#this was a rant about how awful he actually is but the man is interesting to read nonetheless

[farshootergotme]

https://www.tumblr.com/ruestheday/765956792656265216/one-of-the-biggest-lies-the-fandom-will-tell-you

Opinions on this post?

I'd say that I agree with what this person is saying. As much as I give Bruce shit for his parental skills (which are flawed and shouldn't be overlooked, don't get me wrong), we can say Alfred is partially one of the main reasons why Bruce is the way he is.

I won't say anything about "Alfred should've/could've taken Bruce to therapy" because then we gotta consider a lot of things about the decade when Alfred was introduced and his age in-universe, as Alfred might've not lived in a period in which therapy was widely accepted and even recommended. But I won't dwell too much on that.

Now, I don't think Alfred is necessarily an evil person, but he can be quite selfish and a coward when it comes to facing consequences (which he rarely gets, if ever).

When shit hits the fan, he's the first one to back out. Why should he be responsible? He's only a mere butler (until he goes and calls Bruce "his son").

He's always detached just enough from the situation that nobody will look at him when looking for someone to blame for a problem that Alfred was most likely involved in.

Bruce might be the Batman, but it's Alfred who works from the shadows and leaves the responsibility of his decisions to the rest.

Does he do this on purpose?

Hard to say. I think he's in a way aware of his cowardice and harmful tendencies, but he doesn't have an active intention of hurting others. However, lack of intention does not mean lack of action, and despite whatever he might feel or believe, he does many things that end up in someone's hurt and even death.

And don't many consider it, but to me it doesn't come as a surprise that Bruce is so emotionally constipated and an unavailable father when he never had someone to learn from about proper parental skills.

Bruce never knew where he stood with Alfred, and Alfred didn't help to make it clear. At first, Bruce was just his master. A responsibility left behind by his parents, but still with the authority to order around the person who's supposed to be his caretaker. And Alfred? We know how much of an enabler he is, but also how inconsistent he can be when it comes to letting Bruce get away with things. And how confusing that must've been for a child? To never have clear boundaries to respect, rules to follow and his behavior corrected.

Kids learn from habit and patterns, and I don't believe he'd see much of that with Alfred, who jumps from his role as a father to his position as a butler way too often for a young mind to fully comprehend. Add to that the fact Bruce already had a position as a rich kid, which would've led to even more people forgetting to set boundaries with him due to his influence.

Now it's not so weird to see him getting away with his toxic behavior towards his children instead of confronting his mistakes like a parent should, right? But I digress.

So, moving onto the next point: child soldiers.

The post you sent mentions Alfred's involvement in the later creation of Robins. But how can he normalize sending kids out there to fight a war that isn't theirs? Well, that's when you remember Alfred joined the army at quite a young age, and there he must've seen even younger kids working as soldiers. What are the chances he has a messed up view on what children should and shouldn't (have to) do?

Subconsciously, he must've internalized this idea of children fighting for their country, and when he saw Robin for the first time, it might've brought back that idea and so he allowed this child to fight for a city that was not even his yet. And then came Jason, then Tim, then Steph, Cass, Damian, Duke... They just kept coming, and Alfred kept pushing this idea.

Jason died? That's a shame, but war is unrelenting, and soldiers are expected to die. It doesn't mean the rest should stop fighting, right?

"Jason Todd, a good soldier".

On top of all that, Robin is good for Batman. Robin is the light Batman needs. Robin can help Bruce, his boy. His son. And who's Alfred if not a messed up man? He'll put the children at risk if it means helping the boy he failed to help before. And when he gets attached to said children, it'll be too late to try pull them out, and then they'll be just another repetition of what Batman came to be when he allowed Bruce to leave.

As for Julia Pennyworth, Alfred was separated from Marie—his then partner—due to war, and found out about Julia's existence only two years after she was born. Their relationship had been distant since then. Julia didn't know about Alfred, but he requested a friend to take care of her and kept sending money all the years to come after making his friend promise not to tell Julia about him, his real father. Why didn't he ever go to see her? That's because, according to Alfred, he was afraid to disrupt her life. But if I'm being honest, I think he also didn't feel ready for the responsibility. And when he became Bruce's guardian, he still was not ready, but Martha and Thomas were his friends, so there must've been a sense of responsibility and guilt influencing his decision.

To summarize, Alfred Pennyworth is an extremely flawed individual and he should not be absolved from any of his mistakes.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

A Changed Future (1): Yandere Isekai 

When you woke after an especially tiresome day the last thing you’d expect was to reawake in a room that looked nothing like your own

The house, the neighborhood, your job everything was not your own

Instead, it’s resembling a webtoon you remember seeing the marketing, edits, and spoilers for

And if it was all adding up right you’d find the horrifying truth behind the controversial protagonist of the story would be incredibly true

“Look I’m sorry I yelled…I love you…I’m really hungry. Can I eat today?”

The beautiful and practically perfect protagonist was the one who trapped their love interest inside their–now your basement

Chained to the floor on a chair in the dark with unfinished surroundings was the poor victim of the yandere protagonist

Haruko, is an average guy who previously caught the protagonist’s attention by standing up to one an influential pair of elitists in defense of their crush but that’s hearsay

In the former protagonist's atmosphere the children of the rich were victims to their family’s whims often protecting their wealth rather than their children

Which caused Haruko to defend his friend from their overbearing parents

That is when the protagonist suddenly fell deeply in love with the average fellow 

Obsessively stalking him and eliminating their rivals by any means necessary

finally snatching their love and running to a small little home where they planned to have their dreamy life 

Of course, after breaking his spirit and having Haruko develop some kind of stockholm syndrome

To find that you’ve been isekai’d is jarring 

But being a protagonist that had the internet raving for years about how unhealthy they were is awful

But it was nothing when you were standing at the top of the stairs and watching the malnourished man call out to you

“Yeah….sure.”

Naturally you calm down, enough to make the poor guy something to eat and drink

Excusing yourself to have a breakdown in the bathroom before coming up with a plan to fix it all

“Y-you’re letting me go?”

“Yes, I won’t stop if you want to go to the police…but I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t.”

You felt so selfish 

But you weren’t the one who imprisoned him

Now that you were though you were going to turn a new leaf

After feeding him, clothing him, and giving him a hefty sum from the protagonists savings 

You go to their place of work where they’re in line for a promotion

“I quit.”

“E-excuse me (L/n)?! But your about to become the vice president of the company!?”

“I know. Sorry?”

You almost feel bad turning down the CEO who visits to try and reason with you

In your opinion, the protagonist didn’t deserve any of their success

They technically didn’t need it because they were stacked

Same could be said for the detective thats been constantly asking the protagonist questions

“You are actually agreeing to talk with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you hit your head?!”

With the knowledge from spoilers and ads you’d seen, you knew that the worst part of this story is that the protagonist is doing just fine while Haruka continues to struggle with his captivity and manufactured feelings

You want to do this right, whether you were meant to live in this world from now on or would one day return to your own

But in the meantime you’d do what you felt was right 

Turning their life—now your life around to somehow try to condone for all the crimes they’ve done

Unfortunately, though things don’t seem to want to go your way

“Please Please take me back!” 

“What?”

“You heard me! You were right you’re the only one who loves me! I love you! Please! Please! Take me back in your basement!”

“Okay?”

It seems that once you released the poor guy he returned to society

Expecting to be welcomed by his friends and family upon being missing for years

Who instead had moved on or had benefitted from him being declared dead

He tried to go back to working but he couldn’t get you out of his head

Not the one that ranted about adoring him and the one that would go days without feeding him

But the one that cried when you saw his skin bruising in his chains

The one that fed him a hot meal 

The one that helped him relearn to use his weakened legs

The one that keeps apologizing for every little thing you do

That’s the you, he likes

And he’d much prefer he turn back to being a victim trapped in your basement if it meant having you back in his life

“I don’t mind if you stay here if you need but I’m not keeping you trapped here. I won’t do it anymore.”

He cries and bangs his hands on the floor when you officially tell him

But he’ll take you up on your offer to move in with you

“Good morning (Y/n)! Since you quit your job you’re getting up so much later now. You’ve got to be careful waking too late.”

“Uhm how do you know I quit my job?”

“Unless you're locking me in the basement you don’t need to know!~”

He’s like a weird roommate who occasionally asks that you restrain him in some way

Purposefully rummaging in your storage to find ropes that you haven’t thrown away yet or buying them himself and leaving them out

“Ooops~! I did leave a chain out while cleaning! I’m so bad, being so careless even though you’ve been so against it. I should be punished! I know, you should tie me up! Right? Right? Right?”

He’s going insane everytime you refuse his demands to be locked away

You’re even sweeter now that he’s not locked away and that’s not helping

He’ll ultimately decide he should try it

“Hey (Y/n)?”

“Yes?”

“You still feel guilty about what you did to me right?”

“...Yes.”

“Then how about you do something for me? To make up for it?”

Even if you know you’ve done nothing wrong 

The guilt doesn’t stop you

Letting him lock you in the basement as he repeats some of the same punishments he remembers

Or rather tries to

“I just can’t seem to stand being away from you for a day, let alone not feed you then. I have no idea how you did it.”

You couldn’t be sure either

Which is why you don’t protest as his actions tend to get a bit more…wild

“Like you suggested I did try going for that new job again.”

“Uh that’s good.”

“I know since you’ve left they seem to be desperately searching for extra hands. I’d feel bad for them if you weren’t with me!”

“Right…”

“But being away from you all day is killing me! Maybe I should look for a more remote position.”

He treats you better than the former protagonist did 

Quickly moving you up to your old room and just chaining you there

But he wants more from you 

More Kisses

More Cuddles 

More Romance 

More Touching

More Quality time

He takes up so much of it, that the same problems that happened in the webtoon were happening again

Except this time it was related to you

“I’m Revmere the CEO of the Revere Co. I’m wondering is (Y/n) home? I’ve been trying to reach them by phone but it hasn’t been going through.”

“And I’m Detective Cape. Thomas Cape, I also need to speak with (Y/n) and you too if that’s alright Haruko.”

Part 2: Coming Soon

[jade-len]

Tired, 39 year old Shen Yuan is constantly nagged by his parents about giving them grandchildren. At a certain point, they were done with begging for him to marry a nice lady and just skipped to pleading for grandkids.

While the idea of having a child does make his heart yearn in a way that will definitely be dangerous if thought about for too long, he just doesn't have the time! No way! And what kind of father would he be, secretly reading cheesy, terrible webnovels in his free time? Which, mind you, is rare nowadays. He'd like to spend that valuable time getting rest via napping, thank you very much.

So what if Shen Yuan's heart swells when he sees his students run up to their parents with adorable, toothy grins? So what if he treats his class like they're his own children from time to time, spoiling them silly and proudly wearing the badge of "Best Teacher!" every year? So what if he wants a child to call his own!?

To love and care for a child, Shen Yuan has accepted that it would simply be a privilege he'll never experience.

...Think, think! Don't get so mopey now, Shen Yuan! Try to outweigh the baby fever with the pessimism you (slightly) obtained from your mean older brother!

How about this: There'll be no time for himself, none at all! Just more and more work. Come home from his job, dealing with a bunch of rowdy kids to find your own permanent little monster running around the house! At least he's getting paid for the first one!?

Shen Yuan had seen those videos and posts of kids accidentally exposing their parents embarrassing tendencies. Knowing him, his hypothetical child would have piles upon piles of blackmail on the Shen family's youngest son! Leave this old man alone, alright? Non-existent dumpling, theoretical baobei, please don't be so careless with your father's reputation...

(It would be careless too, to become a gaping hole in the heart of his child. Wouldn't it be selfish to have one, only to die a few years later?)

Over a decade ago, believe it or not, this esteemed Mr. Shen had gone by the shameless persona of "Peerless Cucumber" on the internet. He'd been an infamous anti-fan of the male power fantasy stallion web-novel series, Proud Immortal Demon Way and would leave scalding essay-length comments and posts ranting about its terrible plot point and flaming the author for his awful characterization and overall writing. That era of his life was when he actually had the time to stare into the digital sea of texts and write entire documentaries as replies for twelve hours straight. Fortunately or unfortunately, Shen Yuan doesn't have the same luxury as of now.

Despite the constant hate spewing from his younger self, present-day Shen Yuan is honestly very impressed by the constant thousand word updates every day. Honestly, looking back, how did that man accomplish that? Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, dear author, are your hands okay? Youthful Shen Yuan's hands cramped all too much from simply typing up angry comments, now imagine PIDW's author??

Aaah, yes, the former hater Peerless Cucumber had long forgotten about PIDW. The author mysteriously disappeared one day, leaving Luo Binghe out on his own for more wives to dual cultivate with as Shen Yuan had realized his passion for literature (and critique!).

With a newfound, realized passion in his heart, Shen Yuan went off to actually pursue the college education his parents had very lovingly saved (and were ecstatic he was actually using) and became a literature teacher! NEET 21 year old Shen Yuan would be quite astonished to see this dignified Mr. Shen now, yes, very much so indeed.

Now, Shen Yuan.. doesn't quite remember PIDW all too well. He begrudgingly admits that it holds a dear and special place in his heart, but in all honesty, Shen Yuan can remember merely a handful of the wives and plot points. Ah, this is what happens when you actually get a life, interesting! Clap it up!

The most Shen Yuan remembers is the stallion novel character, Luo Binghe. His favorite, and - he really can’t stress this enough - an absolutely wasted potential of a character. Shen Yuan may be an older and wiser man who doesn't waste constant time on the internet like before, but that only means he actually has a degree to be critic. Serves all of those self-righteous, questioning commenters right from all those years ago! Look at him now!

Importantly however, Shen Yuan also remembers just how badly he wanted to coddle the protagonist, blackening or not, pre-abyss, post-abyss, even as a demonic tyrannic emperor! Can you believe that none of Luo Binghe's wives wanted to squeeze his cheeks and kiss his forehead!? Master Airplane, throw in some fluff, will you? Spare the poor boy from all of these succubi (metaphorically and literally) and let him take a nap! Ahhh, who really cares if Luo Binghe has a kingdom he needs to take over? Throw a blanket on him! Cranky, old Mr. Shen knows the feeling of being terribly overworked, so imagine how the protagonist feels!? Shen Yuan nods his head approvingly at the thought.

All of those mistresses flocking over to Luo Binghe... If Shen Yuan were his guardian, he would kick them all out without a second thought in place of good family bonding time.

Women, power, sex... really, what's needed is a loving father who'll coddle and take care of Binghe when no one else can!

So, Shen Yuan guesses he shouldn't be surprised when he wakes up in the body of Tianlang-jun.

[pruneunfair]

Tropes in manhwa are awful yet people still defend them

I'm in a bad mood right now so what better way to release all that pent up anger by ranting on what can ruin a good story.

1: Slavery being inserted only for cheap plot and slaves being demonized as obsessive/greedy monsters for "not knowing their place"

Theres nothing wrong with wanting to insert slavery in your story AS LONG as it's not just cheap plot to make your MC look "better" by buying from a single to all of the slaves because let me tell you this: there is no such thing as a good slave owner, you cannot morally own another human being. A lot of manhwa like to have slavery be a part of their plot completely ignoring that just because the MC goes "wow this is terrible" doesn't make them a good person after they buy a slave.

Remarried empress does this with its villian Rashta by pushing the notion that she's being greedy for not wanting to stay in poverty so Navier won't suffer because apparently a slave wanting what the silver spoon mouthed nobles were born into is so terrible not to mention they justify slave owners and slavery in general as a punishment for criminals (neglecting the fact that children can be sold by their parents)

The villainess has fun again justifies a child slave being bought by the lead and he becomes an obsessive shouta love interest, fans continously justify by using the ancient lolicon excuse "he may look young but he's actually 99182823 years old!"

In divorcing my tyrant husband, Robelia buys 30 slaves and the only 2 that consistently show up have no other personality other then "we love you FL we will worship you till the end of time!"

There's a damn manhwa out there literally called the order of slave breeding and even when a story tries to do this correctly such as VADTD with Penelope being portrayed as a bad person for what she did to Eckles, fans have been so deluded by the idea that FL's buying slaves is "girlboss" that they think Eckles should be grateful to be Penelopes "pet"

2: ML's murdering innocent people after one guy hurts the FL

I already made a specific post about it before and I'll say it again: all this does is make your male lead/father figure look like a horrific monster. While you could say it's because its a medieval kingdom (objectively that is true that they would do this) manhwa and OI is the same place where despite in those times taking a mistress was considered normal they still view it as cheating and "how could you pick that slut when you have such a perfect wife!? 🤬" in most stories. So yes, modern morality is still inserted within these tropes. While I can get it's a way to show that the man in questions loves the FL so much he's willing to go to such lengths to protect her I think just mutilating the guy that actually did the sin would be enough because try imagining yourself as a faithful servant who was amazing at your job getting brutally slaughtered by the Emperor because your boss attacked his daughter or lover.

Into the light once again does this with Aishas dad murdering all the relatives and close friends of a count that tried to kill Ysis and Aisha, Aisha doesn't seem to care despite being in a situation where she was wrongfully executed in her past life.

Remarried empress does this too. After Navier is nearly killed by Krista's brother, Heinrey tortures and kills the dad and slaughters the servants of the zemensias. I can't remember if he also murdered the remaining family members but I wouldn't put it past him.

3: protagonist centered morality

Protagonist centered morality is the biggest indicator that a piece of media is dealing with a mary sue FL. Whatever the protagonist says is right is immediately morally correct. This is actually used to justify the last 2 examples with "it was for the FL!" Things like slavery, murder, workplace abuse, union busting, pedophilia, and being a POS to your loved ones are all justified if the protagonist finds a cheap way to justify it and you HAVE to agree with her because her backstory is very tragic 🥺. Protagonist centered morality also ruins the chance for good characters since the FL herself never has to grow as a person so she stays the same exact thing as she was just with more enablers and random characters will be treated as villains even if they aren't actually wrong about being suspicious of the Protagonist or calling out her behavior. It twists the narrative in such incomprehensible ways that you don't even know what your reading anymore. I can't even list all of the manhwas that do this given how many there actually are so I'll just list some that are at least self aware there Protagonist is awful/morally grey or isn't even a bad person but they still have flaws that can be pointed out

Villains are destined to die

My in laws are obsessed with me

Not sew wicked step mom

Depths of malice

The villainess turns the hourglass

Beware of the villainess.

4: villains being dumbed down to make the lead look smarter

This is unfortunately another common staple often used as a quick way to make the FL look smart and witty but is that really hard to look smarter when everyone else around you is an idiot? Not only does the FL not have to put in actual effort to best her enemies but you just start to pity the villain for basically being a punching bag. Dimwitted villains aren't always bad in fact they can be some of those most entertaining characters no matter much they lose but that only works when they are meant to be seen as a goofy character that your not supposed to take seriously. Villains that are written as extremely childish and stupid but your still supposed to treat them as serious antagonists on the other hand are just annoying since you wonder how the protagonist even got killed by them in the first life if they're so stupid.

Isabella de Mare while admitly having a good reason for being dumbed down (she's a teenager in the 2nd life so it's reasonable she wouldnt be as smart as her adult counterpart) is still a joke of a villainess who keeps flipping back and fourth from a snot nosed whiny brat to a mastermind only at convenient opportunities when the plot needs conflict.

Mielle from the villainess turns the hourglass was first portrayed as extremely conniving as she arranged for Arias downfall in the shadows but in the second life she fails at every scheme she has even though she has Emma and Isis to help her out.

Ragibach is a literal demon possessing the body of another woman with the goal of setting demons loose on the word to start another human vs demon war and she succeeded in that the first time, the devastation was all there so clearly she has to be a formidable antagonist right? Well no, she's another case of being dumbed down further and further so Keira can succeed and while they do understand some plot holes such as Ludwig not trusting her as much in the second life it doesn't change the drastic character change from evil genius to bumbling idiot.

In short: dumbing down your villains so your lead can look smarter is essentially going to give the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb vs a coughing baby.

5: feminine women being demonized as basic "other girls" sluts

Okay this one isn't nearly as terrible as the others on this list because we all love the good old "a demon makes itself look beautiful to deceive humans" kind of villain, in fact as you probably know by me by now, white lotuses are my favorite kinds of character and even in media outside of manhwa I always find myself drawn to angelic villains but it seems like this is less of that and more of "Oh those are all the other girls who just want a man to save them, look at how much better my badass rich boss babe is for working for herself while taking all of their men at the time 😎" in manhwa. As soon as a traditionally feminine girl shows up, comments are already calling her a two faced bitch and half the time protagonist is already skeptical of her. This is the opposite of what being a feminist really is, a real feminist wouldn't be putting down other women just because they dress with more pink with bows and skirts and while I do think for most manhwa this is unintentional I do wish that we could have more characters like Psyche, Helena, Athy, and Jennette that prove that being overly feminine doesn't make you a backpedal on feminism. This doesn't make the badass or sexy fl's bad either, it just means they can co-exist.

An angelic villain should be treated as evil for being a well calculated schemer, not because they have a light colored color scheme

6: toxic relationships being romanticized as good

You know for a large community that claims to be about girl code a good chunk sure likes to look the other way when it comes to toxic relationships as long as the abuser is "hot" and theres always the terrible excuse such as "he has trauma!" Or "he doesn't know how to show his love normally!" No just no we aren't doing that here. Cry or better yet beg has this problem with not only the narrative claiming that Matthias graping Layla is okay because she actually loves him and doesn't know it but a large part of the fanbase also defends it, the same goes with try begging, a manhwa written by Solche who also wrote cry or better yet beg and once again despite Leon being an abuser everyone's ready to justify his actions because he's just a soft little boy who ends up falling in love with Grace awww 😍 (what the hell?) Everyones all about not justifying abusers because they had a sad past until it's the "sexy" male leads with daddy issues.

7: maid slapping

This shit isn't asserting your dominance as a boss bitch it's just work place abuse. This trope has gotten so out of hand of being justified by narratives and readers that there is an entire webtoon called this isekai maid is forming a union that's all about criticizing twisted manhwa tropes that get brushed off with maid absuer being at the biggest one. It's funny because a lot of people complain that Isekai maid union villainizes the nobles too much but they never ask the same questions when a OI is demonizing maids as greedy and lazy in order to deserve a beating. This doesn't just stop at hands either it can escalate to threats of mutilation just to assert dominice which is absolutely sick. Most of the time these leads used to be office workers or terminally ill patients, they know how terrible it is to be treated like garbage by their superiors yet they continue to absue every maid who isn't getting on their knees for them. Most maids in real history would not mistreat a noble even if they were the most hated in the house and even if they did they'd be fired without a letter of recommendation so why can't the FL's just fire the rude maid if they care about dignity so much because I'm pretty sure getting violent with a maid isn't very dignified either.

8: disgusting age gaps

Very similar to #6 but in this case while the ML/FL isn't a cruel monster to their partner it doesn't change the fact that grooming and pedophilia is still a crime worthy of life in prison. You'd think "oh no way, this can't be justified can it?" You'd be wrong. Now I belong to house of Castillo thankfully has a larger fanbase of people who think that a relationship between a girl who got groomed by her knight is bad but in cases like into the light once again a lot of people like to say "Well Aisha is technically 28 so it's fine!" When it really isn't since Aisha is still mentally 14. Taming my ex husbands mad dog is another one that does this with Reinhardt grooming a 16 year old boy and its apparently meant to be "cute".

9: claiming a character as unattractive yet giving them a perfect body and appreance

I just think this is a major cop-out since there's time where they want to make a realistic story yet also wanting a fantasy fufilment. I don't think its a coincidence that the only woman in tears of a withered flower that yout supposed to support is a Victoria's secret model body type. Even though she's meant to be an overworked exhausted 33 year old woman being mocked for losing her beauty she sure as hell isn't drawn that way, the only other women around hae soo are all women with smaller boob's and in general more common body types that are either classed as stupid or jealous that Hae soo is so beautiful that all the attractive men want her

how about we don't pit all the women against each other for once? And let's especially not villainize other women because their jealous they could never be have large boob's and tiny arms+waist at the same time?

10: the commoner protagonist actually being a noble rich person all along

Look I know most of us had loved those "the hated child is the lost princess" GLMM but we need to drop it because it's kinda disappointing that the nobody who had to work their way to the top is actually a secret magical princess who had royal blood in them all along. While I did think the villainess turns the hourglass was a pretty decent read I was super disappointed finding out that Aria was of noble descent all along. I liked seeing a commoner protagonist for once and it really felt like it was critiquing the idea that all commoners and poor people who want nice things like the nobility are greedy animals. Something similar can also happen with certain saintess manhwas that decide to twist itself into "the villainess was the true saintess all along!" And I'm just sitting here thinking "well there goes the hope that you didn't need the super duper rare power to be a strong character"

I feel way better now after writing all this.

[tevanavernus]

bucktommy + early in their relationship + the very first time buck gets to say "i can teach you" to tommy

thanks for requesting, hope you like it! :)

Tommy was so cool. That was the thought that kept running through Buck's head, even two months into their official relationship. The man was a pilot, he tinkered with cars, knew Muay Thai, went to trivia nights, liked monster trucks, and—much to Buck's amusement—watched all the trashy, over-the-top romance movies. It didn't matter how many times Buck glanced at him or thought about him—he couldn't stop that giddy feeling from bubbling up inside him.

The thing was, Tommy didn't keep it to himself, didn't brush off his skills or downplay his interests. If anything it seemed like he wanted to share it with Buck. Back when Buck was desperate for Tommy to pay attention to him and their conversation briefly turned to flying lessons, and later to Muay Thai, Buck didn't look into it more than having excuses to see Tommy again.

Yet, Tommy stuck by his words, and a few weeks after their coffee date, Buck found himself sitting in the cockpit of a helicopter, the sun shining and no emergency in sight. The best part wasn't just the thrill of being in the helicopter—it was watching Tommy. If it had been anyone else, Buck would have interjected, asked questions, or shared random facts he'd read online. But with Tommy? His mind was blissfully empty, hanging onto every word as Tommy rattled off information about each button, explaining what it did and when to use it.

The Muay Thai lessons were similar in that respect, even if they were completely unsuccessful in actually teaching Buck anything. But, in Buck's defense, how could anyone concentrate when Tommy was guiding him through stances and moves with those lingering touches to fix his posture—especially when those shorts Tommy wore left very little to the imagination? It was a miracle that Tommy had his own setup at home, because if they'd been in a public gym, Buck might've been facing indecent exposure charges with how distracted he'd gotten.

The point was, Tommy was cool and he was constantly teaching him something new. Which Buck loved. He loved learning from him, loved the way Tommy's eyes would light up when he got to show him the ropes. But every now and then, there was this nagging feeling in the back of Buck's mind—this thought that maybe he didn't bring enough to the table. He wanted to contribute more, to offer something back, something that would make Tommy look at him even half as awe-stricken as Buck felt when he watched Tommy in his element.

But what could he teach him? It's not like Buck could sweep Tommy off his feet with a kiss that unlocked some hidden part of him he didn't know existed. And as far as work went, they both operated in the same field, so it wasn't like Buck had any neat, life-changing trick up his sleeve that Tommy didn't already know.

So Buck might have spiraled a bit. He went down a few rabbit hole researches late at night. At one point, when he felt particularly desperate, he might have typed out 'cool things to teach to impress your boyfriend' into Google. His team was not spared from this spiral either. In fact, they heard all about his thoughts about this important issue whenever they were en route to a call.

"Buck, the guy's with you because he likes you, not because he's looking for a new skillset," Bobby finally chimed in over the headset, putting a stop to yet another rant. "So show him something you like."

That was great advice. Solid advice. Advice that Buck might have... half heard. The part about Tommy liking him for who he was? Yeah, that might have gone over his head. But the bit about showing Tommy something he liked? That could work. He could definitely find something he liked, and it could still be something Tommy didn't know.

The first try was, perhaps, a bit too obvious, but cooking seemed like a fair bet. They hadn't had the chance to enjoy a homemade meal together yet. Most of the time, if their schedules lined up, they'd order takeout or hit a diner for a quick bite. So Buck thought, why not invite Tommy over a little earlier than usual and—just casually—show off his cooking skills in the process? Maybe, if he played his cards right, he could even teach Tommy a thing or two.

His plan came to fruition a week later. It was more than enough time to decide on the meal -with some help from Bobby-, practice… a few times. He was all set. So, with butterflies in his stomach, Buck invited Tommy to the loft one evening and brought him into the kitchen with the excuse that the meal would take a bit longer to prepare.

Tommy took it all in stride. With a glass of wine in hand, he leaned back against the counter by the fridge, slipping easily into conversation about their day. He even complimented how nice the food smelled. Everything was going according to plan.

Until Tommy glanced down at what Buck was doing and gave a small hum.

"You know," Tommy said casually, "if you peel ginger with the edge of a spoon instead of a knife, you'll save more of the flesh."

"Hm? oh, yeah," Buck mumbled absentmindedly before the words fully sank in. He froze mid-peel, eyes widening. "Wait, you know how to cook?"

"Evan," Tommy chuckled, taking another sip. "I might be no Bobby in the kitchen, but I know my way around."

"Oh," Buck grinned, though inwardly he groaned. "That's great!"

Dammit.

The next idea popped into Buck's head was in a middle of a call at a small restaurant-slash-bar. They were there to put out a fire that had broken out in the back when the bar area caught Buck's eye. The shelves lined with bottles and the cocktail shakers sparked a memory. While Tommy often opted for craft beers, who could really say no to a well-made cocktail, right? Buck's mixology days might be long behind him, but he still remembered the basics.

So, Buck found a sleek rooftop bar that hosted cocktail workshops. After a quick chat with the manager—and maybe slipping a few extra bills to ensure they'd get some privacy—he set up their next date.

The date itself was really fun, though Buck found it difficult not to ogle Tommy in his nice button-up shirt, paired with a thin jacket that outlined his biceps all too well. Still, Buck managed to tear his eyes away long enough to actually make the Pisco Sour. He showed off the shaker technique he'd learned back in the day, enjoying the attention Tommy was giving him as he rattled off the steps.

Once Buck finished, he handed the shaker over to Tommy who then measured out the ingredients and glanced at him.

"So like this?" Tommy asked innocently.

Then, to Buck's dismay, he proceeded to replicate the exact shaking technique Buck had just demonstrated. The liquid poured smoothly into the glass, not a drop wasted. Buck watched, feeling a familiar sense of defeat settle in.

"Let me guess—you're also secretly a mixologist?" Buck groaned, half-joking but already knowing the answer wouldn't go his way.

Tommy smirked, clearly enjoying himself. "Nope. But a buddy of mine owns a bar, and he taught me a few things on quieter nights." He shrugged, his smirk widening. "Also, I paid attention to what you did."

Buck couldn't help but laugh, shaking his head. "Of course you did."

And just like that, Buck was back to square one. Even worse, he was running out of ideas—fast. He could probably count on one hand the things he could potentially teach Tommy, and two fingers were already down. This was supposed to be easy, right? Just find something he was good at and teach it. But somehow, with Tommy? Impossible. How was he supposed to impress someone who always seemed one step ahead of him?

The next time an idea popped into Buck's head, he hesitated to make it a full-on date. Not because it was particularly difficult or out of their comfort zone, but because Tommy already tinkered with cars, and there was a good chance he knew a thing or two about motorcycles too. As much as Buck would love to rent a couple of bikes and hit the road with nothing but wind and open air, he had a goal in his mind.

"Do you like bikes?" Buck asked casually, after the waitress dropped off their coffees.

They didn't have much time, just enough for a quick coffee at a spot halfway between their stations before their afternoon shifts kicked off.

Tommy paused mid-bite of his cupcake, raising an amused eyebrow. "In what capacity?"

Buck shrugged, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, but his eyes gave him away, fixed on Tommy's face for any sign of interest. "I don't know… riding them?"

Tommy tilted his head, licking a bit of frosting off his finger, his expression thoughtful. "I guess it's alright. I've been on a few before, but I prefer being in the sky."

Buck let out a quiet, defeated hum, taking a sip of his coffee. "Fair."

Tommy gave him a curious glance. "Why? You want to go for a spin or something?"

Buck shrugged again, trying to play it off. "Maybe someday, just a passing thought."

Tommy raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued but didn't press further.

The time it actually happened, Buck didn't plan it. It wasn't even on his mind. They had overlapping 48 hours off, a rarity, Buck was quickly learning as their relationship grew. So they tried to make the most of it, and after Buck casually mentioned how nice it would be to hit the beach, it wasn't long before they had packed up a bag with towels and snacks and hit the road.

Buck was right, the water was unreal.

They found a spot not too far from the water, laid out their towels, and settled in for a lazy day. It wasn't until they were in the water for the second time that Buck noticed a small shack by the shore offering surfboard rentals.

He pointed it out to Tommy who looked at it for a moment. "I'll grab a beer instead. But go on, give me a show, baby."

Buck would have frowned, perhaps even asked questions about Tommy opting out if his mind didn't short-circuit at the nickname.

"Right, yeah. A show. Sure," Buck mumbled, still dazed, but already heading toward the rental shack. If Tommy wanted a show, Buck would give him one.

And the show was given.

It wasn't until Buck was back on shore, collapsing onto the towel with a cold beer in hand, that he remembered the question he'd been meaning to ask.

"So, how come you didn't surf?" Buck asked casually, glancing over at Tommy.

"Never really had the chance, I suppose," Tommy replied, sitting beside him, propped up on his elbows, sunglasses shielding his eyes as he gazed out over the water. "My folks weren't the beach type."

"Yeah, I get that. Mine aren't either," Buck said as he propped himself on his elbows, mimicking Tommy. "I only learned when I hit the road after leaving home. Met a girl who gave me some very... personal lessons."

Tommy chuckled, lifting his sunglasses onto his head to meet Buck's gaze. "Yeah? Must've been nice."

"I can teach you," a smug grin spread across his face as the idea formed. And if that grin turned a little more teasing, well, he couldn't help it.

"Yeah?" Tommy raised an eyebrow, already sensing where this was going.

"My fees are very competitive," Buck added with a shit-eating smirk, holding back a laugh when Tommy gave him a playful shove.

"Yeah, I walked right into that one, didn't I?" Tommy chuckled, rolling his eyes, though his smile didn't fade.

"Mhm," Buck hummed, standing up and turning to offer Tommy his hand. "Let's go."

"Wait, now?" Tommy asked, his expression turning skeptical as he hesitated, glancing toward the water.

"No time like the present," Buck grinned. "Besides, the waves are perfect right now."

With a dramatic sigh, Tommy took Buck's hand and let himself be pulled up from his seat. "Alright, alright, But just so you know, if I end up embarrassing myself, you're the one getting dunked in the water."

Buck laughed, already imagining the inevitable splash. "Deal."

[frootiest-loopdee-doo]

Fop Peri fic concept incoming

I’m just gonna start posting the fic ideas I get bc 80% of the time I don’t write them, and I don’t mind letting other people have and use them. Hell, you don’t even have to credit me. I’m stalking all the FOP tags so if you write it I’ll see it. I won’t ask for credit, I’ll fucking SAVOR reading it.

Fic idea #1 Dale/Peri

“Peri’s Master Plan” or “I Can Fix Him” is what I’d call this.

First, Peri becomes dev’s babysitter. This can be set before the finale, or it can be au where dev never lost peri, or it can actually be after dev left peri. It just changes the setup a bit. If Peri is still Dev’s godparent he’ll have to be extra careful when hiding all of this from him. If he’s no longer dev’s godparent, this is his way of staying in dev’s life bc he cares abt the little shit!

His reason for becoming dev’s official babysitter even if he’s still dev’s godparent probably would so that he doesn’t have to hide whenever he’s with dev and also because Dale doesn’t screen the sitters ever so Dev probably has had some pretty awful ones.

Basically, dale starts hitting on the “babysitter”. Peri is initially disgusted, as you’d probably expect. He puts up with it though, for Dev.

Peri remembers a romance book about a beautiful female protagonist falling in love with and “fixing” an evil older man, and gets an idea about how he can help dev! If it’s in a human book it has to be something that could actually work with humans right? Why would it say it’s written by a bestselling author otherwise? This is a great idea!

Peri starts to go along with it, flirting with Dale, doing whatever it takes to make the guy fall in love. Peri overtime uses this as leverage to try and teach Dale why child neglect is bad (crazy idea). Dale does fall in love. Does peri? It can go either way. I’d say yes, I think that’s the most interesting way this can go.

Different routes this story could ultimately take, options A. B. and C.:

A. Dale changes for the better, though slowly. Maybe Dev Dale and peri do sort of family bonding. The huge conflict here though is that Peri definitely isn’t allowed to be in a relationship with a human, much less his (former or current) godchild’s dad. Will love prevail? Find out next time on dragon ball z ass fic here.

B. Dale’s treatment of dev seems to improve, and Peri is feeling pretty awesome about that. However, when talking to Dev, Peri realizes that Dale is only being a better dad when Peri is around- basically faking it to keep seeing Peri. Big angst. Peri confronts Dale- and honestly you can go as light or dark on the angst in this confrontation scene. Me personally, I’m depraved so if I ever write this it will probably be as dark as possible (I’m mentally unstable friends!).

C. Peri succeeds for the most part, but he doesn’t love Dale truly. This is eating away at him. He stays for Dev. He’d planned to leave when Dale got better, but as he understands the human condition more he realizes that the odds of Dale continuing to be a better dad are very low if he leaves. Angst, angst, angst.

Obviously Peri would try to hide the relationship from Dev at least at first in pretty much all of these. Dev would probably find out by accident. This could be done differently though, maybe dev knows early on. Maybe peri doesn’t hide it well.

Also, obviously you can take a different route than A. B. or C.

Feel free to be inspired by this rant. Feel free to steal the ideas here. Again, if you do, I’ll probably find it. I’ll probably read it. I’ll probably be very happy. Don’t worry about credit. Actually, don’t credit me even if you want to 😭😭😭

[fizzbot]

APOLOGY TOUR SPOILERS / HELLUVA BOSS CRITICAL POST

(please just dont read if youre a fan/are gonna be annoying in my tags/replies)

i LOVE verosika. i was super excited to see an episode all about her. she has EVERY right to be mad at blitz, and i do enjoy seeing things from the perspective of his victims. BUT.....i was really disappointed in her portrayal in apology tour. MOSTLY just because i was dissapointed in stolas portrayal in apology tour, and think this ep wouldve been better if it was more about BLITZ instead. rant under the cut

im not gonna give the whole rant about how annoying it is that stolas is constantly woobified, because 100 critical blogs have done it much more gracefully than i ever could. but it is just SO dissapointing to watch a man that couldve been SUCH a compelling villain be the ONLY one who is EVER sympathized with in the show. we are supposed to feel bad for him and believe that both sides are wrong in the stolitz situation, when stolas' crimes are SO MUCH WORSE than all of blitzs bad deeds combined. he co-erced blitz into a sex contract as the only means of doing his job, and then made HIM feel guilty for not falling n love with him during it. the 'both sides are in the wrong' comment gets particularly frustrating when the show has, tme and time again, only let stolas be the one with support. blitz is made to look unreasonable, no matter how right he is. and, in this instance, stolas is the one getting invited to this party to celebrate being ""wronged"" by blitz.

back to verosika. especially now that the episode is out, i am even more firmly on her side. the fact that blitz broke up with HER because things were getting too serious is interesting (albiet not as interesting as i think it couldve been but thats a rant for another post). im not saying she should forgive blitz, but i do struggle to fully agree with her because of how she treated stolas in the episode. she is the first to comfort him, the first to try and encourage him to shit-talk blitz, etc etc and i just dont understand.....why?

ive already had problems with her character since the sexual assault ""joke"" from spring broken, but this also really left a bad taste in my mouth. i totally understand her desire to party and sympathize with other people who were harmed by blitz, but its frustrating that stolas was invited to be among them. stolas, the man who is very much NOT THE VICTIM in his relationship with blitz. this is more the fault of the writers than verosika herself, but it is SO FRUSTRATING that she gave him the spotlight and is trying to help him heal from a situation that is ENTIRELY HIS FAULT. stolas didnt just hurt blitzs feelings, he sexually coerced and abused him. of all people, shouldnt verosika understand how terrible that can be? the kind of hurt that can do to a person? im not saying that this terrible relationship FORGIVES blitz's wrongdoings, but you shouldnt be giving his fucking abuser a stage and a microphone to talk shit about his victim. this becomes so much more insidious to me with the conversation she has with blitz on the balcony, later. this was actually a pretty good scene imo but it could certainly be better.

this is much more opinionated and i wouldnt be surprised if even the critical community isnt with me on this one, but i long for an alternate verson of this episode thats focused on verosika being on blitz's side, instead. its been over 5 years since they dated, and even though she is still allowed to be mad, it would be nice to see that shes moved on. maybe give her a new partner like barbie wire and let her throw these parties just so she can look back and laugh and help blitz's other victims heal in the same way that she has. not to bring up an also not-great show, but in rick and morty, we see a relationship between rick and one of his ex-partners named unity. they were really terrible for each other, enabling bad/unhealthy behaviors, generally being awful. their break-up was messy, but in recent seasons, we see unity coming back, upon hearing that rick was doing something self-destructive. they worried about him, because a part of them still cared, as much as they were hurt by his actions. i would have LOVED to see a similar thing with blitz and verosika, where verosika finds out about the relationship blitz is trapped in/just got out of. i think it would be SO MUCH MORE naratively interesting, for her to be supportive of his little apology tour, and maybe even inviting HIM to the "blitzo sucks" party. not everyone (or anyone) needs to forgive him; in fact, i think coming to this party would give him perspective. his relationship with stolas has hurt him so badly, he can finally step back and understand the harm that he did to all these people. the apologies that he gave, as he admits in the episode, were shallow. but i think framing stolas as the toxic one would be better in helping him realize that he has done wrong more than what the show is currently doing. and maybe some people at the party WILL forgive him. maybe he can apologize on the stage, and some people will empathize with his situation and believe that the apology is genuine, because hes finally had to be on the other end of his own hurt. and maybe THAT would be the first step in helping blitz realize that maybe he isnt completely unlovable, because there are people who cared about him enough to be THIS DEVASTATED upon getting their heart broken by him. a conversation with verosika about what he did to her would hit so much harder after this, imo

anyway. im sorry if this is completely incoherent/a bad point. i was just thinking about it and i am so sick of everyone being a stolas apologist </3

[sinning-23]

Surface (Sanji x Mermaid!Reader)

Hey everyone! This is part of themermaid/siren series with all the opla/op characters uhhh this one may or may not be a two parter but I actually really like how it turned out! Enjoy!

Warnings: none, jsut some kissing at the end lol

Your father had warned you about humans. He said they were cruel and unkind. Barbaric creatures filled with greed. Of course, you knew he was right, having seen countless pirates raid ships and leave behind sunken treasures for you to collect.

However, among your most recent attempt at running away, you found yourself hiding beneath a mysterious doc. It was dark but also...kind of quiet. Too quiet, and if you knew your humans, it's that they were far from that.

All the boats from earlier were long gone and all you could hear was bickering from inside. You curse yourself for not having your legs yet but quickly hide when the door bursts open. Out storms a taller-looking young man, his sleeves rolled up his forearms as he lights what you had learned long ago was a cigarette.

Your eyes glow with the light briefly. He's pretty, his brows furrowed in anger as he mutters to himself. Something along the lines of "That's idiot..." and "I'd rather die than serve that." The water moves around you when you try to move closer and his gaze flickers to you.

First it's fear, he scoots away, startled that you had been watching him. In turn, the action frightens you and you dive beneath the surface, feeling like swimming away was foolish considering you'd been spotted and the whole point of running away was to not go back to where you ran from...well swam in this case.. His voice is muffled with the water but you peak just above the source to hear him a little better.

"I-Im sorry if I scared you, are you alright?" He hums, leaning over the edge as you place your hands over the top of his, using your upper body strength to lift upwards. There was no such thing as personal space with how close you were, noses were centimeters away.

He swallows hard, the cigarette long discarded but you can smell the tobacco on his lips. Speaking of which those looked awfully pretty, slightly pink and glossy as his face seemed to brighten with a nice hue of red. You pull yourself further out of the water, resulting in him scooting back.

At this point, you might as well be straddling him with the way your arms cage him in this one spot. You still didn't answer his question but that didn't matter. Your father would kill you if he saw how close you were to this human. Your lips part as you go to speak but you can't seem to form words when he's pushing wet hair from your face to reveal more of it to him.

"Much better." He hums, swallowing hard at your features. Were all mermaid this beautiful?

"What is this place?" You finally ask, looking over the shape of the building in awe. You fin flops over the deck the slapping making him flinch a bit but he soon focuses backto answeitn your question.

"It's a resturant, angel fish." He hums, making you snap your gazse back to him.

"I'm not angel fish? You've met my her? She doesn't even like the surface! Wait 'til I tell-"

His laugh stops your rant and he shakes his head. It's obvious any flirting or metaphor would go right over your head. Maybe they used different expressions under the sea.

"It's not funny! Call me Y/n! I'm a Princess you know! My father rules the sess!" You boast, despite knowing you practically went AWOL on the whole royalty thing.

"Well Princess, why aren't you at your castle? Hm?" He questions making you narrow your gaze. Sure he was cute but how dare he question royalty?!

_____________1 week_______________

You didn't expect to find yourself falling for the blonde. Every day he would come out for his smoke breaks and talk to you, tell you about the kitchen inside, share his food with you, and even tell you about his dream...which you found particularly interesting considering that's where you came from. You keep that bit to yourself though.

One evening, the blond who you had come to learn was named Sanji took his usual break with you, your head resting in your hands as you listened to him talk. You had found yourself doing everything all merfolk were forbidden of...Falling in love.

It didn't exist where you came from...well at least that's what your father said. And it was partially why you left. Maybe Sanji could tell you more about it? You swallow down any anxieties and speak, seeing his gaze grow ever more fond wherever you open your mouth. You'd probably never know this, but Sanji thought your voice was the most beautiful sound in the entire ocean.

"Sanji, tell me more about love." You ask, seeing his face go red again.

That was always so funny to you, humans, and how they change colors. But he was special, you liked to think he only turned red when he talked to you. You wouldn't be wrong.

"U-Uh weel, what about it?" He chokes, leaning against a wooden post as you chatted.

"What does it feel like? Do you feel like that forever?" You ask, feeling your midsection dry with how you were positioned. Sanji looked up as if to think for a moment before answering. Gods he always looked so beautiful.

"Well, sometimes. Love is, complicated. It's warm and it can be unforgiving sometimes. It's like finally feeling like you have something no one else does. Love is like...." He pauses, biting his lip when he sees you, how intrigued you are.

"Is it like...how it feels to talk to you?" You whisper, pulling yourself more forward, the water sliding past your hips and thighs.

It's quiet now, Sanji's hands can't seem to figure out what to do so he settles for keeping them at his sides.

"What does that feel like?" He whispers curiously, watching you crawl toward him now, your tail somehow disappearing the closer, and dryer you got.

You can't help but revel in how he looks. As if he'd fall apart with your next words. He's breathing heavily now, eyes moving up and down your body and to your lips. There's a look behind his eyes that tells you everything you need to know

"It feels just like you said...warm."

And witht hat his hands are firm at your hips as your lips more impatiently together, your newly formed legs smoothing against the fabric of his slacks when you sitt pretty on his lap. This feeling could have very well just been lust, but like Sanji said, love is complicated.

Perhaps this is why your father forbids the surface.

[crsssie]

from one admirer to another : baked?

pairing: leon kennedy x reader || masterpost: from one admirer to another

synopsis: from one admirer to another, an online penpal service, allows for two people with common interests to write to each other without ever revealing their actual address! Luckily for both you and Leon, you get matched up! What do eggs and Christmas even have in common anyway? sure hope it's that modeling business and NOT that Ada Wong addiction.

featuring: reader as model number two // leon as christmas

Dearest model number two,

That mid-autumn festival dinner with you was delightful. I found it especially funny when you absolutely lost every ounce of cool when Ada had casually pointed at me with her chopsticks and deadpanned that I was Christmas himself. I wish I got a photo of the absolute embarrassment that was written on your face and how you probably would have jumped out the window had you not sunk to the floor out of embarrassment.

I think you know by now that I have an awful crush on you. From the second you first met me, the second I first locked eyes with you, from the moment your hand was placed on my bicep, I have been weak to you. I know you said you prefer to date face to face, which I have nothing against, but I just think it's wonderful to have love letters to look back to. My parents had them as well, so I hope we can continue this. I understand if you don't want to, though. It's a little creepy to think that your penpal all this time had been your long-time admirer, huh?

The mooncakes were heavenly. Ashley told me back in Spain that she always looked forward to the mid-autumn festival because someone would go around the office and give people mooncakes, so to be able to taste them myself is wonderful to me. I hope you never stop making them despite your rant about how you've grown sick of eating them yourself. Since you're sick of it, I'll eat all of the filling and leave the yolks for you until you're ready to share the sugar with me again. (Oh, god. I'm embarrassed at those words please erase them from your brain)

You asked me why I quit the academy at dinner but I couldn't answer. I gave it a little more thought, and honestly, I do not know. For the vast majority of my life, I had been enamored with the idea that one day, I would become someone just as admirable as the man who saved me. After the academy, my dreams had dimmed a little, and after a very short time in the Raccoon City department, the corruption ultimately drove me away when I was scouted after saving a guy from a robbery. Most of my muscle has just been from the time that I was in the academy. I just keep to the same routine, so I'm sorry for lying and telling you to ask my trainer. I panicked. Please forgive me.

I'm getting ready for the beach shoot you had complained about before dinner that night. Honestly, I found it strange as well, but I honestly think the company is clinging on for dear life, so the chances of this happening again are most likely rather slim. I keep pieces of you in my day-to-day, a different egg dish each morning because you love them so much. (I wonder if you'll let me make breakfast for you one day? With eggs, of course. You can even have mine)

The letter's much longer than the ones before, but I just felt that it would only be fair to let my heart speak this time. Of course, if you do not like it, I can stick with updates in life only next time. Just, I thought it would be cute. God, the romcoms I binged after I left dinner with you are seeping into my writing, huh? Biggest apologies.

Seeing you soon, Leon

p.s. thank you for taking care of Sunshine while I was away. I think he recognized you from the faint smell of your perfume on your letters. He misses you (I do too)

Leon wonders if he should just hand the letter to you, but there's a part of him that argues that it would be unromantic of him to do so. You're a romantic at heart, he finds. From complaining about never receiving flowers to handing nearly everyone in the office a couple of mooncakes for a holiday that isn't even widely celebrated here, you're romantic to the heart.

You look at flower meanings rather than color, write as a hobby and own a cat you call Sesame Bun, and just everything around you is covered in a slight pink hue. Rose-tinted life. You choose to ignore all of your problems in favor of the good, affection seeping through even your letters, unabashedly reserved for everyone. You support to the best of your ability, so Leon wonders if it's finally time to support you back. Well, who knows if you need support. You seem fine by yourself, but he'd like to join you nonetheless. It doesn't hurt to have one more companion in your life.

"Scrambled eggs." He hums.

"Noël." You hum. "Sorry about dinner. Ada gets a little honest... while drunk."

"It was funny. You were the star of the show."

You grimace, glancing at the waves and the reflection of the sun.

Leon laughs, glancing over at the workers. "You didn't know?"

"I was drunk out of my mind when I kissed you on New Year's. I'm not smart, contrary to what I might give off." You stretch your arms above your head. "I won't avoid you asking for my number, if that's what you're wondering."

"I'm glad." He smiles. "I mailed out the letter earlier today. You should be getting it soon."

"I look forward to it." You nod. "Is it a love letter?"

"No promises."

You stick your tongue out in disgust.

"Doing anything on Halloween?"

"Luis' masquerade." You smile. "I hope you can find me."

"I always will." He mumbles. "Always."

"Oh, what a sap." You mumble, expression flustered nonetheless.

You trust that he will.

prev post : masterlist : next letter

[dr-spectre]

The discourse surrounding Sonic movie 3 is some of the most infuriating shit i've had to deal within the Sonic community for a long ass time. It is just... oh my god man.

The amount of anger that can be generated within the community over two egg fellas dancing is kinda nuts.

Now listen, as a man who loves Sonic and especially Adventure 2, I'm gonna be for real, i do not like this all that much. I just don't like the idea of the man who in his first appearance was him in chains ranting about how he is going to destroy the Earth and then later getting executed via firing squad, dancing around with his grand son and being incredibly goofy for the sake of it.

"But it's a kids movie!!" So? That excuse is bullshit and you fucking know it dude, you know what else is made for kids? Watership Down, guess what that movie has.

A blood soaked rabbit. Yeah. A kid's movie has that.

You know what else is a kid's movie? Pinocchio, guess what that movie has? Silly light hearted moments and CHILDREN TURNING INTO DONKEYS AND BEING SOLD INTO SLAVERY!!!!!!!!! But the movie is still a classic and fine for children to watch, cause it teaches them important fucking lessons and themes.

I saw someone say that The Hunchback of Notre Dame, one of the darkest Disney movies ever made, a movie beloved by all, a movie with a baby almost being drowned, a mother being murdered near a church, a farm being burnt down, disturbing sexual themes, has the gargoyles and it's still a good movie. Yes, they have the gargoyles, BUT NO ONE LIKES THEM!!!!!!!!!!!! I'VE NEVER MET ANYONE WHO LIKES THEM! THEY ARE JUST THERE TO ENTERTAIN CHILDREN AND THAT'S IT!!!! THE MOVIE STILL HAS TONAL ISSUES!!!

I'm not asking for blood and guts in a Sonic movie, I'm not asking for Shadow to bust a cap in donut lord's ass. I'm asking for a story with more weight behind it. When you are tackling Shadow's backstory, Maria and Gerald fucking Robotnik, you gotta take that shit more seriously. You just have to dude. And if you make shit silly, make it actually... idk... FUNNY?!?!? FUNNY FOR EVERYONE?? NOT JUST 5 YEAR OLDS?!!?!

Serious movies are allowed to have comedic moments to ease the tension, but they must be handled well and fit the overall story and theme that the story is trying to go for. If they are gonna show Shadow's serious backstory and then follow it up with Eggman and his 110 year old grand father dancing, or vice versa, it's not gonna work. It just won't work in my opinion.

"But there might be a twist and Gerald actually goes full on crazy like in Adventure 2!" WE DON'T KNOW THAT YET!!! WE LITERALLY DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING!!!! If it is true that Gerald DOES eventually go crazy and that goofy act is a facade to manipulate Eggman, then guess what, I WOULD LIKE THAT!!! I WOULD BE FINE WITH THAT!! IT WOULD MAKE REPEAT WATCHES MORE INTERESTING!! BUT WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU CANNOT BE SO SURE!!!

"But it's Jim Carrey!! He's gonna act goofy!!"

Yes Jim Carrey is known for his comedic roles and him as Eggman is pretty good, but you know what else Jim is known for?

Like I'm just saying guys... he can do more emotional roles, he isn't just the "silly man" you guys think he is. Boiling him down to just one thing and that he can do ONLY one type of acting is so insulting and disrespectful to his acting skills.

Jordan Peele, a comedic actor, went on to direct horror movies like Get Out, Us and Nope, and those movies have some of the most craziest and most intense horror movie scenes I've ever seen in my life.

The same man who did this.

Directed this.

Stop boiling down creative people into just one role. It's so annoying.

"But the movie can balance seriousness and stillness!" THE MOVIE ISNT OUT YET! WE DON'T KNOW THAT YET!!!!!!!!!! THE TONE BALANCE COULD BE GOD AWFUL OR IT COULD BE ACTUALLY GOOD! Like how the most emotional and powerful scene of Spider-Man 2 leads into one of the funniest scenes of the movie, but it WORKS SO WELL!!! BECAUSE IT TIES INTO THE THEMES OF THE MOVIE ABOUT WANTING TO LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE VS GREAT POWER AND GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!!!!! SACRIFICING YOUR DREAMS IN ORDER TO DO THE RIGHT THING!!!

"But Sonic Adventure 2 and Unleashed are goofy and serious!!"

My brother in Christ... Adventure 2 is not fucking goofy. It doesn't throw out referential humor, it doesn't target children only. Sonic doesn't reference google maps and we don't see Eggman dancing IN HIS DAMN BASE IN THE PYRAMID! The goofiest shit Eggman did was scratch his ass for five frames. And then an hour later Eggman pulled a FUCKING GUN ON AMY ROSE AND WAS READY TO KILL HER! WHICH LEAD TO ONE OF THE COOLEST SCENES IN THIS DAMN FRANCHISE!! EGGMAN THOUGHT HE WON IN ADVENTURE 2!!!

The goofy shit from Adventure 2 is down to the delivery of the English voice cast and the translated script, i promise you, you WILL notice a difference between the original Japanese voice cast and the English cast.

Sonic Unleashed is not goofy, it is has funny moments but they are very few and far between. They do not destroy the tone of the story because Sonic Unleashed is not trying to be overly dark or overly lighthearted, it's somewhere in the middle but it leans more into the lighthearted side of going on an adventure and exploring new countries with Chip. That is the focus of the story, Sonic and Chip. The Dark Gaia stuff is just a motivator for the player to explore new areas.

The comedy of Unleashed is between Eggman and that early Orbot SA-55, the humor is SA-55 poking holes at Eggman's plan and ego and it's written really well. It doesn't feel like dumb jokes made for just kids.

The crazy Dark Gaia serious shit is saved AT THE FINALE AND OPENING OF THE GAME!!! But it works because the rest of the story isn't OVERLY jokey and super lighthearted. There's barely ANY jokes to speak of in Unleashed, aside from Eggman getting hit in the face with a rock, Eggman smacking SA-55, and telling him to "SHUT UPPPPPPP!!!" At the end of the game.

"But movie Sonic is different from game Sonic!!" Yes, i know that, movie Sonic is a different character from the game Sonic we know, yes the tone is more targeted towards children, yes Sonic in the previous two movies made referential humor and Eggman was dancing. But even back then, even as a younger person, i still found it fucking cringey when Sonic and Eggman flossed. I found it lame as hell that a Sonic movie would include a fart joke. If teen me found it unfunny then I don't know if modern day kids are gonna find Sonic doing dated dancing funny.

Hell the dancing scene in Sonic movie 1 was better executed because of Agent Stone popping up at the end and that sudden cut to him, followed up by Eggman's scream.

This shit is just funny to me idk why.

When you have trailers that includes serious looking shots and making the audience believe that they are gonna get something different from the previous two movies, but in the tv spots and music videos, we see shit like this.... It's just... I don't know man.

Sonic movie 1 and 2 sort of got away with being more jokey and childish because those movies don't tackle serious subject matter. Sonic movie 1 is just a basic kids CGI live action hybrid movie, Sonic movie 2 tries to go further into the Sonic lore from the games but it isn't explored TOO MUCH! Knuckles' backstory is used to connect with Sonic's and compare and contrast the two, you know, two sides of the same coin sort of deal.

But Sonic movie 3 is tackling stuff from Sonic Adventure 2, a story with government cover up, memory manipulation (call it brainwashing and I'm gonna stab you /j), attempted genocide of the Earth, a prototype ultimate lifeform that's in constant pain and fueled by the anger of Gerald, a child getting shot, an old man getting killed via firing squad, and yet... The tone is gonna be the exact same as Sonic movie 1 and 2? Why?

And Sonic is still the same old movie Sonic from movie 1 and 2. It feels like there is no growth to him. "But Sonic has a flat character arc!!" IN THE FUCKING GAMES! NOT IN THE MOVIES!!!!! Sonic went through an arc, he WANTED something more personal in movie 1 and 2, a family, he wanted to not feel lonely after the death of Longclaw, yet despite going through a character arc, he doesn't feel more mature.

Why is he saying shit like "Konichiwhaaaaaaa?" It's not funny, it just isn't I'm sorry. Fucking hell.

This is definitely a negative take from me compared to how overly positive everyone is. People are defending this with all of their heart and dismissing people who say "hey i don't like this."

I think that the Sonic community has a toxic positivity problem, i know that it brings back bad times when people criticize Sonic, i know, trust me i get it.

But people make criticisms to see improvements, we wanna see content from Sonic that can better target all Sonic fans from all ages, not just children. Sonic never targeted just kids, it has something for everyone. I love Sonic, i love the blue rat, i really do. But Movie 3 has me very conflicted.

I'm still really excited for the movie, but i don't wanna be blinded by the hype, i don't want to say that this movie is gonna be the best thing ever, because i don't think it will be. I'm just hoping for an 8/10 movie. Something fucking GREAT!!!!

If you personally don't mind the direction of the movie then guess what, THAT'S FINE!!! IT'S OKAY!!! Just don't fucking come down my neck about me not liking it, saying that I'm wrong or stupid for having a vastly different take than yours.

Sonic is in the best position he has been in so long, he feels mainstream and beloved again. We are free from the mid 2010s and how dry it was. I'm happy where the series is at!!

Even if movie 3 doesn't deliver what i wish to see, at least Shadow Generations and Dark Beginnings gave me what i was looking for. An emotional tale that felt true to the characters i grew up loving and pretending to be as a little kid. (I pretended to run around as Sonic and Shadow as a kid, no that's not a joke.)

Also, Run It is a mid as hell song. It sounds like an ai trying to replicate the songs from 2015 to 2016. It sounds incredibly dated and has NOTHING to do with Sonic aside from "RUN it." The other movie songs had barely anything to do with Sonic, but Run It is on a whole other level LMAO!

If this is the credits song after Shadow dies or something, I'm gonna be pissed off. Just make it a song for the beginning of the movie, PLEASE!

[void-ink-studios]

Rise and Spit [Part 3] - A Mouthwashing AU

Behold, Chapter 3! Finally, Swansea makes his speaking debut.

Check it out on AO3 right here!

Content Warning:

General Jimmy Behvaior.

Word Count: 2,400

If Curly could be thankful about one thing, it would be that at least Jimmy seems to have lost interest in him.

While yes, him giving Curly pills continued to be awful and a dreaded part of his day, Jimmy seemed much more preoccupied with other things as of late.

Mainly, getting into the Utility room.

He had rambled about it for a long time during his last visit.  Ranted about Swansea “scheming” behind his back, and that he needed to know what he and Anya were hiding in Utility.

“How did you deal with ants scheming behind your back, Curly?”  Jimmy asked that so casually.  Curly never really knew what Jimmy wanted from him when he did that.  An answer?  Wasn’t going to happen at the best of times, much less when Jimmy has shoved his hand down his neck.

Curly wished his body had the strength to bite through Jimmy’s fingers.  He’d been getting much more bold with them recently.  Seeing how far he could shove them down before he caused Curly to wretch.  Seeing how long they could stay there until the captain needed to breathe.

He hated it.  Even with the small blessing that Jimmy didn’t visit as often as he did, it didn’t change how much he had come to dread his friend’s presence.

The worst part is he didn’t know how much Jimmy actually meant to do that.  How much of this was malice, how much was a need for control, how much of this was frustration?

Curly didn’t really think it mattered anymore.

Take responsibility

Maybe it never mattered in the first place.

“Were they this unruly when you were captain? And I just didn’t notice?”

No.  Just you.

“I know they’re plotting something.  But I can’t get in to find out.  Swansea has the keys and the ax.  Maybe I could get Daisuke’s help.  Unless there’s some secret Captain knowledge I need to pry from you again.”

Curly shook his head.  He’d learned by this point.  Learned to answer Jimmy’s questions as best he could.  It was the fastest way he’d get left alone.

“I need to find the gun.  Where’d you put it?”

Curly shook his head again.  He still had no clue where Anya had hidden it.

“Figures.  Useless.  There’s only two reasons to keep you alive at this point.  Being useful I guess just isn’t one of them.  Guess you’re pretty lucky you’re my best friend, Curly.  That’s reason enough for me.  I’m going to save you.  And I’m going to make things right.  If only the others would just fucking cooperate.”

Curly felt sick hearing Jimmy call him his friend.  How could he…? After everything, how could he have the nerve?

He supposed with the same nerve that let him look Anya in the eye each and every day.

“Hey Curly.  When was the last time you had actual food?”

Curly shrugged.  Probably since before the crash if he had to guess.  There was no way his body could handle the ordeal of chewing and swallowing and digesting food at that point.  He’d probably just vomit it all back up if he had to guess.

“Hmm.  I’ll have to look into that.”

That didn’t sit well with Curly.  It left him staring at where Jimmy was, even when the man himself had long since left.

Curly wished he knew where everyone was.  But the Med Bay was his whole world these days.  With only a small window whenever the door to the Lounge and Med Bay were open at the same time.  Flashes of the same artificial orange light of the window screen.

Sometimes he saw Daisuke and Swansea chatting about something or other.  Sometimes he saw Anya pacing back and forth.  Sometimes he saw Jimmy whipped up in some rant.

His windows were brief.  But he supposed they’d have to be enough for now.

It wasn’t very long (he thought) before the door opened again.  Curly had expected Anya, or maybe even Daisuke since he’d been coming to chatter with him more often.

He was partially correct.

Anya was there.  And so was Swansea.

“No kidding?  It’s here?”

“As long as he didn’t find it.”

What were they…?

Curly watched as Anya mostly ignored him, instead squatting to reach a drawer under his bed.  She fiddled with some lock or another before it slid open.

Son of a bitch.

The gun.

Curly couldn’t help but wheeze a little laugh.  It was right here.  Right here the whole time.  Anya had it the whole time, and Jimmy was too blind to think to look here.

“What are you laughing at?”

Curly’s little moment of pride for Anya died pretty quickly under Swansea’s glare.  The older man looked at him like scum.

He knows he deserved that.

“We’ll deal with you later.  Just stay out of the way.  You’re good at that.”

Yeah, he absolutely deserved that.

“Swansea…”  Anya looked at the mechanic pleadingly.  Curly and Swansea stared at each other before Swansea huffed and turned to look down at her.

“Just… Let’s get this figured out first.  So you have no clue about the lock?”

“I know there’s a code, but Jimmy has the code scanner.  Not even sure where I’d find that written down, even if I had it.”

“Damn.  Okay, are you sure we can’t just break it open with the ax?”

“Curly said it was designed to be break resistant.  We’d probably just dull the ax doing that.”

Curly listened as his crewmates speculated.  The code… He knew the code.  Or, he thought he did… If Anya didn’t know the code, then she couldn’t have changed it, right?

He couldn’t speak… At least not enough to make numbers come out of his mouth.  He looked around himself, trying to find anything, anything at all he could use to communicate…

As insulting as the implication was, he really could use Jimmy’s button wall idea right about now.

And then he looked at the window screen.  And his own arm.

This was going to hurt.

I hope this hurts.

With as much force as he could, he started hitting the screen with the stump of his wrist, trying to make a noise.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Just getting that first number out caused waves of agony to shoot up and down his arm and shoulder.  He wanted to scream.  Maybe the screaming would get their attention.

But it also very well could get Jimmy’s.

Curly looked back towards Anya and Swansea.  The two were still murmuring amongst each other.  Anya’s eyes flicked from the box to Curly, a worried look on her face.

The captain cursed internally.

He groaned.  Gargled as loud a voice as he could muster.  Anything to get their attention.

Swansea sighed.  “You just got your medicine, we saw Jim leave this place 20 minutes ago.  What’s wrong now?”

“Swansea” Anya scolded. “He’s still my patient.  Do you need something, Curly?”

Curly tried banging on the screen again.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

“Curly, stop that, you’ll only hurt yourself doing that.  Do you need something?”

“We’re trying to think here.  You making that kinda racket isn’t helping.”

Curly desperately shook his head and did it again.  Maybe if he did it all in one go…

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

“Curly, stop-”

He shook his head and paused.

1, 2, 3

Swansea reached to try and stop him, but he held his other arm out to keep him at a distance. He paused again, bracing himself for the last digit.  Of course it had to be the highest number on the lock.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

“Wait…”  Anya looked between Curly and the lock box.  “Was… Was that the code?  Curly, was that the code?”

Curly makes a noise of affirmation, nodding his head as best he can.  His arm is in agony, what’s left of his wrist starting to bleed, but he can hardly care.

He tapped on the window screen the sequence one more time, now that he knew for sure they were paying attention.  It left blood marks on the staticy sunset, but that hardly mattered.  He didn’t take his eye off of Anya the entire time.

“7, 3, 9.  That’s it, that’s the code!”  Anya made a triumphant little noise as the safety box clicked open.  She made short work of sorting out the gun and the bullets, hiding it away in her jacket.

Curly nods, letting his arm finally fall back down, letting it hang off the bed as it drips a little bit of blood onto the Med Bay floor.  Anya looked at the bruised limb and the smeared blood on the screen, darkening the orange light with dark red.

“Captain… Curly, why did you do that…?”

The Captain couldn’t look at Anya.  What was there to say?

I had to help!

Well, then why did it take him so long to do so?

I want Jimmy stopped as much as you do!

How can he possibly say that after everything he let slip?  That he only cares about it now that he’s being affected too?

I want to apologize…

She didn’t need an apology from him now, she needed him to do something, anything, before.

In the end, Curly didn’t make a coherent answer.  He just made a soft noise and nodded at Anya.  He hoped with all his being she could feel a fraction of the apology it was meant to be.  And he wanted now more than ever to make his ruined voice make words.

“It doesn’t matter right now,” Swansea said.  “Right now, we both have a weapon.  We need to make our move, before that rat gets any other stupid ideas.  Anya, are you clear on the plan?”

Anya had a look in her eyes.  A worried one.  Like she was bracing herself for something.

Swansea put a gentle hand on her shoulder.  “Hey.  You know you don’t have to do this, right?  If you want, you can lock yourself in here, and I’ll take care of it.”

Anya seemed to think about it for a second before shaking her head.  “No.  No, I have to help.  I need to do this.  For me.”

“Atta girl.  Go get something to eat.  I’ll be right behind you.”

Anya gave a worried glance over to Curly and his bleeding arm.  “I should patch him up first.  He did help get the case open.”

Swansea gives Curly a look of consideration.

“...Fair’s fair, I guess.  Do what you need to do.  I’ll watch the door.”

Curly didn’t want to admit how much he missed her touch.  Or, maybe it was just a gentle touch in general.  So he made sure to savor the moment, of Anya diligently reapplying bandages to his arm, stopping the bleeding, and giving him another once over.

“That should do for now… Try and take it easy Curly.  Okay?”

Curly nodded, hoping that she’s at least understanding his gratitude.

“Now you need to eat,” Swansea insisted at Anya.  “Go.  I’ll wrap things up here.”

“Okay.  Thank you, Swansea.  For everything.”

“Eh, don’t mention it.  You and Daisuke just need to keep each other busy and let me work when this is all over, got it?”

Anya rolled her eyes and smiled a little.

“Yeah yeah, we will.  But I better not catch you drinking mouthwash again.  That was the deal, yeah?”

“Fine.  If we get out of this mess.”

Anya gave Swansea a little peck on the cheek before leaving for the Lounge.

Curly could feel the older man’s eyes on him.  And the withering glare returned.  He wanted to hide under the bed somehow.  Or disappear into that broken vent.

“So what.  You suddenly care now?”

Curly turned his head to meet the glare.  He looked at the ax firmly in Swansea’s grasp.  He knew he deserved this.

Take responsibility.

“Didn’t seem to give a shit when you could actually be helpful.  Change of heart or something?  Or is it because you need her to stay alive?”

Curly shook his head at that last accusation.

“Jesus Christ.”  Curly’s world shifted as he was pulled up by the collar of his hospital gown.  His breathing tightened as he looked into Swansea’s eyes.  “Listen to me you little coward.  All this shit is on your hands.  You got us into this mess.  You might not have been the one to hurt Anya directly, but she sure as shit is still hurt by you.  If it were up to me, I would’ve stuck this ax in your head and put you out of your misery.”

Swansea moved closer suddenly.  Too suddenly.  Curly flinched as much as his body would allow, his mind replacing Swansea’s face with someone else’s.

I hope this hurts

Take responsibility

The motion made the old man pause for a moment.  His face was still furious.  But… something, for a moment, softened.  Swansea, instead of just dropping him, gently set the captain back down.

“But it ain’t up to me, at least not entirely.  Daisuke’s too much of a god damn good person to want to ax you.  And Anya…”

Curly stared at Swansea as he seemed deep in thought.

“...Anya’s not sure what she wants to do with you yet.  Maybe you won her favor just now.  Maybe she doesn’t wanna waste anymore energy on you.  I dunno.  But whatever it is she wants to do, I’ll do it.  But I want you to know something.  Whatever she decides, don’t go looking to me for help.  You’re not worth it.”

Curly simply nodded.  The motion seemed to surprise Swansea a bit.  But what else could he do?  He knew it was all true.  He wouldn’t blame Anya in the slightest if she decided he was dead weight.

The two men stared at each other for a long time.

“Swansea?  Dude, it’s meal time.”

Swansea looked back at Daisuke, standing in the doorway.  The kid seemed to look between his mentor and the captain, a nervous expression on his face.

“...Right.  Yeah, I’ll be right there.”  Swansea looked back down at Curly.  “...We’ll see.”

And thus, Curly was alone again.  He stared at the ceiling, numb to it all.  He knew Swansea was right.  He was worse than dead weight.  He couldn’t plead his case, even if he wanted to.

And he found that he didn’t.

Anya deserved to be free of the burdens.

All of them.

Curly didn’t know how much time had passed before the door to the Med Bay opened again.  “I can’t ever tell if you’re awake or not.”

Please no…

Jimmy closed the door behind him.  And he locked it.

[galaxythreads]

hi,

I'm fascinated by ur Loki works, and since I'm currently rereading all my favourites I wanted to ask about your general headcanons for Loki, and your opinions on all the movies and appearances Loki had. Basically, could you please talk about Loki, because i feel like my idea of Loki and your idea of Loki are similar. bye!!

"Do you want to rant at me about your favorite character?" I mean. do you want my first born?

general headcanons:

there's this scene in Loki: Where Mischief Lies where Loki has a throwaway line that talks about how it never matters when Thor hits him even if it gets violent and it rotates around in my head like a microwave all the time. Such an interesting concept that Thor took things too far but Loki never said anything because that's Just What Siblings Do TM

Loki's hair is soft to the touch, not greasy, because I will die mad about loki's hair in ragnarok

loki steals clothing. This is something you can see in all my fics, he's constantly stealing things from everyone.

Loki is ace, never had sex, and isn't interested in changing that. I don't think he's aro, I think he is interested in romantic love to some extent, but I think sex is just mid to him

loki's magic pokes at all five senses. It's something you can see, taste, hear, touch, and smell

loki got "food poisoning" a lot as a kid because his body was made for jotun stuff and like. asgard doesn't have that

Loki has a moral code, and there are lines he won't cross

loki doesn't lie that much, people just gave him the name because he's shifty and it was a rumor that was started by thor that he lies all the time

loki and thor's relationship has only gotten more complicated as they've gotten older and they have the brain chemistry to process things better, look at their childhoods and go, uh, bro, wait a minute

frigga wasn't a very good mom to loki, even though she tried

Loki can cook

loki uses magic less now that he's older, not because he's not good at it, but because he just like. he uses more subtle magic, and he doesn't need to turn his magic into a glowy show when he could just punch you in the face

loki is a man of few words

loki being captured and watching him lose his mind is straw that broke the camel's back for Gamora, who left shortly after he agreed to help thanos

loki wasn't mind controlled per se in the first avengers, the scepter was just affecting his feelings, but not more than anyone else? Loki was just genuinely tortured/coerced into this by thanos and they didn't have to force him to do anything. he was too terrified to say no. scepter was just an added bonus to cement the control

loki absolutely has permanent spinal damage from his time with thanos

I have a bazillion of these i could literally go on for ages.

---

thoughts on movies:

Uh. Okay. um. How do I say this without getting slain? I...do not think, objectively, that any of the Thor movies are good movies. I think they have fantastic concepts, and wonderful characters, and I adore poking at them, but I think one of the reasons that they're so beloved is because of their potential not because of what they are. People love thinking about what could have been and what they wished happened, because there's very little that's actually satisfyingly completed about the films.

Because the Thor movies are not...It. You kind of have to go hunting for outside material for pieces to be connected together and thor 2 has lots of issues that not even thor 1 could have dreamed of, and Thor 1 is just. A disaster, narratively. I think Thor 3 is definetly the most well put together movie, which sucks because it's the one that botched the characters beyond repair. You either have good characters and awful story or fantastic story and terrible characters with no inbetween.

Trying to talk about why I don't think the movies are good - objectively, as movies - has never ended super well for me, but yeah, i just. I don't. I don't think they're very good. I can break it down in more detail if anyone is interested, but there seems to exist two opinions on tumblr: you either think thor 1 - tdw is an untouchable master piece or you don't and there's nothing good to say about them at all.

I have endless praise to give the movies, but that doesn't mean I don't have criticisms, because, good lord, they suck in some places. Loki's character arc is the most baffling mishandle of a character that I have ever witnessed, and yes, I mean this from the get go. Connecting thor 1 - thor 2 takes some mental math.

Thor 1: Interesting set-up for Loki's character, I like how careful they are with setting him up to make sure that his arc was clear and the line between victim and villain was really blurred. They did a good job on making him sympathetic, and revealing an interesting concept with him and Thor, even if I don't think it was executed as well as I wanted.

Avengers 1: adore poking at Loki and Thanos's relationship here. I cannot get enough of it. I like writing with the avengers mostly because of all that didn't happen in the movie that I wished had. There's so many narrative secrets that don't get addressed or glossed over and I just want it picked apart

Thor 2: i enjoy seeing Loki and Thor working together, Loki's deteriorating mental stay in prison is always fascinating, and generally tdw is my favorite movie and portrayal of loki. It's what I usually base all my fics off of is how he acts in this movie. 10/10, will sing praises

thor 3: my loathing for this movie has shriveled considerably since i saw it the first time, but i'd still be hardpressed to say i liked anything they did with loki's character. Loki is self-sabatoging constantly, and his character makes no sense whatsoever. he is the village idiot, and like, i'm not really into that.

Infinity War: Honestly, i'm just gonna say it - i really did like what they did with loki in this movie. Like yeah, I wanted him to help and be an important part of the story, yeah, of course, but I also appreciate from a writing perspective what a powerful move killing him off before the credits was. Loki was the Big Bad of the first avengers and murdering him set the stakes amazingly. It carried Thor's entire arc, and it felt like a shroud that was layered over the movie. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I appreciated what they did with it, and I like the tragedy.

---

Appearance:

not a single scene in ragnarok with him it it did not make me want to chew off my foot, his character design was awful. I will never understand why everyone was drooling over the black suit, it looked like it was bought from walmart and then the wrinkles smoothed out with a flat iron. His hair is greasy af for no reason, all of his clothing looks cheap and ugly. there's nothing impressive or visually interesting about him. the choice to remove his colors so hela can take them will never not be annoying to me even though hela is my baby child

thor 1 has the best hair, in my opinion, but he also looks stupid as hell in his armor. loki's design, to me, works best when it has long lines and it's flowy and/or soft. visually nice:

and like the reason it's visually nice is because it's soft and doesn't make me notice tom hiddleston's hips. The moment i'm aware of his hips i get irritated as hell about it, because idk man, loki just. he does not look good when you're aware he has hips. tom hiddleston is like fine, somehow? i don't know why it doesn't bother me when he's wearing whatever he wants to - i also just like. do not care - but with loki i'm just like. oh good LORD stop making me aware of your hips.

It's why i can't stand his ragnarok suit but would sing praises over the thor 1 one.

It's something that's just like. confounded me forever, because i don't even know why it bugs me so much, but every time i see his TVA outfit, thor 1 armor, or that stupid ragnarok suit i want to shoot a canon ball into the sun.

Give the man a suit coat or do not put him in a jacket. loki has lots of skills but pulling off a jacket is not one of them.

He needs to look haunted, like, in general. Or like an 18th century tired man. it's integral for his character to me.

things that make galaxy happy:

loki soft hair

loki having suit coat or suit coat equivalent

things that will send her into a ranting, unwanted, nitpicky rage

loki greasy hair

loki dressed in jackets

[kookidough]

random rant about tbp tiktok cause i’m actually Sick of it at this point💆‍♀️💆‍♀️ these issues probably exist Outside of tiktok as well but i only ever see them on there so thats the platform i’m gna talk about

before you read i just wanna say warning for mentions of sa!!!!!

first of all i dont want to jump straight into the serious shit so the unoriginality is actually INSANE like ive been seeing the same jokes since 2022, can we Please get something funnier than “griffin does gymnastics / is a ceiling fan” 😭 the amount of times recently i’ll see a tbp tiktok and then get someone copying the idea and making the Same exact post like 3 scrolls later is insane like Pls can we be original Pls this movie is so sad i need something to laugh at

outside of being totally unoriginal some of the jokes tend to be Really Fucking Disgusting like straight up joking about assault, i shouldn’t even have to explain that thats not funny in the slightest?? this one person made a bunch of really gross ones and kept blocking people who called them out in the comment section, my friend had to dm them Several times and all they did was take down one post, the rest are still up with a ton of views :/ i know its like shock humour or dark humour or whatever but i dont see the ‘funny’ side of a grown man forcing himself onto a child and i think if youre laughing at that you should sit down and ask yourself why you think thats so funny.. people in the comments are always like “i shouldn’t laugh” so they Know its wrong as well which just ugh the whole thing just really gets on my nerves

another thing that gets on my nerves is the lack of media literacy and straight up spreading misinformation, maybe on the media literacy part i’m just a hater but i see so many questions being asked or theories being posed when all of the things mentioned were… literally answered in the movie?? “whats up with finney and gwen’s mother” it’s literally said in the movie that she has the same ability as gwen and she killed herself bc of it, next question, “why was max so interested in finding the missing boys” maybe because he was a coked up conspiracy theorist who saw a serious crime happening in his brother’s area so he decided to be a genuine concerned citizen who wanted these boys to be found💀 “why did the grabber kill max” because he had evidence of the highly awful crimes he’d been committing and was about to let his latest victim free?? the list goes on and on but those r the main ones i see all the time

as for the misinformation. Ough. it annoys me So much this is a hill i will die on😭 i dont know if its people’s half-baked theories or personal headcanons that just got way out of hand but i see so much stuff being spread that just Isnt true, it gets spread so far that when you google these things it appears as true when its not which is annoying !!! i actually was gonna make an entire rant about one theory in particular that pisses me off so bad but i can fit it in here alongside my list of “other theories presented as facts that i Absolutely Despise”

first theory, the one i was gonna make an entire post over, is the theory that vance is the grabber’s son. if i see one more tiktok of those two with that marina and the diamonds song im going to fucking lose it😭 i have no idea where people got this from but its so fucking popular that it comes up on google and i Hate it, i think it comes from the fact that in gwen’s dream sequence, which, might i add, WAS A DREAM, it looks like the police drop vance off outside the grabber’s house and he goes inside there, which… apparently automatically makes them related…?? it takes like one ounce of media literacy to realise that Obviously he’d be getting dropped off at his own house in real life, but as a ghost he’s centred on the place he died and is showing that house to gwen in her dreams, like how every other ghost shows that house to her. awful theory awful take i hate it, if its ur personal headcanon sorry but i do Not fw that

the other theories i have like. not much to say about other than the fact that they’re Not true, i see a lot of stuff about griffin for some reason? the number tends to change but a lot of ppl say “he was kept in the basement for 4 years” like . Huh. where is your proof???? i know the missing posters are insanely unreliable but if you literally read them griffin went missing on april 2nd and billy went missing on may 4th so highly likely griffin was only in the basement for like. a month at most, no idea where ppl are pulling 4 years out of💀 i also see people say griffin has broken legs or a broken back Just because of the first scene where we see him doing a backbend but . if that was the case then he wouldnt be able to stand with the other ghosts when they show gwen the house, i think the backbend was just the position he died in and thats why he first appeared that way to finney but Hey thats just my opinion! last two i have like no rants over but just. firstly people saying robin never made it to the basement for some reason but clearly he did otherwise his ghost would not be down there with the rest of them😭 secondly the theory that vance was kept there the longest “because he’s the most feminine” which. just makes absolutely zero sense to me whatsoever idk whos random headcanon got popularised but i dont like it

okay getting serious again, while this one does not make me angry its like. just really weird to me? i think its common knowledge at this point that both the book and the movie are inspired heavily by the john wayne gacy case, with the grabber literally being inspired by john wayne gacy himself (you Cannot argue with me on this one its literally confirmed and theres a boatload of evidence supporting it). i guess its natural to see people making comparisons between the movie and the case because of the inspiration but i’ve seen Several videos recently of people taking photos of jwg victims and putting them next to tbp characters and saying thats who theyre inspired by and i think thats . Really coming across as insensitive i cant lie😭 we know the grabber was inspired by jwg and its heavily thought that billy was inspired by johnny gosch but theres not much about the others and i think its just really distasteful to compare real life murder victims to fictional horror characters just to get views/likes on tiktok, it comes across as insanely disrespectful to me but idk i havent seen anyone else talking about it so i might just be being sensitive

last thing that really really bothers me is grabber simps. while i do see it on tiktok i see it on here, tumblr, most often and its… so odd to me…. like why are you thirsting over the paedophilic serial killer… so so strange to me… i want to see art and character analysis and silly little posts about all the characters but every time i open the tbp tag i’m jumpscared by someones weird ass grabber x reader oneshot and its SO GROSS get that shit away from me😭😭😭😭 also saw this one girl on tiktok one time whos literal entire account was dedicated to the grabber and she defended this by saying the sa in the movie was “just a theory” which is so victim blamey girl i do not trust you there is so much evidence for it in the movie, again w the media literacy point, just because something isnt directly shown to you doesnt mean it isnt shown in other subtler ways… anyway i get if people like the grabber as a villain but actually like. loving him and thirsting over him is weird as fuck to me

so um ya the fandom is a trainwreck can we go back to there being like 3 of us please and thank u. if you actually read all this then Wow thank you its literally just me being chronically online and ranting about stuff that doesn’t matter in the real world at all

[kaiju-krew]

Hey there! Firstly, big big fan of your art and headcanons, ty for your cool and awesome big brain ❤️ Now that you’ve seen the movie, I’m wondering what your thoughts are on Shimo??? I’ve just seen impressions of her so scattered. (I saw your post on how she will NOT be treated as a pet, and I so appreciate that.)

I will say, for me the ‘old gal’ vibes are so strong and I’m here for it. Like when Goji blasts his atomic breath into the sky at the end and she’s looking at it with such awe and her cute super gummy smile, it reminds me of when a grandma gets shown some common piece of technology that the rest of us are used to, but she just can’t heckin believe it because she lives in a damn cave??? I loved that.

hi hi! omg u think i have a big brain...... compliment of the century.... i must have ppl fooled bcuz i am viscerally dumb most of the time

anywAYS. gxk spoilers below (and a lot of ranting)

shimo my beloved💙 i appreciate most interpretations of her, besides people who are just straight up caling her a dog. and like, not in the way i’d compare goji to a cat? for me it's more mannerisms based, so for goji my main expression/mannerism inspirations are cats, wolves, and komodo dragons (obviously), and for mosu it's owls and cats, with a crumb of horses because of their 'ear' communication so i use that with her antennae.

sorry for tangent but anyways. i dont need someone barking at me that i call goji a cat/draw him acting like a cat so calling shimo ‘kong’s pet dog’ is fine. i think its the difference between goji having the personality i characterize him with + mannerisms inspired by other animals, vs. him having no personality besides Being A Cat. like, he’s a dumbfuck but he’s clearly an intelligent creature capable of communication and understanding. i make a lot of shitposts but truly in my personal hc i’d never reduce him to ‘pet level intelligence’

i think i’m extra touchy about people calling her ‘kong’s pet’ because like. dawg. did you watch the movie? she was JUST freed from being skar’s slave/beast of burden/abused pet whatever you wanna call it. why would you want her to become another creature’s pet again?(obviously minus the abuse) idk mannn it just feels…. reductive somehow. she clearly shows intelligence and understanding when she realizes what’s happening during the fight and helps to kill skar. i just refuse to reduce her entire character to kong’s pet status bcuz that makes me uncomfortable asf.

as a disclaimer, you’re welcome to have whatever hc you enjoy. me expressing my personal thoughts on the matter isn’t an attack on anyone who characterizes her that way, i’m just not interested in engaging with it in the slightest.

DOUBLE ANYWAYS i just needed to get that outta my system. TIME FOR CUTE FUN IDEAS YAHOOO

i’m seeing mixed info about her age so idk where she actually sits there?? i remember seeing something like she’s the First Titan but i also think the novelization of the movie said she’s only 3 million years old?? when im p sure they’ve said goji is 250+ million years old so…. i have no clue there lol. personally she feels less jaded and grumpy than goji does to me so my brain automatically sees her as similar or younger bcuz of my Grumpy Old Man bias.

i’m still workin out my ideas for her but based on how the movie ends i like to think she helps kong with relocating the apes to a better home, and they mostly live in HE. her n kong venture up for surface dates bcuz she gets what she fucking deserves 💙

goji nearly has an aneurysm the first time they come up, since mosu literally takes them for a lil tour of monster island. bro standing there clenching his fist like the arthur meme, he begrudgingly knows she’s right and eventually he gets used to it

i got more ideas cookin for her but this post is already too damn long cuz of my ranting time to stfu

SHIMO BEST GIRL 10/10

[ladydiaries]

hihi! i dunno if requests are open rn but if they are, can i request nsfw or sfw hcs of vox x (preferably AMAB! reader, but gn's fine too!) a socially awkward reader?? tysm!! take care of yourself and take your time! :3

Sparks ✧˚ ༘ ⊹ .ᐟ .ᐟ

CW; minors do not interact, 18+ content, praise, vox electrocutes you like twice, AMAB, biting , edging , breeding, oral (giving). Rambles + hcs under the cut!

SUMMARY; general SFW &&. NSFW hcs of vox x socially awkward AMAB! Reader

HCS + RAMBLES

AUTHORS NOTE; TYSMMM for requesting!! I'm excited to write an AMAB reader. There is a serious drought of them, Going to use he/him pronouns for this one.

Of course, if this relationship is established I believe he would treat you like you're the only man in the world. His bitchy exterior is totally a front and inside he's a bit more lax, corny, and to your surprise, charming. Taking you on dates, presenting you with flowers.

Even better if he had intentions of manipulating you first, spiralling into the embarrassing realisation that he's in love with you. Ranting to Valentino and Velvet about his dilemma. Sure to tease him about it whenever you're around. Fast forward into the actual relationship, at the beginning he would have trouble not seeing you as some sort of possession.

Something to hide and keep, which due to your introverted nature, you didn't particularly mind not going out often, overtime he would loosen up, taking you on dates, more focused on showing you off then gatekeeping you, confused as to why you were so much more shy in the public then in private.

hogs the bed, face (screen) down, limbs everywhere.

An AWFUL cook. Could imagine a baking date and if you are good, wonderful. You can teach him, and if you too are also awful, you can feed your shit cookies to Valentino.

Insists on doing small things for you to boost his ego, will speak for you at restaurants and public settings

Will make you learn how to repair and upgrade his systems. Thinks it's romantic

If you work for him, he will purposely give you jobs that don't require public speaking, will never admit to it though.

NSFW.

This man FUCKS. You are a lucky boy because he has stamina. Will fuck you for hours on end, clawed hands running loosely against your cock as he pistoned into you from behind. Barely touching you enough to make you cum, you've been here for hours. Bringing you so, so, close to your sweet release before daggered fingers plunge into your soft skin.

He's the type of man to use praises while you suck him off. Unyielding grip on your hair. Hips rutting up slowly into your mouth. The intrusion making you struggle to swallow your gag reflex.

Whiny. He's the epitome of whiny men. Screen scrolling in between different levels of brightness, furrowed brows as you place open mouthed kisses against his body. Fingers mingling around the back panel of his screen.

very experimental, will try pretty much everything

If he overheats, he will pass out. Had to install a better cooling system due to shutting down too much.

Cock is ridged. A steel navy blue colour, leading towards a blue tip. Detachable, can change sizes, widths or not have one at all.

Cums a lot, a thick substance. Likes to watch it drip out of you, tastes like pennies.

Thrives to see your embarrassment while teasing you in public. Hand wandering too far down your waist or foot pressing against your groin while sitting across from him during a meeting.

Depending on his schedule, he can either be the best or the worst at aftercare. On a busy day he could probably care less but on day's off or weekends he's all for it. Bathing you, gathering treats, snuggling neatly in bed to watch whatever show peaks your interest in the moment.

[hyperactivewhore]

I love your opinions on tvdu characters so... here we go...

I don't see Klaus as someone who would fall in love at first sight — he is way too paranoid for that. But I definitely think he would be enchanted by someone at the first sight and just decide he needs to have this person. Think about him and Cami: they talked once and he was obsessed with her.

I'm writing a history with a very introspective character and I'm thinking... How would he approach someone who is so isolated?

Btw this is one of the things I like the most on writing him. Thinking with myself "what he would do?" "what would he think?" It's like drowning in the character.

And I would love to hear your takes about it!

Thanks, darling!

I went on a rant, I hope it doesn't bother you, I didn't even realize your question, but it is answered regardless.

I definitely agree, Klaus is the kind of person who sees a woman with a pretty face who challenges him and becomes immediately smitten: his affections may vary depending on the woman, going from toxic and borderline obsessive infatuation, like what happened to him with Caroline, or love, like his situation with Camille, and a mix of complicated feelings that toy with the line between platonic and physical, like what happened with Hayley and him at the beginning.

I won't disagree with you about the second part, falling in love at first sight is something so out of character for Klaus, but he quickly becomes obsessed with any woman who talks back to him, and we can see this with all his love interests. His judgment often clouds whenever the new object of his attention is around: he allowed Caroline to say awful things about his relationship with his father and himself, throwing the gifts he gave her in his face, when he would have killed anyone else for it, he was more focused on sleeping with Hayley than he was with getting the cure, knowing it was dangerous for his family to do so, because he liked her and was attracted to her boldness, he kneeled for Camille within weeks of meeting her and was the only love interest of his he actually considered family, and Hayley does not count, as she was never his love interest but obviously still his family.

He prioritizes women he doesn't even know over his own family, this is undeniable and a big part of his character. I'm torn about what I think of this trait of his, as I think it's very out of character for the kind of person he's supposed to be. Do I believe he would chose them over his siblings? No, obviously not, not unless the feelings are love and not infatuation, and this depends greatly on what that person means to him. This is so away from the point, but Klaus is always pushed or forced to care for things, the biggest example of this is Hope: I personally believe he wouldn't have cared about her so much if Elijah hadn't made him.

But what if it had been his lover from a long time the one who had been pregnant? Klaus was a viking, he was raised as one and was expected to take a wife: they ran the household, the farm, took care of the children, but the men were still "the lords", and is no surprise Klaus is a sexist man: he would love the idea of being able to have all of that. And once he got over the shock of being able to reproduce as a hybrid, I honestly can see him becoming more involved because in his mind, he finally got everything he wanted: the wife, the child, practically the whole white picket fence. At his core, Klaus is a character who craves unconditional love and for him, a lover and a child would give it to him without question. This, of course, would require another better post for it to actually make sense.

But dropping this topic and approaching your question, I honestly think it depends greatly on your character, the kind of person they are and how isolated they actually are - emotionally, physically or both.

As we've seen in canon, he's not the kind of person who drops his interest in a person just because they feel uncomfortable or want him to stop. Klaus is very, very intense, and I don't think that would set a very good first impression with your character, especially because he always makes his interest in someone - especially if it's romantic - painfully clear. He also has trouble picking up some social clues, which is hilarious, and would perhaps make his relationship with your oc more antagonistic at first.

However, if he actually frightens her/him, I can see him choosing to change his approach. How he met Davina is a really good example of this, in my opinion. She was very much isolated from the world and he just made it so much worse: he tried to use her as a weapon, tried to poison her and actually got her high-school sweetheart killed, and in general, their relationship was awful, all because of Klaus and how he decided to subject her into his side.

This was a whole mess, and it did not come out the way I expected it to. Regardless, I hope it satisfied you!