#they fix the body swap in another episode

[girl4music]

Yep. They actually did this.

What we now know as “And they were roommates” was “And they were soulmates”

And at this point in the show, there was absolutely no denying that Xena and Gabrielle were a couple.

I remember Renee talking about this scene in her commentary for it as the director of the episode and she said the reason they did this was because they knew while Xena was reincarnated into Joxer’s body, they could absolutely get away with the kiss even though it meant that it was Xena kissing Gabrielle.

Apparently the studio censors didn’t really care about the context of the scene, so long as it didn’t look like a woman was kissing another woman. So they did it. Again - because the cast/crew wanted it. Not because it was a way that they could ‘bait’ a queer audience.

[lemotmo]

Ask box is still closed but they commented on the deleted scene. First activity from them in days.

Technically I'm still on blog sabbatical but that deleted clip was a wild choice. There's a lot to unpack in that very short scene and none of it is very flattering for Tommy. The medal comment when Hen and Karen asked about his intentions was immature and blatant deflection. It was also cringe, the wtf facial pout he added didn't help. What I don't know though is if the lines are meant to come across as cringey or if his delivery is what's off. And that was just the first cringe moment. He only made it worse after that. Saying they're going slow, and he's letting Buck set the pace was good, he should be following Buck's lead, but then he immediately made a sexual innuendo joke, and yet another wtf facial expression choice. I know the rule tends to be that since it was deleted we can't count it as canon, but knowing that he saw the way Hen and Karen reacted to that conversation, and still followed it up by turning another meaningful conversation attempt, this time by Buck, into another sex joke, an even more immature and gross one, is certainly a writing choice. And clearly a deliberate one.

That wasn't even the most alarming part of that scene though. The diet comment about Buck is a warning siren if ever there was one. That line was concerning because it is absolutely a call back to Buck 1.0 who believed the only thing he could offer anyone was his physical appeal and he was obsessed with keeping his body to a certain standard. The fact that we now have Tommy making multiple comments about their physical relationship, and Buck's appearance, is not good. Especially when you couple those comments with the other scenes of him dismissing Buck's excitement and overzealous personality. None of that spells a healthy relationship for Buck, the character the show cares about. It continues to show Buck's very unhealthy dating pattern of settling for people who are physically attracted to him but don't seem to genuinely like the person he actually is. It's actually kind of fascinating.

I genuinely liked the Tommy of episodes 1-4, probably not coincidentally the length of his originally planned arc. He was written well in those episodes, he worked. I'm also now pretty convinced that those first 4 scripts were kept pretty much intact to when Eddie was the plan. They clearly put effort into him originally. Everything that came after 7x4 went increasingly downhill, and that's because they hadn't actually planned anything for him after that episode. If they had been able to stick with the original Eddie plan he would have been gone after episode 4 because the kiss would have been all that was required to initiate Eddie's spiral. Once they had to swap Eddie for Buck they had to change their plan because Buck was already searching for something so the kiss wasn't going to be enough to make Buck spiral. Which means they still need to get Buck to whatever the plan for him was but now they have to do it through Tommy. They're not going to put effort into Tommy because after 7x4 he became a textbook plot device. His scenes and dialogue are now strictly to move the story forward, and nothing more. It's why he seems so different now. What's interesting is if Buck's spiral is now going to result from him back sliding from all the personel growth he has had since Buck 1.0. All the work Buck has put into growing himself as a person and working on himself. That's why the diet comment was so concerning. It's the old Buck. If he thought figuring out he was bi was the last piece of the puzzle and he should feel 'fixed' now, but Tommy and their relationship still feels mostly physical he may revert back to believing he really doesn't have anything else to offer. A return of Buck 1.0, and a version of himself that Buck has referenced frequently he believes Eddie wouldn't have liked. I'm probably giving the show way too much credit but this would work and it would be fascinating to watch.

Thank you so much for sending this and the next one to me Nonny! :)

A day after the first one, the anonymous OP made another post about the deleted scene. I will paste it here as well, so these two posts can be read together.

I put it under a cut to save all your dashboards from clogging up. :)

All right, so first of all, I agree on so many things in these two posts. In the beginning Tommy was 'okay'. I didn't love him, but he was an okay character and love interest for Buck. But as the show went on he just became worse and worse as a character. To the point where a lot of people who liked him in the beginning actively started disliking and hating him. And most of it is tied in with the way he treats Buck and talks about Buck.

And ultimately I do think this is the whole goal of the show. They are doing their absolute best to show us that Tommy is NOT a good guy and definitely not a good match for Buck. By posting this deleted scene they are once again trying to make that point.

Unfortunately this message just flies over some people's heads and all they see is a this fantasy headcanon Lou told them about. They aren't watching the show as it is, they are actively trying to mold the show and BT into something it isn't.

I can't possibly explain any of this better than the OP, especially the part about Buck's body image. So I'll let them speak, but I agree so much with what they say.

One last thing I personally want to add is this:

Whenever Tommy opens his mouth, everything gets reduced to sexual innuendo and/or a dumb sex joke. And when it isn't about sex, it's him being extremely dismissive and negative in anything he says to Buck or some of the other characters.

This is also a thing that got transferred to the BT fandom in general. Everything Tommy does or says is over sexualised by a lot of the fans, in posts, messages, pictures and fics it quite often boils down to sex.

Now, I have nothing against sex. I realise sex is a part of the human experience, even for fictional characters, but to make it so that all that ties this couple together is sex? That is not what Buck is about. We know that about him. He has canonically been established as someone who is looking for love, a connection, a family...

So, why don't they talk more about the real deep canon love connection BT have on screen? I'll tell you why. It's because there is no canon love connection between them whatsoever. Tommy has no depth as a character. He is there for a specific purpose, a plot device to help Buck navigate his way through a new phase in life. That's it. The only emotional connection Buck and Tommy have is fabricated in, yet again, a Lou cameo headcanon that probably cost 200 dollars.

In the deleted scene between Tommy and Henren we see him at his worst and it's clear that Henren do not like or trust him. And yes, I kinda get why the OP would have wanted that scene in the episode, because it would have shown us -once again- that Tommy's intentions for Buck are mostly just about sex. This isn't anything serious. This is about sex. He tried with Eddie, realised it didn't work so he moved on to Buck when he saw how confused Buck was about whose attention he was trying to get.

I have no doubt he probably likes Buck, but he has no deeper intention beyond the sexual aspect of the relationship.

I said what I said. Don't come at me. This is my blog and I can respectfully blog about my opinion here. No ship hate here. Just common sense.

Remember, no hate in comments or reblogs. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of the anonymous OP’s posts, you can find all of their posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[lumineary-arts]

Saw you ask about ppls AUs uh

Most of mine, admittingly, don't have designs yet. At least not drawn ones. Oops!!

But I can like?? Still ramble ig?

I also have a swap AU! I haven't posted a lot ab it, but it's called Solver Shift.

In it I put Sam in Cyns place. So the DDs have pink accents (wasn't comfortable using Doll and making them red, despite barely drawing DD armbands anyways - personally at least)

Some places I'm still unsure about, like idk whether Khan and Nori should be direct swaps with Ron & Tessa or should be put in Tessas parents position. If I go the latter idk who to put in Tessas place lol.

Ron and Tessa weren't actually ever romantically involved. They were just best friends, and were like "well we live together, we both kinda wanna know what having kids is like. So let's raise one together"; insert Nuke (N) being built. Tess survived a few years into his life, they built Cyn and then yada yada you know the story - dead mom

If it wasn't obvious by Ns name, the rail gun gets replaced by explosives. Thank Cyn for that, it was her idea. (They both take canonverse Uzi her engineering skills, but Cyn takes the more unhinged aspect of the personality.) - Nuke was like "we gotta do something about the DDs but idk what!" And Cyn, sparkly eyed and all, was like "Let's blow them up!"

I need to figure out some episode stand ins seeing as Cyn is younger but still sticks to N like glue. Beau takes Dolls place, they'd be Similar in age to Cyn (aka I gotta give them a body design F)

Oh also, as for befriending the DDs -- whilst Ep1 would run similar to canon; after that Thad/T would bond faster with the siblings than Uzi/Z bc they keep their canonverse personalities mostly!! So that's a reverse. Also T wouldnt want to kill the Prom unlike V, he just genuinely wants to make friends 😭

Don't ask me why Beau is at the prom, being younger and all. Might just make it an all years general prom rather than just the graduating class.

Next AU yay

Blood & Bats is a Vampire/Human AU! DDS and Solver Drones are vampires, you get the gyst!

N & Cyn are bio siblings, got separated bc of a divorce. Eventually both were separately taken away for shitty parenting, one of which caused Cyn to get vampirism one way or another. She also has DID/OSDD1 in this AU, the Solver conciousness isn't an evil entity here, just s Persecutor under the definition of "Misguided Protector who hurts as a form of protection" -- they're basically just a terrified vampire kid who thinks they're a danger and thinks isolation is the only way to keep their lived ones safe.

At some point the Elliots adopt N, later Cyn too. They also have previously adopted V and J. As time goes on, the alphabet trio one by one get turned by Cyn/Solver but they catch her after that so Tessa never is turned.

Uzi is basically a half vampire. Her mom was one, her dad wasn't. I don't remember the details atm, but I assume I've posted them somewhere in the tag on my account, but iirc Khan killed Nori in a moment of shock and survival instinct when finding out. Uzi doesn't know this. She finds out later after being turned herself (on accident!) - either through N or Cyn. Might do N to draw a parallel to the miscommunication between ep 2 and 3. Bc yeah Uzi would assume it's on purpose and he broke a promise.

Once they fix things, she finds out about her dad killing her mom and she runs away from home, terrified he might kill her too -- she crashes at the siblings place OR Thads place. I'm not sure yet. Both have pros and cons.

Khan cant easily access the manor, needs to be at an event for it. But the parents would want Uzi OUT asap. On Thads end; Teacher (Thad and Lizzy are either step or half siblings idk yet) and Ron (uncle, moved in after his sister died to help with the kids!) Would not let Khan take Uzi home sending as they see her terrified. They don't know what happened. But Khan has easier access bc he's friends with Teacher and obviously Lizzy is there which Uzi isn't thrilled about.

That's as far as I can remember the storyline -- there would still be parallels to some episodes! Ep 4 would still happen! Just some would survive! Rebecca would be found by one of the alphabet trio and turned to save her life. She's wheelchair bound after that. Sam survives but everyone thinks he got too high and doesn't believe him when he talks rambling about Uzis vampire form (Becca keeps it secret bc like if she says something it by extension endangers the other vampires in the school which now includes herself)

Intertwined/Inteetwinjng Codes (Me when I keep going back and forth between both titles) is a next gen AU thing. It started off as a joke,,, oh well

Kids.

These little shits are twins, they started this whole rabbithole. They would boot up sometime after Ep 4.

Later on their parents would want to program another kid & adopt one. Invert Annika and Zagi, except unexpected thing happened and they now have two babies to upload. Insert Raven.

Annika is currently undergoing redesign, ignore how basic she looks compared to her siblings lol.

As for the last 2 kids -- they didn't WANT any more, but when being sent to another colony they run into this toddler with a baby, who are being attacked by other DDs so they step in. Whilst they argue with N, Uzi gets the kids to safety. They were gonna keep the kids at their place for that night but Olicia did NOT want to sleep in the same place as a DD & a ton of half DDs -- so Thad gets called at 3am 😭 hes the cool uncle to their kids so yk

Next day it turns out adoption wing is full, so the siblings get passed around Thad, Uzis dad and Nuzi a ton (their own colony got killed so they cant go back there) until Ray gets attached to Nuzi, and you shouldn't separate a baby from its bonded adults. Seeing as he already lost the code related parents, they didn't want to risk further hurting his programming. So the siblings were basically accidentally adopted by Nuzi, despite Olivia not being happy about it at first. But she didn't want to separate from Ray.

That's mostly that. Theres not too much lore tbh. Just a silly half joke AU.

Also I have 6 siblings IRL so I tend to like give my ship kids many siblings 😭 so ignore that fact lol, just projecting

Then theres like 3 more Cyn centric AUs.

2 are pretty small.

DD!Cyn AU that has no name yet is just the AS uploaded a copy of Cyn/the Base Drones conciousness into a DD body and kept her with the trio. That'll lead to major Identity crisis once Cyn realizes technically she's a clone and her memories aren't *hers*. Aside from that: Cyn and J constantly have beef bc of J abusing N, Cyn tries to get her to stop but just faces verbal abuse herself in return :(

Shes also pretty distrusting of Uzi at first bc like!! Nobody except Cyn ever spent time with N!! That's a Drone getting close to her big brother which possibly could hurt him in the long run if she turns out to be like the other teammates!! (She eventually warms up to her)

Then there is Trapped/Hivemind AU. Literally just Cyn trapped in the hivemind, unable to reach her body for control. She can HEAR the other Solver Drones and the DDs, as they're all part of the hivemind. But she can't communicate with them. No matter how hard she tries.

Especially when she hears N she will call out to him but not get a response

So shes probably on the brink of losing it

Then there is "Dormant" Absolute Solver

Originally it was gonna be "The AS lost interest in Cyn as a host" and ig it still kind of is correct-? I need to go back and forth between certain aspects lol

But long story short, Cyn now got a separate body from the AS, doesn't know it killed Tessa & comes to C9 with J & "Tessa". The AS just brought her as a tool to manipulate N with, but she doesn't know that. Cyn joins the group from ep 6 onwards. Yay more PTSD for the child I guess :)

I havent written out ep 6 yet but I think she'd be with N & "Tessa" for that part.

Ep 7 she ends up on the side of the rocks with Uzi, and walks at a distance after being told to basically F off bc Uzi doesn't trust her now but Cyn is scared to be alone. Uzi notices Cyn isn't okay tho.

(Varian tangled reference yay)

Might I add that seeing Uzis wings and tail in ep 6 would have majorly triggered Cyns PTSD but shes unaware of why she feels so scared. So seeing Uzis tail the whole time definitely adds onto the stress =)

During the fight Uzi would reach out to Cyn through the hivemind, both girls calling out to N through Cyns body. The AS doesn't like that and forcefully shuts Cyn down. It has admin rights over her after all.

By the time Cyn wakes up, the AS is grabbing her to blackmail N after just having eaten Doll. Talking about how he wouldnt want to hurt his baby sister (hes aiming his laser cannon at the AS for context). Then it gets bored, drops Cyn and the regular program ensures. Except Cyn took Tessas gun and shoots herself free from the tentacles and runs to the pit after seeing Nuzi be pulled in. Whilst shes there trying to figure out how to get them back up (seeing as she cant use her Solver on them, or at least not Uzi. The show us so unclear if it works on DDs or not) the scene goes on.

I'm not sure yet who Cyn will stick with, probably N bc I've more ideas. BUT also I'm waiting for episode 8 to decide that for sure. Same with the ending. I got multiple bad ending ideas and also a good ending :) ep 8 will determine which one will be canon :)

Oh yeah Cyn lol -- both new and old ref bc of the oil canister I didn't draw in the new one yet. She still has it as you can see by the oil tubes!

Also the Good!Ending DAS!N would run a Daycare post canon. IC!N also runs one. I just like having N work with kids.

Most of these (I think all except DD & Trappsd Cyn) are tagged on my account probably with some more info

Idk if the tags will show up tho bc they don't always for me when searching for them :(

My pinned post has the tags listed I think

I think that was all of them hm (istg if I forgot one 💀)

OKAY THIS ONE'S SUPER IN DEPTH I'M HEAVILY INTRIGUED. MULTIPLE AU'S DUDE!! I LOVE IT, KEEP EM COMING. Loving the ideas behind the swap AU. Putting Sam in Cyn's place is unique, I hadn't heard anyone do that before!! Also the thing about using pink is fair, I did use red but I didn't keep that in mind! A vampire AU's extremely fitting for Murder Drones, being a substitute for the Solver/Disassembly model. Since ep. 4 is my favorite, I love the fact it'd still play out here. Also I must say I REALLY like the next gen AU designs??? I actually kinda wish we saw more next gen stuff, or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Either way I very specifically love Rexim and Raven's designs, I think the color choices are really speaking to me. ALSO ALL THE CYN FANS ARE GONNA BE EATING UP THE CYN-CENTRIC AU'S. But it seems like the poor girl could never catch a break. WONDERFUL WORK ALL AROUND!!

[mdhwrites]

Would you consider explaining here, in your opinion, the decline of the Emperor's Coven as an antagonistic force or even broadly as a concept within TOH's world? And - if you don't mind me asking - do you think it had that much of an adverse effect on the series?

So I'm going to break this up into two sections to answer the two questions here. The first is going to be their decline and then why that had an actually pretty big adverse effect though not one you'll immediately feel. I'll do bold text and what not to help clarify in case you want to go to each.

The Decline of the Emperor's Coven

So it is important to recognize that there is a decline at all because it is important, regardless of how quickly it happens. The first time we see an EC guard is during the Covention demonstration in episode 5. Before then, we only have the bumbling guards of the Conformatorium as the protectors of the Isles. They have all magics, Lilith beats Eda in a witch's duel implying that she is even stronger than her, bare minimum due to not having the curse, and in general is treated with reverence. They fill out an entire stadium of people wanting to join them. Amity's biggest motivation and desire for the future is to join them. They're a BIG deal and implied to be real threats. Enough so that Eda will actually hide from them unlike in episode 1 where the regular guards made her not worry about needing a disguise of any sort. She isn't reckless with the guard but they are definitely less than the EC, even if not absolutely stated.

But... The decline starts almost immediately as the next time we see them is episode 8, Upon a Swap. Not only do they struggle with keeping Luz entirely under control while in Eda's body but they have a humiliating loss at the end of the episode when Eda swaps everyone's bodies around. I believe we still see some Conformatorium guards, something that effectively stops by S2 but this is the origin of Steve. Still, they lost Luz from other madness going on and the joke at the end is followed up by Lilith's resolve. It could be brushed off.

Unfortunately they don't really ever get another big moment. They turn into the name drop for turning in Eda but otherwise, until Agony of a Witch, we don't see any EC members besides Lilith. Unfortunately, Lilith just lets Eda go once, loses a Grugby match a different time and that's it for TEN. EPISODES. Mostly just jokes as Lilith refuses to actually do her job.

Until in Agony of a Witch, Lilith and an entire squad of scouts are beaten... By Hooty. As a joke. Yes, at the end of the episode, Lilith gets a big fight against Eda but this isn't an even fight like before. They use all the same spells they did in the previous fight but Lilith has to cheat in order to not be immediately obliterated by the power gap between her and Eda. It's not an intelligence thing either as Eda isn't using tactics besides BLOW THE FUCK UP ALREADY. Lilith has to be saved effectively by the timer running out on Eda's magic because she never had a chance. Even if she's acting high and mighty... It still leaves a worse impression for how good her magic and her ability to fight are and she is the COVEN HEAD.

Hunter does not fix this in S2 either. His accomplishments are: Bullies a couple people without magic.

Steals defenseless palisman before losing them.

Beats up Kikimora while she's under sleeping drugs.

Kind of a step down from Lilith getting to claim to have beaten the most powerful wild witch in the Isles, isn't it? On the influence on the Isles side, we don't get a lot but Amity forsakes them kind of just because. No argument or debate about this still being her world and her needing proof that Belos and the EC are evil or can't be changed from the inside. No, she's just now a wild witch because her girlfriend is because otherwise we don't get a reason. Worse, Sport in a Storm... exists? An episode where multiclassing students have less than zero interest in joining the Emperor's Coven despite that being the only way for them to legally practice the type of magic they want. Also, just by concept, it requires that people are so disinterested in the EC that they now have to actually try to recruit people versus 20 years ago when people would curse each other just for a chance into the limited positions available.

Hell, by the end, it seems like most EC guards are honestly one bad day away from quitting, with no repercussions, because of Steve and the guard Dana voices who goes to the cute cat coven which isn't even one of the big nine.

Also means that the cute coven joke, which happened three episodes before The Day of Unity where everyone needed specifically one of then sigils (though why EC coven members were affected without a representative in the ritual is unknown) had to go past Dana so many times she VOICED IT.

Sorry, got off track. On the power side, we only had Lilith before Hunter and Hunter doesn't have magic so the members have to keep up the slack. They are then immediately replaced with Abomatons and the Abomatons lose to... Everyone. They are literally never a credible threat except to Luz who had the worst chances of beating one when that came up because she already been worn down by the rest of the demonstration. Otherwise, the only moments the scouts or the abomatons are treated as real threats are when the Emerald Entrails are captured because they don't actually have a reason to fight them and cause problems for the school and when Amity tries to pretend Willow should be worried about them. Not all of them, only Willow and it's pointedly to make sure the audience knows that Amity is an idiot when it comes to Willow. That she is blatantly wrong about how much of a threat these guys are. That's still worse somehow than in Once Upon a Swap where they at least recognized these people could kick their asses without a distraction of some sort.

But that's how it falls. With how few times it shows up though, it raises a question:

2. Why Does the EC's Fall from Grace Matter?

It's actually pretty reasonable to wonder about this. Besides Hunter, they don't get a lot of appearances so why does it matter that they're inconsistent? Well... For one big reason:

They our only sign of Belos being a bad ruler. Of him being a dictator. Of him... At all. They exert his force more than even Hunter does because Hunter is constantly questioning him and not doing his job. For a villain like Belos, who is effectively not in the series for 90% of it since he doesn't take an active role until the Hollow Mind effectively, before then it's always just sweet words to people that are all lies, THAT'S A PROBLEM.

If we can't take his coven seriously... Why should take him seriously? Worse yet, why should we take Luz's opinion of him seriously? When she yells about him lying to people and she claims he's hurting people, you're left asking how? The guards are bumbling fools without direction or ability. Most of them, Hunter included, are just one push away from not doing their job. That's not what happens with a dictator and it's not what you should be thinking abut when EC members become the primary threat to our protagonists.

Instead, the show has no tension for its second half except against Belos effectively. Whenever EC members are around, victory or loss is just entirely plot dependent and we know that. That's how Willow can effortlessly bury a person and their abomaton and then they just... show up, covered in vines once we're actually pretending these people are threats. It's why they during the entirety of Labyrinth Runners, its only Gus and Hunter we're following because their lack of magic makes them able to be threatened while Amity and Willow getting in each other's way is the far larger threat than the trained soldiers. An abomaton and captain of the guard is just one not that fancy combo move away from being beaten because they're that little of a threat.

For an adventure show, that's just explicitly bad. From a thematic standpoint, it actually gets worse the more times WILLOW specifically beats them. After all, Willow is the poster child of the regime. She practiced the wrong type of magic at first before finding the one that the Titan blessed her to be able to be a master of. The more times she specifically beats the EC handedly, despite them using multiple magic types like Luz and Eda preach you should be able to... It makes you question if Belos isn't right. The evidence amongst the main characters, Gus included, is that he is and them conquering his forces better than Luz, Eda, Lilith, Barkus, Jerbo or Viney just reinforces that they're better.

Even Amity, who still only practices one type of magic, eventually beats the poster boy of the Emperor's Coven, something Luz never does in a fair fight. So is Belos wrong in thinking witches should only be using one coven?

Yes, him lying makes that the case but the show supports his arguments far more while also discrediting him as some grand tyrant who is a force that needs to be opposed. Hell, Terra tried to poison kids and its his guards, and his laws, that protect Eda and Raine during Them's the Breaks because why not? The EC scouts don't like doing evil. Steve and the cute cat coven members make that clear.

It discredits the final villain and ruins the themes while also just making the show worse at its genre. So yeah, it's a real problem... But only a problem if you think about it. If you care about the worldbuilding. Otherwise, the lack of stakes is the main one that will dig at the back of your brain because you'll want to be invested in what's happening but everytime a fight scene breaks out, it's nothing. Because you know the result.

And as Belos' only manifestation for absolutely the first season and arguably the second... That should be the last thing you feel when one a squad of these guys steps up.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

Cupid's Last Wish Final Thoughts

Watch It Or Drop It The Challenge

A fireworks show of a drama which suffered from a few awkward pauses and which, even though it ended with the dampest of squibs, was a joy to watch.

Strengths

I think part of the reason I held off on watching Cupid's Last Wish for so long was because I was a little leery on the whole "BL but with body swap" premise. Don't get me wrong, I actually love the concept of a good body swap plot, who doesn't, I just haven't seen it done well very often. Luckily, however, Cupid's Last Wish more than impresses on this part and what could have been a very messy plot indeed was instead an incredibly well executed exploration of the self, the body, and the complex relationship between them. Through it's central premise Cupid's Last Wish delved into themes of gender identity, gender dysphoria and, as @wen-kexing-apologist, @lurkingshan, and @so-much-yet-to-learn delve into in this post, maps out a truly trans experience and, for that, it shines.

Another strength of the show, linked directly to the body swap, was how well it handled the misunderstanding and miscommunication between the main pairing. Normally, when confronted with a romantic miscommunication situation in a drama, it makes me want to tear my hair out with how unnecessary it is and how easily it could be fixed but not here. I could literally see Korn sending the wrong message and Win completely misleading things and I could understand why. At no point (apart from perhaps the last 2 episodes which I'll get to in a bit) was I questioning why Win thought Korn was in love with Lin or how Korn was unable to see what his actions were communicating to Win.

A final two strengths (before I move on to the weaknesses) are the cast and the soundtrack. I won't go too into depth (after all I expected Earth and Mix to put on an excellent performance) but the dynamics between the central trio were fantastic and Jan and Mix sharing two dual roles was an impressive (and impressively convincing) sight to see. Likewise the soundtrack was pretty basic but effective, the use of Tillybird's "Just Being Friendly" was a highlight and I've had Mix and Earth's "Closer" on repeat for my own trip.

Weaknesses

For all that Cupid's Last Wish does right, I won't lie, it also does quite a bit wrong with the main issue being that as well thought out and as beautifully executed as the body swap plot line, everything else feels a little... half hearted, half baked, half done. The inheritance plotline felt silly within a second of it being introduced (I still don't get why Win was so angry or why he held the grudge for so long when everything we'd been shown up to the "big reveal" indicated he should have felt the opposite); the Aunt and Uncle were barely there and, brief attempted murder on the part of the Aunt aside, barely villains at all (and were actually quite reasonable once they got to have civil chat); and the whole plot twist with the mum being the homophobic mastermind behind Win and Korn's estrangement was so poorly done and so rushed I'm still angry about it (she did absolutely nothing to be forgiven and I can't believe her revelation was swept under the rug in seconds).

I wish I could say these were minor things but they were, technically, half the drama and really soured things when it was time to focus back on them. What really put the nail in the coffin though, is the fact that these weaker elements became the entire focus of the show in the final two episodes which meant it ended with a decidedly wet plop rather than with a bang.

Conclusion

There is much to love about this drama and perhaps even more to explore with regards to its central theme but unfortunately some of its weaker elements were just a little too loud to completely ignore. I would still rewatch it (in fact I plan to) and I would still recommend it to anyone thinking of giving it a go (and even foist on people who weren't thinking about it at all) but I would also say that I wouldn't judge anyone who decided to speed run the final 2 episodes.

Watch or Drop: WATCH (but with a minor warning)

Final Score: 7.5/10 (closer to an 8 than a 7)

Would I rewatch it: Yes, heck I even want to write meta about it if I can find the time.

Watch It Or Drop It Masterpost

[malsmemes]

 ☁️  𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬  ☁️

from the show! part one/episode one! some lines have been a little altered to make them fit in a broader sense!

❛ There are stories out there that need to be told. ❜

❛ Honesty is not a tactic. ❜

❛ I wasn’t sure you remembered me. ❜

❛ I have to be very careful whom I let in. ❜

❛ Yeah, well, things didn’t end well the last time. So forgive me if I’m a little nervous. ❜

❛ I was, admittedly, a rougher thing then. ❜

❛ I apologize. I apologize. I apologize. I was only tryna show you my love. ❜

❛ Hell, I mighta even said yes if you would’ve just asked. ❜

❛ Oh, forgive me. I... It was... There’s so much wine. ❜

❛ I’m havin’ a fuckin’ night, okay?! ❜

❛ A month from my wedding day, and what do I dream about? ❜

❛ Point of fact, I love them more than anyone on earth. ❜

❛ You know, you can always come here if you’re in need. ❜

❛ I don’t know much about what you’re saying. But it sure sounds nice.❜

❛ How’d you manage to get yourself through the front door? ❜

❛ I owe you everything. Please, join us. ❜

❛ My body was seized with weakness. Their gaze tied a string around my lungs, and I found myself immobilized. ❜

❛ I had planned to make a new life for myself in (place). That was to be my destiny. And now I know I was right. ❜

❛ You’re their destiny, (name). ❜

❛ Emasculation and admiration in equal measure. I wanted to murder the man, and I wanted to be the man. ❜

❛ I had come there for (name), but I left thinking of only them. ❜

❛ These men look down on you. ❜

❛ Ten percent. Fifteen percent. Do you not know your value? ❜

❛ Do you suffer these indignities for some larger purpose? ❜

❛ I believe there is great opportunity in this city, but to seize it, I’ll need protection from the wolves. ❜

❛ It was a cold winter that year, and (name) was my coal fire. ❜

❛ And I found myself for the very first time, to anyone other than (name), confiding my struggles in another. ❜

❛ I was being hunted. And I was completely unaware it was happening. ❜

❛ And what exactly is the nature of your relationship? ❜

❛ It’s the humidity. It does that sometimes. ❜

❛ You sayin’ I have shame? ❜

❛ You don’t need to defend yourself from me, (name). ❜

❛ Do you remember the best you ever had? ❜

❛ I had never allowed myself to feel emotionally close to anyone. ❜

❛ I shut that night out of my mind and turned my attentions back to life as it was before. ❜

❛ Quit talkin’. I have to concentrate. ❜

❛ You’ve been avoiding me. ❜

❛ And rather than fix it like I should I run like a coward. ❜

❛ Do you think God heard you, (name)? ❜

❛ I’m not the devil, you were wrong about that. But I can give you death. ❜

❛ It has shackled you in permanent exile. ❜

❛ Every room you enter, every hat you are forced to wear, all these roles you conform to and none of them your true nature. ❜

❛ What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow. ❜

❛ The first time I laid eyes on you, your beautiful face, I saw that sorrow. ❜

❛ The first time I laid eyes on you, your beautiful face, I saw that sorrow. I did not know how it got there or why it was so voluminous. I can take away that sorrow, (name). ❜

❛ I can give you that death you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate, nonexistent god for. ❜

❛ I can give you that death you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate, nonexistent god for. But I can do it... joyfully. ❜

❛ I can swap this life of shame, swap it out for a dark gift and a power you can’t begin to imagine. ❜

❛ You just have to ask me for it. ❜

❛ You just have to nod your beautiful head.. and say yes. ❜

❛ I love you, (name). You are loved. ❜

❛ I send my love to you, and you send it back round to me. And this circle, this home we’ve barely begin to have a glimpse of... know it frightens me as much as it does you. ❜

❛ It is difficult to explain how their words disarmed me, how efficiently succinct and impenetrable his argument was. ❜

❛ All my conceptions, even my guilt and my wish to die seemed utterly unimportant, and I completely forgot myself and the barbaric scene that surrounded me. ❜

❛ For the first time in my life I was seen. ❜

❛ Be all the beautiful things you are, and be them without apology. ❜

❛ The blood, it came as a dull roar at first. And then a pounding, like the pounding of a drum, growing louder and louder. ❜

❛ I opened my eyes, and it was then that I realized the drum was my heart, and the other drum had been theirs. ❜

❛ I saw them sitting a length away from me. Radiant. And we sat there for some time. In throes of increasing wonder. ❜

[so-long-soldier-writes]

Author about the body swap thing I wanted to ask for headcannons but I accidentally wrote fic lmaoo. Please do whatever u are comfortable with. Yoh know everyones gonna eat it up everything and anything u write coz u are such a godsend and so good at writing it

Awwhhh, you're so sweet!! Thank you! 🩷🩷 I have taken literally FORVER to type this up, and to be honest, I've been brainstorming it, and then in the last hour, FINALLY found my words! I'm no good at body swap, so I hope this is kinda what you were looking for, but if not, I can take another stab at it 😅

SO i have two thoughts in mind about this - a body swap where you're just friends-ish / mutuals, but also one where you're in an established relationship

also, this post is kinda all over the place, and i'm so sorry for that, lmao, idk what happened

i'll try to organize my thoughts

~ FRIENDS / MUTUALS ~

admittedly, i read some body swap fics on ao3 prior to writing this, just to get the idea, but my brain will always go back to the episode of supernatural where some kid switched bodies with Sam

can you imagine a spell going wrong and one day you wake up ~biologically~ where you're not supposed to be?? like wtf

like imagine kai was doing a spell - maybe a complicated gemini spell he didn't understand, or a love attracting spell (bc he has a crush on you) type spell, or maybe he's just fucking around, or maybe he's not to blame and someone else cursed him, OR, maybe, YOU fucked around

either way, you wake up the next day to a huge problem, bc you know him, but not that well, and now you gotta fix it

[a bit of heretic!kai]

ooh ooh imagine one of the heretics, or even lily, did the spell to get back at you both

or maybe mary louise knows you have a crush on him so she takes matters into her own hands

or lily's just stale that kai won't listen to her and stay in the house, so she did it to fuck with him

~ back to the main thoughts ~

no matter how it happened, it happened

you wake up totally not in your body and it takes you a minute to determine who's you have

and the horror / excitement / confusion you feel when you realize kai is in yours is unmatched

i mean… he's cute… the urge is explore is STRONG, but you can't do that without consent

and kai is facing the same issue

but you do have to look at each other?? yourselves?? to get dressed, so you both allow a little sneak peak as you do that, but that's IT

then, as soon as you're ready and build a bit of confidence to confront the situation, you're both out to find each other

if kai did the spell bc of a love spell gone wrong, he's gonna be a hot mess

trying not to stutter, no eye contact, shuffling feet, biting his lip

if he did it on accident trying another spell, he'll be nervous, but more capable of explaining the mess; "it was a 2 person spell; i thought with luke i could; i'm looking for a solution"

if someone else cursed you both, you'd meet up with ???'s dancing in your heads

aware you're definitely in each other's bodies but having no clue what to do about it

[switched by someone else / swapped as a curse or payback]

can you imagine?? if you're cursed, and it becomes a multi-day thing as you try to figure out whodunnit??

you spend all day together narrowing down your list of vengeful enemies, trying out reversal spells, siphoning magic from yours to his, but never finding a solution

and then by the end of the day, you get this really weird feeling and you don't want to be separated from your own damn body, so kai sleeps on your couch and you take to your bed

but even that distance feels weird, so he ends up in your bed and your hands are touching, and maybe your legs are tangled just a bit

and when you wake up, you're still in each other's bodies, so it's upsetting, but also a relief that you have each other's, and your body didn't do a second jump overnight??

at some point, you tried calling your old friend, kol, who had been body swapped before, but his situation was very different

he kept dying and that's why he jumped twice, but his mother might have some answers if they read her grimoire

so you borrow the big old dusty ass book and kai eventually manages to undo the spell

but after that, kol is very adamant about the dangerous gemini not having any access to his family's magic, to which you can agree is valid, and kai thinks is "fair"

besides, covens are very particular about grimoires being in their own families, so kai can understand his concern

so the book is dutifully returned without kai having anymore access to it

when your curser learns you reversed the spell, they're not happy, but don't try again

kai is already gemini, and now you're working with mikaelsons, and you're already close with kol, and now kai, too, by working so close to him and sharing his literal body and sleeping with him bc it feels weird to not sleep with your own body, so the curser doesn't try again

but they are stale af for the rest of their life

but not stupid enough to try again

[plain, old, experimentative, backfired spell]

if kai's own dumb spell backfired and switched you, he'll come clean about it quickly

he'd probably be so nonchalant about it, but secretly screaming inside

and then you ofc don't know a reversal, so you spend all day with him looking for one

maybe you can't find one, so you're forced to call his dad

his dad berates him over the phone so strongly, and gives you a little insight to what his childhood may have been like

you feel some sympathy for the kid, and get why he felt the need to become the leader so bad // to feel some control over his domineering father

once you get unswitched, you force him into a conversation about how you want to be friends with him; how the situation helped you understand him better; how you've actually really liked spending time with him... but would like to do that in your own body

after some hesitation, bc he doesn't trust easily, he agrees

explaining to your friends that an unexpected body swap led to your friendship raises some eyebrows, but you're confident in your decision to befriend kai

you both could use a friend, and hey, maybe it'll help to have him in the long-run with MF drama

[love spell gone wrong]

poor guy just wanted a perfume-equivalent spell, or a little extra added charm, or something like that, but instead he swapped your fucking bodies

the process of working out this accident occur much like the previous backfired spell, except kai doesn't know how to admit his original intent, and therefore, doesn't

it isn't until you actually ask what he was trying to do, once you're already unswitched, that he blurts it out without meaning to

but all is well, as you admit a little crush of your own on the siphon, but had no clue how to admit it

from there, you kind of start as friends that kiss each other, but as trust grows, so does your relationship

his confidence grows, too, and he gets less shy

one morning that you've covered ~many bases~, he stands proud in your kitchen and finally admits, "yeah, that body swap was bc i had a crush on you; it didn't go as planned, but worked out just the same"

and just maybe it's that moment that you realize you love his dorky ass self

[YOU had the backfired spell]

if you fucked around, that would be even crazier than anything he did, because no one, i feel, would be expecting it

like everyone can see kai doing some weird shit where bodies end up swapped, but if witch!reader is fucking around and manages to get into his body (lmao), questions WILL be asked

but imagine doing the walk of shame to wherever he lives, and having to explain to him the reason he feels all weird inside is because of a spell you did

and then you have to go through the whole ordeal of finding out what exactly happened, what to do about it, and where tf to go from there

because honestly, you can't live a day in someone else's body and then just ... move on ...

like no, he's attached after that, whether for better or for worse (it's for better, you know it)

but in a situation where you fucked around (and certainly found out), kai would find it so fucking funny

the whole town would manage to find out bc that's just your luck, and anyone who's not incredibly worried for you (jo, bonnie, liv, stefan), is laughing their ass off (damon, caroline, enzo) but none of them are helping bc wtf are they supposed to do??

so you debate calling a mikaelson or a far-away parker father, but kai doesn't like either of those options and votes instead to check gemini grimoires or, y'know, play the guessing game

maybe in his guessing game, siphoning the magic out of both of you does work (and then you take a three day nap [together] out of exhaustion)

or maybe he happens to have a spell that works and you're so grateful for the effort that you propose dinner or cocktails or something, but kai decides instead that he'd rather have you as someone he can trust, since now you REALLY KNOW EACH OTHER and he doesn't think you'll betray him after that

maybe you then admit that the reason you think you got swapped is because your crush-clouded mind had been thinking of him all day, and at the time of the spell

so now, with this new information, he's certainly not letting you walk off and pretend this never happened

nope, you're stuck with him for life now

~ ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP ~

ever since he became coven leader, you've been helping kai learn new spells & adapt to all his new magic and all that

lots of gemini spells require 2 people, but even tho you're not gem witch, you're trying your best to help him

and that's when, this time, it backfired, and switched your bodies

it's like polyjuice potion on steroids, how you look like him but feel like yourself, and he looks like you but feels like himself immediately, you tried to reverse it, but efforts were futile

after wondering for a moment about wtf to do, eventually you decide you'd have to go to jo or his father to get help

you both picked jo, buuuut she's at the hospital on a shift until late so you gotta get through the day as each other

you had made plans for lunch with your friends, but they hate kai, so not wanting to tell them about the swap (they're hesitant about you dating already), nor being allowed to cancel (per caroline), kai has to manage being you throughout the hour

and when kai usually goes to chill with damon for that hour, you have to pretend to be him, but mostly because explaining the situation to damon seems like a headache you can't handle

ofc, when you get into your right bodies, this might be a fun story to tell someday, but right now, it's not

now, you both have to handle each others' lunch dates, and it is not something you're looking forward to doing

in kai's situation, caroline immediately noticed something was up, but kai's a good liar. elena was none the wiser and rambled on and on for twenty minutes about med school, but in that meantime, bon picked up on kai-ish and certainly not y/n-ish habits, too

granted, the two of you have grown so close you're beginning to share habits, but some things are so recognizable to the individual that bonnie has doubts

through the solid skill of gaslighting, kai makes his way through lunch, but you're struggling through your lunch

unfortunately, you do not share your bf's ability to down three cocktails and not trip over your bar stool when you get up for the bathroom, nor do you have the same habit of rolling up every paper straw wrapper you have and flicking it across the table, and nor are you able to lie as well as he is, when damon and ric ask, "wtf is wrong with you"

and after a moment of staring and prodding, and the realization that ric will find out anyway, then tell damon, you cave and tell them both what happened

damon, ofc, begins to study you like a bug

ric is apprehensive and scoots back in his seat

eventually, you get away from their grasp and meet up back with kai

the girls go one way and you and him go the other

you manage to avoid them for much of the rest of the day by returning home and studying spells

you try a couple that might be able to reverse the one, but you refrain from doing too much; both of you are afraid of making it worse

kai tries to siphon it out of you, but that doesn't work, either

finally, in the evening, jo and ric show up and try to help

jo finds a spell that could work, but… she needs another witch

liv refuses

ric refuses to involve bonnie

so jo calls their father to handle it

over the phone, after chiding kai for fooling around, he helps jo with a spell that will unswap you

the switch itself is rather visceral and a bit painful

but it works

he hangs up after one more chiding, then jo and ric scold you as well, then they finally leave

you and kai don't practice spells for some time after that

or, at least, you stick to anything with latin that you can for sure translate

the next time he goes to portland, he'll take a grimoire that'll help him understand some of the more difficult spells -- and their reversals

because while the whole ordeal wasn't bad, it was just weird

and certainly something you'd like to avoid

~ now, for a smidge of nsfw ~ mostly for established relationship kai, but can be for friends that turn into relationships, too

despite the whole ordeal being a lowkey mess, if you were to find a solution that didn't involve his dad, kai would be hella tempted into talking you in to trying it again just for ~fun~

one, bc he had some fun messing with care and bon

but even more so, bc he wonders what sex is like in that situation

i think we can all agree, kai has a little NPD mixed in with his ASPD, so sex with the self is something that would be at least a bit intriguing

plus he's just so curious about everything

and being able to feel what you're feeling is so motivating for him

he's both curious and wants to make sure he's doing a good job

it'll be half cheat sheet, half check mark that he's giving you what you need / deserve, and half straight up curiosity

so if the opportunity presented itself, he'd totally body swap again

but he needs to know there's a spell to undo it, too, bc he quite likes his own self

[inkyvendingmachine]

Dawn Season 3, Episodes 16

💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀 🎶 Call of Cthulhu Season Three Masterpost 🎶

Warning: This campaign is an edited version of Call of Cthulhu: Song and Dance scenario from the Tales of the Crescent City book. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilers for it throughout these posts.

ANOTHER BIG THANKYOU TO @inkdemonapologist FOR HELPING ME WRAP UP THE LAST SUMMARY OF SEASON 3!!! THAT'S RIGHT! WE'VE MADE IT AT LAST!!! which means we can now start posting the 18384927 post game RP logs we've been doing meanwhile lmao.

ART CHANGES THIS SEASON!! @inkdemonapologist and I are collabing on all the art for these summery posts!! Shazz does lines, and I compose and colour the pieces.

Almost done, just one last muse to free.

But first, the Angel left a bit of a mess. While Jack is using all his willpower to NOT give into the urge to “fix” everyone by shoving ink into them, Joey pleads with Prophet to do the final ritual with Susie, so that there won’t be any weirdness between Susie and Allison. Prophet’s flattered, but he… would need more time to study this one. Why not let her do it? Joey concedes, but he wants to be the one to lead it. Jack helps Leon patch Allison up so she can be ready for round 3, while Joey and Prophet go to reset all the candles that got knocked over in the fight.

Susie wants to talk to Allison, while they wait. What were her intentions at the Studio? Allison assures her she didn’t even want the part (which offends Susie more, honestly) – she just wanted to keep her eye on this Studio, after everything they’ve been up to!! ... What… have they been up to, exactly, Susie asks?

… and Allison admits, well, maybe they were just… protecting their home. It sounded ridiculous at the time, but… maybe that’s really all it was. Someone told her recently to be careful of making monsters out of others, and maybe that’s what she did here. (Thanks for putting in a good word for us, Tom!!!)

Joey, of course, has been busy getting everything in order and has heard none of this, but Susie and Allison seem to be on okay terms, so let’s hurry up and do this ritual – without the creative power from the muses of storytelling or dance keeping him going, Joey is running on pure determination and adrenaline. Tasty.

And together, they’re able to do it. The golden glow drifts out of Susie, but this time, they all hear a faint “thank you” before the spirit disappears.

Susie collapses.

Allison tries to catch her, but it wrenches her bad arm and she falls to the floor as well.

Joey passes out, too, with his one goal done – and now Jack’s feeling the sudden drop in energy as the muse of music returns to normal; he loses consciousness as well.

But

Prophet’s too thrilled to give in!!! announcing “We’ve done it, my Lord!” before swapping back to regular Sammy – whhoooo ALSO immediately passes out without the extra creative energy keeping him going, leaving Henry and Norman and Timothee with a bunch of unconscious people. Henry and Norman are maybe not the ideal folks to handle the inevitable police visit after all those gunshots, but Timothee is also a child of Lady Orchid and can pull some of his influence before taking Nichole home.

Henry and Norman just get people into beds. Bendy, uh, helps??? Which means Joey’s body is wandering around, but Joey himself is practically unwakeable right now and Jack is bleary enough that driving home seems unwise. Better to just spend the night for now and sort it in the morning.

7 AM greets them with Henry waking Joey up with a panicked, “What are we doing here, what’s going on?! …I don’t think I remember last night.”

The colour drains from Joey’s face, and he tries to calm Henry, find out what the last thing he remembers is – Henry knows he remembers the contest. When asked if he remembers that scythe spell, Henry groans and admits that he does, but he’s still shaking and does not seem all right, so Joey runs off to dig through Jack’s bag and find something to draw with – oh, hey, at some point Henry’s sketchbook ended up in here, and there’s the rest of Joey’s ink, and also one of Joey’s nice pens? Anyway, that’s enough for him to bring Henry something to draw on, hoping that will calm him down. HE’S NOT GOOD AT COMFORTING and his brain is running at full capacity trying to figure out what to do…

Henry immediately starts drawing one of the monsters from last night. He remembers some things… he remembers attacking Sammy, though Sammy has no recollection of what Prophet did and can’t verify this, and Joey is sure that the two of them were working together by the end of the night and seemed fine – but, uh, Henry wasn’t quite himself and Joey had been afraid he’d lost him, LET’S NOT… USE THAT SPELL AGAIN,,,,,

in the meantime, Joey finally admits to himself his few and far between weaknesses, that maybe he still isn’t, at the end of the day, the one who can comfort Henry, and asks his best friend if… he’d like Joey to call Linda for him. Henry’s taken aback, and agrees, so Joey swipes Jack’s hat to cover his horns and heads outside to use a payphone.

Sammy goes to check on Jack, then on Susie, who looks a little worse for wear – she thanks him for coming after her, and admits that she remembers it all, but it feels like a dream. She… wants to talk about all this later, if they could, but for now, even as worn out as she is, she’s eager to get back and finally record a good take of that new Alice Angel song. She can’t believe they didn’t stop by the studio all week, when that was the whole reason she agreed! But Nichole had so many other things she wanted to do with them, that they just never got the chance…

Joey gets back, asks Henry how he’s doing. Henry says he’s doing okay (but he’s definitely not doing okay). So Joey gently pulls him towards the door, where… Linda is waiting for him. Joey actually called her over. Henry is overwhelmed, hugs his wife, and gives Joey a grateful look – he knows how much this means for Joey to do. Joey just tells him not to worry about the cartoon and to get some rest.

And then it’s time to clean up and get going!

Joey uses Bendy’s help to just make a giant cartoon squeegee, as you do, to smoosh all the candles and ink and paint and chalk together, so hopefully it won’t be useful to any future cultists, and throw this weird ball of gunk in the garbage. Allison tries to… sort of apologise? – or at least explain why she had thought mind-controlling Sammy was justified – but the boys are not interested and Joey simply tells her they’ll talk later.

THE PREMIER IS TOMORROW WE HAVE A CARTOON TO FINISH.

Well, first back to Jack’s house to get a shower since we’re all sort of gross from getting dunked in the lake but

THEN, WE HAVE A CARTOON TO FINISH.

The music department is sluggish, everyone there feeling the after-effects of the muses’ presence, but Sammy is as demanding as ever, refusing to let a musical cataclysm stop his department from creating excellent work. Lyrics are done, but Jack’s nonetheless here to… balance Sammy out a little. Henry shows up halfway through the day anyway, and Joey decides that if Linda let him come then he probably needs something to work on. Joey is feeling PRETTY DEAD today and mostly works out of his office, though he does clear off a spare desk in there for Henry to work beside him, away from the stress clamor of the rest of the studio, and also perhaps just to enjoy each other’s quiet companionship.

It’s been a long time since they both just sat and worked on animating together.

There’s a few messages for the boys throughout the day – one from Peter checking in with Joey on how he should describe their group to the reporter they rescued (Joey settles on “someone else who got tangled up with that cult and wanted to set things right”), another from Peter to Jack letting him know that his cat Beans had been fed the night before and DO NOT BELIEVE HER when she inevitably tries to convince him that she’s never been fed in her life, and finally, a simple letter to Joey that just says, “We should talk sometime,” with the address of a local cafe, a date and a time, and the signature of “Y.”

Joey………… decides the other boys maybe possibly do not need to know about this last letter right now.

Susie shows up – with that chocolate cake she promised last week, at last!! – to do a take on the new version. Joey stops by the department to cheer on his Alice Angel, which she appreciates; after everything, her first take chokes, but her second is beautiful. She loves the song and she loves the new changes to it. Sammy’s pleased with her performance, though he mutters that it might be the best thing he’ll ever write. But he’s soon cheered up by the prospect of a cake untouched by roaming janitors, even sharing a piece with Jack and Susie. Joey, who had figured out some magical control over ink at some point, will handle updating the lipsyncing so nobody has to redraw entire cells.

AND SOMEHOW, THE CARTOON IS FINISHED????

ON TIME????

A… feature length cartoon, in 1934??????

D…DID JDS JUST BEAT DISNEY TO A FEATURE???????

( joey b like: >:3c )

Well, Joey DOES have the break room magic that helps everyone in the studio gel with each other a little more to work faster, and stay awake just a little easier, and in this timeline JDS does still have Henry. It’s not in colour, and probably not as complex as Disney’s first feature will be, (joey voice hUSH) but still, the first feature length animated movie will be a Bendy cartoon put out by Joey Drew Studios! GOSH!!

That evening Joey reaches out to Nichole Savoy, the daughter of Lady Orchid, to let her know about the premier tomorrow – he did promise her and her friends a stage, after all, and he’s not one to go back on his word, if they’d like to perform for the premier? Or if not, he’ll just give them all tickets, but if they so choose, he trusts they’ll put on a magnificent show. Nichole is taken aback and tells him that he’s very strange, but gratefully accepts.

And now, the most important task before the premiere: Joey decides it’s time to drag all his boys out for fancy new outfits (It’s for the premier!!! It’s part of the premier budget!!! Don’t worry about it!!) personally tailored and picked out by yours truly. Perhaps it is also… a little treat for himself, getting to see all his boys dressed up nice… y’know, for finishing the cartoon. That is going to premiere. Only that reason, nothing more.

And the premier itself goes great. Susie sings the new song live with Colette as a dancer (and Sammy on the piano), Nichole doesn’t perform but seems really happy to see her friends get this spotlight and night out with her. The cartoon itself is pretty darn close to what they hoped it would be. Afterwards Jack keeps everyone charmed and out of range to socialise with Sammy while Sammy glares and looks unapproachable; Henry is a little tired for socialising but DOES want someone to ask about the animation on the scenes he’s proudest of, while his kids try to pick which scenes are his; and the head of the local paper catches Joey Drew to ask about an interview about this unprecedented accomplishment, and Joey’s all too happy to set up a time for a tour.

The head of the paper is also curious if Joey’s met Peter Sunstram? They seemed to know each other, and the man had been looking for a job at his paper, and he wonders how well Mr. Sunstram takes direction? There’s a glint in Joey’s eye as he realises his chance to talk Peter Sunstram up as only Joey Drew can. Jack surely won’t leave if his OTHER boyfriend is ALSO in New York!

And that one investor who started all of this is here, too; oblivious to the magical shenanigans he inadvertently kicked off, but thrilled with the finished film he’s just seen! Somewhere, Grant can breathe a sigh of relief, and hopefully soon, so can the boys.

Joey Drew Studios has managed the impossible, one more time.

💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀

[Previous Episode]

[belovedstill]

emoji writing prompts

(inspired by this post)

96 prompts up to your interpretation. take literally, reverse, mix and match! (works well with taking ask suggestions, using random number generators, or rolling dice)

1-6 genre or tone:

🥰 fluff

💔 angst | sad ending | angst with a happy ending

🔞 smut | explicit | suggestive

🔍 mystery

🎃 spooky | horror

😎 crack | humor | meme inspired

+ 1-90 prompts:

🌸 hanahaki | pining | mutual pining

⌛ time travel | reincarnation | time loop | time is running out | immortality | time hijinks | this time they will do it right (do they?)

✉ epistolary | chat fic | letters | postservice au

🧙‍♂️ magic | urban magic | fantasy | be careful what you wish for

☕ coffee shop | restaurant | food industry

🩹 hurt/comfort | fix-it fic

💭 mind-melt | mind-reading | telepathy

🏳‍🌈 queer | queerer | unique queer experience relevant to exactly one person

🌊 merfolk au | stranded on an abandoned island | pirates

🍀 everything goes right | luck doesn't exist but somebody really does make it seem like it does

🥀 unrequited love | dealing with loss | grief

📆 slice of life

📦 delivery | package sent to the wrong address | swapped luggage/suitcase | there's some kind of mix-up happening | move in

🎬 celebrity | actor | PR hell | youtuber | streamer au

💻 internet | social media | bloggers | fandom au | two customers with radically different reviews on a product and they take it personally

🔪 revenge | murder | assassin

📞 wrong number | wrong address | wrong person | customer service | tech support | long distance

🩺 doctor | sick fic

⚽ sports | team | competition | challenge | dare

💍 engagement | marriage | arranged marriage | marriage of convenience | accidentally married | poorly-timed proposal

💋 first kiss | first relationship | first romantic experience | teaching one another how to Romance

👑 royalty | nobility | servant | butler | unequal power dynamic | undying loyalty

🎨 any artist au

🎁 gifts | surprise | keepsake | christmas | holiday | birthday

���� pregnancy | mpreg | alternative offspring acquisition options

👶 baby | kidfic | de-aged | age regression | accidental kid acquisition | single parent(s)

👥 resurrection | came back wrong | dark alternate character | came back right but everything else is changed

🦋 butterfly effect - change a seemingly insignificant detail in source material and write how it affects the story

🐾 pet au | animal transformation | pet acquisition | animal-to-human transformation | object-to-human transformation | object-to-animal transformation (you get the drift)

👻 ghost | afterlife | paranormal | supernatural | modern supernatural | mixed supernatural genes

😈 demon | a different kind of hell | pact | soul as acceptable transaction payment | the villain's in charge now

🤡 idiots in love | platonic buffoons | only one brain cell among them | they're so stupid

🏳️ surrender | hope | bargaining

❔ oblivious | didn't know they were dating | mistaken identity | amnesia | nobody remembers them

🛡️ protect | guardian | bodyguard | rescue

💼 office | workplace

✂️ separation, chosen or forced | abandoned | cutting ties

🎓 school | university | academic professions | mentor

🏠 domestic | roommates | neighbours

🧩 soulmates (ideas) | platonic soulmates | destined to be enemies | 3+ soulmates

🏖️ beach episode | change of scenery | more than 'a lot' self-indulgent

🏩 pwp | escort | sex worker | stripper | sugar relationship

🤝 found family | putting differences aside to work together

🧬 appearance/body/behaviour modification | shrunk down | made bigger

💾 found a lost disc/usb drive/notebook/diary | lost phone | decades-old journal/letters found among the belongings of a person who's no longer there

⚖️ getting justice, one way or another | rebellion | protest | doing the dirty work so others can thrive | balance | lawyers au

⚙️ android | futuristic | science fiction | physical workers | making it work

👁 obsession | abduction | kept captive | hostage | stalker | drugged | private detective au

⚠️ make it as messed up as you want | forbidden | taboo

🕳️ something is missing | unsettling | out of the corner of the eye | nearly, almost, not quite | not enough

🤞 must pretend | spy | secret identity | identity reveal | undercover | fake dating | secret relationship | fake-married | fake [insert role] | essentially, they must pretend to be somebody they're not/to be in a dynamic they're not

✨ under a spell | truth compulsion | forced to say the opposite of what they mean | a curse made them do x

🐌 slowburn | sped-up slow burn | over the years

🧸 childhood friends (to a dynamic of choice) | separated in childhood, reunited in adulthood

⚔ enemies (to a dynamic of choice) | meddling enemies | rivals (to a dynamic of choice)

🔁 transmigration | isekai | swapped places | role reversal | body swap

🔀 crossover | fusion | characters from X piece of media put in the world of the last piece of media you've enjoyed | make it your favourite piece of media from your childhood

⁉ miscommunication | misunderstanding | wrong place, wrong time

🔆 harem | reverse harem | poly relationship

🛏 bedsharing | accidentally falling asleep on one another | passing out | dream-sharing | invite to stay over

🔮 fairytale | mythology | folklore | legend | prophecy

😶 love triangle | two-person relationship/love triangle (they know each other as two people) | one-night stand turns out to be the new boss/professor/awkward dynamic

🔒 forced proximity | locked in a room | trapped together | handcuffed together | snowed in

🤲 huddling for warmth | sharing body heat | touch starved

💬 rumours | lies | misconceptions and dealing with them

💥 set off the (conflict) bomb | right before the blow-up | argument | fight | pranks

✊ superheroes and supervillains | superpowers | the chosen one(s) | deemed to be the cursed/unlucky one

🔥 rebirth | sacrifice | sacrifice of something other than their life | destruction | letting go | ritual | change

💁‍♀️ spite fic (write literally anything you like that fandom/somebody else complained about that you disagree with) aka "they're wrong and i'm going to keep having fun"

#️⃣ love at second/third/nth sight | meet ugly | annoyed at first sight | reluctant

🖤 blind date goes right | blind date goes wrong | stood up | matchmaker

🚗 travelling together | commute | road trip | hitchiking

❕ confession | interrupted confession | confessing when it doesn't matter anymore

🚫 getting what they want but not in the way they want it | not like this

🖊 doomed from the start | it was always going to end like this | it didn't have to end this way

🐱‍👤 did a crime on accident | did a crime very much not on accident

👭 doppelgangers, lookalikes | twins | they meet their alternate self from an alternate word/different time

👂 as they go through their day, they hear a voice and it's strangely familiar (oh no) | the voice in their head actually has their best interest in mind | two souls trapped in one body fighting for control

❌ the plot is trying to incite an event for them but they refuse to have any part in it and they will outrun it

🍸 alcohol/substance use | in vino veritas | choices were made and all that's left is regrets | choices were made and there are some gains actually | remembers nothing of what they did while drunk (others may be kind enough to spare no detail)

👍 support group | dealing with issues | compromise

82. 👪 meet the family | meet the friends 83. 💰 CEO | rich x ordinary | two different worlds collide 84. 🌠 rarepair! | rarer! | unlikely friends 85. ⚡ The Realisation | oh moment | oh no moment | learning something crucial yet horrifying they wish they could forget | the antagonist was right after all 86. 0️⃣ last day alive | apocalypse | they truly only have each other left 87. ✔ it was somebody's plan all along | they sure were aware the whole time it was somebody's plan all along | scheme | trap | gotcha | test 88. 🎲 choose an action for character to take and roll d20 - that's how well it goes, write it 89. ➕ anything at all inspired by an emoji not from this list sent in an ask or randomly generated 90. ® get a string of 3+ random emojis from an emoji generator (e.g. this one or this one or any other) and write a story based on them

if you're disappointed that a prompt you wanted to find isn't on the list, take it as a sign to write it 👀

and if none of these spark creativity, check out Hatch's Plot Bank with 2300+ plot ideas

screenshots of the emojis under the cut

[miracles-and-butterflies]

On this episode of me randomly posting an unfinished wip from my drafts: we have what was going to be a Madrigals swapping bodies fic.

This one dates back to April 2023, almost a year old.

What the hell? This wasn’t her room.

Instead, she was in Mirabel’s cosy, ordinary, little room. Maybe scratch off cosy - this room is fucking freezing. Seriously, Luisa doesn’t think she’s ever been this cold before. And it’s a bigger room than she remembers. How did she even get in here? When did she get in here? Is Dolores right about her sleepwalking? And where’s Mirabel?

Luisa ignored her questions just now because Antonio, who was still wailing intensely outside, was her top priority at the moment. She could figure out what happened to herself later. And it was most likely that Mirabel, being the early bird she was, was already awake and far into her morning routine by now.

As she darted for the door, she felt completely off - like her centre of balance wasn’t where it normally was. Her vision also seemed to give up on her as she tried to spot Antonio once she was out the room.

What the fuck kind of drunk shenanigans did Isabela drag her into last night? At least she doesn’t have a hangover.

She strained, eventually catching a little, dark blurry figure, and running that towards it. Relieved that when she got closer, her eyes fixed themselves and that Antonio did appear.

Thinking a moment, she slowed her pace, not wanting to scare the boy any further by just suddenly ambushing him.

“Hey, primito, are you okay? Did you have another nightmare? Whatever it is, you’re safe now.” Luisa hoped her voice sounded gentle, she couldn’t really hear herself over the blood pumping loudly in her ears.

Antonio looked up at her. Whatever she had sounded like, she had only upset him more. He pointed at her, screaming, cowering back into the corner between his door and his parents’.

Luisa, although freaked out, continued, “Antonio, it’s just me! It’s Luisa, your cousin. I’m not going to hurt you. ”

The more she spoke, the more she realised her voice didn’t sound right. It had a slightly higher register than it usually did, and was overall more feminine and controlled. Her familiar raspiness was seemingly replaced by something more mature.

She also realised as she approached, that she was undeniably shorter, because Antonio looked to be about three thirds of her. Which is particularly strange because if she remembers correctly, she had been the tallest Madrigal for many years now and there’s no way a child is going to suddenly grow so much in one night. Isn’t she a bit young to be shrinking with age though? She’s only twenty!

“What the hell?” Luisa asked out loud.

She looked down at herself and saw her hands which were decidedly darker and smoother than her natural complexion. There weren’t any calluses from heavy lifting or nervously chewed up nails. Instead, well-kept and delicate. In fact, her whole body was dainty and more doll-like than the one she knew just yesterday, covered in a frilly nightdress that she definitely did not own. She reached up to her hair, only to feel the soft, shoulder length curls that resided there.

Luisa let out a scream of her own, before shouting another, louder, “What the hell?!”

She kept repeating that phrase while wandering over to the pictures on the nearby wall. Trying to use the glass as a mirror, she leaned close to it, eventually seeing a reflection that wasn’t her own. Finally coming to the conclusion that not only was she not in her own body, but she was in someone else’s body. Mirabel’s. Which explained why Luisa hadn’t seen her when she woke up in the nursery. Because she was…

Antonio whimpered somewhere behind her.

He was now sat on the floor. He had stopped crying, but was still staring at Luisa with eyes the size of dinner plates.

Part of her still wanted to comfort him, but considering how he reacted to her presence, didn’t think it would work. If it was a nightmare was about Casita’s collapse and having the person comfort him be… Mirabel right after, probably hadn’t helped.

The moment was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat directly behind Luisa.

Suddenly frozen, every muscle, that felt too small and weak to be normal or familiar, locked into place. She stepped back and turned a full 180 degrees, looking up (that felt weird to do again) at her mother.

“Mirabel? Are you okay? You look very pale, mi amor.”

Kinda the opposite, actually.

Luisa tried not to react to the nervous shivers running through her body. Does that happen every time Mirabel’s nervous? Is that why she’s always cold? Wait, no, that’s the anaemia. Maybe it’s both?

“I’m,” she paused, trying to think about what Mirabel would say. ‘Fine’ would make Julieta worry and that wasn’t fair, but saying ‘okay’ wouldn’t be Mirabel. It had to be something smart, that normal people wouldn’t say. “Quite adequate, dearest mother.”

…She should’ve just said ‘fine’.

[regardstosoulandromance]

I was saying this in the black sabith discord but another missed opportunity caos a funny caos plotline is a body swap episode like it’s so funny no matter how you slice it

four way swap with the spellman family where everyone has to pretend to be everyone else while trying to swap back. Zelda having to pretend to Hilda or Sabrina is very funny to me

sabrina and lilith swap bodies because of a spell gone wrong and we get kiernan-shipka-pretending-to-be-lilith-pretending-to-be-sabrina AND more importantly michelle-gomez-pretending-to-be-sabrina-pretending-to-be-lilith

Nick and Prudence body swap this is how I get a spellnight kiss

mortals/fight club body swap!! mortals and witches body swap?? the witches having to experience mortal life for a day and the mortals getting magic powers for a day??? That would be so cool and actually tie into the totally dropped plotline of sabrina wanting to bridge the divide between mortals and witches. I need a time machine and access to the caos writers room I could fix everything.

Sabrina/Salem body swap.

[amelikos]

Some character notes and episode notes for HZ069, writing them down for future reference.

The episode starts with the RVT heading to Suiryoku town (in Kitakami) by bus, only to find out that no one is there. An old woman tells them that they are holding a festival (since the town is famous for its apples), so the RVT decide to participate and ask about Briar there. As they go around the festival, Friede spots Zeiyu with her Yabasocha and takes an interest in her Pokemon. She doesn't want to tell him about it since he is an outsider, but challenges him to a booth game and says she might tell him if he beats her. Friede accepts her challenge and quickly leaves (and seemed fired up about the idea of playing). Murdock suggests everyone enjoys the festival, so they all split up to have fun.

Roy and Achigator end up coming across a booth away from the main festival area after following a sweet scent, and they find a strange device on it. The man in charge of the stand admits to Roy that he doesn't know what that device does, and lets him try it out. Roy and Achigator both press the device button at the same time and find out that they have switched bodies. They try to reverse the process but can't, and Achigator in Roy's body ends up leaving after smelling something nice. Roy in Achigator's body runs after him and gains a new perspective on how Achigator sees the world around him.

Liko and Dot eventually find out that Roy and Achigator have switched bodies. They agree to keep a low profile until they find a way to fix the situation. Murdock soon joins them and almost finds out that Roy spoke in Achigator's body. Liko and Dot distract him, and Murdock eventually buys everyone some candy apples. Roy accidentally uses fire on his, but it turned out to taste better that way (Murdock calling it baked candy apple). The trio thanks Murdock and leave with their Pokemon before they are found out. Meanwhile, Friede keeps winning against Zeiyu at games and she grows more frustrated each time. She challenges him to a battle, and Friede accepts.

The group ends up running into Mollie, who was treating a girl's injuries and had a whole line of kids asking for help because of similar issues. Liko and the others decide to help and somehow avoid raising suspicion about Roy and Achigator's situation. Back to Friede and Zeiyu, Friede ends up winning the battle with Cap (who had gotten serious since he tossed his hat aside).

Meanwhile, Liko and the others try to find their way back to the old man Roy had met. They run into Orio who was trying to fix a broken stove at a stand. Once again, the kids want to help. They suggest Achigator's flames to cook the yakisoba. Roy has some trouble using the flames in Achigator's body. Achigator ends up encouraging him by singing and Roy manages to use the flames properly, which allowed the yakisoba seller to finish his work properly. Dot points out that even swapped around, Roy and Achigator make a great team. Orio and all the customers got their yakisoba and leave happily. A boy who was waiting with his mother thanked Achigator and said that he wants his first partner to be an Achigator once he becomes a trainer, which makes both Roy and Achigator happy.

Afterwards, the man Roy had met finds him and tells him that he managed to fix the device. They use it again, and Roy and Achigator are back to their respective bodies. Liko and Dot show up and admit that they want to try out the device as well. The man accepts, with some hesitation. Liko and Nyarote try to use it, but the device breaks down after their unsuccessful attempt. Dot manages to read the text "Synchro Machine" after looking at the device more closely.

At the end, the RVT meet back up after they all enjoyed the festival. Zeiyu comes up to Friede and challenges him to another game, but he says he has to look for Briar (even though he'd love to accept her challenge). Zeiyu says that Briar is her homeroom teacher and that she is at the Crystal Pool/Shining Pond at the moment, which outsiders cannot visit without permission. An old man (who is the caretaker of the community center) gives them permission to go as thanks for helping his daughter Shizune (one of the girls Mollie treated), which makes Zeiyu frustrated. The RVT decide to head to the Crystal Pool as their next destination.

--

Fun ep overall. I do wonder why Friede and the others have to look for Briar and ask around, though. Maybe she can't be contacted for some reason.. maybe she doesn't have a phone or something like that.

I like festival settings, too. It's always fun seeing everyone in a different setting than usual. Seeing Liko and the others enjoy themselves was cute. Liko and Dot were attached at the hip, and Dot was having fun playing games and wanted to try more, etc! (I do wonder where Landau was during the ep, maybe chilling somewhere.. we didn't get to see his side of the festival) Roy and Achigator being swapped around is an amusing scenario and works for both of them. Also helped them be more in sync and learn more about each other. And Achigator growing to be more like his idol (Lizardon) since the kid they helped said he wanted to have an Achigator once he becomes a trainer was cute.. The kids are growing to become heroes of their own (especially since they saved the school and were recognized as such by others students at the end of the previous chapter).

The RVT are also just casually genuinely cool and kind people. They couldn't help but step in and help others when they could do so.. and Liko and the others helped too, even though they were trying not to blow their cover. Which also says a lot about them, that they were trying to find solutions to everyone's problems. Liko and Roy were already the type to step in and help when they could, but it's also nice seeing Dot be more involved in these kinds of scenes now. Shizune (the girl Mollie helped) having a little crush on Roy was also cute tbh.

Also appreciated the Friede fanservice (made for me), which made up for the fact that we didn't see him shirtless back in the beach episode in HZ042 :/ (one of the most tragic moments of the show etc) (but maybe it was for the best after all, because the jinbei is also a bit too yabai on its own) Friede having fun and playing is just the cutest thing, and so was him getting excited about seeing Yabasocha and wanting to learn more about Pokemon as a professor... he is usually serious and responsible, so getting to see these carefree and excitable sides of his character is always a plus in my book, it's adorable tbh. He is a professor after all, and I love when he gets curious and excited about mysteries and Pokemon. And it's funny when teenagers beef with him and he just casually beats them in battles or games. No mercy. As he should.

Not sure what to make of Zeiyu's character so far. Her interactions with Friede were funny. She gave the information about Briar's location at the end, but surely that won't be the end of her role in the current chapter? She hasn't introduced herself yet either, so. I am a bit curious about her role. I am biased against game characters in general until I know what they bring to the Horizons narrative, so I'll need to wait and see her role before my thoughts are formed. So far, they're used to further the Horizons plot and characters' arcs, and it should keep being like that.

Next ep, Kanuchan focus and most probably evolution on my bday! And Friede will be there (an adult has to be there as a representative to meet Briar so he can handle the research talk and stuff like that, but I'm still pointing it out because I'm happy I get to see him more now ww).

[random-mailbox]

Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 39 - Missing Scenes Part I

This week’s post is for the amazing @riverlethe, since today is her birthday! 🍰❤️🎂🎉🎊💐

Following one-shots are fandom’s way to fill in the blanks in both Anime and Manga, giving our characters much needed closure and depth. It was hard to decide what to include, so @goddessalthena suggested I do this as Part I, which will allow me to do another post down the road with more (similar to what I did with Christmas stories).

Also, don't forget to check out the prompts for @usamamoweek2023!

As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).

A Nightmare Between Them - Sweetsugarines

This one-shot gives us a glimpse into the mental state that Usagi was in post-Black Moon and Nehelenia battles.

Love Breeds Insanity - @angelmoongirl

Usagi absolutely refused to cancel or postpone her first date with Mamoru since the defeat of Galaxia. No matter how terrible she might be starting to feel or what her friends are trying to tell her.

The Aftermath - sailor-elsa

This is the darkest story of the bunch, with Usagi trying and almost failing to handle the aftereffects of the battle with Pharoah 90.

ER Epiphany - @uglygreenjacket

Mamoru’s work-shift gets interrupted by a youma in the ER. Who will step in to help if he is not able to transform without someone noticing?

All's Fair in Love and Birthdays - @uglygreenjacket

Another awesome one-shot that fills in the gap after the birthday episode. Mamoru and Usagi actually get to discuss what happened that day and what it meant to both of them. With Mamoru not playing very fair 😏

These Games We Play: Chapter 11: From Silk to Cotton - @allyunabridged

This one-shot takes place in Sailor Moon R, after Usagi gets rescued from Prince Dimande and before returning to the past. With King Endymion helping her take baby steps towards getting over the ordeal.

Day 2: Item - @tinacentury

Set at the start of the 3rd season of the Anime, this one-shot fills in the gaps on what went on in Mamoru’s head when Usagi wasn’t able to transform.

this little brook of life - Tosca1390

Set between Anime’s R and S seasons, Usagi and Mamoru grapple with the weight of responsibilities and lack of alone time, as Chibi-Usa re-appears in their lives.

Miscellaneous Works: Short Stories That Tumbled From Tumblr: Chapter 6: Oneiromancy - @floraone

Set at the end of the break-up arc in the Anime, Usagi gets to see more of the nightmares that Mamoru have been dealing with and understands why he can't let go of them.

---

That's it for this week! Next time we are covering Green Jacket stories!

Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:

Week 1 - Groundhog Day

Week 2 - Established Relationships

Week 3 - Sex Positivity

Week 4 - Unfinished Stories

Week 5 - Darker Stories

Week 6 - Potions 🧪

Week 7 - Reveals

Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃

Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions

Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU

Week 11 - In-Progress Fics

Week 12 - Mutual Pining

Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers

Week 14 - Slow Burn

Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!

Week 16 - Christmas Part 2

Week 17 - New Years

Week 18 - High School AU

Week 19 - Slice of Life

Week 20 - Coffee shop AU

Week 21 - Huddle for Warmth

Week 22 - Friends to Lovers

Week 23 - ❤️Valentines Day❤️

Week 24 - Do a Grouch a Favour Day (or Cheer Up Fics)

Week 25 - Soulmate AU

Week 26 - Amnesia Fics (and resources)

Week 27 - 🍀St Patrick's Day🍀

Week 28 - Fix it Fics

Week 29 - Prompt: Mug

Week 30 - Flowers

Week 31 - Traditions

Week 32 - Dreams

Week 33 - Friends

Week 34 - Body-Swap

Week 35 - Medical Assistance

Week 36 - Sex Pollen

Week 37 - Psychometry

Week 38 - What If

[we-pay-for-everything]

Nancy Drew, season 4, episode 8 review (spoilers!):

So, this episode was very heavy on Nace, but I can't say I loved it? I loved that the episode was about them, and I loved them working together, actually talking, realizing they're better together even as friends, and that they can still bring out the best in each other, but the last minutes of the episode lowkey bothered me. Nancy had a huge growing moment when she opened up to Nick, George and Bess at The Claw but it was after Ace left. She called them family, they had a group hug, and then she celebrated her mom with all her family but Ace. That part bothered me! I know everything's always so tense with them now, but isn't Ace Nancy's family too? Isn't that the whole point of the episode - that they are still friends and always will be? Ace would've wanted to be there for Nancy and he was excluded. It's like now that he's the ex he can't be family - he's below the others when it really matters? It's all about epic love and angst now, but stuff like connection, trust, companionship - all of that can't apply to them anymore? It's always the same thing in media. There's this idea in mainstream "feminism" that friends > lovers. But, like, why? Aren't boyfriends supposed to be closer to you than friends? Is Nancy and Ace's love any less special and meaningful because it's romantic now? Is their love worth less now that it's fully romantic? Ace's part of their group and he was literally the only person not at Nancy's house.

Also, I kept waiting for either Nancy or Ace to accidentally use the back door or whatever. I feel like that's how they are going to fix their death curse? They'll forget each other? Or at least one of them will, but they'll get together anyway and cheat death? Ace went finishing for a reason. That whole scene was about more than father-son bonding. Oh, and also, Ace's dad is less of an ass this season, but I can't forget how he kicked out his son out for accidentally revealing his dirty secret. I can't forget how Ace's mom did nothing and left her son alone after being kicked out of his home. She sided with the man who lied to her. Women always fucking do this. They always side with their husbands, it's pathetic. And even when she saw him for the first time in another episode, she barely asked how she was... Honestly...

I wasn't expecting the body swap and felt a bit of foreboding when it happened, but the writers successfully avoided clichés! But it's odd that it wasn't a bigger deal actually. The actor who plays Nick, Tunji Kasim, did one hell of a fucking job playing Bess. He 100% nailed it, from top to bottom! Kennedy McMann, who plays Nancy, did a great job with Ace's stoner, deadpan look. I think Alex Saxon did a good job playing Nancy too. They all did well, including Maddison Jaizani, but I think the actress who plays George, Leah Lewis, is the weakest one in the cast. She didn't stand out.

Sadly, I'm 99% sure Ryan is going to die this season. I don't know if that's his redemption arc, or if they want to make Nancy sad, but I'm pretty sure he's gone die unnecessarily, if anything for shock value since this is the last season and, aside from the gang, he's probably the most beloved character...

Hmm, I don't know... what do you guys think? I'm not in the fandom so I don't know what the fan theories are. I'll see if I can find some!

[mlobsters]

supernatural s12e11 regarding dean (w. meredith glynn)

feeling the futility of this but let's go anyway

like waking up in the field in 11x01 but fluffier.

SAM All right, Dean, you know, uh, you had a good run, but maybe let's pump the brakes a little bit. I mean, you're not 20 anymore. Dean just stares at Sam for a moment. DEAN Okay, one, the Rat Pack partied till the day they died. And B, I can still kick your ass.

did paul reiser do 1) b) or a) 2) on mad about you? trying to find that on the internet um, challenging. was just plain watching an episode hoping to stumble into it. i seem to recall him doing 2 with his hand though in the L shape so maybe that. or was it he did 2 with his hand and said b? lol. anyway i do that reference occasionally most likely around no one that would get it, and likely the wrong version now too! rolling my eyes at myself

SAM All right. Well, I'm gonna go scope out the body. If you wanna spend some more alone time with, uh, your waffles…all right. Have fun.

realizing i've seen a number of gifs from this episode recently. the ordering sam waffles, a snippet later where he's clearly under the whammy

DEAN Well, I guess it's true what they say. Mo' money, mo' problems. Right?

would be cute if this is actually a thing of making a bunch of 90s references because his memory is all jacked up

this reminds me a little of swap meat maybe? where i had a hard time swallowing that dean wouldn't notice how weird sam was behaving earlier.

lol what i said apparently about that in 5x12: not in any universe, especially when sam has been possessed before, do i believe that dean winchester is not going to notice sam behaving so differently. you don’t get every demon, monster and psychiatrist within a 50 mile radius calling out your codependent relationship with your brother and not notice some bumbling teenager is behind the wheel of his body.

so anyway, when you continue to brush off the behavior with, he's just really hungover/still kinda drunk - when working a case dean randomly disappears while getting food --- and apparently sam is just hanging out waiting for him to call/show up until the next morning????

but sam's gonna let him drive even though he can't remember what key to use. sure, fine, whatever

so he goes to pick up some food and picks up a girl and stays out and that's within normal enough parameters sam doesn't freak out. ok

i'm being a grump about this and i don't like it. saw this bit about the durable inner thighs (which was about the mechanical bull i gather) post recently so hey context

this memory loss is very specific. wiping out his knowledge of hunting? which is most of his life. what's he left with. being happy i guess

DEAN Mm, your hair, it's all so bouncy. ROWENA Why, thank you. DEAN Mm-hmm. ROWENA Do we have to fix him? SAM Rowena. ROWENA Samuel.

what's rowena doing with his hand behind his back? anyway i've seen this in gif form and with rowena cropped out :p

SAM We're gonna sit you down right here. And, uh, yeah, go ahead. DEAN This like live Skinemax or…

okay what's all the more amusing about that is like, what, live skinemax as in rowena (... and sam?) getting naked? also skinemax another old 90s-esque reference. the live skinemax thing isn't in the script that's linked to the wiki (but i don't know if that's the final draft etc)

SAM You know, I've seen my brother die, but watching him become… not him… This might actually be worse.

then we're taking the memory loss very seriously with sam admitting how awful it is and this rather miserable to watch sequence of dean slowly forgetting things talking in the mirror. gonna try to make you cry in the middle here for no reason but play most of it for laughs

ROWENA But me, I've done horrible things, and I told myself it was fine. It was the price of power. And power's what matters, right? ROWENA Then I met God and his sister. The two most powerful beings in the universe, wasting it on squabbling with each other. I thought, if—if they can't be happy, or at least satisfied, how can there be any hope for me?

blah blah can tell him because he won't remember - but i'm having a hard time taking that at anything resembling face value. she's very good at what she does with rowena, but she pretty much always has the faux honesty thing going on so i assume she's basically always lying.

sam going over to force these witches to translate the spell or whatever is some really dumb plot thing. witches can do shit at a distance and there's more than one of them. whyyyy. (so rowena and dean can save the day apparently)

SAM You know, I gotta be honest. I was actually, uh, a little jealous at first. DEAN Of what? The curse that nearly killed me? SAM No, just, you know… some of the things we've done, we've had this weight for… forever. And seeing it gone, uh, you looked happy. DEAN Huh. Well, look, was it nice to drop our baggage? Yeah, maybe. Hell, probably. But it wasn't just the crap that got lost. I mean, it was everything. It was us, it was what we do, you know? All of it. So… that's what being happy looks like? I think I'll pass.

definitely don't want to lose "us"

100% don't understand this montage of clips intercut with the mechanical bull riding. sort of conceptually yes i've seen things like that done in shows but i don't get them choosing to do it here. maybe the only excuse they could come up with to have jackles on the bull for an extended period of time

[none-prob]

I write about a character per day

Day 12: Edalyn Clawthorne

Owl lady. Anarchist. Mother of two.

There's just so many things I want to say about her.

I think Eda's life before Luz was summed up quite well with her own quote: "It's my power, kid. And before you showed up, I spent my whole life wasting it." That goes to show how impactful Luz is on Eda's life, and that's not the only character Luz had a positive spin on (I'm considering writing about Luz after W&D).

Before Luz came, Eda's life, which we can speculate, was selling human garbage to the Isles' citizens, pickpocketing, do anything in order to buy potions to not let the curse affect her, while also running away from the Emperor. Even with King and Hooty, and previously Raine and Lilith, her life was probably not as adventurous as when Luz came. Maybe, maybe not, and I wished we could have seen more of Eda's life before Luz, but we won't. It's fine, because everything she did with Luz and everyone in the house was awesome. Even the swap thing, yeah that's my controversial take, I think Once Upon A Swap is a good episode. It's a good episode in a show full of great episodes. But anyway, the point is, Eda had really used her power for good, even pushed her hardest to save Luz, and she's proud of it. That moment for me was like losing a family member, one who only been around for a few months. And it all started with a little crown. And speaking of that...

Her relationship with King was also blooming. Before Luz it wasn't that exciting, as they probably just did their things together. But with Luz and later on Lilith, King was more open about her story, only to find out it was fabricated by Eda. But what was his response after Eda said so? Asked her to adopt him. It's one of the few times Eda ugly cry throughout the show, and it's fine. It's beautiful. Eda was now a mother of two, of a human and a Titan. It got so much better, for the very few scenes in For the Future they bonded together over a mutual feeling. King hugged Eda's leg in the most emotional way possible.

Mother of two, but ran away from her own mother? Alright now that's an interesting shift. But like I said when I talked about Gwen, which is another niche character I also enjoy a lot, I'm so glad they communicated and made up the past. I can understand avoiding parents, the lack of communication resulted in avoidance, while your parents just want to do the things they think it's best for you.

How about her sister? Lilith probably has the second greatest redemption arc in the show in my opinion, after Hunter. It only took a few attempts, an all out battle, putting her sister at the risk of life, and a pain sharing spell for a Lilith redemption. Once again, a little lack of communication between them, had lead to a rift that took decades to fix. It's really sad, but I'm glad they're together to right all wrong, and learn magic together.

I think it's amazing that Eda managed to make peace with the Owl beast, something that had been a pain for her that she can't get rid of for 20 years. This is a really important lesson. Sometimes, you need to make peace with things that hurt you, especially those you can't get rid of. One lesson that Steven Universe had taught that no one seems to be able to grab. Eda got so much better, basically regained her power in one of the most stylish way possible.

The curse was an indirect reason that caused her to break up with Raine. Raeda is one hell of a beautiful relationship. I've talked about Raine's side before. Eda was the one who saved Raine's crew from the Emperor, who sacrificed to get a sigil for Raine's plan, and visited puppet Raine. Eda was impressed by Raine from the first look, from the first drink, and the rest is history.

I think this next part is my favourite of Edalyn Clawthorne. It's her desire to rub in on Emperor's face, but more importantly, to protect all wild witches left. An incredible anarchist. And in the most creative ways possible, including body swapping her own sister (see this is why I will defend Once Upon A Swap). With or without power, she is a legendary rebel. Someone who had built her name as the most powerful witch on the Isles, for managing to escape the police state from the Emperor without fail. No power, no problem. She will still be sneaky, be smart, and having absolutely none of it with the Emperor. She's not a rebel who just want to cause chaos, she's an anarchist who will stand up for the right when she needed to.

I love Edalyn Clawthorne. She's simply the coolest witch on the isles, without a competition.