#very important musings

[mournivaldisco]

So we know Astartes of some Legions are into art in their down time. Do any of them sing? I mean their bass would surely be excellent but also they could get out a KILLER death metal growl

[kainoliero]

Weird feeling I've been getting now that Genshin is in Natlan story arc; it's like it was written by a whole different team of people than the rest of the game. Can't put my finger on it, but somehow Natlan feels more Netflix than Genshin.

Come to think of it, Natlan isn't the only area that stands out. We start in Mondstad, after that Dragonspine, Liyue and Chasm all fit together. Same style of writing, same good flow. Inazuma (and Enkanomiya)... same style, but feels rushed. However, then comes Sumeru and Sumeru is absolutely AMAZING. It introduces a whole new concept - samsara - and is so full of lore and history and fun stuff to do, it's perfection and it feels like the team writing it really knew south and south-east Asia like the back of their hand. When I played it I kept wondering how many people they had to add to the team to be able to make all that happen, or even if it was a whole new team that had been working on it for a good while while Inazuma was happening. Sumeru is just that good. Fontaine is also amazing, and again feels like the team working on it somehow ingested the whole British and French history, reckless invention style and religious weirdness, and made a tight package out of it. By then I was already joking that they had to have a team for each area, esp since Chenyu Vale felt again like the early areas. IDK how to describe it, it had the same feel. Then we got Remuria, and it was somehow back to Fontaine style. No complaints what so ever, not at this point! It all fit seamlessly together even when different areas had different vibes to them. Buuuut then Natlan happened, and welp. It's just not that good. Well ok, world quests are interesting, the history of Natlan is interesting, the Archon quest however is not, or at least not yet (since it's not over yet). Everything feels so forced, the story doesn't build up, it's just a collection of scenes that don't give you a nice background for anything that happens next. Natlan tells you to feel feelings, but it gives you no reason to. It's also massively illogical with this, like Chasca was supposed to have hard time controlling her emotions, but all we see of her until uhhh NO SPOILERS BUT THAT MOMENT is a very emotionally controlled lady, who has one little fight with her sister and that's it. Then we're to nod and feel it in our hearts when her character supposedly develops, even though we never saw her struggle.

Also the "friendship is power" moments didn't feel very touching, or give Mualani any depth. Instead of being inspiring her character just annoys me with all the unnecessary chirping and not taking a serious situation seriously at all. It would have felt better to see her doubt herself even once, or feel the strain of war going badly, but no. Like... did they actually maybe have different teams writing each country? Anyway Natlan is boring at best and vicariously embarrassing at worst, I'm just waiting for more Mondstad and then Snezhnaya...

[physical-manifestation-of-spite]

Let's be crystal clear. Queerbaiting is real. But it occurs when the creators intentionally hint at a queer relationship to lure in a queer audience to give them money, but never actually follow through on their heavy-handed implications of a queer relationship. Queerbaiting does not occur when the creator has been transparent from the very beginning that Malevolent is about friendship and platonic love, meant to work through the toxic masculinity they've lived throughout their entire life, and to express healthy platonic love (and sometimes unhealthy love) between two male-presenting characters. It is not queerbaiting when they emphatically tell each other that they love each other, because love isn't exclusively romantic, and while it is absolutely okay for people to ship them (and something that the creator is totally FINE with, btw), it is not okay to accuse the creator of lying about their relationship when he's been clear about it from the very beginning.

Friendship and platonic love is just as meaningful as romantic love and that's the whole point of Malevolent.

[brennansmintmilanos]

someone stop brennan, he’s putting Themes in the comedy again…

[mctwinkdom]

them 🫶

[the-effect-of-chaos]

There is something so fucking cursed about getting a good couple thousand words into a work in progress only for your brain to IMMEDIATELY start plotting out another fic.

Anyway another thicc thighed athletic Omega Steve who is a total Momma Bear fic idea for you all (that is currently tormenting me because of course it is...) straight from the sleep fogged archives:

O!Steve and A!Eddie one night stand/short term casual hook up post Starcourt, which leads to Steve discovering around Christmas 85 he is pregnant, cue a series of unfortunate events for our favourite babysitter. (BONUS POINTS: they hook up in Indy and don't recognise each other, maybe a BDSM club or something where scents get mixed up and make it hard to discern individuals. Steve only discovers the baby's paternity by scent and running into Eddie later).

His parents find out and he is kicked out for good. Hop's 'dead" it's the well and truly winter and it is by complete accident that Claudia Henderson finds out and forcefully adopts Steve into her home. This saves him from being homeless and/or sleeping in his car however it does mean Dustin and Claudia along with Robin become overprotective as fuck over Steve.

Dustin is able to keep Steve's secret both about his pregnancy and living situation, although he has zero idea of who the sire of the pup is. Which makes his attempts to get Eddie and Steve meet all the more awkward for Steve to get himself out of.

Robin is the only person who knows Steve has found out Eddie is his pup's sire.

The lead up to season 4 remains as seen in canon with the exception being Steve is not actively dating. Instead, he is doing his best to keep quiet about his pregnancy and keep the pups (and the rest of Hawkins) none the wiser at least until he can determine what to do about Eddie, about his living situation and about how he is going to afford raising his pup because you know that man is determined to keep them.

When the UD shit hits the fan, Steve is then left dealing with several crises all at once, and the Upside Down is only one of them.

1. Eddie immediately clocks that Steve is his mysterious hook up/ still harbours unresolved feelings about their hook up when they meet again in the boathouse.

2. The discovery of Steve's pregnancy following the older teens getting out of UD following the Watergate shenanigans and a near feral Steve fighting for his and his pup's life (and turning Eddie on big time while he does it) leads to the pups and Nancy losing their shit not to mention Eddie.

3. Cue Eddie figuring out the timeline and putting two and two together. I am imagining a very stilted and awkward conversation between the two where they both decide to leave the big decision conversation till after they deal with Vecna.

4. Which then sees Feral O!Steve 2: Electric Boogooloo when Eddie gets himself critically injured. (I am thinking a mix of stubborn CPR administration with a shit tonne of various 'don't you fucking think about dying before I have our damn child Munson' followed by him dragging him out of the UD and an adrenaline fueled feral pregnant omega tantrum of epic proportions at the hospital which gets Eddie seen immediately despite the hesitation over the whole satanic panic).

And because I am a HAPPY ENDINGS ONLY in this household despite my love of a good bit of angst in my fics. They get their shit together while Eddie and Max are healing (Steve totally hasn't adopted Max after her mother has gone MIA or anything), and Eddie and Steve obviously confess their undying love for one another. Steve has the baby/ies, and Uncle Wayne gets to be the best goddamn Grandpa in the world. Claudia cries when Steve asks her if she is willing to be his pup's Grandma. While Max and Dustin argue over who is gonna be the better Aunt/Uncle to the baby/ies (Robin is equally as invested in the argument and often is found squabbling with the two of them over it.)

Joyce and Hop are the baby/ies acting second set of Grandparent's, a fact that bemuses Eddie given his history with Hopper.

[moonchild-in-blue]

If you choose to look at Sleep as an allegory for depression/mental illness, the romantic and co-dependent nature of Vessel's lyrics hurt that much more.

"I hate you and you're bad for me" "I don't know who I am without you" "Please set me free" "Please don't leave me" "You're an intrinsic part of me" "I must become someone new".

Ya feel me?

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

Just wanna say Taka and his situationship intrigues me greatly. I'd love to learn more about that bug

Yippee! He's my silly little troupe guy!

Out of all characters, I think Taka goes through most of the changes in the duration of his life (and death lmao)

His time at the troupe with Grimm is, surprisingly, the least bit of his life that I've worked on so last time I've mostly been going through some of that period of his.

I did write that he becomes a tad unhinged while there, mostly to spite Grimm but that was near the end of his time with the troupe. He becomes a bit too good at his job as a grimmkin and a keeper of the flame. Somehow it's fun to prolong the cycles Grimm has because Taka expect him to get upset. Too bad Grimm knows him too well and it works only a bit lol

But now I'm adding some of that on top it. I've been thinking how the whole grimmkin stuff at the troupe works or how being part of it is like.

I'd consider bugs who are part of it to be stuck in the same repeating cycle as Grimm (however, just like when joining, he lets them leave when ever they want as well). Being bound to The Heart makes them immortal in a sense while they're still part of the troupe and in possession of the flame.

When a new Grimmchild keeper or a summoner shows up, they still need to collect the flames from different grimmkin until it's enough. They have to fight and earn the flame. They can chose to spare grimmkin if they want to or they can choose to fight to the death (something Taka loves to offer as he gets more comfortable within the troupe~)

What happens when grimmkin die? They can either choose to leave their soul to The Heart, which offered them in the first place, or they can choose to resurrect using it. After all, the more members there are the more flames to feed The Heart.

Resurrection can be painful and takes a toll on the grimmkin so they have to have some time to recover their bodies and flame. They basically respawn at the tent lol

He gets a biiiit too attached to the sensation...~

(cue Taka passing out right after this and Grimm standing next to him looking unimpressed lol)

[stagefoureddiediaz]

When is an analogy about a falling tree actually about the complication of Eddie having moved his life to Texas only to realise he’s in love with his best friend?!!!

Because that’s what I’m getting from that Tim quote!! To talk about self flagelation, complications in reestablishing his relationship with Chris and then throw in a comment about never knowing what tree might fall on you to finish off the answer - was a choice!

And I can’t be the only one that is thinking back to 6x04 and the birdwatcher stuck under a tree (and the whole episode being about misunderstanding things and christopher lying and buck and Christopher’s relationship and things being complicated!) we’ve already had a callback to this episode as well this season with Buck riding white bikes and stopping traffic - we’ve graduated from a pushbike to a motorbike - things are speeding up!

[sainteclectic]

this isn't intended to be a judgment on anyone in particular, but I'm surprised on how few people in the cccc fandom write image descriptions for their art considering the existence of a character who would realistically need to use them {whether you interpret heart as low vision or light sensitive or fully blind} it's just kind of ironic how the characters in the media couldn't even access the content made for it

anyways, if you have the ability to write image descriptions for your work, I highly recommend doing it! it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it :-)

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

You cinephile in black and white, all those plot twists and dynamite / Said “forever,” then he blew it up

[dangaer]

small reminder you are loved!

[brennansmintmilanos]

i know i’m beyond saving because I watched this episode kicking my feet and twirling my hair over brennan being a comedic genius

[shinypetrichor]

endless gifs of dom howard [17/∞]

[nagareboshiko]

When you have just spent the last 20 minutes explaining exactly the reasons why butter is so much better than margarine and he @tosxah wasn't even listening.........

[yingren]

good morning today i post to ask all oc mutuals to kindly tell me more about them and if they have their own universe why have you not let me put ren in it yet what's that about i thought we were better than this