playing with toys and occasionally singing to himself. Suzanna has some expert repairs to do and gets a head start on this weeks laundry.

Silas is fascinated with disguises. He tries applying make up to see if he can be disguised without going full human. He seems upset but then he laughs, deciding he looks fabulous.

Suzanna: Who are you? What have you done with my son

Silas: *laughs* It's me mummy

Suzanna: Silas? surely not

Silas: Mummy pretty, can I make more pretty

Suzanna: You want to give me a makeover

Silas: Yes, I very good

Suzanna: Okay then

Silas: This goes on pips

Suzanna: Lips

Silas: lips, and powder make the shapes on face

Suzanna: *coughs*

Silas: Now we do nails, they be colourful like us

Suzanna: Wonderful

Silas: All done

Adam: You are- a vision

Suzanna: All thanks to Silas. Now come on, this vision wants afternoon tea

Adam: Brownie time

Silas: What pops writing

Adam: A romance book

Silas: What romance?

Suzanna: Kissy love

Silas: kissy kissy *blows kiss*

Adam: That's my boy

Suzanna: Let's see what you remember about shapes

Silas: Cube has squares for sides

Suzanna: You got it. What shape is the steering wheel on the truck

Silas: Circle!

Suzanna: And this one *positions hands*

Silas: Tri- Triangle!

Suzanna: You're learning so well starshine

Silas: Learning fun, I fun

Adam finished his book and now has one task left, recommending hangouts. That means it's time to invite over some humans Suzanna knows for dinner. Silas is angry at being fed early and missing out on the fun. He chews angrily while Suzanna introduces everyone to Adam.

Jessica: Aliens in artwork, how strange

Faye: Oh I don't believe in aliens

Suzanna: All finished

Silas: Yes but why I have to go to bed, I fun

Suzanna: You are fun but you're also sleepy and grumpy from the brownies

Silas: I *yawns* I not

Suzanna: Snuggle in starshine, have good dreams

Nalani: This pasta doesn't have fish does it

Adam: No fish

Faye: It tastes pretty good

Kayleigh: Will Suzanna be back soon

Adam: Oh yeah, sometimes it just takes a while for Silas to settle

Jessica: I hope you don't mind me wearing a hat inside

Adam: That thing? I didn't even notice it

*group laughter*

Suzanna: I'm back, what did I miss

Faye: I was just wondering how we're meant to tell your husband Adam and fitness instructor Adam apart

Kayleigh: It seems rude to call one "the other Adam"

Jessica: We can't separate by hair colour

Nalani: Or having tattoos

Human Adam: Maybe bulky Adam and skinny Adam

Alien Adam: Hey, I have some muscles

Human Adam: But dude, I'm ripped

Suzanna: Maybe clean plate Adam and non eating Adam

Alien Adam: Oh shoot I forgot to eat

Suzanna begins to clean up the plates while Adam remembers to recommend some restaurants and museums for the dinner guests. Work task 2, check.

Everyone heads home and the exhaustion hits Adam.

Adam: Pretending to be human is tiring

Suzanna: Having to ask about personalities instead of mind reading

Adam: Ridiculous. You know, Silas was going on about being a brother

Suzanna: He was

Adam: Shall we try again starlight

Suzanna: We shall

Previous Part (Goth) ... Next Part

[fryingpan1234567]

Y’all. Guys. Oh no. I’ve done something bad.

Look, I may have just created the most chaotic Disney crossover idea in the history of time, but if this blows up like the Big 4, I want credit.

So. We’ve got Jack Jack, Lilo, Boo, Hiro, Miguel, Mei, Luca, Alberto, Riley. There are more, and I know that’s a lot, but bear with me.

College AU.

Look, Hiro’s done, but he wanted to stay and teach/ use the lab whenever. Jack Jack’s parents want him to get a good education. Miguel is on tour with his music. Lilo and Boo are best friends, bonding over their monster/ alien dudes. Mei’s after a brilliant education herself. Luca wanted to go to school and Alberto couldn’t say no to him. Riley lives in the area.

They end up at San Fran Sokyo Uni, in the same dorm hallway.

Now, they don’t get along great at first. Riley’s used to living in a compact space, Miguel is used to being surrounded by family = no boundaries, Jack Jack is ADHD as fuck and is also a superhero who keeps getting blood all over the carpets in the middle of the night when he gets home from patrol. Lilo feeds peanut butter sandwiches to fish, for void’s sake.

After some rearranging, though, they get settled. That’s how they all meet.

It’s indescribably chaotic. Mei and Riley live together, their dorm room nice and organized and perfect. For their trustworthiness, Jack Jack lives with them as well (he’s ace dw. Also, he doesn’t tell them he’s a hero at first. That was a shitshow). Their apartment is a mix of hockey and Asian culture. There’s a family shrine in Mei’s room, and there’s a mini goal set up in the corner of the living room. Jack Jack’s stuff is kind of everywhere, but he makes up for it by doing dishes every night XD.

Lilo and Boo live with Stitch and a baby monster that accidentally wandered through their door on a field trip to Monsters Inc. Their apartment is pretty aesthetic but also messy. Even though it’s freezing and frankly nasty, Lilo swims and sometimes surfs in the bay, but she drives out to an actual coast (later with the whole friend group) on weekends. Boo LOVES the aliens and is on Lilo’s deep space podcast, a tribute to Elvis.

Miguel, Hiro, Luca, and Alberto live in an apartment together. Because how bad can a bunch of gay/ bi idiots living in one place be? There’s dirty laundry everywhere. The dishes don’t get done unless Mei happens to come over and yells at them for it. Trash from the fish boys, half-finished projects and scraps from Hiro, and scribbly sheet music from Miguel are everywhere. Baymax makes them take care of themselves tho; it’s fiiine :DD

Extra headcanons (SOMEONE PLEASE ASK ME FOR MORE ON THIS AU I COULD TALK FOREVER):

Not a single one of them is straight

They all become at least some part of a hero team later on- once Hiro and Jack Jack tell them all what’s going on, they either join in or agree to help sometimes

(Mei is a super panda, Lilo and Boo take their warrior pets into battle, fish demons, etc)

Once they’re comfortable enough with each other, they start visiting each other’s homes because they’re so diverse

Hawaii was awesome!! Lilo taught everyone how to surf as Luca and Alberto meet the wildlife below. Nani loves them all, but David’s favorite is Jack Jack

Mei shows them all Chinese-Canadian culture, but mostly the Chinese part lol. They get to meet her gf, Miri, and she takes them to 4town. They hate it, but she seems happy

Riley takes them all skating on the pond in her old backyard. Miguel and the fish boys, who have never been anywhere cold in their lives, are miserable. Really the only one who’s fine is Mei lmao. They all try broccoli pizza, and Luca and Alberto actually like it

Jack Jack’s family make it their life goal while they’re visiting to be as embarrassing as possible. Helen and Bob BOTH have to DRIVE THEM everywhere, Dash doesn’t stop talking about Fortnite for a single fucking second, and Violet actively makes out with Tony on the living room couch. You know who they love? Auntie Edna. Edna gains many more nieces and nephews that trip- she takes a special liking to Hiro, although she does criticize the ineffectiveness of his armor

Italy is warm and full of freaking mermaids and Vespa’s and gelato and it’s fucking awesome. Everyone falls in love with the food (obviously). Giulia just… gets used to adopting strange losers by this point.

Mexico is GREAT. Their trip happened to fall near Día de los Muertos, so guess where Miguel took them!! Maybe it meant stealing from the ofrenda, but… in their defense, they put it back. (Before you ask, yes, Tadashi was there. It’s a personal belief of mine that there are different sections to the Land for different cultures’ afterlives. Like all the gateways go to the same realm, just different parts of it.) Stitch and Dante wrestled the entire time XD

Edit: GUYS OH NO I FORGOT TO ADD VANELLOPE BUT SHE’S INCLUDED

[roseposts-stuff]

hello dear people!!! i ranked series 1 of doctor who a few days ago and decided now it's time for series 2!!! as i said previously, my reviews are like 98% based on Vibes and im also a pretty positive person so it's probably like 90% "!!!! I LOVE THIS!!" lmao. anyway, lets go!!

1. The Girl in the Fireplace - this was great!!! i loved reinette and im ALWAYS ready for timey wimey bullshit, drunk ten gave crowley vibes i lived for that and also im a fan of the random horse go king, and ofc the story overall was rly interesting

2. School Reunion - SARAH JANE SMITH SARAH JANE SMITH!!! need i say more? i LOVE this episode i liked having mickey back and meeting sarah jane and love a tiny bit of doctor angst and like the general Vibe of this episode is so good its one of my comfort episodes i would do ANYTHING for this episode y'all!!!!!!

3. The Idiot's Lantern - listen folks listen i LOVED the boy he was sweet and i loved the story and im always down for humbling bigots i loved rose and 10 sm and the setting was cool and i loved the way it's shot this is also such a comfort episode for me man i love it

4. Fear Her - listen i think this is kinda controversial BUT I LOVE THIS EPISODE its also a comfort episode, i love rose's characterisation and i loved the family it was sweet and i think the importance of the song was beautiful and i liked the idea of drawings coming back to life and i loved the mundane setting sm, also im not a timepetals fan but this episode was so cute man

5. The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit - this story is SO GOOD the side characters are great and like my interpretation of the "satan" is that it's not necessarily like the _satan_ but a creature that is the idea for that like they say in the episode and like to me that's such a great thing, if i try to explain how i think about that, this post will become way too long so i won't, and i loved how 10 really was like i love humans and kinda reminded how everyone is amazing it was great

6. New Earth - I LOVE THIS EPISODE cassandra-rose and cassandra-doctor were great and i loved the story and the hopefulness and happiness of the ending i just love it so much

7. The Christmas Invasion - i rly like the story, it was great having harriet jones back and i loved how much mickey and jackie were in this, i liked the introduction to ten like baby, my son, you silly guy why are you quoting the lion king i absolutely adore you you silly little alien

8. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday - it was great having mickey back and the story is great, it had some funny moments i had a great time, visually i wasn't too much of a fan so that's part of why this is so low, like to me one important thing is the visual aesthetic, the ending was rly sad and i need people to talk more about the doomsday theme it's SO GOOD it's so haunting and beautiful i'm going insane fr

9. Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel - i like this story but tbh i'm not a big fan, somehow the overall Vibe™ is just not slaying for me, like somehow im a huge cyberman hater i'm not sure why, and idk i'm just not the biggest fan of this

10. Tooth and Claw - idk i'm not a huge fan of this episode, it's enjoyable and i like it while watching but overall i'm not a fan of the story, i'm not one for werewolves so maybe that's why, rose's outfit ate tho slay queen i loved it

11. Love & Monsters - even tho this is the last one, i do like it on some level, LINDA was SO ADORABLE and if we had followed them being silly this would 100% be a story i really like and also jackie tyler was great, but i don't like the absorbaloff. i just dont. also the ending 😁 you do what 😁

there we are then!!! here are my opinions:D

[nerdwriting]

The Creative Directors Behind Fate: The Winx Saga Must Not Be K-Pop Fans

Also, they have a pretty wrong idea of the role fashion should play in a show.

There are a few words that will stand out across most reviews of Netflix's Fate: The Winx Saga - drab, boring, flop, flat, unimaginative. Critics and audiences consensus is that the show is not only a mediocre-at-best story, but also an atrocious (and ultimately confusing) choice of adaptation of the color pop and fairy magic cartoon it’s based on, 2004 italian cartoon Winx Club.

Fate has plenty of it's own issues - white washing and erasing characters, cringey dialogue, outdated melodrama, etc. But where it truly, unequivocally fails is as an adaptation. Fate misses everything that was magical and lovable about the original series, in all levels, from bizarre writing choices, - such as never actually developing any sense of friendship between the characters, who are based on a cartoon about…..a group…….of friends -, but it's especially and immediately felt in the art direction and costume design.

Winx Club is set on a fantastical world, Magix, where each of our main characters hail from a different planet, à la Sailor Moon. Alfea, the fairy school they attend, is the most common background: a pastel colored, futuristic high tech-meets-fantasy, art nouveau inspired castle. Alfea sets the tone for the whole visual of the cartoon: bright, colorful, futuristic meets vintage, leaning into the technological positivism of the Y2K style, uniting it with magic, DnD worthy monsters and, of course, fairy wings. Often featured are also the Red Fountain school, where the Specialists train, and especially Cloud Tower, the goth and gothic inspired witch school Alfea has an OxBridge rivalry with (How cool would that be in a live action? I guess we’ll never know…).

On Fate, Alfea is the only school we ever see, and it’s another beige boarding school in not-Britain, somehow set in a magical world where everyone has the exact same technology and even social media that we have on Earth in 2021, no transformations and, most egregiously, no fairy wings.

This lack of visual creativity is pervasive throughout the whole show, and its most heartbreaking iteration is in the characters' wardrobe. The styling has the barest bones of a color scheme, - such as 'Bloom has to only dress in red since fire, duh',- the clothes are ill fitting, bland, dark and very dated. These are supposed to be teenagers who enjoy fashion, and yet they look like varying types of soccer moms from 2010.

The series seems to operate on an old and tired vision that women and girls can’t have depth and have adventures and fight monsters while also caring about fashion, a vision that the original show played a big, big role in challenging in the early 2000's. Fashion and costume design sets as much of the tone of a visual medium as the script does; through clothes we can gauge characters’ backgrounds, passions, and personality.

Winx Club has some of the best examples of this in the cartoon sphere - Bloom’s comfortable and bright style, Stella’s glitzy and bold, Musa’s edgy and cool, Aisha’s sporty and fun, Techna’s neon and tech gear inspired, Flora’s earthy and romantic, they all work as extensions of each character and serve a narrative purpose. And that’s not even mentioning how insulting it feels that in their quest to make Winx “edgier, darker” and fit for an older audience, the creators of Fate somehow decided that was in opposition to caring about style and fashion. Most “girly” shows, including the Winx Club are just as much adventure action shows as the ones geared towards boys, and it’s emphasis in fashion, friendship and color does not detract from that. The original run of the cartoon deals with war, violence, grief, abusive relationships and even genocide; leaning into those plotlines would not require Fate to erase any integral parts of what made Winx so beloved, and the fact that they did shows that the Netflix team completely missed the point of fashion in the original show, and really, the point of fashion and costume design in the world building of any show.

That, however, is not a mistake K-Pop makes very often; (This might seem like a bit of wild swerve in topic, but stay with me here). Unlike it's western counterpart, the Korean pop scene never lost the emphasis on music videos and how the visual medium can complete and potentialize music and performance; the K-Pop culture is very album and concept oriented in a way that has been all but lost in many other pop circuits, and the music video, styling and set design of a ‘comeback era’ is a key point of excitement among fans.

As such, music videos that follow storylines, connected universes, boundary pushing concepts and visual effects are the norm, rather than the exception, and a list could be made of works that are beautiful examples of what a live action Winx adaptation could look like. In fact, and very smoothly, here is a small list of exactly that!

A Small List of K-Pop Music Videos That Are Better Winx Club Live Actions Than Fate: The Winx Saga

3. Red Velvet - Psycho

If it was a darker and more somber look that Fate wanted, there was a way to make it actually appealing. While it still feels a liiitle too grown up and elegant for Winx, (maybe this author is biased, as a full proponent for the Y2K fun) Psycho makes a very compelling argument for a witchy, mysterious, fairy tale-esque show that could look scrumptious and definitely not boring, or even a gorgeous example of what the witches in Cloud Tower could look like. Black and white, dark green, pastel blue and pops of jewel tones make Psycho's color palette. To add interest to the understated colors, the styling is heavy on textures; We see plenty of stonework, intricate embroidery, tassels, lace on lace on lace, feathers, bows, opera gloves and lots of glitter. All of that is offset by bold, dark makeup, leather accents and eerie cinematography. Needle & Thread, Marchesa Notte and Self Portrait lend their hyper feminine and intricately detailed tulle gowns, juxtaposed with the creepiness of the lyrics and the dark backgrounds; their deep berry and green fairy tale looks are built with pieces from Zara to Nina Ricci to Dolce & Gabbana to Alexander McQueen.

Red Velvet’s more edgy styling for 2018's Bad Boy would also not feel out of place on the Trix.

2. IZ*ONE - Fiesta

IZ*ONE kicked off 2020 with sweet and fun Fiesta. The MV features rooms with mismatched décor that go from retro to space opera, rocky faux landscapes that feel other worldly, and visual effects that would look perfect on the back of a transformation sequence. Mirroring the set design, the girls wear various outfits by sustainable up and coming brand Chopova Lowena. Their signature skirts made with discarded and repurposed fabrics give a cool and interesting twist on a schoolgirl look that would look very sweet for a band of school fairies that occasionally go off to save the world. Also, wouldn't those bedazzled headphones look great on Musa's fairy outfit?

1. Aespa - Black Mamba and Next Level

Aespa is what fans call a monster rookie. With only three music videos under their belt, they still have some of the most visually interesting work in the industry right now. Their concept is very tied in with high tech, featuring even AI avatars of each member, packaged in a glitzy, fantastical and futuristic aesthetic, candy pop meets cyberpunk. I think I’ve exhausted ways to say that is exactly what a perfect Winx adaptation should feature.

Their debut smash hit, 2020’s Black Mamba is truly a perfect moodboard for live action Winx. Wearing a sequined and colorful mix and match of Dollskill, Gucci, Didu and Balenciaga to a backdrop that features some alien fairy forest realness, a pyschedelic fever dream, rooms straight out of a Y2K catalog or donning lime green and black techwear inside a metro fighting the "black mamba", Aespa look through and through the part of fashion loving fairies who save the world together, while looking fierce, stylish and, most importantly, interesting.

The styling and the sets jump seamlessly from more casual colorful fits with blouses, shirts and baggy pants to barren, darkly lit backgrounds and fringe-and-glitter heavy pieces necessary to fight giant snakes, in a way so fitting to transformation outfits for magical girls we could cry.

In their third MV, 2021's Next Level, the cyber in their concept is taken up a notch (get it. because Next Level-), set to a futuristic urbanscape intersped with a planet made of crystals and the ocasional alien fauna popping up again. We get treated to Monse, The 2nd Skin Co., Johanna Ortiz and The Attico styled to fairy princess standards, sporty sky racers and a white and sequined group styling that is top ten fairy busy saving the world uniform material, or maybe even a specialist worthy getup.

This particular look from Ningning is so Techna that it almost feels as if it's mocking Netflix.

And doesn’t this Karina trapped inside the "black mamba" in Alexander McQueen feel like a perfect Dark Bloom moment?

These are only a few examples of interesting and creative designs that are in line with what a live action Winx Club should have given us. There are so many more I could list, even among other TV Shows, like Sex Education and even polemic dark Euphoria, that know how to have fun with style and design without losing the depth of their stories. In the end, it's hard to justify why Fate creators even wanted to make an adaptation that didn't even try to capture the heart of its source material, and all we can do is watch one more "Restyling Fate: The Winx Saga" video on Youtube whilst mildly dreading season 2.

[innytoes]

Today on ‘Fanfics I am not going to write but think about constantly’: the boys never die AU where Reggie is dating Widower Ray.

Sunset Curve makes it big, does all the tours, wins all the platinums, buys all the mansions. Well, Bobby does. Alex and Willie get a nice big house somewhere quiet, and Luke and Reggie have no clue what to do with all their money, so Luke buys a music shop downtown with an apartment above it and Reggie is like: dude can I move in with you the thought of a big empty house freaks me out.

(He eventually moves into his own apartment because for some reason Luke doesn’t like that Reggie’s dog wakes him up with kisses every morning, as if that is not a GIFT, Patterson, she is showing you she LOVES YOU you monster.)

So Reggie is like: still don’t like that empty apartment, kind of want to date, kind of don‘t know where to start because all the beautiful famous people at Bobby’s parties make me feel all tongue-tied, kind of want to meet someone romantically at the dog park but turns out 95% of dog owners are kindly old people and/or are already in a committed relationship. So he sulks on Alex and Willie’s couch while Willie gives Ellie The Dog all the bellyrubs and Alex tells him: dude just try a dating app.

And they basically steal his phone and go through his pictures and force him to take a cute one with Ellie because according to Willie ‘pictures of dudes with dogs are 100% panty-droppers’. And because Alex is an asshole he also installs grindr because if Reggie is too busy getting laid he’ll stop moping on their couch.

And Reggie doesn’t notice for like three weeks, and he goes on some awkward coffee dates, and he probably gets accused of catfishing at least once (and you know Luke laughs at him and tells everyone and they make a big deal of ‘how do we know you’re really Reggie Peters’ at the next rehearsal).

And then Reggie finally finds Grindr on his phone and he kind of freaks out (especially because Alex  knows Reggie too well so his profile is eerily accurate and his age range is embarrassingly on point). So he kind of turns it on at the dog park one day and oh god oh god someone shot him a message. 

And it turns out it’s a really hot photographer who was scouting for a location and instead of hooking up Reggie helps him find great spots in his neighbourhood for this couple’s engagement shoot because he jogs all over with Ellie so he knows all the best spots. And okay maybe they make out against Ray’s car a little and exchange numbers and go on a real date a few days later.

And things get serious and it’s really cute and Ray meets the guys and they only tease Reggie a little about his Silver Fox Thing. Alex is very smug that he got Reggie not only laid but a real boyfriend. Well done him he expects flowers and baked goods as a thank you. 

And Reggie and Ray have a very serious conversation about Ray’s kids and Rose and Reggie is like: I like that you still wear your wedding ring. I like that your love is forever. I’m just glad there’s room in your heart for me too.

And Ray is like: Rose would have loved you.

Because they talked about it before she died and she wanted him to move on and be happy, as long as that someone was good for the kids.   

And Ray eventually introduces him to his kids, and Reggie is So Nervous because he wants them to like him and also live up to what Rose wanted for Ray. Carlos is pretty chill about it and also thinks it’s hilarious that this Big Cool Rockstar is in fact a total dork just like his dad and he and Reggie totally have this big discussion about ghosts and Bigfoot and aliens. 

And Julie is a little wary because she knows how shitty The Media can be and she doesn’t want her dad to get hurt. But she relaxes when she realises Reggie is doing his very best not to get them dragged into that. And she’s just happy because he makes her dad Happy. So the next time he’s over she wears her mom’s old Sunset Curve shirt in silent approval and Reggie is like: omg those are so old did you find that at a vintage store or something?

And Julie is like: no it was my mom’s. She always told the story about how you guys got food poisoning and she had to drive your rhytmn guitarist to the hospital. 

And Reggie is like: oh yeah I remember that gig haha we went out for street dogs after the show and then nearly died, your mom was really cool anyway I need to talk to your dad brb. 

But inside he’s going: oh no oh no oh no I flirted with Ray’s wife, I tried to hit on Ray’s wife, aaaaaaaaaaaaa.  

And Reggie confesses all miserably and awkwardly because this seems like the kind of thing he should tell his boyfriend, what if she and Ray had already been dating back then? Had his seventeen year old self been a homewrecker? Meanwhile Ray is just dying laughing like: she only kept the shirts of bands she liked, so see, I told you Rose would have loved you. Also if you think she took you seventeen year old idiots seriously for a second you’re kidding yourself.

The only one who isn’t a fan is Victoria. She worries about Reggie’s influence on the kids, being a Rockstar and all (and is not reassured when Carlos tells her he’s ‘a big nerd who likes math’). And that he’s almost ten years younger than Ray. So one day she Says Something, and Reggie tries to explain how he’s trying very hard to keep the kids out of the press and also be a good role model, and then Ray is all: Enough. This is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with or however long we’re granted, Victoria. 

And everyone goes quiet and Reggie is all big-eyed because he was like ‘sure Ray likes me now and I met his kids but he’s going to get sick of me touring and being famous and all that eventually’. 

And they never get married, but they do get matching bracelets, and Reggie never ever takes his off because well, his love is forever too.

[gryphis-eyes]

Hiii

I'm curious too

Here for the ask ;

-Pluto I'm excited for this one

-9h

-5h

-12h

If you feel uncomfortable you can skip the last one

And why didn't I noticed your new layout it looks cool

I want you to guess who I am I left no clues I know 😁

Hello you're asking a old dying lady to use her intuition 🤣 i'd say Aaron or Wild Candy ? 👀

I've already answered 9th house in a previous ask :)

pluto ⇢ tell something supernatural that happened to you

In some way i provocated this event haha, here is my "first" (pretty sure i met one when i was little) interaction with a demon (and i did massive error dw i learned from it i don't use those methods anymore)

So basically at the begining i didn't had that much ressources beside goetia (yeah you know where it's going 💀) and also some people online, i had this demon, Belial who i kept seing everywhere i won't list everything but it was very clear that he was going to be the demon i'll go to. So yeah i did all of ritual but with a shit ton of error in it oh boy it was a disaster but he did come, then i felt someone sitting next to me (i sat on my bed because my bedroom is very small) when i closed the ritual i felt like "he" was leaving and i went to bed

That's where we get the supernatural part, in my dream i saw a specific letter "shin" thing is, when i opened my eyes the letter was still in front of me and i wasn't dreaming at all i was fully awake and it slowly faded. (And now the big event) on that day i went out with friends, before leaving i asked with tarot if i did everything well or if i fucked up i didn't really understood the answer and i had to go because i was about to miss my train. When i went home and opened the light i saw a tall shadow figure in front of me and it went in my bedroom i was paralysed i didn't know what to do because that wasn't a human at a l l, so you know what i did ? 😭 I went to the kitchen calming down and took a knife to go in my bedroom cuz idk what was in my mind at this point haha

And in my bedroom there was NOTHING (and i did check under my bed 😭) however the 3 cards i pulled in the morning weren't the same (i took note of them) and the message was a clear "yes everything went well".... So that's why Belial isn't for beginners he isn't gentle haha

5H ⇢ do you have a hobby? which one(s)?

Too much honestly if drawing wasn't so time consuming i would love to learn some music instrument ! Beside that i love reading even if i have trouble with attention, mostly books related to witchcraft and mythology but i enjoy other types of books but it takes me a lot of time to read :') i really appreciate mangas even if i don't search that much for new ones it's a big source of inspiration. I looove cinema i highly hesitated between cinema and art school back in time, i enjoy all genre and i love going to theater sooo much i can't just like one thing i have to go deep in my research and it takes all my time haha

12H ⇢ which is/are your biggest fear(s)?

Old bald men no but im deadly scared of those "Monsters" in mandela catalog (i had trouble sleeping for a week after watching it 😭) if you saw Dark skies you might understand why im scared of aliens but not in a way of i don't want to meet one just the way they are represented in that movie is terrifying

*dramatic song in the background* Im also scared of romantic love

[psychdelia]

season 3 but instead of billy, neil was flayed.

he had been acting... off the last couple of weeks. distant and withdrawn, completely the opposite of how he usually is with billy.

he first notices the difference in behavior when the abuse stops. maybe he gets home late for dinner and instead of the usual stern look he gets before a smack when max and susan go to bed, neil just smiles all big and wide, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes, before he welcomes his son home.

then neil starts coming home later and later, giving susan some bullshit excuse about work and overtime and she eats it right up. chooses to believe that he’s somehow morphed into the perfect husband and father overnight. on top of that, he smells like bleach and chemicals and his eyes seem so dead. billy can tell what the guy is thinking or feeling through one look at his expression, but now he’s just eerily blank.

so billy follows him on 4th of july, surprised to find himself in the starcourt parking lot for the second time that day - he dropped max off earlier to hang out with her shithead friends, but it’s past closing hours so she shouldn’t still be inside unless she’s at the movies, the only part of the mall that remains open late. he watches as neil marches into the mall, fists clenched at his side. billy has no idea why neil is even at the mall so late when he should be at work or wherever he’s been going and lying to susan about. so, he follows him in.

he doesn’t know what to expect, but seeing his little sister and her gaggle of friends screaming as neil gets closer and closer to them. squinting, billy can see black veins crawling their way up neil’s neck, discoloring his face and eyes. he jumps when he hears the first bang, the sound of a firework exploding way too close for comfort.

then he spots it. the huge slimey alien being that screeches when the first firework hits it, then second, third, and so on.

and like. what the fuck.

his eyes must be as wide as saucers as he stares at the thing, gangly and screeching with every hit, trying to swing at anyone it can reach. he doesn’t have time to process what the actual fuck he’s looking at when he hears someone yell his name. max.

“billy! BILLY!” she screams, absolutely terrified. “DO SOMETHING!” she demands.

immediately, his eyes search for fireworks. looking up, he finds harrington on the second floor in matching work uniforms with a girl - buckley, his brain distantly provides. they had the same ap literature class. the fireworks get louder and louder along with the monster. he eventually finds a small kiosk set up for the 4th, so he follows suit and grabs his lighter, blindly throwing at the monster as he watches the scene unfold in front of him. his father approaching a girl around max’s age with a maniacal expression on his face, eyes about to burst out of his goddamn head. he hears the kids screaming in protest to no avail. pretty soon, they run out of fireworks and his dad’s got this girl beneath him on the floor.

he’s about to intervene when the girl lets out this piercing scream, almost louder than the shadow, and suddenly his father is thrown up in the air then launched right at the monster. he’s caught mid-air by a tentacle - wait a goddamn second are those human body parts??? and teeth????? - right in the center of his chest. billy flinches, watching in horror as his father screams in pain before he’s dropped onto the floor, head smacking the tile before he goes limp.

it feels like the world goes still for a second, everyone standing still, eyes wide and mouths open in shock at the scene before them. distantly, he hears the monster screeching, but his eyes are locked on his father’s body - torn open and bleeding out. what eventually brings them all out of their stupor and back to the real world is the same girl standing and screaming at the monster, merely feet away from the thing. her hand is shaking in the air, nose dripping with blood as the monster’s screeches grow quieter, its body shrinking. soon enough, it hits the ground just like his father. limp and silent.

billy just watches the scene unfold, his mind racing yet completely blank. he knows he should move, grab as many little shits as he can and run, but he’s stock still, unable to process what he just witnessed. ironically, it ends up being the kids who run to him first.

“billy,” max calls as she reaches him. “billy!” she grabs his shoulders, shaking him until he acknowledges her. “billy we have to go. now! come on billy let’s go!” her hands are shaking as she grips his shoulders.

he blinks a couple of times before he nods once, then again.

“shit!” he hears harrington yell, footsteps approaching them as the two teenagers run down from the top floor right before it comes crashing to the ground. soon enough, the mall is falling apart, the ceiling caving in.

billy finally kicks into action, wild eyes and expressions matching everyone else’s as the teens drag the kids out of there, the group sprinting outside in time to watch the mall crumble to the ground with his dad’s body trapped in it.

he doesn’t know how much time has gone by when ambulances, fire trucks and police cars appear. he’s stuck in place as parents reunite with their children while paramedics check on everyone, wrapping heavy blankets around them. billy manages to sneak off to the side, hiding behind an ambulance. he spots max with sinclair and susan, harrington with buckley, girl and boy wheeler close to the three byers, accompanied by the police chief.

billy’s alone, he realizes. he looks back at the mall, now in flames and taking his father down with it. his hands and legs begin to tremble and he’s sliding down the side of the ambulance, unable to breathe as he hits the floor. hugging his knees to his chest and holding his head low, he takes in short breaths and ends up wheezing, unable to get enough air into his lungs. he doesn’t realize he’s crying until his vision is blurred and cheeks are wet. he’s hyperventilating and is pretty sure he’s about to black out.

billy’s alone.

everyone here has someone and he doesn’t.

his mother left and now his father is gone and he doesn’t, can’t understand why. yeah, neil was abusive and cruel but he was all billy had left. he lost his friends, the ocean, his life the second neil ripped him away from california and dragged him to a state where he knew he’d get hurt if neil caught him with a boy again like in cali, except this time he knew it wouldn’t be just neil pounding on him for his “sickness.”

billy misses his mom. wants nothing more than to be held and comforted by her. to hear her soft voice as she sings or hums or shushes him as she rubs his back and plays with his hair and kisses his head and tells him everything’s going to be alright.

except everything’s not going to be alright and now he’s sobbing silently, soft whimpers and harsh wheezing being the only noise leaving his body.

with the rest of the world tuned out and only hearing his own choked sobs and sharp breaths, he flinches when he feels the hand on his shoulder, trying to scramble away from it.

“hey,” the soft voice says. “its okay. hey, kid, it’s okay. it’s just me.” she immediately pulls her hand away, holding both up to prove herself as unthreatening. “just me.” she repeats gently.

billy slowly raises his head, eyes and cheeks red and blotchy and puffy and wet. he finds exhausted, sad brown eyes looking over him.

“oh, kiddo, you look like you’ve seen hell.” she sounds motherly. “c’mon, breathe with me. take deep breaths, okay? count with me.” she encourages as she kneels down to his level. “deep breaths. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, breathe. in and out, just like that. you’re doing good.”

pretty soon, his wheezes and rushed breaths even out. he takes his first deep breath of fresh air, releasing a shaky relieved sigh.

“you must be billy, max’s brother. i’m joyce, jonathan’s mom.” she introduces, except neither of them are in the mood for small talk. “i, uh,” she sighs. “there’s a lot we all have to talk to you about,” she sits down beside him. “but that can wait,” she assures. “until you’re ready.” she adds on quietly.

he stares at her a couple seconds before he breaks again, a strangled loud sob ripping its way through his chest and out of his mouth. he doesn’t even think about it before he launches himself at her, fully prepared to cry to this woman he’s barely met yet spent hours knocked out cold on her ground only after breaking one of her nice plates.

she - joyce - seems to have the same idea because as soon as he starts crying again she’s opening her arms and reaching for him. they meet halfway in the middle.

“it’s not fair.” billy chokes out, trembling in joyce’s surprisingly strong arms as she holds him upright. “it’s not fair.” he repeats, louder yet more broken.

“i know, sweetheart.” she nods, rubbing circles on his back with one hand, the other gently running through his hair. “god i know.” she sighs and, poor woman, it sounds like she’s been through it. he vaguely remembers hearing about her sons - zombie boy and creepy byers. his brain isn’t processing enough to connect any dots just yet.

“she-she just left,” he holds onto joyce tightly. “she left and now he’s gone.” he cries. “he’s gone.” he repeats, again and again. “they all leave. why do they all leave?” he asks weakly.

joyce’s heart breaks for the boy shaking apart in her arms, using her last remaining strength to hold him upright and provide any comfort she can. she can’t help but look around, searching the crowd for anyone who might be there for him. she frowns when she finds everyone’s eyes on them yet no one making any moves to approach. she wishes she could hate them all a little bit for it, for leaving him alone. letting him feel alone and unwanted. unlovable. she knows the feeling and it’s the worst.

“well, blondie, looks like you’re stuck with me now.” her attempt to make him feel less lonesome seems to work, just a little, if the way he squeezes her for a second is anything to go by. “i don’t give up. i don’t leave. i promise.” she kisses the top of his head, gets the scent of hairspray, cigarettes and ash.

over the top of his head she finds steve harrington still watching them, a distant look in his eyes. he seems conflicted, staring at billy with wariness as he bounces nervously from foot to foot, holding the blanket hanging loosely around his torso.

he seems to make a decision when billy releases another sob at her promise, striding over and draping his blanket over billy’s shoulders. he goes out of his way to tighten it around him, making sure it’s comforting and cozy around his trembling figure. he hesitates once again as he goes to walk away, fist clenching and unclenching at his side before he looks back to billy with sad, tired eyes and rests his hand on the blonde’s shoulder, squeezing just once before he walks away. the same hand is nervously flexing at his side once again.

[maxwell-grant]

One last one for the moment; top five superheroes who definitely AREN'T Pulp Heroes, but could be with a little tweaking?

Oof, that's a hard one. It's a hard one because, again, there ultimately isn't that much separation between the two to the point there's enough of a hard line in there to work with, but I guess the cat's out of the bag now that I've staked claims on there being differences between them.

Okay so, not counting superheroes who are deliberately modeled after actual pulp heroes, so no Tom Strong or Night Raven here. I'm sticking mainly with comic book superheroes (barring one oddball exception) since the medium separation is important), who I think could become pulp heroes with some tweaking.

5: Captain America

Sort of cheating because I already covered it here, but I definitely have to include Captain America in here, especially in the stories they actively go for a "pulp" vibe as well as the earliest ones.

Fun fact about Marvel: As Timely, they actually began life as pulp publishers. Not just pulp publishers, but specializing in some of the sleaziest, ghastliest magazines of the era, and you can bet this carried over to their superheroes. Where as DC's superheroes took inspiration from the big pulp heroes such as The Shadow and Doc Savage, Timely's superheroes seemed instead much more inspired by Weird Tales stories and Poverty Row horror films, and even in the 60s, Marvel never really abandoned their horror roots, the trick was just using them as a baseline to create superheroes. In DC, the world's first contact with superheroes begins with the world looking in wonder at a friendly strongman. In Marvel, it began with the world looking in panicked horror at a flaming monster rampaging through the streets desperately trying to not burn everything it touches. It should come to little surprise then that the majority of characters I'm including in this list are Marvel characters.

People think Captain America's first comics largely consisted of him fighting Nazis left and right, but they were actually much more often based around him encountering monsters and creatures of horror, like the above panel where it looks like Cap's staring down the beginning of Berserk's Eclipse (RIP Miura).

The early Captain America comics pretty much consisted of Kirby dipping his toe into the monster comics he'd make in the 50s which would later bleed into the 60s Marvel entourage. They even tried repackaging Captain America into a horror anthology in the 50s titled "Captain America's Weird Tales", just imagine how different the character would be today if that somehow stuck.

Imagine a world where Steve Rogers never became leader of The Avengers, never got to become the shining beacon of heroism of an entire universe, and instead, when he was unfrosted, he woke up to find a world running rampant with crawling nightmares and Nazi tyranny, and he has no idea what's become of his former sidekick. That definitely sounds like the start of a promising pulp adventure.

4: Namor

Another Timely creation. In Namor's case, he didn't so much encounter horrors from beyond imagination, as much as HE was the terrifying thing beyond us ready to rampage upon mankind, whose first on-screen act consists of the calculated slaughter of a ship full of innocents. The first true villain protagonist of comic books. Not just an anti-hero, a villain intent on wiping out the human race.

And not just a cardboard supervillain, but the beautiful prince of a race of ugly fish monsters, a momma's boy who's doing what he thinks is right by warring with surface dwellers. While Namor's become largely defined by his gargantuan arrogance, here, he's almost childlike, despite being much more brutal and villainous here, spurred on by the whims of his mother, who even acknowledges that Namor had no real reason to kill the divers but did so anyway, and now encourages him to genocide. His mom even tells him "Go now, to the land of white people!", and the very last panel of the story even states he's on a "crusade against white men".

The massacre of explorers at the hands of something beyond their understanding. A monster born of an interracial coupling. A race of fish monsters with bulging eyes, antagonistic towards humanity but are shown to have positive traits just the same. A dash of racism. There is no mistaking The Sub-Mariner's pulp horror influence.

A non-white superhuman warrior born from a Lovecraftian horror story, who gradually moves away from his villainous crusade into becoming more of an anti-hero, never truly putting aside his hatred for humanity, remaining a temperamental, unpredictable outcast, with a strong, palpable undercurrent of anger in his stories. I could very easily buy Namor as having crawled out of a Weird Tales story and I can't think of other superheroes whose origins are as steeped deeply in pulp horror.

3: Doctor Fate

Technically we already have a pulp hero version of Doctor Fate in Doc Fate, and I'll get to him separately, but even besides him, the earliest Doctor Fate stories in particular feel very much like he's a character steeped in the worlds of pulp and pulp horror who decided to put on a superhero costume and show up in comic.

He's got a similar set-up to The Shadow, from the pulp Shadow in the sense that he's a mysterious, eerie crimefighter who dwells as a presence more often than an active character and who kills criminals without remorse, always watching and waiting for the right time to strike as a a wrathful old-testament force of vengeance, and from the radio Shadow due to him using superpowers to fight crime while being accompanied by a smart, fierce love interest.

Originally, Fate was not a sorcerer, but instead a scientist who discovered a way to manipulate atomic structure, of his and other things, thus making it appear that he can do magic (although we never see his face, and he's implied to be thousands of years old, before they settled on the Nabu origin). And going back to Lovecraft, a lot of it appears in the earliest Fate stories. Fate was given powers not by a sorcerer, but an alien worshipped as a god. He barely encounters traditional monsters, but instead contends with hidden races, zombie slaves, abandoned alien monoliths, and half man and half fish creatures. Fate may have actually been the very first pastiche of Lovecraft in pop culture.

And of course we can't forget the gloriousness of Doc Fate pulling an Indiana Jones on us.

2: Wolverine

I don't even think you'd have to tweak Wolverine at all. You'd just have to get him out of the costume and Avengers/X-Men associations (although the X-Men have a substantial background in pulp sci-fi stories like Slan and Odd John, so they aren't really at odds here), maybe tone down his powers a bit and, that's it. Logan's already the kind of character who has such a varied sandbox history, whose powers can lead to so many different scenarios, that it's not a stretch at all to picture Wolverine in the usual pulp hero scenarios.

You can have half-naked Wolverine running around in the jungle with animals Tarzan-style, take him to Savage Land if you wanna throw dinosaurs in there. He's already Marvel's foremost "wandering samurai/cowboy" character which was one of the stock and trade types of the pulps. Western? Done. Samurai? Done. Wuxia? Just put him in China and add a couple extra fantasy elements. Wanna make a sword and sorcery story with him? He already comes with a bunch of knives and savagery and ability to survive grisly injuries. Horror? The MCU is crawling with them, or alternatively, tell a story from the perspective of someone who's being hunted down by Wolverine. Wanna tell a detective/noir/post-apocalypse story? Logan's right there.

Wanna have him crossover with pulp heroes? He's lived through the 1800s and 1900s and traveled all over the world, you could feasibly have him meet up with just about any of them. Logan may actually be the purest example of your question, because he's very much not a Pulp Hero, and yet, he definitely feels like a character who could have been one, at just about any point in the history of pulp magazines. He's perfect for it.

1: Wario

WAAA-okay, look, bear with me for a second here, I'm not just picking Wario because I love oddball choices and he's one of my favorite characters, I got some logic to this.

Okay so, the first question here: is Mario a superhero? While I'm usually adverse to calling characters prominent outside of comic books superheroes (hence why I'm definitely not interested in debating whether Harry Potter or Goku or Link or Frodo are superheroes), I do think it's a pretty shut case that, yes, Mario is a superhero. Superheroes don't just come in the form of skintight crimefighters, right from the start comic books have had varied types of superheroes appearing in comics and comic strips. For example, the "funny animal" superheroes are a type older than superhero comics, and they were arguably not only the most successful type of superhero of the 40s-50s era, but arguably defined trends dominating nonfunny animal superheroes, traits that predated or influenced Captain Marvel as well as Otto Binder's reshaping of Superman that defined much of superhero convention as we know it. It's part of why the question of "Is Sonic a superhero" has a very clear Yes as an answer.

So upon establishing that, yes, funny cartoon characters can be and are superheroes too, is Mario one? Well, I'd say yes. He's got an iconic uniform, he's got superpowers, he goes on fantastical adventures, he is both a nebulously general do-gooder as well as having a clear mission as protector of the Mushroom Kingdom. His adventures span multiple storytelling formats, he's got catchphrases, he even dresses up in Superman's colors and has a Super prefix iconically associated with him. Not a superhero the way we usually think of, but a superhero nonetheless.

And Wario? Well, putting aside Wario-Man who's more of a running gag than anything, Wario does just about everything Mario does. He's got all the traits that define Mario as a superhero short of a Super prefix and the selfless mission (which isn't exactly a rule). He goes around and gets into crazy adventures, he picks up items, beats bad guys, conquers the odds, and gets some kind of prize for it. He's got Mario's physical traits, and Mario's costume, and just about the same name short of a single letter. The caveat being, of course, that he's Wario, and so everything Mario is or does has to be exaggerated to gross extreme.

Mario is paunchy and strong, Wario's round and built like a powerlifter. Mario's got a friendly face and a fluffy mustache, Wario's got a massive horrible grin and jagged razors for a stache. Mario is a bit of an overeater, Wario can and will eat anything in front of him. Mario gets around with acrobatics and magic power-ups, Wario brute forces his way through everything and just rolls with whatever injuries he picks up along the way.

Mario gets fire powers by consuming magic flowers. Wario sets himself on fire and barrels around destroying everything in his path. Mario harnesses the elements or abilities of beings around him to clear obstacles and solve puzzles, Wario gets turned into a zombie, a vampire or a drunk to get the same things done. Mario befriends and rides dinosaurs who raised him from infancy, Wario piledrives dinosaurs and then uses their bodies to beat up more dinosaurs. Mario pals around with fellow heroes, princesses and friendly fantasy creatures, Wario pals around with aliens, witches, mad scientists, cab drivers, and lanky weirdos. Mario always ends his adventures joyfully leaping to the next one, Wario usually ends up either cackling in a pile of treasure or completely broke.

Mario races through plains to rescue princesses, Wario invades pyramids to hunt for treasure. Mario jumps through planets with baby stars guiding his path, Wario crashes into the Amazon jungle and fistfights the devil. You can see where I'm going with this.

If you were to take one of Nintendo's heroes to make them into pulp heroes, Wario, specifically the Wario Land Wario, may be the only one who really could do it, because in essence, he's the videogame equivalent of Professor Challenger. He's Bluto moonlighting as Indiana Jones, the weird brute adventurer for weird brute adventures where everything's off limits and you can trust our intrepid hero, who really shouldn't be a hero on all accounts, to deliver us a good time, give or take a couple deaths, scams, shams and oh-damns to complete said mad treasure hunts.

[saanphoenix]

“Why do so many old-school FFVII fans think that Cloud took Zack’s memories?”

Alright, so first things first. We gotta start from the beginning. We gotta start with Jenova.

Jenova is the name given to the alien entity known as the Calamity. “Heaven’s dark harbinger.” This being, assumed to be female because of the body she was in at the Crater, was basically godlike in her natural abilities. Historically, she was able to shapeshift. She was telepathic. She had a nigh indomitable will. And she used her abilities to infect the race of human(oid)s that happened upon her crash site--the Cetra.

Now, Ifalna, within the English translation of the OG, states that Jenova turned the Cetra into monsters, nearly wiping them all out, and that the wee few that remained basically had to be sacrificed to seal Jenova away before she could do anymore damage to all life on the planet. The notes Sephiroth finds within the Shinra Mansion seem to corroborate this version of events, as he tells Zack that the Cetra chose to fight the Calamity while the other humans “hid”, thus being spared Jenova’s shenanigans, allowing them to become the dominant race on the planet, but ultimately being cowards unworthy to be the shepherds of any star, to quote Emet-Selch from FFXIV. Stay with me now.

We also know that the notes Sephiroth reads within the Shinra Mansion do not, in any way, call Jenova the Calamity. They still refer to her as a Cetra. Meaning that those notes are outdated, before the discovery of a living Cetra, a Cetra who is 2000 years removed from her own people’s history. Right? So.

(’Ah, but what about Genesis point-blank telling Sephiroth the truth? He knew what was up!’ Yes, because Hollander and Hojo found out from Gast’s recordings, and Ifalna herself, what Jenova actually was, and then Hollander told Genesis, who then said some stupid ass shit to trigger Sephiroth into looking into the wrong information, and now Nibelheim is not Nibelheim anymore and Cloud is missing one more family member than he was when he joined Shinra. Also, fuck Genesis. Anyway.)

HOJO, yeah? Hojo, in two separate novels written by Nojima himself, states to Aerith and Tseng separately that Jenova 1) will inevitably infect all life on the planet with her “cells” because of the very nature of the Lifestream and 2) turned the Cetra against each other via subtle manipulation and illusions of their loved ones, dead or alive, conceived from their own memories. She didn’t show up looking like the Eldritch horror with the eyeball nipple, she showed up looking like a run-of-the-mill Cetra. And she would further disguise herself as people a Cetra knew in order to gain their trust. And then, after she had gained that trust, she would say shit like, “Hey. Your friend over there hates you,” or, “Hey. Your friend over there wants to kill you.” And thus the Cetra, at the very least morally but probably also physically, became monsters and tore themselves apart.

You ever wonder why everything the Cetra had was booby-trapped and hidden behind riddles and self-sacrificial bullshit like their Temple? My guess is because Jenova made it so they couldn’t trust anyone, even themselves.

“Why did I read all that? What does that have to do with Cloud voring Zack’s memories?”

Because we gotta understand the mechanics of this bitch first so that we know what to look out for.

Now, we have an alien in stasis--presumed dead but definitely not--and a buncha scientists who really want a coveted spot sucking President Shinra’s dick as head of the Science Dept. who all think that taking the genetic material of a Cetra and splicing it into a modern-day human’s DNA will give them a Geiger counter to the Promised Land. Which they want to use as fuel because only some of them really understand what mako is and the others are just fucking stupid. Anyway, my guess is that they archeology their way to Jenova’s still-kinda-alive corpse and do some DNA testing and go, “Ah! We’ve found a Cetra. It has to be one! She’s by the crater, after all, and that’s where some of them were nuked by a Meteor! :) We’re geniuses!” And Jenova, in the Lifestream, went, “GOTCHA, BITCH!”

And through the power of dino DNA, out pops a lot of nonviable lifeforms, some monsters, and, eventually, a relatively normal kid with a flare for the dramatic who will become wholly obsessed with apples and very boring literature that he will insist on repeating every five goddamn seconds. As he was no Geiger counter to the Promised Land, out pops another relatively normal kid who will grow up to have dreams, and honor, and steal food from his neighbors because he was so damn honorable that he just could not ask for a handout.

With Hollander and Gillian’s experiments not producing anything of note other than children that need love and support, Hojo and Lucrecia decide to take a slightly different sample of Jenova’s cells and just start sticking them everywhere. They’re in Lucrecia. They’re in Lucrecia’s fetus. And...something strange starts to happen.

Lucrecia starts to feel the effects of Jenova. Lucrecia’s mind and body start to kind of deteriorate. Not the way that Genesis’ and Angeal’s do later on, but she is plagued by shit like severe depression and fatigue. She falls out on the floor multiple times. Her bodyguard is a little late on pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at her husband and, instead of doing anything productive about her husband proving he’s an amoral murderous fuckhead, she just decides to play doll with her kinda undead bodyguard, get even sicker, and then, finally, pops out a very strange looking baby. In fact, he looks a little alien.

“No, seriously, what does this have to do with anything?”

Genetics. How Jenova cells work. Whatever clump of cells they injected into Lucrecia, clearly different from those used in Project G, seemed to focus more on the mental fuckery aspect of Jenova than the physical, shapeshifting aspect of Jenova. I would also argue that one of the reasons Lucrecia was so adversely affected by the cells and Gillian was not is their mental well-being. Gillian, even when we meet her, seems very upbeat and doing pretty okay despite her husband having died from exhaustion a coupla years back. Lucrecia was depressed and very subservient even before she married Hojo. Losing her mentor--Vincent’s father--probably exacerbated that. And, later in Advent Children, that sort of mentality--hopelessness and despair--is what Sephiroth’s Geostigma feeds off of. That and thoughts of death/dying. But that is more speculation than anything.

So, Sephiroth’s cells are different from Genesis’ and Angeal’s, and they were all three bred differently, but they’re all kinda chimeras of Jenova’s. And once Genesis learns about his origins, it’s like the lightbulb goes off. This guy’s creating clones by infecting his 2nd and 3rd Class SOLDIERs with his own cells. And when he does that, their physical appearance becomes his own. As does their will. Whatever Genesis wants, the clones also want. And then he just grows a wing for shits and giggles. Once he tells his BFF Angeal the sitch, behold! He’s got monster clones--maybe because he realizes how fucked up overwriting a human being with yourself is--and wings, too. ...Why?

The power to do all of this shit was always there. It was genetically always there. They just had to be made aware of it, to have the puzzle piece put into place. When Sephiroth dies, that puzzle piece is put into place. And then he starts fuckin’ with shit. And turns into monstrous angels. And then dies again. And then comes back and finally grows himself his own wing. He did it, fellas. He’s a big boy now.

But we’re not here to talk about Sephiroth--ignore how much I talked about Sephiroth and his mommies previously--we’re here to talk about ZACK and CLOUD.

“What’s up with Zack and Cloud?”

First, what we must realize is that even though Hojo says that both Zack and Cloud are failed clones because they 1) didn’t take on any physical characteristics of Sephiroth, 2) didn’t seem controlled by Jenova (or Sephiroth) and, 3) didn’t exhibit the other signs of a Reunion impulse like the other clones in Nibelheim that does not mean that Sephiroth’s cells, Jenova’s cells, are not working on them.

As we’ve observed in other 1sts, abilities do not always manifest immediately or even noticeably. Clearly, Sephiroth’s physical appearance is a bit of a hint, but Genesis and Angeal look pretty damn normal and, if it weren’t for their mako injections, they probably wouldn’t be showing that much of an increase in physical capabilities. Theoretically. Maybe 10-year-old Angeal had biceps the size of a man’s head. I mean. Pff.

Zack’s tolerance to Jenova was strong due to his previous exposure in the SOLDIER program. Cloud’s mind broke pretty early on. Neither of these results matter to the fact that they both now have Sephiroth’s cells within them--just as Genesis’ and Angeal’s clones had theirs--and that their very wills are now going to be affected by Sephiroth’s. But they are also going to be a little bit like him in terms of power.

Zack’s hair, when ingested by a Genesis clone, a clone of a Type-G SOLDIER, transforms that clone into a monster. Zack doesn’t even have to do anything. The Jenova/Sephiroth cells within his body can just Do That, cause that change in another life form, of their own accord. I’m honestly shocked that, whenever they gave Zack these S-cells, HE didn’t turn into a monster. But that’s neither here nor there. I wanna talk about Cloud.

Cloud has mako poisoning, which the Remake describes as his spirit/soul being stuck between his body and the Lifestream. Weird. Anyway, he’s not fully aware of his surroundings at all times, and he clearly can’t control his body that much. He somehow has the ability to kinda get his feet shuffling, and I’m going to go on a limb and say he can chew whatever food Zack gives him, but most of the time, he’s a puppet with cut strings.

But he is also still recovering from a mind break caused by Jenova cells. The same cells that are just chilling in his body, like they are in Zack’s. And all the months Zack is dragging his ass across a continent, an ocean, and another continent, they and Cloud are listening to whatever the fuck Zack is saying. Cloud is also constantly in physical contact with Zack.

In The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story, Kadaj has the power to not only read surface thoughts and memories just by being near someone, but he can also read deeper ones by making physical contact with someone. Because Jenova. And Sephiroth, whose cells Cloud and Zack have, in the OG demonstrates that he, too, can glean thoughts and memories from others. Because Jenova.

If this power is a genetic trait, as it is with Genesis and Angeal, then, sitting pretty underneath their skin, Zack and Cloud have this ability. Dormant. Snoozing. Kinda like the 1st Class Trio’s wings.

But Zack has a high tolerance and a high ignorance to Jenova and just what he might be capable of. Cloud’s mind is floating in and out at best. He’s not in control of himself. And when you have a situation like that, it is very, very easy to come to the conclusion that Cloud’s Jenova cells are passively absorbing the memories of Zack’s time in Nibelheim. That they are knitting these memories together with what little remain in Cloud’s head. That when Tifa comes across Cloud at the train station and calls him by name and remembers who he is that Cloud’s Jenova cells latch onto those memories in Tifa--as Sephiroth tells them they did--and they knit those memories with Zack’s and Cloud’s and the end result is the man we get at the beginning of the OG.

Because Cloud has visual memory of shit he never saw. It’s not just a visual medium telling a visual story. You wanna know how I know that for a fact? Because, in the Remake, Cloud remembers Sephiroth walking up to Jenova’s tank in the reactor from Sephiroth’s perspective. He is looking through Sephiroth’s eyes, through his memory, up at “Mother.” In that moment in the Remake, Cloud is Sephiroth. He’s not Cloud anymore.

Cloud sees Sephiroth delivering the speech of being an Ancient. Cloud wasn’t there. Cloud didn’t see that. Zack did. That is Zack’s memory.

The man writing the Remake is the same man who’s been at the head of MOST FFVII writing. He was on the OG, he wrote Advent Children, he wrote the novels, he wrote Crisis Core, he’s writing the Remake. He knows what these cells can do because he’s crafted this world-building for decades.

Cloud didn’t take all of Zack’s memories. He didn’t need to. Kadaj, in the novel, doesn’t glean everything from someone right off the bat. Because he doesn’t need to. Only when he needs to learn something else does he go digging. The same is probably true for what Cloud’s cells most likely did to be able to know what he knows. Hell! Kadaj gets punched in the novel and he ACCIDENTALLY picks up the emotions and memories of the guy who punched him. He didn’t want ‘em but he got ‘em!”

There is evidence within the OG, and even more within the Compilation, that lend weight to the theory that Cloud unintentionally read Zack’s mind when it came to the events of Nibelheim.

For years, people have wondered, “How the hell does Cloud know that if he wasn’t there?” For years, people have wondered, “How can he use the Buster Sword if he was just a little grunt that used a gun all the time?” The logical answer is, “Because of his Jenova cells. They can just do that shit.”

[davids-cartoon-corkboard]

Okie dokie folks here’s that Stone speculation I was talking about. Like I mentioned before, each Stone ends up with someone who desires its power- Jo wants to travel, Rosa wants to be a “big kid”, etc. What do the side characters want, and what sidekick-y power would help them get it?

We’re dealing with eight characters so this will be split into multiple posts. First up is Carl!

Together Carl, Carlos/Ramona, and Carla loosely correlate to the Three Fates from Greek mythology. The first spins the thread of fate, the second determines its length, and the third cuts it.

Flo asks Carl if he can climb walls in “Big Win”, a clear reference to Spiderman. Spiders are pretty good at spinning thread!

Carl is the youngest of the trio; he has no child like Carlos or signs of age like Carla. Furthermore, his few lines so far indicate he’s still pretty childish.

“Hope the glue didn’t ruin their powers.” Carl was being a bit of a stinker by messing with Kid instead of wholly playing along or just not engaging.

Aaaand he’s the one who called Kid “the comic relief”. GDI Carl there were consequences to that statement.

“I don’t feel safe anymore!” He covers his eyes with his hands when he’s scared. Baby boy. Baby.

There are also a few instances where Carl acts like he’s more on top of the situation than he really is.

When Papa G 95 exposits about the Demon Death Dogs of Doom, Carl replies with “knew it”.

Once the fight is won, he says “I always knew they had powers. I just didn't wanna spoil the surprise for ya.”

When the townsfolk meet the five aliens, he says “What’d I tell ya?”

Carl never snooped around to discover/deduce anything about the plot ahead of time, so he’s clearly lying to make himself seem more impressive, a decidedly immature trait!

Though he may genuinely be an expert in super rare ceramics.

Carl wants others to think highly of him, to the point that he’s willing to lie and make Kid the butt of his jokes. “Spinning a yarn/tale” is an idiom meaning to lie or embellish the truth. Carl’s Stone will give him the power of Illusion, and it will be Opalescent to reflect his many-colored outfit. This will allow him to trick enemies into chasing after victims and running from monsters that aren’t actually there, as well as conjure sights and sounds to entertain allies. But returning to the Spiderman reference, failing to use this power responsibly will have consequences! Carl will use his illusions to show off, attracting unwanted attention in a galaxy full of villains hungry for cosmic power. His character development will have him learn to be more honest and humble, only lying when the situation truly calls for it.

---

(Carl: You Are Here) (Carlos and Ramona) (Carla)

(Hamburg and Fry) (Flo) (Chuck)