#there's honestly so much potential in this odd family dynamic between the two of them

[quitealotofsodapop]

Diet peach soup would probably have the celestials and Marshalls get involved a lot sooner. Overpowered babies are not a good idea to leave unsupervised. As for Macaque, the lady bone demon is most likely going to just shove him onto the thrall, as his problem. Either to be raised as her soldier, or as a potential backup vessel.

Prev.

Yeeeaah the Stalwarts have to get involved sooner than later since their king is now in his terrible twos (again). They present themselves to Pigsy and Tang as village elders who want to help them in raising the boys, and introducing them to their culture. Pigsy was eh on the idea, but Tang was uber excited! Monkey demon culture lessons!

Peaches and MK honestly thought that the Stalwarts were their grandparents for a long time, especially since they didn't know Papa Tang's side of family and assumed he was a just patchy-furred monkey. XD

Nezha, checking in on Wukong: "Why do I sense two baby stone monkeys- WHAT THE SCALLOP!?"

Peaches still gets his school bestie in the form of "Nez", albeit from an earlier age. Nezha can risk a mini-god running around without a voice of reason. Moksa tags in on his younger bro's behalf + as a kindness to Guanyin, as a "cool older kid" watching out for the little monkeys. The -Zha brothers want to keep Sun Wukong's condition as much as a secret as possible from the rest of the Celestial Realm.

Erlang takes one third-eye-look at the situation and goes "Ah crap, I'm gonna have to be their mentor." Cue an Athena and Telemachus dynamic developing between Erlang and the boys once they lift the Staff. But for now, he's Babysitter Jian - the only kid Pigsy and Tang have ever seen feed, wash, and entertain the little monkeys without so much as a grumble. (Jian, shrugs: "I have little cousins.")

Even the Peach Maidens who attended the Orchard with Wukong long ago ensure that he and his little brother are well-watched - glamouring themselves as a gaggle of old ladies in their favourite park. Always ready to pinch cheeks, give fresh fruit treats, and tell the boys how big they're getting!

The Thrall is currently reforming his body after Wukong slapped him across the country for stealing the Stone Egg (aka unhatched MK) + forcing him to drink some nasty potion (Meng Po's soup), so he's not much help in raising de-aged macaques rn.

Macaque accidentally dodges LBD by being a slippery little guy! Falls and crawls through so many shadows that its hard to keep track of him from the Underworld. Lives rough on the street for some time before ending up in the hands of someone who would truly care about him.

Sandy: "Aww. You're an odd little kitten aren't ya?" De-Aged!Macaque: (*spitting and hissing at the giant with all his might, violently protecting the cat food he found. Is barely the size of a football*) Sandy, gently picks up cub: "Hey hey... I used to be an angry little guy too. I learned that when a lot of people are upset, they're really just scared about something that hard to explain." De-Aged!Macaque: (*angry grumbles as he's picked up! Presses ears against fish man's chest to drown out the sound of the city*) Sandy: "Are your ears at you, little buddy? I can see why. One, two three... six ears! Thats a lot of earmuffs." De-Aged!Macaque: (*grumbling gets quieter. Absent-mindedly sucks on his fingers.*) Sandy, conflicted: "I... I really should just bring you to a police station or something. But something tells me that you'll need someone in your corner who understands how messy life can be. If I can manage it, would you be ok staying here with me?" De-Aged!Macaque: (*uninterested squeak*) Sandy, smile forming: "I'll take that as an Okey-dokey. Now... how about a name? Your white fur is super shiny in the moonlight... how about Moon?" "Moon": (*tares up at his new guardian with big violet eyes, one is milky and possibly blind. Makes a curious chirrup at the name.*) Sandy, heart-warming smile: "I think thats a winner."

Little Moon is a curious little guy. Not only because of his ears (the fish man jokes that it's his son's axolotl-like gills), but from an early age Moon has had control over shadows.

It began as simple fascination with stage magic. Moon watched stage magicians preform their tricks of misdirection and illusion, and wanted to see if he could replicate it.

Sandy: (*makes a bunny shape in the shadow of a lamp*) Moon: (*excited cheep!*) Moon: (*manipulates shadows to make many bunnies!*) Sandy, surprised: "Oh!"

Sandy was worried that this power wasn't something that could be trained easily, and an incident where Mo disappeared into one of Moon's shadows for an afternoon (reappeared unharmed once the treat bag was shaken) prompted the fish man to try and find an outlet for his kid.

Thats how he met The Nine Tailed Vixen. The elderly huli jing was hosting a children's acting class at her theatre, and Sandy wondered if it would aid his son's creative drive. It turned out to be a blessing since the heavenly fox was quick to identify, and help Moon tame his wild magic.

(Jiuweihuli is so relieved to have her protégé safe and sound again. Sandy is a good man, and she's glad that her little shadow has found a kind papa.)

Sensing a hunch, the old fox contacted Nezha on whether there wer other de-aged little monkeys...

Peaches and Moon meet during one of the acting camps. At first they cannot believe their eyes.

On sight they feel as though they've known the other their entire lives and beyond.

At the end of the day's acting camp, a group of old friends reunite.

Pigsy, with MK in a sling: "Sandy!?" Sandy: "Pigsy!" Peaches & Moon, running to their respective parent: "Baba!" Pigsy & Sandy, both surprised: "Baba!? You?!" "Yeah!" "Since when?" "Since I found him on the street!" "Whoa. weird."

Peaches and Moon are hard to separate after that meeting. Even if acting camp didn't turn out well for the ginger monkey (stage fright activated), they rarely go more than a week without an excited play date or visit to the theatre.

DBK's gut reaction to the young monkey demon holding his sworn brother's staff is; "Did Sun Wukong have a child- wait. What in Yama's name happened to you!?" Peaches doesn't answer the question as he nearly passes out screaming. Moon is half-way across town wondering what's scared his bestie so bad.

[rev-wrath]

*slamming into your inbox to continue the very long reblog chain with my thoughts on not only triads including Bruce and Knight but also quads*

Jonathan leans more towards Knight whilst Eddie leans almost equally to both. The latter however, leans slightly towards Batman (the cowl stays on during date night/j). The two of them do have a separate, chaotic B plot going on in the background but it is not mentioned at all to the others (it's probably a full on criminal telenovella let's be real). The two of them are one of the most messy and confusing relationships in the Rogues gallery. (None of the Flock members like the idea of this quad. Maybe except Steph for shits and giggles and Babs. But like Babs is also very hesitant.)

At one point, there's a rumour going on that Knight and Bruce are in a secret relationship with Batman. The people who are in the know just call them cackling. It's absurdly funny and Knight decides to kiss Batman at one point. Bruce is fondly exasperated.

Clark, Diana, and Gotham's darlings could potentially form a quad. But as you said, the two of them don't spend much time in close proximity. With Bruce, maybe, bc of the whole JL thing. But with Knight? Not much. It still has a higher chance of working compared to some of the other potential quads. (Most Flock members are okay with this quad I think. Jason firmly disagrees bc Wonder Woman is way too good for Bruce.)

Potentially, Harvey, Selina, and Gotham's darlings could make a quad. But like. I don't know too much about the dynamic between Two-Face and Catwoman beyond a couple comic panels and the Arkham games.

Hm. Talia would not form a quad. I don't think she'll like the idea of sharing the two of them. But my interpretation may be completely wrong so idk. On the same line, neither would Johanna if she ever gets around to liking Bruce at all, and Khoa probably doesn't give a shit about Knight, let's be real.

Truth be told though, I mightily prefer Bruce and Knight being the power couple they are and flirting with/ seducing everyone whilst not taking on a full on third ('it could confuse the pups'. 'one of your children is nearly thirty').

I like the mental image of slamming. We had also greatly strayed from your original point.

The odd thing with Eddie is there’s Knight, Bruce and Batman. For Eddie, Batman and Bruce are a little different. One is a high society member who hid away and did (seemingly) nothing, all while reaping the benefits of his family. The other is an intelligent, fun vigilante he can tease in a way more similar to banter than taunting (which is more similar to how he would’ve approached Bruce). (Yeah, the cowl was me. I’ll admit it.) And honestly I would love for him and Jonathan’s relationship to be talked about in the fic, even if it’s in the interlude, but I think it’d also be nice for the most it gets mentioned is if Knight looks at them and goes “Ah.” or Eddie explicitly is talking to Knight about it over lunch. (Barbara sort of supports it because Eddie gets everyone he wants and Knight likes all of them.)

Knight kissing Batman happens all the time, of course. But this time they make sure there’s a camera there. Bruce is so in love with them.

The three different cities is hard. And so is the whole space thing. It’s a little more stable because they’re a little more adjusted and definitely more cared for, but again, Knight. (Jason is staring down Bruce and Bruce asks if there’s something wrong. Jason says “Diana Prince, the Wonder Woman, is too good for you.”)

There could be some potential there.

I don’t think Talia would be very open to sharing them with anyone else either. Johanna, if she gets around to liking Bruce, wouldn’t. She got both of them and knows how good of a thing that is and desperately wants to not fuck it up. Khoa only cares for Bruce, most of his feelings regarding Knight is indifference. The rest is tension and a little respect.

Honestly, I like that for them too for most of their lives. Maybe the entirety of it. Everyone knows it, and knows to play by the rules, not nice, but by the rules. Nice is not the same for everyone involved so.

[sparkadream]

@peachiiihearts sent: 🎰🎰🎰|| the old reliable

Extra symbols means more shuffles cause it's my meme so I make the rules~ :3 (under cut due to length of course)

1. Space Unicorn & Lilith Crowley - Space just wants to be friends with everyone even if they might not reciprocate such a sentiment. But in this case I feel like it be possible!

2. Drazhan & Raya - Raya bout to learn not all dragons be good after all....or sane for that matter, but then again being trapped in a void all by your lonesome for who knows how long will do that to ya....in otherwords, enemies for sure.

3. Sarantsatsral & James "Bucky" Barnes - Never considered a Marvel verse for Sara before but I could easily see one honestly! Be it human or otherwise cause hey why can't there be three feet tall chinchilla aliens in the Marvel universe? I could maybe see another friendship here though, maybe Sara's even worked on his arm a few times too.

4. Sophie & Heracles - Off hand I have no idea just how exactly to go about interactions here all I do know is that DOUBLE SUNSHINES JUST YES PLEASE. Be it friendship or otherwise this would be so adorable.

5. Diamond Blossom & Deuce Gorgon - I feel like I had a MH verse for Diamond already but even if I didn't it would be easy enough with her being a dragon/unicorn hybrid! And between the two honestly I feel like no matter the dynamic it could be adorable seeing as they are both very extroverted and kind hearted people.

6. Entei & Bloom - I can so easily see Entei being a guardian figure for Bloom!

7. Odessa & Sayuri Hashimoto - Hmmm, I'm not too sure about this one honestly both interaction wise and dynamically. After all a summoner of demons and a girl who just likes to draw and play video games?

8. Cosmos & Yor Briar - I don't know much about Spy x Family but based on what I read in your bio this could actually be oddly adorable? (Noting Cosmos does have a human form/verses.) Be it in a friendship or more dynamic.

9. Holly & Fairy Godmother - WHOLESOME! Can easily see them having a very grandmother/granddaughter sort of dynamic.

10. Veillios & Barret Wallace - I do actually have a FF verse for Veillios that I haven't touched on in a looooooooong while. But anyway, once Vei can get over his trust/fear issues maaaaayyybbbeee Marlene could have a new brother?

11. Demetria & Max Navarro - Oooooooo I don't know Max all that much but again based off what I read in the bio, I can see this being another adorable no matter the dynamic! Demetria is an aspiring witch who enjoys urban exploring mainly in places said to be haunted, even if she prefers to not actually mess with the supernatural.

12. Marden & Jude Mathis - Hmmm, another one I not be too sure about I've only played one 'Tale of...' game and I haven't actually finished it yet either for that matter...but even based on the bio and all I'm still not sure bout any potential dynamics or anything off hand.

13. Saoirse & Nilou - Oh this could be adorable! I don't have a Genshin verse for Saoirse yet but I can easily make one. And I can see these two being friends easy!

14. Arlie & Briar Beauty - Ya know, Briar already has a bunch of younger brothers, I'm sure she could handle this odd little gremlin who's primary forms of communication are biting and frog blinks.....

15. Zakaria & Jasmine - Waaaaiiiittt why do I oddly kinda want this? Be it friends or more. While Ria is a villain technically he is the sort that's more in the 'right motive, wrong means' sort so I could see him and Jas clashing a lot at first but maaaybe over time who knows~

Bonus!

16. Kion & Estela - I mean, I think this be a pretty easy friendship here!

[byanyan]

@redemptioninterlude​:  👪 ( sookhee 🥲 )

moodboard meme   ✧ * º •   accepting!!

✧ * º • 👪  for  a  moodboard  of  my  muses  family  dynamic.

[descendant-of-truth]

So I'll admit I'm a little sad that we didn't get as many wholesome moments between the bros this season, last time it felt like there was a more even balance between them arguing and being nice to each other

But I also can't help but feel like this might've been on purpose for the sake of an arc, which I can say more confidently now that we have the full context leading up to the pitchfork episode (which you can read my earlier thoughts on here)

Looking through the list again, in the first batch there's not actually a lot of episodes where the specific point of tension between the bros is centered on Cuphead's impulsiveness, whereas the second batch has three episodes with that theme in a row, and another one directly before the finale. This is definitely a trait of his they want us taking note of this time around.

So, Cuphead is getting more reckless. Why? My guess is that it's to cope with the fact that he no longer has the protective sweater - and potentially the ambiguous amount of time he spent in jail

If there's one thing we know about Cuphead, it's that denial and distractions are his bread and butter when it comes to dealing with his problems. We heard more this season than ever about how he's totally not worried about stuff, which I think is sometimes genuine but, y'know. Where else have we heard that phrase

The truth is that Cuphead is very worried about things. He worries about losing his soul and his family, to the point where it was (and possibly still is) a recurring nightmare for him. We already knew he was pushing down these fears, but I feel like he might be doing that more than ever. My evidence? His treatment of Mugman.

Now, most of their interactions are pretty par for the course; they were already prone to bickering, so that isn't weird by itself. But where's the supportive Cuphead who spoke up for Mugman when he got stage fright, who tried to make him feel better about ghosts, who did his best to help when Mugman's handle broke? There wasn't much of that this season, but we sure did get a lot of the two splitting up over a fight.

All of this comes into play with Lost in the Woods, where Cuphead's unrelenting rocket launches in the face of increasing danger read to me like he's stubbornly sticking to a distraction so he doesn't have to think about that danger. Even when that distraction ends up actively making things worse

And then he and Mugman split up again, when they're out in the wilderness and have no idea how to get back home. Again, in a vacuum this doesn't seem unusual for them, but combined with the repeated instances this season of this happening due to Cuphead specifically (Jailbroken, Another Brother), it's starting to feel like Cuphead is pushing Mugman away on purpose, or at least subconsciously.

And the worst part? I think it's working.

Mugman is rightfully intolerant of Cuphead's shenanigans, and gets comically angry at them, but it's not hard to tell that he's been hurt by them, too:

With the recent trend in Cuphead's behavior, I can't help but feel like when he tells the Devil that there's "nothing he can take away from him that he cares about," there's grounds for Mugman to believe him.

Which makes me all the more concerned about Mugman now that he's been captured by the Devil, because what's he going to do in that situation if he's not totally convinced that Cuphead is going to save him?

Honestly he'd probably start running the place if his experience in prison is any indication

Anyway my point is that they might very well be setting up some character development in part 3, and that the odd shift in the bros' dynamic this season was all part of the setup phase

[delimeful]

you can’t go back (4)

warnings: mentioned child neglect/bad parenting, mentioned awkward saucy teen flirting, arguing, emotional upset, the dubious ethics of over-excited teenagers

-

Roman had been acting strange, lately.

It was perhaps a harsh thing to think about his friend, especially considering he was bound to behave differently when the recent disappearance of his twin was taken into account, but it was also true.

Logan had known Roman for years, long enough that it was an effort to search back through his memories for a point that they hadn’t been together, if perhaps not always in the most amicable of circumstances. They’d gone through the entire gamut of enemies-frenemies-rivals-friends, and Logan liked to think that he had a fair grasp on Roman’s tells by this point.

All of Roman’s tells were currently telling him that the other student was trying to hide something, something big.

It wasn’t just the way that he had stopped sulking whenever something happened that reminded him of his missing brother, or that he was suddenly scrawling what almost seemed like notes in a glitter-covered notebook when he hadn’t had the inspiration to work on anything creative in weeks, or that he had all but given up on the pretense of paying attention in their shared classes.

No, the real sign that something was wrong was the way that Roman had begun to outright neglect his two closest friends.

Logan was hardly affected, of course. He was above the base emotions that so many of his peers were constantly fraught with, and less time with Roman gushing in his ear about whatever had caught his interest or complaining dramatically about those who had wronged him meant more time for Logan to focus on what was important, like his AP classes and many, many extracurriculars.

Of course, that didn’t explain why he was currently trailing after Roman on his walk home, when he really should be at violin practice. No matter how much of a soft spot the teacher had for him, he’d gained his skill through hard work, not skipping practice. Certainly not skipping practice to hound off after his erstwhile classmate.

However, he wasn’t the only one being abandoned in this scenario.

Logan Croft had been forced to sit at a lunch table with an increasingly secretive and distant Roman, and a mournful, kicked-puppy version of Patton Hertz, the most cheerful guy in their grade, if not the entire school.

Roman, stuck in his own thoughts as he clearly was, seemed to not notice the effect his lacking presence had had on Patton, and Logan was just about fed up of watching the slow decay of the half life of their little group.

The secrecy was ridiculous. They’d been there when Roman had been so worked up about the ‘police coverup’ that he’d actually considered trying to break into a government building, they could certainly be here for whatever it was that had him so bizarrely clammed up now!

Logan paused from a distance and watched as Roman hurried in through the front door of his house, counting backwards in his head. It would be a fair challenge to try and break into Roman’s room, particularly with Roman in the house, but if his deductions about the seeds constantly caught on his friend’s pant legs and the odd-colored mud left on the soles of his favorite tennis shoes were correct… There!

Sure enough, only a few moments later, Roman was pushing out through the back door, taking an unusually careful moment to close the screen door behind him before turning and walking determinedly down the path into the rural wilderness that made up half of the grounds his family’s farm sat on.

Logan waited until there was little chance that Roman would double back for something he’d forgotten, and then strode confidently up to the front door, rapping on it twice. Going by the fact that there was a car in the driveway and the door had been unlocked when Roman had gotten home from school, someone else was home to answer.

Mrs. Torres opened the door, looking surprised at the sight of him for a moment, before breaking out into a warm smile. “Logan! It’s so good to see you, are you here for Roman?”

“I’ve been meaning to meet up with him for a project, but he left school before me, so I came here,” Logan said, not above lying through omission to uncover the truth. “Is he home?”

“Oh, he just got back, but I don’t think he’s inside-- ROMAN!” she turned towards the stairs and called up them, frowning when there was no response. “He must be out in the yard again. Come in, come in!”

Logan stepped inside smugly, glancing around. The interior was much the same as the last time he’d been here. If it hadn’t been for the pile of faded missing posters under a mug on the counter and his own prior knowledge of the situation, Logan would have been hard-pressed to guess that this was the home of a recently-vanished child.

“Honestly, I’m just glad he’s not staying cooped up in his room anymore,” Mrs. Torres was saying. The woman speaking casually in front of him only added to the eerie composure of the home, and Logan made his way through the general pleasantries and politely refused any refreshments with an unpleasant feeling in his gut.

“They didn’t even bother printing out new missing posters this time,” he remembered Roman telling them with a quiet, bitter sort of anger. “He dyed his hair, and they won’t even pay to put a recent picture of him up when it could be the difference between someone recognizing him or not!”

On a logical level, Logan can understand something concerning happening over and over, repetition dulling it’s effects until it feels mundane or everyday. Roman has mentioned before how his parents believed that Remus was simply acting out for attention, mostly while thanking Roman for being above that, as though the metaphorical ‘good twin’ wasn’t currently building a career on literally acting for an audience's attention.

What Logan can’t understand is that Remus’s parents are apparently completely uninterested in finding out why Remus is so desperate for attention that he would resort to a maneuver he knows will only get him negative consequences.

Logan himself would certainly like to understand. All queries on the matter had garnered only uncomfortable evasion from Roman, as though his friend might have had an idea but wouldn’t say, likely due to irritating personal feelings that Logan couldn’t parse.

So, he’d reached out to Remus directly, on one of the few days that he’d actually attended classes.

The delinquent had been visibly confused by his approach-- the twins allegedly hadn’t had a mutual friend since the beginning of grade school-- and resistant to Logan’s questioning, which Patton had later informed him was likely far too blunt for the situation. They’d gone in circles for a bit, Remus making outlandish or confusing metaphors while Logan refused to rise to the bait, and then he’d made a simple observation about the hypocrisy of the twins’ parents, and Remus had stared at him with an odd tilt to his head for a moment.

Shortly after, he had made a very confusing comment about something that was anatomically impossible, and when Logan had enquired further, Remus had then hared off with pink cheeks and ditched school for a week. He’d asked Roman about the situation, but his friend had only covered his ears with an agonized look on his face, utterly refusing to explain.

Logan shook the errant thought away, and the odd pang of something like regret that Remus had vanished before he could follow up on the interesting interaction.

He turned his gaze away from the unharried setting. The odd dynamic between the Torres family was not what he was here to investigate, not even remotely.

There was only one Torres he was investigating right now, and he had a strong suspicion that his odd behavior had less to do with family than one might expect.

“Go on ahead, I’m sure he’ll hear you once you get out back,” Mrs. Torres encouraged, picking up a particularly irritated-looking calico cat. “Just have to make sure Lady Macbeth doesn’t escape and disturb your little session. Roman’s been worried about coyotes, so we’ve been keeping her inside.”

Logan nodded, though privately he was a little surprised. Coyotes? He hadn’t thought they would be so bold as to lurk at a farm this close to urban areas. Perhaps there had been sightings near here?

He pushed past the creaky screen door with a striking sense of familiarity, despite the fact that it had been quite a while since the three of them had gone wandering together in the foliage and dirt of the Torres farm. Patton’s allergies could be quite fierce, after all.

As expected, walking into the backyard revealed no signs of Roman, even when Logan cleared his throat and called out. He knew his friend well enough to know that he would have reacted audibly to his unexpected presence, so the only logical conclusion was that he wasn’t nearby.

Clearly, it was time to check the perimeter.

He walked in a careful, orderly line next to the old wooden fence, eyeing the peeling paint and refraining from setting his hand on it. He had more to worry about than potential splinters, such as keeping an eye out for any potential strangeness that could explain Roman’s behavior.

There was little to be found in the brush except a regrettable amount of sandburs catching along the hem of his pants, so when he spotted the barn, he felt a surge of excitement.

And if he indulged in a little bit of sneaking, hoping to catch his quarry unaware, that was his business. Roman was loud enough that he could hear him ranting a good few meters from the barn, anyhow.

He managed to make it all the way to the edge of the barn wall before the rant abruptly cut off, and he stalked forwards hurriedly, pushing the door open before Roman could hide anything incriminating.

He needn’t have worried: the evidence was standing there in the middle of the barn, strapped to a support rafter.

It also wasn’t human.

“What are you doing here?” Roman shrilled, taking a quick step to be in front of the creature. It was an ineffective method of hiding it, seeing as what appeared to be long, spider-like limbs were extending in the air a good few meters in either direction behind him.

Logan had known about Roman’s theory, the one that had been laughed right out of the police station. He’d walked with Roman and scoured the fields for any sign of what Remus had mentioned, though they hadn’t found anything. He knew his friend still believed that his twin’s disappearance had been unnatural, extraterrestrial.

Knowing was quite different from seeing an entire alien right in front of oneself.

Roman was still talking, in that nervous chattering tone that he always took on when he was working himself into a truly incomprehensible explanation, but Logan could hardly be asked to divide his attention at the moment.

Extra anterior eyes, odd shiny patches along the sides of the neck, exterior hinges along the jaw, organic plating that had visibly darkened since his first glance-- there was so much that he needed to understand the purpose of, so many questions he had about their origins. How close by was other life? Which star had they hailed from? How had they gotten here?

He was moving forwards without a second thought, enthralled by the way the legs rose up-- like a bird mantling their wings, and they appeared smooth, not hairy as an actual spider’s would be.

“Incredible,” he breathed, and then there was a hand fisted in the back of his polo and he was being yanked away. Where he’d just stood, all four of the strange limbs stabbed into the ground, their reach longer and their ends sharper than he’d anticipated.

There must have been an extra joint closer to their back, the flexible kind that would allow for such an extension. He itched to circle around and look for himself, to confirm his hypothesis before the limbs retracted, but Roman was still clinging to him like a shrieking barnacle.

“What did I just say?!” he demanded, gearing up for a scolding. “It’s not friendly! Do you want to get stabbed into next week?”

“How long have you been keeping an actual alien life form from the world at large? From scientists at large? From me?” Logan shot back, shaking Roman’s grip loose. “Have you had them strapped upright this entire time? Can they talk? How did this even happen?”

Even as he demanded an explanation, his gaze was drawn back over to the alien, taking in their every twitch with endless curiosity. He wanted to know how to read each motion, from the downturn of their chin to the scrunching of their smaller eyes to the way the flat plates where a mouth should be had seemed to twitch. He wanted to know everything.

“It’s been like a week, I didn’t strap them up they came like that, either they don’t speak English or they’re a really good actor, and they showed up in my barn after Remus was abducted, you do the math!” Roman rushed out, edging closer as though he thought Logan was about to try and get closer to the alien again. “And I didn’t tell you because I knew you would do this!”

“This is hardly the first time I’ve almost been stabbed in the pursuit of science,” Logan retorted, annoyed at the presumption that he wouldn’t risk his life for his goals.

“It’s only a little bit about the near-stabbing!” Roman’s voice cracked, and Logan finally pulled the other half of his attention away from the alien to stare. “This is my only lead on my brother, and you’re going to want to-- to-- to put it in a laboratory or National Geographic Magazine or something!”

“I’d be far more likely to write a thesis paper on the matter,” Logan corrected helpfully. Roman’s hands twitched, the body language possibly indicating that he was barely restraining himself from trying to throttle Logan.

“Whatever! The point is, this isn’t a science experiment to me!” His rival’s face was crumpling slightly at the edges. “You can’t just-- just use the alien I found as a ticket to get into some esteemed college while Remus is left to rot in the far reaches of outer space!”

To Logan’s horror, Roman’s eyes had become suspiciously shiny. He floundered for a moment, wishing Patton was there to smooth things over as he so often did, before firming his shoulders and lifting his chin. He could at least try to explain, and hope it didn’t turn out too badly.

“I’m not going to ‘leave Remus to rot,’” Logan started, remembering the recycled missing posters stacked up on the counter. “If you believe that this alien is key to finding out what happened to him, then that should be-- well, our first priority should always be furthering the advancement of human understanding, especially with a discovery as big as this, but I am an accomplished multitasker, so we can do that while we attempt to locate and recover Remus.”

Roman’s shoulders slowly loosened from their frustrated hunch. “You’re going to help me? Seriously?”

“Do you really think I’d joke?” Logan replied, gesturing to his tie. “The more information we compile on this specimen, the better we’ll understand them, and the closer we’ll be to understanding the motives behind Remus’s abduction.”

“And you aren’t going to tell anyone?” Roman asked, looking more hopeful by the moment.

“Why would I? I work more effectively on projects on my own,” Logan answered, the same sentence that had sparked a loud argument between him and Roman in the middle of Biology two years ago. This time, however, Roman looked excited rather than offended at the response. “We really should figure out something to tell Patton, though.”

“That’s… a good idea,” Roman admitted sheepishly. “There’s no way we can let him around an unknown alien fiend, especially not one so… spider-y. You almost got stabbed, imagine what it might do to poor Patton!”

“You handle our story,” Logan decided, turning to look back at the alien fully. “I’ll see what we can do about those extra limbs. We won’t be able to do any sort of up-close analysis with a constant threat hovering over us.”

He straightened his tie, studying the way the extra limbs in question were vibrating just slightly in the air, drawn in significantly closer to the alien's body than they had been before. Despite the movement of the legs, the alien themself was still as stone, all of their attention locked on Logan.

Through observation and experimentation, he was sure that each little motion of theirs would soon become as readable to him as everyday human body language, and from there, real communication would be in reach.

Communication with an extraterrestrial... This would truly be a project like no other.

Fueled by a thrill of excitement, Logan couldn't help but smile.

[fayevalcntine]

I think all the recent anger with Edwina is less about what happened on screen and the fact that the showrunner came out and said that Edwina wouldn’t go to Kate and Anthony’s wedding, so we went from the finale which showed the Sharmas at peace and the sisters very close to a “there’s irrevocable damage to the relationship that impacts Kate’s life negatively going forward” idea that is very much not what fans of the sisters want for them or in their historical romances at all.

It’s especially upsetting when all the drama between the sisters didn’t exist in the book so it feels unnecessary and sexist to write the sisters at odds this way.

To be honest as someone who read TVWLM before S2 came out, I'm in the group that generally prefers the complexity of their relationship in the show solely because the dynamic between them isn't as simple and clean-cut as it is in the book. That being said, I do wish that what they executed in the show with the failed wedding had led to Edwina and Kate getting more scenes with each other, or even just the Sharma family getting more focus instead of so much plot time being taken up by storylines that ended up going nowhere for certain characters.

I am aware that a lot of fans' reaction to Edwina is recently specifically because of the CVD interview for which I've seen wildly different reactions, but I'm honestly just as baffled by the "well what did y'all expect??" crowd as I am by the "book!Edwina would never!!" crowd. Book!Edwina isn't a thing on the show, and while I appreciate people defending Edwina potentially choosing to not go to her sister's wedding to the guy whom she almost married herself, the arguments that have been used for that are just as thin, because it generally boils down to "look Edwina suffered embarrassment and her sister stole her man". Edwina ended up not giving two fucks about what the ton thought of her or Kate by the end and it was clear even in episode 6 that she felt more betrayed by Kate lying to her about what she felt for Anthony (and specifically what really went on between the two of them) than she ever felt for Anthony being into her sister. It's clear just from that that Edwina loves Kate more than whatever she felt for Anthony whom she knew for 2 months at most. This is why I'm confused as to how there's no middle ground between either of these opinions because frankly, Edwina DOES deserve to distance herself from Kate in order to be allowed more freedom to explore just what she wants in her own life, which I can only assume Kate approved of since she and Anthony went on a honeymoon for like 6 months, and regardless of whether or not she or frankly anyone else was present during the real wedding ceremony, I can't imagine Edwina freezing her sister out right before she leaves for a longer period of time. The very least I can easily imagine her doing is saying goodbye to her properly before she heads off. And re: their relationship as sisters, it's obvious that that was bound to change regardless of what the outcome of the wedding was, but this is frankly the best case scenario where a) both can be allowed to pursue what they really want in their lives and with the people they would want to be with, b) they wouldn't have to be separated by entire continents because Edwina's husband is into her sister, and c) even though I know the chances of S3 exploring this are unlikely, both can work on being actual siblings to each other and not just an older sister/guardian to a younger sister dynamic.

[veilchenjaeger]

It's that time of the year again and this is my SXX Exchange letter! Just keep scrolling if u see this on the dashboard!

Hello, nameless friend! (And hello mod who might check this for matching reasons!) Thank you for joining me at the Yi City campfire! The following novella contains some hopefully helpful information on what to get at the farmers' market and inspiration for what you could make for dinner. I hope you won't have to threaten any potato merchants! ||-)

General DNW:

Incest (Mentions of Jin Guangyao and Qin Su are okay, but nothing explicit, please.)

Anything to do with age play or DDLG

Explicit underage sex or adult/underage relationships

Noncon between the main ship if there’s a happy ending

A/B/O or animalistic traits

Bathroom kinks or emetophilia

Feminisation as a kink

Pregnancy

Infidelity

PWP (I’m a lesbian and don’t enjoy porn about men for the porn’s sake, so I prefer my smut plotty/with a focus on feelings.)

Quick “fixes” for disabilities (e.g. Song Lan magically getting a new tongue instead of learning how to speak without one)

First person POV or POV switches within the same scene (I’m always confused when that happens. POV switches in separate scenes are very cool tho!)

A’ight here come the oddly specific ones:

Violent sex or sexy punching/fistfighting/whatever you call that, especially involving Song Lan. (Rough sex is fine, especially between Xuexiao!) Generally, portrayals of Song Lan as an aggressive or violent person are not my vibe.

Fics set in the US.

Mean Dom (or generally mean) Xiao Xingchen or Song Lan. (Xue Yang can be as mean as he likes. He’s a free spirit who does what he wants.)

Exclusive sub Xue Yang.

General likes:

Mysophobic Song Lan

Blind Xiao Xingchen

Xue Yang being a terrible person <3

A-Qing is one of my favourite characters in MDZS and I adore her (potential) dynamics with all of the Yi City boys, so if she fits into the story/art, I’d love to see her!

Closed triangle SXX :,) <3

Songxiao’s BDE (Big Divorced Energy), no matter whether they’re exes or still/back together.

I periodically go feral over how Songxue spent all those years together in Yi City and thus probably know each other pretty well, and how they and A-Qing are the only ones left who loved Xiao Xingchen. I love odd Songxue companionship, is what I’m saying.

Catharsis and tenderness born from pain, and any mixture of dark themes and softness.

Found families and close platonic relationships.

Non-sexual (and non-physical!) intimacy. Not that sexual intimacy isn’t great too, of course.

Genderbends! (In the “All of them are always women” sense.) Feel free to make SXX girls for any of the prompts.

I vibe with both novel and CQL canon as well as amalgamations of the two.

Any setting/AU is good! My personal favourites are canon verse/jianghu, historical settings (especially if they teach me something about that period in time), and Modern/Modern with Cultivation, but if inspiration strikes for, like, a SciFi AU, that’s cool.

Dead doves are fine! I currently kinda prefer happy endings, but I’m also not opposed to being hurt if you have a really cool idea to hurt me with.

Kisses. Honestly, if you just give me a sketch/1000 words of them kissing, I’m happy.

A word for a nameless artist friend:

My brain is extremely focused on storytelling, which is probably obvious from how I write prompts. I adore fanart so, so much tho and I want to make sure you, hypothetical artist friend, aren’t overwhelmed by the storytelling focus, hence this section. Anything inspired by the prompts would be awesome to see, whether it’s something with the same aesthetic or a scene from one of the prompted scenarios. Pick and choose whatever vibes or details inspire you; I’m excited to see the results.

Art-specific general likes (though I like all art): Intimate moments and intimate touches, visible emotions, fashion designs, symbolism and compositions with Meaning that I can analyse like an art historian, fun homages to aesthetics like Tarot cards or Art Nouveau or, idk, medieval altar paintings, and yet again the kisses.

The requests for your convenience:

All of the details included in these prompts are meant to inspire, not to limit you! Feel free to ignore what doesn't work for you.

Request 1: Xue Yang re-ignites Songxiao’s passion for their old dream

I so want to see Songxuexiao sit around the Yi City campfire (or somewhere else), discuss politics and ethics together, and collectively bitch about the Great Sects. That's enough of a prompt already, but I picture the following scenario:

Things in Yi City have somehow worked out in everyone’s favour, no one is dead, and Songxuexiao and A-Qing have decided on some sort of truce. (Whether or not it already involves SXX kisses is up to you.) However, the events leading up to this fragile peace have left Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan disillusioned, and although they are slowly rebuilding their relationship, they no longer believe in their old dream of founding a sect. The fact that they did go through a divorce and have grown apart in the process probably doesn’t help.

Enter Xue Yang, who has strong opinions on the established sects being hypocritical bastards and the backstory to back those opinions up. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are shocked to find out that they agree on a lot when it comes to politics, although they obviously have vastly different approaches to reacting to this unjust system. Even worse – discussing this with Xue Yang (and possibly finding out about Chang Ci’an) lights a spark of old passion – surely someone should DO something about this – and suddenly someone’s having persistent thoughts of sect-building again.

Optional wants:

It might be fun if initially, only one daozhang experienced a Xue Yang-induced activism relapse – especially if it’s Song Lan; just imagine him reacting to the fact that Xue fucking Yang made him feel like he could make a difference in the world again.

The results of all this (Songxuexiao sect?? Dreams of one? Taking the first steps towards building one?) would also be very fun to look at, especially for the art side of things.

Request 2: Song Lan and Xue Yang take care of a distressed Xiao Xingchen

That’s it, that’s the prompt. I have a specific scenario in mind (see below), but if inspiration strikes in a different way, go wild.

I’m imagining a setting where Xiao Xingchen is pretty fragile and questioning his ability to be a good person, and Xue Yang is sort of aware of how fragile Xiao Xingchen is and knows that he doesn’t want to lose him. So, post-fix-it Yi City or something the like? Where Xiao Xingchen is either back from the dead or got very close to shattering himself? It can also be an AU with similar vibes, of course.

The idea is that Xiao Xingchen fucks up and accidentally really hurts Song Lan and/or Xue Yang. Because he’s Xiao Xingchen and his entire self-image is built around being a good and helpful person, he can’t deal with that at all. (This is the guy who ripped his own eyes out and then left Song Lan on a celestial mountain to make up for something that wasn’t his fault, and also the guy who didn’t kill Xue Yang but shattered his own soul upon learning that he’d been tricked into doing awful things! He’s a mess!) Anyways, I’d like to see Song Lan and Xue Yang deal with that by gathering up the puddle that is Xiao Xingchen and showing him – in their own odd ways – that he’s forgiven, he’s loved, and he’s allowed to make one (1) mistake every now and then.

Optional wants:

Song Lan and Xue Yang having very different styles of comforting Xiao Xingchen, and both of those maybe not working super well! Xue Yang probably hasn’t comforted anyone in his life! His goal is to make Xiao Xingchen happy again (so that Xiao Xingchen doesn’t do stupid things like shattering his soul) and otherwise he’s completely out of his depth! Song Lan’s sort of idealized image of Xiao Xingchen might not be super helpful either! It might be fun if they’d both fail on their own, but manage to make it work together. Two negatives make a positive.

I’d love to see that very odd careful/caretaking side of Xue Yang that he shows when he’s cleaning Xiao Xingchen’s corpse or offering A-Qing advice on how to take revenge on her enemies.

Generally, I like Hurt/Comfort and complicated emotions better than pure fluff, so lean into the angst if you want to.

An A-Qing can be freely added to this scenario.

Request 3: Xiao Xingchen comes down from the mountain, but it’s the 21st century

Everything’s the same: Xiao Xingchen, disciple of the immortal Baoshan Sanren, leaves the celestial mountain never to return, hoping to be able to help the people of the world – only that it’s 2022 (or 1950 or another year of your choosing) and he ends up in modern China. Baoshan Sanren’s mountain, meanwhile, is firmly stuck in ancient ways, and Xiao Xingchen has thus never even heard of electricity. Cue one confused Xiao Xingchen, on his own in this strange world until he runs into some handsome boys (and possibly a cheeky girl), an equally confused Song Lan who’d like to get this beautiful man a goddamn ID, and a probably delighted Xue Yang who just gained a new, very ethereal toy.

Optional wants/further musings:

I adore Modern with Cultivation settings and thinking about how a world where ghosts and demonic beings are an observable part of reality might be different from our own, so if you like that, too, I’d love some worldbuilding details.

Wei Wuxian might be fun to add as a supporting character! I enjoy the thought of him and Xiao Xingchen being friends, and Xiao Xingchen might try to look for his shijie’s son? That’s like, super optional tho.

I’m imagining this with Ghibli vibes/visuals. No idea why and this as well is super optional, but maybe it’s inspiring.

Request 4: Resurrected (?) Xiao Xingchen is miserable, and Song Lan tries to bring back Xue Yang

Somehow (Wei Wuxian? An old plan of Xue Yang’s? Time and patience?), Xiao Xingchen’s soul gets restored and he is resurrected. Song Lan gets to apologise, Songxiao get to travel the world together again, it’s all Song Lan hadn’t dared to hope for in his wildest dreams. The only problem is that Xiao Xingchen is doing horribly. He 1) obviously isn’t over what happened in Yi City 2) still blames himself for the innocent people he killed, Song Lan’s and A-Qing’s deaths, and having trusted Xue Yang 3) probably also blames himself for the fact that he misses and mourns his nameless friend, and no matter what Song Lan does to make things better, it doesn’t work. Maybe his earnest devotion isn’t what Xiao Xingchen needs. Maybe Xiao Xingchen needs someone who can take his mind off things, someone who makes him laugh. Maybe he needs Xue Yang.

That’s the idea Song Lan gets, anyways. Maybe Xiao Xingchen (or A-Qing or Wei Wuxian?) told him a little about how Xue Yang helped Xiao Xingchen recover after Baixue Temple, or maybe Song Lan just remembers Xue Yang’s unexpected devotion to Xiao Xingchen and figured he might be able to help? Or the reasons are less emotional and the resurrection went wrong in a way Wei Wuxian can’t fix? Either way, Song Lan is desperate to find a way to make Xiao Xingchen not try to shatter himself again, and getting Xue Yang’s help is his last resort. So he sets out to find/contact/resurrect Xue Yang. Xiao Xingchen might or might not be horrified by that.

The Xingchen resurrection part is optional; it can also be another brand of “Xiao Xingchen lives after the events of Yi City” OR even a complete AU. (Song Lan tries to contact Xiao Xingchen’s horrible ex bc he can’t figure out how to make Xiao Xingchen less depressed?)

Optional wants:

If Song Lan is a fierce corpse, it would be fun if his insecurities re.: being dead played into his decisions here. How could he, a monster, ever be what Xingchen needs?

Some odd sort of companionship between Songxue (+ A-Qing) as the ones who’d do anything for Xiao Xingchen and know that about each other would be dope.

DNW:

Xiao Xingchen immediately forgiving Xue Yang.

Zichen is my dearest beloved, so the flavour I’m looking for here is “Song Lan has a hard time helping Xiao Xingchen, blames himself and goes overboard looking for a solution bc Songxiao are bad at communicating” rather than “Song Lan is actually incapable of helping Xiao Xingchen/not what Xiao Xingchen needs”.

It wouldn’t sit right with me if A-Qing weren’t mentioned at all. I’d love to see her involved in all this, of course, but even if she doesn’t end up playing a role, I feel like there should be a reason for that? I’d have a hard time believing that Song Lan would try to get Xue Yang to help if A-Qing were an option.

Request 5: Fierce corpse issues

This one’s super vague! I’d like to see something focused on the specific trials that come with Song Lan being a fierce corpse, both for Song Lan himself and for the rest of the Yi City crew. Here are some optional ideas:

Song Lan dealing with the fact that he runs on resentful energy now and that his control over said energy can slip. I bet that’s scary for him specifically, seeing that losing his temper usually doesn’t go well for him!

Fierce corpse maintenance! Either in the form of regular maintenance, or Xue Yang “updating” Song Lan with new features, adding things that he finds useful or “installing” updates Song Lan would like to have (better control of his resentful energy, less rigor mortis, a working dick – something like that).

How does being dead (inherently unclean!) interact with Song Lan’s mysophobia? How does he feel about maybe having to be touched regularly for maintenance?

Xiao Xingchen and A-Qing could learn some basic demonic cultivation, if so inclined, to help with fierce corpse maintenance or to be able to calm Song Lan down if he ever loses control. (How would Song Lan feel about Xiao Xingchen learning demonic cultivation for him?)

Fierce corpse management as (platonic, romantic, or sexual) intimacy! That might help Song Lan with any insecurities he might have regarding the fact that he's dead.

Speaking of insecurities, a potentially fun dynamic: Song Lan, who avoids touching Xue Yang because 1) he is mysophobic 2) he is dead and would potentially contaminate others with his unclean energy vs. Xue Yang, who already took Song Lan’s mysophobia reaction extremely personally in the Villainous Friends extra and assumes that Song Lan avoiding touch = Song Lan thinking Xue Yang in particular is disgusting.

There’s of course the option of Xiao Xingchen (or someone else) also being a fierce corpse and Song Lan maybe helping out as the senior fierce corpse.

Wants/DNW/further musings:

I’m imagining either a (fix-it?) setting where they’re all alive/undead, or alternatively a more depressing version where Xiao Xingchen is a shattered soul in a bag, and fierce corpse maintenance could go hand in hand with soul fragment maintenance? I’m not picky.

I’d really like to see A-Qing here, with her and Song Lan platonically bonding. Maybe she’s part of the fix-it crew, or she is working together with Xue Yang and Song Lan to bring back Xiao Xingchen?

I’m not into explicit gore, but feel free to go grotesque with this if you want to!

I hope something here piqued your interest! Have fun creating <3

[waystobuild-blog]

Top 7 CN Shows That Would Work Better in Live Action than PPG

So I think everybody’s talked about why CW Powerpuff Girls doesn’t work, whether or not it’s a real thing or not? Who even knows. But while thinking about how this:

is kinda awful for Powerpuff Girls, I got thinking what shows that this style of a reboot would work for. In which it’s live action, the character is depressed and has sort of resentment towards their childhood now and that sort of thing. 

So what are the top 7 shows that I think this

Number 7:

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

At Number 7 we have Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Seems fitting that we’d start the list with another one of Craig McCracken’s biggest hits. Why do I think the premise of “Oh, life sucks now and I kinda wasted my childhood” would work for Foster’s? For the plain and simple fact that for a few episodes of the show, there was a focus on Mac growing up and whether or not he should leave his friends at Foster’s behind him. You could play a lot with that concept combined with the live action reboot thing. Maybe an older version of the character is dealing with whether or not to let go of both Bloo and the past and move on with his life. Frankie being a young adult during the time of the original show could also be a pretty instrumental character since it was a matter of living there, caring for the friends, having that job and balancing this life with the life that she had outside of the house.

Not quite a coming of age story but a sort of “Hey, my life has gone nowhere and where could I go with this now? Do I keep the friends I loved and cherished as a child or move onto other things? Is there a way to do both?”

Only thing I wouldn’t want though is CGI monstrosity friends. Those would be kinda the worst…

Number 6: 

Okay, let’s actually talk about a real superhero show this time around. Or would this count as a superhero show? Well, they certainly do a lot of cool time travelling so I’m gonna say it’s a superhero show. Of course, I mean Time Squad.

Now if you haven’t guessed, I don’t have the most experience with this show but I know enough to think that this is something that could actually work well. I mean, Otto was a kid who was basically running around all over history protecting the balance of time with a stuck up robot and a dude who is a little too into all of this. Imagine if he just sorta did this for all of his childhood and realizing as a young adult that “Crap, I didn’t really have a childhood.” With the dynamic of the squad, the potential to expand the greater organization as a whole and just all the time travel shenanigans that could happen, I don’t see a reason not to do it.

Plus, CW already has Legends of Tomorrow and that’s awesome so even less likely to screw it up if they’ve already got a model to do it off of right?

Number 5: 

The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

Yo ho ho, it is a sailor’s life for me. And in this sailor’s life we’re coming in with Number 5: The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Now this is a bit of an odd choice, right? But hear me out.

Flapjack as a child kinda had only Bubbie and K’nuckles as guides for his life. While they mostly spent their lives at Stormalong Harbor, they also constantly spent their lives looking for Candied Island. What if they never stopped looking and eventually, little kid Flapjack is a grown up now and he’s like “Oh wow. I wanted adventure but I was kinda manipulated to follow this creepy old man’s dreams of candy.” I think going heavy and hard on this sort of found family between them would be kinda fun. How K’nuckles wasn’t the best role model and how they’ve still only got each other in this world, that sort of thing.

Plus, a live action Stormalong would be sooooooo cool.

Number 4:

Ben 10

As the old saying goes, it started when an alien device did what it did, stuck itself upon his wrist with secrets that it hid, now he’s got superpowers he’s no ordinary kid, it’s Ben 10.

And unfortunately in CW’s Ben 10, he’s not a kid who just wants to have fun. Nah, he’s got a lot of emotional stuff to deal with and all of that depressing stuff. Isn’t it great? Now I do think that this could work especially if you work it in where maybe Ben enlisted into the plumbers after his summer vacation and it just kinda escalated from there to the point where here he is now.

Say what you will, but at least with Ben 10, we’ve seen it hit a more grounded and emotional place with Ben 10 Alien Force and Ultimate Alien so I don’t believe that this would be too far of a stretch with how that show worked and a lot of people happened to really like those iterations of the show.

Granted, I actually do want a CW styled Ben 10, but less edgy Arrow style and more along the lines of The Flash, but I’d still take this too.

And now before we get into the top 3, let’s get into a few honorable mentions.

First up, we’ve got Steven Universe. Now honestly, this could work really well, the only issue with that is that we’ve kinda already seen this story told and that was with Steven Universe Future. Good stuff and a lot of potential, but we’ve seen it and I don’t think we need to see it again with a live action coat of paint.

Next up there’s Codename Kids Next Door. Honestly, I think the only real spinoff we need for Kids Next Door is Galactic. That’s it. Anything else is unnecessary. Still, with this sort of concept an older KND who has been decommissioned and feels like there’s something missing in their lives that they just don’t understand would be really cool. Although maybe that would work as like a movie or special or somethin’ I don’t know.

And finally for the last of the honorable mentions we’ve got Teen Titans. While I am trying to keep this list to CN Originals, I couldn’t help but bring this one up. How Long is Forever is one of my all-time favorite episodes of the 2003 series so I think seeing a series taking place in that timeline or something similar would be a lot of fun maybe for like a miniseries or something. And honestly, anything’s better than Titans.

With those three out of the way, back to the list.

Number 3: 

The Life and Times of Juniper Lee

In a world full of monsters and demons, June is the only one who sees them. This is the Life and Times of Juniper Lee and it makes number three on my list.

Now, like Time Squad, I didn’t watch much of this show. But what I do know about this show is that June is cool and she’s got this whole legacy and destiny by being the newest Te Xaun Ze, which are basically the magical protectors of her town. Only problem, and why I think that this direction for this show would actually be kinda cool, is the whole thing that the Te Xaun Ze is never allowed to leave the town at any point in their lives and oh boy, you could actually go really hard on that with this format since it’s literally built into the show.

Juniper Lee all grown up and just straight up depressed because she’s got the cool powers and grabs all the monsters but everyone around her has moved on in their lives. Friends have gone off to college and started all their lives and she’s got nothing but her family in Orchid Bay. You’d have a story of someone who once was big on their destiny who has accepted it but wishes that it wasn’t theirs anymore. I do know the show dealt with this a bit but with a new continuity and an older version of the character you really could just go in and deep on this.

I stand by that this would actually be pretty cool and kinda want it. Honestly, I like this idea so much that I wasn’t sure whether to put this in the number three or the number two spot, but y’know what? The next show told me a little secret that gave it the edge.

Number 2: 

The Secret Saturdays

That’s right, it’s the Secret Saturdays. 

Zak Saturday went all around the world with his parents discovering ancient cryptids, protecting the world and everything. He got some cool siblings in Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon. And then to add on top of that that he’s also the reincarnation of an ancient cryptid set to rule and control all the cryptids in the world? Yeah, that’ll do it. Definitely not the type of life he asked for and kid went through a lot because of it especially after losing those powers and apparently getting them back if we’re to count the Omniverse crossover TGIS to be canon.

But having parents like Zak’s, everything with the community of Secret Scientists and not really having many friends his own age or well, his own species will do that.

Exploring Zak and maybe Argost coming back for powers he might not want anymore and learning to embrace his destiny while also trying to patch up the Saturday family would be awesome.

Number 1:

Dexter’s Laboratory

Now while I know we already have a live action Dexter and it was an incredible hit, I- Wait, not the same show.

Ahem, Dexter’s Laboratory makes the top of this list. Partially because of it being PPG’s sister series but also partially because of the whole thing of there’s a lot you could do with Dexter’s character in terms of depression. If someone with such a high intellect were to somehow lose it all or just in some way, never really got forward in life, that would do it. Dexter could be a type of character that’s too stuck inside his own head in order to move forward. Alternatively, maybe Dexter is highly successful but has found there’s something missing in life or something. I dunno.

But whichever way you decide to go with Dexter’s character, you could have Dee Dee be pretty much the opposite of that. Maybe she’s found herself a place in life that she’s content with and Dex doesn’t understand why but wants it. I think going deep on this sort of emotional aspect of his life while also having all sorts of fun crazy science stuff would be a good watch.

All in all, gimme a Dexter’s lab show but we gotta make sure he keeps some form of an accent. No accent is a dealbreaker.

Although, I think that at the end of the day, animation should really just stay animated and that we don’t need to go live action for anything. All of these ideas I’ve presented, I’d of course rather prefer as cartoons with a more balanced tone more than anything but I figured with the announcement of a PPG show, this would be a silly but fun idea to talk about rather than ranting about it like most have. Granted, I’ve got some rants of my own since I still think it’s a bad idea. Haha. But you know how it goes.

At any rate those are all the shows I think would make better CW PPG style reboots than CW PPG. When it comes to the edginess and potential for drama, I feel these shows fit the bill better than the innocent, buttkicking action that was the Powerpuff Girls.

But what do you all think? Do you have any shows in mind that I haven’t mentioned? Do you think I’ve opened Pandora’s Box and given The CW more awful ideas? 

Now, this was originally a YouTube video so you can probably see that in the way that this post, especially the ending was written, but I just still don’t really have the energy to edit stuff so have this post instead. It’s something I really wanted to discuss and just decided, hey, why not make it a Tumblr post?

[scrimmification]

taking a self care day and was instantly hit with temptation so u know what. here’s that dhurkemara essay. but it’ll be under a cut because i’m polite like that

the following is some canon facts sprinkled in with mostly my own headcanons and opinions. but i’m right about everything. cw for mentions of trauma and aa6 spoilers.

i should actually start this by saying that i see a lot of polycule dhurke/amara/jove or dhurke/amara/datz and while it is cute i feel a bit weird about using a poly relationship as just a “oh he has two hands” solution to love triangles. not that poly relationships aren’t valid, but it’s usually just people putting characters together without thinking about how the dynamic would even function. as if a polycule is a band-aid solution.

but that’s not important because this essay is about why dhurke and amara should just be friends (post SOJ)

i do not respect capcom or its canon, but here’s a bunch of canonical soj facts that are kinda fucked up;      - when nahyuta is born, amara is 19 and dhurke is 20      - when the palace fire breaks out, amara is 21 and dhurke is 22      - there’s a gap of approximately 8 years of time where dhurke thinks amara is dead before they reunite and have rayfa (they’re each around the age of 30 at the time)      - there’s a period of time anywhere from 9 months - 1 year that they’re living together again before rayfa and amara are both kidnapped      - following this, dhurke never sees his wife ever again

because i have extreme brainrot, i sat down and feasibly considered the amount of time they would’ve been together. like, genuinely face to face together. if you only take into account the numbers the game gives you, then that means out of 25 years of marriage, they only see each other for about 3 of them. i tend to tack on an extra year or so for dating, but that’s still a really short amount of time, with almost all of it being before the palace fire ever happened. not to mention, they married incredibly young, and amara is royalty. typically royal families will push for children to be wed as soon as they come of age. 

there’s also the fact that canonically, dhurke was not wealthy to any degree. he mentions in a throw away line having a bunch of weird odd jobs including both farmer and street performer (side note, street performer dhurke is hilarious). considering amara was basically hailed as a goddess by virtue of existing, i kind of doubt they were childhood friends or anything before that. my own hcs for how they met and got married initially tend to fall into a romeo and juliet style of mushy romance. plucky lawyer steals the heart of the queen with his humble charm and promises to whisk her away kind of thing. idk i do actually think they were very in love when they were younger, and maybe like... TOO in love, but my essay and thoughts tend to skew towards characterization through how the two of them grow through their traumas. so let’s just go in order of events here;

the palace fire

i do not care what capcom tries to tell me, dhurke has burns. if amara has a giant chest mark from being in the fire for a very short amount of time, dhurke would have full body burns from literally breaking into and out of a burning building. do you know how hot fire is? it’s fucking hot. it’s also genuinely terrifying. my point is i hc dhurke has some form of pyrophobia.

the years after the palace fire and before rayfa is born aren’t given much canon information, but it is stated that amara is convinced dhurke was out to kill her and willingly lives in the palace outside of the public eye. she’s convinced that dhurke is evil and was trying to kill her for at least twice as long as they were married. that kind of skews your perception of a person, no matter how much you might have once loved them. even if you STILL love them, it’s different. feelings change with time, and i think that’s a really fun thing to explore in fiction. 

the rescue/rayfa’s birth

so here’s where i add the drama. just sprinkle it in. there’s a very sneaky line in the game that they kind of slip in during dhurke’s recounting of events around the time rayfa was born, and i have not stopped thinking about it for 2 years.

so plot wise, when apollo presses dhurke about lying about amara being dead, he talks about how he (somehow) got a tip that amara was alive and still being held in the palace. he broke in to save her and potentially run away with her, datz, and and nahyuta into safety, but they add something else in there. dhurke has a moment where he says she didn’t initially believe his innocence. and it’s kind of just played as a joke.

but because i like conflict and i do not write dhurke the same hyper-toxic-masculine way they do in canon because i think Men Should Be Allowed To Have Feelings i thought. man that must fucking suck. everyone in the entire kingdom thinks he’s the devil, and the one person he’s been doing it all for the sake of - his wife - initially doubts his innocence. of course this is obviously an understandable response. she was basically trapped and gaslit for nearly a full decade over an event that nearly cost her her own life (and would have to instead come to terms with the fact her own sister wanted her dead) but like it still. it would still suck to hear that from your spouse?

they were together for under a year, and in this time rayfa was born. this is probably my favorite window of time to explore a dhurke and amara relationship adapting because they would be such different people now. time already effects how you personally grow and adapt, but the kind of horrors they went to would drastically change them both. neither of them would be the same kids they fell in love with, and dhurke had just shipped one of his kids to america in an attempt to protect him. he’d already be down bad, but to have to deal with that, his wife not fully trusting him, nahyuta not knowing their own mother and most likely not trusting her initially, and also an entire pregnancy... that’d be an incredible amount of stress, on top of the fact they’re both living under the law. 

(sidebar; because of how weird they had to twist the timeline to make it so apollo was gone before rayfa was born so they never met, i tend to headcanon this as dhurke trying to send both his kids to america to protect them, but not being able to initially send nahyuta because of their royalty status, and it quickly becoming too late.)

something else that confused me was why the hell they’d even have another kid while they’re both trying to save themselves, and that... uh. okay maybe this is an unpopular thing to say in terms of headcanon, but i actually believe rayfa was an accidental birth. like logistically, if you see your wife for the first time in almost a decade, you’re going to do Something. and you don’t have protection in the mountains. i’m just. i’m just saying.

but all of that being said, more than anything, i think they’d still be in love during this point. or more accurately, i think they’d be trying to convince themselves they’re still in love. they wouldn’t be the same people anymore, but the only thing dhurke has left is his family. it’s the thing he’s fighting for, and amara would have just been told she can’t go back to her sister for her own safety. there’s this kind of pressure to stay together for both themselves and their kids. there’s also a part where dhurke implies that the two of them were planning on trying to escape khura’in together and cross country lines before shit hits the fan.

turnabout revolution

so if you’re a coward who actually considers canon, after rayfa and amara get kidnapped, dhurke never sees them again. sure, he gets spirit channeled by amara in the final trial, but he never sees her face to face, or gets a chance to speak with her. if you’re like me and simply refuse to believe your favorite characters die, then that means there’s a 14 year gap between the next time dhurke and amara speak to each other.

what’s the first thing amara does when they see each other again? accuse him of murder.

in fairness, she’s under threat of blackmail to do so. she’s trying to protect both her children at this point, and clearly had a role to play in inga’s murder herself that she doesn’t want to admit to. but at the same time, when apollo reveals that dhurke was actively hiding evidence because he still loved her, she seemed genuinely surprised. this revelation is the thing that gets her to actually go against ga’ran’s plot. there’s also the obvious point of her picking her children’s safety over dhurke’s entire revolution, and what he’s been working on for her sake for most of his life. and honestly I thinks she made the right and most understandable choice. the real part that makes me think they wouldn’t get back together after the events of soj (provided dhurke isn’t an epic ghost guy) is,

amara chooses her own safety over dhurke’s, while dhurke chooses her safety over his own.

dhurke’s a very hopeful character, a very jovial one. throughout all his screen time, there’s no point where he genuinely thinks nahyuta has betrayed him. there’s no point where he thinks apollo isn’t capable of handling the case without him. he clearly cares a lot about his family, and would do anything for them. this includes amara. he’s not asked to hide evidence for her sake, he just does it. at the risk of undermining his entire revolution and destroying it entirely, he tries to hide evidence that’d implicate his wife of murder.

amara’s more of a realist. she doesn’t give up information until she absolutely has to. she doesn’t even admit to loving dhurke until the last moment she’s on screen. the only lines in the game she has as herself are during the trial, and half the time she’s just telling everyone how horrible and awful and terrible her husband was. and again, i must say, this would probably suck to hear.

the aftermath

the country is kind of a little fucked after soj. sure, it ends on a positive note, kind of, but there’s both a lot of political stuff to fix. and a lot of family stuff to fix. dhurke basically has to rebuild his relationship with every single one of his family members (and in rayfa’s case, from scratch). while I do think marriage is important and stuff, I don’t think it’d be... the most important.

what i’m saying is i think they’d be friends. even if they stayed married, they’d have to relearn almost everything about each other. they haven’t seen each other in forever, and also amara just threw dhurke under the bus. that’d sting! i think he’d forgive her for that, but it’d sting. knowing your partner would have willingly let you and your entire cause go up in flames sucks. it all sucks. soj is a very downer aa game.

and also i value m/f friendship a lot. i value older adult relationships a lot. i value exploring unfortunate and uncomfortable themes in learning to grow as a person and dealing with your own trauma a lot. i think there’s a lot to explore in characters like dhurke and amara. alot of people prefer thinking about the relationships between nahyuta and apollo and rayfa as siblings, which is great! but... i don’t know. i really like fictional dads. i like thinking about him getting more time with his kids. i like thinking about amara learning to become a person instead of a revered goddess. i like them becoming real people instead of just figureheads in a political war.

also i think dhurke and datz should kiss because they raised kids together in the mountains for 20 years

[hollenka99]

Whenever and Wherever

This is ridiculously late because I didn’t have much time to work on it thanks to irl stuff so sorry about that but happy (belated) birthday @bupine. Have some bench trio.

1.

2.

The first time their paths cross, it's in the tailor shop run by Tommy's family. Tommy seems to be manning the counter while his brothers and father are supposedly in the back. The customer is clearly an enderman hybrid if his facial features are anything to go off of. He's just here to order a suit for a new job as a stenographer for the mayor apparently. Ranboo lingers longer than he likely expected to when he walked in as the three of them make conversation together. Before their latest acquaintance heads off, they decide to meet up again outside of work hours.

Talking to Ranboo comes easy. Before too long, you could tell Ranboo's work schedule based on where he was found lingering. At the tailor's shop? Well, it was likely one of his days off and he wanted to keep Tommy company for a while as the owner's son worked. At the bakery? That usually meant Ranboo was on his lunch break and hoped to sneak something sweet into his midday meal. He occasionally buys a few flowers for Tommy with the excuse of 'livening up his workspace' and offers Tubbo his attempts at baking. Whenever possible, the three of them either made time during lunch or in the evening to hang out together.

Then Ranboo seems to realise he gets off work around about the same time the bakery owned by Tubbo's family closes for the night. That mixed with the fact he really isn't the best with anything kitchen related... Listen, Tubbo was simply being a good friend by helping him out. Plus, who wouldn't want to take advantage of an excuse to spend more time with one of their best friends? It becomes a... thing, their evening practice sessions. Tommy once comments on it during a lunchtime meet-up, only to tease them but it kind of hits Tubbo how often Ranboo swings by so they can bake together.

It becomes blatantly clear everyone knows what's going on between the two of them when they hang around at the back of the tailor's one afternoon.

"If one of you doesn't ask the other out, I will break into your homes, steal your clothes and alter them so they're unwearable. Then I will make you pay to have them fixed."

"We... We uh, aren't-" Ranboo begins defending.

Tommy glances up from his sewing machine as he switches it off. "Fucking hell, just kiss or something, I don't know. But please stop forcing me to watch the two of you make eyes at each other whenever we hang out. We haven't been 16 for years. Sort yourselves out or whatever."

So they clumsily arrange a 'date' and let things go from there. It goes... well. A second attempt to make sure the first wasn't a fluke wouldn't hurt, nor would a third. It soon gets to the point where this new dynamic feels entirely natural. Tubbo's only worry is that Tommy might feel like a third wheel. Their mutual friend assures them he doesn't care about that. Besides, they know him, if he was actually bothered by it, he would have complained a ton by now.

Getting engaged isn't a big affair. In fact, it is a complete mess that occurs on Ranboo's sofa following a lull in conversation. He trips over his words, segues into various rambley detours and eventually manages to get to the point where he asks the all important question. Tubbo knew his answer the moment he realised where his boyfriend was headed with the conversation.

"So Tommy," Tubbo leans over the counter. The way he very blatantly holds Ranboo's hand only causes his attempt at acting nonchalant to come close to failing. "How much for a couple of wedding suits?"

"You're not getting a friend discount. In fact, I think I'll double the typical asking price purely because you are my friends."

"I hate you, you know that, right?"

"Hmm, might even make it triple."

"I will personally uninvite you."

Tommy and Tubbo maintain straight-faced eye contact for all of five seconds before the taller of the two breaks into a grin. Before the new fiancees can react, Tommy has his arms around both of them, drawing them in closer.

"How could neither of you tell me you were looking at rings? Absolute crime, that, if you ask me. Especially since I'm obviously the bestest man around. Disgraceful, the both of you. How can you sleep at night knowing you left me out of the loop? Gonna have to quadruple the price as punishment."

An elbow to the ribs leads to a slightly pained inhale before the three of them descend into snickers.

3.

Is it bad that he forgot land-dwellers need air?

Tubbo had been watched the two of them from afar. The one with sand-coloured hair makes himself round as he falls a significant distance towards the water. After a few repeats of this odd practice, he decides he will greet the human when he next appears in his domain. Tubbo grabs him by the arms with a friendly smile but it doesn't seem the human is so keen to befriend any merfolk. In the struggle, he gets a weird appendage to the face. Not one to be easily put off, Tubbo swims to the surface in time to see the boy communicating angrily with one whose hair colour resembled those of a beast he's been warned about. He thinks he'll dub them Sand and Orca for simplicity.

Orca spots him watching their conversation and walks over, positioning himself close enough to include Tubbo in any discussions they may want to have with him but far enough that Tubbo couldn't physically reach either of the boys with his arms. Sand greatly disapproves of this supposed fraternising with the enemy. Orca keeps attempting to communicate but their languages are vastly different so all it amounts to are gestures. When they leave, Tubbo finds it funny how the one named after a deadly predator is the most willing to be friendly while the one whose namesake he loves lounging upon occasionally had a tendency to come off as hostile.

The pair of humans don't visit him everyday and even on the days they do, the position of the sun isn't always the same when they arrive. Nevertheless, they continue to come as often as they are able and Tubbo appreciates that. He can't replicate any of their human vocalisations and though they try, neither of the human boys are particularly great at whistling and chirping properly. The constant gesturing seems to be the only way for them to communicate but they somehow manage to become firm friends despite it all.

One thing Tubbo definitely understands is fish. He is perfectly capable of getting his own food and honestly prefers catching it live anyway but if they want to offer him a snack as a sign of friendship, he's hardly going to say no. There's always the option to share the food with his family later. He brings Sand his namesake as a way of thanking them. Even if he knew a good place to observe orcas so he could extend a similar gesture to his other friend, Orca apparently can't swim. At least, that's how Tubbo interpreted it when his friend once pointed to himself, motioned as if he was pulling himself forward in water and shook his head afterwards. So Sand is the only one who sometimes joins him in the shallower water. And Tubbo has learned from his mistakes now, he makes no attempts to keep Sand below the surface longer than the human boy can manage.

One day not long after they meet, Sand tries to tell him something he can sense is important. He gestures between himself and Orca, points to the sun and makes a wide circular motion with his finger, extends his arm so it rises above their heads then ends the message by pointing to the shore. It takes another round of reiterating before Tubbo begins to potentially understand. They will get big with the sun and be here? It sounds odd but he supposes he can't physically stop them from leaving.

The sea grows warmer and cooler then back again over and over. He visits their spot each time the temperature rises. They never come. Or maybe he just keeps missing them when they do show up. He's not sure. Either way, he gets older and grows into young adulthood as the years continue to pass. He hopes the same is happening to them. They did promise to return once they got bigger too, after all. Although, the thought he might have wildly misunderstood Sand's parting message isn't always easy to not dwell on.

His waiting finally pays off and he couldn't be more ecstatic. They've both grown weird shells on their backs that he feels would be ineffective at defending them, their feet are disproportionately longer and their faces are practically unrecognisable with protective shells around their eyes and mouths. They are much larger than the last time they all saw each other too. But it's them, it's really them! Not to mention them seem to have developed the ability to breathe underwater somehow. Unsure how to greet them properly after all this time, he rushes off to the seabed with a grin and presents them with a fish as well as a fistful of sand. They look between themselves before accepting the gifts gratefully.

As the sunlight wanes on the surface, the humans sit on their familiar secluded spot of a caved area while Tubbo lets the water lap around him. The human duo have suddenly lost their strange shells now, both on their backs and faces, as well as returned to having better proportioned feet. Orca offers his own reunion gift. If Tubbo were human, he might have made use of non-existent tear ducts to inadvertently express how moved he was by the object. Because oh wow, he was never able to communicate Orca's

4.

Tubbo knows what it is like to be displaced by war. He'd been born in a time of technical peacetime, though everyone knew this would change sooner rather than later with all the tension.

He's 9 when the war seems to decide it's time to directly come for him as the son of the president, more than the resource shortages or street violence ever could. An attempt to assassinate his father that he'd been too close to lands him in hospital. It's officially too dangerous for him to remain a symbol of how safe their country was. All those not old enough to potentially enlist get evacuated, Tubbo especially.

Snowchester is... alright. It's isolated and out of the way, which is probably for the best in the general scheme of things. But at his age, all he really cares about is making the most of the snow before the novelty wears off and questioning how long it will be before he can go home to his family again. The answer was less than a month and 'we don't know so you'll just have to sit tight. Okay?'. So he reluctantly settles into his new life. He makes an effort to get to know the handful of other kids from the village in the hopes of gaining at least one friend to help him through this, he wanders around the marketplace on Tuesdays to find the sweet highlight of his week and for the hell of it, he challenges himself to become a master snow sculptor. Tubbo also writes to home to let his family know how he's doing but it feels like it has to go through 50 hands just to reach them for the sake of maintaining his secrecy which really sucks. By the time he celebrates his first birthday without them there, he had given up on arguing about the risk of just ringing them.

Then when he's 11, men posing as sea merchants arrive on their frozen shores during the night. Before he's even fully woken up, he's on a horse in his goddamn pyjamas and clutching a pitiful bag filled with whatever he and foster father had managed to stuff into it in 2 seconds. He doesn't get to bid Snowchester a proper goodbye. They're already on a rowboat they'd kind of stolen after racing through the trees when reality finally begins dawning on him. The man who'd looked after him explains they were headed to a new place that would hopefully prove to be safer than his old home.

He's used to the cold of a tundra by now. This place is more landlocked than Snowchester but not everything can be on the coast. He guesses the isolation and lack of enemy reinforcements arriving directly at a village is a good way to decrease the risk of attack. He hates it here. Snowchester might have been a fair distance from other places but at least there had been a bunch of people around. This was literally one guy looking after two kids, now three, in the middle of actual nowhere.

Phil does his best to be accommodating, he will give him that. And the other boys he's living with aren't too bad half the time. But it's too much. He decides he'd rather keep to himself. Ranboo, like Phil, is a bit more patient with him than Tommy is. Ranboo is willing to play a chess game he has no chance of winning or solve the same jigsaw for the 5th time that week. Tommy, on the other hand, will talk at him or encourage him to go outside.

"If nothing dangerous happens, you have to... make me a hot chocolate. Yeah, that seems like a decent payment."

"Payment for what?"

"For getting you to stop sulking and enjoy the snow obviously."

He humours him but he makes sure his reluctance is unmistakeably evident. It turns out Tommy has excellent aim when it comes to throwing snowballs. When Tubbo complains about this, Tommy simply shrugs and reveals his brother is the commander of the army so what did he expect? It doesn't matter whether you're hunting for food or stopping the enemy from getting you first, precision and accuracy are important for survival. That's part of the wisdom Wilbur had bestowed upon him before going off to lead their side to victory anyway. Tommy then ends his speech by standing next to Tubbo in order to cram a previously concealed handful of snow down his back in a surprise attack. Tubbo swears he is going to work out how to dislodge half the roof's worth of snow on Tommy's head tomorrow for that. When they finally head back inside, Tommy lets him know he'd like his drink to include whipped cream and those tiny marshmallows if they still have some lying around.

In time, he learns Tommy had been sent far from home the same as he had. Logsted had been 'a tiny shithole with nothing on offer to do' that eventually fell prey to the same exploitable feature that Snowchester had. Phil had been an old contact of General Soot's so when the initial relocation efforts fell through, Tommy was sent to Phil. No big deal. Well... listen, Tommy can act like a prat at the best of times but he supposes it is nice knowing he's not the only one paranoid this will abruptly end terribly one night.

The days, weeks, months roll by swiftly. The three of them have snowball fights at least onc

5.

Technically, it's Tommy's fault they nearly die. He'd been so insistent on fighting the dragon like his father once had that Tubbo had lost the will to try dissuade him. To be fair, he was all for it. It was only that Tommy was eager to jump right into the challenge while Tubbo… would prefer to actually survive.

They agree it will be an 'in and out' affair. They'll sneak down to the nearby portal at night, kill the dragon and hop back to the Overworld before their absences are noticed. If their families are unaware, they will never get in trouble for this. It can be an epic tale to impress future acquaintances but one to keep to themselves within earshot of those who'd scold them for it.

So that's what they do. With diamond armour and arrows they 'borrowed', the pair of 15 year olds face the dragon. They've already assigned themselves roles with Tubbo being in charge of destroying the crystals and Tommy tackling the dragon as a distraction. The plan is to take on the beast together once Tubbo's initial objective is complete.

It goes to shit when Tubbo barely makes a water clutch after being pushed off a tower by the force of an exploding ender crystal. Tommy had tried to get closer to him to provide support but ended up getting caught in the dragon's toxic breath. And then one of them must have accidentally triggered hostile attention from the surrounding endermen. A perfect example of sod's law, everything that could go wrong seemingly does. They tire themselves out too much by trying to return to more neutral odds. It doesn't happen. The cherry on top was the dragon knocking Tubbo into a pillar with her wing.

He's definitely had enough of this bullshit by the time he lets the developing concussion steal his consciousness. Let them just respawn in the bed they'd set up right outside the stronghold's portal room so they can be done with this. He really doesn't want to lose a life, especially not to a stupid stunt like this. But by this point? Fuck it.

When he wakes, it is not on the ground. It seems to be in a building on some sort. Has someone taken him home to work through his injuries? Tommy couldn't have since the next time Tubbo sees him, he has a haphazardly constructed splint on his leg. They bicker about their disastrous exploits until Tommy grouchily alerts them to the presence of their host, a young looking enderman.

It passes them a written message and Tommy, being the son of someone who is pretty much a jack of all trades when it comes to learning about other cultures, has a go at reading it. It's nothing too elaborate, just a summary of what happened while Tubbo was unconscious. The End native had spotted their plight as Tommy continued to get bombarded by aggressive endermen and toxic fumes courtesy of the dragon. All it had done was bring them home and attempt to give them medical assistance. Now here they were. At the bottom is a word Tommy's never seen before.

"Dunno what the fuck a Ranboo is."

"Maybe it's his name, idiot. Look at where it is, it's a signature."

"Oh, yeah maybe. What kind of stupid name is Ranboo though?"

They can't go back without the dragon dying and neither of them are in a position to make a second attempt, especially at the start when they are still both recovering. With no way home, they resign themselves to their new reality of living permanently in the End. The least they can do, in Tubbo's opinion, is try their best to communicate with their host by learning enderspeak. That goes... very slowly. Even with Ranboo helping out and Tommy's head start, it's not the easiest thing for them to learn. The humans share some of their language with the enderman in return.

Either way, they start living in their new home as Ranboo's guests. Their diet becomes saturated with chorus fruit and the first time either of them accidentally teleports during a meal, it's a shock. Their new friend waits until Tommy's broken leg heals before occasionally showing them around the islands that make up this dimension. They visit an end city that happens to have a ship nearby at some point and Tubbo resists the urge to lightly smack Tommy at the back of the head for acting like he's not impressed. They may possibly never be able to go home but come on. there is a literal massive ship floating in the sky.

Phil comes for them as soon as it feels like they might finally be getting used to their new way of life. They get the scolding of a lifetime mixed in with Phil making his relief and worry painfully obvious. They introduce Phil to Ranboo and of course the guy is conversational in enderspeak. At one point, Tubbo catches Tommy making a jabbing motion towards his father with his thumb incredibly subtly before rolling his eyes. As deeply in trouble as they are, as much as they were settling into what they believed to be a more permanent life change, the promise of home fills Tubbo with anticipation. He can't wait for the four of them to return to the Overworld.

Because you're coming too,

+1.

He's never been so eager to go to an airport in his life. His mum half listens while concentrating on the road as he rambles about all the plans the three of them had started making for the upcoming two weeks. There were so many games on their list for them to try. And yes, he knows they won't be able to get around to them all but they'll be damned if don't make an effort to dent it. Oh and then also all the stuff that got picked on the spinning wheel from Ranboo's stream a while ago.

Tubbo is beside himself as they wait in the arrival meeting area. There's no word of delays so come on, get here already. Then there he is, wearing his signature sunglasses and mask in the midst of the emerging crowd. Once the pair are close enough to do so, Tubbo throws his arms around his friend. And god, he knew Ranboo was much taller but he doesn't feel he'll hear the end of this, especially not once Tommy shows up.

They've already established this in preparatory voice calls but as they head towards the car, Tubbo explains that Tommy isn't due until tomorrow. So maybe they could watch one of those Starkid shows tonight since Ranboo's internal sense of time will be screwed by the long journey and Tubbo's hardly the best at maintaining a circadian rhythm as it is. His parents and sisters will go to bed and that's when the party can really start. Ranboo suggests The Trail to Oregon purely because the scene where Slippery When Wet threatens to murder god lives rent free in his head. But it would ultimately be up to Tubbo when the time came tonight.

Just outside the car with Ranboo's luggage in the boot, he asks his mum to take a picture of the two of them. He dms it to the missing member of their trio with a smirk.

Tubbo: Bet you're so jealous right now

Tommy: No because he's going to hang out with me more after I get there

Tubbo: As if

Tubbo: Can't wait for this week

Tommy: Same

Tubbo: Ranboo says hi btw

Tommy: Wow cringe

Tommy: Can't go on call rn but I say hi too

Tubbo: Whos cringe now?

Tommy: Shut up

He and Ranboo spend the entire journey home chatting about everything and nothing. Oh, these next two weeks were going to be amazing. Tubbo can't wait.

Tubbo wakes slowly. He doesn't tend to be startled by Ranboo's lack of eyelids as often nowadays. They may not share a bed that frequently, separate homes and all that, but he's seen his husband crash on his sofa after an exhausting day enough times to gradually get used to it. Michael had managed to snuggle up between them at some point in the night too. The little zombie piglin boy is fast asleep as well. Tubbo readjusts his arm so it encompasses their adoptive son, drawing him closer slightly.

Distantly, he recalls he's planned to meet up with Tommy later and it makes him think. A husband who cares about him enough to make Tubbo one of people whose side he'd stand by if necessary, a son whom they both love and would defend with their lives and a best friend who still stuck by him despite how much they've changed in the several months since they first met. He'd like to think that regardless of the timeline or universe, he'd always have them or close enough copies.

Content with his situation, he lets his eyes slip close once more and drifts back to sleep.

[morihaus]

LATTIA QUESTIONS: what's she like at parties? did she have any childhood pets? what's her fashion sense like? who, if anyone, does she go to when she needs to get something off of her chest? what's the furthest from home she's traveled? does she write letters or keep correspondences with anyone? how's she feel about dragons?

what's she like at parties?

lattia is a child of the court of cyrodiil, raised in the imperial palace, and is so very well versed in etiquette. the very somber and formal alessian tradition of festivities sort of crystalized within her lifetime and she'd always hold herself proudly- after her coronation, she'd make a point of standing tall and still like a statue, moving gracefully and powerfully the way all the legends of alessia are written. i DO think she likes talking though and will take any excuse to, including starting arguments with people- it's not petty gossip if its coming from the voice of the emperor. she always enjoys having at least one moment where she leaves someone speechless one way or another

did she have any childhood pets?

maybe... maybe a falcon, or a horse, something noble.

what's her fashion sense like?

flowing silks, a ton of ornamentation- gold, pearls, gems- silks in the colors white and blue especially. she normally wears her long hair tied up in a bun, but still with a loose mane hanging below it in this weird pulled back look. decidedly royal tastes, robes that trail along the ground, a far cry from practical warrior-queen wear (favored by her mother)

who, if anyone, does she go to when she needs to get something off of her chest?

i think she grows more closed off as she grows older and more estranged from everyone else as she weaves her own mythology amidst her reign. as a child her mother wasn't around very often, leading the alessian order in a crusade against remnant ayleid states, so she'd mostly be tended by courtiers or priests- notably the prophet marukh himself was something of a familial figure for her, personally tutoring her the way he had for ami-el, but he passed away when she was 12. as emperor, i sort of envision her as being very like... much more secretive about the fact that she's a person. she had two like, "husbands", and had allies who she could speak to honestly, but even these relationships were arms-length. there's potential for some odd interesting dynamic between her and olaf one-eye too... though i think they were both kind of using the other politically

what's the furthest from home she's traveled?

i imagine the throat of the world was probably the farthest she went, geographically and like, yknow, spiritually. politically. blackwood might actually be further away in distance, i think she may have attended a wedding for one of her sons there

does she write letters or keep correspondences with anyone?

hmm yes i think she writes letters :) or maybe dictates them. i feel like organizing the alessian "coup" in skyrim necessitated some long distance communication between her and olaf, not to mention managing the rest of the empire. she DOES like to appear in person whenever she can... it's how she best shows off

how's she feel about dragons?

she's a firm follower of the one and recognizes the dragon akatosh as its greatest and truest face. she thinks dragons are powerful and awesome and thinks their power runs in her blood- some old semi true accounts of dragons probably wormed their way into alessian cyrodiil, sometimes becoming conflated w akatosh worship, painting tales of his domineering children as beautiful worthy kings of the world- and the paravanics are, of course, also his children. she absolutely met one dragon in paarthurnax and it was definitely a strange strange meeting that threw her for a loop. jurgen windcaller gets the rare distinction of being one of the people to see lattia gobsmacked

[sparkles-and-trash]

Craig and Those Guys, Headcanons Masterpost  ~

Craig Tucker 

Looks:

tall and gangly 

has really pretty, thick black hair, but is always wearing his chullo so he always has hat hair lol 

light blue/grey-ish eyes 

long face, defined jaw 

really smooth skin, which is odd since he has no routine what so ever 

casual style, lot’s of hoodies and those Adidas pants with the white stripe at the side? 

Personality:

he has a resting bitch face, but like, as a personality? 

like, when he’s not thinking about anything special or talking about something he cares about, he’ll just sorta tune out and look pissed and/or bored 

but he isn’t grumpy or careless 

just a little aloof lol 

cares a lot about his boyfriend, friends, family and pet(s) 

doesn’t always feel confident when showing it tho 

dorky, he loves space and his niche shows and likes tidying haha 

has the dorkiest laugh and is super embarrassed about it hehe 

Friendships:

isn’t that good with people tbh 

but he really values his friends, and enjoys spending time with them

will fight for his friends, hands down 

is weary around new people, like the the two boy gangs started to hang out a little more, he was the one who took the longest to open up and be chill with it 

likes seeing his friends having fun and being passionate, so he always tries to keep up with their interests etc

which sometimes surprises people 

but like I said, he is really a nice guy, he just has a rising bitch personality 

Family:

has a healthy and good family dynamic 

is kinda awkward with showing them affection tho 

his dad and him have a “slap each other on the back and huff” type of relationship 

but deep down they both know there’s a lot of love and acceptance there<3 

Laura is a cool mom, fight me 

not like, too cool, she has rules and is an authoritarian person 

but she is also funny and sees through her kids’ bullshit 

Tricia is really similar to Craig in a lot of ways

they stay out of each other’s way mostly, but sometimes hang out casually 

doesn’t really fight that much? 

Ships and relationships:

y’all know it, it’s always creek time around here

I usually see Craig as demiromatic gay 

he and Tweek totally have that best friends and lovers type of relationship 

like, not too lovey dovey, but sure as hell passionate at times 

Craig genuinely have so much fun with his bf man, he just wants to hang out with him all the time 

isn’t too creative when it comes to dates and stuff, but he really tries 

often gets help from Token and the others when it comes to it 

actually doesn’t mind PDA, at least chill PDA like handholding and kisses etc 

Token Black 

Looks:

pretty tall and broad, but not like, super fit, he’s just naturally like that 

around the start of high school he started growing his hair out a little, he keeps it in a short and manageable length 

he has very remarkable eyes, dark brown at the edges and they get almost golden by his pupils 

handsome, simply put haha

I would describe his style as preppy/casual? 

like, he dresses nicely, and likes looking sharp, but he isn’t a snob about it! 

I feel like he would look amazing in purple and wear it often! 

Personality:

always writing in a little notebook

loud, contagious laughter

big conscience, always tries to do the right thing

while his friends and classmates loves the perks of his wealth, Token himself feels bad about it a lot

he has a tendency to get a little down about the state of world and it’s unfairness 

he works with a lot of charities and is a volunteer and both the pet shelter, the homeless shelter and the children ward of the hospital, and he really, genuinely loves doing it 

Friendships:

very protective of his friends

because he volunteers a lot, he started running into Stan and Kenny at both the pet shelter and homeless shelter a lot, as Stan is a huge animal rights lover and Kenny genuinely likes helping both people and animals 

the three of them start becoming better friends because of this, eventually brining the two groups closer together 

he is one of the few people Craig will actually go to for relationship advice etc

which is kinda funny because Token is a casual dater all through High School

nothing wrong with that! and like, he still has great advice and is very good with people in general 

very good at making people feel included 

the mom friend 100%

comforts Clyde, keeps Jimmy’s antics under control, keeps Tweek from killing Cartman and helps Craig actually communicate dhslkfhb

Family:

has a good relationships with his parents! 

but feels like he has to live up to a certain level of expectations at times 

his dad is a bit old-fashioned in some senses, but he means well

and both his mom and dad loves him a lot and is super proud of what a wonderful person he is (so am I ilu Token you’re doing amazing sweetie)

Ships and relationships:

first of all, I think Token is bi! 

I like Tyde, but my OTP for him is Tokenny! 

I just really like the dynamic potential and think they would make each other the best versions of themselves? 

Token is great at being suave and charming in general and on first dates that’s casual, but if he already has a crush and/or feelings he is a mess

but like, a cute mess 

anyways, here’s a tiny Tokenny fluff one-shot I wrote a while back lol 

Tweek Tweak

Looks:

big, soft & fluffy hair

big, nervous looking eyes

either electric green or lively brown 

soft sweaters and big flannels 

sweater sleeves always covering his hands

pale, perfect skin 

soft freckles on his nose, shoulders and hands

crooked smile 

slight gap between his front teeth 

a little shorter Craig, slightly more defined much wise naturally 

Personality:

very confused

doesn’t know what day is it

has gotten a lot better at dealing with his anxiety, but still twitches a bit because of the meth coffee his parents had him drink as a kid

juMpY

very funny when he chills enough to be funny haha

has a kind heart, esp when it comes to people and animals in difficult situations 

he has so much compassion in his heart, man 

but also has a short fuse 

is pretty scary when he gets pissed 

will get into a physical fight

esp if anyone insults his friends 

which is why Cartman is terrified of him 

Friendships:

his friends makes him feel very lucky and grateful and he tries to make up for it a lot 

often bakes as a stress relief, which makes Clyde love him even more lol

is pretty good friends with Kenny 

he likes to just hang around people sometimes, doing nothing together, and Kenny enjoys that too, so they often do that 

Tweek loves these dudes a lot, but there’s always so much going on yanno 

good friends with Wendy! 

they share a lot of the same values 

he has a secret talent when it coms to drawing, only Clyde knows (by accident) 

always tries to include those who is a bit on the outside

Family:

complicated 

his parents have always taken a lot of advantage of him, let’s be real 

I often headcanon them selling out to Harbucks at some point, but they keep running the store 

but they have to hire more people and is under more surveillance now, so that saves Tweek a little

he still works there tho

so does Kenny 

honestly, Tweek avoids his parents as much as he can, there is a lot of resentment there 

he loves Craig’s family tho, and they love him back <3 

Ships and relationships:

yeah, Creek it is 

I also like Twenny tho, but creek is my OTP! 

I usually write Tweek as gay, but I’m open to other interpretations 

but he likes boys in any scenario to me 

often has his hands in Craig’s jacket pockets, or hands onto his arm, just likes being physically near him

Craig likes it too, so 

Tweek still struggles with sleeping, but always sleeps amazingly with Craig around :softeyes: 

blushes so hard when Craig manages to catch him off guard with compliments and soft stuff 

is pretty good at being romantic, and does really sweet stuff for birthdays and anniversaries and stuff! 

Jimmy Valmer

Looks:

thick mop of brown hair that’s purposely messy 

would never admit it but he spends time every morning making it that way 

light brown eyes that turns golden in the sun 

had braces for years, so now his teeth are very straight and white and perfect 

a few cute freckles on his face

actually pretty tall, but because of his crutches he slouches a bit so it doesn’t always show 

Personality:

has the best one-liners

living legend for having the record for both the best grades and highest number of detentions at once

can’t shut up in class

sarcastic lil’ shit

sometimes speaks before he thinks but never means harm 

good at seeing when he’s out of line and has no problem apologizing! 

on the fist day on freshman year the current quarterback (a huge senior) was being horrible to Butters so Jimmy simply smashed the guys toes with his crutch 

Friendships:

often takes on a comic relief role in groups 

him and Clyde have big “brooo” energy 

he is the best wingman 

very supportive of his friends, no matter their interest, he always tries to lear about it so he can be there for them and cheer them on! 

Jimmy and Stan bond over their interest in writing in an English class Freshman year 

whenever Stan has a bad day or week, Jimmy or Kyle is always the first two people to notice and do something because of that 

Family:

has a pretty superficial relationship with his parents 

nothing really bad in that sense, but it ain’t that deep 

doesn’t share too much of his private life with them, but if they ask he won’t lie either

because of his good grades and general intelligence they tend to be gullible with him, so he gets away with a lot  of shit 

Ships and relationships:

I usually think of him as pan! 

I see him dating around quite a bit in high school and college! 

hooks up quite a bit, but isn’t a fuckboy, he’s very upfront about what he wants and what he doesn’t

never wants anyone to get hurt

but doesn’t have the best attention span when it comes to dating lol 

falls hard when he does tho!! 

Clyde Donovan 

Looks:

looks like a chocolate Labrador that got turned into a human shdghsdg

soft, dark brown hair 

big, puppy like brown eyes 

medium tall? 

kinda soft, like, has soft features, chubby cheeks etc but isn’t fat 

isn’t ripped either, normal to slightly pudgy I would say! 

wears a lot of old, comfy jeans and hoodies, often red ones 

likes silly graphic t-shirts! 

Personality:

the guys who cries at parties

a real good guy, there’s no denying that

he and Token both cried while watching The Kissing Booth on Netflix, promising each other to always support who the other dates. They swore to never talk about it again

loves his friends SO MUCH

generally loves being around people, he is very extroverted! 

notices stuff others may overlook

both with people and scenery and stuff idk 

compassionate to a fault 

Friendships:

when Tweek and Craig started dating, Tweek was a bit nervous about being with the group and feeling like he took up too much space?

and Clyde noticed right away and made sure to really get to know him well and they became great friends, to Craig’s somewhat surprise

Clyde can be a little intense and Craig figured Tweek might find him too much, but it ended up being the opposite, they really enjoy each other’s friendship and their differences works well together

thinks of all of these dudes as his best friends! 

his first real crush was Bebe who turned out to be gay

they’re real good friends now but deep down he’s still a little heartbroken

but he values their friendship so much so he’s working through it!  

Family:

ohhh :((( 

sad hours offh 

is still very emotionally raw from his mothers’ death

blames himself very much 

his dad is really trying to bond with him tho 

and be a good dad

like I said on the main 5 post I like the AU/headcanon that Clyde’s dad and Cartman’s mom gets married 

in that scenario I think Clyde would be very resentful at first, feeling like his mom got replaced 

but Liane is kind and warm to him and he warms up to her eventually 

calls Cartman his brother 

actually really comes to care for him tho (it’s mutual but Cartman will never admit it) 

Ships and relationships:

bi disaster 

bad luck with love 

he falls fast and hard 

gets sooo happy when things work out! 

but sooo heartbroken when they end 

he has no problem getting the dates! 

but he gets nervous and a little too intense too fast 

loses his confidence fast, but his friends are always there to pick him up <3 

[nesta-stan]

Feyre signaling Nesta that she doesn’t want her apart of her life than she is mad when Nesta doesn’t want to be apart of her life

I feel like a lot of people don’t really try to understand Nesta’s perception of certain situations and her rational. WE know that Feyre loves and wants to spend time with her sister but Feyre doesn’t realize the signals she has given to nesta that say otherwise. Here I am going through how Nesta perceives things and her rational. If you just want to know my main points you can skip to the conclusion. I also put in a theory on how their relationship could evolve in the next book. 

I will start with a quote from the first book.

“I thought all you wanted was for us to get out of the house-to marry off me and Elain so you can have enough time to paint your glorious masterpieces.” -Nesta

I use this quote because its from Nesta so we get some insights on what her perception of the situation is which is that Feyre doesn’t actually want her around which Feyre confirms.

“Believe me, the day you want to marry someone worthy, I’ll march up to his house and hand you over.” -Feyre

Feyre never rescinded these comments and by the way Nesta talks about it seemed like it had been common knowledge to her for awhile. Feyre’s pushy behavior in trying to get her sister’s to hook up with Cassian and Lucien, to Nesta, because of this could be interpreted as Feyre trying to get rid of her instead of Feyre wanting them to find the same happiness she found with her mate. I think that all of people forget that in the cabin Feyre didn’t have the caring and compassionate attitude towards her sisters she does now. She loved them and cared for them but not emotionally. Feyre even says

 “Some days, I couldn’t tell which of us was the most wretched and bitter” 

Which shows that Feyre already had a pattern of aggression toward her sister as well. Maybe now it is different, but they had a pre-established dynamic that wasn’t just one sided. The story is just told through Feyre’s pov so we just know about how Nesta’s words hurt Feyre’s feelings not the other way around. 

One thing that got me upset when I first read Acomaf was the regression of Feyre and Nesta’s relationship. By the end of Acotar not only had Nesta gone to the border to look for her sister but they seemed to deepen their bond by having open conversation and engaging in recreational activities together like Feyre teaching Nesta how to paint but when we get to acomaf Nesta is back to being her bitter self. 

Then I realized, there are 8 MONTHS in between when feyre left and returned to see Nesta again. EIGHT MONTHS without a letter or a visit. Granted three of those were when she was stuck with Amerantha but during this time Nesta doesn’t know about that. Plus, that still leaves 6 MONTHS unaccounted for. When Feyre does come back it’s not to connect with her sisters, check up on them, see how they are doing, or even tell them what she has been doing. She only comes back to ask a favor of them. WE know through Feyre’s Pov that her about her depression and her reasonings for not contacting them but Nesta doesn’t. Knowing that Feyre vocally confirmed to Nesta at one point that she didn’t want her in her life it is fair to assume that Nesta thought that was the reason she didn’t try to contact her for HALF A YEAR because Feyre hasn’t really given her clues to believe otherwise. Considering this time gap Nesta’s revitalized bitterness towards her makes sense. 

Some people called Nesta a hypocrite when she was hurt by her lack of presence in Feyre’s house in acofas but in reality Nesta would not have been back in Feyre’s life if it wasn’t for the cauldron. 

When Feyre goes to ask why Nesta didn’t come to dinner she says 

“Elain wanted you there.” I wanted you there. Nesta shrugged. “She could have eaten with me here.” “You know Elain wouldn’t feel comfortable in a place like this.”

She never verbally expresses her desire to actually have a relationship with nesta. Nesta is even bating her to say it with her comment about Elain but instead of just telling her ‘I want you to be apart this with us’ it passes straight over Feyre’s head. 

“What will it take for you to come?” “For Elains sake or yours?” “Both” Another snort... “So you’re bribing me then?” I didn’t flinch. “I’m seeing if you are willing to be reasoned with. If there is a way to make it worth your while.”... “It’s not even our holiday. We don’t have holidays.”...”As I told Elain: you have your live lives, and I have mine.” Again, I cast a pointed glance to the tavern. “Why? WHy this instance on distancing yourself?” She settled back in her seat crossing her arms. “Why do I have to be a part of your merry little band?” “Because you’re my sister.”

-Acofas 116-118 (feel free to say if you feel like I cut out something important)

What Nesta is trying to establish is here is a boundary between her sisters and the inner circle. Personally, I understand this. Me and my own sister are only a year apart, we are close but we have no where near the same friend group and we both have friends from spanning back to elementary school. Which is why I find it so odd that Feyre almost demands that Feyre be a part of her group because she is her sister. Feyre pushes Nesta decide on whether she wants to stay alone or be a part of a group of people who for the most part don’t like her. Whether you think they are justified in disliking Nesta doesn’t change the fact that is what the situation is. In the excerpt at the end where it is stated

“so many of them portraits and depictions of them- her friends, her new family”

Again with the separation with the inner circle and Nesta. Nesta sees herself as being a part of Feyre’s old family. Which is suggestive that she feels discarded. Feyre gets upset that Nesta never wants to take the time to visit her but then she never takes the time to visit Nesta. Feyre uses the excuse that she doesn’t like hanging around Nesta’s favorite places to spend time but then never considers that nesta doesn’t like to spend time at her places. 

“She could barely stand to hear the crack and pop of the wood. Had barely been able to endure it in Feyre’s town house”

“Feyre told her during her first and only tour two months ago. She’d been half drunk at the time, and hated every second of it, every perfect happy room.”

The thing is, Feyre’s two homes are her safe spaces. Spaces for her and her family. She sees how open the rest of the inner circle sees them as second homes and expects it to be the same for Nesta but it isn’t and she doesn’t realize that. The inner circle finds Nesta’s apartment distasteful and just refuse to wrap their heads around why she would want to stay there but for her, I am going to let the quote say it

“This was her place. No servants, no eyes monitoring and judging every move, no company”

It honestly makes me sad that they refuse to recognize Nesta’s apartment as her safe space and are taking it away from her like its nothing.

Now let’s talk about Rhysand. This plays into the divide between the inner circle and Nesta. This is a quote from earlier in the tavern scene

“Is that mate of yours going to stand in the cold all night? I blinked, wondering if she’d somehow sensed the thoughts between us. “Who says he’s here?” Nesta snorted. “Where one goes, the other fallows.”

and now here is a quote from the excerpt.

They were pity offerings, some attempt to get her to be a part of their life, to be gainfully occupied. Done not because Rhysand particularly like her- and their conversations were coldly civil at best. 

 Here we can see that Nesta has no desire to have any type of save face friendship with Rhysand but Feyre practically forces them onto each other. With the former quote above this one it can be assumed that Feyre hasn’t taken the time to have a conversation without Rhysand. Hell, the one they did have alone in Acofas was being live broadcasted to him and Nesta knew it. It makes sense she would be uncomfortable talking to her sister openly if she knows all their conversations are either being spied on or relayed to someone who she knows dislikes her. Again. whether you think he is justified doesn’t change the fact that he dislikes her. This is about Nesta’s perception. 

Conclusion

Nesta and Feyre both have somewhat of a desire to have a relationship with each other but through Nesta’s perspective we see that Feyre has a history of discarding or trying to discard Nesta from her life and any attempts feyre makes to build a relationship with her can only be done on the condition that Nesta join a group of people who do not like her, borderline hate her, and that she can never meet Feyre on her own ground. Nesta must always tolerate the uncomfortable atmosphere she finds in Feyre’s safe space without ever expecting Feyre to inturn do the same. This is why she has in turn chosen to simply isolate herself from the situation. It is not because she doesn’t want to be a member of Feyre’s family, but that to do that Feyre has unintentionally made it so to be apart of her family Nesta in turn would have to be a part of Cassian’s, Amren’s, Mor’s, Azriel’s, and Rhysand’s family too. Plus, Feyre has been shown to be unreliable and illusive in her desire to have a relationship with Feyre. 

I believe that these two sister do have the potential of building a close bond but Feyre needs to work on building boundaries between her relationship between the inner circle and her relationship with Nesta. Feyre doesn’t have to choose one or the other. She just needs to learn how to make time for both separately. She also needs to be consistent and open with her sister. Feyre needs to be open and honest with Nesta about her feeling and about how hurt she was. 

I am not saying that Nesta doesn’t have her flaws or that she won’t equally have to put in the work to mend their relationship but implying that through Feyre contributes the current state of their relationship just as much.

Theory about Nesta and Feyra in the next book 

I can’t say for certain if this will happen but I recently saw a post saying how the next book might be a Snow Queen retelling. I reblogged it and responded with the different possibilities that opens with the next novel.  If you don’t know the story Kay (pronounced Kai) and Gerda are best childhood friends. At first I thought Nesta would get the role of Kay and Cassian the role of Gerda because it’s there love story but after looking over it I believe the role of Gerda will be split between all the people who love Nesta and want to save her from herself. Especially because frozen is about to sisters and that is based of the Snow queen as well. I also see SJM taking elements from the 2002 movie. The orginal story goes, when Kay is hit with the broken pieces from a cursed mirror in eyes and heart over the course of a year he becomes cold and cruel to his childhood friend. After an adventure to find him after he is kidnapped, Gerda looking almost dead. She fixes him by melting away the shards of glass in his heart with her tears. When they arrive home at last they realize that on the course of their journey they have grown from children to adults. Here are some quotes from that story that could relate to Nesta and her relationship with Feyre.

people said, “That boy will be very clever; he has a remarkable genius.” But it was the piece of glass in his eye, and the coldness in his heart, that made him act like this. He would even tease little Gerda, who loved him with all her heart.

Little Kay was quite blue with cold, indeed almost black, but he did not feel it; for the Snow Queen had kissed away the icy shiverings, and his heart was already a lump of ice. He dragged some sharp, flat pieces of ice to and fro, and placed them together in all kinds of positions, as if he wished to make something out of them; just as we try to form various figures with little tablets of wood which we call “a Chinese puzzle.” Kay’s fingers were very artistic; it was the icy game of reason at which he played, and in his eyes the figures were very remarkable, and of the highest importance; this opinion was owing to the piece of glass still sticking in his eye. He composed many complete figures, forming different words, but there was one word he never could manage to form, although he wished it very much. It was the word “Eternity.” The Snow Queen had said to him, “When you can find out this, you shall be your own master, and I will give you the whole world and a new pair of skates.” But he could not accomplish it.

Then little Gerda wept hot tears, which fell on his breast, and penetrated into his heart, and thawed the lump of ice, and washed away the little piece of glass which had stuck there. 

Then Kay burst into tears, and he wept so that the splinter of glass swam out of his eye. Then he recognized Gerda, and said, joyfully, “Gerda, dear little Gerda, where have you been all this time, and where have I been?” And he looked all around him, and said, “How cold it is, and how large and empty it all looks,” and he clung to Gerda, and she laughed and wept for joy. It was so pleasing to see them that the pieces of ice even danced about; and when they were tired and went to lie down, they formed themselves into the letters of the word which the Snow Queen had said he must find out before he could be his own master, and have the whole world and a pair of new skates. Then Gerda kissed his cheeks, and they became blooming; and she kissed his eyes, and they shone like her own; she kissed his hands and his feet, and then he became quite healthy and cheerful.

I don’t think the next book will be as literal is this but I do hope Feyre is going to truly open up to Nesta about all her feeling and about how much she truly cares for her sister and she will “Melt her heart of ice”. 

I have a lot more theories about how the snow queen stories will play into Nesta’s story in the next book but here are just my thoughts about Nesta and Feyre’s relationship. 

[bestworstcase]

👗💜🌈

ask game

👗- Favorite character outfit?

answered here but i will add that of the core cast i think i am most fond of lance’s look. it’s a crime that he didn’t get any wardrobe changes because gosh he deserved them, but on the flip side at least he got the most aesthetically pleasing outfit of the four mains 

💜- Characters you think should have interacted at all or more?

SURPRISING NO ONE i desperately wanted to see zhan tiri interact with her disciples, like, at all. it’s one of those on the one hand i’m disappointed it didn’t happen, on the other at least i have carte blanche to headcanon whatever i please without worrying about whether it’s ~canon compliant~ or not. but gosh can u imagine. we coulda had it all

i’m also extremely sad we never got to see sugracha and tromus working together kjsfjkdfsjklfdsj i want! demon shenanigans

i would also have liked to see more 1-on-1 interaction between lance and cass, and lance and rapunzel. i think lance and cass could be a brotp for the ages and it would be really nice to see rapunzel and lance get to bond some more vs just sort of mutually being friendly via their relationships with eugene. 

i think “varian and the members of the brotherhood should have interacted more” is something like, 95% of the fandom agrees with haha but it’s true. even if they didn’t have the DK connection and the potential for varian to learn more about his heritage through them, they’re all such quirky personalities that it would be a blast to see them working together or just hanging out. 

more time between lance and the girls? i love that he adopted kiera and catalina in the end but at the same time, there’s way more screen time with them and eugene/raps than there is with them and lance and that makes me :( because i would have liked to see more family bonding between them and lance. 

and more arianna interacting with...anyone, including rapunzel. i love way of the willow and i loved that glimpse it gave us into the family dynamics on ari’s side of the family and i just... i wish we got more of that sort of thing! 

and i know cass spends like the majority of her screen time in s3 interacting with zhan tiri but i wanted... more... gkjdjfks honestly not even for character development purposes! i just liked the energy they had, whether they were working together or at odds! their interactions were far and away the highlight of s3 and whenever they weren’t around i was kinda like... man i wonder what they’re up to now. lmao

🌈- Best moment in the entire series?

ok you know the part at the end of race to the spire when rapunzel is like :( and trying to pick herself up after bungling the mind trap / calliope rescue and zhan tiri rolls in to gloat at her? I LOVE THAT MOMENT 

s3 was sort of funny in that i started writing zhan tiri prior to s3 beginning to air, developed a characterization for her that ended up being... rather significantly different from canon, but there’s still these little moments of congruity between the two that just. made me so happy whenever they came up in canon and that little gloat session at the end of RTTS is one of them. it’s so petty and dramatic and zhan tiri even does the thing she does in bitter snow where she doesn’t quite introduce herself; she just describes herself and goads rapunzel into saying her name. which is a little thing, but it’s such a nasty petty little power move and i’m so happy that it showed up in canon. and the speech itself is just [chef’s kiss] mwah.

RTTS is my favorite s3 episode in general because it’s just raw unfiltered chaos and zhan tiri has so much FUN in it and frankly i think she deserves that! and i deserve that, because it entertains me! but god her monologue at the end makes me feral. i love gremlin baby

other standout moments include: 

- zhan tiri mocking cass for her terrible/ineffective redemption attempt in once a handmaiden 

- “oh, cassandra, have you learnt nothing from me? no matter how formidable an obstacle may appear, everything has a weakness... and i have a gift for finding it!” and then she puLLS OUT A VIAL OF ACID SHE PICKED UP IN THE DEMANITUS CHAMBER HOURS AGO AND MELTS A HOLE IN THE FLOOR VDSALJBSDF

- gay baby jail in general. good job cass ⭐ You Tried  

- the bit in painter’s block where sugracha sort of melts back down into her human form to talk to rapunzel? i just love the fluidity of that animation, and the little pop of sparks that come off her when the transformation finishes. is good

- “SORRY YA BLEW IT BUT IT WASN’T MY FAULT!” god bless

- crossing the line in its entirety 

- gremlin baby actually getting the drops. pouncing on cassandra’s head like an enraged feral cat; the face journey when she picks up the sundrop; the spin. big dumb monster!zhan tiri wishes she had even half that energy,

- the QFAD and LAF exposition/lore sequences. that simplified animation style is sooooo good and also. zhan tiri :D

- jennifer veal’s voice acting in general my god she did not have to go as hard as she did but she did and i’m so grateful. it’s not a singular moment but the gradual shift from saccharine and childlike in RR to lower and more of a frustrated or scolding edge in like beginnings/BVA to the harsher/rougher and not at all childlike sound after she gets out... god. thank u for your service ms veal 

[drifting-mindspace]

Things we deserved to get from the Naruto manga and anime that we never got -

• JONIN NARUTO -

We followed him around as the lovable Genin knucklehead. Now it goes without saying that him being a Jonin is just a rank and honestly doesnt mean much. Rescuing Gaara, going after Kakuzo, Mount Miyaboku were all A & S-rank missions.

But I would liked to have seen him doing missions post war in a slightly more mature yet typically knuckleheaded manner instead of the passing phrase he made tonShikamaru about being too busy doing missions for the next 6 months.

We grew up with Naruto and now that he's older and stronger we dont get to see him in action.

• A Happily Married Kakashi & Shizune- 

Hatake Kakashi has led a deeply traumatic life. His mother died when he was very young, his father committed suicide when he was 6 causing him to distance himself from everyone around him. The first person he opened up to and formed a bond with died moments later protecting him, the girl he deeply cared for and probably harbored feelings for which he was too afraid to confront died at his hands as he desperately tried to protect her, a year later his sensei died protecting the village. When he became a sensei to Team 7 he felt he was on a path to finding inner peace by ensuring these children avoid his traumas but his prized pupil went rogue shattering that hope. After all this I’d hoped he would’ve finally found a happy ending.

Why Shizune? Well I considered him and Kurenai getting together and him helping raise Mirai but Shizune has always felt like the only Kunoichi in Konoha who has her shit together. She is perfectly at peace with where she is in life. She is incredibly mature and level headed as she helps run the village with Tsunade. Someone who is at peace with herself and her aspirations is the perfect anchor for a man with a whirpool of trauma brewing in him.

Alas it seems like the showrunners have no intention of a romantic arc for Kakashi and the Hatake name will die with Kakashi.

• The Uzumaki Clan

Within a span of 3 months Naruto meets 3 Uzumaki clan members. Nagato, Karin and his own mother. While speaking with Kushina he finds out about the dark fate of the Uzumaki clan. How they were blessed with unimaginably high chakra reserves and were gifted in Sealing Jutsus, longevity and how it led to them being targeted by those who feared them leading to their village being wiped out and scattered across the shinobi world.

Instead of turning the Naruto saga into the Uchiha Chronicles Id have preferred a deep dive into the Uzumaki clan. Maybe even have a Sasuke-like venegeful figure who wants Konoha to suffer because they failed to provide aid to the village they called their strong allies in their greatest hour of need.

Like Sasuke this villain would’ve witnessed his fellow clansmen cut down, unlike Sasuke however he wouldn’t have had the likes of Naruto, Itachi or Kakashi to anchor him in the light leaving room for redemption.

This could have been the one villain that was so far gone in his pain and hatred that no amount of 'talk no jutsu' could have changed his mind and would've pushed Naruto to the very brink until he finally had to choose between killing his clansman or protecting his village.

Naruto would make the ultimate sacrifice for Konoha and this would all the more set his resolve to pulling Sasuke back from the darkness or dying with him.

An Uzumaki villain gifted in Fuijutsu and the use of the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai, the Adamantine Chains along with massive chakra reserves would be the perfect power scaled villain for Post Pain Arc Naruto.

Instead we got Uchiha chronicles where everyone did whatever the fuck they thought of doing and chakra limits were all but history. This one really disappointed me. Which brings me to my next disappointment.

• Naruto Killing a Villain

Now I know it seems like an odd hang up. Naruto? Kill? But he is so fixated on redemption. That is exactly why I wanted this to happen. The series has gone out of its way to make sure Naruto hasn’t killed a character. The worst of it was against Kakuzu. The kind of attack unleashed upon Kakuzu SHOULD by all means have killed him. Yet somehow he was left in a ‘dying state’ and Kakashi was the one who did the deed. 

Naruto being forced to kill a villain as a last resort and making a choice between saving someone dear to him or tainting his hands with blood was the ultimate moral conundrum for a shinobi whose biggest goal was rescuing his best friend from the dark. It would take him back to Itachi’s words where he asked Naruto what he would if Sasuke decided to destroy the village.

Instead we saw Rasen Shuriken and Rasengan getting scaled down to a point where they always injure and opponent but not kill him. For an S-rank jutsu, Rasen Shuriken happens to be quite lenient.

• Neji beoming the head of the Hyuuga Clan

This pisses me off the most. Neji was supposed to be to the Hyuuga was Naruto was to Konoha. I always expected Neji to overcome all the obstacles and get recognized by Hiashin who would then redeem himself and disband the branch system once and for all. Hiashin as a character was never redeemed. Here was a man who let his brother get executed to avoid punishment (albeit he was against it but it did happen), constantly abused his kind daughter and belittled her for being too soft and put her down to a point her personality was underdeveloped and she had deep seethed confidence issues.

Disbanding the branch system and making Neji the leader would redeem him in the eyes of the readers/ viewers and would clean up the Hyuuga clan.

Instead Neji was scrapped aside to give Naruto and Hinata a bonding moment. They had a bonding moment, it was when she almost died saving his life. Neji didn’t have to die for them to get together ffs. What a wasted potential.

• NaruSaku

Now I’m not a fanatic shipper. In fact when I read and watched the original series I absolutely HATED Sakura. My hatred for her reached it’s peak during the Zabuza arc when Naruto ran at the S-rank villain, got kicked away and got up to show he went in for his forehead protector. “What do you think you’re doing Naruto? Even Sasuke-kun wasn’t a match for him.” I just wanted Naruto to turn around and tell her to stfu in that moment. As the series approached the time skip I was well and truly content with NaruHina.

But Shippuden changed things. The hints towards Sakura’s changed feelings were sprinkled all over the series. One moment that stands out for me was the Clone Training arc where Sai tests her by abusing Naruto and she goes on a rage rant about how great he is. Let’s not forget that in her darkest hour, as she saw a ruined and destroyed village the only person she thought of and cried out to was Naruto. Not because she felt he could save the village (she was as shocked as Shikamaru as she found out he was facing pain alone) but because when things when bad for her the only person who she felt comfort around was indeed Naruto and that is indisputable.

She goes as far as ruining her friendship with Naruto, a bond she truly cherished as it was all she had left after Sasuke abandoned the village, and confessed her feelings to manipulate him. Yes manipulative, scheming and downright a bitch of a thing to do. But it was all she could think of to make Naruto stop chasing after Sasuke. She, more than anyone wanted to see Naruto become a Hokage and realize his dreams and dying while rescuing Sasuke was a risk she couldn’t take and she decided she’d have him hate her than die. Wrong yes. But oddly noble.

This combined with all the blatant attempts to establish her being like Kushina and Kushina saying she wants Naruto to find someone like her changed my mind from NaruHina. I still adore Hinata. She is a wonderful character. But organic plot progression is far more important to me than my ships being canon.

A Naruto-Sakura family would’ve been incredibly entertaining and the dynamics would be perfect. We’d see a Minato-Kushina couple on screen for the next series. Which brings me to my next disappointment.

•HinaShino

I don’t know if that’s the official name for the pairing but I always felt these 2 would make a great couple.They are both people of a few words and are both incredibly intuitive and understanding individuals. Shino would accept Hinata for who she was and vice versa. Being with someone who was happy with the person they were would go miles in helping them come out of their shells.

Altho this isn’t a massive disappointment for me. I’m happy that Hinata ended up with Naruto. But like I said organic plot progression matters to me and if Naruto ended up with Sakura I’d prefer Hinata to end up with Shino.

•Hiraishin No Jutsu

Sadly as the series progressed Naruto had become so OP that not letting him master his father’s improved version of Tobirama’s jutsu was a great decision. It would’ve just made him senselessly OP. 

However instead of giving him all those God Tier power ups which he just gains in single training sessions I’d have preferred him working hard to master the Hirashin. Instead of sending him off to an island and treating him like a fucking idiot and asking him to survey animals I’d have preferred if Tsunade gave him an impossible task.

“You can’t fight in the battle. But I will only allow it if you can master your father’s jutsu.”

It was a period of 6 months between Danzo’s death and the start of the shinobi war. Ample time to show him training hard to learn a jutsu that for once required him to study. Hiraishin deals not just in physical acts of speed but also mastering seals.  Seeing his friends go off to fight in the war as he was left behind would have only added to his frustration and motivated him more.

Showing Naruto training hard like they showed him training for Rasen Shuriken would’ve only made us cheer all the more harder when he’d make a badass entry on the battle field as Tobi came close to killing Kakashi and a three pronged Kunai swished between the two, an orange flash appeared and Naruto kicked Tobi away.

Sadly this was swapped for Pokemon evolutions where arc after arc Naruto levels up just like that. The show’s entire premise was based on hard work and guts.

Sasuke was the genius who gained his power through natural ability. Sure he trained hard but his strength came to him with ease. Naruto had to slog. He manged to make the Rasengan after nearly 15 episodes of training and even then he had to get stabbed to be able to use it. It wasn’t until another 10 episodes that he properly used it. His training for the Rasenshuriken took an entire season to yield results and even then he didn’t learn to throw it until he trained for another 3 seasons till the Pain arc.

Post pain all this is tossed aside. He sits at the waterfall twice and beats the darkness. He sits in the room once and tames Kurama. Later Kakashi and Guy are in trouble, he has an inner dialogue with Kurama and suddenly he mastered the two man team with no prior training. Rikkodu Sennin touches him once and suddenly he’s learnt how to grow eyes, stop death and fly just like that.

The series stopped being the Naruto series we grew up with post Danzo and it saddens me.

• Naruto Sensei - 

And finally my last and greatest disappointment of all. Not seeing Naruto as a sensei. We’ve seen glimpses of his nurturing side in his interactions with Konohamaru but I’d have loved to have seen 40-50 episodes of him leading his own squad of genins. A perfect combination of Kakashi and Guy as he’d wow them with his brilliance and equally embarrass them in day to day interactions with his goofy tomfoolery. His genins would be in awe of him. Naruto Sensei - the hero of the war. 

His students could have an arrogant son/daughter of a feudal lord who insisted he be trained by the war hero, Naruto and Kakashi had to cave in for diplomatic reasons. Naruto refuses to take anyone who doesn’t work hard to get where they are but after the bell test sees potential in the child. A child with no ninja background. His parents were farmers outside of Konoha who were very poor. His sole aim is to be a ninja so strong that he’s always assigned big missions that will help him ease his family’s financial burdens. A genin from the Inuzuka clan (or any other clan, maybe even Hanabi if the show wanted to push more Naruto-Hinata interactions) who thinks he’s better than the other 2 because of his family background but is taught humility by Naruto.

Sadly another development in Naruto’s life we were denied.

Well that’s my rant essay. I know a lot of people won’t agree with what I had to say but I wanted to get it off my best anyway. Why? 

Because I wanted to dattebayo!