#what other fandom would let me do wacky things like this?

[chrisodonline]

Finale Spec/Wishes, pt. 6

Okay, I lied. I didn't feel like scheduling in case it tempted me to go back and add things to it. So, just consider today with three posts making up for the days I missed.

Last part for reals. If you need a recap on what this is, visit any of the parts mentioned:

Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3 | Pt 4 | Pt 5

Cut to the beach. Callen and Hetty are arriving. Callen starts walking towards the beach when he sees some familiar figures…doing a choreographed dance. “Nell? Eric?” They both stop dancing and look over to him. Eric says, “Hey, Callen!” They walk over to him. It’s not lost on Callen that Hetty doesn’t seem surprised to see them, and they don’t seem surprised to see Hetty. But he’s so glad to see them, he gives them hugs. “What are you guys doing here?” Eric says, “What do you mean what are we doing here? We’re just hanging out at the sidewalk waiting on you.” Callen says, “No, I mean, here in general.” Nell says, “Well, Kensi called. Said there was a party we absolutely could not miss. Richie Rich and I hopped on a nice, private jet and here we are!” Eric nods. “Yes, to celebrate. I may have also paid for some things.” Callen says, “And you came dressed fancy, too.  Oh, wait. I should’ve stopped by the store to pick something up.” Nell grabs his arm and says, “I promise, you’re fine.” Eric’s cell goes off. He reads a text then tells Nell, “Okay, they’re ready.” Callen asks, “Ready for what?” 

They all walk closer to the beach. Callen is greeted by Sam, Kensi, Deeks, Fatima, Rountree, and Nate. He quickly notices they’re all dressed up. “What’s going on?” Eric chimes in, “Well, we were the distraction.” Everyone is grinning, and then Callen finally looks around behind him and realizes what’s going on. Deeks explains, “It’s exactly what you wanted. A wedding so top secret, not even the groom knows.” 

Callen is shocked. “I thought this was going to be an annual family celebration?” Kensi nods. “Oh, it is. It’s the year, it’s your wedding. One year, it might be Rosa’s graduation. Or Aiden’s wedding. Or…who knows?” Callen looks at Sam, who just shrugs and says, “I couldn’t stop them.” Deeks says, “Pssh, couldn’t stop us? Callen, my friend, I will give you three guesses as to who is responsible for all the origami crane decorations at the tables.” Callen continues, confused, “How did you do all this?” Kensi says, “Just a little quick planning. And we knew Hetty would show up, so we had an automatic officiant. Also, Nine Barnes made your cake. Some of the flowers may look like tiny guns but try not to overthink it. She was being kind of cheeky.” Callen asks, “Wait, where’s Anna?” Fatima says, “Don’t worry. She and Arkady are just waiting in place. It’s bad luck to see her before.”  Callen has yet another sudden realization. “Arkady. Wait, who’s going to watch Arkady? This is too much free range space for him.”

Everyone starts looking at each other. One of the things they didn’t plan. Nell offers up, “Um, well, how about Nate?” Everyone but Nate quickly agrees it should be Nate. He asks, “Why me?” Sam explains, “Well, you are an expert in human psychiatry.” Nate quickly replies, “Yes, human psychiatry. We still don’t know what exactly Arkady is.” Nell reaches up and pats him on the back. “You’ll be fine.” Sam looks over at Callen, “Come on. Let’s get you dressed real quick.”

Cut to: Callen standing at the altar, Sam and Deeks with him. Kensi and Nell are on the other side. Arkady walks Anna down the aisle. They exchange vows. They kiss. Cheers.

Cut to: later, the makeshift reception is going on. Callen and Anna are walking around, talking to people. They stop and chat with Kilbride who is having to duck out early to be on his way. Callen then looks over and sees the gang sitting and joking at a table. He takes a big sip of champagne from his glass. Anna asks him, “Are you okay?” He nods and mutters something about “Liquid courage.” He signals with a head nod to the table. Anna knows he wants to walk over there. 

Deeks is telling Kensi, “You know, maybe this is what we should be the Chip and Joanna Gaines of. Top secret weddings for federal agents.” Kensi says, “I don’t know how viable that would be.” Eric offers, “Look, if you need an investor.” Nell jump in, “Eric, this isn’t Shark Tank. I’ve told you about pretending that real life is just VC pitch after VC pitch.” Sam just shakes his head. “This was great, but maybe don’t quit your day jobs.” Deeks says, “Wait, Sam, you don’t want in? We could really use a fashion guy!”

Callen and Anna make their way over. Anna quickly tells everyone thank you, again. And they all congratulate them. Callen says, “Yes, I did want to say thank you, again.” Kensi interrupts, “It was nothing.” Deeks adds, “I wouldn’t say nothing.” Kensi concedes, “Fine it was something but something worth the something.” Callen smiles. He goes to say something, and it’s clearly a struggle. He looks down trying to psych himself into this. He starts, “I didn’t just want to thank you for this, though. I wanted to thank you for…everything. And I mean everything.” Deeks says, “We’ll miss you, too.” And Callen smiles but then shakes his head.

“This is hard for me to say.” He clears his throat. “But you should be brave with your whole heart.” He looks up at them, and says, “I always though I never knew who I was because I was missing things like my name, where I came from. But, even when I learned them, I still didn’t feel like they answered who I was. It took me a long time, probably too long, to realize that the part of me that was missing was a true family.” Deeks interrupts, “Grisha Callen, are you saying we complete you?” Callen just smirks. “I’m saying you are all a part of who I am. And thank you.” 

Nell jumps in, “You’re so close, Papa Bear.” Callen looks at her, confused. “What?” She continues, “You’re so close. You’re almost there. You can say it.” Callen looks at Sam, who quickly says, “Don’t look at me.” Deeks jumps in, “Tell us you love us.” Callen is shocked. “What? I think that’s implied…” They shake their heads. Kensi says, “You got this.” Eric adds, “Come on. Make this trip worthwhile.” Callen looks at Nate. “I think Nate would be the first to say that acts are really more important than words.” Nate comes back with, “But isn’t saying words that are hard a meaningful act in itself?” Rountree says, “You literally say it to Sam all the time. I’ve heard you say it to him at the shooting range or even when he hands you a pen.” Fatima adds, “Oh, that’s true.” Everyone is nodding.  

Callen looks over at Anna, who just smiles back him and squeezes his hand a little tighter. He takes a deep breath, looks at the table, and says, “Okay. Fine. I love you all.” Everyone cheers. Eric bursts out with, “I love you all, too!” Deeks says, “Hashtag same!” Everyone laughs. They’re hugging and laughing and exchanging “I love you’s” as the credits roll. 

[anthurak]

Something I’ve always found rather curious about the Adventure Time fandom, specifically Bubbline shippers, is that nobody seems to talk about how the show slipped in what might be the most angsty, hardcore and emotionally raw Bubbline stories disguised as a wacky Rashomon-style recap in the episode Ketchup.

Like it’s pretty clear that Marceline is doing the whole ‘Lollipop Girl and Rockstar Girl’ puppet-show because she doesn’t want to traumatize BMO with what happened while they, Finn and Jake were gone, and also because she herself doesn’t want to revisit those memories directly.

But when we start reading between the lines and recognize that Marceline’s embellishments are really more to tone DOWN events, I think we get a very stark and raw depiction of what Marceline was doing when Patience set off Ooo’s elemental apocalypse.

Just to kick things off, how much does anyone want to bet that this joke translates to ‘Marceline and Bubblegum had a fight and Marcy was giving Bonnie some space… and because of that, Marceline wasn’t there to protect Bonnie when she was kidnapped by Patience.’?

Kinda adds another layer to Marcy’s whole ‘I was so afraid something bad would happen to you’ breakdown in Come Along With Me, doesn’t it?

Next we have ‘Rockstar Girl smacking off the potato-heads growing on her’ which pretty easily translates to; ‘while everyone else was getting overrun by the elements, Marceline was able to fight off the elemental contamination for possibly entire days while she tried to find a way to help Bubblegum’. And given what we see with Finn and Jake only able to resist the contamination for maybe a few hours at a time, and how willpower was one of the only things that could hold it off, that says a LOT about just how DESPERATE Marcy was to help Bonnie. I mean, you want a really hardcore and messed up image? Imagine if Marceline was actively cutting or RIPPING off the contaminated parts of herself to keep it from spreading and regrowing those parts with her vampiric regeneration?

Then we have ‘Rockstar Girl went after the Blue Tranch’, which I can only imagine translates to ‘Marceline going on a GOLB-DAMMNED WARPATH to hunt down Patience St. Pim’. And let’s remember that A. Patience was currently a super-charged Elemental and B. Marceline would still be fighting off elemental contamination herself, whether the Candification from Bubblegum, the Ice-ification from Patience, or even both.

I mean, when we think about it; ‘Rockstar Girl played some really loud music that the Blue Tranch didn’t like’ quite possibly translates to the most insane battle of the entire show. Like on one side we’ve got Patience St. Pim, seasoned Elemental who could already make Ice King look like an amateur, super-charged with elemental energy making her probably the most powerful Ice Elemental in thousands if not millions of years. And on the other side, we’ve got Marceline, consumed and possibly more than half-crazed with rage, fear and desperation to help Bonnie, going ALL-OUT with her numerous vampire powers, possibly some of her demonic powers, all while fighting off the encroaching elemental contamination.

And if ‘The Blue Tranch begged Rockstar Girl to stop and go away’ is anything to go by, I think we can assume that Marcy utterly WRECKED Patience’s SHIT. As in, Patience may well have ended this fight with an axe in her gut, a claw choking the life out her and Marceline threatening to devour her very SOUL if she didn’t tell her how to help Bonnie.

(Here’s another fun thought: Something that notably separates Patience from the other current elementals of Ooo is that whereas Princess Bubblegum, Flame Princess and Slime Princess are all physical manifestations OF their elements (Gum, Fire and Slime, respectively), while Patience is human. Yet when we see her during the arc, she seems to have lost her human body and assumed fully elemental form as well. Now we could of course assume that this is simply due to the elemental overcharge just like the others. Buuuuttt… what if Patience was FORCED to assume this new form because her human body could no longer SURVIVE after the utter THRASHING she received from Marceline?)

Finally, we of course have the end. Something which seems all too easy to imagine even with Marceline’s toning down of events:

Marcy rushing back to the Candy Kingdom as fast as she can. Even though she’s exhausted from her fight with Patience and the days spent fighting off the elemental contamination. To the point where now she can only barely hold it off and maintain her sanity. Perhaps she wonders if this is what it was like for Simon during their time together…

Even though she knows speeding back this fast is only draining her strength faster, but that doesn’t matter to her. Because what matters right now is the trinket, potion, or something or other clutched in her hand that Patience gave her. Something that Marcy can’t be sure will even work. But she hopes it will. That’s the only thing keeping her going, the only thing holding her together at this point.

A blind, desperate HOPE that this will save Bonnie…

When she finally returns to what was once the Candy Kingdom, Marceline finds the massive tower of gum. Perhaps like Finn and Jake later on, Marceline at first isn’t sure what she’s looking at and thinks Bonnie is at the top. So she flies right to the top in a burst of speed that drains her already dwindling strength even further.

And there Marcy finds Bonnie. Or rather, what Bonnie has BECOME. Perhaps she doesn’t even remember Marcy.

Perhaps for Marcy, this is like losing Simon all over again. Except instead of the father who raised and cared for her over ten years, it’s a woman that Marcy has loved for the better part of a millennium. A woman she was only just able to start loving again after so long. But now, just like Simon… she’s gone.

And this realization does what all the elemental power of Ooo could not.

It breaks Marceline.

Just like that, Marceline doesn’t even try to use the ‘antidote’ Patience gave her. Instead, perhaps Marcy gives Bonnie one last kiss and just… accepts the madness.

Because now, at least they can be together.

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 11 - "You lost it, Well, we lost it."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: G

Warnings: -

A/N: Ties to this Post, but can be read independently, or at least I hope. I am bad at judging these kind of things.

"Daniel." Damian hissed looking over his shoulder at the floating presence next to him. 'Daniel' had his back turned to him, arms crossed and was clearly pouting. The preteen's right eye twitched.

"Daniel, look at me." Really was this the others reaction to getting told to shut up after he had rambled a good while about his oldest brother and causing them to lose the artifact they had just acquired?

"My name is not Daniel."

"For such an old being, you are being childish." Damian huffed back, having had this kind of argument before with Daniel, well Danny as the ghost - spirit - his past life's soul or whatever he should call him, insisted.

"And you are not childish enough. You are what? 11? 12? Be a kid and live more!" Danny turned around, throwing his arms out while doing a twirl in the air. Damian watched how the other's hands lit up green and he let sparks fly, imitating a firework.

"We do not have time for this." Damian huffed instead, turning his focus back to their surroundings.

"If not now, when then?" Danny retorted, floating next to his shoulder again, looking at the map Damian had laid out on the ground, several areas were already crossed out and the boy was tapping with a pencil against the paper.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't distracted me before, with facts that I did not need to know."

"Excuse me? I find the fact that I figured out who Dash got reborn as very important! Like do you know how badly I want to go to Clockwork and beg him to sent be back in time just so I could see his face if I told him? That's something you should be looking forward to with how interested you had been about some of the others. Ancients! Dan would laugh even more if I told him!"

Standing up and dusting his pants Damian crossed his arms staring unimpressed at the now rambling ghost. Now going on and on about the fact that since they were tied together, he would get dragged along and prove that Danny wasn't lying to his former bully about having become a super protective and wacky older brother.

Pinching the bridge of his nose Damian, felt like he could relate to his fathers a bit more now. "Daniel."

"Just image the face he would make and…"

"Daniel."

"....of course it would be hard to prove but since we can't get more than 20 ft distance you would…"

"....Daniel James Fenton."

"...once we are there I could also show you how Dad and Mom used to be and…"

"... Daniel Phanom."

"... you could help me figure out who Vlad was reborn as once you saw past him. I am still…"

Damian sighed, glaring at the still rambling Ancient of Balance, Ghost King or whatever other title the ghost had acquired. "Danny."

In an instant Danny's head snapped to Damian with stars in his eye. "DAMI! You called me Danny!"

His eye twitched and he suppressed whatever he wanted to return right now and opted to only click his tongue. "Oh right, we got a job to do! We gotta find that artifact, we had researched."

The younger turned his unimpressed stare into a glare. "You mean the artifact we had, previously before you distracted me with your ramblings again."

"That's right! You lost it!" Danny knocked with a fisted hand against the flat of his palm in realization, smiling brightly. "That ninja guy took it, the one you said who was working for your Peepaw right?"

"Please do not call grandfather that. Besides, you distracted me. Being the only one able to see you is clearly a hindrance not an advantage as you insisted." Damian huffed back, turning his face to the side.

"Still doesn't change the fact that it got taken from you. Ergo you lost it!" Danny grinned widened, ready to tease Damian more about having lost the artifact they had painfully researched and tried to find behind their families back. Though the ghost blinked as Damian suddenly smirked up at him. "Well, we lost it. You told me once that we were supposed to be the same person until you were removed from the reincarnation cycle. But this soul magic recognizes you and me as the same. Despite you seeing me for who I am, we are bound."

"Uh…"

Damian continued to smirk. "You are essentially teasing yourself."

The two stared at each other, one smirking triumphantly the other staring in disbelief and with a gabbing mouth. Finally Danny huffed, crossing his arms and pouting as he floated cross legged next to his sort-of-but-not-reincarnation. "Don't tell Dan you outworded me again."

"I have yet to meet this 'Dan', Daniel." Damian answered easily as he uncrossed his arms and picked up the map, having decided where to go next now that Danny was no longer spouting nonsense and would be of help. He had noticed small traces of his grandfather's man that had taken the artifact from them.

"Nooooooo!" Damian only so much as inclined his head slightly into the other direction. Bracing himself for next nonsense the other would come up with only to see from the corner of his eyes how Danny dramatically fell into a horizontal floating position, acting like he was laying flat on the floor. "You are back to being all formal names! I thought we made progress!"

Damian only smirked hopping off the roof they had been on, back on track to get the artifact back. It had only been two weeks but he had become quite fond of his dramatic past self, despite the existential worries he had caused at first. Still as much as he had gotten fond of Danny, he did not want for the other to be stuck with him forever. After all, the Ghost King surely had his own duties to attend to, yet Damian wouldn't mind if the Ancient became a permanent fixture in his life.

Maybe he could even introduce him to the rest of the family, once the soul magic was resolved and he was no longer the only one able to see him.

[arandomnerd810]

TADC EP 2 SPOILERS

putting down all my thoughts and stuff i’ve noticed lets gooo

AAAAAAAAAGDEKNSQKDFUNFSIDANIVUFDN OMG IT WAS SO CUTEEEEHKQVSHKUHSQDFKHSDF I LOVED IT SO MUCHHH

i’m gonna speak in periods for the first paragraph since it’s very long but do not get me wrong i don’t wana be serious sounding it’s just to make these paragraphs more readable excuse the rambling

Caine posting section cause he’s my special intrest

satisfaction Caine wise 10/10

first the elephant in the room as Caine’s #1 fan yep still his number one fan! Serial Designation N killed tons of people yet nobody in the fandom cares, and Caine doesn’t get people well so he had no ill intention. rlly my opinion of him has not changed he’s still my silly lil goober no matter what he does. i’ve always known he will do horrible things and been expecting this to happen ever since Pomni gave the idea to bring him to the circus. Gummigoo had a sir pentious like death so i wouldn’t be surprised if we see him again.

he may be an asshole but he’s my asshole ❤️❤️

now that that’s out of the way a little glimpse of Caine angst is all i could have asked for in this ep 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶 like cmon everyone has to agree insecure much?

Caine posting over cause my god have i gotten more attached to everyone else aswell! (ofc Caine’s still my fav by far)

satisfaction with everything else 10/10

the fact that this wasn’t censored normally (no wacky sounds or the censor bar) and how Caine reacted with “you can’t say that…” could imply bubble said all of this out loud uncensored which is very funny to me

I love Ragatha she’s so sweet look at her ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I wana see where everyone’s friendship goes from here! they are already so adorableeee

still a sucker for found family dynamics

the fact Jax wasn’t here but still was upset is :( as much as i like to bully him, i love him just as much as any other human character. i’m the most interested in his episode cause he’s a mysterious guy( and i may or may not have a sneaking feeling like ill relate to him a little even though our personalities are practically polar opposite)

Kinger is so fatherly auughofewhiuhefvw the fact he’s old enough to have kids and is more likely than not married to Queenie imagine he had kids before coming here they would only be in like middle school ish cause he’s not even that old that’s sad af

GANGLE COLLECTS ANIME FIGURESSSS!! SHES JUST LIKE ME FRRR!

this really makes me want to buy the gangle plushie i’m thinking i’m gonna do it lmaooo

the fact she started crying 😭😭

Zooble wasn’t taking part in the adventure cause they were setting up Kaufmo’s graveee i love him sm

GANGLE ART!!

It’s really funny how chilled out Bubble was here

merch talk timeeee

sneak peaks of the rooms mayhaps?

Let’s just hope there’s only memes around it and not another figure incident….

welp going onto grab the Gangle plushie i’ve decided

real talk i’m actually happy TADC got so popular cause ive made a friend through it already and strengthened old ones since info dumping is the only form of communication my braincells can handle well lmaooo it’s crazy how many of my friends have decided to watch my special interest

[utilitycaster]

ok we are 10 minutes into kollok and i am straight up not having a good time but I am going to commit to this hour of watching. to keep myself from losing it i'm going to do some very irritating stream of consciousness on this post and post it at the end, nonrebloggably so as to not yuck any yums (though feel free to go wild in the replies). also I need to point out: I don't have misophonia. I have openly and repeatedly said I think the Sam Riegel ASMR ad is not just inoffensive, but actively very funny and enjoyable. The sounds on this show are setting my teeth on edge. I hate it. also for the intro the immersion is genuinely WORSE than say, CR or D20 because everyone's just reading prologues that they've written.

speaking of we're done with the prologues to the prologue and into the prologue, as demonstrated by the title screen and horrible noises.

I call this filter the "yeah I've got mild astigmatism and have taken mushrooms before, you're not special"

hmmm we're stuck in this fuckery for a while and i'm suffering so anyway folks i've made it so polygon will think CR is good:

the music is pretty good I will give them that. also this is literally not special though. like Zac just was like uhhhhhh math as any GM would say, he just was weirdly aiming for suaveness instead of like. normal.

All the profanity on this show sounds like a mormon or a ten year old who just learned the word "fuck" and is trying it out. as a woman who swears constantly i'm like what is HAPPENING. also this blonde woman who isn't on the show in the present day is rolling so hilariously badly. is this why she's not on. girl get out.

back to the present day; this actually is a really good industrial music video ruined by some actual play in the background

"zac, I'm going to command attention please"

"who's zac"

"sorry, driver" ah yes yes this is SOOOOOOO much more immersive i'm totally not making the jerk-off motion

i love u danielle radford you deserve better. although the actual RP now that we're in it is like, fine.

really i think a really significant problem is that this is the most 2014 YA-dystopia plot that ever plotted except as a core part of the premise, everyone is 30. I feel, honestly, that this is the other big issue in actual play that people at polygon obsess over that leaves me ice cold, (also? lots of fandom cold takes), but like...I was a HUGE sf nerd pretty much from childhood, and I think a lot of people came to actual play for a number of reasons not tied to the genres in which it typically exists (fantasy, science fiction, horror). This is fine but it means you get people who act like VERY standard genre conventions are either the most brilliant and original creation on earth, or utterly baffling. Anyway my point is that this is giving Divergent by Veronica Roth but it THINKS it's somewhere between Twin Peaks by David Lynch and the adaptation of the Handmaid's Tale and it's like no babe. you're Divergent by Veronica Roth. stop fronting like you're Twin Peaks. You're Divergent. By Veronica Roth. Which I read while stranded at LaGuardia over a decade ago.

lighting effects are fine honestly. reminds me of the Doja Cat 2020 MTV EMA version of Say So. Wish I were just rewatching that. rotating rock i love you. you are the best thing here other than danielle radford. I feel like I'm in a really fancy Spencer's Gifts. by the way I know i'm being pretty bitchy and incoherent here BUT I'm sober; let's hear it for Stupidly Bougie Soda and Nonalcoholic Spirits.

I'm also eating bean dip with a spoon. in my defense I made REALLY good bean dip and I don't have chips.

I just. other than the digital filter in the flashback I genuinely don't see how this is different than D20 except lacking in any charms and OH GOD THAT'S TIME.

but I want to add that like...the thing is Danielle (C-dubbs) was doing some wacky funny stuff and it felt like it was being shut down and to be fair I get wanting to stick WITHIN the genre but this whole thing feels joyless, and not like "oh, survival horror is so grimdark and sad", I am a tragedy enjoyer, but like. it feels...mandated.

Also this is weird and picky but for all of Those High Production Values (repeated direct quote from the Polygon article) they do a weirdly bad job of filming the die rolls? Like, they cut to the dice trays at the wrong time?

Finally, and this is just a pot shot at Polygon but they should stop making it so easy, but the article was like "I watched the 4-ish hour first episode and I didn't have a clue what was going on but it had Those High Production Values" and it's like...I was demonstrably fucking around on tumblr and in GIMP while watching and I have a pretty solid idea of what was going on. Maybe it goes nuts in the remaining 2.5 hours that I may chip away at to be able say I watched a full episode and decided it "wasn't for me" *smiles like I'm a waitress on Hell's Kitchen and Gordon Ramsey just asked me a question* but I think you might be dumb.

CONCLUSION: just watch the Doja Cat 2020 MTV EMA version of Say So, read Divergent (by Veronica Roth) (you don't have to be at LaGuardia) and like, check out Mentopolis or Misfits and Magic if you want to see Danielle Radford in a Kids on Bikes game that is good.

[girl4music]

Fully listened to the new Audible series for ‘Wynonna Earp: Tales From Purgatory’. I loved it. I feel like they have the right format here. My favourite episodes were ‘I’m Not Gonna Miss You’, ‘Another You’ and ‘Biscuits’.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

First off, I want to say that I am kinda sad about Jeremy and Damon splitting off but then we never knew much of them anyway. I too felt it was way too soon to be u-hauling. I guess moving in together after having just met each other isn’t exclusive to lesbians. But you could tell that Jeremy was just on the rebound and that’s not healthy. Especially considering he just wanted “normal” because really… that’s such a fantasy in this weird and wacky world of Wynonna fucking Earp and Nicole learned that lesson big time in ‘Vengeance’.

But in true Emily Andras fashion - we lose one couple to gain another. A new WLW couple. More episodes with them and WayHaught showing them the ropes on how to have a decent love life in crazy, chaotic Purgatory would not be too much to ask if they continue this on.

Welcome to the Earper family London and Tess. I’m sure the fandom is working on your ship name already.

We finally got some answers on Rachel’s whereabouts during ‘Vengeance’. I still think she could have at least been mentioned though. I mean how hard was it to put in a “I hope Rachel’s having a good time in…” or just… something to that effect from her adopted parents to show us that they still gave a shit about the orphan girl.

I loved how romantic and caring Nedley was in his episode and how his wife having amnesia was the inspiration provided for Nicole to stop letting her busy work life as the Sheriff get in the way of domestic life. The honeymoon phase for WayHaught may be over but marriage requires sacrifice and compromise if it’s to last forever. You can’t take any moments for granted - bad or good - because you may find the happiest of memories get lost along the way. It was a very poignant and thought-provoking narrative and it’s probably why it’s my most favourite episode out of all 6 episodes.

I also liked that we got confirmation that Wynonna and Doc spent some time with their daughter before moving on to Dollywood and Tombstone and I like the explanation for why Wynonna felt Alice should stay with Aunt Gus and not come along with them. It made sense because Wynonna’s never been one for conventional. But I do hope if they continue this Audible series they’ll have her grow out of that chronic aversion to nesting because Alice does need her mother. Her real mother. Especially more so now her father’s not in the picture.

All in all I was satisfied with what I heard but I want more. And I want more in this format instead of on Tubi because I still do not trust them to handle WEARP well and you can’t blame me after the horrible experiences I’ve had working with manipulative streaming services.

Audible I’m a lot more lenient towards because they work with independent creators as well as mainstream creators. They’re more about the creative process and have less need to bump up business via manipulation. I’d rather Emily and Co keep working with them than Tubi but I know that the money needs to come from somewhere and Audible is not enough for this team who so graciously keep giving us more and more of their time and effort when they’re not adequately financed and funded enough to keep going with the bigger endeavours… Which is why they need Tubi.

I might be a pessimist but I just want them to be careful because the TV show/film industry is really rough these days and great storytelling always seems to suffer for it.

And make no mistake - Emily is a great storyteller. It’s just she also has to think about the business side of things too and that often means shuffling the cards where she doesn’t want them to be to pay her team. You have to be reminded that it’s not Emily that made the decision to kill off Doc. But it was her responsibility to make sure that she’s doing what’s best for her team - her work family. Nobody wants to accept these choices when they’re this hard. But they have to be accepted.

Audible provides the creative freedom Emily and Co wants but Tubi provides the financial aid to keep telling any stories. She made a smart decision going with both. It’s an executive producer and head writer’s decision as creativity and business are never really happily married. So cut them some slack and realize that this venture is something that will be an on-going process for a while.

[fipindustries]

I've spent ages trying to think of a ship that's not obvious you will have thought about it much already but not too left field/unfamiliar fandom-wise you'll have nothing to say about it, so, in the spirit of that one Chilchuck and Karkat post, let's try some multifandom shipping. Rose Lalonde x Verona Hayward

for a second i thought you were going to say karkat chilchuk but you went ith the far less interesting option.

do i ship it?

never considered it, but on careful examination no, i think they would get along like bats and blood but personally they are too similar to each other in ways that overlap a little too much for me to find the dynamic super interesting. like if we are talking wacky ships i wouldnt ship avery from pale and riley from inside out because they are just basically clones of each other.

what could make me like it? if they had things they could substantially disagree on or if they fulfilled more different niches or archetypes.

do i have anything positive to say about it? oh for sure, you are talking about my two respective favourite characters from each story. i would actually be super interested in seeing their dynamic interacting with each other. rose is a mix of verona's penchant for thinking outside the box, experimenting wildly and breaking rules, plus her genuine like for gothic aesthetics and magic, combined with lucy's strong sense of justice, fight for whats right and willingness to tear the system down if the system is found to be unfair. whereas verone is like rose if she allowed herself to be more like jade, silly and willing to have fun.

and they are both willing to completly surrender their humanity for basically shits and giggles so.

they would have massive respect for each other and could embark on insane projects exploring the most twisted and forbidden of maijycks, making everyone else incredibly nervous and terrified of what the hell they might come up with. i just dont see them being romantic or sexual with each other

[asteria7fics]

Hello! I'm kinda nervous to ask this because I don't want to make you feel pressured to write certain things, but do you think you'll ever write a fic like The Song of Broflovski again? I'm starving for canon age content of the kids just being kids while getting into wacky hijinks and that fic was 100% what I've been looking for. I notice it's different from what you seem to usually write so I'm curious if it was just a one-time only thing. Do you maybe have recommendations for similar fics? Either way, thank you so much for writing my new favorite South Park fic!

Hi, dear anon!!

It makes me really happy to know that people still enjoy TSOB, despite it being my first work in the fandom and therefore certainly not my best. I wrote it for similar reasons though; I wanted to see more canon age shenanigans in fan works! Selfishly, I always just write what I want to read hehe!

I’d like to say it won’t be a one-time only deal because I really did enjoy writing the kids as… well, kids! I put far less pressure on myself when writing that fic, and though I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recreate that perfect formula for my own experience while writing again, I would love to be able to recreate the sort of fic that it produced!

I have a few small ideas floating around, as well as a couple of potentially pretty big ones, too! I never forgot the lovely anon that asked if I would do an ‘Odyssey’ retelling with Craig and Those Guys… trust me, the ideas are still churning!

I don’t, however, want to promise anything major. I wrote a lot in about a year’s time (two novel-length fics, on top of RSB which is just under novella length, plus I started about ten other projects that are still incomplete) and I fear it may be time to take a small break soon, from writing in general but especially from writing such long fics. As much as it is creatively fulfilling, it’s also kinda draining!

To answer your second question, I unfortunately don’t have a ton of recommendations (yet), though I would like to point you towards specifically Chapter 37 ‘Demotion’ of @alwaysinstyle’s SickFic Book! I finally got a chance to sit down and enjoy this chapter a few days ago (fake fan I know I’m working on it guys! I don’t have a lot of reading time these days!) and let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. Excellent canon age shenanigans with some really sweet Style and some really iconic Cartman-isms!

Thank YOU for reading and enjoying my work enough to reach out! TLDR; I hope to return to writing canon age fics eventually!

ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

[teecupangel]

Hello! first time asker! I've only just recently got back into AC and you're pretty much the only AC blog I've followed so far (after reading your fantastic Eagle of Alamut fic) but the thing that happened to me seems very much something you'd enjoy.

Which is the Altair Jumpscare I got

to preface, I'm an ad blocker extraordinaire and put that on pretty much everything - except my mobile games. But even so, with how much i adblock the ads i DO get are very generic with very generic characters.

EXCEPT FOR ONE BIZARRE AD

A Tap-Away ad that for some inexplicable reason had Altair in it where he waved his arms like a wacky inflatable tube man and was then promptly sucked into the tapaway cube.

I was so caught off guard that i didn't nab a screenshot and I have been trying and failing to get him to show up again after 3 weeks of doing so much more Wordscape than I've ever had before to no avail😭

But it did spawn the idea of Desmond, with a burner/stolen phone, playing a mobile game and getting that Altair Jumpscare like i did which, with some digging by Rebecca because why the hell is he in an ad??? find a breach in Abstergo's database which they can exploit.

Welcome to the fandom! I hope you enjoy your stay (don’t mind the missing exit).

Aaahhh, Wordscape. I used to play you but then you keep interrupting my time with ads so I deleted you… like all the others who dared to give me ads that takes majority of the screen.

Ngl, I would have tried that game because it dared to show Altaïr to me. Then promptly delete it after a few hours XD

Alright, for this one, we’ll set it during AC2. He’s not that close to anybody yet so he sorta kinda stole Lucy’s burner phone while she was looking.

He always had a knack for stealing, probably the only thing that didn’t make William Miles say ‘again’ more than five times.

It only became so much easier when he started reliving Ezio’s memories.

The Bleeding Effect, right?

That’s what Lucy called it.

Regardless, Desmond figured it would be alright to play it anyway. It had a cell service and he always returned it to Lucy’s bag before she notices anyway.

It was during one of his free time (Rebecca said the Animus was acting fussy for some reason), he figured he can play one more level before they tell him to go back in.

The level wasn’t anything new, kinda funny that one of the words was ‘imprison’ and he got a bonus for trying out ‘prim’ (primo was a no go though and it took a moment before Desmond realized it was because it wasn’t English, fuck, was this the Bleeding Effect as well?. Just when he cleared it, the phone let out a loud static sound.

Which was weird because (1) the game’s audio was set to mute and (2) the phone itself was set to full silent with 0 volume on any kind of media.

They all turned to stare at him and he would have apologized, had he not heard someone shout his name coming from the phone.

“Desmond!”

It was Altaïr.

It could only be Altaïr.

The voice was the same voice he heard back in the Animus.

And he shouting at Desmond, staring at the screen as he slammed one hand against…

The screen?

Golden wisps wrapped around him, dragging him to the darkness behind him as he shouted, “Desmond! Find us! We’re-”

The ‘ad’ disappeared.

And Desmond was now staring at the next level.

He could clearly see one of the words was already filled out for some reason.

‘Breach’.

“Desmond…”

“Sorry, Lucy.” He handed the phone to Lucy as he said, “I was just playing ‘cause I was bored.”

Before Lucy could grab it, he pulled it back and pressed it over his chest as he asked, “Did you guys hear Altaïr too?”

“We heard him but, more importantly, Desmond…” Rebecca glanced at Lucy before she said, “None of us should have any phones at all. Abstergo could track us.”

“It’s not mine!” Lucy immediately said, taking a step back as she said, “I don’t know why you think that’s my phone, Desmond.”

“What?” Desmond blinked, “But… I took this from your bag…”

“Shit.” Rebecca’s eyes widened as she realized, “Did… Did Abstergo plant that in your bag, Lucy?”

“What?” Lucy turned to stare at Rebecca.

“That’s not possible. We’re the ones who brought that bag here, remember?” Shaun reminded Rebecca, “And we’re absolutely sure we didn’t put that phone there.”

“Then… who did?” Rebecca frowned as she mumbled.

“We need to get out of here.” Shaun said, “Desmond, turn that phone off and give it to Rebecca. She’ll check it.”

“Wait-”

“We don’t have to tell Bill about this.” Shaun said, “That phone could have easily given Abstergo our location. We need to move.”

Lucy’s eyes widened when Desmond gave the phone to Rebecca and she said, “We need to destroy it then. To keep us safe!”

“What? No!” Desmond stepped forward to cover Rebecca.

No.

To cover the phone.

“Altaïr just used it to contact me. We need to know how it was able to do that.”

“It’s a risk but he’s right, that Altaïr could have just as easily been a trap but we need to be sure.” Shaun was already taking down the papers on his corkboard as he said, “Come on, Lucy, let’s pack as quickly as we can. We can contact Bill on the move.”

Desmond frowned.

Lucy looked pale.

Was she afraid that Abstergo already knew their connection.

“Hey.” Desmond placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her freeze. He smiled at her as he said, “We’ll be fine.”

His smile grew as he said, “I’ll kill any Templar coming our way, okay?”

[soapieanxiety]

do you have any norway-sweden headcanons?

söta bror !! (っᵔ◡ᵔ)っ🇳🇴(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)🇸🇪

Hi! Thank you so much for the ask!! Sorry that this is getting a response later than normal, it’s been a chaotic day lol but hey I got a haircut and feel pretty. Anyways Norway and Sweden-

Oh I love Norway and Sweden’s friendship. It’s so underrated and I wish it was explored more within the fandom and the show itself.

Now I’m not from any of the Nordic countries but I did hear that people from Norway and Sweden get along the best out of all the Nordics. Now I could be wrong, this is just what I’ve heard so if I’m wrong then please let me know.

Now onto Norway and Sweden actually interacting, we surprisingly don’t get a lot. Which is saddening because when they do interact it’s really interesting. Though I can see why they don’t often interact in manga strips, it’s hard to write as they are both quiet characters.

I do think they get along though, they aren’t shown to have any issues with each other. Norway and Sweden get along the best out of the Viking Trio. With Norway seemingly impartial to Denmark and Swedens antics. Even though he’s attacking Denmark, Norway really doesn’t seem to have an issue with him.

I mentioned in the Iceland and Sweden post that Iceland confides in Sweden a lot. I feel like Norway occasionally does as well but about more minor things. Like Iceland is spilling his guts about how lonely he is and Norway would rant about how his toaster wasn’t working that morning.

I also feel like to compensate for the fact that Sweden is very expressionless, Norway is less flat when it’s just the two of them. He’s still has flat expressions but he’s more expressive with his voice and tone.

Alright, headcanon time!!

- Norway and Sweden definitely talk about the Viking days. That trio loves talking about them but I like to think Sweden and Norway reminisce about the simpler parts of the Viking days. Not necessarily all the fighting.

- When not reminiscing or when Norway is not ranting about stupid mundane issues. They spent quality time together by just being in the same room. They don’t even have to be talking to each other, Sweden could just be reading a book on the couch and Norway could be silently drinking coffee. That’s quality time for them.

- Norway definitely teases Sweden, he teases all of the Nordics. Sweden can’t escape that fate. I imagine Norway teases Sweden about liking Finland. Sweden could be married, adopted two little gremlins and a dog, and Norway would still be like, “you like Finland? That’s kinda gay.”

- I feel like a text conversation between the two of them would look like the most chaotic, unhinged thing to ever grace the earth. The spelling is wacky, they’re switching languages, the topic changes more than a French government, and they only have a genuine text conversation like every other week. When texting literally anyone else, Norway and Sweden sound exactly how you expect them to. But when texting each other, good luck deciphering that mess.

- Norway is in Navy and Sweden is in the lighter blue. This is something they do over text sometimes, draw over Denmark’s face. @creepycryptidz for making this for me, it’s fantastic and beautiful.

[animebw]

So the live action One Piece is really, really good.

I know, far from the first person to say it. But it really must be stressed how absolutely bonkers it is that One Piece, of all anime properties, is what breaks the live-action adaptation curse in the West. So many attempts at adapting far more live-action friendly stories like Death Note and Cowboy Bebop ended up complete disasters, and yet it's perhaps the most unabashedly cartoonish anime franchise, the one defined by how it takes advantage of drawing and animation to portray people, places and things that would be completely unfeasable in the real world, that shows how to translate this medium to live action without losing what makes it special in the first place. It's not a perfect adaptation, but it pretty much nails everything it needs to, capturing the heart of this story in all its most important moments and making smart changes that serve its new form as a binge-worthy Netflix drop. So let's talk about the things I liked, the few areas I think it fell short, and how I think future seasons should play out! Spoilers, obviously.

The Good:

-The most important thing to get right was the casting, and they nailed it: all the Straw Hats and their supporting cast are just about perfect. Inaki Godoy just is Luffy, Emily Rudd does a fantastic job shouldering the season's core emotional weight as Nami, Vincent Regan steals the show every time Garp is on screen, and Jeff Ward is an absolute riot as Buggy. Special shout-out as well to Morgan Davies for nailing Koby's expanded screen time.

-Speaking of, I love how Koby and Helmeppo's title-card story is fleshed out into a proper B-plot throughout this season. Following their journey under Garp's command is a perfect way to introduce us to the Navy's inner workings and the more explicitly political side of the story up front, as well as foreshadowing plenty of future story beats to come.

-The action. Is. So. Good. Thank god we're finally remembering how to film proper hand-to-hand brawls, cause every punch-up is a blast to watch.

-Luffy actually has more of an arc here than he does in the manga! Manga Luffy can be a pretty static character a lot of the time, which I know is kind of his appeal, but this adaptation gives him a bit more to work with as he grapples with the responsibility of being a captain and the consequences his mistakes can have for his crew.

-Seriously Buggy is so fucking funny they nailed him so perfectly

-Putting more of a focus on Nami's struggles throughout the season was a great way to give it more structure for a binge format. Her emotional journey is really the heart of this adaptation as we watch her go from a paraniod recluse to fully embracing the Straw Hats as her new family.

-One benefit to being live action and produced in America? Way, way less casual sexism. Dare I hope that future seasons will avoid ruining Sanji's character among other pitfalls Oda fell into? Fingers crossed!

-The production design is immaculate. It strikes the perfect balance between the wacky cartoonishness of One Piece's world and the demands of filming in live action.

-Fantastic soundtrack too! It knows just where to deploy instrumental renditions of We Are while charting its own musical identity.

The Bad

-Some of the dialogue is a liiiiiiittle cringey? I know dialogue has never been OP's strongest suit, but there are definitely a few moments that feel overly anachronistic and "how do you do fellow kids?" There's a moment Buggy jokes about toxic fandom that really made me roll my eyes (especially since the OP fandom has by and large really embraced this adaptation, so it comes off like a cheap shot at a demographic of haters that doesn't even really exist).

-While the camerawork and editing are pretty great, the color grading is very much... not. Can we please stop shooting everything in boring desaturated yellows and greys and start lighting our night scenes so we can actually see what's going on?

-Shockingly, it's the strongest parts from the manga- the backstories- that I feel suffered the most here. Some of that's due to most of the child actors not being that great, which, well, that's a risk you take with child actors. But it also cuts out a lot of the personal culpability that made a lot of those backstories so compelling? Like how Sanji used to be pretty wasteful with food until his experience stranded on an island taught him how important it was to respect every bite? That aspect of his character is completely missing in his flashback here.

-Hoo boy, they made some... choices with how they depicted Arlong's crew. I know the Fishmen are a big racism/discrimination metaphor, but between the trap music that plays whenever they show up, their overall "urban gangsta" fashion aesthetic and the design of Arlong Park, the fact Arlong himself is played by a black actor... there is some coding going on here, is my point. And considering how much I hated the direction this story arc went in Fishman Island, that does not give me confidence in this adaptation's ability to escape sucking just as much on that front.

Future Season Wish List:

Season 2: The Alabasta saga, starting with the arrival at Roguetown and ending with Vivi's send-off

Season 3: The Water Seven saga, maybe with a brief stop in Skypiea beforehand but not long enough to get bogged down in there like the manga did

Season 4: Possibly controversial, but I think this should take us to the timeskip. Spend an episode or two in Thriller Bark but cut out all the bullshit, one episode in Sabaody for the Shit Gets Real(tm) section, one episode in Amazon Lily, then onto Impel Down and the Marineford showdown, with one episode dedicated to the fallout of that battle and getting us to the timeskip.

Season 5: Big focus here should be Dressrosa IMO. If you must spend some time in Fishman Island then do it, probably don't need that much time in Punk Hazard since barely anything happens there, then get into the thick of Dressrosa.

Season 6: This should be the Wano season. One episode in Zou, maybe a couple in Whole Cake Island to set up Big Mom, (honestly we might not even need the extra Sanji backstory if this adaptation gets rid of his worst traits), then get straight into Wano so you have all the time you need for all those moving parts. Also, Gear 5 Luffy in live-action should just be him turning into his anime self Roger Rabbit style. Tell me that wouldn't rule.

[fortpeat]

Hi! I hope you are doing ok. I know this might be coming out of the blue, but I feel the need to spread the word so other fans can see this and not go through the same that I have been. I recently joined a FortPeat server on Discord. I saw the invite on a tumblr tag and I thought it could be a good idea since most fandom spaces I've been in were usually wholesome and nice to meet new people and talk about the things we all have in common and love. I will be honest with you that I had actually thought the server had something to do with your account since I always see you in the fortpeat tags (I don't really use my tumblr account, I'm more of a lurker, I just recently got into the fortpeat fandom) and you always seemed to be like a lovely person. I was actually told by this server owner that you were also one of the server owners at some point, and I remember seeing one of your posts talking about "the discord incident"… I have no idea if both of these things are related to each other, but I understood immediately after talking to this server owner why you'd leave that place. This server is extremely toxic. I and another member were kicked out simply because we harboured a different opinion than the one from the server owner. She is a grown-ass woman and treats people in a really childish manner. She's condescending and passive-aggressive. She deleted our messages for no good reason and then said we were free to leave if we were not happy with her rules. The other member called her out on it and this is what got us kicked out. That was it. Nothing else. I thought for a second that I could've been somewhat rude, but another member of the server reached out to me in private to tell me this had happened many times before and that neither I nor the person who was kicked out were rude. So, my point with this ask is I hope whoever's still stuck in that graveyard filled with toxicity, please leave as soon as possible. I had other people reaching out to me since then to tell me that they also experienced really bad things there. I'm really sorry if you went through some shit because of it, but yeah. I hope the owner reflects on her attitude if she intends on keeping up with a server she clearly has, currently, zero capabilities of running if this is how she treats her members. Thank you so much, and I am sorry for the huge ask. I think it's important to let people know when fandom spaces are nasty. Love your blog! 🤍

Hi Nonnie ✨🥰

First of all sorry for the late response I needed some time to think through a proper response since it's a sensitive topic and I am typing this out while in the middle of a program and my Wifi is wacky so I don't know when you might get this 🫣

Now I am not gonna lie, when I first received this ask I was sceptical about even posting this. I tend to avoid all kinds of drama as I quite don't have the time for that but then I realized won't that mean I too am ignoring you the same way the server owner did and essentially cutting you off and I am not that kind of person. I believe that everyone deserves to have their opinion heard and from what you told me I think you deserve it especially when you are definitely not in the wrong.

But first things first. I am so sorry you went through something like that. Nobody deserves it least of someone who joined a server believing that it might be something good. I will tell you it used to be good but then everything kind of fell apart. I left that server back in Nov due to personal reasons and a disagreement with the server owner.

Now the discord incident.. it was more or less connected to this but it was also me and my best friend joking around coz the both of us have had bad experiences with it. I never thought anyone would pay attention to it 🫣🫣😂. Now I don't want to dish out my personal experiences publicly like this so if you ever want to talk privately my DMS are always open 🥰 I promise it to be safe space for you and anyone who wants to talk.

I would also like to thank you for opening up like this I am sure it must not have been easy to trust me especially after your experience. I hope in the future this doesn't cloud your judgement towards future servers you might want to join. There are lots of lovely people in the fandom and there are some in that very server as well.

Also thank you for raising this awareness. I never would have thought things would get this bad there. That too in a server that represents our beautiful Fortpeat and Paisky who has taught us nothing but the importance of proper communication 🥺🥺

I hope you have a good day nonnie 🥰✨

Here's some Fortpeat hugs to feel better 🥹🥰

[nerdacious]

So now that the fic has been finished for a bit I have some questions about the making of Partners and Paper Trails. I'm just curious about what it was like to write it (and wondering whether my experiences writing for this fandom are universal). No pressure to answer!

Generally speaking, did you find Harry's chapters or Kim's chapters harder/easier to write?

Which parts of the fic (either POV) were your favorite to write? Alternatively, which parts were unexpectedly frustrating?

From what I understand, you wrote the entire fic ahead of time and then edited it as you went along, but didn't start publishing it until the first draft was entirely finished. Do you have any advice for someone who's attempting to write a long fic following a similar process?

(as a secret fourth question, if there's any hidden lore/details that people didn't seem to pick up on/something else fic related you want to share and haven't had the opportunity to, I'm all ears. love me some secret lore 👀)

Sorry it took me so long to respond, I was working on my response instead of working and then I was like crap, I should probably do work, and then I actually went out and did stuff with people irl for once lol. So now I'm back home and can answer this!

Generally speaking, did you find Harry's chapters or Kim's chapters harder/easier to write?

There were aspects of both that were difficult. I spent a whole other fic in Kim's head so I had more practice with him, but I think Harry ended up being a little easier or at least more fun. I could break up reactions and thoughts into each of his aspects vs the solid paragraphs of Kim's chapters. You also can just do more wacky stuff with Harry and his skills. However, it was hard to remember all of the skills. Like, I did Encyclopedia so dirty. After a point I kind of just forgot about him or didn't feel like thinking up facts for him to chime in about lol

Which parts of the fic (either POV) were your favorite to write? Alternatively, which parts were unexpectedly frustrating?

My favorite thing to write is dialogue, especially when Kim and Harry are really getting into the groove of the case and when they get their little banters going. I also really like competence porn so Harry wasn't nearly as much of a mess as he could be in game. It was a bit of a wish fulfillment fic in that I wanted to see Harry doing better for himself and not just for Kim. I think directly after Martinaise he probably was doing worse than the point he's at in the start of the fic.

The hardest part was writing the case and trying not to make it too obvious (but it definitely was so I had to hope people enjoyed it regardless haha). I'd never done a mystery before so coming up with what happened and how/what they discovered was challenging. So I guess that's not really unexpectedly difficult. Writing the actual porn was unexpectedly frustrating! A majority of what I write is smut so it was like "why is this so difficult???". I had to get that last chapter perfect (I still don't think it is, but what writer ever does) because I dragged it out long enough and I didn't want to let anyone down. It's very different from what I originally had. I also had never written d/s before, thankfully my editor has experience in that realm so he had really good pointers even though it's really light in the fic lol. I still don't know how successful I was with the smut for this one.

From what I understand, you wrote the entire fic ahead of time and then edited it as you went along, but didn't start publishing it until the first draft was entirely finished. Do you have any advice for someone who's attempting to write a long fic following a similar process?

Some people can just write and post as they go, but I have way too much anxiety to start posting something that isn't finished. I also have way too much ADHD to trust that once I started something I actually would finish it. I've also seen too many fics that don't know or don't want to quit so they just keep going past the point where it would have been a good/interesting ending (not really in this fandom, I just mean in general). So, yes, I finished it, had my editor do an initial read, made some general edits based on his feedback, and then he did a more in-depth edit of the first few chapters and then I started posting them. Some chapters I added a lot more to them during this stage and some chapters stayed pretty much the same. There are a few chapters that haven't been edited because he was unexpectedly unavailable for an extended period of time and I didn't want to stop the momentum. I didn't really have a beta reader for this one, but I asked a few people to beta specific chapters. It's not something I typically would want, I'd have preferred to have a beta for all of it, but it is what it is (or was rather). So all of that is to say, you don't have to do it that way lol, but I would at least have an outline and stopping point and stick to it. And if you want a beta reader, find someone who's opinion you trust and who you can trust will be honest with you. Also don't get rid of anything entirely. If you like something, but it doesn't work, cut it and paste it in a separate document because you might find a way to bring it back or parts of it back in other places. Also make copies for version control. Once I finished it, I made a copy so if I changed something too much in the final version but didn't like it, I could either refer back to or restore parts from the original.

As for secret lore/things no one mentioned:

In the first chapter, when Mollins first flips the siren on, Harry has an adverse reaction to the sound because of his encounter with The Pigs. Then there's an Esprit De Corps check about her listening to her police shows. (Hilarious fact: I couldn't remember her real name correctly at first and before I double checked the wiki I thought it was Marine Le Pen loool)

This goes back to the first fic, but Kim bought a book on how to support someone in addiction recovery and the receipt shows he bought it when he first started as a detective with Eyes. If you take the radiation drug in the game, there's mention of Kim possibly having had a partner with addiction. Also based on his many comments on seeing officers in much worse condition and having only one partner, I'm guessing he's talking about Eyes so I went with that. I still have no idea what exactly happened with Eyes in my story, though.

Shivers helps Kim open the door to the Linnea.

The reason Johnny's body was dropped off in the Harbor is because there had been a bank robbery in Jamrock at the time and there were cops everywhere looking for anything suspicious. That's a tidbit that didn't make it into the text.

The people in Harry's Shivers check in the first part of his final POV chapter are the people that would have been targeted next.

Thanks for asking these questions, they were fun to answer!

[selfshipping-central]

Hey, hey! Firstly, your theme is so lovely. I adore the colors and the images you chose. May I please request a matchup (romantic) for Hazbin Hotel? I hope you have a lovely day/night 💜💜

I go by Mer or Meredith 💀

My pronouns are she/her and I prefer men.

Personality: Leo, INFJ, 1w9, HP house Ravenclaw. Making an effort to understand myself and others is important to me, so that leads to long periods of pondering my actions, as well as others’. I love having me time, though I enjoy being with those close to me from time to time. I'm very supportive, encouraging, reserved, clumsy, easily flustered, athletic, conscientious, witty and sarcastic. Though I unintentionally come across as intimidating, I'm rather gentle and caring. I'm pretty stoic and some misinterpret it as being emotionless (I honestly just want the best for everyone). I rarely lose my cool. I’m adventurous and have completed a dream of mine–living/working in a country that doesn’t speak my native language. If I've earned someone's trust I will be loyal to them through and through. I can be annoylingly strong-willed and resilient. I actively search for things to be thankful for to remind myself that there's a lot of beauty in the world, and I'm glad to experience it. I adore challenging myself both intellectually and physically. I am happiest when seeking out information, reason, and understanding. I’m really kinda superstitious…

I work as a foreign language teacher, so my job requires me to have patience, be understanding, able to think on my feet, and creative. I'm incredibly determind and dedicated, which helps push me through difficult days. I strongly encourage those I teach to speak their minds and have open discussions.

My love languages are definitely acts of service and words of affirmation. I don't dislike physical affection when it's from my s/o, but I don't tend to seek it out. If I ever actually want to cuddle, I like to set time aside to do it, so I can fully enjoy holding each other. Quality time is fine, especially when we're just doing our own thing but sitting near each other. I will always appreciate gifts but hate feeling like I owe others.

Likes and Dislikes: I love discussing topics that revolve around enigmas (specifically death). It's not as important to have others agree with me as it is to explore the unknown with them. I like practicing the languages I know, psychology, biology (especially dissections 💜 ), demonology, genealogy, reading, museums, Victorian history, history related to war and disease 💜, singing, and exploring my surroundings. Favorite bands atm: Blood cultures, Tardigrade Inferno, Stolen Babies, Otyken, and Tally Hall. Cats and rodents are top tier pets. A large portion of what I read/watch relates to the occult. I dislike storms, large bodies of water, and people who always turn disagreements into arguments.

Hobbies: Writing horror stories, DnD, reading, singing (learning metal throat singing too), listening to music, playing the piano, dancing, watching horror movies, drawing, and yoga. As an avid horror fan, animated movies are for sure a guilty pleasure of mine. I collect living dead dolls and nutcrackers.

Appearance: long wavy auburn hair and my eyes are more of a honey brown. I always wear round glasses. I'm pale with freckles on my cheeks and nose. 5’9, lean, more of an hourglass shape and have a bit of muscle. I mostly wear black and white, but also lilac :) My aesthetic is a mix between grunge and dark academia. However, I love mixing bright colors and wacky patterns too!

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Lucifer Morningstar!! (Romantic)

Let me start by saying he would totally sit and ponder with you. He's a shy guy so you know.

He's also very supportive and is the kind of boyfriend to stand in the corner and give you a supportive thumbs up when you’re talking to someone new.

“You’ve got this!! I know you do!! I’ll uh- be over here heh-”

He doesn’t find you intimidating, as being the King of Hell everyone more or less respects him to a degree.

You know that one meme with Toothless and Hiccup? The one where he’s tryna hit on the Lightfury?

That’s you two.

Enjoys how caring and gentle you are, and he is so at peace with you around <33 (*￣3￣)╭

Oh my god please talk to him or other in the languages you’ve learnt!!

He will fall so much harder!!

“Oh my… you can speak different languages? Oh my- love that’s amazing!! Tell me- how do you say ‘I love you’?”

Loves your loyalty. It makes him so happy to see that you’re committed as much as he is.

“Never leave me my angel.”

He’s surprised you still look for beauty in a place like Hell but seeing you so determined to find some sort of goodness makes his heart warm and fuzzy.

You two totally sit there and just… learn. Grab and hold on to any sort of information about the world- or heaven- or anything.

Both of you want to learn together and are so creative with your respective arts.

You find his love for the ducks interesting and charming

And he finds the fact that you like his ducks flattering and kind of a relief to be honest.

“Look love!! It’s a duck of you and me!!”

Your determination making him determined to get out of his depressive slump so you’re helping him too!!

Lucifer’s love languages mix with yours well, you’ll praise and help him around the house, he’ll spend time with you and gift you hand made gifts with his love poured into it.

“I’ll come help!! Hold on-”

Loves hearing you talk about your interests and will do some research so he can also participate in the discussion.

“Look at what I found out yesterday angel!”

I’m sorry but animated movie night Fridays are a thing now fight me.

Thinks your glasses are so so so cuteee!!

And he would steal your cardigans again. I don’t make the rules.

Alright this is the last one for tonight I have school tommorow and an English test and it's 11pm so I need my sleep. I'll answer the rest tommorow lovelies <33

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Help Me

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Klaus wants to have his family act like they at least pretend to like each other, and the first step of that is finding wherever they got off to. Viktor just happens to be the only one that stuck around where he was before they got involved in this whole mess. Warnings: Addiction, alcoholism, addiction recovery, mental health issues, and unhealthy coping mechanisms Word Count: 7,301 Ship(s): Viktor Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves

Archive link!

A/N: Did you guys expect me to let up on this ship? I've had a headcanon that they could really help each other with their addictions since the beginning. Let's be real, the pill-popping in S1 was going to come back and bite Viktor in the ass at some point when he wasn't living in an adrenaline-filled haze and jumping from apocalypse to apocalypse. So I decided to explore some of what might have happened here, so be mindful of the tags because I tried to write accurately what he would struggle with. Thank you for giving this fic an opportunity! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

The days after his arrival into the new universe were a muddled, confusing mess that Viktor could barely parse out. He knew that he had sustained some kind of head injury when he was fighting the Guardians in Oblivion, but he had been hoping that would have been healed the way that the injuries that the others had sustained would be. He supposed that since it was Allison that had pressed the button then he wouldn’t be, so he made the best out of the situation.

The best of the situation happened to be wandering down the dark streets that he barely remembered as he tried to find his way back to his apartment. The place was exactly as he had left it, minus all of the blood and destruction that had been caused by Harold when he had discovered the truth and then lashed out about it. He still felt a little bad for that, even though he knew that the man he had come to know as Leonard had been using him and even murdered several people to get to the place he was at. Something inside of him hated killing people and likely always would.

After the night that he spent in his apartment, he slotted back into his life just like he had before he had been sucked into the wacky world his siblings occupied. He taught his students, he was berated at rehearsal, and he promised his neighbor that he hadn’t seen her cat but would tell her if he ever did. He knew that was part of the reason that he wasn’t able to remember a lot of the time that he had spent when he first arrived in the new universe. Another reason was what was currently sitting in his hand.

Everything had just been so loud and is heart had ached so dramatically. He didn’t really miss Leonard as much as he missed having someone near him. He missed Sissy something fierce, she had been by his side for so long when he was in such a confusing and scary part of his life. Losing the two people that had helped him realize who he really was left him feeling lost and confused, like he didn’t quite know where which way to turn.

So he had gone to the place where every maladjusted adult that felt scared and alone went. He found himself on a bar stool or in one of the liquor stores almost everyday as he replenished the stock that he had drank out of his own apartment or got something fresh where he could people watch. He had once been told that drinking was something social, people could be easily pressured into it since everyone around them was doing the same thing. Viktor had never been pressured into drinking because no one had ever wanted him to be around, so he had turned something that was supposed to be social into an isolated activity once again.

It had been almost six months since he had gone to bed without some kind of a bottle in his hand. He had come to the bar again, hoping that someone would finally come over and talk to him about anything that wasn’t music related, but he was once again left on his own. 

Viktor let out a low sigh as he brought the edge of his beer to his lips, his eyes glued onto the hockey. He had gotten pretty knowledgeable about sports due to the amount of time that he spent in bars, which he thought would him make friends but hadn’t. Just as he set the bottle back down on the bar, he heard someone slide onto the stool next to him and turned to see who it was.

As soon as he had, he almost fell off of his own stool. Klaus had cut his hair and was devoid of the tattoos that made him so iconic back in their home timeline, but it was still him through and through. His skin had a sallow tone to it, just as it had when they were teenagers and he had just returned from rehab. His hair looked like it had been cut with safety scissors and his nails were entirely devoid of nail polish.

Viktor opened his mouth to say something, but the other man beat him to it. “I heard that you come here a lot,” Klaus said. He took the beer from Viktor and instead of drinking it, set it as far away from the both of them as they could reach.

“So what?” he asked. He got off of his stool and walked down the length of Klaus’ arms so that he could pick his drink back up. It was only about half full and if he didn’t finish it then he hadn’t gotten his money’s worth. It wasn’t one of the days that he had spent quite a lot to get something high quality, but he made so little as a musician that he really wanted to finish off what he had spent his savings on.

“So, don’t you think that’s not healthy?” Klaus asked as Viktor sat back down. He took the drink again, after Viktor had successfully downed another sip, and then tossed it at the wall.

The bar went incredibly quiet as everyone that had been talking in low voices withe ach other turned their heads to where Klaus and Viktor were sitting near the bar. The tender behind the counter looked absolutely irate, and immediately shouted, “Absolutely not! Out, both of you.”

“What, but he threw my drink, not me!” Viktor scoffed.

“You’re both trouble and I want you out,” the bartender replied as he pointed towards the door again.

“Tom, I come in here all the time, I’ve never acted up before. Don’t you trust me?” Viktor asked.

“I have no idea who you are outside of an alcoholic since you apparently come in here so often. Now get out,” Tom repeated again.

Viktor stood up and hurriedly grabbed his bag. The anger that was leaking out of him was almost palpable in the air as he stormed out of the bar and straight down the street towards his apartment. He knew that he still had about half a bottle of scotch there and that would be sure to finish the job that the beer had been doing before it was so rudely taken from him. 

The implication that he was still noticeable enough that a bar he frequented wouldn’t know who he was had gotten his blood boiling more than he thought possible at this point. He was fuming with anger, stamping his feet down on the pavement and muttering to himself. He was his own person without magic and powers and interference from his father in this world, but that didn’t erase everything that Reginald had done to him. Every time someone that should have known who he was simply because he had been around them long enough to be a part of their background cast decided they didn’t know who he was, it brought back all the memories of being scorned and dismissed by his siblings.

He didn’t even think about Klaus following him to his apartment until he heard the familiar voice calling out for him. “Me hermano!” Klaus grinned as he slung an arm around his shoulders and prevented him from stomping off as quickly.

“What do you want, Klaus?” Viktor asked. As he spun to talk to the other man face-to-face, he pushed Klaus off of him with a careful jut of his shoulders. He was angry from being called a nobody again and he was angry that Klaus had thrown his beer at the wall when KLaus himself had been on so many substances when they were kids that he barely even recognized his name.

“I think that the two of us need to have a talk,” Klaus replied. His face dropped so that it was deadly serious and he pressed his hands, palms pressed together, to the center of his mouth and tip of his nose. “There’s something going on with you, Vikky.”

“I chose the name Viktor to avoid being feminized, thank you,” the smaller sibling replied as he turned on his heel and began to march into the city. He knew that Klaus was good enough with people and technology that he would be able to find out where Viktor lived eventually, but it felt easier to make sure that he didn’t do it tonight. He was having a bad day and he wanted to get wasted so that he was able to forget that for a little while.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m a little out of my head because I just got out of rehab and the ghosts are so loud right now. Would you slow down and go back to your apartment so that the two of us can actually talk?” Klaus asked. His voice took on a whiny tinge towards the end like it always had when he was being asked to do homework that he was opposed to.

“I don’t see what we have to talk about. You guys can’t keep flaking out into the wind and then come rushing back into my life like that’s going to fix all the damage that you were complicit in,” Viktor snapped. It was a lot more honest than he usually was with his siblings, but he figured that it was at least somewhat warranted given what they had done to him in the last timeline. He was still able to see Sissy’s face when they teleported away from her, could still hear the shrill cry that he realized was Harlan dying now that he knew what Allison had done, and he could still feel the ways that Leonard had abused him when no one had come to check on him and make sure that he was okay.

“We have a lot of things to talk about, brother mine,” Klaus said. He slung his arm around Viktor’s shoulders and then made them turn down one of the roads that would actually lead to Viktor’s apartment.

“How do you know where I live?” Viktor asked, narrowing his eyes in disapproving skepticism. All of his siblings had peeled away from him and the garden that they had arrived in, he hadn’t seen any of them since he had picked up where his old life had left off.

“Because I looked you up in the phonebook. Surprisingly enough, Reginald still bothers to print those even though we all have these little mobile bricks in our pockets instead of the landlines that we’re used to. I think it’s because he runs some kind of weird surveillance state. Or maybe the universe just really wanted me to find you so that I could help you out,” Klaus said. He was grinning, big and wide and sober. 

Viktor should have been happy about that, but instead he just felt defensive and angry. He felt angry about a lot of things now, more so than he had when he was still trudging through the feelings that he had about his powers. It had been seven months since he’d realized he had powers and about six since he knew who he was with the powers. He had come to terms with the fact that he was special, or at least he thought that he had.

He let out a long sigh as he continued to walk towards his apartment with Klaus hanging off of him. He let the other man into his apartment and then began to rifle through his cupboards to find the bottle of scotch. When he located it, he was disappointed to see that there was only about a finger and a half left in it instead of the half he was sure he had left. He wondered when he had drunken it, but supposed that it didn’t matter as he rinsed out one of his cups.

“More alcohol? Don’t you think that you’ve had enough for today?” Klaus asked. He walked around the tiny dining table that Viktor was letting the junk mail he kept meaning to recycle pile up on.

“How would I have had enough when you took my beer and threw it at the wall?” Viktor asked, a bit incredulous. He was so upset about the violation of trust and his funds that his brother had demonstrated. Klaus had always been the most destructive out of all of them, when they were kids mostly around the house and when they were adults mostly to his own body.

“I was in that bar for a lot longer than you thought, Vik. I saw the way that you were guzzling down the martinis before you ordered something that you thought made you look manly,” he replied. He put his arms up and made a shouting noise that was supposed to exemplify how manly it was to drink beer or something.

“I did that because I like beer. You didn’t have to throw my fucking drink against the wall. I was just barely starting to get that fucking buzz,” Viktor complained. He set the glass down on the counter and then turned towards his brother. The anger felt good, even if it still scared him to have emotions that were that forceful and overwhelming.

“I had to do something so that you would get out of there, Vik! Imagine what all that grimey shit is doing to your liver,” he said as he pulled a face. “Plus, you looked positively miserable.”

“I don’t see why you get to make a comment about what alcohol might be doing to my liver when you pumped yourself full of everything under the sun as soon as you learned where it was sold and how much it cost,” Viktor replied snarkily. He could feel the way that his pants were chafing against his legs when he moved from too much walking today and he longed for that numb feeling again. Adrenaline and fear spiked in his chest when he saw that Klaus was getting off the table, because he immediately assumed that he was going to be in trouble for smarting off. Images of Carl and Harold charging at him when he had said something they didn’t like flashed in his mind.

“Viktor, I’m just worried about you. When we were kids, you were always the purest of us all. I don’t even remember you enjoying drinking all that much when we were in the sixties and there was no social stigma about it back then,” Klaus said. Viktor narrowed his eyes and continued to glower at his brother, which allowed the silence in the room to press forward. He sighed and began to explain, “I just got out of rehab after going on a pretty long bender. You know me, I would usually just get out there and get right back at it, but I had someone ask me something for the first time that really influenced me.”

“Oh my fucking God, Klaus,” Viktor groaned as he dropped his head into his hands. “Are you saying that I’m an alcoholic or something? I have a drink or two every night after I get off work to unwind. Is it the healthiest thing? No, but at least I’m not doing meth or something. You don’t get to come into my life and then boss me around, Allison already tried that and then she realized that she hated me and left.”

“Viktor, I’m just worried about you!” Klaus said as he held his hands out to the side of him. It was strange to see that his palms were completely devoid of the tattoos that he’d had since they were eighteen and he’d been able to save up enough money to get tattoos instead of drugs.

“You’re not worried about me, you just want to put your issues on me so that you don’t have to think about your own shitty life. I think it would be best if you just left me alone. I’m not an alcoholic or an addict or about to blow up the fucking world again, just leave me alone,” he was shouting by the time tha the got to the end of the sentence.

Viktor’s chest was still heaving when the look on Klaus’ face changed from hurt to rage. He turned on his heel and marched out of the apartment entirely, slamming the door behind him. Viktor knew that he had likely burned another bridge, but he was really getting sick of people telling him what to do when it came to his life. He had wanted advice and help and people telling him what to do when he was launched into a world that he had never had any experience with, but that was almost an entire decade ago. He had figured all the hard shit out on his own and now he had people telling him that he could and couldn’t do certain things when he had already figured it out. He didn’t need them, he just needed himself.

---

Years had passed.

As time went on, he began to feel worse and worse about the way that his life was leading him and about his health overall. He had assumed that it was the bad memories, the chance of running into any one of his siblings around any corner and having to deal with them like he had dealt with Klaus. Viktor had moved to Canada, away from all the people that had once known him. It was easier to roam around without the constant panic that there was something waiting for him that would bite him in the ass, especially his siblings.

He opened a bar, since he had been spending a lot of time in one when he was in The City. It was easier to run that he thought it would be, especially since he had hit a bit of a niche market. He liked being able to see people and their drama unfolding without having to be involved in it. Hearing about Old Man Jeska getting a divorce was so much easier than being the catalyst to a couple breaking up with each other (and the husband ending up dead). Watching a wedding party arrive and the people peel off in partners together was always interesting, especially when he saw some of them return with each other or someone else that had been involved in the wedding party.

It was also nice that he wasn’t judged for drinking himself. He had something sitting behind the counter with a coaster over it almost every time he ended up tending. If he was downstairs and doing paperwork for the bar in the corner, it wasn’t abnormal for him to have a glass of something strong to get him through it. People never commented on it, at least not in the beginning.

He began to have a few of his employees reach out to him, worried about his behavior. He had never done anything hurtful to them, but they had seen the way that he cried into his phone or mumbled something about Sissy and Harlan while wiping away his tears. He had also gotten a couple of comments about having a liver of steal from his regulars, which made him begin to rethink how much he had consumed.

Viktor was pacing the upper floor of the bar that he had transformed into an apartment for him to live in since he had only been able to afford one instead of both. He had his phone pressed to his ear as it rang over and over again. The sound once would have been comforting to him, a sign that the line was still connected and his siblings weren’t at ends with him enough to change their entire number. Now, though, it was more nerve wracking than anything he had ever experienced because all he could think about was the things that they could be saying to each other about him.

He had never assumed that his siblings talked about him behind his back before he had gotten his powers back. They had never had any reason to, other than to complain about his violin playing or ask why he was still in the Academy when he was completely powerless and devoid of anything unique. Now, he was the person that had blown up the moon and caused all their lives to descend into chaos. Their lives hadn’t quite been the fairytale wonderfulness that they had made them out to be since so much time had passed since they had lived in that reality, but they still knew them to be safe and comfortable compared to the uncertainty they had facing them now.

When the line finally clicked as it went through, he felt his heart jump to his throat and he began to panic in full. Before it had been something subdued, the skip of his heartbeat and the catch of his breath in his throat. Now, it was the sinking of his blood into the base of his feet before it shot throughout his body to carry the emotion through the rest of him. He could feel his palms and back sweating, the way that his entire body began to shiver.

“Hello?” An unfamiliar voice asked on the other side.

“Who is this? I thought that I was calling Klaus,” Viktor said. He knew that his brother would sleep with someone regardless of their gender, but he had never had a serious romantic relationship outside of the one that he’d apparently found while fighting in Vietnam. The girl on the other end sounded like she was incredibly young too, which was also very out of character for Klaus. He couldn’t imagine his brother being in a relationship with someone twenty years his junior or in a relationship with someone that had children at all.

“Uncle Klaus doesn’t really answer the phone anymore. He said that the only reason he let me answer his phone this time was because you never call him and it must be a big deal,” the girl on the other end said. “Oh, and he told me to put you on speaker so that you can answer a security question or something. Don’t get too weirded out by it.”

With Klaus? Nothing is too weird,” Viktor replied. Halfway through his sentence, he heard the background noise of the call change in a way that let him know he was now on speaker. He said, “Hi, Klaus. Who am I speaking to?”

“I’ve got my little niece Claire with me. Between you and me, Allison is actually quite an absent mom so the two of us spend a lot of time together. She makes sure I pack my little brown bag and I help her with the homework that I remember doing when I was her age,” Klaus replied. His voice sounded a little strained and out of it.

“So, none of it?” Viktor laughed. The only way that he had been not the worst at something when he was living in the Academy was because Klaus had been so doped up on drugs that he had been unable to turn in anything resembling a completed piece of homework the entire time that they were studying together. It made Viktor sad in retrospect, the fact that his brother was allowed to ruin himself in such a way, but that just reminded him of why he was calling him in the first place.

“Yay, you passed your first security question! Now the other twenty should go by just fine, I can hear your voice and even though it’s changed I’m just going to believe that it’s you anyway,” Klaus replied.

“Klaus, I kind of don’t have time for this. I called you about something that I don’t really want to talk about in front of the nine-year-old niece I’ve never met,” Viktor rushed out.

“I can hear hard things!” Claire said indignantly. It was the kind of thing that Viktor had said himself when he was around her age and his siblings had started to go out on missions with each other. He had struggled so much with being treated like the baby of the Academy simply because at the time he had no powers and experience with the outside world. He knew now that he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle all the death and destruction that was required of his fellow Academy kids at the time. Claire wouldn’t be able to to mentally handle the discussion that he and Klaus were about to have.

“I need her to be hear with me, Vik, I can’t touch my phone,” Klaus replied like it was supposed to be the most obvious thing in the world.

“How long has he been like this?” Viktor asked. Despite the anxiety about his own situation hanging heavy over his head in that moment, he was also worried for his brother. Klaus hadn’t looked too good when the two of them had seen each other last, almost three years ago, but he had been on the up and up. It sounded like he had taken a rather sharp decline instead of continuing to improve like it sounded like he wanted to.

“Since he got out of rehab last. Mom says that he has something like OCD but he won’t go to a therapist because he doesn’t want to have to take any medications,” Claire replied. She sounded aged beyond her years, which only confirmed what Klaus had said about him raising her and Allison being incredibly absent as a mother. Viktor didn’t know what the story his sister had concocted for herself in this universe was, but she had always just wanted to have things without working for them. He assumed that her daughter fell into that slot as well, where it was nice to be known as a mother and have love when she wanted it but the work was left to other people to do.

“This really is a conversation that the two of us need to have on our own,” Viktor said quickly. “Preferably in person, but that’s part of the reason that I called you today.”

Klaus and Claire continued on the argument about how he was going to talk on the phone without touching it for a while longer. Almost five minutes had passed before Klaus agreed to one. Claire left the phone on the coffee table in his living room and then disappeared up the stairs. Viktor only continued talking when he knew that his niece had left the room entirely. “Do you remember when you ambushed me in that bar when I still lived in The City?”

“Of course I do! It was when I had just gotten out of rehab and that convo reminded me of the futility of staying sober enough that I decided I would try out drinking again. Turns out any substances lead me back to my old friends and I end up almost dying. Now that I know I only have one shot at this, I’m going to be as careful as I can be. Hence me checking who you were and not touching my phone without someone helping me,” Klaus replied.

Viktor felt guilt crawl up the back of his throat and sit heavily in his mouth. He had been angry and a little bit drunk when he and Klaus had spoken to each other, so he wasn’t entirely surprised that he had been so harsh when there was no real purpose for it. He had never wanted to regress Klaus’ recovery or make him feel like he had to resort back to those substances. He tried to remind himself that he had also been drowning in his own problems out the same way that Klaus had previously.

He took in a deep breath before he said, “I think that you were right. I know that I didn’t listen to you and I said a lot of horrible things to you, but I didn’t really mean them. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Vik,” Klaus said. “I shouldn’t have come into your home and made a bunch of shit up when I didn’t really know what I was talking about. I mean, I’ve never really lived a healthy life. Look at what I’m doing now!”

“Klaus, maybe you and I should help each other out or something. I just fucking realized that I’m an alcoholic and you’re currently so afraid of the world that you can’t even answer your own phone without relying on your nine-year-old niece,” Viktor said. It sounded like something that they family would do, very in character for them, but that didn’t mean that it was good overall.

Klaus was quiet for long enough that Viktor kind of worried that he had set off a panic attack in his brother. Finally, the other said, “I think that would actually be a good idea. I need someone that understands mental health issues enough to get me out of this hole. I’m miserable, Viktor. I miss being able to go out to parks and hang out with other people, I miss being able to eat food from restaurants without having to go home and microwave it again. I miss being able to go places without a stupid bag weighing me down so heavily that I feel like I’m going to sink through the floor!” 

“Good, then that means you’re ready to work on some shit!” Viktor said. “I’ve got a lot of things to take care of up here, but we can find an apartment or something in a city nearby to Claire so you can keep an eye on her or something.”

“No, I think that Allie needs to put on her big girl pants and become an adult,” Klaus said.

“Don’t let her hear you say that, she’ll bring up the worst trauma that you’ve ever been through because she doesn’t like you for doing something that she did not two weeks before,” Viktor sniped back. The hurt that had come from his sister saying they should have left him in the basement had never healed. The trauma of that incident, both the one where he was an adult and the long stretch of time when he was a child, had left lasting damage on Viktor. To that day he still woke up in a cold sweat or had to play music when he was working because the silence of a world without his powers was stifling to him. Her saying that they should have left him down there when he had once thought she was his only hope to not be placed back into that kind of situation had hurt more than words could say and he would never forgive her for that.

“Damn, Vik, you’ve gotten so spicy! I have to say that it’s a lot more fun to hear you say that about someone else than to have it directed at me,” Klaus joked. It was supposed to be a joke at least, Viktor was able to tell that much. He may have lost the super hearing that he hadn’t even realized he’d had, but he was still able to hear the tonal change between when Klaus said that joke and when he continued talking after.

The two of them stayed on the phone for over two hours as they hashed out everything that they were going to do to help improve their lives. They were sick of having their father ruin everything good that might have come from their existence, so they were going to be taking it back into their own hands.

By the time that they had hung up that night, they had decided a couple of things. Klaus would move out of LA and The City, where he knew the drug dealers and exactly what was expected to get the vices he had relied on for too long. Viktor would sell his bar and start working for the local high school in helping teach orchestra, like he had always wanted to. They were both thinking about whether or not they could go to therapy given everything that had happened in their lives being unbelievable to a person that hadn’t grown up in the universe that they were from. At the very least, they were going to read a lot of self-help books and try to apply some of the things that experts who had their lives together said.

---

It had all gone a lot better than Viktor had expected it would. He had been sad about selling his bar, because seeing the sign over the top of the front door had always been an affirmation that he could be who he wanted to be regardless of what others thought. Still, picking a violin back up and smelling the dusty sheet music was something that brought more joy to him than a stiff drink ever had.

The apartment that they had found was small, but that was exactly what they had needed after growing up in the massive Academy mansion their entire lives. It had two bedrooms, a decent sized galley kitchen, a bathroom with a tub and a shower, and a living room that was big enough for two chairs and a couch. They had been able to buy it with the money that Klaus had saved up instead of spending on drugs and what Viktor had from selling his bar. Klaus helped Viktor paint the walls of his bedroom a chipper yellow color and hang up the embroidery that Diego had sent each of them after the second year that they had been in the new universe. A couple of newspaper clippings about their families, including the one announcing the opening and shutting of Viktor’s bar, went up as well. Klaus’ room was painted a deep mauve color with all kind of bright mandela tapestries hanging from the ceiling and down around his bed. 

Neither of them judged the other for what they wanted their rooms to look like. They worked together and compromised evenly on what they decorated the communal spaces with so that it felt like somewhere that they were both allowed to be. It helped Klaus have some control over a world that felt very much out of control without allowing him to wrap everything in bubblewrap so that he could avoid dying. Viktor helped him eat things that might be dangerous, to walk around town without shoving himself into a neon shirt so he’d be seen by cars. In turn, Klaus held Viktor when he wanted to cry and scream and cause pain because of how badly he wanted to drink even though he knew it wasn’t a good idea. It was easier to realize how much of a problem he’d had when he had someone else to try and argue with.

They were laying on the floor of their shared apartment now, almost six months since they had moved in with each other. A lot of progress had been made on making their lives better, they were both sober and neither of them were letting their need for control rule over their lives. They had finished doing the newest yoga routine that Klaus had come up with after overseeing a class at the wellness studio that he was a custodian for. Viktor was sweaty and a little bit sore, but he felt at peace and comfortable for the first time since he had come to the new universe.

“I never realized how complicated and hard it was to have emotions. Is it wrong that I want to relive the moment where Allison killed Dad over and over again? I think it’s the only way that I can really feel better with all the shit that he pulled on me,” Viktor sighed.

Klaus was quiet for a bit, long enough that Viktor was beginning to worry if he had been awake at all. When they did these yoga times together, there was always a non-zero chance that one of them would get so calm that when they reached the last pose, they would simply fall asleep. Klaus usually snored when he was sleeping though, and currently he was just silent.

“I don’t think that it makes you a bad person,” he finally answered. “I think that it makes you human. What Reggie put you through in our timeline was absolutely fucking awful. I mean, at least locking me up in the crypt made some sense for my training. Putting you down in the custom dungeon he made for you was just stupid, so was drugging you. If he’d been an actual teacher instead of some weird alien bug scientist then he would have seen that our missions would have gone so much easier with you there,” Klaus whined a bit at the end.

Viktor turned his head to the side so that he could see the silhouette of the other Umbrella’s face. “Do you really think so?”

Klaus flopped dramatically onto his side as he said, “You’re one of the least violent people that I have ever met and you literally blew up the entire world. I think that you can have one little revenge fantasy as a treat.”

The grin that split Viktor’s face felt like it was going to tear the corners of his mouth. He inched a bit closer to Klaus, so that he was only half on the yoga mat instead of his entire body being cushioned by it. He let out a small sigh as he felt their foreheads press together.

Intimacy and physical touch was something that Viktor had never gotten as a child. The only hugs that he received were from Grace and Five, and both of those things left as soon as his childhood best friend disappeared. It was strange to have those things back with no expectations of what he would give in return. Klaus had always been a very tactile person, so holding hands and hugging had been something that immediately popped up when they moved in together. The cuddling was something that Viktor had originally initiated but something that they both enjoyed quite a bit, indulging in it often.

It made him feel safe and cherished in a way that he had never expected. Harold had held him while they slept, but the sex and cuddles with him were with the implication that he would help Harold get revenge in the end. Sissy had only been able to give Viktor those things when her husband and son weren’t around, which had made Viktor feel like a dirty little secret. Klaus gave love and physical affection to everyone, so it felt like something that Viktor could take without having to give back his entire self or be hidden away.

“Thank you for moving in with me,” Viktor whispered.

“Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I don’t want to think about why kind of nutcase I would be if you hadn’t managed to pull me out of my own head and get me some help,” Klaus said. The massive stack of self help books and articles about trauma-induced OCD were what had saved him, but Viktor was the one that had pushed him to do the research and try out the things suggested within those pages.

“Klaus,” Viktor breathed it like his name was a secret. He scooted forward on the floor so that they were closer to each other, legs almost tangled together but not quite. “Klaus,” he said again.

“What is it, baby?” Klaus asked. His long, dexterous fingers moved up to Viktor’s hair and began to play with the short-cut locks. It felt good and soothing, but it also made electricity spike across his skin and shoot down the back of his spine. It had been a long time since he had felt like that, and it was so adjacent to everything he had felt before that he wasn’t sure how to describe it properly.

“I like it when you call me that, but I wish that you meant it,” Viktor blurted. He supposed the endorphins and calming chemicals from the post-yoga cuddles had made his lips a lot looser. He only realized what he had said when the silence stretched on for a little too long and he felt his face to red with heat.

“What if I told you that I did mean it?” Klaus asked after a while.

Viktor propped himself up on his elbow so that he was looking down at the other man instead of hovering above him. “Do you understand what that implies?”

“I’m kind of asking you that question, babe,” Klaus replied.

Viktor let out a long-suffering sigh. It was so hard for him to get his feelings into a tight enough row that he could talk about what they actually were, thanks to Reginald doping him up so strongly that he could barely walk. He had help and patience in the form of Klaus, so it only took him a little while before he said, “I want to date you, I think. It’s okay if you don’t want to date me, I know being trans really decreases my appeal and I did blow up the world and we did grow up together, but-”

He was cut off by a hand reaching out and taking his. “Viktor, calm down! You know that none of us really cared about the whole pseudo-incest thing, I used to say that so that I could rile Allison and Luther up. We were never siblings in the proper way, we were members of a cult or cabal or something. I would know, I was the leader of an alternative spiritual movement,” he grinned like a cat that had just caught a bug, brown eyes gleaming.

The smaller of the two men threaded their fingers together, both of them sitting up with their legs crossed and somewhat looking at each other. “So do you want to try taking our relationship to a different place? I’m okay remaining where we are, but I think that I want to be able to take more from you.”

“By more, do you mean my sexy bod?” Klaus asked, waggling his torso in a wave motion.

Viktor laughed again and said, “It certainly wouldn’t be a bad part of taking the relationship somewhere else. I think I just want to be able to call you mine in a way that’s more intimate than just being your friend and roommate. Is that okay?”

“Baby, I basically invented queerplatonic relationship. We don’t have to be romantic or sexual or anything other than what we want. You just tell me what you’re feeling that day and we’ll role with it,” Klaus grinned. “Can I call you my boyf?”

Viktor's face screwed up into a look of displeasure and he shook his head, “No. But you can call me your boyfriend, if you want.”

“I do want,” Klaus nodded. “You’re my boyfriend and I’m your partner. We love each other very much and we’re the only reason that the other is still alive in this universe.”

“Yeah,” Viktor grinned. He leaned forward and gently kissed Klaus’ cheek, marveling at the way that his beard was soft despite the stubble on Viktor’s cheeks being course. He dropped his head down onto Klaus’ shoulder and let himself be immersed in the feeling of his heart against his ear and the smell of his cologne filling his lungs. He was safe and whole with Klaus, his emotions weren’t something to run from. He could handle them as long as he was beside the other.

[spikrock]

how i feel every mtp character was mischaracterized by the old fandom

basically me describing my icks about mtp fics that ive seen from like 10 years ago/kinda sorta my personality hcs. bear with me here, because they are all my headcanons/opinions and i dont want to make it sound like i think my ideas are the only way you can see the characters...(talking into the void)

Alice: she loses her spunkiness! she becomes a perfectly sweet and agreeable person in almost every fic ive read. i dont see her like this. in my mind, alice is a good mix of kind and understanding with hot headed and stubborn. everyone in the band loves her and she’s easy to get along with, but that doesn’t mean she’s perfect. i feel like fics always wrote her as the mom friend, and i dont really like that. i feel like it’s just because shes the only girl (ive read very few fics where caterpillar is written as a girl) alice really doesn’t scream “mom friend” to me. i see her as pretty chaotic and impulsive. she’s kind of immature, but she always has good intentions in mind and most people in her life admire her, so it’s easy to miss. you know? 

Tarrant: ouuugh boy. in my mind, tarrant is a lovable idiot, his ideas are wacky, sometimes he says things that make zero sense to anyone but him (and maybe thackery and mally), and he’s typically bad at reading a room, being cheerful most of the time (even if his friends arent). most fics i read write him as this! which is great, because i think it’s pretty close to how i see him. he’s pretty much always written as comic relief, which is fine by me. 

my problem starts with how the other characters treat tarrant. they act like hes annoying…ive read so many fics where tarrant will say something a little wacky and every character in the scene side-eye one another and go, “okaaaay, tarrant…🙄” or something similar, and it makes me mad!! so many times i see scenes where alice is “apologizing” for him, when all he did was…talk? be around? the bandmembers are his friends…they aren’t treating him like that, alice would NOT feel the need to apologize for him either? in fact, if alice felt like anyone was making fun of tarrant behind his back she’d fucking kill them. im so serious. 

Mally: not that cool. mally is a LOSER. and i say that with the most love imaginable. he’s got zero game, he’s fairly awkward when he’s not playing or on stage, he fails at like everything, he’s literally insane, and he doesnt think any of that is true. in mally’s mind, he is THE coolest and most special-ist person on the planet at all times and in all ways. he’s so lucky he wasnt subjected to fandom nowadays where people talk about killing their favorites with rocks or whatever. he wouldnt stand a chance. 

fics write him too cool, and too “normal”, if im being honest. this is something that happens to both mally and thackery, and idk. he’s insane!! hes a weirdo!!! the name of the band is MAD t party, i feel like they should all be at least a little crazy. idolmouse was giving them EVERYTHING in those shows and they just threw it all away 😔 the disrespect…

Thackery: they make him way too shy and quiet and nervous when he isnt like that at all. thackery, in my mind, is definitely quieter and less showy than his bandmates, but he’s still as energetic as they are. he, unlike some of his other bandmates, is fine to step back and let someone else be the center of attention. he just wants to be along for the ride; he doesn’t mind what songs he needs to learn for the shows or what they need him to do, he just wants to play in a band with his friends. none of that means he’s overly shy or timid or anything, though. i don’t really know where they got that? the most i see is when he’d hide behind his ears sometimes. but other than that he's always getting in people's faces and jumping around and they just forget hes silly as if thats not one of his most endearing traits like cmon now

and…it hurts even more because you can really tell while reading the fics that it’s because of the ship dynamic with mally that they write him this way. its really frustrating to me. i dont see them as opposites, more like slightly different variations of weird. 

Absolem/Adonis/Caterpillar AUGH whatever: ive only ever read one fic where they write caterpillar as ladypillar so maybe i should just put absolem but whatever.. too serious. too stoic. they basically just copy paste his personality from the 2010 movie. why? i dont know. he gets plenty of personality in the shows but old fics really just ignore that... his ass is NOT wise he plays the fucking keyboard in a band at disneyland 😭 he doesnt know shit 😭😭😭

he’s sort of just around to give advice to people. im just saying they could stand to let him be funny once in a while...hes just so serious even though he doesn’t really act that way on stage. i do like the idea of him being more like that when the bands first getting started but eventually coming out of his shell and letting himself have fun with the rest of them. and almost every caterpillar performer made him really aggressive lmao, i think they should’ve leaned into that it would have been funny. like he just punches someone in a fic. idk. i think we should let absolem hit people

Chessur: in the few fics ive read where chess does much of anything, he’s basically got the same problem that absolem’s got where they just sort of copypaste his movie-self, even down to the way he speaks. i REALLY hate that, they usually make absolem and chess talk all elegantly, esp compared to the other characters. its just really weird to me and makes them feel out of place. 

but out of all these characters, chess being the one that writer’s struggled to do much with makes sense. he’s behind that drumset all the time, he doesn’t get much explicit character shown, so i mean, what else were they gona turn to? going back to the 2010 movie is the next step ig. but also, i mean, it’s possible. it’s not like the performers NEVER did anything, because they did. you can still get a personality and come up with a character that isn’t just tim burton’s chessur but a human. 

i see chess as the quietest in the band; he isn’t shy, he doesn’t not want to be around his bandmates or anything, he’s just sort of quiet, unless someone speaks to him or he’s teasing someone lmao. i see him and mally as pretty similar, but neither of them like acknowledging or admitting it. hes meanspirited, but actually very caring and nice, you just gota know him. and hes closest to alice, so ofc SHE knows it. all his sarcastic comments to his friends are just how he says he loves them <3 if you ask, he’d tell you that he only joined the band because he knew they needed a drummer, but it was really cus he wanted to hang out at the tea party (he rarely went before because he and mally genuinely did not get along before the band) i think chess is the type to never talk and then randomly drop the most profound shit anyone has ever heard. idk, does any of that make sense?

so yeah. i know mad t party fandom was all about doing whatever you want with these characters cus there really wasnt much to base anything off of, but i dont think that really applies to their characters?? really just the stories? like they DO have characters and personalities. when people would say things like theyre acting when theyre on stage...that is so weird to me because thats literally just what the show itself is. where is the fun in saying that theyre not actually like how they are on stage? 

this is just a peek into how i see these silly little band guys…ive wanted to share my hcs for a while now, but like. my mind is just spaghetti. i know everything i want to say, but writing it down and putting it out there is just sooo hard. i hope the 5 people who will see this post will understand sort of what im trying to say here. thanks for reading if you read the whole thing thats insane. gold star fo you.