#the guy has done other sci fi stuff too

[drdemonprince]

i read in the comments to my last ask about "ordinary unhappiness" the idea of depression as a lack of agency and i feel like that is true? when i feel miserable and in pain, it's not because something is sad but because something is either unachievable or impossible (or at least there is the perception of it). and like i think that's what you were getting at too? this thing that drives you to keep going, this lack of satisfaction. i simply don't have anything i can give into such that i would ever even feel a lack of satisfaction. i've never had anything to give myself into and feel frustrated and perhaps sometimes successful in but instead i just envy the people who do have those things. nothing i've ever done has felt maintained a sense of emotional connectiveness in that way (positive or negative). i guess to wrap this back around to another potential talking point, i'm curious how you find that in your life? is it weird for me that nothing has ever felt worth putting myself whole ass into? idk, i find it envious you've got both writing and gay hypno fetish stuff you're able to just throw yourself into so wholly and utterly

Passion isn't inherent, it can be a choice too. I only look like I care a ton about writing and gay hypno stuff because I have deliberately chosen to pursue those passions, for many years, and cultivated a deep interest in them, anon.

When I was in my early twenties, I felt completely empty. I was a void. If you've read the first chapter of Unmasking Autism, this is the period I'm talking about in that book. I went away to graduate school (because I was good at academics, and I had some illusions about what a career in that field would do for me), but I had absolutely zero zest for the subject of psychology at that point. I had no research ideas. I read psychology books and publications purely out of obligation. I did what was required of me, but nothing additional beyond that, and I spent the rest of my time sitting at home, sometimes literally staring at the wall and crying. I had no friends or hobbies, aside from taking long, long depression walks listening to podcasts in order to fill the silence.

This was when I was at my most depressed, and my most suicidal. Just existing was a pain. I'd sob in bed at night and cry out begging for God to kill me, and I didn't even believe in God. The only thing that distracted me from my pain was a guy I was seeing, who was beautiful and very cruel and inconsistent, and I clung to him through all kinds of lies and abuse because it felt as though my happiness was located inside of him.

I had a friend that I wrote to about how miserable I was, and all the twists and turns that my horrible romance was taking. Her name was Heather. (Unlearning Shame is dedicated to her). She told me hey, you're a really good writer, did you know that? I really enjoy reading your emails, even when you're speaking about the most pitiful anguished shit, you really put it poetically and have a ton of insight. You should write more.

For a while, I ignored her. I didn't care about writing. I just wanted to get my pain out on the page because I had nobody to talk to, and oodles of time to waste. I had nothing otherwise that I felt I HAD to say. I had no PASSION. I did not feel like I was put on this earth to do anything. Other people seemed to have these drives, and I had nothing.

But then one day in a fit of depression I stopped by a bookstore right near my apartment, The Armadillo's Pillow, just to get outside of the house. I happened upon a book I had loved in high school, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. I took it home. I read it. It transported me for a few hours away from my pain. I went back to the book store and picked up some sci-fi. A John Varley collection, I think. I was also swept away from my suffering, even when the stories had flaws that I noticed. I was interested in the actual craft of storytelling: what worked and what didn't. And there was finally some beauty in my head instead of the usual dreariness and self-hatred and emptiness.

And so. I made the choice to write. I could have taken it or left it at that point. I didn't care about anything. Caring is a muscle that you have to flex. And when you're depressed, it can be very hard. I needed a lot of nudges from the external world and other people, to realize that I had some things I did gravitate toward, even if I didn't realize it.

All that time of course I WAS driven to write. I was churning out 5k word letters to Heather every day practically. I was reading stupid shit online. And when it was put in front of me, and I had no reason to feel guilt about not working hard enough on other things, I reached for books. But I didn't feel passion strongly under the heavy blankets of my depression. Or usually at all, really. I am a quite internally muted person whose emotions are suppressed. But they're there. Speaking to me softly. And to overcome my depression, I had to decide to listen to them instead of ignoring them all of the time, and give them kindling, and then fan them into a flame.

I started blogging regularly while I was in graduate school (right here, hello, you can check my archive dating back to 2011), and finding a reason to live. When I was writing, I felt like the world was interesting, and beautiful. It gave me new things to do. I attended literary readings and book launches all over town. I submitted work to magazines. I bought old copies of magazines and read them. I inhaled books. I listened to fiction podcasts. I joined writing groups. At first, it felt like a slog, like anything else. Doing these things, I was not "happy". But I was interested. I liked learning about the world of publishing, critiquing people's stories in my head, and commisserating with other Tumblr writers about the stuff that got featured on the Prose tag that sucked.

After YEARS of doing this, of choosing to fan my passions, it became a genuine motivation in my life. But even then? I lose track of it sometimes. I get busy, or there's no place comfy to sit and read in my apartment, and I forget that I like writing and reading for months at a time. And then I have to choose it again. It takes effort to care about something, every time.

It's the same way with hypno. I did have a fetish for this stuff all my life long. But it's a passion that people always thought was weird and gross, and that I thought was bad. I didn't tell anyone about it until my late 20's. I felt ashamed masturbating to it or looking up hypno content online. For years I snuffed out that flame of passion until I could barely feel it anymore. It wasn't until I was super depressed AGAIN in my later 20's that I took a bunch of weird off-label anti-depressant drugs under the table and had a weird dreamy headspace overtake me and make me insanely horny that I remembered how much I loved hypno, and because I was in search of an escape from my tormented brain, I sought hypnotists out.

And I had the time of my life. But I also had boring, awkward encounters, bad hook-ups, and had to do a ton of work.

My passions have drawn me out of depression because I needed them to. I had to find them, listen to them, and then give them lots of food. And it's one of the few things that a person does often have agency over, no matter how dispiriting their circumstances. You can make choices about where to put what attention you do have, in what free moments you do have. When you're on the bus or in line at the grocery store and you're thinking about how much you hate yourself, you can try to think about a story you read or a sexual fantasy you had, instead. It's a lot of work. But it's better work than the work of hating yourself, which takes a whole lot of energy and attention itself.

I hope you can find something like this for you. It doesn't really matter what it is. It can be some hobby you've always wanted to try, or something "childish" you've suppressed. Having a passion isn't like being chosen by the universe to care about something. It's not like love at first sight. Nothing fucking works like that in life. It's always work. It's always a choice you have to make, because no one else will give it to you. But there can be hints that you can follow, sometimes.

[starlightkun]

finders keepers ⇢ teaser 1

⇢ teaser word count: 1162 | full fic: 37.8k total (22.7k & 15.1k) ⇢ genre: sci-fi/science fantasy au, soulmate au, alien!jungwoo, human!reader, slow burn, fluff and angst ⇢ warnings: blood/injury mentions (but like, alien blood, if that makes a difference?), a couple needle/injection mentions, if u get secondhand embarrassment this one might hurt in places, a couple crude jokes about alien stuff iykwim (reader’s friends r kind of the worst), this fic is just a rlly sweet soulmate au i swear idk why these tags look horrendous 😭 ⇢ extra info: this will be released in two parts bc of tumblr’s 1000-block limit that was put in place to hurt me personally :)) BUT both parts will be released on the same day ⇢ estimated release: saturday, november 30, 2024, 3:00 p.m. eastern time (sign up for my taglist here)

At your building, Johnny and Jaehyun helped you drag the spaceman up to your apartment on the third floor, and you had them deposit him on your bed. Johnny brought his travel vet kit up from the car, and together, you managed to get the shiny silver jacket off of him. Underneath, he had a fairly plain white top, which was also torn and blood-soaked. Johnny snapped on a pair of gloves before he pushed the hem up to appraise the stranger’s side, where there was a huge gash in his flesh.

“Oh, Christ, okay,” Johnny sighed, inspecting the wound. “I guess I’ll disinfect and suture it up?”

“Just do it,” you mumbled, pressing a towel to the man’s sweat-sheened forehead.

“Jaehyun, mind assisting?”

“You do know the ‘Dr.’ I put in front of my name is just decorative, right? It’s in Poetry—”

“And now you can brag to all your colleagues that you’ve done real medicine like a real doctor,” Johnny snapped back. “Disinfectant, get it.”

With Jaehyun assisting him, Johnny made quick work of patching him up. Pressing the bandages down over the site so the adhesive would stick, Johnny then disposed of his navy-splattered gloves. He grabbed a stethoscope, putting the end up against the spaceman’s chest.

“I think he’s alive?” Johnny announced. “I don’t know. If he is, he doesn’t have a heart because I’m not getting anything.”

He shifted the placement, presumably to listen to his breathing, and an even more bewildered look overtook his features. Sliding the stethoscope over to the right side of the man’s chest, he sat there for a moment, just listening.

“It’s on the other side,” he breathed out. “His heart’s on the right side.”

“But he has a heartbeat?” You clarified.

“Yeah, he does. Faint, but it’s there. He’s breathing, too. A bit shallow, but otherwise normal. I think.”

You let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

“I don’t think there’s anything else I can do until he wakes up. If he wakes up.”

“Right, thank you Johnny,” you smiled wearily your friend. “I’ll call you when he wakes.”

Jaehyun and Johnny looked at each other skeptically. Jaehyun spoke up, “You’re going to stay here alone with some rando we literally pulled out of a burning hunk of metal?”

“My couch only fits one person. So unless you two are offering to sleep on the floor to protect me or whatever?”

“Call us if anything happens,” Johnny sighed, packing up all of his supplies.

“Of course,” you nodded. “Thanks, guys.”

You heard the sound of your front door clicking shut as you stayed sitting on the edge of your mattress, wiping the spaceman’s face. He really did look human, two eyes that were now shut, lashes resting on his cheeks, a nose practically just like yours, with an elegant slope to the bridge, and a pair of plush, pouty lips.

He let out a soft sigh, his head rolling over towards you. But then he went silent and still again.

You finished cleaning up his face as best you could, then pulled the covers up over him. Readjusting his bangs that had been stuck together by the damp washcloth you’d used, you gave a final determined nod to nobody in particular before standing up. Grabbing a change of pajamas from your dresser, you got everything you’d need from in here for the night, then went to leave.

“Alright…” You stopped at the threshold of your bedroom, looking over the spaceman’s sleeping figure one last time. “Goodnight, I suppose.”

And with that, you turned the lights out, and quietly closed the door behind you. You were sure to leave it slightly ajar, though, just in case. After taking a much-needed shower and getting ready for bed in your bathroom, you headed out to the living room. You set up a few pillows and blankets into a comfy-enough makeshift bed, then tucked yourself in. Despite the exhaustion in your muscles, the excitement of the night hadn’t worn off yet, and you laid awake for another hour just staring at your bedroom door.

Waking up in the morning to sunlight streaming in through your living room windows, you covered your eyes with a groan and rolled over to bury your face in the back cushions. The sound of your phone buzzing incessantly from the coffee table came, however, and with a guttural groan, you flopped back over to pick it up.

“Yeah?” You mumbled, not even checking the caller ID.

“Y/N?” It was Yuta on the other end.

“Who the fuck else would it be? You called me at whenever-the-fuck-in-the-morning.”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

“Couch,” you corrected him, swinging your feet over as you sat up properly. “I slept on the couch.”

“Gave E.T. your bed? Such a kind hostess.”

The mention of your guest woke you up more. You got to your feet, shuffling towards the bedroom with a yawn. “Yeah, you know me, I’m a fuckin’ peach.”

“So how’s the…” Yuta dropped his voice to whisper into the phone, “Alien?”

The door hadn’t moved since last night, and you cautiously pushed it open to peer inside. You could see the stranger exactly where you had left him, laying on his back under your blankets, chest shallowly rising up and down. Pushing further into the room, you hesitated on whether to try to find a pulse again. You settled for trying once around his wrist, and if it didn’t work, then you’d just have to assume he was fine.

Surprisingly, you found his pulse in one go, and it felt steady.

“Fine, I think,” you answered Yuta quietly, walking back over towards your door. “He’s breathing, he has a heartbeat. He’s just not… ambulatory.”

“Still passed out cold?”

“Yeah.”

“Imagine if he was in one of those comas that you don’t wake up from, and we just had to deal with this comatose alien.”

“Stop, you’re going to manifest that or something!” You hissed.

“Not manifesting, just joking.”

“You’re hilarious.”

“Anyway, some of us went back to the beach this morning, because Mark really wanted to see the UFO—”

“Don’t touch anything!”

“We couldn’t. The whole place is locked down. Couldn’t even park on the shoulder, it was swarming with cops. They were still putting out the fire.”

“Do you think any of the ship survived?”

“I have no clue. Doyoung said he’d ask his dad about it.”

Doyoung’s dad was the fire chief, making your participation in the conflagration last night even more dicey.

“Tell him to call me as soon as he finds out anything.”

“I think he was already planning on that, but I’ll make sure he knows.”

“Good. Also, I’m sorry for kicking you in…” You trailed off as you turned around to see two big brown eyes staring at you from your bed. “I’ve got to go, Yuta. I’ll call you back.”

“What’s hap—”

You hung up.

⤷ masterlist

TAGLIST

@bee-the-loser @ppddpjdr @tearinka @yoursyuno @yutasputa69 @winkeuu

[huntiesworld]

Shower Time | Chris Sturniolo

Chris Sturniolo x Reader

Warning: Reader in shower naked.

Requested: Nope!

Notes: I don't know if anyone has done this, I haven't been on Tumblr in a while.

Pink: Reader

Blue: Chris

Chris's fingers tapped eagerly on his phone screen as he dialed Y/n's number. He was brimming with excitement, and the day's shopping spree had been a successful one. After a whirlwind of trying on different outfits and browsing through racks, he had picked up a few new pieces he couldn't wait to show off. It was one of those days where every little thing felt like an adventure, and sharing it with Y/n was the cherry on top.

On the other end, Y/n was enjoying a relaxing shower. The bathroom was filled with steam, and the sound of running water created a soothing background. She had just started lathering up when her phone buzzed. As she reached out to grab it, she saw Chris's name flash on the screen.

“Hey, Chris!” she called out, slightly muffled by the steam and water. She answered the call and held the phone in one hand, carefully balancing it on the edge of the sink.

“Hey, beautiful!” Chris’s face appeared on the screen, his grin as wide as ever. “I’ve gotta show you what I just bought. I know you love fashion, so I couldn’t wait!”

Y/n laughed, her smile evident even through the misty bathroom. “Oh, really? I’m all ears. Just give me a second to get out of the shower.”

“Wait, don’t go yet!” Chris protested. “I’ve got a plan. How about you just watch from the shower while I model my new stuff for you?”

Y/n raised an eyebrow, amused. “You want me to watch you from the shower? That sounds like an interesting way to multitask.”

“Exactly!” Chris said, holding up a shirt and winking at the camera. “Trust me, it’ll be fun.”

As Chris began to show off his new clothes, Y/n couldn’t help but laugh at his enthusiastic poses. He twirled and strutted in front of the camera, dramatically modeling each outfit. The first was a sleek leather jacket that he paired with an exaggerated tough-guy stance.

“What do you think?” Chris asked, his expression a mix of hope and mischief.

Y/n tilted her head, pretending to ponder. “Hmm, very James Dean. I like it, but you might need to work on your serious face.”

“Noted!” Chris said, changing into a trendy graphic tee next. He made a point to show off every detail, from the pattern on the front to the way it fit his shoulders.

“Nice choice,” Y/n commented, nodding approvingly. “That looks great on you. The color really brings out your eyes.”

Chris’s grin widened at the compliment. “Thanks! I was hoping you’d like it. And last but not least…” He pulled out a new pair of sneakers, their bright, neon soles practically glowing in the room's light.

“Whoa, those are cool!” Y/n exclaimed. “They look like they’re from a sci-fi movie or something.”

“I know, right?” Chris said, bouncing slightly on his heels. “I had to get them. I just knew you’d appreciate them.”

“I do,” Y/n said, her eyes sparkling with genuine excitement. “But you know what’s even cooler?”

“What’s that?” Chris asked, tilting his head.

“Seeing you happy and excited about your new clothes,” she said warmly. “It’s like we’re on a little shopping date, even though I’m stuck here in the shower.”

Chris chuckled, his face softening. “Well, I’m glad you think so. I missed you today. It feels like you were right here with me, cheering me on.”

Y/n reached out to the phone, her hand brushing against the screen. “I missed you too, Chris. Next time, let’s make sure we have a real date—no showers involved.”

“Deal,” Chris said, his eyes locking with hers through the screen. “Can’t wait for our next adventure together.”

As the call ended, Chris waved one last time, and Y/n watched as he disappeared from the screen. She finished up her shower with a smile, feeling grateful for the simple joy of sharing moments with someone she loved, even from afar.

[maxwell-grant]

Any thoughts on the second Mr.Terrific?

I like him quite a bit. I'm not super well read on the guy but he feels like a character Jonathan Hickman would have made a star out of by now if he worked for DC, or at least an extremely Hickman-esque set of ingredients. He is not just an omnicapable genius Great Man of science and technology with spiritual or emotional or moral blindspots, but an omnicapable-yet-compromised Great Man who defines himself around an ideal and statement of intent that can clash with the practical reality around him. He quite literally wears on his sleeve his own arc words to be repeated for emphasis.

And there is a bit of a tension in his composition also in that, he wears the most straightforward possible motto taken straight from a Golden Age guy, he's defined one of the purest distilled ideals a superhero can wear ever put on paper, and has an origin about him taking up superhero work as a newfound and sole meaning in his life, but he is not a traditional superhero, he is a Doc Savage kind of guy modeled after the heroes of the bastardverse across the street. Much of his origin is defined around the fact that he is just not operating on the same wavelength everyone else is. He is very much not a bastard, it is important that he isn't, but still, Batman would not get invited to the Illuminati, where as Michael might. He helped form a rip-off of it, even.

But to me he also feels like a character who still needs some work put into him to reach something really great. He's a guy with a killer design and a pretty good origin and sometimes occasionally a cool personality and generally is very useful to have around as a handyman gluing plots together, but who always seems to sit at a weird middleground between Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and Not-Batman that keeps him rather undefined. In his present state he is a plug-and-play character to explain plots as they happen, rather than the center of uniquely interesting things himself. He sits at a middleground now where he is too big to be street level, but he's not powerful or big enough to save the world on his own, so he's forced to fill out the stuff in between usually in mediocre spy or tech guy roles.

On the other hand, that malleability can also be a strong point to him, the fact that you can insert him anywhere from detective stories to scaled all the way up to managing a Justice League. He has legacy baggage but he is not a guy you really need to explain, you can put him in the big leagues and big stories and he explains himself as is. And it seems that people kinda get that he should be a bigger deal than he actually is, that he is open to bigger and better and more interesting things to be done with him, but there needs to be more put into it. He needs his own set-ups. He is a cool design and a cool guy and within those, really cool ideas waiting to happen.

I have been really loving the set photos that have been coming out of James Gunn's Superman and particularly the ones with Mr.Terrific, it's making him click with me a bit more and I think the movie might be what pushes me to outright love him. Given Gunn's statement comparing Holt and the other heroes to workplace buddies, he just makes intuitive sense as a guy who does things with Superman at the weird sci-fi superhero job which they both have whether it's to knock asteroids out of orbit together or deal with runaway super dogs. There is a pretty lovely World's Finest kind of symmetry to them that I really hope to see expanded on.

[ask-missparker]

Things Mia Said/Done..

~ Pregnancy edition (Pure Fluff and tiny bit of angst! 🥰)

~ All the young avengers and friends are included -> Liane, Rick, Luna, Cole, Cassie, Jeremy, Rochelle and etc

- Pairings: Mia x Nik, Cole x Jeremy, Rochelle x Michelle, Rick x Luna etc. 🎬

Wearing comfy cardigans, graphic tops, and her hair in a cute messy bun. Painting her nails and wearing certain earrings too

Being a cuddle/hug bug 🤗

Buying pillows and blankets for the living room in the house. Cause of course who doesn’t want pillows and warm weighted blanket??

Binge watching tv shows with the gang (like Voltron with Luna, certain documentaries series with Rick and OUAT with Liane)

Watching movies, such as classic Disney movies, sci-fi and action comedies 🎬

Aunt May becomes a grandma 💜

Making Bruce Banner and Natasha Romaneoff grandparents (again!) heheh ( AND HULK TOO OBVIOUSLY! 😌)

~~

Going to the Disney store and shopping in general.

Mia appear in the living room holding up car keys, “I’m going the mall, who wants to join me?”

Liane grins, “Where we going?”

“Target, H&M, Pandora and of course The Disney Store. Might buy some plushies!”

Luna gasped and squealed, “You had me at plushies! How much can we buy?!”

Rochelle already packing a bag and grabbing money

~~

Being emotionally invested in everything she does and becoming a little passionate about something as mundane as making breakfast for everyone at home

Cooking and baking all the time! (No one going hungry in The Avenger Tower 👏 )

MIA BE EATING 🍽️ SNACKING AND SHARING FOOD

Eating sweet and salty foods

Ricky finding a eating buddy in Mia ☺️ as they are always eating together or creating combos of meals

~~

“Ooh nachos!” Mia said as she entered the kitchen and taking a bite.

Rick gasp chuckled as he glared, “Hey that was mine!”

“Sorry, eating for two…”

“Eating…for two? But you’re not—OH MY GOSH?! Wait you-?!”

“Hehehe! You just found a foodie friend for the next few months.”

“OH MY GOODNESS! I’mma be an absolute legend of an uncle!”

~~

A little forgetful but eventually remembers!

“Is it too early to pick names? And no we’re not naming them Cole Jr!”

Playing music and dancing in the kitchen

Passionately singing out lyrics 😂

Gets annoyed with her favorite Star Wars t-shirt doesn’t fit her cute belly and decides to steal one of Nikolai instead

“Aww they’re kicking!”

Squeals at cute baby clothes

Doesn’t mind when one of her friends rubs her belly for good luck 🍀 and finds it adorable

A little sensitive to smells and comments about it

“Yo! Who farted?!”

“Someone needs to take a shower!”

~~

“I’m a hot mess.” She said randomly

Cole snickers, “Tell me something I don’t know, love.”

The two just start laughing

~~

Sometimes question why her friends and hubby bought SO much stuff.

“What did you guys do?! Buy the whole mall?!”

Becomes emotional and just wants to wrap her arms around her friends, after getting worked up

Or one of her love ones are sad and she just wants to do EVERYTHING to make sure they feel better ❤️‍🩹

Find Mia napping or sleeping in (she’s a night owl so this a shocker to everyone!)

She will sometimes finds herself taking care of others and even doing chores for them

She blushes when someone decides to chat with the baby

~~

Mia is laying down on the couch flipping through channels and smiling. Then suddenly Nikolai pops beside her and cuddles his wifey, telling her about his day.

“What are you doing?” She asked giggling looking at him.

Nikolai grins and rubbing her belly, “Gossiping with our baby boy.”

~~

Everyone suddenly becomes overprotective and careful around her, even though Mia has to remind them that she’s fine

Jeremy reminded her to take it easy and she making a witty remark to him

Luna and Mia putting the baby’s room 🥺 together

Rochelle wanting to return the favor to her, due to Mia being supportive during Rochelle’s pregnancy ☀️ meanwhile Michelle is freaking out over everything and being super excited

Nikolai becoming a huge fan of wifeys cooking and becoming extremely protective of her. Hell, he figures it out before her 😂

Mia creates t-shirts for everyone as gifts!! Baby lab coats too

Bruce, Liane and Nikolai telling Mia to chill out 😤

~~

Rick would be sooooooo excited and want to do things for Mia (chores, errands, paperwork) and also spoil the kiddos. Bruce, Natasha, Hill and others want her to listen to the doctors advice too.

She doesn’t always listen to them and regrets it later, knocking out cold on the couch.

~~~

Miss Mia will never admitted it fully but she’s emotional and has her moments insecurity across the board. In response she is often used humor to cope with any kind of worries she got. But sometimes she brings up the thoughts she has.

“Will be a good mom like mine is? I hope so.”

She knows that Nikolai wonders if he will be a good father. Of course she will find him and talk it out, how they’re both feeling about everything going on.

“We’ll be alright and this kid is gonna have a great village to raise them.”

Sometimes Mia is found on the couch or sitting at her desk doodling thing too, it’s a great mental break to relax. Relive herself of any kind of tension and sometimes she ends up with a good laugh.

Sometimes she is just embarrassed and emotional for no reason and honestly it’s cute

~~

“I cried over a meeting yesterday and an email.” Mia exclaimed, “I never cry during a meeting!”

“What was the meeting about?” Cole asked

“Saving and investing in Panda bears for cute press releases..” She admitted

Jeremy burst out laughing, “Oh jeez! Okay, that’s cute.”

Cole snickered, “Oh you poor thing you’ve gone soft.”

~~~

This girl sometimes end up saying random stuff…😂

“I know what I should do! I should cut my hair like Princess Diana.”

“If Donkey and that dragon ended up together, why are their kids donkey size?”

“Why don’t donuts grow on trees?”

“Hercules was a good movie and the cartoon was fun too.”

“If I listen to Justin Timberlake and dance around, do you think the baby would like to dance as a toddler?”

“What? Tom and Jerry is educational…if you don’t about the violence part..”

~~

Other times she is saying sweet and sappy stuff 🩷

“I love you guys! I don’t say it enough.”

“Shut up, you are beautiful and smart and wonderful human being!”

“I know I have been emotional lately and a little annoying, I don’t mean to act that way…so I got you a little something to show my appreciation for you.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you are amazing and doing your best today? Cause you are.”

“Who wants donuts? I’m buying!”

~~

“You gotta stop baking so much.” Cassie says chuckling, “You gotta eat some healthy food too.”

Mia dressed in a white apron and wearing Mickey Mouse ears while making Goofy themed treats.

“You weren’t complaining last week when I made you Hogwarts theme snacks for your movie night!” She remarked yelling.

Luna gasped, “She got a point!”

Liane eating popcorn with Rick watching it all go down giggling

~~

Mia tends to go a little overboard with things especially when she starts nesting too early in the season

SHE JUST WANTS THE PLACE TO LOOK COMFY AND COZY! That’s all she ask 😌

She tends to be a bit dramatic and silly too, often when she’s in a mood.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Am I forgetting something? Oh god, did I say something wrong? Don’t laugh!”

She will eventually get over it and go back to normal

She gets excited over the littlest things too!

Mia is often a tad bit clumsy and lack the energy to do things around the house at times. She adopts a lazy era 💅🏻

But everyone loves her all the same in the end!

~~~

Ahhh let me know what you think 💭

Add onto any ideas u got too 🍂 in the comments or reblog 👀

Tags: @jackiequick @gcthvile @meiramel l l @cherrysft @blueboirick @wizzzardofoz z @finlayholmes @ethan-lensherr @elzabeth-stark k @marvelsfavoriteuncle @sci-fi-lexcon @ask-starrk @therealdaydreamstark @luna-d-marsh @rickb-chaos @the-x-ladiesofnyc @trulysummersprivate @missstrawbs2001 @purpleprincessonfyre

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

He Tried

@httyd-whump-week

Summary: Httyd Whump Week 2024 Day 3. Set in a Sci-fi AU. Set in the same universe as A Calling For A Healing. All Tuffnut wanted to do was protect Hiccup. That's all he wanted.

Warnings: Medical stuff, Chronic illness

Rating: Teens and Up

Dead Dove: No

Words: 718

Prompt: Tuffnut

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon

Characters: Hiccup, Tuffnut, Ruffnut

Pairing: /

Author's Notes: Was supposed to post this one yesterday, but I had a thing after work, so I had to post it today.

Somehow revolved all of this week's whumps around Hiccup, too. 😭

Enjoy!

-XOXOX-

All things considered, Hiccup has a big mouth and they love that about him. The world is against him in the most literal sense, he could get out of bed wrong and break something. Despite this, he speaks his mind and he does so bluntly. It doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid and his condition doesn’t mean others are going to care.

When he makes an unfortunate comment at school about a jock-type guy’s intelligence in front of their respective friend groups after Hiccup confronts him in the inner courtyard about stealing Fishlegs’ work and basically calls him an idiot, he simply couldn’t swallow that.

“You’ll pay for that!”

Tuffnut sees it coming and he does what any one of their friends would do for Hiccup; he jumps between him and the jock. Whether to catch the punch with his hand or his face, it doesn’t matter. What was important is that Hiccup doesn’t get a scratch on him.

The jock’s fist connects with his nose and for a brief moment this is it; the moment all of his and his sister’s violence towards each other has led to. Pain explodes in his nose, something cracks, but he can take it. So long as his friend stays unharmed, he can take it just fine.

And then he’s thrown backwards, right into Hiccup.

There are screams of horror as they both fall to the ground, Tuffnut on top of Hiccup. He can practically feel the crunching of his bones. He gets off him and up on his knees as fast he can. Astrid is already by her knees at Hiccup’s side, Snotlout, Fishlegs and Heather surround him. The jock who lashed out, realizing what he did, quickly makes a run for it and his friends chase after him. Meanwhile Ruffnut, though she worries for their friend, too, kneels by her brother and rests her hands on his shoulders.

Hiccup lies gasping on the ground, holding his right arm to his chest, the same arm that was broken only a few months ago.

“Hold still, okay?” Astrid is calm, this isn’t the first injury she has to help him through, her hands on him in places she assumes aren’t hurt. Who knows the kinds of injuries he has now. Broken ribs? A fractured skull? A broken spine? He has had all these injuries at least once before and his RBDD has been attacking at least two of those, despite continuous treatments to slow the process.

Heather has left by now to get a teacher, they aren’t even allowed to move him until the paramedics come to stabilize him first, hence why Astrid is such a champion at keeping him calm. It’s a horrific condition and it has already cost him his leg. One day, it’s going to cost him his life.

Tuffnut sniffs, only then realizing that his nose is bleeding and has been dripping red on his shirt and the ground this entire time. He wipes it away, becoming aware of the burning and throbbing of his nose.

“Bro, your nose is crooked,” Ruffnut remarks, but he barely even notices, too preoccupied with other things.

All he wanted was to help, do his part in protecting their friend like Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Heather and even Dagur have done. They never think he’s capable, sometimes even distrust his and his sister’s presence around him because of just how fragile Hiccup’s condition makes him. He didn’t even want to prove anyone wrong, he just wanted to do good for a good friend. Hiccup is always helping him out whenever he can, so why can’t Tuffnut return the favor?

It takes an agonizingly long time for help to come, a professor and even the principal now hovering around as paramedics stabilize Hiccup enough for transport. He has his own medical team at the local hospital that he visits at least once a month minimum, so even the paramedics are familiar with him and his situation.

Tuffnut sits forgotten on a bench, still watching from a distance, with guilt eating away at him and his nosebleed only just starting to slow. He has wasted at least part of a whole tissue box by now. Eventually, they take him away on a stretcher and Tuffnut wonders how he could ever make this up to him.

[kimbapisnotsushi]

oh please talk about kawanishi taichi i love that silly guy

OF COURSE ANON I TOO LOVE THAT SILLY GUY LET'S GET IT!!

(also i am SO sorry for taking so long oh my god i am back in action and catching up i promise!!)

i think he likes beanies in his casual wear

idk kawanishi feels like such a beanie person but not the douchebag slouchy ones he's got one that's a little snug and has something embroidered on it like a bird or something

okay that's a lie. he has ONE douchebag slouchy beanie that makes him look like how a high school romance shoujo mangaka of the mid-2000s would dress a flashy somewhat-delinquent teenage boy (honey lemon soda my beloved)

this, of course, could not be farther from the truth

the entire second year is scared of him bc they never somehow realize he's there until he says something and they're like "holy SHIT". this also means he knows a bunch of hot gossip

(the hot gossip miyagi group chat: kawanishi, watari, onagawa, and narita)

on the other hand. that means the students of 2-5 win the contest for "best cultural festival attraction" between classes bc they had the best haunted house the miyagi prefecture had ever seen

he's on really good terms with the school nurse because sometimes he sneaks into the infirmary to take naps during lunch or gym periods

knows how to lockpick BECAUSE he keeps trying to sneak into the infirmary. and occasionally the school roof for their "team bonding picnics" so that tendou doesn't have to keep swiping the key from the student council

i'm not just saying this bc i like enamel pins but i think kawanishi DOES like enamel pins. he's got a collection of these edgy sarcastic ones that he thinks are hilarious in a "started-ironically-and-now-i-can't-stop-pipeline" kind of way

he's got this whole tumblr-grunge-indie-hipster thing going on with his douchebag slouchy beanie and denim jacket with pins all over the collar and ripped jeans and converse sneakers and shirabu thinks he pulls it off unfairly well

i feel like kawanishi also really likes fantasy/sci-fi and is actually SUCH a huge secret nerd about it. and really likes cyberpunk and fantasyland settings you'd get from like idk snow white with the red hair or nivalis (i KNOW it's an indie game that's not even out yet but sue me i don't know cyberpunk all that well)

he and tsukki actually become friends while arguing about how much of akira is deep meaning and how much of it is actually just straight up bullshit because WHAT the fuck was that

also he's subscribed to a bunch of these small artists on youtube who make background music and fun art to go with them bc he can put together a great soundtrack for getting hw and studying done

likes getting lil gifts for shirabu, especially to add to his stationary collection. shirabu has sticky notes in the shape of whales and ice cream and paper lanterns and washi tape with fireworks and beach motifs and bakery stuff and it's all because of kawanishi

kawanishi just sticks to the plain solid-color square sticky notes that he uses to leave shirabu notes around his dorm. just small things, really, a reminder that this is a place shirabu belongs and it is a place he is loved. you're doing great. get some water soon. i'll bring you dinner, just text me. don't forget to sleep.

and shirabu will be hard pressed to admit it, but those might be his favorite sticky notes of all

[whatyourusherthinks]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Review

God, you haven't seen this either? Have you watched ANY movies that didn't come out in the last ten years? Yes, my film history is filled with blind spots, but look on the bright side! I can tell you what I think about it in a modern retrospective kind of way!

What did I know about RHPS before watching it? Well, I remember playing The Time Warp on Just Dance 4 a lot. I saw the clip of the Sweet Transvestite song when I was probably too young to watch it. And I heard this movie was the pinnacle of so good it's bad. My friend Mary from the Video Booze podcast (I know you won't be reading this but HIIII MARY! Fuckin' name dropper over here.) loves the movie and is constantly telling me about the history and impact of this movie, so I went with her and my other friend/coworker (I know you won't be reading this either but HIIII! What, you aren't gonna tell us their name?) to see it. And well...

What's The Movie About?

It's astounding... Time is fleeting... Madness... Takes it's toll. But listen closely... Not for very much longer. I've got to... Keep control.

I REMEMBER Roan we don't have time to do the whole song. Aw...

What I Like.

THIS MOVIE IS FUCKING GREAT!

First of all, I like the story. It kinda steals from a bunch of classic horror movies in a very surface way. Like Doctor Frank-N-Furter is obviously a parody of Doctor Frankenstein, but he kinda acts like Dracula with all these people under his (sexual) thrall. Not to mention he's from Transylvania. But in a hilarious twist (Spoilers) TRANSYLVANIA IS A GALAXY IN THE MOVIE. THE TRANSYLVANIANS ARE ALIENS COMPLETE WITH SILVER AND GOLD OUTFITS AND LASERGUNS. It's so fucking funny, I absolutely loved it. This movie had me rolling in the aisles laughing. More to the point of the story, even though it heavily borrows from classic horror and sci-fi, it DEFINATELY is it's own thing. Doc Frank is such and iconic character and performance, I was really surprised that it was Tim Curry's first role in a movie! Admittedly he was playing the role on stage for a while, but stage and movie acting are two different things with different levels of elaboration. Everyone reprises their roles from the play, and they are all great. I STAN RIFF RAFF! His actor switching between two extremely different voices was so impressive!

And the music! HOT PATOOTIE BLESS MY SOUL! I REALLY LOVE THAT ROCK AND ROLL! Stop just singing every song! NO! THEY'RE ALL GREAT! I love musicals, especially ones with some darker themes. RHPS has some overt stuff like cannibalism, but the subtle storytelling implying Doc Frank's history as a concentration camp survivor is insane. Honestly, if Mary hadn't pointed it out I don't think I would have noticed. Also, I love rock and roll music! I was actually kinda impressed on how much storytelling was done in the lyrics of the music, because listening to most of them isolated, they just sound like songs! As much as I like them, there is a distinction between song written to be just listened to in isolation, and a song written to be part of a bigger story. RHPS has some songs that only really work in the context of movie (slash play) but The Time Warp, Hot Patootie/Bless My Soul, as well as a few other I can't think of of the top of my head work extremely well in isolation as well and perfectly slot into the storytelling of the movie.

This movie is so goddamn cool you guys.

What I Didn't Like.

Literally my only complaint is that the ending is a little too long. Like a skoosh. Mary told me the version we watched had one extra song stapled onto the ending, and the theatrical cut is much cleaner. So there's that.

Final Summation.

I think everyone who told me this movie is so bad it's good was too straight and dumb. Hey! This movie is actually, legitimately, really really fucking good! I think it may have became one of my favorite movies ever. The music, the queerness, the acting and story, it's all fucking perfect. Check it out if you like anything remotely related to this movie, old horror, musicals, queer people, cross dressers, rock and roll, fucking... Charles Atlas. Rocky Horror Picture Show is SO GOOD!

It's just a jump to the left.

AND THEN A STEP TO THE RIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Oh just end the review down already.

[lookingforhappy]

Hi LFH! Just thought I’d ask you what other projects could you see any TUA actors doing

personally for me I could see David doing the film adaption of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

I once had a conversation with a friend about Emmy being in the live action Hercules. My friend recommended Emmy being one of the muses, but then I kinda like the idea of her being Meg. (If you don’t know, she can SING)

immediately after I found out Wings of Fire was getting a TV show on Prime Video I could straight up imagine Emmy being Glory, Robert being Jambu, and Justin being Turtle. (If you haven’t read Wings of Fire yet I highly recommend it is SOOOO good)

oh interesting question

idk what they do irl but some stuff id like to see them do hypothetically/unrealistically:

tom hopper should come back and do bbc merlin sequel because holy fuck that also ended badly and it would be so cool to see them reincarnated as modern day and have arthur rise from the lake. give the knights their backstories. percival lost his family to cenreds army like show me that?? give percival an episode that isnt lamia?

i feel like david would be fun to see in a sci fi show (not star wars that sucks now) something like oblivion, moon, alien or a time loop like the edge of tomorrow.

emmy oh my god get her in musicals she has the voice and the energy. she could so be penelope or athena in a live action epic the musical. or one of the moms in beetlejuice the musical. im just thinking of musicals i know lmao but her doing a movie like wonka would also be amazing i love that movie and holy shit she has the vibes.

roberts very prolific tbh (he also seems to just be playing the same guy? no offense but he has been typecast a bit). id like to see him as a serious character? or a straight up slapstick comedy. lean into one of the extremes. hed be very funny as a live action vector from despicable me? im serious w that one actually.

aidan does intense very well, and i hate to be that person but he would do so well as a robin. maybe damian or young dick? we'd have to ignore the ethnic backgrounds a bit which sucks but i mean... robin adjacent character. seeing him play someone young would be a nice change. i realise i am just asking him to play baby five but yes. baby five. i would also like to see him play quiet characters, five is loud and i think aidan tends a bit that way too so itd be nice to see him do intense but quiet.

justin does better with quiet characters im sorry i wasnt taken by sparrow ben. it breaks the vibes a little but if they ever did a good zelda game i think hed do link as a quiet but dangerous guy quite well.

elliott... i know him from inception and beyond two souls. hes done a lot of action and sci fi and thinking films. maybe drop him in a fantasy too tbh. i would like to see him as a knight or rogue. holy shit him in a dnd movie would be cool. like the sequel to the chris pine movie pls. i loved honor amongst thieves.

idk i hope that was interesting at least lmao im not good the actors thing.

cameron britton who did hazel seems so charming as well id love to see him in more stuff as a wholesome character.

[bravestworriers]

writer interview game <3

thank u to @pricemarshfield who tagged me in this :) i'm so glad we're friends and u let me bombard you with random writing snippets as i go along!

i will be tagging the og writing wife @atxvanhalen (circa 2012), ao3 famous bffl @riverdanceeee, fantasy-pilled love of my life @multilevelmargoting, the coolest film reviewer in the biz @kaafka, and my begrudgingly kind editor @takeavacation2010 . & anyone else who'd like to write a little something about themselves!

read below if you dare!!!

When did you start writing?

probably as long ago as i could figure out how to & started winning little competitions for it! i love telling stories, usually through a visual medium (storyboarding, screenwriting etc), but it's all writing at the end of the day, no matter how put it down on a page.

i recently located my half finished writing from elementary school (so i must have started from the age of at least 8), all in the email drafts of my oldest email account, and it's always a treat to see how i used to think about romance, about drama and all that good stuff! (i was wrong and sad, but adorably so!)

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

i love big sci-fi adventures, heists, life or death sort of stuff, just as long as it's grounded in something tangible and human. i also just love media where you can tell that the artists are having a lot of fun with the medium and they way they're piecing everything together. like i adore the films kneecap (dir. rich peppiatt) and american animals (dir. bart layton) and dick johnson is dead (dir. kirsten johnson), even though i could never see myself writing a true story/biopic feature like that -- they're just exploring what a feature film compiling those ideas looks like today, fighting against the rules of what people think it should be, and just going for it. other than that, i watch a lot of BAD movies and BAD tv because it's fascinating to pull it apart and figure out where things went wrong -- like looking under the hood of a fucked up car.

mostly, i think i read and watch a lot of the types of things i like to write, lots of introspective dramedies and coming of age stories. but usually no tragedy, it makes me too sad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

in school i got compared a LOT to tim burton (i made a lot of fantasy focused films that existed in the real world), which honestly feels like a little bit of an insult now. if i was compared to henry sellick, now that would be a compliment.

i'd love to emulate documentarian and cinematographer kirsten johnson! (it's not going to happen. but i love her.)

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

i really can write anywhere, as long as it's in complete isolation listening to the same piece of music over and over until whatever i'm doing is complete (that's the autism for ya!). usually when i'm working, i'm lying down in bed in the evening, or weirdly standing with my computer on a counter in the kitchen early in the morning as i'm getting ready for my day. i'm a slow writer and can't get anything done without a deadline (work related) or a special interest (fic related), and usually things sputter aimlessly until someone explicitly asks for it (this is why my ao3 never has anything finished. sorry guys! #shamelssplug!)

(right now the piece of music i'm listening to is norman's walk by jon brion. and yes, if you're curious, my repetition of single pieces of music always messes up my spotify wrapped.)

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

the only theme i can think of is one of meeting someone that you're meant to meet, exactly at the point in your life that you are meant to meet them. life is chance upon chance upon chance, i've found, and i love capturing that life-changing feeling as it balances temporarily on a pinpoint. i especially love when it ends in tragedy too.

agnes varda's cleo from five to seven is a favourite of this trope. a bit of severance by ming le also has this concept wrapped up in it. and billy wilder's the apartment.

i don't think it surprises me though, i think it's always something i'm looking for in life. to eventually look back and see the path i made, and to know even if i didn't at the time, that it was the right one because of the people i had the pleasure of meeting, even briefly.

i also love 90s wedding movies and the strict structure they're written with, it's fun to replicate and poke fun of in my own work.

What is your reason for writing?

i started writing because i would get really overwhelmed with my feelings over whatever was going on in my life, and need to parse through them somehow. they say it's always best to start with a nugget of something, and build off of it. it's how i've coped with everything from romantic kerfuffles, to immigration, and racism, to parents splitting up, death, and everything else life has to offer. explicitly in my writing, or not.

maybe i've just been exceptionally lucky, but every time i've shared something that felt so isolating and devastating i did not know how to deal with it, i've always met someone after the fact who looked me in the eyes and told me they felt exactly the same thing.

it makes me love being a person on this planet.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i don't know! if you like it, please let me know! if you don't, please don't tell me i'll think about it for the next twelve years of my life and also cry.

no, but in all seriousness, i just want to make people feel like some part of them is understood, whatever that looks like. yell into the void with me, or yell back at me from the void, whatever works best for you.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

pacing and emotional beats. i can always feel when a scene is done, or when i want it to be done. i love writing the emotional stuff, i don't really care about the stuff that it takes to get there, other than it makes those beats happen.

writing my dialogue is like pulling teeth. writing my inner monologue gets convoluted. writing, i'm a slower than the oldest, most decrepit turtle. writing my descriptions can get too long in screenplay format. literally nothing but pacing out a story and hitting those emotional beats.

How do you feel about your own writing?

it makes me sick to my stomach. after i've obsessed over something for months and it's done, i can't look at it. i'm always terrified that it's so much worse than i want it to be, or that i'm envisioning it is. (i've had this exact experience at a festival with one of my films before and it haunts me forever.) i need other people to tell me it's written okay before i start to feel normal about it. i want to get over this sensation eventually, but it doesn't seem like it's happening anytime soon.

that being said, i don't think i could make myself stop writing and telling stories if i wanted to. my cross to bear, i suppose.

that's all. thanks for this, sarah, and if anyone read this, i hope you enjoyed it :^)

[moodymisty]

On the topic of space marines and sexual desire: While I agree with what you said. I do have to add that hormones don’t always equal desire. And while I get that the people we’re talking about are genetically engineered supersoldiers, there were some studies done that said there wasn’t a direct correlation between the two.

Also asexual and aromantic people exist, and I dont see why the Emperor (well known fan of messing with peoples minds+bodies) wouldn’t want to use that to his advantage. Since being acearo usually happens from a mix of genetic factors and the environment the person was raised in, and the process of becoming a space marine is all about changing those two things in a child. Also not to mention how space marines are made by adding in/taking away stuff from their brains, so I don’t see why some lobotomy-adjacent procedures can’t happen. Like yeah kid we got rid of the part of the brain that makes you horny, but don’t worry, cause now you’ll feel somewhat similar emotions when you kill someone in cold blood!

And I think the reason why I enjoy the lore of most space marines not being able to feel romantic/sexual attraction (other than the trope of a big tough guy in armour getting shy at the smallest bit of affection) is the inherent tragedy of it all. Sex and romance are a pretty big part of most people’s lives, every culture and every time period will write grandiose love stories or draw porn or make jokes about fucking someone’s mom. It’s a huge part of the human experience. People will set life goals on things like having sex for the first time or getting married to a person they love. Even cave paintings from hundreds of thousands of years ago featured stuff about sex and romance. But due to space marines being, well, space marines. They’ll never be able to experience that. Because falling in love means that the space marine’s loyalty now lies elsewhere. And if the space marine in question falls in love with someone, someone mortal, someone who has a life outside of constant battle, who has a family that cherishes them and would never demand them to die on the battlefield in some twisted cultlike form of “respecting your elders”. Then that space marine might develop standards, and we wouldn’t want that would we?

Of course not. We want a killing machine that’s only loyal to his family, to his father, to the Emperor. We want someone who’s an oversized attack dog, running into mortal danger because of his unquestioning loyalty, because he’s got no one else, because no one else would love him, because we made sure he can’t love anyone else. And even if he could, if his conditioning didn’t fully take, if some part of his brain grew back, if chaos somehow helped; then you’d be left with someone whose wires are so deeply crossed that it’s concerning. He doesn’t know how to be gentle or how to be normal about your relationship. He’d either be hyper possessive of you or he’d be “lending” you to his brothers like you’re some kind of object. If you try to break up with him he’d wail and scream as if you just died, because in his family the only way you can leave is through death. He’s too loud, too clingy, he’s got no control over his emotions and he gets horny every time he imagines you getting wounded in battle. Overall: he loves you very much, but it’s super toxic.

In conclusion. While sex can work as a good narrative tool in a grimdark setting, I feel that asexuality can also be a pretty good one too :)

I never meant to diminish aroace people by talking about hormones (which I do agree that hormones don’t always equal sex drive), I was only adding my own two cents about what the og post was already talking about.

I enjoy the lack of sex and romance in 40k as a way of getting away of a lot of the super forced hetero content that is in everything (my bookshelves are mostly horror and sci fi because of it), but I’m also not aroace, so there’s only so much I can relate to/talk about in that regard. So as with most things in the internet, if I’m not part of that community I’m just gonna not mention it and shut up xD

I enjoyed reading your HCs anon, I hope I didn’t step on your toes by accident

[lil-tachyon]

For the last couple years I've been keeping a handwritten list of good horror stories I've read. I guess the most recommendable ones are The Music of Erich Zann by Lovecraft, The Stolen Body by Wells, Mimic by Wollheim, The Thing in the Weeds by Hodgson, Cyclops by Leiber, The Screaming Man by Beaumont, and The Open Window by Saki. I might type up and post the whole list on my blog after I've done some more reading (my list of things I still need to read grows much faster than the other list).

Including your other suggestions so I can tackle them all in one post.

I wasn't sure I was going to get to all these but I ended up being kinda knocked out by a nasty cold this week and had time to lay up in bed reading through all of them. Which was an absolute pleasure! Thank you for putting this list together. For fun I thought I'd do a mini-review of each story.

For context, I'm the kind of guy that's read probably every H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith story ever published. I had devoured most of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells by the time I was 14. What I'm trying to say is that I'm already a nerd pre-disposed to loving any Weird Fiction or early sci-fi/horror. If that kind of stuff isn't your speed, then adjust your expectations accordingly.

Also SPOILERS AHEAD for 50-100+ year old short stories.

"The Music of Erich Zann" - H. P. Lovecraft - 1921: This was always going to get a recommendation from me, I just enjoy Lovecraft too much. I'm glad I re-read it though, it had been a while and I think this might be one of my favorite of his stories now. The thing that stood out to me this time around was the exploration of the relationship between Zann and the anonymous protagonist. Feels uncharacteristic of a Lovecraft story to focus so much on the interactions between two human characters and it's done with a fair bit of depth. Bonus: no Lovecraftian racism in this story! Also check out this thrash/prog banger from the Mekong Delta album named after this story.

"The Stolen Body" - H. G. Wells - 1898: So when I opened up my copy of A Dream of Armageddon: The Complete Supernatural Tales (a misnomer it turns out, because it didn't contain the other Wells story on this list) I was surprised to find a bookmark exactly halfway through "The Stolen Body" from where I must've stopped the last time I tried reading this anthology over a decade ago. And I can understand why I would've stopped there because this story is kind of a slog. The premise is fine- a man severs his consciousness from his physical body in the course of an experiment in astral projection and is alarmed to find that when he attempts to return to corporeality another spirit has already taken possession of his frame. The problem is that this story is recounted twice- first from the perspective of a friend where, in spite of their incomplete information, it's pretty obvious what has transpired, and then a second time from the astral-projecting protagonist himself. In the protagonist's telling there's an interesting account of his journey through a kind of vapid hell where body-less spirits wander through eternity suffering of boredom and only able to interact with the physical world via mediums but the concept isn't explored in any depth and is recounted in a painfully "tell, don't show" manner. Can't say I recommend, but it's an interesting artifact of a time when late 19th century occultic beliefs showed up in sci-fi. Kind of like how a lot of 50s-70s sci-fi features psychics.

"Mimic" - Donald A Wollheim - 1942: My favorite story from the list. It's weird, compelling, and extremely brief. I won't summarize it because I think you should just read it. Surprised I hadn't heard of it before, especially since there's apparently a Guillermo Del Toro film adaptation of it? Also surprisingly difficult to track down the text. There are a few incomplete versions of it floating around but if you want the full story, I found it as part of this anthology on archive.org.

"The Thing in the Weeds" - William Hope Hodgson - 1913: - Before this, my only exposure to Hodgson had been "The House on the Borderland" (great story by the way), and reading the "The Thing in the Weeds" has me thinking I should dig a bit deeper into his bibliography. Conveys a sense of claustrophobia and anxiety that feels like classic "Weird Tales" fare while dealing with much lower stakes than unnameable cosmic beings. Maybe more horror stories should be set on the open sea...

"Cyclops" - Fritz Leiber - 1965: This is not a story, this is Leiber's idea for a cool vacuum-dwelling space creature dressed up as a story. Dialogue feels totally unnatural, characters are blank slates, tension is set at zero. But the creature is pretty darn cool and the story is very short. So if you want to just read about a neat alien, go ahead!

"The Howling Man" - Charles Beaumont - 1959: I had already seen the Twilight Zone adaptation of this story a while back so I knew the outline of the plot already, but that in no way diminished my joy in reading this. Beaumont's prose is highly engaging and contains a surprising amount of humor that I don't remember being present in the television version. The only real weak point is the ending. I think a bit more ambiguity over whether and to what the extent the Howling Man and the Abbott were lying to the protagonist would've demanded more introspection from the reader. The idea that releasing the Howling Man / Satan is the direct cause of WWII feels a little too simplistic and also depends on this weird assertion that the early Weimar Republic was experiencing an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity that I'm pretty sure doesn't hold up to historical scrutiny. Still highly recommend, a very fun read!

"The Open Window" - Saki / H. H. Munro - 1914: Less a horror story and more a... silly story? I don't know how to describe it other than it feels like the kind of thing you would have to read and analyze for a single high-school English period. Didn't really do anything for me but it's like a 5-minute read so check it out if you want. Does make me wish I could go on one of those "retreats to the countryside for my nerves" that turn-of-the-century English gentleman and ladies are always going on.

"In the Abyss" - H.G. Wells - 1896: A much better Wells story! And I was lucky enough to find this in the other print Wells anthology I own. (I have an addiction to bringing home old paperbacks I don't need but it's a cheap addiction and I don't have the heart to break it. Plus they're all on shelves and alphabetized so my wife can't get mad at me. Anyway, it's the shelves and shelf space that gets expensive...) It can be a little bit "gadget fiction-y" in its description of the submersible but overall it's well-paced with some good tension and a truly weird exploration of an underwater world. Recommend if you're looking for something outright odd or you like specifically underwater sci-fi. Don't recommend if you don't like thinking about the ways you might die in a submersible.

"The Stone Ship" - William Hope Hodgson - 1914: An interesting and definitely weird story, again about strange happenings on the open sea. Stretches the premise a bit too much, both in the actual length of the story and in my willingness to suspend my disbelief of the "scientific" explanation given at the end. I enjoyed it, but for a spookier and shorter take on a similar premise I'd recommend Lovecraft's "Dagon."

Anyway, thank you again @siryl for your recommendations, I had a blast reading through them!

[meimeikyu]

you 🫵

are there any silly things with the festivalverse gang that aren't reallllyyyy important to the storyline but are neat? Just lil things (for example: my hc that cross is allergic to soy! stuff like that) :D

ghskgshkghsk YES!!! I love projecting silly little details on them,,, mostly on dust he is the victim of most of my projection sorry man

on the allergy topic!! my friend (hi ink) is currently attempting to make my dust have a broccoli allergy! we have a deal that if it draws dust having an allergic reaction to broccoli ill make it canon and ive seen the wips so its technically not canon yet but will be (this is fcking hilarious to me btw it started bcs he was threatening me about it-)

hmmm other stuffs,,,,, killer really likes drama shows of most flavours!! them and dust will watch medical dramas together bcs dust likes the medical aspect and killer likes the silly drama n romance (this one is pure projection,,,, im watching 2 med dramas actively)

hmm ok now im thinking about shows / genres they like so killer really likes dramas n esp workplace dramas (cop, med,,, theres others i just cant think of any of them) n i think action too esp,, cross really likes fantasy and mystery (i think cross would be a good omens fan i cant explain why but canon to my au <3),,, dust likes horror (GENRE NOT THE PERSON) depending on the mood, med dramas (he has a lot of medical knowledge for. totally normal reasons <-lieing),,, but SCI FI. his fav < i am once again projecting. I think horror would like more reality based shows, n more calm stuff (she doesnt get why some of them wanna be stressed out irl then watch fake ppl be stressed),,,

not really important but killer n cross r both albino!!! bcs design purposes (see i made killer albino b4 i finalized crosses design in my mind and then i was like well i want cross to be and. i dont wanna change killer so they both r!!!) its less 'noticable' with killer tho bcs they dye (well make cross dye-) their hair as well as the uh. lack of eyes. they both r tho!! :D

Inks tattoos are NOT consistent! They change constantly no ones ever seen them change or move but every time ppl see him they r different n no ones quite sure why or how (they just sillay like that :D)

Error n Nightmare are canonically married. no ones quite sure how or when that happened or. why (are they in love romantically? the answer is debatable. they are married!!) this has no relevance to most of the story they r both just freaks like that (affectionate)

Ok slightly lore relevant but i wanna add this one too so error doesnt really? exist properly in time??? bcs technically error is one of the "younger" created gods but also it kinda. slipped thru a crack in reality and thats how we ended up here (antivoid) so its not just taht it has a bad idea or weird perception of time it just. physically exists outside of linear time. so error technically became way after nightmare but nightmare knew error as existing before her bcs of errors time fuckery. nightmare is aware of how error functions but the only one(s) who can properly perceive time before error existed and after are reaper and life. Ink also doesnt really exist properly in time but in a less obvious way? ink has a definitive start of creation date but is aware of everything that happened before that he just didnt exist in it,,, after his creation tho? very debatable how he works in time. the only ones hes really close to is dream n error and dream is not sure and you will never get a proper answer out of error lmfao

ok sorgy lore infodump done im insane about them can u tell

ghskghskg theres prob way more but this is all i can think of rn i hope u enjoy!!!!

also i swear i prommy i dont only have lore for the bad sanses i just. mostly talk about them n have more for them bcs they r my favs (which is bad for them. i put them thru the horrors sory guys) BUT the other guys have lore too!!!!

[reel-fear]

Honestly, every single time the whole 'poppy playtime is a bendy rip-off' stuff ever shows up I find it all extremely unconvincing and silly.

For one thing, rip-off usually is meant to imply that it's a cheap lazy copy of a better more polished thing, and uh. Sorry but even from chapter 1? Poppy Playtime is a better game than Bendy, it has a simple but understandable story, the game manages to be thrilling, creepy, and very intense at times... I mean that Huggy chase in the vents ALONE puts it way above Batim for me.

I mean BATDR had the most slow stupid chase I've ever seen [and every other encounter with the ink demon is text telling u he's there and then a timer goes down and u get jumpscared] and batim's chases were either silly or just not nearly as theatric or terrifying as that.

When making the vent sequence I mean not only is it absolutely horrifying to realize how fast Huggy is in there but also it's so theatric and cool? The fact that you round a corner after thinking you escaped only to see a terrifying animation of that thing crawling toward you is awesome! I wish Bendy had stuff like that!

And all the stuff it shares with Bendy are generic things Bendy ripped from other horror games/media anyways. I'm not saying Poppy Playtime isn't inspired by Bendy I for sure think it is but Bendy is such a generic story that somehow fails to do tropes 100 other horror games have done any comparison only makes Poppy Playtime look better.

"It has employees being sacrificed for their company" That is not a concept Bendy invented, literally look at any of the sci-fi horror series Bendy is very inspired by. This is literally a twist in the original Alien.

"It has a scary woman forcing you to do tasks for her" Once again, not a concept Bendy invented, a scary mysterious person forcing you to do fetch-quests is a concept found in tons of horror media. And at least Poppy Playtime gave you a chase with her and let you defeat her, look at poor malice. She's barely on screen for more than 10 minutes before she gets stabbed.

"It has a cult worshipping the monster" This is something tons of horror games and media have done too. I mean In The Tall Grass has a guy who worships a giant magical rock in the middle of a grass maze, Bioshock [which Bendy has only been taking more and more direct inspiration from while failing to grab any of the compelling parts] also had a lot of themes of religion and cult-ish behavior, almost every horror media franchise has at one point done a cult thing.

Bendy couldn't even come up with a reason Sammy worships the ink demon, the best motivation we've ever gotten is just that 'he's crazzyyyy the ink made him insaneeee'. Who is the cheap rip-off here?

At least Poppy Playtime gave their cultist a motive for worshipping the monster + a proper boss fight that feels intense and looks awesome! Bendy didn't even let you kill Malice [she got stabbed in front of you and then just collapsed on the floor how thrilling] meanwhile you get to kill three of the villains in Poppy Playtime and the gameplay and action in those scenes have only gotten better as the game went on.

I mean Sammy walks into a room and goes "AAA SCARY I'M BEING MURDERED" then later shows up and for NO REASON sees a normal human man and assumes it's the ink demon before once again someone else kills him for you. In Poppy Playtime you defeat Catnap as he floods the world with this horrible nightmare-inducing gas that intensifies the color palette and his design. Fight off versions of him that are illusions that you need your flare gun for, then watch in a wonderful animation as he mistakes the monster for his savior before getting killed by it, in a brutal way I might add, which game are we accusing of being cheap, lazy garbage again?

I just find this argument to be people who Really Really need to find a reason to hate Poppy Playtime which I think is silly. The devs being weird, shady people is already enough reason to dislike the game, you don't need to invent reasons why secretly every part of the game is malicious or bad. But esp when I see Bendy fans saying they don't support Poppy Playtime or dislike it bc of its devs or even saying its cringe ummmm.

I have bad news about the fact Bendy's devs are worse and it took not one, but TWO over an hour long videos to cover it all. Plus the Bendy games are just the worse games in every aspect, if I could sell my batim copy for a copy of Poppy Playtime I wouldn't hesitate at all.

Saying this as a bendy fan, we have no right to be super judgy towards Poppy Playtime. If Poppy Playtime is embarrassing cringe, Bendy is too and is way more embarrassing of an interest. We shouldn't spread misinformation just because we all want to hate Poppy Playtime, you can dislike Poppy Playtime without making up a bunch of nonsense to justify it.

Honestly seeing people just blatantly be unfairly mean to Poppy Playtime only makes its critics look worse and makes it hard to take any backlash to the games seriously. Because surprise surprise if you spread misinformation to make a point people will quickly stop listening to Anything you have to say bc they won't trust you're telling the truth anymore.

[veliseraptor]

October Reading Recap

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. Still in the territory of a part of this book I remember fairly well, and while the whole underworld arc is good it's not my favorite part of the book and mostly I come away from it going "Rong Jiu has rights." which is true! and I do think Meatbun knows it actually but it still hurts how his arc goes here. Me: continually getting too wound up in the fates of side characters and distracted from what's going on with the mains.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving into the next parts of the book, which I don't remember as well. Though I know it's a while before it gets really painful, aka what I'm most excited to reread.

Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole. I was so frustrated by this book. I wanted it to be an analysis of horror films and their relationship to American imperialism; what I got was a lot of overwrought prose and repetition of the titular metaphor that was very light on the analysis of the actual texts and heavy on the scathing opinions about what is "good" (politically) horror and what is "bad" (politically) horror. Which, fine, my politics are technically the same as his politics, but it was annoying to read in a book that I thought was going to be more analytical. I had high hopes for this book and it failed them; makes me more hesitant to read his other book about horror and World War I, which I have had on my list for a while. But I liked his book on Lovecraft, funnily enough, so not totally sure what went wrong here.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I did not realize that this book was first in a series and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. It was decent horror but it doesn't need to be a series and the lack of resolution bugs me, because now if I want resolution I have to read the next book and I don't think I really want to read the next book. Space horror seems like it would be such a rich land full of possibility and yet I keep being disappointed by space horror. (If, in this case, less disappointed than I was by Dead Silence.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She's done it again! It's a differently fucked up relationship, to be sure, but boy am I already here for it, despite feeling like I know very little about what's going on. Gu Mang is my jam as far as character type, and I really like the dynamic as its laid out as having been previously between him and Mo Xi, and also how it is now. Dedicated friends/lovers turned to bitter enemies turned to one of them fractured to a shadow of himself leaving the other bereft of resolution...mm, good stuff. Can't wait to find out more about what's going on under Gu Mang's surface. Looking forward to reading more of this one and glad that I already have the second volume to go to. (And the rest, technically, but I do like reading cnovels in print when I can more than reading on a computer.)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Look at me! Reading classic sci-fi knowing only the bare minimum about it. I liked it more than I expected to, and was less bothered by the way the women were written than I expected to. I didn't realize that it was more a string of short stories tied together by a frame narrative than a novel, but it was really fine that I didn't know that going in - didn't affect my enjoyment, I don't think. And I did enjoy it! I might not have read it on my own, but I read it for a sci-fi book club and ended up liking both it and the book club. Not sure I'd give it, like, a strong recommendation, but I'm glad I finally read it. It'll be interesting seeing what echoes/traces of it I can now pick up in other robot/AI-related writing.

Monstress: vol. 5-7 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This comic is so good you guys. So. Good. I don't really know what else to say here, except that she continues to step up her game even more with every volume, and I don't know how she's keeping all the balls in the air that she is with this story as deftly as she is. I have no idea where this story is going, either, and I can't wait to find out. I don't know. Themes of monstrosity and agency and lack of agency and how to be a good person (or try) in a terrible world. With a whole lot more than that. Also there's gay betrayal, if you're into that.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Why do I continue to read Greek Mythology retellings when at best they end up making me go "eh, it was okay I guess"? Not sure. But this was okay, I guess. I liked the same author's Electra better.

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy. More of a "history of the western world categorized by periods of time in which there were various diseases" which...was not quite what I was hoping for, but it was still a good, solid book about epidemiology and the impact of disease on history. A lot of it was familiar to me (how disease enabled the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, for instance, but also British colonization in North America), but I did learn some new things, particularly in the sections about Paleolithic/Neolithic diseases. All in all a book I read because I'm particularly interested in the subject but not probably one I'd recommend as the one book that they'd have to read about it.

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson. I made it a goal in October to read some spooky books and ended up only reading three, but this was easily my favorite of those - and my favorite non-Darcy Coates horror I've read in a while, too. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this one, and the slow reveal in the first two thirds particularly was very well done. I found myself slightly more compelled by the portions set in the past than by the present storyline, but not so much as to ding the whole book for it. And I liked that the monster was left pretty vague and undefined, too; that's always my preference. Some very gross descriptions and body horror, as a caveat for those who might be interested but are sensitive about such things.

Die: vol. 1-3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. I'm finally rereading (and finishing) this series and...I forgot how much I like it. Not only because the art is gorgeous (and the art is gorgeous) but Kieron Gillen's writing remains as sharp as ever, and the way he is playing with fantasy as a genre is very fun for me as a fantasy nerd. My favorite issue remains the one about The Lord of the Rings, though. I don't know that this one is quite as good as The Wicked and the Divine as a whole, but I'll have to reread that one taken as a whole, too, before making that determination.

And the art really is gorgeous. Stephanie Hans remains a fave.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin. A decent narrative about the Oklahoma City bombing, certainly competently written, but he interrupted himself a little too often drawing parallels to January 6th, in my opinion, and I don't feel like I took anything particularly new or fresh away from this. Which is maybe an artifact of the fact that I've read a number of better books about the rise of right-wing extremism in the 90s, and this one wasn't one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and damn with faint praise when I say "it was fine."

currently I'm rereading Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey which is a fascinating text in ways that I'm going to need to chew on for a bit, so that I can finally read the sequel. but then a bunch of stuff came in for me at the library, so I'm next probably going to be reading Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, and then Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey, and then The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, and then Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and then Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. or that's the plan, anyway. we'll see how fast it gets derailed.

also somewhere in there planning on reading more Female General and Eldest Princess and most likely the second volume of Remnants of Filth. I'm trying to spend less time on the internet in general (you absolutely could not tell I am sure) so let's make it a busy reading month instead.

[foralternateuniverses]

Au anthology? (its just 3 aus)

Anyway Acechiji Kimi ni Todoke au

tho it would fit Frobin better but who cares

Ichiji, the nerd who did so good at school, managed to skip a year, who is hypersensitive to light so he always wears sunglasses, who is quiet and keeps to himself and tries to avoid getting in trouble at school so he doesn't get in trouble with Judge, who is always quietly stressed and a little jealous of how easy his classmates seem to have it, eho has been quietly admiring Ace from afar for his sunny and friendly personality, for how easy it's for everyone to love him Ichiji, who has many rumours surrounding him, which push his classmates to isolate him intentionally and unintentionally

Ichiji, who Ace thinks is pretty cool, whose school life is slowly but surely being changed because Ace did something so insignificant yet grand as not avoiding him Ichiji, who Ace has been quietly admiring from afar for his determination and resilience

and Nojiko and Kuina are his first ever besties

there's a little incident after Ace and Ichiji become friends

They're in an outside activity when someone "accidentally" throws them off and breaks them Ichiji covers his eyes with his arm by reflex, someone else bumps into him and he ends up on the floor Ace is immediately by his side, the only thing stopping him from beating people up is that he needs to help Ichiji get back in the classroom and get his spare glasses

He knows he can kick their asses later, rn Ichiji is practically blind and in pain so that takes priority uwu

au where

Germa is nothing but ruins travelling to where the sea currents wills them Only the siblings are left there, bodies failing and crumbling but still immortal Until Ace shipwrecks and ends up stranded there A lot of things are about to change Especially since Ace has people to reunite with

Yonji is the one who finds him, he brings Ace to the castle, they haven't seen other human? Live in a long time, they consider just killing him but, What's the point? They're bored anyway so they might as well just let the guy stay and see what happens Ichiji is the one who spends the most time in the castle, only going out when the clouds cover the night sky, even with his sunglasses his eyes' light hypersensitivity has only grown worse and worse Ace spends the most time with him as he recuperates within the castle walls and goes to him whenever he has an idea to do something that involves castle resources or editing since he seems to be the defacto leader

With his permission and some support from all siblings (cuz they don't have anything better to do) Ace starts working on the dilapidated snail to make more of an actual functional and go to where he was supposed to go in the first place and meet up with his crew mates (and maybe Luffy and Sabo too, idk)

cyberpunk + sci-fi

where Ace did die briefly in Marineford (leaving him without his fruit powers) but they managed to save him by making him a cyborg, specifically a grand part of his torso because that's where the damage was done; he's living in hiding and one day he finds Ichiji, also a cyborg but more robot than human (thanks Judge), broken and barely holding on, so he takes him to get repaired (he's not really good with that stuff, but he thankfully has friends who are) Ichiji ended up like after the WCI everything, he needs to go rescue Yonji and Niji but he knows that in his state is more probably that he'll die before even being able to attempt that, he's almost resigned to that until Ace finds him, baffling him with his kindness, because why the hell would a stranger help him?