#sorry for making this one entirely about daddy issues but eh

[the-dog-watch]

The Reverse of the Medal

Stephen had met Jack's father -- a really dangerous parent -- and the wish that the General might choke to death on his next bite fleeted through his mind, but he passed the toasted cheese in silence... (p. 75)

I was really looking forward to the “Jack loses his badge naval commission” plot ever since I found out it was a thing but it was an unexpected gift that it hinges on two things I’ve always enjoyed in these books but have hitherto been mostly just jokes in the background: Jack’s absurd naivete on land, and his shitty awful dad.

It makes sense that this is the book where we see Jack's real dad throw him under the bus, because of course it's shortly followed by his surrogate daddy, the entire British navy, abandoning him too. Previously, Jack's shitty dad (somehow, miraculously, an even shittier parent than Jack himself) only showed up in letters, in the newspaper, and very briefly when Jack visits his childhood home in The Surgeon's Mate.

It’s also the first time (I think?) we get confirmation that General Aubrey and Stephen have met at least once, something I always wondered about. I so intensely wish we had seen the meeting (hell, I wish we had seen even a little bit of Jack's wedding, which is probably where it happened), even though I’m sure they're two characters who couldn’t have less to say to each other.

There's so much to like about this book (the pillory scene! Diana running off to Sweden with Lithuania's most eligible twink!! the sudden twist into a legal drama!!! what the hell!!!!) but that Stephen hates Jack's dad--not just dislikes, not just wincingly sympathizes with Jack for having a difficult relative, but actually wishes death upon--just makes me really fond of him.

This may seem like a random pull, but it reminds me very strongly of one of my favorite scenes in all of fiction: Peggy Hill talking to Hank's dad Cotton on his deathbed. A full clip doesn't seem to be online but, to give you the gist:

Peggy Hill: Enough! Your son has always loved you, despite your constant torture. You want to die alone? Fine. You want to keep coming back and never die? That's fine too. In fact, I hope you do go on living forever as the unhappy person you are in the hell you have created here on earth. I hope you live forever. I really do.

Cotton Hill: Do ya now?

[Cotton dies]

Personal Ranking:

The Far Side of the World (10) > HMS Surprise (3) > Desolation Island (5) > The Reverse of the Medal (11) > The Ionian Mission (8) > The Fortune of War (6) > Master & Commander (1) > The Surgeon’s Mate (7) > Treason's Harbour (9) > Post Captain (2) > The Mauritius Command (4)

[flow2024]

Bullet Point Summary Of My Research (Googling Variations On The Return 2024 Film Review TIFF):

screenings seem to be over (ran 7th-8th september) so probably unless the reviews are coming out slowly we will not get too many more

the general consensus is: Ehhhhhhhh

received a total of two entire stars from the guardian (i say this because there is only 1 review with a star rating thus far) and a c- minus from thefilmstage.com, so do with that what you will. letterboxd doesnt have a numerical rating for it yet but the most common is 3 stars which is not necessarily a bad thing. none of this really matters anyway film is subjective

there is a total of 1 marwan kenzari performance judgement which i have already posted hes largely not mentioned in any of the others sorry everyone. i tried

generally the most popular points to make are: fiennes and binoche are good, slow burner, looks ok, kinda eh as i said above. the fact that it has largely flown under the radar compared to other stuff at tiff is an indicator that nobody but perhaps me is particularly enthusiastic about this one

also there's full frontal nudity in like the first part of the movie

in other news m son of a century is ALSO playing at tiff so i will be keeping an eye on that also (sep 9th, 10th, 11th, likely we will see more reviews of that soon probably hopefully)

i leave you with this line

"The film in question, The Return, serves as an adaptation of the last third of Homer’s Odyssey, where Odysseus (Fiennes) is long past the high-seas adventure part of his journey and rather stuck in a kind of limbo in his homeland of Ithaca; returned but not reclaimed. His queen Penelope (Binoche) is being pressured by followers to pick a new king, while their twink son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) bides time in the background with daddy issues and insecurity over his long-away path to the throne." (from here)

anyway its coming out december 6th in the us so not too long to wait for all of you

reviews for you to read for yourself and form your own conclusions:

[thegeminisage]

okay i have TEN MINUTES to type out my thots about the last two tng eps i watched. day before yesterday was a surprise watch of "the icarus factor" together and last night i did "pen pals"

the icarus factor: i have nnnnever been more angry IN my entire life. riker's dad sucks so bad he sucks SO BAD

that being said the episode was horrifically sloppy. it could have been a must see but it was all over the place and committed so many crimes

firstly, i dont understand the point of offering riker a promotion in this episode when 1. he already canonically turned down a promotion to be here and 2. it didn't tie into his daddy issues in any way whatsoever

also, why did they have his dad DATE THIS DOCTOR LADY? not only is that extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved (can you imaaaagine your parent bringing home a coworker or vice versa seeing a coworker show up at work with your parent) but it ALSO served no function - pulaski didn't tell us anything about riker's dad that he didn't know and we didn't know

it also used up basically all of my goodwill that had been generated re: pulaski. she really is just a knock-off bones and she's actually so boring because of that and even her dating riker's dad and being a chronic divorcee didn't make her interesting. sigh. once again i'm sorry women.

i also don't understand worf's b-plot being about his ten year (although wesley trying to get them both into the dead dad club was HILAAARIOUS and maybe the most i've ever liked wesley so far, i'm allowed to say this since i'm also in the club). i feel like worf's >:( should have been something to do with riker's daddy issues either a disapproval of his parenting or a lack of understanding of why it's bad parenting or SOMETHING bc that needed to be the whole episode and the b plot was just so ??? like it's a b plot i would have enjoyed in a diff ep but not this one

and finally, after ALL of that, after outlining in detail what a shitty person riker's dad is, how he felt the need to compete with his own child who he was also emotionally and physically neglecting so much so that he CHEATED and felt proud for it, how he never put anything before his career, AND

AFTER HE SAID

"IT WASN'T AS HARD FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE IN DIAPERS WHEN SHE DIED"

WHICH MADE ME SO ANGRY I ALMOST BLACKED OUT

the man didn't even apologize. the word "sorry" never left his mouth he just told his shitty sob story and that was it. they yelled some japanese at each other while doign this martial arts thing and will was like glad you came pops and they hugged and that was the end. and also he didn't take the promotion because we knew he wouldn't. girl come ON.

pen pals: the first half of this episode sucked real bad. picard and the horses was awful and i don't think he should be allowed to say the word "allah" on television

wesley getting his own command...eh. it was fine and he hasn't been nearly as annoying in s1 as he was in s2 but i don't care so i was tapping my watch and waiting to get to the ACTUAL episode. it was so tedious to watch everyone argue about his mental wellbeing and future or whatever. who cares. he shouldn't even be here there should not be children aboard starships

i liked the part with data's pen pal BUT i also think he knows better than to violate the prime directive like that. if he slipped and did it once and then confessed that'd be one thing but 8 weeks?? he wouldn't fucking say that

i was also ??? when he beamed her up and didn't leave her in the transport room...idk, i like that he has feelings, and she WAS cute if a little uncanny (the voice filter sounds like the one tumblr used in that one interview lol), but it seems like if you wanted an episode About Data he could have fugured out that third answer of how to both save her and obey the prime directive, instead of getting yelled at and/or ignored by picard and then picard doing it. (man when picard asked for tea first from the replicator while data was trying to get his attention...)

at least pulaski was nice to him i guess :/

tonight, "q who," which will sadly probably have q in it, but at least i get to meet the BORG. at long last...................................

[artsyfangirl]

Michael Afton x Stressed Reader

A/N: Something happened in my house that got me bad. I hate yelling.

You’re crying. You don’t want to, you know it’s weak, but you can’t help it. Why does he have to be such an asshole? You wish Mike were here.

You’re sitting on the couch, having just gotten home from visiting your family. You both want and don’t want Mike to see you. You want his comfort, his validation that you did nothing wrong, you want to feel his arms wrapped around you.

But you don’t want him to see your weakness. You don’t want to have to explain (even though he wouldn’t ask, you would still feel obligated) your situation. You don’t want him to think you’re being over dramatic (he wouldn’t, but does that matter to you? No).

You try to quiet yourself. But you just end up sobbing.

“Dove? Are you ok?” You hear him ask. You feel ashamed, like a burden.

You should be able to remain out of sight, where you aren’t bothering anyone. You only make things worse. This is your fault. This is what you deserve.

“Sweets?” You break down, being reminded of the only other person who calls you that, of HIM. “Woah woah woah, what’s wrong? What happened?”

You look at him, trying your best to quell your trembling bottom lip. “What?”

He looks at you, and wordlessly opens his arms. It’s an invitation, and you take a moment before accepting, flinging yourself into his embrace.

He holds you close, whispering sweet nothings. You miss how his face contorts, feeling your pain. How the gears in his head start turning. What happened? Why are you like this?

“Dove, if it’s not too much to ask, did something happen?” He pushes, risking the calm mood for information.

You tense in his arms, and he’s about to tell you to never mind, before you say, in a voice thick with tears, “Nothing much. Everything’s ok, I’m just feeling overwhelmed.”

He knows that’s a lie, and so do you. “Did someone hurt you love?” You tense again, and the minute confirmation turns his blood boiling. His embrace tightens, and you worry you’ve made him mad. You drop a small, “Mike?” And he snaps out of it, looking down at you.

“Who was it?” You feel your gut turn. Oh no. Oh please no. Anything but this. You remain silent.

“Darling, who was it?” He just wants to help and maybe pound their face in, but that’s neither here nor there.

“… It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does. Who? I just want to help you.”

“……… but you can’t.”

“What?”

Oh shit. You’ve screwed up. You’ve said too much.

“What do you mean.”

Oh shit, you messed up. “I’m sorry…”

He snaps out of it. Oh shit, he made you think you did something wrong. “Oh no, darling, it’s ok. You didn’t do anything wrong, I just want to know what I can do to help.”

“You can trust me.”

“…. Why is he always like this?”

Mike almost asks you, ‘Who? Like what?’ Before he realizes that you’re trusting him with this information.

“I never did anything wrong, but it’s always been like this. For so long. It never changes.”

Oh, and if that didn’t hit close to home.

“I did everything I was asked. I just- wanted what every kid wants. For him to listen. To play with me. To tell me I did good… I never asked for this.”

Oh. OHHHHH. Oh SHIT. He knows where this is heading. It’s all too familiar. This is going to sound insensitive but…

“Looks like I’m not the only one with daddy issues, eh love?” You snort, taken by surprise, as you look up at him in reflex, and he takes the opportunity to wipe the tears from your eyes.

“You don’t have to talk about it, I’m sorry I bugged, that was wrong of me and I apologize.”

“It’s ok, I feel better now that it’s out in the open, anyways.”

“No, it’s not ok. You and I both know why.”

“…. You’re right. But you did it out of concern for me, and that’s what matters…. Let’s put it behind us, yeah? How about we make some cookies?”

“… sure, you going to bake the entire package again this time?”

You gasp, mock-offended. “How dare you!”

The two of you head to the kitchen, bickering all the while.

[misscarolineshelby]

Spanked

Part One: Spilled Beans

Pairing: Modern Tommy Shelby x Reader

Words: 1,345

Warning: None…This is only the beginning!

Original Poster: @queenshelby  ​

You were in your last year of your business degree at Oxford University and were certainly one of a kind.

You had obtained a student visa for the United Kingdom three years ago and shared a small apartment with two other students. You were 21 and at the top of your class and quite shy. Parties didn’t interest you and neither did community events organised by the different social clubs at university.

Clearly, you were smart but, according to your best friend Janine you were not, at all, adventurous. Or perhaps it was just that you hadn’t discovered your adventurous side as yet.

No one would ever notice you, sitting in the back of the lecture hall, keeping to yourself and studying hard to finish your degree which you started when you were just 16 years old.

While most of your friends didn’t have the need to work while studying, you did. Money was tight and, on the weekends, you were working at an art gallery as an office assistant while, during the week, you had just taken up another part time position at a coffee shop in London’s business district.

Making coffee bored you and your customer skills were limited due to being incredibly shy. It was a job nonetheless and you were grateful for the opportunity.

Every morning, at work, you saw the same people ordering the same coffees. You remembered their orders and you remembered the faces of the men who left tips and of those who didn’t.

It’s not that you had ever gotten a tip from anyone, dressed like this, in jeans and a black t-shirt, but your two female co-workers worked hard for their tips.

From black dresses to miniskirts, bleached hair and showing off their cleavages, they were quite popular with some of the young and old bankers, lawyers and business men in town, wearing their fancy suits and expensive ties.

None of this impressed you much and, while these women were looking for a sugar daddy or their perfect suitor, you simply wanted to be able to pay your rent.

Little did you know that your boring life was about to come to an end and your worries to pay rent and fears of eviction would no longer exist following the visit of one particular customer.

***

It was Monday morning at 7 o’clock that Katherine, one of the young and incredibly attractive waitresses at the café, pointed out the one man all of the women in town were going crazy for.

‘That’s him, the guy I told you about. Usually, his secretary Lizzie gets his coffee for him but, occasionally, he will come here himself’ Katherine explained.

‘Another man in a suit, of course’ you said, rolling your eyes and, whilst you thought that he was handsome, you didn’t think he was anything special.

‘He’s not just another man in a suit. According to Vogue, he’s one of the most eligible bachelors in the UK’ Katherine pointed out just before he walked into the door with his head glued to his phone.

You didn’t know what made him so special but you couldn’t help but watch him and listen to him talk while you were wiping down the tables behind where he was standing, waiting for his coffee. His voice was deep and intimidating and he was swearing much more than any other business man you had heard before.

You realised quickly that he was dealing with a problem and, when he finally got of the phone, his coffee was already ready and waiting for him.

‘Thank you, Katherine’ he said with his low voice as he took the cup of coffee from the counter and, just as he did and turned around, you accidently tumbled into him on your way to the storage room.

Katherine’s chin dropped as she watched the coffee spill across his expensive suit and onto your arms all at the same time.

‘Oh my god, I am so so sorry’ you said, cheeks blushing red while you entirely ignored the burning pain on your arms.

The man looked at you somewhat surprised before putting his half empty cup of coffee back onto the corner. Then he sighed.

‘You’ve burnt yourself. You should maybe get this looked at, eh’ the man said but his facial expression didn’t change.

‘I ruined your suit. I will pay to get it dry cleaned’ you said somewhat nervously but the man shook his head.

‘There is no need Love, it’s just fucking coffee, eh’ he said before picking up his phone again, taking yet another phone call while asking Katherine for a new cup of coffee.

As he was talking on the phone, you cleaned up the floor where the coffee had spilled and you couldn’t help but notice that he was watching you.

His blue eyes gazed up and down, observing your every move until, eventually, he swore and hung up on whomever he was talking to.

‘You know, I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about a tax issue which, I think, I might have a solution for. I just wrote an assignment addressing…’ you began to say somewhat ignorant before, suddenly, the man interrupted you.

‘Are you an accountant?’ he asked and you shook your head.

‘I am about to finish my business degree but have researched business structures quite a fair bit’ you said, moving your glasses around slightly which is something you did when you were nervous.

‘She’s in the top of her class at Oxford. A childhood genius of some sort who left high school at sixteen to come here to study’ Katherine explained humoured before handing the man his brand-new cup of coffee.

‘A clumsy genius, eh?’ the man smirked and, just as he did, he pulled out one of his business cards and handed it to you.

‘Make an appointment with my secretary Elizabeth. You start tomorrow as one of my business advisors’ the man then said, causing your chin to drop.

‘I what?’ you asked somewhat surprised as you took the card.

‘Sweetheart, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be working around hot beverages. You are much better suited to sit in a comfortable office, eh’ the man then said, causing you to laugh.

‘I haven’t even graduated yet sir’ you explained, unsure what this was all about.

‘I would hate to see you work for someone else, Love. Katherine says that you are a genius so I will take her word for it, eh. Despite, I am doing the city of London a favour by getting you away from the coffee machine’ the man then said before advising you that he would insist on punctuality.

‘Thank you’ you said and he simply nodded in return before leaving the shop and getting into his rather expensive car.

When he left, you looked at the business card that he gave you.

‘Thomas Shelby, Director & CEO, Shelby Company Limited’ it read and you couldn’t believe that you had just scored a position at one of the UK’s largest manufacturing, import and export companies.

Tag List:

@lilymurphy03 @deefigs @theflamecrystal @desperate-and-broken @weepingstudentfishhorse @livinginfantaxy @rosey1981 @atomicsoulcollecto @peakyboyslover @nerdy4itall@elenavampire21 @hanster1998@mariapaiva13 @fairypitou @harry-is-your-sunflower @zozeebo @lauren-raines-x @kasaikawa @littlewierdalien @sad-huffle-nerd @theflamecrystal @peakymalfoyscullymulder @themissthang@0ghostwriter0 @stylescanbeatmyback @1-800-peakyblinders @datewithgianni @momoneymolife @ntmynouis @lilymurphy03 @mcntsee@cloudofdisney@missymurphy1985 @peakymalfoyscullymulder @otterly-fey @janelongxox @uchihacumdump @basiclassy @being-worthy @chaotic-bean-of-smolness @margoo0 @chocolatehalo @vhscillian @ysmmsy @littlewierdalien @crazymar15  @stickyknightflowerbailiff @im-constantly-fangirling @goldensunflowe-r  @tellingyouastory  @captivatedbycillianmurphy​  @namelesslosers​  @littlewhiterose​  @ttzamara​  @ttzamara @cilleveryone  ​

@peaky-cillian  @queenyshelby ​

@severewobblerlightdragon​  @ysmmsy​  

[dappercritter]

Godzilla vs Kong: Brutally Honest Thoughts

(Took me long enough, eh? Depending on home video releases be like that.)

So first things first, I have a confession to make: I spoiled the movie before I watched it. I was impatient and they had only announced an HBO Max premiere in the states and a theatrical run in Canada at the time. Afterward, I got heads-up from a friend and immersed myself in the opinions of those lucky enough to see it early. I’m just saying that I have some preconceived opinions that I’m sticking to.

That said, Godzilla vs Kong turned out to be more fun than I expected! But you already knew that. Everyone did. The two kings of movie monsters had their rematch and this time it was with glorious Hollywood SFX powering it this time.

The human story was fun but it’s clear they stopped trying at this point. Team Kong stole my heart, especially Jia. Team Godzilla (although the Conspiracy Crew would be a more fitting term since they spend more time chasing down mysteries than trying to back or understand Godzilla) was more fun than I expected and their dynamic was surprisingly enjoyable. Bernie is actually kind of funny, it's nice to see Madison acting more assertive, and Josh was fine--he was the only sane man of the bunch but he was also the butt of the jokes. Still, all the hardcore conspiracy jokes got old fast and it feels off seeing the daughter of two scientists turn into an edgy conspiracy crackpot. Why not an edgy science major?

Team Apex are fun villains, especially Walter Simmons who's a great megalomaniacal CEO type, but Ren Serizawa is a joke. I like his actor's performance but he's just another footnote. Nobody bats an eye at his last name, although the only heroes he interacts with are Nathan Lind and he just misses Team Godzilla. He really could have just been any other villain, but instead, they had to sully Serizawa’s legacy further while robbing a good actor of some interesting material. (As is, it turns out he was just an egotistical jerk with daddy issues--an easy puzzle to solve on day one--after all...)

However, I still cannot and will not approve of the fact that somebody thought it would be a good idea to make the heroes of a sci-fi story into hardcore conspiracy theorists in this day and age. Likewise, I’m not a huge fan of how they essentially made the Hollow Earth into its own universe complete with a crazy portal and an environment with its own laws of physics, nor am I totally crazy about the huge leap in technology that was made between this and KOTM, or G’14 for that matter.

The monsters as awesome as they are, are the biggest mixed bag in the show.

Kong is at his best in ages, and while I am all for the new heroic warrior character that Legendary have crafted and I acknowledge that making him a worthy opponent for their god-tier Godzilla was going to be a hurdle, I think they did a splendid job. Seeing Kong using agility and acrobatics was a glorious sight to behold, and something about Kong becoming a tool-user and weapon wielder just feels right. It’s a far better demonstration of Kong as a “thinking animal” (*wink, wink*).

I’m much less thrilled about their treatment of his greatest opponent ever. After everything they’ve done to build up Godzilla as the incredible force of neutral good fighting to maintain balance and all the build up to ancient rivalry debating back to a great Titan war--even going as far as putting his name in front Kong’s this time!-- they’ve reduced Godzilla back to glorified bully for Kong. He only gets the minimum amount of sympathy from the cast of his movie before they go off to deal with the conspiracy plot or focus on Kong and the Hollow Earth. Worse still, he is somehow more powerful and more aggressive than ever for a good chunk of the movie which leads to an outcome I’m sorry to say we all saw coming. Somehow, I suspect that the reason behind this was how Wingard cited Godzilla vs. Mothra, vs. Destoryah, and Shin-Godzilla as influences for the monsters scale and story, which while cool and all, are all movies where he was played up as a mostly stoic antagonist rather than a three-dimensional character like Kong. (Though ironically vs. Destoroyah and Shin did a better job of making Godzilla feel more sympathetic and in both of them he was a walking nuclear reactor meltdown.)

Due to the unfortunate time constraints of the three-way deal between Toho, WB, and Universal at the time this was in production, Kong was unable to secure a proper sequel that could develop his skillset like Godzilla’s did. Nevermind the fact the filmmakers completely surrendered to the “nothing matters but the monsters” mentality that a chunk of the fanbase has been spouting since this universe unofficially kicked off almost 10 years ago. (Sidenote: Oh god, I’m turning in an old fart already.) As a result, the movie trips over itself trying to set up Godzilla and Kong’s rivalry as well as building up Kong as a worthy opponent to Godzilla while expanding on their shared lore, and as a result countless plot points set up in in the previous movie and tie-in movie are thrown out the window. I’m sorry to say but in spite of all hopes and illusions of grandeur, it’s safe to this damn thing is a Kong movie with Godzilla as the bad guy.

...at least until HE shows up. Yup, Mechagodzilla. The biggest spoiled twist of the centuries steals the show so the movie can pull a Dawn of Justice. But! It does it much better than the fractured DCEU’s most controversial entry ever could. Mechagodzilla’s inclusion gets a decent amount of build up thanks to Team Godzilla/the Conspiracy Crew, and when he shows up, does he make an impression! At first, I wasn’t sure how to feel about his inclusion or his design, but I’ve come to like this one. He’s basically a kaiju terminator built in Godzilla’s image made purely out of heavy machinery piloted by the best Ghidorah head. It’s a jarring change of pace compared to previous MechaG’s but it grows on you after a while. With the abundance of weaponry stuffed into him, he feels like a fitting update of the original killing machine, and even if his inclusion feels like an easy way out of the big showdown, it’s fun to see him played as a literal colossal heel for the kings to team up against. Not to mention he looks shockingly good with those red highlights. However, one still can’t help but wonder how and why he was made in this universe, or how he feels like pure heavy machinery one minute and then an extra-large Ultron unit the next.

As for the the big throwdowns we’ve all been waiting for... well, we’re still in the mixed bag deparment. While the fights are all exciting and excellently choreographed, and benefit from some more eclectic lighting and cinematograph, I’m sorry to say that as far as the rematch of the century goes they dropped the ball on this one.

Don’t get me wrong, the fights are all great in their own ways, but there’s a drastic change in the feeling of weight and power with the monsters. Godzilla, Kong, and even Mechagodzilla all feel strangely floaty in most of their fights. One moments they feel like true behemoths shaking the very earth with every movement and then it’s like they’re in Godzilla Unleashed, running, jumping, and throwing each other around with speed that feels that almost makes you wonder if the Hollow Earth’s gravity inversion stuff is leaking out into the world. While it’s all perfectly cool, you can’t help but wonder how Kong is able to leap between aircraft carriers and buildings, when Godzilla got the ability to blow a hole through the Earth itself, or how a colossal machine is able to move so nimbly or why it has to be flashing blue all the time.

It’s fascinating and fun but you just can’t help but wonder how we got from almost posthuman disaster and war movies exploring how we’re at the mercy of the ancient almost mythical forces beyond our comprehension, we’ve found ourselves smack dab in the middle of Bayformers meets Jurassic World levels of Hollywood absurdity where anything and everything can and will happen in the name of getting to the monster fights. Although I can’t say I’m surprised given the director’s take on Death Note made some questionable choices with it’s take on the infamous cast while still coming up with some genuinely inspired choices. Still, all things considered we could have gotten worse compared to ther cinematic universes made by WB and Universal.

As for some misc. thoughts to close up this rambling mess:

-The soundtrack is fantastic. A great continuation of the feel of Skull Island’s mixtape with some truly wonderful picks. Special mention goes to the opening and ending songs, and they GOT AN ELVIS PRESLEY SONG IN HERE! YES!!! The three kings of pop culture together at last!

-While this movie didn’t need to be any more overstuffed, it would have been nice if the rest of the Titans didn’t disappear entirely from this movie. I get that Godzilla: Dominion already explained what happened to them all more or less, but it really is a missed oppurtunity that we never got to see another Titan war. Or Rodan attacking Kong to avenge his pterosaur bretheren from days long past. Speaking of which...

-“Save Mothra” jokes be damned, Mothra would have been a welcome gues star, not just to help break up the big fight, but to show off Godzilla’s softer, more protective side. And yes, I want more Mothzilla. Shut up, we deserve it.

-Boy, Monarch sure does a whole lot of nothing up-top, huh?

-The cinematography is a great update but there’s a little too much neon lighting, especially in the Apex HQ and the Hollow Earth throne room. It feels like they’re trying just a little too hard to sell the more futuristic, Hollywood sci-fi feel.

-The score is... great but not that great. Of course, I’ve always had mixed feelings about Tom Holkenburg (AKA Junkie XL)’s music. I liked Kong’s themes, but they REALLY dropped the ball with Godzilla’s theme. Mechagodzilla’s works really well as long you ignore that it’s just Godzilla’s theme in this movie with an ominious choir added in.

-The new Hollow Earth creatures are all perfectly fine. Actually, I thought they were another highlight! Especially the Warbats, Hellhawks, and Doug the Titanus Foetodon Man.

-I want to do a release the extended cut campaign but I don’t think any of us have the energy for that s**t anymore.

[thisarthurandeames]

Fanon Arthur is closer to Canon Eames and Vice Versa

If you haven’t already seen the post where I talk about canon Arthur being different from fanon, check it out!!

If you want

Announcement again: your opinions are valid always, even if I may be going at this hard right now.

[more below the line]

Also aksdjskfh in my last post, I tried to make it so neutral and not shippy that I completely forgot to add how he treats Eames without making it A/E oops- (I shall fix that when I make an A/E version

I’ll just go ahead and say it.

Eames is a bit prissy. More than Arthur is, anyway. He’s a downright b-word, but in a lovely way.

It isn’t to say he’s not nice or playful or anything, he is, I’ll get to that.

But he’s also very ,,,, reclusive. Which is not how everyone perceived him.

Simply put, he’s approachable when he wants to be, but he isn’t a “Oh, I love everyone, hello sweetheart, let me give you a hug” kind of a person.

I don’t know if I’d say he’s socially awkward or he just likes it that way, that can be up to you and your fics. But what I do know if that he isn’t a super friendly approachable guy who flirts with everyone (I’m so sorry).

No offence to babe but he’s very brood-y aksjdjjdhj— I love him.

Eames takes his job seriously, and tbh I’m not sure if the trope of him being slow/tad bit stupid actually used a lot or not, but I’ve seen a few and I just want to say he’s very smart, as well. He’s sort of the one who built the entire plan, really (with Arthur to fix up).

When it comes to people, Eames is picky. He’s select. It isn’t to say he hates everyone, but I think he goes by the vibes.

For example, he couldn’t care less if Cobb got hurt or anything (literally any scene in Mombasa. “Don’t know. Let’s see if they start shooting” and the VERY poor distraction of Freddy Simmons and how he immediately gives up ahdhdjsj —he also looks at Cobb with the car later like “... so you lived? Hm ....... how ....... pleasant.”)

He outright says so at the last level, when Cobb and Ariadne are going to the limbo, he tells them that he doesn’t care if they make it back, but he’s getting out of there. And he says it with no sarcasm or sympathy too pfft.

But he definitely cares for people, people who clearly has a history with like Arthur, telling him to “be back before the kick”, aka telling him to be safe (guys I swear I’m doing a neutral POV, that’s just how it went, I’ll make another one for A/E later 😭). He also cares about Yusuf, clearly, not just because he recommends him while at Mombasa, but also because he pipes up to say “Bit too much champagne before take off, eh, Yusuf?” He doesn’t usually chime in, not while he’s not being spoken to, and not to jab at people, so that was ✨friendship ✨ at its peak.

That isn’t to say he’s only like that with his friends/people he knows a well!!

He’s only known Saito for a short amount of time, but he’s taken a liking to him. That’s very visible in the second level, when they’re in the lift and Eames is forging the girl without him being aware of that. And the last bit when Saito's dying and they have that "no place for a tourist" moment, and he makes sure Saito isn't unarmed before he leaves!!

Basically, if Eames vibes with you, he vibes with you.

He’s definitely sensitive with defense mechanisms. He looks like he feels quite attacked when someone takes a jab a him and him saying it was condescension when Arthur compliments him just ajshjdjsj, oh my poor boy ❤️

All this isn’t to say that he’s sad and edgy all the time, he’s not, not really. He has his fun, but he does his work, and he doesn’t do things he doesn’t want to.

Rewatching the movie many times has made me circle back over and over to the point that Eames is a closed off serious type of guy in general. He’s playful and nice around the people he already likes, not to everyone. I feel like that’s quite important to note. Eames is actually quite quiet (heh). Calm. A bit broody. Mysterious. Intimidating to a few people for sure. Very level headed and to the job. Intelligent >>>> (he basically came up with the Inception job + attempted it before). He also thinks about what to say before he does, so that’s something to think about.

But that’s just him on the surface. ^ most of it you would see if you didn’t know him that well, or he’s in the middle of planning a job and etc.

I could actually go one about Eames for days ajdhjsjdh there’s a lot I have to say about him on top of his daddy issues.

In conclusion, characters have many dimensions, and your dimensions are very valid, but there are some characteristics that get so lost into fanon that a lot of people forget about how they really were in the movie sometimes. (But fanon is so amazing too! They’re written super well and it’s cool to see variety.)

But uHm yes, these got a bit long plus I wrote it while it was late, but do let me know if you want to talk about it some more because I’ve spoken about this many many times and I probably forgot a bunch of points!!

OH AND— thank you for coming to my Ted Talk :))

As a reward, I shall remind you of when this cheeky dork threw the charge at the projections, aka not real people, and gave them a thumbs up. Yeah.

[bigskydreaming]

Interesting. Another week where I liked all the X-books that came out. Must’ve been cuz there was no Duggan in the mix.

New Mutants was one of the better issues since Ayala took over. I haven’t loved all of their issues, though enjoyed them for the most part, but this one I could really see everything start to come together that they’ve been seeding from their start. I wanna reread once next issue comes out and see whether it works better overall to read the full arc in one sitting. Also it might be that the Otherworld stuff was a forced detour they had to make and that threw off the pacing. We’ll see. 

But the kids with Gabby was such a sweet moment, and its so nice to see them all on the same side when it comes to Farouk......but Farouk’s motivations and the little interlude about the boy call back to Ayala’s first issue and it looks like the suspicions laid back then were true. Its almost certain that the Shadow King is actually an amalgamation or even just a full on puppet of an Amenthi demon who merged with or possessed Amahl Farouk as a child and using him as a host, has been all about trying to make this world match the one it came from, based on the same ideals Annihilation espoused. 

Basically, Amahl is not the same as the Shadow, the Shadow is trying to turn Krakoa into a new version of Arakko, and if I’m interpreting one panel of the art right, I think Xi’an (who seemed to have her suspicions back at the start of this arc too) just sensed another presence for the first time - and she’s the one who knows the Shadow King’s psyche best after all - and she’s figured out that there’s a separate Amahl Farouk consciousness hidden somewhere inside him. And given that second ‘demonstration’ interlude and the fact that the New Mutants are now nowhere to be found in the Shadow King’s mindscape, I’m guessing she managed to shunt them from the part the Shadow King controlled, into whatever part the original boy Amahl is hiding in.

Excalibur was one of its better issues. I’m far more interested in the politics of Otherworld than the political shit in X-Force, Mordred being a mutant is an actually interesting twist, and the idea that Arthur is making his son’s betrayal a self-fulfilling prophecy by attacking mutantkind because he believes Mordred will inevitably side with them as a mutant has some interesting possibilities. It was also unexpectedly....nice, to see like, the whole family Braddock fighting on the same side for probably the first time ever, lol, from Betsy to Brian to Meggan to Jamie.....Jim Jaspers remains a wildcard I’m wary of because like, lol I’ve read the original stories of him and it seems this writer has too, and I want someone to bring up that he’s keeping Redroot captive and make some kind of issue about that, especially now that Death has been brought back into the mix and Betsy’s offered to help him escape Sevalith. 

(Only to have him say no, he’s working - lol anyone else think Death’s trying to pull off a one-man coup and take over Sevalith for mutantkind and do his Daddy Dearest proud? Or given that he’s obviously still crushing on Ororo, even after - well I mean, probably BECAUSE she kicked his ass and left him for dead.....I could TOTALLY see them playing this as like, part of some weird courtship attempt of his. The only way he feels he can woo her as an equal is to come to her with a kingdom of his own or some shit like that. Idk, we’ll see. He’s definitely up to something though, but I do believe him when he says that ultimately he’s on the same side as the rest of them).

I liked that they haven’t forgotten about the other Rogue, Gambit and Rictor Captains, I liked Roma’s conversation with Jubilee about Shogo and the foreshadowing there, as well as Jubilee’s response and her clear conflict.....Merlyn can fucking die in a fire already, please and thank you, ugh, enough with this old shithead.....oh I LOVED that someone is FINALLY doing something with Bei, and it does make sense for it to be Excalibur though I figured it would’ve happened in New Mutants by now. But she and Shatterstar make a fun odd duo, and actually Star’s comment to Brian about being a new friend too like, lol, okay, I’m kinda here for a trio of Brian, Star and Bei to be like a Krakoan Warrior Three who are all united by their perspective as like, lifelong combatants and being outsiders among the rest of Krakoa even if Shatterstar and Bei are technically still mutants too. It makes sense.

Hmm, what else. Would love to see Bei’s thoughts on Death and Redroot, all things considered, and have something to do with those plotlines in the future. And really in general I’m here for this big all-kingdom smackdown with Sevalith, Hothive, Mercador, the Furies and Merlyn’s kingdom all arrayed against Krakoa and Avalon. Of course, these are still only the Foul Kingdoms. Roma and the rest of the Fair Kingdoms so far don’t seem to have any real problem with witchbreed....but this arc is still only getting started. Still waiting for Mordred’s inevitable entrance....curious to see what his power is, and especially if HE even knew he was a mutant before now.

Also: JULIO AND SHATTERSTAR CUDDLES. WE HAVE WAITED 84 YEARS FOR THIS.

And as for Hellions....

Okay, I didn’t actually love Hellions, its kinda on...layaway. I liked a lot of the fallout of last issue, I liked that the stakes are so apparent here, but I’m gonna be bothered by a lot of stuff unless there’s some kind of plot twist that reveals that Kwannon’s daughter is still alive somehow. Like maybe Sinister lied about not having another back-up JUST to ensure he still had one last card to bargain with up his sleeve since he lost the ‘in’ he had with the Hellions now, and with the Council now aware of his secret experiments with Arraki DNA (and bringing Tarn down on their heads in a way that COULD have started a full on war with them if Ororo hadn’t handled it for them)....like point is, all eyes are going to be on him for awhile now and he has very few cards left to play or people in his corner, so I’m HOPING that there’s another plot twist coming in the last couple issues there. 

Because if Kwannon’s daughter is ACTUALLY dead....it really doesn’t sit well with me that the first real mutant death in an age of literal immortality for the rest of them (since even Gorgon and Rockslide technically are still alive in SOME sense)....like for that to be Kwannon’s daughter, the only real innocent in all of this, and having been held hostage to this storyline the whole time, and only existing to force Kwannon’s hand in all of this....yeah. No. Thank you, do not like, that better not be all there is to this. I never trust anything Sinister says as a general rule, so I’m not gonna believe him about that having been the only back-up of her daughter until its wholly proven otherwise.

Other thoughts.....I like that Emma knows that she fucked up, I like that Emma DID have her own kinda failsafe in place because she didn’t trust Sinister for shit, I like that she was RIGHT not to trust Sinister for shit and that her fail-safe stopped even worse shit from happening....I DON’T like that her fail-safe literally just made Alex a weapon of mass destruction with no awareness he even was one and someone else’s hand (let alone fucking MANUEL’S on the trigger)....I DON’T like Emma looking all pained at how devastated Alex is when that was the inevitably outcome of this particular failsafe, like sorry Emma but if what it did to Alex was really that big a problem for you, you should have found a different failsafe.....and I REALLY REALLY don’t like Emma effectively just offering up Maddy’s resurrection as essentially a bribe to ‘fix’ what had happened to HIM, like....if you guys could have made the case for Maddy’s resurrection before now, it should have been for Maddy’s sake, not as like....a cheer-up tactic for fucking Alex, and DEFINITELY not to ‘fix’ a mess that still resulted in Kwannon’s daughter’s death (unless of course there’s a twist there).

Oh and I also meant to say there BETTER be fallout once Scott discovers Emma and Manuel’s role in all of this. I could definitely see Scott like, interceding on John’s behalf if he manages to pull of killing Empath, because like....he’d kinda want to do it himself. This is one of those times where I REALLY wish they’d spend more time developing where Gabe fits in with the Summers brothers now, relationship wise, because like, just show him giving any kind of shits for Alex as his older brother like, at all, and you can EASILY justify Gabe going full wrath-of-omega-mutant on Empath, and what’s the Council gonna do to one of their prized omega mutants, especially one who’s already been imprisoned on Krakoa for Xavier’s mistakes in decades past? 

Actually damn, now THERE’S a consequence-arc I’d love to see, because imagine Gabe helping John go after Empath, and then the Council really trying to throw HIM in the Hole for that, and then Scott being like uh no, remember the events of Deadly Genesis? The fuck I’m gonna stand by and allow that, Xavier you still owe him for that shit, especially since this resurrected version of him never did all the shit Emperor Vulcan did, at least as far as he knows. Or THEN ALSO I could see him getting Storm to back him up on this and she gets the Arraki to be like, well we owe this mutant a debt of gratitude for his role in making our new home, and actually his actions sound totally acceptable, we’re honestly not sure what the problem is, actually he sounds more like us than you so we’re happy to offer him sanctuary, and then the Council would shit their pants because they don’t want to lose an omega mutant to their war-like cousins since you KNOW more than a few of them are making contingencies in case they ever have to fight them again, and like, it’d split the loyalties of the entire Summers Clan in doubt and just...tons of story possibilities there. Lots to consider.

Eh, that’s not where they’re going with this at all though, so whatever. I’ll actually be really surprised if they do end up writing John as managing to successfully kill Empath.

Last thoughts.....this was weirdly the first time they EVER made me give a crap about Nanny? They managed to make me more interested in her in one issue than they have in her previous thirty-five years of existence, gave her more DEVELOPMENT in one issue than in all of that time, and when she was willing to sacrifice her just to save the orphanage from being destroyed I was like, holy shit. I....like...her?

And then they fucking ruined it all the very next page with how they had her react to Peter, and their ominous as fuck final epitaph. I’ll wait on deciding my full thoughts and feelings about that, and see just WHAT Peter ends up doing as a result....I have a feeling things are not going to end well for him and we might be close to seeing the last of him, especially with the inferences they’ve made about how destructive Peter’s true power is - whatever the hell it actually is. Like, Peter, at least, I can see the Council being more than willing to leave in the Hole, or just....put at the back of the resurrection queue for the rest of eternity. Which is shitty but would be perfectly in keeping with them and also I don’t actually know what he’s going to do yet.....like, is it going to be some bullshit like HE tries to destroy the Nursery or some shit because Nanny wanted to save it, or more likely is it gonna be something like he goes to the Right and betrays Krakoa or whatever and gives them valuable intel or something like that? Idk. 

Finally - YES MADDY’S COMING BACK. And she’s gonna be pisssssssed. Like, I don’t see how they’re planning to approach that, like....I’m expecting Xavier to try some serious editing on her back-up to maneuver WHICH point in time Maddy will come back remembering up to, because uh....that’s gonna matter a lot. But since this is all happening against his objections in the first place, and this seems more like Emma’s personal crusade to try and make up for her part in all this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Maddy comes back with full memories up to her most recent back-up.....which means she’s going to still be full on hating all of them, being like FUCK Krakoa AND your amnesty for all mutants I just want you all to burn, and oh yeah, on TOP of all that its inevitable she’s going to find out how much some of them FOUGHT to keep her from being resurrected, like....? Oh there is like only a 1 or 2% chance this ends any way other than TERRIBLY for everyone concerned.

(And yet I still hope they pull it off, because I don’t want her back just for one or two more issues, I want her back longterm. Ideally, I’d love her to take Jean’s place on the Council and pull it off with the support of like Mystique and Emma and Destiny and others as a giant fuck you to Xavier, but I’d also settle for her ditching Krakoa for Arakko and being like these are more my kinda people and also you can’t do shit to me here).

Oh and PS - lolololololol forever at Hank fucking McCoy trying to give Emma shit for her actions here. Like I mean, at least he’s AWARE he has literally no leg to stand on, whatsoever? I mean, I guess there’s that? But still. LMFAO OMG SHUT UP HANK YOU LITERALLY DON’T GET TO SAY SHIT ABOUT ANYONE ELSE BEING SHADY EVER.

Edit: Oh and also I forgot - I need to know how MUCH the Council found out about Sinister’s experiments, in particular if they found out he was ALREADY experimenting with making chimera mutants, like way ahead of schedule according to Moira’s LAST life in Powers of X, when like, the chimera mutants were a recent development as of a full hundred years in the future from now. Like, that changes a LOT and I would love to know what Xavier, Moira and Magneto think of that accelerated timetable and how it might change things.

[bloededhoine]

hi! I loved the last headcanons I requested so I'm sending more, hope u don't mind and sorry if this is late and if it is not Friday for u anymore. ☾, ■ and ♡ for Morvran (coz the one u wrote is the most amazing thing) and ✿ for Ves. Thank you so much and btw I abolutely love your witcher memes

you sent this 6 november. it is currently 12 december (by time i finished it its 11 january on my god) i am so fucking sorry but here you go! also the ves one.. yes.

☾ - sleep headcanon

■ -  bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon

♡ - romantic headcanon

✿ - sex headcanon

list

sleep headcanon

morvran is generally a pretty light sleeper, to the point where someone walking loudly outside will wake him up

so, he takes it upon himself to be properly tired before he goes to bed so he'll sleep through the night

this is usually accomplished by riding (a horse or a diplomat? who's to say)

good god it's the third bullet point how did i already make this sexual

alright...

he totally gives me monogrammed matching pyjama set vibes

like they're a mahogany coloured silk with a little MV embroidered in cursive

ciri loves making fun of them

but he's comfy DAMNIT

he sleepwalks... and didn't think it worth mentioning until emhyr hired a witcher to deal with the palaces supposed wraith problem...and of course he didn't want the city of golden towers to have a reputation as a hotbed for monsters.... but he eventually decided he liked his status as the local ghost

he keeps a dream diary.

like most of these hcs are based on tiny details in some obscure translation, but trust me bro morvran voorhis keeps a dream diary

he plays the dapper dude game, but with enough sambuca he will absolutely tell you why journaling your dreams is the most important thing you can do

he wears slippers. i know this for a fact. they match his pyjamas and he leaves them right next to his bed every night

of course, this started with morvran's father making sure he was always prepared for a quick getaway

even after the assassination he just couldn't shake the habit. he also always stays on the ground or first floor and won't fall asleep in a room unless the windows open from the inside. precautions, you know?

great now i'm sad

bedroom/house/living quarters headcanon

okay here's the thing you need to understand about morvran voorhis: he did not have any autonomy for the first 20 odd years of his life

growing up in the imperial palace doesn't leave a lot of room for individuality. sure, he had expensive toys, soft fabrics, and the nicest governesses and most intelligent tutors in the empire, but none of it was his

even after his father died, he couldn't leave because he was getting married off to some girl he'd never even met!

so, by time he had command of the alba division and, by extension, his own life, he got creative

i'm talking a tapestry of his favoured stallion that takes up an entire wall

and a custom plaque of the merchant's guild insignia on the mantle

and a hook right next to his bed to put his medallion

and his own gwent card, framed

and a map of nilfgaard he annotates himself, with markings such as "bastard who stole fire scorpion, cheats with scoia'tael deck", "pretty girl witcher", "annoying witcher", "guild army contact", "actual 25 centimetres, take portal or carriage"

and a desk he never actually uses because it's too orderly and looks too nice to mess up

should all those mismatched patriotic and egotistical things look good together? no, no they should not. but do they?? fuck to the yes! our mans knows the importance of a colour scheme!

when you first walk in his quarters, it looks kind of like most of the others in alba, except with a few extra empty coffee mugs

but he HAS THOSE MOTHERFUCKING DETAILS

i don't know why i'm so invested in this i just fucking KNOW it's true

he's a neat freak. i feel like we all knew this.

there's a designated spot for everything, and don't you dare mess up the system

also if you drip water on his rug he will 100% throw your ass out onto the street

romantic headcanon

now, i'm almost exclusively romantically attracted to women, but i would marry voorhis and not just for the money

he definitely has a huge romantic streak that he really loves indulging. buying flowers, writing love letters, all of that, he genuinely enjoys it

yes, he's a busy man, but he makes the little moments count! he definitely bugs assire for a new xenovox like every week because he breaks them so often

morvran voorhis is a massive flirt. i will not be taking questions

i told myself i wouldn't work in my voorhis used to be a sex worker hc in this, but you know what he did and that's important to him!

the flirting is definitely an issue in relationships, especially with people who didn't know him before he was a commander.

i'm not saying he's two faced, he just has very distinct business and pleasure personas that he doesn't want to mix

he also sees relationships as fairly contractual. he gave those diplomats a little of ~this~ because it helped him succeed. somewhere along the way he began to enjoy the feelings of courting someone, but it was largely because he knows you're always better at work you enjoy.

ciri has called him out on it a few times... he was not happy

how dare you ask this man to be vulnerable he is a BOTTOM

but i honestly think that if there is someone he wants, he will make himself worthy of them. voorhis is nothing if not confident and determined, and i think those are more powerful than the massive daddy issues and praise kink

he really just puts in effort and concern to all aspects of a relationship

like dates? unreal

he always starts by going to the vegelbud estate, partly because he is desperate for his peers' approval and partly because he wants to see if this lucky person is a good match

he also knows all the places around the estate where wildflowers grow. i told you he's a romantic.

sex headcanon

i'm about to be incredibly gay on main oh good god jimmy don't read this please

ves is a dom and a top. acceptable titles include Sir, Master, or Lieutenant and you better fucking use them

ves definitely gets around. i mean, just look at her. the energy is immaculate and she knows what she's doing

overstim. just... one is not enough. shaking is not enough. begging is not enough. being completely fucked out and not even able to manage any words while sobbing? that might do. (with consent!)

not that ves doesn't love to hear some begging, she definitely does. it's just not going to motivate or demotivate her to do anything, she already has it all planned out

that plan includes hearing someone beg for her strap even as she's deep enough inside them they can feel it in their belly

good god i'm really exposing all my kinks

anyways let's keep it going!

she's an amazing rigger

not just in technique, she knows exactly when to be gentle versus firm and create art out of a body and some ropes

ves bites

just grabbing a handful of hair and tilting their head back so she can leave marks on their throat... mmhm yeah

i think she fucked geralt

like yeah you can have her fuck geralt in assassins of kings but i think she just did it anyway cause she was bored and smelled a bottom

he had a very good time

ves was eh

geralt's just far more submissive than ves's usual partners. i mean, she's used to handling 5 temerian guerillas. a singular witcher isn't even a challenge

surprisingly, she's quiet. spending 80% of her day within earshot of her father figure made this more of a necessity, but she can fashion an excellent gag for any parties who aren't worried about all of temeria hear them

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

hey buddies -

just sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee thinking about Supernatural, and fathers and anger, and angels and love.  

yeah.  it’s Saturday, I guess.

my eagworms are back, so come think with me after the cut!!

so I'm thinking about how that terrible man Randy who manipulated Claire Novak, a narrative mirror for Dean Winchester, in SPN 10x09: The Things We Left Behind was a narrative mirror for J*hn Eric Winchester, the terrible man who manipulated Dean Winchester for the entirety of his childhood and young adult life

and all Cas wanted to do was make Claire see that Randy was just using her, and she was better than that because he fucking loved her

also thinking about how Dean Winchester was the one who killed Randy

thinking about how it wasn’t as much the Mark of Cain as it was his repressed feelings about his abusive damn father that he’s never dealt with (because he thought he deserved it), and he reacted in a murderous fucking rage because of that, because he saw J*hn in Randy and himself in Claire -

now thinking about the Mark of Cain and Dean’s tendency towards anger, stemming directly from his childhood with J*hn Eric Winchester, thinking about how J*hn used him as a weapon, how J*hn’s entire purpose after Mary’s death was his quest for vengeance, how Dean had to protect Sam from him over and over, despite his father mentally pitting them against each other constantly and manipulating them

ex: 1x22:Dead Man’s Blood

thinking about Cain who took on the Mark of Cain to save his brother Abel, to protect his brother Abel and send him to heaven,  despite it turning Cain into a killer and demon -

thinking about how that story was manipulated through time and turned into a story of Cain killing Abel instead

thinking about how Cain and Abel were Dean and Sam’s ancestors - 

(all hail King Matt Cohen)

how Cain became the father of murder

thinking about how Cain was the son of Adam

thinking about how when we meet Adam, Cain’s father, in 15x17:Unity,  he says all this about Chuck/God:

ADAM

God's "first story," yeah. Jumped through every hoop, talked to every snake. When he kicked us out of paradise, Eve and me, we figured, eh, we deserved it. Then he moved on... to our sons.

...

JACK

You hate him.

ADAM

Oh, no. I've been wanting this for going on 300,000 years. Took me that long to figure out how to do it, too.

JACK

Wait-- killing God is your plan?

**now thinking about Adam’s 300,000 year quest for vengeance on Chuck. but how Adam doesn’t hate Chuck. how there’s no rage in Adam. thinking about why.

NOW THINKING ABOUT HOW LUCIFER WAS THE FIRST BEARER OF THE MARK OF CAIN

HOW CHUCK TOLD LUCIFER HE WAS HIS FAVORITE 

AND THE MARK WAS GIVEN TO HIM BY HIS FATHER WHO USED HIM AS A WEAPON TO IMPRISON AMARA

AND THEN LOCKED HIM UP IN A CAGE WHEN THE MARK CORRUPTED HIM,

MANIPULATING THE STORY SO EVERYONE BELIEVED LUCIFER WAS JUST EVIL 

11x18: Hells Angel

CAS!IFER [smirking]:

It's marketing. He's creating a need in the consumer's mind. Can't be a Super Savior if you don't have a Super Villain.

 ***

thinking about how Lucifer didn’t want to fight Michael in 5x22: Swan Song

LUCIFER/SAM

So why? And why make us fight? I just can't figure out the point. MICHAEL/ADAM

What's your point? LUCIFER/SAM

We're going to kill each other. And for what? One of Dad's tests. And we don't even know the answer. We're brothers. Let's just walk off the chessboard. MICHAEL/ADAM

I'm sorry. I-I can't do that. I'm a good son, and I have my orders. 

***thinking about how Chuck manipulated the two brothers into fighting each other

***DAMMIT NOW THINKING ABOUT AU!MICHAEL AND HOW HE SPENT THE ENTIRETY OF SEASON 14 ASKING THIS QUESTION:

“What do you want?”

***thinking about how angels aren’t supposed to understand how to feel, how to love.  So Lucifer and Michael didn’t understand how to feel, how to love. 

***NOW thinking about how Adam wasn’t vengeful despite wanting to kill Chuck for 300,000 years.  thinking about how Adam had an angel lover named Serafina that entire time. 

JACK (to Dean)

She's an angel.

ADAM

Yeah, she's my old lady. She's the only one who could put up with me all these years, huh?

***REALLY thinking now about how Adam had an angel lover who kept him from going vengeful and murderous, and they just lived happily in love for 300,000 casually plotting to kill God as a side hobby***

NOW thinking about how Cain stopped killing when he met Collette (I won’t go into how she was basically Cain’s angel lover and the Cas/Collette parallel because you should know it by now, and there’s plenty of material out there if you don’t)

****thinking about how our crack-in-his-chassis angel Cas loved Dean. he wasn’t supposed to love, but he did anyway.

how he kept Dean sane for years and years like Seraphina kept Adam sane, how he was Dean’s Collette, how he helped cure him when he was a Demon, how he was the only reason This Dean and This Sam didn’t kill each other in this particular one of Chuck’s worlds, how he pulled Michael out of Dean when Michael eradicated all of Dean’s hope and trapped him -

thinking about how Dean showed Cas how to love because Dean Is Love.

thinking about how Cas loved.

thinking about how his actual confession of love led to this:

Just like Seraphina’s love kept Adam from vengeance, how Collette’s love kept Cain from murder.

THINKING ABOUT how Lucifer didn’t know how to love.  how he wanted to take Jack because he was his son.  how he wanted to be a dad.  how he wanted love.

thinking about Mi!Dam. 

thinking about specifically about “Since when do we get what we deserve?”

thinking about how the Lucifer/Michael fight happened ONLY AFTER CHUCK DISAPPEARED EVERYONE, INCLUDING ADAM - 

thinking about how it was only then that Lucifer and Michael carried  out the story charted for them by their abusive father - because they didn’t have love, Lucifer never having it to begin with and Michael no longer having Adam, the closest thing he would have had to love.  

so yeah, just thinking about that. 

Supernatural Is A Show.  A Show About Love. 

(and daddy issues)

[hazbincalifornia]

Octavia

Chapter 9: Octavia has some choice words.

Likes, replies, and reblogs are all appreciated, both here and on ao3!

Warnings: Mpreg

Ao3 Link

“Are you kidding me?”

“Via-”

“We- you- I can’t believe this!” She shot a glare at Blitzo, who kept his hands up, feeling sweat drip from his pits down his sides in the process.

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea, kid.” If anything was going to get thrown, he’d rather it not be in his direction.

At that, the teenager rounded on Stolas. “You really wanted another kid? After you just told me you weren’t going to run off!”

“I’m not!” Stolas… holy shit, he actually looked like he hadn’t seen that reaction coming. Hadn’t he heard the kid bitching about how annoyed she was seeing him making goo-goo eyes at Blitzo that whole day? Was it really that much in one ear and out the other with him? “Via, I promise, I don’t intend to go anywhere.” He reached for her arm, but she tugged it away before she could get a good grip. A hiss of air whistled through Blitzo’s teeth at the tears starting to well in her eyes. Great, this was a great addition to today. Not the distraction he'd been hoping for.

“You have a funny way of showing it.” Her eyes narrowed.

“Look, he gushes about you a lot, so it’s not a-” Blitzo started.

“I don’t want to hear anything from you,” she hissed, and Blitzo slid off the chair.

“Can we talk? Man to man?” He paused. “Man to angry teenager?”

She folded her arms, raising an eyebrow with a glare that could melt steel. “And what makes you think I want to hear it?”

“Just give me two minutes.” He held up two fingers. “Look, you can hate your dad all you want, you seem like a good kid, but I’d rather not get stabbed through a misunderstanding here, fair enough?”

“Blitzy!” Stolas jolted at that, but that got Octavia to glance between the two of them before grabbing Blitzo’s arm and yanking him out the door. She closed it behind her, sweeping behind a plant big enough to hide them from view. Blitzo was pretty sure he heard it growl.

“Fine. You have two minutes. What’s going on here?”

“It’s just a business thing, got it? Your dad’s got a thing for me, I get whatever I need back." Plus the landlord was totally up his tail about the rent and the fire damage, he couldn't lose the building and he'd be damned if he told Stolas that. "I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn't have to.”

“A minute forty.” Her tone was cold steel, one eye twitching.

“No need to be weird with me, I don’t like it any more than you do.”

“Get rid of it, then.”

“He promised to pay off repairs to the office. I’ve been through a lotta shit before, Vi-”

“Octavia.” She snapped the name out before he even finished the word. “My name is Octavia. You don’t get to use Via.”

“Fine. Fair enough. Point is, this?” He jabbed a finger against his side. “This is a temporary thing. I don’t know what your dad wants to do with it, and I don’t really care, but I don’t want you thinking I’m trying to reel him in by trapping him with a baby or something. Being on-call for whenever he’s thirsty sucks enough, this baby thing is a one-time gig because he’s probably got a pregnancy fetish or something.”

“Don't... don't say that." She grimaced at the last sentence. "So he’s definitely the one that wants it, and he’s just dragging you along with him.” Her fingers tap-tap-tapped against her sleeve as she glanced back towards the room. 

“Pretty much.”

“And you don’t want to run off with him?”

Blitzo shook his head. “The idea of him crashing in my apartment forever is fucking terrifying. He wouldn’t even fit on anything and he’d break the couch with his giant bird ass the second he sat down. Whatever daddy issues you’ve got, they’re his problem, not mine, got it? Leaving things the way they are sounds great. Preferably with less of me having to haul my sorry ass up here when he wants to get his beak wet.”

“Gross.”

“Yeah, well, so was upchucking on my own boots the other day. Life’s gross.” He straightened the skull around his neck- it had gotten twisted around at some point and was tugging too tight. Octavia looked him up and down, and he took a deep breath. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

“Is there anyone else?”

“Huh?”

She poked at his stomach. “I said, is there anyone else? You’re sure it’s Dad’s?”

“Unfortunately, no one constant.” Blitzo stretched. “I’ve slept around plenty, but I don't hand out access between my legs easy, and the way the dates line up mean it’s definitely his.”

Her arms crossed again. “Oh. Great.”

“Yeah, it’d be easier if it had been some random dipshit I met while drunk, but at least this way I’m getting something out of it.” Blitzo glanced back at the door. “For the record, though... he adores you. Any time isn’t spent telling me how tight my ass is, he’s talking about how much he wants you to be happy.”

Octavia’s fingers tightened around her arm again. “He does a lousy job of it,” she murmured, and Blitzo patted her shoulder.

“Yeah, well, that’s just Stolas for you.”

She brushed her hair out from her eyes. Feathers? Blitzo wasn’t entirely sure if it was feathers or hair, it kinda looked like a weird mix of both. He was weirdly tempted to touch it but didn’t only because she might have her mom’s razor-sharp nails. “You’re still an asshole.”

Blitzo shrugged. “Eh. I can live with that.”

Octavia crossed the hallway and pushed the door back open, Blitzo on her heels. Stolas had been pacing in the center of the room, gnawing on his nails.

“That was four and a half minutes.”

“What the heck were you thinking?” She asked, eyes narrowed.

“I thought it might be fun!” Stolas looked between them before sighing. “Via, can we discuss this later? I thought you’d like the chance to have a little sibling.”

“Mom’s not going to like this.” Her tone was flat, a statement of fact.

Stolas ran a hand over his head. “I’m aware. I’ll find a way to break it to her.”

“Tell me when you are so I can steer clear.”

He sighed again. “Deal. But really, sweetie-”

“Did you even think about how I’d feel?” The word ‘think’ came out strangled, and the rest after it were on the verge of collapse, raw and bloody. Blitzo took a step back as she took one forward. “You can’t tell me that you care and then do something like.. like... like this!”

Stolas’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he pulled Octavia against his chest. “I never meant for this to hurt you, I swear.”

“Swear you’re not going to just… just…” She choked on her words again, and Stolas knelt down in front of her.

“I promise, this won’t make me love you any less and I’m not going anywhere. Just because we’re making something new-”

“Something new was making Mom hate you before you got a baby involved,” Octavia muttered, voice still wavering. “She’s going to flip.”

“I know how to handle your mother. I’ve been doing it since before you were born.” He brushed a tear from her eye, squeezing her arms reassuringly. “It’ll all be alright, I promise.” She didn’t reply to that, but stared down as if trying to pry the truth about the future out of him by sight alone.

Blitzo cleared his throat. This was… exceptionally weird to have to watch and more than he was prepared to deal with today. “So, about the money for the gun?”

“I’ll get it for you,” Stolas said offhandedly. “And some extra for whatever you need in the next few weeks.”

“Got it.”

Octavia’s eyes followed him after Stolas stood up, and kept watching as they exited the little side-room and headed all the way down the hall, the pink and white burning holes in the back of his suit.

[zalrb]

If you could rank tvd male characters (not by looks ofc) but by character wise & development from best to worst what would it look like? & if you’ve already answered this sorry

I mean, development is difficult because with the exception of Stefan, it’s mostly wasted potential. Tyler had pretty good development in season 2 and 2x05 encapsulated this because he did something that Damon never did --- he snaps at Jeremy and then apologizes and says he’s working on being better and not such a dick all the time and throughout season 2 we see that in effect, we see a different side to Tyler, a vulnerable side, someone who asks for help and admits he’s scared and leans on someone (Caroline) but at the same time, his development with the werewolves was done horribly because they don’t give him enough conflict --- to be fair, they don’t give Bonnie, Caroline and Elena enough conflict around it either --- but if he’s being divided between his friends and his new supposed family, if Damon kills his uncle and his friends cover it up or help them and then his new werewolf family is torturing his friends, like the crisis of loyalty and identity crisis Tyler should’ve gone through should’ve been massive and it wasn’t. Plus after season 2, it’s like the show doesn’t know what to do with him emotionally anymore. Plot-wise him being sired to Klaus and then trying to start a hybrid army against him and then wanting revenge for his mother’s death is fine but I don’t really see how Tyler emotionally develops throughout all of that so the potential is wasted.

Matt. Matt had so much potential, I talk about it all the time:

With each and every episode I’ve been like, how has Matt not set fire to Mystic Falls yet? How has Bonnie not snapped on her friends and just released all of her magic on them yet? Like the most they make Matt do is get grumpy at Stefan for a minute and then refuse to let Elena feed him her blood? And Bonnie shows Damon what she went through in the nineties with Kai and she’s done venting? Are you fucking serious? People keep saying that Matt is a useless character but I see the potential in him because he and Bonnie would make the perfect opposition to the ‘core’ group and imagine how deranged they’d be? Like a psychological break would happen between them and they’d give absolutely zero fucks. And then we could deal with the ‘core’ group being so surprised that the two people they step on the most are ‘fighting back’ in a sense and are refusing to be ignored.

Him taking out his anger on Tyler didn’t bother me, it’s that the scale wasn’t big enough. He said a few words and he didn’t let Elena heal him like that’s a big deal. It’s not. It’s inconsequential. I don’t buy that he’s resentful because he doesn’t act resentful, he acts sullen; he shouldn’t be friends with any of them. His rage should destroy the entire town. He’s been bitten how many times, he’s been hit by a car, he’s been stabbed, he’s been used as bait, he’s been buried alive, he’s been driven off a bridge, like no, a few words here and there about how vampires suck isn’t going to cut it. It shouldn’t be respectful or respectable or small or at the right times, he should hate everyone with a passion, it should be to the point of insanity, like he should be obsessed with either destroying them all or getting the hell out of town but to make it more interesting it should be destroying them all; the line between enemy/friends should be gone and Bonnie should join him with it.

My point is that Matt’s anger should be directed at everyone, including people who don’t necessarily deserve it at the time. He should have a prejudicial hatred against all things supernatural, like it should be a fury that has a rational base and spirals out into irrationality because he’s at his wit’s end and he has a psychological break, it shouldn’t be logical and strategic, it shouldn’t just be about Damon and Stefan, that’s what I mean by how in my opinion it shouldn’t be “respectful resentment” everyone should be a threat or a target in his eyes and same with Bonnie after everything they’ve been through. They should have serious PTSD.

A psychological break doesn’t necessarily mean that Matt wouldn’t be effective at what he’s doing, it just means that he wouldn’t follow certain guidelines and he wouldn’t be confined. I like the idea of psychological breaks, I like the idea of snapping because the only characters who have been allowed to do that are Damon and Elena and I guess Stefan. Caroline turning off her humanity wasn’t a “snap” in my opinion. A snap has a lot of potential to be messy and I like it when characters get messy, I like it when they go off the deep-end because there’s so much you can do with that. I like the idea of Matt and Bonnie just having a disconnect and going beyond logic and reason and playing dirty because neither of them have done that before, it’s an unexpected route for both of them to take but one that still keeps in line with their characters after everything they’ve been through. I’m not interested in the “by-the-book” approach because we had that with Bonnie’s dad and we had that with Connor and we had that with the Council, it’s more of the same thing and the point is that the show should go in a different direction and to see the psychological and emotional scars that being around the supernatural has done to both Matt and Bonnie would be AMAZING and heartbreaking and it’d be intense for the other characters to see just how far they’ve pushed them.

in my opinion, Bonnie and Matt should be the “big bads” that everyone has to face but instead of it being an external villain, it’s an enemy they/the town created. That, in my opinion, would make sense for both characters and would be such an interesting storyline for the show to take on. Not these one minute/two minute/one episode gripes that go absolutely nowhere or get shut down quickly.

I mean they had ample opportunity to really push that forward but it’s like they’re too scared to do anything that has actual consequences. For me, Matt’s descent should’ve happen in season 5. He was in a house full of vampires and none of them heard Nadia take him and none of them found him buried alive? Instead Caroline took Klaus’ word for it (Klaus above all people) and everyone else was preoccupied with other things and were all at the Salvatore mansion when he finally got back? Like THAT should’ve been the beginning of the end. I have so many problems with that episode.

How would you write the team up of the psychological break with Bonnie and Matt against the main group?

I always said that one day Matt would just snap, like some bullshit will happen to him again and he’ll just set Enzo on fire on something and Bonnie would walk in on him and he would just rant about how he’s sick of being the guy who gets run over and stabbed and buried alive and shot and be like dude, we were FINE until the Salvatores showed up and Damon killed Vicki and wanted to get into the tomb so Grams died and Bonnie being like Matt, c’mon, bad things would’ve happened anyway, Elena was the doppelganger Klaus would’ve  — and then he just scream and say this is what I’m talking about the constant defending, don’t you get sick of it Bonnie, think of everything that happened to you, like aren’t you just MAD? And then Bonnie leaves and gets taken advantage of again or lied to again or has to put her life in danger again with great emotional and/or physical cost but that’s a secondary thing to the core group (again) so she just goes to Matt like yeah you’re right.

So since it’s all-in for him, does Matt die or win? Knowing you, even if he dies, there’ll be far reaching consequences of this arc, right?                        

I think what I would do is Stefan and Damon argue about how to handle it with Stefan wanting to lock him up and Damon wanting to kill him. If he did die then I think the consequence of that would be the Salvatores leaving MF, like either Bonnie has been pulled back already and she’s like you guys drove him to this then murdered him, either they go or I do and Elena and Caroline choose Bonnie or after Matt dying they don’t trust the Salvatores to not kill Bonnie so Elena “banishes” them before it becomes a everyone tries to kill Damon and Stefan gets involved and puts his life in danger because of it

I meant to say if he didn’t die, then I’d Azula him where he just is so mentally deteriorated that they lock him up and Bonnie goes to the group and is like, yo this is what you do to people eh?

But we never go there.

Jeremy --- Jeremy doesn’t even have an emotional arc, really. I mean we’re meant to believe he gets to this state of acceptance of becoming a hunter, which was a storyline that came out of nowhere.

Enzo never should’ve been introduced.

Klaus I have issues with because homeboy does not act like a 1000 year old vampire and his goals are SO small-scale, it’s EMBARRASSING:

  I know you say that Klaus’ daddy problems were very unoriginal and that another storyline could have explored which I do agree with. But what storylines do you think they should have done instead?            

To be honest with you, I’m not sure I would’ve given Klaus anything, I’d just lean into him being a megalomaniac and give him greater ambitions, like him being like you know, I’ve been alive for 1000 years, I’ve lived under kings and prime ministers and presidents and I legit could just do a better job than anyone, so first he wants to rule vampires, then the supernatural world in general and then the world at large. I’m not saying it’s original but I would prefer that over my dad was mean to me and my family hates me even though I stake them all the time so let’s make hybrids so I can rule one town in one country. OK…

Damon is Damon.

[textualdeviance]

On another little note: I still keep seeing generic proclamations (usually by non-geek media sources) that "fans" hate TROS and the ST in general and...

Look, almost everyone has some issues with it. Star Wars as a whole is heavily flawed in a lot of ways, and none of the movies are exempt from that. People have been arguing and shit-talking about it since 1977. They will continue to argue and shit-talk about it for another 40+ years (assuming we haven't fried the planet and made the human race extinct by then.)

But most of the fan rage this time is coming from two groups--R*ylos and obnoxious fanbros--who have one thing in common: A belief that Kyle Fucking Ron was supposed to be one of the ST's main heroes and get a happy ending. They thought he was supposed to pull a reverse Anakin, get The Girl and become the new Jedi King or some shit. Everything they think is wrong or doesn't make sense about the films all comes from seeing them through that framing.

The complaints about the ending, for instance, all talk about how sad/weird it is that Rey’s supposedly alone. Well, if you think she was supposed to fall in love with Kyle, rather than having her own separate character arc and being her own person, yeah, that might seem odd. And also, if you completely ignored the blatant and literally stated "found family" theme which ran through all three films, and which culminated in the shot right before that scene, yeah, you might assume she'd run off with Poe's little orange child, never intending to return (or have anyone else waiting back on the Falcon for her.)

One of the few complaints that does make sense is how bizarre and out of place that kiss was. It's pretty obvious that's a piece of Disney-required fan service, rather than fitting with the rest of the story. The rest of the scene? Eh. Fair enough. But that kiss was cringe city. The whole Force dyad thing in this story was never supposed to be romantic any more than Vader/Luke was. It was literally about the eternal dark vs. light battle. Unless you were hoping for a tragic ending, dark had to die so light could live on. That was always how it was going to be, and that's not exactly fertile ground for romance.

TBH, I can kind of get why some people would have expected him to have an easy clean-slate redemption instead of requiring a bigger sacrifice to get it: That's what a certain flavor of Christianity sells. You can do anything up to and including murder, and if you just say you're sorry and wave hi to Jesus on your deathbed, yay, you get to go to heaven. What a deal! If you come from a cultural tradition that expects that sort of facile salvation, it seems reasonable to expect that would happen for a guy who merrily tortured and murdered his way through his entire adult life because he had a giant ego and daddy issues. (And, no, you don't get to handwave that with "Palpatine made him do it." Rey had a shitty childhood and was a fucking Palpatine herself and still managed not to murder anyone. And don't get me started on Finn.)

But that kind of religion isn't in this story. Yeah, it's created and exists within the real-world Western Christian cultural paradigm to an extent, but this story is not an Evangelical allegory. On the contrary: It's closer to Buddhist than anything else. Remember: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to suffering." Kyle was always going to have to give his life to earn his place in the Jedi afterlife.

For those of us who don't automatically regurgitate the cultural propaganda that all large-scale stories are supposed to have white-dude protagonists, the ST was pretty darn good. Definitely problematic and aggravating here and there (Rose deserved better, and fuck the obvious No Homo shit), but overall, it was fun, and even brilliant at times. Speaking as someone who used to wish we could have a whole huge movie trilogy just about Eowyn, getting one with another female protagonist discovering her power was really gratifying. I would have loved to see bigger (and better) arcs for her boyfriends, but that would take another two trilogies to tell properly.

I'm tired of the sexist, racist contingent of fans being framed as the "real" ones whose opinions should be given priority soapbox space. They're just loud, not numerous. This trilogy has made scads of money; clearly the people who hate it are few and far between, even if they do make pests of themselves. I'm not ashamed to say I love these movies and I love these characters just as much as I love a lot of other flawed things in my life, and I don't think I'm alone in that.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I don't think the opinions of assholes should be given as much newshole space as they have been. Being extra obnoxious shouldn't earn extra attention.

[purpleswans1]

Family Reunion

Another piece of my Villain!Izuku AU for villain month. The prompt this time is “Enemy of my Enemy,” and it actually takes place after my published outline ends. Sorry if things are confusing here, you should understand things more when you read Saturday’s fic.

Read also on FF and AO3

“Hey, Dabi? Can we talk for a sec?” Izuku asked.

Dabi turned to the de-facto leader of their little villain group. “Sure. What’s up?”

Izuku waited until the others had all gone upstairs before continuing. “I’ve been contacted by a potential new recruit. Because of who he is, I figured it would be best to talk to you before inviting him to move in.

A new recruit? Already? Still, Dabi wasn’t sure why Izuku wanted to talk to him about this. “What’s his name?”

“Shoto Todoroki.”

A baby sleeping in his mother’s arms. A toddler looking at his hands in terror, the right one covered in frost and the left one wreathed in flame. A child trembling in exhaustion and pain. A boy’s face covered in bandages and glaring up with hate-filled eyes.

Dabi took a deep breath. “Endeavour's son?”

Izuku nodded. “If you don’t want him around I’ll understand. I’ll just tell Shoto to stay at UA and act as a spy. But if you could bear with us… I think it would do Shoto a lot of good to get out of that place.”

“Does he know we’re the ones who attacked his father?”

Izuku smirked. “I suspect that was our main selling point.”

Huh. Looks like the kid hasn’t been brainwashed by the old man after all. “Okay, bring him in.”

Izuku looked skeptical. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. My issue is with Endeavour, not his kid. Besides, it sounds like little Shoto has some daddy issues.”

Izuku pursed his lips, seemingly not convinced. “Alright, if you say so. If nothing else, this will give Shoto a chance to explain himself.”

Dabi smiled -- genuinely enthusiastic for once -- and said, “I’m looking forward to that.”

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

Shoto Todorki felt like a sheep in the wolf’s den. Which did make sense; what was a child of the #1 hero doing around villains? What was he doing asking to join them? Well, that just proved how little they knew.

“Guys, this is Shoto Todoroki. He’s offered to join us,” Izuku said, introducing him to the waiting wolves.

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Izuku and the little girl playing on the floor, stared at Shoto like he was a freak.

Well, they weren’t wrong, but it was still uncomfortable.

“Izuku, wasn’t that guy at the UA sports festival?” one of the girls -- the brunette -- asked.

Izuku nodded. “Yes. Until today he was a hero student at UA, but please listen to what he has to say before you judge him.” Izuku turned to Shoto and motioned for him to speak.

Well, it's now or never.

“My father is Endeavour and I hate his guts.”

That got their attention, but now that Shoto had started he couldn’t stop. It was just like at the sports festival, when he poured his heart out to a stranger her now knew was a villain. Only now, this wasn’t a trickle of hate leaking through the damn; it was the flood he was determined to let loose and share with the world.

“He’s obsessed with beating All Might, and decided to have a successor that would be stronger than him. I don’t know if any of you have heard of quirk marriages, but my father married my mother for no other reason than her quirk. When my quirk came in, father started a brutal training regiment. I was only four years old. It was painful for me, but stressed out mom out even more. She was already cracking under the strain of living with a man she hated, but she finally broke one night when I found her talking on the phone. She screamed that my left side was unsightly and poured boiling water over it.” Shoto reached up to touch his scar, both to indicate that was when he got it and because he was remembering how much it had hurt.

Nobody else tried to speak.

“It hurt, what my mother had done to me, but I knew my father was the one to blame. He’d driven her to the breaking point, and once it was done he shipped her off to a mental hospital and swept it under the rug. At first I was determined to become a hero without using my flames, the quirk I’d gotten from my father, but I met Izuku and he showed me another way. The only reason my father was able to get away with all that he did was because society put him on a pedestal simply for being a strong hero. I want to help you change that aspect of society, and I definitely want to help you kill my father.”

Shoto finished his story, putting his hands in his pockets. Nobody spoke for a long time.

An oddly familiar voice broke the silence. “Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Welcome to the Quirk Revolutionaries.” The speaker was a young man covered in burn marks.

The lizard-like man looked at Shoto. “If Dabi thinks it’s fine, then I have no objections. My name is Spinner, by the way.”

The brunette girl came forward. “I’m Ochaco Uraraka. It’s good that you’re able to join us, Shoto.”

“I’m Toga!” the blond said. “Oh, Izuku, I’ve got to try his blood! Can I cut him?”

“Not right now Toga, we should let Shoto get settled in first.” Izuku leaned into Shoto’s ear and whispered, “I’ll explain later.”

Shoto nodded. There was probably a lot he’d need to get caught up on.

The little girl got up from the floor and ran to Izuku. She hid behind his leg, casting a cautious glance at Shoto.

Izuku noticed her and placed a comforting hand on her head. “Do you want to introduce yourself to Shoto?”

The girl was painfully nervous, so Shoto took the initiative. He kneeled down so he was eye level with her. “My name is Shoto. What’s yours?”

“I’m Eri,” she said shyly.

“Izuku found Eri in a bad situation,” the scarred man -- Dabi -- explained. “Since he’s such a sucker for sob stories, we’ve been looking after her.”

Oh. Shoto should have been surprised to find a child in a house full of villains, but for some reason it never crossed his mind.

Dabi clasped his hand on Shoto’s shoulder. “It’s getting late. How about you guys get Eri ready for bed while I talk to the new guy?”

Izuku frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Take care of the little princess,” Dabi insisted.

Shoto gave a small nod. He didn’t understand everything that was going on, but he didn’t want Izuku to worry about him any more.

“Well, if either of you need anything, just holler.” Izuku cast one last glance at Shoto before leading Eri up the stairs, with Uraraka, Toga, and Spinner trailing behind.

Once they were gone, Dabi stood in front of Shoto, sweeping his eyes over Shoto’s entire body. It made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you, Shoto.”

That was surprising. “Have we met before?”

“When your quirk first came in, you were so scared. Mom and I both told you to keep it hidden, but Dad noticed anyway and dragged you away to start training.”

Shoto sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Who… Who are you?”

“I’ll admit, I was a little relieved. With you as the old man’s perfect successor, I finally got a chance to have a childhood. For the first time I could remember, I got the chance to spend time with Natsuo and Fyumi and act like a real older brother to them.”

Shoto realized what he was saying. Tears blurred his vision. “Big bro Touya?”

Warm arms circled Shoto in a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry for leaving you behind, Shoto. I needed to get out of that house, but I should've… I knew it would make things harder for you, but I left anyway. Can you ever forgive me?”

Shoto’s arms came up to return his brother’s hug. “Big bro… I thought you were dead. I can’t believe…”

“Shhh. It’s my fault; it was the only way I could think of to get the old man off my back. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’m just so glad that you’re here now.”

Tears fell from Shoto’s eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, big bro. You were just doing what you needed to do. I found my own path, and now we’re together again.”

Dabi -- Touya -- squeezed harder. “Thank you, Shoto.”

The two brothers stayed like that, just holding each other, for a while. That is, until a new voice ruined the moment.

“So, you two are related I take it?” Izuku stood a few steps up, in full view of the brotherly embrace.

Dabi looked up. “Are you saying you expected this?”

“Well, your quirk works similarly to Endeavour's, so I always thought it was a possibility. I heard Shoto’s story long before we met, so I knew that his family had a good reason to hate him as much as you do. Not to mention, your hatred of Endeavour was awfully personal, so it made even more sense for you to know him or Shoto personally.” Izuku explained.

Dabi snorted. “You know Izuku, you’re pretty scary when you do stuff like that.”

“It’s just a part of my charm,” Izuku said. “By the way, there’s a spare bedroom for you Shoto. I should warn you, Eri tends to crawl into bed with whoever’s awake when she gets a nightmare, so don’t be surprised if she visits you in the night.”

“Come on, let’s get you settled in,” Dabi started to lead Shoto up the stairs.

“Thanks, big bro Touya,” Shoto said.

“Eh… I don’t mind if you call me that when we’re alone, but I’d rather you call me Dabi around the others, okay?” Dabi rubbed his neck. “I’ve put a lot of effort into reinventing myself after I got out of that place.”

Shoto considered this. “Maybe I should pick a new name for myself too.”

Dabi laughed. “Sure, kid. You might want to run it past Izuku; he’ll probably have a bunch of ideas for you.”

[lightdusk96]

The Kids Are Alright

(Hello, everyone! It’s my birthday today, so I made this little thing here to celebrate! This is a tribute to all my friends, especially my writing buddies Ava @fireflyxrebel and @nightglider124 ! Credit goes to @loubuggins for letting me use her lovely BBRae kid OC’s Mark and Maria Logan!)

The Kids Are Alright   

«How longer until we get there, Dick?»

Richard Grayson glanced at his beloved wife, as his attention was on the veichle ahead of them. «Not too long, I think. I remember Bruce said the place is just beyond this clearing.»

Kory only hummed in response before looking back to see the kids. Jake was sleeping peacefully, his short black hair messy and unkempt, while Mar’i was bouncing with excitement, her long dark hair fluttering up and down as she did. She always had an urge to explore and see new places, so this idea of going to this new summer resort for a few days was right up her alley.

Kory couldn’t help but smile, her daughter’s happiness being irresistably infectious. It was going to be a very fun couple of days.

It wasn’t even a few moments before her train of thought was halted by the car slowing down to a halt.

«Woah… I think this is it.»

Dick’s exclamation was one that Kory soon shared as soon as she laid eyes on the place. It was a beautiful cabin made entirely out of wood, with a painstakingly-crafted stone pathway that lead to a small beach, a seemingly uncountable variety of flowers growing on both sides of said path, big windows and lanters completing the a look that was luxirous, yet simple.

Kory gave her gobsmacked husband a knowing look. «We get this beautiful home AND a beach?! I believe you said you wanted something small…»

He smirked at her teasing comment. «Well, OK, not TOO small…»

Kory just shook her head at that. «The house, I get. But a beach?»

Dick’s smirk grew into a full out grin, wrapping a strand of Kory’s firery red hair around his finger. «You mean you don’t want to see me in nothing but a swimsuit?»

Kory’s round cheeks had a soft shade of pink in them as soon as he finished that sentence. «While you make a good point, I don’t think we should talk like that in front of the kids…»

«Right, sorry. I’ll just go and get our things.»

Kory turned to their daughter as Dick got out of the car and started unloading the trunk. «So, what do you think, Starshine?»

Mar’i smile was so bright that it lit the entire interior of the car. «It’s soooo pretty! I LOVE IT!»

Her outburst of excitement woke up Jake, who after shaking off some sleep-induced sluggishness, took one look at their home and stared at it with an open mouth.

«Wooooooow… it’s biiiiig!»

Kory giggled at his blunt, yet apt description as she got out of her seat and out of the car, her children following her. The kids got their backpacks while Mommy and Daddy got the heavy suitcases. Mommy carried the bulk of them for the obvious reason that she was stronger than Daddy.

As they unloaded the trunk, the green Smart that followed behind them stopped a short distance away from them. The Logan family emerged from the car in very good spirits, despite the long trip. Raven showed a rare smile as she held the hand of her son Mark in her own and Garfield was laughing alongside his daughter Maria as they raced each other to the house in front of them. As for their luggage, Raven just levitated it to the cabin. It was times like this that she honestly considered her powers an actual blessing.

Raven turned to Richard as he carried two suitcases down the stone pathway. «Just a small resort, eh?»

«Ah, it’s eight of us, we’ll need the space. Especially with our kids having superpowers and all.»

Raven simply hummed in response as she guided Mark towards the cabin, Kory floating beside her carrying several big suitcases. And her two children, who were letting out excited squeals over how fun of a ride their mommy can be.

The unpacking did not take very long, thanks to the fact that most of the residents had superpowers that made it much easier. As soon as the adults were finished, Maria took the liberty of asking what the rest of the kids behind her were thinking.

«Mommy, can we go out and play now?»

Raven gently stroked her green hair, a warm smile on her face. «Go ahead, sweetie. But be careful and be back by lunchtime, okay?»

Maria rapidly nodded her head. «Yes, mommy!»

Mar’i  was jumping up and down in joy, as Mark and Jake gave each other a mischievous look. «Alright, play time!»

Jake and Mark took off before Mar’i could even finish her sentence. «LAST ONE THERE IS A ROTTEN EGG!»

The girls were shocked in place for a brief moment before giving chase. «Hey, good boys are supposed to let ladies go first!»

Mark had this to say as he looked back at the girls running behind them. «You’re not a lady, you’re just a sister!»

Gar laughed at their antics as was lounging on the sofa after he set up his and Rae’s room, very satisfied with how the place looked. «It’s a real nice place you got here, Dick. It reminds me of a place I know of, but that’s inside a forest by a lake, not near a beach.»

Dick riased an eyebrow from his seat on the other side of the sofa, his lovely wife snuggling against his shoulder. «Really? It sounds like a pretty cool place. Maybe we should should go there next time we take a few days off with the kids.»

«It’d be cool with me! I know the kids would love it!»

Kory raised her haed slightly at this. «Speaking of the kids, how are the twins fairing, Gar? How are they handling their powers so far?»

Gar  shifted his lounging position to and upright one. «Well, Maria is handling hers pretty well. She’s already got a good handle on teleporting and can move some small things with her telekinesis. Mark’s getting the hand of it too, although it can get pretty hard sometimes. So far he’s displayed animal senses and empathy, and these can be very difficult to tone down. Said that his head hurt from feeling to many conflicting emotions all at once at schools, while his animals senses can make it hard to sleep. But that was just at first. He’s been seeing both of us and he’s learned to surpress them to the point where it’s not nearly as much of an issue anymore. It’s worth noting that he adapted to his empathy extremely quickly, even Rae was impressed by how swiftly he controlled it. In fact, these helped him make fast bonds with pets and other animals around him.» Gar’s eyes lit up in happiness as he remembered the Mark’s look of pure wonder on his cute little face when he made his first animal friend, a tiger in a zoo that they visited 2 years ago.

Kory let out a huge smile of admiration for how well Gar had conducted himself. «It all sounds glorious, Gar! I am very happy for you and your family! I always knew you would make a wonderful  father!»

Gar couldn’t help but puff his chest out in pride at this. Despite his caring for the kids being entirely out of love for them, it did feel  nice to be appreciated.

«Thanks, Kory. So, how about Mar’i and Jake? They doing well, or is Dick being a Dick again?»

Dick rolled his eyes out at this. «Wow, that was almost an hour without a joke about my name! I’m impressed!»

Gar’s signature toothy grin was very quickly formed around his face. «Well,I would make more, but I don’t have much time for dicking around these days, y’know?»

Dick couldn’t hold his chuckle in time. «Mar’i and Jake are doing fine. Mar’i has got a pretty comfortable hold on her powers, while Jake is getting there steadily. He can’t fly like his sister, but he does have super-strength and starbolts, which he used to launch a bully on the other side of an alley 3 months ago. He didn’t get hurt, thankfully. Mar’i has been really helpful to him as he adjusted to his powers. They’re a pretty tight-knit duo.»

Raven came out from the kitchen, with a tray of teacups and a teapot that softly let out steam.«A new Dynamic Duo, eh? Sounds good.»

As the four adults drank from their cups, they couldn’t but think just how far they’ve come in their lives, to the point where they’ve become capable parents when it felt like it was just yesterday that they were teenagers barely able to handle their own well-beings, much less their own. That feeling of accomplishmenmt and pride combined with the warm tea trickling down their stomachs felt them with a feeling of warmth that could be sensed throughout the entire room as their children played outside in the sand, shouting at each other over not being able to use their powers for hide and seek.

[crazedlunatic]

G.O.

“We have to intervene, Blaine. I know we said we’d let Zach figure it out on his own but Megan is taking advantage of him more now… and I saw her with a guy at the mall. He’s going to be hurt either way but I’m afraid they’re going to start dating. You said it first. You think she’s gotten close to Zach because of our money… and Zach is quiet and shy… but I’m not going to just ignore it anymore. She’s not going away.”

Blaine, who was sitting in the kitchen and looking over the kids’ inheritance earnings for the previous month, looked up. “Kurt… She’s one of the only people Zach talks to.”

“Which is why he’s going to be devastated. I would rather it happen now than after she tricks Zach into marrying her and gets pregnant with someone else’s baby. Plus, you see the looks she gives Nick even when Zach’s in the room… and I know Nick has talked to her about it. Honestly, I think Nick’s about one more look or touch of the arm away from going off on her.”

“Has he talked to Zach about it?”

“I… I don’t know. I just know that she keeps trying moves on Nick.” Kurt said. “And now that Sarah has moved in here with us, Megan’s acting worse… probably because she can tell that Zach likes her. Zach has always liked her since before Megan was in the picture when they were eleven. She gave him so much hell for picking Sarah up from dance practice. It was raining. Plus, if Zach quits hanging out with Megan… I mean, he and Sarah would be perfect for each other… and you can tell how they feel about each other when they look when the other isn’t looking… Anyone who knows Zach knows he’s had a crush on Sarah since elementary school.”

“He’s seventeen.”

“He is going to get really hurt if we don’t intervene. You know he has self esteem issues anyway and he’s shy… I don’t want things to be harder for him than they have to be.” Kurt was begging Blaine with his eyes. “We have to do something before he gets hurt more than he already will. You know how upset he gets over stuff like this.”

“Maybe Nick can talk to her again.”

“He’s tried. That’s why Zach and Nick didn’t talk for four days two weeks ago… although who knows what Megan’s version was to make that happen.”

“Kurt…”

“Best case scenario he ends up absolutely crushed. Worst case scenario, they get together, get married, have kids, and she leaves him taking half of his inheritance.” Kurt glanced towards the doorway to make sure nobody was coming in. “If you don’t help me talk to him, fine. I’ll do it myself. Honestly, Wes will talk to him with me. He’s as protective over the kids as he is over you. David would probably love to be in on this too.”

“What if he gets upset with us?” Blaine asked.

“Then we’ve pissed him off but that will have been two additional people that have talked to him. Honestly, I’m pretty sure Ryan has talked to him too.”

“Kurt…” Blaine trailed off as Sarah came into the kitchen, looking upset.

“Is everything okay, sweetie?” Kurt asked, going over to her.

“Besides the fact that Megan is in the hallway trash talking me to Zach, everything is fine.” Sarah said. “I just wanted some water.”

“She’s what?” Blaine asked from the table.

“I’m being nice to him because I’m using him. I just want him to feel sorry for me because my mom beat me and let her boyfriend be a creeper.” Sarah scoffed. “If anyone has been using him for anything, it’s her. Not to mention she’s dating someone in college. She’s even had Zach pick her up after a date with the guy saying her car wouldn’t start. She laughs about it to people on the cheerleading team. She thinks he is some 24 hour butler or something and it’s disgusting. They’re probably in his bedroom by now, too, so she’s probably trying to talk him into having sex. She harasses him about it all the time and makes fun of him for not having sex. And that part is coming from Nick, not me. Also, she’s told Zach to not talk to me.”

Sarah abruptly quit talking when a very upset Zach came into the kitchen with Megan behind him.

“She doesn’t treat you well. She knows you like her and she’s taking advantage of you.” Megan said, pointing to Sarah.

Kurt opened his mouth to defend Sarah but Blaine shook his head.

“She just wants you to feel sorry for her because her mommy used to beat her. Big deal. She probably had sex with your brother just so he’d come and get her. If it was even real.”

Sarah went to say something but Kurt grabbed her wrist—not hard. Just to catch her attention. He shook his head.

Zach slammed his cell phone onto the counter, shattering the screen. “Go.”

“Excuse me, Zachary?”

“G. O. Go. Do you need to hear it in any other languages? ići, jít, partire, ir, mynd, pigaino, idti, gehen. I can keep going if you’d like.”

“Don’t forget partire.” Nick said cheerfully coming in.

“I already got that one.”

“Iet? Ful? Fara? Did you get those? I can pull up more on my phone. Since yours is in pieces on the counter.”

“Why not?” Zach asked.

“Siri, how do you say go in other languages?” Nick asked his phone.

Megan stormed out.

“Ding, dong, the witch is dead.” Nick said as Zach stormed upstairs and slammed his bedroom door.

“Okay, well…” Blaine looked at Kurt. “I guess you don’t have to worry about that anymore, Kurt.”

Nick’s phone began playing Ding, dong, the witch is dead. “Little late to listen in, Siri. You’re never here when I actually need you and, frankly, it’s rude.”

Megan turned and walked out of the house.

“Just saying… if Sarah’s not my sister in law in three years, Zach is an idiot.” Nick chirped.

Blaine nodded his head three times.

“Uh… Sarah is still here.” Sarah pointed out.

“Blaine.” Kurt gave him a look. “Zach is obviously super upset.”

“Oh, come on. He and Sarah are freaking adorable.” Blaine said. “I give it a month.”

“Sarah is still here?” Sarah said.

“Eh… I give it two or three weeks.” Nick said. “I would agree with a month if they hadn’t already kissed.”

“WHAT?!” Kurt exclaimed.

“That day when he was sick and you made her stay home with him?” Nick asked. “They totally made out. Really? You should have caught on to that when Sarah was sick two days later.”

“Wait, what?” Kurt repeated.

Because surely not Zachary.

“It’s true.” Sarah said, although fairly sure they had forgotten she was even there.

“Daddy, I’m pretty sure they’ve been having surprise make out sessions since then too… which I’m assuming is why Zach finally kicked Megan to the curb.” Nick looked amused. “Could you not just feel the extra sexual tension in the room any time they were together?”

Sarah just shrugged and left the room.

“Called it.” Blaine looked amused. “Okay. I’m not as worried about Zach anymore. He’s fine, Kurt.”

“He just had his heart broken.”

“Daddy… no.” Nick shook his head. “He’s not had a crush on Megan since he got drunk and told Sarah that she looked like an angel in disguise… and I’m pretty sure since that day, he’s kind of assumed Megan wasn’t being entirely truthful about… well, everything seeing as she’s the one who told him the punch wasn’t spiked. We’re smart, Daddy. Give us enough time and we’ll figure stuff out on our own.”

“Just… because I feel like I need to ask even though I know the answer.” Kurt said. “You didn’t have sex with Megan, did you?”

“I’m not even going to answer that question.” Nick looked at Kurt like he was crazy and then went upstairs.

Sophie walked in all smiles. “Hey, you do know Zachy’s phone is all smashed on the counter, right?”

“Yes.” Kurt and Blaine said together.

“… Is she gone? Did he finally do it?!” Sophie asked as Logan followed her in.

“Would you want Sarah or Megan? Come on now. Bitch or someone sweet who also partially shares your love of animals?” Logan said.

“Excuse me.” Blaine said. “Have you all known he’s been making out with Sarah?”

“Yeah.” Sophie and Logan said together.

Zach came down the stairs, still looking upset. “Dad, can we go and get me a new phone?”

“Yep!” Blaine said. “How’s Sarah’s tongue doing?”

Zach just walked out the back door, grabbing his own car keys off the counter.

“He didn’t deny it. Oh my God.”  Kurt gasped. “Maybe he is you, Blaine.”

“David and Wes have told you—same temperament before you met me. He is a slightly taller and more adorable version of me.” Blaine looked at him. “Why don’t you ever trust me?”

“You two also couldn’t even see the smug smile when he was past you.” Logan said. “I have a feeling he’s more upset about his phone than anything else.”

“And you were worried.” Blaine gave Kurt a pointed look.

“Dad! I would like to make it home before 8:00. There’s a special on Animal Planet on giraffes!” Zach called from outside.

“I’m coming!” Blaine called back, grabbing his wallet.

“Can I go?” Kurt pouted a bit.

“Nope. Don’t worry. I’ll fill you in.” Blaine kissed his cheek and walked out.

They heard Zach go, “Please don’t even bring up her tongue or I’ll just go by myself and set up my own account.”

“Uh huh. Because you’ll pay for it yourself instead of us paying for it for you? Also, you have to be 18 to do that.” Blaine gave him a look, climbing into the passenger seat of Zach’s car.

“… Yeah, you’re right.” Zach started the car and backed out.

“Did you and Nick have that whole ‘go’ in different languages thing planned?”

“Nope. Sometimes it just happens.” Zach shrugged.

“Just so we’re clear… no more closed doors when you’re alone with Sarah.”

“Just so you’re clear… they haven’t been closed and you’ve walked by us making out at least four times with out noticing. Once we were on the couch and not even laying down. Sitting up. You literally came in the door and walked right by.”

“Seriously…?”

“Yes. Seriously.”