#there are some songs i'm not entirely sure how to categorize

[1794]

yearly post on the subject: I don't /really/ mind hearing christmas music in public, or at least not as much as I should, but people need to respect the hierarchy of Types of christmas music and stick to one or two rather than trying to play the whole spectrum. as follows, from best to worst:

jazz/instrumental covers of christmas songs. this includes pieces that are more often heard as instrumentals: carol of the bells, christmastime is here, sleigh ride, etc. inoffensive, easy to tune out, easy to pretend aren't christmas music.

actual carols (jesus optional). hark the herald angels sing, good king wenceslas, etc. non-secular, but at least they're open about what they are, and they're pleasant to listen to.

non-children's christmas music from the 50s or whatever. silver bells, I'll be home for christmas, white christmas, you get the idea. there's a reason these ones stood the test of time. I'm not going to be the person to impugn bing crosby's singing ability.

dumb/children's retro christmas music. frosty the snowman, grandma got run over by a reindeer, the like. this is probably the smallest category so I'm fine folding it into the previous one, but it's significantly more annoying.

modern christmas music. mariah carey, last christmas, santa baby. sighs. I don't want to hear it. also I have an ingrained panic response to michael buble for a very stupid reason so obviously I'm not going to want to hear him specifically.

bad pop covers of any type of music previously mentioned. santa Buddy and any of those dogshit albums that failed pop stars put out when they've really truly run out of ideas. if you play this shit in public: I know where you sleep.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Ill Met by Moonlight

Khonshu x Fem!Stripper Moon Knight!Reader

Summary: You are Khonshu's Moon Knight. Although your "normal" job isn't what many expect from a superhero...

Nor does your god realize just what his presence means to your peers.

TW/CW: Reader is a stripper, Exotic dancing, strippers, lap dances etc. All the NSFW stuff that comes with that job, don't ask Khonshu where he gets the money because I don't know. Predator featured, but don't worry he dies :D

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: This came to mind because I've been constantly thinking about the little AU that @drinkingwithkhonshu and I came up with in my little "Moonlight" post. I figured a nice way to wind down from the chaos of hurricane Helene, indulging my brainworm would be fun.

"And that concludes our little Moonlight's song and dance. Pretty as a painting, am I right, fellas?" The DJ said over the stereo system as you walked back behind the curtains.

Your set on stage concluded with a rather decent haul. Although you did have half a mind to kick one patron in the face when he threw literal nickels at you...

You sighed, pulling your mask down long enough to wipe the sweat off your face and adjust your hair beneath your hood.

Then, you reached down and adjusted the pasties covering your nipples--shaped like crescent moons--and re-examined yourself in the mirror.

Surely, not what many would expect the Avatar of an ancient god to wear in place of ceremonial armor, but.... Well. Sometimes video game logic worked in your favor.

Many of the cruel and evil men Khonshu dispatched you after often came to these clubs. You were an "amateur" dancer--meaning you would hop from club to club, working there long enough as a temporary hire to make pay but long enough to build a rapport with your targets before eliminating them for your god.

Your nose scrunched as you adjusted the ties to your g-string, fidgeting slightly to get comfortable in the scrap of clothing once again. You then slipped your fingers beneath the edges of your thigh-high platform shoes and let them loose with a soft snap! to your skin; the latex material hugging your thighs once more.

As you ensured your mask was securely in place, one of your fellow dancers, who went by the stage name "Khandi" (pronounced "Candy") walked up to you, her heels clicking on the glittery floor of he dressing room.

She wore a thin, sequined mini-dress that cut just beneath her bust line and was cut so short you could easily make out the panties she wore beneath.

"Hey, girl." She smiled at you.

You smiled back. You always treated the dancers with respect--male and female--because their line of work was dangerous as well as entertaining to many.

Which is another reason they were your preferred hunting grounds for you to dispense Khonshu's "justice".

"Khandi. What's up?" You asked curiously, leaning into the mirror to apply just a bit more silvery eyeshadow.

"Oh, y'know..." She snickered, leaning her hip against the dressing table, "Just that your usual guy is here. Again. And wants to see you. For another private dance."

Your hand stills and you look at her, "Again?"

Khandi grins and crosses her arms, "Mhmm. God, I wish he'd ask me to dance for him once in a while. Dude has it bad for you."

You rolled your eyes and laughed softly, "Mmm, if you say so."

"If she says so?" Another coworker, Mina grins, the shorter woman bouncing up to you.

"You're the only girl he ever asks a dance from. I swear, is he your boyfriend or something? Didn't picture you as the DILF-lovin' type..."

You sigh, trying not to laugh, "I--hah..."

Shaking your head, you roll your eyes again, "It's.... complicated? I'm not entirely sure how to categorize our.... situation."

You had some affection for him, sure, but--

Mina shoves your shoulder with a snort-laugh, "I knew it!"

Khandi grinned at you once again as you peeked out of the curtain to see a certain tall, bronzed, serious-faced man looking right at you, as if he knew you were going to look out at him.

He gives you a ghost of a smile, and nods his head ever so slightly, the slight wrinkles at the corners of his eyes creasing a bit more, the silver in his dark hair and beard almost shimmering beneath the pulsing lights.

He then turns and dips into the private room, waiting for you.

Khandi grins and nips her bottom lip, "Ugh, okay, I don't normally like the older guys who come in here because they're creepy--but god is he hot! He's really rocking the silver fox look."

You roll your eyes and look at her as Mina snorts again, "Well, he's not my type, but he is kinda nice! One of the customers got too grabby with me after I told him I didn't want to dance because i was on a break, and your mysterious stranger over there practically twisted his arm off and walked him out the door!"

You smile beneath your shroud, "Yeah... Sounds like him. He hates it when people take advantage of others. Has a bit of a moral code, that one..."

"Oh, so you do know him more than just the occasional lap dance!" Khandi grinned, waggling her eyebrows.

You shove her playfully and walk past her, "And it's none 'o your business, nosey!"

You could hear the gaggle of giggling fall quiet behind you as the next song pulsed through the air, the base vibrating the floor beneath your feet.

Your hand closed around the knob to the room, and you swiftly closed it. The lights were a very very low shade of purple-red, pulsing in slow waves along the LED strips that lined the couches along the walls.

And perched oh-so casually on one of those chairs, was not the same man who walked into the room a minute prior.

He was no longer the tanned handsome older man who walked in; though he wore the same crisp, white suit.

Khonshu nodded his head to the side, his large bony beak sweeping a bit as he spoke, "Your most recent performance was interesting. Though I have a suspicion that many of those men's wives will not like the glitter you threw over the crowd."

He patted one of his gloved hands to his thigh expectantly at you, and you silently obeyed the request, walking with a slight swagger to your hips before you straddled his lap; your hands coming to rest casually on his chest as you smiled.

"Well, I didn't just name it the Starlight Shower for shits and giggles, old man." You tilted your head, "And besides, if their wives find out they're getting lap dances in some dingy club instead of staying home and loyal that's on them. My work is done. They deserve whatever fate they made themselves."

Khonshu laughed, "Or the occasional embezzler using his partner's money to hire companionship for the evening."

His hands found their way to your hips as you settled yourself more firmly in his lap, the soft fabric of his suit pants wonderfully smooth beneath the cheeks of your ass.

His hands slid over your curves, almost possessively as his beak brushed the side of your face gently, "Speaking of which...."

"Already taken care of." You hummed, rubbing your cheek along the smooth bone of his skull; "I left the fool with his pants around his ankles and his laptop open in the hotel room."

Khonshu hummed his approval--the man he'd sent you after was a predator--for both women and underage girls. You'd been impersonating a child in an online chat room for weeks, using filters to appear much younger than your actual age, slowly manipulating him into agreeing to meet you in a hotel somewhere.

From there, you met him in the hotel, smugly noticing how disappointed he was that you weren't some young girl; his disappointment morphing quickly into rage as he realized you intended to trap him.

He had told you too much, sent too much--confessed too much. He needed to cover his tracks. That's how he thought his night would go...

With him dumping your body in a drainage ditch, hoping to read in the news about some poor "hooker" being murdered by a John.

He didn't expect for you to fight back--let alone summon your crescent darts and fling them into his chest, taking the last to plunge it into his heart.

You staged the crime scene; used a USB to get past his laptop's security, and opened every single incriminating file--and you felt like your soul needed a cleansing at those images afterwards--and left out of the back entrance, letting your darts dissolve into thin air to further stage the crime scene.

It would look as if he was meeting one of the young girls he was grooming--perhaps a parent, guardian or older sibling got there first.... Perhaps they killed him in a rage at how he was abusing their relative.

They wouldn't know it was you he was meeting. Not with how you paid off the security officer to conveniently stage the cameras to be "down", and the clerk at the front counter to forget you were there, and to "forget" to have you sign in....

It went off without a hitch. You uncovered an illegal human trafficking program, and saved many lives. Both women and girls.

A wonderful dispensation of justice, and Khonshu was proud of you for how wonderfully you orchestrated it all.

You leaned back as you feel his large hands smooth over your cheeks, tugging your hips closer to his, "A wonderful job, my little Moonlight. There is another man here I want you to go after. He is the leader of a gang of criminals and they are intending to bomb a business that will not pay them for "protection". He holds many innocents under his thumb."

"I'm guessing he's the douche who likes to play grab-ass with the other girls when they walk by? The guy with the tattoo on his fingers?" You sighed.

"Yes." Khonshu said simply, not surprised that you already sniffed him out.

"All right. I'll try to get him away from his friends and "take care" of him. It'll be a little bit difficult, though. His cronies like to hover."

"You will figure something out." Khonshu hummed, his thumbs plucking the straps to your g-string almost playfully.

When you went to try and stand up, his hands gripped your hips once again and pulled you down; his voice dropping to a low timbre that was on par with the base that thumped through the walls.

"Where are you going, pet? I believe I hired you for a private dance, did I not?"

Unlike your usual methods of operation, you stayed at your current club. You'd grown a little attached to the girls.

Often coming to their defense and fending off clients who got too handsy or rough with them.

Once, a man had grabbed the youngest dancer, Millie by the wrists and yanked her into his lap; grabbing her so tight her delicate wrists bruised.

Khonshu had stepped in first--scooping his arm around Millie's waist and whisking her out of the man's lap--before you grabbed him by his greasy shirt and shoved him towards the door.

"She said no, you fucking pig." You snarled from behind your mask.

"You bitches 're paid to be sluts." He slurred, sneering at you. "Th' fuck she turnin' me down for? I got money!"

"We aren't hookers, you piss stain." You replied, eyes narrowing dangerously as your fists tightened.

"Now leave. Touch any of these girls again, and I will gouge your eyes out with my heels myself. Go home with the friend attached to your wrist--it's obvious the two of you are well-acquainted with each other already. You won't get lucky with a woman around here, anyway."

"You fuckin' bitch!" He barked, face red with rage as he lunged at you.

Despite wearing your clunky, impossibly high platform heels, you were able to deftly drop to the ground, sweeping out your leg and tripping him, making him smash his face on the floor and breaking his nose in the process.

You stamped your foot on his chest as he rolled over to glare up at you, attempting to staunch the flow of blood form his nostrils.

"You should go back to school." You sneer as everyone in the room laughs. "Or maybe take a kick-boxing class. I'm a stripper and I just kicked your ass in heels."

You grabbed him by his disgusting shirt and shoved him towards the bouncer, "Get this piece of shit off my floor."

After that, Khonshu got an even bigger reputation with the dancers in the club. He would sit in a booth, watching from the shadows. All of your coworkers knew Khonshu did not mind if they sat near him--he was a safe space. He would help protect them when they were on break; he would even ensure they hydrated and fed themselves after an exhausting performance.

It had gotten to the point where your manager usually waived any purchases he made--not that he needed or wanted to drink, but he had to keep up appearances--and the dancers began to bring him things.

Takeout, bottles of water... things like that would often accumulate around him where he sat.

Half of your coworkers didn't even find him attractive, but they all agreed he was hot simply for the fact that he was willing to keep them all safe--both the guys and girls--when others would simply say they "had it coming" for being strippers.

Those that did find him attractive were shameless flirts. They knew he apparently only had "eyes" for you, but that didn't mean they didn't want him to know just how attractive his chivalry and good looks were.

Khandi was probably the most shameless, she would plainly lay across his lap and chat his ear off as Khonshu's eyes tracked your every move in the club. She knew what he was doing, but lavished being in the attention of such an attractive customer.

One night, Khonshu had inquired as to what a "DILF" even was, and why Khandi and a few others had apparently likened him to one. You couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell him. You never did, and it annoyed the fuck out of him.

With every little thing left to Khonshu, every whisper of his name on the lips of your coworkers, you noticed his powers gaining in strength.

It took you only a few days to connect the dots--the things they were leaving, the "hopes" your coworkers would utter that he would be there if you couldn't defend them from some jerk in the night, the attention they were giving him...

You had doubled over on the couch next to him, kicking your feet with tears in your eyes as you finally realized what that meant.

He had followers again. Even if they weren't in the practical or traditional sense--

Khonshu had essentially became the god of the strippers.

And the mere idea of the situation had you nearly crying and gasping for air as you laughed and laughed, and laughed...

Until Khonshu had pulled you across his lap and growled rather impatiently,

"Impudent little... I guess you need to be punished now, hm?"

Khandi certainly noticed how you didn't want to sit down for a little while after you came out of that room--and how smudged your meticulously applied mascara was...

[basicallyaturtle]

never been part of a tag game, sounds really fun! tagged by dear Lanvender, @khan-crete

Do you make your bed? A freshly decrumbed, stuffed animal arranged and dirty clothes removed bed feels great. How often do I do this? We mustn't ask (like once or twice a month) that's all making the bed entails for me, I just have a fitted then normal sheet and blankets

Favorite Number? 4 4 4 4 4! I've loved four my entire life she is like a goddess to me. 2+2 2*2 2^2, divides into halves twice. can only compete with sixteen, whose status and 2^4 and 4^2 is nice, but not as symmetric. 37 and 73 have a place in my heart as the 12th and 21st primes, but not a large place compared to 4

What's your job? What do I get paid for? undergrad lab TA, what do I do? grad research in low energy nuclear physics

If you could go back to school, would you? In school technically still. Would I rewind time to experience school again? highschool no college yes. would I go back for another college degree? I could be convinced if it would be cheap and unobtrusive to my current schooling. Was always torn between physics and linguistics. I made the right choice but I always wonder what if.

Can you Parallel Park? I have done it, on the driving test, like four or five years ago. I think I could do it again, but not too confident

Do you think Aliens are real? Eh, probably in a 'the observable universe 9.3e+9 ly across, it must have happened more than once' kinda way, but not in a 'they've been feeding us tech for thousands of years or are visiting us' kinda way.

Can you drive a manual car? Never tried, hubris tell me yes, anxiety with even normal cars tells me I'd probably fuck up the transmission while trying to leave the driveway. gonna say yeag

Guilty Pleasure? I think like cheesy childhood disney live action movies?, generally I'm pretty full chested about the things I enjoy

Favorite Type of Music? yeah, hard, a lot of vocaloid, which isn't reallly a genre, a lot of edm genres from like old school monstercat, a lot of jrock by way of anime OP's of show's I've never watched then finding other songs by those artists. some rock music though that genre is also extremely expansive and I'm not sure how I'd categorize a lot of it. Generally my music consumption consists of a group of maybe five songs completely unrelated on repeat for months at a time and genre is not a huge factor in that

Do you like puzzles? twisty puzzles like rubik's cube type puzzles are really fun working, towards doing a 3x3 blindfolded but challenging, I used to do jigsaw's with my mom but over the course of a very long time because we'd get frustrated. crosswords, but I'm no good at them

Favorite Childhood Sport? Soccerrrr. Wish I'd stayed with it, but there were only a couple more years before there wasn't a league for my age group anyway, been trying to get back into it recreationally

Do you talk to yourself? I do, but as if I'm talking to someone else. I prefer not to do it because I'm not content with my voice atm, but I find myself doing it a lot especially when getting stuck on research stuff trying to talk it out or I will say a comment to someone I disagree with outloud rather than typing it and posting it. A lot of this is to my reflection which is probably part of the reason it feels like someone else lol

Tea or Coffee? tea all the way. drank iced sweet black tea my entire childhood and started drinking it hot with milk in college. I was the kind of person that disliking coffee was a sort of pillar of my tastes, but then a few years ago made it with like half milk and a lot of sugar and like it, lotta people wouldn't call that coffee, but eh.

First thing you wanted to be when you grew up? The actual first thing was everything. I would amalgamate like all the stereotypes of things kids want to be into one so a firefighter-astronaut-whatever else. When I got a better sense of my interests, inventor, so I guess like product designer, but what that meant to me was I got to sit around and think of neat gadgets and items then figure out how to make them like freeze ray, time machine, clone gun, that kind of thing lol. the first practical idea of a job I wanted was theoretical physicist in like middle school, which I kinda am now so success I guess

What Movies do you Adore? not much of a movie person, but like to watch movies other people are interested in with them, love castle in the sky, LOTR, howl's moving castle, your name, probably others in those categories I don't know about yet or have forgotten and I have a strong soft spot for childhood halloween movies like twitches and halloweentown

I'm curious what @arc-archernar and @charyou-tree have got to say if they'd like to, and anyone else that wants to participate!

[uh-velkommen]

Every review I saw for Squid Game season 2 was negative-- saying it was slow, drawn out, or boring and as someone who wasn't particularly enamored with season 1 the way everyone else was, I'm here to say

You are all liars.

Season 2 was as perfect of a follow-up to a season 1 that anyone could ask for. It had the same quality of writing, directing, and acting. The tone was a little confusing at times as this season felt a bit more comical and it didnt have the same scary, desperate feeling that season one gave you but that was entirely due to the set of people participating in the games this time around. That's what I really enjoyed about this season, actually. I worried that having us sit through the exact same games, telling us the exact same message again, would be boring. But this group of folks were entirely different and watching Player 456 try his hardest to save the people, just to sit back and hear them ask how many people died in the last game and then go "that's not enough!" for the sake of raising everyone's take home pay was brilliant.

I feel like the last season really focused on how trapped the players were. Showing that though they knew the stakes, they still tried to hold onto their humanity. It's what gave Gi-hun the motivation to put a stop to the games. But season 2 highlights humanity's selfishness. At times, I questioned why he wanted to keep trying. I went, "This batch is hopeless. Let them die. It's what they voted for." And that picking and choosing of who deserves to live and die is exactly what the games are doing. Gi-hun sees the people around him and falters for a second at their behavior, but in the end, he still wants to save as many people as he can.

Raising the stakes by allowing them to vote after every single game was a great addition because it showed how the people who survived had no problem saying, "One more game!" not considering the people who didn't or won't be able to survive. Unlike the last batch, this group wasn't so eager to kill others in the dormitory to win more money, this time, their free for all was a result of bipartisan voting. There stood a group of people who were acting from a sense of morality, and it was getting in the way of their chance at wealth.

As for the pacing, sure, some scenes and dialogue lingered on a bit longer than they needed to but what I think people were actually complaining about was the fact that we don't spend as much time IN the games as we did in season one. Which says a lot about what people took away from this series. It's the sensationalization of the games themselves. People don't remember character motivations or backstories from season 1. They just remember the red-light green-light song. There were no continued conversations about how people risk their lives turning to loan sharks because systems in place make it impossible to afford to live. Instead, people are talking about how to cook the perfect dalgona. People are buying merchandise instead of protesting. Taking the whole message behind the show and burying it under sweets and nostalgia. So naturally, with season 2, these people were expecting more fun and games, but because the season had its own climax that it was building towards, aside from the games, people grew bored of watching.

It's so backwards because people usually hate when season twos just rehash or repackage what happened in season one. But this time around that's what they wanted, to see people play their lives away. They've categorized the series under a different genre. It's no longer a social commentary to them, it's a survival horror. Pure entertainment.

[braveclementine]

Chapter 3

Warnings: None. (Will however be a 18+ reader book)

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own a few OCs like Elizabeth, Katherine, Stacy, and Jessie. I do not condone any copying of this.

"Seriously, where were you?" Your sister demanded, arms crossed, looking down at your slumped frame against the door.

"It's a long story. Like a long, long story." You muttered, getting your feet, trudging past your younger sister to get to the kitchen, "What's for dinner?"

"I thought you came home from work early?" Y/S/N scrutinized.

You sighed. "I did. Then I went for a week. I mean a walk. And I met my soulmates."

"All of them?" Y/S/N asked incredulously.

You nodded.

"So why are you so glum? Was it to painful hearing all of their names at once?"

"Am I glum?" You questioned in surprise. "I'm not unhappy. . . just surprised and a little overwhelmed."

"Do you like them?" Y/S/N asked.

"Oh yeah, they're great." You responded, trying to figure out how you would categorize them. "Everyone likes them."

"Who are they?"

"The Avengers."

Silence.

She snorted, "Y/N-"

You sighed, holding your arm out. "Spider-Man dropped me off."

Silence again.

"How much do they know about you?" She asked.

"Nothing. And I know nothing about them."

"Oh, well I got a song that could help with that. It's called We didn't start the fire. It's a lovely little song, lets you know small tidbits about the superheroes."

"Ah." You muttered.

"So, who all did you get?"

She sat down across from you, taking your arm into her hands. "Oh my God Thor? Lucky bitch. Oh my God and Tony Stark and the King of Wakanda and Steve Rogers? Oh, but you got Loki and Bucky though."

"They're not that bad." You said with a frown. "Loki was actually very. . . sweet."

"He tried to take over Earth."

"Minor character flaw?"

"And Bucky is a trained assassin!"

"Because HYDRA messed with his brain." You pointed out. "Not him himself."

"Mm, fair enough. Are you sure you'll be okay around them though?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" You felt your feathers being ruffled slightly as your younger sister had a go at some of your soulmates.

"I'm just saying, some of them are dangerous. And they work in a dangerous line of business. If the wrong people found out that you were half- probably more than half- of the Avengers soulmates, you could be a target!"

"It's not like I have a choice!" You snapped. "They're my soulmates and that's that. I can't change it. I can't just walk away from it. Alright? I would give anything to be normal and have just one, maybe two soulmates. You know I've always covered these up. You know I've never wanted an entire freaking orgy of soulmates!"

"Alright, chill girl." Y/S/N said. "I'm just saying, you're going to have to be prepared. It's not everyday you find out your soulmate is the King of Wakanda."

"Right." You murmured.

"And for dinner, Y/S/BF/N (Your sister's boyfriend's name) and I are going out for dinner." your sister finished. "You're welcome to join us, of course."

Though they were married, she wasn't quite eighteen yet and wasn't allowed to move in with him until she turned of age. However, if soulmates found their mate before eighteen they were allowed to get married at the earliest age of sixteen. However, they had to be eighteen to live together.

And the reason that we weren't with our parents was because. . . well that's a whole other story.

"I'll cook." You yawned, not even sure if you were hungry.

"Alright." She said, dancing out of her chair and heading for the front hallway, "See you when I get home."

The door closed behind her.

You sighed, getting out of your chair to pad into the kitchen. Opening the cupboards and refrigerator, you went easy on yourself and threw together a small meal of Y/F/F.

*Meanwhile at the Avengers Compound*

Tony, Stephen, Thor, Loki, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Clint, T'Challa, Rhodey, and Fury all sat in a large living room like room.

"I can't believe we all have the same soulmate." Rhodey sighed. He was very simple, liked everything simple. He would've been pleased to have a soulmate that was with him and him alone. He'd always liked having only one band. Just the two of them and a family. Well, now things were just slightly- a lot- complicated.

Tony rested his chin on Stephen's shoulder, "I'm not sure why you're surprised. We've all seen each other's wrists everyday. We all knew we'd have the same soulmate. The colours always changed at the same time and everything."

"We'll have to keep an eye on her." Fury said, always in survival mode. "Make sure that she's a safe person to have around, and make sure that she's never in danger."

"You worry to much." Clint said.

"Why don't we just invite her into the tower?" Steve asked. "We have plenty of rooms upstairs."

"We did just meet her. . . six hours ago." Loki deadpanned. "I doubt she'll be highly receptive to move in so early."

"I'm already planning weddings in my head." Thor announced happily, munching on a pop tart.

Loki groaned, putting his head in his hand. "To fast, much to fast."

"We could all just spend some one-on-one time with her, or as groups." T'Challa suggested. "Stephen and Tony. The three of you. Thor and Loki. Clint and Rhodey. Fury and I. That way we're not overwhelming her with to many people that she needs to get to know. And we can also get to know her better than if all twelve of us tried to get to know her at the same time."

"That's a good idea." Sam said, shrugging.

"I'm more worried about your guys wedding." A new voice said from the doorway. Dr. Banner stood, leaning in the doorway.

"Come again?" Rhodey asked.

Bruce sighed, walking forward, folding his glasses up to stick in his pocket, "For example, Nat and I. When we got married, she got a bit of my hulk strength and in return, I got some of her flexibility. We have two gods, two super soldiers, and one immortal here. I don't know how exactly that'll work on her body. Not to mention, the fact that Fury is bonded to Agent Hill means that she will get something from Agent Hill as well, even though they're not bonded. Like how Fury got a trait from Coulson even though they aren't bonded, because Coulson and Hill are bonded."

"Is there even a way to make sure she doesn't get our more. . . dangerous traits?" Bucky asked quietly, his metal hand clenching into a fist.

"It's random." Bruce said with a shake of his head. "You'll just have to wish luck. It's not like you can put it off, you know. You have one year to court her and a second year to get the wedding together. Especially since she's over the age of eighteen."

"This is exhausting." Rhodey grumbled.

"I also agree with Steve." Bruce continued, putting his hands into his pockets, "It would be much safer for her to move into the Compound or the Tower, whichever you guys feel you'd rather live at."

"Let's invite her over tomorrow!" Tony said enthusiastically, practically bouncing up and down where he sat. Stephen flicked his ear lightly. "Knock it off."

"I say we go with T'Challa's idea." Stephen said simply. "Start with one of the groups tomorrow."

"Yeah, she takes the taxi to work so I could drive her." Tony said enthusiastically.

Rhodey groaned, "I don't even want to know how you know she takes the taxi to work."

"Well, it is New York." Sam pointed out. "Almost everyone takes Taxis or subways. It's a pain to try and drive your own car."

"Yes! Stephen and I will drive her tomorrow!" Tony said, bouncing again.

Bruce cleared his throat as Stephen flicked Tony's ear again, "You should go in reverse order of meeting her. So Stephen and Loki could take her to work tomorrow."

Everyone stared at Bruce.

"You want me to work with the guy who made me fall for thirty minutes?" Loki questioned.

"Sure." Bruce said with a shrug. "Or it can be Stephen and Fury and then you and Thor. But as she's already spent a bit of time with King T'Challa and Tony, well it's probably a good idea to start with those she barely met. That way you aren't starting off with supposed favoritism."

"That makes sense." Steve said, stroking Bucky's hair.

"Well, I'm glad that's settled." Nick said, getting up out of the chair he'd been sitting in. "See you at the next meeting. Don't die."

"Cheerful." Clint muttered before moving away to probably go and sleep in the vents.

The others dispersed accordingly.

*Next Day*

There was a knock on the door as you put the finishing touches to your makeup, getting ready for work. A white blouse covered about half of your lines, showing about four of them. A knee-length black skirt and your heels were somewhere in the front hallway, only to be put on last minute.

You hurried down the hallway- your sister having already left for school- opening the door which revealed a rather comfortable looking Stephen Strange wearing blue jeans, a red T-shirt, and a black suit jacket you swore probably belonged to Tony. And also a rather uncomfortable looking Loki who was dressed in the same black outfit as yesterday.

"Oh." You said in obvious surprise, not expecting two of your soulmates you'd met for about a minute and twelve seconds standing on your doorstep. "Er- come in."

"Do you normally let strangers into your house?" Loki asked as they stepped inside. You'd headed back down the hallway to put the makeup case away.

"Only charming ones." You called over your shoulder without looking back.

"I like her." Loki snickered.

You blushed as you shoved everything away before shutting off the bathroom.

"Sorry, but I am on my way to work." You said apologetically.

"We know, we're here to take you there." Stephen said with a shrug. "Thought you'd prefer it to spending money on a taxi or a subway ticket."

"Thank you." You said. "Lead the way then."

You shut off the lights in the apartment, wishing it was just slightly cleaner before you met Loki and Stephen back at the front door.

"We spoke as a group last night." Stephen said as the three of you stood in the elevator. "We said we'd take the relationship as slowly as possible within the Government rules, that way we don't overwhelm you."

"Thank you." You answered sincerely. "I didn't expect to meet all eleven of my soulmates on one day. Or expect that they'd all know each other. Or that half of them would have super powers of some sort of well, no offense Mr. Laufeyson, but not entirely human."

"You can call me Loki. No offense taken. I know I'm a God." Loki said with a slight smirk.

You studied him out of the corner of your eye. He was truly a beautiful specimen. No facial hair, his face extremely smooth with a pale complexion. His inky black hair was curly in waves. He carried himself with an air of elegance and self-assurance.

I flicked my eyes to look at the opposite man. He was just as tall, his facial hair giving a very smart appearance. His eyes looked like galaxies, his hair smooth and combed over on his head. He was a bit more relaxed than Loki was, though Loki had relaxed more since the front door.

The car that was waiting in front of the apartment building made you raise an eye. "This is yours?"

"Tonys." Stephen said it like an explanation.

"Of course." You murmured. Loki opened the back door so that the two of you could climb into the back while Stephen climbed into the passenger seat.

"This is Happy." Stephen introduced the two of you.

Happy simply nodded and you gave a smile, settling back into your seat.

"Would you like to come to the Avengers Tower after work?" Loki asked quietly.

You thought about it, "Yes, that sounds nice. Thank you. Are you sure I won't be imposing?"

"Not at all. Steve, Tony, and Clint are all for you moving in yesterday." Stephen chuckled. "Some of us had to convince them that it's a little to soon and that you might get overwhelmed if we asked you to move in with us today."

"Thor is ecstatic." Loki murmured, "He's already planning weddings in his mind. Mind you though, he's been without a soulmate for a thousand and a half years."

"Haven't you as well?" I questioned.

"No, only 1,058 years." Loki said with a smirk. "442 years less."

I chuckled. "I'm surprised though. Would've thought as Gods you would've had several soulmates?"

"For the longest time we didn't even have colours. Of course, that's not uncommon when it comes to Godlings. We usually wait for soulmates for a couple hundred, couple thousand years. And when we do, we are ecstatic."

It was all fascinating and you found yourself at your job far to soon for your liking. You were just slightly disappointed.

Loki took your hand, kissing the back of your knuckles again, "We'll see you after work my Queen."

Stephen had opened your door without you realizing and you quickly stepped out, making Jessie crash into Katherine as she stopped on the sidewalk.

Stephen placed a kiss on your forehead. "See you after work."

Forward, but it was to sweet to be weird. You were getting butterflies and starting to wonder if you really wanted to wait two years to get married.

"Y/N!" Katherine screeched, making you jump as the expensive car drove off. "Some explaining to do!"

"At lunch." You hissed. "Come on, we have work."

Katherine, Jessie, and Stacy were incredibly impatient as they waited for their lunch break to come. Once it did, they practically dragged you from the office so that the four of you could sit yourselves down at Big Boys, deciding to do the buffet as lunch.

You decided on breakfast for lunch, putting a few pancakes, sausage links, bacon, eggs, and cinnamon rolls along with apple/orange/grape juice as a drink.

"Explain, explain!" Jessie said.

"Shh." You hissed, rolling up your sleeve, "Stay quiet, it's supposed to be a secret."

Jessie, Stacy, and Katherine leaned over your arm to see what was there. They were the few along with your sister that knew how many soulmates that you had. Their mouths just kept dropping farther and farther until Katherine squealed, "OMG THEY'RE ALL THE AVENGERS!"

Stacy and you tackled her to get her to shut up. "SHH!" You both hissed, getting stares from the others around, though they didn't seem to really care about what you were talking about.

"Yeesh." You whined, leaning back in your seat. "I don't know if I'm lucky or cursed."

"Lucky." The other three answered.

"Seriously, you'll be one of the safest people in the city." Katherine said, eyes big as saucers as she rubbed the silver mark of her unknown soulmate.

"Unless someone from HYDRA was here and overheard your big mouth." Jessie teased Katherine.

"Yeah right." Stacy said rolling her eyes. "I'd like to see a big hulking HYDRA agent in a Big Boys."

You all laughed at the ludicrousness of the comment. After you finished lunch, you went back to work, completely unaware of the watchful eyes on your back.

⬅️➡️

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

I love your nuanced takes. They are always a joy to read.

I'd be curious which songs, beatles or solo, do you think they wrote for/about each other and their situation (beatles&solo).

You don't have to go into great detail on them if you don't wanna.

Hope you have a great day. <3

Hi anon :) Glad you enjoy my takes! Hope you have a great day too <3

Preface that while I think this is fun, I really don't generally think songs are a good vehicle to extrapolate about the real life of these people. So, I try not to base my analyses of them as people on these songs, even the ones I feel more strongly about.

I'll categorize these by how certain I am about them (and I'll leave out confirmed stuff like Too Many People, Early 1970, How Do You Sleep?, Run of the Mill, Here Today etc.)

If you have a question re: why some specific song is in this category and not the other I can try to explain, though some of it is admittedly just vibes (and since I try to separate this from the Main Analysis™, I feel okay utilizing the vibes as a justification at times lol) If I left a song off you'd like my take on feel free to ask as well.

Close to positive:

Day Tripper is imho at least partially about Paul. This one feels so obvious to me, given what John said about it and the timeline (written squarely before Paul took LSD, conveniently after the whole LA fiasco), yet I rarely see people talking about it. Sad! It could also be partially about Cynthia.

Tug of War: Paul said it was about John in 1982 but then retconned that. IDK why he did that but. Come on!

I Know (I Know): I nearly put this one a tier lower but the I've Got A Feeling intro and the way it fits in the timeline. The Getting Better reference. It matching up with Paul's description of them tripping together + "share in each other's mind". It's too much.

A compelling case can be made:

In My Life: it makes a lot of sense. But Paul isn't the only likely muse IMO. he might be the most likely one, I'm not sure. I Know (I Know) makes me tend more to it though, admittedly.

3 Legs: yeah. Probably! It's not entirely clear to me what he's expressing outside a feeling of betrayal though.

Oh! Darling: Likely about John, but perhaps actually about the band as a whole.

The Answer's at the End: the way George quoted that same saying when asked about Paul in that live chat… THE IMPLICATIONS! (at least that maybe George came to associate the song with Paul later on?)

Remember: I tend to think this song is specifically about running away from the Beatles. There's more sadness in it, given John references Bring It On Home in the lyrics.

Who Can See It: this one also appears to be about George's general relationship with the Beatles. I don't think this is a hot take but no one talks about this song lol. I love it!

Cafe On The Left Bank: the song referencing Charles de Gaulle making a speech does place this quite firmly in the 60s. It's not really a love song though so I don't get why people consider this one such a win lol. It seems to mostly be about the city of Paris itself.

I like to think it's true but am admittedly not sure:

Call Me Back Again: it's a vague song, really. But damn… those mellotron flutes.

#9 Dream: IDK. this versus "The dream is over". the production-style. I like reading this song as a reconciliation with The Beatles as a concept.

Little Lamb Dragonfly: the whole being haunted by the dragonfly even though you're trying to move on thing :/

No Words: COME ON??????? but the Denny writing credit does puzzle me lol.

Crippled Inside: it would be soooooo devastating @ Paul!!! (probably only partially, possibly also self-directed)

Could have been inspired by the other but not necessarily in the way people think:

Some People Never Know: I do think Paul felt John was cynical in the way he's describing in this song. (I don't really think I Know (I Know) is a response to this song btw)

Silly Love Songs: ditto. He is Not fucking saying "I love you" (romantically) to John in the song he's duetting with his wife lol. but it could be a cheeky lil nod.

We Can Work It Out: I believe Paul when he says this was written about a fight he'd had with Jane. But Paul was also in conflict with John at the time (again, the LSD thing), thus I think that might have in some way informed his outlook when writing this. And John may have been thinking about their conflict while writing his part.

Let Me Roll It: it sounds a lot like John, yeah! but idk about the lyrics.

Look At Me: it could be about Paul, but it could be about the whole world, really. It's more a wish to be seen and understood really.

Dear Boy: I'm annoyed by people insisting Paul is lying when he says the inspiration is Linda's ex-husband. She's co-credited (and she actually isn't credited on every Ram song. I don't think the credit was "handed" to her, at least not at this point in time)! That being said, Paul may have bonded with Linda over feeling unappreciated in their previous life situations.

Yvonne's The One: Look. I think John's death really shifted how Paul felt about telling people he loved them. That may well have influenced the lyrics song. I don't think it's necessarily that literal.

However Absurd: ditto. This song is even more abstract so it feels even less literal.

?????? Who Knows

If I Fell: usually I think no it couldn't possibly. But– (And I don't find that Valentines card very compelling, no. but it's just like: well then who else would this song John called very personal about? I guess, for all I know, it could even be Brian. wow!)

Girl: I mean. Maybe! Sort of. They also said at the time it was about religion, and that makes a lot of sense, but it could still be that the character of the girl was inspired by how John felt about Paul at the time.

I'm So Tired: it seems equally likely to be about Yoko to me.

Don't Let Me Down: ditto. Actually. this one's more likely Just about Yoko tbh.

I'm Losing You: maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe. but also. Yoko.

Now And Then: genuinely who knows. this one's admittedly stranger for Yoko but… they did "interrupt" their relationship often, requiring to "start again". Also May is an option.

The Pound Is Sinking: Mostly, I don't know how straightforward it is.

Honestly… Not really

(Just Like) Starting Over: the "My Love", "Another Day", "Wings" thing has never compelled me, based on those being OLD songs by 1980, plus none of the phrasing or word choice is particularly conspicuous to me. But I also don't feel very strongly that it's not about Paul. It could be, though I don't know that I'd assume it was meant as a direct declaration of love then. Also the line before being a reference to Through The Looking Glass is neither here nor there. Since when is John Lennon dropping Lewis Caroll references only reserved for Paul? that feels like putting the cart before the horse, based on one single lyric in Glass Onion.

I've Got A Feeling: I think he's just saying words here, tbh.

Real Love: if it's about Paul that's fucking depressing. But I don't think it is really.

[beatcroc]

Okay I finally generated an ask for you!!!!

What is your favourite genre of music? Or if you don't know how to categorize the music you listen to (like me), what is your favourite song? Or band? Or album? Something like that.

ohhhhh #1 question i am categorically incapable of being normal about <3

i typically just define my favorite music as "loud" or "aggressive" or "abrasive" bc most stuff that fits those descriptors will be in my faves regardless of the genre.

a more specific answer is that there are 3 main things i've noticed that will typically make me go apeshit without fail and they are: 1. hardstyle/gabber/industrial hardcore- sorta basskick 2. sickass metal guitar shredding 3. huge dramatic grandiose orchestral

if something has 1 of these i will probably like it, if it has 2 it will be a top fave, and all 3.... well i have yet to find it yet but im sure i will Ascend. here are examples of said top fave combos.

laur covers hardstyle+orchestral and i Cannot Get Enough of his shit man it goes so fucking crazy hard

metal+orchestral is unquestionably ruled by nightwish, but theyre not on bandcamp and i dont feel like finding other links so this one goes to the still-very-fucking-awesome runner-up, POWERWOLF

riikira and rabbitjunk hit metal+hardstyle, though it's less strictly hardstyle and more just general hardcore* electronica. if its got crazy amens its enough who cares. i put the ones that use actual kicks for the sake of illustrating the point here but these tracks are both pretty far from my faves from each lmao *hardcore referring to hardcore [edm] in this case, even though the genre these belong to is called "digital hardcore", which instead refers to hardcore [punk]. it's a mess out here. did you know theres two completely different things called doomcore where one is derived from metal and the other is derived from hardcore. and you never know which itsd going to be when you click on something in the doomcore tag. im dying squirtle

anyway on the other side of the hardstyle+metal combo is kobaryo [with his alias blaxervant], who's much more about the hardcore side of things and just has the metal as flair, but it is still: the best shit ever

laur also on occasion hits this side of hardstyle+metal becaue he just likes using whatever the fuck instruments

there are of course many other things i love a lot, primary examples being ambient/atmospheric, folk, and anything with a lot of Texture. im not gonna get into all that but i do have an extended list of faves/recs from the last time i was asked about this and went insane abt it. it took forever to make and my actual recs are not entirely the same as my Faves so im putting it on here too.

i keep these curated to the top of my bandcamp profile so they're the first things that display there. it's a bit old by now and some have since been shuffled out, but it's still like 80% accurate.

as for the actual recs: the angel's message is there because it's my fave brand of intense and chaotic stuff and want it to kill you full force. it already has some tracks up there so im not re-linking it

this one i recommend just because i think it's really interesting and out there and i'm curious what other people think of this sort of stuff. it's also the prime example of what i mean when i talk about Textures in music.

wolfgun is an actual rec for being genuinely just really good music. probably the most objectively cool/platonically enjoyable thing in my library

[raccoonfallsharder]

Hello, dear friend. I’d be interested in hearing your take on any of these questions. I always love hearing your thoughts.

A: Of the fanfic you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

E: What character do you identify with most?  Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

F: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?

H: How would you describe your writing style?

K:  Do you have a guilty pleasures in fic (reading or writing)?

L:  Which of your fanfics was the most emotionally challenging to write?

Q: Do you like getting prompts from your readers?

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

X: How would you categorize your fanfic reading?  Are you a voracious reader?  Do you carefully pick and choose?  Something in between?

so many questions!!! you sure do know how to indulge a girl ♡ thank you, dear friend. you are my favorite daffodil full of sunshine.

A. window across the galaxy and adorations are my favorites. i think window’s the best longform piece i’ve ever written (and probably ever will) and i poured so much of myself into it. it was everything i wanted for rocket and it was healing for me, and i love and identify with jo so much. and adorations just makes me happy. ohhh you know what? i also really like ugly sweater and traditions. and machinery from prompt week. and triptych, sunshine, sweatshirt girl, and reconnaissance for beginners. and some of headcanons & imagines. shit.

E. i put a lot of myself in every oc and reader tbh. sweatshirt girl and jo are probably the most transparent self-inserts so far and came from places where they were 100% what i wanted to give rocket + the comfort i needed (sweatshirt girl was very much a reflection on my life at the time). well, and reader from tomorrow, which was 100% my attempt at self-comfort after a bad day at work. i reflected a lot of my real-life experiences through those characters, and i based the way they interact with others almost entirely on how i try to move through the world. i also expect to identify with noa at least as much as jo (oc from other duties as assigned, which might be why it’s so hard to write it). and honestly? i identify with rocket a lot. he wears his pain differently than i do but we both have skeletons that are not doing what we want them to do, chronic pain, and buckets of survivor’s guilt. plus i headcanon rocket has a sequencing disorder like me (ꈍᴗꈍ) i allude to it a lot in cicatrix and certain headcanons (like the sudoku one!) and some other things and i'm trying to write a fanfic about it lol

F. the only fic i have a mental playlist for is the very boring adventures of space pilot & sweatshirt girl, and it’s mostly chillhop essentials winter 2019 and aviino’s plush and cocoon albums but the thing is it HAS to be on vinyl because that’s the whole sweatshirt girl vibe

H. my writing style is chaotic, exists entirely outside the bounds of space & time (mostly because of the sequencing disorder) and is more about feeling than making sense. my word choice is self-indulgent and erratic and based more on what tastes right to me than anything else. emotions are way easier to write than plot. (huh. maybe that’s the sequencing disorder too.)

K. do i have any guilty pleasures in fic-writing or -reading?? girl i write raccoon porn. it would all be a guilty pleasure if i believed in guilty pleasures. but i don’t. i try really hard not to feel guilt about any of my pleasures. life is short. capitalism sucks. write about raccoon dick

L. it’s hard to say which piece of fanfiction was the most emotionally challenging for me to write because i think writing is actually a way of organizing and processing emotions for me. if anything, writing emotional scenes feels cathartic — a relief. but finishing things always feels risky. endings rarely satisfy people. so the more people like a piece of mind (blackmail material, window, windfall), the harder it is to end. it's more about trying to manage imposter syndrome than anything else i guess

Q. GIVE ME ALL THE PROMPTS

R. markus zusak has been one of the most influential writers for me. i love that every character in his books has their own story, their own value and journey, independent of the main narrative. jonathan safran foer writes the sentences i want to write. the read like a gut-punch. (he gets quoted a lot in other duties.) both of these writers would probably be horrified by this because im fairly certain they do not write smut, especially not featuring raccoons

X. how do i characterize my fanfic reading? it really depends on what is going on in life. we all have to ration our time and i hate having to choose between reading and writing and drawing, but here we are. if it’s a fic by an author i like, i prioritize it. it can be really hard for me to read things that are released chapter-by-chapter over an extended period, so i am more apt to read things that are short-run or that are close to being finished. but i especially like to support writers i know — which is why i always ask folks to add me if they have a taglist ♡

[best-fnaf-song-competition]

How many submissions have you gotten so far/how many do you think will end up on the bracket? Are there any surprises in the submissions?

-✨

There are currently 93 submissions, though I haven't gone in and added my own yet! Definitely way less than the main bracket for sure. I'm not entirely sure how many will end up in the final, mostly because I wanted to keep it at 64 but so many of these songs have only been submitted once that I have no idea how to categorize them.

There are definitely a lot of surprises though! A whole BUNCH of these are ones I have never heard before, from people I don't know! It's very exciting to see a lot of smaller artists on this list, but that does unfortunately come with the previously mentioned side effect of a bunch of songs have only come in once and, since I don't personally know them myself, I'm not entirely sure how I'll go about ranking them or deciding which ones get in unless more duplicate submissions come in during the later days!

(This is where propaganda comes into play! If you want to share around the submissions form with suggestions for other people, or even send some here, people finding new songs they like and submitting them may help even this out!)

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #222

Animestyle 2017.05, Otsuka Manabu's interview

Part 9.

I: I see. Was it decided that love and eros etc. are going to be important motifs [in the story] after work on the storyboards started? Or before that at the series composition stage?

O: Well, when we were discussing with the Director her vision for the show, and what ideas she had for all the songs, I've heard those words and I understood them, but I hadn't known how the story would go specifically. So yeah, I understood that [how those motifs would be used in the story] when I read the storyboards.

I: Oh, I see.

O: My reaction was something like: "so this is what you meant?!" and "they really are so passionate about this show, huh".

I: For me, the line "even I, a man, could get pregnant" was one of the most impactful in the entire series.

O: Yes, it's a very feminine line, right. If it wasn't a women [who was writing the script], for sure the idea to write a line like that wouldn't have appeared. I personally was surprised when I heard it, but as a line that a character speak, it's very strong. It leaves an impact on the viewers. It's not only the script, the visuals in some scenes too have the same effect.

I: Something like that is only possible in the shows which were created by people who are very passionate about them. A line like that wouldn't appear if Yuri!!! was created in the normal way for an anime - write a project proposal for a show about figure skating, order a screenplay, discuss what should be in the screenplay with a screenwriter, let the screenwriter write the screenplay (laugh).

O: No, it wouldn't (laugh). It absolutely wouldn't. I have only seen the final effect, but I think it was a strong point of this show [that they didn't follow the "normal procedure" and lines like that one could appear in the script.

[Notes: Another interesting topic to discuss~~ #fandom politics ✨

Maybe you wonder why the interviewer is so fixated on that particular line. Of course, it's not possible to know for sure what somebody meant without asking them for clarification, but...

If we were to analyze it, I think the "problem" was, as Otsuka said here, that you could feel that it was a line written by a woman.

Normally, even if a manga/anime is created by a woman, many people don't even know that - with Mitsurou as an example: I'm sure most Yuri!!! fans know that her real name is "Mitsuko", and you can right away tell that it's a female name, but she uses a "male variant" of her name "Mitsurou" as her manga pen name - and voila, just by looking at the name on the cover you wouldn't know that it was written by a women. It's, of course, to not make men not read/watch something that sounds interesting to them just because it was written by a woman (and yeah, it's not only a Jp thing).

Sports manga/anime are often categorized as "shonen", and that means that even if it is written by a woman, men are still the main target audience, so the author is expected to match their taste - write characters men can easily identify with etc., and they are used to it. But a line like that - "even I, a man, could get pregnant" - is not something most men would ever say or even think, especially if they are from a conservative country... So the "problem" with that line is that it doesn't follow the rules - it's a sports anime, but it isn't written as an anime for men should be written and instead the female creators do what they want to do.

And it's not only this interviewer - when you read old "live discussion" threads in places like 5ch, where a lot of male otaku gather, you can see that a lot of them dropped the show after ep 3., because it was quite clear at that point, that it's not going to be anime written "to please men", so to speak. (Of course, their conclusion was that Yuri!!! is going to be a "fujo pandering anime" instead, but I personally really don't agree - I think Yuri!!! was simply written the way Sayo&co wanted it be, and that many fujos have been in a state of war with YoI officials since 2017, to me, is a proof of that...)

So yeah, how YoI was received in Jp and abroad is really such an interesting and complicated issue... Especially now, that we know that despite their initial plans, they weren't able to make a continuation...

[silicon-katydid]

Does anyone else's brain have, like, an uncanny valley between Music-Music and Musical Comedy?

I don't really know how else to explain it! I like music (when it sounds good), and musical comedy (when it's funny), but then there's a middle category that I absolutely cannot stand, for reasons I can't even articulate. It's not an artistic issue, and I have no ill will against people who like things I unconsciously categorize this way. It's just like my brain can't comprehend what it's trying to do to me and wants it out of my face NOW.

It's okay when a "real" band has some songs that happen to be funny, and I'm fine with silly or nonsense lyrics in general. And even though I haven't gotten around to getting really into them, I'm more than fine with Primus, even though I'm not entirely sure why.

All I know is that my mind just CAN'T abide the concept of Weezer. Pick a lane or stop that immediately!

[pretzelboxtissue]

OTW NettspendxXavier

Not gonna act like I know very much about these two artists, or that I even fw their music very much. Only recently did I start making somewhat of an effort to listen to the music of either of these two artists. I've known of Xavier for at least 3 years, but always categorized him as a son of Hi-C and didnt really check out much of his stuff. Nettspend was just some white boy that I would occasionally see people talk about on twitter. After listening to a few songs here and there, I couldnt say that I was a fan of either of their music. I didnt dislike it, but it just wasnt something that I was going to listen to. Recently though, I did come across "otw" by Nettspend featuring Xav. I cannot listen to this song without replaying it at least 4 times. The charged up beat initially drew me in, and was most of what i registered for the first 30 sec or so of the song. Nett's vocals were just there in the background for me until I registered what he was talking about. He was sayin he had a G3 in his lap on the way to some dude's condo. The absurdity of the lyrics made me laugh, and then what followed was the most yell-able verse in the song: "Bitch u made it hot, so get up out the spot thooooo." Gotta have a good recitable part of a song. The next parts of enjoyment of the song have nothing to do with sonics, but everything to do with the lyrics. None of what I am about to say though, is to claim that these two contain laudable lyricism. I enjoyed understanding what Nettspend was talking about when he said "Vivid rollin hot, and we smokin on this frontoo," because these niggas be rollin shit hot asf with the grabba in it in NY. Most of Xavier's feature was just sound, as he slurred how bitches wanted to fuck but he just wanted throat and shit, but what did stand out to me was one of the affirmations he said towards the end —"When I go up I'm havin 1c castle." Nothin crazy at all. Sure some would be like "nigga why did that stick out to you," but shit im tryna speak this shit into existence too, so hell yea rock out bruh. I appreciated that he said that because I recognized him as sayin "ay, we otw and when we go up we finna get that 1c castle!" A castle nigga, you dont hear niggas sayin they gon get a castle. it's laughable. Skip forward some and Xav is talking about how he's the 1c enterprise captain and how everyone is gonna get a fraction. What's not to love about that. What's interesting is that with each listen of the song, I'm mostly able to find some new element of the song that I can enjoy. This time it may be a small chuckle I let out when I hear Xav sayin, "yea they ask me how I do it ion eeen knooo," the next it may be appreciation for Xav sayin he love his bitch and that he dont care about no past partner he's had (i'm a sap ik). On the 4th listen of the day it may be the irony of Nettspend's overall character that makes the entire song funny to me, and 15 listens later it may be that exact same irony that still is enough to make me laugh when I hear the song. Pretty good song. I crank it up everytime I let it play. I dont feel that it's amazing or anything, but yea it's serving its purpose right now. I'm enjoying that I was able to like a song by these two artists and that it allows me to be able to participate in the shared hype of these artists in the underground. I honestly still feel the same way about the rest of these dude's music though—can't say that im a fan of either of them still, but thats ok.

[wutheringskies]

It is, of course, true that if the people around you are inherently good, then the nature, intensity or frequency of any villain's bloodthirst-activated time would diminish.

However, the point I want to express is that:

MDZS is a fictional world. The characters aren't real people who live in extremely diverse settings or go through an indefinite timeline. The story is finite, that is, it ends.

Characters like Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Yanli, Wen Ning, Wen Qing, Mianmian, Junior Quartet, Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are simply good-natured people. It doesn't matter what circumstances you put them through, or what sort of tortures, backlash, or failure they face. The main character was nurtured in a semi-hostile environment with a less than favourable background and intensive trauma and came out... good-hearted. Thus, removing such and such aspects of these characters would be venturing into the OOC category. Jiang Yanli lost her husband yet still made the instinctual decision to save Wei Ying. All of the above mentioned characters have such traits.

On the other hand, characters like Wen Ruohan, Jin Guangsham, Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang, Su She, Jin Zixun, Jiang Cheng, Sect Leader Yao, Wen Zhuliu, Madam Yu, Wang Lingjiao, Lan Qiren are antagonists (in different measures); they oppose the major themes of the book, and the protagonist in the fulfilment of their righteous goals for reasons that are blown out of proportion, are unjustifiable, are out of their self-gain.

So to make Wen Ruohan someone who doesn't enjoy true power and torturing people, or to make Jin Guangyao care more about the "worthless lives" he is claiming to further his own career, or to make Jiang Cheng someone who is not inherently insecure to a fatal degree, or to make Lan Qiren violate his rules (or follow them, properly), or to make Xue Yang intolerable of the slightest insult or injury and just cruel - is also OOC.

Now for the sake of fanfiction and fanarts, we are well in our reason to draw onto negative traits of good characters and positive traits of bad characters to make an interesting story. However, it shouldn't be understood as canon.

I'm sure some, specially western fans, might disagree with my categorizing characters as inherently good or bad; but i feel those familiar with Asian literature would understand why I refuse to be dubious about a certain character's morality. In Western media, complex characters are those who are in the "greys" but MDZS has a more direct theme, "No matter how good you are individually, if the system is against you in an immoral world, your actions would be looked at as foolish, naive, heretic."

The point is, in the MDZS framework, even if Xue Yang grew as the second jade of Lan, he would serve as an antagonist and even if Wei Wuxian grew as second young master Wen, he would be kind - or if he grew up as JGY.

As for kindness and compassion, there will always be moments in each character's lives where they do not have people to help them; where they are indeed going through a very dark period of their life; it is important to wonder if they would retain the effects of the kindness or if they would instead perpetuate the cycle of cruelty.

Another thing I would like to add is that MDZS does a great job of making it's "villains" tragic; so you can understand why they did what they did (except for Su She, he's so lame honestly and I can't excuse Madam Yu) but again, these are supposed to be explanations, not excuses. Xue Yang had no right to murder Song Lan's entire sect and Song Lan had every right to revenge. Wen Chao had no right to annihilate the Jiangs, crush JC's core and torture and throw Wei Wuxian into the Burial Mounds and Wei Wuxian had every right to revenge.

Anyway these are just my thoughts! Of course, everyone can interpret a work as they wish. I simply like understanding canon themes and drawing my understanding from those to really appreciate where the author was going with this work.

I think in MDZS there is a fair share of nurture as well as nature. if Xue Yang lived similarly to WWX and didn't lose a finger he would still kill dogs, hunt and hound them and deeply resent and wish to take revenge on/or slaughter the Jiangs; that is his nature to think of himself as more important than the others; the nurture part comes in with the fact that if he had people like Xiao Xingchen earlier in his life; just like he stopped "night hunting walking corpses" he wouldn't have acted out on those impulses; however you cannot deny that being favoured by the jins, he did have stability; he chose to abuse it. he put xiao xingchen giving him chocolates and showing him kindness as of more stable of a state (which is right) yet the moment he is pushed up in a corner, he reverts back to his NATURE. and in his nature, he hurts others to protect himself. if others did x to him he can kill not only the person who did it but also everybody else who is close to that person, who didn't deserve to die. yet, he won't see HIS actions as crimes. won't regret them. thus, Wei Wuxian says, "if you had to kill someone, you should've executed yourself" because some characters have a strong moral code and fail to adhere (nie mingjue, lan xichen), some's adherence to their moral code makes them fail (wei wuxian, xiao xingchen), some do not have a moral code (jin guangsham), some are willing to push it aside for revenge (nie huaisang) and some twist around their watching frames to justify their immoral behavior (Jiang Cheng, xue yang, Jin Guangyao)

[donnerpartyofone]

I'm cleaning out this ancient drive + Mac tower that I've had long enough for them to make REALLY scary noises whenever they're on, so I'm trying to move everything that matters before they e.x.p.l.o.d.e. I don't even know what all is on them anymore, it's probably a lot of stuff I wouldn't miss if it disappeared behind my back, but I ought to be sure. My music folder is the biggest mess, partly because I'm disorganized, and partly because iTunes is such a piece of shit, but partly because...well I used to have this friend who started out our relationship trying to get with me, even though I was already in a very serious relationship at the time, and one of his courtship techniques was to relentlessly bring me handfuls of burned mix CDs of like, at least one song from every single band he had ever heard of, it felt like. And like, I know he meant well, in his way, but this is a really terrible way to get someone's attention if they don't specifically ask for it. I worked 50-60 hours a week at the time, so there would have been no possible way for me to listen to a 100-volume encyclopedia of his entire personal music library without sacrificing all of the time I had to enjoy things I already care about, or had independently decided to explore based on my own reasons. That kind of behavior is really directed by the urge to make someone else validate your interests, to get a consensus vote on what great taste you have; you can tell by how indiscriminate it is. When a new friend or boyfriend has given me a 12-track mix that they curated specifically for me to enjoy, I ran those things into the ground; I felt appreciated, and I got a clear digest version of who the person was at the same time. Or like, one of the only friends that I've had since high school responded to my specific request that she introduce me to punk music by putting together a 9-tape library with brilliant handwritten liner notes telling me about the band or song, or just her personal relationship with them. I was so honored that she took the time and effort to give me what I wanted, and I still have a lot of that stuff despite several moves and a house fire. But like if you're just looking for attention and you shove 5,000 hours of random stuff at me so I'll think you're a great guy with better taste than me, it's gonna be like...uhhh thanks, I guess, I hope I find a way to listen to this all before I'm dead. This person was also the chief perpetrator of like, "recommending" something to me but actually INSISTING that I make space in my life for it, even if it was an entire TV show that I don't have time or much use for. It was like he thought I didn't have any of my own interests that I need to indulge, or they weren't as important as doing whatever he said. Very often the thing had nothing to do with me, either; it was something only he would care about and he should have known that (I often expressed as much if it came up repeatedly, which he later categorized as "abuse"), so it felt like he was just trying to turn me into him. If I discovered the thing independently when the time was right for me, even a long time after he first mentioned it, he would get really aggressive about trying to extract credit for it, like he owned it and I was just renting it from him. His goal was pretty clearly not related to me or our friendship, it was all about some kind of validation that he thought I owed him, that he could earn by doing things I never asked for. I'm sure he felt that he was being really generous, but it wouldn't have taken much thought to realize that he was being pretty disrespectful of my time and the differences between us. So while I'm slowly, meticulously deleting a zillion whole band folders with just one song in them, as long as I'm sure nobody else gave them to me in a more discrete and considerate way, it occurs to me to tell the public that it's not always "nice of you" to give or constantly recommend people things they haven't shown any interest in, and if you insist, you might consider that it's actually tyrannical of you to try to be

the administrator of somebody else's leisure time just to satisfy your own ego needs. Consider that you might have an idealized "friend" in your imagination who is really just a permanent audience, and you might be trying to create that out of a real person, which is inappropriate. Try to base your "recommendations" on who the other person is, and if you find yourself reminding them about it more than like three times, it's time to remind yourself that you are not the boss of them, and just be pleasantly surprised if they want to talk to you about it in the future. When you just cannot stop yourself from trying to implant opinions in other people's minds to place yourself at the top of the pyramid of modern taste, you start to resemble this:

PS AMERICAN PSYCHO is overrated THERE I SAID IT

[damienthepious]

idk idk idk i’m just doing my best

Going Through Changes, Ripping Out Pages (chapter 5)

[ch 1] [ch 2] [ch 3] [ch 4] [ao3] [ch 6] [ch 7] [ch 8] [ch 9] [ch 10] [???]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla, The Keep

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Established Relationship, (uhhhhh sorta), Amnesia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, (WE WILL GET THERE…… EVENTUALLY)

Summary: Lord Arum wakes to discover that some things have changed while he slept. Namely, there is a human in his bed.

Chapter Summary: Just a moment to breathe together.

Chapter Notes: happy LKT! it's finally not death-grip hot today. i hope you're doing well <3

~

The Keep brings the pair of them to a familiar room, though not one that they would have expected. There are a lot of spaces in the Keep that don't have particular functions, exactly, since Arum isn't keen on categorization or organization, but this room he and Rilla have mostly taken to calling the study. It has a few books (far fewer than the scroll room), a couple soft seats (fewer than the dining room) and a window shaded by a thin, wide-leafed curtain of vines, and as they enter, the Keep drops another set of vines, lifting Rilla's instrument from beside the window and pressing it into her hands.

Rilla stares down, and Damien watches her swallow roughly as her hand wraps around the neck. It's a homemade thing, the same instrument that she engineered during her first stay within these walls, though it has been structurally bolstered and restrung and better tuned and painted with playful florals since that time. Rilla laughs, and it sounds nearly hollow, and the Keep's vines press the instrument more firmly into her grip.

"Keep," she says, her tone uncertain and worried, and the Keep warbles an urgent set of tones, pushing the instrument again before it releases it into her hands. "I'm… I'm not sure if-"

The Keep sings, then. Sings in words, the first line of a familiar song, and Rilla clutches the neck of the instrument tight enough that one of the strings makes a tight high noise against her fingernail.

"Oh," Damien says, catching the Keep's meaning, and it is so strange, he thinks, that such a sound can fill him with such warm memory and such sadness at the same moment. "Oh," he repeats breathlessly. "I see. You believe that he might… if he hears- you think the familiarity of the song, the association between it and us-"

"No. No, that's not going to work," Rilla says firmly, her eyes upturned vaguely in the direction of the Keep.

Damien sighs as the Keep exhales a wilted sort of song, but he can't deny that he agrees with his flower. Rilla winces, though, raising a hand to pat at the air consolingly.

"I mean- Keep, it's a really sweet idea, and the theory that he'll remember the song-" her voice goes strange and wobbly for a moment, and then she inhales and continues, "the theory that it would help him remember isn't without merit. Music has a lot of connection to memory, between repeated patterns of things like rhyme and rhythm and leitmotifs- but- but I don't think he's gonna take it very well if we try to like, perform a little three-creature concert for him, y'know?"

The Keep sings again, tentative but hopeful, and Rilla sighs.

"He'll think we're trying to manipulate him," she says quietly. "Technically, we would be. And- and he won't buy it if he can tell I'm not fully into it. I'm an awful liar- he can always tell if I'm putting on a face, and- and honestly? I just-" she folds her arms over her chest, looking down and to the side. "I just … I really don't feel like singing, right now."

Damien's heart pulls, caught in the tide of Rilla's ill-hidden sorrow. For its part, the Keep sings again, an understanding descent of notes, an obvious concession to Rilla's points.

"Why don't you play, just a little, my love?" Damien's keeps his voice low, and he brushes his hand over hers on the neck of her instrument. "And I will do the singing myself."

"Damien," she says, sounding tired and uncertain. "It isn't going to w-"

"Not," he clarifies, "for the sake of a solution, I mean. Simply for us. You have sung for my own comfort more times than I could possibly count. If it would bring you more distress, you need not play, but at least let me sing for you. Our Keep has made a lovely suggestion, and I should like, I think, to take some small measure of comfort where I can, and share it."

"Oh," Rilla says, blinking, and then she breathes a weak sort of laugh. "Oh, I mean… if you- if you want?"

Damien smiles, and it feels mostly genuine. They still have not come to any solutions, but surprising Rilla is delightful enough to warm him regardless. "I believe you are correct," he says, "that any attempts at artifice will only cause our lily to mistrust our intentions further. Perhaps we should attempt to show him your recordings, next. That seems an appropriate step. But currently, while he is… cooling off, as you put it, I think we should take a moment of our own. Settle our minds, comfort our souls." He squeezes her hand, ducking his head. "Will you let me sing for you?"

"Damien," she says, and her cheeks are dark as her lips tilt into a fond smile. She glances down to her instrument, and then she sighs, and sits, and lifts it to a proper playing position as she meets Damien's again. "I'll play. You can sing, if you really want to. But- but you don't have to sing for me, okay?"

"I know," he says, settling to sit beside her as her fingers dance across the frets, lazily adjusting the tuning. "But surely you know that I want to."

Her smile grows, and she plucks out a few unconnected chords. "Alright, alright," she says, voice warm, and then she bites her lip for a moment as her fingers move, as she strums through a few more experimental notes before she decides on something he can sing along with.

Another folk song, one without quite such a fraught connection to the four of them, this time. A song about warm rains and bolting for shelter, about closeness and laughter, about staying together in the hidden places, even after the storm passes by.

She is always so beautiful when she plays. She laughs, even, when the Keep begins to hum wordlessly along with Damien, and he nearly loses his thread when the combination of her talent and her joy threatens to overwhelm his heart. Eventually, on the final verse, she lets her own voice raise to join theirs, harmonizing until she strums the last chord.

Her smile tilts her lips, and her eyes sparkle between rueful and mischievous.

"Tactical and romantic," she murmurs, and Damien attempts to look innocent. "Okay, okay, I'm actually feeling a little better now. Happy?"

At the admission, Damien's shoulders relax, and he cannot help his own smile. "Absolutely delighted, my flower," he says, and then he leans closer, and Rilla breathes another small laugh as she lifts one hand away from the frets to cup his cheek, to pull him more decisively into the kiss.

Damien freezes when he hears the sharp inhale from the doorway, and he can feel the too-small reserves of comfort and warmth shrink within him. He can feel Rilla's frame stiffen beneath his hands as well, and he forces himself to pull back, to glance aside, to look where he knows he will see-

Arum leans on the doorframe, two hands clinging to the wood, his thin lips parted and his expression confused and open and raw. A moment after Damien looks towards him, though, he snaps his jaw shut again, forcing himself to look nearly blank.

Nearly. Damien knows him too well to be entirely fooled.

"How- how long were you-"

Rilla cuts herself off before she finishes the question, and Arum looks away with a throaty rumble, his tail flicking behind him.

"Long enough to know you were including my Keep in your little moment of bonding, which I do not appreciate in the-"

Arum cuts himself off as well, and Damien wonders for a strange moment if this is a very convoluted attempt at mocking, but the lizard's mouth twists into an uncomfortable line as he visibly struggles through some decision, his hands clenching and unclenching from tense fists as the rattle in his throat grows again.

Arum inhales, glances back behind himself for a moment, and then he seems to shake whatever thoughts he had been grappling, and he narrows his eyes at Rilla.

"You," he says, and Damien can see the way he is layering suspicion over his confusion now. "Rilla. You mentioned the Senate, when discussing how you claim we first came to… to know one another. What do you know of them?"

Rilla bites her lip, confused over this sudden return to interrogation. She furrows her brow as she meets Damien's eye for a moment, and he gives the shadow of a shrug, exactly as unsure about the monster's intent as Rilla herself is.

"Uh, only what you've told me?" she tilts her head, setting her instrument gingerly to the side of their seat and then crossing her arms over her chest as she thinks. "Which honestly isn't all that much. I don't think you really like talking about them? And as far as I know they haven't been much of a factor since the mess at Fort Terminus. They kinda-sorta run the show with the monsters in general, yeah? Mostly because they're powerful enough to just… do what they want, even if it infringes on what other monsters want."

Arum frowns, but despite his clear displeasure he nods. "That is not entirely inaccurate." He pauses, tension in his jaw before he continues, "and you are certain that I am… no longer in communication, then, with these beasts?"

Rilla's eyebrows shoot up, and Damien answers, "You have certainly not mentioned any correspondence, no. May I ask why this is a concern, currently?"

"Do you think they're involved?" Rilla asks, eager, and Arum's snout wrinkles.

"I cannot say for certain," he mutters, and then he bares his teeth uncomfortably, "and if I do not discuss them with you, I do not know how I could find out."

Damien turns that phrasing over in his head, and he is sure that he must have misheard for a moment, because he seems to be implying-

"Wait." Rilla shifts at his side, sitting straighter. "Wait. You're talking like- do you believe us?"

Arum stares at her for a moment, brow furrowed, and then he blinks quickly, hissing sharp and low.

Damien watches him hunch his shoulders, duck his head, hands flexing, and Damien does not know if his heart should swell or plummet. Arum did not even realize his own implication.

"I-" the monster stammers. "That is not-" he shakes his head, his frill fluttering with distress. "I do not-"

Damien stands, and Rilla stands a moment after, her hand at his elbow.

"Arum," Damien tries, and the monster snaps his jaw shut, glaring between the both of them for a long moment.

"… I do not know what to believe," he says slowly, eventually, and then he drops his eyes. "So … so perhaps you should continue attempting to prove your point. If- if you are so terribly certain that you are correct, if you believe you have some so-called evidence that may be so utterly compelling…" he trails off, exhales a slow sigh, and then gestures with a hand, prompting the Keep to form a doorway at his back. "I may have found some evidence of my own. Come. Convince me, and perhaps I will show you what I've found."

[->]

[distant-rose]

Hey so, care to share any of the mood boards and /or playlists that I'm 99% sure you have your your next gen marvel universe?

Okay, I know you sent this like yesterday morning, but you’re asking for me to share a piece of a universe that @justanotherwannabeclassic​ and I have been developing since…July? Which is insane but I made my first post about our Earth-6828 universe on the 26th July 2019. We have an estimated ninety-three characters for this universe that categorized as a next generation or involved in the next generation narrative. Ninety-three characters. Nine. Three. It’s insane. WE’RE INSANE. We created an entire universe over the course of a half year.

Anyway, with that many characters, I don’t think it’s possible to share everything on the internet involving them. So, I’m gonna focus on the OG team - the Daughters of Liberty. They’re the catalyst for Earth-6828 universe and they’re eleven women from different backgrounds and skill sets. We deliberately made a all-female team that’s diverse and we really have fun playing with them. So I’ll share some mood boards and playlists that I made for them.

NOTE: Please note that when I make playlists, I’m a weirdo with very specific rules. I make playlists made of songs sung by the genre of music I think the character would listen to, in the gender they identify with and I only do one song per artist. So, a character like Bekka who likes old school country and jazz, she’s a big fan of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and Wendy Nguyen who is folksy really likes the Lumineers and the Mountain Goats but neither of those artists are featured on those lists because both characters are female and I like to think of the songs as being from their perspective. It’s really weird but I feel the need to make the disclosure.

I’m gonna put this under the cut because this is gonna be LOOOOONG. Also, if you’re interested in other characters and nuances of the universe, you’re also welcome to hit up not just me but also Shea because she’s done some amazing work too.

Valeria “Val” Richards

Val Richards is an Earth-616 canon character and the daughter of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Susan Storm (Invisible Woman). She’s the smartest woman in the world and holds more degrees than she knows what to do with. She’s constantly working on a new degree and really hates the amount of condescension she gets sometimes from people who don’t believe how smart she is and underestimate her. It’s half the reason she’s involved with the team - she wanted to show that she and the women she works with shouldn’t be underestimated. She’s the team coordinator and is the most tech savvy. She’s known for drinking her weight in coffee, listening to Led Zeppelin on full blast and always having her hands in one project or another. She has a habit of never going to bed because she’s constantly involving herself in a project and because she’s constantly blasting music, her hearing isn’t always the best. She constantly has people repeat things since she often can’t hear them. Though she’s not involved with the family business, she’s got a great relationship with her parents and especially her brother, Franklin, who is without a doubt her hero. She’s a part of the LONGEST slowburn I’ve ever written and it took SIX YEARS for her and the team empath Wendy to get together. 

Val’s Playlist: Classic and Hard Rock, this is the type of music that Val generally listens to when she’s in the lab. It features Lita Ford, Pat Benator, Joan Jett and The Pretty Reckless. I think shows a lot of her attitude and some of her anger.

Eleanor “El” Rogers

El Rogers is an Earth-85826 canon character and the daughter of Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Sharon Carter (Agent 13). She is a professionally trained spy and is a specialist in various forms of combat. Though she offered the mantle of Captain America to Dani Cage, she is very proud of her father’s legacy and sometimes nags Dani on how she should handle things, which sometimes leads to some contention between the two. Prior to the starting the Daughters of Liberty with Val Richards, she was a SHIELD agent and often known as “Espionage Barbie.” Growing up in the spotlight, she’s a gifted and knowledgeable public relations specialist and has more than a few headaches trying to manage this team and the array of personalities she deals with. Despite her PR skills, she’s naturally more introverted and prefers to spend her time with her close friends and working on her art. Though she’s more like her mother, she did inherit Steve’s sense of justice and morals while also keeping questionable company seeing that she often finds herself in some morally grey company, namely a couple of rebellious Southern mutants and three SHIELD trained professional killers. Most people often see El as perfect but she is riddled with anxiety and constantly beats herself up for not living up to people’s expectations. Before her father’s death, she was seen as very upbeat and friendly, but has been much more subdued and even more argumentative. She’s incredibly stubborn, which often gets her into epic fights with Dani and Meredith, as well as the leaders of the Avengers (Sonny Stark) and X-Men (Olivier LeBeau).

El’s Playlist: El is very much a pop music kinda girl, but her playlist comes with a bit of a twist of her anxieties, depression and desires to live up to that expectations that have been put on her. It features Taylor Swift, Elle King, Demi Lovato and Ruelle.

Danielle “Dani” Cage

Dani Cage is an Earth-616 canon character and the daughter of Luke Cage (Power Man) and Jessica Jones (Jewel). She’s the current Captain America and it’s a job she’s very ambivalent about because as much as she is honored by being bestowed the title, it comes with a lot of pressure and criticism which Dani is not great with. Due to her super strength and invulnerability, she rarely uses the iconic Captain America shield which is one of the many things she gets criticized for by El. Like her parents, Dani is tough as nails, a little rough around the edges and swears like it was its her job. Despite her short fuse, Dani has the biggest heart of them all and tends to come from a place of compassion rather than a place of judgment. This doesn’t stop her from being one of the sassiest members of the Daughters of Liberty however. When she’s not shouldering her duties as Captain America, Dani is working out her frustrations in the gym through boxing and acting as a volunteer for the Harlem Boys and Girls’ Club. Dani is a creature of habit. She goes to the same gym that she’s gone to since she was a little girl despite having a gym in HQ, she eats the same thing for breakfast and orders the same thing whenever she goes out for dinner. Her teammates often make fun of her because of this habit, but with all the stress in her life, she clings to these habits as a source of comfort and normalcy. Dani is best friends and incredibly close to Lucy Rand, who is about 85% of her impulse control. Sometimes the only thing keeping Dani from punching out her teammates and the occasional reporter is Lucy.

Dani’s Playlist: Her playlist is the perfect workout playlist because it’s intense and high energy R&B, Hip-Hop and Rap songs. It’s an ode to black excellence and being unapologetically awesome. It features Beyonce, Cardi B, Lizzo and Salt-N-Pepa.

Lucy Rand

Lucy Rand is an Earth-21722 canon character and the daughter of Danny Rand (Iron Fist) and Misty Knight. She’s a highly skilled martial artist and gifted detective. While Val might be the most intelligent person in the world, Lucy is skilled at picking up social and culture nuances quickly and reading people despite not having empathy and psychic abilities. Despite having great tragedy in her life and losing her parents at a young age, she’s a very positive person who tends to do her best to make any difficult situation manageable. Lucy’s anger rarely comes out but when it does, it usually is when people disregard the sacrifice her parents made. Though privately, she’s very upset with them for not being there for the major events in her life and though Luke Cage and Jessica Jones had a big hand in raising her, they are not her parents. She has a permanent job at handling Dani’s short fuse but she wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Like Dani, Lucy is very involved the community, but she has a lot of other outlets including knitting hats and managing the Instagram of her favorite little gremlin - her hairless cat Dobby. Lucy is the type of person who tends to put the focus on everyone but herself, something that the team does their best to curb. Very rarely is Lucy in any photos, mainly because she’s normally the one taking them. While she’s not field commander like Dani and El, she’s certainly the team negotiator when it comes to arguments. Needless to say with the amount of big personalities on the team, there is a fair share of fights she needs to break up and while Dani might be her best friend, Lucy’s most trusted companion is her jumbo sized bottle of migraine reliever pills. 

Lucy’s Playlist: Like Dani’s playlist, Lucy’s playlist features a lot of black excellence, but completely genre. Like Lucy herself, it’s a playlist with a lot of Soul and with a focus on fluidity rather than high energy. It features Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Whitney Houston and Ari Lennox.

Rebecca “Bekka” LeBeau

Bekka LeBeau is an Earth-41001 canon character and the daughter of Remy LeBeau (Gambit) and Anna-Marie LeBeau (Rogue). She inherited her father’s kinetic manipulation and her mother’s enhanced durability and flight. A complete Daddy’s Girl, she’s an incredibly gifted thief and has a penchant for using her abilities to blow shit up. However, instead of using playing cards, Bekka’s weapon of choice is…random objects from the dollar store? Don’t be surprised to see this chick throws weaponized plastic army men or marbles at your face. Despite her charisma, revolving door of men and natural extroversion, Bekka rarely opens up to people nor does she let people get close to her. This is a result of a very traumatic event in her childhood that completely changed both of her and older brother’s lives and caused her mutation to develop early at the age of eight. Due to this, she often suffers from nightmares and can be seen putting her absurdly gifted baking skills to work in the middle of the night. She’s the unofficial chef of the team and has introduced the team to a lot of Cajun cuisine. She’s a proud New Orleans girl and prepared to stomp your Southern stereotypes out of you. A running gag with Bekka is that despite being a very observant person, she is a penchant for refusing to see what’s right in front of her if she doesn’t want to see it such as her brother and best friend hooking up or that a certain ginger SHIELD agent is madly in love with her.

Bekka’s Playlist: Like Bekka herself, her playlist is a mixture of old school, new old and a little bit of subtle darkness. It has a mixture of Old School jazz, Classic Country and Southern Rock. It features Billie Holiday, Delta Rae, Dolly Parton and Gin Wigmore.

May “Mayday” Parker

Mayday Parker is an Earth-982 canon character and the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson. She inherited Peter’s enhanced physiology and wall-crawling abilities. While Mayday has her father’s intelligence, smart mouth and penchant for science, she’s more of an athlete than a nerd. She’s an avid lover of basketball and even played two years of Division Three basketball at Empire State University. She is a very frustrated New York Knicks and New York Mets fan and is often antagonized by Dani Cage, who has a tendency to be a very obnoxious Yankees fan. Though Mayday has a spot on the Daughters of Liberty team and often works outside the team as a research chemist, she has struggled with her identity since she stopped playing basketball. While she is currently Spider-Girl, she always views it more as her continuing her father’s work rather it being her own thing. Despite being incredibly bright and formidable fighter, Mayday also struggles with a lack of confidence and anxiety. She is often makes sarcastic jokes and often at her own expense. Mayday is loyal friend and often agonizes over the fact her superhero duties sometimes make her break her promises to her friends and family. However, she’s found a good support system in her girlfriend Nancy Lu, a telekinetic member of the X-Men and in her mentor, Val Richards. Though she is seven years older, Mayday often mothers her younger sister Annie, whom she sees as reckless and impulsive.

Mayday’s Playlist: This playlist is a mixture of Alternative and Rock music. It has a lot of songs that deal with self-esteem and discovering who are you is enough. It features Paramore, Avril Lavigne, Halsey and P!nk.

Anne “Annie” Parker 

Annie Parker is Earth-18119 canon character and the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary Jane Watson. Like her sister, she inherited her father’s enhanced physiology and wall-crawling abilities but that’s where their similarities end. Like her mother, Annie is an incredibly outgoing personality. With her love for pink, glitter and partying, most people look at Annie and think of her nothing more than an empty-headed party girl who does stupid shit and has nothing to add to the conversation. Wrong! Annie has one of the world’s highest IQs and is usually the smartest person in the room. She’s gifted in both sciences and mathematics. At the start of the story, she’s a student at Empire State University and is pursuing two degrees in Mathematics and Physics. She’s got an endemic memory which helps her manage her schoolwork, hero work and social life. Annie wasn’t initially invited to be a part of the team, but Mayday convinced Val and El to bring her on in hopes of curbing Annie’s partying. She’s a bit of hedonist and often does things to an excess. Since she was a child, Annie has been known for her bubbly attitude and infectiously positive attitude. This was developed at a young age as she rarely saw her older sister happy (not understanding that her sister suffered from depression and anxiety) and she made it her personal mission to make Mayday smile. Annie is a fearless girl with a big heart who doesn’t often think before putting herself in harm’s way, which unknowing stresses out her older sister more.

Annie’s Playlist: This playlist features a lot of Pop, Hip-Hop and Dance music. It’s high energy, upbeat and makes you just want to have a good time. Honestly, a good chunk of these songs have featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race as Lip Sync for your life songs. (Annie is a massive RuPaul fan). It features Arianna Grande, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Tove Lo.

Meredith “Mere” Pryde

Meredith Pryde is an Earth-41001 canon character and the daughter of Piotr Rasputin (Colossus) and Kitty Pryde (Shadow Cat). She inherited her mother’s phasing power, tech skills and ability to make epic callouts. She inherited almost nothing from her father, whom she doesn’t really remember since he died when she was young. She was raised mainly by her mother and her aunt Illyana Rasputin. Meredith joined the Daughters of Liberty so she didn’t have to deal with her brother Cameron second-guessing all of her choices and telling her to calm down. When Meredith sees injustice, she does her best to correct the situation and she doesn’t care who she has to call out. When she’s not doing work for the Daughters of Liberty, Meredith is active activist who is involved in various projects but especially on mutants’ rights. She attends and supports every march she can and her instagram is full of all her favorite protest and march signs that she sees. Aside from being involved in activism, Meredith’s second favorite activity is trolling her teammates, especially those who tend to be nonplussed about things. She’s notorious for her pranks and for playfully flirting with her teammates’ siblings to make them uncomfortable, namely Bekka. While she’s a notorious flirt, she has no interest in relationships and will punch you in the face if you ask her if she has a boyfriend or girlfriend. Though she is involved with the Daughters of Liberty and various movements, Meredith often suffers from loneliness because she doesn’t have a lot of time for herself and fostering her friendships. She’s every girl’s friend, but no one’s best friend. 

Meredith’s Playlist: This playlist highlights Meredith’s confidence and unapologetic nature. She is who she is, and you can take it or leave it. It’s an eclectic list which has mixture of Pop Rock, Pop, Alternative and R&B music. It features Superchick, Billie Eilish, Lily Allen and Icona Pop.

Wendy Nguyen

Wendy Nguyen is a character Shea and I made up, she is not related to anyone. Shocker. She’s a licensed therapist who often treats other superheroes and was actually assigned to El Rogers after the death of her father. She is an empath who is capable of sensing people’s emotions and when she touches them, she gets not only your emotions but your thoughts and even your memories. Her senses are incredibly strong and she often cannot be in the same room when someone is feeling things a bit too strongly, particularly her teammate Maya Ayala during the team’s first year together. Because she feels people’s emotions so strongly, Wendy is often confused whose emotions she is feeling - hers or someone else’s. This is one of the reasons it took her so long for her to admit her feelings for Val. Wendy is often seen as a quiet and thoughtful person who does her best to make her teammates confront their feelings for both her sake and theirs. She has an affinity for tea and has the world’s most absurd tea cabinet which is filled with tea from all over the world from her many travels. She also as an affinity for butterflies, which she views as being similar to human emotions - intense, sometimes beautiful but fleeting and fragile. Wendy often wears gloves to keep herself from accidentally touching others and taking their thoughts and memories without their permission. The ethics of her ability sometimes is a struggle for her since while they allow her to be good at job, however she feels them without control or consent from others. She rarely goes out with her friends in public areas mainly because being around so many people who are feeling a variety emotions is too much for her and causes her to have splitting headaches.

Wendy’s Playlist: Best described as folksy and acoustic. Wendy prefers most chilled out music because feeling others’ emotions can be very overwhelming. However, there’s a range of emotion here because she feels a lot. It features Of Monsters and Men, Regina Spektor, Jolie Holland and Hannah Connelly.

Yasmin “Yas” Khan

Yasmin Khan is a character Shea and I made up, she’s the niece of Kamala Khan (Miss Marvel). Like her aunt, Yasmin has Inhuman heritage alongside holding Pakistani and African heritages from her parents, Aamir and Tyesha. She was exposed to the Terrigen Mists and gained abilities similar to her father in which she can create psychic force fields, however she also has telekinesis and touch-telepathy. Yasmin is a practicing Muslim and while most of the women don’t wear hijabs nor expect her to wear one, she often feels to try and normalize Muslim practices in a society that is suspicious and often hateful towards her culture. She likes to joke that it covers up her bad hair days. Yasmin loves fashion and color, and though she is often the most modest wearing person in the room, she is definitely the most colorful and enjoys outrageous patterns. She is a big lover of pop culture and can often be seen playing Pokemon Go and watching shows on Crunchy Roll on her phone. She has a massive sweet tooth and can be seen in the kitchens watching Bekka bake in hopes of being allowed to have a bite. Though she doesn’t drink, she is best friends with Annie and often accompanies her on nights out and makes sure her friend doesn’t get into any trouble. Yasmin is one of the few people who isn’t out with her personal identity and this is mainly due to her fear of people hurting her family due to the rampant Muslim prejudice in the United States. As one of the youngest members of the team, her teammates are incredibly protective of her and have actually a designated plan ready to cheer her up if they ever see Yasmin is upset, which is called Operation: Yas Smiles. 

Yas’s Playlist: Like Meredith, Yap’s playlist is very colorful and has a diverse range of generics from R&B to Soul and Rap. It has a range of emotions since while Yas is a very cheerful person and absolute sweetheart, there’s some anger there at how she and other Muslims are treated. It features Mona Haydar, SassyBlack, Daya and Azealia Banks.

Maya Ayala

Maya Ayala is a character Shea and I made up, she’s the daughter of Hector Ayala (White Tiger) and the niece of Ava Ayala (White Tiger). Nothing happy ever happens to the Ayala family and unfortunately that saga continues with Maya, who witnessed her entire family and boyfriend being murdered in front of her during a shoot out in the Bronx. She took up the mantle of White Tiger and has been on a search to find their murderer. Before becoming the current incarnation of the White Tiger, Maya was a former competitive gymnast who was almost on the United States Olympic team and was working as a gymnastics coach. However, since the incident, she’s put all of her energy into getting revenge for her family and joined the Daughters of Liberty to honor her aunt and to use her resources to get justice. While her focus is on revenge, her greatest desire is to see her family and her boyfriend again. At the beginning, she kept herself from her teammates because she didn’t want to get attached, but after awhile, she became very close with Wendy, Val, Dani and Lucy. Maya has a secret love for telenovelas which she tries to keep quiet because she’s afraid of being seen as stereotypical. Despite this, she’s very proud Latina and gets pissed off when people write her off as “Mexican” or “foreign,” especially since her family hails from Puerto Rico and she’s just as American as anyone else. However, occasionally she does share her culture with the others, and occasionally makes arroz con gandules and pollo guisado with Bekka for the team. 

Maya’s Playlist: This is list is a mixture of Latin Pop, Alternative and R&B. It holds a mixture of Maya before the loss of her family and after. A lot of the latin pop are from gymnastic routines she would create. However, there’s also a lot of anger and sadness here, which is understandable. It features Audri Nix, Ciara, Lana Del Rey and Skylar Grey.