#the pacing is weird in this one but this comic was supposed to be short

[stardynamite]

Part 3

Idk man, I guess I’m still going with this comic ToT

Previous / Next

First

#mhc #rottmnt #save rottmnt #unpause rottmnt #my art #rottmnt leonardo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt raph #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #BTW I ONLY JUST NOTICED IT WAS 3 AM WHAT THE FRICK #I THOUGHT IT WAS MIDNIGHT I SWEAR #the pacing is weird in this one but this comic was supposed to be short #ALSO i found a screenshot of leo that was just to marvelous and it inspired one of the panels lmaooo #art

[fictionalslvr]

Part one. Part three.

SYNOPSIS:"Ghost" is your new neighbor in your apartment complex, everyone is afraid of him, but not you. You're the only one to be kind with him.

PAIRING: (Based of comic but that's not 100% canon) Simon Riley neighbor x F¡Reader

WORD COUNT:3.212k

WARNINGS: Fluffy, angst, mentions of blood, war, s.a (not directly) etc.

NOTES:There we go, back to the crying season. I literally cried while writing this one, so i really hope you guys like as much as i did. Remembering, this is the part two of this mini serie. And i HIGHLY recommend to listen to 'happier than ever' by Billie Eilish while reading this.

PREVIOUS PART

It’s been almost a month. Almost a month since Simon appeared at your door, he drinked some coffee with you, had a long talk that showed little things about him. And after he left your door to work, it’s been days since you don’t hear footsteps on the apartment above yours. You can’t help but worry, he said his work was hard, tiring and had big choices. You pace around your house, feeling a weird knot on your stomach, a strange sensation of anxiety consuming you, not seeing his eyes, hot hearing his chuckles, not smelling his unique scent…all of this makes you feel strange, he’s just a neighbor…right? So why are you feeling this way? He’s used to doing this, staying out, working and coming back, he’s fine that’s right. Then why couldn't your heart understand this?

The only thing keeping you calm is your little cat, her fluffy fur on your legs as she brushes herself against you, looking for some caress. You sit down on the couch and sigh, trying to think better and your cat jumps on your lap, purring while your fingers brush her fur gently. It’s almost like she can sense you’re not well at the moment, and tries her best to distract you.

—”You’re a smart kitten, no?” A sad smile flows out, and you can only breathe deep for a moment. You don't know why you’re feeling like this, he’s only your neighbor who’s a bit mysterious, you shouldn’t be worried about him. And yet, your last talk with him made you think all those days about him. He seems like someone who suffered a lot, even if he didn’t tell you what exactly. You can see it, his baggy eyes carrying a sad sparkle on it, like he saw so many things you can’t even imagine. Somehow, you appreciate his bravery, without even telling, you supposed that he suffered, only from his eyes.

He’s always using a balaclava, so there must be a reason for this. Maybe he’s insecure about his face, maybe he just wants to protect his identity for someone, or he just doesn't want people to read his emotions. If the last one is the answer, he’s terribly wrong, because only from his eyes, you could sense how this man carries a lot of weight on his shoulders.

Since when he moved in, you’re caught about his whole figure, everything about him was a mystery, like he can’t really trust anyone. You look around for a while, looking at the pictures on your home, you remember how Simon was staring at them non stop the last time you saw him, his eyes were painful to see, his eyes narrow to the frames as his eyebrows furrowed as your voice called his attention back. Something about family pictures made him perplexed.

It’s weird to say, but damn, you missed him. His raspy voice, his tall figure towering over yours, his short words, his eyes never leaving your face as you talk, he’s a great listener, you could say. Even without knowing much about him, you wanted to see him again, hear his voice, feel his scent, make eye contact, feel this weird human connection you two created quickly. You groan and roll your head back to the couch, staring at the ceiling while your mind don’t stop not even for a second, your mind filled with Simon and everything you noticed about him, like how calloused his hands are, how he seems to be a terrible sleeper, how he looks to hold himself back while he talks, scared he will expose more about his life, how he has a habit of shakes his legs every time, how his eyes don’t stop still, they’re always looking around, as if he’s making sure he’s safe. Every little detail that you could think of, you paid attention to him, like you never did before, you never was this detailed about someone, neither that interested about someone. He has something special, something that curls you up in his hands.

As for Simon? Being on a long mission wasn't that easy. Staying hours awake, the reason why he’s a terrible sleeper, sleeping in uncomfortable tents, thinking only about his objectives all day. It was awful, but, the only thing that reminded him he’s still human, is his friends, his teammates, the only ones he can say some dad jokes sometimes, the only ones who remind him he’s only doing his job, and nothing else, and somehow, that made him feel better. Knowing he’s not alone in this, that he’s not the only one making his hands dirty with blood, the only ones who made him feel less guilty for the blood dripping on his mask. Besides that, sometimes he caught himself thinking of his neighbor, the only one who had the courage to talk to him, that looked him in the eyes, that listened to his short talk, his voice and saw his miserable life. And yet, you don’t even know the whole story, if he did tell you…would you still smile at him? Would you still look him in the eyes? Would you still not be afraid of him? Would you still think he deserves to be loved? Because, he, himself, doesn't think he does. After all he did, all he passed through and lost, he didn't have a chance to be happy and live an ordinary life, he always had to remind how useless he was at protecting his family once, how he was a cowardly kid, how he suffered in dirty hands, how he felt used. Nothing more than a war machine, a big, strong and scary man that everyone frightens, that’s what he is, in his mind. As for you, such a gentle, kind and delicate woman…why would you listen to someone like him? He thinks he doesn’t deserve your kindness.

For now, there he is, stepping back to his apartment, his heavy boots making some noise as he's not even looking at the way he’s doing. It’s always like this when he’s back from a long mission, he felt like he was on automatic. His mask, a bit dirty like his gear, and he had some wounds too. He made his way on the halls, going to the elevator, it’s late, like 4AM.

And a soft voice calls for him before the elevator comes, the creaky wooden door behind him making noise.

—”Simon…?” —It’s your voice, he’s already used to that sweet melody. He doesn’t turn to face you, not wanting to scare you with his actual state.

—”Hello.” —Without noticing, you left a sigh of relief.

—”You’re back. I was worried.” —Your words make him disbelief, he turns to face you, and you can see a mask on his usual balaclava, his eyes widened as his pupils shake.

—”You shouldn’t.”

—”If I could control that. But I couldn't, and I'm happy you’re back." —His eyes fall to your figure, rubbing your eyes as you’re still sleepy, your pajamas from that day, and your voice sounds like honey.

—”What happened to you, Simon?”

—”I was working.”

—’Not this, these wounds…” — Realization crawls up to his mind, you shouldn’t be able to see him like this.

—”Shit.” — He mumbles under his breath and looks away. Your figure walks closer to him, it’s dark to see properly.

—”Please, come in. Let me take care of this for you.”

—”No need, I'm fine, thanks.” —How could he say no to your cute little eyes, looking up and down on his body, looking for every wound. Your fingers go to his arms, gently touching and pulling him inside your apartment. Without a word, he just follows, he could easily get rid of your hands on him, and he didn’t.

You close the door and make him sit on your couch, picking up a med kit in your kitchen, sitting beside him.

—”You’re not going to ask why I'm like this?”

—”Only if you want to say why.” — Your eyes meet him, looking for his approval before you lift up the sleeves of his gear, finding a very bad wound on it, how he wasn’t feeling the pain? He just nods, and you lift his sleeves gently. He loved how caring you are, always searching his approval for everything, even simple things like this. He loves how gentle you were towards a man like him.

—”Then…can we not?”

—”Of course, Simon.”

He always enjoyed how his name would sound in your tongue, in your voice. It made his heart skip a beat everytime. With caution, you clean up his wound, and he doesn't hisses, doesn't frown or groan, he just watches in silence, looking into your eyes all the time. Nothing matters now, not the pain, not the blood, no. Only you, and your kindness.

—”What were you doing awake?”

—”I wasn’t. I heard your footsteps.”

—”How did you know it was mine?”

—”I guessed. You’re the only one who would walk around at this time.” —His dark brown eyes were staring at your face, you looked so concentrated now, even while sleepy like this, you managed to do this. To take care of him.

—”Why are you doing this?”

—”Because I care about you, Simon.”

Those words, it’s been years since he heard it, seem unreal. Why would you care about him? What did he do to deserve such kindness? Is God finally hearing his prays he did when he was young? No, you’re only his neighbor, this is normal…right?

—”Why?”

—"Do i need a reason?" —He only looks away, his head nodding at your words. You were right, you don’t need reasons to do what you’re doing. Though, he really wanted you to have one. He needed you to have a reason to help a man like him.

A comfortable silence creeps in between both, it’s a silence that yells inside, so many questions on both sides, but no one wants to ask it. Simon looks on your window, the curtain flowing and showing the moon bright in the sky, giving him a feeling he never felt before…love, in its truest form, just pure love. Being taken care of like this, he doesn’t even know why he accepted this, normally he would ignore it and go to bed, sleeping only two hours or less. But you, have your gentle fingers wrapping his wound now, gently patching it with a gauze, you had some talent for this, he wondered…have you ever taken care of someone else? Because you seem to be used to this.

—”Well done.” —You mumbles under your breath, your eyelids blink slowly, you’re so sleepy…it’s adorable.

—”Thanks.” —Oh really? Is everything he can mumble after this help? He can’t express anything more than this. Honestly, he didn’t need to, his eyes locked with yours, your body painted with the moonlight and the dark blue sky, and you can see how he feels grateful for you. You smile gently.

—”No need to, I was just worried when I saw you like this.”

Simon sighs, taking off the skull mask on his covered face, leaving only his balaclava as you’re used to.

—”It’s normal for me to get back like this.”

—”With wounds?”

—”Not only on my body.”

—”You know you can’t live like this forever, right?”

—”I always did.”

—”And this will hurt you eventually, Simon. You can’t hide emotions and think everything is okay. They will overflow.”

—”You don’t know me well for this.” —Simon gets up from your couch, his voice getting rougher, and looks at your door. You felt a twist in your guts, he’s worried you might figure him out, because you’re already doing.

—”If you’re being kind only to know my past, forget it. I’m not a storyteller.”

—”Who told you I wanted this? I’m pretty sure it was yourself.” —Now it’s your time to get up and meet his eyes, his eyes can’t lie to you.

—”You’re tricking yourself with this, Simon.”

He hated this, how pretty you look while your skin sparkled with the moonlight, how your eyes made him nowhere to run, how you would read him like a book, even if you two don’t know for a long time.

—”You don’t know me enough to say that.”

—”Being cold won’t keep me away, if that's what you’re trying to do.”

The only thing Simon does is curse under the black silk on his face. He didn’t like to look so predictable, so vulnerable like this. But at the same time, he just wants to be taken care of by you, and only you, no one else. He stays silent for what seems like an eternity, there's nothing else to say. What would he do now? Being cold wasn't going to keep you away, and he knows he will only hurt you, and lose someone like you would be dumb. All of his thoughts were making him dizzy, it was too much, he didn’t feel like this in years, and now it just makes him confused, he doesn't know how to deal with this anymore.

—”Look, Simon, it’s okay. You don’t have to agree with what I say. I just want you to know that even if I don't know you too well, you’re already someone I care about.” —You whispered to him, this tone was enough to bring him back to reality. His heart skips a beat at your words, he didn’t deserve you. At least he doesn’t think so.

—”Do you even realize what you’re saying? I’m a stranger at your house. Aren’t you scared?”

—”Not of you.” —A cute smile spreads on your face, and poor Simon, he feels his legs weaker, his heart melt at the same second.

—”You’re crazy. I can’t understand you.”

He’s being genuine on this, he can’t understand how optimistic you are, how cute, pretty, kind you are. And damn, that hairs of yours, the smell makes him insane, he always tries his best to stay away.

—”And I can't understand you as well, we’re even now.” —Simon can’t help but chuckle in disbelief with your words. Oh God, why couldn’t he have a normal life…by your side if that’s possible?

—”Look, [name], I appreciate the help. I should go now, I already messed up your sleep too much.”

—”Wait…can’t you stay just until i sleep? I can’t go back to sleep alone now.”

—”Uhm…sure.” —He looks away, and you giggle. Quickly, you make your way to the couch again and make yourself comfortable there, laying your body and closing your eyes. He watched every movement, not really wanting to look like a perv or something, he wouldn’t ever want to make you embarrassed.

—”Goodnight, Simon.”

—”Night.” —Simon clears his throat, looking while you find a good position to sleep, you look so peaceful. Maybe having him around makes you feel this way. His eyes are glued to your face, so delicate and calm while you breath slowly, it was an adorable sight, he thought to himself. His thick accent was the last thing you heard before falling asleep, quicker than he thought you would. Simon looks around and sees a blanket on another couch, he takes it and gently puts it above your body, making you nuzzle into it as the cold breeze was a problem your sleeping figure didn’t know it needed help. “How stupid” he thinks to himself, he’s a war criminal, why the hell does he have a soft stop for a person he doesn’t even know the age? His strong arms could rip you apart, since you’re so fragile like this. Correcting himself, he could, but he couldn’t even think of doing it, you’re so delicate, he just wants to protect you, not the contrary. He sighs, and notices he’s been looking at your sleeping figure for a long while now. He walks to your door and holds the handle, but something curls on his legs before he can walk outside, it’s your kitten. That lazy female cat who decided to greet the man on his second visit here, her white and orange fur on his gear.

—”Bloody hell.” — Simon caught himself watching his tone for you, not wanting to wake you up. The little kitten meows while twirling around Simon’s legs, he sighs and rolls his eyes up, one hand holds his mask, the other rubs the cat’s chin with his gloves on, so rough, and yet, bent down to caress your cat.

—”Now…let me leave, lil’one.” — His strong accent keeps there, while he…whispers with your cat. He gets up and opens your wood creaky door with caution, giving a head nod to your cat and closing the door when he steps away.

It’s so hard to leave, to leave that warm, cozy, happy place. To meet his dark and cold home, he can only sigh with the thought. Why is it so hard to leave? Why is his heart throbbing? That’s stupid, he’s not a teenager anymore, he’s a grown ass man that can deal with his feelings, he thinks so. He’s only trying to fool himself into that idea, because he knows when he steps his foot inside his apartment, he will crave for the sound of your voice, your warmth and your damn smile, and mostly, your words. So well chosen like you know exactly what to say to make him fall. You’re clever enough for his rudeness. He knows you will be just below, living your life peacefully and he will get back to his miserable life, alone, with his bad thoughts. If only he was open to his own feelings, he would see how fucked up he is now. Already missing you and wanting to stay by your side. His delusional mind wanders to a life together, you would say him goodbye when he’s out for missions, calls him, send letters, and he would keep a photo of you on his pocket, only so when he’s not motivated, he looked at it and remembers why he’s there, to make you safe. He would come back to your arms and stay beside each other, you would see his face behind that balaclava and smile, knowing the real Simon, while he leaves Ghost on the job.

That’s when he comes back to earth, being on his balcony, his balaclava lifted up a little bit as he smokes, taking a puff of his cigarette and sending it back into the sky with a blow. The breeze makes him shiver even with his gear still on, and the thoughts consume himself.

—"I'm fucked up."— Simon realizes when his thoughts wanders too much. He tosses the cigarette on the floor, stepping on it as his raspy voice talks to himself. Going to bed at 6AM, and not even being able to sleep, because his heart decided to throb about someone he doesn’t even know well, his brain decides to play with his sanity once more. He can’t take this feeling growing inside of him, it’s weird. Simon stares at the ceiling, laying at bed, his hands caressing his chest as he feels pain inside, right on his heart. Not even his patched wound would hurt like this.

What is this feeling...is he...falling in love? You leave him in tatters. And even while he's thinking you're perfect, you still have your problems as well, he's not the only one broken, and he will discover this soon.

#fanfic #fictionalslvr #cod mw2 #cod x reader #cod mwii #ghost cod #ghost call of duty #simon ghost riley #ghost x reader #ghost x you #ghost x y/n #ghost x female reader #simon riley x you #simon riley x reader #angst #light angst

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Other than catra/catradora, what problems do you have with the show?

oh boy, where do i even start? i'm just gonna try and keep it short because if i try to explain every single aspect in detail, this post could be turned into a book. so i'm just gonna list out all the problems i have with this show, both in terms of problematic elements and poor writing.

blatant ableism towards the autistic character

bullying and mistreatment of a young boy being played for laughs

war and desolation being used as an Aesthetic™ rather than a theme/message

rushed and poorly written character arcs (and no, it's not just catra)

amatonormativity and forced ships (the show is supposed to be representative of the LGBT community, yet almost all of the characters need to end up in a relationship, in order to have a happy ending)

boring and poorly written Final Boss™

too much fanservice (little snippets of fanservice is fine but when you ignore and disrespect canon just so you can make the viewers happy, that's a problem)

an entire kingdom is conquered and its people probably killed/seriously harmed, and its ruler is shown moping around in a bathtub and eating ice cream as if they got stood up by their date instead (this connects to my earlier point about war being trivialized)

the only non-binary representation being a shapeshifting lizard creature (look, i like double trouble as a character but you have to admit that they're not exactly good representation)

one of the most powerful female characters in OG she-ra being reduced to the "doting aunt" (for a show that claims to be about empowering women, they sure ignore the powerful women in canon)

weird pacing and inconsistencies (apparently two or three years passed within the five seasons, yet the characters haven't aged at all, especially frosta who supposedly went from 12 to 14, yet looks exactly the same)

the princesses are useless (they should have named the show 'Catra and the others' lmao)

overuse of character archetypes instead of making original characters (the peaceful vegan flower princess who sometimes loses her temper, the depressed emo girl™, the hyperactive child™)

stereotyping of certain communities (the high-functioning autistic genius, the angry latina, the predatory lesbian, etc)

bad comedy (this is probably subjective and i don't expect everyone to agree, but most of the comedic elements is SPOP was just.. corny. only scorpia worked well as a comic relief character imo)

the only polyamory representation being two bullies and their victim

death of the author™ (basically, confirming things outside of the series, instead of portraying them well in canon)

plot holes and unsatisfying conclusions (adora's origin was a huge plot point in s4 but they completely abandon it in the last season)

there may be a lot that i've missed because i have a goldfish brain and tend to forget stuff. but i'd say these are the main problems i have with the show. it did a few things right, but fucked up on a thousand others.

#spop critical #spop #spop salt #spop discourse #spop criticism #anti catradora #she ra #anti catra #feel free to add your own grievances in the replies or reblog!!

[mermaidmoose]

Inspired by @montyuh & @callsign-relic first contact AU oneshots - here’s the first fanfic I’ve written in literal years so uh, it’s a bit rough.

Soaring through the depths of space, far beyond the reach of man traveled a ginormous starship- the Lost Light. Measuring 15 miles long and 10 miles wide it was certainly spacious enough to comfortably accommodate a large crew … and one tiny new resident.

Back on Earth, you had signed up to be part of an expedition to an inhabitable planet far from home. In exchange for food, shelter, and the adventure of a lifetime you eagerly packed your bags and said your goodbyes to loved ones. The trip was supposed to take a few years total give or take. Nothing too strenuous.

To quote Murphy’s Law: “What can go wrong will go wrong”. The company responsible for creating the expedition’s starship had cut corners- lots of them. When the starship jumped into warp drive it shook so violently that your whole body was rattled and smashed into the ceiling of your capsule bed. You were lucky to get away with only severe bruising and a bloody tongue. Exiting the jump left the ship stranded, drifting aimlessly as everyone scrambled in the dark to collect themselves. With several of your more experienced crew-mates dead or injured, you and the few survivors chose to route the ship’s remaining power to fuel the escape pods to try to navigate back to Earth.

After a week of travel (according to your pod’s calendar) you were carefully navigating through an asteroid field when a large shadow fell over you. While you are grateful the giant-ass starship that appeared out of nowhere hadn’t obliterated you and your escape pod, you weren’t expecting to be kidnapped either. By giant alien robots no less! With a language barrier! And no sense of personal space or boundaries! Shit! You didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the situation.

Well, you had tried quietly crying about it while wandering down one of the vast halls of the Lost Light, until a blue mechanical horror emerged from an adjacent hallway. To you, Whirl looked like something that had stepped out of a horror movie, with his gangly inhuman build, long neck, and large yellow optic that felt like it drilled right through you.

Whirl barely gives the fleshy creature a cursory glance, noting that it had stopped moving and making those weird noises. He hardly knew what all the fuss was about over such a small, fragile, stinky creature. One misstep and he’d be cleaning gunk out of his foot for several cycles. As he looked away and began ruminating on who he could heckle at Swerve’s a sound made his antennae twitch. It was the pitter-patter of tiny feet running away from him at a frantic yet pathetically slow speed.

Ok, so maybe he could gain some entertainment out of the thing at least. “Hey? Where you goin?” He drawls as he slowly follows after you. It was almost comical how slow he had to walk to not catch up right away. Did you really think those tiny legs could outrun him? “If you don’t pick up the pace I’ll pinch ya!” He leans forward and clacks his pincers menacingly at the empty air behind you.

You were scared shitless. Once Whirl started plodding after you, you contemplated if this was the end. Murdered or eaten by a metal alien monster and all because you wanted to explore beyond earth. ‘I wish I could go back in time and throttle myself’ you seethe as another pinch draws closer. ‘I wish I had never left home. I wish-‘ pre-death regret-thinking is cut to a halt by the appearance of a gap in the wall paneling. In an instant, all thoughts disappear as your body bursts forward with a surge of adrenaline. With a quickness neither of you were expecting, you squeeze yourself into the gap.

You heave a sigh of relief at your successful escape. Your victory is short lived however when Whirl’s optic comes into view and blasts you with what feels like the light of several hundred light bulbs. “Ow! Bastard!” you snarl. Without even thinking you blindly lash out and slap the offending optic. Whirl jerks back in slight surprise, not expecting to feel … whatever that was. Was that an attempt to fight back? Damn, this thing was pathetic. “Oh? Think you’re a tough guy? You’ll need to hit harder than that!” He jams one of his pincers into the gap above your head, trying to wiggle the wall panel open.

As Whirl is focused on the wall panel, you desperately squint around, looking for some means of escape. Thankfully, his loosening of the panel opened another gap on the opposite end. You make a break for it and rush out of the gap, not daring to look back. As you feel a rush of wind and the thrumming of danger (or is that the vibrations of something running?) a shout breaks through the chaos.

“Whirl! What do you think you’re doing!?” Before you can even register what’s happening a smaller, orange mech runs up and scoops you into his hands, holding you in a protective grasp. Though muffled you can still hear what you’re pretty sure is angry robot speak.

Rung rolls his optics at Whirl’s theatrics and sighs. “We’ll discuss this further at your next session. And don’t think this will go unreported- Ah, poor thing, you’re shaking” his attention is drawn back to you. The mech softly coos, gently running a finger along your back in soothing strokes. Truthfully at this point you’re shaking from a mix of adrenaline and relief, not fear. But you lean into Rung’s finger and note how much gentler he is compared to the other bots you’ve met so far. Orange eyebrows bot is now #1 in your book … whatever that means (god your brain is fried. you want a damn nap).

“Are you trying to kill the poor thing? Organics are much more fragile than us Whirl, even enough stress can kill them. Such as being chased by a giant mech! And don’t think I didn’t see you try to grab them!” Rung hardly raises his voice at others, but if Whirl is going to be a threat to the organic, he needs to intervene now.

“Tch! Relax eyebrows, we were just playing around. Y’know, bonding and all that slag. That’s what the captain said we were supposed to do right? Well,” He clicks his pincers. “This is how I bond. Bet we’re already besties! See?” Whirl stretches his neck out to get a closer look at you, but all you do is cower further into the orange mech.

Whirl lets out a dramatic gasp and places one servo over where his spark would be. “Did you see that doc? Rejected! Betrayed! I’m never gonna emotionally recover from this!”

“…It wasn’t that bad” the blue mech grumbles, somewhat affronted by Rung’s scolding and the weird itching at the back of his processor. “Whatever, I’ve got better things to do than hang with you two losers. Like getting drunk!” With that, the blue mech takes off with a cackle, leaving you and Rung in the dust to process everything.

‘I need to find my escape-pod as soon as possible, or else I’m gonna die here’ you morosely conclude.

#transformers #mtmte #mtmte whirl #mtmte rung #first contact au #I am so rusty at writing and it shows #the ghost of 12 year old me possessed current me and wrote this #maccadam

[panda-puma]

I'm a little baffled by your post about the one piece anime, because while I would also recommend people read the manga instead, it still is a vastly more accurate adaption than the opla? like, opla is lovely for what it is, but oda being involved in it doesn't change the fact that they took huuuge liberties that the anime just... doesn't? which is perfectly fine for an adaption, I'm just mentioning it because it sounded like you were focused on the character dynamics, which are just... vastly, vastly different in the manga AND anime vs the live action. I'm thinking about Nami and Sanji in particular (and Usopp as well to a degree), who all kind of feel like watered-down versions of their actual selves (Nami isn't greedy enough, Usopp not cowardly enough, Sanji... well, I'm not saying Sanji being different is a bad thing asdf). Again, perfectly fine for an adaption that doesn't mean to adapt its source material beat for beat, but it just leaves me really confused over how the opla is possibly a more faithful/a better adaption than the anime? Which, as far as I can recall, has severe pacing issues, annoying fillers and leaves out things like the cover stories, but still sticks waaaay closer to the actual story and dynamics as they are in the manga.

(First of all: you can like the Anime. As I said before, I've watched the entire Anime 3 times this last year. But you can enjoy something and still know it's flawed. Very flawed, even.)

Uf, I will try to make this as short as possible xD If i sound dry or "angy", sorry, English is not my first language ^^

What baffles me is that most people really think the Anime of One Piece is a faithful 1 to 1 adaptation, or that everything on it is canon (except the fillers), or that Oda approves the changes they make. For context: it was very common in the 90s/2000s to just take a manga that was doing good and make an animation that took the characters and story and did whatever they wanted with it. One Piece is not the only victim of this treatment.

I respect the animators and Seiyuus, they do their jobs good and are what makes the Anime enjoyable. But I really can not understand the Directors and the changes they decided to make to the characters (and this applies to the whole series, not only 20 years ago).

The changes you see in OPLA are necessary to translate a drawing (Manga) to a series acted by real people. Also, condensing 95 chapters of Manga in 8 episodes and trying to bring the essence of the characters to the screen, translating Japanese funny gags to an International Audience and also having the input of 25 years of Oda thinking "huh, maybe this could have been explained better" it's obviously going to make things change.

The Anime has none of those excuses. It's also a drawing so no need to tone down, supposed to have the same Audience (even tho they really tried to make it for little kids and it shows), they clearly don't have an issue with the length of the series and they don't ask Oda for nearly any of the changes they make!

Pretending Oda being involved or not doesn't matter is just so weird to me. You know all One Piece characters are Oda's OCs, right? He is the original creator of the characters. He knows them better than anyone else. He knows where the story is going, what is acceptable, what is on character and what is not. Just because they are very famous characters it doesn't mean they are not someones Original Characters. He loves them and cares for them. Not respecting him as the only one that can say something is canon or not is completely disrespectful and dehumanizing.

About watering down characters in OPLA: again, they are real people acting the characters. In the Manga they are exaggerated to a comical effect that wouldn't translate as comical if it's real people who do it, it'd just be weird. That's because it's different mediums and different audience. But the core of the characters is very present, just less cartoony. On the other hand, the Anime reduces the characters to just this comical effect, taking away nearly everything else of the characters, making them just gags.

Answering to the specific points you make about OPLA:

Nami not being greedy enough: Nami's greed before Arlong Park Arc is just her trying to save enough to free her people. We don't really see her greed until after she is free. We haven't reached this point yet in OPLA, apart of her wanting to dress nice and enjoy a bath.

Usopp not being cowardly enough: they can not spend 5 minutes of an 50 minute episode showing him screaming around or running away. But they did show him running as first reaction in Kaya's Mansion, twice. They showed him wanting to go back home after encountering Garp. He does say cowardly things all the time, like wanting to leave, stay on the Merry, not fight the Fish Men, running away the second Chu payed attention to him… It's just less cartoony. They are also not showing inner dialogue of the characters, it's just shown by their acting.

Sanji not being a pervert: Not only is Sanji's perversion waaaay exaggerated in the Anime, to an unpalatable degree, it's also a very Japanese Funny Gag that wouldn't translate good to an International Audience. Sanji in the Manga has, on top of everything else, a friendly relationship with Nami. He can talk to her like a human being. They are friends that can agree or disagree without drama, that join forces to fix things very often and act very calm around each other unless something "special" happens and Sanji is lovestruck, but even so, he usually comes back to being normal pretty fast. Of course he likes her and he is attracted to her, but he also sees her as a person... unlike the Anime. This translated to into the Live Action to a man that tries to flirt and has no success, but that can take a no as an answer without being offended. Also, Oda probably wanted to show on the Live Action that the real reason Sanji is on the crew is no other than him following Luffy (that is also a thing that the Anime waters down: Sanji's dedication to Luffy)

The main point is: yes, OPLA is an Alternative Universe where things are shown a bit differently, but the core of the characters is the same. You see them and you see real people, just like in the Manga.

And let's see about the faithfulness of the Anime... just because the Arcs are called the same and things kind of happen the same, it doesn't mean it's a faithful adaptation. The most important thing in a story is the characters and how they interact and react to the world. These are just some differences between the Anime and the Manga that I can think of off the top of my head, just from the East Blue Saga. (without any particular order)

-- Zoro's real backstory (Manga) is that he had been in the Shimotsuki Dojo probably since birth, practicing his 2 Sword Style and only starting the 3 Sword Style to carry Kuina's Soul with him. [((spoilers from Wano: now we know Zoro is also a Shimotsuki, so he was training in his family's Dojo. It also explains why Koushirou gave Kuina's sword to Zoro so easily: they are family, and Zoro would carry the Shimotsuki name to the top of Swordmanship))].

Zoro's backstory in the Anime is completely changed to make it look like he is a random funny kid that came out of nowhere and one day appeared in the Dojo. His signature 3 sword style is also made like he just "wanted to use as many swords as possible".

I don't think it's very necessary to explain why this changes are just... terrible for the character and continuity.

[Edit: the following is not correct! Check the reblog for the correction :D] The Anime also makes Zoro's departure from Shimotsuki Village like something he planned to do, saying goodbye to Kuina's Grave and Koushiro… when in the Manga he literally tells Luffy he was kicking pirates out of his village and he got lost and didn't know how to get back. [/end of incorrect part]

Changing Zoro's character at every turn is something they love to do in the Anime.

--

Usopp in the Manga wants Luffy&co. to meet Kaya, because he cares about her well being. He wants her to make new friends, to be able help them and feel useful doing it. Usopp knows what Kaya needs is contact with the world and tries to bring it to her.

Usopp in the Anime is jealous and secretive of her. He doesn't want the others to go meet her, even knowing they are good people. He'd rather have her to himself.

This is a fatal change to the character of Usopp. He is a kind hearted lovely man that wants what's best for his friend... but the Anime just shows a jealous asshole.

--

In the battle against Cabaji, Zoro cuts his own wound, so his opponent can't use it as an advantage anymore.

In the Anime, he lowers his defense on purpose and lets Cabaji cut his wound.

The first one shows how far he can go to prove himself, also shows he is not at all worried because he doesn't consider Cabaji up to his level. I'm not sure what the second one is supposed to show apart from "children can not see self-harm".

--

Also in Orange Town in Manga, Luffy is fighting as much as possible against the cage he is trapped in, biting the bars. And afterwards he is very worried asking Zoro to leave him and not carry him or he will get worse from his wounds. In the Anime he is just surprised that Zoro can carry him like that. He doesn't really fight his predicament.

The Anime usually shows Luffy as an uncaring friend, which is sad when he is a character that cares so much and has so much empathy.

--

In the Manga, Zeff cuts his own leg and eats it to survive after giving all the food they have to Sanji.

In the Anime, Zeff lost his leg because it got caught in the ships broken pieces, and he had to cut it to survive. (i guess he survived 80 days thanks to the Holy Spirit or something) (again with being palatable to children)

--

In the Manga, the first encounter between Tashigi and Zoro is brief, Zoro gives her back the glasses and carries on (even tho tilted by her looking so similar to Kuina).

In the Anime, Zoro breaks Tashigi's glasses with the shock and she proceeds to be the meanest person ever insulting him in many ways (isn't she supposed to be a good person?) and forcing him to work for her to pay her glasses back, even tho she has no need for the money.

The Anime shows Zoro as a pushover, when in reality he is not. He was "pushed over" by Luffy out of the blue because it is Luffy, not because Zoro would let someone random do that to him. This type of "Zoro gets messed up easily by anyone" is very repeated through the Anime, taking away the importance of his relationship with Luffy and the other few he pays really attention to.

--

In the Manga, Sanji wants to be famous and have his face seen in the Newspaper. That's why he gets mad when Usopp is in Luffy's Wanted Poster and he isn't.

In the Anime, he is already a famous cook. We can see it in one of the many filler in Loguetown, where another cook has been wanting to surpass him for a long time.

[((spoiler of Whole Cake Island: This collides directly with how his Wanted Poster makes his bio Family looks for him to use him, after knowing he is still alive.))]

--

Also in Loguetown, in the Manga Luffy goes directly to the place Roger was executed.

In the Anime they make him get lost a hundred times for comical effect. He also meets Smoker, Buggy and others on the way… taking away all the surprise.

--

In the Manga, Zoro and Luffy are pretty confused with Sanji's romantic reaction to Nami. They don't get why she's getting special treatment. Zoro even wonders if she bewitched him somehow.

In the Anime, as soon as Sanji starts flirting with Nami, Zoro gets irritated and Luffy gets uncomfortable.

In the Anime they try hard to make Zoro have a romance with any girl that shows up, adding reactions that are never present in the Manga.

--

And well, a huge one that needs more elaboration, because it is the core of the Manga: Luffy is shown observing and judging situations and people constantly. Every time something is happening that shows the true nature of people, he is specifically shown paying attention.

In the Anime this is translated as him being an empty headed kid that barely thinks or cares about anyone. He is a shell of a man, who only repeats that he wants to be King of the Pirates...

--

This is a very tiny list of examples that explain themselves without going into extensive detail…

I can go on and on about more changes that make no sense or change characters personalities, but if I do, I will dedicate its own blog to it to not clutter this one. I need bigger posts to explain the changes I see in dynamics between the characters xD

And as I said: if all of these changes were approved by Oda, I would be happy to accept them. But sadly they are not.

So to me, the One Piece Anime is just a fan-made adaptation that takes too many liberties. Or, as Animes are really considered in Japan: just advertisement for the Mangas.

On the other hand, OPLA changes were approved after negotiations and struggles and years of back and forth. Oda was very invested in it, trying to really show his vision and his world as good as possible. That's why i consider the Live Action as a faithful adaptation of the story.

Of course you may not consider these things important, but they are for me. In the end, you are free to enjoy One Piece as you wish! ^^

Anyways, thanks for reading so much! xD This ended up not being short at all, but i controlled myself as much as possible, i swear uvuU

#ask #one piece manga #one piece anime #comparison #one piece #very long post #one piece live action

[ilovethemac]

I'm baaaaack

Okay, so it's no secret that my kdrama love comes in bursts. I watch like 20 in one month and then none for half a year. So I know it's been a while. But now that I'm on winter break from school (one more semester til graduation!), I thought I'd use my spare time to watch some old favorites and give new dramas a shot. I watched several dramas in December, but I didn't feel like doing a full review for any of them. So here's a rapid-fire breakdown of my recent viewings.

Cheer Up (2022): This is the drama that brought me back into the kdrama fold and it was such a good one to start my streak with. I think it got mixed reviews and the MDL score is only a 7.5 but I absolutely adored this one. The vibes were just immaculate. All the cinematography was gorgeous. And as an American, this type of cheer squad is entirely new to me, but I loved every second of it. The ridiculous costumes, the repetitive dance moves, the hardcore training-- it was so campy and fun. I love that it cuts from intense boot camp to everyone dressed up like ABBA singing and waving their arms around. I also really liked the romance in this one, even though it got delayed for way too long. All the characters were great and I loved that everyone got a little bit of focus, not just the main couple. I will say the tone was all over the place. One second we're having a fun romp through college and the next we're being hunted by a madman intent on killing our female lead because... reasons? But I actually kind of liked how jarring it was. It was hilarious. I don't know if that was the goal, but it made me laugh every time. This one got a very rare 10/10.

Love to Hate You (2023): This is a short 10-episode drama on Netflix and it kind of feels like a filler show. You can watch it over two days when you have nothing else you're focused on. That's not to say it's bad. It's got some great moments and it turns some tropes on their head. For example, when you meet a female lead's ex-boyfriend in episode one, he usually becomes a villain (and sometimes he loses his mind and tries to kill someone. Something In The Rain, I'm looking at you). But here he became one of my favorite characters, serving as both a surprise hero and comic relief. And all her male co-workers seem like they look down on women at first, but they end up being super loyal and sweet. But the male lead was confusing for me. He starts out as an incredibly misogynistic jerk, but then they get together and his justification is basically "most women are evil, but I really like you." I didn't feel like he actually learned. And the pacing was super weird. It's hard to tell when they actually start liking each other vs. when they're trying to seduce each other competitively (that may only make sense if you've seen it). Then the last two episodes feel like they ran out of conflict and pulled something out of thin air because the main couple was already together and that's not compelling anymore. Idk, I didn't hate it but it wasn't amazing either. 7/10 because the ex-boyfriend was so fun and the co-workers were stars. Jeon Shin Hwan and Joo Jong Hyuk carried this show on their backs.

Hotel del Luna (2019): This may come as a shock, but I had never seen this one before. It's one of the most popular dramas online and I'd been meaning to get around to it, but it took longer than I expected. I won't spend too long on it because you probably all watched it like 4 years ago. Basically, I had fun and IU absolutely kills it, but by the end, the whole thing felt like it was trying to hard too make me cry. I also wasn't as into the main couple as I think I was supposed to be. They were fine, I just preferred her as mean and vindictive as opposed to sweet and lovey. Plus I have absolutely no idea when they started liking each other or when they started dating. It was very vague. But the side characters were absolutely amazing. 7/10.

Summer Strike (2022): This was a strange one. I think I would have enjoyed it more if my expectations weren't so off. I thought it was going to be a fun, slice-of-life, hijinks of the week type show. Like she moves to a little island and meets the quirky locals and finds inner peace. Boy was I wrong. It's actually like half that, half murder mystery? Why? I thought I was going to get "no plot, just vibes" and instead I got "oh you like that character? well they're dead now." Very strange. But maybe if I'd known what it was going in, I would have enjoyed the mystery more. It's like I expected apple juice and got root beer. Not necessarily the root beer's fault, but it wasn't what I wanted and kinda soured the experience. But I do have to brag that I predicted the reveal in the first few episodes. I guessed who the killer was. I just got a weird vibe and I was like "oh it's them." Lo and behold, I was RIGHT. Very proud of that. 7/10.

Castaway Diva (2023): I just finished this one and once again, it was not the vibe I thought it was going to be. But this one actually felt very inconsistent. With a premise like "she was stranded on an island for 15 years," I think you either have to make it silly and funny or very dark and realistic. This drama tried to have both. It seemed like it was only interested in unpacking the male leads' traumas, but not our female lead. It was picking and choosing what to take seriously. Like yeah, we're gonna explore the lifelong ramifications of escaping an abuser, but this girl that lived in total solitude for over a decade? She's totally fine. Besides, she was also abused, but it is almost never brought up again after the pilot. She doesn't have lasting trauma or even any significant feelings about it. At least none that are shared with the audience. Also, was Ki-ho's identity supposed to be a mystery? Was I supposed to be unsure of who it was? Because I knew immediately. 6/10.

I'm currently deciding what to watch next, so if you have a suggestion, please send it my way! So glad to be back.

#kdrama #korean drama #kdrama review #cheer up #love to hate you #summer strike #hotel del luna #castaway diva

[nickmaghighlights]

NMH Side Issues - Cartoon Network Magazine

Time for a change of pace, don’t you agree? Let’s take a short break from the world of Nickelodeon to tackle the magazine offered by their long-time competitor, Cartoon Network!

First off, I’d like to apologize for the slight delay in posting. I’m sure you know how life is. Besides, don’t think of it as me missing a week, think of it as two Nick Mag Highlights posts in one week! Be sure to check back this weekend to see if I follow through on that. Anyway, back to the topic at hand…

Now, don’t worry, I’m not changing channels on you. This bonus segment was one I had thought up as a fun way to break up the pace a bit. Nickelodeon Magazine will always be my one true calling of course, but I think it’s only fair to check out the other publications you could’ve been spending your hard-earned allowance on. 

But just what is Cartoon Network Magazine? Who made it? And how? All are deceptively simple questions, and I’m not the most certain on how to answer them myself! But here’s my best guess.

Think they had a favorite show?

From my research, Cartoon Network Magazine was published by Panini Comics, a former branch of Marvel Comics that’s now perfectly happy to work with anyone carrying the right license. Panini publishes content throughout Europe, and this ‘zine here is no exception. Indeed, eagle-eyed viewers might have already realized… This magazine is from the UK! Suppose that explains why my bright blue American eyes have never laid upon an issue of this in-person.

Cartoon Network Magazine seems to have had a pretty long lifespan, with the latest release I can find evidence for being dated to 2016! And that’s just from Panini, mind you. There’s been a few other publications bearing the Cartoon Network Magazine name, from all different countries and walks of life, but if you ask me they’re all fakers compared to what Panini’s got for us here. Why? … Well, it’s the only Cartoon Network magazine I can find on archive.org that’s not just a compilation of comics. Substance counts!

But what is all this work and no play we’ve got going on here? We’ve got a magazine to read! You can read along here.

A fairly promising start, if I do say so myself. I mean, did Nickelodeon Magazine ever have a pullout poster? Probably, but I bet it wasn’t an Ed, Edd, n Eddy poster!

Quite a lot to unpack here in the News section. Doesn’t help that it looks like Eddy rudely barged in and the magazine’s trying to squeeze in around him.

Now, I presume the idea for this page was to probably parody your average celebrity news magazine with some vapid, inconsequential gossip about the CN cast, but coming off of Nick Magazine, it’s weird to see a News section where the only tangible information is related to some long-defunct giveaways.

Speaking of which, you will quickly notice the high volume of (rather easy) trivia questions as we read on, all of which were opportunities to win some of the goodies stacked next to each question. See if you can play along, no cheating!

Also, sorry for the hold ups but I’m giving this part some special attention. This comic has simply got it all wrong. Why is Double D the one who stupidly ignored the big shark warning sign? Why is Ed written so observant and astute to the point that he’s the one delivering us the punchline? Why is he calling Double D “Edd”? Why is Eddy oinking? And why is that shark so scary!?

Coming up on our first comic, and it’s something much more on-brand than that previous shark adventure. In fact if you had told me that this comic was just an adaptation of a real episode of the show, I’d believe you! Everything from the comedy to the art is ridiculously on point and that should come as no surprise, since a quick search online reveals that much of the crew behind this comic all worked on Ed Eddy n Eddy themselves. That’s one way to keep your comic on-model.

Anyway, the plot follows the Eds playing superheroes while the usual hijinks and bickering ensue, sporting that typical Ed charm. If that sounds up your alley, give it a look! That goes for all three of the comics featured in this book (well, for the most part anyway). I haven’t got much to say about them myself, they’re just good.

Very fun section here, featuring some words of wisdom from the best Powerpuff Girls character: Mojo Jojo. Probably the best anyway, I’m not an expert. That show wasn’t really a favorite of mine. I like his signature also, the handprint is a good touch.

Jesus Christ, this game must be terrifying! What on Earth do tentacles and mustached baby heads have to do with Mario Tennis? I’m afraid to find out.

I find it interesting that even UK ads seem to make fun of haughty english-types. I guess in hindsight that’s actually a pretty obvious way to be counterculture for a UK audience.

I hate stuff like this. “Oh yeah draw a circle and a semi circle and then draw dexter”. What the hell! What’s the semi circle even for? You barely used it! Don’t really get the weird clenched fist pose either, I don’t remember Dexter being the fist pumping type.

First time I've heard of this movie. But just how could I have missed it? Seems like they were giving DVDs away by the truckload! Maybe I’ve never heard of it because that goblin is a little creepy bastard. Who knows.

These ads man. I think I might love ‘em. They’re avant garde in the best way. Nothing here tops the “mustached baby head referee” from the Mario Tennis ad, but it’s sure trying.

I’m curious though if the game would even recognize the phrase “Go left strange brown beasties”. That microphone wasn’t exactly Siri-quality.

I love a good review! And these are… well… I mean, they’re reviews of Warner Bros products and items they were giving away. These good reviews weren’t even “bought”, they were just guaranteed.

Even still, c’mon Dexter, only a “Sooper” rating for The Iron Giant!? Really putting your self-appointed title of “boy genius” into question.

Shucks fellas, we’re late. Eighteen years late! Now we’ll never have a chance at those prizes, or the complementary Cartoon Network mailing service, for that matter! Oh well, I’m not too bummed. I can’t help but feel the chances were slim anyway, what with the barrier-to-entry being questions like “What’s the name of Batman’s butler” or “What color is Mario’s hat”. 

We've made our way to comic #2 now, and it’s of the Powerpuff Girls! Again, like the previous one everything seems to be on-point, from the artstyle to the writing. This one’s doubly impressive since it seems like the staff behind this one didn’t work on the original show. So hey, kudos!

But yeah it’s your usual Powerpuff fare, stopping a robot or two from Mojo Jojo. Give it a read if you’re starved for Powerpuff Girls content I suppose, I mean the show’s only been rebooted like three or four times already.

Ah, here’s that poster! Not bad, eh? I’m sure this would look good on a wall, or any other number of flat surfaces, for that matter. Shame about the horrible staples of death waiting to rip a gash in your poster when you try to tear it out, though. Oh god, I knew this would happen… I’m already starting to get some horrible magazine-poster-related flashbacks.

Can’t believe Eddy was busting his chops all this time coming up with scams when he could’ve just charged people to use his magic floating swing set. Look at how much fun he’s having, he’d make a killing!

Nothing like a little smattering of brain teasers to get the brain back in gear after 31 consecutive pages of comics, giveaways, and other mind-altering guff. Now, these are all perfectly fine, if not a little simple, but I'd like to talk about the top right one in particular…

Am I missing something here? Both B and D look the same as the original! I thought maybe the scan quality might be obscuring a hidden detail, but I’ve messed with the colors and saturation, checking every possible angle, and I still can’t find what’s wrong!

The answer key says the right one is B, so if anyone knows what’s wrong with the illustration in D, please feel free to share. Maybe then I'll finally be able to get some sleep.

This honestly was the kind of stuff I expected out of a Cartoon Network magazine, more supplementary material and bonus content based on the currently airing shows and less piss-easy giveaways. Well, I’ll take what I can get. Kids Next Door is one of the Cartoon Network shows I look back on pretty fondly, so this was a fun trip down memory lane.

(Okay, quick little side note here, cause something just occurred to me as I was writing this segment, and how often am I going to get to talk about KND on a Nickelodeon Magazine blog?)

Has anyone else noticed that all the main characters are designed to have their eyes obscured? I know in the show itself they’d often have their eyes open or pop out from behind their eyewear, but by default they all have their pupils hidden. I don’t have a point to make here, but that’s a weird little design detail, yeah? 

Last comic of the book, and surprise surprise, it’s Dexter’s Lab! Not as sure how to feel about this one after reading the other two. For one, I just wasn’t the biggest Dexter’s Lab fan as a kid, and two, the art in this is weirdly off-model. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong about that, of course (I loved a lot of the show-based Nick Mag comics that played with bending the established artstyle around*), it’s just that after the previous two comics were a near perfect screen-to-paper transition of their original shows, this one feels like it’s breaking a precedent a bit.

*Scan from @90s-2000sgirl on Tumblr (deactivated)

Like, you see what I mean right? Not bad, it just throws me off a little.

But hey, you want to talk about off-model art…

No no, I’m not actually going to nitpick childrens’ fanart, that’s crossing a line. Especially since these are pretty good! It must have been amazing for these kids to see their drawings end up in this section. I hope they all enjoyed their awarded copies of Kangaroo Jack 2, if that insert up in the top left is to be believed.

Wow, Mac, you’ve got an interesting list of favorites. And a biased one at that, nice work putting your own show on there!

Also, cutting out the TV guide seems like a bit of an unnecessary hassle to me. Not to mention you’re less likely to lose a whole magazine than you are a single piece of messily cut paper, if you really are planning on using it.

¡Mucha Lucha! was a bit of an odd, short-lived pleasure of mine back in the day. I think it stemmed from my liking of how each character had their own personal special move they would use in-battle. Kids today have it easy, it seems like nowadays every character can have as many special moves as they want! 

Also, show of hands, who here has heard of Atomic Betty? I seriously have never heard of it until this very moment. A Google search reveals that, apparently, it aired on Cartoon Network for less than a year? Shocking if true, but I guess that would explain my total non-memory of it.

Games? Inside the TV? Not a console in sight? If you had told me back in 2005 I’d have found it preposterous, but I think Apple TV or whatever made them commonplace now. Thanks, I guess.

These things have to be lost media, right? How do you even go about archiving something like this? It doesn’t sound like you could’ve downloaded them, since they would change every week. 

I bet some poor fella is out there right now, trying to remember that odd little Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends game he played on his parents’ TV as a kid, one fleeting Summer afternoon. Sadly even if he does remember he’s probably not going to be able to track down a copy, since… there are presumably no copies!

And there you have it, folks! The first ever edition of NMH Side Issues! This was a fun little experiment, and I think I’d be up for doing it again sometime. But as always, I think more Nick Magazine is in order. I mean, it’s in the name after all! 

Still, it was fun to see an example of what else you could find hanging on the magazine rack. Well, at least in the UK, anyway. Picture it: Mom’s picked out the perfect beans on toast and has nearly made it to the check-out line. You’ve got five seconds to choose what you’re reading on the car ride home! What's it gonna be kid?

I bet you could guess my choice!

(Yeah, right!)

Hate to end the blog on a sour, serious note, but the Internet Archive recently lost a court case against some large publishers regarding the scanning and lending of e-books. They’re looking to appeal, but it’s a gloomy situation. The Internet Archive has always been a real force for good on the internet, and it makes things like Nick Mag Highlights possible in the first place, not to mention countless other archival projects spanning from out-of-print books to now-inaccessible web pages. Showing your support online for the site, or even sending a small donation would do a lot in helping to keep a great service available to all. 

Thanks as always for your time, and remember: keep reading!

#nmh side issue #2000s #2005 #cartoon network #magazine

[thousand-page-dreams]

HSMTMTS Rewatch: The Auditions

So this isn’t a review, it’s just my various thoughts while rewatching the pilot. There’s other shows I wanted to do a rewatch post for as well, but HSMTMTS is pretty short so it’s easier. I do spoil some of the later episodes and seasons, so be warned.

Gina watches Nini and Ricky fight in the hallway. She doesn't know they're auditioning, perhaps she's just interested in watching the drama unfold. Or maybe because she changes schools so much, she likes to observe her surroundings to figure out the social scene.

Kourtney has pretty awkward dialogue in the early episodes, not sure why they only let her be comic relief for most of the season. She was only supposed to be in this episode, but thankfully the powers that be saw Dara's talent. Though it's kind of weird how they wanted Ricky to have a best friend throughout the show, but not Nini initially.

Ricky says Camp Shallow Lake is one month long, not two weeks as in Season 3. Although it is kind of funny to think about Nini and E.J. becoming an official couple in two weeks, would kind of explain why their relationship doesn't work out.

It's sweet that Kourtney, Natalie, and Seb all comment on Nini's instagram post. 

"I'm not threatened by guys who voluntarily wear tights" Would Ricky have wanted to take a break if he'd known Nini would've been around E.J., someone he views as a threat?

 I always find it funny in these shows whenever theater is depicted as being uncool. At my high school, the “popular” kids were all in musical theater.

Carlos is captain of the color guard team, as a sophomore, which is impressive and never brought up again. Though it must be lonely to be surrounded by people, yet not friends with any of them.

Pretty sad that Nini's newfound confidence is based essentially on a lie. She only got the part at camp because of E.J. There's also hints of insecurity; she thinks her grandmother is letting her win at UNO and she's worried she'll jinx getting Gabriella.

The scene between Nini and her grandmother is probably my favorite of the episode. HSMTMTS is relatively fast paced, so the moments it slows down are nice.

The whole "dad is incompetent at basic household activities" trope is stupid and dated. But the immediate contrast between Nini's happy family and Ricky's tense interactions with his father is poignant.

Big Red pretty much describes High School Musical as a love triangle; Troy has to choose between Chad and Gabriella. He's only revealed to be bisexual in the finale of Season 3, it’s cool foreshadowing.

When I first watched this episode, I actually really liked E.J. and Nini's relationship. He encourages her a lot. But the writers couldn't think of any logical reason to break them up, so they made E.J. an awful boyfriend. Alternatively, they could've had Ricky realize she wasn't interested in him anymore.

However, it makes sense why Ricky is desperate to get back together. He's desperate for stability in the midst of his parent's failing marriage.

Sure, Gina is a little condescending to Nini when they meet, but she still seems friendly. No idea where Ashlyn gets the evil "Gina 1.0" idea from in Season 3.

Ashlyn doesn't choose to audition as Ms Darbus, Ms Jen just assigns it to her. And yeah, she seems enthusiastic but maybe she would've liked to try out for the lead. Or maybe she doesn't think she's good enough for a main role, based on season 2.

"Gabriella. I wanna audition for Gabriella." - I always felt that Nini lacks agency as a character. But I love this small moment where Nini stands up for herself. She's responsible for her first success.

Ms Jen's comment to E.J after his audition is creepy, not gonna lie.

E.J. saying "I love you" after only knowing Nini for a month...

Big Red tries to sit by Kourtney, but she scoots away. The breakup affected them too. I wonder if they were friends before.

God, poor Nini. Ricky is telling her everything she wanted to hear now, but he broke her heart first. Also he hates musicals, and she's in musicals. I hope while they were dating he went to her performances.

Gina smiles during Ricky's audition. That's sweet. 

Also Gina's rendition of "Start of Something Knew" is pretty good. I never listened to it much before.

Ricky is being failed by all the adult figures in his life. Of course, Nini's confession shocked him. His reaction wasn't right, but it didn't come out of nowhere.

Overall, I think this episode is a pretty strong pilot. It introduces most of the characters pretty well, and not just Ricky and Nini. I do think the second half of the season is significantly weaker, though. I'll try to post my thoughts on episode 2 next weekend.

#hsmtmts #high school musical the musical the series #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #gina porter #e.j. caswell

[davidmariottecomics]

Pacing Your Work, Pacing Yourself

Hi again! 

It should come as no surprise that my updates are based on the things I'm thinking about at the moment and, often, what I'm going through. Something I still struggle with a lot--despite helping other people manage it for themselves 5 days a week--is pacing.

I tend to be a burst writer. When I get into the right headspace, I write constantly. Last week, I knocked out four scripts of different lengths--one's probably going to see the light of day in 2023 and the others... who know? Since then, I've got I think 2 half-written WIPs (that I plan on getting back to this week) and the early brewings of something else. 

It feels really good to be so productive, even if the majority of it never does end up going anywhere. I had been having a real dry spell and now I feel out of my funk. I know it won't last, though. Burst writing for me is having alternating off-and-on periods where, times like now, I knock a ton of stuff out, and then probably in about a month, towards the end of this year/beginning of 2023, writing much of anything at all will feel like a major struggle. It'll be half-chore, half-insurmountable barrier that I have to overcome. Time will pass and I'll get back into writing and have another burst and another bust and so on and so forth. 

But knowing this about myself and paying a lot of attention to what has been working for me, I've actually maybe found a solution to my personal pacing issues in how I pace themselves. 

Your Story is as Long as it Needs to be 

One of the absolute hardest things to know before you start is how long your story is supposed to be. Granted, you're rarely starting totally blind. If, for example, you've been asked to pitch a comic to a company, they're usually giving you an idea of your limitations up front, be it page count, issue count, or a combination of the two. There're exceptions--particularly when you're coming in with an original project rather than being asked to pitch on an existing title--but if you aren't told a length up-front, that's a discussion that'll happen quickly. 

When you are asked to put a story together, you're outlining to that length. I find a lot of the best pitches I read pace to about a 1-2 paragraphs per issue for the overall synopsis and then between like 25 sentences and/or 5 paragraphs per issue breakdown. With the high level overall synopsis, keeping your explanations short focuses you on the major incidents that forward the plot beats. Using my own work as an example--the big beats for Wreckers: Tread & Circuits issue #1 were the Wreckers are broadcasting a stunt that gets interrupted by Mayhem and the Wreckers go to Velocitron to investigate. The next step, the issue breakdown, comes out to be about 1-2 sentences describing the overall action of each page and is something I often use when going to full script to create a basic pacing. 

And while those are hugely important skills to have when you're working for someone else, when you're doing work for yourself, what I've discovered is it can be a lot easier to not go in and impose a limitation on yourself for the story. To let it flow as it will and breathe and you'll know when it's done. I said earlier I wrote four scripts last week. The longest was 18 pages, I think, and the shortest was 1 page. Both are a full script, but with very different demands. What I haven't really done yet is go back and edit any of them. I think there might be a 20 page version of the 18 page one where I let a couple things breathe more. Or maybe it goes the other way and has a couple extraneous pages that I can cut. But by writing it out to what felt like the proper length in the first place, I have room to expand or contract to make it best version of the story possible, while not losing the story in trying to make it fit a certain page count. 

Why was the story 18 pages? It's part of an exercise I was trying to purely write an incident as a story. That is to say--it's a weird little one-shot with characters who've never been seen before and who'll never be seen again and it's only covering the information needed for this moment in their lives. One of the reasons that's helpful to me is by getting rid of the need for lore or a balance between a current incident and the set-up for the next (A/B/C plots), it focuses my writing and helps me get words on paper (or, rather, screen). And I do think there's something to covering the main incident first and then building up around it when you are writing with those other things in mind, because they are inherently meant to be secondary. It also lets me play with the pacing of the specific incident. How much action has to happen on a page? Letting a gag play out for as long as it needs to. Figuring out what the defining sub-incidents are and making sure those are hitting the page turns. Even looking at things like spaces where as a writer, I don't want to define the exact breakdown that much because I think a page will benefit from the artist taking the lead. 

It's Going to be Different for Everyone   Building off of that last point, I have a lot of experience with comics where for whatever reason, the artist is working at a different pace than the writer. Not just the ability to hit deadlines and how much work is being done at a time, though that's certainly true too, but the way in which an artist in drawing out a page might take their own liberties to adjust the pacing and flow of the action. Maybe they add an extra panel or two of fighting because it looks cool and they had a good idea. Maybe something slow and wordy is taking too long and it works better to info dump in a single panel, rather than breaking it up into two or three panels. These tend to be totally reasonable choices and part of working collaboratively. 

By the same token, audiences have different opinions of pacing. Some people are going to be a fan of your pacing. Some aren't. But that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong unless you aren't telling the story you're aiming to tell. I'll leave it at that for now, but I know as well as anyone else that certain people have very certain tastes for the length and format of their comics. 

Pacing Yourself

Would you believe that when you're enjoying your work, you're more productive and it's easier? Yeah. Crazy, right? But it's true. 

I said earlier I'm a burst writer. I knock out a bunch of stuff quickly and then kinda burn out for a bit before I can get back to it. Obviously, there are motivations that can help you get across the finishline--payment, external deadlines, people like me emailing you every day asking for updates--but when you're working without those, you have to pace yourself. I hope I'm not going to hit my bust soon. I hope I can take rethinking my personal pacing into consideration when I'm working on original projects because that seems to be more engaging for me than forcing my way through to a goal. And I hope some of this might be helpful to you too when you're figuring out what pace you can work at. 

#comics #writingtips #editorialtips #fromaneditor

[gessshoku]

13. thoughts on pre-glitch sun?

14. thoughts on pre-glitch moon?

19. do you think you'd get along with the dca if you met them irl?

I’m not sure if they showed a canon pre-glitch for sun and moon so I’ll go with what the fandom has. Not sure what thoughts I should say if like I’m supposed to share what I think they would be like or what I think they are like..

Pre-glitch sun: I’d imagine he’d be less frantic and less uh…idk the words but less “AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!~” Y’know? Less anxious. It would be weird since I’m used to the current sun, but also maybe he’d be better at handling kids calmly? Like not freaking out every time they went to the desk.

Oh! But I did hear this theory that his system was corrupted so Vanny would steal kids and sun would think she was their guardian so he’d give them to her and later regret it, I do think that’s plausible and also angst worthy *looks at hidden comic* very sad indeed. I would think it’d affect him badly since before he was this person that would bring children to their home safe, they’d come back, cycle repeats and they have a blast but now, some don’t come back and they never will.

Pre-glitch Moon: I have heard he’d be more gentle and wouldn’t have the red eyes! He wouldn’t say things like “bad children must be punished” which I think is sweet. The kids would’ve loved him and sun wouldn’t be afraid or nervous whenever kids would get near the office desk (well he’d get nervous cause of breaking the rule. Not the lights being turned off) He would sing lullaby’s and tell bed time stories, which I would love but that’s just me-

Do I think I’ll get along with them in real life? I would hope so! Well with sun, he’s really loud and fast pace, wants to go here and there and as a kid I was more the type to read and do my own thing, more shy and quiet. I still am that, also I hate loud abrupt noises and get overstimulated easily if I hear too much loud music/noises. I think I’d wed do well with hide and seek and drawing! I wouldn’t mind a puppet show either and just talking! The closest I’ve had a sun in my life, was an ex who wanted constant attention (because they had no one else to talk to which is fine) but it was draining and they wanted to do activities and such and I would’ve rather just stayed home and slept, AND I NEVER SLEEP!!! So maybe we’d get along like.. when my social battery is at 100% but constantly I wouldn’t survive <:3

With moon I think I’d be more comfortable with him, in terms of the quiet. But I feel it’s be too quiet, also I get nervous with people I admire or just like in general, like I gotta make some kind of conversation or do smth! We could talk and I’d enjoy it, read stories and just nap! Well I would nap- It would definitely ease my social battery drainage but my nerves and anxiety would sky rocket if we just stood in silence. Not to mention if he has the virus and is chasing me around I would breakdown and start crying and screaming my head off I’m pretty sure I’d break him from how high I can scream (I can sing at a pitch that makes peoples ears ring, according to my friend who taught me to sing hnG-) So uh… in short: Sun would drain my social battery and Moon would make me extremely anxious that I’d pray to god who I haven’t seen in years to forgive my sins and I’d go to church if moon would just start a conversation-

But if the idea where both sun and moon are adults and can act like one (we don’t see much of it in the game which is what I was going off of) then I’m sure we’d get along fine. I just need to recharge sometimes and other times I wanna wreck havoc on the world :D which is why I like them both! They both balance that need of mine where I wanna do this and go here and run around and just be active and stuff but then I’m drained and I wanna wind down and nap or be in the company of someone quiet <3

#GOD THESE ARE SO MUCH FUN #THANK YOU SI MUCH MIZ I LOVE YOU #this was… very long- #overall I would love them if I ever saw them in person #i would show respect and probably would be too shy to intimate anything first #gess box of cookies #I’ll be in the corner of the day care praying they’d notice me and talk to me #your boi ain’t social✨ #ESPECIALLY WITH PEOPLE THEY ADMIRE AND LOVE #LOVE IN EVERY ASPECT #so yea that’s a thing about me that applies to everyone :D #putting myself on blast that’s fine-

[bookio]

There's Nowhere to Run (2016) by Ester Eriksson

Read for literature class. Olivia, a young adult, starts developing severe paranoia and anxiety. Her boyfriend is ashamed of this state and becomes verbally abusive. With help of friends she signs herself into a mental ward where she receives treatment for a short while and medicine. Her boyfriend breaks up with her because of this. After a huge anxiety attack she tries to eat all the pills and later wakes up at the hospital. She's later sent to the ward for a longer time.

The comic then follows her life in the mental ward, getting treatment and talking out about the overwhelming fear of death after her mother's passing, and a classmate who died in their sleep. Olivia tries to hang herself in the bathroom at the ward but fails, and gets restrictions like not allowed to go out. Weeks later she's granted a permission and uses this time to visit and have sex with her (still asshole) ex. A while later she finds out she's pregnant, but due to her mental state and medicines, quickly also experiences a miscarriage. Through art and help from staff, she's able to slowly heal her mind and seem to get better. She connects with one of the male caretakers, sadly thinking it's love. The caretaker is however quick to inform the higher ups and through a meeting makes it clear for Olivia that there's no romance.

The epilogue shows Olivia back to living in her own apartment, but police bust into the door saying that her friends have been calling and calling, thinking she finally gone through with suicide. This is not the case and she gives affirmation to the officers that she's fine, but realize she's never going to be free from this label of being mentally unstable.

Despite the dark theme i thought it was a great book! The pacing is really captive and had details i've never heard about before. I found myself wishing for Olivia's wellness even though i first got really frustrated with her illogical fears and behavior. But humans are like that!! I've been there too! The mind is really fragile and need caring for as well, and i honestly find her so brave for actually seeking help voluntary instead of waiting for something devastating to happen. 4/5 stars

- - - - -

Buddhism in 10 minutes

Got this book from my grandma who was very religious in Buddhism, and she passed away 2019 which means during these 4 years (now's 2023) i couldn't take 10 minutes out of my life and read a short book of my grandma's wishes? Wow, I'm a disgrace.

Beside history class and serval temple visits with my relatives, i've never actually spent time reading about Buddhism views and rules on life. What i gathered from this short book is generally that you should be a good person towards others and yourself, and karma works like a point system. You're might be going through bad things today because you were a bad person in your former life so you have to work extra hard, but the book also mentions the confusion of rich people doing bad things but still live in luxury, to which this book excuses it that they might have done something positively big like donate a ridiculous amount to charity, gotten high karma points through that, and so is able to live on peacefully despite oil drilling or something. The part about people being born with disabilities was also a bit troubling to read about....

The book had specific rules of living for every kind of human (examples: the parent, the child, if you're a business owner, if you're a husband, if you're a student etc) but they all comes down to "be a good person, help and respect others". I however really disliked the outdated view about the wife is suppose to basically obey their husband and do housework, while the husband is to make money and buy necessities for the family. When partnership is suppose to be teamwork?

Honestly this copy is really weird. It's obviously a self printed book, probably sold from a small specific temple my grandma temporary visited (our local temple to which she went to frequently didn't have these kind of books?) or maybe handed out for free. But many of it's chapters continuously mentions how important it is to SPEND MONEY and DONATE, the words are mentioned suspiciously frequent between the rules of living a Buddhist life. But i don't think money is suppose to take up this much space?

Either way, i liked this bit:

"Chap 11. Success. Everybody wishes to be successful in whatever in attempted. The Buddha recommended 4 kinds of practice called Iddhipada as follows: Preference, the willingness and gladness to do: Patience, the willpower to exert efforts towards the aim having been set forth; Perseverance, the undaunted courage in the face of baffling difficulties or threatening danger: and Pondering, to be able to weigh the pros and cons carefully, to consider or approach the matter in question from all angles. These from Pātikavagga of the Long Sayings."

It fits into the everyday life of struggling to find motivation - like me! I'm not gonna rate this one, but can finally check it off my TBR-list.

[peterbarnes]

now here are my SPOILER thoughts on Multiverse of Madness

This isn’t a particular order so it’s kind of a mess.

I loved the motif with the watch. The idea that as the watch, this broken thing, can eventually become fixed, just like the characters is beautiful.

The pacing was weird as hell. So for all the action scenes - Shuma Gorath, Kamar-Taj- I was super invested. I thought they were very well put together, especially the former. Wong fighting Shuma Gorath is one of the best choreographed fight sequences. The stunts?? Using magic to conjure a sword?? But then the slower scenes were so slow compared to the others, that when they tried to develop the characters in those moments, I wasn’t super invested. For instance, that super long sequence of Strange and America walking to the sanctum in the new universe and going down “memory lane.” It felt way too long, and almost useless. It didn’t make me feel any differently about America or Strange. Even thought it was the only backstory for America we got and it was supposed to make me feel for her.

I think my problem with America in general is that her demeanor is so timid. In the comics, she’s not afraid to take up space. She’s blunt and in your face but still has this intense compassion for people. This version of America felt like the polar opposite of the one from the comics. And I get that they were trying to develop her confidence and such throughout the movie. But even in her big moment where she finds Wanda at the end, it didn’t feel like a big moment of growth for her. Her punching Wanda doesn’t signify toughness. It’s in your presence, the way you carry yourself. And that was lacking. Plus, America isn’t a magic wielder?? Why did they end her story at Kamar Taj with her learning magic. Her powers are rooted in her use of brute force. So why are they setting up her powers to be more like Strange’s? Why is her story becoming completely rooted in him when she’s supposed to be known for her independence?

Now let’s talk cameos. I think the idea of introducing the Illuminati was fucking genius and perfect for this movie. I mean John fucking Krasinski as Reed Richards??? AMAZING. But if the Illuminati is supposed to be this powerhouse lineup of heroes, why were they all killed off so quickly? I know Wanda is more powerful than on all them on every level, but her killing them all after them being on screen for 3 minutes renders their appearance useless. Merely for shock value and fan pleasing. They could’ve had integral roles in the story. ESPECIALLY professor x. I would have loved to see him have an actual psychic battle or conversation with Wanda. I think that would be fascinating to see him try to reach out to her similarly to how he did with Jean in X3. And I loved how they started to do that when Xavier went inside her head. But they cut it so short by snapping his neck that the opportunity for one of the movies most emotional and vibrant moments was lost. And Charles’ death became lackluster, like all of the other members (except for Captain Marvel, who at least lasted a while).

The only emotional moments that I felt were truly executed well were when Billy and Tommy see the Scarlet Witch and Strange and Christine’s conversation before parting. I think having a huge final battle end with a more emotional scene as compared to the typical action packed blood fest was a smart move. It was the one time Wanda didn’t feel like a simplistic villain. And I saw that as a massive Wanda fan. The whole point is her character is supposed to be extremely complex, always having contradicting emotions and motivations. And that was so well done in Wandavision. She wanted her life back, but she was losing control and hurting people, but she didn’t want to let go. That turmoil is quintessential Wanda. And the only time that was even slightly explored was at the end when Billy and Tommy see her and she started to realize the end doesn’t justify the means. Wanda chronically doubts herself yet she was so sure of herself the entire film. And I think that missed the mark for me.

I was so hyped for this movie. I’d been looking forward to it since it was announced in 2019. And I am so massively disappointed by the direction they took the story in. The sky was the limit for all the things they could have done. This could’ve been the best marvel movie to date. And yet it was messy and underwhelming. As a life long MCU fan, it makes me nervous of the universe’s future. If a massive event such as this movie doesn’t deliver, will future ones? Or will they all feel like they’re just leading up to the next project rather than being cohesive and nuanced stories?

#doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #multiverse of madness #doctor strange #benedict cumberbatch #wandavision #wanda maximoff #elizabeth olsen #scarlet witch #rachel mcadams #america chavez #illuminati #reed richards #john krasinski #professor x #captain carter #captain marvel #black bolt

[komakitigerdrop]

Ok folks, so you know what?

I have decided to re-read the first chapters of Innocent Eyes and turns out I really love them.

.

.

.

Nah.

I still find them embarrassing.

That said... I respect Yamane Ayano as a mangaka and I maintain that it is her work to do whatever she sees fit. My opinion as a fan, and what I believe would make more sense for the characters, is insignificant in the great scheme of things, and what do I know, anyway? I'm not the one dealing with editors, publishers, a global audience.

At this point, and rightfully so, what sensei wants for Finder and what I, a reader, want for Finder are very distinct things. I want complex plots, hidden motives, character development and the occasional dark humor, but the more I read this arc, the more I realize this is not what YA has in mind. At this point, I believe she just wants her almost two decades long work to be less of a burden and more... Well... Fun.

Just like Cindy Lauper's girls, sensei just wanna have fun.

But here's where my problems begin. That Finder is no Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai, everyone knows. I don't think the plot has that level of depth. I don't think the characters have that level of depth. At some point in the past, there were significant moments of character development but something with the pace of Finder always finds a way to derail story progression. Characters fall short, plot falls short, everything tends to be contrived, and you know what? I'm okay with that. It managed to maintain a semblance of consistence in its inconsistency, despite its flaws.

This arc, however, is a plunge into the absurd, a collection of tropes that tend to do more damage than good.

Memory loss?

Brainwashing?

Time Skip?

As Bart Simpson would say, "ay, caramba!"

It's a tall order. It's a tricky combination to pull off without making the characters involved look stupid (which they do, obviously). And here is where it gets me: it's all done without a hint of humor. Other than Kirishima huffing and puffing here and there, there is no comic relief. The vibe is serious and we are supposed to keep a straight face as we see Akihito feeding Sudou and Asami getting kicked in the face in yet another distasteful episode of sexual assault.

I mean... Why?

If anything, this is the arc to turn up the comic to a blaring eleven. Hell, give us Mikhail and Fei Long bickering like an old couple, give me good banter instead of the cliche, mild tsundere yadda yadda in between sex scenes. Have Asami and his weird-ass brother and minion share some sort of embarrassing memory. Show more of Kirishima messing up in his unexpected CEO role.

Just embrace your inner Surrealist and go all out

I'm okay with absurd. But absurd passing for serious storytelling is just cringe.

I know that in the Finder universe, the surreal has a place and that place is called "extras". Without a doubt, that's where YA channels her fluff and humor into, so bless those little moments of insanity. But why, at this point, so many years down the road, is Finder still taking itself so seriously? I don't think humor would alienate readers, at least not as much as poor, convoluted writing. Times are changing. Many things that made sense 15 years ago don't make sense anymore, it's fine.

And in Finder's case, everything could be so much better with a good laugh.

#finder no hyouteki #finder series #you're my loveprize in viewfinder #komaki rambles

[hugespace]

Prompt: van, thunderstorm, link is scared and rhett is there for him and gives him hugs and kisses

Thanks love 😘

There you go! 🥰 I ended up writing some high school Rhink - lots of fluff with a dash of angst. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

*** (~2k words) ***

"How the crap did you miss that, Rhett?!" Link rapidly turned his whole body in the passenger seat, making his bleached blonde locks flap around on the top of his head. "How are we even out of gas-? Didn't you just say, like yesterday, that you'd fill it up?!" he threw his hands in the air, staring with disbelief at his friend who sat quietly behind the wheel.

Rhett muttered something in response, his head downturned and eyes focused on his own lap.

"Rhett!" Link exclaimed impatiently, not having gotten a clear answer out of the other boy.

"I thought we'd make it, okay?! I was gonna buy gas with some of the money we'd get after the gig!" Rhett repeated his explanation in a raised voice this time, finally looking his friend in the eyes and shrugging in the process.

Link only returned the look with wide eyes.

"Are you serious-? You're so irresponsible!" he answered even louder after a few short seconds of processing Rhett's words. "You're telling me you wanted to buy gas with the money we won't even get now because we won't get to the damn concert- because. You didn't. Get. Gas. In the first place?!" Link continued thought clenched teeth. "What the crap, Rhett?!"

The taller boy felt his face grow warm. Sure, perhaps Link was right, it wasn't the smartest decision of his life, or even of just that day, probably – electing to risk not reaching their destination in a borrowed van full of equipment for the two of them and the other members of Wax Paper Dogz just to be able to spend the last of his cash for the week on snacks. But he certainly wasn't going to give the other boy that, or the full reason for getting them stranded in the middle of a road on the way to the farm they were supposed to play at, for that matter. Truth was, Rhett didn't do well with criticism. Not even when it was earned.

He opened his mouth and got ready to match Link's tone, when a powerful crash of thunder resounded directly above them all of a sudden, immediately preventing the shouting match that was surely about to ensue.

"What was that-?" When Link's voice reverberated to Rhett's right again, it was remarkably smaller and less filled with anger than just seconds ago.

"Shit" was the only response the older boy could muster as the sky opened up, letting thick and heavy drops of rain fall onto the world around them, drumming angrily against the van's roof.

"At least we don't gotta worry about the gig-?" Rhett tried for a reassuring smile after a few beats of silence between them ticked by, interrupted only by blaring sounds of the summer storm they’d apparently gotten caught in. "It ain't gonna happen now with that rain-" he conceded, hoping it won't anger Link any further.

The younger boy was silent, the unexpected arrival of thunder seemed to have not only taken away his temper, but his voice as well.

"Link?"

A pair of blue eyes, still wide open, met Rhett's. The fire that burned in them just moments before the first loud crash fizzled out completely, giving way to a cold shade of fear, and the face they belonged to quickly became visibly paler, taking on a greyish colour only intensified by the sudden lack of sunlight.

"I don't like this-" Link whispered, clutching the edges of his seat with such force that his knuckles soon matched the paleness of his face.

Now, Link didn't exactly suffer from a deadly fear of thunder, not to Rhett's knowledge at least, which after more than a decade of being best friends meant it could as well be equalled to a fact. On the other hand, he wasn't especially keen on those either, and the aspect of being trapped in a metal can in the middle of a country road with absolutely nowhere to go to seek refuge only added another dimension to that.

Instinctively, Rhett reached out a hand and rubbed the other boy's shoulder soothingly.

"Hey- Hey, look at me. Link-?" he leaned forward trying to catch his friend’s eyes again and grasp his attention, temporarily directed towards the sky where bright flashes of lightning cut through the dark graphite clouds one after another. "Hey"

Link finally directed his attention back to Rhett, gulping loudly, almost comically, if it weren't for the entire situation. "We're gonna be fine. The car's safe, we're better off here than anywhere outside probably, just don’t touch the doors. We'll wait till the rain passes a bit and then I'll go get us gas, okay? The station's not that far. We'll be good." Rhett added in a calm voice, still keeping his right hand on Link and gently rubbing his upper back.

"Okay" the boy replied, still in a weak voice, and drew in a deep breath, only to be startled by another instance of rumbling thunder and hastily clasp Rhett's other hand.

"Sorry..." he cleared his throat and tried to compose himself once the sound of thunderclap died down, leaving them only with the deafening banging of raindrops against the van. Link went to retract his hand but was stopped by Rhett's before the taller boy could think about it.

"Ssh, don't. S’okay, brother."

The split-second decision to comfort Link and hold him like he hasn't since they were kids came from the feeling of guilt for getting them in that situation in the first place, he told himself. And sure, he did feel responsible for making Link endure the storm in a car stuck in the middle of nowhere all because of his stupid idea. But it wasn't just guilt; the vulnerable look on his friend's pale face combined with the fear in his big glassy eyes made him look like the boy he was when they were still in grade school - small and innocent, and it tugged at Rhett's heart in a way he didn't fully comprehend, awakening an instinct to protect Link no matter what.

"Do you... Maybe we'd- Should we...?" Yes, Rhett did make a decision but was suddenly struggling to articulate it. The scared boy next to him wasn't really listening anyway, his whole attention focused on the sky again and his free hand grasping Rhett's sleeve and trembling. Rhett cleared his throat and tried again. "We should move to the back."

"Whaa...?" Link started but was cut off by his friend gently removing his fingers from the fabric of his shirt and swiftly moving to the row of seats behind them.

"C'mon. It's gonna be more comfortable. The stick's poking my leg when I lean over like that." the older boy offered from the expanse of the middle row, gesticulating to the gap between Link and the now empty driver's seat.

If Link was hesitant to join him, another growl of thunder must have been enough to persuade him because suddenly, he was clambering to join Rhett, inadvertently nudging his thighs and elbowing him in the process.

"Auch! Okay, okay- Com'ere" The older boy grabbed the other's shoulders once he was situated next to him and moved his body even closer, encircling it with his long lanky arms and squeezing hard, making Link's head fall onto his chest.

To his surprise, his best friend didn't protest, he only burrowed his face deeper in the front or Rhett's bunched up flannel and breathed in deeply, obviously trying to relax.

"Good, good" Rhett praised absent-mindedly and slowly stroked Link's smooth hair, temporarily stunned by the feeling of warmth and peace holding the other boy so close gave him. After a couple of minutes of stillness, he felt Link's arms move, too, and wriggle in between the backrest of the seat and Rhett's lower back, finally hugging him back around the waist. It made the taller boy instinctively seek even more contact, and he lowered his head, positioning his face on Link's hair and eventually, before he could rethink it, leaving a kiss on top of it

Link froze and tensed up again, though this time there was no crash of thunder or flash of lightning to blame it on.

Oh no. Rhett's action caught up to him. This was weird. He was being weird. They never kissed each other, not even like that, not even when they were kids. His heart sped up from embarrassment and he was sure his friend could feel it, with the way he was still clinging to his chest. But he wasn’t letting go- In fact, he seemed to hug Rhett even tighter now, nuzzling his face into his body, left cheek smushed against his sternum.

Shyly, Rhett risked another smooch to Link's head, this time as close to his forehead as he could reach in the position they were in.

In response, the boy let out what sounded like an appreciative hum, or maybe even a tiny whimper, and a warm breath against Rhett’s skin, making his heart pick up the pace again. Continuing the pattern of acting before we could talk himself out of it, Rhett gathered his friend and tried to pull him even closer, not even sure if it was possible at that point, and was rewarded with Link landing almost entirely in his lap.

The face of his best friend was now nearly level with his. It was blushed, he realised, the earlier sickly tone of his complexion gone almost completely. His hair, equally blonde as Rhett's though significantly longer, was dishevelled. The sight was endearing, there was no other word to describe it, and the look in Link's eyes, blue as ever and soft now – not as filled with fear anymore, only made the effect it had on Rhett more intense.

Blinded by the affection that flooded him all of a sudden, he leaned in again, now able to kiss Link's forehead, and left another peck there, keeping his lips pressed to it for a bit longer. Before Rhett could really get used to the new sensation, Link straightened his back, making himself taller in Rhett's lap and as a result, bringing his own lips to the same hight his friend mouth was at.

The taller boy flinched slightly and almost recoiled on instinct, seeing how there were no more than two inches of tense air filled with petrichor separating their faces, and nothing else.

Almost.

Instead, he gathered all of his courage and closed that gap, planting his lips square on Link's.

They were incredibly soft, almost cushiony, and oh so warm. And they were moving against his! He realised, stunned, as the other boy's hand reached up to his face and gently cupped his jaw.

Rett felt his own lips form an involuntary smile, soon matched by the lips he was kissing. As they started to separate, both beaming and searching each other’s faces with sparkly eyes, he took in the near silence that surrounded them.

The rain stopped, there was no banging on the roof of their van and no rumbling of thunder above. It was like the clouds dissipated the moment they kissed, giving way to sun again, Rhett thought not caring about how silly and romantic at the same time that idea was.

Divine intervention or a simple coincidence, he didn't care. The sky was clear now and so was the fact that he just shared a kiss with the person he loved most in the entire world. How he hadn't realised that earlier was unimportant. It might have taken being stranded in the middle of a road, surrounded by nothing but trees and crops and a thunderstorm worse than any other time that summer to get there, but they did, in the end - that was all that mattered.

And with that thought, Rhett embraced Link trying to put all of his love into it, and went to kiss him again.

#Rhink #rhink fic #my writing #jonesy84 #thank you so much for the prompt Lovely!

[paroxysmal-distaste]

acatalepsy. || prologue

copied and pasted from my wattpad, excuse the old writing.

playlist.  0.  1.  2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9.  10.  11.  12. ----- ◈ Chapter 0 - Prologue ◈ ◈ Date Published: 24/12/2018 ◈ ◈ Word Count: 2147 ◈ -----

UNKNOWN DAY IN AN UNFAMILIAR UNIVERSE

"What the hell are we doing in here?"

"Lighten up! You barely leave the house anyways."

"Yeah yeah yeah, you don't need to remind me. Did you bring the flashlight I asked you to bring?"

"I thought you were taking it."

You face palmed.

Recently, there's been a train accident where it's said to be believed that the tunnel was haunted. Everyone thought this was true because apparently there would be less people onboard after going through the tunnel than before. Almost like they were taken by something.

You thought it was bullshit.

The area had already been blocked off, but that doesn't stop your adventure loving friend from dragging you into her curiosities. In a way, you had always admired that about her, but other times you saw it as a flaw. One of those times being now.

"Mags?"

"Hm?"

"Can I go now?"

"No."

You rolled your eyes and frowned, speeding up your pace to keep up with her, "Wait up, will you?"

"Does your phone have any battery?" She questioned, ignoring your comment.

"Just a bit, I don't know if it will be enough though, especially since the flashlight takes up a lot of it."

"Turn it on for a moment, I can't see where I'm going." The both of you lifted up the Caution, Keep Out! police tape as you carefully stepped over the rumble. The atmosphere surrounding the place was giving you the chills, and you shivered quietly.

"Can we speed this up a little? I'm getting the creeps." You stated blandly, subconsciously tightening your grip around your backpack straps. You kicked a squashed can of Sprite to the left of you.

"Give me a hand with this." Mags gestured for you to help her with what seemed to be a large part of debris from the crash.

"Alright, but if it accidentally drops on your foot or something and it breaks, don't blame me." You raised your hands up comically and pursed your lips, before dropping them loosely to your sides. You grunted as your fragile hands attempted to pull off a large chunk of concrete from the side of the tunnel.

"You know, you're acting kind of weird. What's the rush? You don't have somewhere to be, right?" She asked abruptly.

You froze,"N-no, what makes you say that?" Your body stiffened as your friend squinted her eyes at you suspiciously.

"You seem to be in a really big hurry for some reason and you don't usually care when I pull you around on these trips."

You lifted your arms and shoulders, turning your head to the side, "I-I don't know, I think I'm just tired I guess."

"You're a terrible liar! You're meeting up with someone aren't you?" She placed her hands on her hips and neared you, making you back away nervously.

"Pffft- whaaaaaat? No way." You tugged at your turtleneck, "It's getting a little hot in here. Mind if I just-" Just as you were going to push past her, she said something that made you pause.

"It's Miles, isn't it?" The constant shifting of your eyes made her own widen and her lips to curve into a smile. "I knew it! You can't hide anything from me!"

"Shush! I was going to tell you, but I didn't know if I would call it anything yet." You fiddled with your hands in an antsy way, before pushing a strand of loose hair behind your ear.

"Ooo, you have to tell me what happened!"

"He just asked me out, that's all!"

"That's all! What do you mean- that's great!"

Your face reddened as she hugged you, "Stop... you're making it seem bigger than it is."

Mags nudged you suggestively, before walking forward. "I'll drop it. For now."

After a moment or two, a giant hole in the wall was finally revealed, and your friend carefully put a foot in the gap, trying to squeeze their way in.

"I can't get in! I think I'm stuck." She murmured, her voice echoing since half her body was left through the wall and her legs were kicking up and down in panic.

You snickered at her flailing limbs, and you could hear her getting cross at your lack of helpful action.

Something made a clicking sound, and you shielded your eyes from the sudden bright light in your face. It flickered for a moment, and a loud horn sound blew.

"M-Mags." You tugged at the bottom of her jacket, your eyes widening as you noticed that the light was from an incoming train.

"Huh?" She questioned, "I can't see! What's going on?"

Your face paled as you began to roughly tug at her legs, accidentally slipping one of her shoes off. "Dammit! A train's coming!"

"I thought there weren't supposed to be any trains seen this place had been closed off!"

"Yeah, well, it's not going to be stopping anytime soon - let me help you, stop kicking!"

Just as Mags was easing herself out of the hole, something made you pause momentarily.

Something tickled your arm, and instantly, you began to mentally freak out. Whatever it was, if you made any sudden movements, you were sure it was going to harm you.

"Ow! Something bit me!"

Never mind.

A burning sensation began to occur on your palm, and it felt as if your skin was falling off. You tried your best to not yell out in pain, since you and Mags were trying your best to get out of the place alive.

"I'm out! Quick! Hurry up, it's coming!"

You snapped your head to look behind you, seeing the lights coming closer. Turning your attention back to what was in front of you, a few metres forward was Mags with her hand extended, waiting for you to grab it.

The train seemed to get closer every second, and you bolted forward, almost tripping over the tracks.

You finally managed to clasp your hand around your friend's, and she hoisted you up immediately.

It was right on time too, because the train violently broke through the large concrete rumble, and continued going ahead at full speed.

The rubble of rocks flew everywhere, causing both you and Mags to fall backwards and to scoot backwards with your hands.

"Oh my goodness." You ran a shaky hand through your hair, which was now messed up. By doing so, a striking pain ran through your arm again, and it brought attention to what happened earlier.

You breathed in through your teeth, as Mags grabbed your hand gently in worry.

"I think it was a spider, but it must have been a pretty nasty one because it hur- gah! Careful!" You snatched your hand away from her grasp, making her stumble out a 'sorry'.

"Let's just get out of here." You frowned at her before walking out of the subway, her footsteps following quick behind.

You stared at your hand curiously, wondering what sort of bug would produce a large wound and sensation like that.

A radioactive spider definitely didn't cross your mind.

---

You ended up cancelling on Miles, and it made you feel terrible since you were really looking forward to your 'hangout'. He had invited you to go rollerblading with him, since he knew you loved it.

What you told him was that you weren't feeling very well, but you promised you would make it up to him.

That bite from a week before, was no ordinary bite. Your daily life was increasingly difficult, from accidentally ripping papers the second you tried to remove it from your own fingers, to climbing walls.

You did put two and two together, and realise that it must have been during that train episode because that's where you first started feeling weird.

Going out for a walk, you hummed the song that was playing through your headphones and looked around at the lights and streets of Brooklyn.

The moment was short lived though, since what happened next was only made aware to you when you heard an extremely high pitched scream. It must have been pretty loud since your headphones are always full volume, which signalled that something was seriously wrong.

You pulled your hoodie down, and carefully removed your headphones to find out what was happening.

Another villain.

And Kid Arachnid - as everyone called him - was saving the city once again. You had never seen him in action up close, and it only took you a few moments to notice that his abilities were the same ones that you had.

Your fingers began to tingle, and you looked down at them, slightly startled at the realisation. Were you just like him? You didn't know, and a small part of you wished you were. It would be interesting becoming a hero and fighting alongside Kid Arachnid.

A loud yell pierced your thoughts again, and you jumped at the sudden sound.

A car was thrown your way, but a string of webs managed to prevent it from going any further.

You looked up to see your saviour, who was now struggling to fight against the person opposing him.

A strong urge to help was almost forcing you to get up and assist him, but your fears held you back.

The villain seemed to have said something to him that alarmed him, because he ended up grabbing you and holding you up.

"Y/N!"

Wait, Y/N? How does he- His voice. I know that voice. Of course I do, I could recognise it a mile away. A mile...

Miles.

Everything that happened next was a blur, and you still couldn't process it. Before you knew it, you were free from the malefactor but in exchange for the well-being of someone else.

"Miles." You whispered, before running over to where he was laying. Almost instantly, you moved him off of the wreckage to make him feel a little more comfortable instead of having sharp rocks digging into his back.

"Miles- are you o-okay?" You managed to cry out. "You didn't have to do that!" You kneeled down to his level, unsure how to treat him.

"I did anyways though, didn't I?" He grinned and stated in a raspy voice. Of course that was his response.

"I-I should have gone to our meetup- maybe then I wouldn't have disappointed you, and left things like this. I-I-It's all my f-fault and-"

"Y/N. It's not your fault. This was bound to happen eventually." He was cut off when he gave out a weak cough.

Your hands shook vigorously as you placed them over Miles' cheek, using one to pull off his mask.

He smiled delicately when he saw you a little clearer, and he pushed the strand of hair that was sticking out behind your ear. "You always did have those little bits of hair pointing out all the time."

Your laugh made the tears that were brimming your eyes fall down on his chin.

Miles' eyes trailed to his stomach, where a large and deep, bleeding cut was held. There was no way he was recovering from that.

Suddenly, he squinted, and a pressure built into your head. It felt like a headache, but it actually felt nice. His eyes widened at you, and he smiled.

"Y-you're like me."

"W-what?"

He didn't reply, and his eyes were beginning to close.

"Miles. Miles! Answer me!" You tried your best to try to shake him awake without damaging him, but he wouldn't wake up. "M-Miles...?"

You stood up carefully.

This happened way too fast. First you get bitten by a radioactive spider, next your crush, best friend and also the city's super hero dies in your arms.

You couldn't even cry anymore, because you were still processing what had just happened. The villain was still on the loose.

Of course, at this point, you were fully aware that what ever caused Miles to be as skilled as he was, also got you.

It was a spider.

You dug your fingers into your fist until your knuckles turned white.

If there isn't going to be anymore Kid Arachnid, then there needed to be someone else to be there for him. Not to take his place, but rather, in his memory.

An idea started to form into your mind.

Chapter 1 >

#milesmorales #miles morales x reader #miles morales #acatalepsy

[transthaumaturge]

Squirrel Girl is Super Gay for her Roommate and I Want Everyone to Know

A gay infodump of sensible length by Rachel Tikvah

ALRIGHT, SO The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl was the very first comic that I ever read regularly, back when I was looking for more stories with strong female protagonists but didn't really know why. Back then I just thought I really liked strong female characters and not that I was being gay on main, but now I know the truth. The comic had a 5-year run, and it was the first time that Squirrel Girl, AKA Doreen Green, had had her own series. She had a brief run in the mid-2000's where she was established as someone who could beat up Thanos with her bare hands well, more like squirrel hands but was mostly a joke character that happened to be incredibly buff and had indestructible plot armor. USG decided that Doreen's next major life goal would be to enroll in college to become a computer scientist, because her writer, Ryan North, is really into computer science and they basically gave him free rein over Squirrel Girl canon for five whole years. Like, a solid third of the plots are solved with some kind of computer science smarts. It’s really cool. Anyway this is Doreen in one of the gayest solo pictures I could find of her on short notice, which is also one of the variant covers from the actual series:

And this is her college roommate, Nancy Whitehead:

I'm like, 99% certain that Ryan North intended for them to end up as a couple and Disney!Marvel told him no. So he decided to make them AS GAY FOR EACH OTHER AS POSSIBLE without explicitly saying that they were a couple, and it ended up going under the radar. What follows is evidence for that claim. I’m going to put a "read more” after this so it doesn’t clutter everyone’s dashboards, but please read on if you’re interested. There’s a lot of cute gayness after this point. I’m also going to put all of the image descriptions at the end, since they take up a lot of space and I don’t want to break up the flow of the post. Finally, a quick spoiler alert for one arc in the middle of the series and a couple major plot points from the final few issues.

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

So for a while it was just kind of hinted at that they’re in a relationship, mostly because they were basically domestic life partners for like, two whole years in-universe before the comic run ended. But it really came to a head with an arc that was ran about 2/3 of the way through the series. Some pictures of them being, like, so cute together in general and/or talking about how much they care about each other before I get to that arc, though: 

Also Doreen describes her and Nancy's cat as "co-parented" in one of the last issues:

ANYWAY, THE ARC. THE HYPERTIME ARC. So one of the villains created for the Squirrel Girl run (I think they liked making weird shit canon just because they could) was a dude who went by the name "EpicCrimez". He’s a crime streamer. He livestreams his crimes to an online audience. I don't know. *Throws up hands*

He had some kind of laser gun that he built out of scavenged alien tech but didn't really know what it did, so he shot it at Doreen and Nancy for kicks. It shot them into hypertime, so suddenly the rest of the world was moving at a fraction of the pace that they were. They were moving so quickly that they were slated to live out their entire lives over the span of a single weekend if they didn't figure out how to reverse the effects. And...they did. Live out their entire lives together. For the two of them, they were the only two people in the world. There were other people, but they looked like statues unless you spent a very long time observing them. Doreen and Nancy grew old together in a world where they only had each other. This is an incredibly cute domestic scene from a little while after they found themselves in hypertime:

Gosh, I wish I could find more official art from that arc of them just living together, it was so good. But the point is, they were both old by the time that Nancy figured out how to get them out of hypertime. And it wasn't ideal. Their bio signatures were stored in the gun that EpicCrimez shot, and they could essentially "reboot" their bodies from when they were first shot and send themselves back into the regular timestream. But they wouldn't remember anything about the life that they had shared together. Nancy almost didn't want to do it. She raised the possibility of them just living out the rest of their lives together, because she didn't want to forget their life together. This is the conversation they had:

"I don't regret any of it. I don't want to lose it, and I don't want to lose us." "You're not getting rid of me that easily." Every time I look at that last picture, which took up an entire page of the comic, I start to cry. We’re seeing the final moments of two people who love each other more than anything, who were each other's entire lives, savoring their last moments together and wondering what the future holds. Sacrificing the life that they built together so that their younger selves could live a better, fuller one. Dying in each other’s arms, scared but comforted by the fact that they had each other. And then the arc ends, and they can't remember anything, so the status quo is restored. They have some paintings they made of each other while they were living together in hypertime, but they move on pretty quickly without ever knowing the significance of those lived decades. Still, it's clear in the arcs that follow and the adventures they embarked on afterward that they would die for each other. All of that continues until the end of the last arc. Their shared apartment's been blown up at this point by a supervillain who wanted to ruin Doreen’s life before eventually killing her. And in the aftermath of the fight, they're sifting through the wreckage for anything that survived (don't worry, the cat got out in time) when they find the picture that they painted of themselves during the hypertime arc:

They have a really cute conversation about how this chapter of their life is over, but they're going to be okay and they're going to build a new life together. And then Nancy basically tells Doreen that she can't live without her:

And then Doreen says something super queer-coded about how she likes the idea of the world knowing her secret identity now:

On the very last page of the comic, after all of the action is over and the series is about to end, they're talking to each other in what's supposed to be a twitter thread and Doreen asks Nancy a very thinly veiled question about whether she still wants to spend time with her now that her identity's out. She pretends it's about a class project, but it's really not about the class project. Here's how that conversation goes:

With no knowledge of what happened during the weekend when they shared their entire lives together, without ever having heard Doreen say it to her before, Nancy’s heart still knows which words to choose. "...you're not getting rid of me that easily. <3" I believe that the author of the series, Ryan North, did as much as he possibly could to portray them as a couple without saying it outright. And as the last piece of evidence to support that claim, I want to share a response he wrote in one of the series' last-ever letter columns:

"as for more Doreen and Nancy, I hope so too. A Squirrel Girl book without Nancy would feel like--like--like some sort of hypothetical "Super" "Man" book without an equally hypothetical "Lois" "Lane"!" It's easy to write off this analysis as wishful thinking, or as a misreading of the subtext. But when the author of the series says that these two characters are meant to always be together and compares them to one of the most famous couples in any comic series ever, it's clear that there's more to it than that. 

Some Additional Thoughts: 1) Doreen and Nancy are both probably bisexual or pansexual, since they both expressed romantic interest in men throughout the series but they’re both clearly interested in each other too. There might be an element of demiromanticism there as well if part of the reason that they’re into each other romantically is because of how emotionally close they’ve become over the years. I want to make sure that that facet of their romantic orientations doesn’t get erased, because bi and pan folks get erased enough as it is. Neither Doreen nor Nancy are lesbians, just super-cool WLWs.

2) HERE’S WHAT THE ISSUE 50 VARIANT COVER LOOKED LIKE

That’s NOT a fun, totally straight way to pose with your platonic gal pal. They’re so incredibly cute together! I have no words! In Closing If you got this far, thank you so much for letting me talk to you about a comic that’s very important to me, and a couple in that comic that I care about very much. I spent way too long making this (six hours and counting), mostly in writing the image descriptions, and I’m very proud of my work but very tired now. Hyperfixation is a hell of a drug. If this resonated with you, please consider reblogging it so that more folks can see it. If not, even a like is nice. I’d also love to engage with people who have their own thoughts, so feel free to leave some comments in the notes if you’ve got an idea/a reaction/any additional cute Doreen/Nancy scenes that you’d like to share with me. At any rate, this post has gone on long enough and I don’t want to ask y’all to read any more than you have to. So have a great day, good morning / afternoon / night, and stay safe. Thanks again for reading! ~Rachel Tikvah, AKA @transthaumaturge Image Descriptions: Image 1: [ID: Squirrel Girl, a young woman with light skin, is posing in front of a brick wall that she seems to have crashed through, leaving a perfect outline of her body. She’s facing away but looking backwards over her shoulder at us and smiling. She’s flexing upward with her right arm and has her left fist resting on her left hip. Her sidekick, a squirrel named Tippy-Toe, is standing in the cutout she left in the wall and is making the same exact pose while wearing a light pink bow around her neck. Squirrel Girl is wearing brown lace-up boots, fur-lined hot pants over grey tights, and a brown fur-lined jacket with sleeves that come up to her forearms and a symbol of an acorn embroidered into the back. She’s also wearing a hairband with fake squirrel ears on it over short reddish-brown hair. She has a large squirrel tail coming out of her hot pants that sweeps down in a curve behind her lower legs. The illustration is drawn so that everything is bathed in the light of a sunset, and Doreen is casting shadows on the wall in front of her.] Image 2: [ID: Two frames depicting a scene between Doreen and Nancy in their college dorm room, with many cardboard boxes still not unpacked and sitting on a bare bed mattress. Nancy Whitehead is a young woman with dark brown skin and short, curly black hair. She's wearing black tights, a white dress-top, and a yellow cardigan over that. Her arms are crossed as she holds her white cat, Mew, against her chest. Doreen is wearing grey tights and a black long-sleeve shirt with a wide collar and white stripes across the chest. She's holding Tippy-Toe up to Nancy with both hands so she can see her better. The following dialogue ensues: Nancy: "A squirrel? But weren't you the one who was all about pets not being allowed in--" Doreen: "Yeah, I know. But this really interesting person I met today told me that obeying an unjust law is itself unjust." Nancy: "...You know, I was worried I'd get a weird roommate, but you're all right, Doreen Green."] Image 3: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are both sitting on a lavender-pink couch in nightclothes. Doreen has short, orange hair. She is wearing a loose-fitting grey long-sleeve shirt and steel-blue cutoff shorts; Nancy has cropped black hair. She is wearing a dark purple top with sleeves that come down to her upper arms, and loose-fitting navy-blue shorts that come down to her lower thighs. Doreen is side-hugging Nancy as she says, with an ecstatically happy smile, “Nancy, you’re the greatest. You know that, right?” Nancy gives Doreen a full smile as she responds, “I’d always suspected it, but it is nice to have it confirmed.”] Image 4: [ID: Nancy is shown from the shoulders up. She has short, curly black hair. She’s wearing large, disc-shaped gold dangle earrings, and a red jacket with prominent shoulders and a yellow collar. She’s fixing the observer with an angry, determined stare as she says, “She knows this man wouldn’t dream about betraying her, or he’d have to answer to me.”] Image 5: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are eating breakfast at the brown, circular kitchen table in their apartment. Doreen’s wearing a skin-tight athletic crop top that’s striped in black, red, white, and blue. Her arm muscles are well-defined and clearly visible as she puts a spoon in her mouth, closing her eyes as she does so. She has a bowl of cereal in front of her, and half a banana in front of that. Nancy is sitting to her left in a pink camisole top that’s also exposing her muscles, scrolling through something on her smartphone. Her hair is in a yellow fabric wrap that’s knotted on one side of her head. A cup of coffee sits in front of her. The clear blue sky is visible through the window centered on the wall behind them.] Image 6: [ID: Nancy and Doreen are facing away from the vantage point, walking towards an Empire State University campus building and holding hands with their fingers intertwined. Nancy is wearing a long knee-length grey coat and black knee-high boots, with a baby-blue side bag hanging from her left shoulder. Doreen is wearing a magenta sweatshirt with the periwinkle-lined hood down, light brown form-fitting denim pants, and black ankle-high boots, with a dark brown side bag hanging from her right shoulder. Trees and bushes hem the walkway in on either side. The building in front of them is dark red, with glass doors and a row of floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor. Doreen is saying “...we’re just going to have to take the long way around.”] Image 7: [ID: Doreen is facing towards the vantage point and is visible from the legs up, standing in front of a pile of rubble in the background. She’s wearing high-waisted light blue shorts over black tights, and a red windbreaker with sleeves ending at her upper arms that’s opened to reveal a white t-shirt underneath. Tippy-Toe is sitting on her shoulder. There are two people facing Doreen, each slightly in frame and silhouetted in black against the light of the setting sun. Doreen is fixing them with an angry, determined expression, resting her right fist at her hip while she gesticulates with her left hand and says, “So! I don’t know about you all, but Melissa kidnapping my friend and blowing up my life and my house and almost blowing up my co-parented cat makes me feel like giving her a piece of my mind. Friends...”] Image 8: [ID: A full comic page. EpicCrimez is looking like a dork in a green and black skin-tight jumpsuit, bright red ski goggles, and a green wig cap with his brown hair sticking out the back in a mullet. He’s standing inside a jewelry store and holding up a fist of expensive gems and pearls-on-strings as holds up his smartphone and speaks into it. He’s facing off against Squirrel Girl, with her allies Koi Boi and Chipmunk Hunk on her right, and Nancy and Brain Drain on the left. The following scene ensues: EpicCrimez: “And for those of you just tuning in, welcome to another successful heist by your boy EpicCrimez, streaming live! Now with 10% more live crime action than any other streamer! Don’t forget to like and subscribe!! I know some of you in EpicCrimez Nation have been forgetting to do that lately. Not acceptable.” Squirrel Girl: “You picked the wrong small business to rob, crime-initiator! Because this mall is protected by super heroes.” Brain Drain: “HELLO” SG: “And also an unrelated civilian friend I brought along too!” Nancy: (Not looking up from her phone) “ ‘Sup.” EC: “Check it out--Squirrel Girl and her miscellaneous friends are here! It’s action you won’t find on any other channel!” SG: “Are you...streaming your robberies?” (Nancy pockets her phone) EC: “Yeah I am! For money reasons! And with you “heroes” in it, I’ll make even more!” SG: (Whispering to Nancy:) “Question: a fight scene just gets him more traffic, which lets him profit from this crime even more--so does this mean we don’t fight him?” N: (Whispering back:) “I feel like letting him go causes more harm, but I look forward to us teasing apart the moral implications of this later.” SG: “Nice.” SG: (No longer whispering:) “I’ll like and subscribe, EpicCrimez! I’ll like fighting crime, and subscribe... to a worldview wherein the strong protect the weak!” EC: “Oh my gosh, are you like wholesome Spider-Man or something??” At the bottom of the page, small text says: “Wholesome Spider-Man, Wholesome Spider-Man/Does whatever a wholesome spider can/Is he tough?/Listen bud/He’s here to hear you talk about your day and tell you it’ll all be fine while taking you out for your favorite meal for dinner because he knows you deserve it.”] Image 9: [ID: Another full comic page. Doreen and Nancy are in their apartment together, and their friends Tomas and Brian (AKA Chipmunk Hunk and Brain Drain respectively) are frozen as they look down at the machine that Nancy is on her knees in front of, working on. Nancy, barefoot, is wearing cerulean-blue athletic pants, a black long-sleeve spandex shirt without shoulders, and narrow-framed glasses. Her hair is partially covered by a yellow cloth head wrap tied on the left side, with black dreadlocks spilling out the side and back. The machine in front of her is made of dull grey metal, about a meter tall and roughly circular. Wires dangle out of a hatch that Nancy is fiddling with. Doreen is wearing a flowing, dark-purple pantsuit with wide, ankle-length legs and a halter top with the sleeves tied off at her shoulders. Her shoes are light-brown ankle boots with a horizontal gap on the bridge of each foot. Her wavy orange hair is parted in the middle and down past her shoulders. She looks incredibly cute. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “What do you think?” Nancy: “I think--come on you stupid screw--I think we’re still years away from this thing working, if it ever does. Who knew time machine construction is really hard, except of course for everyone who has attempted it?” (She wipes her forehead with the back of her hand) D: “Hah! No, I mean my new outfit.” N: (Looking up and checking her gf out:) “Doreen! You look amazing!!” D: “Liberated it from a very expensive department store uptown!” N: (Now standing) “Tony paid for it?” D: Tony will eventually discover he was kind enough to leave some expensive jewelry in trade, yes. I pinned a note to him so he knows.” N: “There really are advantages to being friends with billionaire playboy genius philanthropists.” D: “Right?!” N: (Taking Doreen’s hands in hers:) “It’s a shame we can’t take a picture of you all dolled up.” D: “Not without standing still for a few months, yeah. But I was thinking about that. I picked up something else at another store downtown. Thought maybe it could help us with that.” (Holding up a shopping bag with one hand while still holding onto Nancy’s hand with the other:) “Nancy Whitehead, I thought you and I might take up painting sometime.” At the bottom of the page, small text says: “Tony Stark moves from meeting to meeting, his body accumulating dozens of notes every second. He sighs. Stuff like this didn’t happen before he knew Doreen. But then he smiles, because after all...stuff like this didn’t happen before he knew Doreen.”] Images 10-16: [ID: Several pages worth of comic frames, posted together to depict one scene. Doreen and Nancy are now old women, likely in their seventies or eighties. Doreen has short, grey hair. She’s wearing a tan button-up waistcoat and an orange ascot, brown flats with an olive-green skirt, knee-length and softly pleated. Her tail is sticking out the back of her skirt over the top, bushy and brown but with stiffer, less-dense hair. Nancy has her grey-black hair done up in a ponytail, a mass of tight curls behind her head. She’s wearing thin oval glasses, black dress pants, black flats, and a lavender cardigan with a flower motif along the edges, open to show the yellow-orange top underneath. They’re standing in front of a completed time machine. On either side are tall pieces of machinery, and in the middle is a round, flat metal dais hooked up to everything else with snaking cables. The following scene ensues: Nancy: “So...this is it, babe. The new machine.” Doreen: “Your secret project! Nancy, it looks like you started from scratch!” N: That’s because I did. I finally realized our old machine was never going to work. Maybe if we had a few more decades, but...there’s no time. And given that our backs are to the wall, I took a risk. I disassembled the gun right down to the metal, and examined all the parts. And I did find something: a data chip. Doreen, the gun stored our bio signatures when it us.” D: “What are you saying?” N: “I’m saying my new machine won’t send us back in time, and we’ll still have lost a weekend of real time. But it will restore our bodies to normal time.” D: (Hugging Nancy tight:) “Nancy! You saved us!!” N: (Resting her hands on Doreen’s shoulders:) “Not--quite. There’s a catch, Doreen. Our bodies will make it...but we won’t. Look, Doreen...I’m an old woman. I’ve spent most of my life in hypertime. This wasn’t how I saw my life going, but...I don’t regret any of it. I don’t want to lose it, and I don’t want to lose us.” D: “I don’t understand.” N: “It’s like restoring from backup. Our bodies will be restored to how they were the moment we were first hit. But--that necessarily includes our brains, too. Everything we’ve done since we entered hypertime--our entire lives spent together...we’ll forget.” (She looks at Doreen in distress) D: “I don’t either, Nancy. You’ve been the most important person in my life. But if we do go back--we can do it again. All of it. It might not happen again quite the same way, but--well, like you say...we’ll have all the time in the world.” N: (Their faces inches apart, they both tilt their heads down and smile sadly:) “Twist my arm, why don’t you.” (They both step onto the dais holding hands, and blue energy starts to ripple around them:) “You filled up Spidey’s web-shooters before we go?” D: “Yep. Again.” N: “You and me, saving the world.” D: “Well,” (holding Nancy’s hand in both of her own) "No reason we can’t do it twice.” N: “You know, there’s a chance things could turn out differently, now that we’ll have video games to distract us. In 40 years we might decide we don’t like hanging out after all.” D: (Hugging Nancy even tighter than before as the energy from the time machine starts to envelop them, resting her face in the nape of Nancy’s neck:) “Nah. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”] Image 17: [ID: Doreen and Nancy are sifting through the charred rubble of their apartment as night starts to fall around them. Doreen is wearing faded blue jeans and a navy blue t-shirt with a Captain America star in the middle. Over top of the shirt, she’s wearing a dark reddish-brown leather vest with four metal studs at the four points of the folded-out collar. Nancy is wearing black tights and a light green long-sleeve shirt with olive-green sleeves. The front of the shirt has a picture of Cat-Thor, Cat God of Cat Thunder’s head on it. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “So I know we’re only a few hours into it, Nancy, but I think my identity being public isn’t gonna be as bad as I thought.” Nancy: “Oh?” D: “Yeah, Tony’s given me lots of tips, and it does honestly help to know that my parents are protected by a robot tree with laser eyes and my friends live in a city with the most super heroes per square mile.” N: “Most super villains too, but--Hold on. I think I found it.” (Nancy lifts a picture frame out of the wreckage, charred around the edges but otherwise no worse for wear. It has a painting inside of it of Doreen and Nancy, arm-in-arm, from hypertime. Doreen is wearing the lavender pantsuit from before, and Nancy is wearing a tight-fitting lilac dress.) “...And it looks like you and I made it through just fine.”] Images 18-19: [ID: Two later comic panels from the same scene. They’re wearing the same outfits, but Nancy’s now cradling her white cat, Mew, in the crook of her left arm while she holds onto the picture frame with her right hand. The following scene ensues: Doreen: “Come on, let’s talk about it! If we’re starting a new chapter in our lives, and we can decide what’s in it, what do you want it to contain?” Nancy: “Doreen...” D: “What are the three things you can’t live without, Nancy Whitehead?” N: (Holding up the picture so that Doreen can see it:) “Fine. If you must know, all this girl needs to be happy are cats and squirrels and knitting and computers and friends and secret tattoos and super heroes and lots and lots of love. Also food and shelter. And water. And internet.” D: “That’s more than three things.”] Image 20: [ID: Same scene as before, a single frame with a close-up on Doreen from her chest upwards. Doreen cups her chin with one of her hands and says, “Honestly--I thought about it. I really did. But I realized that where I am now, I’m safe and I’m loved and I kinda like the idea of not having to lie to people anymore, you know? Even if it is just a lie of omission. I want to share my whole self with the world. I don’t want to have to hide who I am anymore.”] Image 21: [ID: Something resembling a twitter thread, with dialogue between Nancy and Doreen stacked chronologically as horizontal boxes. Their respective names and handles are at the top of each of their comments. Nancy is Nancy W. and @sewwiththeflo, Doreen is Squirrel Girl and @unbeatablesg. The following conversation ensues: Nancy: “You think I’d leave you high and dry??” Doreen: “I think I don’t want our lateness harming your grades and therefore harming your post-secondary education or career choices and therefore harming your ENTIRE LIFE?!” “So yeah I think you should switch to someone else, real talk. I honestly don’t mind, I promise.” Nancy: “Please. If there’s one thing I know about you, about me, and about how we spend our future together, it’s this. Doreen Green...” “...you’re not getting rid of me that easily. <3″] Image 22: [ID: A paragraph of text, black text on a yellow background. “As for more Doreen and Nancy, I hope so too. A Squirrel Girl book without Nancy would feel like--like--like some sort of hypothetical “Super” “Man” book without an equally hypothetical “Lois” “Lane”!”] Image 23: [ID: A group picture of Squirrel Girl and friends sitting down on a grassy hill and watching the sunset together. Kraven the Hunter is in the foreground for some reason, looking almost directly at the camera. In the background we see Koi Boi, Mary Mahajan, Chipmunk Hunk, Brain Drain, and Mew the Cat. In the middle of the shot, Doreen and Nancy sit together. Doreen is in her superhero outfit with Tippy-Toe on her right shoulder, and Nancy is in a yellow cardigan and jeans on Doreen’s left. They’re holding hands, fingers intertwined, as Nancy leans against Doreen with her whole body. Their heads are tilted inward towards each other, the side of Doreen’s head touching the side of Nancy’s, as they look off into the distance together.]

#the unbeatable squirrel girl #squirrel girl x nancy #squancy #squirrel girl #nancy whitehead #queer comics #WLW comics #long post #described #squirrel girl spoilers #thaumaturgethoughts