#they took a joke villain and made him scary

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

Have seen Across the Spiderverse and I now want to just wrap Miles Morales up in a blanket and prevent anything bad from happening to him ever.

[musclesandhammering]

The only person in this entire movie who didn’t get done dirty was Heimdall and to this day that still amazes me

This is about the moment I regretted paying to see this movie: 

This the moment I wanted to strangle the director for putting Jane’s ENTIRE EXSISTANCE smothered into one line: (Also, what have they DoNE to Loki’s hair? We JOKE about him being a Greasy Boi because we all KNOW it’s not true) 

This the moment I realized the movie was not going to take Loki seriously: 

And this is about the same moment I realized that for Thor:

Or treat Hela as anything other than Ms. Exposition and E v i l: 

Literally the only one who took this film seriously was Heimdall. 

Because I very much did not. 

[simplygojo]

GhostFace Ep. 1 - Toji

Author's Note: Happy first episode of the GhostFace series and happy Kinktober!! I have been super sick for the past week and a bit so I am SUPER behind schedule, due to that, I will continue to write the Kinktober requests into early November and will be accepting requests until October 31st! Tysm for all the kind words from my moots you guys are too kind ily so much.

I am only accepting requests from my Kinktober Prompt List, thank you <33

Pairing: Toji Fushiuro x f!reader

Kinks: Knife Play & Choking

Word Count: 2.7K

Kinktober Taglist: @megumisdivinedogs; @nanamisrighthand; @simplyyyuji

Warnings: 18+ SMUT, MDNI, knife play, oral, nicknames (princess & sweetheart), choking, aggressive sex.

You hadn’t thought he’d actually do it. When you teasingly mentioned how sexy Toji would look in a Ghostface mask, you didn’t expect him to run with it. 

It was just a joke—a playful comment made while watching a horror movie together. 

You’d nudged him, saying that if anyone could pull off being the villain, it’d be him, with that dangerous edge in his grin. He just shook off your comment and muttered something about costumes being stupid.

But it wasn’t surprising—Toji wasn’t exactly the type to indulge in things like that. 

Besides, work had been taking up most of his nights recently, the kind of “side jobs” that didn’t allow for much downtime.

You’d gotten used to him coming home late, hours after you’d gone to bed, smelling like sweat and danger.

Tonight was supposed to be another one of those nights. He’d left earlier in the afternoon, throwing on that usual half-smirk as he kissed you goodbye and told you not to wait up. 

You had settled in for a quiet evening alone, already anticipating the soft sound of the door opening in the early morning when he’d return.

But tonight, something felt off. 

The lights in your house flickered out with an unsettling finality, casting everything in darkness. You grabbed your phone, illuminating the path as you stepped cautiously out of your bedroom.

“Toji?” you called, your voice echoing eerily in the silent house. No response.

There was a faint creak, and your heart skipped a beat. It had to be Toji. Right?

Just as you turned the corner into the hallway, you saw him.

He was leaning casually against the far wall, a tall, imposing figure cloaked in black, the stark white of a Ghostface mask glowing ominously in the dim light from your phone. 

The shape of a knife glinted in his hand, and he stood there motionless, letting you absorb the sight of him.

Your breath caught in your throat, and your heart started pounding. Even though you knew it had to be Toji, the way he stared at you through the mask sent a rush of fear coursing through you.

He tilted his head slightly like he was considering you. Then, in a distorted voice from behind the mask, he spoke.

“So…” He paused, and the mask tilted as it stared at you, “do you like scary movies?”

Your grip tightened on your phone, fingers trembling, but not from fear. A surge of something else entirely coursed through you—an intoxicating mix of adrenaline and heat. 

Without thinking, your thighs squeezed together, your body’s instinctive reaction to the dark, dangerous energy radiating from him.

The way he was playing into it—it was fucking hot.

“Toji…” You whispered, but your voice faltered as he stepped forward, slow and deliberate.

He slowly took a step forward, towering over you, the knife twirling between his fingers. 

“I asked you a question,” he repeated, his tone still distorted, that same low growl sending shivers down your spine. “Do you like scary movies, princess?”

You swallowed hard, your back pressing against the nearest wall as he closed the distance. Even though you knew it was him, there was something primal about the fear creeping up your body—a kind of fear that tangled itself with arousal. 

Your thighs clenched instinctively, heat building low in your belly despite the cold edge of danger he exuded.

“Yeah… I like ‘em,” you managed, your voice barely above a whisper, pulse racing in your throat.

“Good,” he murmured darkly, his masked face now inches from yours. “Because tonight, you’re gunna be the star.”

Before you could react, he grabbed your wrist with a bruising grip, pushing you even harder against the wall behind you. He pressed the cold blade of the knife pressed teasingly against your throat, making your breath hitch. 

Even though you knew it wasn’t real, the sharpness of the metal sent a thrill through your body that left you trembling.

“You’re shaking,” he observed, amusement lacing his words. 

“What’s the matter, baby? Didn’t you say I’d look good like this?”

A shudder ran down your spine, your heartbeat pounding in your ears as his gloved hand trailed down your side, the contrast of his roughness against your skin making you burn.

The pressure of the knife eased slightly, allowing you to swallow, though your breath remained ragged. He leaned closer, the distorted sound of his voice right against your ear.

“Tell me…” he growled, his fingers skimming over the waistband of your pj shorts, teasing. 

“Do I scare you?” He grabbed your other wrist, holding it tight in one large hand above your head.

Your breath came out in short, trembling bursts, but it wasn’t fear that held you captive—it was the raw power, the dominance he exuded, that made you weak in the knees.

The blade slid down your chest down to your waist, the tip grazing over the soft fabric of your shorts. The metal was cold, sending shivers through you as he teased the waistband with it.

“Answer me,” he growled again, the impatience in his voice sending a new wave of heat pooling between your thighs.

“Yes,” you whispered, your lips barely moving. “But I…I like it.”

A dark, predatory chuckle escaped from behind the mask. 

“I knew you liked it, it makes ya so desperate for me.” His grip on your wrists tightened, and with a deliberate, practiced motion, he slid the blade beneath the waistband of your shorts. 

You felt the fabric give way, the sharp edge slicing through effortlessly.

In an instant, your shorts were slashed away, the cool air hitting your bare skin as they fell to the floor. You were completely exposed to him now, your body trembling under his control.

His gloved hand pushed your hair aside, lips brushing the back of your neck as he whispered, “I’m gonna take my time with you.” 

Toji removed his hands from your wrists and slowly tilted the mask up so you could finally see the dark, desperate look in his eyes. 

He slowly traced your curves as he made his way down your body, his big hands gripping your thighs roughly the handle of the knife pressed firmly against your thigh.

A low, dark chuckle escaped his lips as he spread you open, his gaze fixed on your glistening folds, and you could feel your pulse quicken in anticipation.

“Fuck… you’re dripping for me already,” he muttered, his voice distorted through the mask, the sound sending a wave of heat rushing through you. 

Toji’s lips brushed against the inside of your thighs, a teasing, featherlight touch that made you gasp, your body arching toward him instinctively. 

His hands gripped you tighter, holding you still, keeping you in place as he took his time, trailing wet kisses along your sensitive skin. Each press of his lips was deliberate, slow, drawing out your anticipation until it was almost unbearable.

The first flick of his tongue against your clit sent a jolt through your body, a strangled moan escaping your lips. 

Toji didn’t relent. His mouth moved with calculated precision, his tongue swirling over your slick folds, lapping up your arousal as if he were starving for it. He was methodical, dragging his tongue from your entrance to your swollen clit in slow, torturous strokes, and you could feel every flick, every circle he traced.

Your hands clawed at the wall behind you, searching for something to anchor yourself to, but there was nothing. You were at his mercy, your body completely exposed to him as he worked you with his mouth.

“Mhf, Toji…” You whimpered, your legs shaking as you struggled to stay upright, the pleasure building inside you too intense to handle. But he wasn’t going to let you go that easily. His strong hands gripped your thighs harder, holding you in place as he buried his face between your legs, circling your clit with agonizing precision.

He moaned against you, the vibration making your body convulse in pleasure, your hips bucking against his mouth. 

His lips wrapped around your clit, sucking it gently, and your vision blurred, the overwhelming heat coiling tighter and tighter in your core. 

The sounds of him devouring you echoed in your ears, mixing with your ragged breaths and the filthy moans that were slipping past your lips. 

Toji pulled back slightly, his lips grazing your entrance as he spoke, his breath hot against your slick skin. “Scream a little louder for me, c’mon princess.”

Before you could respond, his mouth was on you again, his tongue sliding inside you, thrusting in and out in a rhythm that matched the frantic beating of your heart. 

Every movement of his tongue sent a shockwave through your body, your hips grinding against his face as you chased the release building inside you and a pornographic moan escaped your lips. 

He groaned lowly against your core, the sound sending vibrations through you, making you cry out his name as you fell deeper into the pleasure.

Your hands found their way to his hair, gripping tightly as he devoured you with a reckless pace. 

Toji’s lips moved faster, his tongue expertly swirling over your clit, and it was all too much. Your body tensed, the coil inside you snapping as a wave of ecstasy crashed over you, your moans spilling out uncontrollably as your orgasm washed through you.

Toji didn’t stop, his tongue continuing to work you through the aftershocks, drawing out your pleasure until you were a trembling, moaning mess in his hands. 

Finally, he pulled away, his lips slick with your arousal as he looked up at you, the Ghostface mask still on top of his head, his eyes dark with lust.

“You look so fucking good like this,” he rasped, his voice thick with desire. “And we’re just getting started.”

He stood up slowly, his towering presence engulfing you as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand. 

Without hesitation, his mouth was on yours, hot and hungry, tasting of you as his tongue claimed your mouth. The taste of your own arousal on his lips only deepened the heat coursing through your body, your hands fisting into his shirt as you kissed him back desperately. 

The kiss was all-consuming, teeth clashing, tongues battling for dominance, each second stoking the fire burning between you.

His hand found your throat, fingers wrapping around it with a firm, possessive grip, cutting off just enough of your air to make your head spin. 

Toji’s lips left yours, trailing wet, heated kisses down the line of your jaw until he reached your neck, where he bit down hard, marking you with his teeth. 

You gasped, your body arching into his as he tightened his hold on your throat, the pain of his bite mixing deliciously with the pleasure flooding your senses.

“You like that?” He growled against your skin, his teeth grazing the delicate flesh of your neck before sinking in again, harder this time. 

“I know you do. You’re fucking made for this.”

His hand squeezed your throat tighter, the pressure sending a dizzying rush of heat straight between your legs as he bit down once more, harder than before, like he wanted to leave his mark deep inside you, and you couldn’t hold back the frail whimper you let out.

You were completely at his mercy, pinned against the wall, your pulse racing as you struggled for breath. 

The only thing grounding you was the raw, primal need coursing through you, the need for him to take you, to devour you whole.

Toji pulled back just enough to let you catch your breath, his eyes burning with desire as he gazed down at you. 

Slowly, deliberately, he reached up and pulled the Ghostface mask back down over his face. 

The sight of him—dangerous and predatory, hidden behind that mask—made your heart pussy throb even harder.

Without a word, he grabbed the knife again, the cold, glinting blade sending a chill through you as he brought it close to your skin. He was teasing you, letting the sharp tip glide over your bare stomach, tracing patterns as he watched your chest rise and fall. 

Then, with agonizing slowness, he moved the blade up, dragging it over the curve of your breast, watching as it barely kissed your skin, tracing the swell of your tits with a precision that made you shiver.

You could feel the cold metal against your sensitive skin, the danger of it adding an edge to the pleasure already coursing through you. 

Toji’s hand cupped your other breast, squeezing roughly, while the tip of the blade teased around your hardened nipple, sending jolts of pleasure straight to your core.

“You like when I play with my knife, don’t you?” He rasped through the mask, his voice low and dark, dripping with dominance.

Before you could respond, he spun you around, your hands splaying against the wall as he pressed his body against yours, bending you over. 

You could feel his hard cock straining against you, the rough fabric of his pants grinding into your ass as he tugged your hips back, positioning you exactly how he wanted.

“Keep your hands there,” he ordered, his voice commanding, leaving no room for argument.

A rough, calloused hand grabbed your waist, holding you steady, while his other hand traced the tip of the knife down your spine, sending shivers through your body. 

The anticipation was unbearable, your body trembling with need as he finally dropped the blade, his fingers digging into your hips.

Without warning, Toji thrust into you, burying himself deep inside your slick heat. You gasped, the sudden fullness making your entire body arch against him as he fucked you hard, rough, every thrust forcing you up against the wall.

“Fuck… you feel so good, princess,” he growled through the mask, his hands gripping your hips so tightly you knew you’d be bruised tomorrow.

You pressed your hands against the wall, struggling to stay upright as your legs trembled beneath you.

Each powerful thrust sent waves of pleasure crashing through you, your needy whines spilling out uncontrollably, filling the room. 

Toji’s hand found your throat again as he leaned over you, pulling you back slightly so your head rested against his chest. His grip tightened, cutting off your breath once more as he fucked you harder, deeper, each thrust sending you closer to the edge.

“M’don’t wanna hear no whining,” he snarled, his voice distorted behind the mask. 

“You’re gunna take everything I give you.”

His pace became brutal, each thrust making your vision blur as the pleasure overwhelmed you. 

You could feel your orgasm building again, the tension coiling tighter and tighter until it snapped, your body convulsing around him as you came hard, his name spilling from your lips in a choked, desperate cry.

Toji didn’t stop—He kept fucking you through it, chasing his own release as he growled in your ear, his hand never leaving your throat as he used your body for his pleasure. 

Finally, with one last, deep thrust, he groaned loudly, spilling inside you, his grip on your throat easing as he collapsed against you, both of you panting and trembling in the aftermath.

Slowly, Toji pulled out and turned you around, lifting the mask just enough to reveal his face. 

He leaned in, kissing you deeply, his lips soft and warm despite the roughness of everything that had just transpired. 

His kiss was a stark contrast to the ferocity from before—gentle, almost tender, as if grounding you after everything you had shared.

He pulled back, his lips quirking into a smirk as he gazed down at you. 

Without a word, he scooped you into his arms effortlessly, carrying you toward the bed. Your body melted against his, exhaustion starting to settle in, but a playful thought crossed your mind.

As he laid you down, you reached for the Ghostface mask still resting on top of his head, lifting it off before sliding it over your own face. The grin that spread across your face was hidden behind the mask as you looked up at him.

"My turn to play psycho killer," you teased, your voice muffled through the mask, though the playful challenge was unmistakable.

Toji chuckled, shaking his head as he leaned down to press a kiss against the mask where your lips would be. 

“Careful what you wish for, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice low and dangerous, sending a thrill through you all over again.

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Take Care

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Wanda Maximoff

Summary: Everyone tries to warn Wanda what a bad idea it is to fall in love with the big, bad, scary spy.

Disclaimer: English is not my first language.

READ ON AO3 | MASTERLIST

When Wanda joined the Avengers she was sure she had just walked herself into some type of military team so strict and uptight that she was half expecting their fancy airplane to land in the middle of the desert surrounded by barbed wire and heavily armed men. They were, after all, the main ones responsible for keeping Earth safe from every type of villain that might come to them. Aliens, humans, and anything in between. Their team, formed by a literal God, a super soldier, a man who could turn himself into a green monster, a man whose big ego could barely fit inside his iron suit, and two humans - who, really, were probably better than all the other four combined - should live and breath for training, follow routines and focus on getting better and better every time.

Wanda realized pretty quickly that she had been wrong - very wrong - about her assumption.

Tony Stark was a kid stuck in a man’s body. He could barely keep a serious conversation with anyone and spent most of his time making jokes and provoking his colleagues. Bruce was one of the gentlest souls Wanda ever met - though, admittedly, she hadn’t met many of those during her lifetime - but he was a bit like an erudite and lived inside a lab. Thor assembled Wanda as that overly excited kid who got dropped at the amusement park with too much money. Steve was probably the only one among all of them who took this “hero” job as seriously as they should, though it was a bit wasted on him since he didn’t need to train to keep his shape and he was almost unmatchable. And Clint, well, Clint had so many dad jokes in his pockets that Wanda was as impressed by it as she was by his archery skills.

Less than a month of living with them and Wanda already realized that the men who were the most powerful and skilled people on Earth were just like every other man - but with powers and skills no one else had.

It did wonderful things for her because, for once, she didn’t walk into a military base camp like she thought she was going to when Steve and Clint convinced her to tag along after Sokovia, but also because the grief after losing Pietro was very consuming and it was good to have people around her who made her laugh or roll her eyes. It was good to feel things other than sorrow. She got closer to Steve more than anyone else since he was the calmest of them - centered and sweet - but, after a rough start when Wanda could barely get out of bed, she managed to form a bond with the entire team.

The point is that Wanda was aware that those people sometimes acted like the teenagers she often saw on the sitcoms she used to watch with her family. That, of course, did not prepare her to find out that, above all of that, their team also seemed to be keen on keeping updates to their comrades' private lives. In other words, they were gossipmongers.

“So…” The first one to bring it up had been Thor, surprisingly so because the God of Thunder was spending less and less time around nowadays. “I noticed you have a thing for the widow.”

Wanda was not at all surprised that the team picked up on the little signs that she might have taken a different liking to Natasha - of all people, really, and her heart had decided to beat a bit faster to the woman who could kill on two hundred and God knows how many different ways. There were spies on the team and most of them could, somehow, hear better than everyone else too. Also, they would never have gotten that far in battling the bad guys if they had been oblivious to things around them.

What did surprise her, however, was that someone decided to point it out. To her face. While they were trying to choose the movie for that night - Tony’s idea because he was insisting they should pretend to be some type of dysfunctional family who had movie nights or something like that.

With her eyes wide and heart beating fast inside her chest, Wanda glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were still alone in the communal area where the largest TV known by man was. She could hear Tony and Clint bickering in the kitchen because they both had different ideas of what the night snack should be, and she knew Steve, Natasha and Sam must still be in the training room, so obviously Bruce was in his lab yet probably talking with Vision. Even so, Wanda didn’t look even a bit relaxed when she looked back at Thor.

“What?” She breathed out and then, because the nerves were eating her inside, she let out an awkward chuckle while shaking her head.

Wanda really thought the tall muscular man would let it go. He didn’t, of course. “No need to lie to me, shorty,” he said with a large smile that would’ve been charming if he wasn’t so damn daunting. Wanda also wanted to point out that everyone next to Thor would be short and that she was taller than most, but he didn’t give her a chance. “I can see the way you stare at her.”

Oh, God.

Oh, God.

Wanda opened her mouth to try and come up with something to say but there was nothing her brain could use to get out of that situation. She wasn’t surprised people noticed but she was surprised Thor noticed. Because, if he did, so did everyone else. And, God, it was terrifying to have people knowing the things she felt.

She had a very complicated life until that point - and it still was, honestly - and Wanda learned when she was still a kid inside an orphanage that anything people knew about you could be used to hurt you. When Hydra started to make experiments on her, it became even more evident. Wanda proved it herself when she invaded the minds of the same people she now shared a roof with and used their worst memories and fears against them. And, after going through training with Natasha, Clint and Steve, Wanda could immediately panic thinking someone knew her deepest secrets.

Thor must have seen the panic on her face because his teasing smile turned more soft and he actually lowered his voice a bit - not that it would make such a difference since his timbre was so deep. “Hey, I’m not going to judge. Humans have so many rules and what they think is moral or not is based on things I can’t understand.”

It took Wanda a few seconds to understand what he was talking about. Thor thought she was afraid he would have a problem with Wanda having feelings for a woman when, in reality, she was scared that he knew she had feelings at all. If she wasn’t so tense, Wanda would’ve laughed.

“That’s not what I wanted to talk about, though,” Thor kept talking and Wanda was amazed he had a plan on what he wanted to talk with her about. Thor was not the type of guy who planned those things. Still holding the remote in her hand, Wanda waited for him to continue. “Look, Natasha is… very brave.” He made it sound like that was the most important quality someone could have. “And scary.” Wanda raised her eyebrows in surprise. “I mean, she’s a good woman. Very beautiful too.”

Okay, he didn’t have a plan.

Wanda slowly nodded. “Sure,” she mumbled, unsure what else she could say.

“She’s also not the woman who do dating,” Thor finally declared, suddenly looking proud of himself. “If you want, I’m pretty sure she would be down to sex, but take care, okay?” Wanda felt her face heating up in a way it had never done before and her eyes glued to the TV in front of her with renewed interest. There was no way that conversation was real. “If you do the sex, don’t get attached,” he warned her gently. “You might end up getting hurt. So, maybe, the best idea is to not have sex. Unless you want to.”

Wanda thought she wanted to disappear, maybe be swallowed whole by a portal or something that would take her away. She had magic and she certainly could make it happen if she tried hard enough but Wanda felt so shell-shocked that she couldn’t move. “Thor…”

The God interrupted her, though, which was good because Wanda wasn’t sure what she could even say. “I just mean that having feelings for someone like Natasha can be very tricky. But, if you ever get your heart broken and need someone to talk to, just come to find me. Unless I’m in Asgard, of course.”

Thor then used one of his ridiculously big hands to pat her on the back, a friendly gesture, but Wanda almost got thrown out of the couch because of how strong the man was. Wanda grimaced and moved away a few inches so he couldn’t reach her again if he tried, and she was about to finally snap and tell him to mind his own business when Tony and Clint entered the space with several popcorn bowls.

“Where is everyone else?” Tony asked and, just like that, the conversation was over.

Wanda couldn’t say she had forgotten all about it after it happened because it was hard to forget that Thor, the God of Thunder, decided to give her love advice, but she was sure it would never happen again. Sadly, Wanda didn’t have superspeed like Pietro to run away if it ever did but she could think about a few other things to escape if she had to.

That said, she didn’t expect that conversation to happen with someone else instead on the very next day. And with Tony of all people.

He had called her inside his lab to help him make some tests on his suit - he was trying to make it strong enough to support Wanda’s magic - and then allowed Wanda to use one of the robotic arms to blow one of the training dummies. Wanda had laughed after that, feeling like a kid playing with things she wasn’t supposed to, before telling him she still preferred the red flow that came from her own hand and giving him the suit piece back.

“Yes, not all of us can shoot explosive balls from our palms,” Tony replied with a scoff while pulling away his things.

“No need to be so jealous,” Wanda taunted him. They walked a long way until Wanda felt comfortable enough around the man and it took a little more time to be able to joke around him, but Tony had a place inside her heart as well.

“Jealous, honey?” Tony teased her back, taking a look at her from over his glasses. “I invented a thing that is pretty much the same you can do.”

“Well, yes,” she conceded before turning one of her palms up and letting a small red ball form just above it. “But you have to carry that suit everywhere.”

Tony sighed and didn’t argue back, which made Wanda smile and put her hands back inside her back pockets. She was about to ask him if he needed help with anything else since she had planned on going out with Vision to show him the ducks by the lake when Tony started talking before her.

“So, you wanna do funny business at workspace, huh?” Wanda had no idea what he just said and just kept staring at him with a blank expression on her face. Upon hearing nothing from her, Tony looked up from where he was typing on the computer and rolled his eyes impatiently. “You know, knock boots.” Tony kept looking, Wanda kept staring, and it became clear she was still lost. He sighed and started waving a hand while he came up with other things to say. “Have some horizontal refreshment, get down and dirty, shake the sheets, practice the act of darkness, have some adult naptime, make an assault with a friendly weapon, do the Devil’s dance, feed the kitty, hit a home run, join amorous congress - Steve would like that one - go cave diving.” Wanda felt like the man had just thrown a bunch of words that had no meaning at her and expected the girl to form a sentence. Tony groaned and his head dropped for a moment before he looked up at her again and declared: “Sex, Maximoff. I’m talking about sex.”

Wanda’s eyes widened, her cheeks became as red as the magic that winded around her fingers, and she took a step back out of shock. Yes, that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with Tony Stark of all people. In fact, Wanda would rather stay still as he blasted her with his Iron Man suit instead of having that particular conversation.

Though, as usual, it could get much worse.

“Let me tell you this, you could have chosen someone better to want to do the fun thing,” Tony huffed and shook his head, although he looked quite impressed. “That’s some dangerous place you want to hide your hot dog at.” Wanda wondered if anyone had ever passed out for blushing too hard because she felt a second away from doing it. “Well, guess that’s not the best euphemism for you. Let me think for a second.”

“You don’t need to,” Wanda murmured mostly to herself since, obviously, Tony didn’t pay her any mind.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” Tony called out and Wanda watched with her eyes still wide as the artificial intelligence came to life to wait for what its creator wanted. “Can you tell me some euphemisms for lesbian sex?”

“Of course, Mister Stark,” the robot replied and Wanda reacted before it could get completely out of hand.

“Okay, I’m out of here.” Wanda turned around to walk to the door, eager to escape and be anywhere other than there.

She still heard F.R.I.D.A.Y. declaring: “Play rock, paper, scissors with only the scissors.”

“Come down, kiddo,” Tony called out after her. “I’m just trying to help!” Wanda opened the door and took a step out, ready to flee - run if she had to. “Romanoff is a very dangerous place to try to get funny, especially if you are totally smitten by her.”

Wanda glared at him in surprise. She wondered if Thor said something or if Tony also couldn’t keep his own business - and she knew the answer to that. “Tony, please, don’t ever talk to me again,” she pleaded because, honestly, she would never recover from the conversation they just had.

Tony laughed, though, and gave her a playful wink. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that you’re head over heels for our most dangerous, and hot, spy.”

“Bye, Tony.”

“Just saying that, if you want to love her with all your heart and soul, you should know Natasha is all about afternoon delights and nothing else.”

Wanda could only pray no one heard the man’s raised voice while she walked away. Thankfully, Tony didn’t follow her but Wanda didn’t go find Vision right away. She needed a few minutes to get over the fact that another person from their team decided to step out of their way to give Wanda a warning about Natasha Romanoff. Gosh, that was a bit humiliating.

However, Tony hadn’t been the first and wouldn’t be the last either, something that made Wanda want to go back to the rubbles of Sokovia. It felt like a better alternative than having her feelings rubbed into her face like they were public domain.

It was definitely better than having that conversation with Bruce Banner for sure.

“I guess I should give you my condolences,” Bruce said out of nowhere about a week after her weird conversation with Tony.

Half of the team was away on some type of mission, to which Wanda and Bruce hadn’t been needed, and both of them had ended up inside the man’s lab while he worked on something while Wanda read a book. She could’ve gone to the back of the Avengers’ compound where she could sit under a tree and enjoy the breeze, but Bruce was interested in some of the Hydra’s experiments and she decided to tag along with him in case he had any questions she could answer. Bruce and her weren’t that close, though they didn’t have problems with each other.

Wanda looked up from her book with a frown. “For what?” She asked. Pietro had died a while ago and Bruce had said he was sorry about it as soon as they landed after it happened, even going as far as giving her a gentle hug and a sad smile.

Bruce’s dark eyes glanced at her in sympathy, though he didn’t stop mixing whatever he was mixing inside a vial. “For falling in love with Natasha Romanoff,” he explained and, above all, he actually sounded sorry for her. “We should start a club for unrequited love or something.”

Wanda’s eyebrows rose comically as her jaw dropped in surprise. She had seen inside both Natasha’s and Bruce’s heads and she knew that it had happened, however, they never spoke about it and, as far as Wanda knew, they both preferred to pretend it never happened. So, to have the man address the fact that he had feelings for Natasha at some point in time was a bit disturbing. Especially because, yes, Wanda knew about it too and, all people considered, she was the one who tried the hardest to pretend she didn’t.

It was none of her business, to start with, but to think about it made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

And now Bruce Banner wanted to talk with Wanda as if they had both been cursed by some terrible catastrophe.

Which, Wanda supposed, was understandable yet extremely unfair.

“Surprised I know?” Bruce asked with a hint of humor.

“I’m starting to think the entire world has been watching me,” Wanda groaned as she closed her book but her voice was too low for Bruce to hear it.

“I too once looked at Natasha as if we could have a future together, just like you do now,” Bruce kept talking and, despite the harsh words, he didn’t sound like a jerk while saying it. It was probably his gentle nature saving him. “And that’s the problem, you know? Natasha doesn’t think she deserves to have a future, so she won’t even try to build one,” Bruce sighed and looked back at the vial. “We have that in common. Neither of us thinks we can have what Tony found with Pepper, or build something like Clint has.”

Bruce was fine talking about Natasha but he wasn’t comfortable looking at Wanda while he spoke about himself. The girl felt some rush of anger inside her and she bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying all the things that ran inside her mind at that moment. She knew Bruce meant well in the end.

“Maybe you’re both too harsh on yourselves,” Wanda pointed out softly.

When Bruce looked at her, it was pretty clear he couldn’t disagree more with what she just said but, maybe to take the spotlight away from him, he nodded. “Perhaps,” he said with a shrug. “I just wanted to warn you. You’re still young and I’m sure one-sided love won’t take you down. Just take care of yourself, okay? Don’t dream too much, keep your feet on the ground.”

It was the most direct way of saying “don’t be in love with Natasha Romanoff” without actually saying it.

Wanda didn’t reply - mostly because that’s not how feelings work, after all - and Bruce dropped the subject right after that. Wanda waited a few more minutes out of respect before excusing herself from his lab, taking her book with her, and that had been it. She would do a lot of things to prevent herself from having that conversation with Bruce again because the last thing she wanted was to hear the man talk about a time when he and Natasha talked about running away together - even if it never happened or if neither of them actually meant it.

The rest of the team returned by the end of the night and Wanda found a seat as far away from Bruce as she could manage when Tony declared they should watch a movie together. Turns out that Wanda realized she would rather hear Tony Stark come up with a thousand different ways to address sex than talk about feelings with Bruce Banner. Who would’ve guessed?

After that, Wanda got a break from the entire “let’s talk about your feelings” thing. Wanda left to join a mission with Steve and Vision, then it was time for Steve to leave with Clint and Natasha for something else. It was some nice good two weeks of not having to talk about how bad she was at hiding her crushes but it didn’t last forever, obviously.

“Hey, Red,” Clint said as soon as he was done eating after returning from his mission. It all went well enough that no one had a bruise or a more serious wound but Clint still had enough adrenaline rushing through his veins that he assured everyone he didn’t want to take a rest like Natasha and Steve wanted to. “You and me, training room. You game?”

It was hard to understand Clint at first when she first met him. Wanda’s first language wasn’t English and it could be hard to keep up when he wasn’t saying all the words. She always thought he would get along with Pietro just fine because of that. As time went by, and the more Wanda had English and accent classes with Natasha, it became easier to follow along, though.

So, she simply nodded and followed him to the training room after changing into something more comfortable. Natasha and Steve had been the ones to give her hand-to-hand combat training when she first joined the team but Wanda now sparred with everyone else since she proved she wouldn’t get herself killed accidentally. Clint was already inside waiting for her and they soon got on the training mattress. Clint wasn’t as good as Natasha but he was still better than Wanda, even more so since she wasn’t allowed to use her powers inside the room, and she quickly started to get her ass kicked.

“You’re still not that good at the whole kicking butt thing,” Clint teased her as he reached out with a hand for her to take it.

She grabbed it and got up with a groan when her muscles protested. “I could throw you across the street with a flick of my finger,” Wanda argued.

Clint simply laughed. “Yeah, right. Come on, try again.”

By the seventh time Wanda landed on the matt, Clint was starting to get tired finally and didn’t try to get her to get up. Wanda lay there, sweaty and out of breath, arms open and staring at the ceiling while cursing herself for never being able to keep up with him. Clint was drinking some water, staring down at her with a smug grin, and Wanda was waiting for him to tease her about it too.

He went to another approach, though. “You know, I thought you would’ve learned more things about it since Natasha was the one teaching you. Thought you would want to impress her or something.”

Wanda groaned because, by now, she knew what was about to happen and she wasn’t thrilled by it. “Not you too,” she complained.

Clint’s smirk told her he had heard her but he didn’t ask any questions about it. “Lemme tell ya,” he paused and pointed at the girl laying on her back, “Natasha would not be impressed.”

Wanda rolled her eyes and grunted as she set down so she wouldn’t feel so damn vulnerable. “You shouldn’t gloat. It’s bad luck.”

The man laughed even harder at that. “Right. Keep that in mind if you ever manage to fulfill your wildest dream to get Natasha to pin you down in a more fun way.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you,” Wanda replied and used one hand to prop herself up. She got to her feet and glared at him. “Do you still want to fight or can I go take a shower?”

“You wish you could share a shower with-”

“Bye, Clint,” Wanda interrupted him so abruptly that he just laughed while she walked away.

Wanda was out of the door before he could say anything else but she had just stepped into the hallway when she walked right against a wall. Well, not a wall, she noticed when she looked up after letting out a small squeak. Steve Rogers.

“Oh, hi, Steve,” she greeted him. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“No problem,” Steve assured her with his sweet smile. “I also wasn’t looking. Are you done training?”

“Yes. Clint is trying to be funny.” Wanda rolled her eyes and heard his deep chuckle. “I thought you were resting.”

“I was but I’m kind of hungry now. Do you want to join me in the kitchen?”

“Yes. You and cap should have a tea party,” Clint said as he walked out of the room as well, not even trying to not hit her with his shoulder.

Wanda frowned and glared at him but the man simply laughed and walked away. Seriously, it was like sharing a house with a bunch of kids.

“I do make some pretty good tea,” Steve commented while giving her a little smile.

And Wanda was hooked.

She went down to the kitchen area with him, happily listening to him tell her about the mission and how it went. Wanda sat on one of the high stools, putting both of her elbows on the kitchen island and her hands clasped together while she watched Steve move around at ease to put some water on the kettle. He then walked to the fridge to find some leftovers he could warm up and Wanda couldn’t help but smile at the scene. A super soldier making some tea and eating old spaghetti.

“How were things while we were gone?” Steve asked after leaning back against the counter so he could eat and look at her at the same time.

“Normal,” Wanda replied, even though nothing had been very normal since the entire team decided to watch her every move because they thought it was so fun to see her little crush on Natasha. “Tony tried to make another movie night and was mad when Bruce fell asleep in the middle of what he called the best movie ever made.”

“Yes, sounds normal.” Steve rolled his eyes although the smile on his lips was fond. “Did you train with someone?”

Wanda shook her head. Ever since her training got less rigid - it happened after Natasha declared she was better in her combat skills enough to hold her own against their usual share of villains and after Steve was confident she could run without having a heart attack - Wanda didn’t go to the training room every day anymore. She liked to run in the mornings because it felt nice to clear her mind for the usual two miles she took and she enjoyed sparring sometimes just to learn some new move she might have missed before, but that was it. She relied a lot on her magic and Wanda was truly fine with it even if she knew Natasha would rather otherwise.

Steve too, though luckily he didn’t give her another long speech about the importance of training. “Well, I’m back now. We could train tomorrow morning.”

Wanda grimaced despite her best tries not to. “Sure,” she replied however because, well, she was a part of the team and people had to trust her. The man seemed amused by that, at least. “Maybe we could do that pair thing again,” Wanda suggested mainly because it was more fun to be paired up with someone while both of you tried to take down the other duo.

“I doubt Clint will be up before noon,” Steve said and finally put the now empty container down on the counter. The water was warm enough by now and he moved to grab two cups from the top cabinet - where Wanda could reach but where Natasha couldn’t, much to her disdain. “You want some too, yes?”

Wanda nodded in agreement. “We could ask Nat and Tony to join us, maybe.” Tony hated those sparring things but Wanda still wanted to make him suffer after making her painfully listen to him talk about sex.

Steve put one of the mugs in front of her, placed his palm on the marble and took a sip of his drink while looking at Wanda with amusement in his eyes. He waited until she drank some of it, watched her small grimace, and then chuckled when he pushed the sugar toward her. Wanda grabbed a cube and dropped it on the hot liquid before taking a spoon to swirl it.

“I once knew someone who put four sugar cubes in her tea,” Steve told her, grabbing her attention again.

Wanda’s eyes moved up when she noticed how much his voice had changed when he said that. Steve’s tone was something between longing and heartache, and his face showed something similar by the way his smile lost all strength. Wanda knew who he was thinking about. She had been inside his head once, she saw the woman’s face, and she felt his sorrow for the life that could have been.

It still took her breath away sometimes because Steve had loved that woman so dearly and then someone decided to transform him into a deadly weapon for the military and he lost it.

Since she didn’t know what to say - and because there was nothing she could come up with that would be truly helpful - Wanda reached out and placed her hand on top of his on the counter, squeezing his fingers tightly. Steve seemed surprised by it but he quickly offered her a small smile and squeezed her hand back.

“Love is a funny thing,” he whispered after a few seconds where he was probably debating with himself if he should keep talking or not. “It can give you the drive to be better, to do better, to fight more, to keep going. But it can also take away all of that,” Steve sighed, looked into her eyes, and tilted his head a little. “It can be a blessing and it can be a curse.”

“I know that,” Wanda replied carefully. “I thought I would never be able to smile again when I lost Pietro.” And there were still days where it was hard, where it was impossible to smile or eat or get out of bed or be reminded that she was still alive and her twin brother wasn’t. But there were days when she would be hit by the sudden wish to live for both of them, to try every milkshake and go to every beach and watch every movie. “I know they’re different situations, but I understand.”

“I know you do,” Steve smiled sadly. “You went through a lot already. More than most people would even be able to take.”

Wanda said nothing because she learned very soon that life wasn’t a competition of who had a more traumatic past, especially when she was part of a team where no one had an easy path to where they currently were. No one there had an easy life.

“Like I said,” Steve kept talking after he realized Wanda wasn’t going to say anything, “love can heal and it can hurt.”

“Steve,” Wanda smiled at him, “if you have something to say, just say it.”

He had the decency to look embarrassed and he averted his eyes for a moment, cheeks flushed and lips curled at the corners. “That was it,” Steve said eventually with a shrug. “That was all I had to say. Love can heal and it can hurt,” he repeated while taking the mug to his mouth again. “We need to be careful about it.”

After saying that, he took a sip of his tea and Wanda copied his movement just to keep herself busy for a while longer. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“It’s not my business, I know,” Steve admitted. “I just worry.”

“That I will break down and screw the team over if Natasha wants nothing to do with me and tells me to shove my feelings somewhere else?” Wanda asked without beating around the bush like Steve was. It was better when people were more direct about it, she decided.

The old man, though, grimaced and pursed his lips. “You’re spending too much time with Tony.”

“You should hear some of the things he said,” Wanda huffed but didn’t explain what she meant.

“I just worry, that’s all,” Steve said. “You went through a lot and… and some people might not be able to know how to deal with it.”

Wanda put her cup down. “That’s what every girl wants to hear, I suppose.”

His eyes went wide open after that. “No, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean like-”

“That’s okay, Steve,” she stopped him and slid out of her seat to go wash the mug on the sink.

“Let me.” Steve approached her to stop Wanda from reaching for the soap. He offered her a smile when she glanced up at him.

She could’ve argued if he hadn’t decided to join the large list of people trying to get their noses on her business. Instead, she let him take the sponge and the mug, thanked him for the tea, and left the kitchen. As she walked to the elevator, Wanda couldn’t help but wonder just how easily people could read her. It appeared like everyone living under the same roof as her could read her like an open book. It was very unsettling, to say the least. She wasn’t a spy like Clint or Natasha but Wanda was sure she should be better at keeping things inside if she wanted to join their hero thing club.

Wanda asked the artificial intelligence to take her to her floor and, seconds before, she was walking down the hallway on the floor she shared with Natasha. It was an entire floor just for them since they were the only women on the team but they barely ever used the small kitchen or the living room area. Wanda remembered being new to the team and seeing Natasha walking that corridor all sweaty after a training session, how her mouth felt dry and how her heart beat fast. She wondered if any of the people who had spoken with her before knew about that.

Tony and Clint would never let her live it down, Bruce might try to form some type of connection with her, Thor would probably give her a high five or something, and Steve would blush for days. How any of those men managed to be superheroes was beyond her.

Wanda sighed as she pushed the door open and then closed it behind her after she walked inside the room. She kicked off her shoes out of habit while debating with herself if she should jump into the shower already or rest for a couple of minutes, though that became an easy decision when her eyes landed on the bed. Wanda fluffed her pillow before her hand found a shoulder to gently push against.

She heard an unhappy groan that made her smile before the body on the bed turned around so Wanda was staring at the muscular back. There was a bruise and a small cut there, probably a memoir from the last mission, and she made a mental note to rub some healing ointment later. With another sigh, Wanda slipped under the covers, wrapping her arms around a slim waist and pressing her body against another one in a big spoon position she knew so well. Her nose immediately found the back of a neck between red locks and she took a deep breath in even if she knew there wouldn’t be any perfume to smell - people remember smells, she had been told once, and the goal is to go unnoticed.

“Where were you?”

Wanda smiled at the husky tone caused by drowsiness. “Your friends were either trying to kick my ass or to give me a shovel talk in reverse.” Tony had taught her what ‘shovel talk’ meant when he was telling a story once and Wanda was proud to finally be able to use it in a conversation. There were many American slang she was still learning about.

“Do I want to know?”

“Maybe later, after you had enough rest. You just came back,” Wanda said and then pressed her lips between shoulder blades.

That made Natasha sigh and grab Wanda’s hand that was resting on her stomach. The redhead pulled her closer, impossibly closer. “I’m awake now. Tell me about it.”

Wanda hesitated for a moment because she really wanted the other woman to be able to rest after returning from a mission but she also knew Natasha wouldn’t drop the subject. “Well, it appears that the entire team seems to think I have a crush on you.”

Natasha’s body shook with a chuckle against her. “Where on Earth did they take that idea from?” She joked while pushing herself back against Wanda’s body.

“I guess I’m an open book or something. Everyone has accused me of being in love with you or wanting to sleep with you.”

“They must be insane,” Natasha replied with a smile clear in her voice.

“They think I’m the insane one,” Wanda huffed a laugh and was about to tell the woman to go to sleep again when Natasha started to move. She removed her arm from around the redhead and patiently waited until Natasha turned around to face her, putting a space between them to be able to talk.

“How come?” Natasha wondered. “Please, don’t tell me these people think I’m literally a black widow or something.” She rolled her eyes at that because she could see it happening way too easily.

Wanda laughed. “No, but they do think you’re going to let me down gently. Or not so gently, I suppose. Bruce is pretty sure you’re going to break my heart in a million pieces, Steve thinks I’m too fragile to handle you, and Tony thinks it’s very likely that you would use me for sex and throw me in the gutter.”

Green eyes closed, which made Wanda pout a little because she loved staring at them. “Are any of them wrong?”

There it was. The self-doubting thing returning full force. They had talked about it many times before and Wanda never liked hearing Natasha put herself short. Bruce had made her a bit nauseous but he hadn’t lied about what Natasha thought of herself and her future. Wanda had only a few months to try to make Natasha see that she was allowed to be happy, that she deserved to be happy, that she shouldn’t punish herself for her past, but it was months against a lifetime of beliefs. Wanda knew she still had a long way before her words started making sense to the other woman.

“All of them, actually,” Wanda pointed out. “They didn’t even think you would ever spare me a look.”

“They’re stupid then. You’re a very nice thing to look at,” Natasha teased with a smile and cracked one eye open, which made Wanda chuckle and lean closer to kiss her nose, before she closed it again.

“We agree your friends lack some sense.”

“They’re your friends. For me, they’re coworkers.”

Wanda scoffed loudly at that. “No one believes that. You have a soft spot for them.”

Natasha sighed. “Just because they can’t figure out how to keep themselves alive without me having to save their asses all the fucking time.”

“Well, whatever is the reason,” Wanda said even if she knew Nat wasn’t serious, “they certainly aren’t my friends. They keep telling me to stop looking at you like you hung the stars or something like that. It didn’t make sense when Tony said it.”

“Maybe they tell you that because they’re your friends and because they care,” the redhead commented and opened her eyes again. “They don’t want to see you hurt. They care about you.”

Wanda didn’t have anything to say about that. She was a part of the team for a while now but it felt different to know those people cared for her, that they liked her, that they wanted her around. It was a strange feeling the whole ‘being wanted’ thing. Pietro used to be the only one to make her feel like that and it was hard to feel anything remotely like that ever since he was gone.

“They act like a gossip magazine,” Wanda said instead.

“They do, don’t they?” Natasha chuckled and silence fell around them for a few moments. Wanda was starting to feel sleep wanting to creep in and she knew she had to get up to take a shower before allowing herself to sleep but she felt so comfortable that it was impossible to move. She was about to ask Natasha to roll over again so they could sleep when the woman started talking. “And they think I don’t deserve you. That’s why they keep warning you to stay away.”

“No one warned me to stay away,” Wanda corrected her gently.

“They did and you should.” Natasha bit her bottom lip, looking too much like she was trying not to get emotional at that moment. “I’m broken. All sharp ends and hard edges. You’re soft, you can bruise and bleed.”

“Natasha, with all due respect, I spent the last few weeks hearing our friends try to say how I should or should not feel, sticking their noses in my business and basically saying I was too naive to make my own decisions.” Wanda paused to look deep into Natasha’s eyes. “I won’t hear it from you too. Not after I set there in silence and listened to them talk because they have no idea that you would be laying here in bed waiting for me to join you after you returned from a trip. We agreed not to tell them a thing, I get it, but you can’t agree with them in something like this. Not when you’re living this with me.”

Natasha’s green eyes filled with tears that never fell before she tilted her chin up to kiss Wanda’s forehead. Her lips lingered against her skin for a few seconds until they formed words. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Wanda whispered back.

“And I’m sorry we hadn’t told them yet,” the redhead added.

They talked about it before - about safety, about how it was better if no one else knew, about how keeping them under wraps was better so no bad guy could use it against them - and Wanda now had more arguments to validate that decision. It would be great to see their reactions to find out how wrong they had been but it was also good to know they could keep living their lives without having them trying to get a say about everything. They all meant well, she knew that, though it was hard to remember that sometimes.

“It’s for the best,” Wanda declared with a shrug.

“Suppose it is. I mean, they all think I’m one step away from breaking your heart.”

“They only think that because I’m too soft,” Wanda told her when she noticed the slight pain in the woman’s voice again. “It’s me, not you.”

“You need to stop talking with Tony,” Natasha scoffed before she started to turn around again, apparently tired of the conversation.

“You just wait until I tell them that you bring me flowers sometimes,” Wanda teased her as she wrapped her arm around Natasha’s waist one more time.

“Don’t you dare,” the spy argued fervently. “I have a reputation to keep.”

“And you’re doing a great job at that because everyone thinks you would use a flower to poke my eye or something.” Wanda chuckled at the thought. “Oh, they will never believe it when I tell them about you taking care of me after a nightmare.”

“I’m warning you, Maximoff.”

“And that you rub my feet every time you kick my ass at training.”

“I’m starting to feel like kicking your ass right now,” Natasha groaned.

Wanda just smiled. “How violent. Maybe they’re right and I should take care.”

“Yes, I’m dangerous.”

As she said that, Natasha hugged Wanda’s arm between her breasts to kiss the back of her hand and Wanda thought how lucky she was to be sharing a bed with the big, bad, scary spy.

[nofacednerd]

okay finale thoughts

I don't think they took out any scenes but I do think it's funny that they renamed the title of the episode

hughie's... counter-proposal I guess? was so genuinely sweet that I'm mad it wasn't real

On that. 3rd time in back to back episodes not even 5 minutes in. That's gotta be a record. I thought they were actually going to acknowledge it as assault when he seemingly got very upset about the pegging joke she made and started squeezing the water bottle, but I guess not. My hope is that all the criticism they received while handling all of this, they'll actually take and acknowledge it in the show

Hughie canon bottom but at what cost...........

BUTCHER WITH THE TEMP-V INDUCED WHITE HAIR STREAKS. MY HEADCANON IS REAL

I think it's so funny that Butcher's last wish was for hughie to go to some random hooters in Nevada for him. Part of me wonders if he knew about the stupid Maid in Manhattan tour he went on entirely because it was his dad's last wish and wanted to see what he would agree to if he sounded sad enough about it

Ashley my problematic queen I hope you get to have fucking awesome scary superpowers next season and help take down the supes w the gang

Just. Shoutout to Erin Moriarty for being an insanely talented actress. Love that the shapeshifter just kept biting people as her go-to attack. Fucking knocked it out of the park

Annie choking the shapeshifter to death instead of using her powers felt symbolic somehow but it's 4 in the morning and I can't think about it rn. Good for her either way.

They also never actually explained why her powers just. Stopped working?? I'm guessing it was an emotional thing but I felt like things didn't change THAT much by the end of the season for her to suddenly be charged up enough to fly?

Okay but also. I'm kind of mad that they didn't acknowledge what the shapeshifter did to Hughie was assault and not only that but they had Annie get mad at HIM about it. Like girl hello???? Out of literally everyone I would expect at least Annie to understand, but for some reason they show loves having them have relationship drama that comes from fucking nowhere

That being said, I am SO glad they didn't break up again. That would have fucking sucked. Curious if the engagement thing will ever come up again since she got the ring back. I imagine if it does it'll be the end of the show

Also his little "FUCK YESSS" fist pump to himself. I just need to take a second to appreciate that that was so funny LMAO

I'm not gonna lie... I actually got pretty on-board with the Frenchie Kimiko QPR. aroace Kimiko you still live in my head rent free

I just know. I just KNOW. There's going to be SO MANY tentacle smut fics about Butcher by the end of the week. You horny motherfuckers are going to eat that shit up

Also going to be honest. I'm kind of mad they took out Neuman. She was such an interesting character and I always thought her views didn't conflict at all with the rest of The Boys, so I was really hoping for a redemption arc. She also had such an interesting dynamic with both Hughie and Annie (and Zoe having beef with Kimiko is fucking great). Idk she could have been a fun addition to the group

I was actually kind of excited to see The Boys split off to different countries and have to come back together next season, but I think them all getting kidnapped (and presumably thrown in prisons?) is much more interesting. I kind of hope they let Hughie be the main character again next season now that Butcher has gone off the rails and might? be a villain next season? But I know it's probably going to be Annie

Kimiko speaking I kind of assumed would happen at some point (since they established that as kind of her arc this season with the speech therapy) but I'm excited to see if that goes anywhere next season. I think best case scenario, she has selective mutism and only goes verbal sometimes. They've been pretty good about her disability so far

also speaking of, I've been trying to figure out what her sign for each of The Boys' names are and. is Hughie's supposed to look like someone running away because that's so funny if true (it's hard to tell because the captions are obviously not synced up with the visuals on her signing)

My overall thoughts are kinda... eh. This season ultimately felt directionless to me, too many plotlines trying to happen all at once and while I think individual episodes were really good, as a whole nothing felt super connected (I mean, in episode 6 Hughie was super fucked up over his dad's death and presumably what happened at Tek Knight's party, but episode 7 they just seem to have completely forgotten that he's having an active mental breakdown, a trend that continues into episode 8. And that's just one example from this season). I also think they fumbled the supes' plotline at the very end. I trusted the writers that they actually knew what Sage's plan was, but it mostly just seems like she swooped in at the end to tell us her plan worked, without saying what it actually was. I was hoping there was going to be actual clever writing there, but I guess it's hard to write the world's smartest character if she's only as smart as the writer's room can be.

I understand that, ultimately, it's incredibly difficult to write satisfying arcs with very limited time (this is an issue of streaming in general, not specifically an issue with The Boys), so I don't really fault them for that. I just hope next season is more focused.

The biggest problem with season 3 is, obviously, Hughie getting sexually assaulted three times in 3 back-to-back episodes, with zero acknowledgement (and on one occasion, implied mockery) from the show itself or anyone involved. I REALLY hope they take the criticism and actually make something of it next season, or at least acknowledge that it was fucked up.

Anyway, not a terrible season, but it had a lot of glaring issues. I'm holding out hope for season 5 being good, but it'll be another year or two before we get it anyway, so...

[yeets-ix]

Sonic Bad Guys AU Infodumping

@thefakehedgehogaroundhere pitched the AU and its roles, I went too far and fleshed it out a LOT.

Here's the first round, the basics of the characters:

The Bad Guys go by “Ms. Surge,” Ms. Metal, Mr. Rough, Mr. Tumble, Mr. Duo and Mr. Kitsunami (for fun.)

Backstory: While the AU is mostly just the self-contained plot of the movie, Eggman and Starline did exist in the AU… emphasis on DID. In a very very deliberately loose interpretation of Sonic canon setting up this AU, they created Surge, Kit and Metal, but were ultimately defeated for good, with their former creations and minions being left to form various random organizations including the Bad Guys, none of whom are nearly as much of a threat anymore. Sonic took all the credit for “beating” Eggman, though it probably wasn’t actually him in this AU considering this version of him is also a villain and has just been using his hero image for personal gain (hell, considering his Marmalade-assigned wealth, he probably bought out Eggman Industries after the Doctor was gone.)

Ms. Surge, instead of the “big bad wolf,” boasts about being an “evil twin.” A twisted and evil counterpart to a hero. Of course, she turns out to actually be the good one between herself and Sonic in this AU, but that’s beside the point. She still doesn’t remember her original life and has only experienced being compared to Sonic and seen as a monstrous, evil version of him, never being given any other chance. When Sonic gets exposed as the criminal he is and arrested, Surge, Kit and Metal recognize they’re fully free and able to go good, what with him being put away for good.

Ms. Metal was also originally designed after Sonic (that’s why she and Surge are best friends,) but being “the safe-cracker,” has modified herself with some help from Kit into a heist-focused robot with stealth tech, safe-cracking tools, and the ability to turn into a hyper-boost engine for the getaway car. She’s the “most evil” because she’s still programmed to defeat Sonic, even if she’s currently spending almost all of her time pulling heists with the Bad Guys. She comes around in the end and rejoins Surge and the gang, and stays with her as a good guy after finally taking down Sonic. She’s also kind of addicted to absorbing Wisps.

Mr. Mimic actually goes by Mr. Duo most of the time - he’s made the happy-go-lucky but still evil cat his public identity they think of when they hear the term “Bad Guys.” After genuinely befriending the others, he wants to move on from and forget the even worse crimes he committed as an octopus (even though not necessarily those of his canon self.) That being said, he’s still a shapeshifter and “the distraction.” Instead of Mr. Shark swallowing Mr. Snake when he annoys him, Duo can mess with Metal’s circuits since he’s “good with computers.”

Mr. Rough and Mr. Tumble are the flattest ones, but then again, they always are. They beat the shit out of people, make immature jokes, and Rough uncontrollably sprays when he’s nervous. Mr. Piranha is perfect for both of them (and also for Surge - she’d release catastrophic EMPs - if she wasn’t Mr. Wolf here.)

Mr. Kit is “Drippy” the same way Ms. Tarantula is “Webs.” His laptop has extra monitors and keyboards for his Hydro-Coils the same way as Webs’ does for her eight legs. He’s also still Surge’s younger brother for the feels. Owing to being around 13, he's less anxious and less formal, and with the world aware of his power, more confident in being scary on his own or at his sister's side.

Governor Rose’s backstory as the Crimson Paw Rascal is changed a bit. She, too, gave up just as she was about to steal the Awardy Award (the Golden Dolphin equivalent,) but it was because she realized she’d built her criminal career upon being a “sweet widdle hoggo” who nobody would suspect or believe could be a criminal mastermind, instead blaming more scary or ugly animals. Realizing that not only would some undeserving creature take the fall for the Rascal’s ultimate heist, but she fully knew and wanted to exploit this, just made Amy feel like shit, and she immediately hung up her cowl. Note that this same reason also leads to her despising Sonic for working under the same ideals, and makes her very happy when he’s the one who takes the fall for her crimes in the end.

“A wolf and a fox are not so different” becomes “A tenrec is just a false hedgehog.” Sonic later reuses this line to mock Surge, before Surge and Amy finally wreck him with it in the end.

Sonic as Marmalade? Take every bad take on IDW Sonic in the entire hatedom, make them completely true, and then sprinkle the resulting abomination of a Sonic with Scourge dust. He’s supposedly the same hero as his canon self, but in truth all he cares about is his own entertainment and his own reputation. Lying and manipulating people are what give him “the tingle.” He’s gonna scream “LET’S DO IT TO IT! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” like in that one satire comic as he’s dragged off to S.U.C.M., utterly determined to the end to convince everyone he’s never done anything wrong in his life. Fuck him. He deserves nothing, he is the scum of the earth, I want to punch him in the face, and maybe call in a few other AU Sonics to punch him in the face too.

Heck, I have an OC named Shine who is basically “Sonic but Marmalade” already, and I’d be willing to donate her for this role if I didn’t want Sonic himself to get to chew some scenery.

We’ve agreed Whisper is Chief Luggins due to her power to be incredibly biased against these people, especially Surge with a good helping of Mimic on the side. Lanolin would work too, but I think Whisper being really angry a lot fits better. You poor wolf, you poor meow meow, you poor thing, how did you end up becoming a cop?... or she's just the face of what's left of the Restoration in this universe. Lanolin can probably be Tiffany the reporter, IDK.

To be continued.

[samstwilightzone]

Thinking about cute little things, about IchiAki, and just being two people that are best friends but they are also basically married, while they are dating...

☆Aki stares into space sometimes so instead of snapping her out of it, Ichimatsu joins her in doing so after he's done admiring the blank look on her face. It makes him feel more in tune wuth his cat side. Bonus points if Reginald joins them and now they are all bonding together.

☆Whenever Ichimatsu makes cat shaped onigiri Aki very playfully jokes her onigiri out wmtowards his and makes smooching noises because "Look! They're in love!" And then she's told to stop playing with her food and just eat. Which she does.

☆Speaking of cooking, while usually doing it together, Ichimatsu took up the responsibility of doing it on his own at some point as Aki would come home from work rather late and cooking took way too long sometimes, so he made it a point to always finish cooking before she'd come home from work... He also takes care of Reginald as well, having become like a dad to him

☆Aki wants to be proud of her strength, so she likes carrying Ichimatsu around, she likes picking him up and holding him. She feels gratified when he's in awe of her strength, it makes her feel that maybe it isn't so bad to be her... What other girl can brag about being able to hold her boyfriend like a princess?

☆They don't go out often, but when they do its usually for something small and involves being in sparsely populated areas so they can enjoy some peace and quiet

☆You better bet that Aki took Ichimatsu skiing, it was a disaster, other than the fact Ichimatsu fell a lot- they were also targeted by a slasher-style villain after renting out a cabin in the mountains. Aki beat them up though, so it was scary for only a moment.

☆They are both protective of eachother, Aki even more so as she does her best to keep him away from her family, only her brother is allowed to make contact with them

☆The darkness in them is easier to live with, as ironically enough, they are eachother's light

[jester-dragons-aus]

Ah fuck I've done it again

Amalgam AI AU

I've seen some AUs about the humans being AI instead of Caine and I thought that might be the simplest way to get this monstrosity to happen with a massive glitch without abstraction playing a part.

I think I just really like horror AUs and doing stuff like that is just so fun so I made another one with a better title than "Horror House" cuz c'mon what the hell does that mean lol

The only characters I don't have designed currently are Zooble, Caine, and Bubble but I'll add them soon. Caine will be a human, Bubble could be something to help him out and what not.

Inspired by AUs like Sm-baby's and The Horror Circus AU, but like, different ofc.

Think this: the game wasn't originally supposed to be a horror game, just a game you go through for fun. Like Undertale, I guess? But not quite

[WARNINGS: LOTS OF EYES/ARACHNID IMAGERY, BODY HORROR, EYESTRAIN]

So first and foremost, I think people would wanna see Pomni, though Jax was the first to be designed.

Pomni is supposed to be some sort of anti-virus or some sort of protecting thing. Supposed to fix bugs and glitches and prevent viruses from getting into the game. Like a firewall, I guess? I tried to make her look like "right/wrong" esc thing. She was the last to be designed and it was like 1 am when I designed her. I had no clue what to do with her, I'll be completely honest.

Story wise, she'd be trying to find a way to undo this massive glitch and get the game back to normal before she can even rest. Once Caine pops up to try and fix the game from inside, as a dev himself, she does her best to protect him and help him fix the game.

No there is no shipping in this AU, they're just helping each other basically survive. They might become friends over time but nothing more. :V

Next up: Ragatha and Gangle! I actually really like Gangle's design but Ragatha definitely needs a few tweaks I think.

Ragatha, before this massive glitch, would have been an NPC that would help a player out at the start but end up getting lost after a certain point, like a tutorial. She was the most caring character in the game before everything went down.

Gangle used to be someone who ran a little theatre thing in the game, as I've seen from other AUs and took inspiration from, but she's usually nice no matter what mask she has on. More arms means she can help more people at once, right? Game mechanics wise she was like a little shop keeper for costumes if they're needed and she can help with newer mechanics on stage if something new is added. Friendly NPC, you know? Love her design, too!

Now for the first two to be designed, Jax and Kinger!!

So Jax was like a reoccurring villain, I guess. Always trying to make the player quit the game or just scare the shit out of them, despite him not being very scary himself. He's more played off to be a joke character, if I'm honest, always failing with his antics and what not. It's part of the code! I actually like his design, small lil paws and just so shapey over all.

Kinger was like a final boss, I guess? The scariest of all of them at that time. He was a king, ruling over his pawns and such, all of which were also bug themed! I love making Kinger bug related it's so fun. He's a big softie in reality but hits like a train if you ever went against him. He had terrible vision despite all of his eyes and was very slow despite the amount of legs.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for.

The reason for the AU title.

The MASSIVE glitch that caused everything to go downhill.

The Amalgam.

I still think it needs a few tweaks here and there but this is one of four concepts I've had for it.

One time all four of these characters were together, which was relatively rare but possible, a glitch happened in the game. Pomni doesn't know where it started from and none of the game devs understand how it happened, but it did. Some devs think there's a hacker. A massive glitch pulled those four characters together into one terrifying being, always hostile and destructive. All the code of the characters were merged into this thing and somewhat scrambled. The game has now been broken to where once you're in, you can't escape until it's fixed, yet no one knows it, which is why Caine went in.

So much has happened and it's still being fixed, but a hostile blob of characters constantly attacking whenever it's near? It will be hard to fix.

It seems to be guarding something.

Concepts for the amalgam:

You can see in the first one I was going to put Zooble there but I still need a good design for Zooble. Let's see what they'll be.

[peppeppu]

I made Kenta Kosaku when I was 16 because I wanted to join a MHA RP group on DeviantArt. He’s probably the first(?) serious OC I ever thought of. Fr I took his hand and YANKED him out of my sketchbook and posted him online to be perceived (which is quite scary). I had a lot of illustrations of him, although now all of that old stuff has been archived and can’t be seen publicly. I’m grateful that my old RP applications and art haven’t disappeared forever when my laptop blew up into smithereens on that fateful day of 09/03/2021. Couldn’t save all the files unfortunately, but at least I’ve got a few saved. But hey! At least I can still draw, and I’m here now to info-dump, rant about, and post updates of my characters.

If I post different versions of Kenta (and other OCs) later on, just treat them as AU variants (I don’t believe there’s a true/canon universe for my OCs; I like to drop them in whatever world and see what happens. It’s exciting that way!).

With Kenta specifically, I like to follow a certain pattern when putting him in different, fictional universes. It helps me to keep his overall character consistent if I use and have him interact with different peoples’ OCs. So with that said, I basically made Kenta to be the kind of character who’s part of the common crowd, desperately wanting to be somebody else. And who’s that “somebody else”? Depends on the setting :]

…Urgh, there’s so much to talk about. Where do I even start? Maybe a brief character intro/history to this AU of Kenta? I LOVE talking about OCs (both mine and others’. Actually, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if I also info-dumped the ships my OCs are/were in… hmm. //writes it down).

For the MHA RP group, it would’ve been easy to make Kenta quirkless (being born with no superpower) and have him seek out a way to obtain a quirk through false means, or just pretend like he has a quirk— but in reality, he’s just a normie. But according to the actual MHA world (since the RP group was heavily based on the canonicity of the manga/anime series), it's a fact that around 80% of the population are born with a quirk. Thus in this universe, Kenta did have a quirk… I just made it a very useless one LOL.

Thinking back on it now, it’s so stupid I don’t know why I came up with this HAHAHA. But it’s an immobilizing quirk that only works if his lips make contact on another person’s bare skin (I dubbed it thee… “Petrifying Kiss”). I don’t think the user gets stunned for long either; when I’m trying to imagine this quirk in a combat scenario… it genuinely sucks. Like, all it would take is for the other person to be covered head-to-toe in their hero/villain suit, and Kenta would have no way to stun them. However, it was 100% my intention to give him a forgettable, pointless quirk. Tbh it doesn’t have to be the one I chose, I could easily replace the one he had with another quirk as equally worthless and laughable.

Like, if you had a cool quirk, you could totally show it off right? For Kenta, he had no chance of doing that. So he would often be ignored at school. Maybe at first his classmates made fun of him for having a stupid quirk, but over the years the jokes would get old pretty quickly. Even his parents pitied him? But they probably didn’t do much to help him feel better about his own quirk, nor did they try to get involved in their son’s life. So, he’s very much emotionally neglected. I believe I wrote down somewhere about his history (it was required by the group to have it in your character application) that his quirk was a combination of both his mother’s Recovery quirk (like Chiyo Shuzenji’s Heal quirk) and his father’s Immobilization quirk. On the night when Kenta’s quirk developed (he was around 4-yrs-old), he accidentally immobilized his mother when giving her a good-night kiss on the cheek. Even though the effect is short-lasting, it’s pretty unfortunate :[

Before Kenta had developed his quirk, he pretty much lived out a normal childhood. His future still undetermined with the lack of a quirk, his parents have always hoped that he’d either join his mom in ailing sick patients at the hospital (inheriting a similar Recovery quirk) or become a hero like his father (he’s no big-shot; probably works at a hero agency under a pro-hero). Sadly with the reveal of his dumb kiss quirk— discussing further more onto what Kenta can and can’t do— his parents deemed it was considered useless now to raise him into someone they hoped he’d grow up to. Ever since then, he was pretty much ignored in the household, failing to live up to his parents’ expectations. So where and how is he going to get the love and attention that he oh-so desperately wants?

When the teasing at school stopped, it left Kenta with a strange sort of emptiness inside his heart. He had gotten used to the teasing so much that he used it as a coping mechanism to remind that he still “existed.” Without the attention from his parents and peers, he did whatever he could to get it all back. As a result, this led to a series of him changing his appearance drastically multiple times, and a sudden shift in his personality. He started acting out during school and at home too— anything he could do to get a reaction out of those around him.

Oh, remember when I previously mentioned how I “follow a certain pattern” with Kenta’s character? Ideally, I want there to be some sort of “canon event” that takes place in his life (no matter the universe/setting) that marks the turning point of what makes him the way he is (as in, the design of Kenta that you currently see right now. Yes, he didn’t always have pink hair. It’s all hair dye). So for this group, I’ve had Kenta overhear his classmates about a big villain attack that had occurred over where U.A. High School was. Witnessing the non-stop chatter about villains from his peers is what gave Kenta the idea to become a villain himself. He then made a promise to the world that he’ll become somebody unforgettable.

“But wait,” you think to yourself. How the hell is he a villain? He doesn’t look menacing? He looks hella goofy instead. His hair even looks like a pink poop emoji. Well, let me tell ya another sad truth… he sucks at being a villain LOL. This dude’s threat level is unbelievably low, like I can joke that his worst crime would actually be stealing candy from a baby. He’s just a nuisance to the neighborhood, and likes to grab the attention of licensed heroes from time to time. Like “Ooh, LOOK! I’m looiiitering! :D” and the heroes would simply smack their foreheads and shake their heads. So far in the RP group I had him in, the numerous things he got to do were pestering a tech repair shop employee, somehow crashing into events he was never given an invite to, annoying the new incoming U.A. students (who were all other peoples’ OCs), and briefly bumping into other villains (who also were peoples’ OCs! Yeah, the group accepted both student AND villain characters. Which I think was pretty cool).

It’s unfortunate that I decided to leave the group at some point (other people left too). There was an issue in regards to the group somehow staying in “limbo mode” for a long time, and a LOT of good roleplay logs that people have accumulated were suddenly not considered part of the group’s canon lore anymore. So essentially, everyone had to “start over” with their characters not knowing each other and having to re-introduce them again. It felt a bit of time wasted, but I was mainly sad that any character development/friendships Kenta had gained along the way was now tossed to the side.

But enough about the group, I’m here to talk about my son :] I think this post was a nice introduction to this version of Kenta (I’m sorry if I jumped through topics pretty quickly, my writing will get better I promise). Soon enough, you'll get to see the Jabberwock Isle version of him.

Next couple of posts I’ll either talk more about his design + personality in-depth, or perhaps start doodling other characters I have in mind...

Note: Originally I was going to upload like, 9 files all in a single post but I miiight just go with posting things in short bursts because

I worry that having LONG text posts might look daunting.

I’ve been patient enough and I REALLY want to start posting art on Tumblr like a lot more.

That's all for now :]

[artsywriter25]

Let’s talk about the Kung Fu Panda 4 Trailer 

Okay, we finally got the trailer after waiting for so many months! 

First things first, my reaction to the trailer. I thought it was decent, I didn’t react too much but that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I couldn’t stop smiling seeing Po again, I was expecting to see more but this is just a tease. There probably is more that they can’t show us just yet. I watched this trailer multiple times. I’m gonna go on and talk about the things I like and things that I didn’t like. 

=

The Pros: 

- The animation looks great as always. I was hoping they add in the hybrid animation but the one they’re using is still amazing. 

- Po is now using his jade staff to make combo moves which is awesome and I can't wait to see the creative battles. 

- I like Zhen so far and Aquafina’s voice fits her. I know people are saying her design looks weird but I think it looks fine, and I have liked Aquafina since seeing The Farewell. 

- The Chameleon looks beautiful! If you pause during her transformations she actually looks scary. DreamWorks made a frecking chameleon scary, how do they do that?!

- I like how they kept the animals at their accurate heights like it took me the fifth watch to realize how small Chameleon was compared to Tai Lung yet she took him down easily. 

-Speaking of Tai Lung, he is so back! The fact that he is on the poster could be hinting at a possible redemption arc so for those die-hard Tai Lung fans out there, I’m happy for you. 

-I’m also happy they even got Ke Huy Quan to join the cast. I grew up watching The Goonies and after seeing him in Everything Everywhere all at once, I said that he should be in a KFP film and I’m glad he is.

The Cons:

- The jokes are okay, the only one that made me laugh was Po choking on the flower petals. I hate fart jokes, I know that’s what made DreamWorks famous like Sherk but it doesn’t fit well with KFP. Hopefully that’s the only one and there are not too many gross jokes. 

- I like we’re getting new characters but I’m afraid they won’t be complex characters with arcs of their own but just there as comic relief. 

- I’m already annoyed by those crazy rabbits. 

- Tai Lung cannot catch a break. First, his chi was taken from Kai and now the Chameleon took his chi, I hope he doesn’t end up as a punching bag for the rest of the film. 

-I noticed there is a lack of a color theme, I had always theorized it would be purple but I keep seeing gold, green, and white. That’s not a good sign.

- Okay this is just my nick-pick but I was shocked to find out they got Viola Davis voicing the villain. I like her in some movies but she gives me this impression of those actresses with big egos. Honestly, her voice is nice but I need a full clip of her to get a full impression. 

- Lastly, there is no Furious Five. I saw how the fandom is freaking out about this, but I think they are in the movie, just not for long. While I’m sad we don’t see them, the reality is there really is no other purpose for them but to help Po. I still think they may show up at the end for the final battle. I don’t know what the actors are doing right now, but Seth Rogan came out with his movie this year, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, so he’s probably busy writing the sequel. As for Tigress, I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t have speaking lines because Angelia Jolie is too busy dealing with her personal issues and her divorce right now. 

=

Okay I got the pros and cons out of the way, now I want to talk about what I think may happen in KFP4. There are some things I’ve noticed in the trailer and I have too many theories and so many questions running in my head and I need to write it out. 

So Po’s Jade staff is definitely going play an important role in the story, it seem to have a connection to both the living world and the spiritual world. My guess is the Chameleon wants the staff for a higher purpose of her plan or she needs it to travel to the spirit world herself. We can see her summoning spirits over to the living world, capturing them, and literally eating their chi away. Chi is what helps the spirits stay in living world but Tai Lung’s chi was taken and we don’t know how this will affect him. He may be stuck there until he can get his chi back. 

I noticed in one shot of the trailer there are these strange boxes in the room where Tai Lung was fighting and I realized those are cages. The Chameleon is probably planning on keeping the villains as prisoners to take more chi from them. Knowing Po, he’s going to see this as wrong and wants to save the villains. I know it’s a stretch but I think it could happen. It would be so cool seeing Po, Tai Lung, Shen and Kai working together to take down the Chameleon.

But the question is what is her motive in all this? Why does she say to Po ‘we are not so different you and I’? If she is a powerful sorcerer then why does she need his staff? They better not say that she was never taken seriously enough, there’s gotta be more to it.

And there is Zhen, who I want to know the most. I’m sure they would show some flashbacks to her story and show why she became a criminal. For some reason, I keep thinking she maybe leading Po to a trap, which I hope that’s not the case, but she seems to know more than she lets on. Po didn’t know who the Chameleon was until Zhen explained to him and she knows where she lives. I hope she doesn’t end up being a backstabber because this character is supposed to be the next Dragon Warrior, it would be hard to forgive her if they went that route. 

But these are just my theories and questions that I have. There’s really nothing else to say other than despite my cons, I’m still hyped to see this film and praying to god this will be still good. They may put up another trailer later on, if it’s good enough I’ll write my reaction to it too.

But tell me what you guys think? 

[mhaynoot]

It can be argued that while Yoo Joonghyuk represents surviving under the cruel eye of an audience and Kim Namwoon the choice to hide under a delusion in order to survive an abusive situation, Lee Jihye could represent the guilt of living on through the sacrifice of another. As for Lee Hyunsung, he may represent may represent the difficulty of leaving the world that you’ve managed to comfortably craft for yourself in order to live in the cruel reality, as evident in the Master of Steel arc. We could extend this even further to Yoosung, who as a child has to live knowing there’s blood on her hands and believing herself to be bad, and to Uriel in that the act of observing another’s story does not necessarily denote you as cruel, and in fact can be a sign of your empathy as well.

In short, tls123 may have crafted key characters in the world of Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse to represent specific facets of Kim Dokja as an individual, thus strengthening his ability to attach himself to the story even further and allows the author to construct the messages she intended to convey to her reader as best she could. In this essay I will

a-anon? you could've at least asked me on a date first before proposing

if this is a seduction technique you're winning because im demi but if you keep talking about your essay, I'll fucking kneel on the ground for you anon alskdkd

okay youre so right though

hsy wrote wos so that kdj could survive, she embodied each character with the intent to help kdj live.

yoo joonghyuk was his ideal, his brother, his father, his oldest friend. kdj wanted to become him, wanted to continue living, to surviving just like him.

okay, essentially, another lense you can consider in this point is how all the other original wos characters and their relationship with yjh is also pivotal in constructing hsy's message and intent so that kdj can survive. for example, there's already so many jokes about kim namwoon being hsy insert of kdj and thats why kdj hated knw so much but its a perfectly good point. knw was a delusional chuuni who distorted the world and socially acceptable morals so much into his own ideals to simply survive. but he was a kid, a teenager. he lived an okay life but was thrust into hell. and yoo joonghyuk always picked him up, always picked him and saved him and took him under his wings. even when he became mad when using the power of abyssal black flame dragon, yjh always picked him up. kdj seeing someone so close to him hated knw and yet was extremely jealous and longing for that level of reassurance. even if he was useful, kdj couldn't understand why this chuuni delulu was always picked by yjh but saw that his idol did. and kdj was saved knowing that if someone as annoying as knw could be useful, he could be too.

likewise, lee jihye represents surviving at the cost of someone else's sacrifice but also another representative of kdj's longing for a mentor figure. she and knw who yjh always picked and, while in the later regressions he used them, in the beginning he still looked after them, raised them through the hell of scenarios. these early regression chapters would have also been released during kdj's high school, where under the reign of his bullies and right after his attempt, kdj probably read this and saw himself in knw and ljy's place, being cared for by yjh.

everything you said about lee hyunsung is perfect but another aspect you can consider is that while he was comfortable in his life as a soldier, lhs also kinda hated it i think? i always thought he didnt like it and in my interpretation he thought following orders and being part of the military was all he could be and restricted himself to that label because going beyond that was confusing and scary ordeal. ahem, parallels to kdj who restricted himself to the label of murderer's child and the other labels he attached to himself later on which always made him into a villain of his own inner narration. additionally, kdj's time in the military was also terribly unlucky, horrible and he despised it. maybe reading about lhs's juxtaposing feelings of both comfort and dislike was another source of comfort for kdj while he was in the military.

lhs' relationship with yjh was probably closer to that of a comrade but still someone who was guided by yjh. he was yjh's and party's strongedt shield. he was also their strongest sword. lhs is a loyal, upright man but even he could kill for the sake of love.

ah mmm sys is a complicated matter while yes she is a blood stained child who was definitely a companion to yjh for some regressions, she was also the calamity for quite a few of them and someone who yjh killed as a child so that her future self didn't wreck the world. which is ... wow foreshadowing for kdj and od i guess. but she was also someone who loyally followed her captain, who spent thousands of years in the dark of the universe to bear him information, who gladly discarded herself for him. allsk more parallels wow.

you're definitely right about uriel being a representative of how not all constellations are cruel even in the og!wos. even if yjh still hated them, he could not hate uriel or kdj later on. otherwise his 999th turn, he would not have given his all to his companions which included her too. because even though she was a viewer of his story, she loved the story. while our perception of uriel is mostly based on how she is in the 1864th turn, from what we saw of 999th and 1863rd turn, we know of her passion, her grief, her destruction and her love. that for all her power, she still could not save the two she loved in those turns. she could not save her eden.

but yeah sorry that was a gigantic ramble i dont even know made any sense, anyways anon about that wedding-

[willel]

I think a lot of horror movies lose their charm when they try to take the one iconic villain and spread them thin in places that barely make sense or at all.

Take Candyman for example. The first movie is like..... perfection. He is an AMAZING villain. There's more to him than just a typical slasher. History, racism, lynching, segregation, revenge, it's all tied up in a messy little bow.

Then they created the second and third movie... two movies I couldn't even sit through. They overcomplicated the original story. They took his ultimate desire (Helen) and tried to copy and paste it onto different characters which made no sense.

The third movie, or the "true sequel" did it a little better tying in the main character into the first movie. Like, of COURSE Candyman would be interested in him. (I'm not the biggest fan of this movie but I it was alright. I wish there was.... "more".)

Another example is Chucky, which spurred this post. Child's Play was always a little goofy but... it was also kinda serious? I mean, he was no joke and pretty scary. A serious threat with sometimes comedic quips. It used to be a very contained story revolving around this one boy and an evil doll. There was a reason this one kid was necessary and why he'd kill anyone that got in the way. I don't remember the sequels that well but I think at least the 2nd sequel was alright.

Now whenever I see new Chucky content.... it all seems like a joke. He doesn't... "fit", to me. That era of doll is over so he's just awkward now. I think M3GAN was a step in the right direction, sorta taking the concept of Chucky and bringing it into the modern age. I don't care about any of these other random kids or the people Chucky kills anymore, they're irrelevant.

This all leads me to Stranger Things. To be honest, Stranger Things barely fits in the horror category for me. They keep talking about spin offs, the play, even the novels and comics at this point.

It's getting... too big. If they decide to do spin offs and stuff, what are they gonna do? Target some other kids and their friends and family? Why should I care about some random other people though? It'll just be a monster of the week situation.

"Oooo the Mind Flayer wants THIS kid now because they got super duper powers just like El but even moreeeee gasp! And their unnamed abusive parents are somehow involved!!! Gasp!!! And this government is chasing them so their friends have to hide them! Ooooo"

I've been wondering if I will continue to care. Hm.

[afreakingdork]

Lmao, ofc he'd send walls of sappy texts. The little weirdo.

Urgh, good for him Darling is into that shit.

Glhfkcjxj

I actually had this happen to BF and I once where I was late and he went to meet me halfway and we eneded up missing each other. This shit's hilarious, I love it.

I don't think Donnie would mind dating a criminal as long as they didn't actually hurt people. Hn, maybe I should write him dating a thief one day lmao.

"Ravishing."

Omg what a sap.

DALE!

Ahahah, ogle him. Dayum those ~~~muscles~~~

He's extremely villain themed every time he frikin opens his mouth.

Purple is a villain color too.

I like that Leo is so offended on his bro's behalf. He worked hard for this relationship.

Oh shit why is the crab with Darling.

I am more afraid of Mikey than any of the others.

The image of Don in only pants and boots and a too-small coat barely hanging off his shoulders, panicking like a weeb cause his Darling took two steps away is... precious.

Guh. That was too cute. I'm dead now.

If you ever write snippets of their life or the fam meddling, or meeting Splinter. I might just go to heaven. But this was a damn satisfying story.

Thank you for sharing it and see you in the next one!

Love, Toodles.

I'm glad someone mentioned Dale. I thought him following April into her line of work was a very funny idea, but I also think all my dumb jokes are funny! 😂

I don't know why I made Mikey so scary in my fic. He haunts reader. Irl I adore Mike and am probably the most like him!

I'm glad the image of Don with the coat hanging off his shoulders stuck in your mind. It was visceral for me, but I can never tell if that translates!

Thank you so so much Toodles! I'll be seeing ya real soon! 😉

[molluskmirage]

something has been bothering me about philza’s interactions towards bad so Id like to dissect it here

So this has been happening for awhile but its not till a year later during this squidcraft 3 event that it is abundantly clear. Philza has been talking about how ominous and ruthless Bad is and it makes me go ?????? Have you met him? It took me all of 2 seconds observing Bad to understand he is the most sentimental, patient and caring individual to a fault. Dude would save a blank piece of paper if you gave it to him. A great majority of his streams are dedicated to thanking mods, praising developers, troubleshooting coding issues, and offering any help he can at any point to anyone in his vicinity. He can talk some sass and lies but he rarely if ever acts upon it always prioritizing the well being of others before himself. He is also not as popular a streamer probably because of a lot of these factors. During Purgatory they were all in a lore setting where Bad was without the people he prized most of the server and was promised them if he won. So naturally he was playing to win (something he doesn’t often do). Bad isnt as skilled as some of the players so he relies on tactics and strategies. Some being of scare tactics.

Philza is a stronger player. A more popular player. During purgatory there was an excuse of ‘lore’ reasons why he was talking Bad up into this scary figure but even then Phill did not talk down his thoughts he fanned his teammates feelings and his audience making a total nightmare villain out of Bad that persisted even to this day. Tubbo had more kills then Bad. Fit had more kills then Bad. Etoiles had more kills then Bad but Bad was made into public enemy number one. Phil said things like ‘Bad doesn’t care about others feelings’ while at that very moment Bad is crying from the events that unfolded. Phil won, but he still was wary around Bad always mentioning or alluding to distrust or saying things about Bad that was completely out of character for Bad. With the qsmp you could say it was lore and that phil was simply adding to the character that Bad played, but when Bad was getting so much hate for being both made into a villain and having a smaller audience Phil never spoke to his audience about going easy towards Bad and it left a bad taste in my mouth (maybe I missed it but he said a lot of things to fan flames). It carried over for Bad in purgatory 2. and now Squidcraft 3 over a year later with no excuse of lore Phil has been saying so many things anout Bad that dont at all match his character. Bad’s spent the majority of his time offering technical help or strategy to any player in his vicinity. Even out of his vicinity he specifically searches for individuals struggling with audio or controls. Locating newer players and offering them any comfort and advice he can. Maybe its an inside joke for Phil that im misunderstanding but I dont get it and given the hate I have seen flung towards Bad many others dont either. If this were a regular group of friends/colleagues this wouldn’t matter but its not Phil is much more popular then Bad and as such its his responsibility to add disclaimers for his audience for situations like these. That to me is the proper course of action but from what I have seen Phil does not want to offer this hand and fundamentally does not understand Bad, nor do I think he cares too but still in this position you need to be cordial as it can get out of hand quickly.

mostly it just doesn’t give me a good impression of him, but I understand others do like him and I can understand what they like and dont wish to rain on that parade. He just in my opinion hasnt been treating Bad very kindly and it feels unfortunate, a lot of micro aggression feels present and feels uncomfortable to watch at times. (Grand scheme of things not a huge issue just one that has kind of irked me so I like to explore why it bothers me.)

[tumblingxelian]

I have issues with how Azula was handled but it has far less to do with her not getting a redemption arc than it does almost everything else surrounding her character that the writers either did intentionally or never dealt with.

I can't do a full list right now but off the cuff:

One: Its pretty obvious Azula was the un-favorite amongst everyone but Ozai.

Ursa was happy to openly wonder what was 'wrong' with her, but when Zuko injures animals for fun she gently explains why he shouldn't do it. Iroh sends Zuko a super important dagger and symbol of victory, Azula gets a shitty doll he grabbed from some store and its likely murdered inhabitants. Ursa, Zuko & Azula all find Iroh's joke about scorching Ba Sing Se to the ground hilarious but only Azula is framed as inherently evil for this stuff.

Two: Azula is framed and treated as more of an adult than Zuko is by the writers. Zuko is just a confused lost boy whose negative actions are never allowed to get far enough to seriously hurt anybody but bad guys. He also often gets embarrassed after trying to be scary or having been scary to make him seem less threatening.

In contrast Azula's voice, her mannerism, the framing in that season 3 bed chamber scene, make up, general demeanor and framing as a combatant in general all are done to ensure she is as threatening and "Mature" as possible. While ignoring that she is essentially a 14 year old child soldier clearly used to being on campaign already.

Three: Azula is treated as some kind of horrific, amoral monster by Iroh from the second she shows up. This is despite the fact she's done significantly less evil than him and has had zero positive influences to combat what Ozai has taught her.

What's more, the series itself is inherently incoherent on one of its main thematic themes. Iroh will not fight Ozai because it would just be brother fighting brother for power, but Azula, Zuko's younger sister who conquered Ba Sing Se in a bloodless coup as opposed to blitzing it? Well, "She's crazy and needs to go down."

Four: I found Azula's entire breakdown rather poorly done in general.

To me it very much comes out of nowhere, not because being betrayed wouldn't be upsetting, but the ensuing degree of hallucinations and mania seem to come on awful quick for someone who showed zero symptoms like a day earlier.

(This also applies to her shift from "Lets take Ba Sing Se bloodlessly" to "Let's burn everything muahahahahaha.")

What's more, how do Zuko & Katara even know, hell think they are going to get anywhere near Azula's coronation without being bombarded by comet powered Firebenders and Dai-Li agents?

They have no reason to know Azula's become a paranoid wreck who has totally isolated herself but they just drift in on Appa like the capitals palace is any given town with only one villain there to threaten them.

That is to say, Azula's breakdown seems less like something foreshadowed and more like something done to her by the writers just so they wouldn't have to deal with anything difficult regarding Zuko becoming Fire Lord ETC.

Five: The "Fear is the only reliable way" angle from the above breakdown feels... Weird, to me. Not to say Azula doesn't utilize fear, she intimidated Ty Lee into coming with her and made herself imposing to the Dai-Li.

However, she also sought out Ty Lee as a friend first, as noted took Ba Sing Se bloodlessly and Mai up until season 3 never showed any real fear of Azula. Happily ignored her orders even if it sabotaged the mission & never faced any reprisal & even basically mocked Azula when the drill plan failed after choosing not to help.

Conclusion: Azula is a great character, however, I think she is used far more as a plot device than as a character in season 3 and it is to her and the shows detriment.

I just finished rewatching ATLA and I have to say…

Absolutely insane to me that people were insisting that Azula not getting a redemption was “misogynistic” and some kind of writing mistake. The girl told her dad to commit mass genocide.

[thecynicalcinephile]

So, About Haunted Mansion (2023),

Fans of the ride, like myself, will have a delightful time thanks to the abundance of easter eggs, some of which are relatively deep cuts. Everyone else will get a few good laughs, but the film is ultimately hollow with no real heart whatsoever.

Right off the bat, this film makes the too-common mistake of placing far too much emphasis on the emotions and interpersonal relationships between the human characters. Don't get me wrong, those things are important, but this sort of film needs to be about spectacle if it's going to work. There are scenes in here where you can feel that the directors understood that, with ghosts flying around every which way and maniacal laughter echoing through the halls, but then it immediately cuts to a quiet restrained scene that takes any tension established by the previous scene and throws it out the window. One instance of this, near the end of the film, literally made me facepalm at the sheer stupidity of it.

In theory this could've worked with a better script, editing, or acting, but either way there's something just not there. These quiet emotional scenes have no positive effect on the film because at no point am I even remotely convinced that any of these characters feel any deep emotion whatsoever. You can't spend half your runtime on an emotional subplot if there's no actual emotion in it.

And of course if we're going to talk about the subplot, we should probably talk about the main plot. More specifically, the villain. The whole plot of this film is that the Hatbox Ghost is the scariest thing in the mansion, to the point that every other ghost is terrified of him, and he's performing some ritual that needs 1000 souls and if the ritual succeeds he'll be able to... do something bad? Maybe? We never get any details other than a frowny face, which doesn't do a lot to establish the stakes. Also it's implied that he created the mansion, but also stated that he came there through a seance, so which is it? Make up your mind.

But of course, the effects are usually good in most scenes and there are a few good jokes, so there's that. There are also some very lovely scenes where the assorted ghosts in the mansion are actually allowed to properly interact with the main cast and serve as full characters, which were very enjoyable. If only we'd gotten more of that.

As a die-hard fan of the ride, I do also have to give a shoutout to some other elements of the film. For instance, although we knew this film took place at the Anaheim mansion, bringing in the Florida mansion as well in Act 3 nearly made me jump out of my seat. I also can't help but feel that the scene with Constance leaving her portrait was a reference to an early concept for the ride, and that the brief scene where a ghost possesses a candle was a reference to everyone's favorite abandoned concept, the wax candle man. I also appreciated how many inventions of the film would still feel right at home in the ride, such as the kid's bed which resembles a massive set of jaws.

However, this is a double-edged sword, because as a fan there were also a number of things I definitely did not like. Biggest of all, Constance Hatchaway herself, the most iconic ghost in the mansion, one of the few characters in the ride who is supposed to be actually scary, gets about two sequences before she is reduced to just another ghost in the crowd. She is the undisputed most important piece of the Haunted Mansion narrative, and one of the only characters with solid lore, and yet she's almost brushed aside.

Additionally, this film makes what I feel is a very big mistake in the fact that they gave the Hatbox Ghost a name and a backstory. The beautiful thing about the mansion ride is that there's almost no fixed lore. Every character is an invitation to come up with your own headcannons for who they are and what their deal is. This has always gone double for Hatbox, since he was practically an urban legend for decades. Giving him a name robs him of the mysteriousness that drew fans to him in the first place. You may as well just make a whole new character instead.

At the end of the day, there are three Haunted Mansion movies: The Eddie Murphy one, the Muppets one, and this one. I really wanted to like this one and hoped it would beat the others by a mile. Unfortunately, it seems the Muppets one still reigns supreme, with this one only somewhat beating out Murphy's. Whereas you might get some fun out of this, I must strongly recommend waiting for the inevitable Disney+ release in a few months.