#this is mostly for speculative fanfic reasons

[carf-writes]

While I know Tommy and Billy are identical in the comics, I don’t think that will be true in the MCU for the following reasons:

Them being identical would force Joe Locke to play a double role which would cost more money/time, and would probably make it difficult to schedule. Besides I wouldn’t like it personally, usually I find that sort of thing gimmicky.

Tommy and Billy were never shown to be identical in the MCU. In Wandavision, they are played by similar looking but not identical child actors. It wouldn’t have been that hard to find acting identical twins as they are very common in the industry for child labor law reasons and it would have made sense as a meta joke since Elizabeth Olson has two famous twin sisters. But they didn’t go that route. Tommy and Billy were always meant to be fraternal twins, just like Pietro and Wanda.

In the comics, Tommy and Billy meet by accident and the only indication that they might be somehow related is that they are identical. This is strange because they were born to different families and supposedly have nothing in common. It sets them up to look into their origins. But in the MCU, Billy already knows he has a brother and that he is the son of the Scarlet Witch. Them being identical doesn’t serve a purpose and would undercut the idea they have set up that Billy and Tommy have jumped into bodies that don’t really belong to them. Their souls are brothers but not their bodies.

That's all to say whoever they cast could look fairly different

[sysig]

Party (group) party (celebratory)! (Patreon)

[forgetyoursingalongsandlullabies]

I’m kind of obsessed with the Jonmartin timeline and how Jon slowly fell in love with Martin, mostly off tape over seasons 2 and 3. I wrote a little bit of an essay trying to pinpoint the shifts and moments when we can tell something has changed. I love fanfics but I am just so interested in trying to figure out what happened in canon as close as possible. Of course this does involve speculation of emotions that we have no way of actually knowing because Jon Sims does not talk about his feelings.

Anyway it’s long-ish.

Jon fell in love with Martin over season 2 but didn’t start to realize it until late season 3 just before The Unknowing.

Martin starts the show with a crush on Jon. In MAG 22 when Martin makes his statement about the worms Jon feels guilty over how all of the pressure he’s put Martin under drives him to put himself in danger and he has Martin move into the archives to protect him which may be the first caring gesture he has made towards Martin but it’s a big one. Martin, who had a decent size crush on Jon beforehand, is blown away by this and his crush becomes a real big one.

Jon tries to continue being hard on Martin but he does noticeably soften towards him. His criticisms are half-hearted.

During Jane Prentice’s attack when Martin and Jon are in document storage Martin calls Jon out and properly snaps at him for dismissing the supernatural and Jon actually sees Martin in this moment for the first time. Martin had never talked back to him in such a way and Jon can now see him as not just his assistant who makes a lot of mistakes but as an equal who might know better than him in some aspects. They have their heart to heart and Jon is able to be honest for the first time since taking this job. He admits he’s scared and it’s okay, well it’s not okay because Jane Prentice might be moments away from killing them, but Martin doesn’t think any less of him. And then Jon asks if Martin is a ghost and he’s wrong and it was stupid but Martin makes fun of him in a way that doesn’t hurt and Jon isn’t used to that. And Martin, seeing this open and fragile and slightly dumb part of Jon, starts falling in love.

After Martin finds Gertrude’s body Jon is one track minded and focused on finding out what happened. Martin, giving his statement about the tunnels, is in tears not because he found a body and was scared, but because he accidentally left Jon. Jon was too distracted with finding answers at the moment but he heard it and absorbed it over time.

Season 2 Jon is full of nothing but paranoia and is unwilling to trust anyone but it’s his obsessive observations that lead him to getting to know Martin enough to love him. When Jon tries to come back from leave early Martin forces Jon to go home and rest more. Jon wonders what Martin is hiding but reasons that, no Martin is actually concerned about his health. Jon thinks Martin gave him a fake jar of ashes to calm him down, he doesn’t seem to think this gesture is part of a conspiracy, he genuinely thinks of this gesture as Martin lying to him to make him feel better. Jon notes that Martin has been very attentive to his needs and recovery and that he is interested to hear Jon’s theories about Gertrude. He remarks that he has observed Martin’s competence and cunning. Of course Jon is ridiculously paranoid and interprets this attention as some kind of plot against him to slow down his investigation and sees these positive attributes of Martin as reasons to see him as a threat, but again, Jon is absorbing it all. The lines in Jon’s supplementals about Martin’s attention to him implies that they’re spending a lot of time together off tape, at least more than they ever used to, probably at Martin’s insistence and Jon accepting this time by justifying to himself that he needs to watch Martin.

In MAG 53 Jon mentions that Martin hovers near him when he goes to the canteen and Martin says it’s because he’s concerned (based on Jon’s lie about how he got the cut from Michael). Martin offers to pick up a sandwich from the cafe and bring it back for Jon. He doesn’t ask Jon to come with him and Jon acts like he’s annoyed to be around Martin when he sits with him in the canteen, but Jon decides, No instead of me refusing the gesture for food or saying yes please pick up that sandwich for me, he says “I’ll come with” making another decision to spend time with Martin when he doesn’t have to. Maybe Jon tries to justify this to himself again by saying he’s keeping an eye on Martin but Jon has made no efforts to go spend extra time with Tim, who was an equal suspect, even before Tim was mad at Jon. (And may I add, if Jon tried this tactic with Tim, going out to lunch, watching him by spending time with him etc. maybe Tim wouldn’t have ended up being so angry with Jon.) But Jon is definitely making the effort to spend time with Martin when it frankly has nothing to do with his investigation no matter how he tries to spin it.

In MAG 56 when Jon makes Martin tell him what he’s been hiding and he finds out Martin had lied on his CV he is so relieved that he is giddy. He is smiling, laughing and stuttering. To Jon’s ‘rational’ mind this doesn’t fully clear Martin of suspicion but emotionally this really seems to be a weight off of his shoulders. On a subconscious level he can start to allow the time they’ve spent together to mean something other than just spying.

Meanwhile Martin can see what a hard time Jon is having and he can see him spinning out of control with paranoia and Martin tries really hard to defend him, maybe not the best thing, we know Martin is a bit of an enabler for Jon, but for Jon’s emotional arc of falling in love with Martin it is important that Jon hears Martin defending him to Tim in MAG 58. Martin never stops calling Jon out on his shit like when he tells Jon that he needs to talk to Tim and that Tim isn’t wrong but nowadays it feels like everyone is constantly calling Jon out, not that he doesn’t deserve it, but when Martin calls him out it’s still clear that he cares, whereas anyone else talking to Jon just seems to speak to him with malice.

At the beginning of season 3 Jon is hiding out and staying at Georgie’s place. We know from Season 4 MAG 149 that Jon used to go on about Martin to Georgie “a lot”. Georgie got the full story about The Archives in MAG 93 and Jon decides to move out of Georgie’s place in MAG 99 when he was then kidnapped by The Circus. There’s usually a week of time that passes between episodes unless otherwise implied and 93 and 94 take place over the same conversation on the same day so I’ll assume 5 weeks in which Jon was going on about Martin a lot with full context. He probably talked about him before then too only more cryptically. Importantly though in the Season 4 Q&A Alex asks, Who knew that Jon liked Martin first, Jon or Martin? And Jonny said “Georgie” so even though Jon didn’t know it yet, he was obviously smitten (at least obvious to Georgie who has dated Jon and recognizes signs of affection and romance in him more than anyone else would).

When Jon talks to Martin in MAG 102 there is a very slight almost imperceptible sweetness in Jon’s voice that we’ve never heard before. The way he assures Martin that it’s ok that he didn’t know he was kidnapped. There is a lot of awkwardness and frankly a lot of heavy breathing from both of them for probably just standing there. Their casual talk about the overall institute and Hannah who is having her baby and had that thing with the milk in the break room last year, Jon doesn’t know who she is but Martin knows that Jon knows her probably because they had been around her together since they spent so much time together last year but Jon was too paranoid and she had nothing to do with the plot, it’s just a very normal and domestic moment. Jon tells Martin he knows he’s been reading statements and Martin is just worried Jon will be jealous that he’s taking some of his job but instead Jon is just concerned for him. It’s different and they both know it’s different and they can both feel the conversation is charged with something but they don’t know what. “It’s not too late. Unless the world ends” means a lot in this conversation, yes it does literally mean it’s not too late for them to talk and continue whatever friendship they were stumbling towards in season 2. It’s not too late for them to pick up this weird, oddly charged and tender conversation that may be leading somewhere else. It’s also foreshadowing that it sort of is too late because their world will end when Jon effectively dies stopping the Unknowing.

By MAG 114 Jon says that he has listened to all of the tapes and has therefore heard the gossip about he and Martin. I think something clicked in his brain when he heard that Martin has a crush on him. He probably never considered that idea because things like romance are never on the forefront of his mind especially when he is in active danger, which he has been for the last 2 years, and even more so he wouldn’t expect someone to have feelings for him in general. Being conscious of the notion that Martin has feelings for him lead him to consider all of the strange feelings he’s been having about Martin over the last year and a half in a way that he might not have gotten to on his own until much later. It’s all part of the plan that Jon suggests Martin stay back at the Institute in front of Elias but Jon is genuinely relieved that Martin will be safer there.

In MAG 117 Jon talks about Daisy and Basira’s bond and how he’s been having to do everything by himself. He’s envious of their bond and we can tell he’s been thinking about how things could be if he had someone (Martin) by his side. I don’t think this part of his testament would have played out this way had he not been thinking a lot since he heard the tape. When he addresses the “office gossip” he is flustered. Possibly embarrassed that Georgie, who he trusts, was giving out this personal information to Melanie but I actually think he’s used to that specific type of gossip about him and I think that the nervous stutter and searching for words comes from trying to address the other part of the gossip, which he is still trying to wrap his head around.

It isn’t confirmed but I do think that Jon listened to everyone’s testimony before leaving and he heard Martin’s “I need him to be ok”. Later in MAG 139 Jon says “I need him to be okay. I just do.” I don’t think he’s consciously repeating the same phrase but I think this phrase has lived with him ever since he heard Martin say it and now it’s just organic to Jon too.

I genuinely do believe that at this point, as of MAG 117, all of Jon’s feelings for Martin are already there and internally he has at least accepted romantic feelings even if he wouldn’t have called it love then.

Jon is put in a 6 month coma the next night and is in a full tilt romantic arc the moment he wakes up. Not 20 minutes after waking from his coma he wants to see Martin, he’s surprised that Martin wasn’t there for him the moment he woke up. Maybe if you asked him the next day he’d say it was a silly notion for him to just expect Martin to be there at any given point no matter when he woke up, but a part of him accepted and knew that if Martin could have he would have been there.

Anyway, all this is to say that if he woke up from a coma desperately in love with Martin all of those feelings had to have been present before the coma. I know there was a lot more thought and consideration and emotional work that Jon had to do over season 4 before he could have been ready for his love to literally save Martin but all of the feelings were there by the time he woke up.

[worrynoodle]

Okay. Now that I'm caught up, I would like to put in my two cents on this.

⚠️Warning, if the whole fandom panic thing stresses you out, please go ahead and skip this, but I tried to make it reassuring. There's no need to go worrying yourself over rumors and hearsay. ⚠️

For one thing, there's no amount of asking and pressure that is going to make any of the show creators reveal the ending. That isn't how tv shows work. You wait, you watch, you see. It also isn't fair for those of us who hate spoilers for them to constantly be asked for.

Two. I know that a lot of us on here are neurodivergent and have anxiety, and a HUGE part of that anxiety can be the unknown, especially about things we care very deeply for and identify with. This show and its characters hold a very special place in our hearts, and we fear not knowing the ending, especially with a big bang cliffhanger like s2e6. But please try to sit in that discomfort and allow yourself to feel your feelings without panicking.

Third, this story has been beloved for 30 years, yeah? Of course, OF COURSE, it's not going to be a bad ending! It's obviously something that all of the creators involved have been passionate about. Why on earth would it end badly? And all of them - Neil g, Terry p, the directors, the actors, the cast and crew, set and costume designers, the hair and makeup crew, ALL these wonderful people - put an unfathomable amount of care and thought into every aspect of the story.

Next, please, please, please try to remember the show on its own, right? All the details, all the scenes building Aziraphale and crowleys history individually and as a pair weren't put in there for no reason. Take what we actually see on screen and separate that from metas, theories, fanart, and fanfiction. We all love diving into what each detail could mean, but remember, it's all speculation until it concludes.

The story, what we have so far, is kind of a mostly completed puzzle. There's a lot of missing spaces, that's the season three bits. And right now we can't see the bigger picture but you have to remember that each piece of the puzzle was made by the people who painted the whole picture. Every piece that we have was made to fit with the whole story so once we have all the "season three pieces" they're going to fit right into place as they're supposed to.

And maybe, if you have very very high expectations - like very specific headcanons for how you think a perfect ending would look like - maybe it wouldn't be too bad to lower your expectations and open your mind to new possibilities. Ones that can be just as good!

So please, take a deep breath. Count to ten. Get your hot chocolate, your tartan blankets and comfy chairs, pull up some happy-ending fanfics and remember that it's all going to be alright. It's 2024 and this isn't Sherlock

[livinginsunnyhell]

Hey friend! We tend to ship the same ships, so tell me about Buddie.

Omg! I am thrilled to get this question! First hey friend! We do like the same ships and I am a fan of your work, so it’s lovely to hear from you. So not to over do this but I have broken my answer (essay) up into three parts. The first is things to know before entering the buddie fandom, the second is who they are, and the third is why I like them. I tried to be as succinct as possible but I do suffer from too much love for them so bear with me. Also this is spoiler free.

What to know about buddie

Okay so the very first thing to know about buddie is that they are not canon. Yet. (A deal with the devil is scheduled for Wednesday night before the next episode airs on Thursday which is speculated to be THE episode. Jkjk) This is important to note because when I entered the fandom I had absolutely no clue. I thought they were a gay firefighting couple who were raising a special needs child together. I thought it was cute. I was confused and disappointed when I found out they were not in fact together. The second thing to know is buddie is unhinged about each other. Like watching this show I feel gaslit especially in the earlier seasons. Something would happen between them and I’d be wondering like is this normal behavior? I probably didn’t start shipping them until season 3 but did notice some crush type behavior early on. I also went into the show expecting to like them so. The third thing to know is there’s a shit ton of amazing fanfic and it’s constantly growing. Like I think when I started reading buddie fanfic again last March it was 8k lower than it is now. It’s insane how fast it’s growing. And lastly, shipping them is like entering a land of delusion because they’ve been a will they go canon since like season 4 and we’re on season 8. I initially got into them right before season 5 and I was so sure they’d go canon in season 5 and then they didn’t. So like there’s just a lot of delusion about whether or not it’s happening, which is fine but it’s good to know going in. That being said you don’t have to worry about a Veronica mars situation with them.

Who is buddie?

Okay so buddie or Evan “Buck” Buckley and Eddie Diaz are two firefighters on a show called 911 which also stars Angela Bassett, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Peter Krause. All major reasons I came for the show. Buck is in the show from episode 1 and Eddie comes in season 2. The show is all about first responders and while it can be a tearjerker there’s also some really strange plot points and funny ones. Buck is basically introduced as a fuck boy a la Logan Echolls but without the rich and famous parents. Buck’s story can be summed up as a someone who is desperate to be loved. His parents, while not as bad as Logan’s, were not great parents and Buck has a lot of self esteem issues. In my opinion, Buck has been on a journey since season 1 to figure out how to love himself and be in a loving relationship where he’s not being used (mostly for sex.). And then there’s Eddie Diaz who comes in as a work partner for Buck thanks to their fire captain Bobby (Peter Krause). Eddie is an army medic with a son who is adorable and has cerebral palsy. He got married super young because he got his girlfriend pregnant. Now, his wife is estranged and not in the picture so Eddie is learning what it is to be a single parent. His son, Chris is the most important person in Eddie’s life and later on becomes the most important in Buck’s. Eddie’s journey can really be summed up as he’s always taking care of other people and his identity is tied up in his titles such as father, husband, soldier, firefighter without taking the time to actually know who he is. He’s always pushing his own needs aside and then they generally manifest in anger or mental health issues. He’s spent a lot of time addressing these issues and growing to better understand balancing his needs and accepting that it’s okay to be open. Eddie and Buck lean on each other constantly and the audience watches as their friendship grows and they become a family.

Why I like Buddie

So the top reason I like buddie is because I love how soft they are with each other. Both Buck and Eddie are pretty traditionally masculine men which is why it’s so refreshing to see them so open with each other. First and foremost they are best friends and they show up for each other again and again. There are so many scenes in which you can see the love they have for each other. And they are evenly matched too. Like they are partners in every sense of the word. And they have their own storylines outside of each other so the character isn’t a plot device to drive the other’s story. It’s a really refreshing take to see men have meaningful conversations and be vulnerable with each other without sacrificing who they are as characters or being labeled a certain way. I love Buck because he is so emotional and isn’t afraid to be that way while Eddie has been told for most of his life to suck it up and push it down. By watching Buck be so open, he’s able to feel like he has a safe place to be vulnerable. So I guess my favorite part of them is watching them be safe with each other.

I also love found family stories and this is like peak found family. They trust and rely on each other and again it’s amazing to see. I mean overall I’d say they don’t have any toxic traits in their relationship except probably codependency and Buck can be unhinged when he’s jealous, but unlike other ships I’ve enjoyed, they’re extremely healthy for one another. They bring out their best qualities. I also like that they are best friends and work partners. They do so many things together which the audience sees again and again. They match each others freak and it’s just really beautiful. And lastly, it’s a slow burn. Like incredibly slow like caramelizing onions slow so while you get a bunch of content you also have to wait it out.

I think I covered all of it. Highly recommend. The first season does feel like a completely different show but it’s all fun to watch. I’m not a procedural person but I enjoy 9-1-1. The writing isn’t like mind blowing but it’s definitely enjoyable. I tend to watch while crafting.

lol my essay is complete. Let me know if I didn’t cover anything or anyone else please add to this incredibly over the top answer to a simple question.

[spilt-dreams]

DESPERATELY in search of: specific long OLD Peterick fic

I realize it may be weird to call into the abyss on this defunct blog but I am desperately in search of a fanfic that ruined my life many years ago and I wanted to revisit because I loved it so much. I’m pretty confident it was posted on live journal (but for some reason I think it was cross posted to A03 somewhere along the lines? MAYBE?)

Details I remember from the fic:

-Pete gifted Patrick a blue guitar (for Christmas? I think?) that matched his eyes perfectly (this was a recurring mention but happened early on)

-Patrick initially refused to perform Saturday because Pete wrote it about him losing his virginity LOL

-followed fall out boy from the beginning and worked through the timeline of then being a band up until the time that would be when Pete and Ashlee got married irl

-Pete and Patrick were together at the beginning of the fic and end but mostly separated in the middle and the fic mentioned other relationships they had (real, speculative, and fake)

-after the Honda civic tour Pete was with Mikey Way at one point and Patrick had a thing with Bob Bryar

anYWAY! I would be so so so appreciative if anyone knows what I’m talking about and could help me track it down! Please let me know if this sounds familiar to you and you know where I could find it!

I’ve spent half a week trying to find this but I haven’t even caught a whisper on the wind of it 😭

[desired-fantasy-writings]

Pls do some general dating headcanons for Von Kaiser. Thank you very much. Hope you'll have a wonderfull day♥️

Von Kaiser Dating Headcanons

A/N: Cominggggg right up! Thank you for requesting Anon. 🫶💜 Hope you have a wonderful day as well!

Requested by: Anon Warnings: Some headcanons are a bit depressing, didn't intentionally mean to write them as such, it kind of just happened. Readers Gender: Gender Neutral Fanfic Type: Headcanons Fanfic Genre: SFW Word Count: 789

• Dating Von Kaiser is not easy. Not saying it's completely stressful, but there's definitely moments when it can be difficult. A lot of love, care, support, and patience is needed for a man like Von who’s experienced mostly negative encounters in his life.

• Mans has a lot of trauma. It's speculated that he could be a war vet, possibly the reason why he suffers from a form of shellshock and PTSD, another reason why his ticks occur, or he's just always had them even before. He was also belittled and made fun of growing up, so he hides his ticks as much as he can in public as much as it hurts him, let's it all go when he's home and alone. 

• Also got made fun of for being German, so he's too scared to share his heritage and culture.

• Von doesn't view himself as worthy of a partner and considering his age he thinks he's too old now to find love. With his ticks as well people tend to keep their distance from him, not understanding that it's just a thing he has as he can't help it from happening.

• Von hasn't seeked love, but instead it came to him either meeting elsewhere or meeting his S/O as they brought their kid/relative to his training program for kiddos. Whatever the case may be.

• It's a very slow burn as Von keeps his walls up, but the more he sees his S/O the more he opens up - eventually opening up to them about how he grew up, his condition, what he experienced during the war.

• Von needs someone who will accept all of what he is, and whatever he has done in the past he heavily regrets with a bleeding heart, so to speak, doing what he can to make up for it, even if it's a little bit by teaching kids self defense. Seeing past his battle scars, he's just a broken man who just wants a partner, people who will care and love him for who he is without making him hide his true self.

• It would be a good couple years before anything would happen in terms of romantic pursuit, most likely his S/O would have to engage to hint at their interest in him. Von wouldn't believe it at first… as time went on he shared more of himself and to be met with love and acceptance is all he ever wanted in a partner, and he finally had it.

• Beginning to date Von Kaiser would take A L O T of baby steps as Von is inexperienced with love his S/O would have to guide him if they have experience already in romance. If they don't either, they’ll learn together from each other what they like and don't like.

• Von is only really ok with light touches, hand holding and gentle hand kisses, not too huge on public affection as he gets easily embarrassed and also wants to keep up a tough facade. 

• Can get very angry and jealous very fast  if someone were to dare mess with his S/O.... He will not hesitate to defend them if needed be.

• Is honestly traditional. Will always be the one paying for dates, opening doors, loves to dance, writing love letters; Quite a gentleman when he can be, but can also be clumsy.

• However, he won't force his S/O to stay home or slave away for him, oh no. Von’s more than proud of them for working and being independent as well. He was taught better than that as he only had his mama in his life, respecting woman more then most because of her. His father wasn't in the picture as he died when Von was just a young boy.

• Often tinkers on his off time. Sometimes leaves little things he made around the house for his S/O to find. Lovesss making gifts for the people he loves. A total gift giver.

• Often has reoccurring nightmares waking up in the middle of the night, either in a cold sweat or screaming. Holding the poor man helps so much… he prefers being little spoon on nights like that. 

• Not the greatest at communicating his feelings and thoughts, but he tries! In those moments he writes whatever's on his mind on paper and hands it to his S/O. It's the best way for him to communicate when he is struggling to express himself verbally.

• Von uses a mixture of his S/O’s name and sweet nicknames in German.

• As long as he's with his S/O, making sure there's food on the table, working hard, and making time for dates; he's fine living a simple life with his love. :)

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Triangle Strategy Timeline

Ta-da! I finally have a relatively complete timeline for the Triangle Strategy canon events (albeit a really speculative one). It’s stored on Google Drive as a sheet:

Triangle Strategy Timeline

The fun thing about using Google Sheets is that I could make it completely adjustable, meaning you can plug in different amounts of days for different events and it'll calculate the whole thing automatically. I purposefully made it this way because Triangle Strategy's timeline is really pretty flexible and a lot of it is up to interpretation.

I feel like I might've mentioned this before on a previous post, but one weird thing about the timeline (and the reason why I wanted to do those polls the other day and get a reality check) is that there's really nothing to say that the events of the story took more than about one month. That's 1 (one) ONE month. As a lot of people agreed on the polls, it definitely feel like the war takes a lot longer than that, but there just aren't a ton of explicit references to the amount of time passing that would prove it took place over a longer amount of time. In fact, there are a lot of places where it kind of feels like the game implies otherwise, that things are happening over the course of hours/days vs weeks/months.

One of the worst examples of this is this sequence from Chapter 4 where everything from Dragan finding the salt to Maxwell's death on Whiteholm Bridge seems to be implied to take place in less than 24 hours.

In order:

We see Dragan find the salt

It immediately cuts to House Wolffort talking about Frederica's wedding dress and say they are leaving at once to make the request

Frederica arrives in the Rosellan village and they start taking her measurements

There's a "Meanwhile..." title card and then a scene that shows Roland leaving Whiteholm to head toward the Wolffort demesne

Dragan sends a letter to Gustadolph about the salt

Gustadolph receives his note

As Frederica finishes up her measurements (implying that all the stuff in between has happened in the same day!!!), Roland meets up with Serenoa and co. and takes them to the mines

they get to the mines, everything goes down and Dragan is killed

they hear about the invasion in Whiteholm

they run down to Whiteholm and get there that!! same!!! night!!! during the invasion

You can make arguments that some of the scenes were flashback-ish and/or weren't meant to be strictly chronological (which is what I did lol), but the game does seem to at least imply that Gustadolph found out about the salt and then managed to mobilize his entire army and get down to Whiteholm in the span of like. a few hours

There are other factors that make the timeline weird as well, which I talk about more in the timeline itself. But mostly I just wanted to say: this timeline is sort of goofy to begin with and at some point it really became more of a "you can use this as a tool to plot out your fanfic's timeline" than it is a "this is a strict canon timeline" lol. There's so little to go off of that you can really just assume whatever you want and then go with it :)

And as always, feel free to point out if there's anything you see that's inaccurate. There's so much going on in Triangle Strategy and I almost definitely missed things/got things wrong in different places. Comments are enabled on the sheets, so if you want to leave a note that way, definitely go ahead!

[blackbird-brewster]

CM Unpopular Opinions

Just a couple of weeks out from the new season, the new trailer just dropped, and people are getting hyped. For last season, I made a CME predictions post (which mostly came to pass, bc this show is so predictable) -- but this season, I'm going to post some unpopular opinions going into S17. Don't like, don't read.

WILL. Since we know Will won't be in this season, there have been speculations that JJ/Will will be getting a divorce, or that Will is going to die. I do NOT want Will to die. I hate that guy, I've never liked his character, but you know who I do love? JJ. She has already been through SO much, I do NOT want Hotch 2.0 in S17. I don't want Will to die, because that would be like ripping half of JJ's soul out of her chest and she deserves better. What I actually think will happen -- is just that Will is going back to being an off-screen partner like he was for most of the series.

JEMILY. I've already written my thoughts on Paget's Jemily hints on social media and why I think that's simply queerbaiting. There's no way Jemily is going to be canon, and I am HAPPY about that. I don't want Jemily to be canon!! Look at how this show treats canon relationships!! How many female romantic interests have been tortured and killed???? Why would I ever want Jemily in that crossfire? Also, as a fanfic author who has been writing Jemily for the past decade -- I don't want them to become canon, because that will squander so much creative potential. Fic authors fill in the gaps and subtext of canon, that's our job, when a relationship becomes canon it really loses it's appeal. That being said, I would love to actually see Emily and JJ interacting again. S16 really ignored their decade-long friendship altogether. Shit, I would love to just see them in the same fricking scene again.

REBECCA. All I want is for Rebecca to survive this season. As mentioned above, the way this show treats romantic interests of main characters is HORRIBLE. I'm forever furious with how the show handled Tara/Rebecca's relationship last season. I know fans hated Rebecca for getting pissed at Tara, but I still don't agree. What I do hate is how as soon as Tara's queerness served it's plot point (getting the inmate to admit he's gay too) -- the show nuked Tara's relationship altogether. I seriously love Rebecca, I think she adds a lot to the show. And since we already know Rebecca is in S17, I would LOVE to see Tara/Rebecca sit down and actually talk through their issues (like real adults!). I would LOVE for them to get the happy ending they deserve.

GARCIA'S ROMANCE. For real, I do not care about any of this love triangle bullshit with Garcia between Tyler and Luke or whatever tf is happening. I seriously hated what they did to Garcia's character in S16, it felt like they completely erased the prior 15 years from her character and replaced it with the most basic hetnormative romance plot. I don't ship Garvez (nor her and Tyler), so I don't really care about that side of things. But I would LOVE to get our Garcia back. I miss her so much.

RETURNING CHARACTER RUMORS. If one of the past cast members comes back in S17 I do not want it to be MGG. CME already focused an entire season on Rossi's man-pain (literally the only reason they killed Krystal was for him to be angry 🙃). I do NOT want another season of white-male centric plot lines (even though that's clearly what's gonna happen with Voight) If anyone actually comes back to guest, I want it to either be Matt or Derek. Alternatively, I do have a crack theory that the unsub/Gold Star is actually Elle Greenaway. A trained government assassin, she became a vigilante after leaving the BAU and she's been operating for all these years without detection. Now THAT would be a good twist.

Listen, overall, I'm not looking forward to another season of Evolution. I think they're trying way too hard to turn CM into some edgy, gritty, Norwegian-type crime drama and in doing so, they've ruined some of my favourite characters irrevocably. I don't have high hopes for S17.

[suddencolds]

sending u a star!! ⭐️ sorry i wanted to go thru and pick a specific fic but im too sleepy lol but any yvescent piece u had thoughts on :D

[from Fanfic Writers - Director's Cut]

hello!!! THANK YOU N, IT MADE ME REALLY HAPPY TO RECEIVE THIS 🥹🥹🥹

I also realize am responding to this like 2 months late :') I thought for a long time on which fic to comment on, and now that I've posted Atypical Occurrence pt. 2, I thought I might as well write out my thoughts on it while they're still fresh and bc it's close to my heart (I hope that's okay hehe)

—

⚠️❗️ Warning that I will be attaching snippets from my deleted drafts below!! Please read the published installment before you proceed to read this post. This is a little embarrassing... all I can say is that those drafts were deleted for a reason 🥴

—

There’s a grocery store that’s a ten minute drive from Vincent’s apartment. 

I rewrote this scene... 3 or 4 times? It gave me sooo much trouble 😭 I think in the first draft Vincent actually tears up tasting Yves's cooking. (I know, Vincent, I want Yves to cook for me too 😭❗️)

Terrible (ugh 😭) first draft screenshot under the cut (screenshot = old draft, indented quote = current draft):

(Yves pulling up a chair at the end... you can tell he is totally at a loss on what to do 😭 and I, too, was at a loss on what to do)

I wrote this ^, and I was like... this moment just feels unearned? I personally despise outlining + I love going in (mostly) blind. Sometimes the first draft works out of the box, and in this case, the first draft (and the second draft, and the third draft) were all soooo bad that I literally had to take a month-long break to regain my confidence 😭

Anyways! I knew right away that Y was going to cook something for V (it's mentioned here and there throughout the series that he is a really good cook 😭 And in part 3 of Fool Me Twice, Yves promises to make Vincent something more ambitious than hot chocolate. He's finally kept his promise now, 12 installments later 🙇‍♀️ )

From draft 2, there was only one scene which I was sure I was going to include in the final draft, aka, spared from the recycling bin. (But I just checked the final draft and it's nowhere to be seen?? Interesting.)

I would have managed fine on my own.

On this (deleted) scene, and more broadly: I think it's important to me that Yves recognizes that Vincent is self-sufficient in many ways: when Vincent says he will be fine alone, he is telling the truth. Yves doesn't have to stay—he recognizes this too, when he heads for the door in the published draft.

Still, Yves stays, of course—initially, because he insists, and later, because Vincent asks :)

“…You won’t leave unless I eat, then,” Vincent says. He says it evenly enough that it barely registers as a question. Yves smiles at him. It’s not a wrong conclusion. “Exactly,” he says.

It was really, really fun writing the differences between caretaker!Vincent (in Fool Me Twice pt. 5) and caretaker!Yves 😊 I usually don't like to say too much on the end of character analysis, bc I like my work to be interpreted as it is: the text is canon, and everything I'm saying here is just me yapping on about my headcanons. (I have been roasted for saying this by a dear friend of mine, probably rightfully so:)

With that disclaimer: Vincent to me (I can only speculate, etc) is a very no-bullshit caretaker (he likes to enforce whatever will lead most directly to the person's recovery; he actually worries a lot, but his worry often manifests as frustration/snappishness), whereas Yves is a lot more permissive and, for the most part, manages his stress—he is the eldest sibling, after all! I think he does what he can to make it a more tolerable experience :)

“So this is just a Yves thing.” “What? Showing consideration for my friends?”  “Showing consideration is one thing,” Vincent answers. “You could have left after dropping off the files. You would still have been showing your consideration.” “I guess that’s true. But at that point, I was already here,” Yves says, with a shrug. “It seemed logical to check up on you.” “Well, now you’ve checked up on me,” Vincent says. “So you can go.” Yves supposes this is true.

Vincent takes things very literally (and I think he's actually quite aware of the social niceties around these kinds of things, which is in part why he is so skeptical to assume that Yves means anything more.)

There’s a hand on his sleeve, tugging. Yves goes very still. When Vincent notices what he’s done, alarm flashes through his expression, and he pulls his hand away as if he’s burned.  “Sorry,” he murmurs, again. And just like that, he’s back to how he always is—his expression perfectly, carefully neutral, in a way that can only be constructed. “I’m sorry.” But Yves doesn’t forget what he’s seen. “You can go.”

This scene means a lot to me!! It took a loooot of editing to hammer into place (the doc I wrote it on is titled "fixing this scene would FIX ME" haha). I think this is the first time Vincent has actively sought out Yves's comfort 😭 And he regrets it almost as soon as he's said it, because he does not do things without a good justification, and wanting something—even wanting it badly—does not feel like a sufficient justification to him. But give Yves an inch and he will take a mile!! He will take a hundred miles!! That is just the kind of person that Yves is.

I was talking with some friends previously about how I wanted to write Vincent reaching out for Yves. How I wanted Vincent to, through the haze of fever, cross a line that he'd previously not allowed himself to cross :') I think it is a time-old trope to have someone, in their feverish delirium, utter something embarrassing and utterly uncharacteristic of them, or divulge something that has been difficult for them to say.

This whole time drafting, I was thinking, how can I set up a moment like that and have it feel earned? How badly would he have to be feeling? What kind of setup would justify getting past his 590859 mental defenses? (I do not like to outline, but sometimes I do have an emotional beat that I have in mind, and then I have to work backwards to figure out the setup. This took SO much working back from, and I really thought about it for very long). I was almost sure that Vincent would regret it immediately after too 😭

Yves opens his arms out in offering, tries on a smile. “I’ve been told I give good hugs. Good enough to cure all ailments, obviously.”

Ahh, so Y offering V a hug is inspired by a fic I read 6 years ago, where a character offers another a hug as a joke and then the other character surprises them by taking it. Yves is really offering here, but I think he recognizes that joking about it will make it easier for Vincent to accept 😭

Yves has hugged a fair share of people in his life. He doesn’t think he’d be able to list them all if he were asked to. It’s different, though, being so close to Vincent—so close that Yves can reach out and let his hair fall through his fingertips. He can lift up his palm and feel the rigid line of his spine, the slope of his shoulders; he could reach out and trace the dip of his wrist, the form of his hand. Vincent’s chin digs slightly into his left shoulder. His nose is turned slightly into Yves’s neck—like this, he is almost perfectly still. Yves can feel the warm brush of air against his neck whenever Vincent exhales. He is so close that Yves is afraid, for a moment, that he might hear how badly his heart is racing.

I have nothing to say about this paragraph except that I edited it for like 40 minutes straight.

Last thing!!

“We had a habit of keeping the heat off, in the winters, and closing the windows.”

The scene near the end (where Vincent tells Yves about his childhood) is actually the scene which came the most easily to me. I also did not write it last; I jumped around. It took me around 1.5 hours. (By comparison, simply editing the scene before it took 11 😵‍💫)

I did always intend for Vincent to disclose... well, /something/ about himself. (You can tell that when I plan, that's really as far as I plan LOL)

Anyways, when Vincent wakes Yves up (after Yves falls asleep at his desk), I initially wrote it so that Yves wakes Vincent from a nightmare.

But (as direct a link to vulnerability as that might have been,) Vincent would not talk about his nightmare 😭 So I switched gears.

I also specifically wanted to write about Vincent's experience being cared for growing up. I think something that's culturally resonant with me (as an Asian American, and the eldest daughter to immigrant parents) is like, the ways families can and cannot say I love you—the quiet things that are done in place of a more direct expression of it. The way that while unspoken consideration can speak volumes, it can just as easily be invisible. But even now, writing this post, I feel like it's difficult for me to untangle the feelings and experiences I've had into something that feels sufficiently multifaceted.

Vincent has a different childhood from I do (it is probably worth noting that I do not project onto any of my characters, nor do I use them as a vessel to get my own experiences across). I think I'm just drawn to writing tricky/non-straightforward expressions of love, in general :) Sometimes that is the kind of love that resonates with me most.

[99pansy]

Can you explain Eliza Cuts lore, please? I know she was apparently very unwell and creepy (?). Ive been an MCR fan since 2014 but never knew much about her other than she was a weirdo--probably was much more common knowledge back in the late 00's.

hii sorry im so late to these I was gna answer yesterday but I hurt my back like the old lady I am

i can give you a rundown and also some links to look at so you can do your own research <3 I like to provide a mostly unbiased opinion cos I don't like telling people what to think or whatever. any links I post will also be included at the bottom

eliza cuts background

eliza cuts (legal name eliza siep, also known as eliza bleu in recent year) is the ex-fiance of gerard

eliza was a hairdresser for many different bands in the scene, and apparently was a longtime fan of mcr. after meeting gerard at the merch table after shows a few times, they exchanged contact information and she managed to cut his hair as well.

one thing led to another, and eliza ended up joining the band on tour as a makeup and hair stylist.

gerard had JUST ended things with his then longtime girlfriend kat (apparently 2 days before), and there are some unsubstantiated rumors there was some overlap in these relationships

many fans believe she inserted/forced herself into gerard's life. I'm not sure what to think about this. I will say gerard is/was a grown adult and he can make his own choices. it takes two people to start a relationship. i also believe eliza suffered from mental illness, which would describe some of her erratic behavior.

anyway, she quickly becomes a polarizing figure in the fandom and eventually, everyone figures out she and gerard are dating. they become engaged on may 22, 2007

obviously they would never get married because gerard and lindsey got married just 4 months later on sept 3, 2007

frank's post about eliza

it is highly speculated that frank made this post about eliza after he became fed up with her behavior. i won't paste the whole thing here since its sorta long. i go over this more in my ss/mayo post if you haven't read it.

world's most hated crew

fans gave eliza's group of friends the nickname "world's most hated crew" because of how disgraced they apparently were at the time. this group also included heychris and alicia simmons/way.

they decided to reclaim this title and made a website which was intended to feature q+a, journals, and message boards for fans

eliza's fanfiction

eliza wrote some fanfic that is totally not about mcr as the main characters are named "emma" and "paul" and the band featured is called "the black pajama party"

this fanfic was pretty crazy for a few reasons. she implies she was abused by gerard and that he cheated on her with kat (his ex)

eliza's fake accounts

after gerard left eliza, she began spreading private info about mcr using burner accounts according to this comment:

pregnancy rumor

i'll just answer this ask here--

according to this comment, the rumor about Gerard having paid for eliza to have an abortion is false. she says she was never pregnant in this interview:

i'm not sure why she would lie about something so serious.

where is eliza today?

eliza has done a few podcasts since 2021. in her most recent one, she discusses her alleged experiences as a victim of sex trafficking. she did this interview in 2019 (same one from before). this page attempts to debunk this claim. I'm not sure what to think. she does have a history of telling lies... I don't like to discredit victims though.

click for sauces

blog on the full eliza story (2023)

reddit post about eliza (2022)

unbiased post about eliza (2009)

eliza's fanfic (2008)

frank's post about eliza on imnotokay.net (2007)

interview with eliza (2019)

world's most hated crew (archive 2007)

youtube video (2023, haven't watched this one tbh lmk if I should)

eliza's IMDB

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

I love Gallavich, I do.

It's a seminal lgbt+ love story involving two defined individual queer characters who're products of their oppressively violent environment but who drag eachother away from becoming their worst case scenarios.

It's messy but sincere and extremely well-acted throughout the shows entire run.

Their story is the heart of Shameless (US), connecting the series from its beginning to its end (same for Kev and V but their season to season shenanigans have little continuity). Ian and Mickey's love story reminds the viewer of how good the show used to be by allowing two characters who've loved eachother since season one, who were tortured by the narrative and constantly torn apart by circumstance, the pathos of a happy ending they fought for and deserved.

However, it's obvious to me that none of the Gallagher love interests in Shameless were meant to be characters in their own right. They were character assessments. A psychoanalysis of the Gallagher they were with and changed on a whim depending on what John Wells wanted to say about Fiona, Lip, Debbie, and Carl. Mickey's legacy and what he meant to people took John Wells by surprise. The writers were blindsided by the response to his character.

I don't think John Wells ever intended for Mickey to be an independent player or Ian's endgame. My speculation is the writers still don't understand how impactful Mickey overcoming fear and hate to embrace love and bravery was. Nor how unique the message was that two poor, abused, violent, "white trash" queer teens could learn to help, heal, and love eachother without a roadmap.

I don't think they ever understood why Mickey and Gallavich received the critical acclaim they did, even if I do think they tried. The writers were too deep in Hollywood thinking to get how important a character like Mickey Milkovich was to people who could relate intimately with his struggles. In their minds Mickey was always a thuggish stepping stone to Ian's eventual upward mobility. If Mickey had stayed throughout the entire run of the show I imagine both characters would've been Pretty Woman'd by a love interest with status, money, and appropriate coping mechanisms. Or Ian would've been Pretty Woman'd while Mickey fell into darkness as a black reflection of what Ian could've become.

So it's for this reason that I say, "I love Gallavich but.." They never develop balance or work through the mountain of emotional baggage that is heaped upon them.

Mickey's no1. priority is Ian and Ian's no1. priority is Ian (this isn't me Ian bashing, there are complex inworld reasons for why this is so, but mostly it's the narrative naturally prioritising the Gallaghers'), and the Sitcom framing of the later seasons does not give two characters forged in a Drama the breathing room necessary to touch upon their shared history and trauma.

So I love Gallavich, I do, but in someone else's hands they could've been an epic and powerful love story that defied convention (👀 look at all that wonderful fanfic). But I was often frustrated by the story that was actually told onscreen, filling in the blanks of their development myself using what I knew about both characters.

[selfproclaimedunicorn]

Hi, first of all your fic is amazing, well written and just perfect. But I have couple of requests - 1. Can you describe to me how the children of Yorick's and Ella's children ? - it will be really cool. 2. Can you write Rhaenyra more kindly - I know that you lean more to the green side (me too) but I just feel that you are going to make her "evil" - but she isn't, she is indeed very self absorbed but she was groomed by daemon. (Don't get me wrong not all blame is on him, but still). So I just wanted to ask from you to not make her "evil" - just human with problems and etc.... ( of course, only if you wish too ) 3. Can you make Yorick's and Ella's children to be friends with Rhaenyra's children too ? 4. How does their children ( Yorick and Ella) see their grandfather daemon ? Do they even meet him ?

Again, your fanfic is amazing and I really really like it, one of the best in the fandom. So thank you for this beautiful fanfic ❤️

Oh my God, this is so incredibly sweet thank you so much for taking the time to send this ask! I'm gonna answer in parts since it's so long & you have so many questions (which, I am not upset about, I genuinely enjoy in depth talks about my fic. I just don't want to forget to address something!

So, the fic is going to go on long enough that we meet & spend time with Yorick & Ella's children & some of them are going to get POVs! I don't want to spoil all of that, so I'm going to keep it kind of vague, I hope you don't mind!

Yorick & Shireen are going to have 7 by the time we reach the end of season 1/they're done having kids: Rhea (who's face reference is Anna Popplewell, & she has hetrochromia like her Aunt Ella. I have some art of her here. She's gonna be shipped with a canon character, feel free to speculate 💕), Stannis (he's introduced as a toddler in the chapter I'm currently working on & am maybe half way done with? His face reference is Skandar Keynes & I've written about his relationship so I feel like I can just drop his relationship with Helaena here), Baldric (who's face reference is Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, & he's the same age as Daeron & Jace), Myranda (who's face reference is Georgie Henley. There's a distinct pattern going on here, lmao), Yorbert (no face reference, because he's super young & I don't like looking for FCs that young), Argella, & Laenor.

Ella & Robert are going to have 3 kids: Griffith (who's face reference is Harry Gilby), & the twins Aerea & Adrienne (who both use Olivia Hussey as a face reference).

Stannis, Griffith, & Baldric are gonna be Aegon's Teenage Bro Squad, with Stannis & Griffith very much being the voices of reason in this squad. Rhea is going to develop a friendship with Helaena, as well as being besties with her cousin Abby (who was made by the lovely @emilykaldwen), & I honestly don't know if there is a voice of reason in that friend group. The girls are doing great though. Myranda & "The Rose Twins" are a bit up in the air beyond "I know they're friends with each other," but honestly I've got so much time to figure them out. Those girls are all only 14/13 by the time The Dance starts.

Hard agree with you on Rhaenyra not being evil & just being a flawed individual who had some of her worst traits exacerbated by her grooming & relationship with Daemon, as well as Viserys enabling her at most turns. I think the issue with my writing of her seeming mostly uncharitable in this particular fic is just that we aren't really delving into her POV & we're just seeing her actions as interpreted through those on the receiving end, for better or worse. That said, I would definitely be open to writing side drabbles & rehashes of scenes from her POV if anyone had suggestions or the like. If you're super interested in a Definitely More Overtly Kind reading of our dear Rhaenyra, my next fic I plan on working on might be for you! Once SOTF is wrapped up (y'know, eventually), I'm going to sit down & plot an AU about a sister-by-Aemma OC, & that fic is going to be as much about their sisterly relationship (& it's improvement over the years) as it is going to be about the OC's relationship with a certain Master Of Ships. I've already written a drabble set in that fic from Rhaenyra's POV if you want to check it out!

TBH, I am not 100% sure what the Yoreen & Robella kids' relationships with Jace & Luke is going to be. They're not really going to have as much exposure to them as they are the Targtowers just by virtue of the slow degradation of Rhaenyra's & the Twins' relationship, but they're not going to be unfriendly to them, they don't really have a lot of reason to be. Honestly, it'll probably be like my relationship with my own cousins "I like them when I'm around them, but we never spent time together growing up, so we aren't close." If it makes you feel better, my very unserious but incredibly fun modern AU has Rhaenyra's sons as fully integrated parts of the friend group. Everyone is doing a lot better in the modern AU & no one dies (well, except Alicent's mom & Aemma. RIP queens, y'all served while you were here)

And hoo boy, the Grandpa Daemon question. I was actually talking about that with Nat/emilykaldwen this morning so you have wonderful timing, lmao. It's very complicated. The ones who are alive at the time (Rhea, Stannis, Griffith, Baldric, Aerea & Adrienne, Myranda, & Yorbert) don't meet their grandpa until Laena's funeral, but they're all kids & Yorbert is only 3. The two youngest (& in a way, Yorbert too) don't meet him until Rhaenyra & Daemon come to King's Landing to push for Luke inheriting Driftmark.

The oldest ones all know "we don't talk about Grandpa Daemon," & they do their best to keep the youngest ones away from him while their child brains are only parsing that they don't want to get in trouble with their parents--they don't know the reasons for anything yet, they just know "we don't talk about Grandpa Daemon." It gets more complicated for them as they get older & learn more about their family history, & honestly I don't think any of the oldest ones like him, but in that kind of abstract way where "someone I love doesn't like this person, so I don't like them either even though I don't know them like my loved one does." Myranda has the best relationship with him because she's mostly neutral on him. She actually seeks Daemon out at Laena's funeral because she wants to meet her other grandpa, but they never really bond. He would like to bond with his grandkids, I think, but he kind of burned that bridge of having that particular family when he murdered his oldest kids' mom. Like, he looks at Yorick's kids & Ella's kids, & even though he hasn't met them he's just sprinkled all over that gene pool, & he can see it & he wants to interact, but those kids have all been told not to hang out with him & it's just really messy & honestly kind of sad within the fic's existing/upcoming text. Once again though, modern AU is very different. He's in his grandkids' lives in that one & he is thriving because he's not being deprived of Favorite Grandkid Myranda Who Thinks He's Great & Tells Him Every Day.

[sflow-er]

Get to know me tag game

Thank you for the tag @putnamcapital! I had a really intense day today and this was a nice distraction.

Do you make your bed?

Yes. The bedroom looks and feels cluttered with the pillows and bedspread piled up on the chair, and I don't like that at all. Also, I feel like the sheets get icky sooner if I leave the bed unmade. I don't know if there's any truth to it, but the feeling is compelling enough.

What's your favourite number?

I prefer even numbers for some reason, and my faves are 8 and 12.

What is your job?

I'm a self-employed translator of factual texts. Articles, websites, brochures, instructions for use, etc.

If you could go back to school, would you?

Maybe. I was always interested in medicine but didn't take all the science courses in high school that I would've needed to study it in uni, so if I had infinite resources... Yeah, I could see myself going back to do those damn courses and then applying to study medicine.

It's an incredibly unrealistic scenario, though. I have neither the means to study full-time nor the energy to do it alongside work and other adult responsibilities. I also don't know if I could muster the motivation for another uni degree even if it was in a field I liked.

Can you parallel park?

In theory, yes. But the town where I learned to drive had a very small population and ample parking space, so I never needed to do it for real, and I haven't even had a car at my disposal since moving to the city (seventeen years ago this autumn).

A job you had that would surprise people?

Hmm, well, I was an extra on a TV show once! The gig was only a few days, but it was interesting to see the process and compare it to the final product.

Do you think aliens are real?

In the sense of there being other life in the universe, yes. Absolutely. In the sense of them abducting people, no. Definitely not.

Can you drive a manual car?

Yes, that's the norm in my country.

What's your guilty pleasure?

Fanfic. I also have a few embarrassing comfort movies (that I'm not going to name) and about 30 seasons of Survivor under my belt, so...no shortage of guilty pleasures here.

Tattoos?

Alas, no. I always wanted one but could never come up with a design/subject I was 100% sure of.

Favourite colour?

Red, green and dark grey. My least favourite colours are orange, yellow and purple (yeah, that makes me a terrible YR fan, I know).

Favourite type of music?

I'm one of those people who got stuck on the music of their formative years, which for me was alt rock from the 2000s (and a little bit from the 2010s). So, that. I do also listen to some later artists but the bar is much higher for them to become my favourites.

Do you like puzzles?

I love puzzles. Not necessarily jigsaw puzzles as I don't have anywhere to put those (or crossword puzzles as I'm surprisingly bad at those), but I do love games with puzzles in general (video games, escape rooms, board games that require some deduction...).

Any phobias?

Serious case of arachnophobia. I'm also afraid of bugs, clowns and (sadly) dogs, but I wouldn't say any of those fears are severe enough to count as phobias.

Favourite childhood sport?

Lol no. I hated sports as a child.

Do you talk to yourself?

Yes, on occasion.

What movies do you adore?

There are too many to list specific titles! I enjoy speculative fiction (scifi, fantasy, horror if it's not too gory), animated films, historical fiction, adventure, good comedy and some drama. I don't watch many realistic adult dramas or biopics unless I'm particularly interested in the filmmaker or subject matter. My least favourite genres are generic action, war, and anything focused on cars or sports.

Coffee or tea?

I love both but mostly drink coffee.

What was the first thing you wanted to be growing up?

Writer, I believe. Someone in my extended family claims I once said 'president' when they asked all of us cousins what we wanted to be, but I have no recollection of that.

No pressure tags: @scatteredpiecesofme @plantbasedfish @silvagrey @bluedalahorse @willedeservesbetter @palehottubchild and anyone else who wants to participate! I feel like I've seen a lot of answers already and I know I've also missed a bunch, so, sorry if that was you. And if any of you don't feel like playing, no worries whatsoever! 💜

[sketching-shark]

Skulls: A Small Scene After Journey to the West

Been way too long since I did any Sun Wukong, Sha Wujing or Yuebei Xing posting, so here's a brief fanfic starring them. I wanted especially to make use of a headcanon @loyaltykask had concerning where Yuebei's immortal-killing skull treasure came from.

Warning for mentions of violence, cannibalism, body horror, and a stillbirth.

---

It could be difficult to work when someone else was watching your every move over your shoulder. But even though the stone monkey yaoguai clinging to him was very big for her very young age, Sha Wujing's back was strong and broad enough to comfortably give Yuebeig Xing, the Monkey King's youngest daughter, a first-class seat to his fabrication.

Not much time had passed since Sha Wujing, now the Golden-Bodied Ahrat, had answered a request from his elder brother Sun Wukong to help deal with a steadily escalating disturbance in the Cart-Slow Kingdom. For while no one had publicly condemned the Monkey King (yet) for this problem with a likely supernatural cause, in recent months the kingdom had been increasingly terrorized by monkey yao that looked precisely how the history books recorded Sun Wukong appearing when the pilgrimage had made their stop. It was far from the first time that a malicious entity had taken on the Monkey King's form to get their way while ensuring all blame was placed on Sun Wukong. And because this was, centuries after the journey, public knowledge, the current rulers had appealed to the monkey yaoguai now know at the Buddha Victorious in Strife for help.

Sha Wujing and Sun Wukong had spent the brief trip there reminiscing about the fates of three "Daoist immortals" they had sparred with there centuries ago, who in the end had been nothing more than yaoguai like them. It was then that Sun Wukong had seriously speculated whether the current violence had anything to do with their past actions.

It turns out they had, but not for the reason that either former pilgrim would have expected.

The Victorious Fighting Buddha had quickly ascertained that the monkey yaoguai wearing his form were just like his own clones, though much weaker. Which was to say, they were made from pieces of himself. It had been a simple matter for Sun Wukong to call these fragments back to his body. He looked none the worse for it too, thought the hair on his neck and head did noticeably thicken as they were confronted with, and "killed," one clone after another. The two of them had methodically traveled through the Cart-Slow Kingdom, Sha Wujing subduing and Sun Wukong absorbing the clones while also cursing himself for a fool. Sha Wujing found out why soon enough when their exorcism eventually landed them in nothing less than a vast underground chamber in the Cart-Slow Kingdom's palace, which was filled with goods from vases to pure gold that the clones had stolen. In the center of all of this wealth was a skull that, while mostly stripped of skin and muscle and fur, was clearly that of a rhesus macaque yao.

Sha Wujing had thought that all the trouble of the journey was far behind them. But as his elder brother picked up what remained of the head he had left behind after growing another during his contest with the three "Immortal Daoists," the river yaoguai couldn't help but shudder and wonder what other kind of consequences their action may yet engender.

He had certainly devoured enough humans during his time as the monster of the Flowing-Sand River to jump-start any number of revenge quests.

When it was all said and done, the Monkey King had asked for nothing in recompense for himself. The presents and souvenirs for his children and for his mountain's worth of grand-children that Sun Wukong had requested from the Cart-Slow Kingdom, however, took up numerous carts. Sha Wujing had almost rolled his eyes at this, but still found it endearing that a boddhisatva who cared little for his own wealth would spoil his little ones at every opportunity. Yuebei Xing, however, had been the odd one one. For his elder brother assured Sha Wujing that while his youngest daughter didn't care for things like dolls or weapons or jewelry, the monkey's yaoguai's former, now fleshless skull would in fact be the perfect gift.

"Yueyue loves this kind of thing. You should see how many skeletons she's already articulated! Poor kid gets so sulky when she has to leave her anatomy scrolls and her bones too. I...heh. Maybe it's a foolish plan, but I'm hoping that if she has an indestructible skull to play with wherever she goes, she'll feel more comfortable leaving her room and trying to make friends."

Sha Wujing had grimaced at this.

"It...may scare away other children rather than bring them closer, big brother."

The little monkey yao had looked sad, and agreed. But his face then grew mischievous. While it was true many children were frightened by skulls, he had been the "official" grandpa for generations of Mt. Huaguo simians. He was well versed in how morbid the little rascals could be. The skull might scare some away, but it was equally likely that many would declare it "cool."

Sha Wujing, as true to the amicable personality he had developed over the course of the journey now as he had been then, had eventually agreed that there shouldn't be too much harm in at least trying to see if having such a strange comfort object might help Yuebei Xing out of her shell. There was no denying how much the Monkey King and his religious brothers loved her. But that didn't erase how she had had to spend her infancy in a semi-quarantine, or the frightened looks that visiting yaoguai and immortals often shot Yuebei Xing's way, or the years that her siblings had, behind their father's back, snubbed her tentative first efforts to play with them, angry as only children could be at her for taking up so much of their father's attention.

Sun Wukong, so Sha Wujing knew, had been horrified when he first learned how his other children had acted even though he had, repeatedly, tried to explain as well as he could that it wasn't Yuebei Xing's fault that she had needed so much attention and care. As for the frightened and sometimes even disgusted looks that she got, he found them insulting and outright ridiculous. After all, as the Buddha Victorious in Strife had more than once declared, if yaoguai could come in every form from a pig man to a stone monkey to a bug with nine heads without any of their kind so much as blinking at this variety, why should his own darling daughter be considered even the slightest hint of strange?

Sha Wujing, covered in blue scales and sporting a long red beard and protruding, fishy eyes as he did, was inclined to agree. But it was hard to look at Yuebei Xing and not think there was something at least a little off about her. Sha Wujing had a better idea why than most others. Her birth had been something he, even with his long history of violence, couldn't forget.

Most of Sun Wukong's children had come into the world purely by accident and the forces of chaos, starting with Princess Iron Fan suddenly announcing the Monkey King had somehow managed to get her pregnant by jumping around inside her stomach to the very stone Sun Wukong had emerged from one day popping out a few more little monkeys. Yuebei Xing had been the first one of his children that Sun Wukong had really planned for, deliberately downing a cup from the Child-Mother River and joking that he was, besides possessing all the right pieces to bring a baby into the world, much better at handling pain than any of the other pilgrims. Tang Sanzang and Zhu Bajie had been horrified by his decision, but the Monkey King simply grew more and more excited to meet his new children. He had found endless delight in the subdued panic caused in the heavenly realm by the knowledge that there were even MORE stone monkeys on the way. He had decided one fine night as the pilgrims watched a heavens together that his newest dchildren--for there was surely two of them--would be named Yuebei and Ziqui Xingjun.

Yet just as had happened with so many of Sun Wukong's carefully laid plans, the chaos of life asserted itself. Rushing in at the first screams, Sha Wujing had first seen the gibbon yaoguai midwife, her eyes wide and her teeth bared in anguish. He next saw his elder brother, silent, still bleeding, crying, and clutching what Sha Wujing had though was two infants before he realized that the small bodies were joined at the chest and shared the same head. One of the bodies was horribly still. The other one was weakly moving.

Sha Wujing knew far less about medicine or anatomy as Sun Wukong did. But he did know that even if they did survive birth, conjoined twins had a high chance of dying on their first day alive.

His muttered reminder of this had been enough to convince Sun Wukong, teeth gritted and tears still freely falling, to get up and do what he could to ensure at least one of his daughters would see the next day.

It had been an arduous surgery, but Yuebei Xing had managed to survive being untangled, as much as she could be, from her sister. After making sure that she was stable, the Victorious Fighting Buddha and the Golden-Bodied Ahrat had began the first steps to give the small remains of what should have been Xiqui a funeral. In the aftermath, Sun Wukong had muttered that while he knew such an accident of nature could not be considered anyone's fault, he didn't think he could bring himself to even try having another child that way again.

Sha Wujing was content to be a uncle, and had no desire to have any children himself. But he, still struck with hunger for living flesh, could understand the guilt that came with feeling, with thinking, that your body had failed in some unforgivable way.

It made sense that Yuebei Xing, who could not have failed to register the scorn and fear thrust her way, with being something of a medical marvel and an individual who would not exist without intensive intervention, would have developed a fascination with the anatomy of all kinds of creatures.

There were elements of chaos one could not control. For the strong, there would always be the stronger. But while he could not even save all of his own children, Sun Wukong was well versed in how to try saving those that you could.

It had been...

Well. It had been.

Sha Wujing gave his head a small shake, as if to dislodge those melancholy memories and thoughts. Yuebei Xing was still here, and he had a job to finish. And so, having completed hinging the upper and lower jaws and after giving the woven leather cord woven around the space connecting the temporal to the zygomatic parts of the skull a few more tugs to make sure it was on tight, the river yaoguai presented his youngest and largest niece with her present.

"There! Now you'll always have a part of your bàba with you."

Yuebei Xing gently, almost reverently, accepted the altered skull. All three of her eyes were alight with interest and gratitude as she inspected it carefully. Finally, she gave a squeal of joy before roping the skull around her neck, giving Sha Wujing a tight hug, and making a loping bound out of the workshop.

Unlike her brothers and sisters, Yuebei Xing was most comfortable going about on all fours.

Leaning back, Sha Wujing took a minute to ponder on what life choices had led him to making yet another skull necklace, and this one for a child. Yet as much as some part of him wanted to plead his innocence, the river yaoguai knew why he had done it all.

Sha Wujing was now a celebrated immortal. But that did nothing to erase his past as a cannibal, one holy monk after another meeting their end between his serrated teeth. Their skulls, after he had picked them clean, had been Sha Wujing's playthings in addition to adorning his neck. They had been a nice distraction from his river's frigid temperatures, from the many layers of scar tissue that still stung his back.

Sometimes, when he looked at Tang Sanzang even now, Sha Wujing felt a strange wistfulness that bore a more than one similarity to hunger.

But it had, in the end, been his same skull necklace that allowed for his first real contribution to the journey to the west and to the acceptance that no matter how he felt, he could always make the choice to alleviate suffering wherever he went, rather than be its cause.

He owed those skulls everything.

And if this skull kept Yuebei Xing from going down the same path of violence that Sha Wujing and his brothers had traveled?

He'd decorate as many skulls as Yuebei Xing might want, a thousand, thousand times over.

[castlebyersafterdark]

I can't really imagine them going further than blowing each other (full on anal sex with probably no prep beforehand and also in the middle of the end of the world? Not happening lol!)

Like it won't be shown onscreen (they literally can't show it because of the shows rating being TV-14, feel like people forget this)

the absolute contrast between this scenario and the one about mike's bare ass! one is like an old school love scene from Titanic or something, classy and mature, and then this description is maybe why people cannot envison byler having sex. Yes, they're teens, but the tone of their storytelling prevails over this mere fact. Will doesnt want to gross Mike out?! That's realistic irl and lovely in fanfic, but that's not at all going to be a major concern of Will Byers in this show once he knows Mike is reciprocating. By the time Will and Mike are together intimately, Will will be in the process of accepting that his sexuality is possibly the purest, most wonderful part of him - and that's why he has such pain and conflict til then, because society tells him its not.

Also full on gay sex in the middle of the apocalypse is exactly the kind of dramatic and overblown shit the duffers are highly capable of, because ST is about the spiritual experience of being queer, not the hyper specifics like a show like heartstopper where they buy lube on screen. ST is about subtle metaphor, not literal didacticism. Mike and Will finally having emotional, intense sex intercut with a horde of witchhunting townsfolk spilling out of a church would be a montage full of symbolism and dramatic irony that i can totally see the duffers doing.

I also cannot fathom thinking that the reason they won't literally show a blowjob in television is because of a rating. Ratings can change - why assume they won't for s5?! - but mostly, that's literally porn and the actors would in no way be asked to do that.

See, even here, we all have such different reads of this show, its fascinating.

Sharing more takes on this from the other day!! I really enjoy reading everyone's ideas of what could potential transpire on screen for a potential love scene between these two. It's the fact that it's suuuuch uncharted territory for the show's story telling and it's incredibly unpredictable what may happen. But oh, how fun is the speculation and interpretation. We can go in circles all day every day about what they might do or not do physically regarding the dirty details, and if there's a sex scene, it probably wouldn't be so hyper specific and we can interpret what's happening. I doubt if this got a TVMA rating it would be for sex, horror more likely. But I change my ideas and mind every time we talk about this topic and I love reading all the different thoughts. 😁