#retcon a bit so jack can too

[time-like-tears-in-rain]

"he followed you home through the time vortex!"

[butchsophiewalten]

Twitter Space Recap July 28th 2024

Last Sunday Martin, Eva, Kyle did a Twitter Space, with intermittent appearances from Coral! Here are some of the Q&A answers and other interesting things they talked about:

-Someone asks if TWF5 is going to be longer or shorter than TWF4, and Martin says that he currently predicts it to be "a bit longer".

-Somebody asks how Laura Peony (Rosemary's sister) looks. He says that she looks similar to Rose, probably, but that he honestly doesn't have much of a design in mind for her. Something fun to me is that he calls her "Sophie's aunt", rather than calling her Rosemary's sister, which is interesting when remembering one of Martin's previous statements that Rosemary doesn't have a very good relationship with her family.

-Someone asks about something Martin said in a Q&A a while ago, about Jenny going through many redesigns before her current and final design, and if we could see any of them. Eva ends up sharing one of Martin's old drawings of one of these designs, even though Martin says that he really hates it.

He mentions that she looks "too normal" and that she "looks like she's straight."

-Someone asks, "Who or what was the thing behind Bon and Sha in the TV in TWF2?" and Martin answers that it's Susan. (slowed gif relevant)

-Someone asks about how the Relocate Project trio all met each other, and Martin explains how in his original vision for the characters, they were this really close and inseparable group of long-time friends, but that he's recently kinda revised that idea, thinking it'd be more realistic if they were just work friends, who met each other through their jobs and all had full, separate lives and maybe weren't so inseparably close.

-Someone asks how old Kevin is in TWF2, and Martin explains that the relocate trio's ages are something that he's kinda retconned. He brings up an old image of Ashley that gets passed around by the fanbase sometimes which says she'd be 19 years old in 1978, saying that in his mind now, she'd be 22 at the time. He says "-and there's a reason for this, there's a reason for this. There are things about, uh, Ashley, and some things about the rest of the episode 2 crew that we haven't seen yet."

-Martin and Eva joke back and forth about an idea they both like, which is that Bon can create or mimic noises with his animatronic voice box, and that he likes to do stuff like bark and people in K-9, just to freak them out. Martin says, "Wait, did you know that this actually happens, in one of the episodes? In episode 2, Bon fucking plays rabbit noises, to mess with Ashley. When the lights go out, Bon-- he's imitating a rabbit."

-Martin says, "Somebody asked if the baby doll we see in Souvenir and TWF4 will have meaning in the future. Ah, yes it will."

-Someone asks, "Are we gonna get wholesome Rosemary content in the upcoming episodes?" and Martin and the rest of the crew shoot the shit for awhile, alluding ironically to the torment (emotional and otherwise) she will almost certainly be met with in the upcoming episode.

-Martin mentions that he's working on something related to TWF7, and says, "I genuinely think that episode 7 is going to be the most hated episode of The Walten Files ever. I've talked about this with Eva before." Martin and Eva refer to it sneakily as the "yuri" episode, and we know from previous Q&As and spaces that TWF7 is most likely going to be about Sophie and Jenny's relationship, possibly detailing how they met. Martin says, "I think- it's not because of what is in it [that it will be hated], it's more like, it's the least 'Walten Files' episode of The Walten Files."

Kyle says, "To be fair, I feel like season 2 is going to be such a tone shift and it's gonna do so much, that it's gonna be like, "Woah!" You're gonna send people back, like, 20 feet in surprise."

-Somebody asks if Jack is addicted to smoking, and if Felix gets on his ass about it. Martin says "I don't think Jack is addicted, I think Jack just smokes because he thinks smoking is cool. I wouldn't say addicted, but I'd say Rosemary smokes out of like, a place of, like, stress and anxiety. Instead of just as a hobby, in a way."

-Someone asks if Susan is skinny. Martin says, "I don't think Susan is very skinny, I would say Susan is more--" and Eva fills in with "Muscular..?" to which Martin replies, "Yeah, I was gonna say that, I couldn't find the right word. Yeah, considering she usually helps build the stuff, and shit like that, while Charles sits on his ass and stays on his computer all day, like a fucking lazy bitch. Just programming shit."

-Martin openly laments that Charles doesn't have more of a fanbase for him as in individual character. He goes, "Do I have to wait for the next two episodes to drop, so I can fucking have a Charles fandom? That's so sad."

-According to Kyle, Charles' favorite Sonic the Hedgehog character would be Knuckles. Martin says he doesn't know a lot about Sonic, but that Jack's favorite character would be Doctor Eggman, because he's the only human character.

-Martin and Eva talk for a bit about who would win in a fight between Bon and a bunch of different animatronic characters from Five Nights at Freddy's, with him losing terribly to most or all of them. Eva determines that he could definitely win against normal human William Afton, and Martin says he could, at least, probably win against The Puppet. Martin says, "Y'know how dogs grab, like, a toy? And shake it around? Bon just fucking bites-- and starts fucking shaking the animatronics around."

-Somebody asks, "Do Brian and Kevin know each other?" and Martin says, "No, they don't. I don't think Brian knows anybody from the rest of the series. Why would he?"

-Martin says, "I like to think- in the apartment [Jenny and Sophie] live in- It's really funny to me, the idea that Jenny knows everybody in the building and is friends with everybody, and Sophie isn't. Like, it's like, imagine in everyone else's perspective, its like 'Ohh, there's Jenny!', and she's like this really sweet person, and then there's just Sophie, this fucking-- this silent, weird girl that's always seen next to Jenny."

-Martin asks Eva, "What to you think of episode 7?" to which she replies, "It's very yuriful." He responds saying, "That's true." Eva later appends saying, "It's also a very good episode."

-Someone asks, "Will there be a Walten Files 5 & 6 trailer soon?" and Martin replies, "I have an idea for a trailer, but I know know if it's necessary, considering I don't want to show what happens in the episodes. I want people to go in completely blind."

-Eva reads a question that she likes, but is worried is too spoilery. "What's Sophie's relationship with her medication? Does she resent having to take it? Does Jenny know that she's on it?" Martin responds, "We cannot answer that. Because the medication Sophie's on will be expanded on." appends later going "I love how my original idea for Sophie's pills was like, it was never addressed it any way. It was just like, 'oh, she's just taking pills.'"

-Somebody asks about Hidie the Raccoon from the Showstoppers Cartoon, and Martin says that he's a burglar who pretends to be a collector for charity, but just steals the money.

-Someone asks about Madness Meridian. Martin says, "It was a book that was like, a more realistic version of The Walten Files. And it was like, 'what if The Walten Files was, like, completely made up by Sophie?', and it was like, it was really bad. And I remember I worked a lot in the book, but I lost it on an old computer, so."

-Someone asks if we're ever going to see the Showstoppers singing for real, instead of just performing over a preexisting song, and Martin says yes!

-Someone asks about the Findjackwalten page that was recently discovered, /jennyslair-dot-com-worldwideweb, which is currently password protected. Martin says that it will be a page soon, so the page's content is probably not currently meant to be accessed.

[meta-squash]

Some random maybe rambling thoughts about Jack and his feelings towards his team:

I think Jack's love for, relationship with, and treatment of each individual member of his team is really interesting.

Owen and Tosh are the two team members he truly hand-picked. He followed Owen and recruited him. He literally tracked Tosh down and made a deal to get her out of a UNIT prison. He did his research finding them, making sure they were right, convincing them to join him. He did, essentially, save them and allow them a space to remake themselves.

And for the most part he treats the two of them in a sort of paternal way. Owen, especially, but both of them. He's firm when he needs to be, and gentle when he needs to be, but there's this sort of distant yet intense protectiveness of them. Like the way a parent still sees their child as a vulnerable thing that needs caring for, even after their child is a fully grown adult. His love for them is extremely protective, but he's not close with them, he doesn't confess his thoughts or feelings to them except in dire circumstances like in Dead Man Walking when he's with Owen in the jail.

So his loss of them is a loss of a father because, in a sense, he created who they were in Torchwood. He found them, worked to recruit them. He gave them a space to grow and learn and change and hone their talents, and he supported and taught and molded them. They were part of his earliest hand-picked team, too, so they were there for long enough that they saw the growing pains, and they were his, in a way that I think he was sort of convinced they'd be with him for a long time, which is why he was so desperate to bring Owen back the first time. He loved them so much he kind of forgot Torchwood has a high mortality rate, sort of in the way a parent assumes they won't bury their child.

On the other hand, both Ianto and Gwen kind of recruited themselves. Ianto harassed Jack into a job, and Gwen unintentionally brute-forced herself out of Retcon in such a spectacularly dramatic way that it got her a job. They found him, not the other way around.

Jack's relationship with them is different. He's closer to them, less paternal, more confessional, more romantic. It's interesting that he sees them both as potential (and in Ianto's case, eventual) love interests. It seems like he doesn't feel quite as responsible for them, or at least he feels responsible in a different way. He's able to open up to them about himself in a way that he doesn't do with Tosh and Owen. And he's not as put off when they question him. It's almost as if because they independently forced themselves into the job, they're more like equals, or rivals, or something. There's a different sort of potential relationship there from Owen and Tosh.

But it also means that he doesn't or can't love them in the same way. I think somehow he subconsciously thinks he can stop himself from falling in love romantically, but he doesn't seem to think about that parental type of love. So he tries to keep his distance from Gwen and Ianto a bit, knowing he'll hurt them and they'll hurt him. But he doesn't take Owen and Tosh into account. But it does mean that Ianto's loss is different one. It's a grief of a romantic type, the loss of a lover, but it's also this awful "what if" that hangs there, what if Jack had been willing to be closer, had been willing to have a proper relationship with Ianto while it lasted instead of this sort of weird undefined thing, what if Ianto had lived, etc. And Gwen, too, becomes a "what if," in a living sense, once she's married to Rhys. That frisson is always there between them, but once she and Rhys are married it becomes a sort of hypothetical between them, what if she'd chosen Jack, what if they took it past the abstraction of yearning into something real, what if what if, etc. Only it's not mourning, it's something else entirely because she's still there with him.

I just find it so interesting that the two hand-picked members Jack seems to see as his children and the two who forced their way into to Torchwood he seems to see as potential romantic interests.

[flashfuture]

Since I've been on it I wanna talk about Hal's parents. Cause I've seen some dislike for Geoff Johns take on them. But they didn't really, Jessica especially, exist before then. I feel like some people read the comic where Hal in hysterical grief over Coast City made a construct of his parents and then went off to kill all the Lanterns and Guardians and said yep that is exactly how his parents were.

But let's get into it. Martin and Jessica Jordan. For further context, the sibling order is Jack, Hal, Jim Jordan. Three boys. And it was sort of implied for years that they were Jewish and got confirmed not too long ago that Jessica is Jewish and Martin is Catholic. Hal was a grown man in the 80s. His childhood took place in the 50/60s. And before that he was a grown man in the 60s meaning his childhood was the 40s/50s. That absolutely influenced the type of life he had. Vs the further in time we drag this out the less natural it becomes to have super strict parents.

So to begin the first physical appearance of Martin Jordan comes in 1989 in Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn #1. This is a post crisis pre zero hour story so any events in this particular time window are wildly subject to change

Martin is a test flight pilot. He's Hal's hero. His plane goes down. Hal watches. This sequence of events stays consistent across every time line including Flashpoint which is you know fascinating.

"Hal got fired today-- and he got his mom to call up and beg for him."

"Talk about my father again Biff and I'll rip your lungs out."

In this version of events, we get a mention of Jessica. She's not named and doesn't appear. So you can tell she was brought up purely for a 'Hal is so irresponsible he needs his mommy's help' bit. Hal and Jack get along though and are violently defensive of their father. Hal also catches a drunk driving charge after this.

Speaking of drunk I know there's a comic out there where Martin is described as a drunk which I could not for the life of me dig up again but that's mentioned all of once so I just ignore it. What's with making test pilots drunks???

Anyways Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn is definitely not my favorite Hal Jordan story and I'm glad it's been mostly retconned out minus the very beginning parts with Martin.

(Green Lantern vol 3 #36)

"So you're back to flying planes, huh?"

"Dad's blood still runs through my veins, I guess."

This Christmas special in 1993 took place before Coast City exploded. Hal took Carol out to Jack's house to spend the holiday with the Jordan family. Hal directly attributes flying to his dad's influence.

Now Green Lantern vol 3 #48. Hal is standing in the ruins of Coast City not a soul left and he conjures an image of his parents. Reminder they are entirely Hal's imagination and again he is just about hysterical right now.

"I looked up to you. I worshipped the ground you walked on, or flew over. I wanted to grow up and be you... which probably has a lot to do with who I am now. Growing up, though, I never felt like you... I don't know thought that much of me."

As we saw Hal's dad died when he was Maybe ten. His little brother and older brother didn't have real accomplishments in elementary school. Jack the DA and Jim helping the campaign and having a family that's all modern. Stuff Martin would have never known about. Martin the pilot getting on Hal's case for having his head in the clouds? Really seems like Hal is the one he could have related to the most. Martin getting on Hal about not saving the city just proves Hal is projecting his worries about disappointing his dad onto his dad and then because he's so hysterical with grief forces himself to rewatch his dad dying.

Absolutely completely irrational state of mind he's in right now. At the end of this issue, he's going to fly off into space to kill all the Lanterns and the Guardians.

And then he summons Jessica. Calling her mother instead of mom is just really funny to me like informal with his strict dad formal with his chill mom. Lmao? Jessica only speaks on Martin. Reminding Hal of the good times they had. She's Hal's memory which which means Hal heard the story of dressing up as Santa he remembers his dad's aftershave. Summoning your mom just to talk about your dad is crazy work btw

Again Hal was so young when his dad died. Not a teenager not even close. What was Martin disappointed about? Maybe Hal who can't keep a job a girl or half his friends (Barry died and all super friends ditched him basically) is projecting backwards into time. And assumes his Dad would be disappointed in him.

"Personal gain? This is about personal loss!"

Personal loss and Hal's spent most of his time summoning his long dead father. He really never got over Martin dying and that's so apparent. Anyways this is where Hal decides to go into space and kill everybody. Seeing his dad taken from him one more time made him snap.

Hal is enamored with his father. Whether their relationship was tough or easy it wasn't necessarily the point. The point is Hal Jordan loves his father to Oa and back more than the rest of his family probably understood. He didn't just want to impress his father he wants to be him.

And Zero Hour royally fucked up Hal's family but like idk let's just say Infinite Crisis fixed it. That's two reality shattering events. Why not give Hal a little treat of being his dad's favorite. No one seems to miss when Jack, Jim, and Hal all went to the same college and the same fraternity and were besties

[intuitive-revelations]

One major implication I don't think that episode really took the time to settle on is the implication that the Toymaker has already massively messed up the universe?

Toymaker: I came to this universe with such delight. And I played them all, Doctor. I toyed with supernovas, turned galaxies into spin tops. I gambled with God and made him a jack-in-the-box. Toymaker: I made a jigsaw out of your history... did you like it? Toymaker: The Master was dying and begged for his life with one final game, and when he lost, I sealed him for all eternity within my gold tooth.

And later:

Toymaker: Do you think a grand total of two can cause me to shiver when I've played against the Guardians of Time and Space and shrank them into voodoo dolls?

So to summarise:

It's implied the universe is now even more destroyed by the Toymaker's reality warping. Granted we don't know what the scale of this is, unlike the Flux, but it's possibly proportionally quite big considering how little of the universe is left already? That being said, he could have done this in history before the Flux, since it was a linear event, in which case this is far less of an issue.

That being said, it's likely this was reversed by the Toymaker being banished - so we're probably not going to see galaxy-sized spin-tops in the future. How many people died, and if they come back however, is less clear.

The Master (presumably dying after POTD), and the Black and White Guardians (at least - possibly the other 3 guardians too, excluding the Toymaker - though they're the main ones, and it's "order and chaos" specifically which are mentioned in the episode) have all gamed with the Toymaker and lost. The tooth!Master is at least left in our universe, and may possibly be secure with UNIT. The fate of the Guardians is a bit less clear, as is the implications for the balance of the universe.

But perhaps the biggest thing, and the one the episode actually took the time to give us a confused 14 reaction shot to:

The Toymaker has a made a 'jigsaw' out of the Doctor's history (or maybe history in general, although he does say 'your').

So what does that mean?

The hint is that the Doctor has already experienced whatever it is... so what was it that he caused with his interference?

To me there's perhaps three possible options:

The Star Beast - this would be an oddly minor thing to refer to, but arguably makes the most sense in the 'arc' of the specials. Perhaps he's referring to the Doctor encountering Beep the Meep for the first time again? ie. taken one jigsaw piece and exchanged its position in his timeline. For now this might be my headcanon regarding it, but would be really odd to be the intention, especially since we're already disregarding most of the other appearances of the Toymaker in the EU? It's also of course not the first time we've had an adaptation of an EU story in the main show without referencing the original (the no. 1 example being Human Nature - there are others like The Lodger and Dalek, but they're different enough that they can co-exist in a continuity with their source material).

The Timeless Child / Fugitive Doctor - RTD has said he's not going retcon the arc, but this arguably makes the most sense as a 'puzzle' being made out of the Doctor's history? Especially with regards to the Fugitive Doctor anyway, given there's the additional complications of her a) being the "Doctor", b) having a Police Box TARDIS, yet c) seemingly being from around the time of the Anchoring of the Thread.

The Toymaker's being time-wimey, it hasn't happened yet / it's nothing in particular - While it would be a bit confusing to contradict the one detail we got in the episode, this is always a possibility too. After all, there was a lot of sequel hooking all across these specials, so it might be something RTD will come back to, especially if we are going to be seeing more of the past Doctors in future series? Hopefully not by the biregeneration theory he gave about them all being split retroactively, because that is literally insane and doesn't even make the little sense the 14-15 one does....wtf.

So overall, what do I think?

Well I think I can be somewhat forgiving with the damage to the rest of the universe, just because it's implied that it might be reset, and the scale/lethality was never established. Plus like I said, there is some justification to the proportional issue not being too bad when combined with the Flux.

The Black and White Guardians implication is... interesting. We are gradually building up more and more of those 'Great Old One' / pre-universe elements in (New)NewWho, so there's a good chance this could come back in the future. It probably won't have immediate effects on the universe, as the Guardians seemed to be more concerned with specific dangers like the Key to Time. It could perhaps lead to more Eternals popping up across the universe, given the Guardians were the only force they really answered to. RTD I think is also quite aware of some of the Eternal-type lore too, since he played around with it quite a bit in those Series 1 articles talking about the Time War.

The Master's obviously coming back and as silly as this was, it does at least justify him being alive after POTD. It actually opens up the possibility of seeing Dhawan himself again too, which would be great! The nail-polished hand picking it up felt like a bit of a trolling moment, after how underwelming all the theories of who did it were when the End of Time came along. Someone pointed out that Kate actually has the same nail-polish, which would be interesting. Perhaps when we next see the Master, they'll be in UNIT captivity, Delgado style?

Finally, the jigsaw line, which is possibly the most interesting. Originally I was going to lean towards this being nothing / a vague setup for future past-Doctor stuff, since that seems to be the default, but now that I've laid it out... I think this could be a setup for more Fugitive!Doctor appearances. It makes the most sense from a story perspective anyway, given what the Toymaker said and some of the questions surrounding her not being answered, whether or not it's the direction the franchise would actually want to go.

After all, as controversial as the Timeless Child lore was, as far as I'm aware Jo Martin was pretty well recieved, and I'm sure RTD would love to look for opportunities to do more with her somehow. Whether he'd want something so continuity dependent from a showrunning perspective, however, is a bit more questionable.

[your-queer-dad]

Hey dad

This is a bit of a vent pertaining to a character/fandom (going anonymous because it was part of something I brought up in a previous account I had and got harassed into deleting my account).

There's a lot of discourse in the Torchwood fandom around Gwen Cooper as a character. I personally hate her for what she did. But then I saw Gwen lovers saying that hating her is misogynistic?

Reasons I hate her: she's a liar. She cheated on her boyfriend with a coworker who knew she was in a relationship (I hate him too). She drugged her boyfriend with Retcon (memory loss+sleeping pill), confessed to cheating, tried to get him to forgive her but he didn't before the drug knocked him out, and then went back to the Torchwood Hub and started crying like she was the victim. She almost cheated again at her wedding with the main character (Jack Harkness) - she was going to kiss him - before it turned out it was an alien in disguise. In another episode she told Jack she loves him (more than Rhys - her boyfriend). She constantly is rude to him, and to Andy, her former coworker and supposed friend. She treats Andy like crap. She temporarily loses her boyfriend in one episode but time gets reset and he's brought back. However Jack dies a bit more permanently (he's immortal, but he was dead a few days) and instead of going home to the boyfriend she claims to love, she sits with Jack's body in the morgue and doesn't let anyone stay. Except it should have been Ianto because Ianto is Jack's boyfriend. She says yes to Rhys's proposal because "no one else would have her" but if Jack asked her to be with him she'd leave Rhys in a heartbeat. Ew. And she claims to have a big heart, but she doesn't care about her teammates as much as she does aliens, even ones harmful, she doesn't know when to mind her business or to back down, and if someone isn't useful to her, she tosses them aside. And let's not forget making harsh snap judgments about Jack because she can't understand the immortal Captain who's been in Torchwood for centuries has to make the difficult decisions that no one else can. Oh. Oh yeah in the second episode she released an alien that killed a number of people, and kissed Jack as well as a young woman who the alien was using as a host, but she was supposedly in a relationship. Hell in episode one she lies to Rhys right off the bat, saying she had nothing to do with a murder investigation, but she was there, then lied about work to go hunt down Torchwood.

Let's be real. If she was a male character doing all this he'd be torn to shreds. But because Gwen's a woman, I'm a misogynist for hating her?

As much as I try not to, it's gotten under my skin and making me really angry :(

I'm not fucking misogynistic for hating a female character who's a piece of shit.

(also I'm sorry for swearing, it happens when I'm really angry and sometimes helps get my point across -)

Hey kiddo! Honestly I love Torchwood so I'm very pleasantly surprised to be talking about it on my non-fandom blog. I don't think you're a misogynist for disliking a character- because it's an individual, and you don't dislike her because she's a woman you dislike her because of the things she does in series.

Being a misogynist is very different, and is generally about things on the whole- like homophobia isn't just hating one specific gay person because they're a bit annoying, it's to do with that group and their specific shared quality.

- dad x

[vanyzvat]

ALTR 251521

Chapter 1: No Strings Attached (You are here!)

Chapter 2: His Name

Chapter 3: Jac͟k̷͟s͟͠e̸̷͡ptį͡c̀ę͢͠y̡é

Chapter 4: Chase Brody

Jack is only mentioned briefly, and is erased from the story (Due to being retconned) as a character in Chapter 5 and onward.

Summary: Reader is a YouTuber who has lost everything (How and why is up to interpretation). As a result, they have lost their sense of fear entirely, and do not seem to care about consequences anymore.

They spend their days making content mainly focused on "debunking and exposing IRIS", taking advantage of their negative reputation for views.

They've been affected by ALTR 114209 for quite some time now, but they seem to be holding up just fine...

After forming a sort of "bond" with ALTR 114209 itself, the entity trusts them enough to get a bit more personal with them.

A lot of things are based off personal headcanons and my own interpretation of these characters! Please keep that in mind. I apologize in advance for any errors! Please let me know if there are any so I can fix them.

You were not meant to be alive today- Not according to whatever the hell IRIS was saying, at least. “Overexposure to "ALTR 114209" not only puts you in danger, but also those around you”, they said. But you paid it no mind.

You didn't have anything, or anyone, so you didn't bother taking any precautions.

Maybe that sounded pessimistic to anyone who didn't actually know you, but you didn't see it that way. It was something you had accepted long ago.

A lonely life was what you lived, but it was more fulfilling than being surrounded by people who only held you back, who betrayed you, who left you behind.

As of now, you didn't really care about your fate.

You lived your life peacefully, content with whatever route it took. If something "bad" happened, you just rolled with it, and in return, nothing seemed to ever bother you.

Worrying about the outcomes, the consequences of your actions, the future- It was just another headache to you.

That made it- Him, curious.

And just like that, you became a target to him.

"Him", who you only called as such due to his appearance. Clearly, he was no ordinary human- He wasn't human at all.

He was able to warp reality itself to his will, and you figured that to him, this world was nothing more than a game. A game of puppets, in which he was the puppet master.

Still, you saw some resemblance- Signs of humanity within him. Or maybe, you saw yourself in him.

...That probably said more about you than about him, actually. Yeah, you should probably be concerned about that.

Still, he has been around you for so long now, and you didn't even know if he had a proper name yet.

He treated you like all the other ones at first- Just another toy made to entertain him after he broke his last one. That's what you assumed, anyway.

But you didn't react- Not in the way he wanted you to.

The whispers, the images he flashed in your eyes- They didn't get you like he had hoped.

You had seen them time and time again, but they only seemed to slightly inconvenienced you when you were trying to do your everyday tasks...

To you, he came off as desperate. To him, you were infuriating.

He seemed willing to go to every length to be satisfied, to finally get the reaction he wanted out of you, and you knew that. So you took it as a personal goal to not give him that.

You were thankful to not have a job that required you to actually leave your home, otherwise, the task of having to constantly explain your situation to everyone you come across would get annoying.

You figured that those living near you were most likely affected by ALTR 114209 too, but you honestly couldn't care less.

You didn't know them, and they didn't know you. It's their problem, not yours- You've stopped feeling remorse over your "selfish decisions" and thinking. Maybe that was why you were truly free.

The more you talked to him, the closer the two of you seemed to become.

That didn't mean it didn't take any effort, though. It took you many, many tries to finally get him to even respond to you.

After hearing him whisper unimportant nonsense in your ears and catching glimpses of him at the corner of your eyes for so long, you decided to try to approach him.

And you did, in hopes of getting something in return.

At first, he would stand completely still, unmoving until he faded into obscurity.

After that, he would only eye you up and down, then tilt his head to the side, almost out of intrigue.

And after that, he would only smile.

It was such an odd thing to you- Was he really so lonely, that he would do so much for one person? One, measly little human? You weren't giving him what he wanted, and yet he continued sticking around, trying over and over.

Weirdly enough, you could even go as far as to say you found his attempts endearing.

Bold of him to assume something wasn't already wrong with you, when nothing he was doing worked. You weren't normal, you were a "weird little freak" as he would put it.

He had considered giving up on you multiple times. You gave little to no reaction, you almost instantly moved on from anything he threw at you, and you even tried communicating with him. Who does that?

You were just a waste of his time.

But when he tried to give up on you, he found himself unable to. He'd grown attached to you.

And as annoying as that was for him, he thought of an alternative solution. He gave up on trying to break you, but he didn't give up on you entirely.

You had become his safe space.

You had given him a place where he could go to whenever he needed to hide, and whenever he felt like being treated like a guest.

“A puppet master needs to rest his hands if he wants to control his puppets properly”, that was his excuse.

Today, you were sitting by your work desk, surrounded by your monitors. Your editing program was open on your main screen, with you being busy cutting up some footage for your next upload.

Your channel was... A controversial one, and rightfully so. You've made multiple videos on IRIS, and why they are "not to be trusted".

You were a bit biased, considering your one and only friend was the one thing they were trying to get rid of.

It was kind of surprising they hadn't sent people to kidnap you in your sleep yet... Maybe they did try to, actually, but were unsuccessful. You couldn't imagine why.

Maybe it was because you were one of the few people who didn't bother installing those WTCHR cameras within your home.

You lifted the coffee mug off your desk and connected it to your lips, taking a long sip.

You were about to set it back down when suddenly, an odd image flashed brightly infront of you.

The image was of an event you had experienced before, only now, something was off. Your vision was blurry, and you blinked frantically in an attempt to bring it back to how it was before.

You felt your head grow heavy.

He was here, or- nearby. You knew.

Somehow, the thought of getting to talk to him again was enough to distract you from how sick you felt in that moment.

“Where are you?”

You tried to contain your excitement, and also your need to pass out right then and there. Thankfully, your sickness only lasted for a moment.

There were the faint sounds of laughter in the distance.

You could feel the temperature of the room rapidly declining.

“I̵ am ͝he͝re,”

He suddenly whispered in your left ear.

“I͞ ām t̡herê,”

He whispered in your right.

You see two hands covering your vision. Despite already knowing he was playful, he still managed to catch you off-guard.

“I'm ͝eve̢rywhere͏.”

He spoke once more, his voice now from behind you. He moved around so quickly, it was hard to keep up.

“Yes, yes, I know.”

You took his hands off your face and turned around, and they fell back to his sides.

“You'̨ve bee̕n͜ w̡orking. Working sò, ̷s̛o ha͡rd... W̴h̶y ̴not͟ ̡take a ͜brȩa̕k to s͝pend ͘s̸o͏me ̸time ̨with m̵ę?”

You sighed...

Of course you favoured being with him over doing work, so you pushed your chair back with your legs, and sat up so you could take a look at him.

“And why should I do that?”

“Bec͟aús͝e I͜'͟m ͏t͏he o̴n̴l̀y ͢pe̢rso͜n in you͠r͟ ́l̀i͜fe̷.” He shot at you.

“You're not even a person.” You shot back, and that earned a laugh from him.

You always found yourself trying to make him laugh, and wondered if he could tell. He most likely could.

“Yo̵ur ͡w̧o̡r̢d̢s ͡c̀ut̶ ̨d͡e̷ep!”

“N͞o͠w- L̛et̶'s̶ go ̢someẁh͜ere̛ ͟more... Com̨for͏tab͠l͜é, yeah?”

Before you could even say anything, you weren't inside your recording room anymore, but in the living room.

You still needed some time to get used to him doing that- Just teleporting you around. Still, you plopped down on your couch, and he sat besides you.

“Oh, I forgot to ask. Do you want anything?”

“No. ͜Ju̴st ̵yo͡u.”

“Ah. So, why have you decided to visit?”

He placed one of his hands on top of his knee, and you can see him digging his nails into it. Ouch?

“Just̨ ̛a̴ bi̧t lo̕ǹèly.”

He gritted his teeth.

“A̛n̷d͞ upsȩt.”

You couldn't tell if he was trying to come off as condescending on purpose, or if it was a genuine thing he just did.

Either way, you thought it was stupid if he felt like he had to continuously be that way. It was like he was paranoid that eyes were on him at all times, and he would be completely ruined if he didn't always act a certain way.

Still, he was trying to open up- Which was unusual of him. He never really bothered talking about how he felt. It was always about his accomplishments, his doings, what he had been up to. He was always so proud and full of himself whenever he talked.

“Well, I need a break anyway, like you said, so I'll be available for a bit. What's wrong?”

No reply.

You shot glances at him. He's breathing slowly, as if he contemplating something. He seemed weirdly stressed.

...And suddenly, you got a nosebleed. Because of course you did.

You only noticed it had even happened after a drop of blood fell on your shirt.

“Jesus christ-”

He watches you hurriedly get up, his mouth agape. Did he not mean to do that?

You ran for the bathroom.

After you managed to get your nosebleed to stop, you quickly went back in your room to change into a new shirt before going back to him.

He was still waiting for you in the living room.

He hasn't moved an inch.

“Hey,”

You spoke, your voice sounding tired.

You were tired.

His eyes look up at you without him moving his head. Then, he looks away again. Shame was a new thing from him, huh.

“Sòr͞r̴y.͞”

“No, it's okay. I was just a bit... I don't know- Surprised? I thought you gave people nosebleeds and whatnot on purpose.”

He chuckled.

“S͏ome͘t̶i͏me̢s̀.”

You sat down besides him again.

“...Let's try this one more time then?”

You went straight to the point, and his smile faded. He was the one who had told you something was up in the first place, why would he be trying to avoid it now?

“What's wrong?”

You asked, and he answered your question with a question of his own- One you would've never expected to come from someone like him.

“Ha͟ve�� ̶you e̕v̧e̡r be̷e͘n ͡be͟tr͏a̢y̴ed̛?”

[mlobsters]

supernatural s13e20 unfinished business (w. meredith glynn)

taking a second to reflect i'm just about a year into this spn first time watch. first screenshot i took was in s1e2 and that was feb 1, 2023. inching closer to the end but damn.

wtf is happening with gabriel fighting a werewolf-esque whatever with a singlestick type thing. and this music? so cheesy 70s whatever. i see you jay g (christopher is also guilty of it when there's A Theme though so)

aww he's got a list like arya. ok so, like kill bill. which i tried to finally watch here not long ago and i couldn't get past the first fight scene in the house. feel like i might have enjoyed it when it came out when i was 23, but my appetite for tarantino tanked somewhere along the line. also, we already did a reservoir dogs homage episode, did we need another one?

these massive motel rooms, what even

haven't made a dean loves the magic fingers reference in a long ass time. reunion tour of references too

so this is a directed by speight episode too. ok

the apocalypse is good for mary's hair apparently

GABRIEL I call that art. But yes, without me, you two chuckleheads never would've known how to throw Lucifer back in the Cage. DEAN But instead of giving us a hand, you ran. And you just did it again when you ditched us in the bunker. GABRIEL All right, Dean-- I have more important things to do than to join your little band of merry men. DEAN Hey, what you're doing? This? This is not important. GABRIEL Every day, Asmodeus tortured me. Every… day! He fed off my grace for years! He used me, he debased me until I was… What I went through… you don't forgive. Everyone who had a hand in it will die. Get me?

a) this weird explanation/retcon of loki actually being someone else and that's why gabriel was pretending to be him is... weird. b) i get the impassioned speech but talking to two dudes with many more years or torture under their belts, i think they get it

DEAN Not like I care about killing gods, okay? But this whole revenge kick? It's a waste of time. SAM What if it's not? DEAN You've seen it, Sam-- with me, with Dad. Revenge only ends one way-- ugly. SAM Well, maybe it doesn't have to. DEAN Okay, I think I know what this is. SAM Okay, what is this? DEAN You. You're you're so hopped up on this “Kill Bill” fantasy of his. SAM No, no, no. This has nothing to do with me. DEAN If you had a shot at Lucifer, you wouldn't take it? SAM Of course I would. But this is about Gabriel. He needs our help. [Dean rolls his eyes, but agrees to hear out Sam’s plan back in the room] SAM Gabriel, you agree to help us, we'll agree to help you.

and a throwback to revenge never pays. but like, why doesn't sam just go for the obvious, we need his help and maybe he'll do it if we help him quid pro quo. jay bringing the eye rolling music juice, wouldn't expect anything else

GABRIEL Well, Sleipnir's a lot of things, but mainly, he is a coward. I will bet all the personal lubricant in the S.F.V… that after we killed Narfi, he ran straight back to papa's skirts.

and throwback to references i don't understand, that used to be a regular occurrence in kripke-era seasons. per the wiki:

S.F.V. refers to the San Fernando Valley in California, the center of the adult entertainment industry.

wonder how many people caught that, seems awfully obscure

MARY I know you've been winning all these fights, and you want to take him on so bad. I was just like you, with hunting. But I learned the hard way-- thinking you can win all the time, running in blind into every fight? That's how you make mistakes. And the people here, they-- JACK I'm doing this for them. MARY You can't help them if you're dead. And I can't lose another boy.

i'm sorry mary but i snorted. we just haven't had enough time to really establish this, and it's been backburner at best when it's around. #boymom 🤪🤪🤪

LOKI Yes, you do. Little bit. Our treatment of your friend is payback for a slight of a more personal nature. The death of my father, Odin. DEAN Oh, that wasn't him. Lucifer did that. LOKI Ah. But why was my father there in the first place? To parlay, to deal with Gabriel's brothers. When we first made terms, I had only one condition-- I would give him my face, teach him to be me, the trickster, if he agreed to abandon the more… volatile affairs of his family. Forever. When he hit that hotel, he broke that promise, and it cost my father his life.

hokay. never gonna retain any of this. i thought odin died another way but i think i'm thinking of zeus. big ask for me to care/remember the nonsense plot going on from an episode in s5. i can only imagine if i watched this as it aired. perpetually lost

SAM That's not… I'm saying this has become a whole thing with you lately. DEAN A whole thing? SAM Yeah. DEAN Since when? SAM Since the last time we opened up a rift. Since you decided to sideline me and then head to Apocalypse World with Ketch. DEAN Okay, well… we talked about that. SAM Did we? Because I gotta be honest, after everything, you're treating me like I-I deserve to be back at the kid's table or something.

good on you, sam

DEAN Sam, I'm not gonna apologize for protecting you. SAM So that's what you think you're doing here? DEAN You remember what happened the last time we had front row tickets to the Lucifer/Michael show? 'Cause I do. You died… and went to Hell. But see, this time, the apocalypse isn't looking for us. We're actually looking for it. I don't care what happens to me. I never really have. But I do care about what happens to my brother. SAM Dean, we're going to that place, and we're gonna save Jack and Mom. Together. And if something happens, we will deal with it together. And if we die? We'll do that together, too.

on one hand it's like oh yeah, maybe dean is feeling the lingering trauma of what happened the last time michael and lucifer were in their lives. but also, they let so much of that slide it feels like it's just being used for convenience. but whatever. i'd rather this than no conversation at all

and damn straight, sam, everything together. dying is a little much, and you didn't get to follow through on that one anyway. read a fic the other day that was about dean being afraid once sam's blurry wife got to heaven, he'd want to leave to be with her. and they made the point that sam had almost the same amount of years with the blurry wife as he did with dean. and now i'm making myself sad again 🥲🫠 this is why i don't read much heaven fic

[jadelotusflower]

Stargate rewatch: 1x17 Solitudes

aka episode of the blurry/dark screenshots. What is this, Game of Thrones?

A Brad Wright episode, and the debut of the franchise’s most prolific director Martin Wood.

Jack and Sam bond over his broken bones and her inability to make a splint, heh.

It’s Siler! aka Dan Shea, RDA’s stunt double and later Stunt Coordinator.

Hammond giving him half the time Siler says it will take to fix the Gate and Siler going “it doesn’t work that way sir” is great, nice subversion of a trope.

lol, how many times do we get an extreme close up on Daniel’s face and a blurry pov shot of him waking up from being k’o-ed on this show? A lot, I can tell you.

Sam correctly identifies their situation (option 2) but gets stuck on the probabilities of the SGC finding them, leaving Jack to be the optimist. Nice callback (unintentional or not) to him sarcastically telling Samuels in 1x02 to “let me be the optimist for once.”

Sam then deduces that the matter steam jumped to a different but nearby Stargate, just as Daniel comes to the same conclusion. Wonder Twin powers, activate!

At least they got good lighting in the close ups!

The gang's all here - even Harriman (who as this point is just Airman/Technician).

I do love it when they use the plexiglass map.

What is Siler’s job anyway? Chief engineer?

Sam identifies this symbol (far right) as the point of origin on the DHD. We later learn this Gate was the original one used by the Ancients and this could conceivably be an Alteran-esque symbol since we know their written language is block based and their aesthetic is heavy on the circles. It could represent a sun and a pillar, or maybe a Stargate itself.

It does explain away a bit of a plot hole with Earth’s point of origin being a pyramid if the gate was built pre-Ra. It makes more sense that this is the original Earth point of origin and the other was built/chosen later.

Oof Jack coughing up blood onto the snow.

Why Sam doesn’t try to dial any addresses other than Earth - la la la don’t think about it. Sam's brain too cold to function I guess?

Or maybe the DHD has something else wrong with it? We learn later that connecting the DHD designates that gate as the primary gate on Earth, so really the SGC gate shouldn’t be working at all if Sam is trying to use the Antarctic gate.

Nice little moment where Sam says that if they don’t make it she won’t have any regrets, and Jack says he’ll regret dying - a good reflection of both their characters.

Daniel with his ever-present coffee, but this time with good reason. There’s a cool shot of him in the control room worrying, tracking up to Hammond in the briefing room worrying. Martin Wood loves a tracking shot. I love a tracking shot too.

I also love how interactive the set is, the gate room, viewing room, briefing room, and Hammond’s office are all connected allowing us to move through the set as if it were a real facility.

“I should have gotten you out of here by now.” Aw, Sam! Telling language through use of “you” and not “us.” She’s the problem solver but can’t solve the problem, and even though Jack is in command, given his injury she’s now the one who feels responsible for him and his safety when usually it's the other way around.

Amanda Tapping is great in this episode, we don’t often see Sam so frustrated, unable to push through to find the answer.

Also a tender moment when Jack calls out for Sara and Sam, having been told earlier that Sara is what got him through a similar situation, giving him the comfort of “I’m here, Jack.”

Uh oh, I think that means there’s a T-Rex around!

“We ruled out a world we shouldn’t have.” Daniel thinking forth dimensionally again! Even separated the team are still working together, the juxtaposition of Sam trying and failing to the dial the gate but Daniel still receiving the message is great.

Ah, I love it when they work a retcon into the plot! The SGC installed “frequency dampeners” that stopped the shaking of the gate (and made the trip through smoother/less cold), so the shaking now is unusual and helps them solve the mystery.

Aw, Hammond going along with the rescue party. He’s well and truly Papa Hammond now!

[bi4pan-polls]

I would like to present, for your consideration, Stephanie Lauter and Peter Spankoffski from Hatchetfield.

Steph has been confirmed to be canonically pan by her actress, Pete has huge bi vibes (and is sorta implied to be transmasc?)

Hatchetfield is a horror anthology series. So far there are three musicals and eight episodes of a webshow, and everything but the most recent musical is currently available for free on YouTube. Steph and Pete have two major appearances.

The first is in the web episode Abstinence Camp, a Friday the 13th spoof. At the start of the episode, they're both forced to attend a Christian summer camp, an idea that they hate bond over. They've got a bit of banter and hit it off well. Highlights include Steph giving him contraband chocolate bars when the counselors don't care about his lowering blood sugar, Pete agreeing she got the short end of the stick in her situation, and the both of them being generally pretty snarky together.

There's a scene where Steph decides to test the camp's rules (and get some privacy) by showering in the boys' washroom. Pete is the only one there, and his first instinct is to do the respectful thing and let her be in there alone, only staying to finish cleaning when she insists it's okay if he's in there. (They have more banter, she finds out just how hot he is when you actually get a good look at him. He's described as jacked in this scene, but due to a recast, this is most certainly retconned. Still a cute moment between them). It culminates in them deciding to test the ghost story running around the camp that doing anything remotely sexy will get you killed by a spirit living in the woods, but are caught before anything can happen. Between getting into trouble and the audience knowing that there have already been other deaths, it's for the best that Steph plans to make an escape. What's sweet, though, is that she makes a point to get Pete to come too.

Throughout the whole climax of the story they both actively try to protect each other. Pete yells at the Axe-Man to leave Steph alone, she shields him from harm when he accidentally breaks his leg. By the end of the story they're both still alive, and are actively aware they're the only ones who know just how fucked up the camp is. It's implied they keep protecting each other that whole summer.

(If there are any Hatchetfans reading this and you haven't seen NPMD yet, here is your spoiler warning.)

Their most recent appearance is in the newest Musical, Nerdy Prudes Must Die. NPMD is also a slasher spoof, but with a twist: the nerds are in danger and the rebellios and popular "bad kids" are on the killer's good side.

The whole show happens because in this timeline, Steph and Pete meet when she asks to cheat off of his bio test.

Two things to note about that. 1. Despite Steph being the most popular girl and Pete being one of the most unpopular kids in all of Hatchetfield High, she already knows his name. 2. It does not take much convincing for him to agree. They get caught, and are sent to detention. Pete freaks out, not because he got in trouble, but because now he's in with a popular girl (the mayor's daughter, no less) and it's going to get him unwanted attention from the kids that pick on him. They have more banter, like in AC, to the point Pete doesn't know how well it's going until Steph says that he's funny and admits she likes funny guys. This sticks with Pete enough he decides to wear nicer clothes and crack jokes more often, even when just with his friends. They even ask if he's trying to impress someone.

Steph calls him. From a payphone.

For someone who never gave Pete a second thought before, she sure did already know is name AND number. Are we sure you didn't already have an eye on him, Steph?

She asks him to give a proper study session, and he agrees, in part due to his friends telling him that sparks were flying. He ends up singing a whole song about wondering if he's really cool enough to hang out with her.

Pete ends up getting beat up by his biggest bully (Max Jagerman) on the way, and when Steph finds out, she gets VERY righteous. She says she's not going to let Pete put up with bullying anymore and offers to step in (even though Pete doesn't think it will do much). Before they really have a chance to do anything, another student (Grace Chasity) offers up her own revenge plan that inadvertently ends up killing Max. Max ends up coming back as a ghost with a grudge against nerds, since everyone that was there when he died (besides Steph) was an unpopular nerd.

They share a lot of banter up until the first death, when things become more serious by necessity. Still, they both do a pretty bad job of covering up their crushes, and end up having a duet arguing over who has the bigger crush and why a relationship would never work between them the way things are right now (note: Pete says he felt almost seduced by her, Steph admits she's into smart guys and knows he's an intellectual type).

As the show goes on, Steph is actively protecting him like in AC, encouraging him to stay behind her in case something happens.

Steph, Pete, and Grace end up being the last three survivors of the main cast, and strike a deal with beings called The Lords in Black. The Lords will take Max to the afterlife for good if one of the teens gives up what they cherish most. Pete and Steph have a crisis, because now they have to admit to each other that okay maybe they are sorta in love, and have to decide who will die for the other. Pete insists that he do something worthwhile for once and save everybody by being the sacrifice. And Steph, despite her heartbreak, agrees.

LUCKILY Grace prevents that by saving the day in the funniest way possible. Too amazing to spoil (and also because I've barely gone into her subplot this whole time). But Steph and Pete make it out together. And they're grateful for it. And they even get to go to homecoming together.

By then end, they've decided they can make it work and have a song about being able to bring out the best in each other. (Special shoutout to the lyrics "I’m the best of you / And you’re the best of me / And together we are free / To run around" and "Its like you knew me / Before you knew me / Its like you saw me / Before you saw me")

(Hatchetfans, spoilers end here)

In conclusion, stan Lautski

(sorry for putting a whole essay in your inbox, op)

Was given permission to post this*

They seem. So hecking cool honesty love this for them I will also encourage other people to submit them

Propaganda for Stephanie Lauter and Peter Spankoffski from Hatchetfield.

[meta-squash]

More thoughts upon rewatching Torchwood:

I so badly wish that there was more exploration in canon about what Torchwood means to the individual team members.

I'm just really obsessed with Owen's breakdown when he's fired in End Of Days. We only get a little bit of it. We just get the short, chopped-shots hyperventilating panic attack he gets as he waits for the elevator. The next time we see him he's drinking and has the hallucination of Diane.

But it seems like out of everyone on the team, he's the worst off if he was made to leave (retconned or not).

He's the only member of the team that has nothing at all outside Torchwood. Everyone else at least has family members that they're on good terms with, if not friends. But it seems like Owen has spent his time at Torchwood trapped in this cycle of lonely slow motion self-destruction, living a bachelor life and not doing much else outside of work other than sleeping, drinking, and fucking.

Which is fine as a lifestyle if you've got some other solid thing to hold on to, but Owen doesn't. The only thing he has is Torchwood. But Torchwood isn't something that's comforting or safe or calm. It's traumatic as fuck on every level.

And yet it's also the thing that keeps Owen alive and functioning. Jack gave Owen a purpose when he brought him to Torchwood, and he's definitely a sort of positive father-figure to Owen. Obviously, Owen has issues with authority, acts very teenager-y in that he'll push back if he thinks he can do it without "real" punishment, he'll be a little shit and talk about or question or whatever. But he seems to want Jack's support and approval. It's probably the only positive encouragement or interaction he gets that's "real".

So Owen getting fired from Torchwood means he knows he's going to lose the one thing that has kept him going, and the one thing that is positive in his life, even if it is also terrible.

And if he had been retconned then, he would have been going right back to when he lost Katie, only this time he wouldn't have any of his or Katie's friends around to help him grieve, he wouldn't have his contacts from his time working at the hospital, and he's obviously estranged from his mother, so he'd be completely alone. Alone and back to the emotional state he was in when he lost Katie.

So the breakdown makes sense. Not only does being fired and retconned mean losing meaning in his life and a purpose and support, it also means being very aware of how he is going to be feeling when he gets retconned, knowing just what state of mind he'll be returning to.

Tosh and Ianto have some outside friends or family members, but they also essentially only have Torchwood. Jack saved Toshiko like he saved Owen, and I think they both feel bound to the job and to Jack in that way. Jack rescued Tosh from a much more certain and terrible fate, the loneliness and torture of a UNIT prison. Owen was lost and floundering and probably would have eventually self-destructed somehow if Jack hadn't brought him to Torchwood. But that potential future was mostly uncertain when he met Jack. Tosh's fate was known: she would have been stuck in that prison until death. So she was also saved by Jack, saved by Torchwood, and not only that but given the space and tools and time to flourish and grow and flex her skills with tech and probably learn new stuff as well. Jack rescued her from a fate probably worse than death and placed her in an environment that -- while lonely and dangerous -- probably is the most fulfilling for her. And I think he rescued Ianto too, in a way. After Lisa, he let Ianto stay, and that already is a level of trust and belief in Ianto's abilities that is beyond anything Ianto ever saw when he was working at Torchwood One. But I think also after having a traumatic and terrible experience from the fall of Canary Wharf and also perhaps a more distant, cold interaction with coworkers at Torchwood One, being able to experience a safer (at least for the most part for Ianto) version of the job and closer, more supportive team is probably good for Ianto too.

It's just so funny that the show focused on Gwen as the "main"ish character when everyone else is so much more compelling because they don't live normal lives, they don't have partners they can come home to, they have backstories that are traumatic or strange or compelling, they have personalities that are weird because they've basically rebuilt themselves in the safety of the hub and the isolation of Torchwood, like animals that evolve to live in caves, but ultimately they care a lot about what they do, more so even than Gwen, because to them it's not just a job, it's a whole new life and a new chance.

[securi-tye-blankey]

So the sonas got a makeover! My fiance's sona, Arc is a Ryhnoc. He's witty, but doesn't show that too often as he's very shy. However, he will often attempt to make friends with others. Given the right environment he proves to be a very honest and reliable companion to those he considers close.

Though the Ryhnoc race isn't very fleshed out, I like to believe that the Rhynocs hold a lot of pride in the professions they choose. It's how I can justify they're jump from the Sorceress, to Grendor (canon?), to Ripto. Anyway, at some point a group of Rhynocs got sick of the cycle and branched off and advanced on their own. We have a little headcanon that the Rhynocs managed to advance themselves enough to travel to other planets and dimensions to find work after the events of "Year of the Dragon". But we haven't really figured out how Arc would meet Pockets yet. That's not too important at the moment.

-----

Pockets is a retcon of my Fenomenan sonas Blankey and Jack. Their personality is a mix of the two. Pockets can pass for your average social person, but in reality they really would prefer to keep the conversations short when talking with someone they're not familiar with. Brief interactions are their preference, but will hold the communication if it's absolutely required. To friends, this is the exact opposite. They love to communicate and Pockets is more likely to reach out. Funny noises and mild pranks are their bread and butter. They stand at 4'10".

The headcanon that I have on Fenomenans is that they are a species of slime folk who's culture is mainly based around the clown, mime, jester, joker, etc(yes, juggalos count) stereotypes. Be it the good, bad, and the ugly. (Utopias are hard to come up with) Depending on the culture, they will dress in the race(?) attire while either sticking to the traditional look or adding to it, depending on family groups.

-----

Fun past headcanon: The original headcanon was a bit more sad for the Fenomenans and the Norms. My idea for why there were no Fenomenans (at the time) was due to an event that caused Fenomenon to suffer distortions in space/time on parts of the planet. The "Nitro Fueled" track "Out of time" is the main inspiration. Originally, it was supposed to be wumpa fruit but, when out of time came out, I had changed it to be caused by a very bizarre purple fruit.~

Small Norm was affected by said event, leading the unintended creation of Big Norm and his hoarding/protecting of books. It's the final records of his species, and he's attempting to keep the culture alive through himself. However, through his interactions with Emperor Velo, he gained a strong distrust of outsiders and refuses to share what knowledge that is currently left. (I'll type a whole thing on it eventually.)

N. Fo was a bit of a foil to Small Norm in the story, being fascinated by the possibility of bettering the tech that caused the event to further advance other civilizations, but also doing it out of his own arrogance of wanting to achieve something to advance the galaxtic technologies and make a name for himself. (This is the brief outline btw)

I'm considering just making this it's own separate AU as I think the story I had was interesting, but a bit too much for the tone of the Crash Bandicoot series. I literally stopped with the comic because it was getting a bit too dark as I got too invested in these characters.

All this over rerolling in the shop to do story mode with Moe, just to discover the Norms... Just to never beat all of story mode with Moe.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 7,928

[S][A6A6I5] ====>

And there it is.

The greatest reunion in Homestuck history. Neigh, the greatest MOMENT. It does not get better than this. It WILL NOT get better than this. At some point, possibly during the 5th or 6th loop of the above animation which you can't seem to stop watching and listening to, a thought occurs to you. You think with a sense of relief, this is it. We made it. This one-page triumph has just retroactively vindicated the long and arduous journey behind it. After every bump in the road, every setback, every nagging doubt about the story's direction, every FUCKING time your waifu got the shaft, all of that just got wiped away in the blink of a tearful eye by the single greatest piece of media you have ever experienced.

You can finally say with absolute conviction that it's all been worth it. It has all paid off. All roads no matter how treacherous brought you to this glory. Every obscure plot thread, every batshit twist, all that retcon stuff, the sprite squared shit, every bit of dubious narrative legerdemain, ALL of it you now realize was designed with excruciating precision to achieve this singular, magnificent result. You'd be blown away in hindsight by these shocking feats of multi-threaded plot prestidigitation if you weren't still transfixed by the looping animation. And your jaw would be hitting the floor by now if not for the leagues-deep sense of tranquility welling inside your bosom now that you know Homestuck's audacious promise has been utterly fulfilled forever.

You're now into your… what is it? 11th, maybe 12th loop of the animation? You've lost track, and it doesn't matter. What's the hurry, you wonder. What's the harm in camping on this page for a while longer. What else do you have going on? Maybe it's time we faced the facts. This is truly all you have. This is your LIFE. Without breaking eye contact with your monitor, you find yourself reaching for your smartphone. Wait, why exactly am I doing this, you wonder? Why am I going for my phone. You are going for your phone because it's time to take a fucking PICTURE, numbnuts. You decide that digital photography is the best way to make this shit last forever.

You nod and go, oh that makes sense, yeah. I'll definitely take a picture of this animation which has looped at least 20 times by now. Make sure you get yourself in the picture too, to prove you were there. You mumble, what? A selfie. Take a god damn selfie of yourself, posing next to page 9828 of MS Paint Adventures dot com. As you contort your body to pose next to your screen and flip your camera to selfie mode, I continue my unhinged diatribe to instruct all other readers to do the same. I want to see SELFIES, people. I need to see your ridiculous mugs next to these two gently bobbing freaks posted publicly on all of your social media channels by the THOUSANDS. Not just a few thousand either. Oh no. Like an old and wise meme once foretold, we're gonna need to clear nine big ones here. In fact I'm gonna need your selfies jacked up so far over 9000, scientists will have to start inventing new numbers to keep track.

Choke the internet with your selfies, or with a horse as my witness, I will delete this fucking website. If I don't see enough selfies out there, I will scrub Homestuck from the Akashic Servers and never speak its name again. I will then dedicate every shred of ingenuity, political influence and worldly resources I have to releasing darkness on this planet. So post your selfies early. Post them often. Post them to save a modern literary MASTERPIECE. Post them to save the lives of BILLIONS. But most of all, post them because you really want to, and were PROBABLY going to do it anyway even if I didn't say all this bullshit.

Song used: Horsecatska by James Roach

[wellofdean]

So... CONTEXT. Lots of yelling about it in the last episode of The Winchesters, which I am going to keep referring to as Deanception: Into the Deanverse.

For my money, Dean (and his vessel, the adorably shameless fanfic producer better known as Jankles, long may he reign) is recontextualising the end of Supernatural to reveal/create a version of events that makes more sense and more importantly, is more meaningful. I don't remember where I read it, but Jankles himself is not a finale DENIER per se -- he accepts that Dean's stupid death is part of the story -- but he is a finale HATER. He acknowledges that it happened, but he hates it and (100% rightly) thinks it was a shitty, ignominious end to 15 years of story, to which I can only say…

U THINK??????

Like, my theory is that either there was some shit going on on the DL that we did not know about and which would recalibrate what happened, or Dean is time-travelling to retcon the whole thing to recreate his fate, which is apparently a thing I've heard you can do, if the millions of times someone who was a narrative mirror for Dean said it on The Winchesters last week is to be believed. So basically, either we have all been missing a bit of vital context, or Dean needed to make some contextual adjustments to transform it into less of a shit sandwich... or maybe both: there are things we don't know that happened AND Dean is time-travelling from heaven to retcon his life and change his fate.

And seriously, I don't need to tell anyone hereabouts that there are just a lot of things that just simply DO NOT COMPUTE about the end of Supernatch, which make me think there is some missing context -- like, a plan or an existing romance, or some things that happened that we were not privvy to that Jankles is simply shoving into the cracks. I mean... for example:

First and foremost, why was every minute of the finale as fucking terrible as it is humanly possible to make a thing? Did ANYONE involved in that actually think it was acceptable? I doubt it.

Why was everyone's fate like, THE OPPOSITE of what they wanted and deserved? Why did every single character's fate simply ERASE their road so far?

Am I really expected to believe that Dean never did anything to get Cas back? That Jack never asked about it? That Dean told Jack and Sam "He's gone" and they were like... Cool. Whatevs, man. I mean... we already know that Jack CAN (and DID!) bring Cas back from the Empty.

Are you telling me seriously that Dean gets to heaven, and Heavenly Bobby is all, "Yeah, so Cas helped Jack renovate heaven" and like, he just found that out? How does Dean die on a piece of rebar however long after the end of Chuck not knowing Cas is not rotting in the Empty???

Am I supposed to believe that when heavenly Dean supposedly finds out Cas is not in the empty, that he just nods and goes for a fucking drive listening to Kansas on a loop until Sam arrives??? BECAUSE IF SO, FUCK YOU. SERIOUSLY. AND YOUR HORSE.

I feel like there's a lot to work with, and a lot of cracks to patch up. I am looking forward A LOT to how The Winchesters eradicates the dishevelment of literally the worst finale in the history of television. And, I have this delightful, thrilling feeling that it's not about going BACK for Dean, but going forward from wherever he is now, as whatever he is now, into a fate of his own making, and really, can that even begin to happen without Cas?

OMG, SO EXCITING.

BTW, if you want to talk yell about this to another person, ME TOO!! PLEASE INTERACT!! Let's hear all your theories!!

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2 replay, exploring the Crescent Nebula:

Normandy

-Miranda says that Niket was safe and comfortable. He didn’t want anything from Miranda. He was a good friend.

Quite a high compliment from a woman raised by a demanding father and who works for Cerberus. Miranda’s father used everyone and everything against her, but he couldn’t use Niket (until he could). Niket was safe.

And Jacob is evidence of the norms in Ceberus; he’s leery of everyone because everyone in Cerberus is underhanded. But Niket wasn’t like that – until he turned on Miranda in part because she is like that. His feelings of betrayal that Miranda didn’t trust him definitely drove some of his actions.

It’s sad. Miranda tried to keep her Niket separate from the rest of her life, but that made the fallout worse when he did learn about it.

-It’s important for Miranda to make sure Oriana has what she did not. A normal life, the freedom to choose her future.

A bit ironic, since Oriana is her genetic twin: Miranda is making sure her other self gets the life she wanted for herself.

I’d say she’s living vicariously through Oriana, except she’s emphatically not. It’s crucial to Miranda that Oriana can be her own person without having to fight for it like she did.

-Miranda’s confident that her father can’t find Oriana.

And she’s right.. Up until Cerberus, presumably, tells him where Oriana is.

Lusarn

-Xetic – Former batarian Special Intervention Unit operators ran a Blue Suns hostile environmental training facility here. Mortality rates were high – possibly up to 18%.

They were exonerated on the basis that they used methods consistent with their own training.

So what does that say about the training for batarian Special Intervention Units…?

The batarian Hegemony is an awful place for everyone, including its own people

-Tarith is where the N7: Blood Pack Relay mission occurs.

And it’s an alien planet that actually looks alien! Kudos for Bioware.

-The fog is used for great effect to limit visibility and spring ambushes on the pair. Also, despite the basic layout the fog makes it very easy to get lost.

-How does Miranda know the atmophere is toxic? And how the hell are her and Kasumi’s breathers qualified to protect them from it?

-The AI pathfinding for this level is terrible. I keep losing Miranda and Kasumi.

Considering that the Blood Pack consider the Vorcha getting lost in the fog to be a sign of low intelligence, Bioware kind of insulted themselves there.

-The Blood Pack are using vorcha as miners because vorcha can adapt to the atmosphere, aren’t they?

It sucks to be a vorcha in mass effect.

-It’s nice to see some wildlife for once. I miss the ME1 space cows.

-So fun enough mission, but why is Shepard here? Just to fuck with the Blood Pack?

Yes, I disabled a communications relay, but why did Shepard feel it was worth landing to find the communications relay and disable it? Why does Shepard care about the Blood Pack? They’re just one more mercenary band among many.

Normandy

-It’s implied Liara gave Oriana Shepard’s email.

-Miranda told Oriana she’s working for Shepard, not Cerberus.

That could be because Cerberus has a poor reputation, so Miranda doesn’t advertise that fact in general. See Niket.

It could also be a sign of her loyalty to Cerberus starting to waiver.

-Although when you speak to Miranda she immediately starts by saying that she wishes Cerberus had recruited Shepard earlier.

At least she acknowledges that too many that join are just xenophobic.

I suppose we’re retconning that ME1 Shepard can be highly xenophobic.

-You can go renegade and agree, but it doesn’t fit the conversation well. Your next options regardless of what you pick are to ask about Jack and the ME1 experiments.

-Her arguments for the experiments aren’t bad: Husks are already dead, thorian creepers are mindless, the rachni were abandoned once Cerberus learned they’re intellgient.

She’s unaware or ignoring the implications:

How did Cerberus get a hold of husks? It’s strongly implied in ME1 that they created husks.

Cerberus scooped up the thorian creepers and ignored the colony Exo-Geni was using as an experiment. Quite likely because interfering with it could possibly lead to the thorian creepers becoming unusable, which is exactly what happened.

The rachni were abandoned because they outsmarted their Cerberus handlers and killed them all.

-Miranda also acknowledges that Jack was a mistake. Good. She insists that the experiments were shut down as soon as their extent was found (hah).

So we’re just ignoring that Cerberus permitted them to happen in the first place…?

Miranda loves the freedom Cerberus gives her and praises how it lets her get shit done, but ignores the other heinous bad practices that it enables.

-She’s definitely a tad jealous that Shepard has TIM’s personal attention. Replacement father figure much?

-She references Shepard’s origins! A rare occurrence in ME2.

-Miranda believes that Shepard can take credit for their skills, but Miranda can only take credit for her mistakes. Her successes are because of her genes.

Which is bullshit. Whatever talents she may have been born with, she developed and chose to apply them. Yes she had a bit of a hard start, but her results are real.

-The big takeaway is that Miranda envies Shepard a bit because Shepard is real. She only views herself as artificial.

And that’s a damn shame. However she was born, she’s here now.

Her, Grunt, and the geth should start a support group.

Zelene

-Galeon – It’s implied the moon or moons were destroyed in a past cycle and their remains create the outer rings. It had been mined by a prior cycle.

-Epho – There are remains of a magnetic levitation rail line. The surface is cratered from hyper velocity kinetic impacts.

-Helyme – And this is the homeworld of the Arthenn, which disappeared about 300,000 years ago. They were probably killed by a biological weapon. Landing is forbidden as a result.

Given this is in the Terminus Systems, who has forbidden landing? Not stated.

Reapers are the obvious potential cause of the prior three destruction events, but there’s no proof. Could have been another species with a beef with the Arthenn.

-Despite landing being forbidden, Eldfell-Ashland Energy has an active mining facility.

Perhaps they too decided that no one could order them around in the Terminus Systems.

-Except the Eclipse are here and as we all know the Eclipse shoot to kill. So in comes Shepard – too late to perform a rescue, but hopefully revenge is an acceptable substitute.

-Another Earth like planet. I miss the ME1 skyboxes.

-An enjoyable enough shooting gallery, but nothing particularly notable.

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 14

this might be the first one of these posts i've made where i really just have no idea what to say. maybe once i get to writing that'll change, but i'm so neutral on this season that it's hard for me to really formulate anything concrete to write down here. hm.

actually this might be, perhaps, that i'm just getting really dreadfully bored of these last 5 seasons of the show. the novelty of the writers retconning things they find inconvenient, rewriting lore to suit their whims, forgetting plot points and character traits and lore, and generally warping the show beyond recognition has long since worn off at this point. i still had the energy to be annoyed in 11 and 12, i was just rolling my eyes about 13, but now i'm just kinda like. yeah this may as well happen. so maybe that's why i don't feel any particular way??? i'm not sure.

another thing i've come to realize, bitterly so, is that this show just isn't about sam and dean's relationship anymore. which is insane for The Sam And Dean Show. of course i understand why: after season 11, sam and dean are functionally married in their enmeshed psycho relationship, and there's nowhere else to go with this. they reached the pinnacle of their devotion and there's no more the writers can reasonably do with them. they're stable. and this is why season 12 and 13 both introduced new major recurring characters to help shape and develop sam and dean in relation to each other. 12 had mary to generate conflict between them, and 13 had jack. they both revealed new sides to sam and dean and explored forgotten or overlooked or underdeveloped parts of their identities, both as a unit and as individuals. season 14 continues that, because there's nothing else you can really do here.

that doesn't mean i don't find it boring, though, lol. i've had 11 seasons of sam and dean constantly rubbing against each other and finding themselves and choosing brother above all else, and this conflict has been the sole driving force of the series the whole time. everything else was just supporting backdrop to keep them moving, keep them stressed and on-edge so that they have to make those hard choices. but with the conclusion of season 11, they've stabilized. they know who they are and what they mean to each other, and what used to be backdrop is now all that's left. the show needed to introduce more characters to create conflict because sam and dean can't generate enough on their own. and that's great for them as people, but rough for a story. and i think now that i've recognized this and i've gotten through season 12 and season 13 and now season 14... the investment in me is lingering. fortunately i only have one season left, so i'm not too bothered by this all things considered.

as for season 14—i found the "jack is sick and dying" plot really hackneyed and boring and really poorly written. i kept likening him to that whole waifish victorian orphan boy who dies to teach the main characters a valuable life lesson because truly, that's how it played out. it was so boring i'm sorry jack. you didn't deserve that.

the soullessness was interesting, and i think the complete lack of healthy communication skills between all four of our main characters really did a good job of keeping that plot tense and constantly exacerbating in the worst ways. i'm honestly upset that mary died because i was so disappointed with how she was handled in season 13, and in season 14 she really just... didn't do much, so there wasn't much of an opportunity to fix what they broke before killing her off. i guess i'm used to that wasted potential though. just a bit disappointed is all 💔

most of the episodes were pretty good. 14.12 stands out as being one of my favorites because it returns to the core Sam And Dean Show themes, with them desperate to be on the same page and choose each other. that felt really really good, especially after so long without it. and 14.15 was pretty awesome too; i really loved how they handled both sam and jack's respective plots, and cas and dean were perfect supporting characters for them. it couldn't have worked any other way so it felt immensely satisfying. generally i didn't hate any of the episodes, so that's good.

i did REALLY like the final conflict with dean and the god gun and cas and jack and sam. i think the only thing that could have made it better would be to have sam fling himself in between dean and jack—to really make a statement about how he can't lose anyone else. like imagine: he doesn't even necessarily want to stop dean, but if dean's going to die then he's going with him. he can't lose dean, and he can't live with that grief. so he decides to go with them. it would have been soooo satisfying. play on season 13's "if we die, we do that together too" and their general obsession with each other. i wanted that so badly. i can't say i'm not disappointed </3 but otherwise? i really liked the four distinct perspectives on this conflict and how they clashed. cas really felt like a character in these last couple episodes, which is miraculous considering how boring i find him otherwise, and i appreciate that. this finale couldn't have happened without him, and that's awesome! and i like that sam was so conflicted—being so against dean's plans, but being so reluctant to contradict him and fight back. the level of reticence has been born from years of struggle and a true commitment to their enmeshment, and i could really feel it. it was played so well.

dean is obviously the "bad guy" here, taking the antagonistic stance to "do what he has to" and sacrificing himself yet again. it's so him, and i like that in his grief he jumps right back into self-mutilation and violence to an extreme, those horrible conditioned responses and behaviors that he's struggled with his whole life. it felt good to watch him fuck everything up. and it felt even better for jack to agree with him, to kneel down and allow it all to happen, even beg him to do it. to say dean was right, he's a monster. because like i said at the beginning of season 13, dean sees himself reflected in jack, and this is another layer of that. it's a very intimate moment between them, two monsters accepting their mutual destruction. i think the fact that dean can't do it reflects his hard-won desire for change and his compassion, and definitely his love for sam as well. he saves jack, he saves himself, he saves sam. there's a lot of layers and the fact that jack is the amalgamation of them makes this moment so intense and so meaningful.

also just in general dean perpetuating the cycle of violence through his son and yet at the same time being unwilling to kill him parallels with both 2.01 and with ummm 1.22? pretty sure that's the one where john is possessed. dean is unwilling to kill his family. john is unwilling to kill his family. he can kill himself but family is sacred. he loves them and that's evident even through the violence they both propagate. dean is a product of his raise, after all.

anyway all things considered i did actually think the season was pretty good, even though i'm rather bored of this show at this point lol. i just want to go back to kripke era already, which is exactly what i plan to do when i finish watching season 15 :) but for now i'm starting my detox because i have quite a few wincest fics lined up for me. amen and hallelujah 🙏