#the only man i've ever been with may or may not be on this triangle. somewhere between martin and oscar maybe.

[ev-fav]

Questionably holy trinity of taste in men

Oscar by potato lord but not

Martin by starapture

[daybrightsims]

Alright, they've lived in my brain too long; Time to air out my thoughts about the polyamory in BG3

To give a little context: I am currently ethically non-monogamous with my primary partner of almost 7 years. I am not a monolith of thought when it comes to polyamory/ENM/open relationships. These are my own personal thoughts and feelings. I've also completed the game with Astarion and Halsin romanced. Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

TL;DR - I don't share the current opinion of whether or not Astarion is okay with Tav pursuing Halsin and the discourse around his agency and choices in the relationship are bumming me out and frustrating me.

I am getting increasingly frustrated about the conversation about Astarion being polyamorous/okay with Tav being with Halsin in the game, primarily because I think a lot of the "think pieces" are coming from 1) monogamous people who have only ever been monogamous, 2) monogamous people who have been burned/cheated on/forced into polyamory by a partner (I feel for ya'll, that wasn't okay), 3) people who are very VERY protective of Astarion, and 4) people who are blatantly uncomfortable with polyamory. My goal is not to invalidate anyone's experiences, but to share an alternate perspective.

I do think that Astarion is not only okay, but happy with Tav dating Halsin. I glean this from how he responds to being poly with ANY OTHER companion. If you ask him to share with literally anyone else, he will say no and give his reason.

Gale: He doesn’t want to be in a love triangle (which with Gale, it would be).

Lae’zel: He’s uncomfortable and Lae’zel would kill him (also true).

Wyll: He knows Wyll is old fashioned and monogamous.

Karlach: He knows Karlach’s feelings for you are strong and he doesn’t want to stand in the way of that (he even says he’d be cool with an arrangement but knows Karlach will need all of your affection based on what she’s been through).

Shadowheart: He would be cool IF Shadowheart had more experience and ya’ll were together longer. But he knows Shadowheart is fragile in her current state.

Minthara: He REALLY doesn’t like this idea and will dump you immediately.

I did also see that ***SPOILER*** they updated or are updating some of the spawn Astarion language to have issues with your affair with Mizora should you pursue it, and it requires a persuasion/deception role to keep you two together.

Up to this point in your relationship with Astarion, he has become more comfortable voicing his opinions and concerns with you. He is learning to value his autonomy and his non-physical relationships. He will tell you when he doesn’t want to do something. In fact, he’ll break up with you over pushing his boundaries. He is fine with you pursuing the Drow twins and fine with you sleeping with Haarlep, even comforts you when Haarlep uses your form. So when he says he is okay with you pursuing Halsin, he means it. Yes, he voices his insecurity with you that you may be pursuing Halsin because you and he haven’t had sex in a while. But he acknowledges that Halsin has experience in this arrangement and doesn’t pose a threat to your relationship. Plus, if you kiss Halsin in front of him, he’ll say “don’t mind me, I’m just enjoying the show.”

To me, the idea that this is the ONE thing that Astarion doesn't have agency over in an arc of showing he can speak up for himself is you sleeping with Halsin is an idea that takes more agency from Astarion. He is a grown man. A 240 YEAR OLD man. That trauma he's endured does not mean he needs to be babied or coddled because he can't make his own choices. I think that's an unfair assumption to put on him that Halsin and Tav being together is the ONLY thing he can't enforce his boundaries on.

If he didn't want you to be with Halsin, he would say no like every other monogamous character in the game.

If you want a good example of someone saying yes just because they want to keep you, look at Karlach. You can tell she is HEARTBROKEN when you ask her, but she says “I don’t want to lose you”. That is not an enthusiastic participant in a polyamorous relationship. Astarion says “yeah, go for it! Just give me some reassurance”. Polyamory is not immune to insecurity. I've asked for reassurance in my own relationships and so has my primary partner. That’s not unenthusiastic. That’s realistic as shit. If you ask him about the relationship after you finish his questline, he doesn’t need reassurance because you’re having sex again. That’s also super realistic.

Am I sensitive to this as someone who practices ENM? Almost certainly. It's hard to see a lifestyle I live be villainized and claimed to be "forced" onto characters. I was actually really excited that I could pursue both Astarion and Halsin, and that Halsin places so much importance on consent and not misleading your partner. And it sucks SOO much to see one of my favorite characters be reduced to "oh, he's only doing it because he's afraid to lose Tav." It makes me almost feel bad for liking the interactions between them and enjoying to option. Do I think people mean to make me or other poly people feel bad? No.

But it does.

Headcanons are headcanons. I get it. People are absolutely allowed to interpret the poly aspect of BG3 how they want to. People are allowed to feel uncomfy with how it's portrayed and not pursue it. But it still bums a queer ENM Astarion and Halsin lover out.

Now excuse me whilst I live out my Astarion x Halsin x Tav polycule fantasies in the form of fanfiction.

[getvalentined]

I've talked about the Nibelheim Doom Triangle many times, but I'm not sure I've ever actually put into words why I believe Lucrecia made the choice she did, at least not in a public forum. Given that Vincent has reentered the public consciousness with Rebirth, it's probably a good time.

We are not going to subscribe to the statement in the Ultimania that Lucrecia married Hojo out of pity because nobody in the company respected his work the same way nobody respected her thesis, because that's not only entirely out of character, but goes directly against what actually happened. Hojo was the lead assistant on Project S, like Gillian was on Project G; Gast selected him, his ideas, his theories, as being the best option after Project G failed. No one else was given this opportunity. After Sephiroth was born, Hojo was then moved (with Lucrecia and Hollander, but not Gillian, who had left the company) to work on Project 0—Shinra's single most important attempt at forcing humanity to progress as a species. Hojo was respected, and Lucrecia may be callow but she's never been the kind of woman who would marry someone out of pity. With that out of the way, we can get into my take on her decision.

I want to be explicitly clear: I don't believe it has anything to do with how attractive Vincent is versus Hojo, and I don't believe that it should. Asserting that Vincent's level of attractiveness should have been the key deciding factor in Lucrecia's decision does a disservice to her depth of character. Period. That isn't even addressing the fact that we're comparing a man who is eternally twenty-seven years old and was in peak physical condition at the time of his death to a man who is in his early sixties and has clearly not taken particularly good care of himself. We've never actually seen what Hojo looked like when he was young, since SE only ever uses one model for him in all modern iterations, so this is a moot point.

That said, Vincent's appearance was a mitigating factor in Lucrecia's decision—and it worked in Hojo's favor, not Vincent's.

We're almost twenty years out since the release of Dirge of Cerberus, so I feel like I can confidently state that Lucrecia was almost certainly in love with Grimoire Valentine. (This is proven in official meta, wherein Lucrecia's feelings for Grimoire are described using the same terminology as Vincent's feelings for Lucrecia.) It was unspoken, unrequited, and doomed from the start, but the affection she had for that man was every bit as intense as the affection Vincent had for her—in fact, on the official relationship chart, Lucrecia's feelings for Grimoire are described using the same word as Vincent's feelings for Lucrecia. This is a repeating pattern, and that's part of the tragedy. Lucrecia adored Grimoire for his intellect, his drive, his passion; Vincent adored Lucrecia for the same reasons. Vincent refers to her as "the beautiful Lucrecia," yes, but he also describes her as the woman he respected most.

Knowing that Lucrecia loved Grimoire makes sense of how she was so torn between Vincent and Hojo.

Vincent looked like his father, he had his eyes, his nose, his brow. He probably had a fair number of his mannerisms, body language inherited and learned via his upbringing. They probably spoke almost the same way, their voices were similar, they had the same stories and the same sense of humor and the same idiosyncracies. But Vincent wasn't his father—he wasn't even a scientist, he didn't have that academic drive that drew Lucrecia to Grimoire in the first place. He was younger than Lucrecia by a few months, he couldn't be her guide or her teacher, and while he'd been assigned to be her protector, it wasn't the same. It could never be the same.

Hojo, meanwhile, looked nothing like Grimoire. His dark eyes and wide mouth and narrow shoulders were nothing like the man Lucrecia loved and lost through her own mistakes. But his drive, his passion, his determination—my god, it was just like him. Hojo's single-minded certainty, his confidence in his own comprehension, his intellectual unquenchable thirst to understand those things beyond his reach, it was all the same. His body language was different, his speech patterns were different, his research itself was different—but not, it turns out, too different, as Grimoire is indicated to be the first Shinra scientist to propose using foreign material on a child in utero in an attempt to produce something in-between man and god that could be communicated with on a human level. This theory, found amongst Grimoire's body of research after his death, may have actually inspired the direction of the Jenova Project (after working on adults in the Howling Fang failed to produce a functional result), and is directly responsible for the creation of Nero.

Vincent would never do that. Grimoire wrote it down, so we can assume that he would have, if he'd had the chance. Hojo did.

Lucrecia may have seen Grimoire in Vincent with her eyes, but she saw him in Hojo with her mind, and that's the part of him that she loved. That's the kind of man that she loved. That's the part of Hojo that she loved.

Before long, I can't imagine she was seeing him as an echo of Grimoire. Hojo was so different, but he was exactly what she wanted, exactly the kind of man—she thought—with whom she could spend the rest of her life. Working side by side as equals, two scientific minds ready to change the world together in ways that they never could alone.

Vincent, though? Vincent looks so much like his father, Lucrecia never stopped seeing his ghost. Every time she looked Vincent in the eye, she saw his father. Every time he spoke, every time he moved, every time he laughed or grimaced or sighed, she saw his father. Even at the very end, when she believed she'd failed to save him and left him in that tank for Hojo to find, she didn't see Vincent, she didn't see Chaos. She saw Grimoire.

"Did you know your eyes are just like your father's?"

Lucrecia chose Hojo because she had so much love left in her, and the echoes of Grimoire she saw physically in Vincent weren't enough for that love to find a home in him.

Lucrecia chose Hojo because he was alive, and she was tired of loving a ghost.

[localcanadiancreature62]

Animatic ideas/Song drabbles for Handyman Bill au Billford

@aaabatteryy Look at me making the resurrection aus idea that lead to us becoming mutuals into reality.

Another Believer from meet the robinsons/Bill's POV - Like think about it. It could be recontextualized into him trying to get Ford's trust again,cuz of the "i will make of you into another believer" part. The "Hello,i got something to tell you. But it's crazy,i've got something to show you" could be about Bill trying to apologize (plus confess his growing normal non toxic feelings for Ford) and also showing that he's going to change for the genius,the scene itself could be him trying to tell Ford about his real feelings but the man ignores him as he thinks it's a trick. "So give me just one more chance,one more glance. One more hand to hold" is pretty obvious with the triangle trying to make Ford give him a second chance and also try to make him look at him the way he used to again,and the "one more hand to hold" part is him wanting Ford to hold his hand and be with him again,the scene would be Bill attempting to convince Ford to give him another chance only for the man to turn his back on him. "Guess what? You got more than you bargained,Ain't it crazy? You got more than you paid for" would be about Bill mocking himself and saying that he bit off more than he can chew with his plan failing horribly while he ended up as a pathetic mortal triangle,the scene would be Bill basically hating himself as he chastises himself for going overboard with his own plan. "You've been on my mind (you've been on my mind),Though it may seem I'm fooling,Wasting so much time (wasting so much time)" is Bill obsessing over Ford but in a normal non toxic way and the "though it may seem i'm fooling" would be him acknowledging that Ford thinks that he's manipulating him again. "Wasting so much time" is Bill thinking that he's wasting his energy on a man that will NEVER come around but he still tries to get him back anyway.

Nuts from adventure time/Ford's POV - This is literally Ford being annoyed by Bill's persistent ass. "You're so annoying,you pitiful old man triangle,i'd like to help you but i don't know if i can" is Ford being frustrated by Bill's constant attempts to get him back while also wanting to help him recover and become normal but not knowing how considering that the triangle is stubborn to change and the scene would be him getting annoyed by Bill's "date" idea while simultaneously looking at him distantly as he knows that the triangle is only like this because of being very very troubled. "I thought you were nuts,but you're really really really nuts" is Ford discovering that Bill is more insane than he thought with his ever persistent attempts to get back together with him and the scene would be the genius rejecting all of Bill's advances as he gets more and more annoyed. "Every time i move eventually you find me and start hanging around. Just another lame excuse to see me,man it's getting me down" is Ford getting really pissed at the fact that Bill keeps following him everywhere and constantly going to his study just to see him,the scene would be Ford discovering Bill in his room in the kitchen where his Journal is etc while being incredibly exasperated by the triangle following him around like a lost dog. "You know i'm actually glad to see you. Maybe i'm the one who's *sigh* nuts." is Ford accepting that he missed the triangle after discovering him in his room again while realizing that he's crazy for STILL being attached to his former muse despite everything,the scene would be him finding Bill in his room again as he then kisses the unconscious drunk isosceles on the cheek.

[destinyc1020]

One thing I never liked about this TZ fandom is that they never seem to have the maturity to look at their own selves in the mirror. It's always Timdaya this, Z fans that, but they never want to address their own insecurities about Z when she is around anyone else. Most of you are weird about her, and it shows. Z always has to be in London under Tom's roof for some of you to feel at ease about this relationship, not you Destiny, you are probably amongst the very few mature people in this fandom. Most of you can't stand the thought of Z being anywhere near another man, all it took was Josh O'Connor making a speech at an event for some of you to feel threatened. Some of y'all need to understand not all Z fans are tomdayas, and being engaged or getting married won't change that. Some fans love her fashion, some love her personality, music, or career and posting her with another costar is sometimes simply a fan loving a project, it's not that deep, and there is no agenda. I frankly never see Timmy fans care so much about Tom the way I see tz fans do, still after dating Kylie publicly for close to 2 years now. Like you Destiny, I never saw Timmy show a romantic interest in Z, Timmy was the one talking about Tom being Z's crush in dune 1 press tour, just maybe, y'all want to keep up the idea of a love triangle just so you can pretend Tom won something over him. Just a thought.

This should have been my Sunday confession. 😂

Oh and maybe it's time to stop comparing Tom's career to Z's career too, they are in a relationship, not clones.

GURRRRRL..... Welcome to Confession Tuesday!! 👏🏾

You spoke nothing but facts!

I have no clue where the insecurity amongst SOME Tomdaya fans come from either, because anyone who's been following Tomdaya for 8 years since 2017 (like myself), you know good and well that Z has ONLY ever had eyes for Tom.

Yes, she had a thing with JE, and maybe they did get a little too close as friends (for people in relationships with others) while they were filming Euphoria, but keep in mind too that Z was also very young back then, and JE was probably crossing lines himself. 👀 When you and your bf might be having some issues, it's real easy to get caught up with someone else. But again, that was Tomdaya 1.0. That was BABY TOMDAYA.

We're now in GROWN Tomdaya Land, and they still had love for each other even when they were dating other people!

Fans need to trust both Tom AND Zendaya! I've NEVER seen Z behave with any other man the way she behaves with Tom, and she's pretty clear on that.

Zendaya's male costars have NEVER been a threat to me (no, not even Timmy 🙄), because it's so obvious to me when two people are actually feeling each other romantically, and when they're NOT. Body language is really not that hard to read people.

Plus, why would she throw away 9 years of history and deep friendship with Tom, to get with a co-star?? Like, c'mon now y'all. Use some common sense!!

With that said, I can totally understand why some Tomdaya fans don't like Zendaya being photographed with other males or her male costars because they know that the ABT crowd who hates her with Tom is just going to make a whole bunch of nonsense noise and make a mountain out of a mole hill.... like that weird account does on YouTube. 🙄

So I can totally understand why some get defensive and upset about that. It may not even be that Tomdaya fans hate Z's male costars (Timmy, JE, Josh, Austin, Zac, Mike, Robert Pattinson, etc), but maybe it's more so that people online (especially ABT shippers 😒) get really WEIRD about her even acting in scenes with male actors, or even just standing next to them. It's not just Tomdaya fans who act weird, it's fans of Z who act weird just in general imo.

Anytime you can't even have a trailer come out of your new film as your first lead role, without idiots online claiming that you have "cheated" on your bf Tom, just because you're ACTING in a scene with other men.... I'm sorry, but THAT'S A PROBLEM. 😠

I don't even blame Z tbh for being super cautious about how she behaves and conducts herself around other men in the industry. It's sad that she even has to behave that way tbh. But she sees the chatter online.

I feel bad for her honestly. 😞 What's interesting is that I never saw such heavy scrutiny like this with her and other men while she was dating JE. 🤔

Anyway, thank you for saying this Anon, because you're right, I HAVE noticed the weirdness at times, but just never really said anything.

I think the trauma from Tomdaya breaking up on 2019 may have given some PTSD Syndrome, so now, they don't trust her around ANY good-looking man smh 🤦🏾‍♀️ As if, she would just drop her long-term bf at the drop of a hat just because. 🙄

I never thought about it as some fans likening it to having smthg over Timmy, but I can see that theory as well.

[riddles-n-games]

So, I wanted to make this as an appreciation post for the fandom. Looking at all the reveals we've gotten in the last few days and seeing how much the world of TIG has expanded so quickly, I've been getting a bit nostalgic.

When I joined this fandom, it was August of 2022, barely a month out from the release date of The Final Gambit, the finale of The Inheritance Games. I found out about TIG at a random bookstore on a road trip and I had immediate interest (the hot tub scene sold me so quick). I was also still somewhat new to Tumblr back then but I wanted to see what the hype was here.

Back then, we were still in the Averyjameson vs Averygrayson era even though I'd say things were cooling down a bit. But, that's not my point. The community was getting ready for this; there were chapter reveals, theories, and oh, it was awesome. I was so happy to be part of it. And some of the people who made it a lively place back then are still here, but unfortunately, some have gone quiet. @averysjameson, @guppyclato, @lesbianator3000, @margolovescoffeeandbooks, and @cherryschaos, thank you for making my days back then. I know you may have moved on, but I thank you for the contribution you made at the time.

The only thing I will not miss is the toxicity that Averyjameson and Averygrayson fans plagued this fandom with and divided us so much. We had a lot back then to still savor, why did we have to do that to sour the tag when this series had so much more to offer than just the romantic subplot? There was a mystery at large and so many other characters to love. We only seemed to agree on hating Emily and the old man. Moving on, let's never do that again and if there is another love triangle, let's try being more mature about it. I know we can. If Gray, Avery, and Jamie moved on, so can we.

When we were told of The Brothers Hawthorne back in October 2022 and given those first chapters for the new book, I was over the moon. We were going to finally see the POVs of two favorites; Grayson and Jameson. I was so excited to see from Jamie's perspective, to get a mystery set in London and for him to solve it with Avery; it was an Averyjameson dream. However, come the actual release of the book and I was honestly so disappointed. I'm not sure why it didn't hit the levels it should have but I already said my piece on that and while I still have some disdain for that story, I look fondly at the parts I did love. And funny enough, I told myself Grayson's story will just have to do only because I was feeling sour over Jameson's plot. But low and behold, I loved it! It was deep, funny, interesting, and held my attention as if I was in TIG all over again and it hit more high notes than Jameson's. I may attribute that to the familial connections we see displayed there but it felt more rewarding and even if JLB still had more for Grayson's development, that didn't mean Jameson had to suffer for it. However, I'm hoping that this story here was a fluke and I'm putting my best foot forward in believing that maybe reading Averyjameson through Avery's POV again in Games Untold will give back that familiar feeling I've been missing for two years. I never said I wouldn't try again.

Now, we've entered a new era and this is a third for me; The Grandest Game and Games Untold. During this period, I met @hathorneheiress, my fanfic bestie, and a lot of my current supporters have been with me since TBH. I thank you very much for sticking with me by liking, reblogging, and commenting on my posts. You make my day in the same way I assume my content makes yours. I haven't said that enough and I don't think it will ever be. I'm happy that we're all still here now and going into this new unknown with our theories, headcanons, new characters, and plots. I'm sure it will be a blast. Thank you for giving me that feeling again these last few days; it felt like being with Avery and the gang, running through the House, finding another clue, waiting in anticipation what it reveals.

I hope that this next series is everything we hope for it to be, a new start for Gray, a chance to bond with the new characters we met in The Brothers Hawthorne, and an opportunity to make it feel like the hay days of the first book. I hope that Games Untold lets us relish that feeling with the original cast, to relive the good old days, to meet up with some old friends we haven't seen in a while, and to have that final hurrah that leaves us on the highest of highs in the best way possible. Maybe it'll make it easier to say goodbye to the ways it used to be and embrace the new storytellers but of course, with the way JLB leaves us hanging with every story she gives, who is to say that'll be it?

Thank you to everyone who makes theories, headcanons, fanfics, fanart, and so many other things that leave us wanting more. Thank you to everyone who showers that content with support in the form of likes, comments, and reblogs. Thank you to everyone who has been here from the beginning, in the middle, and now. You all made this a special place. Thank you to everyone who made this community that way and continue to do so every day. I'm happy to be a small part of that. See you in the next post.

-Mystery Girl's Red String

[crystalsamethyst]

Prompt: Colourful

All Hong-er's life, he was scorned and hidden away thanks to a birth defect. Kitsunes were very superstitious creatures, after all, and being born with a left eye darker than a cloudy midnight sky was horrid luck.

He'd been wearing bandages to hide it for as long as he could remember, showing only his red and lying to any new people who asked about it.

But they all found out eventually, and he was rejected again and again. After a while, he didn't even bother seeking out newcomers to their part of the decreasingly enchanted forest.

Being rejected by his own kind took its toll, and when his mother eventually died, he decided there was no way the outside world could be worse than the kitsune community.

His bad luck struck again shortly after; not two kilometers from where he grew up, he tried to climb a tree to get any sense of where he should go and found himself falling off a branch!

His eyes squeezed shut and he braced for impact, only to be met with the feeling of colliding against something softer than the ground.

"I've got you, I've got you," a soothing voice cooed close to his fluffy ears. "You're safe."

Part of him wondered if he'd actually ended up in the afterlife with a surprisingly kind death, but as his eyes opened, he was faced with the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

He kind of looked like a fellow kitsune, but without the soft triangle ears. No tail, either! And, with a surprised blink, some other things came into focus; there was something else off…

The trees, sky, and shrubbery around him looked the same, but there were things on his savior's clothing that made no sense visually. It was foreign and vibrant, different than anything he'd seen!

"Are you alright?" the man asked, watching the kitsune take in his surroundings. "Did you hit your head before your fall?"

Hong-er tried to form words, suddenly bashful. "No… just… You're so colourful…"

The savior seemed momentarily surprised and then laughed beautifully, the sound reminding him of what his mother called 'bells'. Something he'd heard only once before on his only trip out of the territory.

"I am, aren't I? It might stand out too much in this forest. I wasn't really prepared to be here, so I had no chance to dress appropriately."

Hong-er frowned, his ears tilting in confusion. "You weren't born here?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't. And I don't quite know where to go or how to survive." At that point, he put the kitsune down. "Would you happen to have any tips?"

"… I ran away. Don't know where to go, either," he admitted quietly. "But I know how to survive. If gege doesn't mind, we can find our way out together?"

"It's a deal. May I know your name? Mine's-"

"Shh!" This one certainly didn't know the rules of an enchanted forest! "In here, you're gege. And you can call me San Lang."

[straightbaittournament]

may the best bait win! propaganda under the cut

asami, bolin, korra, and mako:

it's that one meme where the guy ignores his girlfriend to check out another girl, only the two girls get to know each other and get together. S1/2 has love triangle drama between who Mako will be with (Korra or Asami). S3 no one is together but Korra and Asami become really close friends. S4 Korra and Asami are together. Mako is single. Like the only example of exes being good friends and Not getting back together, as well as giving the middle finger to heteronormative assumptions when after the love triangle is over, the two girls get together Shipping the two girls in a love triangle together but it actually happens You forgot about Bolin. LOK had a 4-way straight bait love quadrangle context from straightmod: korra briefly rebounded from mako with bolin. at the time, borra had been a thing in the fandom for a while, in addition to pretty much every combo of these four

mulder and scully:

Infamously treated and teased by showrunners + writers like how a gay couple would be baited and like a gay couple in general, although eventually they do kiss and have a son (although that falls through and they become kind of divorced) during the entire original run of the show i'm pretty sure chris carter would have said they never had a romantic relationship (they had a baby without ever having had sex!) however in the revival their sort of ambiguous What Are We deal was made a lot more explicit so feel free to veto based on these grounds LITERALLY INVENTED 'SHIPPING'. YOU'RE WELCOME while i'm... pretty sure they get together eventually (i've only watched a bit of the x-files), from what i've heard they invented the term "shipping" because of people arguing over whether they would/should be romantically involved, so i think they should be included, for fandom history reasons if nothing else they are a man and a woman who don't get together until ridiculously late but are hilariously devoted to one another, clingy, self-sacrifice-y, and also Forehead Kisses They’re together but they’re not they love each other but barely know each other

[mad-bird-writes]

Introduction and Current WIPs

Hiya! My name is Echo (@tousled-birdmad-girl is my main for those who care about such things) and I'm a writer. I've been writing in some form or another since I was about ten years old, but only recently plucked up the gumption and drive to attempt anything original, much less put it out for the world to see. Time will tell how this goes...

I love horror, tho I wouldn't consider myself a "genre" author, as I think horror, surrealism, fantasy and magic can be found everywhere if you know where to look, and the presence of fantasy elements does not necessarily mean you're writing a "fantasy" book. So, we'll call what I do "fiction" and leave it at that for now :D

Inspiration-wise, I draw from the works of Stephen King, everything Mike Flanagan ever put to Netflix and beyond, Paul Shapera and his ever-growing Shaperaverse, Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Palahniuk, and the Cthulhu Mythos as a whole (with a particular liking for taking the worlds, entities and themes first created by Lovecraft and using them to create something that'd make him spin in his grave.)

Below the cut: a list of my current WIPs and some general housekeeping information. If you see something that sparks your interest, please come sit by my hearth and pour yourself a drink <3

Original Works:

The Lost Souls' Revival: After a series of personal crises, struggling creative Amari Walker stumbles across a flyer advertising a strange carnival, offering "a total restoration of spirit" for the cryptic asking price of "3Y". With nothing left to lose, she attends, quickly becoming enthralled by the Revival and its colourful cast of performers, in particular its eccentric, nameless ringmaster. When her night of fun and escapism is over, she finds herself wanting more, and embarks on a one-woman quest to follow the ever-moving carnival wherever it goes, a quest that will drive her to the edge of sanity, and possibly beyond the reach of reality itself. (vibes: steampunk, dark carnival, mythology/folklore mishmash, fantasy horror, the Fair Folk, whatever the goblins were selling in Rosetti's Goblin Market)

Better To Reign In Hell: It's 1897. The world is changing too fast. Pastor Nathaniel Lawrence is dying, for all that he's trying to hide it. His daughter, Susannah, too old for rebellion and too young for spinsterhood, is content to follow in her mother's footsteps as the town's herbalist, but a bombshell marriage proposal seems set to destroy those plans. A chance encounter with a badly wounded man may offer her the escape she seeks, but at a price: Merritt Caine is not all he appears to be, and his dark past has an unbreakable grip. (vibes: southern gothic HEAVY on the gothic, small town horror, witchcraft (fictitious and real), Satanism (fictitious and real), corruption but in a good way, religious horror, the cycle of abuse, eventual murder (of the good kind) )

The Order of The Pallid Mask: In the corpse of a city at the centre of a dying world, a benevolent cult is working to restore their world to its fabled former glory by appealing to its retreated god, The King in Yellow. Sariann, the cult's High Priestess, is willing to sacrifice whatever she must to ensure a brighter future for the city's refugees; her body, her soul, her mind. Virgil, a lower-ranking member of the Order, her confidant, attendant and trusted friend, is willing to defy the Order and his faith to keep her alive. And the Yellow King has plans and desires of his own... (vibes: Cosmic horror, Lovecraftian but make it romantic, the beauty of the unknown, rituals, creating a religion from the ashes of an old world, post-apocalypse, ancient civilization (not of Earth), Eldritch love triangle) ***

Fan Works/Other:

As far as fanfics go, I don't have any long-form WIPs on the stove, more like a series of short (well, short-ish) form drabbles, headcanons and other assorted bits, which I might as well post here when I have them as proof that I do have a creative output that extends beyond Spotify playlists and Pinterest boards.

Fandoms include:

Fallout (mainly New Vegas and the Prime series so far, but encompassing this universe as a whole)

Red Dead Redemption (particularly the second game as I haven't played the first one yet, £35 for a port of a PS2 game my *ass*)

the Flanaverse (Hill House, Bly Manor, TFOTHOU, Midnight Mass... basically everything bar The Midnight Club, which I have not watched)

the Cthulhu Mythos (if you can call that a fandom :D I was working on a queer retelling of Dreams in the Witch-House at one point, if I can *find* the notes I wrote I might bring that one out of retirement...)

plus one or two fandoms the content crucibles of which I would not subject myself to if you held me at gunpoint (iykyk)

I've also amassed a small collection of OCs from various TTRPGs I've been part of, a couple of whom still haunt my mind and may or may not be written about from time to time... (no DnD tho, I think it's safe to say we've reached saturation point with DnD-centric/derivative works) ;)

***

General housekeeping + other info: I am an adult and this is an adult writing blog by default. I will be writing smut/other sexual content and dealing with mature and dark themes throughout these listed works (and anything else I may write to post here.) I will tag for "main" triggers and give general content warnings where applicable, but I cannot guarantee to cover every single trigger a person may have, therefore, you read and interact here at your own risk. If requested, I will add more trigger warnings, but again, I can't fully guarantee to get everything.

I kindly ask that you refrain from reposting anything from this blog: excerpts, character profiles, moodboards (if I make them) etc. I also ask that you do not take anything for your personal use under any circumstances.

My inbox is open, so send me an ask if you have any questions or simply want to chat! But for now, I've rambled for quite long enough, so I'm gonna wrap this post here. See you! <3

(tagging @coffeexafterxmidnight and @dominaarts )

[tortoisesshells]

do you have any favorite headcanons about Burke you'd wanna share? :3c

I don't think I've gone very far off the beaten path; he's got a well-established past (well. maybe not the last five years.) in-show that works, I think? There's not a lot of gaps that need filling in - this is more like some light embroidery on information that's already in the show? Also - I think he's really interesting as a character that others react to - that forces other characters to adjust, or to reveal something to the audience about themselves in how they react to him - that Joe Haskell, who hates Burke's guts, can still draw a straight line in between what happened with Roger, Burke, and Laura and what's happening with Burke, him, and Carolyn now? Or that he and Vicki are in no small ways mirrors of each other - Vicki representing his past as a poor kid working for the Collinses; Burke representing a bad possible future for her of what happens when the Collinses throw someone under the bus to protect themselves? If that makes sense? But! In order of most-to-least textually supported!

He dropped out in high school: he reminds Bill Malloy that he (Bill) paid him a man's wages working for him when he was just a boy, but later mentions physics class. Given his father abandoned the family when he was nine, and Burke doesn't mention his mother ever (I know there's a cut line of dialogue that says she worked in the cannery, but.), or any siblings, or close relatives, I tend to assume he did it for money? Besides. He's a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Collinsport: he was always going to end up working for the Collinses one way or another. Senior year English wasn't going to change that.

He's not touchy about doing what he had to to survive and get ahead as a teenager, but he's nowhere near as educated as most people he's socializing with now, and that is a sore spot with him - buying and bullying only gets someone so far, I think. He may be richer than the Collinses but it's a little hard to buy respect or belonging outright.

There's cut dialogue (I can't remember which episode, maybe @widowshill does) that implies at least one of the times he ran away from home as a kid was because his mother died - the dialogue itself doesn't quite square with what he says about when his dad walked out on "us", but I buy it in broad strokes - Burke talks mostly fondly about recreational fishing with his father, but even so, his dad beat the hell out of him at least once. On the whole, and I don't think I'm going out on a limb here, I think he had a much better relationship with his mother - while she was alive.

(I think, too, that's backed up by his past good relationship with the Evanses? Maggie says he was always around when she was younger; Sam says he was so used to him being around that if they didn't see him for a few days he'd send Maggie to look for him? The implication being there wasn't much keeping him at home.)

(Which makes the revelation that it was *Sam* whose testimony was the clincher devastating. Absolutely maddening to me that they dropped that in one scene and it never got revisited. but that's not a headcanon.)

Absolutely hilarious to me that apparently everyone but him seems to think that David's his son, not Roger's. I go back and forth on whether I think David is, biologically, his - on the one hand, it makes everything worse for Burke - that he's become an absent father just like his; on the other hand, it makes it a matter of biological determination that he and David get along like a house on fire, and not that Burke's one of the few people who treat David like a person and not The Last Heir To The Collins Line or a whipping boy?

speaking of David: I tend to read what happened ten years ago less as a love triangle and more as he, Roger, and Laura were all involved simultaneously.

Lastly, and strictly because it amuses the hell out of me, not because I think it's remotely likely: as far as I can tell, Burke's never been an amazingly popular first name for men, and certainly didn't crack the top 200 names in the 1920s or 1930s. Either it's a family name - his mother's maiden name, maybe? - or, I argue, his parents were weird about 18th century English political philosophers: his full name is Edmund Burke Devlin, he'll just never admit it. not even Laura or Roger know.

Thank you for the ask! I'm not sure what it is about my brain, but the minute this hit my inbox I suddenly had never thought about Burke at all. ever. head empty.

[kivaember]

new ac6 au idea help me

okay so i've been playing pacific drive since it came out, and it gave me SUCH brainworms for a post-apocalyptic AU of AC6. In BULLET POINT FORM:

when the Fires happened (the first one), it occured just as a coral collapse started to initiate

this basically fucked up rubicon and its now the bermuda triangle of space

anyone who lands on it don't come back and no sensors or satellites can penetrate the thick crimson cloud that covers the entire planet (looks like jupiter from the outside now, with storms and the like)

still, corpos gonna corpo. so after a few decades when nothing changes, they send a few reconnaisance groups to the planet

some manage to report back before vanishing, and the reports are: laws of physics have been screwed up, nothing makes sense, and everything's trying to kill them

Corpos sent their ac squads bc if its dangerous bring guns

They vanish, and after sending a few more they throw up their hands and are like, planet's haunted. fuck it. no coral ever now

ENTER WALTER

who's been closely observing this whole thing for a while

paranoid this effect will spread to other systems, as ambient coral levels are rising in the vaccuum of space around the planet

sends 621 to the planet's surface with strict orders for him to find 'watchpoint alpha' which should have a functioning comms array that can send through heavy coral interference

621 crashlands on the surface and man, what the hell is this scp shit

anyways, there're still ppl living on rubicon, but they've adapted to the fact that they're stuck in a reality-warped nightmare and roll with the weirdness

they have acs, but they're such precious resources that they're only deployed whenever they're gonna do a big expedition for a resource haul when identifying a safe passage opening up to some intact ruins or old foundries

most of the time they're trundling around the planet's surface on old MRAPs or jeeps, harvesting resources where they can

the redguns and vespers who were sent before have kind of like. settled down there - those that survived, anyways. bc they can't leave, but they can't survive without working together either. so there's like an uneasy alliance between the native rubiconians, the redguns and the vespers. as well as various independents that landed and learned to survive

AYRE OF COURSE IS IN THIS

so sentient coral do exist, and they tend to possess random objects

ayre in this case has possessed a car :| 621's gonna drive it

anyway 621 and ayre come across rusty, who's a scavenger for his rubiconian outpost - and the pilot of STEEL HAZE - and tl;dr rusty takes 621 back to the warrens

621 saying he has a mission to reach watchpoint alpha, bc then he and walter can "fix" rubicon

(621 is unaware of the "burn all the coral" plan. walter only told him they're fixing this mess)

rusty's interested, but says reaching the watchpoint is dependent on the conditions. he may have to wait a while

THEN POST-APOCALYPTIC ROAD TRIP AND FALLING IN LOVE while ayre plays wingman

anyway i had to get that idea out of my mind and writen down. ac combat is super rare and is only done when redguns and vespers scrap over a big haul of resources, and even then they try not to damage each ther too much, bc if their acs get too damaged, that's it. it's not being fixed with their limited resources.

rusty who's never been a spy. born on rubicon when it was already messed up and thinks this is normal. oh hey so the landscape is constantly shifting and transforming a mile long field of grass into an acidic bog that'll chew through metal in seconds? haha yeah that happens. it is what it is. oh those manniquins you see on the road sometime? yeah they multiply when you're not looking and try to creep up on you. they explode. yeah that's normal. it really is!

god rusty would actually be incredibly weird in this. even 621 would be side eyeing him...

[13tinysocks]

Just finished re reading ycyd once again. a wonderful read,

the last time I read it, was in Turkey and I got ghosted by a really hot punk guy and I was so violently depressed. BUT The idea of getting fucked by Toby unimaginably soothed my aching soul, I felt like a newborn fawn standing for the first time, perceiving an unseen world, and it’s vast beauty. More importantly, I may currently be frantically drawing all of the sex scenes with Toby for my own personal perverted enjoyment , so hypothetically do you know where that reference photo of the loft is?? for science of course.

Also partially blaming you guys for the period where I only went out with guys that looked like Brian and Tim, because y’all injected an uncontrollable lust in me, Alas, not sustainable in the long run; trying to get your man to wear a masky cosplay 24/7.

Anyways, you guys reignited Toby being my muse, and please if you do respond drop all of your art of Toby this is a stick up and I need it

So now I’m gonna go read spill your guts again bye!!!!!

This was my spill your guts Toby I drew last year and some ycyd tob which i’ve drawn eating him out alot artistic reverence, yada yada yada



1. Show me his cock.

2. I've always been very boring and Ill traveled so I've only ever really dated Abby (my beloved I love being boring) How are you pulling this many people? I want to study you under a microscope actually. (I am NAUGHT slut shaming I love sluts)

3. I once knew a Brian doppelganger. He was my sister's shitty boyfriend. Good riddance but I mean the resemblance was uncanny.

4. I love your art and I follow you from my main. If Toby had the means he would be like a freak Strade/Mason hybrid. Already kinda is but you get me.

5. I haven't drawn Toby much in the last year or so but I've got a few things for ya.

This mornings warm up and a shitty drawing of the loft. I always imagined it as kinda shallow with indented shelves.

Stuff from my Insta of Toby. Left is from last year. Right is part of a wider print well be selling with interruptions of the manor fellas but make it ho1c teehee.

That's all Ive got for Toby. I'm sorry beloved mutual. I wish I had the energy to draw him as much and as cute as you do.

However. I've been working on pinup prints you see. Tim and Brian double slutted up you see.

Brian's done but Tim's still in the works and very bald and has triangle nipples.

Toby is genuinely the reason we started SYG in the first place. It was his birthday and I wanted to widdle COVID times away by writing. We all know where that rabbit hole went.

I also have a piece of YCYD's novelization Toby art. Since I can't use the real thing I wanted to keep him close but not too to Toby in looks and personality. So here's that

Erm ☝️🤓 thank you for reading. I really do love your stuff teehee kicking my feet.

[fixaidea]

So at this point I think I'm deep enough into DMBJ to allow myself to have some Opinions, so here they are:

Books:

I'm only in the early chapters of Vol. 4 (basically the beginning of Ultimate Note) so a lot may change, but so far it's an enjoyable adventure series. It's refreshing that they're allowed to say 'zombie' and 'grave robber'. Also it makes much more internal sense than most of the dramas, not to mention the individual arcs get their proper mini-climaxes instead of leaving you with never ending narrative blueballs.

The consolidation of the Iron Triangle is a lot slower than in the dramas, but I know they'll get there, I've seen all the cute excerpts from the later books!

Also, I'm usually very wary of First Person narration, because the entire enjoyability of the book hinges on how entertaining the Main Character is, there's no escaping their head. Luckily Wu Xie is an interesting and fun head to be in. I cannot logically explain why he's giving me Rincewind vibes, but he kinda does. It's probably the constant internal screaming - though for him, when the 'flight or fight' instinct kicks in, he starts to bite.

Dramas:

The Lost Tomb:

The good: Say what you will, but I like the visuals. Also they were still allowed to say 'zombie' here.

The bad: I have nothing against Yang Yang, but the hair stylist obviously did.

The Lost Tomb 2:

The good: Cheng Yi and his ears.

The bad: ...So did we ever find out wtf was all that about Zhang Buxun? 'Cause if anything even remotely similar happens in the books, it comes up way further back, if at all. (If this thread DOES get resolved in 2,5 then I apologise, but pretty much everyone who mentions that drama warns against bothering with it, so I never did.)

Theirs is probably the least book-like Wu Xie.

Ultimate Note:

The good: Love this Iron Triangle, and generally I had more fun with this than the pervious two dramas.

The bad: I understand that if you don't have much of a budget quality soundtrack is probably the first to go, but I don't have to LIKE it.

Sha Hai:

The good: Man I love this one. Pretty self-contained, also one of the best production-quality-vise. Also all the thumbs-up to Qin Hao for pulling off this ruthless, bitter Wu Xie with just enough hints of the old Tianzhen that you can see this is still the same character.

The bad: Li Cu, my guy, I'm so sorry but I couldn't give a shit about awkward teenage love-stories when I was an awkward teenager and I'm not gonna start now.

Reboot (I'm only at ep. 14, so jury is still out):

The good: Definitely the best production, and I love the soundtrack.

The bad: Did the author fall out of love with Pangzi or...? In all other versions he's fun AND competent, here he's been relegated to a clown. :(

[shysheeperz]

love ur blog!! I check it out before starting an anime/manga 💞

just wondering do u have any recommendations for complete anime/mangas?

thank u either way!!!

Completed??????

Manga:

Fullmetal Alchemist- the gold standard

Silver Spoon- by the same person who did FMA. Agricultural school stuff. Cute.

Agravity Boys- space sci-fi gag comedy, a wild ride to say the least, I miss my stupid boys

Magu-chan: God of Destruction- cute digimon/pokemon-shaped gods get woken up and mingle with a bunch of middle schoolers. Cute fluff mostly, will occasionally pull at your heartstrings (including the ending)

High School Family: Kokosei Kazoku- comedy/ slice of life, about an entire family attending high school. Has a volleyball arc that rivals the likes in haikyuu!!

Haikyuu!!-sports manga, if you want to cry over boys and their love for the game then this is for you, Boys x Volleyball is the tru otp of the show

Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku- dark historical fantasy, so very, very good. Don't get attached.

Dr. STONE- sci fi, technically the main story is complete. We still have been getting the occasional side chapter or three that continue where the main story left off tho. A very solid shonen jump series. includes one of the best shonen jump dads in the history of ever. Will make u emotional over lightbulbs and stuff. hard not to root for the main cast.

Dr. STONE Reboot: Byakuya- a non-canon little one volume spin-off about byakuya and mainly about a funky lil robot that will make you sob uncontrollably I'd personally say to read up to the end of the Treasure Island arc in the main story first before tackling this one (about ch 140ish)

Dr. STONE 4D Science- a continuation of the main story, only a couple chapters, the ending is a really cruel tease imo and if Inagaki/Boichi don't give us more may they be cursed to lose all their left shoes forever

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Sanji- spin-off of sanji side stories by the duo who did food Wars. ONE PIECE related ofc. Tasty looking food. Sanji too cool for school. One volume.

Astra Lost in Space- space sci fi survival, solid story that deserves more appreciation, the ending is just a tad lackluster in actually showing what a lot of readers would have liked to physically see. By no means ruins the story tho.

Blue Flag (Ao no Flag)- high school, romance, slice of life, boys and gals just trying to figure out life and relationships. Solid.

Mashle: Magic and Muscles- gag comedy that leans a little too much into the shonen battle-esque stuff towards the end imo, but a decently enjoyable time. A mash up of Harry Potter and other various manga like mob, opm, etc.

Mitama Security: Spirit Busters- comedy, axed but I enjoyed it. Goofy fun. nothing spectacular but reading it won't hurt anyone.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes- spin-off of mha obviously, average joe Koichi >>> deku FIGHT ME, the goodest of boys, world building u don't get in the main series, Aizawa's backstory, Knuckleduster is the man the myth the legend.

Chihayafuru- screaming crying throwing up, it's niche it's technically a sports manga, romance, female MC, growth™, love triangle but at the end of the day that's not what's important

My Love Mix-Up!- comedy romance, big big mix-up on who loves who and lots of shenanigans ensue.

Noragami- TECHNICALLY not complete until like 2 days from now when the final chapter releases. my emotions! MY EMOTIONS!!!! 😭

Gintama- comedy/gag with dashes of really good drama

I have no idea what your tastes are, anon, so here's a mix that I've personally enjoyed. Some of them were axed, but technically that makes them complete so I included them :P yes I cheated.

Anime:

There's a lot less of them bc I haven't actually watched a lot of completed series.

Run with the Wind- more boys x sports but this time it's about running. Also the boys are in college. Will trick u into wanting to run.

91 days- ol timey story about VENGEANCE. Set during the prohibition.

Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann- makes you emotional and feel all fuzzy inside, sci fi, mecha

Cowboy Bebop- a classic

Samurai Champloo- also a classic and I actually prefer this one over cowboy bebop tbh, god tier baseball episode

Astra Lost in Space-the anime version, if you'd prefer watching over reading, but I always prefer manga > anime just cause.

FMA 03/FMA BROTHERHOOD- the gold standard. I appreciate both versions. 03 goes the anime original ending root bc obviously the manga wasn't completed yet no biggie.

Mob Psycho 100- MOB!MOB!MOB! and tumblr sexy man reigen arataka

Gintama- animated version alternative lol. The voice actors bring the characters to life.

Obv there are the old school classics like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Gundam and all that jazz if you haven't already checked out some of those. Oldies but goodies.

[goddesspharo]

questions for fic writers: 7, 13, 37

[questions for fic writers]

7. Any world building you’re particularly proud of?

This is a great question that made me realize that I don't do world building in the epic scale that one would think I should given how many AUs I've been writing lately. It's almost more fun to just give glimpses of the new setting/circumstances you've placed your characters in without writing an entire chapter about how there may or may not be an alien apocalypse now. I've been enjoying slowly revealing nuggets in political scientists because it lets me play with so many things that could be their own worlds without having to get too in the weeds about it. I'm proud of the world building in call-response overturns conviction every time that was born out of not knowing anything about actual boxing but knowing a hell of a lot about boxing movies!

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

I still like things set in a noir setting, but it's really hard to do well and the older I get, the more I realize that you probably don't want your favorites to be cops. The other thing that I drifted away from is the cliché other woman/man in a relationship trope. Love triangles are great and messy and who DOESN'T love to read about that, but I'm only interested in it when there's just enough nuance so that no one is an outright villain because that is boring. If you need a third mustache-twirling character to make the central relationship interesting, it's probably not worth my time. But if EVERYONE is messy and villainous? Sign my eyeballs up for that! (Thank you to Challengers for bringing this back in a fun way!)

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?

One of the fics I enjoyed writing most last year was put it in a zip-lock bag, partly because it was the first time I had tried my hand at writing The Bear fic and partly because I had finally written an ever-elusive band!AU. It was interesting to do a Richie character study and I think the tragedy of Mikey really lends itself well to a Kurt Cobain-esque narrative. You'd be surprised how easily you can transplant restaurant drama into music drama. I rarely say this about my writing, but I really liked the way this one turned out and probably wouldn't change a single thing about it.

[galaxy-brain-rasslin]

Thoughts on AEW: All In 2024

Just my thoughts on the show, as well as the Zero Hour preceding it. Obviously, there will be spoilers.

ZERO HOUR

16-Man Tag Match: Tommy Billington, Kip Sabian, Rocky Romero, Kyle Fletcher, Lio Rush, Action Andretti, and Top Flight (Darius Martin and Dante Martin) vs Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh, Anthony Ogogo, Ariya Daivari, Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen), and The Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds)

I'll be completely honest, I forgot this match even happened.

Tony seems to like to do these random-ass, giant, multi-man matches during the pre-shows.

I assume this is probably just so these guys could get a PPV pay day or something.

Absolutely one of the matches on the show.

Mixed Tag Match: Willow Nightingale and Tomohiro Ishii vs Kris Statlander and Stokley Hathaway

I love Willow. She's one of my favorites.

I'm still not over Statlander betraying Willow.

I have been loving Ishii just hanging around AEW having random matches

LMAO Stokely slammed Ishii.

Legitimately fun match. Willow and Ishii work well together, despite Ishii being just some kind of man-shaped refrigerator with no neck

10-Man Tag Match: The Von Erichs (Marshall Von Erich and Ross Von Erich), Sammy Guevara, Katsuyori Shibata, and Dustin Rhodes vs Undisputed Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) and Cage of Agony (Bishop Kaun, Brian Cage, and Toa Liona)

lmao Sammy and Brian Cage both have Wolverine-themed gear. This feels like those scenes in shows where two girls show up to the same party wearing the same dress.

I am always a fan of Shibata wrestling on my television or other device.

Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona are so fucking cool.

I love that Dustin is walking around with two belts. And that he's still able to go as good as he does.

This was a fun match.

Interlude

Saraya and Harley Cameron are genuinely entertaining as heels. Nobody can harass the cameraman quite like Saraya.

I do not want to keep hearing Ronnie Radke. Please stop.

It's cool that they've brought Saraya's whole family back this year.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT JAMIE HAYTER IS BACK. LET'S FUCKING GO DUDE.

HELL YEAH. FUCK YEAH.

I missed Jamie a bit.

ALL IN

Four-Way Ladder Match, AEW Trios Championship: The Patriarchy (c) (Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, Killswitch) vs Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn) vs House of Black (Malakai Black, Brodie King, Buddy Matthews) vs PAC and Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta

Presumably PAC/Claudio/Wheeler was actually going to be Death Triangle originally. But with Penta and Fenix on their way out, they probably had to change that.

They actually did everyone's entrance during Zero Hour, which I thought was really cool.

This match was absolutely ridiculous.

Christian Cage ran to the back, like, immediately lmao

And then showed back up to try to climb a ladder.

HoB continues to be very, very cool and very scary.

Juice Robinson is still my favorite wrestling goblin.

KILLSWITCH HELD CHRISTIAN BACK FROM GETTING THE BELTS??

PAC, Claudio, and Yuta?? The PACPool Combat Club?? They're the winners?

I had fun. Everyone in this is great and genuinely entertaining.

AEW Women's Championship: "Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs "The Glamour" Mariah May

This is still one of the messiest break-ups I've ever seen in wrestling.

Genuinely great match.

Mariah's sadistic bisexual gimmick is fantastic.

I assumed there'd be blood, because there was white clothing. I'm glad my assumption was validated. This match benefited greatly from bleeding. It added a lot to the, well, blood feud.

Toni not only lost the belt, but she lost to her own finishing move. The sheer disrespect done by Mariah was a thing of beauty.

I can't wait to see Mariah's reign.

I can't wait to see what Toni does next.

FTW Championship: "The Learning Tree" Chris Jericho (c) vs Hook

The Learning Tree is such a goofy gimmick.

If I wasn't just tired of Jericho, I'd probably enjoy this more.

Why is Hook wearing kinesio tape over his eye? Does he not know about eye patches?

I'm genuinely so glad that they both managed to avoid hitting any of those cricket balls when doing suplexes, etc.

HOLY SHIT TAZ PUT THE TAZMISSION ON BRYAN KEITH.

HOOK GOT THE BELT BACK.

I love seeing Taz trying to hold back being a Proud Dad during Hook's matches.

Three-Way Tag Team Match, AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson) vs FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) vs The Acclaimed (Max Caster and Anthony Bowens)

I don't know who I want to win, but it's none of these teams.

Max being an obnoxious edgelord on the internet and in his raps has really soured me on The Acclaimed, which sucks, because they're both good.

This was a genuinely fun match.

As much as I'm kind of tired of FTR vs Bucks, and The Acclaimed, all six of these dudes are still really good and kept me invested in the match.

Not really surprised that the Bucks won.

Oh shit, Grizzled Young Veterans?? I've heard great things about them. I wonder if they're going to be the ones to take the belts off of the Bucks.

Casino Gauntlet Battle Royale:

Started off with Orange Cassidy vs Okada.

Okada's comedic shithole heel role has been fantastic and was put to great use here

OH SHIT WHAT THE FUCK NIGEL MCGUINESS IS IN THIS???

Nigel clearly is returning to action so he can personally retire Danielson himself

OH SHIT IT'S HANGMAD. AND JARRETT.

AND WHAT THE FUCK ITS RICOCHET. I knew he was signed, but it's still awesome to see him.

lmao Christian limping to the ring.

Killswitch is back to being Luchasaurus??

THAT FUCKING DINOSAUR JUST GAVE CHRISTIAN THE WIN LMFAO. What the hell is going on here. Where are they even going with this.

I still enjoyed it. I like the random times, and that it can effectively end at any time.

AEW International AMERICAN Championship: MJF (c) vs Will Ospreay

Find someone who loves you as much Will loves Assassin's Creed.

Max's USA gimmick has been the single most obnoxious thing in AEW for a bit, but I love it.

Ospreay is so fucking good, dude. MJF is so fucking good. These dudes are so good, dude.

OH SHIT DANIEL GARCIA IS BACK. Fuck yeah! I love Danny, and he's looking all serious.

WILL OSPREAY WINS BRUV.

AND THE CHAMPIONSHIP IS BACK TO THE INTERNATIONAL TITLE BRUV

Solid as hell match, Bruv/10.

AEW TBS Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) vs Dr. Britt Baker, DMD.

This match is a death spot, Christ.

Considering she had some serious back problems, and a mini-stroke, and has been out of action for 10 months, I'm genuinely glad to see Baker back.

Mercedes is such an obnoxious heel, I love it.

C O R G I S

Both Britt and Mercedes with the Eddie callbacks

Britt looking right into the camera to smile with Kamille gets ejected was beautiful stuff.

I am begging Mercedes to get a better finisher.

I don't know if it was ring rust, or a lack of real chemistry with the two, but this was not the best match.

I enjoyed it, but it was still definitely one of the matches of all time.

As I'm writing this some time after the event, I also want to say that I am so fucking sick of the discourse about this match being either "Mercedes is the worst wrestler ever' or "Britt is the worst wrestler ever'. This shit has nuance for fuck's sake.

Coffin Match, AEW TNT Championship: Jack Perry (c) vs Darby Allin

Jack's custom belt looks so cool. I can't believe the dude, like, forged that shit himself.

Darby fucking glued thumbtacks to his goddamn face.

Nobody dies like Darby.

This shit is brutal.

Jack has a fucking bag of glass lmao

THE "CRY ME A RIVER" CHANTS LMAOOO

Turns out the way to beat Darby in a coffin match is to bind him, put him in a body bag, and put the bag in the coffin.

The Bucks (with a freshly-shaved Nicholas) show up with gasoline to burn Darby and the casket.

IT'S STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING

I've said it before, find someone who loves you as much as Tony Schiavone loves Sting

Title vs Career, AEW World Championship: Swerve Strickland (c) vs Bryan Danielson

Of course you give Danielson this fantastic video package about his career.

Of course you give Danielson "The Final Countdown" for his entrance.

Swerve Strickland continues to be the coolest motherfucker alive in pro wrestling today.

Swerve is working this match like he's actually trying to kill Danielson. It's beautiful.

Beating Danielson up in front of his children is monstrous. I love it.

Swerve took a busaiku knee and brushed his fucking shoulder off.

I love how Bryan does an Injury spot in every fucking match, and I know it's A Thing, but every goddamn time there's part of me that's like "Oh shit" because he's that fucking convincing.

IT'S HANGMAD AGAIN.

Oh shit, Bryan is getting the comeback.

Bryan absorbing kicks while fucking staring at his family and saying "I love you" was fucking glorious.

SWERVE TAPPED. BRYAN IS THE FUCKING AEW CHAMPION.

If this had been his retirement match, it would have been an absolutely perfect send-off for the man. Dude got the absolute shit kicked out of him.

I didn't even really want Danielson to win, but I was still, like, rooting for him toward the end there.

Like seriously, Bryan Danielson is one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time. The dude is amazing.

I am still genuinely surprised that Tony somehow talked Danielson into winning the belt, though.