#this is rambley and not well written but my point is

[reel-fear]

may I ask you to elaborate on what exactly do u mean by your post about the implications of bee as the one poc in the cast? Like are u saying the characters themselves (ie Optimus) are biased against him or that the writers have an unintentional bias against bee for being a poc?

The thing is I think the writers really didnt have the human designs in mind when doing usual episodes, they arent considered 100% accurate to the characters and if they did really consider them to be super accurate it would make the writing of those characters in other episodes strange. I think the human designs were just kind of thrown together with little thought and the writers didn't think much of it. But specifically I think it makes the way the characters treat Bee [which is admittingly Sometimes treated as in the wrong and esp in the case of Optimus is treated like they are doing the Wrong Thing] seem like it could be racially motivated.

Optimus in particular tends to talk down to and belittle Bumblebee, him and Sentinel seem to see Bee as a rebellious arrogant bot who needs to be put into his place a narrative the show shows is just not right. This usually is chalked up to in the narrative as just being them abusing their power over people who while different than the usual soldier, Are just as compentent and maybe even moreso because of their ability to think differently than others. [Ie, in the S1 finale the story shows Bee as in the right for disobeying Optimus, Optimus is being unreasonable and cruel he wants Bee to obey without speaking out and thats not fair to him]

The story on some level wants us to root for Bee when Optimus is being unfair to him so I dont think the writers were punching down on him for being a person of color, But I do think the writers did not think over the implications of the way the characters treat Bumblebee when they made him the only black person.

Optimus isn't really meant to be written to be bigoted, at least not in the way Sentinel very obviously is. So I dont think the writers entirely thought abt how it may read when the crew obviously punches down on Bee more than anyone else and just so happens to be the only bot in the group who was made black in the human episode. We're meant to mostly sympathesize with Bee, he's still one of our protagonists, it just so happens some of the more mean spirited jokes or jabs directed at him come accross as loaded when hes the only one the writers decided to give black skin to.

It also doesnt help that Bee's need to continuously be shown to struggle to get his teams respect in episodes like home is where the spark is or Meltdown, and then he proves himself as more than what his team thinks of... Tends to be thrown away in favor of the team continuing to treat Bee poorly in jokes or generally being dismissive of him and his abilities. I think the biggest thing is Bee is just meant to be more of a comedic relief character But Once Again, taking in the idea Bee is the only black person in this group their struggle to take him seriously can be read as bigotry from the crew and it's never properly addressed =[

Mostly tho this is just generally problems with tfa bee's story, he struggles to be taken seriously his insecurities are not taken seriously, the narrative doesn't really give him any chance to shine or grow as a person, but when u also have to add to that 'btw hes the only person here who is black' it makes the poor writing he suffers from look... Bad, which is something they should've thought of before making him the only person of color, even if I dont think the writing of Bee was influenced by him being black. [Mostly bc I dont think they Really took the designs in human error seriously]

[amourtoken]

I will be the brave soldier that tackles this concept that others may be too afraid to tackle 🫡

I was gonna do one big post for the whole group but the Noah part took over so I'll split it into individual parts for you. Here's some stepbro Noah for you 💀

Anyway let's get into it I feel like im virtually stalling lol. Apologies if this is insanely long it may or may not be the longest thing I've ever written so forgive me if it's rambley or not that great.

CW: stepcest, mean/annoying ass Noah, oral (M receiving), dacryphilia, choking, spit, belly bulge, raw sex, facials, squirting, fingering, nipple play, mentions of breeding, Dom Noah ftw always, oral fixation, slapping (just in general, face and pussy yk), and if I missed any others pls let me know

*NSFW below the cut, MDNI*

♡ The day Noah moved in to your dad's house was the worst day of your life unbeknownst to you at the time. He seemed tolerable at first but it took zero time for him to become a raging asshole that lived to torment you it seemed. He always blasts music late at night, is constantly yelling while playing video games with those obnoxious ass friends of his that like to come over and somehow act even more unbearable and he has the audacity to walk around YOUR house like he owns the place when he's only been here for a few months. What a cunt.

♡ Noah loves teasing you as well. He's got a couple years on you and is SUBSTANTIALLY larger than you so somewhere in the back of his mind he feels like you're easy to manipulate and manhandle the shit out of cause he's older, bigger, stronger, ect. He likes the way your voice pitches up in a yelp when he walks by and smacks your ass hard enough to bruise, he couldn't resist, not while you had those little shorts on. He also doesn't think twice abt it being "weird" or anything, he really doesn't even see you as a relative at this point, you're both grown and you've known eachother for like 6 months at the most. The fact his mom wanted to bang your dad has no effect on his life aside from the fact he had to up and move to your city.

♡ every time your parents give you two the house alone, it usually goes one of two ways. Either Noah invites those previously mentioned friends over and you get to listen to them practicing new songs in your living room until your head throbs from the volume or Noah invites some random tinder girl over to fuck half to death while you get the pleasure of listening to it through the thin wall that seperates your rooms. You've done everything to muffle the noise, but the incessant rhythmic slamming of his headboard right against the wall is similar to water torture. If you didn't care about privacy (unlike him, he frequently throws your bedroom door open while you're changing or walks in on you fresh out of the shower) you'd storm into his room and tell him to shut the fuck up but unfortunately you're a nicer person than he is so you suffer for a while longer.

♡ you end up confronting him the next night while he's on a game with his friends (again being eye twitching levels of loud and annoying). You had the decency to knock but when he opens the door he's got his hair tied up halfway, shirtless, and shorts sitting so fucking low on his hips you can see the light trail of hair that runs up his lower stomach to his navel. You hate that he's your type because shouldn't that be weird? He's your step brother, that has to be weird right?

"Yknow if you take a picture it'll last longer, right? My eyes are up here."

♡ Noah apparently clocked your staring and he has this stupid smug grin on his face that you hate. Ultimately how can he be upset for you staring at him when his eyes are always glued to your tits or ass whenever he has the chance?? He has no shame. It's not that he's upset at you, but he knows deep down you're fighting something he gave into ages ago, and he's got you wrapped around his finger whether you like it or not. You can't stand him, or is it that you want to hate him so you don't have to admit your other feelings?

"Can I help you or are you just gonna keep staring at my cock? I'm kinda fucking busy."

♡ he's always been this brash and it still somehow shocks you every time. You hate he's not really wrong, you wouldn't have been looking if his dick didn't leave a scarily large print in those shorts he was wearing. No wonder all those girls he brings over are so fucking loud. You didn't realize you still hadn't said what you came over to say, it felt like your voice was trapped in your throat especially when you looked up at him and those pretty brown eyes of his. God you fucking hate him, you hate that you're jealous of everyone that gets to spend time with him and all of those girls he's brought over to fuck and never say a word to again. He's an asshole but fuck if he isn't a pretty one. You feel like this is wrong but everything about him is wrong so what's new.

"If you want a taste you can just ask."

"Come on baby don't act like you don't think about me how I think about you. I've heard you playing with that little pussy and whining my name before, so you can't really fake hating me now, huh?"

♡ you're literally standing in his doorway dumbfounded at this point. He knew? Oh.

"Bet I could fuck that uptight attitude out of you. Maybe that's all you need, some good dick."

oh!

He shifts from where he's leaning against the doorframe to palm himself through his shorts and your heart feels like it's actually trying to escape your ribcage. Is this even real??? You came over here to bitch at him for being a loud inconsiderate asshole and he's trying to fuck you? Why doesn't he feel like this is wrong, why don't you feel like this is wrong? Why do you have this childish crush on your literal stepbrother? You feel dizzy. Noah has you right where he wants you though, he's been onto you the whole time and he could've just been nicer to you but who doesn't love a good hatefuck? He figured if he broke you down enough he could build you back up into the perfect little in home cock sleeve he knew you really wanted to be. He's fucking gross I need him but he's not wrong, is he?

♡ your eyes flit down from his eyes to his hand that's wrapped around his clothed cock again and you thought your knees would give out. How does that even fit inside anyone?? No wonder his dates sound like they're in a slasher film, they probably feel like they're getting split down the middle. You don't have much more time to think cause he's pulling you into his room and forcing you onto your knees in front of him.

"You're so much nicer when you're not bitching at me for fucking everything. Always wanted to fuck that pretty mouth of yours anyway, can't talk with your mouth full can you?"

Noah laces a large tattooed hand through the hair at the back of your head and you wince at the sting. You feel like your brain is just empty now, honestly this whole thing feels so much like a dream you're not fully convinced it's real, that you're actually letting your stepbrother smear precum on your lips with the tip of his big cock. It's even more threatening when it's not straining against his shorts, the tip is a pretty pink and there's a big thick vein running up the underside. You can't even fit your hand around it entirely, and you're so wet over it you're sure you can see through your pajama pants.

"Open."

♡ you do as you're told and Noah tugs your hair a little more to angle your head back. He's clouded up your brain so much you barely react when he spits directly onto your tongue, reaching to smear the mess around with 2 of his long fingers. You're looking up at him with big puppy eyes that water pathetically when he slides those two fingers down your throat, thrusting them in and out deeper each time to see how well you take him. He laughs when you gag and your eyes water as he sinks his fingers as deep as he can get them, you're such a fucking mess it's pathetic but that's exactly what's making his cock twitch. You're exactly how he needs you.

"gonna be a good girl for me? Let me fuck your throat and maybe I'll make you cum after if you're good."

you squeeze your thighs together to try and get some friction when he slaps his cock on your tongue, he's so fucking heavy and thick you really don't know how he expects to fit anywhere in your body let alone your mouth. Regardless, you try. You reach up to brace your hands on his tattooed thighs and focus on kissing and licking all over the tip, looking up at him when you wrap your lips around it to see his head fall back in a deep sigh. Sure he's gotten head before but something about this situation just makes him so much harder. The hand in your hair tightens and he slowly starts thrusting into your mouth, shallow at first but as you start taking more of him and it gets messy, he starts going much harder.

♡ Noah's fucking your throat so hard you have fat tears spilling down your cheeks, you're trying so hard to take him well but when he sinks in to the hilt and holds you there until you're clawing at this thighs and whimpering around his cock cause you can't breathe you can't help but pull away to catch it.

"God you're such a fucking slut."

He punctuates the phrase by landing a slap on your cheek. Not hard enough to really hurt you but definitely enough to sting. Normally you'd be upset but right now? Fuck you're almost begging him to do it again.

Once you catch your breath you open your mouth expectantly and he's right back to it. This time he has both hands tangled up in your hair while he's fucking your throat. Thank God no one's home cause he's not even trying to be a little quiet, deep moans and growls freely flowing from his mouth. You can't help but feel a little proud of yourself, normally you don't hear him make much noise when he's fucking whoever he's brought over but he's being pretty damn vocal right now. You can tell he's close by the way his thrusts falter and right before he cums he pulls out to paint your face. Whatever doesn't land on your tongue he gathers with his fingers and makes you suck them clean.

♡ you'd think he'd need a while to get hard again but no, he honestly didn't ever stop in the first place. Noah's dragging you up off the floor and nearly ripping your shorts down your legs and shirt off your torso immediately, he's seen you naked on "accident" but now that he really gets to look at you and feel you, fuck it's so much nicer. He steps back to admire your bare form but he can't go 3 seconds without teasing you. He runs his hands up your body to massage your tits and tease your nipples, pinching and playing with them until you're whimpering and teary eyed again.

He "apologizes" by leaning down and laving his tongue over the sensitive skin, making you arch against him and you can literally feel him smiling against your skin. He doesn't pull away before leaving a few dark hickeys on the underside of your tits, admiring his work after.

You don't get much of a break for long before he's picking you up and tossing you onto his bed. You can't help but notice it's neatly made (or was) before he drags your attention back to him by slapping his tip right against your clit, making you yelp. Apparently he liked your reaction cause he did it again, this time with his hand instead and with a little more force. Your voice broke into a whimper as he started rubbing circles on your clit with his fingers to ease the sting from the slap. He's mean but he still wants you to feel good.

"Can you say please? I wanna hear you beg for my cock before I give it to you, gotta know you really want it."

that smug look returns when his name and various pleads spill from your lips while he's sliding his fingers through the slick mess at your entrance, spreading the wetness around and dipping into you just enough to feel how tight you are around his fingers. He's reeling over the thought of how tight you'll be around his cock.

♡ like I said he's mean but he still wants you to feel good, he knows you need some kind of prep before he gets to fuck you. His free hand is slowly stroking his cock while the other is teasing your entrance, gauging your reaction. He starts with just one finger but quickly ends up fucking 3 into you, watching your back arch pathetically off the bed while he curls his fingers right up against that spot inside you that makes black spots flood your vision. You're squeezing his fingers so tight he knows you're close. The hand on his cock comes up to play with your clit and you feel like there's a literal fire lit in your belly.

"Gonna cum for me baby? It's okay, you can. Just let me make you feel good, need you see you fall apart for me."

Your legs are shaking, you're panting and squirming. It really feels like too much and right before you cum you're begging and pleading Noah to slow down cause it's just too much but he doesn't, if anything he's picking up the pace. The sound of your wetness is almost as loud as your moans for him and it only gets worse when that coil in your belly snaps and you nearly scream. You're arching off the bed and clawing at anything you can grab, you've cum before on your own but you've never felt anything this intense and sure as hell never made yourself squirt so this is a first. Noah is elated, his forearm and sheets are fucking drenched but he couldn't care less about the mess he's achingly hard at the fact he got you to squirt at all.

Noah reaches up and makes you clean your mess off his fingers, sliding them down your throat again just to feel you gag around them.

You're so sensitive and your brain is so fuzzy you can barely hold your head up, your chest rising and falling quickly while Noah sizes his length up against your tummy and groans at your size difference. His tip lands right below your navel, fuck, he's gonna demolish you. He's practically dripping like a faucet at this point and can't wait to be inside you, he's wanted this since you two fucking met. Noah leans over you to spit directly on your pussy before spreading it around with his tip and prodding at your slit, he's not even inside and you're whimpering about the stretch just from him resting against you.

"Can I hear you say please one more time, baby?"

♡ you enthusiastically answer, pleading for him to just fuck you and he takes the chance gladly. You knew the stretch was gonna be a lot but fuck when he actually sank balls deep your whole body ached. You were so fucking full it was unreal. You thought he couldn't get deeper but he crawled over you to push your knees up next to your ears and the moan you produced was pornographic. His tip was pressed right against your cervix and every time he thrust into you he knocked against it, it was painful at first but once the initial sting of the stretch wore off you've never felt better.

You swore you could feel him in your stomach he was so deep, and the sound of his hips smacking against yours was filthy. There was that familiar sound of his headboard hitting your shared wall but thankfully this time you weren't annoyed by it, if anything it drove you further.

Noah's moans started out deep in his chest but as he got closer they pitched up almost into whines, he was bucking his hips into yours like an animal in heat and his nails were sinking into your hips hard enough to bruise. He only leaned back a bit to wrap a hand around your throat and squeeze, cutting your moans and whimpers into pathetic strangled sounds.

"F-fuck- fuck fuck- 'm gonna cum- so fucking hard- tell me you want it- fuck, tell me you want me to fill this pretty pussy up-"

Youd never seen or heard him so disheveled but fuck if it wasn't hot. You didn't hesitate to beg for him to cum inside you, it made his head spin at the thought. God this was wrong but he couldn't help but imagine how pretty you'd look carrying his kid either. Noah pulled back just enough to have you in normal missionary, you wondered why but when he pressed his hand on your lower stomach you figured it out pretty quick. He could feel exactly where he was inside you and was rutting against his hand through you like you were nothing more than a toy. He only stopped so he could grab your hand and have you feel as well. His dick made a noticeable bulge in your belly every time he thrust into you, and it only made you ache at the thought. He really was ruining you for anyone else.

♡ Noah slid a hand between your bodies to tease your clit while he picked up the pace of his own sloppy thrusts. He was gonna cum but he needed you to cum with him. The hand on your throat absentmindedly tightened and you were seeing black spots flood your vision already but when he sank as deep as he could possibly get and whimpered as he came you couldn't stop yourself from toppling over the same edge. You thought you'd never cum so hard in your life earlier but now? This was really it. You sank your nails into his arm hard enough to draw blood while you convulsed under him, breaking into sobs of his name while he ground his hips into yours.

Noah pulling out left you with a horrible emptiness and you almost begged him to stay for just a bit longer. He was considering it himself but his thoughts were cut short when you both heard the front door downstairs open.

Shit.

Noah nearly threw you out of bed, scrambling to pull his shorts back on. Your clothes were strewn everywhere and you didn't have time to hunt for them so you picked up the first shirt you could find off his floor and put it on before racing back to your own room. Thank God you made it quick cause Noah's cum was still dripping down your thighs.

-

*also just saw the rb but tagging @somebodyllelse cause I almost forgot 😭

[rambleyrambles]

Hey buddies!

What's up with Mollie in Chapter 1?

There's a couple different things I wanna cover, so bear with me as I ramble on a little bit to figure out where to start. Like, I've got something I haven't seen others mention, a few theories tied to it, and other speculation. So I guess I should start with that appearance?

Also note: I'm not going to be going over the mascots as a whole here. They definitely need something all to themselves, so maybe I'll ramble about that some other time.

And just so we don't get too long and clog anyone's dash~💜✨

So! A Mollie thing I haven't seen anyone else talk about!

Well, the other day I saw this post, and as you can see by my tags (under the little "info" tab at the top) I was planning on playing again to see it for myself. I can confirm that exists, and I'll get back around to that in a little bit.

Having played through the game a few times, I've been slowly getting accustomed to the sound of Mollie's voice and I've been trying to make out the words she says. So imagine my surprise when I heard her in the section before where I thought she first appeared in the queue to Rambley's Railroad! You can hear her very faintly in the background repeating the words "set up" after Rambley directs you to the gift shop for your Critter Cuff. (Can be heard here. I've linked to Rambley's last line so you can hear how she mimics it.)

To me, this sorta brings into question how long Mollie was watching Ed. I mean, before it seemed like she happened to be in the railroad's area and was sneakily watching you after you stumbled into the area she was occupying, but now? Now we know she was outside in that starting area. Granted, she sounds kind of distant unlike when we hear her "Closed for repairs" after Rambley and Finley's interaction, but that doesn't mean too much because the little "Hey buddy" she lets out in Lloyd's Mane Stage when she leans around the door to storage. (As demonstrated in the video I linked, you can turn on your way to storage and see her right away once you hear her.)

Now that I've written all those mimicry bits down, it feels a little weird that she mimics only Rambley, especially given she's not directly repeating him when she appears at the end of the hallway in the Mane Stage. Rambley does say it in that area, but it's not in that same call and response manner like the other two. Something to think about.

With all this in mind, I think it's plausible that Mollie could have seen Ed before the first encounter in Rambley's Railroad.

How soon does Mollie know Ed's there?

This is more speculation on my part, as the earliest I can definitively say is the Critter Cuff mimicry being around when she likely notices him. That being said, we do have a gear that falls at a suspicious timing.

That being said, if you've seen David Baron's video on his beta test footage, you'll notice the gear was already there from the start. He makes the suggestion that the gear be out of the way and fall from somewhere above when it's needed so it doesn't confuse the player. It could be argued that that's all that is, but I'd like to point out the whole suggestion was for the gear to fall when Rambley tried and failed to open the door, thus causing the building to shake due to failing equipment just enough for the gear to fall. The timing we see in the final game does not match that. (Whole video can be found here.)

I think it's not out of the realm of possibility that Mollie could have known about Ed's presence the whole time, and could be the reason the gear falls in the first place. It's suspicious enough timing, and I'm not sure what Rambley himself could do to make it fall unless you want to argue something about having a mechanism up there, but this is a pretty specific situation he'd have machinery to deal with considering there's not supposed to be a hole in the ceiling there to begin with.

What Mollie's motivation for helping would be... I'm less sure about that. Especially as it related to my next point.

Did Mollie sabotage the mechanisms we needed to fix?

This is in reference to the Indigo Violet Generator from getting in the front gate, and the machine backstage that we needed to fix in lieu of getting an introduction to Salem. Before realizing Mollie was in the beginning area, only one of them was anywhere near her, so pulling any lines to correlate her and them just didn't make sense. With her being heard in that first area now though...

I think it's possible that she could've been the cause of the gears being out of place. She's present in and around where both are and we don't see any others like it in the chapter.

It's especially interesting because one is in the backstage area for Rambley's Railroad, where we see her pop in and out of while we're on the ride. One could even argue that she could have sabotaged that area while we were already on the ride, though that's between hard and impossible to prove at this point in time.

What makes Mollie aggressive?

While not exactly tying into my previous points perfectly well, I do think the fact that she's so passive and just follows you around until the very end is strange. When she shows up in Lloyd's part of the train ride, Mollie is quite literally within grabbing range of you. If she wished you ill will, surely she could have done something then?

If you want to argue that Rambley was right there at that point, might I raise her appearance in the Mane Stage. As far as we're aware, Rambley might not have been able to see her there, so there's no reason for her to hold back. Lloyd was fended off with a high pitched noise from the Critter Cuff, but it's long stopped doing that by the time you potentially see her after you leave, and that's only if you see her after you leave.

Mollie doesn't get aggressive until you're far into her area, and about to head further in. It's only then that she properly gets in your way with the intent to rip Ed's throat out. So is there something in there?

(It can be argued that Lloyd is similar. Even when it'd potentially be easier for him to attack, he moves away. That's a post for another day though.)

Beyond any narrative design decisions for how to get the player to Oceanic Odyssey after getting spooked by a lurking threat; I have to wonder if there's an in-universe reason for why Mollie stalks along so passively before turning into a threat in that spot.

Is there something beyond the door she came through that is important to her? Is she trying to protect something? Is that just an area she considered private/safe/hers so this is something territorial? Is there something she wants to protect? Is there someone?

The last one is unlikely, but it's interesting to think about, if nothing else.

Final Thoughts 💜

While this isn't an exhaustive list of everything about Mollie, I feel this is a solid base for discussion or to at least think about. I mean, I barely touched on her mimicry as a whole. There's a whole box of interesting lines with all sorts of interesting implications! Unfortunately, I don't really know how to dig through game files to find them all and listen to them on loop until I understand them, so I'm stuck trying to understand them over the loud - but absolutely a banger - chase music.

All in all, I hope I gave you all something to think about!

Bye for now, buddies!~

[hologramcowboy]

I want to discuss the subject of heart when it comes to piggybacking off of nostalgia/a previously existing fan base for a revival or whatever

Disclaimer: this ask will touch on a lot of stuff and will be rambley but I will try and package it nicely.

So a while ago JA mentioned him and D were going to do a podcast for the show and the question that those of us in the right frame of mind had was "why?". Say what you will but the OTH podcast is doing well for itself and it has fans eating it up. It's pure nostalgia bait but the stans love it and this is because its hosted by the 3 female leads, whose characters a lot of people grew up with and looked up to. They were an essential part when analyzing the heart of the show (there are other stuff but I won't make this longer than it need to be). The heart of spn, for a lot of fans was the bond between the brothers. As codependent as they were its part of why people latched onto the show, this dysfunctional family dynamic, that being said it makes zero sense to pursue a project like that w/o JP. D is completely irrelevant to the show. Especially when you consider she has never really seen it,by JA's admission. Which leads me to my next question , why is she even a part of this production when her heart isn't in it. This just exposes it for the shameless cash grab that it is.

This show lacks heart, and it's a shame that JA seems to be latching onto it like this when it's just going to act as dead weight. Nostalgia and revivals have more of an impact when some significant time has passed because it allows a proper retrospective of the media, the actors come in with fresh eyes, in a way and this may increase production value, if heart is in it. It can be constructed to pull in older fans but also new fans(like I've only seen maybe two episodes of Gilmore Girls but I've consumed so many deep dive retrospective video essays made by fans, older and newer, of the show) similarly I loved Gossip Girl and have also consumed video essays on it(I know a video essay isn't the same but I'm hoping it helped illustrate my point)

Sidebar : if TW had been made as pure camp, maybe had JP involved in production, cut D out it could have worked.

All this to say it's important for the people inv, especially those in charge to understand WHY people enjoyed the piece of media before touching it. Otherwise it feels vapid, and like a waste of time.

This was written with so much clarity and honesty. Thank you! ♥️

Jensen should have done market research around his brand, Danneel's and possible pilot options and only after doing that he should have created one. It's key to understand your target audience and what those people deeply resonate with when it comes to the show you plan on creating a spin off off of.

Danneel has no place being involved in the SPN legacy, Jensen replaced the lead of the show, Jared, with a bimbo. How did he even think that was going to go over well? I guarantee you that his reputation took a huge hit based on that choice. He proved he's the kind of "producer" puts money into women he is sleeping with rather than making smart business choices. I think Jensen saw Jared and Gen so involved and tried, yet again, to achieve what Jared was achieving. It's a pattern with him, he only got married and had children after seeing Jared do so. The difference is Gen never claims to be anything she is not, she is humble, professional and she never overshadows Jared or tries to make things about her, she earned her role on SPN through her audition and she honors the SPN brand. Even her involvement with Walker was due to casting dynamics and it was so beautifully done you never got a sense she was being shoved down your throat or that she was misrepresenting the brand of the show in any way.

As for your sidebar: Absolutely. The only people who should have produced a spin off of revival were Jensen and Jared.

I think you explained everything beautifully, people don't resonate with the show because it is as vapid as the people producing it. The bond between Sam and Dean was Supernatural and this prequel won't ever come close to the depth of that love and what it inspired in people.

[bluewinnerangel]

right back at ya cowboy

Omg ella I'm so sorry I was gonna do this "later" and then it got buried. OK. I clicked. EDIT: I JUST FOUND THIS IN MY DRAFTS IM DOUBLE SORRY lol imma expose my ramble draft

[So in case someone's reading this thinking ???? we sometimes throw a spinning wheel of songs at each other and then just go rambling yelling analysing whatever it gives back. I've kept track with this tag, feel free to copy any of them wheels links and go off or bug someone with it actually pls do]

Oh you mean that song I for some reason like some total idiot put on first thing in the morning and just bawl my eyes out, you know when its so early you're just so vulnerable and everything feels raw and there's no thoughts just something primal happens and it's me drowning myself in this song and then the day can start I guess am I fine nobody knows. It's now my Saturday morning ritual where before coffee I see some sun and I just bawl there's something therapeutic about it. I'd recommend it. Just some sun some coffee brewin some confused pet wondering if you're OK yeah.

Anyway. The song I can place extremely easily in like "1d ended and it sucked" context, but it works with a lot. whatever I can think of him, or anyone, writing about, whatever it means to me. (general Louis' songwriting ramble incoming:) I'm looking at FITF differently compared to Walls and previous work and he's approached it differently, I feel like what he's been saying about his discography fits that as well. I think (this is a mash of what i think to hear in his lyrics and in interviews, so heavy paraphrasing:) before he had this idea he should be writing where the whole thing makes sense to be about this one situation/idea and it has to be about him too and sure perhaps a context might have been written around it, but i think in the past hes been pretty perfectionist on having every single line fit the thing he was thinking of what that song is, and now thats no longer the case. Now it's whatever works, whatever hits, feels, does it. It doesn't matter one thought/situation flows into another.

I guess that was a long rambley way of saying I wanna do line by line lyric analyses of his stuff but I don't know how to make that work as it did previously, for me at least. But on the other by temporarily running with one interpretation and seeing what you can find in the lines can really help see more angles, bring more depth to the line, and consider other meanings and stuff so.. idk not much wrong with it. I wanna do that too I think. This is I guess A Promise I'll do a Holding On To Heartache lyric breakdown. At Some Point. :D

But I think his choices of words and soundscapes and perhaps all them being little references are just wonderful. I cherish it so much. I'm slightly afraid he did the same in Perfect Now (like after seeing a web of possible perfect now lyrical referencing that song did become one of my favs as I love that idea like it gives so much more body depth meaning whatever to a song to me even if not on purpose lol its not even relevant at that point anymore anyway) and long term didn't value it much so now I'm afraid my new little more poppy fav will be his new neglected child but time will tell. Just... have an itch. Rip. EDIT yeah that itch got worse because of the track by track we got now.. it's got that bit about HOTH being a poppy one and the way he's talking about it sigh i feel him but sigh also hes sigh i dont wannt start that discourse over that shit so no. but itch. I uh... luckily don't let how I interpret his reactions to his own songs affect the way I feel about his own songs haha brainpayne this.

ok ok ok last ramble it sounds so fucking liquid? so wet?? how do I explain this why does it sound w e t EDIT: help me he said the sound is like a guitar under water like he's drowning it's flooding we're in a puddle of tears this song, it's what makes me bawl I think, because the song sounds like bawling, and your cheeks are puffed up and we,t and you find a moment of quiet and stare up at the sky with your wet lashes exhausted defeated but you're still here you're still breathing. Also the bridge with the "space between us just comes FLOODING back" at the end of it, it's not the bit that hits the hardest in an obvious way, instead it kinda gets overlooked a way, theres no moment to sit and waddle in the SHIT FLOODING BACK RIGHT THERE it just goes right into the quiet bit again,there's no time given to recover from getting crushed by the wavesm and it just does something to me... I can't leave that bit as the little end of a big thought it sounds like, but the way its sung... time just keeps ticking and we're at the end. I'm almost sure that wasn't intentional and like @ me why focus on this of all the overwhelm that's in this song, but that just feels like a reflection of the feeling I get from this song, you're just fucking sitting there in the middle of this overwhelming ache these waves of hurt and shit just moves on and youre just there stuck there with but i wasn't done? But I guess I should be? Like there's no room for me drowning in this even more but I feel like I need to still?

ramble out.

[unloneliest]

JAM !! How are you my love how are things? What have you been up to? How's Art? I have many questions wow...also have you eaten anything good lately??? Ok that's all. Much love darling

hello henry my dear!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm sorry this is so terribly belated. (i'm putting this below the cut because it got somewhat rambley.. i am a guy who goes into a lot of detail it turns out!!)

things have been! well! it's january. so not great because winter is hard on me, though having left alaska it has been significantly easier than i've been used to? and part of why january's been hard is. i realized this year that there's a trauma anniversary somewhere in here that my body remembers even if i don't have the exact day written down which - not having the details recorded was almost more upsetting than the fact that it's a thing in the first place. memory means so much to me, is the thing.

but! a good recent memory:

we had a snow and then ice storm one week this month. this city isn't prepared for it at all, so everything shut down and was cosy and quiet and - here's a secret: i have been missing snow very badly. (it's not a well kept secret, and i wouldn't go back to alaska, but - but. the quiet and the shadows hold you gently in a snowy night, in a way they never do elsewise. and i loved it, and i wish i could have just a little bit of it). i frightened the pants off of one of my friends by walking home in the ice storm (it was just freezing rain, and i have ice cleats, & winter clothes - i was safe) & the night had the quality i'd been missing - it felt like cross country skiing when i was young.

AND! I saw two coyotes when i was walking home, kittycorner across the street. their destination was perpendicular to mine, we never got too close to each other. which is probably good ! and that's the first time i ever saw a coyote. they're so magical to me; they remind me of a very dear friend.

i have been up to a lot of making it through winter, and trying very hard to be present in my life & build new habits. i've been writing! not as much as i was before winter happened, but my story has legs now and i couldn't stop it if i tried - which is the opposite of what i'm trying to do ^_^. tomorrow i'm picking up the first animorphs book from the library because i need that story to go into my brain as ingredience influencing what i'm thinking about!

most of my recent story-work has been feeding it in that way - reading, and tinkering with ideas, and talking a lot with @alecsalamander about HIS wonderful story, and talking about my story with @inncarnate, who's half of my brain to the point that sometimes they know the details before i've even begun to describe what i've come up with to them.

art has been good! grappling with the complications and conflicts of deciding to grow out dyed hair, especially when the middle styles between start point (shorter, black undercut fauxhawk) and end point (natural hair color for the first time in 5 years, longer, no more undercut, natural curl thriving again) are less personally enjoyable. (right now their hair is a red gradient.. he hasn't begun to grow out the undercut yet but is staying the course)!

they've also been very good about wrist exercises so the bakery job+constant comic art combo are no longer indicating potential carpal tunnel. but! comic stuff! all the pages of @farragone have image descriptions now, and the character page with links to the character playlists is updated, too! and this week's update is going to be three entire pages and it's barely going to dent into his buffer at all. (because my love is a virgo they've got. such a rock solid comic process. their buffer goes all the way out through the end of may)!

i have eaten good food lately! i made a friend's vegan potato pot pie recipe last week which is perhaps the most comforting meal possible for winter weather (though this week feels more like what i'm used to in april in alaska)! this week i'm making that same friend's (vegan) cheeseburger salad (ground "beef", shredded "cheese", red onion, mini pickles, tomatoes, romaine, avocado, the recipe we found on google for vegan big mac sauce - it's so FUN and tasty and feels like a treat which is the best kind of salad)!!!!!!! i have also been getting into tea it's a wonderful habit in the morning and i'm working on the evening too!

thank you for the ask it's always such a delight to hear from you! i always find myself beaming at my devices about it when we get a chance to talk back and forth. much love to you as well darling!!!!!!!!

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

Restless Reveries for director's cut ask game? And feel free to ask me some- I'd love to ramble!! ~Pinestripe

Link!!

Gosh its been so long since I’ve written that I’ve gotta try to remember stuff now oh gosh-

I don’t actually remember how or why I came up with the idea for this. I started writing it in September, which was… about three months after I started writing DSMP fanfic. I think it was around the time I started getting curious about Tommy’s Exile (I didn’t know much about it then).

Gosh I’m really trying to remember but its been so long-

At the time of writing this, I hadn’t actually gotten to Exile in my DSMP watch-through, so it’s all based entirely on art/random posts/etc… which means that there are some continuity errors XD

For example, Michael and Friend are both mentioned in the story, but in reality, neither of them were even in Dream SMP at that point!! I just didn’t realize that at the time 🫠

It kinda bugs me, honestly. I try to make my stories as canon-compliant as possible, so… gah. Maybe I’ll go back and fix it someday.

Anyway! The rest of this will be incredibly random and scattered-

This was also the very first Ghostbur-centric story I wrote, and I had a lotta fun with that! He’s a very easy character to write :)

I tried to make Tommy as… un-Tommy-like as possible. To the point where it’s painfully obvious that he isn’t doing well; I really wanted to show how much Exile was affecting him.

Gosh I’m kinda wondering why I set this story in Exile because I literally had almost no clue how that arc went lol. I knew that Logstedshire was a thing but I didn’t really know what it was, so I just took a lucky guess and wrote this:

Ghostbur pulls his legs closer to himself, fighting off a shiver. "How has Dream been? Have you two gone on any more adventures together? He's quite the adventurous person, I think. Ooh, maybe you two have built more in Logstedshire? Perhaps a library? I love libraries!"

I sort of had the idea that Logstedshire was built by Tommy, but I wasn’t sure if Ghostbur had helped with that or if Dream had blown it up by this point. I think that I was tentatively leaning towards the idea that Dream had recently destroyed it, but I didn't explicitly say that because I wasn't completely sure if it was true.

SO MUCH OF THIS FIC WAS JUST ME GUESSING!!! LIKE TOMMY LIVING IN A TENT!!! AND HIS EYES LOSING THEIR BLUE COLOR!!! I DIDN’T REALLY KNOW ANY OF THAT I WAS JUST GOING OFF COOL ART I SAW!!!

I gave Ghostbur a satchel for no reason other than I find satchels cool and thought he should have one. Still headcanon that :)

Ghostbur giving Tommy Wilbur’s coat was based off of a bunch of art by a bunch of different artists. As far as I know, it has no canon… evidence I guess? But I think it’s a widely accepted headcanon and I thought it would fit the story nicely.

The title for this fic actually came pretty naturally to me—which is weird, because titles are usually the area I struggle with the most for writing.

At the time of writing this, I was really happy with it… but, as time passed, I found myself liking it less and less. I was seriously considering just not posting it at all.

I’m not sure why I lost interest, to be honest. Maybe it was the style I’d written it in?? I don’t know.

But, on a whim, I decided to just go ahead and post it… and you quickly read it and told me how much you loved it and that it was comforting and that you’d reread it over and over and SKDGSKSVAOGSOSBSIS

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT RESPONSE!!! PINESTRIPE IT ACTUALLY MEANT THE WORLD!!!

So because of you I started to stop not-liking it XD

Fast forward a couple months, and I’ve now got a bunch of ideas for a multi-chapter continuation—and it’s 100% because of you!!

So yeahhhh that was my extremely rambley ramble about Restless Reveries :D

For you, I’ll do A Protecter :)

[naptimeclown]

I was just sitting in the backseat on a long car ride and got the thought of who I'd be in a horror/thriller movie and wrote way more than I intended so I'm putting it under a read more if anyone is interested have a peek. It's rambley and not written properly in any way so have fun with the giant wall of text.

If I was a character in a psychological thriller type horror movie I think I'd be one of the lesser liked of the 'survivor' group. They're female but a tomboy and probably has a nickname like Mac or J. or Sam. My character is written to be very annoying(read neurodivergent) or standoffish and rude. and a lot of the fandom doesn't like them and the small circle that does is basically overshadowed by any other character. My character gets sacrificed during a cult initiation so the rest of the characters can prove themselves and hopefully survive. My character’s death is either extremely boring or obscenely graphic, theres no in between. By that point they believe it's justified(and the fandom as well for aforementioned annoying/rudeness) because I was a 'sinner' or 'unclean' (heavily queer coded, specifically trans but it's never said just heavily implied during a flash back that happens while I'm dying that shows me in a bathroom cutting my hair short as well as other movie stereotypes of trans men) also there's going to be a ton of very distasteful memes about my death but it'll be hilarious because my character wasn't liked so I deserved it. I was also the only voice of reason so once I'm gone shit hits the fan. It doesn't have a good ending and instead wraps around to the same scenario that got them all into this mess but instead of the person who originally invited us to whatever place stuff was happening at it's the lead of the supposed survivor characters trying to lure in the next group. Because the movie had an all girl cast that 'lived' (remember my death was justifiable so I don't count) it's gonna be seen by the general (cis) public as a 'girl power' movie. Any queer ppl with critical thinking skills are gonna mention how fucked up it was how my character was handled but get screamed at cause 'its horror it's suppose to be fucked up!!!!Theres no perfect queer representation!!!' the creator of the show is gonna go on rants on Twitter about how the story got mangled and my character was suppose to be queer and the actual main character and I was suppose to escape, but it kept getting revised until it was the mess it ended up as but shrug can't do anything against these big cooperations. No one listens or cares. The small part of the fandom that did like my character are going to be queer and I'm mostly going to be misinterpreted as a lesbian despite the creator specifically stating otherwise. And the small collection of trans fans that like my character are basically never acknowledge within the fandom. Any fanfics written about my character are from ppl that didn't like me and are basically using my character to fulfill a savior complex in their escape au. Or I'm gonna be in a swap au where my character is working with the bad guys. (just my character, they’re the only one that’s swapped because lmao wouldnt it be so edgy if the one that got murdered was the bad guy???? and its totally not cause I was annoying or rude) I'm going to get miswritten as very pitiful and helpless and infantilized or demonized and be extremely brutish and a complete asshole. Any fan art of my character either makes them extremely thin/muscley (my character is canonically fat but ya know ~movie~ fat, this was another thing that was revised, my character was suppose to be actually fat) or they make me fat but slobbish and it just shows how they view fat people as disgusting. no one comments on this despite it being very obvious. Everyone who doesnt like how my character was handled blames the creator(whose a queer person themself) rather than the company that issued all the changes. The actor that played my character later comes out as trans and says working with the shows original writer helped them a lot to come to terms with their feelings of self. About 10-15 years after the movies originally released it suddenly gains a lot of attention online again. The creator was able to gain the rights back to the property and is making their own sequel with a different company fueled entirely on spite. This time a comedy horror where after a few years a new survivor brings my character back from the dead as they’re trying to find a way out of the cult. My character is played by the original actor, now after their transition. Theirs some goofy line about how hell was awesome and satan gave them hrt to explain the difference in appearance. The movie focuses on them getting revenge and finishing things once and for all. It’s incredibly campy and was the creators way of letting their story be what they wanted. The cis/het audience that loved the first movie is appalled and thinks they ruined the series. But it becomes a cult classic in queer spaces. Some people might revisit how they viewed the first one but in fandom space it becomes one of those ‘we never speak of this version’ kind of things.

I have a normal sense of self.

[ranger-kellyn]

OKAY now that i've gotten some more writing done today, i can finally make this post. this is gonna be very rambley i'm sure so like. apologies in advance lmao

i am definitely relieved to finally hit 50k in this fic, but it was very touch and go. my emotions towards this story were all over the place. one day i would feel cool and confident, the next i was ready to hit crtl+a and delete everything.

a huge thank you to all my friends, online and "local". i genuinely couldn't have done it without your support ;v; and a huge thank you to any friends who ran word sprints with me on the discord server. sprints usually make up a large bulk of my fics, but this year, i bet it made up at least 3/4ths of the entire fic.

i went into this fic thinking it was going to be an age of calamity novelization, and while it still is, it also...isn't. i think at this point, after everything i've written, i'm more interested in showing the things the game doesn't. some of the most fun i had writing was during the section of The Battle of Hyrule Field where i wrote Impa's pov up until she meets Link for the first time. Impa is also the character that surprised me the most. i knew i would like writing for her, but good god y'all i LOVE writing for her. she's SO MUCH FUN and i just love playing with her and AH i love impa ;v;

i still fully plan on writing out certain parts of the main chapters and whatnot, but i think novelization is a word to be taken VERY loosely from me going forward. i already made a huge change by aging up all the characters, might as well keep writing the story in a way that will make me happiest

ALSO. i can't believe this game has been out for a year now like. holy HECK. this game has consumed nearly every other thought of mine for the past year. i think i've drawn purah and robbie almost exclusively since this time last year, and it's just been an absolute blast getting to talk to so many new people because of this game.

thanks to everyone for sticking around! and hopefully one day i'll actually have this fic at a readable state to where i can do more than post little snippets here and there ♪(´▽｀)

[seijorhi]

asks :)

Y’all know the drill

Ok I just read ur Kuroo zombie drabble (which hello... Sinful. Delicious. I would read a whole book abt it), and I think I finally understand what I love abt ur fics? It's that awareness that someone NEEDS YOU. And what they do to get there. To keep you. All the lines they would cross. God, I've never experienced that in real life, only fiction, and you draw it out of these volleyball goons SO WELL it leaves me reeling and with butterflies in all the dirty, wrong, bad places. Just... Thanks. <3

Ahh you’re so sweet!! But yeah, that’s why I love the concept of yanderes so much - it’s that ‘love’ without boundaries, without rules, at the expense of anyone and everyone else which is of course super fucking unhealthy but also hhhhhh

omg going back to that zombie apocalypse au w/ kuroo... how would he react if reader did get bitten or died? let’s say reader shoved someone in their group out of the way from a zombie and ends up getting bitten

Badly. He’d definitely kill the person you were trying to save just out of spite, go on a bit of a rampage, but i also wouldn’t put it past him to keep his bitten darling chained up because he just can’t let you go.

your recent bokuto drabble is fireeeeee 😩😩😩 i love your content so much especially when you talk about the captains

i love my captains sm 🥺

yo yo yo YO THAT ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE KUROO DRABBLE WAS GREAT. I mean, who would ever suspect the charming Kuroo? He'll be nice and easy to get along with, a person in a midst of chaos and madness that everyone grows to trust. And he'd be a great leader, so no one ever doubts what he says, making it so much easy for him to manipulate others into thinking someone has to be sacrificed to get them out of a sticky situation. they'll think he's doing it for them but no, it's all just for you. - @bitterlavenderwritings

Ahh thank you, bby!  It’s one of those things where morals and stuff are already skewed in a post apocalyptic world, but instead of just being selfish for his own sake, he’s selfish for yours as well and there is literally nothing he won’t do to protect you. But yeah, no one would believe he’s actively out to hurt them (and he’s not - until it’s the difference between you getting hurt and you coming home safe) so it’s easier for him to do what he has to - lie, manipulate, outright kick somebody out of the way and into the waiting arms of a walker - whatever. Everyone looks up to him and trusts him, maybe there’s even a few in the group who think he’d made a better leader full stop 👀

i think i just felt my soul ascend from my body. your ushi's sister drabble WAS HOT AND HAD ME SALIVATING YOU'RE SO AMAZING PLS NEVER STOP WRITING- (or if you need a break, pls don't hesitate to do so!! god knows how tiring writing can be so i'd rather you have enough rest🥺🥺) - @bitterlavenderwritings

rest is for the weak (no but seriously thank you you’re very sweet) 💕

ONGMG OMG meet the parents part 2 was everything I needed and MORE! I know the reader will probably not get away free but FINALLY some parents/guardians with some sense!

Three cheers for the one adult I’ve written about who’s not entirely a piece of shit!! 

hey! i’m not sure if anybody asked about this yet, but i just read your blindsided aftermath, and i loved it! i was wondering if you would ever consider continuing that story? if you do, i would love to read it one day! keep up the great writing-i can’t wait to read the slasher bokuto, akaashi, and kuroo fic you’re working on. @glaringlights

Thank you sm!! I’m so glad that you guys like it, it’s on of my fave pieces but as far as continuing it - probably not? I might write some more drabbles at some point but it likely won’t be a full fic.

This is a rambley thought but I love your soul mate au so much.

It obviously all my dubcon noncon kinks but it's so well written but so terrifying too. These are people the universe has decided belong with you, the people you deserve. The fact the mum in the twins one was so eager to accept them in is just horrible. I love that despair aspect of it. That no one is likely to believe you if you tell anyone. (Except dad!)

OK sorry for rambling. I just adore the whole au and i can't find the words to describe how much! The whole au is Kinky and scary. I love it

It’s a fun trope to play around with - I’ve tried to make each one a little different and the next few I’m working on are even more so - I’m probably gonna keep writing them until you guys beg me to stop lmao. But also in all fairness to the mother (actually all of the other parents), if she actually knew what was really going on she wouldn’t be acting the same way. It’s more that they’re willing to look past any kind of sign that things aren’t okay because they want you to be happy, and your soulmates make you happy, right?

That concept is 👌👌👌 but hav u considered the reverse? Oikawa would be a total ass about his lil sis going to Shiratorizawa. He’d have the pettiest sibling rivalry- of course his little sis would capitalize on it

Semi and Tendou would take one look at Oikawa’s sister and just go :D but in the worst possible way lmao. 

can you make a little part 2 of blindsided(that inarizaki fic)🥺 like she ran way with ichiro but they found her somehow? or they found her during finals or some match?? idk i just really liked that fic🥺 literally one of your best !!!!

so my requests aren’t open but I’ve written a drabble about the reader escaping with Ichiro here and an extra snippet with Kita here

[vallonde-laid-bare]

DM Tip #3: Signposting and Player Autonomy

On player hand-holding and plot advancement

One discussion I see pop up time and again in tabletop gaming circles is the classic "Open-world Vs. Railroading" argument. Do you run your games open-world and allow your players to influence that world, or do you run story-heavy games where the players move along a predetermined path to experience a story you've meticulously crafted? While both of these are legitimate styles of play with their own pros and cons, I think many people miss the fact that you can, and in my opinion should, incorporate both of these into how you run games to best fit achieve what you and your players want out of a campaign. Let's run over both extremes and then we'll talk integrating both fluidly into how you run session. This discussion will probably be most useful for inexperienced DMs since most of this is fairly basic, but feel free to read on regardless.

OPEN-WORLD, PLAYER-DRIVEN PLOT: This is a very enticing style of game for a lot of players. Getting dropped into a whole fantasy world with little more than your wits and your companions to keep you alive and win your fortune is very fun, and getting to explore and effect the world as you see fit can be exhilarating. These games often involve a large number of smaller plots happening simultaneously, sometimes with a larger plot tying them all together, many of which directly involve the players or are affected in some way by what they've done. There are obvious pros to running this style of game:

- You have the freedom to include a lot of different things, from plots to monsters to organizations, which is great for DMs and players who have tons of ideas or get bored of doing the same thing easily.

- Player choice is given a high priority and this can greatly improve immersion and player investment.

- When properly run, open-world games can truly feel alive. Story-driven games may tell a great story, but feeling free inside that story is much more rare.

- It's great improv experience!

But, while there's a lot of good to go around here, there are also cons to consider:

- Open-world games are a LOT of work for the DM. Where plot DMs usually start a campaign already knowing where things will be going at any given time, open-world DMs will usually be writing the plot as it happens which means drastically increased amounts of prep if you don't want the stories you tell to come off as shallow and unrefined.

- Not all players do well in these types of games. Some need direction and purpose otherwise they'll just feel lost and listless.

- As the DM of an open-world game, you HAVE to be able to improvise. A DM that isn't a skilled improviser is going to make plot and interactions incoherent and stilted. Names, backstories, connections to people and places within the setting, you need to be able to come up with this stuff on the fly, even more-so than in a standard story-driven game.

- You'll need a fleshed out world to make this work. Even as a skilled improvisor, if you don't have a large world with compelling details and realistic interactions between its people, places, and events, your players will feel it as a lack of compelling choices

STORY-DRIVEN, PLOT-CENTRIC: On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have campaigns that are plot-driven. In these games, players follow a path that takes them through a pre-written story and are generally discouraged from moving beyond the boundaries of that plot. Modules and official campaigns follow this formula, which makes it the "Default" mode of play for a lot of people; when you think of D&D, plot-centric games tend to be what you imagine. As with open-world games, there are obvious pros and cons to playing like this

- The story told will almost always be better, or at least more coherent and sensible, and usually more well-paced. Knowing what is happening and where your players will go with what you give them makes writing compelling content worlds easier. Your twists can be readied far in advance and tweaked to make them perfect. Your NPCs can be fleshed out and perfectly placed. Story pacing will be less difficult to maintain and often more intriguing.

- Campaigns like this are much easier on the DM. You have less prep and the prep you do will be more focused and effective. Instead of trying to flesh out 10 plots in a week, you can focus on making the story you tell the best it can be. A lot of prep time is wound up in moving plot forward and maintaining coherency, and if you already know where things are going that's a far easier mountain to climb.

- Players have less decisions to make! This may seem like a negative, but a lot of groups suffer from choice paralysis or become split on what they'd like to do at any given point. By giving them an obvious road forward and making it the only viable road forward, you bring your players together and give them unity of purpose which is something you can't discount. 

Since this is real life and nothing is perfect, let's go over what I see as the major cons of this play style:

- It's narrow and doesn't encourage creativity and player initiative. When your players are given the obvious path forward on a silver platter, they often become complacent and let the plot happen to them instead of guiding the story with their actions.

- These games aren't always good for those of us (player or DM) that doesn't focus well. If your players aren't connecting with the plot happening around them or you're not having fun with the direction things are going, too bad. As a DM running a homebrew game you can fix this if you're not enjoying the path you've laid out for the campaign, but as a player you have little recourse other than petitioning your DM for some sort of shakeup. This is especially difficult with published campaigns because everything is already written down and finalized. If you change things much, that book is no longer going to help you run your game.

- In a lot of circumstances, running these games can make your world feel small. Adventure may be just over the horizon, a new civilization just beyond that border, but those aren't for you. You've got other things going on.

There are plenty of ways to mitigate the drawbacks and play to the pros of both styles, but there are two things to consider before choosing one for your campaign.

1.) What do your players want? This is a session 0 or pre-session 0 question. If you start with a foundation your players will enjoy, you're already on your way to running a successful campaign. What you want is important as well, but if what you want doesn't align with what the players want maybe you should reassess the viability of running that game with those players. Even if your players are having a great time, if you're not enjoying yourself it will become obvious and the game will feel tedious. Remember, D&D is a collaborative game; EVERYONE should be having a good time, not just the players and not just the DM. 

2.) What are you and your players equipped to handle? Do they have the motivation to push a plot without hand-holding? Do you have the time to effectively run that game? Does your world have the content for that kind of game? Even if you and your players want to run an open-world game, if you can't commit to making it work then the odds are it will fall flat fairly quickly.

From my experience with both game styles, I can say with some amount of confidence that some degree of hybridization of the styles will usually be the answer to this question. Since every group and every game is different, the best I can give you a couple of pointers and let you take it from there.

- The illusion of choice is a powerful tool. Even if there’s a choice of ten different towns for the players to go to, you only technically need to build one; the one they choose to visit. If you build a dungeon and then your players choose not to check it out, they’ll never know if you reuse it later on. This can help you keep up with the large amount of prep that open world games require while preserving the experience for your players.

- Figure out how important the story, alongside other elements of game play, is to your players. The more important they find the story, the more you should consider playing a linear game. When beginning a campaign, I have my players rank these different categories from 1-7 in order of importance to them, 7 being the most important and 1 being the least. By doing this I can get a numerical ranking of different aspects of the game and build sessions that will best cater to their desires and expectations. - Combat - Social encounters - Puzzle solving - Dungeon crawls - Story - Side-quests - Loot 

- Build the beginning and end of the story, but let your players fill in the middle. A gentle guiding hand can connect even the most random events with a little finesse, so even if your players are choosing where to go, the fact that you’re influencing your player’s choices may as well mean you’re calling the shots.

- Even if you hand-hold your players at every turn of the story, you can give them choice in the form of non-essential side quests. Sprinkle these bad boys throughout the story and have the outcomes of the party’s decisions have some call-back further into the story. Proper management of side quests can go a long way toward making a railroad seem more scenic.

- Have your players visit somewhere exotic at some point in the campaign. Doesn’t matter if it’s only brief, moving beyond the boundaries you’ve set for the campaign can make the world feel much larger.

Ok so that was very long and rambley and probably nothing the pros out there don’t already know, but I hope there was something in the non-sense that may help a new DM decide how they want to structure their first game. Being prepared for what you’re getting yourself into can make actually getting into it a lot easier lol. (Art by Grimley Fiendish)

[yououghtaknow]

18 and 20 for the meta asks? also I already commented on clip 3 but fr this clip was so good that was such a good execution of that scene and s5 has been so good and literally brightens my day thank u 💛 i hope you’re doing well

hi, thank you so much!!!!!!!! i hope you’re doing well too <3 <3

i am putting a read more because i am a rambley person, but underneath you will find talks of unused plot points, the parallels between the girl squad and the lad squad, and what taylor swift album(s) i believe each season has the vibe of.

tw for discussion of abuse, mental health problems, addiction and eating disorders

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

skam brighton has. so many aus. because it itself is an au of an original work. me and two of my great writing friends have written a great numbers of aus including but not limited to riordian-verse, glee, doctor who, rwrb, trc, a murder mystery au, and many aus based on comfort media of mine that i started on never finished (house of anubis, barbie movies, etc.). and many of them are unironically so good???? @fingersmithbysarahwaters and @nightwing642 are incredibly talented screenwriters. but also i did write a screenplay adaptations of the first two books in the raven cycle series and 2/3s of rwrb for no reason other than fun and autism.

as for skam brighton. oh boy. not many plot points have been changed, but some certain scenes/character moments were changed. for example, the scene in season 2 episode 8 where liz has a meltdown at the shopping centre and she has a heart to heart with mary was originally liz having a meltdown and running into al in the sensory room. but i wanted to hold back on revealing al as a main character until season 3. 

also in the og season 3, jake and al didn’t break up. as i was finishing the season, i was getting ideas for how i wanted the series to develop (james’s crush on al namely) so i thought it would be good for both of their developments for them not to end up together. also in season 3 i hadn’t planned for jake to move house originally, so there was a scene in the finale episode of the lad squad hanging out, but it got cut because it just didn’t make sense. 

in season 4, al and bree were a lot meaner to each other originally, because i love it when it gets busy at the brighton and the gay people get mean, but then i thought about it and decided it was out of character for both of them to be downright cruel. al and bree also had a scene in season 4 that was cut due to just not making sense. 

also, in season 5, the “inner white girl” scene originally wasn’t in the show at all, but one day i was listening to the song, and about a week before the episode came out, i wrote it. also, bree wasn’t written to be a she/they until literally the day of putting the clip out because i thought it would be cool. that’s it :)

also the way i write is that i write the full clip out in a google doc and then edit it in ao3 about an hour before i put it out, so a lot of changes happen there. just small things, like making dialogue flow better, changing certain songs because i just want to, and sometimes adding in new sequences that i just thought of.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

oh!!!! there!!!!! is!!!!! 

personally, my favourite thing to write is little symbolic moments that make me happy because i play 4d chess in my head with myself every time i write.

before i go off, i must say, so many hints and clues have been dropped for season six so far. season six has been my favourite season to write and i’m already planning a spin-off project based on it to write, and it’s gonna be starting sooner than you think.

so a piece of writing i’ve been thinking about lately is the parallels between the girl squad and the lad squad. before i begin to go off, these are the characters i think parallel each other the most.

jake - sandy james - bree nick - rori theo - esther al - liz

jake and sandy is quite an obvious parallel to draw - both are football players, both begin the series closeted and having a close relationship with bryan - but their personalities are quite similar. both of them are closer with their mother than their father, both use their relationships as a method of protection, and both are afraid of of societal rejection at the beginning of the series. they also both discovered their sexualities and mental health issues over the course of their seasons, and both of their love interests are more outgoing theatre kids. jake and sandy’s relationship is also so interesting to me - because they start as very awkward friends, and jake tries to help sandy by making bryan break up with her, but outs her in the process, and sandy doesn’t want to forgive him. she takes her time and comes to terms with it on her own and decides to forgive him because sandy’s just a sweetheart - and this also parallels the way jake takes his time to forgive his mother. also, in their friend groups, they’re both the newcomer to them, and we get the introductions to the group dynamics in their seasons, and in the later seasons, they’re both a lot more relaxed as they’re in recovery <3

james and bree are also very similar characters. both have problems with substance abuse, both have promiscuous reputations, both have both mommy and daddy issues. they are both dean girls, to put it in spn terms. they’re both very funny, and use humour to cover up their struggles. both are dealing with a lot of mental illness and, throughout the series, it becomes more and more clear. they’re also both seen as “the hot ones” of their groups, with a lot of the characters canonically having small crushes on them (liz, rori and nick with james; rori, esther and annabell with bree). they’ve also both canonically hooked up with sophie. which i just think is fun. they also played mimi and roger together, which i think shows their parallels as addicts and people (with roger struggling with recovery and depression until the end, when he begins to get help, and mimi living the high life until it all crumbles down around her). they also share a want for independence and both are very sana-esque characters (james being middle eastern and religious, bree being the cool rebel girl in season 1).

nick and rori are both the “fun friend”. they’re both comedic relief in the early seasons, but we do get in depth with them as the show goes on. in grease, they play james and bree’s love interests (which is ironic, as rori and bree get together and nick is in love with james), and in rent, they play angel and maureen, the two main comedic relief characters. both of them struggle to connect their asian identity with their british identity, and both struggle with how the world perceives them (nick with their gender presentation and rori with her eating disorder). they both struggle with toxic masculinity and toxic femininity and use humour to cover up their struggles.

theo and esther are similar in the fact that they’re the squad members we know the least about. they’re both jewish, they’re both the mum friend of their respective groups, they’re both autistic and they’re both quite nerdy. they’re the most grounded member of their respective groups and tend to take charge and help make decisions. they’re also both quite sarcastic and very firm in their opinions. 

al and liz are parallels simply because they are both nooras and vildes. they’r eboth autistic, they’re both the odd one out in their friend groups - liz being a lot more serious than the girl squad, al being a lot more in his own little world than the lad squad. they’re both very blunt and straight forward and say whatever they’re thinking.

also just some of my favourite bits of foreshadowing: nick being bitchy to liz throughout season 2 because they’re in love with james….. al talking about his sister to jake in season 3 and whenever al talks to the girl squad, bree insults him or walks away…… in season 4 episode 1, audrey mentions bree’s cousin is pregnant and then when bree finds out the results of her pregnancy test, oh no by marina plays (i’m now becoming my own self fulfilling prophecy)....... nick and all of his gender stuff throughout the series……. just all of the character stuff with grease and rent….. also just bree and rori’s whole relationship arc because it has everything. queerbaiting. subverting expectations. musical homoeroticism. a little cheating for fun. and they were best friends. honestly bree and rori season 3 is very august by taylor swift…… you weren’t mine to lose…….. 

speaking of, no one asked by here’s each season of skambr and the taylor swift albums they’re most like.

season 1 - debut/fearless

bro sandy is just such a debut/fearless era person. she’s looking for her place in this world!!!!!! she has the teardrops on my guitar energy (quite literally sandy pre-canon voice i bet he’s beautiful that boy she talks about and he has everything that i have to live without about bryan and sophie)..... the fun giggly crush songs that are deeply homoerotic….. esther season 1 voice the entirety of you belong with me. like esther really made a deeper connection with sandy in one month that bryan did in years of knowing her. sandy also is the type of person to stan love story, she just thinks it’s such a fun song and she does yell the key change every time it comes on. 

season 2 - speak now/lover

elizabeth!!!!! liz is the type of person who only liked old taylor and then got internalised misogyny and then got over it and loves taylor again. the story of us is canonically a liz/rori song…. yes i am still a liz/rori subtext warrior….. liz is very never grow up and dear john is a very her and james song in the fact that they both relate to it……. when they bonded over their trauma “don’t you think i was too young”...... also lover is a liz season 2 album because it’s about liz learning that love is the most important thing in the world….. liz voice i want to be defined by the things that i love. also the archer is just a skam brighton song because it is an isaac song. also i’m just gonna say it. i like me! it’s a good song when brendon urie isn’t in it, you all are just afraid of having fun. also though liz in season 5 is very better than revenge because, while her season is about unlearning your internalised prejudices, i believe she deserves to be misogynistic for 3 minutes 37 seconds.

season 3 - red

now this is controversial. this season is about depression, grief and anger, and these feelings are red. literally jake voice so you were never a saint and i loved in shades of wrong we learn to live with the pain mosaic broken hearts….. like treacherous….. holy ground….. the whole country pop vibe….. the bitchy songs mocking people’s perceptions of the singer…..  22 is a lad squad song…. also jake voice i remember it all too well but it’s about his father’s abuse and his mother’s neglect…… like the whole season is just jake getting to the point where he is at “begin again”. also i feel like jake would like red because he spent a lot of time watching taylor swift music videos as a youth both because he liked the music and had crushes on the guys in them, and he feels red is the perfect middle between the country and the pop and the indie and he just really likes being sad.

season 4 - reputation

bree big reputation holland!!!!!!!!! she has it all - the romantic drama, the hatred of men, the fucking homoeroticism. bree stans the reputation tour and they have made the entire holland-fletcher family watch it on their netflix (al fucking loved it because he’s a canon swiftie, audrey had a fun time, patrick was a little confused, but has the spirit). listen bree “i did something bad”. bree “look what you made me do”. bree and rori “new year’s day”. bree voice i swear i don’t love the drama, it loves me!!!!!!!!! like the reason the season has a lot of reputation songs and ends with daylight from lover is a metaphor for bree leaving their reputation era…. also reputation has she/they vibes

season 5 - 1989

1989 my best friend 1989!!!!!!! i am coming out here as a 1989 (deluxe) stan. it’s just a serotonin album for me and it is just so nick. the mocking songs about their reputation…… the genuinely deeply depressing homoerotic songs that have fun upbeat music…… the cars….. also clean is just such a nick song. he is in recovery, he is just so personal to me. also nick voice one night he wakes strange look on his face pauses then says you’re my best friend and you knew what it was he is in love!!!!!!! nick canonically in love with all of their best friends braxton!!!!! also nick feels like a 1989 stan because they just have those fun energies. nick WILL scream the spoken part of shake it off at the top of his lungs. also new romantic is just a skamverse song in general. also just. out of the woods. no reason for me to say it other than it’s one of my favourite songs of all time.

season 6 - folklore/evermore

no evermore is not out yet. yes i am claiming it for season 6. see taylor has said that these albums are all about telling stories/fairy tales and that’s what season 6 is about. i cannot wait until next friday when the main and my plans for the hiatus are revealed…….. genuinely i do not know how anyone perceives skam brighton so i don’t know who people think the next main is, but…… i can only describe the state of me writing this season as the various ambiguous disorder gifs.

[kumicho-izuku-asks]

@somechick842 is providing good chaotic Kumicho conent for the soul guys. Somechick you have also been elevated to my dude my guy status btw.

Fair warning this is long and rambley and possibly spoilers but eh...?

So they left this here comment:

And as I'm sure you guys have inferred by now, I think Izuku would be a chaotic bastard towards Sir Nighteye (not character shade I think he's an interesting character and can be written so many different ways which is just my niche y'know?) but this comment just summarises my thought process.

Because nobody outside of UA knows that Izuku was the villain team leader, when in Deku mode he exudes kicked puppy must protect vibes, nobody suspects him of actually being a 'criminal' mastermind.

Like somechick pointed out, he's been found out, and Izuku is perfectly alright with that. In fact he's happy because he's accepted!

But as we've already addressed in the fic 'Deku' is his safety net.

And when approaching Sir Nighteye who he has been informed isn't happy with him as the successor of OFA and only knows the guy told All Might he was gonna die then abandoned him? Yeah Izuku is gonna want that safety net HARD.

But it's also a fact in the series that Nighteye is aware that Izuku is supposedly related to AFO so Nighteye is going to be constantly on guard bc 'the man who nearly killed All Might has a great grandson who now has OFA how does nobody else see this as the conspiracy long game take down it clearly is??'

You add that with the fact Izuku knows Nighteye doesnt like him, you get this:

Midoriya 'I don't have an issue with authority I have an issue with arrogant authority and people in positions of power fucking me over' Izuku meeting Sir 'You aren't worthy and I'm only taking you on due to the teen I think is the right choice for a quirk that isn't mine as well as respect for my old mentor' Nighteye meeting.

Now sit there and tell me Izuku isn't going to sit there and see EVERY. SINGLE. ADULT. WHO:

fucked him over.

Every teacher who looked at him and told him he wouldn't amount to anything.

Every single bully who picked at the one thing he couldn't defend or hide from the world and told him death would be a better alternative to himself.

You can't, end of story.

So yeah, Deku is gonna come out.

It's his safety net and in all honesty Izuku wouldn't feel SAFE in Nighteye's office for the simple reason he knows this adult in a position of power doesnt like him and every other time this has happened its backfired.

So he would be happy and smiley and offering to get Bubble Girl and Centipede coffee whenever he could because this is what these people want to see, if Nighteye tries to paint him as some horrible failure these people will defend the sweet kid with the large smile that goes out of his way to get them coffee and greet them with an abundance of cheer every day.

But as soon as Nighteye and him are alone? As soon as Nighteye says 'I dont trust you you're related to AFO why would you want to be a hero?' He'd immediately just go "Well the gloves are fucking off I guess."

Because unlike with Bakugou in childhood being the only one who knew (which originally Izuku Izuku wasn't aware of) Sir is different. Sir cant do SHIT because nobody will ever believe him.

These are adults, certified pro heroes who are good judges of character! They wouldn't be tricked by a cutesy sixteen year old, really Sir you're just getting paranoid.

But back to the original point, the Deku smile is going to be used in full force and it will be Izuku's new life mission to simultaneously make Sir tear his hair out while convincing literally everyone else in the agency that he's the sweetest thing ever.

Because Izuku has been powerless to adults in positions of power too many times:

- Teachers

- Care takers (aka nursery and stuff)

- Hero Commision

-Media outlets

And this is the first real time he has a chance to fight back.

Thanks for coming to my ramble have a nice week.

:3c

[ask-the-wake-hedgehogs]

Can we have a rough timeline of regressed!Mephiles' emotions and motivations starting from the first regression up to the point where he decides to cooperate with Eggman to reseal Iblis? He's a mysterious figure, which I suppose is very intentional, so I want some more insight into approximately how much his personality shifts are affected by his strengthened rapport with the hogs over time

Okay so, that’s a little complicated, especially because that’s changing some with the comic rewrite (mostly to clarify that part of the timeline), so I’ll explain this in text rather than comic. Spare yall my terrible handwriting.

Also this got pretty rambley so hopefully it still makes sense oop, feel free to ask clarification or further stuff if you need it.

I’m not entirely sure how well it came across in the story, so to start with: Wake Mephiles follows the ‘suddenly existed and immediately stuffed in a staff for no apparent reason’ interpretation of his character. So most of his emotions and motivations are centered around the anger and trauma caused by that mess.

The first few regressions, RMeph is mostly settling in with the ‘new’ information. Because while he’s Mephiles with all his memories intact, Meph went and made new memories that don’t click with his perception of the world. So he sticks with his views on the world even harder and attempts to shove everyone away - people are all terrible, why in the world would he willingly make connections in any state of mind? But it’s not like he’s in any position to get revenge, he’d get squished like a bug if he tried, so he sticks to needling everyone while he waits for Iblis to break free on its own.

As he interacts with everyone more, both regressed and not, he ends up thinking about things a bit more. He’s still angry about what happened, especially with Shadow’s part in things, but... they aren’t exactly acting the same with him? Silver can be written off, they worked together before so he might just be falling on old habits, but he and Sonic barely interacted, and Shadow is. Well, he’s Shadow. What’s with these people?

And it’s about here that he realizes that the emotional bonds he’s created while not regressed don’t just vanish while he’s regressed. He still cares about these people in some way. And, honestly, he’s known that on some level the whole time, but now he’s actually acknowledging that. Sort of.

By the main timeline, this realization is occurring over the same period as Sonic’s breakdown and then Silver and non-regressed Mephiles’ fight. Everyone’s stress levels are one of the major contributors here, seeing as it’s harder to be in denial about caring for someone when you’re constantly upset about them being upset.

With this realization comes the accompanying realization that well shoot, I guess I don’t want bad things to happen to em? Which is something that doesn’t sit easy with him, but he doesn’t really have the time to think too hard on it because Iblis is going to break free soon enough and suddenly that doesn’t seem like such a great thing anymore.

But he doesn’t exactly have the scientific knowhow to do anything about it, at least not without fighting Iblis directly which... no. Iblis is still his other half, he’s already trying not to think about the fact that he’s choosing these other people over it.

Of course he’s also spent enough time trying to make the others dislike him that getting them to work with this would probably take longer than he has, so alternative option - appeal to a certain egghead’s desire to take over a non-scorched world. Fortunately Eggman’s already aware of Iblis’ reappearance, so it’s an easier conversation than it might have been. Plenty of mutual distrust, but they’ve at least started working together. And the rest is history.

[autumnalfallingleaves]

002: Jimven?

This is late sorry :P I didn’t have access to WiFi on my computer all weekend and I’ve been working

When I started shipping them:

I saw some art of Jim and Steven doing a fusion dance on Instagram and I was like, “Don’t ship them don’t ship them... I ship them” :P

My thoughts:

Lovely bois who deserve the world deserve each other!! They’d mesh so well with the shared elements of their backstories and their understanding of destiny and how it relates to them they’d instantly get along. Neither of them have a bad bone in their body and they are so pure and I’d kill for them and oh boy this got rambley

What makes me happy about them:

They’re just?? So pure?? It’s literally one of the purest ships I’ve ever encountered 

What makes me sad about them:

They’re both hella duty-bound (to the point of self-destruction, however unintentional) and they don’t deserve half of the crap they’ve gone through. Steven canonically has C-PTSD and childhood trauma and I’m willing to bet good money Jim does too. These kids are child soldiers and they’re fucked up because of that and neither deserved any of it :(

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

I think you and @elizabethemerald are one of the only ones who have written for them and I love all of it so I really can’t pinpoint anything because there’s nothing to pinpoint

Things I look for in fanfic:

Just. These two comforting and looking out for each other. Let them be happy and safe, please

My wishlist:

I can’t put anything here because it’s a crossover ship and therefore cannot happen in either canon :(

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

I’d be happy with Ajim or Jlaireby for Jim, and I don’t really know for Steven because I’m neutral on Connverse and there’s really no one else to ship Steven with :/

My happily ever after for them:

They get a house somewhere nice and near Beach City and New TrollMarket. They have a dog or two and they always have plenty of space for family and friends to visit. They adopt a kid and are excellent dads. Jim opens up a cafe and Steven goes to college somehow to see what career he wants to go into. Both still attend to their (Trollhunter and Diamond) duties, but those aren’t their whole lives anymore. They’re happy and safe and finally out of danger all the damn time :)

[cheydoesfandom]

So basically canon season 2, moved up a few years to culminate in the stonewall riots, rather than jfk's assassination.

Maybe exclude all that dad bs bc it's awful and messes up the future.

The concept started with "hey, Klaus was already in 68/69" so he lands back in Vietnam with time to save Dave.

I'll put the rest under the cut bc it's kinda long/rambley/stream of consciousness, written at like 1 am, and definitely incomplete. I have only watched the show once and not touched the comics, but there's also some fandom influence bc I've been reading fics (specifically Klaus, Ben, and 5 centric mostly).

Or not, bc idk how to do a read more on mobile, oops.

Anyway.

This would be near the end, maybe a week at most, and Klaus either convinces him to desert or somehow keeps him alive until their next leave and THEN desert, or until their tour is up,, which was my first instinct, but I may be allowing fanfic to cloud Dave's depiction as refusing to desert, i need to double check that, or end up getting wounded but not dead and an honorable discharge.

He has a suitcase and COULD go to 2019, back at the middle of season 1. He DOESN'T  because a) ben is here this time, and he might not come with the case and b) five will find them eventually and then they can ALL use the case and c) I want Allison and Vanya to have their SOs.

At this point, I started mapping out how the others settled in New York in the late 60s (exact years tbd based on the gaps in season 2 canon), so...

Luther landed in the middle of the queerest block in Manhattan 1st, and was swept up and accepted as their own before he even knew he was. They call him a bear, and say it's desirable, and he's ready to hear them out. He goes to clubs, does party drugs bc fuck everything, he's pissed and exhausted and maybe kinda queer, but he never used a needle or smoked anything but weed, he'd watched what it did to Klaus. The first time someone danced up against him, so slender and small in comparison, Luther felt good, it felt RIGHT, to put his arms around him and dance a little closer and no, actually, this doesn't work. He wouldn't do drugs again, and I just can't imagine him not cishet, but I guess maybe, if he had a lot of time to reflect and figure out who he is without Reginald looming, which I suppose he would have if he was the first to return, so never mind green light, Luther is a bear and he likes twinks. Or, really, just about anybody he can envelope in his arms and hold close and safe and protect them. (Not 100% sold on this, open to suggestions)

Allison and Diego are in the middle here. Idk exactly, I need to check the dates. Also no idea what Diego is up to without the president to save. I kinda wanted to give him a queer awakening, but like, Luther said gimme soooo…… I kinda had the thought of Diego as a drag queen, but I'm not sure. And idk if Allison is bi or what. I kinda want trans!Allison, but mtf, so she'd already come out and transitioned, but I also feel that Reginald wouldn't allow this, not from any of the trans* kids. Not bc he's just a queerphobe, but because it's "a waste of time and resources". Maybe Allison was the only one to convince him that she would be more effective if she had these changes made. Yes. Yes, okay.

Allison is trans and black in the late 1960s, but it's new York, so there's a scene, and she's thriving, and meets the man of her dreams. They get involved in the local politics and the gay rights movements. Allison needs to not accidentally be given credit that belongs to Marsha and the other leaders of the community.

But that still leaves Diego, and I just don't know what to do with him. What would Lila be doing? I haven't even thought about the commision/handler, but that would be mostly the same. Idk Diego's motive yeeeeet. (With nothing to "stop", he probably just goes vigilante again? Ends up inthe neighborhood, sees a drag show? Idk, idk what Diego's up to, alright?)

Klaus probably shows up right before Vanya, a few weeks maybe, in Vietnam. He gets Dave back to the states somehow, explaining what's going on anxiously in a hotel room.  Ben was there with him, and they couldn't use the briefcase bc he might not come along. Dave accepts it fairly well and they maybe decide to see his folks before leaving town. Klaus had asked, "wanna go make history?" and, at Dave's nod, declared they were heading for Manhattan. They drove cross-country, enjoying the open road, and rolled into the city a week before the riots.

Vanya was next, with amnesia. Sissy and her husband are each other's beard, and brought her home to recover, she introduces her to the club life. He gets upset that she's brought the chance of suspicion by fucking in their house, by talking about leaving him. How would that make him look? At best like a pathetic loser who can't please his wife, and at worst like the fucking fag that he was!

Five would still arrive last, seeing the aftermath of whatever goes wrong, but idk what it is yet, then jumps back like a week or whatever.

This is about all I have. Like I said, this is a concept that isn't fully fleshed out, and needs some serious research if it were to be done properly, and I do not have the time/energy for that, honestly.

But in the end, they stop the apocalypse, go back to 2019, and get to just live their lives and heal and all that good stuff they need so bad.

And that's all I've got. Please leave a reply or drop an ask if you have thoughts or questions that might drive it somewhere!