#wow that was longer than i thought

[astralspen]

Just had a thought about abilities in BSD.

Under a read more because I accidentally made a wall of text talking about this-

Oops ._.;

What if your control over your ability depends on how much you accept it as a part of you? The idea that every single ability has a consciousness, one that, no matter what, is made to protect or assist its user in some way. If you don't accept and come to terms with having a second 'you' inside you, then your ability will not work with you, simply because you are not willing to work with it when all it's trying to do is help you.

Because of this, it won't always do what you want it too at first, it won't always work, and it'll do what it thinks is best, not caring about what the user will think about it. You have to understand it was there to help you, learn that your ability is a part of you, even the parts that hurt others, the parts that hurt you, because in the end, all its doing is to fulfill the most human wish.

Survive. Live.

It's not always liking your ability, it's knowing that the ability is trying to protect you, to let you live and survive in grow no matter the cost. The pain it's caused will always be there, sometimes it will come back as a memory, and that pain comes flooding back. It's trying, and so are you. Yes, it will hurt sometimes, sometimes you'll wish you never had it, that you died instead of obtaining it, because that would prevent the pain it's caused. It's not learning to love your ability, it's learning that it embodies the part of you that wanted to survive. It's not entirely you, but a part of you. The more you know that, the easier it is to deal with and use to your advantage.

[troutpaws]

fishtober day 03:

california golden trout (oncorhynchus aguabonita)

[timethehobo]

Just finished Emmy’s personal questline and am too full of feels rn so all I have is a tiny doodle tonight. I love him sm. 😭

[clairedaring]

I still have our couple pyjamas that you bought me. Let's wear them tonight.

MY STAND-IN (2024) | 1.10

[sun-e-chips]

Waterpark au Sun and Moon now in color!!!

I still need to finish their ref sheets for art-fight but I’m so so happy to finally have them colored!

Moon’s platings are colored and textured to mimic wood grains, over that he is “painted” with varying tones of blues and teals.

Sun’s platings resemble painted Aztec stone with vibrant cool and warm colors, some of the “stone” remains bare.

Up close, guests can see that both animatronics designs have intentional weathering to really sell their imagined materials.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Redraw of my first post on this blog. Oh how far we've come B'*)

[Now with it's own redraw!]

[keuwibloom]

Ink and Dream's designs for Parallel Synthesis!

Also including some doodles of the Star Sanses in this AU-- some of them explained further below!

Parallel Synthesis Info Dump: Star Sanses Edition!

As the only mortal of the group, Blue serves as the "heart" and moral compass, and keeps the other two grounded.

Dream is the moral compass in a more figurative sense; his role as the Guardian of Positivity lets him naturally be kind and helpful and do the right thing, but often it's doing good for good's sake. He is prone to overworking and overextending himself because of this.

Dream sometimes still sees things from a more "black and white" perspective (Nightmare too but he's had 400+ years of experience over his brother AND lives with way more mortals). It's Blue who has to remind Dream that being selfish and choosing yourself isn't necessarily a bad thing, and that not everything is "black and white".

Ink proposed the team idea. He invited Dream, and later on Blue, under the condition that Blue would still return and play his part in his AU. Blue, of course, agreed.

Ink and Blue tend to bounce off of each other's energy; when one is hype the other gets hype as well. Ink is easily excitable and Blue likes to match the energy of who he's with.

Ink and Blue both prefer to be straightforward, whether it be with their feelings or with how they approach others. When Ink has issues with his emotions, Blue would help him process them through simple explanations and blunt but kind words.

Their main goal is to keep the peace in the AUs. Their missions can vary from keeping the AUs safe (from danger outside of the script) and fighting Nightmare's gang (though with less animosity after the truce), to mundane things like general community service and answering calls of help from people who know of them. Because of this, they get a lot busier than the gang, who go on missions usually more for personal gain.

Dream belongs to Jokublog

Ink belongs to Comyet

Swap/Blue belongs to the AU Community

[yume-fanfare]

angels

[artsyhamster]

Rediscovered the Disco Elysium timetable I made for myself, and figured someone else might find it useful. maybe, lol

Dates are taken from the wiki, I hope I made no error

[googleitlol]

Out of curiosity, how would Monkey King: Reborn go if Dove was there? Cause I’m loving Wukong’s character in that movie and I’m curious about how he would be to Dove!

Being 100% honest, I may have… not seen the movie yet 😅

But I have seen a few clips of Wukong in that movie! From what I’ve seen, I have a few ideas of how their relationship would be similar or different from PoM.

First off, I think MKR Wukong would be intrigued by Dove for different reasons than PoM Wukong. Mostly, he’s put off by her lack of fear of demons. She doesn’t seem to fear him at all— hell, half their talks end with her challenging him in some way. Humans don’t have the backbone for that sort of thing. It’s not like she doesn’t understand why she should fear them either, one of the things they both seem to agree on are that demons are evil beings, and that’s all they could ever be.

I feel like their fighting would be less teasing and more blunt arguments. I just know Dove would be chewing him out for that scene with the tree in the beginning. When they get past their reasons for hating one another tho, I can see things playing out differently than they do in PoM.

MKR Wukong is still the one who catches feelings first, but he’s more in denial over it. Maybe he catches a glimpse of Dove being cute with the baby spirit from the movie (side note, Dove would LOVE that little guy, they’d be besties/mother and child), and all he does is scoff and turn away in irritation because his heart is going faster now and he doesn’t understand why. He’d also probably start doing subtle things like getting her favourite fruit from the market if it’s there, just because he thinks she’d like it. Maybe in crowded areas, he’d keep his tail around her wrist or pull her close if she goes off too far. I think he’d also secretly enjoy if Dove joined the spirit in putting all those flowers in his tail 🤭

In Monkey King Reborn, I think Wukong would be so oblivious to his feelings and all the subtle shit he’s doing to show them that Dove would actually pick up on it first and be the one to ask him about his feelings (and she’s MEGA oblivious, so you know it’s bad). Blud would deny it in the moment, because that kind of talk is crazy. Who does she think he is, Bajie?! Why would he ever like a human, much less her, in that way?

That talk doesn’t go over the best, if you can imagine. But it does make him realize that… yeah, he does like her. Shit, he really does like her.

Their next talk would be him doing his best to back peddle any of the accidentally-offensive stuff he said before. Even if she does forgive him, that whole “We’re monks we can’t like each other” melodrama would still play out. MKR Wukong would probably show more of his annoyance about the situation than PoM Wukong, he’d probably go on some, “This woman is driving me crazy” rants every now and then. But then there’d be a moment where he sees her, maybe on the battlefield, or even just watching her in conversation with the other pilgrims, and he’d be content with how their relationship is in that moment, because whether she accepts his feelings or not… she makes him feel like he’s more than just some evil demon. And he loves that she makes him feel that way.

[werewolfsmile]

re: "All I’m saying is the fact that someone isn’t talking to me about Eliot Spencer every second of every day is very unfair and borderline illegal." & tags - if you want to, can you elaborate on your werewolf!eliot ideas?? i’d like to hear about it!! if not all good tho :)

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Yes I would love to elaborate! (buckle up because i have Thoughts)

(wow this really got away from me so uhhh .... warning for 2k of ranting about Eliot as a werewolf?? list of headcanons under the cut)

From the moment I first met Eliot Spencer, I knew he was werewolf-coded. Aside from his insanely fantastic fighting abilities and the absurd amount of punishment he can take, there are many other factors that contribute to his werewolf status.

Eliot needs a pack Our boy is out here working on his own for years and look at all the good it did him! None! He carries severe trauma from his family life because he blames himself for how it all went down and doesn't think he'll be welcomed back. Plus something probably happened during his military days or early PMC days to put him off working with others. Could have been the pain of losing people all the time, could have been something more. Either way, Eliot working on his own is a defence mechanism - but a self-destructive one.

Wolves thrive in packs - like duh, they're pack animals. As my username suggests, I'm into werewolves and, by extension, wolves. I've done research for my own werewolf novels in the past, so I know that in an average wolf pack, each pack member will have physical contact with the other pack members on the regular. Like, several times an hour! (gosh if I can find the research paper this info came from I'll link it but honestly it's been years) That's a serious level of physical contact required to keep the emotional bonds of the pack healthy!

Flick back to Eliot. He loves to fight, he loves the violence and the pain, yes. He hates the killing and the blood on his hands. He actually tries to leave the assassin world behind after he meets Toby (which is before he meets Moreau, as per early dialogue in The French Connection Job). He bonds quickly with Toby. Show Eliot a little love and care and he's yours for life! He moves onto retrieval work, then somehow ends up working for Moreau.

Now, when we see Eliot and Moreau in The Big Bang Job, Moreau says, "You work alone." Which means that Eliot had that reputation when he came to Moreau. He probably only took contracts to start off with. But he accepted job after job from Moreau and was so good that he was highly respect and it's inferred he ended up as Moreau's top bodyguard/assassin. Why the hell would Eliot end up that close to a man who brings out all the worst in him? Because Eliot's a werewolf and no matter how toxic, Moreau fulfills the need for a pack bond that he's been missing all this time.

Fast forward to Eliot meeting the rest of the Leverage team. One job only - my ass. He saves Hardison's life after Hardison brought a gun to their little meeting - and we all know how Eliot feels about guns.

Wolves are designed to live and operate in packs. Eliot says it's one job only but is bonding with them all from the get-go. Werewolf trait confirmed.

Eliot needs physical touch Now, I know what you're thinking. Eliot canonically avoids physical contact with the team. He refuses hugs, especially from Hardison, growls at Parker poking his bruises (don't get me started on the growls), and shoves people (ahem Parker) out of his personal space. So why would he do all this if he needs physical touch??

Because he's one gigantic ball of angst and self-loathing and guilt.

Eliot doesn't think he deserves forgiveness or love or family, etc. That is a whole other rant, but he denies himself the physical contact he needs with others as a way of punishing himself.

However, as the series progresses, we see him become more comfortable with physical contact! He hugs Hardison several times, he doesn't move away from Parker, etc. Why? Because he's bonded with this team (ahem pack) and there's only so much he can suppress his instincts. The more time he spends with them, the more naturally the contact flows.

Eliot needs to protect others Whenever we get a scene of the team walking as a group, where is Eliot positioned 90% of the time?? That's right, at the back of the group. He lets the others walk in pairs and falls back to bring up the rear. He's keeping them all in his line of sight and constantly scanning for threats ahead, along with protecting the team from any rear attacks. It makes sense for him to do this given his military background, but it also makes sense for a werewolf to do this.

He's the only werewolf in the team. His instincts revolve around keeping the pack safe and protected, so he does that in the best way he knows how.

Not to mention how feral gets over kids!!

Wolf life is all about the pack and the family structure. Pups are integral to the pack's survival and future. Eliot doesn't have kids of his own. But that doesn't stop his instincts from blaring every time he interacts with a kid, be it on the con or off. He takes time out every time to help that kid in an attempt to calm the raging storm of instincts inside his body.

Eliot needs to feed others It's another werewolf instinct that rears its head when they're in the safety of their headquarters (ahem den). Protecting the team/pack from physical threats is just one aspect of taking care of them. Feeding them is the other major one.

None of these idiots can cook to save their lives - except Nate, but he's also drowning his liver 90% of the time, so Eliot has to compensate for that, too. The team can't operate at full capacity if they're not consuming good nutrition. So Eliot makes sure to feed them.

His humanity recognises that these are independent people - coworkers - and he can't control every meal of every day. But he can cook for them, once a week or once a job, which is just enough to satisfy his instincts that he's doing his part to care for them. Plus they love his cooking, and the praise he gets from it is an unexpected but pleasant bonus.

Eliot and team sports/kitchens This ties in with my first point about Eliot needing a pack, but all the times we see Eliot go super hard and get absorbed in the role he's playing are when he's on a team sport or he's in the kitchen. Both of these fulfill super important instincts for him - being in a team/pack and providing food for others.

Think about The Tap-Out Job. Eliot's playing a fighter but he's not pretending to be on a team. He doesn't get over-invested in the role. But what about when he's a baseball player? A hockey player? He falls into those roles hard because he's working with another team again, and this little werewolf is built for that environment. Same in The French Connection: the kitchen becomes his den, the students are his pack mates, and he goes hard at investing in them and protecting them. Never mind the personal aspect of Toby.

Same for episodes like The Fairy Godparents Job when we get a scene of Eliot teaching a bunch of girls self-defence. Team setting + protecting kids = happy werewolf instincts.

So, werewolf headcanons? I have a lot of different origin theories but the main one I like for Eliot is:

he became a werewolf either for a covert military op, or was bitten by Moreau (choose your own angst flavour)

if it was for the military, they were trying to engineer supersoldiers and he was deemed a failure; he has werewolf instincts all the time but only has enhanced strength, healing, etc on full moons

if it was bitten by Moreau, there's a psychic-style bond linking them, which is why he was so loyal to Moreau for so long, and also why he is so reluctant to go after Moreau

(wow this is too different theories already and i said this was my 'main one' whoops)

Eliot can only shift easily on the full moon; shifting outside of a full moon can only be caused by extreme stress and is ridiculously painful

he suffers an insanely high prey drive all the time and is so strict about his control because he doesn't actually wanna rip out the throat of Random Guard #3

he used to chain himself up for full moons so he didn't hurt anyone, but since the team found out about him, Hardison and Parker have taken it upon themselves to 'puppy-sit' him every full moon

this involves no chains but an obscene amount of dog chew toys. Eliot is never impressed. He also never chases or chews the toys. The video evidence Hardison has was obviously doctored.

Hardison and Parker found out the truth when a con went sideways and Eliot was trapped in a room with them during the full moon

he was terrified he was going to kill them - or worse, bite them - but his instincts recognised them as pack so instead he just tried to wrestle with them all night

Hardison had a major freak out when he discovered Eliot was a werewolf - it's one thing to be obsessed with sci-fi/fantasy, it's another thing entirely to see your best friend transform before your eyes

Parker was not even remotely phased, being all like, "pfft of course werewolves are real, I thought you knew that Hardison, you talk about your elves and orcs all the time!"

"Woman that is completely different and you know it!"

"What else do you think is fake? The tooth fairy?? Ha!"

Eliot is Done With Their Shenanigans

Parker only ever refers to Eliot as Sparky when he's in his wolf form

Sophie didn't actually know about werewolves before the reveal but she pretends that she did

Nate knew about werewolves before Eliot, he just chooses to pretend that they're Not A Thing

werewolves generally don't make good hitters, because the constant exposure to violence ramps up their hunting instincts aka they find it hard not to kill

of course, this doesn't matter if you're someone like Moreau who specifically wants killing machines and thus turns his top hitters into werewolves, to ensure loyalty and enhance his strength

the only other werewolf hitter not under Moreau's control that Eliot knows is Quinn, who most certainly did not pull his werewolf strength punches when they tousled in The First David Job

Quinn doesn't have a pack (werewolf or otherwise) and genuinely doesn't seem phased by this, which pisses off Eliot to no end

however, after they work together in The Last Dam Job, Quinn deems himself Eliot's Best Werewolf Bud and keeps popping up randomly to hang out on full moons, etc

Parker and Hardison are a bit weirded out (and a little jealous) of Quinn's attention initially, but soon get over that when they discover that two werewolves on a full moon absolutely play for hours like 6 month old puppies - especially with the tug rope

Eliot is Extremely Susceptible to belly rubs even in his human form, which is half the reason he pushes people out of his personal space a lot - his reputation would never survive anyone finding out

of course the entire team figures it out and take to ambushing him with belly rubs whenever he's being stubborn or annoying

belly rubs are also the only way he will relax enough when he's injured so they can treat his wounds

despite the incessant dog jokes, the ever-growing pile of dog toys, and the bowls labelled with "Sparky" and cartoon bone symbols ... Eliot absolutely adores the pack he's found himself in and wouldn't change them for the world

One of these days I will sit down and write a thousand fics for werewolf!Eliot! Till then, I'll just keep churning out the headcanons ;)

[aurorangen]

Renee and Vincent had just visited the hospital when they saw a toddler crying alone on a bench. Vincent couldn't bear to see this happening and rushed over to help. "I hate D-Daddy!" he cried through muffled sobs. "Hey, that's my son!" someone yelled. He picked up the kid and went to the guy.

It was clear to Marco that Casper was refusing to let go of the stranger's arms and he dramatically sighed, "If you don't give him back, I'm calling my lawyer!" Oh he had the audacity to blame him even though it was his own fault his son would much rather stay in this stranger's arms. And this stranger was also a lawyer.

Vincent had no idea who this problematic guy was but he was hella annoying! He had a hunch of what was happening and had dealt with cases like this before. Seeing the pleading eyes of the kid in his arms reminded him of the neglect from his own father.

"For fuck sake Marco," Petrah cursed under her breath, "Honey! Let's not make a scene, there are people here," she shot secret daggers at him, worried about her reputation. If paparazzi saw any of this-

Then Renee came over, "Calm down sir." When he wouldn't, she gave up and showed her police ID. Marco recognised her but couldn't quite place when they'd met. But she was a detective and he didn't want to get into trouble. You're in deep shit now Marco...

"I apologise for my husband's childish outburst but I can explain." With her best acting skills, Petrah explained the situation her own way. "Let me buy you some drinks perhaps?" she didn't want to get into trouble either and surprisingly settled all the misunderstandings.

[sirazaroff]

How do you think Velvet flirts with Coco?

This is one of the funniest asks I ever got and im glad cause this is just gold. Like how does the Bun™️ woo her stupid bozo??
————


I have my biased takes on what Coco and Velvet are like as characters, but to start off I wanna focus on what Vel brings to the table.

I think a lot of people have moe’d her down to a nervous/scaredy bunny girl and…that’s not her at all. She’s a real multilayered character who can and will kick your ass flat. She’s also…

- very very attentive to people

- excellent at memorizing things she sees and hears, and quickly at that

- very emotionally in tune with people, herself included

- insanely kind and helpful

- honest about her feelings and will voice her thoughts when ready

Also she’s a bunny like come on. Is baby. It’s impossible to not find her likable.

I can go on forever, but I think these are enough likable traits to work with.


Time to shift. Now we focus on what I think Coco likes in a person:

- Hot girls

- Complexity

- Someone true to their nature

- Some sense of honor

- Someone striving to learn and to better themselves

Hopefully it’s not lost here, but there’s some compatibility don’t you think? Velvet’s got some of those traits that Coco likes.

————

So where’s the flirting? It’s coming I swear, I just needed the background info to help support the answers.

Bun bun flirts two ways: intentionally and unintentionally. The latter is usually what’s happening most often.

Her intentional flirting is what you would expect. Some cheeky words, being a playful tease in her actions like when she flashed her camera in After the Fall. I think she would 1000% take advantage of her physique and incredibly vast skillsets. She is totally totally showing off during training and sparring. Coco might hide her gaze under her glasses but that dumb bitch is so easy. So so easy…

Now her unintentional flirting is basically that Velvet is just doing her thing. She’s comfortable and loved by her team. With them she’s able to be herself and have fun, and that’s what coco loves most. Seeing Velvet thrive and not feel like she has to hide herself away from the world, and with it comes moments and actions that make Coco, much to her surprise, fall for Velvet.

I guess simply put, Velvet flirts by being her cheeky self around Coco, and her leader falls for her every time.

[tesseractingrey]

I was watching some old bbc radio 1 clips and hearing their old introduction for the radio show, them describing it as putting the audience in charge, and thinking about answering fan questions for the basis of pinof, thinking about interactive introverts and giving the people what they want. For so long, their content has been SO connected to us, to interacting with us, answering our questions, giving us some element of control.

If you ask us why we watch Dan and Phil, we’d probably say for their dynamic, because we enjoy them as people and think they’re entertaining and enjoy how they interact together. But if you ask what kind of content Dan and Phil have made, it’s mainly stuff where they are trying to centers fans, not themselves. And sure, they have made lots of story time videos in their individual content, but I’m talking joint content: they’ve made an effort to make it about us, for years. Even when they started the gaming channel, then, they were trying to center the games, the competition of it all, not their dynamic.

Given everything that’s happened, it makes sense that they wanted to hold onto their privacy, and not make their relationship the center of the content. They weren’t comfortable being out, or comfortable fully inviting us to scrutinize their dynamic. So giving the audience “control,” deflecting the attention away from “we want to do this” and “we want you to know this” to “you want us to do this” and “you want to know this” as a defense mechanism. Yet they still maintained actual control, selecting which audience questions and suggestions to include, while making fans feel valued and involved.

And this isn’t a bad thing! They are fully entitled to their privacy, and this emphasis on interaction with us is a large part of why I think they built such a strong and wonderful community. And they clearly actually do like us and are glad to have us, so there’s also some element of gratitude and wanting to give back in wanting us to be included in the content.

But that’s changing, now. What Dan and Phil text each other, spill or kill, the mukbangs, this is all parts of themselves and their dynamic that they are freely choosing to share with us, to make the topic of the video. Their gaming videos are not about playing popular games, it’s just random bullshit or niche games that just give them a chance to yap, intentionally centering their dynamic in the content. And sure, there’s them looking at phan twitter, but there’s also them just sitting and watching tik toks and recording it so we can see too. We talk about feeling like a third wheel so much recently, because they are so comfortable and themselves on camera and so much less focused on directing the content towards us, and more focused on just having fun Together.

They came back to the gaming channel not to make us happy, but because it made THEM happy, because Dan genuinely wanted to again. Comparing how they talk about the content they were making in 2018 to now in the last mukbang, there’s now no feeling of owing us something, of wanting to give us what we want to make us happy. Dan said he can’t wait for Phil to Get to see us all in person, not just that they know we want to see them. They are doing this for themselves, they’ve repeatedly said that they’re shocked at the response to the gaming channel coming back: they didn’t make this choice for us.

They are now explicitly in control of their content, it’s not about us. And yet they’re Choosing to center their dynamic and be themselves, show us more of themselves than ever before. After everything, I just think it’s really special that they feel comfortable doing that, and I’m so glad that we get to see them be so happy and doing things for their own good.

[sluckythewizard]

[PUT INTO PLACE, TIED DOWN AND ARRANGED, AND IS NEVER THE SAME, AGAIN.]<-listen to my favorite songs. VAMPIRES ARE WONDERFUL ARENT THEY. THE FLESH IS SO MUCH MORE DURABLE. SO MUCH STRETCHIER THAN HUMANS. THE STRESS DOESNT KILL A VAMPIRE THE SAME WAY IT DOES A HUMAN. YOU CAN TAKE THEM APART THREAD BY THREAD AND LEAVE THEM WIDE AWAKE WITHOUT WORRY OF THE BRAINMATTER SPOILING UNDER VINEGARY AGONY.

[taub-truther]

would you please grant us some more delicious taub headcanons

AAAAA yes SO happily!! Some things I've been pondering on here and there (spoilers ahead):

Taub is clinically depressed and has GAD. He treats his conditions with medication but keeps making excuses not to go to therapy. He thinks he should be smart enough to figure it out on his own, and he rationalizes his way out of it. Plus, who has the time, right?

In med school, he experienced a wicked case of Gifted Kid Burnout. He mentions being Class President in high school, and we know his CV is stacked as hell (prestigious publications, humanitarian work, etc.) to the point that Foreman, Mr Type-A himself, is completely blown away. Yet Taub is ashamed of it because he feels he never lived up to that potential. Sounds like a classic case of burnout. He was (and still remains deep down) an idealistic kid who wanted to change the world because it was his calling, his responsibility, as a Special Smart Boy (ie his god complex). But at some point he hit a wall and never fully recovered. This is one of the reasons behind his suicide attempt.

His ongoing issues stem once again from this central feeling of failure, of not being Enough. He insists he had a pretty happy childhood, normal parents who are still together etc., and thus feels like there's no "reason" for him to feel this way. Yet he does. And for the record, the life of a Gifted Kid with all the potential in the world can absolutely crush you under the weight of expectation, which is what happened to him.

His "backup career" as a plastic surgeon could be fulfilling because he did feel like he was helping people and had a measurable level of material success/status. But it also messed with his physical esteem. The nose, the height, the hairline, he's heard it all and while he acts like he's above being bothered, he's absolutely racked with insecurities.

So if he feels he doesn't "measure up" (literally or figuratively) what does a little man with an inferiority complex do? Cope, baby! He compulsively finds tangible ways to seek out approval of himself as a man, and I think his cheating stems from this existential discontent. He needs to prove to himself that he's wanted and good at something. Turns out what he's good at is sex. (As House himself says, uhh his nose ain't the only thing that's big. 🤐)

But obviously the validation of proving his own desirability comes with the flipside of crushing guilt, and that's where Taub's ability to rationalize anything really save his ass... at least until the Porsche incident which proves even in his own mind that Rachel is simply a better partner than he deserves. The cycle of failed expectations continues to grind Taub beneath its millstone.