#this is not an attack on the original post just some musings!

[daevstroders]

ok so i cant find the post that triggered this but it was something about complaining about the wave of cannibalism/dog/tangerine imagery in modern poetry on tumblr and how 'not everyone can relate to that'

while that may be true, and this theme of imagery is popular now to the point of oversaturation (which i actually just kind of think is poetry in and of itself (metaphors about consuming turning into overconsumption? i love it)) i also think its unfair and shows a lack of understanding to society and to the meaning of the metaphors themselves.

(an analysis of sorts under cut)

in a generation of consumption, where we are no longer regarding media casually but consuming it constantly (tiktok, shows no longer having spaced out emissions, never having to wait for a dopamine fix really etc) is it not incredibly in keeping with the times that we would then turn to a metaphor of complete consumption as love? we love our media, we spend our days consuming it, therefore that being translated into cannibalism for the ones you love, consuming them with the same gusto, isn't as far a reach as it is made out to be. also the idea of all of us, the bad parts, the parts we keep hidden, being devoured as lovingly as the parts we share, speaks to a generation of anxious children who have been trained to perfect a persona that is palatable to a wide audience (see, generation of social media)

following that, the fruit metaphor, which i will admit, can be annoying - the constant tangerines, i get it, its overdone (but again see beginning of the post, poetry in and of itself) but the act of peeling away your layers, your facade that is so intrinsic to todays society of social media where your face on the screen is generally not the same face you wear on a sunday morning, to show your mushy insides, dividing them up and sharing them with the ones you love is inherently relatable. a culture of separated parts of self, the idea that there is a person you are online, at work, with certain friends and a different person with others etc, personas that have been watered down, the idea of giving them over to be consumed with the seeds still in, juice on the edge of too sweet, is cathartic. we dont feel we have the luxury to be our authentic selves for the most part, so the tangerine metaphor is an easy way to both express these ideas, and understand them.

and finally, the dog motif, which i think is the most nuanced of these metaphors - the idea that we are either a man or a dog, that we are the hand that feeds or the hand that takes, gives us a place to explore our humanity and what it means to be human- is all that a man is good for is to give? is all that a dog is good for is to take? (i could go on but this is getting to be too long now) calls back to a lot of older imagery, not to far a step from imagery of waves, the pull of the tide - who is the moon, who is the ocean? is it a steady rise and fall, or is it a raging storm? vs is it a symbiotic relationship, or do we bite the hand that feeds? is the hand that feeds also the hand that hurts? i believe there is so many different ideas to explore within this metaphor, and it is again an easy to digest way of presenting ideas, just like the waves once were.

also i just think the whole criticism really calls back to an age of keeping poetry inaccessible and exclusive. like, these young kids who probably dont have any experience of poetry outside of what is taught in school, are exploring in their own way, finding something easily accessible and easily understood, and are using it as a stepping stone to engage with poetry. this is great!! they may start off with richard silken, nina lacour, maggie nelson, but may go on to engaging with maya angelou, naomi shihab nye, paul tran, and even have a better appreciation for the old canon (eliot, cummings, keats, etc). we had this with rupi kaur guys!!! we need to encourage them to explore, not shun them for it!!

anyway tldr, cannibalism/fruit/dogs are incredibly relatable topics and poetry is for everyone. <3

[raynewolferune]

Meta Jazz, the Arkham Intern Therapist Pt1

Update 5/16/2024: Congrats guys, gals, and others! You have planted the seeds and they have grown. Today I wrote another 46 pages on this story (the first section was only 9 pages ya'll). I'm working on splitting it up into smaller sections so I can post it now because tumblr said no to doing it as one piece. I'll be using the tag #Meta Jazz Arkham Intern Therapist if you want to follow it.

Original Note: I'm going to go ahead and apologize for how OOC Bane is in this. It originally was Joker but I couldn't see Jazz tolerating his proximity for more than a single millisecond so Bane it is.

~*~*~

The hardest thing about being a Meta in Gotham was responding appropriately during a Rouge's attack, Jazz mused to herself. Or perhaps that was just the hardest part about being a Meta intern at Arkham while studying psychology at Gotham University. Or maybe it was just her, she considered watching the guards and Dr. Rylie whom she'd been shadowing for the past 2 weeks wide eyed, pale, and shaking as theybstared at Bane behind her. It must just be her, Jazz decided, newbie guard Kyle Jennings was definitely a Meta after all. She should probably give him some tips on hiding his enhanced strength considering how often he broke mugs, door handles, and other delicate items used in daily life.

"Weapons down or I'll snap her skinny little neck." Bane growled out, shaking her slightly for emphasis. She very much doubted that. Liminials were built different than the standard Meta, stronger, faster, better endurance, and senses even if they could mostly appear to be standard humans on the outside.  As such, their bones and muscles were much were much denser than regular humans or even Meta humans. Technically, she could be considered "invulnerable" much like the Kryptonians are.

"Back up! Let him through!" Dr. Rylie  shouted at the guards. "She's my student! Let him through!" His voice was higher pitched than she could recall hearing it before.

Ah. That was panic.

Jazz sighed involuntarily and glanced over her shoulder at Bane. Why the man had grabbed the only person close to his own height nearby was a mystery to her - no, nevermind, he clearly meant to use her as a shield - but it made looking him in the eye more difficult than necessary.

"Mr. Bane, remove your hands from my person, please." Jazz stated calmly, channeling what Danny called her inner mom as she spoke. "I will give you to one to comply."

Bane looked stunned for a moment then laughed.

"Five."

The laughing continued. Jazz could sense a stir of uncertainty through her colleagues as they looked on.

"Four."

"Did you really think that would work?" Bane snorted out, arms tensing more around her.

"Three." She continued, indifferent to his words from her experiences raising her brother. Once the count down starts you mustn't respond to anything the kids do or say until they comply or the count is done.

"What cab you even do if I don't?" Bane asked darkly breathing directly in her ear. She kept her face expressionless despite the urge to express disgust.

"Two."

"Jasmine..."  Kyle whispered halfway across the hall from her looking on with a pained and horrified expression. Gun tilting towards the floor. Sloppy.

"One." She finished and Bane gave a derisive snort.

Then she was moving. Hauling the enormous man up and over her shoulder using the arm that had been wrapped around her neck. Bane hit the cold tile hard enough that the tiles, subfloor, structural supports, and part of the concrete foundation buckled beneath him. His shoulder popped out of joint, his wrist cracked - a hairline fracture by the sound of it -  and his breath was punched out of him from the force of impact. She released his arm as soon as his was embedded in the tiles and moved forward. Kneeling over him, support most of her weight on her left foot resting on the broken ground, her right knees pressed firmly across his throat without supporting any of her weight. The position put more strain on her muscles than she would've liked but at least Bane couldn't risk fighting back without crushing his own neck in the process. He could hardly throw her while flat on his back with a mangled arm.

"Now," Jazz began, looking directly into the behemoth's pained eyes. "Do you know what you've done wrong?" She asked like she would have done with Danny as a child.

"Yes, Ma'am." Bane choked out. Jazz heard movement and murmuring behind her. She didn't turn to look.

"What did you do wrong?" She asked. It was important to make sure children correctly understood why they were in trouble after all. There was a long pause as Bane appeared to cast around for the exact right answer as if he feared getting it wrong. A bad habit Danny still uses as well, Jazz thought to herself.

"I tried to hold you hostage," He choked out in a rush, words tumbling over one another as he tried to get them all out. "I scared you coworkers and it was very disrespectful."

So he'd gone for the grab-bag response. It wasn't wrong per sey but it did indicate a past history of abuse. The type of answer given by someone who expected to be harmed or ignored if they gave the "wrong" answer. Danny tended to use that method also and their parents had always been negligent at best.

"And are you going to do it again?" She asked giving him a Look as she did. Bane's eyes widened and he tried to frantically shake his head as much as possible with the pressure on his neck.

"No, Ma'am." He promised fervently.

"Alright then," Jazz said giving him a warm smile. She gestured vaguely towards the guards without turning to look at them. "Kyle here is going to take you to see the nurse and then back to your room then. I'm sure you'll behave for him?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I'll behave." Bane said. Jazz stood slowly asking sure not to put any additional pressure on his neck as she did. Kyle came and stood next to her as the giant of a man slowly pulled himself to his feet then led him away with 5 other guards.

Jazz heaved a sigh. Well, time to find out whether or not she could play all that off as normal, non-Meta human behavior.

[novantinuum]

jen's "Hard-Light Hybrid Steven" headcanon dump

Okay so I'm just making this its own post, because frankly at this point... the original post is so hard to get all the pulp out of due to the headcanons being spread over multiple reblogs and half of it being in the tags.

So here we go. Self indulgent headcanon time. This is how I'm now personally interpreting things within the realm of my own fic work and the post-canon storylines that live in my mind. This is NOT, however, a work of meta- I am by no means suggesting this to be what I see as "canon," only having some fun playing around with ideas I think are cool on a speculative fantasy anatomy level. Take it as you will basically, lol. This is ultimately just for me.

With that stated:

"jen what the fuck do you mean when you say hard-light hybrid Steven, what are you even suggesting"

Essentially I am proposing that Steven becomes progressively more hard-light based in form as he ages. When he was born he was two almost entirely separate halves mashed together- organic and gem- and those two halves slowly but surely merge over the years (hard light replacing organic matter) until one day they are literally inseparable, and Steven is one permanently cohesive being... entirely hewn from hard-light, but with a level of anatomical complexity that still makes him a complete anomaly amongst Gems and humans alike. Instead of the innards of his body being solid light, he is still formed of cells- only now, those cells are entirely hard-light.

His gem is somehow mimicking the form of organic matter with a level of detail that's absolutely unobtainable by shapeshifting or tailored reformation alone. Steven has become the single most complex hard-light system to have ever existed.

Some more specifics on how I imagine this merge working:

Much of the "merging" is natural over time, basically his gem branching out new bits of hard-light circuitry within his body as it integrates within his system.

However, this process is sped up significantly by all the spills and injuries Steven deals with throughout his childhood... because his body's instinctive response to injury is simply to replace damaged cells with hard-light analogues. An almost instantaneous patch job.

Steven's component halves being so distinct early on is a large reason why he takes so long to harness many of his powers.

This is also why Steven's (mostly) organic half is so weakened during the split in Change Your Mind- at that point there's a lot about his anatomy that's been converted to hard-light, so it's basically as if White Diamond yanked the power source out.

(Same idea for why he's so weakened during the movie when his gem's on the fritz... his gem's connection with the rest of his body got partially severed for a time, which. Is not Good for someone who at this point is more hard-light than not hard light.)

At a certain point post-canon, it becomes impossible for Steven's organic and gem halves to be separated. They are so tightly integrated that attempting to remove the gem would only poof him.

Now, here's the thing though...

Steven does not realize that Any of this is taking place until the blunt reality of his strange new anatomical nature is put on display for all to see... when he actually DOES poof.

Here is how (in my own post-canon musings, which I have simplified here because y'all don't live inside all the intensive lore that jangles about my brain) I envision that taking place:

So, Steven would be in his mid to late twenties at this point. He's married to Connie, and they have an infant son.

Recently, there was a fairly severe Gem incident that left Beach City and Little Homeworld pretty damaged. Things are still being mopped up from that.

Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl head out on a quick mission one day to intercept one of the last few supporters of the Gem who attacked the Crystal Gem's hub of operation, and at first it seems like it's gonna be a straightforward trip.

Then, Steven sees the Gem in question pull a destabilizer wand on Garnet, and- unwilling to watch her to get ripped apart like that again- throws himself in between. He can take it, he thinks. These things never hurt him one bit as a kid

He cannot take it.

He poofs.

His gem unceremoniously falls to the ground, along with the clothes he was wearing and whatever he had in his pockets.

Cue the others going "what the actual FUCK" because based on everything they've ever witnessed and known about him no one had "Steven poofs" on their bingo card.

The insurgent Gem is captured and dealt with, but now... oh, boy. There's literally no playbook for this. Nobody knows what to expect.

Steven's gem is quiet for WEEKS. During that time, the Gems end up consulting the Diamonds on Homeworld to ask for intel on diamond reformation, but none of them are much help- Rose and Steven are the only ones who have actually poofed. Beyond them, this is completely unprecedented.

In a very vague sense, Steven is aware of what must have happened during this time... (even if a part of him wants to deny it, because How???)

He can pick up vague snippets of what's happening just beyond his reach... catching voices and what must be faint sensations of familiar people handling his gem, but beyond that he has no awareness of the passage of time, and he has no means by which to reach out to them mentally.

It takes almost two months for him to finally reform. When he does, his gem quickly shifts through its previous three forms and then just... outright h a n g s for a while on the new one... as if what's trying to "load" up is so complex it's goddamn buffering.

(my brain can only think of This image uyhjfsdbyuhjfg)

No one really knows what to expect but when he finally reforms, he... looks mostly the same? Still rather human in appearance, externally? The only notable difference is that his irises are pink now. (But with no diamond pupil- not unless he's going Full Power Mode.)

Steven also reforms WITH an outfit much like a Gem would.

The second he's back, he runs to embrace Connie (who is sobbing in relief) and asks how long he was out.

And he did NOT anticipate that answer to be two months.

As it turns out, he missed quite a few baby milestones while he was gone, and he feels horrible about it- it's not his fault of course, but he feels so bad that Connie had to go that long without his support, and that there's all those special "firsts" with his son he'll never get to experience.

This whole incident marks Steven's final "retirement" from participating in real combat- he outright tells the Gems to not involve him in any other combat situations unless the whole ass planet is under threat, basically. The potential risks are just not worth it now that he knows how long he'd be out of commission, should he poof once more. He can't put his family through that again.

Now, with all that outlined...

Ways that Steven is Weird now:

He looks rather human- his hair looks like hair and his skin looks like skin- but after he reforms, literally every "cell" of his body is fashioned out of hard-light.

However, if one were to theoretically slice him in half (which I PROMISE I am not going to do, this is only a thought experiment ahahah-), his internal anatomy would glow much like the Gems' do. (See below image for what I mean.) The "human-like" appearance of his skin and hair and other externally visible features does not extend very deep.

He "bleeds" pink now- but it's only surface, and is all just excess hard-light. No real blood.

His body would no longer show up on a radiograph- just the gem.

Many of his anatomical features (not all of them, though) are now vestigial in certain ways-? Like, various functions have overtly been taken over by his gem... he doesn't need to breathe or have any lifeblood beyond light pumping through his system, so his heart and lungs serve no necessary purpose anymore... but all of these organs still "exist" as like an echo of what once was, perfect mimics of their organic form but hewn from hard-light.

That being said, Connie enjoys the reassurance of his heartbeat, so he retains that function while conscious.

(Not to mention, "breathing" is literally just a habit for him by this point.)

HOWEVER, when he sleeps (another thing he technically doesn't Need to do but does anyways) his breathing and heartbeat stops entirely and it kinda spooks Connie out. The literal only evidence she has that he's still kicking during these times is the soft hum of his gemstone.

He does not have a biological NEED for food or water anymore and can fully operate on exposure to light alone, but he still really enjoys eating and drinking anyways. In fact, he's still able to absorb energy from food... so it's basically like he's over-charging his battery or whatever. He also still experiences taste (so still posesses some form of taste receptors) and instinctively feels "hungry" at meal times, so like... the running theory is that he must have hard-light analogues for all these receptors and neurotransmitters and hormones that communicate sensations like hunger in his system even though their function is entirely redundant with his gem powering everything.

Furthermore, his memories and sense of self and everything one might refer to as "the soul" is stored exclusively in his gem now. Which means, if one could manage to analyze his brain like one could with a human brain, there would be entire sections that simply... don't light up the way that others (such as the parts of the brain that govern motor control, as an example) do. This is because all the "data" once stored there has migrated.

He can fully shapeshift now, if he wanted to.

He can also still visually "age"- it's all based on his mental state, same as before.

But despite being hard-light in nature now, he can still interface with organics in fusion because his form is still so organic in shape and function. He's still the bridge between humanity and gemkind. I like to think that... theoretically... a Gem might be able to fuse with an organic too, but the sheer burden of trying to shapeshift and maintain such cellular complexity is what stops this from happening.

Steven, though? His very existence as a hybrid acted as a template by which hard-light could learn to understand organic life. He is still an intensely unique being, even IF he no longer consists of any actual organic matter.

_

I am sure I will probably add something to this later, but for now, those are all my musings.

Anyways, thank you for taking a brief visit to the deepest recesses of my brain, where I am chewing at the drywall and bouncing around the room like a cat who has just devoured the goddamn motherlode of catnip. Good night! !! :DDD

[kotoryba]

This post is dedicate to some very incidious good buddy @batbusiness-schooldropout as my form of...well, let's call it a gratitude.

Your damned interesting idea about LXC and WWX-obsessed LWJ's thoughts was so gorgeous for my horny kinky rotten part of mind ficwriting muse, that it was realised in my first attempt to smutty-writing. I'm not sure, it's good or bad - but you must live along, knowing that you seduce some innocent-only-near-PG13 writer to that.

So, for you on AO3 - "To be the older brother": ENG (translation) / UA (original)

MDZS, one WWX-centered LWJ, one very worried and mentally-f*cked older brother... And two another very carried horny brothers.

This is my first attempt. And my native language is not English, I tried to translate properly. And I desperately want that someone say "oh, it's not so bad, as I expected" 🫣. Or just say something.

Why did you do this with me 😭 Thank you very much.

Some inner dialogs in process:

Horny kinky part of my brain (HKP): i want to write smutt about 3zun🥵

Rational part of brain (RP), sceptically: you don't know how to do it

HKP in attack mode: but i want! And I read so much smutty fics! I can write it!

RP (sighed): ok, let's try. Because you don't keep me in peace.

HKP (with evil smile): yeah, apparently.

HKP (fap on dirty imagination of LWJ): how to make it more hot?

RP: here, hold this.

HKP (shocked): wtf??? I think we write pure PWP?!!

RP (severely): i can't let ourselves write a low quality. It's in our both interests. Take some thousands words about plot development and don't argue with me more.

HKP (grudgingly): yeah, yeah, who is the boss here...

RPB (with some dangerous looking test tubes with reagents): use also this.

HKP (terrified): and what is that???

RP (indifferently): some chemistry for the characters. Slightly sweeter, but anyway.

HKP (crying): I think it will be a short drubble with one good scene!

RP (generously, but demanding): TWO good scene. And ofc LWJ's imagination. Just as bonus for you

HKP (totally confused): I think, someone here has control-kinks with tendency to dominance. And it's not me.

RP (smile in the most incidious way): who could it be...

[onthenightisland]

with great excitement, i can finally present my most self indulgent endeavor ever:

IWTV CHARACTERS AS PATHFINDER 2E* CHARACTERS

(*dungeons and dragons' superior sister system)

DISCLAIMER: this is a fun silly activity and not a super serious character analysis or poignant deep dive. i have tried my best to grasp the essence of these characters through the art of ttrpg character sheets. if you have thoughts or feelings about my decisions please feel free to send me asks and discuss in the replies, i'd love to hear different opinions!

Lestat de Lioncourt Ancestry: Ancient Elf (Polymath Bard Dedication) Background: Musical Prodigy Class: Sorcerer (Diabolic)

i was struck with a horrifying and evil vision of the most manic pixie dream twink mary sue build and thought. oh my god. that's lestat. and that's how i got the idea to make this post. i picked sorcerer because there is no more "i have every powerful ancient vampires blood running through me" Specialest Girl In The World class than sorcerer. i tacked on diabolic as an homage to lestats constant struggle with his nature being that of the devil through the series. ancient elf was both because of his deep ties to the ancients but also because of the free dedication. that girl needed a bard feat !!! yes she's the chosen one and more special and beautiful than everyone else but she's also a Performer. i specifically choose polymath bard because lestat has never been able to stay fixated on a muse for more than 15 minuets. multi talented diva with attention deficit disorder ! musical prodigy also lends some trained skills for the bard part of the build and ties it all off with a nice bow.

Louis de Pointe du Lac Ancestry: Human (Aiuvarin) Background: Bookkeeper Class: Oracle (Ancestors)

louis was TOUGH. sadly pf2e has no options for irresistibly sexy gay entrepreneurs so i had to make some concessions. i was originally between animist and barbarian for louis but the farther i got into the build the more they both felt really reductive and like they didn't showcase ALL of who louis is. he's not a carnival medium or roid head, he's a regular guy haunted by the people he's loved dead and alive !!! so i decided that ancestors oracle played into both his Dreamstat tendencies and the significance that the expectations and memories of his family have for him. i really wanted to keep louis human because i felt like his humanity is sooo important to his character, but i added the Aiuvarin (elven) heritage as a nod to the influence that Lestats influence and his turning has had on his humanity. bookkeeper is as close as i could get to successful sexy gay businessman and i'm sticking by it. (fun cruel add on, i gave him the 1st level Ancestry Feat Forlorn. the griever with a masters degree in loss.)

Claudia Ancestry: Dwarf (Aiuvarin) Background: Nomad Class: Rogue (Mastermind)

the sneaker !!! claudia was such a treat to build, i had such a clear picture for her. i chose dwarf because regardless of her size or perceived frailty, she's so incredibly strong. and stubbornly loyal to a fault! the Aiuvarin heritage is in the same vein as louis but with more lesdaughter implications. Mastermind Rogue was such a given, that girl is always 4 thousand steps ahead of everyone at any given moment. she doesn't need any fancy sneak attacks from the shadows or suprise attack brawls, shes just fuckin smart. she was eating up hundred year old vampires at 20 something like it was NOTHING. nomad was a coy nod to her run away escapades and her and madeleines plans to "wander".

Armand Ancestry: Elf (Nephilim) Background: Barrister Class: Bard (Maestro)

oooohhh my baby. this was such a challenge. i ummed and ahhed for ages but then i was shot in the chest with the sudden realization of; oh my god. theatre kid. bard. this guy was a director for over 200 years and has an actual passion for the stage and most other kinds of art OF COURSE he's a bard. maestro bard specifically because of his master complex and the weird perfectionism shame that that's caused. i chose nephilim elf mostly as a nod to armands specific type of beauty often being referred to as biblical or Botticellian but also because it gives the character "golden eyes." and i thought woah that's so armand. admittedly i struggled real bad with picking a background so i settled on Barrister as a little tongue in cheek joke about the orchestration of claudias trial, but i also tossed around Cultist and Artist. multitalented diva <3

Daniel Molloy Ancestry: Gutsy Halfling Background: Printer Class: Investigator (Interrogation)

this felt like a victory lap ngl. investigator, DUH. Interrogation because of the interviewing. of the vampire. i picked halfling because of their curious and inquisitive nature but also because they're notoriously lucky and i believe that pure luck is truly the only reason that daniel lived as long as he did. gutsy was both because he's mouthy and isn't afraid to bitch slap an undead gay serial killer but also because of his innate boner fear response. if that ain't gutsy idk what is !!! printer was a given for a Pulitzer prize winning published journalist.

[berrysemifreddo]

You can call me Sofia! Virgo, ISTJ, Ravenclaw, in case anyone's interested😂

≈≈≈≈OTHER THINGS ABOUT ME≈≈≈≈

MUSIC: Mostly listen to Radiohead/The Smile nowadays, but used to be a Muse fan (also listened to Acid Black Cherry for the whole 2024 for some reason😅4000+ minutes Idek how)

MOVIES/SHOWS: Favorite TV series is Legion. Movies...too many, but tbh none of my favorite movies formed any "fandoms", but I did watched "The Guest" for like 20 times🤧(I have problems ik)

ANIME/MANGA: Huge JJBA fan, love AoT too, absolute fav is Death Note, recently was just catching up on Demon Slayer with my bf

VIDEOGAMES: Enjoy puzzle games the most. Chants of Sennaar, The Room, that sort of thing. Also love Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Origins. But my absolute favorite is comedy games like Thank Goodness You're Here and Untitled Goose Game and I'm not even joking

OTHER HOBBIES: Fragrance. Headphones. Singing. Writing (not fanfic tho, my fics were absolute trash🙃). All things AI. 3D animation.

(That's all I can think of🤥)

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈AI RELATED INFO≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Since I'll be posting a hell of a lot of AI stuff in the future...I guess I'll pin this here in case anyone's curious about how I made them😂

My workflow involves tons of inpainting, which essentially is "partially change the image using AI". It's a bit like Photoshop's generative fill but free (and better🤫). Inpainting can be quite time-consuming, but I hate seeing unignorable artifacts, so I try my best to fix them.

Model-usage-wise, I normally just use the original Flux dev (by Black Forest Labs)+LoRAs I trained+Other style LoRA/Concept LoRA (sometimes Redux too). I run the models with ComfyUI locally and I make my own workflows. I train LoRAs with Kohya's GUI.

≈≈≈≈≈≈MUSIC SHARING TIME!≈≈≈≈≈≈

Favorite song of my 2024:

All time favorites:

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 27-30 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

I make these notes as I work on an episode, however, people have been so attentive and observant with their comments that I started a tag fragments feedback where we dive even deeper into themes and interactions in the comic. These comments are a blessing, often pointing out things that my own brain doesn't register.

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning.

Episode 27 begins with a chat about the original weapons that are merely a stylish-looking convenience for them ic and for me ooc, so that I don't have to draw them lugging their weapons around.

Essentia's just a name for Vivi's spear, not like the whole concept. I introduced it around the beginning of the ShB arc. Alisaie's weapons have no name yet, there's a possibility to do something cute referring to twins.. I shall think of it :3c

Look at this child being all smug for having been able to help recreating something previously thought unique, and, um, flirting.. In her own way.....

Vivi be like, sigh, "ah, back on her bs already... Better indulge her while she's still in a nice mood".

Alisaie's left arm's stronger than both Vivi's. As a dragoon he doesn't only use magic to amplify his jumps, if it works on legs, why not extend it to arms as well? Not unlike what monks do, minus the actual physical training. Basically he cheats with magic in real fights. A casual friendly duel isn't worth expending aether, so he only relies on his actual strength :'>

He also can't do friendly duels because his Echo only telegraphs hostile attacks. A friend would stop before his blade cuts him, so Vivi's kinda blind, only relying on his own average skill. A legendary hero that's no fun to spar with if you're remotely competent.

..Which has no negative effect on Exarch's fanboyism.

Several people said they look forward to said sparring session, and I felt like I failed them because I had no plans to follow through with this. Then I thought some more.. Do we mean every little thing we say or think? Sometimes it's just distracted nonsense. If every action and word were hooks/setups for the story, it'd feel artificial. This's just my opinion, but some scenes have to have idle chatter and musings for realism.

Vivi and Alphi look like door-to-door salesmen, yet the Chais are buying multiples of whatever they sell.

This's a looooooongg post, under the cut we go~

A random thing that thematically belongs here, but didn't make it in the comic: Vivi ended up being more freaked out by Eulmore than Amh Araeng.

Feo "privacy breach" Ul :> They greet each other so casually that it's clear, this's far from being the first time.

One of my personal fav panels so far. People loved the "crystal mystel" so much but I can't take credit for that! My brain's full of soup that's a mix of everything canon and my own generous additions, but I THINK one of the pixies calls him that ingame, sometime post 5.0.

You probably didn't know that you needed more Exarch and Feo Ul interactions till now, I've got you covered. Their scenes will take time to trickle in, but they EXIST and go back as far as their first meeting.

Exactly what happened.

One more episode where Vivi doesn't utter a word, but it doesn't feel like that.

Tank!Exarch fanclub, +1 member. Vivi's pleasantly surprised by the sudden shift in Exarch's demeanor. He genuinely admires him here. "Lead me anywhere daddy".

Ready for a guild wars 1 (one!) joke? No? I'm making it anyway. Lyna casts gaze of contempt (effect: removes enchantments on target foe)

She's such a good daughter with great intuition. She feels uneasy about this way before Vivi feels anything at all. He just looks. Perceives. He has eyes, dammit! And Exarch has those stupid sexy sandals and shiny crystal arm and stylish flowy robes and he's generally kinda cool? It's official, it has begun: Vivi's attracted to Exarch here.

Zooming in super close to bring your attention to his thigh gap <w<

A closeup for the hell of it C: His eyes have a natural faint glow that's just there, it doesn't mean anything, like, genuinely.

Vivi tries to appease Lyna. He has no idea why she keeps glaring at him, probably still not trusting a stranger. He uses his charm as a casual manipulation. Unfortunately, Lyna falls for it. For now.

As per msq, Exarch's kneeling, not collapsing (although that would've been just as fitting tbh). While still not trusting him too much, Vivi slowly begins to respect a reputable ruler and a skilled fighter, and WHY IS HE KNEELING MY LORD GET UP?! Vivi hates being treated like some sort of a messiah. That pushes him further inside the box of being a mythical figure, and denies his humanity.

Normal colors and lighting!! For one episode....

The scene on the left isn't meant to feel cozy and inviting, while the right one is. Sickly, cold, washed out colors vs darker and warmer ones. I'm putting a lot of thought into this, just wanted to celebrate it a lil C:

Episodes 28-29 show Vivi and Exarch's ways of handling unexpected personal hostility. Vivi casually whips out a V and a silly grin, while Exarch.....

He tried, okay?!

A thing on their positioning in this scene that I didn't plan consciously, it just happened: Exarch's framed by the Crystarium, appearing more aligned with it, while the elf pile's surrounded by an idyllic natural frame. Something something about the greenery meaning life, and Exarch looking a bit out of place here.

This's our first, but not last encounter of an imagination theater :>

The dragons are goofy on purpose. Well, sort of. I can count on one hand the amount of times I drew non-humanoid creatures, and the tone here doesn't demand anything super serious from me. Also it makes sense in-character, Exarch probably never saw a dragon up close.

Take a good look at this lil shit. I indulged in illustrating his badass moment before pointing the "camera" away for a while. We're heading into the Il Mheg arc that lasts for months and has no cats ;w;

Vivi's iconic Protagonist Grin >:D

Also, Ryne. Just to keep your expectations grounded: while I personally like her, she has no relevance in this story, and very little screentime. I'm currently having Eden raid brainworms, might write a scene or two related to that, but we're talking many years into the future. Until then, she doesn't do much.

ShB cast's diverse and extremely fun to explore, but if I went on tangents the comic would literally never progress. Gotta be honest, I'm already terrified that some readers might drift away before reaching the wolgraha part of this wolgraha comic. I don't wanna rush OR dilute the main plot too much, if that makes sense. Also, just like in real life, you probably don't form perfect connections with every member of your social circle, some people grow closer than others. Vivi has next to no connection to Minfilia/Ryne, he also stays away from little girls after one of those ended up becoming his lifelong problem *snorts and points at Alisaie*

Desires, and feasting on them? A dungeon meshi nod? More likely than you think.

Feo Ul, sprawled out on his chest like that, visually resembles a burning heart.

Emet antithesis :3c

Imagine loving your pet so much that you let him do this. Feo Ul isn't moved by the physical act AND the joking accusation.

While seemingly slacking for a dozen episodes, Vivi formed bonds with Feo Ul and Ardbert, and thus secured the future of the two stars. Now he has friends that aren't his coworkers first and foremost, that he genuinely wants to fight for. This's what makes him tick as a hero: a quiet plea of a friend, not even asking him directly, a stark contrast to being dragged around and cried at for help. If Vivi's introduction to an entity (person/group of people) is "they suffer, they need help", he shrugs it off. Everyone suffers and needs help, he can't split into thousands of vivis to please them all.

He's only truly motivated to help, or empathizes with those who he gets to know through other means. Take Ardbert, his strange behavior on the Source, then reintroduction that's confusion and companionable snark, but not wailing for help. And Feo Ul, they hang out with him just because, they're safe.

He may not run off to fight the local Lightwarden this instant, but when he gets around to it, he's earnest for a change.

This's all I have for now, thanks for reading!!

[hows-my-handwriting]

Hobie Brown Headcanons

long post ahead. will put as much as i can under the cut but i will have a.... loose table of contents.

and im not feeding you everything. i need more content to drip feed you later.

the inspo is driving me crazy but the hands are refusing to write.

the table: backstory food british animals

lmk if ppl want this to be split up into individual posts per category. cuz its l o n g

BACKSTORY:

Not based on the comics. purely my own attempt at writing his backstory and his particular villains.

Hobie's Doc Oc was a university professor pressured by Osborn's regime to produce weapons. Hobie had met the guy while crashing a university class, but nothing more than that. Octavius snapped and took the revolution to the extreme. he built a WMD and planned to use it on the city. Hobie talked octavius down and disarmed the weapon.

Hobie's lizard was his close friend and bandmate who got jealous over their lead singer's affections towards hobie. they were close friends until hobie started drifting away. curtis was bitter and never really forgave him. the final straw was when hobie returned in full, having just abandoned his spider suit. the band is back together but curtis still has hard feelings. he knew vaguely about hobie's connection with spiderman but thought that it was some kind of special deal or friendship which was just another nail in the coffin. he turns himself into the lizard and attacks hobie, demanding answers and refusing to listen.

the above is just an excuse to hurt hobie really bad >:3 i love my angst and my beating my muses up. i wanted to break his ribs.

electro was a civilian who just happened to get struck by lightning. he is the sole reason hobie has insulated all of his gear and one of the reasons all of his spikes can shoot excess electricity like one of those funky little electrode balls. hobie took one look at this guy and immediately got to work.

Kraven was a bounty hunter hired and possibly engineered by osborn and fisk to hunt down hobie. classic kraven activities. he tried to drown hobie in the thames. hobie managed to escape but couldn't breathe or eat properly for a week after the attack

hobie's ship was hauled from the local junkyard. It was originally just used as a figure head to lead the charge from the government locked dam blocking off water. it somehow survived so he uses it as his hq.

hobie is immune to his scorpion's venom after being stung so many times and stealing samples of it to build up an immunity. yes it hurt. yes it sucked. but it worked. (loosely inspired by a fanfic)

the above are not in chronological order. mostly.

FOOD:

Hobie's world doesn't have a lot of spices. it's a closed state unless importing 'important' materials like lumber, steel and other sciency stuff, food is a lower priority or just a restricted luxury. the spice trade has regressed to something like the 1600s where foreign spices are held by those in power purely as a status symbol. the common man might have access to salt, sugar and cream, but anything else- especially anything spicy- is a luxury item.

hobie would love spicy food. i just dont think he's gotten much exposure to it. day one out of e-138 he opened a bag of spicy chips in the cafeteria, touched one and exploded.

exotic/foreign fruits fall under this same category but for more legit reasons of travel and lack of safe storage. so for example: mangoes, oranges/citrus, kiwi, pomegranates.

boba would freak him the fuck out. he has no idea what those little jiggly things are and its only made worse when one of the kids inevitably shows him the hamster 'is it worth it' meme. he becomes scarred for life.

if you take too long to take a bite out of whatever you're holding and hobie is hungry, he will just lean over and take a bite out of it. sandwich? bitten. spaghetti? stolen off the fork. chocolate bar? wrapper and bar, gone.

his favorite flavor of cake is chocolate or caramel. sue me im projecting onto him

BRITISH

he holds out his pinky when holding cups. it's just an unconscious thing that turns conscious once someone calls it out. in which case he sticks it out even further

flips the police and the royal family off regularly with the one fingered or the two fingered version. will only respect the french for inventing the creative two fingered fuck you, but nothing else.

has a winter fit that is just like a pile of whatever sweaters he has and two scarves. and long socks that make the space in his tight boots even more tight. sometimes cuts off circulation to his feet.

loves going to pubs and just chatting with people. also loves picking fights with the drunk people. Particularly the irish. he thinks their accents are funny and has long arguments with them while they're both speaking absolute gibberish.

knows french but only the insults. has an arsenal of french insults he will just whip out of his back pocket and drop on someone's head.

not really a british thing but i bet he doesn't know how to ride a bike. he was a) too tall and b) not willing to get his entire skeleton rattled by riding over the cobbled streets of london.

wimpy's fan. (its like the british version of mcdonalds but less popular and less famous. according to my research).

ANIMALS

Hobie keeps pigeons. he built a little house when he was bored and was surprised to find three pigeons hiding from the rain underneath it the next day. he didn't really intend to keep them but they nested and he kept bringing them food and water. he did name the brown one hobie jr.

hobie has a cat. again, not really 'has' but rather 'it broke into his boat and wont leave'. he didn't name her because he can't think of a good one. for the longest time he had no idea she was living in his floorboards but later discovered a hole in the side of his boat and found a crawlspace just large enough for a kitten.

he is freaked out by snakes. not as in a fear of snakes. but rather in utter disbelief that they can be the size of a human person. he's read about and probably seen the average snake, about the size of an arm. but anything larger than that will make his jaw drop right off of his face

he did have a symbiote dog for a short time. the dog was badly hurt and the passive symbiote had merged with its body to try and help it. he offered it a place to stay and rest and it happily agreed. it followed him around for the short while they had together and one day went off on its own.

he still sees that dog around (affectionately named 'spider-mutt') and offers it head scratches or belly rubs but they always part ways sooner than later.

loves opossums. thinks they look funny.

part two? maybe....

might add more to this as my brain keeps turning.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Not sure I'll write even the whole first chapter, but tinkering with the Sabine!LAdybug & Chat!Chloe fic with some Origins material.

Specifically, this is post Stoneheart running wild & al the students being evacuated to that big arena to wait out the problem.

Sabine Cheng = Madame Vermilion Chloe Bourgeois = Catastrophe

The names don't come up but I wanted to share them, now behold my 1 am musings! XD

-

Adrien found himself leaning against the wall of the grand stadium, Nino & Marinette to one side, Sabrina, and Chloe to the other. No one was really talking even as teachers and other students stretched and theorized or tried to create distractions.

Marinette was dialling her mother over and over again but receiving no response; Nino had a hand on her shoulder even as he occasionally glanced at his own phone.

‘Should I call father?’ Adrien shook his head, ‘No, that would just be… That would just lead to a lecture and him calling me home.’ The last thing he wanted to do right now was make this mess about himself.

He glanced to his side where Chloe was leaning against the wall and scowling out like the entire world was heckling her. It was the sort of aggressive prickliness she usually reserved for well, people she or Adrien didn’t like.

‘I guess the monster attack is getting to her,’ he mused. Or maybe it was that the mayor had delayed an emergency broadcast, not to check if Chloe was OK, but to run his speech by her, because: “I can’t trust the staffs opinion!”

Adrien pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth; fingers gripping the inside of his pockets as he desperately resisted the urge to try and do something… Anything…

Then Sabrina let out a whimper, “My dad won’t pick up.”

“He’s probably been called to daddy’s side; you know how he liked to keep Roger close at hand.” Chloe said with a disinterested air that she… Probably meant to come off as reassuring.

After all, if she wasn’t worried you shouldn’t be either.

Sabrina nodded slowly, “You’re, you’re probably right Chloe- Dad!”

All four of them turned to Sabrina as she dropped down into a squat, eyes wide as she stared at her phone, a grainy recording showed a red headed officer being held up by his peers as he was pulled off the street shouting in agony at his twisted-up leg.

Adrien shot Chloe a glance and he did see the blonde unfold her arms and start making a move before freezing up. Face contorting between a myriad of hard to read expressions as she remained frozen in place unable to act before growling, “Daddy will have him turned into rubble before this is done.”

Adrien could practically feel the glares Nino & Marinette were sending Chloe, at her failure to be there for her friend who was now quietly crying over her phone. Chloe couldn’t look at her, nails digging into her palms she sent Adrien a wide-eyed almost panicked glance before turning her head away.

‘I can’t blame you; I know this is beyond you.'

Adrien dropped down and gently placed a hand on Sabrina’s back, “He’s alive, just focus on that for now,” Adrien said softly, slowly slinking his arm around Sabrina’s shoulder and letting the girl fall against him.

“Yeah, your dads tough right?” Nino said awkwardly, but still putting some heart into it.

Marinette dropped down at his side and took Sabrina’s loose hand in her own, the redhead squeezed back and nodded weakly. Even still her gaze drifted to Chloe who finally bristled and barked, “I’ll be back in a moment!”

She practically launched herself off the wall and didn’t so much as tear through the crowd as she did project so much presence everyone got out of the way with the understanding that if they didn’t, she’d walk over them.

“I can’t believe she just left,” Nino whispered, too quietly to be heard by anyone but Adrien and even then, only barely.

Adrien didn’t say anything, but he didn’t agree at all regardless.

He knew Chloe, knew how she struggled to understand or be understood by other people; how much of a strain her clumsy attempts at comforting him had been on her.

No, he didn’t blame Chloe for knowing what she simply lacked the capacity to do, anymore than she blamed him for never really standing up to his father.

They were a package deal, so he’d comfort Sabrina and she’d go and do all she could to force the world to be what they needed it to be.

____

Chloe slammed the bathroom door behind her and locked it tight.

A quick scan showed she was alone, and so Chloe kicked an erstwhile bin and sent it shattering against the bathroom wall before stalking up to the nearest mirror. Seething, she scowled at her reflections.

Hair subtly askew, a sheen of sweat, breaths too heavy, she was a wreck!

���Pathetic, weak, unexceptional! You are a joke!’

Nothing was going right, she couldn’t even think to put her hands around Sabrina like Adrien had, her promises of retribution apparently meant nothing and now Marinette was closing in on her friends and monsters and-

Chloe slammed a flat palm against the mirror, a shot of pain ran through her arm as the glass cracked ever so slightly. The burning ache running through her fingers forced things back into sharp clarity, at least for a moment as she pressed a hand against her chest and made herself breathe deeply.

‘I am a good friend!’ At least...

Insomuch as she knew how to be things like good or friend.

Fighting back a snarl, Chloe tore open her purse and began tossing anything and everything from its confines into the sink. Intent on finding her phone to demand her father bring in tanks and bombers to finally end this insanity. Then she could fix her hair.

OOF GIRL

[chans-room]

chans-room 2024 wrapped

I'm gonna be so real and tell y'all 2024 was not my year for writing lol. I posted 3 fics + a few smau chapters and have so many wips I wish I had gone back to but I'm grateful for every one of you I've interacted with this year 🖤

Most Popular Fic

Good Boy • 1,362 notes

Last and longest fic

Christmas Delights • 67 notes

Personal Favourite

Lost in Translation • 19 notes

Stats

9,682 notes

356 original posts

6,027 reblogs

6,383 total posts

40,473 total words written

25 new wips • 40 ongoing wips • 3 posted

Top Muses

These three were the biggest menaces to my sanity this year 🫠

Top Songs

Nonsense by Sabrina Carpenter

Railway by Bang Chan

Slash by skz

Bleeders by Black Veil Brides

Lexapro Skater by HummusVacuum

Foundations of Decay by MCR

Disease by Lady Gaga

Goals for 2025

Be unashamed of my ideas and don't self edit them to be more palatable for others

Finish one wip a month

Make more connections with other writers

Read more in general

Write my fucking book 🫠

Final thoughts

2024 was a lot but I found myself surrounded by some of the most supportive mfs around and I just wanted to share my appreciation for the mutuals who made this a true banner year 🖤

@kiestrokes is my drift compatible bestie, the Mingyu to my Hoshi, the Hobi to my Jimin, the Lino to my Han, the orange cat to my black cat, I love you and I'm so grateful for our friendship 🖤 I hope 2025 brings us more unhinged vnotes, more personal attacks based on unsuspecting biases, and more chaos. I wish you were closer every fucking day so I could show up at your house with snacks and movies but alas, the gods knew we'd be too powerful if we were any closer.

@minttangerines encourages my utter buffoonery, reminds me that my ideas aren't insane, and asks the best questions. I always appreciate getting your input and I love the way that your questions force me to look deeper into what I'm writing and I'm so glad we got closer this year and I stopped being scared of you 🖤 I hope 2025 brings us more deep lore, unhinged ideas, and some justice for my once-saltburn-but-now-not au 🫡

@eureka-its-zico and I are two clowns in one canoe with no oars, stuck in the middle of thirst lake trying to get home from the land of delusion but there's no one else I'd rather be aimlessly floating with 🖤 I hope 2025 brings you a fucking break brings us more laughter, wips, and fantasy shit we both obsess over

@j-a-nuary has been one of my favourite writers for like a decade years and I'm so glad we became friends. You're one of the only people who understands all the kpop hag shit I say bc you were in the trenches too all those years ago and I appreciate that sooooooooo much 🖤 I hope 2025 brings us more of an overlap in our schedules and a block b comeback bc holy shit we deserve it

@minisugakoobies is one of the sweetest, most genuine, encouraging people I've ever interacted with and I love the random kernels of inspiration you bring us in the gc. Luce calls us the light line but you really are a beacon of kindness in this kpop-sphere that I appreciate so much 🖤 I hope 2025 brings us more brainrot, more inspiration, and more positivity

[crimson-flash]

TOA Anniversary Munday Post

haha i haven't even been here for a month

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: Penny

Pronouns: She/them

Birthday (no year): 8/19

Where are you from? What is your time zone?: I'm from the United States of 'Merica, Georgia in particulary.

How long is your roleplay experience? Uh, outside of Roblox, and a little bit of Amino, I basically have none, so a month!

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? I was introduced to roleplaying when I entered a Big Brother RP amino thingy when I was 12, and I won the whole thing while mascaraing as like double my age. It was crazy back then.

How were you introduced to TOA?: I was looking at Joshua art, and then I stumbled across an old Joshua muse which lead me to TOA. I know it sounds a bit crazy.

Do you have any pets?: I have a dog named Mellow! I will protect him with my life. He is my pride and joy.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period): Favorite season is Fall, favorite holiday is Christmas, and my favorite general period of time is whenever I don't have school.

What is your IRL occupation? I don't have a job at the moment, I am just a simple high school senior.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I enjoy coding little games, I like romhacking and just seeing my edits change the game, it's kinda like magic, lol. I enjoy going for walks, and racing other people, I also enjoy sleeping, who doesn't.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Pokemon, Stardew Valley, Wildermyth, Ace Attorney, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Kirby

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water, Vaporeon (NOT IN THAT WAY)

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! Oh, a fun fact? uhhhhh

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I wanted to know where Marth from Smash Bros came from, so I decided I was going to play Awakening, and now I'm obsessed.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? I have played FE7, FE8, FE11, FE12, FE13, FE17

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: FE13 was my first, and FE8 is my favorite!

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Nooo, I can't choose between my bab- Marisa, Henry, Clanne, Joshua, The 7th Platoon is it's own character right?

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! It was Clanne when I was playing Engage and got really good growths and he MVP'd like the whole entire game.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 A certain green-haired woman from a game I haven't even played yet.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: My first S support was Anna, and I would probably S support my baby Henry now. - Fates: N/A - Three Houses: N/A - Engage: My first S support was Ivy, but now it's probably Panette.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Armor Knight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I would be a reclassable very flexiable unit, but I would always been just below-average in everything, so just like very disappointing. One speed from doubling, and one attack from killing, but I force that luck will always be in my favor.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Yellow Team! Uhm, I mean Golden Deer

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Reason, Faith. Banes: Axes, Flying (fear of heights), Heavy Armor, Budding Talent: Bows

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Solm! I really love Solm and it's characters, it's like Jehanna if it was cool, and didn't have a queen who died in a pretty stupid way and didn't fight back EVEN THoUGH SHE'S A TRAINED SWOR-

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?): T-O-A, I will not accept any other pronouncations. 

[superman86to99]

Superman: The Man of Steel #36 (August 1994)

"WORLDS COLLIDE" continues! Somewhat out of order, due to the way we're covering this crossover, but let's face it: if you were reading this in the '90s, you probably would have read the issues in some weird order, too (or, more likely, skipped some and been just as confused). So, in a way, we're being faithful to the original reading experience.

Previously in Worlds Collide #1: Rift, a god-like being who thinks the DC Universe and Milestone Media's Dakotaverse are parts of his imagination (meaning he's taking credit for the work of Siegel/Shuster/McDuffie/etc.), grabbed an island populated by thousands of people and just dropped it into the ocean, causing a tsunami that threatened Metropolis. The tsunami has been dealt with (spoilers for Superboy #7, which we haven't covered yet), but now Superman has to break it to his new allies at Milestone's Blood Syndicate that everyone they loved drowned pretty gruesomely. Luckily, Rift emerges from the ocean and saves Superman from that awkward conversation... while musing about destroying Metropolis, too. Well, destroying it even more.

Superman doesn't like that idea, obviously, so he tries to fight Rift, but Rift thinks that a fight scene between a god-like being and a mere superpowered mortal would be pretty boring. So, he summons Superman's closest analogue in the Dakotaverse, Icon, and tells him and Superman they have to fight each other if they don't want Metropolis to go down the toilet too. Rift even blows up the midtown part of Metropolis to prove he means business (but I'm not sure anyone there noticed, considering Metropolis' current state).

So, Superman and Icon start punching each other as hard as they can...

...while trying to direct the fight towards Rift without him realizing it. Meanwhile, Rift sees Lois Lane on a boat and grabs her to tell her he used to be her mailman, Fred Bentson, and compliment himself on doing such a great job creating her. Superman attacks Rift, causing him to drop Lois from a dangerous height (nothing she isn't used to by now, though). Lois is saved by Icon, but Rift realizes he was worried about her, which means she must be real.

Rift reasons that Superman has to be real too... but he doesn't give a crap about who's real or fake anymore. They're all his puppets anyway, and he announces he's gonna "up the ante" on their fight as he transports Superman and Icon to the latter's city, Dakota. TO BE CONTINUED! IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE!

Plotline-Watch:

This issue also features appearances by Superboy, Static, Rocket, Steel, and Hardware. We'll go into more detail on their storylines once we cover their issues, but I want you to know three important things: 1) turns out some scientific knowledge did rub off on Superboy while he was growing up (or being grown) at Cadmus...

...2) Static's full name is Virgil "Electromagnetic" Hawkins, and 3) Steel, like his main inspiration, is also a boxers man (you'll have to wait until another post to find out why he's in his boxers, sorry).

Rift forcing Superman and Icon to fight so their cities don't get destroyed is like a lower-stakes version of the main plot from the DC vs. Marvel crossover (though the stakes are about to get higher). More evidence that they should have included Rift in that crossover, as we were saying in another post's comments.

Jeb-Watch: Rift isn't the biggest villain in this issue, since it also features the return of Jeb Friedman, the ponytailed douchebag who kissed Lois when everyone thought Clark Kent was dead. Don Sparrow says: "God bless Jimmy for giving Jeb the side-eye all readers want to give that loathsome character."

Jeb says he's organizing a charity concert for the homeless people of Metropolis (so, pretty much everyone in Metropolis right now), featuring Jimmy's old would-be rocker friend Babe, whose band Shredding Metal apparently hit the big time. Last time we saw Babe, she had a centuries-old vampire living inside of her. That must have done wonders for her metal singing voice.

The Daily Planet's publisher, Franklin Stern, thinks they should suspend publication because of the "everyone's homeless" thing (plus, their building blew up and stuff), but Perry White refuses to stop putting out the dang paper. Don says: "I like seeing Perry’s commitment to informing the people of Metropolis, even at the risk of financial profit, but it might also explain why the Planet always seems to be on the brink of bankruptcy. Weird to see Lois swearing in that scene."

Whit cameo up there! Also: wonder if that's Alice the intern sleeping in the temporary office, for old time's sake.

Speaking of which, the other Alice in Perry's life (his wife) is volunteering at a medical center in Metropolis. There, she meets Superman's pal Keith the Unlucky (Probably) Orphan, who's trying to reunite another kid with his mom. Keith recently lost his second mother figure, Myra the Orphanage Lady, while Mrs. White lost her son Jerry Luth-- uhh, White some years ago. Hmmm...

The fact that Rift blows up part of Metropolis isn't really acknowledged by the other characters, probably because we all know that, like Paris Island's gruesome fate, it's gonna be undone by the end of the crossover. That makes me think they might as well have gone ahead and made Rift undo Luthor's damage on Metropolis, while at it -- it'd still be kind of a cop out, but I think it would have been a bit more organic than what we actually got.

Shout Outs-Watch:

Rift-sized shout outs to our supporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Dave Shevlin, and welcome aboard Dave Blosser! Join them (and get extra articles; we have a Byrne Superman-related one coming next week) via Patreon or our newsletter’s “pay what you want” mode!

Also, have you checked out our friends at @fortressofbaileytude recently? They haven't updated their Tumblr in a bit (9 years) but there's some seriously awesome stuff going on at their other sites, like a whole week of fascinating articles about Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey (including the action figures) and holy crap a podcast interview with Mike Carlin! Like us, they're also in BlueSky.

And now, more from the great @donsparrow.bsky.social...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a good one, another piece in the puzzle that makes up this crossover with the Milestone characters.  Our heroes are slightly crowded by all the trade dress graphics, but not excessively so, as the DC and Milestone heroes fly out of a rift.  I always love yellow rim lighting, so it’s a winner for me.

For the most part I’ve found this crossover a bit hard to follow, especially since it has, in certain chapters, barely touched on the already seismic events of the destruction of Metropolis, so it can be hard to know how much we’re supposed to care about it.  While the story has been something of a letdown for me, the art in this issue is not, as Bogdanove and Janke are bringing their best work to this chapter.  Right from the opening splash, with Superman running ahead of various Milestone heroes, we’re off to a dynamic start.

We are so used to seeing Superman flying, it’s a pleasing change to see him running, especially when he’s drawn so well, in all his Shuster/Fleischer studios looking glory.  Only a couple pages later, we get another poster-worthy image, also a full page splash, of Superman soaring through the clouds toward the reader.  I especially like the white halo effect around Superman’s edges, defining his torso in front of his cape.  It may not be realistic, but man, does it pop.  As Superman surveys the damage on Paris Island, there’s a treasure trove of Easter eggs, that are worth the research.  Under the water, Superman finds himself at the cross-streets of Vesey Avenue and Prosser Boulevard.  These are references to real-life former slaves Denmark Vesey, and Gabriel Prosser, who both separately raised insurrections against slavery with deadly consequences.  [Max: I did not know that! In my ignorance, I kinda wondered if they were the names for Milestone creators...]

There’s also a reference to “Big Otto’s”, a Polish soul food restaurant.  At first I thought this was a shout out to famed comic writer Otto Binder, but Wikipedia informs me Binder was of Austrian descent, not Polish.  So maybe it’s just a gag, as it’s hard to imagine the Polish form of Soul Food.

Our first look at Rift, the villain of the piece, is a real showcase for the colouring techniques of this age, with very little of his form defined by the black lines of the rest of these pages, giving a bright, glowing look to his shape.

With Icon’s flowing cape, Bogdanove seems born to draw the character, and it’s hard to think of a time the character looked better.  Hardware also looks great in these pages, but he’s overshadowed artwise by the great penumbra image of Steel on page 16, which is just a terrific drawing.

The image of Superman and Icon speeding toward Rift, who is menacing Lois Lane is a good one, and it’s fun to see her caught by someone other than Superman for a change as Icon is the one who makes the grab here.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Nice to hear Babe Tanaka and Shredding Metal mentioned, if not shown here.

Speaking of “shown here” it’s odd that they have Ron Troupe in this scene without him speaking at any time. [Max: He hates Jeb so much that he can't even speak. I sympathize.]

Is Jimmy being sarcastic, or does he think that a concert is really a good idea?  I’m betting on the latter, but I’d say a concert would be pretty low on the priority list at that present moment.

Static and Superboy make a very dynamic teen team, and wouldn’t be out of place on a Saturday morning cartoon together.  [Max: Superboy and His Amazing Friends, co-starring Static and Rocket! I believe they did appear together in Young Justice, but that show doesn't sound very Saturday morning-ish...]

It’s interesting that Superman’s Milestone counterpart is named Icon, since, many years later, Ra’s Al Ghul adopts that nickname for Superman himself, the Man of Steel version of Ra’s’ insistence on calling Batman exclusively “Detective”.  “Icon” is an absolutely terrible fit to describe Superman, essentially meaningless, but that issue is beyond the '86 to '99 timeline, and handled by a writer whose work on Superman I hated, so the less said the better. 

Is the Alice who is washing dishes, and who meets Keith and Lucan the same Alice that works at the Planet?  It’s hard to tell without her glasses, but she has a similar body shape. [Max: C'mon, Don, that's Alice White! How could you forget such a memorable character... who, based on our tags, hasn't appeared since 1992?]

I can’t find much information on Lucan.  His name seems so unusual that I wondered if he’s a regular character or something from the Milestone stories, but I haven’t unearthed much.  His design looks similar to a character from the cartoon, Richie Foley, but under the name Lucan I can only find references to Shining Knight or a character in Image’s Invincible. [Max: The DC wiki doesn't even list him in this issue, so I'm gonna assume he was a one-time character and an excuse for Keith to talk to Alice... but then again, the wiki doesn't list Keith or Alice either.]

I still can’t believe the cosmic power behind this storyline is a nebbishy mailman.  

[biblicallyaccurateslut]

I just read a re-post of one of my post from a non-gaylor, and I would like to say it was a really good, respectful answer that explained their point of view perfectly and, by any means, this post is an attemp to start beef or anything.

Being said that, one of the points that really standed out to me was how some fans would "force a queer identity on her" (not quoting them, just summarizing) and how twisting lyrics to hold a narrative or using certain interpretation of a song, was not healthy, in reference to the connection I made to the album midnights and Taylors queerness.

Now, I would like to ask, isnt twisting a lyric to fit a narrative how people started saying that Taylor was the "argumentative antithetical dream girl" she refers to in hits different, when is crearly (and is a question of grammar and basic language comprension) refering to the muse of the song?

Bet I could still melt your world, argumentative antithetical dream girl. Are you kidding me?? How could you posible say this makes sense if she was refering to herself???

Then, the paternity test constantly done by swifties to look for the muse of a song is nothing more than a certain interpretation of the lyric to fit the narrative. So that is not a thing exclusive to gaylors, almost every swiftie does it.

Now, that is what I like to call a double standard. I am not shaming the original autor of the post that have inspired this text, but pointing out a more societal problem. Very often, speculation and shipping and reading into things, if done in a hetero way is okay but do not dare to do it in a way that relates to queerness.

About the "forcing a queer identity on her", there is a thing, done through history called flagging. Safo was doing it in ancient Grecee, so did Oscar Wilde and more recently Elton John or James Dean. There are signals of the queer community to signal discretely to other lgbtq+ that they are one of them.

Taylor is not subtle about her flagging. She went out in a bi pride colored jacket to sing "and you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls". She did sing about wearing someone like a necklace. She did spray paint her paint the bi colors to her gay pride music video. Use the lyric hair pin drop more than once. She puts lesbian flag colors as the main lighting in her world wide tour. And much much more. Is obvious, really out there for the people who want to see it to see.

Once you see that, you have no option but to hope she is queer; because if she was not, she would only be a straight girl that harmed the queer comunity by taking all the simbolisim that lgbtq+ people have built througt the ages and making it hetero to the mainstream, erasing the very little history the comunity has managed to create in the opressed world that it had have to endure.

So, even if I think that the answer to my previous post was really well written and respectful, I do not think it is a really nuance take.

PD: To the person behind the original blog that posted the answer, if you have read this and recognised yourself on it, just know this is not a personal attack and I apologize before hand if that felt like that to you.

[buckybarnesss]

on fire: a teen wolf novel chapters 4-6 chapters 1-3 here

cox communications doesn't respect 3rd shift workers so last night i had to go into my brick and mortar office. i was able to get a lot of reading done but due to rules and regulations i was unable to write down my thoughts as i went. instead i used those little sticky note tabs to mark passages of interest so that's why this post took a little bit longer as i had to review what i had marked.

anyway.

our national nightmare continues.

ngl this book is weird. it's bizarro season 1.

it's non-canon compliant post-episode 5 the tell. i genuinely do not understand why they just didn't tap nancy holder to write a novelization of season 1.

warning: kate argent's existence and general grossness.

so buckle up buttercups here's a preview of what's to come:

we start this chapter from kate's point of view and it makes me feel dirty already. cast it into the fire, isildur. she’s just vile. just look at these nauseating quotes that she has all within the first page: 

“nothing beat the feel of cold, hard steel -- unless it was the rippling muscles of a well-built man.”

this bitch.

”god, all those muscles. the last time she’d seen him, he’d still been in high school. still a kid. a stupid, gullible kid, who should have died in the hale house fire along with the rest of his family.”

tell me again how the intention wasn't for derek to have been a minor when kate was grooming him? tell me fucking again.

“maybe she should’ve taken advantage of derek while he’d been down on the floor, writhing from the nine hundred thousand volts she’d sent skittering though his kick-ass body. for old time’s sake.”

chris and victoria are there too, being way more normal about things. they brought egg salad and cold cuts which feels like it’s hitting the beat where victoria comes in with cookies in the show. 

despite having grounded allison for her skipping school with scott on her birthday they are perfectly fine with her having not only a study date with lydia but allowing her to sleep over. it’s apparently to cover the arrival of a shipment of weapons. kate isn’t impressed that they’re still hiding everything from allison and disappointed there isn’t some super-special weapon in the shipment. 

this entire time she’s being weird and kind of sexual about an uzi. like, fuck off kate. 

now we’re back to scott and allison at the seedy motel plot where they are trying to locate jackson. “scott’s first instinct was to throw his arms around allison and duck, but she yanked the door open and barreled inside the motel like a superhero.”  uou are goddamn right, scott. that is ally a. 

the motel is basically an off the books brothel. one of the patrons supposedly saw something in one of the windows when he went open it for a smoke but saw something that scared him causing a heart attack. allison and scott ask a few people if they’ve seen jackson then have to book it when sheriff stilinski shows up.  these two idiots duck down in her car. i think we see stiles and scott do this a few times in the show.

lydia calls allison freaked out that she hadn’t called her back yet and harkens back to the tell by saying “a....window?” when they tell her about the man having a heart attack and scott describes her as sounding odd. i appreciate that lydia's trauma isn't being ignored because that just happened to her in the tell.

all this use of the generic where’s my phone app and using conference calls to sneak around feels like an adaptation of the plot beat in wolf’s bane.

the sterek agenda continues. derek and stiles spend a significant portion of the coming chapters together much like they do in the back half of season 1. it starts with the possible origin of the derek being in stiles’s room trope. stiles muses over the text he’d received from scott about the incident at the motel and as if being summoned derek is just suddenly there in his room. look at this bullshit:

he texted back, muttering, “so, scott, saw what? saw derek?” “yes?” derek said from behind him. “yeaoww!” stiles shouted. he turned around to find derek leaning against the wall. he did that on an irritatingly frequent basis, both at scott’s house and casa stilinski. he was wearing his black leather jacket and he looked especially pouty and broody. “could you not do that anymore? it is so not cool.”

irritatingly frequent basis? how many times has derek randomly appeared in your room stiles? and i’m sorry “especially pouty and broody”? what a totally super casual observation that is.

it gets even better. derek questions what scott is doing and stiles deadass answers “doin’ stuff.” which naturally irritates derek and derek requests stiles tell scott he wants to meet him. they’re interrupted by the sheriff calling for stiles to which we get:

“gotta go get that.” Stiles pointedly shut down his desktop -- Derek actually growled -- and slid his phone into the pocket of his jeans. “don’t touch anything.”

derek why are you growling? weirdo.

stiles talks to his dad and probes for information about the motel guy and they discuss his homework. it's actually a pretty great conversation between the two and pretty much the only time it occurs in the book.

there’s a mention of stiles’s mother and the sheriff asks stiles if he’s taken his adderall that day. so again, clearly whatever notes holder received very much indicated stiles's ADHD.

back in stiles’s room we get derek pointedly having ignored stiles’s directive to not touch anything: “he zoomed back into his room to find derek clacking away on his computer keyboard.” and “hey,” he said. “keep your paws off.” derek gave him one of his trademark sour glares.” this just continues to confirm for me that holder received some kind of outline of character and plot beats. casa stilinski? sour glares? derek and stiles doing investigative work and going to a hospital? stiles having a low key bisexual crisis over derek? it’s all there. i mean bro look at this:

“look,” derek leaned toward him and the hairs on the back of stiles’s neck stood straight up.”

and the banter:

“but don’t do anything wolfy in my jeep,” he said, opening his door and peering into the hallway. the coast was clear. “like stick our head out the window to let your tongue hang out --” “shut up,” derek said. 

here's another werewolf moment i find rather intriguing. scott and allison have made it to the preserve by this point still hot on the trail of jackson who lydia had told them was somewhere in the preserve. scott has a moment where in his mind he hears the how of a wolf. it says “an echo inside an echo” and “one wolf calling to another. seeking the pack.” that's pretty cool and it's not something shows up in the show.

jackson has finally arrived. i miss this asshole. he's in the woods being pissy about meeting the private investigator that had left him a note and a picture of his supposed biological father.

jackson’s perspective on what happened in magic bullet is just [chef’s kiss]. he refers to derek as scott’s drug dealer.

“mccall’s creepy drug dealer had shown up at school. when jackson had stood up to him, he’d grabbed him by the neck, and, like, gouged him with his fingernails.”

in jackson’s narration something caught my eye. “things had been fine before the start of the school year. Then it was almost as if McCall had concocted some kind of scheme over the summer to ruin his life.” so not only is this book an AU of season 1, the time frame seems off. the show starts the first day after their winter break in january. wolf moon takes place during the episode. the book places this before wolf moon has occurred which comes up later in derek’s narration. 

 this is such a good line and is a window into jackson’s mentality: “everyone wanted something jackson had. it was usually money or popularity. the secret? they were exactly the same thing.”

allison and scott are still in the woods. they’ve been kissing for a while but then they run into a wolf. they are really so soppy in this book and it's both accurate and annoying. allison is awed and scott is quietly panicking. allison goes on about how she thought it was beautiful and scott’s mind wonders if he’ll ever turn into a wolf like how Laura did. which, lol, no baby because you never make peace fully with being a werewolf. 

annnnd we’re back to the stiles and derek plot line. they’re playing dress up. i kid you not. these two are pulling a dean and sam. 

“my new best friend and i are at the hospital.” stiles said, twirling the listening end of a stethoscope in a little circle. so far he’d been unable to hypnotize derek with it.

there’s another small dig about derek not being a real person in stiles’s narration. this book hates derek, okay but i have a lo more on that later. for now these two idiots infiltrated the hospital by pulling the old stand by of Looking Important. stiles has a conversation with scott which is invoking wolf’s bane so hard:

“and you’ll never guess what. you can get past hospital security if you steal a white coat out of the storage room and parade around with it and a clipboard.” derek grunted. he was the one holding the clipboard, but he had passed on wearing a lab coat.”

stiles continues his observations of derek like the freak4freak he is:

“stiles covered the phone, “he can’t talk about wolfie matters,” he reported back to derek.  “because he’s with her,” derek said, looking even more dour than usual. stiles had never realized there were so many degrees of the brood until derek hale came into their lives.”

there’s a bit of back and forth regarding scott reporting that he and allison saw an actual wolf. derek’s disbelieving and cranky to which stiles ponders this totally normal thought:

“maybe if he gave derek a sugar cube -- or threw him a piece of raw meat -- derek might cheer up. stiles would have to try that someday. but today wasn’t looking good for that.”

derek then snatches stiles’s phone to question scott’s whereabouts. he is still cranky. meanwhile stiles is reading derek’s body language and it’s way too detailed for a normal person. like, stiles no one cares derek’s hand is in his jacket pocket while he grumps at scott and emphasizes “like always”. stiles how hard have you been watching derek? he may have complained about derek showing up in his room unnaounced but he's like

before we get into derek’s narration which ooh boy guys you aren’t ready. stiles and derek have their classic bickering-bantering some more. 

derek’s insisting stiles take him to the preserve so he can scent scott out. stiles is appalled and is like “oh my god derek you weirdo there’s an app for that.” and gets a little red riding hood dig in.

derek refuses to admit stiles has a point but orders stiles to give him his phone. stiles all but says Fuck You No and derek brings out his oldie but goodie:

“tell me or i’ll rip your throat out.” 

stiles probably thinks “don’t threaten me with a good time” but instead he says that he knows derek’s not telling him everything and insists he’s going with derek to find scott. 

it ends on this exchange:

“all right,” he said, “but we’ll take your jeep.” stiles huffed. “why can’t we ever take your car?” 

alas the camero. we barely knew her.

now we switch to derek’s point of view to narrate and so begins a piece of characterization that i don’t like, isn’t actually accurate to the character at any point in the series and frankly chaps my ass. i’m just going to give you all the paragraph as a whole.

“hey, you have to take me with you.,” scott’s annoying little sidekick insisted as derek stalked out of the hospital. derek took a tiny bit of satisfaction in the way the human had to trot along to stay abreast. he was sick to death of taking the weakness of humans into account while formulating his plans. de respected power, and few humans had any.”

besties, this book may very well be the origin of Derek Thinks Humans Are Weak trope. now, i’m sure some of you are like heather aren’t you perhaps being a tad dramatic? 

no. no i’m not. at first i considered this might be because of derek’s experience with kate. it would make sense that perhaps based off the information holder had that derek might be wary but than this fucker drops this line:

“werewolves didn’t share information with humans, ever.”

but he follows this thought with this:

“except for him, derek hale. he had shared information with a human. he hadn’t meant to. and the results had been disastrous.”

i will definitely get into more detail about this attitude he has because it really comes out in some later chapters because ooooh boy y’all ain’t prepared for the nonsense ahead. in actual canon derek never behaves this way or express this kind of opinion about humans. it stands out starkly in contrast to the episode this moment is paralleling in wolf’s bane. derek thinks stiles is annoying but not because he’s human. 

we end this chapter on jackson’s point of view. de had met with the so-called private investigator and they tit-for-tatted and jackson bolted when he sensed danger in the woods. now he’s lost in the woods. he’s scared, doesn’t want to admit it and sends a text to lydia.

it's here in these chapters where i realized that the character of deaton is missing entirely. since all of season 1's plot past the tell is omitted deaton's significance went with it.

also the mystery of the alpha is present but she's unable to really do anything with it so peter's presence is still regulated to comatose burn victim.

[dragonkeeper19600]

How I Would Fix Houseki no Kuni

By now, you guys are probably more familiar than you’d like to be with the numerous posts I’ve made about what I see as the many narrative failings of Houseki no Kuni.

I’ve already written extensively about my gripes with this train wreck of a manga, and as much as I’ve said already, I could keep going. However, over the past few days, I’ve found myself wondering what I would change to make the story stronger. After all, it’s easy enough to identify a problem with a story, but it’s a great deal more challenging to come up with a solution. I’ve already suggested some potential changes in other posts, but I thought I’d assemble all of my brilliant ideas in one convenient location.

So, without further ado, here’s how I would fix the garbage fire that is Houseki no Kuni:

First, I’d have Phos keep the encyclopedia job longer. It always seemed weird to me that this story mechanic was dropped so soon after being introduced, and I don’t think that was to the story’s benefit. Phos becoming more devoted to and more competent at the encyclopedia job would showcase his growing maturity, plus it would lead to a growing curiosity. A big part of what sets Phos apart in the original story is how willing he is to question things that the other gems don’t, such as Sensei’s possible connection to the Lunarians or whether there’s another job for Cinnabar. You could have his desire to learn more come from his desire to get the encyclopedia job right because he’s already fucked up everything else he’s ever attempted, so this is his last chance to be good at something.

Similarly, I would not make Phos a fighter, or, at least, I would wait until later in the series to make him a fighter. Manga and anime is already oversaturated with stories about people who learn how to fight. Having a protagonist who’s strong suit is not fighting would make Houseki no Kuni stand out from other seinen series. Instead, Phos’s usefulness to the war against the Lunarians would be as a tactician, using the information he’s collected from other gems (such as Alexandrite’s obsessive knowledge of the Lunarians) and his own observations to help the other gems fight more efficiently. Phos accepting that he isn't cut out to be a fighter would be yet another sign of his maturity. In my version, after he gets his new agate legs, he decides he can ditch the encyclopedia job and become a fighter like he’s always wanted, just like in the original story. However, after he sees the Amethyst twins shattered by the Lunarian weapon made from Sapphire, he realizes battle isn’t cool and badass like he thought but scary and really tough, and he decides the encyclopedia thing is where he’s needed.

Of course, Phos would be forced to take up arms and finally fight later in the series as the war with the Lunarians is ramping up. Phos would have a moment to muse on the irony of finally getting to be a fighter just like he always wanted after already deciding he didn’t want it anymore.

One more thing about combat is that the gems would wear actual armor into battle. Red Beryl’s job wouldn’t be just to make cute moe moe outfits for the gems to strut their stuff in but to forge armor to protect the gems from the Lunarians’ weapons. The Lunarians would find ways to get through the armor, of course, but it would be better and more believable than sending these rocks into a war zone wearing but ties and shorts too tiny to pass a public school dress code. The gems can still wear their uniforms when they’re just hanging out at the school, that’s fine, but when they go on patrol, they suit up in fucking armor. The fact that they don’t wear their armor around the school could actually lead to some tense scenes where the Lunarians attack the school directly and the gems there are caught unprepared and underdressed.

Phos’s motive for not hibernating during the Winter Arc would be, again, to observe Antarcticite and the winter season for the encyclopedia. However, and this is big, by the time winter ends, Phos would come to blame Sensei for Antarcticite’s shattering. This is a change I suggested in a previous post. The exact scene I described back then is that Phos sees Sensei shatter Antarcticite himself, but I don’t think you need to go that far. Phos’s blaming of Sensei doesn’t even need to be justified; he could just be lashing out at Sensei out of misplaced grief. But something needs to happen during the Winter Arc, while everyone else is asleep, to make Phos suspicious of Sensei. Perhaps Phos actually sees the Lunarians surround Sensei and tug pleadingly at his clothes, like they did in the actual manga, and comes to realize that the Lunarians and Sensei are connected. Perhaps Sensei hesitates to strike back against the Lunarians, because he’s guilty about not being able to help them or whatever, and that hesitation leads to Antarcticite being shattered.

At any rate, by the time winter ends, Phos is the only witness to this suspicious side of Sensei, and he finds that nobody will believe him about what he saw because the others are all refusing to accept that Sensei is less than perfect. The only one who’s willing to listen to Phos at all is Cinnabar because Cinnabar is grateful to Phos for listening to him. Plus, since Cinnabar is already isolated from everyone else, he’s less willing to keep so strictly to the party line. While he still loves Sensei, he’s less complacent than the others. I suggest these changes to the Winter Arc and its fallout because I always thought the chain of events that led to Phos being suspicious of Sensei in the latter half of the anime was pretty week, plus Phos being able to turn to Cinnabar for support would make Cinnabar a more prominent part of the story instead of getting shunted aside like he is in the manga.

Speaking of the Lunarians, I would change basically everything about the Moon. The Moon is not a high tech, utopian society full of karaoke bars, ramen joints, labor unions, advanced laboratories, and all that other stuff, but a surreal, Lovecraftian landscape that looks as beautiful as an ink painting of the Pure Land but is actually nightmarish and hostile. The Lunarians are supposed to be the tormented souls of human sinners unable to pass on to the afterlife, and their world should reflect that. In my version, the Lunarians have been driven insane by their long perdition, and while they look like divine figures from a Buddhist scroll, their behavior is so weird and alien to the gems that they find it hard to believe that these creatures were ever human. They can’t even communicate with the gems because their minds have deteriorated to the point that they can’t even understand language. The only Lunarian who’s coherent and rational is Aechmea, and even he’s starting to lose his sanity after running the asylum by himself for so long. 

Aechmea himself would also need to be radically changed. Somewhere along the way, the manga kind of forgot that Aechmea was supposed to be the villain. They try for this reveal that Aechmea was actually benevolent all along, and it 100% doesn’t work because A. a lot of his wicked acts are just gratuitously cruel and don’t further his supposedly well-meaning goals at all and B. the Lunarians aren’t really suffering anyway. To fix Aechmea, his sympathetic qualities and his villainous qualities both need to be enhanced.

So, my version of Aechmea is a well-intentioned extremist who chose the path of the bodhisattva but doesn’t have the supernatural patience and wisdom necessary to handle it. His backstory would be the same, but because my version of the Moon is a hellscape where he’s the only sane person around, his desperation to get Sensei to pray to free both the other Lunarians and himself is way more understandable. At the same time, the story would condemn the cruel things he’s doing by pointing out that he’s got no right to make the other races suffer just to save his own people. Aechmea would be portrayed as a lost soul, pitiful, yet misguided. And, above all, the Lunarians’ salvation cannot come about because of Aechmea’s manipulations. The story needs to show that the path Aechmea is choosing to try and save them is the wrong one.

On a similar note, Aechmea can’t make Phos into a human. I’ve already made a separate post about this note, and the reception to it was pretty positive. If Phos becomes a human/enlightened/bodhisattva/whatever, it needs to be in spite of Aechmea, not because of him. Phos needs to become human through his growing experience and his own choices, not Aechmea’s. 

Instead, in my version of the story, Aechmea chooses Cairngorm as Sensei’s replacement. Aechmea chooses Cairngorm because Cairngorm has been sealed inside of Ghost Quartz for most of his life, and thus, has never had any real agency. Hell, maybe Ghost Quartz is shattered specifically so Aechmea can then swoop in and claim Cairngorm, all so he can groom him into becoming a new prayer machine. It’s a sad fact that abuse victims are often abused multiple times in their lives by different people, and oftentimes, their current abuser is someone who “rescued” them from a previous abuser. When Aechmea “frees” Cairngorm from Ghost Quartz’s influence, he portrays himself as a savior who will show Cairngorm what he’s “really meant to be.” Aechmea and Cairngorm’s relationship in the manga already comes across as super predatory and sus, so I think the story would be better if it actually acknowledged that Aechmea grooming Cairngorm is bad instead of portraying their wildly unequal marriage as the “happily ever after” that it does.

Phos, on the other hand, would become a foil to Cairngorm because their growth and change happens because of their own choices and not because of Aechmea’s (you know, like the opposite of how it is in the manga). Phos would also choose to replace his body parts, instead of his body parts being lost through circumstance or being swapped out for him by other people. Him losing his legs can still be an accident, but it has the effect of showing Phos that his inclusions are special because they can assimilate basically any other material while still leaving Phos’s consciousness in control. However, after he gets his agate legs, every other new body part has to be a deliberate acquisition. For example, when he finally decides that he has to fight, he intentionally seeks out the gold alloy to replace his arms, whereas in the manga and anime, his arms were taken away by the ice floes, and replacing them with gold alloy was Antarticite’s idea.

Finally, the ending. In the manga, Phos is essentially tricked into enduring 10,000 years of mind rape to become the new prayer machine. In my version, Phos chooses to undergo the 10,000 year transformation, knowing that it’ll be tortuous and awful, because he’s willing to make that sacrifice to bring the Lunarians peace and finally end the conflict. The gems don’t become Lunarians in this version. My version of Lunarian society isn’t idyllic the way it is in the manga, so the gems wouldn’t want to join them, plus my Lunarians don’t have that kind of technology anyway. The sacrifice in this case is that Phos praying will also cause the gems that have been shattered to pass on as well, meaning Phos will never see Antarcticite again, and all the other shattered gems will be dead for good. But Phos is okay with that because 1. They realize from their interactions with the Lunarians and Yellow Diamond’s declining mental state that immortality is a curse and 2. They’ll still be around, and they’ll still remember Antarcticite, which is specially poignant because Phos has lost so many of their memories by now. 

There’s also some tension because when Phos makes this choice, no one is sure that he’ll be able to handle the nightmarish transformation without going insane the way the Lunarians did, and there’s a chance he’ll emerge after the 10,000 years as some kind of monstrous eldritch abomination. And because he looks so weird and alien after the transformation is complete, the surviving gems aren’t sure if he’ll actually be able to pray the Lunarians away or if he’ll become a new threat.

But, ultimately, he shows that the transformation was a success, and he prays all of the Lunarians away. Yes, even Aechmea, because for all the evil he’s done, he also lived every day in pure agony, so there’s no point in punishing him any further.

The surviving gems would still be alive, as would the Admirabilis. (Yeah, the plot point about the living races descended from humanity also being wiped out in the prayer is really contrived and makes no sense, so I’m chucking it entirely.) Phos, however, would no longer live among the other gems because he’s become so enlightened that the other gems can’t relate to them anymore. So, Phos remains aloof. But the other gems know where he is. When a gem is finally ready to die, they seek out Phos, who will ensure that they pass on. Phos vows not to pass on himself until the last gem has been shattered. Phos, the little gem everyone called worthless, has become the benevolent bodhisattva that both Aechmea and Sensei failed to be. End.

[amischiefofmuses]

- The Sacred Timeline -

While I've added some DC muses, and I will have their canon timelines as THEIR main verse (asks will be DC based unless otherwise indicated); I will also be including them in my Sacred timeline verse because I like having a space for comic muses to interact all together. Figured I should update details on that front. Keep in mind that this is loosely taped together. It's for fun, plot-holes be damned.

Under cut explains the current state of the sacred timeline, how everyone got where they are and what they're doing in that verse currently. If you're interested in one specific character then just scroll 'til you find their icon.

THIS IS A LONG POST - fair warning!

Overarching note: This verse diverges from the s1 ending of X-Men '97, as the group aren't pulled through time post Asteroid-M.

Other writers in this verse: @ficklefables + @biblicallyaccuratemcu - their characters will be underlined with a link to their blogs.

Until we're certain about how Creature Commandos ends, the DC timeline diverges after their first mission to Pokolistan. They're returned to Belle Reve until the next mission, that next mission includes both King Shark and Ratcatcher 2 as new team members - Ratcatcher 2 is there voluntarily to work alongside her friend. This is when Cable (motivated by his connection with GI Robot - who he repaired from scraps) steps in and EMP's the group, taking the commandos back to the mansion to give them a safe place and freedom. Rick is aware of where they are but doesn't want to risk an incident with the mutant community, just outright attacking the X-Mansion wouldn't exactly go down well after all. He has mixed feelings on the matter as he is fond of the commandos but he doesn't trust them not to cause trouble, they were imprisoned for a reason after all.

Cable ends up sticking around after Asteroid-M, slowly repairing his arm and recovering from the fight. Wade shows up in the aftermath, looking for somewhere to look after his daughters: Ellie - who he stole from SHIELD custody and Princess, a stray creature with no where else to go. After causing problems, Cable and Colossus take him away to cool off and take the time to figure out how to best handle his self-destructive outbursts. Currently the three are still dancing around their feelings but have moved back into the mansion, bringing Wade with them - however he must be under constant supervision.  Nathan has also taken in two robots as 'sons', GI Robot and KeVRiC (K-VRC - originally from Love, Death & Robots). The former was found as scraps in the future, repaired slowly as a hobby project, instead he ended up with a son he's taken to live at the mansion with him. The latter was found in an apocalyptic timeline, he's a robot babysitter with no children to babysit and thus, he was also brought back to the mansion and found his place as Nathan's second son - and big brother to all the younger kids of the mansion. Motivated by GI Robot's affection for his incarcerated friends, Cable intervenes and bring the Creature Commandos to the mansion too, ensuring their safety by disabling the devices made to track and punish them. He isn't a fan of Rick, given his 'official' attitude about the whole matter.

Comes to the Mansion in Cable's absence (while he was on a mission in the future alongside his younger self) and pretends to be him, wanting to understand him - what better way to defeat him than to know everything? Instead he's shocked by how everyone… LIKES CABLE? He ends up furious and baffled, given he's the SUPERIOR man between the two of them. Smarter. More interesting. More POWERFUL. Unfortunately upon his return, Cable confronts him with an ultimatum, Stryfe doesn't attack because he doesn't want to draw attention to the situation and risk hurting his parents. He's told that he has to come clean about who he is. Much to both Cable's and his own surprise, he's given a chance to stay and eventually become one of the X-Men. He's integrating well enough, though often feels out of place and struggles to make connections with others. That's not helped by him refusing to stop wearing his armor, which absolutely makes him look like a bad guy.

It took time for the mansion to be rebuilt but once it was finally back together Kurt moved in and officially became one of the X-men. Admiring the charge that Scott took during the big fight on asteroid M, Kurt endeavored to get to know Cyclops better - slowly but surely the two became more intimate, becoming boyfriends. Kurt is aware Scott is also seeing Bucky, he is fine with this and is looking forward to meeting this mystery man - with the likelihood in the future of them becoming partners too. After recently finding out his mother Mystique has been hiding at the mansion, pretending to be others to see if she might have a space to stay, he's convinced her to stick around but others only know her to be a random shapeshifter that joined the ranks. Only Scott knows the truth (outside of Charles and Magnus) and he has been urging Kurt to tell Rogue and eventually the others. Recently he brought his Bamfs to the mansion, accidentally letting them run amok while he stepped away for some time. Scott now knows his boyfriend has these impish little guys but has no idea what they actually are.

After the Mansion is rebuilt there was a certain tension in Morph, nearly facing the end of everything really put things in perspective and they desperately wanted to tell Logan how they felt. Scott, noticing this, pushed for answers and then pushed for them to tell him. Unfortunately (or fortunately) a well-placed rant to themself was caught out by Logan, pushing them to admit their feelings. Now the two are together but they're keeping it under wraps - purely because it's more fun being sneaky, there is no shame involved. The only ones that officially know about them are Scott and Cable, who only found out as his dad accidentally spilled that secret.

After the events of Asteroid M it took quite some work to keep trouble away from Magnus, who joined him in the newly rebuilt mansion. Much of his time was spent working on that, as well as his usual work for Mutant rights. It's a tired conversation between Magnus and Charles that leads to them figuring out their affections are requited, both lament taking so long to figure it out but are quite happily partners now. They ground eachother, with Magnus keeping Charles from working himself into an early grave, and Charles helping Magnus when he feels he is struggling with the things he has done in the past - or things that were done to him. More recently they've become engaged, as teasing remarks between them suddenly became far more serious than expected, resulting in Magnus proposing. They're both very happy. 

Unfortunately he lost many of his friends in the attack on Genosha, which is something he has blocked out, instead he's focused on integrating into the family life of the mansion after being brought there by Magneto. For a while he was too nervous to make contact with them, becoming a bit of a story around the mansion as the 'ghost'. They were just starstruck. Recently everyone became aware of them after they jumped out at people as a ghost on halloween, Logan caught him and finally told everyone what was going on. Now he's slowly integrating into mansion life.

Most of his story is the same but his home universe is that of X-Men '97, meaning he saw the events of the Prime Sentinels and witnessed the planetary blackout. He sides with Mutants, being a fierce ally to their cause and very vocal about his support of mutant rights.

Has yet to meet anyone except Nightcrawler, the two are loosely friends. Obviously John supports mutants and would happily assist the X-Men, should they ever need it, he's mostly doing his own thing.