#Former Dinosaur Kids Sound Off

[cryptid-couture]

#Glad we're all having the same reaction #Prehistoric Planet #Former Dinosaur Kids Sound Off #Walking with Dinosaurs

[saltandburnheathens]

Good morning Miss Winnie.

Part II

Pairing: Dean Winchester X Reader.

Rating: Gen.

Summary:

You've just given birth to Dean's baby and are a enjoying a quiet family moment in the days afterwards.

Notes: Non-canon, no time line. And I don't ever want kids. But I just became an aunt and I sort of need to get this out of my system! Short and I'm not promising that I won't continue this. Who knows really. Finally this was written after I'd taken my usual nightly gummy.

The bunker was quiet first thing in the morning except for the usual hum of the circulation fans. You’d been there so long that they barely registered anymore, and you were extremely thankful that the consistent noise wasn’t a problem for the baby. That would have been a horror show. Trying to navigate parenthood with a baby awoken by the simplest of sounds. 

You shuddered at the thought. 

Life was always loud when you lived with Dean Winchester and his posse of colour characters. Between unexpected visitors and the brothers coming and going at odd hours, there was something new every day and often that new wasn’t good. 

But in that moment things were perfect. The monsters outside didn’t exist and you were a regular mom with a new baby and a husband who loved you. His bother Sam and best friend Castiel were an added bonus, the former serving as an unexpected asset when both you and Dean needed some rest.  

You crept carefully out of bed, your body still feeling weak, and quietly crossed to the crib by the wall. A set of hazel eyes stared up at you and your heart melted. 

“Good morning Miss Winnie.” You cooed, “Let’s get you up and at ‘em before you wake daddy.” 

You heard a small scoff followed by the shuffling of blankets. 

“Winnie?” Dean asked with a sleep-laden voice, “We ain’t calling her Winnie, sweetheart. I’ll accept those new-agey-hippy-names like Kendell and Kloe with a K before I’ll take Winnie.” 

“I’m just calling her that until we choose a name.” You laughed, lifting the little girl up into your arms, her head coming to rest on your chest, “And Winnie is short for Winchester in case you hadn’t pieced that together.” 

“I don’t care if it’s short for ‘daddy’s-little-angel’, it ain’t happening.” 

“I’ll cross that off my list then shall I?” You sat back on the bed, Dean coming up to nest beside you and his eyes immediately going to the baby in your arms. 

He smiled, creases forming at the corners of his eyes. 

“You’re not a Winnie, are ya’ princess?” In that voice he seemed to only have adapted five days ago after the birth of your daughter; that voice reserved for her. 

“Maybe not. What about Meghan?” You suggest. 

“Oh nope. No can do. Knew a Meg once. Demon.” 

You nodded knowingly. No one wanted to name their child after a monster. 

“Stevie?” Dean carried on, his eyes still fixed on the baby.

“Like Stevie Nicks?” You raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah?” 

“I’m not seeing it. Samatha?”

“Already got one Sam in this bunker and that’s more than enough. Alice?”

“Can’t do it. All I’ll keep hearing is ‘who the fuck is Alice’, and I don’t want my kid to be subjected to that for the rest of their life.” 

You both laughed, interrupted only by the whine building in the little one’s chest. You quickly jumped to action and proceeded to the morning routine you’d been adjusting to since getting back home. Dean followed you, rubbing at his eyes. 

“I don’t think I’ve had hangovers that made me feel quite as bad as waking up five times at night.” He yawned. 

You handed him a dirty diaper and smiled as he grimaced. 

“You can go back to bed if you want. I can manage by myself.” 

“Sweetheart, you just damn near broke your pelvis giving birth to my kid a few days ago. I’m in this from start to finish, and if that means running on caffeine and a prayer, then I’m game. Even for the diapers.” 

Dean rummaged through the first drawer of their dresser and pulled out a small onesie covered in colourful dinosaurs. He held it up in front of him and smiled. 

“It’s hard to believe how small she is, huh?”

“She didn’t feel so small coming out of me.” You quipped, taking the clothing from him to finally cover the squirming child on the changer, “I’m pretty sure my vagina will never be the same.” 

“That’s blasphemy.” Dean gasped playfully, “But seriously, baby, the doctor said that it’ll take a few weeks before you start to feel normal.” 

“Normal is subjective when you’re postpartum.” 

Holding his baby tight to his chest, Dean lent down and kissed you softly on the lips. His green eyes fluttered up to meet yours. 

“Let’s face it, ain’t nothing normal about either of us in the first place.” 

#dean winchester x reader #dean winchester x female!reader #dean winchester fanfiction #supernatural fanfiction #dad!dean winchester #dad!dean

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "The Honorable Ones"

Kallus starts growing the nigglings of a conscience and also I never want to visit Bahryn ever.

Does this count as Friendship Fetch Quest episode? I mean... we do technically recruit an ally, albeit we make one out of a consistent former enemy, and he is important to things later...

Yeah, you know what, I'm counting it.

Geonosis looks gorgeous.

Oooooof SO many Death Star foreshadowings in this conversation. This is in fact where they started construction on the Mark I, as far back as the Clone Wars. Some time between now and then (Wookiepedia thinks it's between "Breaking Ranks" and now), the project was moved, the orbital stations scrapped, and the entire population of Geonosis genocided to conceal the project's existence.

Just, you know, your ordinary Tuesday for the Empire.

Hi Kallus!

Love Chopper getting to be an absolutely murderous psychopath again lolol.

Ohhhh hey, this cue is from back in "Droids In Distress" when they were about to blow up the ion disruptors. How fitting, lol.

Ezra is still Not Fond of leaving people behind.

He looks so worried. :(

Love how Kallus and Zeb stop fighting for a second when they realize they're about to crash. Matching Oh Crap expressions and everything.

Ngl, I felt that cry of agony deep in the recesses of my childhood.

(I fell off some parallel bars once in gym, didn't break anything, but my first scream? Sounded not too unlike that.)

Lol Ezra banging on Chopper. "Yes, we want him back! Don't be a sleemo!"

Jeez, how terrified Kallus must have been, stuck in the exact scenario that traumatized him so in the past. Lucky for our favorite asshole Zeb is the honorable type.

Yup, yeah, pissing his pants terrified. David does a really good job with Kallus this episode, it's one of the first times they let him show a bit more range and he does shrill and hysterical very nicely, if I may say so.

Kallus is so assured of the Empire's fairness and nobility, aww let's shatter that to pieces this episode. :D

Worried Ezra continues to be worried. <3

He is already shivering, nice little animation here. Also lol @ Zeb pettily pulling the heater closer towards him.

Ahhh the glowing rock of friendship. Love that Kallus keeps it after this.

"You're going to hurt yourself!" <3 See this mother hen behavior right here is why I stuck the Iron Squadron kids with him in my Mirrorverse series, Kallus being a fussy fretful Team Mom is hilarious.

Ah NOPE, nope, nah-uh. Nooooooo thank you.

The bonzami are actually really well-designed. They look like prehistoric dinosaurs of some kind. Definitely evocative of all my childhood nightmares about T-Rexes.

Kallus parroting the Might Makes Right and Social Darwinism of the Empire, leading to Zeb beginning to ask pointed questions.

Oh man there was a really good analysis on here someone did about Kallus's fighting style, how he's better at close quarters than distance/ranged, I wish I remembered who wrote it.

Subtle animation appreciation detail: That pinched guilt in Kallus's expression.

Oooh yeah, that's the good stuff.

Kallus launches into his tragic backstory, possibly to try and remind himself why he personally hates Lasats, rejustify in his head how it was okay for him not to question orders when told to use the ion disruptors--("They deserve it, they're bad people, they kill the injured!")--and the connection to Saw is not a coincidence I think, the writers expand heavily on the whole "It's how we fight that matters." and "The ends justify the means." conflict later on down the line. Numerous characters on this show like Saw and Thrawn and Kallus to an extent represent what happens when you go too far to fight those you consider monsters. I've always loved how firmly Rebels comes down on the side of "The means do matter."

Probably one of the reasons I'm still kind of relucant to watch Andor, I know fandom loves that "I burn myself for a sunrise I'll never see." quote but eehhhhhhhhh.

The exchange right after Kallus's story is a bit clunky, I get what the intent was--that there are people in the Empire who aren't cold and bloodthirsty and evil and the Rebels shouldn't write them all off like they're the same--but it's clumsily executed.

PPFFFFTTTTTT LOLOLOL. KALLUS CANNOT BELIEVE THE SHEER PETTINESS IN ZEB HURLING THE BO-RIFLE OUT OF THE CAVE RATHER THAN LET HIM HOLD IT.

Hey remember when I said I love David Oyelowo's hysterical Kallus voice? Yeah.

Zeb's prehensile feet put to good use again.

Ohhhhh yeah no that's absolutely a terrifying concept for me. Nope.

"Hey we didn't get eaten! Are we friends now?"

There's some debate in the fandom about the inconsistency of the stories Kallus tells from "Droids In Distress" to here. Some parts of fandom point to how he almost gleefully bragged about giving the order to use the ion disruptors and others point out that he couldn't possibly have been high enough in the ranks at that point to actually have the authority to do that.

I tend to fall more towards the latter camp, that he wasn't actually THE one to give the order but he didn't question it and passed it right along due to his prejudice against the Lasat, and only said what he said to Zeb to rile him up. As much as he hated Lasats though, there has been some guilt severely weighing on him since then, and I'm pretty sure it's partly due to his confusion over the Honor Guardsman giving him his bo-rifle. There was a note of aggravated self-defense in Kallus's voice when he explains to Zeb how it was given to him, like he's dispensing with an act and being all, "All right look here's how it really happened."

This conversation is slightly less clear but to me reads like Kallus is detailing his thoughts from the moment he'd been given the order. Like it's mid-battle and it's going harder than they anticipated and the weapons are handed out and he's told to use them and he realizes, "Oh. The Empire is not playing around are they?" and he shoves down his own potential qualms about it and just passes on the order.

Zeb, having had his character development, is dismissive of Kallus's attempt to explain the massacre, saying that it doesn't affect him anymore, basically.

They're so happy to see him. <3

Awwwwwww.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Zeb's little elbow bump to Ezra's arm as they climb up the ramp.

Ohhhhhh man the behind the scenes had a little plot bit that they should have kept, basically it was not the Empire that retrieved Kallus from Bahryn, it was a scavenger ship, the Empire spent a paltry two rotations looking for him and then wrote him off, he had to make his way back to them on his own.

Konstantine doesn't even look at him.

:((((((

Kallus's redemption is a bit of a polarizing topic in fandom. Personally I'm very fond of it, I like Kallus as an antagonist-turned-Rebel, I think he's a lot of fun post Heel Face Turn and the many myriad fanfics that bridge the gap between "Zero Hour" and Season 4 featuring Kallus slowly blending in to the Spectres are among some of my favorites.

But it's also one of my major nitpicks because it's a bit lacking in legwork. Show👏me👏the legwork!👏 Like 90% of all writing problems can be solved just by expending some effort. Don't just have Kallus as the new Fulcrum offscreen between seasons I need to SEE it.

That being said, this is a mostly tightly written Locked In A Room type episode, well-paced, decently animated. Fandom definitely loves it and I'll still give it fairly regular rewatches since it's another of the husband's favorites.

Next up, we return again to Lothal for Force Weirdness.

#star wars #star wars rebels #agent kallus #rebels rewatch #liveblog

[varesstuff]

JW:CC S5 E1 #2

"Kid..."

The man frowned, he tried passing beside him but said kid just mimiced his moves and seemed to be unbothered by the height difference as the man made himself bigger and bigger before him.

He finally sighed and turned to the group, "Your friend got a hearing problem?.."

"Hey you! Do you know who you're standing in the way of? It's Danny-"

"Kash!"

Kash stopped immediately and looked at his shoes, "Sorry Mr. Kon, I was just-"

"It's enough Kash, don't get involved this isn't anything about you..." He tilted his head back at Mae’s side and tiptoed to avoid Ben:

“This wasn’t supposed to be about some of my former scientists either but things don’t always go the way we please, am I right May?”

“It’s Mae.” she stopped for a second, trying to hold Peers in place, “Wait, did you just say former-”

Darius got down to his knees and let out a light scream as Peers threw her tail his way.

“May, Mae, whoever you are; What are you doing here with these kids, sneaking baby dinosaurs out of their bioms; What’s your deal woman?”

He hit Ben as he was approaching Mae and Peers but "their friend" was standing so surprisingly still in place that he didn’t fall, moreover he made Mr. Kon stragger back.

He sighed, “Look kid, I really aren’t in the mood for more quarrel, if you don’t move now I’m afraid...” the BRAD-x’s mouths opened wide and white balls of electricity formed inside those creepy, dark holes, ready to fire.

Just then, frightened by the bots, Peers made the weirdest sound, rearing up and shaking the ground. Ben even saw Mae lying on the floor covering her head; Peers apparently didn’t even notice she was still there, trying not to be crushed under her heavy feet and toes. 

“Wait... You’re planning to use them on him?” 

“That has nothing to do with-”

Just when Kenji came in between, a scream came out from the group as Peers’s tail flew above, glancing off their heads, making even Kon back up.

Ben took a deep breath, his fist clenched, his eyes fixed on his prey of its guard; He was ready.

Just... There was something. He could feel the warmth coming from his shoulders and going through his whole flesh: Fingertips, first a light tickle, then they stick to his shoulder meat.

When he turned around, he met with Darius’s soft, dark eyes saying no.

Just like months ago, before the time he fell from that train. Before the time he would have the guts to do something like what he was about to. 

When they were hiding from Indominus behind some barrels and Darius stood up and attemped to run his way out while the creature wasn’t looking...

He remembered doing the same thing as he was doing now:

His palm on his shoulder, warm and worried. His eyes gloomy as he’d shaked his head to both sides slowly.

“Trust me.” old Darius whispered in his mind, pressing his palm on Ben’s hand. 

“Please, Ben” new Darius hold him thighter, Please don’t.

He did nothing but smile at both of them for a moment.

Then he jumped on his prey just like the Jungle Man he was.

#jwcc s5 #jwcc season 5 #jwcc #benrius #season5varestyle

[akiiyamashun]

❛   dressed .   help  my  muse  put  on  an  article  of  clothing .

loud & deafening silence . accepting

"Are you sure about this, Akiyama-san?”

The loan shark sighed, eyes rolling back into his skull and the urge to turn around to kick the former chairman threatening to surface for long enough for Akiyama to act on it - he wasn’t someone typically prone to violence or any means of physical coercion (unless he was in Kamurocho and idiotic thugs thought it was a nice idea to mug school students or to intimidate the homeless population), but Daigo was getting very close to be on the receiving end of something stronger than just sarcastic words.

The fact that he would probably hilariously fail to land any hit on the older man had nothing to do with Daigo’s superb training regimen (after all, the loan shark was confident he was faster than the ex-chairman) - but more with the dinosaur costume he was wearing at the time, a full-body piece that they had rented earlier on that morning for Kazuya’s birthday party and which was much heavier than he had anticipated - hot, too. Akiyama felt like he was living inside an oven (or a sauna) without the added perks of tasty food or a slimmer body coming out as a result.

Another sigh followed - how had Melissa roped him into this again? Sometimes the loan shark felt that his inclination to readily say ‘yes’ to anything a pretty woman asked of him would be his downfall, and the fact that his own fiancée had fully supported the idea evidently did not help. How could Akiyama fail to please not one, but two goddesses?

“Akiyama-san?”

“Daigo-kun, for the last time - it’s fine. It’s hot, it’s fucking heavy and I cannot grab or hold anything except for... Uh a big ball or something that doesn’t need my thumbs. Shit, no wonder these poor creatures went extinct,” the moneylender went off-track for a bit, but turned around to glance at the former chairman to give him a nod, his head currently the only part of his body still out of costume. The mascot’s head piece - the big, scary tyrannosaurs rex skull with scales - was still in Daigo’s hand, who regarded the younger male as if he had sprouted a pair of horns and it was somehow his fault.

“I cannot help but feel I should be doing this instead,” Daigo said in a quieter tone, colored with such heartfelt sincerity that Akiyama’s anger cooled off for a moment. Gesturing towards his own head, he turned to the wall once more while the other man came closer to him from behind, placing the final piece of the costume over his shoulders and helping the loan shark secure it in place in a way that allowed his eyes to see something - it was hard enough to walk in that, and if Akiyama went about it blindly... His performance as a dinosaur would be cut very short.

“We’ve gone over this when Mel-chan asked me - it would be pretty damn suspicious if you disappeared from the room the moment the dinosaur walked in to surprise Kazu-kun. You think he wouldn’t be dying to show you the fact he’s been visited by a real tyrannosaurs rex? On his birthday? You’d be the first person in that room he’d run to and not finding you there would crush the kid’s heart.”

Akiyama realized then how weird his own voice sounded then - maybe it was because of the head being attached to the costume, but his usual baritone sounded a little bit stuffy, as if he was trying to talk with cotton in his mouth. Clearing his throat in an attempt to ease that feeling, he turned around - slowly, mindful of the tail he knew was somewhere behind him - and found Daigo on the other side of the room. 

For two grown up men with so much history between them - including the death and loss of many loved ones - it felt strange to Akiyama that the ex-yakuza still managed to look so fucking solemn when he was dressed from head to toe (literally!) in a red and green dinosaur costume and without the ability to move more than a few inches per step, at the average speed of a snail.

“You’re right - this is about Kazu-kun and I guess... It would be too obvious if either of his parents dressed up. You have a point,” Daigo said with a nod, and Akiyama attempted to give him both thumbs up for that moment of clarity of his formal rival-turned-friend... And ended up more like waving at the other man, but he supposed it was good enough. Besides - Melissa knew her husband well when she asked the loan shark for help instead - Daigo wouldn’t have been able to change his voice or act silly in front on a crowd for two seconds without crashing from the embarrassment.

Akiyama Shun, on the other hand... The younger male had not yet decided if he was flattered at the perception of his friend that he was not daunted by any challenge or if he should be offended by the notion Melissa thought he made a great mascot for children’s birthday parties.

“Thank you for doing this, Shun. I appreciate it.”  

“...I can’t believe you, Dojima.”

“What?”

“Any other day I’d be happy you’ve finally dropped the ‘Akiyama-san’ act as if you’ve met me yesterday... But today,” he inhaled sharply, closing his eyes for a moment and channeling his inner reptilian self - what meant speaking in a higher octave than he normally did in addition to striking a pose out of nowhere - Kiryu had once told him of his adventures as a mascot in Hiroshima, so Akiyama thought he’d try the same, “Today you must call me Rex-kun. Don’t ruin this, Dojima - otherwise your wife will feed me to the fish from Tokyo Bay.”

And there was it - Daigo’s facial expression molded instantly into something unexpected, and he broke into a hearty, loud laugh. The ex-chairman’s voice was booming inside the small room at the Dojima estate they had used for Akiyama to dress up, and for a moment, Akiyama wondered whether Kazuya wouldn’t find them with his father making such a ruckus - but when the door opened, it was Melissa on the other side - she was about to ask questions, but a look at the full costume quieted her and replaced her confusion with a knowing grin.

“All set, Mel-chan - bring me to the birthday boy,” Akiyama said while moving forward, steps slow and hesitant, and he could swear his friend was holding back laughter while she guided him, Daigo still sniffling and recovering from the episode of earlier, “You two are rewarding me one day. Big time.”

#iii. answered #sixthxchairman #dyn. (daigo - the chairman) #I have no excuses for this #but I wanted to link back to that original ask you sent me here #the first one on this blog! #so happy 5th bday Kazuya #you gave a lot of people a lot of blackmail material on the leggy man

[happytapirstudio]

Tapir Book Review: "Deadlands bk 1: Hunted" by Skye Melki-Wegner

Do you remember when I discovered this book and got super excited that it existed?  Well that's it that's the story.  Was it everything I hoped and dreamed?  I think so!

So this is what the website says: "Wings of Fire meets Jurassic Park in this action-adventure middle grade debut series by Skye Melki-Wegner about five outcasts—and former enemies—who are the only hope to save their warring kingdoms from impending doom."

First off, every piece of dinosaur media in existence feels the need to evoke Jurassic Park as a selling point.   I'll bitch about JP in a separate post, but needless to say, the only thing Deadlands and that movie have in common is dinosaurs.  And I guess being action/adventure stories.  As for Wings of Fire, I can't say...haven't read it!   Going in I figured it would be a lot like Warriors, what with the whole concept of warring factions of animals.  Surprisingly...it wasn't much like Warriors, either!

You know what it *is* like?  Land Before Time.  It's clearly for kids, but it's still a mature story.  It's told from the perspective of dinosaurs (no humans whatsoever! thank christ.)  And the directors/author clearly did some serious research for it.  The world-building in Deadlands is a bit more involved than LBT--it portrays dinosaurs with a distinct culture, a rich oral history, a political system, and a magic stone-based currency--but in the bigger picture, I'd say the level of anthropomorphism is about the same in each.  These are dinosaurs in their natural habitat, engaging primarily in natural behaviors, by which I mean, their main goal in life is to eat leaves.  Everything built around that--rules, rituals, armies--exists only to support that kind of lifestyle.

Another big LBT parallel is that our protagonists are a motley crew of young, abandoned, herbivorous dinosaurs who band together in the face of serious hardships in order to survive.  In Hunted, an Oryctodromeus named Eleri is cast out of his herd and sent to the Deadlands, a carnivore-infested desert wasteland where dinosaurs chuck all their criminals and traitors.  There, he meets several other dinosaurs (not saying what kind - spoilers!!), and found family ensues.

I am trying soooo hard to avoid spoilers here.  But don’t worry, another post is coming up, chock-full of spoilers and rife with myyyyyyyy opinions.  [link forthcoming]  Here's what I have to say in closing:

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves dinosaurs, especially dinosaurs in their own right, not just as props in a human-centric story (cough, cough...........Jurassic Park.....................) I think the prose is quite lovely, and the premise, themes, and characters are all pretty sound.  That being said, this is, at the end of the day, a chapter book for younger kids.  If you can't hang with that, or the talking animal genre really doesn't appeal to you, then you should probably go back to the library and look for something else.

I had fun reading this--a good before-bed read!--so if you did, too, please hmu and we can chat about dinosaurs together!! <3

#tapir literacy #tapir reads deadlands #deadlands #deadlands series #skye melki-wegner #deadlands hunted #long post

[itwas50yearsagotoday]

8/31/23: It was 50 years ago today, August 31st, 1973, the Rolling Stones would release their eleventh studio album (in UK, 13th in USA) Goats Head Soup. Another example of Boomer Rock decline in 1973, this album has been much maligned in critics' circles, both in contemporary and recent reviews. As a whole it's hard to disagree... this album is a huge letdown from Exile and is certainly the worst Stones record since Their Satanic Majesties Request from '67. So is it all bad? Not at all, in fact I would say this record is a tad underrated... just a tad. I'll cover the two baddies... first, in what has to be worst album-opener for a major band ever, 'Dancing With Mr. D'... Mr. D is 'drugs' of course, and I think they were on some kind of barbiturate when the recorded this stinker... the melody rarely strays from the dirge of mid-tempo minor key chords, and has a shitty chorus... worst of all is my disappointment, I think. Book-ending this record is the final track 'Star Star' which is actually titled 'Starfucker' but their record distributor forced them to change it. I don't mind cursing in songs, but when that's all the song is about is where I object... Jagger singing 'star fucka star fucka star fucka star' etc... is just embarrassing nowadays; the music itself is some kind of Chuck Berry ripoff; again, a very disappointing album closer. That said, the the innards of this moldy bread sandwich are quite delicious. The two hits from this record are 'Angie' and 'Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)'... the former I will cover next month; the latter we'll cover here because it was not a hit until well into '74, after this blog's completion. 'Heartbreaker' is pretty awesome (and frightening!), as it has this nasty 'wah wah' guitar sound from Mick Taylor throughout... very dark themed lyrics about kids taking heroin, kids getting accidentally shot by cops... it is very mid-1970s. It would peak on the U.S. charts at #15 in the spring of '74. Starting with track #2 the meat of this album begins... '100 Years Ago'. This could have been a hit if released as such... a somewhat pleasant but edgy melody for the first part of the song, and then it gets quiet for the bridge, and then drives into this tremendous jam that finishes out the final 90 seconds of the song. Gives me goosebumps, man. Speaking of goosebumps, that leads us to 'Coming Down Again'... my favorite Russian music critic hates this song, but I think it's great... again it fits the dark theme of the album, but instead we have sadness replacing terror, and wow... Taylor makes his guitar seem to weep (more so than Clapton even, thank you very much)... it may be too much for some folks, as it is five minutes of wistful depression, but gawd I love it. Honestly, Mick Taylor saves this record, full stop. After the two big hits we get to the fifth song in sweet succession 'Silver Train'... another Taylor moment with his slide-guitar throughout, it is definitely reminiscent of 'All Down the Line' from Exile but supposedly they'd been working on the song for a few years. The best part of the song is when Jagger is basically screaming the lyrics towards the end of the song. 'Hide Your Love' is okay, but it's a somewhat generic bluesy number. 'Winter' is definitely one of the highlights of the second side... kind of combo of 'Angie' and 'Coming Down' in sound, but somehow they make it feel like a cold sunny day, not exactly pleasant (I hate sunny winter days), but effective. Then we get to 'Can You Hear the Music' which sounds like a parallel to 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' and it is a bit jammy, but the production is very muddled... not that great. So what you have on this record is the ultimate mixed bag of a record: three or four excellent songs and two or three awful songs, with decent filler. What the critics have right about this record is that it is the stepping off point for the Stones long, dinosaur-ish, decline, culminating in their final decent album Tattoo You eight years later (after that forget about it). Worth your time, mostly.

#Youtube

[styledeficit]

12 December - 17 December weeknotes

Monday 12 December

Wake up to yesterday’s snow. Leave before the sun is up, but it doesn’t matter because the snow makes the most of what little light there is. The woods are black and white. I snap a photo and when I share it later, wonder if people think I’ve used a filter to make it monochrome. I did not.

The path between the fields is perfect; untouched snow rests gently on barbed wire. It’s even on the power cables which glow white against a flat, grey sky.

I think about T and assume he’s working. Once – this year or last – I caught him alone in a field, sizing up a tree. It’s a good tree, actually, although I prefer one further up. Embarrassed, he confessed he’d taken a photo of it in every season, and said he was thinking of getting some prints made for the wall. He waited for me to take the piss. I did not.

I hope he’s managed to get a good picture in the snow.

In the evening we have the band social: a concert for friends and family. Half the band are stuck in the snow and half the audience too. We still manage to make a racket, and the Vicar still plays the massive church organ loud enough to shake the rafters. He’s not in the band, just happy to join in. He helps the kids in the audience light the huge Christmas tree, and switches on a large, glowing inflatable dinosaur. 

Tuesday 13 December

No walk. Publish last week’s weeknotes and start work early.

We watch ‘The English’ in the evening, the BBC series. I can’t stop thinking about when Americans got their accents. Should the ones that do have American accents have them at the time the series is set? 

Let me google that for you:

“According to a linguist at the Smithsonian, Americans began putting their own spin on English pronunciations just one generation after the colonists started arriving in the New World. An entire ocean away from their former homeland, they became increasingly isolated from “England English” speakers.”

Yeah, maybe not yet. Also, the filming is so self conscious. ‘Look at this shot!’ It shouts. ‘It’s beautiful isn’t it?!’. 

Wednesday 14 December

Minus 2 degrees.

The snow is revealing the neighbourhood secrets and alliances. 

There are two semi-detached houses opposite ours. One seems to have great roof insulation and the other does not. One side of the roof is perfectly clear up to a very straight line down the centre. The other is snow-laden. 

On the way to the wood people have cleared the pavement; neighbours helping neighbours. Except the ones that haven’t. 

The wood is extraordinary. Black and white again, but for the red paths running through it. The snow has melted underfoot, exposing the bright autumn leaves underneath. And they crunch under your feet – not because they’re dry, just frozen. 

There’s the strangest sound too: the silent birds hopping between branches are sending showers of shivering, frozen snow. 

Thursday 15 December

Can’t decide where to walk or what to wear. It’s minus 4 degrees out. In the end I head towards the silent wood, and follow the tractor tyres through the fields. One of the big old trees stands broken in silhouette. The branches on one side must’ve all come down in the snow. Put up the hood on my hoodie and plunge my already freezing gloved-hands deep in my coat pockets.

The sky is clear (moon’s still up, and the sun is coming) and all the planes are easy to track. I watch two head north in perfect sync until one veers sharply off like it’s suddenly remembered it left the gas on.

Think about far too many things on the walk back. The world is indeed beautiful, but I am also furious.

Friday 16 December

Went to post Christmas cards. Get to postbox, no cards. Where are cards? Not in the empty pocket of the bag, that’s for sure. Not at home, not dropped on the street. A mystery. Later, after asking neighbours to keep an eye out, unzip other pocket of the bag - the one I never use: cards.

Saturday 17 December

The sun rose at 7:59am this morning. Instead of knitting a temperature blanket, maybe I should make one that charts the rise of the sun? I’ve tracked it for most of the year anyway.

Also: train strike.

[artxyra]

The Return of the Premier Chaotique

Marinette was only eight years old when her primary school life changed for the better.

On that fateful day, in Mlle. Gilbertine’s classroom was the introduction of a new transfer student. He introduced himself as Damian; there was no last name. And if there was one, Gilbertine made sure she didn’t say a word of it.  

To Marinette, Nino, Chloe, Nathaniel, and Kim, he was an odd boy. Someone that would fit right into their group after a push, as Damian stressed for no social interactions with anyone.

During the early weeks of his stay, Marinette had caught him several times engaging in lonesome activities, whether they were in the classroom or out in the field messing around. Marinette, being the outgoing child that she was, began to plot.

Created from that plotting period was her life’s mission to befriend the emotionless kid.

It was hard at first.

She and the others tried tricking the young man into hopscotch matches, and when that didn’t work, it was a game of red light, green light. Occasionally, Nino and Kim would challenge Damian to dance battles.

Damian was very much against the childish games claiming that they were beneath him, but humored them into defeat.

That was until Marinette decided on a shooting game with water guns and makeshift go-carts out of bike parts. Damian’s eyes lit up with excitement, and Marinette knew right then and there that she finally fulled her goal.

After being soaked from head to toe and laughing amongst friends, Marinette and the others swore Damian into their friend group, thus changing their lives forever.

Soon newer and crazier games began to take over the classroom of Mlle. Gilbertine.

The moment Nino would bring out his portable CD player and the music began to boom out of the speakers, everyone knew what was about to happen.  

One day, while the group was in the school’s pool area pretending to be sea monsters attacking each other with kickboards and pool noodles, they were officially dubbed the “Premier Chaotique” cult. As they were youthful and the material they came up with was more chaotic than anything the future Hawkmoth could ever create.

Everyone knew that Marinette and Damian were the leaders. Together they oozed power, as Marinette was their strategist while Damian was the chief.

Chloe was their lawyer and location scout. The blonde knew what areas had cameras and heavy guarding. Kim was their chaotic developer. He knew what methods were more chaotic than the rest. Kim never failed to disappoint. Nino was their sound design and videographer in some cases. His love for filmmaking and DJing started here and continues to grow. Nathaniel was the tagger as he made sure every graffiti they did was perfect.

Nothing could ruin these kids.  

Mlle. Gilbertine, bless her soul, was determined to get the Premier Chaotique cult under control, but they were slick and made plans at random. She remembers the day when empty ice cream cups filled her classroom. Every desk was covered, and nothing could explain the appearance of snow sleds in the class.

It was no rumor that the mini cult managed to create their own little snow resort using ice cream and shave ice. It was a pain to clean up.

Marinette remembers the days when the mini cult would paint the city red with flowers and chaotic goodness. Or turning the entire city into a roller skate derby.

It’s a miracle that the cops never brought their parents into the investigation. Then again, with a child as pure as Marinette in the lead, people would fall over when they saw her smile.

Their significant achievement was when the school’s kitchen managed to catch on fire during a lunch period. During the evacuation, the group somehow managed to slip through the adults and back into the cafeteria.

Kim had brought marshmallows that day.

When the firefighters entered to put out the flames, the six children greeted them with wooden sticks eating s’mores and telling scary stories.

That fire had been their last valuable success because they experienced the worst nightmare a couple of days later, Damian had to go back to his home country.

It was heartbreaking for everyone within the cult but groundbreaking for the city.

Marinette fell into depression along with the others. After a month without Damian, they vowed to never speak of the best year of their life unless they were ever to meet Damian again.

It was no secret that Marinette had a crush on the foreign boy, so the cult disassembles along with any memories of Damian and the cult.

Years passed since that day.

Chloe took it upon herself to bully Marinette when they had entered college, as those who knew them in their younger days forgot that they were ever friends. Marinette took up fashion designing and making her seem like the perfect student. Nathaniel started working on comics based on their adventures. Nino stayed friends with all but Chloe and continued with his calling in music production. Kim began busying himself with sports, specifically swimming.

Soon the name that used to strike fear in the hearts of the Paris citizens began to fade away into a false memory.

Little did anyone know, the spirit of the Premier Chaotique cult lives on and would ignite in a blaze of fire.

At sixteen, Marinette works her butt off to make their end-of-the-school-year trip a reality.

The trip was not for the approval of her classmate, which has gone stale but for her sanity. Three years of being Ladybug have put a toll on her, and she plans to take advantage of the lack of akuma attacks going on.

When the acceptance letter landed in her hands, her parents swear they saw a boulder lifted off their daughter’s shoulders. She was smiling more and appeared less stressed than she had ever been since finding out the school board decided to move teachers with their students as a handful of teachers left Paris, some even left France altogether.

Her allies (remaining friends) were the first to know about the trip to Gotham, New Jersey, and they cheered happily for her. Lately, someone else has taken the credits for her work.

The day before the trip, Marinette rundown the patrol routes, and emergency protocols with Luka and Kagami, ensuring the safety of Paris if and when Hawkmoth decided to go active while the rest of the team was away.

She then goes on to convincing Kaalki to come with her to Gotham only to be used as an emergency. Marinette was ready to leave Paris and head to Gotham.

Upon entering the streets of Gotham, a cold chill runs down everyone’s spines aside from the former mini cult members. Too Mme. Bustier, the chill was all too familiar, bringing up memories of the kids that terrorized the streets before Hawkmoth. She looks around to see nothing out of place before promptly calling out her students so they would make it to the hotel.

Everyone who felt that chill had every right to be wary.

On the first day, everything seemed fine, but when you leave nearly all the members of Premier Chaotique alone for a moment, well, chaos was sure to happen.

Chloe and Marinette had put aside their differences during the Lila era of the classroom reign. Even after it was over, they managed to remain friends, rekindling the essence of primary friendship. The boys joined in on them not long afterward.

Plans were made but not yet enforced. It did not feel right, and they knew why– it was because they lacked their chief, the one and only Damian.

~☾★☽~

All Marinette wanted was a cup of coffee, but instead, she got something--someone much more pleasing.

Frozen in place, she calls out a single name, “Dames?” The dark-haired male turned around; she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes soften at the sight of her first crush. He hadn’t changed by much, though he was now taller than her.

“Mars?” That nickname sent the French-Asian teen running into the arms of the Ice Prince himself. Instead of pushing her away, he wraps his arms around her.  

Time froze in that café for several reasons, but the main one was definitely because they just witnessed Damian Wayne hugging someone willing.

Their embrace ends with them staring into each other’s eyes. It felt surreal. They couldn’t find the words to say, but they didn’t have to.

Life continues in the cafe as Damian leads Marinette away from the flashes of lights. It wasn’t long before Damian’s phone began to blow up with notifications. He turns his phone off and stuffs it back into his pocket.

With a mischievous glint in her eyes, Marinette pulls Damian in closer. Lifting herself onto her tip-toes, she whispers, “The others are here too.” into his ear. She steps away to see what she has unleashed, hoping that nearly a decade away from each other hasn’t altered their relationship.

This time it was Damian who smirks, bringing Marinette closer to him. “Mm, shall be bring Gotham to its knees?”

They share a smirk that ends with an explosion, thus, reigniting the Premier Chaotique cult with a burning passion for mayhem.

They decided to meet that night after hours.

Music blared in the streets of Gotham, seemingly close to the classroom’s hotel near Wayne Enterprise.

The members of Premier Chaotique strut down the middle of the streets in inflatable dinosaur suits dancing to the remixes that played from the boombox on one of the dino’s skateboards (Nino’s).  

Jamming to Bats @crazyforbats Did anyone else wake up to music and dancing dinos last night?

Bearbe @Bearbe Replying to @crazyforbats THAT WAS REAL!!??? I THOUGHT I WAS HULLACINATING

Krazie Kay @gokaykaer [A one-minute video with various strobe lighting colors flashing around and six dinosaurs doing the Cha-Cha-Slide] I swear I just saw @thebloodwayne for a split second.

Vera Pitts @vera_pitts [A short video of inflatable dinosaurs chaotically dancing to the Harlem Shake.] I thought this trend of over and done *crying emoji*

By the morning, Twitter was blowing up with various videos and gifs of the events that happened the night before. The only people who weren’t affected by the popularity were the people who were a part of it.

At Wayne Manor, Bruce could already feel a migraine coming as his two oldest play the videos repeatedly in the main room.

Damian scoffs at his family members, while Dick complains about why they haven’t thought of that for a family outing. It’s all about class, Dick; it’s all about class.  

Alfred, being all-knowing, takes notice of Damian's hidden smirks and recent purchase from his account at a party store. Nothing to worry about in this household. However, Damian asking him about where to find used pocket bikes (mini motorcycles) and wire rope reels was troubling.

The next night began the fears of every Parisian that experienced the reign. Blessed that it wasn't not happening in their city for once.

Per their plan assignments, Chloe and Kim found the buildings necessary for the zip line. Nino was in charge of setting up the equipment with the help of Nathaniel. Damian’s task was to get the bikes and zip line wire. Marinette’s job was to keep the class and others from finding out their plan.  

Once everything was ready, the Premier Chaotique entered their playground wearing hooded leotards (or bodysuits) with matching latex masks stretched over their eyes.

Kim went first down the zip line as Damian race down the streets on the bike. Initially, they were going to use the bikes, but the zip line couldn’t hold the weight of the bike and the person on it, so they turned it into a race instead. Of course, they put challenges throughout the route to make it more even.  

Their mayhem took a turn for the best when someone had called the cops, causing the for once silent night into a regular night of crime. Instead of stopping, like normal people, the mini cult went on a high-speed race against the GCPD.

Gotham’s Twitter users were having a blast with the events. It was the best and bravest thing to surface since Batman, though some were very vocal with their opposing thoughts.

The GCPD never caught the Premier Chaotique members, and they went on as if nothing happened.  

It was during the tour of Wayne Enterprise that the Premier Chaotique members learned Damian’s last name. He was an effing Wayne.

Marinette had asked Damian what his last name was when they were eight, and he replied nonchalantly with something along the lines of not being a Wayne until he was ten. Afterward, they continue hanging out and plotting throughout the tour.

After seeing their younger brother interact with teens his age, Dick specifically begs Bruce to invite the group while the rest stands there in shock. The sight of seeing Damian doing what they thought was impossible needed to go into the history books.

While it was a momentous occasion for Damian’s brothers, it was a reality check for Mme. Bustier. Her screams echo against the halls of WE as buried memories of the chaos awakens.

She stared pointedly at Marinette in denial. There was no way her star student was in the cult that did so much damage all those years ago. When Chloe, Nino, Kim, and quiet Nathaniel joined her, Caline started to feel faint. She immediately excused herself to call her therapist. Her wails for help could reach the lobby.

Bruce unknowingly invited even more chaos into his household that night.

It didn’t take Chloe and Marinette much to convince their teachers to let the five of them stay with Mr. Wayne for the night in hopes of “catching up” with Damian.

After getting the approval from Mr. Wayne and their parents, she agreed, secretly ecstatic that they wouldn’t be in her care for the next several hours.

~☾★☽~

“I’m bored. Let’s play a prank?” Kim randomly shouts, playing catch with himself, when they were all staring out the TV waiting for something good to come on.

“What do you have in mind?” Marinette asks, making her way over to Damian. He pushes her away, knowing that she’ll use him as a throne.

“Hey Dames, do you own go-carts are something of a familiar nature?”

Damian thinks about it for a minute, “Tt, father wouldn’t dare let those things in the house. We can prank my brothers. Scaring them would bring me joy.”

“Well I have a few ideas, we can use.” Chloe states, pulling out the book of mischief from her purse.

They all huddle over the book with smirks on their faces.

-----

A retouch version of Request #9.

#maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc #artxyra one-shots #slight daminette

[pokedashwarrior55]

ULTRA LONG TIME TWIN HEADCANNONS

@sippin-on-waterfalls your post is ready

From Pokedash and Purplefern

Ooooooookay here we go.

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

-Krux perceives time slower than others so he is easily late to events (plus he gets distracted and way into projects so he can easily lose track of time, ironically) so he could end up missing a lot of Elemental Alliance meetings

-Acronix made sure he informed Krux it was time to go (whenever he remembers, anyway) otherwise he’d be uber late all the time. Good thing they always go together

-Acronix is super early all the time because of his powers and he and Griffon Turner’s grandfather got along really well

-All the same, between lack of attention span, focusing on other things, and not caring for the meetings in general, Krux and Acronix miss a LOT of meetings 

-Before alliance meetings Wu is training little Morro and the Twins and the Master of Speed just waltz in the monastery doors an hour early

-Acronix teaches Morro some sick fighting moves (some rather underhanded)

-Krux advises him to never let people get away with harm cause you are the most important thing in your life. (Revenge!)

-Wu be like plz stop encouraging my kid into violence and dishonorable tactics.

-Krux brought refreshments to an EA party exactly once. It was pickled beet tea and nobody liked it. He took it very personally. 

-Back during the war, the love triangle with Misako was actually a love rectangle. Krux had a crush on her too but he literally had no idea how to act on it so his part of the rectangle was staring at her longingly from afar and not saying anything. 

-Yes Acronix teased him immensely about this. And tried to act as a wingman several times but Krux swore if he did he would murder him 

-Pre-series, Misako would do work for the museum a lot, so she ended up working with Sanders Saunders quite often. Despite her relationship to Wu and Garmadon and their “history”, he did like working with her ok

-They both also worked with the Explorer’s Club a lot, and have equal disdain for Cecil Putnam and Clutch Powers 

-Krux hates Cecil’s stuffy rules (even though he couldn’t show it while being Dr Saunders) and Clutch’s….everything

-Krux’s doctorate is real, and he has a doctorate in History and and Master’s degree in Museum Studies 

-He’s the Curator of History at the museum, and the other curator is the curator of natural sciences 

-Acronix is a big nicknames guy. He doesn’t usually call people by their actual names. Only the people he actually cares about or that he super hates. 

-But he also generally despises nicknames given TO him. The only people allowed to call him Nix/Nixie are  his brother and mother (and later Shannon). 

-Krux only calls Acronix "Nix" if he's feeling particularly vulnerable/scared/etc (so like, when being the older twin isn't feeling that fun and he decides to ignore those 3 minutes and be more like the "younger" twin.) So this becomes a lot less as he becomes more arrogant. 

-(Based on how he describes Dareth getting beat up by the Vermillion warrior) Krux likes watching wrestling. It’s a guilty pleasure of his 

-And of course Acronix loves it once he learns about it, so the two watch it together 

-Krux occasionally plays strategy board games. He tried to get Acronix into them but he found them boring. 

-(Sometimes he’ll suck it up and play with him anyway, though.) 

-Both are sass masters

-Both also like science

-But like completely different facets of science. 

-Krux of course likes the more stable and earthy sciences. Biology and geology, ecology. Those elemental science that have always existed but we just haven’t yet understood them

-Krux is also a total history nerd. Things like paleontology and anthropology are also really interesting to him 

-Yes he was a dinosaur kid. (Especially since dinosaurs had just started to be discovered back in his day.) 

-Acronix of course likes advancement and the otherworldly sciences. Technology, Astronomy. Sure we build upon the discoveries of the past but what about creating something new for the future? 

-Acronix does like bioengeneering since it is a new advancement but he knows saying so would make Krux grin with “I told you bio was cool” vibes

-Krux can engulf himself into his work or his schemes for days. As he is very patient. 

-Acronix is less so. He sees time constantly moving forward so sitting idle to “Plan” seems a ridiculous waste of time. 

-He jumps from activities quickly as the novelty of it wears off and he is always on a quest for what's new and what may work, not really what has been confirmed to work

-Krux of course sees this as a fool's errand. We need to respect the knowledge we have and use it and plan with it. 

-But when they are in sync you should be SCARED

-Both thinking in the Present can make them in perfect harmony, Both in fighting and talking.

-Their different planning methods can help eachother get things done. So yes, when they work together you should be scared 

-Krux can get really fixated on an idea, and get into major creative blocks. Acronix helps propose out of the box solutions that keep his ideas moving forwards that he wouldn’t have thought of himself. 

-But as we see they can also be reeeeallly different and fight over the miniscule things.  

-Krux lingers on Grudges easily as he physically cannot not put value to the events of the past.

-Acronix’s main grudge with the alliance came from his ego and arrogance, not his element. I think he feels very internally about wrongs to him in the moment but if he sees nothing really changed a couple of days later he loses interest in holding such a grudge easily

-Each of them have the ability to not be affected by the other’s powers

-Acronix has no patience to listen to anything he doesn’t want to hear. Back when he had his powers he COULD and WOULD just “skip” peoples’ dialogue if he got bored of it. 

-Krux has a bad habit of “freezing” people if he feels like they’re interrupting him. Like, he will freeze people who are trying to get him to stop working on something while he’s trying to get something done, and then get back to them when he feels like it. Everyone has to work on his time. (Annoyingly, this does not affect his brother, which is why Acronix is the only one who can actually get him to stop working on his projects.) 

-Whenever Krux & Acronix would hang out with Chen, Acronix loved messing with Clouse. Clouse reminds him of his brother, but even more stuffy and annoyed somehow, so he just has an instinctual urge to annoy him as much as possible. 

-(Clouse does not appreciate this, but Master Chen says they’re “important” to his plan so Clouse just suffers quietly.) 

-Acronix likes the Master of Speed, but also finds it annoying that he can resist his slo-mo powers by going really fast. (On the bright side, though, this does make him the closest thing to an equal he’ll get for a sparring partner, if Krux doesn’t want to train with him for whatever reason.) 

-Because of his element, Sound is one of the rare people who doesn’t really mind Krux but REALLY dislikes Acronix. Acronix is just so loud all the time and it physically pains him because he is so sensitive to vibrations and volume. Krux is generally pretty quiet so doesn’t bug him as much. 

-Acronix is an Entrepreneur (ESTP)  and Krux is an Architect (INTJ) 

-They have no Feeling whatsoever

-Otherwise, they are complete opposites

-Both of these personality types hate rules, regulations, and micromanaging restricting authority figures (hmm, wonder why they broke away from the alliance…)

-Acronix is arrogant in the way that he doesn’t care about his flaws, because obviously he is awesome and everyone else is just jelly, Krux is arrogant in the way that he hates people pointing out his flaws, because shut up he doesn’t have any 

-Their mother is Polaris, they take after her physically 

-Father is Kronos, they got their powers and ego from him 

-Their father actively encouraged them to have immense pride in their element -- being the former master of time himself 

-Ordered them the sweet matching armor

-He was a samurai back in his day, which is why the Twims wore samurai helmets.

-Between their two loving parents, the Twims were nearly spoiled 

-Krux and Acronix grew up pretty rich, Kronos was pretty much high society and Polaris was too 

-They went to a fairly fancy private school growing up

-But everyone there were snobs so they didn’t get along well with their classmates (what a surprise)

-Their parents died in a skirmish with Serpentine, leading the Twims to join the alliance full of vengeance. 

-Acronix has a battle scar from being grazed by an anacondrai sword on his left pec cause I said so

-Also a lot of misc snake bit scars and a burn scar from that one time (Ray’s got a bad temper and Acronix likes pressing people’s buttons, so that went super well)

-Acronix super cares about his looks so has a ton of, like, haircare and beauty products. Krux has a single bottle of 3-in-1 and a bar of soap and says that that’s sufficient. 

-Back in the day Acronix had a bunch of oils and whatever for his hair, and when he’s in the present he’s got a bunch of fancy shampoos and such.  He’s definitely the vain one of the two twins

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

A collection of Neurodivergent Twims HCs

-Acronix has ADHD and Krux is autisitc

-Acronix is early, but only to things he remembers. He often forgets dates. And Krux will get involved with something else, and has a warped sense of time. Together, the two miss a lot of EM meetings 

-And when they’re at them, neither of them are good at conversations. Acronix talks a mile a minute and doesn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise. Krux either doesn’t talk to anyone or similarly dominates conversation and doesn’t let anyone else talk. 

-The two also get sent on solo missions alot

-They don’t focus well in a group setting (Acronix generally ignoring the plan for what he prioritizes as the better option and krux simply not being popular with the others and only really battling well beside his brother)

-They are generally strong enough to protect a village by themselves

-The other EM work better with them out of the way since they are “annoying” and no one really likes their arrogance, pride, or entire personhood

-They seem to be happier working only together than with the whole group

-Once during a group charge on a collection of Serpentine races Acronix notices a horde heading in a different direction and follows them impulsive

-All of these things together make them especially unpopular with the other EMs

-Especially with the Master of Ice, who considers their actions disrespectful and often scolds them on their behavior 

-Krux and Acronix can BOTH get hyperfixated on things they are interested in, and can also forget to eat and sleep.

-Acronix struggles with insomnia a lot because his brain doesn’t shut up. Luckily his brother never really sleeps either. They spend a lot of long nights talking about nonsense 

-Acronix tries to use time skip powers to not waste time while sleeping. He skips the night, but he still didn’t get sleep. He crashes after a few days of this and Krux tells him that he’s a moron 

-Acronix has a fidget spinner, which he got for the memes but ended up finding unironically helpful, and gives Krux a fidget cube (which Krux reluctantly accepts and actually does use pretty often.) 

-Before learning what a fidget spinner was he would flip his phone a lot. It was both an easily accessible stim and assurance he knew where it was cause he tended to leave things around at random. 

-Krux used nail-biting as a stim, mostly because it can appear pretty neurotypical 

-Acronix is “annoying” around the ninja during his lil redemption arc, but instead of reacting like the elemental masters, the Ninja actually do research and come to an understanding (especially Zane, who is perceptive, understanding, and has an instantaneous link to the internet). 

-Altogether he’s a little surprised when they actually put effort into tolerating and understanding his differences. Huh. How’s bout that? 

-Jay is also pretty understanding, he’s got a lot of nd cousins and has ADHD himself so it’s kinda just *shrugs*

-Modern dyes and preservatives really trigger Acronix’s ADHD to be even worse than usual. 

-Zane picks up on this, and like the mother hen that he is starts to put in a special effort to keep dyes away from Acronix (or to keep Acronix away from dyes, as the case may be)

-Jay has a similar problem with dyes (which Edna let the Ninja know about, thanks a lot ma ) so Zane works double time to keep them both away from dyes

-Makes special dishes that are “ADHD safe” 

-Neither appreciate it (well Jay does but will complain openly at every chance he gets)

-Acronix got into a lot of trouble with their dad when he was a kid, because he just couldn’t pay attention 

-Has bursts of anger a lot, oftentimes this happens during things like parties or pre-meeting conversations. (which easily leads to him getting a label of “aggressive” or “hotheaded” by the EMs) 

-DEFINITELY struggles with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria

-Ninjago history is Krux’s special interest 

-Krux freezes people around him when he needs a sec to destim

-Krux is pretty high-functioning, but is on the borderline. He's high-functioning enough to be aware of himself and mask, but not enough to avoid things like shut/melt downs 

-Acronix is fiercely protective of his brother whenever he shuts down. Messing with Krux while he's like that (whether the antagonist is aware or not) is a one way ticket to his wrath as well as physical punishment. 

-Whenever things got too intense at a meeting/party type thing, Acronix would ditch and sneak them both out whenever Krux was heading towards a shut down. Being the awesome supportive twin that he is, he learned to pick up on the signs of one and was certain to prevent them pretty much whenever possible. 

-Acronix failed in his efforts only once (he was kind of sick that day and wasn’t at the top of his game to be keeping a watchful eye on his bro), and Krux kind of ended up time freezing a few of the EMs in the process. It was something the elemental masters (or Krux himself)  did not soon forget or forgive. 

-He'll go nonverbal sometimes, to the minor aggravation of the alliance. Sign language isn't a thing yet so anyone trying to understand him when he's like this are pretty much reliant on Acronix and his twin sense to translate. 

-When their parents died Krux went nonverbal for a little over a month. 

-Krux was pretty delayed in learning to speak, he didn’t say his first word until he was 3 ¼ 

-Even during his redemption arc, Acronix does not tell the Ninja about Krux's autism, from a built in fear that the knowledge would be used against him in possible future battles. (Also because he knows Krux wouldn't want them to know.) 

-Krux doesn't just hate phones because “ugh technology”, he also just hates talking on the phone because it’s super difficult

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OK there are way more that we have but... did you know there is actually a word limit on Tumblr? Heh heh... If you want more Twim goodness you can read our extensive fanfic collection... or maybe we’ll make a part two (That’ll probably consist of Home life pre-war stuff, post-canon AU junk, Vermillion family nonsense, and more random stuff)

#nijnago #there's a word limit? #text post #headcannon #headcannons #headcannon dump #ninjago headcanons #lego ninjago #ns7 #hands of time #acronix #krux #ninjago krux #ninjago acronix #krux and acronix #acronix and krux #just text #thatsit #acronix has adhd #krux has autism #nuerodivergent time twins #nuerodivergent #explorers club #misako #Sensei Wu #serpentine war #pre-canon #post-canon #long post #bleh

[unholyverse]

the lore of the bands before (a pre-waterparks primer)

ok i’ve decided that i know too much and wanna make a livejournal style primer about the history of the band(s) before waterparks (pictured below) for anyone that wanted to know what the hell ive been talking about again for like the past two months. this shit’s legit man it has citations (and my commentary).

the blue poptarts

let’s begin with the first known form of the band, the blue poptarts, started roughly in 2004 under an unidentified different name with different members (source). also here’s their (extremely broken) myspace through the wayback machine

the band consisted of four people: awsten knight (vocalist, guitarist, keys), jawn rocha (guitarist, vocals), chris walzel (bassist, vocals), and owen marvin (drums)

(owen: far left, chris: kid with glasses, awsten: green shirt, jawn: kid that looks the least white) (extra note: i am so glad i never tried starting a band when i was 14)

now, what does a self proclaimed “radxcore, crunkadelique, yay, choloxcore, rainbowxcore, and applexcore” band sound like? like a band you used to listen to in like 2008 when you wanted to be ~different~ and when you discover it years later, you realize it sucks. that’s basically it.

they had an album called electric birthday party produced by jonathan cook (forever the sickest kids) (source) and the album art is still very endearing.

their recorded songs that can still be found include: 

all the dinosaurs are dead 

the airplane’s not supposed to fly this high 

it ain’t easy being gangsta 

the ballad of chadam kool

and here are some performances by them (some under very different lineups): 

at a hot topic (blurry version here)

pulling an i’m so sad, so very, very sad with a song called AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AA

a live cover of something where jawn is the only person i recognize in the lineup

one where the lights are just super red 

one from that same night but in blue 

this absolute wreck where awsten’s screams sound like pig squeals 

my personal favorite, their last show where there is silly string, awsten is screaming, and also he hangs off the ceiling

there’s a chapter in awsten’s book about the band’s escapades after a hot topic show in little rock, arkansas (here’s the tour poster for that if you’re so interested) where former member michael austin brought random hot topic employees into their hotel room and gave the members off brand viagra which made jawn think he was dying from it because he had suddenly gotten sick (he actually had food poisoning from the pizza they ate). yes this is all real.

after five years of being one giant wreck of a band with rotating members, the blue poptarts had their final show under that lineup in september 4, 2009 where they opened for blood on the dance floor (source) and presumably awsten got offered crack cocaine by them behind the venue (source). but there was more in store for some of them...

over 9000

you may ask, why the fuck is the title of the next section a dead dragon ball meme from 2006? and i have to answer with that is the actual name of the next band. it was 2010. just be glad it didn’t end up being the name of a rage comic.

awsten was very adamant about promoting his shitty little bands with his shitty little flyers outside of shows in the houston scene and one of these flyers ended up in the hands of otto wood, who contacted them through myspace (big deal because he literally does not have social media) and joined as a drummer for the new form of the band: over 9000 (also abbreviated as o9k or wo9k (we are over 9000)).

the lineup was still the same outside of the replacement of owen with otto and after the departure of chris, it was just three of them. 

this band is a little easier to trace because they were actually getting somewhere (at least they thought but we’ll get to that later), awsten mentioned some of it in his book, and also bc tumblr was rising in popularity at the time and sometimes you can actually find posts from that time if you look hard enough on here (a prime example is the @fuckyeahwo9k with old pics n shit). going off that, here is an also broken wayback capture of their blog before its deactivation and their twitter.

but anyways, back to the band. compared to its first iteration, over 9000 were more X___X than XD!!!!!! if you get what i’m saying. still very scene, but like not in the rainbow induced vomit way of last time. 

their first official show was on march 13, 2010 as dated by this video post-show of awsten going hardcore on the macarena. but their first known show with otto was on january 30, 2010 (source: this girl’s slideshow) (note: they were still technically called the blue poptarts at this point) at the source’s 16th birthday (i don’t know why them but it was 2010 *shrugs*). also the night before that birthday show was the events of the only youtube video on their channel where otto attempts to smother awsten with a pillow for being annoying. 

there are literally no studio recordings of their songs available so complied below are shitty live recordings of some of the songs i could salvage (general warning for heavy strobe and flashing lights)

youcan’taskquestionsduringmovienight

everything opens with an o / blood bath and beyond (note: these are two separate songs just in the same video and the second song is cut off at the end)

a car full of angry kids

some other songs they did live were either old blue poptarts songs or lost with lyrics only found here and here is someone with the old song files on their computer

here’s a setlist they had around the time (source) 

the shows weren’t near the amount of horrible chaos i documented earlier but rest assured, there are other videos at the least:

slideshow of their first official show

two povs of otto going unreasonably hard on the drums (king you are already carrying them you don’t have to do this)

the blue poptarts song, i set aquaman on fire, where awsten and jawn do a crabcore squat at some point. it’s very funny.

like less than half of a song where otto gets on his drumset to yell “MAKE NOISE” and it ends with awsten and jawn trying to situate the crowd

a very crunchy acoustic performance

their “no shirt, no shoes, no bass, no problem” show after chris left

supposedly the album was supposed to be called xThuggin Rhymesx (source) but i still have no idea if it was just a filler name / inside joke, but honestly given the fact that their name is over 9000 and it was 2010, i wouldn’t be surprised if this was the actual name.

there’s also only like two interviews of them in existence: a casual one with hometown friends/fans and one with a music magazine which both segue into the next part of all of this

the boys got the chance to record an album in detroit (images of the studio they were living in can be found on jawn’s twitpic here, here, and here) at 37 studios.

i’ll just let awsten explain the end of the band (passage taken from his book)

So the newly-formed band I was in with Otto was literally the product of us being bullied into making convoluted, garbage progressive rock. The music sucked. We weren’t good at performing it. We just sucked in every way, but that didn’t stop us from promoting it extremely hard and pushing it on the ears of anyone who had the displeasure of crossing our paths.

As soon as I graduated high school, we got an opportunity to work in Detroit with a certain band that a couple of us liked at the time [I See Stars], and we immediately jumped at the opportunity. The “manager” who set it up for us seemed very interested in our music and helping us grow as a group, so I was sold. I was so absolutely set on making the band work that I was willing to sink every penny I had into this trip, including any and all graduation money I received. We all did.

Upon arrival, we realized that this was a complete and utter shit-show.

We would be in Detroit for two weeks, essentially locked in the studio (we left the complex one time for a couple hours in the 14 days we were there) and were about to learn the hard way that most people in the “industry” don’t give a fuck about anyone but themselves. The amount of things we paid for and never got was staggering.

When we first showed up at the studio, the lowlife producer yelled, “Well, where’s all your fucking gear?” He asked us this despite the fact that being able to use their in-house gear was a fee included in the thousands of dollars we had somehow been able to scrounge together between the three of us.

He then tried charging us money to sleep on the mattresses that were in a side room, another cost that was already included in what we had paid. There was then a closed-door yelling match that we could clearly hear between the producer and the “manager” who had booked us this trip. We were off to a good start, but rest assured, it got much worse.

The producer we were paying to work with was celebrating his birthday by getting drunk and staying home, which extended through our entire trip. We never met the guy. We didn’t get to use the gear or equipment we paid to have our songs recorded with. The guy from the band we liked rarely made it into the studio, and if he did, he was always about seven hours late (even though he evidently lived twenty minutes away).

On what was supposed to be a long, productive day in which we went over our songs and restructured them to make them better, we waited around for twelve hours before he finally came in as the sun was setting. We had been so excited to have some creative input from a guy we respected, and by the time he arrived we were completely deflated.

“Fellas!” he cheerily greeted us. (What smug piece of shit has the audacity to walk in twelve hours late to work, where people are literally waiting for him to get started, and yell “Fellas”? Drop, you weak fuck.) “Sorry I’m late, but I brought chips!”

He threw a couple bags of Funyuns and Salt and Vinegar chips on the table in our direction. It’s hard to imagine a more creatively degrading situation, but it’s situations like these that have hardened me in a creative and business sense. He departed after an hour and a half.

I saw him again years later when we played the Vans Warped Tour in 2016, and I don’t think he recognized who I was, because he introduced himself to me with an ugly, “Sup brahhh?” Sometimes it’s hard not to punch someone in their shitty little rat face. Therapy makes you want to go back and defend past you from bad people/situations, and 2018 me would absolutely go back to 2010 and break this guy’s nose for disrespecting me, wasting my time/creative energy, and essentially stealing all my money.

We also didn’t get the new promo pictures, the new website design layouts, critiques on our songs from a “songwriter’s” standpoint, and were constantly being guilted for being there. One day, the “manager” who set this whole thing up asked me to PayPal him $30 for gas so he could come in to the studio and see how we were doing. I was 18 and barely had money to get food at that point, but I sent it anyway because I desperately wanted them to like me. He never came in that day.

I spent most of my time there riding a skateboard through the halls and listening to Death Cab and Gorillaz remixes, hopelessly waiting for people that didn’t care we existed to come help us craft a listenable release and give us the body of work we paid for. I didn’t want to tell my already suspicious parents how bad the trip was turning out and how terrible our circumstances were because I didn’t want my mom to worry and I didn’t want to prove that their skepticism was justified, even though it definitely was. So I avoided checking in, blaming it on business, and when we would talk, I’d tell them things were “going well!”

We found ourselves in a panic on our last night in the studio, given that we were nowhere close to being done recording on account of the dumbshit producer never showing up and working painfully slow whenever he did decide to swing by. The band guy had stopped coming in altogether. We never even met the producer who we had paid to work with originally. The bullshit in-house producer we’d been recording with was severely drunk to the point where he’d passed out on the couch and we were desperately sifting through Cubase tutorials (the recording software he was using, when we were promised Pro Tools) on YouTube, trying to figure out how to operate his bullshit system. We were stressed beyond belief and gradually coming to the realization that this was all fucking whatever and it wasn’t going to be completed.

We never got our songs back. All of us were extremely broke and pissed off. No one gave a fuck about us and we were nowhere remotely close to legitimate. Stuff like this put me in a mindset where I really don’t give a shit about networking or making nice with bands, and I still accidentally subconsciously carry that with me today. Rappers are funnier than band guys and also aren’t competitive with you, so it’s more fun to be around them.

When we got home, we had a show booked at a high school and morale was at an all-time low. All of us were pretty bummed about the status of the band and we were only holding on because it was fun to play shows.

Fun fact: on the drive up to the school, a very scary gentlemen next to us at a red light who also had his window rolled down pointed a gun at us and we ran the light through traffic to avoid getting maybe shot, Houston, baby!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the show went fucking terribly. The bright side is we only sucked in front of 15 people. Actually, that’s a negative too, dang. We had gotten used to it at this point, but Otto was always really hard on himself and us after every show, so we got used to it when he wouldn’t talk to us after a set. It came as no surprise when we got the silent treatment while he loaded up his drums. However, we weren’t prepared to discover that he was going to drive away and never speak to us again, thus ending the band. We didn’t talk after that, even as friends.

tl;dr: they had a shitty time in detroit trying to record because it was a giant scam and disastrous on all accounts. their last show was at a high school (videos of it linked in the passage) after they came back and after the show, otto ghosted them completely, ending the band and their friendship. 

yea kind of a depressing end compared to the rest of it huh. but of course, this was not the end of everything.

the early beginnings of waterparks

in 2011, awsten started waterparks when he was 19. he was on the verge of dropping out of college. he also had a leg tumor. he had a lot of shit going on. while otto was ghosting him and jawn was a high school senior gearing up to go to college, one of waterparks’ earliest lineups was with owen marvin on drums and gage matthieu on bass and unclean vocals. their first and only music video with this lineup can be found here (password is WTRPRKSDICKPICS bc that was the name of their snapchat and also when i posted this to youtube awsten nerfed me)

eventually, that lineup dissolved and awsten was left finding a drummer again and had to contact otto as he was the only other drummer he knew. awsten had already sent him their first ep and otto loved it (source) and otto said yes when asked to join parx’s practice (the full story can be found here and continued here).

eventually, they got geoff wigington on guitar (and also kicked gage out) and the official waterparks lineup was born :)

bonus: geoff wearing an old o9k shirt for their new wave video

where are they now?

while the fate of chris and owen remains unknown to me, i feel like it’s kind of obvious what happened to the three i emphasized on

awsten: he’s the singer-songwriter and guitarist of waterparks. he dyes his hair a lot and is a capricorn sun and gemini moon. this should tell you a lot about him. he types in all caps on twitter and i’ve had him muted for over a year. i used to bully him on here before he deleted his tumblr and i still have no idea if he ever saw my messages. also one time he submitted a text post to waterparksdrama asking how big his own dick was.

otto: the drummer and eye candy of waterparks. he has no social media other than a twitter he abandoned after making three tweets in 2011 and an instagram awsten made as a joke for him that will eternally be empty. he’s basically amish in my eyes and he climbs trees, gets chased by bees on his farm, and plays baseball. i’m pretty sure he’s immortal. also i have to live with knowing details of his sex life. long story. my chemical romance makes him dance =) (side note: i will eternally be jealous that he saw them on pro rev 2007) 

jawn: waterparks’ photographer and friend. he used to play bass during their early shows after otto came back and geoff got added to the roster. besides photography, he does twitch streams either about his photo editing process or just playing silly little games. he has a glowing keyboard so you can tell he’s legit about this shit.

so yeah! all’s well that ends well and all that shit. they seem to be having genuinely decent lives. all i ask is that if you’re gonna spread this shit do not fucking do it in the eyeshot of anyone mentioned here (i.e. post about this on twitter or instagram) i’m just trying to get a story straight and i don’t think they really want to remember this but other than that, i hope this informed you and got the whole story down.

#i am still paranoid awsten's eventually gonna lurk here again so im not even gonna tag this other than for my own taglist #o9k #tbpt #welcome to my twisted mind

[ridiasfangirlings]

Hello! So I have this idea in my head since yesterday. What if Homra and S4 has to work together to catch this strain that has the ability to open up a portal from the future. But the strain managed to escape from them and they were all irritate. They almost caught it. They were about to leave the alleyway when a small 'Papa? Mama?' caught their ears. They turned to where the sound came from and saw a small boy around 5 years old. They were shocked to see a boy in the alleyway when something caught their eyes. The boy looks so much like Mikoto. Even his personality is like him with a touch of Fushimi's. Then the boy suddenly started calling Fushimi 'mama' and Mikoto 'papa'. It turns out the boy was from the future. What will their reaction be? Especially Fushimi and the Homra.

I'm just imagining Mikoto looking totally chill while Fushimi has this look of 'what the actual hell' on his face (especially fun if they aren't dating – yet – in this universe and so to Fushimi it's like I hate him how do we have a kid). Imagine the two clans working together to deal with this Strain who can like pull things from the future or the past and bring them into the present, he's been terrorizing the city with dinosaurs and such. During the chase Fushimi and Mikoto end up getting caught in the way of the Strain's powers, like the Strain aims at Fushimi and Mikoto happens to be closest to him and moves to deflect the attack. Nothing seems to happen and the Strain makes a run for it, everyone gives chase but when they turn the corner the Strain is gone and instead a little kid is standing there.

There's a moment of everyone exchanging confused glances and then one of the S4 alphabet boys tries to ask the kid if he's lost. The kid looks at them and then he catches sight of Mikoto and Fushimi (for extra fun imagine after the attack earlier Fushimi was knocked off balance and Mikoto happens to be carrying him currently, much to Fushimi's displeasure). The kid runs over to them looking all relieved like 'Daddy! Mommy! Where were you?'. Mikoto raises an eyebrow, Fushimi wrinkles his nose and everyone else is just totally confused. The kid reaches up to take Mikoto's hand and asks if Mommy is okay, should we take Mommy home and watch cartoons for a while. Mikoto doesn't even miss a beat as he unceremoniously drops Fushimi and says nah, 'Mommy' is fine, Fushimi snaps not to call him Mommy and the kid gets big sad eyes as he asks why Mommy is mad at him.

Mikoto's like don't yell at your kid Mommy and Fushimi's all stop calling me that, the kid is standing there holding both their hands looking confused. Eventual discussion leads them to discover that this kid is definitely from the future (also imagine the alphabet squads trying to determine if this kid was adopted or did Fushimi have a baby somehow and the kid has no idea what they're asking). Everyone is pretty weirded out by the idea that someday Mikoto and Fushimi will have a kid, I imagine Totsuka and Kusanagi ribbing Mikoto about it a little – like 'I hope you made a respectable wife out of him' – but they're really just caught off balance by the whole thing too. Poor Yata is just utterly lost, like his hero and his former best friend apparently somehow get together and have a child and he kinda feels almost jealous but he isn't sure whether he's jealous of Mikoto or of Saruhiko (both. The answer is both). Fushimi is completely refusing to believe that this could be true, like imagine him furiously muttering to Mikoto under his breath to stop humoring the brat but at the same time out loud he can't bring himself to be mean to the kid so he's just letting himself be called Mommy.

#Fushimi Saruhiko #Suoh Mikoto #Mikosaru #Talking K #SHIP MIKOSARU ALL YE HEATHENS #imagine they have to take the kid home in the meantime and of course they have to be together #so Fushimi gets dragged back to the bar and has to play Mommy #and spending all this time together realizes maybe he doesn't hate Mikoto that much after all :3c

[cupcakes4747]

Duplicity | I

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: slight profanity, cheating

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Genre: angst, fluff, father! au, husband! au

m a s t e r l i s t

You were filled with pride as you and your husband Taehyung applauded for your kids after their school choir concert was over. Your five year old daughter Soomi and her twin brother Jaemin had been working so hard practicing every day for their choir concert and tonight they did awesome and you felt very proud as a mom and so did Taehyung. Your beautiful kids ran up to you and you both had carried them and engulfed them in a big hug.

“We’re so proud of you! Both of you were amazing!” you congratulated.

“Yeah, you both are even better at singing than me,” Taehyung added and the kids giggled.

“Can we go out for pizza?” your Soomi asked, looking up at you with her big puppy dog eyes.

“Yeah, can we?” Jaemin added. You looked at Taehyung and he was also smiling widely, waiting for you to approve so he could get to eat pizza. Sometimes it felt like he was one of your kids instead of your husband.

“Okay fine, you kids earned it,” you gave in.

“YAY!!!” the three of them shouted in unison. You laughed at their cuteness. Before stepping into the car, Taehyung held open the door for you and gave you a quick peck on the cheek.

“Thank you, babe,” he said while still smiling widely.

The rest of the time was spent with the four of you having fun together as a family. You loved your husband so much and your kids just as much if not more. You loved your family and couldn’t have asked for a better one. You were completely satisfied with your life.

Later that night you were brushing your teeth after tucking your kids into bed and felt your husband hug you from behind.

“Tae, what are you doing? Let me brush.”

“But you’re so warm,” he said, his eyes still closed. You smiled and rested your head on his before continuing to brush. When you finished, Taehyung lifted you and threw you over his shoulder like you were a sack of potatoes.

“Ahh, Taehyung! I swear if you drop me, I’ll drop you off a cliff.” Taehyung laughed.

“Don’t worry. You have a muscular husband,” he said cockily. 

“Muscular my ass,” you muttered under your breath. But he still heard you and threw you on the bed.

“What did you say?” He started tickling the life out of you while you kept screaming at him to stop. “Shh, you’ll wake the kids up.” You gave him a deadpan look.

“Fuck you.” Taehyung giggled and brought you into a cuddling position. 

“I’m so tired, princess.”

“Yeah, me too. Being your wife is tiring,” you joked.

“Do you want me to start tickling you again?”

“No sorry sir.” You both burst into laughter. “Okay but seriously let’s sleep.” You turned around gave Taehyung a kiss. As you were drifting off to sleep you heard Taehyung whisper something into your ear.

“I love you so much, Princess.” 

“Yeah and then I drew a picture of a dinosaur and painted it purple but Jaemin said that dinosaurs weren’t purple so then…” your daughter rambled as you were walking both your kids home from school the next day. You had reached your apartment and the second you opened the door, your kids ran in, threw their backpacks to the ground, and ran to the kitchen to look for a snack. They’re just like me. You saw Taehyung’s keys on the counter. Taehyung’s here? That’s strange. He told me he had work today. You walked to your room to go change into some comfy clothes, but before you could open the door, you heard some noises coming from your bedroom. You pressed your ear to the door and could hear grunts and moans and a woman’s voice moaning Taehyung’s name. No, no, no this isn’t happening. You cracked open the door a couple inches you you could get a glimpse of what was going on and you saw Taehyung, your husband, fucking someone from work. Your heart felt like it stopped beating. You quietly closed the door and put on a happy face and went to the kitchen. 

“Kids, I’m going to drop you off at Jisoo’s house, okay?” you told them.

“Yay, I haven’t seen her in so long,” Jaemin declared, making you relieved that they weren’t asking any questions. Your friend Jisoo was very good with kids and Soomi and Jaemin were very fond of her. You quickly gave your best friend, Jisoo a call asking them if you could drop the kids over for some time. After she agreed and asked why, you told her you would explain everything later.

“There you are! What took you so long?” Jisoo greeted cheerfully after letting the three of you in her apartment. 

“There was quite a bit of traffic. Jisoo, do you mind putting on a movie for the kids so we can talk in private?”

“Sure,” Jisoo said nervously. She was put off by your serious face and tone and was worried something terrible had happened. 

After the kids had been set up with a movie and some snacks in the living room, you and Jisoo sat down in the bedroom and closed the door behind you.

“I’m a little worried, what’s going —” 

“Taehyung is having an affair,” you blurted out. Jisoo gasped and covered her mouth, unsure of what to say next. Just then you burst out into tears, trying to keep it as quiet as possible so the kids wouldn’t hear. Jisoo wrapped her arms around you and rested her head on your shoulder until you stopped crying. “I just don’t know what to do. Should I confront him? Should I ignore it? Should I divorce him? And what about the kids? What if this gets leaked to the media?” Jisoo nodded let out a big understanding sigh.

“This is an incredibly tricky situation. You really have to weigh your options carefully.”

“I can’t believe he would do this. I mean, we had the perfect relationship. I know he’s always been in love with me. How can someone so expertly fake the strong emotions he did?” 

“I think you need to take some time to relax and cool down,” Jisoo said softly while petting your hair, “After that, you’ll be able to make a rational decision. Don’t worry about Soomi and Jaemin. I’ll take care of them until you’re ready.” You were so grateful for Jisoo. Friends like this are hard to come by. You replied with a measly thank you before passing out into a deep sleep. All that crying must have tired you out.

~

You woke up to the sound of your phone ringing. You grabbed your phone and checked the caller ID. Taehyung. You gulped. Should I answer it? You decided against your better judgement and took the call.

“Hey, babe, where are you? Didn’t you go to pick up the kids?” You saw the time on your phone. It had been a little over two hours since the kids’ school ended and only now he noticed that you three hadn’t arrived yet. Duh. He has clearly been busy with something else. 

“I did,” you tried to respond, sounding as stable as you could. Taehyung was put off by the bluntness of your voice.

“O-ok...Where are you guys now?”

“I’ll see you in fifteen minutes.” You hung up the phone and went to look for Jisoo, who was in the kitchen preparing dinner with the children, who were helping her. “Hey, Jisoo, I’m going to meet Taehyung real quick. I’ll be back in time for dinner.” You could see the questioning look on her face, like she wanted to know what was going on, but didn’t want to raise any alarm in front of the kids, so you gave her a knowing nod, signaling that you would explain everything later.

As you drove home, you were heartbroken. How could he do this to me? I thought he loved me. Am I not enough for him? But as your mind kept racing, the sadness started to convert to anger. That backstabbing asshole. Who the fuck does he think he is? I need to hurt him the same way he hurt me.

~

You were standing right outside your apartment, key in your hand hovering right in front of the lock. It seems that the boldness your anger provided you just faded from your body. All of a sudden, for some reason, you just wanted to run back into his arms, feeling warm and protected, and just forgive him. After all he is your husband and the father of your children. Maybe did it because he was just stressed at work. Maybe you both just weren’t as sexually compatible as you thought and that you shouldn’t take it personally. It would just be easier to let bygones be bygones and go back to being a happy family again. It’s interesting how no matter how wrong someone is, if we love them, we will always make excuses for them they don’t deserve. No. He doesn’t deserve a second chance. And I deserve a man who can at the very least stay faithful to me. You gathered every bit of strength you had and went into the house.

“Babe!” Taehyung greeted you excitedly as he got off the couch. You were irked, not knowing whether his excitement was genuine or fabricated. Was it ever genuine? He leaned in to hug you, but you warded him off. Taehyung looked at you inquisitively. 

“Where are the kids?”

“Don’t worry. The kids are fine. I came to talk to you.” He was taken aback by your sharp tone of voice. 

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” The thing that that drove you the most crazy was the fact that his concern sounded genuine. It was messing with your head. Does he actually care about me, or is he just a really good faker? You hoped it was the former, but you didn’t want to give him a second chance without earning it.

“What do you think is going on, Taehyung?” He looked at you blankly. 

“Babe, what are you talking about?” You looked him straight in the eyes.

“I think you know exactly what I’m talking about,” you whispered. A flash of panic spread across Taehyung’s face, before he quickly changed his expression to one of compassion.

“Baby,” he coaxed, “Is everything okay?” You were sure he was lying. His false concern was starting to creep on your nerves, but you brushed them off, wanting to maintain composure. He reached for your arm, but you pulled it away. “Can you tell me what’s going on?” he said sternly. You gave him a deadpan look.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” you said through gritted teeth. His face softened.

“Is it because of...” his voice trailed off, hoping you would understand what he was saying so he wouldn’t have to finish his sentence. You remained silent. You weren’t going to help him out. “Do you know?”

“Do I know about what, Taehyung?” you retorted.

“Who told you?” he whispered.

“Who told me about what, Taehyung. Just tell me what you mean.” You know exactly what he meant, but you wanted to hear him say it. Him admitting to it was the only way you could even consider forgiving him.

“Nothing. Nothing important. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Your heart dropped to your stomach. You were sure he knew what you were referring to, but he chose to keep it secret, betting his odds that you both were talking about different things.

“What were you doing at 4pm today?”

“I don’t know, probably working.”

“Really.”

“Yes, babe. I don’t know what you’re getting at.” You sensed a tone of annoyance in his voice.

“Because I stopped by with the kids around that time and witnessed something entirely different.” Taehyung’s eyes widened.

“What do you mean?” he whispered. You gave him a knowing look and Taehyung at once knew the charade was over. “Babe,” he said in a low voice, “Let’s sit down and talk.”

“No, I’m actually about to head out. I really don’t want to be around you right now.”

“When did you see it? I didn’t hear you come home.”

“Doesn’t matter, Taehyung. You cheated on me. How long has this been going on?” The blood drained from Taehyung’s face now that the elephant in the room had finally been addressed.

“I promise, this hasn’t been going on long. It was a mistake and I’m so, so sorry.” You rolled your eyes in order to mask the fact that you actually wanted to cry. “Really, it was a moment of weakness and I regret it so much. It will never happen again.”

“You shouldn’t have done it in the first place,” you retorted.

“Honey, whatever happens in our marriage, we can work it out.”

“We don’t have to work it out. Our lawyers can do that for us.” Taehyung stared at you, not understanding the implication. “I’m leaving you, Taehyung.” Through gritted teeth, you forced out the last few words before you stormed out of the apartment, “And I will see to it that you will never see your children ever again.” Before you could see his reaction, you slammed the door and ran to your car so he couldn’t catch up with you.

#bts angst #taehyung angst #v angst #bts fanfic #bts

[wsgeon]

hey everyone! ummm this is peyton (also the mun of lee hyeon) taking a second shot at a second character — i have a lot of muse for this one, so i swear he’ll be around for a while… 🥵 this is ryu geon, yes his name rhymes with hyeon’s & no i do not care ♥️ he’s the lead guitarist/vocalist of meta and also the son of a former nobody rockstar, but i’ll get into all that below! like this post if you’d like for me to come into your ims to plot, click the read more for more info on geon, and/or click here to be taken to his pages: CAREER, DOSSIER, PINTEREST.

HISTORY.

born in autumn ‘97 to a “budding rockstar” (translation: “no yeah i swear our band’s really starting to take off, we sold twenty-three tickets to our last show!”) & a woman with commitment issues ♥️ geon’s dad always told him that his mom left because she had some dire matters that needed to be taken care of and SWORE that she cried the last time she held her dear baby boy, but all of his dad’s bandmates say that she was just some groupie and had to be persuaded into carrying her child to term… who can say for sure?

naturally, there are no pictures of this mystery woman. there was one (1) of her holding infant geon, but then he found out that that was actually a sound tech who worked for his dad’s band… and he just never corrected geon’s assumptions LOLLLL

anyway! he was always really close to his dad, considering they were a two-person family. he has a set of grandparents, an aunt and a couple cousins but they were never involved with geon’s life because his dad is the #blacksheep of the family. geon and his dad against the world, am i right?

uhhh geon was also kind of a black sheep growing up, but he didn’t really notice? he was a happy kid, very energetic and enthusiastic. a lot of adults in the area looked down on him & his dad, but he was SOOOO blind to it because his dad’s a god in his eyes and HE’S always been nice to everyone, so why would they not like him??? because his clothes smelled a little like dad’s cigarette smoke??? big deal

wasn’t troublesome (beyond talking too much), but a lot of people still expected bad things from him :/ “his father’s a dirtbag, i’ll be surprised if that boy doesn’t end up in jail by 20”, “he won’t amount to anything without a proper role model in his life”, “his dad is teaching him how to slack off”, “he won’t contribute anything to society”, etc. he kindaaa picked up on this as he got older but pretended not to because it was more rewarding to play dumb and keep being a good kid(tm) to prove them wrong

was basically a mini version of his dad. same style, similar features, birthmarks in the same places, same “live today, die tomorrow” approach in life, same affinity for singing & playing rock music. ummm he loved his dad a lot. a lot. a lot. wanted to make him proud SO BAD, started his first band when he was 15 and they sucked so bad but his dad was their biggest fan… you know how it is. a lot of people misunderstood him, but he was a very good guy and such a great parent

TW DEATH unfortunately he passed away just shy of geon’s 18th birthday and your boy still hasn’t forgiven the world for taking his dad when he was in the middle of his angsty teen phase — had he known that their time together was dwindling, he would’ve been so so so much better to him END TW

his dad’s band actually rocketed into the charts after he passed & suddenly they were getting loads of publicity, lots of “what a shame that he went under-appreciated” which pissed geon off SOOOO bad because why couldn’t they have had that energy when he was still alive? he’s still mad about it five/six years later

this is getting kinda long, so uhhh tl;dr, he ended up staying with the drummer of his dad’s band until he was old enough to live alone/READY to live alone, but he changed quite a bit. was really going through it, quit his band, stopped putting effort into school. barely graduated. went from being a social butterfly spending every weekend at a gig or with friends to spending all of his time on a pc or in front of a tv, playing console games. the internet comforted him when nobody else would/could and then he met the future members of meta <33333333 #newbeginnings

present day geon is still struggling, has to go to counseling bi-weekly but he’s coming back out of his shell! he wants to fall in love with life again, just wants to tread carefully... outgoing & will talk to absolutely anyone, but he still spends most of his time alone. hard to reach by text, so if you wanna talk to him, you better call/facetime LMAO. talks a mile a minute, especially if you get him going abt something he really likes. laughs a lot, smiles a lot, more habitual than actual signs of happiness but yk. ummm he has a really loud voice, mostly controlled nowadays but he still gets carried away sometimes. an absolute menace during long drives/flights, sorry meta.

funny but only when he’s in large groups. feeds off of other peoples’ energy, really good at reading a room and breaking the ice/making everyone comfortable, but if you meet him 1-on-1, none of his jokes land quite the same.

i envision him as being the kind of guy who carries himself in such a way that you’d assume he’s really popular/out of reach/maybe even full of himself, but he’s... not like that... at all... in fact, he’s kinda irritating when you get to know him. the personification of a flood followed by a drought and vice versa, always either too much or not enough. gets used/ghosted/dropped/dumped/whatever a lot because he’s soooo fun in the moment (if he isn’t in his feelings), but draining long-term.

really emotionally intelligent, in touch with his feelings in a way that a lot of people never thought he would be (probably thanks to counseling tbh). he’s very very rarely the type of person who will make you wonder what your place in his life is — he’s communicative, kind, honest. ummm he thinks that intimacy between friends needs to be more common, so he’s really affectionate with the people in his life. type of guy to tell you he loves you every chance he gets (calling you when he’s drunk, sounding like a clingy ex type beat) & greet you/depart with a hug. losing his dad kinda fucked him up in the way that he won’t leave/hang up until his friends say “i love you” back, gets kinda (re: very) upset if he’s denied that and/or a hug.

TRIVIA.

has been playing the guitar “longer than he’s been walking” (not really, but he swears it’s true).

uhhh he really likes nail art, but he’s kinda hesitant in what he tries? mainly sticks to black polish (or other plain colors), but sometimes he’ll get little designs added in as well. mainly does it himself because he still doesn’t feel comfortable in salons... if his work looks bad, leave him alone <3 he’s trying

inspired by people like kurt cobain, nicky wire, yungblud, billie joe armstrong & damiano david in the fact that he’s not against wearing dresses or skirts on stage. doesn’t do it ALL the time, but often enough that it doesn’t go unnoticed. some people say that he does it for attention because he doesn’t dress like that elsewhere and tbh they’re probably kinda right

interested in history (only SOME... dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, specialized areas like the history of circuses/clowns/skateboarding/punk, stuff like that yk), stand-up comedy & documentaries. could spend a whole day watching documentaries and would say he had fun, has a lot of useless knowledge that nobody gives a fuck about and is kinda dumb when it comes to things that matter

when it comes to music, he prefers playing really fast and heavy rock or punk over anything else, but he actually listens to a lot more soft indie on his own time... he’s too tense these days to be listening to anything else RIPPP

the vibe: homemade tie-dye, ripped slipknot t-shirts, frosted tips, neon crocs with alien & peace-sign charms, chipped black nail polish, calloused hands, cheesy pick-up lines used NOT to land a date but to pull a smile, driving until he’s lost, stupid socks paired with pressed suits, dramatic poetry in an iphone note, etc. 

PLOT IDEAS.

people he met through online support groups about coping with grief

uhhh an on & off relationship that’s been going for who-knows-how-long. the reason for this is up for discussion, but i imagine that he hasn’t given up yet because the constant highs and lows are a good source of inspo 🤪 artists must suffer for their art!

opposite side of the coin — someone he’s interested in, but he’s NOT disloyal so it’s a pattern of persistent courting when he’s single vs intense friend-zoning when he’s not and they’re getting tired of trying to figure out what he wants from them

someone else who likes nail art & can convince him that NOBODY cares if he goes to a salon

someone (probably female but doesn’t really matter tbh) who feels like his feminism is entirely performative… maybe they attack him directly for it or maybe they just REALLY don’t like him and they’re super vague about it idk. either way, please tell him that activism is much more than recommending one female artist a year and saying “clothes have no gender 🤪” so he can be praised for the bare minimum (his heart is in the right place but his skull is empty)

someone super introverted who comes out of their shell with geon! uhhh maybe they think that he’s the one doing them a favor, but in reality spending time with them has been doing wonders for his mental health

other people who like to skate. let’s congregate at the local skatepark and scare the middle schoolers away

someone who inspires him musically, for whatever reason. lots of late nights in studios, idly strumming his guitar and writing lyrics that definitely aren’t about how their eyes look in these dim lights… umm maybe he thinks he has a crush on them but really doesn’t and ends up hurting them eventually, maybe he really DOES have a crush but will (probably) never do anything abt it or maybe it’s entirely platonic and he just admires them a ridiculous amount

someone who likes to make music as a hobby, prob won’t publish/release any of it but it’s fun to imagine. spontaneous meetings with geon in the middle of the night, recording songs together and keeping the WORST takes for the laughs. there’s probably a diss-track of them going in on each other floating around somewhere even though geon can’t rap for shit

night owls who keep him company on the phone, even if they can’t be there physically. them talking really quietly vs geon shouting at them while he plays games LMAO

gaming buddies. come over, maybe you can carry geon through his game of the week or you can both fail but have fun while you’re at it… or you can scream while he fends off that hoard of zombies behind you

i’m typing this at the last minute (literally) so i’m gonna stop here, but i will get a proper plots page put up asap with a wider variety of connections!!! but as always, please do let me know if you have any other ideas. i’m always happy to plot and write with you all 🌚

#ws:intro #frankly my characters end up a lil different from intended 90% of the time soooo take my description of his personality w a grain of salt #this intro is long and illiterate but i'll fix it at a later time

[superman86to99]

Superman #84 (December 1993)

Superman takes a short Paris vacation! Like, one day short. What's the worst that could happen?

Oh, man.

So, for the past few issues, we've been hearing about children being abducted in Metropolis. Now we see that they're being kept inside a giant toy house by some creepy bald man in Quasimodo clothes who seems to be obsessed with toys -- a "Man of Toys," if you will. Side note: no wonder the children haven't been found... all the articles about them are just gibberish! (See clip below.)

The kidnapper thinks that these kids' parents don't deserve them, and that they're much better off here, in an underground hideout with a man who threatens to starve them if they don't play with him. (And I do mean literally play, with action figures and stuff.) Meanwhile, as these children cry for help, Superman is having the time of his life. While helping move a stranded ship with some huge-ass chains, Superman spots a sunken galleon with a treasure chest inside and fantasizes about keeping the booty...

...before turning it over to the authorities anyway, the big boy scout. Then, he wakes up Lois at 6 AM and tells her they should go to Paris right now, which usually means your significant other is having a mental breakdown, but in this case they can actually do it. And so, after deciding that he deserves to use his powers for fun every once in a while, Superman and Lois drop everything and fly to France with super-speed for the rest of the day/issue.

Anyway: back to the child abduction! Cat Grant and her son Adam attend a Halloween party at Adam's school, but there's a disturbed weirdo in a hideous costume lurking among the crowd. Yes, I'm talking about Jimmy Olsen in his Turtle Boy suit.

Shortly after that, a guy in a dinosaur costume (see, all the creeps are dressed as reptiles) lures Adam out of the party with the promise of "superb video games." What child could resist that? Of course, that turns out to be the kidnapper and Adam ends up in his hideout along with the rest of the missing children and, worst of all, not a single "Lextendo" console.

The kidnapper gets angry at Adam when he refers to the toys at the hideout as "old-fashioned junk" (he was REALLY looking forward to those video games), and even angrier when Adam tries to free the other kids. Adam is brave and puts up a good fight, but...

And those were Adam Morgan's final words. "Uh-oh."

Next, we have a pretty harrowing scene of Detective Turpin letting Cat know Adam’s body was found, and Jimmy and Perry White taking her to the morgue to identify the body (most people probably wouldn't bring their former boss to something like that, but Perry sadly knows more than most about losing a kid). As for Lois and Clark, they were gone so long that the Daily Planet had time to print a headline about the murders. The issue ends when the lovebirds walk into the office smiling like two people who just spent the night fooling around in Paris... only to feel like jackasses when they find out what happened.

To be continued!

Character-Watch:

And that's it for little Adam Morgan who, unlike the also tragically diseased Jerry White, didn't even get any post-death appearances. Adam went from a little kid scared of Superman, to a huge brat, to a character who was approaching likeability as of last week. That's why I hate it when DC kills off young characters like Adam or Liam Harper: in long-form storytelling, children represent potential. Look at how much Wally West or Dick Grayson evolved over the years compared to their mentors! Sure, there's a huge probability that Adam would have ended up disappearing from comics for 25 years anyway, but who knows, maybe we'd now know him as Teen Gangbuster or something. GangbusTEEN.

This issue also represents a turning point for the kidnapper, who is never named or seen clearly in the story itself but I don't think I'm shocking anyone by spoiling the fact that he's Toyman (it's in the cover, for one thing). In his last two appearances before this storyline, Toyman helped Superman save some kids from Sleez and looked genuinely sad to learn about Superman's death, so this is a pretty dramatic change for the character. We'll find out why he went from big softy to child killer in Superman #85 (but don't get your hopes up).

Plotline-Watch:

The most disturbing part of the issue, all things considered, is still the part where Toyman climbs into a giant crib and hugs a huge stuffed bunny. Look at serial killer Tommy Pickles here:

Don Sparrow says:  “Even with the upgrade, Toyman is still just a man in a suit, a common complaint about Superman’s rogues gallery.” Funny you should say that, because I JUST shared an old Wizard interview in our Twitter in which Dan Jurgens talks about how Doomsday came out of his frustration with the fact that most Superman villains are dudes in suits (plus other interesting tidbits from the era, like how it was actually Roger Stern’s idea to bring back Hank Henshaw, so check out that link!).

Don again: “The entire Superman storyline of this issue feels like filler. Diving for buried treasure and soaring off to Paris -- it all feels like wasted time next to the Adam storyline.” I have a theory that the entire ship sequence is there as an excuse to put Superman in those big chains and make that Spawn joke (which I didn’t get until now, since I’ve always read this issue in Spanish).

Superman says that pulling that big ship was "a little easier than expected" -- that's either another hint that there's something going on with Superman's powers since he came back, or a subtle dig at the state of American ship manufacturing.

Another adorable "window tap" scene for the books, and this is the sexiest one so far. Is it me or has Jurgens started copying more than just Teri Hatcher's hairdo from Lois & Clark? (For anyone who thinks Lois has gotten implants, I refer you to this clip.)

While in Paris, Lois asks Clark if he's ever wondered what would happen if his rocket had landed in other countries. Don: “Clark’s conversation with Lois sounds like a bunch of concepts for Elseworlds stories. We eventually would see a Russian Superman, and a British Superman, but not yet the French Superman. (Hire us, DC!)” Yep, got my French Superman pitch ready, Jim Lee. Or just let us do Russian Superman again, since Red Son wasn’t even the first time you published that idea.

Don once more: “Another thing that makes no sense about the ‘new’ Toyman is his resentment of technological toys—when in previous appearances he himself had deadly high-tech toys to vex Superman over the years.” I especially resent his hatred of video game consoles. Incidentally, I wonder what types of games are available for Adam’s beloved Lextendo. Star Lex 64? Mega Man Lex? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles & Lex?

No one is more upset at Lois and Clark for going AWOL than Whit. NO ONE. He's so furious that his usually grey mustache turned black.

Patreon-Watch:

As always, shout out to our patrons, Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Samuel Doran, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush and Raphael Fischer! Last month’s exclusive Patreon article was about the recently unearthed sequel to Superman 64 for the PlayStation, featuring Metallo, Parasite, and Lois looking even hotter than in this issue:

Hot damn. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And believe it or not, Don Sparrow has even more to say about this issue. Read his section after the jump:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow​):

I should start off my section with a big caveat:  I flat out hate this issue. There were several weird decisions made in the post-Death-and-Return era (most of them along the same lines of making the Superman titles more grim-and-gritty), and this story was one of the worst of them.  My theory is that, despite the praise and record-breaking sales of the Death and Return storyline, the Superman creative team felt pressure to have more extreme storylines, perhaps in response to the wildly successful Image books coming out at the time.  Between this story, and the upcoming “Spilled Blood” storyline, the Super books take a hard—but temporary--turn into more violent and upsetting storytelling—even though these stories are by the same writers as the previous few years. While death has always been a part of comics, and Superman comics was no exception, there is a jarring glibness and unfeeling toward the way violence is handled in these pages that is quite different from the stories that preceded it.  It’s made all the more jarring by the fact that well-established personalities suddenly veer wildly out of character, Toyman chief among them.  

We start with the cover, and while it is technically well-drawn (by the familiar team of Jurgens and Breeding) it’s also a very upsetting visual.  I think they should have gone with the pieta type pose with Adam and Superman, OR the scary badass bowie-knife Toyman (who apparently has a Cheshire cat smile now) but not both.  But the cover is a good hint at the tonal dissonance of the comic within.

We open with a splash of the now-extreme 90s looking Toyman, with his serial killer shaved head and spooky cloak, ignoring the pleas of hungry kids he has locked up in a tiny jail cell for days at a time (if that sentence doesn’t ring alarm bells for how wrong this is for a Superman story, I don’t know what will). For much of the issue Toyman’s eyes are obscured by glare on his lenses, further de-humanizing a character who was once one of Superman’s more empathetic bad guys.

We cut to Superman tugboating a huge tanker with giant chains and it’s a cool visual (one repeated in the Batman V Superman film).  It feels especially out of place to focus on, given how upsetting this issue is otherwise, but throughout the whole comic, Lois is drawn smoking hot, especially on the two page spread on pages 9-10.

The scenes depicting the actual murder, while still wildly out of place in a Superman comic, are well done, and give a real sense of darkness and menace, which I suppose is the intent.  Perhaps my least favourite visual is the Big Bird stuffie, silently bearing witness to what’s about to occur.

The edges of the panels on get more slashy and off-kilter (to me, looking very much like the layouts more typically seen in Image comics of the day) and I suppose I appreciate the restraint of how little Dan Jurgens shows of the death of a child, showing only a bloody slash on a black background.  This is still a pretty baroque image for a Superman comic, but certainly less violent than it could be, given what is happening.

Cat Grant’s silent horror is well staged, and powerful in its way.   Lastly, Clark Kent bending in sorrow and regret is a powerful image.

While this issue is handled marginally better, and more maturely than other comics on the shelf at this time, I still believe it is one of the biggest mistakes of the era.  Giving a long-established character an unceremonious death for shock value is gross on its own, but making it a child definitely crosses a line for me.  Making it worse is that, while the Toyman is a criminal and a killer, he has shown in past issues (a similar kidnapping storyline involving Sleez) that he genuinely cares for the well-being of children.  So for a long-time reader, this also felt like a betrayal of a long-established, fully developed character.   Adding to the ugliness of this is that Adam dies heroically, trying to free the children who have been caged, unfed, for days, but even in that regard, he fails.  The headline at the end of the issue confirms all the children are dead.  Adam’s death did not buy the other kids enough time to get away. It was all for nothing. Had Adam died, but the other children lived, maybe this issue wouldn’t leave quite as bad a taste. [Max: It’s weird because it’s all told in a way where it’s told in a way where it would make sense, narratively and within the story universe, that the other kids survived, but then it’s almost casually revealed that nope, they died too. A scene of one of the kids relaying Adam’s heroism to Cat in a future issue would have gone a long way.]

Superman doesn’t come off well in these pages, either.  It’s honestly the type of story they should just stay away from, because the more you think about all the calamity that is going on around the clock, the less defensible the whole Clark Kent persona becomes. Superman carving out time to romance his fiancée directly led to the preventable deaths of innocent children—how do you come back from that?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

I’m always looking for hints that perhaps Jimmy or Perry know Superman’s secret identity deep down, and Jimmy’s anger at Lois and Clark on their return to the Daily Planet offices would seem to give that theory some credence, as he’s as angry at them as if he knew Clark really were Superman.  Either that, or he’s ticked that it fell to him, and none of them to escort Cat into the morgue. [Max: Has this issue finally converted you to the “Jimmy is terrible” side now, Don?]

I don’t think I’m the only one who disliked the new Toyman—SPOILERS BE HERE: years later, in Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns retconned this whole story, reverting Schott into the criminal who over-relates to kids, rather than the child-killer of this story.  Apparently the infantile Schott, who speaks to “Mother” a la Norman Bates, is a robot so lifelike it fools even Superman, and the “Mother” he’s constantly replying to was the real Winslow Schott trying to recall the malfunctioning robot. [Max: That’s one Geoff Johns retcon I really didn’t mind, even if it felt kind of derivative of his similar “all the Brainiacs are robots made by the real Brainiac” reveal.]

#superman #dan jurgens #josef rubinstein #toyman #cat grant #adam morgan #dan turpin #whit #gangbusteen #super luthor fighter ii turbo championship edition

[non-sequitura]

Sequitura’s guide to Kpop if for some reason you want to get into it

(Not recommended, the fandom culture is insane, though there are some nice songs)

These are songs that I really liked on the first listen and continue to like. Some songs take a while to grow on me, like “TT” by Twice. Those aren’t on this list.

They're not my top 100 - those would be too particular to my tastes and I tried to cover a range of musical styles.

* means that the song is a b-side (not the primary promoted song in an album) and thus probably doesn’t have a music video.

Oh My Girl (cheerful group with KILLER catchy melodies)  -Windy Day -Dolphin -Coloring Book -Closer -(optional listening) Secret Garden if you really liked Closer -(optional listening) Nonstop if you like catchy dance tunes, but after some of their really good stuff it'll pale in comparison. It's good gateway Oh My Girl, though.

Blackpink (they do a lot of hype songs; cool vocal colors; actually not bad rapping for kpop) -As If It's Your Last -Playing With Fire -Lovesick Girls

f(x) (experimental girl pop) -Rum Pum Pum -Nu Abo

KARA (exhilarating dance tunes) -Step

Brown-Eyed Girls (they've covered pretty much every genre at this point, but boundary-pushing is their main theme) -Kill Bill -(optional listening) Abracadabra (not personally my thing, but the EDM bassline was super fresh at the time and still is) -(optional listening) Warm Hole (really catchy 60s-esque bop)

Taeyeon (former main singer in Girl’s Generation) -4 Seasons -(optional listening) Spark (not the greatest song in the world, but the lead-in to the chorus is great.)

T-ara (ridiculously cheesy dance tunes) -Roly Poly -Sugar Free -(optional listening) Lovey Dovey (if you loved Roly Poly)

Mamamoo (originally jazz, now... something else) -Piano Man -Um Oh Ah Yeah -(optional listening) Woo Hoo (the harmonies will blow your mind) -(optional listening) Decalcomanie (GREAT for early 2000s rock Amy Winehouse-esque fans. I'm only mildly a fan of that style, but even I can admit the vocal pyrotechnics are incredible.) -(optional listening) Pride of 1cm (a rap diss track about each other’s heights) -(optional listening) Girl Crush (HEY YOUUUU)

Spica (sadly short-lived group that was *really* musical; did jazz authentically and well) -You Don’t Love Me

IU (soloist whose style has run the gamut, but she mostly writes her own music, now.) -Eight -The Red Shoes -Blueming -23

AOA (originally a band concept who came back with uh... sexy, which isn’t a genre, but they still have good songs) -Heart Attack -(optional listening) Like a Cat -(optional listening) Elvis

Wonder Girls (retro who came back with a band concept) -Why So Lonely

Sunmi (her stuff can take a while to get under your skin. It’s quite dark under the surface, which I like.) -Heroine -Pporippipam -(optional listening) 24 Hours -(optional viewing) Noir, for the music video mainly

Yubin (former rapper for Wonder Girls) -Lady -Thank U Soooo Much

Girl’s Generation AKA SNSD (one of the original icons. You won’t find a more polished group anywhere.) -Paparazzi -(optional listening) Lion Heart (for those who love the 60s sound)

BoA (original soloist icon. Watch her dance and sing live.) -Mannish Chocolat -(optional listening) Woman

Itzy (currently conquering the “teen rebels” genre) -Wannabe -Don’t Give a What -(optional listening) Icy (it’s divisive, but personally I find the attitude super charming and the instrumental fresh and unique rather than irritating.)

Red Velvet (have some great RnB songs, as well as some lovely summer ones, as well as some “lol wut” ones) -Psycho -You Better Know* -Body Talk* -(optional listening) Russian Roulette (slightly off-kilter pop song and catchy af) -(optional listening) Look* (AMAZING 80s throwback) -(optional listening) Swimming Pool* (one of those super cheesy pop songs that becomes transdescent in the chorus) -(optional listening) Sassy Me* (this song is crazy) -(optional listening) Mr. E* (if you loved You Better Know) -(optional listening) Sunny Side Up* (if you loved Body Talk and Psycho)

2NE1 (one of the first “badass”-themed girl groups.) -I Am the Best -Fire -(optional listening) I Don’t Care (tackling slow/emotional)

Hyuna (a great performer who sells any song she’s in) -Trouble Maker -365 Fresh -Bubble Pop

CLC (they’ve unfortunately probably broken up now. Super talented group who’s bounced from genre to genre trying to get something to stick, leaving bops along the way.) -Pepe -Show* -No

Weki Meki (they’re slowly finding their niche, which is likely to be smooth club stuff) -Crush -(optional listening) Cool (I recommend watching their relay dance/dance practices and giving Lua some attention)

BOL4 (“indie”-ish band; not a big fan of most of their stuff) -Travel (but they did strike addictive gold when they went more rock)

Gfriend (Strings, guitar, and some of the best/most consistent vocalists in kpop right now) -Navillera -Mago

Dreamcatcher (a very unique, metal-influenced sound. Amazing dancing. Probably supported by the most humane company in kpop right now.) -Scream -Over the Sky* -Black or White* -(optional listening) And There Was No One Left* (idk why but this one hits me. It’s so sparse and yet makes you feel so disconcerted.) -(optional listening) Silent Night* (if you like the musical aesthetics of the song “Everytime We Touch”) -(optional listening) Can’t Get You Out of My Mind* (if you liked Silent Night)

Twice (“The Nation’s Girl Group”) -Fancy (kind of the only song of theirs that I adore; ask me for more recs if you really like them.)

Ailee (known as the Beyonce of Korea) -I Will Show You (an unironic “yasss” song) -Heaven (gee, this song is sad but never lets up with the power vocals as well, which I think works better than a straight-up slow ballad)

Loona (I don’t really click with them, but a few songs have hit me first listen) -Voice* (it sounds like a beautiful, brisk skate across a mile-long lake) -New (by Yves – it’s super flowy) -ViViD (by Heejin – I love sassy swing tunes what can I say) -(optional listening) Heart Attack primarily for the music video

EXID (power vocals + brass + hip-hop? I don’t really get it tbh but good singing can sell me anything.) -Ah Yeah

After School (I don’t know this group but this song is a bop. Might be one of my top 20 favorites of all time and I only heard it yesterday.) -Bang!

Sunny Hill (very unique social commentary music) -Pray (warning: one of the most disturbing music videos I’ve ever seen, but definitely worth a watch if you have a strong stomach) -The Grasshopper Song (music video is nicer)

(now we move into territory with guys in it. I personally think male artists in Korea release fewer great songs than female artists, beccause the general trend is to be “dark” or “moody” compared to the more melodic trends in female groups. If you like strong choreography or braggadocio vibes, though, you’ll probably like them better.)

AKMU (singer-songwriter sibling pair and probably my favorite composers in Korea right now.) -Dinosaur -How People Move -(optional listening) Happening (somehow gives coffee shop music a driving rhythm) -(optional listening) Like Ga Na Da (this is a song about the alphabet. It is still insanely catchy.) -(optional listening) Melted (sad ballad)

TXT (this group has other songs, but I don’t like any of them nearly as much.) -Runaway (like the classic boy group sound set on fire. A really nice pre-chorus of all things. Love the guitar.)

Ateez (they might become the next BTS; not sure.) -Wonderland (like... pirate hip hop/rock. Watch with choreography.) -Wave (a surprisingly potent summer song) -(optional listening) Say My Name

Shinee (some of the most talented dudes in kpop) -Lucifer (probably the only kpop song to pull off a one-note chorus well. Sounds like it was produced by people who evolved in a different universe.) -View (super smooth, groovy deep house song.)

Oneus (their good stuff goes hard) -A Song Written Easily -Valkyrie

Stray Kids (don’t know the group; song is great) -Miroh

A.C.E. (one of the only kpop groups doing hardstyle and surprisingly enough, I like it.) -Goblin -Cactus

Seventeen (don’t really know the group; song is great) -Mansae

-1/6/21

#blog #non-sequitura-blog #list #1/6/21 #january 2021 #2021 #longform