#they have lost the plot like actually fatally

[caatws]

while Gamora should have been a guardian by default imo, isn't it weird that she isn't on merch as the female lead?

I don't know all the rules and regs but I can't think it's normal, in more recent years at least, to be so visibly cut out like this. If it was one or two instances I might find it reasonable. But she's missing from almost everything. Kraglin has more visibility and that's pretty insulting to Gamora by comparison of importance to the franchise, prominence in the Avengers crossover movies and let's be real her character is more recognizable. It's just not right

on a different note I appreciate everything you said about Gamora and Nebula being sisters and how their relationship doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Thanos tried so hard to break them both and they didn't let him. He tried to poison how they saw eachother and they overcame that. The relationship has the tension, conflict, love and healing that people in fandom usually eat up with a spoon. I'm not here for anyone ignoring that in favor of thinking one of them would try to take love from the other or ever want to. I'll never be on the side of two abuse victims being reduced to competition. They both survived a nightmare and one lost more than anyone ever should. Nothing should ever undermine that. If marvel wanted to make a movie just about them I'd be all in, only I don't want marvel to touch Gamora, or any of the guardians really, ever again. I don't know what it says when I both want to see more of characters i love but also would rather never see them again.

this comment got me thinking and honestly like cast formality and billing aside, just looking at story only...i don't even think gamora is rly the female lead in vol 3. it's nebula.

and look, this movie honestly made me rly LOVE nebula in a way i hadn't before and i'm rly satisfied with where her character got to go. like at least in all the bullshit that happened in gamora land, nebula got to actually thrive in this franchise more than i would've expected 9 years ago. and i think that's rly cool! but it sucks that we couldn't get here while also maintaining gamora's original place in the gotg family and like her overall arc. but i think if anyone was The Female Lead in this movie, it was nebula before it was gamora.

i also haven't looked at the new merch a ton admittedly, outside of my fruitless search for a cute loungefly bag with the whole team. i DID however go to california adventure 2 months ago and downtown disney a little over a month ago when marketing on social media for vol 3 was definitely happening, and i was surprised to see that there wasn't like...more gotg stuff? i might've been too early for the like character actors to be out and about (it was just a month-ish after quantumania's release, so the ant-fam characters were still hanging out, tho i only saw scott when i went), but even merch-wise they didn't seem to have more gotg stuff than usual both times i went to the stores in march and april. (i mostly saw rocket and groot stuff. like bitch i would have bought gotg ears and they only had groot. come on) so i honestly don't even know what the full merch situation in big box stores is lol cuz it sure was abysmal at disney, the actual source 💀 does gamora even have a vol 3 funko yet?

but also on the topic of merch and scarcity...i just want to highlight the one (1) piece of official merch i own that features both natasha AND gamora...and it's LITERALLY FROM DISNEY INFINITY LIKE 😭 NOT EVEN MCU 😭😭😭

so yeah idk what the deal is with mcu merch but they are literally allergic to their original female leads but mostly gamora 🥴 at this point my only hope for merch is an adult sized gotg uniform costume i can buy during halloween season. please. 🙏🏼🕯️

and lastly to your point on gamora and nebula's relationship - i completely agree!!! and it sucks having fav characters you'd love to see again but also are dreading seeing again....at this point i am just hoping to run on what if...? s2 and vibes

[orcelito]

Haven't been able to watch too much naruto recently. Been watching Maybe an episode a day ish. I just finished ep 419 tho and WHAT an episode to have ahead of me for grand number 420. Can't watch it rn tho bc I need to sleep and also I'm too tired to give it the full attention that I want to. Bc when I watch it, I will be embracing !!!!THE!!!! legendary Guy vs Madara fight in its FULL FORM!!!!!!

So exciting. God they're laying some major death flags lol, between the flashbacks stuff and the gate of death and well the saying he's gonna die 😂😂😂 I know he does survive it tho. But I'm also embracing this part with the Possibility of him dying. Bc that's what the others are reacting to too. And I wanna experience the full depth of emotion....

Excited for watching this next episode!!! It just cannot be right now.

[solarismoons]

Astronomy (prologue)

‘It’s astronomy, we’re two worlds apart’

Wally Clark x fem!reader

Summary: After suffering a near-fatal fall off the school roof, you started seeing things that weren’t actually there. Or- people who weren’t actually there.

Warnings: mentions of suicide, addiction, drugs, lots of angst.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Your legs dangled off the roof, the moon's dim light illuminating the grass below. Tears filled your waterline and your eyebrows pulled together. Silent sobs filled the night air, getting lost in the whispers of the wind.

There was no sugarcoating it, no easy way to say it–Your life fucking sucked. Drugged out Dad, your Mom out of the picture, the whole nine yards. If your life were a shitty low-budget movie, you and Nicole would’ve laughed at the lazy plot of it all.

Nicole.

The poison of her name ran through your veins and tore a hole through your heart. You’d grown up with her, she was there through your worst moments, and you were there for hers. But when you hit middle school, it wasn’t you and her against the world. It was always Maddie.

Maddie. Maddie. Maddie.

You truly had nothing against her. You had nothing against her, or Simon, or even Xavier of all fucking people. But everything in the past few years was always about her. The two of you were simply friends by extension. Two separate people pushed into the same friend group. But still, it seemed like the whole world revolved around her.

Nicole always had an obsession with Maddie. What she ate, what she wore, how she decorated her locker…Down to how she fucking spoke. Nicole copied every. Single. Part of her. You never knew if she wanted her, or if she wanted to be her. Whatever it was, it drew you two apart. You slowly started losing your best friend.

The pain and loneliness was beginning to be too much. You felt so suffocatingly alone, the only person you could confide in being lost in a la-la land of infatuation.

So, you found yourself on top of the school roof at 2 in the morning. It wasn’t high enough to die. Maybe high enough to make you hurt. High enough so someone would actually care for you. The thought of jumping crossed your mind- just for a split second. It was a fleeting thought, soaring quickly through your head like a turbojet.

Tears began to spill harder, gushing out of your eyes like a fountain. Your sobs became louder. You grounded the meat of your palms into your eyes, desperate to stop the tsunami from streaming down your face.

Behind you, words faded in and out of the breeze, and heavy whispers echoed across the silent roof.

“Is… she…”

“I….do- know…”

It was bits and pieces of phrases you shouldn’t have been hearing. Phrases that broke through the barrier of life and death itself. You didn’t know it at the time, though. Still, you whipped your head around, your lip quivering just slightly. Shadows faded in and out across the roof, the air seemingly moving in the wrong direction.

Your sobbing quickly died down, and you squinted, your head beginning to swim with confusion. The shadows shifted in and out of reality, almost. You would not have noticed them if you hadn’t been looking so meticulously.

The phantom-like whispers snuck closer as if reaching out for you. Your heart began to pick up speed, beating against your chest painfully. Breath hitching in your throat, you hastily stood up. Palms slick with sweat, goosebumps bursting across your skin, legs trembling, you yelled out, begging them to stop.

You couldn’t comprehend the gravity of your situation, couldn’t comprehend what the hell you were seeing. You took a step back, your heel hooking on the lip of the roof. Gravity took control, yanking you down over the edge.

The last thing you saw was a large hand stretching out towards you.

────────────

Wally loomed over you, his head tilted. Eyebrows knitted together with concern, he glanced over to Rhonda and Charley, who seemed oddly standoffish.

“Is… Is she okay?” He questioned.

Rhonda rolled her cherry lollipop against her cheek, “I don’t know Moose, maybe she’s just sleeping?”

Wally narrowed his eyes at her. Why couldn't she understand the urgency of the situation? Here was a girl, lying half-dead on school property with a puddle of blood pooling beneath her head.

“What if she dies?” Wally slid his hands into his pockets, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. His teeth sunk into the plush skin.

Charley frowned, wringing his hands together. “I mean… We can’t really do anything, Wally,” He reasoned. Wally knew he was right. If you died, you died. He couldn’t stop it. But it didn’t stop him from feeling any less awful. He felt… Drawn to you–in some incomprehensible way.

The group whipped their heads back down to you when you stirred. A soft groan escaped your lips. They watched with bated breath as you brought a shaky hand to the back of your head. You pulled your fingers back to your eye line, your pupils dilating at the smear of crimson.

The back of your skull throbbed with a searing, blinding pain that drew out another groan. You scrunched your eyelids together, fuzzy dots crowding your vision. At the same time, Wally crouched down next to you, fingers sprawled out on the soft grass.

Soft earth rustled beneath the soles of Rhonda’s boots as she turned on her heel. Charley glanced at you, then at Wally, then back at Rhonda. Confliction flashed across his soft features. As bad as he felt, there was nothing he could physically do.

“We should probably go,” Charley grumbled.

Still, Wally looked back down at you. He brought his fingers a feather’s touch away from your jaw before drawing them back. As much as he wanted to reach out to you, to help you, he couldn’t. He sat back on his haunches and took one last look at your pretty face.

Charley and Rhonda were halfway across the field when your eyes slowly cracked open. Wally’s eyes widened as you looked at him. Your eyes didn’t look through him. They looked at him. Your gaze pierced through the noise of the wind around you. It locked onto him with an intensity that sent a shiver down his spine. It wasn’t possible. You were living. Breathing. Your soul was still tied to the land of the living. You still had a fucking pulse, a heartbeat.

“What the fuck…” He whispered.

You don’t remember what happened next. Only that you scrambled up, despite the agony in your head and the strain in your bones, and found yourself at home just minutes later, shoes caked in mud.

You don’t know what the fuck you thought you saw. It was a hallucination. Your brain had conjured his image up, projected him in front of you. You fell off the roof, for fucks sake.

Still, your eyes glided over to a picture on the wall of your living room. In it, stood your dad and his high school best friend--Who died 40 years ago.

[tangerinesgirl]

Hi! Can i request vampire Frank smut where he and the reader had been flirting the entire night, and at the end he is a vampire and has killed all the others(including lambert and abigail) and the reader is the only human left, hut since Frank took a liking to her ,he ends up asking him to stay with him and they end up fucking to "satisfy the flirting" plssssss (ur an awesome writer btwww)

Fuck Around, Find Out

**SPOILERS FOR ABIGAIL (2024)**

Reader x Frank (Abigail)

Word count: 1.3k

Rating: 18+, nsfw, explicit

Warnings: flirting, smut, choking, violence, language, technically p in v but no explicit reader body parts mentioned, Frank being feral, rough sex, some hints of enemies to lovers

Notes: tysm for the kind words! 💕 Sammy uses they/them pronouns for reader once, but otherwise reader has no specific gender, so everyone can enjoy this fic! Some use of Y/N.

🦇

You freak out. Everyone freaks out. You've all just put a death sentence on each others heads by kidnapping a freaking vampire. Did Lambert know? How could he do this to us? Lots of thought are going through your head. You snap out of it and see Frank choking and threatening Peter. The whole operation has gone to shit.

Frank drops Peter as he admits defeat. Frank has clearly lost the plot too, you decide you have to be the calm voice in the commotion and maintain composure.

"If you put your hand around my neck, you'll lose it", you snap at Frank, letting him know his actions were completely out of order.

"Oh yeah?", he swaggers over to you, putting the back of his palm on your cheek, stroking it. "And...what about putting my hand around a different body part?"

A click. Frank looks down, your gun pointing directly at his crotch. "I don't know. Try it. Fuck around. Find out."

Frank is clearly impressed, he tries to hide it but you can see the glint in his eyes. You squint as you smile at him sarcastically. He backs away, with his arms held up in surrender. You holster your gun in the dip at the back of your jeans. Frank swipes a hand through his hair, either in exasperation or to try and maintain a calm appearance somehow. As he does so he gives you a subtle wink, and gives each member of the crew a plan to take down the ballerina vampire.

*

Frank, Sammy and Peter essentially tumble down the stairs after their encounter with Abigail. You and Joey look at each other as if to say "we told them so", and start working on the casualties.

You walk over to Frank, "You know this is the second time I've saved your life tonight".

"I wouldn't count a pencil to the hand as a fucking life saving event."

"Hey lead poisoning can be very fatal."

"You know there's not actually any lead in-"

You pull the stake out of his leg in one swift motion, Frank cursing every deity under the sun. You quickly bandage his leg up to use as a tourniquet, it's not great but it'll do for now, at least it's stopped the bleeding. Frank looks at you with gratitude, but is too self-righteous to say anything. You look at him and can't help feeling more attracted to Frank seeing him disheveled like this. You quickly snap out of it and start tending to Peter's wounds.

As you're working, you can't help but see Frank in the reflection of a bookcase looking directly at your ass. You smile to yourself and turn around, "Hey we're supposed to keep grab ass to a minimum, remember?" Frank smiles and looks you up and down, clearly thinking unholy thoughts. Your body shivers as he does, goosebumps appearing on your skin.

Sammy chirps in, "Yeah, they're right. You were fully checking them out, you weren't even subtle dude."

Frank barks at Sammy, "I think the rules have gone out the fucking window now. And maybe you should mind your own fucking business and flirt with Peter some more."

"Sammy is flirting with me?" Peter is dumbfounded, but low-key delighted.

Frank rolls his eyes. You swear if he rolls them anymore tonight, they may as well turn into marbles.

*

You back away from Frank, slipping on Lambert and Abigail's blood, the warmth seeping through your jeans, you try to find purchase with your feet to try and stand up. Frank is clearly relishing in his new found life, this is what he's always wanted afterall. Pure unadulterated power. He feels his new fangs with his teeth, moaning, you feel awkward yet somehow aroused watching him, maybe you should leave and give him a moment. He snaps out of his daydream as you start to stand up. Frank tilts his head, curious, looking at you like a wild animal and smirks. "Like what you see?"

You don't say anything. "Come on Y/N, we had such a good thing going earlier. I can tell what an impression we made on each other...what I made on you."

He grabs your shirt and pulls you closer to him, he takes a deep sniff of you. "I can fucking smell it on you." You recoil as you can smell Frank's blood on his breath, but it's also somehow...hypnotising. Primal. "I mean you've clearly got me going, I've got you going, we have chemistry... We just need to get it out of our system. Don't you agree?"

You think over the events of the night, you can't help but feel somehow more attracted to him? Even if it is totally wrong, after seeing him stab a guy quite literally in the back. But seeing Frank just being given eternal life and the power he's always hungered for... and he's choosing you?

You nod slightly.

"I'm going to need you to use your words."

"Yes sir."

Frank wastes no more time and crashes his lips into you like a man starved. You try to grip on to his face or his hair, but you can't find purchase as the blood makes your hands slip. The metallic taste invades your taste buds as Frank kisses deeper, pushing you against the wall. Frank's hands roam your body, his hands slide down the back of your jeans, grabbing your ass as you grind into him.

You unbutton and remove your jeans and underwear and start to undo Frank's zipper and pull down his pants. You can't help but widen your eyes at the size of him, and he notices, this will only fuel his cockiness even more. His lips smash back into you, he can barely keep himself off you as he moans into the kiss. Frank briefly snaps out of it as he feels your hand on his member, positioning him at your entrance. Frank lifts up your legs to wrap around his waist, and pushes himself into you.

The air escapes your lungs as he thrusts inside you in one push, your back slamming against the wall. The size of him hurts at first, but he fills you up oh so good. Of course Frank is bigger than average, he clearly knows, it's all in his attitude. Frank thrusts into you, moaning every time he does. He puts his hand on the wall behind you to try and push into you deeper, but the wall swallows his hand up, leaving a huge hole in the brickwork. Frank still needs to know the limits of his new vampire strength.

Frank gets agitated and aggressively picks you up, him still inside you. He swipes his arm to remove all the items off a nearby desk and lays you on top of it. He grabs your legs to forcefully move you to the edge of the table as he continues to fuck into you. You can feel the table buckling underneath you. You try to tell Frank when-

The desk collapses on the floor, you still on top of it. Luckily Frank's hands were still underneath you, cushioning most of your fall. Frank doesn't care in the slightest, the only thing that matters in the world right now is fucking you. He continues to pound into you. You swear he growls in your ear at one point. You can feel yourself starting to clench around him as you reach your peak. Frank notices and puts a hand around your neck, squeezing slightly. This is exactly what you needed to send yourself over the edge, you cum around him, hard. Your legs wrapping around his waist, your walls squeezing him tight.

Frank lets out a gutteral moan as he arches his back as he cums inside you. The warm liquid starting to seep out of you. He feels amazing, all of his senses heightened. He comes down from his high and takes himself out of you. He dips two fingers into the pool forming underneath you. He runs his fingers along his fangs and licks them clean. He mumbles an "oh yeah" under his breath. Frank looks at you, spread out on the floor, the room a complete mess. It really is a sight to behold. He bites his lip, "I think I might just keep you".

[sunderwight]

crack scum villain theory: there is no "original" Shang Qinghua

how this works is, neither the world of SV nor the world of PIDW actually existed in any tangible sense before Airplane died. Airplane dying was actually the catalyst for the system, and whatever unfathomable cosmic entities are behind it, to recreate the world from the novel. that's why Airplane transmigrates into an infant, and also why the world mostly follows canon up until Airplane interacts too much with actual plot-relevant characters, and accidentally butterfly effects Shen Jiu into a fatal qi deviation. At which point the system determines that a dead Shen Qingqiu makes fulfilling the basic story requirements impossible or at least dangerously low in terms of odds, and brings in the second play (User 002, Shen Yuan).

SY is able to earn more points from the system than Airplane, but that's mostly thanks to his proximity to the protagonist not actual preferential treatment, and he seems to have more concrete restrictions on his behavior and limits on his mobility (OOC lock, entering into an already-established character, and of course being forced to ensure that Luo Binghe goes into the Endless Abyss) (this does make it ironic that he ultimately changes the most things). whereas Airplane seems to have more freedom to do as he pleases. the system doesn't even seem to dock him points for accidentally contributing to the death of a vitally plot-relevant character.

so the SV world was originally supposed to more or less just be the same as the PIDW world. it didn't change to any significant degree until Shen Jiu died.

I suspect, then, that the PIDW world which followed canon didn't exist as any kind of separate reality until Shen Jiu died of a fatal qi deviation and had to be replaced. at which point the system -- perhaps hedging its bets -- created two splintered timelines. one being the original sandbox for Airplane to play in and continue to alter, the other being a manufactured reflection of the story's original outcome, possibly to serve as some kind of emergency back-up character bank or reference outline.

which means that the PIDW version of this reality isn't a full and cohesive world. though of course the people there don't know that. it's mostly just a tool for the system, which is why we first encounter Bingge being utilized as an enforcer. Bingge and everyone else who exists in the PIDW reality, they all remember their past as the story and are at the end point of what Airplane had written, but none of it actually happened. they instead sprang into existence at their narrative end point.

since the Shang Qinghua of Airplane's novel died well before the end of the story, characters in the PIDW have various recollections of a "Shang Qinghua" and his death, but they are vague and ultimately do not reflect the tangible events of a world the way that the SV timeline does. they are artificial memories based on a story. PIDW Shen Jiu likewise never really existed, although SV Shen Jiu did. similarly, all the history of the SV world that supposedly happened before Shang Qinghua was born never actually happened either. that's all constructed as well, which means that in a weird kind of a way, no one in the world can actually be older than Shang Qinghua either. they can only have manufactured memories that give them that impression. which means Airplane is the oldest being in that entire universe. he'd even be older than his own parents, because they were created to be his parents the moment he was born.

so there's no other Shang Qinghua. everything prior to Airplane's transmigration in the SV world and prior to the last PIDW chapter in the PIDW world is like when a video game designer seeds a dungeon with a skeleton and a bunch of notes about how some lone adventurer got lost and died there. at no point in the game was there ever actually a live adventurer in place of that skeleton.

that's "original" Shang Qinghua. he doesn't exist, because in one reality he's only ever been a version of Airplane, and in another he's a skeleton in a video game dungeon.

[theoutcastrogue]

[I swear I'm not biased. Also, skip this post if your criteria for a good story include happy and just endings.]

What made Arcane S1 a masterpiece was the Tragedy, and Vi's central place in it. She doesn't interact much with the magic plot, but she's right in the middle of both the sociological storytelling and several individual character arcs, and they're all pulling her apart. And that's what makes it all so compelling.

Vi accidentally or unwillingly becomes the catalyst for the collisions of Piltover vs Zaun, Vander vs Silco, and Powder vs Jinx. And she's torn between Vander's pacifism/defeatism and Zaun's rebelliousness, her hostility to Enforcers and her growing affection for Caitlyn, her hate for Silco and her love for Powder*, avenging the dead and protecting the living**, Caitlyn's vision of charity from above and Ekko's accomplishment of autonomy from below, saving Caitlyn and saving Powder (both from Jinx!), love and loyalty, guilt and revenge, topside and undercity.

There's a maelstrom of opposing forces and ideas, and all Vi wants to do is stand in front of her people and take the hit for them, raising her fists and blocking with her face like she always does. But who ARE her people, even? She's in the centre and she cannot hold: she's getting drawn and quartered by the actual themes of the story.

Like a true Tragic Hero™ (i.e. protagonist, heroism is irrelevant), she always chooses wrong. Not necessarily in the moral sense (though sometimes that too), but through a combination of tragic irony™ (when the character is unaware of a crucial piece of information) and coincidence: whatever she ends up doing, tragedy ensues. And it makes for a great story! Tragedy is a FANTASTIC medium if you do it right! And Season 1 did it perfectly.

But more to the point, it isn't about fatal character traits or random coincidences, it embodies all the social conflicts laid out in the story. All around Vi, the sociological storytelling converges with the psychological, and they both say the exact same thing: apply pressure to a society long enough, and the walls WILL come tumbling down. So the result is classic tragedy: any different choice could have prevented it, and yet it was inevitable. But the angle is specific: it's not the gods who are cruel and fickle. It's not our nature that's inescapable. It's not Fate that's implacable. It's History.

Season 2 didn't stand a chance in hell to be worthy of Season 1, unless League lore and all promotional goals were aggressively ignored. About half of it was worthy, I think, continuing seamlessly the earlier themes. But then the sociological storytelling was dropped from the forefront and eventually from view, Vi lost both her central place in the story and her internal conflict, and got a corny happy ending, there was SO MUCH flinching, and even the tragedy of Jinx's self-sacrifice was taken back (wink wink, she's alive).

I have many issues with Season 2 (and a lot of praise: parts of it were excellent, and the animation remained incredible throughout), but the main reasons it can't possibly compare to Season 1 is that in the end there wasn't enough Vi, and there wasn't enough tragedy.

Respectful hat tip to Ekko for filling in.

* Vi actually prioritises "bringing his bullshit empire down" over saving her sister from Silco, and voluntarily offers the name "Jinx" to the Council just to convince them to attack him.

** applies both to teen Vi choosing to surrender to the Enforcers, so that the Lanes won't fight and no one will get hurt (except her), and adult Vi putting her vendetta against Silco above everything: she gets Jayce to bring armed enforcers and Hextech weapons down to the undercity, and stands over the entirely predictable outcome of a dead child. Some of this obsession is fueled by hate for what Silco did to Vander and her siblings, but I think most of it is reflected guilt for what SHE did to Powder, which would never have happened if it weren't for Silco.

[yassminesboo]

Lookism chapter 514: little rant

This is stupid as fuck at this point, genuinely one of the worst lookism chapters i've read so far.

I've been here since 2020, I've felt a lot of things when reading lookism, excitement, giddiness, sadness, suspense but never have i ever felt actual "what the fuck is going on" rage ever while reading lookism.

Nothing in this whole "hunt for gun" arc makes sense, like literally nothing adds up. first we've got the ENTIRE verse assembling like the avengers to take down gun, like we're talking extras that haven't appeared in years. Then these seemingly amazing strong characters that went through so much character development and training arcs get the floor wiped with them, absolutely erasing all the progress they've made so far and get taken down within literally three panels. Not to mention how they deal fatal blows and this man hits super saiyan poses and gets up like nothing happened? Then he proceeds to randomly and casually plunging off a cliff above the mountain forest and lands on the highway in 0.00001 sec mid fight without taking any fall damage whatsoever and gets right back to swinging.

Anyways fast forward to the ridiculous fight he had with johan, which i find to be absolutely ridiculous johan should have 100% won that and the fight should'nt have been prolonged that much, not only was johan in perfect health and his vision was restored, but gun was also getting more and more "tired" and his state was pitiful. But SOMEHOW he still won that. Okay. Cool.

And now fast forward to today's chapter: gun's DUMBASS turns down goo's offer and now they're fighting. So naturally you'd expect gun to lose because goo is relatively equal (as stated multiple times by the narrative) to gun, and gun is in a pitiful state broken arm basically became a flesh and bones smoothie, not to mention his organs must have turned into slime from the amount of hits he has taken. His left eye is popped and bloodshot, his neck is sliced, he even has CLAW marks down his lower torso and forearm, excessive blood loss and nasty bruising everywhere... so obviously goo who is 100% in good shape and is proven to be a very powerful and impactful character will win right? Haha.

*internally screaming throwing up sobbing rolling on the floor in rage and despair*

HOW THE FUCK DID HE END UP ON THE FLOOR SQUISHED LIKE A BUG WITH A SWORD PIERCING THROUGH HIM???? The whole fight made me ENRAGED, i lost it when he blocked the sword with his mouth AND bit it off like are we sure we're still in a slice of life manhwa and not a horror one? I lost it even more when his mouth that was torn ear to ear because of the sword magically healed in the next panel like nothing happened, like that sword didn't just cut through his flesh. Speaking of swords cutting through flesh, how did goos sword sharp enough to cut through metal and concrete walls get stuck on his ankle? Dies this man have titanium bones or something?? How did the sword get stuck on the FLESH not even the bone itself. And the fact that he just walked it off again like nothing happened.. somehow goo only landed like two clean hits and gun magically dodged all the other ones.

Then PTJ proceeds to pull up the double suicide to end the fight in which BOTH goo and gun were stabbed but goo somehow is the one who ends up being squished on the floor like a bug.

This is unacceptable, idk wth ptj was expecting us to get hype after gun some fucking how is capable of weaseling himself out of every corner he's backed up to this is starting patterns that are very similar to jjk.. which i don't like at all. I'd like to say for the one billionth time again that PTJ writing gets progressively worse from the years, which only consists of stalling and dragging the arcs instead of moving on to other plot points, extreme plot armor, adding in an unbelievable number of minor characters, background characters, and extras just to neglect them after a few chapters. Some characters who supposedly were from the "main cast" were gone for YEARS dude, and the lacking female character writing (some may argue with this because it is true there are female characters that are badass and are really good written, but most are created only for the purpose of helping a certain male character with character development. Which he literally directly says on his author note for viral hit in which he says all the female characters form the main cast even the nurse were created for romantic interest, which is an insane thing to say.)

Anyhow, if you've read this far thank you for coming to my ted talk 😓. I know some things i said might be controversial but i just needed to let out some steam, because this is getting ridiculous. Everyone can see the pattern now like there is no way that he's so overpowered that the entirety of the verse wasn't able to take him down.

[thedorkurge]

Illario Dellamorte is my favorite Veilguard character.

And it's because he makes sense.

A fatal flaw in Veilguard is that every character is made to be super agreeable and nice, and it means that their origins hardly even matter in the story of the game. Bellara isn't impacted by the isolationist nature of the Dalish, Neve has no controversial opinions on magic, Lucanis isn't jaded by his training, etc. (these points can be debated, sure, but generally I think they hold true).

Even the villains are painfully one-dimensional. Cartoonishly evil cultists, necromancer who wants to conquer a city, darkspawn who wants to blight innocent creatures. There's little room for nuance or motivation, because there are simply too many bad guys to actually go in-depth with any of them, and the game can leave no room for interpretation, because it depends on you being 100% against them. So an easy black and white hero/villain dynamic is what they choose to go with.

And then there's Illario. Sure, on the surface it's a classic plot, jealousy making him turn on his family. But it makes sense. Because it actually feels like a product of his upbringing.

The crows are... Very different in this game. This point has already been discussed to death, but I think it's obvious that they changed them a lot to make them fit the narrative they needed for the faction mechanics. However, we know from the other games that growing up as a Crow is hell. Even if Illario wasn't subjected to the same treatment as other "recruits" (typically slaves and orphans), he still grew up in an incredibly cutthroat environment. Both Illario and Lucanis lost their parents to the power struggles between the houses when they were just kids, and were sent to live with a grandmother who trained them to be killers. The same grandmother who likely chose her position over her own children. Lucanis even describes her methods as "torture", which says a lot coming from the guy who was locked up in the Ossuary for a year. And he was the favored grandchild. Caterina clearly never hid her favoritism either. Illario learned from an early age that the only way to succeed, to be recognized, was to kill and rise through the ranks. And while it seems that his skill set (charming/manipulating people) is less valued than the flashy methods of "The Demon", it was an excellent skill to have when it comes to surviving within the crows.

The crows are known for infighting, Ivenci even points this out in the game. Anyone raised by the crows would know that the greatest battlefield is your own home, your own parties. They know that their allies are also their greatest enemy. They know that the other houses could be plotting behind your back, and that they will take advantage of any perceived weakness (such as leveraging familial love to force Caterina to give up the seat of First Talon).

So tell me, what makes more sense after being raised in a place like this? Becoming a kind and shy coffee addict who trusts and adores the other crows? Or becoming a jaded social climber who uses everything in their power to strengthen their own position? One who would turn on his family before they turn on him, allowing him to take the thing he has been taught to value above all else: The title of First Talon? One who thinks that family members are disposable, and that the only way to come out on top is to betray them before they betray you?

Illario was allowed to have that kind of nuance because you get the option to spare him, but I think the game would have benefitted from more characters like this. Characters whose backstories mattered, characters who weren't deliberately evil, but rather a product of their environment. It would have made everything feel more real, more grounded in the actual world building.

I wish we got more content with this bastard man, because he's (to me) the most interesting villain the companions have to face, and it seems a shame to reduce his storyline to "he was just jealous".

[one-idea]

Nika reincarnated and the King of Hell.

I don’t know how many of you are Zelda fans but Luffy being the sun god Nika could go crazy hard with the Skyward Sword storyline.

For those of you who have not played Skyward sword no worries I’m changing enough of the plot it won’t matter to much

Let’s say there is the legend of Nika. A legend pass down of the sun god who came to earth to liberate slaves and return joy and freedom to the world.

Most of the texts has been lost but the oral tradition keeps the story alive. However it is not a totally accurate account.

They tell the story of Nika’s exploits on Earth. Including his help from other gods/angels/deities.

But the most famous tale is the story of Nika’s fight with the King of Hell. The fight to free the people of this world. Nika was able to seal away the King of Hell but was fatally wounded as a result of the fight.

However the true version this tale had been lost to time. The current version is missing quite a lot of detail. Including the fact that Nika, perhaps knowing he would be needed again or just wanting to be with his friends and loved ones once more, sacrificed his immortality so that his soul could reincarnate as a human.

Thousands of years later Luffy is born.

After Luffy unlocks Gear 5 he starts to get these weird visions or feelings. It starts out while he’s sleeping but he’s starting to get them while he’s awake. It’s starting to worry the crew. One minute he will be standing there talking to them and then the next his eyes are locked on the horizon, but they aren’t really seeing anything and he’s not responding to their calls.

It’s only for short periods of time, and Luffy tries to brush them off with the crew, but he’s really starting to freak out. Because he’s seeing things that he does not remember happening.

When they arrive on the next island Luffy gets separated from the others. Maybe a cult follower of Nika. Maybe an old friend, someone who already remembers their past life with Nika and is here to help Luffy as he unlocks his memories. (Maybe Shanks or Sabo, someone Luffy would willingly go with and trust them when they say his crew will be fine)

Meanwhile, while Luffy is going on a journey of self discovery, the crew is losing their minds

Specifically Zoro. He’s been having weird dreams since Enies Lobby when he unlocked his Asura form for the first time. They were few and far between but they always freaked him out because why was he fighting Luffy in those dreams?

It’s been getting worse since he gained Enma. Every night since picking up that sword he’s been having weird dreams. Something that used to happen once a month at most is now a nightly occurrence. And then when he unlocked the title King of Hell he started getting them in the day. And he’s starting to freak out. Because he’s starting to remember their previous lives. But nothing makes sense. There are some memories where Zoro?Asura? and Luffy?Nika? Seem to act like they do now, there are some memories where they seem closer (memories that make his cheeks burn) but there are also memories where they seem to be at each others throats and fighting to the death. But that seems to be only one memory, the one memory that won’t leave him alone.

And he’s been wondering for weeks if Luffy has been remembering to. If the pauses where he zones out are actually him being plaguing by visions to. But he’s to scared to ask, because what if the only memory Luffy has of past Zoro is them fighting? Or what if Luffy isn’t seeing visions and Zoro is just crazy?

And now Luffy has gone missing and they need to find him but they keep getting to him to late. Luffy’s moved on to the next temple, next location, and they are always just a step behind their captain.

(Note other crew members are remembering things from their past lives as well. I haven’t placed them all yet but they were definitely around with Nika in the past. Now what role they played is up for debate. A different god/ one of Nika’s angels/ or just a person who was loyal to Nika in the past, someone he liked enough to tie them to his soul when it reincarnated.)

Once they reunite Luffy and Nika have fully merged. The crew can tell he’s different. But they don’t have long to talk. Something is coming. Whatever happened in the past is about to come again and Nika has to hold it off until the crew is ready to fight. (Till they remember what he does) he goes to do this but swears to them that no matter what happens or what they remember he’s still their captain, he’s still their Luffy.

And the he’s gone again. Somewhere they can’t follow this time. Not until they remember. Not until their enemy is defeated.

As they go on their quest they all start to remember different parts of the story. Which could lead to one of them (probably Sanji) remembering the final fight between Asura and Nika. But he has no other context so it just lead to him and Zoro fighting because he thinks Zoro is their enemy or at least he used to work for him, because Asura dealt the fatal blow to Nika which started this reincarnation crap.

It isn’t until they put the whole story together that they find out Asura was possessed when he fought Nika. It was an unseeable betrayal because it wasn’t a betrayal. Once Asura delt the fatal blow to Nika he snapped out of it. He followed Nika’s decision to sacrifice his immortality in the hopes that they could be together again.

The main enemy is probably Imu. An ancient deity who Nika sealed the powers of long ago. Enough time has passed that the seal has weakened and that is way Luffy has to hold the seal while his crew gets their memories back.

I love Zelda and I think this could be a lot of fun taking elements of both skyward sword and Tears of the kingdom to make it work.

Obviously the whole crew had their roles in the past life. So did Ace, Sabo, Shanks and others

I kinda like the idea of Shanks being Luffy’s guide to his memories while his crew runs interference with the Strawhats. One of the great parts of Skyward swords story is your always a step behind Zelda and Impa never lets you forget that you were to slow to save her. That if Impa wasn’t there Zelda would be dead, and Link would have been to slow and weak to stop it. The idea of Shanks crew (and maybe Mihawk) taunting the Strawhats with the fact that they are to slow or weak to protect their captain has a lot of drama to it. Luffy’s safe, Shanks’ wouldn’t let anything happen to him, but the fact that they (the Strawhats) are to slow to help him over and over has to hurt.

This could also work really well with Sabo in this position. Sabo helping Luffy with his memories while Dragon taunts the crew.

I also love the idea that for centuries Asura was blamed for Nika’s death and Zoro and the crew learning about it with no context. Zoro would lose his mind at just the idea that he could ever be the one responsible for killing Luffy in a past life. Of course it’s not the full truth as they later find out but that moment would be awesome.

Let me know what you guys think. I want to talk about this more.

[veliseraptor]

July Reading Recap

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. I can see why people said this one had Adrian Tchaikovsky vibes because in terms of the worldbuilding and the alien species involved it absolutely did. I was not super enamored of the part of the plot that wasn't on the Tines' world (which was...an important part of the plot), but my investment in the politics of the Tines and the worldbuilding around them made up for it. I'm curious about the apparent sequel and whether it's worth reading - does anybody know?

Thousand Autumns: vol. 5 by Meng Xi Shi. I have finished Thousand Autumns and my verdict on it mostly hasn't changed from what it's been throughout: enjoyable but not really fully clicking for me. I liked it! But I didn't love it, and I don't know that it'll stick with me the way other books have, or compel me to do a reread.

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon. Maybe I just don't have a sense of humor, but I felt like this book was trying too hard to be funny/clever and it landed wrong for me. It was interesting, certainly! And I learned some new things from it, and probably will go on to read the author's other book (about women in Ancient Rome), but this one tonally was not a winner, for me personally.

Ballad of Sword and Wine: vol. 1 by Tang Jiu Qing. Rereading this one (Qiang Jin Jiu, they're really going off in their own direction title translation-wise there) with the official published translation even though I am also binding it, because I can, I guess. And I still deeply appreciate how unhinged Shen Zechuan is, but in, like, mostly a way where it's not obvious to most people until they've known him for a little while. Also the sheer amount of politics, which I'm following better on this second readthrough. I think it'll be rewarding to reread.

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan. One of two Jewish fantasy books I read this month, just by chance (I wasn't intending on a theme, they'd both been on my to-read list for a while). I liked it a lot! I thought it was going to be a stand alone and feel a little funny about it being a series (I'm always looking for more stand alones), but I am also looking forward to more of it.

The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession by David Grann. I've really enjoyed the other David Grann books I've read/listened to (The Lost City of Z, Killers of the Flower Moon) but found myself fairly underwhelmed by most of the essays here. It's not that they weren't good (they were) or interesting (most of them were), it just didn't feel like they were that good or that interesting. Maybe I just like his full-length books better.

Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland. It was fine? Not as good as I'd hoped. I called the twist which was satisfying for me personally. I don't know if I'm going to be reading the sequel. Most of the POV characters I liked fairly well, which is the main thing this book had going for it, but one of them bored me to tears and that inflected my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. This book earned its five stars by making me cry in the last 20%. Overall a beautiful book, though, relatively quiet; I wasn't sure about it early on but then it hit a turn that really got me. Makes me want to read his other book. The summary on the back really does not do the book justice but I don't actually know how I would explain it better, and I recognize that makes it a difficult recommendation.

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb. This one was really good and a lot of fun. Very Jewish, too, which was enjoyable and not something I run into all that often in fantasy books. Just...very charming, entertaining, a joy to read.

I'm currently reading Godkiller by Hannah Kaner though I should be reading Edenville since I have it checked out from the library (I'll get to it!). I keep meaning to get back to reading more nonfiction (or realistic fiction) and then getting distracted. My plan for upcoming books, though, includes The Ratline, To Shape a Dragon's Breath, and (after years of having it sit on my shelf) Beauty Is a Wound. We'll see how on task I stay or if I end up wandering off to other stuff.

I'm currently looking for horror and mystery/thriller recommendations, though, so if anyone has any of those I will take them.

[forwomenbiwomen]

Not to be alarmist but does anyone else have like zero hope for the future........

Like I've never been a depressed person and I'm not now but I genuinely see no future that I want to live in. The environment is crashing around us in ways I genuinely don't think we as humans are equipped to process. We're animals, we're not supposed to be frantically meta-analysing and fighting to uphold the literal world (well scientists and women are).

And what's happening with WW3? How scary is it for it to even be mentioned on major news sites like the BBC? That's insane and it's scary.

We've had no snow in my northern English town. It feels so incomprehensibly wrong, like there's deep genetic code that's screaming that winter is here but it's warm. It is wrong, and that's the worst part, that it's obvious and nothing's happening about it. Men have done everything wrong and I fear it's just going to be one of those things that actually did go wrong in the end. I fear it'll be one of those things with an anticlimactic ending, a fizzle out when we were expecting something to swoop in and save us. Like, oh. It just ended like that. Just the way it had been going for decades, just the path it had been on. It didn't try to bait us or mislead us, it just... did it. And we didn't stop it because someone else would in the end. And that someone never showed up.

Idk I'm motivated to fix problems like misogyny and socioeconomic issues because they seem like uniquely fixable problems in my eyes, something achievable with perseverance and information and networking, but the environment and the possibility of nuclear war is like a gut punch that I can't get my breath back from. Nothing matters if we don't have a planet to stand on and air to debate with, and so that motivation fizzles out and just becomes impotent. I know social justice issues are a cyclical, uphill battle and I'm so ready to fight for them, but the environment is a Lovecraftian endgame. We're spiralling lost in our own lives towards a deceptively simple and lethally solid wall, and most people will be confused and shocked when they fall to the ground with a fatal brain injury from walking into it headfirst.

I feel like I'm going crazy when people are just going about their daily lives, they're picking up hobbies, they're starting shows, they're planning college and university and getting married, going shopping, HAVING CHILDREN LIKE IT'S NORMAL and I'm screaming WHAT IS THE POINT?????? WHAT ARE YOU DOING??????? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??????

What do you mean I need to plan for my career? What do you mean I have homework that matters in any way? What do you mean I have time to explore the world-dont-worry-about-it? What do you mean I can entertain the possibility of having children? Are we living in alternate realities?

"You sound like you're being too hard on yourself and you should take time offline and focus on what you can do. It's important you look after yourself before anyone else." Thank you, spectre of Radblr. I will do that. While I'm still here though, I'm just hoping someone will have some good news about any of this because I feel like I've been transported into the plot of a Shakespearean tragedy, with absurdity and predestined demise to boot.

[flam-burr]

Should absolutely post about raka 👀

*slowly coming out of my hiding* I-I should?

Yeah, I should!

*loud crashes ensue*

I missed you.

A/n: Hello! Hi! I'm very happy somebody actually cared enough to like that post and send a question. A question! The first! *giggles* So, this story is a take on @goddamnitlopori 's post, which stirred a lot of thoughts and sent me back to writing after so long. Thank you <3

Plot: He knew males of his descendant changed when the alpha died, he had seen it happen when he was younger. He had expected it to happen, someday, eventually nursing the idea of being able to see in himself what he had lost that terrible day.

But now it felt… wrong.

Or

Raka starts shifting from a beta to an alpha.

************************************************************************

Wind brushed gently through the lonely orangutan’s fur, the fresh scent of grass and earth bringing relaxation after a long day.

In the past he had sometimes neglected the simple pleasures of life, too caught up with his work to think there could be something more important than that, but it is known that one doesn’t fully appreciate what he has until he loses it. Or, in this case, goes terribly close to do so.

Raka closed his eyes, breathing deeply and basking in the euphoric sensation that being alive gave him.

He still didn’t fully believe his luck, but he thanked Caesar everyday for that log that stopped his rush towards the sea and gave him a chance to survive. He even kept a shard of it. Nothing big, just a reminder that now hung to his neck, where Caesar’s symbol used to be. He often entertained the thought of carving that same symbol in the wood, but some nostalgic part of him thought it was better not. It would never be the same as his old pendant.

He hoped Noa and Mae took care of that old thing, wherever they were.

He prayed for it to bring them the peace that used to bring him, even though he was quite sure the two would give each other way too much of a headache to be actually useful.

The orangutan sighed, chuckling at the thought of his old travel companions as he finally opened his eyes and made his way to the river - a way calmer one than the last - and carefully sat by the shore.

He dipped a hand in the cold water and started bringing it to his mouth when a glimpse of his reflection stopped him in his tracks.

Raka wasn’t one to indulge in this vanity. The rare times he had seen his face were for a purpose, like drinking or washing. Glimpses of fur and dark skin he could picture quite clearly with the eye of the mind to recognise himself if he saw his reflection-

But this one wasn’t his.

The reflection was wider, broadier, its neck was dark and started to be evident under the reddish fur. It looked more like an alpha male than a beta.

It looked more like… him.

Raka got struck by the realization.

Something awakened in his chest, stirring and clawing its way towards his heart as he sat, frozen, staring wide-eyed at the image in the water.

Had it been already this long since his death?

Raka tried to remember how many sunsets had been since he met Noa. Even taking in account having lost one or two after his almost fatal swim, it hadn’t been that long. He should have had more time to… he wasn’t really sure for what, actually.

He knew males of his descendant changed when the alpha died, he had seen it happen when he was younger. He had expected it to happen, someday, eventually nursing the idea of being able to see in himself what he had lost that terrible day.

But now it felt… wrong.

The chin was wrong.

The nose was smaller.

His fur didn’t fall this way on his face.

His eyes weren’t that shade of green.

Raka looked for his village in his new features, but he just wasn’t there.

The image shook and trembled.

Raka furrowed his brow as more drops fell into the water and he lifted a hand to his face.

Slow, salty, big tears rolled lazily along his new face to hang on his chin until they finally fell, blurring his sight and giving him some kind of mercy from the pain that tried to eat his racing heart.

Raka sniffed and lifted his gaze up. Over the blurry layer, he saw the sky was on fire, painting itself with the most stunning reds and oranges as the sun went slowly to sleep and night awoke.

It was beautiful.

It was merciful.

It didn’t stop the memories from coming.

Memories of long nights spent around the fire flooded his mind. Some were full of discussions, talking, attempts to crack the old writings in the new books they found. Others carried the sensation of a warm embrace, a scent strong and earthy, filled with a sensation of protection and eyes of the right green that watched upon him like he was the most precious of the treasures they hoarded.

Like all the answers they looked for were right there, in the space that existed between their lips, waiting for them.

Raka let the memories pass through him, welcoming the bitter-sweet pain they brought but wishing it was never there, and before he could think he gripped the wooden shard by his neck and held it close.

He traced the unfamiliar shape with his fingers, occasionally catching on some unrefined parts that hurt.

He winced. His old pendant was smoother, safer to hold.

But this one was good. This one grounded him.

Breath after breath, stroke after stroke, his heart slowed. The pain was there - always there -, but it ceased to try to suffocate him, leaving its place to a warmer feel and Raka mastered all his courage to lower his gaze once again.

His village looked back at him from the water, eyes puff with tears and sorrow.

He stared.

Trembling, Raka tried an experimental smile and his heart dropped with recognition.

The orangutan laughed, sweet huffs gradually turning into sobs, but happy nonetheless.

“Hello… friend.”, he said, voice raw with an emotion he didn’t think he could feel anymore.

“I… missed you.”

[ragnarlothcat]

✨✨Fic/Stats Game ✨✨

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fewest words.

1st most Hits: à la carte

My obikin modern AU where Anakin is a waiter/grad student and Obi-Wan meets him at work and they fall immediately in love. Looking back I'm not sure about certain characterization choices (or indeed punctuation choices) but I still had a lot of fun writing it. I'm glad people have enjoyed reading it!

2nd most Kudos: Aggressive Negotiations

Was this my first ode to Anakin's handsomeness? Worryingly, I don't think it was, but it's probably the most thorough. I got the idea for this 5+1 fic from Discord and wrote the entire thing in like one sitting. I have no regrets. Anakin's face is extremely inspiring!

3rd most Comments: nothing compares to you

My original time loop obikin fic! Post Rako Hardeen arc where Anakin is extremely angry at Obi-Wan and just wants to move on with his life. Instead he gets stuck in Groundhog Day-esque shenanigans and proceeds to bewilder everyone around him. The obikin stuff is just vibes so far because I'm trying to set some kind of fic negligence record, but there's plenty of Anakin nonsense to make up for it, hopefully?

4th 3rd most Bookmarks: as holy and enchanted

4th was time loop again so I'm going to talk about this fic instead. God Obi-Wan and archaeologist Anakin bicker and then have a lot sex. Like, a lot. Anakin is lucky his new boyfriend is magic or else he'd be in traction by the end.

5th most words: I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)

My obikin omegaverse noir with detective Obi-Wan and femme fatale Anakin in Outfits. There aren't even that many words in this fic. I feel like most of my stuff is between 10k and 25k. Which is a deeply irritating fic length. Is it a long oneshot? A short longfic? No idea! But I've sure written a bunch of whatever it is.

Fewest words: Guiding Light

My obikin zine piece so yeah, this tracks. We were held a word limit that according to AO3, I actually failed to obey. I swear they must be counting differently than I did though because I was really careful! Anyway, the plot is that Obi-Wan and Anakin wake up on some random planet and find they've both lost their memories.

Thank you @teaandjumpers for the tag!

I get the sense this game has been going around for ages so everyone is probably tagged. That being said: tagging @tideswept @thegingerwrites @nixie-deangel @artemisthehuntress @underacalicosky

[septembersung]

I don’t know how people ever get things done.

We can’t win for losing. Yesterday wasn’t horrible for schedule and school work but I started going downhill fast, lost the plot, and woke up this morning with a raging sinus infection. The kind where everything above your shoulders feels alien and disconnected and also simultaneously somehow painful. How, exactly, are people supposed to get anything done when no one can ever be healthy? Some of the kids are still struggling too.

We have Things happening today and tomorrow which eat away at school hours. This morning apparently I slept through my alarm. Or maybe I just turned it off. Either way I wasn’t super cognizant.

I even did some troubleshooting and vibe checking yesterday with the only other person I know irl who schools remotely like me and has a similar family size. My conclusion after hearing her situation is I’m not being unreasonable, I’m doing what’s necessary and using a good method. What I have to is, I have to get the rest of life under control and continue tightening discipline/reclaiming our habits out of the chaos of last year. For myself as much as the kids.

I think we’re going to have to take a school break for a few days in the near future so I can address housekeeping issues full time. Perhaps a three day weekend. I don’t know if that’s enough time. There are also some things out of my control that make addressing some of these issues hard to impossible. Which would mean something just has to give until those things are resolved. There’s only 24 hours in a day, if some of the waking ones are irrevocably dedicated to x, then y has to stop or be reduced. Simple as. Just having my head clear on those expectations will make a difference.

I think we’re about to become a school uniform family. Which means I need a budget, either for material or for actual clothes. So by “about to” I mean, in my dreams.

Auntie Leila (LMLD) says you can’t do anything about school or anything else unless you have dinner and laundry under control, and you can’t continue on properly without a reasonably clean house. And she’s right. Uniforms will help with my laundry situation. Reducing volume is key. But you can’t reduce volume unless you can pick specific and good quality pieces. Which right now I can’t outside of getting lucky.

The laundry problems are partially a function of our ongoing financial crunch. We’re very very fortunate to have a free supply of clothes. It’s a whole thing. But beggars can’t be choosers. Or as I tell my kids about everything all the time, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. I ensure that we are modest and properly seasonally clothed. I don’t get to pick cute matching outfits in coordinated colors in pre decided styles made of 100% natural fibers. But again. The financial crunch is temporary. It has been a long term temporary, but the end is in sight now on the distant horizon. Maybe I can consider uniforms. And, it’s possible to thrift them, especially around here. Or fabric though that would be trickier. I’ve never sewed a full properly wearable garment but I understand how to, more or less, which is an improvement, and I could do it with a little patience and trial and error. (My fatal flaw is I do fundamentally believe I’m capable of most things.) The question then is color and style. And they don’t gave to be Uniforms. I’m talking, a little more formal, vaguely coordinated, “school time” (or “be on your best manners” outing) outfits. As opposed to our usual whatever play clothes. I don’t, actually, want us to look like the local private school kids.

Between my issues and kid issues I haven’t provided the kind of structure that it turns out is necessary for us. Other families operate differently and successfully so I kept thinking we could just “pick” a style and adapt to whatever. But the Uber-relaxed way of ordering our life has led to chaos and laziness. I, personally, have to hold myself to a different standard because this one isn’t working. Steep learning curve because how I handled myself as a childless person or mother of all littles is radically different from how I, as homeschooler of a big family now, need to handle everything. Some of the issues weren’t even apparent until we hit a certain critical mass of ages and number of people, but I’m calling it now. Uniforms are by far not the biggest issue here. But they would help with two aspects of the big picture. So will creating a better school space. I’m working with what I have, but we’re definitely doing something with the basement next summer.

Knowing I have a year to figure this out I’ve been “committing” to one design and then playing out all the possibilities and consequences of that choice. As an exercise. Now it’s time to consider the other alternative - that the big bedroom stays the big bedroom and we integrate a classroom into the large playroom space (with or without small additional wall to subdivide it.) I want a noise barrier and a way to keep supplies locked out of the reach of littles. A wall isn’t the only answer there.

The corner of the basement playroom where we could potentially build a small wall across to make it its own small room is still called “the little library” even now because for a year or so I did have kid books and desks crammed in there. It didn’t work out for a few reasons but those issues are fixable. The question is, with or without wall, since that’s a smaller area, what we’re putting inside and what’s outside.

What it comes down to is I need to pick a bit and commit to it.

[lorainedoesthings]

A RANDOM TGR IDEA I HAD

focuses on gordon n thomas for the majority, but also looks into the engines' relationship with thomas; and what they (don't) know about our fav blue tank engine

tgr somehow lessens the severity of a boiler explosion (thats instant fatality for crew, nearby people and in this case prolly gordon too) so i'm gonna pull some shit out my ass to make it a crownsheet failure and not a wholeass boiler explosion

so the crownsheet failure (and not some fucked up "boiler explosion") puts him (gordon) out of the race

sorry but after i found out it was supposed to be a boiler explosion i lost my shit because thats not how that sh!t works (if it was done properly we wouldve lost gordon for good probably which is just.. no.)

since thomas happens to be in the neighbourhood he takes gordon back to sodor/the steamworks (idfk where the race actually took place 😭 - probably gonna have the accident take place on sodor for logistics's sake)

so gordon's crew are hospitalised/hes out of commission for a bit because of his crownsheet (and a waterguage failure or smth, which led to the crownsheet failure)

flying scotsman decides not to be a little shit of a little brother and offers to take gordon's express trains over until gordon + crew are better (enough) to work again

scotsman also stays in tidmouth for a while

post gordon & crew recovery there needs to be an event which leads to thomas becoming a workaholic to not think about past events, most notably he offers to take percy's night mail train a lot more often

this then leads to some gordon-knows-shit-about-thomas-that-the-rest-dont-know moments @ tidmouth (other engines (looking at you edward) will also have other things to say)

scotsman is still staying there because plot (will think of how at some point)

the 'original' crew (thomas, edward, henry, gordon, james + percy) get the lore on thomas, and i want to use this oppertunity to explore thomas's past as a second spec LBSCR E2 as well as his friendships with the crew

the amount of ✨guilt✨ the rest feel after hearing all the thomas lore (hes the last of his siblings left, got sold to sodor cheap/barely after he was built, was built for shunting)

[personal hc/ideas] had a lot of issues w tender engines on the mainland, not helped by gordon/james/henry either when he first got to sodor

(even though he was sodor's first official purchase i'm gonna turn a blind eye to this because i want the aspect of the strike trio's behaviour to be explored, it also gives them all more depth i think?)

edit to the point above; the strike trio could have seen him working and were like: lets bully this little tank engine even though he's been here longer than us; so Thomas is now still one of the first on Sodor/first of the NWR's official purchases

one night, when thomas arrives late, the rest feel guilty (levels vary) and thomas comes to the conclusion that when he was working they had a chat about what they all knew about him ect and he offers to debunk/elaborate on shit

that last point will prolly be the last chapter or i could add an epilogue post apology arc n theyre all chill n working

I thought of this TGR idea a while back and now it's half living in my brain rent free..

[recreationalfanfics]

Yandere Adventurer vs. Yandere Femme Fatale Drabble

Based off of these Yandere Adventurer and Yandere Femme Fatale Hcs. Big Question: Which one of them could get it?

You watch in shock as your co worker is being held by two officers, tears running down his face as he SWEARS he hadn't stolen those artifacts, but his pleas fell onto deaf ears. Your standing in front of the University doors, watching as everything went down along with everyone else, and unsure of what to make of the situation. It had been such a perfectly normal morning too, you and Richard talking about things from favorite historical events, to the most ridiculous ones that sound too unhinged to be real yet they actually happened. Then the police barged in, accusing him of stealing one of the relics that went missing when Jesse brought them back.

Jesse Reeves was an amazing human being, in your eyes. Not only was he smart (depending on the situation), he was a charming yet brave and daring man who had been to all types of places. Searching for lost treasures in the most wild parts of the world, stopping villainous plots and organizations in the Artic, and even discovering lost ruins in the deepest parts of the oceans. Now, he held the not-so-impressive title of being your best friend after meeting him during a grand opening of a new exhibit he brought back for the University.

You don't know how you became friends with someone as amazing as him but you weren't complaining! And you thought you had a friend in Richard but now, as you watched him vehemently try to deny stealing the artifacts and get shoved into a cop car, yelling and kicking and trying to break open the window with his shoulder, you weren't sure what to think of him.

Jesse, on the other hand, leaned against the brick wall entrance with his arms crossed, and wearing a smug grin on his face.. When Richard saw him, his eyes were filled with betrayal but soon flared with anger as he yelled muffled cusses towards the blonde man, but no one could hear him. Nevermind believe him that THE Jesse Reeves would steal something from the museum when he had loyally been bringing back relics for them for ages, nevermind to frame a boring old co-worker like Richard who hasn't even worked a full month at the university. Yes, no one would believe Richard if he told them, but they really should've.

With a taunting wave, Jesse then stood up straight and walked over to you, reverting to his more bubbly personality as he stood next to you.

"Now, what in the wide world happened here?" He asked, a very convincing clueless look on his face.

- Yandere Adventurer now realizes the full extent of his feelings for you after that stupid co-worker is away and taken care of. He doesn't just love you, he's completely enamored by you! Out of all the treasures in the world, you're the most precious one he's come across, and he's decided that he wants to keep you to himself.

- Yandere Adventurer does get annoyed when you say that you'll miss Richard though. Why? Yeah, he might've lightened your workload but that was just about all he was useful for, at least, in Jesse's eyes he was.

"I mean, I didn't expect HIM to have been behind the theft. He seemed genuinely excited to work here." You wondered aloud, still unsure what to think about the events that transpired in the early morning.

"I bet he was, probably 'cuz he was fixin' to get his fingers on those artifacts." Jesse suggested, a bit of a scowl on his face. You assumed its because he's upset that he had such a hard time finding the thief only for it to be revealed it was someone who worked in the same department as the both of you. However, that wasn't why he was scowling. He just wished you'd talk about anything OTHER than Richard but, no, it turns out that bum was still on your mind, "Look, darlin', maybe we should think about something else besides good ol' Richie. Somethin' like...my next adventure."

You groan when you hear that, "Shit, I forgot! You're going to leave for Venezuela next week! Which means I'm handling the archives by myself again...and Richard just started reorganizing the documents too!"

Stop talking about him already.

"Actually, ya might not have to worry about the archives for a while there," Jesse began with a playful smile. Raising a curious eyebrow, you tilt your head a little, "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean...I've been thinking about it and I was wondering if ya might wanna go adventuring with me this trip," Your expression changes and he can see the hesitancy in your eyes, "NOW! NOW! It ain't gonna be as long as my other adventures and it might not be as dangerous but even if it was, I wouldn't let anything bad happen tah ya! S'just, you know, I like my adventures and I like you...so it'd just...it sure would make my day if ya at least considered it!"

You bit your lip anxiously and looked to the side. You were a historian but you were more of the "doing research on the computer in an air controlled environment" kind of historian, not the kind that went through death traps in nearly collapsing temples that had ancient curses on them. Like Jesse was.

However, the hopeful look in his sky blue eyes makes you feel guilty. You want to deny his offer but could you, in good conscience, dim that glow in his eyes. In fact, Jesse was COUNTING on that. You were too much of a sweetheart to let him down and Jesse knew that not even you were able to resist his charm.

"C'mon, it'll be like a vacation! You'll get tah see so many different waterfalls, tons o' great good, an' you'll get tah get a little up close and personal with history! Shoot, we can both have our names on the discovery plague an' everythin'! Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Jesse, I-"

"Both of you, in my office. Now." The headmaster of the University, and your boss, interrupted.

Even if you never saw eye to eye with him before, you were happy that he had intervened now and went with him. Jesse, however, was less than pleased. Still he followed along with you into the hallway, although there was a scent that hung in the air, one that smelled eerily familiar to him.

Yandere Femme Fatale who had been stalking you for a while, actually. Not long enough to know you were friends with her former flame but enough to memorize your schedule by heart and enough to fall deeply in love with you.

She had applied for the job of Archivist assistant, only to be enraged when she found out someone else was chosen. Oh well, she could just plan out their death but first things first, she'll have to kill the employer who had put a hit on you in the first place. The reason why this guy wanted you dead?

Apparently he couldn't take rejection well.

It sickened Yandere Femme Fatale, the way how entitled men think they could have whoever they wanted just because they inherited some pocket money from daddy. Don't worry, darling, she'll make sure you'll never have to worry about them now that she's there.

"Jesse, (Y/n). This is Scarlette Le Claire, she will be the new Archivist assistant."

Jesse froze up upon hearing her name. You, however, were entranced by the woman sitting in one of the seats facing the principals desk. She was applying lipstick to her plush lips when her dark eyes noticed you from her compact mirror. She shut it before standing up.

God, she was tall and even more gorgeous.

She extended a gloved hand in front of you, one you were nervous to take because of how expensive it looked, but you didn't want to be rude.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." She greeted warmly, her voice sounding like honey to your ears and God, she smelled so nice.

Jesse, however, was far from entranced. He knew personally that wherever that woman went, someone was bound to get hurt. Misery and death followed her wherever she went and he wasn't gonna let any of that touch you. He also was uneasy about the look in her eyes, he recognized it from all the times she chose money over him. Greed. Insatiable greed that will never be enough for her.

He didn't like that she was looking at you like that.

"Now, (Y/n), I'm going to need you to step outside with me. Since you'll need to train Ms. Le Claire."

You're too hypnotized by the woman in front of you that you don't respond or react, at least, not until Jesse whistles to capture your attention. With a confused "huh?", you turn and look at him and he points to the door where your boss was waiting rather impatiently. You apologize and run out, taking one last look at the woman and giving her a sheepish smile. The moment you walk out the door, Jesse is glaring her down.

"Got' a lotta nerve coming here, Scarlette. If ya got a problem with me, we can settle it elsewhere."

Scarlette rolled her eyes and fluffied her hair, making sure it looked good for when you came back.

"Oh, don't be so dramatic, Jesse. Not everything is about you." She scoffs. Jesse narrows his eyes and walks up to her, "Then who is it about?"

Scarlette's eyes flicker towards the door, where she can see your silhouette talking and nodding. Then she looks back at Jesse, who didn't even have to look back to see who she was looking at.

"You ain't laying a hand on (Y/n), ya hear?"

"And what if they come to me willingly?"

"They won't." Jesse argued, not really believing in his own words. He saw how you looked at her, the way you looked at him the first night he met you.

Scarlette didn't respond, she simply smiled as her eyes flickered towards the door again, patiently waiting for when you'd come back in. After being informed that you'd have to train Scarlette, Jesse's offer to Venezuela immediately went to the back of your mind as you excitedly told her you'd show her around. She hooks her arm with yours, not even bothering to pay attention to Jesse anymore.

Like she said, this wasn't about him.

This was about making you hers.