#though some of it is definitely bc of the danger of bill still being alive i promise a lot of ford's anger is also out of concern for stan

[s0dabeach]

more billstill au (by @jellynut) drawings, in which ford finally finds out what stan has been hiding. ford is... not happy with him

+ a couple billever au (also by jellynut) sketches

[wander-wren]

today i am angry because lightlark keeps (kept? i think it’s dead) getting compared to the hunger games

i don’t know if tumblr saw the lightlark drama and i’m not interested in rehashing it especially bc some of it got uncomfortably personal towards the author at one point and also it was months ago so just! suffice it to say lightlark is a book by alex aster, it is a terrible book, and i did not put myself through the torture of reading it but i did watch a 7.5 hour video essay

(i think the essay could have been 6 or even 5 hours, and i think this person went a little too hard on the critique at some points, so that rubbed me wrong a little but it was also extremely thorough and i was bored.)

but anyway. one of the big things about lightlark is that it was marketed as “hunger games x acotar” which is….fine. but every time someone compares a book to thg i’m automatically suspicious because no one does it right.

and of course, neither did lightlark.

the book is a complete disaster so i will try to stick only to the relevant points but seriously. there’s so much.

the official premise of lightlark is that six realms in a fantasy world have been cursed for hundreds of years. each curse is (supposed to be) a twisted version of the realms magic, and the curses also cut them off from their main island of lightlark. except for once every century, when the island becomes accessible for 100 days and the six rulers travel there to try to break the curses via death tournament.

but then you get to the book and learn that the curses are only broken if a ruler dies without an heir, since their special ruler magic just transfers to the heir and no one gets anywhere. this was only a caveat so we could have a young protagonist ruler, i’m sure. ALSO, IMPORTANTLY, if a ruler dies without an heir, their entire realm also dies.

and obviously that’s bad so the rulers have to consider carefully who they want to kill, and they keep putting the killing off bc it’s not easy to condemn thousands of people to death.

so why, pray tell, the FUCK, are you doing a death tournament every century.

(they’re not, by the way. the first 50 days are dedicated to some demonstrations that are definitely hunger games inspired and meant to allow the rulers to forge alliances bc even though there’s only six of them they’re also required to partner up for some reason?? but there’s almost no fighting and almost all the fight scenes end very quickly with no real damage to the main character. it got really annoying really fast.)

but like, let’s pretend for half a second that lightlark IS about six rulers fighting to the death to break a curse. it’s still not even close to being like the hunger games.

the hunger games was about teenagers under constant surveillance forced to perform and then kill for the masses, many because they weren’t rich enough to buy their way out or into good training.

no one except the rulers and the essential staff is even allowed on lightlark, and no i don’t know why that is. and the characters spend the entire book trying to avoid killing each other as much as possible (well, minus two cases) bc they want to find another way to break the curses. i don’t understand why it’s billed as this big bloody dangerous battle even in-universe when everyone involved really REALLY doesn’t want to fight.

also, this isn’t related to the thg nonsense, but if i’m talking about lightlark i have to talk about That Twist. alex aster really loves her twists and is very proud that no one can see them coming but that’s because reading the twists is like watching the street for cars, then trying to cross and getting hit by an airplane.

as i said, the characters keep trying to find a new way to break the curse, even though it’s been 500 years and many of the rulers have been alive that long (no i don’t know if that’s normal or a ruler perk, it’s not explained) so they SHOULD have tried all of these fairly obvious methods by now but SURE, JAN. this book would make so much more sense if it was only the first century and everyone was still scrambling to figure the curses out. but whatever. alex aster wanted her protagonist to be in a love triangle with two 500yo men

(there’s nothing inherently wrong with that and i actually really loved grim, not for the reasons i was supposed to bc the writing was bad, but i liked him, until—well, put a pin in that.)

ANYWAY. THE POINT. our protagonist, who i guess i should say is named isla, needs to find “the heart of lightlark” which “blooms where darkness meets light.” everyone assumes they’re looking for a super special flower but they can’t find it. then, isla decides this random-ass bird that’s only almost gotten her killed twice is DEFINITELY going to show them the heart, so they follow the bird.

and at dawn, the bird lays a fucking egg. and it falls out of the nest. and cracks. and the yolk. floats. into the air. in time with the rising sun.

I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW MUCH IT IS A LITERAL FUCKING EGG

no foreshadowing. isla has an internal monologue where she thinks she always did see the moon as an eggshell and the sun as yolky, but the yolky sun description happens twice in 400+ pages and the egg moon description happens Never, so like. shoutout to aster’s copy editor??

i can’t take this book seriously bc it is a literal egg an EGG isla has to carry an EGG YOLK to break the curses. there are scenarios where i could accept that but this Serious YA Fantasy Book is not one of them.

and since i mentioned the one thing i did actually like, i will explain isla’s one love interest, grim. technically her only love interest bc nothing about the other guy struck me as romantic but idk maybe her inner monologue was yearning or smthn. anyway, grim.

grim is from the least trusted/most stigmatized realm. he’s described as a huge hulking nightmare of a man, a demon, every badscary description under the sun. but like. the times he is alone with isla? he takes her to a chocolate shop during their first meeting and hand feeds her truffles, which is a little weird and overly sexual but…still. chocolate. then he hides her from another ruler no questions asked even though he has every right to be suspicious. he opens up to her and shit. he calls her “hearteater” (it’s a reference to her curse, her people eat human hearts to survive, no that doesn’t make sense either) (also isla is magically not cursed so our protagonist doesn’t have to be scary and gross and worry about that during the novel haha!) (guess what else is never properly explained….)

anyway grim calls her “hearteater” but like, almost in a teasing/endearing way, which is fun, and when they start to fall in love he just calls her “heart” which is ALSO cute imo i’m weak for nicknames. he’s like. the narration and aster really really want me to think he’s the scary bad boy but he’s just such a soft dude.

and then. ohhhh, and then. one of the other hit-by-airplane twists is that the weird sexy dreams isla has been having all book about grim? they’re not dreams. they’re memories. the two of them used to be together for about a year before the book started, and grim erased her memories as part of a plot to betray her yada yada i was braindead by this point so i don’t fully remember all 17 elements of the betrayal. but like…..first of all that retroactively makes all of their interactions but especially the chocolate thing kind of weird and creepy? also WHAT was the FUCKING POINT pf making her forget she loves you if you’re literally just going to seduce her immediately anyway. like. the book makes a halfhearted effort at having grim avoid her but it really didn’t feel like he was purposely being mean to push her away. because every time they did interact he was so sweet! sir!!

anyway he betrayed isla probably mostly to keep up the ambiguity of the love triangle and so aster could brag about more twists and i hate that bc WHY. he was doing so well.

anyway. i got so far off track. lightlark is a wild fucking ride and i did not even scratch the surface of the plot-hole filled mess that this book is. my sister does own it and i did check a few things bc i straight up could not believe they were real (like the egg. i cannot get over the egg.) so.

also this book only got published bc it went viral on booktok so that kind of tells you everything you need to know. the good news is it does give me some measure of hope/an ego boost bc if lightlark exists in the world…..surely whatever i’m doing can’t be too bad.

[sunshinereddie]

What do you think the losers would be gods of if they were in a Greek pantheon kind of deal. I have some of my own ideas but I'd love to hear your take on it

oh jeez ok if you had asked me this like,,,,,,, when i was 14 i would have written you an entire essay about this bc i was very deep into my greek mythology phase during that time LOLL

but this is a hard question!!! if we're ignoring like,, the pre-existing gods and "creating" new ones, i could imagine bill as some sort of protector, of guardian-type of god. im thinking about all he went through to try and prove that georgie was still alive, to try and save him and bring his little brother back. but then considering the danger he put his friends in trying to defeat IT, maybe protector isn't quite a good descriptor for bill lmao. but definitely a god in some sort of leader position for sure, i don't want to compare him to zeus because,,, no. but big bill!! he'd be a leader up there as well i think.

for richie, my first instinct is to make him some sort of "trickster" kind of god (*cough cough* this is definitely not a reference to supernatural *cough cough*), considering. his goofy character, and i. can also see him as a trickster god being a shapeshifter as well, you know since in canon he literally does impressions for a living, i think that being a shapeshifter just makes sense for him! but then i thought, trickster god might be a little obvious, yknow? so then i thought a little bit harder and thought maybe he could be some kind of god of love? since in canon his sexuality and his feelings for eddie were something that burned him for so long, his love was something that he was ashamed for for so long, i think it would be kind of interesting (and ironic) for the god of love to be struggling with his own love. idk if that even made sense, but i think it could be a pretty cool concept.

i think beverly could be some kind of goddess of battle- not exactly like ares or athena, god and goddess of war, but more so like... bev has overcome so many battles, she's been through so much in her live, and she's survived them all. she is a warrior, and even though she hasn't been to "war", she's fought wars in her own life and she's come out victorious.

as for ben, stan, mike, and eddie..... im not too sure ;-; i guess i have a few ideas but they're all pretty basic haha but honestly your takes are probably much better than mine!!! i'd love to hear them so pls pls pls share :3

[ziracona]

Might be to early to ask but do you think the Twins, or at least Charlotte, are redeemable? And how does Elodie interact with the group

Yeah, definitely. According to the new canon, Charlotte thinks/sees the survivors as the cultists who tortured her and her brother and got Victor killed. She got some people killed and killed some when stealing food, in self-dense (ish, since well, she was robbing. But imo if you’re starving and break in & someone attacks you you’re still acting in self defense basically) or in a panic. Which isn’t great, but she’s not evil and she lived a scared and fucked up life and has no reason to expect anybody won’t be like the people who burned her mom alive as a witch or tortured her and her brother. She’s one of the feral killers, all of whom I think are quite redeemable. Like most of them, it’d probably take a /lot/ of work to get her to give anyone enough of a chance to recognize anything good in them at all or be reached, or would take some extreme circumstances, but it definitely could happen. And the poor girl deserves some rehabilitation and love and help. : (

Victor, on the other hand, is harder to parse. As far as I can tell, from how the lore reads, he’s not actually Victor. If he was, I’d put him in the same camp as Charlotte. But since he’s almost definitely not, I see it playing out one of two ways. Since Victor is like I am 80% sure something the Entity made, like the crows but way more evil and destructive, and intelligent enough to be able to follow orders well and convince Charlotte he’s who he’s pretending to be, either any attempt to rehabilitate or befriend Charlotte ends with her having to eventually confront both her brother’s real death, which she never did even when he was a corpse hanging off her, finally come to terms and be at peace with it and love him but let him go and find a way to keep living, plus an epic showdown with Fake Victor and rejection of the lies the Entity fed her and it’s using her and fake paradise and fulfilled dream, in a kinda big “You call boats she, Georgie” moment for her, or.

Option #2, which I like just as much. In which, while an evil intentioned extension of the Entity like the crows, Victor is a living being, created construct or no, and makes better choices. We know from the crows that the Entity living creations are still alive in and of themselves and have some amount of free will, proven in that crows like Jake to the point crows will listen to Calm Spirit over Spies From the Shadows and ignore their singular created purpose in order to protect him. And I see no reason Victor couldn’t eventually, created to be feral and vicious and cruel or no, grow attached to the sister he pretends to know and love who loves him so utterly and truly, and he does get to know. I’m sure she, like Jake is to the crows, is infinitely kinder and better to him than the Entity is. And see no reason, especially as something made with human levels of cognition and processing, he couldn’t decide to try to help her/choose her and anyone she allied with or anyone else who happened to be genuinely kind enough to him to matter, over the Entity. And Charlotte would still have to confront her real brother’s death and I’m sure the deception would be awful, but as something treated like she was created to be a monster her whole life, I think she’d have empathy for something created for that exact purpose that just wanted to love her and have a family and a normal life and be better than what people said, and I think they could be the start of a real sweet found family together.

Can’t decide which I like better though. Maaaybe two, because I’m such a sucker for any construct/robot/golem/clone/monster gains sentience/humanity/free will and self narratives. They’re just *chef kiss* SO good. :���-] But god, the epic showdown drama of #1. Especially with a This is the Bad Place evil grin of “Oh hell yes I am not Victor and I love this game I’ve been playing” mmm the mental cinematography. I keep trying to think of a way to just give him a really long redemption arc and do at least part of both, but they may work better as separate interpretations. Mmmm. 🤔 I’ll keep in it.

Anyway! That’s my thoughts on the twins. As for Élodie, since she super lets David just die and doesn’t kick the little one off him, I’m gonna assume that while she has a lot of knowledge and experience with risky cult stuff, she’s not been in many actual high-pressure-high-danger situations, and has a really hard time adjusting initially. Probably watching her family get taken and having just been stabbed for the first time and almost died right before being taken, the initial PTSD trauma threshold is even higher than for most of them, and she’s super miserable. But I expect after a while, especially with all the survivors there with experience and empathy, she is able to hit a stride and get a little more practice and courage and comfort, and it gets easier. And when she breaks out of the freeze response to fight/flight/freeze, she gets very invested in the heavy research team stuff with Tapp/Claudette/Dwight/Zarina/Adam/Jane/Quentin/Cheryl/Felix, and is an invaluable contribution. I expect reuniting with Felix is awkward af, especially since while I have no idea if he blames her for the loss of his parents, I am sure she would assume he does, and probably she feels immense guilt for all of it. I don t he does though, or that if he does, he wouldn’t get over it pretty fast after watching how much she’s suffering. And I think after he reached out, they’d bond really well over their shared history and trauma, and it’d be really good emotionally for both of them. I have always HC’d since she’s from Montreal, Claudette speaks French too, so I think Élodie and she would get along well too, and enjoy being able to chat in a second language. And probably all the researchers would vibe pretty well with her. I think also if she had a really hard time initially adjusting, the specifically protective survivors (David, Tapp, Bill, Kate, Yui, Quentin, Zarina) would absolutely be all over trying to help her in trials and help her make it over the learning curves. Also, all the survivors attracted to ladies would think she’s hot (Sans Felix, who is a good man who’d never cheat on his wife, and Nancy, who I think is the only other one w a s/o back home?Kinda Quentin I guess but I mean like, a steady. And not the people more than twenty years her senior [Ace Ash Tapp Bill] bc they got boundaries. But still.) And I am sure Meg, Nea, and Feng in particular are living their best lives because have you seen her? Overall, I think she loosens up and has a good sense of humor and makes friends pretty well, although she can also snap to laser-focus on a subject with 0 warning and does, but it’s kinda awesome to watch.

[blazichu]

tmnt but as humans for the au thing? or even if say they didn't have to live in the sewers bc "talking turtles strange". you can pick/interpret this however you want, haha

hm okay so if i were to narrow it down i think i would make it so they still were trained/raised by splinter but none of them were mutated. it has been. some time since i've seen tmnt so i can't quite remember if all the villains were mutants/monsters too or all the backstory details but if say the spill or mutagen had never happened then i wonder how that would change? i also would wonder how different dynamics would be if they weren't forced underground. lmk if you still need more specifics!

That’s great, Anon! Thanks for giving me a little more direction. I’m going to apologize in advance, because I got waaaay preoccupied with certain details, so it’s a lot more worldbuilding than it is putting together a definitive plot, but I’m hoping it still fits the ‘what would this entail?’ bill. Let me know if I missed the mark, though!

And standard disclaimer: even though this is an AU, it’s still heavily based on 2k3′s characters and versions of events. What can I say? It’s My Brand.

I’m not 100% sure what you meant by ‘none of them were mutated’, but I’m choosing to interpret that as something akin to Rise’s yokai situation, where non-humans are born that way. In this case, the “yokai” society and human society would be integrated, but that might be a newer development (within the past 100-300-ish years). TMNT has always used mutants, aliens and other non-humans as allegories for groups that have been discriminated against, and I feel like, even in a more tolerant setting, that would still stand. The humans and non-humans put up with each other, but aren’t on the best terms, and the humans are usually the aggressors. (I also want to make it clear that non-humans are human in all but body/looks-- some have features that provide some benefit or drawback (shells, for example), but there are no supernatural abilities inherently associated with it.)

Bear in mind that I’m writing this as someone who has only left the west coast to visit Ohio of all places, so if I make a Glaring New York Mistake, my bad. I feel like there’s no way the Hamatos live in New York County, so I’m going to tentatively say they’re based in the Bronx. Yes, I know. That was not the intention. Shenanigans can still happen in NYC, but I was breaking my own suspension of disbelief. There’s still some ninja-adjacent training, but most of it is more martial arts-focused-- both for protection in a potentially hostile world, and as a tradition. We still have the chain-of-adopted-parents-slash-teachers going, with Yoshi taking Splinter in, and Splinter raising the boys. An important butterfly-effect here is that if we’re classifying the Utrom as a subsect of non-humans, then a bunch of other stuff didn’t happen, and we could easily argue that Tang Shen would still be alive. She and Yoshi live together, and see their adoptive family somewhat regularly. In this version of events, I’m also thinking the guys know Casey from when they were kids. I could put together an AU variation of The Lesson to mesh with what we’ve already established, but this really isn’t the time.

Personality-wise, I don’t think a lot changes-- the most dramatic would probably be Leo, who, while still the eldest, doesn’t have the responsibility to lead his brothers. I mean, he still tries, but it’s less because he has to and more because of who he is as a person… and also because it drives his brothers up the wall. Splinter has the support of his own adoptive parents in this ‘verse, and I think that would take a lot of pressure of of Leo. Raph, while still frustrated with the state of the world, has learned better coping mechanisms and has more outlets to rely on; he’s easy/quick to rile up, but unless it’s something serious, he can deal with it, and he’d never go to any pipe extremes. I feel like, if anything, Donnie might inherit a bit of Raph’s temper; he’s still very much the ‘I want to help however I can’ humanitarian type, but would be fighting against all sorts of prejudices in order to do so. Still fairly self-conscious and thoroughly adorkable, though. Mikey still has his major vices, but he’s also in a situation where he can network properly, share his art and collaborate with other people, so I think that would become more of a focus for him, and he’d be a little more chill. Between Mike, Don and Raph, they know someone who can help with practically anything they need; Leo’s more reserved, and, while he can and does talk to other people, too much socializing can be a bit outside of his comfort zone.

So, in terms of plot, it feels appropriate to draw primarily from sociopolitical arcs. Thrilling, I know, but since the basis of this AU is ‘what if they lived on the surface’, I would want to focus on what all that entails. That being said, the Mouser intro is a series mainstay, and I don’t want to exclude all fantastic elements, but some things can/should probably be toned down. (I think current events have also proven that, even without the mutation danger, Outbreak would still be a perfectly viable threat.) So, maybe, under the guise of reducing the rat population, Stockman starts using the Mousers not to steal physical assets, but to collect data, which he then uses to anonymously blackmail/extort residents. This may or may not be part of a larger plan-- I wanted to draw inspiration from City at War in particular-- but I don’t have the galaxy brain to figure out what that is, right now. (Stockman’s the kind of recurring villain who, while people know he’s at fault, either can’t be definitively linked to an incident, or is just on the right side of the law. Every time he crops back up, people trust him less and less. Eventually, desperation drives him to work for/with Saki, and then Bishop, so he really should have quit while he was ahead, it’s just not a pun this time around.)

Just because I haven’t mentioned her yet, April’s definitely a part of this, but I’m not entirely sure how/where she fits in. I’m thinking that, instead of threatening her with the Mousers when she discovers what he’s been doing, Stockman might use some of his new connections to try to take her out as she goes home. Cue the classic rescue sequence. It’s kind of an abrupt change of topic, but I also want to keep the ‘Saki’s an Utrom’ reveal, though the impact is somewhat different here; I’m just not sure how to accomplish this without turning him into Sophia the Robot. There are so many things I haven’t even mentioned, and I feel bad that I haven’t really established a proper plot, but this is getting wildly out of hand, and I need to rein myself in.

As a parting point, in addition to City at War, I’d definitely want to incorporate parts of/themes from Still Nobody (wrt the Turks/gang recruitment), Garbageman (the homeless), and, of course, utilize the Purple Dragons.

[gg-astrology]

Helloo, how are you doing?💕 Can you rank the tannies from the most spontaneous to the least ones?? Like from «baby let’s do it I know the law” to “the laws are strict and so am I”. Who can go on the the most out of nowhere adventure at 4 am bc he feels like that kind of ranking or who gets himself in the most unbelievable situations??? Also, do you have any friends like that? I’m trying to figure out the placements that lead to this type of behavior 😅

Hello!!! 💓💗💞💓💗💞 Wow this is so nice thank u for sending this in!!! 💓💗💞💓💗💞 I literally AM that friend. 

BTS ranking (for fun) ⬇️:

1) lets do it baby i know the law vs. the laws are strict and so am i

2) spontaneousity??

One other person who is both at the same time: Jin. Seokjin. Him. Might just be our Capricorn/Sag combo and Sag/Aries sun (mines in side-real) but I think with the Sag part (Sag-Libra-Aquarius) tends to be the daredevil kind sometimes.

With that said. Jimin. When he gets out of his shell, Libra/Gemini? Air/Air combo? Scorpio Venus/Mars? There’s no god ruling above and therefore, nothing to stop him from playing pranks. Literally a practical joker, you can go back through the run vlives and just see him doing his stuff. You can take the gemini out of the boy but he’d still be a funky ass Libra through and through as well 💓💗💞💓💗💞

Hobi would be both as well, but he has that good soft Pisces energy making him >>anxious

Now.. who’s next.. I guess Im not really ranking them as much as describing them and how they’d fall. Joonie obviously.

Virgo/Sag combo - that mutable goodness going ‘let’s do it baby I know the fuCKING LAW’ and also a LIBRA MERCURY to add to that combustable chemistry. He’s a fucking punk with his MOUTH, like how he talks others OFF. Do u think that Cancer Mars is just for show?? If he’s emotionally combusted (not in the astrologically term, as in he’s RILED UP EMOTIONALLY) he goes OFF on it. 

Such a great combo- do u see what I mean by Sag/Libras being punkasses now?? It’s so good. I love it so much. Also consider: the original meme of this was in the context of James Charles suing someone. James Charles, Gemini. Libra Mars rx. Not sure what the other person’s sign was, but if they’re doing it to him like this- they deserve some respect for originating such a great comeback. Out-mouthing air-signs? oof! 

So… so.. ok.. wait u said spontaneous. I didn’t take that into account UM. well, yoongi first of all. Out of everyone? Weirdly enough the most spontaneous would have to be Him. Aries Venus, Pisces Sun/Mercury and Virgo Moon (not sure if he’s a Libra Moon tho, due to certain times) - that mutable energy certainly adds to the influx of spontaneous actions sometimes. Even if he whines a lot about how tired he is and how he likes to be reclining in sleepie position. He also has a Cancer Mars, so obvi very driven. I think him and Seokjin are quite similar, they respect rules to an extent (Aquarius Saturn) but they also sees improvement in those rules, and thus the energy can be exerted to enhance/make those happen.

Seokjin in term of spontaneousity may be less spontaneous, like, maybe kinda like Taehyung who is - probably not very spontaneous unless it’s something that evokes instant gratification or happiness for others. But I do think he enjoys it when others ARE spontaneous, as it kinda evokes him to be spontaneous himself. Have you ever noticed that in Sagittarius suns? That they aren’t like- the most spontaneous people, but they certainly gravitate towards those who can fuel and enhance that energy within themselves by being around them?

So.. so yeah! Anyways. Joon is second to yoongi in terms of spontaneousity. And i’d say JK. Joon mostly because of his Sag Moon + Libra Mercury combo as well. But also his general *wriggly hands* mutable-ness. He gets riled up, and then he acts w/o thinking sometimes. Or sometimes he thinks too much, and end up not acting until an opportunity presents itself again. 

JK after because that Libra Venus does love a lot of fun and thrilling things, this isn’t all the same for every Libra Venus - but have you noticed that alot of them do tend to enjoy adrenaline rushing things once they’ve experienced it? It’s about the experience and feeling ‘alive’. Weirdly enough, we associate adrenaline rushing things to Sag Venus when there’s a 50/50 chance they would or wouldn’t enjoy it- depending on what else is going on and where it’s placed, if there’s anything going on in their 4th or whatever else is on their chart.

Taehyung.. I wouldn’t exactly call him as spontaneous, depending on his rising though he might. But I do think he’s independent. So a lot of the time, if you label spontaneous as going off on your own to do things/adventures - he might fit the bill. But in terms of everyday? life? situation? Well Taehyung compared to Jimin - Taehyung can be more certain in his independence and ability to just, have fun on his own/go off on his own more times than not?

I don’t think Hobi is spontaneous. But that’s mostly because he’d rather be comfortable or Not be Surprised? If it’s between doing something Unknown and potentially running into danger/endangering himself even though it’s willingly (i.e. signed a consent form for), or like, be safe and secure – then it’s the latter. He’s Taurus moon obvi, but also take into consideration his fixed Sun, Mars as well. But yeah anyways, I think thats? That??

SO… two different explanation and list for two different ranking/topics.. But this was super fun to do!! 💓💗💞💓💗💞 Thank u for sending this in!! 💓💗💞💓💗💞 If u want to use me for data: I’m a sag rising, venus+jupiter in 1st!! 💓💗💞 Virgo mars in 10th! But I also have Capricorn Sun/Taurus Moon (tropical) so jaywalking when the light is red?? No-go. I don’t endanger my emotional well-being by having cars beep at me. Roller coasters and 1am trips to the supermarket where no one is around? Definitely a-ok. 💓💗💞💓💗💞

[beepbeepliv]

Wherever you go...I go. - Benverly

flldfllfkflf I feel bad bc this could have been v cute and wholesome but I made it sad bc I’m an evil bitch sorry babe

“Go, go, go!” Ben chanted as the group ran past him intothe empty hall. He slammed the door shut and jammed it with a bench he fell againstthe it, panting, not even phased when he noticed Eddie and Richie making outfuriously. It had been a close call. Ben was sure they were going to lose someoneelse, even Mike and Stan were huddled close together exchanging soft kisses andcomforting words as Stan cried into his shoulder.

Ben grimaced. It had definitely too close. When he blinkedhe saw the zombies clawing at them, reaching through cracks in the wall,grabbing Stan’s leg. Never again will Ben rely on plan B. He stumbled over towhere Bev stood, arms crossed watching over her boys, not a tear shed, andwordlessly took her hand. She squeezed back. A wordless declaration

An, ‘I’m okay.’

Ever since Bill had been bitten, since he’d gone, the groupfell into tatters. They all had leadership qualities but none came close to Bill,none had anything like the presence he had when he commanded a room but recentlyBen sure did come close. With Richie being too preoccupied taking care or Eddieand Mike not wanting to constantly throw himself fin danger at (Stan’s behest),Ben -and thus Bev, became the unofficial group leader.

It was in time likes this he was glad of it.

“Are we all okay?” he asked. Richie and Eddie broke apartfor air. The lines of their bodies still pressed together.

“All good,” it was impossible to tell who the reply camefrom with how quietly it was said and how close the two boys were sat but Ben acceptedit.

“Ben, oh my God, thank you so much dude,” Mike said, walkinghis way as Stan moved off to search for equipment, weapons, food or blanketsfor the night, “I didn’t even see them like— That could have been so muchworse. We could have lost—” Ben pulled him into a hug, cutting him offmid-sentence.

“We’re all here. We’re all still alive. That’s whatmatters.” Mike nods solemnly. They all know there no point in dwelling on thepast. Not after losing so much in the past 3 months.

“All that’s important right now is finding food, suppliesand—Eddie… are you bleeding?” The tension in the room thickened, it was almostslow motion how everyone looked over to the small boy. Richie looked frozen. Therewas blood gathering at the base of Eddie’s shirt and he hurriedly pulled it upto reveal a large bruising gash.

Richie let out a choked sound.

“Kit!,” Ben said, immediately rushing over to inspect thewound as Bev pulled out the medical kit and came to sit by him. He lookedthrough the limited medical supplied they had left and brought out some gauzeand tape. Eddie was still staring at it, frozen in shock.

“a—am i—it’s? I’m inf—”

“Stan pass me the antiseptic please,” Ben said, ignoring Eddieeven when his half questions turned into soft sobs. They all knew what wouldhappen if it was a bite or scratch.

“you’ll be fine,” Richie whispered softly, over and over tohis boyfriend. Ben thought that was dangerous. They didn’t know that for sure.It was no good making empty promises. Ben finished wrapping the wound. Theblood was still very red, that was good. Once it started turning black orgreen.. then they definitely had something to cry about.

“Eddie, sit down, you’re fine for now. You probably just raninto something sharp and sliced yourself, the cut in your shirt is way tooclean to be a scratch or a bite. But we’ll see tomorrow.”

That was the most comforting he could be without giving himfalse hope. He figured Eddie bumped into a table or something – otherwise thehole in his shirt would have been massive.

But maybe that was just false hope.

 “Eddies not going to be okay, is he?” Bev asked, once theywere tucked up on gym mats and towels for the night. Ben shrugged as hemassaged her back.

“I don’t think he’s been infected, I wasn’t lying about that,but he definitely won’t be able to run or move very well tomorrow. I’mworried.” All of Ben’s emergency plans involved running away, if Eddie couldn’trun…

He’d think of a different plan, they would all be safe. He’dmake sure of it.

“Well, we can stay here till he gets better then, a coupledays isn’t too much of an ask. We’ve stayed in places for longer.” Ben nodsslowly, feeling slightly off about the whole thing. He glanced over at whereRichie and Eddie were cuddled up, Eddie crying with laughter as Richie told a storyusing the flashlight – it was a gross waste of battery power but it was worthit to see tears of happiness rather than pain in Eddie’s eyes.

“I hope you’re right.” He said, “I love you Bev. I’m solucky to have you” Bev smiled, rolling over to smile up at Ben, she sat up andpulled him into a soft slow kiss, flipping Richie off when she heard him wolfwhistle.

“You’re never getting rid of me, wherever you go I go darling,”she said against his lips, “You’re an amazing leader. After bill… I didn’tthink any of us would last a week. I’m the lucky one here.”

Ben laughs and just savours the moment holding her close. Hetries not to let his mind wander. Not to let the fear seep in. He’d taken somuch for granted, bikes, the park, books, being outside, wandering around aloneon a beautiful night. None of that could happen now. But this, he and Bev. Theywere forever.

Ben had no clue where he would be right now if she wasn’t byhis side.

 Ben woke up to screaming. He instantly jumped into action.Still half asleep, hazy, he pulled Bev close and got to his feet yielding hisbaseball bat like a sword. Mike was up and fighting away the zombies  with the long bench while Stan jabbed then inthe head with his make-shift spear whilst Richie was carrying a hyperventilatingEddie to the door at the back.

Plan, plan, he neededa plan

Eddie can’t run. Can’trun, can’t run was ringing through his head

Eddie couldn’t run, so Plan A was dashed. The zombies camethrough his back-up exit, so no Plan B.

Plan C, as horrible as it was, Plan C was his only option

His mind was made within a moment. He kissed Bev on the headsoftly before nudging her towards the direction Richie ran in. She got the message,nodding at him before taking off and helping Richie get Eddie to safety.

He ran towards Mike and Stan, using his spiked bat to killas many zombies as eh could. He got enough to give them a bit of breathing roombefore pulling back and calling for them to follow him into the back room. Theylocked the auditorium doors and ran into the dance studio. Everyone waspanting, and the tension in the room was heavy. They had no clue how long that doorwould hold.

“Plan,” Ben starts, even though everyone is listeningattentively anyways, “we only have two available exits; one is through those doorsand down the hall but it goes into an opening was too big to run throughsafely, zombies would get us before we left the school grounds. The other isthe car park, but between here and there is a large glass wall, the zombieswill see you so we need to be careful. Richie and Mike, I need you to take Eddiein to the hallways and help him out to the back door and wait. Bev and Stan youescape through the front, hot wire a car from the carpark and bring it round.Make sure its big enough.” For five,Ben didn’t add.

He laid down the plan flatly and everyone nodded taking noteof their parts, everyone except for Stan.

Stan had always been too smart for his own good

“What about you, Ben?” he asked, already knowing the answerand Ben drops his eye contact for a moment.

“You and Bev will need a diversion and Eddie needs time.”

“Ben, no,” Eddie breathes softly the gears finally clickingin the heads of the losers, Ben gives him a soft smile. He catalogues the lookson everyone’s  faces, Mike looks grim buthe doesn’t complain, he understands. Richie’s clutching Eddie tightly, he lookslike he wants to speak but he bites his lip – he knew his usual comic reliefcouldn’t do anything to lessen the sadness of this situation. Eddie looks onthe verge of tears and Stan is just frowning, almost like he wants to argue butunderstand that they have no time.

He doesn’t look at Bev.

“Don’t worry about me, Eddie. You three need to head off,now,” Eddie has to be dragged out of the room, tears streaming down his face ashe fought Richie in a way that must have been hell on his wound.

“Ben, don’t do it!” he whispered and Ben feels his hearthurt. He didn’t want t hurt anyone, he was doing this so everyone would live.Mike gives him a respectful nod before they leave and Richie mouths ‘thank you’but his eyes say so much more.

Ben watches then go and turns back to face Bev. And Bevlooks pale, so, so pale.

“I’m going with you,” she whispers, “Stan knows how to hotwire a car. He can fend for his fucking self. There like 20 dead shits outthere.” Ben just laughs and laughs, stepping closer to her.

“Fuck no,” he breaths, the swear word shocking her and takingeffect. He never swears. Swearing was reserved for certain moments, horrifyingmoments when no other words in the English language could properly get him messageacross.

He reaches her and pulls her in close wishing this wasn’tthe end, wishing he had more time to just explain, but he doesn’t. He kissed herforehead in a half-apology but she just made a scorned noise, having none ofthat as he pulled him in to press a bruising kiss to his lips, breathingharshly when she pulls away. She crying, Ben realises.

“No sobs dear, the zombies will hear you,” he pleaded,wiping her cheeks

“shut up you asshole.” He gripped his wrist tight enough tobruise. She hoped they would “what happened to wherever you go, I go? How dareyou do this to me!” Ben sighed sadly.

“I’m not going to let you die. That’s just not happening.”He replied flatly, “I would do anything for you. I would cross desserts, climbmountains and soar over oceans to get to you. Having you, even if our time togetherIs over made me the luckiest man to ever life. So I will be damned if I just rolloverand let you die now. You’re following the plan, Bevvy, if I have to get Stan tocarry you out I will.” Bev looked back like she had forgotten the other boy waseven there. She turned back, fresh tears falling now. The expression on herface eluded that she wasn’t sure she could ever stop.

“After, once you’ve distracted them, you’re meeting us at thatback door. You’ll follow through.” She states. It’s not a question. Ben nods

“I’ll make it out, I’ll follow through,” he says, they bothknow it’s a lie.

He head to the door, not looking back as Stan herds Bev awaybut he hears her stifled sobs as he steps into the hallway. He places his handon the auditorium door handle and take a deep breath.

“see you soon bill,” he whispers and eases it open.

[eiael-thinks]

IT: some thoughts by me

I just saw IT and I loved it even though I had some quibble with it. I just want to type my thoughts out really quickly. There will be spoilers for both the book and the movie, so I’ll throw it under a cut.

As I said, I loved it. They movie really captured the terror, humor, and pathos of the book. Over the course of the movie, I laughed out loud MANY times, I got choked up And even shed a tear, and I also hid my eyes at a couple of really fucking scary moments.

As someone who was 11 years old in 1989, I can definitely say they nailed what it was like to be a preteen at that time. the weird freedom to go where ever, roam all over town on your bike, get into it with other kids, sneak a cigarette, curse like a sailor, and be subject to pretty fucked up cruelties from other kids as well as adults. (As an aside, I read the book for the first time when I was 13 fwiw)

The actors who played the Losers Club were phenomenal, and Skaarsgard was freaking off the charts scary as Pennywise. The adults all hit that sweet spot of either menacing or so emotionally distant as to be negligible forces in the lives of the kids. The movie does an excellent job of capturing the sense of “Derry below.” The part of the town of Derry that’s only accessible to kids, and completely under the radar of adults. Some of this is shown to be bc of IT’s influence, but some of it really is just the way adults overlook groups of kids.

Henry Bowers was also very well portrayed, but a lot of the character development that happens in the book with him (i.e.: him slowly going from a vicious bully to someone who tried to kill the Losers to someone who does kill his father) is pretty compressed bc of they constraints of the story. Also oddly, they made his father a cop rather than a racist drunk, for really no reason I can discern other than that it will play into part 2 when they come back as adults.

The thing I missed the most was the ways the kids fought Pennywise, and the different solutions they try before finally going down into the tunnels. In the books, Bill steals his dad’s gun and he and Richie try to shoot it at the Neibolt Street house. IT attacks them as a werewolf, the gun does bubkes, but Richie (forever the joker) has itching powder, his bad impressions, and his jokes... and those DO harm IT. Of course, they focus on the werewolf thing and make silver slugs for Bev to shoot IT with a slingshot (FYI, they change up the kids’ strengths... I’ll come back to that), and the silver does hurt IT bc IT does have some of the weaknesses of whatever form IT’s in, but once again, it’s Richie’s jokes, Eddie shooting it with his inhaler, and (iirc) Bill yelling at IT without his stutter that make the big difference. To me, this part of the book is so important bc it fit’s in with that famous Neil Gaiman quote on the importance of fairy tales. It’s not that monsters exist, it’s that we can beat them... and the theme of these kids, these “Losers,” beating this primordial evil with the weapons forged from their “weaknesses” and the pure beliefs of childhood, which both make them such tasty prey for IT but also the most dangerous weapon to wield against IT, has always meant a lot to me.

In the movie, they jump straight into a physical confrontation with IT at the Neibolt Street house. There is no prep beforehand, no silver slugs, and the entire encounter is very different from the book. However, the whole sequence is scary as shit and the kids all get their moments to shine.

The biggest change the movie makes plot-wise is that the kids decide that IT’s lair is underneath that house, and they are right. This cuts out the whole sequence of them being chased into the sewers by Henry, as well as a lot of the parts of the story where they’re hanging out in the Barrens which are personal favs of mine. But here’s the BIGGEST spoiler (be warned)

~~~~~spoiler space~~~

Rather than gathering together and going off to fight the monster as a group for their own reasons, the movie has Pennywise kidnap Bev to get them down into the sewers. I assume this is to provide a narrative mirror to the adult plot, when Bill’s wife Audra gets kidnapped by Henry and brought to IT... BUT I was not happy with that decision. Bevvie is not a damsel in distress. OTOH, having her have a one on one with Pennywise gave the audience a hint of how they might handle the Deadlights and what IT really is, and that was really cool and well done. It also reinterpreted how “We all float down here” might look, and again, really fucking cool. Bringing Bevvie back from from the Deadlights is done very sweetly, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

For those wondering, the infamous escape sequence (aka tween orgy thing) DOES NOT happen THANK GOD (not that I was too worried it would, but still...)

Now to the thing that bugs me the most: the way they switched up the kids’ strengths. Bevvie is never the dead-eye gunslinger, and she never gets to run point on an attack (she does however save Bill and get in a great hit on IT). Stan’s neat-freakness is never really touched upon, and the scene where he helps Bevvie clean up the bathroom and directs the other kids how to create order from chaos is given to Bill. They also really downplay the amount of antisemitism he faces, which I think is a shame bc so much of the book parallels the mundane human evil that lurks in Derry alongside the more flamboyant supernatural stuff.

Speaking of not addressing social issues, the vast majority of the racism that Mike Hanlon and his family face, the hate crime that burned around 100 black people alive in the nightclub The Black Spot, and the constant torture of Mike by Henry bc of his race is almost completely absent. Again, I think the movie missed a chance to make the points about the evil humans do that King addresses so well in the novel. Also w/r/t Mike... he is no longer the historian of the group. Mike was always my fav character, bc as a kid he’s into history, and then as an adult becomes the librarian. The movie takes that away from him, and that pisses me off to no end. The black character is basically reduced to the muscle in a lot of the scenes, and that’s not cool.

Because the movie mostly does away with the Barrens as the main hang-out, Ben never gets to show his engineering prowess. Rather, he is the kid who knows the history bc he’s new in town and hangs out in the library where he puts together Derry’s fucked up history. Again, I’m disappointed they took the history nerdery away from the black character, and the building/physical labor away from the fat kid.

Oh and FYI, even though they downplayed the racism and antisemitism and ableism the boys faced, boy howdy do they lean into the slut-shaming Bevvie faces.

All that being said, the movie does an excellent job with each of the kids. They all have compelling stories and set-pieces dedicated to their encounters with IT and how that reflects their individual fears and strengths. While I might have made different choices with how to condense the story, I was still very impressed.

This review might read more negative than I mean it to. I really enjoyed it, I will almost definitely see it again, and I am super excited for the adult’s chapter. But I also needed to get some of this off my chest... so I hope you enjoyed the word vomit.

TL;DR: the movie is AWESOME. it dropped the ball in a couple of ways, but it’s still well worth the price of admission.

[mogamifucker666]

EDIT/UPDATE: i added stuff from the reblog i and put this huge thing under a readmore

i’m stuck on mobile 4 now so some Quick Thoughts on the shishou swap au (watch me get sucked into writing this aaaaaa)(update: i got rlly sucked into writing this)

- Shigeo comes to the office during Mogami’s mom’s final weeks/months - having Shigeo around after her death keeps Mogami from going into his comPlete Downward Spiral (…… somehow.. idk how but Somehow Probably??????) - so he’s.. very attached to Shigeo (i’m into this timeline where Mogam’s mom dies before the narrative starts bc Mogami would have gone through that state of all-consuming hatred and resentment for humanity and moved onto something.. not quite as extreme. he’s still bitter and angry and wants revenge but he’s not Completely Out Of Control and also has Shieo to think about. Additionally because i like idea that Mogam drops his TV thing, no point anymore, supporting himself isn’t an issue compared to hospital bills, but he still works consulting ppl. could also b interesting how he reacts to ppl bringing it up afterwards. not to mention working with the underground would b less of an issue once he’s out of the spotlight

!!!!fast forward to when Shigeo is 14 like in canon - Mogami is more particular with who he’s killing. generally it’s still for hire but i think he does punish the kind of ppl he does in canon (this pisses off ppl in the underground sometimes) - uses a very strong rhetoric with Shigeo abt how u can’t allow ppl to take advantage of you - asks Shigeo what he wants, encourages him to speak up?? that’s not a consistent thing tho, Mogam would force Shigeo into some things (either by talking him into it, by surprising him, or some other means) - Mogam has a hand on Mob’s shoulder a lot, often for his own reassurance but it’s also just a habit at this point (Reigen has no friends and Mogami is emotionally dependent on a 14-year-old pass it on) - Shigeo is a lot more cold/direct. more distant from his family. more unstable. - the first person Shigeo Really physically harms (possibly kills??) is an esper sent after Mogami (this person wouldn’t be a conjurator, they’d have some kind of power over physical things and Mogami can’t rlly combat that?? like he doesn’t have those kinds of abilities)(maybe it’s that smoke guy from the world domination arc 🤔🤔🤔) - Mogami is injured during that whole episode - after tho he’s like “you saved my life, thank you, you did the right thing” etc etc - Mob is So Shaken but like. his master is still there and it’s okay because they’re both alive and have each other he was able to keep Mogami safe. Mob is literally shaking and like. damn. Mogami is probably holding him. doesn’t let Mob see the body on the way out. Mogami knows how to clean up this kind of mess so.. he does. - Mogami is Bad and one way or another this leads him to train Mob as an assassin

----

omg i completely forgot to talk abt Mogami getting hired to exorcise Reigen LMAO… (the subject of that 300 note drawing) currently i’m thinking it’s kind of like this: - Minori pretends to be her father and hires Mogami to get rid “the pesky ghost haunting my daughter” etc - her actual dad doesn’t have anything to do with it because, while Reigen is annoying and having a ghost around is Weird, Reigen is actually keeping Minori from getting hurt/doing bad things and Dad-Asagiri supports that - Minori hires Mogami bc he is/was on TV and she doesn’t care to do actual research and money isn’t a problem LMAO - Mogami shows up with Mob and, while talking to Minori, it becomes clear her father didn’t actually hire him and she was trying to play him (plus she’s been teasing/making fun of Mob and just generally being rude af) - he’s definitely not going to exorcise Reigen now, out of spite and also, as someone who has/had money problems, there’s no need to piss off a bazillionaire (pissing off the bratty heiress of a bazillionaire isnt ideal either? but??) - (idk what Reigen has been doing this whole time i have like 0 sense of his voice/personality in action lmfao) - anyway Mogami would be.. pretty mad.. i don’t know if he’d direct that at Minori at all. probably not. he’d tell her father, let him know of any channels she used to contact him (probably email?? maybe she had an attendant make a call to his office or something too) - Minori really is the kind of person Mogami hates. Mob knows this, and why Mogami hates these people (bc they’ve used him in the past, etc) so Mob does something to At Least intimidate/scare her. Mogami wouldn’t let Mob hurt her bc No Need To Piss Off A Bazillionaire (Even If His Daughter Is A Fucking Rude Asshole). - Reigen is like YIKES™ that small boy needs help

from there idk where it’d go… maybe Reigen persuades Minori to pursue friendship with Mob in some capacity. he’d know that would put her in danger though (Mogami is BAD NEWS and Mob is unstable too) so??? probably not that.

maybe he’s like “ok Minori ur still a very wild gal but uuuuh that kid needs help i’m gonna.. go.. put my post-mortem life on the line! please be good?? u can do that, right?? okay okay bye, see you–” and she’s like “UUUUHM???? EXCUSE M E?????” and insists on tagging along. That or she’s like “ya bye bizch those guys r freaky af Good Fuckin Luck Pal BYE FOREVER I GUESS” small tears bc she and Reigen do care about each other. cue drama and danger and maybe eventually Minori and Mob become good kids together or maybe not.