#the new comics have all pretty much sucked yes

[haaam-guuuurl]

Feeling the need to add to this now that the new comics seem to be headed in the direction of Spike/Xander(!!!!)

If you're not reading the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, I get it, sure, it's got a lot of crazy ass storylines many people won't like, but just know you are missing out in the absolute silliness and hilarity that is Spike and Xander being roommates and adopting a bunch of kittens.

[pruneunfair]

The internalized sexism in remarried empress, (for an ask)

*this is going to be a long one so hold on tight*

It's no question that remarried empress is one of the most popular manhwas on webtoon and being so popular it holds a lot of influence, unfortunately, that influence promoted the internalized misogyny in not just the readers but in other works as well.

In the first chapter, Navier is presented as this baddass perfect woman, during her divorce trial she brings in a hot rebound who also happens to be another Emperor so she wont have to give up her life as empress, sounds pretty feminist right? Unfortunately that's only one of the few times we see anything related to feminism at all.

We are soon sent back a few months before the trial and right away, Naviers ladies in waiting are tearing another woman down and already believe this new woman is a threat to Navier because the Emperor Sovieshu is attracted to this newbie

We are shown the basic concept of how the narrative wants us to view these two characters. Navier is perfect empress who is being wronged by her husband and this unnamed woman who's only crime so far was existing is a wench and a homewreaker, the ladies imply it as some sort of extreme act of disrespect for having to bathe what they believe to be a slave, proceeding with sucking up to the lead by saying they only wash their hands to bathe her as they don't even wash themselves and even when they admit this mystery woman to be beautiful they backtrack to making sure Navier is supported. You might think that this is just friends supporting friends but it goes beyond on that later on.

Later on we are introduced to this mystery woman, Rashta, a former slave found by Sovieshu in the woods who is immediately portrayed as rude, stupid, and a crybaby

The reason she cries is because she was struck and referred to as "the slave" while she wasn't very polite it's clear Rashta isn't doing this on purpose, rather it is sheer ignorance and an unusually large optimism

now, a lot of people like to say that Rashta must've done something on purpose to get Laura imprisoned and that she knew what she was doing, therfore justifying the hatred for her existence. However, Laura hit Rashta for reaching out to Navier and calls her a wench in the process

Some fans use the excuse that she smirked after Laura got sentenced to 3 days imprisonment and yes while that is excessive for Laura, Rashta was a slave only a few days ago and she's been mistreated by nobles her entire life plus I don't think she's smart enough to pull off Hannibal levels of planning like that, I personally think her smirk here is meant to be more of a "that's what she gets for treating me like that." Then a "hee hee my evil plan worked!"

the rest of the comic goes the same way, Rashta is continuously portrayed as a whore who ruined Naviers life by turning her husband against her, and she's written to be hated as a pick me who won't know her place. Rashtas pretty much every part of those "other girls" in those not like other girls templates. She's girly, loves the attention, emotional, dainty, overly sweet but secretly only has ulterior motives, and in the novel, she acts extremely childish even referring to herself in 3rd person, even when she makes good points it's all intended for the reader to laugh and jeer at her.

Shes practically designed to be the pick me archetype for baddass mary sue fans to despise and she sadly only gets worse as time goes on, not just in morals and personality but also in her writting

And how is Navier perceived?

Shes endlessly perfect, everyone loves her including several different powerful men from all different countries. Even her cheating ass husband is given the cheapest redemption arc in the end just for being sorry that he cheated and realizing how much he wants her. All the characters your meant to view as good adore her and anyone who doesn't is written as the meanest bad guy on the planet worthy of death. While she isn't the worst character I've seen, the narrative tries so hard to make her more amazing that Navier looks worse as a result, such as not caring about slavery despite being described as kind and devoted to all her subjects. Ergi even says it straight to us that there will always be that invisible wall between her and the poor.

The characters we're supposed to see as good are:

Heinrey: A king who planned on going to war with Naviers country and only stopped when he fell in love with her at first sight, who also tortures and threatens anyone who even so much as inconveniences or talks shit about her all while he puts up an innocent front to appear non threatening (wonder who that sounds like)

Kaufman: A grand Duke who drugs other people with love potions which are essentially date-rape drugs and gets away with it once another woman takes the blame

Kosair: Naviers brother who violates Rashtas autonomy by slipping abortion drugs in her food and it's never talked about again.

Lebetti: One of Rashtas slave owners who still continues to harass Rashta and views anyone lower than her with contempt including her own nephew and so on

And who are the characters we are supposed to hate?

Besides Rashta and Sovieshu, the only other characters so far are Krista, the former queen of the west and her father

Ironically Krista is hated for the same reason readers supported Navier for: not wanting to replaced as queen, which isn't helped by Heinrey asserting that Navier is the one and only queen and anyone who objects will face serious consequences but they fix that by dumbing her down and blaming her for Kaufman drugging Heinrey. As for her dad, the old Duke. While he is the only man actively against Navier so far the only ways he has been punished is being told that Krista killed herself. (In the novel the old Duke does face serious consequences which involved him being murdered along with innocent people after his son attempted a hit on Navier)

But overall you get the message, most of the characters you are supposed to love are men and ladies with no personality, men who do atrocious shit yet we're supposed to look past it and conveniently the only man who is punished is an ugly bastard.

The ladies in waiting are the biggest contributors to the internalized misogyny, often they support it by insisting any new woman who shows up must be an evil whore, even Krista's ladies in waiting do this

Not like it matters though anyway since Navier basically wins most of those girls over on her side and they're never seen again

You see what I mean? Every other woman in this story has little to no character, they exist solely to push the FL up and punch down at any woman they don't like which usually consists of women that either dainty "other girls" or ironically women in a situation similar to Naviers and any woman who opposes Navier is affectly an idiot who gets girlbossed back into place. Meanwhile almost all of the men who commit absolutely horrible acts get away with it since they all essentially go awooga for Navier, with the only exception being less than conventionally attractive dudes like Krista's dad.

for fucks sake even Alan, one of Rashtas other masters who 🍇ed her, got her pregnant and participated in keeping her child away from her until she got successful is viewed as this sorrowful wittle baby who got taken advantage of by the evil Rashta and was "wrongfully" told to screw off by her. It took an episode where Alan was so unfathomably stupid to get readers to realize they shouldn't side with a rapist, and yes, while the narrative will try to push the idea that Rashta took advantage of him to raise her status and that she consented. News flash: a slave cannot consent to someone who owns them, it's like a student-teacher relationship.

Now the hypocrisy. Navier can do one thing and it's viewed as such a girlboss power move but when someone else like Rashta does something similar, it's embarrassing and pathetic. For example, Rashta is mocked by nobles mind you, for wearing an expensive and flashy wedding dress. Meanwhile Naviers wedding dress is literally weaved with thousand of gemstones

Hey, it's their words not mine.

Or how Rashta was considered evil for stealing Naviers spot as empress (even though Rashta didn't even want to be empress at first and Sovieshu gave her the offer, it's not like she held a gun to his head) but when Krista shows distress over being replaced as queen, the comments basically tell Krista to suck it up because Navier deserves it more. Everytime a man does something wrong in this story, the characters and even the readers trace it back to somehow being a woman's fault.

Readers are even encouraged to laugh at Rashta for not being able to learn as fast and eventually having a breakdown from the stress (not to mention she's also pregnant here so those hormones must be going wild)

yeah let's just blame a pregnant woman who wasn't educated in reading until a few months ago for not being able to be as smart or stoic as Navier and then crying from the stress.

finally, how this promotion of internalized misogyny affected other works. The Trashta nickname has become so popular that it is used everytime a woman who doesn't support the MC or even just inconveniences her is introduced, constantly the comments never shut up about the "new trashta." Even women who don't mean harm like Helena from kill the villainess was treated horribly because she's the "other woman" it erases any attempt at creativity in these stories and dumbs down any other woman who isn't constantly worshipping the FL as an evil bitch who needs to go.

Conclusion:The Remarried empress isn't the feminist power book with complex characters, maybe in season 1 but not anymore. Women who even think about being rude to Navier are punched down and killed if they don't change their mind while almost all the men are excused for their cruel actions because their hot guys with abs who only wanted to protect the one and only goddess Navier.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/24/2024

you might be wondering “is my dear friend tumblr user girlfriendsofthegalaxy still unemployed?” the answer is yes. take this cat off my hands please i don’t think he’s causing the unemployment but he certainly isn’t helping

listening

via Wendy @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, Huoy Meas' ប្រគល់ក្ដីស្នេហ៍មកខ្ញុំវិញ. figuring out what this incredibly zippy Cambodian rock song is named and what it's about was really difficult bc spotify is a bane upon this earth and won't let you fucking copy-paste and OCR was not working on the Khmer script. i ended up listening to the first couple seconds of each of her songs on apple music, and finally figured out this roughly translates to Give Me Back My Love and is about begging a fuckboy for closure.

via the spotify discover weekly, Night Club's Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things. all Night Club's songs sound the same so if you like one, great news! i had this song on for a full gregorian hour bc, i am only a tiny bit ashamed to say, i was storyboarding a The Man With No Name fancam to this. i think it would go pretty hard.

Smoke you like a cigarette Choke you like a lariat Fatalistic tourniquet Do you want more?

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i did not Adore any of these comics from the library. i sort of enjoyed Night of the Ghoul, a one-volume TPB by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla. i think ive blogged about this before but every once in a while i'll get a bee in my bonnet to read some horror comics even though i am a giant baby about horror movies.

Night of the Ghoul is about how you can't save your dad from PTSD but also about a lost horror film and also about the extremely dad behavior of tracking down every scrap of info about an auteur. there's also a monster.

the subtle art changes from present day to the remains of the film to the non-film flashbacks are well done, imo. the cover screams mignola but the inside pages are really fun pulp nonsense. i love a piece of genre writing that rolls around and delights in being a piece of genre writing.

im doing my level best not to get sucked into tiktok but i DO love watching this lady revive antique nail polish and look for dupes for shades from like the 20s. she found an almost exact dupe for a shade produced during wwii which is crazy insane to me!!!

-

watching

The Asphalt Jungle (1950, dir. Huston), it's a very painterly heist noir. i even like Sterling Hayden in one of the more prominent roles, even though i think he generally has the appeal of undercooked dough.

much like Fritz Lang's M, it presents the criminal element of the city as its own class with its own reputation and reference systems. it got in some trouble with the censors for having a VERY clearly laid out heist plan and execution. it's also got the babiest Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles

this was such a gloriously messy movie. everyone is such a fucking mess. this woman only known as Doll is heartbreakingly, head over heels in love with Sterling Hayden's character. she's a little flighty and bumbling and silly, but determined! they're constantly orbiting the gravitational weight of her desire for this man and desire for a real life with this man. and that's just one subplot! she has maybe five minutes total screentime! she should have gotten a supporting actress oscar!!! everyone acted their fucking hearts out and it was so much fun to watch!

-

playing

monument valley is in the netflix games library this month (i don't actually know what their liscencing agreements would even look like, they and the studios they worked with were very tightlipped about that when they were rolling this out three years ago) but i assume it's going to be on the service for a while. i have never played this game, which makes me feel a little bit like a bad gamer. you can tell it's ten years old from some of the color and texture choices, but WOW did literally everyone take inspiration from this game.

this is the platonic ideal of a phone game. i get why everyone went insane about it and there was a brief boom of geometry-based puzzle mobile games. it is MUCH much harder now to get people to pay money to play a game that has a planned endpoint and planned number of levels, so netflix is a good home for it.

i was often frustrated but always delighted. the level below involves making something happening that made me genuinely gasp out loud in glee. well worth the annoyance of downloading the netflix app and scrolling through the poorly labeled and poorly sorted carousel of games.

great retrospective, a bit about how you need to have tiny teams go off and just kind of fuck around and bring weird stuff back, and a lot about how they actually designed the levels

The end result had a pixel-perfect axonometric aesthetic that not only went hard on its references to Dutch master artist and printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher, but also dug deep into classic video game design, going right back to early arcade machines and 8-bit titles. Each of the ten levels is like a piece of fine furniture, built with invisible dovetail joints and inlaid with marquetry, stuffed with secret compartments and little design flourishes. Gray cites the world of theatre and stage design, as well as graphics, as important keystones in the way the levels were constructed. ‘Ken would always talk about flower arranging, and how you frame a silhouette of a level on the screen,’ he says.

-

making

update on the Phantom Menace fabric: pinked the raw edges and threw it in the laundry again with a very large quantity of vinegar. 50% poly was too high for it to really do anything, which is interesting. it didn’t lessen the seam edge effects either, which is a little annoying bc the seams were so gigantic and that’s a good chunk of fabric to lose. i am going to buy a camp shirt pattern at some point when i have money again but for now it goes in The Box

also! thrifted a pack of o-rings for jars for a dollar and finally put my grains etc in my pretty jars. they’re going to live in the pantry but today they live out on the countertop

[sharp-silver4795]

Hello!! So I’m pretty sure you haven’t answered a question like this,, (I haven’t read that much of thine content .I’m sorry😔) so I’m just gonna ask

The goggle boys (Cody & Toby)(& yes I’d rather pull my own hair out than type ‘bois’ just seeing the word fills me with a kind of rage ) have more in common than their name; they both have incredibly, vastly different to each individual person, although it is much more common to see for Toby..😅

So uhh could you share with us their personalities in your au/headcanon please

🙏

Toby + Cody Personality HCs

Omg! Ofc! I haven’t gotten a lot of asks, and I don’t have many actual posts- most of them are reblogs XD

And uhhh sorry to break this to you, but I say “boi(s)” all the time 😅

I don’t think I need any warnings here-

Sorry if this isn’t great lol I suck at personalities

Cody

A cocky little shit, but not in a completely bad way-

He more just likes to humble people.

He’s a field proxy and tends to go out in more missions than the high proxy himself (Toby).

He has enough experience to make people look stupid, and he loves doing it just to have those embarrassing and awkward moments (for them).

If you’re on his good side, he’s a big goof.

His sense of humor doesn’t make any sense and that’s why it’s funny

He isn’t too short-fused, but if you push him too much get ready for the biggest verbal beat down of your life.

He’s really smart, ofc.

He is good at manipulating people. Whether he uses it for good or evil is up to him. He really doesn’t do it often tbh

He got the name X Virus from the first concoction he made that he called “Virus X.” It would late be called “the changing death” due to how it changes based on how people react to it and how it is administered.

He thinks he’s slick, but he never is- he’s clumsy as hell.

He’s really easy to get along with, but not in a boring way.

He’s an ok listener… he’s a little scatterbrained at times, but if you catch him on a good day or really drill to him that it’s serious he will give you his undivided attention.

Bud is a gentleman. Whether the other person is a man, woman, or anything in between he drinks all the respect juice.

Despite his charm and humor, he is socially awkward. He can’t talk to new people without making himself look like a whole entire fool.

Man likes to try to be an edge lord but will cry if he actually offends you

He is secretly a sweet summer child…

Toby

He is the happy medium between knowing what he’s capable of and humble at the same time.

Toby is surprisingly serious. His humor is either really fucking hilarious or just dry as hell.

He just isn’t good at making jokes verbally.

But he is good at making jokes when it requires action.

For example, he was practicing accuracy and precision with Kat (Kat uses a gun and he uses an axe- duh). Kat got full bullseye. Toby’s response was to hit the tip of the axe blade in the exact place that the bullet hit. He then comically bowed to him.

It was a good laugh for everyone. No one’s feelings were hurt.

He can’t read the room very well, so he has friends do it for him (namely Jeff and Clockwork) and explain it in simple words.

Before I say anything else, I do this IRL with my friends bc I can’t read the room. I don’t see this as calling Toby stupid or infantilizing him at all. This is something that I feel he would do just cuz… head cannons 🤷

Ok, back to head cannons-

He is chronically sleep deprived.

He’s a great listener. If you need to vent, he’s the perfect person to go to. (This is the main reason him and Cody are so close)

He takes shit from no one

While he’s on the job, he seems very cold and rude at times, but he just takes his job kinda seriously.

He is the kind of person that starts something, leaves it on the desk or smthn, and never comes back to finish it and then randomly in the day with just be like: “OH SHIT-”

Sorry if it’s not great, when ppl ask me for personality shit I’m always confused as to what to fucking say. Anyway-

Hope this was ok!!! Have a good day/night/whatever the fuck it is for you! 💜

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 1 MATCH 51

Yuuma propaganda:

“he can be yuor everything <3

im not even kidding like he has taken on so many different roles he can be your dream man (horse?) whatever your type is

he has

-won a race for you

-gone skiing with you

-gone to the beach with you (he can surf)

-offered you his scarf when it was cold

-rescued you from trouble (multiple occasions)

-fought his rival for you (another horse with a handsome human face)

-fed you asparagus (homemade)

-gotten a job in construction

-become a rockstar (dedicated a song to you and let you live your wattpad fanfic life)

all this i listed off the top of my head. theres probably more he has done but i just cant remember

hes very talented and treats you right ✓ experience rapturous love today”

Maxwell propaganda:

“First of all he’s a silly goofy guy AND he’s extremely loyal and will always have your back. Within hours of meeting you, he decides his family will sponsor you in the competition to become the crown prince’s bride. He falls in love with you along the way, never expecting you’d choose him, the younger brother of a bankrupted duke, over the prince himself. Maxwell supports you through scandals and assassination attempts, eventually facing down his own father Barthelemy to protect you and your child from the former duke’s scheming. All this on top of the years he spent providing for his brother’s ex and her secret son, keeping them both safe and out of harm’s way simply because he cared. He’s always thinking of his friends, making them laugh and eagerly joining their crazy plans without ever expecting anything in return. His smile hides a sensitive side, a man who lost his mother at a young age and overcame body-image issues, yet still holds insecurities about his value to others. Maxwell is a sweetheart who always tries to do the right thing, and I still think about him years after playing The Royal Romance series.

Okay so it's a mobile gacha game, let's get that out of the way. BUT LISTEN. 

The premise of the story is that the MC is a regular waitress in New York, when a foreign prince and his friends come to her table as a way to have a bachelor party for the prince who will soon have to choose a woman to marry in a The Bachelor -type of contest. MC and the prince hit it off pretty well and one of his friends, Maxwell, decides to throw in his lot with the MC, since the house the future queen is from gets a lot of perks and his family is Broke. MC goes along bc her job sucks ass and she figures why not.

BUT THEN! As the competition progresses, the MC spends a lot of time with the prince and other nobles, yes, but also with Maxwell. And Maxwell is a clown-type comic relief character for most of the time, but also genuinely sweet and considerate, and very much on the same wavelength with the equal goofball MC. What for me personally changed the game was when MC and Maxwell dance at a ball together, and the MC can say that there's no one they'd rather dance with than Maxwell. I myself chose that in a completely platonic bestie way. But he gets a bit panicky and says to be careful not to let anyone hear things like that when MC is in the running for the hand of the prince so that no one gets any wrong ideas! And I went "....ideas? 👀"

“Unlike other romancable characters, Maxwell isn't romancable until book 2 (the previous scene is in book 1, each book ~20 chapters), and unlike other romance options, you really have to have your eyes set on him in order to unlock his route, and ohhh it's so worth it! The set-up of falling for the person who brought you there to marry someone else, to choose the jester when you were meant to have the king.... exquisite. 

The dynamic between MC and Maxwell is so fun and full of genuine affection, and while other characters can dismiss Maxwell as an unserious clown, MC is very much characterised by the dialogue as Getting him and loving to express joy in life the same way he does. When MC and Maxwell can finally marry, it feels like they're really choosing their best friend to spend their lives with and are so excited about it.

I know this wrestles in a league multiple times smaller than many of the other combatants, but the Maxwell romance in genuinely one of my favourites in any video game. Give him a chance!”

[doraambrose]

Hey! What do you think about friendship between Roy Harper and Jason Todd? I'm not a big comics nerd, but recently started diving deeper into the dc fandom and reading more comics, I really enjoyed their friendship, but I read a post somewhere another day saying that their friendship doesn't really make sense because they didn't really interact before rhato and have a significant age gap... and even had a fight or something? Just was wondering if you could recommend comics that give more info on their relationship? And what's you personal opinion?

Hello friend! Thanks for the ask.

I have to warn that I have some pretty strong but kind of ignorant feelings about this (I don't know much about Roy harper pre n52)

So comic wise- yes, they're friendship was very random. Pre n52, my very limited knowledge of Roy is that he was a justice league member, did drugs, had a baby with Cheshire named Lian, and was a member of the og teen titans with Dick as Speedy. Jason was robin and then redhood, but the redhood who was definitely more antihero and not basically a batfam member like he is now. Then out of nowhere in RHATO, jason is talking about how Roy is the best friend he could ask for with absolutely no context whatsoever. The Outsiders #46 is the only pre-n52 panel with the two of them together:

In terms of age gap, I'm pretty sure jason and Roy have about the same age gap as jason and dick. But the age gap is something that should bother anyone. I am 20, but most of my friends from work and school are in their mid 20s and even 30s. We get along great and age hasn't been something that has ever impacted our friendship. In terms of a fight, I don't know much about that. They had a falling out at the end of redhood/arsenal, but they seemed fine in RHATO rebirth.

For recommendations, all their comics together are pretty shit tbh. But All RHATO new 52 has them together, but it sucks ass. Redhood/arsenal should be skipped. RHATO rebirth annual 2 is probably the best you're gonna get next to the webtoon.

Okay, my personal opinion, I HATE Roy and jason. I can't stand Roy Harper from what I've seen. And even what I've seen pre-n52, he's kind of a dick.

In New 52, I know his character was stripped from him to make jason look good and that's a whole other discussion, but, he's a fucking idiot. He's selfish, impulsive, and he started listening to Jason's phone. And he was even worse in redhood/arsenal, SO SELFISH and so controlling and he would make decisions, including pimping jason out as a rent-a-hero and spending all their money, without any discussion but couldn't understand why he would be upset about that. He's just an asshole. I have no idea why he and jason would be friends at all. I despise JayRoy. Its so toxic.

Anyway, thanks for the ask!

[lunatic-pudge]

You know how in Adventure Time Finn had a crippling fear of the ocean cause of what happened to him as a baby?

Well, let's do the same to Sniper. :D

As a baby, Sniper went into his bio dad's rocket and got shot up and crash landed in Australia. A complete freak accident, but the best outcome cause his bio parents suck and don't deserve him.

Due to the events, Sniper developed two fears: heights and the ocean.

Sniper's fear of heights was the easiest for him to overcome. One he was able to overcome as a child by climbing trees and exposing himself to heights rather than steering clear from it. Once the fears diminished, he realized how much he loves heights. Doing what he could to stay up high and away from people. It was a way for him to escape life and be alone. He can't get bullied if he's hiding up in the trees where no one can hurt him.

But he was never quite able to get over his fear of the ocean. Sniper was never able to understand why he was so terrified of the ocean, chalking it up to it being so vast and deep. How large terrifying creatures lurked in the depths below, and how we don't really know what's all down there. He was always doing what he could to avoid going out to the beach and near the ocean in general. And he was pretty successful... Until he got the job at Mann Co. and had to travel to the U.S.

That very first plane ride to America was torture for the poor Aussie. Having to fly over the ocean had him on the edge of his seat, scared that the plane would crash into the large body of water. Words couldn't even begin to describe how thankful he was when the plane finally landed in New Mexico.

Now, he would fly many times over the years cause he wants to see his parents and such. He was able to handle it better the more he flew. But that didn't mean he overcame his fear of the ocean.

If the mercs went out to the beach, he made sure to stay as far as he could from the ocean, preferring to sit in the shade and focus his mind elsewhere or he would start freaking out. It would make some mercs curious as to why Sniper never treaded near the water, but most chose to just ignore it and continue on about their day. Their questions would be answered when one day, Soldier picked Sniper up and threw him into the ocean. That was the first and only time they ever saw Sniper have a panic attack, and boy, oh boy, was it a bad one. A big lesson was learned after that cause once Sniper was able to get his bearings straight, poor Medic was left to deal with the aftermath of Sniper's anger.

Now, will Sniper learn to overcome his fear of the ocean? Of course he will. It'll take time, and he'll probably have Demo or Pyro help him with it (definitely not projecting my love for swordvan and also pyro here). But he'll be okay. And yes, I know that he was fine in the comic when he was in the submarine, and when the dome was filling with water. This is just a goofy headcanon I wanted to make cause there's no way baby Sniper didn't get traumatized from crash landing. Though, thinking about it now, I feel like a fear of heights would be more prominent than a fear of the ocean, but I don't care. TF2 lore doesn't make sense, and nor do I.

[sapphicseasapphire]

1) Out of the Zeldas who has the most emotional baggage?

2) Are we gonna see Malon during the events of the comic? I am ready to see Malon, Twi, and Time as a family🥹

1.) PFFFFF. UM. Emotional baggage??? All of them!! I don’t know, it’s probably between Sun and Flora. Both of them have to deal with immortality now but at least Flora has Wild to spend it with. Both of them have to deal with the guilt of getting their Link killed/so fundamentally changed that he’s not even Link anymore. Both of them have overwhelming amounts of pressure on their shoulders: Flora’s been under pressure since she wars born and is just now free of it, Sun’s been pretty carefree most of her life but now is responsible for like the entire world. Both of them love their Links but are separated from them.

… One day, Sky will die. Sun’s body will die but her soul will live on, returning her to her true form: Hylia. Sky’s spirit will not find rest; it will wait in the Sacred Realm until a new hero is born. Because of this, he will never be reunited with his Zelda.

I really can’t decide haha. Sun or Flora, you get to pick.

2.) Malon? Yes. 100%. Absolutely. A lot of the storylines I have planned for this Cryptid au don’t really lend themselves to be comics (read: I’m not good enough at drawing to commit myself to making long form, more serious comics). I have fics planned out though! And Malon plays a pretty big role in one of them!

Malon plays a big role in the Cryptid au in general since she is what connects Time to his humanity. Bro became a God with pretty much unlimited power and an inability to die. It’d be pretty easy to loose oneself. But he’s deeply connected to mortals, and that’s why he’s still a Link. His wife and children are his world, even if he will outlive them all.

(It’s… a morbid thought. Immortality sucks. I have… really really sad ideas for how it all ends)

BUT YEAH!! We will be seeing Malon, and she will be absolutely fawning over all the Links, but especially Twilight. She considers all of them to be her children, even those that aren’t blood related. (They’re pretty much all orphans, and she’s unofficially adopted every single one).

[thatgoblin]

New Witch in Town Part 1

Summary: Things were going great till you received a promotion at work. Then everything went downhill. Your long-term boyfriend cheates on you, your job had to close down for a week, and you have to look for a new place while sleeping on your Ex's couch and listening to him boink his new girlfriend. At least you didn't have to sleep on his (your) couch too long. You didn't look too close at the house, where it was, or how you'd get there, but you'd have four new roommates that were gone a lot for work. It couldn't get any worse, could it? Right?

Warnings: cheating (not by our heroes, narcissistic ex, not really anything big happens this part. Will update with more as they come.

Moving sucks. I have always been of that opinion and are still. Especially since I was looking for a place after my boyfriend of 5 years and I split. I thought marriage was on the horizon, especially with my promotion at work and with how things were going so smoothly, but instead he wanted to get to know the yoga instructor that had moved in across the street. It was almost comical to think that I made up every excuse in the book for him when my friends and family all called him out on being narcissistic and manipulative, but the moment I saw my new neighbor in the downward dog in MY bed with my boyfriend one afternoon, that was it. The satisfaction of kicking him out would have helped me heal, but I had been the one that moved in with him and so I was the one that had to find a new place.

After looking for a week while sleeping on the couch, I thought I got a break. A large six bedroom house with a finished basement, a garden in the backyard, and four roommates in need of a fifth as they worked a lot and wanted someone home to take care of it when they had to leave for work. It seemed too good to be true. I knew it was four men living there as well, but that didn’t deter me. In fact I thought it was perfect. Roommates meant no feelings. I thought that when they were home they would be too busy going out and seeing girls or guys or whoever to even bother trying to sleep with me or date me. The last thing I wanted or needed (mostly needed) was to have a rebound or get in a relationship with a roommate. 

Sending a message to the person who posted the ad in the paper, I arranged to get moved in quickly. There was no talk of rent or contracts or anything other than my move in date. It should have been a red flag, but I was desperate enough to get out of my Ex’s place that I didn’t think twice. Getting a moving van and packing up all my things, which was actually not that much since I wanted to just get out of there, I was quick to leave. The new place was gorgeous and I instantly fell in love with it when I pulled up. Yes, I also had not seen the place. My judgment was clouded because I needed to leave my Ex’s place quickly or end up in jail for murder.

Parked, I hopped out to knock on the door. Before I could rap my knuckles on the massive, dark stained door set, one opened to reveal a built man with a mohawk. We stared at each other for a moment, caught off guard by the timing before I shook myself. “Hi, I’m the new roommate,” I said, smiling as I held out my hand. 

“Hello,” the man said, smiling back as he shook my hand. He was incredibly warm, literally. It felt like I was shaking hands with a heating pad on full power. “I’m Johnny, but everyone calls me Soap,” he said, pulling me in for a quick, bone crushing hug. 

“Nice to meet you,” I grunted before he let go. 

“Here, let’s get you moved in, yeah?” He said, walking over to the moving van. 

“Here, I’ve got the key for the lock,” I said, digging it out of my purse. But Soap already had the back open with a small grunt and a quick lift of his arm. I was pretty sure I had locked it, but he was already in there and moving things to bring in.  

“Hi, you must be the new Roommate, I’m Kyle,” a voice said, catching my attention from Johnny, who had started to unload what looked like four large boxes at a time. 

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said, turning to look at him and smile. The man was leaning against the doorframe, his hands in his pockets. His eyes scanned over my body as I stood there in worn out clothes I didn’t mind ruining. A brow raised as we locked eyes, followed by a smile. The scent of rain in the forest floated from him to envelop me and coax me closer. Stepping towards him, I looked to the sky to see the gray clouds getting dark and moving faster. “It looks like it might rain, so if you can help unload-”

“Almost done!” Johnny called as he suddenly ran out of the house. Wait, when did he get inside? Also, why was he saying he was almost done? 

“Johnny is enthusiastic about moving as well as helping people, eating, sticks, chasing cars-”

“No! You said you’d stop that joke!” Johnny yelled, stopping Kyle as he walked by with the last of my stuff. 

“Wow, that was fast. Are you sure you got everything?” I asked, moving to look at the back of the van. “Holy crap, you just moved like twenty boxes from my van to the house in just a few minutes? What?” I must have been really distracted or Johnny was really strong and fast. Maybe both. 

“So, a few things to go over,” Kyle said, putting an arm around my shoulders to guide me away as Johnny shut the back of the van. “Rent is due on the first of the month, so Price likes to have it at least a week before then. No parties, if you want friends over, make sure it’s when we’re not home, don’t go into our rooms, and don’t go into the basement.”

“Okay, your rooms I get, but the basement?” I asked, frowning as we stepped inside. The house was gorgeous, Victorian style with dark colors. It made me think of a less gothic Addams family home. The first floor was open with hardwood floors and gorgeous crown moldings in black, but the furniture didn’t match. It looked very worn and used, almost as if it was all on its last leg, and all the curtains were drawn everywhere. There was no sunlight to be seen, but that didn’t mean that the room was dark. There were lamps and overhead lights that lit up the place, making it easy to see around in the warm lighting. 

“So, the basement is storage and with how Price likes his order, it’s best to just stay out of it so you don’t accidentally touch something he might pitch a fit over,” Kyle said, keeping us moving to the stairs. The same dark wood carried us up a story as he kept a firm hold on me to keep me from wandering. Which was odd given I was living there and I would need to know where things were. “Here are our rooms. The one at the very end is Price’s, mine is right here, next to yours and on the other side is Simon’s and Johnny’s.” Each door was painted black and had an emblem engraved. Johnny’s had a crescent moon, Simon’s had an Ankh, Kyle’s had a star with seven points, Price’s had a ram’s skull with big horns, and mine. . . 

“So, since I live here now, can I carve something fun into my door?” I asked, looking at the blank space and trying to think of something cool to put there. Everyone else had one and I wanted one too. 

“That is not up to me,” Kyle said, brushing it off. “Now, if you want to, you can meet Simon and Price. We actually leave in the morning for work and will be gone for a few weeks because of work.”

“Okay,” I said, following him without a second thought. “So, what do you guys do for work?” I asked, following him like a happy puppy with no fear in their heart. 

“We’re in the military and go on work trips a lot. We figured that if we had someone here, then at least we would be less likely to be burgled or gone up in flames.”

“Well, I am pretty hyper aware of my surroundings when I’m alone and constantly check candles even if I’ve never lit any, so it should be good,” I said as he showed me back down the stairs to the living room where three men were waiting. One was Johnny who was nudging a man in a skull mask and giggling, the man in said skull mask who looked like a teen who found Hot Topic and bought every skeleton piece of clothing they had as well as eyeliner that was messily applied and smeared, and a man who looked like he knew the most and had the most authority of the group. Dressed in a long sleeve shirt and cargo pants, similar to Kyle’s, he also had trimmed mutton chops and mustache as a cigar burning between his thumb and forefinger. “Hi!” I said, waving with a grin and trying to put as much friendliness into my voice as possible.  

“Right,” Kyle said, turning away before gesturing to me. “This is our new roommate. I gave all the rules and such as well as letting her know we’ll be gone soon.”

“Kyle said you guys were in the military and would be gone, so no worries on anything. I already promised no parties and no snooping,” I said, rocking on my feet as I put my hands on my hips. “So, who are these guys?” I asked Kyle, pointing to Skull man and Cigar man. 

“I’m John Price,” the man with the cigar said as he stood up. A plume of smoke billowed out from his nostrils, his blue eyes were bright to the point I swear they were glowing. “Pleasure to meet you. We’ll be out of your hair in the early morning.” He held out his hand for me to shake with a soft smile. I probably came on a bit strong, but that was okay. Grabbing his hand, I shook it firmly. He, like Johnny, was incredibly warm to the touch, but there was something else. Like an electricity to him that had my hand twitching to grip his hand harder.

“That’s Simon,” Kyle said, pointing to the other man who waved from the sofa as Johnny poked at his face. 

“Hi!” I said, marching over to take his hand that was not offered in any way to shake it. He tensed when I touched him, going still and flexing so I couldn’t actually move our hands. “Oh wow, strong,” I said, giggling nervously before letting go. “Well, I guess this is it. Thanks for the bed and furniture by the way. I didn’t really have anything when I moved out of my last place.”

“Furniture?” Price asked, raising a brow at me. “I thought you were bringing everything.”

“There’s not a bed?” I asked, suddenly feeling my mood take a dip. “I thought I saw in the ad that there was a fully furnished room.”

“No, I didn’t put that,” Kyle said, shaking his head. 

“Right, sorry, that was probably something else. It’s okay. I can just sleep on the floor,” I said, forcing a smile to smooth things over. I needed this place even if I didn’t have a bed yet and I didn’t want to upset my new housemates. 

“Don’t be daft,” Kyle snorted. “You can have the sofa.”

 Better than the floor.

“I’ll be real quiet, I promise,” I said as John sighed and Ghost chuckled. 

“No, no. We probably have something for you to use so you’re not on the sofa,” Price said. 

“She can share my bed!” Johnny chimed in. My eyes went wide as Kyle groaned and Simon slapped the man on the back of the head. “What!? Nothing weird! Besides, I have the most normal room and it’s really fucking comfy.”

“Then you’ll have no problem taking the sofa for the night while our new friend takes your bed,” John said, smirking at him. Johnny began to protest when Simon covered his mouth. 

“You can sleep in my room, Soap,” the man said, his voice gruff and low. “There, we’re situated.” 

“I’ll show you where everything is,” Johnny said as he got up. I followed him, feeling an unfamiliar heat drop in my belly when I passed John. I glanced back to see him tip his head with a wink before I was led upstairs. Shaking myself to keep from thinking about it too much, I watched as Johnny opened the door with the crescent moon to let us in. While in my mind I had built it up to be this amazing, whimsical thing, it was very much a regular bedroom. 

The boxspring and mattress were on the floor with fluffy pillows and blankets and sheets that were twisted into a nest of sorts in the middle of it while a dresser sat off to the side with knick knacks on it. The walls were a warm creamy color with posters of movies and football teams, as well as a few framed pictures of what looked like family. A writing desk was on the corner, holding a PC and two monitors as well as a small rack of gaming controls. A headset hung on one of the monitors while an en suite bathroom already had the light on. It had a toilet, a sink, and an old clawed bathtub that held a shower head. I was starting to wish I had checked my room to see my tub situation. 

“Feel free to use the room while we’re gone till you get your bed in. Price has a bunch of stuff in the basement he’ll probably lend you when we get back, but I know a bed isn’t down there,” Johnny chuckled. “Shower works like a shower and hot water is plenty. All I ask is that you clean up and don’t leave things lying around.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate this. I swore that I saw there was furniture listed on the ad, but my head’s been so muddled lately that I probably combined two posts into one,” I said with a chuckle. “Oh well, at least there’s a back up plan. I promise I’ll make sure nothing gets messed up while you’re gone and it’ll be spick and span when you guys get home.”

“You’re not our house maid, just clean up after yourself,” Johnny snickered, ruffling my hair. It was an odd feeling, something someone would do with a person they were familiar with and while I had only met Johnny that day, I was pretty sure he would become a very important person in my life. All four of them really. 

“Thanks,” I said, smiling. The rest of the evening was calm, everyone gathering for dinner at the big dining table by the kitchen. Kyle ordered take out from a local Chinese place for everyone so dishes weren’t needed. Simon skipped dinner, opting to watch a footie game that was on. Conversation was good, they learned more about me, that I was a librarian at a local college and was on vacation that week because renovations were being done, that I liked animals, and as Kyle put it, always seemed to be a ray of sunshine. 

“Simon doesn’t like the sun,” Kyle teased. “He’d melt like the Wicked Witch if he went outside during the day.”

“Shut it,” Simon growled, flipping him off from the living room as we ate at the table. 

“Behave. I don’t want to sit on the plane tomorrow with you two bickering like children,” John said with a grumble.

“So where are you guys going?” I asked, getting more noodles on my plate.

“Classified,” Johnny said between mouthfuls of food.

“Well, do you know what you’ll be doing?”

“Classified,” Kyle said, snatching the last egg roll.

“Okay, do you know if-”

“Sorry, Love, classified,” John said, giving me an apologetic smile. At least he was nice about it. 

“Alright, well, I hope it goes smoothly and quickly and safely,” I said. “Whatever it is you do.”

Despite trying to help, I wasn’t allowed to clean up after dinner. None of them would let me. Each of us went to our rooms after a quick ‘good night’ and it was starting to feel like home. Even if I wasn’t in my own room, I was in a clean bed (that had the very distinct smell of a dog despite there not being any evidence of the animal being there) with comfortable pillows and blankets, making it better than when I was at my Ex’s on the couch. In bed with my eyes closed, I found that I couldn’t fall asleep. I’d be on the cusp and then my body would jolt me awake as if some unseen threat had nearly grabbed me. The whole night was like that. It was when the guys left that I finally passed out from exhaustion. I had no idea what it was or why it was happening, but I at least was on vacation. 

There was no return date for them that I was given, so I tried to keep busy with getting things I needed. Like the bed. It was hard to pick one and each salesperson I worked with seemed just as pushy as the last one. If I didn’t say no to all of them, then I would end up with ten beds. At least Johnny said I could use his. By the end of the week, I was finding myself feeling worse than when I was at my Ex’s on the couch. I was lonely and tired and emotional and just wanted someone to hug me and pet my head. Neither of those things were going to happen, so I tried to march on. At the mattress store, trying one last time, I was laying on a rather comfortable one when I heard a familiar voice. 

Sitting up, I saw my Ex with the girl he left me for. They were hugging and touching foreheads and smiling while picking out furniture. He and I were supposed to renovate a room to make it into a library, but there he was with someone else and I was bedless. Worse, I didn’t have anything I wanted. I had unpacked my clothes into a closet, but all my pictures and decorations and bigger stuff were still at his place and I couldn’t bring myself to ask for them back. The tidal wave of emotions hit me, making me apologize as I speed walked out of the store before he could see me. 

Back home, I changed into comfortable clothes and grabbed cold pizza to eat before turning on Titanic in the living room. I needed to cry and get it out before I turned into a hysterical nut job over a mattress. There I stayed for the weekend, crying over 1998 Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet because while their love was brief, it was intense and lasting despite the years of separation. That was how the others found me Monday afternoon. I was given a half day as a water pipe burst, kicking me out of my building again, so back to Titanic with tears and pasta. 

“I’m flying, Jack. I’m flying,” I ugly sobbed as I held my arms out with Kate and Leo. The others were damn near silent as they stood by and watched my misery. 

“Should we do something, Cap?” Kyle asked. They were in ear shot, but I ignored them as I ‘doo doo doo’d along to the score. 

“I don’t know if we can,” John said. 

“I’ll talk to her,” Johnny said, dropping his bag before coming over to me. “Hey there, what’re you watching, hen?” He asked, his voice soft and gentle as if he were speaking to a scared animal.

“Titanic,” I whimpered. 

“How many times have you watched it?”

“It’s almost four hours long because it’s the extended edition,” I said. “I’ve had it on repeat since Friday.” Johnny was quiet, looking at me wide eyed before looking back to the group. That was clearly too many times. 

“How about we turn this off for a bit, yeah?” John said, coming over to pick up the remote. 

“No, don't touch it!” I shrieked, grabbing the remote from him. John jumped back like a wild animal snapped their jaws at him. “I’ve had a bad week and I'm still out of work because the building is old and hasn’t been kept properly for so long and they’re finding more things to fix. . .”

“You’re sad about work?” Kyle asked, coming closer, putting his arm around me. His rainy, earthy scent swirled around me, calming my tense muscles. John shot him a dirty look, but didn’t say anything. 

“Not really. I mean, I haven’t taken a vacation in nearly 6 years because I love it. So a break is nice, but I tried to go mattress shopping this week and I felt weird every time I tried one and the last store I was at had my ex-boyfriend, Dirk, with his new girlfriend buying a writing desk,” I said, getting choked up. “We were making a library in our house and that was the last piece. Then I caught him in bed with his new girlfriend and now I’m just a loser in a big, empty house with no mattress who watched Titanic over 15 times!”

“It’s okay. We all go through bouts of bad luck,” Kyle said, rubbing my arms.

“But this isn’t bad luck!” I cried, pulling away to look at them. “I’m cursed! It has to be it! I was with Dirk for nearly 5 years and we didn’t canoodle once! We were planning on starting a radish farm in the countryside and raise sheep as a side project! Then right after I got my promotion, my boss gave me a whole gift basket of knick knacks, because she knows I love knick knacks, the same day I came home to find Dirk in bed with our neighbor! Then I had to sleep on the couch and listen to them boink till I moved in here, leaving behind so much stuff because I just wanted out of there, and then he finishes our projects with HER!? That’s being cursed.”

“How much stuff?” Simon asked, breaking the awkward/stunned silence. 

“Like, I sold a lot when I moved in, but the bigger stuff was mine. The TV, the sectional, the bar cart, all the plants-”

“Suffice to say, you still have a lot over there, yeah?” John said, cutting me off. I nodded with a sigh, wiping my face with the sleeve of my fuzzy bathrobe that probably needed to be washed. I hadn’t showered or changed all weekend, having doused myself in deodorant and dry shampoo to make it through the day only to have it backfire when the pipe burst and drenched my clothes. So back into depression pants it was. 

“Right then, looks like we have a mission, boys,” John said. “Gaz, get us a decent sized moving truck, Soap and Ghost, move all our shite out and clear the areas.”

“What about me?” I asked, looking at him with big eyes, full of confusion. 

“You have the most important job of all, Love,” he said, resting a hand on my shoulder. Warmth bloomed in my chest as he looked at me with a soft smile. “Go take a shower.”

Well then. 

“Are we not going to touch that she said ‘boink’ and ‘canoodle’?” Simon asked.

~::~::~::~::~::~::~::~::~

After a shower, with Soap coming in to make sure I didn’t still smell sad several times, I was deemed fit to join the mission of getting my stuff back. Kyle had found a moving truck easily with the day going late, so he and Simon rode together while John, Soap, and I rode in Soap’s jeep. “Is this the place?” Soap asked as we pulled up in front of the cottage like home that used to be mine. 

“Yeah,” I said with a soft whine. “I mean, maybe we should come back tomorrow. He might not be home and I don’t want to walk in on him and her doing the horizontal tango again.”

“Listen,” John said, turning in the front seat to look at me. “You can’t just ignore things and let people walk all over you. You need to stand up to him and take back what’s yours. It isn’t right that he keeps so much while you just accept the bare minimum. Especially if it was yours to begin with.”

“It’s okay to take up space and speak up to keep that space,” Soap said, turning to look at me as well. “You’ve got back up in this, too. We won’t let him walk over you.”

“Really?” I asked, looking at them. 

“Really,” Soap said with a nod.

“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, letting out a big breath. Stepping out of the jeep, I led the two men to the front door. Knocking quietly, I waited only a second before turning around. “Okay, he’s not home, let’s go.”

“No, you are going to stand your ground, Lass,” Soap said, catching me before I could even walk away. “You’ve got this.”

“And we’ve got you,” John said with a firm nod. 

After nodding and taking another deep breath, I turned back around to knock louder on the door. 

“Maybe a bit more ‘umph’ if ya could,” Soap said. Raising my hand, I slammed it down on the door as hard as I could three times. “Jesus, taking the door off its hinges,” he snickered. 

It did the trick though, Dirk opened the door with a very bewildered look on his face to see me and two men of different heights, but equally big muscles. Dirk himself was tall, almost 6’7”, and had shoulder length brown hair that he kept up in a bun. He had recently shaved off the beard he’d been growing since we started dating as well, giving his once round face a more sharp angle.

“Peaches?” He said, looking at me. “What are you doing here?”

“I want my stuff back, Dirk,” I said, but my tone made it a request rather than a statement. “All of it.”

“What do you mean? You took all your stuff with you,” he said. In true Dirk fashion, he was trying to gaslight me and the others. I knew that most of the stuff in the house was mine and so did he, but he had made sure everyone knew it was ‘ours’ when they came to visit. 

“No, I still have stuff here. My pictures, my decorations, my sectional and tv and appliances-”

“Look, I know you think you need that stuff, but you don’t. You’re good without it. Otherwise you would have taken it with you from the start,” Dirk said, giving me a soft smile. One that used to make me melt as he pulled so much nonsense right in front of me. 

“Or, she didn’t have help to move it, so that’s why we’re here,” Soap said. “So, if you’d let us in to grab her stuff and go, that would be grand.”

“Whoa, whoa. I can’t just let you in here to take what you want,” Dirk said, holding up his hands. “I’ve got my stuff too and for all I know she could say it’s hers when it’s not. Obviously you’d believe her over me, so I can’t risk that. Look, Peaches, you can come back without these guys and I’ll help you get your stuff tomorrow, okay? I’m kind of busy and can’t stop what I’m doing.”

“Dirk, what’s going on?” A voice called. Walking out from the old office, the yoga teacher looked confused. She was in leggings and a sports bra, covered in paint. 

“Nothing, Darling, go back to painting,” Dirk said with a dismissive chuckle. “So, how about after 3PM, hmm?”

Seeing the Yoga Teacher in her outfit, covered in pea green paint, and knowing she was painting over the Italian Vista Yellow of the Library that I had done triggered me. Dirk had clearly replaced me with ease and he was replacing everything I had done without a second thought.

“Dirk, give me back my stuff,” I snapped, looking up at him with a fury. 

“Look, Peaches-”

“Shut up! I’m taking my stuff back and if you try to stop me I will bite you!” I growled. “Now move your stupid lanky, Jack Skellington body before I make good on my promise.” 

“Whoa! Pe-”

“Stop calling me Peaches! That’s not my name and I don’t even like the fruit that much!” I snapped, pushing him aside. “Come on in guys. I don’t want to stay too long and get the smell of lies on everything.”

“I don’t know about that, but okay,” Soap snorted as he and John came in. Everytime Dirk tried to interrupt, I’d snap at him about how I kept all the receipts for everything big I bought and I did indeed own it. Yoga Teacher had left promptly, telling Dirk she’d be back later. Simon and Kyle were quick to help as well, Dirk giving Simon a weird look after telling him to go ahead and come in. Simon had cracked his neck and while I couldn’t see it behind his mask, I could tell he had a wide grin underneath. 

It took maybe an hour to get everything from the sofa to the tv to the dining room table and all my small stuff. Once it was packed up, Dirk stood at the threshold of his home with his arms crossed while glaring at me. Soap just flipped him off while blowing a raspberry as we drove home. 

Unloading was just as easy, the guys carrying everything inside quickly without even breaking a sweat. I knew active military people kept fit, but this was even a feat for them. 

“Looks good,” Kyle said, seeing how everything seemed to magically match the house. Gone were the torn and taped furniture and in was the almost new items that really spruced up the home. 

“Thanks,” I said, looking at them. “All of you for everything. I thought that I would be miserable for a much longer time than I was.”

“You’re welcome,” Soap said, ruffling my hair again. I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped at the display of affection. It felt nice. 

“One problem,” Simon said from the sofa, having turned on the TV. “You still don’t have a bed.”

“Damn it.”

~::~::~::~::~::~::~::~::~

“Are you sure you’re okay with sharing your bed with me?” I asked John after grabbing some of my own blankets. 

“Of course,” he said, opening the door to his room. Like Soap’s, it was clean and orderly. Everything in its place. He had bookshelves full of paperbacks and hardbacks that lined one wall, a desk that looked like it belonged to a lord or duke that was huge and had intricate carvings on it, and his bed was huge. I figured it would be a queen like Soaps, but it was a king with the softest, silkiest sheets I’d ever felt. The blankets were light and the pillows fluffy. It was going to be a dream come true to sleep there. “Make yourself comfortable on the bed. I’m going to take a quick shower then join you,” he said, giving me a smile before disappearing into his bathroom.

Soap wanted his own bed and while I would have been fine sharing with him, the look Simon gave me was warning enough. Kyle made an excuse that he was cleaning his room and didn’t want guests over, so that left me with Price. I didn’t mind so long as he didn’t. Pulling back the covers of his bed, I made a small nest to give us a barrier of sorts. It felt polite to designate our spaces given we barely knew each other. 

Comfortable and laying in bed, I closed my eyes as the sounds of John’s shower lulled me to sleep. But like last time I tried to sleep when the boys were home, I jerked awake like I was either going to be grabbed or about to fall. Sucking in a breath through my nose, I looked around to find it had only been about 10 minutes since I laid down. John was coming out of the bathroom in just a towel to see me sitting in bed, looking around in a slight panic. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked, coming over to my side of the bed.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “I was asleep and then I just. . . I don’t know. I woke up suddenly. . .”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, sitting next to me. Looking at him, it didn’t even occur to me that he had just a towel on. I was distracted. His body was built and toned, but nothing like a body builder. Short curls covered his chest and trailed down his belly, his legs and arms having a generous amount as well. While I got that with a glance, it was two large, dark scars that ran down either side of his spine from the middle of his shoulders to the middle of his back that drew my attention.

“Had surgery on my back,” he said, pulling my attention from the marks. “I fell out of a helicopter about 5 years ago and broke my back as well as my pelvis. It took nearly 15 hours of surgery to put me back together after getting med-evaced out of there.”

“Wow,” I said softly, worrying my blankets between my fingers. “It doesn’t hurt at all now?”

“No, not really. I forget they’re there since I never see them,” he said with a soft chuckle. “There’s much smaller ones too, we all have them.”

“Is that why Simon wears a mask?”

“Mmm,” he hummed, nodding. “Poor guy would get more stares if he didn’t wear it and he hates attention as is.”

“I’m sorry you were put in a position to get them. I know it’s naive and childish, but if only we could all get along,” I said.

“The world would be much better off,” he nodded. “I’m really proud of you today. That took a lot of guts. From just the small interaction we had with that prick, I understand why you wouldn’t want to confront him.”

“Thanks,” I said, chuckling. “I had help, but I’m glad I did it too. Not sure what I would have done without you guys.”

“Still be watching Titanic, I’d say,” John snorted. Scoffing, I nudged him with my foot as I rolled my eyes. 

“It’s a good movie and pretty stinkin’ accurate,” I said.

“Eh, it has its moments. I don’t remember the third class passengers being locked behind doors, but Guggenheim was pretty spot on,” John said, holding my foot to absentmindedly rub it. 

“You think? I mean, no one can say for sure about the doors or Guggenheim, but they tried to stay true to it and made it a lot more. . . Real, ya know?” I said, relaxing as he worked his way up my ankle with warm fingers pushing and working my tired muscles. 

“No one ever thought it had really split besides a few of the survivors that said so, but then again, who listens to us?” He said.

“‘Us?’ Look, I know you’re in your late 30’s but you’re nowhere near old enough to have been on the Titanic. My great-grandmother, maybe, but you’re not even regular old,” I said. “You’re barely middle-aged. Then again, I heard we’re getting quarter life crises now.”

“Thank you,” John laughed. “For not calling me old. But you don’t know. I could be an immortal demon that just likes to spend time with humans because they’re so fascinating.”

“Well, you’re an especially nice demon, if I say so myself,” I said, smiling as he switched feet. 

“Don’t tell the others, they’ll start using it against me,” he said with a wink. 

“Oh, I think they know already,” I giggled. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. They know how to twist my arm to get what they want,” he said. “Okay, lay on your front.” Setting my leg down, he patted my thigh to encourage me to listen. I didn’t ask or bother trying to. Doing as I was told, I moved to lay on my belly with a pillow tucked under my head with my arms curled around it. 

John moved, straddling my rear before pushing my sleep shirt up. Before I could protest, his fingers were digging and rubbing into my tense back. My words died on my lips as a moan came out instead. 

“Looks like I found the right spot,” John hummed as he kept working that spot, earning more noises between whines and hisses and grunts till the knot was gone and he moved on to the next. It felt amazing and painful as he worked my body into submission. By the time he was done, I was goo beneath him. 

“That felt good,” I mumbled into the pillow, feeling like I was in no way going to be able to move. John must have known his powers as he moved me over a bit and tucked me in. He left me for a few moments before coming back in pajama pants and a tee. “Were you just naked on top of me?” I asked.

“Is that a problem?” He asked, climbing into bed next to me.

“No, just an observation,” I said, finally falling asleep and staying asleep. 

Instead of jerking awake, I had dreams filled with debauchery that would make Benjamin Franklin blush. All of it was with John, too, which made waking up to find a mess of arousal in my pants all the more embarrassing. John was already up and out of bed by the time I was sitting up, luckily, so I went ahead to shower then get breakfast. By the time I came back with a coffee and bagel, John was busy in my room.

He had found a bed frame in the basement that he said was perfect for me. It was a canopy bed made from wood with a dark finish and gauzy lavender curtains. 

“I didn’t even know that I had this,” he said, showing me after setting it up. “It’s a king size, but I’m sure you’ll appreciate the space.” John had also pulled up a matching dresser and side tables as well. “It doesn’t go with the paint job, but you could do that in your own time.”

“It’s wonderful, thank you,” I said, turning to hug him tightly. He tensed for a moment before relaxing. That heat I had felt before came back, settling heavily as he held me. 

“You’re welcome,” he said softly into my hair. Pulling away, feeling drawn to him still, I had to look away or I’d stay there longer. Soap and Kyle were waiting on me and I couldn’t put it off any longer. “You better go before they start hunting for you. I’ll unpack these few boxes for you and set them on your dresser and nightstand for you to place where you want later.”

“Thanks, again, John,” I said with a nod. “I really do appreciate this.” He turned to give me a smile before waving. Waving back slightly, I hurried down the stairs to where the two men were waiting on me.

“Someone looks flushed,” Kyle purred with a smirk. 

“What? No, I just ran down stairs, shut up weirdo, let’s go get me a mattress,” I said, waving him off before walking outside. Were my cheeks red? I didn’t think there was much to it. It was just a HUG for crying out loud. I didn’t need or want to like my roommates like that. Eugh. 

“So what size of mattress do you need for your new bed frame?” Soap asked as he drove. 

“John said it was a king size,” I said, looking at my bank account. Which did not look good. I was paid for the first week off, but the second week was going to be paid as if I worked half days. “Which I’m now regretting that I said yes to. I was ready to buy a full size mattress. It’s just me in it so it didn’t need to be big. Heck, I was going to go for a twin.”

“You are not getting a twin bed,” Kyle said. “They are for children and grannies, of which you are neither. A full size is okay under circumstance, but you need at least a queen bed. Also, because Price put together the bed frame already, you have to get a king size. He won’t take it down and won’t let any of us touch it.”

“I know, I feel bad, but a king size is going to be over a thousand pounds and I don’t have that kind of money,” I said with a sigh. I hated letting people know that I didn’t have much. It felt weird and embarrassing. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll buy it for you,” Soap said. 

“Wait, what? No, you can’t. I won’t let you?” I said, confused because he was so calm about it. 

“Think of it as payment for your stuff replacing our old stuff,” Soap said with a shrug. That made sense. Pulling into the parking lot, it wasn’t long before we were looking at a sea of mattresses and all of them looked the same. 

“Okay, so where should we start?” Kyle asked. I sighed and shrugged, but then Soap took the lead. Pulling me over by the arm, he picked me up like a doll and tossed me onto the bed as I yelped. “Not what I meant, but that works.”

“What the heck, Soap!?” I cried, bouncing on the bed. 

“Is it comfortable?” He asked, hopping onto next to me.

“I mean, yeah, but-”

“Then on to the next one,” he said, dragging me off the mattress. Each mattress I tried, I was thrown on by Soap like a dog tossing his toy in the air to catch. 

“Okay, okay, okay,” I said, clawing myself away from Soap. “If you throw me again, I will barf on you.”

“Duly noted,” he said as he sat up. “So, did you really spend 5 years with your ex and not have sex?”

“Why? Why are you bringing this up?” I asked, looking at him wide eyed. 

“Well, it’s curious, is all,” he said with a shrug. “You slept in the same bed, but never did anything? Not even hands?”

“I’m not having this conversation with you,” I said, standing up to go to another mattress. 

“Hen, wait,” he called, hopping up to follow me. “It’s just. . . He slept with your neighbor, but never with you and he lived with you. That’s odd.”

“Okay, I get it, I’m weird for not sleeping with my live-in boyfriend,” I huffed at him.

“No, I meant that was odd for him,” Soap said. “You didn’t suddenly find yourself wanting to fuck someone after years of celibacy. It’s weird for him.”

“Okay, so you think something else happened?” I asked, unsure of where he was going with this.

“Well, you said your boss gave you knick knacks and then everything went to shite,” Soap said. “It sounds like a curse to me.”

“Okay, I’m going to stop you there. Curses aren’t real, I was being dramatic,” I said. “My ex just decided he was over manipulating me and doing what he wanted while using me.”

“Did he ever do anything like that before?” Soap asked. “I mean, anything out of character that suddenly?”

“I don’t know,” I groaned. “I don’t think so. Johnny, what’s the deal with this line of questioning? It’s not a mystery to be solved. Dirk was a narcissist that was using me and made it so I didn’t see his intentions. That’s it.”

“I don’t think it is,” he said, shaking his head. “You said you went back to work and had to leave the same day? What are they renovating?” 

“This is getting a bit weird for my taste, so let’s get back to mattress shopping,” I said, turning away quickly. The way he was pushing for something made my stomach twist. There wasn’t a grand conspiracy going on. It was just stupid things happening at the worst times. 

It was another half hour before I found the bed I wanted. It was comfy and cozy and until I broke it in, I could put a pillow topper on it. With the purchase made then loaded up, we went home. Soap and Kyle were quick to move the pieces in before we realized I didn’t have any sheets. Of course. 

“I’m just going to run down to the shops and grab some. I really want to sleep in my own bed tonight with my own pillows and covers,” I said. 

“Here, take the jeep,” Soap said, tossing me the keys. 

“Thanks,” I said, catching them. 15 minutes later I was browsing through the home goods store, trying to decide what colors I wanted. While browsing, my mind began to wander as Soap’s words came back to me. Curses weren’t real. They were just made up like fairy tales to keep people from messing around with dead things and not to be awful to each other. But he was right. Dirk had changed that day I got my promotion. We hadn’t been intimate because he wanted to have a slightly old fashioned relationship. I didn’t mind because I didn’t really think about that stuff because I was usually so busy with work. 

He was still the bad guy, his gaslighting had been happening since we met and it wasn’t like his cheating was out of the blue. I had thought he’d been seeing someone else before, catching him kissing a girl from his work. He explained it away as they were in a play, which made no sense as he worked as a salesperson for compost. Soap’s words shouldn’t have been eating at me so much, but maybe he was right. Maybe I was cursed and I needed true love’s kiss or something to break it. Except, no one loved me and I didn’t love anyone. Not like that at least. That connection with someone where you can almost read their thoughts, that you can feel what they feel, and while sometimes you fight, it doesn’t tear you apart. It brings you closer. 

No. I didn’t have that and I was starting to think I never would. 

Just as I was about to grab the purple jersey sheets, lost in my thoughts, my hand landed on someone else’s. 

“Oh, sorry,” I said as I pulled away. Looking to the right, a man with sandy blond hair and piercing blue eyes had reached for the same set of sheets.

“Oh, no, go right ahead,” he said, his voice dripping with a Southern American accent. Chuckling, he stepped back to wave me on. “Sorry about that, I didn't realize someone else was grabbing for the same set.”

“Sorry, I was in my own little world, but thanks,” I said, taking the sheets to put in my trolley. “You don’t really strike me as a purple guy.”

“I’m usually not, but I was wanting to branch out a bit and, well, I need some new sheets anyways,” he said. “I’m Phillip, by the way.”

“Hi,” I said, giving him my name. “You don’t really get many Americans around here.”

“No, I don’t suppose you do,” he said, nodding. “Are you a local?”

“I moved here a while ago, so I’m basically a local now,” I said. “How long have you been here?” 

“Not long. A few months really,” he said, leaning against his trolly. “I’m with the military and so I’m used to moving every few years.”

“Oh? My roommates are military too,” I said. “I have no idea what they do or what their ranks are, but they’re in the British military.”

“You don’t say? You wouldn’t happen to at least know their names, do you?” He asked with a chuckle.

“Uh, John, Kyle, Johnny, and Simon,” I said, a little perplexed. Maybe Phillip worked with them recently or they worked together in the past.

“That wouldn’t be John Price, Kyle Garrick, Johnny MacTavish, and Simon Riley, would it?” He asked, coming closer as he kept his eyes locked with mine.

“Wait, yeah. Do you know them?” I asked. My stomach began to twist again, like it did with Soap before. Something in my brain was telling me to run away, throw things at him and get out of there as quickly as possible. The air around us didn’t feel right, It was suddenly stagnant and warm versus the cool and moving with the fans on. 

“I sure do,” he said before my phone went off. It was John. Phillip’s eyes finally left mine to look at my phone in my hand with a smirk. “You should probably answer that.” Frowning, I answered it as I stood there with Phillip. 

“John?” I answered, my voice shaking as I looked back up at the blond. Phillip stepped closer, cornering me to keep me from slipping past him.

“You need to get home, NOW,” John said. “I pulled out all your things and set them up like I said, but there’s something wrong. Something is very wrong.” He sounded agitated, almost out of breath like something had chased him. 

“John, I think you’re right,” I said. He paused, hearing the tremble in my voice

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” he asked, the call getting staticy. 

“I don’t know,” I said. Phillip sighed, holding his hand out for my phone, gesturing for me to give it to him. “John.” My back hit the wall of items, a few of them fell, but that was the least of my problems.

“What’s wrong?” He asked again, firmer.

“Do you know Phillip Graves?” I asked. John cursed as Phillip rolled his eyes, yanking my phone away. “John!”

“Hello, John, it’s been a while,” the man cooed. I stared at him with my mouth hanging open, turning to look for help. It hadn’t been that long since I was in the store and it wasn’t nearly closing time, but the entire store was empty save for me and Phillip. Even the employees were gone. “You know what we want. It’s an easy decision to make and I’ll make it even easier on you.”

“What?” I said, looking around again, seeing the windows blacked out. It had been bright with sunlight not five minutes ago. “John!” I cried, getting scared. Turning back to Phillip, he didn’t look the same. His eyes glowed red as black smoke rippled off of him. Screaming, I tried to rush past him, but he easily tripped me to send me to the ground. I didn’t have time to scramble as strong, smoking hands pulled me to my feet. 

“Don’t hurt her,” Phillip said, his skin turning a pale, purple color. “Not yet at least. The ball’s in your court, John. I just hope your new roommate doesn’t mind being killed over a rock. I mean, you’ve let dozens of other people die over this, so what’s one more, hmm? You know where to find me when you’re ready to hand it over. Buh-bye,” he said in a sing-song voice before hanging up. “Now, let’s go have some fun.”

Masterlist

New Witch in Town Masterlist

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Taglist: @birdstoprey @sebbytheraccoon @pricescigar @alwaysshallow @sae1kie @sleepydang @lexi-zsy09 @ghostlywhiskey @ghosts-cyphera

[rontra]

How does failteacher Yuri interact with the greater plot of persona 5? I remember Toriumi mentioning 'some weird shit in 2010', but do the two of them have to deal with stuff like Kamoshida's change of heart and the principal's death?

the current policy is that unless something directly and immediately relevant comes up the answer is "it doesn't"

for 2 reasons. number one is that i don't feel like binding myself to the month-by-month timeline of p5-the-game in too much detail, because i'm lazy, and making my AU up as i go (lol). and the second reason is that observing the plot from a completely uninitiated unrelated POV is just not very interesting to me....... orz

one important thing about my failteacher AU is that it's a casual n sloppy style(!!) project that i do this way because it's fun (and as soon as i stop having fun i will stop making it). the vibe of creating it is just as important as the vibe of reading it. my worry is that committing too hard to ~The P5 Plot Is Happening Among Us~ would have me too distracted by logistics and timeline puzzles that aren't even relevant to the story i'm trying to tell, and suck the fun out of the project for me...

due to the year difference btween the 2 games, the plot of P3 did happen in 2009-2010 (the "weird shit" comment was in a doodle but yes it did happen and parts of it will be Main Comic Material later when relevant) (and i think its obvious enough from comics like #3 and general characterization that the Hermit 1-10 arc took place) (BUT MODIFIED IN VERY IMPORTANT PLACES. LOL) but obviously toriumi was an uninitiated & unrelated POV to that game so she doesn't really know that much about it outside of the parts that directly impacted her (which to be fair. are pretty serious)

p5 is much scarier because its looming on the horizon in FRONT of us and i hate being confined by a tangentially-related-at-best timeline. directly dealing with stuff like the fallout of palace 1 is a MAYBE? but ONLY because there are tangible Relevant consequences for -us- (more scrutiny placed on shujin teachers -> ms chouno gets on kawakami's ass, etc)

im gonna be real withyou i didnt even remember the principal dies. MDHNBFGB sorry to this man

all in all its just like. 99% of the plot of p5 is stuff these people are not privy to (kawakami's % is removed due to her no longer being joker's confidant thanks to hermit meddling) + committing to that timeline too hard would be abrasive to the comic + im much more versed in p3 minutiae anyway (especially later on in the p5 year). so its kind of like. well. just try not to Expect anything too major xD

if smthg catches my interest and i can work with it to make an interesting development, sure. but in the end its like why would i risk binding myself to specific points of a timeline and incurring Untold Rammys when i could simply not do that to myself. you know 😭

HOWEVER. FOR UNRELATED REASONS THAT ARE IMPORTANT BUT MAY OR MAY NOT PAY DIVIDENDS LATER (<- what did he mean by this?) it is seeming INCREASINGLY LIKELY that we might in fact currently be in the autumn -before- p5, meaning joker enrolls come spring in a few months and the game starts then.

^this paragraph directly contradicts everything above it but its fine. i have my reasons. just don't hold me to it TOO closely. i don't want to commit to a timeline just to be boxed in by unforeseen consequences later. but if you were curious there is a quiet notion in the background that says the plot of p5 proper hasn't started yet.

it's a "soft fuzzy timeline" but that's Secretly where we're at in it . kawakami bitching about her awful new student come April <3

So Perhaps Time Will Tell. if they're still doing this shit come May maybe i get to blow kamoshida up or whatever

[sineala]

Have you read the new Ultimates #4 by Deniz Camp? It features Tony as a teenager when Cap is unfrozen! He calls Steve "the perfect man"! Howard is dead and Tony writes him a "The Reason You Suck Speech" that he keeps on his tablet! So much good material!

I think all the things you are talking about happened in issue 1, but, yes, I am current on Ultimates. I think so far the actual plot has a lot of really interesting expansions on various alt-history ideas -- making the usual Marvel storyline where the gamma bomb just leads to Hulk as instead being an explicit reference to Castle Bravo was not a thing I was expecting at all from this comic. It is unusually thoughtful about history, more so than I was expecting. Steve waking up in a world where America no longer exists is also a plot element with a lot of promise. I'm still not thrilled with Tony as Iron Lad, tbh, because The Crossing was scarring enough, but Tony's speech about Howard did really win me over.

(Also I don't think we know for sure if Howard is dead -- we know he's stuck in The City with The Maker and that he's presumed dead but I'm not calling it until they show me a body.)

I feel like we haven't seen a whole lot of Steve/Tony yet but the dynamic is interesting because Steve is definitely older and more experienced with... basically everything they're doing... and Tony is just brimming with ideas and enthusiasm and also hero-worship. So that's gonna be fun.

The other day I was looking to see if we had a canonical statement on how old this Tony is -- we don't, other than (I think) that he's a teenager, but in my head I have been assuming he is 19 like ye olde Teen Tony, that's about how old he looks, and also Steve unhesitatingly offers him a drink in the FCBD issue and I don't think Steve would do that if he didn't regard Tony as An Adult. (The drinking age Steve would have been familiar with was 18, although, I mean, he did, like, take Bucky to war, so I don't know how much he actually cares about anything like that.)

Anyway, while I was failing to find that out, I did find out that Deniz Camp is intentionally writing Tony as being on the autism spectrum, which I thought was pretty cool. Although it's not canon, because Marvel themselves hasn't said so, alas.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Some replies! Some about the ADeuce comic from the other day, some are twst-related, some are a little more random. Not a lot today…

Anonymous asked:

You both ok? You haven’t posted as much the past couple days?

Yeah, we’re good! We just skipped replies yesterday because we were busy + yesterday’s drawing post has a mature content label, so maybe it’s not showing in your feed… A good time to remind to turn it on in your settings if you haven’t and want to see it.

We might skip a day every now and then, don’t worry about us too much. If something important or bad happens, we’ll let you know! Or, if we’re silent for at least two or three days in a row, that might be your queue to start getting worried lol

Pro-crass-i-nate asked:

I love how not one of the twist boys owns and wears waterproof makeup.

Love all your art btw <3

I know right? One would think that with how much water activities they’re having all the time they would at least use magic to waterproof it.

But unfortunately for them, I have my own unique magic, and its entire purpose is to un-waterproof their mascara so I can draw Deuce or Vil crying beautifully.

Thank you btw <3

scrivenger-grimgar asked:

reminded me of your art, cause he like slowly approaches azul slowly and like just hunches over him with his evil grin <3

Ahhh, this entire segment!! <3 Idia teasing Azul and Malleus just standing there, not helping Azul at all and even making it worse~ Idia is such a little (tall) brat sometimes. I love this scene a lot.

Thank you for reminding us of it + I am very happy it reminded you of my art!! <3

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

I agree Ace! Deuce looks good!!!

Hehe yes! Being a nerd suits him…

icedefloweringtornado asked:

Ace don’t talk as if you’re not thinking about cuming all over Deuce’s glasses.

This is what he is going to be thinking about, no joke. The only time he didn’t fall asleep during Trein’s lecture… because his mind was imagining things very vividly…

Anonymous asked:

I want to wreck Lilia’s ancient ass…or he can wreck me. I’m pretty open.

S- Should I give him your number?

Anonymous asked:

I don’t understand why proshippers would have to say they don’t support those things in real life. That’s like asking someone who writes about serial murderers to tell us whether they support murder in rl. Like, duh 🙄

(related to this post)

Yeah, it really doesn’t make sense and kind of sucks. But then again, unfortunately it’s nothing new – Katsu told me about an hour ago about how Scorsese was criticised for not taking a moral stance against the main character of The Wolf of Wall Street lol So we’re not the first and not the last people to keep seeing it until the end of time...

[pluckyredhead]

Time for more Fourth World posting that no one asked for! I've previously written about the Fourth World comics of the 1970s and the 1980s, so here are the 1990s:

New Gods (1995): I FOUND IT! I FOUND A GOOD NEW GODS COMIC THAT ISN'T BY JACK KIRBY!!!

Okay, so the art is 1995 in the worst way, but the first 11 issues (written by Rachel Pollack) are actually excellent? The problem with previous New Gods runs was that it's hard to write about a utopian world at any length, but writers tried to introduce conflict by having the people of New Genesis be shitty, which undercuts the whole...utopia thing. Pollack has the corruption come from outside, which makes all the difference.

Basically, Darkseid manages to invade the Source (God, essentially, but more of a place than an entity) in an attempt to conquer it, but Orion follows him, and, desperate to stop him, kills him. However, committing patricide within the heart of the Source corrupts it, causing natural disasters on Earth and making everyone on New Genesis go evil or crazy or both. Which was all part of Darkseid's plan (he regenerates himself out of Orion's flesh, which is both very gross and a total mic drop moment) but now the cosmos are in upheaval and that's bad for everyone.

The other thing this book does that most post-Kirby New Gods books don't manage to do is treat Orion like an actual goddamn hero. Yes, he is angry and violent and makes bad decisions driven by destructive impulses. But he also loves Highfather and Lightray and New Genesis deeply, and this book allows those things to be stronger in him than his rage, and I'm crying about it. HE IS ACTUALLY A GOOD PERSON HE'S JUST ALSO A VERY CRANKY ONE.

The last few issues are by John Byrne and the plot and tone diverge pretty sharply but that's a lead-in to a different series so I'll talk about that in a bit.

Mister Miracle (1996): The universe tends towards balance and so because New Gods (1995) was good, this comic sucks. It sort of fits into the same continuity (it takes place after Darkseid dies), and so everyone on New Genesis is kind of being an asshole. But a lot of it just doesn't make sense and isn't explained? Like, they want Scott to be the new Highfather, even though Highfather is totally around in the concurrent New Gods series, and also this is presented as just a thing that everyone knew would inevitably happen, which...no? Honestly, the things that happen in this comic are so bizarre and arbitrary - characters appearing out of nowhere, continuity errors, random and baffling changes to the lore - that I kept thinking they were going to reveal it was all a dream. Bad.

Jack Kirby's Fourth World: So in the last 4 issues of New Gods (1995), Bryne takes over and long story short, Apokalips and New Genesis are smooshed together into one planet split down the middle (and also Orion dies). This series picks up from there and also ties into the Genesis miniseries. Byrne's art is always great, but the stakes are so exhaustingly high (the planets are smooshed together! now they're separated! Orion's dead! now he's back! now Highfather's dead!) that I started feeling numb pretty quickly.

It also relies heavily on the whole "god" thing, which means way more religious themes than I'm particularly comfortable with. (And yes, Kirby also drew very heavily one biblical themes but more for worldbuilding. He didn't have everyone on Earth "lose faith" because of issues with Source, as if atheists are just fooling themselves.) I just don't need that much Thor and Odin in my Fourth World comics, and the two of them repeatedly saying that they are "the closest to the Old Gods" is way too literal. (A commonly accepted version of events is that one of Kirby's biggest frustrations with Marvel was not being able to write a Ragnarok story and kill off Thor and his supporting cast, which is why he came to DC...where he immediately opened his book about NEW gods with the words "There came a time when the old gods died!" and a clear depiction of Ragnarok. This fan theory has several holes in it, not least of which is that Kirby did draw a Ragnarok story for Marvel, but the aggressively obvious allusion here just feels like Byrne is elbowing me in the ribs going "Get it? GET IT?")

Also, there are weird changes to the lore. I've mentioned before that in Mister Miracle #1, Scott is clearly already familiar with Earth, meaning some time has passed between his escape from Apokalips and our first sight of him...but Kirby has him living on Earth for two hundred years before Mister Miracle #1, including marrying a woman who isn't Barda - as if the idea that Scott and Barda had spent that long apart or that it took Barda that long to decide to leave Apokalips makes any sense at all. Tigra, Orion's mom, spends issues and issues claiming Orion is the result of a one night stand she had with some guy and thus not Darkseid's kid, and nobody really believes her but it's never actually resolved. Also, Infinity Man turns out to be Darkseid's brother??? What the hell.

This series also has a lot of Takion, a real Original Character Do Not Steal of a guy if ever there was one. He's Paul Kupperberg's OC, not Byrne's, but he shows up and is sparkly and more powerful than everyone and can talk to the Source and all the other characters ask him for advice all the time even though he literally just showed up and Beautiful Dreamer is in love with him and then he becomes the new Highfather. Big Mary Sue energy. Also he looks like a ripoff of Waverider, who is already firmly in Original Character Do Not Steal territory.

Anyway the series ends with Apokalips and New Genesis gearing up for a final, major clash...and then the last issue is literally just Byrne retelling a mashup of Forever People #1 and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #147, but setting them in the post-Crisis universe instead of their original pre-Crisis framework. And then it's over. What? What???

Anyway on to the 2000s and the series I've been looking forward to since I started this project, Walt Simonson's Orion! See you in the next post!

[davekat-sucks]

If there's one thing i don't like about this fandom it's how much they make the kids more meaner? Villainizing? Than they actually are. Don't get me wrong, they have done a lot of bad but like these characters are FRIENDS. They do genuinely care about eachother in the end they aren't cold hearted and revel in other's suffering, they aren't Caliborn or Vriska afterall. I think they read the comic wrong, the kids were willing to sacrifice their own lives for eachother, a prime example of this was Daves conversation with doomed Rose. I blame the spaceship meteor part of the story for ruining the characters. Like everyone acted so ooc? Why were Jade and Davesprite giving John such a hard time about his dad die dying? Both of them literally had to watch their guardians die in front of them, you'd think they'd be the most sympathetic here? Or how Dave and Karkat, characters who will go through lengths to protect their friends just fucking stand there as everyone else tears themselves or eachother apart? Karkat is an ass yes but this was the same guy who was crying his heart out when he saw Solluxs dead body when in game or how he told Aradia bot that he would've tried to get her back to life if it weren't for other circumstances. Why was everyone being so uncaring at this part? It didn't feel right. The alpha kids got it the WORST, from bad writing to fandom treatment. I remember back in the day seeing stuff where Dirk was just down right mean to Jane "hahaha sucks to be you Jake is mine fat bitch". There was even a little bit of this aggressiveness in House of Dirk, now i do find that story fun but the small part where he calls Jane "xenophobic", bothered me. Like he would NOT say that to her. Have you seen how he speaks to her? "If you ever need help, Jane. If you're ever in any trouble at all. Let me know. Just say the word." Same guy who built a robot to protect her life and pretty much wrote an entire book for her, i think Dirk cares about Jane guys. This fandom and comic is so mean to Jane, as funny as i thought it was that Caliborn called her a fat fucking pig and cow, she really just became a punching box at that point. They'll shit on her because she's a woman getting in the way of the gay men. The ONLY thing people get from her as a character is that she's fat, because Caliborn said so along with a bunch of other things. Jake, poor Jake, gets sexualized by everyone he knows and had to burn his Grandmothers body right in front of him. But according to fans HE'S the asshole here because he cant communicate properly. Gee i wonder why. Roxy gets put on a fucking pedestal by the comic and fans, super extra special treatment. Ignore how she sexually harasses Dirk or almost killed Jane, no she's incapable of doing wrong, isn't that right Calliope? Yes, Roxy should be the new leader AND kill the Condescension yes. Now i never finished reading the epilogues because why would i? I'm probably missing a lot if we're taking them into consideration but not taking it into consideration because my point still stands because thats how the fandom treated them even before those came out. And even when talking about the base comic i still see those attitudes.

These characters DO have their personal problems but when people talk about they insert angst where it doesn't exist for favor of projection and i hate how common its become.

If people claim it is just cynicism that comes with growing up, there's clearly a difference between being cynicism, nihilism, and being a straight up asshole. If people say it is Dave and Karkat's depression is the reason why they stand around doing nothing as Rose becomes alcoholic and Terezi gets abused by Gamzee, it's sure strange they got over their depression right as VRISKA comes in to solve everything and those two bastards act like nothing had happened. Everything by Act 6 and Post Retcon just made all the characters worse. They have become an empty shell of who they used to be. The bleak outlook has become a theme for current Homestuck. It's been like this for Epilogues and Homestuck^2 too. I don't know if James Roach and HICU can really save the franchise and get out of all the characters having this negative light. Andrew Hussie and WhatPumpkin has shoved this jaded feeling right in the audience's faces that it's become the norm to expect the worse. Readers expect characters being assholes and more depression, they will receive it because Hussie and WhatPumpkin made it so.

[zahri-melitor]

Hi! How and when did you get into DC comics?

Well my original entry to DC was that I was a fan of Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman when I was a kid and it was originally showing. This actually was a decent entrypoint to the DC mythos, as it's famous for having probably the best TV-comics synergy of all time: the Death of Superman was written to have a plot running while Lois & Clark built up to the wedding, so they could do simultaneous weddings in the comics and the show.

It worked out pretty well for DC.

But DC Comics, as comic books? Well somewhere around 2006 or so I'd transitioned into reading some fic for Lois & Clark, as a change. I then moved on to stories about Bruce/Selina (which I had a reasonable amount of background for from the Burton & Schumacher movies), and ended up in the scans_daily scene on LJ. This was the heyday of scans_daily, when you could pretty reasonably follow along a lot of major comics via the 1/3 posting rule; you didn't get everything, but that plus the summary got you across events pretty well.

I'd liked Barbara Gordon as a little girl, watching the movies. It was at this point I discovered Oracle.

The first comics graphic novel I ever purchased was Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch. I've still got it. I ended up reading a bunch of runs recommended via content I liked on scans_daily: Birds of Prey, Robin, No Man's Land, Nightwing, Batgirl 2000, Blue Beetle, and Young Justice. A couple of these I was buying trades for (BoP and Blue Beetle); the rest I was reading via ye olde torrent packets. I was also reading and collecting a bunch of Vertigo titles: The Sandman, Fables, Y: the Last Man, and one or two Marvel titles (Runaways and Power Pack).

I dropped out of DC fandom, like so many others, around 2010-2011. It was actually prior to n52 in my case: I wasn't enjoying Batman Reborn, they'd cancelled my two favourite books (Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle), but the last straw was probably when they murdered Lian Harper.

I noped out. And it was a pretty good call on my part, given that n52 was barrelling down anyway.

I was still occasionally dipping in to read fic, mostly about characters I particularly cared about, but every time I took a breath and paid attention to gossip about what was currently happening in comics, it was mostly terrible news (Lian was still dead; people told me Roy's personality had been obliterated; Barbara was Batgirl and magically healed; the universe resets sucked and everyone hated them; Jason was somehow still alive; everyone was mad about something that had happened to Dick; etc etc)

It was during 2022, when I don't even know how I came across it, but I discovered that DC had finally reprinted Young Justice in trade. This was huge; collections had refused to do this during the 2000s aside from a trade of Sins of Youth back when it came out. There was a general attitude that the group of largely younger and largely female fans weren't worth catering to. The fact that DC now saw us as a lucrative market suggested to me that my contemporaries were finally getting their chance to start running the asylum.

So I dipped back into the community. It was a little hard at first, because hubs had changed, and locating fans who liked the things I personally liked took a little while. But I got back into the fandom, and got back into the fic, and discovered that back in about 2017 there'd been a revival to start reprinting a lot of my favourite comics runs, and that DCUI was the best way to read comics these days, and I could get access to it in Australia.

And because DCUI was just so much better than the methods of reading comics I'd been dealing with 15 years previously, and I'd had an idea for a story I wanted to write, I started a canon read through review, starting all the way back in ALPOD with Tim's earliest comics.

And here I am. I often have older opinions on things simply because I remember being in these debates 15+ years ago, and then I missed the intervening period, so my opinions never updated or heard the changed details (or are only slowly doing so now). I'm a preboot girl at heart because that's where I fell in love with various characters. I, like every other Batfan with a similar history to mine (and there are a lot of us) went through that moment of sheer bemusement over the Tim & Jason tag at AO3 as my most prominent memory of their relationship was Tim kicking Jason in the nuts.

And I've bought a lot of trades ever since getting back into the fandom, because I can't lose access to them AND they're just so far superior for collection purposes than floppies.

[lakesbian]

hm… freaque 📓

📓 A headcanon about their hobbies

yaaay a silly one :) alec like all of the undersiders does not have a lot of time for a rich hobby life but he 'slacks off' by taylor, brian, and lisa standards so he's got a lil more free time than them. he's not very good at picking up new hobbies or learning things because "it's boring" (read: he has depression) but he likes his art and video games and movies. i think when he was a kid he was really into hiding and drawing for hours to pass the time and he made up a bunch of 7 year old typical OCs. they were all really strong and tough and cool and could fly and so on but really terrible things happened to all of them all the time anyway. not a single happy ending in any of those comics.

he stopped drawing as much when he entered The Pussy Mind Palace from ages ten thru thirteen but then tried it again after he joined the undersiders, discovered he still liked it and was still good at it, and decided to branch out into other mediums (particularly graffiti) for fun too. now he's really into drawing extremely cool undersider costume/emblem/base designs he'll never show them. and sketches of things he saw recently that he thought were interesting. he's drawn all of the other undersiders at least once as a "well i'm bored and the costumes are pretty cool i guess" thing. totally draws himself as regent looking all Cool and Badass and Maybe Even Having A Throne. absolutely tried to act all irony poisoned and detached and uninterested when aisha found the entire page in his sketchbook that was just her doing cool stuff as imp but he's not fooling her. she saw that concept drawing of them Posing Badassly with matching costumes. once every like 30 sketchbook pages there's just the most violent gore and/or sex act and/or both at once you've ever seen, which he thinks says absolutely nothing about him. yes he uses reference images to make sure he fully grasps what exploded heads look like.

oh and he loves being like "i am going to draw something ironically, as a joke, and then post it to PHO, also ironically, as a joke, to troll them, as a joke, ironically." and then he spends 5 hours meticulously drawing something that could, if you turn your head 90 degrees, squint, and assume the most conservative mindset humanly possible, theoretically be mildly inflammatory to someone somewhere. and posts it and reads and likes all of the comments complimenting it.

he kinda sucks at video games btw. there's, like, one (1) he's spent enough time on to be good at and he's smug about it but outside of that he's just genuinely not very naturally good at them. his depth perception is fine and everything he's just not very good at concentrating on strategizing for long enough because there's no actual threat to his life to get his brain going. he totally overinflated his perception of how good he is because brian is Even Worse and he won those incompetent v. incompetent matchups like 75% of the time but then he starts playing aisha and just gets his ass handed to him 9/10 times