#would rather be reading fanfic

[babyjakes]

do you guys actually read your textbooks for your college courses or do you just read the chapter summaries like me 🥲

[starcurtain]

Hey! I apologize if this question has been asked before since it seems like a pretty obvious one, but where do you think the idea of Aventurine being a sex slave came from? Other than the obvious factor of it being something fun for the fandom to mess around with, I mean.

It's something I kind of took for granted as being true before playing his quest, but after finishing it I realized there wasn't really any indication. The only thing I can really think of is his master's comments about him having a good body. Is there anything in his behavior you can think of that would lead to this conclusion if it wasn't a popular fan interpretation already/kind of just an easy conclusion to reach with a slave character?

(also kind of related but what do you think of the idea that he sleeps around/with his clients to make deals? he's obviously willing to sexualize himself with the boob window, but that doesn't necessarily mean he goes further.)

As far as I can tell, the idea that Aventurine was involved in sexual slavery comes from three (maybe four) places:

First, the comment from the master about Aventurine's appearance. People were holding this comment up as refutable proof that Aventurine was used in sexual slavery on top of being tossed into the Hunger Games; however, the response from other players on this interpretation, especially the Chinese side of the fandom, was very mixed, with a lot of people pointing out that the context in the game probably meant the slave master was talking about Aventurine's ability to attract attention from fans watching the literal Sigonian Hunger Games, rather than having a direct sexual-slavery connotation.

Second, the comment from Sparkle about stripping naked and getting on his knees for Sunday. This one has way more implication in English than I think it might for an Eastern audience, actually. In English, this pretty much sounds like Sparkle saying Aventurine trades sexual favors for success in his gambles. However, I suspect the original intention in Chinese was more about humiliation. Western audiences don't have as much history with honor-based prostration, i.e. accepting corporal humiliation as a form of reconciliation that Eastern audiences might be more familiar with. And in any case, Sparkle is Sparkle. She probably just went for the lowest blow she could think of here.

Third, the general assumption that if Sigonian slaves were being chained, branded, beaten, sent to death matches, etc., it seems logical that they would also be taken advantage of in other ways. I honestly think this is probably the fairest take--many, many real slaves around the world faced (and still face!) sexual abuse, so if slaves from Sigonia were treated so poorly you could make them fight to the death for entertainment, it stands to reason they were probably also not safe from other forms of assault. We also have no idea what happened to Kakavasha in any of the years between his being a tiny child fleeing the massacre and then being purchased as a slave as a late-teens-early-twenties person. That's a very long time for a child to have to survive on their own on an extremely hostile planet and not face risks of all kinds or end up needing to do unspeakable things to survive. So I think this is at least not that far-fetched, although it's important to say there's nothing in the game that directly confirms this.

And fourth: I read a tweet semi-recently that stated that one of the Chinese (or maybe it was Japanese) names for a quest Aventurine was involved in was actually a reference to a book about a teenage sexual assault survivor. However, when I tried to verify this myself, I couldn't find any quest Aventurine was in that was based on a book about sexual assault in either English, Chinese, or Japanese. It's possible I just missed something, but I'm taking this one with a bit of a grain of salt currently, since I can't confirm it personally.

Regarding your other question, about whether I think Aventurine sleeps around to make deals...

I definitely think he does not, for one major reason.

First, I will admit that Aventurine is definitely willing to use his appearance to his advantage. This is pretty obvious. He wears incredibly flashy clothes, baths himself in cologne, overloads on glittering golden jewels, and absolutely calls attention to his appearance when working with clients.

We see him actively doing this in his Moment Among the Stars video, where he is clearly using his looks as an equal tool (to his wealth), to daze his target.

It's not an accident that he says things like "Use me as you wish," with all the explicit connotations preserved. The implication is there. However, unless he was absolutely backed into a corner, I think that implication is all it will ever be.

The reason I think this is that the devs go out of their way to give Aventurine three fairly noticeable physical behaviors in his in-game scenes:

For one, he has some of the most closed off body language of any character in the game.

Aventurine's default conversation pose is arms crossed directly and tightly in front of himself. This is like "Defensive Body Language 101." By crossing your arms, you put a symbolic barrier between yourself and the person you're speaking to, and also ensure that your hands are up and available in case you actually need to physically defend yourself.

Virtually all of Aventurine's conversations take place from this stance, no matter who he is speaking to (from the Trailblazer all the way to Topaz). He deliberately closes his pose off and tightens up his silhouette, which just sends a glaring "Don't touch me" message.

This closing off is also blatantly apparent when you compare it to the deliberately open poses he strikes while trying to make himself seem accessible to others (like tempting clients) or seem powerful (to intimidate):

Complementing this habit of closing himself off is a second noticeable aspect of his body language: He frequently avoids eye contact to the point that he even holds conversations while entirely facing away from the person he's speaking to.

I might be a bit lenient and say maybe he's doing this to on purpose to be mysterious, whoo~~ But... in all honestly, he just does this with everyone, even with Ratio while trying to talk about an actual important issue (wanting to look into Acheron's real identity). Hell, even the fake Aventurine does it to himself!

We can even say that wearing the rose-tinted glasses in the first place is another intentional barrier, one Aventurine deliberately removes in specific moments to give people the (false) impression that he's "letting them in" to his circle:

Now, this might be a bit more complicated in Aventurine's case, because eye contact has a whole extra meaning when eyes are the defining trait of your species and come with particularly challenging racial stereotypes. So it may be that Aventurine is simply used to conducting conversation while looking away to minimize racial prejudice against his eyes' unique appearance.

However, I'd also argue that the devs deliberately turned his entire model away in cutscene after cutscene to create a clear sense of being inaccessible, unapproachable, and unwilling to engage in the physical intimacy of standing closely, directly facing, and staring at his conversation partners.

While he faces away, he controls both the figurative and the literal direction of conversation, forcing people to keep their eyes on him while he is free to move as he pleases. Over and over again, it just says "I want to be the one in control. I'm not afraid to show my back to you, but you are not welcome to come near me."

And, in fact, that's a third aspect of his character's body language that I am sure the devs did not include accidentally: More so than other characters, many of Aventurine's conversations are conducted from weirdly far distances. Like, half the time he's talking, he's standing all the way on the opposite side of the room!

This habit of speaking from a-larger-than-normal distance is apparent in the first scene with Himeko...

And then in just about every other conversation too:

The bubble is twenty feet in every direction.

Like yes, he does approach and have conversations like a normal person... sometimes... But it is significantly more noticeable with Aventurine than with other characters that he often conducts whole conversations--even with his allies--from a distance. Just genuinely weirdly far apart.

Leaving space for Gaiathra, I guess.

And it's because these significant decisions were made with Aventurine's in-game body language that, when he deliberately alters his own behavior, it is instantaneously noticeable.

In 2.0, he closes the distance, the glasses come off, and he gets directly up in the Trailblazer's face.

It's uncomfortable not just because the player is suddenly being loomed over, but because this behavior has already been subconsciously established for the player as out of character for Aventurine.

The barriers the character himself was putting up are deliberately stripped away so that he can use physicality and demanding eye contact to intimidate his target. He has to reverse his own normal body language in order to come across as domineering (and, I guess if you're into that, appealing in a domineering manner).

And ummmm, just a tiny aside here because I can't resist:

This does mean that when the game goes out of its way to demonstrate Aventurine altering his own normal habit of distant and defensive body language, it is absolutely intentional.

Yes, this is a Ratiorine post in disguise. There literally isn't any other character in the game that Aventurine is shown being comfortable standing so close to and interacting with in this manner. This doesn't occur in every one of their scenes, but Ratio is the only character that this happens with repeatedly. It's not an accident that the devs literally added "They were walking side-by-side" as flavor text.

But look, I'll be fair: There's a great example of this in Aventurine's scene with Acheron too, where he closes the distance and attempts to make eye contact with her--seeking her guidance and closeness--and she is actually the one stepping away, speaking with her back turned, demonstrating her power and control (and issues with connection!) in that scene.

Anyway, this was a whole longggg tangent into analyzing Aventurine's body language, but my point is that, overall, the devs deliberately adjusted his model's actions in-game to give the impression of a person who clearly wants to be in control of every interaction he has with other people, who insists on distance over intimacy, and whose stances and habits suggest that he is significantly less accessible and open than his "Use me as you wish" motto might suggest.

Long story longer, I think that there is almost zero chance Aventurine is willingly ceding control over himself or the actions expected of him to anyone he isn't 100% comfortable with, and I think that using physical intimacy of any kind would be an absolute last resort for him. Frankly, he comes across as more likely to shoot himself in the foot than let someone he doesn't trust lay hands on him.

To me, he reads very much as "You may look, but you may not touch."

[ryssbelle]

Poppy for N2 au, it took me so long to make her design cuz I didn't really know what I wanted to do only because I feel like her design is pretty perfect.

But then I just thought about fun outfits to give her or outfits that I would find comfortable if I was wearing them and it all came together.

Poppy here is pretty much the same as here movie counterpart, as nothing really changes on her end of things other than having more insight on Branch through his brothers, and through Lief. Shes also a bit more understanding a bit earlier on because of it but it doesnt do much to change her own character arc I would say.

Bonus

Part of Poppys design was based off a design I had made for previous rulers of Troll Village/Tree

Namely Queen Protea who I designed as Poppys grandmother

Named after the Protea flower which part of her design is based off :D

In the context of this Au Protea was the one who conceptualized the tunnels while her son, King Peppy, was the one to follow through after her death

[corntired]

Fanfiction is so goated actually

No monetary incentive, just writing in one's free time. Some incentive for like kudos and comments, because who doesn't want to hear that someone else enjoyed what they wrote. Just writing a story that is good and/or enjoyable, no real-life pressure to keep it going because god forbid you and other people are depending on it financially.

Writing a story because you want to write a good story, so you can write what they want the way you want, at a pace that is realistic for you, with exactly the plot pacing you want there to be.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i think fandom spaces would become much more enjoyable across the board if people stopped flipping their pancakes over other fans enjoying characters that they don't like. or, god forbid, like them but in 'the wrong way.'

[aria-greenhoodie]

You asked and ye shall receive. Aria,why do you use birds to symbolize Abigale's inner turmoil?. Besides the obvious surname thing. Also you apparently have more thoughts on the Muse art? 👀,explain?.

So obviously yeah, “Blackwing” is such a bird surname. BUT THATS ONLY THE SURFACE!

Birds are so often used as symbols of freedom, creatures untethered by laws of the land due to their ability to fly. In the same way, I imagine Abigale as being similar; free, not having to abide by the laws of her land as much as others did. In order to explain I think I have to dive into my version of Abigale’s backstory a bit…

(Warning: I’m going off what I know about 1800-1900s American Society. I’m no historian, but I’ve tried to keep things as believable as possible. I will say I’m pretty confident in that believability thanks to my feminist history class I been taking this semester.)

Born in the early 1880s, the Blackwing family was wealthy, yet fairly unknown. Calling it a “family” before Abigale’s birth would be a stretch in many’s opinion, being made up of just Mr. Atticus Blackwing and Mrs. Chastity Blackwing. Chastity tragically passed in childbirth, leaving Atticus to raise Abigale all on his own. He became fiercely protective and supportive of the young Abigale, a tiny spitting image of his late wife.

Abigale was always an insatiably curious child. At first, Atticus tried to teach her how to be a lady, to be domestic, to cook and clean and dote on her future husband, but quickly realized he was woefully unequipped for teaching a subject he knew nothing about. What’s more: Abigale HATED her womanly lessons. Instead, Atticus decided to let her learn something she actually was interested in; inventing.

Abigale loved to tinker, to create. The mechanical was a fascination of hers from the moment she saw it. Atticus as an architect had some mechanical knowledge, but not to the level Abigale’s insatiable desire to learn needed. But what engineering school would allow a woman in? At this point in the late 1800s, women were nearly always snubbed in inventing spaces, most universities not even offering engineering degrees for female students.

And so, Abigale’s “twin brother” Abraham Blackwing was created. A pseudonym for Abigale, under which she would don Atticus’s old clothes from his boyhood and attend a prestigious engineering school. Her father even falsified documents like Abraham’s birth certificate to make him appear like a legitimate person. It was risky, as crossdressing was a punishable offense by law back then, but Abigale was willing to take that risk if it meant she could learn.

Between her rich father supporting her every decision and passion, and her alter-ego, Abraham, to fall back on, Abigale had a lot of freedom growing up. When her father died of an illness just before she graduated, he left “Abraham” everything, which of course meant that Abigale could “live with her brother” and hold a bank account under his name. She was truly given every opportunity for freedom, more than any woman of her time.

And then, Bill Cipher enters her life.

She’s plagued by the triangular demon ip every night in her dreams, but she refuses to succumb to the shape’s demands. As tempting as building a machine like an inter-dimensional portal was, she knew better than to trust a man who wouldn’t explain his motives. When Abigale asked why Bill wanted this portal built, he couldn’t give her a straight answer, and that was enough proof to know he was no good.

After weeks of restless nights and aggravation, Abigale finds a peculiar ad in the paper, written by a certain Thurburt Mudget Waxstaff III…

On some level, she has to thank Bill for entering her life as much as she has to curse him for it. If he had never decided to torment her specifically, she never would have met the rest of the Anti-Cipher Society. Abigale THRIVED in the society, delighted in inventing new ways to ward off Cipher, collaborating with her dear Jessamine to create specialized weaponry, learning self defense from Horace, gossiping with O’Pimm, spending night after night explaining the mechanics of how her inventions worked to Thurburt so he could whip up a stellar sales pitch… she had never felt more alive! She was flying high, much like a bird on the wind.

And then the conference happened.

Thurburt was institutionalized, right then and there. Abigale watched the asylum workers from backstage with mounting horror. Worst case scenario for Thurburt, he’d be locked in a cell or sent out west at some work camp, but for Abigale? If the asylum workers got ahold of her, she knew they’d think her hysterical. Treatments for “insane” men were often much kinder than treatments for women in those times. Deeming Thurburt insane would send him to a locked cell, but he would at least be allowed to remain himself. Abigale had heard of women like her, eccentric unmarried women, “frivolous women” as they were often called, being scooped up by doctors and spat back onto the street with their entire personalities wiped. A hammer and a well placed nail up the inside of one’s nose could do heinous things. Abigale would sooner die then let them take what made her HER away.

So she ran. She tried to take Jessamine with her, but she refused to leave Thurburt. For six days Abigale hid in the society’s underground bunker, terrified of venturing outside, not knowing what happened to her companions besides Thurburt. She only ventured out on the seventh day because she had run out of food.

She couldn’t go back to her house, when she tried to scope it out, she saw the asylum workers already knocking at her door. She couldn’t stay in the bunker, it was only a matter of time before it was found. She was desperate for a way out, to keep herself free.

And here comes Mr. Northwest.

See, the thing about birds is that while they make excellent symbols of freedom, they also make excellent symbols of being trapped. Birds can be put into cages, forced to sing or speak for meager treats, and lets not forget that at that time most birdcages were anything but spacious and comfortable. Most captive birds of the time were expected to die quickly, only purchased in order to sing prettily for a short while before their tiny little hearts stopped beating. Birds are as much a symbol of freedom as they are of captivity, of being trapped, of the LOSS of freedom.

Abigale never wanted to be a wife, but what choice did she have? Mr. Northwest offered her a way out if she married him. Her choice was thus: escape the state with Mr. Northwest as her husband, or stay in town and eventually be found and promptly lobotomized, erased of any trace of her real personality.

She chose the former.

Better to live in a gilded cage, twittering for scraps, then to be gutted and stuffed on som taxidermist’s wall…

Right?

As for the muse stuff most of my trout process I already told you in the notes of the original piece lol

[fedzkun]

Izuku having AFO-like Quirk obsessions to the point of writing Quirk-centric fanfiction as he fantasizes about wielding and entertaining himself with said Quirks

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Fais fanfic rambles: Introduction to my 'Selkies by Starlight' ISaT AU

Note: Not to be confused with @looped-140-and-counting / Soren_793's wonderful Selkie AU oneshot series 'The Northern Islanders are Selkies' which was hugely inspiring for this if potentially VERY different in vibe (we got very into talking about cloaks! XD)

Basic premise/summary:

In an alternate version of the precanon adventure, the party lead by Mirabelle to stop the King freezing Vaugarde in time, recruit Siffrin as per usual.

Thing is, Siffrin is a Selkie.

A very skittish selkie without a cloak of their own, who openly wears the cloak of another, and due to Reasons is under the impression that the party know all both of those things and the Implications about them, and for whatever reason have decided to welcome him into their group anyway.

Which er, he's completely wrong about as the party know absolutely nothing.

Mira and Isa like most Vaugardian humans think 'shifters' are just fairytales, Odile knows shapeshifters are real but is only really familiar with how foxes like her father work, and Bonnie is actually able to sense some pretty major things but is a preteen dealing with a lot and hasn't even joined the party yet, so this pretty major misunderstanding is sustained for quite a while...

Cue the AUs' main focus being on the resulting party dynamic shifts as more and more canon divergence due to Sif's 'selkie stuff' (both cute and serious) comes into play, the party slowly realising something is up, and all of it hitting an eruption point right around the time of the 4th Orb/the loss of Siffrin's eye...

Some key world building notes: (Note: very summarised from my docs. I have like 20k+ words on this stuff XD)

The Island - Probably the most drastically different thing from canon here, the Island was not forgotten or erased here. Rather it is hidden away and permanently shrouded in Wish Craft generated fog from 'those without cloaks'. Side note: Sif is still unable to return home and continues to have some very plot critical memory problems but those are due to unrelated issues, which means yay I get to have Sif talk 'home culture' with the others in this =D Also idk why the King is freezing Vaugarde still. I've got a few ideas I'm not sure about and he's not in focus enough for it to even matter really, but random suggestions -especially those with possible selkie motivations- would be very much appreciated.

Selkie powers in my setting - Went into something of a deep dive regarding selkie folklore for this and did you know they have an absolute ton of seer/oracle based stuff going on?

From selkie being summoned by their human lovers shedding seven tears into the ocean, to a selkie man telling a former lover that he and their child will die at the hands by her genuinely good and loving future husband, to a selkie woman forseeing her fisherman husband about to die out in a storm just in time for her to swim over there and rescue him, etc.

So... Yeah. This AU has a lot of plot relevant sensory/seer stuff going on as well as the standard seal shapeshifter stuff (Islander selkie traditionally believe it to be the Universe talking with them, in the same way Wish Craft is talking to the Universe), and going off all the stuff I read decided it'd be most fitting if the general rule for how it all works is: - Selkie always passively have a bit of it going on (aka Sif's canon 'you sense someone nearby' stuff) which like most things can be enhanced with Craft use a bit. - Near perfect understanding of all 'connected' bodies of water (aka they know EXACTLY where the tasty fish are/will be and can probably get a general sense of location for most people on a boat) - Potentially get strong 'visions of the future' and/or instincts on what they need to do to avert an outcome when it comes to loved ones being in danger/distress.

They also maybe get to pull very fast, high power Wish Craft 'curses'/miracles' at idk, the cost of something major like their cloak or lives (mostly based off of the The Legend of Kópakonan where the whole island of Kalsoy was cursed with death by a selkie in retaliation for her husband and children being murdered) but not super attached to this idea past it being in 'seal shifter' stories in-setting.

Other non humans in setting and regional differences in shifters - Pretty much only selkie and selkie issues are in focus here, but just as a general thing, all non humans in setting are shapeshifters and originated from human ancestors who went crazy with the the Body Craft and/or used Wish Craft in some way.

Ka Bue in particular has a ton of them since yokai, with their origins being various sects/clans back in the warring eras going so nuts with trying to weaponize Body Craft (super soldiers, enhanced life spans, infiltration, exploiting attraction to furries, etc), that after some particularly high profile incidents (for an idea plz see: Kiyohime, Tamamo no Mae, Kachi-kachi Yama) and 'Body Craft misuse leading to shut down of the brain/vital organs' being the most common cause of death for 10+ years once peace time was established, eventually Ka Bue's authorities set their foot down and banned Body Craft altogether.

Currently the shifter population in Ka Bue is around 30% of the population, shifters are required to have ID regarding their forms (or potential forms if they're merely 'half'), and it's considered distasteful for a shifter to be in non human form outside of private settings/necessity and even ruder to ask a shifter about their non human forms if they haven't brought the topic up yet first (kinda like seeing/asking about someone's underwear or something XD).

In contrast the Vaugarde, Mwudu and Porteria region is extremely shifter sparce, with most of its original shifter population being the result of various Universe worshipping peoples (mostly small groups, like greek mystery cults) deciding to use a big Wish Craft ritual as some sort of religious rite and becoming shifters as a side effect of their primary Wish (usually stuff like 'we wish for us and our descendants to be one with You and the sea/air' or 'may we Change with the phases of the holy moon' etc) which granted them some pretty neat skills but also tended to come with some 'potentially nasty' drawbacks attached (see: selkie and swan maidens with their cloaks, werewolves Changing in both body and mind etc) Which er, lead to some issues born of lack of knowledge about this stuff, later some very nasty anti shifter sentiment in the region, and then around... IDK 200 to 300 years ago or so ended up exploding into violence and other very nasty things, with most shifters able to do so fleeing the region, and those that couldn't either enduring horrible conditions until they could escape/died or went deep into hiding, with the Island's Country being founded by the two later groups who used Wish Craft to hide their new home, erase awareness of their existence from their enemies (a short term, fully intentionally 'forgetting' blast centered specifically around shifters), and developed a LOT of culture and traditions regarding when, who and what can be told to 'outsiders' about themselves, Wish Craft, etc in order to keep their people safe.

There are shifters living in present in Vaugarde of course (anti shifter sentiment died back a LOT after most people stopped thinking they were real, and most modern day Change Believers are more likely to view these 'totally fictional/allegorical' beings as children/messengers of the Change God rather than 'evil demons who stole power by tearing apart the Change God's cloak for themselves and thus have to be hunted down and made to repent' propaganda take that was everywhere back then) but numbers actually living outside the Island as opposed to merely visiting remain low, since either the shifters know their history and stick firmly to their 'stay secret' traditions or quickly pick up on how oddly unknown shifters are around these parts and decide to err on the side of caution... Also 'trust worthy' humans who do learn about them (usually northern coastal folk, gee wonder why) tend to help cover them up so... Yeah =D

---

And... Yeah!

This is hella long as is, so will stop here and ramble about the actual 'how this all affects our beloved Sif and Co plot and culture wise' stuff that is the actual meat of the AU in another post later, but hope this made for an interesting/idea provoking read, know that I have no issue with anyone using any of this for their own works (just please, don't use the 'Selkies under starlight' same story name unless it's actually a fanfic/fanart of my 'hopefully soon has a chapter/one shot up' fic/Ao3 series of the same name so people don't get confused), and I would love to chatter with you about any thoughts/questions you might have so...

Wishing you a good day =D

(sighes in relief finally getting this post finished after literal months. Pheeeeww~)

[watchingyoufromthestars]

Something I’ve been thinking about that I haven’t seen brought up yet is Scary’s teen fact. That she’s never been to a funeral before Hermie’s. It immediately struck me again how she was given no time to properly grieve Terry passing. Normal had an entire episode going through the stages of grief and laying Hermie to rest. But Scary didn’t get that for Terry. She jumped straight back to breaking the final anchor because what else is she to do? So Terry’s body is still just there. He had no burial or memorial. And at this point would she see it as worth it? To go back once things have settled and find his rotting corpse to give it proper closure? Not just because she’s already visited his spirit in Hell, but would you even want to see that? If the body is still there, it’s not pretty. Would you even want to relive such a horrible memory in such a gruesome display, especially now that she’s back in her own mind?

[taylor-tut-fics]

okay so idea: Gwen gets sick, so David is taking care of her, but it's only a matter of time before he starts not feeling well, too. he pushes through for as long as he can, but eventually he joins her in the counselor's cabin.

she feels shitty, sure, but because David pushed through for so long, he's much worse off. as his fever spikes, he starts to get more and more axious about her. is she drinking water? keeping up on medicine? is she feeling so hot and cold and dizzy? he starts fussing, which is starting to annoy her.

however, when he starts to lay off the doting, she feels a little anxious.

"you're a little quiet. you okay?" no response. "david?"

then come to find out he's actually burning up and has been pushing himself yet again for the sake of someone else and now it's time for her to take care of him :)

[un-pearable]

legitimately anyone who is a self described fan of children’s cartoons over the age of 12 needs to watch Infinity Train. it explicitly bridges the gap between the tone, tropes, and storytelling limitations of Y7 and the level of complexity than we want from it. every single person writing pages long screeds about character development and nuance in shows that are primarily marketed at a younger audience but have significant meaning to older age groups would get so fuckin much out of the themes and story of Infinity Train, which is explicitly a story about those more complex themes.

it gamifies character development as part of it’s core conceit. each season gets more mature as it deals with more complex issues of morality and ethics and it’s still a silly epsiodic show with fun gags. it grows up as the story progresses with each anthologic installment giving you more complex interpersonal relationships and issues. there’s on screen cop murder. cults. incredibly gay coded music duo from the 80s that are the most divorced twenty year olds you’ve ever seen. a story that grows with you.

and you can’t fuckin watch it anywhere bc the animation industry is a puppet at the whims of investors in love with the impossible horizon

Infinity Train is the result of a decade of shows like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, of animators and artists’s growing desire to tell stories that grow with kids beyond their designated demographic in the American cultural conscience. and you can’t watch it.

they were going to talk about alzheimers. the thesis of infinity train is that animation is a medium, not a genre. a vehicle for exploring complex topics in a way that live action can’t. it’s a therapy train that traumatizes it’s riders more often than not. they covered everything from divorce’s impact on children to trans-coded identity crisis to the realities of a Lost Boys experience. what it means to be human. they were going to talk about alzheimers

it’s literally a vehicle for character development . it’s the midpoint on the spectrum between children’s media and mature writing. it is everything you seek out of fan fiction being explicit in the text. and you cant watch it bc it being animated means it’s worthless

[oh-alicent]

grad school in a nutshell:

pro: history nerds as best friends

con: all too busy w/ the program to hang out

pro: talking about writing my classical history thesis :)

con: actually having to write my classical history thesis :(

(born to have a history sideblog, forced to subject my random blog to my nonstop history talk)

feel free to leave questions about in my asks so i can talk about it instead of doing it

[romanyeva]

Batman and Robin (2009) #23

Canon: Jason Todd reading a copy of Pride and Prejudice prior to a prison yard fight in Blackgate.

This panel is possibly a visual juxtapositional joke, considering he's in the middle of implementing his plan to murder about 82 people in prison.

Austen regency romance vs. prison murder and mayhem.

[I don't know how deep Winick / March intended to take this. Worthy of character analysis? Sure.]

Fanon: "Hold my beer!"

Jason Todd's absolute favorite book is Pride and Prejudice. In fact, he has a whole bookshelf dedicated to various editions. These may be the only books on display in any given safehouse. If he ever gets that Ph.D. in English Literature, he will title his thesis Reflections on Class Structure or Etiquette As a Weapon of Social Warfare as Evidenced in Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

He will name all his future children some variation of Elizabeth Bennett or Fitzwilliam Darcy, said children being the result of a One True Relationship that Fixes Him - which is only possible because he just loves Pride and Prejudice THAT much.

Has he read anything else by Austen? Has he read anything else period? Who knows!

Canon, later: "You know what, Fanon? That's a great idea!" takes a sip of Fanon's stale beer after eleven years

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #31 "Dirty Little Secret"

Catwoman (2016) #57

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures is outside of main continuity. It has its own canon that draws from a lot of fandom elements. It's almost a conversation in that regard. Catwoman is main comics continuity so Jason is an Austen fan. There it is, in corporate ink.

I just think it would have been funnier if fandom would have made the other iconic "Jason Todd reads books" panel their pride and joy instead.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016) #20

The book Jason's reading? Become What You Are by Alan Watts.

"While living, be a dead man, thoroughly dead; / Then whatever you do, just as you will, will be right."

A Buddhist poem, written in China, several centuries ago, tries to find words for an intuition which is common to almost every culture in the world. When translated into the familiar language of the Christian tradition, it is so well-known as to be almost a platitude: "He that loseth his soul shall find it." But what preserves this thought from banality—from the mere tiresomeness of those precepts which everyone knows he ought to observe but doesn't—that this is a saying that no one can observe. For so long as there is something which I can do about it, I am not yet dead; I have not yet completely lost my life.

—excerpt from the essay "Paradox of Self-Denial" in Become What You Are by Alan Watts

Another visual joke! I don't know if the book title was Lobdell's or Soy's idea, but it's really funny.

Fandom, I will hold your second beer if you run with this.

[ghostly-cabbage]

I have officially edited and updated my DP fic recommendation document

I've so far only used it for friends but now I'm wondering if any of you guys would be interested...

[artiststarme]

What If Steve Were To Leave Hawkins? Part 9

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Finally, a happy chapter! Thanks to everyone for your suggestions in the comments of Part 8. You all seem really mad at the kids (you're not the only ones lol). What do you guys want to happen next? I have a couple ideas but would love to hear your opinions!

~*~*~*~

As soon as Steve passed the Welcome to Hawkins sign, a thrum of anxiety made its way through his body. When he left not so long ago, he couldn’t imagine himself going back so soon, if ever, really. At the time, he had thought that no one wanted him here and that no one would even notice his abrupt departure. Eddie had changed his mind. While the others may not have cared about him, or at least didn’t display it in the right way, Eddie did. Eddie wanted him around to talk to and had fallen in love with him despite his many faults. 

Steve carefully drove through the sleepy town before pulling up to Eddie’s new trailer at Forest Hills. With a deep breath, or two or three, he turned his car off and walked up to the door. Before he could even knock, the door swung open. Steve was met with the view of his very relieved, very upset, and teary-eyed best friend. As he stood there, very confused, Robin shook her head and threw herself into his arms with an affectionate, “Dingus”.

Steve let out a bewildered chuckle as he wrapped his arms around her, “Hey Robs. What’re you doing here?”

Robin didn’t move from her position with her head resting against Steve’s chest as she tearfully answered him. “I was paying a visit to Eddie to tell him off for not telling me that he was talking to you. Where have you been, dingus?”

Steve shrugged his shoulders, his arms still circling Robin. “Downtown Chicago. I found a nice coffee shop and the owner offered me a job and the upstairs unit. Seemed too good to pass up, you know?”

Robin hummed and leaned back from him, “That makes sense. You look like a city boy with the hair and the polos.”

“Was that an insult?” Steve grinned at their usual banter and lightly pushed her shoulder. “How are your shifts going without me? Mr. Brown making you want to stab yourself in the eye with an ice pick yet?”

Robin grimaced, “oh my god, yes! He was talking to me for thirty minutes the other day about the merits of monochrome television. I don’t know how you were able to deal with him every day to be honest.”

Steve smirked, “mostly with my unending patience. But tuning out and nodding every now and then helped too.”

She smiled at him, “I’ve missed you, Dingus. What’re you doing back here so soon?”

Steve looked over her head to see Eddie vigorously shaking a decorative cushion before karate chopping a dent into the now-plopped pillow. He shook his head, this is the weirdo he fell in love with. Still, he turned back to Robin and sighed, “I’m here to take him on an emotional support road trip. We’re going to see the sights, eat the food, live it up, you know?”

He could tell she really didn’t know but she still nodded and pulled him through the doorway of the trailer from which he had been standing for the past several minutes. Eddie was gazing at the pair with a soft expression. Steve would gander a guess and say that was love. Robin looked between the two and decided that the mutual looks were disgusting, in an insufferable but completely loving and understanding sort of way. Steve took a step closer to Eddie and gave him an enthusiastic, albeit awkward, finger wiggling wave. 

“Hey Eddie! So, I’m kind of beat from driving here so do you mind if we stay here tonight and take off in the morning? I’ll take you out for breakfast once we get outta town.”

Eddie just straightened his posture, resolutely nodded to himself, and moved toward Steve. He put both of his hands on the sides of Steve’s jaw and gently pulled his face to his. Their lips met in a gentle kiss that caused sparks to shock both of them. When the short kiss ended, Steve felt dazed and content. “Wow. That was, that was just… wow. I’m happy to see you too, Eds.”

Eddie shyly smiled before leaning back and pulling Steve into a bruising and all-encompassing hug. “I missed you, man.”

Meanwhile, Robin stared at the two in shock. What the hell had happened in such a short amount of time? Last she was aware, Steve was straight. But it seems that Steve had no preference for gender when it came to cute individuals with curly hair, angular features, and big eyes. She loudly cleared her throat and with another hug to her platonic soulmate along with a promise for him to call and a sticky note with his new number on it, she made her way out of the trailer and to her own car, a graduation present from her parents. 

She’s sure both of them had plenty to talk about without her looking over their shoulders.

~*~*~*~

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Steve Harrington was a great kisser. The best, in fact, if one were to ask Eddie. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t spent much of his high school years helplessly pining for Steve, hoping against all hope that the younger boy would one day develop an inkling of interest. Now here they were and Eddie had never felt so delighted. 

They didn’t do anything more than that on this night. Eddie was still wrought with guilt and horror from his encounter with the kids. Meanwhile, Steve was exhausted from driving so far and from the whiplash of emotions he’d gotten throughout the day. And so, both boys brushed their teeth and stumbled into Eddie’s room for some much-needed rest. 

They held each other while they spoke in hushed tones about their future endeavors in Chicago and mundane information such as each others’ favorite colors (Steve’s favorite was blue while Eddie’s was green). Then they held each other throughout their sleep in which Eddie’s face found the junction of Steve’s neck and shoulder while Steve’s arms wrapped around Eddie’s shoulder like a vengeful octopus. While it may seem uncomfortable after the fact, it was the best sleep that either boy had ever had. 

When they woke up in the morning, they had a moment of peace just staring into each other's eyes and feeling as though everything was right in the world. But once Steve saw the time on Eddie’s alarm clock, 11:27 AM, everything commenced in a rush. Steve yanked Eddie out of bed, forced him to get dressed and finish packing, and hopped in the shower for all of two minutes before borrowing Eddie’s clothes. And that put them even more behind schedule because Eddie couldn’t focus on any of his tasks when he saw Steve wearing his clothes. How could he? It was like the vest incident times a thousand. 

Unfortunately, Steve clued into this fact quickly and made his way out to have coffee with Wayne. He and Wayne chatted about Chicago and some of the reasons Steve had left Hawkins, mainly the kids that had deposited themselves firmly on Wayne’s shit-list after making Eddie cry. Steve tried to alleviate his anger a little bit but Wayne was not to be assuaged. Those kids had some serious ass-kissing to do before he even considered forgiving them for messing with his boy. 

Once Eddie finished getting ready, he joined them for coffee and anecdotes. After two cups each, they were out the door with not another minute to waste. Chicago had no idea what was coming for it. What they didn’t see was Max rushing out of her trailer just seconds after the Beemer pulled away from the Munson’s trailer. They didn’t notice her jumping and trying unsuccessfully to run after the car to flag them down. And they weren’t aware of her frantic walkie message to the other Party members, not that it would affect them much. No, instead they hit the open road with enthusiasm and Iron Maiden blasting through the car’s speakers. There was no way they would rather have it. 

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20: Epilogue

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