#source: idk it’s a meme I’ve seen

[incowrecked-quotes]

Connor: Hey, Mark.

Mark, sniffling: Rex used to call me that…

Connor:

Connor: Because it’s your fucking name.

[chibishortdeath]

I doodled this when I was replaying the game once. There really isn’t enough humor (memes? Shitposting? Idk what the correct word is for it, but all of those) for the older games, which is a damn shame since they have a lot of opportunities for it.

[disformer]

🔥 for either the Starscream/Megatron ship or Getaway/Atomizer 👀

I actually don’t know much abt Getaway/Atomizer so

Fights about Megatron/Starscream have to be one of the biggest wastes of time online I’ve ever seen. For a ship that can either be depicted as extremely dark and toxic OR silly haha mallet-on-head cartoon romance and STILL be a valid, fairly canon-compliant depiction, why are you in the trenches fighting for your life? Surely you’re better off directing that energy somewhere more productive.

It is fine. It has some weird fans that do weird things with it, grass is green, we are all playing with dolls, c’est la vie.

[cancerian-woman]

https://www.tumblr.com/cancerian-woman/742775460766924800/tvd-fans-will-make-a-post-about-how-all-women-are?source=share

then they’ll say “but why does everything have to be about raceeeeee?”

Idk, maybe ask the people who created division based on race? Oh wait… then you’d have to ask yourselves, wouldn’t you…

You’re not wrong at all. The post I was referring to at that moment for context said that maturing is realizing: Katherine/Elena/Aurora/Caroline/Hope/Josie/Rebekah and Hayley were the hottest girls in TVDU.

I don’t really interact with many tvd fans that I’m not mutuals with because they tend to expose their bias on their own. I mentioned before the post was deleted that the meme said white women only for this beautiful standard someone JUMPED to reply to my comment about how it isn’t racist but a preference.

You can’t tell me you watched all 3 shows of tvdu and yet somehow none of WOC can make a “hottest list” fuck out of here.

But like to be transparent here it’s really not shocking. I’ve seen fans photoshop Kat out of pics/mock her features/ the features of the poc cast members

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

uh as someone who is in svsss fandom; not sure what that other person was talking about in terms of everyone “glossing over” how it ends. people know it’s bad. that’s... kind of the point, both of the entire series and that scene. spoilers for that, and the rest of svsss though I’ve done my best to keep everything vague, but you can choose to disregard this and I wouldn’t fault you for this. tl:dr svsss is definitely not for everyone and if this isn’t your thing, probably not for you. sorry in advance for the essay. it is an absolute train wreck, which is kind of the point.

that scene involves sex. that scene involves one person withdrawing consent. that scene continues despite the withdrawal of consent, and mind you it’s not what most people would call erotic by any definition.

this book is a horror that gets masked by the comedy from an unreliable narrator; what if you got isekai’d into the absolute worst of the worst online web novel, that is just porn and a revenge catharsis male power fantasy, what if you were stuck there? what if you were stuck in the role of a character created to be the source of misery, a character who actually has to suffer that horrifying punishment that is inflicted by the protagonist of this revenge fantasy by the end if you fail to change a story that’s already been written?

it’s a terrible world to be sent to because the book is deconstructing that entire genre that honestly I don’t think exists to the same extent in english, it’s a genre that is made to sell chapters via exactly that; a revenge catharsis story built on male power fantasy, with flimsy justification for porn at every turn. so this terrible situation to be in ends like that; with god awful porn tropes everywhere, of course the world ending and trying to avoid it involves sex that, if anyone involved with was real, would be horrifying.

the main romance is, as has been joked about, a solid red flag finding solace in another solid red flag. they’re both doing terribly mental health wise without much prospect of getting better but considering the circumstances it’s the healthiest dynamic they both could be in.

i’m not saying it’s a perfect story by any means, but I feel like people’s disdain for it often comes from the expectations. if you go into this with the expectation of it being like tgcf or mdzs you will be blindsided by all this, and it’s a lot to be suddenly exposed to without warning. personally I would absolutely not have enjoyed this as a romance primarily; but I still do enjoy it as a black comedy that hides the horror of what it’s deconstructing, and basically just happens to have an absolute trash fire romance in the background.

if you somehow got this far; thank you. if you don’t want to read svsss that’s fair, it really isn’t for everyone for various reasons. but if you’re willing to read it, reading it as a romance might not be for you. the protagonist and point of view for us is a very unreliable narrator and I’m not sure why entirely but this fact gets thrown out a lot when people get around to reading it.

I don't think it's necessarily unfair to say it gets glossed over at least in the sort of...idk, public-facing side of the fandom? Like I'm sure there's deeper discussions and meta and such going on within the fandom, but from the outside I've seen like 3-5 posts about the darker stuff and 100 cutesy memes of the curly haired guy being a whiny baby 😅

THAT SAID, I really like how you've broken down the premise here, and it is very interesting. I love SO MUCH about MDZS even though I don't like the sex, and I love MXTX's storytelling, so I could definitely be down to read some dark comedy-horror trope deconstruction from her. I do think that management of expectations is a big part of it: I daresay most people come into MXTX novels via MDZS or TGCF first, and both of those are certainly to large degree romances. So it kind of makes sense that then people head over to SVSSS expecting more of the same and get unpleasantly surprised. I appreciate both you and the other person I was talking to kind of breaking down the differences. I definitely do feel like, if/when I do read it, I'll be going in now with a much better sense of what to expect and how to interpret it. Thanks so much!

[fictionkinfessions]

for the obscanons — we have two fictives from toy story, and one of them is noncanon. (actually, there are three of us, though i only get cameos in later movies and am primarily from monsters inc.) it’s kinda weird, being in a place where some of the people and places we knew are still there but never quite right. like, i can watch my source til the cows come home and get my fatherly comfort fix that way, and they’re both the subject of loads of memes, but i’ve never seen anyone kin with either of my dads. same with woody and the other toys from andy’s room. hell, marnie’s dad, who was a celebrity in her canon, just straight up Does Not Exist here, because the movie he was in was made up for toy story and THEN made into an actual movie two decades later as a marketing ploy.

augh, idk how to wrap this up, i’m tired. i might’ve had a point when i started this but i’m just gonna leave it here.

-mary “boo” sullivan (fictive)

.

[garnetcoloredsky]

Fic Writer Questions

This was a tag meme but I was tagged on an account that uhhhhh I don’t openly share this fic to 😅 but I’m doing it anyway.

1. How many do you have on Ao3?

14!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

109,768

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

On my current account: sources tagged on ao3 lists 7, but it’s actually 4 because MDZS/The Untamed/Fatal Journey are all the same fandom, and so is Tron :Legacy and Tron: Evolution. I also have SCP fic and an old Wizard101 fic.

Back when ff.net was a thing, I also wrote Alice in Wonderland, The Hunger Games, and Pirates of the Caribbean. (There’s also an orphaned DBH fic floating around on ao3 somewhere…)

4. What are your top 5 by kudos?

all that’s left is the choosing

babyface boy

the blood that binds

with heart shaped bruises and late night kisses

Metanoia

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to, but several factors go into it. I gotta have something to say back (so while “holy shit” is an excellent comment and I’m grateful for it, I have no idea how to respond to it.) Also, it helps if I know you. I’m shy. :3 but I try to answer all the long ones.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmmmmm…Equilibrium made me the saddest, love me mercilessly is the most tortured.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Nope. I hate them. (But I enjoy a good AU that steals the aesthetic of another source.)

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really. Everyone’s been very nice to me and even unpleasant comments were either rude demands for more or constructive criticism that was unwanted 😅 but I guess they had good intentions.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do. Mostly incest-y things and usually M/M.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nah. My motivation is sparse, so I’d be a terrible writing partner. I’m also a control freak about my writing so sharing would be hard. (A best friend and I have contemplated an original story, though. If I was going to try co-writing, it would be with him.)

13. What is your all time favourite ship?

Gotta say the Nies. They single-handedly restored my writing motivation after three years of absolutely nothing—my laptop was destroyed in a freak Smart Water accident and all my writing since I was like 12 was destroyed, including my novel, and I was so depressed—and they were the reason for the first fic I wrote since ff.net died when I was a kid. I’ve also seen so much growth in my writing in the last two years alone, just because of the Nie fic & fandom. ^_^

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Ah, probably the Underworld AU I had planned. It would be another long fic, probably, and while it’s very fun in my head, I have trouble writing any of it down.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I write a mean argument between people who are in love and pissed about it <3 and I like my writer’s voice. I enjoy getting to get inside a character’s head and make sassy remarks.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Smut tbh. I’m not the worst at it anymore, but it doesn’t flow. I always feel like I’m rushing it. There’s more than one WIP in my folder that’s only prevented from publishing because I wrote all the set-up, but got stuck on the porn.

Also, pacing just in general. Boring stuff drags on, the smut rushes by, somehow the fic is never long enough, idk. It’s a constant battle.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I just translate to English. Writing in another language even for single lines of dialogue is tricky because I want it to be perfect and nuanced, so I don’t bother. I’ll leave single words in their (anglicized) original language, though. (eg. zhongyi, cun, xiongzhang, etc.) We all know what those are.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Alice in Wonderland, I think. I was all cute in 2010, with my terrible little sequels.

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Mmmmmmm…that’s hard. I’m very proud of heart shaped bruises and late night kisses because it’s my first longfic, I had the most fun doing all that’s left is the choosing…maybe Metanoia? I like rereading that one the most. Ironically, it’s not a Nie one. It has a very unique energy and got a nice response, and I liked being in SongXueXiao’s heads for a bit. It also felt like the most natural of my movie AUs and it’s a movie I really like, so that helps. They’re so fucked up ;3

Tagging my writing friends. I am still too shy to do it directly lol

[incorrectlyyours]

Clark: if I had a nickel for every time I accidentally befriended a billionaire with a literally deadly ex I’d have two nickels

Clark: which isn’t a lot, but it’s strange it happened twice

[monarchisms]

so did gavin fr originate that snail meme? i’ve seen it as tweets and shit but idk if he’s the actual original source

yes, gavin forreal did originate the snail meme. he made it up as a hypothetical prompt on rt podcast #285:

and he asks the question around 44:51.

then, around one month after the podcast episode went up, an rtaa was made:

hembohero made the two videos sync up to play at the same time. this is where i first heard of the snail meme:

gavin free is responsible for so many memes and inside jokes that people outside of the rt fandom can laugh at without knowing the source material. his impact is insane!

[swansong-if]

You’re the first one I’ve seen answer the meow meow question, so could you please explain what that even means? Google wasn’t helpful.

oh god JKDJKDS ok so,,, under the cut because i know this is gonna get long

let me start by saying that there's a distinction between the original meaning of the expression and the way i (and other devs/mutuals i follow) use it!

according to urban dictionary, the term is a reference to a vine (source: x || cw: animal death mention) and became popular when kpop/bts fans started calling a bts member 'lil meow meow' because of his cuteness/cat mannerisms. [*i don't really go there but i'd avoid using terms like this in that setting even as a joke, considering the big problem with (east) asian people/celebs being too often infantilized]

the term later found its way to tumblr/fandom spaces in general, and it kind of became a whole different meme; as i've seen it here, "poor lil meow meow" is generally used to describe a favourite character that might be considered pathetic (affectionate). it's a broad definition so it works differently for everyone lol but take that one character who is somewhat terrible [*not meaning 'evil', just that they have behaviours that make you sigh in exasperation] but you love them and want to feed them soup... or alternatively, one of those characters that make you go "aww you absolute moron i love you so much" because they insist on self-sabotaging... or just someone who is cute but in a endearingly pitiful way!! those could be your meow meows 😂

idk if this makes any sense to you jjkd there's really not a perfect answer or definition for this, since that's what happens with memes that start to circulate online and get assigned a whole lot of meanings from everyone! my friends and i often discuss about which of our favourite characters are/aren't meow meows and everyone has a different definition of it so it's all really up to the individual perception! but anyways, tried my best to explain but pls notice that it's really not deep, it's just a silly lil term!

it can be fun to joke around with friends, just make sure that when you use this expression in a fandom space the person you're talking to is comfortable with it-- specifically in the if community some devs might not like having the term thrown around about their characters! goes without saying to please respect authors' boundaries; even if something is harmless to you, that might not be the case for everyone ✌

hope this helped lmao

[childotkw]

Hello again, while looking through your other AUs I fell in the rabbit hole that this 🦋AU seems to be and I absolutely adore hufflepuff Harry and I’m 100% behind his quest to drive riddle mad, topple the government and get everyone on equal footing in no particular order. I’ll always love Harry wreaking havoc and running amok as easily as breathing in a mischievous way.

I apologize in advance for how long this is going to be

I’ve seen many memes and gifs depicting Tom but has anyone suggested I think it’s spelled Denzel croaker? The teacher from the fairy odd parents, I’m sorry if this is like that other guy from gravity falls for you

I’m guessing he’s not wearing a mask when Tom’s the only one around on purpose to get him off balance, bc Harry with a hogwarts education and beyond worth of knowledge about how dumb the wizard of world is and how easily the fall prey to propaganda and using it against them? The catharsis of being on the other side of that particular weapon and dancing circles around this secluded community? Minus perhaps Tom and dumbledore.

Would Harry still play quidditch?

I’m guessing myrtle still lives too although idk how much that would affect things beyond no first horocrux and no ghost

5th year meeting AU(or it’s proper name if it has one): Tom “I have become what I swore to destroy” right after realizing no one would believe him when they got back, there really is no rest for the wicked is there?

If Harry had a kid, (although maybe moot point if they get together later) I know you said that they wouldn’t have the same capabilities but wouldn’t they end up picking up a few things from their father regardless? And also, if a Harry Potter is still born would he try to emulate Harry Evans (something actively encouraged by at least James and maybe Sirius, lily, reg, depending on how well they get along and like to cause chaos)

The drawer-of-things(gifts)-that-shall-not-be-named: would Harry send the most perfect gifts to Tom so he would be split between the uses/benefits and the utter loathing he has for anything that remotely makes Harry look better? Bonus points if it’s utterly innocuous and still drives Tom up a wall, even more so if someone is there to witness it.

On the engagement, would it be some hilariously simple yet complicated traditional thing that offering an iron ring and the acceptance of it mean they’re engaged when they “don’t belong to a specific family”. Also Orion being ready from the get go, he was just benefiting from the time it took for Tom to realize. And probably using the “research” Tom had (meticulously documented throughout the years) to plan the perfect wedding, is just absolutely perfect.

Tom’s reaction to finding Harry and Orion (with or without some of his other minions) calmly drinking tea and chatting one day is bound to be good and fuel his paranoia of how many are loyal to Harry instead of him. On that note how involved would Harry be on the wedding planning? Bc so far only Tom has been “kidnapped”

Would the money with no apparent source fuel the belief that he’s a vampire in Tom’s mind? Is this part of the basis for the corruption charges?

Gellert taking a page or two out of Harry’s book to drive Dumbledore mad just by not telling him or being very vague about what happens in those meetings.

D: just tell me! It is of out most importance! Are you planning your escape? Training a new dark lord? What is it?

G: there is a lot of learning involved perhaps some sacrifices, you know for the greater good…

D: 😨

It’s the middle of the night and there are thin walls but I am (in my heart and soul if not out loud) cackling at the slow, steady and sure destruction of Tom Riddle, his sanity, dignity and world view. Who knew the only thing you needed to stop Voldemort was to give Tom Riddle something to obsess with. #Thisisnowmyfavoritething. #Ishouldbesleeping. #ThefactIhadtokeepnotesforwhatIwantedtosayandaskwhilecatchingup

Oh wow, this is long haha! I'm glad you found the AU so fun!

Denzel is the perfect representation of Tom's mental state once Harry's started digging his teeth in.

You're right, Harry doesn't wear a mask around Tom because he wants him to know. And this trip to the past is what Harry refers to as his 'personal therapy', so it's absolutely cathartic for him.

I'm torn on the quidditch issue, I'd have to decide while writing it.

Myrtle and Hagrid both escape Tom's path, yes. Harry makes sure of it, and Tom doesn't even find the Chamber of Secrets while he's at school.

He would be distraught once they came back from that side-AU trip into canon.

If Harry did have a kid (which he won't in this), the kid would pick up on some traits, but they'd be nowhere near as chaotic as Harry is. And Harry Potter, once he's born and old enough, probably would look up to the minister that has his name and looks a lot like him lmao - Tom would be determined to keep them from meeting.

Harry sending Tom useful gifts sounds just like him, and he'd get a sadistic kick out of doing it in front of others as well!

Orion is the fairy godmother of this AU. He's ready to throw hands for his ship, even if he has to throw hands with Tom himself. Tom hates that Harry is somehow more respected by his circle of minions than Tom is.

I don't see Tom using Harry's 'supposed' creature status as a corruption thing. But he'd have a separate file on potential weaknesses in case he can finally get permission to imprison Harry - he needs to make sure the cuffs can hold him, after all.

And Gellert would absolutely play things close to his chest. Albus wouldn't get a single hint from him because Harry's visits are the most entertaining - if bizarre - thing to happen to him in literal years.

I'm really glad you enjoyed the AU! It's definitely a fun one, even if it is a complete mess haha

[eustochium]

reviews of every movie i’ve seen in theaters lately, because this is what i do with my friday nights now. maybe spoilers or whatever if you care

-Elvis: i do genuinely believe austin butler made some faustian pact for an oscar because there’s no way that he managed to turn out a performance like that when his resume to that point consisted of supporting roles in Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure and Vanessa Hudgens’ Coachella appearances. anyway it was unfortunately good, bc Baz Luhrmann is the hollywood purveyor of grandiose spectacle and tragicomic fairy tales, and for that end chooses his source material very well. costume design was objectively perfect, because of course it was. staging a montage representing elvis’s hollywood years to an instrumental britney spears mashup before punctuating it with the sound of a gunshot and cronkite’s voice announcing the assassination of MLK is probably one of the most insane creative choices i’ve seen on a screen and shows that baz knew exactly what kind of story he wanted to tell. the unfortunate part is that baz is also a wildly wealthy white australian who, despite a well-intended effort, was extremely out of his depth in trying to portray the nuanced realities of race in mid century america as they pertained to Elvis Presley’s career, but this effort still led to objectively the best musical scenes in the movie. stan yola and go stream her album right now. 8/10

-Don’t Worry Darling: literally so much fun. Harry Styles didn’t quite sell the character for me thru most of it, until the ending sort of gave some justification for why he might have come across as less than wholly convincing—but tbh i doubt that was an intentional performance choice. his press conference soundbite about how DWD “feels like a movie” got rightfully clowned on but it’s actually like. the most apt assessment of it lmao. definitely sets you up to know there’s gonna be some big shocking final twist, and while idk how i feel about it, at least it kind of resolved my biggest issue throughout watching most of it which is the glaring fact that not a single person in this movie convincingly looks like they’re from the 1950s. everyone in the movie has a face that knows about texting and the costume design doesn’t help either, literally like an online brain poisoned person’s mental image of what 1950s suburbia looks like, so that works. messy plot that didn’t really know what to do with itself. nevertheless Miss Flo ate and left no crumbs, as the kids say. also the supposed controversy abt the behind-the-scenes drama was one of the first truly enjoyable entertainment news cycles in a good long while. not a great film but genuinely a great time. 7/10

SMILE: viscerally creepy at a few scenes but that’s rly all there is. freaky premise on the surface but overall not very good and didn’t have anything to say about its central theme of trauma that hasn’t already been said much more effectively by plenty of other, much better movies. 3/10

Pearl: slapped, went absolutely insane, spoke to the soul, talented brilliant amazing showstopping spectacular never the same un-afraid to reference or not reference etc etc. never seen X and don’t particularly care to bc there’s truly nothing i could ever imagine in any way adding to what that movie did for me. didn’t breathe once during mia goth’s entire 8 minute monologue, literally exited the theater feeling like that “girls with they ____” meme, in the best way. she named her murderous pet gator after Theda Bara. absolutely zero notes. 10000/10

Moonage Daydream: A good movie to go see with your mom, if your mom’s celebrity crush growing up was David Bowie. 9/10

[ectonurites]

You know that Fitzmartin also write FS:Robin Eternal, and said that she like Steph and her relationship with Tim in the interview. But then made them break up in Urban Legend. That's kinda sus tho

it's not 'sus' (also sidenote- i hate that phrase i know its a meme from like among us or whatever but sdfgfdhgf i can not take it seriously) like, you can like a relationship but also want to tell a new story that goes in a different direction! Those things can coexist.

In the interview she specifically did around when Future State: Robin Eternal was coming out, her exact quote was:

"I’ve [also] always really liked Tim, I think in part because he was in Batman: The Animated Series. But the more I was getting into Tim even for [Robin Eternal], the more I was like, “This poor child.” I recognized this desire to do good, especially with his relationship with Stephanie. Tim and Stephanie are so interesting to me as a dynamic. Stephanie is so unapologetically herself, and a mess, and living her best life, which is also a mess. Tim is, I think, drawn to that aspect of her and it’s so cool. Even growing up, I was like, this is so cool to see the struggle of these two characters. I think Stephanie was who I wanted to be, and Tim was sort of who I felt that I was." (source)

Which... again, liking the dynamic but still breaking it off to tell a different story (because she wanted to explore identity with Tim and a story about him realizing he's queer was what she thought the best way to do that was) isn't a weird thing to do? Especially because her Future State story while it explored some Tim & Steph dynamic stuff absolutely wasn't showing them like... particularly actively in a relationship either?

Fitzmartin in multiple places has talked about how much she likes Steph, so if this is trying to paint her as having some sort of thing against Steph for how she handled the pairing in Urban Legends... that just feels wild to me. How much she likes and respects her as a character is actually part of why Steph didn't show up that much in the Urban Legends story, I thought it was pretty interesting what Fitzmartin said on the subject:

To once again pull from that same podcast interview i keep referencing

starting at 23:24

Interviewer: Many fans are upset that Stephanie and Tim broke off- up off-panel and him being queer is being seen as some- uh, by some as invalidating their previous romance. Can you speak to these fans mindsets, and how it was decided to handle Steph and their relationship in Urban Legends and Robin Eternal Fitzmartin: Um! So... part of, uh, I love Stephanie. I have loved Stephanie- Interviewer [overlapping]: Yeah! Fitzmartin: For forever, and I will always love Stephanie. She is amazing and, uh, gets the short end of the stick... almost all the time. Interviewer [overlapping]: Yes. Fitzmartin: Um, and in part of her getting the short end of the stick she is sometimes used as and-and was written thusly to be um, a... a female explainer for Robin- or for Tim Drake specifically- and I don't love that for her. Because I want more for her than to just be like... 'Ah yes, let me explain to you Tim Drake- let me be a story function for Tim.' Um and I didn't... I didn't want their breakup to be part of that. Also, to be perfectly honest, it was 10 pages. Who- I don't- there was-It was a very very small amount of space. Interviewer: [laughs] Second Interviewer [overlapping]: Right. Fitzmartin: Um. So I think like- those two things together I was like, this is Tim's story like, a- and that this has to be about sort of Tim and- and working through that, um because I think- I think too highly of Stephanie to like, have her be, um, the- the thing that props Tim up, d'ya know what I mean? Interviewer: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Fitzmartin: Um also once again. 10 pages. 10 pages per story I was like- we gotta- gotta get in, gotta get out!

idk. the overall point of you sending this message confuses me, anon, I don't really get what point you're trying to make. I don't see what's 'sus' about any of this. 🤷‍♂️

also ok i wrote my answer to that late last night and put it in my drafts, and since waking up also got this on a similar subject:

and while I definitely at first was not a fan of the TimSteph breakup happening offscreen I do after listening to the above bit of interview I just typed out understand the choice a lot more, even if it wasn’t my initial preference for how it could have been handled.

But ultimately I like both pairings, but the way I like TimSteph is personally never as an endgame type thing, I love their relationship as something important and influential for the two of them and their lives but not something that lasts forever. And honestly I think I’m gonna end up feeling kinda similarly about Bernard, where it’s an important relationship for Tim that makes him learn a lot about himself but I also don’t necessarily think it’ll be forever either. That’s in part because seeing any comic relationship for a teen character like Tim as more permanent feels silly to me, until they maybe someday let him get a bit older I doubt any specific relationship will be ‘the one’ forever

[witchofthemidlands]

thanks to a destiel meme, i have discovered that my favourite musical of all time has the leads for the film version.

could not be happier with the elphaba casting. never seen anything that cynthia erivo has been in, but i have listened to her music & she is a beautiful singer so i’m happy for her, also she’s so beautiful i can’t wait to see her in those iconic outfits, let’s take a moment to appreciate cynthia, she’s gorgeous 😍.

the less i say about the glinda casting the better. i enjoy some of her music, was not the biggest fan of her wicked covers & well, i watched victorious growing up so, yeah. this is a thing. am i being harsh because it’s my favourite musical of all time? probably.

ok! so i am going to get excited about cynthia’s casting & i would like to form a prayer circle with anyone that’s will to pray that james corden does not get cast as the wizard of oz or dr. dillamond because honestly that has been a fear of mine for awhile especially after his borderline offensive performance in the prom. also i’ve seen *ideas* for the beloved himbo of oz, fiyero & well, yikes to some of those. i guess if they had to pick a white guy, I’d say idk aaron tviet but honestly what i would really love is for someone like joshua henry or jordan fisher to play fiyero? fiyero in the original source material is described to be a poc & the one thing that’s always annoyed me about the musical is that i have actually never seen a version of fiyero who was played by a poc, apparently there was one version in which he was, according to my friend but unfortunately i’ve never seen it 😭

[nefoe-dd]

SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses. 

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom. 

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently. 

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into. 

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit). 

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through. 

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here. 

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying. 

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore. 

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out. 

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding. 

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

 - There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future. 

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win. 

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way. 

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

[jimmymcgools]

Director's commentary on the Twenty-Sixth of December from missing scenes series? 🙏

yesss! don't mind me working through these so slowly, i'm using them as nice little writing breaks 💖

this is a cool choice for commentary, i havent read this since i posted it and i've forgotten a lot, so it almost feels like reading a brand new thing? i remember i wanted to write a soft christmas oneshot, especially because the christmas chapter of safs was that sad 1979 flashback with angsty teen jimmy mcgill and his sads.

“Hey,” he says. He grins, and it actually reaches his eyes. They crinkle.

i wanted this to stand alone if it needed to, but in the wider acb context i don't think jimmy's smiles have reached his eyes for a while! this comes right after the end of chapter 15, when he's just had some fragile validation from chuck and reconnected with kim.

She takes the bowl and the two spoons. Their handles are criss-crossed.

idk why but this always makes me think of those shots in the show of their two briefcases lying together!

with the kim pov stuff, i often try to keep the descriptions limited to simple physical descriptions of things. just their tangible properties like colours or positions, but still try to draw mood from that? i don't know if that makes any sense. it's a little challenge.

From somewhere in the darkness, he pulls out a long-sleeved shirt, one she hasn’t seen before. It’s purple and white and blue, densely patterned. He slips his arms into it with his back to her then turns toward the room, looking down at his fingers as they do up the buttons.

slippin jimmy voice: they have this one shirt that costs one thousand dollars because the pattern's SO wild! i want that one SO BAD!

“What is that?” she says, leaning her head closer. “Is it paisley?” He looks down again. “I think it’s purple?”

s6 give us more dumb dumb jimbo, please, i dare you. "finish... translating?"

“Hey,” he says, settling beside her, “the ladies back home loved this.” “Sure.” She scoops another spoonful of cereal into her mouth. “Sure they did.”

oh for kim to hear that little speech he gave the skate rat twins. all the finest babes. ok buddy sure. and everyone in the bar stood up and applauded.

“Maybe we had an extra round at Arno’s that night,” he adds, eventually. “Threw bottles against the wall. Like fireworks, right?”

a reminder of the story he tells her before the HHM party!

He chuckles and nudges her. ���Oh, I meant yesterday.” Yesterday? (And she hears a phone ringing, hears the shrill bell of it on the wall, and she knows who’s on the other end of the line, knows without knowing how she knows it.)

oh shit i'd forgotten how much fun this little technique of intrusive kim thoughts is!

this is making me want to do another kim pov thing. i love thinking about this kind of narrative voice stuff. even that "Yesterday?" is kind of surprising, like suddenly her thoughts are allowed in the narration in a totally transparent way, and then the bracketed part is like... something poking at the back of her mind, even as she tries not to think of it. so much fun.

Lifts her hand from his leg, pressing it to his cheek. Transferring warmth from one place on him to the other.

obsessed with these two each thinking of the other as a source of warmth and light

(And she wants to know how he managed to get through so much life but still look like that, because even when the dark spots come over him it’s still a bright kind of darkness, she thinks, bright and loud like back-alley fireworks.)

aw man, this really condenses so much of their relationship for me.

i love thinking about like... scenes presented in jimmy pov where he's deep in the throes of an emo fit, but from kim's pov she still sees the bafflingly optimistic and scrappy dude who never quits. i really love the thought of this bright golden thing being there in him, that he never sees in himself but kim always sees.

Into his neck, she murmurs, “Yeah, who’d miss this?” and she can feel his laughter on her lips against his throat.

always happy when i can get these two memeing during sex

(And the heaviness of him on her surrounds her, closes her in, closes her in the way you close a circle, in the way you close a door, because being closed is just the touch of things connecting, right? And she can feel everything closing to one warm layer and spreading beneath her skin, closing inside her and him amongst it.)

ahhh i forgot i went on such a tear about this! there's like this duality of meaning that i'm trying to pick apart. you hear the word "closed" and you think inaccessible or cut-off, but it also means things connecting. two things have to touch for something to be closed. i don't know!

“Jimmy,” she murmurs, and he smiles like he always does when she says his name.

this is another one of those things where like... i love to picture acb/safs/siaml jimmy smiling a little identical smile every time kim says his name, and we don't know he's doing it because he doesn't think of himself doing it, but kim sees it every time.

She can feel the closeness spreading beneath her skin again, and it’s like she’s the warm one now, like she’s the one passing the heat through to him, as she finally reaches down and tangles her fingers in his hair. Holds him in place.

LISTEN i know this is him doing down on her but are these not also character arc words??? no???

He hums, and then softly: “Merry Christmas.” She runs her thumb along his crown. “Not Christmas anymore, you know.” He shakes his head, hair catching in her fingers. “It’s still Christmas on the West Coast.” “Ah,” she says. “The west coast. Of—where, exactly?”

i love this dynamic these two do of like... one of them consciously playing the straight man and the other being silly. it's too cute. i love that they trade off the straight man role, too.

His face draws together. And he murmurs, “D’you think his name was really McDuck?”

poor sleepy jimmo is very concerned about this.

oh man, thank you so much for picking this one for the commentary! like i said, i hadnt looked at it since i posted it, and i usually dont enjoy reading over my stuff but i had a really nice time going through this one 🥺 so thank you!