#what about how these other characters are IMPORTANT TOO??????

[maxdibert]

What a coincidence that this is a fandom “for everyone,” but only as long as the characters are rich and attractive. What a coincidence that the only canonically poor character, the one canonically outside of hegemonic beauty standards, the one canonically outside traditional concepts of masculinity (and who is mistreated in the narrative precisely because of his appearance and mannerisms that don’t align with traditional gender norms), and the one canonically socially marginalized, is the only one you continue to marginalize and mistreat. The only one you don’t punkwash like the other psychopaths you’ve turned into queer icons, even though they’re canonically ten times worse than Snape. But of course, Snape doesn’t count, because Snape was ugly and poor. What a coincidence.

It’s also quite the coincidence that you claim to be inclusive, yet the characters you defend are canonically hegemonic in every sense—privileged, wealthy, and above the socioeconomic average. What a coincidence that in your pinkwashed utopia of wannabes who’ve never actively fought for anything in their lives, making a character gay is all it takes to feel like the revolution is complete. Sorry, but no. You can’t sell the idea that you’re opposing Rowling when you’re pinkwashing the very characters she already glorified because she favored them. Do you think Rowling cares if James Potter is trans in your trashy fic? J.K. Rowling would love that you’re reinforcing her narrative that rich, attractive boys are good, and poor, ugly boys are bad, because that’s something she reproduces throughout her entire saga.

I don’t care where you were born or if you were bullied because that clearly didn’t teach you anything. It didn’t teach you class consciousness, nor did it help you understand how social dynamics work, inequality, or how power mechanisms operate between people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. It also didn’t help you understand that defending rich, aristocratic, abusive kids who harass and torment working-class, underprivileged kids isn’t the peak of the pinkwashed revolution you’ve built in your head just because you label them as gay or trans. That’s not how it works, my friend. You can’t fix everything by slapping a rainbow flag on it. Classism still exists within the LGBTQ+ community, just as abusive behavior and social inequalities do.

So excuse me if I don’t care about your ad hominem fallacy, but clearly, you didn’t get much out of university if your reading comprehension is abysmal and you’re utterly clueless when it comes to political and social culture. So take yourself and your TERF rhetoric elsewhere because the only one speaking like a classist TERF defending bourgeois interests with an elite-bootlicking mentality is you. The only one instrumentalizing an important movement like the LGBTQ+ cause (just as TERFs instrumentalize feminism) to justify your reactionary thoughts, internalized discrimination, and need to trample those in disadvantaged positions is also you.

Though, given your history, maybe the problem you have with Snape is that he reminds you, and other Marauders fans, that in real life, you wouldn’t have been the popular kids. You would’ve been the ones marginalized by people like James and Sirius, who would have made your life miserable. And that’s too unbearable because you want to feel like the protagonists, but you never would’ve been. You never would’ve belonged to the hegemonic, cool kids who ruled the school. In fact, kids like Sirius and James would’ve laughed at you. So instead, you turn them into pinkwashed icons, alter their personalities to your liking, and turn the one true character who fits your idea of a non-hegemonic person into a supervillain because that way, you can fantasize about being the popular ones. Accepting Severus breaks your narrative. In the end, all of this boils down to unresolved self-esteem issues.

I have no problem seeing this kind of stuff, nor do I block tags. If you don’t like being hit with a dose of reality and still think it’s a good idea to keep making a fool of yourself because you have zero arguments or basis to defend your point without coming across as a classist jerk, that’s your problem. Honestly, I couldn’t care less because I’ve said many times that I love debating, and frankly, you’re not going to change my opinion. It’s not for nothing that I pay my rent and bills working as a criminal lawyer and helping people in the process of social reintegration, only for some random person who thinks the revolution is about turning fictional rich bully kids into queer icons to come and try to lecture me about anything. Go on, get lost. Kisses.

okay, hold my drink *hands u cursed ancient goblet full of mead* i gotta talk my shit for a second.

ive been seeing a lot of severus snape love recently. and this is fine, obviously, y'all can love whomever you want. but. i need to rant or i will explode. if we're talking about canon. severus snape spends his adult years, seven books of it in fact, abusing children. and his excuse for this is the girl he loved (tho not enough not to join a group actively trying to exterminate her) fell for the hot jock instead of him (a tragedy indeed, i weep 4 him, i really do). and also she died, which, admittedly is very sad.

it is simply crazy 2 me 2 look at that and think *romance* or *genuine care and affection*. LIKE. fo real. snape calls her a slur in public, apologizes in private, hangs out with dudes who commit hate crimes against her friends (CANONICALLY, she says "you've been hanging out with that douchebag Mulciber, how could you do that after what he did to Mary???" this is not a direct quote but like, it's close enough). lame. loser behaviour.

"Oh but what about regulus" i can hear you say "he loves James potter but snape doesn't love lily???" well. idk. maybe. bit different tho, innit? due to james not being the demographic regulus is attacking (which doesn't make regulus a better person but does make the dynamic between him and james different). ALSO. Regulus chooses to turn against voldemort without hope for anything in return. snape doesn't seem to give a shit about voldemort, he's just sad he's not gonna get to bang lily evans. he switches sides for that reason alone. also doesn't care about what happens to her husband or her son which like. considering lily would be pretty fucking destroyed if they died. once again points to my whole, he doesn't really give a shit about her, theory. lame. loser. behaviour.

also. im sorry. I"M SORRY. but what snape does to neville? to hermione? to harry? gross. a grown ass man out here telling an eleven year old neville he's worthless or hermione she's ugly and annoying. or spilling harry's potion and refusing to grade him for it???????????????

reg and draco are children when we see them at peak suckage and therefore they feel like they can be redeemed much more compellingly (CAN be, not SHOULD be, not HAVE to be, just narratively i think they are easier to turn into interesting, sympathetic characters). but snape? snape grows up into a garbage adult. like he doesn't get better. and again, the only real excuse we're given is his obsession with lily. not very demure. not very cutesy.

ALSO. yall remember that time he got a destitute, struggling Remus Lupin fired from the best job he ever had just because he felt like it? remember that time snape weaponized Remus's lycanthropy and people's prejudice against him just cause. like. literally just cause??? his ego was bruised after the shrieking shack incident so he was like "get wrecked Lupin I'm going to tell everyone your secret so you will be forced back out onto the streets" DO YALL REMEMBER THAT BITCH ASS MOVE????????? THAT HE DID AS A FULL ADULT.

IN CONCLUSION, this is silly and, of course, like i said at the start, everyone can have their own thoughts and feelings about characters, but i simply needed to interject here on behalf of snape haters everywhere because i feel like so much of snape's shitty behaviour as an adult during a time when he was really under no duress and was very safe and cozy, is ignored. and my hater heart just cannot let that stand.

[heliomanteia]

Kind of adding on to my previous analysis bit about Davrin's arc, but I'm gonna say I'm concerned about media literacy within the DA fandom if Davrin's arc was hard to comprehend for people.

A little rant-like so I'm putting this under the cut:

VG has a strong and consistent narration that is mirrored or reflected within each companion's quest line: it's all about the bigger picture of personal choices and regrets and change and the inevitability of alteration and the need to live with the consequences — it is also somewhat about mortality and carpe diem. Pretty much every companion's line has something to do with death, coping, trauma, fear, and a big and important personal choice that would alter them as a person — it's always a "neither is better" choice and it calls upon your personal judgement to be made. There's room for criticizing the necessity of the black-and-white nature of some choices (i.e. Taash's culture question, for example) but overall they all have a consistent and equally important narrative line.

Claims that Davrin's arc is about Assan are actually hilarious. I assume people saying that have never in their life encountered a story where the main character had an animal companion, or just less sentient companion, that reflected their personality or some of their inner conflict. You know, the staple Disney/fantasy trope. This is an incredibly common narrative tool, it's bizarre to me that people saw that Assan has a lot of screen time and immediately assumed it's no longer about Davrin just because of that. I guess I could say it's not particularly shocking to me that DA fandom of all places had an issue of keeping their focus on a Black man's story. Moving on.

As for the claims that Davrin's arc is about Isseya, I'm a little shocked that was even a talking point. Because just as "animal companion reflecting the character's struggle" is a narrative tool that's up there among the ten most frequently used in media, "antagonist that reflects the main character's pathway in an inverted, perverted manner" is just as frequently applied. In fact, it's concerning that people missed Davrin vs. Isseya mirroring in the game based around the concept of recognition through the other and mirrors of self (Solas vs. Rook). I think it's safe to say that if someone did not catch anything about Davrin's arc and how it's entirely about him, I don't trust their general opinion on DATV overall. Because they're fucking stupid/didn't pay attention.

I don't think it's any surprise that at certain points VG gets a little too exposition-heavy, because apparently just giving people a good storyline with consistent and repetitive narrative that breaches the same narrative points but reflects it differently depending on the character it's about is not enough? Some people will be given the most direct mirror narration there could be without spoon-feeding it and they will still miss the whole fucking point? I'm not shocked that a large bit of "criticism" on VG writing/narrative/what was kept and what was omitted from being mentioned has been genuinely shit. And has consistently offered "fixtures" that would just make the stable narrative of VG a mess without a main theme.

Anyways, Davrin's storyline is very directly about him in every aspect mentioned; every person within his story reflects back on him and fleshes him out.

[enbyfvcker]

["Merry Christmas, Honey Badger!"]

𝙒𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙭 𝙇𝙤𝙜𝙖𝙣 (𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙩!𝙬𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙚)

𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩: 0.6k

𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙮/𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙩: Wade sets a Christmas Party.

𝙏𝙖𝙜𝙨: Fluff, comfort, just them being all cute and domestic and Logan not being used to affection.

Wade always made a point to decorate the apartment on holidays and celebrate them properly. He didn't had that on his fucked up childhood, so it's important to him. Althea told Logan that, so he was playing along even though he didn't really care about those things. He cares about Wade.

Wade gave him really cheesy matching Christmas sweaters with their faces on them, and he hated them. But he wore it anyway. Logan wearing the one with a little Deadpool and Wade wearing one with a little Wolverine.

It was stupid, but it made Wade happy. Logan liked him smiling, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"We look so cute, peanut! Don't you think, Al? Oh, right, you can't see."

"Fuck off, jerk." The old lady spat.

"Well, I wish you could smell how adorable we look right now."

Logan grinned and shook his head. He was doing this more often, he realized. Smiling.

Mary Puppins walks in with her tongue out and Wade quickly scoops her up, the dog licking his face excitedly.

"Come to daddy, baby!"

"Oh, god. You got one for the dog, too?" Logan scowl when he sees dogpool wearing a little Christmas sweater just like them.

"Of course I did! She's our daughter!" The merc replies, holding Mary Puppins up as she wiggles. "Aren't you the cuttest little thing? Yes, you are!"

...

Wade invited the whole gang over: Laura, Yukio, Ellie, Peter... other side characters who didn't have any lines... And he may have cooked a feast - wearing his little "Kiss the cook" apron - and got gifts for everyone. He's cheesy like that. He's got a family now, and he doesn't take them for granted.

It was opening gifts time, and everyone was exchanging presents and there were a lot of "thank you's" and hugs.

It was still all foreign to Logan. He lived the past years all alone, and holidays like this used to be all the same to regular days where he would just drown himself in bottles of whiskey and be miserable.

But this family was nice. He felt like if Wade did, then he could belong, too.

Maybe he wasn't the Wolverine he should be, but Laura still seemed to like him and wanted to bond with him despite how fucked up he is. Wade adored him, and his friends were all kind to him.

Maybe he didn't have to be miserable forever. Maybe he could put his past behind and make a future in this new universe.

"For you." Wade announced, holding out a small wrapped box in front of Logan who was sitting on the couch. "Open."

Logan took the box and Wade sits beside him, tapping his fingers excitedly on his knees.

He unwraps it and when he opens it he sees dog tags that looked very alike the ones he had. He lost them in his universe while he was black out drunk.

But as he grabbed to examine them, he noticed this one's different.

On one side, it read: 𝙇𝙤𝙜𝙖𝙣, and when he turned it around, it read:

"𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙒𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙚"

He could feel his heart aching as he grabbed the tags tight.

"Did you make this?"

"Yeah! I didn't really know what to get you, so I- Oh my god- Are you crying?!"

"No." Logan lied, fighting back an insistent tear.

"Oh god, I can't believe I made Wolverine cry!"

"Shut up."

"Come here, honey badger." Wade coos, hugging Logan in a soft embrace.

Logan doesn't hug back, but he also doesn't pull away. He wouldn't admit, but he needed it a bit. So he just sniffed as he let Wade hold him.

And he may hide it under his shirts, but after that, he never took the tags off. Rubbing them affectionately like he used to do with his old ones. Except these were so more meaningful.

[End.]

Hope you liked it! I wanted to make a cute poolverine holiday fic, so he ya go! Them being all cute and domestic it's so important to me.

[pleasantly-painful-fiction]

You won't get more diversity by attacking the creators that aren't giving you what you want. Whether or not you find their characters interesting/original, those characters are important to someone. Someone put a piece of their "soul" into that character, and someone in the audience probably found comfort in that character. It has value to someone, even if you don't see any value in it's existence.

If you want someone to create more of what you like, instead of attacking people, inspire them! Be the example. Create and share the things you like and want to see more of. Show them how awesome these characters are. Show them there is an audience for stories with these characters. Write/draw/create the things you want to see, and others will be inspired to do the same. And when you see someone else creating the types of characters you like, lift them up. Encourage them. Reblog, comment, like - show your appreciation for what they do.

Still, there are some people who only feel comfortable with writing cis white males or it's the only thing they know how to write or enjoy writing. That's fine. You can say you dislike their characters without implying they're objectively bad and accusing their creators of lacking originality. Besides, a character is more than their cis/trans status, gender, or race. Cis white males can be diverse too. Disabilities. illnesses, experiences, personality quirks, trauma, other aspects of their appearance.... But if that's not what you want to see, you can ask to hear about other types of characters without hating on the types of characters you don't want to hear about.

You can attack the majority of the community and their beloved characters too... just don't expect that to be an effective means of getting what you want.

honestly there needs to be more diversity in whump

mainly because i'm sick of hearing about people's cis white male whumpees HAVE SOME ORIGINALITY

when all your whumpees look the same its rly hard for me to care about any of them

if you have a main whumpee who isn't a cis white male pleaaase comment or reblog with some infodumping bc i'd love to hear about them!

[utilitycaster]

What do you mean (from your latest post) that you think that many actual play failures are failures of ambition?

Usually, when an actual play show doesn't click for me, it's because the GM or players aimed very high or tried to push the boundaries (of the medium or system) and it didn't quite land right. It's a pretty new medium, and while I've been very openly disparaging of how much many writers in the AP space focus overmuch on novelty over consistent quality, I do think these failures are important! I think it's good to play with what the medium can be! I just think that sometimes, it does indeed fail.

Examples off the top of my head:

Too much plot for allotted length: EXU Prime was fun to watch but I think this plot really needed to be a 16-20 episode season, not an 8 episode one, which meant that we never really learned Myr'atta's motivation or the deal with Ted until years later in the real world despite that being the core plot. Similar issues have come up with various D20 seasons; I think running a one- or two- session story isn't too hard to do, or running a longform campaign isn't too hard to do, but 8 or 10 or 20 episodes can be really difficult to plan for properly, and a lot of people overfill.

Trying to bend the system too far: I wrote a long-ass post I cannot find about this for a few D20 seasons as well (notably Neverafter) and I've fallen off of WBN for a few reasons but in part because it really increasingly feels like D&D is the wrong system - the classes of D&D support the worldbuilding, but the pace and style and magic system of D&D increasingly feel like they and the narrative are in conflict.

Trying to fit in An Important Message: the infamous Rusty Quill Gaming Everything Changes [now make a monumental decision we have not once explored in 7 real world years of telling this story, in the last half of the last episode] is a big one here. This is not unique to AP (this is why Battlestar Galactica's ending is widely panned) but I think the nature of actual play makes it more likely because to some extent you as the GM must relinquish a good degree of control.

Not realizing what you need to plan for: ultimately, in my opinion, the failure of Campaign 3. I don't think the problem is that Matt wanted to bring everything together across multiple campaigns; I don't think this is a cheap setup with a pre-determined outcome (though I could be proven wrong); I think the problem is that there needed to be a much more stringent character creation process and on-rails early plot to actually get from point A to point B in a way that felt natural within the story.

Trying to break production value records while neglecting story: With the caveat that I hated nearly every second of the hour of Kollok I watched, I have yet to see a review that talks about anything it does other than how good the production values are (*whisper* they're not even that good). Burrow's End had some really good aesthetic/filming choices and some really not good ones on top of having a story I found weak; the season of Candela Obscura I thought had the strongest story had no split-screen film edits. This could just be that my AP introduction was TAZ Balance followed by simultaneous C1 and early C2, but like...I've heard incredible actual play with no music and no fancy lighting and no sound effects and no official character art, and I've watched some heavily produced stuff that had the plot of a fucking Ed Wood movie and was utterly joyless to boot. Story first; accessibility production values (clean and clear sound, transcripts, making all speakers visible if you're a filmed production) second; anything else should ONLY come after that.

[jaegeraether]

Sunsets and footballers (Part 100)

Lucy Bronze x Reader (76) / Alexia Putellas x Character (52) & Jordan Nobbs x Leah Williamson (29)

Masterlist (other parts here)

Appreciate you all coming along on this 100 chapter journey with me!

A reminder that I've spent a lot of hours creating an online community for anyone to join in and chat about everything from WOSO to everyday life (you can be as anonymous as you want in there!) Don't be shy! Come on in and my DMs are always open.

Follow the link below for the following:

LUMOS BY JAE - Join our little BRAND NEW online community on Discord! Come along to chat and hang out, make friends, and follow along with live games. (Updated link as the old one had an expiry!)

JaegerAether Tumblr link

JaegerAether A03 link

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JaegerAether X (twitter) link

((5.6k))

YFN POV

“I need it to be perfect.” She said frustrated and a little disheartened. She read through her notes again, skimming along with her finger.

A strong hand took hers and gently lowered it. She willingly fell into the comfort of Lucy’s deep, green eyes. “Little one, it is perfect. You’ve made sure of that.”

“And the book-”

Lucy put her hand on the book to hold it down before she could pick it up and overanalyse every word. She paused to smile at the words on the front before she spoke. “The book too. Both are perfect.”

“I don’t know…”

“Don’t make me call Ridley.”

YFN crossed her arms at the threat. “Go on then.”

Lucy chuckled and shrugged, taking out her phone. She pressed call and put it on loud speaker, staring at YFN as if waiting to stop her. But she was stubborn, after all.

“Bronze. How’s doing?”

“I’m alright, just need your help with something. You busy?”

“I have a Spaniard between my legs, but go ahead.”

The sound of Alexia telling her off in the background was amusing. It sounded as if they were fighting over the phone before their faces popped up. They were clearly in the pool, Alexia lounging between Ridley’s legs and both very topless it seemed.

“We are swimming,” Alexia said in her cute Spanish accent. “Don’t listen to her.”

YFN chuckled. She always loved to see how happy they were. “I’m surprised to see you back already.”

“I missed home.” She said, exchanging a look with Alexia. “And I wasn’t lying but hey, we can Facetime you later on when it gets more sexual if you really want.”

“Riddlesss.” YFN warned to her cheeky grin.

“I’m jooooking. Christ. I’m a one woman type of girl. Voyeur elsewhere Bronze.”

“How the fuck did I get roped into this?!” Lucy defended.

The trio chuckled.

“What can I help you with?”

“YFN won’t stop trying to change the speech. She’s insisting it’s not perfect. I figured you’d have the right thing to say.”

Ridley shrugged nonchalantly. “Perfection is subjective.”

YFN’s mouth dropped open slightly. How had she not thought of that?

“And, before you start big-braining around whose perception of perfection is more important, just remember that you’re emotionally involved and biased having spoken to Mark and written both the book and your speech, so our perception is more pure. We are the audience, after all.” She got closer to the phone. “And baby… believe me when I say it’s perfect.”

She felt her lower lip tremble.

Ridley smiled at the look on her face. “That’s my girl. Now don’t you two have better things to be doing?”

“Speaking of perfect,” Lucy answered. “I do have the perfect day planned. First things first, I need you to put on this blindfold.”

“That is our time to leave.” Alexia said.

“Aw, sure we can't stay and watch?” Ridley asked.

“Goodbye you two.”

“See you tomorrow!” YFN said warmly.

The day was perfect, by any standard. Sex in the morning. A phone call with their friends. A surprise picnic in the park where they kicked around a football and then laid around, napping and reading their books. By the time the sun began to set, they packed their things back into the car and wandered hand in hand down towards the coast.

She’d been so distracted by their conversation and flirting that she hadn’t even realised where they were headed.

“So there’s the event and then the business afterparty, and then we can all catch up for food and drinks after while the footballers have a few days off..” she rambled, not knowing they’d stopped.

She looked up at Lucy who seemed to be smiling down at her, patiently listening and waiting for her to realise where they were. Turning, she saw the beach she’d met Jordan on. The exact same spot. The little alcove between the bushes, staring out over the sun setting.

“Oh, Luce…”

Lucy sat and pulled YFN down in between her legs, cradling her there. Taking in the moment, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in and out. The sea breeze whipped a few strands of hair out of her messy bun, which Lucy tucked behind her ear. YFN opened her eyes to look at the last rays of daylight as the wind shifted. A storm was coming – she could feel it. She smiled and looked up at the darkening clouds. She loved the feeling of the darkness creeping in, and the storm. She was unsure whether it was the potential violence of it, or the uncertainty, but she still loved it nonetheless. She felt comfortable in that space. Leaning back, she felt the warm comfort of Lucy. How much things had changed..

She looked around the beach and saw nobody. Sparing a thought for Jordan then, and where she was now, made her smile. How good the country had been to her.

They stayed for an extended period, until the sun had fully set and the sky was overcast with dark, angry, yet comforting clouds.

“It’s getting cold, my girl.” Lucy murmured into her ear.

She nodded, having thought the same herself. “It’s time to go.”

They walked up the beach and ascended the stairs as the wind worsened. She turned to look one last time before they headed back towards their car. Halfway back it began raining suddenly. Large, heavy droplets of water soaked them in an instant, though they weren’t too concerned. Laughing, they ran to the closest shelter they could find.

Lucy grabbed her by the waist and backed her into the little alcove, her eyes darkening. Fuck, she looked good when she was wet.

Unable to resist, she reached up to tangle her fingers in her soaked hair and drag her head down to hers. It would never get old, kissing Lucy. She was talented in everything she did, including intimacy. She pressed her body up against her offering her no escape, something YFN obsessed over, and tilted her head to deepen the kiss. They tongues met and she moaned into the taller woman’s mouth. She tightened her grip on her jacket in response to Lucy’s thigh pressing up against her and Lucy moaned in return.

“F…fuck. Little one.” She gasped, pulling away slightly. “Not here, it’s too public.”

“You really want to stop?” She challenged, pressing herself harder against Lucy's thigh, rocking slightly into it as her mouth found the soft flesh under her chin and sucked.

Lucy groaned.

“Fuuuuck. More.”

YFN hummed at the power she had over her, rocking her hips and getting the pleasure she needed from the friction of rubbing against her.

“Arghhh.”

Her hand let go of her jacket and slipped down, taking Lucy’s and guiding it up under her own. Lucy didn’t need any guidance from there, her hand kneading her naked breast, thumb brushing over the peak.

“I need.. I..”

“Mmn, what do you need, Luce?”

“I need you.”

“Then take me home and have me.”

Lucy pulled back and seeing that look in her eyes, she knew just what the rest of their night held. “Mmn.” She looked around to make sure no one was looking, and realised the rain had eased off just slightly. “Let’s get home. I need you.”

Chuckling, the two disentangled and Lucy took a slight step back, waiting for YFN who was looking around with a sentimental expression.

“Luce?”

“Ready?”

“I… do you realise where we are?”

Lucy looked around confused and then it hit her. “Oh… it’s... where we met.” That first evening with Jordan, and the rain. “If only I’d known.”

“Known what, Luce?” She murmured with pure happiness at the significance of where they stood.

Lucy took her hand and raised it, kissing the gold band she was so proud of. “That I’d met my wife.”

JORDAN POV

Jordan was finishing the last of her stretches on the balcony outside their London apartment when Blu came bounding out from the kitchen to involve himself. He’d been running between the two of them, excitedly padding around with his short little legs, and was beginning to get tired.

Jordan felt his tongue lick her cheek and chuckled. She grabbed him and rolled into her back, raising him over her like he was Simba. He loved that. His little legs moved as if swimming and he shook with excitement.

Jordan sat up and cuddled him to her chest, giving him a kiss on the head and looked inside through the glass doors to where Leah was watching them with a smile and a spatula awkwardly in her hand. She wasn’t a cook by any means, though she was trying, and that’s all that mattered to Jordan.

The slightly older woman released him and he bounded back inside to his other mother. She was on cooking duties today, though Jordan was just about to go in and keep her company.

She rolled up her gym mat and stepped inside, putting it back in its place and wandering over to where the delicious smell was coming from.

“Need any help?” She asked.

Leah turned and gave that genuine smile of hers. “Want to keep my company?”

“Of course.”

Without a hesitation, Leah picked the smaller woman up and sat her down on the edge of the countertop. “You can just stay right there, then. I have this under control... I think.”

“It smells amazing.”

Leah stirred the pot and then stood with her back against Jordan’s chest. She didn’t hesitate to wrap her legs and arms around her, kissing her cheek a few times. “Those lessons have been coming in handy, it seems.”

“I still can’t believe you went and did that.”

Leah shrugged and turned to steal one of the cheek kisses with her lips. “It was for us. Of course I did.”

Jordan happily hummed and rested her chin against Leah’s slightly taller shoulder. “What is it?”

“Just this… us. It’s all very domestic.”

“Well I’d like to think so after we had to convert the third bedroom into our closet.”

Jordan chuckled. “Hey, my place isn’t much better. Lucky YFN is living in London full-time with Lucy now – her room has almost more clothes than this one! She barely has room when she stops in for a few nights.”

“God, I just want to live with you already.” Leah grumbled, turning and resting her forehead against her collarbone. Being the only person who Leah let comfort her was not lost on Jordan. “Why can’t we have that?”

“One more season..” Jordan reminded, reassuringly stroking her back. “And then I’ll move to London.”

“Just let me move there, Jord.” Leah almost pleaded. It wasn’t the first time.

“I’d never let you choose me over Arsenal. It’s one year.. what’s one more season?”

Leah groaned, ditching the spatula to wrap her arms around her. “One more season away from my wife.”

A shiver ran down her spine. She loved when she called her ‘wife.’ It was even better than seeing it around social media. Leah and Jordan Williamson-Nobbs. They’d decided to hyphenate rather than choose like their friends.

“I’ve already begun to do some work with YFN.. can you give me one more season?”

Leah pulled back to study her. “Of course. Of course. I don’t mean to pressure you at all, I’m just being needy.”

Jordan draped her hands over her shoulder. “I love it when you’re needy.”

“Yeah?” She whispered, kissing her softly. Just tasting…

“One more season with a Christmas holiday in amongst it... this time with your folks. And as for the neediness, I say we Facetime more and pay your therapist extra.”

“Poor girl.” Leah chuckled.

“Until then, let’s make the most of it...” Jordan mumbled, pulling her close. Leah grabbed at Jordan’s oversized clothes, tugging her to the edge of the bench and sliding her hands under to feel her. Their mouths connected and as they did so, Jordan smelled burning. Looking over Leah’s shoulder, she saw the pot begin to bubble over the edge.

This wasn’t exactly unusual, even when Leah was watching it.

Instead of telling her, she smiled into her mouth and let herself enjoy the taste and feel of her for a few more seconds, knowing their night would probably end like it usually did…. with takeaway.

ALEXIA POV

Alexia dodged left to avoid an incoming Mapi. She used her body to protect the ball from Ona before dodging right and kicking to Caroline on the far side. With the defenders' attention now away from her, she chased forward quickly, pushing her legs to outrun them as she pointed to the spot where she wanted it.

Alexia yelled for the ball. Caroline kicked. The ball came directly to where she’d pointed of course, unimpeded even by Ona sliding through. Alexia’s boot connected exactly where she’d wanted it to, left foot and straight into the top right corner. Cata leapt and missed by barely an inch.

Perfect.

Alexia felt the grin lighting up her face at that glorious sound of the ball hitting the back of the net. The final whistle blew just as it did so and before she could really react properly, her training team swarmed around, all trying to get a piece of her. She usually didn’t let her team celebrate her too hard, but this felt special.

Everything was good.

“Yes, Alexia!” Keira yelled from behind her as she grabbed her.

“LA REINAAAAA!” Patri yelled into her ear far too loudly.

She felt her body being shook from every direction and tried to let herself enjoy it for once.

“That’s it for today!” Pere called to the team. “Well done to Alexia’s team. Go enjoy your event and I’ll see you all on Monday.”

The girls gave their thanks in amongst the celebrations, as the rest of the team came over to congratulate them.

“You want to take my trophies away again, huh?” Aitana joked.

“God, you shot so quick,” Ona smiled, genuinely happy for her friend.

She heard a person whistling in celebration and rolled her eyes. “Okay okay, enough celebrating now.” Alexia said, yet unable to stop her grin.

“Oh, that wasn’t us,” Mapi teased, jerking her head towards the sidelines.

Alexia’s heart jumped as she looked over and spotted Ridley sitting on the fence. She was back, and looking as relaxed as ever with Alexia’s sunglasses on, her legs slightly spread and a proud looking smile on her face as she watched from afar patiently with Chiquito sitting by her side.

Alexia tried to ignore the teasing from her group. Chiquito looked up at Ridley and then back to Alexia in a sort of question.

“Chiquito!” Alexia called.

He didn’t need to be called twice. The little, fluffy grey cat abandoned his spot to trot over to where Alexia and the girls were standing. She bent down to pick him up, saying her hellos before he was kidnapped by the rest of team. He’d become somewhat of a team mascot, having been around them all so often.

Alexia smiled as she watched him share the love and attention of the girls around, though her attention was now elsewhere as her feet took her towards her Australian.

As she reached her, she parted her legs further with her hands, her palms sliding up the bare skin of Ridley’s thighs and wrapping around her back. She tried to withhold the urge to groan at the comfort of it. Of her.

Her warmth. Her smile. Her touch. Alexia’s home. Ridley held her softly, leaning her head against Alexia’s and presumably watching the girls play with Chiquito over her shoulder.

“Congratulations, my girl.” She murmured in Catalan. “Amazing, as always.”

Alexia hummed against her, happy that she’d seen it. She’d never been the type to be too publicly affectionate, though that had shifted slightly with her relationship with Ridley, especially after their headline-making event with Bashir. Now she wanted to be near her wherever she was. It was such a strange, lovely feeling to have her on the sidelines at games, sitting amongst her family, and at training, talking to her teammates.

“You’re back..” she murmured into her, happy that she didn’t have to wait until that night to see her.

“Mmn. I saw an opportunity to come home earlier and I took it.”

That sent a nice shiver up Alexia’s spine for multiple reasons. Not only the fact that she’d called her ‘home’ but that she’d left her military family who she was so close to, just to come home earlier to her.

Alexia squeezed a little harder before pulling back to see her face. Ridley moved her sunglasses to the top of her head and tucked the sweaty strands of Alexia’s now more brunette looking hair behind her ears. She looked at the scar the bullet had left her with, cutting from just above her eyebrow and disappearing into her hairline. It was now a faded pink colour and looking less aggressive every day. She reached up to stroke it with her thumb, forever grateful that it hadn’t been deeper.

Ridley let her play with it, closing her eyes as Alexia’s thumb moved down and across the one on her cheek. She caught her hand as it reached her jaw and turned her head to kiss the pad of her thumb, and then her thumb, palm, wrist.

“Ready to go home?”

Before she could answer, the girls came over. “What time are you picking us up tomorrow?” Keira asked, handing Chiquito back to Alexia.

“Will we be flying in the Barca plane you bought for us?” Patri interjected.

“First of all, the bus will pick you all up from here at 9am. Secondly… Alexia wouldn’t let me buy anything. Barca has a long-term lease on that plane from my company instead.”

She pouted as if she were unhappy, but she’d still managed to work her way around the problem, of course. Alexia’s stomach fluttered at the cocky look in her eyes.

“But no..” Ridley continued and then chuckled. “No, we’ll be in something much faster and less conspicuous. Management don’t exactly want unnecessary trips while Lucy and Mariona’s faces are still on the plane.”

“You’d think they would have planned ahead.”

“It’s not like I didn’t warn them..” she murmured cheekily. “But never mind that, I’m here to take this one off your hands.”

“At least let her shower first!” Ona exclaimed as a few more of the girls came over.

Alexia stayed quiet as usual and turned to Ridley who looked her up and down with a smirk. “I think I’ll shower her myself at home.”

She rolled her eyes, having expected her to say something similar. “Do you mind waiting? It’s been a really hot day and I want to get these sweaty clothes off me as soon as I can.”

Ridley looked her up and down, seeming to enjoy the enjoying the ‘sweaty clothes’ and gave her a calm but hungry look. Like she hadn’t seen her in a week. Which was about accurate. “I’d wait forever for you.”

Alexia tried to hide her smirk and ignore the teasing noises from her teammates as she took a step back. She was eager to get showered and back home with her. As she’d expected, Ridley moved to follow, sliding off the fence and entering her personal space again. She was slightly taller which meant Alexia had to look up to see that smirk of hers.

A week was the longest they’d been apart since before the island. She could barely keep her hands off her now let along the thought of when they finally got home.

The group made their way into the changing rooms for their showers. Alexia forced herself to go slowly, knowing how frustrating it would be for Ridley, and even though she was annoyingly good at hiding it, Alexia was slowly getting to know her little tells of frustration and impatience. The shifting of her weight onto one foot, the clasped or pocketed hands as if to hold them back from reaching, her head tilt to overcompensate and remind herself to slow down.

Alexia checked herself in the steamed mirror one more time and dropped the towel in the basket as she left the showers. She walked into the changing rooms to see an array of her half-naked teammates all in different stages of dressing and talking. Her eyes found her locker and below it was Ridley sitting calmly, her eyes on Chiquito alone as he sat on the table in the middle of the room with multiple people patting him. The small smile on her face showed how proud she was of him.

Alexia’s first step into the room was met with was Ridley’s eyes flicking to her. Her head tilted as she looked her up and down. Regardless of how turned on she was, she knew the one thing they both wanted more than anything. A hug. She guessed her need to touch and show love was that Spanish side of her, but for Ridley it was different. She wasn’t necessarily a touchy person, unless it was with Alexia. It seemed to be growing on her as a comfort, and so it was never a thing that the Spaniard shoved aside or refused.

Alexia walked right up to the Australian, her knees in between her own and leant over her completely as she put her clothes away. She felt Ridley chuckling into her chest as she did so, gently grasping the backs of her thighs as if to hold her there.

“Ready to go home?” Alexia mimicked from earlier, looking down at her.

Ridley held up Alexia’s car key. “I’ll drive.”

“9am sharp!” Ridley called out to the girls as she drove off.

Alexia reached out to play with her hair as Ridley pet Chiquito who was curled up in her lap.

“He missed you..” she murmured.

“I missed you both.”

“Will you need to go back soon?”

“The team will handle the clean up, Lex. There’s no talk of needing me back anytime soon.”

Alexia hummed happily at that until she spotted a gash with dried blood behind Ridley’s ear. She inspected it with her fingertips. Before she could speak, Ridley did.

“I wasn’t on the front line, Lex, I promise. Wombat got a little too carried away with the working out.” She said calmly, making Alexia chuckle at the image. Since the incident with Bashir, she’d promised to not go front line again unless it was absolutely necessary for her team, or others. “Besides, you already know this. I know you and Duce talk behind my back. What a rat.”

“I like her.”

“She’s just trying to stay in your good books. They’re still getting used to knowing a bit of my personal side.”

“A bit?”

She rolled her eyes. “The biggest part of my personal side.”

“I’m very likeable, you know.”

“Jesus, I’m back for thirty minutes and I’m already copping it.”

“Of course. Someone needs to remind you that not everything is about you.”

Ridley’s mouth dropped open slightly which amused Alexia to no end. She loved every time she surprised her. It was rare.

Before she could get her composure, Alexia reached over and closed her mouth for her.

Ridley’s jaw twitched in amusement and she shook her head. “You’re a pain, you are.”

“You wouldn’t like me so much if I were easy.” She shrugged. “And besides, I’m your pain.”

She hummed in agreement. “That you are. And just to be clear, I’m not surprised you two like each other.”

“It doesn’t bother you at all..?”

“Honestly? The opposite.” She pulled up in front of Ridley’s house which they now shared, and turned to her. Alexia fell into those dark eyes of hers gladly and tightened the hold she had on her thigh. “It doesn’t bother you that I talk to your family often?”

Although she’d been hesitant at first, Ridley had eventually slipped into the fold of the family. It was a bit impossible not to with them, especially after they’d bombarded her at Christmas. “The opposite.”

After they’d made up for a week apart, the pair had spent the rest of their day snacking by the pool. It had been incredible to have a longer pool for the rehab and recovery of her knee back to a solid form. Ever since, she’d made it a habit to do pool workouts a few times a week. Ridley usually watched, sitting and reading a book or playing with a guitar as she did so. She’d been interested and invested in her rehabilitation and everything that went into it.

Ridley was also getting used to being in a relationship. Allowing herself to love and be loved. The island had been a start, but Alexia had known that. She’d never complained, though. They’d always communicated their needs and fears, no matter how difficulty, and were growing together.

It meant a lot less independence, and more teamwork. Less decision and more compromise. This included Ridley adjusting to become more physical. Able to touch, instead of look respectfully from afar. This meant pushing aside that military side of her which needed her hands free. Learning to be the one to initiate contact. To get used to sleeping with that warmth and skin to skin contact.

It also meant that as Alexia sat at the shallow end of the pool, Ridley could come up behind her, dipping her legs into the cool water either side of the Spaniard and cradle her arms around her, stroking her arms with her fingertips, her neck with her mouth.

Both of them had been rather hesitant with it – the worry of falling too deep – though they’d both had a realisation on the night that Bashir had died as to just how far they were in it already. There was no safety net now. They were all in, together.

“It’s almost 4pm,” Ridley murmured in Catalan as her lips explored along her cheek.

Alexia didn’t answer, because she was more than happy right there instead. She kept her eyes closed, head tilted back as she enjoyed the feel of Ridley everywhere. She could feel herself getting wet, even in the water, and her nipples hardening almost to the point of pain.

“Alexia,” she said again, this time in a more warning tone. Her movements stopped and she covered her cold nipples with her palms. The warmth was glorious. “Your interview.. and I don’t like how cold you’re getting.”

She opened her eyes and realised that the sun had set so low that they were fully covered in shade.

Alexia finished with her interview after an hour and wandered through their large house, in search of Ridley. Although it was very comparable to the way it was when she’d first moved in, due to their similar tastes, it now held pieces of herself also. Jerseys and trophies and sentimental pieces here and there. It felt more like them together, rather than just one of them.

She checked by the pool, the office, her art studio, the library, their bedroom. She checked her bedside table for the passport she’d need the next day and found it exactly where she’d left it, with Ridley’s note tucked into it. Smiling, she put it back and turned to see Chiquito at the door. He must have been spending time with her, as he’d missed her the past week.

“Take me to her…”

Ever the intelligent cat, he turned and led Alexia to the last place she could be if she was still in the house.

There by herself in the darkened studio, was Ridley. Her headphones were around her neck, her hand resting on a keyboard and eyes closed as she listened to the track back, presumably checking a note or lyric. It sounded perfect to Alexia. Something she hadn’t heard before. If she had to describe it, it would be… obsession, and adoration.

Although it was dark, she could still see the silhouette of her face, the emotions written across it as it slightly changed with each part of the song.

Just before it ended, Ridley opened her eyes as if she knew she was there. Her lips tilted up at the confirmation and watched Alexia as she listened to the end of the song with her. From the look on her face, she didn’t even need to ask what the song was about.

It was hers.

YFN POV

YFN shook with nerves as her Lumos team introduced her to the stage. She looked at the clicker in her left hand and the notes in her other, pausing as she decided to leave the latter behind. She knew what she wanted to say.

She walked onto the stage accepting the applause as it rang through the crowd.

“Really good job up there.” She praised her team as they passed each other. They gave her proud smiles and “good lucks” as she took centre stage and stopped to take a breath.

She pressed the clicker and turned to see the new company logo once again adorning the screen.

“We here at Lumos began with so much drive and passion that we forgot to introduce ourselves. Tonight, we remedy that. Good evening, my name is YFN, and it’s my honour to be the first to introduce you to Lumos – the first women’s sports media titan.” She took another breath to steady her heart. “When we started twelve months ago, we had one goal: to change the narrative, to give women’s sports the recognition, respect and platform it deserves and tonight, I’m proud to say we’ve taken our first bold steps and accomplished what no one has before. Lumos is now the primary media outlet for women’s football, covering all the top leagues across the globe with plans to expand into all women’s sports in the future. This is just the beginning, but what a beginning it has been!”

She paused to hear that warm, encouraging applause filling the room. Her gaze briefly met Lucy’s proud look in the crowd which steadied her, as well as Alexia and Ridley’s. Ridley being proud of her meant more than she realised and she felt so supported, surrounded by the people she loved most.

“Tonight, we want to share our story with you – not just where we’ve been, but where we’re going. You’ll see the heart of Lumos – our culture, aspirations, and our commitment to innovation and inclusion. You’ll see our platforms, culture, charity and philanthropic initiatives. But for now, more than anything, you’ll see the power of collaboration. This moment, and everything leading up to it, would not have been possible without the extraordinary women who live and breathe the game. Female footballers, and their fans from around the world have trusted us with their stories, their triumphs, their challenges. Their voices have shaped what we are unveiling tonight, and their courage continues to inspire everything we do.”

She paused to look at Mark, his cheek twitching as he realised who she was referring to. She softened her tone as she continued at that heart of her message.

“Lumos is more than a media company. It’s a mission. And at the core of that mission is a promise to shine a light on every untold story, to give a platform to the overlooked, and to honour the dreams and passions of those who came before us. At the heart of Lumos stands a charity dedicated to the legacy of a young girl who shared the same passions and dreams as we do. Her legacy is our promise: to stand for hope, inclusion and possibility.”

She let the weight of her words linger as the room fell into a deeper silence. Then, with quiet strength, she began her conclusion.

“And to begin our journey, comes the launch of our book… a prequel of our life so far, if you will. It is a reflection of the journey we’ve all taken together. From the friendships, to the love stories, football, the headline-making incidents, footballers, and to the charity at the heart of us. This book is about believing in the power of possibility, about working for something greater than ourselves. We’re here because we believe women’s sports can inspire and unite the world because women too, deserve the spotlight.”

She pressed the clicker in her hand and saw the screen behind her reflecting on the crowd and it were as if the world slowed as they stood to cheer. She took as much of it in as she could, appreciating the moment and all of the hard work she’d put into making the moment what it was. Her eyes flickered over the people in the crowd from Lumos who had made it possible, over Kate and a still unsuspecting William as he clapped for a company he had no idea his wife had created. She looked over the footballers, Katie, Caitlin, Kyra, footballers from Arsenal, Barcelona, and such. Alexia and Ridley were sat at the front with proud smiles alongside Lucy who was clapping loudest of all. She chuckled lightly at that and tried to hold back her tears.

After she took it all in, she smiled and turned to the giant screen behind her which was illuminated with a simple title: Sunsets and Footballers by YFN Bronze.

[radioactive-earthshine]

@ahi-kakariki

Without getting too deep into an essay about this, the bullet point version for why many comic fans dislike the "Lex DNA thing" is as follows;

1.) It is a retcon to an already established canon lasting almost a decade when the reveal happened. When Kon was first introduced DC was under an editorial mandate that there could only be ONE Kryptonian in the main continuity - Clark. So every single "Super" you see (Supergirl, Superboy etc) are not Kryptonian. How Kesel got away with Kon was by making him a "clone" from Cadmus that they originally thought was Clark's but was revealed to actually be completely unrelated to him at all. This was quite a bummer to Kon but he got over it and still wore the S shield with pride. One year later, he finds out who his genetic doner actually was - Paul Westfield who was your typical unethical dirtbag scientist/ceo. This really bummed Kon out but again, he got over it because he knows he is not Paul Westfield.

2.) Being unrelated to Clark ties more into the greater Superman narrative in that revolves around adoption and immigration. It was important that Kon was unrelated to Clark by blood, and yet Clark still admitted that out of everyone who wore the S-Shield, he felt the closest to him.

3.) Eugenics. Geoff making Kon a Clex clone might not have been such a bad idea if he did anything with it that wasn't just eugenics and pushing the narrative that "bad genes" exists. Again, Kon was already related to a scumbag and this was not pushed as a narrative - he had his moment and got over it. With Lex, it kept coming up over and over again.

4.) Stagnation. While TTv3 absolutely did have profound character building moments for Kon, many feel that the retcon did more harm than good. While it did add drama and interest, it kept coming back as a plot for Kon to grapple with over and over again. It also ended up more as a joke or a prop to Clex as a ship in many circles that put some bad tastes in people's mouths. We also had a phenomenal build up in Kon's solo series before TTv3 that touched on some themes of scifi, clone rights, body autonomy, dehumanization and corruption within the government and scientific institutions - most of this was dropped in favor of everything else Geoff was focused on.

5.) 50% Clark and 50% Lex is not a clone...

There are certainly other reasons, but these are the main ones that comic readers keep coming back to why the "Clex clone" bothers them (if it does.)

Naturally, it doesn't mean that this retcon is absolute garbage and if you do enjoy it you're out of your mind, because there is worthwhile story in this. It's just unfortunate that Geoff didn't or couldn't do something other than what he did.

For more context I urge you to read Superboy 1994!

Still my favorite piece of Superboy lore. Geoff Johns made his headcanon, canon when he wrote Teen Titans and decided to make Conner Kent have some of Lex Luthor's DNA.

[tobiasdrake]

For what it's worth, even the Japanese fandom appears to be utterly sick of modern DB making Goku look bad in comparison to folks like Vegeta, be it in child-rearing and/or martial arts. Apparently, that recent Daima ep where Goku admits to Panzy that he didn't play much of a role in his kids' lives REALLY lit a fire in the belly of that side of the fandom.

As far as child-rearing goes, the trick of it is that the fandom gets too bogged down in trying to prove that their favorite character is a good dad.

They're convinced that one of these guys - Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta - is a Gold Star Did-Nothing-Wrong Father of the Year. And the arguments come down to bickering over which one it is, because fans don't like it when their fave isn't perfect.

But what it comes down to is that Goku's parenting kinda sucks. He leaves a lot to be desired. By his own admission, he didn't do much of the parenting, and that's not an inaccurate statement.

Like. We can go back and forth about whether Goku was right to stay dead, whether he was right to stay on Yardrat, whose fault it was that he had to go train at Kaio's, etc. etc. We can argue 'til we're blue in the face about how important it was that he be doing these things.

But it doesn't change the fact that what he wasn't doing for most of his children's lives was "being a present and active father, every single day of their lives." Whether you think his absences were justified or not, the facts of the matter are that Goku was not there for about half of Gohan's childhood and all of Goten's existence up until a short time before Daima began.

He was, often by choice, an absentee father.

And Vegeta is worse. Emotionally and physically abusive. Bitterly resentful of his family and outright accusing them of making him soft. By his own admission, he has never hugged Trunks and unlike Goku, he was physically present to do it. The one time he rectifies this, it's a trick to get Trunks to lower his guard so Vegeta can punch him out.

Goku is, without question, the better father.

But neither of them rise to the level of "good dad".

Piccolo, meanwhile, only actually parented Gohan for one year and we do not want to measure his character on that. Gohan's childish innocence taming the heart of the beast is probably the most iconic story of Dragon Ball. But if we're talking "good parenting", we're not gonna find it in Piccolo's beast period.

Mr. Satan is a womanizer who withdrew from his daughter and left her to fend for herself, so he's out.

The recent Super Hero movie established Gohan's family dynamic as him being a workaholic who neglects his daughter, so that's not great. Relatively tame, compared to some of the others on the list, but not great.

...I think Krillin's winning best dad right now, by default. Simply because being out of focus means we've never had a chance to learn anything bad about his parenting.

[shadowonwater]

MP100 Fic Recs: Reigen Gets Possessed and has a Bad Time

A collection of fics about Reigen getting possessed and having a bad time. Most of these are about a random spirit possessing Reigen and trying to pass themselves off as him.

The fics are complete unless I mention otherwise.

Feel free to recommend more fics to add to the list!

Mother by Sunlolli

Reigen's got some mommy issues. His mom dies and starts haunting him. The espers in Reigen's life don't want to get rid of her without Reigen's permission but she's really messing him up and he just wants to get some approval from her. Story is a bit depressing but very good.

In Quicksand by SpiritusRex

Reigen gets possessed and gets sick. Unreliable narrator Reigen. Don't worry, the spirit gets caught pretty quickly, and Reigen ends up fine.

Use Your Words by CowardlyBean

Reigen gets possessed by a spirit that hates espers. He's stuck in the backseat of his body while it pilots him around, pretending to be him. It's an ass towards Serizawa and Mob. Of course the other characters figure out something is wrong.

symbiosis by ruthwrites

AU in which ???% is a separate entity from Mob and it's made of energy and jumps from esper to esper. When Mob gives Reigen his power during the 1st Claw arc, ???% goes with that energy. Problem is that it didn't go back to Mob, it got stuck in Reigen. I recommend the whole series, the series is kind of depressing though. Reigen really goes through it in this series. I don't want to give too much away but... Reigen isn't gonna come out of this very... human. Each entry in the series is completed, however I can't help but feel the series itself isn't completed, it seems to end on what would be the start of this AUs version of the Separation Arc. It's a bitter ending.

A Mirror Darkly Shattered by BinaryDreams1010

Reigen gets possessed after a failed exorcism. The spirit gives him nightmares about not being important in the lives of those that Reigen cares about in an attempt to break his spirit to make it easy to take over his body.

you are coming down with me (overwhelming identity) by destituteDenouement

It started with a morning smoke and forgetting to water his plant. It's a slowburn of a possession. The spirit really loves smoking. Falling into bad habits was what caused Reigen to be susceptible to this particular spirit. Serizawa and Mob realize something is wrong when Reigen has stayed holed up in his home for two days and won't answer any of their calls. After all his said and done Mob and Reigen talk about how neglecting yourself is a spiral and that everybody has parts of themselves they don't like.

miss me (love me) or you'll miss me (lose me) by BinaryDreams1010

A spirit that feeds on souls/misery jumps from a customer into Reigen. He decides to let Serizawa handle the spirit the next day but he finds himself unable to work up the energy to leave his apartment the next morning. The spirit keeps trying to make Reigen upset by saying stuff like "will anybody miss you when you're gone?" Serizawa visits to check up on him, right on time to save Reigen and get the spirit to let go of his soul.

did you get hurt? by afjakwrites

Reigen gets possessed and tries to call in sick to get away from the espers. Of course the espers show up at Reigen's apartment anyway. The spirit ends up knocking over Mob because it's scared of him. But Reigen's worry over Mob knocks the spirit out of his body.

Black and Red Smoke by Kirii_Kitten

Reigen catches a possession off a customer who he didn't realize was actually possessed. The spirit causes hallucinations. (Story is unfinished.)

The Possession and Bad Time are Only Sort-Of Related

There is possession, and Reigen having a bad time. They are related but the possession isn't the only problem and IS also the result of another problem.

Area Hysteria by c_c_cherry

Reigen and Dimple visit a worn down building slated for demolition to get rid of a spirit. The building collapses with them in it. Dimple is fine, Reigen isn't. Dimple posses Reigen's body to help keep him alive and hope for rescue soon. Reigen gets rescued... eventually. But this isn't the end to the problems because Reigen ends up in sort of supernaturally-induced coma that Mob has to get into his head to get him out of. Long story. Marked as unfinished but ends at a really good stopping point. (Update: It started updating again)

Temporary Accommodations by Originia

Mob's body gets his stolen and he uses his astral projection power to wing up in Reigen's body to protect Reigen because some guys who want to kill him don't realize that he's not the psychic they're after. They also were the one's to still Mob's body as bait to get Reigen.

Dead Reigen Possessing his Own Body

Wasn't sure whether or not to count this. I guess his body is getting possessed and he is having a bad time.

Haunting My Own Skin by Kirii_Kitten

Reigen dies and then posses his own corpse to pretend that everything is normal. Dimple is concerned that Reigen's spirit is going to corrupt, his fears are well-founded. Reigen gets found out of course and things go to shit, but there is a happy ending.

Present but Not Main Focus

A longer work where various things happen in it, including an instance of Reigen getting possessed and having a bad time.

In Other Words by nozokao

As a whole, this fic is focused on Reigen and Serizawa's relationship and them getting together. In Chapter 7, Reigen gets very briefly possessed by a spirit he and Serizawa were trying to exorcise. Also in chapter 3 and 4, Reigen gets cursed by a spirit that makes him cold (not exactly possession but I thought I'd mention it).

[skulkingfoxes]

A post-mortem of "Good Morning, Rose"

A few weeks ago, I posted my addition to the comic anthology GLIMM*R, a short comic called "Good Morning, Rose".

The reaction to it has been so uplifting and exciting. It really seemed to struck a cord with people, which, really, the best thing for me to hear as a creator. I absolutely love writing and making short comics, you can do much with so little, explore such interesting stories. The feedback I've gotten has been very heartwarming! It makes me want to explore short stories even more!

But, first, I want to talk about some of my feelings and about the process of making "Good Morning, Rose". This got a bit long, so you'll have to indulge me a bit. You should also read the comic first before reading this. Don't worry, it's only 8 pages.

Now the preamble is out of the way, lets go back to the beginning.

The idea of "Good Morning, Rose" was a nugget in my brain for a long time! Originally it was actually from the Dreamwalker's point of view, where she was a faceless entity who had a long term relationship with Rose and was trying to figure out how to explain that their relationships only were in Rose's dreams. It was a story about seeing, accepting, and loving each other truly and fully, and the trials and tribulations of getting there. Also a cute girl with an ancient eldrich being is always fun to explore.

A lot of it was too convoluted, emotionally and storywise. It also required to get into what the Dreamwalker actually was, which I ended up really not liking. So, ultimately, the idea didn't work, and I put it down. I ended up going to do my short comic Twigs instead.

When I was invited into the wlw anthology GLIMM*R and was told that the theme was "dreams", I decided to take another stab at the concept. This time, I inverted the pov, it's now Rose's story. And instead of a long term relationship, it was about the powerful first feeling of a perfect (maybe even too perfect?) first date.

One of the hardest thing to write in romance is getting readers to care about the relationship in the first place. To have the readers believe in the character's feeling, to be invested in their romance. This is even harder to do when you only have 8 pages to do it. Focusing it around a first date helped a lot in that case. There I'm not trying to sell that these two character will love each other forever and forever, just the fluttering first butterflies of realizing you're developing feeling for someone. It's why I leave it so open-ended about whether the two of them meet again at the end of the comic, or even if it was real in the first place. It's just not the point of the story.

That's something important about writing short stories, I find. You really have to hone in on an idea, on a thought. Take a simple idea and try to find all of the interesting layers. It's too easy to try to stuff a short story with too many ideas that ultimately go unfulfilled. In fact, the first draft of the comic, at the time called "Dream Date", there was a big problem with this and the pacing.

Here, take a look at the first stab at the roughs:

(BTW, there is something so fun about roughs for me lol. The art is so kinetic and loose, all about just getting the story across)/

As you can see, a lot of the ideas and imagery made to the final version of the comic. But both the initial readers and I agreed that the beginning and end were good, but the middle was messy and slowed things down. You can also see that I got stuck in the same problem I did when I first conceived of the story, it's bogged down trying to understand the Dreamwalker in a way that actually hurts the story. You simply dont have any room for bad pacing a short comic like this. I need to focus more on the character's and their emotions and exploring their actual relationship rather than blandly trying to explain the situation. A friend also suggested that I should hone in on the fluid dream-like aspects of the first couple of pages, especially since it's so fun to explore in the medium of comics. So I got to work gutting it out and trying again with the new, much stronger imo, direction.

Also there were some issues with the page format that needed changes for printing, thus the final spread had to be split up. Which is a shame, but oh well, it still works. I also honed in a lot more on Rose and her insecurities. I ended up putting a lot of myself into Rose. I'm glad readers seems to able to relate to her.

After figuring out the the story and the pacing, I went and, well, made the comic. Once you've done as many comic pages I have at this point, once you figure out a process, the actual drawing is fairly straightforward. Eventually, after thinking, and drawing, and toiling, and revising, and thinking hard about my life choices, I come out of the other end of the tunnel with a comic. One that I ended up really liking. One that other people ended up liking, which is always crazy to me.

I got a lot of interesting reactions to the comic. One demographic thinking it was sweet, wanting more of it (always a flattering thought), and enjoying the romance. Other remarking on the bittersweetness of it all, finding your soulmate in a dream, maybe never to see them again if they were even real in the first place. There were a lot of people remarking how they had a similar dream, one where they met someone they seemed totally and completely convinced that they were real and told the dreamer so, until the dreamer woke up. There was one person who asked if I had met the dreamwalker myself. Alas, my dreams are not this romantic and straightforward.

But all of us can hold hands, nod at each other, united by one universally true statement: big eldritch lady hot.

There's a lot of little bits I can talk about, like how Rose's dress is actively modeled after selkie dresses because I think they're cute, or some other trials and tribulations. But I think I've finished all I have had to say. I hope you enjoyed this and will stick around for my future projects! I definitely want to explore more short stories in the next year, especially as I am illustrating big graphic novels for my day job and don't have the time or energy for huge projects.

Till then, thank you so much! Happy holidays and have a good new year!

[loredrinker]

The Role of Freedom and Choice in Solas's Fate

I'm still ruminating on my last post – in particular Solas and his Original Choice (taking a body) - the importance of that first choice preventing him from becoming wholly pride.  It got me thinking about choice in general and how the freedom of choice impacts a person's evolution and transformation.  

At the end of Veilguard, what Solas moves forward? Will he remain Wisdom, or will he fully become Pride? I believe choice (or lack of it) dictates that, and each ending tells us.

Veilguard spoilers below - and a long post.

The only ending that truly allows Solas the freedom to choose is the Atonement ending.  

Freedom and Choice are Important to Solas

Solas, a man who fought to free his people from slavery for hundreds of years, values freedom and choice. 

Solas hates ignorance and being mindless - because ignorance is not freedom.  There are a lot of great lines in one of his arguments with a low approval Inquisitor: 

He's also willing to kill if ignorance has destroyed something he values (All New Faded for Her).  

True freedom involves the ability to make informed choices.  

Wisdom flourishes in freedom - this allows for choices to be made that lead to transformation and change.   

Pride, in contrast, can be rigid, defensive, and resistant to change. When choice is removed, pride can fester because there is usually no space for reflection or growth.  

Take away the freedom to choose, and you start to strip away someone’s humanity.

Allowing choice and agency creates fertile ground for change and shifting perspectives. Which is strengthened through connection with others.

We saw this shift in Inquisition: 

Perspectives are shifting. 

In Trespasser, a high-approval Inquisitor can tell Solas they’ll prove he doesn’t need to destroy the world, to which Solas replies, “I would treasure the chance to be wrong once again, my friend.” He’s open to the possibility of another path, of a different choice. 

I see proof of this shift in Veilguard. 

In Trespasser, Solas tells the Inquisitor that saving his world will destroy theirs and sounds like he's talking absolute destruction. But in Veilguard, he tells Varric that he’s taken precautions to minimize damage and confesses to Rook that while thousands may die, he’s working to preserve as much life as possible.  

Personal opinion: Some people claim that Solas lies all the time - to himself, to others. Yes, he lies, but all the time? That feels like (to me) a simplistic and one-dimensional view of this character. I love Solas because he embodies duality. He tells the truth and he lies, but his lies are never straightforward. They’re strategic, carefully worded, lies of omission or half-truths.  Saying “he just lies about everything” is too easy. Solas invites us to discern for ourselves, to see him through the lens of the story we choose to believe about him. The game acknowledges this duality when (depending on dialogue choices), Solas tells Rook, “I am, after all, remembered as the god of lies, treachery and rebellion.” When Rook responds with, "Depending on the story.” Solas follows with, “And what story shall we tell now?”  I LOVE that line - it’s like he’s turning to us, the player and asking, What are you going to believe? We have a choice here. 

Back to the main point: is Solas lying about having spirits at the ready? Maybe. But we know Solas is friends with spirits (All New, Faded for Her), and he led spirits in battles against the Evenuris, he spoke with spirits trying to convince some to fight back. 

And Emmrich says to Solas: 

So why is it so hard to believe that he did ask spirits to stand by and help?  

Solas admits that while destruction is inevitable, he’s trying to minimize the damage. Yes, it's still morally questionable, but it shows a shift - a choice to preserve life where he can. 

Choices Shape Us 

The good, the bad, and the ugly - Solas’s choices define him. Prideful Solas makes destructive, terrible, morally grey decisions. He tries exerting force over Rook, manipulates, and attempts trickery. He tries to take away Rook’s own choices when it suits him. 

But we also see Wise Solas guiding and helping Rook. I love this ongoing dance between Wisdom and Pride throughout Veilguard. Which wolf will be fed? 

Freedom to choose is complemented by relationships - connections with others that encourage reflection. Just as Solas’s connections in Inquisition helped him reflect and shift, his connection with Rook - a new mirror for him - will also help him shift. The question is, will it be for the worse or the better? 

So We Get to the End... 

Elgar'nan has been defeated, Rook holds the dagger and now Rook has a choice...which will set the stage for which Solas enters the Fade – wisdom (spirit) or pride (demon).  

Trick Weekes mentioned on Bluesky in answer to a question about Solas's trauma being tied to the dagger. 

 (Here is the original Tumblr post which is a great read) 

With that in mind, let’s examine the endings - and Solas’s mental state - through the lens of freedom to choose. 

The "Normal" Ending 

In this ending, Rook has taken the time to help their companions, resolving their issues so they can make meaningful choices and become stronger versions of themselves. This collective strength allows Rook and the team to overpower Solas. However, Rook chooses not to offer a choice to Solas. Instead, they stab him, forcibly binding him to the Veil, against his will.

The image following this ending shows Solas in his Veilguard outfit, falling backward almost like in a spiral. To me this visual conveys a sense of being out of control - surrounded by darkness and a swirling storm. His mind is clearly not in a good place (he refers to himself a god now). Solas is trapped by force, and left in a dark, chaotic state.

The "Good" (Trick) Ending 

The Trick ending is intriguing. What’s interesting is that it’s called a "good" ending, and I think that’s because, in this ending, Solas still makes a choice. 

Rook and the team outwit Solas, forcefully binding him to the Veil once again. However, within this act of force, there’s a small glimmer of hope - Solas chooses to accept his defeat. He bitterly admits he was bested and calls himself a fool. While Pride may have the upper hand here, his Wisdom isn’t completely lost symbolized by the bright background in the final image. 

Though the image shows Solas falling again, he doesn’t appear to be struggling against it in this one. This tells me that, despite his defeat, Solas’s mindset might still have a chance to recover and evolve down the road. 

The "Bad" Ending 

The bad ending is fascinating to me on a few layers. It's described as the default because it requires the least effort. In this path, Rook neglects their companions’ personal quests, chooses not to help them resolve their issues (which would enable them to make meaningful choices so they can grow, so they can choose their paths going forward.)  Relationships are sidelined, and everyone dies. 

Solas’s state reflects this. He’s snarling, sneering, and fighting, stabs Rook, is consumed by anger, desperation and resistance. Rook chases after Solas as he tries to escape, grabs him from behind, preventing him from moving forward, pulls back on him slightly - then the Fade grabs them - pulling them both back to the Fade (as seen in this video).

He's being pulled - not enough of him to be him. He becomes what battered him, bruised his being.

And the image following this?  Just an image of a memorial.  No peek into Solas's mind, no commentary on it from Varric.  My interpretation? Wisdom (Solas) is gone. 

And Rook?  Not looking good.  The text following says that this "cost many lives, including Rook and the team". This implies Rook didn't make it. 

This ending triggered a visceral reaction in me. To me the message is clear. 

Rook’s decision not to support their companions means the team is unable to grow, leaving them unprepared to face challenges, weakening their collective strength. The absence of meaningful connection (which I highlighted earlier is a part of growth) results in a failure to create the unity needed to overcome Solas - and Rook and the team pay the price for this. For Solas, this lack of connection mirrors his descent into Pride.

Without the influence of reflection, compassion, or alternative perspectives from others, he remains trapped in his own rigid mindset. 

The "Best" Ending (Atonement) 

Despite Solas constantly trying to screw Rook over, Rook chooses to turn the other cheek – and offers him another chance.  Rook also holds Solas accountable, reminding him that by tearing down the Veil, he’s taking away everyone else's freedom to choose - because it’s what he wants. 

Solas is reflective here, mirroring the energy he’s met with. When confronted with ego, he responds with ego; when met with understanding, he opens himself to it. Rook’s willingness to forgive (this offering of another path is an act of forgiveness) and to challenge him, continues nurturing the chance for further change, allowing other voices, like the Inquisitor’s and Mythal’s, to influence him as well. 

But the choice is still Solas's.  

And when Solas CHOOSES to uphold the Veil: 

In both endings where Solas enters the Fade - whether alone or with a romanced Inquisitor - the Fade is bright. In the solo ending, Solas appears to be taking purposeful steps forward, looking like a wise sage. In the romanced ending, he holds the Inquisitor in an embrace, symbolizing connection. 

Both endings show a Solas looking like he was in Inquisition, a reminder of how his time with the Inquisition mattered. The relationships he formed shaped him, helping him build a foundation to move forward, to shift perspectives in order to make new choices. 

As Solas says to a friend Inquisitor and Rook, “Thanks to you, I see another way.” That realization came because Rook and the Inquisitor reflected that possibility back to him. 

And when Solas chooses atonement, he starts envisioning a better future - a world where the Blight is soothed and even the Titans might have a place. But being forced into the Fade? Who knows how long it might take for him to see that path (if at all), or if the resentment from being forced will taint his perspective. 

The Atonement ending reminds me that people can change, but real change requires freedom, open-mindedness, connections with others and the opportunity to choose. Solas’s transformation happens because he’s given the space to choose his own path - not because he’s forced into it. His Original Choice, to take on a body, saved him from being consumed entirely by Pride. Along the way, the people who challenged and engaged his Wisdom guided him back to his core essence, allowing him to reclaim his purpose in the end. 

But again, this is just my interpretation (and still evolving).

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

I can't donate right now but I just have to say how much it warms my heart to see what the Lou/Bucktommy/9-1-1 fandom is doing right now. I didn't know till like ten minutes ago but this is so freaking cool

I've seen some other people sharing how it's important to them so I figured I'd throw a bit in myself.

This year has been pretty good for me. There's always rough stuff, but it is what it is. Then, due to some outside circumstances, I ended up way more isolated and lonely than usual. The other place I saw friends became more and more stressful, and I had no place to relax. Except at home, in the evenings, especially when I was watching my shows.

I attached to Bucktommy, hard. I don't truly know why, maybe it was Buck being bisexual and me seeing myself in him, or how sweet they are, or their story, or their acting, or even the hate they received. I don't know. I fell in love with them, and it devastated me when they broke up. I kept watching, I still enjoy 9-1-1. But after everything I'd been going through, including having walking pneumonia at the time, it was rough. I was shocked and angry and sad and already missing them and I was tired. But this community. This freaking community xd.

I go into the tag in the next few days? It's hoping for a helicopter crash, it's jokes, it's a lot of pregnancy lol. It was a bunch of people all going through sucky stuff, and going through sucky stuff with fictional characters too, but still just hanging out and making it worth it. I don't usually make a lot of close one-on-one friends with people in specific fandoms. But even though I don't personally talk to people a lot, I am so happy to be around you guys. I've admired from afar (and been happy with that), chatted about things, related to jumping over to S.W.A.T., been welcomed, participated in a gift exchange (which I haven't done in literal years, since my first fandom on Tumblr)! These characters, this storyline, this relationship, have built a wonderful community that I am so grateful to be a part of. And never have I been prouder than now. You guys are such wonderful people and you're doing such a wonderful thing with these donations.

Everyone who can, I recommend donating to The Trevor Project. I can't personally, but I love seeing what everyone's doing.

Also, I'd like to thank Lou for everything he did with Tommy. I'm so glad Tommy stole my heart, because now I watch S.W.A.T. for Lou and I've seen how much he cares about us and us caring about Tommy. I'm glad we all made sure he knew how much we love Tommy and him :).

Thanks for being amazing guys. Merry Christmas <3.

[lupinescribbler]

How to write Injuries!

Note this is how to utilize them in your story and not going into the physical details how how to write every type of injury, because that second one would both stretch my medical knowledge and be way too expansive for a tumblr post.

1) Research

Knowing about the malady you are afflicting your character with is important. In the most optimal case this involves talking to an actual medical professional who is well-versed on that type of injury. However, since not all of us have doctors at our beck and call, a few articles from decent sources can suffice. Typically you're going to want these pieces of info:

symptoms (description fodder)

mechanism (how could this injury be sustained?)

level of impairment (know how and to what level the injury would reasonably impair someone. This info might need more digging around than the others)

healing time (know how long it takes to heal from this injury)

treatment (potentially including symptom management)

Having this knowledge will help ground your story in at least a touch of realism. Make sure your symptoms match the injury, make sure the mechanism of the injury is sufficient and just overall makes sense for the injury, don't have someone with a broken leg strolling around like nothing happened, don't have the healing time unexplainably short or long, don't treat shock by trying to cool them off, etc.

A quick note, if you are doing a fantasy/not-real injury or illness you don't get to necessarily skip this step. In fact, imo, it can become even harder since you have to fill in these details yourself. Remember, internal consistency is key.

2) Attach Relevance

You want the injury to matter to the plot or character development. Does the broken leg prevent a character from joining a big battle? Does the flu present an extra challenge to going to their daughter's dance recital? Does being weak or out of the action aggravate their hero complex or self worth issues prompting growth or self-reflection? Does a captive's injuries complicate a rescue mission? Does having their dominant arm injured force a usually brunt force reliant powerhouse to be more creative in their strategies? Does the overpowered character have to rely on their friends/allies more because of a certain injury?

Use the injury to show the level of a character's commitment or mental toughness, use it as an obstacle they have to work around, use it to up the stakes, use it to force them to be vulnerable or else show how unwilling they are to being vulnerable, use it to thwart the main team's perfect plan, use it to push a situation into even more dire straits, use it as an alternative to character death, etc etc. These are just a few ideas, there are numerous different ways you can use different injuries/illnesses in stories. Really think about how it could affect or reveal things about the plot, characters, and relationships.

As always, remember writing advice is highly subjective. Find what works for you. My number one writing advice is always to not take writing advice as hard truths :) happy writing!

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Christmas Kindness Letter: (hope I'm doing this right)

To Dandylovesturtles,

Where do I start? I have so much I could praise you on. I have read pretty much all of your Rise fics, and you’ve written several favourites that I continue to return to. I particularly love Sharing Ice Cream, and Other Dad Things, Tapping Out, and I May Be Invisible, But I Still Look Good— God, I could praise that last one ALL. FREAKING. DAY. I’ve read through the whole thing… what, twice? But have also come back to read particular parts and scenes. I was absolutely blown away by it. I laughed, I almost cried, and I felt so much on the first read and the re-read, and I WILL be reading Leo’s journey again— it’s so funny, how Donnie is also your favourite and you targeted Leo. Judging by the existence of Say Something True and Emotional Support Water Bottles (hilarious name, by the way), you seem to like going after Leo quite a bit (I did also read Corrupted Upgrade, so I did not forget about that one, either, another great fic!)

I won’t lie. To me, I May Be Invisible is the unofficial sequel to the Rise movie— with it calling back to lessons that should be learned (particularly the “next time you think of doing something dangerous, stop and look for us first”), how the fan-created lore fits in perfectly with what’s already canon, and how you write the characters— which I CANNOT praise enough. It feels like you yoinked them straight out of the show. It’s absolutely incredible, how intimately you seem to understand them, and how you captured their voices so perfectly. I hope to one day have that ability myself.

But so they aren’t left out, a few words on the the other fics I mentioned! Sharing Ice Cream is such a cute little story that honestly tackles Donnie’s insecurities so well— and I LOVE how you wrote Splinter. He felt so in-character, and I HEARD his voice in some of the lines you wrote (especially with him talking to the door, that was amazing!). It’s so sweet!

Tapping Out? That’s definitely influenced how I view Donnie and Leo’s relationship— especially the part about them being equals. Neither is older or younger. They’re just brothers, and that’s all. The point of twins are for them to be the same age. Not to mention, their SYSTEM is SO SWEET. It’s cute how it was created for Donnie, probably because of his disability, but eventually came in clutch for Leo, too!

And Corrupted Upgrade, since I brought that up? The first part HURTS bad (that was the first fic I read where the brothers were actually cruel to each other, and it made me realise just how important their love for each other is to me) Donnie makes an excellent super villain, in that. I’d say he enjoys it too much, but it’s all an attempt to get his family’s attention and make him miss him. Which is sad… anger born of pain— an interesting route, too, since it’s probably super easy (and tempting) to write him spiraling emotionally. An interesting twist on the story!

There’s a ton, ton more that I could say, but I don’t have the words (nor the patience) to type a college-worthy essay. I certainly hope you get the point, and I look forward to whatever you have in store for us, next! You are truly one of the greats, in my opinion. I wish to be like you, one day, in terms of ability.

I’m eager to see what you share next! Have a great Christmas (if you celebrate).

@dandylovesturtles

Christmas Kindness Event Post

[aetherghouls]

I am relistening to the entirety of The Magnus Archives and it's the first time I've done full relisten since I got infected with Modern Warfare and now I am plagued with a thought of codmw x tma

I'm trying to figure out what Fears would fit each one of them

Of course, considering that they are military, the most obvious answer would be the Hunt; considering that all important police officers in TMA are servants of the Hunt. Besides that also Slaughter, maybe, considering that many statements are about soldiers, however the Hunt makes much more sense, looking at what exactly TF141 specialises in. But I do also think the Hunt would be both too easy and would ignore the complexities of the characters as a whole. So, here's a rough idea of what Entities I think would match each of them the most:

(and a quick TW as I will be discussing many common fears and it's a bit too much to list them all)

— Ghost would either be the End or the Buried – the latter in case we talk about '09 Ghost or take the comic book as '22 Ghost's background too. I don't think there's much to add about him here, he is, after all, considered to be the embodiment of Death in cod.

— Gaz would be the Vast or the Hunt – first one is, I admit with shame, inspired by the heli scene in MW2, but some of the missions we play as Gaz just match it too, though it is kind of a stretch. I was thinking about the Lonely, but he doesn't strike me as the type to be targeted by it in the long run, even more to be its servant. Vast makes much more sense here.

— Soap would be the Desolation – the Lightless Flame is quite obvious in his case, being demolitions expert and all, the way he looks at explosions. It is such a simple choice I didn't even hesitate here. UNLESS we talk about Captain MacTavish, then it's Hunt through and through, no questions asked, he is the hunter.

— Price is kind of tricky in my opinion – he matches the Hunt the most out of them all I think, though all of the team does. Maybe aspects of the Slaughter, the things from statements related to military (which, also drives it into the territory of the End in this case). If we talk about '09 Modern Warfare Captain Price, it is the Lonely, mixed with Slaughter and Hunt and maybe the End, but Lonely is the biggest part of it, looking at how he's the only one that survived through the games.

— Talking about the '09 Modern Warfare, Roach! Couldn't miss him, of course. Lonely, probably, he does strike me as the type that would relish in being alone and so being its servant makes sense, somehow. Though if we play with it more, take his call sign into consideration, the Corruption, but not the way Jane Prentiss was the Flesh Hive, just bugs and the skin crawling parts, no rot or decay. It would tie together with how he could have gotten his call sign.

— Laswell would be the Eye – another easy one, considering that she's mostly there as a kind of an informant, gathering intel and all. Not much more to say.

— Nikolai would also be the Vast – it's tied to him being a pilot more than anything else, spending so much time alone in the vastness of the sky. No notes here.

— Makarov is the Slaughter – just like before, easy one, but I do think that, unlike with Price, it includes all of the aspects of the Fear. Pure, unpredictable violence, cold blooded murder. The Hunt, too, maybe, only if we were to think of him as a hunter who kills for the sake of it, not for the hunt itself but for the end goal (so it's a slight sprinkle of the Hunt, as it is about the process itself, not the end). Honestly, thinking about it like that, I think he could lean into the Flesh more than Hunt? Something to think about for the future.

— Shepherd would be the Web — with how he plots and lies, with everything he did "for the country", the Web is another obvious choice here, it makes perfect sense. He is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes, getting others to do his dirty work, it's perfect.

I have some other thoughts (Graves and Shadows being the Hunt/Slaughter maybe), but this is all I have for now I think. It could easily be mixed more with other AUs (looking at bluegiragi's Monster AU, which itself could give much more nuance to the Fears that could fit the characters based on what creatures and monsters the characters are in that AU. Example: Simon in that AU would be serving the Dark and the End)

No one is probably reading this either way and I don't think there's much overlap in the fandoms, but I do think this is a fun idea of mixing both universes and there's much more to be said about it all, if anyone ever wants to hear me yap more :D

It is heavily unedited and just written in the moment, it may not make much sense and I may revisit this to correct some stuff (like how I keep mixing Flesh and Slaughter into one thing 🧍)

[mariodreemurr]

Extremely important announcement.

Greetings, everyone. I won’t hold y’all too long with this, so here we go.

During my time being attached to fictional characters, I have spent all my time identifying as a fictolover. This is different from being a selfshipper, which is primarily a thing on Tumblr as opposed to the former. (I really don’t know how to explain the difference to y’all, my apologies.)

But over time, I grew to dissociate with the Reddit ficto communities, including r/waifuism (blech), and now I appreciate Tumblr’s selfshipping community more. As someone who graduated in STEM, my mind is often preoccupied with other things, and as an INFP, my mind wanders from one hyperfixation to another. So I really appreciate the flexibility that selfshipping offers compared to fictolove.

I’m starting to realize that fictolove just doesn’t suit me at all, and hasn’t for the past 2 years. My mind shifts, my interests shift, and I find it even hard to focus on one character for two months. I’m tired of living with this thing I can’t do properly, and it took me too damn long to realize that I cannot go on like this.

With this, I announce that I am completely moving on from fictolove and will exclusively be involved in SELFSHIPPING from now on. I will still post about my F/Os.

You may be asking: but what about Petal? To answer, Petal will be here to stay. I still love her, and I still care for her, but if I do post about her in the future, I will post any and all selfship art with a cat S/I made for her.

In fact, I’m going to make at least one S/I for any and all of my romantic F/Os. People have wondered why I haven’t made nonhuman F/Os if I don’t like being human, which is something I’ve beaten myself up over often, actually. But now, I don’t have to worry about that anymore. Besides, I hate my irl self anyway and how I look and my species. (My INFP ass imagining a more ideal me, lol…) I will probably only have a couple of S/Is I will use for many of my F/Os, but one thing’s for certain: my irl self (including any human versions of me) is out of the picture. I let it slide with my last art piece, but from now on, I’ll have an anthropomorphic S/I for Arly.

And that’s really all there is to it. But one last thing: I will try to be a bit more active here from now on, now that I am fixated on a new F/O of mine again. It’s going to take some time to get used to posting again, but I am confident that if I just give it effort, it will work.

So…yeah. That’s about it.

tl;dr I will exclusively be a selfshipper instead of a fictolover from now on, Petal will stay but she’ll be one of the (many) romantic F/Os I may potentially have.

Please read my full DNI in pinned before interacting, thank you.