#technically @ some nova boys too bUT

[trippinsorrows]

10 things + r. reigns

authors note: so, a lot of this stems from convos with the lovely @fearlesschimera where one tree hill was brought up. and i loved me some nathan and haley. plus, i'm loving everything about this otc era and needed to write something about it now vs having to wait with my other stories cause we ain't there yet lmao

might be a part two. idk if this even makes sense tbh

words: 3.1k

warnings: none, really? some language? kayfabe story.

There are exactly two sides to Roman Reigns.

The good side and the bad side. 

And Nova Reigns has experienced them both with an unfortunate increase in the latter versus the former. 

She can pinpoint exactly when it started, too. 

When things started to get difficult again.

2020. COVID. While the world was an absolute mess, chaos and death occurring globally every day, her husband of over ten years wasn’t much better. He’d decided to stay home, not wanting to risk bringing home anything that could put her pregnancy with their first daughter, Arabella, Bella as they affectionately called her, at risk. 

It was also so he could figure out just what the hell he was doing with his career. Roman was frustrated. Tired of going along with what was always told of him instead of doing it his way. And it’s why when he returned back to work that summer, he came back a completely changed man. Bigger, stronger, meaner.

This was a different Roman Reigns. The likes of which the WWE had never seen.

And it’s been a ride ever since.

Up and downs along the way. 

A lot of ups up until WrestleMania 40 where after 1,316 days as the undisputed universal champion and unable to let go of a betrayal from so many years ago, Roman lost. He lost his title and something so much deeper that night.

His sense of self.

Nova did the best she could in the months he’d been off to keep his spirits lifted, to support him, often encouraging Bella to ask her dad to do stuff with her even when Nova technically could. Asked him to care for their two year old daughter, Camillia, Cami, as she worked from home, something she’s done for almost the entirety of her post college career. 

But most importantly, Nova worked to help Roman repair the relationship with their oldest son, Roman Jr., RJ, as they’ve called him since the day he was born.

To say the relationship is awful would be an exaggeration. No, it’s just…..fragile.

A fragility that Nova has tried so hard over the past couple of years to strengthen to no avail. A large part of the issue being the fact that her twenty year old son is just as stubborn as his father. Twins, she often calls them. Similar heights, build, personalities, etc. 

Great when they want to be. A pain in the ass when they don’t need to be.

A painful situation all around though, especially when she thinks back to how this all started, to how someone like Nova ended up with someone like Roman.

And it’s a simple answer, really.

He was an idiot.

Well, when it came to English, that was.

Once upon a time ago, Roman wasn’t the massive WWE superstar that he is now. He was just Roman Reigns. The typical, popular jock of their high school. A football player with the stereotypical ego to match. And she was just Nova, the geeky underclassmen who always had a secret crush on the boy she never thought in a million years would look her way.

And truth be told, if not for the fact his coach threatened to bench him if he didn’t raise his English grade, he probably never would have. Hell, she’s certain the only reason he knew she existed was because she was the best and smartest kid in class, so of course their teacher would recommend her for a tutor. 

The answer was initially no. Not necessarily because she was opposed, but more because her crush on him was too big to not get distracted. Even though his jerkish tendencies should have done just that. 

But Roman has always been charismatic and persistent, and before she knew it, she’d agreed. And that agreement changed everything because it showed her for the first time the nice side of Roman, the side that secretly loved music and was surprisingly good at math. The side that struggled with feeling like he’d never be good enough or live up to his family’s athletic reputation both in football and wrestling.

It made her realize and see that Roman was just as human as everyone else. 

It made her fall in love with him.

And that was rocky, too. Navigating his constant struggle of wanting to admit his feelings for her while also being embarrassed about her and wanting to hide their relationship. It created a fair set of conflict, and Nova shed her fair share of tears.

Especially as she sat on the floor of her bathroom, plush, purple rug cushioning her bottom but not the blow that was the two lines on the pregnancy test in her hands. But, seven months later, with her mom on one side and Roman on the other, she shed a different set of tears. Different kinds of tears.

Happiness.

Happiness at welcoming her first child into the world, Roman Reigns Jr. 

RJ

Being teen parents, especially at the tender ages of 16 and 18 was most definitely nothing like it was depicted on the reality shows. It was rough, especially as Roman started college, opting to stay local to help her raise their child as she finished her senior year. They fought, they argued, they disagreed, but at the end of the day, they still loved.

And it was that love that carried them through the rocky years of Roman trying to figure out just what he wanted to do with his life as Nova worked a job and raised their son while pursuing her degree in software engineering. She also stayed local to benefit from the help of her family while chasing her dream. It was rough, it was hard, but they did it.

Even with having to be on food stamps and financial assistance at times to take care of their child, Nova struggling to enter the male dominated workforce of tech and Roman not always having consistent income, they did it. 

And they were happy.

They still are. Just….not like it used to be. 

Nova still loves her husband with all of her heart and soul. They’ve been through too much together for her to ever really leave him, but she’d be lying if she said it didn’t cross her mind from time to time. Especially over the past four years, watching him almost revert back to that bully from high school as he manipulated and mentally abused his family, his cousins, his lifetime best friends so much so that the Bloodline he worked so hard to create crumbled right before him.

And it’s only deteriorated since he lost the title to Cody Rhodes. Solo had turned on Roman, brutally kicked Jimmy out of the Bloodline and invited in non-family. Week after week, taking shot after shot at her husband, his cousin, his flesh and blood. 

Going so far as to take the sacred ula fala and declare himself the tribal chief. An honor that was bestowed upon Roman by the elders of his family. It finally reached a point where Roman had enough, making his grand return at SummerSlam and preventing his once enforcer from taking the very title Roman still believes is rightfully is. 

He’s made intermittent returns since then, each one proving just why Roman Reigns is being considered one of the greatest of all time, even while still in the middle of his career. His aura is unmatched. The sales don’t lie. The numbers don’t lie. 

The OTC is WWE. 

But, Roman has been a bit on edge since he was unexpectedly jumped by his other cousin, Jacob, Solo’s latest dangerous addition to the Bloodline.

Nova especially knows he was even more pissed because she’d taken the girls to his show that night, at his request.

He hates looking ‘weak’ in front of him, despite the fact that both were too consumed in kids' devices to pay attention. But, she was. And if anything, it was hard for her to see him be attacked like that, all alone. 

No one in his corner.

Jey’s moved to Raw.

Jimmy is still trying to figure out if he even wants to come back.

Solo has lost his damn mind. 

Sami…..no comment.

And Paul is still recovering from his brutal assault by the new Bloodline. 

The island of relevancy has a population of one. And while that one is formidable as all outdoors, he’s still just a man.

Granted, as much as it pains her to see Roman go at this alone, it’s hard for her to feel all the way bad for him. He did this. His actions drove his family away. 

Well, not all of them.

“Game!” Bella’s soft voice pulls Nova from reflecting on memory lane as she redirects her attention to where her son sits on the sofa in Roman’s locker room, Cami on his lap, grabbing his phone.

RJ chuckles, unlocking the iPhone and asking, “what you wanna play?”

Cami gasps and claps her hands. “Cookie!”

“Cookie Kingdom?” RJ asks, clicking around on his phone and handing it to her. “There ya go, lil’ bit.”

Nova’s smile is warm as she reflects on what feels like so long ago. “I remember when you were that little.”

RJ looks up at her, and it never ceases to amaze her how much he looks like his father. Complexion a little deeper, melanin he inherited from her, but outside of that, Roman could never deny paternity. 

He sucks his teeth. “Mama, don’t start that.”

“What?” Nova pouts, leaning back into the sofa, Bella tuned out of the conversation as she watches Bluey on her tablet. It’s always a bit funny to her how uninterested these kids just are when it comes to seeing Roman at work.

At least, not until he’s actually in their line of vision.

“You’ll always be my baby.” Because he will. Twenty and over 6ft tall or not, he’s her baby boy. “And speaking of baby, what’s going on with you and that girl you been dating?”

RJ rolls his eyes and adjusts Cami on his lap. He’s so good with his little sisters. “Nothing.”

Nova smirks knowingly, picking up on the faint hit of redness on his cheeks. “Sure don’t seem like nothing.”

“Mama, she’s just a friend.”

“So ya’ll aren’t sexually active?”

RJ turns up his nose, clearly disgusted. “Ma, how you just gon’ ask me that?”

“Because I’m your mama and not ready to be a grandma, and your daddy would kill you if you were to get a girl pregnant halfway through college.”

It’s not missed upon Nova how the mention of Roman seems to completely dampen his mood. RJ rolls his eyes. “Like he cares at all.”

His comment hurts her. Deeply. “RJ….”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to upset you.”

She ignores that apology, wanting to focus on the initial comment that has her stomach knotting for all the wrong reasons. “Your dad loves you, Junior. You have to know that.”

There’s a slight delay in his answer, and that alone is enough to make Nova know she needs to talk to Roman again tonight about actually talking with his son. A below the surface level conversation. A heart to heart.

“I know that, mama. I do. It’s just….” RJ blows out a breath and shakes his head. “You know how he is.”

She does. Very well. “You can say it. He’s an ass sometimes.” She’s so grateful for the headphones on Bella’s ears and the deep infatuation Cami has with her brother’s phone.

“You said it. Not me.” Mother and son share a laugh, RJ admitting, “I know he means well.”

“He does,” she agrees. “But, that doesn’t mean he can’t do better. I’ll talk to him again.”

RJ immediately looks like he feels bad, which only makes Nova’s chest ache more. “You don’t have to—”

She lifts her finger to silence him. “You’re my son. He’s my husband. I love you both, and it kills me to see ya’ll like this. I’m gonna do what I can.” And that’s a vow. The three of them have been through too much shit over the years for her to just allow the relationship between the two most important men to fall apart. She won’t let that happen. 

She can’t.

And speaking of, the door to Roman’s locker room opens, her husband walking in looking every bit as strong, powerful, and determined as he looked when he interfered yet again with Solo’s match and especially as he closed the door of that cage and challenged Jacob. 

Nova shifts in her seat, the memory bringing up other kinds of feelings which are entirely inappropriate given the presence of her children.

Cami is the first girl to notice him, lifting up her little arms and reaching for him, nearly dropping RJ’s phone in the process if not for his quick reflexes.

He most definitely got that from Roman as well, because Nova has not an athletic bone in her body.

Roman walks over and takes her from RJ, kissing her cheek, gaze almost reluctantly falling on RJ. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

Nova starts to scold Roman for such a cold introduction to their son they haven’t seen since he left for his sophomore year of college over a month ago. “Mom asked me to.”

She’s good at reading between the lines, picking up on the fact that he’s essentially saying he’s only here because of Nova.

Not Roman.

Roman notices this, she’s sure. He’s a perceptive bastard. But, he says nothing. “How’s school?”

“Fine.” 

“RJ.” And her son can be a petty bastard. Like father, like son. She directs her statement to Roman, “I was thinking we could go to his game tomorrow—”

RJ, however, is quick to dismiss this. “You don’t have to.”

Nova’s gaze on Roman allows her to see the hurt that flashes in his eyes at the rejection. But as has been the case lately, he pushes it aside, replacing it with indifference. “You heard what he said. He doesn’t want us there, so we wo—”

“That’s not what I said.” RJ leans back against the chair and shrugs his shoulders, shaking his head, clearly frustrated. “You always do this. Always hear what you want to hear.” He scoffs, head turned, muttering, “I see why everybody left you.”

Nova gasps. “RJ!” She sees it, the hurt that’s just tripled and is about to be expressed in anger, leading to another big blowout between the two of them. Thankfully, this is the moment Bella finally becomes aware of Roman’s presence.

“Daddy!” She pulls off her headphones, climbs off the sofa and runs over to him, hugging his legs. 

Roman doesn’t hesitate to pick her up, both daughters in his arms as Nova leans over, running her hand through her fresh silk press. This. This is what she wanted to avoid. These are the kinds of situations that leave her in tears as she vents to her therapist about her ever growing stress levels, how torn she feels in what to do in moments like this. 

Roman is her husband, but RJ is her son. Neither is fully right, but neither is fully wrong either. How does one handle that?

Thankfully, it’s not long after that Roman is being called to prepare to get back out in the ring. This means a probably needed separation from the two titans in her life. Nova holds Cami this time, while Bella hangs onto RJ as they’re escorted ringside. 

It takes a bit of persuasion to get RJ to agree to come with her. She can see he’s ready to just leave.

But, reminding him of how big a help he is with the girls seems to win him over because while he’s certainly not in the best of places with his dad, RJ is a mama’s boy through and through. He loves him some Nova and would do anything to help her. 

Even if it means helping her with the two siblings that came as a complete shock to him.

It still makes Nova laugh a little as she recalls the horrified and almost disgusted expression on his face as she and Roman broke the pregnancy news to him.

“I didn’t even know ya’ll still did that.” And if his statement wasn’t bad enough, he just had to add insult to injury as the blunt almost 16 year-old he was at the time. “Ain’t ya’ll kinda old to still be freaking?”

No. 

Never that.

“Daddy!” This time it’s Cami who’s calling out to Roman, recognizing his new music before he even emerges from the back looking as badass as he always does. Nova is temporarily in a state of awe, overhearing Bella asking RJ to hold her so she can see better. 

Roman has come so far, done so well for himself, even with things with his family being a hot ass mess, there’s still no denying he is it. That he has it. It’s undeniable. She almost feels bad for Cody.

He’ll always be stuck in Roman’s shadow. 

The thought makes her suddenly curious about what could be one of the reasons behind the strife between her firstborn and husband. Nova tucks this in the back of her mind, planning to discuss it further in therapy.

As Roman moves into the ring, Nova stands on the sidelines, holding her baby girl on her hip, smiling back and forth between the two. She watches Roman move around the ring on their commercial break

And when his gaze falls on the set of them, her heart swells as he mouths ‘I love you’ before seamlessly transitioning back into that hardened, determined expression.

And this is why there’s two sides to Roman Reigns. The good side being the one that she sees in that brief, vulnerable exchange. The one that used to kiss her pregnant stomach as he confided in her his fears about not being a good dad, about feeling not ready, about worrying about failing in life. 

Failing her. 

Failing himself.

Failing their child.

The man who worked so hard and gave everything his all to prove he was someone, becoming that someone, yet somehow losing something in the process.

Nova knows it’s still in there though, knows that he is still the boy he fell in love with many moons ago. She knows that as frustrated as he makes her, as cold he can be, as disconnected he can seem, that love is still there and just as strong. 

And she’ll fight for it. 

For him. 

For their son.

For their family. 

She has to.

[harrowedsoup]

You know I’ll never get around to writing my own Nova Au fic for a ton of reasons but have some of my thoughts:

Gideon wears a full skull mask, I imagine it more like a helmet with just the bottom jaw missing, that’s also decorated with grease paint. She managed to also get the same sunglasses as canon which she’s popped out the lenses of to use in her mask, which before she’d had to modify to cover her eyes as much as possible.

Her need to fit in is what makes her cover her hair and eyes- neither red hair or gold eyes are exactly common and she has a really intense desire to fit in. This is also what makes her very silent. I know must people might disagree with me but I think that’s how Gideon’s shyness and awkwardness would manifest. She’s not completely silent as she’d still need to lead services but she tries to keep herself from talking if she can it. 

However, her Gideon-ness TM comes out whenever she speaks with Harrow, which tends to piss her off a little bit. She’s nowhere near as good at seeming uninterested/calm as Our Harrow and gets upset at herself when she ends up devolving into ‘your mom!’ insults.

I do think she’d keep up her silent act at Canaan. Unlike Our Gideon, Harrow Nova is so dedicated that Gideon wouldn’t be afraid of whatever she got up too so there is no reason to order her silent when Gideon can just order her to play nice (which she of course did immediately) BUT that doesn’t mean that Gideon trusts herself with strangers when she’s a awkward and shy mess. Her ‘vow of silence’ is temporary measure to make sure she doesn’t embarrass herself or the Ninth.

She’s a bit more successful at the whole ‘ Fear The Ninth, Don’t Pity Us’ thing that Our Harrow wanted to happen if only because Gideon is much taller, stronger physically and just hovers around very scary. I also imagine her necromancy is more raw power and less technical skill so she’s throwing around her weight like it’s nothing.

Harrow Nova, through, gets a bit less respect than Our Gideon because she’s like five feet tall. She also doesn’t play nice so she’s doesn’t get that part where Gideon spars with the others: if Nova pulls out her weapons against someone she’s fighting to win and she’s not backing down unless ordered or she’s physically unable too. Fighting isn’t a source of joy to her like Our Gideon, it’s the only thing that she has and it’s what kept her alive.

So while I think everyone thought Our Gideon was Harrow Boy Toy that she’d decided to take with her only to be shocked that she’s actually incredibly good, Harrow Nova is at first assumed to be a weak cavalier that the Ninth is known for (like Gideon was too) then that she’s something closer to a regular bodyguard just because of how on edge she is and how much she lacks normal cavalier etiquette.

Mostly she’s on edge because she trusts no one ever but Gideon wants to make friends but is also shy about it so she’s making Harrow be nice on her behalf.

That said if Gideon ever does make Harrow fight anyone it’s a damn blood bath. Nova doesn’t do etiquette of any kind when fighting. She’s going to use everything she has- she HAS to because she doesn’t have the build of Our Gideon. She’s going to cheat and cheat dirty. She’s going to bite off ears, head butt people and stab men in the dick.

[angelflms]

here's some of the moments during my rewatch of deadpool & wolverine that were gold for my dad (an x-men/blade/ryan reynolds fan)'s first viewing:

- bye bye dance (dk if he knew that wasn't ryan dancing)

- the happy hogan chauffeur joke

- dopinder's airpods "joke?" "story?"

- yukio like.. pursed her lips up at one point? and my dad thought it was funny so he mimicked her

- he also just loved the wade/yukio moments

- the different code words for cocaine al and wade used (also the delivery of ryan saying "motherfucker" got him for some reason)

- the pegging/hookers joke

- seeing the different wolverines

- THE THOR JOKE (every mention got him)

- "get my country's name out your fucking mouth"

- "haha! not the will smith reference."

- me: *didn't even clock the reference my first time watching the movie*

- the captain america/johnny storm misdirect

- johnny falls

- every hit is followed by my dad being like "ohh. oh. oh. OHHHHH!! damn."

- "i'm marvel jesus. mj if you nasty."

- my dude started CACKLING at that

- idk if my dad remembers all of the xmen series because he didn't recognize toad that much. he did recognize sabertooth tho.

- sees antman skeleton lair

- "yooooo that's dope though!!"

- every drunken logan scene was a blast for him

- his disgusted reaction to nicepool's hair

- his equally disgusted reaction to mary puppins (he liked her tho)

- his even more disgusted reaction wade making out basically with mary puppins (+ immediately sung lady in red tho)

- the honda odyssey scene (idk if he understood the implications. mind y'all he was half asleep)

- "coexist?" he said

- that was his only reaction

- "is that carmen electra" - my dad seeing elektra for the first time (he did see the movie years ago)

- i think he missed the daredevil joke because he was busy laughing at another one

- "ohhhh blade!!!!"

- "you need to watch blade" "I'M WORKING ON IT DAD!!"

- laughed at the "i don't like you." "you never did." joke (blade: trinity is his favorite blade movie for those who don't know or ya know, couldn't tell)

- "ohhhh gambit!"

- "is that...IS THAT REALLY CHANNING TATUM???" (all of the flashbacks of us arguing about channing being gambit coming to the forefront of his mind)

- still isn't sold on it. thinks he's too buff. love the buttery nuts line he said tho

- sees laura

- me giving him a refresher on who that is

- dad: "ohhhh, she's older now!!!"

- laura and wade saying "let's fucking go"

- my dad "hey, did they just copy what logan said earlier?"

- campfire scene

- "you got the wrong guy."

- "you were always the wrong guy"

- dad laughs "yeah dad, you suck."

- dad enjoying wesley snipes as blade

- "there's only one blade"

- "deadpool looks at the camera (referencing blade's reboot coming soon-ish)"

- me and dad "technically he's right."

- dad: "well they're still working on the movie"

- me: "yeah but they went through five directors already"

- dad: "you right. you right."

- blade: *gets stabbed once*

- dad: "ohhhh"

- me: "it was one stab... he's fine."

- me: *forgot why laura had her backpack on* "she could just take the backpack off"

- dad: "she just like you" (after getting home from class i tend to leave it on)

- me: "heyyy"

- dad: "sings the dora "backpack" theme song

- cassandra making a sling ring portal and giving the boys a five second chance to go back to their world

- dad: "you know what would be fuc-messed up? if she closed the portal and they just died."

- "ngl i thought that's what they were gonna do."

- cassandra nova touching people

- me: "imagine having some chick's dirty long fingers inside your head and nose"

- my dad "THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING!"

- laughed at kidpool's wolverine's dick line

- confused at the beheaded zombie wade wilson

- *lightskinned stare fourth wall break* "the proposal"

- "what the fuck was that? bitch, is that what you think i do?"

- dad: LAUGHS (i think he just likes when ryan cusses. he laughed every time he did. but also my dad just really loves ryan reynolds. they have the same humor. tbh the delivery was really good though)

- laughs at nicepools death (i don't blame him)

- logan: *puts on mask*

- dad: "oh he's going old school"

- paradox explaining matter and anti-matter going through someone's body

- my dad, the science fanatic "yup. you gonna explode."

- me: "i know scene just got you excited because they speaking your language."

- "it did."

- madonna's like a prayer plays

- my dad, a madonna fanatic, immediately starts singing

- "he's risen baby girl."

- dad: laughs

- me: sings along to iris

- "put your greasy tits away you preening slut"

- dad: laughs HARDER

- mary puppins comes back

- dad: "ofc"

- mid credits tribute to fox

- "is this the last one?"

- "no it's a tribute to fox. remember disney bought it. wade explained it in the movie."

- "RIIIIIIGHTTT!"

- *sees little dafne*

- "she was so little!"

---

before y'all say anything. no he didn't seen the end credit scene but he did enjoy the whole movie though!!!

this is all the reactions i can remember. i remember him also cackling reall hard at a joke but i don't remember what it was at all to save my life (i think it was when wade said "the gays understood" when they were talking about the multiverse. he also clocked the scoutmaster kevin joke and went like "ohhhhhh damn."

[monsieuroverlord]

Somnus sighting in X-Men Unlimited Comic 121 thru 124!

spoilers below

We got a bit more info on where some of the displaced mutants ended up! Basically, a bunch of them were taken in by Camp Gozhoo (the current home of James and John Proudstar, where their grandma relocated after separating from their grandfather). Native American reservations technically have their own sovereignty, so it makes sense they'd offer protection to mutants.

(For context: Reservations are only required to follow tribal and federal law on their own land -- assuming there's no congressional/federal order. I'm not super familiar with the nuances so I'd highly recommend researching if you're interested. But from what I know, it makes sense that they'd at least have a bit of time to act as a safe haven if the governing bodies of the reservation desired)

Somnus didn't really contribute much plotwise (other than getting into trouble)

But honestly the tagteam fighting between the Proudstar brothers was deeply satsifying. I mean look at this:

Smashing a beer bottle on your bro to throw at an Orchis agent. That's badass! That's some pro-wrestling shit right there, lmao.

The fight sequences overall were really well done and fun to look at.

(Also, I love Grandma Lozen. She's a badass and needs her own ongoing with the Proudstar boys)

Also Dani Moonstar shines as the badass leader she is! Very cool to see her in action as a leader of an underground network of mutants.

In 123, she recruits Thunderbird (as Warpath is out of commission with a busted leg) and Shatterstar shows up to bring them to X-Corps, a hidden base in the Pacific Ocean. Its also revealed that mutants all over the globe are being mysteriously kidnapped -- too strange to be Orchis acting alone.

In 124, Dani shows Thunderbird around the base, where Jamie Madrox is manning everything, Layla Miller is purring her detective skills to work, Wiz-Kid and Trinary are on monitor duty and networking. It's then revealed that the kidnapped mutants (along with Somnus were taken to Nova Roma -- which is now home to a legion of undead Orchis agents under the leadership of Selene.

Somnus didn't really get to do anything except bunch out an undead guy.

[sergeifyodorov]

Sidney Crosby for the character ask

actually i do have a very specific first impression of sidney which is that i was . can’t have been ten, probably closer to seven or eight and i was living w my dad and hockey was on and it was pens vs a team that was not the leafs, and i knew he was a leafsfan so i was like “why are you watching hockey if it’s not your team” and he was like “sometimes i like to watch it for sid the kid” and i was like. a kid? and he pointed out what must have been a truly baby sidney and i remember clearly thinking I Hope He’ll Be A Leaf Some Day… truly my delusions have always been there.

IMPRESSION NOW

well GOAT obviously

beyond that he is such a good leader and obviously just a huge awkward dorky sweetheart -- there are no stories of bad encounters with him, like, ever. i think my general vision of him is just someone who is so stubborn and willful and good, who has pushed all of himself into doing hockey and doing hockey well and has negotiated some kind of reward from the universe for it. definitely has The Tism. if i were a hockey boy i too wouldve jerked off to posters of young sidney.

also is aging incredibly as both a player and as a guy… i don’t think either sidney or the audience are ready for silver fox sidney crosby. but the time is approaching far more rapidly than either of us would care to admit

i do however believe that the instant he retires he will vanish into the distant nova scotian woods, or perhaps the sea, and we will never hear anything about him again.

FAV MOMENT

much like ovi, sidney is Old and thereby has an abundance of Moments. Here are some:

sidovi duelling hat tricks night (it was both of their moments, come on)

That one anecdote about him walking with reporters coatless somewhere in the negative tens, followed by them going through the tim hortons in the rink and people stopping and realizing who it is the moment that he goes into the elevator

2010 olympic golden goal

this isn’t technically a Sidney Moment but the steve dangle tweet about “has sidney crosby passed the torch followed by sidney crosby ripping out his opponent’s heart and eating it has been happening for the past six years” (the tweet itself is also about four or five years old)

The entirety of his Fucked Up Teeth era where he had to wear the fishbowl and fought a bunch of people . I think we don’t remember enough that Sid used to be an absolute bloody menace -- I’m pretty sure he’s either the only rookie or one of the only rookies with 100 pts and 100 PIM in a season.

he did the michigan before it was cool btw

IDEA FOR STORY

well let’s go back to the disappearing into the woods thing. have you guys heard of sable island perchance

well u see. there is an island off the coast of nova scotia

it’s got an electoral district and everything. Or it’s part of one. Which is weird because only a couple of researchers live there periodically.

anyway. king under the mountain type au where post-concussions sid decides instead to leave hockey, go back to nova scotia and become a lighthouse keeper/researcher. living on sable island, skating once a year on the thin-ass ocean ice when it freezes. disappears when the sport of hockey needs him most etc

in fact in this au he leaves in 2012, and because there’s no hope of his returning the penguins are. Substantially worse in the following year, not only breaking hard from the playoffs but also doing a leedle light tanking to get themselves a similarly touted prospect… 2013 first overall pick nathan mackinnon.

natemac who is and has always been a sidney fanboy numero uno AND a sicko who wants 2 win above all else. natemac who gets himself immediately into a war of wills with geno because geno wants sid to live a good life, a long and peaceful life away from where he has been and natemac who knows that there is something else going on. that sid gave up, but he is not lost.

so nate and geno play out nate’s rookie year; nate breaks in the offseason for sable island in search of sidney. cue geno coming along.

nategenosidney roadtrip 2 return to hockey nightmare psychosexual experience for everyone involved (geno has to contend with his feelings for sidney, a dear friend and colleague who he wants to both protect and win alongside, as well as his frustration towards nate, this doughy-faced and overemotional young firecracker… a lot like a certain sid, back in the day.) (sid has to deal with his feelings for geno, a respected teammate who he wanted to become captain after him but so clearly would rather not have that spot in his life replaced, and his new affection for this nate guy, someone who is so earnest and so competitive and so insane in exactly the same way as him that he’s not sure if it’s deliriously endearing or driving him nuts)(nate has to deal with his huge awfully enrapturing celebrity crush on someone he has always wanted to play with but who is apparently unavailable and has to deal with this sort of weird captainrookie mutual bullying homoeroticism he’s developed with geno)

i think this just ends up in a threesome tbh but who am i to say

UNPOPULAR OPINION

honestly… i do not find him that particularly attractive… i think it is maybe something to do with yalls competency kink (can’t blame u). the lips and the ass are great though he’s just almost too pretty for me. 

also i am a sidstache truther

FAV RELATIONSHIP

genuine tie between nate, geno, and ovi

FAV HEADCANON

go read jes ticklefighthockey’s entire archive right now and then go read her entire ao3. THAT is true sidscholarship i do not feel as if i am anywhere near capable of that level of it

[libra-cant-just-dance]

My “Official” Review of the Enter the Danceverses maps

Disclaimer: all of this is purely my opinion as someone who just recently got into the fandom, can’t dance, and has only played three games. In no way so I think any of the following is “right”, it’s all just personal opinion. Also I love all the maps so even the ones I like less I still love. Also this was originally written for an audience of my friends who know nothing about this game.

Can’t Stop The Feeling

A cute, simple intro to the danceverses and the story mode playlist. The whole thing of starting out live action and having our main character be pulled into the world of Just Dance is fun, makes you feel like you’re along on the journey. Is it a little bit terrifying to watch this strange blue man reach through a TV screen and kidnap this girl? Kind of, but you get used to it. He’s wonderful. You get this nice little montage of Wanderlust showing Sara around the verses and meeting cameo coaches from older maps. Also great that you can play as Sara or Wanderlust. Always a bonus for playing as Wanderlust.

Honestly i don’t find myself coming back to this map that often, but that’s probably because I prefer the alternate version. The choreo is very simple and I just don’t find it as fun. But the simple choreo makes it easy and a perfect way to start out the playlist and “introduce” the player to the world of Just Dance. You’re having fun doing this silly little dance, then suddenly all your new friends get kidnapped and we have a plot hook. It works great. Bonus points for Wanderlust doing that one move I really like from the alternate version at one point.

I will say, as much as I love being able to play as him in this map, I feel like that’s part of the reason I can’t get too attached to Sara. I don’t usually get super into main protagonists already, and since this isnt’ a solo song for her, I’m never forced to play as her (except in If You Wanna Party, but that one has all the characters in it so even when I’m playing as her I’m barely paying attention to her). When I do actually watch her dance, her style is really cute and I think she’s adorable and fun. But I just can’t get into her as much when Wanderlust is RIGHT there.

Can’t Stop The Feeling- Danceverses Prince Version

The best. I come back to this one all the time, I’m actively trying to learn to do it properly. Technically this isn’t part of the Enter the Danceverses playlist, it’s a separate map. But I don’t care, I love this map, I love Wanderlust, I wanna talk about it. That’s my boy. This map is great. I guess the only downside is it’s not as cinematic as some other newer maps? The background stays mostly the same the whole time. And it’s hard. But that just makes it more of a challenge. It IS the alternate version for a reason, of course it’s gonna be hard.

Starting out with a shot of The Traveler and Si’ha Nova to make it clear that they’re Wanderlust’s parents, perfect. Gorgeous. Wanderlust is just. So silly. Even though it’s hard, the choreo is SO fun to do. Bonus points for that little pose he does that I love, especially the time when he does it and then he does a little nod I LOVE that. This whole map just has the energy of dancing alone in your room having a good time and even though I’m dying by the end of it it makes me so happy. I hear this song in the car and think about this map and replay it several times and it’s a wonder I haven’t crashed yet. I love this map. I want to say more about it, but it really just comes down to “Look at him. He’s so silly. This is great. I love it.”

Witch

Great introduction to our antagonist. Obviously, this map slays. The Night Swan slays. No questions here. She has such a good aesthetic going on, and even though I hate her, I can’t deny it. She does in fact slay. That costume! That background! The way it changes throughout the song where it’s just her throne room in the beginning and by the end it’s full of Swan Soldiers being sent out through a billion portals! The shot with the eye in the beginning makes me feel like I’m about to watch an early 2000s punk rock music video, but it’s still cool.

My favorite shot of course is her sitting in the throne with Jack standing next to her. That shot just. Oh my god. It’s perfect. Him standing there like a knight next to his horrible mother who doesn’t deserve him. Someone save this boy. I wish he was more in the map even just in the background, but I don’t know what he would do. They’re not gonna just pay Mickael to stand there in sweating in the background in full costume for no reason. Actually there really isn’t a reason for Jack to be in the rest of the map, I just like to see him.

Getting back to the actual map, I honestly don’t like this one that much? Like it’s good, it’s just not for me. She does a lot of spooky wavey arms movements which are cool, but it’s just not my style. I don’t find it that fun, but that’s not a criticism of the map. It does, again, slay.

Physical

Love this one. Fun and funky map, good song, good vibes. It’s also got some funky camerawork! Man I’m so in love with how much better Just Dance maps have gotten over the years, it’s not always just a static camera pointed head-on at a dancer. Quick shoutout to Wanderlust’s face when he runs through the portal at the end, but I need to stop just talking about Wanderlust for every song. He’s only there for two seconds. I love the implication that Brezziana is an aerobic dance class instructor who just sets up a boombox in public places and lures people into flash mobs. She’s so great.

The dance is SO fun, but it’s an actual workout. I have to rest for like fifteen minutes after doing just this one song. While Can’t Stop The Feeling Danceverses Prince Version is “Wow this makes me so tired but it’s FUN!”, Physical is “Wow this is fun but it makes me SO TIRED!”. I wish I could do this map over and over again but I physically can’t (pun not intended but welcome anyway). I love the choreo, I love the energy. Even while I feel like I’m dying, Brezziana’s making everyone have so much fun it makes me determined to make it to the end. If she was a real exercise class instructor, would I actually take her class? Probably not, I’m really lazy. But I’d definitely consider it, and that’s saying something. God I love this map and it frustrates me that I can’t do it that often (at least if I want to play multiple songs in a row).

Rather Be

This one’s SO cool. Mihaly is awesome, the map is gorgeous, the vibe is excellent. I LOVE the choreo, the only problem is it’s hard. It’s so cool to watch and I wish I could follow along, but it’s just so hard. This has got to be one of my favorite choreos in the game, I just love Mihaly’s style and the way they go all these funky moves so quickly! My only other complaint is did they really have to decide that their zen magic dance temple is run by a giant anthropomorphic panda named Master Panda? It’s just… yeah. I guess in their defense the panda is kind of the mascot of Just Dance so if there was gonna be a master of Just Dance’s version of the force it would make sense for it to be a panda? Oh well, it’s definitely not the most poor taste decision the game has made in it’s history. Some older maps are… something. On the bright side, Mihaly is basically canonically nonbinary!! They’re SO cool. Or maybe I just like the red and blue color scheme. And the funky glasses. So basically, I love this map, I just don’t play it that often because I just can’t keep up with it.

Locked Out Of Heaven

Okay this one is going to pain me to review. I love Jack Rose with my entire heart. And that initially made me too biased about this map, but I think I can give it an honest review now. Still, we’re gonna start with the good things. First of all, Jack Rose. Duh. Look at him. The red suit, the gold, the earrings, literally everything about this character design is a personal attack on me. I love him. And he’s angsty?? This is a perfect boy! Literally the quote on his character avatar is “With a mother like mine, who needs enemies?”. That’s SO dramatic.

The map also tells his backstory SO well. It’s gotta be hard to tell a whole story like this in a JUST DANCE MAP. Right from the start you get baby Jack Rose practicing and then his mom in the doorway in a spooky silhouette being all disappointed in him, and then the transition where suddenly he’s an adult now and just the look on his FACE tells you everything. You can see how the pressure from his mother made him lose all the childhood happiness and he’s just so serious about everything now. Of COURSE he takes this so seriously, all his mother cares about is perfection so if he’s going to have this one thing that he’s good at (performing) he has to be PERFECT at it! He won’t get his mother’s love otherwise! And at the end of the map, even after he’s given this amazing performance to his thousands of adoring fans, she STILL isn’t impressed by him! He works so hard all the time just to please her and nothing will ever be good enough for her! Who knew you could get that much emotion from Just Dance!! Just watching it you see how good he’s gotten at performing but you wonder “at what cost?”!

And the use of the song! I LOVE when Just Dance can take a song and completely recontextualize it for a map. At first glance, okay, yeah. Locked Out Of Heaven is a good typical popstar heartthrob kinda song for him to perform. But when you think about it for way longer than anyone needs to be thinking about a Just Dance map like I have, it’s brilliant. Sure, the song is actually about some guy feeling “locked out” of the “heaven” that is having sex with some girl. But for JACK? It’s about being deprived of the simple happiness that comes from a mother’s love! He tries SO HARD! He’s won the affection of SO many people through his art, but he still can’t get the one thing he wants! His MOTHER to LOVE HIM! (This is why I hate Night Swan with a burning passion. I know everyone loves her cuz she has a great aesthetic and she slays and all that but she EMOTIONALLY ABUSED my BOY and I will never forgive her)

Okay so now that we know how brilliant this map is, you may ask yourself why I say it’s hard to review. And that’s because despite all of that, the choreography is BAD. Sure, I can do it. And some of the moves are good. But the majority of the dance is just silly. And yeah, Just Dance choreos are always a little silly. It’s a stupid party game. But they aren’t all THIS silly. And for all of the maps to give silly choreo, this is NOT the one. Jack is supposed to be COOL. He’s SERIOUS about his performances. There’s no way you can tell me that man would do some of those moves. Even if he would, I can’t be emotional about the story while dancing like an idiot. Some of the choreo also isn’t very doable, either. The spin is one of the less stupid moves, but they do it way too many times. And the microphone? Look, it looks great. He’s so cool with his big microphone on a stick. But the person playing the game isn’t gonna have a big microphone on a stick, and even if they did they aren’t gonna be able to magically make it appear and disappear out of thin air like he does. You just have to mime it while you’re dancing, and no matter how well you do it you’re just gonna feel like an idiot.

Sure, I’m overanalyzing this map. It just makes me mad that this could be one of my favorites for the existence of Jack Rose alone if it wasn’t for the ridiculously corny choreography. So bottom line, Jack Rose needs a hug. I will be revisiting this. This map is good, it could have been perfect. But they nerfed it. For nothing.

Majesty

This is a really cool one! The first map where you’re picking from two different teams of characters instead of just from different characters! Overall, I really like it. It does however suffer from both “too much story, not enough dance” and “too much dance, not enough story” at the same time. But not too badly? And considering this is the first time they’ve done a “story mode” kind of thing like this where they had to make a map that was a major plot point (the climax of a story, actually) with a whole bunch of characters, I think they did a really good job. It’s fun getting to play the different characters dancing in their own different styles, and they really did manage to tell a whole story through the map.

It’s just a little difficult to follow along with them, partly because you keep switching characters/styles and partly because you’re trying to pay attention to what’s going on in the scene. At the same time, it’s kind of tricky to get the whole story while you’re dancing because you’re trying to pay attention to getting the moves right. There’s a scene you can see go on in the background where Jack is arguing with Night Swan, and that’s when he turns on her and she sends the possessed Wanderlust to attack him. I didn’t even see that until like the third time I watched it, and I think that’s a pretty important scene. If you don’t see that, it doesn’t really make sense that you start out with Jack on Night Swan’s side and end with him saving Wanderlust and teaming up with The Just Dancers (yes, that’s what they’re called).

The ending is cute, I like that they all hype up Sara to be the one to defeat Night Swan. (Side note apparently Night Swan and Sara are played by the same dancer, and I don’t know how to feel about that) I believe she’s supposed to have a character arc about becoming more confident in herself and her dancing, and we don’t really see that much in the story, but that part kind of shows it. Her style is really cute, and I think the whole dance battle thing is just really funny. Night Swan really got danced at so hard that she had to surrender. Also the song is great! It fits the map really well and they did a great job of timing beats in the story with beats in the song. Also also a very nice touch to make this one and Night Swan’s solo map use songs by the same artist, it really makes the story feel tied up.

Now it’s time to rant about Jack Rose again. HIS FACE when Night Swan turns his whole audience into swan soldiers!! He looks horrified, it’s actually heartbreaking I will never get over it. His mom straight-up betrayed him! He loves his fans so much, that winds up being his breaking point to finally stand up to her and then switch sides to defeat her. I’m just so happy he finally realized he has so many people who love him so he doesn’t NEED his mom’s approval! And then him grabbing Wanderlust’s hand to save him and turn him back into a guy?? He made real friends! People who’ll actually love him even if he’s flawed! I just really love Jack Rose. I think his character arc is fantastic. And he’s red I love red.

If You Wanna Party

I feel like most of what I can say about this map is that it’s cute. I don’t mean that in a bad way though! They just took down the Night Swan, they deserve a little bit of a party. Now this song is CHEESY. Just Dance literally made the most cliche stereotypical “lets party everyone!” pop song they possibly could, complete with Jack Rose doing a rap that boils down to “yo yo we’re so cool” and the incomparable lyrics “move your hips from side to side, peanut butter jelly time, mashed potato feeling fine, dip baby dip”. But honestly? I kind of love it. It’s FUN, it doesn’t need to be anything else. Dare I call it camp? Perhaps.

Now my biggest complaint with this map is that you can only play as Sara. What the hell. All of them are there! And they all have solos just like a dance with multiple playable coaches! WHY can you not pick which one you wanna play?? The others are just standing there taunting me! You can’t put Wanderlust on my screen and tell me I CAN’T play as him! Seriously, this map should let you play as whichever one you want. I’d even trade out playing as Wanderlust in Can’t Stop The Feeling if it meant we could have five playable coaches for this map (only because he does already have his own solo song). This map is a bunch of friends having fun dancing together, that’s what Just Dance is ABOUT! Why can’t a player gather up their friends and dance as The Just Dancers together? That’s the whole point of the game!

Aside from that complaining, again, it’s a really cute map. It’s cheesy, but in a good way. I love to see Jack Rose getting ot have FUN for once. It’s also so cool how they all still retain their own dance styles while making a cohesive choreo all together! They’re all doing their own thing but it blends together. I know nothing about dancing or choreography but I’m just gonna assume that’s a challenge. All in all, great map. Great ending to the story. Sara waving goodbye to everyone as she returns to the real world. Jack looking super confused about it. It’s great. Good friends, good adventure, good dance.

[murkystarlight]

DREAMZZZ SEASON2 (PART2) SPOILERS

Well. You know what that means...

*sigh*

Episode 11

The gold armory looks nice. But, Dreamzzz really has a habit of starting episodes randomly. For a split second I thought it was like.. episode12. Not 11. I thought I skipped something-

Inspector being worried-

Old men bantering. Always fun to watch.

For once, Royce said something right. How did you not notice Mateo wasn't the real Mateo!! Still confused of how it works

Oh cool. The Never Witch has her own special edition of barbie's dream house

Dressing for the occasion? Heck yeah! Whooo (the colors look a bit brighter or... some like that in this season. Is it just me?)

Also, Madeo. Your mom is weird. Stay safe. I mean.. seriously. Why does she love dates so much

Honestly- the crow with the house.. was kind of disappointing. The crow looks so... dull. The lego set makes it look SO cool

NOO!! Burrzerker!!!

Astrid and Logan are so frickin cute

Oh... so they aren't trapped forever. Only while they're dreaming...(why is he repeating so much?)

Crosshatch technique?? What's that- I want to know

Cooper is being creative people!! (Wich is a good thing. Yes. Improvement! But... already? I mean.. it's technically the middle of the second season. But if they keep releasing it half and half... it feels like they're two different seasons. Which brings my brain to believe, "how is Cooper getting his character arc during the very beginning and he barely shows up afterwards??" So... yeah. That's kind of a problem for me..)

Cooper's favorite animal is geese! Ah- he's getting more creative!! Look at him! LOOK AT HIMMMM (I'm very normal. Don't worry)

"Our dreams need to be wild and free so we feel inspired and creative during the day"

Exactly. Such wise words. Sad I don't dream

Nova and Sneak is back!! (And they seem to be getting more spotlight and story?? Omg- yes)

The incursion(Bernie) is adorable. Absolutely ADORABLE!!

The repeating stuff is getting annoying already-

Ah- Cooper bonding with the bot- baby voice- aughhh

Sneak:"You saying we can't handle watching a harmless little robot?"

"Pretty much"

"Yeah...[stammers]" (sneak is also very cute. We need to appreciate this very normal looking cat)

Logan has a lot of middle names-(but his real one is Nico apperantly? Nico?? For real??)

Astrid looks like she's going to be apart of the story(big time) too

Space(generic 1980s airbrush album cover) theme!!

"Your girlfriend is so cool"

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"Wait. Do you think she'd wanna be?"

(Look at these cuties-)

Fireworks!

"Ready?"

"If I'm going out, I'm going with a bang."

Fireworks!!

Team move! Whooo look at them go!

Nova: "I wonder what kind of robot he is"

Sneak: "the cute kind?"

You are absolutely right.

"Are we winning?"

"Nope-"

So... Cooper can make fireworks. But no technology. He can make a moving sculpture. But no tech related stuff. ....

"The Never Witch really messed me up when she took my memories"

"I still don't feel ready to tackle tech stuff"

She did indeed. And it made a wonderful, beautiful sight(I'm sorry Coops. But it has a lot of potential and I love this concept. You go boy!)(and if he said that, there's a opportunity that he can do tech stuff now. But he just hasn't tried it yet)

Awww dancing with a cute creature and a cute robot-

Oh- multiplication. Neat

Did... did that clay geese eat a three headed eel??

Nova and Sneak having a breakdown. They're having a lot of fun aren't they

They're faces when they get hit by the Never Witch- lol. It's cute

And Mateo- your sister is right there and you only care about Cooper? Seriously. Sometimes, they make questionable dialogue choices(but- its sweet. Very nice)

Too bad we don't know what qualities the Witch took from them to make the clones...

Okay- lots of hands out of the cauldron. Creepy kinda-(the rhymes are still so amazing-)

Whoa- those neon signs have a lot of energy

Sick- look at them. The matching colors make them look like a real team

"I got Madteo and Doomblob"

"Cool name, broseph. I'm on Dizzy"

"For Doppel Izzie?" (Oh... okay. That's why they have 'd's)

"Guess that means I'm taking Dooper"

"Bogan has met his match" (I thought it was Dogan this whole time???)

"What? Sounds better than Dogan"

"[Sighs] I got Zoey"

And Astrid doesn't get one because... she ain't one of the original dream chasers we know. We need to keep a line between it^^

I am loving the attitude on Dooper

"Need to be saved? Pathetic"

The Bunchu's and the hammer- the hammers! The hammer is so pretty! I want that- so bad

And Dizzy.

Bogan is big for some reason. Okay-

And Madteo! Good to see you again.(also, those pencil ninja stars are cool. Kind of creepy looking tho)

The guardian looks so- squishy. I like it

Also the smashing two together- lol okay

So.. the Never Witch causes chaos, waits till the Guardian wakes up. Then stabs them in the heart to dome the realm. Okay... okay, cool.

Mrs.C: "That is one mangy-looking gato"

Um.. nope. Nothing wrong with him

Seriously, mrs.C is really cool. She's the best adult here

That guardian has a wonderful face. Darn cute adorable face

Oh no... they menace- they menacing bad..

(Still cute though-)

Um... yeah. More repeating sentences. Even I'm going to memorise them at this point...

And there you have it. Nova and Sneak are officially dream chasers now!

"Ew- enough mushy stuff"

Ooohh Mr. Oz's landing!?? Yessss sso curious

Okay

So... it escalated a bit. And the story went by way too fast for my taste. But a lot of new things and facts... it's a pretty nice start I think

Episode 12

"Let's turn up the heat"

"Oh, this'll be a sweet feast"

It rhymes too! (Also, that 'dressing for the occasion' thing? Really paid off. She looks hot. Like... what?!??)

"Ah yes.. let's have dessert before dinner tonight"

Yup. Here we have a single mother with a bunch of strange pets, and her five children

Cooper can drive(pilot?) again! Yay~ and I seriously love how he refers to all vehicles with pet names. Like 'sweetheart' or 'baby'

"I wonder what's in his fridge"

Hm. Now I'm curious too

Oh- it's on autopilot. Well- Cooper still gets to be the one behind the wheels in case something goes wrong. That's something!

So this is dream space. And it's nice to know that the fact Mr. Oz wanted to be an astronaut when he was younger is still a thing and not just a one time mention thing that gets scraped

Izz- take Astrid everywhere!

And here we are! Mr. Oswald's landin-Whoa- that looks amazing... I wish that came out as a set too- but. I guess nows not a good time for that.

Anyways, what is that asteroid centipede thing! Uggghhhhh I don't like it already...(not a fan of bugs. At all)

That dreamling is going to get kicked off soon.

"Welcome, to castle Nocturnia!"

Poor Albert-

Oh look. The night hunter is being a caring dad for Zoey again

Booby traps?? Okay- but why centipede looking thingies? Albert!

"We need to get hold of the kids!"

Mr. Oz....

Augh- the night hunters eyes when they're closed- so beautiful

Astropedes? So... they are centipedes. Aw just great-

"Uh- no. I'm not okay with anything that has more than four legs. [Yelps]" I agree with Zoey. Very strongly.

Old men fighting again. It's hilarious really. (They're both worried for the kids... aw-)And mayhem

Ah- nope. Cooper is driving it

Really fun looking at this like a game

Logan, did you forget the seatbelt again?

Sorry mr. Oz- your ship blew up

Ooh! Space car!

More booby traps? Of course-

Where does this music keep coming from?!

Mr. Oz and the Night Hunter bantering is so fun. Also- why does Mr. Oz have a monocle over his glasses?..

Oh- both sides are going pretty hard on the fight. They know their mistakes and everything... good. Very good

And talk about Lunia again! We might get more clues about her

Z-blob rocket!

I'm surprised they didn't notice that earlier. The light were turning red! C'mon, no one thought that was weird?

"And then there were three"

Well- nice to know they're still kids at heart?

Oh yay. Cooper

"You look uh.. dirty"

"Thanks. You don't look so hot yourself"

...I think Astrid is doing stuff. Like- she does kind of give off a vibe she's only here to add drama and a love interest. But she still has a lot of stuff going on. But she is doing a lot of stuff- she just said hot. As in- that kind of hot? ...really? Am I just stupid or did she really use that word that way?

Ooh! Red button

Albert has... a lot of things. Um.. and is good with animals I guess.

Night Hunter talking about Hannah? Ooh yeah

"It's not gonna hold"

"It's gonna hold"

"Its not gonna hold!"

"Its gonna hold!!"

"What do we do if it doesn't!!?"

Love these two

"I think I'm going to wake up"

"Don't do it Astrid"

"I'm going to wake up-!"

"Stay cool, Astrid"

These two are fun too-

The implications they're giving out on Astrid-

Looking for your best friend as soon as his son comes into a... trash dump. Yup. Always good to have a friend with you

"Don't push that red button!"

And- the red button was bad. They're gonna get crushed-

"Oh, wonderful"

"What can we do? The walls arw coming in! How can be so calm with this much pressure!?" (I know! Right? He is so-)

"Eh- you haven't met my family"

...someone. TAKE HIM TO THERAPY!

Oh my goddd this poor boy- Cooper- we really need more info about your family too-

Oh dang- king Albert sounds bad...

That. Is a lot of sand. GO Cooper! You can do this!(the effects are pretty awesome though-)

Sorry mr. Oz-... again.

Ahhhhhh! Yes! YESSSSS Cooperrr (he looks so dang cute with that smile- and also, matching puffy jacket with Mateo) it's c-rex! Looks sick. Nice details with the rusty parts. And it's also tech related stuff! He did it!!

Look at all that lighting- and the flames!

Mateo did it! Yayy

King Albert is... dead.

Cooper's laugh. That is everything

Doppel-usses. Yeah. That's a great word.

So... yeah. Like I said. Cooper has gotten his arc. It's finished. Good for him though!

Episode 13

Ooohh disguise?? Nice...

The wharnal looks prettier than how I remember it!!

Also, Mateo is doing a.. really nice job pretending to be Madteo. Like... savage-

"Man! That never Witch don't tell us nothin'!"

They're already fed up with her- lol

Confusion of the giant house inside the small house

Bottle library... cool

Z-blob really becomes.. anything. Don't you z-blob

She made a Doppelganger of herself??! Wha- okay. More like. I repeat- we got a whole lot of stuff ahead of us! (And she's crying too-)

Liquefy? Oh.. so they're just the liquid with the memories sculpted into her puppets... or.. something like that.

"My rugged good looks?"

Oh I love those dopples

Her memory is being hidden! We need to know

Reform the dream world spell. Spiral key, eye of confusion. Ruby replication. Crown of- omg. So much information

"Don't tell me the answers on the next page"

"It's on the next page"

Astrid just- can't stand the fact that she isn't noticed. ...oh.. noticed. Showing her worth.. she's that kind of character... I get it now. Hopefully

They're using the space car now- hopefully that doesn't blow up too

Bantering. I love it.

So apparently the dopples just decided to use the names they were given

The dreamlings in the candy realm have blue pudding heads? Ooh-

Mateo I is great at mirroring- except... uh- not the best athlete. He didn't manage the flip(which was awesome by the way)

These Doppelgangers are going to get mad at the Never Witch.. soon enough like- they have a lot of stuff they got problems with the Never Witch-

And- now they're howling and cawing

Cooper is- jealous? Or.. something I don't know. It's not exactly jealousy but Uh- I don't know.. something. Logan and Cooper ate competing

Uhm- what? Hm. Okay... it's like a spider human

Ooh now we get to see the candy chameleon!

Speaking german? Ooh. I mean- okay

They're all giving a shot at different teams. It's nice to see that

And a new barbie dream house for the Never Witch

The barrier works in... wonderous ways..

Yeaah. I need to sleep now. Way too tired- I'll finish the rest eventually

[annimator-ocblog]

OC Story: Old Friend

(Meet Parker! Seems like they’re familiar with one of the main 12. In a similar vain to Kai and Dylan’s first story, this also serves as their backstory)

[CW: Mentions of Death]

It’s been… a long couple of years for Parker.

Their childhood village was destroyed by entities.

Their mother died right in front of them in the aftermath.

They had to witness their father slowly but surely fall into a sad depression with the absence of their mother

…But it’s fine! They’re totally fine! They’ve moved on from most of that. They’ve been focusing on more up and coming things ever since they’ve enrolled into Arcana Academy. Then again, as the leader of their assigned Academy group, that explains all the things that kept them busy.

It was just another day for Parker and their group in the campus of Arcana Academy. Half of Parker’s group if were being technical, some were busy with other stuff while Parker alongside the younger members of their group were with them.

Parker was given time to tour Nova, Ro, Dylan, and Kai throughout the Academy since the four of them were frequently getting lost even though they’ve all been in the Academy for around a month at that point.

It was mostly just talk about how they’ve been enjoying the Academy, their respective relationships, and all that other stuff.

(Parker never really was interested in relationships if their being honest with themselves)

———

D: There’s a word for that?

R: Yeah! There’s a whole spectrum for people with little to no interest for sex and/or romance.

K: Really? Interesting!

N: So how are you two adjusting to the surface world? It’s feels kind of… what’s the word… otherworldly! Right?

D: It’s harrowing to say the least. We’ve been here beforehand, but those times were much shorter compared to now. Me and Kai actually first met above water and we’ve basically been together ever since-

K: But then again, our first kiss was technically underwater. I still remember it like yesterday!

P: I think that’s lovely-

K: Oh yeah! I just remembered something!

R: Spill the tea, dude.

D: What?

R: Nothing.

K: … There’s this boy in my Animal Element class that was frequently napping during lectures, and they still managed to perform good during magic exercises.

D: Oh yeah, that student with the grey goggles with turquoise lenses right?

K: Yeah! I think his name was… C? Wonder how they got that name.

N: I think I’ve seen that kid in my Technology class too. Ro and I keep running into his other friends somehow.

P: That’s C for you. They’ve always wanted to learn every element in the Academy curriculum since they were young.

N, R, D & K: You know them?!

P: Yeah, we were friends before I moved away. I thought I already told you guys about this.

[ucof-official]

How's things been lately over there? Any interesting weather? Mayhaps an eventful shift?

Hey Axyer, thanks for the question! We’re great!

In terms of eventful shifts, oh boy do we have some... if I were to list all in the past two weeks even, this post would be waaay too long. For those who aren’t aware, we (The UCOF), are a public safety and service group, and there’s fifty-odd of us and over 2.6 billion people on the Oxraan planet, so we have our hands very full! Just yesterday, in fact, we were called to the continent Regali-Oxraa to help clear out an illegal dig site in dead land (land put aside to not be touched by any civilization, kind of like national parks) and oh boy, was it cold. The poor guard’s department was out there for hours, and over six came back to base early because of hypothermia. Delta(my boss) included, even with all his fur!

Thanks again for the question! - Nova Dysuvia, technical and laboratory department

[isabellehemlock]

WIP Tag Game

I was tagged by the phenomenal @astrabear to share the first lines of my WIP’s - because as she said, “because you're active in multiple fandoms and I want to know what you're up to.”

I seperated them by a few categories, but first, for anyone else who might like to play along: @asunlovingde @fablesdelightme @prouvaireafterdark @peri-helia @spacewitchqueen (yes this is me shamelessly trying to get a sneak peek at the Rockstar AU <<;) - but of course, as always, no pressure implied <3

My current already posted WIP’s

Mark of Cain (almost done!) - my Cult AU TOG JoexNicky fic that was technically supposed to be done in March, and then holy heck several illnesses and my poor mom’s health, and etc etc I’m that far behind, but almost ready for the next chapter update, and just a few more to go.  Fingers crossed mid July now!

Nicky felt the rush of blood around his ears drown out the horrible gurgling sounds beside him, yet still his eyes were heavy, half hooded, as he swayed a little from the adrenaline seeping out of him.  His bent legs cramped beneath him, trying to signal that they needed relief from the seated pose he was in, but no internal message could reach him now.  He blinked at the dull ache from his lower half, felt the warmth of the blood that had sprayed onto his bare side dry into sticky streaks.  But he had been covered in so much worse from Cain in the past - what was a little blood in comparison?

Pretty Ballads Hide Bastard Truths - a Witcher prequel featuring Calanthe x Eist (hasn’t been updated in fourteen months, but not abandoned, promise!  Just a lot of life and fandom events in between, whoops!  But I genuinely hope to finish it mid summer)

The island of Hindarsfjall was Eist’s favorite.

Though it was the smallest in the archipelago of Skellige, it was the most vibrant one this time of year, with thick foliage and overgrown vegetation.  The perfect place for a teenage boy to explore and roam in the dense, thick, cluster of trees that kept the worst of the summer heat off of his pale skin.

But it was the fjord, not far from the temple of the Great Mother, Freya, that once again beckoned Eist to the jagged edge on the northern side.  It formed the best jumping off point into the warm spring below, and though bottles of the healing waters were given to visitors (in exchange for a small donation to the temple), a young man in his fourteenth summer found it perfect for blowing off steam.

My soon to be posted WIP’s

“What a great start to our partnership” - DantexAimes (Fast X) (I had genuinely meant for this to get written over the weekend, whoops, but it has been started at least - fully outlined, too!  Special shout out to both @cosima-nova & @you-came-back for their lovely feedback and excitement). 

Dante slipped on the gun strap over his stiff shoulders, the morning workout had left his muscles feeling a bit sore, but it kept him primed for the kind of jobs his father needed him for - and frankly, that alone was worth some of the suffering.  It just felt good to be needed, to be acknowledged, in any capacity, and if that required a little pain along the way, then so be it.

Fandom Event related

“Untitled FTH fic” - Steddyhands - okrrr the only reason I haven’t started writing this one yet (because it’s already outlined, has some dialogue, and I’ve legit been editing scenes in my dreams lol), is because I just know that once I start, I won’t stop, and I’m equally desperate to get one long fic done before diving into another one but SOON, so soon!!  This one is gonna pour out of me the second I start and I can’t wait to deliver it for my lovely bidder and friend @vexbatch - expected upload date: July

@iwtvbigbang x3 - not only have I had the privilege of organizing this with two other mods, but I’m fortunate enough to have snagged three authors and am excited to make some custom art for them soon <3 - posting dates: October

OFMD RBB x2 - I made two pieces, and two authors selected one of each and I even ended up betaing one of them and I cannot wait to share the pieces and the stories!  I ended up getting so inspired by the some scenes shared by a second that I ended drawing another piece, too lol - posting dates: June & July

Steddie BB x2 - I just got paired in this one, and am so excited to share that I’ll be making some sweet summertime love art, as well as an Anastasia AU piece (I feel giddy about it!!) - posting dates: October-December

IWTV Art Coven group project - just wrapped the tarot, and working on the calendar next - proceeds go to charity - posting dates: November

Alsoplusalso - my first comic is coming in a few weeks (but to keep it a surprise for the giftee I can’t say more atm)

ANNNND - launching an interest check in October for an IWTV Zine that myself and the IWTV BB mods will be running (super stoked!)  All proceeds go to charity as well 

But other than that, same ol’ same ol’ lol

[alphashley14]

One of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

Chapter Seven

Everything and More

“Arthur is correct. The time has come.”

Okay. So. This was weird. Even to Arthur’s standards. Which were already pretty fucking high, but had been raised slightly higher still as of this morning. 

Before them stood a small, cute, well-groomed talking dog. In an in-between dimension. Not that weird. Arthur had met talking animals. And been to other in-between dimensions. But to his knowledge, this dog was Scooby’s girlfriend. Who could not talk. And was in a coma. 

To the right of her stood a… vaguely familiar little man. Arthur was sure he’d seen that face before, he just couldn’t remember from where. But he knew it had something to do with his past experience with the paranormal.

And to the left of the dog stood the one who was quite possibly the strangest of the three. At least to Arthur. Truth be told, it hadn’t immediately clicked where he’d seen that face before. Then he’d just so happened to glance over at Mr. E, and he immediately realized two things. One: that Ricky had turned as white as a sheet, and was looking at the boy like he’d seen a ghost; and two: Mr. E’s shirt was the same yellow and white striped pattern as the teen’s. Then it clicked: Arthur had seen that face several times just this morning, looking through Ricky’s photo album. They were looking at a 17-year-old Ricky Owens. The same age he was when The Freak of Crystal Cove had forced him and the rest of the Original Mystery Incorporated to disappear.

So… yep. This was another new one. Just when Arthur was starting to think he at least mostly had this whole ‘paranormal expert’ thing figured out. What a fool he’d been to forget rule number one of being an expert in the paranormal: never assume you’re an expert in the paranormal. The paranormal will see that as a challenge, and it will find a way to surprise you. Often in a way less-than-pleasant. 

As Nova, the man in red, and Ricky’s younger self came closer, Arthur, Shaggy, and Ricky stood up, wary of the strange newcomers.

“Please tell me that you two also see Brad and Judy’s dog talking, a little man, and a younger me.” Ricky said shakily, in the voice of a man completely prepared to accept his own insanity. 

“Nope. Not just you.” And truth be told, Arthur was relieved it wasn’t just him seeing this, too. 

“Like, technically Nova isn’t their dog anymore. And according to Scoob, like, that’s not her.” Shaggy said with a nervous laugh. “But like, yeah… even so… this is freaky.”

“Shaggy is correct.” Not-Nova said. “I am not Nova. As I told Scooby Doo, I am of the Annunaki, a race of interdimensional beings who visit the planet Earth every thousand years at a time called Nibiru. The Annunaki have no physical form, and must inhabit the bodies of animals in order to remain in this world. And that is why I have borrowed Nova’s body - so that I may aid you in your quest to break the curse on Crystal Cove.”

Ricky and Shaggy gave her a blank stare that reflected the sheer bewilderment going on in their heads. Arthur on the other hand-

“The Annunaki," He echoed. “That word sounds familiar.” 

“To you, Arthur Kingsman, it would be. The Annunaki have a long history of helping humans. Whenever my kind visits Earth, we often leave part-animal descendants behind. So long as the tiniest trace of our genes remain, our descendants will retain a higher level of intelligence and the ability to talk. Each of you are intimately familiar with at least one of them. As rare as our descendants are, even rarer are our closest relatives, who in addition to sentience, often also retain some of our abnormalities and powers.” 

“That’s right," Arthur said. “Mystery told us about that.” 

“Like, you guys know about this, too?” Shaggy exclaimed. 

“It’s like we keep telling you: us Mystery Skulls are no strangers to the supernatural. And Nibiru is a pretty big deal. We’ve never met an Annunaki, but we’ve met quite a few beings old enough to remember the last time they were here. Some friends of ours possess a very special set of books with a whole chapter on Nibiru. Not to mention Nibiru is a big deal to the magical creatures of this world, and to the Neitherworld. From what I know of your people though, when you take hold of an animal’s body, you can usually tell visually. There are mutations and distortions. Sometimes you even make yourselves look part human. So… you haven’t taken complete possession of that dog, have you?” Arthur asked Not-Nova. 

“Correct. Her body is frail, her soul barely clinging to it. But if it can be saved, I have no intention of taking her life from her. And even if I wanted to, the time of Nibiru is not upon us just yet, which limits my powers in your world.”

“But not enough to stop you from switching our bodies.” Arthur said, slightly accusatory.

“Correct.” 

“So like, that dream we had was no coincidence. You��did switch our bodies!” Shaggy cried. 

“But why?” Ricky asked, trying to avoid looking at his younger self. 

“A number of reasons.” The man in red said. 

“The main reason you three were chosen rather than a different trifecta is because yours is the only one that remains intact.” Nova told them.

“What does that even mean?” Ricky asked. 

“Heyo, I can answer that!” Ricky’s younger self said. Hearing that voice again after so many years made Ricky jump. It was disturbing, really. It was deeply, deeply disturbing. 

“So it’s like this: looking at each Mystery Incorporated, there are… I guess ‘roles’ that are filled in every group, and you can usually tell who is who just by looking at them and knowing a few things about them. When she says ‘trifecta’, she’s talking about three people existing within the same role in the three Mystery Inc. groups that presently exist. You- or I guess us three are in one. Brad, Fred, and Lewis are in another… you get the idea,” the Young Ricky explained. “But technically speaking, you- or rather, I guess us three are the only trifecta left that exists perfectly between all three groups. Arthur’s the only one who will understand why when I say this, but the other three members of the Mystery Skulls have…  abnormalities that make them not fit the pattern perfectly when compared to other groups.”

“Abnormalities? Like, I don’t see anything wrong with Lewis, Vivi, or Mystery.” Shaggy shrugged. 

“Uh… remember when I said we have secrets that the others will tell you when you wake up?” Arthur asked nervously. “He’s talking about that.”

“The second reason was to forge an alliance between the new Mystery Incorporated and the Mystery Skulls.” Not-Nova said, diverting the conversation before Mr. E or Shaggy could ask any more questions. “The Mystery Skulls began their story in Crystal Cove, but were led away for many years in order to protect them from the evil entity beneath the town. They have always been fated to return, more qualified to oppose this curse than any group that has come before them. The entity knew this, and has tried several times to destroy them before they could. But it failed. However, the Mystery Skulls returned later in the mystery than anticipated, and the alliance was failing to form timely. With the time of Nibiru fast approaching, drastic action had to be taken.”

“Drastic? You think?” Ricky exclaimed. 

“But like, if you were just trying to get us to work together,” Shaggy asked, pointing between himself and Arthur, “then like, why did you bring Mr. E into it? Like, no offense, man. But like, why not just switch the two of us?” 

“I can answer that, too!” Young-Ricky piped up, sounding positively ecstatic about it. “Over here! Follow me!” 

The three of them followed him as he walked over to one of the walls and drew the curtain back to reveal another room - an absolutely massive room absolutely filled with people. 

“Like, Zoinks! Mayor Jones… Ed Machine… Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves… The Darrow Family… Like, there’s so many of them!”

“Yeah. And they’re just… standing around like mannequins. Weird.” Arthur nervously clutched his metal arm.

“But why are they here?” Ricky asked.

“Only parts of them.” Ricky’s counterpart explained. “What you see before you are the best parts of all of us who have been trapped in-between worlds because of our corruption by the curse of Crystal Cove. The treasure, the entity. One way or another, all of us here have been messed up by it. We’re here as echoes of what we were, a sad reminder of what we could have become, and a beacon of hope for what we could be. I would know. I, myself, am one of them. Or at least I was, until recently.”

“I suppose that explains why you look like… well… that.” Ricky said sadly, referring to how young his better half looked.

“Hey, man! Don’t be so disheartened about it. I mean, I’m you. You think that I of all people don’t know what you’ve been through? Or what you’re thinking?” The other-him asked. “I don’t think you realize just how bright our future could be.” 

“What do you mean by that?” 

“That,” younger-Ricky said, “Is the reason we drew you into the fold. I mean- Look at me. And look at the others. I’m walking around and talking to you, and the others stand still. Why do you think that is?” 

Ricky looked around and thought for a moment. “You’re… see-through?” 

“Ding-dong Daddy-o!” His younger self exclaimed with excitement. “I ‘woke up’ that day you stood up to Professor Pericles for the first time, and I’ve only been getting less solid ever since.” 

“It’s because of me?” Ricky realized, horrified. “I’m hurting you? Am I doing something wrong?” 

“No! No. You’re not doing a single thing wrong! You’re perfect. ” The boy insisted, gently gripping Ricky’s arms. “This isn’t hurting me. Just the opposite! I want to disappear! Don’t you get it? I’m vanishing because I’m being set free . You’re finding me again! I’m on the verge of not being the best version of Ricky Owens anymore.”

The image of his best self flickered, and for just a moment, Ricky found himself staring at a mirror image of his present appearance instead of a memory. Then the form stabilized and there his younger self stood once again.

 “And it’s all thanks to you! You did what I could never do: you told Professor Pericles he was wrong! You stood up to him! Even back then, I’m sure you remember. Pericles had to be the smart one - the right one. He hated being wrong, and I never had the guts to correct him. But you did! You tried to do what was right, and you aspired to be the man Cassidy thinks we can be! We didn’t do anything wrong back then and what happened to us wasn’t our fault - we were just a kid! And you’re finally coming to terms with that and are moving on . I know you don’t see it yet - just how incredible that is. And I know what you think about yourself. But I think that’s amazing, and I’m so proud of you!” His other half exclaimed, breathless. “I just hope that one day, you can realize the same.”

Ricky’s eyes burned and his throat started to close. But he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and refrained from crying. Again. 

“Twenty years…” Ricky croaked. “Twenty years, all I’ve wanted was to be you again. Innocent. Loved. In love. With my friends. Solving mysteries. Happy. And all I thought was how disappointed in me you’d be if you could see your future self as I am now: flawed. Selfish. Spiteful. Broken piece-of-shit.”

From behind him, Arthur barked a laugh. “Broken? We’re all broken, dude. Whether you’re stuck in here or not. If there’s one thing my friends have taught me, it’s just a matter of finding people whose broken pieces fit with yours.”

“You weren’t here to experience the things I did, Arthur.” Ricky said. “What if… what if I can’t do it? What if the curse gets me again? Or my own greed and other shit ruins this? What if I go back to being that way? And you’re stuck here like this forever?”

“I have it in good faith that you won’t.” His younger self said. 

“It’s more difficult to manipulate someone who’s aware they’re being manipulated than someone who doesn’t. That’s true whether you’re talking about a person or a curse.” Arthur shrugged. 

“Yep. That’s right! But because I know it’ll bring you comfort, I’ll tell you this too: look around at the others. Who do you see here? Or uh… who don’t you see here?”

Ricky took a deep breath and observed. Everyone tainted by the curse is supposed to be here. Brad and Judy were here. And other members of the Mystery Inc. gangs that came before them. And others who had been involved with the curse, involved with them . Like the former Mayor… and Ed… But absent was-

“The kids.” Ricky finally said. “Mystery Incorporated. The Mystery Skulls… and Cassidy. They aren’t here.” 

“Again: Ding-dong Daddy-o!” His younger self exclaimed, pointing a pair of finger guns at him. “Cassidy always had the strongest spirit of our whole gang. She was just too stubborn and too good for the curse to mess her up. As for the others, the bond between Shaggy and his friends is too powerful to be broken apart by any curse. Every time it tries to do to them as it did to us, they always figure it out and find their way back to each other. Similarly goes for the Mystery Skulls. The Mystery Skulls, especially . They have an understanding of the supernatural - even a bond with it - that’s rare among humankind. You want to make sure you never fall prey to this curse again? Stick with them.”

“Indeed.” Nova said, entering the doorway behind them. “This was the other reason we swapped all three of you: to put you, Ricky Owens, back where you belong. And to give you a chance to save yourself. Our time is beginning to grow short. So I must tell you the final reason we swapped you the way we did.” 

Nova led them back into the sitting room and they sat down on the black furniture to listen to her. 

“Ricky Owens,” she said, “As you know, back in your own body, you were in great danger - trapped in a situation from which you could not escape.” 

Ricky nodded, ashamed. 

“But although you lacked the abilities and allies to save yourself from those you once called friends, I knew there was another who did.” And with that, the cocker spaniel turned her head to stare directly at Arthur. It took a couple of seconds for it to click. 

“Me? ” Arthur cried. 

“Yes. You.” Said the man in red. 

“There’s no version of Ricky Owens that could ever hope to best Professor Pericles. Not yet , anyway. And definitely not alone.” Ricky’s better part looked down at Ricky with an expression of sadness and understanding. “Let’s face it: he’s known us since we were small - for almost as long as we can remember. There was even a time when he was our only friend. Our entire world. We told him everything, and he watched us grow up. Heck, Dad was hardly around after Mom died, so he practically raised us . He was so much older and smarter than we were… he watched over us, nurtured us, taught us. Most of the tricks, craftiness, and cunning we have, we learned from him. He knows us inside and out and knows exactly what to say to either lure us in, or completely destroy us. There’s not much we could come up with that could take him by surprise, we can’t outsmart him technologically, and we have like only one ally on the inside who we could both trust to not be bribed by Pericles and who has the skills to be of any help. But just her isn’t enough.”

“Arthur Kingsmen however, does possess those things.” Not-Nova explained. “Like you, Ricky Owens, he possesses cunning, intelligence, and patience. But with no history between him and Professor Pericles, the bird’s manipulations and predictions will be completely ineffective. To Pericles, he will be completely unpredictable - a wolf in sheep’s clothing. His intellect in many categories rivals that of his enemy, and he has a powerful set of friends to aid him. You two may not have had the opportunity to observe him and the other Mystery Skulls in action just yet, but I can assure you that Arthur is extremely intelligent, driven, and strong-willed. With quite the stubborn streak when it comes to those closest to him, might I add.” She said fondly. “Not to mention that he has an incredibly high tolerance for pain. Taking all of this and more into account, there may not be a soul in the entire world with as much chance of not only escaping, but also leaving his enemies in ruin on the way out.” Nova explained. 

The whole time the Annunaki spoke, singing Arthur’s praises, Arthur’s blush had become increasingly obvious. By the time she was done he was as red as a tomato. Arthur stammered for a moment, thinking it rude to tell the literal deity that she was mistaken and he wasn’t all that, before he finally stuttered out, “You r-really think so, huh?”

“I won’t doubt Arthur’s abilities.” Mr. E said. “The Mystery Skulls’ reputation speaks for itself. But there’s no way I’m allowing this. You’re saying- what? That we just throw him to the lions to deal with my shit? No way!” He protested, rising to his feet. 

“Like, yeah! That’s totally dangerous and like, it’s not fair to put that much pressure on Arthur!” Shaggy agreed with him. 

“Uh, guys?” 

“The kids already have a plan to get Arthur out. It’s risky, but doable. And we don’t have much other choice. It’s certainly better than what you’re suggesting!” 

“Like, yeah! And like you said, the Mystery Skulls are strong. At the very least we know what Vivi’s capable of. Like, Pericles won’t know what hit him!”

“I want to do it!”

Arthur had to raise his voice to get their attention, so Shaggy and Ricky were honestly startled by the sound of his voice. 

“Sorry for yelling.” Arthur said sheepishly. “I uh… I don’t think I’m quite as good as you seem to think I am, Ma’am. But you do make some good points. And something tells me you’re only going to switch us back when you decide it’s best to, anyway. So… yeah. I want to try.”

There was another pause, broken by Ricky’s rebuttal. 

“No. No way.” He said firmly. “Arthur, if you’re caught, you could be killed . Then I don’t know if you’ll be dead or I’ll be dead, but I don’t want either of us to be dead! And even if you aren’t found out, if you’re caught as me- or even if you so much as make him mad again, he could lock you up. He’ll torture you and he’ll enjoy it.” 

“Lewis will have my back. Trust me. I can’t explain how, but he will. When my friends reveal their secrets, you’ll understand. And if he hits me with the button again… I’ll be fine. I think it was only so bad the first time because I wasn’t expecting it and had never experienced it before. But looking back… I’ve been in far worse pain. Really . It’s not so bad.” Arthur realized what he’d just said and quickly backpedaled before he hurt Ricky’s feelings. “Wait- n-not that I’m saying you’re weak or anything! I’m not denying how painful it is or trying to undermine what you went through in any way, but… let’s just say pain and I are old friends. It’s like I told you guys, I’ve been in chronic pain for years since the accident. And the pain I felt the day I lost my arm was a lot worse than the pain from the cobra venom. So this is like… just- I can take it. I want to take it. I feel useless all the time , but if I can do this, then I want to. I need to do this, Ricky. I- I want to save you.” He said, with firm resolution.

“No.” Ricky said, glaring down at Arthur from where he stood. But Arthur wouldn’t be talked down. He stood, too. Looking Ricky stubbornly in the eye.

“Three days.” He said firmly. 

Ricky cocked an eyebrow at him. 

“Give me three days. I already have a few ideas. Tell me everything you know, give me information I can work with. And if I’m not back with you all in three days time - heck, starting now - then you guys can come in, guns blazing to get me out yourselves.”

Ricky pressed his lips together, then looked at Shaggy. 

“Like hey, don’t look at me, man. It’s your body and he’s stuck in it. So um. It’s really between you two. But like, if the inter-dimensional being thinks Arthur can do it, and Arthur wants to do it, then like… I really don’t have a valid argument for that. Sorry.” 

Ricky sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “Somehow I knew you were going to say that. Fine. I can’t come up with a good reason not to give you the opportunity. But I need to be sure you know what you’re getting into, Arthur. It’s going to take everything and more to beat Professor Pericles at his own game. Please , Arthur, be careful! And what do you expect us to tell your friends?”

“L-like, yeah.” Shaggy gulped. “I like, don’t know if you noticed. But Lewis has uh… quite the temper. And Vivi can be like… terrifying.” 

“Tell them I wanted to be brave, like Galaham.” 

Ricky cocked an eyebrow. “Uh. What?” 

“Galahad is my pet hamster’s name.” Arthur shrugged. “But we mostly call him Galaham. He’s really cute. He was born with a condition that left his lower half paralyzed, so one of my earliest prosthetic projects was making him a tiny set of wheels so he can zoom around. My friends will know there’s no reason you’d know that unless you actually talked to me.”

“Okay, like first of all, that’s adorable.” Shaggy said. “Second of all, like, what if your friends don’t allow it?” 

“Maybe they won’t. But I like to think they have faith in me, so I’m willing to bet they will.”

That was when there came a truly frightening sound: an echoing roar from some other distant part of the sitting room. 

“Oh, great. It got out.” Younger-Ricky gulped. 

“Like, hoh boy. What got out?” Shaggy asked shakily. 

“A threat that isn’t to be dealt with today.” Not-Nova said. And the three residents of the sitting room walked past Arthur, Shaggy, and Ricky to the doorway from whence they had come. 

Arthur looked after them, confused. “A threat?”

“A creature born of shame who has threatened this place for a long time, now.” The Annunaki said. “We have isolated this far corner of the Sitting Room so that you three may use this plane to converse and collaborate until the time comes when you don’t need it to do so.” 

“Time is short, trifecta.” The man in red said. 

“We’ll buy you as much time as we possibly can to collaborate. You need to tell Arthur absolutely anything and everything he could possibly use.” Ricky’s better half told him.”

“But what about you?” Ricky asked. 

“Help me by helping yourself. Live, never give up, put in the effort to amend your mistakes, and set us both free.” 

“For now, we have given you all the tools you need to succeed.” The Annunaki said. “From here, it’s up to you.”

And just like that, they were gone. And the three of them were alone once again. 

There was a moment of pause as the conversation sank in for the three of them, before Arthur turned to Ricky. “Alright, Mr. E. Let’s talk.” 

“I don’t even know where to begin.” Ricky said. 

“I already have a few ideas about how I can go about this. I’ll talk you through them, and you tell me whether or not they’ll work and what else I need to know as we go. But first: The other you mentioned that you have an ally on the inside. That’s something we can use. Who is it?” 

Ricky thought back for a moment. It had only been mentioned, so it took a second for Ricky to remember what Arthur was talking about. “I’m not sure.” Ricky said. “Any of my employees could- wait . Yes. I see! I know exactly who he was talking about.” 

“Well, who is it? Who’s your friend?” 

“She’s not exactly my friend. And when I was working with Pericles willingly I didn’t completely trust her because she’s betrayed us at least twice now. But we are still working together and if you can prove to her that you’re not me and that I’ve swapped sides, she could be the only person in all of Destroido who you can trust. Because when it counts, blackmail and monetary gain hasn’t exactly worked all that well in controlling her up until now. And I know for a fact she doesn’t like the Original Mystery Incorporated. But she’s close with Velma, which makes her an ally of the new Mystery Inc. Shaggy, I’m sure you may have worked out who I’m talking about by now.”

“Like, wait! You mean-”

“Yep. Her . Arthur, when you wake up, the first thing you need to do is arrange a meeting with a girl named Marcie Fleach. She’s also known as Hot Dog Water. ”

Their conversation from there seemed to last hours. But when Arthur groggily opened his eyes back in Mr. E’s body, back in Mr. E’s rooms, he found that hardly an hour had passed. That was good. He needed every second he could get. 

This time, when Arthur left Mr. E's rooms, he did so with Mr. E’s keytar around his neck and a sense of purpose . He supposed he shouldn’t feel so invigorated , given his situation. But he had a job to do, and people who were counting on him . And dammit, he wasn’t going to let them down!

Arthur approached Mr. E’s island of monitors with a bit of caution, mindful to look up for a certain parrot this time. But Pericles, Brad, and Judy were nowhere to be found. Perfect . 

The system was locked this time when Arthur tried to get in, but that was fine. After all, Mr. E himself had given Arthur detailed instructions of exactly how to get in and how to use it. Arthur had a lot to do, but he needed to be smart about it, he needed to do them in a certain order, and he needed to have patience. So he first pulled up the tabs about Cassidy, letting a reel of photos fade in and out in front of him. Then quickly, and in the tiniest window possible so prying eyes might not notice him do it, Arthur sent an email to Marcie Fleach, asking to meet with her in a certain hallway in a few hours’ time. As soon as the message was sent, Arthur closed the window and erased the history showing he’d opened it. Pericles would be able to uncover it if he tried, obviously. But a quick surface look at Mr. E’s history wouldn’t show it. Then Arthur sat back in Mr. E’s chair, keytar in hand, and began to play a slower version of a familiar song in a key Ricky had told him he favored - as solemn as a funeral march. And quietly, he began to sing. 

From the expression on his face and the tempo and key in which he played, an unknowing outsider would think he was mourning. But a mind reader would tell you that the man in the chair wasn’t dirging for Cassidy Williams. No - he was looking more at his own reflection than the images of Angel Dynamite. And his song was meant for another. 

“What if I could bring you back to life?

What if I could be your guiding light?

I would be your pathway

I won't let your spirit die…” 

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

When Shaggy and Ricky came to, they found themselves lying on the ground where they’d fallen, with Mystery Incorporated and the Mystery Skulls gathered around them. 

“Hey guys! They’re waking up!” 

“See, Velma? We told ya.” 

“Are you okay, Shaggy?”

“And… Arthur?” 

Arthur’s body sat up. “Like, nope. Still Shaggy.” 

Shaggy’s body rolled over onto his back. “Sorry to disappoint you all, but this is still Mr. E.” Ricky reminded himself not to be hurt by the physical deflation that the entire circle of people experienced when they realized he was still there. 

“So then? What happened?” Lewis asked. 

“Well like, there’s good news and bad news…” 

The explanation that ensued took several minutes and went rather well, all things considered… Then they got to the part about Arthur’s plan. 

Lewis Pepper’s thundering boom echoed off of the hills and shook the trees, sending mutated birds scattering from their perches. 

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

This was yet another chapter I absolutely LOVED writing!!! :D My favorite part is Ricky's interactions with his younger self.

Chapters 1 through 10 of One of Us are currently posted on Archive of Our Own.

[instantartific]

Oh no… is Challenger all messed up bc of what happened to the actual Challenger?

It's less "Challenger is messed up due to what happened to the actual shuttle" and more "Everyone was going to be nicknamed after those shuttles anyways so it became a bit of dark irony for the second and third in line to have a similar backstory as the second and third shuttles in that fleet."

That being said, Columbia also has "scars" from a similar event that Challenger went through! It's just that his are less severe.

They both have scarring for a few reasons off the top of my head:

Due to Atlantis / NJ wanting to make these boys as lifelike as possible, parts of their body (roughly the waist up) has... a sort of flesh-substitute so to speak. They have a hard rigid skeleton internally and in some places externally to maintain their form (think their lights on their cheeks and while I forgot it in their design doodles, their neck and spine) but their outsides are soft and imitate the feel of skin.

Fun fact: they're like this because they're based off of the androids in Signalis! They also have scarring instead of shreds in their soft material because you can heal your soft material in Signalis and figured they'd have a similar concept.

The boys' power source is literally based on stars! They're technically small, incredibly compact, stars. Mere flecks of dust in comparison to the power of an actual star but they run on the same concept nonetheless. Aka, are technically nuclear powered.

Because they're nuclear powered, if their cores undergo too much stress / are not cooled properly, they can undergo a core meltdown. Aka, they explode like in canon, except it has a visual effect more akin to Nova's explosion at the end of his battle. When this happens the soft tissue they have can get torn open in a need to expel that extra energy. Their explosions are essentially like a scaled down version of Nova's overall: they get hurt more than anyone else does.

A meltdown can occur from extreme use of their abilities and pushing themselves to that point without cooling down, their cooling systems failing long enough for the heat to keep building, or actual damage to their cores. A complete meltdown can be avoided once damage has been done, however.

No civilians have gotten hurt from this as it's been contained before they fully blew all but one time. This was also out of the public eye.

So in short: the models that both Challenger and Columbia have have been through near meltdowns and have scarring due to that. Neither model got fully destroyed, thankfully, because Enterprise was able to avoid both complete meltdowns.

Those two are arguably the strongest and have come the closest to complete meltdowns as well directly because they're so strong.

[peasthedumb]

i give you the gift of an ask

infodump away, my friend

i dont care about what, just infodump to me

*feral motor revving noises*

Oh boi , would you look at that. It’s the the excuse that I needed ! :D

Imma infodump the SHIT out of Azulis, Nova and Paranoia.

OK SO-

General info!

Azulis: her species is very tall, hence why she’s very tall. She’s kinda got angsty teen energy. Just kinda badass and always looks angry, but she very much does have a soft side! She can be super kind! But most the time, nah. She’ll step on your foot, steal your wallet/purse and not say sorry. I love her so much she’s like- I want to put her in a blender, put whatever comes out of the blender into a glass bottle, then throw it at a wall so it shatters. Also: her fur is kinda sleek and glossy kinda soft but also kinda coarse, still nice tho! Also her fur is very long, it’s just not very poofy except on her tail.

Nova: omg SO wholesome. FLUFF LORD. So much soft puffy fluff. Toast is fluffier but STILL, they take second place. They have 3 sets of ears too! Also they’re non-binary. They’re kinda quiet and easily come off as shy, but they’re mostly just quietly confident. They’re the most wholesome I swear- they try absolutely anything in their power to help people, even if it just hurts themselves. They never get mad, they just get sad or disappointed. (Also they can summon big feathery wings! So they don’t always have em but they can if they want. Definitely didn’t do that to make her easier to draw.)

Paranoia(black): I think Paranoia has paranoia. It is paranoid. It’s surprisingly kind and caring for its appearance though! And it has horrible memory- It just wants to follow around whoever it’s attached to and quietly observe them.

Paranoia(red): It wants to watch the world burn. Fuck fear, Fuck kindness, it wants genocide. It’s a massive narcissist too. It also hates paranoia(black), and tries its best to make it terrified.

Now

Here’s story, I originally wrote this first but it was way too long and people probably won’t read it:

Azulis is from a species that has glowing markings that glow a certain colour to represent which clan you’re born into. BUT- Azulis is mixed clan cause she’s the child of 2 people who were in different clans. But she was the one who got all the hate for it because ya know, typical story plot: nobody knows who her parents are. Long story short she escaped imprisonment after a few years and gained a taste for murder + she also stole a sword that she’s now hyper protective of. After escaping, she eventually bumps into nova.

NOW: nova.

Nova is pretty average tbh. Normal person, they’re pretty quiet and happy. Loves to help people. As a job they do all healing crystals an stuff (because that stuff works in this universe cause- idk, magic.) But! Because in this world it’s…kinda medieval (idk I’m working it out) so eventually people start trying to call them out as a Witch! Nova isn’t that bothered tbh, they find it amusing, and a little disappointing. They end up moving out of their home village though because if the villagers tried to trial her for wichery- well, idk if you know how medieval people trialled if you’re a witch but in case you don’t : you got tied up and thrown in a river. If you drowned, you were innocent, If you lived, you’re a witch and they’re gonna kill ya. So basically Nova chose to leave to prevent that happening to themselves.

They met Azulis while they were looking for a new place to live.

And at some point the two become a couple (ewie cringe, it’s unnecessary idk why I added it. Tbh they’re adorable together tho, at least until later events-).

When they do find a village to move into, Azulis tries to adjust to village life but it’s just really not for her. Well, correction, she likes pretty much every aspect of village life, but can’t get used to being shut up in a house and how noisy people are when you’re trying to sleep. So she took more to sleeping in the nearby forest trees (I mean, she’s technically some kinda cat so it’s kinda in her nature).

Thing is tho, she has no money or job. Nova has money from setting up their crystal healing shop thingy, but it barely earns enough to sustain them, let alone the two of them.

So Azulis, after getting jumped by some low level thieves and accidentally killing one, ended up realising the wonderful and lucrative world of black market organ trafficking…. And within weeks turned a nearby cave into a makeshift workshop! In super secret ofc-

Also sometime around now, Azulis meets her other two friends, Patchwork, who’s a semi-famous unique Puppet maker, and Toast, who’s just a Protogen he rescued / brought (still working out how protogens fit in here cause- medieval world but how protos cause protos are robots?) BUT ANYWAY who cares about them, this post isn’t about them.

So anyway- Azulis starts earning mega money from kidnapping, killing, gutting and selling the organs of people, and the village was having like- a massive manhunt to find out who was the murderer.

One day nova found the workshop, went to confront Azulis who btw- you can probably tell but she’s not entirely mentally there. Azulis basically just realised Nova knew and immediately stabbed them and left em to die.

NOW PARANOIA:

Paranoia pretty much formed from Novas dead soul. They have no idea of anything about nova though, nova is pretty much just my excuse for Paranoia to exist. Paranoia is…kinda like a demon / ghost thing? There are also two paranoias that are completely separate people but the same body. There’s black paranoia who they are normally, then Red paranoia.

Also, nobody else can see it exept Azulis. So- they went and pretty much took over a small piece of Azulis’s soul, so they were pretty much trapped following her . Azulis didn’t mind though, cause black Paranoia is a very nice person, kinda like Nova was! They’re just kinda scared and Caring. Although- when Black Paranoia finally lost control and Red Paranoia took over, Red took advantage of the fact they’re literally attached to Azulis’s soul and…pretty much possessed her via her soul? And Red, with its absolute bloodthirst, used Azulis to go on a murderous rampage through the village. I mean yeah, Azulis was murdering anyway, but she killed carefully and with purpose. Red was making her kill carelessly in daylight with whitenesses and for no reason .

Patchwork (with no idea what’s going on) Tried to stop Azulis but she was still being controlled and cut his head off. That was enough shock for Azulis to snap out of it and Black paranoia to come back. They were terrified, and Azulis was absolutely furious.

Caring more about never being possessed again than about her friend, Paranoia, she immediately killed them. Due to spooky Ahh mystery magic Patchwork also is still alive, now with a floating head.

And now Azulis’s rampage is down she immediately gets taken by ‘police’ or guards or whatever and idk wether to add it or not but she either gets hung or they try to hang her but she escapes . Idk tho, her story is already so long, I feel it needs to end but also it feels cheap to just kill her off-

This is like: the base concept of the story. I’ll be adding more or taking stuff out, and I missed a bunch in this anyway cause it’s hyper simplified.

(This post is too long, I can’t be bothered to check if it makes sense. Forgive me.)

[shankhachil]

I posted 1,612 times in 2022

277 posts created (17%)

1,335 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@identitycrisis-electricboogaloo

@starcloud-nova

@zindagi-toh-bewafa-hai

@peevesiehasasideblog

I tagged 1,039 of my posts in 2022

Only 36% of my posts had no tags

#hagupost - 164 posts

#important - 70 posts

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Longest Tag: 136 characters

#anyway one of them randomly sent a message in our gc like “it's called footccer” and not having context it took me like. half an hour to

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

It’s not gay if a dog is there na?

13 notes - Posted April 22, 2022

#4

homodbodhan

An article, somewhat. For day 11 of the Desi LGBT Fest 2022, prompt: “The first time you heard ‘gay’”.

I’m going to change this up a bit. I mean, not that I’m not going to tell you the first time I heard the word “gay”, but there’s some more that I want to talk about and I think this is a good chance to share it.

Okay, so first of all, the first time I heard “gay”. Actually, technically, that doesn’t count either, because, really, the first time I ever had a sensory experience of some sort with this word (and doesn’t that just sound wrong?) was from a book called Jobless Clueless Reckless by Revathi Suresh, when I was eight years old. I read the word “gay”.  The book itself is YA, but age restrictions never had any meaning to me, since I was often left to my own devices by my parents. Well — I probably shouldn’t have been reading that book, since it’s a bit mature for an eight-year-old, but the point stands.

A phrase from the book went something like “(....) it’s like he’s determined to show the world he’s gay (....)”. It’s not the exact quote — I have the book in my shelf at home but I can’t be bothered to dig it out — but it’s close. The context, here, is that the narrator’s younger brother likes those beginner’s cross-stitching and knitting sets, and is proudly displaying his collection to the narrator’s crush. 

You see the issue with the narration here, obviously. I’m sure you’re all thinking “casual homophobia” right now, and, yes, once I was old enough to understand what “gay” meant, I went back to this book and said “Yikes!” out loud when I came to this part.

But onwards. I went to my mother and asked her what “gay” meant. She said, “Don’t say such words, you’re not old enough,” and so for a few years I went around thinking that “gay” was a profane word.

And that was it for that. It was the first time I had read, and then heard, the word “gay” at all. But it doesn’t really count because I only understood what it meant three years later. I’ve mentioned in my last post for the Fest that I realized I was gay some months after Section 377 was abolished. It was (I also said) the first time I heard “gay” and actually wondered about what it meant. I was eleven years old, and I enjoyed seeing pictures of attractive men, and didn’t really understand what my friends (who were, looking back, perhaps a bit too mature for their age) meant when they called women “hot”.

I saw “gay” and I went on Google — or maybe Wikipedia — and I looked at what it meant. I read very thoroughly, actually. For a week, when my mother wasn’t actively making me study or go to table-tennis classes or what-have-you, I went onto the Internet on my iPad and researched the LGBTQ+ community like I’d never researched anything before.

I came out of it a changed boy. Obviously, for a few months, I didn’t realize I was gay, I never even considered the fact that I was attracted to men. It never even occurred to me that other boys I knew just... weren’t like me.

A few months later, I started really thinking about whether I was gay or not. It was at the back of my mind for a while. Sometimes I wouldn’t think about it, sometimes I would. More than a year went by like this. And then, in March of the year I turned thirteen, the COVID pandemic came to India. I had already had a lot of alone time — and this increased to almost ten or eleven hours a day. At this point, of course, I had begun to hit puberty, which, combined with the fact that I am decidedly not asexual, led to the development of some... urges. You know what I mean. It feels weird to talk about it since it was so recent. If I’d been in, say, my thirties, I could probably have talked about it more freely, perhaps with a laugh, a look how dumb I was. But I am far from being in my twenties, let alone my thirties, and so I will not elaborate — much.

Skipping the fine details, I will say here that I discovered at thirteen that straight porn did absolutely nothing, and gay porn did everything for me.

Seventh grade, though, had brought my first crush, Who was a girl, and also my best friend. This made things difficult.

So, instead of saying I was gay, I came out to that best friend (who obviously didn’t know I liked her) as bisexual. And that was officially the first label I applied to myself. It was wonderful. These days, to avoid having to explain my full identity, I say I’m bisexual to most people. Most of them don’t ask further.

Fast-forward two more years to now. I discovered that I am demiromantic and homosexual. More labels.

Labels. Probably the most interesting thing that humans have invented — little words that tell you what kind of person a person is, what they do, who they love, where they’re from. All for the uniquely-Homo sapiens purpose of classification. We cannot live without categorizing people into kinds. Detrimental sometimes, yes, but, at its core, one of the most fascinating things about human psychology.

To be honest, before I discovered different kinds of labels, I never really knew anything about myself. I mean... I did, just not actively. The fact that I am Indian, or Bengali, or, for that matter, a boy, never really set itself in my mind very concretely. I never thought about it as much as some people seem to do.

I think that labels are the thing that have helped me most on my journey of self-discovery. Not meditation, or reading, or love interests, but labels. Everything I’ve ever known about myself has been from seeing a word, thinking about it, and going, is this me?

So, back again to the first time I heard the word “gay”. The first time I experienced the word “gay”. The time I came out as bisexual. The eleventh of June, 2022, as I write this post. 

If any of these had not happened, I wouldn’t know who I am or where I am as accurately and clearly as I know now. 

Thank you, then, to Revathi Suresh, the Supreme Court, my friend M, and you all. As all the stars say — wouldn’t be here without you.

***

@desi-lgbt-fest

19 notes - Posted June 11, 2022

#3

I am SOOO jealous of the economics students in my grade rn they only have two papers in group II and the rest of the science students and I have to write four because SOMEONE in CISCE decided that physics chemistry and biology are three papers of one subject

24 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

#2

BYE I JUST FOUND OUT THE INFINITE NOISE IS BASED ON A PODCAST HELLO GIRL THIS IS ALL I’M GOING TO LISTEN TO FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS

36 notes - Posted May 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

চিঠি (Letter)

A letter in Bangla, followed by its translation in English. For Day 7 of the Desi LGBT Fest 2022.

                                                                                                              ০৭/০৬/২০২২                                                                                                                      কলকাতা

হয়তো, যখন অবশেষে তুমি এই চিঠি খুলবে, তখন তোমার জীবন পুরো দমে চালু হয়ে গিয়ে থাকবে। হয়তো তুমি জোরটা পেয়েছ তোমার গল্পগুলো পৃথিবীকে খুলে দেখাতে পেরেছ; হয়তো তোমার মনের মধ্যে জাদুর, প্রেমের, আশার দুনিয়াগুলো কাগজের উপর, বা সাদা ডকিউমেন্টে প্রকাশ করেছ। বা, হয়তো, তুমি এই কলেজে ঢুকেছ, কে জানে, আই.আই.টি. দিল্লী যেমন তুমি চেয়েছিলে, বা ইয়েল, বিশ্বের ওই প্রান্তরে, আঠারো বছর পরে মা-বাবার থেকে ৮০০০ কিলোমিটার দূরে। তুমি কী পড়ছ? অথবা কী পড়েছ? অঙ্ক? নাকি ভাষাতত্ত্ব; একা একটা স্বপ্ন দেখে পরিবারের কথা না শুনে বেরিয়ে গেছ?

তুমি প্রচুর বাধার সাথে মুখামুখি হয়েছ। আরও বাধা আসবে; তা ছারা জীবনই বৃথা। তবে তুমি পারবে। আমার দৃঢ় বিশ্বাস তুমি পারবে। তুমি এতো কিছু ঝেলেছ − আমি জানি। আমি জানি যে তুমি ক্লান্ত হয়েছ, হচ্ছ, হবে। কিন্তু তোমাকে চলতেই হবে।

২০১৮। ৩৭৭ ধারা অসাংবিধানিক শাসিত হয়েছে। তুমি কাগজের উপরে বড়-বড় করে দেখছ লেখা আছে একটা ইংরেজি শব্দ − গে, গে, গে। এ কী জিনিস, তুমি ভাবছ। ইন্টারনেটে কোনও বাধা নেই। এই দেখো গে মানে কী − আর এবার তুমি ভাবতে শুরু করো, আমি গে নাকি? এভাবেই তুমি নিজেকে নিয়ে অনেক কিছু শিখেছ, আর এভাবেই, ভেবে-ভেবে, তুমি বোঝো, আমি সন্দেহ ছারা গে। 

আর আস্তে, আস্তে, তুমি এটাও বোঝো যে পাশে বন্ধু ছারা, এই যুদ্ধ জেতা যাবেনা।

তুমি আমার থেকে বয়সে বড়। তোমার নিশ্চয়ই বুদ্ধি বেশি, অনেক কিছু দেখেছ, কতজনকে চেনো এবং আলাপ করেছ তা তো অসঙ্খ্য। কিন্তু − তাদেরকে ভুলোনা যারা তোমার জীবনের সবচেয়ে কষ্টের মুহূর্তে তোমার পাশে ছিল। ওই তিনটে বন্ধু − হ্যাঁ, ওরা − ওদেরকে ছেরোনা। আমি জানিনা, সম্ভাবত তোমরা আর কথা বলোনা। তবুও ভুলে যেওনা। আর এটাও ভুলে যেওনা যে তুমি আলাদা। সারা পৃথিবী তোমাকে সন্দেহজনক মনে করে। তোমার আত্মিক পূর্বপুরুষরা তোমার অধিকারের জন্যে লড়েছে। তুমি ভারতীয়; তুমি সমকামী। তোমার নিজের আত্মা স্মৃতি ভর্তি। তুমি এই ধর্ম-পাগল দেশে বেঁচেছ, যদিও কখনও মনে হয়েছে তোমার নিঃশ্বাস যেন যে কোনও সময় বন্ধ হয়ে যাবে, কারণ চারই দিক, না, ছয় দিক, সামনে-পিছনে-ডান-বাম-উপর-নিচে থেকে তোমার দেশ তোমার শ্বাসরোধ করছে। তবুও, যদি তুমি এই চিঠি পড়ছ, তুমি আশা রেখেছ। নিজেকে দুর্বল মনে করোনা। তোমার পুরো জীবন তোমার সামনে আছে। শক্তি রাখো। তোমার যৌবনকাল প্রমান করে যে তোমার আছে।

ছেলেরা আসবে, যাবে, থাকবে, চলে যাবে। তুমি পড়েছ তো। নইলে এতোগুলো প্রেমের উপন্যাস পড়ার কী মানে ছিল? একটু তো সত্যতা আছে প্রত্যেকটি গল্পে। আমি আবার বলব: আমি জানিনা। কী জানি, হয়তো তোমার আছে একজন। একটা অসাধারণ ছেলে। রোজ দেখো তাকে, রোজ ভাবো তুমি ওর মতো একটা মানুষের যোগ্য হলে কিভাবে। আর ও যদি তোমাকে একই ভাবে আদর করে, এটা নিয়ে নিশ্চিন্ত হও যে ও তোমাকে এভাবেই দেখে। 

জানিনা, এই পত্র যখন খুলবে, তখন তুমি তোমার স্বপ্নের মতো বেঁচে উঠতে পেরেছ কি না। যাই হক না কেন − উঠে আসো; দাঁড়াও; বেরোও। অনেকজন তোমায় ভালোবাসে। তুমি কখনও একা থাকবেনা।

তোমার অপেক্ষা করা হচ্ছে। তুমি কিসের অপেক্ষা করছ?

− ইতি, অনেক বছর আগেকার তুমি

***

                                                                                                              07/06/2022                                                                                                                     Kolkata

Maybe, when you finally open this letter, your life will have started for real. Maybe you’ve found the courage to openly show the world your stories; maybe you’ve expressed the worlds of magic, love, hope in your mind on paper, or blank documents. Or, maybe, you’ve just entered college, who knows, IIT Delhi like you always wanted, or Yale, on the other side of the world, 8000 kilometers away from Ma and Baba after eighteen years. What are you studying? Or, what have you studied? Maths? Or linguistics; alone, following a dream, ignoring your family’s advice, have you set off?

You’ve faced many difficulties. More will come; life is pointless without them. But you can do it. I daresay you can do it. You’ve dealt with so much — I know. I know you were, are, will be tired. But you have to go on.

2018. Section 377 has just been ruled unconstitutional. You see one English word written in big letters in the headlines — gay, gay, gay. The Internet has no limits. Look, this is what gay means — and now you begin to wonder, am I gay? You’ve learnt so much about yourself this way, and just so, having thought much, you realize, I am, without doubt, gay.

And, slowly, you realize this too: that without friends, this war cannot be won.

You’re older than me. You’re definitely smarter, you’ve seen so much, and you know countless people and have met infinitely many. But — don’t forget those who were beside you in your life’s worst moments. Those three friends — yes, them — don’t leave them. I don’t know, maybe you don’t talk to them anymore. Still, don’t forget them. And don’t forget this, either: you’re different. The whole world suspects you. Your spiritual forefathers fought for your rights. You are Indian; you are homosexual. Your own soul is full of memories. You have survived this country of religious fanaticism, even though it has seemed, sometimes, that you will suffocate at any moment, because from all four directions, no, six, from front-back-left-right-up-down your country is choking you. If you are reading this letter, then you have kept up hope. Don’t consider yourself weak. Your whole life is in front of you. Have strength. Your youth proves that you possess it.

Boys will come, go, stay, leave. You’ve read about it. Otherwise, what was the point of all those romance novels? There’s definitely a grain of truth to every story. I will say again: I don’t know. Perhaps you already have someone. An extraordinary boy. You see him every day, and each day you think, how did you manage to deserve someone like him? And if he loves you as much as you love him, rest assured that he sees you the same way.

Who knows if, when you open this letter, you have managed to live as you always dreamt. In any case — rise; stand up; come out. You are loved by many. You will never be alone.

You are awaited — what are you waiting for?

Yours, From years in the past, you

***

@desi-lgbt-fest

53 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

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[lawain-dimensional-heroes]

Okay, so now that I have spent some time playing the newest Maplestory update, let me share my thoughts on this whole update:

Whoo boy, it's a BIGGIE! We've got 3 separate events happening at the same time-- with all 3 of them having (partly) to do with leveling up our characters, we've also got the revamped Angelic Buster as well as some quality of life differences.

First off, let me talk about Angelic Buster:

While there is undoubtedly some changes that disappointed me-- the redesign being one of them and changing the personalities of some of the characters to the point of being fairly different being another, I did end up playing this revamped class and I am glad to say that the "ruination" thing I said before didn't exactly happen.

Yes, Eskalade's antics got toned down and yes Tear is far less of a sassy funny girl and Velderoth even became more of a dick before the remaster, but I am glad that the story remains somewhat the same-- if anything it added a few more things and for me I am happy that the Idol side of things isn't playing as major of a role as I once feared. It still is present sure, but they still kept her as someone who is growing to become a hero.

And Eskalade-- while I do miss his somewhat bold and lowkey stupid comments at times, his voice actor made him very enjoyable and he in a way made the story fun for me. Not to mention he surprising sounds like he has a voice of a rizzlord or someone who would be a good radio host-- did I say that his voice is great?

Velderoth's voice actor also did a fantastic role. While I wish he could've sounded a bit more kind to Tear considering he's her friend, at the same time I feel like the voice matches what I feel like a jealous nova warrior knight/soldier would be like.

And one honorable mention for Kyle/Kaiser. While in his gameplay he still sounds surprisingly deep, in Angelic Buster's story he surprisingly sound younger, which I'm glad cause he now sounds like he's about Tear's and Velderoth's age instead of sounding like a 30 year old warrior.

But back to Angelic Buster-- specifically Gameplay wise.

I was concerned about the inclusion of the MP bar and how it may affect her gameplay as Angelic Buster was the only character who didn't use an MP bar. I'm glad to say that not only was the MP bar not an issue for me, but she got a buff too thanks to the remaster and a noticeable one compared to the pre-remaster. The hammer was sadly removed, but it wasn't doing much damage anyway. Mighty Mascot-- a skill that allows you to summon Eskalade as a pink dragon as an ally in the pre-remaster, now is just a skill that while it does summon him, is not a real summon skill. However what Mighty Mascot lost in summon time, it made up for in damage. And there's one other skill she has that got changed from a skill that stayed up for a few seconds to an insta damage skill that attacks every enemy on screen.

There's more I can say but it's safe to say that damage wise Angelic Buster got a good buff.

Now I did say there are three events and well, there's technically 4.

First off: the Angelic Buster event

All Angelic Busters can participate in the event where we have to defeat 1000 enemies around our level each day to get certain items like lil Eskalade as a pet, or a pegasus as a mount, etc. However, new Angelic Busters also get a level milestone box that has some extra goodies inside of it. EXP boosters and such to help make raising her easier.

Speaking of raising her, I want to talk about the next one: The Burning event

In this event you can allow yourself to mega burn or hyper burn the character of your choosing provided they're above lvl 10 and for Mega burn characters they have to be under lvl 140. Mega burning and Hyper burning your characters basically makes it so that with each time your character's leveling up, you'll get a bonus level up, treating one level up like two level ups. Do note that the event allows you to mega burn two characters, while hyper burn only applies to one character in your account. Hyper burning gives you some bonusses such as temporary gear that are enhanced and have the perfect stats that can be useful if you want to raise your character.

There's also another event that I do want to mention and that's Lucid's DREAMER event.

Basically an event where you can get event currencies by doing either doing minigames, grind enemies and grinding weekly bosses. So far I have not much to say about it, but what I can say is that you can get some pretty useful items from it, such as money bags, flames where you can reroll the main stats of your gear, mystical cubes that allow you to reroll potential stats of your gear, potential scrolls that allows your potentialless gear to have 2 potential stats, as well as potential stamps that will give you one extra potential stat to a 1 or 2 potential stat(s) gear. Basically, this event is very useful if you want to improve your gear but don't have the mesos or want to spend your mesos somewhere else instead.

And lastly there's the GO WEST event.

Honestly I barely know enough about this to make a proper summary of it, but so far it seems like it's an even where you can also get some extra items that may be useful for your account.

And that's about all I've noticed thus far.

It's a big update-- one I am surprisingly enjoying thus far!

[erinhime83]

I know, I’ve been slacking on these.  Technically, I’ve had these three down for a couple of months now,  but thanks to focusing on WfS, I neglected to finish them up and post them.  >.<  I’m doing three here so I can be caught up and not have one random one constantly floating around.

So this group rounds out the ‘main’ characters of the story, plus I suppose the main villain?  Well, whose supposed to be the main villain, anyway.  

So Connor is Connor, nothing too special about him.  I know when I originally created him, he really didn’t have much of a role beyond being Gabe’s other BFF.  But then I realized the group would be a trio, since of course Nova would befriend him as well.  I just feel bad because he’s not as featured in the first book, but I suppose I have the other two books to fix that.  ;P  But I like Connor, especially with his pseudo goth/punk look he has going on. 

I was originally going to have him wearing a black shirt with a colored hoodie, but I like this much better.  The boy tends to prefer blacks and greys, after all, because it matches his powers.  At least, that’s what he does now. 

I did change his uniform a bit, making it a shirt instead of a hoodie so he could sort of match Matrix?  Its not exact, but I could see the two of them collaboration to make matching uniforms when they were first starting out.  I like it a lot better, in any case.

Blake is another one of those characters that I thought was going to have a bigger role in the story, but ended up not as much thanks to the fact that he’s the leader of a different team.  Still, I like him.  His power is sort of weird for me to write into a fight, but his main purpose is the a strategist, not a fighter, if that makes sense.  He’s one of only two intelligent Bullheaded in the city, the other one being his father.

I had a bit of fun coming up with his civilian wear, figuring he’d be wearing loose collared shirts, or at least ones that could stretch.  I like his hoodie.  It’s the first time I used a diagonal stripe like that, and I’ve been using the idea one, like, everything else ever since, lol.

His normal uniform doesn’t change, since I had tweeked it at one point previously and still love it.  

Issy over there...well, I had expected to feature her real self at some point in Cataclysm, but never got around to it, which is a shame.  I like what I came up for her outfit.  It’s cute!  Hopefully, I’ll find a place for Nova to interact with Isabella, not Frostbite, because of...well, spoiler reasons.  ^^; 

I was playing around with the idea of giving her lavender hair, which I initially liked.  But going back to it to color the lines, I realized I liked the darker hair better.  And I don’t really have plans for powers to change people’s hair colors like that.  I mean, it would make sense and all, but...eh.  

I did tweek her uniform a bit, giving her more detail on her jacket and taking away the skirt thing, and...I love it.  She looks so badass!

So, these are pretty much all I have done at the moment, and hopefully I’ll do a couple more soon.  Sure, I have a couple of months still, but...I still have a lot of secondary/villain characters to get through.  >.<