#probably non-canon but also. i really like the potential drama.

[fissions-chips]

Infectious Costa AU thought (again):

As it progresses, Jon starts developing a craving for human flesh, zombie-style.

[pigidin]

OKAY. Am I the only one fascinated by how much Alastor in s1 has interacted with other demons and built a potential for considerable amount of different, broad and unique relationships? With All of them being non-romantic/sexual?

I really don't wanna dive into the discourse of shipping coz honestly, I do think that erasing Al's aroaceness is not cool at all. Personally, I don't see him wishing any romance/sex at all, and well. Considering how platonic he actually is throughout the season, it kinda seems like people forget that friendship (or basically anything non rom-sex) exists in the first place.

Coz, like, let's see what we got::

Vox -- probably one-sided (psychosexual) crush from Vox with possible past friendship between them, them hating on each other yet having (used to have) some respect as well. The ANGST, the drama (for both of sides). Insert aroace troubles (possible aphobia from Vox? Or not? He may be biggest ally as well!) and Vox's petty feelings that are insanely interesting to explore (and laugh at).

Lucifer -- immediate hate that (with a course of events) can turn into forced bonding. The potential of queerplatonic parenting of Charlie is HUGE here. Insecurities from Al? Forced care? Banters? SHENANIGANS? Luci patching up Al after battle, prolly discovering his deal and them slowly bonding on shared interests? Hey.

Rosie -- literal established queerplatonic partners, married for tax benefits, spending their evenings gossiping, hating on Susan and Al rolling his eyes on another romance-rel drama Rosie was trying to help sb with. Rosie can have insane influence on him whether it is understanding modern things or just being with him when he needs it. It also gives off mom/son to me.

Husk -- fucked up master-pet not-friendship with probable care rooted since they were closer in past. Is it toxic? Yes. Is it giving off some problematic dynamic? Sure. Yet it's fucking complex on its core considering pilot, bits and pieces of their interaction and how easily Husk used to insult Al until he overstepped. Them two are quite similar if you think about it and if Al got over his ego it could benefit him a lot.

Niffty -- daugther/father dynamic with them sharing one sadistic-psycho braincell and genuinely enjoying each other's quirks. Protective Al? I just need more Niff and them two being partners in the most outrageous crimes.

Mimzy -- friendship going since they were humans, with them having an amazing (potential) backstory of sharing evenings on two. Al enjoying her company as well as being protective and helpful to her with nothing in return.

Charlie -- manipulated into trusting you as a dad figure? Don't tell me there is nothing below Al's creepy plans or that he wouldn't grow to care for her. He already is proud of her and finds amusement in her inspiration-skills (also, performance is his thing for a reason)

Angel -- I was honestly kinda upset we didn't see any interactions between them except one sex joke, coz my past era of Hunicasts was a fuel to their duo. Them bonding over how different they are is the best description of their dynamic. Also banters and body-puns.

You can't just erase Alastor from interacting with people, but putting him inside boxes of allonormative relationships while he has such a fucking huge potential for everything beyond just that - is quite.. disappointing. People turning a blind eye to a wide variety of relationships he can have (potential to which is set in canon) for the sake of just romance/sex is low key sad.

It's AWESOME to see ppl actually understanding it and.. damn THANKS to everyone who explores Al's relationship with others without it involving final wish to stick tongues into places. Dynamics can be interesting and exciting without it.

I really don't wanna project my romance-aversion onto Al, but when romance and sex is one thing you see everywhere.. it's hard to just let it slip.

You are allowed to do whatever you want, exploring physical intimacy is fun as well, and having Al, well, there are bunch of ways to show it with respecting his orientation and the fact that IT AFFECTS RELATIONSHIPS/ATTRACTIONS but please just don't make it the center of your attention, the one thing relationship revolves around, coz sadly it's just exactly how it looks like from some folks.

[coralinnii]

I love the villain scorned by the world feat: Azul genre: drama note: continuation of reincarnated into a new world as the bad guy AU Azul ver, not gender specific reader, no pronouns used, use of non-canon characters (Neveah), 1.4k word count

I know people wanted to see more of the female and male lead’s downfall but Azul’s story has so much potential for drama that I just can’t skip it. This is more of an interaction between villain/ess!reader and the female lead and things are getting interesting. There’s more to the story

Is it funny that the more I write Azul’s villain/ess!reader, the more they’re starting to be like how I think Jade would act…just sassier

You became the talk of the kingdom for quite some time and you weren’t surprised. You had your engagement annulled and disowned from your family but you managed to disgrace your former fiancé the prince and his lover with their affair. Instead of a fallen noble, you became a surviving noble who became a victim of unfaithful love. All according to your plan.

Free from your downfall, you find yourself living in comfort in your own house close to Azul. The royal family and your own parents have requested your attendance but you declined their letters, playing your victim card to the fullest.

“Oh no, how could I possibly return back to the palace where I had my heart broken?” “My family disowned me. The least I could do is respect their wishes” Good riddance to that stifling environment.

You did notice that you never once received a letter from the young prince, the male lead though you would scoff and burn it if he did anyway. You figured that he was too prideful to address the affair with you. He wasn’t regretful for his actions nor was he regretful he got caught. The original series seriously had a bad cast.

Though it could also be that since the disgraceful act the male lead was sentenced to house arrest to “reflect on his actions”. From your sources, he’s just been angry all this time, especially when he hasn’t been able to meet with his beloved.

Speaking of which, the female lead has been busy through all this fiasco. Crying and spinning the tale of how she was a helpless victim in this mess as well, saying how she was clueless throughout everything since being so new to the noble society.

Please, Jade has better acting skills than she does. You supposed you could commend her for her guts.

Like how she was gutsy enough to visit you in your own home.

“I’m so glad you’re willing to meet with me” Neveah smiled but you didn’t return the smile, choosing to sip your tea.

“You should be glad, considering I probably would have ignored you” you replied indifferently. “It just so happens that I wanted to ask you a few questions”

“Oh? What kind of questions?~” That exaggerated childlike tone of hers really rubbed you the wrong way.

Fighting through your irritation, you questioned her “I’ve heard that you’ve been attempting to meet with Azul for the past few days. Curious since you two aren’t even acquaintances”

“But, we are! Me and Azul are really close~”

“That’s not what Azul says, and you will address him as Count Ashengrotto” you rebuked her claim, a little snippier than you wished but your patience is not unlimited and the ditzy lady is truly testing you.

Azul mentioned his troubles to you when you asked about the visible stress on his face. Apparently he has unfortunately been bumping into the female lead at his businesses and she has been trying to interact with him, even offering to have tea with her…in his own restaurant.

“Tricking her would be akin to taking candy from a child, but even a child is more worthwhile than speaking with her” Azul sighed in aggravation with his brows furrowed. You kept a sympathetic expression but you felt a sense of joy over the silvernette’s words. There’s nothing wrong in secretly taking glee in your crush sharing your disdain over the same irritance, right?

“Perhaps you should take a short rest, Azul” you suggested, “This stress will do you no good and you can’t afford to make mistakes due to your clouded mind”

Azul sighed but nodded “you may have a point”

“Would you like to rest on my lap? I wouldn’t mind after all”

“You-!”

Refocusing your attention away from your memories, you sharpened your gaze at your uninvited guest. “Considering Azul is someone dear to me, I worry about your intentions in approaching him”

Then, the situation took an interesting turn.

The young lady in front of you, undeterred from your stare, smiled brightly which some could compare to something angelic…to some. But her words did not match her innocent appearance.

“Are you worried that I would approach Azul the way you did?”

You didn’t break your expression but you must admit you were close to. Is she insinuating…

“Isn’t it weird that the famously lovesick fiancé of the prince suddenly changed?” Neveah questioned, putting on a confused pout on her lips. “No explanations, like a whole new person. The story has changed”

Oh, how interesting.

“So you’re interested in me” you finally smiled back “What can I say, I realized one day this was not my love story so I decided to change my ways”

“Is that so?~”

“Yes. But back to the topic,” you took control back of the conversation “You haven’t explained your reason for approaching the count?”

Whatever calculating look you thought you saw in the female lead disappeared as she smiled even brighter than before, fully committing to her innocent appearance.

“I just felt so bad in interfering with your engagement that I’ve been avoiding the prince in respect for you, not even replying to his letters. Then maybe you can reinstate your engagement with your beloved”

My beloved? You truly had difficulty not outright laughing out loud over that idea. But it was an interesting tidbit the female lead gave, knowing that the prince has been sending her letters meant that those two are still in contact. Just because she said she doesn’t reply, she could still be reading them.

“I’ve been trying really hard to forget the prince so I’ve been visiting the Monstro Lounge to get away” she continued her story, managing a tear from her eyes. “And I’ve been seeing the count there so I thought we could be friends”

So this is how she’s been fooling the masses. You’re willing to admit that she’s definitely a better actress than you initially give her with her sweet words and unassuming “innocence”. But you knew the story she conveniently left out.

Breaking the engagement between the royal family and your (ex)family of duke status, the male lead has been in hot water ever since as his reputation has affected him to the point that his right to the throne is in jeopardy. Azul on the other hand has been making a name for himself and his value in the kingdom is very attractive to many pursuers.

“How shamelessly greedy of you, Ms. Protagonist” you smirked at the female lead who continues to put on a sweet facade, you commend her ambitions at least. She really wants her happy ending.

But you’re done with this conversation already. You got your answers and have no interest in keeping company with this eyesore for any longer.

“That’s all I need to hear, I believe it’s time for you to leave” With that, you waved to your guards who were standing by to escort the lady to the door.

“Wait, then will you take the prince back? And convince the families to restore the engagement” Neveah quickly asked you before she was ushered. Ah, so that’s why she came to see you. You never did bother to ask…or care.

“Firstly, I don’t have the habit of picking up trash I already tossed out” you calmly stood up from your seat, smoothing down your clothes of creases, and gave a smile towards the female lead before speaking again “Secondly, I’m simply respecting what you said to me. Do you remember? You couldn’t stop from loving who you want”

You watched Neveah stutter and stumble, trying to find the right words but you weren’t interested anymore so you proceeded to leave the room first with some parting words before your guards walk the female lead out of your home.

“I’m letting you love the prince like you said you wanted, and I’ll love who I want, and I intend to fight”

[total-drama-brainrot]

Total Drama Psycho Noah AU, in 'World Tour' when everyone was falling and singing, Noah was cackling like a maniac half the time... Everyone thinks that Noah was laughing, because Noah was 'terrified and losing his mind about dying'... But actually, Noah LOVES falling through the sky as much as Izzy... Noah also laughed like a maniac when he dived off the giant cliff, in the first episode of 'Total Drama Island'... Noah, Izzy and Eva would probably jump the cliff again for fun! 🤪

I'm actually so giddy over the idea of Izzy and Noah holding hands mid-air and spinning in circles as they plummet through the sky, cackling in joy at the thrill of free-falling, whilst the rest of the cast are screaming and fearing for their lives.

Because they're both smart enough to know/realise that Chris would never risk killing the whole cast for one gag- it'd be bad business, and terrible for ratings.

So they're contented to enjoy the feeling of whip-sharp wind dancing around them as they continue their rapid descent to the earth below, basking in the crispness of the high altitude air.

Over the racket of their own perilous cries, no one else notices these two having the best time. At least, until a familiar ringing chimes from above (somehow it's clear as day, despite the howling gales around them) and the incredulity of the situation halts everyone's mortal terror.

Then Izzy and Noah's giggling is just discernible over the sound of wind resistance.

Luckily, the situation itself warrants the casts' full attention, so no one present is in the right mind to notice that the pair were concerningly unconcerned with their imminent demise. Instead, all focus is directed towards their musical performance.

-

As for the cliff diving in the first/second episode of Island? I want to keep this AU as canon adjacent (i.e. nothing that would change the established timeline of events) as possible pre-reveal, which actually works really well here.

Since Noah is literally the only contestant we don't see or hear do the jump, it's super easy to fill in the blanks with whatever headcanon you want. In the context of this AU p!Noah does his dive silently, because he's so overcome with giddiness at the prospect of potentially fatal cliff diving that he's gone non-verbal. But he has the biggest, feralest, most unnatural smile on his face as he launches himself face-first into the shark infested depths below. It's so unnerving that the editing crew scrapped his footage entirely, since there's no way the producers/network would let them air something so creepy.

Of course, since it's a pretty big cliff, the contestants themselves are too far away from Noah to see his facial expression. They all just assume he's really that apathetic, since he doesn't make a noise as he dives.

[astromechs]

can i get uhhhh Wanda for the character breakdown thingy?

How I feel about this character my baby angel princess who has never done anything wrong in her life but also she's a war criminal and i support women's wrongs 🥰 and really just... one of my favorite marvel characters who, for all her over 1,000 appearances in the comics and several prominent mcu appearances, is almost never allowed to live up to her full potential, which makes me really sad.

All the people I ship romantically with this character my wanda otp is probably her + jean grey because i have a galaxy brain and no one sees this potential like i do, also big fan of wanda/carol (danvers), honestly i ship her with most women she interacts with because she just exudes a lot of sapphic energy especially in the comics, i am a scarletvision shipper absolutely she and the synthezoid will break my heart forever, and... ok, i'm just going to admit my secret: i do kinda ship her and stephen strange lmfao also ask me about my made up ot3 scarletnovadevil that i fondly nickname the depression house because all three characters involved are depressed as hell

My non-romantic OTP for this character wanda and her kids, absolutely. i also enjoy the ups and downs that is her relationship with pietro, and i really enjoy the family drama over the years with magneto (sidenote: i do still think the retcon that wanda and pietro aren't his kids is really stupid, and it's honestly probably going to be undone sooner rather than later because the mcu has the rights to the x-men, and these comics loving their mcu synergy... lol)

My unpopular opinion about this character i think i probably have an unpopular opinion for a comic reader, but i actually think there is good in some of the mcu wanda appearances (particularly wandavision); the issues with the adaptation are there, and i've discussed them a few times here, but i don't throw everything out.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon. my answer is the same for both comic and cinematic continuities: continue to build wanda out as a character with her own space/niche in the magic side of the lore, rather than as a side character to the avengers, the x-men, or both; wanda is at her best when she's allowed to break free of all that nonsense and carve out her own path. i do think there's been good work on both sides here lately, and i'd like to see more of that!

character asks!

[bragganhyl]

Hiravias and also any DA character of your choice for those character asks?

Thank you, I'm going to go with Blackwall for the latter bit

How I feel about this character:

*image taken by player who has him as permanent support spellcaster instead of Durance

No, seriously I'm taking him literally everywhere I love him

(I'm putting the rest under the cut bc the image is bigger than I thought it would be)

All the people I ship romantically with this character: No one tbh, but I do see the appeal of him and the Watcher together, they got potential.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Kana, I like the way he brings out his more intellectual side in their banters.

But also Sagani, she's probably the person he respects the most in the gang and he's willing to stand up for her even against his own people if needed. That's a ride-or-die dynamic in the making I just wish there was more stuff with them in the game.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Not really an unpopular opinion, I just think he's super underrated.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish his feelings on undead got explored beyond the one (as in 1) line he has if you take him along for Heritage Hill, there is some potential there.

✨Okay now time for my main man, Thom ✨

How I feel about this character: In case I haven't given it away, I like that indestructible sad bear a lot, he's probably my fave companion in dai.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: The Inquisitor, obviously, I romanced him during my first pt and I got everything I wanted out of it - it had drama, it had wholesome moments, it had him on his knees, it had him sad and sopping wet, it's honestly great.

But also Josephine ofc, they make a cute couple, he'd treat Josie right, it's what she deserves.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: SERA duh, they have the best dynamic, they are funny and wholesome 12/10.

My unpopular opinion about this character: He's not boring and the problematic aspects of his character are handled with the severity that they deserve without seeking excuses for them.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: ...I can't think of anything tbh, I think he's fine as he is.

[zoroara]

Here's a question I'll probably have to sleep with one eye opened for. Rip my poor soul, I know the Varia are gonna hate me for this one 🤣 But I thought it was fun, so *shrugs*

If the Varia members could have any other occupation that isn't mafia based,what would it be? (This question includes everyone *waves at the ocs you have*)

Oh boy is that ever a question, well that's pretty easy for the OCs at least So I'll start with them. For the non-ocs take em with a grain of salt because there's no perfect fit past what they're already in there is going to be HELL with them either way.

Vittorio is the absolute easiest, assuming a weapons manufacturer is off the table because while that can exist outside of the mafia, that is very similar to what they are already. But any sort of mechanical work would be a job they'd love.

Silenziatore is a bit not quite what you'd expect. See Silen absolutely loves animals, even tries to play with the box animals when their owners aren't around. He's decently good with people and if it paid decently well he'd be pretty okay with working at a pet shop or even a pet groomers. You're not supposed to try and cuddle the animals at the zoo even as a zoo keeper so it's probably best he doesn't work there however.

Nascosta Okay that's a doozy, there's actually a lot of jobs they could work if they weren't so ready to beat the shit out of people for slights. But they absolutely love attention, both for their strength and looks as well as showing the fuck off, are a fantastic actor and fighter, so the logical conclusion? They'd make an amazing wrestling heel. Not the immediately thought until you remember they need to be as physically strong as the people they mimic and they sure are able to mimic the other varia executives. They are hiding muscles with their mist flames.

Tyr is really funny, especially since I actually ended up with an au recently with it, because it's out of left field. See no job except the one he currently has would every work out for him so he'd be deeply unsatisfied in everything. So he'd actively seek out a job he absolutely hated but was good enough at to keep, because he's the type of person if he can't be happy he may as well be downright miserable. So he'd end up in a library, working in a quiet little place, shelving books dealing with people, so on. It's a jarring sight for sure, but he at least does a good job

Now onto the Canons, again the easiest to place first:

Honestly I think the Levi could thrive in any work environment, he is constantly early, always on top of things, his only issue is he's sometimes a little clumsy and can occasionally get lost without some sort of guiding system, like in the drama cds. Of course I don't think he'd like an office job and probably needs something more physical as with most of Varia honestly. He's probably do a good job in a more government position having to deliver documents and things.

Mammon literally anything that handles money and gets paid a lot, fuck they could probably just be an accountant, or maybe run a fucking insurance firm you KNOW they would get so much out of that. Life insurance? you know it. Good god would they bleed you out. I think that's too much power to give.

Lussuria's pretty straightforward too, I mean in his little interview section he was apparently the youngest body building champion, he could easily go back to those sorts of championships if he wanted, or maybe some sort of modeling career. He has some good options for sure. there's also another potential depending on how much medical knowledge you believe Lussuria to have, he could potentially be a pathologist.

Squalo, ohhh Squalo, see I have, funny answers for these ones and more serious ones. Though with his tolerance which while yes he's constantly being pissed off he's also just. constantly being prodded by his co-workers he probably could make it in anything literally less stressful than the current job he has. But regardless, with his sword skills, either competition wise(he really could be an Olympic level fencer if his dumb ass would like be satisfied with not killing his opponent), or teaching wise are potentials. I did have a really funny au where Squalo lost his memories and ended up working at an aquarium, mostly taking care of the sharks.

Now Xanxus and Bel, oh god these two. Buddy, buddy I don't think they can HAVE jobs outside of the Varia. Do they have some form of skills that can be used in other jobs? absolutely. Can they tolerate/take orders from other people? absolutely the fuck NOT. The best you can do with Xanxus is stick him in SOME sort of leadership role where he won't be bothered and pray to god he doesn't come and kill you anyway. Bel? Dear lird. I don't even think you can do THAT.

He needs to have some level of respect for the people above him and unless you're a violent fuck like Xanxus is that sure isn't happening. He may be a prince but I don't even think he's anywhere fit to be in the position of a leader.(I know Rasiel would agree with me there). Those two are best fit right where they are and honestly it's doing the world a favour by keeping them there.

Edit: Upon further consideration if we consider freelance an option, Bel could likely work as an Ice sculptor with his skills and thanks to being able to be choosy once he gets as a popular option he'd be able to do what commissions he thinks are cool.

[flowerslut]

Your thoughts on human!Au(s). Boring? Is it harder to write than canon au (or any fic where they aren't human)? What about highschool human au? Also, how do you think Jalice's dynamic would change in an all human canon universe?

hm, I don't hate all-human AUs by any means, nor is there any sort of au or trope that I ever routinely ignore (except for the mafia/sports/band!aus—legit, I will never understand the plethora of mafia!aus on ff) but I am unfortunately the pickiest bitch in the world when it comes to characterization, and in all-human twilight AUs I don't usually vibe with other people's characterizations of the cullens. it's also really, really hard to find jalice fic (which is 99% of what I read) that hasn't been abandoned, and even harder to find all-human jalice non-abandoned longfic, that also write them well, so 🤷🏼‍♀️ I haven't read much!

ok ok but to actually answer your questions:

do I find AH AUs boring? sometimes, yeah. but that's usually because the AH AU plots I've seen are intensely dull with no stakes (no pun intended) so if I were to ever find enough that I vibe with I'd absolutely make a rec list!

is it harder to write AH or canon stuff? I always default to canon-verse stuff unless I have a fun AH idea (like the unpublished one fell swoop) but when I do write AH stuff there's usually a supernatural element to it. I find it much easier to write canon/vampire fic since just the presence of vampires alone just makes the story so much more exciting because of how interesting their lore is, so that's what I do more often!

what about a highschool human AU? I've written a small one! I really like that fic and think it's sooo underrated. if I ever were to write another high school AU it would probably be much angstier since I love to have drama and mess in my fic 🤩

how do I think the jalice dynamic would change? not to link to my wife for the millionth time but g made this beautiful post here years ago that sums up what the cullens in a realistic AH high school scenario might be like. I think it would be much like canon, in which bubbly, social, laser-focused-on-fashion-and-art weirdo (affectionate) alice just attaches herself to jasper, who is a scary misanthropic little fuck up with a reputation that precedes him. like, that's pretty much canon, just adjust some details here and there and voila! you've got their characters nailed down! as for "how their dynamics would change?" I think jasper'd be a liiiiiiittle less "overprotective" since there (hopefully) wouldn't be threats of violence and murder potentially looming around dark corners, although that aspect of his personality would absolutely still be there. and I think, for alice, since she's a human and doesn't have to overcompensate to immerse herself in human culture, would have a really confident hold on her own identity, and probably be just a fun friendly little gal doing her own thing and not taking anything too serious!

[autolenaphilia]

I finished listening to The Magnus Archives many months ago. It is a horror audio drama podcast that was very popular here on tumblr. Yet i felt underwhelmed. It was okay, I guess? I felt that the statements were actually scary in the first two seasons, and by season 5 I was not scared at all, despite horrific things happening regularly.

Like there was nothing outstandingly bad in the writing. The characters were fine, nice representation of cis gays I suppose. Although the only trans woman being a single statement giver who doesn’t actually appear in the show is a bit disappointing. For me, perhaps the most important point of media representation is to get creative people from marginalized communities employed. I get it's a single-writer thing, Jonathan Sims writes every episode, but employing a trans woman actor to give the statement (something that happens with plenty of other statements) for the only transfem statement giver would be nice.

Well the only trans woman if you don’t count Nikola Orsinov. Oh Nikola, she is literally a man turned into an evil fake plastic mannequin/doll woman who hides her malevolence under an exaggerated cutesy performance of femininity and like Jame Gumb, steals skin to appear like a human woman. Giving potentially another meaning to the acronym TMA there, but I’ll give the writer the benefit of the doubt and say that’s probably not intentional. even if it does express some anxieties about gender. Besides, she’s my favourite villain by a long shot, Nikola Orsinov is a lot of fun.

I also disliked one of the canonical lesbian couples, Basira Hussain and Daisy Tonner. It's a typical example of the trope where the butch lesbian character is a cop, and on top of that, the series does a police brutality arc with them. It's not like women can't be violent cops, but like come on, Magnus Archives. When police brutality happens and a non-white lesbian like Basira is involved, they don't tend to be the perpetrator in the incident.

Anyway, the show was entertaining but felt underwhelming.

And I think I finally figured out why. It’s because the basic idea of the series is that it starts out seeming like a horror anthology series. It’s seemingly disconnected stories of people being menaced by the supernatural, with no explanation of what the supernatural actually is, as in most horror stories. The statements in Magnus can be good, solid horror fiction, if a bit derivative.

And then it reveals its true face: it’s actually a horror serial. The series actually has extensive worldbuilding which connects together and explains all those seemingly disparate stories.

The shift from horror anthology to serialized drama is frankly just awkward in general, it's such a radical shift in story structure. The show sticks with the statement structure for continuity reasons long after it makes any dramatic sense, when the story is carried forward by dialogue rather than any information gained from the various statements..They interrupt the story by the final seasons rather than develop them. In season 5, characters are literally annoyed with the statements because they interrupt the plot progression.

Yet the problem with this storytelling shift I think is far more deeper. That’s because I think horror is kinda antithetical to worldbuilding. I think horror needs some mystery to it, a sense of the unknown, of humanity being menaced by inexplicable forces. When you can explain the supernatural, as extensive worldbuilding tends to do, it ceases to be really scary. And The Magnus Archives has macabre and dark worldbuilding, but it also explains far too much. It tries to be a metafictional commentary on horror fiction, but it ends up showing how bad it is at understanding the genre

It presents these very genre-typical horror stories, with all their unexplained supernatural events and it seems writer Jonathan Sims saw their unexplained nature as a promise of a future solution instead of actually standing on their own. And that’s not how mystery works in the horror genre for the most part, and for good reason.

I’ve sometimes heard The Magnus Archives described as Lovecraftian, but looking at what Lovecraft said about horror in the classic Supernatural Horror in Literature, I think he would agree with me. “The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” And in what he claimed in the true weird tale “A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint...of that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.“

This is a kind of horror ethos that is antithetical to worldbuilding. Worldbuilding maps out and explains a setting’s fantastical elements, which works best for a kind of Tolkienian fantasy, whereas horror relies on the unknown. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos is often seen as the kind of explanatory worldbuilding Magnus engages in, but that’s something his lesser imitators such as August Derleth engaged in far more than Creepy Howie himself. It’s an impression created more by the Call of Cthulhu RPG than Lovecraft’s stories.

M. John Harrison’s criticism of worldbuilding is also relevant to The Magnus Archives:

“When I use the term “worldbuilding fiction” I refer to immersive fiction, in any medium, in which an attempt is made to rationalise the fiction by exhaustive grounding, or by making it “logical in its own terms”, so that it becomes less an act of imagination than the literalisation of one. Representational techniques are used to validate the invention, with the idea of providing a secondary creation for the reader to “inhabit”; but also, in a sense, as an excuse or alibi for the act of making things up, as if to legitimise an otherwise questionable activity. This kind of worldbuilding actually undercuts the best and most exciting aspects of fantastic fiction, subordinating the uncontrolled, the intuitive & the authentically imaginative to the explicable; and replacing psychological, poetic & emotional logic with the rationality of the fake. “

This is harsh, but describes the problem of The Magnus Archives quite accurately. I would add that in horror this kind of worldbuilding also undercuts any genuine horror. The “rationality of the fake” is no substitute for fear of the unknown. Supernatural horror without any mystery regarding the supernatural things just becomes a depiction of fantastical torture.

In season 1, the Archivist tries to deliver "rational" explanations for the supernatural events described, and they deliberately ring hollow. It reads as a man trying desperate to shore up his worldview against events that defy them, showing a "malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature" It's a classic horror writing trick. But by season 3, the archivist knows the basics of the story's worldbuilding, and starts explaining the statements with a new supernatural logic, which is shown to be correct.

And Sims doesn't seem to realize that he has simply replaced a naturalistic rationality with a supernatural "rationality of the fake." The stories in the first two seasons show the supernatural disrupting the laws of normal existence, and are therefore scary. Yet then the story creates a new "safeguard against the assaults of chaos" in the form of worldbuilding explanations of these events. Its fantasy with a lot of suffering, rather than horror.

The Magnus Archives might seem like a story that is very certain of itself. It has built this extensive worldbuilding construction to explain its every fantastical flourish, and even its genre and medium. We get explanations for genre staples such as "why are people able to give such articulate and clear statements of horrific and traumatic events?" And because it's yet another audio drama that has a "found footage" or rather a "found recordings" gimmick, we even get an explanation for why everything plot relevant is recorded.

Yet this is to mask a deep uncertainty, as it clearly feels a need to deeply justify its fantasy. A story that was more genuinely certain of itself would allow things to remain unexplained and not need to justify its own flights of imagination.

I don’t care much about spoilers, but I have some further more specific thoughts under the cut. I won’t summarize and explain concepts and plots from the series because it’s boring to write, so think of this as supplementary criticism for those who have listened to Magnus.

The problem with The Fears as explanations is that they are so boringly anthropomorphic. In fact they are explicitly explained in the final episode as arising from the human emotion of fear, a final bit of worldbuilding that adds explanation at the cost of actual horror.

And their motivation is so boring, in that they are basically sadists, whose goal with everything they do is to create fear in humans. It’s such a mundane motivation for interdimensional amorphous powers. That’s about as scary as the serial killers in the most boring kind of mystery and horror fiction, which is not much.

And it sucks all the actual surrealism and imagination out of the setting. Anytime Magnus borrows from surreal horror fiction, it’s not actually surreal, because everything is explainable. Things are surreal because surreal supernatural events scares humans and the supernatural entities want to scare humans. So things that are meant to be surreal horror like the Stranger ritual in the season three finale or most of the hellscapes in season five aren’t actually surreal.

Speaking of season five. For all my criticisms of the series overall, I have to praise the season four finale. It ends on a revelation that the supposed hero’s effort were all meaningless and that actually he has been manipulated into bringing out the apocalypse he hoped to prevent. This revelation is really effective tragedy, especially as it comes after what seems to be a happy ending for him and his partner Martin. Good shit, the series could very well have ended there. It would be a bleak ending, but that fits a horror series.

Yet then the series continues with another season. And by this time the transformation into Tolkienian worldbuilding fantasy is complete. The story of season five is how Frodo and Sam must journey through Mordor to defeat the eye of Sauron by destroying the source of his power. Sorry, I meant that Jon and Martin must journey through hellscape Britain in order to defeat the rule of the Eye and destroy the source of its power. The parallels are obvious.

This season feels so unnecessary, a fantasy quest to undo the tragedy of the fourth season finale. And they largely do, Jon and Martin are gone, but the fears leave the world. It is all justified with the worldbuilding, but again ending on this note of world-saving heroic sacrifice has barely anything to do with horror.

The hellscapes of season five are dark, but they are not effective horror. It’s the final confirmation that Jonathan Sims did not truly understand why his horror stories in the earlier seasons were so effective. And that was because they were set in a largely realistic and contemporary world. People living mundane lives before they are menaced by the supernatural. Most horror fiction does this, not only because it gives a “it can happen to you” quality but because horror most easily comes from taking a safe, mundane and explicable world and subverting that with unexplained and frightening supernatural events.

The Magnus Archives does have stories like that and they work, but then it undermines it by explaining the supernatural in rationalistic terms. And in season 5, it even takes away the mundane setting. Now almost everyone except the servants of the entities live in hellscapes literally designed to make them suffer over and over again. There is no longer any normal world to provide contrast, just entire landscapes of torture. It may sometimes present bitter parodies of realistic situations, but so removed from real life that is hard to connect with or regain the sense of horror from those early stories.

And again, because the rationalistic worldbuilding of The Magnus Archives there is no real surrealism to these hellscapes, because why they exist is explained. There is just torture and no mystery or wonder to the fantasy of season 5. It’s just suffering for the sake of suffering, the worst and least interesting kind of horror. And it’s a deep-seated problem within the show, developed to its utmost extreme.

It's fiction that feels the need to justify itself at literally every turn. It doesn't dare have something happen without explaining why. So we get this fake surrealism, where if anything weird happens it's because supernatural powers want to scare people with the weirdness.

Apparently there will be a sequel, a Magnus Archives 2, despite earlier promises there would not be. And considering the original show went on for far too long and explained its world too much to be truly scary, I don’t think there is much fruitful to be gained there, but we’ll see.

[spyrkle4]

Welp trial 2 is off to a *great* start

details under the cut so I don’t accidentally spoil the trial

-A couple secrets got confirmed in this one! which makes me sad : (

-Whit’s mom is dead : ( Ace has an eating disorder : ( Eden : ( just Eden is sad 

(this kind of makes me feel like that the world of DT is not very lgbt friendly, as Nico was constantly bullied for being non-binary and Eden worries her sexuality is going to ruin her friendships, I mean the DT world clearly has problems as shown in the backstories of several characters and in the bonus videos, even when the Tragedy happened because of the messed up expectations of society (teenagers being pressured to be the best of the best), society still didn’t change : ()

that was probably a little off topic but if we get bonus videos for the dead people in this chapter it’ll probably worldbuild a bit more 

-Also I am 100% certain David lied, not bc he said he got a dead person’s secret but we can guess Xander’s secret if you’ve seen the bonus videos, I mean it could be that it’s both Xander’s secret (Teruko having no idea what her secret is and the remaining few are kinda morbid), but David lying seems accurate 

-And it was basically confirmed Nico did try to murder Ace, and J making a VERY good point that it’s something they have to live with, even if they didn’t kill Ace

-Them talking about the rules (Arei potentially being complicit in her own murder) is interesting, makes me think it’s something that’ll apply to future cases

-Speaking of that I love how Veronika is casually like “oh yeah I’m keeping my secrets to pan out the drama” like she has 0 fear of death and is just here for the chaos

-Everyone’s reaction to the murder secret being “wtf which one of you is a murderer?!?!” XD

-And of course the dead students having a presence still, (I repeat my statement of not taking a drinking game every time the dead cast are brought up, your liver will die), it makes seeing their portraits in the trial room more... spooky? I’d say? Like they def aren’t forgotten, not even dying in canon will prevent you from having effect on the plot, you will haunt the narrative

-Xander def haunts the narrative the most since David pinned the mastermind secret on him 

-I kinda figured the ep would end on the note, I’m dying to see what that note is

-Also I wonder if it has to do with the Arei/J switch theory going around. Am I 100% percent certain it’s true? not really. Do I think it’s possible? Yes. Do I think there’s a lot behind the scenes we haven’t seen due to Teruko not being involved it things? Y E S

-Teruko’s actions are gonna hit her in the face as her removing herself from situations causes her to not be able to get all the information or even be able to help out, like she’ll probably slowly start trusting the others after this, since they’ve given no reason for her to distrust them

-Esp Eden, she’s trying her best over here

-Also omg I love the voicing for the nonstop debates, and the details of the trial look so awesome <3 

[firespirited]

In other news my Dune fixation caused by some amazing tumblr meta writing has not been sated by watching the DUNCs.

I had a long pretty good post typed out after the first one and tumblr ate it:

here goes:

I considered it an alternate timeline (by the time we get the non-Alia and Chani choices of DUNC 2, we're definitely in a different version of this story - I like not knowing if Messiah will be much like the book, I like it if there's no escaping the plots set in motion). I had to repeat Alternate Timeline as a litany when there was no diplomatic party, no tweaking methhead bitchy Piter and Kynes didn't get That Moment with nature.

Was disappointed by the fact Paul isn't already tormented by potential futures at his first major fight wondering if dying might be the best way to avoid mass death and escape the machinations. To me, in that fight, he's chosen a path to the suffering of billions and justifies it and refines it later.

Lynch Dune remains fun because it's bonkers, this is fun too but definitely alternate timeline and neither are at all how I imagine it. Lynch seemed to nail the spirit of some of the characters better despite massive creative liberties with the plot details. It's its own weird and wonderful artefact.

Villeneuve remains the king of ovoid spaceships, mega landscapes and letting the fashion and sound designers get a great budget. I love the Chani additions, not canon and I don't care, it works!

The lack of Arabic complex concepts and more references to eastern religions was sorely lacking: flow has to be more than just a picture of moving sand, i wanted that cells interlinked within cells interlinked: galaxies and molecules and populations easter egg.

I also had a hope for DUNC 2 that it would show the whole universe as deeply religious, as in hardwired to give themselves over to a higher power even if that belief is atheism or eugenics. It didn't and I think that's really important context to properly understand what the story is saying. We've got political devotion bad and religious zealotry bad with both being culturally groomed into people but not the larger context of other "cults" that aren't explicitly about power but self-improvement or belonging or even service.

----------------------

My silly pet theory is that the font is like that because we're probably never getting the two other "ones who bridge everything" of the trinity: sad worm god emperor and our man DUNC potadaho the ultimate renaissance man with a thousand lives. (As much as I'd love DUNC 8 2039: we're putting silver fox Momoa in situations again)

The dream will always be the cartoon/anime adaptation:

52 x 50-minute episodes that teeter wildly between dense political machinations, ecological exposition, that Bakshi LOTR trippy violence and even trippier visions interrupting action scenes, but most of all, near blasphemous levels of religious symbolism top to bottom, the Abramic sure, but the Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist. If they could add Paul getting a big dose of gender WTF: trill-style after being exposed to the water of life that would be amazing.

But yeah I need to get my hands on large print books - yeah yeah, the migraines will murder me regardless. I missed being in everyone's head. Like, the films are great a conveying scale but not how much it's an interpersonal drama first and foremost... for many of the side characters too.

[willel]

If I remember correctly you do not exactly ship Byler, right?

If you feel free to talk about this topic, I wanted to ask you something as a non-shipper; would you be okay with Will having a new boyfriend (even if we'll see Will and his boyfriend for a couple of episodes), or would you want him to just get over Mike but ultimately just be happy about himself and accepting himself?

I do not consider Byler possibly happening because i do not think it is going to. That's why I am just asking your opinion without including Byler as a possibility.

Ye, I don't ship any of the ships, though I make some exceptions for Jopper and a bit of Jancy. Now Lumax. Even with those, if they didn't end up together, I would not be bothered so you can see why I'm not sure if I can really call myself a shipper.

At the end of the day, I want these characters to be happy. I want them to feel personally fulfilled. I want them to feel accomplished and self assured. I don't want their happiness to depend on another person being with them romantically. I want them to have achieved SOME happiness, even if it's not ALL the happiness.

I, as a person, do not view having a romantic relationship as the end all be all of happiness. Even for characters whose entire story is about romance, I think there is more to be said about the other things they succeed in doing whether they "get the girl" (or boy) or not.

It doesn't matter to me if Will gets a boyfriend. It doesn't matter to me if El keeps a boyfriend. The "boyfriend" is just one possibility for their happiness, not the ultimate solution. In fact, it's such a tiny fraction that people decide to hone in on for some reason.

What I'm looking for is for Will to feel like he isn't a mistake. For him to feel safe telling his loved ones who he really is. (really hoping for Joyce in this case) For him to not be the third-wheel friend. For him to feel confident to speak his mind sooner before he explodes like he tends to do. I want him to feel like he's someone's first priority in a good way whether it's platonic or romantic. I want him to realize he can keep his old friends AND make new ones, he doesn't have to subject himself to this harsh loneliness.

As I stated in the past, I have no idea what the hell the writers are doing with the Byler/Mileven plot line and I think they already screwed it up beyond repair so I care about it even less now. To me, it looks nothing more than potential teenage drama Teen Wolf style or something. Or should I saw Twilight. Whichever is worse. Not necessarily because that's how it's written, but because of how it's been perceived by the fandom and how everyone has been behaving.

Will's story arc about his sexuality and slowly coming to terms with what he thinks is his place in the world is sad and so very interesting. Not to mention how this supernatural plot is wrapped up in his personal growth and trauma. The actual romantic part of it? Eh.... doesn't pull me. (and neither does El's lovelife)

Having read all that, I'm sure you and others can understand why a lot of people support something like Byler whether it happens or not, but also why there are plenty of other gateways that can lead to Will's happiness that can or won't include another guy. I don't know which is more likely.

I have no idea what the writers are doing with this dumb love triangle bonanza and I could've lived my life without it. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm not looking forward to the conclusion. I just know when season 5 hits, I will be blocking all the ship tags. My opinion doesn't matter at all. No ones does except the writing team and their whiteboard.

I'd like to leave off with this. Something I like to reiterate on all posts like this. CANON DOESN'T MATTER. If you ship a ship, then ship it. It's your business and no one else. No one can tell you what to like. There is no law on the books that you can only ship canon. I ship one of the biggest non-canon ships in history probably and we're chill and minding our own business even with canon people constantly spamming us or stealing our content for themselves.

So I'm just sayin', whatever side of this silly war you are on, you'll be way better off not bothering the other side and enjoying your own ship to the very end.

[incarnadinedreams]

Your favorite jc's ship?

Honestly, I am not attached to any particular ship for him! I'm open to pretty much anything - I've joked that I'm an 'allcheng, anycheng, nocheng, whatevercheng' shipper before. I'm open to anything that makes our purple boy happy! (Or sad, but in a hot way.)

My answer also depends on the setting and how "serious" it's meant to be, if that makes sense? Also whether it's aiming to be fluffy/optimistic/sweet or dark, no thoughts only horny or a well-rounded romance, etc.

If we're talking "what do I think is the most realistic person for him to end up in a relationship with in a 'serious' post novel canon setting that is not a hot dumpster fire?" If anyone, I think it would be some unrelated OC/minor background person not actually named in the novel with minimal baggage/drama/involvement in past events, set long enough after the end of the novel that he's had some time to marinate and tenderize.

But I'm not particularly bothered by a ship needing to feel "canon-rooted"/"canon-plausible" (or for it to not be a dumpster fire) to enjoy fics or art or whatever! So I'm down for almost any pairing, I don't really have any notable NoTPs or limits, and if the setting is canon divergence or AU that obviously opens up a lot of possibilities.

And the fun thing about a fandom centered on a necromancer is that even being dead is not a major roadblock to post-canon shipping!

If I were more into the CQL/Untamed side of the fandom I would definitely be super into ChengQing, there's a lot about it that I think works well, but unfortunately as a mostly novel fan there's a lot less there to work with so a lot of times they're referencing CQL-only plot changes! (I haven't actually seen CQL just enjoyed gifsets and such and have some basic ideas of what the big plot changes are/that there is a comb involved somewhere, no hate to CQL though I think there were some very valid adaptational changes going on there!) But I do still enjoy ChengQing when I come across it anyway, especially the few darker novel-based versions of it floating around out there (though that's overall a rarer take on it).

Of the bigger/popular ships, the one with the most obvious dramatic energy/intensity straight out the box is ChengXian. So much room for angsty activities in that one whooooo boy!

Some ships do take a lot more to get me invested than others though. For example Xicheng is really popular and I can see the appeal, but for me to enjoy it there's just a lot of heavy lifting that has to go on to overcome their canon "Just Some Guy I Politely Chitchat With For No More Than Five Minutes at the Yearly Cultivation Conference" energy, if that makes sense? I can be convinced, it's just a long road from point A to point B for me to be hooked.

I also appreciate the potential of a lot of smaller or rarepairs with characters like Wen Ning, Qin Su, etc.

Crossovers are fun too. That Jar Jar Binks/Jiang Cheng smutfic is genuinely a masterpiece that brings me endless delight every time I remember it exists and I am not being sarcastic about that, it's so deranged and wonderful and makes me giggle just thinking about it.

Sorry this was probably the longest non-answer ever since I really don't have any very strong opinions!

(Also if the anon who sent me that ask an embarrassingly long time ago about fic recs that I still haven't answered is reading I am so sorry I am still trying to organize my bookmarks because I am The Worst and Least Organized I promise I haven't forgotten)

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- All Saints Street (Anime) - All Saints Street is on crunchyroll now! I like how they consolidated the episodes into 6 normal length ones, as while I enjoy the theme song it's so much nicer to be able to marathon the show without having to skip past it every 3-8 minutes. A new season will be airing soon so I figured this would be a good time for a rewatch and to hop back into the comics, as last year I considered this series to be an incredibly underrated gem given how cute its art style is, how good its comedy can be, and how likable all the characters are. It helps of course that I adore monsters, and this upcoming season will be including Crystal, one of my favorite characters from the webcomic. I hope they include the running plot of Nick accidently dating his coworker as well, as any scenario involving Nick being a cringe fail pathetic mess is top tier.

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Video Game) - I've been aware of the shoot a man war simulator franchise that is Call of Duty for a long while now and never in a million years did I think I'd ever be interested in playing one. And I still think that, as I haven't played one and never plan to. But. Some monster-loving blogs I like have been posting a lot of monster AUs about this particular cast so I went ahead and checked out some of the relevant canon plot/character interactions that would let me understand the context of the cool art and fics that I wanted to check out. The monster ones ended up being pretty fun so I checked out some of the non-monster ones too and again, some pretty solid fan works out there.

- Nimona (Movie) - I just watched this today so I do need some time to stew on it, but my first thoughts are that it's super cute and I had a lot of fun with it. I love how it looks, Ballister's design with his big puppy eyes and wet pathetic cat energy is great as is Nimona's with her pointy teeth and fun expressions, and how odd but fun the medieval yet also futuristic setting is. It's great to see a solid mlm couple in a movie aimed towards children as typically only wlw get that luxury, and as a non-binary/trans narrative I think it works pretty well. The found family aspect between Ballister and Nimona is of course great to see as well. There are some things I think could have been executed better, I wasn't too crazy about at least 50% of the comedy and I think the movie could get a little too predicable at times, but those are pretty small complaints for what was a very cute, wholesome, and visually impressive movie.

- Heavenly Delusion (Anime) - Probably my favorite of the season, This was a really solid first season - It's an interesting world and mystery, they don't overexplain things and are good at letting moments sit, the main characters were likable, and the pacing was really good considering how often we would receive satisfying foreshadowing that answered just enough to keep us invested while opening up all sorts of new questions.

- Oshi no Ko (Anime) - Once again I find myself at a crossroads of acknowledging that a piece of media not going in the direction that I wanted it to doesn't make it bad, but also being unable to separate my feelings of disappointment on the lost potential from my feelings on the show as a whole. I did enjoy this show, and I appreciate the behind the scenes looks at celebrity culture/show business and how it doesn't shy away from the darker and commercialized nature of it all, but with it springing between a reincarnation story to a murder mystery to a revenge plot to an actor career drama to an idol show, I just never felt like the focus was a strong as it needed it to be to keep me invested in the overarching plot. The weird age gap + First love but also new mother/brother/sister thing was also. A lot. That really didn't feel necessary when they could've just made the twins oddly intelligent children and gone from there. As I said before, I do love Skip Beat style narratives of actors working out how to get into character and affect the acting of those around them, so if it keeps doing that I will be interested in sticking around, but while I like the female characters more as characters their idol storyline is far less interesting, especially given how much the narrative is pushing that being an idol and idol culture is kind of awful actually, so maybe y'all should work towards a less toxic dream. Oh well, I don't mean to be so negative, the show did a lot of interesting things, including surprisingly portraying Youtuber and steamer culture in a realistic manner, and I did quite like the pseduo-main character of Kana Arima. I'll likely watch more but it's such a weird mix of ehhhhh and ehh actually maybe? That I wouldn't really recommend it to someone who isn't warned of a lot of weird stuff in advance.

- Ranking of Kings (Anime) - In retrospect it would have been nice to know that this season was more of a "additional content leading into the true continuation of the story" rather than a true second season from the beginning, as it would have saved me from watching the whole thing through a lens of "this is nice but uh when is plot going to happen?". Separated from that I am glad I watched it, it was nice to see Queen Hilling again, they did some fun things with the animation, and the last few episodes where we got some context for the Underworld brothers and the way demons work was pretty solid.

- Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (Video Game) - Alright, so getting back into it, the 3rd and 4th cases were pretty neat. I don't much care about the optics of HOW the murders were committed, as I feel like that aspect is far more interesting from a player standpoint when you yourself are figuring out vs the observer standpoint where you just want to see the story play out, but the characters this time were pretty fun, and I like the way the plot is progressing as far as the main characters are involved. For the 3rd case, the 3 friends all confessing to a murder they didn't commit in order to protect the other ones who they think could have done it was quite sweet and made for a good story, and for the 4th case the lesbian mad scientist robot lady Blackquill was a great addition. Going into the last section of the game I've unfortunately already been spoiled to the true culprit, but it's still very satisfying to see Athena and Blackquill and other Blackquill play off each other and deal with their trauma. I'm still excited to see how the game will end, after which I'll probably put a hold on the mainline series to look at the Investigation spin-offs before finishing up with Spirit of Justice, which a lot of people claim is the series highlight.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Okay actually now that I'm willing to explore it more the Depths are pretty neat. Also Tulin is my son and I love him.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - Yup.

Listening to: Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, Read Between the Lines by Tom Cardy, Ways to Go By GroupLove, Deathly Loneliness Attacks cover by SirHamnet, LosT by Bring Me the Horizon, Comatose by Skillet, Human by Gabrielle Aplin, Good Girls and Teeth by 5 Seconds of Summer, Nothing Good by Lea Salonga, That's What I Want by Lil Nas X, After Everything You Made Me Do and I Give Good Parent from Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

[noivoom]

 Okay, after several days of brainstorming and debating with myself, I have finally decided to emerge from The Lurking Pit and share this little (“little”) thing! This AU came about from my love of dysfunctional family tropes as well as my desire for everyone to live (honestly I mostly just wanted to daydream fanfic ideas without having to navigate canon’s minefield of problems, began wondering what an “ideal” situation would look like, and this spawned out of it)

The point of this was to, again, create an “ideal” situation for the gang, with potential for all kinds of Shenanigans™ and Drama™ alike while still keeping everyone as close to their canon selves as possible, as a bit of relief from all the angst :’) (I say “ideal situation,” but that doesn’t mean they haven’t still got issues galore. *cough*SUNNEEDSTHERAPY*cough*) (If, on the off chance anyone is inspired by this and/or wants to make something with this setting, please let me know! I’d LOVE to see it! :D)

I call it- One big UnHappy Family!

TL;DR Sun, Moon, Lunar, Earth, KC, Bloodmoon, and Solar Flare are all alive and well and somehow ended up as the world’s most Complicated™ family. Chaos ensues.

As for how they wound up that way? WELL. I’m gonna start rambling now, please bear with me

It starts with Sun shooting Bloodmoon. Sun didn’t fully know if he really wanted to kill Bloodmoon, was fighting internally to come to a decision one way or another and therefor wasn’t actually aiming when a moment of reflex kicked in, and the barrel went off. And he misses. Well... mostly. Bloodmoon takes a decent amount of the shot, and though it doesn’t kill them, they’re left severely damaged. It’s quite a confronting sight for Sun- while in canon there was nothing left of BM for Sun to really understand the weight of what he just did (at first, anyway), here he’s immediately confronted with another animatronic panicking and in pain as their nanomachines desperately try to rebuild them :’) Nothing like a bit of visual trauma to hit home that your actions have consequences, amirite? Moon investigates the barrel shot and sudden screaming (from both BM and Sun) to find... this. He’d probably have several things in mind to say to Sun about shooting BM, but he’d hold off for now. And thus begins one hell of a domino effect.

While fixing Bloodmoon, it becomes apparent the barrel shot corrupted some of their code. Nothing particularly bad, but oddly enough, it seems to have somehow also curbed their bloodlust. The lack of cravings leave the twins disoriented and kinda lost, but it’s also... almost a relief. Lunar takes advantage of this, introducing them to new things to occupy their time, and wow, who knew they could find entertainment in something other than homicide and appalling crimes against humanity? They’re still Bloodmoon, of course, they still have to be held back from killing people, but that’s not all they wanna do anymore. And food! Now that their bloodlust is out of the way food tastes so much better, there’s so many different flavours and textures and they gotta try everything and whoops, they’ve accidentally found themselves on the world’s weirdest redemption arc. (So, uh, thanks for shooting them after all, Sun...? I guess?)

Meanwhile KC, concerned over Bloodmoon’s wellbeing, convinces Moon to let him watch over them during their recovery. As the twins begin discovering new things that satisfy themselves, KC, trying to be Dad™, joins them. He’s never actually participated in anything that doesn’t involve murder, and much of these activities are uninteresting to him, but something about doing it with his sons... it actually... satisfies something in him, too. (None of them are particularly good at finding non-violent hobbies, mind you, but Lunar, Sun and Moon help out. Mostly to keep them occupied. They have no idea what’s going on, but they much prefer whatever the hell this is to evil plotting.) Eventually Moon relaxes a little when he realises KC intends to stay true to their deal, and occasionally switches off while KC’s out rather than watching him like a hawk. This leads to KC exploring on his own and running into Glamrock Freddy. He panics a little and pretends to be Moon. A parallel of their canon talk happens and oh would you look at that, KC’s accidentally Dad-ed his way into a redemption arc of his own! (No dead Bloodmoon means Sun doesn’t McFreaking Lose It, which means Lunar doesn’t move out and get killed, and also means the magic circle isn’t destroyed, which means Moon doesn’t get stuck in his head and get his memories wiped! :D Huzzah!) (Sun is still in desperate need of therapy though)

Eclipse is, of course, rather indignant at this turn of events. He never like the Blood Twins or KC, but seriously? Just like that?! It’s almost insulting. Not to mention it screws up his plan (not that he’d had a chance to flesh out said plan yet anyway). He continues regardless, taking over Solar Flare’s body to... do something. I’ll admit, I haven’t exactly figured out what his new course of action would be. Regardless, he ends up making his own body and ditches Solar Flare without a second thought. Solar Flare, alone and deeply disturbed over having their body hijacked so easily, is at a loss for what to do when they stumble upon Earth! Or more accurately, she stumbles upon them. She comforts them and they go with her to the Daycare. (I also don’t know if Earth would have already joined the DCA crew or if she just shows up fashionably late with Starbucks Solar Flare. Both are funny; either she shows up as a stranger with another stranger like “yes hello I’m your new sister, also I decided to bring this vaguely traumatised stranger along with me, hope you don’t mind :)” or she goes for a walk and comes back with this stranger like “can we keep them? *puppy eyes*”) Thus, Solar Flare joins the family!

Honestly... despite everyone else getting redeemed/joining the family, I think it’s funniest if Eclipse stays a bad guy. Everyone else is learning about themselves and growing as individuals/family, meanwhile Eclipse is over there being a stubborn, petty, lonely bastard and refusing to acknowledge that the reason he is miserable everywhere he goes is because every time he goes somewhere, he is there. Also he creates the conflict needed for further plot to happen. Also also I don’t think he’d take the option of redemption if it was handed to him on a silver platter accompanied by a ten-page essay on why it’s the best choice for everyone, especially him. (But who knows! I guess it is possible, it would just be a lot of work. He’d have to really want to be better and put the work in. Even then, I imagine he’d probably end up going his own way. It’d be for the best after all the trauma he’s inflicted.)

The FUNNIEST pat of all of this is when Glamrock Freddy visits the Daycare to talk to Sun and Moon about something only to see Sun yelling and chasing Bloodmoon, who’s knocking over and destroying EVERYTHING, Lunar running after them playing the Benny Hill theme, Solar Flare robotically restacking the barrels one pile at a time (seemingly oblivious to the fact that Bloodmoon knocks them over again as soon as they turn their back, creating an endless cycle they don’t seem to question), Earth calling out for everyone to please not hurt themselves, and Moon just... sitting there, rubbing his temples. “... Hey Freddy,” Moon says, not looking up. “... What the heck is going on?” “Family bonding.” “Family- where the heck did all these people even come from?!” “It’s a long story.”

If you’ve read all this, thank you so much for hearing me out <3 I’ll admit, most of my thought processes behind this boil down to “I just think it’s neat” and “because I think it’s funny”. This is supposed to be just for fun, after all. Please tell me what you think! There’s SO MUCH more to this, from evolving family dynamics to specific character development and even Monty, this post is all just the basic set-up of how the gang got to where they are. I have SO MANY more thoughts about this setting, it’s a disaster and a half and I’d love to discuss it please give me an excuse to ramble more 

[dailymichifer]

do you ship midam?

short answer: I like them a lot but no, I can't say I actively ship them. It's more of a fun ship-in-law.

long answer:

I'm not very invested in it. I kind of wish I was! I read fics that include them, but I don't go looking for stuff that focus exclusively on Michael/Adam romance (unless I randomly decide I want to read pwp, or if it's a fic rec/a fic written by someone I really like/trust with the characters).

I AM interested in their dynamic, but mostly the non-romantic themes (friendship, vesselhood, etc) and most of the time I'm much more invested in Michael (= what it means in terms of character development for Michael in general) than Adam... If I had to choose a Michael/human ship I would probably pick Michean or Michael/Sam because I'm much more interested in these human characters and the character development that would need to occur for them to end up with Michael.

One big turnoff for me is that a lot of fanon Midam dynamics are based on late season canon (which makes total sense since their only real interactions take place in S15), and I dislike most post-Kripke era characterizations, especially Buckleming!Lucifer, meaning Cagefics/Cage hcs are a bit annoying to me in the context of Midam in a corner + Buckleming!Lucifer who is mostly ignored or used as a plot device for Midam angst (trying to torture Adam or whatever); I also dislike how Buckleming!Lucifer's unidimensionality leads to a less complex interpretation of his dynamic with Michael, which flattens Michael's character as a consequence (e.g saying S5 Michael was lying when he told Dean he didn't want to kill Lucifer, etc.) that's a big nope for me - not matter the pairing/story, if your version of S5 Michael is completely indifferent to the idea of killing Lucifer then it's not Michael to me (and the swan song script agrees with me!) - and I'm not interested in him.

Speaking of flattening, that's another aspect that turns me off... there's nothing wrong with liking that, but the "pure, healthy unproblematic cinnamon rolls" interpretation of the ship does not appeal to me at all. I do like fun normalcore domestic aus, but only with some spice you know? Not necessarily angst, drama and heavy codependency, but at least something that addresses that the characters are more than y/n + y/n-with-wings in a coffeshop. (The same could be said for Michifer ofc, there are some popular fics/hcs about Lucifer being a smoll bean who did nothing wrong/etc.)

I don't think the "100% unproblematic" interpretation I just mentioned is the most common though, I've read great fics/hcs/metas that explore their characters in much more compelling ways... and in general I think Midam is fun and has a lot of potential for all types of interesting dynamics!!

However, looking for Midam 'content' is like a dodgeball game to me because of the headcanon incompatibilities I just mentioned (and the ones I kept to myself djfkjd), and at the moment the ship's potential doesn't motivate me enough to fuel me with the energy I would need to actively, regularly thread my way through this part of the fandom to look for things that tick all my boxes. Add Lucifer to the mix and it changes everything though; Midafer ftw 👑!!