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papenathys · 4 months ago

Note

1 & 5 for the book ask thing

1 - Fave Books

Gun to my head, I had to narrow it down to five books and felt like drinking bleach throughout. In no particular order, they are as follows:

Providence Girls by Morgan Dante ( @ghostpoetics on tumblr): A historical cosmic horror novel set in 1940s New England which retells two Lovecraftian horror tales in the form of a tragic sapphic love story. Fucking broke me. Exists at the very specific juncture of my mind between the lesbian eroticism and healing from trauma of The Handmaiden, and the body horror and monster romance of The Shape of Water.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer: I'll be honest the movie was whatever for me but this book was what kids these days call a serve...a banger even. Don't know how the author described the surreal morphing sentient, geographic, sort of sci-fi sort of psychological– sort of straight up eldritch horror?? but it terrified the shit out of me, because everything was so beautiful, so unsettling and so distorted, that by the end I wanted to be consumed alive by the fungi and the lighthouse moss too. Also the biologist is to me what Camille Preaker and Abigail Hobbs are to vaguely sad white girls on tumblr.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min: An allegory for queer peoples' alienation in South Korea, wrapped up in a gruesome, dark and funny little story about a crash-landed alien that kills people via dating app stalking. Not only was this book fucking fantastic visually in terms of typesetting and illustrations, but also the translation was genuinely great. And while the narration was very funny, there were also many passages that were gut-punchingly tragic and raw, and captured how it feels to be trans, queer and disabled in a homophobic, conservative society.

Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado: Gorgeous litfic novella about a young Italian teacher grieving the loss of her brother, who moves to Shanghai and has a toxic, obsessive, dreamlike affair with a Chinese lesbian, one of her new students. This one is not for everybody because the romance is extremely imbalanced, unhealthy and nasty but also I don't care because the writing was so hauntingly beautiful. Think cityscapes, urban loneliness, lesbian sex in dirty alleys and grief striking you at the oddest, sweatiest, most surreal hour of night.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen: Scathingly powerful political-historical satire novel, about a Viet Cong spy in the South Vietnamese army who escapes to USA during the 1970s fall of Saigon, and once there, finds himself repulsed and fascinated by the heinous facade and global crimes perpetuated by the Western intellectual, political and military complex that he both loathes and lusts after. Easily the best book I read this year, banger from beginning to end, reminded me why I love historical fiction. It TEARS apart American imperialism, the politics of colonial/orientalist academia, propaganda film, and anti-communist fear mongering in the 70s, during the Vietnam war. Delicious and horrifying usage of the unreliable narrator. Extremely relevant, timely read today. If there's one book you take from this list, it should be this one.

5 - Book I would recommend to anyone

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds. It's a YA novel about a teen Black girl who moves to rural Georgia with her parents to look after her terminally ill, estranged maternal grandmother, but ends up having a whirlwind summer as the dark, violent and tragic secrets of her family's past–and that of her mother's childhood hometown–comes to light. This is possibly one of the best young adult books I ever read, it felt like a cross between a coming-of-age film, and a classic historical transgenerational family saga. It was at once a love letter to finding queer and Black joy and community in a conservative Southern town, but also harrowing grief about historic racism and police brutality and how trauma informs identity, as does love. I mean this in the most respectful way possible: in parts this reminded me of Toni Morrison's Beloved, that's how fucking good it was.

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senka-mesecine · 27 days ago

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Could you write for hate sex with the platoon characters?

---

― There's a funny thing. A real harrowing thing. The darker Chris Taylor gets, the harder his war traumas weigh on him, the more Vietnam changes him, the more all sex in general with him will in fact eerily resemble hate sex with the high probability of that being the only type of sex he does have from there on out. Or at least for a very, very, very long time. It becomes the cornerstone of his nature rather than something secondary or humming away in the background; Yeah, there's going to be slapping, punishment, humiliation, domination, pain and yes, it'll be scary and frightening to boot, it isn't just some sort of passing kink for Taylor. Some sort of fetish he merely intensely and occasionally indulges in and then sets aside for later. This could very well be him; as he is now. This is a fundamental part of him. I think the darkness he brings home is so profound and life altering and seeps out of his pores and touches everything he undoubtedly does later in his civilian lives, sexuality being no exception and the sheltered, wide-eyed, idealistic college dropout you might've known and loved becomes someone else entirely. Did Chris ever squeeze your neck like this? Did he ever get in your face and seethe words like these to your face? Did he ever take you with a fierceness that was downright haunting? Sure, it's the same man, but something about him, as mirrored through sex, is completely different from what you're used to.

― O'Neill strikes me as the type who could braggadociosly declare that he is capable of 'pumping and dumping these broads' and that he's done it at some unclear, murky, nonspecific point in time purely to harvest those sweet, sweet credentials from the other hyper-macho men in Barnes's side of the camp and hopefully impress them enough to garner some sort of make-belief approval, but thing is, it is undoubtedly all big, empty talk, major over-exaggerations of the truth and if anything, while Red declares himself as the dominant hand dealing the cards at some imaginary round of hate sex, the opposite might just be true and he enjoys being on the receiving end of it rather than dishing it out like he says he does; this whole attempt at lying about it a possible attempt to cover up the fact he has a thing for the general, god-given meanness of someone bossing him around, shoving him, getting on top of him and just taking what they want with not a care for his feelings seemingly. Catch being, the hate sex doesn't even necessarily have to be a mere play at it. Someone could really, literally, genuinely not like him and fuck him like they don't like and it would be the hardest nut of his life, his fingers probably shaking around his cigarette and his leg bouncing up and down the next time he speaks about it and he seems a little too nervy, stressed out and intense for someone who had the supposed last say in this encounter.

― I think, Bunny likes to provoke people on purpose. Bunny likes to disgust people. He likes to weird the odd, unassuming individual out. Bunny likes to say and do things that'll deliberately push their buttons. He relishes in getting the worst out of people in relation to him, and when they cuss him out, retort something nasty to him or get confrontational against their better judgement or general nature in the most childishly gleeful way, he gets giddy like some sort of evil puppy because he's brought them to that state personally by being such a vicious irritant, and in times such as that especially it's hard not to...well...hard not to hate him. This is undoubtedly something that could very well translate to sex because hate sex could honestly be something Bunny invites in himself probably convinced that's the prime definition of a good lay; something he coaxes and fans the flames of, pestering you, bullying you, poking, prodding at you, flirting with you one moment and then disrespecting you the next, circling around you like a snake for as long as it takes for you to snap. And snap you will, eventually, regardless of your patience, good nature or forgiving tendency and on the road to snapping? Well, he'll plague your thoughts the whole while and that's fine by him. But, eventually, he'll say or do something so awful and inflammatory you could very well just push him down and give him a piece of your mind. Might just feel dirty after. Which Bunny enjoys all the more.

― Hate sex is Rhah Vermucci's bread and butter. Why, you may ask? Because one gets the impression he's as puritanical as he is occasionally fervently hedonistic. As mistrustful as he is prone to letting loose. As impassioned as he seems cynical. As gloomy as he appears to be manic. He is a man of such contradictions and such contrasts that it is safe to envision him as someone both simultaneously very lax and yet weirdly unfastened when it actually comes down to having sex. What does mean? Hey, one moment he could be ranting how if sex didn't exist and if man was unburdened form longing carnally, humanity would've gone to Mars and Venus by now and the other moment, he could be huffing some narcotic while resting his head on someone's naked thigh after a marathon of all night long debauchery, this all translating very easily to him having sex with him and acting like he hates it or acting like he hates you, the whole thing being as convincing as it is because part of Vermucci genuinely does hate and love this; he literally might just think you're putting him under a spell, stealing his soul or trapping him in a vice grip while you're riding him furiously as he's underneath your, spitting and cussing you out with fury in his eyes calling you a whore of hell --- when it's all done he could very well just cuddled up to your legs holding unto you like he's a fervent worshipper to some kind of deity. It's Rhah being Rhah.

― Ah, poor Wolfe. I imagine the whole notion of hate sex flies straight over his head, because he's too awkward, high strung and tense to be able to differentiate playfulness from reality --- at least as it happens to him, right in the moment, unfolding in front of him that very instant. Like, don't get me wrong; he understands it in technical terms. Two people who fuck like they hate each other. Okay. Alright. Makes sense. Even though the idea does make him blush furiously and cause the spit in his throat to get stuck, causing him to cough a little; but, see, if someone actually agreed or convinced him to have what is a roleplay session that'll played or, or harrowingly enough, just sprung it upon him, the Lieutenant would probably be like a deer in the head lights, mouth agape and his lip quivering if you tried to initiate a sexual encounter with the ire and forcefulness of someone who hates him. Well, I dare say the man might just think you really hate him. Or that this is some weird attempt at a break up. Or that he's done something seriously wrong and that you're reprimanding and criticizing him. Or that you're out of your mind as you slap and straddle him. Mark Wolfe is extremely literal like that. Not to say he isn't turned on as all heck. But, chances are he'd also need to be shut up as you hatefuck him to prevent him from overthinking or overblabbering this too much.

― The most relaxed, jovial outlook on hate sex as a concept comes from King who's once heard about ' them crazy chicks who dig it when you hit it like you don't like them' and that's exactly how he treats the whole damn thing; like something he's heard about, something he'd like to try one time because it sure sounds exciting and in the off chance he does try it, he treats it like an experience he feels proud and beaming about, cocky like the cat who got the cream, maybe regaling the boys in The Underworld on the subject of the angry, red nail marks his special gal left all over his back. But, that's the whole thing, you see? King treats hate sex as a spice to sexuality and not the main course dish. It's wham, bam, thank you ma'am --- done, tried, savored and to be done, tried and savored next time you and him feel like it --- like normal people do. He understands it's not actual hate and that you and him are merely playing a game for game's sake. There's nothing philosophical or overly complex for him about it to the degree he might just criticize people who need rat traps, vices, ropes and to have their leg stuck in a bear trap while someone's pretending to want to kill them to be able to get wet or hard. 'Sumn' basically wrong with that.' He could very well comment. And he means it. He loves his girl too much for that.

― With Elias, 'hate sex' comes with many, many, many quotation marks because the act itself inherently takes on a more mellow, spiritual and complicated aspect through the very fact there's any sex to be had in the first place --- see, disagreeing with someone's worldviews, behaviors or morality as he may, the very fact he's fucking them and that they're fucking him, to him at least, means he doesn't hate them all the way or rather, that he's not capable of hating them all the way and that he's somewhere deep inside likely to understand them or empathize with their side of things even though he doesn't condone them, meaning that Elias could have hate sex for all its passionate impulsivity, roughness and tenacity but not actually despise the person he's having it with because see, he could very well believe that in whatever case, getting down and dirty with someone means sharing in their energy, their intimacy, their aura, their karma and that there's nothing purely hateful or noncommittal about it. Chances are, he could very well see fucking an enemy as a discharge of energies and pent up frustrations being released one way or another, either through combat, either through reconciliation or, well, this --- a belief not many people understand --- but the encounter of copulating with someone he doesn't see eye to eye with is more cathartic to Elias Grodin than anything else.

― Don't think hate sex is metaphorical or a purely fanciful term for Barnes, being that there is actual hate involved and when there's actual hate involved in something for this man, it might just culminate with you being legitimately harmed or killed or the inverse taking place; him allowing himself to get to killed by you, because that's how fights and confrontations ought to end anyway in his opinion. In death. And fights often do go as far as death with Barnes unless he's physically held back by several people at once. This being no different. In fact, it is quite literal with him. Sure, the technical aspects are dissimilar, and there's nudity and organs involved instead of weapons and shooting, or hey, it isn't that far fetched weapons might just be embroidered into this sexual encounter as well, not unlike a skirmish, but the end game could very well be the same regardless of the details at play; bruises, blood, fractures, hurt and fatality, meaning that this is a dangerous game to take on with him. Quite legitimately high stakes. It'll hurt, it'll be a rumble, it'll be something akin to a brawl and yes, actual hate shines through everything he does to you and everything he has you doing to him while you're fucking. He isn't a man of half measures. He isn't a man of lukewarm actions. When someone says hate sex, he means it all the way. You might just end up railed with your neck simultaneously broken. Proceed at your own discretion.

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rookamell · 1 month ago

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OC Meme: Cora "Rook" Amell

Thank you so much for the tag @pixiedurango, @flowersforthemachines and @rookinthecrownest !!! I love yapping about herrr.

Edit since I'm stupid and forgot to put in a picture of her beautiful face:

(^regular Cora expression™️)

GENERAL

Name: Cora Amell

Alias(es): Rook, Cor

Gender: Female

Age: 29

Place of birth: Redcliffe, Ferelden

Spoken languages: Trade, Orlesian, and a smattering of Tevene

Sexual orientation: She's never thought about it once in her life.

Occupation: Pre-Veilguard: The Maker's Favourite Chew-Toy, Bard/Spy, Inquisition Mage, Shadow Dragon agent. Veilguard: Reluctant Team Leader, Even More Reluctant And Underqualified Team Therapist, Professional Nuisance, Most Repressed Woman In Thedas. Post-Veilguard: Spy/Intelligence Network Coordinator, First Talon's Personal Alibi And Confidante, Career Window Seat Lounger, Wicked Grace World Champion, Dinner Table Arguer and Public Gathering Hater

FAVOURITE

Colour: Pink, Blue, Purple, Yellow

Entertainment: Theatre (she was a very big lover of Orlesian Theatre when she lived in Val Royeaux), Music (Street or Professional), Watching people play The Game (Even though she hates playing it herself). After Veilguard Lucanis takes her to the Opera in Treviso and she loves that just as much.

Pastime: She loves reading books. She loves dancing but she won't do it in front of anyone unless she's drunk because she's godawful at it poor girl. She also loves singing and, to an extent, sparring. It helps her relax and focus and get some energy out.

Food: Stew! She loves Orlesian Stew! But she also loves anything she doesn't have to make herself and has a special place in her heart for honey.

Drink: Coffee! As hot as she can get it with just a little bit of cream for flavour. Dorian introduced her to coffee when she got to Minrathous and she never looked back.

Books: She loves adventure, court intrigue and chevalier tales (<- I assume thedas has an equivalent to Arthurian romances centred on the chevaliers?) She also loves folk tales and old history. "Just not Genetivi, he can make anything boring".

HAVE THEY

Passed university: No! Lol this is so funny the mage rebellion happened before she could even attempt her Harrowing and then with the rebellion and a giant hole in the sky spitting demons right after no one... really cared? Technically she's still an apprentice. She and Dorian both think it's hilarious, but Emmrich has a conniption about it when he hears.

Had sex: Nope! While everyone else was having sex she was studying the blade aka being conscripted into the Inquisition and refusing to think about her life or form any meaningful connections outside of the guy paying her to spy for him(he's paying her so it's not real so he can't hurt her <- incredibly healthy reasoning)

Had sex in public: Nope. Never have and never will.

Gotten tattoos: Nope.

Gotten piercings: Nope.

Gotten scarred: Yuh. Pride demon at Adamant hit her with a nasty bolt of lightning, scars everywhere, she hates them. The first time she met Teia she got a knife to the face and a scar on her cheek

Had a broken heart: Romantically? No. In general tho her heart's been broken since her mom called the templars on her when she was 7 and her dad didn't stop them from taking her :(

Been in love: Before Lucanis? No. She's had crushes but they were never pursued/reciprocated so she was never really invested in them. They were sort of like celebrity crushes or people who were unavailable. (Of the top of my head: Cullen, Rhys, and maybe a small crush on Teia but she's not going to examine that in any way shape or form)

ARE THEY

A cuddler: When she gets comfortable with someone? Absolutely. It's her main form of comfort for Davrin and Lucanis. It makes Taash uncomfortable but they allow it because it's Rook. She routinely falls asleep on Lucanis and Bellara cause she lays over/on them all the time.

Scared easily: No. She's been expecting to die since she was eight and "after the third or fourth near-death experience it starts to lose its lustre a little bit". I will say though she's terrified of the dark and of small spaces because of those isolation rooms in the Circle towers and also being kept in the Pit for a bit in the White Spire.

Jealous easily: Idk if she knows she's allowed to get jealous. I also don't know that Lucanis ever gives her a reason to. The only time I could think that she would is Taash's comment about the strawberry girl? And she won't say anything cause like I said idk if she knows she can. It's a conversation they need to have. What I will say tho is that she really gets jealous of Kieran (who is her cousin) whenever she sees him with Morrigan/Aidan (my Warden), because she knows she'll never have that with her family again.

Trustworthy: uuuuuuuhhhhhmmmm. She tries really hard to be? Lucanis trusted her to help in Treviso :). But then Neve trusted her to help in Minrathous :(. And she was also trained as a spy by Leliana. Mostly though she just tries to do what she thinks is the right thing, so you can trust her to do that. Trustworthy is such an interesting concept when you think about it.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): She has one younger brother called Cailan. He studies/researches Ferelden and Orlesian history at the University of Orlais. His wife ig is also technically a sibling. Her name is Marchellete and she studies/researches Ferelden and Orlesian history at the University of Orlais.

Parents: Her dad (Victor Amell) was Captain of Arl Eamon's (and later Arl Teagan's) guards at Redcliffe and my Warden, Aidan's, older brother. He's dead, unfortunately. Her mother (Amelie) is a noble Orlesian lady (I haven't centred on a family yet but I'm leaning toward a branch of de Lydes) who gave up her title to marry her dad. She is in Orlais during Veilguard and she and her daughter have very many unresolved issues all starting with the fact that Cora turned out to be a mage.

Children: I'm very certain that any children she and Lucanis end up having will be an accident because she is so subconsciously terrified of one of her children being born a mage. I am leaning heavily toward the hc that it accidentally happens about eight years after Veilguard tho and they have twin boys that Illario, Teia and Davrin all go absolutely insane over. One of them does turn out to be a mage.

Pets: She's wanted a mabari since her uncle Aidan brought one home after the Blight but she's never been able to have one :(. Honestly she knows she and Lucanis are too busy for any pets really. But she learns to love Lucanis' little snake ig. (Davrin does carve her a little wooden mabari tho and she loves it and calls it Alistair and it goes with her absolutely everywhere)

Tagging: @corvus-frugilegus @serensama @saessenach @mythals-whore @thesecollidinghearts if you would like to or haven't done this yet, otherwise just ignore me❤️. Also anyone else who sees this and wants to just tag me I love reading about people's Rooks!

#cora amell #tag game #this was so much fun thank you so much #dragon age

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tigirl-and-co · 3 months ago

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Chapter two is ready! I don't like to start with introductions, since I've always found them to be a little boring, but more importantly I usually hate writing them. BUT I had a pretty clear vision this time around, so I went for it. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Chapter 1

When I Think About Rain

Ch 2. The Beginning

At this point, sneaking through the spacebridge may as well have been a beloved autobot-and-friends hobby instead of the harrowing stealth mission it was supposed to be.

Of course, sneaking through Shockwave's lab was still a frightening experience, especially for a human, but you had volunteered this time anyway. Sparkplug, Spike, Carly, and Chip were all more use helping the Autobots back at base, and you figured that since most of them had made the trip at least once, that it was your turn. You were sneaky. It would be fine.

Not as aware of your surroundings as you could be, though. As you were slowly picking your way to your destination, in awe of the endless mechanical city, you failed to notice the aerial pursuit. Which was on you, considering they were the most eye-catching shades of lime green, highlighter yellow, and play-dough blue you'd ever borne witness to.

As they landed with Cybertron-shaking thuds all around you, you stumbled and fell over. Like an idiot.

The blue one looked annoyed as the green one scooped you up faster than you could get away. Bluey huffed. "Really? This is what Shockwave wanted us to grab? Doesn't seem like a threat to me."

Frightened for your life, you weren't thinking clearly. Apparently, your adrenaline-soaked brain defaulted to 'snarking with the Autobots' mode to give itself more time to process the situation.

"Okay but it still took three of you to catch me, so maybe he just thinks you're incompetent."

Blue and Green looked gobsmacked. Like if a mouse had just told them where they could shove it. Yellow, however, chuckled. It was kind of a pleasant sound, and helped your brain get itself under control.

"Shockwave thinks everyone's incompetent."

If you could be funny enough for long enough, you might have a chance to escape.

Green looked away from you, still held in his palm, to chastise Yellow. "Nova, don't agree with the enemy!" he admonished, inadvertently giving away the name of Mr. Sunshine.

Blue was trying to get a good look at you, his expression still undecided as to whether he thought you were funny or annoying. Yellow- Nova, you knew his name now, was smiling pretty good-naturedly and trying to defend himself. Big Green just looked tired.

Looking between his two trine-mates, he sighed. "Let's just bring it back to Shockwave."

You only managed a little "Do you have to?" before Greenie transformed around you and sped away.

~~~

And that's how you ended up in a glorified birdcage. Apparently you were a valuable bargaining chip or something, which is why Shockwave didn't immediately squash you, dissect you, or use you for target practice.

And while Nova and the blue one seemed really interested in you, Green seemed... apathetic. Bored, almost. Watching him ennui around listlessly like an understimulated zoo animal in a cement box, you could almost feel bad for him.

Y'know. If it weren't for the kidnapping.

While Blue had been openly staring at you like a middle schooler seeing his friend's pet betta fish, Nova seemed more interested in you from a scientific perspective. And trying to seem genial, or at least polite, he finally introduced himself and the rest of his trine.

"I'm Nova Storm, and these are Ion Storm," he gestured to Bluey, "and Acid Storm!" and he glanced back at Big Green, who was lounging disinterestedly on what was probably the giant evil alien robot equivalent of a couch, considering it was in front of some sort of screen.

Acid Storm tilted his head back to look at you and the mechs. "You don't have to introduce us. It's probably not gonna live long enough to care."

You wrinkled your nose at that, and tried to keep anxiety from clawing at you. "Hey man, he's just being polite! Not that you'd know anything about that."

Ion Storm snorted at that and jeered at his trine-mate. "Yeah, Acid! What's the deal with kidnapping a poor, defenseless little organic like that? You didn't even ask it its name!" He leaned in close to your cage and whispered "Hey. What's your name?"

When you told him, he gave you kind of a side-eye and muttered something about organics under his breath.

While he kept riling up his unamused trine leader, Nova Storm took the opportunity to start asking you questions about your homeworld and your species. After all, who knew when he was gonna get another chance to ask a native?

"What's the atmosphere made of?" Mostly oxygen, with some CO2. "What do humans eat?" Mostly organic material. "So do you eat each other?" No, that's usually considered pretty horrific, with exceptions across cultures. "So humans aren't a monolithic culture?" Good God, no. We've had more wars than you about way smaller differences. "Why don't your wars last as long?" Dunno, guess because we don't live as long?

You didn't notice the other two moving closer.

"How long do humans live?" Nintey-ish years, I think. "How long is a year?" Twelve months. "And a month?" About thirty days, give or take. "...And a day?" Twenty-four hours, and since I know you're gonna ask, an hour is sixty minutes, and a minute is twenty astro-seconds, and that is the only Cybertronian measure of time I know. Otherwise I would have saved us a lot of time.

Nova looked... fraught. Almost upset.

"If my math is right... that's just barely over a vorn."

Acid had apparently decided this was more interesting than staring at a blank screen and getting mocked by Ion Storm.

He looked at you in quiet disbelief.

"That's kind of... sad. I'm sorry."

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. He had kidnapped you, prevented you from saving your friends' lives, said out loud that you probably didn't have much longer to live, and now he had the gall to be sorry because biology said you had a finite lifespan?

"Motherfucker, if you were sorry, you'd let me out of this goddamn cage!"

Ah. You hadn't meant to be so aggressive. You let both fear and anger eat at you, and now you were probably going to die for it. Good job.

But when you took a chance and looked at him, he didn't seem angry. His face was furrowed, like he was thinking hard. Seeing Ion and Nova both staring at him with a small amount of concern, you added that together with his melancholic behaviour, and you sort of wondered when the last time he actually got to lead his trine was. Was it before the Cybertronians crashed on earth? More than four million years ago? You couldn't wrap your head around-

"Convince me."

You blinked up at Acid Storm. "Huh?"

Ion Storm leaned in and poked you, gently but still hard enough to push you back. "You heard him, fleshy." He grinned. "Impress Acid Storm and you go free."

It felt too good to be true, and it probably was. But you had to take the chance. "Okay first, you know my name, Ion. Second, the hell do you want me to do? I could, like, badly recite the plot of a movie or something, maybe tell you about what I've got waiting at home for me."

Nova looked a bit intrigued at that one, but Ion did not. "Boring, try again."

Okay. Great. Your life is on the line and you're too stupid to save it. "I, um-" Stifling under the gaze of three giant guys who were NOT concerned about your inevitable demise twenty minutes ago, you rummaged around in your pockets. You had a dollar bill and some loose change, and you pulled it out and showed it off.

"I have one dollar and thirty-nine cents. Final offer."

All three of them leaned in to see your strange, alien money.

Nova spoke up first. "Is that... a lot?"

You could've lied. You could've told them you were rich beyond measure.

"Oh, absolutely not. It's enough for like, one candy bar. One of the shitty ones."

But you didn't.

Ion storm chuckled a little bit, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Acid started howling with laughter, nearly doubling over. Pretty soon the other two joined in, and you yourself couldn't help the grin on your face.

Once he had himself under control, Acid unlocked the cage. "You've got a deal. Your life for the price of one shitty candy bar."

You went to set your money on the floor of the cage before you had a terrible idea. Just a real dogshit idea. Maybe even the worst idea you'd ever had. You pulled out a sharpie from a pocket and wrote your phone number down on the dollar.

You stepped onto Acid's outstretched hand and he lowered you to the floor. As you started booking it across the room, you turned and flashed the global signal for 'call me,' knowing they probably didn't know what it meant.

Once you were out of sight, hidden behind some random Cybertronian junk, you remembered a question you had wanted to ask back when Nova had first introduced everybody.

"Hey, are you guys theme-named coincidentally, or did you change your names when you joined up?"

You heard Acid Storm's quiet groan.

"Primusdammit, just go!"

#acid storm #nova storm #ion storm #rainmakers #transformers #maccadam #transformers x reader #g1 #i'm nooooot a fan of quiet demure uwu self inserts #i'm a dom goddamnit #i like writing for g1. i can be silly #when i think about rain

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notedchampagne · 1 month ago

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I literally saw someone say Alecto/gideon will never be canon but like man they literally kissed. This fandom is so funny there’s more people anticipating Gideon ianthe relationship in sone sort of way when all they have going on is funny camaraderie while Ianthe still shit talks gideon on the side meanwhile Nona and kiriona had that Muir dyke relationship formula going on with the antagonism and weird fascination. I’m joking I don’t know where this ask was going I wished more ppl thought of kirinona as the making up for the harrow space in Gideons heart ship while simultaneously being its own antagonistic dynamic while also being about alectooo like sorry for shitting on kiri*nthe I think the white woman fetish in this fandom is tooo much (jk)

i appreciate your passion. i find gideharrowlecto interesting mainly bc 1) alecto was harrows first love im so serious 2) if you are looking for cav4cav this is one of them 3) one of the main miscommunications in tlt was that gideon resolved herself to martyrdom upon realizing harrow decided to live for another girl; their perceptions of love and its connections to loyalty and sacrifice are blurred due to growing up in Deathplanet Sacrificeverse so alecto is equally harrows anchor and gideons competition

this is not to say i dislike ianthe, because i find her deeply funny and its obvious she is tamsyns special doll. however i consider her to be the red herring love interest seeing that she purposefully forces her way into importance and that narratively, she is tied to coronabeth (the doom of codependence) and kiriona (the doom of body possession and ownership). i also like kirianthe in a toxic best friends kind of way, but i think that with the nature of fandom ianthe was always meant to favoured as a very easy punching bag. with all the fics ive read 90% of the time ianthe is the toxic ex with a small dick everyone makes fun of because generally, the fandom agrees she 1) sucks and 2) we dont have to get into her intricacies here if we need jungkook to drive the toxic-ex-bus (i personally disagree)

theres more you could say about the nonalecto-mutual identity and what that means with how she perceives gideon but im personally waiting for atn to come out since id be extrapolating too much. my apologies that you have to see ianthe. shes a cw on ao3 tags if that helps

#talking back #nona the ninth spoilers

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dammit-tazmuir · 6 months ago

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So I'm still relatively new to the fandom and I'm not sure if there are common "fanon" or widely held theories about the pre-Resurrection names, but I did try looking around and didn't see any so...

Hear me out. ✨Even more Biblical symbolism.✨

I don't have strong thoughts for Ulysses, Cassiopeia, or Nigella. And with Cristabel's new name (still?) having ties to "Christ" I wonder if she's closest or even was allowed to keep her old one (which, yeah two C—s without clear hierarchy would have gotten confusing, but could be another reason she was only "the nun" instead of given the same name treatment as the others), or perhaps hers was more Greek (Cassandra, for being the one who kept telling John things he didn't want to believe?).

But for others, I suspect...

Alfred / "A— Junior" was originally Andrew, after the first apostle to join Jesus. More importantly, Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, who was the most prominent apostle, generally considered in Catholicism to be the first Pope, the first bishop of Antioch, and a lot of other stuff that could make him an interesting parallel to Augustine (not that I think he shares a name, just potentially some indirect parallels). Also the literal meaning is "manly/man", see Augustine below. -

Titania / "T—" (on her papers) was originally Tabitha, after a woman who was literally brought back to life. (This was done by Saint Peter, so not the most direct parallel with the above thoughts on Augustine, but with him being part of the very original project with John, not fully disconnected either.) -

Pyrrha / "P—" was originally Priscilla or Prisca, who notably shared a home for a time with (Biblical) Paul. (It means "ancient", but that's hardly unique here, though I guess her being the last surviving member of the original aside from John and Alecto is worth something there.) A secondary guess would be Phoebe, who's mentioned in Paul's epistles; the name means "bright, pure" and also has Greek meaning (moon goddess and grandmother to Artemis), so it would kinda hit both the major name origins in this series. Or as a third guess, while I think parallels would be shared/split rather than having this instead of the other Peter thoughts, something like Petra could also work, though that might be too similar to Pyrrha to consider. -

Gideon / "G—" was Gabriel, the archangel and messenger of God who announced the births of John (the Baptist) and Jesus. The name comes from the words for "God" and "strong man" or "hero". -

Augustine / A—, the First Saint to serve the King Undying, was Adam, sharing a name with the Biblical first man, first of humanity. The literal meaning is also arguably "man", which makes for a bonus with A— and A— Junior having that much more similar names. -

Lastly, the one I'm most utterly convinced of, Mercymorn / M— was Mary. Perhaps Mary-something, mimicking the "two names" format of Mercymorn (ex: Maryanne, Mary Lou, Marilyn), or maybe a name from a Marian title (Mercedes would be especially amusing), possibly both (Marisol, Marigold). But 10,000% her name comes from the Virgin Mary in some form.

For starters, the first time Harrow sees her, she's described as

"Virginal" as one of the first words ever associated with her, with further description making her sound very much like the kinds of paintings one would associate with Mary.

But much more interesting is her role in Dios Apate, Major. Both

and

She was the both the one who managed to get the sample despite John trying to be careful about that and had been intended to be the genetic mother of the baby, but not to carry. While certainly not literally "virgin" here, she's still in a very real sense a sort of "virgin mother of (space) Jesus".

Any of them could be adjacent or have nicknames, of course. G— could have been "Gabe." The idea of P— being called "Prissy" is funny enough to me that I'd fully buy it. A— Junior could've gone by "Andy", etc. But I feel like all these have some solid merit, especially Mary-Mercy.

#the locked tomb #tlt #ntn spoilers #og lyctors #tlt theory

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icedragonlizard · 1 year ago

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I'm probably going to be obliterated for this, but I'm bold enough.

I think it eventually deserves to be said, anyways.

Consider this the follow-up to a post I wrote a few days ago.

For clarification, I'm not at all trying to say that the whole Mecha Knight thing in Planet Robobot wasn't messed up. Overall, it was messed up. Yes, what Susie did to Meta Knight was indeed quite bad.

But it's very clear that the Kirby fandom has absolutely blatant double standards when it comes to this sort of thing.

While it's understandable to find enjoyment in milking angst out of such an incident, I believe that people exaggerate Mecha Knight.

Some people love to go on about how Meta Knight suffers from horrible medical trauma after Planet Robobot. About how much he hates Susie's guts, will never ever forgive her, and wants her to die. About how this was basically the worst thing to ever happen to him.

But if I'm being honest, I don't think Mecha Knight was that much different from all the times that King Dedede has been possessed.

Where's all the talk about Dedede being traumatized from all his possession incidents? Hello?!?!? Do people just act like he's not that traumatized or that he easily toughs out his possession incidents while Meta Knight was just messed up so darn bad by being a robot?

Actually, I have seen people talk about Dedede being traumatized by Dark Matter, but it's absolutely nothing like talk about Mecha Knight. Still double standards.

To be fair, I can somewhat understand the big discrepancy of how Mecha Knight is treated compared to Dedede's possessions. After all, Meta Knight is quite literally the Kirby's fandom blorbo (aside from Magolor, I guess) and turning someone into a robot against their will can very much indeed be a lot more nerve-striking in comparison.

But was Mecha Knight really truly so much worse than Dedede's possessions? Does it really deserve to be treated like it's such an unfathomable, unspeakable, harrowing tragedy... compared to Dedede's incidents being treated like they're no big deal at all?

... In my opinion, no.

Meta Knight shook off roboticization pretty quickly after the second Mecha Knight fight. He's then quick to get on top of the Halberd while the rest of his crew gets it up and flying. Funny how it's that instead of him just sitting there crippled and helpless after the robot armor breaks off of him. I dunno about you guys, but he looks fine!

While I myself do imagine that he'd certainly have been somewhat messed up and traumatized by being a robot, and while I do imagine he would be mad at Susie over it for a while, I sincerely don't agree to the extent of how some people depict it. It didn't ruin his life like some people think. It hurt him, but not ruin him. He's been through bad stuff before. If you ask me, it's more like a "regular Tuesday" for him instead of being the absolute total life-ruining experience for him. He's been able to heal from the incident and is doing just fine.

And for the record, I don't buy into the "Meta Knight hates Susie SO MUCH and wants her dead" headcanon. I don't necessarily headcanon them being friends, and I think he was initially angry at her, but his anger at her slowly fades in my opinion.

Can we please not overlook some of Dedede's possession incidents? Let's not pretend that Taranza is an innocent little guy and that he hasn't hurt Dedede before. Although I believe that being used like a puppet by Taranza was far from Dedede's worst possession incident.

I like to imagine that Dedede suffered from true traumatization from 2 out of the 3 times he's been possessed by Dark Matter, as well as the time he's been possessed by Fecto Forgo during Forgotten Land.

He's been able to heal and get better, but it did hurt him at first.

Dark Matter lowkey turned his stomach into a set of jaws, and then formed a giant unnerving eyeball onto his stomach. That had to hurt, methinks. It also wouldn't help if one were to interpret that Dark Matter was preying on Dedede's flaws, making him easy to possess.

When Dedede was possessed by Fecto Forgo, he was ordered to hurt his own waddle dees. He couldn't have felt good about that afterwards, especially with how much he's shown to care about his waddle dees to the point he goes out of his way to save one singular waddle dee from the stampeding Beast Pack after he's been freed.

In my opinion, if Meta Knight has been messed up by Susie, then I think that there's no way Dedede hasn't been a little messed up one way or another by the Dark Matter and Fecto Forgo possessions as well. While I certainly believe he's been able to heal and overcome them, I think he was hurt over them initially after they were over. For me, it's basically the same of how Meta Knight had a phase of being traumatized by what Susie did to him until he's come around to heal.

I prefer to think that the incidents are similar instead of just "OMMGG poor meta knight was screwed up so darn bad, and dedede's possessions weren't really a big deal, they were much much less bad."

And I don't at all call for anyone to hate on Taranza, Dark Matter, Fecto Forgo, Yin Yarn or anyone else that has possessed Dedede. They don't deserve that, in my opinion. Just like how I think Susie is honestly not deserving of the level of hate she's received for Mecha Knight.

Was Mecha Knight a messed up incident? Yes. But let's not pretend that some of Dedede's possessions weren't messed up as well. Mecha Knight is certainly more nerve-striking... but from an objective standpoint, it's not significantly worse. And I think Dedede has overall faced more trauma than Meta Knight has, since the former has been possessed much more times. Sorry, but I don't think one robot incident outweighs multiple possession incidents. I just don't.

HAL doesn't at all appear to treat Mecha Knight like it's so much worse than all of the times that King Dedede has been possessed.

Oh wow, this is getting a bit long, but yeah that's basically it. I just felt like it needed to be said that it's almost absurd that Meta Knight being turned into a robot once is all it takes for the fandom to metaphorically riot on the streets while ignoring Dedede's possession incidents.

I'm well aware that I might be playing with fire while writing this. But I'm bold. I'm gonna brace myself for however some people react to this. Not sure if it'll get to the point where I'll be forced to delete this.

The double standards in this fandom gets on my nerves.

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deadmountaindaughter · 8 months ago

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ianthe is so vriska coded its not even funny. she has a metallic prosthetic arm, she has done innumerable crimes against her friends, and while vriska just killed people to help eridan feed the lusus she just legitimately eats someone at one point. kind of. but also literally. to be fair it was in pursuit of ultimate power which just makes her even more vriska coded. she and harrow are FUCKING KISMESES AND IF I SEE SOMEONE SHIPPING THEM LIKE MATESPRITS I WILL DO SOME SORT OF ACROBATIC etc etc. she cares about precisely one person, her sister, and she still manipulates her constantly. its also been theorized that she only actually cares abt corona out of self interest and that would be SO in character. she will team up with you and give you a makeover and help you a lot in an overly indirect way but its always just because she thinks it will help her own plan. shes gonna grow, like, necromantic bone horns in AtN and tazmuir is gonna describe them as "asymmetrical and mismatched, with curved and spiky tips" or something and we wont even need any more description to know exactly what they look like

#emi talks #tlt #the locked tomb #homestuck #vriska serket #content warning ianthe tridentarius

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 2 months ago

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As someone who watched the show first and then got into the comics later, I do understand some of the gripes people had with the show.

One that I see a lot is making the Mr. Knight suit just Steven's version of the costume. I really love the concept of the suit changing to fit each alter but at the same time Mr. Knight in the comics is really fucking cool as a concept. I'm fine with them co-existing but if the MCU does more with Moon Knight, I'd be cool to have MCU Steven getting to do some detective work as Mr. Knight or talking with clients in an MCU version of the midnight mission.

I also see a lot of people complaining that the villain is named after a one-off villain from the weird era when he has an ankh chest symbol instead of a moon, but I think there would have been more outrage if they used a villain that people like because then they would be complaining about how different and worse the TV version is. I mostly find it funny because comics Arthur Harrow didn't even meet Moon Knight face to face. They really made an OC and then slapped a Harrow's name on it lol

So the Mr. Knight suit was first created by Shelby in the Ellis Shelby run. …Which isn't 100% accurate. You CAN find little background tidbits of Moon Knight going in groups with the Avengers dressed in a first iteration white suit… But Ellis and Shelby are the first to actully make use of the suit and create the Mr. Knight character.

What is intersting about it is that Moon Knight had just come off of a haitus after a disasterous run by BENDIS that ended in 2012 and Ellis picked it up in 2014. At this point, Moon Knight was a joke and they really needed to get Moon Knight away from what Bendis did. (not nearly the worst writer, but the one with the least amount of comprehension on how to handle Moon Knight).

Ellis is known for a certain style of writing and he had long wanted to team up with Shelby. Their Moon Knight run let them team up and also run off together to Image to write a beautiful comic (that they didn't fucking finish).

While the Ellis run had issues, it really gifted us with the Mr. Knight character. At that time, Marc was far from the man we known and knew. Jake and Steven were nothing more than memories, and Moon Knight was more or less a ghost. Mr. Knight felt like a dissociative episode with very little substance. It fit.

In the MCU show, Marc was originally supposed to have the Mr. Knight suit. All the promotions of Mr. Knight with his sleeves rolled up to show off those sexy forearms are in the Marc Spector role. An interesting concept and I wonder what their original plan was for the actual Moon Knight suit…

I suppose if you look at it in a certain way, it makes sense. Moon Knight looks like a mummy in ancient Egyptian garb and so on. Steven in the actual Egyptian style suit DOES make sense.

But Steven won out on the suit trying to look suave and cool and proper.

I would love to see MCU Steven doing more as Mr. Knight. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I can see him getting along fantastically as a detective.

As for the villain thing. It isn't uncommon for Marvel to do that sort of thing. The number of times they have taken a one off name drop and brought it back to make it into a big deal is sorta rediculous. They DID have Mogart and it makes me incredibly sad for many reasons. Mogart was a major villain in the OG comics and one might argue that he was the first reoccurring major villain for Moon Knight.

Sadly, the actor that played Mogart died in a tragic accident and all plans for him left the table. I think he could have made an excellent villain for future episodes/seasons.

I did very much like Harrow in the MCU. It played a fantastic other side to Marc's ideology about guilt and his issues with Khonshu. Not to mention his soothing smooth talk as a cult leader that Steven could instantly see through. It really was a fanstic way to highlight Steven's strengths. We can thank Ethan Hawk for such a great performance and for adding his own ideas to the character.

I agree with your assertion that using a beloved Moon Knight villain would have really divided the comic fans further from the show fans. You can't make everyone happy and people would certainly have complained.

I wonder if the original intent was to bring Comics Harrow back like they did with Agatha Harkness in the comics thanks to the show? It seems their Moon Knight plans were kind of all over the place and many of them didn't pan out. I wonder why…

#talk to me about Moon Knight #Moon Knight #Happy people are still asking Moon Knight questions and thinking Moon Knight thoughts #Detective Steven Grant has a nice ring to it

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chestersbraincell · 12 days ago

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Day 12 of 30 days of Our Wonderland

ohohoho….mayhaps….perchance I do…

Here’s a somewhat comprehensive list of all my ow headcanons(JFC these took ages to collect, alas):

Generally:

•post ow ending/ow epilogue Gidget, Cecil and Orlam are in an open relationship polycule

•in wonderland Gidget and Orlam may have had a fling or tried to get together at times but it never really worked out due to Gidget not feeling quite right about themselves etc so they just ended up fairly good friends/monarch partners in crime in wonderland

•Genzou's Mom would be for some reason babysitting Orlam so they were forced to get along and Genzou would begrudingly let Orlam play with him on his Minecraft world on the Xbox 360(totally not projecting a childhood experience partially hush hush), only to make fun of him for always wanting to use the Alex skin because "they look like him" and Genzou teasing him because he's "playing as a girl". To which. Orlam waits for Genzou to be out of the room and deletes the Minecraft world and that's really where all the hatred between them started

•Gummybear(not just the song everyone knows, I'm talking all the little lesser known side songs they released) is to Genzou what Garfield is to Orlam

•Orlam(in the orly scenario) is SO the type to strut up to the counter, angrily pointing at the counter as he glares into the poor minimum wage worker's eyes like „excuse me, he asked for no pickles" while Iggy cowers right behind him, mortified, lowkey empathising and feeling sorry for said minimum wage worker

•As kids, Orlam would be the type to be a HUGE scaredy cat about decorations. And then Genzou would obviously tease him about it, only to stop when he realises he's indirectly insulting Iggy who's arguably MORE scared than Orlam

I guess a lot of my alignment charts and whatnot can count as headcanons, but there’s a lot of them so here are just a few:

As well as these tags I added under one random post:

As for character specific headcanons…

Iggy:

•A majority of Iggy’s music taste is secretly nerdcore. Like fan songs for fandoms. Sometimes even fandoms for games/media he hasn’t even watched/played

•A few very personal and projection-y headcanons I have for Iggy is that he both has skin picking disorder if not also hair pulling disorder, and that he may just be voidkin. The weirdcore type of voidkin btw. I fully realise that carrot will have no idea what the latter means though aughhh/not negative

Gidget:

•Projecting my previously long haired AFAB enby experience onto Gidget like: I bet you they felt so relieved after cutting off allat. Literal weight off the shoulders JFC. No more harrowing mornings of trying to detangle allat. No more pulling your own hair while laying down.

•part of the reason why they're such an active LGBTQ activist is because a part of them is trying to compensate for how vaguely/subtly homophobic their highschool self was

Genzou:

•Genzou at some point watches MLP equestria girls, like for example with an older Saydie if not of his own volition, and CRIES at sunset shimmer's whole arc of learning to be a better friend/person, ESPECIALLY the whole "my past is not today" song

Bucks:

•Bucks having that condition that makes people unable to feel pain/feel it very mildly and that being why as a kid she was like. Oddly not scared of most things like most kids would’ve been. Also why she gets into all sorts of physical altercations and doesn’t mind them one bit. She just doesn’t know that it’s causing her damage. Therefore she also had many random near-death accidents as a kid that she just. Isn’t bothered by? She will just be telling a story like it’s a “haha get this funny thing that happened to me once” meanwhile everyone is just staring jaws agape like…oh my god….are you okay…

And now the absolute monolith(idek if I’m using that word correctly…but isn’t that in itself very much in Orlam fashion….) that is the list of Orlam headcanons because he’s the blorbo of all time to me:

•Orlam secretly listens to Taylor Swift

•Orlam would LOVEEEEE Chonny Jash’s CCCC album if only he knew of it…if only…

•Orlam would also listen to Olivia Rodrigo in his teen years. If her music was around then

•Because of Orlam’s fascination with the French language, he would listen to Indila and Stromae also

•Orlam is the type of guy to use baby girl unironically to flirt

•Opera fan Orlam... him doing some mundane things around the house only to randomly just start trying to hit those long high notes(emphasis on trying)

•Orlam would be the first to turn to cannibalism in a dire apocalyptic scenario.

#our wonderland #30daysofow #ow: genzou #ow: iggy #ow: gidget #ow: bucks #ow: orlam

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ricebagel · 2 months ago

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assigning project sekai characters milgram songs but I am absolutely RIGHT (sorry for the bad joke)

note: the songs are MOSTLY assigned due to vocals and the sort of vibes that the character gives off, not their character

This was also very difficult as the number of milgram characters who have intense type voices/songs (haruka, mikoto, kotoko) outweigh those in proseka, so some voices were very difficult to assign

(especially once i gave kanade and shizuku triage and half respetively, it was very hard to find a song for honami)

ok here we go

weakness: ena (HEAR ME OUT GUYS. SHE WOULD SOUND GOOD PLEASE BELIEVE ME)

all knowing and all agony: I WANT TO SAY MAFUYU but I already said mafuyu had to do a mikoto song so that'll have to be honami I guess

umbilical: haruka (at this point i only had a couple songs left)

tear drop: definitely airi and I will fight anyone who says otherwise

jihen joutou / bring it on: who else could it be except for AKITO FUCKING SHINONOME. I knew he had to do a fuuta song but I think jihen joutou's vocals are more suited to him

backdraft: OK HEAR ME OUT. shiraishi an. before you murder me let me explain. 1. she's the next most likely to match fuuta's (and akito's) anger, 2. her gekokujou alt, and 3. fire motif (it's funny). Also people keep assigning her stuff like umbilical which is not her at all please stop this nonsense

after pain: I think kohane would be great on this. especially the rap part. I'm pretty sure everyone agrees with me on this

it's not my fault: HOLY SHIT this was hard to choose between ena and nene but yeah my queen nene kusanagi had to win this there was no other possible way

Throw down: Shidou looks like toya in his bloomfes card there is no other correct option for this song

triage: kanade would make this song sound heavenly she is an ANGEL and she would definitely nail the desperate parts also something something savior complex

ai nan desu yo: fuckkk I know this isn't a leoni type song at all but this is definitely saki (I mean if you really tried leoni could do any song but it sounds like a more more jump song but when I chose this I had already done all the momojan members except haruka and this isn't her at all)

daisuki / I love you: just imagine. hanasato minori singing "dai dai dai datte suki suki". tell me this isn't her song.

half: if shizuku sang this song my life would be hers (but I would also settle for honami)

Cat: rui does jazz so fucking well this is definitely his song

omajinai / magic: everyone agrees that this should be emu and they are not wrong

the purge march: tenma tsukasa (do you see my vision)

MeMe: DON'T KILL ME BUT. ICHIKA HOSHINO (again I was running out of characters. Ideally I would've wanted her to cover weakness but I had to give that to ena. also she would cook the slow part)

double: I had my doubts earlier but I relistened to it and this is definitely mafuyu. like I knew she had to be one of the mikoto songs, combining her softer voice and her usseewa voice and in the end it was the phone call in double that did it for me

HARROW: OK this was originally ichika because I thought harrow sounded like a leoni song but I was listening to usseewa while writing this and legally had to change it to mizuki because how could it not be mizuki after that

Deep cover: IT'S LITERALLY SHIHO. JUST GIVE IT TO HER

Anyways it's way too late at night goodnight

#milgram #project sekai #pjsk #milgram project #prosekai

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colonelpancakes · 8 months ago

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Watching The Dragon Prince Season Six Part Six! Moment of Truth. Under the cut as per the usual! This episode will reveal my habit of using more pet names for characters the more distressed I become!

I’d just like to say that every time the intro plays, I experience a few seconds of intense fear as I wait to see if it’s Callum again. They've done it twice now I am fully expecting them to do it again.

Oh dang, that is a beautiful opening shot of the sunrise. Absolutely stunning.

Ohh, Callum honey. I know the feeling, it sucks.

Aww, Raylaaaa. I love her trying to cheer Callum up with the crown, it's so sweet…

Ohh... poor Callum... Yeah, that would be a blow to anyone’s self esteem. Especially when we know from The Frozen Ship that Callum's been struggling with the idea that he had already permanently ruined himself by using dark magic.

(Also again, the voice acting is amazing.)

Oh, you know, that’s a good idea! Since they don’t really need to kill Aaravos they just need to stop him from being freed and the main threats to his status as imprisoned are Claudia finding the pearl or Callum getting possessed. If it’s in the Starscraper being guarded by Celestial Elves, then that’s both problems solved! Claudia doesn’t know where it is and it’d be pretty difficult for a possessed Callum to go get it, especially not before anyone could stop him. Good thinking Rayla!

OH GOD.

...On the one hand that’s really bad and a serious problem but on the other hand that is so fucking funny. The magic prison you've been carrying wrapped in an anti-magic blanket through the freezing cold is a giant M&M. Sorry. There is no good way to deliver the news, huh.

Oh, Callum… The way his voice shakes and he sounds so out of breath like he’s having a panic attack. Poor baby.... 🥺

Oh, Honey…

And of course it makes him feel worse because to him, if it really was Aaravos influencing Callum without him knowing, then it’s confirming that, not only is there the possibility that he could one day become a threat to his friends safety, he actively is a threat to them. And if it was simply an accident, at the very least, there’s something he can do to prevent another accident. If it's an accident, then it's something that he did and something that he can make an effort to not let it happen again in the future. Whereas if it’s Aaravos, there’s nothing he can do. The thing he could have done to prevent Aaravos possessing him is not use dark magic but that ship has sailed. He’d be entirely helpless and it’d be his own fault.

Also, it goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyways: Give Callum’s VA an award, the voice-acting is so good, the franticness, the hyperventilation. It’s so good.

Ooh, I love this style of flashback. I love the way that it’s the same artstyle as the credits and how it makes perfect sense since in-universe, Viren’s writing all this down on a piece of parchment. Also, I think that this is first time we’ve heard Lissa’s name in the actual show! I love how you can already see that Claudia got her hair-texture from Lissa while Soren got his from Viren.

Soren with his little dragon plushy!!!! I'm going to start crying...

Hmm. I know it’s probably just coincidence, but the fact that Soren seemingly had a terminal respiratory disease makes me wonder if maybe he had the same condition as Callum’s father, since Callum said that Damian had “some sort of terrible breathing sickness.”

THE QUOTE FROM HARROW!!!! OUGH! “Claudia and I are still searching for a creative solution." "Call it what it is. Dark magic." vs "I found a creative solution. I suppose I should call it what it is, dark magic." The growth.

Oh?? I’ve always been curious what it is about the staff that enhances dark magic since it doesn’t come from a specific primal source. Usually, it comes from taking the life force of living things, but how does a staff help with that? Hmm…

Okay, I’ve questioned this before but. What is up with Kpp’Ar’s arm? It’s clearly injured… Is he using his own blood for spells? It feels like such a random detail to add without explanation. I wonder if we’ll find out...

Ah, so Harrow isn’t king yet. Interesting… I guess that makes sense since Kpp’Ar doesn’t appear in any of the Magma Titan flashbacks.

I think I remember Kpp’Ar having given up dark magic from The Puzzle House (please forgive me if I'm wrong my memory is shit), but I wonder what could have happened to make him veer away from dark magic and the staff to the point where he won’t consider using them to save a child… The royal family doesn’t have Aaravos’s mirror yet so I don’t think it could be that. I am so curious about this man...

KPP’AR MAN, COME ON! I get that you’ve seen some things but you could at the bare minimum be a LITTLE more tactful than that! If there’s some reason that the staff can’t be used, you could, I don’t know, EXPLAIN IT to Viren? Instead of just leaving him sobbing in the room with no explanation as to why you are letting his son die? ...I see where Viren gets it from.

Sksfjalkjslkf I forgot about the monochrome so when the scene switched back to the Starscraper I was like wait what the hell is happening?

Kosmo, man, I’m not sure this is helping, but also, Callum petting Sneezles for emotional support… I love themm…

Callum, honey… Ough... I am going to cry I love Callum so much. Sweetie…

Ssakljfsalkfj Rayla trying gently elbow Kosmo away from Callum.

Callum, honey, sweetie, darling, sweetheart, love… The fact that he’s just utterly given up on himself and on his ability to continue. That he thinks he’s just too far gone, that there’s nothing left so there’s no point in even trying… Ough. And the implications of refusing to get rid of Aaravos’s control considering the fact that he made Rayla promise to kill him if he ever got controlled again and she did. Oh, honey… Callum’s arc this season is repeatedly punching me directly in the stomach.

Plus the voice acting, again. The way he sounds so dead and empty and almost apathetic, like it’s already over, like there’s just no point to anything anymore. AHG.

Once a dumb sibling always a dumb sibling.

“Truth is everything. But before you give it to another, ask yourself, are you giving them clarity, light, and purpose? Or are you shifting a burden to someone who needs all their strength?” I really like Astrid and I like how they're not going the "lying is always bad, telling the truth is always good in every situation no matter the context" route and instead acknowledging that it requires more nuance! Also, I love how Astrid is animated here, her body language is very expressive and fun.

OH? Oh that explains why it was monotone I had been thinking that it was just like, a sudden style change to portray the emotions or something skjfaslkj. That make a lot more sense.

Also, I like the clarification of how the future-sight works! It seems kind of like Clearsight’s ability in Wings of Fire where she can see all of the possible futures that diverge from her decision. Kosmo can see the possibilities that arise from his decision of whether to tell the truth or not and then pick the best option once he’s seen the diverging paths. It’s probably my favorite form of “prophetic” ability and I especially appreciate it being used here since it lets Timeblind elves like Kosmo exist while still holding true to the themes in the show about the nonexistence of destiny and how the choices you make impact the future.

Okay, I still feel like being Timeblind would suck. I can only imagine Kosmo feeling super awkward repeating what he said in the vision and like. I don’t know but I feel like it’d be creepy to have the people around you constantly parrot what you’ve already heard them say like they’re reading from scripts and you know what they’re about to say and the exact tone they’ll say it in a second before the words come out of their mouths. That would entirely creep me out.

Self confidence restored!!

Continued in reblogs, curse the tumblr image limit

#TDP #The Dragon Prince #TDP S6 #TDP S6 Spoilers #TDP Spoilers #The Dragon Prince Season 6 spoilers #The Dragon Prince spoilers #Mars Watches Tdp #Mars yells into the void #My posts #spiders #tw: spiders #bugs #tw: bugs

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dragon-susceptible · 2 months ago

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TDP Rewatch S2 E6: The Heart of a Titan

procrastinating writing the next chapter of Different Path Taken by watching the show? Me? Yeah.

This title hits different after the Mystery of Aaravos arc, I gotta say.

Why does Viren keep getting the recap voice. I'm so annoyed with this bitch.

This show does a really good job of putting different narrative arcs over each other, like Harrow's narration and Viren's, Ezran's speech over Claudia and Ibis' fight, that sort of thing.

I really, really love the parallel between Harrow's fatherhood and Runaan's. Harrow was dealing with being a stepfather, "trying to give you space to love your real father, even though he passed away." At the same time as Runaan was stepping in as a guardian for a friend who would, as far as he knew, one day return to take Rayla away again. They both had a reason to hold their distance, and they weren't bad people for doing it. They tried to make their love known without replacing those parents, and the thing is - they succeeded. They didn't get the chance to say the words before Viren cursed them both, but Callum and Rayla know that their adoptive (so to speak) fathers loved them.

God, I'm a whore for these fucking elves apparently, I'm literally pausing and going frame by frame through the few seconds we get of the assassins approaching the castle while Harrow narrates.

So Ram seems to have been responsible for guiding the others, he took point on approach to the castle. Also he wears a ring on his right horn, and these fuckers really love running in trees for absolutely no reason.

Andromeda was on his heels to his left. Callisto followed on the right, Runaan after on the left again. Skor brought up the rear, and was watching behind them. Oh this is interesting - where Ethari's facial tattoos trail under his chin and across his neck, Skor's do not. They stop at his jaw.

@ Skor, nice ass. Also, Callisto, Callisto, where the Fuck are you storing that glaive??? Ram uses knives, Andromeda's sickles could easily just be under her cloak, we can see Runaan's blades, Skor's are likely on his back, but Callisto's glaive is longer than they are tall, even if it collapses like Rayla's butterfly blades or Runaan's bowblade, where did they put it??

"A lie, a wish, and a secret."

What is it with this show and having characters just yell "DAAAA!" as a battlecry

Funny how once again, as the battle begins to rage, Viren doesn't lift a finger to help. This seems to be a trait of his. Whenever things come down to real battle or real labor, he backs out.

The sister shield launch was fucking epic, I don't care how ridiculous it is, I loved it. How Amaya looked up and just knew, and Sarai trusted her to know exactly what to do. They've done this before.

Oooh, yeah, Amaya probably also has a concussion. Brains are fragile and she just got her whole body rattled in a metal can, including hitting her head so hard her own helmet cut her cheek. She'll be battered af for a few days.

I also love how Sarai got so concerned for a moment, but when Amaya reached for lightness, Sarai joked back that she doesn't look great, but she should see the other guy. It's really nice that we can see this is just a throughline of who Sarai is; she's supportive and kind and has a tendency to respond to serious situations with humor to diffuse them. She's funny, and that's just really nice to see as a guiding character trait in a woman in media. A mom in media, at that, and her humor is actually funny, not the usual "haha parents making jokes that make their kids cringe".

Oooh I'm fucking vibrating over this argument between Harrow and Viren and Sarai and Amaya about whether to take the heart and leave the wounded or wait for everyone to make it. Because here's the thing, right. Sarai is arguing that the wounded will be fine - she and Amaya can stay back; she clearly has a plan. Theoretically, the wounded could hide and recuperate and then sneak back later. She is not wrong about this. Viren is pushing to just abandon them entirely - which he's extra eager to do because Sarai threatens his sway over Harrow. Harrow won't do either of those things, because leaving someone in danger is absolutely against his personal moral code, which is the main thing that got them into this situation in the first place. He cannot turn his back on someone who needs help, even now when it would actually be somewhat practical - and Viren drives him to extremes.

Also, "you wouldn't do this if it wasn't your wife's sister" made Harrow snap, and I really like that moment, because it's very clear right then that Viren said it because he knew it would hurt, and Harrow knew he was saying it just to sting. I also can't help but think about the conversation that must have been had among the assassins after they discovered Rayla didn't kill Marcos, and Runaan didn't kill her - would he have done it if she wasn't his daughter?

And the fundamental difference between Runaan and Harrow in that choice, which is that Harrow would stay and save them all even if it wasn't Amaya. But Runaan would have killed her, if she wasn't his daughter.

The Lie: History is a narrative of strength.

That lines up really well with how much Viren harps on strength, how it's worse to be weak than to be cruel, in his eyes. I wonder if Harrow expected Viren to use this narrative on his boys, and was trying to head it off in this letter even though he wasn't going to be there to stop Viren himself.

Something about how Harrow's narration of how he learned how the moments of purest strength appear as weakness to those who don't know better is lined up over Callum accidentally hurting Ezran during play, and dropping his toy sword to make sure he's okay. Something about how Harrow learned this lesson in love from his children, and now he's trying to make sure they hang onto that lesson as they move forward with history.

"Reject history as a narrative of strength, and instead have faith that it can be a narrative of love."

Did Villads always know Rayla was an elf? I don't remember if we get that reveal later or if that was just a really good fic or something. I'm like 90% sure he asked about her name because he knew perfectly well she was an elf and was curious if she'd admit it.

The fact that she just outright says she's an assassin is either her being a true dumbass or having a culture clash moment because being an assassin in the Silvergrove is just like. A profession. A normal thing someone can do.

"Never give up on yer dreams!" He says when she confesses she's never killed anyone.

He has definitely killed people.

There are way too many discarded weapons and banners in the sands around as Harrow's party retreats in the flashback. I'm wondering if this is Viren's narrative license, making it seem worse than it was, the animators taking some license to just throw weapons in there to demonstrate the Vibe, or if it's evidence of other battles fought there recently.

The narrative parallel of Thunder appearing in Viren's story and then framing Zym in his silhouette.

"I love wisdom. Bring it." Rayla says in the present, and based on how often Runaan just pops off with some randomly profound idiom, I wanna imagine she's just used to getting random bits of wisdom from him.

Also like. I just started thinking about it again. And can we discuss how uh . . . she knows Harrow is dead. But . . . she didn't know yet that the other assassins died? She knew it was possible, that they expected it to be extra dangerous, but since they succeeded in their mission, she had to have wondered - did they escape? How many? Did they go home to report her betrayal? Or were they recuperating and going to hunt her and the boys down?

"Life is like a river. You can't see too far ahead. (I can't see at all, as I might have mentioned before.) You don't know where the river of life will bend and turn. You don't know where it'll go at all. Don't try to control where the river goes. There's one thing you can know and control - yourself. Look at yourself. Who are you, Rayla? What do you stand for? Once ye know that, then wherever the river takes ye, you'll be right where you were always meant to be."

Rayla does the dramatic teenager thing and tries to make a speech in response, but Villads really was pretty profound here.

Love how the one time Viren actually tries to help he actually just makes things incredibly worse for Annika and Neha - and also almost screwed up their sacrifice, by dying as well and making their efforts meaningless. Also Annika reaching back for Neha before Avizandum's tail struck them was just . . . a heart-wrenching detail.

"I don't know what's waiting on the other side." is a really neat moment of contrast, I think. Because here, Harrow is saying he doesn't know what lies beyond death; humans don't have that assurance. He believes he'll be able to watch over the boys, but he doesn't know for certain what death will be.

That's a really interesting contrast to how Moonshadow elves see death as not an end, because they do know what happens to their dead. They can summon them even, with the right magics. There's no issue of belief or uncertainty in death for them.

I really don't think Avizandum killed Sarai. He unhorsed her and Viren, and she was gasping for breath when Viren turned her over, but what, he in his pretty courtier's robes wasn't harmed but she in her full plate armor - having not hit anything, there were no rocks near her that could have hurt her this badly - was killed? Also, even his narration goes black before she takes her last breath, and she chokes on it like she was stabbed.

Because she fucking was. He has her last breath in a bottle because he killed her. Avizandum was already flying away when he ran over saying they needed to hurry. And then Sarai had had the wind knocked out of her, maybe jarred something badly enough in her plate that it was hard to move, and he saw this wild chance to remove this obstacle that kept pulling Harrow out of his control, so he took it.

I hope Sarai left bruises on him that he had to cover up. I hope he suffered with it.

Harrow telling Callum to reject history as a narrative of strength, and instead see it as a narrative of love, as Viren does exactly what Harrow warned about, and tells a story of epic battles and victories and strength, to Aanya.

I still hate that Sarai's statue is the moment she reached for Viren to save him. He tainted both of their memories.

"Are you ready?" "No. But you may open the doors." No. Gods, how could anyone be ready for this? How could anyone prepare to tell this little boy that you love, that you've taken into your home, whose mother you married, that you are still struggling to express your own love for, that his mother won't be coming home?

I do love that he hugged Callum first thing, though, and Callum hugged him back.

The Wish: for his children to be free of the sins of the past.

"As a father, I have a selfish wish." "Create a brighter future from your own hearts and imagination."

The way both Harrow and Runaan frame their wishes for their children to be better than they were as selfish.

As a more meta note, I do think it's neat that the creators were just like "Annika and Neha are Aanya's genetic parents. No we will not elaborate." and then they just didn't. That's the funniest possible way for them to handle a fantasy lesbian couple with a daughter. Is one of them trans? Was Aanya a magical test tube baby? Did one of her moms just use magic to swap bits for a little while to try for a baby like a World of Warcraft character? We don't know. That's not important. I cannot think of a funnier way they could have framed this. They didn't have to confirm to us that she was their genetic child at all, they just did it and left us to speculate. This is gold.

Wait is this why people in my Ao3 inbox keep commenting that Runaan and Ethari should have babies, because canon does just straight up have a same-sex presumably cis couple having a baby already

Aanya's "I believe that they would. But I will not." Is such a good moment, especially with Harrow and Callum's plot running simultaneously. Harrow is warning Callum of exactly what Viren is doing, and Aanya stands up and does exactly what Harrow wants Callum to know to do.

"I cannot repay a debt of a hundred thousand lives who were saved, by sending a million more to die in violence." Speak! Up! Aanya! Admittedly, this is why she felt a little weird to me in Season 7 encouraging Ezran down his nuclear deterrent type plans, but like. they're both kids in positions of power from very young ages. They were bound to have chaotic eras, and we don't really know what's been going on for her in the time lapse.

Viren going straight for the other king who has mentioned having children for help "talking sense into her" happened, didn't it. Did he ever do that to Harrow, I wonder? When Soren was being unruly, did he turn to Harrow in exasperation and ask him to help talk sense into the boy, only for Harrow to encourage Soren's athletic pursuits?

Again with the throwing a fit and resorting to violence in his anger, to the point of striking out at a king, physically shoving Ahling around.

The secret: the Key of Aaravos.

Archmage Aaravos, a master of all six Primal Sources. So they told us right here in season 2 that Primal Sources can be learned, because Aaravos learned them. Harrow knew that already, which is interesting.

WATERPROOF SOCKS INDEED, VILLADS. YES. THANK YOU.

Callum just really needing a hug from Ezran after reading the letter hits. I really really love how their brotherhood is portrayed in this show, never a joke, they're allowed to just be soft. "Is this a trick?" because yeah brothers do that shit to get close for pranks sometimes. "No, I just love you." "Well I love you too." I just. I just.

I appreciate that Villads just outright calls himself a pirate. That's great.

Also, something about how Callum and Harrow both have green eyes is getting me in the heart. They're not related. It's a coincidence. But I'm sure that hit Sarai in the chest a few times, watching them bond with each other, watching Callum start to pick up mannerisms and traits from Harrow, even if she never got to see their later form.

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vindikaetion · 1 year ago

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Trick or treat!! 🍬🐜…🐜…🐜….

Hehe you get TREAT! :)

I've had this in my google docs for a a few months while I work on a few other projects, so thought I might share. This is for @alkalinefrog 's Spiderman AU, which you can find here! <3 (Go check it out rn the art is SO GOOD)

"How good are your reflexes?!" Hiccup suddenly shouted, cutting off the weird sort of stand-off between Spiderman and Hiccup's kidnapper.

The white eyes of Spiderman's mask squinted. "Superhuman?" he replied in confusion.

Okay, that somewhat alleviated some of Hiccup's concern over his absolutely batshit insane plan. Somewhat, being the key-word, because he was about to place his life in the hands of the quipping superhero who Hiccup's boss thought was a menace.

"No funny business," the man growled, tightening his fist. Hiccup let out a choked grunt as all the air in his lungs was forcibly pushed out, but he mustered all his strength and coherency to keep his hands covering the exposed circuitry. "Unless you want to meet the pavement face-to-face."

"Counting on it," Hiccup wheezed. Before the man could have a chance to prod him, Hiccup ripped out one of the many wires that programmed the suit to keep him hanging.

If anyone were to ask after the harrowing experience, Hiccup would tell them that he had very bravely kept his voice calm and even. The truth was, the moment gravity took hold and he went plunging to the ground, Hiccup shrieked;

"You better catch me!"

A beat passed, then two. Hiccup kept his eyes shut, every inch of his body tense. It would do little to help if Spiderman was unable to catch him, but human instincts cared little for realistics.

Hiccup had one other near death experience in his life. It was the same brush with death that had claimed his leg, and it oddly felt a lot like this. Weightless, with every sense focussed and sharp. As if an eternity decided to stand still in this very moment, with the sounds of sirens and shrieks in the air. Though it lacked the sound of honking and metal crashing, it was startlingly similar.

Except this time, instead of a solid impact sending his world into utter darkness, a firm yet soft body collided into his.

Hiccup's stomach lurched as the world suddenly swooped, forcing another shriek past his lips. Arms tightened around him.

Someone laughed beside his ear. "You're seriously crazy, but can't say I don't respect it."

Hiccup could hear the twipping of Spiderman's webs shooting between buildings and the relief in his voice. The most prominent sound was the wind whipping past their cheeks, but he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes.

"Thanks," he squeaked. He chanced opening his eyes, just to let out a rather embarrassing sound. All his pride went out the window, cinging to Spiderman with as much strength as he could muster in his scrawny body, eyeing the rapidly approaching ground in alarm. "Can't say I ever want to do this again, though."

"Great!" Spiderman said joyfully. "That makes two of us."

#hijack #spiderman au #httyd #rotg #hiccup horrendous haddock iii #jack frost #my writing

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