#thought this was a cool kinda parallel of sorts. since the covers look just a lil similar

[mixedupmysteries]

EP cover for RULES (2013) / EP cover for Six Desperate Ballads (2024)

look how much they’ve changed over 11 years… such a cool comparison

[journey-to-the-attic]

I just read your recent Au that you and @sythesizeher are talking about and im in love with the AU!

But i have many questions soo..

1. What is Barbatos’s role here? Im still gonna guess he’s still Diavolo’s assistant but what’s the story here?

2. Would it be right for me to assume that Solomon had started his friendship with Mephisto because of his connection to Diavolo’s dad but now with Diavolo’s dad dead, Mephisto is probably on the run due to the lawsuits?

3. Lucifer is a lawyer so Ace Attorney shenanigans? OH WAIT MAMMON CAN BE HIS ASSISTANT or we have could the brothers take turns being his assistants?

4. Wait does that mean Simeon is the prosecutor here? (Wait why the hell am i making this so ace attorney, this isnt the right AU)

5. Would it be interesting if Zhao is the Devildom king but because he’s too busy, he accidently neglected Ik like JTTA? Would be cool parallel to Diavolo..

6. Adding to question number 2, what role does the newspaper club have in this AU?

7. This isnt really a question but “Solomon trying to expose Diavolo for his dad’s crimes but ended up helping him make the public love him” kinda reminds me of Candace trying to expose her brothers thing from Phineas and Ferb

And that’s all for now because im way too tired and in need of sleep, hope you have a good day/night!

- 🐧 Anon

hoho okay here we go!!!

1. barbatos - in this au the equivalent of the chronodae are the 'believers'; barbatos is hired as diavolo's tutor, which is a cover for him being tasked with keeping him from finding out about all the demon stuff. barbatos ends up having second thoughts over the years, and he's the one who first clues diavolo into looking into his dad's weird cult stuff after he dies, and promises to assist him in making things right

2. solomon and mephisto - similarly to barbatos, mephisto was originally in on the whole thing, but (as in jtta) he got more of the dirty work - sourcing the things they'd need, covering up their tracks, so on. he's a lot more taken in by sonno's stuff than barbatos, and such he only starts having second thoughts towards the end of sonno's life before that though - solomon does notice that he seems very in on the company's inner dealings, even though mephisto doesn't seem to have any good business sense, so he does befriend him to try and get some secrets out. mephisto sees right through him, but he's sort of intrigued anyway, so they end up in a sort-of-friendship, with a lot of back n forth and song n dance once mephisto does get cold feet though, he confides in solomon very cryptically and vaguely, then just disappears - soon after this, sonno suddenly starts deteriorating and dies, because it turns out he's BAD at managing the demon stuff without an assistance. solomon assumes mephisto vanishing was him running away, like a coward (similar to how he assumes he was abandoned in jtta)

3/4. the lawyers- i'm not at all clued into the lawyer world, but afaik it's not generally a "this firm is for defence attorneys, and this firm is for prosecutors"? i think (especially since they're an independent and very new firm) lucifer's firm is doing business consultations and such, and they partner with diavolo's company as per his agreement with lucifer

i reckon lucifer and satan are the only ones who genuinely see law as their career path (which could be a source of the luci-satan conflict), the others see it more as something they're helping with while trying to figure out what they really want to do

the celestial law firm is like a family business, so the brothers grew up accepting they'd take that path - since they followed lucifer when he got kicked out though, now they have a lot more freedom (as for simeon, he really just wants to be a writer, but he's also very dedicated to the family business)

but i reckon there'd be at least one big dramatic trial against diavolo - potentially as the Big Turning Point that might reveal the secret of ik's nature - and simeon would be the prosecutor, and lucifer the defence! so we can still have ace attorney shenanigans in that respect

5. zhao - i find it so hard to imagine zhao as a genuine demon king, but maybe that's because i associate the role so much with sonno in jtta? i imagined that ik-the-demon is born from some past ik-the-human, and zhao is human-ik's father. maybe he turns up as a genuine ghost in the office building later on (which could make for big big drama, because ik doesn't remember her life as a human)

6. newspaper club - paranormal investigators! solomon joins forces with them at some point, but somehow never gets to meet their elusive fourth member, despite that fourth member being the main source of all their information

7. phineas and ferb - Yes

[stardustandash]

Last of the Febuwhump fics is here! Prompt is Killing in Self-Defense. Pre-Jedi Fallen Order & kinda dark, I hope u like it!!

Words: 2000

Tags: Blood, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Emetophobia, Child Death

ao3 Link

Is It Justified?

The village is dusty, dirty, and silent. It feels lonely through the Force. Cal doesn’t like it. Every whisper of the wind, every creak of a door in its frame, puts Cal on edge. He drifts father and father behind his men. Twitch and Sunny are bickering back and forth in front, and Arson, Nix and Patch flanking them on parallel streets.  They were droid hunting after the big battle, or they were supposed to be. Cal suspected Master Tapal had assigned Cal and his squad this task since it was so far from the battlefield and gave them little opportunity to get into trouble. The village, though on a Separatist planet, had been abandoned before the battle started, and Cal didn’t know what use droids would have for it, aside from some cover. But it wasn’t as if they needed to stop for healing or rest. Any droids would be long gone back to the Separatist stronghold Master Tapal had gone to investigate.

Still, Cal can’t help but be on edge. There’s something he’s missing. His hand drifts towards the hilt of his lightsaber, the cool metal of the grip a comfort. At least he isn’t hanging off of Sunny’s arm on missions anymore. He’s twelve, almost thirteen. Too old to be scared by empty villages and the wind. Master Tapal had even said that he was thinking of letting him lead his squad on his own mission on the next campaign. If he got scared now, then he’d never get to prove himself.

The Force pulls at Cal. A stinging wrongness that adds to the unease. Neither Twitch or Sunny seem to feel the same as their blasters hang loose in their grips to the point that Cal should say something about attention or duty, but finds the words stuck in his throat and taken by the wind.

Cal feels the Force nudging him towards a narrow path between the houses. There’s something there. He glances ahead to Twitch and Sunny and debates whether he should say something. Even before the thought finishes forming his ears turn red with embarrassment. He can handle whatever it is. He has to. It’s probably just some kind of rodent or a pet left behind. He creeps towards the space, one hand on his lightsaber and halfway to unhooking it. There’s a small sound of something rustling or shifting and Cal swallows down his fear and jumps out of the space into the street beyond.

A girl stares back at him. She only comes up to his shoulder and her head is a mess of dirty blonde hair. A battered brown stuffed toy dangles from her hand, so ragged at this point Cal can’t tell what it is supposed to be. She looks up at him with fear in her eyes and Cal is so taken aback he almost ignores the warning in the Force.

The Force screams, and Cal turns with his lightsaber in hand to meet the threat. A man stands towering over him with a knife in hand. Cal doesn’t think, he just reacts. The green blade of his lightsaber appears on the other side of the man before Cal even realizes he’s run him through.

The girl screams. It’s wordless at first but it eventually forms into anword Cal can recognize: ��Papa!”

Cal’s stomach drops. His lightsaber falls from his grasp. The man lets out one last, groaning breath as he collapses, still and unmoving.

The girl rushes to her father’s side with tears running down her face. Cal’s mind is both blank and chaotic. He steps forward, wanting to offer apologies or comfort or something to the girl. He’s so off guard he doesn’t see the glint of metal nor feel the warning through the Force. He only sees the girl’s face harden as she throws herself at him. She tackles him around the middle, and Cal is taken aback at the movement. She’s wrapped him in an odd sort of hug, except her fist is uncomfortably trapped between them. When she staggers back Cal can see the blood on her hands. Her father’s blood. Guilt settles uncomfortably in his stomach. He killed someone. He killed a girl’s father right in front of her. The guilt burns in his stomach. Cal presses a hand against it and tries to take a shaky step forward.

“I’m sorry,” says Cal, voice weak and wet. “I’m sorry.”

The girl raises her bloody fist and Cal sees the glint of metal. At the same time he becomes aware of the wetness on his fingers where they are pressed against his stomach. It takes his mind a minute to connect those two things. Cal’s knees go weak and he stumbles, not quite sure where he’s trying to go. It doesn’t matter, as he doesn’t get more than one shaky step before he’s falling to his hands and knees. Distantly he registers the sound of blaster fire and a soft thump just as his arms give out and he faceplants onto the dirt.

There’s the sound of duraplast boots running towards him and then there are hands flipping him over and Cal’s looking up at Sunny. His helmet is off, Commander Gamut would yell at him, but Cal is glad that can see Sunny’s face, even if it’s twisted in worry. The others stand around them with blasters ready. Arson has one hand on the side of his helmet and Cal can hear him faintly as he comms out.

“General, Commander Gamut. We have a situation in sector two-three-five. Commander Kestis is down, we need a medic immediately.”

Cal can’t hear the other side of the conversation, but he feels the clones around him tense.

“I don’t know if we have that kind of time, Sir,” says Arson in a tight voice.

“Don’t pay attention to them Cal, you’ll be fine,” says Sunny as he pats Cal’s face. “You didn’t get stabbed anywhere important, so you’ll last long enough to get medical attention.”

“Sunny, not helpful,” growls Twitch.

“What?”

Cal blinks. Sunny is getting a little blurry and his eyes slide past him as his neck goes limp. There are two unmoving lumps in his vision. One is small, with a smudge of blonde hair. The girl. Cal remembers the sound of blaster fire and a sick feeling rises in the back of his throat.

“Hey, hey, eyes on me, kid,” says Sunny. His hand cups Cal’s face and turns him away from the unmoving bodies.

“I got a stim,” offers Patch. “Won’t do much but it’ll keep him going until a medic can make it to us.”

“It won’t hurt,” says Nix.

There’s a pinch, then a cool sensation slides over Cal. Everything snaps into clarity and Cal’s thoughts start screaming as his stomach starts burning worse than anything he’s ever felt. He groans and tries to roll, but hands stop him. Twitch and Sunny are holding him, their hands burn against his cheeks and his stomach.

“Let me up,” Cal begs. “Let me up.”

“Not a chance, Commander,” says Twitch.

“The General and Gamut are on their way to our position,” adds Arson. “You just focus on staying alive for now.”

Cal feels the dampness in the corner of his eyes and tries to blink it away. His stomach is burning and all he wants is his room on the Brave, with his soft, non-regulation blanket and his stuffed tooka and the feeling of a thousand lives around him in the Force.

“Oh, you’re alright kid. Don’t worry. We’ll get you patched up in no time. And if not, well, it’s not like you’ll have to worry about it,” says Sunny as he thumbs a tear from Cal’s cheek.

“Not helping!” says a chorus of similar voices.

Cal almost smiles through the pain, but his eyes once again fall on the still bodies next to them. With the stim in his system Cal can see the blackened holes in the girl. Blaster bolts. They’d killed her. To save him, yes, but they killed her. Revulsion burns in his throat and his stomach heaves. Twitch barely manages to get Cal onto his side before he vomits up what rations he’d had for breakfast and a spattering of blood. He coughs, then gags again as the movement tears at the bloody hole in his stomach. Tears are streaming down his face in earnest now, whether from the pain or the sorrow at being the cause of two needless deaths, Cal can’t tell. The brief bout of clarity from the stim is wearing off and his thoughts are starting to go fuzzy around the edges again.

He can hear Twitch and Sunny murmuring platitudes to him but he can’t focus on the words. Everything is too much. Too loud, too painful, too sad. Even the hand rubbing his back feels like its grating his skin, yet he doesn’t want it to stop. The smell of bile burns in his nose from his own sick and Cal wiggles as far back as he can from it while trapped in place by the two clones.

Cal tries to collapse into himself, to try sinking into that meditative state where the world feels far away. What he probably does is pass out for a while as he comes back to reality with tears staining his face and a familiar comforting presence in the Force blocking out everything but the feeling of safety. Cal reaches out blindly until his hands feel the soft, worn fabric of Master Tapal’s robes and he clings to them with all the strength he has left. Master Tapal pulls him into his arms, and when Cal’s brain catches up to his body being maneuvered, he is held tight against his Master’s chest where he can hear his heartbeat and feel his Master’s support through the Force.

“It is faster if I take him to the medics than wait for them to arrive,” says Master Tapal. Cal feels the words rumbling through his chest rather than hearing them with his ears.

“Sir!” a chorus echoes around him.

Then they are moving. The motion doesn’t hurt or make Cal sick. Instead it soothes him like the rocking of a boat. He turns and tucks his head into Master Tapal’s chest. The guilt is still eating at his stomach, as if the knife pressed it into him and it’s spreading from the hole it left behind.

“Peace, Padawan,” Master Tapal murmurs.

“I killed them Master, and they didn’t have to die,” mumbles Cal. The words are no doubt muffled by the fact that Cal’s face is pressed into his Master’s robes and thick with emotion, but he knows Master Tapal understands anyway.

Master Tapal walks on silently for a minute. Cal frets internally in the silence. What if Master Tapal doesn’t want him anymore because of what he’s done. What if he’s done so much wrong he can’t be a Jedi anymore.

“They are dead because of you, yes,” says Master Tapal slowly. “They did not have to die, and their deaths are a tragedy. It is good that you feel this way. However, they attacked you, they hurt you. If it is a choice between you and them, I want you to pick you every time, Padawan. The only way to hold the line against the darkness is to be the line. If you die, the darkness wins.”

“Yes, Master.”

“I will give the same talk to your men as well. When you are better, we will also meditate on this topic.”

Cal nods against Master Tapal’s shoulder. The words haven’t done much to ease the sick feeling in his stomach, but he’s also too tired to focus much anymore. The arms holding him tighten around him and the swaying cadence of Master Tapal’s steps increases. He sinks into their warmth and the comfort offered. He doesn’t feel better about anything, but at least his Master is here, and Master Tapal always knows what to do.

[lit-crits]

(1990) Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. 06/06/2024 - 07/06/2024

First time reading? Yes

Rating: 7.5/10

Favourite quote: "if Bruce Springsteen had ever recorded Born To Lurk, these two would have been on the album cover"

Watched the TV show before I read the book so had images of the characters already in my head and couldn't imagine for myself how they looked, which was interesting. I think I would have thought of Crowley as similar to David Tennant anyway though, I wouldn't have imagined Aziraphale as similar to Michael Sheen but he does a great job in the show. Makes a LOT of sense to me that Crowley made Glasgow and Aziraphale Edinburgh, scruffy tough boyfriend vs posh pansy boyfriend - just feels right in my bones. I started counting the amount of times Aziraphale's 'manicured hands' were mentioned, hoping it would be a funny reoccurring thing throughout the book, but it only happened twice :( BUT the gay comments/jokes towards Aziraphale was actually a funny reoccurring thing, a few of my favourites are: Aziraphale having a "penchant for Wilde first editions", being described as "gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide", and the fact he is called a fucking FAGGOT and poofter. Crowley is obviously implied to be bi/gay when Anathema basically thinks "oh these two men are...yknow... and in love so I'm safe" when she gets in his car but it is nothing like Aziraphale's descriptions. The book had a lot of silly little things that I really enjoyed: Aziraphale eating a devilled egg made me chuckle, the biker guy with fish tattoo'd on one hand and chip on the other, Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer - like just stupid things that are absolutely brilliant. I have mixed thoughts on the depictions of the Four Horsemen, War was kinda lame and I didn't think she was as cool a concept as the others, Famine was probably my favourite in terms of the concept, Pollution replacing Pestilence is so clever, and then Death was just an edgelord but I'm not sure how else you could write that kind of character. Pepper (aka Pippin Galadriel Moonchild) was one of my favourite characters, which is weird since she is supposed to be a sort of parallel to War who I didn't like. I really was not a fan of Newton Pulsifer and his whole thing with Anathema, he is definitely my least favourite character and it annoys me that she had to put up with his annoying ass. Also, the air base guard thinking that England had gone soft and smiling at the idea of Newton burning faggots was actually wild. Overall, very silly book that I enjoyed very much!

[spicycreativity]

Idk if anyone here is particularly interested in cosplay as an art/lifestyle but it's MY blog and I get to ramble about the stupid shit I do

I'm on Remus wig #3 because I just haven't liked the way they've been turning out:

I started with a long wig to parallel my Roman cosplay, but the long hair + the high collar just kinda. made my neck disappear. and it wasn't a very flattering look:

Then Cade lent me his brown Rufio and I really liked it but we had wanted color-coded wigs for each character (red for Roman, blond for Janus, blue streaks for Logan and Patton, etc) so I REALLY wanted a green mohawk (plus i didn't want to add a silver streak and mess up Cade's wig):

That brings us to wig #2, a brown Rufio with blond mohawk. Arda doesn't sell it in green so I endeavored to find a way to spot dye the 'hawk. That didn't work out due to the mechanics of trying to submerge only part of a very short, oddly-shaped wig in boiling water/Rit dye, so I ended up with a weird, spiky, shiny, off-color nightmare wig:

Here's where I decided to get WEIRD. I bought another brown sides/blond 'hawk Rufio from Arda and decided to try foiling it, like when hairdressers do blond highlights.

The logic: It recently occurred to me that Rit seals with heat, not water and heat. You only have to boil your object because it's pretty much the only safe, consistent way to keep the dye and the object hot long enough for the dye to set. Enter heat-resistant wigs. Since the boiling water is only necessary as a mechanism to prolonged heat, I thought I could achieve the same result with a straightener or hair dryer

That sort of worked.

It took forever, was extremely inefficient, and resulted in a very pale dye job. Somehow, the small test patch I did took me 2 HOURS. Granted I did knock over my dye and have a fairly long interlude where I cleaned it out of my carpet...

So I got fed up, painted the dye all over the 'hawk, covered everything in foil, and stuck that damn wig in the oven

Per their website, Arda wigs are heat resistant up to 420°F, but I stuck with 325 tops just in case, turning the oven off and on to keep from overdoing things

And y'all??? I just took my wig out of the oven after letting it cool overnight, rinsed it, aaaaaand

RESOUNDING SUCCESS!

The temperature of the oven wasn't hot enough to warp the wig fibers, but was sufficient to set the dye, so now after I make a few adjustments I have my perfect Remus wig!!!

I'm so happy!!!

I need to do another pass (I was worried about running out of dye since I spilled a bunch), but look how deep and rich that color is!! That's post-rinsing, too; I made sure the water was running completely clear before I took the pic

Aaaahhhh!!!!

[doitwritenow]

IronStrange Starter Kit - Master Fic Rec List for all Y’all Because You’ve been Asking and I’ve been Avoiding

Hi! All you anons and askers, I made a list!!! Hopefully some of these are what you’ve been after. :D

(Please reblog this, lol, I spent too much time on it...) 

General rules: These are complete unless indicated otherwise, and end happily unless indicated otherwise. There’s a variety of ratings, as I have no qualms against smut, but I don’t usually read it outside of a larger plot. So I don’t think there’ll be many explicit stories on here. Word counts vary; I indicate general length but don’t go into specifics. What else, uh... Bold stuff is the headers and general subjects. I link the titles. Block quotes are author summaries. Enjoy!!

- 

Okay so first off, there are a couple of Fandom Staples who just have leagues worth of good short stories, and if you haven’t read them, then definitely treat yourself to the array:

A Thousand Futures of Me and You - VisionaryGalaxy (Vishanti, what a legend, ily so much). This is a series of unconnected one-shots, each their own and covering a variety of tropes and moments and themes and AUs. They’re so fun (and/or painful and/or thought-provoking and/or tense and/or sexy)! In-character and amazing, consistantly. 

Prompt Collection -  amethyst-noir (Arbonne). (Also a legendary human). This is exactly what it sounds like: a series of prompt fills in all sorts of tones. You’ll almost certainly find something here that feels like it was just made for you!

Alright, onto the individual stories and series!

Long fics/series:

The of overqualified hands and pi figures series - lantia4ever. (This was my first Ironstrange story, and it is no less magical now.)

A series of one-shots, all set in the same alternate verse in which Tony and Stephen first meet following the events of the first Avengers and then continue to meet after that throughout the canon up until Infinity War and eventually beyond it. Becoming friends - and more along the way.

Time After Time - fancylances. (I love love LOVE this one. Highly recommended.) 

Tony Stark is unstuck in time. Stephen Strange might just be the only person in the universe qualified enough to help.

Citizen Erased - Imagined. (This author. Just... such a wonderful, talented, stunning person who makes wonderful, talented, stunning works. This story is masterful.)

What do you do when no one in the world ever manages to remember you?

Anyone who sees Tony Stark promptly forgets he ever existed after mere seconds. When everyone he has ever cared about has lost their memories of him, he goes to Stephen Strange, possibly the only one who can help him lift the curse. But a terrifying danger is coming, and saving the world isn’t an easy job to do when no one can remember who you are.

if only the gods had mercy on us and it’s sequel a soul too deep - orphan_account. (Vishanti, this series...  It’s so beautiful and emotional and heart-breaking and heart-warming. And it has so few views for so many words! One of my absolute favorites, VERY highly recommended.) 

Tony Stark loved Stephen Strange. He loved him more than anyone could ever imagine. But then a terrorist group attacked the convoy. Then there was a car accident. In the middle of it all, there is tired, battered love. (And, maybe, a little bit of genius)

From the Top - lucifersfavoritechild. (Everyone reads this fic. Written by the blogger Monarch Of The Ironstrange Ship, it’s an MCU rewrite around the relationship. Very fun.) 

“Stephen, if you’re . . . there somewhere . . . when I drift off, I’ll be with you again. I can’t wait.”

|| Personally, I think the MCU would be much better as a love story between Stephen Strange and Tony Stark. Don't you?

Starting from Iron Man, and going all the way to Endgame, with all the appropriate stops in between. Let's take it from the top.

UNFINISHED: Skin Deep - Mystical_Magician. (Super cool premise, and super interesting to read! The dynamic here is very fun.)

A battle that should have finally killed Stephen instead launches him into a parallel universe. Exhausted from centuries as Sorcerer Supreme, he chooses instead to explore this new world in any animal form except human. Having hoped for peace at last, he can't stand to be looked up to, to be responsible for others, to have the world on his shoulders.

If he'd hoped to avoid excitement, however, he really should have stayed away when he noticed an enormous explosion and a falling metal suit of armor as he passed through Afghanistan.

UNFINISHED: The End of Infinity - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec. Very long, very slow-burn. Canon-compliant Endgame fix-it. I’m trying so hard, lol.)

In 2023, the battle for the universe has been won. At a cost no one can forget, the fight is over—for all but one. Stephen Strange has an idea. An impossible idea spanning dimensions and timelines, life and death, and the lines of good and evil. But he's played impossible odds before—perhaps he never stopped.

All that Loki wanted was to fight, one last time, for the fate of his universe. So when he finds himself fighting for another, crashing into the past, he has a few intended words for the wizard that forced him there. But not before he finds a boy. Or, more accurately, before the boy finds him.

Peter Parker had been waiting for the next mission. He just doesn't expect it to come from the future, armed with a ridiculous story demanding a ridiculous quest. And he doesn't expect not to be able to tell Mr. Stark.

Tony Stark is trying to rebuild from the Civil War, knowing that someday, something will come that he needs to be ready for. And he doesn't know it yet, but two universes are trying to rebuild around him, and that something is already here.

Seven Stones. Five dead. Two universes. And one impossible quest to tie it all back together.

UNFINISHED: Sunrise in Exile - Ragdoll (Keshka). (Another fandom favorite! And for good reason. This is really really good!) 

Tony does the math and realizes their best chance to save the universe is by... not confronting Thanos on his own turf.

So he steals a wizard and a spider and a space ship. And he runs.

(Three humans and an A.I in space, the alien friendships they make along the way, and discovering how science and magic might coexist in a universe where they can be one and the same.)

Shorter plotty ones: 

Out of Suffering - Mystical_Magician. (So this author??? THIS AUTHOR??? Very very good, much yes, very good.) 

Stephen Strange does not like people, but 14,000,605 lifetimes of fighting and dying alongside this small group have worn down his walls. He likes them, gods help him. He might even consider them friends. It’s really for the best that they all go their separate ways once Thanos has been defeated. In their eyes, he’s barely even an acquaintance.

Now if only Tony and Peter would stop surprising him.

moros - spookykingdomstarlight. (Almost got a spot in the angst section. Very good). 

There were fourteen million universes Stephen had birthed into existence and let die and, in far more than he cared to count, the visitor standing before him had become something… dear.

Shaking is Caring - mariadperiad20. (This is just STUNNING. Highly loved.)

5 times Stephen's hands would shake, +1 time they didn't.

It's Kinda Chalky - DestielsDestiny. (This one’s pretty short, but definitely worth it.) 

You can live an entire lifetime by looking into someone’s eyes. His sister used to say that all the time. Stephen never gave it much thought back then. These days, he can think of little else.

Something Magic - Imagined. (Beautiful!)

There is only ever one rule that matters:

do not fall in love with the enemy.

An Idiotic Theory - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec! I tried to be funny.)

His wizard has been cursed, again, and Tony's already used up his luck for the day.

(Stephen says it's not a curse. He says Tony's whole daily-allotted karma-based luck theory has minimal merit, citing the fact that Tony had come up with it while he was drunk.)

Tony really should have saved his miracle.

Love Through Time - babywarg (morphaileffect). (I love this one. It sticks with you.) 

Tony discovers an old drawing of, and finally remembers, his invisible friend Stephen from when he was a child.

Alternates - doobler. (Super cool!)

After being punked by a lowbrow magician, Stephen finds himself falling through doors to otherwordly dimensions. How will he ever get home?

132 - 28ghosts. (Soulmate AU! Very fun, incorporates Stephen’s time-loop with Dormammu.)

Ninety-nine point eight percent of humans have a soulmate mark that tells them the age their soulmate will be when they meet them. Tony Stark has a mark. It's just that his is...different than most people's.

(Or: six people who aren't Tony Stark's soulmate, and one who is.)

and when the world falls (I will fall with it) - HeavenChild. (Another multichap soulmate AU. Absolutely lovely.)

Tony will give anything to those he loves.

People will take everything he gives before leaving him in shambles.

Rhodhey, Pepper and Vision have had enough.

Or the five times Tony had his heart broken and the one time he didn't.

i saw the end of the world - JumpToConclusions. (Why has no one read this fic??? It’s so good!!! Stephen knows the future since he saw it on Titan, and things grow more complex from there.)

Tony and Strange are trying to make this work, this being remaking The Avengers. ...And maybe they'll stumble into something else along the way.

Tiresome heart, forever living and dying - Mystical_Magician. (R e a d  t h i s  p l e a s e. The mythology is so cool and the symbolism is so beautiful and the prose is so satisfying. One of my absolute faves.) 

As a fledgling crane, Stephen was too curious for his own good, and it was this curiosity that led to Eugene Strange finding and stealing away his feather robe. Trapped in human form, cruelly forged into the perfect son, not even his father's death freed him when his robe was so well hidden. He only managed to break his father's mold after breaking completely in the aftermath of his accident, and slowly gluing those broken pieces back together at Kamar-Taj, but not even magic could find what had been hidden. Enter Tony, after the defeat of Thanos.

Fluffy ones:

From The Outside - Live. (Hilarious.) 

Being a sentient life-form surrounded by humanity can be hard. Especially when said humans just can't admit their feelings for each other.

Sleeping Iron Man - Golden_Asp. (Another fun one. Perfect balance of ridiculousness with a touch of angst to make it interesting.) 

Stephen Strange stared at the Avengers on his doorstep, Tony Stark flung over Steve Rogers' shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "He touched something, didn't he?" "Yuup." or The one where Tony touches Sleeping Beauty's spindle, is put into an enchanted sleep, and everyone, even Rocket Raccoon, take their turn kissing him. But Tony only has one prince charming.

Doctor Ob(li)vious - lantia4ever. (One of my very favorites. So cute.) 

Stephen starts getting some weird looks from the Avengers, spanning across disturbed, confused and even scared all the way to curious. He dismisses it at first until weird turns into knowing.

And knowing turns into realizing...even if the scheming teenagers had to all but paint it on the walls for him to do so. Oh wait...

Applied Combinatorics in Two-Player Games - 28ghosts. (Short and fun and full of snark.)

After a battle, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange argue about games.

-

“Chess is not a solved problem.”

“Has been since ‘97, Kasparov versus Deep Blue. Kasparov, 1; Deep Blue, 2; three draws.”

“Chess is a game, not a problem.”

The Courtship of Peter Parker's Father (Figures) - flyingonfeatherlesswings. (Peter plays matchmaker! Adorable.)

Peter couldn't stand to sit by while Tony and Stephen danced around each other any longer. Something had to be done.

Speaking Eyes - Vrishchika. (Not Steve Friendly. Tony is amazing in this. And Stephen is so fantastically dramatic.)

Tony has always had expressive eyes.

The Signs of Sleep Deprivation - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Another self-rec. <3)

"Tony said to put the potato in the dishwasher, so that's what I did."

Sometimes, Avengers just show up to say hi. Sometimes, they all show up at once, and Tony makes an party out of it. Sometimes, he invites the snarky, oblivious, somewhat insecure wizard because, and Peter quotes: "everyone else is coming".

Sometimes, something needs to be done.

Show Me Your Scars (And I'll Show You Mine) - Imagined. (Adorable. Lovely. Imagined does it again.)

The worst part is that Stephen keeps tucking his hands away, just as Tony wants to hold them. He keeps hiding them, surreptitiously, no matter what they’re doing. It’s only when Tony kisses Stephen, or hugs him, that he feels the hands settle on his back, uncertain, ready to pull back within seconds.

It only makes him want to cuddle up to Stephen even more, but he backs away, not sure if it’d be welcome.

Promise? Promise. - sharonscarters. (AU, kidfic, absolutely adorable.) 

A four year old Tony Stark runs away from home and finds his Guardian Angel.

What The Doctor Ordered - wakandan_wardog. (Post CW. Kind of not Rogues friendly? So fun, makes me smile. I re-read this one a lot.)

The Rogue Avengers are called back to New York because the heavy hitters are going to be needed against Thanos. Of course, there are some truths that Steve Rogers will need to accept sooner rather than later. Tony Stark has moved on and Stephen Strange will not suffer fools lightly.

Hurt/Comforty ones:

Among The Chaos of The Stars (You're My Safe Harbour) - ShootMeDead. (Oh my vishanti. OH MY VISHANTI. So so so so SO good.) 

Stephen has always been able to hear the stars. Tony is the only one who can silence them.

each night like a white noise frequency - Phierie. (I ADORE THIS FIC. OKAY. I LOVE IT. READ IT.)

Stephen is no stranger to making hard choices. He doesn’t regret his actions on Titan, but months later they weigh on his mind heavier than ever; the cracks begin to show.

Just An Accident - CucumbersInGold. (I really like fics with Stephen’s hands and the difficulties thereabout. Idk, just one of my favorite things. This is beautiful). 

Stephen's hands act up.

Learning, Unlearning - Caaaaaaas. (More character study than anything else. Really good.)

Whatever Stephen wanted with life, life just didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

In which Stephen learns and unlearns some very important lessons.

your eyes have their silence - doctortwelfth. (Oh look it’s another scars fic. I told you I liked them.) 

Tony is gentle with Stephen’s hands even when Stephen forgets to be.

Burning Lines Into The Snow - petroltogo. (Not very Steve friendly. Short and sweet.)

Post CW: It's not just the team that's so broken they are barely able to comprehend how many parts they're missing now, how many have been ripped and twisted and torn. It's Tony as well, right down to the core, the damage so far-reaching even he doesn't know how to fix it.

And then there's Strange, who has his own way of covering the cracks.

Old Bones - CJtheWeeb. (Owch. Dumb geniuses trying to be invulnerable.)

Sometimes Stephen Strange has great days, where he was nearly pain free and his hands still enough to where he could pick up a cup of water and barely spill a drop.

Today was not one of those days.

something taken, something new - meowrails. (So in-character. The premise was a little off to me, but I’m so glad I decided to read this one. I really really like this fic.)

The ChronicConnection implement and app allows a person that lives with chronic or illness-induced pain to transfer their burden temporarily to a willing loved one.

Tony and Stephen sign up as beta testers.

Angsty ones (happy ending unless otherwise mentioned):

day one - days4daisy. (THIS IS SO GOOD OKAY IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE ON THIS LIST READ THIS).

Three days in Stark Tower. Stephen must be in bad shape if he just agreed to this.

His Merlin - babywarg (morphaileffect). (This author keeps showing up on this list because they are A LEGEND. A LEGEND I TELL YOU.) 

As a child, Tony imagined himself a Knight of the Round Table. Little did he know he would grow up to be a king. And that he would have a wizard by his side to lead him to either glory or destruction.

there is no heart for me like yours - turtle_abyss. (Soulmate AU! Wonderful. <3)

Being able to feel your soulmate - a phantom touch, a bone-deep awareness - is a divine torture. To know, but not see. To seek, but not find. To feel someone holding your hand and not be able to hold theirs.

Grace - StrangeMischief. (*cries in beautiful fic* Happy ending!)

“Pain’s an old friend.” 

Us...Me - StrangeMischief. (This will hurt you. So melancholy. Pepper and Tony live their life, and Tony remembers. Not a happy ending.) 

“I don’t believe in happily ever after.” 

One-Thousand Cranes - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec, sorry. Hopeful ending.) 

After it all, a man with shaking hands makes a wish.

courtesy - deathofglitter. (Dealing with the fourteen-million futures. So good.) 

Stark looked at him like he looked at the amulet that rested on his chest like a steady promise - dutiful, a bit burdened, and trying to hold a profound lack of personal emotion whatsoever, still personal enough to protect as anyone would a precious object.

La Douleur Exquise - BananasofThorns, StrangeMischief. (More pain. Pepper and Tony, and Stephen watching and trying not to wish. Very good, no happy ending.)

The before was easy. There were fewer boxes in their minds and no chains around their hearts. There was no hurt. No tears. No dreams.

But those days were long gone.

Stigmata - babywarg (morphaileffect). (AU! Soulmates again. Very interesting, beautifully done.)

Since Stephen was little, mysterious wounds have appeared and disappeared on his body, leaving mysterious scars. His mother says it's because he's one of a Pair, and he's absorbing pain meant for someone else.

*wipes brow* PHEW! That gotta a little more in-depth than I first intended... Have fun, my MysticIron friends. Happy quarantine. 

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep5

This week on Higurashi Sotsu, we witness the most irredeemable of all crimes:

A little girl pushes over someone’s pot of curry.

Thoughts under the cut.

On the one hand, the actual answers for this arc have ended up being way more straightforward than I expected after how unclear a lot of it felt back in the question arcs, but on the other hand it’s probably a good thing that they’re not doing anything convoluted with this when they’re already doing this a lot faster than they probably should, lol.

I’ve said it a lot of times before, but the fact that they’re spending so much time on stuff that comes across as unnecessary and predictable still feels like proof that they actually meant it when they said that this is meant to be accessible to new fans. I think the execution is kinda clunky and they probably should have committed entirely to it being a sequel, but they’re clearly trying to spend time on stuff that wouldn’t necessarily be obvious to people who haven’t read the VN.

Although even then, this episode kinda highlights how the new series hasn’t really gone into Shion’s entire backstory or character arc at all, which isn’t necessarily gonna stop new fans from understanding what’s going on here, but it does make her feel a lot more unimportant as a character, and the narrative themes and parallels set up in this episode don’t come across to the new fans who don’t know how Watanagashi and Meakashi went the first time around.

Anyway, the gist of this answer arc is basically that Mion was indeed the culprit this time, and killed basically everyone. It’s not very surprising at this point, but it’s really neat to actually see what it looks like for Mion to succumb to the syndrome. It feels very different to how basically everyone else handles it, since she’s way more cold and calculated about things, and has more self-awareness of her actions. The dramatic irony of how she didn’t even want to kill Shion and just got carried away in a moment of anger was cool, and on a related note it’s kinda funny in a morbid way to imagine that she probably killed Oryo with the taser without realizing it as well. I think something similar happened in the VN where Oryo dies before Shion can actually torture her for information.

Which reminds me that this is all making it really clear how foggy my memories of the original Watanagashi and Meakashi arcs are, lol. I was hoping to reread the VN when Gou started so I could compare them properly, but that got derailed by my laziness and real-life stuff coming up, so now I don’t really remember enough to confidently compare how this went to those arcs. From what I do remember, though, this feels like a bit of a reversal of how those arcs went, where this time Mion wins her confrontation with Shion and goes on to kill everyone else.

There’s still one more episode left, but the next episode is probably going to show that Mion killed Kimiyoshi after Oryo, then probably killed Rika after watching her rant at Keiichi, then Satoko will go off to confront Mion at the mansion and they’ll both end up dead. I’m still not entirely confident about why Satoko would bother going there in the first place, but my best guess is that she wanted to confirm what Mion had done, especially if she ends up not being sure about whether or not Rika’s dead if she didn’t witness Mion killing her.

Speaking of Satoko, we also got to see how even after the injection [or however she managed to drug Mion], she had to keep monitoring her and pushing her buttons to try and get her on the track to paranoia, since at least at first she seemed to be completely normal. Mion still ended up going L5 anyway, but it makes me hope that the next arc will go even further with having Satoko’s plans mess up.

Also, from what I’ve seen people say, the curry competition scene was actually very similar to the VN, except Satoko used more indirect methods of messing with everyone’s curry. I think this was actually pretty in line with how ruthless the club members can get, and how tolerant they are of blatant cheating, but it’s kinda funny seeing people get way more mad about it now than they ever would have before, lol. There’s also something funny about Satoko clearly just not giving a shit about subtlety anymore and just knocking stuff over and messing with their curry right in their faces. I think in her own way, Satoko’s getting kinda tired of all the looping [like in the last episode where she seemed bored of the card game], and her restraint is slipping.

In a lot of ways they seem to be setting up this idea of Satoko being careless and risky with her actions, and it makes me wonder if that’ll play into the next arc or two, and how Rika might end up ‘winning’ against her. But we’ll see.

It’ll be a little while before we actually get to the next arc, but it’s probably still the one I’m most excited for. For one thing it’s gonna be five episodes long so even if it also covers Nekodamashi I don’t think it’ll feel quite as fast-paced as these first two arcs have, and I feel like seeing Tataridamashi from Satoko’s perspective would feel much more different to what’s been going on in these arcs. There’s also be less competition between ‘the Satoko stuff’ and ‘the answer arc culprit POV stuff’ in the next arc since Satoko herself is basically the culprit of Tataridamashi. 

I at least hope that the next arc is where Satoko’s plans really start messing up, and she starts doubting herself. For one thing it’d be a little boring to have all the answer arcs go in the same sorta way with her doing exactly what she sets out to do, but if they’re setting up for any sort of redemption for her, something along those lines is going to have to happen eventually.

Maybe I’m just giving her too much credit, but I like the idea that maybe her resolve wavered and she ended up wanting to stay in that fragment, but Ooishi went L5 all on his own and fucked things up. Probably because of something like him getting into contact with Teppei and realizing that [in that arc] he hadn’t actually done anything to Satoko, which would fuel his paranoia about the village engaging in witch hunts. I think it’s at least safe to assume that Teppei really did attack Keiichi at the end of the arc, after how the fight between Keiichi and Rena ended up not having any tricks or misdirection to it, so Teppei probably became convinced that the village was just out to get him.

But anyway we’ll get to that when we get to that, lol.

[theravenclawrevolutionary]

Dish Soap (affectionate), what's Thermidorian propaganda?

Ight Human Gaydar (also affectionate), I’mma explain this for you and hope to god it makes sense. It’s gonna be kinda vague and a bit off, but I’m guessing you don’t want all the in-depth details I could talk about for hours.

Warning: Just a reminder that I don’t have a degree in history or anything. I'm simply a sixteen-year-old girl who spends a majority of my free time looking up information cause I’m a nerd like that. I am usually biased slightly towards the revolutionaries, not the monarchy. History is up for interpretation and what I post is a mixture of stone-cold facts, my own opinions, and the opinions of others. Any questions about any other aspects of the French Revolution are always welcome. I'll try to answer them as clearly, accurately, and respectfully as possible. Anyone with more information, similar, or different thoughts feel free to voice them.

So middle school and high school bullies, right? They decide they don’t like someone so they go make up some of the wildest bullcrap about them for fun. And since a lot of the time the bullies are the ‘cool, popular people’ that’s the reputation the victim has for like the rest of school. Of course, there are the few people who were already friends with the kid who know the truth and the handful of people who become friends with them despite the rumors.

That’s kinda what happened to Maxime. His political enemies (The Thermidorians, hence the term Thermidorian propaganda) started spreading rumors after Max’s execution talking about how horrible he was. They had done some kinda awful things and wanted a cover-up of sorts. So why not push all their blame onto their dead enemy who can’t defend his honor?! (Paralleling, in a way, the ‘cool kids’ who choose to pick on people that are too quiet or mild-mannered to stand up for themselves.)

Thermidorians: Hey! Robespierre was a dictator! He sucked! God! And did you know that he wanted to kill every single one of you guys? What’s up with that?

People who knew Robespierre well: Um... Idk about that my dudes...

Thermidorians: Well... do you remember what happened to those other people that liked him? Oh wait... They were executed. It would be a real shame if that happened again...

Everyone else: Oh... So he was, what did you say? A dictator, right? 

Now, thanks to the Thermidorians who started the Max bashing trend and all the people who continued it, we have Thermidorian propaganda and all sorts of false information about Robespierre.

So, long post short, Thermidorian propaganda is basically all the rumors and bad press that’s circulated about Max which gives him the reputation of a cardboard villain who wants to personally kill everyone, gets off to the guillotine, and couldn’t feel human emotion.\

~Dish Soap/ Dara

[stray-tori]

TPN S02E05 - Initial Thoughts (anime-only)

the reaction video: Google Drive

.

. Blue friend!

That i didn’t immediately catch that they were two different groups was kind of embarrassing asuhjd- they do be surveilling. They clearly already tailed them, but idk why they didn't just show up at their hideout --- I guess that would have been too undramatic.

It was kind of obvious towards the end and I felt like they could have made it a little more dynamic. I don’t need still shots. Make them attack and the mask comes off after he also speaks or... idk, so many still frames; masks hiding any emotional reaction (though I do like the whole taking off mask reveal in theory); and then also the kind of.... EH reaction I’m just... idk, I expected more somehow but I can’t exactly pinpoint what I wanted differently.

(This whole thing kind of goes back to my initial theory way back after s1 how Norman might try to infiltrate the system as a demon and then have to pretend to not be their ally in front of them and have to pull through with something, or some tragic shit like that. Or one of them trying to kill him, but he can’t say anything and then they realize when the cover comes off --- yeah VERY BAD, I’m glad that’s not what’s happening.)

I’m assuming the tidbit about farms being raided “recently” means he’s not been out for that long (at least not longer than a few months) so that’d explain why it wasn’t brought up with Isabella.

I also don’t think anything happened when he was removed from GF - but between Norman’s surprised expression when entering the gate room and him being here now, I don’t think he was shipped out for food (unless the high quality ones don’t get flower’ed right away and instead only at their “eater” --- since that’d at least give the support duration for someone to rescue him or him to do something about his situation).

So I’m very curious to hear about that whole story and I have a small bit of hope that the recap episode will be framed as Norman talking about s1 from his perspective and then also transitioning over into what happened while they were apart either in next episode or the episode after that. Don’t think we need a recap either way, but OH WELL, I hope there’ll be SOME framing to it at least.

edit: I thought episode 6 would be a recap, but it’s 5.5 and likely due to production issues so forget my rant here, I’m fine with the recap. I’m not fine with staff being overworked but oh well that’s a whole different dilemma.

They got so much to do and so few episodes AHHH

I wonder if there’s any meaning-parallel to be drawn between the old demon having a walking stick and Norman also having a walking stick??? idk it just felt odd to me-- Norman why are you old.

Though gotta also appreciate that anime really went opposite manga approach here, he didn't age AT ALL duisjsd. still babey. (edit: I didn’t know about his “inbetween” design as much and seeing them side by side it’s actually pretty accurate so yayyy. he babey anyway though)

what did that one guy out of Norman's group do when he leaned down to presumably Don I'm confusion

Norman, surrounding his friends: "lets ominously walk up to them"

.

. The demons' form

I didn’t post it I think but I actually made a “you are what you eat” joke in my ep3 post but discarded it because Sonju and Mujika look completely fine despite never having had any humans and I thought that’d throw a wrench in my thought.... and it still does so... that’s really interesting.

It also seems as if him saying “The world won’t change” is kind of..... like a prophecy sort of thing? It could just mean the massive class divide of course, but maybe if all the demons were well fed with humans, they’d achieve greater things? Since when you’re dying you’re kind of not in the condition to do anything, and if eating their body parts makes the demons adapt; is the implication that eating their brains makes demons smarter? if so that's a pretty literal parallel to the lower classes of society being robbed the chance to do something great by sheer circumstance. they're just actually dumber bc they don't get provided the materials to be smart

Honestly I’m a bit confused and not sure what it means, i can think of:

once a demon has ever eaten a human, they have to continue doing so

eating singular body parts makes them generate on you and you need “higher quality” humans to counter-act it. Would explain why Mujika and Sonju aren’t affected, since they don’t eat humans at all. Would also be an allegory for a healthy/balanced diet I GUESS but I don��t think it seems very plausible? it just seems kind of random.

They’re descendants from different demons and Sonju&Mujika simply don’t need to eat humans to maintain their form.

I also brought up that maybe it’s faith related / a placebo? But that seems even more forced.

I also don’t know if the implication is that they need ANY food, but then why are there hands on them?? So I do think it’s that it’s humans specifically that are either the problem or the solution. But since the bigger demons don’t seem to be affected AND the higher ups also not, I doubt it’s what causes the problems, unless it somehow is the whole balanced / “have to KEEP doing it” angle.

Also the demon scene in the ruins was so interesting, I really liked how it was so somber and kind of just... quiet. Emma, our queen, emphasizing once again.

I wonder if the demon realized it secretly or not... he seemed kinda overall nice and reasonable so I wouldn’t be super surprised if he noticed and just didn’t really care...

.

. The timeline

GF kids have been escaped for 1 year, they were a month at the bunker, so they’ve been out and about for another ~11 months.

Anna says nothing happened in the past 6 months; what else happened to them? just that they hid somewhere and had to flee again?

Is that also where they got their new clothes? i fail to see why they couldn’t just get them at the bunker, would make a bit more sense imo- but oh well.

farms keep being attacked recently and stealing children. it was def not our group, Norman's group potentially? They seem to be pretty badass, so that’s probably not unlikely.

Alternatively, it could be an overarching even bigger group that also rescued Norman, I think.

.

. Other things I liked

the scene of Emma being kind of lost was... pretty good, seeing our sunshine kind of doubt herself (understandably so after not making progress for an entire year) is pretty impactful. But i also feel like she’d try even harder to hide it in front of the others. but also why are you talking to a wall, are you mentally okay, probably not--- 

LOVED the nice subtle reveal to show how they mask their scent in the Lani and Thoma scene when they wanted to go with them

shot of the apple rolling and the screen turning over but head-down was cool!!

Emma and ray flinching when the demon's hand reaches out to Lani and Thoma

That convo between Lani and Thoma and how the older ones always give them the food and pretend to eat I'M EMOTIONAL

also their costumes are so colorful :sparkles: it’s such a big switch from their usual outfits-

.

. Other things I didn’t like

i'm not even a rayemma shipper and I still wanted Ray to do more than say a few lines and WALK AWAY?? ray what ya doin-

[Lani and Thoma] also literally why did you let them come. This season does really depend on someone fucking up and it’s kind of annoyingggggg :) Though in this case it isn’t that much their fault, they just stood around.

also why Norman only say “Emma” pls kill me. I was so happy that (very light manga spoiler) ...... Ray and Emma were both there for the reveal but fuck, the anime just straight up didn't care about Ray being there anyway :V

they better gife me a good trio hug to make up for this next (... uh... next-next TvT) episode

I do agree he’s back too soon but..... I kind of can’t hate them, with the whole 1 season to wrap it up chaos. Anime industry bad.

Well at least I’m excited and didn’t hate it. I’m somehow a little empty-headed but it was a good episode, and the surrounding anxiety probably just makes me a little iffy.... Hope the recap episode next week will have some merit and otherwise, see ya in two weeks.

[prince-toffee]

Fun idea I wrote down, copy and pasted of a thread here into the #sweetened toffee tag which is all about positive stuff, and shit I like.

---

Okay, so since we’re on the rewrite train let me hop on for a bit.

This was an idea(s) I had way before season five:

Catra and Hordak get sent off to the frontlines like Hordak was when he first showed symptoms of defection. Horde Prime sees Catra as a defect and failure, because of her rebellious and treacherous characteristics. Also he is full of himself, so any other species is inferior to him, because I theories he was going to be super powerful, a physical threat to She-Ra.

Previously, Catra, Shadow Weaver - villains that hurt Adora emotionally and psychologically. And when I tried to put my finger on what I thought was missing, I realised it was the Superman problem. Yes, Superman can be an emotionally and conceptually a fascinating character to explore, but... also you need to have him punch something. That’s why people watch, or read the media content, especially kids, which are the target demographic. So I thought Prime was going to be really full of himself, because of the might be held, he would’ve been a contender to Adora’s strength.

Maybe like, Adora finds the sword was inside of her all along or whatever and the music sways and is all triumphant and heroic, and new design She-Ra flies at Prime, slices down on him. But then -  the music stops, and Prime catches the sword, and snaps it in half.

But another cool idea I had of She-Ra, instead of getting nerfed, we go off the rails - she can summon as many swords as she wants - it just starts pouring swords down on Prime. (kind of like Jason Aaron’s Unworthy Thor). Metal to the max!

Anyway back to Catra and Hordak so the two land on a war torn planet, on a dropship, in the clone trenches. And see war through the eyes of the clones. Hordak was mindwiped at the end of season four so he has no memory of anything, not Entrapta, not Etheria, nothing, so as a result of that his first memory is of Catra, so the two forge a sibling-like relationship. Catra plays along with amnesiac Hordak because this is Catra at her lowest and is in desperate need of someone to stay with her.

I can definitely imagine a heart breaking scene to parallel that of Scorpia, when Hordak says to Catra: “You’re a good friend.”

They meet countless clones fighting the war, and Catra’s redemption comes from them and from realising what war does to people. All the clones present are defects, some have cursed Prime and only fight to survive, but some still believe that Prime will save them, one of those being Hordak himself. Catra decides, while looking at the hopeless situation with no means of escape from this planet, that in the probability she’ll die here, she might as well try to make up for everything she did.

Carries around and organises rations, buries the fallen, tends to the wounded, through which we meet a cast of unique clone characters (perhaps paralleling the Princesses), and learns to forgive herself, be happy and more positive from the clones - who joke around even in the most dire of situations, and who are all bad people, the clones are all war criminals who committed atrocities across the universe for Prime, but here in the trenches they try to help each other, out weight their bad actions with their good.

I would definitely play with the religious angle here. We see all the sides of belief, some clones who believe in Prime hope they go to the afterlife he promised them, if they do enough good at the frontlines, some want to die so they don’t have to live in a lie created by Prime, and some are on the fence not sure if the afterlife exists, but just in case there is they still work hard.

Eventually she just spills her heart out to Hordak, who just listens to her, he tries to comfort her the same way with Entrapta, stumbling on his words, unsure of what to say.

The two grow close, and Catra is terrified of loosing yet another friend, because when Hordak is out on a perimeter sweep she enters his quarters looking for him and finds the entire walls and floor covered in scratchings of a purple diamond shape. He is beginning to remember.

After a while of attempting to prevent him from thinking about the strange memories and nightmares Catra fails. Hordak snaps at her, and demands her to tell him the truth. Catra had always talked about the blond girl she loved, but left out the mention of Entrapta in every story afraid to set off the Hordak that wanted to incinerate her. So she tells Hordak everything, and he remembers Entrapta and Etheria, but not only that, he recollects all the memories the new him made with Catra at his side, all the good she did for him and his brothers, so he comes back around. Maybe saves her from an incoming rocket, or something. And then at the end of the season when Prime is about to kill him, Catra does one of her famous jump ‘n’ scratch one-shots on Prime to save Hordak to repay him. (Adora can still have the final blow. Maybe Hordak hesitates to kill him, and She-Ra stabs him in the back.)

How they get off the frontline world? Maybe a Horde dropship, like the one that brought Cat and Dak to the world, is shot down. It lands somewhere in no man’s land. The crew travel to it in hopes of repairing it. Maybe some clones sacrifice themselves for the others to make it. Thanks to Hordak’s recovered memory, and his obsession with constantly rereading Entrapta’s notes when she left him, he reconstructs a portal - to use it as an engine. You know, highlighting that Hordak always rises up and builds something from scraps and dirt. (Look I know it sounds kinda cheap, but if Entrapta and Bow can make anything out of anything whenever, then fuck you).

Maybe Hordak even teaches Catra how to solder and stuff, so she makes the final touch on the ship that makes it work. Giving her something to bond over with Entrapta afterward, when they sort out their shit.

And so they take off and go to kick Prime’s ass, perhaps paralleling the Princesses gearing up and going off to kick Prime’s ass, so they converge together on The Velvet Glove.

Look, I’m not saying this as a the better season concept, this is just a fun idea I had in my mind a while back. I don’t know, I think all that would take three episodes, maybe four, then three or four on the Princess side, showing what they’re doing, and they converge on the mid-season finale, and then... Prime woops their asses, and they have to regroup, and then we have six or five episodes left to seal the deal between Adora and Catra, and satisfying the shippers.

You know, now that they have a Horde ship, they can fly under the radar. Maybe they (Princesses+Clones united) have to go to HordeWorld, and destroy the droid command ship to defeat Prime, something to that effect. Horde Prime is an old First One and he has a super mega awesome runestone on HordeWorld, and they destroy it and his power is gone. Something like that.

Anyway, got carried away with that.

[karliesbuzzcut]

When art really speaks to you, pt. 2: probably just a coincidence but idk

Disclaimer: all these theories are rabbit holes on their own, so trying to explain them in a couple of paragraphs is, automatically, doing them a disservice. Especially since I’m only going to be primarily addressing the part of the theory that focuses on the artist communicating with their public through their work.

Since I’ve already dedicated paragraphs to the introduction in part 1, let’s just jump into it.

Leonardo Da Vinci’s fuckton of theories.

Let’s start with the daddy of all conspiracies. After all, not many can gloat about their reachings becoming a movie starring Tom Hanks.

The thing with Da Vinci’s conspiracies is that there are so many of them, and they range from “maybe this is also a painting made by Da Vinci but he wasn’t credited because of reasons” to ALIENS. Which, I think, shows how different our interpretations of art can be, and how much it depends on an already established worldview.

But the most interesting part isn’t the conclusions, but how people look for clues. For example, just like people say Taylor Swift is obsessed with numbers or oranges (depending who you ask, I guess), Da Vinci was supposedly a big fan of reflections. So, if you want to decode his paintings you must mirror them... and then move then a little bit... there you go, you’ve just found yourself an alien...! Or a daemon...! Or someone wearing a funny hat! And that’s totally what he wanted us to find, right? Why else would he had shown any sort of interest in reflections if he didn’t want us to reflect everything!!

Shakespeare is an illusion... kinda, but yeah.

Personally, I think Kaylors would love to dig into this one. Sure, it doesn’t have many lesbians playing political spies. But it does involve a lot of literature analysis. Just like Kaylors don’t think a heterosexual woman could’ve written Taylor’s songs; some people (referred as anti-Stratfordians, thank you very much) don’t think someone from a lower class could’ve written Shakespeare’s plays. 

Here’s the tea... the very cold tea: because Shakespeare was the son of a glover, anti-Stratfordians say he couldn’t have had the knowledge to write his plays. They, instead, come up with a list of “more suitable” writers that could’ve worked together. But they decided to keep their identities a secret because being a play writer, at that time, wasn’t respectable. Here, we will start noticing a trend with Conspiracy Theories: society, as a whole, can’t handle the truth, only a selected few. That’s where Francis Bacon comes in.

Francis Bacon was a very smart dude. He, also, worked for the state - giving him the credentials to be worthy of writing Shakespeare calibre plays. And also, also, he developed a method to conceal messages in the presentation of a text. To be able to do this, you would need to use two typefaces. Guess what has more than one typeface? Shakespeare’s plays.

I have to say - while I don’t believe either theory we have seen, they are somewhat understandable. We barely know anything about Shakespeare and Da Vinci beyond their work, so it’s normal that people are trying to figure out who they were; what did they believed in; where did they get all of their knowledge. We like theorising about the answers to these questions, knowing we’ll never get a confirmed truth. Not so the case with our next conspiracy...

Lewis Carroll was Jack the Ripper - someone had to be, right?

Now, allow me to fangirl all over this one. It combines my interests for conspiracy theories, true crime and pop-culture.

I’m assuming everyone here knows about Jack the Ripper: a serial killer who murdered at least 5 people (mainly prostitutes) in London, between the years 1888 and 1891. Well, someone looked at this and thought “you know what this murder-mystery is missing? Famous people”. Well, this theory says that the author of Alice in Wonderland did it He was the only celebrity living nearby at the time of the killings, so... 🤷‍♀️

This becomes a case of “I have already made up my mind about this issue, so I’m going to go ahead and search for proof that confirms it”. Authors and, now, internet sleuths went through his books, selected this random-ass excerpt from the nursery version of Alice and decided it was an anagram. And a crappy one at that. Supposedly, if you arrange the letters you get a detailed and gruesome confession. You, however, have to take away some letter and add others. Listen, I’m not an English major, but I’ve heard that’s cheating.

This theory also has that characteristic we mentioned: the “I don’t want to admit it out loud, so I’m going to come up with convoluted ways for my audience to figure it out” - which almost borders on psychotic behaviour. But at least it, somewhat, works with the serial killer narrative, you know? Not very much with Taylor, a woman who simply wants to chill with her girlfriend.

The moon landing was fake and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I’m not going to dig into the moon landing conspiracy, this post is going to be long enough already. Just know that, when the USA government was planning to fake the whole thing, they had just watched ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and they were all like “that’s so cool! That’s how we want our fake moon landing to look!” So they contacted its director, Kubrick.

According to the theory, Kubrick felt really guilty afterwards but he couldn’t say anything about it because he signed an NDA? it would be dangerous, I guess. So he did the same thing Taylor would do decades later: he “spelled it out” for us on his work, under the excuse of “I didn’t explicitly said it, did I? My most intelligent and attractive fans just happened to figure it out for themselves”. 

The movie ‘The Shinning’ has been analysed to shreds. Think ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ music video, but 2 hours and 26 minutes instead. There are many theories about its underlying theme, but we’re only focusing on the moon landing one. The biggest piece of evidence, according to believers, comes from that famous scene in the hallway. Basically, the kid, Danny, is on the floor playing and wearing an Apollo 11 sweater. He stands up = the rocket launches. He walks to Room N.237. Which is almost an anagram for MOON - but actually, a perfect anagram for MORON - I didn’t come up with that joke, I’m just sharing it. Anyway. In the book, the room number is 217 but Kubrick changed it to 237 because there are 237,000 miles between the Earth and the Moon... except that’s not exactly true, but this is their Kissgate, you see? 

“Paul is Dead” aka “the granddaddy of Kaylor is Real”

Now, this is THE conspiracy theory. Kaylors would love to have the amount of evidence this theory has. Give them 50 years, they’ll get there. 

Our story starts in 1966, Paul McCartney dies in a car accident. The British Government panics, “this will drive our teenagers into a massive suicide!” So they cover it up. They find this guy who looks like Paul and hire him to replace the original. 

You might’ve only heard about those stores where pop-stars get their beards. But there’s also a branch that focuses on celebrity look-a-likes.

The rest of The Beatles went along with it (because that’s how these artists seem to operate, they’re always the victims of their circumstances) but they did not like it. So - you guessed it - they used their music, artwork, photo-shoots, etc. to communicate the truth. Faux-Paul might’ve felt a bit awkward about it, but he’s a nice chap and let the other guys work through their grief. 

Kaylors might have agreed on blue being the colour of breaks up and yellow is for Karlie-Sunshine; but the Paul-truthers concluded white is the colour of heaven, jeans are for gravediggers and black for morticians... oh! And not wearing shoes means you’re dead. Taylor being near a door symbolises her leaving the closet; Paul being near an open trunk symbolises him being in a coffin. Is the letter K, for Karlie, surrounding Taylor? Well, there’s a 28IF in the plaques of a car, for Paul being 28 IF he hadn’t died. People hear a phantasmagorical “she” in ‘Call It What You Want’; just like people heard “I buried Paul” in ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.

If you have never looked up this theory, I seriously recommend it. There are so many parallels with Kaylor. Here’s a 30 minute video, if you’re interested. It summarises the theory neatly while discussing the effects that these, seemingly innocent, conspiracies have on the way we absorb information.

Paul might be dead but 2pac is very much alive.

If I haven’t made it clear by now, I think it’s very deceptive to use a musician’s lyrics to back up your alternate version of events. As confessional as these verses can be, they’re still a form of art. Which, in terms of music lyrics, they need to follow certain parameters, as well as a desired sound. And, as many other forms of art, they might focus a bit more on transmitting a feeling, rather than an accurate portrayal of reality.

Why am I stopping to say all of this now? Well, because this specific theory relies a lot on Tupac’s lyrics.

A bit of context: In 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot 4 times while at a stoplight. He died from his injuries days later. While there are theories, to this day, no one knows who killed him. Unless you believe one of those theories, which claims no one did.

The believers of this theory cite Tupac’s lyrics to argue that he was explicitly telling his fans that he was going to fake his own death. Here are two examples:

I’ve been shot and murdered, can’t tell you how it happened word for word but best believe that n*****’ gonna get what they deserve. - Richie Rich’s N***** Done Change

I heard rumours that I died murdered in cold blood, traumatised pictures of me in my final states — you know mama cried. But that was fiction, some coward got the story twisted - Aint’ Hard 2 Find

Just like anti-Kaylors don’t necessarily oppose the idea of Taylor being gay; I bet the “antis” of this theory aren’t happy Tupac died and weren’t against his existence on the first place. It’s more of an argument about confusing your feelings with facts, just because they can be more comforting or exciting.

“Avril Lavigne is dead”... or “every artist you think is alive is, actually, dead and, the ones you think are dead, aren’t” I guess.

After everything we have seen, this one isn’t that interesting. The real Avril died in 2003, right after her first album. Her record label bought a new one. Proof? She says ‘dead’ in ‘My Happy Ending’, blah, blah. A poor man’s “Paul is Dead”.

I added it, mainly for the lulz, after the last entry, I needed them. But also because it all started with a blog. What’s hilarious is that the guy who created it admitted he only did it to show how gullible people are but, at that point, he had already convinced people about. The conspirators didn’t need him anymore. So they discarded him but not the Theory... which just reminds me a little too much of how TCG, HBH, Jennyboom &co. have been excommunicated from the Church of Kaylor.

Beyonce and Jay Z are members of the sexy sexy Illuminati.

I did not save the best for last. But maybe I’m just biased because the Illuminati theory bores me to death. However, if you allow me a bit of social criticism... remember how the Shakespeare Conspiracy started because a bunch of classicist people didn’t believe a lower class citizen could write such good plays? I think this one has a bit of that. I’d bet my life that this one started when a bunch of white dudes got super uncomfortable by black people being so talented and earning their successful.

What this Conspiracy shows, too, is the amplifying effect the internet has had on the proliferation of such theories. Most of the conspiracies I’ve mentioned were huge... but how were you supposed to communicate your ideas and add to the old ones, before the internet? You could publish a book. Talk about it at parties. And, at some point, there were internet forums but, still, you can’t compare that to how widespread Social Media is nowadays. 

Today, we can watch someone ramble for 2 hours on YouTube about how Beyonce looks like a robot if you watch Single Ladies in reverse; read someone’s dissertation of ‘Apeshit’; or spend all night looking at those pictures where someone has drawn a red circle around anything that resembles a triangle. 

It might look like a lot of evidence but that’s only because there are a lot of people very attached to this theory. Wanting - for whatever reason - for it to be true (perhaps because it would confirm that their fears about the world were well founded). And all those dozens or hundredths of people were working together to form as many patterns as possible.

Unfortunately we are going to keep talking about the Illuminati in Part 3 but also about Taylor, so that should be nice. Because - to the surprise of absolutely no one - there’s a bunch of people who also think they understand Taylor better than the rest. That they have figured out her secret codes and her ultimate message. Only, not all of those theories involve lesbian supermodels, so they aren’t as popular on Tumblr.

[dviciousbikefemme]

This past week has been full of ups and downs. From long days in the desert to warm and quality company, we’ve been dealt a set of experiences that are unforgettable. Times have been tough. Phoenix wasn’t too inviting at first and I am thankful for the Warmshowers we ended up with last night. We will remain here until the rain is over. For those of you that don’t know what a Warmshowers is, it is a hosting network that puts long distance cyclists up in individuals’ homes for free. It’s essentially couch surfing for cyclists.

Once again, I think posting once or twice a week will be normal for me until I’m at a better cadence. Everyday is a little unpredictable and I never am quite sure where we will end up. But that’s the point and we’ve made it work so far. In so many ways this lifestyle has released a lot of anxiety and is relief from the sort of stories and assumptions I create in my head around daily interactions and subtleties. You know what I’m talking about. Mind chatter. I don’t have my therapist with me on the road but being on the road forces complete presence.

And when I’m typing these little snippets of life out, it always takes longer than I’d ever expect. You kinda rack your brain with “What do I want to share?””I want to be authentic” “Is this boring?”. This is for me as much as it is for y’all so looking back on these memories, I want to be able to connect with every flavor of feeling.

Since Ocotillo, we’ve pedaled through some major stretches. Leaving Ocotillo on the fourth day started out pleasant in the morning sun. We followed SR98 through the Yuha Desert and its interesting terrain. We paralleled the border with open skies and the mountains of Mexico on our south side. The temperature was great and I was feeling hopeful and touched from the night before. Upon exiting the Yuha, the landscape quickly changed as we drew closer to El Centro and Calexico city limits. Miles and miles of solar panels and broccoli that would never touch the small grocery stores in the very region that grows it. Small towns in the deserts are very much food deserts. You typically can find only packaged foods and meat. Vegetables are scarce and when you do run into them, they are brown and slimey. Once we reached Calexico, the traffic became heavy. There we entered SR111 where we did several miles beside semis and big box corporate stores. At the end of this 50 mile day we settled into a Days Inn in Brawley. We treated ourselves as we foresaw another long stretch ahead. Between the town of Brawley and the town of Blythe there’s about 80miles of limited resources. We wanted to be well rested for day five. That evening we stocked up on groceries and water and caught ourselves up on the Democratic campaign and Coronavirus drama.

Leaving Brawley we pushed through more agricultural land and passed by several sad lil CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). This day was one of our hardest as it was roughly 65 miles and through some tough conditions. When we continued east on SR78, the landscape changed dramatically, once again. We entered into the Algodones Dunes of Southern California that would lead to the “town” of Glamis. Glamis is a town that exists seasonally. It’s a giant playground for folks with a lot of money. We saw some seriously fancy off-road vehicles in the Dunes. It’s scattered about with millions of dollars worth of trailers and RVs, dune buggies and generators. You have to see it for yourself. I didn’t quite capture this stretch in any quality photographs as it was a tough climb with a lot of sand on the shoulders, but I certainly never saw anything like it in my life. We had one guy dipped down off the road under the shade of his trailer awning, hollering up at us, wondering if we might like a beer. We politely declined with a peace sign as we thought it might be dangerous to try and slide down there. A couple miles after the friendly stranger, we dropped into the convenience store of this “town” for an ice cold cola and water refill. There I fantasized about riding around in the buggies. Sure would’ve been fun.

From Glamis on, the road conditions became worse as we proceeded down the shoulder-less 78 in high sun and head wind with cars traveling at about 65mph. Toward the end of it there were several miles in the desert full of dips in the road, making visibility very difficult for both us and for cars and trucks. I grew tired and hungry and frustrated. And with every little hill that came my way I would audibly groan a mighty groan. At about 5:30pm we reached the BLM Oxbow Campground, resting peacefully on the Colorado River. It had a very clean pit toilet but with no access to potable water. We wouldn’t reach all services again until the next day, 20 miles away in Blythe. Our moods quickly transformed from sour to sweet as we enjoyed the beautiful, cool and clear night sitting in the silence of the moonlight— silently loving, silently relieving pain and silently oozing with pride of the hard day’s work.

On Saturday morning we didn’t have much of an agenda and decided to take it easy. One of the snowbirds at the grounds asked us if we needed anything —we said YES COFFEE PLEASE. So we shared our morning with Don and Judy of British Columbia. We talked about music and the great North American landscape and the other bikers they’ve met through their years of travel. They eventually reminded us of the time and we began to pack up and head to Blythe.

Blythe was only about 20 miles out and once we arrived in Blythe we didn’t leave. We went to the Ace Hardware for some camping fuel. Outside the store we met Robin, a town local who invited us to his drinking hole that doubled as a Warmshowers host. We weren’t quite sure if we wanted to quit for the day. We went out to grab lunch (a delicious huevos rancheros!) and discussed what to do next. We wanted to check this Warmshowers out before completely dismissing it. It is located at the B and B (beer and bait shop) a couple of miles outside the main stretch. Upon arrival, we were greeted with ice cold Coors Lites... and another round... and another round... and another... and then we bought a round... and before we knew it we were setting up our tent behind the shop and getting a car ride to the grocery store. The property holds the shop, a few trailers with residents and a rescue goose named Lucy. We had a wonderful afternoon with a handful of kind folks and colorful stories. One man told us of “transporting bodies”. He’s rotated his work between being a medic and working in the prison system. Scott, on the other side of the table, was witness to a completely different set of experiences. He is a former addict and was incarcerated for several years. This group of sweet people spoke of the man, Wayne, that started the communal property and his love for everyone that came through. Warmshowers has been running there for 10+ years, still thriving, even after he sold the property to take care of his sick wife. I was touched by one of the community members that approached Bobby and I while we were setting up camp saying “Blythe is the armpit of CA. We feel forgotten about, but we do have each other here. We want you to feel comfortable and at home. Whatever is ours is yours and if you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to ask. We rely on one another in this town”. We felt grateful to have passed through Blythe and crossed such heart warming folks.

On Sunday morning, we rose early in the dark with the time change. We spent a lot of time going east on the I-10 that day. We met a couple of cyclists at a rest stop. One of them is from the US, the other from Australia. We expected to see them again, and the next day did at a Mexican restaurant whilst stopping for lunch. We did about 50 miles yet again and camped at Ramblin’ Roads RV Park in a place called Hope, AZ. We talked to another cycling group, this one consisting of three women from Maine. Mary chatted us up a bunch. They were not looking to stop quite yet and had a few more miles to do that day. We had a lot of time that evening so we made glorified Ramen and dug into the books we are reading. I caught up with my mama on the phone and encountered some of the cleanest showers I bathed in thus far.

Monday we trekked far into Wickenburg, our final stop before going into Phoenix. We stopped halfway for lunch and ran into both groups of women. The three from Maine goofed off and snacked on Mexican sweets in front of a convenience store. They were also heading to Wickenburg and figured we all might end up camping together. And we did that night at the Aztec Village RV Park. We had a grand time with these fine women. Noreen, the matriarch of the group, is hesitant to introduce herself to people at first and knows how she likes things. She is direct and communicates very well. I really like her— she’s very gentle and nurturing once she gets to know you a little more. She is a former Acadia National Park ranger. Working there is how she got to know Mary. Mary’s got a hankering for finding Gila monster skins and armadillo tails. Auralie (sp?) was the third and youngest of the group. Noreen met her by “shushing” her at a French film viewing. Auralie is French-American and is quite funny. She kept reminding us all that gender and time are both social constructs. Can’t say I disagree. We cooked dinner together and spoke of our adventures and about how much fun we were all having. They are a splendid group that really made me homesick for my SHRIMPS. Shrimps are the gals I bike and bond with back home in WA. Don’t ask as to why we are shrimps. We just are. That night it began to rain, it covered up the loud sound of traffic rushing by. We all woke up to wet tents. Bobby and I got an early start to Phoenix. Before taking off we said “See you later down the road” to our new cycling friends.

[alongthoselineswrites]

#6 “I’m sorry” kiss AND #7 “I’ve missed you” kiss. 

I’m trying not to combine very many of these cause I want the practice writing, but these two fit so well together within the prompt, so I put them together

Post series. Pidge’s POV. ~2500 words. Angst with a happy ending. Background Kallura and Hunay. 

Pidge sat at the kitchen table, staring intently at the wall in front of her. She wishes she could say that she didn’t know how long she’d been there, but judging by the fact that the sunlight streaming through the window had moved from the floor to the top right corner of the wall, she would estimate it has been at least five hours.

Her stomach rumbles. She wishes she had thought to go out and eat before the cafeteria on the Garrison campus closed. Then she wouldn’t have to cook for herself.

She continues to stare at the wall. Despite her body’s signals, she doesn’t feel like eating.

Pidge wishes Lance was here.

Lance stood on the tarmac, laughing at something with Hunk and Shiro as Pidge approached. Lance turned and saw her, before scooping her up in his arms and twirling her around, a huge smile on his face as he put her down, keeping her in his hold. Pidge smiled back up at him, although less enthusiastically.

“Hey babe. How are you holding up?” Lance asked, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her lips. Pidge felt her smile grow just a little bit wider.

“I’m holding up okay.” She reached up and kissed him again, “I wish you didn’t have to go, Lance.”

Lance’s expression fell slightly, and he brought a hand up to cup her face. Pidge loved the way the coolness of his ring contrasted with the warmth of his hand.

Pidge looked down at her own hand, silently admiring the way that the light glittered in the diamond placed daintily on her ring finger. She and Lance had been married for almost a year now. It hadn’t always been easy, but it had been worth every minute. She wouldn’t trade him for the world.

She shifted her gaze from the ring on her finger to the small stick lying on the table. She knew Lance would freak out if he knew she had placed it in the same place that they eat, but she couldn’t really bring herself to care. On one end of the stick was a piece of paper that kinda reminded Pidge of a pH test, although the purpose of this paper was slightly different. On the other end was a small screen embedded in the plastic. Two parallel lines were displayed in perfect clarity.

Pidge was pregnant.

“It’s only for two weeks, Pidge. Diplomatic meetings around a couple of neighboring galaxies, and then I’m back home before dinner. I promise.” Lance rationed with her.

“I know, but I wish that Hunk could go instead of you, or I could go instead of Keith, or something. You know Keith isn’t good at these things anyway.”

Lance laughed, “Yeah, but neither are you, my dear. Remember what happened on Yemurill?”

Pidge remembered perfectly well. After a wonderful meal and amicable negotiations thus far, the Yemurillan Prince had gotten a little too tipsy and tried to pull a line on Pidge. Next thing anyone knew, the poor prince was lodged into the wall above the dining room table, hanging upside down with two of his feet shoved in his mouth.

Pidge rolled her eyes, “He totally had that one coming.”

Lance laughed again, throwing his head back and making Pidge’s heart skip a beat. He leaned back in and placed his forehead on Pidge’s. “Fine, I’ll give you that one.” He placed a quick kiss on her nose, “Besides, Keith is the Black Paladin, he’s really kinda needed at these diplomatic meetings and such, which is why he needs his right-hand man to bail him out of all the sticky situations that Marmora blade gets him in.”

Keith called from the other side of the tarmac, “I have ears you know!”

“Stupid Galra ears!” Lance lifted his head and shouted back, since Keith was much too far away to have heard that with human hearing.

Pidge laughed, “Hey, Lance?”

He turned his attention back to her, humming and absentmindedly taking one of her hands in his and bringing it to his mouth, kissing her knuckles while she talked, “Don’t ever talk about Keith when we’re cuddling again.”

Lance paused for a second, before bursting out laughing again, “Alright, Pidge. Whatever you say.”

Unable to stare at the pregnancy test any longer, Pidge got up from the table, and finally began to assess the bodily functions that she had ignored since she took the test earlier this morning. After relieving herself and changing into some less sweaty clothes, she headed into the kitchen to try to find something to eat. She left the test on the kitchen table, and tried to leave it out of her mind.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy to be pregnant. Lance and her had talked extensively on how excited they were to have a family one day. Especially Lance; he was ecstatic about the thought of being a father. It was just the specific circumstances that made her anxious.

She put water on the stove to boil, pulling some linguini out of the pantry. She then hopped up onto the counter and stared at the wall some more. At least this time she had a fresh perspective.

“Take me with you, Lance. I don’t want to be away from you for so long.” Pidge pouted, pulling the puppy-dog eyes out of her box of tricks, knowing full well that after three and a half years of being together, he was mostly immune to them, especially knowing how important these diplomatic meetings were. She knew she was being dramatic and that it was only two weeks, but she couldn’t help it. 

“Pidge, you need to stay here. You’ve got to cover my classes for me, remember?” Lance reminded her jokingly.

“As if I could actually teach your classes, Lance. I’m no pilot. What business do I have teaching a piloting class? You should have asked Shiro.”

“You piloted a lion same as me, Pidge. Besides, everyone in my class is scared to death of you. You can just call any of them by any name off the top of your head and they’ll probably pee themselves.”

Pidge giggled softly, before growing serious again. She looked him in the eyes, gripping his shoulders hard, “Lance, I don’t want you to go. I know I’m supposed to be the rational one about this kind of thing, but I have a bad feeling about this.”

Lance cradled her face again, bringing his forehead to hers, obviously trying to bring her comfort in this, “I’m sorry, Pidge. I’ll be back in two weeks.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, telling her everything she needed to know through the kiss.

Pidge heard a hissing sound on the stove, bringing her back to the present. She turned and saw that her water was boiling over. She quickly jumped off of the counter, removing the pot and turning off the stove. She leaned heavily against the counter.

Perhaps she shouldn’t be cooking in this state.

Her goodbye with Lance had been almost three months ago. Four days into their mission, Keith and Lance’s radios had gone inexplicably silent, and they hadn’t come online since. Pidge and Allura had immediately flown out to their last known location, only to find empty space, with nothing in reach for lightyears.

Pidge felt tears start to well up in her eyes, but she refused to cry.

She had worked tirelessly towards tracing their last known signal, but she knew deep down that if they weren’t broadcasting, there was no signal to trace. She had originally thought that the stress of the two paladins going missing had been what had been causing her cycle to be late. But after the third month with nothing, she couldn’t deny the possibility of her being pregnant any longer. 

That is what led her to her current situation, sitting alone in her and Lance’s small apartment, alternating between failing at cooking and staring forlorn at the positive pregnancy test on the table. If she truly was pregnant, she’d be well over three months along at this point. She was almost finished with her first trimester and she hadn’t even known she was pregnant.

Even more important, Lance didn’t know she was pregnant. And on the twelfth week of a two-week mission, there was an 89% chance that he would never know she was pregnant.

It was that thought that made the tears fall.

 A few days later, and Pidge still hadn’t removed the pregnancy test from the table. She can’t bring herself to touch it again; as if the act of acknowledging it will really make it true. Irrationally, she thought that if she ignored it, everything would go back to the way it was before.

Pidge was attempting once again to cook without burning the food, a task which she was currently having about 14% success after finding out about her pregnancy. She had dropped 21% from where she was after she had found out Lance was missing, which was already far below her usual 63%. Maybe she was just a bad cook.

The phone started ringing.

Knowing that in this frame of mind she wouldn’t have the brain power to cook and talk on the phone, she turned off the stove in order to answer the phone.

“Hello?” She answered, and it was at that point that she realized that she hadn’t spoken in three days. Only cried. Which made her voice thick, scratchy, and barely recognizable.

“Katelyn? Is that you?” Iverson’s voice rang through the receiver.

Pidge cleared her throat before trying again, “Sorry. Yeah, this is Katie.”

There was a pause on the other end of the line, as if Iverson wasn’t quite sure what exactly he wanted to say.

“You’d better come on down to the Garrison for a bit, Hon.”

She waited for more explanation, but when none came, she forced herself to inquire further, “What’s wrong?”

Another pause, this one longer. “It’s Lance… We found them.”

Tears sprang to Pidge’s eyes, and she wasn’t sure yet if she should be relieved or devastated. She tried to ask if they were okay, but all that came out was a squeaky sort of sobbing sound that Pidge was sure she’d be mortified about later.

“They’re all right, Katie. Calm down. They just came onto our radar, and Hunk and Allura already flew out to escort them back. But you should be here.”

She nodded, before realizing that he couldn’t see her, and said, “Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Pidge hastily scrambled to shove shoes onto her feet, before grabbing the first hoodie she could get her hands on, and rushing for the door. When she had turned the handle she stopped, spotting the positive test still lying on the table. On impulse, she decided to grab it, shoving it into her hoodie pocket and fleeing the apartment.

By the time she got to the tarmac, the lions were visible as they came in to land. I should have been here. She realizes when she views the lions coming in with a lack of green among them.

She only dwells on that for a moment however, when the red lion lands right in front of her. As soon as the lion’s head starts dipping towards the ground, Pidge is running. She meets Lance before he’s even gotten both feet on the ground, and almost knocks him off of his feet when she jumps into his arms, holding onto him like a baby koala.

Lance doesn’t comment, only sinks to his knees as Pidge cries in his arms, blubbering about how much she’s missed him and how worried she was, and don’t you ever do that to me ever again Lance McClain.

She felt more than heard Lance laugh, but it sounded watery, and he clung to her just as tightly.

Distantly she was aware of Hunk teasing them, before realizing how shook up they really were and transferring his teasing to Keith and Allura, who had had a similar (although less dramatic) meeting upon exiting their lions. When Keith made a rude gesture, Hunk gave up, going to greet Shay even though he’d only been gone for a matter of minutes. I guess he didn’t want to feel left out.

After not nearly enough time, Lance began to pull out just slightly, only so that he could get one his hands between them to cup her face and bring her eyes to his. Pidge probably looked like a complete wreck, between all the crying she had been doing and the general lack of self-care she had employed since Lance had gone missing.

Lance’s eyes were also red and puffy, and a nasty bruise framed his left temple, but he was here; he was alive.

“I missed you, Pidge. I missed you so much.” He swooped in for a kiss, one which Pidge returned heartily.

Her joy at seeing him again and holding him in her arms manifested itself into uncontrollable laughter, and she soon had to break the kiss and bury her face in his shoulder because she was laughing so hard. Unfortunately, because of her strange emotional spectrum due to the baby in her belly, her laughter still sounded like sobs.

Lance quickly became concerned, asking her what was wrong and if he did something. She started shaking her head, lifting it up to look him in the eyes, so that he could see that she was so unbearably happy. Lance started laughing with her.

When she was finally able to control her laughter, she remembered the test in her pocket. She caught Lance’s attention and pulled the stick out of her pocket, “I have a surprise for you.” She held it in front of his face for him to see.

Lance went slightly cross-eyed for a second, trying to understand what Pidge had whipped in front of his face. 

After a couple seconds, comprehension seemed to dawn on him, and he caught her eye.

“Is that…?” He asked hesitantly, not wanting to believe it.

“It is. I’m pregnant!” She exclaimed, catching the attention of the rest of the team nearby.

“When did you find out?” He asked, still wide-eyed in awe, and holding her just a little more cautiously now.

“I just found out a couple days ago, but I’m just over three months along.” By now most of the team had made their way over, wondering what all the commotion was about.

“What’s happening you two?” Shiro asked, and Pidge handed him the test from where she sat on the ground.

“Are you showing yet?” Lance asked softly, sounding like he missed the privacy of a few moments ago.

Pidge paused, realizing that she hadn’t even thought about whether or not she would be showing yet.

“Let’s find out.” She said, and reached down to pull her shirt and hoodie up to reveal her stomach. She could just begin to see the start of a bump forming.

Lance placed his hands reverently over her abdomen, before catching her eye and leaning in for another kiss, tears welling up in his eyes once again, “We’re having a baby, Pidge!”

Pidge looked around at the team surrounding them, and nodded. Yeah, They were having a baby.

[aspiestvmusings]

MIB: International - My 1st “review” thoughts

SPOILERS AHEAD for MIB: INTERNATIONAL (2019) 

So.. I went to see the new film “Men In Black: International” (2019) the other day. It was an early preview, hence me already having seen it, though it comes out only tomorrow in local theaters here. 

1. A look back/History: I know I have seen the original MIB film. And I mean... film. The first MIB film from 1997. I don’t think I ever saw the second MIB II from 2002 or the last one, MIB 3 from 2012. Also... I do know I quite enjoyed the original/first film, but I have no specific memories from it.  So I did not find it to be “one of my faves of all time” (those are the films I remember in detail) 

2.  I looked at the critics/viewers early reviews & was a bit surprised to find how “negative” the reviews were, and how disliked the film seems to be. Though most of the criticism seems to be about comparing this to the original film (trilogy) & it being different/not connected to it...in ways that was expected. And about how this is a mindless summer blockbuster film. 

3. I personally quite liked the film. And since I don’t remember (basically) anything from the original MI, I had the luxury of not comparing the two (or finding any “continuity” issues or  anything like that). I also went in fully aware that this is a summer blockbuster, so I did not expect anything besides that from the film. I also went basically because of the cast. I wanted to see “Thor” & “Valkyrie” working as a Team again. I also went in not knowing much about the film. I had seen the trailer or few, and some BTS pics/vids from social media, but I was pretty much unspoiled for the film. 

The film is not great/spectacular (just good/ok), but it delivers what it’s supposed to...for a summer blockbuster. I also liked that in my eyes the film did not take itself too seriously. They knew when to “laugh at themselves”. It might not have anything unexpected, or memorable, or anything else special, but it is a fun entertainment with a little mystery, lots of fun teamwork, many gadgets, lots of colourful characters from many species (local & alien)... so it’s cool. 

4. Some moments from the new film that I remember (the most) after this first viewing: 

M as in Molly & H as in Henry

Everyone wanting to push the (big) red button. #PushTheButton 

That space train (transformation) scene (from NYC to London... to other places) was cool!

Agent M was not expecting the taxi ride to be what it was. neither did I. That “taxi ride to the secret club” was also cool. 

The desert convo where the Pawny is the mediator/translator...  between the two characters, who are “not on speaking terms” at the moment, while they are standing next to each other, so can hear anything the other says, but both tell Pawny to tell the other what they have to say. And Pawny, at times, changing the message “a bit”. 

The arms dealer has extra arms! That’s... kind of funny.  And arms dealer who has lots of arms (she has more arms than humans usually have... 3 not four as I previously typed) 

That moment when one of the MIB London office ladies (alien species) uses her alien magic skills to “freeze/slow/turn back time - when they show “Thor” walking in slow-motion... that was kinda silly, and funny scene. It’s horrible in reality (she/they were ogling at him), but visually it was beautiful scene. 

That moment, when Agent M makes Agent H realize he was neuralyzed the last time in Paris/at Eiffel tower, cause he has that one specific story/explanation of events, and no other recollection... and that’s his whole memory of it, and he realizes that it’s a “rehearsed” story/memory, hence not real/what really happened.

That sweet reunion moment, when the little girl, who is now grown up / changed, meets the cute little alien “teddy bear” (who has also grown up & changed) she met two decades ago, again... And finally learns what the two words the furball told her as goodbye really meant. 

The ending “twist” AKA “Who is the mole in London office” was kinda easy to guess, though I must admit that they did add enough little details to make me question if it’s someone else (I suspected three other characters at certain moments, too), because movies can sometimes use false hints & I don’t think that it’s always as it seems. But even though you can probably guess who the mole is & how it all ends, it’s kinda fun two hours. 

MIB:I/MCU “parallels”: While Avengers have THOR, The God of Thunder (and Hammers), MIB: International have THOH, The Henry of Hammers. In other words: that moment/scene, when Agent H uses a hammer as a “tool”. That made me think of Chris H’s other recent role, Thor.  To be more specific he throws a hammer at someone, who catches it & his line to that is “That was an incredible catch!”

MIB: I/MCU “parallels”: That moment when its mentioned he (helped to) saved the universe. Chris H. played a character in MIB: I, who (thinks that he)  helped to save the Universe & he also played a character who helped to save the Universe in Avengers/MCU films. 

MIB: I/MCU “parallels” : That moment, when the trio crash lands in the desert reminded me of the first IronMan film & how Tony crash-landed in the desert in his first suit.  

MIB:I/MCU “parallels”: That moment when Tessa T. plays a character, who is considered to be a QUEEN (Pawny: Are you a queen / Agent H: Indeed she is...) in MIB:I & when she is given the title of QUEEN of New Asgard in Avengers. Endgame. Two films, where the same actors are doing a scene, where her character is pointed as/thought of as a QUEEN. 

MIB/Elementary “parallels”: That method that M used to wake up napping H was so Holmes/Watson. You know...that scene when Agent H is sleeping behind his desk at work & Agent M has to talk to him, but he doesn’t wake up easily, so she drops a pile of books on the table to wake him up. ;) And then he tries to cover it up by claiming he was meditating, and thinks he fooled her. But then she tells him he has a tell - he snores when he “meditates”. 

Pawny was the highlight of the film, and the funniest character. His lines/scenes got the most reactions & laughs from the audience when I was watching. I really loved the character - both the looks (the tiny pawn was the most important piece in the game/film) and the lines. And he got to serve two queens in this film & did an honourable job!

Tessa T. as Agent M. was the (next) highlight of the film. Her role was (IMO) central to the story. Chris H as Agent H. (this films James Bond... in many ways) was also good. And while Emma T.’s Agent O. (the boss, who recruits M...after she finds the men in black...after two decades of searching) does not have a lot of screentime, she is memorable, too.  Then there are the other colourful characters: Agent High T., who did his job, Agent C, who played his part, Riza...& her bodyguards who had some great action/fight scenes.... And the Dancing alien “fire” twins did their job as the “scary enemies”

Though the film did add scenes/moments that can be used as a built up for future romance between the leads (typical to Hollywood films), then I liked that in this film there was not, not really, any romance between the two leads. Sure, the looks and all at the end  suggested that in the next films they might take the story there, but I liked that they were a great team, and buddys in this one. The rookie & the “veteran” - one eager to prove themselves, the other once with great promise (best agent)...but now kinda not taking things that seriously. 

I also liked that despite things he got promoted as the new boss, because as the old boss had said - he had potential. And I liked that he got the custody of Pawny for now (I hope it’s like with Clyde in Elementary, when the two share the “custody” of the “pet”) 

5. Some quotes (not word by word, cause I can’t remember them all, accurately, I think): 

The universe is a sort of chemical reaction. And the Universe is real. (as a response to “Love is not real, just a chemical reaction”)

Always remember: the universe has a way of leading you to where you're supposed to be, at the moment you're supposed to be there. (and the quote becoming real at the end of the film) 

Too late. I already pledged the loyalty. I wish you’d said, “No, no, no,” before. (I pledged my loyalty to you, my new queen) 

I’m not losing another queen. 

Why is he wearing pink pants? (that’s a question the film asks, and one that is never answered) 

[firebirdsdaughter]

Onward!...

... To the O-T subs of Zi-O 21! Yay!

Also, fair warning, this will probably include spoilers for Ryuki. If anyone hasn’t watched it yet and doesn’t want anything spoiled.

In no order:

Still sad we didn’t get to see Geiz coming home. :(

Sworz and Herue’s family moment is still kinda sweet, despite them being who they are.

This, too, is Decade’s fault.

I LOVE THE ZI-OT3 INVESTIGATING!

Like I said in an earlier post today, I think I understand why it’s Ryuga and not Ryuki. Bc at the end of Ryuki, everything was reset and the events of the series never happened. Shinji didn’t just forget he was a Kamen Rider, he never was one in the first place. But just bc it didn’t happen doesn’t mean that somewhere, some place, the Mirror World ever went away completely. Maybe it somehow preserved Ryuga, and he’s just been hanging out, hiding in the new Shinji’s reflection? Waiting for something like this...

Poor Shinji. Given his reaction later, I’m wondering if he considers himself responsible--which raises my question of if he was actually trying to kill himself bc he thought that might stop the attacks, or if he was just so terrified he covered up everything and accidentally sealed himself in in a panic.

Hands, who thinks Kido is an idiot? ... Goddamnit, Ron.

I love the Zi-Ot3 having planning sessions, too.

Sou Okuno remains adorable and it is so unfair.

Like I said. Geiz is one of those people where if punching it doesn’t work, you just punch harder--and if you break your arm doing it? So be it.

He starts the sentence neutral, then switches to first person. Just... Decides it’s gonna be him. Bc he’s the soldier, and fighting with his life is the only thing he’s ever done.

Sougo clearly doesn’t quite understand the seriousness of the situation, clearly thinks they’re still brainstorming, (honestly don’t blame him--most people wouldn’t be expecting someone to actually be meaning to go through w/ that), but Tsukuyomi is clearly well aware of the fact that Geiz will absolutely do this, and she’s not happy.

Junichiro does the only acceptable impression of Kuro Woz ever.

WAS THE LEAF PILE MOVING IMPORTANT?

Shinji doesn’t just have no memory of it, he has double no memory of it! (that may have been a reference to that)

Kuro Woz begins to, well, Woz, and Sougo walks away. I LOVE THIS. Force the manipulative jerk to walk after you!

KWoz remains incapable of picking up on tacit cues. Seriously, dude, even I am clear on how uncomfortable Sougo is w/ this. And I am awful at tacit cues.

ELBOW HIM IN THE STOMACH SOUGO!

Okay... This seems a little more like they’re talking about something e don’t know about... But he’s still noting it might kill him, so my other comments do still hold. But other than some protectiveness that he’s in denial about, why does he think it has to be him? Did Shiro Woz do something? Was there more to that vision than we saw?

Well, maybe Tsukuyomi doesn’t know? She’s pretty against it.

The little face twitch after she reminds him Sougo didn’t like the idea either. I think he’s secretly touched Sougo cares, but too Tsundere to admit it.

No, we weren’t waiting. We just knew if we stood still for five minutes, you’d be somewhere in the scenery, creepily dropping eves.

WAGA KYUURANGERS.

I can never hear that the same again.

I am still extremely uncomfortable w/ this phrasing. I’ve seen people connecting it to PreCure, where it’s the villain’s goal? And while I don’t watch PreCure, I absolutely agree. That’s not a normal way of referring to a peaceful era. It’s suspicious. Makes me think that either time literally is stopped, or that it’s ‘peaceful’ bc it’s all controlled by the future Nooks or something.

My hope for this is that they make a third timeline, and the point of the story is that we forge our own destinies, and sometimes not knowing exactly what the future holds is a good thing. Not everything is predetermined, that freedom is more important than martially imposed ‘peace’--and that even if things are apparently doomed to end w/ you murdering half the world, there’s always something you can do to change things. In a world where a lot of young people are suffering under the exacting expectations of others (and this is not saying Japan specifically, this is a thing everywhere), I feel like that would be a great message for kids. Wow. Okay. Got a bit mushy there.

Hm... Honestly, this translation makes Geiz sound more suspicious of it than anything--though given the flashback, I do think that the ‘peace’ part sounds good to them. However... Well, I have some other things to say on this subject, but we can get to that lower down.

THAT’S NOT THE FACE OF A PERSON I TRUST.

Poor Shinji, he’s so scared! He’s gotta have been seeing his reflection be like ‘hey, you wanna go murder this guy right, I’m gonna do it!’ so much he can’t even bear to look at it... Oh, sweetie... Ron! Come get Shinji he’s making me cry!

Need I remind anyone that I hate Shiro Woz?

Not you, Keisuke, you’re an angel and I’m thrilled you’re here.

WAGA KYUURANGERS.

Ahem. Okay, anyway. This is another reason why I’m confused as to whether or not Toei wants me to think Geiz is actually going to switch ‘sides’ or something or not. He jumps in to defend Shinji w/out a single hesitation, and I really think there’s meant to be parallels between this and his initial stance towards Sougo. Like, that one scene w/ the flashback to Goggles (WHO IN TIME IS GOGGLES THE DEAD PERSON?) seemed to be meant to indicate that he was starting to believe Shiro Woz--but here? It’s coming across as the opposite. WHICH IS IT TOEI?

I will continue to believe that they will not do that to my precious tsundere baby until they actually do. And when/if (please dear gods I hope it doesn’t) that happens... Tea and shirts? I’ll make cookies?

G T F O Shiro Woz. No one wants your approval at all, esp not Geiz.

No! Poor Shinji... Ron, come help Shinji! Ron! ... What’s that? Not until the special? But that’s in March! We’ll be in another arc by then! Goddamnit, Ron.

I’m making a dumb joke, I have no clue if Ren is gonna be back in the special. I would be excited if he was, though.

Don’t listen to him, Shinji. You Rider Kicked him in the face in another... Another... A timeline twice removed? Or maybe once? Maybe they just never altered the Ryuki timeline since it did that one it’s own?

Ah, sweet justice.

Can’t believe I’m cheering for this asshole. But I just really dislike Shiro Woz.

Okay, Heure, you jerking Shiro Woz around is valid, but that dig at Geiz was unnecessary.

Also, even though there’s (well, was?) a ‘justifiable’ reason for what Shiro Woz was doing, Geiz remains unhappy about it.

... Okay, why did we get a ‘gasp’ reaction from Shiro Woz to that? What exactly happened on your ‘Day of Ouma,’ you snake? Oh what am I saying. Like he’d give me a straight answer.

Goddamit, Geiz. DX

We knew you were gonna do this, though.

Sougo finally arrives, and actually understands that Geiz has no chill whatsoever and will absolutely do this shit.

But it seriously kinda does feel like Geiz’s mentality is ‘I’m a soldier, I have to be willing to fight to the death’ sort of thing. Or maybe even ‘I’m the soldier so I’m more expendable’ (which the angst part of me kinda wants to be something that comes up--‘I’m the fighter, I’m the one who dies’ sort of thing; and then the other two smack him for it).

I just love Geiz as the ‘protector’ part of the triangle. Like, I feel like he’s starting to fall into it? Like, willing to protect the other two w/ his life (not that they don’t all protect each other, but... Do you know what I mean?).

Friendship moments are hard for Geiz, but this is still a good one. He’s literally getting forced to face the fact that Sougo cares about him and doesn’t want him to kamikaze attack.

I love this, though. Before, we saw that Sougo was uncomfortable w/ the Zi-O II Ride Watch, and its implications for his future. But he’d rather use an item that may very well be either a step or even a lock into him becoming the Demon King he was so disturbed and upset by before, than let Geiz die. Might be bad news for the world, but...

Makes me wonder if there’s gonna be a ‘I won’t let you turn into Ouma Zi-O even if I die’ thing, except it’s not ‘fight you to the death’ thing and more ‘I’ll keep trying to keep you good even if it gets me killed/I have to sacrifice myself.’

Oh my god. Like if there’s a way to keep Sougo from becoming Ouma Zi-O (like, w/out killing him), but it was, like, fatal. Geiz would absolutely do it. Or try to. Hell, maybe even both him or Tsukuyomi. Or they’d both try to do it, but also try to protect each other from it... Like she tries to stun him so he can’t, and he tries to beat here there, or something... There I go.

THE TRIUMPHANT MUSIC! And you just know it’s gonna cut out. XD

My guess is that it failed bc Sougo was secretly doubting his future. Like, he’s wholeheartedly ready to use it bc he doesn’t want Geiz sacrificing himself, but he’s still scared it’ll turn him into Ouma Zi-O? And maybe he has to be confident in his abilities before it will work? Me make sense? Who would do that.

Well, one thing I’ll say for him. Another Ryuga is cool.

Okay, okay. Here’s the last thing, I swear. If they’re trying to imply that Geiz is gonna turn on Sougo... No one told Gaku before he voiced those two ‘Zi-O!’s. That sounded way too frightened and concerned for someone you’re starting to doubt.

I swear, I’ve heard that music somewhere...

I loved how everyone’s reactions to this sequence was literally ‘well, I assume they’re showing us everything is backwards, but I couldn’t read kanji to begin w/, so...’ ^^ XD

Wow, nice on the signs O-T! How much harder was it to do the subtitles backwards?

Mirror¡Sougo is bouncy like bunny!

Mirror¡Sougo tries to be creepy, but regular Sougo doesn’t even register it. This kid would be both a joy and a risk in a horror situation.

I love the way Sougo dodges the ‘eye blocks’ when Mirror¡Sougo transforms, and Mirror¡Sougo hits one back w/ his sword when Sougo transforms... It’s cool.

Preview: Oh, yeah. Geiz dies next week. Now where’s my new favourite picture... XD I will love it if there’s a situation where Sougo is able to see out of the Mirror World and sees what’s happening. I mean, Another Ryuga can look out, why not Sougo? Maybe that’ll be what finally seals the deal on him actually using the Watch?

See, this ‘opening’ ‘creating ‘cutting open’ the future stuff rings to me like the goal is that thing I mentioned above. About choosing one’s own destiny, no matter hat tries to shape you.

Anyway, I like the Zi-O II suit. Excited for ep 22. ^^

That’s all, folks! (wonder how long it’ll be before I get sued for that XD). Virtual red velvet cupcakes for anyone who read all of that. And if you don’t like those, then... Well, pick your favourite flavour! ^^ And if you don’t like cupcakes, then pick a sweet you do like.

Anyway, I’m having a good time and enjoying this. I love the Zi-Ot3, in case that wasn’t clear, and atm I’m looking forward to 22. Of course, things could always turn out... Unfortunately, but I still have tea and shirts on standby.

... Now I want read velvet cupcakes again...

(If you count the number of bolded words in this post, you get a hardy handshake!)

[gayniska]

i honestly... don’t know what to say. firstly, i thought the return of odi/v was SO COOL i never saw it coming. the unfortunate thing is that this was the only part of the finale i genuinely enjoyed or wasn’t confused by.

i understand if mia’s fate was due to gemma chan’s other commitments. she’s really gaining momentum now in hollywood so likely wants to move onto other projects. but they could have done it differently. she didn’t have to die. she’s the face of the show, and an asian one at that - her presence was important and like i’ve seen people say, what the show was about. and i say was because after that finale i just don’t know what this has become. i have no idea what season 4 will look like if it goes ahead. but i do want it to because this ending just won’t suffice. it just won’t.

the whole thing with mattie’s baby is too twilight for me. it feels very juvenile and serves a purpose that could have been done another way - even feels unnecessary. when v was talking about keeping synths alive another way i thought she meant through a computer AI system or something, like how she was created. not a fucking magic baby. 

i’m not going to cover everything because for the most part i either don’t have my thoughts in place or just don’t know what to think about it. i’ll talk about niska for a bit because i love her so much and i’m just... confused. and kinda heartbroken at what the final episode did to her.

y’all know niska’s been my girl since day one. i’ve been happy with every direction she’s taken but things were getting questionable and i really need to draw the line somewhere. niska wasn’t herself in 3x08. it feels like a fever dream tbh, what happened to her. the niska we know wanted to preserve synths, but she was grounded and, despite what vodi said, is still cynical. she wouldn’t have accepted this god-complex shit upfront, and she certainly wouldn’t have agreed to be a part of it. niska is not a leader, she never was one and i don’t understand why she has suddenly become some sort of jesus figure in the blink of an eye, ESPECIALLY when the whole point of anatole was to show the misplacement of blind faith. you can make lesbian jesus jokes but this isn’t niska. she wanted to help synths, sure, but she also just wanted to be happy, living her own life with her own love. now she’s basically brainwashed by vodi into believing her word and her ‘wisdom’ holds the future of synths. this isn’t the niska i love and i hate that i’m typing those words. my favourite character of all time has been written completely ooc in the most pivotal point of her show. not to mention her reaction to mia’s death. i won’t even go into that. but if there is to be a season 4 i need them to fix what they’ve done to niska, whether it’s her gaining her fucking individuality back herself or astrid pulling her out of whatever cult vodi has signed her up to. 

it didn’t feel like an episode of humans. and this might be the last we get - and if its not the last we get the next season might drive it even further from what we loved, especially now that mia’s gone. i did not wait the entire summer to finally get home and watch this pay-off. first my favourite show is cancelled and then my other favourite show loses sight of what made it so great in the first place. and it hurts.

and somehow i kind of knew it was going to go downhill the moment they killed off agnes. she was such an interesting character, she could have been a great parallel to someone like hester if the writers had kept her around... she could have done so much, but they sent her out in a lazy way - a way that i think they would have avoided if we were still in season 2. 

i just don’t know. i’m sad. a lot of the season was great - the first half was great. right up until the last episode there were moments that had me on the edge of my seat. but it was coupled with and overtaken by sheer confusion at what they were doing to the show, our show. i need season 4, i need them to fix this, but on the other hand... i get the feeling that if season 4 goes ahead, it won’t get better. it’ll get to the point where i won’t even recognise our show or our characters anymore.