#we've no choice but to stan

[buckys-arm-and-rios-dagger]

I like that Aubrey Plaza seems to only agree to do Marvel projects if she gets to kiss girls. She's so real for that.

[thegreatyin]

honestly part of the reason i've been really looking forward to finally playing light fingers (aside from the obvious horrors and whatnot) is because it, alongside bag a legend, contains a Choice™ i to this day am Extremely Torn About Making. like i've known for ages that the Choice™ exists in this ambition and STILL i am undecided about it. this Choice™ is of course. well. let's just say that by the time this ambition ends, caeru may not be the only catboy around town

[such-a-daydreamer]

*flutters eyelashes*

Me when I oc x cannon but it's platonic and I also get to expand on pre-existing lore with my random ass world building.

Check under the cut for a fic drabble of this scene and the oc info

My Gf Oc Manny!!♡♡ :3 (I want to be him so bad the gender envy hits HARD grrrgrrgrgrgrgrrrgrgrgrgrr)

He is a closeted gay man and cursed so every cryptid in a 20 mile radius wants him dead.

Now onto the story explaining the comic scene!!!!!!!

Lil' warnin, but there be blood!!!

✄----------------------------------------------------

The three men wander the halls in silence, they each know the importance to stay quiet in times like this, and each man has decades of experience in stealth.

The hospital -a real classy choice- is full of spiderweb decor, and each room has decayed into an unrecognisable square full of debris and metal skeletons.

Stanley wishes he stayed in the van, while Ford's mind is occupied with suspicion regarding their new "travel companion."

"So, Manny," Ford breaks the silence with a directed whisper. He doesn't miss the way the other two flinch despite his soft volume. "Since you're the "renowned expert" when it comes to cryptids, I'd like to ask you about this particular case."

Stanley feels the tension crackle between them, and suddenly regrets standing in the middle. Then again, if they decide to jump at each other's throats, he'd better stay put. Not that he'd like to break up a fight in the middle of a possibly-haunted run-down hospital, but he's done worse in worse places.

"It's a curious case." Manny mumbles out. "I've never seen a ghost report like this before, but considering it seems to be a location-bound spirit, I'm not exactly surprised. They tend to get more bizzare the longer they "ferment."

"Location-bound?" Ford repeats.

Manny gives his rival a sideways smirk. "C'mon now, this is basic ghost knowledge. You tellin' me you don't know?"

"I prefer to sort them through catagories, is all." Ford dismisses the subject in favour of staring at his EMF reader.

Another round of tense silence goes by, yet the three of them have come across nothing. Stanley is beginning to think this is just a huge waste of time.

Manny holds a similar sentiment as he pauses to shine his UV light around one last time.

"Welp, if nothing has come to get us by now, there's probably nothing here. This place is a bust, let's wrap things up." He points his finger up and swirls it before pointing to the exit.

"What, just like that?" Stan grumbles out as he lowers the flashlight. "Ya couldn't have made that decision any further back?"

With the light now pointed at the floor, it leaves everything above their waists in a dark abyss. The only other light source is from the UV lamp Manny holds.

"Scared, are we?" Ford asks, but there's an undeniable mocking tilt to his tone.

Manny rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, the UV light in his hand makes the side of his shirt glow.

"No, it's just that I've got something you don't."

"And what's that?" Ford crosses his arms in a similar fashion.

Manny does a little flourish with his hands. "Magic."

Stan and Ford scoff in sync.

"I knew I shoulda stayed in the van." Stan begins to make his way back to the exit while the other two continue their squabble in the growing dark.

"So, this "magic" lets you know when ghosts are about?" Ford asks, partly curious, and partly to jeer at him.

Ford isn't poking fun at Manny because he doesn't believe in magic, it's just that if a spell to detect ghosts were in use, Ford would be able to tell. So far, Manny doesn't have anything on him that could be used for such a spell.

"Not just ghosts, but yes, it does. And it's totally real, by the way!" Manny spins on his heel to follow Stanley out before he pauses abruptly.

"Actually, nevermind. I think we've found our ghost."

Ford follows Manny's gaze down the empty corridor. The shine of the UV light does little to illuminate their surroundings, unlike the flashlight Stanley had.

Ford feels his blood run cold.

"Don't panic."

"I'm not panicking." Ford replies evenly.

"Really? Because you just broke the EMF reader."

Ford looks down to the cracked device in his hand. Alright, he'll admit this to himself and no one else, but he is very much panicking.

"The ghost didn't trigger the EMF reader, so it's not like we'll be needing this anyway." Ford throws the broken pieces to the side with a little more force than he intended.

"Uh... true, I suppose." Manny shines the UV light around the hallway before spotting drops shining against the cracked tiles. "Okay, we've got a lead, at least."

"And all it took was my brother to find it." Ford grits out under his breath.

Manny lifts his hands in a placating gesture. "I know you probably don't want to hear this right now -and certainly not from me- but let's try to calm down and keep a level head, alright?"

Ford shoots him a deadly glare, but Manny simply holds his gaze with a worried expression. Out of both of the twins, he likes Stanley more, so Ford isn't the only one concerned.

The trail leads to a room, a suspiciously empty room. The far back wall glows brightly under the shine of the UV light, and that's the only thing worth noting. Ford is reasonably upset once he realises Stanley isn't here, but trudges onward into the room anyway.

Ford stares at the wall curiously. He places a hand on it, and it feels completely normal. Dissapointed once again.

"I wonder why only this wall glows under ultra violet light..." Ford murmurs to himself as he raises a hand to place on his chin.

"Up."

"Pardon?"

Ford turns to Manny and sees his horrified expression. Before he has time to register that, something wet splatters against his glasses.

Manny lifts the UV light upwards just as Ford lifts his gaze.

"Ah, I see... Up."

There, strung up by limbs of what can only be assumed to be blood, is Stanley. He looks furious.

Behind him, flat against the roof, glows an almost cartoonish depiction of a human. They laugh, but there's no sound. Slowly, it removes itself from the roof and takes form. It shines hauntingly under the UV.

What first started as a light sprinkle, is now a full on downpour of blood as it looms above them. The stench of it makes Manny gag, but Ford just narrows his eyes at the being while it approaches slowly. It continues to laugh silently; that's the only thing that irks Ford.

"How do you suppose we kill this thing, Manny?"

Manny jolts a bit in surprise at being addressed, then strugles to form a sentence for a moment as he takes a step back.

"Wha- me??? I dunno, usually with ghosts I can just exorcize them with my medallion and be done with it, but that isn't a ghost." He points at the liquid mass that Stanley's struggling to escape from.

Both men would be worried about Stanley possibly suffocating from the stream of blood that covers the lower half of his face, but it doesn't seem to be covering his nose. Which, as relieved they both are, is still concerning.

Could it be using Stanley as bait? What is it planning? Whatever it is, no one's keen to find out.

It continues to move forward, almost sussing the two men out like they are to it. Ford mentally checks his inventory for a weapon that would do the most damage to a creature made of blood.

Predictably, nothing comes to mind.

He lets out a frustrated growl. "We have to do something."

Ford decides to take the inititive, seeing that he's the more capable one out of the two. Not that he's being presumptious of Manny's abilities, but the fact of the matter is that Manny is staring at the creature like a deer in headlights and Ford is inches away from trying to pummel a liquid.

Which also isn't good, but it's better. Ford will take better than nothing.

Flicking open one of his books from inside his coat, he searches through it until he finds what he's looking for.

"I believe this might be a failed resurection spell."

Ford pauses on an old partchment page in a plastic sleeve, the words are written in a dead language, but to Ford, it's like reading english.

"The closest I can find to-"

Ford doesn't get time to finish before he finds himself being shoved to the side. There's a split second where he sees Manny, then he doesn't.

A stream of blood slams Manny through the wall and leaves him lying in a pile of debris in the corridor. A pained groan proves that he's alive, so Ford returns his focus to the task at hand.

Despite the UV light now being broken, the mass of blood continues to glow.

"It would appear you've made your final assesment." Ford says to it while pocketing his book. He's read all he needs to, anyway.

It looses it's human form in favour of creating large waves to try and crash against Ford, but it underestimates his speed.

Manny stumbles back into the room with his madallion in hand. He raises it and the metal glows blue, acompanied by a low hum.

The blood spikes, then looses form. Most of the blood falls to the floor with Stanley, who wastes no time to put distance between it and himself.

Multiple souls writhe and scream as they try to escape the blood, but eventually they fade back into the mass. Manny lets his arm drop as he joins the other two men.

"There should be some sort of tether, we need to destroy it." Ford explains.

"There's a heart-" Stanley starts as he tries to wipe himself clean. He makes zero progress. "-Inside that thing somewhere. It kept movin' the damn thing around though, so I couldn't get a grip on it."

"That's fine, Stanley, thank you." Ford turns to Manny. "Do whatever you did before, and I'll shoot its heart."

Manny, although dazed, manages to nod and turns his attention to the growing ball of blood.

"Do you still have your flashlight, Stanley?" Ford asks as he pulls out his trusty gun. The line along the side of it's triangular barrel glows blue as it whirrs to life.

"Even if I did, it would've been chock-full of blood."

"Alright. Just stay behind me, then."

Begrudingly, Stanley complies. He wishes he could do more to help right now, but he has neither guns nor magic. He would offer to punch the thing, but he's been doing that for the last ten minutes and done no damage.

Once the ball reaches its previous size, jets of blood shoot out from it. Stan and Ford manage to dodge them but Manny gets clipped on the shoulder.

He stumbles back against the wall with a pained hiss. Yet he still manages to lift his hand up to activate the medallion. Ford takes aim.

The blood spikes again, more violently this time, before a large jet of blood slams against Manny.

"Dammit-!"

"Manny!"

Ford takes a shot in the dark, hoping to distract it.

The lazer passes through it with a sizzle as blood get evaporated. The light from the lazer briefly illuminates the inside of the blood enough for Ford to see the heart.

It stops the constant stream against Manny to turn its attention towards Ford. Manny falls to his knees and coughs violently.

"Sixer." Stan calls out to his brother with a warning tone.

"Manny, I'm counting on you here!" Ford takes aim again.

It takes the form of a human again and its expression is livid.

It lunges at Ford with its mouth open too wide for a human in something like a scream.

The being stops a mere inches away from Ford, its hands ghosting around Ford's neck before it writhes. Blue spikes jut out from it as it tries to keep form.

It takes a moment, but Ford can feel something on his shoulder. He glances to his left and sees Stanley with a handful of his coat, his stance tense and ready to run. Ford hasn't seen an expression this serious on his brother's face in a while as Stanley stares down the entity.

Ford returns his gaze forward.

For a split second, he sees the heart reveal itself.

He shoots.

✄----------------------------------------------------

Uhm!!! I like them all a lot :3 Mwah mwah mwah kisses to all. If you read allat then THANK YOU!!! I HOPE YOU LIKED IT!!!!! Lmk if you'd like to see more of this stuff idk

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

I'm the kind of person that enjoys genderbends of characters and likes to change the names when I genderbend them (I'm a fake nby, I know 😔)

But! When changing the names, they have to fit the same general structure and vibe as the actual character's name or I get annoyed. If you got a Darron you can change it to Donna and if you change it to Delilah I'm gonna throw hands with you. (There are exceptions and this is on a case to case basis)

But. I can't with Stanford. I just can't. Read more to watch me have a breakdown.

Anyway so I was like "what would Stanford's genderbend name be? Here's some guidelines I have to follow: It has to start with s and have an f in it. It also has to be able to have a nickname starting with f. And preferably it has to be 2 syllables. And I was like "how hard could that be?"

First I came up with "Saffron" but there's not really a nickname for that. Next is "Sofia" which can have the nickname "Fia" or "Fifi" but it's 3 syllables. Then I was like okay "Saphire?" But that doesn't even have an f, and what's the nickname? Fire???

Okay so maybe Saffron with the nickname Fran. I can settle for that. Then. It hit me. I forgot one key rule. Whatever Stanfords name is has to be correlated with whatever Stanley's name is and preferably he can have a nickname with the front half so he can pretend to be Stanford for years without having to call himself Grunkle Ford.

So... the obvious choice for the name Stanley is Stacey with the nickname Stace... but now we've lost the similar names. Sally could work but I hate that and also what's the nickname? Sal? The kids are gonna call Saffron "Sal"?

Let's have Ford's name be Stefany and his nickname is Franny. Then we can have Stan's name be Stella and- nope no nickname there.

Okay. Fuck the f nickname rule. All we need is two s names that share the same first part and can have two separate nicknames. Maybe Samantha and Sammy except no because who's gonna call Ford "antha" that's not a nickname. Sabrina and Sabella. No. No nicknames

And now the names list I'm looking at ALREADY looks like it's giving me made up names that are just existing names mashed together like Shawnilyn and Shawnancy so you know what!? YOU KNOW WHAT???

Stanley's name is Stacey and I'm making up the name Stacefran. That's a name now. It works. I solved it.

Except, the fact that its "Stacefran's" name that is made up bothers me because I always assumed Ford came out first and Filbrick was like "We'll name this one Stanford!" All proud or psudo-proud. And then Stanley came out and he was like "oh uh. I don’t know. Stan...ley or something. Whatever." Because poor Stanley is cursed by the universe. No way in hell did Filbrick see a kid pop out and go "yes. I'll name you the very normal name, Stacefran. What a wonderful name"

So I still hate it. And nothing will ever fit 😭😭😭

[sammaggs]

3x02 Eclipse | Nightmare

Stay with me on this one: I don’t think Marcus Ellory ever shows up to his mother's grave in Eclipse.

As truepenny points out in her typically-brilliant meta, Eclipse is written in the style of the Greek theatre's katabasis, a journey to the Underworld (followed by anabasis, the return to the world of the living). You've seen Hadestown? You've seen a katabasis.

This is another playwright John Krizanc joint, and as other people smarter than me have meta’d, Ray’s katabasis sees our hero venturing to the Underworld (a literal graveyard/crypt/grave); solving the riddle presented by the Underworld's guardian ("There. Now it's broken and it's working." "Good man."); learning a fundamental truth about the cyclical nature of life or undergoing a symbolic death of the past self; and then returning to the land of the living as a new or newly-knowledgeable person.

Ray Kowalski is tormented by Marcus Ellory as a symbol of his life up until this point. The two defining features of Ray Kowalski's life up until he meets Fraser are 1) Stella, and B) being a cop. "The point is, I mean, my whole life, it all starts and ends with this one guy."

But that part of Ray's life is over.

To make this a metaphor for queerness (as someone who personally married a man before coming out as a lesbian around Ray's age), in our mid-30s we're often forced to deconstruct the narratives of our lives that we've been so devoted to until this point. Have we been living for ourselves, or for other people? Has doing what society expects of us made us happy?

If you're closeted, the answer is usually going to be no. And that means you have to burn down your entire life to start fresh (the house, if you will). It means you have to grieve your past self—the one who had a heterosexual spouse and a house in the suburbs and did what society expected of you—in order to make room to rebirth your authentic self.

In the Underworld, and in the graveyard, Ray buries the man who wanted a wife; the man who wanted revenge on Ellory; the man who was a con job.

He's revived a man with a new partner, no longer motivated by vengeance, and who knows he's a damn good cop because he is.

So now that we've established all of that, let's get back to Ellory.

Ellory doesn't show up for his mother's funeral; by the time the mourners are leaving, he's still not there. "You know, Ray, I'm pretty sure he'll come," says Fraser, at 4:30PM. "We have time." But after Fraser gives Ray his own history back to him, Ellory still hasn't showed. They decide to leave, and Ray throws his dream catcher to the wind... where it's caught by Marcus Ellory.

"It's a dream catcher," says Fraser. "It tangles up bad dreams."

It tangles up bad dreams.

Ray puts on his glasses; he can't really see Ellory clearly. Then, once they end up together in the grave, no one else ever sees them. Fraser never sees Ellory. By the time Ray is reborn anew after the eclipse (literal darkness into light!), Ellory is nowhere to be seen. Suspicious!

I think the casting choice here, too, is deliberately made to make Ellory an allegorical figure as opposed to a literal one. Peter Bray, the actor, is 6'7". He's huge, and lying in the grave next to him, Ray looks even smaller than usual.

That's because we are seeing Marcus Ellory the way twelve-year-old Stan Kowalski would have. Huge, imposing, feet taller than him; essentially a cartoon villain. Ellory is exactly the same here as he is in Ray's memory, unchanged but for a little grey, even though twenty-three years have passed.

And then he disappears.

Ellory is the final boss of Ray's katabasis, his eclipse-fueled nightmare, tangled up in and cleansed by the dreamcatcher Fraser made him—just like Fraser's recitation of Ray's citations tangles up and cleanses Ray's own poor consideration of himself.

But it’s not about Ellory, y’know?? It has nothing to do with Ellory, not really, and everything to do with Ray’s own perception of himself and the story he tells himself about his own life. In this way, I think it’s more powerful a read if Ellory is not there; it’s all Ray. Just Ray, letting go of the man he thought he was and choosing to become the man he wants to be.

For me, Ellory’s just a bad dream. He’s a larger-than-life demon of Ray’s own making. He’s probably in hiding or dead, but Ray doesn’t actually need the real Ellory to exorcise that demon. He just needs the right angel.

Ray Kowalski dies and is reborn (like due South!), at the end of what I consider to be the two-part opener of Season 3.

Happy 27th birthday, Eclipse (Sept. 21, 1997)! You're one of the all-timer episodes of TV.

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️Reveling in Richonne - TOWL

#27: The Timeout (1.04)

Every now and again there comes a piece of media that you know is going to stay with you for a lifetime. For me, that’s TOWL Episode 4.

I’ve never been more excited and more overwhelmed to try and dive into all the scenes of an episode than "What We". It’s my favorite Richonne episode of all time so I have to revel like never before. Truly what Danai crafted with her writing and what Andy and Danai delivered in their performances is phenomenal and transcendent. I’ll cherish Episode 4 forever, from minute one to the final shot 🥹🤩💛...

Now that we've arrived at the illustrious episode 4, it's only right to kick it off with a happy dance😋...

For some March 17th, 2024 is just a regular day but for Richonne stans...

Because it's the day that the Richonne episode aired.

I remember how stoked I was when the time had finally arrived for episode 4. Leading up to it there had been high praise and acclaim for the episode with it even being deemed the climax and ‘for the richonners’ and one of the best of the TWD franchise. So I was already going in with big anticipation and "What We" knocked it out of the park in every way possible.

What Danai wrote is just 🔥🔥🔥 in all the ways and I'm very grateful for her and this thoughtful powerful episode she crafted. 👏🏽

There was a time when I had ep 4 memorized from the first line to the last cuz it was just excellent and moved me like no other. There is so much to say about this one episode and I'm gonna try my best to say it all because this is the kind of episode you rave about for years on end. And as someone who already revels in every detail of Richonne's story, this episode is the epitome of why I do what I do with this blog.

The raw and visceral range of emotions captured in about one hour of television - it’s a triumphant feat and I’m obsessed. TOWL is already a dream come true but episode 4 is a dream within a dream and perfectly captures why Rick and Michonne are the greatest soulmates to grace a screen.

So let’s get into it. 🤗

The masterpiece of an episode kicks off with a bang as we’re brought back to the moment Rick and Michonne are in that rocking helicopter with Rick silently freaking out and Michonne looking right at him cool, calm, collected, and a little crazy. 😋

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

They intercut with the apartment that will become a very pivotal and important setting in Richonne’s journey. And I absolutely love the choice to have the episode mostly take place in a swanky high-rise apartment similar to where Michonne lived before the apocalypse. It’s like after years of being out in nature which is more Rick’s territory they now get to enter Michonne’s more city-girl territory. 

I also like the 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree' song they use for this scene. The lyrics are very much intentional and the song's meaning is also fitting as it’s “sung from the perspective of a man returning home after three years in prison and looking anxiously for an agreed-upon sign that the woman he loves would welcome his return.”

So right off the bat with this song and helicopter moment, I was like...

The lyrics start by saying, “I’m coming home, I’ve done my time.” Which by the end of this episode, Rick will arrive at that same realization with Michonne’s help. Also, Michonne is determined to head home herself too after doing her time with the CRM. And considering Rick and Michonne are home to each other and they’re finally about to get some extended alone time it really is like they’re coming home to each other this ep.

Then the song says, “Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine.” as we see the little Roomba that could. I love the way electricity and these items all help to tell the story.

Throughout this opener, we see Rick and Michonne both staring at each other in the helicopter, and again the way they can express so much without words is clear.

Rick is attempting to like idk sternly stare her down but Michonne is unfazed and you can tell her mind is made up that she will do anything to keep them from falling apart. She knows if they go back to base it’ll only be that much harder to convince Rick to leave, so she’s yanking him out of there before that happens.

(Side note: I know there’s often debate on whose crazier in general - Rick or Michonne. and I honestly think Rick. Even tho they’re very equal and match each other's crazy. It's just that Michonne is a bit more composed most of the time that’s why Rick edges her out to me. But when Michonne doesn’t want to be composed...oh she can beat everybody in the crazy department. And she took the Crazy-Off trophy home in this helicopter. 🏆👌🏽 Also when I thought about it - it would probably be hard for Michonne to yank a grown man out of his seat that swiftly and so I like to think Rick basically let her lol. Like he saw that helicopter door open and while he was yelling no he knew Michonne’s gonna do what she’s gonna do and so he’s gotta go with her.)

gif cred: @chaoticroad

The lyrics then say, “If you received my letter telling you I’ll soon be free...” which is very fitting to the letters Rick used to write Michonne. And then we get that moment where Michonne grabs Rick and throws them out of the helicopter. Just iconic. 👏🏽 And Rick is genuinely shaken by Michonne doing this, understandably. You can hear it in the way he yells as they fall into the rushing water.

I like that when Michonne throws them out of the helicopter that’s when the lyrics say, “Then you’ll know just what to do if you still want me.” Fitting. And in this case 'just what to do' was to jump out of a helicopter together without a parachute or anything. Michonne is crazy and we love her for it. 😋

And honestly, Rick loves her for it too even if he’s obviously rattled by it at first. She really looked at her man and said 'the CRM can’t have this one' and plucked Rick out of the sky...again.

Also, the fact that this implies they were able to hang onto each other and not at some point get separated either in the air or in the water. Magnets confirmed lol. 🧲😂

So then I like the way it’s filmed as Rick and Michonne’s hands are seen grabbing onto rocks and then without seeing them we get this sense of movement as they make their way into the apartment building.

They rush into the apartment both breathing heavy from the wildness that has just occured as the lyrics say, “It’s been three long years. Do you still want me?” Fitting again.

And then I love the clever use of the thermostat system (there's probably a more accurate word for what that temp controller thing is but I wasn't sure what, so I'm just gonna call it a 'thermostat' lol). It’s perfect that the first thing the thermostat says is, “Welcome home,” as it's in this place Richonne will finally return home to each other.

gif cred: @nerd4music

As Rick and Michonne silently look around the lyrics say, “I’ll stay on the bus, forget about us, put the blame on me” which speaks to Rick’s current mindset of staying behind to help her get home and his willingness to be the 'bad guy' if it means keeping Michonne safe. 

And then y’all, I love this final moment of the teaser when Rick slowly looks at Michonne, upset but also very clearly reminded of who he’s dealing with after she chucked them off a helicopter. And then Michonne looks right back at him like she’d do it again too. 🤭

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

Once again they are very much communicating with eyes alone and after he talked cash crazy to her, you know in this episode it’s now going to be Michonne’s turn to do some talking. 👌🏽

And then the teaser ends with this great shot of Richonne facing each other with some distance between them in front of that scenic stormy window and I love the symmetry of it. 😍 For me, it illustrates how they may not be in sync yet but they're still in some way aligned.

gif cred: @nerd4music

There really are so many great cinematic shots in TOWL and this is definitely one of them.

The way that teaser ended with them just silent staring at each other and the lightning - ooh I just knew we were about to eat good as Rick and Michonne get a whole episode to themselves in this building. 🙌🏽

gif cred: @perryabbott

After the title sequence, Michonne and Rick are again staring each other down, and then Michonne says with certainty, “We needed a timeout.” I mean she’s not lying. 💁🏽‍♀️ It’s hilarious tho that that’s her first explanation for doing what she did. For her, those extreme measures were justified because of how badly they needed a timeout. And I agree with her entirely.

Also, I adore her saying 'we' and still operating like a package deal despite what Rick said about what they had being broken at the end of ep 3. She knows this relationship well and so she knows they just needed to get away from CRM territory to finally talk.

And after all that posturing Rick was trying to do last episode, I like how Michonne still heard the subtext in his words so she knew clearly 'Everything you’re saying and doing was just a sign that you and I need a breather away from all those other people.' Like I just love the wording of calling this a 'timeout' so much. (See, RJ’s not the only Rick Grimes who needs an occasional timeout. 😁)

Then Rick testily says, “I can’t believe you did that.” and Michonne is quick to retort, “I can’t believe you said that.”

gif cred: @figmentof

I always love how to Michonne, his words and her actions were equally crazy, if not Rick's words being crazier. 😂 She’s like 'You nearly ended our relationship, I nearly ended our lives so...

Then the thermostat, which really nicely needles a thread through the emotions of the story says, “Your preferred temperature will be reached in ten minutes.” That distracts them a bit as they look around and then Michonne walks away to take in the place some more.

And as she does this, Rick reaches for his PRB which I hadn’t noticed the first time I watched. I was like dang so had Rick not lost his PRB he might’ve called the CRM here before he and Michonne could even get some much-needed time to talk. Thank goodness he lost his. Reaching for it so quickly definitely demonstrates that the CRM has done a number on him.

Rick starts taking in the swanky apartment too with its electricity and running water and I love seeing the two of them in this new environment. He asks, “What the hell is this place?” And it’s clear this is way more of a familiar environment to Michonne than Rick.

Again, I thought this setting was such a great choice because it’s almost like they want to exacerbate Rick and Michonne’s differences even with the whole city girl/country boy thing to make you wonder if enough time has passed for their differences to now outweigh their similarities. But of course, the answer will be a resounding no and they’re still the compatible soulmates we know and love. 👌🏽😌

I love seeing Michonne admire the place and feel like she’s really at home. Like she’s not rattled at all from plunging into the water after leaping off a helicopter just moments before.

gif cred: @kinyany

And then I adore this next moment of Michonne going to the closet to change clothes for several reasons. There’s so many scenes that accomplish multiple things at once in this episode and this scene is layered in the best way. 👏🏽

Naturally, Michonne wants to get out of that soaked uniform but on a symbolic level it shows how she’s far more eager than Rick to shed the CRM off of her. It's like as she changes, she’s letting both herself and Rick know, Dana's gone.

She's gonna be Michonne Grimes from here on out. 👌🏽😌

And then "somehow" Rick finds his way over to where he can watch Michonne changing. 😋

gif cred: @nat111love

And even though they’re supposed to be mad at each other, he of course can’t look away as he watches her. He’s not even trying to be subtle about it lol.

gif cred: @nat111love

As he watches Michonne from the legs up, I know good and well Rick knew at this moment that ain’t nothing feels 'broken' between her and him.

Also, I just know this whole moment was a lot to take in for Rick because so far since reuniting, he had only seen Michonne super covered up with ponchos, jackets, and soldier gear. Like he hadn’t even seen her signature tank tops and tight pants combo - but here, Michonne was like let’s just dive right into 🎵panty and a bra we can’t get involved, boy🎵 (yet lol 😉) 

gif cred: @nat111love

And honestly this whole ep I was like Michonne really knows the exact things to do to help Rick come to his senses. Because while yes there’s definitely the steamy checking-her-out element of the scene, I also always appreciate how changing in front of him like this is effective in establishing their closeness and comfortability.

Like Michonne is not gonna just strip down like this in front of anybody but in doing so here it’s setting the tone to communicate to Rick 'you’re still my husband, I still feel safe with you, and so I can comfortably be this bare.' 👌🏽

gif cred: @nat111love

And then, because each scene expertly communicates several things at once, this moment of Rick seeing his wife’s body for the first time in years then takes a somber turn when Michonne lifts up her shirt and Rick sees that X scar she got during that excessively brutal episode in season 9. 🥺

I thought it was such a smart move to include Rick seeing the X scar in this scene, and it gives Rick this reminder that Michonne has been through a lot he doesn’t know about while they’ve been apart.

Rick has been so convinced that Michonne won’t be safe if he goes home with her but this lets him know she still has had to face a dangerous world without him. She's been through so much. 😢

gif cred: @nerd4music

Breathing really does tell quite the story throughout this episode. The way Rick takes a breath when he sees Michonne's X scar, you can tell that it sobers him up after longingly eyeing her down and he’s shaken by seeing she’s been hurt.

I feel for him because I think every scenario overwhelms him right now. It’s overwhelming to think about all Michonne has been put through in his absence & it’s overwhelming to think about all she could be put through if he doesn’t get her home. Like he’s feeling a lot. But never peeling his eyes off of her while he’s feeling all these things tho. Just saying lol. 

gif cred: @nat111love

And because Rick is staring straight at her, Michonne can likely feel his eyes all over her and so she gives this look back at him which I love. 😊 She knows what she’s doing. She knows what he’s thinking. And she knows because Mr. Everything We Had Is Broken has his eyes glued to her rn.

Rick Grimes really is the reason there are phrases like “eyes glued” because the way his eyes consistently get stuck on Michonne is really something.

Also - Michonne/Danai's beauty is truly divine. 👑

gif cred: @kimwexlersponytail

When Rick makes eye contact with Michonne here he has another one of those shaken breathing moments as I think he’s brought back to the reminder that they’re still supposed to be in a fight. Cuz homeboy looked like he forgot for a sec. 😋

So he finally looks away and then Michonne looks away with a knowing expression as she resumes changing. 

gif cred: @kimwexlersponytail

Rick walks over and sees Michonne’s PRB and in his state of stress, he’s convinced himself that this PRB is a solution to their problems and will be what best keeps Michonne safe. But as he looks at it, he then sees Michonne emerge in fresh new clothes. (Side note: it always makes me so happy to see Danai and Andy’s executive producer credits each ep and especially seeing Danai’s writing credit this episode 👏🏽🥹) 

Again without even needing words, Michonne immediately can tell what Rick is thinking as she looks from him to the PRB and then rolls her eyes, disappointed. She wants them to be done with the CRM so bad. And I completely get it. So she grabs the PRB and then she says, “You lose yours, huh?” Rick is silent and then Michonne slowly approaches him as she says, “I know what they do.”

And then y’all, I have about 85 favorite parts of this one episode but among those favorite parts is this part here when Michonne and Rick have this whole magnetic tension that’s mostly silent but speaks volumes. 🔥🔥

gif cred: @msanonships

Andy and Danai are truly the king and queen of layered acting because every single choice they make is never one-dimensional. There’s always so much communicated in each second, hence my need to dissect each second. And in this scene, they manage to express so much - tension, desire, fear, lust, love, anxiety, etc.

Michonne asks, “You want to call them here?” and even just the way she says it is perfectly delivered because it’s not taunting or even unempathetically challenging. It’s more like she’s asking knowing he knows full well that the PRB is not what he actually wants to be pressing up on right now. 😋

After she asks this, it’s such a great and hot moment of the two making eye contact and trying their damndest to resist each other. I know they had those magnets within them confused as to why they weren’t kissing like their life depended on it being this up close in each other's space. (Also, their height difference has always been so complementary 😊)

gif cred: @nat111love

I love the way this scene breathes as their chemistry and sexual tension just fill the atmosphere. The unique effect they have on each other is made abundantly clear and only Richonne can make a moment of just staring at each other this sexy. ❤️‍🔥 The tension of their fight was outmatched by the sexual tension between them.

Like the way she puts the PRB against his chest and raises her eyebrows. The way Rick stares into her eyes and I believe also at her lips and then down at the PRB, trying hard to maintain his whole “it’s over” energy from ep 3 but not doing it successfully. And then all Michonne has to do is tilt her head for Rick’s attention to be right back on her.

She doesn’t break away from looking at his face the whole time and when Rick looks at her again you can tell they both know loud and clear that he does not in fact want to call them here. He's got other things he wants to do. But there's so much fear and shame consuming him that it has him not thinking straight.

gif cred: @nat111love

Along with Rick's immense fear and anxiety communicated in this exchange, this is also where it is just so clear that Michonne has a hypnotic hold on this man. Cuz while Rick still thinks they need to go back, he also can’t bring himself to take the PRB when Michonne is basically handing it to him.

The way he’s staring at her and moving his head it looks like he's feeling every emotion there is and it’s also taking every cell in his body to resist her. He’s so focused on trying to resist that he seems to be rendered silent, at a loss for words. But no words are needed for both of them to know exactly what this whole moment is about. 👌🏽

And make no mistake, Michonne is also putting some effort into exhibiting restraint too because during this hot moment, there are a couple times when she’s looking at him like she wants to be all over him the second he stops acting up.

gif cred: @nat111love

What they both clearly want to do but are resisting right now, will be something they finally do in a later scene that actually parallels this one...but they’re not there yet. 

So in a rare moment, they go against their inner magnets and instead of leaning in, Michonne gives Rick this lingering eye contact and walks away as Rick watches her.

gif cred: @ricksmarlene

As she walks away she pockets the PRB since, without even saying it aloud, they’ve established they don’t want to call the CRM here right now. And thank goodness they don’t because Richonne has a lot to talk about.

And the most pressing thing Rick and Michonne have to talk about next is their children. As in plural. 😊👌🏽

[skyfallart]

On the night of November 6th, 1983, twelve year old Jimmy Kern* heads back home from a night out with his friend. However… he never arrives. Now, Craig, Clyde, and Token must band together to find out what happened -- while getting entangled with supernatural forces... and a supernatural kid.

^Fan S1 Poster - S1 Redrawn Scenes

A/N: I don't what possessed me to write/draw this, but here it is. Since this an AU there has and will be changes. For now I just listened below the characters in the poster, and who their Stranger Things counter part is. I'm finishing up some scenes I redrawn, so hopefully I can get those up too (And introduce you to more people in the universe).

So, first up, we got the boys. We got...

° Craig Tucker - 12 - Dungeon Master/Thief - Middle Child - "Leader" of the group. Basically, I saw fan art of Creek being Mileven and I just had to try doing it on my own. Craig, just like in SP, is like the leader of his own group in this AU. I also made his D&D counterpart the same as TSoT, a thief instead of a paladin. But despite being a thief, he's still the heart of the group. Just like in Stranger Things, he's the one to find and allow Tweek to stay in his home. ° Token "Tolkien" Black || 12 || Ranger || Only Child || "Brawns over Brains" of the group. Still a bit of a rich kid in this AU, and lives with his two parents. He tends to butt heads with the others when Tweek comes into the story, feeling a bit left out and untrusting of the kid with superpowers; But eventually that all gets cleared up. In this AU, he's the one that goes to camp in S3, and has a long distance relationship with his GF, `Nicole, whom he met at camp. ° Clyde Donovan || 12 || Elf Cleric || Only Child || The "Voice of Reason" of the group. Lives with his single mother, Betsy, and their cat: Mr. Kitty (Stealing Cartman's cat here for this). I see him sharing a lot of traits with Dustin, but he's also a bit like Lucas too in this AU (He's more of the sporty one, and his GF, Bebe appears in S2 taking the place of Max). ° 011 - AKA: "Tweek" (Later: Tweek Marsh) - 12 - Mage - Superpowered Lab Rat Same kind of origin, stripped away from his mother and placed inside South Park Lab. After escaping he's found by the boys and ends up staying at Craig's house. He has the 011 tattoo on his wrist, but instead of being given the name "El", Craig gives him the name "Tweek" because of his fidgety moments (I see him being spazzy in this AU from the stress he felt from the lab, rather than the drug-induced coffee).

Then, we got the Kerns, which replaces the Byers. Seeing that Sharon has multiple last names in SP, I chose Kern 'cause it sounded better than the others.

° Jimmy Valmer Kern - 12 - Bard - Youngest Child - "Ride or Die" Comedy until he's very last breath. May or may not have punched Vecna in the face while in the upside down. I unfortunately have to make our poor boy Jimmy as Will. I promise he won't be as neglected once he returns like his ST counterpart. He's D&D character is a bard like in TSoT, and for now, I have no romance planned for him. Just good old family love.

° Sharon Kern - 40s - Single Mother - Will do anything for her children. I thought she was the perfect choice for Joyce after seeing the "Spooky Fish" episode. Sharon literally was burying bodies for her son Stan, and making sure he wouldn't end up in jail (For something he didn't do). I could definitely see this woman communicating with X-Mas lights to find her son. ° Older! Stanley Kern - 16 - Oldest Child - Excellent Photographer - Can actually talk to girls without vomiting. And yes, we're getting Blond Stan in this AU because I said so. I made him Jonathan in this AU after deciding who was going to be playing Nancy. Stan's kind of an outcast until he meets Wendy, who's trying to look for his lost friend, while he looks for his brother. Together, with their determination combined, they'll make anything work.

Other Characters. We've got...

° Older! Wendy Testaburger Tucker - 16 - Older Child - Total Badass in the second half of the 1st season. Typical sibling love-hate relationship w/Craig. After realizing her friend has gone missing under mysterious circumstances, typical "All-American" girl Wendy transforms into someone better, as she will do anything to find out what happened. She teams up with Stan... giving her boyfriend the wrong idea (Not spoiling who the BF is just yet). ° Randy Marsh - 40s - Town Sheriff - Has the hots for local single mother, Sharon (If it isn't obvious). Randy, just like Hopper, in this AU had an ex-wife and a daughter who passed (Sorry, Shelley). He lives a sad life of donuts and alcohol, until the search for Jimmy sparks something inside of him, and spirals his life into the supernatural forces caused by the lab. He eventually has to get Sharon involved to solve this crime. ° Dr. Alphonse Mephesto - 50s - Genetic Engineer/Crazed Local Scientist - "Papa" to a lot of children that ain't even his (I mean, he named his kids after numbers. Can we call CPS now?). I didn't know who else to pick, but for some reason Mephesto might actually be a good choice for Brenner. You'll learn more about him later on.

For now, that's all I got. I'll try to finish those screencaps soon! (And if anyone's interested, maybe I'll write a fanfic? Or a fan-comic?)

[hananoami]

Hi hi I have a question I’ve never played an otome game before l&d and I was wondering how they usually end with resolving the story between the multiple love interests also I see your post about Caleb being added do you have a guess on how many more love interests we are getting? Thanks for answering!

Hi hi @kindlerofstars! Welcome to the world of otomes games, hehe~

As far as I know all of the character storylines are separated. Meaning their individual plots should not affect any of the other love interest's storyline. You can see this message at the bottom of the "Who You Want To Meet" section when selecting a LI.

This is probably to avoid discord within the community and also a way to prevent boycotts from those die hard individual stans (they can be kinda wild, yanno?).

From what we've learned from the Opposing Visions Live Stream back in July we're also expected to see Main Story Branches start from September to December. Right now the Main Story doesn't really have on any romantic scenes between MC and the guys. However, these separate branches will serve as a way to focus on a romantic route with your love interest of choice, or whatever is available on release.

Unlike your traditional otome game where there is an End Game we probably wont be seeing that any time soon in Love and Deepspace. This is to ensure the longevity of the gacha game. After all it is a business at the end of the day.

As for Caleb there have been so many subtle hints that we will be seeing him again, and most likely as another love interest. I'm not here to stir up drama nor do I want any part of it, but whether you like or dislike him you cannot deny the fact that:

He has his own Text Message/Moments/Call history in MC's phone.

The devs even said in their Q&A back in January that he's waiting to meet us again in future updates...🥺🥺🥺 I'll attach the screenshot below.

To be honest I think Caleb will be the last love interest they will add for a while. I also saw the theory floating around of there potentially being up to 6 love interest, but that's way too far into the future for me to make any kind of speculation.

[starberry-cupcake]

Alrighty, here we are again

previously, in harrowcita the ninth:

this happened

currently, after ch. 2 (once again, I wanted to read more but realized these notes were too long):

first off, I need to point out something very important

reading the first part of gideon, this was how the dynamic of her and harrow felt like, from gideon's pv in the first chapter or two

this is what it actually was like, now that I have harrow's pv

so, now that we've cleared that up, let me tell you about the emperor

I don't know about this guy

something's not adding up for me

I feel like he's either lying, telling half-truths that benefit him or he doesn't know what he's doing

and none of those options are very god-tier

he's also constantly going like "harrow, I'm gonna let you choose" and five minutes later he's "oh, actually, you never had a choice to begin with, I'm so sorry about that"

I don't think you're sorry if you've done it like 3 times since we've met you

maybe say what you actually mean, unless you're full of lies

he takes harrow on a walk through the clown death star ship he's got going on

and takes her to his coffin hangar

shows her coffins of the people he made to send to the ninth

the new ninth people

aiglamene is gonna have to work overtime

(I can't believe I've never forgotten her name)

and then there's coffins for all the little friends we made in canaan house

:) ♥

except there are a bunch missing people

let me just note the info we got

the second says "no human remains inside"

last we saw them, martita was KO and judith was bleeding to death

nobody from the third as well, and we already have suspicions about wtf is happening with these parsley and cilantro twins

from the sixth, one is empty because CAMILLA ISN'T DEAD GODDAMMIT

the other one has little pieces of palmolive in it

me picking up the pieces of palmolive from the decor of canaan house

there is one coffin for not!dulcinea

the emperor guy says he's taking her with the other lyctors

as long as he flushes afterwards, it's fine

we are, by the way, trying very hard to not mention gideon ever, apparently

just wanna point out real quick that THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE UNACCOUNTED FOR and this guy is GOD so he's doing a terrible job

or he's not saying all he knows

or both

all this time, ice cube barbie is tagging along

ice cube barbie is harrow's babadook, which I stan tbh

since she's here to stay, let me show you another pic of that doll because it's my favorite from the haunted beauty collection

so, the emperor starts telling harrow what they're fighting against (or escaping from) and where they came from

this man explains what he wants and leaves out what he wants

at one point, when harrow asks something like "how will you explain all the dead people?" he goes like

he asks harrow about death and the process of it and she says, at one point:

"In cases of apopneumatic shock, where death is sudden and violent, the energy burst can be sufficient to countermand osmotic pressure and leave the soul temporarily isolated. Whence we gain the ghost, and the revenant."

this is important for the later conversation about revenant beasts, which are the things that the emperor is having trouble with

but I highlighted it because I am adding it to my notes of "reasons why gideon could be not dead forever"

I am holding on to all the hope I can get

because if sudden violent death can leave the soul temporarily isolated and not do the due process of transitioning to the river or whatnot

and gideon isn't within harrow or whatever

maybe

maybe she's somewhere else

I don't know, let me have this, don't tell me anything, just

LET ME HAVE THIS

so yeah, basically the story is that the emperor is running away from nine revenant beasts, which were created during the resurrection, when a planet was blasted off

nine beasts like nine houses

there's three left now

I don't know about all of this, you guys

I don't have enough context and I don't trust this guy here

how do I know where we stand in all this?

what if he's not the good guy and what he did was some planetary bullshit to begin with?

what if the other side is the good guys?

what if he's killed by one of our heroes? like harrow or gideon or camilla?

because he's actually a false god jerk?

what if I kill him????

and then we have two last important things

first, barbie ice cube speaks now

love that for her

then, very crucial

the non-gideon mentioning seems to be a Thing

I don't know if I'm understanding correctly but

the emperor mentions ortus

ortus, the one we knew, our old pal from the ninth

and I got the feeling, idk if I got it, that he just assumed ortus was the cavalier she had with her

because 1) he didn't go down there and 2) no body was recovered

and then harrow also mentions ortus, but she says he "died thinking it was the only gift he was capable of giving" and that she "wasted it" and idk if she did that because she's blocking sad memories, she's confused because she's Not Doing Great Mentally Right Now, she doesn't wanna tell the emperor what actually happened, or all three

there's stuff about ortus I don't know, but that sounds to me more like what gideon said than what ortus "Got Blown To Bits With Mom In Ship" did

and then the emperor says his name again with suspicion and I'm like

I think this clown doesn't know

I think he doesn't know about gideon

I think he doesn't know about gideon or who gideon actually is

which we don't know yet either but it's probably important

because she's hercules, as previously established

I think maybe gideon is an outlier

an important planetary outlier

I have hopes

also, another day without camilla

god (not this one) I hope I can make shorter recaps but there's so much happening, I'm so sorry

[jazeswhbhaven]

as a ronove stan*** i just realized i fucked it up😭 but HELL YEAH, Im waiting for abaddon to have an event..hopefully we will get one in a month or two😔 If lucifer and belphegor get an event about their region after their release then asmo/abaddon should get one too 🫡 And I honestly thought one of the nobles from abaddon would appear in the Christmas event because of how long it is but nevermind..The only information we've got about why the Abaddon nobles are locked up is because they're reluctant to the other nobles/demons…but WHYYYYY???? WILL ASMODEUS BEAT THEIR ASSES IF THEY ARENT?? OR ARE THEY RELUCTANT BY THEIR OWN CHOICE CAUSE THEY KNOW THEY ARE DANGEROUS???? Or they think they're gonna get bullied by other nobles..poor guys😔/j

Abaddon is insane cause wdym the demons dont want asmodeus in hell, wdym everyone starts tweaking the fuck out and locking themselves inside their homes, even abyssos demons who are known to celebrate whenever beel returns are now on the verge of pissing themselves bc of how scared they are of asmodeus? Or they lowk just don't gaf abt asmodeus returning cause he's not their king 🌚. And they even got zagan to make them charms to protect themselves from asmodeus, AND ALSO ZAGANS MASTER BEING ZEPAR IS auubeudguguehsuB

There are guards in Abaddon that watch over the nobles! One of them showed up in the Leviathan torture card as a silhouette only but I'd let that guard hit ON GOD🙏 but what if PB releases another Abaddon noble who is second in command and they're the one who has the highest position in the prison? I'd start running laps around my room tbh

LMAOO if the angels don't want to approach Abaddon nobles then Dantalian will approach them first

nah mention abaddon infront of me and you’ll see me on the ground frothing at the mouth😭🙏..seere come out, come out where ever you are🤤 damn about seere, his ability is he can travel around the world in an blink of an eye and even within memories and dreams of others🌚

Thank you for reminding me about the guards I forgot about them 💀

I wouldn't be able to guard nothin' in Abaddon because I'm too lax, being like "yah do whatever ya'll want, Idky they've got you locked in here." and then bam I find out real quick why lmao

Asmodeus would scold me, nicely but still scold me.

A L S O yeah any kind of Abaddon event or content we get soon will make me happy because that's all I'm really waiting for honestly. I think we've got enough of the other countries to get us by? M a y b e. Who knows lol

I don't blame your brain rot for the country at all anon, they all just seem so damn interesting. I do hope we also get to see more nobles from that region too. Also iirc isn't Marbas from Abaddon? He looks like he is because of the restraints lol it might have been a thing I missed in the lore if he did mention where he was from.

Dantalian btw did say that Asmo gets onto him for going up to Heaven on his own, so I'm imagining he treats all his citizens the same way where they aren't allowed to do anything without his permission and therefore that means...punishment. And the only punishment I can think of is taking away their pleasures lmao kinda like how Satan says he won't kick someone's ass if they do something worth punishing for and they get upset about that lmao

[onethousandwords]

Christian Elements in Gravity Falls, Part Two

See the first part here

I think we've covered most of the self-sacrificial theme I wanted to cover that occur in Gravity Falls, and I touched briefly on forgiveness. But I want to touch on it again particularly when it comes to Ford Pines.

This character, largely due to his pride (and while there are definitely a whole host of complicated reasons Ford has such issues relating to his father and Bill's manipulations - it can't be argued that this is a major issue for him), burns his bridges. He does it first and repeatedly with Stanley (though, Stan has his own issues, too - I'll acknowledge that - this is not a debate about which sibling is "better" - both of them have their good qualities and their flaws and needed forgiveness at some point), and then with Fiddleford (who is arguably a sweeter character but still flawed himself).

He's really at a point in his life where any forgiveness given to him would be unearned because of the actions he's taken in his life. He refused to talk to Stanley for over ten years over a broken science project, his fight with his brother due to prioritizing his work over his family leads to Stanley being branded (and though he expresses remorse over this - later circumstances lead him unable to make amends), the first thing he does when his brother brings him back is punch him in the face, he threatens to uproot Stan's entire life, he risks the entire world because he has to get in the last word.

And yet, when he reaches out to Stan, Stan forgives him (in all except one instance which also put the world at risk).

Let's go to Fiddleford. We get more insight about this character in Journal 3. We learn, for instance, that he crosses himself while stepping over graves, chastises Ford for saying "what the devil" and would likely disapprove of "black magic." This, and the fact he comes from Tennessee which is in the Bible Belt, would suggest he is Christian (the crossing himself part would suggest Catholicism). We learn that he's very giving and self-sacrificial.

You see this in particular with his relationship with Ford - he sets aside his own personal projects and his business to help Ford with his project, he puts up with traumatizing event after traumatizing event to help him, he works for three days without breaks to help Ford organize his research. He does this with other people as well - in Journal 3, you see him helping the carnival by fixing gears on the ferris wheel and listening to a fearful Ivan Wexler and while he definitely chose the wrong person to help, he also helped Gideon with his Gideon-bot. The lantern bit I mentioned in the first part of this also bears mentioning again.

Fiddleford is a helpful person - exactly the kind of person you'd expect to help a stranger broken down on the side of the road. Hebrews 13:16 - "Do not forget to do good and share with others for with such sacrifices God is pleased."

It sounds like Fiddleford really took that to heart. However, it seems he might have forgotten the part about how he is being sent as "sheep among wolves. So, be as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves." - Matthew 10:16

It also seems in the midst of his fears and trauma, he didn't turn to his faith for help - instead, he turned to his memory-erasing gun (which has at times been seen as a metaphor for substance abuse) and destroyed much of his life. Ford had a hand in Fiddleford's decline (though, Fiddleford is also ultimately responsible for his own choices).

And yet, when Ford comes to him recognizing the wrong he's done Fiddleford (Ford took Fiddleford's self-sacrifices for granted, continually exposed him to dangerous situations, refused to listen to his warnings, refused his help), he is forgiven.

This unearned forgiveness and love that Stan and Fiddleford display to Ford are barely even a fraction of the unearned forgiveness and love Jesus Christ shows us when we come to him to ask for forgiveness of our sins and believe in his death on the cross and his resurrection and trust in Him to save us from damnation and death.

A couple of more minor things that I thought were interesting in Gravity Falls and pertain to Fiddleford's character. One thing I thought was interesting was how, as Old Man McGucket, he seems to have taken comfort and refuge in a church (broken down as it is). While it's possible he's forgotten a lot of things, maybe there's still a part of him that trusts God and remembers Him.

The next thing, at the end of the show, Fiddleford gets to move into a mansion which is sort of the show's way of making up for the trouble it put him through as well as rewarding him for his part in helping take down the main villain, Bill Cipher.

For some reason, it reminded me of a specific Bible verse:

John 14:2-3 - "In my Father's house, there are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. That where I am, there you may be also."

So, I thought it was fitting that Fiddleford moved into a mansion at the end.

Though, I will add just as a matter of personal preference, I enjoy the translations of the Bible where rooms is used instead of mansions. Because it puts me in mind of this grand, beautiful house with many rooms, and many people including myself who have our own room, and there's this concept of "family togetherness."

Alex Hirsch put through a concept of people being "honorary members of the Pines family" which is good and sweet and kind. But how much better and sweeter and kinder is it to be a member of God's family? A loving, good, and merciful God who is waiting with open arms to accept anyone who comes to Him.

[kimberlyannharts]

At this point Power Rangers has done a few crossover comics, and they've all been some pretty logical and big name choices - the Justice League, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Godzilla. So today's crossover comic is one that definitely took people by surprise - Usagi Yojimbo, the long-running story of a wandering rōnin having adventures in feudal Japan (who also happens to be a bunny rabbit), written and illustrated by Stan Sakai since 1984. While an icon in his own right - funnily enough, he's a regular guest in TMNT properties - I don't think ANYONE really had HIM in mind as a contender for a crossover with Power Rangers compared to more conventional properties like Transformers or even My Little Pony.

After all, what do they know about samurai in Power Rangers?

It's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Usagi Yojimbo!

= So I know I've gone on and on about Shawn Daley's art but I really just need you to look at them again. It just makes me so happy to see a more stylized take on the MMPRs - basically if you took Daniele di Nicuolo's art and ramped up the anime influence by 100. It gives the book that much extra charm

= who the hell is THIS I'm here for the FURRIES not another random boring human!!!!!! it's like I'm playing Animal Crossing

= Jason's attitude in this book annoys me but at the same time it wouldn't be a Ryan book if he wasn't writing Jason in a way that annoys me.

= (also, they knew about the Morphin Masters this early in their Ranger career? I guess Zordon did mention them in an early episode, but.........what have they done that's similar to this that Jason would know about kjkjdkf

= I still think it's very weird that they didn't give the whole "maybe it would be easier if I was fighting alone" to uh.....you know.....Tommy, the loner? Who's so used to fighting alone that he struggled to adjust to a team? But I guess he has a girlfriend and Jason doesn't so.

= Is this a safe space. because the rabbit is pretty hot.

= HAHAHAAAA TOKEN EVIL HUMAN I KNEW IT

= YFIP: THE MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS - assisting the villain, thievery of a powerful artifact, assault against civilians, racism against furries

= Like I've said before Jason's characterization here irritates me a bit but I'll give the book props that someone's actually allowed to call him out on it for once. Like man I wish Tommy in the main series was allowed to tell Jason to shut up once in a while like Usagi does here

= Kim: Tommy, it's 4 pm! Time to go help our friends!

Tommy: yes honey

= Wow, look at these guys! They're like......Shogun Rangers! ............wait a minute

= But seriously, though, I gotta say these are one of the best alternate MMPR designs we've gotten in ages - I LOVE how they apply all of MMPR's little details into each individual user. And the altered weapons are awesome, too. Between these and the Kaiju Rangers we've really been cooking with the alternate forms lately

= And as I said, they did manage to resist the urge to give Usagi a Ranger form. I did like my old "maybe he'll find a Samuraizer" idea, though

= They both nearly died via crystal explosion a few hours ago but all they care about is their cool new outfits, just otp things <3

= I was about to say "well yeah, duh, that's why the Dragonzord doesn't have wings" but then I remembered. oh yeah. technically the Zords aren't Japanese in origin in-universe, are they

= It's nice to see Dragonzord Battle Mode! That was a form that didn't get a lot of spotlight in the comics - I think the only time we really saw it in the main series was Shattered Grid, and not for very long before it got destroyed by Serpentera

= Kim and Usagi only get one real onscreen exchange but she also catches him in the Pterodactyl and they have matching bangs. I'll take this as a win, though Splinter is still her #1 rodent dad

= they are so fucking sad

= I think future books should bring Usagi back or just crossover with him again with no explanation. Make people think he's a PR character just like how people assume he's a TMNT character

[ebonysplendor]

Symptoms of Deceit (Demo) Review 🐙

TL;DR: We've all encountered fake people. You know, those people who pretend to be something or someone they aren't. But what makes Thaumo's situation so different...? Why can't he just be himself? Oh, because he's psycho. Right. Okay, fair point.

Game Link: https://strawberrysquid0.itch.io/symptoms-of-deceit

Notable Features: Two Yandere LIs, Self-Insert, Custom Pronouns, (slight) UI Customization, (minor) Backstory choice, Multiple Endings Spiciness: 2.5/5 -- Gets a little suggestive at one point...but not enough, and you're damn right I'm anticipating that in the future LI Red Flags: 3/5 -- Gaslighting, murder, stalking, nonconsensual stuff (two pretty light instances), your typical yandere stuff, ya know?

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

You know when you've been out of the flow of doing something for so long, and you lowkey forget how to do the thing...? Not gonna lie, kind've going through that right now lmao. Like, when I tell y'all that, when I went off of memory, I could not for the life of me figure out why that little intro before the actual intro part did not flow right, and I totally skipped over the features, spiciness, and red flags. Lmaoooo I need to get back on my shit. Not to mention, I really like doing these and want to get back in the swing of things

ANYWAYS. This isn't about that; this is about this. This game that is. That's what I meant by "this", in case that wasn't clear...my bad...okay, anyways, getting back on track lmao

I honestly don't have much for the intro because, as typical, it's more suited for the review portion, but let me just say...it's pretty damned promising, and I have a temporary spiked interest in mimic octopuses...octopi?....octopuses; it'll make sense later, I swear, but let me just say this.

MIMIC OCTOPI...octopuses?...ARE SO DAMNED COOL? Like, it's quite literally what it sounds like. It mimics the behaviors of other marine animals, and damn do they mimic a lot of those things! They can mimic jellyfish, sea snakes, crabs, flatfish, shrimp, sealions, gah damned seaweed, fucking sea sponges-- like apparently it is a lot, and they are damned cool, man. I love these things. We stan the thaumoctopus mimicus -- lmao just remember that long, scientifically correct word; that was literally intentional, not just a random name drop.

But enough of that, because you know what has my interest more? This game, and I am excited to tell you about it. So, as per the usual, I will tell you as much about the game as possible without ruining the game itself, and trust me, you're gonna wanna play...but this also may be a bit hard to make spoiler friendly. We're gonna thug it out, and make it work, though!

So, enough yappin'. Let's get into it.

So boom.

It's the end of the day, and we're trying to kill the last bit of time that we have left before we go home. If you work yourself, then you know that I'm talking about that weird ass "It's too late to start working on something (nor do I want to) but I still have like a smooth 8 minutes before I clock out". That being said, we do the only logical thing and scroll on social media for a bit. We're in the middle of reading a post/news article, when this pops up:

I'll explain the article somewhat later, but just stick with me for a second and focus on the notif. We look up and--

Well hello, handsome! Ain't no way we're just working with someone this fine. His name is Nalis, by the by, and I'm gonna get back on track now lol.

So, we exchange a little bit of small talk before one of our other co-workers come up and pretty much yanks him away for some more work. Now, the thing about this is, the co-worker was acting pretty out of character. Like, she was just in a pretty ill mood...but then her personality totally flipped when she was talking to us, and Nalis just shoots us this look like "...the hell is going on with her?". But it's like whatever, because Nalis and her are part of the epidemiology team at our work, and we just figured that the stress was just starting to get to her due to the building cases.

Anyways, with our interaction with Nalis cut short, we clock out and head on home. While walking into the building, though, we run into this adorable, blushing mess of a man

Remember that long ass scientifically correct word I gave you? Thaumoctopus mimicus? Everyone, this is Thaumo. Thaumo, this is everyone. See? Told you it'd matter later lol.

Anyways, as expected, we get locked into some small talk, and Thaumo takes the plunge and asks for our number under the guise of "neighbors looking out for each other". ...Yeah, no, naur, that's all right.

We make it quick, shut him down, text the bae friendo, and go in for the night. The next day rolls around, we mess with Nalis for a bit, and...something quite curious happens.

Remember our co-worker that was acting weird yesterday? Well, she comes in, and we check in with her about yesterday, and she just--

Wha--? The fuck you mean, you didn't see him...?

Now, this wouldn't be an issue if she was scatterbrained or something, but she isn't in the slightest. Even when she's tired, she has a damned solid memory and would've definitely remembered something like that, so her simply forgetting is not likely or even probable. Something is very clearly off, but we're not entirely sure of why yet and before we can question it more, she leaves to go to her sector of the building.

Some hours of doing work later, it's around lunch time. We didn't bring our lunch today, so we sit for a moment to figure out what we're gonna do, but Nalis comes around the corner just in time. We make eye contact, but he doesn't really say much, and he looks...different somehow. We brush it off though and ask what he's doing about lunch and if it's cool if we can join him and...

Oof...okay, maybe not.

Despite this though, he fixes his face and tells us it's cool and invites us to go to the vending machine with him. Even still though, he's acting really weird. Like, he's being kind've withdrawn, he's being lowkey insulting, he's spewing all this weird shit about ethics and death, and his whole vibe is just extremely off. It's so bad that we don't even feel comfortable let alone safe with him being around us. I think he lowkey picks up on it though because then he's all "Just pretend that this conversation didn't happen", and it's just, lol what?

But bump it, we bail. We leave him in there, and thankfully, he gave us an exit to do so.

More time goes by, and the phone starts blowing up about some new hire. Well, let me rephrase that. Not a new hire, but someone that's pretty much going to be making sure that we're using the money that their company is giving us to good use and, wouldn't you know it--

That very individual is Thaumo, and he's going to be hanging out with us throughout this whole ordeal. Granted, this isn't entirely bad because the things that Nalis and his team do are extremely confidential, and we're quite literally left out of everything, so it's lowkey nice knowing someone else isn't going to have the full picture about what's going on either. Speaking of Nalis...

The asshole popped up at our desk a few hours later. Of course, we're not as happy to be around him, and he's trying to pry about why. This lowkey pisses us off because he's taking that whole "This conversation didn't happen" shit too literal, and it's like, bro, be fucking for real right now; this shit is not cool. Like, don't gaslight me and act like you weren't acting like a complete donkey during lunch.

"Didn't see us at lunch"? "No time for a full..."? Ayo, what the fuck man? First our coworker, now Nalis? What the fuck is going on with this???

Nalis helps us come to the conclusion that we had likely fell asleep and just had a super vivid dream. We don't fully believe this, but we literally don't have any other form of proof that would suggest otherwise. Either way, we calm down, Nalis reassures us, and we part ways with us going home and him back down to the lab.

That day ends and the next one begins in which Nalis makes a new group chat with Thaumo in it and without the boss, and Nalis is like "Arcade?". We decline, though, and so does Thaumo. We spend our lunch break with Nalis more comfortably this time, and the rest of the day proceeds like normal: uneventful. Well, that is until we're about to head home and receive this text:

Now, for some context, SWSS is Sea Star Wasting Syndrome. Remember that article that I mentioned in the beginning? The one with the body? That's what we were reading about, and it's pretty deadly. As I promised, I'll explain a bit more.

The world that we live in, people (can?) have animal associations, and those associations can be either strong or weak -- most people's are weak. That being said, naturally, the people who are suffering from SWSS have associations with sea stars, which is why Nalis was like "even though you aren't susceptible" because that's not our animal association. This also explains the animal contact photos/pfps, if you were wondering about that at one point, as well.

Anyways, we just think about how much SWSS sucks, and we proceed to clock out and take an alternative route home. Well, that kind've goes left because on this route home we still run into trouble. Admittedly, it was by our own nosiness, but it was trouble nonetheless.

To make a long story short...nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya lol. I ain't gonna tell ya.

To be real with you? I literally can't tell you because it'll be, what I feel, is a major spoiler, and there's no way for me to finesse it and tell you what happened without it completely spoiling it...even though I'm pretty certain you can read between the lines and see what's going on.

Just in case you didn't catch on and want a little more insight, I'll tell you this much: Remember that we live in a world where people have animal associations, meaning certain qualities, appearances, and abilities can be adopted; Thaumo has a strong association with his animal...

Again, I'm pretty sure you can read between the lines, but even still, you think you might know what's going on just off that, but you honestly have no clue, because also remember...

There's two yanderes this time, and I didn't even tell you Nalis' animal association.

I'm telling you -- it's not as clear of a picture as you may be thinking.

Okay, so admitedly, this review is LONG over due, because I played this months ago and just never finished the review for it, but I am so excited for this game to be completed!

The story itself is so interesting, and the fact that-- ah, I can't tell you but damn it, just, if you could still figure it out without me saying it or you could read between the lines, I'm just really geeked about this, and I want to see how everything pans out.

Like, I know that the content warning included gaslighting, but I didn't know that it meant like IRL! Like, I was -- oh my fu -- I can't really tell you that either! This is actually frustrating, not gonna lie lol.

Like I've mentioned, I am fairly confident that you can tell what's going on based on what I gave you despite me not explicitly saying it and doing my damndest to tip toe around it...but just know that that whole "gaslighting" content warning is applying IRL for me right now. Like, I have so many questions, and I demand that this game be finished so that I can get them answered!

The other wild part about this game, though, is that, if you actually go back and read it after getting some more information, there's actually allusions as to what's going on in certain scenarios! It literally made me go "Ohhhh now that part makes more sense! ... Yo, that's crazy". Like, it's honestly pretty well done as far being just discreetly enough to have you kind've gloss over it, but you can definitely pick up on it if you pay attention to it, especially if you go to replay it for the other endings.

Now, let's talk about the pacing. Pretty solid and well done, in my opinion! There were definitely some parts that were definitely more "storytelling based", but it didn't drag on for long, and the storytelling bits made sense and were necessary. Admittedly, it had somewhat rushed transitions to certain parts, but I still thought it flowed pretty damned well in all honesty. Then again, that's what happens when you have an interesting storyline, and people are more interested in the story itself versus the "You wake up the next day, and head to work after getting ready" transition.

Then again, I honestly prefer it to be that versus "You wake up. You go to the bathroom to brush your teeth. You look at your teeth. Ick. You get over the ick. You walk out. You go to the kitchen. You open the fridge. You reach it. You grab the mi--" Like oh my Gods, bro, I get it. Please get on with it. It's like, I get it because it's necessary, but like get to the point. That just kills the momentum to me, or if there wasn't any momentum to start with, it just makes the story/transition drag for longer than it needs to. Speaking of making things longer than needed and getting on with it...

If it's not obvious at this point, I definitely recommend this game. I recommend it so much that I will be providing you the link right here, right now, multiple times in a row. So just...ya know...click on any of those and download it to your computer, brah. All jokes and silliness aside, you'd be seriously missing out if you don't, because the story is there, and I find it super interesting. Also! If you'd like to, give the dev that ever encouraging and desperate "DROP ANOTHER UPDATE, AND MY LIFE IS YOURS~! Also, really love your game! You're doing really well! BUT PLEASE LET ME BANG NALIS AND THAUMO!". Also, also! I didn't see anything that indicated that they were open to monetary support, but if you find it, I'm sure they'd really appreciate the donation.

That all being said, that is finally all from me, and I will let you go about your day now! Big preesh for getting this far. Huge reminder! Please drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

Symptoms of Deceit

[logansgaar]

So I've seen a couple people now say they're not sure why fans are against Bucky being in the senate or think he must be being forced to somehow, considering we've already seen him as the Secretary of State in What If...? and I wanted to explain why I personally would find it extremely out of character if he's willingly a senator in Thunderbolts*

For the sake of ease I'm going to refer to Earth-82111 Bucky as Secretary Bucky and Earth-19999 Bucky as Primary Bucky.

Based on everything we know about Primary Bucky, I don't see how he'd have any reason to WANT to be there and it feels very contradictory to the path they've set him on ever since Civil War.

It all pretty much comes down to the fact that Secretary Bucky and Primary Bucky have led two entirely different lives since the war, around the time there was a divergence in their lives. Their experiences from around the age of 26 onwards have made them into separate people, despite being technically both Bucky. Sebastian Stan's even said he was surprised by his lines as Secretary Bucky because they're so different from the Bucky he's used to playing.

The point of divergence in their lives is of course the train. Secretary Bucky never fell from the train and lost his arm, he was able to be rescued by Captain Carter, so he didn't go through any of the experiences that Primary Bucky has that would make his character detest the idea of being in government.

Secretary Bucky stayed the light-hearted Bucky we met in early CATFA. He never woke up during a horrific surgery to instal a bionic arm where he'd had his real one torn off in the fall, he never experienced decades of torture, brainwashing, forced assassinations and dehumanization. We can't say for sure how much Secretary Bucky knew about Isaiah Bradley and the men of his squadron, but we do know that Primary Bucky knows about them and withheld that information from Steve, which is huge. Primary Bucky knows which governments and organizations (like SHIELD) are corrupt and in what ways, has stood against the American government both as the Winter Soldier and by his own volition, he was framed for an event that led the world to agree on mandatory registering of a specific demographic of people I wonder where he might've seen that before, and has teammates who were kept on the Raft. He saw his own government, the American government, violate their own citizens the way HYDRA did him; injecting them with unknown substances that irreversibly changed their bodies, then punished Isaiah for doing the same thing they hailed Steve as a hero for, and further violated Isaiah by taking his blood without consent and creating more soldiers from him. Primary Bucky was a victim of HYDRA, the clear bad guys, but Isaiah and his brothers-in-arms were victims of the supposed "good guys", and on that fact alone I cannot see any way Primary Bucky is anything other than disgusted and mistrustful of them, if he doesn't outright hate the government. Primary Bucky has also learned a lot from being friends with Sam, how it wasn't Sam's fault for putting down the shield when the government and the country they're in put him in an extremely difficult and impossible situation out of pure racism, about how their country views heroism and its very white standards for it, and how it's not as simple as it was for Steve or John Walker for Sam to have the shield and be Captain America. He saw the US government make one promise to Steve's memory and then immediately disrespect it.

Secretary Bucky seems happy to serve his country and does so by choice, and like I said, we don't know how much he knows about SHIELD's corruption or what the government he serves did to Isaiah and the men of his squad but it's safe to say the different lived experiences he's gone through make him view his government in a positive light and he's very likely never been a number 1 enemy of the state, while Primary Bucky looks completely miserable having to wear that pin during the entire trailer.

Of course you could argue that Primary Bucky has become a senate as a way to try and change things, but the thing is he also knows better than most what goes on in the shadows and I'd say has a very grim perspective on how realistic his chances would be. He's seen and experienced how futile bureaucracy in their world is for making significant change, and idk it just doesn't feel like Bucky's style considering he chose vigilantism over "proper" processes with dealing with HYDRA remnants and the Flag-Smashers.

I'd say it's in character for the Bucky of Earth-82111 to go into politics and end up where he is, he led a completely different life that was never shaped the same way as Bucky from Earth-19999. It feels extremely out of character for Bucky from Earth-19999 to go into politics, echoes of each other or not, their initial 26 years of shared life experiences wouldn't overrule the catastrophic changes 19999's experiences would make to his mind set and opinions because people's loyalties and thoughts change depending on what information they have. Primary Bucky knows and has seen things Senate Bucky has not, so his opinion has been changed and updated from where they were at 26.

80 years is a long time for a lot of deeply impactful things to diverge them further away from each other, even if they all echo one another, regardless of how identical the first quarter was. That's just my opinion.

[tomuchabotme]

I don't know what's so hard for people to understand. You can't have your cake and eat it too. It's fine to say 'don't assume Jimin's sexuality' but then you can't turn around and say 'and I assume he's dating JK / Yoongi'. Saying don't assume his sexuality after you liked a tweet assuming he's gay. Ok then.

I remember I once said JK is straight on twitter and some person started yelling at me about making assumptions and comphet and everything. Look if he's dancing provocatively with women and has multiple songs about fucking them, then I think it's clear he wants me to make the assumption. I didn't make him do that. That was his choice. That's the way he wants to be seen. I think he'd be a lot more on board with me calling him straight than armys saying he's screwing Tae or Jimin or even kpop girl #1655.

I really don't care about anything related to Jimin's personal life - who's he's dating, if he's dating, if he's an afficionado of casual sex, if he's secretly a monk in private, if it's guys / girls / a combo of the two - but he's making choices to have couple choreo with women in his songs. This doesn't mean he's straight but I think it means he's okay with us assuming he is.

And let's imagine he's not straight and is dating JK of all people- the self proclaimed lover of champagne confetti- how is it productive in any way to then start trying to prove this? If he was actually truly dating JK, do you think he'd appreciate people trying to expose them to the public by microanalyzing their interactions and leaking any personal info they get if it 'proves' their ship? To drag him out of the closet? That he'd love the extremely sexual art and fanfic and the abo bullshit that's foisted upon him and his relationship? Not maintaining any normal boundaries by mentioning the ship in weverse lives or outside the fandom? Because that's all I see shippers do. A lot of them care about that far more than his music. For the most part this insistence he's gay has nothing to do with acceptance and everything to do with fetishizing him.

And it's so funny when people act like this is some progressive stance. The entire bg kpop community is filled with straight women who ship people with their group mates because they can't stand the idea of them with women and it's been going on for decades. Kpop has a huge mlm shipping culture and frankly it's not because it's a utopia where they don't care about sexuality. Maybe people should assess why it's so important for them that Jimin isn't straight (or is - some self reflection from both sides wouldn't be bad). Does it hurt you when he's called straight (or gay) because you're that concerned about him or is it because you're too enamoured with certain assumptions about him because of your own needs.

Honestly though in a normal fandom I wouldn't care if a celeb, straight or otherwise, was being called gay or bi or was being playfully shipped with their coworker. But in this fandom, things have gone completely out of control. If we've reached the stage where people send complaints about him to the government because he enlisted with his friend, or send him death threats, or have a huge subset of the fandom hate him because he's in the way of their ship - then we've gone beyond the fucking pale and I think we need to start being more careful about the way we speak about Jimin and start placing more importance on how he wants to be seen.

Of course the straight!Min people aren't all innocent either. Some of them are clearly homophobic. I just hate this is a topic at all. I don't even think he's straight but you know what I do? I just don't talk about it at all. And that is extremely easy to do. I see the contradiction that I sent you this hugeass ask but it's in response to the current discourse. In general, Jimin's sexuality doesn't come up in my stanning experience at all and it's easy to do song analysis while keeping space for multiple options in this regard. I just need everyone to leave him be.

you said all

[themissinghand]

Dr. Stone: Growing Up With Stanley Synder

Note: Received a request from anon but sadly lost the OG request message. Thanks for the request though! Always open to taking requests, and for other fandoms as well! 

Summary: Headcanons of what it would be like growing up together with our favourite sniper king. 

Pairing: Stanley Snyder x GN! Reader! 

Warnings: Spoilers for the characters, but no canon plot. For anime watchers, don't search up Xeno or Stanley if you don't want to be spoiled!

★・・・・・・★

Childhood Friendship:

Stanley Snyder has been friends with you since you were kids. It’s not really a choice, considering you two were practically neighbors, and your parents being friends with one another. 

Even so, Stanley felt like you two just clicked upon the first meeting. 

Stanley never thought you two would share many similar interests and hobbies.

Often, Stanley would spend countless weekends with you, playing sports, watching movies, discovering hidden gems in the city, and pranking others. 

Stanley’s family were incredibly supportive and happy that their son were getting along with you so well. So they often invited you to go over whenever your parents had work overseas.

They encouraged open-mindedness and respect between the two of you as you two sometimes fought and got mad at each other for little things. 

Stanley learned to apologize and forgive, how to be stern and patient, and be the kind and responsible “other brother” in your friendship

Back then, he was just your childhood friend.

Realization of Feelings:

Stanley began to realize his feelings for you when he was in high school. 

He found himself blushing around you and getting nervous when you smiled at him. 

He cared for the little things, and didn’t want to disappoint you when he got in trouble with his guy group.

Stanley became increasingly protective of you, always looking out for your well-being. 

He'd insist on walking you home after school and making sure you were safe.

Sometimes, he would even go out of his way to take care of you when you were sick.

Stanley developed a habit of calling you at night. Asking about your day, and tell you about his. 

He loved these late-night conversations, just you and him, sometimes sharing stories, gossip, dreams, fears, and secrets. 

Stanley found comfort in these talks, and it was during one of these moments that he admitted to himself that he had a crush on you, and can’t let you go.

Courting & Confession:

Stan isn't afraid to show his affection, like offering to carry your backpack or complimenting you about your looks, knowledge or personality.

He often buys you food and eventually became your personal professional driver.

Stanley reached out to his closest friend, Xeno, about his feelings, seeking advice on how to confess. 

Xeno encouraged him to be honest with you but also cautioned him to respect your boundaries in the case that feelings aren’t reciprocated. 

(Xeno was sure that it would be, that sneaky little Einstein)

One day, Stanley finally mustered the courage to tell you about his feelings. 

Stanley and you sat together under the beautiful night stars during one of your many weekend hangouts, and it was then he blurted out his confession. 

“Hey Y/N, you know, we've been friends for so long…practically since babies. You know you were really ugly back then.”

“Oh shut it, like you weren’t a brat.” A shared nudge and chuckle.

“Hey, there's something I need to tell you." 

"Yea? What is it, Stan?" 

"Well, it's just... ah screw it, I really like you. Not just as a friend. I mean, I like you a lot. More than I've ever liked anyone.” 

From your looks to your personality to funny moments and lovable times, his rant went on for a bit like a kid describing his favourite cartoon.

"Damn, I know it's probably weird to hear, and I understand if you don't feel the same way. But can you give me an answer soon?” 

Stanley closed his eyes and waited patiently for your answer. At this time, he really wanted to smoke.

"Stanley Synder, you dummy. You know, I've been feeling the same way.” Stanley felt a hand on his shoulder, waking him up. 

“I was just too scared to say anything."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. I've liked you for a long time too, Stan. No matter how much of an annoying show-off and-." He pulled you into a little hug which cut you off, but you didn’t mind. 

The hug now felt a little differently than before.

You two stayed like that for a bit, relishing in the peace and quiet, in relief.

"So, what do we do now?" 

"How about we keep being us? We don't have to change anything about our friendship, just add a little extra something."

“Hmm, that sounds perfect.”