#wiggly bc it makes a lot of sense

[keeps-ache]

there are a couple changes i would make to the keyboard if i could:

wiggly exclamation mark

bleeding heart emoji

varying snake emojis (more poses would be fun)

question mark with a little heart for the dot bc, well,

more explosions

and that is all thank you

[hotluncheddie]

💕🪱Wiggly Wednesday🪱💕

ty for tagging me: @runninriot @just-my-latest-hyperfixation @whimsicalwadewinstonwilson @someforeignband <3

I’ve had these worm thoughts for a while but I dunno if I'll turn it into anything. Think bc of the nuance that I would need to put in it. <|:3

But basically! I’m thinking about autistic Steve again. My lovely lovely high masking autistic Steve. Who struggles to ask for help and struggles with how much he’s allowed to share, struggles to look after himself and is still learning about his needs and his desires.

Thinking about how he’s so good at following rules, because most of the time that genuinely makes the most sense to him. It’s how he navigates the world, how he’s built his mask and scripts. How he’s kept his secrets, kept himself safe.

As long as he’s not effecting anyone else, he doesn’t need them knowing the rules he’s made, the ones he breaks and why - what that might mean. So it can be to his detriment, it can be to people please, it can be a way for him to ignore himself. But they’re also a part of him, an important part; they're all he’s ever known.

But what makes it complicated is thinking about all of that, in the context of navigating a d/s dynamic. With Eddie and him exploring that part of their sex life a little.

Because, thing is, Eddie knows how good Steve is at following rules, how willing and eager he is to be good. But Eddie’s doesn’t want to hurt him. So they would both have a lot to learn, about each other, and about communicating.

- So maybe it starts as:

‘What do you think baby? Would that be hot, you’re not allowed to cum unless it’s with my permission?’ Eddie asks, kissing over Steve’s stomach, looking up at him all sprawled out and cozy on his bed.

Steve traces the line of Eddie’s nose, lips pouting in thought. ‘Like we did the other day?’

‘Kind of, but more like, when I’m not there too. You have to wait until the next time you see me.’

Steve liked what they did the other night, Eddie going slow, teasing him a little. Telling him when to touch and when to stop and when to finish is a slow syrupy haze.

But, if Eddie’s not there. He usually likes to touch himself before bed, to help him sleep. Pretty much every night. Like, like a routine…

(And that’s the thing. Working through Steve asking for things he needs, understanding that some changes could be for his benefit. Never meant to be to his detriment. What that means for his masks and scripts and taking real care of himself. To let Eddie into the world of his rules and maybe let him make some of his own - that requires a lot of honesty, and that's scary.)

- And so maybe there's a bit of angst, some hard talks and hard truths, but then maybe it shifts into something with a bit of comfort, like:

‘How about this, we can try rules, but things that are about taking care of yourself, and we don’t have to do punishments. It’s more, like, I want you to tell me when you’re struggling Stevie, and maybe this will be something that can help.’ Eddie says, pulling Steve’s hand into his lap, connecting them.

‘You like how showering feels right? You said it makes you feel good?' Eddie waits for Steve's nod. 'Ok, so I want you to shower for me, each night, it can be quick and the same as your always do it, same with your hair.’ Eddie continues, tucking a lock behind Steve’s ear. Steve curls toward him, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his head in Eddie’s shoulder. Not looking, but listening.

‘And it might help, you know, if you think you can’t do it but remember that Daddy’s rooting for you, yeah?’ Eddie drops his voice, speaking softly into Steve ear. ‘Daddy knows his baby likes to shower and brush his teeth before bed so that’s what I want baby to do okay?’ Eddie asks, smile blooming sweet and cocky on his face as Steve squirms, shifting himself closer, throwing a thigh over Eddie’s and seating himself in his lap. That word always makes Steve feel a little crazy. Makes him feel gooey and loved.

‘But, and this is the important part baby, if you can’t, if it’s too hard, I want you to call me okay?’ Eddie asks, linking their fingers again and looking Steve in the face, waiting for his small nod.

‘And you don’t have to use that word when you call, if you just want to call me Eddie, that’s perfect too. Or if you call and say it’s a bad night and can’t get any more words out that’s fine. I just need you to call me yeah? That’s your rule. Okay Stevie?’ Eddie finishes, shaking their joined hands and smiling when Steve gets out a little ‘okay’, looking Eddie in the eyes for a flash, smiling, leaning into Eddie’s arms, moving closer for a kiss, and another, and another.

yeah! Just ideas!! Maybe I’ll write it all down one day, but maybe not. Hehehe.

✨Tagginggggg✨ : @scoops-aboy86 @pearynice @steviewashere @devondespresso @marvel-ous-m

@wynnyfryd @wheneverfeasible @thefreakandthehair

[ticklish-n-stuff]

How Toman members react to you telling them you like being tickled

Manjiro Sano (Mikey)

“Ok” is literally all he says. 

You’re all like ???? That’s it???

But don’t let his disinterested face fool you

“Oi, c’mere for a sec”

Proceeds to poke and squeeze at your tickle spots while hugging you close

He’d definitely tickle you randomly throughout the day as a cheer me up bc who can resist that adorable laugh

But he’s also a ‘lil shit and will tickle you at the most inconvenient times lol

Might wreck you in the middle of a meeting bc he was bored-

Hanagaki Takemitchy

You might have to guide his hands yourself, bro is too shy to even touch you

But once he gets the hang of it hooo boy, becomes cockier than Mikey, and that’s saying a lot

Verbal teases 24/7 “Does it tickle here? What about here? Oh you must be loving this~”

Once it settles in what he’s doing, he’d get flustered by his own teasing lmaooo

Ken Ryuguji (Draken)

Be prepared to be met with the most evil, shit-eating grin imaginable

Momma Ken? Nahhh, he goes full tickle monster mode

Loves to chase you down and give you a false sense of security before striking

You can always tell when he’s about to wreck you, his expression gives it all away

“Run” BITCH GET TO IT!!!

Chifuyu Matsuno

Bro gets too fucking cocky, funni considering how much Baji wrecks him but shhhh

“Aww, so you like it when I do this?~”

An evil tease, will ghost his wiggly fingers over your tickle spots, whisper close enough to your ear causing goosebumps

He’d describe what he’ll do to you just to drive you wild in anticipation

“If you wanted it so bad, you should've just said so!~”

Mitsuya Takashi

Thinks it's actually the cutest thing ever

The sneakiest of lers!

Always landing a quick poke or squeeze when you’re focused or distracted

And lovesss to play dumb, that bastard

“Hmm? What’s got you so red?~”

As an older brother, ofc he knows for which spots to go for

Actual pro at cheer up tickles, so dont you dare be sad in his presence/j

Nahoya Kawata (Smiley)

RUN BITCH! RUNNNNN

He will strike when you least expect it

Loves hearing the initial shriek of surprise every time

He's the eldest of the twins so of course he’s got all the tickle techniques down to a t

Try to tickle him back, I dare you. Bro will actually kill you lol

Souya Kawata (Angry)

He’s used to being Smiley’s victim, bro has no idea how to ler

So who better to learn from than Smiley himself

Be prepared for the tag team of a lifetime

Angry on his own is very gentle but can and will hold you down securely

Hakkai Shiba

As the youngest sibling in his household, this is a golden once in a blue moon opportunity to FINALLY be the one doing the tickling

Boy is so excited yet so nervous, please help him

He might seem scary but he's just a big floofy dog, gives the most playful/gentlest tickles while scooping you onto his lap cause t a l l

Will ask like every 5 secs if you’re having fun, he values your comfort greatly uwu

Baji Keisuke

Literally just die right there and then

Bro will show 0 mercy

Will tease you in private or public, he doesn’t care how much you whine about it.

Will laugh along with you bc your reactions are the funniest shit to him

Can easily pin you down and make you squirm like a worm

Being tickled by Baji is a workout in it’s own, and a death sentence

Kazutora Hanemiya

Adding Kazutora bc I can

Loves sneaking up on you and wrapping his arms around your waist

Will rest his chin on your shoulder or top of head while his fingers aimlessly worm around your whole torso

Bro can have the most chill expression ever and will suddenly feel like tickling you bc he can and he will

Or he will be a fucking asshole and make you ask for it lmaooo

"What's that t-word nonesense?? C'mon, it's not that hard~"

[ntls-24722]

half a sketch dump bc I've had these on the backburner for like... a week at this point 💀

The holy trinity. What I was trying to play with was Rinkalla having a weirder beard - the original concept for her hairstyle was that she's always wanting to do stuff with it. What I thought would be fun is if she had one of those giant, detailed, decorated beards you see in a lot of mesopotamian art. That and it'd make sense for the time period that homo mousike's in.

Solidifying Bugs + the lionflea redesign where I bit the bullet and went straight up dromaeosaur.

Bugs are 8 legged "mollusks" rather than being fully hardshelled, and due to not having a full carapace weighing them down, bugs got huuuuuuge, from being as small as our insects to being as big as elephants. They're pretty much nautiluses that got up on land and evolved to walk on their tentacles with concentric muscles rimming their muscle groups to add support, and they retained their shells as a beetle-like carapace on their backs. Wings are extremely common just like they are in our insects, coming from a derived antennae - The edges of wings are covered in the chemosensory hairs that allow them to smell and taste, and bug ear canals are at the wing-armpits, allowing them to create an external ear when their wings fold up around them.

The ancestors of lionfleas are these occasionally bipedal, beetle-mantis-ospreys that evolved their back limbs to become tails. Lionfleas began to lose more of their limbs as they became more and more bipedal, and during their "ground owl" period they doubled up on the chemosensing hairs both to smell better, but to muffle their flight, just like how owl feathers are fuzzy at the edges, too! Lionfleas can fly, but not for very long, but wings make them stupid scary jumpers.

Speaking of these osprey-beetle things, here's the development of another member of their clade...

Here's this post. I included this whole page because I find it so funny that you can literally SEE the progression happen. I even wrote out "holy shit" when it clicked bc i was losing my mind.

Anyways, the first half is the hypothetical birdguy-DJMM fanchild and the bottom of this page, along with this next picture, is the djmm alien I've been looking for.

Finally, I figured out a design that made a chin and nose necessary, and made the teeth-plates possible. It's only a bonus this guy turned out to be a cutie patootie.

It's a parrot! It's a squid parrot! It came from the same ancestral beetle that the beetle-osprey did, and it evolved wiggly teeth for dexterity and facial expressions. There's a GIANT socket where its teeth sit in, where it can be pulled up into the DJMM "teeth-plate" position, and down into an awful hooked beak position for tearing into prey. Originally it was a modest joint like it is in parrots to better hold things and pull in prey, but it got exaggerated to the point the two hooks can sit vertically just for the sake of seeming demure to other squid-parrots (and to exaggerate when they push their teeth out when they want to look scary).

Their skulls are actually super narrow and only comprise of their jaw, and can actually be pushed out of their face like a goblin shark! Deeply awful! Demonic little thing! however they're very cute. I dont think I'll make these ones sapient, I like them more as fun little animals (and an easter egg DJMM in the, yknow, DJMM alien setting)

Dirt skeleton!!! dirt skeleton yayyy dirt skeleton!!!!! I put these two seperately because I didn't want these two to be cropped. these are so nice doodles.

The dirt skeleton is completely devoid of romantic or sexual desire but he still enjoys being kissed by Comet because he sees it as her bonding with him and he is quite attached to her as well. He fundamentally doesn't understand romantic attraction and doesn't get it, but he does get that there's a bit of social weight to being kissed that he's fine with recieving.

Second doodle is him being stuck in the same position for 5 years to allow his bone to heal. The times the dirt skeleton has fractured bone above ground, his crying eventually becomes this constant, irritable frequency that pretty much gets everything to evacuate within its mile-wide earshot, which is quite convenient. People who get near his site of healing literally get annoyed by this unhearable, yet deeply uncomfortable frequency playing and leave. During this, he also stops percieving the world, blinding and deafening himself, as percieving the world as he experiences the worst pain he can feel becomes overstimulating.

[papatundespainknife]

based on the backstory and personalities of the Mikalesons, do you have any headcannons about Mikaelsons + religion?

oh HECKIE YEAH

i think it's honestly SUCH an interesting topic and concept seeing as how their all you know immortals n shit and magics real and etc etc. unlike say, btvs where Willow literally invokes Osiris, tvd doesn't really make any solid references or claims about the whole Deity Situation until apparently legacies but I haven't watched it yet and sounds Kinda Dumb so I'm ignoring that lol. But the rule of thumb with shows like these seems to be that once you say draculas and witches are Super Real then it's open season for Zeus enter stage right like it's an episode of Xena. Which when you look at the Mikaelsons....... Wild.

I think that Freya, Finn and Rebekah are the most unironically straight-forwardly religious and I think they've stuck to the norse/scandinavian beliefs they grew up with. Freya both because of the 1,000 years of Napping Nonsense but also because she's a witch and that's the school she was taught in so she's sticking with it. Finn for similar naptime reasons and also because he doesn't see a reason to change and didn't even when they were in France and hanging out with christians. For Rebekah it's like pure sentimentality. She likes a lot of the aesthetics of mainly catholicism (the swagiest of sects) but at the end of the day she's still out here making offerings to Freya (the goddess not the sister fdjkgdfsdfs) because she's a sappy little sentimental bitch and that's what brings her comfort. I don't think she's particularly religious which I think Freya and Finn are but she enjoys the celebrations and finds comfort in the actions/words/rituals/prayers/etc.

Kol and Elijah are more wiggly in their beliefs. Kol still calls back to his roots a LOT but he's also expanded out over the years since he's still a witch at heart and a curious cat. He's less interested in following any one religion and more in what resonates with him. So his believe system is very eclectic. What he believes in he believes in 10000% and is dead serious about. He's also experimented and educated himself about world religions the most out of all of them. Dude could probably teach a clss tbh.

Elijah is the one who's actually been the closest you can be to an atheist in a world like this. He's had periods of like, religious nihilism and periods were he's a little more hopeful about it. He's just spent so much of his life trying to be the Good Reliable Son and like Niklaus praying for divine intervention both with their father and with Niklaus only to get shit in return that it broke him and he just stopped and abandoned all religion/spirituality and focused only on the tangible. Hope's birth fucking shakes him to the core lol. Generally tho even after her he's still more in the like, "not my scene but i do love a good festivity" camp.

Niklaus is an evangelical's idea of an atheist where it's not "i don't believe in god" but instead "i feel god personally slighted me at my bday party so now i'll hurl rocks at him for the rest of my life out of pure spite". his sense of abandonment, unwantedness and paranoia doesn't stop at the threshold of religion. Ofc, he's old as dirt and literally has his own coven that bitches KEEP FORGETTING HE HAS so he's not in doubt that the divine exists. But Thor didn't protect him from his father's abuse so fuck that guy and jesus didn't fix SHIT for him so equally fuck him.

Wouldn't be shocked tho to see him "ironically" do rites/sacrifices to Odin via shit like the death of an enemy/creatively using old school practices for physical/psychological torture bc he's Like That. Does he also end up carving a mjolnir into Hope's crib and giving her a little one on a necklace? yes but this ain't about that hush.

Kol and Niklaus are also the most likely to have an affinity for gods like Loki and his children for reasons I feel are obvious lol. The holiday arguments this creates between them and Finn are unhinged.

[crossnamara]

wjos. him. ill yap

my horrible ex husband. my beautiful wife,,,,,,,,my .john.

get ready for horrible fictkin ramblings

okay so. youre not like. in the fandom. so ill jsut explain the basics. john and i worked together. at peip. a secret part of the us military that investigated paranormal extraterrestrial and interdimensional phenomena. i was his mentor. and we. were in love. it was a secret, obviously, it was the early 2000s in the fucking us military, of course it was a secret. didnt stop us, though. he was everything to me.

but. then. the portal. peip built a portal to access a place beyond all realities, the black and white. we knew it was risky, but. they never told us how deeply unstable it was. he gave me his dog tag. as a little good luck charm. i never managed to give it back.

i went through the portal. it was dark, at first. just endless blackness. then He revealed Himself to me. first it was wiggog y'wrath, the lord in black, then his brothers. pokotho, bliklotep, t'noy karaxis, nibblenephim. it was horrible and yet everything about it was so right. it was terrific in every single sense of the word. and i knew. they would bring about salvation, the true gods. (for um. context. these are horrible eldritch gods that want to destroy humanity. telling this from my perspective at the Time but they fuckeddd with my head. a lot.)

it felt like i was there for a month, but when they finally dragged me out, i had only been gone for a few hours. still, i tried to tell them the truth and they didnt listen. said id gone mad. howd john describe it. a raving lunatic. they tried to fix me, like that was possible, but i managed to get out before they fucked with my head even more. i want to say i didnt see john until he saw me, but. thats a lie. the black and white is just. a void. mostly. and after a few years all i could feel was boredom. so i watched him. started from afar, catching glimpses of him any time he went out in public. he still looked like shit. but he. slowly got better. slowly started moving on. and god that fuckking hurt. there was a time, a few years after the portal. maybe around 2010 ish. that i would watch him sleep every fucking night. i wanted to slit his throat. i didnt.

(more plot context bc i started rambling. the lord in black wiggog y'wrath, also known as wiggly, wants to enter the world and make it his. to do so, he needs a cult, which he gets by getting people obsessed with dolls of him. peip sends the president, howard goodman, through the portal to the black and white to speak with him. try to negotiate by threatening to nuke him)

then. im so fucking close to finishing wigglys plan. but. john. he came into the black and white after the president did. wiggly was about to kill him. but john. came through. stopped it. it still worked out, in a way. johns spirit dissolved into the black and white. howie got out, they sent in the nuke, but. they forgot the russians had a portal too. moscows gone and world war 3 is imminent. we still couldve won. but that bastard gave his gun to that little brat through the black and white. she gave it to barnes, who used it to kill the prophet. the world still ended, but because of john, wiggly had no chance to reign.

and i miss him. i miss him so fucking bad. i remember him helping me go to sleep after id pulled a couple all nighters in a row. i remember letting him win at chess as i taught him until he was actually better than me. the way his breath always smelled a bit like coffee. the way he held me when i cried to him about my father. the way id held him when he did the same. the way we always promised each other we'd quit smoking and never did. his problem got a lot worse after i went through the portal.

anyway i got post limited half an hour ago so ive been able to add so much to this. sorry for the length

[gloriousmonsters]

reply to some thoughts from @whittertwitter on that vox&val family trauma post!

Re Vox's dad having been in a war--Legitimately when I wrote that post I was Googling wars for a hot minute bc it made a lot of sense to me, I just ran out of brainspace lol. So I can absolutely see PTSD as part of the reason for his behavior, especially the paranoia and difficulty connecting to a normal life + the depression that eventually led to his suicide. (And dw, I'm usually a fan of a dialectical approach to characters where I'm interested in their motivations and sympathetic toward suffering while still acknowledging bad shit they did--i find characters most interesting when you can both be compassionate and inquisitive about their backstories and still be like 'they super fucked up tho'.)

I've been placing Val's death as *wiggly hand gesture* mid-late 70s? And I was delighted when I was looking for what was happening in Cali in 1970-ish and found out that it was right around then San Francisco became 'the porn capital of America', which seems fucking perfect for Val to enter what I imagine as his 'well, I can't make it as an actor/performer due to my various maladies and personal issues, but I AM pretty good at persuading people to do sex stuff for money' era.

My personal idea of the Vees forming is Velvette deciding she wanted a piece of their alliance and tweeting snarky fashion advice at Vox until he agreed to meet with her and she sold the idea of working together to him so hard he practically agreed on the spot (there's nothing sexier than a solid sales pitch), with Valentino being initially against the idea but getting over it when they met and immediately clicked; but it is VERY funny to imagine Vox dragging his beat-up, depressed ass back to wherever he and Val usually hang out and Val is just sitting on the couch with Velvette watching a Hell-knockoff Tarantino movie like 'oh did he say no? aw that's terrrrrrrrible anyway check out the bad bitch i pulled' so I support that concept as well

(my ideas about what exactly happened w/Alastor are still ambiguous, but since Val seems completely comfortable around Vox's obsession with him, I usually assume that Val clocked Alastor as asexual (or at least 'oh he is 100% not into Vox') pretty early on, which gives him a touchstone of confidence because you're going to stay with the guy who actually fucks you, right? But I could definitely see him being stressed/jealous at some point about it, I'm curious to see how that's played in the show if we ever get a flashback that includes Val)

[yukitsunodagf]

trans mick thoughts???

ok so i have 2 schools of thought on this, one is more irl based but the other is more fic based (this post is tagged w rpf for blacklist but im also just warning again, rpf is under the cut)

real based

ok anon so u have basically opened up a can of worms for me . so in reality i do think mick is very frat boy coded and if i think of a mick that’s characterised very canon compliantly, i think: a king himbo like dude… he’s always just sort of known he’s not cis and/or het but didn’t think much of it, but when it comes down to it and he has to confront actual feelings and all that he struggles bc he’s always upheld this image of a poster boy etc etc

i believe that his symbol, the dragon (this is the trans dragon drawjg i rb-d yesterday :)) which he uses a lot (on his helmets and stuff) signifies change in many cultures… at least that’s what it means to me personally.

i also think that f1 drivers in general have a lot of potential with being written as trans in fic simply bc it’s the whole ‘when i out my helmet on and get in the car i am just a driver and no one can see Me’ ?? if that makes sense ?? like personally for me i really enjoy that analogy.

ANYWAY moving on to the less inexplicable things that make me wanna headcanon mick as tboy in my mind is the way his boy is so wiggly.. idk how to explain this but in this picture when he hugs this person HES JUST SOOOOO . so squishy

idk man mb it’s just smth i see but yk 🙏

2. fic

tbh i haven’t read much transmick fic (but if there r recs…… pls send them my way) but like if i were to imagine a general scenario it’s the one i talked abt in the real based thing . basically just wilhelm in young royals sort of arc..

or maybe we could go a different direction and take into consideration the fact that he grew more introverted w each racing series promotion ? maybe he saw that things were getting more and more serious and the pool of ‘talent’ was getting narrower and narrower and less diverse. so maybe he doesn’t wanna tell anyone that he’s transitioned/wants to transition. so he starts getting more secretive bc he doesn’t wanna find out how the worlds gonna treat him ? he doesn’t wanna lose a shot at f1 either ..

when he gets to f1 it’s the time when seb and lewis are advocating for change and equality in the sport. so that’s why he starts getting close and closer to them mostly 😔✊ i feel like he could go either way w telling seb or lewis first bc mb hes closer to seb so he feels more comfortable but what if thats the thing. he’s scared seb won’t accept him bc seb has known him for so long so he tells lewis first instead hmmmm

ok sorry i’m done like as u can tell i am very normal abt transing my blorbos’ genders PLEASE don’t take any of this seriously……… like clearly im just having fun here or projecting wtv wtv. if i get any weird comments abt this in my inbox i am going to block straight away

[balletdoll]

Cursed concept: The Lords in Black as the teletubbies

[iamanartichoke]

I am struggling to have a Thought, here, but -

I was rereading my fic, The Air Between Two Stars, in which Thor basically brings Loki back to life; it diverges from canon after IW bc Endgame hadn't come out yet when I wrote it.

So I came across these lines (edited for conciseness):

“How?” Loki asks ... "How did you bring me back?” "Magic," says Thor, simply. [...] There are ancient resurrection spells that Loki has knowledge of, dark magic performed at great risk to the mage. It is possible. It is also extremely dangerous. He never would have imagined Thor would consider him worth such trouble. Certainly, after fooling Thor twice, Loki owed it to him to die for real so that Thor’s mourning would not be in vain.

I stopped bc that last line sort of jumped at me - after fooling Thor twice, Loki owed it to him to die for real. And it just struck me, like, I wonder how many people (if any) read that line and felt indignant and mentally yelled at me bc Loki never really faked his death, intentionally.

And it's like, yes, I, Charlotte, the writer, know that Loki didn't set out to intentionally fool Thor by faking his death. But my being cognizant of that on a meta level doesn't mean Loki can't feel like he's fooled Thor, in the story, and that all of Thor's mourning him has been in vain.

It just seems like - especially in the wake of the series - that wiggly space between what the author knows and what the character feels has been lost? Like, I'm not saying the narrative (not just in the series but over the span of the entire MCU) hasn't been unfair to Loki in a lot of ways, including regarding his "faked" deaths, but I also feel like a lot of wank stems from people wanting the narrative to be so "fair" that it hinders how Loki can function as a character in the story being told.

Not sure if that makes sense or not, but like - I guess what I'm saying is that this is yet another area where there's just a whole lotta gray in an increasingly black-and-white definition of "analysis." And it just makes me feel some kinda way, I guess.

[kinnoth]

What's your take on Thor Ragnarok? What's your take on Thor's development within the MCU so far?I'm a fan of your posts and tags!

GREAT QUESTIONS THANK YOU FOR ASKING, THANKS FOR BEING A FAN

tldr I """"like"""" Thor's canon development now bc I've done some fucking Olympic grade backfilling and contortion to recontextualize the canon to make it meaningful, but this results in me living in my own pocket universe of an interpretation where I can't really interact with other people bc they don't subscribe to my exact reading of canon

But bro I LOVE Ragnarok. I know that can be a controversial take (I've read the meta of people who think it "slaughtered" Thor and Loki's characterisations), but I just thought it was so much fun! Like on a movie watching experience level and on a lore/meta level, it's FUN. That's not something I can say for 95% of marvel movies, which are nigh universally too dimly lit and too reliant on hateful sarcasm between characters as a substitute for a relationship.

On a meta level, I 1000% subscribe to the idea that the entire movie is a retelling that Thor is preforming for his refugees, so it's a heavily edited, exaggerated, and sillier version of events meant to keep everyone's spirits up. On the point of lore continuity, I really appreciate that thor3 makes CANON and EXPLICIT Odin's campaign of imperialist violence behind his "peaceful" reign over the nine realms, I FUCKIN LOVE IT. I LOVE the context Hela gives to their family, because she makes canon and explicit Odin's disappointments in Thor. I LOVE that Mjolnir was Hela's weapon before it was Thor's because Mjolnir was never meant to be a metric for moral goodness or readiness for rule, but a metric for a colonialist's commitment to imperialist violence on behalf of an empire WHICH IS WHY IT FINDS CAPTAIN AMERICA WORTHY BUT NOT LOKI

(btw if anyone else can draw a line between Hela and Steve Rogers that is a. representative of Odin's priorities and b. includes Thor but excludes Loki, hmu, bc this is the best I got.)

(Mjolnir rejects Thor in thor1 bc Thor was trying to conquer Jotunheim for personal glory and doesn't accept him again until he starts thinking about the good of the empire again by protecting Midgard, an imperial asset. Mjolnir rejects Loki bc Loki is a not an imperialist in service of an empire)

Off topic but I know a lot of people get hung up on Thor leaving Loki paralyzed in the parking garage, potentially to be found by the grandmasters dudes? Like people say that was unaccountably cruel and ooc for Thor. But like, ok, they killed everyone on the way up, and Thor knows his armed gladiator rebellion is on his heels also headed for the parking garage, so I dunno, I never read it as Loki was in any particular danger? But I'm a notorious Thor apologist as well as a Loki apologist so 🤷‍♂️

Things I also love: loki defunding the military to spend that money on art and infrastructure, Loki's live action thorki fanfic that Asgard unaccountably loved, Loki stonewalling Odin's attempt to reconcile bc fuck Odin, Thor's lightning powers, Bruce banner is now a Jewish grandma, Hela have I mentioned Hela love that girlboss, Jeff goldblum love that wiggly man, the Valkyrie love that angry girl, "piss off ghost", inglorious deaths for all the warriors 3, "I'm here" (screaming, crying, shaking), the story about how Loki bit Thor as a snake as well as the confirmation that they are in fact the same age

I have complicated feelings about Thor's canon development tbh. On a very ground floor sort of reaction, I despise what they did to My Boy in infinity war and endgame. I think it's a disgusting character assassination and I don't think the russos understand humour and specifically how to use humour to expand on tragedy like what thor3 did.

On the other hand, if you've read my fic and meta, you'll know that I've accepted the canon development, bc at this point, I've done a LOT of very deliberate and concerted labour to MAKE the canon development we see between thor1 and endgame WORK. But, like, there was a LOT of labour that I, specifically, put into it. It fully relies on me specifically doing a lot of digging and reaching and mining these movies for every possible frame of content to the point where I am pretty sure I've put more effort into making all the development make continuous sense than any of the screenwriters put into the actual development.

And I think I've probably just drank too much of my own Kool aid but like, I am in a position now where I do think my interpretation of Thor's character development is THE most complete and accurate reading of his character development. Key to these points are: a) I think he is an ex-imperialist who is currently and actively trying to deprogram himself from the colonialists' mindset that Odin instilled within him b) he is trying to deprogram himself from Asgard's culture of extreme toxic masculinity wherein he was not taught to have any sort of emotional processing that did not involve physical violence c) Loki is/was/always will be the person he loves best

So like, as I try to show in my thorki canonverse fics (shameless plug for myself), I can make most of the bad decisions made about Thor's character in infinity war and endgame work if I recontextualize all of his canon actions with my own (well supported, well documented) headcanon'd baggage. Of course he goes on a death wish mission to get revenge on Thanos -- he has a literal deathwish bc he was already supposed to die with Loki. Of course he sinks into an unshakeable depression afterwards -- he has no identity now that he has no family bc he was never taught to live by himself or for himself. Of course he leaves new Asgard and abdicates his rule -- he hasn't wanted a hand in the dirty business of Empire ever since Odin's ambition got his mom and brother killed in thor2, and that hasn't changed. I try to make him go through all the canon-implied feelings and anxieties and doubts in front of the reader. My entire goal of this is that people read my shit, then look at canon and think "oohh that context DOES make it better!" I will be gratified if that is the case.

(The only thing I cannot fix is the bit in endgame where Thor walks past Loki's Tupperware cell and the narrative doesn't come to a screeching fucking halt as Thor has so many feelings that he has some sort of paralytic breakdown where he simultaneously wants to commit Time Crime (tm) so he can just stay here forever and also wishes he could just die here, next to loki, like he was always supposed to. Like, that needed to happen to really lynchpin all of my work together into one smooth, problem free reading, but I'm not allowed to have nice things so)

(oh also I didn't like Thor calling frigga "mom". Shouldn't it at least be "mum"? I think "mother" is best tbh, bc I don't really read them as having that sort of relationship, see "toxic masculinity", see also "homosocial socialisation")

(and ok I get that it was a nice moment for Thor to call the hammer back to his hand, and I get that it even still works with my headcanon that mjolnir finds Thor worthy still bc Thor is defending the imperial asset that is Midgard, but like God damnit. The uncritical and unquestioning use of that word "worthy" when he catches the hammer again. Like worthy of what you guys? Do you ever ask yourself that question bc I very much do. I kinda wish they didnt bring it up at all, or if they did, it didn't come back to Thor's hand and he is just like, wistfully, "that's all right, I suspected as much. I'm such a different man now, mjolnir doesn't recognize me. I don't think I'd be alive right now if I had been the same man I was")

Wow that got long, anyway, thanks for chatting with me! Again, always a pleasure to field asks!

[kyidyl]

Kyidyl Explains Bones - Part 4.2

(These are all collected in the KyidylBones tag.  Additionally, this is the second half of part four - please read the first half here, especially if you have questions or comments about the ethics of what I’m talking about here.  I’m going to be leaving that out as this is a continuation of that post.)

Since I’m skipping the talking and ethical statements in this one, let’s just get right into the bones.  As a reminder, this is about race determination in skeletal remains.  

White/Caucasoid.  

Female, front view. (Source)

Male, profile view (Source)

So let’s break this down in an orderly way (I will put the comparisons and stuff at the bottom in an orderly table for easy reference.  Hell, this is partially for my own reference too bc I never remember this stuff off the top of my head.): 

Eye shape and sharpness - This is easiest to see in the front view, obviously.  White skulls that have stereotypically white features will have eye orbits that are technically called “square with rounded edges” (or as we call them in the nail world....sqoval.), but they sit at kind of an angle where they’re higher in the middle and lower at the lateral sides so most of us just refer to them as “aviator glasses” which I think is pretty funny of us.  And although you obviously can’t feel it with your fingers, the borders of the eye sockets will be sharper.  

Prognathism - As you can see from the bottom image, on a caucasian skull there is a low amount of prognathism.  The chin is often behind the spine of the nose rather than protruding.  European skulls have flatter faces, basically.  Although this male has a bit of an overbite so the curve around his teeth is more severe than it otherwise might be.  Generally speaking though, you’ll be able to draw a line from the nasal spine to the chin and not much will stick out past the line and the line will be straight.  The “muzzle” area of the face is less pronounced.  

Nasal Shape - This is actually mathematically determined by a measurement called the nasal index.  It is the ratio of the height to the width multiplied by 100.  European skulls have thin, tall noses, and you can see that illustrated pretty well in the woman above.  

Nasal Sill - On caucasians, the nasal spine aka sticky-outy-bit at the bottom of the opening that you can see in profile is more pronounced.  It sticks out further.  This means that a caucasian skull will also have more guttering behind the edge of the sill.  IE, if you stick your finger in its nose and run it along the bottom of the nasal passage, you will feel a distinct dip. Europeans have a distinct nasal sill.  

Nasal Bridge - White have shorter nasal bones, and so the bridge of their nose is shorter in profile.  It also usually has a more extreme curve in the area inferior to the browbone.  This male actually isn’t a good example of that, because his nasal bones are long for a caucasian skull.  Basically, our noses stick out further.  

Unique skull features - None.  Caucasian skulls are kinda boring TBH.  

Next, we have black/African skulls.  In the US especially this can be a lot harder to determine because of centuries of admixture with the white population: 

This is a front and profile view of the same male, african individual. (Source)

Something you’ll start to notice as we go through this is that Black skulls and white skulls usually have opposite features and asian skulls are between these two extremes (Except for eye orbit shape.  Here it’s Asian on one end and African on the other, with European inbetween.).  If you think about geography here, it kinda makes sense.  Anyway, the skull features: 

Eye orbit shape and sharpness - African skulls tend to have eye orbits that are more square in shape, and often aren’t angled the way they are in whites.  This individual’s are angled though so they’re not super stereotypical of what would be considered characteristic of African eye orbits.  His are fairly square though.  The edges of the orbits tend to be softer and less distinct.  

Prognathism - African skulls are prognathic, meaning that they stick out the furthest.  In this individual, you’ll notice that it isn’t just his teeth that stick out past the line because of an overbite, the entire upper part of the maxilla is curved outwards.  African faces are much less flat than white ones.  The “muzzle” area is more pronounced.  

Nasal Shape - As you might expect, African nasal shapes are much wider and shorter than European ones.  They appear a lot rounder, and this is something that’s fairly unique to them, especially if the individual has very stereotypically African features.  

Nasal Sill - The nasal spine sticks out much less in an African skull - I’ve seen individuals who barely had one at all.  Between that and the prognathism, the bone almost seems as if it stretches, and you see very little silling.  So if you stick your finger up its nose you won’t have a sharp edge with a dip behind it in the nasal passage.  Sometimes there won’t even be a sill at all.  I actually found a really good image of this, but I don’t want to mess up tumblr’s list ordering, so I’ll stick it in below the list.  

Nasal Bridge - Africans have flatter noses, and to accommodate this their nasal bones are longer and the curve that’s inferior to the browbones is much less acute.  Their noses stick out less than that of Europeans’, and it’s something that is fairly consistent in their skeletal remains.  

Unique racial features - Not many, but Africans do have something called a “bushman’s canine”. Now, I’m gonna be honest with you guys and tell you that I STILL have problems identifying this feature.  This is despite the fact that I was taught dental anthropology by one of the dudes who basically came up with these guidelines.  So on the bottom of the upper canines there is a bump of tooth enamel that is more pronounced on Africans than it is on other races.  There’s a grading scale and stuff.  You can read about it here.  Now I found that by just googling Bushman’s canine, but one of the authors (Joel Irish) was my prof, lol.  Here’s a picture of it, but actually the drawing in that paper above is better at illustrating the two opposite ends of the scale.  I added the lines: 

(Source)

In addition, here’s the image showing the nose shape: 

(Source)

African skulls will also sometimes have stronger muscle attachment sites, but honestly there’s a lot of that part of anatomy that’s social so it’s not something you can use to ID them unless you know what they should be for the society you’re looking into.  

Ok, so that’s African skulls done.  Next up, Asian.  As a reminder, Asian and Native American skulls are *extremely* similar.  This is because they share common ancestors.  This is also confirmed by their genetics (Native American genetics are super interesting, but that’s a whole other thing.).  

(Source)

This is an Asian male.  

Eye Shape/Sharpness - Asians and Natives have round eye sockets, and the edge of the socket is of middling sharpness.  In addition, their cheekbones tend to be flatter and wider, so the combination of these things makes their skull shape pretty distinctive.  Personally I find Asian and Native American skulls to be the easiest to ID, and a lot of these features persist through admixture, too.  

Prognathism - Asian/NA skulls have a middling amount of protrusion.  This individual has a distinct prognathism, but it’s honestly hit or miss.  They can have it either way.  Asian cheekbones tend to mitigate the visual effect though so it’s a bit harder to see without specifically looking for it in profile with a straightedge.  

Nasal Shape - As you can see from this individual, the nasal opening is neither as tall as caucasians nor as wide as Africans.  Again, this correlates to what you might expect given their phenotypes in life.  Theirs are the most heart shaped, too.  

Nasal Sill - This is another area where they fall between the “very pronounced” of whites and the “not at all pronounced” of Africans.  This individual barely has a nasal spine at all, but does appear to have something of a sill that would be present if you felt inside the nasal passage for it.  

Nasal Bridge - Same as above, it falls in between the two extremes in shape and length.  

Unique Racial Features - This is why I think Asian and Native Skulls are the easiest to ID.  They have some really interesting racial quirks i their skull anatomy.  First off, they have what’s called a persistent metopic suture.  When we’re all babies our forehead (frontal) bone is in two pieces, and then they fuse.  The suture between the two is then obliterated, IE, completely healed and smoothed over.  In Asians and Native Americans, this suture fuses but you can still see it: 

(Source)

It’s a completely harmless genetic variant that runs in those racial groups.  The second easy to identify feature is shoveling.  On the back of the upper (Maxillary) incisors.  It’s basically just a difference in shape; a border around the back of the tooth.  It looks like this: 

(Source)

And here is the scale we use to grade it: 

(Source - heheh there’s Joel again.)

It’s found on the lower incisors as well, but it’s easiest to see on the maxillary ones.  

The last easy indicator is found along the sutures along the top and back of the skull.  The coronal (arc along the front like a crown), sagittal (top center) and lambdoid (where the parietals fuse to the occipital.  It’s like a downward V on the back of your skull.) sutures can be what’s called simple or complex.  In Africans and whites, the sutures are mostly simple.  In Asians and Native Americans, it’s complex.  What that means is that the wiggly line is so wiggly that it loops back on itself and forms extra small bones called wormian bones.  Sometimes these bones can actually be very large and have names.  Here’s what a skull with small wormian bones looks like: 

(Source)

The bones with the star are the wormian bones, although there are other, smaller ones.  Very large ones are called Inca Bones, after the population they were first identified in.  They look like this: 

(Source)

A and B are examples of Inca bones.  They’re generally a harmless genetic variant.  

Lastly, we’ll address aborigonal features: 

(Source)

This is an aboriginal man.  Aboriginal is a generalized term for any indigenous group, but in anthropology - and from what I can see most places - we use it to describe people indigenous to Australia and the surrounding islands.  The reason why it is only sometimes considered a separate category is that it’s pretty localized, and the differences really come down to some special features.  So here are the main differences you can look for to tell if a skull is aboriginal: 

Large teeth.  Aboriginal people have really big teeth.  There’s no other way to put this, they just...they’re large.  

Very pronounced browbone.  As you can see above, the browbone is MUCH heavier on an aboriginal skull than on any other kind of skull.  This is especially true for males.  

Flatter chin.  It’s called the mental protuberance, and on an aboriginal individual it is less prominent than on other individuals.  

Large occipital bun.  The occipital bun is the bit at the bottom back of your skull where your neck muscles attach.  You can see it in the profile picture in the far right sticking out of the bottom of the skull.  It’s especially pronounced in aboriginal people.  

Ok, so there is one more important characteristic for judging race that I totally forgot to include yesterday, and that’s palatine shape.  The dental arcade is the area of the maxilla that houses the teeth.  Basically the top of your mouth.  And as you, a human person, knows - it’s in the shape of an arch.  But that arch varies in shape from race to race.  And, what your probably don’t know from not seeing a bunch of skulls, is that there are sutures in there.  Between 2-4, but even when you have two they bisect each other and look like 4.  The shape of these sutures also varies from race to race.  Again, it’s a harmless genetic variant that runs in various geographic areas.  However, I’m going to elect to skip it because there’s already a LOT of info in this post and going into it with the depth it deserves would be a lot.  Instead, I’m going to just summarize here for you all WRT the characteristics I’ve listed: 

Eye sockets: White - Aviator glasses, rounded square, sharp edge.  Black - square/rectangle, blunt edge.  Asian & Native - Round, middling sharp edges.  

Prognathism: White - little to no prognathism.  Black - most pronounced prognathism.  Asian & Native - varies between these two extremes.  

Nasal Shape: White - tall and thin.  Black - short and round.  Asian & Native - in-between these two.  

Nasal Sill: White - sharp nasal spine, deep well behind a sharp wall.  Black - Little or no spine, smooth sill.  Asian & Native - Varies between these two.  

Nasal Bridge: White - short nasal bones, more extreme curve.  Black - longer, flatter nasals, a much less extreme curve.  Asian & Native - you guessed it...between these two extremes.  

Unique racial features: White - None. Black - Bushman’s canine.  Asian & Native - tooth shoveling, persistent metopic suture, wormian/Inca bones.  

And that is it! The rest of this series shouldn’t be quite this sensitive with respect to the subject matter.  Tomorrow is gonna be the archaeology of graves AKA how to dig up dead people.  =D After that will be (in no specific order) age determination, height determination, and teeth.  Maybe other things if I feel like it.  If you have questions or requests, don’t hesitate to ask! 

[blueskiesandstarrynights]

This is completely out of left field, but for the au prompts- ghost!ethan meeting the jatp ghosts?

You are a genius. I'm gonna divide this into 2 parts: Ethan goes to the molinas, and the guys go to the bunker. thats the only way this works bc of the whole end of the world kind of thing. Sorry this is just ideas and not an actual writing piece, I'm just not sure how to go about that, so i guess just take this for now. This is probably gonna be a bit long so I'm gonna put a break

First off, I should note that if Lex and Julie met, it would definitely lead to this exchange:

Lex: So you're a witch too, huh?

Julie: What? No I'm not.

Lex: You summoned those guys with a CD.

Julie: I didn't *summon* them, I just played their CD and they appeared out of nowhere! I can't summon, and I'm not a witch

Lex, tired: Yeah, that's what I said at first too.

Now, if Ethan went to the Molina's-

He was testing poofing abilities

And just completely overshot it all the way over to cali lol

There was a freak out session

Cuz they had been sorta quarantining since bf

to avoid the crazy people influenced by wiggly

The freak out session includes an excited flynn cuz "!!! I can see a ghost now!!!"

cuz lex summoned ethan so he can be seen by everyone in case I didn't mention that earlier.

It also includes ethan freaking out cuz cali's really far and now hes really exhausted and doesnt know how long itll be till he can go back

julies just tired TM

3 teenage ghost boys took some adjusting, but a fourth? And one whos a himbo?? Please give this girl a break

Ray comes out to the studio cuz he hears the yelling

Julie quickly tells ethan to outside bc she's not in the mood to explain this to her dad since he still doesn't know about ghosts and ethans not invisible.

hes much more on edge rn bc of the riots

It takes a bit, but julie placates him

Once rays back inside, Julie ask what ethans doing here

this basically leads to him telling what happened to him during bf and everything since then.

Which is a lot, obviously, but they're all enjoying the story

Ethan talks about his awesome witch gf and her amazing witch little sister way more than was needed for the story, but the boys a simp, let him talk.

"Hey julie that kinda sounds like some of the things you did"

"Reggie come on-"

"I dunno that kinda sounds like a witch-y thing to do, according to John"

*seething julie noises in the background*

Willie pops by one time and is like "oh. so we're picking up strays now, in apocalypse cool"

Ethans just "???? Stray???? What???"

He kinda stays a while (like a week or two to rest up and poof back to hatchetfield)

Ethans a big snitch btw, he'll listen in and/or participate in conversations between the guys and shares it all with flynn at her request

Ethan enjoys his time at the Molina's, but when he can leave, he's ready to go, he misses everyone.

They all say goodbye and agree that was a bit of an odd experience

But it has brought back Reggies "julie is a witch" theories and she resents that.

Anyways now onto the guys come to the bunker-

Basically during black friday, the guys panic and poof out, but they over shoot and land all the way in the bunker

Yes I know this doesn't really make sense but idc this isn't gonna be super fleshed out

Anyways there's more panicking from Alex Luke and reggie than lex and Hannah who are in the room that they poof into

Emma walks in and sees the girls talking to air which she quickly puts together is not John, and just kinda gives lex this questioning look

And lex holds her hands up and says "I didn't summon these three I swear"

Emma just mouths the word three in shock before just,,,, walking out

The fact that they poofed halfway across the country is Not Helping alex's anxiety.

Plus there are more lifers who can see them?

Pls help him

Once they find that the lifers who can see them are, in fact, witches, reggie jumps right back to his Julie is a witch theory

In case u can't tell, reggie is me

They too stick around for a couple weeks

To rest so they can poof back

They exchange bf stories

Plus I hc that the dark room is the b&w

They briefly saw wiley in the b&w

But wiley didn't care about them so didn't pay them any mind

But when they first saw that ad campaign they told the molinas to stay away

So it was really interesting to them to hear about the more B&W side of bf

Its kinda weird for people knowing there are three teenage ghosts they can't see living in the bunker with them

Luke, as the resident song writer, is appalled by workin boys.

Reggies thoughts are more

Alex has no such reservations.

He tears the story and the songs apart so much

Btw the fosters and ethan came across the edge of Great video and Ethan, who I believe is a conspiracy theorist, insisted they were ghosts and lex just thought they were impressive holograms and didn't believe in that kind of thing

They placed a joke bet on it

Hannah obviously sided with Ethan on this

When the guys came and introduced themselves as jatp (tell your friends!) ethan declared that lex owes him five bucks

Lex then reminded him that he's dead and can't do anything with it

Ethan concided and settled for bragging rights

Long story short the guys have quite the story for Julie when she gets back

Anyways that's all I have for now, add in anywhere if u want, I'd love to see your thoughts.

[aniseandspearmint]

The whole Frodo and Annatar and Celebrimbor sharing features now is a PERFECT opening for the assumption that Annatar and Celebrimbor have a love child. What can I say, I just can't help but picture the FACES the three of them would make being confronted with that idea?

Celebrimbor sputtering incoherently.

Frodo being like *politely horrified face* no thank you, I'm too sane to be related to either of them!

Annatar seethingly explaining that neither of them have the right bits for that kind of creation will not help.

Especially since I suspect that bloodline is something you can check via Song, and Frodo's new body IS very likely made from a bit of *wiggly fingers* hastily swiped and combined genetic material. (Eru is probably giggling, if they can)

Curufin is going to flip. Celegorm is going to have fun watching his brother flip. This may actually help because if they're flipping out over the family baby possibly having a GROWN baby they have less time for stupid ideas? IDK

Squinting at my memories of the timeline, I think if Finrod was only just captured, Luthien probably only just left Doriath? And Curufin and Celegorm have not had time to grab her yet?

So, if Celebrimbor steals Huan first he should be able to get to her and steer her towards tol-in-gaurhoth/tol sirion.

I imagine Curufin and Celegorm are in hot pursuit bc from THEIR point of view Tyelpe was angry, then he was acting a bit strange, an then he stole his uncle's magic dog (and Huan let himself be stolen!)

Luthien, Celebrimbor, and Huan meet up with everyone a bit into the mountains away from tol-in-gaurhoth? Maybe? I'm not really sure because the maps of Beleriand are nice but make very little sense distance wise? (Mildly judging Tolkien for this. C'mon man, you KNEW how important maps are! Why is there no key?)

The story acts like tol sirion and nargothrond are closer than they are really. Given how big some of these places are described as being? *hands* travel by magic hound is really fast I guess?

¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I figure Annatar would steer his bunch of battered ducklings elves in a direction that Sauron would hopefully not expect, which, he would probably expect them to flee backwards towards the forest of brethil or forwards towards hithlum and not sideways into the mountains on either side?

I'm sure Annatar gave his past incarnation enough of a thumping he'll be out of commission for a bit, so if he can get to like, a bolt hole/supply cache he can remember the location of, everyone can get a minute to breathe, see to injuries, and they can find Frodo a pair of boots.

Plus I'm sure he would be able to tell Tyelpe is getting closer. And running around will make it harder for Tyelpe to find them.

When Tyelpe and co catch up, they can figure out what in the WORLD is going on.

Finrod's Ten (and Beren!) REALLY want an explanation. The three of them are trying to figure out one that doesn't sound bonkers insane. It's very difficult. XD

Tyelpe shows up soon enough to help with that hopefully! With unexpected help from Luthien who blinks at Annatar for a minute, able to sense something Weird with a capital W.

The half maiar daughter of Thingol and Melian backing up their story as TRUTH in all caps probably helps a lot?

Also Huan the magic possibly-minor-maiar dog maybe chooses this as a time to Talk? IDK

Annatar probably has Opinions about the Quest everyone is throwing in on. I feel like this is a thing he can and will go on about at LENGTH. High points being; Thingol is a moron, asking for an unreachable by normal means bride price as a thinly veiled murder attempt is petty af, asking for a bride price AT ALL is terrible because elves DON'T DO THAT NORMALLY! Then he segues into how stealing a famously already stolen shiny rock does not mean its YOURS now ffs, it's just twice stolen, followed by getting into the wisdom of keeping a thing a bunch of scary dangerous people have sworn to retrieve at all cost lest they end up in the VOID upon death!

Beren: O__O

Luthien: O__O

This probably will not stop them, but IDK maybe enough will penetrate so they have the strength to tell Thingol to go to hell a bit. He deserves it.

And now it's The Silmarils Quest take two: Annatar plans a proper heist!

The original plan had was fairly simple, it worked! He can improve it tho.

First step is setting up a proper escape route to take once they've got the goods. Frodo and Edrahil are in charge of that, because none of the other time travelers want Frodo ANYWHERE near Morgoth (this is not helping the secret lovechild idea at all probably).

Then they make sure to spread the rest of everyone out along the escape route to provide cover fire if they're chased maybe. (Heists are hard, pretend there's a good plan here)

With Luthien, and Finrod, AND Annatar Singing? I feel like they might be able to keep Morgoth under long enough to just swipe the whole CROWN, they can yank the rocks out AFTER they're gone!

Heck, that might be enough to put most of Angband to sleep. Maybe do that thing Maglor gets to do in stories and Sing half or more of Morgoths army right to death. Maybe, maybe. Might be too risky tho.

HEY.

I had the most interesting dream after falling asleep switching between the latest chapter of The Horrowing and a time travel fix it in another fandom. I thought you might enjoy a brief summary?

Post fic canon Annatar, Finrod, Celebrimbor, and Frodo getting the most hilarious do over of the First Age.

Finrod and Celebrimbor got dropped in their past bodies, bc same souls. Which has Finrod JUST captured by Sauron, before any of his 10 have been munched.

Celebrimbor is of course having a surreal not quite panic attack in Nargothrond.

Annatar, well. Annatar is CHANGED. He is quite literally too different from what he once was for them to qualify as the same soul anymore. Which is gratifying. If inconvenient bc there are now TWO of him, Annatar and full on Sauron. But they're similar enough that Annatar was dropped very close to Sauron.

Frodo is an elf. Dream logic was that hobbits do not exist yet, and his soul has touches of Annatar and Aman. He looks disconcertingly like a mix of Annatar and Celebrimbor, and they are NOT thinking about that right now. Hopefully ever.

Most of the dream centered around all of them doing their best to set aside freak outs, while getting Finrod and his merry band (plus Beren) OUT of Sauron's grasp.

There was a FANTASTIC moment where on the way out, Sauron comes face to face and soul to soul with Annatar and he's just like;

Sauron: *jaw dropped fully horrified face* WHAT are YOU?!?!?

Annatar: *shoving elves behind him, nose in the air* Wouldn't YOU like to know, weather boy. *uses Song to blast him through a wall while he's distracted*

The whole thing featured 10 other elves and Beren as a baffled peanut gallery.

Meanwhile Celebrimbor is weighing the pros and cons of just- drugging his uncles and shoving them in a back room somewhere where he can bolt the door. He thinks he can maybe get Huan to help if he explains?

It was SO much fun.

(hope you have a good day!)

Oh my god. This may be the best ask I've ever gotten, for so many reasons.

The fact that your subconscious was like "Yeah if Frodo's getting a new body it looks like Annatar For Some Reason"

The image of future!Annatar getting into a fight with Sauron in front of Finrod (probably happy about this development) and Beren and the other 10 (INCREDIBLY CONFUSED)

The fact that the dream was partially centered on everybody trying not to panic, which is in fact what the Harrowing is all about for a while

Absolutely incredible.

...I feel so bad for poor Celebrimbor dealing with Nargothrond all by himself while the others are off having adventures. I hope their next stop after the rescue is to swing by and pick him up. Also, I dearly want to know what Annatar has to say to Beren on the subject of his current Luthien-and-Thingol-and-Silmarils situation.

[lightbows]

scrap of somethiiiing i’m working on again finally

idk if anybody cares at this point buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it’s post rise of skywalker bc every time i think about that movie (which i did like) i am more frustrated about how it isn’t even about rey

so our space gal is looking for meaning Out There Somewhere...

----------------------

“I sense you are trying to do the impossible.”

“How so?” She sat back, regarding the monk with enough suspicion that he’d need no Whills’ instinct to detect it.

“It’s a heavy burden, a legacy.”

Rey nodded, unsure which of the loads she was presently trying to shoulder would drag her down first. “But not an impossibility. Everyone does it, in some way.”

“Everyone carries their own.” Abban flopped back on the sandstone behind him. It couldn’t be comfortable but he reclined with a stretch as contently as if hitting a feather bed. “You attempt to drag around two or three and none of them reach their destination.”

A deep breath pressed out a quick white-hot flame of anger, and the smirk on the monk’s face made it threaten to rise again. “You presume quite a lot,” she said in a clipped tone. “My legacy and theirs are one.”

“You tell me I presume,” he chuckled, kicking one leg over the other. “And then tell me I’m entirely correct. Master Skywalker, even far, far out here, your name preceeds you. Your story crosses that one you’re tangled up in, make no mistake. But the roots are far away and they’re getting all--” He made a wiggly gesture with his fingers that made Rey rather want to lop them off. “All dried up. Lucky you’re a desert plant, from what I’ve heard.”

Another person might have been speechless, while Rey was, not exactly to her credit, merely thoughtless. Words came easily enough as she shot to her feet. “You knew who I was this whole time!” Noble the words were not, a cracking edge to her voice that more recalled a complaining youth than a Jedi master. “And you play these games!”

“I like games,” he said in lieu of a defense, pulling himself upright again and scratching at his bristly shaved head. “Besides, you came here for wisdom you should be looking for in yourself. I offered what I could, which isn’t much.”

“That is a massive understatement.”

“Again, you pick out the self-serving parts of--” He interrupted himself with a short laugh and a shake of his head. “Let me tell you a story, Master Skywalker.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Oh, because you’re already here, because your ship will take a day and a half to get its wings back, because I am just a little bit charming,” he spoke with his hands though the gestures did not seem connected to any words in particular. “Take your pick.”

Rey narrowed her eyes a moment, then sat. “It’s the second one,” she said firmly.

Abban carried on—showing some wisdom after all. “I had a teacher, who had a teacher, who had a teacher--”

“I’ve only a day and a half, please remember.”

“--who came from the old traditions. The really old ones, back from the days the Jedi all but erased from their history once politics got into it. So, this teacher’s-teacher’s-teacher—let’s call him Master Anyu. He was from the homeworld. He lived and worked and taught at the temples, just like generations before him as far back as anyone could remember. When he was a child, they always told him he didn’t have the gift.”

���The Force?”

“The Force, the Whills’ instincts, the ability to walk and talk at the same time. You name it. He was a clumsy kid who had a hard time learning, from a time and place that didn’t have either the means or the desire or either to give him a boost.”

“But he became a Master.”

“He became a Master.”

Rey rubbed her eyes, patience dwindling yet again. “Am I meant to be inspired?”

“Not really,” Abban said with a sigh. “He rose through the stages slowly and got there by sheer endurance, and was one of hundreds. Then he raised a generation that watched their home and spiritual centers stolen from beneath them and destroyed.” He smiled at Rey’s bewildered expression, which only made her more confused. “And I’m two generations removed from that.”

“But you know his name.”

“And now you do too.” He shrugged. “Is that a legacy? I don’t know. It’s a story. He wasn’t the first or the last or the greatest. He’s a man who lived a long time so his name was said a lot, and now I’m saying it again. Longevity isn’t worthiness though, you know? Not to speak ill of the man, but there’s next to nothing we know about the Guardians who came after him, who fought and died defending what he simply carried from one wing of the world to the other.”

“But his legacy is that those Guardians existed,” Rey murmured, eyes gazing past Abban down the long hallway of those who came before him. “They come from him, and your teachers come from them, and--”

“Master Skywalker, we respect our ancestors here, those in our blood and those in our memory. You do not need to preach to me about where I come from.” His tone was lighthearted, amused even, despite--or maybe because of--Rey’s immediate look of chagrin. “We remember where we came from but we do not try to use that path as a map. It only goes one way. You cannot finish someone else’s story. It is already finished, whether you liked the ending or not.”

The words struck her with a great force and she looked away, off to the horizon where a moon she hadn’t noticed before was beginning to poke its greenish-silver head over the hills. “What about our story?” She asked haltingly, at long last deferring to the wisdom she had, at least in name, come here to find. “The universal story—all of us creatures, together in the Force.”

“Asking the right questions is a good first step, Master Skywalker.” He drummed his fingers on his knee a moment, thinking. “So, what about it indeed? Surely you don’t think you have to write that story yourself.” Rey’s hesitation was heavy enough to compell the monk to simply step over it. “Or is it that you’re upset you can’t?”

The question itself wasn’t so bad, but Abban’s amused tone was enough to set Rey’s teeth on edge once more. “I am—I am simply looking for my place in all of this.”

“To give it to you straight,” he said, one eyebrow lifting. “It would be easier to believe that if you weren’t wearing two or three cloaks’ worth of borrowed identities...Master Skywalker.”

With that she was on her feet again, this time whirling around and storming towards her speeder without hesitation. The presumptuous fool, she fumed, thoughts loud enough that she wasn’t sure how much was internal and how much aloud. Luckily the rickety engine drowned out whatever uncharitable goodbye she may have had for Abban as she sped away once more, the grind of old gears and the miniature sandstorm in her wake a familiar lullaby for her anger.

The notion of circling back to the city, where Abban’s fellow monks would be waiting with further wisdom was unbearable, so she found herself reverting to certain old habits, turning the vehicle toward the emptiest expanse of sand imaginable and driving as far as she dared. It was the kind of thing that used to have the dual purpose of clearing her head and possibly leading to a profit, some abandoned craft deep in the wasteland of an entirely different desert that might have paid for a meal or two. Now it was to avoid the food and warmth and company that waited in the other direction—still a meditation of sorts.

Settling into a glide around a dune, with the knowledge she’d soon need to circle back, it would have been easy for another person to miss: the mostly constant, fuzzy sound of sand whipping beneath repulsorlifts gradually grew less steady, the sound of stone pinging off the lower hull breaking through Rey’s thoughts. No—not stone. Rey slowed, lowering one boot to the ground, and was immediately greeted with another crunch. Glass—real glass, not transparisteel. More and more of it, as if she’d suddenly driven over only the narrowest edge of an enormous shattered mirror, stretching to the horizon and beyond. And then, hitting even harder than the sound, the feeling up ahead, the sense of enormous tragedy sealed inside a horrible glittering cage.

[reingkings]

Black Friday (*Spoilers*)

Alright first I want to say this is not hate! I absolutely LOVED Black Friday. However, I did have some things that I felt could have been changed to make the script a little stronger

Things I loved:

The old TGWDLM gang! — we got an update into their lives without it being overly shoved into our faces. It was just there for people who loved the first musical, but knowing about them wasn’t necessary to the understanding of this one

The music! — Feast or Famine, Do You Want to Play?, Adore Me (especially the chorus), Black Friday, If I Fail You, Our Doors Are Open well I can’t name them all.

Oh, and how America is Great Again played in the background when General McNamara appears on screen. I’m a sucker for characters having their own themes songs. Wouldn’t it be amazing if Paul got a mix of Let it Out/Inevitable

The fact that starkid made a MUSICAL extended universe

The new characters/actors, Kim, Angela, Kendall, James, Curt, were all amazing and their addition really helped flesh out the new universe (plus, it doesn’t hurt that they have amazing voices)

The old cast playing new dynamics and pushing themselves (Lauren, Dylan, and Joey especially, but Jaime killed in her role as Sherman too, as did Robert with Ethan and Jon as Gary)

THE SCRIPT OH MY GOD THE SCRIPT

The choreography! Feast or Famine was my favorite but they keep getting better and better with this!

Their comedy, still fucking gold. Especially those fucking oneliners and small exchanges. “Well, we haven’t put a label on it yet” “But we are intimate” *moment if silence*, “Hannah what the fuck is this, that better be fucking floss!”, “That’s a bribe sir, and that’s illegal”, *raised eyebrow*, “... Well it should be”, “Ooh right in the subpeona”, everything about James Tolbert as Agent Morris

The social CRITIQUE, the fact that the kids don’t even want wiggly, it’s the adults who want to buy wigglys to fill the holes in them (still buying a wiggly though)

How vitalized they all seem to be about the new direction of starkid/that they’re experimenting and coming out of their comfort zone. I love starkid but you could tell that they were getting worn out by just sticking to the same formula of just making parodies. Before TGWDLM we had 2 year gaps between uploads of musicals (which, a year to write a musical is incredible, Sondheim has currently been working on the latest for a decade, and Miranda took like three for Hamilton). I love seeing creators grow

The overall aesthetic of the stage, costumes, and music was so vicerally haunting and scary. I literally slept with my hallway light on and the door open the first time I saw it

Sigh, and now for the things I might get pitchforked for

First some technical stuff. One, I think the sound equipment was on too low for the stage production. If you compare the songs in the stage production to the album version, you can tell that the more subtle parts of the intrumentals were just too quiet. Also, the actors’ voices were much louder than the music so sometimes it was like they were singing acapella. Two, although I appreciate the new camera work and how it’s more similar to traditional recordings of musicals, it did take away from my ability to appreciate the choreography and the subtle reactions of the cast

While a lot of the songs were good, some of them just needed to be cut or trimmed. Especially for songs where one line of explanation would have sufficed. An example of a trimmed song I think is CaliforM.I.A where Lex sings that her mom is an alcoholic, etc. I feel like it could have just been spoken and it would have been more subtle, quiet and painful. A song I think needed to be cut was Deck the Halls. I love Robert, but that song was mostly just an omage to what they did with Workin’ Boys. However, the part that made Workin’ Boys, pardon the pun, work was that it was Professor Hidggen’s backstory/dream. It revealed something about him and his isolation

Some of the lines in the lyrics were just clunky. It’s something I noticed in TGWDLM, but I thought it really worked there since the characters couldn’t sing naturally. However, it seemed to be worse in this? Like I said, some songs were still golden. But some just. Monsters and Men, I noticed had a lot of it. Which yeah, they had less than a year to write it and they had more songs than TGWDLM, so it makes sense that some are a bit rushed? But still, i would have preferred a shorter soundtrack with tighter songs.

I think the Becky and Tom romance was so unnecessary. I feel like yeah, you can make them exes, and you can build up their chemistry so it’s implied they’ll get together eventually, but the fact that they fall in “love” in like 5 hours makes them so shoehorned. For Becky, it’s kind of a disservice because most of her songs are then focused on romance. For Tom, it’s just. It kind of cheapens him, especially since he was previously married for at least 8 years. Like you don’t hear him mention Jane or Tim at all, or worry about Tim’s gift when he’s at the theater. So when it comes to him singing “If I Fail You” it doesn’t feel authentic because you don’t get that sense of Tom feeling like failure over Tim in his dialogue. And also, you could cut out a lot of songs (and give them something new ones)

Although I loved the multiple storylines, I felt like it was really hard to connect to the characters. I feel like that might be because of the songs? Characters were so busy with info dump songs that there were just less interactions in general. I would have loved if the character subtleties could be explored in the same way as TGWDLM

They shouldn’t have killed Ethan. Not just because it’s Robert, but as part of the overall storyline, they shouldn’t have killed Ethan.

Imagine if it had played out like this: No Becky-Tom Romance. They’re just fleeing the mayhem together because they’re the few that managed to keep sane. Becky has a doll but Tom doesn’t. Ethan and Hannah get accosted by the mob. Ethan tells Hannah to run and you see him start to fight, but not what happens after. Hannah is running and you see dead bodies strewn around the mall (to show that people have died). Becky and Tom appear. They hear a few of the wiggly worshippers members yell that they have to find the girl with the wiggly. Tom joins in on the hunt because “he needs to find one for Tim”, the same scene plays out with Do You Want to Play With Me? bc that song is a BOP but Ethan shows up to save Hannah. Becky manages to snap out of her trance and helps Ethan subdue Tom. The three of them flee. Now the two of them are bigger targets bc they had two wigglys. Meanwhile Lex teams up with her managers/discovers her supernatural powers during their escape or something and goes looking for Hannah and Ethan. All this within the first act. Now you’ve got about ~4 plotlines (the cultists/Linda, the trio, Lex (all at the mall) and General McNamara) that are a bit interconnected instead of ~6.

None of the characters got time to breathe, pause and reassess, or grieve. Hannah and Lex never even found out about Ethan. Gerald didn’t find out his wife died, and his call bit was used for comedy, The President didn’t even seem too affected by General McNamara’s sacrifice (which might be a byproduct of the switching story arcs, but contrasts to his TGWDLM moments where he at least got his last words and Paul remembered him)

There was no indication of Lex being supernatural, so her connection with General McNamara was pretty out of the blue and unearned.

That’s it. As I said, I loved it, I just think it could be rearranged somewhat