#Honestly with them dipping into the timeline a few times is probably how they got Hisuian pokemon

[puppetmaster13u]

Been thinkin about Batman & Pokemon crossovers, so have a list-ish of what I think they'd have. Might do Gotham's rogues too later. First ones listed would probably be their starter of sorts, but honestly that can be up for debate too.

Bruce Wayne -Lets be honest as part of his Brucie cover he probably hides the fact he has a few of these lol [1] Absol (Everyone knows he has one & it probably wears a bow-tie to Galas) [2] Jigglypuff (Mostly for his Brucie cover but he loves the attention seeker) [3] Kangaskhan (C'mon mister adoption-issue definitely has one) [4] Noivern (Big dragon-bat for the Batman) [5] Drakloak (Another parenting pokemon, one had by both Bruce & the Bat) [6] Metagross (Very smart armored friend for the Bat) [7] Silvally (Let's be honest with all the labs in Gotham he probably found it) [8] Iron Valiant (Look at it and tell me its not here to steal ur gender) [9] Mareep (It's his therapy sheep that he can hug because fluff) [10] Hisuian Goodra (powerful shy friend for the socially awkward man)

Alfred Pennyworth [1] Dragapult (He deserves a ghostly dragon friend swarmed by lil dragons) [2] Gallade (We know he's good at hand-to-hand combat) [3] Cinccino (C'mon give him a helper in cleaning the manor) [4] Blissey (Let's be honest with how often the bats are hurt he needs help) [5] Solgaleo (If anyone deserves a big intimidating sun lion it's Alfred) [6] Dachsbun (I mean just look at it, he deserves a bread dog as the cook) [7] Drampa (Grandpa dragon, enough said for the grandpa of the batclan) [8] Sylveon (Another healer helper who probably was part of the service) [9] Flabebe (Let's be honest this buddy helps with the garden)

Dick Grayson [1] Staraptor (I mean speedy dark bird friend who starts small & cuddly looking) [2] Lucario (Honestly they probably spar spikes vs escrima sticks lol) [3] Growlithe (Mans worked as a police officer, every one of them has one) [4] Salamence (If you read the lines pokedex you know exactly why this fits) [5] Joltik (A secret tiny electric friend to sit on his shoulder or head)

Barbara Gordon [1] Emolga (C'mon energetic gliding bat friend is totally Batgirl) [2] Herdier (Probably a gift from her dad as a puppy who she raised) [3] Swoobat (Another bat bud to help her in fighting) [4] Deoxys (Who would want to mess with Oracle with a 'mon like this lol) [5] Porygon-2 (Oracle is everywhere & this lil data bird is too)

Jason Todd [1] Talonflame (Speedy red bird who starts tiny & gets huge) [2] Chandelure (I mean ghost friend for the undead boi?) [3] Steelix (Let him pain its head red for vigilante/crime lord work) [4] Corviknight (Let's be honest he got this one while in the League) [5] Decidueye (There's not exactly pokemon with a gun but there's this) [6] Roaring Moon (I mean this looks constantly ready to maul you lol)

Cassandra Cain [1] Weavile (Look at it & look at her backstory, her dad definitely gave her it) [2] Marshadow (I mean it's the pokemon who copies others via shadows) [3] Crobat (Bruce: I don't have favorites; Also Bruce: Gives her one of his bats) [4] Sensu Oricorio (They can dance together for funsies) [5] Kecleon (She's very stealthy & can disappear with a friend)

Harper Row [1] Midnight Lycanroc (She was very angry in the beginning so have friend) [2] Cloyster (This one is straight up from vibes lol) [3] Nidoqueen (Big armored friend for vigilante work & hugs) [4] Shiny Venomoth (A friend to help keep watch over her brother) [5] Pidgeot (Dye the head feathers blue for Bluebird work) [6] Tinktatuff (Tinkering buddies who can build cannons together)

Stephanie Brown [1] Marshadow (She found it on the streets while trying to take out her dad) [2] Gabite (Look at that face & tell me they wouldn't do mischief together) [3] Scrafty (Street kid w/ her equally scrappy pal do battle togethre) [4] Fearow (She'll steal whatever pokemon she likes from Bruce thx) [5] Paldean Wooper (Dead Robin club has a new death-themed member)

Terry McGinnis [1] Zorua (He definitely needs a fluffy friend to hold as a child) [2] Mimikyu (Living shadow pal in matching disguises) [3] Flygon (He got it as a trapinch below their floorboards) [4] Zekrom (This was probably hidden in the Batcave or deeper in the caves) [5] Iron Jugulis (This is definitely the sort of thing that'd be in Neo-Gotham) [6] Iron Treads (Look at it & look at Terry's batsuit, they can match together)

Tim Drake [1] Dragonair (Gifted by his bio-parents because appearances) [2] Milotic (Also given by the Drakes before they left again) [3] Duraludon (Mister CEO deserves a skyscraper dragon for intimidation) [4] Noctowl (Night owl to go vigilantying with him & tries to get him to sleep) [5] Iron Jugulis (Honestly he probably built it, let's be honest)

Duke Thomas [1] Kilowattrel (Glowy bird friend? Glowy bird friend.) [2] Murkrow (Shadowy bird friend? Shadowy bird friend.) [3] Watchog (A friend who goes on patrol & shines like he does) [4] Umbreon (He deserves a dog-cat to help with the trauma) [5] Dedenne (Another squishy friend who helps comfort him) [6] Chi-Yu (Look at this lil fire goldfish, he deserves a fire goldfish)

Cullen Row [1] Cubone (I mean just read the pokedex entry, enough said) [2] Pikachu (I just like to think he carries it around like a big cat) [3] Sobble (Sad friend bois who can both grow together) [4] Eevee (Fluffy fox-dog he plays fetch with as he deserves) [5] Flamigo (It just sort of followed him home & is overprotective now)

Damian Al Ghul [1] Gliscor (Poisonous scorpion bat friend given by his mom probably) [2] Skarmory (Blade bird also trained to be an assassin of sorts) [3] Pawniard (Another blade friend but also a pawn like he was to Ras) [4] Aegislash (A literal blade friend who he can use as a sword) [5] Ceruledge (Ghost knight buddy for the son of the dark knight) [6] Paldean Tauros (BatcowBatcowBatcowBatcowBatcow) [7] Spearow (Angry baby bird to go with an angry baby vigilante) [8] Arcanine (TitusTitusTitusTitus) [9] Poochyena (Tiny puppy that Titus brought back during fetch) [10] Dreepy (Gift from Bruce who got his own dreepy from Alfred as a kid) [11] Ralts (Emotion sensing friend to help him understand social rules) [12] Eternatus (Ever see Goliath, Damian's demon dragon-bat? This. This.)

Mathew McGinnis [1] Murkrow (They're probably everywhere in Neo-Gotham) [2] Iron Moth () [3] Orange Minior () [4] Galarian Farfetch'd () [5] Pupitar ()

Jarro the Starro [1] Starmie (Starfish friends, it likes to hold him on top of its head) [2] Ditto (tiny squishy vigilante pals who are the same size as a batarang) [3] Orthworm (The biggest friend he can ride on the head of) [4] Wishiwashi (Big swarm of friends who can get big like the Starros) [5] Espeon (Psychic cat friend befriends psychic starfish) [6] Tangela (I just think the vibes would fit)

#Let's be honest with the big yard & forest area his property is probably full of half-wild pokemon like some sort of nature reserve lol #Honestly with them dipping into the timeline a few times is probably how they got Hisuian pokemon #Plus Terry + Mathew is from another timeline way in the future so that's probably how they got things like the future paradox pokemon #And we know there's things like islands with dinosaurs in the DC universe so that's probably how they got things like the past paradox ones #pokemon #dcu #batman au #pokemon au #dc x pokemon #Remind me to reblog with pictures of the pokemon later #bruce wayne #batfam #alfred pennyworth #batman #jason todd #cassandra cain #dick grayson #barbara gordon #harper row #cullen row #duke thomas #damian al ghul #stephanie brown #tim drake #terry mcginnis #mathew mcginnis #jarro the starro #jarro #I definitely missed some people lol

[dickwheelie]

this is a few days late but it’s still technically Hanukkah, so! here’s a fic about Jon and Martin celebrating Hanukkah in the safehouse (shhh timelines aren’t real) because I like to project and I really like the idea of Jon being Jewish. a lot of us are having weird holidays this year, away from friends and family, so the boys having a weird one too seemed appropriate. in particular, Jon not having a menorah because I don’t have one this year either :(

the stuff in this is based on my own experiences celebrating Hanukkah growing up in a pretty secular household, so if you see anything that’s “wrong” then that’s why, lol. the prayer is accurate as far as I know though, it’s the same one my family and I sing every year.

(also this is not a good representation of how to make rugelach! if you really want a good recipe, hmu and if you ask nicely I might share my mother’s 😁)

enjoy and Happy Hanukkah!! 💙🕎✡️💙

___________

“I just feel bad,” Martin said, watching from the sofa as Jon put the challah in the oven. “You’re doing all this cooking, and I’m just sitting on the couch like a lump. And this is supposed to be your holiday.”

“Martin, for the tenth time, it’s fine. Besides, the holiday doesn’t actually start until sundown,” Jon called, cheerfully enough, from the kitchen. Jon liked cooking, Martin knew, and he didn’t really see it as a chore in the same way Martin did. Still, this was a special day for Jon (well, eight days, really), and Martin wanted to be of some use. He’d offered to do everything from peeling potatoes to rolling matzoh balls, but Jon, ever the control freak in the kitchen, had stopped him at every turn. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty about not helping out as Jon bustled about, trying to make Hanukkah dinner for the both of them.

More than helping out, really, Martin just kind of . . . wanted to share this with Jon. The way Jon talked about it, it sounded as though he’d had more Hanukkahs alone than with friends or what little family he had. Martin wanted to make Jon feel like he didn’t have to be alone this year, and even if Martin was new to this, he was game to learn. Jon had already told him about the holiday and all the different foods he was making, but there was still some distance there, a disconnect, that Martin knew Jon wasn’t putting between them on purpose. It seemed to Martin more like a force of habit than anything else.

After setting the timer for the challah, Jon nodded, satisfied, and came over to join Martin on the couch. He slouched against him comfortably, and Martin automatically put an arm around his shoulders. Jon had a bit of flour on his nose, and Martin gently swiped it off, which made Jon’s face wrinkle up like a disgruntled cat. Bloody adorable, Martin thought.

“I get a bit of a break before I have to start on the latkes in a few hours,” Jon said. “Got to make those right before dinner so they’re fresh.”

“Can I please help with those?” Martin said, half-joking.

“Fine,” Jon laughed, “yes, Martin, you can help with the latkes.”

“You won’t regret it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Is there dessert?” Martin asked, offhandedly. He hadn’t noticed Jon getting out any sugar or making anything sweet that day. “Do people eat anything sweet on Hanukkah?”

“Well, there’s gelt,” Jon says. “Chocolate coins. But the grocer’s didn’t have any. Unsurprisingly.”

Martin laughed. “Yeah. Probably not a huge priority in the Highlands.”

“People also make rugelach, sometimes.”

“Arugula?”

Jon laughed, not unkindly. “Rugelach. Different from the vegetable. Very different,” he said. “It’s a pastry. A kind of holiday cookie, I guess you could call it. Sweet dough with chocolate or cinnamon inside. It’s simple to make, but I didn’t buy the right stuff for it, and honestly I have enough cooking to do.”

“Yeah? How d’you make it?” Martin asked, innocently enough, though an idea was brewing.

As Jon explained, he waved his hands in the air, miming the process. “You just roll out some pastry dough, cover it with chocolate or cinnamon or walnuts or whatever you like, cut it into strips, and roll them up.” He thought for a moment. “They look a bit like seashells.”

“Huh,” Martin said. “Seems easy enough.” He’d never made dough before, but how hard could it be, really. The hardest part, he figured, would be actually making the things in their tiny cabin and even tinier kitchen without Jon finding out.

Soon after that, the oven timer started beeping, announcing that the bread was done. Martin took advantage of Jon busying himself in the kitchen to slip out the door, giving him some offhand excuse about wanting to get some air, to which Jon waved him off.

In the baking aisle at the grocer’s, Martin quickly realized he was out of his depth. He stared at the display of flour and sugar and baking powder and all sorts of other stuff, utterly at a loss as to what one needed to make pastry dough. He tried, once again, to Google a recipe on his phone, but once again, there was no service and no wifi.

Well, there was always pre-made, frozen dough. Not ideal, but it’d probably work in a pinch. Much faster to make, too, Martin thought as he dropped a couple cans of it into his basket. The filling, at least, he knew he’d be able to handle; he grabbed a few bags of baking chocolate and a shaker of cinnamon, and brought everything up to the checkout counter.

Martin didn’t even know which lucky stars to thank when he arrived back at the cabin to find the kitchen empty, and Jon passed out on the bed in a post-challah, pre-latke cooking nap. Martin gently closed the bedroom door and immediately set to baking.

Going by Jon’s vague descriptions, he rolled out some of the dough into a flat oval shape, but the pre-made kind wasn’t meant to be used all at once, and the end result was a sort of lumpy mass. Digging around in the cupboards, he was able to find some flour, which helped make the dough less sticky, at least. Eventually, he was able to get it flat enough to cover it with the filling, like Jon had told him. Half of the dough he covered in cinnamon, liberally shaking it out all over the dough. The other half he covered with the baking chocolate, which came in little chunks, but he figured it would melt in the oven just fine.

Next, just as Jon had described, he cut the dough into even strips, thin and rectangular, and rolled each of them up, so the filling made a little spiral shape inside. The chocolate ones were a bit chunky and awkward-looking, but, well, it was the taste that counted, wasn’t it.

Martin turned to face the oven, realizing he had no idea how long they ought to bake for, or at what temperature. He checked the instructions on the tins of pre-made dough, deciding to go by whatever they suggested. It wouldn’t do for the dough to be raw, he figured.

Soon enough, the pastries were in the oven, and Jon was still dead to the world, none the wiser. Martin felt quite satisfied as he cleaned up, mentally patting himself on the back for a job well- and stealthily-done. He’d hide them in the oven, he decided, until after dinner, and then he’d surprise Jon. Smiling, he went to join Jon in bed, curling up next to him as he slept, until he fell asleep himself.

Martin woke groggily several hours later to Jon gently shaking him awake, telling him it was time to make the latkes. He’d already got the batter done, a thick, floury mixture of potato and onion, and a pan of oil was bubbling on the stove. Jon showed Martin how to drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan, patting them down to shape them into little fist-sized “pancakes.” He let both sides brown in the oil until they were nice and crispy, before transferring them onto a paper towel-covered plate to cool. It was simple enough, and Martin was able to finish up the batch as Jon set the table, bringing out the challah and matzoh ball soup he’d made, as well as sour cream and apple sauce to dip the latkes in.

Once the latkes were done (and Martin was quite proud to say they’d come out very nicely), Jon retrieved some red wine he’d gotten in the village and poured them both a glass. Then, as Martin was getting ready to sit down, Jon glanced around sheepishly, gesturing at an empty space on the kitchen counter.

“I, ah, normally I’d have a menorah to light. But obviously I didn’t bring one when we came up. And out here, well, it’s the same as with the gelt. No real place to buy one.”

“Oh,” Martin said, heart sinking. He reached out to squeeze Jon’s hand. “That’s a shame. I’m really sorry.”

“Really, I just wish I could show you,” Jon said, shaking his head as he took his seat at the table. “It’s really lovely. You light a new candle every night, and when they’re all lit . . . I’m sure it’d look nice here, especially.” He gestured at the space in front of the darkened kitchen window.

“Yeah,” Martin agreed, wistfully. He’d seen photos of menorahs before, and he could just picture it, he and Jon gathered around, lighting candle after candle as the eight nights passed.

“Well,” Jon said, turning back to face Martin at the table, “we may not have a menorah, but I can still do the blessing.”

“Blessing?”

“Yes. You’re supposed to do it while lighting the menorah, but, well. I’m sure this will do, given the circumstances.” Jon reached his hand across the table, and Martin took it.

“Alright.” Jon cleared his throat, almost self-consciously, and then began to sing in Hebrew, a melodic, practical tune that sounded comfortable and familiar on his tongue, like a well-worn shawl. “Barukh ata Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivanu, l’hadlik ner, shel Hanukkah.”

Martin couldn’t really sing along to the words, but he nodded along to the melody, and when Jon was done he looked up at him and smiled, and Martin beamed back. They both raised their glasses and drank.

They ate heartily, or at least Martin did, because Jon kept shoving second and third bowls of soup at him, and insisting he finish off the latkes. Not that Martin was complaining, of course; it was all delicious, and Jon did praise him for how nice the latkes had come out.

They left the dirty dishes for later (or, knowing the two of them, tomorrow morning), and after dinner they went straight for presents. Though his options were limited without online shopping or anything outside of the tiny village, Martin had managed to find an adorable little painted china Highland cow in a local antiques shop.

“I know you think they’re cute,” Martin said as Jon lifted it out of the box.

“How did you know,” Jon deadpanned, but he grinned as he brought it up to his nose and stared at its little painted snout. “I love it, Martin, thank you.”

Jon had gone the homemade route, and knitted Martin a scarf. And a pair of mittens. And an entire bloody sweater.

“Oh my god, Jon,” Martin said, staring in disbelief at the mounds of knitwear before him. “How did you find time to do all this? How did you find time to do all this without me knowing?”

Jon looked away sheepishly. “I, uh, I’m a fast knitter.”

Martin shook his head fondly. Unbelievable. But he immediately took off the sweater he’d been wearing and pulled on the one Jon had made. It fit rather well and was as cozy as it looked. “Thank you, Jon,” he said, feeling the sleeves, knowing that every loop and stitch of the fabric had been purposeful. He could practically feel the care and love Jon had put into each one of them. “I love it,” he said, leaning over to kiss Jon at the corner of his eye.

“Well,” Jon said, cheeks darkening, “Happy Holidays, then.”

“Oh,” Martin said, rising from the sofa, “I’ve actually got one more thing. Sort of a last-minute gift.”

“Hm?”

Martin went over to the oven and took out the trays of rugelach. He’d checked them earlier to see if they were cooked through, but hadn’t gotten the chance to taste one yet. “Tried my hand at a bit of dessert,” he said, selecting a couple nice-looking ones and putting them on a plate for Jon to try.

Jon had followed Martin into the kitchen, and was staring at the pastries lined up on the trays. “Oh, well, thank you,” he said, surprised, taking the plate Martin handed to him. “What are they?”

Martin cocked his head at him. “Rugelach,” he said. Wasn’t it obvious?

Jon’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Ah,” he said, voice strained with positivity. “Of course. Right.”

Martin was starting to get a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Gingerly, Jon took one of the rolled-up pastries, and bit into it.

Martin tried one as well. It was one of the chocolate ones, and it was . . . crunchy. Very crunchy. The chocolate, it seemed, had only partially melted in the oven, and the pastry dough itself was a bit hard to bite through. Besides that, it wasn’t very sweet, the chocolate being too dark and the dough being too salty.

He tried a cinnamon one. Again, the dough was crunchy, and the cinnamon was overpowering without any sweetness to it. Martin considered the possibility that perhaps he ought to have added sugar.

Jon, for his part, was doing his best impression of a person who was very much enjoying the pastry they were eating, honest. “Mmm,” he said, demonstratively, as he swallowed one of the cinnamon ones. “Thank you, Martin, these are . . . delicious.”

Jon was actually reaching for seconds, which Martin knew he was only doing to make him feel better, so he reached out a hand and placed it on Jon’s, stopping him short.

Jon looked up at him. Martin shook his head wordlessly. Jon cracked a smile.

“They’re not good,” Martin said, putting them back on the trays one by one.

“Martin--”

“It’s okay,” Martin said, smiling back at him, “I know. They’re rubbish. I didn’t even use a recipe, of course they were gonna turn out--”

“Well,” Jon said, stubbornly, “you tried. It’s the thought that counts. Thank you, Martin, really,” Jon said, bringing up Martin’s hand to kiss the back of it. “It was very sweet of you to put all this effort into it.”

“Next time, I’ll look up a recipe,” Martin said, bringing one of the trays over to the kitchen bin. Jon was quick to assist him.

“There’s seven nights of Hanukkah left,” Jon said, after a moment’s thought. “We can always try again. Tomorrow, we’ll get more ingredients, and I’ll show you how to do it properly. It really is easy, you just need . . . well. Sugar, for one.”

Martin laughed as he tossed the last of the batch away. “Okay. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

“I mean it, though,” Jon said, looking at him fondly. “Thank you. For this, and for the cow, and for sharing the holiday with me. It’s . . . this has been really . . .”

Jon was gesturing in the empty air, struggling for the proper word, but Martin understood well enough. “Yeah,” he said. “And thank you, for sharing it with me.” He pressed a kiss to Jon’s cheek.

“Happy Hanukkah, Jon.”

#tma #the magnus archives #jonmartin #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #gwyneth writes #oh shit this is long #it's 2.4k #btw not pictured in their spread is gefilte fish which is a staple in my holiday dinners #but again idk if you could find it in the scottish highlands lmao #not a ton of jews out there i imagine #anyway happy hanukkah yall i love you

[wickedpact]

A ranking of all the TTT stories in order of how much I liked them.

(Oh god this is so long)

1 My Mother's Axe

BABY ANDYYYYYYYYYYYY. Honestly this one had the trifecta of developing a character's motivations, developing a character's backstory, & developing their personality. The story starting out with Andy teaching Nile to use the axe was so charming and fun, and you could feel that chemistry they had in Opening Fire, the way they teased and bickered with each other so naturally. I loved the wedge between them on the subject of the axe, how Nile was perhaps a little too young to understand Andy's feelings about whether or not its the 'same' axe. I also love how the axe is obviously the symbol of the franchise and hugely important, but you never get a sense of exactly how important it is to Andy until you read the story.

I love the entire Ship of Theseus theme, and how it feels so natural that for Andy she has to get attached to the idea of things rather than the things themselves because she'll always outlive the things themselves-- the axe is symbolically her mom's axe, even if physically it isn't. And I love how she clearly clings to that concept so tightly. "This is the labrys she held in her hands...." IT GETS ME.

And the fact that this sense of BELONGING, of FAMILY, of CULTURE is so important to Andy that she clings to it (figuratively and literally) with both hands. And of course it's important to her, she spent so long alone that the woman doesn't even remember her birth name. That axe (or the idea of that axe) is all she has left of her mother and that family/culture she was born into.

PLUS on that note I love how Andy doesn't remember if her mom was her actual biological mother, but it doesn't matter to her. This woman was her mother in all the ways that counted. And how her mom BETRAYED AND KILLED Andy but Andy loved her so much that she avenged her and carried her axe for thousands of years. THOUSANDS OF YEARS!!!!!!

I also loved how the story transcends the timeline of the whole franchise and seeing Andy through the years. Loved seeing her with the varying squads and with varying axes. Also baby Andy was so cute. It was cool seeing her so young. like holy fuck. Andromache The Scythian, Immortal Warrior (but smol). Love that.

Also I think this one is one of the few ttt stories that doesn't suffer from length problems.

tldr: goddammit greg you've done it again.

2 Zanzibar and Other Harbors

Zanzibar my beloved. I've said before, but it's downright comedic how little regard there was for Joe and Nicky's character designs in this story. The same person who does the colors for the regular comic did the colors for this one too, and you can tell, every panel of this story was Beautiful.

Ik there was A Lot of criticism of this one (lmao @ how the fandom had no idea what was to come) but I thought a lot of The Discourse was a bit dramatic. I did think Nicky came off as a little oblivious to Joe's feelings in this story, but I've said before, I honestly think that was a 'tone not translating' thing. It felt like Nicky was nagging Joe for [checks notes] saving innocent people, but Joe was so amused by Nicky's complaints I really do think it was supposed to come off as teasing.

Plus I know the 'Joe running off into danger and Nicky reluctantly following' dynamic wasn't popular (I'm a pretty meh on it meself) but I did love how Joe's impulsiveness (if you want to call it that) was interpreted as heroism and not hot-hotheadedness. All of the examples Nicky and Joe talked about included Joe explicitly saving people. (and it also took A Lot for the nazi to actually provoke Joe).

I also feel like their characterization here was closest to the movie canon-- the bit where they hear the woman scream and Joe goes running in to save her while Nicky swoops in on Joe's heels to comfort her while Joe and the nazi were fighting reminds me of the train car scene. Joe had suggested First that they go find Nile because she needed to be protected, and Nicky later added that Nile probably also needed emotional support. Similar reactions.

But it was So Good, the themes of queer community and the enduring nature of queer culture are Not themes you see in media that often and it was such a delight how it was done. Also it's one of the few more modern TTT stories that has a completely valid excuse for taking place when it did. Chef's kiss.

3 Passchendaele

I love the Duality between seeing baby Andy and then seeing Mama Andy in the very next issue. This story doesn't have a ton of meat to it, but the entire concept of Andy adopting a war orphan straight off the battlefield PLUCKS MY TENDER LITTLE HEARTSTRINGS, and I think it's especially poignant for comic!Andy. I think most people wouldn't think twice about movie!Andy doing something like that but comic Andy is so hardened and almost cruel sometimes, and seeing that even for her the world hasn't beaten all of the compassion from her yet is SO!!!!!!! this woman contains MULTITUDES okay, she's violent and angry and tired and Done but she's also so kind and compassionate and THE STRENGTH OF HER!!!!! Also the idea of her and Yitzhak co-raising a kid together is so damn cute. It was #mysterious pre-Yitzhak-story but now it's cute. holy fuck. It's cute.

& the headbonk panel of her and Zeus lives in my heart. anyways.

4 Many Happy Returns

I Know people weren't thrilled about Booker being in this one, but I've developed a pet-peeve about that: this story was *not* booker-centric. Booker only exists in this story to the extent required to explain the importance of the gesture Nile makes towards him. If there was a story about Booker making some grand gesture of kindness to Nile no one would be saying it was Nile-centric. bc it wouldn't be! Booker exists in this story to explore Nile's kindness, its not about him. I saw that a couple times and it bothered me. anyways.

AAAAAAAAAA I loved this one, the art was beautiful, I loved how Andy Nile and Booker were drawn (like their comic selves but.. more looking like actual people). I loved Andy and Nile's Bants, how Andy wanted to jump right in and Do Violence but Nile was basically telling her to hold her horses.

I feel like I'm just repeating the post I made on this story a few days ago, but I LOVED how Nile's plan revolves not around violence or Cool Mercenary Skills but on Nile's own life skills (as she canonly did a lot of minimum wage job-hopping before the marines in comics canon). Her plan used her skills, not the skills of an immortal warrior, and HER SKILLS were in fact more useful for the situation! lov to see Nile's resourcefulness and planning skills.

AND HOW NILE WAS PROBABLY WATCHING BOOKER??? it's so Much bc 1.) nile knew booker A SINGLE DAY and yet he made such an impression on her emotionally that she had to keep an eye on him and 2.) she said in the movie she wanted Booker to get off free with an apology. Yes she's a member of the team but that doesn't mean she's necessarily going to follow orders like a good little soldier. I also love how she convinced Andy to go along with it. her HEART, her KINDNESS, her THOUGHTFULNESS, UGH.

5 The Bear

Honestly I have like no negative things to say about this one other than a.) character design issues which is less about the story itself and is more of a 'tog comic in general' criticism and b.) too short, but it was supposed to be a tease, so.

But I loved Yitzhak, I wasn't expecting to really like him at all but like I said in my other post, he tickled me. I love characters who are Kind™, especially if they have little reason to be so given their backgrounds. Chef's kiss. Lov him.

6 Bonsai Shokunin

I know this one was a little controversial bc of the outsider POV but whenever I see people upset about that they never point out that the Outsider Guy (the samurai) existed as a reflection on Noriko. His ideas are explained in the text to develop hers. The whole story follows how she gave mercy to a scared young man and in response he murdered Noriko, repeatedly! Who gave him the right to inflict such pain and suffering on the world? In his opinion, the lack of response from the gods was his permission. And for Noriko-- over and over again she dies and suffers because she gave mercy, which lines up with her ideas in FM about how it's their fate to rule mortals and if they don't align with that plan/fate/whatever then they suffer. It shows some background to those ideas and how they developed in her mind outside of Ocean Madness™. Additionally, his idea of 'the Gods have done nothing to strike me down so it's fine if I do these things' kind of explains how Noriko may justify her own morally corrupt actions-- she's died so many times and it's never stuck. Maybe if she did die any of those times, or while she was in the water, maybe that would've been a sign she was doing something right, or at least doing something normal. But she hasn't died. Fate isn't done with Noriko yet. And maybe there's a reason for that. In her mind, it's just not a very pleasant reason, is all.

There were things I was kind of meh about tho. I did kind of wish we saw something of Noriko and the team, or smth explaining the way she was before her dip in the pool-- personality, likes dislikes, etc. but it wasn't bad or anything. It was super vague tho, I had to read it a few times before I got what it was going for. Liked the art. Liked the bonsai metaphor. And of course I Respect the decision to use the 1300s (1200s? I don't remember off the top of my head) rather than using the last 200 years.

7 Strong Medicine

Honestly looking back, this one made me kind of sad because both this one and Bonsai Shokunin explored character's ideas on Fate and The Divine and how that intersects with immortality and I totally thought that theme would be continued, especially with Love Letters. But Then It Wasn't™.

Admittedly.... I had to re-read this one to remember most of it. I liked Booker's ideas on God, 'The conductor of the symphony just may not be very good at his trade' but the plot itself was kind of forgettable. Some fuckin cowboys try to kill a doctor (their second) because he couldn't save their sickly brother. Book tries to stop them, gets killed, and then comes back and kills them all before they get the doctor. Alright. I liked the artstyle because the characters were ugly in a similar way that leandro's are, but way more bearable.

I love the Irony of Booker concluding that there is no such thing as fate or destiny and nothing has meaning, AS HE UNKNOWINGLY SAVES MERRICK'S GRANDFATHER FROM BEING KILLED. Booker getting fucked over by life/god/destiny yet again. It also kind of explains about where the fuck hell Merrick's interest in immortal mercenaries even came from.

I originally had this one a lot higher and then I thought about it and moved it down like two spots.

8 Never Gets Old

I liked seeing Booker interact with his kid. And we got a name for the kid! Philippe was a little bitch though, he was a little obnoxious. I liked how Booker was so thrilled to experience a restaurant with his kid (and since we know he was there before, it can be assumed he went with all of his kids and yet he was so charmed each time). It fits with his line to Nicky in the moon landing story about how you don't appreciate beautiful things 'unless you have someone to share them with'. It was charming to see Booker interact with his kid, and to see him so happy. Also lmao @ Booker's big fat Ye Olde Crush on Andy.

However at the same time it was like.. of all the things to write about,,, I guess? Booker's Night Out...... alright. Especially since Book had so many stories.

I don't know, it was alright. The old man killing him really came out of nowhere, (but the 'Salut, asshole!' panel was funny tho).

9 How To Make a Ghost Town

I've hit a point where talking about these stories has gotten less fun. I liked this one but I felt like Achilles getting lynched was not really necessary for a story that was already tragic (a story that already involved Achilles doing a lot of suffering at the hand of bigots). When we first got the blurb for this story I thought it would be about Andy returning to the squad and making friends with Booker after losing Achilles and them butting heads on the idea of family and when to cut off ties. So a little bit of my underwhelmedness about this one might be just my expectations being different.

Honestly I was pretty interested in Andy and Achilles' relationship and I would've liked to see more of them-- like, what was their dynamic like? What did they love about each other?

But anyways Andy leaving and Achilles getting killed anyways feels so pointlessly tragic (which I suppose is the point..... I don't like tragedies) she left to save him and yet people killed him anyway. Meh.

I did love the bits about Andy wanting to have a domestic life (Andy and her multitudes again) and the little detail about how she buried her axe near the road but he buried his guns under his bed-- he was an escaped slave, he never had the luxury of assuredness like Andy did. It was a sad story.

10 Lacus Solitudinis

'You put this one above love letters crim??? how could you???' easy, lmao.

There was stuff in this one I liked. But to talk about stuff I didn't like: (I'll keep it brief, I know ragging on this story has been done time and time again)

UH, setting aside the 6 year cold shoulder between Joe and Nicky, I thought their chosen method of conflict resolution was... bad at best. Nicky's inability to talk about his feelings was also annoying, especially since the entire point of this story is a fight Joe and Nicky had, and yet we don't get both sides to the story, which is...... important? That fact is especially annoying bc in the absence of Nicky explaining his side of the story, it's absolutely a possible (and admittedly probably unintentional) interpretation of the text that we do get that Joe routinely resolves conflict between him and Nicky by simply cutting Nicky out of his life entirely until Nicky just. caves? Even if it takes years?

WHICH i could get into that interpretation and how fucked up i find it. but im not going to. out of restraint.

I don't know, I think there are a lot of interesting ways to go about this conflict but 'Nicky wants to kill a guy and Joe refuses to acknowledge his existence until he stops because he thinks Nicky is too much of a Good Boy to get his hands dirty like that' ('I wont watch as the world turns his (...) compassion into something ugly'. ) wasn't.. how I would've done it. (I mean you know Joe doesn't give a shit about what Nicky is doing in a moral way, because Joe doesn't even care or mention that Booker is killing those cops too. Joe only cares because he doesn't like the idea of Nicky changing in a way he finds undesirable.)

admittedly I've said before, I do like the emphasis Joe's reaction puts on Nicky's kindness. Joe has a complete inability to cope with Nicky simply Not Being Kind. It speaks to the steadiness of Nicky's compassion all those years. but still that fact doesn't make it the conflict feel worth it

hm. I said I would be brief and I wasn't.

oh well. basically I thought there was interesting conflict potential there but it wasn't done the way I would've liked, and the way it was done leaves a lot of disturbing (and again probably unintended) interpretations to lie.

What I did like? Andy and Joe having that pessimist/optimist dynamic. Joe nerding out about science. Andy not being impressed by The Achievements Of Man. I loved Booker needling at Nicky about his outdated slang and also trying to give him Older Brother advice practically in the same breath. I loved Booker giving The Worst relationship advice ever and Nicky being like 'I Will Not Do That, Ever, Thanks.' the family vibes were so good. The Joenicky vibes left a lot to be desired tho.

11 Love Letters

I talked about my problems with Nicky in this story (and Lacus Solitudinis). I don't know, the story isn't bad but I do hold a little bit of a grudge towards it because its very existence begs the existence of a solo Joe story and we didn't get one. If we never got this story, then we could happily count Lacus Solitudinis and Zanzibar as The Joenicky Stories™ and move on with our lives. sigh.

I remember when we first got the blurb for this story I was really curious about why Nicky specifically + the setting, and the answer kind of feels like 'the author had an idea for a story like this and saw ttt as a good enough place to utilize that idea'. Plus I was really underwhelmed by the Romantic Sentiment in the letter. If you look at it line-by-line, the majority of the letter is actually Nicky talking about how lonely and disturbed he is, rather than actual,, yknow,,, Romantic Sentiment. I mean, compare the van speech and this letter and this letter is just kind of meh in comparison. I liked nicky calling joe wise! and I liked the brief sun/moon metaphor! and otherwise it was eh. It didn't even have cute squad banter, which is why Lacus Solitudinis is above this one.

12 An Old Soul

Nun orgy. Nun orgy?????? Nun orgy.......

The whole story felt like a setup to have a nun orgy. Why did Booker have abs? Why did they do that to Andy's nose? ?????? the art was good at least.

nun orgy.

#tales through time spoilers #obviously #long post #seriously dont open that read more unless youre committed to scrolling past all these Words

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Marvel’s What If Episode 7 Reaction

No no this is the opposite of what I wanted. More Loki! Not less!

If they don’t have Thor being an absolute idiot without Loki being his voice of reason I’m gonna be upset

Wait what the hell I saw Seth Green in the opening credits lmao??? Now I’m just thinking about Chris Griffin

DARCY

Wow they got Jane back too

Soooo how do they know about aliens?

“HOLY MOLY” lmao

Hey thor my life isn’t that dull… okay fine that’s a lie

Sooo Thor is a frat boy?

YOOOO I NEED A SCREENSHOT OF THAT ART WITH THOR AND LOKI

ALL OF IT

Soooo in this world, Odin was a good dude and didn’t kidnap Loki and gave him back to Laufey? (Didnt Laufey abandon him tho since he was too small? I guess in this universe they simply… lost their prince? Lmao?)

Thor didn’t have Loki as his voice of reason I called it.

Night night Odin

Lmao Chad Frigga dipping Odin as soon as he’s asleep

I wonder if they got Idris Elba back for Heimdall?

“We are going to the most backward, backwater planet that not even Heimdall pays attention to.” D,: Thor why you gotta do me dirty like that???

Chris Hemsworth is definitely a better voice actor than some others

Oh yo it be Skurge

Darcy into probing huh?

(Romantic Music Playing) lmao

Man I love Darcy

Poor Howard the Duck lmao (oh yea that’s Seth green)

Skrulls huh

Honestly surprised Thor knows all of these planets. Including the grandmaster??? In the sacred timeline he didn’t even know Sakaar existed.

Wait so, are the Asgardians on good terms with Jotunheim then? If so, I wanna see party loki. Or maybe he’s too reserved for that. I wonder how Laufey raised him? IF WE DONT SEE JOTUN LOKI IM GONNA RIOT

Thor destroyed a star. That sounds about right

“Now that was an excellent party. You know, we lost Fandral for three days. Found him in a barn, curled up next to a baby goat. It was classic. Isn’t that right, Fandral?” “I NAMED HIM GARY!” “Yeah, you did.” “YEA GOATS!” Okay. Screw everyone else in the MCU. I love Fandral now. He’s the GOAT, pun intended

Oh not a star, he killed a whole planet.

I thought Asgardians were supposed to be more advanced than earth but making a tablet is so complicated?

Howard and Darcy was not a pair I thought expected

Yo it’s nebula and korg? So where’s Thanos? How is nebula allowed to go partying with Thanos looking for the infinity stones?

Drax too? Isn’t he in prison? And then Valkyrie? Seems like a lot more than just Thor being an only child is different in this universe. Most of these dudes should hypothetically be in prison or on super serious missions. And I just thought, isn’t Howard the duck imprisoned by the Collector? What’s the timeline for this?

DARCY MARRIES HOWARD THE DUCK? GIRL YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN HIM AND HIS CORKSCREW WANG!

Aaaaaand Jane and Thor got magic and science tattoos. Mighty fast character progression.

Oh? Hookups? That took a turn.

Awwwww Fandral snuggling with a bunch of Chinchilla looking animals <3

Unknown caller?

Dammit Rumlow

Rocket???

Acting director??? What happened to Nick???

KORG NO

Damn everyone crashed at Jane’s

I mean, didn’t seem like too much of a threat

PHIL!!!

Lmao the world isn’t gonna be destroyed by parties?

Oh Carol Danvers?

Okay so…. Lemme get this straight..

Loki and an army of aliens attacking the world? Shield: “nah not a threat.” Robot with robot army threatening to destroy the whole planet “nah Carol has better things to do.” A partying dude from space with no ill intent but just doesn’t seem to understand consequences? “CALL CAPTAIN MARVEL WE NEED HER!!!” Yea okay Shield

Thor loves waffles

LOKI

JOTUN LOKI

HES HERE

LOKI!!!

HOLY CRAP HES HUGE

HE HAS ICE HORNS

See everything would be better without Odin’s interference.

(That’s what she said)

YAY THEYRE FRIENDS

“You’re my brother form another mother man.” YOOOOOO

Loki just sang “Brothers foreveeeeerrrrr!” I can’t—

Aaaaaand fart jokes… “did you boom?” “I never boom. I only boom in private.” Dammit marvel I hoped you were better than this.

LOKI MAKE A WISH

White snake? Lmao where did she get that name lol.

What’s wrong with a party tho? Is this really top priority? Yea they destroyed another planet, but you never explained how

Why doesn’t she sound like Brie Larson? She’s still acting for Marvel Studios so it’s interesting they couldn’t get her for it… unless it is her and I just can’t remember how her voice sounds

Was that punch really necessary? Dude wasn’t posing a threat to anyone.

“You know, there’s a Midgardian word for women like you.” THOR NO—

“PARTY POOPER!” Oh thank God

“This ones for fury” but it wasn’t even Thor that hit him? It was korg and on accident! Cmon carol, I had hoped you’d be smarter than this and more reasonable. Not resorting to violence when nothing has even escalated…

Haha hammer to the face

And the back of the head lmao

BAHAHAHAHA HE JUST SMACKED HER INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY

THOR DONT BOOP STONEHENGE

Dammit Thor

Lmao I love that the countries have their names on them.

Okay just stay and fight here away from civilian population

Marvel really giving us what we want with the most powerful characters fighting

Mary Sue Captain Marvel

Her lipstick has stayed perfect somehow

Fighting in a storm eh? Can’t see how this could go wrong

Haha hammer timeout

Lmao I wanna see Frigga put Thor in a timeout

They’re chanting pooper at her. Is this elementary school again?

Bruh I just realized, Thor is supposed to be acting king while Odin is in Odin sleep lmao. I bet Asgard is going to either be in the best peace ever without Thor or utterly destroyed.

Leave south and north Dakota alone lol

Lmao I love Darcy

YAY GARY THE GOAT WAS SAFE

Wow Jane used the L word fast

Kicking Jane out of the helicarrier? Yea smart move kicking off the person who actually knows anything about this albeit she is a little blinded by love

Giant Loki holding a tiny phone

BAHAHAAHAHA “hey earth girl, you haven’t got a friend, have you!” YES LOKI ITS ME. MARRY ME

Stop throwing phones lmao

BRUH HOW IS SURTUR NOT EVIL EITHER? AND STOP FLIRTING WITH THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

NO HE DESTROYED HER ARM LMAO

There goes the power grid

NOT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Lmao there he goes

WHY DID KORG HAVE A PACIFIER IN HIS MOUTH

Bout time Heimdall popped in

Aaaaaand Jane got abducted by heimdall

Seeing as Heimdall hasn’t said anything, I’m assuming they didn’t get Idris back lol.

How is shield so chill on murdering Thor? Yes he’s destructive but they’re resorting to killing him so fast instead of talking to him! No one has even told him he’s putting the planet at risk! Dudes too dumb to know on his own!

JANE STOP DRINKING

Damn Maria Hill I had higher hopes for you

Lying Thor

Okay so shield trusts Frigga to help, but still irks me that shield was so trigger/nuke happy… seems the opposite of what we’ve seen of them (ugh just gotta ignore it and chock it up to this being an alternate reality)

Ew Drax

Loki calling the other jotuns “ice bros” lmao

It’s also mantis and Yondu!!

wait how did grandmaster just teleport away like the bifrost?

Nice going thor. You big hunky dummy

“MY MOTHER IS COMING.” Good lord is this high school now lmao???

How do they all know Frigga and why are they all afraid?

Damn the bifrost takes a lot longer than I would have expected

No no Thor the tower of pisa is meant to be tilted—oh whatever

Wait, but I don’t see loki helping, is he gonna be up to something last minute to ruin Thor’s cover up lmao?

I don’t believe Frigga would be tricked this easily lmao

Thor you are such a bad liar

Lmao here comes carol

Hahaha how did mjolnir get so trashed

Wow thor is so much taller than Jane

Wow this Jane and Thor seem to have more chemistry than the sacred timeline version ever did

Wait I want resolve for Loki!!

Uh oh

WHAT

ULTRON VISION WITH THE INFINITY STONES?? HOW

No resolution for that??? Well then. Rip this universe too lmao

Damn I wanted more Loki

There better be a Loki centric episode sometime. If they didn’t it’d a huge missed opportunity from marvel

Okay yea looking at the credits, Carol Danvers wasn’t played by Brie Larson but a lady named Alexandra Daniels. Odd they didn’t get Brie Larson.

Probably my favorite episode so far even with how absurd it was. A lot more upbeat than the past few ones with a better resolve to the story imo.

Also, if anyone can provide me of screenshots of Loki from this episode I would be very grateful

#marvel #marvel studios #marvel cinematic universe #marvel what if…? #marvel what if #what if #what if…? #Thor #thor odinson #Frigga #Loki #loki laufeyson #marvel Thor #marvel Loki #captain marvel #carol danvers

[nny11writes]

what stories are you working on right now?

Sorry Anon, I was off Tumblr for a hot minute there!

For the most part I'm jumping between so many stories it's not even funny anymore and writing a little here and editing a little there, without any clear main story in the lead.

Like, honestly? What am I NOT working on these days? (road trip AU, not approved by the RMCSA, LTTA Short Stories, the sequel to The Apprenticeship, Legacy, Violence is the Question: Yes is the Answer, Hawkdora Fake Dating AU- this was a bad hypothetical question, such a bad hypothetical question!)

Things I am technically working on right now below the cut because good fricking god wtf there's a lot????? And I don't know why I'm surprised about this???????????????????????

How to Quit You is one I'm in and out of frequently right now (Glimmer is pitching a fit and I am struggling to keep expanding on all the things I didn't know we were going to show lol). Ch 20 is more than halfway there, and when it's done glitra will be back together and in the next chapter or two they'll be married and then they can live happily ever after and we are all dying because I can't move forward. Glimmer wants to take things slow and more realistically instead of dipping Catra in a kiss at sunset, and it's quickly becoming a me problem lol.

The Bloodborne AU is probably the next most frequent as I'm able to hop all over the timeline. It's somewhat stalled out as I had to completely re-write the outline and worldbuilding elements for the third time T-T Plus side, each time I am forced to do this the story is stronger! Down side is the whole Micah and Angella section is now showing it's weaknesses 0.0

It's All Fun and Games has paused spectacularly because the "Prank Chapter" accidentally went full angst instead of comedy crack and I don't want that gosh darn it that's the FUN fic and I will DIE ON THIS HILL!!!! And I don't have any prompts past the prank so I can't even skip ahead to get the funny ha ha's back (yes I am begging people to prompt me on that fic again).

Balance to the Force has been opened a lot, can't say I got much done after I went in a few weeks back and realized how big Catra's chapter is lol. Like, I ended up already writing twice as much as I thought I would then realized I really need to split it into the "more funny ha ha Inquisitorium" and the "Catra actually becomes a Sith apprentice and that is not fun nor funny". Plus I think I need to rework the story, I don't know if I want it to be catradora anymore and also I have a lot of big [SOMETHING SOMETHING PLOT AND NOW THEY'RE HERE] holes to fill.

I keep thinking of stuff for the Assassin Collection AU, but then when I open it up my mind goes completely blank and I just re-read what I already have and go, "Hell yeah I love this thing" then close the doc again. :)

In dead last is Colony and Princess & The Thief, both of which keep jumping me with feels and a desperate desire to read them. Not so much with writing but that deep longing for someone else to magically finish what I started :p

Beyond that I've had some very nice comment recently on Declarations and Close But No Cigar, which was lovely after a long stint of people who didn't like where I took the stories lol. So I've also had a lot of Ahsoka feels recently but each time I open Twice Bitten, Once Removed that whole world just spirals out in front of me and I feel a little of my soul leave my body before I close the doc again. It's a weird the motivation is there but the drive is not situation.

And then all the random new idea WiPs keep smacking me in the face too (Guardian Angel (Angella is basically a ghost that only Catra can see), Tears (exploring the way Catra and Adora react to different things in a modern AU where they are both somewhere on the infinity spectrum), Hordak and/or Catra Time Travel (2 ideas for the price of one because I can't choose but don't want to write both so either: Young Hordak ends up in the future and Catra has to confront how young, naive, and traumatized he was compared to the grumpy asshole she kind likes these days OR Catra ends up in roughly S2 her's body and instantly everything gets fucked up because she keeps having appropriate coping skills and emotional maturity), Each Time We Give A Little Bit: It Comes Back to Haunt Us (Scorpia and Entrapta help ghosts and spirits who are trapped possessing items to try and finish their unfinished business or at least be brought somewhere nicer, Catra is possessing her old ring and wants to go home to Adora, it's been somewhere around 40-60 years since she died though), Post Military Life Thing (exploring the way Adora and Catra are living their lives after being discharged, it has not apparent point to it besides to show how similar but different they are so I keep editing it and trying to figure out what it wants from me), Missing Person Catra Weaver (Catra runs away after threatening to kill herself, for 10 years everyone assumes the worst and then she moves back to town totally unaware of the "Catra Come Home" project, I've got so many feels for this and have even written a little more but mostly it's just me wishing someone else would write it), Dad!Micah and Catra Bonding (same universe as "We Will Raise You in Safety and Peace", Micah and Catra do some awkward bonding and Two Step thinks they're father and daughter causing some more awkwardness but also some feels), Com-MOM-der and Clawdeen (I have another chapter for this featuring the SPT and their daughter showing everyone up at the next Princess Prom and also a chapter about how Clawdeen and Adora end up bonding despite the tension between her and Clawdeen's three moms), and There Was Only ONE Bed (By Design) (The one where Glimmer lies about her pull out couch being a regular love seat to force Catra to sleep in her bed while visiting, strangely everything works out until they're already basically married and then Catra learns about the couch and is more shocked this worked than anything))

#WiPs #fanfiction #what am I working on these days? I would love to know! #I've got so much going on and none of them want to really sit down and get work done #:| #thanks for the ask! #ask me anything #please prompt me for It's All Fun and Games for realsies

[blindtaleteller]

PROMPT: OOC Interview with [X] Clint ‘Cuyler’ Barton

" Been a while since we did one of these.. but. You know the drill man! This is your first interview, yeah? Want to explain why and where you’re from? “

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) Besides trolling the hell out of tags with Viedimadr? *grins* Ah, mostly that’s keeping the core element I guess. Most Bartons are the quintessential superhero, at least in the range of having that alter-ego. Might not wear a mask ‘til Ronin in the MCU? But --and especially with how my character works pre-Avengers; sharing past the job isn’t exactly any of our fortes? We have a family to protect, and if you do the math of how old the kids are even in Ultron: that family has been a thing since before we take the higher ground up out of the paid-SHIELD-killer status I’m in that Nat does mention in the original Avengers. Also usually save it up between the pages and occasional poke into tags and skits here on the dash.

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) As for where I’m from! *he leans back and hooks his hands behind his head* We’re Universe Fourteen; two doors on the left down the connecting Vestibule from Lisan’s Universe, and one to right of the Ego-centrics with Grey Knight and Leadsprite. Ours starts out different in the respect that, Fury ends up getting the Scepter tap instead of me; and the resulting conflict goes very differently.

“ Such as? “

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) We never even hit New York; Fury tries to snag me in, and under the Stone’s influence that means trying to at best grab my kids since he’s one of the only two people attached who know about them. Loki ends up breaking form and getting in the middle of that. Yanks us off world and out of Fury’s sight, with the goods. That’s where we picked up with our first published bit ‘The Warming Stone’ anyways.

” Speaking of.. what do you think about the split from the original timeline? “

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) I’m having a lot of fun with it myself. And I’m pretty sure Laura is somewhere outside the room clapping in agreement; she’s quieter than most but a constant presence and; she and Lo get along real well. Anyway. End up dealing with that whole ‘the city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots; and I have a bow and arrow’ overwhelmed mentality a lot sooner because of it? I like the existential twists that come with the Dark Fairy Tale elements and whatnot that get thrown out there and right into our faces pretty much immediately, what with running face-first, on foot, into Jotunheim of all places through that doorway in Illinois. We did some collabs with the other guys that run through there, on top of the research and expanded on some of the wildlife ourselves to manage that? So that was some actual fun. This side of the pool I can absolutely admit us Bartons are a bit masochistic? *laughs* I am pretty sure we enjoy exploring those bits and how we’d react to them. I’m no different in that respect. I mean.. how would you react to being a dinner sized meal for labrador-to-great-dane sized snow-caterpillars with the elongated teeth of freakin shark? Or finding out the hard way there’s giant predator owls flying around about the size of a plane that eat those, just as an example? Never mind trolls, or frost giants, or anything else that manages to survive in that kind of insane climate and might decide to try and eat you just to see if you taste good.

” Probably stay inside forever if I was going to be honest? XD Anyway, Is there anything you’d change about your current story? “

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) Considering we’re still building back there? Not yet. I mean, too much fun so far. I mean we’ve done what.. four parts at this point? All during what we’re currently calling the Traveler Phase from Earth to Asgard through the doors between Illinois, Jotunheim, and Vanaheim. Which is interesting in itself. I mean whole other world, and things are shaken up before we even get there and (in part because of the fact that) we end up dependent on our Loki pretty fast. I think maybe my only change there would be in maybe doing another part for Extras that includes ‘Ogre’ .. who hasn’t even shown yet at that point in the story. He’s our Bruce Banner; or more specifically our Hulk? Thing is finding a space that won’t interfere too heavily with the book when we do it though. We could excuse the bits in the Traveler Phase because we intended to shorten it when we got there anyway; maybe cut straight to Asgard with that as a supplemental extra; a lot like the GROUNDED kids did with their out-takes featured in the same platovember series.

“ I imagine messing with Universe Three’s next installment’s been helping that along? “

    Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:)  Oh yeah, definitely. That mirror of Bruce’s is pretty similar in mindset and approach.

” That said, do I have to ask if there’s anyone in particular you like to watch or get into reading over their shoulder when they’re at it? “

    Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) Oh definitely The Bean right now, for sure? But there’s a list.. *grins* GROUNDED and DREAMS being woven together finally, especially with  some of the inter-universal roles being brought up is a big one. Looking forward to whipping out that sword.. heh. Though, watching the ESCAPE kids from the other forming Vestibule has been an interesting ride now that they’re not entirely cloistered in Tuscon, or their hotel room. I know what’s up there outside of Traverse too, which helps. And there’s Josh. I think everyone’s been waiting for that fireball to explode across the page? The fact Tony, Lo and Fury managed to somehow make that nutcase all on their own with just a few lines still makes me laugh. Walsh is a character and a half. I’m looking forward to getting my chance at screwing with his mirror in our Door. Leigh is a weird bit of fun too, but Josh is definitely one of those at the top of the list, and who you chose for a face in close rep, is interesting. Maybe Vix too as far as characters go? But he’d a little lower down for me at the moment.

“ Stab, stab pull..? Heh. Which is your favorite upcoming group from the books/portions of Mixology aka the Lokiverse at large? And which are you most curious about? “

     Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:)  Ha! yeah; stab-stab, pull. Loxley’s got an interesting bunch next door. *rubs his hands up over the top of his head and back down* Honestly, MONSTERS and ASHES. Ah, that’s Door and or Universes Three and Twelve for those that don’t know. Three has a similar bonding mechanic between Bruce and Lo I’ve been interested in, while ASHES hits on other things, including a rockier relationship and overall dynamic between his Bartons and Redbird (that’s his Quill) that tends to go dark in the personal aspects a lot. I guess I like that struggle between them, personally. Loxley brushes something similar going on post-Ronin with his family dynamic with his internals and his Lo’s concerns for that; but I think Lili and his crew hit that at a whole other angle from around five years prior on? With, a whole other take on the family dynamic that Laura and I have with Lo by the time we leave Asgard. And that’s curious to me.

” I put you guys through a lot of shit in the name of storytelling. Any parts you have complaints about? “ 

   Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) None, planned or otherwise.

“ ..that was fast. “

   Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:)  What can I say? I enjoy the twisty shit, at least on this end of the pool. Ignoring the reservations, and dealing with the danger-fear of getting hurt in ways that can’t be fixed with stitches or band-aids, of accepting that kind of bond knowing how it started and risking the idea that finding out why might not make that danger less or that person better or more relatable than perceived to be able to accept them farther even after that investment?

  Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:) The contradiction of pride and ego versus conscience and the guilt when it belongs there getting in the way -and even dealing with when it should be toned down that results in having one,  even if it’s just a sliver in places and playing that out along with dipping into places mostly ignored or washed over in the Universes; is interesting and fun to me. Danger included. I have a little less guilt than my mirrors in a lot of directions that gets placed elsewhere after we come back to Earth; and I enjoy that dynamic and what we’re trying to explore there. That whole; ‘what if he was loyal, without he stone’s influence’ aspect, in our own flavor is a LOT of fun to play with. It’s a very different Universe, but holds hints and background pieces, and similarities enough, as well as the core; that it’s a feasable alternative to the canon line. Which is extra fun, for the personal aspects or ‘humanity’ we manage in the process? So no.. no complaints. Not yet anyways.. heh. We’ll see how I feel when you start actually touching actual, hands-on Gagnarok fixes and alternates though. Outside of that Cosmic-FrostIron bitty from a few doors down anyway. That’s gonna be a mess.

  “ Whee.. yeah. MONSTERS gets that honor first, most likely.. “

  Cuyler (Clint Barton D14:)  Good. Bean can handle that best, I think... or maybe worst. Either way it’s gonna be entertaining for me..

For those interested, Cuyler’s published stories are found below in chronological order (they were posted out of order in part because of the prompts themselves and some parts were planned ahead to take certain slots.) The title names are the links to each part.

The Warming Stone (part 1)

Fathers (part 4)

The Hart (part 2)

Between the Reds (part 3)

#Lokiverse #Lokiverse muses #muse interview #Cuyler/Clint Barton D14 #Clint Barton #Dark Fairy Tale Elements #Door/Universe 14 #Hawkeye #OOC interview #Lokiverse (Mixology) #alternate universes #multiverse #conjoined AUs #Alternate Reality #fanfiction #FrostHawk #aka #LoHawk

[askdespairnagito]

ooc: why i stopped using this blog

(( i recently saw a close friend of mine (@ultimate-waifu-bait) mention this blog, only to have a few discussions ensue about the effect that its disappearance had on the community. and honestly, as much as i'm flattered that anyone would think i had that much influence, you give me too much credit while also inadvertently blaming me for a lot of the problems i still struggle with on my existing, active blogs. i'll try to keep this short and sweet, so here we go. ))

(( in truth, many of zetsuko's important relationships dissolved. one of them due to a personal conflict that i, to this day, don't completely understand and won't discuss with anyone who wasn't involved. another was haru. i think everyone is aware that the relationship between haru and zet had been building for a while, and while that was not something i initially had planned for the blog, i liked the way it was developing, and i got to know the mod of that blog and we agreed to feel it out and go for it. i built my next major event on those two relationships. both of them disappeared over the next few months, making it pretty much impossible to go forward with the event without the end result being a pretty sure death for zet. i tried to push through it anyway without the assistance of the people who were supposed to be involved, but it fell flat. i disliked it a lot, nobody took any interest in it, it was rushed and unexciting, and it was extremely discouraging. ))

(( at that point, the community had already been struggling. i say this because someone attributed the "death" of the community-- which is alive but trying desperately to get people to participate again may i add-- to my blog going inactive. that timeline is wrong. the community had already started to go inactive, which was part of the reason running this blog was so discouraging. with no relationships and no anons sending asks, it was impossible to be active. i would've had to make update post after update post, every single day, in order to even keep him alive, which at that point didn't seem worth it. ))

(( now moving on to the primary reason. i stopped liking him. when i started his blog, i had an idea of how i wanted his character to progress, and there's been a lot of adjustment over time, but the more certain relationships pulled him one way or another, the more i disliked the direction he was being taken. quite honestly, the moment the first seance occurred, it was the beginning of the end, though i had no idea at the time. his blog was around for so, so long after that, but at that point he was dragged away from the more grounded-if-absurd world of danganronpa toward the supernatural, a world he doesn't fit in or operate out of. he doesn't have powers, unless you count his luck, and that's no match for angels and demons and ghosts and all of the other forces he had to interact with. and i enjoyed the people i interacted with, but i didn't enjoy the story i was creating. by the time i stopped using this blog, he was hardly recognizable to me. i tried, in a last stitch attempt, to reset him and take him back to a more familiar place, but i realized that even then he wasn't familiar anymore-- i'd moved so far past where he started and so far away from what i wanted him to be that being him was almost jarring and uncomfortable. combined with the lack of interest from anons and the lack of impactful relationships to motivate me to care about him, especially the dissolution of two primary relationships, there was no good motive for me to stay here. ))

(( i loved this blog, and i still do, as well as all the memories i have of it. the relationships he had with people like haru, nagito, chieko, kihiro, ed, even mukuro/ash at the time, were a major part of my life, and extremely formative for me. this was my first dip into roleplay, and since then it has become one of my primary hobbies. hence why i'm still in the community, just operating in a place where i feel more comfortable and in control of the story i'm telling. ))

(( if you cared about this blog, you should care about the blogs that are still around, oc and canon and au. you should care about chieko and nagito, aditi, hajime, fay, hibiki, miyako, miu. you should care about the new blogs that are struggling to exist and dying out within days. you should care about not just witnessing the stories that we are telling, but participating in them and progressing them, sending asks, stirring drama between characters. us mods love it when you snitch to other characters, or lie to our characters, or start fights or play devil's advocate. think of the relationship between zet and nagito. it was entirely confrontational, but some of my fondest memories of roleplay are of the infamous love potion m!a, the killing game, and the two of them fighting together to save izuru and hajime from the future foundation. seeing other people mention your blog to others in the community is so encouraging, and seeing other mods care about and nurture the relationships you are interested in is incredible. the relationship between zet and nagito might not have developed if that hadn't been the case. i was terrified of nagito's mod, but they took an interest in zet and anons constantly bugged him about what zet was doing, but in a way that not only progressed the relationship but progressed both of their stories rather than ignoring them. meanwhile it's depressing to see mods have to put out update after update begging for asks and struggling to maintain relationships. the stakes in a relationship are what make it fun for the mods, and if no one cares about the relationship, there aren't any stakes, and they probably are going to either stop nurturing it or lose interest in it altogether. i'm here, saying all of this now, because i'm begging you to care about the people who are here. stop reminiscing about the people you miss and leaving everyone else out in the cold. as much as i appreciate being missed, i'm still in the community and struggling, and i don't want the hard work of the people who came before me and the continuing work of the people who came after me to be completely ignored for the sake of broken nostalgia. i appreciate being loved, but the way to respect me and show that you genuinely cared about the story i was telling is to care about the stories that people are still telling with a lot less support than i got. ))

#ooc #important #announcement #(( i'm not expecting this post to turn everything around but i want you to take this to heart. please. )) #(( every time someone mentions not getting asks or people losing interest everyone tells them what they should do or makes excuses for them #(( mods who put in tons of work are told that they're just not doing enough to maintain relationships or answer asks well. or anons come to #(( it's honestly unfair. and i'm speaking as someone who puts in that work and gets less than a fair return and watches my fellow mods do t #(( these arent just roleplay or story blogs. they're ask blogs. they rely on participation which is why they are structured the way they ar #(( there are days when i get more asks on this blog than i do on the blog i am active on and running stories on. it's heartbreaking. )) #(( but anyway. narrator out. ))

[tae-cup]

Fragments of Skin and Alcohol | JJK

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Summary: You don’t remember much, but you remember them...

Genre: Choose your own adventure, amnesia au, fluff

Warnings: Alcohol and cursing (honestly, it’s really not that bad)

Rating: PG-13? 

Word Count: 2k Words

A/N: My inspiration after writing the past four stories every single day for four days straight made my brain flop but also run with more ideas at the same time oh my god. A real mess of a timeline I’ve got going...

Someone tell me why I wrote the aftermath of a breakup before the actual relationship? My timeline writing actually went 7, 2, 1, 3, 6, 5, 4. I know I said I’d publish in chronological order, but I take it back. You guys are smart people.

Header by the talented and amazing @dnrequests​

Timeline Place: 6

Other:

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

        You were suffocating, swaying amongst the crowd, the bass rattling your bones. The stench of sweat slicking down skin and alcohol burning throats filled the air. The flashing lights left your eyes to adjust over and over, the alcohol buzzing in your veins and making you stumble. Yeah, you were a little buzzed, but not too bad. 

       You usually didn’t drink away your problems, but you had a big problem. The ending of a long term relationship was always hard, especially when you had been so sure that you loved him. You grimaced at the thought of his face and clutched your cup tighter, taking a large swig. 

       You made your way to the edge of the room, leaning against the wall to get your bearings. Your makeup was probably ruined and the dress your friends had made you wear didn’t leave much to the imagination. 

     You had never been a fan of dresses, often preferring a suit, but they had insisted and you had decided to get out of your comfort zone a bit. You were a little jealous at how easily they were able to go out and show off everything they got. Jennie was beautiful after all and so were Jisoo and Rose. How did they meet an ugly duckling like you? Who knew. 

     You placed your sweaty palms against the wall, dropping your empty cup onto the ground. A part of you knew you should pick it up, but your mind immediately hissed aw, fuck it. It sounded like something your boyfr-ex boyfriend would chastise you about. And fuck him. 

      But even that was hard to think about because you didn’t hate him. It didn’t even end on a bad note or anything, you both just sort of went your separate ways. While you wallowed in your misery, you didn’t note the figure leaning against the wall beside you. He cleared his throat loudly and you jumped a little, turning to look at him. 

      The man had doe eyes and his hair was swept to one side, the wave hanging in his eyes. You ogled him with no qualms; alcohol was funny like that. Fear? You hadn’t heard of it since...you once again lamented a lost love. The man, however, was well built, with well shaped muscles and a slim waist. You averted your eyes, regaining a sense of dignity. The man looked like...a literal god.

“Rough night?” He asked gently, his voice softer than you expected for his look. He pulled off the edgy vibe well enough. 

“More like a rough life.” You barked without thinking, wanting to slap yourself for how...out of control you felt. 

“Yeah, I get that.” He crossed his arms, eyes glancing over the sea of people. Then he turned to you. 

“Want to head out? Some fresh air would be nice.” He smiled a little, reaching out to touch your arm. 

     Your eyes flickered from his face to his arms, to his hand on upper arm. Then you pulled away, the touch and gesture feeling all too familiar. 

“Don’t do that!” You exclaimed, out of all the thoughts flying through your head. He raised an eyebrow, backing away slightly. 

“I’m sorry.” He said quietly, his voice almost lost in the music. You shook your head, trying to get a grip, trying to think straight. 

“No, no, it’s just….don’t try and pull a fast one on me, okay?” 

“A fast one?” 

“Being all nice and handsome and then turning around, springing a relationship and love confessions all over me like-like-like a...a..” You trailed off, forgetting what you were trying to say. The man seemed amused by this. 

“I won’t, I swear.” He held up his hands. You glanced at his calloused hands, rough and worn. “I’m Jungkook, why don’t I just drive you home?” 

“I’m Y/N...and Why should I trust you?” You crossed your arms, your common sense not completely null. 

“I don’t know, maybe you shouldn’t.” He shrugged. 

“That’s reassuring.”

      But the twinkle in his eye and the alluring nature of his posture pulled you closer. Jungkook didn’t really give off a threatening aura. You finally just nodded and let him lead you through the party. 

“Try anything weird and I won’t hesitate to call the cops.” You clarified. He simply smiled and hummed in agreement. 

       His hands were strong and elegant. It was a thought that hit you quite randomly as you sat in the car. The low rumble of the road below, the silence making your ears ring in contrast to the music of the club, made for a peaceful moment. 

      He focused on the road ahead, not engaging in conversation, but you attributed it to him being a keen observer. You weren’t really in the mood to talk, the high of the night wearing off. 

“You know, when I was younger, my mother always drove me around when I couldn’t sleep. She’d pack a late night snack, strap me into the back, and just...drive.” The man said, breaking the silence. 

     You nodded a little, your hair pressed against the window. The yellowish orange glow of the streetlamps passed you by on the highway. The road was almost deserted at this hour. 

“You look pretty young still, Jungkook, too young to talk about ‘when you were younger’.” You smiled softly. You heard him shift in his seat slightly, taking a glance at you. 

     Then he dipped his head. You watched him turn and indicate out of your peripheral vision. 

“My point is, I like driving. It calms me.” He stated, his voice light and lilting. Another beat. “Tell me something about yourself.”

“Why?” 

“I told you something about me.”

You scoffed but thought for a moment. 

“My friend, Jennie, when we were in elementary school, she accidentally fell off the slide and chipped her front tooth. Good thing it was already wiggly, but it still looked gnarly.” You said. He snorted. 

“Okay, but that’s not about you.” 

“Why do you want to know about me?” You rolled your eyes. 

“I just want to find out more about the beautiful stranger I’m driving home.”

“And maybe I want to find out more about the beautiful man that’s driving?” 

     You watched the corners of his lips pull upwards. 

“I’m sorry, I’m not the best at...talking to people, anyone.” He said sheepishly and the car fell into silence. You waited a few minutes, the alcohol beginning to make you sleepy. 

“I think you’re doing a fine job so far.” You mumbled, but you knew he heard it. 

“Thanks.” 

      You returned to watching the window. The passing cars lit up the interior every now and then. His black leather seats must be hot when it was sunny. You weren’t quite sure why that was the first thing to come to mind, but you weren’t sure why anything was happening.

      The loss of control was exactly what you needed tonight, but it was also such an awful feeling. It made your stomach churn, fearing you might not be able to make the right decisions. You were trusting Jungkook to be an honest man. 

      He slowly pulled into a residential neighborhood, your house nearby. You blinked, seeing the familiar surroundings. You instantly shot up, remembering self defense 101. 

“W-wait, let me out here.” You stuttered. Never let a stranger know where you live. 

    Jungkook didn’t even flinch, remaining in a calm and level tone. His hands were loose on the steering wheel. His eyes didn’t even strain from the road. 

“If you’re worried about me knowing your address, you gave me it at the beginning of the drive.” He said plainly and you let yourself relax. 

    You just needed to remind yourself to kick your drunk self’s ass later. You leaned back and rested your head against the headrest, groaning in frustration at yourself. 

“I really didn’t drink a lot.” You murmured. 

“I can see that.” He replied sarcastically. 

“Seriously!”

“How many drinks did you have?”

“One...two...three...five...I dunno, lost count.” You mumbled, let your eyes flutter closed. You were feeling awfully sleepy. 

       He eyed you out of his peripheral and then slowly pulled up to your house. Then, he parked, went around to the passenger side, and opened your door. You remained still. Jungkook sighed, gnawing anxiously at his lip as he looked from you to your front door.

     The man tapped his foot anxiously. He could carry you inside, but that would mean he A) had your house keys and B) you would let a stranger into your house. Besides, that kind of thing really only happened in fanfiction, right? You didn’t even open your eyes, knowing what he pondered. 

“If you’re thinking of carrying me into my house, bridal style,” You slowly opened your eyes and stretched your arms, your knuckles brushing against the roof. “Then you are sorely mistaken, big guy.” 

      Then you gathered your things, made your way out of the car, stumbling a few steps, and walked to your front door. You fumbled with your keys before finding the right one. Your frustration only grew as the keyhole kept moving. He watched you, amused. 

“Well, little miss, it looks like you’re having some trouble there.” Jungkook swooped in and fit the key to the hole, even helping to turn it. You flushed a scarlet red, and not just because of the alcohol. 

     The quiet street felt so still in that moment. You didn’t dare move or make a sound, lest you disturb the leaves. The soft ding of the car door alarm beeped across the emptiness. You took a deep breath and then turned to face him, your faces a few mere inches apart. 

“Thanks for the ride.” You whispered, voice hushed.

      His eyes searched yours and your lips craved his, your hands wished to roam his body. And damn him for being so alluring to your drunken state, Your eyes flickered to his lips and he didn’t miss the action. It had been a while...it was time to move on, even for a brief moment.

“Can I kiss you?”  He asked, a husky tone to his voice. 

     You answered by leaning in and pressing your lips to his. Your hands moved to his shoulders and his arms fell to your waist. He pulled your body flush against his, fighting for dominance, which you gladly gave. In an instant, he pulled away, let you catch your breath. Jungkook shot you a small smile, far too timid for someone who just kissed you so boldly. 

“The rest will be saved for later, yeah?” He said shyly. 

“Later?”

     He dipped his head and you found yourself smiling, truly, for the first time in months. 

     The next morning, you woke up, head pounding. You yawned, watching as the sunlight filtered through your curtains and then across the wooden planks of your bedroom. You carefully stepped onto the cold floorboards, wrapping a soft robe around your body. 

     With a sigh, you pressed your fingers to your lips. What had you done? Sure, it was a pleasant memory and not unwelcome, the memory of his lips against yours, but was this okay? Moving on, even though it had been months, it still felt like you were cheating. 

     You slipped on your fuzzy slippers and ran your fingers through your hair. Your fingers caught on the loose strands and the knotted ends. Then, you opened the door of your house with a slow creak. There, on your doorstep, was a note weighted down under a stone. 

How about we meet in the daytime? I’d love to get to know you :) - Jungkook 

   You smiled softly to yourself, rereading the simple words over and over again. Yeah, it was time to move on from your last partner. His messy handwriting and even cuter smiley face had you smiling far too wide for so early in the morning. And they say chivalry is dead.

Want to try another path? 

Go Back To The Beginning

#bts #bts x reader #Jeon jungkook #Jungkook #Jungkook x reader #JJK #JJK x reader #JK #jay kaaaaay #gukkie #fragments of you #amnesia au #fluff #PG #non idol au #castlebangtan #bangtanuniversity

[gavillain]

Thoughts on the Loki tv show then?

Short version: I'm liking it! I fully expected to hate the show given that I hated almost everything they did with Loki in the MCU after Dark World. However, they're doing a pretty good job. I think overall, it's a mixed bag for me, but a mixed bag is so much better than I was expecting that I'm very happy with it. Episode 3 really was a big step up after the first two eps and I hope future episodes continue.

Now if you want the long version, I've been writing up my thoughts after each episode to share on a private forum, so I'll copy and paste under the cut. Also spoilers galore past this point:

Ep.1 "Glorious Purpose" Loki himself is the big important thing so I'm gonna talk about him first, and I was both happy and disappointed with his characterization here. Let me explain. Tom Hiddleston obviously plays everything perfectly, and he did a great job on every moment. But the writing on Loki's character is pretty inconsistent. There were a LOT of moments that genuinely felt like they were right out of the golden era of MCU Loki that captured his speech patterns perfectly, his mannerisms, his world view, his humor. Those moments were legitimately there, and they were there more often than I was expecting. Ragnarok had Loki written wrong down to the dialogue and his manner of speaking, and so it was actually very refreshing to see him written generally well, particularly in his conversations with Agent Mobius. However there were multiple moments where he was blatantly written out of character to pander to jokes or to dip into that Ragnarok jokey joke tone. I audibly groaned at the "Am I robot" bit, which was SUCH low brow human and so not in line with the fact that Loki literally knows exactly what he is and had a "species reveal" that was very important to his character. I also would have liked him to be a little more violent. This man came out of a portal, saw SHIELD agents threatening him and immediately went into kill mode in Avengers. Yet this guy stands around and lets himself be taken and forced into situations a lot. But overall, I was happy with his general characterization because I expected the bad stuff to be much worse and it wasn't and the good stuff was more plentiful than I expected. I wasn't fond of the "I don't enjoy hurting people" bit because it's weepy and wrong, but it also was an expected development and I do appreciate that they're at least delving deep into his character on an intellectual level and playing off that "Always so perceptive about everyone but yourself" line of Frigga's. There's potential to do something interesting with him here, so I'm intrigued if not convinced. The Time Keepers concept I hate, but I think I hate it because Loki ALSO hates it and we're a bit too alike in a few regards even here XD I just kind of wish it was less bureaucratic and "we're a joke about corporate offices" and was something more mystical and other worldly. I feel like if it was more science fantasy and ethereal feeling, I would probably be a lot more down for it. But I guess you gotta save money somehow. Agent Mobius is likable, and I like how he can go toe to toe with Loki and how he's kind of morally neutral. I called that Loki was the dangerous time variant disrupting the timeline before it was revealed, but I have to wonder why in the final scene they kept his face hidden. That would have been a great opportunity to show Hiddles hamming up the evil bloodlust, and I am HUNGRY for that. But they kept that Loki hidden in shadows for a reason, and I have two theories regarding why: 1. It actually ISN'T Loki and Agent Mobius is wrong and our villain is someone else. 2. Our villain is LADY Loki and they're saving the reveal that villain Loki is a woman for a later episode. We'll see if I'm right. I HOPE it's number 2 if they kept him in shadow for a reason. So yeah. Not exactly what I wanted but we're on the right track at least for now. I hope this track leads somewhere interesting.

Ep.2 "The Variant" So, first things first, this episode had "I Need a Hero" during a fight scene and TOTALLY botched it. It was way too early to play that card, the action didn't sync with the battle, and it was between a few nameless TVA agents and the evil Loki with the evil Loki still masked in shadow and not really doing much. It just lacked the OOMPH that I felt was necessary for it to be satisfying. This should have been done better. Loki characterization update: less good and less bad than episode one at the same time. There was no "Am I a robot?" cringe, but there was a lot less of the really good Loki dialogue that caught my attention in episode 1. His seemed to have kinda settled back to the mediocrity of Ragnarok Loki with occasional moments of intrigue such as his whole bit about a wolf's ears and teeth. Loki's obviously planning to overthrow the time keepers and to become the new master of time, and he even says as much to his alternate counterpart this episode. I have a sick feeling they're going to have him grow to like the TVA and to save the time stream, but I really want him to follow through with his plans because I think that's much more interesting than the alternative. Will they do it? Time will tell. I also like how much he utterly does not give a shit about Mobius's condolences about Ragnarok happening. That was a good touch. Speaking of Mobius, I still don't care for him or the TVA. They're all just very boring to me, and I don't like Loki being caged to follow their bidding. It's restraining a hurricane of excitement by forcing it to play within this very structured framework instead of burning through freely. With Loki escaping into the timestream to chase after the other Loki, hopefully that will change for the better next episode. Mobius himself gets his character expanded a bit, but his expansion is literally that he is just a cog who doesn't question his purpose and does what he does because it's what he's told to do. And that's just not compelling to me. Sidebar: Ravona, Kang the Conqueror's lover, is the head of the TVA. A fun tidbit but where's Kang? I like the way the episode explored how time variants can't happen during massive catastrophes and apocalypses because everyone dies and everything gets destroyed, so they're safe places for time variants to hide and interact with history. I enjoyed Loki and Mobius going back and messing with Pompeii right before Vesuvius erupts to test that theory. That was fun (though I wish Loki would have, instead of just acting silly and making a scene, would have done his "Kneel before me" bit on the Pompeiians or something more villainous). And I liked the whole aesthetic of them exploring a massive hurricane in Alabama in 2050 and the whole aesthetic going on there. It gave the episode an epic quality. The evil Loki was revealed in this episode, and the twist is that she's Lady Loki. Yeah, I called it. She hasn't done much herself yet and we haven't seen her do much except posses the bodies of various others and then break the timeline with multiple sprawling timeline variants, both of which is very cool. I'm excited for her, though my biggest complaint is that she has blonde hair. No. Lady Loki has BLACK hair. Why didn't they stick her in a black wig or have the actress dye her hair??? AMORA is the blonde Asgardian villainess. Lady Loki has the same hair color as Loki. And... look, I know it's a dumb detail to get hung up on, but the black hair matters to me because Loki has black hair and his beautiful female form does too and I always liked that for personal reasons. Also, she doesn't want to be called "Loki" apparently which is weird but okay, so what DOES she want to be called? I swear if they name her Amora or Sigyn, I'm gonna throw something.

But yeah, the next episode I think promises to be a change of pace, and we can see if Loki can truly spread his wings free of the TVA. I hope he does.

Ep.3 "Lamentis" This was the best episode yet! And for MULTIPLE reasons. This episode sees Loki and Lady Loki Sylvie stranded together in time. It was away from the TVA and it's boring qualities, which was great, and it put two very interesting characters in a situation where they had to rely on each other. This is more of what I was HOPING we'd get from the show. It's a lot more engaging and fun. The TVA always feel like they have their boot on our necks, and having that boot gone, it's amazing how much easier it is to breathe. And I honestly think that was intentional too with regards to how Sylvie outright calls them tyrannical fascist time police. The whole thing with Loki and Sylvie being stranded on the planet Lamentis during its apocalypse is super cool too. First of all, Lamentis is BEAUTIFULLY designed. I can tell they relied on desert locales to save on the budget, but the purple sky, the colorful train, and the neon alien city are all really pleasing to look at. And with the sky literally falling around them, it looks even cooler and the stakes feel cosmic and intense because they ARE. A very good setting that felt refreshing after the very mundane TVA headquarters and Earth scenes. Loki continues to be a sort of mixed bag with weird moments of humor that feel like they were written by someone else for another character, but those moments were a lot more sparse this time around too. Tom is still unmatched in the role, and I love the way he got to be serious, smug, manipulative, and sincere in this episode. I've kinda accepted and settled into anti-hero Loki for this series, and I'm honestly pretty okay with it here. See, I think my issues with Loki being "good" is that it comes with making amends with Thor or working for the TVA. Seeing him pursuing his own agenda on his own terms and collaborating with a kindred spirit who he seems to genuinely like is a lot easier to stomach because it feels a lot more true to the freedom that is so potent about his villainy. I loved him talking about Frigga and how she taught him her magic. That was a genuinely powerful moment. Also even though his dagger metaphor for love got kinda undercut by a joke, I think it was quite good writing and really cut to the point of what makes Loki tic. Also this episode marks a VERY important moment: Loki was canonized on screen as being bisexual in the MCU. He is the FIRST queer main character in the MCU and the first queer main protagonist of a Disney show. And I like the way they did it too! The way Sylvie asked about if he had any dalliances with princesses and then adds "or princes" and Loki says "a bit of both." It was simple and direct and unambiguous, and I love it because Loki has always BEEN queer in the MCU and the writing for him has been very queercoded. Even if that little moment is all it amounts to, it really matters and means a lot to me that they did it and I'm so happy for it. I hope they give him a boyfriend though. Like PLEEEEASE Marvel. Sylvie I'm more okay with this time around. She IS established as Sylvie and not really identifying as Loki anymore, so I can separate her from my preconception of Lady Loki and not mind the BLONDE so much. Sylvie is the name of the second Enchantress in the comics, an Enchantress that Loki himself created. I'm interested to see where they go with her backstory and who she is and what her deal is because they've been implying that she differs from the main Loki quite a lot to the point where she barely even remembers who Frigga was. I also like that Loki's response to the bisexual question implies that Sylvie is bi too. Get that MLM/WLW solidarity. I hope they don't ship them, but I hope they DO stay friends and allies because I'm loving their friendship chemistry. Also, a minor thing in the grand scheme of this episode, but Loki SINGS in this one! And I love it! Tom's always had a very pretty voice that he's gotten to show off in other roles so I'm glad he got to show off his singing in this role too. The Norse folk song he sings was both jovial and somber all at once, and I

loved it. We deserved this Minor nitpick: please give Loki his Asgardian clothes back or something. Because this TVA suit is fucking ugly and I hate it. Sylvie looks so good next to him, and he deserves to be just as stylish. This was a GREAT turning point. PLEEEEEASE keep it up. F&WS failed to. But I genuinely believe that Loki can do it.

#Loki #Loki series

[lavender-lotion]

3, 4, 16 (DON'T say cherik), 22, 28

oh my god i absolutely hate you for asking me these aha you’re my favourite person in the entire world 

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

to date, it’s been X-Men (alt timeline movies, ofc) despite the rocky beginning I had. in this fandom I’ve learned so much about my own writing, and my writing style has grown SO greatly since I first joined and has taken shape into... well whatever the hell it is now, which is something I really like (most of the time)!

I fairly quickly created a small, tight circle of people I really enjoy being around in this fandom, and have since cultivated my own little fandom space that I really, really enjoy. it’s filled with people I love chatting with, people as open-minded as accepting as I am, and it’s a place that I strive to make feel welcoming for all who join, as well! I run an 18+ X-Men Alternative Timeline Movies focused discord, so if you’re interested, join us here! 

I am trying to branch back out into The Fandom a little more after feeling a type of way for some time, and I’m honestly enjoying that a lot too! it’s been interesting to follow some more folk, and I’m really happy to see my dash start to thicken up after being close to barren for so long. 

currently, I have a small group of close friends I care a great deal for (hi, Mid!) that has absolutely made this fandom into one of the best i’ve been involved in. 

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

very very very simplified and slightly unture answer: no. every single bad experience has taught me something that I’ve carried into my other fandom experiences, just like life lmao, but for more of a meaty answer to this question: yes. 

so much yes. 

I have SO MUCH regret around teen wolf, actually, for so many different reasons, but I’ve also learned SO much. seeing a server ran in a way I Did Not Like has helped me better mod my own fandom spaces, and I am very anti-totalitarianism and am VERY against showing abject favouritism to specific members, while I also always try incredibly hard to ensure no one feels ignored. I was reminded of how finicky friendships are, and learned not to be the person who puts in the sole work to keep ‘em going (and how to recognize if I am) because... when you stop the friendship might stop, too. I learned NOT to hit on close friends, no matter how much I might want to, and I learned the importance of open, clear and precise communication in romantic endeavours, which was actually a very good life lesson because I’d never been in a situation that could teach me it before. I’ve learned, or, am LEARNING, not to let personal experiences with one-on-one relationships taint my view of a fandom—this one is hard, and is something I am trying very, very hard to work through as I’ve recently been hit with a very strong and very sudden wave of inspiration for teen wolf.

but like, with that all said, I still absolutely LOVE the teen wolf fandom and have had so many amazing amazing amazing experiences that I wouldn’t change for all the bad, and that the bad experiences are really localized to the ship-focused spaces I was in and the personal relationships that I had, NOT with the fandom as a whole which I am slowly dipping my toes back into! I learned so much about myself and my writing during my time in the fandom, and that is another thing I absolutely wouldn’t change for the world. I am over the moon that I’m writing here again, honestly, and the reception I’ve gotten has been SO insanely amazing. 

starker is another one I regret-but-don’t-totally-regret-because-I-learned-shit. starker taught me the importance of 18+ fan spaces, and showed me what can happen when people... aren’t careful. when mods are minors themselves. I learned that cross-generational nsfw spaces are a RED flag, and that they mean GET OUT, and that anyone who would willingly allow minors and adults to mingle over explicit content are people I Do Not Want To Be Around. I learned a lot about myself there on an interpersonal scale, and I found out a lot about my sexuality and kink preferences, too (which was a wild time). while I do very much enjoy the lessons I learned from being in the space I was in, I could do without some of the more negative things I witnessed, even if they taught me a lot. 

16. Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

SINCE I CAN’T SAY CHERIK I’m going to have to dig a little deeper and talk about Sterek, lmao. I was really, really, really into Sterek starting around... 2014? I read... fuck tons. absolutely insane amounts of Sterek fic. and I wanna say... around 2015? maybe? there was a really popular trope in Sterek, wherein Derek would push Stiles away (by being mean, by pretending to date one of the Pack (usually Erica), by bullying him, by telling him the pack didn’t want him, etc, etc) so that he could... keep Stiles safe? it almost always went the same way. there is a threat no one told Stiles about, Derek did “what he had to do” to keep Stiles safe (i.e cutting him off from all his friends and massive, obvious crush) and then when Stiles got hurt, the pack would come to his rescue and save him (only after Stiles got a little beat up), and then Derek would care for him, or not leave his side, or check up on him, and Stiles would wonder why he cared after everything that had happened and... bam. Derek would admit his undying love. And Stiles would just like forgive him and they’d get together and be happily ever after as a pack and...

that was so damaging lmao??? I can’t even tell you how many fics fitting into this trope that I read, to the point where I was like... “wow Derek loves Stiles so much he’s such an amazing person for keeping him safe by pushing him away and making him feel isolated and alone and hated” BUT LIKE WHAT. WHAT. that’s horrible??? so so so horrible??? I am so fucking thankful it isn’t something I really saw too much of when I came back around to the fandom around 2017, but.... oh boy. for a ship that I considered an OTP and read like the entire tag of, I have VERY few sterek fics of substance (when compared to the rest of my teen wolf writing) and this is the reason why. 

this trope and it’s absolutely ludicrous popularity a few years ago really, really turned me off the ship. 

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

content-wise: no. very, very easy no. I don’t regret any of the pairings or kinks I’ve written & I don’t think I ever will (I’m very anti-shame, lmao. if you like it, flaunt it). 

but... I do regret some of the emotional labour I’ve put into works? the emotional attachment I have with certain fics, or genres, or pairings, and how I’ve tied them to a specific person or persons. like, I can’t write ageplay anymore, because of how strong the association of ageplay is to someone I cared for deeply and no longer have in my life (and even if I ever manage to write it in general, I’ll never be able to write Steter ageplay). I have 13k of a fic that was supposed to be a surprise gift to a close friend that I hadn’t heard from in... ages, to the point where I gave up on sending the occasional monthly-message. I have one thing I wrote for a dear friend (who never interacted with it) and now I can’t help but feel like the story is awful, despite not doing horrifically stat-wise.  

I write because I love it. I write for people I care about, because writing is a labour of love, and it’s a way I can show them how much I care for them, but... sometimes that bites me in the ass, I guess. 

I’m working on it, lol. 

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

god okay there is NOTHING better than the idea of this. I’ve had a few mood boards made for me here and there, which are always SO loved and cherished and massively appreciated down to my BONES, but I don’t know if I’ve... ever really gotten fan art? I had someone make some really, really cool like... OG bit-moji type art of a couple of my fics, which is amazing and I have it on my phone still, and @hd-hale once drew me a GORGEOUS sheriff stilinski inspired by Daddies’R’Us, but to get FAN ART i would CRY lmao

right now, I think something from to love and be loved by you would feel really, really extra special because even at 6/17 chapters posted, it’s my longest work ever. what would it be a picture of?? hell if i fucking know but probably something that hasn’t happened yet, lmao

#wow this got really long im sorry #these are just my personal experiences and i've had LOTS of them #im a very emotional person can you tell? #can you also tell im not over some stuff lmao #im working on that too #listen i'm working on a LOT right now #i can't believe mid asked me THIS series of questions thinking this wouldn't happen #why did i write a fucking NOVEL #about lav #writing meme #ask meme #writer meme #midrashic #lav answers

[songbookff]

For the festival of love reqest: Personally I think Amilyn/Leia in this would be really cute (especially if they had a public kiss or something which is usual for them, but idk) and in general I just like queering star wars up, but honestly whatever pairings you feel like fit the story are good. :)

queering up star wars...see below. ;)

Also...timeline, what timeline? And um...ship all the ships, I guess. 

“We need to do something fun!” Paige Tico came hurling into the mess hall, her little sister in tow. Rose had a smile that rivalled her sister. Obviously the Tico girls had been planning something. “Anyone know about the Ewok Festival of Love?” 

“Sorry, Ewok festivals aren’t standard Stormtrooper training,” joked Finn as he shoveled a spoon of stew into his mouth. 

Poe gave him a nudge with his elbow and said, “Is it romantic? Or does love mean something else on Endor?” 

“So romantic,” winked Paige as she sat down next to Rey. Rose took a seat next on the other side of Finn. “I think we need a little love on this dreary base. What do you say?” 

“You want to throw a Love Festival? So you can get laid?” asked Kaydel Ko from the next table over. A couple of the rebels she was sitting with giggled. 

“Festival of Love!” emphasized Rose at the same time that Paige protested, “I don’t need a festival to get laid!” 

After rolling her eyes at her sister, Rose continued, “We could use a night off and a little mood lift. The Festival of Love isn’t just about romantic love. It’s about the bonds of family and the trust and acceptance between people! Think of it like a team building experience!” 

“It’s also a good way to get laid,” winked Paige. A couple of people cat called from the tables around them. 

Poe shrugged and slug his arm around Finn’s shoulders. “Just gotta get it approved by the General.” 

“I’ve got an idea about that...” The group turned to see Larma D’Acy grinning at them. “Leave the General to me.” 

~~~

Two days later, Rose stood in the middle of the hanger, hands on hips, proud of her work. Rey stood a few feet away amused at her friend's excitement. The hanger was draped with colorful banners, vines of leaves, and bundles of wildflowers. Someone had even found lanterns to hang around for when the sun set.

"It looks great," assured Rey. "I'm sure everyone will love it."

"Thanks." Rose gave her a brilliant smile and then added, "Thanks for being my date tonight! The Festival of Love is about friendship, too."

"You can always count on me to show up for you. But maybe tonight you could tell her how you feel...maybe the timing will finally be right." Rose's eyes darted over to a group of people before focusing back on her friend.

"Maybe," she conceded. Then she clapped her hands together, altogether changing the mood. "Let's get the music going!"

The cooking team had outdone themselves with a spread of food from all over the galaxy. It seemed everyone was willing to go on rations for a week or two just to have one night of celebration.

Poe and Finn entered the hanger, hand in hand, about ten minutes later. Poe carried a crate of some alcohol that was probably illegal, but the pilots were quick to divide it up to eager hands.

Finn stared at the pageantry in amazement. No one was in uniform. It seemed enough civilian clothing had been dug out to dress everyone in an assortment of colors. Even Poe had found Finn a colorful robe to through over his normal clothes.

"It's like everyone has forgotten we're in a war," he murmured, just for Poe to hear as they filled their plates with food.

"No one has forgotten..." replied Poe. "But war is all the more reason to celebrate. We could all die tomorrow...but we're here tonight."

Poe pressed his lips to Finn's cheek. The two men smiled at each other and then found a spot by Poe's x-wing to enjoy their dinner and illegal beverages.

Some giggling and friendly shouting drew their attention to the middle of the room where Paige had drug her girlfriend, Jessika Pava into the makeshift dancefloor. She shouted something neither man could make out, but loud music suddenly filled the hanger. Paige let out a hoot and pulled Jessika in for a dramatic kiss.

Everyone began cheering and soon other couples joined them to start dancing on the floor. Finn nudged Poe on the shoulder. They had made a deal that Finn would owe Poe one dance together, but Poe had promised not to make him dance until everyone was too drunk to remember it.

"I can sit here with you," assured Poe, trying not to enviously watch the other dancers. 

“Go,” encouraged Finn. Just then, Rey approached them with a smile and a wave. “See, Rey and I can sit here and celebrate friends who don’t dance while you go celebrate loving dancing!” 

Poe kissed Finn, took a swig of his drink, and then dashed off to join his friends dancing to an upbeat song on the dancefloor. Rey picked up his almost empty plate, picking out the leftovers she wanted. 

“You look happy,” she told Finn between bites.

“I am happy.” The response was so simple, but it had been so long since he had been able to say that truthfully. Poe made him happy; being a part of the rebellion made him happy; having friends made him happy. 

Rey raised a glass, “To the festival of happiness!” 

Finn clinked his bottle to her glass and they watched Poe, Rose, and the rest of their new family dance their hearts out. After an hour, there was a break in the music when the General made an appearance. Leia was dressed in white, something that she reserved for special occasions these days. It was her branded look, back in the day. 

Someone had handed her a microphone, the crowd insisting on a speech for the Festival. And of course, Leia was nothing if not a politician. 

“Alright, settle down, settle down.” There was a graceful smile on her face. “Firstly, I would like to thank the Tico sisters for coming up with such an uplifting and wonderful celebration. I do believe that we have to remember what we are all working towards; love is the reason we fight against tyranny.” 

“Down with the First Order!” shouted someone in the crowd. 

“Long live the Republic!” called another, leading to more cheering and clapping. 

“I want you to have your time tonight to celebrate each other. I want you to remember who you fight side by side with. And then tomorrow, I expect everyone to be back to work.” Laughter met her words and it soon turned to cheering, with a chant of her name. “Now, I owe a very important woman a dance before I leave you all to celebrate without the watchful eye of the General.” 

She turned to extend her hand to the colorful Amilyn Holdo. The women stepped onto the dancefloor to a roomful of cheers. Amilyn stood out in a deep red dress and orange hair against the starkness of Leia’s white dress. But no one could doubt their connection as they began to dance. It was a sweet moment, truly a celebration of lovers. 

As the song ended, Leia twirled Amilyn and then gracefully dipped her towards the ground before pulling her back up into a soft kiss. The hanger had never been louder. Both women were smiling when they waved their goodnights. 

The party continued long into the night; the drinks flowed, the dancing was magical, and the kisses were given freely. As soon as people started to pair off and leave, Rose found herself cleaning off some tables with Kaydel Ko. 

“Tonight was wonderful,” said Kaydel Ko, with a nervous voice. “Thanks for setting all of this up.” 

“You helped!” insisted Rose, the alcohol giving her a bit of courage. Tonight had been wonderful, but there was one thing that would make it better. If only she could ask...

“They look like they’re having fun.” Kaydel Ko pointed to where Poe was showing Finn some new dance steps, having finally drug his boyfriend out on the floor. Both women went back to cleaning, avoiding each other’s gaze. 

As the music changed to something slower, Kaydel Ko cleared her throat. “Rose?” 

“Yes?” 

“Wouldyouliketodancewithme?” 

Rose stared at her, her alcohol addled mind trying to desipher what was asked. Kaydel Ko blushed and stared down at her feet. Rose finally put two and two together. “You want to dance with me?” 

“Yes...I mean, if you want...”

Rose smiled broadly and reached for Kaydel Ko’s hand. She let her out to the floor where the numbers were slowly dwindling down. They started swaying together, a blush on both of their cheeks. 

After a few moments, Kaydel Ko murmured, “I’ve wanted to do this all night.” 

“Dance with me?” asked Rose, amazed. “Kaydel Ko, I set this whole thing up so I could dance with you.” 

Kaydel Ko’s eyes widened in realization. Both women smiled, realizing that they had nothing to fear about their feelings for each other. Rose pulled her closer, so their cheeks were touching as they danced. Across the room, she caught Rey’s gaze, and her friend gave her two thumbs up. 

Yes, the Festival of Love had worked it’s magic on the scruffy rebels tonight. 

#star wars #but make it queer #stormpilot #finn/poe #poe dameron/finn #rose tico #rose tico/kaydel ko connix #kaydel ko connix #rey #leia/amilyn #paige tico #paige tico/jessika pava #jessika pava #poe dameron #finn #leia organa #amilyn holdo

[popculturebuffet]

Animation Reviews: OK KO: Red Action to the Future

On to part 3 of Red Action 2 days because my schedule got nuts, and this one.. I was dragging my feet on beause I didn’t remember liking it nearly as much as the rest of the red action trilogy. Now while the same held for “Your Everyone’s Sidekick” I ended up liking that one.. this one... not so much. This one is however earlier in the season than it’s sisters in red action spotlighting: “Back in Red Action” was towards the end of season 1, while “Red Action 3: Grudgement Day” is literally the last episode before the finale arc, something i’d forgotten till today. This one is pretty early into season 2 and the why.. is really easy to figure out. For Season 2 Enid actually got a pretty intensive and long spotlight arc about her time at point prep, with rad and ko only showing up in a portion of it, so late in the season wouldn’t be fair as enid not only had the halloween episode then, but also just had a 7 episode arc basically to herself with Elodie as her co-star and rad and KO out of focus or even absent at times, so they likely did it early to prevent overloading the season with her. Granted they could’ve just had Red show up at school and done one episode there that wasn’t part of it’s overarching story, and still HINTED at the glorb doping arc while she was there, but they may also have not decided which one of the two they wanted Enid to end up with, and thus didn’t want to put her and elodie in the same space. I dunno. We’ll also be covering the POINT arc here eventually, but obviously there’s a lot of episodes to get to first, including the whole gar and carol backstory arc, before we get to that one.  And with that out of the way, let’s take a look at Red Action to the Future, under the cut. 

We open with Red playfully helping KO stock the shelves with new Double Dipped Lazer chips since, as Enid points out, it’s rad’s day off. She can also fire things in her canons , which is neat. It’s also highly noticable that she and KO are now on good terms and the two seem to be friends. Which despite their last interaction really isn’t THAT weird surprisingly: K.O.’s a forgiving kid as long as your not an out and out supervillian, and even earlier this season he was worried about Lord Boxman disappearing despite hating the guy most of the time for good reason. And with her past behind her in the future, Red is likely inclined to be more the fun kind of cool instead of an edgelord asshole, and likely apologized off screen and as we’ll see next time, she genuinely regrets her actions. That being said I do feel we could’ve had an episode with red trying to be better, but I do get the show has a lot of ground to cover, so this was an easier thing to have happen off screen.  Anyways the three are palling around, with red and enid being couply while KO panics when ENid points out his newly beloved double dip lazer chips are probably a limited time thing... ko’s wimpering “no I love them” is so relatable it hurts. But before Red can figure out KO’s snack dillema Yellow Technique yells at red to come home and help, Enid is too worried abotu pressuring her to ask her to stay, and Yellow refuses to let KO and Enid come along for reasons.. and frankly I don’t get that even with possible damage to the timeline. Besides you know, the end of this episode, we also have the fact that you guys HAVE TIME TRAVEL. If they gain a year or two, they’ll still come back and fufill their places in the timeline and you can CONTROL THAT, so if they had to stay longer than a year or needed to be back for something specific, you could bring them back and have two incredibly powerful allies for your war. The x-men have had a good handful of members from the future and look how well that turned out. Some of the time I mean Bishop did turn evil for a while and the younger cable whose around stabbed the older one and rachel went into a coma and then the future but she’s back now.... okay maybe she has a point. 

Anyways Enid regrets her decision, Red comes back for a quick break, with years having now passed, Blue shows up to yell at her to come back which seems.. harsh. Like I know she’s like Killowog, a good person whose probably murder on recurits but seems nice off duty from waht we’ve seen and her happily saying hello to enid, which makes me want an episode where they actuallyv isted the hue troop instead of this SIGH. Anyways, Enid finds a stray time capsule and goes to be honest with red

So now in the post apocalypse, Enid finds Yellow, who got seperated from red as they fight a giant version of the robots they’ve been fighting, with Red showing up just in time. But as with all giant killer robot based future’s they’ve evolved so these things have shields and Enid suggests laaunching her. So red shoots her girlfriend out of her.

And they win.. but Red refuses to let enid stay and gets huffy with her before Enid can tell her the truth and Enid leaves in a huff. Now this scene.. I really liked, from the action sequences to the fact that we see how their similarities, what attracts them to each other, is also a roadblock to them having a proper relationship. Both are stubborn, put walls up , and are reluctant to be honest with their feelings, we’ve seen that with red in the last episode and Enid in the episodes mentioned last time. They both prefer to run from their feelings and while their both growing, as you’ll see when I cover more tom lucitor stuff, it’s not that easy to just “become” a better person and sometimes old habits flair up. 

Enid regrets how things went, KO regrets not learning about chips, and we get one final red visit.. from a much older Red. i’m Dubbing her Cable!Red because A) her timeline probably still exists, it’s just not the one our red is linked to anymore nor the one the plaza future we see would create. She and enid hug and Red explains that it turns out the robots were weak to organic maatter and given they were only shooting at them, they didn’t realize it and it STILL , as shown by the fact Red is grandma age now, took years to fix and she has things to get back to with space congress, war hero stuff and all that. Also just a small note but something I only noticed this time that the episode DOES deserve credit for in my book is Kali Hawk’s voice acting as Red. Noticably with each time we see her red’s voice gets deeper and by future red she sounds entirely grown up. It’s a subtle change most probably wouldn’t of cared about aside from on old red, but it’s a nice touch that really does help theemotional part of the episode. Enid is finally honest about how she felt, and sad about it but understands.. but is also understandably still broken up when Old Woman Red Action leaves.. only for present-day.. ish time travel tenses are weird to pop up behind them has a hug with enid and flirtly says “I never left. “  Turns out Future Red decided to say Screw Destiny and told her past self to stay, what enid felt likely, or got enid to admit it or whatever, and told her to stay and enjoy her youth. She can go back and be a war hero later if she wants. And my honest guest given the Hue Troop turn up fine later is rather than callously abandon her teammates, Red’s future self simply went there for them and , to prevent a decades long war from ravaging her future, pulled a Cable and told them how to defeat the robots YEARS before they got so powerful it’d take years to beat them, as well as probably having knowledge of where they came from, how to kill them all or make peace with them or whatever, and future weapons to help even things. IT’s not an unfair assumption given that besides missing out on a future with Enid, Future Red would also not want her friends to go through untold decades of pain and death and since she changed the timeline already, there was no sense in not going all in. Also the chip thing is resolved with KO finding out they WILL be discontinued.. but replaced with triple dip instead. KO”s delighted and enid and red happily share a moment, the future is now what htey make of it. THE END.  Final Thoughts: As I made plain i’m not a fan of this one.. but in re-watch I did find things to like about it. The time travel story device was used really well,though I would’ve liked them to have old red say she was going to back instead of me having to infer it and feel, given theyd on’t show up at all next time and only show up for a cameo in the finale that the Hue Troop was vastly underulitized and coudl’ve used their own ep, and for once the cancelation dosen’t excuse this as they had the second half of season 2 to do this AND never dealt with Red, who gave up a future war for her, dealing with enid going way for what’s clearly months and was expected to be years. It’s also not very funny , which is fine if the episodes more dramatic like TKO, but for a standard ep it really didn’t quite work. It was just more dull than it should’ve been: it had an intresting hook: red slowly loosing her youth due to a future war, and Enid loosing her because of it, and Red’s cable self deciding to fix that, but it was instead a standard poor commuincation kills plot but with future robot wars. IT’s the first OK KO episode here i’ve reviewed that’s not good and honestly one of the few they had that genuinely wasn’t, and even then it had some good ideas just a flawed execution. Thankfully next time, there’sd none of that as we instead look at one of teh series very BEST episodes. IT’s grudgment day, and until then later.. today hopefully. If not tommorow. 

#ok ko let's be heroes #red action #enid #rednid #red action to the future #yellow technique #blue power #time travel #reviews #ok ko #ko #lbgtq+ #pride month

[shadyb00ts]

How 2020 Turned Me Into A Swiftie Again

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d have not one but two Taylor Swift albums in my year-end favorites list, I would’ve thought you were out of your mind. Then again, stranger things have happened in this hellscape of a year.

I’m really not sure where the first time I heard the phrase “Life is too short to pretend to hate Taylor Swift” was. I have no idea who originated it, but it stuck with me when I started to unpack that about a year ago, during her Lover era. By then, my perception and feelings about Taylor had been very... inconsistent, to say the least. I started out as a full-on stan, then it dwindled from there overtime until I basically became a hater, which then turned into indifference but silent respect. Now, I’m pretty much on the road to becoming a stan again. Revisiting her catalog, analyzing her lyrics, watching interviews, the works. 

I wanted to examine what it was that made my opinions about her go through so many steep rises and falls within this entire decade. Part of it was her shift in musical style that I didn’t quite mesh with, but another part was owning up to the internal biases I had when I was younger and how gullible I was in going along with whatever the media or the popular conscious was saying about her and the kind of person she is. 

I’m somebody who’s incapable of separating art from the artist. I simply don’t listen to artists when I don’t like them as people or don’t agree with their actions. Examples include but are not limited to Kim Petras, Melanie Martinez, Azealia Banks, Grimes, just to name a few. I have my own personal reasons for just not wanting to engage with any of their music, and if you still want to, that’s none of my business.

At some point in my life, I think Taylor got on that list. Looking back on it now, I find that completely ridiculous, because she never really did anything or acted in a way that warranted that reaction out of me. So I wanted to delve into how that even came about in the first place.

With that said, I want to take a trip down memory lane and go back through her eras, and go through the timeline of my strange relationship with Taylor Swift’s body of work as well as her public persona. Fair warning, it’s gonna be really cheesy and emotional at parts, but it is fully my truth. Thank you in advance if you manage to read the whole thing.

Part 1: The Country Era

It’s 2010 and I’m in eighth grade. I’m in an extremely Muslim country, the only son of an extremely Muslim family that enrolled me in an extremely Muslim school. I’m getting bullied by the boys in my class for being too feminine and being ignored by the girls for being a boy. The last close friend I had from elementary school had just moved away the year prior, and I’d never felt more alone in my life.

I was a closeted gay kid still trying to figure himself out and hating who he was. I escaped to cringey online chat sites like IMVU and catfished as a girl, because at the time I thought the only way to get boys to like me and want to be with me was to pretend to be someone else, someone I actually liked.

When I think back on this era, I mostly remember the girls in my class obsessing over these three albums and singing her songs with each other all the time. I desperately wanted to join them and fangirl with them over her music, though of course they never gave me the time of day. I remember I would memorize so many of her songs and write them all down on a special notebook I kept. When I wasn’t paying attention in classes, that’s what I would do; scribble out a collection of all the songs of hers that I knew by heart.

To me, these three albums represented a certain kind of vivid fantasy. Taylor’s songwriting has obviously grown exponentially over the past decade, but even back then she was always so damn good at storytelling and detail, painting you a very clear picture of a scene and placing you right there. For a miserable, self-hating fourteen-year-old gay boy that was always seeking escapism from a homophobic environment, this was the perfect outlet for me to live out a different kind of life, to play pretend.

I honestly can’t explain what it is about her style of songwriting but she always made me feel like I was genuinely experiencing everything she was talking about. Things like kissing in the rain, riding around in the truck of the boy of my dreams in a tiny one horse town, shedding teardrops on a guitar that I definitely didn’t own, experiencing crushing heartbreak. This was stuff that my sheltered ass couldn’t comprehend.

Taylor perfectly captured that ideal, that small town girl with big dreams and storybook romances. I was in love with her discography at the time, having memorized pretty much the entirety of Fearless because that was my favorite of three. Middle school was hell for me, but her music was definitely something that helped me pull through, because she sent my imagination into overdrive.

This was a time in my life where I didn’t really care yet about an artist’s public image or the media’s portrayal of them, It was purely about the music for me. Of course, when looking at these albums now, there were a few questionable choices she made lyrically, I have to admit. Particularly with songs like “Better Than Revenge” and “Innocent”, both having aged terribly with the former being bafflingly misogynistic and the latter being about Kanye. As of my writing this, Taylor is currently in the process of re-recording her old catalog, and I assume that she would skip these two songs in particular, as well as several others that haven’t exactly aged well.

This era really got me through some tough times and she provided much-needed relief for me within each of these three albums. I’ll always have an attachment to them because of the bittersweet memories they represent.

Part 2: Red

Red I decided to put in its own category, because this was kind of a weird era for Taylor. Even back when I was an ignorant teenager that barely had any critical thinking skills, I felt the dissonance of this album and its Max Martin produced singles. This album represented Taylor dipping her toe into pop music, which she made abundantly clear when she decided to release We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together as the lead single.

I actually remember this moment quite clearly. She premiered the single at some kind of fan event that I believe was streamed live on YouTube, and either I watched it live or I watched the full recording of it later on. At the time I remember feeling it was kind of bizarre to hear Taylor adopt this style of music, because it was so drastically different from her previous work and it took me a while to adjust. Obviously I enjoyed pop music at the time as much as I do now, but I just hadn’t been expecting it to come from Taylor. 

Fortunately it was just the three singles that were full pop, and the rest of the album still had her signature DNA and also includes some of her best work. All Too Well, for example, is I think one of the best songs she’s ever made, if not the best. I think if I were introducing Taylor to someone that’s totally unfamiliar with her, that would be my first choice, because it’s a masterwork in songwriting and emotionality.

I do think the thing that irked me the most about this album and era, even to this day, was the lack of cohesion. Of course I figured that she would eventually venture into pop music, but the way in which she did it just felt a bit too jarring to me. Perhaps if the album had a more even distribution of pop songs and country songs, it would’ve been slightly more palatable for me. It’s not even that the three pop songs were bad; they were quite good for their time. Though to be completely honest they’re the songs I barely ever return to any time I listen to Red now. They’re the kind of catchy pop songs where it’s difficult not to get sick of them at a certain point in your life. I’ve grown to really dislike the lead single, and even 22.

Her image was also starting to get much more scrutinized by the media around this time. I think this era probably marked the sharp rise of the “Taylor Swift has too many boyfriends!” argument people loved to throw around. I wish I could say I was smart enough to not buy into that shit at the time, but I wasn’t. While it didn’t bother me, it was something that I wondered about, why she dated and broke up with so many guys at such a young age. It was something that I judged her for. Obviously I didn’t yet understand that it was normal for people her age to date around. Plus it gave her some great material.

By this time, Taylor was making the gradual transition of country sweetheart to pop star, and while Red was kind of a rocky start to that, naturally she managed to pull it off. But not quite flawlessly.

Part 3: The Pop Era

Okay, I have a lot to say about these girls.

I think this era started off strong with 1989. It was a more fully realized version of Taylor’s little pop experiment, and it actually had the cohesion that I needed to be able to fully adapt to this new style she’d cultivated. She wrote yet another one of her best songs with Blank Space, which I like to think was a precursor to Reputation (and dare I say that one song did Reputation’s concept better than that album as a whole?).

However... Shake It Off. I’m sorry, I just hate that song.

WANEGBT, the first single off of Red, isn’t exactly the best song either but it made sense as to why she chose that as the first single. It was to signify her dabbling into pop. Reputation’s first single I also am not the biggest fan of, but again, made perfect sense as an introduction, but I’ll get to that later. Shake It Off, though? For the life of me, I have no idea why this song was the first single. Or to be frank, why it was even on the album at all. 

I’m sorry y’all, I just hate it. Everything about it. The verses, the chorus, the appalling rap bridge. She should’ve kept that song in the drafts and released Blank Space as a first single, and that’s a hill I’m willing to die on. Sorry Shake It Off stans, but I’m sure all three of you will get over it. ❤

That said, 1989 had some excellent songs, and I was finally starting to get used to Taylor doing pop. However, my excitement and enthusiasm for her music started to falter due to my weak mind at the time once again getting swayed by the media. 

This time, I began to see Taylor as someone that seemed to be very calculated and conniving in the way she curated her image. Something that didn’t sit well with me was the “girl squad” stuff, and how all of the women she surrounded herself with were essentially these supermodels with unattainable beauty standards, and also believing the rumors about how certain famous women were given private requests to join Taylor’s “squad”. And then of course, the Kim and Kanye thing happened. #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty trended worldwide, and that was probably my earliest exposure to an instance of a celebrity getting canceled, so I was just happy to join the bandwagon. My opinion of her shifted like that, and it’s crazy to think about it now, how I barely had the capacity to form my own opinions and was easily influenced by everything I heard.

Despite me kind of joining the Taylor hate train, I did like Reputation as a concept. I liked how she disappeared from the public eye and came back being like, “You want me to be the villain? The snake? Fine.” Look What You Made Me Do, as I mentioned before, was the perfect choice for the first single despite the song itself being sonically....not the best. The music video and the line about how the old Taylor couldn’t come to the phone was an iconic moment in pop culture, I have to admit that.

I didn’t listen to the album as a whole until later, though. I was having my own hang-ups about Taylor that I think are silly now, but at the time when I didn’t like an artist I would mostly avoid their work. When I did listen to the album, though, I thought it was... okay. There’s one standout track to me and that is Getaway Car, and it’s the only song from Reputation I can say I fully adore to pieces. The other songs on there I either just like, or I find to be meh at best. (Also I know Ready For It is objectively a bad song but I really enjoy the chorus, don’t @ me, @ god)

A few years later, Lover happened and.... Once again, horrible first single. ME! is a genuinely atrocious song, and I have no idea how esteemed, prolific songwriter Taylor Swift managed to reach a point where she had a song with the phrase “spelling is fun!” in it. I feel the exact same way about this song as I do about Shake It Off. It had no business being in the album whatsoever.

As far as Lover the album goes, this came out around the time where I was kind of feeling indifferent toward Taylor (which is hilarious if you know what the first track on it is). I was much more politically aware and had learned not to put too much faith in white women, and I was focusing on other artists so much that Lover barely even came onto my radar. I listened to it once, thought it was meh, and moved on. I revisited it earlier this year and realized I was a bit too harsh on it the first time around. Sure it was her weakest album overall, but it wasn’t bad by any means. It was perfectly alright, and there were songwriting moments within it that were still quite strong. The title track and also Miss Americana comes to mind as standouts.

She started to become more vocal politically around this time. A lot of people thought it was too little too late, which was a fair point. However to me it made sense that she stayed tight-lipped about politics when she was younger, considering she was operating within the realm of country music. Plus, upon watching her documentary, it was pretty clear she had old white men behind the scenes telling her what she should or shouldn’t say, to make sure she maintained that all-American country girl sweetheart image. Still, I do agree with the people who thought that she should’ve used her platform sooner.

Oh and for the record, I think You Need to Calm Down is a terrible song. The video was cute, and the message behind it is fine, but I just hate it sonically.

At this point my interest in Taylor was probably at an all time low. The era started off strong with 1989, but it progressively got weaker. She just wasn’t really giving me much in terms of lyricism, and her pop productions were starting to blend together to the point where a lot of them were sounding very same-y. Lover to me marked the point of stagnation in her music; it was solid enough, but it just wasn’t going anywhere. We’ve seen Pop Taylor, she was cute for a while, but what else? Where does she go from here?

Well... She went into the woods.

Part 4: The Cottagecore Sisters

When I heard about Taylor dropping a surprise album, I suppose I was intrigued. She is one of the few artists that are successful enough to be able to make a move like that and cause a lot of buzz and excitement. I didn’t think much about it though, because my 2020 at that time was still inundated with SAWAYAMA and Ungodly Hour on repeat. On a whim, though, I decided to listen to it one day, not expecting much out of it.

Earlier when I was talking about her country era, I mentioned that Taylor’s storytelling and her penchant for detailed descriptions were my favorite parts of her writing. Her innate ability to transport me into other worlds, to provide escapism when my life became too much to deal with. I feel like these aspects were missing in the several years that Taylor focused on pop music. There were flashes of it in some of her later work, sure, but very few. She was becoming a huge mega superstar and her songs started to lose that sense of relatability that had been easy for me to latch on too. These things definitely contributed to my loss of interest for her work in general.

And then Folklore managed to bring me back to that place of fantasy I described before, but heightened. Elevated. Evolved. This is why I think that Folklore is Taylor Swift’s magnum opus.

Storytelling is without a doubt her strongest skill as an artist. To be able to construct not just a narrative but an entire world through songs is not something anyone can pull off. Throughout her pop era, there was always that something missing because I knew that she was capable of more. I couldn’t explain it well back then, but despite her penmanship still being commendable during those years, it still felt oddly lackluster. I knew she could do better, but I didn’t have the proof yet.

This is it. Both Folklore and Evermore showcase exactly what I knew she was capable of. This is Taylor Swift at her most creative, at her full power.

I think in a recent interview I watched (though I can’t remember which one), even she herself acknowledged how it would’ve been a disservice to continue strictly writing autobiographical songs, and so she decided to write from the perspectives of multiple different characters while also occasionally inserting herself and her life experiences into these narratives. She essentially created her own folklore and managed to make me invested in characters that don’t even exist.

I have to talk about the love triangle trilogy: cardigan, august and betty. It’s a testament to her songwriting ability that these fictional characters feel like real people. The story of Betty, James and Augusta/Augustine is just so well done to the point where I forget that it’s Taylor Swift singing. When I listen to these songs, I am fully imagining the characters she conjured up. 

The song that I find the most profound out of the three, and also happens to be my favorite song on the album, is august. To me, it is the most heartbreaking song out of all of them. I relate so much to that girl who’s hopelessly in love with someone that just doesn’t give a shit about them and is merely using her for a summer fling. And it’s not even like I’ve experienced something similar to this in real life, Taylor just somehow made it relatable with the sheer power of her pen game. It’s even more heartbreaking considering we don’t know what happened to this girl, if she ever managed to find happiness, because in the Long Pond Sessions Taylor mentioned that Betty and James eventually got back together. They got their happy ending, but what happened to Augustine?

I can’t believe she’s got me this deep in my feelings over non-existent teenagers, I swear to god.

Just when I thought Folklore was going to be the end of this new side of her for a while, she releases Evermore in December, its sister album. While I don’t think it’s quite as strong as Folklore, it still delivered immensely in terms of lyricism, productions and vocals. Evermore’s release pretty much solidified the realization that I was basically becoming a Swiftie again, a whole decade later.

I was embarrassed by that thought at first, but honestly now I’m at a point where I don’t think there’s anything to be embarrassed about. Taylor is too skilled of a songwriter for me to consider her a guilty pleasure. I just needed something to help me come to that conclusion, and these two albums did just that. She finally gave to me what I was waiting for.

Final Thoughts

I don’t really stan artists the same way I used to now, which I mentioned previously in my review of Chromatica. I don’t deify them or hold them to an impossible moral standard they could never live up to anymore. I see them as flawed human beings that have the capacity to make great art. So when I say I’m becoming a Swiftie, I’m still fully aware that Taylor Swift is a thirty-one year old rich white woman who is bound to have shortcomings and missteps as a person. In my mind, she hasn’t done anything drastic enough or stupid enough for me to become uncomfortable in listening to her work. I had my own ideas about how she could’ve been fake, conniving, manipulative or whatever else the media was trying to convey about her, but there really is no way of knowing who she truly is as a person.

Celebrities and influencers have the power to curate their image however they want. The relationships they have with us, the audience, are entirely parasocial, so of course we base our judgments of them based on very limited knowledge, or just the surface-level view of what they’re like. I don’t know if Taylor is as down to earth and genuine as she appears to be now, and I honestly don’t need to know. If she does things I disagree with or acts a certain way that deserves criticism, of course I’d still call her out, and depending on the severity of what it was she said or did, it might end up with me not wanting to engage with her work anymore.

But the reality is, as a person, I’ve realized that she is just fine. I was holding on to a certain idea of her in my head where I think at one point I dubbed her “the Anne Hathaway of music”, meaning someone that comes across too perfect to the point where it seems calculated and disingenuous. But honestly, I just don’t feel that way about her anymore. I don’t feel particularly attached to her as a person, either. 

But I do feel an attachment to her music. At the end of the day, that’s where I’m standing now when it comes to her. I don’t have any expectations or delusions about her as a human being, and I’m not going to remain devoted to her if she does something dumb, but I believe that she is an insanely gifted artist who has written so many songs that genuinely speak to me and make me feel intensely. She lost me for a while, but now I’m right back in it.

So yeah, like I said in the beginning of the post, life’s too short to pretend to hate Taylor Swift. I’d rather just pretend to live in a mystical small town as a sad gay witch. And I’m at peace with that.

#taylor swift #taylor swift eras #folklore #evermore #swifties

[utopianvoices]

dating au | c.jongho

⤗ check my masterlist for other members!

how he acts around you

tbh he’s really normal around you

the most normal out of all the members, i’d say

the chances of you developing a crush on him before he does is highly likely

doesn’t mean he likes you any less though

he might be the youngest in the group but definitely doesn’t lose out when it comes to maturity

when you first got to know him you were so surprised at how mature he was

reason one why you started to like him

reason two was because of how he treated you

always did things for you, like it was second nature to him

if you have dinner over at their dorm, he’ll instinctively clear the plate for you when you’re done

if you’re one of the last few left eating he’ll eat slower to keep you company

or just sits there with you and keeps you entertained while you’re eating

he wouldn’t even realise that he had fallen you

till he saw you in the morning one day

you had stayed over at the dorm because your movie night the previous day had extended longer than expected

and him being the gentleman he was, insisted that you had to stay over because he didn’t want you going back home alone at that time

lets you take his bed while he slept on the floor beside you

even though you insisted that you didn’t mind taking the couch outside

wakes up earlier than you and just looks over at you to make sure you’re comfortable 

and that’s when he sees how peaceful you look when you’re sleeping

even if there was drool all over face and your hair all over the place

he’d think you were the most beautiful

and finally comes to terms with his feelings for you

nothing changes actually

he just continues being the Good Boy he is

so you’ll have absolutely no idea that he returned your feelings

how he confesses

plans everything out to the tee

banishes the other boys from the dorm

and texts you, asking you to come over for a movie night

of course you agree right away

who would give up on a chance to see their crush 

ahem anyway

sets everything up beforehand

makes popcorn, grabs the fluffiest and cleanest pillow and blankets

even begs san to lend him his plushies

and boy had to beg

so you are greeted by the softest sight ever when you walk into the dorm

with all the plushies (except shiber, because san refused to let anyone other than him touch shiber)

and pillows set up perfectly

you don’t really suspect anything because you just think that it was him having some extra time to put all this together

“where are the rest?”

“uH they went to the pool.”

“.......at 8pm?”

jongho’s brain: (ﾟДﾟ;)

“tIME IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT, Y/N!!”

and you’re like “damn okay.....”

you’re shocked when the movie plays because it’s a romcom

not the usual action or thriller movie you both watched

“interesting movie choice” 

“ha hA HA thanks”

what was up with the awkward vibe

i’m writing it and even i can’t stand it

halfway through the movie and you can’t handle it

so you press pause on the movie and turn to the boy beside you

and he just stares at you like a deer caught in headlights

“what’s up with you??? you’ve been acting weird since the time i came! did i do something?”

and boy panics because he was only supposed to confess at the end of the movie

now that his timeline was met with some unexpected changes, he was wrecking his brain for the right words

finally just takes in a deep breath and confesses to you

“actually i called you over to tell you something important.”

and you nod your head, signalling that he had your full attention

“i don’t know how obvious i’ve been but i really like you and i would love it if you gave me a chance to go out with you.”

if you weren’t so happy, you would have probably been embarrassed at how loudly and quickly you said ‘yes’

but at the end of the day it didn’t matter because you scored one of the best boyfriends ever

＼(★^∀^★)��

first date

i hope you don’t mind sounding like a dying whale beside your boyfriend

because boy would definitely want to bring you for karaoke

actually spends so much time thinking of what he wants to do with you

for a first date

will discuss seriously with the other members to make sure he chooses well

after getting idiotic and useless suggestions from them 

he just decides on a simple date to karaoke and then dinner afterwards

wakes up earlier than usual to make sure that he looks good

because baby wants to impress

even checks the weather forecast to make sure that he’s prepared for anything that could happen

if it was forecasted to rain later in the evening, will bring an umbrella with him and pray you don’t bring an umbrella

he wants to be all romantic and share an umbrella with you under the pouring rain uwu

(´ω｀*)

books everything like the karaoke room beforehand so that the date goes as smoothly as possible

mostly because he doesn’t know what he’ll do if something unexpected happens

sO anyways

during the date, will pick the most romantic songs to sing

is pretty shy the first few songs

but he’ll gain some courage and start to look at you while singing the songs

looks at you with such sincerity that you can’t help but look away because of how flustered you were starting to feel

boy’s basically serenading you with his beautiful voice the whole time

when it was your turn, you’d refuse at first

literally who wants to sing after a vocal god has sung

but will somehow convince you to sing at least one song

if you’re a good singer, he’ll just listen and watch you in awe

if you weren’t so confident in your singing, he’d sing along with you

but would just make a fool out of himself so that you’d feel more comfortable singing with/infront him

after singing till your throats are sore, he’d bring you to a small diner around the corner

10/10 the type to be cliche and wipe your mouth if there was something there

he’d just slowly reach out while whispering a “you’ve got something.... right there...”

aND you’re dying because?? stop being so goddamn perfect

walks you back when you’re done and makes sure you’re not cold

if you’re cold, he wouldn’t give you his jacket

instead, he’ll just wrap his arms around your shoulder and pull you against him

letting his body heat warm you up

and it is a win-win-win situation

1st win: he doesn’t feel cold after giving you his jacket

2nd win: he gets to hold you close to him

3rd win: you’re not cold anymore too!!

first kiss

romantic asf

he just seems like the most romantic out of all the members tbh

let’s just pretend it was cold weather for the sake of this

it’ll probably happen during the fourth-ish date

you’ll be at the park

taking a walk, hand in hand

talking about whatever that came to your minds

when suddenly he stops, hands still intertwined with yours

so naturally it causes you to stop too

when you turn around to ask him what happened

he lets go of your hands and wraps them around the ends of your scarf

his heartbeat picking up pace as he looks at your confused face

he can literally feel his whole body filling up with love as he looks at you

and so he gently pulls the ends of your scarf closer to him

which makes you move closer to him

and finally he just dips his head and connects your lips together

involuntarily smiling into the kiss as your face flashes in his mind

literally all he can think about is you and it really translates into the kiss

if you’ve never been kissed before, this was for sure the best first kiss anyone could ever ask for

even if it wasn’t your first kiss it might as well the best kiss ever

boy kNOWS what he’s doing 

and is so gentle about it

as you pull away to catch your breath, he just rests his forehead against yours

his eyes boring into yours as he takes in every emotion displayed clearly in your eyes

and he’s sure that all his eyes hold are love for you

what the FUCK i just bias wrecked myself writing this

first fight

i can see him being slightly insecure in relationships

because i don’t think he has much experiences

and all he knows are from watching movies and dramas

and because of this insecurity of the unknown, it might translate to miscommunications between the both of you

which might lead to fights

the first time the both of you had a fight was when you were not answering any of his texts or calls

which was weird because you ALWAYS answered them or at least called back quickly

cue worried boyfriend

hits up all your friends on social media asking if they had any clue where you were

and is even more worried when he gets negative answers from all of them

is about to leave to your house when he sees one of your friend’s stories from a few hours ago

and stops dead in his track

because it’s a picture of both of you at a party and you hadn’t told him anything about a party

all but marches over to your house and bombards you with questions the moment you open the door

doesn’t really care about the tone in which he was speaking which triggers you too

so it becomes a full blown argument

“why didn’t you tell me you were going to a party?? i’ve never said no so why?? were you doing something you shouldn’t have or do you just not trust me enough to tell me where you are now?”

and you just retaliate with a 

“maybe if you shut up and listened to me, you would’ve known that the picture was taken weeks ago and that i’ve been sick!!”

....... cue the silence

“w-what?”

finally realises how sick you look and the occasional cough you let out

he’s filled with guilt from head to toe and honestly kind of just crumbles to the ground

wouldn’t approach you till you initiate it because he will feel like he doesn’t deserve your love anymore

takes it way harder than you do tbh

might let out a few tears even

so you’ll just sigh and join him on the floor, rubbing his back while whispering things like “it’s okay”, while he just cries while apologising into your shoulder

you two take the time to talk about whatever insecurities or issues you had and make sure you tackle them together one by one

will learn that conflicts can be avoided if talked about

so he never jumps to conclusion from then on

and fights are pretty much rare after the first few ones

favourite things to do together

oOoooO he loves to go grocery shopping with you

don’t ask me why

he just does

it’s the most wholesome, domestic thing to do and he lives for it

walks hand in hand with you to the store, swinging them back and forth like little children

if he’s in a playful mood, will put you in the cart and push you around

until a worker has to tell y’all off because.... excuse me..... you’re grown adults

smh

has a list pre-written before the trip but ends up getting everything and anything other than the ones on the list

you have to calm him down and make sure you’ve gotten the necessary items

before going crazy again and picking up all the junk food in the world

honestly how haven’t the both of you burst

oh, yes that’s because he literally drags you to the gym when he goes

and the first few times you were so adamant on not working out with him

but after a while you got so bored that you just decided to play around with the small equipment and bAM you both were now workout buddies

if the gym was empty 

he’d definitely be all cliche and do pushups with you underneath him, booping your noses every time he went down

and then would also proceed to show off his strength by doing squats while carrying you

is really extra basically

but you still swoon on the inside because the inner girl in you is screaming at your big and powerful boyfriend

♡(ŐωŐ人)

general affection

you know how he avoids kisses from the rest like they have some illness or something

is the exact opposite with you

whatever kisses his members fail to give him, you’re gonna have to do it

number one at whining

WILL whip out some aegyo if you still refuse to give in 

loves back hugging you

somehow it just makes him feel like he can protect you from anything, even for that short period of time

you’re making food? expect a wild jongho to attach himself to you 

deciding what to wear for the day? you’re attacked from the back

trying to sleep? he’s the big spoon

just basically loves to engulf you in his arms

will seriously stay in that position for hours if you both didn’t have adult responsibilities to attend to

so when you get a day off, expect to have a overgrown baby attached to you with super super glue

i’d say kisses and hugs with him happen on the same frequency

if he hugs you, he’ll go in for a kiss right after

or if he kisses you, will end it off with a hug

have i already mentioned that he’s a romantic fool

yes, multiple times

somehow even when he’s kissing you, is able to be the most gentleman about it

completely opposite from the rough and tough, strong man image he portrays

i don’t ever see him being rough about it

always gives you sweet and soft kisses

the kind which makes you smile

doesn’t get jealous often, but if he does..... oh boy

you in for a ride

kisses become very possessive and you honestly just have a hard time breathing

will nOT allow your lips to be separated for more than three seconds

if you complain that you can’t breathe

he’ll just call you a weakling and go back for another kiss

like okay damn we know you trained not to breathe when singing but others aren’t vocal legends like you jongho

does this thing where he throws you over his shoulder and walks around the house 

you know

casually

does this mostly when you don’t hit his ‘give me attention’ quota for the day

so he steals the attention from you

drops you on the couch and just does his best to squeeze onto the small ass couch that was clearly not made for two

doesn’t care

if there isn’t enough space for the two of you to lay side by side, will just drag you onto him while he lies on the couch

if you complain about being too heavy, he will just say “these were meant for holding you” pointing to his muscles

oMg loves loves to flex in front of you

i mean not like you don’t see his muscles every single day

but will still walk around sleeveless just to feed his ego when he sees you not so subtly staring at him 

in summary, has so many different moods but you love all moods equally

best boyfriend ever

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #choi jongho imagines #choi jongho scenarios #choi jongho #dating au series #dee scribbles #highkey bias wrecked myself writing this #gREAt #like i didn't already have enough on my plate biasing satan's spawn #dammit

[songsorter28]

Blackpink: The Album Review

Okay, this is the first time i’ve done this and the truth is i don’t know how, so i’ll just try my best.

First of all: I am a Jennie biased blink. That means I have no trustworthy sense of criticism when it comes to them and if you do, this is probably not the place for you. I will try to talk about this album with a sense of criticism, but sometimes, i’m just gonna like a song because it’s blackpink and y’all just gotta deal with it.

BUT, I am not afraid of saying i don’t like things that the pinks have said it to like, which is actually how i’m starting this review. So, if you guys are all about loving the girls and emotion and “think about how they must feel” this is a decision made by the girls, this place is also not for you either. I am a blink and i share a lot of love for those four women, but i am also a consumer of their work as artists. I will complain if I didn’t get something I thought was necessary as a viewer and listener for my money and attention to be spent. I will not, of course, hate on them in any way.

Ok, before anything:

1) English isn’t my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes. 2) Here, we’re gonna talk about the cover, pre-release single choices, writing credits, tracklist and my honest opinion about the album as a whole.

a) The Cover:

There’s not a lot to talk about but the fact that it’s gorgeous, but simple. I didn’t understand why a crown if the name was The Album (something unoriginal to be honest, but i’m not 100% against it) and there’s no reference to royalty throughtout the album besides maybe Jennie’s rap “didn’t want to be a princess”. I did find the cover visually pleasing tho, could be much more embarrasing.

b) Writing credits and Track List:

This one is quick. I’m extremely glad Jennie and Jisoo were credited as songwriters (Jennie as well as a composer) but Teddy gotta give Danny Chung to god. He hates rapper Jennie and he’s the reason Lisa doesn’t write. He’s always in charge of the raps so teddy gets confortable and Lisa doesn’t get a chance to write her own verses, which is something the sure thing cover showed us she can do. Also, he hates rapper Jennie to the point where she had to write her rap on the title track (wich is good, but, you know what i mean) and wasnt even given a chance to write more than 8 seconds. Melanie I hope this is the last time you were here. Loren you can stay. Tommy and Ryan yall were cute we had fun but it’s over let’s move one (seriously, these producers really made me appreciate Teddy more lmao pls sir never leave us). Okay that’s it. Now, to the track list.

I will be talking about the fact this shouldn’t even be called a full album on the My Honest Opinion About The Album As A Whole topic.

1. How You Like That

I say my opinion more detailed on the next topic but at at essence. Cute. A good opener to the album and what is to come, but too much of a bside to even be a pre release single.

6.5/10

2. Ice Cream

Again, my opinion it’s on the next topic. Cute song. Loved Chaennie’s high notes and wish i didn’t know english so the rap didnt sound that silly. Not as bad as blinks and non blinks make it out to be. 

6.12/10

3. Pretty Savage

I kinda also talked about that in the next topic lmao. It has everything a blackpink song should have. There’s been some controversy about Lisa “born skinny bitch” but Lisa was talking about herself since she has been body shamed through her whole career. She was right and she should say it. You’re entitled to feel uncomfortable but that’s just the thing she wasn’t talking about me or you. She was taking her pain and wearing like an armor. This was a diss track for the haters. Taking that away from her because of our own issues it’s kinda mistreating hers.

8.82/10

4. Bet You Wanna

Yes you guessed it right I talk more about it next topic. It’s a bop. Loved Jennie here. She has such a versatile voice I was very proud to hear her. And Cardi was also good. Just hope Lisa will get her rap part live cause she didn’t have much lines here. But I loved Jenlisa’s brigde. Rosé’s adlibs peak perfection and Jisoo’s chorus and english that’s what i’m talking about. The chorus can be a little repetitive and it kinda ends a bit suddenly but it doesnt bother me much.

8.37/10

5. Lovesick Girls

WHAT TO SAY ABOUT THIS MASTERPIECE OTHER THAN BEST BLACKPINK TITLE TRACK? Love that for me. It was so different than anything they��ve done so far, the lyrics were AMAZING, the message behind it also, the visuals in the MV, storylinne, RAPPER JENNIE OMG, she got the most memorable line “didn’t want to be a princess, i’m priceless” i love her tf the shade to the yg princess title and her scene in the car and in the mental hospital(will not touch on the controversies cause that was annoying) also Lisa’s rap/singing with a flow in the begining her voice OMG I WAS SHOOKEDT. Jisoo’s high note in the brigde? Rosé?? perfect.

10/10

6. Crazy Over You

Rapper Jennie for the last time with a 8 second rap again but LET’S BE POSITIVE. A bop. I loved the i. went. crazy. over. you. I love the lyrics. It bother a bit this much english but it’s bp’s idendity so i’m fine with it.

8.5/10

7. Love To Hate Me

This was a predictable song in the best possible way. Easily one of their best songs. There’s honestly nothing left to say. Also. Lisa’s rap. Maybe Danny Chung deserves some points. It even felt like she was a feat in the song like her flow yall just perfection.

9.4/10

8. You Never Know.

Great song I left with depression.

I like how this album talks with haters and blinks, it really shows a different side from the pinks. Only a few know the emotion Jennie starting off “but you never know unless you walk in my shoes [...] cause everybody sees what they wanna see, it’s easier to jugde it than to believe”. It was written by Loren, a close friend from the girls and the boy who’s Jenlichaeng  boyfriend in the LSG’s MV and Bekuh Boom, a producer who’s been with them for really long, but if anyone got a conspirancy theory that they were involved in the songwriting process of the song, sign me up. You don’t need proves. I believe you. ALSO JISOO GOT MOST LINE ON THIS ONE and we got singer Lisa. After a while, it become my favorite song from the album. Now, it’s my favorite song from their discography. Debate your mother.

9.62/10

c) Pre-Release single Choices: 

I can’t stress about this enough. Whoever was in charge for the single choices needs to go to jail. Not that HYLT is bad (at all) but comparing to the rest of the songs, it look MUCH more like a powerful bside than Love To Hate Me and Pretty Savage ever will. I will lecture later how Pretty Savage was the perfect choice to first release single, just wait. Now, to the controversial Ice Cream. To be honest, i found the song super cute and i think the MV was one of their best. It was different and refreshing, love that for me. But the whole sequence of events that turned out to that disasterous twitter timeline, with constant attacks to the girls especially Lisa over things they cannot control such as line distribuition and a sabotage from antis on yt comment section, was something I kinda already saw it coming. Ice Cream is Blackpink’s most successful single to date, but it was a bad choice from the start (I will talk about that in a second). For starters, YG decided not to promote the song well. While announcing the single, they gave us a poster with pictures from a summer package released months before. And each week they kept doing that, only using actual teaser photos in the release week. The hype was pretty much out. I can’t say my timeline is 100% blink because i have way too many fandoms that i’ve been following for longer than i’ve known kpop, but compared to the HYLT hype, they were pretty down and that’s on YGE. Also, ever since coachella, it’s been antecipated by fans and artists the possibility of a Blackpink x Ariana Grande (one of the most popular singes these last couple of years). The idea of an Aripink collab got blinks (who were already with an eye wide open after Blackpink was seen with Tommy Brown, Ari’s basically oficial producer, who has been producing for her ever since her second album and was reponsible for many hits of her latest project, Thank U, Next, such as 7 rings and Thank U, Next) even more hyped when YG announced (one of those old photoshoot posters. I’m sorry I will never let that go that company is so trash) that Blackpink’s second release was going to be a collaboration with a western artist, and Ariana herself like Jennie’s instagram post about the next single. I cannot put in words the reaction of my twitter timeline when YG confirmed that the collab was actually with Selena Gomez. 

Now, on a more personal note. 

You see, I actually like Selena. I like her songs, besides the critics. Perfect is pop perfection. Waverly Place is the best disney show ever since That’s So Raven. But, to a collab made to the US market, and besides the success of Rare, Selena isn’t a sales force like Adele or Taylor Swift, nor a streaming force like Ariana Grande. Nothing takes my theory that this was supposed to be an aripink collab but, for some reason, she dipped and then interscope (blackpink us label and selena’s label) picked her. Selena showed us a good time and promoted the girls more than YGE did but, it wasn’t a surprise when the song didn’t get a top 10 (a top 13 is really good tho, don’t get me wrong). 

Now back to the story telling

Selena was more than a feat, she sang the whole damn song, getting more vocal lines the the entire vocal line. She’s only a few seconds behind Lisa, who got the most lines in general. I understand that it is a collab, but this is the girls’ single. Why would they want to listen to them for only 16 seconds, the amount of time Rosé got? That set a bunch of solo stans (something that exists more in this fandom than everywhere else) to boycoitt the release, a huge fansite even taking out their funds for the full album (that was low, even for a solo account. JisooBar, you aint seeing heaven). Did i think it was a little of overeacting? As someone who’s an army that had to handle Not Today’s line distribuition, and especially since we’re talking about the main vocalist, someone who will for sure have more lines in the future (as she did), kinda. But, like i said, it was a bomb getting ready to explode at any minute. If it wasn’t that it’d be something else. That being said, NOTHING will ever justify the nastyness y’all did with Lisa and even Jennie’s comment section. Nothing. That was ridiculous even for solo stans. BUT for people who got worried about Lisa’s lack of posts after the release, don’t worry. She didn’t post a lot because Thailand is going through some stuff and I don’t think she has YGe’s permission to talk about it (when I catch the ones in power on that company istg). 

Wow, that was long. At essence, it  was a bad choice for several reasons, but i enjoyed the song a lot. Can’t wait for the live performances with chaesoo’s lines.

Now, back to HYLT. It was greatly promoted, it stopped Zico’s (huge in korea) releases and a bunch of other big artists in South Korea. Got 7 Perfect All-Kills and would’ve gotten more than 12 if the charts weren’t reforming at the time. It also broke a lot of records, and repeated Sour Candy’s position on the bb100 on #33. It’s another very Blackpink song that  I enjoyed but kinda aged. Many non blinks didn’t like it but it’s not like they were ever going to admit they liked a bp song. They’re annoying. The song’s biggest problem is probably the 2015 edm in the chorus. Like. Teddy. You gotta let that go. It’s time. He kinda heard us in the album. But, these kinds of songs are very liked by the general public, especially the korean one. An interview was made asking the general public if blackpink should change concepts and they said a bit fat no. So that tells what you need to know. And that it why i think Pretty Savage should have been the first pre release single. 

Okay, let me tell you another series of event. Back on november 2019, when we were starving because YGe does not like money, BlackpinkBar, a big fansite, payed trucks to be sent to YG building during a whole day demanding for better treatment to Blackpink. You can find all the demands online, but at essence, when it came to music related, blinks always mention: Jisoo’s lines, screen time and blackpink in your area, Main Rapper Jennie, Lisa dance break, Rosé’s high note. On HYLT, we got nothing. And everyone had to shrug it off saying it was just a pre release single, BUT it would be better hyped by blink and the hype to the second pre release would’ve lasted longe if PRETTY SAVAGE, who has basically all of that, was the pre release single. It would’ve assured us of so much. Jisoo said bp in your area twice, she RAPPED, she was singing, she could’ve had more screetime and center time especially bc she’s on all chorus. Jennie Main Rapper would go back and we wouldn’t have to be blue balled (which caused the ice cream meltdown)every single release and only having to wait till the title track and only to have a 8 SECOND RAP. I won’t talk about that now. Moving on. Rosé wouldn’t get a high note, but she would’ve gotten the brigde all to herself and the next pre release single, bet you wanna (wait for it), she would get those incredible adlibs. And Lisa’s dance break. Not only this is bp’s most danceable song and has a bunch of lisa’s raps, it also has jennie’s outro, where for a least 20 seconds lisa could’ve thrived. Yall we were robbed.

Now, real quick, back to Ice Cream. In a perfect world (or just a world where YG’s current ceo) had brains, if they wanted a collaboration to show the pink side of blackpink, with a poppy song and sassy lyrics, the artist not to be in the whole song, and to have an artist who would driven attention from the locals and is a big streaming force, THEY WOULD’VE CHOSEN BET YOU WANNA. My biggest problem with bet you wanna is Lisa’s lack of lines, which could cause stuff and well we just miss her they could have added a rap even for 8 seconds, BUT, seeing her all around pretty savage and knowing she’s gonna have Cardi’s rap during live performances would cool things down. Since we were in the middle of a pandemic, instead of a mv like ice cream where they had to do it separately, they could’ve done something like IU’s eight. A huge part in animation and a few with people. Literally YG why are you so dumb. Bye.

d)  My Honest Opinion About The Album As A Whole:

I did some math (lol) and my rank for The Album is 8.4. It’s easily one of the best releases from this year and I loved it so much, but something were left to be desired and i think i could pass everything and just turn a blind eye at things, except one: the fact we waited for 4 years, watched all ggs and yg groups getting comebacks last semester and only got 8 songs. Loona is releasing a mini album with that amount of songs. Stray Kids and BTS’s mini albums are longer than that. It was bad enough KTL had 4 songs and a remix (a joke) with 2 songs lacking raps and no rapper jennie only for them to carry YG’s dirty name after what their protected boys did. I legit hate it here they didn’t even had 30 minutes, their longest song wasn’t even 4 minutes. Also, before anyone says anything about the girl’s interview about quality over quantity. I’d like to say that i understand them having that when it comes to have one comeback a year and i’m honestly okay with that. But their first full album? 8 songs? Are you kidding me? Like I said, I’m a consumer. I refuse to receive this half assed excuse about quality over quantity when they had more than enough time to produce and write more than 8 quality songs? what, is impossible to write more than one song per moth? these songs have formulas, they can be made more than 8 times. A blackpink album its more than a thousand reals here. That 90% of a sallary. And please don’t come with the “if you don’t want it just don’t buy it” “you can just unstan them” bc that’s not the case. I love their songs. I love the girls. But I’m a consumer of their art and if they want to be takend seriously as artists, they gotta do more than 8 songs on a full album. It’s unfair to anyone that isn’t a diehard fan willing to sell out an overpriced photobook in hours. That’s not the only kind of fan blackpink needs. they need the store locals, the people who are not on twitter or tumblr or instagram. Cause those locals are gonna stay like they stayed with adele and taylor swift. stan twitter is much more likely to leave them with time.

Side note: I’m tired of commenting on rapper Jennie so I’ll just say Jennie deserves better than 8 second raps as the main rapper of the group. That doesnt mean I want Lisa to not rap or to Jisoo not to sing, as many will say bc apparently that’s what people hear when we say main rapper who trained for 6 years to be a main rapper should rap on at least most title tracks even if not on all songs.

But yeah, that’s it. Besides the unfortunate final note, I loved The Album and now Blackpink it’s my second most listened artist of all time. They were top 13 before the album.

#Blackpink Jisoo Jennie Rosé Lisa TheAlbum The Album AlbumReview Album Review Kpop

[firesoulstuff]

Begin Again

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22530607

Behrad likes to think of the weirdness that comes with being a Legend as an integral part of the adventure. Alternate timelines and magical creatures? It’s all part of the reason he signed up. The other part at the time was, you know, if he didn’t Kuasa probably would’ve killed him within a week but he definitely stayed for the adventure.

Sure, he knows alternate timelines can get messy. He’s seen Stein accidently create a daughter, Amaya debate the pros and cons of leaving the ship, and Ray vanish before his eyes because of a lost alien baby. So up until this morning he would’ve said yes if asked if he’s ever been personally affected by a changing timeline, of course he has.

Now he knows that would’ve been a lie.

He takes a deep breath as he rounds the corner into the engine room. He had checked his room for her, and then even Nate’s, and then Charlie’s, but Zari wasn’t any of those places. But she is here, in the hideaway he likes to claim as his own whenever he wants to be alone. He hasn’t mentioned that to her.

She looks up as he approaches, her eyes drawn first to his face and so he gives her a tight grin, and then she looks down to the dab pen in his hand.

“Wanna hit?” He offers, holding the pen out to her.

She smiles, small and humoring, and takes the pen and twirls it around in her fingers before she looks back up at him.

“You know, I don’t think a timeline has ever existed where you haven’t been a stoner.”

He chuckles, and as she takes her hit he ducks his head under the overhanging pipe and sits down next to her. She passes the pen back to him as she breathes out a short cloud of vapor, and he smiles to himself. They’ve never done this before. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure coming in here if she smokes, even if this isn’t technically smoking. He’d taken a gamble, and he’s glad he did; this is nice.

He takes a hit himself and sits back, as much as he can against the pipes running behind them anyway. She keeps her focus on the ground as he blows out a much longer stream. Maybe she only took the hit for the purpose of humoring him, which wouldn’t bother him. In fact it might even be considered a step in the right direction; she’s never humored him before.

“So.” He says, tapping his hands on his legs. “What I got from all that is in the old timeline, you were me.”

She hums, “Minus being stoned as often as Rory is drunk.” She amends for him, “And prettier.”

He laughs, and there’s a teasing little twinkle in her eye he doesn’t think he’s seen in a long time.

“I’ll accept the first one, not my fault you don’t know how to unwind in any reality. But the second? We both know I’m the pretty one.”

She laughs as he raises his eyebrows at her and so dose he, trying to drink all of this moment in. He hasn’t seen Zari like this in a very long time. Off her phone and actually giving him the time of day, living in the real world rather than in her head in “Zari Land” as he’s come to call it over the years. It’s nice.

“You know,” He says, “I know the whole ‘alternate timeline’ is a lot to take in, but it’s kind of cool when you think about it. I mean there was a version of history where you were a Legend. Isn’t that cool?”

She chuckles, ducking her head and moving a piece of hair behind her ear. He grins as he watches her. Yes, his eyes are seeing the perfect manicure of her nails push back black hair that’s interrupted with golden highlights, but his mind is picturing the alternate Zari he’s been shown. A Zari who never messed with the hair their mother always said was so beautiful, who kept her fingernails short and didn’t mind much if they were a little dirty from working in this room. A Zari who wore loose flannels as more than pajamas.

A Zari, he thinks, he would’ve gotten along with.

“I guess.” She admits, “I can definitely see the appeal of this place, traveling through time and saving the world and all.”

“Yeah.” He chuckles, “It’s pretty great.”

And suddenly an idea comes to his mind.

Well, maybe not suddenly. It’s been in the back of his mind since they found out about the old timeline. But now it’s at the forefront, because this is going well and maybe it isn’t so crazy.

“You know…” He trails, “Now that you know about who you used to be, you could stay. Be a Legend again.”

She scoffs, but it’s more with amusement than dismissal, and he’ll take that.

“What?” She asks, “This me couldn’t be a Legend?”

He doesn’t miss the challenging dip in her voice, the dare for him to be honest.

“No…” He trails, and he isn’t sure if he’s saying no she couldn’t, or no he didn’t mean that. “Come on Zari, up until now you’ve had different priorities than-”

“Different priorities?” She interrupts, and he freezes with his mouth still open with his next words. “What, you mean like rent?”

“Not exactly.” He huffs, willing the anger to stay out of his voice.

“And who says my ‘priorities’ changed because of a dead timeline?” She interjects, “I’m still me.”

“But the you in that timeline was a hero.” He tries to reason, also trying to get this conversation back on track. “Don’t you want to be that person again?” She opens her mouth but says nothing. He keeps quiet as well, and tries to think of what he can say next.

“No.” She eventually says with a shake of her head, “No, I don’t.”

He smiles, but there is no joy in it. It’s a smile of shock, of anger, when his face doesn’t know what else to do.

“Unbelievable.” He mutters as he stands up. “Unbelievable. All the good you did as a Legend. You don’t want to be that.”

“Of course I do.” She argues, standing up herself.

“You just said you didn’t!” He reminds her, and he rounds on her as he does. “I just asked you-”

“What you asked me is if I would rather be the person I was in that timeline-”

“You mean someone who cares about more than views and likes?” He all but shouts, “Someone who cares about other people?”

“I am not having this conversation.” She grumbles, and she turns and starts to march away, but now he is seeing red.

“Fine!” He shouts after her, “Run away, back to Zari land where nobody else matters!”

He’s said that to her in the heat of plenty of arguments before, and she has always stomped off to not care somewhere else. But this time is different. This time she stops.

And she turns back, with a look in her eye of “you’ve fucked up” that he has only ever before seen on Papa.

“You want to talk about nobody else matters?” She asks, and she takes one step back towards him. “Listen to yourself.” She near pleads, continuing closer. “You are seriously mad that I wouldn’t trade this life for that one, and why? Because you liked the outcome better?” It feels like a rock has settled in his chest all of a sudden, and with another step back to him she drives it in deeper.

“Were you not paying any attention to those memories?” She demands, “You died. Mama and Papa died. That me, that was a person who lived running from soldiers. That was a world where meta humans were hunted and killed. Where we were told praying was radical and rebellious, and it was outlawed. That me almost suffocated an entire village because I was so angry!”

Her breath hitches, and he can’t remember the last time – if ever – he saw Zari cry, but it’s threatening to be now.

She takes a minute to compose herself, to wipe her eyes and cross her arms in front of her.

“Do you really wish I’d gone through all that?” She asks, and he wants to scream No.

He wants to cry himself, to tell her he’s sorry and he never meant it like that.

“I just… I just want my sister back.”

She holds his gaze at first, and opens her mouth like she is going to say something, but instead all she does is turn back and walk away.

He beats himself up over it for a little over an hour, during which time there are thankfully no disasters. He doesn’t see her in that time, and a part of him wonders where she’s gone. She’s been staying in his room since she got here but she isn’t there when he goes, and she doesn’t come, and when he goes to Nate’s room she isn’t there either.

But, thankfully, Nate is.

He gives a small grin when his buddy looks at him with an almost fear in his eyes, like he has been waiting for him to come in here with a shovel for daring to go after his sister in an alternate timeline.

“Can we talk?” He asks, and Nate gapes at him for a few seconds before he finally starts to shake off the apparent surprise of the question.

“Uh… Sure. Sure.”

Behrad grins and goes and sits at the foot of Nate’s bed. Nate joins him soon after, though neither of them speak right away.

“You…” Behrad finally starts when he thinks he has organized enough of his thoughts. “Would you… If she could just… turn back, into the person she was in the dead timeline, would you want Zari back? The version you knew?”

Nate looks more than a little taken back by the question, and Behrad stays silent while he thinks.

“You know, I don’t think so.” He eventually says, “I mean, I don’t know her as well in this timeline, but I don’t think she’s any different. She’s lived different things, she’s done different things, she’s made different choices. But at the end of the day I think Zari is still Zari.”

He tries to hear that, he really does, but ultimately Behrad still finds himself rolling his eyes.

“Yeah well, I don’t think the Zari who sacrificed herself for the good of the timeline is the same Zari who freaks out when she gets less views than the college roommate she didn’t even like.”

“Except she didn’t sacrifice herself for the timeline.”

Behrad looks at his friend, about to insist that he has it wrong, but there is something about the puzzled expression on Nate’s face that keeps him quiet.

“She was on the ship.” He says; his face still scrunched up as he sorts through the information Gideon gave to them earlier, until he finally nods with confidence. “She was on the ship so that she would be safe from the changes, at least enough so that whatever happened she would still be a Legend. But then I died, and she came after me.”

Right.

That is what Gideon said.

“Ok, but that proves my point even more.” He says, “That Zari risked her own life even when she wasn’t sure if she could save yours, but she had to take the chance. This Zari? She spent my entire high school graduation posting it to Instagram.”

“Did you even come to mine?”

He and Nate both look up, and Zari is standing in the open door. She has small tear tracks running down her face, and for that Behrad can’t help but feeling just a little bit guilty.

Awkwardly, Nate gets up.

“I’ll uh… I’ll leave you guys alone.”

On his way out of the room Behrad isn’t blind to the silent exchange of… something, happening with his best friend and his sister. It’s short, and nothing more than an exchange of glances that puts a grateful smile on Zari’s face. He feels an obligatory surge of protectiveness flare up in his chest but he ignores it. He has actual problems to deal with here.

He waits for Nate to leave, and for Zari to turn her attention back to him.

“I was nine.” He says, and she nods.

“I know.”

She sighs, and she comes and lowers herself onto the edge of the mattress.

“You were nine, and your friend had tickets to a hockey game. My graduating class was only twenty-something kids and Mama and Papa felt bad making you miss it for an hour ceremony, so they said you could go.”

“So what?” He asks, “You’re mad a nine-year-old missed your graduation?”

“No.” She says, shifting so that she is sitting crisscross on the bed and looking directly at him. “I am trying to remind you that you were nine. Then I was off at school and you were ten, and by the time I got home you were a teenager, and you didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“You didn’t want anything to do with me!”

“Because I was growing up, Behrad!” She nearly pleads with him, her face falling into her hands for a moment before she looks up again.

“I had no idea what I was doing with my life and I was trying to figure it out! Yeah, I took what I knew and I ran with it, and maybe I do get a little carried away sometimes. But I’m not seventeen anymore, and you are not the little kid who was always creeping in the background of my videos.”

He chuckles, a little, because he did have a reputation as a child for doing that. But more than that he supposes she does have a point. Really, they haven’t been a part of each other’s lives since before she left for college. Nine years is a big age gap, and besides, he can certainly understand now how hard it is to grow up.

He ran away on a time machine for crying out loud.

“Ok, so maybe my teenage angst played a part in my not having you around.” He admits, and she snorts a small laugh. He holds out a hand to her, which at first she only stares at.

“Try to be a little less ‘Zari Tarazi’ the influencer, and I’ll try to be a little less of a jerk?”

She bites her lip, a playful look of consideration on her face before she finally accepts his hand.

“Deal.”

He smiles as he shakes her hand, and then that smile turns into a wicked grin.

“One thing you’re gonna have to get used to if you’re planning to hang around.” He warns, and she raises a curious eyebrow.

“What’s that?”

He feels his grin go from wicked to downright evil.

“Legends are huggers.”

She squeals out a very un-coherent protest as he leans forward and yanks her into what is without a doubt the least awkward - and most toppling involved – hug they have ever shared.

#DC's Legends of Tomorrow #fan fic #behrad tarazi #zari tarazi #nate heywood #tarazi siblings dealing with their issues #slight steelhacker