#that movie made me come out of tumblr retirement

[frasier-crane-style]

The premise of this is the usual "how unfair that this aging actress is no longer considered a sex symbol" guff, which makes me think how odd it is that in every other industry, young people go "get out of the way, Boomers! You've made your money, now it's time to retire and let the new generation have a shot!"

But in Hollywood, people (read: Tumblr) will really go "yes, bring back Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy, why shouldn't the hot young seductress be eligible for AARP membership?" (And she wasn't even good in the role when she was young.)

And I know what you're going to say. How come there are movies where Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones and Michael Keaton plays Batman even though they're ninety years old? Yeah, those movies are stupid. We don't need to make those movies but for women, we need to stop making those movies at all.

I realize it's hard to find young action stars when every young actor is Tom Holland or Tom Holland-adjacent and thinks that the hippest thing they can do is dress like the gay member of the Village People at red carpets, but we can't just make twenty more John Wick movies. I'm sorry, I wish we could, we can't. We're going to have to watch movies with Bill Skarsgård in them.

[goddessofroyalty]

Keep Coming Back To You

Fandom: Marvel (Xmen)

Pairing: Magneto/Professor X

Tags: omegaverse, mating bites/bonds, sexually explicient content

Summary:

Despite spending most of their time on opposing sides everyone knows Magneto and Professor X still somehow maintain their mate-bond.

This is how.

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59648722https://archiveofourown.org/works/59648722

Authors Notes:

I had this idea that I shared on my tumblr about how Charles and Magneto spend most of their lives mated to each other despite mate-bonds fading if not maintained because every time they team up together no matter how short they rekindle their bond.

This idea should be done as a like 5 times fic from the POV of Xmen/Brotherhood. I however do not know enough about the Xmen characters to write that fic seeing I only watched the movies. If someone does know more about it and would like to write that fic you have my full support.

Instead I wrote two of the moments they rebounded from their POVs to show how it tends to go down.

Again my characterization is based on the movies. Because that’s the Xmen content I’ve consumed.

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

Magneto may only be intending to stay there until the attention on him dies down, but he still finds himself falling into his old habits while staying at the Xavier mansion.

Each morning he finds himself taking a run along the perimeter of the grounds, looking for any gaps or weakness in the defense as much as he is maintaining his fitness. He could try and tell himself he is cataloguing them for his own future uses but he’s already done what was needed to close the two of them he could and would accidently leave the notes he has made on the others behind when he leaves. If he truly needs access to the school and Charles not naively willing to just give it there are more direct routes he would take.

The days themselves are spent watching the various trainings and lessons that make up the curriculum of the school the place has become. He does abide by his agreement with Charles not to try and instruct any of the students or corrupt them to his cause. But the odd comment or suggestion said in passing could hardly be classed as instruction. And Charles has yet to claim he has overstepped any line.

At night, after dinner is had and the children retired to their rooms to sleep or study or play, he sits across from Charles in the study, chessboard between them.

There’s a part of him that doesn’t understand how Charles can live like this. Pretending that the facade of safety and normality the school represents is the whole reality of the situation. That it isn’t just a matter of time before the anger and violence that exists outside its walls finds its way in and that all their time hiding has just given their enemies time to better ready their arsenals.

There’s a part of him that understands it entirely. That cannot deny the reassuring reliability of the schedule built around safety. The prideful satisfaction of watching young mutants grow every day feeling supported and safe.

He knows how easily it could be snatched away. Will be snatched away one day if they do not go on the attack first. But the soft smile Charles gives him from across the chessboard makes him all the more determined to protect the refuge the omega carved out for their kind in the cruel world they live in.

“I was wondering,” Charles says as they finish up their game for the night, their glasses of scotch now nothing more than melted ice, “must you return to the guest room tonight?”

“I didn’t realize I had done anything to warrant me having to sleep in the barn,” Magneto says, because he knows it will make Charles blush and bite his lip.

When they were younger and less sure of themselves Charles would often bluster at any perceived refusals to his poorly-hidden advances, while now he only gains a soft flush to his cheeks. Not that Magneto is complaining that much – it is still an appealing look on the omega he had once had the privilege to truly call his.

“No, I would never do that to you,” Charles says as if it is not his favorite threat when the wounds between them are too fresh and the sanctuary given because of Charles’ personal creed and not any fondness for the alpha that had once been his closest ally with whom he had almost built a life with.

Charles laughs awkwardly as Magneto waits for him to find the words of the question they both knew was coming with Magneto staying under this roof. In doing so he bares his neck, revealing his scent gland and the pale scares of all the bites they had shared over the years already. Charles may not smell mated currently but surely those would be enough to deter any alpha from trying their luck.

“I was more thinking that, well, we are hardly strangers to each other and my bed is rather large,” Charles says as if his request is merely about the practicalities of it and not the inevitabilities between them. “Save the cleaners some work and all.”

“They would already have to clean the sheets seeing as I already slept on them.”

“Ah, quite right.” Charles doesn’t look the slightest bit ashamed about his ruse being seen through because really it is tokenistic at this point. “Still though.”

He lets the words hang and the silence surround them. Sitting there content to wait for an answer.

“I suppose it would be the most strategically sound place should anyone try and attack in the night,” Magneto says more to get a rise out of Charles than being serious. He isn’t entirely lying though – he will sleep better knowing that should any humans try and attack he will be there to protect what is most important to him.

 The fact Charles doesn’t rise to the bait despite the twitch of his lips that tells Magneto he has something he wants to say to it betrays how badly he wants the night to end in the way he has planned.

Magneto would be lying if he said he didn’t want it as well now that the offer and possibility are on the table.

“Shall we retire for the night then?” Charles says. His smile the one he gets after he’s placed a suggesting into someone’s mind – proud and satisfied with the cheeky edge of having done something he feels he shouldn’t.

There’s no telepathy involved here. And the suggestion not something Magneto would not otherwise want to do. They may not agree on the best way to ensure the safety of their people but the affection once shared between them a flame that has yet to fully extinguish no matter how far they find themselves from each other.

“If you are ready to.”

Magneto let’s Charles lead the way despite it hardly being an unfamiliar route to him.

Charles starts his usual routine when they get there. Not even asking for help getting into bed as he sometimes does as an excuse for Magneto to hold and carry him.

Magneto follows the cue and ready’s himself for bed as well. Sliding under the covers on the opposite side to where Charles settles in for the night. Perhaps this is all the omega wants – company in the huge bed in his ivory tower.

“I know I said my bed was large but I did not mean for you to put all of its space between us.”

Or perhaps it is something more that Charles wants this night.

Magneto slides across the bed and Charles settles against him. The all-too familiar weight pressed against Magneto’s chest and all-too familiar scent filling his nose.

It’s a nice scent. Charles always believed himself bland for an omega but it’s one of the nicest Magneto has found in his life. One that reminded him of simpler times and makes him wish theirs was a world where settling down was an option he could take without condemning them all to the human’s want to exterminate them.

Charles shuffles to press them closer again. A move that might be able to be passed off as innocent if the scent of satisfaction wasn’t right beneath Magneto’s nose.

Magneto responds with an action that may be a nuzzle against Charles’ neck or may just be him settling in for the night.

Charles lets out a breath that might be a huff of annoyance or just him relaxing for the night.

He stills when Magneto lets out a soft growl. But it isn’t fear that shoots through his scent.

“Oh Charles, have you spent so much of your time manipulating others to your will you have forgotten to be direct even in matters like this?” Magneto wraps an arm around Charles’ hips and waist so his hand can rest against the soft skin of the omega’s belly.

“Only you would think my behavior thus far has been anything but direct,” Charles says with a laugh, shifting his head around to look Magneto directly in the eyes. A playful mirth in them that is rare to find these days now he seems to live and breathe his role as the stalwart professor of all those within his walls.

“That is another matter I believe we must agree to disagree on,” Magneto says as he leans in to capture Charles’ lips. On this one matter he may admit that secretly he agrees with what Charles has said.  

“I suppose it is,” Charles says accepting the kiss easily.

It is, as far as kisses go, a rather lazy one. There is no need to rush in this moment – the night is still young and there is nothing in the morning past a return to the routine that has temporarily become their lives.

“I hope that is not all that is in store this evening,” Charles says when they break apart.

“What more would you have?” It is perhaps a dangerous question when he knows what Charles wants of him extends far past bedroom activities.

“All that you are willing to give.”

In a way those words are a mercy. There is so much Magneto is not willing to give despite his softness for the omega pressed against him. And while he knows Charles would be ecstatic if he was to relent on his position about how they should best respond to the threats against their people, the other has long accepted that it will never happen.

But right now he can give Charles this. Can recapture his lips in a more dominating kiss and run his hands over the well-learned parts of Charles body that makes the omega shudder and moan. Can kiss and kiss and kiss until Charles calls him a bloody tease and then sink his teeth into the familiar neck adding another future-scar to the collection so that even when they part again people will still know Charles’ is his and he is Charles’.

Right now they can lie there in the afterglow together. Charles’ scent sweet and satisfied and sex-heavy as he takes lungfuls of Magneto’s own. Both pretending for the moment that this could be their forever.

“Top marks as always,” Charles says once he’s come down from the high of orgasm and bond. Patting against Magneto’s chest the way one does a car they are particularly proud of.

“Did you just grade me at sex?” Magneto doesn’t know how, despite all the youthful playfulness and recklessness faded with age and wards, Charles’ horrid sense of humor managed to survive. 

“Perhaps I did, what are you going to do about- Hey! Don’t you go anywhere! Not after what we’ve just done.” Charles grip on Magneto tightens when the other moves with a threat to get up.

“I didn’t do anything you didn’t ask for,” Magneto reminds as he settles back into the bed he never truly intended to leave. Not with how rarely he gets nights like this – the threats of the world momentarily forgotten about in favor of enjoying the company of an omega as exceptional as Charles’ is.

“And I stopped asking for my bed-partner to be gone by the morning when I was in colleague,” Charles says. A tactic of his to get under Magneto’s skin, that somehow is still as effective as it was when he first discovered it.

“I suppose I can stay until then,” Magneto says, with another lazy kiss between them.

He will have to leave eventually. He cannot protect Charles and all he has built by staying in the peaceful illusion of the school. He must return to his cause to ensure the safety of all of their kind from those who wish to see them destroyed.

For now though he can cuddle with his omega in the warm bed at the heart of their community.

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

Charles hates when it comes to this. When the humans decide to rain hellfire down on them, bringing his school and their home once more to borderline rubble while they huddle in the basement licking their wounds and planning how to rebuild. Planning how to retaliate.

He hates how he can read some of his students wonder if maybe Magneto is right. Especially with how this time Magneto had come to warn them. Come to save them.

Hates the part of himself that wants to let the man he still thinks of as his alpha crush the threat to them under the weight of his powers. That stupid biological hindbrain that just knows how fantastic Magneto is at protecting their den and pups.

They are meant to be the next stage of evolution from humanity. And yet they still are cursed with instincts best suited from when they were cavemen.

“Fuck- Charles.” Magneto’s already bruising grip tightens on him. Crowds in closer in the tiny private room that on the blueprints is labeled an office, designed for where private discussions and planning can take place in the event they need to bunker in the basement. But they all damn well know its real purpose is to be a den and a nest when things go to shit like this. Somewhere that can be used for privacy for those of them who need to touch and feel their beloved in a way not suitable for the children to see in order to reassure themselves that in that moment they are both alive.

He knows of at least five students who mentally call it the fuck room, and can’t even bring himself to chastise them because it wouldn’t be an entirely incorrect description.

“Charles please,” Magneto says, his tone getting heavy with need and desperation. His hands moving from Charles’ arms to his legs and Charles’ doesn’t need feeling in them to know the grip is just as tight.

Charles sometimes wonders what their enemies would think if they saw them in these moments. The terrifying mutant terrorist Magneto kneeling before his omega and nuzzling against his chest in a desperate need to remind himself that the one he loves is okay. And he is truly desperate, it coming off him in waves that Charles does not need to read his mind to feel it as well.

Would that be enough to make them realize that really they are not all that different from one another?

“Charles I need-“ Magneto says, his fingertips grazing against Charles’ stomach as he tugs the shirt up just enough to find the gap between fabric where he can touch Charles’ skin. “Whatever happens next I need you to be mine again.”

Charles knows what happens next. They both do. It has happened so many times now it feels more like Déjà vu then reality – they will make it through, together, rebuild what has been lost and then when things are looking perfect Magneto will leave to return to his bloody crusade leaving their bond, both biological and emotional, to fade once more. And Charles, like a scorned housewife, left holding the children.

It is foolish to give in to their biology and instincts right now just because the threat feels so heavy bearing down on them. It is foolish when Charles knows Magneto will not stay this time just as he hasn’t any other. The momentary rush of confort and relief not worth the inevitable betray.

“Magneto-“ Charles fully intends to tell him no. To push him away and return back to what they had claimed to be the reason of going into the room together in the first place – plan how best to pool their resources and tactics to get them all out of it alive and in one piece.

Magneto looks up at him with a heavy needing gaze and the refusal dies on Charles’ tongue.

He knows how it will end. Knows it all too well. But he survived all those times and he cannot deny the part of him that needs this now as well. That primitive instinctual part that wants to reward the alpha for coming to protect them and try with the only thing he has to offer to keep him with them for when the threat returns.

Charles’ reaches out to touch Magneto’s cheek. The alpha following as he draws it back like it is attached with cement. One of Magneto’s knees coming to rest on Charles’ lap, hands holding on Charles’ waist as if to steady himself, as his head follows where it is led to the crook of Charles’ neck. A shiver going through Charles’ spine as breathe tickles against the gland there.

“Charles?” Magnet asks as if this isn’t exactly what he’s been begging for.

“Now is not the time for second guessing,” Charles tells him and the hands on his waist tighten.

“Of course,” Magneto says and Charles can’t help but wonder what atrocity he has also given permission for when they do leave the room to face the reality of the situation.

That is a problem for later. Right now his alpha is kissing along his neck and jaw. Purposely avoiding the gland Charles had given access and permission to as he had so many times before. Drawing it out because Magneto also knows that once his moment is over the clock will start to tick for them to return to being on opposite sides.

“Stunning,” Magneto calls him when his clever hands find the spots on Charles’ skin that makes him gasp and shudder. A deep rumble echoing through the small room as he nuzzles against the delicate, sensitive skin on Charles’ neck. “Always so magnificent.”

It’s silly how so few words can send a wash of pride through Charles’ body. Can strip away the years of exhaustion and wear and leave him feeling like when he was young and so terribly, dangerously, in love.

“Please.” It is Charles who is begging now. Desperate for the feeling of love and safety that only Magneto could give him. Not needing to be the one in control, the one who has his shit together, even if only for this stolen moment.

Magneto grants him the mercy of silencing him with a kiss.

The desperation in it has Charles wrapping his arms around Magneto. Whatever happens next is not for them to think about. Nor are the burdens they carry. For now they are both alive and with each other. Right now they are simply alpha and omega.

It is only after they break apart and Magneto returns his mouth’s attention to Charles’ neck does he feel comfortable loosening his grip. A hand slipping into Magneto’s pants. First for a cheeky grope at the frankly unfairly still well-toned arse before taking hold of a well-familiar cock.

The sound he’s rewarded with is deep and primal and nostalgic. Taking Charles back to a time before all the betrayals and hurts when it was the two of them working together to better the lives of all mutants.

For the moment he gives himself into it. Revels in how his alpha ruts up against him as his mouth makes its way over all the exposed flesh of Charles’ neck and jaw until finally, finally, he returns to where Charles had initially directed him. The initial pain of the bite gives way almost instantly to the pleasurable satisfaction of the claim.

Clarity comes while they are still panting.

They will need to change before they leave the room. While it will no doubt be obvious to all who have matured noses what has transpired they do not need to see the evidence of it on their clothes. The wipes on the desk should be sufficient to get the sticky spit from Charles’ skin until the threat hanging over them is gone and he can afford to take a shower.

He meets Magneto’s gaze where the other is staring at him not finding any of the now familiar distain or disappointment in them. Only possessive pride.

“I will never regret this,” Magnet tells him after they share one, final kiss. The alpha’s voice rough and heavy.

“Neither will I,” Charles says. But it will never change what they have become and the decisions they will always make.

Magneto rests his weight against Charles for another moment before drawing back and cleaning himself. Charles watching as the man gives way to the persona.

He can hardly judge seeing how he is doing the same thing.

They have borrowed as much time as they could to drop their persona and allow their instincts and needs rule them. Now they must be who the others need – the leaders and pillars of their community who are turned to for safety and guidance.

Charles wonders how long the truce will last this time.

[cultofcreatures]

My Top 15 Vaporwave Horror Movies

I thought I would put together a list of vaporwave/dreamcore/liminal aesthetic horror movies that I find to feel outside of time and space. That's sort of my vibe here on tumblr, and I also like the mantra of "if there's something you want to see that no one has made yet, make it yourself." These are films that I personally love, and the list not meant to be definitive. Remember also that art is subjective. I hope someone out there finds at least one film they want to add to their watchlist! It's been a minute since I've seen some of them, so let me know if I need to correct something.

15. Mandy (2018)

I wish I could add pictures for all of these entries, but I can still only add 10 pictures to a post blah. It's such a shame because I wanted to show off that gorgeous aesthetics of all these films. Oh well. This is a revenge flick about a cult kidnapping Nick Cage's girlfriend and him losing his marbles about it. Definitely recommend if you're the mood for vibes and/or Nick Cage NickCageing.

TW: violence, blood, fire

14. Come True (2020)

This is a haunting, fantastic vibes movie. It feels so otherworldly. It's about a homeless young person participating in a sleep study to be able to safely get some sleep. It would be an almost perfect film if it weren't for the just garbage ending. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, just skip the last 5 minutes, and take it for what the rest of the film is: beautiful.

13. Braid (2018)

This film follows a couple of young drug dealers on the run from their supplier crashing at a mentally unwell friend's house. The catch is they have to play along with their host's unhinged "game" while they hide out. Not gonna lie, this film is trippy af and definitely not for everyone. I can guarantee that no matter what, it is a ride.

TW: heavy drug use, blood

12. Perfect Blue (1997)

A pop star retires to become a full-time actor, which angers some of her fans. Her sense of reality becomes warped when one obsessive fan begins to stalk her. I don't love some of the turns this movie takes when it comes to mental health, but it's hard to deny this film is classic that has stunning animation.

TW: negative depictions of mental disorders, violence, blood

11. Skinamarink (2022)

This controversial found footage movie is sort of hard to describe because it's so otherworldly. Basically, two kids wake up one night to find their dad and all of their doors and windows are missing. Everything about this nostalgic yet terrifying film is vibes and aesthetic: liminal, vaporwave, voidcore, dreamcore, you name it. It feels like a fever dream, and it's a nightmarish journey you won't soon forget, for better or worse.

10. Vivarium (2019)

A couple are looking for a home to share. They follow a strange realtor to an even stranger labyrinthine neighborhood that seems to have no escape. If you're into liminal spaces, this film will definitely scratch that itch for you.

9. Revenge (2017)

This is a r*pe revenge tale that has absolutely beautiful scenery and cinematography. I love the sweeping liminal landscapes and vibrant vaporwave colors. It's a standard plot as far as the genre goes, but it's directed by a woman, so it has a different angle that I find to be superior to most films of the genre.

TW: violence, gore, SA, blood

8. Don't Worry Darling (2022)

A 1950s housewife begins to suspect that something about her utopian community is not what it seems. This film seems to be a bit controversial, too, for some reason. Whatever the case may be, I adore the liminality and dreamy feel of this film. You really get a sense that this world is outside of time and space.

7. It Follows (2014)

This film is straight up about a sexually transmitted curse. Jay sleeps with her boyfriend for the first time, and then finds out she must outpace this demon that can take the shape of anyone forever lest it kill her, or she must pass the curse on to someone else. The shots in this film are to die for. Especially for connoisseurs of the liminal, vaporwave, and dreamcore. Highly recommend for the visuals and music alone.

TW: gore, blood

6. House (1977)

Gorgeous decides to stay with her aunt to hopefully get closer with a group of six of her friends. The girls come to find her aunt's house is more than meets the eye. The visuals and absurdity are what make this movie. It's a classic for a reason.

TW: cartoon gore

5. Akira (1988)

Tetsuo gains psychic abilities via a secret military project and becomes mad with power. It's up to his friends and a small group of psychics to stop him. This is another classic anime. Its 1980s futuristic mentality really lends itself to the vaporwave atmosphere of the cityscape. I highly recommend this classic if you haven't seen it.

TW: violence, body horror

4. Censor (2021)

Enid is a serious film censor with a shrouded past that includes her long-missing sister. She watches a film that bears eerie resemblance to her vague childhood memories that begin to take hold of her as tries to piece them together. I don't think I'm totally clear on when this film takes place, which is what I love about it. It has a spooky surreal quality that will both draw you in and unsettle you.

TW: violence, blood

3. She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

Amy is convinced she is going to die tomorrow. Her friend Jane comes by to comfort her, and then becomes consumed by the thought she will die tomorrow as well. This film is as strange as it is beautiful. It will either leave you in tears or confused af or both.

TW: blood

2. The Neon Demon (2016)

Jesse is a very young, gifted model who is new in town (probably LA). She quickly signs with an agent and begins getting gigs, breeding the contempt of the established models around her. This is probably one of the most visually appealing films I've ever seen. The music is on point. The low key acting is a vibe. I just adore this film. 10/10, highly recommend.

TW: gore, blood

1. The Platform (2019)

A man wakes up in a prison that is an indescribable liminal pit where there are a seemingly never-ending number of levels. A platform full of food is lowered through each level once a day, and everyone on the lower levels must fight to survive. This film is just so utterly anticapitalist and gorgeous that I can't help but sing its praises. I think everyone should watch this movie at least once. It is horrifying yet eye-opening. Certainly one of my favorite films of all time.

TW: gore, violence, blood

Thank you for reading my list! Like I said, I wanted to make a list like this because I couldn't find one when I went looking. I hope you found something to add to your watchlist! I tried to include some of the big TWs for these movies, but they're far from complete lists. So please check websites like doesthedogdie.com for more complete TW lists if you have any concerns. Make decisions that are right for you. Thanks again, and have a happy and safe new year! xx

[crusherthedoctor]

As an IDW fan believe it or not, I do know how you feel, because I sometimes can’t even post funny quirky memes about my favorite idw characters without being told I’m a fake Sonic fan, there is nothing wrong with liking anything from Sonic that isn’t necessarily faithful to the games! If your friends are giving you a hard time for liking a movie they are not your friends! I’m sorry you have to deal with that.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I never thought the day would come where an IDW fan approached me with more consideration and basic decency than game fans. :P First time for everything, I guess.

For what it's worth, whenever someone's followed me and they have an IDW character as their avatar, I always feel bad because "yeah, you're probably not going to be following me for long lmao". Despite my endless layers of beef with the comic - which I should note is doubled by the fact that much like Prime, IDW is bizarrely treated as though it's canon to the game universe despite not actually being the case, which is very much not the situation with the movies and their fans, so that's an additional reason for why the changes in the movies bother me less by comparison - I don't go out of my way to take a piss on the fans who simply like it in their own space. It's always been the Flynn cultists (I don't use that word loosely: I held off on it for a long time because I didn't want to sound like a drama clickbait YouTuber, but with all their growing hijinks, I really struggle to think of a more accurate term for them now) that I have an legitimate issue with.

I already believed that the Sonic fandom (and Tumblr in general TBH) had a bad habit of jumping from one extreme to the other, never learning any valuable lessons all the while. Needless to say, this hasn't done much to dissuade that belief. It's actually one of the reasons why I had my 10 minute retirement period not so long ago: I didn't like how the fandom was shaping me, and I didn't like the way it was changing us. It's not a coincidence that during all this time, I've refused to advocate for intense gatekeeping, because while fandom tourists can certainly create undesirable and persistent complications, just look at Ian Flynn and the Encyclospeedia, that so-called solution is just way too disproportionate and overreaching for my personal comfort. I'm not going to say that I handle fandom affairs perfectly, I know I've made a mistake on occasion, but... I feel like nowadays, I'm being backed into a corner a lot more frequently between both sides of the equation. I don't know what I'm expected to do. I can be respectful, I can be sympathetic, but the one thing I can't do is mindlessly change how I feel about something artificially just so my stance is convenient enough for approval. And when you're always being talked down to like an idiot, no matter how many times you explain yourself, no matter how much leeway you give to them... well, maybe people were onto something about the hivemind accusations...

The worst part in the movie's case is that I knew going in that it was going to be a lose-lose scenario. Either I didn't like it, and thus I wouldn't be able to join in on other people's enjoyment, or I did like it, and thus I would become an enemy on sight for SA2 diehards, regardless of any nuance to my thoughts on it. I knew not everyone would like it, which is fine, but it seems the other way around is non-existent.

I don't know where I'm going with all of this, but tl;dr, I appreciate your understanding. :) I stand by my thoughts on influential adaptations that grind my gears, but outside of the aforementioned cultists and the obnoxious influence and behaviour of the Archie leftovers themselves (shout out to the Shadow scat edit), I'm trying to relax more otherwise, and I've been wondering if more folk could benefit from the same. If the guy who has to keep seeing headache-inducing Eggdad fanart everywhere can do it, anyone can.

[instantbreplay]

HELLO!

I HAVE A THEORY! And this is a theory regarding the newest character of Honkai: Star Rail, the rootin’ tootin’, flamboyant, brash, and trigger happy space cowboy of the Galaxy Rangers—Boothill! This will be posted on both Tumblr and AO3 for those who do not have either or for easier access! By the way, this theory contains mentions of leaks and in-game content, so if you don't want to get any spoilers, I advise not to read this theory at all.

For starters, I will admit that I haven’t played Honkai: Star Rail in a while due to…whatever reason I had, and one of those reasons was because of Twisted Wonderland! I was playing that for a while—still am—I was having a blast insulting Ace and having aneurysms over the students’ antics and methods of breaking people out (I’m lookin’ at you, Rook). It was great! Then, Star Rail showcases two new characters on their Twitter page for their newest planet known as Penacony, one of them being Boothill who a lot of people were upset with due to them wanting the characters, Sam and/or Firefly who unfortunately met her demise in the newest update, and…well, I fell head over heels for him and started saving for him (122 PULLS WITH 20 PITY BABY BUT HE’S MY FIRST FEATURED CHARACTER SO PRAY FOR ME). I kept up with leaks because I could care less about gameplay, stat kit, and character lore leaks since that’s the interesting part and helps me figure out if I want the newest character…like my Al-Haitham theory which did not age well, this theory about Boothill does stem from exhaustion from not sleeping, but I feel like this is a more coherent and sound theory than the last, and I have to say that I have to take this with a grain of salt—and I advise the same for you—because it’s merely a theory. I can be wrong on certain things, but without ado, I’ll start with what really feels like the backbone of this theory, and that is Boothill’s name: Boothill.

The Name

So, just to give a little context, prominently in Asian media—most notably Japanese and Chinese entertainment from what I’ve seen as I played HoYo games and watched a lot of anime—characters tend to have name pun which correspond with their personality, physical design, talents, etc., to give people a little laugh and be like, “Ooooh! I get what they mean!” For example, Zhongli, in HoYoverse’s most popular game, Genshin Impact, written as 钟离 in simplified Chinese, is a pun of his departure—his retirement—as Rex Lapis: 钟 Zhōng being a homophone for the word for “clock” as it’s spelled exactly the same, while 离 Lí is a common word for “leaving” or “away”. Putting it together, it can be taken as “time of departure/leaving” or “off the clock” which foreshadowed Zhongli stepping down as Archon of Liyue.

With that knowledge in mind, I looked at Boothill's name and decided to Google it because I knew it was a pun of some sort! My only thought was that his name could have been a reference to a western (cowboy) film I never heard of which, to me, made sense as Boothill is modeled after stereotypical cowboys, and HoYo loves pop culture references with the Genius Invokation TCG which is a reference to the ever-so-popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, and how March 7th and Caelus made a reference to the movie, Fight Club, when the Moles were talking about the first rule of Fight Club…never talk about Fight Club! So, I thought Boothill was a nod to an old movie!

…No! A lot of people have already Googled it, but for those who probably don’t know, Boothill’s name comes from a burial grounds for gunfighters—with headstones engraved with the gunfighter’s name or “unknown” if the identity of the person has not been found—in the Old American West called a Boot Hill, and that name derives from the phrase “those who died with their boots on”, meaning that the gunfighter died rather violently. I did see someone say that the phrase could also mean that they were hanged, and that part is correct as the context of the expression changed in the early 19th century. However, I don’t believe that Boothill was hanged—although it is a possibility that I will keep in mind! Again, I have to take this theory with a grain of salt so I don’t die on that hill again, but seeing Boothill’s situation that he’s metal and wires from the chin down, he most likely died in a very extreme battle in the past since the only thing human about him…is his head!

His body must have been blasted to oblivion to where it was beyond saving, beheading him from the impact of whatever and whoever killed him. Now, some people may think that they probably just beheaded him or he was shot multiple times in the chest: other possibilities I will keep in mind, but that would mean he could have resulted as some kind of Frankenstein instead because if the body was still there, the Interastral Peace Corporation or IPC (the people who rebuilt Boothill) would use that since he has things to salvage like a heart or liver, etc., yet if we look at another Star Rail character named Luka who hails from the Underworld, he is missing an arm which is replaced with a mechanical one. That is because Luka saved a child in a fire involving a monster possibly from the Fragmentum, and his arm was chopped off by the ax the monster wielded, giving him the prosthetic he has today. So, if we compare Luka to Boothill in terms of how bad the conflict in Boothill’s past was, Boothill lost too much of his body from the chin down for the IPC to even save, leaving him with a full body prosthetic.

The Light Cone

Now, the question that we have…why was Boothill killed? Who could’ve had such a grudge against him that they killed him off so violently? Well, that is where his Light Cone description comes in. Let’s focus on the middle of the description where it states:

“Some cruel memories resurfaced as the unforgettable hatred turned into a weak light in the darkness.”

The Light Cone entirely describes when Boothill was regaining consciousness and how he felt while briefly in a limbo before being greeted by a doctor in the IPC. What sticks out are these “cruel memories” and this “unforgettable hatred” that he has which calls back to what happened before he died. I’ll lead into this with another point I have to make this make sense a little bit: Boothill is a bounty hunter. Why do I think this? Well, we get a glimpse of this in-game in the newest update of Star Rail where Black Swan answers the phone to a mysterious Pathstrider of the Hunt who is part of the Galaxy Rangers (a gang who “swore to punish the wretched by any and all means”) who is tracking down Acheron, ready to kill her for reasons unknown as of right now: that was Boothill who has been confirmed to be a Pathstrider of the Hunt along with him being a Galaxy Ranger as he calls Acheron an “imposter” who is also a Galaxy Ranger, most likely hinting that Acheron is going undercover and infiltrating the group. We also know it is him from his line, “My bullets will find you”, since he is a gunslinger with a bullet motif on his hat and actual bullets around his waist and one hanging from his left ear.

Going back to the point I made, he’s obviously smart with pinpointing someone’s location such as Acheron’s and having at least some information on her like her being an Emanator. His Path, the Hunt, is said to “admire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behavior”, which fits Boothill’s Light Cone description as well as his possible reason for his alliance with the Galaxy Rangers and why his finger is ready to shoot Black Swan if she was an ally of Acheron stating to “get [her] forehead clean…and wait for [him]”. A bounty hunter would have to be ruthless with their target, showing little to no emotion as they are the person they are after, the person who wronged their client or the bounty hunter themselves, and it is obvious that Boothill is determined to gather any info from Black Swan to continue his hunt with Acheron.

Now, with that in mind…Boothill had to have been a bounty hunter in the past who was wronged as he had “cruel memories” returning to his mind, and he had anger in his heart that was weakening but helped him return to the living world. If I were to guess, he may have had a loved one who died at the hands of someone else and gained the skills to become a bounty hunter in his previous life to hunt that person down because he had “unforgettable hatred”, and that had to be at a level where he couldn’t let go especially if he had “cruel memories”, and those could probably be that he watched that same loved one get brutally tortured and/or murdered in front of him. As to who the loved one of Boothill could have been, it could have been anyone: his father, his mother, a sister, brother, a best friend—Unfortunately, we do not have the information to determine that for sure, but I truly believe that it could be someone he was very close to that was tortured and/or killed for, again, reasons unknown.

The IPC

From what we gathered in the leaks and what HoYo has already established, it was the IPC that brought Boothill back with unknown intentions, but to me for this theory, it’s because of his skills as a bounty hunter since he must have been the best hunter wherever he came from. However, Boothill has a new grudge against the IPC as the his reveal information stated that, “His flamboyant and brash actions were all to draw the attention of the Interastral Peace Corporation — the target of his revenge.” The man is very flamboyant as we can holler back to his Ultimate, his skill…the freaking JoJo poses—

—(somebody in HoYo is a JoJo fan—IT'S BECOME INCREDIBLY CLEAR NOW) so I can see him causing havoc and being flashy to purposely attract their attention so he can properly get his revenge on them due to them making him into a cyborg which he isn’t happy about.

However…if I go back to the Light Cone description…at the very end, it said that Boothill “would no longer live for himself.” Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Here he is greeted by the doctor that saved him, and he’s clenching his new iron fists (literally speaking) because he knows what the IPC’s intentions are. If he’s no longer living for himself, that doctor would most likely have a sadistic tone when he welcomed him back because they experimented on him, testing him and his new body and using him for unspeakable things against his will, and why do I believe this?

Think back to Boothill’s gameplay and the leak of his gun’s range. That could be a reason, and a way I can describe it is by using Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in the MARVEL franchise. In the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was believed to be killed during a fall off a hijacked train in WWII in an attack against HYDRA, a sub-Nazi group led by the Red Skull, Steve becoming devastated by his best friend’s death. However, in Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Bucky was actually brainwashed, gaining a prosthetic arm (like Luka), and became a Super Soldier under HYDRA as they experimented to revive Dr. Erskine’s research for the original Super Soldier serum. Plus, HYDRA knew of his friendship with Steven Rogers and that Steve was alive but was going to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. for their lies, making him a threat. So, they trained and used Bucky as their line of defense since he was the only successful experiment that remotely compares to Captain America in strength and combat.

Because of Boothill’s skills in gunslinging, the IPC possibly saw this as an opportunity to have an effective line of defense in case something were to happen in their facility or if there was someone they needed to eliminate; they would have Boothill who had those qualifications to be their guard dog, but hearing how Boothill talks in-game for the first time, you could hear a hint of insanity in him as he keeps insisting that he will kill Acheron and Black Swan with lines such as “My bullets will find you”, “you best find a casket store on Penacony, and ask the owner to reserve a good quality casket for you”, “I’ll leave a round for you, so get that forehead clean and wait for me”, and “Are you askin’ me to write your will?” He wants to kill anybody who hurts him, still having that anger. That must have been how he felt when he was trapped in the IPC facility, going through experiment after experiment that broke him to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore as he is still human; he still has emotions and a mind of his own despite being 90% iron and wires.

Boothill knew, from the sound of that doctor’s tone, that he would be seen as their Super Soldier, a little toy they could dispose of if he was deemed useless; he was nothing but a heartless, soulless object to them which most likely broke him. Boothill has calmed down since his possible escape from an IPC facility and killing people in order to have a successful breakout, but he still has that pain inside his heart because of the possible abuse he faced that he’s trying to protect himself from being betrayed or used again which is why he’s so expressive and flamboyant.

He wants to live for himself and show the IPC just how human he was. However, he’s still showing off how strong he is as a warning to others of what he can do to them if they ever crossed him.

Now, I cannot stress enough that this is just a theory (A GAAAAAME THEORY), and I have to take this with a grain of salt because there is still a lot we don't know about Boothill regarding his past or his relationship with the IPC. Heck, a friend of mine and I believe that Boothill may not actually be his real name, but there's no evidence of his real name to even prove that point. This is all speculation, and what I gathered and thought about using any resources I have at my disposal to produce this, so please—for the love of the QUEEN OF HEARTS HERSELF—do not take this as actual, confirmed, or leaked information on Boothill's backstory since there are many unanswered questions. For now, I'll stick to what I got until Boothill is finally released!

And hopefully not die on that hill like I did with Al-Haitham...

[wednesdayshadow]

Neils Tumblr answers led me to do this (part 3)

The wedding ceremony, if one could call it that, is being held at an indoor movie theatre that is currently showing Fertilize the Blaspheming Bombshell starring Bo Hopkins. They were able to close the theater as no one has come to see this film in quite some time even though the popcorn is made with just the right amount of butter and Sheila Caan is wearing a very skimpy bikini. Crowley is exquisite in his choice of wedding attire. High heeled snakeskin boots with gothic black feather shrug cape and parachute pants and he accessorizes well with his hair pulled back in a matching snakeskin stretchy headband adorned with multi-colored rhinestones. No one will ever call him disaster coded again! Sadie looks radiant in her pirate outfit complete with wooden peg leg and tri-cornered hat with veil. She has repeatedly refused to explain the peg leg. When it comes time for the vows the officiate, Roger The Postman, turns first to Crowley who says: “I, take you, to be my awful wedded wife, to have and to scold, from this day fast-forward for better but not worse, for richer, sans poorer, forget sickness only in health, to loathe and to cherish, till suspicious death do we part” Roger, then nods at Sadie who then recites hers: “I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health, until death do we part, or you turn into a zombie. Because then we’re going to have to start seeing other people.”. There are no rings to be exchanged as Sadie claims wedding rings are just trappings of the patriarch. So, instead, they do the Jiveshake. Crowley and Sadie then retire to the area behind the screen. They make love behind the screen while people dressed as rabbits bring them jam sandwiches. The aforementioned movie begins to play for the guests. As they get dressed, they exchange clothes, Crowley sees the pies that the rabbits left out and starts eating them. Suddenly, 3 large goats rush the area behind the screen and devour the groom while Sadie watches on in horror! Crowley’s last word is “pedometer”. Suddenly, in his place stands a very large aardvark. The aardvark surveys its surroundings and upon seeing Sadie says with great aplomb and a Scottish brogue, “Good day to you madame, my name is Arnold the Animated Aardvark pleased to meet you.” He then leaves the stunned bride to jump into the Bentley and drive away while The sounds of The Velvet Undergrounds “I’m Set Free” are blaring from the car speakers. Roger the postman glares at the retreating car and with a tilt of his head and a middle finger extended he exclaims, “Put a sock in it mate!”

[funkymbtifiction]

the end of an era

I wanted to thank you all, not only for all the notes of gratitude, encouragement, etc., in my inbox, but for being my faithful readers over the last ten years as I blundered around, answering asks, figuring things out on the fly, mistyping myself half a dozen times, and learning by “answering.” It’s been an incredible blessing for me to be part of your lives, and now, I hope, I have left behind enough of a resource, through my thousands of answered questions, my MBTI book, and my ongoing FunkyMBTI Blog, that you can be guided to your type and start the journey of self-development.

I want to say a few more things, but first, I’ll answer the burning questions that I know are going through your mind directly.

Does this mean no more character typings? No, it does not. I will continue updating FunkyMbti.com for the indefinite future, and those posts will automatically be ported over to this tumblr page, along with posts from Sixy Pixie (which I may expand to include general Enneagram posts/information/insights).

All it means is I am retiring from answering typing questions. I will still be active in various online communities, doing research, gathering information, and sharing it on my blogs. My interest in MBTI has waned since writing my book (which I consider the “achievement” of over a decade of work/research/learning), so the best way I know of is to move forward.

Does this mean I can’t request characters anymore? No, it does not. You can always contact me through FunkyMBTI.com’s contact page to make character requests. I have an ongoing list of characters people would like to see, and I hope to get around to most of them. (Such as, people want to see The OC, The Scream movies, and more Hollywood icons, such as Natalie Wood). I also have Sanditon, more Shadow and Bone typings, etc., coming.

How can I know about your Enneagram book and/or other books? Thank you for asking! You can either stay tuned here, since any announcement posts on my blog will update here, or you can join my mailing list to receive all my updates (of reviews, upcoming books, free book giveaways, and more).

Are you going to delete Funky on tumblr? No, it will stay up as long as tumblr survives, not only as a monument to my zillion hours of work, but to the thousands of people who braved the internet to ask me questions and allowed me to showcase my “Big Sister Energy.” Ha, ha. Seriously, though, I appreciate all the questions, comments, compliments, and submissions over the years, including the gigantic assortment of characters from shows/movies I may never watch.

What now? I will stock the queue for a few months and take time off, and then hopefully dig more into the Enneagram, since I think that has real potential to change people’s lives for the better.

Final Thoughts:

It seems fitting that I close “the end of an era” (as my ENFJ friend put it, when she heard about this) as I approach the end of a “decade” in my life, and a big “0” birthday. I can’t exactly recall how my journey started. I think I took one of those MBTI quizzes, shared by a friend on some social media website, got mistyped as an INTJ, and fell down a rabbit hole that took over my life for over a decade. I went through every possible type known to man (other than SP), and can now finally claim with authority to be an ENFP.

I made all the mistakes you are going to make, if you are just starting out on this journey of self-awareness – I listened to the wrong people, I took in the wrong information, I mistyped myself and others, I had to unlearn everything that made no sense, but along the way, I learned how to introspect and be present with myself. To pay attention to what I am doing, and why I am doing it, and that is the most valuable take-away from this experience. You can either go through life oblivious to your true self, or you can go through life friends with yourself, and aware of both your strengths and your weaknesses. I recommend the latter. It's hard but worth it.

Doing that for so long, getting used to being “wrong,” prepared me to read my first book on the Enneagram. And it changed my life. I knew I was a 6, that there was nothing “wrong” with me, that other people struggled with the same things I did. And my introspection started growing deeper. There were many ego battles along the way, denial of the aspects of 6 profiles that I didn’t want to admit to, followed by resignation and self-awareness (that I do that too, and it’s revolting!). But it’s a journey that I intend to walk on, for the rest of my life, and I’m glad to know these things. I wish I had known them sooner. I would have been a much better friend.

All of my current friends came to me through Funky. My friends in Sweden and Tennessee and Idaho and India and Philadelphia and Florida and Spain and Greece. I would not know them, had they not reached out to me, asked me a question, asked if we could e-mail, or helped me figure something out. Funky has been my “social” life for a decade. Some of them are still with me, even though one of them is not – Maddie, my beloved ENTP co mod, my zany, nutty, wild-hearted 793 “DJ” who could simultaneously make me laugh until I cried and drive me insane with frustration, passed away of a heart attack during the pandemic in 2021. One minute she was in my life, and the next she was gone forever. I never told you at the time, but it seems a fitting end to my time here, to pay homage to a friend I hope to meet one day “in person” in whatever comes after this. So Maddie, thank you for everything you put into this blog with me, thank you for the hours of fun and laughter, for the many hundreds of posts that will stand as a testament to your memory. I miss you. And I hope wherever you are, you are doing something crazy.

Thank you, dear reader, for coming with me on this journey. I know we shall meet again.

XOXO, Charity / ENFP Mod / Big Sister Energy

[popculturebuffet]

Superhero Wedding Special III: The Wedding of Wally West and Linda Park

Happy belated valentine's day all you happy people! And it's time once again for my favorite tradition on this blog: the superhero wedding special.

For those just joining us I love a good wedding "episode", wether it be a good tv wedding like Adventure Time or Community, a good wedding movie like Father of the Bride or a good old fashiond superhero wedding. And since there are both so many comic book weddings and so many I haven't covered, for the past three years i've let my patreons each pick one, picked one myself, then put all four in a poll for you fine folks to choose from. First year was a tie between Rogue and Gambit's stolen wedding and Aunt Man and Doc Ock's near marriage that ended in a nuclear explosion off the coast of Canada, and last year Hulking and Wiccan had a quick wedding via mid crossover flashback among friends, then had another celebration for the whole superhero community post crossover.

Both races were tight: one was a tie and last years eeked out a win against the Batman/Catwoman wedding fiasco. So this year was a bit diffrent. Not only did I use Tumblr's minty fresh new poll system.. but the results.. weren't even remotely close.

Yeah Wally and Linda won HALF of the 18 votes for this poll, beating out Emma's choice of Lex Luthor's Space wedding, Kev's roulette wheel choice of the recent Emma Frost Tony Stark Wedding, and Brotoman.exe's runner up Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. All good choices.. but it's clear what the people wanted. Ya'll REALLY love Wally West on here, love him even more with Linda and I wholeheartedly agree. While I didn't see this landslide coming, I'm pleased as punch it happened.

So before we introduce our couple, as is tradition let's track how we got to these nuptials.

Wally was in a weird place when he met Linda, both in and out of universe. In universe.. he'd been turned into a porcupine man somehow and was being hunted by Captain Cold during his stint as a bounty hunter.

Point is he met Linda as a newswoman. Out of universe Wally had a bit of a creative rough patch in the 80's. Wally started the 80's in one of the most influental and important books of the decade and one of it's best, The New Teen Titans. And he was easily.. the weakest member of the team.

See while his teamates were either fresh new characters Wolfman and Perez refined as they went (Starfire, Raven, Cyborg) or ones who had long since needed a new coat of paint and got a second act out of the deal (Dick Grayson, Donna Troy and Beast Boy), Wally.. was the odd man out. The team tried to make him the token conservative and a reluctant hero: one who knows he has a duty but is just.. tired of it and wants to retire. NOthing wrong with that, it can be a good angle. The problem is Wally spends the book either whining about not wanting to be a hero instead of just being honest with his friends, who have plenty of power without him, or declaring raven evil out of hand. And he does have a leg to stand on in not liking her, she made him love her. But instead of focusing on that he just assumes any time she looses control slightly she's evil now and stops carring about her because of something that, unlike the brainwashing thing, was entirely out oc her control. You can read more about all this here in this mammoth I did on the series.

The takeaway is that Wally sucked. Then Crisis on Infinite Earths Happened and Barry died heroically sacrifcing himself. Wally swore at the end of that series he wouldn't become the flash... but one year later with the next crossover Legends he did.

So Wally got his own brand new solo written by Mike Baron who reworked Wally's character.. and somehow made him MORE insufferable, making him into an egotisticla impulsive ladies man who cheated on his girlfriend, let his mother walk all over his new girlfriend, a married woman he was having an affair with. He also was a giant dick to Chunk, a neurotypical genius with black hole powers and planned to exploit him. He also won the lottery, a thing that sure did happen and sure was necessary and not a cheap gimmick no one asked for yes sir.

THe baron run.. was a mess. With Wolfman and perez I can at least see what they were going for and tha tit simply failed. Here I don't know what the fuck Baron was thinking.

Thankfully soon after William Messner Loebs took over, and while i've only read a smidgen of his run and wish more was collected, it's an instant improvment: Wally looses his fortune and becomes more of a relatable every man, the "you could have a beer with him" sort whose just at home at a hockey game as he is fighting snake themed terrorists.

So with Wally's new personality came a stable love intrest in Linda. Linda was just what Wally needed: someone who saw through all his bullshit, that all the swaggering and screwing around was compensating for the mountain of issues he refused ot work through.

Linda ended up seeing enough of Wally's good nature to start dating him casually, which lasted into the Mark Waid run, where the two were truly fleshed out as a couple.. and which i've read a solid chunk of. Mark Waid is seen as the man who truly made wally the flash and it's hard to argue that as Wally grew as a person bit by bit over the run. He was still impulsive, down to earth and quippy as fuck, but the overcompensation, horn doggery and assholishness were gone. He also gave wally his full backstory, and helped him finally get over comparisons to barry, making his speed limit that internalized imposter syndrome I mentiond: he was scared of replacing Barry.. but more scared of letting THIS BASTARD DO IT.... god I gotta cover the Return of Bary Allen sometime.

So through all this growth for Wally, he and linda grew as a couple: When Linda asked just how serious they were Wally balked, then got caught up on a flash thing... before speeding his way on a train to ask her to stay. The two have great chemistry: Linda likes Wally's fun nature, down to earth stylez and the fact he dosen't treat her like she's made of glass.. most of the time (Some incidents shook him up a bit), while Wally loves her no nonsense atittude, the only thing that often cuts thorugh his bullshit when he hyperfixates on his latest problem. She's his rock, he's her roll, and they need that ballance. She keeps him grounded.. and not just in the speed force, as discovering it nearly caused wally to loose himself.. but her love anchored him back.

So their marriage was inevitible and while I coudln't find the proposal issue, it's no suprise it happened: the two loved each other deeply and there's a reason they got so much love in this poll, and it's nice the two are back solidly as a couple with no signs of more ediotial fuckery making one of them not exist or forget the other or whatever.

So with that we're at the wedding. It came towards the end of Mark waid's run, right before Geoff Johns also super special awesome run, with Johns getting to define their married life more. It also begins a bit of a weird arc i'll talk about when we get to the end of the issue btu for now it's a blessed day for a blessed couple under the cut.

Since the wedding itself is supervillain free, we open with a big action set piece. Said set piece is excellent: Waid really knows how to write a flash story and sneakily choose villians who were key to Wally and Linda's history: Kobra

I had to and Mark waid had to know what he was doing introdcuing a snake themed terroist group. Kobra is a cult/terriorst group ran by Kobra with a K. They nearly destroyed Keystone City during the Terminal Velocity arc, with Wally forced to go as fast as he possibly could to save Linda, nearly loosing himself in the process. This is where the anchor thing happened. What I really like is the story.. dosen't bring this up. He just mentions he's "tussled with them" before, so newer readers don't have to get an info dump, but people who've been reading a while get the continuity nod.

It's a fun opener too as Wally zooms around, interogates a guy by shaking him real hard, and finds out Kobra's hiding at Broome Plaza, a nice nod to Wally co-creator John Broome. Kobra can teleport so he nopes out, but wally uses a neat trick: since he's faster than sound, he can catch up to what their saying.. and thus evacuate city hall before their bomb goes off. Said attack annoys wally a little but he's able to catch his marriage certificate. It's a good cold open that gives us some flash action.. and allows the rest of the issue to just be a simple plain clothes wedding.

Granted no wedding is simple and Wally reacts to hearing the cake may be off.. is to kidnap a chef from paris.

I.. I want to know how Wally knows this guy, and why he can just kidnap Pierre at a moment's notice. Did he kindap a random chef or do they have a history? Who was he fighting in paris? he WAS part of Justice League Europe for quite some time so it's plausable but dammit I want this story told Mark.

Linda rather than overreacting.. is greatful she has a soon to be husband whose so kind and considerate he'd run al lthe way to paris to kidnap her a baker. The two get down on the floor but before they can get doooowwnwnnn on the floor Linda's parents walk in. Thankfully their quickly distracted though Wally notices something's off: while Linda's had nothing resembling cold feet she freezes up a bit when Wally brushes off his parents, not even having checked if their coming. As you'll soon se he has every reason not to give a shit.

What he does give a shit about is Linda making Bart, aka impulse the ring bearer. Impulse was Wally's equilvent to kid flash and eventually his kid flash, before Wally became Wally's kid flash more recently. That wasn't a typo, there are two of them, it's not important to any of this.

For those less familiar with my boy, Bart is a hyperactive mess, having been raised in virtual reality simulation in the future and thus having trouble slowing down, not helped by being a speedster whose all but said to have ADHD. Wally's relationship with bart's a contrast to Barry's with him: While Barry was a fair mentor and the father Wally needed, Wally.. simply dosen't have the patience to actually train his young ward. Wally and Bart are too much alike, both impulsive, both running a mile a minute, and thus Bart was trained instead by Wally's own secondary mentor Max Mecury, a golden age speedster who has nothing BUT patience and when Max went into comic limbo, the almost as patent first flash Jay Garrick took the reigns. It's a detail I like as it not only set up Bart's own series well but makes sense: Wally can help Bart in small doses and dosen't abandon him, but simply can't handle the kid. It's telling that noawadays while he's taken a roll in mentoring his cousin, Wallace is both way calmer and Wally's matured enough from being a parent to actually handle being a mentor.

Thankfully Linda has patience for both of them and takes care of bart in a really clever way

Sadly the good times can't last and Wally's parents arrive and we see WHY he was so aphrensive about them showing up.

Yeah besides the .. questionable gifts, Waid does a godo job showing WHY he dosen't like them without getting into their histories: Wally's dad gives him a cheap gift and brings a date younger than his own son, and Wally's Mom's every action towards him is some veiled crticisim. Their awful and waid has never sugacoated that, and their constant baggering may explain New Teen Titans era wally in canon: Wally was less himself at the time because he was BADLY trying to be what they wanted and once he got the freedom of being the flash, he snapped back into being who he truly was.

Wally gets them to go away by playing "LOOK A RELATIVE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THEIR INHERTIANCE" and linda tenses up again, not getting at WHY she keeps doing that. Wally is quickly distracted by this hair crime

Oh all the ways i'm going to have fun with this. Okay for starters Dick, your the son of the world's greatest detective. Bruce has taught you better wig game than that and you damn well know it. 80's metal hair is not Nightwing level disguise work Richard.

Second... how is the "Theodore Logan" look less conspcious than the adopted son of a millionare being friends with a public figure?

Third: All this is going to do is have papparzi asking "Whose Wally West's Best Man?". Does Dick have a cover identity all set up for this or did he only think of this plan the 5 minutes it took to buy a "babies first winger costume" wig.

Fourth: right after the rest of the titans show up, and Donna herself is a public figure, having taken pictures of starfire and being a high profile fashion photographer, Roy himself is ward of a billionare and Garth has no secret identity. how is "bruce wayne's son" any less conspcious.

And fifth WHY of all the wigs did he choose a perm that resembles their teammate jericho they watched get stabbed in front of them not a year ago probably in universe. Maybe two.

To my shock by the end Joey was apparently fronting whitesnake so what the hell dick. Why remind all your many friends present "oh yeah remember our friend who got stabbed in the chest in front of us".

So the rest of the titans arrive and somehow don't razz Dick for this hair crime, though even through that perm dick can sense somethin'gs off with linda. We get mor ehints why as Wally dosen't intorduce the titans to his family: Linda was the one to invite them and while he's glad they came he's not really.. close to any of them. The people he is make a bit more of an intrance, as the JLA arrive, with Superman worried about paparazzi. I mean dick will never live down that perm if they see it.

Wally kept the location on the DL.. which won't really stop paparazzi , even 90's paparazzi, and just makes Dick's hair somehow more rediculous. Any more and it'll become a force unto itself.

Thankfully more of Wally's REAL family shows up: Iris. for those wondering why this is a big deal at the time Iris was living in the future: she's from the 30th century, it's a long story, point is she stayed there after Barry's death both to raise her kids and to avoid spoiling the future. Ironically she'd come back full time during the next run as the future changed enough she had no idea what to expect, but for now Wally's worried she'll give her dad a heart attack.. only for her to explain she already went and saw her dad and explained stuff. Family is important.

This finally snaps Linda's bugging into focus for Wally: family. Wally's been icing his out and THAT'S what linda keeps being nervous about. So , not supposed to see the bride be dammned, he goes to iron this out in a beautiful scene that both explains WHY he's like this to his family, something we've clearly seen, and why Linda's in no danger

IT's really well done, and I like that Wally acknowledges his extended family.. did nothing wrong. He was just so determined to keep his parents away he accidently kept them away too and geninely wants to work on it. I don't think he DOES, but the comic both changes gears then changes writers after this, and I can't blame Geoff for not following up on this. He was never scared of her.. he just has bad parents.

I also like that the comic has the aseop that it's ENTIRELY okay Wally wants to push his parents away and wants nothing to do with them. There are far too many bits of media that ar elike "Oh your birth family is important, you shouldn't pusht hem away. Your parents mean something".. but forget that sometimes parents are abusive shit stains. I was lucky to get a wonderful mom and a dad I can at least talk to, but not everyone has a good relationship with their parents or wants to be around them. WE've seen how little they actually care about wally or his big day, and how much having them there throws him off. Yet we've also subtly seen.. wally HAS family. He's found family with the titans, with the League. You don't need blood to be a family. You just need love, to respect one another and to be there.. and Wally and LInda have that.

So it's time for the ceremony with the wedding party apparently only consisting of Beavis, Jesse Quick (Close ally of Wally's and fellow speedster) and Bart. It's then Wally realizes something and handles it like the responsible about to be married man he is.

Yeah the fastest man alive, who was hovering over his wife as she planned this ceremony... forgot his vows. it's so wally it hurts and i'm here for it. Thankfully he's the fastest man alive and after thinking back on their history, the good, the bad, and how she's always made him feel... he simply says his vows from the gut, which really is again the most wally west thing imaginable and i'm still here for it.

It's a beautiful speech that sums up their relationship, what they mean..and is also something Wally REALLY shoudl've thought through. You'd think after a decade as a superhero, at least he'd know not to tempt fate as suddenly.. Linda dosen't exisit. Wally finds something with her name, asks dick about it, Dick assumes wally horny Richard, and Dick dosen't even question the haunted wig in his apartment. Linda is trapped and yeah that's how the issue ends.

Yeah, the big milestone wedding.. ends with a fucking kidnapping and leads into an arc I haven't gotten to. And look i'll do a LOT for reasearch, I just covered 20 some issues of Transformers Robots in Disguise so I could cover the crossover with More than Meets the Eye next month, entirely so i'd do it right.. but even i'm not so through that i'd read 18 issues of the flash in an arc i'm eh about reading some day but will probably get to complete the mark waid run for a one and a half issue review.

So the short version of what you missed: Wally disappeared into time and space without LInda to anchor him. Replacing him was Wallace West, an angsty wally from another timeline who replaced him for a while, a storyline I mostly know about because it leaked into JLA for a bit, with Wally revealing his identity to a few people to get their trust. Wallace was the darker and edgier flash no one asked for, fought crime, fell in love... and then Wally came back and rescued LInda, who it turned out had been kidnapped by his old nemisis Abra Kadabra, a magician from the 60th century who as you can tell by how elaborate and dickish this plot is, has a flair for both trying to ruin wally's life and the dramatic. Hilaroiusly, as I read, Wally gets him to undo it.. by pointing out no one knew what he did. So Wallace was supposed to go back and go back miserable because fuck him for wanting to be happy I guess. Can you kinda.. see why I have no real intrest in this storyline outside of Wally and LInda? Maybe pick that up?

So for expediency's sake and to give us a better ending we WILL be covering the flash #159.. but just the wally and linda parts as we don't really need Wallace's dramatic exit.

We do start on it though as the League demands he go home and can't take his girlfriend with him. He picked up a girlfriend it's a thing. Superman is being an uncharactristic super ass while Wally is being less than helpful.. albeit given Wallace DIN'T have his memories of Linda erased and could've been helping them, I can't say I blam ehim.

So once Wallace leaves to have one last good day, Bart, having the tact of a tornado on roller skates, asks when the wedding resumes. Wally decides right the fuck now and speeds into actoin to get everything: catering, her parents farmhouse ready again, the lisence.

Wally spends the day even more hyperactive than usual... which is somehow indeed possible. The superheroes around Linda assure her it's fine, with Donna being the only one to make sure things haven't changed. Linda still LOVES wally.. but she can see something's wrong. And unlike with her on the previous wedding day, Wally's FAR less subtle about it so I don't know why no one else is like "okay maybe we shoudl check on him.

We get to the wedding itself.. and Linda holds it, not wanting to Marry wally while he's having what's clearly a barely supressed emotoinal breakdown.

I love this because it really.. boils down their dynamic: Linda loves wally, who he is and dosen't doubt that for a second.. but she's also 9/10 the one who pulls his head out of his ass. Wally's a good guy, we've seen it here.. but he acts first asks later, and LInda's one the remind him that you have to slow down every once in a while and have a conversation. Also yeah, between Dick's wig and Clark's super pope hat he's bummed he didn't get to wear to this because you bastards didn't ask him to officiate, they've seen weirder.

Wally agrees, yeah that's it. He saw a version of himself who went down a dark path.. and really wasn't THAT diffrent. All it took was loosing linda, which is WHY Walter is an edgelord for the record. Linda.. isn't amused, especially since Wally implies part of this is to widen the gap between them. Wally's friends are.. less than sympathetic. Well okay Roy is. It's just roy actually, Max is worried and Jay knows they just need to work it out and will. But roy well..

That is both a perfect exchange for those two.. and entirely why Roy isn't invited to weddings that much. I only think he got into this one as Donna's +1.

Wally however.. assures her that's not the case and once again gets a fantastic speech in

It's a heartfelt speech and get's linda to just.. skip to the i dos, the two kiss and one of the most solid marriages in all of comcis begins. It's a beautiful speech.

As for the issues themselves.. their okay. Yeah for such a great couple and with so many great moments, the first issue feels a bit short, like we needed more time for the wedding and the whole stupid kidnapping plot means we get cheated out of a reception, which as we've seen from both Rogue and Gambit and Teddy and Billy's nuptial's, is often some of the best stuff, allowing a bunch of characters to bounce off each other. Instead since the circumstances are dire after the intital wedding and dire right before the makeup, with our heroes recovering for it, we don't really get to have FUN with this. There's good moments, but these weddings are a bit of a disapointment and I don't know what Mark Waid or Ediotiral was thinking with this. It's still JUST good enough to not be a complete waste of your time, I recommend at least 142, but it still coudl've been SO much better and it's a shame this is the first wedding for this feature I just. .haven't been that jazzed about. I wanted to like it. the art for the first issue does not help, being all kinds of rediuclous and giving us the enternal shame that is Dick Grayson's perm.

So where did Wally and LInda go from here? Well honestly.. marital bliss at first. As I said Geoff Johns run, a brilliant followup to what Mark Waid did that brought back the Rogues after Waid wrote them out and redefined Captain Cold, follows them as newlyweds: they deal with space, moving, and LInda going back to college for a subplot that ultimately goes nowhere outside of one kidnapping by a prince from another dimension. Story for another time.

The two were solid for the most part and even had an unexpected suprise: TWINS. The two were happy to start their family... but unfortuantely Wally's freshly minted new arch enemy Zoom undid the babies out of his warped thinking tragedy makes better heroes. Which it often does, but feels like a critqiue on piling on tragedy because "that's what sueprheroes are". Granted Geoff Johns isn't innocent of this, but it's still a good lesson.

Afterwards Hal Jordan wiped everyone's memories of wally's identity and after re learning it Linda disappeared before coming back, the babies were restored, and the two had a happy marriage again with kids till infinite crisis. Then wally was put through the SHIT for nigh on a decade until a recent return, a wonderful run you should check out by Jeremey Whitley and a sci fi run I haven't that sounds neat by by my Boy Simon Spurrier. The two aren't without conflict. .but they have a love and understanding that makes them get past it. Wally and Linda have a beautiful relationship and I can't wait to see them again on this blog some day.

For now thanks for reading.

[the-scarlet-witch-22]

The Darkhold Sonata (Agatha Harkness x Wanda Maximoff)

Word Count: 2.9K

Summary: Legendary film composer Agatha Harkness is given a new challenge when she’s asked to help Wanda Maximoff with the score for Stephen Strange’s newest movie.

A/N: Hi tumblr friends, I’m back with a new story! This was inspired by The Batman soundtrack, I love Michael Giacchino, and I think the overall ‘vibe’ is very Agatha coded. I’ve included the link to one of the songs that this story is based off of :) Anyways, I am not a composer or pianist so please keep that in mind while reading, but I hope y’all enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts and as always my DM’s and asks are always open for questions! Oh, and if you would like to be added to the tag list please lemme know :)

The sound of thunderous applause roared throughout the packed Hollywood Bowl as Agatha took her final bow. Although she had been apprehensive at first of the LA Symphony’s idea of a “Maestra of the Movies” concert, she wasn’t displeased with the outcome. The concert sold out within hours, as many anxiously awaited the chance to hear some of her greatest compositions performed live. It was a fascinating experience, conducting her life’s work all at once; while she stood by every decision she ever made, it was interesting to watch her work progress over the years. From Academy Award winning scores to Grammy nominated soundtracks, Agatha Harkness knew she was the most decorated film composer the world had seen in decades.

Coming off her fifth Oscar win, Agatha made the difficult decision to take the next year off. There was a project she had waited years to start, and it would be near impossible to finish with some insipid director throwing deadlines at her. Exiting the stage, Agatha skillfully dodged members of the press who were hoping to get a quote, and she almost winced upon hearing the word ‘retirement.’ As her eyes scanned the crowd gathering backstage, she spotted the one individual who knew what she was working on. Stephen Strange. She figured he would be in attendance this evening. After all, most of the themes played were composed for his films.

Stephen Strange was one of the few directors Agatha could tolerate working with- even though he had an ego almost as big as her’s, they seemed to balance each other out. While most directors expected the score to fit the script, Stephen would always take Agatha’s opinions into consideration; although Agatha would usually bite the head off any director who tried to give a suggestion on what could be added to her music, Stephen gave constructive feedback that she could tolerate. They worked well together, and they had worked almost exclusively together for the past decade on various projects. It was also no secret that Stephen was struggling to find a new composer for his latest film, with Agatha taking her long sought hiatus.

“Strange,” Agatha greeted the director. “I didn’t realize you were coming.“

“And miss hearing the scores for most of my movies?” Stephen countered as a small smirk formed on his face.

Agatha rolled her eyes. “I believe you mean hearing the music that was accompanied by your homemade videos.”

Stephen laughed, shaking his head at the jab. “It’s good to see you, Agatha. Although, I’m surprised you agreed to this.” He motioned to the large crowd. “This doesn’t seem like your scene.”

Agatha frowned at the number of people that were accumulating. She had always been a private person, and tried to avoid the public eye as much as possible, a fact that Stephen knew well. “It’s not, but this is my life’s work. I couldn’t just trust someone else with it.”

“Not that you trust anyone with anything,” Stephen quipped, and Agatha sighed.

“Yes, yes, very funny. Now I’m assuming you didn’t drive all the way over here to just mock me, hm?” Agatha questioned, before adding. “It is rather presumptuous of me to assume you drove at all. Did you take the private jet again? God forbid you sit in an hour of traffic like the rest of us mere peasants.”

“You really don’t get nearly enough credit for your wit,” Stephen commented lightly, and Agatha noted how he was avoiding her question of why he was here. “But then again, you do spend most of your time locked away with only your piano to keep you company.”

“Yet I still have one more Academy Award than you,” Agatha fired out, as she motioned for the director to follow her to her dressing room. “Perhaps you should reconsider those month-long vacations in Europe.”

Upon reaching her dressing room, Agatha all but slammed the door shut. “Why are you really here?”

Stephen took a seat in an empty armchair before replying. “Agatha, you’re the most successful composer in the industry. You know I’ve enjoyed our time working together over the years.”

Stephen was right, Agatha had worked with him for a long time. They had their fair share of victories, with almost every recent project resulting in an Academy Award win. That was why Agatha knew he wanted something. She had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. It wasn’t a surprise, everyone in Hollywood was always looking for favors. She could list off the number of directors and actors who had tried to convince her to give their children piano or composition lessons. But what could Stephen possibly want? He knew Agatha was taking the year to work on an independent project, and he knew better than to push her; it never ended well for those who tried.

Agatha took a seat across from the director, folding her hands in her lap. “And you know I don’t need, or want, your help to inflate my ego. What do you want, Strange?”

“I found a composer for the film,” Stephen explained, pulling a folder out of his bag, sliding it across the table. “She has a similar style to you, actually, which is why I chose her. I’m sure you’ve heard of her, she’s become quite popular in Europe. Here’s what she wrote for the main character’s theme.”

Opening the folder, Agatha’s eyes scanned the score and she scowled when she saw it. Wanda Maximoff. Of course. Agatha had heard plenty of the Sokovian composer, and she wasn’t impressed. She was a newer composer on the scene, but she had become rather well established over the past five years. Though Wanda seemed to grasp the most basic composition skills, Agatha felt that she always fell flat in comparison to the work of other film composers. “Why are you showing me this, Stephen? We both know I’m not working on this film.”

“We’ve known each other for a long time, Agatha,” Stephen stated, and in the many years Agatha had been acquainted with the director this had to be the first time he appeared to be nervous. “And you know I wouldn’t be coming to you if I thought I had other options.”

“Spit it out,” Agatha practically growled, her patience wearing down. She needed a drink.

“Wanda is gifted, and I have no doubt that she’s going to excel at this. But I chose this project with you in mind,” Stephen continued, and Agatha attempted to envision where he was going with this. “I was hoping you would consider looking over her progress with the score, to make sure she’s on the right track? This film has the potential to make it all the way through awards season, and this could be monumental for me.”

Agatha took a moment to consider his request before repeating her earlier words. “But I’m not working on the film, how does this benefit me? What, I help this Sokovian princess compose a breathtaking score and she gets all the credit?”

“Wanda has the potential to be a fresh talent in Hollywood,” Stephen pointed out. “If she succeeds, and everyone knows you were backing her, well that certainly wouldn’t hurt your reputation, right?”

“I don’t need a pat on the back from anyone, and I’m not grooming her. Find someone else. Maybe Stark or one of his lackeys.”

“Agatha,” Stephen rubbed his temple, and Agatha could tell he was growing tired of this argument. “I’m coming to you as a friend. I’m asking you, as my friend, to help me. Please, will you work with Wanda on the score?”

It wasn’t like Stephen to ask anyone for help, and Agatha knew he was serious about the potentially astounding success this movie held. Although Agatha would never, ever, admit it out loud, Stephen was one of the few people in this industry whom she trusted; he was her friend.

Sighing, Agatha finally nodded. “Fine. Send her to my studio on Monday morning. I’ll look over the score then.”

Before Stephen could get another word in she added. “And you’re buying me a drink. Let’s go.”

That Monday morning Agatha entered her private studio with a large cup of coffee- she had had a small studio built on her property a few years ago, and she personally thought it was one of the best decisions she ever made. The studio was well lit, with lots of windows and light shining in, framing the grand piano in the main room, where Agatha did most of her writing. The walls were lined with her awards, an almost overwhelming amount at this point. She had a small kitchen installed as well, for the days where she was so focused on a project and didn’t want to walk back to the house. Finishing her coffee, she sat at the piano and decided to get to work until Wanda showed up.

The only time Agatha felt at peace was when she was composing music. She always had dozens of themes and melodies floating around her head, playing on a loop, and the only way to get them out was by sitting at the piano and figuring out how to construct them. While a lot of the newer composers preferred online software, Agatha swore by doing everything by hand. It was the only right way to do it, as she didn’t believe it to be possible to feel the music if you were doing it through a screen. Composing had always come naturally to Agatha, and she never had any difficulty finishing a project, except for the one she was currently trying to work through.

The staff paper was nearly blank, as it had remained for almost a decade. It was untitled, and besides the key signature scribbled in her messy scrawl, the only writing was a short phrase that came to her in a dream. Every time she tried to add on to it, to continue the phrase or begin a new one, she was unable to. She was stuck, and it was a complicated puzzle she was intent on solving. Usually when she had difficulties writing for a film, she would watch over the scene and take notes, all while the various themes began to form in her brain. That was easy. But she had never experienced this mental block before.

Checking the time on her Cartier watch, Agatha shook her head at how late Wanda was before focusing her attention on her music. Attempting to find some inspiration, she began playing various riffs and chords on the piano in the key of B-flat minor. Composing was a lot like telling a story, and each part held equal importance. The introduction had to lure the audience in, and be captivating enough to make them want more. However, it was essential to not show all of your cards at once. Throughout the middle it was important to maintain a constant pulse, for falling off rhythm would be both distressing to the musicians reading the music, as well as potentially derailing the entire film. The ending was arguably the most difficult- wrapping things up in a way that made it cohesive was never easy. On top of that, it was fundamental to incorporate the main themes heard throughout the score, all while making sure it fit the director’s vision.

When Agatha thought of the composers who inspired her work, there were a few that immediately came to mind. There was Mahler, of course. The way he wrote his symphonies made it feel as if the music he was writing was coming to life off the page. Tchaikovsky made Agatha think of beautiful, soaring melodies that left an audience teary eyed. His works brought out the deepest emotions in both the performer and listener. Then there was Shostakovich. His abrupt contrasts in his music, and darker themes were intoxicating. There were others, of course. Holst, Sibelius, Beethoven, and at least a dozen others that Agatha studied over the years. But there was something special about the former three, something that resonated with Agatha.

Taking a deep breath, the composer closed her eyes as her fingers moved over the keys. Visualizing the notes, she tried to channel what she was feeling. Normally, Agatha was by no means an overly emotional person; she saved it all for her compositions, whose intensity she was renowned for. To her, it was crucial that no matter the level of musical expertise the audience held,that they were able to be overcome with whatever emotion Agatha wanted them to feel. That was the power of music. Even in a huge blockbuster filled with adventure and wonder, one of the shining features should be the tantalizing orchestral melodies, or the blaring trumpet solo.

As her fingers hit the keys, Agatha fell into the rhythm of the slow melody. The untitled piece was currently in a compound meter, labeled as a 6/8 time signature. That put an emphasis on the feeling of two big beats, so as she began her lethargic triplets, she was silently counting them to stay steady. The main melodic line was a phrase that Agatha played in a dream. It was full of hope and longing, and seemed to slowly lead further and further until it disappeared. The other times she had attempted to add on to it were futile, until today. Today she knew how to build onto the existing phrase, and lead into the next. Just as she was able to fully envision where she wanted to go, there was a knock on the door.

Of course. Huffing at the interruption, Agatha scrapped the piano bench across the wooden floor, yanking the door to her studio open. There in front of her stood an annoyed looking Wanda Maximoff. About time she showed up. The Sokovian composer’s messy auburn hair was pulled back, and she was dressed comfortably in jeans and a sweater. For the briefest of moments Agatha was stunned at how pretty she was. Wanda had a deep frown on her face, and her eyes kept darting back and forth as if she was annoyed with being there.

“You’re late,” Agatha said in lieu of a greeting, holding her arm out in invitation for Wanda to enter.

“You never gave Stephen a time,” Wanda corrected her, and Agatha frowned as the younger woman brushed past her. “Should we get this over with?”

Agatha was stunned at her tone, what exactly was Wanda annoyed by? She should be thrilled that Agatha wanted to work with her at all, as Agatha could think of a dozen other things she’d rather be doing. Leading the redhead through her quaint studio, she took a seat at the table. Wanda followed suit, and set her leather work bag down next to her. Agatha assumed the polite hostess greeting would be to offer Wanda a drink, but the composer saw no point in that. She was the one who wanted to get this over with, not Wanda.

“Stephen mentioned you finished the main character’s theme,” Agatha said conversationally, trying to keep her tone as polite as possible.

Wanda gave a small nod. “He said you looked at it over the weekend.”

Despite only being in Wanda’s presence for a few minutes, Agatha was beginning to get the feeling that the woman was about as thrilled as she was to be in this situation. “I glanced at it, and it was good. Perhaps I could take a look at the rest of it?”

Wanda opened her bag and pulled out her laptop, and Agatha grimaced. Of course she was using her computer. Wanda noticed the frown, and looked up at her. “Is something the matter?“

“No, no,” Agatha replied, thinking of the multiple favors Stephen Strange was going to owe her after this. “Carry on.”

After taking a few moments to get her score pulled up, Wanda slid the laptop across the table for Agatha to grab it. The composer took one look at the score and frowned again. She read it slowly, looking over each measure Wanda had completed, all the while making mental notes for things she would change. It wasn’t bad, not bad at all. Wanda was talented, Stephen was right. But she was sloppy at times. There were certain instrumental parts and phrases that didn’t quite fit together in some areas. Luckily that was something that could be resolved, as long as Wanda put in more effort. When Agatha was done, she closed the laptop, and was immediately met with Wanda staring at her with an unreadable expression.

“It’s not bad,” Agatha politely stated, still keeping her tone in check. “There are just a few things that could use tweaking. I’d suggest adding in more strings in the beginning, and perhaps more accents to emphasize certain notes.”

Wanda gave her an incredulous look. “Stephen said you were just going to look at everything, not that you would be making changes to my work.”

Any patience Agatha had left disappeared at that point. “I’m sorry if this is news to you, Maximoff, but constructive criticism is a big part of composition.”

“This wasn’t my idea to come here and work with you,” Wanda pointed out, growing more defensive. “I didn’t sign up to have my work torn apart by a has-been composer.”

Agatha could feel her blood boil at that statement. How dare that ungrateful imbecile even think to say that to her. Seething, she stood up, heading over to the grand piano. “Get out of my studio. Now.”

Wanda left without another word, whilst Agatha stewed at the piano, hoping that would be the last interaction she ever had with Wanda Maximoff.

[notthewriteryourelookingfor]

Incloming rant and a thought about MattPatt, his theories, and 5 Nights At Freddy's:

I want to preface this by saying that I have nothing against MattPatt, he seems like a cool dude, a swell guy even, he obviously has fun, and a lot of his ideas are creative and entertaining.

I also want to point out that this is not being said "now that he's retired", I have come into the fandom very late (only really got into it due to wanting to go see the movie cuz the Jim Hensen company made the animatronics and I am an autistic slut for physical props and effects. If I'd been in the fandom earlier, this may have come up before his retirement.

.

.

So MattPatt's first FNAF theory was that the game was referencing a real life shooting that happened at a Chuck E Cheese.

And I literally cannot let that go.

I realise that the internet in general was very different back then, it was more "edgy", I was like 20 at the time, so I was online and I know how the internet was. Im p sure I was on tumblr where shit like that was very common.

But it makes me see MattPatt's theories, all of them, in the light of "this is a man who played a jumpscare video game obviously based on Chuck E Cheese as a concept (tho I'm p sure in like the 70s-80s animatronic restaurants were a big thing and considering Scott's age it wouldn't be surprising if he'd gone to a few for fun/parties/family outings) and went "ah yes this is referencing a real life mass shooting."

Maybe it's cuz I'm not American, maybe y'all are a lil more comfortable with mass shootings than I am (im Australian, we've had maybe 3 since 2000) but that not only seems like a massive reach, it also feels really disrespectful.

I know that MattPatt was very "respectful" in the video and said he didn't want to make light of the event or joke about it but I feel like just making this video to begin with did that.

Videos aren't something that just appear out of the ether with no way to control what it says: he thought it up, sat down, wrote a script, filmed, ans edited it, and never once went "Oh wait I'm making light of an actual tragedy where people actually died maybe I shouldn't put this out"?

Like even if you have no other ideas, just say that? Just be like "wow this is a doozy, guys, let's break down the game play and maybe reference the event but not make a full video about it"?

But let's say that MattPatt was correct and that Scott was referencing a real mass murder that killed real people with jumpscare animatronics: that's a shitty game. That's a shitty idea for a game.

I mean I'm probably going to get people coming at me like "You're too sensetive" "you're reading too much into it" or "you never heard of true crime?" To which I answer, in order, "yes I am very sensitive it's unfortunately who I am as a person I spent too much of my childhood trying not to be and it really hurt me and decimated my mental health. So fuck off", "FNAF fandom is literally 'there is no limit to how deep you can read into it' that's why it's so popular and why there are so many ideas on what it's really about", and "yes I know about true crime, I also have an issue with some true crime, generally those who make light of horrible things and also my general rule of thumb is "if the parents/children/significant other of the victim(s) are still alive and could see your media, maybe don't make it." I mean an average of 50 years is about what I'm comfortable with if it's being used in the "true crime" space. But that does have exceptions based on why it's being talked about. But I think that's another rant."

What I'm trying to say is that I have trouble with MattPatt, and his theories in general, not because of "Gregory is a robot recreation of the Crying Child" (cuz that's fun and interesting and also is actually understandable if u look at the mimic???) But because he likened FNAF, which at the time was a silly lil indie game about animatronic animals (that are possessed by children but rarely actually talk about it) to a real murder spree.

He compared a digital bear, chicken, bunny, and fox, to real people who lost their lives.

And that makes me look at everything he does, even now when it's been like 9 years, and he's definitely grown and changed and maybe even apologised for that, in that lense.

He's like 37 now, meaning that he was 28 at the time. It's not like he was an edgy teen with no understanding of how his actions impact others.

I realise this looks like I hate him, that I'm holding his past mistakes against him, and I want to confirm: I don't hate him, he's entertaining to watch and I'm sad hes not doing theories any more,

But at the same time, I wish he'd not have made that one video and I can't not think about it with every theory he puts out. It's why I can't watch his other channels (also I looked at style theory & some of the ideas seemed lazy to me but that's my own bias) because it has poisoned his ideas slightly in my mind and I'm now very wary of what he's saying.

.

.

.

I will add that I have a similar problem with a fair few theoriest were they're like "I've solved this" and then shill out for a very obvious scam company or a company like BetterHelp or HelloFresh months after we all found out they were trash so it's not like they had a few more contract obligations. It's like "I realise that you need to make money, but you're actively promoting harmful stuff in an Advert (at least it's labelled as that) and it makes me feel like I can't trust your judgement on things."

.

.

.

Anyway, please don't hate on me, this is just something I've been struggling with for a few months now and I'm curious to see if anyone else thinks the same or had any helpful thoughts they would like to share.

Also if MattPatt has apologised for it, please let me know where I can watch/read it cuz part of me feels like if I see him acknowledge that it was probs not a great thing to do, it probs won't feel so weird about it anymore.

It's like our parents always said: we need to be careful of what we put online cuz it could follow us forever.

[thespiralstaircasewriter]

Well, I'm not exactly an "Ask Me Anything" person by nature, so when I was tagged by @calamity-cain to answer a little question game, I retired under a rock to meditate for some time and produce my answers.

So, here goes:

relationship status: for ages with someone who still has no idea of who/what shares their bed.

favorite color: hmmmm… I’m a glutton when it comes to ANY colour. This can get irritating: it’s never just colours, but colours + matching + texture + shades + material… And if it’s all together, it hits like a train. So.... dark-red very scented velvet rosebud?

Some colours I adore in flowers, like delicate yellow/blue-purple irises, but as to wearing them, it's normally black, white or the occasional sand colour.

song stuck in my head: “Made in Italy” by Rosa Chemical

three favorite foods: although my approach to food is more theoretical than practical, which both sounds and IS stupid… Favorites… risotto with porcini mushrooms, the heretical version (with saffron), triglie al pomodoro (red mullet with tomato), any fish or shellfish recipe I don’t have to spend time cooking myself.

And… don’t ever ask an Italian to name just three foods… ;-D

last song I listened to: “Ghosts Again” by Depeche Mode

dream trip: California. I’d like to visit where the film industry was born, where it died and still haunts the place. Many of my loves from the Past and Present are there. Some at Hollywood Forever, like Rudy Valentino or Rozz Williams, but someone else in the world of the Living (they know who they are)!

last thing I googled: what changes DOWN THERE after re-assigning surgery, and how does that work? Well, yes. With respect, that it was.

... Oh! Under this rock I found some leftover answers from a past tagging by @meibruges Let's throw them out too!

Currently reading:

Tumblr everyday.

Endless curiosities I google instead of sleeping, with some recurrent obsessions, like plants propagation, languages, or types of fabric (when I’ll reach “types of ashes” that’ll have to stop, I’m told).

Fanfiction: anything @drachenkinder or @illwynd wrote or write.

Book: “Funeral Games”, by Mary Renault (basically glorified fanfiction of Alexander the Great), and “Bacchae”, yes, Euripides. 1) won’t pretend that was my idea. I found it quoted in wonderful fic “Dog in the Heart” by @thebookhunter, and got curious; 2) It’s GREAT.

Currently writing:

some obscure original narrative (nobody asked for), some Rozz Williams fanfiction, written in my heart’s blood (nobody asked for it either), some Lestat!Bowie WIP (somebody DID ask for it, some time ago, but please let them forget they did). Other: Bowie WIPs, BBC Sherlock WIPs... (may public mortification restore this pen to dignity).

Last series: Wallander. Late to the party, I know. But that was irresistibly sad.

Last movie: “Bones and All”. Guadagnino does it again: a good movie out of a bad book!

Sweet/savoury/spicy: savoury AND spicy. Sweet drives me a bit crazy in a bad way. But… what happened to bitter and sour? :-P

[beea-idiot56]

Chapter 4 - I thought this was supposed to be practice!

What happens when a person who has been diagnosed with extreme anxiety and had "retired" from volleyball finds themselves coaching a team full of guys who are a little too loud for their comfort(especially the ginger)?

Slow burn? ✔️ smut?❌ they/them pronouns?✔️ forced?❌

Childe x Reader Volleyball AU Wattpad Link Prologue link(Tumblr)

It had not been long since Y/N had started  practicing with the team, a month at most. With about 15 practices under their belt they felt well accustomed to the team. Sure they were not buddies with any of them, but they were able to joke and speak without their heart rate spiking and their hands starting to shake. It was a nice addition to their schedule as well. Between coaching young players, this team, and college, they didn't have any time to focus on their anxiety, it was actually really nice to get out of the house too. Plus they'd never know when Childe would suddenly invite the entire team to a “feeding frenzy”, it was just Childe paying for a bunch of snacks and all of the team would get together and play some sand volleyball or watch movies. It was a really nice addition to their schedule, and it was fun to hang out with people that werent teachers or someone complaining about homework. 

Y/n had been asleep, dreaming of nothing in particular, the much needed rest recharging their body and filling them with strength. That was until they heard a loud ringtone from beside them, a grumble escaping their lips as they lifted their head from their pillow just enough to open their eyes barely. Their hand found its way to the phone on the bedside table in the small dorm they stayed in, they lifted the side of the phone to see the contact “Barbatos - Venti - VB” with the photo of venti plastered on top. They grumbled and clicked the “answer” button, bringing the phone to their ear. 

“...h-hello?” they mumbled, their voice not awake just yet. Their eyes traveled to their clock beside their bed, 5am. Venti woke y/n up. At 5am. This man better have a damned good reason for it too. 

“Ah Y/n! Sorry if I woke you but there's some urgent business to attend to!” Venti spoke, how was he so awake and happy at 5am? This man must be made of sunshine and rainbows, “you see, last night I got an email from the Tsaritsa. Apparently she would like her team, the Harbingers, and our team to have a practice game against each other. Something about preparing for tournaments and not wanting her team to disappoint her. I don’t know, but what I do know is that I accepted it and well, I need my co-coach to come help me coach dear Kaeya!”

Y/n listened, their eyes slowly opening as their brain struggled to process what nonsense Venti had just spewed through his mouth at the speed of light. Y/n took a few moments to think before speaking, “what time?”  “oh… ah hee hee…. 8am.”  “A. hee. Hee.” Y/n repeated, taking a second before each syllable. They felt anger run through their veins. Venti contacted them about coaching a game that's in THREE HOURS. Y/n silently prayed to archons to give them the strength not to bitch slap venti. They heard nervous laughter on the other side of the line, “I'll be there, but you're praying for my coffee”

“Deal! Just send me your order '' Venti spoke before hanging up the phone. Y/n sighed and sat up in bed. Their dog at their feet(cat if you're allergic and a fish on the bed stand if you're allergic to both 😭) looked up at them. “A/N, help me.” y/n mumbled and the animal simply looked up at them before turning away to go back to sleep. 

Y/n pushed open the door to the building that the team played and practiced at. The sounds of shoes squeaking and yelling greeted them in an empty hallway. The lights were still off and the sun was barely over the horizon in the long glass windows that lined the hallway. Usually this place would be packed with people, but it was a Sunday and most kids were hungover at their dorms or off at work, maybe even a church of some kind. Mondstat was always big on its churches, The Grand Cathedral being right down the street from the college as well. Y/n tended to stay away from them, even if they were religious, there were a lot of people in the cathedral at all times. And that always felt really awkward and spiked their heart rate. 

Y/n appreciated the quietness of the hallway, they stopped outside the gym doors, the glass square in them giving them a preview as to what they were about to enter. The team peppered between each other while Venti sat and planned out something on a sheet of paper, what Y/n assumed was a lineup and game plan for the practice game. They glanced to the side of them to look out the window, they watched as birds sung from high above on the wires that lined the sky line. They smiled a little bit at it before looking back, their eyes catching the sight of someone standing off by the net. He stared back, the two caught eyes. Childe smiled and waved and y/n waved and smiled back. The two made eye contact for a moment or two before Childe waved them in, and y/n opened the door. 

Childe had jogged up to the door and smiled, “ didn't know you were gonna come today!” he beamed, like a golden retriever, y/n could practically see the tail wagging behind him. “Of course I would! I gotta make sure Kaeya is improving, plus I'm always here to see how the team plays. I love watching yall” y/n smile and looked up to Childe. Even though y/n wasn't exactly short/tall, they still had to crane their neck up high to look at the Childe's eyes. He was the tallest player on the team and was also annoying and wore pretty good shoes that bumped his height up another few inches. However, y/n didn't mind. Probably their favorite thing about Childe was that he didn't make eye contact uncomfortable. 

Y/n's most important way of conveying that they are listening or that they are happy to talk to a person is when they make eye contact, they make an effort to look people in the eye whenever they talk. And childe was probably their favorite when it came to this. Sure the rest of the team returned the favor, but none of them looked at y/n like they were the greatest player in the world, none of the team looked at them without any hesitation or without thinking they could possibly make any faults. Y/n always felt as though even though they might fuck up, completely screw over a point, that Childe would still look at them and cheer them on. It also helped that the childe had the prettiest eyes in the team. Kaeya had actual stars but it wouldn't compare to the beautiful blue that laced Child's eyes. 

Childe draped an arm across their shoulders and pulled them close, walking to the middle of the court, a loud voice booming from him, “did you guys hear that! y/n said they love watching us play!” He cheered and the rest of the team laughed a little as well. 

“Since that's the case let's give them the greatest practice game we've ever played!” Childe cheered once again and the rest of the team responded with a ‘hell yeah!’ or ‘woop woop!’.  Y/n smiled and shoved Childe off of them lightly, “Alright get to practicing, and let go of me, you're already sweaty!” y/n laughed a little and childe rubbed Y/n’s hair as they walked away, earning the bird in return. 

Y/n plopped down on the bleachers next to Venti and set their stuff down. They looked over his shoulders slightly, he had some paperwork out and then the line up. He quickly closed his binder, however, and looked up at y/n. 

“Your mere presence brings the team to excitement, Y/n. if i were you id feel honored, it's hard for me to even hype them up that much. It's usually the captain's job” he smiled, a wink following his words. y/n just laughed and shook their head, however. “I'm not that special. I think they are just happy to have a new face around.” they waved off venti who had rolled his eyes at their bashfulness. 

y/n stared at the team who peppered, they were all relaxed. Laughing at each other for stupid mistakes and encouraging each other when they made a good save, a feeling of longing returned to their stomach, they could basically see themself standing there. 

Y/n stood at the ten foot line, they were idly standing waiting for the ball to be passed up. Lumine stood from across the court right on the edge of the line. They both had their jerseys on and their knee pads were on their ankles. It was clear none of them meant business. Lumine threw the ball up high and y/n stepped under it, pushing it back to lumine. she passed it back and y/n went to go hit it back but a ball hit their ankle and they accidently snapped their wrist too much. Y/n had originally began to laugh a little,  “My bad, my bad” they smiled and shook their wrist a bit as Lumine dove for the ball, scraping their knees slightly.  “My gosh youre so fucking worthless.” lumine hissed at y/n, causing them to stop. Their laughter died in their throat. They tried to laugh a  little, waiting for Lumine to say ‘it's just a joke! Relax!’ but it never came. Lumine threw the ball at the floor and walked away to go pepper with someone else. Leaving y/n alone, holding a ball, and wondering why they even stayed on this team…

“You should go pepper with one of them, childe looks like he's kinda butting into xiao’s and diluc’s passing.'' Venti spoke absentmindedly, looking at the y/n who had been zoned out while looking at the court. The words snapped them out of their trance and they looked over at venti,  “Oh, nah. I don't think he'd want to anyways.” they laughed, trying to persuade venti not to make them go pepper without actually saying it. They didn't want to pepper, they wanted to play. Not get that small taste just for it to be snatched out of their grasp. Like a window at the top of an isolation cell.  “Oh he would love it! Here I'll call him over! CHILDE! Get over here and pepper with y/n!” Venti yelled ad y/n tried to wave their hands to say no but Childe had already started running over with a ball in his hands. “Of course! C'mon Y/n!” he smiled , waving them up. y/n sighed and took a sip of the coffee that venti had gotten them. They looked up at Childe and there he was again, making eye contact as always. Not with a judging look. But one of excitement. ‘He's not like that, Y/n. Just go pepper, you'll be fine’ they spoke to themselves and stood up. They positioned themself on the ten foot line, so much like how they had done before. Childe threw the ball up and they positioned themself under the ball, setting it high and just like how Lumine liked her sets. Childe took a step forward and set it back to them, but a ball rolled over and bumped against y/n's ankle causing them to stutter step and snap their wrist too much. Childe dove forward to the ball,  skidding his knees slightly. His knee pads were on his ankles. The ball came back to y/n on the floor and he laid on the floor on his back. y/n expected a yell from him but soon he started to laugh. And y/n laughed a little as well. 

“Haha my bad!” he spoke before hopping back onto his feet. y/n picked up the ball and stared at him. He didn't stalk away. He stayed. Childe stayed. He made eye contact. Y/n hesitated, not knowing what to do with themself.  “Cmon, throw the ball up! That was my bad. You don't have to stare at me like I'm going to yell at you!” he laughed a little, drawing y/n out of their trance. Y/n smiled, and threw the ball up. 

Peppering and warming up continued as the clock hit 7:55. Venti had turned from paperwork to drills and started running the team through different exercises. y/n on the sidelines coaching Kaeya as well. Giving small pointers here and there, ‘turn your hands in’, ‘center your stomach’, ‘don't jump, but use your legs’. Overall it has been pretty effective. And y/n got to watch the boys play from a new perspective. However there hadn't been any sighting of the harbingers, until the door opened. 

The team stopped and all turned to look at the door. Venti had already started rolling the ball cart over to the side of the court where the team was going to be practicing. He had the team line up then brought y/n to go stand in front of all of the team by the ventis side. In they walked. A team of six, with one manager, Signorita. 

“Welcome! Ah, it's such a pleasure to see you again, Signorita. Is the Tsarista not here once again?” Venti spoke, yet there was a strain in his voice and his hands stood awkwardly at his sides.  “Ah Barbatos, you know better. The Tsaritsa is off doing her own thing, preparing new things for us to face. I'm stepping in as coach for this game, but I doubt I will need to… Say, whos this lovely face, i feel as though i've seen them before…'' Signorita spoke, her voice as cold as ice but her intentions burning through y/n and venti. y/n smiled awkwardly,  “I'm Y/n L/n, I'm here to help coach.” they spoke, not knowing how much venti wanted them to disclose.  “Awh such a sweet name you are simply so sweet.” Signorita smiled, her arm crossing over her stomach and her other elbow propping up against the forearm. She looked fit, she probably was, actually. 

She was. Y/n recognized her now. This was Signorita, she was the setter for the Harbingers female team before she had a nasty accident and had to retire to the side lines and benches. Y/n shivered remembering the accident. They remember witnessing it from the other side of the net. Signorita had practically thrown herself to the ground to get a ball up, but had landed on her wrist, completely shattering it. Y/n remembered watching Signorita trying to shrug it off, and how she left the court after her team, and the Tsaritsa, had dragged her off. What was worse was that y/n remembered lumine making direct eye contact with y/n and saying ‘we wouldn't let you off this court’. 

“Oh! I remember you, you were the dear setter for the Khaenri’ah team. How precious you were. I remember how terrible that team treated you." Signorita smiled cutely before their eyes glanced over the entirety of the gym, then landing on someone behind y/n. “Oh and you, the silly little traitor.” she smiled before scoffing, y/n heard a small laugh come from behind them, they looked over their shoulder to see childe laughing and scratching his neck and staring at the ground. Traitor? 

“Oh but the past is the past!” she smiled and nodded to the court across from the team, “we will only take five or so minutes to warm up, then we can get right to playing. Would we like an up-ref? I would hate for the game to go… sour.” she smiled, a sinister glean behind her words. However, Venti smiled and shook his head. 

“We’re sharing this court for this time, we shouldn't need a up-ref, it's not as though we will be kicking the other team from under the net, will we?” Venti spoke, his eyes staring right through Signorita. She shook her head and smiled, however the smile didn't exactly give y/n any ease in the overwhelming feeling of fear that traced their stomach. The Harbingers then bowed behind their manager and walked over to the court they would be playing on and began to warm up.

Childe gathered up the team and y/n went to go Supervise but venti tugged on their arm. They looked at him, “y/n. I know this is easier said than done, but don't let Signorita get in your head.” he spoke, his voice as old as ice. Sending shivers down y/ns spine. 

“I wouldn't do that, I'm not even playing… it's just a practice game right?”  y/n spoke nervously, they had been trying to remind themself it was a practice game, but the serious beef between the two teams was starting to get under their skin. “Not to the harbingers. They fight hard, they play dirty, and they tend to not hold punches. The coaches play mind games you would not believe, just, don’t talk to her. She’ll use you to get into the team's head. Ignore her and let me do the talking, alright?” Venti spoke. Y/n nodded and he smiled before patting her on the back and pushing her into the group of players. The team welcomed her and Childe brought her under his and Diluc's arms. 

Y/n stared at the ground, feeling nervousness brimming their body as the team talked between themselves they all spoke of what to do, strategizing and planning. y/n couldn't listen however, their eyes focused on the ground and their hands busy picking at the skin around their fingernails. It wasn't until the team dispersed to get water and do the last bit of warming up that Childe addressed them head on. 

“Hey you good?” he asked, placing a soft hand on their shoulder. they looked up and smiled, they could be nervous all they wanted but why should they bring down the team with their anxiety.  “Yeah I'm fine!” y/n smiled, but it felt strained and the wrinkles did not form around their eyes. Childe stared into their eyes, but y/n couldn't meet them. They looked anywhere but childe. Like the sign behind his head, something about the sponsor of the school, it was another nameless company that promised something but never delivered.  “Look me in the eye,” childe spoke, drawing their attention back to him, “and tell me youre fine.” he finished his sentence. Y/n gulped and looked him in the eyes. His eyebrows were furrowed, and since when did both of his hands find their ways to y/n’s shoulders? Y/n opened their mouths to say something, but they couldn't find the words in their throat. It simply died out.  “So, traitor huh?” they “masterfully” changed the topic, childe stared at them. A chuckle escaped his mouth and he shook his head as he let the fact they completely changed the topic slide.  “Yeah, I used to be on The Harbingers, but transferred over to the Teyvats when I was sent to Liyue for a few weeks. The team was hella toxic anyways.” he spoke, letting his hands drop from y/ns shoulders. Y/n released a breath they didn't know they were holding.  “Damn, I didn't realize they were that uptight. Well then, I'm a traitor by their standards too, to the Khaenri’ans. We can be traitors together.” y/n smiled, meeting his eyes. He laughed, wrinkles showed up by his eyes and y/n noticed the freckles placed across his cheeks. 

“Cool! We're partners in crime!” he laughed, running a hand through his hair, dischelving it.  “Right! You're the one that causes the arson, I'm the cool minded one!” they smiled and 

Childe placed a dramatic facial expression on his face, he gasped. 

“I can be cool minded!” he tried to defend himself but y/n nearly laughed a little.  “Can be, won't be. I have too much anxiety to charge into anything like a chicken without its head, you charge right in. which is why most of your hits go into the net '' they giggled as Childe fell back, his hand laid against his forehead and his other hand dramatically placed on his heart.  “You wound me, Y/n, you wound me!” he basically yelled and y/n laughed and reached up to rub the top of his hair.  “You'll be alright, maybe if you play really good today i'll take back what i said and you can be the cool headed partner in crime” they laughed and he nodded his head enthusiastically and smiled,  “Bet!” 

The teams lined up on the courts, neither worrying about subbing in the liberos or where they stood, it wasn't until venti offered first serve to the harbingers and gave the ball over that the entire team started to get serious. They all got into their positions and y/n glanced over all their faces. They all looked as hard as rocks, none of them even blinking. 

Kaeya pulled up Diluc first, over on the outside position of the court, childe stood in the middle of the ten foot line, chongyun pulled back as a DS over on the right. In the middle back was Xinqui, the second best passer besides xiao, who was placed next to Xinqui.

“Oh! I guess we need a whistle. Here, lovely Y/n would you do the honors” Venti spoke smiling, Y/n nodded and shuffled around in their bag before pulling out a whistle. They bit on the silicon cover and whistled, making the movements to declare that Pierro, the setter and the first server, could serve. He nodded and threw the ball up high in front of him, making an approach before jumping up and hitting the ball, sending it over the net. 

From there the play went quickly. Xiao made a perfect pass up to Kaeya, who set it to childe, who hit the ball and it collided with the blockers on the other side of the net, who were Dottore and Pantalone. It bounced off their hands and back into their side of the court. When Punciella passed up, Pierro set it up, and Scaramouche made an approach, hitting the ball. Childe, however, was there and slammed the ball back into the ground with a block of his own. The team cheered and crowded around him, the first point of the game. To the Teyvats. 

The game continued, both coaches giving remarks of improvement to the team and the team taking them and charging forward with pride. Y/n especially had a lot to say to Kaeya, who was starting to get frustrated with them by the middle of the set. 

“I know Y/n!” Kaeya yelled as Y/n had told him to center his body. Y/n stutter stepped backwards and they became quiet. Venti glanced at them, a sigh escaping his mouth.  “Don't mind Kaeya, he gets angry quickly.” Venti spoke, patting y/n on the back, but this did not go unnoticed by Signorita on the other side of the net.  “Awh, is Kaeya just like the other khaenri’ahns? Chasing Y/n off the court? How sad…” she remarked awfully loud. Kaeya stared at her, his mouth wide agape. He started to speak but Venti had already shut down the conversation with a whistle. Scaramouche was now serving, and he had already sent the ball over. Xiao passed it up to Kaeya, who set it to childe, who then hit it over the net, maybe a bit too far over the net. Okay he hit Signorita in the head.   “Childe!” y/n had yelled, their hands covering their mouth. They weren't going to lie, they really wanted to laugh right now, but their fear for what was about to conspire had held them back. Venti on the other hand had begun laughing loudly.  “Ah! And so the Karma continues!” he laughed loudly, Signorita looked absolutely astonished and she looked at Venti like he had just kicked her in the stomach. 

“Oh! So you're laughing at your player who just hit the opposing coach in the head! You're not even going to attest to how bad of a hit that was! Such terrible coaching..” she had scoffed and The Harbingers all kinda just, stood there, not really sure if they should laugh or stand up for the manager. 

Childe laughed and shrugged, “maybe don't cause drama in someone else's team if you don't want karma to hit you upside the head. Especially when you mess with the two greatest setters. I mean you can't even compare to ours!” Childe had mumbled the last two sentences but the team laughed and clapped him on the back. Kaeya and y/n both bashfully smiling to themselves. 

Signorita scoffed loudly, “time out” she had practically yelled and the teams jogged to the sides of the court to talk to their coaches. 

Kaeya looked at y/n as he approached before nodding to the side, they nodded and stepped to the side. “Sorry for yelling at you, you were just trying to help me improve.” he spoke, running a hand through his bangs that had been tangled up, his pony tail resting on his back. 

“No you're alright, I was probably a little overbearing, I'm sorry as well. I just-” they sighed, not knowing how to put their words, “i don't want to make excuses, but rather explain my perspective. When I played for the Khaenri’ahns, they all really hated me, and so I had to push myself to absolute perfection, and subconsciously I'm putting that perfection on you in this game. You don’t deserve that, especially since you aren't even a setter really…” they sighed and he smiled before pulling them into a side hug. 

“You're the greatest coach I've ever had, y/n. Thanks for pushing me” he smiled. 

Coaches and players, it's a relationship that could either break or make a game, a player, a coach. Being understanding and recognizing faults in each other was always the greatest thing the two people could do, no matter what relationship they were in, but in a relationship that was built on a game of mistakes. A game that people use mistakes to get ahead of the other team, it was always important to admit when someone was wrong. So Y/n taking that first step, taking that step to explain why they had been pushing harder than needed, that first step broke down every wall between the two of them. From setter to setter, setter to hitter, player to coach, person to person, the two now knew they could count on the other to admit their imperfections and be able to grow from them. 

However, timeouts are only 30 seconds long. So the team dispersed back onto the court or to the bench to get a few more drinks of water. And the other side lined up once again. Venti whistled as y/n walked to stand beside him. Scaramouche Got into position before serving, and Xiao passed the ball with ease. Kaeya set the ball perfectly to Diluc right behind him, who went up and hit the ball as though there hadn't been a single blocker there, with absolute confidence. Hitting it to the side of the court, Scaramuche barely picked the ball up with a pancake, however the fight was useless and the ball shanked off to the side. None of the team was able to bring it back into the court far enough to send it back over to the other side of the court. 

The teyvats cheered and gathered around clapping and high fiving each other. They then rotated, childe giving high fives to razor who went in for him for backrow. Childe ran over to the sidelines and y/n picked up his water bottle and handed it to him, 

“Thanks” he smiled, taking it from them. He drank from the water bottle, looking at the court from the side of his eye as y/n observed the next serve. The play continued at a fast pace just as usual. When the point was over Childe talked,  “You okay?” childe asked, putting his water bottle down.  “Hm? Oh are you talking to me?” y/n asked, jumping a little not really expecting to be talked to.  “Yeah, those were some pretty rough words from Signorita.” he said looking out onto the court as the next point began.  “Oh, yeah. Its worse for Kaeya im sure” 

“Yeah but Kaeya is a lot more confident then you” “Wow. thanks.”

“No! I didn't mean it like that-” childe stuttered slightly, gaining a laugh from y/n and they pushed him a little,  “I'm kidding with you. You're not wrong, it just sucks to hear it admitted out loud. But yeah I'm fine.” they spoke, staring out at the court, razor made a nice save and y/n clapped and whooped for him.  “... are you sure?” childe asked, his eyes now finding their way to y/n's face. Have y/ns eyelashes always been so long?

“Since when were you so worried for me? I'm just a coach” y/n laughed a little, but the humor wasn't there and it felt strained, like y/n was debating whether or not to say something. “And friend.” he spoke, placing a hand on their shoulder. “... oh”

The plays continued, getting progressively more and more heated until it was the last few points. The team had been fighting this last set for a few points now, up to 26-27, Teyvats. Both teams were exhausted, both were falling to dirty tricks, both were out of time outs. Y/n had been watching from the sidelines with progressively more anxiety. They had to start pacing to keep themselves calm, the rallies were getting longer. It was like neither libero was willing to let a single ball drop even if they had to sacrifice a future with healthy knees and elbows. 

“COME ON” y/n yelled, clapping their hands as Xiao went up to serve. He had a wicked serve. It was a float serve, but hard. It cut through the sky but would drop at any time, making it unpredictable and hard to track. But Captiano was there, every single time. He always got the ball up to the front row. And would be back against the back line seconds after ready for blocks and hits. Both teams were fighting hard, and neither were ready to give up. Kaeya went to set, but his hands were not positioned correctly, and it fell through them and went straight to the ground. 

y/n had never seen a person more angry then Kaeya in that very moment. He looked as though he wanted to kill, and passing the ball under the net with a  slam into the ground only echoed their thoughts. Y/n and venti looked at each other, both knowing what they needed to do, but not knowing if they should do it. Y/n sucked in a  breath, preparing themself before pulling the cord. 

“Xinqui, go in and set for KAeya. Now.” y/n said pushing him forward.  “Oh! Okay-” he stuttered before running onto court, telling Kaeya what to do. Kaeya looked up from Xinqui and made short eye contact with y/n, his eyes as hard as stone and his mouth pulled to a thin line, his hands clenching at his side. He jogged off the court but shouldered y/n on his way to the bench.  “Hey! Don't take your anger out on them!” Venti had lectured, but it fell short because Kaeya wasn't even listening at this point. He was looking off somewhere else with his arms crossed. Throwing a hissy fit basically. 

The next points went quickly, with teyvat just barely losing to some hard blocks and sloppy hits thanks to the change. The team congratulated the other and they all said their goodbyes. The teyvats didn't look too discouraged luckily,  “You all did wonderful!” Venti spoke proudly, he always did that. Even though the team knew they could do better, Venti encouraged them. Maybe that's why he was one of the best coaches… Venti gave them all a run down and told them when to come back for practice next since the team usually practiced in the afternoon. Meanwhile, y/n gathered their things and began to get ready to leave to go get themselves lunch. However, as they approached the door they felt a tap on their shoulder. 

“Why'd you take me out?” The questions were simple, but it was hard. There would always come a point in time when even the greatest of friends would be split in a decision that neither would be able to say was wrong nor right. 

You, yes you reader, may be wondering why as the author I decided to completely change a course of action in the middle of this chapter as the characters, who just had a bonding moment, have a moment of anger. To you I say, you have not been a player who's been pulled out by a coach who you trusted. If you have, then you would understand. 

“I thought you needed a break, you were obviously frustrated and your anger caused bad mistakes that wouldn't happen if you were cool minded. I did the best thing in that situation.” y/n spoke, they were trying not to let their anxiety take hold of their words, and switch them to put themself in the wrong. They weren't wrong, they told themself. They had every reason to take Kaeya off the court. 

“I would've gotten over it. I needed another chance.” KAeya spoke, crossing his arms, ‘closing off to any discussion.’ “You dont get more chances when the points are on line and that close. A simple mistake causes the game to change completely.” y/n spoke as calmly as possible, trying to explain their side of the situation. “So you put in a new setter? If you ask me thats a big mistake that fucked over the entire game.” his voice rose in volume and his arms uncrossed, his hand flying to the side of his body.  “Kaeya, please understand where i'm coming from-” 

“NO! Gosh you ARE a fuck up! Just like Lumine said!” Kaeya spoke, his voice had risen to a yell. y/n stutter step backwards again. They glanced around, trying to make sure no one heard this outburst. But it was useless, everyone was staring at the pair. 

They took a deep breath before making eye contact once again, “Kaeya. I want to politely ask you to take that back. I may have made a mistake, but it was in your, and the teams, best interest.” they spoke, their voice shaky now. 

“No! Because you just cost us the game! I could've pulled through. I know you think you're pushing ‘perfection’ or whatever on me, but maybe push it on yourself a bit more!” he yelled, flailing his arms dramatically. y/n let out a shattered breath, unable to control the shaking in their hands anymore. 

“KAEYA. ALBERICH.” a voice rose against his. Both of their heads snapped to the side, to see Childe with his arms at his side, his fists clenched, and his eyes glaring at Kaeya.  “Kaeya, bench, now.” Venti spoke, stepping forward and pressing a hand to Childe's shoulder.  “Why?” The word was not a question, but a rebuttal. A demand for someone to back him up, not to take y/ns side. 

“Because, we need to talk. Y/n had every reason to take you out of the game, and if I disagreed I would have stopped them. Sit. down. Kaeya alberich.” vent spoke, his words were firm, they don't have the light ease to them as normal. In return, Kaeya huffed and stomped over to the bench. Childe turned to go talk to y/n, but he found they were already gone. The door swinging closed from where they had previously been.

[galaxyphoenix23]

Why Six left

Okay, this is my first post here but figured I’d give tumblr a try because it is severely lacking Six and Claire content. The whole fandom is really…. And its sad that their relationship is downsized. I'm obsessed with these two, and I’ll just start postingstuff that I've written about them because they're my comfort duo. #Daddy issues?

But onto the fic, in the movie, it's implied that Six hadn't had much contact with them since Fitzroy retired, and I like to think that Six distanced himself to protect Claire since Fitzroy could finally be at home with her and live “a normal life” with her instead of being gone all the time. He wouldn't want to intrude on their peace, or have anyone somehow finding out about his attachment to them and use it against him (obviously it doesn't work because… well we all watched the movie, if you haven't go watch it it’s really good!). But again, I like to think that beforehand he would drop in if he was nearby on a job and got injured or just wanted to not be alone, (obviously post-bodyguard job) deepening his bond with Claire, which probably made leaving her all the more painful for him. They don't address this in the movie but I'm addressing it now dang it because I'm a teenage girl with emotions and a stoic strong father figure going soft for the daughter figure makes me wanna cry (plus its RYAN GOSLING)

I'm done with my rant now, if you're reading this part, I'll make a part two soon. We all know how it ends up, but I feel like writing a second part. (this is kinda a song fic? Miley Cyrus' Angels Like You) (yes part two will also be a song fic)

Angels Like You

It's not your fault I ruin everything

Six thought back to her eyes sparkling with innocence and curiosity. The last thing he wanted was to corrupt that.

And it's not your fault I can't be what you need

He was no longer innocent like her. He was broken beyond repair.

Baby, angels like you can't fly down here with me

He had to leave eventually. No matter how much he didn't want to, he didn't have a choice.

I'm everything they said I would be

He sighed as he made his way to her bedroom, wincing at his wound freshly stitched.

Fitz was retired, and Claire no longer needed him, much less him showing up bruised and bloody at 2 am. She deserved better than that. She deserved a normal life.

He paused in front of her door before opening it. She was on her bed with her Polaroids and smiled at him as soon as she looked up.

“Hey, feeling better?”

Gonna wish we never met on the day I leave

“A little.” Six gave her a strained smile.

“So, when are you popping in next time? Wait no don't tell me, I like surprises.”

Six sat down on her bed. “About that….” Six hesitated and Claire watched him, her smile slowly fading.

“What is it?” She asked.

“I won't be coming around anymore.” Six let it sink in before adding. “Surprise!” It sounded lame, even to him.

I brought you down to your knees

“What?” She asked, and Six made the mistake of meeting her teary gaze and he looked away.

‘Cause they say that misery loves company

“Fitz is retired. There's no reason for me to come around anymore.”

“What about me?” She asked, her voice wobbly. Claire didn't want to be that girl, but in the face of never seeing Six again…. “Am I not a reason?”

“Of course you are.” Six met her eyes once more, determined to get that through her head.

“Then why?”

It's not your fault I ruin everything

“Because I… I just have to Claire. It's part of the job. No attachments.”

Claire bowed her head, tears slipping down her face as she sniffed.

And it's not your fault I can't be what you need

“I should've known not to get attached.” She whispered. “But I did.”

Six sighed. “Ditto.”

Despite herself Claire looked up and smiled. “I did rub off on you.”

Six scoffed, but a small smile appeared on his face. “Yeah well, you're special. You see a side of me no one else does.”

“Now I won't even get to see it.” She sadly whispered.

Six’s heart broke. “Claire, I'm sorry.” He opened his arms and she eagerly burrowed herself into his arms.

“It wasn't anything I did was it?”

Six squeezed his eyes shut. “No. I'm trying to keep you safe.”

Baby, angels like you can't fly down here with me

“What if I need you and you're not here?”

Six tightened his grip on her. “Fitz will be here.”

“But what if—”

“Hey, stop overthinking. If the worst case were to happen, I hope you know that I would drop everything and go to the ends of the earth and fight against entire armies to reach you.”

“Until then?” She sadly asked, sniffing and Six felt a tear fall on his neck.

“Until then, I have to be… not here.”

Angels like you can't fly down here with me.

When Six tried to pull away Claire tightened her grip. “Claire, you have to let go at some point.”

“I don’t want to.” She tearfully replied. “You don’t have to leave. I know you’re only doing this to punish yourself.”

Six pressed a soft kiss to her head, refusing to answer. He couldn’t, if he did, he was afraid she would talk him into staying. Then she really would be in harm's way. People would find out about her and then…. She was only a kid.

“You don’t have to do this.” She pleaded with him.

“Go to sleep Claire.” He softly coaxed.

She violently shook her head. “Not until you agree to stay.”

“I’m not going to lie to you Claire.” Six started to gently rock her, stroking her hair before humming a tune he remembered hearing somewhere.

“S’not fair. Trying to lull me to sleep.” She murmured.

“Goodnight Claire.”

“M’ not tired.”

“Hush little baby don’t you cry,” Six searched for the rest of the lyrics in his mind. “Daddy’s going to buy you a mockingbird, and if that mockingbird don’t sing, daddy's going to buy you a diamond ring.” Six glanced down and softly smiled as Claire was asleep in his arms.

“Goodnight Claire.” He softly repeated, tucking her in.

She shifted and sighed. “G’nigh’ Dad.”

Six stared at her and closed his eyes for a long moment, bowing his head.

He wasn’t sure who was hurt more, him when he left her bedroom then, or Claire when she woke up.

I'm sorry😭

[thiefguild]

2 basics 2 canon 1 OC 2 tumblr

In what language did you start writing?

Just English! Unfortunately it's the only language I know. I took nearly 6 years of Spanish in school and still can hardly speak it which makes me bitter tbh.

Have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

I have! One of the muses that I'm probably most known for in my rp career, actually-- When I first watched Code Geass, I really didn't like Suzaku. But he's been a big fav for a long time now and I wrote for him for a while.

Who was your first OC?

Man...his name was Anthony and he was a demon. He started out as a Kuroshitsuji OC as a, you guessed it, demon butler. Then I made him into his own thing and had an entire verse with my best friend. I retired him as a character a very long time ago because of some questionable angsty lore I came up with as a teenager but I think about him every once in a while.

What are trends when it comes to writing that you dislike?

I guess really intense purple prose? That's not really a trend, I guess, but I still see it every once in a while. It does take dedication, but it's just not sustainable or enjoyable to read in the long run. Just a personal opinion!

[shellofatime]

I hope that you don’t mind me hijacking this post to explain why I think that Rise Donnie would be the victor if all the Donnies got into a fist fight.

EDIT: Tl;dr at the bottom

First I want to point out that all Donnies are buff nerds with great upper body strength (except for 2k12 Donnie for some reason).  So (just about) all Donnies have brawns to go along with their brains. Though some more than others.

I’m not gonna count Mutant Mayhem Donnie because that movie hasn’t come out yet. Hell, the trailer for that movie hasn’t even come out yet. All we have is a few pieces of concept art to go off on and that’s not enough to gauge Mutant Mayhem Donnie’s strengths and weaknesses.

I’m also not gonna go over non-IDW comics Donnies (like Mirage, Archie, Last Ronin, etc.) because they weren’t mentioned, and I know nothing about them. (Though if anyone has read any of the other TMNT comics (that aren’t IDW), please feel free to add them in this discussion if you want to.)

Now based on what I know about each Donnie listed, I’m gonna list them from weakest to strongest and explain why I think they deserve their place in my list. (Though I welcome any and all discussion and debate on this.)

2k12 Donnie is the weakest out of all of the Donnies listed (which makes no sense to me because his bo staff is also a hidden naginata, which should make it heavier than a regular bo staff). (He’s also the weakest of the 2k12 turtles too.) Which I put most of the blame on the TMNT 2012 writers for that because each 2k12 turtle is kind of written as a stereotype. And 2k12 Donnie’s stereotype is nerd, and he was made with the whole nerd=weak bs. For example, he’s slimmer in muscle mass compared to his brothers. He appears to train less than his brothers (prefering to pursue scientific activities). He also appears to not know how to properly use a bo staff. And (as one of his biggest flaws when it comes to fighting) he gets caught up thinking about his attack rather than actually attacking.

2k7 Donnie is stronger than 2k12 Donnie, but a little bit weaker than the other Donnies. Mostly because he’s probably the rustiest. Because sometime after 2k7 Leo left for his training journey, 2k7 Donnie started to work in IT. And during the time that 2k7 Leo was gone, it doesn’t look like 2k7 Donnie kept up with his training.

I don’t know much about IDW Donnie, except for what I’ve seen of his wiki page and tumblr. So I might not get him right, and I welcome any correction from people who have read the IDW TMNT comics. But what I do know about him is that he appears to have the most amount of training under his belt because of his past life. Though I’m not sure if it counts since he has yet to remember his past life. He also isn’t one for fighting since he has thought about retiring and living a peaceful life when the going got really tough. And in one future, he did in fact do that. Being the only one of his brothers to survive because he yielded to the Shredder and gave up fighting and went into hiding to live a “peaceful” life. So I don’t think that he would put much effort in a fist fight between his other selves, or even participate in one.

‘87 Donnie is another Donnie on the list whose knowledge I have of him comes from his wiki page and his content on tumblr. Along with his appearance in Turtles Forever and TMNT 2012. So I might be wrong about him. Correct me if I am. That being said, he is strong enough to tear cars apart with his bare hands, but he is (like the rest of the ‘87 turtles) the least serious out of the Donnies. So even though he could kick some serious ass, I don’t think that he would be serious enough to do so. Maybe if it was a life or death situation he would be serious, but in a fist fight between his other selves? I think that he would be more likely to crack science jokes with his other selves than crack their heads.

Bayverse Donnie has a leg up on the other Donnies in the fact that he was purposefully mutated. Which makes him stronger and have a healing factor. He’s also a bit of a wild card (he did jump out of a plane without a parachute), which can be helpful in a fight. But like with 2k12 Donnie, he falls into the nerd stereotype. He has a slimmer build and appears to pursue the fields of science rather than training. But most importantly, out of all of the other Donnies, Bayverse Donnie has the least combat experience. He (and his brothers) have only faced two major threats (Shredder and Krang). So even if his greater strength and healing factor can make up for some of his lack of combat experience, it can’t make up for all of it.

2k3 Donnie has the brawns to back up his brains. (I also might be a bit biased when it comes to 2k3 Donnie because he’s my most favorite Donnie.) Not counting the bo staff, he also works on some heavy machinery. Sure, 2k3 Raph will help him out from time to time, but 2k3 Donnie is the one creating and maintaining all the big “toys”. He’s also strong enough to do things like slam his bo staff into solid concrete, tear robots (and other machinery) apart with his bare hands, take down opponents bigger than him (like that time he KO-ed a triceraton), can lift heavy ruble off of himself and others, throw opponents through walls, etc. And even if he does have scientific pursuits, he doesn’t skip on his training. The only thing that might hinder him a fist fight between his other selves is that out of all the Donnies, 2k3 Donnie is the most mellow and peaceful. So he might hold back or pull some of his punches. (Though I use the word "might" loosely.)

Rise Donnie, like his Bayverse counterpart, has a leg up on the other Donnies because he was also purposefully mutated. So he has greater strength and a healing factor. But even so, he also  has a leg up on Bayverse Donnie too because Bayverse Donnie was mutated as an experiment. Rise Donnie was mutated for war. Also, I think that out of all of the Donnies, Rise Donnie has the most upper body strength because of his equipment. Like before he switched to a regular bo staff, he had a metal one with things like a giant hammer and a chainsaw built into it. Which no doubt made it much heavier than a regular (wooden) bo staff. Then there is his battle shell. That thing probably weighs somewhere between 20 to 50 pounds (or even more). Also, Rise Donnie is a soft shell turtle. Soft shell turtles are highly aggressive and that can be seen with Rise Donnie throughout RotTMNT. Out of his brothers, he’s mostly likely to have an angry outburst. He tends to pick the most lethal choice. And has the most questionable/loosest morals. So he would totally go all out in a fist fight with his other selves. Hell, he might even play dirty too.

Though I do think that 2k3 Donnie and Rise Donnie might be almost neck and neck. 2k3 Donnie does have more training and combat experience than Rise Donnie, but Rise Donnie was made for war and has a lot of natural talent. That, and I think that the fact that Rise Donnie would fight dirty (while 2k3 Donnie would never ever think about fighting dirty) might be enough to give him a leg up on 2k3 Donnie and beat the older turtle. Even if it's only just barely so.

Tl;dr: 2k12 Donnie is the weakest because the 2k12 writers kind of wrote him with the “nerds are weaklings” stereotype. He also has the bad habit of over thinking his attack before attacking.

2k7 Donnie is rusty because while 2k7 Leo was gone, 2k7 Donnie lessened or stopped training to work in IT.

IDW Donnie doesn’t like to fight, so he probably wouldn’t participate in a fist fight between his other selves.

‘87 Donnie is a powerhouse, but like the other ‘87 turtles he isn’t all that serious. So he would probably be more interested in cracking jokes and talking science with his other selves instead of fighting them.

Bayverse Donnie was purposely mutated as a science experiment, which gives him great strength and a healing factor. But he has the least combat experience out of the Donnies and his strength and healing factor can’t completely make up for his lack of combat experience.

2k3 Donnie has the brawns to go with his brains, along with training and combat experience.

Rise Donnie was mutated for war, which gives him great strength, a healing factor and a lot of natural talent. His aggression and loose morals can also help him in a fight since he would go all out and fight dirty.

2k3 Donnie and Rise Donnie would be neck and neck, and 2k32 Donnie could win, but since Rise Donnie is an ass. He would probably fight dirty and do something like fake an injury or exaggerate the pain he feels while getting hit. And with how kind 2k3 Donnie is, he would probably fall for it and Rise Donnie would use that to his advantage and land 2k3 Donnie on his shell, (barely) stealing the win.

I'm redoing this again cuz ain't no way rise Donnie won out of all of them some of y'all are LYINGGGGGGGGGGGG. And also probably because cuz this poll lasted a day and not a week... That's my bad on my part y'all 🥲

[pablilloelpillo]

Thoughts on Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Hey! So I just finished reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury so I'm gonna just dump my thoughts about it in this post.

Also this is my first post in Tumblr so hurray I guess.

Also also I'll try to divide this into spoilers and no spoilers in case anyone reads this and also wants to read the book.

So Dandelion wine is about a twelve-year-old boy named Douglas Spaulding together with his brother Tom and many other inhabitants of Green Town, Illinois, and the experiences they have during the summer of 1928. The book doesn't really have a plot, but is rather a series of vignettes with Douglas and the rest of the cast which tend to focus on just living life and making the most of the time you have.

I really love how the book is written, I read Fahrenheit 451 also by Ray Bradbury a few months ago and was amazed by how hard some lines hit me, and for this book something similar happened, not in the same way of course as Fahrenheit is far more dramatic, but it felt like the words just reached my soul directly.

(I would love to add quotes to this post but I read the book in Spanish and I don't feel like finding an English version of the book and looking for my favourite quotes.)

This book just made me like, appreciate life, the book starts by having Douglas realize that he is, in fact, alive, realising that he is capable of experiencing everything this world has to offer to the littlest details, and I really love this mindset and how the book elaborates on it through the course of the story

You might think then that the book is just "life is great, everything is beautiful, there's nothing in this world", but no. Bad stuff happens if the book, and we see Douglas have to deal with it, and come to terms with no matter how much you want to enjoy life to the fullest there are going to be bad moments, there's even a lot of dealing whit grief in this book (spoilers: people die) and I just think is beautiful how it's depicted as a natural part of life.

So yeah this book is very comforting and I will probably be re-reading it often.

Now with some spoilers! Keep reading at your own sake (or skip to the conclusion at the end).

Ok I'm not sure how much of a spoiler this first point is but it happens about half way through the book so I'm considering it as such. So my favourite part of the book was the story about the trolley, where Douglas and the other kids are invited by the driver to ride the town's trolley one last time before it is retired. A lot of the book gave me the vibe of a Ghibli movie and this was the peak of it, I could imagine the beautiful landscapes they went through as the trolley rolled through the country, and the abandoned park the kids and the driver had a picnic in, it made wish I could paint so I could make a painting of those scenes. I also like how this is probably the first time in the book when Douglas realizes that not everything lasts forever, that he's never going to see the trolley rolling through the rails of the streets again, and it just generates this atmosphere of nostalgia during the whole journey, of making good memories of something one last time before that something is gone forever.

Ok so what the heck was up with the sudden horror story? Like the whole book is just chilling and suddenly there's a murderer loose and we follow a girl who's haunted by the thought of him getting her, and then the story ends by her getting home safely but there's someone in her house and like holy shit, talk about tonal whiplash. I didn't really dislike the story, in a vacuum it is very well written horror, it's just that it kinda felt out of place I this book. But immediately after we see Douglas and Tom and that other kid's reaction to the fact that the girl actually killed the murderer and it's like we're back to the tone of the book as they get sad that they won't have the thrill of having a murderer loose in town anymore, but then they start theorising that that man was not the murderer and the real one is still out there and that's like ok yeah that's more like the tone of the book, kids being kids and the girl's actually fine.

(I had more stuff written after this but Tumblr decided to not save it so everything after this is written for a second thime, ugh)

Tom Spaulding I wish I had life as figured out as you, my boy just knows that no matter how bad your day goes (like if Tumblr deletes half your wip post) you'll be back in your bed and everything will be okay and you'll be ready to face life again the next day. Like man I wish I had that mentality.

End of spoilers

Ehh I think that's everything I have to say about Dandelion Wine, though maybe I had more stuff written before Tumblr murdered it and I forgor but that's not my fault.

So if you asked me to rate the book I would probably say 9/10, I really enjoyed it and fully recommend it. I think it's now one of my favourite books and it definitely cemented Ray Bradbury as my favourite author.

Anyways if you've read this far, thanks I guess (?, I'm glad you found my rambling worth reading through and idk go enjoy your life and remember you are alive.